Headmistress Griffin

Class: Witch

Gender: Female

Age: Over 100

Affiliation: Cloud Tower, Company of Light

Powers: Witches' Magic, Barriers Creation, Energy Beams, Portal Creation, Pyrokinesis, Dark Magic, Electrokinesis, Teleportation

Occupation: Headmistress

Relationships: Faragonda and Saladin(friends)

Pet: Artiglio the raven

Headmistress Griffin is the headmistress of Cloud Tower of as well as a professor there teaching the basic course of spells, a member of the Company of Light, and a considerably powerful witch. Although she started off as somewhat of an antagonist, indirectly encouraging the Trix in their power-struggle against the Winx, Griffin was eventually revealed to be a woman of sound moral principles, and aided the Winx numerous times in their fight against the forces of evil. Griffin is one of the three points of magic, the others being Faragonda and Saladin.

Appearance

Headmistress Griffin is very tall with pale greenish-white skin and has a hooked nose. She has purple hair that is pulled up into a shape similar to that of pointy hats worn by fairy tale witches with two lighter purple strands on either side. She also wears heavy make-up around her eyes. In Season 8, Griffin has all light purple hair, less eye make-up, red lips, a pale skin tone no longer having a green tint.

Civilian

She wears an ankle length red purple dress with a white high collar and lavender blue sleeves along with gloves that cover most of her forearms and match her sleeves and dark purple shoes. In Season 8, Griffin's dress is a lighter shade of red, and her sleeves now match the rest of her dress. The rest of her outfit is the same as her original design.

Cloak

She wears a red hooded robe that covers her from head to toe. She also does not have her usual gloves on.

Pajamas

Griffin's robe is black with blue spiky fur trim. Her belt has three diamonds of varying shades of blue.

Younger Years

Griffin wore her hair down, with it reaching her feet. She wore thin black square glasses, pale pink boot heels, a silver belt with two chains at the side, a dress with an opening at the bottom and two straps, and detached sleeves that matched her dress and ended in white cuffs.

Personality

Despite her stern, no-nonsense and seemingly indifferent demeanor, Griffin is genuinely a caring Headmistress who would defend her students willingly if threatened. She also has a humorous streak to her personality, when she joyfully stated that she would have defeated Faragonda and Saladin had Valtor’s illusion spell continued in “The Wizard’s Trap”.

Magical Abilities

As the Headmistress of Cloud Tower, as well as one of the Three Points of Magic alongside Faragonda and Saladin, Griffin is an extremely powerful witch whose level of strength is on par with the other heads of magical schools in Magix. Like all witches, her powers are derived from the negative aspects of magic, and the color of her magic varies between green and purple. As demonstrated by her active participation in the Winx's fights against evil, Griffin was able to use her magic in a wide variety of ways: she could unleash powerful blasts capable of knocking down even the Dragon-Flame-empowered Trix sisters, create magical barriers, and shoot beams of energy. She could even converge her magic with Faragonda’s to cast potent spells to destroy enemies - a feat that was almost impossible to achieve by normal standards, as witches and fairies were usually unable to converge their powers.

Uses of Magic

Speed of the Cheetah

Magic Eye

Exclamo: Used to create an ear-shaped passageway in the wall in which voices can be transmitted.

Liberato: She used it to free the captured Winx and Witches.

Captus Obscurum: Used to attack Keborg.

Cupernus: Used in a convergence by her and Faragonda to shield the Winx from Lord Darkar’s attack.

Demeritus: Used to send the Trix to the Detention Dimension.

Pre-series

As a young witch, Griffin teamed up with Valtor to work under the Ancestral Witches in the hopes of becoming the most powerful witch in all the known dimensions. Eventually, her conscience caught up with her, which led her to try and flee both Valtor and the Ancestral Witches after realizing what she was getting into. She was saved by Faragonda, whom she apparently was already friends with even when she served the Ancestresses, and went on to help defend the realm of Domino alongside her old friends, Faragonda and Saladin, as part of the Company of Light. Sometime after their failure and the fall of Domino, Griffin would go on to become the latest headmistress of the most reputable school for witches in the Magic Dimension: Cloud Tower.

Series

Season 1

At first, Griffin appeared to be an antagonist to the Winx,being supportive of the Trix and their meddling with the fairies. She first appeared in “Alfea College for Fairies”, calling an assembly. It is here she informs her students that Alfea and Red Fountain are holding their annual gift exchange ceremony, per usual, Cloud Tower had not received an invitation. As such, Griffin wanted to ruin their fun and allowed the students to practice their dark spells on the party. Griffin collected ideas from the young witches to ruin their party. Of course the Trix's idea was the best one, though she did not know that they had plans to steal Stella’s ring. The plan was unsuccessful, which made Griffin angry. Later, when the Winx broke into Cloud Tower in order to take back Stella's ring from the Trix, Griffin were alerted of their presence and started to play dangerous tricks on them and later informed Faragonda about their break in. Faragonda grounded the Winx and revoked their powers. The Trix then broke into Alfea to take vengeance for trespassing and also to find the Dragon’s Flame, but were caught and sent to Griffin by Faragonda with a letter, much more to Griffin's annoyance. However, she did not punish the Trix, but instead gave them a mission to break the bonds between the Winx and the Specialists on the Day of the Rose festival. Darcy managed to turn Riven against the others. In “Bloom’s Dark Secret” she held a test for the young witches and Mirta was tested, she was hesitant but she was able to answer correctly. Griffin reminds her that she needs to be confident if she wants to be a good witch. After Mirta was turned into a pumpkin and was taken to Alfea, Griffin did not seem to notice her absence. Then on one rainy night she receives a call from Griselda who chides her out for the Trix's inappropriate behavior. Angered by their misconduct paired with humiliation from being berated, she has had enough and expels them. This action leads the Trix to hate her. She attended Red Fountain's Exhibition, wondering if it was a good idea to expel the Trix, since she can no longer keep an eye on them. Soon she discovers the Trix's have the Dragon’s Flame and they intend to conquer the whole Magic Dimension, Griffin proves to have a deeper moral sense for what is right and wrong. She does what she can to fight off the Trix in order to help protect the Magic Dimension with everyone, even defying the defined boundaries between fairies and witches. By the end of the season, Griffin portrays a more open mind toward fairies after having to fight alongside them to stop the tyranny of the Trix. She sent the Trix to the Fortress of Light to punish them. Faragonda invited her to Alfea's party, but Griffin declined the invitation.

Season 2

Griffin attended Musa’s concert at Red Fountain and was even seen dancing there, much to the amusement of Saladin and Faragonda. When the Winx temporarily joined Cloud Tower as exchange students, to help protect the second piece of the Codex found there, Griffin along with other teachers taught them the dark arts of magic. When the Trix thought that the Codex was inside the Heart of the Cloud Tower, Griffin went to the heart to take back control of the tower from them. After the Trix retreated, she made the Winx girls split into groups of two, each composed with the girls who could not get along with each other so that they could learn to work in teams better. When questioned by one of her teachers, her answer was that it was to make them grow. She returned to the Heart and soon managed to regain complete control of the tower and attempted to imprison the Trix inside it. When the Trix stole the Codex, Griffin watched the Winx and Mirta return to Alfea and knew that their friendship might have weakened a bit.

She later participated in the final battle in which Lord Darkar was defeated. She helped Faragonda and Codatorta fight off Keborg. She and Faragonda powered up Codatorta and he defeated Keborg for good.

Season 3

It has been shown in season three that Griffin used to fight alongside Valtor, and served the Ancestral Witches. Later her conscience made her regret her actions and she joined the Company of Light. She stated that since then she has spent most of her life trying to repent herself for her errors and correcting them. When she was in her office doing work, when she suddenly thought someone was behind her door. She took a peek but saw no one, she instead saw Valtor sitting in her chair when turning around. Valtor tells the Trix about his and Griffin's past with the Ancestral Witches. After that, she was imprisoned, while her students were possessed and her spells were stolen by Valtor. She was seen again when the Winx attempted to take revenge on Valtor because of what happened to Tecna on Andros, Stella and Aisha discovered Griffin in the dungeons and Stella used her fairy dust to break the barrier spell on the door. Griffin was free, but the Trix arrived immediately and attempted to lock her up again, but Griffin quickly sent them to the detention dimension. They then headed to her office, where Bloom was frozen by Valtor's Oppositus spell that turned her fire spell into an ice. Faragonda, Griffin and Saladin use their powers to create a barrier around Valtor while the Winx attempt to free Bloom with their fairy dust. As Bloom was freed, Griffin along with others backs up when the fire spell burns Valtor badly. She is then teleported to Alfea along with others by Stella. After Valtor had all that he wanted from Cloud Tower, he left and the witches were freed from his grip. Griffin returned, but was troubled by Valtor's whereabouts. She then tells her students that they need to unite with the fairies and Specialists to end Valtor for good. When Valtor challenged Griffin, Faragonda and Saladin to battle, he made Cloud Tower disappear much more to Griffin's anger. Griffin accepted the challenge, even though she did not have anything to offer Valtor if she loses (though Valtor possibly challenged her to get revenge on her betrayal). The four of them met in the woods and Valtor cast an illusion spell, which made Griffin and the others see each other as Valtor so they could finish each other off. With the distraction set, Valtor went to Alfea to steal their spells. Unfortunately for Valtor he was prevented from doing so by Bloom and the Water Stars, his spell broke and Griffin, Faragonda and Saladin realized that it was a trap. After returning from the ordeal, Griffin stated that if the spell had lasted, she would have defeated Faragonda and Saladin for good. The Winx soon went back to Cloud Tower, realizing that Valtor actually hid it behind an invisible wall rather than destroy it. After Cloud Tower was back, Griffin was glad to return there again. When Valtor was angered by the Trix, he proved his powers by using the Spell of the Elements to destroy Magix and the three schools. He dried up Lake Roccaluce and sent the water to flood Cloud Tower, fire to Alfea, air in the form of tornadoes to Red Fountain and earthquakes to Magix City. After his spell was broken, Griffin was astonished and annoyed to see the damage done to her after the water returned to Lake Roccaluce.

Season 6

Griffin welcomes the new freshmen witches at Cloud Tower where she prepares to gauge the abilities of the new students. She selects Selina to demonstrate her powers with the Legendarium, and was shocked at what it was capable of. Soon after, the Trix crashed the school, whom Griffin was not happy to see again. Despite her efforts to fight the three of them off, Griffin was defeated and transformed into a crow. Before she could get captured, she quickly flies off to escape. Unfortunately, Griffin gets struck by a lightning bolt, but was saved by the Winx, who brought her to Alfea for treatment. With the help from Roxy, Griffin managed to convey a bit of a warning about the Trix to Faragonda. In “The Lost Libary”, Roxy asks The Winx for help to return Griffin to her real form, Flora attempts to break the spell, but fails. In “The Secret Greenhouse” with the help of Palladium, Roxy returns Griffin to her original form however Griffin was woozy and nearly collapsed, but is caught. She insists on seeing Faragonda quickly, but Palladium has his students take her to the infirmary to recover. Later at the Alfea Infirmary, Griffin tells Faragonda and Palladium how the Trix had taken over Cloud Tower and how they plan to take over all the schools in the Magix Dimension. Faragonda assures that they will be stopped. Sky then walks in and asks Faragonda about the whereabouts of the Winx, bringing up his concerns about Bloom's friend, Selina. Griffin's eyes widened at the name and quickly tells them all that Selina is in the employ of the Trix. In “Mythix”, Griffin is at the Mother's Day party being held on Alfea's Quad. In "Winx Forever", Griffin regains control of Cloud Tower and rejects the new students the Trix admitted. Having the new witches retake the entrance exam.

Season 8

In “The Sparx Festival”, Griffin appears at Alfea to initiate the Sparx Festival with Faragonda, using convergence magic with her.

Cloud Tower

Location: Magix

Headmistress: Griffin, Trix (S1 and S6; formerly)

Staff: Griffin, Professor Ediltrude, Professor Zarathustra, Professor Bittersmoke,

Students: Trix(formerly; all were expelled), Mirta(before transferring to Alfea), Lucy, Selina(formerly; she left, other students

Cloud Tower is a boarding school for witches and the most prestigious educational institution for Witches. At Cloud Tower, witches learn about witchcraft. It is the magical competitor and rival of Alfea. The headmistress is Griffin. The castle itself is a huge and vast living organism with a heart that had been created in ancient times by powerful witches. The moats of Cloud Tower are its roots and the towers its branches, and a magical energy circulates through the school in a way similar to blood flow. Cloud Tower is hard to enter, as there is a defense field surrounding it. There are ways of getting past this defense, however: tunnels that connect the schools, ways to get past the field itself, and one may enter if invited. Along with that, the tower can be manipulated like a high tech confusion device by the one who is able to control it. This twists the building into forming new corridors or passages to confuse all those inside.

Education

Cloud Tower embodies evil. It uses its vast reserves of energy to overcome it and use it for itself, exploiting its devastating strength. It is the school where witches study sorcery and curses.

Cloud Tower School is the pinnacle of education in the dark arts, it is for witches and has a stellar offering courses in Mayhem, Hexes, and Potion theory. It also offers Basic Witchcraft 101, Cursology, Potionology, How to Destroy a Perfect Environment, Demonology, and Necromancy. Students spend at least three years at Cloud Tower studying witchcraft.

School Building

This campus is a dark purple tower with spires located on a hill or a mountain. It likely receives its name from how cloudy the place where its location is.

Amphitheater

The amphitheater is where all the witches gather and discuss important issues. The amphitheater has benches with chairs for the students and has a pentagram in the middle of the floor. It has a balcony overhead with three thrones, the one in the middle is bigger than the others.

Griffin’s Office

Headmistress Griffin’s office is a large room with a desk and bookshelves. A Crystal Ball and stacks of books sits on the desk. In the room is a passageway to another room, at the center of which is a dragon skull.

Bittersmoke’s Living Quarters

Professor Bittersmoke’s living quarters has a purple bed, a window over his bed, two green nightstands on either side of his bed, and a grandfather clock.

Cafeteria

The cafeteria has a winding staircase with platforms for tables and chairs.

Archives

The Archives contain books on every fairy and witch that has ever existed in the Magic Dimension.

Castle Crypt

An underground room where the most evil spells are kept including the spell book used to summon the Army of Darkness.

Dungeons

The dungeons is where all the prisoners are kept. The dungeons have an ancient runic lock on them that keeps them from escaping with their magic.

Library

The library is where books on witchcraft, spells, and potions are located. There is a secret door that leads to a crypt, the Storeroom of Forbidden Books, under the library.

Potionlogy Laboratory

The Potionology laboratory has tables with cauldrons on them and shelves with ingredients for potions. It is where the witches create their potions.

Classrooms

Potionology

The Potionology classroom is where Potionology classes take place. The classroom has three rows of purple seats with a purple desk at the front with potion ingredients, beakers, and test tubes on it.

Basic Witchcraft 101

The Basic Witchcraft 101 classroom looks similar to the amphitheater except there is no pentagram in the middle of the floor and no thrones overhead. There is a desk at the front of the room for Headmistress Griffin.

Mayhem

The Mayhem classroom has three purple desks that seat two students on both sides of the room with two Crystal Balls on every desk.

Student Dorms

The Student Dorms have 2-3 beds for the students and have a second floor with stairs leading up to it. Lanterns hang from the ceilings and light up the room. The Trix's dorm has a mirror that leads to a secret passageway.

Heart of Cloud Tower

At the center of Cloud Tower, there is a point where all the magical energy circulating the building comes from and goes through. This is considered Griffin's "personal spa". This is where Griffin goes to rejuvenate her magic. Near the heart is a room with gargoyles that can be used to protect whoever controls them.

Windswept Terrace

Is a round purple balcony at the side of the school.

Pre-series

Cloud Tower was created in ancient times by powerful witches.

Series

Season 1

Cloud Tower appears as base of operations for the Trix, who secretly hold Knut in the school and plot against the Winx in order to gain the Dragon Flame. After successfully stealing Stella’s ring, the Winx decided to break into Cloud Tower in order to get it back. Their mission was successful, but when Griffin found out, she used her spells to scare them and later informed Faragonda. Faragonda punished the Winx by keeping their powers at rest and made them clean up Alfea. After causing trouble with a nightmare eating monster at Alfea, the Trix were expelled from Cloud Tower. However, after taking possession of the Dragon Flame, they returned and took over the school and locked everyone (including Riven) in the dungeons. They summoned the army of darkness to the school and kept it there in order to later attack Magix. They took control of the city and Red Fountain as well. Bloom soon came to Cloud Tower with the others and Knut (who had betrayed the Trix) in order to search for the Dragon Flame, but the Trix set a trap for them. Griffin, Riven and the students were let out of the dungeons by the Winx and they helped Bloom and others to escape.

Later, the Trix attacked Alfea and lost to the Winx in a battle, Cloud Tower was freed from them and Griffin and her students returned to it.

Season 2

The Cloud Tower appears again when the Winx are temporarily transferred there to protect the Codex piece kept there. The Winx, with Mirta as their guide, then had to learn magic using their dark feelings for the witchcraft hearts, much to their inconvenience, as they are usually taught to use their positive feelings in classes at Alfea. It is also revealed that Cloud Tower is not only a building, but also a living creature with a heart, the moats being its roots and the towers its branches, and that it was a magical entity created by extremely powerful witches. Meantime, Mirta and Lucy manage to reconciliate. Cloud Tower is infiltrated by the Trix who, under the orders of Lord Darkar, of try to claim the codex of Cloud Tower. Initially, the Trix manage to take control of the Tower, causing it to modify its structure according to their wishes. Later, Griffin gains control of the Tower and orders it to come back to its former structure. After much fighting and wandering in the school, the Winx finally find the location of the Codex and fight the Trix for it but they are unable to control the spell they were initially aiming at the Trix, it explodes on themselves, allowing the Trix to steal the Codex fragment. Cloud Tower appears one last time when Faragonda contacts Griffin to inform her about Lord Darkar who kidnapped Bloom to gain the Ultimate Power. Griffin accepts to fight together with Faragonda, Codatorta, the Winx and the Specialists the against the Ruler of Shadow Haunt. After Darkar's defeat, all the witches of Cloud Tower go to the party organized at Alfea, having apparently put aside their rivalry with the fairies after the Winx girls' temporary had transferred there.

Season 3

When Valtor grew tired of his hideout in Andros, the Trix suggested Cloud Tower as their new hideout, however it was protected by a magical barrier. Valtor transformed into a deer and Trix transformed into wolves in order to trick the witches to let Valtor through the barrier. He imprisoned Griffin in the dungeons and took over the students minds and ordered them to attack Alfea, but the fairies managed to repel their attack. Valtor used Cloud Tower for a long time and traveled to countless worlds stealing their magic. The Winx however attacked Cloud Tower in order to find Valtor and get revenge for Tecna, who disappeared into the Omega Portal. They freed Griffin and Bloom faced Valtor, who had an upper hand in the fight and lied about Bloom's parents having been destroyed by him. Faragonda and Saladin however appeared for aid for the Winx and they managed to repel Valtor's powers and return back to Alfea. Valtor and the Trix left Cloud Tower eventually, freeing all the witches from under the mind control and moved to new hideout and Griffin regained her position as headmistress. Valtor however announced a challenge for Faragonda, Griffin and Saladin, making Cloud Tower disappear in the process. The Winx later investigated Cloud Tower's disappearance in order for Bloom to find out the truth about the fight between Valtor and her parents. It was revealed that Valtor didn't destroy or transfer the tower, but had concealed it with a spell that the Winx broke with their fairy dust. When Valtor attacked Magix with the elemental spells, he ordered water from Lake Roccaluce to flood Cloud Tower. After Bloom defeated Valtor along with the rest of the Winx, the water started to return back into the lake (Cloud Tower looking like an enormous fountain as Griffin herself stated) and Cloud Tower returned back to normal.

Season 5

The school building only made one appearance this season, in the “The Lilo” at the very beginning. It is seen through a bird's eye view before the scenery zooms into the center of Black Mud Swamp.

Season 6

As new students arrive in Cloud Tower, an Earth witch, Selina, shows Griffin the powers of her Legendarium and causes chaos in Pixie Village. As the Trix see this power and want to use it their advantage, they attack, turning Griffin into a crow and making Cloud Tower fly by extracting it from the mountains. The Trix then take over and promise to teach Selina dark magic in exchange for her to use the Legendarium for them. The Trix manage to make it disappear again. They not only make Cloud Tower fly, but also use it to travel between realms, collecting magic from schools, starting with Linphea College and then the rest of the Magic Dimension.