Chapter 6: Room of Requirement
The first week of classes went by fast, our frees filled up with an increased load of work, despite having less classes and more free time. Quinn and I were busy practicing a spell for Transfiguration in the corner of the common room, while Aiden Ryan and Kevin were taking a break from studying to play wizard's chess.
"Checkmate!" announced Aiden, much to Ryan's dismay.
"Alright, I give up! Kevin, it's your turn to try and beat the reigning champ!" proclaimed Ryan. He then sauntered over to where Quinn and I were attempted to turn each other's ears in to rabbit ears.
"Auris Lepus," said Quinn, pointing her wand at me. I knew immediately that her spell had worked, as I could feel my ears lengthening and becoming floppy.
Ryan snuck up behind me and grabbed my rabbit ears, saying, "hmm, I must say this is a good look on you Cricket." All three of us laughed. Ryan then pulled his own wand out of his robes, pointed it at my furry ears and said, "Finite Lepus." My ears then shrunk back to their normal size.
"Hey Quinn! Come here for a second! Aiden doesn't believe that I saw a banshee on summer break last year! Come over and tell him!" yelled Kevin from across the room. Not wanting to disturb anyone else, Quinn went over to the boys, mainly in order to tell Kevin to shut up.
Ryan reached over to me and stroked my back-to-normal ear and said, "rabbit ears did suit you, but I must say, you have some pretty cute ears." I blushed and pushed his hand away.
"We agreed that nobody needed to know about us yet, so don't make it obvious."
"Don't worry," he said calmly, "nobody was paying attention. So anyway I was thinking that we should go exploring tonight. It's Thursday night so not that many people will be up late since we only have tomorrow morning for classes. It's perfect!"
"Alright, I think tonight could work. So where should we go?" I asked.
"Well we've never explored the seventh floor, so why don't we start there!"
Quinn was heading back over towards us with a bit of a scowl on her face, a normal occurrence that happened after she had a heated conversation with her twin brother. Ever since we started exploring the castle at night during our 3rd year, we had decided it would be something only the two of us would do. We couldn't really have the five us wandering around the castle at night, it would be to easy to get caught, and if we went with Lila then we'd have to take Kevin, which meant that Aiden would inevitably have to come as well.
Nightfall couldn't come fast enough and eventually Quinn gave up on her Divination essay, vowing that she would take the future however it came and that she didn't care to see how the alignment of the stars would effect her future. As soon as the door the girls' dormitory shut I pulled my cloak out of my book bag. I had enough experience with exploring the castle at night, to know that the corridors became rather cold and drafty. Barely five minutes passed before Ryan quietly opened the door to the boys' dormitory. "Sorry it took so long, I think Aiden had a bit to many cauldron cakes before going to bed and I had to wait for him to fall asleep before coming."
We managed to make it down from Ravenclaw tower and towards the main set of staircases without hearing any movement near us. "Homenum Revelio," I said pointing my wand out in front of us. Nothing happened and we knew it was safe to proceed down the stairs towards the seventh floor. Ryan and I started to quietly descend the stairs, but just as I started getting faster I forgot about the trick step and as I stepped down, the step disappeared beneath me. A loud squeak escaped my mouth before I managed to pull my left leg up out of the hole that appeared beneath me.
"Merlin's beard Cricket! Let me know next time you try and wake up the whole castle!" Ryan then grabbed my hand and we quietly descended the rest of the steps and made it down to the seventh floor.
After roaming a round for a couple of minutes, we passed a tapestry of what looked like someone teaching trolls ballet. Suddenly, footsteps seemed to becoming from one direction. Just as we turned to go the other direction, a voice seemed to carry from the other corridor. We need to hide. We need to hide. I thought.
All of a sudden Ryan pointed to a door across from the tapestry and we quickly clamored inside. Inside was a small room with a hammock and several other random objects. The walls seemed to have been scorched, and smelled somewhat of burnt pine, but no other damage was visible. "Alohomora," I said quietly, pointing my wand at the door to lock it.
We both leaned our heads against the door, hoping that filch or whoever was outside didn't hear us. At first the voices outside were hushed, but there was definitely more than one person there.
"So? Did you find out which Auror would be coming to the school?" asked a male voice impatiently.
"Mr. Harry Potter himself will be coming himself after Christmas break, Professor," said a younger female voice excitedly.
"Good, very good. I must say, you've come to resemble your Aunt Pansy more and more each year." I abruptly gasped, causing Ryan to quickly put his hand over my mouth. The male voice that I could hear was Professor Zabini, and it was unbelievable to think, but the young girl he was talking to was none other than Millicent Stuppard. "Now we must pretend that this conversation never happened. If anything should happen during Mr. Potter's visit, you know nothing. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Professor," responded Millicent.
I didn't realize that I had been holding my breath until we heard Zabini and Stuppard walking away and I sighed in relief. "I don't know what that was about, but it certainly didn't seem like a good thing," I said looking to Ryan."
"I didn't like the sound of that either, when Harry Potter comes to Hogwarts, we should keep an eye out."
"Agreed. And I think we're done exploring for tonight," I responded, "we should probably stay in here for a little bit, just so we don't almost run into anyone again."
All of a sudden the hammock in the corner of the room looked particularly inviting. Ryan seemed to be thinking the same thing and we lay down next to each other on it. "Let's play truths. Tell me something about you I don't know," said Ryan.
"Hmm, let's see. You pretty much know everything about me! Oh! I know! The only time I've ever been on a broomstick was during flying lessons in our first year."
"No! But you're from a wizarding family! What do you play at home!" exclaimed a very chocked Ryan.
"My mum's a muggle, remember? My dad grew up with Quidditch, but my mum is deathly afraid of any of us getting on a broomstick. She just can't understand how it stays in the air. Okay your turn," I responded.
"Well there's this little thing," he said as he pulled something out of the pocket of his cloak. It was small and blue, and I immediately recognized it to be the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain badge.
"MERLIN'S BEARD!" I squealed. I threw my arms his neck and kissed him full on the mouth. "HOW DID YOU KEEP THIS FROM ME FOR SO LONG!"
"I've been waiting for the perfect mument to tell you!" He laughed. "So Quidditch trials aren't for another two weeks, so I'll still have some free time at night. I think it's time I taught you how to fly."
I agreed and lay back down on the hammock, suddenly very tired. We lay in silence for what seemed like almost an hour. I could tell that Ryan, like myself, was just about to fall asleep. "Hey, Ryan," I finally said.
"Mhmm," he responded sleepily.
"How did your Dad die?" I asked.
Ryan was silent for a couple minutes before he said, "Well you see my grandmother, my dad's mum, is Griselda Marchbanks. She used to administer OWLs, NEWTs and WOMBATs and was one of the Wizengamot elders. His dad, my grandfather, also worked for the ministry. My dad was an only child, so he had a lot to live up to. Now don't get me wrong, he did pretty well for himself as an Obliviator, but towards the beginning of the Second Wizarding War he was out on a job and somehow found out that the ministry had been taken over by You-Know-Who and that it was covering up a massive break-out in Azkaban. This was a couple of months before the Ministry had officially fallen and Scrimgeour was still alive. Anyway, I was only five years old. Aubrey was a 3rd year and Madison was a 1st year and they were on the Hogwarts Express on the way back from Christmas break when they were taken off of the train. The Death Eaters told him either to join then and help take down the Ministry or they would never give Aubrey and Madison back." Ryan grew quite for a mument before he continued, "I remember the last time I saw him. I don't remember much else from the war, but I remember when my dad left. It was about a week after they took my sisters and he woke us all up really early in the morning. He told us that he would be back with our big sisters as soon as he could and not to worry. I remember my mum crying for days after that. About a week later, the six of us kids and my mum were all sitting in the kitchen eating lunch when Evie pointed out the window. In the distance we could see to figures walking towards us. Mum told us all to stay and she ran out into the yard. When she came back in, Aubrey and Madison were with her. The two of them were in shambles and looked like they had been walking for days. They told us that when Dad came to get them, he took their place. The Death Eaters dropped them off near the entrance to Diagon Alley and they made it to the Leaky Cauldron. Neither of them had their wands, so the innkeeper at the Leaky Cauldron found them a fireplace connected to the Floo Network not far from our house. It turned out that the house they got to belonged to the editor of the Quibbler. Apparently his daughter had been taken from the express the same time as Aubrey and Madison, so he didn't take to kindly to seeing them. They managed to find their way home though, at ages 11 and 13. We never found out what officially found out what happened to my dad, but not long after the girls came back his wand was sent to us by owl, so we figure the worst must have happened. His wand is mine now."
I had always thought that something tragic had happened to Ryan's father, but I never thought it was so devastating. I leaned my head against his shoulder, it seemed like the perfect thing to do in that moment. Ryan intertwined my fingers with his and within a few minutes we were both asleep.
