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"At first, Gryffindors passing the giant hourglasses that recorded the House points the next day thought there’d been a mistake. How could they suddenly have a hundred and fifty points fewer than yesterday? And then the story started to spread: Harry Potter, the famous Harry Potter, their hero of two Quidditch matches, had lost them all those points, him and a couple of other stupid first years."
— Gryffindor house having lost 150 points in 1992 due to Harry Potter and his friends[src]

The House point hourglasses were four giant hourglasses located in the Entrance Hall used to record the number of house points that had been awarded or deducted.[1]

Description[]

House points hourglass

The house point hourglasses

There was one hourglass for each of the Hogwarts Houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. When points were earned, some gems (depending on house colours) would fall from the upper bulb into the lower. When points were deducted, they did the opposite, retreating into the upper bulb. For example, when ten points were taken from Gryffindor, ten red gems would ascend back into the upper half of the hourglass.[2] The Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin hourglasses contained rubies,[2][3] diamonds,[4] sapphires,[2] and emeralds,[3][5] respectively.[6]

History[]

1991–1992 school year[]

Hourglasses

The four hourglasses in the entrance hall

In 1992, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom and Draco Malfoy were caught out of bed by Minerva McGonagall, and each individual had fifty house points taken from their houses as punishment. This meant Gryffindor lost 150 points, which shocked and angered other Gryffindors when they saw the deducted points taken from the Gryffindor house glass, along with Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, as Gryffindor was beating Slytherin before then. However, Slytherins were pleased that Gryffindor had lost so many points (despite Malfoy costing them fifty of their own points).[1]

1995–1996 school year[]

Around 1996, Harry Potter would view the hourglasses when passing by; due to being at odds with the tyrannical Dolores Umbridge, he saw the Gryffindor hourglass almost empty,[7] which actually reached to such after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. However, Minerva McGonagall granted fifty points apiece for Harry, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ginny and Neville Longbottom for Gryffindor for their bravery in the battle, along with fifty for Luna Lovegood's house Ravenclaw as well.[2]

1996–1997 school year[]

During Severus Snape's escape from Hogwarts after he killed Albus Dumbledore in 1997, a curse shattered the Gryffindor hourglass,[3] causing red rubies to flood the floor like blood.[8] It was almost certainly repaired and remounted on the wall by the next year.

1997–1998 school year[]

The Slytherin hourglass was shattered in 1998 during the Battle of Hogwarts and green emeralds rolled across the floor.[5] As with the Gryffindor hourglass that was destroyed the previous year, the Slytherin hourglass was almost certainly repaired and remounted on the wall after the battle.

Behind the scenes[]

CIMG1380

The four house point hourglasses as depicted in the films

HousepointHourglassesWU

The hourglasses as seen in Harry Potter: Wizards Unite

Appearances[]

Notes and references[]

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