Sunday afternoon found Blaise, Draco, and Theo back in the library. Instead of talking, though, they were helping Draco hunt down any and every single text regarding Hogwarts and its formation.
"Blasted room," Draco growled. He had already read three books and was skimming through a fourth. "How did Potter even find it if it's such a bloody secret?"
"Why don't you ask him?" Theo suggested dryly.
Draco was scandalized.
"It can't be that hard to find," Blaise reasoned. He, too, had a book in front of him, but he flipped pages back and forth, bored. "Besides, didn't you say you saw the door last year?"
"Yes, that's how I know about it," Draco said. He slammed his book shut and pushed it off to the side. "Umbridge was dead set on finding Potter's group, so she had us stationed during open periods around the seventh floor. I've been in the Room, so why is it that I can't remember where the sodding thing is?"
"Maybe it doesn't want to be found," Theo commented.
Opening his mouth, Draco prepared a retort, but no words came out, and his voice died in his throat.
"Don't worry, Drake." Blaise shut his own book. It wasn't doing him any good. "It's early in the year. We've got time."
"Time for what?"
A wild Ravenclaw- also known as Padma- approached the table, comfortable in her natural habitat. She was alone, for the time being at least. She crossed her arms and stared down at the three boys, taking note of the books scattered on the surface.
"Hey, Patil," Blaise greeted. Draco curled his lip and cast his gaze off to the side. "Got any idea where the Room of Requirement is?"
"I do." Padma observed them carefully. "Why?"
"It's-"
Blaise cut Draco off. "Oh, these two were wanting to experiment. You know, with things."
Padma struggled to suppress a smile. Draco audibly choked. Theo lifted a hand to his mouth, eyes twinkling with mirth.
"O-oh," she started, voice cracking, trying not to giggle. "In that case, I'll show you." Padma made to move, then pointed to a table on the other side of the library. "Let me just gather my things."
The moment she left, Draco hissed, "Damn you, Blaise. Now she'll think I'm gay."
"Are you not?" Blaise asked. Theo stood up and cast a spell, causing the books to levitate and rightfully place themselves back on the shelves.
"Well, yeah, but like," Draco stumbled over his words. "She doesn't need to know that."
Padma returned, bag slung over her shoulder. "Are we ready?"
Blaise gave a nod, and the three males followed her out, drawing the attention of a few underclassmen sitting near the door. Any whispers halted when Draco flashed them a threatening glare.
She led them towards the moving staircases, and waited until the staircase in front of them lifted up. The odd quartet traveled up a similar pathway that Blaise, Draco, and Theo had taken before, but instead of taking the stairs to the seventh floor that Draco took, Padma kept walking and snuck into an indentation in the wall. Behind the stones was another staircase.
"It's all a bit confusing," Padma explained as she walked up the steps. "It took me a few tries to figure it out myself. Technically, you can use the other stairs, but these will bring you closer to the wall."
Once at the top, she took a left down a short hallway. About halfway down, she stopped in the middle of the corridor, right at a junction of paths. On one wall, next to an adjacent hall, hung a rather disturbing tapestry depicting several trolls dancing.
She pointed to each of the three hallways. "That's the way we came. There isn't much else down there except for some empty rooms and a nonworking lavatory. This one here," she gestured to the one adjacent, lined with large windows. "That will take you back towards the main seventh floor area, close to where the Divination stairs are. And this," she pointed straight ahead of them. "Dead ends, as you can see. All that's down there are two birds."
Cue a pretty little chirp.
Theo frowned. "Why are they so isolated?"
Padma shrugged. The two birds were in a spherical cage, hanging by a long rope. Behind them were more windows. There was nothing in the cage, either: no sign of food or water. "It is a little odd, isn't it?" she noted. "I used to come up here quite often. It's a decent place to study if you ever need some peace and quiet. Those birds have always been there, so I just always assumed someone's been feeding them."
Odd indeed. They must be some special breed, Blaise thought. Probably a dangerous one.
As if she had been reading his mind, Padma countered his ideas. "They seem pretty harmless, so you shouldn't have to worry."
Draco didn't appear to be listening. He was staring at the wall, squinting, like he was trying to force the wall down by simple power of mind. "How do you get in?"
"Eager, are we?" Padma asked with a smirk, and Draco scowled. "It's rather easy. You just walk back and forth in front of this wall here, three times I believe, and think about what you require. The Room will create whatever you need, hence the name."
Muttering to himself- probably something self-deprecating if the look on his face had anything to say- Draco immediately started pacing back and forth.
"Well! I'll leave you boys to it," Padma grinned, and with a wink added: "Be safe!" With that, she turned and walked off down a different hall than they came.
Blaise watched her walk down the hall. Perhaps he should ask her about starting up their fling again instead of hunting Weaslette down. Padma was sensible, and she really was beautiful. Blaise would've asked her out before, but they never had anything more than occasional lust between them.
Besides, Padma hadn't been hit by hurricane Akane yet. He was pretty sure Weaslette had, and if he remembered correctly, both Akane and Weaslette were part of the rabid group that formed around Borkan's feet on the professor's day of arrival.
Borkan. Another problem. The guy was too attractive, he was putting both Blaise and Diggory to shame. He needs to be eliminated, Blaise's inner voice piped up. Frowning, Blaise figured that would be too much work, and he switched gears, focusing on the real problem at hand.
When he turned around, he was greeted by a pair of dark iron doors standing at least twelve feet tall. Draco gazed up at the doors in awe, almost as though within those doors held the world's answers.
(If Draco was really interested in answers, he should've just accompanied his father to the Hall of Prophecies last year, but Blaise figured that was a low blow and kept his mouth shut.)
Draco wasn't doing anything, so Theo reached forward and grasped the door handle. He glanced back at Draco.
"I really hope you wished for something normal."
The blond deadpanned. "Were you hoping for something, Nott? Did you forget why we came here? I have a job to do-"
"Fine, yes, alright," Theo drawled. "It was a joke."
Blaise doubted that.
Theo yanked the door open enough for him to enter the room, and Blaise and Draco quickly followed, letting the door slam shut behind them. Inside, towers of miscellaneous items competed for the ceiling. Lost books, socks, old quidditch equipment, and dead chocolate frogs were just a few of the items tossed about and forgotten.
"So," Blaise started, glancing around the incredibly messy room. "What exactly are we looking for?"
"Anything that can be used as a weapon," Draco replied. "Objects that I can curse. And it's got to be powerful, too."
From one of the nearby piles, Theo pulled an ancient tiara and placed it on his head. "Like this?"
Blaise snorted. Draco, however, snatched it off and tossed it back where it came from. "No."
Theo hummed and wandered off.
"What kind of cursed object?" Blaise asked.
Draco pursed his lips. "I'm not quite sure."
"Do you even have any ideas-"
"No," he interrupted. "No, Blaise, I don't, I just figured I would find something. Isn't that the point of this room? To find what you're looking for?"
Blaise simply stared at his friend. Draco was getting cranky.
He told him as such.
"I'm cranky because I've been up since five looking for this sodding room," Draco snarled. "And attitudes such as yours are just reminders that I still don't have a fucking clue what I'm doing."
Blaise took a step back and turned around, stalking off before Draco could continue.
"Come back here, Zabini!" Draco shouted. Blaise started whistling. He could hear Draco's growling echo through the large room and Theo's responsive snickers.
The Room of Requirement was an interesting discovery. Blaise knew it existed but he always forgot about it, seeing as he had never actually been in the room itself. He'd heard Flint and Higgs talking about it before, describing the escapades they had had with females within the magic room's walls. It was a lot less grand than he imagined, but perhaps that was because Draco required a room full of literal garbage and not the sex dungeon Flint described.
Maybe that was for the better.
Blaise circled around a pile towards the middle of the room, searching for anything remotely dark and ominous. He knew it wouldn't be that easy. It's not like there'd be a sign anywhere, declaring "Dark Magic! Do not touch!" with several weapon-looking items behind it, radiating dark auras-
"Hey, Draco, I found something evil!" Theo shouted, not too far away from where Blaise was standing.
"Really? Are you sure?" Draco yelled back, on the other side of the room.
"Yeah!" Theo replied. "It's on this dresser that someone labeled quarantine in huge, capital letters. It's an old necklace, I think." Quieter, Theo added, "I'm afraid to touch it."
"I'll be right there!" Draco sounded too excited. Blaise deadpanned and walked in the direction of Theo's voice. Theo had to be joking, the bloke could get rather sarcastic, it's not like that's what he actually saw-
Blaise was wrong. Theo was right; he described it exactly as he saw it. A short, black, antique dresser, littered with scratches and mysterious marks. It had several drawers, some of which were open, and across these drawers in red the word QUARANTINE was marked. On top of the dresser, a bulky necklace lay on display.
"Fucking hell," Blaise groaned. Of course. "Isn't that dangerous?"
"Oh please." Draco came around from behind a separate pile, rolling his eyes. "Of course it's dangerous, that's the point. Now move over, let me see."
Blaise gladly stepped out of the way, whereas Theo lingered closer to the dresser. He pointed at the necklace on top. It sat in a velvet box, carefully placed. "This looks evil."
"Yes, yes it does." Draco nodded and took out his wand, poking at the old jewelry. While the blond did that, Theo crouched down and started rifling through the drawers, seeming to have no qualms about touching clearly dark objects.
This was all sorts of a bad idea. Blaise shifted uncomfortably off to the side. Borgin and Burke's was one of the stores farthest from being his favorite, but it appeared he was in the company of two loyal shoppers.
"Blaise, if you're not going to help, you can leave."
He glanced around the room. "Nah, I'm, uh. Gonna look over here." Quietly, he inched away from the duo and directed his attention towards less obviously evil objects, such as a familiar towering chest. "Isn't this that cabinet that Montague got stuck in last year?"
"I don't know, Blaise," Draco replied, obviously uninterested.
Shrugging, Blaise walked away, not sparing it a second thought.