[A/N: I love writing about the possibilities of things that could be found in the Room of Requirement.]
Ancient Runes Laboratory
Hermione retook her seat in front of her computer and the Diadem; she entered in a string of commands to begin running the series of tests she'd told Harry about. When the tests began, the Diadem's jewels began to sparkle. All three were amazed though Hermione was a little less impressed.
"Why is it doing that, Miss Granger?" Minerva questioned, still a tad overwhelmed.
"I'm guessing that the sparkling is just an indication that power and the tests are being performed. Kind of like what the lights within my computer are doing to indicate that work is being done." She turned her laptop around so they could sort of see inside.
When the diagnostic began the 'memcheck test', one of the larger jewels began to glow a sort of sick color and emit a bit of an oily black smoke. It was then Hermione's laptop stopped its check and began listing error messages.
She nodded thoughtfully at what she read, "Yup, the drive is corrupted and therefore unreadable. Well, at least now I know what a 10th century version of a hard drive looks like." She pulled off a section of electrical tape from her toolbox, picked up a red paper tag and wrote something on it then affixed it to the jewel with the tape.
Harry pointed at the tag in silent inquiry.
"That's just to let me know where the drive is and that it's busted. If we do find a replacement jewel in the Room, then I'll hopefully be able to replace it. If not, like I said; it'll just be a shiny object."
While Minerva was sitting there with a bit of a lost expression on her face and Hermione was taking notes of what had transpired; Harry asked the important question.
"Have you figured out as to how you're going to be able to program a new drive assuming you find the right jewel?"
Hermione shrugged her shoulders distractedly as she finished writing her notes, "I hope that Rowena's journals could be found in the Room. I guess if they're not there, we could ask Helena if they might be in her mother's old suite."
"Where would that be?"
Again with the shrug, "Dunno. We'll deal with that when the time comes."
When she finished her notes and assisted Harry in dismantling the diagnostic array, she turned to her Head of House.
"Professor? When would be a good time to meet with the rest of the staff? Also, do you think it'd be possible to keep the headmaster and Professor Umbridge out of such a meeting?"
Minerva drew in a deep breath as she came back to life and nodded, "Yes, I think a meeting would be a good idea. How about tomorrow morning in the teacher's staffroom? Say around 8 am? I can contact them directly tonight after dinner. I think that'd be the best way to keep both Albus, er…the headmaster and Madam Umbridge from attending."
Teacher's staffroom, the next morning
Harry and Hermione nervously entered the room; it wasn't every day that a student had reason to enter such a place. Harry glanced around and snorted lightly after seeing that there wasn't anything to suggest that this was some sort of mystical place where the adults of the school came to discuss esoteric magic but in reality was just a room that housed an assortment of chairs, sofas and low tables. There was a coffeemaker and tea service in one corner and about a half dozen smaller windows lining the room. Several vintage posters dotted the wall opposite of the windows.
"I don't know what I was expecting but this wasn't it," Hermione commented dryly.
"Right? I was…" Harry began but stopped as the rest of the staff minus Dumbledore and Umbridge entered. Minerva greeted the two students and called for everyone's attention.
"Okay, here's the situation. Mr. Potter and Miss Granger have discovered two miraculous things within these walls. One is a room that is supposed to be a deep storage sort of place with the added benefit of becoming whatever the user wishes. The other item, Filius you will be surprised to learn, is they've found the Diadem of Ravenclaw."
Loud mutterings and cries of disbelief erupted from the others and the sound of a teacup crashing to the floor. Filius was standing there over the remains of his teacup still holding a spoon with his mouth hanging open and eyes bugged out, "You're, you're joking right? Ravenclaw's Diadem? You have it with you?" He asked that last question with grasping hands.
Harry stepped forward a bit, "I did find the Diadem however it seems to be corrupted. It appears to have a defensive method of injuring the user if they try to wear it. As near as Hermione and I can figure, the hard drive contains a virus of some sort."
Puzzled looks appeared on the staff's faces. Minerva grimaced in commiseration, "I know how you're feeling right now, I went through something similar last night when these two resoundingly demonstrated just how out of touch we've gotten with the non-magical world." She gestured to Harry to continue.
Harry pulled over a table and pulled out the Diadem from his knapsack. The staff crowded in to lay their eyes on the near mythical and thoroughly legendary device. Hermione giggled at the sight of Professor Flitwick bug-eyed and practically drooling at the thought of being so close to his House's most prized possession.
Severus Snape, the school's Potions teacher, waved his hand in the direction of the Diadem, "Where did you find this? Many others have searched for it and have come back empty-handed."
Harry picked up the Diadem and returned it to his knapsack, "That leads us to the next part of this gathering. There's a room on the seventh floor, a room of untold abilities. Follow us and we'll show you something spectacular."
Seventh floor opposite of the tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy
"Whew! What a climb! Makes me glad that my House is only one flight down from the Great Hall," grumbled Professor Sprout, "Now I understand why Filius and Minerva are always in shape."
The others chuckled at their colleague's perceived discomfort before turning back to the pair of students who stood there with smug grins on their faces.
Hermione began the explanations, "Okay, so to begin with, the elves of the castle already know where this room is and how to operate it. In fact it was a particular elf that Harry and I are familiar with that showed us how to find it. What you'd need to do is to pace three times in front of the wall opposite of that hideous tapestry thinking about what sort of form you need the room to take. In this case, I want to find the 'Room of Hidden Things.'" With that final statement, Hermione began her pacing. At the completion of the third pass, a door faded into existence much to the surprised gasps of the assembled staff.
Harry reached out and opened the door, gesturing grandly, "Welcome to the Room of Requirement."
Inside the Room of Hidden Things
Not a sound was heard, not even from breathing as the teachers could only stare in wonder and not a little trepidation at the amount of…stuff piled up in front of them. They could see that there were avenues and even narrow pathways branching off from where they were standing. There was a small, elegant looking table standing next to Harry. On it lay what appeared to be a map.
Hermione picked it up and glanced up at the ceiling, "Thank you, Hogwarts. Okay, it appears that the jewelry department," she heard Harry laugh at that, "is off to the left. I say we all stick together as you never know what you might find in here." She pointed in the general direction of one of the wider avenues and turned to look at her Head who nodded.
The two teens led the adults through a Hogwarts' version of Wonderland. Madam Hooch, the flying instructor, let out a sort of strangled squeal of delighted surprise when she discovered several brand-new looking vintage style brooms stacked up in a corner. Professor Snape's eyebrows had practically vanished into his hairline when he spotted several vials of unidentified potions, jars of potential ingredients and more cauldrons than a person could shake a wand at. Madam Pince, the librarian had burst into tears when she spotted bookcases filled to bursting with lost tomes.
Filius approached Minerva and the two were quietly whispering as they continued to follow Harry and Hermione deeper into this wonderful cave of treasures.
"I think that we need to get organized here if we're ever going to see what else is here that could be potentially damaging to the students and us," Filius murmured.
"I agree. I think we should coordinate with the elves since they're already familiar with this place. No need to endanger the students with anything this explosive," she replied as they passed what appeared to be a life-sized stuffed troll.
Surprise and stunned disbelief continued to be the order for the day when the group reached the 'jewelry department' as Hermione had described. There were baskets of individual gemstones, both finished and uncut; buckets of pearls, either in necklaces or individually; bejeweled swords, parts from ceremonial armor and large chests filled to overflowing with all manner of 'shiny.'
Professor Sinastra, the Astronomy teacher, commented off-handedly that if these jewels and whatnot were actually worth something, the school would no longer have to worry about obtaining the necessary funding to buy or replace broken equipment. As the resident half Goblin, Filius stepped forward, waved his wand over a bucket of gemstones to check for illicit charms before scooping up a rather largish ruby. He pulled out a magnifier and examined the stone.
His shaking hands clued the others into the suspicion that these things were valuable. Very valuable…
Later that day, still in the Room…
Harry had taken a break from the excavation of the Room and plunked himself down onto a rather comfy Greek-style settee. He watched with tired eyes and chuckled to himself as he watched the teachers act like little children as they hurried from one spot to the next, calling out various exclamations and exaltations. Hermione too, was part of the organized chaos that would erupt at random points and locations as she searched for the gemstone she needed for the Diadem. Harry sighed as he relaxed and started reminiscing about how the two of them even got together.
Flashback Year One:
Like all great moments in history, they had met on the train on the first of September as it steamed its way up North. She had entered his compartment inquiring about a lost pet toad for a boy named Neville Longbottom. Harry's other compartment companion, Ronald Weasley, made some rude comment about having a toad as a pet. Harry tuned out the idiot and commented that he'd not seen a toad in there with them but did suggest that they search out one of the prefects as it was their job to handle issues like this. Starting a new school and frankly a whole new world was daunting but soon the two realized that they had plenty of commonalities and therefore began spending time together exploring the school and the grounds. Harry introduced Hermione to Hagrid when the latter invited him to tea. Hermione bonded almost immediately with his owl, Hedwig when they were introduced. Hedwig thoroughly enjoyed the prospect of getting plenty of work from the bushy-haired girl who promised many letters to be sent to her parents.
Their friendship solidified after their Charms class that Halloween when Hermione was rudely insulted by Ron Weasley after she tried to help him learn to perform the Hover charm. Harry pushed Ron away from him as Hermione ran past, crying. He caught up to her and brought her back where he proceeded to rip strips off of the redheaded git's ego. Harry declared that just because Ron was a complete idiot who'd rather waste his time in school did not give him the right to insult others who came here to learn. With that final bit, Harry declared that whatever fragments of a potential friendship they might've had was now at an end. Harry warned Weasley to just stay away from the both of them, promising swift retribution if he failed to do so.
It was when the mystery of the Philosopher's Stone began to take form did either realize the brilliance of each other. Harry was amazed at her ability to research while she was amazed at his inherent ability to take a disparate amount of information and make incredible and yet plausible connections on the fly.
Harry had made a comment after Hermione shared a rather heavy book about the infamous alchemist Nicholas Flamel. Hagrid had inadvertently revealed the information about the wizard after Harry had remarked about discovering a monster dog locked away on the forbidden third floor corridor. Harry had commented that it was highly unlikely that the real stone was here in the castle. When asked to explain, Harry remarked that a man as old as Flamel would've surely had better defenses in place to guard his stuff and that Dumbledore was the age equivalent of a child who would've never been given the real stone to protect in a school full of children.
The result of that conversation led them to discuss who should be alerted to deal with this information. Hermione was all for letting Professor McGonagall know as not only their Head of House but also the Deputy Headmistress. Harry agreed with the stipulation that the Head of the Magical Law Enforcement know too. He explained that there must be some sort of law that had been broken for using the school and the stone as bait for Voldemort or one of his minions to come and find.
In the end, a letter explaining the situation was sent out using Hedwig to the Director of Magical Law Enforcement suggesting that they come with reinforcements to the school. They then took their findings and theories to their Head of House. At first, Minerva was all set to give the kids false platitudes and send them on their way but Hermione then mentioned that they just sent a letter to the Director of the DMLE outlining the very same thing.
The next day, the Director Amelia Bones and several members of various departments arrived en mass and systematically dismantled all of the so-called 'traps' within the forbidden corridor. The stone was retrieved and removed. Minerva overheard one Unspeakable remark that the stone was a fake, they pointed to an engraving on the bottom that read out, 'Nice try, Albus.'
Return to the present…
Harry shook himself from his reverie and smirked at the sight of his girlfriend as she squealed in delight and danced a bit as she held up a gemstone that fit the requirements. She then turned back again and dug into a chest of rubies to see what else was available.
Flashback Year Two:
Harry was back at his relative's house when he'd gotten a surprise visit from a strange being known as Dobby the House-elf. After a stilted conversation with the diminutive creature that 'Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts'; Harry had the brilliant idea of having Dobby explain his reasoning and story to his bedroom mirror, thinking that since Dobby's orders were to not tell another person and that his Master obviously didn't think to include Dobby in that order, he could tell his reflection about the 'plot to make bad things happen.'
Armed with that knowledge, Harry thanked Dobby. He also surprised the elf in his 'brilliance' when Dobby confessed to confiscating Harry's letters. Harry dryly commented that the muggleborn and raised had other means of communication at their disposal that most magicals would never have thought of and that unless there was something from the bank, then Harry didn't really care that the letters had vanished. Dobby stood there with his mouth hanging open in shock before numbly pulling out the stack, handing it over and vanishing with a crack.
Harry ended up contacting Director Bones and related everything that had transpired the previous evening. The result was that Lucius Malfoy was arrested for possession of Dark Artifacts and trying to incite acts of terrorism against the general population. The Dark Artifact turned out to be some sort of Diary with the name 'T.M. Riddle' stamped on the back. Harry never heard about it again and had a nice quiet year despite having to deal with an annoying, glory-seeking prat of a Defense teacher in the form of one prancing peacock that was Gilderoy Lockhart. Lockhart didn't even last the first term when the Weasley Twins concocted some sort of potion which caused the popinjay to confess his sins in front of the entire school population. The man was arrested and an Auror from the DMLE was sent to cover the class.
Back in the present…
Harry watched as the professors cleared an area somewhat near the entrance to the Room as a sort of staging area. Minerva was in her element as she organized the clearing out and cataloguing of items that were found. They had discovered quite a bit of interesting objects. Things like antique furniture that could be fixed up and sold, vintage and near mint condition brooms, personal effects of students and staff of years gone by, piles of clothing from various eras, mountains of books, potions and their associated ingredients, and many more that he didn't or couldn't recognize. The elves were flashing in and out of the spaces and piles as they were given their instructions.
Flashback Year Three:
Supposedly, Sirius Black mass murderer extraordinaire had escaped from Azkaban Prison and was on the hunt to finish what he'd started back in 1981 with the demise of Harry's parents. On the train north, Harry and Hermione met their new Defense professor, Remus Lupin. As the mystery unfolded, Harry finally managed to get the known information about the alleged betrayal from his parents' supposed friend. Demonstrating his brilliance of 'on the fly information assemblage', and combining it with Hermione's talent for research, the two realized that it would've been impossible for Sirius to have killed Peter Pettigrew, the fourth member of his father's school group, the Marauders. The two teens explained their findings to their Head of House as well as Professor Lupin and Director Bones, the latter being invited to the school to hear said findings. Hermione explained that if Pettigrew had been 'blown up' there should've been more body parts lying on the street other than a cleanly severed finger.
Sirius' whereabouts were finally discovered with the aid of the Marauder's Map, the singular greatest achievement the Marauders had created. Said map was in the possession of the Weasley Twins and explained how they were able to avoid being caught all their years while in school. Professor Lupin confessed as being Moony (which caused the Twins to prostrate themselves on the floor loudly declaring themselves 'not worthy' over and over again) and that Padfoot was really Sirius. Wormtail was in fact Peter Pettigrew while Prongs was actually James Potter.
Harry was shocked that his dad was the leader of the Marauders and that the map was effectively an heirloom. Sirius was captured and promised to be given a trial. In the meantime for his safety, he was hidden away in a safehouse and given medical treatment to recover from his time in prison and being on the run. Pettigrew managed to escape during the turmoil of capturing Sirius and the revelations that Lupin was in fact a werewolf and had been since childhood and vanished into the surrounding landscape.
Back to the present…
Hermione flopped down on the settee next to Harry, clearly exhausted from the discoveries and trials of the search. She lamented that neither she nor Madam Pince had found any journals belonging to Rowena yet but she was still hopeful that they'd turn up eventually.
"Well, the only other place I can think of where they'd might be if not in the castle would be if she had a vault with Gringott's or somewhere deep in the Department of Mysteries," Harry commented as he wrapped an arm around his girlfriend's shoulders, "You going to take a break now? You've been going nonstop for hours."
"Yeah, I think I'll just lay here and take a nap," Putting actions to words, she stretched out on the couch and quickly fell asleep.
Flashback Year Four:
Fourth year was the announcement that the legendary Tri-Wizard Tournament was going to be held at Hogwarts that year. Excitement and curiosity was rampant as was Harry's trepidation that something bad was going to happen. Well, it tried at least. During the Selection Ceremony, Harry's name had been called but he refused to participate. Dumbledore tried to force the situation but Harry remained steadfast. While the adults argued, Hermione did her part and researched the history of the tournament and the Goblet of Fire itself. She managed to find a loophole buried in the ancient documents that 'if the selected champion was the last surviving member of an established family, he or she may choose to withdraw from said tournament under the guise of protecting and ensuring the continuation of said family.'
Dumbledore tried to hush up the knowledge of the loophole but was thwarted by Harry using a hidden Dobby and a DictaQuill writing down everything that had been revealed and explained. He then had Dobby make copies of the writings and sent off to the Daily Prophet as well as the DMLE. The firestorm that resulted was the hot topic of conversation amongst the three schools for days to come. Dumbledore had been raked over the coals for trying to circumvent established procedures, endangerment of a minor and attempted Line Theft of the last surviving member of a Noble and Most Ancient Family, in this case the Potter Family.
It was an overheard comment from their Professor Snape that some of his stores of ingredients had been broken into and that the shredded Boomslang skin, lacewing flies and a couple of other things suggested that someone was illegally brewing Polyjuice Potion. Showing her usual curiosity, Hermione asked what Polyjuice was, what it smelled and look like. It was fortunate for her that Severus was in a good mood that he bothered to explain the key features.
Defense professor of the year, former Master Auror Alastor Moody, was captured and revealed to be an imposter after Hermione had noticed that the flask that Moody always drank from smelled suspiciously like Polyjuice. That the imposter was known as Barty Crouch, Junior had everyone in the know shouting cries of 'impossible!' because Crouch Junior was supposed to be dead. The real Alastor Moody was rescued eventually, having been locked away in his traveling trunk.
Back to the present…
The staff took a break and was discussing their findings with each other. It was astounding to witness Severus Snape of all people actually appearing to be almost giddy with the discovery of so many rare and expensive potion ingredients just stored away forgotten. Madam Hooch was in talks with Professors Flitwick and Bethesda Babbling, the Ancient Runes teacher, about going through the broom collection later to see which were useful for future classes. Minerva glanced over at where Harry and Hermione were at on the settee; both now had fallen asleep in each other's arms.
Flashback to the summer prior to Fifth year and the start of this crazy adventure:
Voldemort had found a way to come back during the previous year thanks to the efforts of Pettigrew. The rat had stolen some blood from Cedric Diggory, the Hogwarts Tri-Wizard Champion for use in a disgusting Dark ritual to restore a spirit to its body. Cedric had witnessed the ritual and managed to escape to safety. During the following summer, he'd tried telling everyone about what happened only for the cowardly administration of Cornelius Fudge to deny it ever happen and declare Cedric to be a lying, attention-seeking fool. Cedric had reached out to Harry asking for his support in raising awareness of the Dark Lord's return to the magical world. Harry agreed and went on record to say that Cedric's character was such that it would be impossible for the older boy to be making up stories for attention.
This led to the attack by two 'rogue' Dementors showing up outside the local park in Little Whinging where Harry and his cousin Dudley were loitering around. Harry managed to repel the Dementors by using his Patronus, a defensive charm he'd learnt back in third year from Professor Lupin. A letter arrived later via owl telling him that he was being charged with using magic in front of a muggle and that he was responsible to present himself for a trial. His uncle tried to use this to get Harry thrown out of his house but was shut down by Dudley surprisingly who told his dad that they'd be dead if it wasn't for Harry.
Harry's trial was cancelled after he sent a letter to Director Bones explaining what happened and that he was willing to provide a memory of the event. When he got to school, he along with everyone else found out that Dolores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic was going to be their new DADA professor. Known as 'The Toad' or 'The Umbitch' though not within earshot of said woman, Umbridge quickly became the most despised person within the castle walls for her draconian methods of discipline and inability to teach. In her newest effort to wrest control from the established seniority, she recreated (and probably corrupted) the ancient position of High Inquisitor.
Back to the present…
Hermione was disappointed to learn that Rowena's journal on how to program the gemstone into being a new hard drive wasn't in the pile of books they'd found that day. She grudgingly admitted that the teachers and elves hadn't even scratched the surface of what was in that room in the short time they'd been there. In the meantime, she did get to keep the gemstone slated for the Diadem as long as she kept it and the location of the others a secret for the time being. As the group descended from the stairs onto the ground floor, they were met by the scowling visage of a disappointed Albus Dumbledore.
