The Welshman
by Hyena Cub
Rating: PG-13 for violence, language, and death, especially later on.
Genre: Harry Potter

--

CHAPTER 16: A New Quest

I kept the wand I had taken until Spring break, when I went home for the Easter holiday. Mum and Dad took me to Diagon Alley to get a new one, though I was still angry about losing the one I had. It was twice as difficult to do any magic with it, and none of the magic worked quite so well.

The proprietor of Ollivander's wand shop was, as had always been, a descendant of the original Ollivander, and had the uncanny ability to remember every wand he'd ever sold. So he recognized me when I came in; he'd forgotten my name but knew what my wand was. Weird.

My new wand took an hour and a half to find, and I was getting so impatient I was ready just to use the one I had. But then, finally, the wand I held in my hand gave a brilliant shower of red sparks, and I couldn't help but exclaim, 'FINALLY!'

My new wand was also ash wood, but instead of a phoenix feather, like my last one, this new wand had a dragon heartstring in it. I supposed I would have to get use to it, build a sort of relationship with it. Magic wands were not sentient, per se, but they had a spirit to it. The wand truly did choose the wizard, and things without spirits don't choose anything. I put the wand I had usurped in my room, deciding I would have to build a frame for it, write down the story on a parchment, and hang it on my wall. I remembered my vow to break it into several pieces but changed my mind…it could be handy to have a spare wand.

There was one strange thing that happened during Easter break. Some bloke from the Ministry came to our house, wanting to talk to Mum, but wouldn't let Dad or me listen. When the visit was over with, Mum told us about it…because it was about my coin. 'He was wondering after that coin you found, Calen,' said Mum, looking worried. 'I told him you hadn't found anything like that…I don't like it.'

To say the least, I was shocked. That coin had to be in that little trunk for centuries, how could anyone possibly know about it? 'Who was he?'

'His name's Gary Sommers, he's an Unspeakable…which means I have no idea what he does. But I didn't like it. Calen…best not tell anyone except those you implicitly trust about this coin, okay? Just in case it really is the one they're after.'

'Yeah,' I said, feeling rather stunned. 'Yeah…I think that's a good idea.' I didn't sleep so well that night, either.

When we got back to school, my friends and I went back to our Quest for the Hidden Room…though we didn't have much time for it. Quidditch was practicing harder than ever, what with the final game coming up soon and Gryffindor having a chance to win it. The end-of-year Creaothceann match and the duelling tournament were coming up, also, keeping most of us very busy.

It was Arcturus who found the way. We were in the Gryffindor common room one day in April, watching Rory Brennan demonstrate a traditional Irish jig to the music one of the Gryffindor girls was playing on her fife. Rory was a pretty good dancer, too! He didn't look silly like some people did when trying to dance traditional. Ke'koa, who was sitting beside me taking it in turns to shout encouragement and good-natured insults at Rory, suddenly gave a jump and a sort of startled yelp.

'What happened?' I asked. 'Did someone goose you?'

Ke'koa snorted, peering down into the book bag sitting on the floor at his feet. 'No, I just hear Arc—'

He was cut off by a shout, this one louder, as Ke'koa opened his bag. Arcturus. I blinked, trying to figure out how that had happened, before realizing that Ke'koa must have the two-way mirror in his bag.

'Let's go into the dorms,' said Ke'koa, looking across the common room to where Peter was sitting at a table, doing some homework. 'Where's Faolan?'

'Resting,' I said quietly. 'He, er, had a rough night.' The full moon had been the night before, and then we had classes today, so he hadn't much sleep.

'Oh yeah…okay lemme see what this screaming meemie's squawking about--' I heard an indignant protest fro Ke'koa book bag— 'and you go tell Peter, okay?'

'Sure.' I watched Ke'koa steal up the stairs to the boys' dorms, and I stood up, wincing as my back cracked, then scurried over to where Peter sat, surrounded by books. 'Hey,' I said. 'Arcturus has something to tell us…you wanna come with?'

Peter winced, looking down at his homework, and regretfully shook his head. 'I can't. I've got to have this done by tomorrow…let me know what he wanted, okay?'

I was a little disappointed, but I understood; we'd all had problems getting our work done before, especially this year. 'No problem, mate,' I said. 'Good luck.' Peter gave me a distracted smile, and I sprited up the stairs.

Faolan and Arcturus were in the middle of a friendly insult match by the time I got into the dorms, and I listened for a while. One thing Arcturus was extremely creative in was insults; he must have learned them from his family.

'Peter's got to finish his work,' I said. 'It's for Charms, it looked like, and you know how Melville is.'

'Yeah, she's a nasty old cow,' answered Arcturus from the mirror, and I laughed.

'Yeah. So…what's up, anyway?' I walked over to where Ke'koa had the mirror propped up on his pillow, and saw that Arcturus looked painfully excited. Faolan was sitting on the bed, looking pale and tired.

'I've figured it out!' he exclaimed.

Faolan's expression lit up excitedly despite his obvious fatigue, but Ke'koa looked as confused as I felt. 'What?' I asked. 'Figured out what?'

Arcturus looked completely exasperated at out stupidity. 'The Room, you git! The Room!'

Any indignation I felt at being called a git was completely eclipsed by the great excitement that clenched me around the chest. 'What? What's the secret? How do you do it?'

'Meet me outside that tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy,' said Arcturus with a huge grin. 'We've got a half hour before curfew; we've got plenty of time. I'll have to show you!'

'We'll be there!' promised Faolan.

'See you there!' And with a flash of his dark hair, Arcturus was gone from the mirror, which then turned dark.

'Well?' said Faolan, lurching up from the bed and literally bouncing in place. The weariness that had dragged him down only moments ago had gone into hiding; if anything could energize him, it was the promise of a mystery solved. 'Let's go!'

'Before he explodes,' said Ke'koa, and I laughed as I followed Faolan, out the door and down the stairs.

The three of us got some weird looks as we ran across the common room, probably looking madly gleeful, but I was used to weird looks. We weren't exactly known for being normal, after all. I sprinted over to Peter, whispering what was up, and felt bad at the look of indecision that passed over his face.

'Oh…blazes. I can finish when I get back.' I grinned as Peter shut his books, shoved them into his bag, and stood up from his chair. 'Who needs sleep, anyway?'

I laughed, and Peter and I ran to catch up with Faolan and Ke'koa. I was just glad that the entrance to Gryffindor Tower was on the seventh floor; we had no more stairs to go down once we were out of the dorms, and were in front of the tapestry in no time.

Peter sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall, as the four of us speculated on what you might have to do to get into the room. Arcturus joined us at a run five or ten minutes later, panting for breath and clutching his side. His face was twisted in an expression of discomfort.

'I've got a bloody stitch in my side the size of London,' he gasped as he flopped down next to Faolan.

'The size of London?' I repeated, raising my eyebrows. 'Sounds like you've got a real problem.'

'So how do you get in?' asked Faolan eagerly, and the rest of us laughed.

'Let the poor man catch his breath, furball,' said Ke'koa, ruffling Faolan's hair. I had to clap a hand over my mouth to stop a loud guffaw…I couldn't remember Ke'koa calling Faolan a furball before.

Faolan grimaced, looking quickly around them, his expression one of alarm. 'Not so loud!' he hissed.

'Oh go on, there's no one here,' said Ke'koa. 'And if they were, they'd not know what I was talking about. Besides, you are…you're a cute little furball.'

Faolan finally laughed at the expression on Ke'koa's face; Ke'koa could almost always get him to laugh. I grinned and ruffled Faolan's hair, too. 'Don't you love having friends who adore you so?' I asked. Faolan snorted in a decidedly sceptical way.

Arcturus finally gave a groan, hauling himself to his feet and stretching to the side. 'Why can't you bloody Gryffindors have a common room closer to ours?' he complained.

'Well we usually try to stay as far as possible from the snake pit,' said Ke'koa with a grin.

'So if I'm a furball, what's that make the snake?' asked Faolan, smiling tiredly up at Arcturus. 'A scaleball?'

'Scaleball, cute,' said Arcturus, glancing down at Faolan from behind half-lowered lids. 'Just for that, I ought not to tell you what I've discovered.'

'Awww, you wouldn't!' Faolan exclaimed from the floor, and he looked so pitiful that Arcturus had to laugh, his expression softening. I recognized that look, too; Kian could always melt me when he turned his big eyes up at me and acted pitiful. But Faolan never did it on purpose; his was a natural skill.

'All right, all right…no need to get all teary-eyed,' said Arcturus in amused exasperation. 'It's actually simple…we were looking for a spell or something, or a password…it's not. Calen, when you were going back and forth, looking for a way out…that's what's needed. You've got to pace in front of the door, concentrating on what you need. Three passes. Watch.'

Arcturus closed his eyes for a moment, focusing, then opened them and began walking back and forth directly across from the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. Peter let a startled cry as the lines of a door began to draw themselves in the wall, finally solidifying in a wooden portal with a big, brass handle. Looking immensely pleased with himself, Arcturus opened the door with a flourish and bowed us inside.

The Room looked vastly different from how it had looked when I was last inside it. Instead, it looked like sort of a miniature hospital wing, with two beds, a small cabinet against the wall, and three comfortable looking chairs. Arcturus went right to one of the beds and flopped down onto it.

'Oh, brilliant,' said Faolan and lay down on the second bed.

I laughed in amazement and turned to the others. 'Guess the chairs are for us?'

'This room supplies what you need,' said Arcturus from his bed. 'I'd bet there's some sort of energizing potion in that cabinet over there…I certainly need one!'

'This is major-league magic!' I said, awed, as Ke'koa went over to see if Arcturus was right about the potion. 'When I found it by accident, there was a roaring fire…I was freezing from Quiddtich practice, and a soft chair to rest in while I waited for the Slytherins to leave.'

'Pepper-Up potion!' Ke'koa exclaimed. He brought out two small bottles and handed them to Faolan and Arcturus. 'I'd wait until you ere in your dorms, though. Just in case someone asks where we got it from.'

'I wonder how it works,' mused Peter, wandering slowly around the room and looking everything over. He kept rapping on the walls and beds, as if he suspected they might be merely illusion. 'It's…conjuring magic, or…or some kind of Transfiguration.'

'And Summoning,' said Ke'koa, looking at the potions. 'D'you think it brings the objects from elsewhere, or if it turns items into the ones you need, or….'

'I've got to research this room,' said Peter. 'This is amazing. What did your ancestor call it, Calen? The Room of…?'

'Requirement,' I finished.

'Now that we know how to use it and what it's called, I bet we could find it in a book,' said Peter with a grin. 'I'm gonna try…starting tomorrow. For now, though, we should get back to our common rooms…we don't wanna get caught out here past curfew.'

'You're awesome, mate,' said Ke'koa with a laugh as Arcturus literally rolled out of the bed and got onto his feet.

'I know,' said Arcturus smugly. 'See, I'm not all bogged down with practices, so I had plenty of time to figure it out. Not that my magnificent brain needed so much time.'

'Ha!' said I. 'I'd hardly call not having a life something to boast of.' Sometimes Arcturus was in dire need of an ego harpoon. We were still bantering as we walked down the seventh-floor corridor, towards the stairs Arcturus would take to get back down to the dungeons.

'This place needs a lift or three,' I said as we rounded the corner.

I stopped short as a tall figured loomed before me, and I blinked in mild alarm. I stumbled back onto Faolan's foot, and Faolan protested with a yelp.

The figure before me looked just as surprised as we were, and once I got over my surprise, I saw it was Professor Forrester. 'Er, hi, Professor,' I said, blinking and removing myself from on top of Faolan's foot. 'Sorry,' I murmured back to him.

'Evening, boys,' said Forrester. Looking taken aback. 'What are you all doing here?'

Ke'koa seemed about to reply, but for some reason, I suddenly didn't want Forrester to know what we'd been up to. 'Arcturus was visiting us,' I said. 'He's just heading back down so he won't be late. How about you?'

'Oh, I was just taking a stroll,' said Forrester with a bit of a strained grin. 'I'll not keep you, then…see you in class tomorrow.' He clapped me on the back and walked on, walking casually across the corridor…but I saw him glance at the wall opposite Barnaby's tapestry, as if unable to help it. My first thought was that he had just lied through his teeth.

Ke'koa, Faolan, Peter, and Arcturus were all looking between me and Professor Forrester's retreating form. 'Er, I gotta go,' said Arcturus. 'I'll be late…I'll get back on the mirror, okay?'

'Okay,' I said. 'We should get back too…see you in a bit.'

Professor Forrester was gone by the time we headed back that way, which had me a bit uneased. Why did he lie? And why did he have the idea that he was looking for Room we'd just figure out how to work? When we were all safely back in our dorms, I told the others what I thought, and said that I wasn't sure I wanted to tell him what we'd found out.

'How'd he know it was up here anyway?' asked Ke'koa. 'None of us told him yet, did we?'

'We didn't tell anyone,' said Peter. 'Did we?'

At Peter's question, I suddenly remembered the day I was called into the Headmaster's office to talk about the Moor twins' attack on me…I had told him about it! I mentioned this to my friends, shaking my head a little. 'I guess he mentioned it to Forrester.'

'Weird,' said Peter with a yawn. 'Look, I've got to get that project finished, and get to bed…I'll see you all tomorrow.'

'Yeah…see you tomorrow, Peter,' I said.

'Well, and what are we worrying about, anyway?' said Ke'koa. 'What o we care if the teachers use it? It's been around for ages, probably loads of people have used that room.'

He had a point…certainly old Fred Weasley had used it when he went here. 'Yeah, you're right,' I said. I looked over at Faolan, but he had already fallen asleep on his bed. 'So much for taking that Pepper-Up potion,' I said with a laugh.

Ke'koa took a look around to make sure no one else was in the dorm with us, then said, 'Man. I can't imagine going through what he goes through every month.' Frowning a bit, he stood up and went over to where Faolan lay, his legs hanging off his bunk. I saw what Ke'koa meant to do and went over to help him with it, carefully moving Faolan over so he was lying on the bed properly.

'I can't either,' I said as Ke'koa drew the blanket over Faolan. 'Aside from not getting any sleep all night, then usually having to go to classes the next day…I wonder what it feels like.'

'I'm not sure I want to know,' said Ke'koa. 'Come on…we might as well get some sleep, too.'

'Yeah.' I looked at Faolan a moment longer, trying to imagine what it felt like to turn into a vicious, four-legged beast, and had trouble doing it. Finally I went back to my own bunk, changed into my pyjamas, and lay down…but I did not sleep.

At first my thoughts ran endlessly on about werewolves, and what it must have been like for Faolan to be bitten by one, and what he had to endure once a month. I heard Rory and Dragomir come into the room and get ready for the bed, and I was still wide awake. From werewolves, my train of thought drifted to the Room of Requirement, the mystery that was at last solved. If Arcturus was right, if you really could get anything you needed in that room, the possibilities were endless.

My thoughts then went to Christmas, and the trunk I had found in the attic, and the strange coin replica. Wesley. Creirwy Wesley. Hadn't I wondered who he might be? Or was it a she? Then it occurred to me: I could use that Room to find out about my coin!

With this intriguing prospect in mind, I turned over and closed my eyes, finally falling asleep.