Gryffindor Dormitory

• Type: Student Residence
• Location: Gryffindor Tower, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Scotland
• Owner/Residents: Gryffindor students, most notably Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, Parvati Patil, and Lavender Brown.
• Key Features: Circular rooms located in a castle turret, furnished with heavy wooden four-poster beds, and a unique protective enchantment on the girls' staircase.

The Gryffindor dormitories are the sleeping quarters for students sorted into Gryffindor house. They are accessed via a spiral staircase leading up from the Gryffindor Common Room, with separate staircases for boys and girls. The rooms themselves are circular, situated within one of the castle's towers, and feature high, narrow windows that look out over the Hogwarts grounds. The boys' dormitory that Harry Potter shared with his year mates contained five four-poster beds, each hung with deep red, velvet curtains to provide privacy. The beds were positioned around the circular room, and each student had a small bedside table and a space for their school trunk and other personal effects. Over the years, the students decorated their personal spaces; Ron Weasley's area was often covered in posters of the Chudley Cannons Quidditch team, while Dean Thomas, a talented artist, put up posters of the West Ham football team. The staircase leading to the girls' dormitory is enchanted. If a boy attempts to climb it, a loud claxon-like alarm sounds, and the stairs temporarily transform into a long, smooth stone slide, ejecting him back to the bottom. This enchantment does not work in reverse, allowing girls to enter the boys' dormitories without impediment.

The Gryffindor dormitory serves as a primary private space for Harry Potter and his friends throughout their time at Hogwarts. It is the setting for countless significant conversations, plans, and personal moments away from the public eye of the common room or the Great Hall.

• Early Years: It is where Harry first experiences a sense of belonging at Hogwarts, sharing a room with his new friends. Key discussions about the Philosopher's Stone and the Chamber of Secrets take place here, as does the discovery of Tom Riddle's Diary after Harry's belongings are ransacked.
• Security Breaches: The dormitory's perceived security is famously breached in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when Sirius Black manages to enter the room and slash Ron's bed curtains with a knife, creating widespread panic in the castle.
• Friendship and Conflict: The room is the backdrop for the intense fallout between Harry and Ron during the Triwizard Tournament and the setting for many of Harry's troubling dreams and visions related to Lord Voldemort, particularly during his fifth year.
• Resistance and War: In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, it is where Harry extensively studies the Half-Blood Prince's Potions book. During the final book, the dormitory is a refuge for members of Dumbledore's Army resisting the rule of the Carrows, and Harry briefly returns to it before the final Battle of Hogwarts.

The dormitories are separated by gender and year group, although the books primarily focus on the dormitories for Harry's year.

• Boys' Dormitory: The specific circular room shared by Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Seamus Finnigan, and Dean Thomas is the most detailed dormitory in the series. It acts as their sanctuary and private headquarters for seven years.
• Girls' Dormitory: The dormitory shared by Hermione Granger, Parvati Patil, and Lavender Brown is mentioned several times. It is most notable for its enchanted staircase, which prevents boys from gaining access.

• According to J.K. Rowling, the Hogwarts Founders believed that girls were more trustworthy than boys, which is why the enchantment was placed on the girls' staircase but not the boys'. This detail was revealed on the Pottermore website (Pottermore).
• In the film adaptations, the set for the Gryffindor boys' dormitory was designed to look cozy, cluttered, and well-lived-in, reflecting the warm and brave nature of the house. The beds and furniture were originally sized for younger actors and were not replaced as the actors grew, forcing them to curl up to fit in the beds during later films to maintain set continuity (film).