[HPforGrownups] Re: Magical Rooms

[GulPlum]

No: HPFGUIDX 53760

At 03:57 14/03/03 , Steve wrote:

<snip>

>1.) Why would the antichamber room be of any magical significants?

Why not? :-) The same could be said of the apparently throw-away references 
to several other people and places throughout the books to date. Indeed, 
you yourself favour a room which has been an (apparently) ultimate 
throwaway line. You insist on seeing significance in something Dumbledore 
appears to have said for the sole purpose of reassurance (do you expect the 
London Underground map-shaped scar on Dumbledore's knee to develop a major 
importance? It was referred to in similar circumstances), so why not see 
significance in something which is far more likely to possess it?

>2.) Why would the Prefect Bathroom have any magical properties,
>and what could they be? Certainly fun and games for the Prefects. Do
>both the boy and girl prefects us that same room?

As to the last question, highly unlikely. The girls have their own toilets 
so it would make even more sense for them to have their own bathrooms. 
(This is where modern American English falls down because generally 
speaking, what we call "toilets", you call  "bathrooms"). :-) Although 
Cedric refers to it as "the prefects' bathroom", he is a boy so that's the 
way he thinks about it. It is most probable that it is "the MALE prefects' 
bathroom".

As to the first, again, "why not?" Myrtle hangs around there, so there 
might be *something* to it. It could have lots of several uses, most of 
which we'd need to be JKR to fathom.

>3.) We already know that the Chamber Pot Room IS a magical room, so it
>would not be unreasonable for it to have more magical properties we
>don't know about. It could be a secure hideout in case the castle was
>ever invaded. It could be a 'gives you what you need when you are
>desperate' room. Since it's already a magical room, the magical
>possiblities are huge.

Ahhh. That's where we disagree. The exact quote was "... mentioned in book 
four which has certain magical properties Harry hasn't discovered yet."

The impression I get from that is that it's not the room which hasn't 
discovered yet, but its properties. Harry has never seen the camber pot 
room, and indeed even Dumbledore says he's been unable to find it again. 
JKR is usually very deliberate in the kind of language she uses, and if 
she'd said "a room Harry heard about ...", or " a magical room", then I'd 
agree with you. But the way I read the comment, it's a mundane room which 
Harry has visited but whose properties he hasn't explored.

I'm not insisting that I'm necessarily right, but I find any other 
explanation far more difficult to accept.

In any event, the usual explanation for the room is that it shows "what we 
need" (as opposed to the Mirror's "what we desire"). The way he tells the 
story, Dumbledore *needed* the *bathroom* (his intended destination), not a 
"magnificent collection of chamber pots". If he found *one* chamber pot, 
then I'd buy the explanation. He managed to find his way out of the room 
and into the bathroom, so his need for a potty wasn't *that* great.

Besides, if JKR's track record is anything to go by, an inherently magical 
room (which has, inter alia, the ability to disappear) is hardly one which 
will surprise us with its magical properties. A mundane room with 
undiscovered characteristics is far more likely.

--
GulPlum AKA Richard, who's never actually thought about this issue before, 
much less commented upon it, and thus awaits the above arguments to be 
comprehensibly ripped to shreds. :-)