Hogwarts Restricted Section

The Restricted Section was an area in the Hogwarts Library, closed off by a rope. Books in this section might have been rare, valuable, and/or considered inappropriate for younger students, thus why it was restricted.
Students might only check out a book from this section if they had a note of permission from a teacher. The librarian would then retrieve the book for the student.
==History==
===Early known history===
The Restricted Section used to have books about Horcruxes, including Secrets of the Darkest Art. However by Tom Riddle's time at the school in the 1940s, it was a banned subject and Albus Dumbledore was very strict about it. He eventually had every book about Horcruxes taken out of the section at an unknown date, before June 1997. It was later suspected that Riddle found the method to make a Horcrux in the book before Dumbledore removed it from the library.
===1980s===
In the 1987–1988 school year, Rita Skeeter and Jacob's sibling entered the Restricted Section. During the meeting, Rita shared her view towards the Restricted Section, believing it was nothing less than a repository for Dark Magic, going as far as saying that it might as well just have been called an armoury, given the number of tomes that would have potentially catastrophic consequences should they fall into the wrong hands.
===1990s===
During the 1991–1992 school year, Harry Potter used his newly-acquired Invisibility cloak to sneak into the Restricted Section during the Christmas holidays. He went at night in order to look for information on Nicolas Flamel, in order to discover Flamel's connection to the Philosopher's Stone. Unfortunately, he picked up a large black book near the bottom of the shelf that began screaming when he opened it. Worried that he would attract unwanted attention, Harry closed the book and ran out of the library.During the 1992–1993 school year, Hermione Granger entered the Restricted Section using an autograph from Gilderoy Lockhart, who was the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor that year, though the librarian Madam Pince made extra sure of the note, as though suspecting forgery. Inside, she found Moste Potente Potions, which contained instructions on brewing Polyjuice Potion. Hermione subsequently made the advanced Potion, facilitating Harry and Ron Weasley disguising themselves as Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe and entering the Slytherin Dungeon to question Draco Malfoy about the Heir of Slytherin.During 1994–1995 school year, Harry Potter received Minerva McGonagall's permission to enter the Restricted Section so he could research a way about being able to breathe underwater for an hour to compete in the second task of the Triwizard Tournament, but was unable to find anything useful from any of the books.By the 1996–1997 school year, according to Hermione Granger, she had "been right through the restricted section" in the hopes of looking for information on Horcruxes, but not finding much on the subject matter.
==Known books==
Moste Potente Potions.jpg|Moste Potente Potions
Secrets of the Darkest Art.jpg|Secrets of the Darkest Art
Library book PS.gif|Shrieking book
*Famous Fire-Eaters - Chapter 22 (Cloaked in Darkness)
*Fifteenth-Century Fiends
==Behind the scenes==
*Tom Riddle, obsessed with immortality even as a student, may have went into the Restricted Section to research any possibility of achieving such a feat. The section had a book once, the Secrets of the Darkest Art, about the concept and creation of Horcruxes. However, if he had searched in the section, he could not have found any documents on the possibility of creating more than one Horcrux, as no wizard in history before him had even attempted such a feat.In , Dumbledore thought that Tom knew how to create Horcruxes, but that he just wanted to know whether it was possible to create seven because "no book could have given him that information". In , Hermione had taken books about Horcruxes that Dumbledore "removed", and that she would "bet Voldemort got all the instruction he needed from here". Harry agreed that it "could" be "where he got the information". 
**Dumbledore thought he feigned a lack of understanding about Horcruxes when he asked Horace Slughorn for an opinion on the matter. However, the school had banned the subject of Horcruxes by then and Dumbledore was very strict about it. - "a banned subject at Hogwarts, you know ... Dumbledore's particularly fierce about it ..." He eventually removed every book that had information on Horcruxes but it's unknown when. It may be because of Riddle but it's unconfirmed. These books were kept in his office until Hermione Granger took the books when she tried a simple Summoning Charm after he was killed.
*The Astronomy Tower and the chamber where the Mirror of Erised is stored are located behind the Restricted Section. Argus Filch and his cat Mrs Norris guard the section.
*In , the Moste Potente Potions book was found in the regular section of the library, rather than requiring Lockhart's permission for the Restricted Section.
*In the book, The Restricted Section is mentioned to be separated from the main library by a rope. In the film adaptation, however, there are two gated doors as an entrance.
*Fans have theorised about the possibility that after students reach a certain age, they no longer need a signed note to access the Restricted Section, basing on the notion that Hermione claimed to have gone through the Restricted Section when researching about Horcruxes, and that "it is unlikely any professor would give her a note to research a banned subject at Hogwarts," hence "it is likely she didn't need one".
==Appearances==
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==Notes and references==
Category:Hogwarts Restricted Section