When did House
lexicon.org/thing/hogwarts-ghosts/">Ghosts become a recognized part of life at Hogwarts?
lexicon.org/character/nearly-headless-nick/">Nearly-Headless Nick celebrates the
lexicon.org/thing/deathday-party/">500th anniversary of his death in
lexicon.org/source/the-harry-potter-novels/cs/cs8/">Chapter 8 of Chamber of Secrets. In the
lexicon.org/source/the-harry-potter-novels/cs/cs9/">following chapter,
lexicon.org/character/cuthbert-binns/">Professor Binns states that Hogwarts was founded more than a thousand years earlier.
lexicon.org/source/the-harry-potter-novels/dh/dh31/">Chapter 31 of Deathly Hallows reveals that the
lexicon.org/character/the-grey-lady/">Grey Lady and the
lexicon.org/character/the-bloody-baron/">Bloody Baron have been ghosts since almost the very beginning of Hogwarts. Nick, then, has only been around for half that time of these other two ghosts. Did Nick replace another house ghost? Were house ghosts only adopted within the last 500 years or so? Or was there another Gryffindor ghost before Nick?
And what about the
lexicon.org/character/the-fat-friar/">Fat Friar? He couldn’t have been the
lexicon.org/thing/hufflepuff-house/">Hufflepuff ghost before the 1200s, since there were not such thing as “friars” before that time. Incidentally, he is probably an Augustinian friar. Of the four main Orders of the Catholic Church, the Augustinian ideals seem to most closely match those of Hufflepuff. Augustinians are described this way: “they do not seek out the exceptional or exclude those who are marginalized in society. They seek to build community founded on love and respect for all.”
That certainly sounds like Hufflepuff.
I would love to know all about when, how, and why ghosts became associated with specific house. One more Potter mystery to solve!