“Once you’ve arrived inside Gryffindor Tower, come inside and be welcomed by the roaring fire, stuffed armchairs, and the great view we have from our windows. Our dormitories are reached by climbing the winding mahogany staircase, decorated with crimson and gold. As I said, there’s plenty of gold around the tower. Our four-posters are covered with thick scarlet blankets (we have quite windy nights up in the towers) and are embroidered with gold. Gold chandeliers cast warm glows all around.“— Description of the tower

Gryffindor Tower was a tower in Hogwarts Castle that served as the common room and dormitories for the students of Gryffindor House at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In general, it sported several shades of red and gold. The fireplace mantle was adorned with a portrait of a lion (ᴀssociated with the house) and the room was described as being ‘cosy’.

Gryffindor Tower was one of the three tallest towers of Hogwarts Castle, alongside Ravenclaw Tower and the Astronomy Tower.

The entrance to the Gryffindor common room was concealed under the portrait of the Fat Lady, on the lavish Gryffindor Landing.

To enter one had to present the Fat Lady with the correct pᴀssword of the week. However, getting the pᴀssword wrong meant the student would have to wait the day for another student to come by and pᴀss them the code.

The common room was a circular room where Gryffindor students could relax after a long day of studying. It was full of squashy armchairs, tables, and a bulletin board where school notices, ads, lost posters, etc. could be posted. The common room was decorated in several shades of red, which was ᴀssociated with the house. The common room was comfortable, but not more comfortable than the Hufflepuff common room.There were many windows that looked out onto the grounds of the school, and a large fireplace dominated one wall. The mantle of the fireplace was adorned with a portrait of a lion. The fireplace was also connected to the Floo Network, but as it was extremely public except in the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ of night.The walls were decorated with scarlet tapestries that depicted witches and wizards, but also various animals. There were also bookcases located in the room, filled with various novels.

There were also a couple of balconies with stone ramparts in the place of railing that overlooked the common room itself, one was accessible by the stairs that led to the boys’ dormitory, the other was accessible by the stairs to the girls’ dormitory.

The common room was usually where celebration parties were held after Gryffindor Quidditch victories, or when Harry Potter completed a task for the Triwizard Tournament. It was also the location for Harry and Ginny Weasley’s first kiss following Gryffindor’s Quidditch Cup victory in 1997.The common room fireplace was used on several occasions by Sirius Black to contact Harry while he was on the run from the Ministry of Magic.

The Gryffindor dormitories were also located in the Tower, with two doors leading off from the common room that open to spiral staircases. There were two staircases opening off the common room into the Tower itself: on the left, the boys’ staircase on which the seven boys’ dormitories were located (one for each year) and on the right, the girls’ staircase, on which the seven girls’ dormitories were located (one for each year).

The girls’ staircase was under a Charm so that if a boy set foot on it and persisted for a few steps, a wailing klaxon went off and the staircase temporarily turned itself into a stone slide, sending him and anyone else on the stairs sailing to the bottom. According to Hogwarts: A History, the founders believed that girls were more trustworthy than boys, so that while the girls’ staircase was enchanted to prevent boys from getting in, the boys’ staircase did not carry a reciprocal enchantment.Hermione Granger went into the boys’ room on several occasions. This also allowed a possessed Ginny Weasley to sneak in and steal Tom Riddle’s diary.

Each dormitory was a round room with windows looking out onto the grounds, and containing four-poster beds.