The Hunt for the Missing Pages is the Gryffindor house quest in Hogwarts Legacy, and it is gloriously daft: rotten roast beef, a pear you have to tickle, a ghost with no head and a pumpkin patch full of cheering spectres. It is also a main story quest, so you can’t skip it if you want to know where those torn out pages went.
I ran through it twice to pin down every step, the Revelio shortcut and the order the game actually wants you to do things in. Here’s the full walkthrough.
Quest Overview
This one is exclusive to Gryffindor. Players in other houses get their own quest at this point in the story, which is why so many people search for this one and come up empty.
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Quest type | Main quest, Gryffindor only |
| Unlocks after | The Trials of Merlin and Potions Class |
| How it starts | Owl Post from Nellie Oggspire |
| Quest giver | Nearly Headless Nick |
| Start location | Reception Hall by the house point hourglasses |
| Key spell | Revelio |
| Reward | 260 XP and story progress |
| Next main quest | Jackdaw’s Rest (after Professor Hecat’s Assignment 2) |
The Tech: the quest follows straight on from the book you lifted in the Restricted Section. Nick has heard about its missing pages and knows the last person who had them: Richard Jackdaw, a ghost who now spends his afterlife without a head.
Step by Step Walkthrough
Step 1: Meet Nearly Headless Nick
Once you’ve wrapped up The Trials of Merlin and Potions Class, an owl from Nellie Oggspire tells you the Gryffindor house ghost wants a word. Head to the Reception Hall next to the Great Hall. The quickest route is the Viaduct Courtyard Floo Flame, then up through the Entrance Hall. Nick floats beside the house point hourglasses.
Step 2: Follow Nick to the Kitchens
Nick will help, but he wants a favour first: some rotten roast beef. Follow him down from the Grand Staircase toward the kitchens. The door is hidden behind a painting of a fruit bowl. Hold the interact button to tickle the pear and the doorknob appears.
Step 3: Grab the Rotten Roast Beef
The beef sits on top of a barrel in the far back right (southeast) corner of the kitchen. Pick it up and Feenky the house-elf pops in for a chat about who actually cooks all those Great Hall feasts. Then take the beef back to Nick.
Test Results: the kitchen also has a few chests lying around. They’re free loot and take seconds, so open them before you hand the beef over.
Step 4: Join the Headless Hunt’s Game
A cutscene moves you just outside the northern edge of Hogsmeade, by the graveyard, where the Headless Hunt has gathered. Nearly Headless Nick hopes the rotten beef will win him a place in the Hunt (it doesn’t). Sir Patrick Delaney-Podmore and his crowd are there, and Sir Nestor Amset waits on the path to the right of the graveyard to explain the rules: Jackdaw’s head is hiding in the pumpkins, and you have to find it five times before he’ll talk.
Nick, naturally, still can’t get into the Headless Hunt. Watch his scene, it’s one of the better jokes in the game.
Step 5: Find Jackdaw’s Head Five Times
You can do this the slow way or the smart way. Science time.
| Method | How it works | Speed |
|---|---|---|
| Watch for movement | The pumpkin with the head inside quivers. Spot it, break it with a Basic Cast. | Slow in a big patch |
| Revelio | Cast Revelio and the right pumpkin glows blue. Break it with a Basic Cast. | Fast |
Every time you break the right pumpkin, the head jumps to another one. Cast Revelio again, find the new glow, break it. Repeat until the counter hits five. There’s no cooldown penalty and no limit, so spam Revelio as much as you like.
Exploit Alert: okay, it’s not really an exploit, but Revelio turns a minigame designed to make you wander a pumpkin patch into a quick job. The devs clearly didn’t playtest this against anyone who binds Revelio to muscle memory.
Step 6: Talk to Richard Jackdaw
With his head back where it belongs, Jackdaw finally talks. He tells you the missing pages are still with his remains and offers to help you find them. That sets up the next main quest, Jackdaw’s Rest. Before it opens, you need Expelliarmus from Professor Hecat’s Assignment 2.
Pro Tips Before You Start
- Spam Revelio: it has its own button, so you never need to slot it. You’ll use it constantly in this quest and the next one.
- Loot the Kitchen: the chests near the beef are easy to walk past while following a talking ghost.
- Don’t Rush Feenky: the house-elf chat is short and adds a lot of flavour about life below stairs at Hogwarts.
- Not a Gryffindor? Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin players get a different house quest here. This walkthrough only applies to Gryffindors.
- Check Your Map: the Hogwarts Legacy interactive map makes it easy to find the Reception Hall and the Hogsmeade graveyard if the quest marker gets lost.
Is the Quest Worth It?
You don’t get a choice, it’s main story. But it’s a good one. It mixes castle secrets, Hogsmeade and a ghost society in one short stretch, and it’s a nice breather between heavier story beats. If you’re still deciding whether the whole game is worth picking up, our Hogwarts Legacy newcomer’s guide for 2026 covers that. For more guides, the Hogwarts Legacy hub collects them in one place.
The game still has a healthy PC crowd years after launch; check the live Hogwarts Legacy player count to see how many witches and wizards are on Steam right now. And if you’re wondering where the story goes next, our Hogwarts Legacy 2 roundup has everything confirmed so far.
The Hunt for the Missing Pages FAQ
How do you start The Hunt for the Missing Pages?
Be in Gryffindor and finish The Trials of Merlin and Potions Class. Nellie Oggspire’s owl then sends you to Nearly Headless Nick in the Reception Hall.
Where is the rotten roast beef?
In the Hogwarts kitchens, on top of a barrel in the far back right corner. Tickle the pear in the fruit painting to open the kitchen door.
How do you find Jackdaw’s head in the pumpkins?
Cast Revelio. The pumpkin with the head glows blue. Break it with a Basic Cast and repeat five times.
What do you get for finishing it?
260 XP and the next step of the main story: Jackdaw’s Rest, which opens after Professor Hecat’s Assignment 2.
Is this quest Gryffindor exclusive?
Yes. Each house gets its own quest at this point in the story.
Patched? Not that I can find: no patch note has touched this quest. Tickle the pear, grab the beef, spam Revelio, and Jackdaw is yours in under ten minutes.
