Chapter 3 – Reagan

There was a slight pause.

"The Room of Requirement? Are you sure?" questioned Abby.

"I'm pretty sure. I mean, what else could it be?" I replied.

"I think she's right, Abby," said Rebecca. "It makes perfect sense. What other room comes and goes?"

"Ok, so say it is the Room of Requirement," continued Abby, "how are we supposed to get there? No one has been there in years. Nobody even knows where it is!"

"Yeah, we'd have no way to find it. This is hopeless," said Rebecca.

"That's not entirely true," I muttered. "I know someone who might have an idea where it is."

"Really?" Abby asked curiously, "Who?"

"Billy."

Rebecca was chasing me down the corridor. "Rea, you don't have to do this!"

"Oh my goodness, Rebecca! It's not nearly as big of a crisis as you seem to think it is!"

"Yes it is! You're practically in love with this guy; it's going to kill you to talk to him!"

I stopped and turned around. "Look, it really isn't a big deal. I'll just go ask him about the Room of Requirement and leave. It'll be a 30 second conversation at the most. A totally normal, non-relationship related conversation. Is that ok with you?"

"You don't have to be so mean about it," she said, half sarcastically.

"I'm sorry. It's just… It's not quite as big of a deal as you're making it out to be."

"Rea, this is going to be the first time you talk to him since he told you he loves you. No matter what you say, it's a big deal."

I turned to walk away, "Well, I better get it over with then."

"Are you sure you want to do this right now? You're still kind of crazy from that potion you drank."

I stopped. "I'm fine. It's mostly out of my system anyway."

"Alright. I'm gonna head back to the hospital wing to be with Abby, alright? Good luck, Rea!" shouted Rebecca.

I yelled "Thanks!" and under my breath I said, "God knows I'll need it."

It took me over an hour to find Billy. He was hanging out in the library, which isn't all that surprising considering he's a huge nerd. He just loves to learn, which I find kind of bizarre. But to each his own, I guess. Billy is a seventh year Ravenclaw which is great because I won't have to see him around school next year. But it also really sucks because I won't get to see him around school next year. Obviously my relationship with Billy is complicated, to say the least. We've been friends for as long as I can remember and about a month ago, he told me he loves me. It would've been a beautiful moment if I hadn't completely freaked out and run away. I'm not very good with emotional stuff; it just isn't my strong suit. I had basically been avoiding him since that night, so seeking him out was very much against my nature.

When I found him in the library, he was sitting at a table alone, studying for some big potions test he had the next day. I stood there for a minute, unsure of how to start the conversation. I was just about to give up and walk away when he looked up at me.

"Hey, Rea," he practically whispered.

"Ummm… uh… hi, Billy."

"So you're finally talking to me again?"

I chuckled slightly, "Yeah, I guess so." I sat down across from him.

There was an awkward silence for what felt like forever. "So, how have you been, Rea?" he asked me.

"I've been good. Busy with school and stuff. You know, the usual." I thought to myself, When did I become so horrible at talking?

"So what did you want to talk about?" he asked me.

"Well, actually, I have a question. And I was hoping you could answer it."

"Is the question 'Will you go out with me?'" he asked half joking, half serious.

I rolled my eyes. "You wish."

"So do you," he said completely seriously.

My heart ached. "Look, can we not have this conversation right now? I'm actually kind of in a hurry. Abby is in the hospital wing an-"

"Oh my gosh, is she alright!"

"Yeah, yeah. She's fine. She's completely fine. It's just, she's in the hospital wing and we found these papers that say 'Find me in the room that comes and goes' and I figured it meant-"

"The Room of Requirement."

"My thoughts exactly."

"Well then you want to know where it is, don't you? That's what you came to ask me, isn't it?"

"Yes. That is exactly what I came here to ask you," I established.

"So, no date?"

"No date."

"I'm not going to give up, you know."

"Yeah, Billy. I know."

He half smiled at me before taking out a piece of parchment. He starting writing things down while I just sat there and waited. He looked up at me a few times while he was writing, giving me this look like he knew exactly what I was thinking or something like that. He probably did know exactly what I was thinking, he'd always been good at reading my mind.

Once he was finished writing, he folded up the parchment and handed it to me. I put it in my bag as he said, "That piece of parchment has everything you need to know about the Room of Requirement. Where it is, how to get in, things of the that nature."

"Thank you so much, Billy. This means a lot," I smiled.

"Yeah, just don't go telling people you got that information from me. I don't share my knowledge with just anyone. They have to special."

"Alright, I'll be sure to keep your knowledge a secret."

He chuckled a bit as he said, "Thanks."

"No problem," I said as I got up and began to walk away.

"Rea," he said. I turned to look at him and he said, "I hope you find what you're looking for."

"Me too," I leaned down and kissed him on the cheek and saw him half smile before I started to walk away and leave the library.

"See, that wasn't so hard now was it?" I said to myself as I was walking the corridors. Some first years looked at me like I was crazy so I stuck my tongue out at them. I need to find a more mature way to communicate with people that I don't know.

It took me awhile to get back to the hospital wing and by the time I got there, Abby and Rebecca were nowhere in sight.

"Well that's just great," I sarcastically muttered to myself.

I started walking toward the Great Hall, which is where we usually hang out in our free time. Since we're all in separate houses, it would be impossible to hang out in one of our common rooms; and we didn't want to hang out in the library because it was too quiet in there. I had also been avoiding Billy a lot lately, so the library was even more of a place to avoid.

I finally made it down to the Great Hall and saw Abby and Rebecca sitting at the Gryffindor table.

"Thanks for making me run over Hogwarts looking for you guys!" I said sarcastically.

"Well you took forever! Abby was released from the hospital wing and we were quickly shooed from the premises. We figured you'd find us eventually," said Rebecca.

"It really is your fault for taking so long," joked Abby.

"Well I'm sorry I took so long. It's not like I was getting helpful information or anything like that," I said as I took the parchment Billy had written on out of my bag.

"What's this?" Abby asked, grabbing and opening the parchment.

"According to Billy, this parchment contains everything we need to know about the Room of Requirement," I told them.

"By the way, how did that go? Was is weird talking to him or anything?" inquired Rebecca.

"It was fine," I said. "I just walked into the library, got the information from him, and walked out. It was all very professional."

"Then why did it take so long?" Rebecca asked.

Abby kicked her and shot her a look that clearly said, "She obviously doesn't want to talk about it, so stop asking."

"Sorry," mumbled Rebecca. "I was just wondering."

Rebecca, Abby, and I looked over the piece or parchment. "Rea, this is perfect!" exclaimed Abby. "Thanks a lot!"

"Don't thank me, thank Billy," I replied.

"According to this," continued Abby, "the Room of Requirement is on the seventh floor. It's entrance is across from the tapestry depicting of Barnabas the Barmy attempting to teach trolls ballet. Have either of you ever seen that tapestry?"

"I haven't," Rebecca said.

"Nope," I replied.

"That's unfortunate," muttered Abby. "I guess we'll have to search for it. Anyway, according to this, in order to enter the room we have to walk by the door three times, thinking about what you need, and the door will appear."

"Well, what exactly do we need?" I asked. "I mean, we have no idea what we're even looking for. Our only clues are pieces of paper telling us that something special is hidden in the Room of Requirement. We have absolutely nothing to go on."

Rebecca muttered, "This is hopeless."

"No, it's not," Abby interjected. "Who cares if we don't have anything to go on right now? We may as well find the room. It'll only get us closer to finding what we're looking for. And after we find it, we can search for more clues. We can do this guys."

I always admired Abby's can-do attitude. She could single-handedly build a house if she had to. Her little speech inspired me.

"Alright, I'm in. I'll see this through to the end. Until we find what we're looking for."

"Me too," said Rebecca.

We all smiled.

"Well then," I began, "it looks like we have some treasure to find."

"I really doubt that it's treasure," Rebecca replied.

We all got up and started heading out of the Great Hall as I said, "I know, Rebecca. I was joking around."

"Well your jokes aren't funny."

"You're just mean," I said as I playfully shoved her.

"Come on guys," Abby interrupted. "I think the staircase to the seventh floor is that way," she said, pointing to the right.

"No, I'm pretty sure it's that way," I said pointing the opposite direction.

"You're crazy," Rebecca said, heading to the right with Abby.

And so our adventure began.