• By MuggleNet Editorial Staff
• 1 Sep, 2026
• Back to Hogwarts

Back to Hogwarts Day is officially underway, and HBO’s massive Harry Potter activation in London is already giving us plenty to investigate.

The Back to Hogwarts: The HBO Max Platform 9¾ Fan Experience has taken over Old Billingsgate for September 1, offering visitors an early glimpse at the visual world of the upcoming Harry Potter television series. HBO had promised interactive experiences, giveaways and a look at the new adaptation, and some of the smallest details on display are some of the most interesting.

Yesterday, we got our clearest look yet at HBO’s redesigned Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw house embels thanks to a Back to Hogwarts activation in Sydney. As it turns out, those circular, vine-covered designs are only one version of the new house heraldry.

At Old Billingsgate, the same visual identities appear in several different forms, including stained-glass interpretations and more traditional shield-shaped designs. And those shields are hiding something.

Each House Crest Contains a Founder Relic

Look closely at the decorative details surrounding each house animal and there appears to be an additional symbol worked into the design: an object associated with that house’s founder.

For Gryffindor, it is the Sword of Gryffindor.

For Slytherin, it is Salazar Slytherin’s locket.

For Hufflepuff, it is Helga Hufflepuff’s cup.

And for Ravenclaw, it is Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem.

There is also an especially dark connection between three of the four objects. Slytherin’s locket, Hufflepuff’s cup and Ravenclaw’s diadem would eventually be turned into Horcruxes by Lord Voldemort. Gryffindor’s sword was never a Horcrux; instead, after absorbing Basilisk venom, it became one of the weapons capable of destroying them.

Hogwarts Apparently Has More Than One Version of Its House Crests

The other interesting revelation is that HBO does not seem interested in creating one logo for each house and stamping it onto everything. Instead, Hogwarts appears to have an entire system of house imagery.

The versions revealed yesterday resemble decorative institutional badges or banners, complete with house animals, ribbons and surrounding plant life. At the London event, we can now see the designs translated into stained glass as well as shields that appear suited to athletics and Quidditch.

We Finally Have a Close-Up Look at Harry’s New Wand

The Old Billingsgate displays have also answered another question we have been waiting to get a better look at: What does Harry Potter’s wand actually look like?

A replica from The Noble Collection gives us our first proper close-up view of the new design.

The company announced earlier this year that it had secured global licensing rights for merchandise based on HBO’s series and that its first products would be replica wands designed to accurately reflect the new show’s props.

Harry’s new wand has a noticeably natural appearance, continuing the organic visual language we have seen throughout HBO’s version of the Wizarding World. Put it at a distance and longtime viewers might see a little of the wand Daniel Radcliffe carried in the films. Up close, however, this is clearly its own design.

Back to Hogwarts Day has only just begun, and Old Billingsgate is already proving to be a treasure trove of new details from the series. We’ll be watching throughout the day for more discoveries from the event.