Department of Mysteries Locked Room (includes all previous posts)

[ginnysthe1]

No: HPFGUIDX 117481


Glavgirl first wrote:
Wanted to get your thoughts on the locked room in Department of
Mysteries. When Harry is trying to find the right door to enter, he
goes to the locked door and tries everything to open it. It was odd
that it melted the knife that Sirius had given him. In the end of
the book, Dumbledore told Harry that there was a locked room in the
Department of Mysteries that holds that power that Harry possess. We
know it was his heart that kept Voldemort from possessing him for any
amount of time. Any ideas on what "power" is behind the locked
door? It would be hard to lock up feelings in a room. Especially
something that would melt a knife.

Nepenthales replied:
The door has always left me perplexed. Many people (myself included)
have surmised from Dumbledore's speech at the end of the book that
the "power" in that room is love, or compassion, or some other
similar thing. This makes some sense, but it seems incomplete or
somehow only partially realized to me.

The question that comes to my mind when I read the passages about the
door isn't about what is beyond it. I'm more interested in knowing
*why is the door locked*. There is apparently some significant
interest in keeping the contents of this room under lock and key, but
why? What in this room is more dangerous or important than the veil
in the Death Chamber, the time-turners, and the prophecies?

Then Juli:
My 2 knuts: Maybe this power, whatever it is doesn't have a form, a
shape, a physical form, just like air or something, so
in order to study it, it must be kept locked in a room,
place or container, otherwise it would get lost. I don't
think the reason it's locked is because it's more dangerous
or important than the other rooms. It is dangerous and
important in its own way.

Then Snow:
Could it be that the door is locked out of protection? Is this
symbolized by the way Harry (the one who has so much of the power
within this room) is locked away from the wizarding world in a closet
under the stairs in a muggle home protected by his mother's sacrifice
and compounded with Dumbledore's added protection?

Then Finwitch:
You know - what if it isn't a door but just a wall pretending? That 
would explain why Harry couldn't open it with Sirius' knife (which is 
supposed to open any lock). What ever there is... Maybe something 
like the fire Akhilleus' mother used to protect her son (she held him 
by heel, so heel was left vulnerable...)  Hmm - AD told Harry his 
mother's sacrifice lingered in his very skin - perhaps, unlike what 
Voldemort thinks, it never WAS in Harry's blood...

Now Kim:

As usual with this list, another great (and new?) thread!

Firstly, one thing I noticed rereading the passage in GoF where Harry 
first received the knife from Sirius as a Christmas present is that 
it said the knife could open any lock, but when Harry tried to use it 
on that locked door, he didn't put it in the keyhole, but ran it 
around the edge of the door and it melted as a result.  I wonder if 
that was the way JKR meant to write that.  What if Harry had tried 
the knife in the keyhole, would it have worked then?  Of course maybe 
the knife wasn't made to fit a keyhole either (so there goes that 
theory!)

As to what's behind the door of the locked room (and I hope my take 
on this doesn't give too much of my own spiritual belief away, but if 
so, oh well), I think I wrote in a previous post that the locked 
room, the room that Dumbledore says is filled with the same ancient 
magic that runs in Harry's veins (or lives on in his skin) doesn't 
contain love in a sentimental or romantic sense, but love in its most 
profound and mysterious form.  It's the love that conquers all, heals 
all, and understands all, because it contains all things:  all hope, 
all despair, all joy, all sadness, all life, all death, all good and 
all evil.  The closest word in English would probably be truth or 
perhaps peace; there's the "unified field" theory too, and many 
religions of course have the word G-d (didn't want to offend anyone 
by spelling it out).  Not that someone probably didn't already say 
much of this someplace else already (but I have the hardest time 
finding relevant earlier posts by searching the archives).  Anyhow, I 
hope I'm not sounding too preachy, because I don't want to be -- I'm 
still only guessing like everyone else.   I do feel pretty sure 
though that JKR's books are obviously very *spiritual,*  in that they 
try to deal with the most troubling and puzzling aspects of life, 
even though she still manages to inject a lot of wonderful humor and 
adventure into them too. 

Kim,
who wishes she could turn her 2 knuts into 2 million, but she 
wouldn't know how to spend them anyway  ;-)