Hey gamers, how are you all doing? Hope everyone's doing great! My adventure in Hogwarts Legacy continues and today we're picking up exactly where we left off. Last time I talked about the mission with Scrope, the house-elf of the Black family who contacted me in secret through a trail of hidden notes. Well, now it's time to follow through on the deal we made. The quest is called Scrope's Last Hope, and the name alone already tells you a lot — this is literally the little guy's last shot at impressing the Black family and earning their favor. His side of the bargain is helping us find the missing pages of the book we discovered in the restricted section of the library, and our side is finding a Black family ring that he wants to deliver to Professor Black. Sounds straightforward enough, right? Well, not quite. Let's get into it.

The Entrance to the Grotto and the Dugbog Problem

So, Scrope tells us the grotto is down along the shoreline, and off we go following the quest marker along the beach. Beautiful scenery, the water is kind of eerie and atmospheric, totally fits the vibe of the game. But don't get too comfortable walking around admiring the views, because the path to the grotto is guarded by Stoneback Dugbogs. These things are not a joke. They're sitting at around level 11 and 12, and they've got a ridiculous amount of health and defense for what you'd expect from a creature encounter at this point in the story. Getting through them can feel like trying to drain a swamp with a teacup. They hit hard and they take forever to bring down if you try to fight them head on.

Honestly, my recommendation — and this is something I'd genuinely tell any gamer going into this for the first time — is that if you don't have potions or enough health to take a beating, just escape. Use the Disillusionment charm to go invisible and sneak right past them along the shoreline. They can't touch you in the water either, so if you hug the coast and keep moving, you can get to the grotto entrance without wasting a single spell or potion on these things. Save those resources. Trust me, you'll want them later. If you do have the firepower and you're feeling brave, go ahead and fight them, but don't say I didn't warn you. These Dugbogs are not the fun kind of challenge — they're more of the annoying, time-wasting kind.

Entering with a Piece of Toast — Yes, Really

Okay so now we reach the grotto entrance, which is a small cave opening in the rock along the beach. Pretty unassuming from the outside. You head in, climb up onto the shore inside, and right there in front of you is a wall painted with a giant squid. Very strange, very mysterious, very Hogwarts Legacy. And in front of this mural there's a pedestal, a little stand, and this is where things get funny. Scrope gave you something before you left — a piece of toast. Just toast. Regular-looking toast. And this toast is the key to getting through that wall.

You place the toast on the pedestal, and the squid mural literally comes to life, activates some kind of ancient magic mechanism, and a hole opens up in the wall right in front of you. I genuinely laughed at this moment because it's so absurd in the best possible way. A piece of toast. That's the password to Apollonia Black's secret private grotto. Scrope explained to us when he handed it over that this was tied to something Apollonia used as a personal key of sorts, a specific tradition or ritual she had tied to this place. It's one of those little touches that makes you appreciate how creative and detailed the world-building in this game really is. Only in the wizarding world would a piece of toast be a magical artifact.

Richard Jackdaw — The Ghost With All the Answers

Once you step through the opening in the wall, you enter a room that is absolutely packed with oddities, strange objects, old furniture, and that distinct feeling that this space belonged to someone very private and very peculiar. It's clearly Apollonia's personal retreat, a place she kept completely secret from everyone — including Scrope, who was never allowed inside. You look around, take it all in, and then you spot a journal sitting on a desk. You pick up Apollonia Black's Journal, and that's when everything kicks off. The moment you grab it, a ghost appears. And not just any ghost.

Richard Jackdaw shows up, and this encounter is genuinely one of the more entertaining and lore-rich moments in the quest. He's a decapitated ghost, which is already a great visual, and he's got quite a story to tell. Turns out Jackdaw was obsessed with impressing Apollonia Black back when he was alive. He stole a secret map from Peeves — which is no small feat — and tried to use it as a gift to get her attention. She wasn't interested. So instead of giving up, Jackdaw decided to follow the map himself, thinking maybe it would lead him to something impressive enough to finally win her over. It led him to his death instead, somewhere in the Forbidden Forest. Classic overambitious tragic wizard story. You can ask him questions during the conversation and honestly I recommend doing it because the dialogue is pretty funny and the lore around his story adds a lot of flavor to what's coming next in the main quest.

The Ring Is Gone, and Now We Head to the Forbidden Forest

Here's where things get complicated, and where poor Scrope's hopes start to crumble. Richard Jackdaw tells us that yes, the Black family ring was here at some point — but he sold it a long time ago. Gone. He needed the money or some kind of exchange, whatever the reason, the ring is out of the picture and there's no getting it back. So the whole reason Scrope sent us in here, the thing he's been waiting and hoping for, the one shot he had at impressing Professor Black and getting back into the family's good graces — gone. Just like that.

But Jackdaw doesn't leave us completely empty-handed. He knows where the missing pages from the book are. He tells us that the pages should still be with his remains, somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, because he had them on him when he died following that map. He agrees to meet us at the edge of the Forbidden Forest and show us exactly where he fell. So we've got a lead — just not the one Scrope was hoping for. Before heading out, there's also a chest in the room that contains a Map with Floating Candles, which unlocks the side quest Ghost of Our Love. It's a small detail but worth grabbing before you leave because it opens up some extra content down the line.

Scrope's Last Hope — Quest Completed, But With a Broken Heart

Now we have to walk back down the beach and deliver the bad news to Scrope, who's waiting by the broken docks right where we left him. This is honestly a little bit of a sad moment in the game if you stop to think about it. This house-elf has been building up to this one thing — the ring, the favor, the recognition from a family that's essentially his whole world — and we have to tell him there's nothing there. It's gone. He thanks you for your efforts anyway, which makes it worse somehow, and then the quest wraps up and is marked as complete.

You earn 260 XP for completing Scrope's Last Hope, and right after this the next main quest unlocks — Jackdaw's Rest — which will take us to the edge of the Forbidden Forest to meet up with Richard Jackdaw's ghost and finally track down those missing pages. So while Scrope's quest ends without the happy ending he was looking for, the story keeps pushing forward and the mystery around the book and the ancient magic keeps getting deeper and more interesting. So gamers, things in Hogwarts Legacy just keep getting better and better. Next stop — the Forbidden Forest. See you in the next post!