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Warning!
At least some content in this article is derived from information featured in: Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery & Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells & Harry Potter: Magic Awakened & Hogwarts Legacy. |
- "There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump."
- — Description[src]
The Grand Staircase was a massive stairway in Hogwarts Castle, the structure was mainly used to access each floor of the castle, including the dungeons.[1] Rowena Ravenclaw was the Hogwarts founder who invented the concept of moving stairs.[2]
Description[]
The ever-changing staircases
The staircases led from platform to platform and went as high as the seventh floor, where they came to an end. The stairs also had a knack for moving around the staircase chamber, usually when a student was walking up one of them. There were also many trick stairs that caused the victim to sink through a step and required another person to pull them out. However, it was second nature to most of the older students to jump them.[3]
- "Can you believe he preferred such a dreary place to the Grand Stairwell? Oh, I would very much like to return myself. Hung on high among Hogwarts finest!"
- — Basil Aurelius III describing the Grand Staircase[src]
There were hundreds of portraits covering the walls in this tower, and it was considered an honour for the painted likeness of a witch or wizard to be mounted on the walls of the Grand Staircase; which was reserved for the four Hogwarts founders[4] and the most distinguished alumni of in the history of the school.[5] Some of these also concealed secret passages to other areas within the school.[6]
Behind the scenes[]
Grand Staircase as seen in Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells
Bottom of Grand Staircase as seen in Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells
- The Fat Lady's portrait is on the seventh floor landing in the later films, making it entirely visible to passers-by; however, in the first film, her portrait is shown in a corridor somewhere else in the Castle.
- In the third film, it's shown that the Grand Staircase travels upward to more than ten stories.
- In the first two films the stairs are shown to have a door to a corridor at every landing. But in the next films, one floor is equal to two floors in the first two films.
The Grand Staircase in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
- In the first five films, the stairs are shown to be constantly moving, something which is never mentioned in the novels. When the stairs are seen again in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, it has a different appearance with grandeur marble stairs and the stairs no longer move. Upon leaving the Entrance Hall, the wider middle staircases travel upward while the staircases to the side travel downward. However, they could have stopped moving for the battle. Also, the staircases could have moved to match Snape's running of the castle, giving students enough room to move in large collective groups up and down the stairs without stopping. It may be possible that the Grand Staircase remains this way in future films, as the CGI Model of Hogwarts from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is reused in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.
- When Dolores Umbridge takes over the school in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, she has Argus Filch take down all the portraits from the Grand Staircase for unclear reasons. She also puts speakers constantly reciting her Educational Decrees on each floor. When Albus Dumbledore is restored to Hogwarts, the portraits are restored as well.
- In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Prefects lead Ravenclaw students to their Common room, where they walk down the stairs from the Entrance Hall, which leads to the Dungeons where the Slytherin Dungeon is. But in the video game adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, it is shown that Cho also walks down there, and there is a single platform that faces a plain wall. However, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the Ravenclaw common room is seen to be accessed by going up a smaller staircase that seems to lead off from the Grand Staircase.
- Although this structure is referred to as the "Marble Staircase" on The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (see this image), in the books the Marble Staircase is a flight of stairs connecting the Entrance Hall with the first floor.
- In LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4, the staircases are controlled by a portrait, who changes the levels the staircases lead to.
- The Grand Staircase is very different in Hogwarts Legacy. Instead of moving stairs, the stairs are in a circular formation that appears and disappears. This may be because of the time period, and the layout was changed some time after 1891.
Appearances[]
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (First appearance)
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (video game)
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (play)
- Pottermore
- Harry Potter (website)
- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
- Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
- Harry Potter: Wizards Unite
- Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells
- Harry Potter: Magic Awakened
- Hogwarts Legacy
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Harry Potter (film series)
- ↑ Pottermore
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 7 (The Sorting Hat)
- ↑ The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
- ↑ Harry Potter: Magic Awakened
- ↑ Harry Potter video games
| Fifth-floor of Hogwarts Castle | ||
|---|---|---|
| Bathrooms | ||
| Boys' restroom · Prefects' Bathroom | ||
| Classrooms | ||
| Abandoned classroom · Art Classroom · Classroom 5B · Music Classroom | ||
| Corridors | ||
| Astronomy Corridor · Cursed Corridor · Fifth-floor corridor · Hospital tower corridor · Icy Corridor | ||
| Halls and rooms | ||
| Secret attic · Astronomy reading room · Fifth-floor hall · Floor 5 Bonus · Locked Room · Muggle Studies showroom · Satyavati Shah's bedroom · Secret Muggle Room · Upper Hall | ||
| Other locations | ||
| Vault of Ice · Weasley Candy Emporium · Weasley Supplies Bargain Basement | ||
| Portraits, statues and other artwork | ||
| Boris the Bewildered · Norvel Twonk · Timothy the Timid | ||
| Staircases | ||
| Clock Tower staircase · Grand Staircase · Ravenclaw Tower staircase · Staircase to the fourth-floor landing · Turris Magnus staircase · Vanished Stairs | ||
| Storerooms | ||
| Storeroom |
| Sixth-floor of Hogwarts Castle | ||
|---|---|---|
| Bathrooms | ||
| Boys' bathroom · Disused Bathroom | ||
| Classrooms | ||
| Classroom 6A · Classroom 6B · Empty classroom | ||
| Corridors | ||
| Glanmore Peakes' Corridor · Secret Hallway · Sixth-floor corridor | ||
| Halls and rooms | ||
| East Wing · Floor 6 Bonus · Frog Choir hall · Room of Rewards · Trophy Room | ||
| Offices | ||
| Horace Slughorn's office | ||
| Portraits, statues and other artwork | ||
| Damara Dodderidge · Edessa Sakndenberg · Edgar Stroulger · Glanmore Peakes · Portrait at the Storeroom · Selina Sapworthy · Skeleton in a top hat · Temeritus Shanks · Vindictus Viridian · Wendelin the Weird | ||
| Staircases | ||
| Grand Staircase · Ravenclaw Tower staircase · Slughorn's Staircase · Staircase to the seventh-floor corridor · Turris Magnus staircase | ||
| Storerooms | ||
| Storeroom · Writing Supplies Room |