What Life Could Have Been
Midnight Wandering
Elise was sprawled across an armchair by the fire, Arithmancy book slipping from her grasp as she slept. The fifth years had been experiencing a larger homework load than ever before and even her valiant attempts to get ahead were being foiled by the human need to sleep. The book's loud thud wasn't enough to wake her, but the shadow that sniffed her fingers, planted its big, black paws on her collarbone and licked her repeated in the face certainly was. Her eyes snapped open but before she could scream the dog transformed in one fluid movement to Sirius, who grinned down at her and raised a finger to her lips.
"What the hell do you think you're doing Sirius?" she whispered.
"Well, showing off I suppose."
"Good answer. Please remove your hands."
"Oh. Sorry." He climbed off her and sat on the floor, brushing dog hair from his pajamas. Elise scowled down at him.
"What? You can't exactly accuse me of interrupting your studying, now can you?"
She said nothing.
"Oh, c'mon Ellie. Is there ever going to be a time when you're not mad at me? Because sometimes I get this funny impression that we're pretty good friends."
"Sirius, that's not fair. You just assaulted me as a dog, how am I supposed to find this amusing?"
"Maybe you're in denial."
"What did you really come down here for?"
"I thought you'd never ask. I've got something to show you." He jumped up, ran to the staircase and came back with the Invisibility Cloak. "C'mon, up you get."
"Sirius, are we sneaking out?"
"Of course, but I promise you that it's worth it."
"..."
"Don't look at me like that, you might grow up to be McGonagall."
"Where are we going?"
"It's a surprise. Think of it as a date if you like."
"Sirius, remember that you are trying to convince me, not the other way around."
"Let's just go," he said, grabbing her wrist and pulling her under the cloak and towards the portrait hole.
"This had better be good."
"You dragged me out of bed to look at the tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy and the trolls?! Sirius, I can't even decide which hex I want to use on you right now."
"Ellie, calm down. I haven't shown you the best part yet. Close your eyes and hold on to my arm."
Her glare would have made McGonagall proud. Elise kept her eyes closed but she could tell they were just walking up and down the corridor. Sirius went slowly so she wouldn't trip and when he stopped and told her to open her eyes they were in front of the same tapestry. Before she could protest Sirius turned her around. Where the wall had been there was a large door.
"Where are we?" she whispered.
"Open the door Ellie," he replied.
They moved across the hallway and she slowly stretched a hand through the cloak and pushed on the heavy, wooden door. It swung open silently and Sirius pulled her inside. Elise gasped. They were in a large room, and definitely still in the castle but trees and flowers grew from the floor and instead of the ceiling there was the starlit night sky; dewy grass carpeted the floor. Moonlight shone through the branches of a large oak. She slid out from under the cloak and ran into the center of the room, all anger and misgivings forgotten. Sirius folded the cloak and followed.
"Sirius, this place is beautiful. Where are we?"
"I wanted it to become something you'd be impressed by so that's what it became."
"What do you mean?"
"This place becomes whatever you need it to be." You were cross with me so I just thought 'I need somewhere to impress Ellie' and it turned into this forest room."
"It's beautiful." Elise lay down on the dew covered grass.
"I found it when I needed to hide from Filch. It turned into a little room with a Foe Glass and about a hundred magical locks on the door. Obviously, Filch never found me, lousy Squib."
"It's fascinating. What's it called?" she asked dreamily.
"The house elves call it the Come and Go Room, but it's also called the Room of Requirement. Most people don't know when they've found it and they can't find it again when they go looking for it," he said, sitting next to her.
They watched the stars in silence.
"You know, I don't think we're going to be able to put this room on the map," Elise said after a while.
"Yeah."
"Sirius?"
"Hmm?"
"Thank you."
"Anything for you Ellie."
Sirius put the folded up cloak under her head as she fell asleep. He curled up as Padfoot beside her.
Elise woke in her chair by the fire, sunlight streaming in through the Common Room windows. The Common Room was nearly empty; it was a Hogsmeade weekend and no one wanted to be caught studying. She yawned and stood up. A folded piece of parchment fell to the floor. She picked it up and read it.
Meet me in the library when you wake up sleepyhead. Sirius
A few days after they had visited the Room of Requirement, Sirius slipped Elise a note during passing period. This note said: Common Room at midnight. When she tried to ask him about it he pretended he didn't know what she was talking about.
"You don't want the others to know, do you?" she asked as they walked through the dark corridors.
"What's wrong with that? Can't we have some secrets?""
"I suppose. But you never told me where we're going."
"Another empty space on the map. It'll be worth it."
They walked much farther than they had the previous time, going down many floors from Gryffindor Tower. Finally Sirius stopped her. Elise had no idea where they were.
"Sirius, I have a bad feeling about this."
"Close your eyes."
They walked a little farther before she heard him give a password. Sirius took her hand and led her inside the new place.
"Okay, open."
There were no windows in this room. It had a high vaulted ceiling and what wasn't black was draped in green and silver. Serpents adorned everything from chair legs to the chandelier.
"Sirius, why would you bring me here?!" she whispered harshly.
"So you can map it."
"What!"
"Here, do it quick." He pulled out the Marauder's Map and opened it to the dungeons.
"Why couldn't you do it yourself? I don't want to be here."
"Don't be afraid. I know enough hexes for the whole house."
"That's not what I meant." She dug into her robes for her wand. "Give me the map."
They moved into the center of the room. Elise crouched down and whispered the spells quickly over the map. Ink lines spread from where her wand touched the parchment, labeling the Slytherin Common Room and the dormitories.
"Are you satisfied?" she hissed.
"Just a minute." Sirius moved them to the entrance of the dormitories and aimed a hex at ankle level. "That'll be fun in the morning."
"We're going now!"
"Okay, okay."
They walked in silence back up to Gryffindor Tower.
"Ellie?"
"What?" She paused on the stairs to the girls' dormitory.
"Want to do Ravenclaw tomorrow?"
"Goodnight Sirius."
Elise continued to get little notes from Sirius when he had found some place particularly interesting and they would go out in the cloak in the middle of the night. The map had doubled in size by Christmas when Sirius finally told the others what they had been up to. James was both jealous and excited at the same time and Remus was horrified that they had gone out all those nights. Peter was in awe as usual.
During the holidays they were able to wander the school during the day and work on some of the finer details, like handwriting, in the warm, inviting Common Room devoid of other students. Most important of all, James, Sirius and Peter were able to spend hours fine tuning their Animagus forms while Elise and Remus worked on said details. They even managed to get all their homework done. It was a wonderful Christmas.