Password

"Password?"

— The Fat Lady guarding Gryffindor Tower

Passwords were used throughout Hogwarts Castle to restrict entry to certain areas such as House common rooms and teacher offices. Passwords in Hogwarts appeared to change on a frequent basis.

During Sir Cadogan's period of guarding the Gryffindor common room, he changed passwords so frequently that Neville Longbottom had to write them down. This list was snatched by Crookshanks and was given to Sirius Black, allowing him entrance.

Passwords were also used as a way to gain to access to the radio programme Potterwatch, as a way to protect it from Death Eaters possibly listening. New passwords were introduced at the end of each broadcast, and could be used to listen to the next one.

List of previously used passwords

Hogwarts

Gryffindor Tower

Year of Use	Password	Notes
1890	Grata Domum
1991	Caput Draconis	Latin for "Dragon's Head"
	Pig Snout
1992	Wattlebird
1993	Fortuna Major	Latin for "greater luck"
	Flibbertigibbet
	Oddsbodikins
	Scurvy Cur
1994	Balderdash
	Banana Fritters
	Fairy Lights
1995	Mimbulus mimbletonia
	Alea iacta est	Latin for "The die is cast."
1996	Abstinence
	Baubles
	Dilligrout
	Tapeworm
	Quid Agis	Latin for "What are you doing?"

Hufflepuff Basement

Instead of a password, one must tap the correct barrel, two from the bottom, middle of the second row with their wand, in the rhythm of "Hel-ga Huff-le-puff".

Ravenclaw Tower

Instead of a password, a conundrum was posed:

Year of Use	Conundrum	Answer
1890	Which lived longer, the ghost or the poltergeist?	A non-being could never have been.
1998	Which came first, the phoenix or the flame?	A circle has no beginning.
	Where do Vanished objects go?	Into nonbeing, which is to say, everything.

Slytherin Dungeon

Year of Use	Password
1890	Aspiration
1992	Pure-blood

Hogwarts kitchens

Instead of a password, one must tickle the pear in the portrait.

Headmaster's office

Minerva McGonagall using "Sherbet lemon" in 1992

• 1890–1891 school year
  • Toujours pur
• 1985–1986 school year
  • Iced mice
• 1992
  • Sherbet lemon
• 1994
  • Cockroach cluster
• 1996
  • Acid Pops
  • Fizzing Whizzbees
  • Toffee Eclairs
• 1998
  • Dumbledore
• 2008–2009
  • Wronski Feint
• 2010
  • Ginger Newt
• Unknown
  • Chocolate Frogs

Prefects' bathroom

• 1994
  • Pine-fresh

One-Eyed Witch Passage

• Dissendium

Chamber of Secrets and Salazar Slytherin's Locket

• "Open" (spoken in Parseltongue)
• Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four. (spoken in Parseltongue, to release Salazar Slytherin's basilisk from its nesting place)

Portraits

Elizabeth Burke's portrait Slytherins are Supreme Facta, non verba (Latin for Deeds, not words) Glanmore Peakes's portraits Sea Serpent Percival Pratt's portrait This Password is Absurd Basil Fronsac's portrait Studious Success Libraries Liberate Giffard Abbott's portrait Dragon's Egg Light against Darkness Damara Dodderidge's portrait Chops and Gravy Dashing Cadogan

Boris the Bewildered's portrait Forget-Me-Never Old Posh Baron's portrait Fizzy Pop Hesper Starky's portrait Lunartickle Edgar Stroulger's portrait Surreptitiousness (Grounds portrait) Catweazle (Dungeons portrait) Wanglewort (Upper Castle portrait) Wolf's Bane

Marauder's Map

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" to reveal the map, and "Mischief managed" to hide it.

Potterwatch

• Albus
• Dearborn
• Fawkes
• Longbottom
• Mad-Eye
• Meadowes
• Moody
• Padfoot
• Phoenix
• Prewett
• Sirius
• Vance
• Wulfric (One of Albus Dumbledore's middle names)

Behind the scenes

• The 1992 password for the Headmaster's Office, "Sherbet Lemon", is changed to "Lemon Drop" in the American edition of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as sherbet lemons are not generally available or well known in the United States.
• The Headmaster's password in the 1985–1986 school year is "Iced Mice", presumably referring to Ice Mice. This is likely a typo; alternately the product may have changed its branding after Jacob's sibling's time.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (Possibly)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (Possibly)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (video game)
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
• Harry Potter: Magic Awakened