Caput Draconis

Behind the scenes The 1992 password for the Headmaster’s Office, “Sherbet Lemon,” is changed to “Lemon Drop” in the American edition of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as Sherbet Lemons are not generally available or well known in the United States.

All the known passwords:

• Caput Draconis.
• Pig Snout.
• Wattlebird.
• Fortuna Major.
• Flibbertigibbet.
• Oddsbodikins.
• Scurvy Cur.
• Balderdash.

What was the typical amount of time between password changes for the Gryffindor common room? With the exception of Sir Cadogan, my estimate is that it changed once every term, which would mean about four times in a year. However, that is based on skimming the books without word search.

In The Prisoner of Azkaban, the escaped convict Sirius Black enters Hogwarts. When denied entrance to the Gryffindor Tower, he slashes the portrait of the Fat Lady (who is then replaced by Sir Cadogan).

The Fat Lady is a playable character in LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7, in which she, despite being opaque and not floating like ghosts, only has ghostly abilities (like scaring other characters).

Shirley Henderson

However, Spriggs’ portrayal was brief and rather rigid in blithely asking for the prefect’s password, so before the character would return to enjoy a little more light-hearted screen time in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the actress was replaced with someone experienced in being funny.

Elizabeth Spriggs – The Fat Lady The classically trained actress, who had worked with the RSC frequently was replaced three years later with comedian Dawn French, who added a more comic spin to the character.

25 minutes into Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry and some fellow Gryffindor students are attempting to gain access to their common room by sharing the password, ‘Fortuna Major’, with The Fat Lady.

Dumbledore didn’t know for certain that Sirius was innocent, and for the most part, it didn’t matter. Sirius wasn’t useful. Also, see Remus – Dumbledore saw no use for him, so didn’t help him.

The only known password to enter the Slytherin common room was ‘Pure-Blood’ which is the password when Harry and Ron enter with Malfoy in The Chamber of Secrets.

The entry password was “Pure-blood” when Draco Malfoy let them in.

Each one of the Hogwarts Houses represents one of the four fundamental elements of nature. Hufflepuff is earth, Ravenclaw is air, Gryffindor is fire, and Slytherin is water.

Blood purity Muggle-born Slytherins exist, but are very rare, as noted insultingly by Scabior the Snatcher. There have also been definite examples of half-bloods sorted into the house, including Tom Riddle, Dolores Umbridge, and Severus Snape. Also, pure-bloods are not automatically placed in Slytherin.

Slytherin- Damp earth and fire.