The Great Hall is arguably the most impressive part of Hogwarts. With its grand walls, floating candles and the ability to transform to match the needs of whatever event is taking place within, it acts as a central hub for the events of almost every Harry Potter film.
While it’s too big to miss entirely, there are a fair few details, secrets and nuances that may have passed you by in the grand scheme of things. That’s why we’ve put together this list, showing some of the cooler details about the Great Hall that you might have missed the first time around.
You Can Apparate Inside It (Sometimes)
While we never get to see the students of Hogwarts learn to apparate during the films, the books show the sixth years taking Ministry-approved apparition lessons around the school grounds. As everyone knows, you can’t apparate on school grounds (unless you’re Dumbledore). Well, when weather conditions interfered, the Great Hall was used as a totally legit base for apparition classes, with Dumbledore lifting his own protective enchantments. Even if you could only go from one end of the room to the other. This makes it the only room in the entirety of Hogwarts in which apparition would actually work for students, even if it was only temporary.
It Has An Underground Kitchen
Another detail removed from the films entirely was the team of house-elves working non-stop beneath the floor of the Great Hall, providing magical food to the students of Hogwarts. Considering how delicious that food looks, house-elves must be pretty good at their job.
In the books, Hermione takes a lot of pity on these elves and we have quite a few interactions with them, meeting characters like Winky in the process. In the films, we’re left wondering where all of these delicious feasts are coming from. It isn’t mentioned, but we can be pretty sure that the elves are still down there cooking up a storm every night.
The Enchanted Ceiling Operates In The Daytime Too
One of the coolest things about the Great Hall is its enchanted ceiling. Right above the floating candles is a picture-perfect vision of the night sky. Except, it doesn’t let in any cold, you can’t get sunburn and you won’t get wet. However, the few times we’re shown it (the best being the storm Mad-Eye Moody calms down during The Prisoner Of Azkaban) it’s as black as the night sky, because, well, it is the night sky.
The only time we see it during the day is when Fred and George wreak firework-based havoc during the OWL exams. It’s a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment as its only there for a few seconds, but we can clearly see a beautiful, cloudy blue sky at the top of the hall.
It’s Seen Its Fair Share Of Murder
Given the way in which we normally encounter the Great Hall, which is a cozy, happy place full of feasting students, it’s easy to overlook some of the more brutal elements of its history. In the books, its where Voldemort died- it seems much more poignant for him to die there than outside as he does in the films. In both the books and the films, its where Bellatrix was killed. It’s also where we first encounter the bodies of Remus, Tonks, and Fred. Considering everything else going on, you sort of forget that this room has been the scene of both the best and worst moments of many of these students' lives.
It’s Where The Yule Ball Took Place
Quickly moving towards a much lighter note, in The Goblet Of Fire, the Great Hall is decked out to become a stunning, white ballroom for the Yule Ball. It’s completely unrecognizable in every way except its grandeur, with a dancefloor and stage replacing both the student and staff tables (who knows where they store those).
Maybe this was obvious to some viewers, but for others, on first watch, it's easy to assume Hogwarts had a ballroom hidden away in some dusty old corner of the castle. I mean, that does seem feasible. The room of requirement exists, after all.
The House Tables Change Order All The Time
You’d think there was some sort of logic and organization to the central hub of a school full of witches and wizards. Apparently not. The order of the house tables changes in every film, probably in order to suit the positioning of certain scenes.
For example, they start off with Gryffindor and Hufflepuff at opposite ends of the hall, but when Harry is walking towards Dumbledore during the Triwizard Tournament champion selection, the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables are right next to each other. Maybe they like to keep their students on their toes over in Hogwarts.
You Can Visit It In Real Life
Considering the size and expense of creating this set, it’s no real surprise that the set department of the Harry Potter series didn’t exactly want to throw away such an impressive creation. Over in the UK, the Warner Brothers Studio tour allows fans to walk around a huge exhibition of thousands of real props from the films, including the actual Great Hall used in every film. This means you can walk on every brick the actors themselves walked on, and investigate the costumes the teachers were wearing up at the front. Maybe try not to look up at the enchanted ceiling though, you may have a few illusions ruined.
Inside Is A Very Cool House Points Hourglass
While it doesn’t really appear on screen, the house points counter might well be the best prop in the Great Hall. Giant hourglasses were hung against the wall and filled with beads that represented the color of each house, trickling down when students won points, and flowing away when they lost them. Unless you’re really attentive, these are barely even visible in the films, but it’s nice to know that when Snape drearily tells Harry how many house points he’s going to lose, it leads to a physical reaction on the other side of the castle.
The Size Doesn’t Quite Match Up
Okay, maybe don’t look too far into this one. Hogwarts is absolutely huge. Bigger than any muggle school you can think of; it resides in a castle, has a huge lake and a dedicated train line. They have seven school years with four houses all enrolled in various classes. Doesn’t it seem like the Great Hall is a bit... small?
Managing to fit every single student from each house on those tables is an impressive feat. Even if we assume there are only 30 students per house per year, that means there are at least 210 students on each table. From what we see in the films, it really doesn't look like there are 840 people (plus teachers) in that room.
It Has A Chamber At The Back
While this is where the iconic Dumbledore outburst ‘HARRY DID YUH PUT YURH NEHM INTO THE GOBLET OF FIYAH’ was set, the chamber at the back of the Great Hall is otherwise unused. You might forget that in the back left corner behind the teachers' desk, there’s a room filled with portraits, a fireplace, and pretty much nothing else. It’s like they had so much space in Hogwarts that they just ran out of ideas. Maybe that’s where they stored the tables during the Yule Ball?