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In the Harry Potter series, Harry always gets his hands on the rarest and unique magical items of the wizarding world:

  • He saw the Mirror of Erised,
  • He found the Philosopher's Stone,
  • The Sword of Gryffindor appears to him,
  • He owns the Marauder's Map,
  • He used a Time-Turner with the help of Hermione (we know that many Time-Turners exist, but it still rare),
  • He saw the Veil in the Ministry of Magic
  • He benefits from the use of the Deluminator, which is possessed by Ron,
  • He took the eye of Mad-Eye Moody (and buried it under a tree, but still),
  • He possessed all the Deathly Hallows and keeps one (the cloak),
  • He found the Horcruxes, and some of them were precious relics,
  • ...

Is there any rare and powerful magical object that Harry has never seen, but exists in the series' lore ?

Valorum
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Professeur Dronte
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    There are probably lots, but they wouldn't have been mentioned if Harry didn't come into contact with them. – Anthony Grist Aug 16 '18 at 12:05
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    What exactly is your definition of "rare"? There's probably some kind of a wizards' museum somewhere, with such unique things, but the fact that they would be public don't make them "rare" in that case? – Jenayah Aug 16 '18 at 12:06
  • Also, is this strictly limited to items, or do living creatures count? Because you could argue that he met arguably rare ones (Fluffy much?), on the other hand, not so much of the Lovegoods' bestiary. – Jenayah Aug 16 '18 at 12:10
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    @ Anthony: we know some magical events (from Binn's classes, for example), people (choco frog cards and wizarding society ) and plenty creatures that have no specific role or even appears in the story, why not magical objects ? @Jenyaha : some objects that's quite unique and powerful. A remembrall is not, a stone that gives eternal life is. My question concerns magical objects, not creatures (there's a lot of creatures that Harry never met, just read Fantastic beasts and where to find them, you'll see) – Professeur Dronte Aug 16 '18 at 12:17
  • I found at least one that would be provably never seen by Harry, since it was “disposed of” long before Harry was born! – Obsidia Aug 16 '18 at 16:47
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    @Bellatrix : which one ? :) – Professeur Dronte Aug 16 '18 at 17:01
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    @ProfesseurDronte I’m hoping to get your question reopened so I can put it in an answer! :) If it doesn’t, I’ll tell you in a comment, but I’m hoping it does so I can write up a proper answer. ;) – Obsidia Aug 16 '18 at 17:10
  • You might consider reframing the question as "What is the most powerful object that Harry has never seen but was mentioned prior to the release of the final HP movie on television?" That gets around the proving a negative criticism. Most powerful can be argued, but it is more concrete than the borderline between rare and not rare. And most importantly it switches this from an open-ended question which might have any number of answers to one which has one unique answer. In particular, limiting it to a timeframe means that the answer won't keep changing. – Brythan Aug 16 '18 at 18:02
  • harry has never seen an invisibility cloak. – Clint Eastwood Aug 16 '18 at 18:57
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    I'm really sorry, but I can't see where my question "opinion-based ". There is no such thing as "we can imagine that Harry found the precious flying boots of Merlin or whatever during some untold events". If there is a rare magical object that Harrry never saw in the books, he did saw it. That's all. (excepts if mentioned on Pottermore). It could be a thing that many people saw, but not Harry. An ancient thing that doesn't exist anymore. Something in a country that Harry never visits in the books. I don't know! – Professeur Dronte Aug 16 '18 at 19:01
  • @Clint Eastwood : well, Harry's invisibility cloak is an invisibility cloak, even if it's the most effective one. Plus, Harry saw an ordinary one in the trunk of Mad-Eye Moody at the end of the 4th book : "Dumbledore closed the trunk, placed a second key in the second lock, and opened the trunk again. The spellbooks had vanished; this time it contained an assortment of broken Sneako-scopes, some parchment and quills, and what looked like a silvery Invisibility Cloak." (Chapter 35: Veritaserum). – Professeur Dronte Aug 16 '18 at 19:15
  • @Clint Eastwood : and it's not Harry's cloak : https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/180456/is-there-more-than-one-invisibility-cloak-in-the-hp-world – Professeur Dronte Aug 16 '18 at 19:16
  • This question was never answered. Although inviting different answers, this is a yes/no answer. "Yes, there are rare, magical items harry has never seen" or "No, there aren't rare, magical items Harry has never seen". The only place some opinion is required is what "rare" is, in which case the word "unique" would seem to suffice. I've left my upvote. – Edlothiad Aug 17 '18 at 05:08

2 Answers2

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Harry would never have seen Salazar Slytherin’s wand.

Salazar Slytherin’s wand is one rare magical object that Harry wouldn’t have interacted with. We know from the JKR Pottermore writing on Ilvermorny that Salazar Slytherin’s wand had been passed down for centuries to members of his family, and that his wand had a basilisk horn core (which would be a quite rare wand core since basilisks were rare and dangerous creatures).

In all the years that she had lived with it, Isolt had never known that she held in her hand the wand of Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders of Hogwarts, and that it contained a fragment of a magical snake’s horn: in this case, a Basilisk. The wand had been taught by its creator to ‘sleep’ when so instructed, and this secret had been handed down through the centuries to each member of Slytherin’s family who possessed it.
- Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Pottermore)

During what would be sometime in the seventeenth century (Isolt was born in 1603 and Ilvermorny was founded in the seventeenth century), Isolt buried this wand outside the grounds of Ilvermorny.

Slytherin’s wand remained inactive following Gormlaith’s command in Parseltongue. Isolt could not speak the language, but, in any case, she no longer wanted to touch the wand that was the last relic of her unhappy childhood. She and James buried it outside the grounds.
- Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Pottermore)

It likely didn’t stay as a wand underground - a tree grew from where it was buried, and the implication seems to be that the wand itself somehow sprouted into this unusual tree.

Within a year an unknown species of snakewood tree had grown out of the earth on the spot where the wand was buried. It resisted all attempts to prune or kill it, but after several years the leaves were found to contain powerful medicinal properties.
- Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Pottermore)

Since this wand had been buried and became a tree hundreds of years before Harry was born, (and of course we never see Harry have anything to do with it in the seven books), it’s a reasonable conclusion that Harry would have never have seen or interacted with Salazar Slytherin’s wand. By the time he was born, it’s been a tree for centuries - the wand no longer exists as a wand.

Obsidia
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This question cannot be answered as it is attempting to provide proof of a negative.

We know from non-Potter related material (ie: Fantastic Beasts) that there is, for instance, a magical trunk which provides a large pocket of extra-dimensional space.

But do we know whether Harry has definitively never seen this? Of course not.

To answer this question, there would first need to be a definitive 100% complete list of all "rare" magical items in existence or ever in existence (after all, time travel is possible and used in two different Potter stories), and then with that list we'd need definitive answers confirming that Potter had never seen them.

The Evil Greebo
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    This question cannot be answered as it is attempting to provide proof of a negative. agree to disagree, with the sheer volume of JKR interviews for instance, there might be one with "-Did Harry ever know of item X? -No, he never ever encountered one". Might be true for other universes, less true for the giga-expanded one that is HP. – Jenayah Aug 16 '18 at 12:46
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    Well, I think an answer can be found. There can be very unused interesting creatures or people mentioned in books that Harry never met, why not magical objects? I

    (Plus, Harry experienced many extra-dimensional space : the Weasley's tent at the Quidditch World Cup and Hermione's bag. It's (probably) the result of an unknown spell)

    – Professeur Dronte Aug 16 '18 at 13:01
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    (My bad, it's not an unknown spell : https://www.pottermore.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/extension-charms ) – Professeur Dronte Aug 16 '18 at 13:24
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    Here is an example of a magical thing that Harry have never saw : Gubraithian Fire , also known as Everlasting fire. It is a flame which has been enchanted to burn forever without dying. Hagrid said he gave a branch of this fire to the Giants (and Harry was'nt there). Its' more a spell than an object, though. So maybe in other testimonials, Lockhart's books, ... I'm sure we can find one – Professeur Dronte Aug 16 '18 at 14:22
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    The best we can say is that at the time of Hagrid relaying the story, Harry had not seen it. You cannot definitively say that he didn't see it by the end of book 7 and definitely not definitively say he hasn't seen it by the end of Cursed Child. You can positively identify what he has seen from the books but you can't say he hasn't seen it just cause it isn't mentioned. – The Evil Greebo Aug 16 '18 at 14:26