Hogwarts Grand Staircase

> 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, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

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. Rowena Ravenclaw was the Hogwarts founder who invented the concept of moving stairs.

### Location

Grand Staircase Tower, Hogwarts Castle, Scotland, Great Britain

## Description

 File:Moving stairs.gif  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.
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 and the most distinguished alumni of in the history of the school. Some of these also concealed secret passages to other areas within the school.

## Behind the scenes

 File:Grand Staircase 1 - PAS.png
 File:Grand Staircase 2 - PAS.png
* 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 movie***, it's shown that Grand Staircase travel upward to more than ten stories.
* In the first two films the stairs are shown to have door to corridor at every landing. But in the next films, one floor is equal to two floors in the first two films.

 File:Hogwart Grand Staircase.jpg
* 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 Template:DH, 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 staircase 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 Template:DH is reused in Template:COG.
* When ***Dolores Umbridge*** takes over the school in Template:OOTP, 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 Template:PS, 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. It is seen that Cho also walk down there, and there is a single platform that faces a plain wall. However, in Template:DH, 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 Template:WWHP (see this image), on the books the Marble Staircase is a flight of stairs connecting the Entrance Hall with the first floor.

## Appearances

Template:Imagecat

* Template:PS Template:1st
* Template:COS
* Template:POA
* Template:GOF
* Template:OOTP
* Template:DH
* Template:DH
* Template:PM
* Template:WW
* Template:HM
* Template:WU
* Template:PAS
* Template:MA
* Template:HL

## Notes and references

Template:Reflist

1. ↑ Harry Potter (film series)
2. ↑ Template:PM
3. ↑ Harry Potter (film series)
4. ↑ Harry Potter (film series)
5. ↑ Harry Potter (film series)
6. ↑ Template:PS
7. ↑ Template:WWHP
8. ↑ Template:MA

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Template:Hogwarts Seventh Floor