This Road Called Life

DISCLAIMER: WE ARE YEARS REMOVED FROM THE RELEASE OF THE HARRY POTTER BOOKS AND MOVIES, SO TECHNICALLY I DON’T FEEL THAT I NEED A SPOILER ALERT. THAT SAID, CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

I don’t know if I told you, but I’m a MAJOR Harry Potter fan. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve read the series in its entirety, from Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I’ve even read the 3 Hogwarts Library books that JK Rowling (Jo) wrote to aid the Comic Relief charity in the UK: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Quidditch Through the Ages, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard. (Although I have to admit that the library books were a one and done for me.)

Each time I reread one, I reread them all, and every single time through, I catch something new. To say that I’m addicted would be a HUGE understatement.

Well, this time, after finishing up Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a few books that I’d never read popped up in my Kindle app as suggested reading. They are part of the Pottermore Presents series, and are available for free if you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription, as are the first 7 books plus Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. All 3 books in the Pottermore Presents series include Jo’s own thoughts on the contents, and these quick reads are a great way to get some insight into her mind.

I’m a little over 70% through Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide as I type this, and I’m finding something from Jo herself that just doesn’t add up. This may have been mentioned before somewhere, but it’s one of those things that just hit me.

In Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide, there is a section titled The Mirror of Erised. In this section, Jo says that the mirror has been hanging out in the Room of Requirement for a century or so before Dumbledore pulled it out to help guard the Sorcerers Stone. To the untrained Potterhead, this doesn’t cause alarm. However, to me, it’s a huge inconsistency.

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, in the chapter titled The Yule Ball, Dumbledore has a conversation with Igor Karkaroff, the Durmstrang headmaster, during the dinner. Dumbledore’s exchange; found on page 168 of the Kindle Unlimited version of the book; goes as follows:

“Oh I would never dream of assuming I know all Hogwarts’ secrets, Igor,” said Dumbledore amicably. “Only this morning, for instance, I took a wrong turning on the way to the bathroom and found myself in a beautifully proportioned room I have never seen before, containing a really rather magnificent collection of chamber pots. When I went back to investigate more closely, I discovered that the room had vanished. But I must keep an eye out for it. Possibly it is only accessible at five-thirty in the morning. Or it may only appear at the quarter moon – or when the seeker has an exceptionally full bladder.”

Now, ANYBODY who has read on in the series from the 4th book, knows EXACTLY what Dumbledore is speaking of here. The Room of Requirement where the DA meets for their lessons, and where Draco Malfoy eventually fixes the broken Vanishing Cabinet in order to get a ton of Death Eaters into Hogwarts.

But, per Jo, the Mirror of Erised was in the Room of Requirement before Dumbledore placed it as the final piece protecting the Sorcerers Stone.

But Dumbledore didn’t know about the Room of Requirement as of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Had he known about it, he wouldn’t have again gone looking for the mysterious chamber pot room. But per The Harry Potter Compendium (with their own source notations), and from Jo herself in Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide, Dumbledore retrieved the Mirror of Erised from the Room of Requirement in 1991 to be one of many enchantments guarding the Sorcerers Stone. [This is just a guess of mine of course, but since the Sorcerers Stone was retrieved by Hagrid (with Harry) from Gringotts on July 31, 1991, it’s entirely possible in my mind for that to also be the day that Dumbledore would have retrieved the mirror from the Room of Requirement.]

The Yule Ball in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was on December 25, 1994. That’s when it’s clear that Dumbledore doesn’t know about the Room of Requirement. And I, for one, really don’t think he does.

Some may say that the entire conversation from Dumbledore above was a lie. However, for that character, I feel that is improbable given the scenario. It was friendly conversation with Karkaroff at dinner. And Dumbledore was volunteering the information. It’s not like he was even in a situation that he could potentially NEED to lie. Karkaroff wasn’t snooping for Hogwarts’ secrets at the time, and he hadn’t done anything to prove him an adversary to Dumbledore that the latter would need to withhold information.

Another theory may be that Dumbledore was suffering from dementia in his old age, and simply forgot about it. As the daughter of a mother that had at least 3 diagnosed and possibly 2 more UNdiagnosed brain bleeds, I can actually relate to this theory a bit. It doesn’t add up though. If Dumbledore had been suffering memory loss in the 4^th book of the series, how in the world did he have the memory for all the things in between then and his death? This theory just doesn’t add up.

Another theory could be that there isn’t just one, but TWO Rooms of Requirement at Hogwarts. I’ve searched until I’m blue in the face and am not finding any evidence to back that theory. If JK Rowling were to comment on this blog, I’ll gladly change my tune though!!

I think that this is along the lines of editing inconsistencies in a movie or TV show. (Take the show Friends. In the pilot, Rachel first meets Chandler at Central Perk having been introduced by Monica. But in later flashback episodes, Chandler meets both Rachel and Monica at Thanksgiving when Ross brought him home from college with him. And THEN in season 10, Chandler and Rachel kiss at a college party. So when did she meet him??) I really think that this is just one of those things. JK Rowling, after all, IS just a Muggle. And Muggles make mistakes.

Have another theory for Dumbledore forgetting about the Room of Requirement? Let me know what you think!