Staffroom

• Type: Room
• Location: Ground floor, Hogwarts Castle, Scotland
• Owner/Residents: Hogwarts staff
• Key Features: A long, wood-panelled room with mismatched dark wooden chairs, a large fireplace, and a notable wardrobe.

The staffroom is a private chamber at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry reserved for the use of the school's professors. Located on the ground floor, off the Entrance Hall, it serves as a lounge and meeting place for the staff. The room is described as long and panelled, filled with a variety of mismatched, dark wooden chairs. At one end of the room is a large fireplace, and against one wall stands a tall wardrobe. Historically, this room has been the central common area for the faculty. Its most famous piece of furniture is the wardrobe, which, during Harry Potter's third year, was discovered to be housing a Boggart. Professor Lupin used this creature for a practical Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson.

The staffroom is the setting for several significant events and overheard conversations throughout the series:

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: Harry Potter overhears a tense argument between Professor Snape and Professor Quirrell just outside the staffroom. Harry misinterprets the conversation, believing Snape is threatening Quirrell for the Philosopher's Stone, when in fact Snape is trying to uncover Quirrell's intentions.
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: After Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly Headless Nick are petrified, Professor McGonagall leads Harry to the staffroom to await a decision from Professor Dumbledore. While there, Harry overhears Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge and Lucius Malfoy discussing Dumbledore's suspension and Rubeus Hagrid's arrest.
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The room plays its most prominent role when Professor Lupin leads his third-year Defence Against the Dark Arts class there. He reveals a Boggart is living in the wardrobe and teaches the students the Riddikulus charm. Neville Longbottom memorably confronts the Boggart, which takes the form of Professor Snape, and forces it into his grandmother's clothes.
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: The staffroom is used for the Weighing of the Wands ceremony before the Triwizard Tournament. Garrick Ollivander inspects the wands of the four champions in this room. Afterwards, Rita Skeeter ambushes Harry and conducts a sensationalised interview with him in a small broom cupboard off the staffroom.
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Dolores Umbridge uses the staffroom to assert her authority as the Hogwarts High Inquisitor. She places Sybill Trelawney on probation here in front of her colleagues. Later, Professor McGonagall furiously confronts Umbridge in the staffroom after Aurors, acting on Umbridge's orders, stun her and attempt to remove Rubeus Hagrid from the grounds.
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Harry, under his Invisibility Cloak, follows Professor Slughorn into the staffroom where the staff are welcoming him back to Hogwarts. Later in the year, Harry overhears another critical conversation between Professor Dumbledore and Professor Snape here. Dumbledore insists that Snape must honour the promise he made, which Harry again misinterprets as part of a villainous plot.
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Before the Battle of Hogwarts begins, Professor McGonagall uses the staffroom as a command centre, instructing Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout to meet her there to organize the castle's defences.

• Main Chamber: The primary gathering space for professors, containing a long table and numerous chairs arranged around a fireplace.
• Wardrobe: A large, dark wardrobe that famously housed a Boggart in Harry Potter's third year.
• Broom Cupboard: A small cupboard adjoining the main room, used by Rita Skeeter to conduct a private interview with Harry Potter for the Daily Prophet.

The staffroom is depicted in the film adaptations, most notably in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for the Boggart lesson. Its on-screen appearance is largely faithful to the book's description, featuring a long, wood-panelled room with a large fireplace and an assortment of chairs (film).