Artefact Room

Artefact Room
Location information
Location	Hogwarts Castle
Affiliation	The students and staff of Hogwarts

The Artefact Room was a small storage facility off the Entrance Hall of Hogwarts Castle. Said to hold all sorts of untold treasures and, according to Jacob's sibling, unidentifiable odours, in it was an assortment of magical artefacts that had been placed there by teachers and students for, as of the 1980s, at least half a millennium. There are also human skulls in the room, which Gryffindor House Ghost, Sir Nicholas, alleged was deceased friends of his and former occupants of the castle. It was most notably used by Professor Fortinbras to store clue leading to the research her co-conspirator, Professor Bartholomew, did into the fabled Cursed Vaults, and later when the younger sibling of an expelled student by the name of Jacob retrieved it in their quest to find their brother, after he had run away from home and mysteriously disappeared.

Description

Only slightly bigger than a broom cupboard, it is a small, square room with a high ceiling. Dimly lit by a lantern hanging from the ceiling and narrow streams of sunshine (or moonlight) getting in from two windows with closed shutters on the right wall. Even so, it was not so well lit that those using it occasionally had to resort to the Wand-Lighting Charm to find what they were looking for.

Left wall

To the left of the door, the wall was largely covered by a large wooden cabinet with ten small doors, on top of which stacks of parchments had been stowed away. Just next two it, something that resembled a rolled-up carpet of some kind was leaning against the wall next to a couple of old chalkboards, one of which appeared to have once been used by the Transfiguration department. Under them, there was two loose books with light brown covers. In the left corner, there was a very large woven basket that holding an assortment of parchment scrolls piled on top of one another, against which there was leaning an obelisk engraved with Egyptian hieroglyphs, and just in front of it, a barrel was lying on its side, holding several small scrolls of parchment.

Centre wall

The wall on the far end of the room from the entrance were lined with shelves, most of which are covered by white, dusty draping, underneath which several baskets might be glimpsed. On the lower shelf, there is a human skull wearing pink earmuffs, which supposedly was one of the past acquaintances of the Gryffindor House Ghost. Next to it, there was yet even more scrolls of parchment, two of which were still on the shelf and three that had fallen down onto the floor. The shelves had a lot of claw marks on them, suggesting some kind of animal had been in the room and wreaked havoc at some point.

Right wall

At the right corner of the room, there were a barrel standing right next to the shelf. A few (apparently unused) frames for painted portraits was leaning against it, and one third of the lower part of the wall was full of small wooden stools surrounding a chest on top of which someone had sacked a small bunch of books. Two tall windows cover much of the wall. Another human skull rested in the windowsills of the one closes to the door, In the right corner closest to the door, there two large barrels on top of each other, on top which there had been placed the skull of a dinosaur-like magical creature. Three books also laid on the floor next to them.

History

Past usage

At some point between the 15th and 19th centuries, a circle of trust formed between members of the faculty and a group of students, who researched the fabled Cursed Vaults in the shared hope of locating them and putting a stop to the threat they posed to the safety of the school once and for all.

Two of these conspirators were the Charms professor at the time, Fortinbras, and the Potions professor, Bartholomew, who chronicled their research into the Vaults, including their fears and suspicions, and left them behind in written form, hidden in plain sight in their old classrooms.

Fortinbras knew that their work could be dangerous in the wrong hands, and she grew distrustful of those around her, with the exception of her closest confidante, Bartholomew. Fortinbras went to some lengths to hide his involvement in these activities, leaving only subtle clues for those who came after her about what she knew of the Vaults inside her folio. This forced whoever wanted to use their research to locate an artefact she had hidden in the Artefact Room before they could learn Bartholomew's identity and, by extension, the hiding place for the rune-engraved beaker he had left behind.

1984–1985 school year

Met with much whispering of their brother's expulsion upon the start of their own magical education at Hogwarts and suspected of potentially be planning on going down a similar path, when the hostility of fellow first year Merula Snyde displayed from their first meeting early on in the 1984–1985 school year escalated into an all out assault when the Slytherin student in question accosted Jacob's younger sibling with a Knockback Jinx while the latter was playing gobstones in the Clock Tower Courtyard with friend and classmate Rowan Khanna.

Upon learning this, the Prefect of their house, ever the diligent trustee, told the new two housemates that the three of them were to meet at the Training Grounds at a scheduled time, where the recent arrivals was offered tutelage on how to duel in order for them to be able to defend themselves against any future attempts from Snyde to attack them. Jacob's sibling readily accepted, and the Prefect sent them to the Artefact Room to retrieve a secret duelling book left in the room. While looking for the book, Jacob's sibling noticed how someone apparently had broken all the locks on the cabinets and found claw marks on a nearby shelf, both of which they found to be curious. After they found the book, they returned to the Training Grounds to talk to the Prefect.

1985-1986 school year

It is known that Ben Copper spent quite some time in this room.

Jacob's sibling searched this room for one of the ingredients to the Fire-Breathing Potion in the quest to help rescue his puppy Fang from Devil's Snare.

Objects found in the room

• The secret duelling book of one of the four houses.
• A book on the topic of Apparition.
• A shopping list.
• A chalkboard from Transfiguration class.
• Numerous scrolls of parchment.
• A barrel with soup in it.
• An Egyptian obelisk, which Jacob's sibling theorised might have been brought to Hogwarts by Curse-Breakers from an Egyptian tomb.
• A "fascinating scroll on the behaviour of Flesh-Eating Slugs".
• Powdered Dragon Horn.
• A dull dagger.
• Three bat-shaped earrings,
• A sack of deformed pixie skulls.
• Cobwebs.
• Three half-eaten Acid Pops.
• A Black Quill.

Appearances

• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery