Hufflepuff

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Hufflepuff
Hufflepuff.jpg
House information
Founder

Helga Hufflepuff

House colours

Yellow and Black

Animal

Badger

Element

Earth

Traits
  • Dedication
  • Hard Work
  • Fair play
  • Patience
  • Kindness
  • Tolerance
  • Unafraid of Toil
  • Loyal
Head
Ghost

Fat Friar

Common room

Hufflepuff Basement

Members
“ You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true,
And unafraid of toil 		”

–The Sorting Hat, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Hufflepuff is one of the four Houses of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Its founder was the medieval witch Helga Hufflepuff. Hufflepuff is the most inclusive among the four houses; valuing hard work, patience, loyalty, and fair play rather than a particular aptitude in its members. The emblematic animal is a badger, and yellow and black are its colours. The Head of Hufflepuff is Pomona Sprout and the Fat Friar is the House's patron ghost.

Hufflepuff corresponds roughly to the element of earth[1], and it is for that reason that the House colours were chosen: yellow represented wheat, while black was emblematic of soil[2]. The Hufflepuff points hourglass contains yellow diamonds[3].

Traits[edit | edit source]

Students belonging to this house are known to be hard-working, friendly, loyal, honest and rather impartial. It may be that due to their values, Hufflepuffs are not as competitive as the other houses, or are more modest about their accomplishments. Hufflepuff is the most inclusive among the four houses; valuing hard work, patience, loyalty, and fair play rather than a particular aptitude in its membersments.

Hufflepuff appears to have the least rivalry with the other houses, except in Quidditch, although the Triwizard Tournament did temporarily put a great deal of strain on the relationship between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, due to unusual circumstances of the selection of both Gryffindor student Harry Potter and Hufflepuff student Cedric Diggory as Champions.

Reputation[edit | edit source]

“ Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, ”

–Hagrid , Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

According to Minerva McGonagall, all four of the houses have produced exceptional witches and wizards in their time, but due to Helga Hufflepuff's policy of accepting any student and its usually poor performance in the House Cup, Hufflepuff is often thought to be the house of less talented wizards. However, this is merely a misunderstanding of the Sorting Hat's poem. The Hufflepuff house has produced a great many of successful and influential members of the wizarding world.

Hufflepuff has produced the fewest number of dark wizards than any other house at Hogwarts. Their cheerful and friendly demeanor can probably account for this property of the House. Hufflepuff firmly demonstrated its loyalty during the Battle of Hogwarts in 1998, when they were second only to Harry Potter's own house of Gryffindor in the number of students willing to stay and fight against Voldemort and his forces in the defence of their school.

Common Room[edit | edit source]

The Hufflepuff Dormitories and Common room have never been seen by outsiders and is the only house with repelling devices in case of intruders. They are accessed through a pile of large barrels, found stacked in a shadowy stone recess on a right-hand side corridor near the kitchens. The barrel two from the bottom, middle of the second row, will open if tapped in the rhythm of 'Helga Hufflepuff'.

As a security device to repel non-Hufflepuffs, tapping on the wrong barrel, or tapping the incorrect number of times, results in one of the other lids bursting off and drenching the imposter in vinegar.

However, once you make it through the tunnel entryway, the Hufflepuff dormitory is a quite cosy and welcoming place; it always feels sunny. The common room is a large, earthy, round room with low ceilings. The view from the round windows is of dandelions and rippling grass.

The decor emphasises the earthy-feel of the room with plants hanging and resting all about the room, some that even sing and dance. Burnished copper touchings with plush, cosy yellow and black patterned sofas and chairs welcoming a Hufflepuff student to relax and discuss the interesting specimens brought in by the Head of House, Professor Sprout. A Hufflepuff student retires through big, round doors in the walls of the common room to their dormitory. [4][5]

Head of House[edit | edit source]

The Hufflepuff's head of house before and during Harry Potter's time was Pomona Sprout. She was the Herbology professor at Hogwart School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It is possible that before Pomona was appointed as the Herbology professor and made head of house that Herbert Beery the previous Herbology teacher was the head of house, depending on if she was a Hufflepuff or not.

Known Hufflepuffs[edit | edit source]

Hufflepuff Period Attending Hogwarts Notes
The Fat Friar[6] unknown Now the house ghost.
Hengist of Woodcroft

[7]

Medieval era Founded the all-wizard village of Hogsmeade.
Bridget Wenlock

[7]

c. 1213 to 1220 Famous Arithmancer who discovered the magical properties of seven.
Artemisia Lufkin

[7]

c. 1765 to 1772 Minister for Magic from from 1798 to 1811.
Grogan Stump

[7]

c. 1781 to 1788 Minister for Magic from from 1811 to 1819.
Newton "Newt" Scamander

[7]

c. 1908 to 1916 Famous magizoologist and Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Dugald McPhail [7]

unknown Minister for Magic in an unknown period.
Eglantine Puffett

[4]

Inventor of the Self-Soaping Dishcloth.
Hepzibah Smith Descendant of Helga Hufflepuff.
Silvanus Kettleburn unknown Later professor of Care of Magical Creatures,
Pomona Sprout

[6]

1942 - 1949 or 1952 - 1959[8] Later professor of Herbology and Head of Hufflepuff House.
Nymphadora Tonks

[9]

1984 - 1991 Auror and a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Wed to Remus Lupin and mother of Teddy Lupin. She was killed in the Final Battle.
Gabriel Truman

[7]

1980s and 1990s Prefect
Cedric Diggory 1989 - 1995 Prefect, Captain and Seeker for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, Triwizard Champion; killed in his sixth year.
Anthony Rickett 1990s Beater for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team.
Cadwallader Chaser for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team.
Gregory Munslow Only seen in the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game).
Heidi Macavoy Chaser for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team.
Herbert Fleet Keeper for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team.
Malcolm Preece Chaser for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team.

Maxine O'Flaherty

Beater for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team.
Stebbins
Summerby Seeker for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team.
Summers
Tamsin Applebee Chaser for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team.
Zacharias Smith Chaser and Captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team; member of Dumbledore's Army (abandoned).
Justin Finch-Fletchley 1991 - 1997 (?) Member of Dumbledore's Army. Due to Muggle-born status, most likely did not attend his final year, during which Lord Voldemort controlled Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic.
Ernie Macmillan 1991 - 1998 Prefect and member of Dumbledore's Army.
Hannah Abbott Prefect and member of Dumbledore's Army. Married to Neville Longbottom.
Leanne Friend of Katie Bell and witnessed her being cursed. Fought in the Battle of Hogwarts. Survived the war.
Megan Jones
Susan Bones Member of Dumbledore's Army. Was the first to Splinch herself in Apparition lessons.
Wayne Hopkins
Oliver Rivers 1991 - 1998
Roger Malone 1991 - 1998
Heather 1992 - 1999 Duelling Club member.
Eleanor Branstone 1994 - 2001
Kevin Whitby
Laura Madley
Owen Cauldwell
Rose Zeller 1995 - 2002
Rohit Das Observed during 1993–1994 school year
Gabriel Tate 1990's
Melvin Catterick
Linda Chaddesley
Thora Dinnet
Nitin Divekar
Nicola Dodworth
Haruka Endoh
Annabel Entwhistle
Kay Formby
Trudy Galston
Brendon Halkirk
Raashid Hussain
Sisi Makerere
Bernard Maltby
Benjamin McEwen
Hecate Oakham
Madeline Ormskirk
Madhumati Parmar
Gayle Pocklington
Satinder Singh
Manish Sreenivasan
Lesley Toddington
Darrel Turner
Katsuji Yamazaki
Kousuke Yoshioka
Matthew Kettletoft

Behind the scenes[edit | edit source]

  • In J. K. Rowling's earliest concepts for the series, Hufflepuff's mascot was a bear rather than a badger.[10]
  • Hufflepuff has produced the fewest Dark wizards of all the four Houses, if any.[4]
  • Giffard Abbott was most likely a Hufflepuff, given his attitude towards this House and sharing a surname with known Hufflepuff Hannah Abbott.
  • Amos Diggory may have been a Hufflepuff if he attended Hogwarts, as his son Cedric was.
  • The most members of Hufflepuff house appear to have either blonde or brunette hair, while Susan Bones and Helga Hufflepuff had reddish hair. Furthermore, Professor Pomona Sprout often wore brown clothes. Interestingly, this is reminiscent of the house attributions; brown/brunette is associated with the element of earth and is similar to black (one of the Hufflepuff colours). Likewise, blonde hair could represent yellow — another house colour.
  • The Hufflepuff Basement was the only common room that Harry Potter didn't enter during his years at Hogwarts.
  • On Harry Potter: Beyond the Page, J.K. Rowling had this to say about Hufflepuff House..."This may surprise people, but it is the truth...In many, many ways, Hufflepuff is my favourite House. Here's my reasoning, bear with me. (Again, I don't want to spoil things too much for people who haven't read the whole series, so I'm going to say what I'm about to say quite carefully). There comes a point in the final book where each House has the choice whether or not to rise to a certain challenge, and that's everyone in the House. The Slytherins, for reasons that are understandable, decide they'd rather not play. The Ravenclaws, some decide they will, some decide they won't. The Hufflepuffs, virtually to a person, stay, as do the Gryffindors. Now, the Gryffindors comprise a lot of foolhardy and show-offy people, that's just the way it is, I'm a Gryffindor, I'm allowed to say it. You know, there's bravery, and there's also showboating, and sometimes the two go together. The Hufflepuffs stayed for a different reason; they weren't trying to show off, they weren't being reckless, that's the essence of Hufflepuff House. Now my oldest child (my daughter, Jessica) said something very profound to me, not very many days ago, actually, she said to me --and she, by the way, was not sorted into Hufflepuff House-- but, she said to me, 'I think we should all want to be Hufflepuffs.' I can only say to you, that I would not be at all disappointed to be sorted into Hufflepuff House."
  • Gabriel Truman states that Hufflepuffs are often good at Herbology. Neville Longbottom was known to excel at Herbology but was placed in Gryffindor, despite begging the Sorting Hat to place him Hufflepuff.
  • Hufflepuff House won the fourth House Cup on Pottermore. 
  • In the video game adaptations of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the Hufflepuff robes are purple, instead of yellow.

Appearances[edit | edit source]

See also[edit | edit source]

Notes and references[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ The Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet interview Joanne Kathleen Rowling
  2. ↑ Pottermore - New from J. K. Rowling: Colours
  3. ↑ JK Rowling's Twitter, 24th April 2014
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 transcribed Pottermore House information
  5. ↑ "A transcript of a web chat with J.K. Rowling" from The Leaky Cauldron
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 F.A.Q. question on J.K. Rowling's Official Site
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 Pottermore introduction for Hufflepuffs (transcription available here)
  8. ↑ Pottermore biography of Minerva McGonagall (transcription available here)
  9. ↑ F.A.Q. question at J.K. Rowling's Official Site
  10. ↑ J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - with annotations, The Guardian
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