Fionn is a spelling of it, yes. Finn is either an Old Irish spelling or an Anglicized spelling of Modern Irish Fionn. Typically it's the latter if you see it as Finn. Old Irish can also be spelled as Find.
New thing's out. Also this. Apparently Ilvermorny's in Massachusetts and wait ...OK so now is this going to irritate the Irish? Because JKR is saying that Morrigan, the actual WAR GODDESS, was an Animagus witch who was a crow? Even though Morrigan also took several OTHER forms, and argh. ...and it seems really tellingly callous that, ugh, Chadwick and Webster's parents immigrated in search of 'fascinating adventure!' ugh. Also apparently EVERY wand will send a muggle flying if they try to use it which? Sure OK? And literally the only reason that the school has houses is because Hogwarts has houses. Even though there were two students to start with. Also I don't think those mythical creatures are like... around? Massachusetts? Or the tribes that believe in them aren't? ....did the basilisk have a horn? Because I'm pretty sure the basilisk was a snake. Which are animals noticeably lacking horns of any kind. Though hey! At least Ilvermorny apparently PAYS its magical laborers, which is better than Hogwarts ever did. Also I'm hereby deciding that Rionach actually didn't care about the legacy thing, and was just hella gay. Or ace.
Well it seems I'm just going to ignore word of god and continue headcanoning the two schools ive invented for Mass. (A fanon version of the Salem Witch Institute, and an as of yet unnamed magical high school type thing)
if i saw this on fanfic dot net i'd send it to all my friends so we could have a good laugh about it. Spoiler: i mean really "Finally she managed to blast open the doors to their bedroom, where James stood ready to die in front of the cribs of his daughters" are you even trying
Boy I am four paragraphs in and already the weird comma use is driving me up the wall. Have I just... not noticed this before now? Has she always randomly inserted commas in the middle of sentences? No-Maj isn't happening, it's never gonna happen, stop trying to use it like it's gonna catch on. "Ah, the people are telling me that my entire setup for the American magical schooling system is ridiculous and completely unlike the actual culture it's supposed to exist in. I know! Ilvermorny is the way it is because ~the children insisted~ based on magical stories of Hogwarts! That works out great." Boy, Isolt sure is ranging wide if she's getting jackalope antlers. ('The granite house expanded to a castle', ah yes, because we needed more of those. I know this is petty an nitpicky, but good lord it is annoying to have all the actual interesting aspect of Americans pruned away because ~we're emulating Hogwarts~. How ironic that the European flavor would so thoroughly override any sort of Native American addition, to the point where all the Native witches are clamoring for an English Education where the only nod to their culture is a widely disparate set of magical creatures for window dressing.) I mean, it's not any worse than some of the other articles, bizarre comma placement in the beginning notwithstanding. I guess a castle on a middling-high mountain works for an American school, but I do have to wonder if JK has like... considered the population density issues going on here. I wonder if there are other magic schools, but Ilvermorny is the Harvard of them? That makes more sense than there being one school for all of North America. (Or one school for all of Africa, etc. It'd be nice if she ever like... addressed that though.)
Ohhhhhh boy. Yeah. That's... that's it for me, I think. I'm portioning my fucks to give, and this would take entirely too many. Yep. Boy howdy. Sits in this corner with timetravel fixit fic and alternate sortings for the original series and shit like that because this is too many kinds of weirdly-the-same---and YET---for me to bother keeping up. eta: but I'll prob lurk in here to enjoy the "JKR WHY. WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO SAY JK ABOUT ALL THIS"
just, this in general. I can think of many more ways that american magic school systems would work (and, well, NOT work) than "and then they ripped off hogwarts"
OKAY So, I am going to ramble about my suddenly appeared headcanon for the Salem Witch's Institute which probably goes against Pottermore but whatever. Spoiler: Salem Witch's Institute & Unnamed High-school So, in my idea the Salem Witch's Institute is sort of Women's College-y in that it was a place for witches to escape the definitely patriarchal wizarding and muggle worlds. Early on, it was a place to flee to during witch trials, especially at the height of the famous hysteria, though not everyone made it out alive unfortunately because things suck sometimes. Eventually it developed into a center for wizarding feminist thought, which is both behind and ahead of muggle feminist thought, and then even more eventually it became kind of a safe haven for not just female wizards but anyone who didn't fit american wizarding society's norms (or at least that of north-eastern american wizarding society) Not entirely a formal school, and you can live there even as an older person. The as of yet unnamed school is a small high-school like place in Boston, MA, which sits directly on top of a muggle high school. Literally, they share walls. But because of badly explained pocket dimensions technically this school is in the walls of the muggle school, and students take both magic and muggle classes because chemistry is really just potions with less spellwork and more math. It's a nine year program instead of a four year program, beginning in what would be eighth grade. For older students they can also take courses at a muggle university nearby. Is this based on the high school I'm currently attending? Yes. See I'm totally not ignoring JKR. Oh wait, yes, I am. And I somehow manage to hopefully be less racist.
Unlike Hogwarts, your wizard high school sounds like it would turn out students who are actually capable of functioning in adult society. :::PPP
Oh Gods SO MUCH WRITINGS and I got a really good prompt for my "Snape is secretly the Awesome Queer Dad to literally ALL OF SLYTHERIN" AU that I need to write eventually And I have all these old stories that are coming back HELP ME (and help me expand wizarding highschool)
I will DEFINITELY help with the wizarding school. Also wasn't someone starting a potterverse rp in a school somewhere else?
if we set up a american au school rp i would try to join been having more spoons for writing recently and I'm trying to find more outlets also wizards