How Does It Work?

Jamie: Should we start with, how does it work?

Eric: Well, okay. It works - the Room of Requirement is located at, on the seventh floor, I guess, one of the corridors of the seventh floor. And in order to - it has to be activated. What it is, it's a blank slab of wall on the seventh floor in one of the corridors. Isn't there two statues of some guy teaching goblins how to tap dance?

Jamie: I don't know. I don't think that's important, though, to be fair. I just... [laughs]

Eric: No, I was just being encyclopedic. Okay, anyway, so you...

Jamie: There's a slight scratch on the brick just outside the room.

Eric: [laughs] Hey! Third brick from the left, it's happened before.

Jamie: Hey!

Eric: So, listen. In order to activate the room, you have to walk past it. You have to walk back and forth three times thinking and requesting the wall to appear or requesting a room. The Room of Requirement is a good term because it's a variable, the room that you need. You can walk past it and say, "I need a room to hide this potions book," or "I need a room to hide from Filch. I need a room that is equipped for teaching of Defense Against the Dark Arts." That kind of thing.

Ben: I need a room to snog Jamie.

Jamie: [laughs] One of the fundamental sort of laws of physics and the world is that you can't create something out of nothing. Now magic - we've seen that the effects of conjuring stuff don't last indefinitely, and I think it follows that the more powerful a wizard you are, or witch of course, the more complex the things you can conjure, and the longer time they take to go away. But, it also follows that are all those things that you conjured real? And so does the stuff that appears in the room, is that real? Or is it just there as long as you're inside the room? Because it's like, can you take stuff out of the room?

Ben: Here's what my theory is on it.

Jamie: Apart from the stuff you put in?

Ben: Okay. When you go in the Room of Requirement, and say... What I've always thought is, why couldn't you walk past the door - why couldn't Quirrell do that and want a Sorcerer's Stone or 300 Sorcerer's Stones? The items that appear in the room have to come from somewhere. They have to come from somewhere. And so if the item isn't readily available, you couldn't wish for four 400 Sorcerer's Stones because that just wouldn't happen. But things like a whistle or...

Jamie: You mean you think there's a warehouse somewhere and they just pick the items from it, and it has to be in the warehouse?

Ben: No, it's magical!

Jamie: It's stocked.

Ben: I think you could - [laughs] I think you could take it out of there. I mean, if it's minor items, I don't... There have to be, of course, some limitations on it, otherwise you could take - wish for a room full of gold. But, that's not going to work. So I don't know, it's...

Jamie: The fastest computer ever.

Ben: You see, the thing is this magical understanding so it's beyond our comprehension. It's not going to make sense to us, so I don't know where this stuff comes from, but...

Jamie: Why are we discussing it, then? [laughs]

Ben: There's no point, then.

Jamie: Fine. Right, everyone, we're closing the show, that's enough, we're finished. I mean, so obviously, it's impossible to understand how it works until we get further information because we just don't know if you can take stuff out...

Ben: Right.

Jamie: ...apart from stuff you put in like the book. Or... But, obviously, it has to have a link with something. Because, I mean, the two cabinets, clearly it's... I mean, the room has to be on Earth because you can go straight from that cabinet to the one in Borgin and Burkes.

Eric: Borgin and Burkes.

Jamie: It's not like a different universe, but I just don't - I don't know. What does everyone think? E-mail us. E-mail us.

Eric: Okay, that's the thing. Okay, it pulled that cabinet from somewhere. That cabinet did exist in Hogwarts before it was in the Room of Requirement because Fred and George Weasley stuffed the Slytherin Montague into that cabinet and that is the, I guess we'll call it the - what is it? The Vanishing Cabinet? Is that...

Jamie: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Vanishing Cabinet.

Eric: Yeah, the Vanishing Cabinet. So, that Vanishing Cabinet did exist prior to its either being placed in the Room of Requirement, or something like that. Like, it was at Hogwarts and I think - do you know where they said they got it? Where Fred and George got it when they shoved Montague into it? Do you know where it came from?

Jamie: I can't remember, no. I'm not sure.

Eric: Because, the thing is, it's in there and that's the question, how did it get there and how did it get into that room and...?

Ben: Have you ever thought that maybe the items that appear in the Room of Requirement had to be brought in there at some point?

Jamie: Oh yeah, but you can't have everything. You can't cater for absolutely everyone who could possibly walk past it and wish for something because you'd have to put billions and millions and millions of items in there. But, I think that you can put stuff in.

Ben: [laughs] It has to be in stock.

Jamie: I just don't know if you can take stuff out that's been in there. Yeah, it has to be in stock. You like, "Hey, I want a computer," and it says, "Out of stock." So you think, "Oh no, I'll have to come back later."

Eric: I don't know that it works like that though, I mean. It's just, you asked a question. If you asked for a room that made you immortal, would that happen? I don't know. I think - is that even possible? Like a room that makes you... Because I think, a room that makes you immortal in there, or makes you safe, would just be a giant padded room.

Kevin: Yeah, it's open to interpretation.

Eric: Something like that. But, I don't think that there's actually a room with a gas in it, that if you breathe it, it makes you immortal. Or like a room with a fountain that, if you drink from it you're immortal. I don't think it would do that.

Jamie: It comes down to the, if a genie appears, can you wish for a million wishes? Can you break the laws of the thing?

Ben: Yeah, but...

Eric: Yeah.

Jamie: So, like, do the effects of the room only last while you're in there or do they come out?

Ben: Well, I would think they would have to because otherwise couldn't you walk by the Room of Requirement and say, "I want Voldemort to be in there, tied up with his hands behind his back so I can kill him." Or...

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.

Ben: "I want Dumbledore, my parents to be in there alive." You can't do that. So...

Jamie: Yeah, yeah. No, obviously you can't do that, but it's stuff you need though, isn't it? It's...

Ben: You have to legitimately need it.

Jamie: It's the Room of Requirement. It's not the Room of What You Want.

Ben: That's true. You have to legitimately need it.

Eric: Okay, well I want to make it clear that at least the stuff doesn't go away, like forever. Because the thing is, Draco was using the Room of Requirement in Book Six to mend the broken Vanishing Cabinet. Now, the thing is, though, it couldn't have gone away after he was in there once because as soon as he left, it would go back to being broken or it would go - he would never get anywhere if...

Jamie: But, what does the Room of Requirement look like when it isn't being used? It's like a Boggart thing. No one knows what a Boggart looks like when it isn't in the form.

Eric: Well, the whole point of the Room of Requirement is that you - it can be anything. It's a variable. And I think, can't more than one room be open at once? Because, Harry was always trying to get into the room while Draco was in it, but yet, Trelawney... But, yeah. But Professor Trelawney, looking for a place - and these were the exact specifications. She was looking for a place just to stash her sherry bottles and she found the room that Draco was in. But Harry tried, "I need to see the room that Draco is in. I need to see the room with the..." He tried all these...

Jamie: He didn't need to, though. I suppose she - yeah, but I don't think it can be used more than once at the same time because it's like when...

Eric: But you can get into the room, if it's open, you can get into it.

Jamie: Well perhaps Draco said, "I want this room to be completely safe from Harry Potter. I do not want him to get in." And it would have to honor that because he said it first.

Eric: Yeah.

Ben: What's interesting about the Room of Requirement is that Jo did a lot of good foreshadowing with it in Book Four when Dumbledore is telling Karkaroff or Madame Maxime...

Kevin: About the...yeah.

Jamie: The chamber pots, yeah.

Ben: Yeah. How he walked into a room with the chamber pots...

Eric: Yeah, the chamber pots.

Ben: ...and then he can't find it again. Because he was up late one night looking for the bathroom and he stumbled upon a room with chamber pots.

Jamie: He must have known. He must have known about it. If Dumbledore knows about it...

Ben: And also, wouldn't he know where the bathroom is? Seriously.

[Ben and Jamie laugh]

Jamie: He probably would have. He's lived there, like four million years...

Eric: Wouldn't he have one in his office? I mean...

Jamie: What, an en suite? En suite bathroom to his office.

Eric: Couldn't he just conjure up a toilet? Couldn't he just conjure up a toilet

Jamie: No, Eric, Eric. Because it would disappear and then it would just fall all over the floor.

The Room's Future

Jamie: What will happen to the Room of Requirement now because it has been established as a weakness to Hogwarts? Is there any way to empty it out or put it out of order or stop people using it?

Ben: Empty out the warehouse.

[Ben and Jamie laugh]

Kevin: I mean, it had to be created by someone. And I would assume that...

Jamie: The four founders, probably.

Kevin: Yeah, if the enchantment was put in place, I'm sure that it can be taken down.

Jamie: Away, yeah, yeah.

Eric: But can it be, now that Dumbledore's gone? Because Dumbledore, I mean, put it this way. Dumbledore knew all these languages that Harry didn't even hear about. And I'm sure he's not the only one. But, the fact is, all these enchantments were put on it since ancient, ancient magic that you couldn't read about in books. Things like Horcruxes and stuff.

Kevin: Yeah, but you would think that, being a school, that they'd have some history of what was done and if anyone would know, it would be the...

Eric: You would think, but that's like...

Kevin: ...Headmaster or Headmistress.

Eric: Yeah.

Kevin: And I would believe that that person who would know would be the next person in line to take over the school.

Eric: Right. But, it's something like the Chamber of Secrets. They really didn't believe it even existed...

Kevin: Yeah, but...

Eric: ...until Book Two. Like, they actually... So wait, if anybody knew about the Room of Requirement, wouldn't they go up to it and say "I need the Chamber of Secrets"? Or...

Ben: You have to legitimately need it.

Jamie: I don't think it can give you something... Yeah, but it couldn't give you something that's elsewhere.

Eric: No, no, you don't have to need it. You just walk by and request it. You walk by and request it and then it opens, like...

Andrew: I think the answer is right here in the title: "The Room of Requirement." Like what Jamie was just saying earlier...

Jamie: Yeah, you need it. You can't...

Dumbledore's Army

Andrew: Yeah. You absolutely need it, I guess. I mean, then again, did Harry need Dumbledore's Army? Was that required? A room for Dumbledore's Army?

Eric: It was just a good idea where he really wanted the companionship and they needed a place - well, they kind of needed a place against - free from tyranny, free from Umbridge. That kind of thing.

Kevin: Exactly, and I don't think it's that he - did he need Dumbledore's Army. He needed a room to practice.

Eric: Yeah. Just because you require something...

Kevin: So, he already had the Army, he just required a room to practice that was private.

Need vs. Require

Eric: Just because you require something, doesn't mean you need it, though. If you require a bicycle to carry out a bicycle ride across two states, that's something you want to do. That's not necessarily something you need to do.

Ben: No. "Require" and "need" are synonymous. "Require" and "need" are synonymous in this instance.

Jamie: I think they are, yeah.

Eric: You want a room, you want a place to hide your sherry bottles, but truthfully, nobody goes up to Trelawney's office. She could just put them underneath one of her...

Ben: Well, honestly speaking, do you legitimately "need" anything?

Andrew: That's what I always think, yeah.

Jamie: Exactly, you don't. Harry doesn't need to find the Horcruxes. He doesn't need to. If you don't believe in fate and stuff, he doesn't need to.

Ben: Yeah.

Jamie: Voldemort could win. But that leads on to asking whether Voldemort could use it to hide the Horcruxes. Could he say, "I need a room that no one could ever, ever get into, apart from me."?

Ben: Well, you see, I think he's too arrogant. I think that Voldemort is too arrogant to think that someone could ever figure him out.

Jamie: No, but could he? Could he?

Ben: Theoretically, is it possible?

Jamie: But could he? That's the point.

Ben: I don't know.

Jamie: It isn't about whether he would, could he do it? But then that - but then, why didn't they hold the Philosopher's Stone in that? I think it's just too unreliable, the Room of Requirement. It doesn't seem like a sort of established thing that people use regularly. It's like...

Ben: It's kind of like the Mirror of Erised. I mean, you can't really define...

Jamie: Yeah, exactly.

Ben: ...what its limitations are, based off what's been said in the book.

Jamie: Yeah, because people don't know as well.

Ben: Good point, mate.

Eric: Yeah, about Voldemort and hiding his Horcruxes in there, I don't think he personally would have had any time in Hogwarts to hide a Horcrux in the Room of Requirement.

Jamie: No, but could you? Could he do it, though?

Eric: Oh, could you? I don't know why you necessarily couldn't, but...

Dumbledore's Bladder

Andrew: The Room of Requirement was first discovered in Goblet of Fire. Is that Jo's clever way of explaining what it is? Dumbledore needed to go to the bathroom. He couldn't, for some reason...

Jamie: No, but he didn't need to. He could wait another two minutes or another five minutes.

Andrew: Maybe he couldn't. Maybe he absolutely couldn't! [laughs]

Jamie: But he clearly could, Andrew.

Andrew: How do you know how strong his bladder is? How do you know how strong Dumbledore's bladder is? He's an old guy!

Jamie: Okay, Andrew, Andrew, Andrew, Andrew he can clearly wait one more second, which means he didn't need to go at that time.

Andrew: But is one more second...

Jamie: If he absolutely needed to go, he could have just "wee"d all over the floor if he needed to.

Andrew: Well, that's the point. There would be a consequence to that. Maybe if there is a consequence to what you require, I don't know. I just think...

Eric: I think Dumbledore is more than capable of conjuring up a urinal just to pee in, or a pot or anything. As soon as... After he mentioned the room, he knew Harry was listening at that moment and he turned and winked at him. This whole thing was about Dumbledore telling Harry about...

Andrew: That it's there?

Eric: ...the room. The fact is - the question is not whether or not Dumbledore actually needed to go to the bathroom, because I don't think he did. He could have conjured up - and why doesn't he have a bathroom in his office? He lives up in the top of the tower. Does every night...

Jamie: He brings up a fair point. It is a fair point.

Ben: Why can't he just zap the urine out of his bladder?

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: Put it in his Pensieve!

[Ben and Eric laugh]

Room of Requirement in Book Seven

Ben: Okay, are you sure he winked at him?

Andrew: Yes.

Ben: Okay, he was telling Madame Maxime about how he doesn't know the secrets of Hogwarts and maybe, contextually, he was, it may seem like he was doing that, but Dumbledore is a mysterious man. Harry found it on his own. It isn't like Harry went searching for a room that... You know what I'm saying?

Jamie: Yeah, I know.

Ben: Harry didn't reference that in his memory, the time that Dumbledore winked at him. So...

Jamie: Next point, will Harry use the Room of Requirement to aid him on his quest in Book Seven, why or why not? I open that to the floor.

Ben: [laughs and continues in British accent] The floor. I have no idea.

Andrew: Well, you could narrow it down a bit. Obviously, he's not going to use it for the Horcruxes, because that's just way too easy. I mean...

Jamie: Yeah.

Ben: Don't get into that discussion again...

Andrew: No.

Ben: ...because I'm pretty sure you can't require the Horcruxes.

Jamie: Exactly.

Andrew: No, right. Well, there's an alternative. You can just kill off Voldemort.

Jamie: Yeah, exactly.

Andrew: And this is my point of saying that there was no alternative for Dumbledore when he had to use the bathroom. [laughs]

[Everyone laughs]

Eric: Anyway, is Harry even coming back to Hogwarts? I want him to, but...

Andrew: Yes! Yes! That's a dumb question. Of course he is.

Jamie: He could still use it, though.

Ben: No, he's not.

Jamie: He's like...

Ben: Not for the whole time.

Jamie: No, he isn't for the whole time.

Eric: Yeah, he's always welcome at Hogwarts.

Jamie: Exactly.

Eric: I don't know. The Room of Requirement, it seems like it was used twice now and that's okay, and that's good. The good side used it, the bad side used it.

Jamie: What it seems... Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Eric: That's like asking, will Harry retrieve the potions book? Will he retrieve Snape's, the Half-Blood Prince's book? You know, that's like asking that - or will he be able to, because the thing is he wanted to come back and get it. He never really got the chance to, but he wanted to, because he marked it. He put the cage with the dead animal in it or something, on top of the book, and then he marked the book or something. So, he actually knows where the potions book is hidden if he can ever get into that room again. So, why is that significant? Why did he mark his place? Is that going to be neglected? Will he never...

Harry Potter and the Big Red Button

Jamie: What I've noticed, though, doing this discussion is, it doesn't seem like we have enough information about it. I think it's literally fitting as well. It's... I don't know how to pronounce this, a deus ex machina. You know? God from the machine. It means it's a plot device capable of sorting out everything. So, it's like a big red button that just kills Voldemort and finds the Horcrux and stuff like that, and, obviously, that can't exist, or the entire magical world would be different, the laws would be different, and so, obviously, Harry can't use it just to solve everything or the books would be two lines long. "Harry went to the Room of Requirement, pressed the big red button, and Voldemort died."

[Andrew laughs]

Eric: And then what's the second sentence?

Jamie: Uh...

Eric: The end? [laughs]

Jamie: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [laughs] "The end" is the second sentence.

Andrew: No, no, no. "Scar." [laughs]

[Eric and Jamie laugh]

Jamie: Yeah, it's just, "Scar."

Eric: "The end. Scar." [laughs] Scar.

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: "He pressed the big red button, then on the way out, on the wall, he hit his scar."

[Andrew laughs]

Jamie: Last sentence, "Ouch."

Andrew: His scar jumped off his forehead. [sings] da da da da da da DA! The end.

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: Okay...

Brainless Objects

Jamie: So, we can compare it to the Marauders' Map, Tom Riddle's diary, the Mirror of Erised; things where you can't see where they keep their brains, and Mr. Weasley warned Harry that you should never ever trust something where you can't see where it keeps its brain. So, should we trust the Room of Requirement?

Eric: Yes, because it's Hogwarts, and that's like asking should you trust... Well, see there are so many things about Hogwarts; doors that open up into walls, things like that, so what kind of question is that?

Jamie: Isn't it a...

Eric: If you were to ask this about the potions book, that's a separate question, because it's just a book with stuff written in it. It's not like a live object, but the Room of Requirement isn't exactly a live object as much as Riddle's diary was, either.

Jamie: Exactly.

Eric: And can't you see - but, can you trust Hogwarts?

Jamie: It's a matter of sentience, though.

Eric: The Room of Requirement isn't exactly a separate entity. I mean, it is part of Hogwarts, after all, and it's part of the personality of at least one of the four founders, assuming that they built it.

Jamie: Don't you think it's a matter of sentience, where if things are self-aware and can actually think for themselves? Like, the Room of Requirement is just like a big program, really, and it just gives you what you want. It could be a program, or it could think for itself, whereas Tom Riddle's diary is completely different and could respond to different things. It was much more alive than the Room of Requirement, I think.

Eric: I think it's interesting to... It's got, I think it's got some kind of intelligence, because you could ask just for a place to practice spells, and it would give you loads and loads of shelves of the best books and comfortable pillows to practice, and that kind of thing. There's some kind of... Because it gave Harry and the DA a lot more than they originally asked for. They just asked for a room to practice spells.

Jamie: But it's a matter of interpretation, though. It could just be programmed to interpret stuff in a certain way, just like the Matrix.

Eric: Yeah, that's what I'm thinking it's like, but I think it does just react on your command. If you ask for something it will interpret it and give it, but I don't think it's a separate entity. I think it's just part of Hogwarts. It's part of what makes Hogwarts magical.

Jamie: Okay.

Eric: It's just another interesting room, another interesting stairway that changes, you know?

Jamie: And once again, after that 15-minute discussion, we are yet to find a conclusion.

Andrew: [laughs] Well, that's the - you really can't, because there's no real answer. The only real person that knows the answer is Jo.

Jamie: No, there's not.

Kevin: Yeah, there's not enough information on it to...

Andrew: Well, what I love about recording these podcasts is that we have all this saved, and we can go back and listen to it and go, "Oh, we were right there, we were wrong there."

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: This is all, you know. It's like an archive of theories and stuff, so we should place bets on all the stuff that we talk about. So...

Jamie: Yeah. [laughs]

Andrew: We really should. We already have one sausage bet. [laughs]

Jamie: Yeah, we do. [laughs] Unfortunately.

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