Short little Room of Requirement fic. Sort of appeared out of thin air. Hope you enjoy...
Mistaken
James had always like Hogwarts at night. He liked prowling the empty corridors, stepping quietly in case the snoozing portraits woke up and screamed for a teacher. Not that they did very often – wake up or scream. Between himself and Sirius they had charmed or blackmailed most of the portraits into submission.
Just thinking about that made James laugh quietly.
"Oi! Shut up," Sirius said elbowing his friend in the ribs. "We're coming up on Malicious Mildred's portrait. Don't you dare wake her up. I've still got the marks from where Filtch got us last time."
"Keep your hair on." James wasn't worried. They had checked the map before leaving the tower and for some reason all the teachers, and Filtch, were huddled in the Headmaster's office.
James and Sirius hadn't had anything in particular in mind but the opportunity of a practically deserted castle was too good to pass up. They had decided to head for a corridor in the north wing to try and find a room that kitchen house elves had mention but didn't appear on the map.
Unfortunately they had been wandering up an down the corridor for almost twenty minutes with nothing to show for the effort.
"This is a waste of time. I could have been with Jenny Calzaghe actually enjoying myself. You know," Sirius mused, "We really could do with a girl Marauder..."
"What for?" James said annoyed. Sometimes Sirius's obsession with the opposite sex tested the bounds of their friendship.
"Well," he said, "To look at mostly I suppose." Sirius sighed distractedly and James knew he was imagining adventures with a beautiful girl along for the ride. It was a ridiculous fantasy. James was of the firm opinion that girls were all well and good but looking at Sirius staring into space at the thought of an imaginary girl he was sure that any real one would upset their fun completely.
Still, it didn't stop him from forming a picture in his mind of the kind of girl Sirius was suggesting. She would be stunningly good looking, Sirius's girls always were, and she would be bold and undaunted by hanging out with a bunch of teenage boys. In James's head she had red hair, like Lily although definitely not Lily. Lily hated him enough without knowing what he got up to under cover of darkness. And she was...
"Hey," Sirius interrupted James's thoughts and pointed to a door in the wall. "Was that there before?"
"No," James said, his face splitting into a wide grin, "It most certainly was not."
Together they drew their wands. James was ahead as they pushed open the mysterious door and proceeded cautiously inside. The room inside was gloomy with dust hanging mid-air as though nobody had disturbed it in years. There were various instruments lying around the place which James thought he had seen once or twice in his Defence Against the Dark Arts textbook but never in real life. In the middle of the room was a notice board covered in pictures and diagrams and, displayed prominently in the centre, was a parchment with a large header that read "Dumbledore's Army".
James glanced at Sirius who shrugged. Neither had ever heard of such a thing as Dumbledore's Army. Neither could imagine the old coot fighting, no matter what the stories about Grindlewalde.
James was about to take a closer look at the parchment when the door behind them creaked open. Both boys spun round to see a girl in Hogwarts robes framed in the doorway. When she saw them her melancholy frown was replaced by a radiant smile and she raced forward, throwing her arms around James.
"Harry!" she cried. "What are you doing here?"
She was much shorter than James so he got quite a good view of Sirius's incredulous expression over the top of her bright red hair. James peeled the girl off him and pushed her away so he could look at her. Her eyes were shiny, like she was about to cry.
But before he could ask her who she was her expression changed again, this time to one of confusion.
"What happened to your eyes?" she said suspiciously.
"My eyes?" James replied stupidly wondering what on earth was going on.
"Yes, your eyes," the girl repeated. This time her tone was hard and she drew her wand and pointed it squarely at James. "Who are you?"
"Who am I?" he shot back, his temper starting to unravel. "The question is who are you?"
"You're not Harry." The girl tilted her head somewhere between a question and a statement.
"I never said I was. I don't even know anyone called Harry!"
The girl blinked and turned to Sirius. "You look familiar."
Sirius responded by flashing a dazzling smile and saying, "Sweatheart, it's your lucky day. I am Sirius Black. Please to meet you." Sirius took a rather foolhardy, in James's opinion, step towards the girl holding the wand.
"Don't move," she said angrily. Red sparks burst from the tip of her wand. "I don't know what sort of game this is but it's is certainly not amusing."
"Just out of interest," James said timidly, "Who do you think we are?"
"Deatheaters," she replied simply. "And just so you know, I'm not going to let you use me to get to him. I'd rather die."
James felt his jaw drop. He didn't know what to think and that last comment had really floored him. This girl had somehow mistaken him for a Deatheater of all things.
Sirius summed it up by stamping his foot in frustration and yelling, "Hang on, what the hell is going on?"
"How should I know?" the girl said. "I didn't infiltrate the castle and break into our headquarters."
"Yeah," James interrupted. "About that; what the hell is Dumbledore's Army?"
"It started off as a group of students who wanted to learn Defence and not just the propaganda the Ministry wanted us to believe. But now we're working to get you-know-who's followers out of Hogwarts."
"Deatheaters, you-know-who... It's like we've fallen into another world," Sirius muttered.
"What do you mean?" the girl demanded.
"Well, we've just come from Hogwarts," James said pointing to that door, "And I'm pretty sure that there aren't any Deatheaters here. Dumbledore would have a fit."
"I'm sure he would," the girl said, "If he was still alive. In the Hogwarts I've just come from, I assure you, he is very dead."
"Okay, this is getting really weird," James said.
"Only now it's getting weird! James, I've always thought you had a screw loose. Now I'm sure," Sirius said, rolling his eyes.
"James," the girl said. Her wand dropped a fraction. "James Potter?"
James was startled at the way she was looking at him now. There was realisation and unease but at least she seemed less inclined to curse him.
"I suppose it's possible," she said quietly, "That you could have fallen in here by accident. Or I could have made the room link to you." She sighed. "I wish Hermione was here. She'd know what happened."
"So, you've decided we aren't Deatheaters?" James said hopefully.
"Yes," she admitted grudgingly. "It would make no sense to impersonate you two."
"Do you know us then?" Sirius asked. "Because the way you greeted James seemed more than friendly if you catch my drift."
"Sorry about that," the girl said to James, stowing her wand. "You just look a lot like my boyfriend. Well, sort of boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend if you one to get technical. Whatever. That's not the point. The point is I really miss him and I know he can't come because of you-know-who and I just wanted someone to talk to. The room obviously decided you were the right people. I suppose it kind of makes sense." But the girl pulled a face anyway.
"What do you mean, the room decided?" James said.
"It becomes whatever you need. You just have to think it..." she glanced at the boys. "Why, what were you thinking when the door appeared?"
"Umm," James glanced up at the ceiling and tried to come up with an answer than didn't make him sound like a total prat. Unfortunately Sirius had other ideas.
"We were thinking that it would be a good idea for us to have a girl." Sirius stopped. "That didn't come out quite right."
"And you got me?" the girl grinned in amusement. "I'm flattered."
"So, your sort-of-boyfriend?" Sirius began. "He's off fighting evil?"
"Yes he is. Bastard!" the huffed. "Get this: he breaks up with me, supposedly to "keep me safe" and then goes on the run trying to kill you-know-who, leaving me here. With Deatheaters!"
"The bloody cheek!" Sirius said enthusiastically.
"Sirius," James hissed, "Not helpful!"
"No," the girl said quickly. "He's right. I mean I've done the almost getting killed thing, I've done the fighting Deatheater's thing. Why didn't he take me with him? Instead he's got my stupidest brother for company."
"Idiot!" Sirius smiled, getting into the swing of it. "We wouldn't expect our friends to stay behind while we were off fighting."
"I know!" the girl said, somewhat disconcertingly.
"You could come with us now," Sirius suggested.
That seemed to derail the girls rant. "What?"
"Not a bad idea," James said thoughtfully.
"Yep," Sirius continued. "We wanted a girl Marauder. You should come with us. And we promise, if you want to fight Deatheater's that's fine by us."
"Sounds like you're boyfriend wouldn't even know you're gone," James said reasonably. "Anyway, our Hogwarts sounds way better then yours, no offence."
The girl looked tempted. She gazed at the door longingly. "It probably wouldn't be a good idea. I might get stuck."
"That's your absentee boyfriend talking. Come on, it'll be fun," James wheedled.
"No," she said, "No. I couldn't abandon my friends."
"Shame," Sirius shrugged.
"A crying shame." James said. "The room obviously wanted you to come with us."
"Never trust a thing if you can't see where it keeps it's brain," the girl smiled. "I learned that the hard way." Her gaze settled back on James. "You aren't really like him at all, and it's not just the eyes." But somehow she seemed happier, as if that difference was fine by her.
There was the sound of an explosion from outside the door and the girl jumped. "That's my cue. Wait until the room changes and then leave. You should get home just fine."
"You're going?"
"Yep," the girl said walking towards the door. "Things to do, Deatheaters to thwart. But it was really nice to meet you, James. And Sirius," she called back over her shoulder. "Just remember, the truth always comes out."
"Huh?"
But she was gone. James and Sirius raced to follow but, just like she said, the room morphed around them into a non-specific wooden panelled classroom. James wrenched open the door and both boys fell out into the corridor.
Right at the feet of Argus Filtch.
"Well, well, what 'ave we got here then?" he smirked evilly.
Sirius groaned knowing that their punishment would be thoroughly unpleasant. James just smiled and whispered to his friend, "Now wasn't that more interesting than an evening with Jenny Calzaghe?"