Hufflepuff Basement

The Hufflepuff Basement serves as the common room for students in Hufflepuff house at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In general, it sports several motifs, such as circles, nature, copper and the colours yellow and black (all associated with the house of Huffepuff). It also emphasises comfort, said to be "the cosiest common room of them all." It is at ground level (just) and is very sheltered from the elements, generally allowing students to sleep easier than those in the towers (like Gryffindor and Ravenclaw).

Entrance
The entrance to the common room is located "in a nook on the right hand side of the kitchen corridor", concealed behind a stack of barrels. In order to reveal the entrance, no password is required. Instead, one must tap the barrel two from the bottom, middle of the second row, in the rhythm of ‘Helga Hufflepuff’, which will make the lid swing open, exposing a passageway that will lead to the basement when crawled through. If either the rhythm of tapping or the lid tapped is wrong then the intruder will be doused in vinegar and barred access. .

Common Room
The actual basement itself is round, earthy and low-ceilinged, with a sunny atmosphere; very warm and welcoming. There are lots of yellow hangings, burnished copper, and overstuffed sofas and armchairs upholstered in yellow and black, and circular windows that provide a vista of "rippling grass and dandelions". The head of house, Pomona Sprout, also teaches Herbology and as such brings many interesting plants in to decorate the common room (some of which dance and talk), placing them on the windowsills or having them hang from the ceiling, encouraging interest in Herbology (and hence part of why Hufflepuffs tend to be good at it).

Dormitories
The Hufflepuff dormitories are also located in the cellar, with lots of little underground tunnels leading off from the common room and have perfectly circular doors. One of them leads to the girls' dormitory, the other to the boys. In each dormitory four-poster beds covered in patchwork quilts. The dorms are illuminated by warm, copper lamps and copper bed-warmers hang on the wall in case of cold feet.

Behind the scenes

 * The Hufflepuff Basement was the only common room that Harry Potter did not enter at some point.
 * Indeed, the Hufflepuff Basement is the only common room that has not been seen by non-Hufflepuffs for over a thousand years at least.
 * JK Rowling had previously described the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room as being behind a still-life painting of some fruit . This is consistent with Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4, however, this may conflict with the description of the Hufflepuff common room on Pottermore, which describes the basement as being accessed through a fake barrel . However, Pottermore also states that the barrel reveals a passageway&mdash;through which one may crawl to the common room&mdash;so it may be that the still life painting rests at the end of that corridor, acting as the common room door.
 * On Pottermore.com, if a player gets sorted into Hufflepuff, a new chapter, written by J.K. Rowling will be unlocked and enabled to read, describing the common room in full detail.
 * Hufflepuff is the only house that also employs a repelling device against intruders as opposed to simply barring access.
 * The Hufflepuff Basement is the only common room that is decorated with vegetation.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
 * Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4
 * Pottermore