You walk towards the portrait of the fat lady, mapping out the way, should you get lost. The Fat Lady looks at you skeptically. "Password?" She asks, raising a single eyebrow.
"Caput Draconis?" You reply questionably. The portrait moves aside, revealing a hole in the wall that you quickly run through.
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The common room contains a lot of squashy armchairs, a fireplace, and tables. The fireplace is connected to the Floo Network. There's also a notice board, for public announcements such as the date of the next Hogsmeade weekend, but also for notices from individual students seeking to buy or sell secondhand books, or trade Chocolate Frog cards, or similar, as in any school. There are two staircases opening off the common room into the Tower itself: the boys' staircase, on which the seven boys' dormitories are located (one for each year) and the girls' staircase, on which the seven girls' dormitories are located (one for each year). The girls' staircase is under a spell so that if a boy sets foot on it and persists for a few steps, a wailing klaxon goes off and the staircase temporarily Transfigures itself into a stone slide, sending him and anyone else on the stairs sailing to the bottom. According to Hogwarts: A History, the founders believed that girls were more trustworthy than boys, so that while the girls' staircase is enchanted to prevent boys from getting in, the boys' staircase does not carry a reciprocal enchantment. Each dormitory is a round room with windows looking out onto the grounds, and containing four-poster beds.
"Caput Draconis?" You reply questionably. The portrait moves aside, revealing a hole in the wall that you quickly run through.
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The common room contains a lot of squashy armchairs, a fireplace, and tables. The fireplace is connected to the Floo Network. There's also a notice board, for public announcements such as the date of the next Hogsmeade weekend, but also for notices from individual students seeking to buy or sell secondhand books, or trade Chocolate Frog cards, or similar, as in any school. There are two staircases opening off the common room into the Tower itself: the boys' staircase, on which the seven boys' dormitories are located (one for each year) and the girls' staircase, on which the seven girls' dormitories are located (one for each year). The girls' staircase is under a spell so that if a boy sets foot on it and persists for a few steps, a wailing klaxon goes off and the staircase temporarily Transfigures itself into a stone slide, sending him and anyone else on the stairs sailing to the bottom. According to Hogwarts: A History, the founders believed that girls were more trustworthy than boys, so that while the girls' staircase is enchanted to prevent boys from getting in, the boys' staircase does not carry a reciprocal enchantment. Each dormitory is a round room with windows looking out onto the grounds, and containing four-poster beds.
