The Room of Requirement truly was a miraculous room; it populated itself with anything that the creator asked for as long as it was within the bounds of magic to do so. It had served the students once as the space where Dumbledore's Army practiced. Then, during the war, it acted as a safehouse for the members of Dumbledore's Army and any who needed protection from the Death Eaters and the Carrows.
Harry Potter was happy to see the room back in action again.
Though Harry had originally been a reluctant instructor, he had quickly taken to the role that had been thrust upon him. Week after week, Harry taught students from three of the four houses how to defend themselves against malevolent forces. Voldemort's return had pushed many of them to learn and get stronger, and Harry had done all he could to help them.
Now that the war was done and Voldemort defeated, hundreds of students returned back to Hogwarts once again.
It had been a difficult decision to return to Hogwarts, more difficult than Harry had expected. The newly-installed Minister for Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt, had offered Harry, Ron, Hermione, and countless other students places within the Ministry. Specifically, he had offered Harry a spot in the Auror Office with the promise of a swift promotion to Senior Auror if his first year turned out alright. The temptation to take Kingsley up on his offer had been great; being an Auror had been his goal for years now, and he was deeply invested in making sure that none of Voldemort's followers got away free. However, those weren't the only factors to consider.
Harry was the first one Hermione told that she wasn't taking Kingsley up on his offer. Most of the other students in their year seemed to be waiting for Harry to make a decision before they committed to anything, but Hermione decided on her own. Harry appreciated that; it was hard being looked up to constantly.
Funnily enough, it was Harry looking up to Hermione that swayed him to turn down Kingsley's offer too.
Hermione was his best friend. Ron and him would always be close, but their friendship was never free of its drama. With Hermione, he never had to worry if she'd stick by him—he just knew that she would.
So, the two of them had gone in to the Ministry together to turn down Kingsley's offer. After that, the rest of their year made their own decisions.
It sucked hearing that Ron was going to work for the Ministry, but maybe it was for the best. He would be able to spend some time becoming his own man and not feeling like he was in Harry's shadow, and Harry would be able to re-center himself after all of the chaos that happened last year. Most of the rest of their year chose to return back to Hogwarts, but a handful joined Ron in taking up positions at the depleted Ministry.
Harry and Hermione had been at Hogwarts during the two weeks leading up to the start of the school year helping to finish of the repairs of the damage done during the Battle of Hogwarts. It was nice to be settled in one place for a long time. They were able to rest up and get ready for the start of the school year.
To no one's surprise, Headmistress McGonagall gave Harry and Hermione the Head Boy and Head Girl badges, respectively. Harry had thought of turning her down, but Hermione had insisted that they work together. So, Harry accepted.
Bill Weasley took over as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. He arrived on the train with the students alongside his wife, Fleur. Knowing his background as a Curse-Breaker, Harry was ecstatic that they'd finally have a competent Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. But that didn't stop students from approaching Harry on the first day back at school if he was going to start up Dumbledore's Army again.
Deep scars had been left from the war, and more than a few students weren't sure that it was necessarily over. With dozens of Death Eaters still on the run, fears of possible attacks still ran high. Some wanted to keep learning to defend themselves outside of class time while others simply wanted to rekindle the camaraderie between the original members of Dumbledore's Army.
Again, it was Hermione who gave him the push he needed to start the DA back up again.
"Keep your wand a little higher, Anthony," Harry said, correcting Anthony Goldstein's grip as he practiced the Reductor Curse.
Anthony nodded, taking the advice and improving his grip. "Reducto!" He cried, firing out a bright blue light that struck a dummy on the other side of the hall. The dummy burst apart, shattering into several large clumps of ash.
Harry nodded his approval and moved on. He could see that most of the members of Dumbledore's Army were starting to wane. Glancing over at the large grandfather clock that sat in the corner of the room, he saw that it was nearly an hour until curfew. Well, maybe they could end early today.
"Alright everyone!" Harry shouted over the noise in the room, waving his arms above his head. "Good work, but we're going to finish up for the week!"
Dozens of students turned to face him. All of the original members of Dumbledore's Army who returned to school this year had joined back up, and they had opened up the group up to any who wanted to join. After the initial couple of weeks where it seemed like half of the school was interested in participating, they were now down to a semi-manageable 100 students.
"Thanks, Harry!" Most of the members called back as they started to clean up after themselves.
"Another good session, eh, mate?" Neville Longbottom said as he playfully jabbed his elbow into Harry's side.
Harry pushed his elbow away but smiled at his friend nonetheless. "Yeah, but everyone seemed pretty tired."
"You've been pushing them pretty hard," Hermione said as she saddled up beside them. Like most of the other students, her brow was covered with a thin sheen of sweat. "Better than not being prepared though, I suppose."
The grim turn left a lull in the conversation until Hannah Abbott approached several seconds later. "Why don't you two get out of here," she said, looking right at Harry and Hermione. "The rest of us can finish cleaning things up in here."
"Are you sure?" Harry asked, not wanting to abandon everyone else to do the cleaning by themselves.
"Absolutely," Hannah confirmed. "You already do so much just by teaching us. Trust me, we'll take care of everything."
Harry looked over at Hermione who simply shrugged and nodded her head. "Alright then."
"Great!" Hannah exclaimed. She leaned over and gave Harry a quick peck on the cheek before he could realize what she was doing. "See you two next week then!"
Hermione chuckled quietly as she led a surprised Harry out of the Room of Requirement. Most of the members of the DA had left and were clearing out of the corridor, heading back to their houses. A few waved or called out their goodbyes to Harry and Hermione.
Harry's eyes kept flickering between Hermione and the doorway back into the room. "What was that?" He asked.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Oh, honestly Harry, you can't be so oblivious to not notice the fact that almost every witch in the school has a crush on you." Harry's silent response and blinking eyes made Hermione let out a weary sigh. "Right, of course, you didn't notice."
"I've been busy!" Harry countered, trying to defend himself.
"Uh huh," Hermione said unconvincingly, pushing Harry along down the corridor.
"I'm serious," Harry insisted. "Between getting the DA organized again, refreshing myself on our coursework, and dealing with all of the Ministry stuff since the war, I haven't had much time to think about dating."
"I think a few of the girls would rather a fling than dating," Hermione opined.
"Really?" Harry asked with a furrowed brow.
Hermione's exasperated look and nodding head told Harry all he needed to know.
Harry's face lit up at that. "Well, I wouldn't mind taking a few of them up on that."
"Men," Hermione laughed. "Anyway, how goes the planning for next week's DA? Did you manage to look up Miscreant Maladies in the library?"
"Mm hmm," Harry nodded. "I've got it right-" Harry froze as he looked down. The book he had brought to the Room of Requirement earlier today wasn't in his hands. He let out a long groan. "I must have left it back in the Room of Requirement."
Hermione shot him a sympathetic look. "You'd better go get it then before Hannah and the rest of them put it away on a shelf and it gets lost."
Harry grimaced at the thought of what Madam Pince would do to him if he lost one of her precious books. Even his status as the man who killed Voldemort wouldn't be enough to save him from her wrath. "Alright, I'll meet you back at our rooms."
Taking off back the way they had come from, Harry jogged back to the Room of Requirement. The corridor around it was empty, but the door was still in the wall. Hannah and the rest of them must not have finished cleaning up yet. Harry quickly rushed forward and pushed open the door before stepping back inside.
"Hey, sorry, just forgot some-" Harry trailed off as he frowned at the sight before him.
The Room of Requirement had been changed into something . . . different. Gone was the large, open room. Now, there appeared to be a room within the room. The walls of this smaller room looked perfectly natural, running all the way up to the ceiling. There was a single open doorway leading through the wall while black drapes hung over the gaps in between the room within the room and the outer walls of the Room of Requirement. Strangely, no one was around.
"Hello?" Harry called out, wondering if everyone had already cleaned up and someone else had taken over the Room of Requirement for . . . whatever it exactly was that was going on here.
No response came back, but Harry caught sight of a slight bit of movement coming from within the open doorway. Curiosity urged Harry forward.
As Harry stepped through the open doorway, he found himself in a cramped, winding corridor that sharply veered to the left. He followed it around a few feet before the corridor opened up into the large room beyond.
It was . . . it was . . . quite frankly, Harry didn't know what the hell it was.
The walls of the room, excluding the one made up of the back-wall of the corridor he had just come from, were littered with holes. Not only were there tiny holes no larger than Harry's fist, there were ones which he could conceivably crawl through. All of the holes has those same black drapes on the other side of the wall, obscuring whatever lay beyond there.
It was one of the strangest sights Harry had ever seen, and it was only made more confusing when he saw Neville walking around and inspecting them all.
"Neville?" Harry tentatively called out.
Neville jumped, whirling around with his wand out. His eyes widened when he saw Harry but, thankfully, he lowered his wand. "Harry, bloody hell, you scared me," Neville exhaled loudly, hand clutching at his chest. "What are you doing here? I thought you and Hermione were heading back to your room?"
"I forgot my notebook," Harry explained.
"Oh," Neville nodded his head. "Yeah, I think Hannah found it. Said she'd keep it in the back and give it to you in the morning at breakfast."
"The back?" Harry repeated, frowning in confusion. "What is all this?" He asked, gesturing all around him.
Neville scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Err, well, sorry. I guess one of us should have mentioned this to you earlier. But, given the fact that you and Hermione are together, we didn't think you'd be interested."
If anything, that only served to confuse Harry even further. "Hermione and I aren't together," Harry told Neville, giving him a strange look.
Now it was Neville's turn to look confused. "You're not? But you two always spend so much time together, and you have your private quarters right beside each other, and Parvati told me one time she went to check in on Hermione but she didn't answer her door. Then, when she went to ask you if you knew where she was, Hermione answered your door and she was dressed in her bed clothes."
Did everyone think that they were together? "Sometimes she stays over," Harry explained with a certain degree of reluctance. Even though Neville had his own trials from the war, this was still a very personal experience to share. "We . . . get nightmares, about the war. Sometimes its easier to just sleep in the same bed as each other so that we can make sure that we're both okay throughout the night. We don't sleep together though."
No, they hadn't since Ron had left them. They had done it a few times, but then it had all stopped once Ron came back. Maneuvering around him would have been awkward. And besides, Ron and Hermione still had their unresolved feelings towards each other to work through first.
Neville's cheeks reddened slightly. "Well, I feel stupid for assuming," he muttered as he scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
Harry nodded but didn't comment on it further. "So, are you going to tell me what this is then?"
"Oh, right," Neville perked up a bit. "This is something we came up with during the war. There were so many of us trapped in the Room of Requirement for months, and it was a little hard to get any amount of privacy in there. Between the difficulties of actually connecting with people in there, and the war taking a toll on all of us, a few of us came up with this as a form of stress relief."
Neville took a few steps back and tapped one of the holes in the wall. "Have you ever heard of glory holes before?
Harry blushed hard as he thought back to an old magazine Dudley had. He had only seen a picture of one for a few seconds, but the image had stuck in his mind for years. But that picture only had a single, small hole. "Yeah," Harry answered.
"Well, we basically set up a big room of them," Neville explained. "You see, we have holes of all sizes. Some people only want blowjobs, and that's what these smaller holes are for." Neville tapped one of the fist-sized holes that sat at waist-height. "Then some people want something more." Neville pointed at one of the largest holes that had a bit of padding on the flat bottom of it. "The girls all stay on the other side. In these ones, they can slip the lower half of their body through the hole."
Harry waved his hands in the air. "Hold it! So, you're telling me that all of you have sex with each other?"
"Mmm hmm," Neville nodded. "We keep it anonymous for the most part, though some of us kinda know who does what, so it's not completely anonymous. We don't go naming names in public though. This is a way for all of us to let off a bit of steam without really committing to a relationship. It's still hard for a lot of us. Even though the war's done, there's still Death Eaters out there, and some of us lost our partners in the war."
Harry gave Neville a sympathetic look. "Did you-"
"No," Neville interjected, shaking his head. "But I was the one in charge of us, and it was really rough at times. This really helped us through some of those tough times. And, well, when the school year started back up, a few of us decided to start this back up too."
Harry looked around, counting around twenty holes in total around the room. "How many people use this?"
Neville thought for a moment. "Well, its just about everyone from our year and the year below us. There are a few sixth years who are of age now too who joined in."
Almost everyone? Merlin, how had Harry not heard about this before today.
"If you want," Neville began, "you and Hermione are more than welcome to join us. We've been meeting up here a few times a week, usually after class or just before curfew. We have charms set up to prevent any infections or pregnancies happening. All of the girls come in first and get set up on the other side before we let the guys in."
Harry peered around at all of the holes. The black drapes on the other side prevented him from seeing anything behind there. "Are they back there now?" Harry asked.
"Yup," Neville confirmed. "We keep privacy charms up until everything starts. Then, they get dropped so that everyone can hear what's going on. It was a little awkward only hear a room full of guys grunt the first time we tried this," Neville admitted sheepishly.
"Wow." Honestly, Harry didn't quite know what to say. He hadn't expected all of this.
"I know, it must seem crazy to you, but its a really good thing we've got going. Here," Neville guided Harry closer to the wall. "You can even try it yourself if you want."
Suddenly, Neville pounded his fist beside one of the waist-high holes. Harry looked at him strangely for a moment before he spotted the black drapes being moved aside.
There was a flash of pale skin before a set of pink lips came into view. Then, the lips opened up, revealing a moist, steamy mouth. Harry's eyes widened at the sight. The girl's mouth was wide open and ready for anything. He could see her tongue dancing back and forth and her uvula jumping at the back of her throat.
Neville patted Harry on the back. "I'm going to go let the guys know its going to be a late start today. Why don't you try it out? Who knows, maybe you'll really like it. If not, then no worries."
With that, Neville walked off, leaving Harry there alone, staring into the wide open mouth of a girl he didn't even know the name of.
A/N: Hey, thanks for reading! I will be steadily reuploading all of my content from AO3 until both sites have the same content on it. If you are interested in reading more or supporting me, check out at p atreon .com(slash) ashox