Fat Lady

Fat Lady
Location	Hogwarts Castle
Purpose	Guard of the Gryffindor Tower
Owner(s)	Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Book information
First appearance	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Last appearance	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

The Fat Lady is a character in the Harry Potter book series. She is a portrait at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry who guards the entrance to Gryffindor Tower.

Biography

The Fat Lady had her portrait installed at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry when she passed away. Her portrait is at the end of a corridor. When she caught Arthur and Molly Weasley trying to get back in the common room at 4am after taking a late-night stroll, she shouted at her.

Philosopher's Stone

In September 1991, the Fat Lady refused to let Neville Longbottom in the common room because he had forgotten the password. He had to spend the night sleeping outside until Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley found him while they were sneaking out. Hermione Granger also run out to attempt to stop them. However, when she and Neville triedmto get back in the common room, they couldn't because the Fat Lady has gone to visit her friend in another portrait. She had returned when they tried to get back in later that night.

In December, Harry snuck out of the common room after curfew under the Cloak of Invisibility for the first time. The Fat Lady was very confused because didn't know how her portrait door had opened. She asked who was there but Harry couldn't speak.

Prisoner of Azkaban

In October 1993, she was dozing off when Harry gave her a password to get in. He walked back out less than a minute later, causing her to ask what the point of waking her up was.

The Fat Lady's slashed portrait

Later that evening, Sirius Black wanted to get in but she wouldn't let him. He started to get angry, ripping her portrait to shreds. Strips of the canvas fell and great chunks were torn away completely. She ran away to a fourth-floor landscape painting first, and was eventually found in a painting of the Map of Argyllshire on the second-floor.

Argus Filch fixed her portrait but was unwilling to get back in her portrait out of fear. Sir Cadogan was temporarily installed until he let Sirius Black in because he had the password. The Fat Lady agreed to return if she had security trolls to guard the door, which they did for a while.

Trivia

• Known passwords:
  • 1 September 1991: caput draconis
  • For mid-September 1991: pig snout
  • September 1993: wattlebird
  • September - October 1993: fortuna major
• J. K. Rowling says every portrait in Hogwarts are of dead people. This means the portrait of the Fat Lady was based on a woman who once lived. In that case, she had passed away when Arthur Weasley and Molly Prewett's attended Hogwarts 1961 to 1968.