Chapter Four

Return to the Room

"I talked to James," Lynne told her friends in the Great Hall. "Apparently you guys heard about this 'the Light is coming' thing too."

"Yeah," Courtney replied. "Elijah told me what it is. An imaginary group of Muggles that want to kill wizards, just because. Rich purebloods who don't like the Light Magic Movement created the rumor to make it seem like Muggles were evil. According to James, there have been messages and stuff saying the Light was coming, and he's not taking any chances."

"If the Light is real, we're in trouble," Albus summarized. "And if it's not, then someone wants magical Britain to think it is. Either way, it's a problem. Should we tell Vector about it?"

Lynne shook her head. "What exactly would we tell her? That there might be a Muggle group that wants to kill wizards again? We don't have any information… at least, not yet… Are you both thinking what I'm thinking?"


The Room of Requirement was a semi-secret room in the Hogwarts castle. Whenever anyone passes it while needing something, the room appears to them in the form they need. If someone desperately needed a restroom, it would be a restroom. If someone was being chased and needed a place to escape, it would be a room where they could not be followed or found.

Over the past couple of years, Courtney and her friends had needed to know the origin of Slytherin House and the reason for the sudden Dementor attacks, so the Room of Requirement had appeared to them with a Pensieve - a container of memories that let them witness the distant past - so they could see firsthand everything they needed to know to solve the years' mysteries.

Now, Courtney, Lynne, and Albus stood in front of the plain wall where the entrance to the Room would appear. "We need to know whether or not the Light is real and what the messages saying it's coming are about." Lynne spoke clearly and without hesitation.

When she finished speaking, the door appeared in front of them. Courtney held it open as they entered.

"Ah, I missed this place," Albus said. "Pensieve, nice to see you again."

The familiar basin was located in the center of the room. Personally, Courtney was slightly disappointed; she'd been hopeful that they might find their old guide, the portrait Cartesius, during their return.

"It looks like we're going in again," Lynne said.

With a nod, Albus approached the Pensieve and stuck his head into the liquid memories. Courtney and Lynne followed.


"Hey, it's still my turn," a small boy complained.

"You've been using it for half an hour," an older girl told him, snatching the object that Courtney did not recognize from the boy's hands.

"Give it back!" the boy shouted. As he shouted, the girl suddenly started to rise into the air, as though dangled by invisible strings.

"What the- Put me down!"

She fell to the ground, dropping the object in front of the boy. Rather than help the girl up or pick up the fallen object, he simply stared at his hands in amazement.

"Okay, so this kid's a Muggleborn wizard who just found out about his magic," Albus summarized. "And he did it by levitating his sister."

"But that doesn't tell us anything yet," Lynne said. "We don't know if the Light issue is being caused by Muggles or by wizards… We need to know first whether we're supposed to be paying attention to the brother or the sister."

"Wait," Courtney said. "How do you know they're brother and sister?" The room they were in didn't look like a house. For all they knew, these could have been schoolmates, friends.

"Trust me," Lynne said. "They were acting like brother and sister."

"Right, you don't have any siblings," Albus remembered. "Yeah, you're just going to have to trust us on this one."


The scene changed. Courtney, Lynne, and Albus now stood in a pure white room with two doors. Several people walked through each door and around the room, but Courtney could not make out any distinguishing details. Each of them was wearing an identical thick, heavy sweater - with a hood up - that concealed their body types, a pair of sunglasses, and had their heads entirely wrapped in bandages.

"Anyone else seriously creeped out?" Courtney asked.

"There's a bunch of mummies with hoods and sunglasses. I know I'm creeped out," was Lynne's reply.

"The first letter is B," one of the hooded figures said in an inhuman voice.

"Great," another said. "I'll get the RLG. You show me the map."


Suddenly they were back in the Room of Requirement. The Pensieve had removed them quickly after that.

"That's it?" Albus questioned. "Only two scenes? We didn't learn anything!"

"Still, this proves something is going on," Lynne said. "Right now, we don't have enough information to tell a teacher. But later, in Ravenclaw Tower, I'm going to write down what we did find out. 'The first letter is B'. There's some creeps dressed in sweaters and bandages. And that Muggleborn kid is probably involved."

"Don't forget the letters RLG," Albus added. "And the map."

"And while we're at it, the bandage creeps didn't sound human," Courtney offered. "We should look into what kind of magical creatures still walk and talk like people."

"Thanks," Lynne said. "I'll see if I can figure anything out before we get to Hogsmeade."


Author's Note: Ever since I began writing fanfiction, I have operated under the principle that you must love what you work with. That is why my only fanfictions have been based on works that I enjoyed as a child and still enjoy today - Pokémon, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and, of course, Harry Potter. Recently, however, I have been more-or-less instructed to start a fanfiction based on a series that I am less fond of. A retelling of the story, but made… better. I suppose the best analogy for what I am supposed to do is to bake a delicious meal using only rotten ingredients. My upcoming story is called Last Gleaming. I will not stop working on the Courtney Glass series; however, due to Last Gleaming, updates may become less frequent. I am sorry for the inconvenience.

On a side note, please don't bother looking for my ASoUE fanfiction, for it was never actually posted online.