Trelawney's Classroom
When Harry enters Trelawney's classroom, we get this vivid description:
"He emerged into the strangest-looking classroom he had ever seen. In fact, it didn't look like a classroom at all, more like a cross between someone's attic and an old-fashioned tea shop. At least twenty small, circular tables were crammed inside it, all surrounded by chintz armchairs and fat little poufs. Everything was lit with a dim, crimson light..." (102)
Rowling goes on to describe a Bohemian, New Age aesthetic often associated with fortune-telling and psychics.
Azkaban Fortress
Lupin describes Azkaban as a "fortress set on a tiny island, way out to sea, but they don't need walls and water to keep the prisoners in, not when they're all trapped inside their own heads, incapable of a single cheerful thought" (188).
The image of Azkaban is the opposite of an oasis: an eyesore in the middle of the ocean, where the prisoners' spirits are so crushed that they don't even require walls to be kept at bay.
Honeydukes Sweets Shop
Rowling describes Honeydukes as having "shelves upon shelves of the most succulent-looking sweets imaginable. Creamy chunks of nougat, shimmering pink squares of coconut ice, fat, honey-colored toffees; hundreds of different kinds of chocolate in neat rows; there was a large barrel of Every Flavor Beans, and another of Fizzing Whizbees..." and myriad other wonderous and magical treats. The store is an idyllic scene filled with joyous students and sweets, a stark contrast to Harry's usual grim reality. For him, Honeydukes was a much-needed escape.
The Knight Bus
Rowling describes the Knight Bus as having "no seats; instead, half a dozen brass bedsteads stood beside the curtained windows. Candles were burning in brackets beside each bed, illuminating the wood-paneled walls. A tiny wizard in a nightcap at the rear of the bus muttered, 'Not now, thanks, I'm pickling some slugs,' and rolled over in his sleep" (35). The Knight Bus demonstrates how physical space in the wizarding world isn't constrained the way space is constrained in the Muggle world. Though the bus speeds and skids around, the interior still looks and feels like a hotel.
