Harry Potter: 5 Most Cowardly (& 5 Bravest) Gryffindors

The house of Godric Gryffindor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Harry Potter is world-renowned for students that are the bravest and boldest of them all. And in some way or another, every student at Gryffindor does embody those traits, or at least possess them. But of course, there are always some students who are braver than others, and there are some Gryffindor students who are truly cowardly lions.

Every student who is sorted into a particular house is sorted into that house for a reason. Many students start their careers in Gryffindor as children who are already quite bold and brave, but of course many of them still have to grow into that part of themselves. And unfortunately, there are some that just don’t grow into that part of themselves at all. So these are the five most cowardly Gryffindor students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, along with the five bravest in the history of the house.

10 Cowardly: Lavender Brown

As one of the many students who lost their lives in the Battle of Hogwarts, Lavender Brown deserves a lot of credit for at least not running away when Voldemort and the rest of the Death Eaters were attacking the school and other students. However, Lavender’s behavior prior to the Battle of Hogwarts was not particularly brave or appealing.

Like many of the other students at Hogwarts, Lavender stayed in deep denial when Harry Potter claimed that the dark lord had made his big return. And when Lavender began dating Ron Weasley, she was very clearly threatened by his relationship with Hermione and did what she could to undermine it.

9 Bravest: Lily Potter

Dying to protect someone is just about the bravest thing that anyone could do, but most mothers would say that they wouldn’t hesitate to die for their children just like Lily Potter did for her son Harry. However, Lily’s rebellion against Lord Voldemort began long before Harry was born, and she apparently didn’t hesitate to risk her life for the greater good anyway.

And clearly Lily would have never known this, but her sacrifice did protect Harry throughout his entire life, because while Harry was ultimately the one who defeated Voldemort none of that would have ever happened had Lily not died for Harry in the first place.

8 Cowardly: Parvati Patil

Calling Parvati Patil a coward might be overly harsh, but she was just a very typical teenage girl in that she was afraid to do anything that would make her look uncool and she really had no patience for those that weren’t considered cool either.

Sometimes, learning how to be yourself is the bravest thing that you can do, and it doesn’t seem like Parvati was very good at that. It also takes a lot of courage to stick up for others and not worry what people think about you, but Parvati didn’t seem to have a good grasp on that either.

7 Bravest: Hermione Granger

Harry is obviously the superstar among the golden trio, but Hermione deserves way more credit than she often times gets when it comes to her bravery. Hermione, Ron, and Harry are all best friends, but no one was more of a ride or die for Harry than Hermione was.

Ron can’t be blamed for wavering once or twice, but Hermione never rejected him and never left him alone even when the danger was turning deadly. And Harry always knew he might die because he was the “chosen one,” but Hermione didn’t ever have to risk her own life. She just chose to, because she loved Harry that much.

6 Cowardly: Cormac McLaggen

Cormac McLaggen is a boy who thinks extremely highly of himself, and he hates to be embarrassed. Pretty much everyone hates to be embarrassed, but Cormac is the type of person who will avoid doing anything that he thinks could make him look bad, and while he’s extremely preoccupied with people believing that he is brave and courageous just like every Gryffindor, he doesn’t actually do anything to demonstrate his bravery.

As a member of the Gryffindor quidditch team, Cormac seemed to think that he was the best player and that his teammates were in desperate need of his instruction, but after a single disastrous match where he played he was kicked off the team for good.

5 Bravest: Harry Potter

Harry Potter is a bit of a conundrum when it comes to his innate bravery because while he is without a doubt one of the most courageous wizards who ever lived, he didn’t really have a choice in that either. He was the boy who lived, he was anointed from the time that he was a baby as the one boy who would be able to defeat Voldemort for good, and he always knew that it was a kill or be killed situation.

Escape wasn’t really an option, but Harry deserves credit for never trying to run from the fight, even when he knew there was a great chance he was heading straight to death.

4 Cowardly: Percy Weasley

Percy Weasley was a Gryffindor just like every other Weasley, but he was certainly not on the same page as the rest of his family when it came to the Ministry of Magic versus Harry Potter. Obviously the entire Weasley fam was on Harry’s side from beginning to end, but Percy was the notable exception to that.

And even when Harry was finally proved right and the Ministry had to accept that Voldemort had returned, Percy was too afraid to face up to his family and deal with how wrong he had been. It was only when the Death Eaters fully took over the government that Percy finally returned to the Weasley clan with his tail between his legs.

3 Bravest: Albus Dumbledore

It’s hard to know what exactly constitutes bravery, but Albus Dumbledore is undeniably one very brave Gryffindor. As one of the most powerful wizards alive in his era, there aren’t a lot of things that pose a real threat to Dumbledore.

However, when his best friend/possible love of his life and magical equal Gellert Grindelwald turned to the dark side, Dumbledore chose to fight against him even though he truly did love him. And again, when Lord Voldemort, the darkest and most powerful wizard of all time, rose to power, Dumbledore didn’t hesitate to fight against him. Dumbledore was probably the only wizard that Voldemort ever feared too, besides Harry Potter.

2 Cowardly: Peter Pettigrew

Many people wouldn’t willingly die for their friends, but most people wouldn’t actually do something that would directly lead to their friend’s deaths either. Unfortunately, Peter Pettigrew did just that. Not only did he give up Lily and James Potter’s secret location to Voldemort, he ultimately framed his other best friend, Sirius Black, for giving up that secret and for his own murder.

And in an exceptionally creepy and cowardly twist, Peter transformed into his animagus form, the form of a rat (how appropriate), and posed as Ron Weasley’s pet rat Scabbers until he was finally forced out of hiding in Prisoner of Azkaban.

1 Bravest: Neville Longbottom

If someone can only be brave when they’re afraid, then Neville Longbottom is the bravest Gryffindor who ever lived. Neville was easily the most frightened and cowardly student in Gryffindor when he first started his education at Hogwarts, but he grew in his confidence and abilities as time went on, and most importantly he realized that he was willing to fight or even die for the right cause, even if he didn’t believe that he was strong enough to win.

Neville has the incredible distinction of being a true Gryffindor, worthy of Godric’s own sword, and it was literally only his own courage that got him there.