What's the deal with the RoR?

[emmagrant01]

I've noticed a tendency in HP fanfic to use the Room of Requirement (RoR) as a sort of holodeck. If your boys need a place to shag, the RoR magically provides a king-sized bed. If they're into anything kinky, the RoR will provide any necessary equipment, as well. Now this is all in good fun, of course, and I don't want anyone to think they can't write the RoR that way. (At least the number of fics in which Dumbledore conspires to get two characters together has decreased dramatically, as it seems the RoR plays the role of benevolent matchmaker now.)

But what I'm wondering about is this: what the deal is with the RoR in canon? It seems like something that could be abused rather easily. I'm sure JKR will enlighten us at some point in the distant future when that next book comes out, but for now, I have some questions:



1) What is the RoR, really?
2) Is it really the case that it will provide anyone with anything they require? (If so, we'd best hope Voldemort doesn't find out about it.)
3) In OOTP, the DA members stand near the entrance and think about what they want to use the room for, and the RoR provides them with what it thinks they need. So, is it sentient? Would it ever refuse a request? Would it get a request wrong? How does it make those decisions?
4) Does anyone, living or dead, control the RoR? It seems to be on Dumbledore's side, so does it simply reflect the wishes of the headmaster (as the literal king of the castle), or does he control it more directly? If so, would that mean Dumbledore knows what happens in that room?
5) Can the RoR provide things other than materials needed? That is, if Harry stood by the door and thought about talking to his parents, would the RoR provide them? If he stood there and thought about wanting to shag Malfoy, would he open the door to find Draco waiting for him? And would it really be Draco, or... something else?



I'm going to stop before I'm smothered by plot bunnies. Oh, and I know I could have searched through the HP for Grownups archives, but... I'm lazy. I'm also more interested in the views of fanfic writers, at the moment. What do you think?

Comments

[melody2tds.livejournal.com]

i think i recall one of the prerequisites being that there had to be a real NEED for the room and whatever it would provide. That's why they had to stand in that corridor and think strongly about what they needed the room for. If there wasn't a real need for it, the room simply wouldn't show up. The door wouldn't appear, and they wouldn't be able to use it for whatever they thought they needed it for.
For example, if someone needed a bath really badly, it probably wouldn't work, since there is already several places they could go to find one, without the ROR being necessary. Unless they needed a private bath for some specific reason, and they weren't a prefect. or, as in the case dumbledore used, they weren't going to make it to the bathroom, and would be put in an embarassing position...lol
So dumbledore got his chamber pots, and the DA got their training space.

[melody2tds.livejournal.com]

that's what i meant. you would assume that the chamber pot room appeared because it would be more than a little embarrassing for the Headmaster to go wandering the halls of his school after having had an 'accident'. so, since it was a real NEED, the room provided.
I would think that if someone absolutely HAD to have sex right that very second, a compulsion or something along those lines, then the room would work for it.
but just needing a private place so that you dont get caught making out, wouldn't be a need. know what i mean?

[mizbean.livejournal.com]

I realized after I posted my comment that you had already mentioned the chamber pots, then I deleted my comment before realizing you had answered my post. D'oh! *need to stop speed-reading other people's comments before posting*

To desire to prevent someone from wetting oneself is probably a compelling enough need for the RoR to be satisfied.

[melody2tds.livejournal.com]

that's what i figured when i saw your was gone when mine went up. it's ok. i do the same thing all the damn time. lol

[zhonnika.livejournal.com]

Well, personally I thought OMG NO when she made a room like that. It's just BEGGING for smutfics to be written about it. I mean, more so than the Astronomy Tower ever could. I agree with melody2tds in that you'd only get it if you couldn't get it anywhere else.

But that is cracking me up for some reason. Draco being all omgwtfno!! as he's flung from the dungeons into a dimly-lit room complete with a bed =)) And Harry's all *score!*

Sorry, feeling silly.

[serasarahhhh.livejournal.com]

rofl! omg, someone totally needs to write a fic like that. Now you've got me laughing! ^__^

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

*beats bunnies away with stick*

God, that's exactly the sort of fic I had in mind too! :-P

[mizbean.livejournal.com]

My question is what if two different parties wanted the RoR at the same time. Is the second one to get there SOL? I started over thinking this when I was re-reading OotP. I assume the staff knows about it, Dobby and Winky know about, all the D.A. members know about it and maybe even Draco and company know about having stumbled on the D.A. leaving. What's to stop Zacharias Smith to use to snog his girlfriend (or practice fencing)? And then what happens if, at the same time, Dumbledore is ambling by needing to take a piss again. Would the room not appear? An occupied sign appear?

I like you third point -- Would it ever refuse a request? What if the Inquisitor Squad needed a place to practice the Dark Arts, would it comply? That I find interesting.

[aiglet.livejournal.com]

Well, there's at least some implication that the castle is sentient, so it's possible that the castle does have some sort of control over the RoR and who gets it and what's in it -- unless the RoR is a sort of mini-entity within the castle, like a mitochondrion or something.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Arggh! My fandoms are all intersecting! ;-)

[aloria.livejournal.com]

Completely not based on canon, but I've always gotten the impression that stuff doesn't just appear in the RoR but that it's transported from different parts of the castle. For example, the books DA uses could have been taken from the library. Of course, that could be the physicist in me rebelling against the idea of extra matter being created out of thin air. ;)

I would say that Dumbledore must not know that all that happens in the RoR because of what he said about accidentally coming across the chamber pots, but Dumbledore is rather devious, and Hermione at least seems to think he said that deliberately. I can imagine Dumbledore lying/obscuring the truth about some things, but he also says in that passage, "Oh I would never dream of assuming I know all Hogwarts' secrets," and I imagine that, at least, is true.

Interesting Implication

[eristeleute.livejournal.com]

I've always gotten the impression that stuff doesn't just appear in the RoR but that it's transported from different parts of the castle.

As a fellow science-geek, I agree with this analysis.

However...

This has *amazing* implications for the current fanfic! If everything in that room is exchanged with or borrowed from another place - particularly somewhere else in the castle - that implies that all the kinky toys magically appearing for the boys are actually borrowed from somewhere someone else inside the castle.

I bet those stories are twice as entertaining when considering that the sex toys or shackles or whatever else are borrowed from another student or teacher. :D Snape? The Slytherins? The Weasley twins? Dumbledore?.... LOL. So many possibilities! And can you imagine what happens when someone sees it disappear? (Or, better yet, had it disappear while in use?) ;) ROFL.

Re: Interesting Implication

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Wow. That is interesting! I guess I'd always thought the objects in the RoR were conjured, and then just went away to wherever conjured objects go when they disappear. I know I've read an explanation of conjuring from JKR somewhere, but now I can't remember where. It seemed to imnply that objects could indeed be created out of thin air (so to speak), but that they weren't permanent.

But the idea that the room just "borrows" them is also very iinteresting. What if someone else was using them at the time? Wouldn't that mean the RoR had "decided" someone else needed it more? Based on what?

And you're right -- the implications for fanfic are pretty staggering...

*beats away bunnies*

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Ahahah, omg the crackfic bunnies... I really don't have time to be writing random crackfic right now, but gah. I want to.

Re: Interesting Implication

[aloria.livejournal.com]

Being a science-geek, you might enjoy my post (http://www.livejournal.com/users/aloria/8100.html#comments). I obviously got to thinking WAAAAY to much on this during my boring physics recitation.

*snort* Oh gosh, I love it. I'll admit myself to using the RoR in my fic (or, at least, in the outline of my soon-to-be-written Neville fic), but in an entirely necessary, non-deliberately-smutty way. *wink* Anyway, I imagine this concept will make poorly written RoR!smutfic everywhere suddenly bearable.

[oh-contraire.livejournal.com]

I always had that impression, and wasn't sure whether it was canon or fanon or my inner physics student *g*, but on rereading, it appears it is canon. Kind of. In a really subtle way.

p.346 OotP UK Edn:
'The walls were lined with wooden bookcases and instead of chairs there were large silk cushions on the floor. A set of shelves at the far end of the room carried a range of instruments such as Sneakoscopes, Secrecy Sensors and a large, cracked Foe-Glass that Harry was sure had hung, the previous year, in the fake Moody's office.'

In via daily_snitch, incidentally... :)