After making your way through several Hogwarts Legacy sidequests with your Hufflepuff classmate, Poppy Sweeting, you'll eventually come upon a special quest entitled "A Bird in the Hand." Most of Poppy's sidequests have been pretty simple up to this point, but this one requires you to solve a Moonstone door puzzle before you can dive into a nearby dungeon. To make things easier, I've put together this A bird in the Hand Hogwarts Legacy walkthrough.
It's the many dungeons, puzzles, and sidequests that help make this one of the best PC games and best Xbox games out there. I'll go over how to solve this Hogwarts Legacy moonstone door puzzle as well as explain how to go step by step through The Gilded Perch dungeon that it unlocks.
A Bird in The Hand: Moonstone door puzzle
To begin this Hogwarts Legacy quest, Head to World Map → Hogwarts Valley → Brocburrow Floo Flame and then go southeast into the forest to the quest starting point. After talking with Poppy, you'll need to run into some ruins that house a Moonstone door puzzle. Speak to Dorran the centaur and then you can work on the puzzle.
You might want to take some time to defeat the spiders that are lurking in the dark nearby otherwise they might get in the way.
Start things off by placing the Moonstone on the stone at the center of the circle. This will make the lights on top of the two stone pillars turn on.
If you look at the semicircle door, you'll see that a sun symbol on the left and another symbol on the right are glowing. I'll refer to this second symbol as a key symbol since it kind of resembles a skeleton key with a dot in the circle. These same symbols can be found around the moonstone puzzle.
The goal is to use Accio to pull both pillars to a spot so that the shadow cast from the rock in the center points at the two corresponding sun and key symbols on the ground.
To do this, pull one pillar via Accio and place it on the small circle between the crescent moon symbol and the key symbol with a dot in the circle.
Pull the second pillar via Accio and place it on the circle that is between the symbol that kind of resembles a sickle and the symbol that looks like a cross connected to a slim crescent. This will cause the large semicircle door to open.
Now go through the semicircle door and enter The Gilded Perch.
Go straight ahead to a small library area and collect the treasures here.
Next, turn around and go through the hallway on the right. Light the brazier in front of the statue using either Confringo or Incendio to reveal a treasure chest. Then continue through to the room that has the trees growing out of the floor.
You'll see a crate on the second floor. Use Accio to pull it down to you.
Then use Wingardium Leviosa to place it against the wall from where it just fell. Finally, cast Levioso on it to make it float in place. Now climb on top of the crate and the climb up to the ledge above. There are a few treasures up here, so collect them all before returning to the ground floor.
Continue through the tree tunnel on the ground. On the other side, you'll see a pile of rocks blocking a hallway. Use Confringo to blast these rocks out of the way and head into the dark area.
You'll see Devil's Snare growing downward over an opening at the back. Cast Confringo to light the brazier next to this plant and it will recede. Now climb up into this next area, collect some treasures, and return to where the tree tunnel was.
Continue further into this dungeon, around the green statue and tall tree until you get to a set of three closed doors with spell cube puzzle platforms in front of them. You'll notice that a crate is along the far wall on your left. Climb on top of it and then climb up on the ledge above to grab some goodies.
Now return to the floor next to the crate and look back towards the tree. You'll see the Fire spell cube on a shelf. Pull it down using Accio and then use Wingardium Leviosa to place it on the fire spell cube platform.
Now cast Wingardium Leviosa on the crate and move it to the opposite side of the room. Climb on top of it and get onto the ledge above. You'll see the Ice spell cube up here. Cast Wingardium Leviosa and bring it down to the Ice spell cube platform below.
Next cast Confringo or Incendio on the fire spell cube and Glacius on the Ice spell cube to make the doors in front of you open.
Head on through to this next area and prepare for a fight. Once you get to the center of the room several poachers will appear and you'll need to defeat them. Remember to dodge or block at the proper moments and throw anything around the room at them to make the fight go faster.
If anyone blocks with a shield, use the same color spell on them to disrupt their shield and then hurt them with a mixture of basic and more powerful attacks. Dorran and his fellow centaur Elek will appear and will help you defeat the Ashwinders.
Once everyone is defeated, head through the mysterious door that has a moon symbol on the bottom and you'll watch a fun little cutscene.
Free as a bird
After solving the Moonstone door puzzle and making your way through the various areas within The Gilded Perch dungeon, you'll eventually discover a nest of Snidget eggs. These cute little birdies will hatch and then Dorran will tell you that it was thanks to your and Poppy's efforts that they can safely come into this world.
In case you didn't know, within Harry Potter lore Golden Snidgets are an endangered species. These rare birds were once used in Quidditch but were eventually replaced by the Golden Snitch. Since they're hard to come by, it's a nice little reward to know that these three little birds are going to be cared for and protected by Dorran and the other centaurs going forward.
