Hogwarts Houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin

The Hogwarts houses are the four groups that students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are sorted into: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), directed by Chris Columbus, Harry arrives at the school, is sorted into Gryffindor and becomes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, and the house system then shapes his school year, from the Quidditch team to the House Cup.

If you are new to the saga, think of the houses a little like the teams in a long running sports league on television: each has its own identity, its own rivals and its own big nights. The films follow Gryffindor most closely, and each of the other three is tied to a named object or legend that matters to the plot.

If you want the full viewing sequence first, start with Harry Potter movies in order, and the actors behind each role are listed under Harry Potter cast.

Gryffindor is the house Harry Potter is sorted into in the first film, and it is the house the series follows most closely. In Harry's first year he joins the house Quidditch team as Seeker, and the film ends with Gryffindor winning the House Cup after a last minute award of points.

The house's best known object is the Sword of Gryffindor, and it turns up at three separate points in the saga. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), also directed by Chris Columbus, Harry uses it to kill the basilisk beneath the school. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, a doe Patronus leads Harry to the sword in a frozen pond, and Ron uses it to destroy the locket Horcrux. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011), directed by David Yates, Neville Longbottom draws it and kills Nagini, the last Horcrux apart from the piece inside Harry.

For the friends at the center of the story, see Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.

Hufflepuff reaches the screen mainly through Helga Hufflepuff's cup, which turns out to be one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Harry, Ron and Hermione break into Bellatrix Lestrange's vault at Gringotts and find the cup there.

The heist is one of the film's set pieces: Griphook takes the sword and leaves the trio, so they free the vault's dragon and escape on its back. Later, at Hogwarts, Ron and Hermione destroy the cup with a basilisk fang, which links it back to the creature Harry killed in the second film.

It could be argued that this makes Hufflepuff's contribution unusually concrete for a house the films otherwise leave in the background: its name is carried by an object that the final mission depends on. For the villain's side of that story, see Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange.

Ravenclaw is represented in the films by its diadem, another Horcrux, which was hidden in the Room of Requirement and which Harry destroys in the last film. In the same film Harry sees that another Horcrux is hidden at Hogwarts, the trio reach the school through Aberforth Dumbledore's secret passage, and the school prepares for a battle with Voldemort's army.

The house also gets a character in that film: Kelly Macdonald is credited as Helena Ravenclaw in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. The full list of actors sits under Harry Potter cast.

Ravenclaw therefore follows the same pattern as Hufflepuff, with a named object at the heart of the final hunt. Across the main films, both houses are seen through relics far more than through students, which is the clearest contrast with Gryffindor.

Slytherin is the house the second film turns into a whodunit: the question is who is the heir of Salazar Slytherin, and the answer decides who is blamed. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the caretaker's cat is found petrified beneath a warning daubed in blood, and Harry draws suspicion to himself because he can speak to snakes.

The obvious suspect is Draco Malfoy, but the trio's detour into disguise shows he knows nothing. The trail leads instead to a diary once owned by Tom Riddle, which has been steering Ginny Weasley, and Lucius Malfoy turns out to be the person who slipped it to her. Harry ends the threat with a basilisk fang, and the film gives Slytherin its darkest legend rather than a gallery of students.

Draco is already Harry's rival in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and he returns as a key figure in the later films. You can read more on Draco Malfoy and on Snape, who is revealed as the Half-Blood Prince in the sixth film.

In my opinion, Gryffindor is the house the saga serves best, because Harry is sorted into it in the first film and its sword appears at a turning point in the second, seventh and eighth films. The sword is more than a prop: it kills the basilisk, destroys the locket and ends Nagini, so the house is tied to the plot at three separate points.

Perhaps the more interesting question is why the other houses are so quiet. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw reach the screen through a cup and a diadem in the final film, and Slytherin carries the second film through a legend and a rivalry. As such, the houses work less like personality types and more like different jobs inside the story: Gryffindor supplies the hero, Slytherin supplies the suspicion, and the other two supply the objects the heroes must find.

That being said, I would not read this as a verdict on which house is better, only on which one the screenplay uses most. If you want to see how the films stack up against each other, the Harry Potter movies ranked page is the next stop, and the Harry Potter timeline places each of these events in order.