Harry Potter and The Castle o f Otranto
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Otranto, has not only taken sides but is actively working to restore their
respective rightful owners.
In no place is the notion of Hogwarts taking sides more clear
than in the Battle of Hogwarts, where the castle actively defends students
against Voldemort. Hogwarts provides many necessary items to aid the
Order of the Phoenix but the most important are the statues in the
corridors and the Room of Requirement. When Professor McGonagall
learns from Harry that the castle is under attack, she warns the other
professors and has a two pronged plan of action. First she must defend
the school, and secondly she must find a way to evacuate the younger
students from the building to remove them from harm’s way. To the first
point, she enlists the aid of other professors but also of the castle itself
Though she uses a spell to animate the statues located throughout the
school, her instructions to them prove important. She commands:
“Hogwarts is threatened! . . . Man the boundaries, do your duty to our
school” {DH 602), at which point, “Clattering and yelling, the horde of
moving statues stampeded past Harry” {DH 603). McGonagall’s
command to the statues indicates that the school is in danger and the
statues need no more information. Here the importance of education in
the narrative is pointed out and calls attention to the fact that the castle is,
first and foremost, a school and anything that threatens the school or the
students is something the castle will attempt to expel.
As important as the castle’s ability, via its statues and other items
onsite, to defend itself is the true way it takes sides once again shown in
the Room of Requirement. Though, as earlier noted, the room is able to
allow the Death Eaters into the castle at the end of The Half-Blood
Prince, it is through a vanishing cabinet that is hidden in the room rather
than the room itself actively helping the Death Eaters. However, in the
case of the Battle of Hogwarts, it is the room itself that provides safe
passage for students to evacuate as well as for the Order of the Phoenix
to come to the fight. This proves especially important because the
Carrows have sealed off all the other secret passageways in and out of
the castle and placed “curses over the entrances and Death Eaters and
dementors waiting at the exits” {DH 572), which means that the Room of
Requirement’s passage to the Hog’s Head proves the only safe passage
in or out of the castle. Furthermore, that the Room of Requirement would
open a passage to the Hog’s Head at all is worth noting. Though it is
often mentioned in prior novels, the Hog’s Head seems at first glance an
odd place for the room to connect to at all. It is not a favorite haunt of
students, that honor belongs to The Three Broomsticks, nor does it play a