Hogwarts Legacy players can mount House-Elf heads in the Room of Requirement, for some reason

Hogwarts Legacy is an open-world adventure game set in the Harry Potter world, and fans worldwide are jumping into this magical world to spend their day as Hogwarts students. There are multiple iconic locations to visit in the game, and players will eventually learn about the Room of Requirement. This location often appears in books and movies and becomes a site players can freely decorate. One extremely unusual item players use to adorn their walls are House-Elf heads.

The House-Elf heads are an optional decoration item players can unlock exploring Hogwarts Legacy. When they find the decoration, they can bring that back to the Room of Requirement and pick where they want to place them. It feels like an extremely morbid and horrible practice, given that a House-Elf in the game, Deek, teaches players how to use the room and its magic. It’s important to note these head mounts are statues, but they’re still unsettling.

House-Elfs have a troubled history in the Harry Potter series, as they are servants to wizards, and some of the more notorious characters in the series typically mistreat them. Although the relationship between Deek and Professor Weasley in Hogwarts Legacy is a positive one, it’s hard not to think how he might feel when we’re placing up multiple House-Elf statues throughout the Room of Requirement.

These types of decorations are not required, and because finding these unlockable items can be difficult, some players may never discover them. Regardless, it’s an odd thing to make appear in a game, especially considering there’s already enough controversy surrounding the author of the book series, J.K. Rowling, who has repeatedly shared transphobic and hateful rhetoric on her social media account, which has led to the developers are doing their best to separate themselves from her as often as possible.

Despite many fans choosing not to purchase the game, Hogwarts Legacy continues to do exceptionally well, breaking half a million concurrent players on Steam before the game officially launches on February 10.