The Great Hall

• Type: Main Hall, Dining Hall
• Location: Hogwarts Castle, Scotland
• Owner/Residents: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
• Key Features: Bewitched Ceiling, Four House Tables, Staff Table, House Point Counters

The Great Hall is a vast and magnificent chamber located off the Entrance Hall in Hogwarts Castle. It serves as the primary dining area for all students and Hogwarts staff and is the central hub for major school-wide events and announcements. The Hall is large enough to comfortably accommodate the entire student body, staff, and guests. Its most famous feature is its bewitched ceiling, which is enchanted to perfectly reflect the sky outside, whether it be clear and sunny, dark and stormy, or filled with stars. As Hermione Granger explains upon first seeing it, she read about the enchantment in A History. The Hall is illuminated by thousands of candles that float in mid-air below the ceiling. The chamber's layout is dominated by four long oak tables, one for each of the Hogwarts Houses: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. At the far end of the Hall, on a raised stone dais, is the Staff Table, where the professors and other staff members sit facing the students. A large, ornate chair in the center of the Staff Table is reserved for the current Headmaster or Headmistress. The floor is made of large flagstones, and the stone walls are typically lit with flaming torches. The Hall is often frequented by Hogwarts Ghosts, such as Nearly Headless Nick and the Bloody Baron, who drift through the room during meals. The Great Hall is decorated to match the occasion, most notably for the Start-of-Term Feast, Halloween, and Christmas. Halloween decorations often include live bats and hundreds of carved, lit pumpkins. Christmas decorations feature twelve towering Christmas trees, enchanted snow that falls from the ceiling but melts before it touches anyone, and festive streamers.

The Great Hall is the setting for many of the most pivotal moments in the series. Its central function as a gathering place makes it the stage for major announcements, ceremonies, and conflicts.

• Ceremonies and Feasts: The Hall is the venue for the annual Sorting Ceremony, where new students are sorted into their houses by the Sorting Hat. It also hosts the Start-of-Term Feast and End-of-Term Feast, where the House Cup winner is announced.
• Information Hub: Daily mail delivery via the Owl Post occurs during breakfast in the Great Hall. Important announcements from the Headmaster are made here, such as Albus Dumbledore's warnings about the Forbidden Forest and the Philosopher's Stone.
• Triwizard Tournament: In Harry's fourth year, the Goblet of Fire was placed in the Great Hall to select the school champions. The Hall was later transformed to host the Yule Ball, a grand Christmas tradition of the tournament.
• Umbridge's Regime: During Dolores Umbridge's tenure, the Hall became a platform for her to assert the Ministry of Magic's control, most notably by interrupting Dumbledore's start-of-term speech and posting her many Educational Decrees on the wall.
• Examinations: The four House Tables are removed and replaced with individual tables when the Hall is used as an examination chamber for O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. tests.
• Battle of Hogwarts: During the final battle, the Great Hall served as a command post and a temporary infirmary for the castle's defenders. Following the first phase of the battle, it became a somber place where the bodies of the fallen, including Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, and Fred Weasley, were laid. The final duel between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort took place in the center of the Great Hall, ending the Second Wizarding War.

• Entrance: The Hall is entered from the Entrance Hall through a set of large, oak double doors.
• Antechamber: A smaller chamber located off the Hall, where first-year students wait before being Sorted. It was also used by the Triwizard champions after their selection.
• House Tables: The four parallel tables where students from Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin sit for meals.
• Staff Table: The table on the raised platform at the top of the Hall, reserved for Hogwarts staff.
• House Point Counters: Four giant, enchanted hourglasses are located behind the Staff Table. They magically keep track of the House Points for each house using precious stones instead of sand: rubies for Gryffindor, emeralds for Slytherin, sapphires for Ravenclaw, and diamonds for Hufflepuff.

• The physical set for the Great Hall, built at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, was one of the first and most impressive sets created for the film series. It was a permanent fixture and could seat over 400 children (film).
• The design of the film set was heavily inspired by the dining hall at Christ Church College, Oxford University (film).
• The flagstones used for the floor of the film set are made of genuine York stone, chosen for its durability and authentic appearance (film).
• In the films, the thousands of floating candles were initially created using real candles suspended on wires, but they were later replaced with CGI for safety reasons and to avoid the wax dripping onto the actors below (film).