I recently wrote about Ravenclaws, as I landed in Ravenclaw House, but all of my kids somehow wound up in Hufflepuff, although I’m not sure Dylan really took the quiz all that seriously, so I doubt his results.

The prefect who welcomes new Hufflepuffs in Harry’s year is named Gabriel Truman. Like Robert Hilliard, the Ravenclaw prefect who welcomes first years, he is a character we never meet in any of the books. In fact, the only Hufflepuff prefects we ever actually meet are Cedric Diggory (he tells Harry how to use the prefects’ bathroom to work out the egg clue) and Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott, who became prefects for Hufflepuff the same year Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger became prefects. We know Cedric Diggory to be captain of his house’s Quidditch team as well.

Hufflepuff House’s Common Room is one floor below ground in same corridor as the kitchens. Gabriel Truman says that Hufflepuffs, sadly, are often underestimated, which is why their emblem is the badger. Badgers look docile, but when they are provoked, they can even take on wolves.

Truman is most eager to dispel the pervading myth that Hufflepuffs are, well, not bright. On the contrary, Hufflepuff House has produced a great many accomplished witches and wizards, including Grogan Stump, one of the most popular Ministers of Magic in history, as well as Artemesia Lufkin and Dugald McPhail, also Ministers of Magic. Newt Scamander, author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, was also a Hufflepuff. Hufflepuff House also produced Bridget Wenlock, famed Arithmancer who first discovered the magical properties of the number seven and Hengist of Woodcroft, who founded Hogsmeade. Gabriel Truman says that Hufflepuffs are unassuming and modest, and because they do not shout a lot about their accomplishments, some folks think they don’t have many. In fact, Truman singles Ravenclaws out in particular as having difficulty fathoming how anyone who shows a spark of brilliance didn’t come from their house. You can actually see this character defect at work in [amazon_link id=”0439358078″ target=”_blank” ]Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix[/amazon_link] when Hermione puts a Protean Charm on coins, and Ravenclaw Terry Boot says, “How come you’re not in Ravenclaw? With brains like yours?” He clearly doesn’t understand why someone brilliant enough to perform N.E.W.T.-level charms work is not in his house.

However, one area in which Hufflepuff House is rather lacking is in its number of Dark wizards. In fact, Hufflepuff has produced fewer Dark wizards than every other house, including Gryffindor. Truman says that Hufflepuffs get along best with Gryffindors, which is something readers see in the series, but they resent the Slytherins’ lack of fair play and the Ravenclaws’ intellectual snobbery.

The entrance to the Hufflepuff Common Room is cleverly disguised behind some barrels in a nook on the right side of the kitchen corridor. You have to tap barrel two from the bottom, second row, in the rhythm of “Helga Hufflepuff” to open the lid. Tap the wrong barrel or use the wrong rhythm, and you’ll be doused in vinegar. Hufflepuff is the only house that has such an intruder-repelling device.  Once you have opened the lid, crawl in and at the end of the passageway is the coziest of all the Hogwarts common rooms. Decorations include some of Professor Sprout’s specimens, lots of burnished copper, overstuffed yellow and black chairs. Each bed in the dormitory is covered with a patchwork quilt. In fact, in description, the common room and dorms with their round windows and doors, low ceilings, and view of sunshine and rippling grass and dandelions, sound a lot like a Hobbit Hole, and as you know, that means comfort.

As you probably remember from the series, Professor Pomona Sprout is the Head of Hufflepuff, and the Fat Friar is its ghost.

Hufflepuffs see themselves as the friendliest, most decent, and most tenacious of the four houses. Being placed in Hufflepuff marks you as loyal, hardworking, fair-minded, accepting, and kind. Who wouldn’t want a Hufflepuff in their corner?

Characters who were in Hufflepuff House include the following:

• Nymphadora Tonks
• Susan Bones
• Ernie Macmillan
• Hannah Abbott (who later marries Neville Longbottom and winds up working at the Leaky Cauldron)
• Cedric Diggory
• Zacharias Smith
• Justin Finch-Fletchley
• Leanne, Katie Bell’s friend
• Unknown Stebbins (Snape took points from Hufflepuff from Stebbins and Fawcett, a Ravenclaw, at the Yule Ball)