Author's Note: Thanks for all of the great reviews and the attention this fanfic has received so far!
Keep Reading
Bella
I need a place to hide. I need a place to hide. I need a place to hide.
James whispered this phrase to himself three times as he walked in front of what looked like an empty space of wall.
The space of wall was not in fact a wall, but actually concealed a secret room that James had discovered in his fourth year. The room was called, The Room of Requirement. As one would guess, the room's purpose was to magically turn itself into whatever type of room the user needed...that is if they knew how to work it.
Normally, a room like this would have been a great discovery for the Marauders. It would be a place to plan pranks, hide items not allowed in school, and use to their advantage. However, when James had discovered the room, he decided that although it was selfish, he was going to keep it to himself.
There were several reasons for this. The first being that at the time, James really wanted a place where he could escape from the difficulties of school and his friends, and this room was perfect. The second reason was that James had been trying to prove to Lily for a while that he wasn't just a pranker, and he felt that if he showed his friends a room where they could essentially prank people all the time, than Lily would probably never speak to him again if she found out.
This particular night, James needed the room for a less than noble reason.
James and Lily had finished with their hallway patrol around 11, and Lily had rushed off Merlin knows where. James had decided that it would be a good opportunity to carry out a prank on Filch that he and Sirius had planned earlier that day.
Unfortunately for James, Mrs. Norris had caught him as he was magically suspending a bucket of sludge-balls over Filch's office door. James had taken off when he heard Filch's voice calling out to his cat, whom he was oddly obsessed with.
James had originally started to head for his room, but as he neared the portrait, he heard a meow he assumed came from Mrs. Norris around the corner. Instead he took off in the opposite direction and ran to the Room of Requirement where he now stood trying to gain access.
For some reason, the door took a while to show itself, almost as though it were preoccupied, or it just was hesitant about letting James in. James suspected it didn't approve of his reason for needing the room. Soon enough though, the door appeared, and James slipped in as quietly as he could, so as to not alert anyone he was there.
It took a while for James' eyes to adjust to the light in the room. He was expecting to see a layout similar to the common room, a place with couches and a fireplace. He had asked for a place to hide after all, so why shouldn't the room be comfortable?
Instead, James saw something very different.
He looked around him and noticed that two of the walls were mirrored. Those walls were on his sides, meaning that the wall behind and in front of him were plain. The room was very dark, with the corners heavily shadowed, but bright lights shone down the center of the room, highlighting something in the middle. The floor was hard, but not wood. It seemed to be made of a linoleum material, although James had no idea why. James looked across the room and noticed that the wall across from him had a bar running down the length of it, for what purpose James couldn't even begin to guess.
As James took in his surroundings, he realized why the door was hesitant to show itself to him. There was already someone in here! His request of the room could not be made because there was already someone requesting something... so then how had he gotten in?
James guessed that whatever this room was being used for, the user requested for something similar as he did, maybe a place to do something secretly, which was essentially what hiding was.
A noise from the opposite side of the room made James jump a foot in the air, although he had already figured out someone else was in the room... he just didn't see them yet.
He slid back into deeper shadows than he was in now. He didn't want to be seen yet in case the person in the room was not someone he wanted to get in the way of. After all, he was intruding on whatever they wanted to keep a secret.
He was considering slipping out of the room before he got caught, but his pride and his curiosity got the best of him. He had to at least figure out who was in the room with him.
Across the room, James heard a person mumble something he assumed was a spell, and within seconds music had started playing. Oddly enough, the music was classical music, a genre that James was pretty sure not many people listened to when they were undergoing top secret missions or whatnot.
James thought he recognized the music, although he couldn't be sure. It sounded like something from a muggle ballet called the Nut Jammer, or Nut Crusher or some nonsense like that. James' mum had taken him to see it once with his aunt and cousin who were muggles.
James looked back to the center of the room as he saw someone walk out of the shadows.
He had too bite back a gasp as he realized with a start that it was Lily! She was in the Room of Requirement!
Suddenly the past two nights made more sense. Lily had not had homework, she had been doing stuff in this room, and that's where she ran off to tonight!
Noticing Lily's outfit of a black leotard and pink tights, James knew for sure what Lily was doing. She was dancing! But why in Merlin's name was she dancing ballet in the middle of the night, in the room of requirement, in Hogwarts?
Well, actually, the first two questions were easily answered. She was dancing in the middle of the night because that was the only time she would have to dance, and she was in the Room of Requirement because, obviously, it would become whatever room she wanted, and what she wanted was a dance studio.
But why the hell was she dancing?
James watched her as she put on ballet slippers and began to stretch in time with the music. He eyed her legs and arms as she kicked her leg high with ease. Merlin she was gorgeous!
After several minutes of stretching out her limbs, James watched from his hiding spot as Lily waved her wand, starting the song over from the beginning. She then proceeded to fly around the room, on her toes, on one foot, one leg in the air, both legs flying through the air in a graceful jump...she was everywhere. More importantly though, she was amazing!
James had never seen someone move so gracefully before. All of her movements were like liquid, flowing from one motion to the next with ease. It was probably the most enlightening experience in James' life. He never knew Lily could do this before!
The whole thing made James love her even more. It added a whole new level to her personality, and James couldn't get enough of it.
Still, he wondered why she was doing it. Maybe she just wanted to practice... it was obvious that she had been dancing for years, and there weren't dance classes in Hogwarts. Yet, she had never practiced much before, or at least, James didn't notice her running off before. Why was she suddenly so dedicated to it?
James could tell the song was winding down, and Lily seemed to be finishing off her complex dance. She ended the dance on the tips of her toes (which looked quite painful to James) with one leg high in the air and her arms high above her head.
How in the bloody world can she do that? James thought to himself for probably the millionth time that night.
Suddenly he panicked. If she was finishing up, than she was going to want to leave soon! James couldn't leave before her, she would see him, but he didn't want to stay here all night. Besides what would happen when she left? The room couldn't change with someone in it, and he certainly wasn't going to leave and come back risking the chance that Filch would catch him.
He watched as Lily pulled her robes over her leotard, and exited the room after she waved her wand to turn the music off.
James held his breath as Lily passed near him, hoping that she wouldn't suddenly hear a hitch in his breath or something and turn to look.
She left without incident, and James felt himself breath again a minute after she was gone, not realizing that he had still held his breath after she left. He looked around the room again and wished that he were in his own room.
Instead, he went to a corner, transfigured a chair into a bed with extra blankets to ward off the chill of the room, and attempted to go to sleep in these weird surrondings.
His dreams that night were filled with red headed, green-eyed dancers.
