Hey everyone. This story was written for both the Care of Magical Creatures: The Chimaera task and extra credit for the assignment and the Fortnightly Challenges Thread's Build a Monster Workshop on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The task for Care of Magical Creatures: The Chimaera was to write about three unlikely people coming together for something. The extra credit for that was if the three came from different houses which they do. They are Neville Longbottom from Gryffindor, Hannah Abbot from Hufflepuff, and Cho Chang from Ravenclaw. The task for the Build a Monster Workshop was Put it together - write about building/making/creating/inventing something. I hope you all enjoy Building a Free World Inside Hogwarts.
Footsteps falling hard on the stone floors of the corridor of Hogwarts was all she could hear. Not just her own but at least four or five other people. Catching sight of Neville she mouthed, "What do we do?" as she looked back behind her to see if the Carrows were still on their tails.
"I don't know," Neville mouthed back to her.
After the exchange they caught sight of a flash of black hair rounding the corner behind them. "They're coming this way," called a familiar voice. It might have been Cho Chang or someone from Ravenclaw. She remembers catching sight of Ravenclaw's blue in the colors that raced past her.
"Follow me," Neville called to them both taking charge of the both of them.
Knowing Neville would never intentionally lead them wrong Hannah found herself racing after Neville motioning to the Ravenclaw girl to follow them. She looked back to check that the other girl had followed. Smiling at seeing that it was indeed Cho Chang and she had indeed followed them Hannah looked ahead to see where Neville was taking them.
"I wish we had some sort of invisibilty cloak or something," Hannah heard Cho mutter as Cho quickly caught up to her. "Some way to keep them from being able to track us."
"I know," sighed Hannah as she watched Neville duck into an alcove that was enclosed by a curtain. "In there." She motioned after Neville as she ducked behind the curtain pulling Cho with her.
"I think I know of a place we can hide out," Neville whispered low enough that he wouldn't be heard by anyone passing outside of their little alcove. "But it's going to be a little tricky getting there. We'll have to be exposed for a little bit."
Cho shook her head.
"Cho we can't just stay here behind the curtains in an alcove," Neville told her.
"But if we get caught..."
"If we get caught we take our punishment and we try again."
"We have to do something," Hannah finally spoke up. "I'm with Neville on this Cho. We have to get to that room or everything we hope to build is lost."
Cho looked between the both of them and sigh in resignation. She nodded her agreement to the plan that Neville was suggesting. "But we have to be careful," she told them. "We don't want to be caught."
Neville nodded. His face then took on the look that he got when he was trying to figure something out. Then he got up. "You girls stay here," he told them. "I'll go ahead and see if I can find the room. When I find it I'll contact you on the coins from Dumbledore's Army. Got it?"
They both ended up nodding.
We watched him race off in the opposite direction of the retreating footsteps that had just gone past us. The Carrows must have Slytherin house helping them look for us. Or any other students they thought were blood-traitors.
Looking over at Cho Hannah couldn't help but hope that Neville would be able to find the room before they all got caught. "I guess we wait now," she whispered to Cho fiddling with her hands.
"I guess so," Cho replied nervously peeking out the curtain to make sure the way was still clear.
She didn't know how long that her and Cho had been sitting behind the curtain. She knew it had been a fair almost two hours or so but when the coin started to get hot she knew Neville had found the room and was telling them where to go.
Getting up from her seat on the ground Hannah motioned for Cho to follow her. She'd get them to the Room of Requirement in one piece if it was the last thing she did. Running once more to get to safety they encountered a few more people on the way, Seamus Finnigan, Ginny Weasley, and Justin Finch-Fletchley, she motioned for them to follow her.
Rounding the last corner she thought about finding a safe place for them all like Neville would have thought. The door to the Room of Requirement appeared not that soon after. The five of them poured into the room to find Neville standing there with a bunch of stuff sitting piles in corners all around the room.
"I think it wants us to use it as hideout," Neville said. "It wants us to fight back against the Carrows and the Dark Lord. And it knows that Hogwarts isn't safe for us any longer. Will you help me build a safe place for us?"
Everyone nodded and started help building bunks and shelving that the room had supplied for them. Soon they'd be joined more and more people but for now it was just them. And they were safe.
I hope you all enjoyed Building a Free World Inside Hogwarts. It's kind of my interpation of how the Room of Requirement was turned into the tent city it was when Harry, Ron, and Hermione showed up.
