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At least some content in this article is derived from information featured in: Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery & Hogwarts Legacy. |
- "Once you've arrived inside Gryffindor Tower, come inside and be welcomed by the roaring fire, stuffed armchairs, and the great view we have from our windows. Our dormitories are reached by climbing the winding mahogany staircase, decorated with crimson and gold. As I said, there's plenty of gold around the tower. Our four-posters are covered with thick scarlet blankets (we have quite windy nights up in the towers) and are embroidered with gold. Gold chandeliers cast warm glows all around."
- — Description of the tower[src]
Gryffindor Tower was a tower in Hogwarts Castle that served as the common room and dormitories for the students of Gryffindor House at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In general, it sported several shades of red and gold. The fireplace mantle was adorned with a portrait of a lion (associated with the house) and the room was described as being 'cosy'.[1]
Gryffindor Tower was one of the three tallest towers of Hogwarts Castle, alongside Ravenclaw Tower and the Astronomy Tower.
Entrance[]
The entrance to the Gryffindor common room was concealed under the portrait of the Fat Lady, on the lavish Gryffindor Landing.[1]
To enter one had to present the Fat Lady with the correct password of the week. However, getting the password wrong meant the student would have to wait the day for another student to come by and pass them the code.[2]
Common room[]
- "...the portrait swung forward to reveal a round hole in the wall. They all scrambled through it — and found themselves in the Gryffindor common room, a cosy, round room full of squashy armchairs."
- — Description of the common room[src]
The common room was a circular room where Gryffindor students could relax after a long day of studying. It was full of squashy armchairs, tables, and a bulletin board where school notices, ads, lost posters, etc. could be posted. The common room was decorated in several shades of red, which was associated with the house. The common room was comfortable, but not more comfortable than the Hufflepuff common room.[3]
There were many windows that looked out onto the grounds of the school, and a large fireplace dominated one wall. The mantle of the fireplace was adorned with a portrait of a lion. The fireplace was also connected to the Floo Network, but as it was extremely public except in the dead of night.The walls were decorated with scarlet tapestries that depicted witches and wizards, but also various animals. There were also bookcases located in the room, filled with various novels.[2]
There were also a couple of balconies with stone ramparts in the place of railing that overlooked the common room itself, one was accessible by the stairs that led to the boys' dormitory, the other was accessible by the stairs to the girls' dormitory.[4]
The common room was usually where celebration parties were held after Gryffindor Quidditch victories, or when Harry Potter completed a task for the Triwizard Tournament.[5] It was also the location for Harry and Ginny Weasley's first kiss following Gryffindor's Quidditch Cup victory in 1997.[6] The common room fireplace was used on several occasions by Sirius Black to contact Harry while he was on the run from the Ministry of Magic.[7]
Dormitories[]
The Gryffindor dormitories were also located in the Tower, with two doors leading off from the common room that open to spiral staircases. There were two staircases opening off the common room into the Tower itself: on the left, the boys' staircase on which the seven boys' dormitories were located (one for each year) and on the right, the girls' staircase, on which the seven girls' dormitories were located (one for each year).
The girls' staircase was under a Charm so that if a boy set foot on it and persisted for a few steps, a wailing klaxon went off and the staircase temporarily turned itself into a stone slide, sending him and anyone else on the stairs sailing to the bottom.[8][9] According to Hogwarts: A History, the founders believed that girls were more trustworthy than boys, so that while the girls’ staircase was enchanted to prevent boys from getting in, the boys’ staircase did not carry a reciprocal enchantment.[8] Hermione Granger went into the boys' room on several occasions. This also allowed a possessed Ginny Weasley to sneak in and steal Tom Riddle's diary.[10][11]
Each dormitory was a round room with windows looking out onto the grounds, and containing four-poster beds.[1]
Known passwords[]
Date | Passwords |
---|---|
1890–1891 school year | Grata Domum[12] |
1991–1992 school year | Caput Draconis (Latin for "Dragon's Head")[1] |
Pig Snout[13] | |
1992–1993 school year | Wattlebird[14] |
1993–1994 school year | Fortuna Major (Latin for "greater luck")[15] |
Flibbertigibbet[16] | |
Oddsbodikins[17] | |
Scurvy Cur[18] | |
1994–1995 school year | Balderdash[19] |
Banana Fritters[20] | |
Fairy Lights[21] | |
1995–1996 school year | Mimbulus mimbletonia[22] |
1996–1997 school year | Abstinence[23] |
Baubles[24] | |
Dilligrout[25] | |
Tapeworm[26] | |
Quid Agis (Latin for "How are you")[6] |
Behind the scenes[]
- The Gryffindor common room as seen in the films differs slightly from its description in the books in that it is not a perfect circle, and that both the boys' and girls' dormitories are accessed via the same staircase: boys on the left, girls on the right.
- In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, one of the portraits on the wall of the common room is of a young Minerva McGonagall.
- When Ron Weasley and Lavender Brown began dating, one chapter of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince described them as being "in a prominent corner of the common room". However, the common room is circular. It is possible that there are nooks or alcoves in various areas around the wall.
- The charm used to make the girls' dormitory stairs into a slide may be the Glisseo charm. It is never stated if similar enchantments are placed on the entrances to the girls' domitories in other houses, but is highly likely, as Hermione identifies the founders collectively as the ones responsible for the charm.
- In the PS1 video game adaptations Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Gryffindor Tower leads to the Entrance Hall, Charms Corridor, Upper Castle, a side-room behind a bookcase and the Great Foyer/First Floor East Wing, it is also located next to the Rear Hall in the 1992–1993 school year.
- In the PS2 video game adaptation of Chamber of Secrets, after going through the portrait-hole, there is a short stone hallway leading to the actual common room. This hallway also leads to an old room behind a tapestry, a quiet study area for Gryffindor students, frequently used by Percy, and a secret bathroom used by Fred and George Weasley as an in-school joke shop.
- The Chamber of Secrets video game is also the only place in the games or the films where the common room is accessed by crawling through an actual hole (albeit a square-shaped one). All other adaptations depict a doorway.
- In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the entrance is on one end of a hallway. Whereas in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and the video game adaptations Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, it is located on the seventh floor of the Grand Staircase Tower. As the shape of the common room doesn't change, one explanation of this change of location may be that these particular stairs were not there in the first movie, and were built to replace the corridor during the summer of 1992, before Harry's third year started.
- In the film adaptations Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, we can see the Gryffindor Boys' Dormitory is shown to be located in a small tower (see above) at one corner of the Paved Courtyard close to the Clock Tower. This is consistent with the Fat Lady's location in Philosopher's Stone, but it is inconsistent with Fat Lady's location in the third film and fifth and sixth video games (in the Grand Staircase Tower). One possible explanation is that the portrait is a secret passageway or shortcut which connects the two areas of the castle.
- In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry and Ginny have their first kiss in the Room of Requirement instead of the Gryffindor common room, due to the Quidditch match and Harry's detention with Snape being cut.
- The common room as depicted in the video game adaptations Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a near-perfect replica of the common room as seen in the films. One very subtle difference is that in the video games the stairs leading to the dormitories only go up, creating the misconception that there's only one dorm room for the boys (shared by Harry and the other boys in his year) and one for the girls. In the films (although it is difficult to notice unless you pay attention) you can see that, in addition to going up, the stairs also lead down (presumably to more dormitories). In the books it is stated that Harry's dorm is located at the top of the stairs.
- Gryffindor is the only common room whose guardian/entrance is known to have changed at some point, the Fat Lady being replaced by Sir Cadogan.
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 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 (Mentioned only)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (video game)
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Mentioned only)
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (play) (Mentioned only)
- Pottermore
- Harry Potter (website)
- Harry Potter: A Pop-Up Book
- LEGO Harry Potter: Building the Magical World
- LEGO Harry Potter (Mentioned only)
- The Queen's Handbag
- The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
- LEGO Creator: Harry Potter
- LEGO Harry Potter
- Harry Potter Trading Card Game
- Harry Potter: The Creature Vault
- Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
- Harry Potter: Magic Awakened
- Hogwarts Legacy
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 7 (The Sorting Hat)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Pottermore
- ↑ Transcription of new Pottermore information
- ↑ Hogwarts Legacy
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 20 (The First Task)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 24 (Sectumsempra)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 14 (Snape's Grudge)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 17 (Educational Decree Number Twenty-Four)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 32 (The Elder Wand)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 13 (The Very Secret Diary)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 17 (The Heir of Slytherin)
- ↑ Hogwarts Legacy
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 9 (The Midnight Duel)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 5 (The Whomping Willow)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 5 (The Dementor)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 15 (The Quidditch Final)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 12 (The Patronus)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 11 (The Firebolt)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 12 (The Triwizard Tournament)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 25 (The Egg and the Eye)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 22 (The Unexpected Task)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 11 (The Sorting Hat's New Song)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 17 (A Sluggish Memory)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 15 (The Unbreakable Vow)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 12 (Silver and Opals)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 23 (Horcruxes)