Founder : Helga Hufflepuff
Professor Helga Hufflepuff was a witch of medieval times and was one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. While the other founders chose to have special students, Hufflepuff accepted them all, but the students of her house are described as loyal and hard-working. It is unknown when she died. Helga's portrait remains at Hogwarts. Helga Hufflepuff had a gift for food-related Charms, and her recipes are still used as the basis for many Hogwarts feasts. Helga Hufflepuff also arranged for the house-elf contingent to work in the kitchens, giving them somewhere safe to work, where they would not be mistreated or abused.
Animal : Badger
A badger is a carnivorous mammal of the Mustelidae family, distinguishable by the white stripe that runs down its snout. It is the mascot of Hufflepuff House at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Uric the Oddball once turned up for a presentation before the Wizards' Council wearing nothing but a toupee that turned out to be a dead badger, after listening to a Fwooper's song continuously for three months.
"...an animal that is often underestimated, because it lives quietly until attacked, but which, when provoked, can fight off animals much larger than itself, including wolves."
—Hufflepuff Prefect Gabriel Truman on his house mascot—
Traits and Colors
Colors : Canary Yellow and Black
Students belonging to this house are known to be hard-working, friendly, loyal, honest and rather impartial. It may be that due to their values, Hufflepuffs are not as competitive as the other houses, or are more modest about their accomplishments. Hufflepuff is the most inclusive among the four houses; valuing hard work, dedication, patience, loyalty, and fair play rather than a particular aptitude in its membersments.
Ghost : Fat Friar
The Fat Friar was a wizard, who attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in his youth, and was Sorted into Hufflepuff. He was a jolly man and very forgiving. He devoted his life to religion and, after his death, returned to the school as the resident ghost of Hufflepuff House. At the age of eleven, the Friar became a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Scotland. He was Sorted into Hufflepuff House and was taught in the magical arts the seven years that followed. At some point in his life, he joined the clergy as part of a mendicant religious order. Apparently, given his physically large appearance, he indulged in the pleasures of food and drink. The Friar was executed because senior churchmen grew suspicious of his ability to cure the pox merely by poking peasants with a stick, and his ill-advised habit of pulling rabbits out of the communion cup.
Head : Pomona Sprout
Madam Professor Pomona Sprout (b. 15 May, 1931 or 1941) was a witch who worked as Head of Hufflepuff House and Head of the Herbology department at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She attended the school in her youth, where she was Sorted into Hufflepuff House and excelled at Herbology. Some time after her graduation, Sprout returned to Hogwarts to teach. She was Sorted into Hufflepuff House upon her arrival at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry when she was eleven years old, in either 1942 or 1952. Sprout excelled at Herbology, which was probably taught by Professor Herbert Beery at the time, and likely achieved a high-graded O.W.L. in the subject, maybe even a N.E.W.T. as well. Pomona and Minerva McGonagall's student time at Hogwarts overlapped by two years. The two students enjoyed an excellent relationship both then and in later years. Sometime after graduating, Sprout returned to the school to teach, becoming the Herbology professor.
Hufflepuff Common Room
The Hufflepuff Basement serves as the Hufflepuff Common Room at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In general, it sports several motifs, such as circles, nature, copper and the colours yellow and black (all associated with the house). It also emphasises comfort, said to be "the coziest common room of them all". It is at one floor below the ground and is very sheltered from the elements, generally allowing students to sleep easier than those in the towers (like Gryffindor and Ravenclaw). The actual basement itself is round, earthy, low-ceilinged, welcoming, warm, and sunny. There are lots of yellow hangings, burnished copper, and overstuffed sofas and armchairs upholstered in yellow and black, and circular windows that provide a vista of "rippling grass and dandelions". The head of house, Pomona Sprout, also teaches Herbology and as such brings many interesting plants in to decorate the common room (some of which dance and talk), placing them on the windowsills or having them hang from the ceiling, encouraging interest in Herbology (and hence part of why Hufflepuffs tend to be good at it). There is also a large, honey coloured, wooden mantelpiece with carvings of badgers on it. This is located underneath a portrait of the house's founder, Helga Hufflepuff. The Hufflepuff dormitories are also located in the cellar and have perfectly circular doors, with lots of little underground tunnels leading off from the common room.
Entrance
The entrance to the common room is located "in a nook on the right hand side of the kitchen corridor", concealed behind a stack of barrels. In order to reveal the entrance, no password is required. Instead, one must tap the barrel two from the bottom, middle of the second row, in the rhythm of ‘Helga Hufflepuff’, which will make the lid swing open, exposing a passageway that will lead to the basement when crawled through. However, if the wrong lid is tapped or the wrong rhythm is used, the intruder will be doused in vinegar and barred access.
Reputation
According to Minerva McGonagall, all four of the houses have produced exceptional witches and wizards in their time, but due to Helga Hufflepuff's policy of accepting any student and its usually poor performance in the House Cup, Hufflepuff is often thought to be the house of less talented wizards. However, this is merely a misunderstanding of the Sorting Hat's poem. The Hufflepuff house has produced a great many of successful and influential members of the wizarding world. Hufflepuff has produced the fewest number of dark wizards than any other house at Hogwarts. Their cheerful and friendly demeanor can probably account for this property of the House. Hufflepuff firmly demonstrated its loyalty during the Battle of Hogwarts in 1998, when they were second only to Harry Potter's own house of Gryffindor in the number of students willing to stay and fight against Voldemort and his forces in the defence of their school.