I'm often relieved I don't live in medieval times, no more so than when I hear stories about people doing their business in a bucket and chucking it out the window. Thank goodness for toilets and loo roll and flushes and plumbing.

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But while the poor inhabitants of London in the Middle Ages had to make do with primitive bathrooms, it turns out witches and wizards had an even more unhygienic method of spending a penny.

As revealed on JK Rowling's dedicated website Pottermore, those lucky enough to be able to do magic simply relieved themselves there and then before getting rid of the evidence with the flick of a wand. Eww.

And according to Rowling, the wizards actually copied Muggles when they later invented a more advanced plumbing system...

"However, when Hogwarts’ plumbing became more elaborate in the eighteenth century (this was a rare instance of wizards copying Muggles, because hitherto they simply relieved themselves wherever they stood, and vanished the evidence), the entrance to the Chamber was threatened, being located on the site of a proposed bathroom."

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We're titling this chapter in wizarding history Harry Potter and the Chamber Pot of Secrets...

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