J.K. Rowling has created one of the most detailed and elaborate series with Harry Potter and the wizarding world that audiences have seldom seen it’s like before, with franchises such as the MCU, Star Wars, and James Bond being the only ones to rival it.
With a universe that profound and intricate and the hundreds upon thousands of characters introduced throughout its entirety, it makes sense that not every witch and wizard we meet will have received all E’s or O’s on their O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s. Take a look at our list of 10 prolific Gryffindors from J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world, ranked by how close they should have been sorted into Ravenclaw (smartest).
Rubeus Hagrid
Harry took the news that he was a wizard way better than most people would have in the same situation, and it has nothing to do with the implausibility of being able to magic with a stick - it has to do with the messenger they sent to inform him of his supernatural abilities.
Hagrid may be one of the most trusted, loyal, and gold-hearted individuals of the franchise, but it was always known that when it came to academics he was, more or less, restricted to taking care of obscure magical creatures. Voldemort getting him expelled from school certainly didn’t help with his book-learning either.
Neville Longbottom
Neville was very much like Hagrid in the sense that his intelligence seemed to be limited to one specific area of expertise, and unfortunately for Neville, that area was herbology, one of the most boring subjects at Hogwarts. Now, we’re certainly not saying that Neville is stupid - he was able to kill Nagini with the sword of Godric Gryffindor and became the herbology professor at Hogwarts in his later years.
All we’re saying is that Neville was basically the equivalent of a magical botanist, and with all of the different subject matter a wizard could study, playing with mandrakes all day just sounds like one of the worst ones.
Ron Weasley
Let’s be honest, if Ron’s last name hadn’t been Weasley he would’ve most likely been sorted into Hufflepuff. But, thanks to that fiery red mop on top, Ron managed to land himself at the table of golden lions and he struggled through every single subject while he was there. Ron was very much the side-kick, comic-relief character to lend a little light to Harry’s constantly-in-mortal-danger attitude.
But more than that, his character seemed to be the exact opposite of Harry’s other best friend, Hermione, in the fact that Ron seemed to outright despise classwork and simply wanted to wave his wand around whenever and however he pleased. Ron needs to sort out his priorities.
Harry Potter
In case anybody has forgotten, the Chosen One’s only real intellectual talent was Defense Against the Dark Arts, where he showed more of an instinctual intelligence rather than applying himself and taking the time to learn the subject. Harry could seemingly do no wrong when it came to dueling other witches or wizards (had nothing to do with his plot-armor) but in virtually every other subject he struggled almost as much as Ron did.
He certainly loved Hogwarts and the magical world that pulled him away from the Dursley’s, but the never-ending fear of the most deadly wizard in history wanting to murder him certainly made his studies seem insignificant in comparison.
Remus Lupin
The man who cried werewolf lands himself a neutral spot on our intellectual Gryffindor list because while Lupin certainly couldn’t be classified as dumb, he was never one to stretch the intellectual limits either. Lupin, in the brief flashbacks we saw of him as a child, seemed as much of a troublemaker as Harry and Ron during his time at Hogwarts.
Yet in his older years, he seemed to have gained a much larger sense of maturity and understanding when it came to his ‘wild condition’. Perhaps his two best friends being murdered and his third best friend getting framed for selling them out allowed him to gain some perspective.
Sirius Black
Sirius was never an idiot, more so just a bit of a slacker in his younger years like so many Gryffindors before him, but he did make one critical unintelligent mistake that allowed his two best friends to be murdered, and that was trusting Peter Pettigrew with their location.
In total fairness, he couldn’t have known that his best friend flipped sides but it was still the decision that got the entire plot of the series in motion. However, in defense of Sirius’ intelligence, he was the first person to ever break out of Azkaban prison and he did it all on his own. Give credit where credit is due, he had to pretty clever to do that.
Ginny Weasley
Now we’re really starting to dip into the golden lions that could’ve just as easily been sorted into the golden eagles house. Ginny’s key personality wasn’t exactly that she was particularly smart, she actually seemed like she just happened to be good at just about everything.
She excelled at nearly every aspect of her academics and she was one of the most gifted Quidditch players that Hogwarts had seen in a long time. She certainly didn’t care about academics as much as Hermione did, but it also seemed like she didn’t really have to.
Minerva McGonagall
Not many people actually know this about Professor McGonagall’s past, but she’s one of Hogwarts’ only true “hat-stalls”. The term many wizarding world fans aren’t familiar with refers to students at Hogwarts that took the Sorting Hat over five minutes to make a decision, and when it came to Miss Minerva the Sorting Hat battled back-and-forth between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw for one of the longest spans in Hogwarts history.
We’re glad that Godric’s house was the final decision, but we’re fairly certain that Professor McGonagall would have excelled no matter which house she was sorted into.
Hermione Granger
As we’ve just learned, the term “hat-stall” refers to a witch or wizard who took the Sorting Hat an unconventional amount of time to decide, and Hermione Granger was just a few seconds away from following in Professor McGonagall’s footsteps (and yes, the other choice was Ravenclaw).
It’s no secret how intelligent Hermione was during the time we spent with her in the wizarding world and at times it even reached points where it was a tad-bit annoying how often Hermione had to assert her intellectual dominance. It’s a tiny flaw for somebody as genius as Hermione, but nobody likes a no-it-all.
Albus Dumbledore
Did you even need to ask? Albus Dumbledore is arguably the G.O.A.T of the wizarding world, and it was evident from incredibly early on in his childhood that he was intellectually gifted, especially when it came to magic (luckily he was a wizard). However, the best part about Dumbledore was that while he never gloated about his intellectual superiority, he was never humble about it either - he was realistic.
Quite often the century-old wizard would make remarks about how he knew that he was the only one capable of taking down dangerous threats such as Grindewald and being the only wizard that could frighten, or rival, Voldemort. Hermione may have been all about the books, but Dumbledore was all about the intellect.
