Student Store Cupboard

• Type: Storeroom
• Location: Hogwarts dungeons, adjacent to the Potions classroom
• Owner/Residents: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; maintained by the resident Potions Master
• Key Features: Contains a general supply of common and standard Potions ingredients for student use during classes.

The student store cupboard is a functional storeroom located within the Hogwarts Potions classroom. It serves as the primary, accessible repository for ingredients that students are permitted to use for their practical work. The cupboard is stocked with a wide variety of common magical flora, fauna parts, and other substances necessary for brewing the potions assigned in the curriculum. This general supply cupboard is distinct from the Potions Master's private stores. The private stores, located in the Potions Master's office, contain rarer, more expensive, and often more dangerous ingredients that are kept under lock and key. For instance, in their second year, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley had to steal Bicorn horn and shredded Boomslang skin from Severus Snape's private stores for the Polyjuice Potion, as such items were not available in the general student cupboard. The day-to-day management and replenishment of the student store cupboard's contents are the responsibility of the Potions Master, such as Severus Snape and later Horace Slughorn.

The student store cupboard plays its most significant role in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Its primary function in the narrative is to provide Harry Potter with a crucial, unexpected advantage.

• Winning the Felix Felicis: During Horace Slughorn's first Potions class, students are challenged to brew a flawless Draught of Living Death. While others struggled with the complex instructions, Harry used the handwritten notes in his copy of Advanced Potion-Making. When the instructions called for an antidote, instead of brewing one, Harry remembered the properties of a Bezoar. He ran to the student store cupboard, retrieved a Bezoar, and presented it to Slughorn as a perfect, all-purpose antidote. This clever shortcut won him the vial of Felix Felicis, a prize that proved vital later in the school year for obtaining a critical memory from Slughorn.
• Source of Illicit Ingredients: The cupboard is also mentioned as a potential source for ingredients used outside of class. Harry Potter speculates that Cormac McLaggen likely sourced the pound of Doxy eggs he ate for a bet from the store cupboard. Similarly, Ron Weasley suggests that Romilda Vane might have stolen ingredients from the stores to brew the Love Potion she intended for Harry. These instances highlight that while the cupboard contains standard ingredients, it is not perfectly secure from determined students.