A portrait of a very fat lady in a pink silk dress comes into view....your guide says: "Caput Draconis" The portrait swings open and you enter through a round hole in the wall.
Welcome to the Griffindor common room! These pages will contain mild to full spoilers in them. Please feel free to make your way around, the boys dormitories are upstairs and down to the right, and girls, the same to the left. These pages are all about the characters. I am going to vent my feelings of love or frustration about each one, just to warn you *grin* These are the ones we know (or have a pretty good idea of) were in Gryffindor. Each house will also contain it's information on it. Enjoy your visit!

Gryffindor Common Room
	Bold Gryffindor from wild moor... By Gryffindor, the bravest were Prized far beyond the rest; -Sorting Hat
		You might belong in Gryffindor, Where dwell the brave at heart, Their daring, nerve, and chivalry Set Gryffindors apart; -Sorting Hat
Founder	Godric Gryffindor
Colors	Scarlet and Gold
Mascot	Lion
Ghost	Nearly Headless Nick
Head of House	Professor McGonagall

Gryffindors

Harry Potter

-He is my favorite and I don't see that ever changing. His loyalty, courageousness, mistakes, loving nature, stubborness, spirit and friendships feel akin to my own, or at least what I'd like my own to be. I identify readily with his feelings and his thoughts. He's not perfect, but he has excellant morals and always tries to do the right thing. Of course a lot of the abuse in his childhood has affected him, but I think despite that he turned into a very moral and good person. He has a definate sense of right vs wrong and he places himself on the side of right every time. (what about all the rule-breaking you ask?) If he breaks the rules he usually does so for a higher reason. The bigger picture. What's more important after all, preventing Voldemort from getting the stone, or staying in your dorm after hours? Dumbledore sees this and that is why he is so lenient with him. Harry forgives easier than most people would, maybe this is because he has to in order to get along, or he feels that he deserves the bad treatment (though he has enough sense to know that Snape's mistreatment goes beyond the boundries). He has problems being shy, or maybe reserved is a better word. He holds back his feelings and doesn't speak out as much as he might if he had been supressed at home. I think that he has a little trouble trusting himself and others, and this is the reason he doesn't open up to Dumbledore when he gets the chance, even though he desperatly wants to. Plus he tries to protect everyone around him. It could be a by-product of the abuse and neglect he suffered, or it could just be loyalty. You have to admire his spirit. He was never broken by any of the things the Dursleys threw at him. No wonder he can resist the Imperius Curse better than most of his classmates.

Hermione Granger

-She is really a great character as well. I guess she just kind of turned me off her because she was a bit distant and forceful in the first book. However, her character is probably more like me than I'd like to admit. ^_^ She is really filling out and loosening up in the subsequent novels though, and I find myself thinking she has all the same qualities that Harry does, but she is held by gender barriers from acting freely as Harry does. Ok, ok, there are those darn school rules too. Society sees leading girls as pushy and bossy (admit it you did too, though maybe she did overdo it just a bit) and most of the world sees Hermione as booksmart not pretty (although she clearly has the potential to be stunning. Remember she was virtually unrecognizable to Harry in GF during the Yule ball. Perhaps he never looked at her closely. Rita Skeeter saw her beauty when she believed she was going with Harry, and it wasn't until later that she called Hermione ugly. Admittedly Rita Skeeter is NOT a reliable source, but grown-ups can see the budding beauty easier than the normal teenager). Acheivement is not a highly valued trait in girls like it is for boys. If she were to break the rules she would be seen as "not nice" and that is one of the worst labels a girl can get in a society that values "sugar and spice and everything nice". This probably explains why Hermione is friends with more of the boys than the girls. The jealousy and jostling for rank among girls pushed her to try harder thereby unwittingly ostracizing herself even more. When Harry and Ron saved her they opened up a doorway to friendship, and lucky for us (and them) she took it!

Ron Weasley

-He is not easy for me to identify with. I can understand a lot of his motives. He basically tells us he gets no recognition for achievements, but is still expected to do as well as his older siblings. He can't even be a troublemaker because Fred and George have the market cornered on that! So, I see Ron's biggest desire as getting some kind of recognition (supported by what he saw in the Mirror of Erised) Having Harry for a friend probably satisfied some of that (I don't think he targeted Harry to be his friend just for that reason though), until he realized that he was again getting pushed to the side all the time, just as he does at home. He speaks without thinking a lot. Probably because he had to say whatever was on his mind with so many siblings, if you stopped to think about it you lose the chance to speak at all! The Burrow seems to be a basically friendly if somewhat roudy place though, and they take criticism in stride. Molly and Arthur are always apologizing and berating (at least Fred and George). I think that explains a little of the rough edges we see in Ron. He's not exactly sensative, but he didn't ever really have a chance at that. With brothers eager to laugh and even ridicule, he had to be tough. He has some fears (even though I think that he has every right) that are thought of as a bit babyish, or girly even, and he probably tries to compensate. He doesn't have time to censor or soften his opinions. Overall I like Ron, though he really made me angry in GF for the way he was treating Harry. Some best friend!!!!! (Complex or not). So he better be making it up in OP or else! hee hee.

Ginny Weasley

-She is the only girl in the Weasley family. Given this and the fact that she's the youngest, it's easy to see why her brothers (excepting Ron) seem to dote on her. She has a bit of the same thirst that Ron does for acheivement and recognition, but not to his degree, because of the aforementioned reasons. She is portrayed in the second book as a bit of a pest, certainly an embarassment to Harry because of her obvious crush. But in the subsequent books that mention her, she seems to have cooled a bit towards Harry, or at least gotten control of her emotions. She probably strived to be and act more mature and grown-up than she was since she was the youngest of so large a family. She probably wasn't taken seriously a lot and that's partially how Tom got so tight a hold on her. He told her everything she wanted to hear so that she in turn would tell him everything he needed to know. It was probably very easy for him since she willingly divuldged all her weaknesses to him. Ginny is turning into such a compassionate young lady that it really angers me to see her taken advantage of like that. She seems shy, yet Ron says that she usually never shut-up until Harry came. So, we can assume that she's usually a very spunky young lady. Yet, she doesn't seem to have made a lot of close friends, at least during her first year, because she confided to the diary instead of a girlfriend. I assume that the diary already had it's foundations of a hold on her before she went to school and that it largely kept her from making a lot of friends. Then he wouldn't have had the trouble of explaining, or extricating her from them, when she snuck out and did his bidding. We don't hear a lot about her after this, but I really hope she can make friends her own age and emerge as her spunky self again. I can only imagine that the trauma and drama of her first year has marked her both to herself and to others.

Fred and George Weasley

-They are the biggest source of comic relief in the whole series! What characters! They are the boys everyone knows that always seem to get by on their looks and jokes. They seem to not have a care or plan in the world, yet they always seem to come out on top of things. Everyone needs a friend like this to lighten the mood when it gets too serious, and that is exactly what the twins do in all the books. Yet at times they can be a bit annoying, and as they get older and closer to leaving Hogwarts, they are taking things a bit more seriously.

Neville Longbottom

-He is possibly one of the most overlooked characters in the series. I have always liked Neville. He's like the insecurities in all of us. But the great thing is that he's getting a handle on everything as time goes on. He's really growing quite well and rapidly. He's really very strong to be able to do everything he does. His parents are insane and in St. Mungos Hospital for Magical Maladys. So he was raised by his very stern Gran. He seems very tearful and accident prone, but as time goes on he starts to hold his own very well. He takes on our trio when they try to sneak out and he believes they shouldn't. He takes on BOTH Crabbe and Goyle during the Quidditch match, and apparantly holds his own for a while. He certainly quails under Prof. Snape (who wouldn't?) but he continues to go to the class and try his best. He doesn't really seem to have a lot of close friends, but he is always very nice to Harry, despite the fact that Harry doesn't always treat him very well. He was brave enough to ask Hermione to go to the ball, and when she turned him down, he plucked up enough courage to ask Ginny even though he didn't HAVE to have a date. Does anyone but me wonder how that night went for them? I can totally see them together. Plus toads apparantly went out of fashion long ago, but he seems very proud of Trevor despite what extra ridicule that might bring. These are only a few examples of his somewhat passive but iron-willed bravery.

Gryffindor Alumni

Professor Minerva McGonagall

-She is not as strict as she likes to seem. We see her soft side peek through on a couple of occasions. She strives so hard to be fair and a figure of authority that I think it sometimes gets away from her. But who can blame her? She is a woman in a position of power, and although JKR has never touched on the subject of bigotry between men and woman, I suspect that she's had a tough time of it to get there on her own merits. I sound like a feminist here, but it's still a man's world out there, just ask any woman trying to accomplish something. I think Dumbledore supports her as he seems to be the most understanding person in the world (trusting, Hagrid calls him), but his authority only goes so far, and the rest of the staff is sure to have their own opinions. Lets face it, she and Snape sure have a huge rift between them, and I don't think that it's all about being heads of the opposite houses. Both of them are adult enough to be able to put it aside to have a good working relationship, but it shows through when she's talking to Harry about beating Slytherin in quidditch. Is it more than good natured ribbing she wants to avoid? After all Snape has a pretty acidic personality, and she is second in charge meaning he is under her. He probably takes every chance he can to goad her.

Headmaster/Professor Albus Dumbledore

-He is the perfect father figure to Harry. Though a bit more rigid of a relationship, Harry obviously loves Dumbledore enough that he wasn't ashamed or afraid to cry in his presence. (not that he had a lot of control over it mind you) Even though Harry has seen some of Dumbledore's mistakes, he has not yet lost that sense that Dumbledore can solve any problem. He sees him as perfection, though Dumbledore is only human and imperfect. He stands as the epitome of goodness and wisdom, and not just for Harry, but for most of the British wizarding community at large. (No wonder he looks old and tired at times) I, for one, hope that JKR doesn't kill him! He is one of my favorites. Maybe I too am still under the delusion of his perfection, but I'm in good company! Dumbledore is probably one of the kindest and most open-minded people in the books. He sends a message of equality and hope to everyone. Hagrid says maybe he's too trusting, but still admires him for it. Dumbledore always seems able to take the higher road. He seems to have a great love for everyone around him, even those that hate him. But he does get a bit impatient with people towards the end of GF. He's a bigger picture person, able to look at how things matter in the long run and ignore the little things. We understand that he is a wizard of great power, but we have only glimpsed what Dumbledore in action might look like. His wisdom and gentle disposition are more likely to show than his temper.

(Professor) Rubeus Hagrid

-He strikes me as a down-to-earth type of realistic character that you can really love quickly. He's a bit of an embodiment of all our self-doubts and sensativities. He definately marches to his own drummer, and the great thing is that he doesn't (normally) let anyone else's opinion bother him. (Rita Skeeter would bother anyone but a saint) I know a lot of people have speculated him as a father figure to Harry, but I think he's more of a first friend. He took Harry from his horrible situation and presented to him a whole new world to discover where he could fit in, despite the feelings of inadequacy ingrained into him by the Dursleys. He would be seen more as a savior type friend than a father IMHO. Harry has seen Hagrid's imperfections already, and that alone would break his parental type vision of Hagrid. He even somewhat suspected Hagrid of murder in CS (though I'm sure he was as relieved as all of us when he found out it wasn't true, and even better that Hagrid should never have been expelled) Hagrid has faced an uphill battle from the start, though his father gave him a good ground when he taught him to be proud of his heritage and not to let others get him down. We know from GF that giants are looked down upon and predjudice rears it's ugly head quite forcefully in the wizarding world. (I think it's got something to do with an inferiority complex with the people in charge, not necessarily only now, but earlier too. Like Fudge. They must feel very awkward being a minority, and so they put others down to compensate. They picked easy targets like Giants, Vampires, Werewolves, and Muggles because they had some qualities that weren't so nice, and lets face some of them are viscious. Even those trying to help can be a bit misguided. Like when Arthur Weasley is talking to Harry about why it was neccessary to keep their society secret from the Muggles. My mind thinks immediately safety for the Muggles [wizards seem to have better overall health, and sometimes they bounce], but he says that they would be plagued with Muggles asking for magical solutions to everything. Yet he is amazed at how Muggles get along without magic. Isn't that a tad bit predjudiced. He's basically saying that Muggles aren't smart enough to get along with no magic and then marvelling that they do.)

James Potter

-As he is still largely unkown to us, I have only a very sketchy opinion of James thus far (highly biased by the fact that he's Harry's father of course). We know he was very popular and well-liked at Hogwarts, and after. We can assume he and Lily held some kind of status with the wizarding community that's somehow tied in with the reason that Voldemort was after them in the first place. JKR has told us that James was a Gryffindor Chaser and that he was very well liked. But other than quidditch, we don't really know what his talents were. She's told us that he didn't really Have to have a profession, because he had a large inheritance. (Possibly another reason Snape doesn't like him? After all, it doesn't seem to me that the wizards with a lot of money are teaching at the school.) So, we know James was relatively wealthy. We hear nothing about his family. This leaves me to wonder if his parents died leaving him their money, or some accident and his inheritance was a compensation of some kind. Is it impossible to believe that wizards have insurance? What we know of him from his friends, he was very kind and had the same open-mindness of others that Dumbledore does. We can only guess how trusting he was. We DO know he saved Snape's life, though his motives for that could have been as Snape said - just to stay out of trouble. I tend to think though, that he truly didn't want to see Snape harmed, but maybe that's a little optomistic of me, because he and Snape got along much like Harry and Draco.

Lily Evans Potter

-Just as we don't know much about Harry's dad, we also know very little about his mother. We know she was muggle born, and that her parents were proud to have a witch in the family. We can safely assume that she and Petunia did not get along for whatever reason. We know that she married James and that they went together during school, at least for a while towards the end. I cannot vouch that Lily was actually in Gryffindor, but I am pretty sure that she was. We know that she was Head Girl her last year, and that she was a very talented witch. I think we can safely assume that she was very popular as well. We know that Harry has his mother's eyes. But after that, we can't be sure of anything. I am assuming that she was most talented in Charms, because her wand was good for charms, and she cast the charm that backfired on Voldemort and saved Harry's life. We can't be sure about what happened to her during and after her school days. What happened to her parents? Did it affect her and what she did in school? Hopefully we'll be finding out a lot more about her character in OP.

Professor Remus Lupin

-He is also one of my favortie people. He was almost a father figure for Harry too. In fact he is the only person that Harry had freely gone to with a problem until he understood who Sirius really was. He opened up to Lupin before anyone else. Lupin is like Dumbledore in his views of the world. He believes in the good in people, and I think he is a very fair person. He accepted his "disability" in life, and having had good friends to help him through some of the toughest years, he was able to mature into a really nice and gentle person. He still has some tender spots and rough edges to work through, but that helps us to understand him and brings him down to a level that we aren't really in awe of him like we are of Dumbledore. This allows us to love him more freely. It's really too bad he resigned, because I think we could all see that he was a very gifted teacher. He has a lot to teach outside of the basic subjects at Hogwarts too. Acceptance and love come immediately to mind.

Sirius Black

-This is one character that I believe has made major transformations. (I'm not talking about being an animagus either, no Grims here) I see him in his early life as sort of sailing through everything pretty easily. He was a talented wizard, and James was his best friend. The picture that's painted for us thus far is that they sailed on top of the world, being good at most everything they tried. They were popular, talented, and life was good. When we know more about James and Lily, we might have some deeper insight, but for now the following is my opinion. Sirius and James made a great team. They didn't really have any horrid troubles (I base this on the fact that Sirius was able to withstand the dementors. He didn't have a wand to protect himself, and since he knew he was innocent of the crime he was imprisoned for, they couldn't affect him on that, but that doesn't stop them drudging up older memories. Harry heard his parents, and that was probably not on the front of his mind everytime he met a dementor. Since he was basically still sane, there must not've been anything in his past that was very horrible.) Sirius had to have a most resiliant nature about him to ward off the dementors for that long. His self esteem must have been to the moon! (It's so easy to dwell on past mistakes that I'm surprised he didn't dwindle and die just with the memory of persuading the Potters to change their secret keeper. The what ifs and if onlys of that situation would've kept me awake at night for years, but then, I am a worrier) Living for revenge would be a logical reason he was able to stay alive, but it's my understanding that the dementors feed on that sort of thing, so he must have buried the hate very very deep inside. The harsh conditions he faced, and still faces might've humbled him into a much lower position, but his self-esteem didn't seem to suffer at all until he faced Harry. I can only imagine how much Harry must mean to him (and Lupin for that matter) with James dead. When Harry was ready to reject him, we saw his weakness. He admitted that he killed Harry's parents (his if onlys and what ifs screaming through), and wanted to die. He again changes when Harry reverses his opinion of him, and you can see his endearing nervousness as he asks Harry to live with him. He needs for someone to believe in him. Once he has that, his rage dissapears and he's able to survive for something other than hate. Sirius becomes very eager to step out of the role and prove himself a parent figure to Harry. He is protective of Harry almost immediately (a bit of a dog-like quality?) I look forward to seeing them interact more in the future.

Arthur and Molly Weasley

-I love these guys. They're fair, mostly happy, and somewhat strict parents. But they have their children's best interests at heart all the time. Molly lives for her family, and we know very little of her own interests because she's so involved with theirs. It's obvious that she loves them very much. And she's very kind albeit a little naive towards Harry and Hermione. Total and unconditional acceptance is the general feeling you get about her. Until you hurt someone she loves, and then she can become very cool towards you. Normal mother behavior I think. Arthur is a large source of amusement to me. He seems very innocent in many things. He's induldged himself in his interests and so avoided the dread of work, though he seems to put in long hours and tire himself occasionally. He has lots of friends and contacts from his job, and he seems to get along splendidly with most people. The Weasleys all seem to be very loving, accepting and outgoing individuals.

Bill and Charlie Weasley

-What we know of these two is very limited. We can love and accept them though, simply because they're Weasleys. Since they're older and have taken their place in wizarding society, I don't anticipate learning a lot more about their characters because they won't be around the school a lot. Bill works for Gringotts, and so any action he'll take in the battle against Voldemort will probably be behind the scenes type stuff. Charlie might get to have a larger role since he works with dragons. These beasts could be a powerful tool for either side, so whether he is going to be solely defending them from Voldemort, or using them for an all out attack, he'll be pretty busy.

Percy Weasley

-He sometimes has the distinct ability to drive me up the wall. He is a stickler for rules, and while that is usually a good thing, he goes about it in a bossy know-it-all attitude that just makes you want to break them even more. He is ambitious and eager to prove himself, but we see that as arrogant as he passess himself off at home, he is more humble and willing to work his way up the working ladder. He suffers the humiliation of his boss calling him by the wrong name, and still worships the ground he walks on. He takes his work very seriously as we see through his cauldron bottom report. Percy is basically a good guy IMHO. I think that he will side with his dad in the fight against Voldemort. Ron seems to wonder if he won't act like his former boss, but I believe Percy loves his family too much to do anything to jeopardize them. When Ron was pulled out of the lake, we see Percy (very unadult like) running pale faced to make sure he was OK. Ron berates Harry for believing that Dumbledore would let anything happen to the hostages, but clearly Percy was shaken by it as well. He threw his dignity aside for his brother, and knowing how ambitious he is at work, we know that is no small thing for him. I believe he suffered enough humiliation at school for not having the money to get the things he wanted that he set high standards for himself. Yet, that won't come in-between him and his family. Now if a girl got between him and his family, I'm not sure who he would side with. Percy didn't tell his family he was dating Penelope Clearwater, and yet he constantly wrote to her all summer. Ashamed? Maybe. But for which?

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