Entertainment
 

Room of Requirement

From Harry Potter Wiki

Room of Requirement
Location information
Location

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Affiliation

Hogwarts
Dumbledore's Army

Behind the scenes
First appearance

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (not named)

Latest appearance

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The Room of Requirement is a secret room in Hogwarts that only appears when a person is in great need of it. The room then transforms itself into whatever the witch or wizard needs it to be at that moment, although there are some limitations. For example, it cannot create food, as that is one of the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration. It is believed that the room is Unplottable, as it does not appear on the Marauder's Map, nor do its occupants, although this could simply be because James Potter, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew never found the room.

Contents

[edit] Location

The room is located on the seventh floor of Hogwarts castle, and has a hidden entrance opposite the tapestry depicting the attempt of Barnabas the Barmy to teach trolls ballet. The way to open the room is to walk past it three times thinking about what you need and the door will appear.

It is advised that the users of this room be very specific about what they are looking for, as it has been shown that other people can enter the room and see what the occupant is doing if they know how the room is being used. The Inquisitorial Squad found the hideout of the D.A. in 1996 by knowing that the D.A. was in the room at the time. Neville Longbottom used this knowledge to create his hideout, as he specifically asked that the hideout be made unavailable to those who supported the Carrows.

[edit] History of Use

The first mention of this room was in 1994, when Albus Dumbledore told Igor Karkaroff of his discovery of a room full of chamber pots when he needed to go to the toilet. However, he was unable to find the room again later.

[edit] Dumbledore's Army

Dumbledore's Army in the Room of Requirement.
Hermione Granger: "You've done it, Neville! You've found the Room of Requirement... It's also known as the Come and Go Room. It can only be used by someone who really needs it. And it's always equipped for the seeker's needs."
Ron Weasley: "Right. Say you really needed the toilet?"
Hermione Granger: "Charming, Ronald. But yes."
— Discovery of the Room of Requirement in the Order of the Phoenix film[src]

In 1995, Harry Potter asked Dobby if he knew of a place where Dumbledore's Army could safely meet. Dobby told Harry of what the house-elves called the "Come and Go Room", or "Room of Requirement", which he had used to treat Winky after she had gotten drunk on Butterbeer, as the room filled with antidotes to butterbeer and an elf-sized bed for Winky to sleep off her inebriation. He also said that Argus Filch had found extra cleaning supplies in the room. During the first D.A. meeting, Fred and George Weasley revealed that it had once taken the form of a broom cupboard which they had used to hide from Filch.

Harry and Dumbledore's Army used the room as their headquarters and practice area. Among the items provided by the room for the D.A. were Dark Detectors and shelves of helpful books such as A Compendium of Common Cures, The Dark Arts Outsmarted, Self-Defensive Spellwork, and Jinxes for the Jinxed. They were eventually discovered by the Inquisitorial Squad.

Harry and Cho share a kiss in the Room of Requirement.

[edit] Room of Hidden Things

Harry used the room in his sixth year to hide the Half Blood Prince's copy of Advanced Potion Making. He found that many other students had used the room to hide a multitude of other objects, including the Vanishing Cabinet. Inside the cabinet in which he hid the book, Harry found a cage that contained the skeleton of something that had 5 legs.

Also in Harry's sixth year, Professor Trelawney attempted to use the room to hide her sherry bottles, but Draco Malfoy threw her out. Draco was using the room to repair the Vanishing Cabinet so he could smuggle Death Eaters into the castle via a matching Vanishing Cabinet in Borgin and Burkes.

[edit] Second Wizarding War

In the 1997–1998 school year, Neville Longbottom and several other students used the room as a hideout to escape the wrath of the new Death Eater professors, the Carrows. The problem was the lack of food, as it was one of the exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration. So the hideout adapted by adding an eighth passage into Hogsmeade, connected to the Hog's Head pub, whose owner, Aberforth provided food. Also, this advantage allowed members of the Order of the Phoenix to enter the school to help fight off Lord Voldemort's attack, without setting off the Caterwauling Charm on the village.

Later that same year, during the Battle of Hogwarts, it was used as an evacuation route to move the students away from the dangers that followed. Later, Harry realised that Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem, one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, was hidden in the Room of Hidden Things, as he has seen it in his sixth year while hiding his Potions book and had even picked it up without realizing what it was. He, Hermione and Ron managed to find it, but were ambushed by Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. Crabbe let loose cursed fire that destroyed the Horcrux and many other objects, killing himself in the process.

[edit] Items Hidden Inside

Harry Potter saw many things that other students had hidden in the room, including:

[edit] Behind the Scenes

[edit] Appearances

Retrieved from "http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Room_of_Requirement"