Summary: In the heart of the Ravenclaw tower is a very special room. It's called the Room of Intelligence, and could have been pivotal in Wizarding history if its occupants chose. But they didn't choose.
Disclaimer: Ravenclaw isn't really that messed up in the books. J.K. Rowling didn't write this.
Nobody Asked
The Gryffindor common room is in a tower, red and gold and bold. The Slytherin common room is in the dungeons, green and silver and sly. The Gryffindors watch the forest; the Slytherins the lake. The two common rooms may as well mirror each other, exact opposites as they are.
But for all this, these aren't the most interesting rooms. Apparently, Helga and Rowena did not consult their male comrades when deciding to spice up their own houses. Next to the kitchens is the Sett, yellow and black and welcoming, the occupants cheerfully dumping Stinksap on potential invaders. Inside, continuing the idea of being a sett, tunnels connect the rooms, and it is quite the adventure to try to get anywhere. If you prefer tamer trips, there are short, direct routes. Otherwise, you may find yourself plunging onto a large trampoline or pulling yourself over "tree routes", watching fake animals scurry around you. The few real windows look out the grass and dirt.
And then there's the Ravenclaw Tower, commonly called the Aviary. A riddle greets the students as they enter, but unbeknownst to others, only Professors or Ravenclaw students are asked the question. Inside is an airy, high-ceilinged room that reflects the sky with large windows looking out, the statue of Rowena Ravenclaw proudly standing in the center. A staircase leads to the students' dorms, winding upwards to the sky - or at least the ceiling. If you care to look down, the stairs are always changing, tidbits of knowledge scattered around to those who search. Sometimes these pieces can be crucial to unlocking the more…mysterious aspects of the Aviary.
On the side there are two doors, and it is these two doors that are of interest. One of them leads to a private library, as if having a secret passageway to the school one wasn't enough. The Ravenclaw library has no restricted section, and is the only library in Wizarding Britain to contain Muggle books. Information is information, after all. On the lower levels there are mostly books, tables and chairs placed strategically for studying, a pile of reading aids that prop up and flip your book for you stacked neatly in a corner. On the higher ones are research stations as well as more advanced books. A librarian is not needed in this bronze and blue library because books put themselves away on the rare occasions that students forget.
The other door leads to the coveted, though not one of the mysteries mentioned above, room of intelligence, a name with a double meaning, for only those deemed to have adequate intelligence and intellectual curiosity may enter this room of intelligence-gathering.
And what a room! When you walk in, once you get over the astonishment that there is a great snack bar that includes wizard and muggle snacks and a lot of comfy chairs, the first thing you see is a self-updating map of Hogwarts, complete with secret passageways and secret chambers. But upon closer examination, this singular map is revealed to include the locations of every person in Hogwarts, passwords, and a search and zoom function with different modes! Only four, perhaps five non-Ravenclaws even know about the existence of the room ,and they are all dead, though a pale imitation of this wonderful map wanders the halls of Hogwarts, a legacy of these students.
But that wasn't all. Around it, invitees can pursue scenes from around Hogwarts at their leisure, choosing to watch people as they sneak around, thinking themselves unseen, or rooms as groups congregate, or re-watch their favorite moments of time. For security, these screens blank out the moment a non-invitee enters, even if they somehow discover the password.
Ravenclaws don't like taking risks.
They don't like divulging information either, because the journey is as rewarding as the destination. The Chamber of Secrets may be open, the school in chaos, their housemates panicking - hey, that's what the reclining chairs and popcorn is for. If asked why they don't tell anyone, they look honestly confused. Why would they tell anyone? Nobody asked them.
Typical Ravenclaws.
The room of intelligence, of course, also contains even more books, a direct passageway to the Room of Requirement, special rooms for the invitees, and a lot of wonderful labs to practice. It's like the ultimate clubhouse - for Ravenclaws. But despite all this, what most of the members do is watch the map.
"Finally, Katrina," Rose said, pointing at a dot on the map. She zoomed in on it.
"Hey!" Molly protested. "I was watching to see if Zigo would avoid Peeves and the Professors successfully. He's planting a prank, you know. Use the scenes."
"You use the scenes," Rose muttered, as she went over to the pad that controlled this and dragged the blue box that was the screen closest to her over Katrina with her wand and tied it to her.
Suddenly, the picture on one of the walls shifted to show Katrina Orleans, her braided dark brown hair straight for once, wand oddly not in hand, as she sat next to Lily in one of the chairs around an oval table with other Slytherins. For all that Lily had been a major participant in the pranks, Slytherin was still divided into two. Rose wondered why Katrina was discussing - she wasn't the best diplomat.
Katrina was one of the Potter-Weasley family's "recruits", like Scorpius, though he was more ingrained. She wasn't the easiest person to live with, but when she had a plan, she had a plan.
There was a satisfied light in Katrina's eyes, though the argument didn't seem to be going well - stupid Slytherins could say the most idiotic things and actually be convinced of them.
A cutting curse ripped through the air. Lily tapped the table calmly and a sofa moved to intercept it.
"Yes!" Molly cheered. "It worked!"
"Go watch your own person," Rose glared at her cousin, who's eyes were riveted on her screen as she propped herself up on her elbow, leaning behind Rose.
"You couldn't have made it without me," Molly said smugly.
"Dominque designed it," Rose retorted. "You just got it to us."
"So?"
Rose rolled her eyes, though she was jubilant at the success as well. The idea had been basic but seemed impossible. Wands took the wizard's intent and then preformed magic. Wizards were, in essence, only Muggles that could communicate with wands because their brains ran on magic instead of electricity. They also leaked magic, which was how they could make potions and why they had accidental magic as children.
The first step had been simple. They had made buttons that were linked to certain effects that, when pressed, would do that effect. Then they had edited the buttons to be fingerprint responsive. Naturally, it was rather annoying to make a million buttons, but codewords would have been picked up on. This had been debated for ages before the simple answer was proposed.
Wands ran on intent. Why couldn't these buttons?
So they had worked. They had researched wands, talked to the latest Ollivander, and researched some more. Eventually they had created something that could control objects to a certain extent, which looked like wandless magic and so intimidated others. And then they had wanted to make some kind of disillusioned pad that was moveable so they could control anything within 50 meters.
For this, Molly had run to Dominique, who specialized in exotic wards and was better than her father. It had taken her all of a month to complete it and they were seeing the result now.
Rose could see why Molly wanted to watch.
On screen, everyone was gaping at Lily like she was the next coming of Merlin.
"Congratulations," said Dian Zheng, the oldest member of the Room of Intelligence, prefect of Ravenclaw house, and sort-of leader of the room. She held out a large white bowl with rubber duckies spattered all over it to them. A buttery smell wafted out to them. Popcorn. "Want some?"
Rose took the bowl calmly, her eyes riveted on the screen.
"Hey! I was eating that!" another Ravenclaw protested.
"Pop another one, Jake" Rose retorted. "It's not like Dian didn't pop this one anyways."
Jake rolled his eyes in her direction, but waved his wand. It didn't take long for a newly popped bag of popcorn to shoot in his direction and pour itself into another bowl that came just in time to catch it.
Dian just laughed. "We're watching Harry Potter write in the diary in his second year," she offered. "It's hilarious - he's actually using his name."
"What?" one of the new members said in shock. Ellen had gotten pretty quickly the unstated don't-tell-anyone-else-what-you-see rules, but as a Muggleborn who had always been around computers, she was having difficulty remembering that Internet safety rules were not taught in schools. "He used his real name? That's something you never do when talking to someone you can't see the face of!"
"It's wizards, remember?" Jake reminded her. "And back then even Muggles didn't have Internet. So lay off."
"Still, common sense says that he should lie," Ellen said defensively.
"Not something Uncle Harry ever had," Rose coughed.
Ellen shook her head sadly. "And this is the supposed hero of the wizarding world."
"Heros usually owe their successes to dumb luck," Dian said reasonably. "And if we had tried to help -"
The five looked at each other and then shook their heads. "Nah."
Nobody had asked them.
