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A Trip Through Hogwarts:
A Small Bathroom Break
by Luna Lovegood
August 19, 2004
Hogwarts - such a magical place. Well, of course you all know this since you have visited on occasion - in spirit at least. I can still remember floating towards it that first time. In the beginning everything seemed so monstrous, and many of us did get very lost between the many moving staircases, changing corridors, and numerous trick stairs. A witch or wizard could never flounce through the halls of Hogwarts without paying heed to where one was going - that could just be dangerous. Just as an example: between the fifth and six floor corridors, between the hours of 2am and 3am, when that staircase moves from the north side to the west, if you hop from the 12th step to the 14th on both feet like a bunny, then you get transported in time to the previous day. I find this very useful when one of those retched days comes along.
Those ghastly days do come often; one double period down in Professor Snape's dungeons will make sure of that. It's always dark, wet, freezing, and often a tall, strange hook-nosed man will hover around you. But then there are other rooms such as the Charms' classroom, which can brighten any day. Just down the hall is a room whose stiff wooden chairs reflect the strict atmosphere of the Transfiguration classroom - perhaps too much like its owner. Yet then there are other rooms not involved with classes such as the room of requirement, the trophy room, the hospital wing, Library, and the prefect's bathroom.
The prefect's bathroom, while seemingly innocent in the respect of importance, is a very significant room. All students have their bad days, as I mentioned before, and think of those poor prefects whose job it is to take on responsibility for preserving the discipline at Hogwarts. It is no wonder these students need a place to relax and shrug off the rigors of the day. Which is just the reason why these prefects get their own magnificent bathrooms, and really, no one could explain them better than JKR herself:
His immediate reaction was that it would be worth becoming a prefect just to be able to use this bathroom. It was softly lit by a splendid candle-filled chandelier, and everything was made of white marble, including what looked like an empty, rectangular swimming pool sunk into the middle of the floor. About a hundred golden taps stood all around the pool's edges, each with a different colored jewel set into its handle. There was also a diving board. Long white linens curtains hung at the windows; a large pile of fluffy white towels sat in one corner, and there was a sing gold-framed painting on the wall. It features a blonde mermaid who was fast asleep on a rock, her long hair over her face.
(Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Scholastic Paperback, page 459)
This is quite a bathroom - I'm sure you'd all agree to that. It would appear that all non-prefects have no idea about the existence of this special privilege that the prefects get. I'm sure that if they did know, then there would be an uproar, or at least more competition to become a prefect. Take this for an example: If Patil and Lavendar knew about these prefect bathrooms, I'm convinced they would have attacked the books with as much vitality as the dedication they have for their hair and nail follicles. How could a room this great be so unknown throughout the student body?
At first glance it would just seem that these prefects are just incredibly good at keeping secrets. However, Cedric (RIP) would prove this wrong. Cedric was a prefect, and an honourable person, and not to mention could have been the tri-wizard winner. If Cedric was able to tell Harry about the bathroom it means two things: one, there are no spells set up to discourage prefects from telling others since Cedric was in no way affected (i.e. unable of speech); and two, it is very possible that if Cedric is telling Harry, then other prefects have also told.
Harry was very fortunate that no one else was in the prefect's bathroom when he took his visit. It was after hours, so it would be assumed that the upstanding prefects would follow all rules, yet look at Ron who is a prefect; he hardly ever follows the rules, so there is always the exception. But what if it was earlier in the day? Does this room have special features, besides a simple lock, to let only one person use the facilities at a time? And if so, wouldn't that mean a lot of unhappy prefects standing in queue waiting for the bathroom to free up? It seems like a waste for such a large bathroom to be occupied by only one person at a time, so this previous thought of 'one at a time' seems highly unlikely. And if this 'one at a time' theory is in fact wrong, does that mean witches and wizards are allowed to bathe at the same time? We only know of this one bathroom, so would Dumbledore trust a bunch of hormone-driven teenagers to be alone, unsupervised in a luxurious room? If Moaning Myrtle, a girl ghost, is able to get into the prefect's bathroom, it is a clear indicator that the room is in fact for the male and female prefects - it is simply called the prefect's bathroom, not the male prefect's bathroom. Any charm placed on the bathroom would have prevented Moaning Myrtle from entering.
If this is the case, does Dumbledore have something up his sleeve to monitor what is happening? It is hypothesized that Dumbledore knows all going-ons in Hogwarts through the many people in the paintings whom report back to his office. This would explain the need for the long blonde-haired mermaid painting in the prefect's bathroom, not to mention the many paintings plastered on every wall of Hogwarts.
Dumbledore would know all secrets, but we, as the reader, certainly do not. A person would think that since Ron and Hermione were both prefects in OotP that we'd get the scoop on their special bathrooms, yet it never made an appearance. Were Ron and Hermione trying to keep something secret from Harry? The bathroom would provide a perfect place to relax - maybe get to know a person better, and definitely provide a place for the two to escape the brooding Harry. Harry, at this point, does not have access to the bathroom and hasn't seen it since his fourth year given that Ron and Hermione have conveniently not brought it up. Harry could easily attribute the lack of mention to the pair not wanting to rub in their prefect status.
The future of the prefect bathroom is unclear. Are witches and wizards allowed in at the same time, and if so, is Dumbledore insane? Will secrets soon come out involving Ron and Hermione? Will Harry finally get prefect privileges in the next few years? Will Moaning Myrtle continue to spy on prefects? And lastly, if the pool consisted of bubbles that don't break easily, then wouldn't it make it hard to drain it out? Yes, about as clear as mud.
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