Gryffindor is one of the four Houses of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, founded by Godric Gryffindor. The particular characteristics of students Sorted into Gryffindor are courage, chivalry, and determination. The emblematic animal is a lion, and its colours are red and gold. Minerva McGonagall is the most recent known Head of House. Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, also known as "Nearly Headless Nick" is the house ghost.

Gryffindor corresponds roughly to the element of fire, and it is for that reason that the colours red and gold were chosen to represent the House.The colour of fire corrosponds to that of a lion as well, red represting the main and tail and gold represnting the coat.

The Gryffindor house emphasises the traits of courage as well as "daring, nerve, and chivalry," and thus its members are generally regarded as brave, though sometimes to the point of recklessness. They can also be short-tempered.Gryffindors and Slytherins have shared a fierce house rivalry since their founders, Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin, respectively, had a severe falling out over Slytherin's emphasis on blood purity. There might also be an element of feeling wronged; as Harry and his fellow Gryffindors tend to win in a lot of circumstances which, when viewed from a Slytherin's point of view, may be considered unfair.

Overall, however, the houses of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tended to side with Gryffindor in its rivalry with Slytherin.

The head of house before and during Harry Potter's time was Minerva McGonagall. Minerva became the head house possibly at the same time she was appointed Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, in 1956 when Albus Dumbledore became Headmaster, she took over his previous teaching position. It is unknown who later became the head of house when she was made headmistress in 1998 following the end of the Second Wizarding War.

The Founder, Gordic Griffindor was a wizard of medieval times and one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was good friends with Salazar Slytherin but opposed him when he later thought that they should not accept Muggle-born students at Hogwarts.It is said that Gordic is one of "the four most brilliant witches and wizards of the time".

Gryffindor is said to have praised courage, determination and strength of heart above all other qualities. Indeed, he selected students for his house based upon their daring and bravery, according to the Sorting Hat. He also was the most in favour of allowing Muggle-borns into the school.The founders, however, were unsure of how they would Sort the students when they were dead. To solve this, Gryffindor took off his hat and all four of them enchanted it so that it could Sort the students long after their deaths. It was, from then on, known as the Sorting Hat.

Gryffindor was initially a close friend of Salazar Slytherin, but over time their friendship deteriorated. After a number of years of working peacefully together, Slytherin eventually grew apart from his fellow founders due to his distrust of Muggle-borns, and his belief that they should not be accepted into Hogwarts. When Slytherin failed to convince Gryffindor and the others to accept his ideas, he chose to leave the school. Unbeknownst to Gryffindor, his former friend built a hidden chamber within the castle, in which he hid a basilisk that his heir would later use to try and purge the school of Muggle-borns.