Hufflepuff

"You might belong in Hufflepuff, Where they are just and loyal, Those patient Hufflepuffs are true, And unafraid of toil"

- The Sorting Hat

Hufflepuff is one of the four Houses of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Its founder was the medieval witch Helga Hufflepuff. The Head of Hufflepuff is Pomona Sprout. The Fat Friar is the House's patron ghost. Hufflepuff is the most inclusive among the four houses; valuing hard work, patience, loyalty, and fair play rather than a particular aptitude in its members. Its emblematic animal is the badger, and yellow and black are its colours.

Hufflepuff corresponds roughly to the element of earth.

Traits
Students belonging to this house are known to be hard-working, friendly, loyal, honest and rather impartial. It may be that due to their values, Hufflepuffs are not as competitive as the other houses, or are more modest about their accomplishments.

Hufflepuff appears to have the least rivalry with the other houses, except in Quidditch, although the Triwizard Tournament did temporarily put a great deal of strain on the relationship between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, due to unusual circumstances of the selection of both Gryffindor student Harry Potter and Hufflepuff student Cedric Diggory as Champions.

According to Minerva McGonagall, all four of the houses have produced exceptional witches and wizards in their time, but due to Helga Hufflepuff's policy of accepting any student and its usually poor performance in the House Cup, Hufflepuff is often thought to be the house of less talented wizards. However, this is merely a misunderstanding of the Sorting Hat's poem. The Hufflepuff house has produced a great many of successful and influential members of the wizarding world.



Hufflepuff has produced the fewest number of dark wizards than any other house at Hogwarts. Their cheerful and friendly demenor can probably account for this property of the House. Hufflepuff firmly demonstrated its loyalty during the Battle of Hogwarts in 1998, when they were second only to Harry Potter's own house of Gryffindor in the number of students willing to stay and fight against Voldemort and his forces in the defence of their school.

Common Room
The Hufflepuff Dormitories and Common room have never been seen by outsiders and is the only house with repelling devices in case of intruders. They are accessed through a pile of large barrels, found stacked in a shadowy stone recess on a right-hand side corridor near the kitchens. The barrel two from the bottom, middle of the second row, will open if tapped in the rhythm of 'Helga Hufflepuff'.*



As a security device to repel non-Hufflepuffs, tapping on the wrong barrel, or tapping the incorrect number of times, results in one of the other lids bursting off and drenching the imposter in vinegar.

However, once you make it through the tunnel entryway, the Hufflepuff dormitory is a quite cosy and welcoming place; it always feels sunny. The common room is a large, earthy, round room with low ceilings. The view from the round windows is of dandelions and rippling grass.

The decor emphasises the earthy-feel of the room with plants hanging and resting all about the room, some that even sing and dance. Burnished copper touchings with plush, cosy yellow and black patterned sofas and chairs welcoming a Hufflepuff student to relax and discuss the interesting specimens brought in by the Head of House, Professor Sprout. A Hufflepuff student retires through big, round doors in the walls of the common room to their dormitory. .

Behind the scenes

 * Hufflepuff has produced the fewest Dark wizards of all the four Houses, if any.
 * Giffard Abbott was most likely a Hufflepuff, given his attitude towards this House and sharing a surname with known Hufflepuff Hannah Abbott.
 * Amos Diggory may have been a Hufflepuff if he attended Hogwarts, as his son, Cedric was.
 * The most members of Hufflepuff house appear to have either blonde or brown hair, while Susan Bones and Helga Hufflepuff had brownish-red hair. Furthermore, Professor Pomona Sprout often wore brown clothes. Interestingly, this is reminiscent of the house attributions; brown is associated with the element of earth and is similar to black (one of the Hufflepuff colours). Likewise, blonde hair could represent yellow &mdash; another house colour.
 * The Hufflepuff Basement was the only common room that Harry Potter didn't enter during his years at Hogwarts.

Notes and references
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