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Throughout the series, the Room of Requirement has provided many things, all "according to the seeker's needs". From chamber pots to makeshift dueling clubs to hidden storeroom, the Room of Requirement has done it all.

Where do these items come from?

I know that the Room of Hidden Things (one version of the Room of Requirement) takes all its content from items hidden there by its users, but the origin of the rest of the contents is murky.

Are these items conjured by the room itself, which for all intents and purposes seems sentient, or are they pulled from elsewhere in the school?

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I would agree that the Room of Requirement is sentient; otherwise, how would it know what a person needs, or whether it was a genuine need or just a want?

I believe the room represents an example of advanced transfiguration. It is possible to conjure items from thin air, as we see McGonagall do when she conjures a fan to waft (the petrified) Nearly Headless Nick from the second floor corridor in Chamber of Secrets.

In Deathly Hallows, when the trio meets up with Dumbledore's Army in the Room of Requirement, Neville notes that the one thing the room cannot give them is food (which is why the DA has been relying on help from Aberforth Dumbledore). Ron affirms this, saying that conjuring food is one of the five exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration.

I think this suggests the magic related to the Room of Requirement at the very least includes transfiguration. I think it quite heavily does rely on transfiguration.

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  • Dumbledore also seemed to have a knack for drawing chairs out of thin air as we see at Christmas dinner in PoA and at Harry's hearing in OotP. Conjuration seems to be rather advanced magic because we only see skilled wizards using it, but certainly possible. My question is how does the sorting hat's ability to conjure the sword relate? Obviously that takes the sword away from wherever it is and is different magic. If you needed the sword of Gryffindor from the room, would it summon it from wherever it was?
    – Sheph
    Mar 12, 2013 at 16:17
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I think that RoR is 'quasi-sentient' (much like wands appear to be). I agree with a Slytherin in that the room represents an example of advanced transfiguration/conjuration but since the Room isn't a person it takes blueprints for everything it makes from objects within the castle. It's not unlikely that it supplements this by borrowing functional stuff from the Room of Hidden Things.

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  • But wouldn't taking things from the Room of Hidden Things invalidate the whole "hiding stuff" part of that Room?
    – Steam
    Mar 13, 2013 at 12:36
  • It was just a guess. Again, RoR might just use the 'hidden stuff'as a template or it could be transfiguring them temporarily to save time. Besides, ANYONE using the Room to hide their stuff invalidates the whole 'über-hiding-place' property of the Room because they (as many others before them) found it and could, potentially,take any stuff with them. Also, anyone using the Room for nonhiding purposes may just assume that any hidden object is just another conjuration.
    – Fen1ks
    Mar 13, 2013 at 16:36

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