I wrote this a while ago when I was wondering how the Marauders might have known about the Room of Requirement. I hope you like it! It's my first attempt at a one-shot. Please review! No flames.
It was nearing the end of the school year; the castle was hot and stuffy, especially at night, due to the heat wave they had been enduring. It's inhabitants had spent that day either revelling in the fact that their exams were finally over, or else cramming in some last minute revision. Now, however, they were all asleep. All except for four small boys in their second year, who were trying to creep quietly down a dark and deserted corridor.
They were not having much success in achieving this though, as they were all covered in an Invisibility Cloak, which belonged to one of the boys. They were finding it very hard to keep themselves invisible, quiet and together all at the same time.
'Peter!' Sirius Black, a proud looking black haired boy hissed furiously at the small lumpy boy following him. 'Stop treading on my heels with your fat feet!'
'Sirius, shut up, we'll be heard!' another boy, Remus Lupin, who was rather scrawny and shabby looking with mousey brown hair whispered.
'Well maybe if he didn't keep stopping without warning every five seconds, I wouldn't have to!' the lumpy boy, Peter Pettigrew, squeaked in defence.
'Guys, hush!' the owner of the Cloak, a boy with a thin face, messy black hair and glasses called James Potter, said quietly. 'We're just out of practice. Look, after three, left foot forward. One, two, three!'
What James had said was completely true, this was their first nightly excursion as a foursome for some time. Remus had insisted on studying for their exams every night, and he had guilt-tripped Peter into doing the same. However, he had not succeeded with either Sirius or James, they had only decided to pick up a book on the eve of each exam.
'James, do you have any idea where we're going?' Remus whispered.
'It's up here somewhere, that fifth year said,' he replied as he peered round a corner to check for teachers. It was beyond the others how he could tell that the coast was clear, it was pitch black, they could make out each other's faces, but not much else. They followed him on anyway.
'Yeah, and how do we know that they were telling the truth?' Sirius asked
James merely shrugged, a mischievous grin spreading across his face.
'We don't,' he replied. 'But we might as well give it a go.'
An identical grin spread over Sirius's face too, and Remus and Peter exchanged dark looks, twin grins never boded well.
They slowly rounded the corner of the fifth floor corridor, and once again, Sirius stopped dead in his tracks, and once again, Peter crashed into him, treading on his heels.
'For Merlin's sake!' Sirius cried.
'You stopped without warning again! What was I supposed to do?' Peter squealed back.
'Shut up!' hissed James, raising the wand he had just lit. 'There it is!' There's the statue! It's the fourth door on the left,' he told the others. 'Come on!'
'I'll come, but I won't wear this if it means my heels are in danger of being ripped off.' Sirius said irritably, throwing the Cloak off himself and scowling at Peter.
James pulled the cloak off the remaining three, and bundled it under his arm.
'It's only up there,' he explained. 'We don't really need it.'
The four boys, reminded now of the reason for their night time expedition crept on silently past the large statue of Boris the Bewildered, counting the doors on their left as they passed them until they reached the fourth one.
'Here!' Remus exclaimed. 'What's the password, James?'
'Mermaids!' James said confidently to the blank door.
They all waited with baited breath, but when the door showed no signs of opening magically, each boy felt a great sense of anticlimax.
'Did it work?' breathed Peter, who alone out of the four was still quivering nerves and adrenaline.
'Only one way to find out,' Sirius said, a little harshly, since the door didn't do anything fantastic, the pain in his heel was coming back to him.
James reached out a hand and twisted the doorknob. Nothing happened, the door wouldn't budge.
'Well, this is an adventure,' Sirius yawned sarcastically.
'Are you sure that's the right password?' Remus asked.
'It was the one the fifth year gave me.' James replied, defensively, looking a little deflated.
'Well, it's obviously a load of mouldy toadspawn isn't it?' Sirius snapped. 'Git was lying!'
'I can see that!' James raised his voice in anger at Sirius's tone.
'Shh!' Remus hissed, and they suddenly became aware of just how much noise they had been making in this otherwise silent corridor.
'OI!' a voice yelled from the end of the corridor. It was Filch.
The four boys jumped in alarm, turned and ran in the opposite direction, glad that they were young and speedy, and that the caretaker was ageing and slow.
'This way!' James squealed, giggling madly as he darted through a tapestry to the right, which concealed a long flight of stairs. Hearing the other's behind him, he began to leap up the stone steps, two at a time.
Gasping for breath, he halted half way up.
'Have we lost him?' Sirius panted, stopping as well.
'Don't. Know. Where,' Peter gasped.
'Does he know this is here?' James asked, beginning to regain control over his breathing.
'Filch always knows!' Remus heaved.
As if in answer, the material at the bottom of the stairs was ripped aside, and the greying caretaker appeared.
'Run!'
James's heart leaped again with the thrill of the chase as he began to hurtle up the stairs, acutely aware of the heavier footsteps that followed.
Eventually, they burst out from behind the thick curtain that covered the arch at the top of the flight of steps.
'Which way now?' Sirius shouted, halting in indecision, looking left and right.
'This way!' James darted to the right.
'No, no! This way is better!' Remus cried, making for the left, James fell to the left instead, following his friends.
'How do you know?' he called to Remus.
'I don't!' Remus shrieked in panic.
'We're going my way then!' James hollered to the others, taking a few steps in the direction he had come.
'Guys! In here!' Peter shrieked, throwing open a door that James was positive hadn't been there before. However, he didn't question this, he merely darted in after Sirius and slammed the door shut, collapsing in a heap of excited giggles.
When the other's had hushed him silent, he saw that they were in a broom cupboard that was just big enough for the four of them to fit in without squashing each other much.
'Has he gone?' James whispered.
Sirius pressed his ear against the door.
'Yeah,' he reported after a few moments silence. 'Just heard him thundering past. What is this room anyway?' he added.
'I don't know,' Remus replied. 'I swear it wasn't here when we came through the tapestry, I would have headed for it, instead of all that dallying about.'
'Does anyone actually know where abouts in the castle we are?' Peter asked the room at large, still huffing and puffing, but again it was Remus who answered.
'Seventh floor, I think. I'm sure that tapestry out there is of Barnabas the Barmy dancing with them trolls.'
James gasped, and they all turned to look at him.
'I know what room this is!' he squeaked in excitement. 'My dad told me about it! It's called the Room of Requirement, and I changes into whatever you need it to be!'
A mischievous smile crept onto the face of each boy, and they began to think that this unexpected detour was well worth the hassle.