Skip to main content

harry potter - Could a Muggle Access the Room of Requirement?


Could a Muggle access the Room of Requirement?




‘Because [the Room of Requirement] is a room that a person can only enter,’ said Dobby seriously, ‘when they have real need of it. Sometimes it is there, and sometimes it is not, but when it appears, it is always equipped for the seeker’s needs. Dobby has used it, sir,’ said the elf, dropping his voice and looking guilty, ‘when Winky has been very drunk; he has hidden her in the Room of Requirement and he has found antidotes to Butterbeer there, and a nice elf-sized bed to settle her on while she sleeps it off, sir ... and Dobby knows Mr Filch has found extra cleaning materials there when he has run short, sir, and –’

Order of the Phoenix - page 343 - Bloomsbury - chapter 18, Dumbledore's Army



The Room of Requirement is clearly an incredibly magical part of the Hogwarts castle; its powers even broach the possibility of sentience. To access the Room of Requirement, whoever is seeking it must walk past its wall three times and concentrate very hard on his or her need. It doesn't seem as if any magic is involved on the seeker's part, though. If Mr Filch -- a Squib who has no magical abilities -- can access the Room of Requirement, would that suggest it would be possible for a Muggle (such as a visiting parent) to access the room as well? I haven't been able to find any examples in canon where wizarding magic is necessary to enter the Room of Requirement.



Answer



I have no evidence for anything I'm about to say, and I will probably come back later and edit this to add to it, but I don't have time right now, but here's my line of thinking:


As we've all ready established in the comment section above, being magical does not seem to be necessary for the Room of Requirement to "read" you. As you mentioned in your original question, Slytherincess, the room's abilities seem to border on sentience. Since the "magic" in question here is emanating from the room rather than the seeker, then I don't see why a muggle couldn't access the room if they happened to be at Hogwarts and just so happened to wander past the Room of Requirement and they happened to be thinking of something they really needed at that particular moment.


We know that magic from external sources is practiced on muggles from time to time. We know that the Ministry of Magic will occasionally find itself in a situation of needing to practice memory charms or enchantments of one kind or another on muggles who have witnessed something they shouldn't have. Hermione performs such a charm on her parents who completely forget that she ever existed.


Additionally, we know that muggles are sensitive to other types of magic, such as those that shield Hogwarts, the entrance to platform 9 3/4, Grimmauld Place, and other magical locations that are really hidden in plain view within the muggle world.


Since the Room of Requirement would be another form of "external" magic being practiced on a muggle, if everything just happened to fall into place then it seems entirely plausible that a muggle would be capable of gaining access to the Room of Requirement even if they didn't know what it was.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...
Post a Comment
Read more