Hi again :D
As you can see, we are at Chapter 22 O.O. I suppose the whole less than 20 chapters thing went out the window XD.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
Chapter 22
Tuesday – 9:15
Once Rose and Scorpius had reached the Ravenclaw Common Room, they put their things down and Rose went searching in her trunk for Hogwarts: A History. Before she had exited her room, she glanced at the letter that her mother had sent her along with her shoes and hair slides. The spell was still written on the end, and she carefully wrote it down on her hand, giving it a contemplative look as she walked out and met Scorpius at the bottom of the stairs.
"What do you have there?" he asked, taking the book from her and starting to flick through it.
"It's a spell my mum sent me, and I'm trying to think of a way to use it effectively. It's not going very well."
"Let me see," he asked, looking at the spell as Rose held out the palm of her hand.
His eyebrows rose and he nodded, Rose took her hand back and began towards the door, "looks like a pretty decent extension spell if you know how to use it right." Scorpius said, giving her the history book.
Rose nodded and opened the book, flicking to a section on The Rooms of Hogwarts. They began their descent down the spiral staircase, Rose still closely reading the book.
"I can't imagine that they are anywhere other than the castle, and it says here that The amount of unestablished rooms in Hogwarts is yet to be known, however to enter such rooms, one must be either very magically skilled, have the right mind set, luck or several other attributes which cannot be taught or learnt. There is also a possibility that such rooms could also be password protected, however the passwords have surely been lost through time." Rose finished with a frown and closed the book between her fingers.
"I suppose all is not lost, do you think running around the halls shouting various words would do the trick?" Scorpius said, trying to lighten Rose's frown, however she just frowned more.
"It's nice to know you care so much about the situation at hand, my best friend and my cousin are stuck in a room somewhere in this place, and you're cracking jokes."
Scorpius rolled his eyes and shook his head, "don't you remember what your mum said 'two brains are better than one' and she's just as smart as you, so I trust in her judgement that you'll find them."
Rose sighed and thought for a couple of seconds before replying; "there must be a tracking spell somewhere, except the problem with that is that this castle is unplottable, so we wouldn't be able to pinpoint it on a map unless it was one made by hand of the actual school grounds, like James' map." Rose paused in thought and then shook her head, "but then these rooms are hidden for a reason, so they definitely wouldn't turn up on any map."
"Well I know somewhere we can start. We need to start searching through our heads for possible rooms, and there must be one we at least heard of in passing or something." Scorpius said logically, moving down the staircase towards the library.
Rose stayed quiet as she thought, and only spoke up in a hushed whisper once they had reached the library and were sitting on a table in the back, far away from the Madam Magbee – the Librarian's watchful eyes.
"I know about one room that was used during the war months. I think some of the students, like Professor Longbottom and Lorcan's mum used it as a hideout. They did other things in it, but I don't know exactly what, my mum doesn't really talk about the castle grounds. But apparently it could transform into whatever you wanted at that moment, but that's where mum said she, dad and uncle Harry were there when it burned, and –"
"And my father," Scorpius cut her off with a frown, "that's where Vincent Crabbe died, he cast a Fiendfyre curse and he couldn't control it, so that would have destroyed the room."
"How do you know that?" Rose asked, trying to keep the shock from her face, her mother didn't talk about the details of the war, especially what the Malfoy's had to do with it. The likely reason was to avoid any prejudices, which her dad didn't mind bringing up. "I mean, it's not in any books."
"Well firstly, my father uses the example of Fiendfyre to make a point as to why I should never practice the Dark Arts. He also didn't want me hearing things about him from other people, so he told me everything he had done before I started First Year." Scorpius rubbed at his neck and looked down, "and let's just say, I can understand why your family doesn't like me."
Rose looked slightly confused and then she leaned towards Scorpius who was on the other side of the table, "hey, I like you," she said softly, smiling and touching his hand that was casually lying on the desk. "I suppose there are a few who are sceptical of you, well mostly my dad, but that's just because he's like that. Trust me, if he actually spoke to you, he'd forget his prejudices."
Scorpius smirked, and looked up, "I've spoken to him numerous times over a 6 year time span, he still gives me those glares though. Is it because I look like my dad too much?" he said worriedly, though Rose could tell he had a thick layer of humour slathered all over that question.
"No Scorpius, you aren't balding," she replied with her own smirk.
He laughed and leaned back, "don't let him hear you say that, there'd definitely be a duel in order. The last time I said anything relating to his hair line he chased me around the manor with a rolled up Prophet."
"You couldn't outrun a man over 20 years your senior?" Rose asked with a grin.
"He has the ability to Apparate, remember that." He replied.
"Anyway Scorpius, I completely trust you, therefore I deduce that with enough force, my dad will too."
Scorpius made a sound and shook his head, "I can just imagine him asking, 'now why should I trust that Malfoy-brat'".
Rose opened her mouth to protest but Scorpius held up his hand to stop her.
"Then you'll say, 'because he's my friend' even though it probably won't be true," Scorpius sent her a wink which she frowned at. "He'll start questioning you about my motives, and then by the end of the day, I'll be in a duel with a fully trained Auror, and my own dad will have to scrape me off the pavement, and of course, because I'm his only son, he'll have to avenge me. So that just leaves my Mother alone, and my Mother does not like being left alone, if you see the bruises she leaves on my arms from grabbing onto me too tightly on Platform 9 ¾ you'd be shocked. Anyway, she'll have a go at it, and it just wouldn't end well." Scorpius said quite simply.
Rose was frozen momentarily before letting out a huge laugh that made Scorpius jump at the volume. Milliseconds later, while Rose was still having an episode, they both heard a scrape of a chair.
Before the Librarian could reach them, they had both bolted from their seats and hidden behind two book cases. She looked around for them both, but came up with nothing. After a futile search and a mutter under her breath, she went back to her desk.
They giggled together, before Rose decided not to chance sitting back at the table and slid down to the floor by the half-concealed bookcase, Scorpius doing the same.
"Trust me," she whispered, their shoulders touching and her curls stuck between them. "My dad would never call you a 'brat', he usually just settles for Ferret-boy-junior."
Scorpius groaned knowing what she meant from another one of his father's self-deprecating stories. HoHog
"Why does your Uncle even invite my family to your parties, there is just so much bad blood between us."
Rose smiled and nudged him, "there was bad blood between your dad and my Uncle, but because of you, it's gone. Because you are just so amazing, that you managed to coax a Potter into being your best friend, and a stubborn one at that."
Scorpius grinned, "and I'd say I managed to also coax a rather stubborn Weasley into doing all number of things with me."
"You should really rephrase your statement, my dad would murder you if he heard you say anything like that, and then probably murder me." She said sternly, but with a smile on her face.
"You're brilliant, you know that Rose Weasley?"
Rose leaned her head against the books behind her blushing, "Of course, I'd say it back to you, but then I'd be lying." She laughed quietly and Scorpius frowned, bumping her with his shoulder.
"I take it back," he said but she continued to laugh.
"You can't it's far too late," she stuck her tongue out and Scorpius gave her an annoyed look.
He didn't stop giving her the look until she sighed and replied back, "you're bloody brilliant too Scorpius Malfoy, are you happy now?" she asked.
Scorpius grinned and he moved closer to her face, "very actually," he started to close in on her lips, and just before they even connected, they heard a cough.
They both turned their heads in the direction of Madam Magbee who had her arms crossed across her purple cloak and a glare aimed at them behind her angular glasses.
"Let's go you two, we're taking a little trip to your head of house, Weasley isn't it? That'll be Gryffindor then."
Rose blushed angrily at the Librarians profiling of her, just because she had red hair, and all of the Weasley's in the school were in Gryffindor except her. However as they walked after her, Scorpius gave her a 'don't worry' look and she nodded.
While they both hated being interrupted, it meant that they could talk to Professor Longbottom about this secret room that they had remembered.
"What have I told you students about sneaking off and trying to have romantic sessions in the library? This is a place of work and learning! Not a rendezvous for couples," Madam Magbee mumbled as she pushed open the Library door with force.
Rose and Scorpius sniggered, and that's when Rose blinked.
"I've got it."
She didn't get to explain, however, as the Librarian gave them an angry look and held her wand threateningly at Scorpius.
XxX
After the encounter with Madam Magbee, Rose and Scorpius had managed to convince Professor Longbottom into letting them off a punishment, which was likely to collect Bobotuber Pus – the reason they had both quite Herbology in the first place.
Rose had managed to persuade him by pulling him into the trap of helping out the child of a friend, and that Albus was basically his godson.
"What exactly do you want to know?" Professor Longbottom had asked, sitting on his desk uncomfortably and folding his arms.
Rose and Scorpius both grinned, and suspicious thoughts went through the Herbology Professor's head.
"We just need you to tell us as much about that room which you hid in." Rose started.
"You mean the Room of Requirement?" Professor Longbottom questioned, a frown on his features.
The two Sixth years in front of him looked at each other, a gleam in Rose's eye.
"I don't think Lorcan or Albus would be in there, it got destroyed during the Battle. It couldn't survive cursed fire."
"But what if?" Scorpius started but the teacher shook his head.
"I've tried, that room is the reason I'm still alive, if you create with a detailed enough purpose, it can protect you from anything and I've tried to get back in there, it doesn't work anymore."
"Well maybe you're not" Scorpius had begun again.
The Professor shook his head again, "I'm thinking hard enough, remember I've used it before, and you two haven't."
Rose sighed and paused in thought.
"Where is it sir?" she asked.
"The Seventh Floor, by the picture of the ballet-dancing Trolls." He replied, "but you two should really get to your lesson. I'm sure Professor McGonagall is searching through the castle and she'll find them."
"How do you get in?" Rose continued.
"Just like your parents," he replied with a sigh, "you must think of something that you want, and keep that thought, and you have to go up and down past the painting 3 times. Then a door should open, but of course, the room is broken so it wouldn't work."
"Thank you Professor Longbottom, it's been great," Rose said with a grin and pulled on Scorpius' school jumper and pulled him out of the Professors office.
"Go to your lesson," he had shouted, but they weren't listening.
"What are you thinking of then?" Rose asked Scorpius as she watched him walk up and down the corridor of the Seventh Floor, past the horrendous painting of the trolls in tutus which he kept on getting distracted by.
"Well with you talking to me, it's quite hard to concentrate. And I'm thinking about finding Albus and Lorcan." He replied, watching his footwork as he walked in a completely straight line.
"I doubt that will work," Rose replied matter-of-factly.
Scorpius sent her a glare and moved out of the straight line he was walking in and leaned against the wall. "You try then Miss Know-it-all."
Rose nodded and stood in the centre of the hall, casually walking with her thoughts on a place to find what I'm looking for. When she finished, she turned to Scorpius who was not amused.
"If we can't do it, then how can we say that Lorcan and Albus did. Are you sure this isn't a lost cause?" Scorpius asked, leaning off the wall and walking over to Rose, his hands in his pockets.
"I don't know, but we can only try," Rose took her wand out and flicking her wrist said; "Homenum Revelio."
Nothing happened and she screwed her face up in annoyance, sending a glare at her wand. "What's the point owning you if you can't find anything?" she said to the wand.
Scorpius' eyebrows rose at her outburst and he laughed lightly. "How about using the extension charm your mum sent you?"
Rose stopped and then grinned, "good idea there Malfoy."
Before he could say anything about her use of his surname she flicked her wand again, saying the extension charm along with Homenum Revelio. She felt a slight tingle, but it was miniscule.
"Anything?" Scorpius asked eagerly, but frowned at the shake of Rose's head.
"I got something, but it could have easily have picked up the other people in the castle other than on the Seventh Floor. We're going to have to go at this from a different angle." She said calculatingly, a hand at her chin as she tapped her foot.
Rose began to hum and Scorpius spoke up, "how about bulldozing a wall?" he suggested.
She rolled her eyes and continued humming, mouthing the words to the song she was singing.
"You're not singing that song again, are you? That one you made up about the uses of Dragons Blood?" Scorpius asked with a moan.
"No, this one is about Gamp's Law and I make them to remember important things." She replied. Rose quickly turned and blinked with recollection, "oh how could I forget," she exclaimed, astonished with herself.
"What exactly?" Scorpius asked perking up.
"I made a song up about the Battle in First Year, and it completely went out of my mind because it was quite terrible. I had to amend it for the sake –."
"What is it Rose?" Scorpius interrupted, rolling his eyes at Rose's digressions.
Rose frowned but began anyway, she started singing the words to her song in a quiet voice, raking her memory for the words. Scorpius noting that she had started from the build up of the war, he gave her a look and she fast forwarded to the important part.
"The rebels emptied the room and they went back in with a zoom, but who would know the danger that would follow. So Mum, Dad and Uncle H were playing with fire, and the situation was growing dire. They searched and searched until they found, but when they found there was fire on the ground. The cursed kill the cursed, but it still had a thirst. It ate and ate until it were in a bloated state. Fiendfyre always needs a mate, so it will wait and wait. But the trio were already late to their date..."
"Oh Merlin, stop Rose, that's terrible." Scorpius said shaking his head and covering his ears.
She sent him a glare and put her hands on her hips, "well sorry, I was only 11."
"So can you please explain to me how that was helpful?" he asked, rubbing at his temples.
Rose grimaced and began, "well as I sang, Fiendfyre must be extinguished; it just lays dormant waiting for something to trigger it again. But it has been over 20 years since it basically ate itself, so it merely has a slight resonance, but my thought is that the room is in a type of alternate space, and that it is surrounded by this Fiendfyre which is waiting. Albus and Lorcan only got in out of sheer luck, like a gap. The room intends to protect its occupiers as explained by Professor Longbottom, therefore –."
"Therefore the Fiendfyre is still alive, but it's stopping the room from functioning correctly as it's surrounding it in a sort of suspended animation. But the Room of Requirement won't open its door because then the Cursed fire would get in again, and kill its occupants like last time."
She grinned, "we are just so smart," she stated.
"I'd have to agree with that one," he replied with a smile.
"Library or McGonagall?" Rose said, moving away from the Troll painting.
"Sneak past Madam Magbee, let's have a go at finding the counter-curse ourselves."
Scorpius followed after Rose, towards the Library they had been kicked out of only a couple of hours before.
Wednesday
Albus turned, falling directly onto the floor and he shouted in annoyance, dragging himself up and kicking at the sofa.
Bags were starting to form under his eyes and he was feeling incredibly tired, now understanding why his mother never let him have chocolate for dinner.
The chocolate diet was not doing wonders for his head or his body. He had a headache and his stomach was stiff and it hurt.
Lorcan had been looking around the Room for books in case there was some kind of information, even though there was such a small chance of this. The room was more reminiscent of a junk yard than a place to keep books, and even if they did find any, they were all nearly burnt to a pile of ash.
While Lorcan had been doing that, Albus took it upon himself to find any kind of food other than the chocolate they had been Engorgio-ing for 3 days. He was even willing to settle for anything growing in corners if they had to be in the room for more than a week, a notion Lorcan was completely against.
"Oh stop crying Albus," Lorcan said sighing, looking at the dirty and black ceiling as he lay on his own couch.
He'd gone through every spell in his repertoire and hadn't come up with any escape plan. It was starting to grate on his nerves, he was happy that he had at least made Albus a bit better. Lorcan knew full well that he needed to talk to the people he had the problem with rather than just him. Well, unless they ended up in the Room of Requirement forever.
"Are you sure you don't know a... projection spell or something?" Albus asked exasperated, kicking at a stack of burnt boxes.
"No! A spell like that doesn't exist Albus, we just need to send a message," Lorcan said with a groan, "but I can't think of anything other than a Protean Charm."
Albus frowned, "you know what the worst thing is?" he asked.
Lorcan shrugged tiredly.
"If we weren't Wizards we would have those portable phones, even that pager that Scorpius had would have helped."
Lorcan looked over towards him, Albus just had an expression of annoyance on his face. But he started to laugh anyway – the first time since Sunday.
Albus looked over to him concerned, "finally managed to cast a cheering charm on yourself?" he asked, rubbing at his forehead.
"Oh come on Al, that's funny. I bet you never thought there was a point in your life where you would have been better off if you were a Muggle. Imagine that, we would be in class right now if we had phones."
He didn't laugh, just glowered. "And I would have been able to have a proper bath."
Lorcan laughed some more, "it's nice to know you're still thinking of hygiene. I could hose you down with an Aguamenti if you like."
Albus glared at him, "if you even think about it Lorcan, it will be the end of your days."
"If you killed me Albus, you'd be alone in here, remember that." He said with a wink. He then got up and swiftly took out his wand, "Aguamenti." He shouted before Albus could protest who then after getting a blast of cold water, took his own wand out and pointed at Lorcan. "Smile, Albus."
Albus rolled his eyes and cast an Aguamenti back at Lorcan who laughed, also stirring Albus to laugh.
They sat back down on the sofa, soaking wet and laughing.
"You know what you said about sending a message?" Albus started, breaking through his chuckles.
Lorcan nodded and leaned back against the sofa, his clothes sticking to him.
"Well I was thinking, do you remember that time last year when my dad had to rush out to the Ministry and they sent him a message. Well it was like an animal and it could go anywhere, and –."
Albus didn't finish as Lorcan sat straighter, a hand reaching his forehead. "A Patronus Charm, of course. I suppose you are good for something Albus," he smiled but Albus glared at him and pushed his wet hair from his eyes.
"Well cast it then, and we can get help and be out of here," Albus said impatiently.
Lorcan sighed and sat back down, "we seem to have hit a problem, I can't cast one, we haven't even started it in Charms, and they say not everyone can do it. Well at least do it well enough that it can send a message."
"Fantastic," Albus replied sarcastically.
"Well seeing as your dad knows how to use it, do you even know the spell?" Lorcan asked, giving Albus a questioning look.
"Expecto Patronum," he replied simply.
"Well I suppose if Rose manages to figure that out, she'd be able to work it out, she is better at doing things like that. Or better yet, your dad," Lorcan said with hope.
Albus didn't say anything, but looked at his twiddling thumbs. Lorcan therefore didn't say anymore, but just sat in contemplative silence, waving his wand and mouthing the words to the Charm that could be their way out.
It was several minutes before Albus spoke up again.
"That still doesn't give us a way out though." He said solemnly and then he moved onto his own sofa and curled into it, facing away from Lorcan who had been practising the spell and had only managed a small amount of silver smoke, the amount that would emanate from a blown out candle.
He put his wand away and sighed, hoping that he didn't have to eat chocolate forever, he already felt like he was going to throw up.
Rose & Scorpius – 8:30
Rose and Scorpius had been in the Library all day, looking for the counter-curse. They managed to find it in a very old book on Curses and How to get rid of them. It was stuck behind a grouping of books on Dragons and it was just by luck that they had found it – A Third year had come in and knocked the books off the shelf.
It was 8:00pm by the time they had found the spell, so Madam Magbee, shocked at finding them in her Library again, shooed them and everyone else out. They had therefore decided to get some Dinner from the House elves in the kitchen, the big issue with that was that they stayed inside far longer than expected. So when they had made their way up to the Seventh Floor to cast the counter-curse, they were sent back to their respective towers by a very angry Potions teacher.
They decided to regroup in the morning and would attempt to get the door open before Rose and Albus' parents arrived.
Rose had decided against sending her mother a letter telling them not to come up to Hogwarts. Scorpius and herself had also decided against telling McGonagall their ideas, because she'd stop Albus and Rose's parents from coming up and that would mean they wouldn't get to speak to Albus, which she felt was something that needed to happen.
XxX
"Okay, do it," Scorpius said standing next to the Troll painting and watching Rose who had her eyes closed and her wand raised.
She nodded and cast the counter-curse crisply and clearly, following the hand movements as instructed by the book.
There was no obvious reaction, and so Rose opened her eyes and turned to Scorpius who shrugged.
Rose began walking down the hall back and forth to test it, and still nothing happened and she frowned.
"Please don't tell me what I think you are going to," Scorpius said with a frown.
She shook her head and crossed her arms, "I think if this room is separate in some way from the castle, the spell has to be cast from inside."
"Shit," Scorpius replied angrily.
"I know," Rose said, leaning against the wall opposite Scorpius and sliding into a sitting position.
"You know what this means?" he spoke up, giving her a knowing look.
Rose nodded, "it means we need my parents right now."
Yeah, so that's it for this week.
I like withholding it.
All logic in this chapter is courtesy of me - my own opinion, so don't kill me. XD