Houses

THE FOUR SCHOOL HOUSES
GRYFFINDORS & SLYTHERINS | HUFFLEPUFFS & RAVENCLAWS

GRYFFINDOR TOWER

You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart

Gryffindor Tower's entrance is located on the seventh floor. The common room is accessible beyond the portrait of the Fat Lady once the correct password is given, revealing a circular room complete with plush red armchairs, a roaring hearth and adornments of golden lion rampants. The fireplace is connected to the Floo Network (for messaging only in-game and cannot be used to escape the castle) and a noticeboard hangs on one of the walls sporting all kinds of advertisements.

The boys and girls dormitories sprout off two corridors leading up to seven each (one for the corresponding years). The girls' staircase is enchanted to turn into a slide when set foot upon by any male, but the reverse is not true. Each bedroom is round and contains four-poster beds.

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SLYTHERIN DUNGEON

Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends
Those cunning folk use any means
To achieve their ends

The Slytherin common room is situated under the lake and features a low-ceiling, black and bottle-green leather armchairs and skull decorations over an elaborately carved mantlepiece. Dungeon-like, it is accented with greenish lamps and the contents of the lake can be viewed through the arched windows. A grand atmosphere lingers, but also a refined, cold one. Entry is gained by standing outside a stretch of damp wall and reciting the password, prompting a hidden stone door to open.

The dormitories are accessed through two winding corridors that lead off from the common room, one for girls and one for boys, that progressively getting further away until the seventh-years reach their own.

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HUFFLEPUFF BASEMENT

These belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal.
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil

To the right of the Entrance Hall is a door and to gain access to the Hufflepuff common room, you must walk down a tunnel into a "nook on the right-hand side of the kitchen corridor". There is a stack of barrels that must be tapped accordingly on various places to the rhythm of "Helga Hufflepuff" to make the lid swing open (although if the tapping tempo is wrong or the incorrect lid selected, entry is barred and the intruder is doused in vinegar). The underground tunnel leads to the dormitories in the cellar with perfectly round doors at the ends in similar barrel-tops.

Professor Sprout likes to decorate the circular common room in lots of interesting plants and the bedrooms all feature patchwork quilts along with copper bed-warmers for cold feet. There is a warm glow over the entire setting that pours through low windows level with "rippling grass and dandelions".

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RAVENCLAW TOWER

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw
If you've a ready mind
Where those of wit and learning
Will always find their kind

Located on the west side of the castle. The door is found at the top of a tightly winding staircase veering off the fifth floor. There is no way to open it unless the talking bronze knocker of an eagle is answered correctly when it poses a riddle, to which it will respond with a compliment.

The common room is adorned in blue and bronze silk hangings with a midnight-blue carpet picked out in the same silver stars that cover the domed ceiling. The view of the surrounding mountain-range is magnificent through gracefully arched windows and there is a ready array of bookcases, tables and chairs. Opposite the entrance is a door leading to the dormitories, besides which stands a life-size marble statue of Rowena Ravenclaw wearing her diadem.

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