The mysterious room

Roxanne literally slammed herself down on the chair that morning. It created such a loud noise everyone lifted their heads up to see. Roxanne ignored everyone's stare, and continued slamming her books down one by one on the breakfast table.

"Whoa, early in the morning, and first day of the week, why are you so upset?" Sebastian said, slightly amused.

"When I asked nicely about whether they should reconsider the throwing acid potloops option since it might endanger people's lives, and choose another option instead…" Roxanne twisted her glum face up to mimic a coy smile. "Oh come on, Roxanne, why are you such a scaredy-cat? It won't hurt them! And when I said it will, they just go Nah, it's impossible, what nonsense. Oh? Malfoy said that? He's such a cute boy, he probably pities the two pathetic fools. It's alright, really, Malfoy is just so sweet. But that little potloops really won't do anything. Hey, come on, wanna paint your toenails? Green toenails give you good luck, you know."

By the time Roxanne finished, Sebastian and Roy were rolling on their tables and hugging their stomach while laughing. "Cute boy? And sweet? Scorpius, a cute and sweet boy?" They roared with hysterical laughter.

"What's so funny about that?" Scorpius said indignantly, though his mouth was twitching up at Roxanne's imitation.

"Anyway, Rox, you don't need to persuade them anymore." Roy said, wiping his tears away. "We came up with a plan."

"What plan?" Roxanne asked eagerly.

Roy beckoned Roxanne to come closer, and whispered the plan into her ear. "That is ingenious!" She commented. "Let me guess, Scorpius came up with that idea, right?"

"Yup. Intelligent and sharp boy, he is." Sebastian said. "And really cute and sweet too."

The four of them laughed. They finished their breakfast, and headed to their first lesson: Defence Against Dark Arts. Professor Hitman was their DADA's professor. DADA was by far the best subject, with lots of fun hands-on practice, and Professor Hitman was also a very interactive and engaging teacher.

The planned prank was due third period, when Gryffindor and Slytherin have Potions lesson together. The plan was that the Slytherins would rush as fast as they can to the dungeons (they had always been slightly later than the other houses), and come earlier than the Gryffindors. They would hide the bucket of acid potloops behind the table closest to the door. Then, when Rose and Albus walked in (hopefully they walk in together), someone (Marcus Shone, probably) would throw the acid potloops at them (everyone was supposed to crowd around Slughorn and walking all over the place so nobody would know it was Marcus).

"You ready, Scor?" Sebastian asked.

Scorpius nodded. The plan he had devised only need him and his wand, but it should also be useful to have people distracting the Slytherins so that they would not know that it's him. However, if Scorpius were to fail (Scorpius grabbed his wand tightly, feeling unusually edgy), Rose and Albus might be disfigured for lives, or worse, they might die.

Ah, damn those people that came up with the idea. It's all their fault.

The whole group of Slytherins walked enthusiastically towards to dungeon. "Wow, it's the first time my house came over to lessons so punctually!" Slughorn exclaimed happily.

"We came early to ask you questions!" Minos said, pulling out a list of well prepared questions.

"Good, good, it's great that you have all attained an interest in Potions and want to inquire more!" Slughorn said as he tended to their questions. Minos and gang pretended to be listening attentively.

Marcus Shone was grinning from ear to ear. "It's showtime." He whispered, as the Gryffindors started to swarm into the room. He grabbed the bucket in a stand-by position, and waited for the arrival of the 'VIPs'.

Scorpius was standing behind Sebastian, and Roy and Roxanne were blocking his sides. Scorpius took out his wand as well and hid it under his robes while still grabbing it firm, prepared to make that one and only flick that would change everything.

Once Marcus throw the acid potloops, just do the water transfiguration you are so familiar with, Scorpius, you can do it! Scorpius told himself over and over again, and he could feel his heartbeat increasing in every second. There's not a second to lose, because if Scorpius was late for a while, everything would fail.

"…Slytherins are early today, aren't they?" Scorpius jerked when he heard Rose's voice. He raised his wand slightly.

Everything happened really fast. As Rose and Albus walked across the door, Marcus threw the bucket over them. Scorpius mumbled his incantation and flicked his hand as fast as possible. The acid potloops changed colour from orange to green. Orange to green? Scorpius sensed that something was not right, and flicked his hand again, changing his incantation almost immediately. The green liquid turned paler, and whiter, and soon it was clear before hitting Rose and Albus.

Fuck those idiots. Those were not acid potloops. Those were alkaline potloops. If Scorpius had not changed his incantation to switch the pH level, Rose and Albus would really have died.

The Slytherins roared with laughter as Rose and Albus stood at the door, looking pathetic with their drenched robes and confused look. Marcus had dumped his bucket far away and was joining in the laughter, pretending that he was part of the onlooker.

Rose lifted her hands and wiped the liquid of her. Her face distorted when she found out how soapy it was (it seemed Scorpius did not manage to completely change it back to water. Oh well, at least it was safely alkaline now). Albus opened his mouth to say something, but more liquid poured out of his head, and he ended up choking stupidly.

Scorpius wiped off his sweat in relief, and laughed along as well. The way Rose and Albus were standing there, looking wretched, was a rather funny sight. All the Slytherins chortled in joy, while the other Gryffindors were glaring at the Slytherins. Sigh, he had to give it to his brain. He had no idea where he inherited his brains from, but he's really glad that he was able to switch the incantations so fast and instinctively. He kept his wand quietly. Now thinking about it, the prank might be really funny and successful if only potloops were not used.

Rose was glaring at him. Albus was just looking embarrassed, and glared at all the Slytherins in general, but Rose was just glaring at him, specifically. As if she was so sure that he was the one that did it. Scorpius knew he had been mean to Rose, but that doesn't mean that Rose can relate all these things to him right? He thought, slightly hurt.

"Holy cow, Potter, Weasley, what happened?" Slughorn finally pushed through the crowd and stared at the two dripping wet students.

"Somebody threw soap water at us, sir." Albus said, his voice quivering with humiliation and anger.

"Yeah, I can see that…" Slughorn muttered. "Oh my, who would even do this kind of thing?" He said, as he conjured towels from the thin air, and wrapped it around the two of them.

"It's Malfoy, sir." Rose said suddenly. The whole class turned and looked at Scorpius.

"What?" Scorpius exclaimed. "How could it have been me? I was standing here the whole time." He defended. He could see Marcus hiding away in a corner.

"Yeah, Weasley, it couldn't have been him, he was standing behind us the whole time." Roy said.

"I saw him keep his wand a few seconds ago. He must have used the wand and conjured the soap water." Rose said, her intense glare not leaving Scorpius. "He had been standing behind his friends all the time, hiding himself. He must have done it."

Slughorn glanced at Scorpius. "Nah, he couldn't have done it. Besides, conjuring water out of thin air is a very difficult spell, there's no way he could have done it." Slughorn assured Rose, though Rose did not look convinced. "I'll bring you up to the hospital wing, in case the water is poisonous. Everybody else, stay in class." He ordered.

When he left, the whole class exploded again.

"Did you see Potter's face? That pathetic, pitiful look?" Icarius shouted.

"Yeah, it's hilarious!" Minos laughed derisively.

"Shut up, Nissi." Steven Blue, a lean Gryffindor boy said. "It's not funny."

"No? What, Blue, you like that Weasley girl?" Minos teased.

"Stop it, it's not funny seeing your friends splattered with water like that." Justin Ang said.

"My friends? Are you kidding me? Who are you talking about, Ang?" Marcus exclaimed, as the class doubled in volume.

"By the way, Jason, I thought I asked you to get acid potloops, why is it soapy water in the end?" Icarius asked, getting suspicious.

"I did…I asked for potloops…" Jason said.

"You must have gotten an alkaline potloops instead." Labina said, apparently glad that it was not acid potloops.

"Dim-witted fool." Icarius scolded Jason.

After this, Slytherin's and Gryffindor's relationship together worsen (it was already very bad in the first place), and they could not help glaring at one another whenever they walk past. Scorpius did not mind that much, the only thing that he minded was the fact that Rose was glaring at him in such hatred and animosity so overwhelming, he was starting to regret performing the water transfiguration.

"Damn it, Rose still believed that I was the one that threw the water at her." Scorpius muttered unhappily. "If it's not for me, she would have been burnt into crisp…"

Sebastian laughed. "Why do you care so much about her? Just let them hate us, for all I care. I did a good deed, I'm happy enough." He said cheerfully.

"Though that was one marvelous thinking, Scor." Roy said. "Water transfiguration for acids and alkaline are completely different, it's amazing that you can actually change incantation halfway in split seconds."

"Yeah, and I mean, how did you even notice that your incantation was muttered wrongly?" Roxanne added.

"I don't know, it just turned from orange to green, I have no idea why, but it looked wrong, so…" Scorpius shrugged.

Sebastian shook his head. "You're just one unbearable genius."

That sentence had been said to him so many times Scorpius did not even feel embarrass for it anymore. It was already one month into the school term, and this Friday afternoon, the four of them were walking as far away from student civilisation as possible in the school, trying to find a hiding place. Roxanne had tried sneaking in a few more times, but security measures had been increased, and it was getting harder and harder for Roxanne to sneak in. Therefore, after this, they decided to just find one hiding place that only they knew, or only they would come, and continue doing whatever they have been doing. For now, they needed a hiding place real bad for Scorpius to practice the camouflaging spells so that they can finally play the Ipad again.

"Do you think it's against the school rules to wander about here?" Roy asked. They had walked to a place where they could no longer recognised. It was probably at the very side or the very back of the castle, as they could see the ends of the school from the windows. There was no soul in sight, and even the pictures have decreased in numbers, and soon, there were no pictures at all, just dark, blank walls after walls.

"I think this is what they call the 'last castle', the very end of the school, where nobody ever comes here, but it's not really against the rule for coming here I think." Scorpius mused.

"Just don't get caught by Coactus. He sucks." Sebastian said. "He freaking favours the Potters."

"Everybody favours the Potters." Roy said, as if it was nothing special. "Hey, do you know next week is our flying lesson? And right after that is the quidditch match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Next week would be an exciting week."

"Wow, seems like every Wizard I know absolutely loves quidditch." Sebastian commented.

"You think?" Roxanne said. "Quidditch is the best sport ever, just you wait."

"I'm waiting, and I really can't wait to fly." Sebastian said. "It sounds so fun."

"My father said the brooms they give the first years to learn how to fly were half-spoiled and of horrible quality." Scorpius said. "I wonder why they banned us to bring our own if we have got a better one."

"I think it's okay for me, I don't want the whole school to know we only have comets." Roy laughed wryly.

"Hey, how's this room?" Sebastian said, as they passed by a room. The room was hidden deep inside the wall, with a cupboard half blocking it. It was a dirty door with spider webs all over it. If Sebastian had not pointed it out, Scorpius might not even realised that such a door existed. It was hiding in the shadows, and it was so hard to be spotted even if you glanced at it.

"I think people came here before." Scorpius said, noticing that nearer the door knob, the dusts on the door disappeared, and there were traces of fingerprints on the door knob. Furthermore, spider webs were seen dangling away from the door, as if someone had came in and swiped the spider webs away.

"Why would anyone even come here?" Roy said, disgusted at all the dusts and spider webs.

"Probably the same reason as us." Sebastian said. "Anyway, there's no harm in going in and checking out first. If it really was somebody else's property we can always find another one after this."

Sebastian turned the knob. "It's locked."

Scorpius took out his wand and tapped it at the knob. The door creaked open, and the four of them walked in, crouching down to avoid the spider webs. The room was dark, and sounds of insects scuttling could be heard.

"Lumos." Scorpius said, lighting up his wand. The room looked like any normal room, except that it needed a lot more cleaning up than the rest. "Maybe the cleaners hid this room because they didn't want to clean it." He said, kicking away a pile of god-knows-what, while spiders began scurrying away from them.

"This is disgusting…" Roy whispered, his voice unnaturally thin. "Can we leave now? I don't want this room…"

"Oh shut up, coward." Roxanne snapped. "He's afraid of spiders." She added, as they laughed. Roy flushed red while Roxanne prodded Scorpius to move ahead. "Move on, Scor. Ignore this wimp."

"You know, if we are caught being in here, that would be approximately a hundred points taken away from Slytherin." Sebastian said, looking around curiously.

"Oh I couldn't care less." Roxanne pushed it away, as she walked forward excitedly. "I'm so excited about this room. It's bigger than I thought!"

Scorpius frowned. This room was really big, and seeing the distance they had traveled so far, this room might even be bigger than their common room. How could a room this big and useful be hidden away from the rest of the school, and ignored by the cleaners? The more they walked, the more the room seemed to be leading towards. "This is strange, this room is unnaturally big." Scorpius said. "I mean, I thought we were walking towards the end of the castle, and this room is at the wall at the side, so it can't be so big, right?"

"What if there's no end to this?" Sebastian mused. "What if we're walking in circles, and there's no end to our walking? Then we can never go back!"

Roy whimpered softly. "Can we go back now?"

"No way!" Roxanne said, pushing Scorpius and Sebastian in front to walk faster. "I don't care, I must go to the end! I bet there's this really pretty window out there, since as Scor said, this room is at the side of the castle."

After walking for a while longer, they reached to another door. "Whoa, another one?" Sebastian said. "I was right! This thing really doesn't end! We open this door, and it will lead us to another door, which will lead us to another door, and so on and so forth!"

"So, do you want me to open this door?" Scorpius asked. Sebastian and Roxanne nodded their heads eagerly, while Roy shook his head vigorously. "Sorry, Roy, majority wins." He tapped the door with his wand again, and opened the door.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Scorpius shouted, as the three (or maybe two) behind him were pushing him forward. "Don't move! There's no floor here." The door opened to an enclosed field that ranges all the way down three levels and all the way up three levels. If Scorpius had not grabbed the door and shouted for his life, he would have fallen off and died.

"I think this is the end of the castle." Scorpius said, as Sebastian whistled. From the small windows in the field, Scorpius could see the outskirts of England, and the end of Hogwarts territory, where some Muggles lived. "Should we go back now?"

"We can practice here at the field." Sebastian said, ready to jump down.

"Hey, don't! How do you suppose to get up here again after practice?" Scorpius said.

A low rumbling sound shook the place, making the ground trembled slightly. "What's that?"

Scorpius turned his head to where he thought the sound most likely came from. In the corner of the enclosed field, there was a lump of brown colour thing. It looked like a scaly boulder, but whatever it was, it was moving and growling. Scorpius knitted his eyebrows together as he tried to think. "What's that? It looked really familiar, I think I've read that before…" He tried to recall.

"There's no need for you to recall, Scor, because it's opening up, and it's obviously dangerous!" Roy said, as the lump of boulder-like thing spread out its wings and roared.

Damn it, it's a freaking dragon.

XxXxX

End of chapter! Erm, I supposed this is a cliffhanger haha. xD I'm getting busy now D: but see you around!

Hope you enjoyed! Review!