Alison Sudol has confirmed with Pottermore that the Ilvermorny school song was co-written by her and J.K. Rowling.

‘I wrote the melody and Jo wrote the lyrics,’ said Alison. ‘So, we co-wrote the song, which is wild!'

Alison is a singer-songwriter as well as an actress, and the school song was a combination of her own songwriting talents combined with J.K Rowling’s original lyrics.

The song didn’t make the film’s final cut, but the deleted scene was revealed earlier this year at A Celebration of Harry Potter in Orlando. You can watch the scene, performed by Alison Sudol and co-star Katherine Waterston, here.

Director David Yates said he loved the scene, but it wasn’t quite right for the pacing of the final film.

‘I got Alison to write it because Alison is a really gifted songwriter’, said David. ‘But the momentum of the storytelling at that point was starting to drag a little bit. And I just thought, as delightful as it was, it stopped the movie.’

Here are the lyrics:

We stand as one united
Against the Puritan
We draw our inspiration
From good witch Morrigan
For she was persecuted
By common wandless men
So she fled from distant Ireland
And so our school began
Oh, Ilvermorny-Massachusetts
We choo-choose it
We choo-choose it
The wizard school supreme
Your castle walls, they kept us safe
The days with you, a dream
You taught us all our magic
And now one thing's quite clear
Where'er we roam
Where'er we roam
Our one true home
Our one and own
Is Ilvermorny dear

Unlike Hogwarts’ more idiosyncratic school song, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts, the Ilvermorny school song makes references to the founding of the institution – which you can read about in ‘Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry’ by J.K. Rowling.

‘Morrigan’ is the nickname given to Isolt Sayre, the seventeenth century founder of the North American wizarding school. Isolt was actually a descendent of Morrigan, another famous Irish witch.

As the song alludes, Isolt escaped to North America and eventually founded the school that one day Tina and Queenie Goldstein would attend – and then sing about.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is out on DVD and Blu-Ray in the US today. The film is also available now in the UK.