Author's Note: A hundred follows and thirty five chapters later! Thanks for reading guys, you're all awesome. :)
THIRTY-FIVE
After walking up and down the corridors of the seventh floor for almost half an hour without success, Remus cleared his throat pointedly. Josephine ran her hands along the rough stonewall as they walked, and Remus trailed behind at a slower pace, hands in his pockets. The castle was comfortingly still; all life locked away behind classroom doors.
"Are you sure you know where it is?" Remus said eventually. Josie said nothing and kept running along the wall, thinking as much as she could about how much she needed to find the room. "I mean, you've only been here for a couple months, how could you know?" He continued, even though he knew Josephine wasn't listening.
Instead she put her head closer to the walls, heeding… something. She could be crazy, but she swore she heard something, a high pitched sound like a finger dragged across a wine glass. "Even James and Sirius haven't found it… and you said you were hallucinating so…" Remus reasoned in the background. He stopped and observed her as the sound got louder and Josephine quickened her pace. She got to an intersection just by a tapestry of some trolls trying to learn ballet as the pitch reverberated before dying out. Josie brushed her hand across her satchel where she had stashed the music box. She flashed a look back to Remus before regarding the tapestry again. It was like she thought it would disappear if she didn't pay attention.
"This is it!" She called back to Remus, a little way down the hallway, still.
"Are you sure?" he asked, but she didn't answer. As he caught up with her she walked around to the side, peeking behind the cloth. "This is it," she said quieter, to herself. She stepped back and walked back and forth in front of the tapestry three times, eyes closed and concentrating on the ruin of the Singer's head at the gunshot. Her breath quickened without her wanting it to.
"What are you doing?" Remus spoke out. Slightly dizzy, Jose reached out and moved the tapestry back to engulf herself in the heavy fabric. She breathed in and caught a whiff of dust in her lungs. Coughing, she felt around in the darkness.
"There must be a door here somewhere," She called back. Thinking intensely about how she couldn't keep the box for much longer without giving in, she heard Remus shuffle around for a bit.
"Um… maybe you should use your wand?" He offered.
"Oh." Josie pulled out her wand. "Lumos." She stood a few millimetres away from a dark slab of wood with intricate gold detail. "Yes!" She exclaimed in triumph, turning the knob with a click.
"What?!" she heard Remus respond in disbelief, and Josephine just laughed.
The Room of Requirement looked different for anyone who entered, but there was more often than not, a collective need for a place to store things. It is this room that Josephine walked into – a place many wizards and witches had been during Hogwarts time, apparent by the sheer amount of junk it harboured. There were stacks upon stacks of things, in piles and on shelves. It was the landfill of the valuable (both wanted and unwanted). After climbing over a grand piano that was half-blocking the entrance, Josephine looked back. Remus swung his legs over the piano and pushed off to land on a mound of discarded books. You could hardly see the floor.
"I have to admit, I was doubting you a bit back there," he confessed. Josephine smiled smugly. "How did you know it was here?"
"I've-uh… done some reading," she said. Remus looked unconvinced but didn't question her further.
They walked on, chins tilted toward the ceiling as they kept an eye on the teetering towers of relics that once meant something to someone. Slipping on books on the floor and catching themselves on the corners of beaten furniture, they explored.
"Check this out," Josephine called over to Remus, who was investigating the inside of a chest of drawers. She picked up a musty red coat from the floor. It had tails and was clearly Victorian. "This is so cool!" She said. Remus came over to look. "You should totally try it on!" She urged him. He looked at her as if to check if she was serious.
"I dunno, why would someone leave it here if there wasn't something dodgy about it," He said.
"Ugh, screw that," she shoved it toward him, but he didn't bite. "Come on, Lupin, someone probably just left it here to keep it safe," she assured him. Remus made a sound of indignation before taking the coat from her and shrugging into it. It was slightly too big.
"Oh, that is glorious," Josephine said. Remus snickered and turned around. The arms were slightly too long, so only his fingers poked out from the bottom of the coat, and half the buttons were missing. Despite this, Josephine wasn't lying. The colour suited him somehow.
"The cuffs go halfway up my forearm," Remus pointed out, smiling.
"You should take it," she said.
"What would I do with it?" he asked.
"I don't know… Wear it to a suitor's ball to regain your family's fortune," she joked. "Whoever owned it before won't miss it."
"That's probably true," Remus admitted.
The two continued looking around, getting lost a couple times but navigating by way of the huge renaissance painting which sat atop one of the bigger towers.
"We should probably hurry, we're going to be late for Ancient Runes," Remus said, looking at his watch. He was still wearing the coat, looking like a child in the world's biggest dress up chest. Josephine sighed.
"Yeah," she said, disappointed. She had found a place for her enchanted box in a glass cabinet against the left wall of the chamber. It housed other various trinkets, which caused Josephine to think about the stories behind those objects, and who might find her cursed drawing next. They disposed of the box. She closed the cabinet with a soft click. Josephine didn't regret confiding in Remus, she reflected as they walked back to class. He wasn't only compassionate and trustworthy, but having company made the situation feel a bit less heavy. The perspective brought clarity and shutting the door of the room of requirement had been satisfying (and literal) closure.
The Ancient Runes classroom was always cold, not matter what the weather. It surpassed Josie how a magical castle could not generate a little heat for the students, but it gave the room it's charm. The returning pupils would be prepared enough to bring extra layers, and that was how Josephine found herself huddling with Lily Evans in one scarf. They practiced drawing the symbols and forms and as Lily pointed out the likeness of the Rune "earthquake" to a man with a mustache, Josephine caught herself sketching again.