About Gryffindor House

Gryffindor values are chivalry and boldness. Its animal is the lion, and its colorrs are scarlet and gold. Felicity Shukurova is the current Head of House. Nearly Headless Nick is the house ghost. The founder of the house is Godric Gryffindor.

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 and the girls' staircase, on which the seven girls' dormitories are located. 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. Each dormitory is a round room with windows looking out onto the grounds, and containing four-poster beds.

Godric Gryffindor hailed from a moor, (a wild, windswept area of heathland). British moors are found in the West Country, Mid-Wales, northern England and Scotland. Gryffindor is said to have praised courage, determination and strength of heart above all other qualities. Indeed, he selected students for his house based upon their daring and bravery, according to the Sorting Hat.

He also seems to have been the most in favor of allowing Muggle-borns into the school, (this view being based upon his breach with Slytherin). His only known relics are the Sorting Hat, and the silver sword Harry used to kill the basilisk, both of which are currently kept in the office of the headmaster. He was initially a great friend of Salazar Slytherin. The name Godric is Anglo-Saxon in form, and can have several meanings, including, "He Who Rules with God," or "He Who Rules Well." Gryffindor and his house are symbolised by a gold lion on red.

Godric Gryffindor chose the Lion to be the mascot of the Gryffindor's because the lion stands for bravery and leadership. The lion is the central part of the Gryffindor crest.

Nearly Headless Nick is the nickname of the ghost of Sir Nicholas de Mimsy Porpington, a wizard who died in a botched execution on October 31, 1492. He was hit forty-five times in the neck with a blunt axe, but a half-inch of skin and sinew remained connecting his head to the rest of his body. Nick wears a doublet, a dashing plumed hat, and a tunic with a ruff to hide the fact that his head is nearly severed.

He is the resident ghost of Gryffindor House and is always helpful to Gryffindor students. Once he even convinced Peeves to destroy a very valuable Vanishing Cabinet over Filch's office to divert the caretaker's attention from Harry, who had dripped mud on the floor in the corridor.