loose ends to tie up in HP 7

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 136413

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "oiboyz" <oiboyz at h...> wrote:
> I think a big loose end is the room of Requirement-- how does it work 
> and why couldn't Harry always get in?  JKR spent a lot of page time 
> on this in Book 6 and never resolved it.  Malfoy's Vanishing Cabinet 
> was in the same storeroom where Harry put the Prince's textbook and 
> where Trelawny wanted to hide her sherry bottles.  They all visited 
> the same place, but they could only find it when they wanted the room 
> for its own sake.  Harry couldn't find it by asking to go where 
> Malfoy had been or see what Malfoy had been doing, and he couldn't 
> get in while Malfoy was already in there.  But *Trelawny* could walk 
> right in on Malfoy when she needed the place for other purposes, and 
> wasn't just trying to catch him.

zgirnius:
I thought this was actually explained/implied. Draco is using the 
incarnation of the Room of Requirement which is used by the whole 
castle as a sort of storeroom. This is because the broken Vanishing 
Cabinet was left in that romm (along with all sorts of other broken, 
old, unwanted stuff). This is why Trelawney is able to get in as well, 
she is going to the *same* incarnation of the Room, in order to stash 
her booze. When Harry wants to hide the HBP's book from Snape, he also 
gets into the Room easily, and again, it is the same incarnation of the 
Room. Since Draco is not in the room at the time (he's off to the 
hospital wing to recover from the Sectumsempra Curse) Harry does not 
realize that *this* is where Draco has been. He could have walked by 
the Vanishing Cabinet without ever realizing its significance...

Contrast this to the time in OotP when Draco and pals have no trouble 
getting in to the DA meeting. Draco does not find the room by trying to 
get into "wherever Potter is", he gets into the right room by needing 
to get into the meeting room of the DA.