The Gryffindor Tower was the common room of Gryffindor house. It was entered through a door guarded by the portrait of the Fat Lady, which opened when given the correct password. It first appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
Layout[]
Entrance[]
The entrance was in a corridor at least on the second floor, behind a portrait of the Fat Lady. The students had to give a password and when she swung open, they went through a portrait hole to the main common room. If they get the password wrong, the student had to stay put until another student gave the right password.[1] For a short time in 1993, the portrait was guarded by Sir Cadogan.[2]
Common Room[]
The common room was the main room that students hang out in or study in. It had armchairs, tables and a bulletin board that had school notices, ads and posters etc. It had tall windows that had the whole school grounds viewable and it was decorated in the House colours, scarlet and gold. The walls had tapestries and spiral staircases leading up to the dormitories.[1] Through the years, the students held many celebrations in the common room including when they won Quidditch games.[3]
Dormitory[]
The common room had two doors: a door to the boys' dormitory and a door to the girls' dormitory. Each door had a spiral staircase and the staircase had seven doors that led to the room of each year group. The dormitory for Harry Potter's year was at the very top of the spiral staircase. The door to each room had a sign on the front saying the year group (e.g. "second-years") and they had high windows.[4]
Each student had their own four-poster bed and hangings in velvet and the colours of the House. The staircase leading to the girls' dormitories transformed into a stone slide if a boy attempted to get up. The founders had found boys less trustworthy than girls and had not done the same thing to their staircase.[5]
Known passwords[]
- 1 September 1991: Caput draconis[6]
- September 1991: Pig snout[1]
- September 1992: Wattlebird[4]
- September 1993: Fortuna major[7]
- December 1993: Scurvy cur[2]
- February 1994: Oddsbodikins[8]
- April 1994: Flibbertigibbet[3]
Notes and sources[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 9
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 11
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 15
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 5
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 17
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 7
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 5
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 12