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"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]

The Gryffindor common room was a common room for Gryffindor House located in Gryffindor Tower. 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]

Entrance[]

Fat Lady portrait

Gryffindor corridor and the Fat Lady's slashed portrait

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.[1] 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]

Description[]

"...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]
Gryffindor common room HL

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 seemingly not more comfortable than the Hufflepuff common room.[3]

GryffindorCommonRoom PM

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 and there were various books on the mantle. 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 and forms of literature.[2][1]

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]

GryffindorCommonRoom1 PM

The common room was usually where celebration parties were held after Gryffindor Quidditch victories, or when Harry Potter completed the first 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][8]

Known passwords[]

  • Abstinence (1996–97)[9]
  • Balderdash (1994–95)[10]
  • Banana Fritters (1994–95)[11]
  • Baubles (1996–97)[12]
  • Caput Draconis (Latin for "dragon's head") (1991–92)[1]
  • Dilligrout (1996–97)[13]
  • Fairy Lights (1994-95)[14]
  • Flibbertigibbet (1993–94)[15]
  • Fortuna Major (Latin for "greater fortune") (1993–94)[16]

Behind the scenes[]

  • 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.
  • In the common room's position in the back right of the Quad, the window to the left of the fireplace does not fit with the shape of the exterior model of the castle. In order for the window to view the outside, the common room would have to be pushed further out from the Quad so that nearly the entire room would stick out, while the exterior model only sticks out several feet from the rest of the building.
  • In the 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 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.
  • 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 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 of 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.
    PM BlueMonday chair in Gryffindor common room

    "A comfy chair in the Gryffindor common room" on Pottermore

  • "A comfy chair in the Gryffindor common room" was one out of the thirty-two options generated by an old feature[23] on Pottermore, "Wonderful wizarding world happiness generator", which was about things that could cast away the Blue Monday blues.[24]
    • The description was "Gryffindor common room always sounded like a cosy place full of squishy arm chairs. Sink into one and it'll be like January isn't happening".[25]

Appearances[]

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Notes and references[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 7 (The Sorting Hat)
  2. 2.0 2.1 Pottermore - Pottermore introductions to Hogwarts Houses
  3. J.K. Rowling's Pottermore releases backstories & history of four Hogwarts Houses from Snitchseeker.com (via Internet Archive)
  4. Hogwarts Legacy
  5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 20 (The First Task)
  6. 6.0 6.1 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 24 (Sectumsempra)
  7. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 8 (Flight of the Fat Lady)
  8. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 13 (Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw)
  9. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 17 (A Sluggish Memory)
  10. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 12 (The Triwizard Tournament)
  11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 25 (The Egg and the Eye)
  12. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 15 (The Unbreakable Vow)
  13. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 12 (Silver and Opals)
  14. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 22 (The Unexpected Task)
  15. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 15 (The Quidditch Final)
  16. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 5 (The Dementor)
  17. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 11 (The Sorting Hat's New Song)
  18. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 12 (The Patronus)
  19. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 9 (The Midnight Duel)
  20. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 11 (The Firebolt)
  21. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 23 (Horcruxes)
  22. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 5 (The Whomping Willow)
  23. Features: "Wonderful wizarding world happiness generator" at Pottermore (archived)
  24. "Introducing our 'Wonderful wizarding world happiness generator', which is ready and waiting to cast away those #BlueMonday blues. Click here to receive your very own piece of wizarding world happiness, and let us know what you got… pottermo.re/Happiness" - @pottermore on Twitter and Facebook
  25. Image by @littleblackb1rd on Twitter
Seventh-floor of Hogwarts Castle
Bathrooms
Disused bathroom
Classrooms
Classroom 7B · Classroom 7C · Divination Classroom · Seventh-floor classroom
Common rooms
Gryffindor Boys' Dormitory · Gryffindor common room · Gryffindor Girls' Dormitory
Corridors
Divination corridor · Fat Lady's Corridor · Hall of Hexes · Porticus Olidus · Pungent Passage · Runic Corridor · Seventh-floor corridor
Halls and rooms
Bean Challenge rooms · Gryffindor Tower reading room · Knights' Room · North Wing
Offices
Filius Flitwick's office · Sybill Trelawney's office
Other locations
Dark Tower topmost cell · Room of Requirement · Vivarium
Portraits, statues, and other artwork
A Young Professor McGonagall · Bridget Wenlock · Sir Cadogan · Caged monkey · Edward Rabnott · Elephant · Elizabeth Burke · Fat Lady · Flowering almond trees · George von Rheticus · Giraffe · Godric Gryffindor · Healers · Hippopotamus · Journeying wizards · Lachlan the Lanky · Man in a chair · Mother and baby · Oraclitus Spheer · Staring Portrait · The Lady and the Unicorn · Three young ladies · Tiger · Troll Tapestry · Two lovers in a graveyard · Valeria Myriadd · Wailing Egyptians · Witch flying to the moon · Wizard in black flowing robes · Wizard in blue · Wizard with a broomstick · Wolfhound
Staircases
Detention Escape Route · Divination Stairwell · Grand Staircase · Grumpy Staircase · Ravenclaw Tower staircase · Secret stairway to the fourth floor · Slughorn's Staircase · Staircase to the sixth-floor corridor · Turris Magnus staircase
Storerooms
Attic
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