Gryffindor House is one of the four houses at Hogwart into which the students are Sorted when they start their first year. Gryffindor is the Hogwarts house of founder Godric Gryffindor. Gryffindor House places high value on traits such as courage, chivalry, and nerve. During Harry’s time at Hogwarts, the head of Gryffindor House was Minerva McGonagall.
Blazon: gules, a lion rampant or (that is, a golden lion on a red field, hence the Gryffindor colours of scarlet and gold)
House Ghost: Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington ("Nearly Headless Nick")
Location:
Gryffindor Tower, entrance on the seventh floor
The entrance to the Gryffindor common room (which, in turn, lead to the Gryffindor dormitories) 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.
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.
Gryffindor House's hourglass for tracking house points contains rubies.
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
- Dumbledore, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian (PS6)
1947-1956
- McGonagall, Minerva (Sch1, Pm)
1940 - expelled 1943
- Hagrid, Rubeus (BN)
(1960s)
- Weasley, Arthur
- Weasley (nee Prewett), Molly (GF31)
1971 - 1978
- 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)
1982-1989
- Weasley, Bill (GF12)
1983-1990
1990s - year uncertain
- 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.
1987 - 1994
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)
1990 - 1997
1991 - 1998
- 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)
1992 - 1999
1993 - 2000
1994 - 2001
1995 - 2002
- Abercrombie, Euan
2015 - 2022
- James Sirius Potter
2017 - 2024
- Rose Granger-Weasley
Commentary
Etymology
griffin = legendary beast with the body, tail, and back legs of a lion; the head and wings of an eagle; and an eagle's talons as its front feet.
Notes
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 theD.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
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Tags: bravery courage Ginny Remembrall gold Hermione Remembrall red scarlet