Ravenclaw

What is Ravenclaw?

Ravenclaw is one of the four houses of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was founded by Rowena Ravenclaw, one of the four witches and wizards who built the school more than a thousand years ago.

The house values intelligence, wit, wisdom and creativity. Ravenclaws are drawn to ideas. They ask why, enjoy puzzles for their own sake, and are often happy to think differently from everyone around them.

Ravenclaw gets less attention in the books than Gryffindor or Slytherin, but it plays a key role in the final story. One of the Horcruxes is Ravenclaw’s lost diadem, and finding it depends on a Ravenclaw ghost and a Ravenclaw student, Luna Lovegood.

The history of Ravenclaw House

Rowena Ravenclaw

Rowena Ravenclaw was famed for her intelligence and creativity. According to the Sorting Hat, she came from a glen, often taken to mean the Scottish Highlands. She wanted to teach the students with the sharpest minds.

The lost diadem

Ravenclaw’s diadem was said to enhance the wisdom of anyone who wore it. Its story is one of the saddest in the series:

1. Rowena’s daughter, Helena, envied her mother’s brilliance. She stole the diadem and fled to a forest in Albania.
2. When Rowena fell ill, she sent the Baron, a man who loved Helena, to bring her home.
3. Helena refused to return. In a rage, the Baron killed her, then took his own life.
4. Both stayed on as ghosts: Helena as the Grey Lady of Ravenclaw, the Baron as the Bloody Baron of Slytherin.
5. Centuries later, a charming young Tom Riddle persuaded the Grey Lady to tell him where she’d hidden the diadem. He found it, made it a Horcrux and hid it in the Room of Requirement.
6. In Deathly Hallows, Harry gets the same information from the Grey Lady, and the diadem is destroyed by Fiendfyre.

Read more in the four founders of Hogwarts and the Hogwarts house ghosts.

The Ravenclaw crest and colours

Symbol	Ravenclaw’s version	What it means
Colours	Blue and bronze	Clear skies, clear thinking and scholarly warmth
Animal	Eagle	Sharp sight and a high perspective
Element	Air	Ideas, imagination and freedom of thought
House-points gem	Sapphires	Fill the Ravenclaw hourglass
Ghost	The Grey Lady	Brilliance, pride and regret

The films changed the colours to blue and silver, so you’ll often see both. Despite the house name, the animal is an eagle, not a raven. See house colours, animals and elements explained.

The Ravenclaw common room and dormitories

Ravenclaw Tower stands on the west side of the castle. At the top of a tight spiral staircase is a plain wooden door with a bronze eagle knocker.

There’s no password. When you knock, the eagle asks a question, and you have to answer it well. In Deathly Hallows, it asks Luna which came first, the phoenix or the flame. She answers that a circle has no beginning, and the knocker lets her in. Students who can’t answer have to wait for someone cleverer.

Inside is a wide, circular room with arched windows, blue and bronze silks on the walls and a domed ceiling painted with stars. A white marble statue of Rowena Ravenclaw, wearing her diadem, stands opposite the door. The dormitories are in the turrets above, with views across the grounds and mountains.

It’s the most fitting entrance in the castle: Ravenclaw tests how you think, not what you know. Read about all four in the Hogwarts common rooms.

What it means to be a Ravenclaw

Core values

Trait	What it looks like
Intelligence	A quick, capable mind
Wit	Humour and cleverness with words and ideas
Wisdom	Knowing how to use what you know
Creativity	Original thinking and imagination
Curiosity	Wanting to understand how things work
Independence	Comfort with standing apart from the crowd
Open-mindedness	Willingness to consider unusual people and ideas

Ravenclaw at its best

At its best, Ravenclaw produces original thinkers, inventors and scholars: people who see what others miss and aren’t afraid to be different. Its best members are fair-minded and accept people others reject.

Ravenclaw at its worst

At its worst, intelligence turns into arrogance, and independence into aloofness. Ravenclaws can be cliquey: in Order of the Phoenix, Luna’s housemates repeatedly hide her belongings. And cleverness without honesty gives you Gilderoy Lockhart, who used memory charms to steal credit for other people’s adventures.

Ravenclaw in everyday life

Situation	A typical Ravenclaw response
A hard exam	Studies the subject deeply because it’s interesting
A secret	Wants to know it, not necessarily use it
An unfair rule	Argues it makes no sense
A group project	Does the research everyone else skipped
Being the odd one out	Doesn’t mind at all

Famous Ravenclaws

Character	Known for
Luna Lovegood	Dreamy, fearless member of Dumbledore’s Army
Filius Flitwick	Charms professor, Head of Ravenclaw and a former duelling champion
Garrick Ollivander	Britain’s most famous wandmaker
Cho Chang	Ravenclaw Seeker and Cedric Diggory’s girlfriend
Gilderoy Lockhart	Celebrity author and fraud
Padma Patil	Parvati’s twin, sorted into a different house
Myrtle Warren (Moaning Myrtle)	Killed by the basilisk in 1943
Quirinus Quirrell	Defence teacher who shared his body with Voldemort
Helena Ravenclaw	The Grey Lady

Heads of Ravenclaw House

Filius Flitwick is Head of Ravenclaw throughout Harry’s time at Hogwarts. He teaches Charms, is famously cheerful and was a duelling champion in his youth. In the Battle of Hogwarts he duels Death Eaters, including Antonin Dolohov.

Ravenclaw in the books

Book	Key Ravenclaw moments
Philosopher’s Stone	Quirrell, a former Ravenclaw, tries to steal the Stone for Voldemort.
Chamber of Secrets	Moaning Myrtle’s story reveals the Chamber’s last opening.
Prisoner of Azkaban	Cho Chang plays Seeker against Harry.
Goblet of Fire	Cho is Cedric’s “treasure” in the second task.
Order of the Phoenix	Luna joins Harry; Marietta Edgecombe betrays Dumbledore’s Army.
Deathly Hallows	Harry and Luna enter Ravenclaw Tower; the Grey Lady reveals the diadem’s hiding place.

Ravenclaw at Quidditch

Ravenclaw rarely dominates Quidditch in the books, but it has some memorable matches.

Position	Players in Harry’s time
Seeker	Cho Chang
Captain and Chaser	Roger Davies

In Prisoner of Azkaban, Cho plays Seeker against Harry, who’s so distracted by her that he nearly loses the Snitch. In Order of the Phoenix, Gryffindor beats Ravenclaw in the final match to win the Quidditch Cup, with Ginny catching the Snitch. Luna’s commentary of a later match, delivered in her usual dreamy style, is one of the funniest scenes in Half-Blood Prince.

Notable Ravenclaws through history

Ravenclaw has produced many of the wizarding world’s craftsmen and scholars:

• Rowena Ravenclaw founded the house and owned the lost diadem.
• Garrick Ollivander runs the most famous wand shop in Britain, a family business with a sign that dates it to 382 BC. He was held prisoner at Malfoy Manor in Deathly Hallows.
• Filius Flitwick was a celebrated duelling champion before he became Charms professor and Head of House.
• Luna Lovegood went on to become a naturalist who discovered new species.
• Helena Ravenclaw stole her mother’s diadem and became the Grey Lady.
• Myrtle Warren was the student killed by the basilisk in 1943, whose death Tom Riddle blamed on Hagrid.

In the Battle of Hogwarts, Ravenclaws fought alongside the other houses. Flitwick duelled Death Eaters in the castle, and Cho Chang came back to join Dumbledore’s Army.

Common myths about Ravenclaw

Myth	Reality
“Ravenclaws are just bookworms.”	The house values creativity and wit as much as study. Luna is eccentric, not bookish.
“All the clever students are Ravenclaws.”	Hermione, McGonagall and Dumbledore were Gryffindors.
“Ravenclaws are cold.”	They can be aloof, but Flitwick and Luna are two of the warmest characters in the series.
“Ravenclaw’s animal is a raven.”	It’s an eagle.

Ravenclaw vs the other houses

	Ravenclaw	Gryffindor	Hufflepuff	Slytherin
Core value	Intelligence	Courage	Loyalty	Ambition
Acts on	Curiosity	Principle	Fairness	Strategy
Typical flaw	Aloofness	Recklessness	Over-trusting	Ruthlessness
Element	Air	Fire	Earth	Water

If you score close between Ravenclaw and Slytherin, read Ravenclaw vs Slytherin.

Are you a Ravenclaw?

You might be a Ravenclaw if:

1. You’d rather understand something than be told the answer.
2. You’re happy in your own company.
3. You collect odd facts and unusual ideas.
4. Being called ordinary would sting more than almost anything.
5. You’re drawn to people who think differently.

Take our house quiz to see how strongly Ravenclaw shows up in your answers.