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Snape's protection of the Philosopher's Stone had a note which said that a wizard couldn't get out if he didn't have logic to drink right potion.

The purple and black fires were only blocking the front and back doors. Couldn't a powerful wizard simply burst through sideways or escape via top or bottom?

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  • Was the fire possibly Fiendfyre? It would take an unbelievable amount of magic to escape that kind of fire. ETA: I suppose it would depend on whether Fiendfyre is ever purple and/or black, which I don't think Fiendfyre was described as being. Hmm, I'm not sure what kind of fire Snape used. :) – Slytherincess Nov 14 '14 at 17:28
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    Are you assuming that the walls, ceiling, and floor were just plain old stone with no magical protection whatsoever? – Red_Shadow Nov 14 '14 at 17:31
  • I always had the impression that it was a small room with just the two exits, the front and the back door – user13267 Nov 14 '14 at 17:32
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Presumably you could also tunnel into the room, if it's ground-level. If not, you could also presumably break through any of the walls connecting to the room.

However, we should also presume that since this is a safe room that the walls ought to have some kind of protection.

None are explicitly stated, but Hogwarts would be a poor choice to place the stone for protection if the walls were so easy to break through.

And, if it were that easy, this would mark a flaw for every challenge presented on the way to the Philosopher's Stone.

The point of the protection, after all, is not that it keeps you out by brute force, but that if someone does try to break in, people will find out before they get past the protection placed on the stone. There are enough powerful wizards in Hogwarts that trying to blast through the walls would almost certainly alert someone to the presence of an intruder, if by nothing else than the sheer sound of the blast.

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  • The intruder could muffle the sound though :P – BMWurm Nov 15 '14 at 14:13
  • @BMWurm Of an explosion? How? – Zibbobz Nov 15 '14 at 14:18
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    Well, the sound of two fighting house-elves could be masked via Muffliato, silencing charms exist for animals, so I thought it possible that some evil-doer could mask the noise of an admittedly sizeable explosion, because it is happening rather deep down. – BMWurm Nov 16 '14 at 15:02
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    @BMWurm Fair point. I still maintain it would be something that would at least get spotted though. – Zibbobz Nov 16 '14 at 20:31

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