Hufflepuff Welcome Message

By J.K. Rowling

Congratulations! I’m Prefect Gabriel Truman, and I’m delighted to welcome you to
HUFFLEPUFF HOUSE. Our emblem is the badger, an animal that is often underestimated,
because it lives quietly until attacked, but which, when provoked, can fight off animals much
larger than itself, including wolves. Our house colours are yellow and black, and our common
room lies one floor below the ground, on the same corridor as the kitchens.

Now, there are a few things you should know about Hufflepuff house. First of all, let’s deal
with a perennial myth about the place, which is that we’re the least clever house. WRONG.
Hufflepuff is certainly the least boastful house, but we’ve produced just as many brilliant
witches and wizards as any other. Want proof? Look up Grogan Stump, one of the most
popular Ministers for Magic of all time. He was a Hufflepuff – as were the successful
Ministers Artemesia Lufkin and Dugald McPhail. Then there’s the world authority on magical
creatures, Newt Scamander; Bridget Wenlock, the famous thirteenth-century Arithmancer
who first discovered the magical properties of the number seven, and Hengist of Woodcroft,
who founded the all-wizarding village of Hogsmeade, which lies very near Hogwarts School.
Hufflepuffs all.

So, as you can see, we’ve produced more than our fair share of powerful, brilliant and daring
witches and wizards, but, just because we don’t shout about it, we don’t get the credit we
deserve. Ravenclaws, in particular, assume that any outstanding achiever must have come
from their house. I got into big trouble during my third year for duelling a Ravenclaw prefect
who insisted that Bridget Wenlock had come from his house, not mine. I should have got a
week of detentions, but Professor Sprout let me off with a warning and a box of coconut ice.

Hufflepuffs are trustworthy and loyal. We don’t shoot our mouths off, but cross us at your
peril; like our emblem, the badger, we will protect ourselves, our friends and our families
against all-comers. Nobody intimidates us.

However, it’s true that Hufflepuff is a bit lacking in one area. We’ve produced the fewest
Dark wizards of any house in this school. Of course, you’d expect Slytherin to churn out evil-
doers, seeing as they’ve never heard of fair play and prefer cheating over hard work any day,
but even Gryffindor (the house we get on best with) has produced a few dodgy characters.

What else do you need to know? Oh yes, the entrance to the common room is concealed in a
stack of large barrels in a nook on the right hand side of the kitchen corridor. Tap the barrel
two from the bottom, middle of the second row, in the rhythm of ‘Helga Hufflepuff’, and the
lid will swing open. We are the only house at Hogwarts that also has a repelling device for
would-be intruders. If the wrong lid is tapped, or if the rhythm of the tapping is wrong, the
illegal entrant is doused in vinegar.

You will hear other houses boast of their security arrangements, but it so happens that in more
than a thousand years, the Hufflepuff common room and dormitories have never been seen by
outsiders. Like badgers, we know exactly how to lie low – and how to defend ourselves.
Once you’ve opened the barrel, crawl inside and along the passageway behind it, and you will
emerge into the cosiest common room of them all. It is round and earthy and low-ceilinged; it
always feels sunny, and its circular windows have a view of rippling grass and dandelions.

There is a lot of burnished copper about the place, and many plants, which either hang from
the ceiling or sit on the windowsills. Our Head of house, Professor Pomona Sprout, is Head of
Herbology, and she brings the most interesting specimens (some of which dance and talk) to
decorate our room – one reason why Hufflepuffs are often very good at Herbology. Our
overstuffed sofas and chairs are upholstered in yellow and black, and our dormitories are
reached through round doors in the walls of the common room. Copper lamps cast a warm
light over our four-posters, all of which are covered in patchwork quilts, and copper bed
warmers hang on the walls, should you have cold feet.

Our house ghost is the friendliest of them all: the Fat Friar. You’ll recognise him easily
enough; he’s plump and wears monk’s robes, and he’s very helpful if you get lost or are in
any kind of trouble.

I think that’s nearly everything. I must say, I hope some of you are good Quidditch players.
Hufflepuff hasn’t done as well as I’d like in the Quidditch tournament lately.

You should sleep comfortably. We’re protected from storms and wind down in our
dormitories; we never have the disturbed nights those in the towers sometimes experience.

And once again: congratulations on becoming a member of the friendliest, most decent and
most tenacious house of them all.