Gryffindor House
Head:
Professor Minerva McGonagall
(1990s)
Founder:
Godric Gryffindor
Blazon:
gules, a lion rampant or (that is, a golden lion on a red field, hence
the Gryffindor colours of scarlet and gold)
Ghost:
Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington
("Nearly Headless Nick")
Characteristics:
Gryffindors are known for their courage
Location:
Gryffindor Tower, entrance on the
seventh floor
The entrance is located behind a large
painting of a Fat Lady in a pink silk dress.
If you know the right password
to tell her, she swings open to reveal a round opening in the wall. The
common room contains a lot of squashy armchairs, a fireplace, and tables.
The fireplace is connected to the
Floo Network, but as it is
extremely public except in the dead of night, Gryffindors usually use
owls to communicate with their
families instead. There's also a
notice board,
for public announcements such as the date of the next
Hogsmeade weekend,
but also for notices from individual students seeking to buy or sell
secondhand books, or trade
Chocolate Frog cards, or
similar, as in any school.
There are two staircases opening off the common room into the Tower itself:
the boys' staircase, on which the seven boys' dormitories are located (one
for each year) and the girls' staircase, on which the seven girls'
dormitories are located (one for each year). The girls' staircase is
under a spell so that if a boy sets foot on it and persists for a
few steps, a wailing klaxon goes off and the staircase temporarily
Transfigures itself into a
stone slide, sending him and anyone else on the stairs sailing to the bottom. According to
Hogwarts: A History,
the founders believed that girls
were more trustworthy than boys, so that while the girls' staircase is
enchanted to prevent boys from getting in, the boys' staircase does not carry
a reciprocal enchantment
(OP17).
Each dormitory
is a round room with windows looking out onto the
grounds, and containing
four-poster beds.
Gryffindor Quidditch team
The
Gryffindor team
won the Quidditch Cup during the
1993 - 1994 season - the first time since
1984 -
and again during the
1995 - 1996
season.
They wear robes of scarlet.
Known Gryffindors, past and present
For each known Gryffindor below, his or her name is given together with the
years he or she was a student in Gryffindor. See the individual students'
entries for more information (such as the references for how we know that
they're Gryffindors and what years they were in).
1892-1899
c. 1931 - 1938(1960s)
- Black, Sirius [verified in OP9 that he was in the same house as James, confirmed HBP4]
- Evans, Lily (HBP4)
- Lupin, Remus [verified in OP9 that he was in the same house as James]
- Pettigrew, Peter (DH33)
- Potter, James (Sch2)
- Coote, Ritchie
(HBP11)
At least a second year by Harry's sixth year, definitely not in Harry's own year, no more than a year above Harry. - Frobisher, Victoria (Vicky)
(OP13)
At least a second year by Harry's sixth year, probably not in Harry's own year. - Hooper, Geoffrey
(OP13)
At least a second year by Harry's fifth year, definitely not in Harry's own year. - Kirke, Andrew
(OP21)
At least a second year by Harry's fifth year, definitely not in Harry's own year. - Robins, Demelza
(HBP11)
At least a second year by Harry's sixth year, probably not in Harry's own year, no more than a year above Harry. - Sloper, Jack
(OP21)
At least a second year by Harry's fifth year, definitely not in Harry's own year.
1982-1989
1983-1990
1989 - 1996- Johnson, Angelina (PS11)
- Jordan, Lee
- Spinnet, Alicia (PS11)
- Stimpson, Patricia (OP12, probably Gryffindor)
- Towler, Kenneth (OP12, probably Gryffindor)
- Weasley, Fred (PS7)
- Weasley, George (PS7)
- Brown, Lavender (PS7)
- Finnigan, Seamus (PS7)
- Granger, Hermione (PS7)
- Longbottom, Neville (PS7)
- Patil, Parvati (PS7)
- Potter, Harry (PS7)
- Thomas, Dean (PS7)
- Weasley, Ronald "Ron" (PS7)
- two unidentified girls? (1991 - 1998)
- King, R. J. H. (PS/f)
- McGonagall, M. G. (PS/f)
Two Unidentified Gryffindor Girls
This intriguing piece of deduction was done by
Jeralyn, the Voicelady on HP4GU. She writes:
The standard wisdom among fans is that if Hermione, Lavender, and Parvati had another roommate, we would have heard something about her by now.
Actually, I have figured out that there are two more Gryffindor girls in their year that we haven't been introduced to yet.
I've been rereading PA... (a)nd the scene with Lupin and the boggart in the wardrobe is very telling. Lupin wants all the students to have a go, and the scene runs as follows:
- Neville - Snape in Gran's dress and hat
- Parvati - the mummy
- Seamus - the banshee
- unidentified female student - rat
- unidentified female student - rattlesnake
- unidentified female student - eyeball
- Dean - hand
- Ron - spider
Then Lupin calls it back before Harry has to deal with it, and sends it to Neville to finish it off. Harry and Hermione didn't have to work with it, because they answered the questions correctly at the beginning of the class.
Now we know that Lavender was one of those unidentifed students. We also know that there are definitely only five boys in Harry's dorm room, so that's how I knew that the two remaining students were girls.
Ta-da!
EDITOR'S NOTE:
This isn't conclusive proof of anything, of course, but it's a nice bit of
deduction and just might turn out to be true! Another perfectly reasonable
explanation, of course, is that the
boggart
was getting confused and was changing form at random.
-- Steve Vander Ark
A suggestive bit of evidence against this theory is that every known
Gryffindor - all three girls and eventually all five boys - belonged to the
D.A., as well as the entire
Gryffindor Quidditch team,
every non-Slytherin prefect in
Hermione's and
Ron's year, and even including the
close friends of various members' current boyfriends and girlfriends.
Everybody, in other words, who was thought to be a likely candidate for
membership, and we know all the members - and no extra Gryffindor girls
are among them. -- MLW
