Popular Culture Review Vol. 25, No. 1, Winter 2014 | Page 82

78 Popular Culture Review prominent role in any of the earlier novels. Despite these facts, there are two possible explanations for this odd choice on the part of the Room of Requirement. The first is that Madam Rosmerta, the proprietor of “The Three Broomsticks” is put under the Imperius curse during the action of The Half-Blood Prince, and it is she who alerts the Death Eaters that Dumbledore has left the castle {HBP 588-590). It is never made clear whether or not she remains compromised, but the idea that she could be offers enormous problems to the safety and wellbeing of those students hiding out in the Room of Requirement and resisting the tyranny of the Carrows. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the barman at “The Hog’s Head” is Aberforth Dumbledore, the younger brother of Professor Dumbledore and a member of the original Order of the A