Grimmauld Place is the tattered house of the Black family. Hidden between two unsuspecting London apartments, the place plays host to a variety of bizarre happenings, as well as a few more heart-warming moments. It’s fair to say we see a lot more of the house in the books, but considering the political turmoil happening when it becomes the base of the Order Of The Phoenix, there are a few other things overshadowing it.
That’s why we’ve taken the time to point out a few of the more interesting details you might have missed about the Black family home.
Buckbeak Lived In The Attic
Right at the top of the huge house was an attic. Apparently, it was large enough to keep a huge magical creature safely stowed away. While he was written out of every film except Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, there is nothing to suggest he wasn’t cooped up in Grimmauld Place the entire time just like in the books.
If he was, it would have been nice to have seen Harry go up there and get reacquainted with his old winged friend. Then again, being stuck alone in a small room, unable to fly, doesn’t sound like the best life for Buckbeak.
It Played Home To One Of The Darkest Moments In The Series
Another moment that didn’t make it into the films also took place in Grimmauld Place. During an entire chapter about cleaning the house (not the most riveting part of Rowling’s tale), Molly Weasley encounters boggarts who take the form of her children’s corpses.
While she knows it isn’t real, the emotional turmoil it causes her is really quite harrowing and only adds to the air of ominous darkness that surrounds Grimmauld Place. It’s not a particularly long scene so it could have passed you by, but it’s certainly a poignant one.
For A Wizard House, It’s Pretty Normal
Considering Harry makes known his shock at the strange wizard-built mismatching of the Weasley house, he doesn’t really say a lot about Grimmauld place. This suggests that the house (while it’s certainly a bit rundown on the inside) might not be as strange as some of the other buildings Harry has encountered. After all, it does fit quite well into its background slotted between a couple of other London houses. As this entire hypothesis is built on the very idea of nothing being said, it would have been easy to miss and simply assume this was another one of those weird wizard abodes.
The Name Has A Not-So-Hidden Meaning
Maybe this is obvious. But maybe you don’t spend your time overanalyzing the names of houses in the Harry Potter franchise and therefore didn’t even attempt to make a connection. Grimmauld sounds exactly like ‘grim old’; Grimmauld Place is a grim old place. Very clever, JK Rowling, very clever. While it doesn’t have much relevance and is never pointed out by any of the characters, it’s nice to see the writer maintain a sense of self-aware humor even during the darkness that comes alongside this particular setting.
There Was A Horcrux In It For A Long Time
It’s easy to forget that the locket of R.A.B (which turned out to be Salazar Slytherins, and then the resting place of some of Voldemort’s soul) resided in Grimmauld place for a long time. The little locket ended up being the Horcrux shrouded in the most mystery, taking the longest time to destroy yet for a long time, it was just sitting in the Black house.
While everyone is merrily sitting around the table at Christmas, it’s easy to forget that they’re spending time just a few meters away from the long-term home of a piece of Voldemort’s soul.
The Décor Is Pretty Ominous
From house-elf heads to snakeskins and rusted weapons, the interior design of Grimmauld Place leaves something to be desired. It all blends into the background during the scenes inside the house, but when you make eye contact with the head of an elf, you’re reminded just how creepy this place is. It’s easy to look past it when the kind old face of Sirius is staring back at you, but stuff like this reminds you of a long line of evil people who wandered the hallways. It’s certainly a contrast to the uplifting coziness of Hogwarts that Harry is used to.
Sirius’ Mother Is A Permanent Fixture
Hidden behind a curtain on the stairs, is Sirius’ mother Walburga. Well, a portrait of her, anyway. In the books, she is an aggressive figure who spends her time screaming about mudbloods to anyone who’ll listen.
In the films, she’s admittedly a little quieter, but still likes nothing more than to mutter away behind the curtain. While she is nothing more than a painting, Kreacher still remains fiercely loyal to her. Considering the amount of impact she has over Grimmauld place, she’s a detail quite easy to forget about.
Technically, Harry Owns It
This detail was cut from the film, but due to the will of Sirius Black, Harry ends up inheriting the place. As we don’t really keep up with Harry’s later life in the films or books, it isn’t a particularly important detail, but it is something pretty easy to forget about due to its very brief mention. Once you remember this key detail, it changes the context of all of their future visits. After the death of Sirius, this is no longer the ‘noble house of Black’, and instead, the ’noble house of Potter'.
Dumbledore Was The Secret Keeper
Secret Keeping, in general, is an important subject which the films skip over quite frequently, especially considering this is what eventually led to the death of Harry’s parents. The location of Grimmauld place was under the scrutiny of the best they could get, entrusting the secrets of its location to Albus Dumbledore. While Dumbledore lived, the location could never be passed on by anyone but him.
Once you remember this key piece of information, it’s easy to understand why everyone became even warier of Snape once Dumbledore died, as he knew the location and was then able to pass this on to Voldemort. This is why the Order moved to The Burrow.
Sometimes It’s Actually Visible
Grimmauld Place has the particularly cool ability to blend into the surrounding numbers 11 and 13. Muggles have lived under the assumption that this numbering error is just an architectural slip-up, but as we all know, this house can pop out of the walls like its nothing. However, every now and again the house is visible, and appears to match the houses that surround it, if it is just a little shabby and in need of a bit of a paint job.
