Chamber of Secrets
The Chamber of Secrets, which is deep under the dungeons (probably under the lake),[CS Ch.16] was home to an ancient Basilisk, intended to be used to purge the school of Muggle-born students. Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders of Hogwarts, built the Chamber before he left the school.
The Chamber is well hidden and the entrance is in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom on the second floor, which leads down into a dark, slimy stone tunnel. There are many skeletons of small animals littering the floor and even a gigantic skin shed by the Basilisk. The tunnel leads to a solid wall, carved with two entwined serpents with emeralds for eyes.[CS Ch.16] When Parseltongue is spoken they open into a very long, dim corridor, lined with monumental statues of snakes, including two towering stone pillars with more carved serpents that brace the ceiling. A colossal statue of Salazar Slytherin, looking ancient and monkey-like, is at the centre. The Basilisk rested inside the statue and emerged from its mouth when the Heir of Slytherin, Tom Riddle, summoned it.[CS Ch.17] In his second year at Hogwarts, Harry uses Parseltongue to open the chamber and destroys the diary containing the embodied memory of a 16-year old Tom Riddle from his own days at Hogwarts. It is later revealed that the diary was a Horcrux. In Deathly Hallows, Ron and Hermione enter the Chamber. Ron opens the door (despite not speaking Parseltongue) by imitating sounds he heard Harry use to open Slytherin's locket. They find a basilisk fang to use to destroy the Horcrux made from Helga Hufflepuff's cup (Hermione stabs it).
Moaning Myrtle's bathroom contains the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. The entrance is a sink with a snake scratched onto the tap, opened by speaking in Parseltongue. This causes the sink to open into a pipe large enough for a person to slide down. At the bottom of this chute is a tunnel leading to the Chamber of Secrets. When Tom Riddle opened the Chamber in 1943, Myrtle was sulking in a stall. When she heard him, she opened the door, saw the Basilisk, and died immediately, becoming a ghost.[CS Ch.16] Her bathroom remains operational, but is rarely used by students because of Myrtle's disagreeable presence.
Passages
There are nine known secret passages in and out of the school. Filch knows just four of these, though where they lead is unknown. The other five are:
- A passage beneath the Whomping Willow, leading to the Shrieking Shack.
- A passage behind a mirror on the fourth floor, which is caved in. To where it leads is unknown, although Sirius mentions in book five that it is large enough for an organisation.
- A passage beneath a one-eyed witch statue by the stairs to the Defence Against the Dark Arts, leading to the cellar of Honeydukes. Speaking aloud the word ‘Dissendium’ to the witch accesses this passage, the hump on the statue then opens and reveals the hidden passageway.
- A link between two vanishing cabinets, one in the school and the other in Borgin and Burkes in Knockturn Alley. This link presumably worked until Chamber of Secrets when Peeves (persuaded by Nearly Headless Nick) smashed the Hogwarts cabinet. The passage was reopened in Half-Blood Prince when Draco fixed the cabinet. This passage is not shown on the Marauder's Map.
- A passage in the Room of Requirement, leading to the Hog's Head bar, however due to the nature of the Room of Requirement, it is possible that several passages to different locations could be accessed from it. This passage is created in Deathly Hallows and is therefore not shown on the Marauder's Map.
Room of Requirement
Located on the seventh floor opposite an enormous tapestry depicting Barnabas the Barmy attempting to train trolls for the ballet, the Room of Requirement appears only when someone is in need of it. To make it appear, one must walk past its hidden entrance three times while concentrating on what is needed. The room will then appear, outfitted with whatever is required. To the Hogwarts house-elves it is also known as the Come and Go Room.
Dumbledore was first to mention the room, noting that he discovered it at five-thirty in the morning, filled with chamber pots when he was trying to find a toilet. However, Dumbledore did not appear to know the Room's specific secrets. Dobby later told Harry of the Room in detail and admitted to frequently bringing Winky to the room to cure her bouts of Butterbeer-induced drunkenness, finding it full of antidotes and a "nice elf-sized bed". Filch was said to find cleaning supplies here when he had run out; when Fred and George needed a place to hide, it would appear in the form of a broom cupboard. Trelawney also makes a habit of using it to hide her empty sherry bottles after she is sacked in Order of the Phoenix. It would seem that when one wishes to hide something it produces the same room for everyone: the Room of Hidden Things, which is full of many centuries worth of abandoned objects, such as broken furniture, books, and possessions, which were presumably forgotten by their owners.
Harry learned of the room's abilities from Dobby, finding it the perfect location for his Dumbledore's Army meetings, during which it would be filled with bookcases full of Defence Against the Dark Arts volumes, many different kinds of Dark Detectors, and a plethora of floor cushions for practicing defensive spells. When the D.A. was betrayed, the room provided Pansy Parkinson with the list of members of the organisation. In Half-Blood Prince Harry used the Room of Hidden Things to stash his copy of Advanced Potion-Making, describing it as the size of a large cathedral and packed to overflowing with items hidden by Hogwarts inhabitants over the years, such as old potions, clothing, ruined furniture, an old tiara (which happened to be one of Voldemort's Horcruxes), or books which were "no doubt banned or graffitied or stolen". He later realized that Draco had been using the room in that same state to hide and repair the Vanishing Cabinet in order to use it to smuggle Death Eaters into Hogwarts.
In Deathly Hallows, the students who need a place to hide from the Carrows, two Death Eater professors, use the Room. It is also revealed that the Room of Requirement's current version can change while still occupied, though should a completely different version be required (e.g. the Room of Hidden Things instead of DA Headquarters) the room must be empty. The Room can also answer to the desire of the wizard within the room, such as providing Harry with a whistle when he needed one during a Dumbledore's Army meeting, or creating a passage to the Hog's Head (as the room cannot produce food). Later, Ravenclaw's diadem is found to be one of Voldemort's Horcruxes and has been hidden in the Room of Hidden Things (a manifestation of the Room of Requirement) by Voldemort himself. Harry, Ron, and Hermione enter the Room, with Harry knowing that he must look for a place to hide things, and find the tiara; but they are ambushed by Draco, Crabbe and Goyle. The diadem is finally destroyed when Crabbe fills this version of the Room with what Hermione believes to have been Fiendfyre; a particularly destructive magical fire. It is not known if the room continues to function after the events of Deathly Hallows; Ron expresses concern that it may have been ruined in all of its forms by the cursed fire.
Forbidden Forest
The Forbidden Forest is a large, dark forest to the east of Hogwarts Castle. It is usually referred to simply as "the Forest" and in the film series as the "Dark Forest". It is strictly forbidden to all students, except during Care of Magical Creatures lessons and, on rare occasions, detentions.
Among the plant species within the Forest are trees such as beech, oak, pine, sycamore, and yew, as well as undergrowth including knotgrass and thorns. Though the Forest is vastly dense and wild, there are a few paths and clearings. Hagrid, who frequently travels into the Forest for various reasons mostly makes these. The Forest is also home to an assortment of creatures. The following is an (incomplete) list of beasts that inhabit the forest:
- A herd of at least 50 Centaurs, including Bane, Magorian, Ronan, and Firenze.
- Werewolves, according to Draco Malfoy and Mr Filch (unlikely, considering the nature of werewolves).
- A colony of Acromantulas, the late Aragog and his family, which may have been wiped out by Death Eaters.
- Trolls (according to Tom Riddle).
- Unicorns
- Thestrals
- Bowtruckles
- Fluffy, a three-headed dog who was released into the forest after the events of Philosopher's Stone.
- Mr Weasley's enchanted Ford Anglia.
- Grawp, a "small" giant, lived in the Forest during Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore later arranged for him to move up to the mountains surrounding Hogwarts and live in a big cave, where he is "much happier than he was in the Forest".
- Blood-Sucking BugBear, according to Hagrid in Chamber of Secrets.
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