The common room was busy until about midnight, when the last of the fifth and seventh years studying for exams went up to bed, tired on a Thursday evening. Ellie had fallen asleep on the sofa, and Rose was reading again in her armchair by the fire. She had quite a collection of muggle books, and almost preferred their fantasy genre to anything a wizard had written. She put down Howl's Moving Castle when she heard the first steps coming down from the boys dormitory.
"Muggle books?" Sirius asked, coming around behind the chair.
"Better than anything you've ever written," she replied.
"Not true. I'm sure you haven't even seen my most recent potions essay," he replied.
"If its anything like your grade in that class, I'm afraid it would be completely illegible."
"No, that's just his penmanship," James replied, prodding the sleeping Ellie with his wand.
"Do I have to?" Ellie groaned, turning over and swatting away James' hand.
"Yes, dear, I'm afraid we don't have all night," Ellie seemed to be shocked awake by the sound of his voice.
"Pity," she said, sitting up and yawning. "All of this sneaking around the castle after curfew is exhausting me."
"Well, then, it's your lucky day," Sirius said.
"Why?" Rose asked curiously.
"Remus, would you like to do the honors?"
Lupin smiled a bit.
"I would love to."
He walked over to the mantle and tapped it three times with his wand.
Golden letters glowed through the marble, and read something in a rugged print that looked very old.
"Courage is wrought by the memories in our hearts."
"It's our motivation to be proper Gryffindors," James said, somewhat sarcastically.
"Watch this." He took his wand and placed it to his temple. It drew out a long, silvery wisp, almost of smoke that moved with the tip of his wand. He pushed it directly into the side of the fireplace.
Suddenly, part of the wall, right next to where Peter was standing, was gone, like magic.
"It takes a brave memory to open it," Peter explained, lighting his wand tip, and holding it over his head as he stepped into the chamber.
"A secret passage?" Rose asked. "And here I thought I already knew them all."
"This one's an old Gryffindor family secret," James boasted proudly, referring to his ancient family history.
"Brilliant," Ellie said in awe, all signs of sleepiness gone.
"That's just the tip of it," Sirius said. "Right this way."
As they continued down the passage, and Peter shut off his light, there were more golden letters, not in English, lining the walls, which lit their way as they passed, glowing brightly and then dimming as they left.
Rose walked along the walls and ran her hands along the letters, trying to read them.
"Fascinating," she muttered under her breath. As the rest of the group moved on, Lupin waited for her.
"I think it's some form of dwarvish, or possibly goblin. There are rumors that the construction of the castle was aided by both of those races," he stated, mentally cursing himself for sounding like a museum curator.
"Yeah, it says so in-"
"Hogwarts a History," they both said together.
Rose smiled a little, but just looked closer at the walls.
"Well, so far, I haven't been able to decode anything, but..." He trailed off, lost in thought.
"I'd bet that Ellie would recognize some of these from divination. You don't have Ancient Runes, do you?" She asked, the rest of the group starting to move out of earshot.
"No."
"I'll bring my textbook next time. We can look through it," she suggested.
"Sounds perfect," he replied. They turned and talked about the other things that they had read about the school as they walked back to catch up to the others.
They came to a great oak door with iron fastenings.
"Ladies and gentlemen," James began. "I present to you..." He threw open the door.
"The personal office of Godric Gryffindor."
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The room was large and circular, with tapestries of red and gold covering the walls and giving the room a wearm, hearty feeling. In absensce of a roof, a great dome made of iron bars looked out into open sky, showing the stars above, and although it was sprinkling outside, no rain fell through. There were two massive staircases, one on either side of the office that led up to a second floor balcony, overlooking the rest of the room.
The floor was covered in what looked like an ancient oriental rug, patterned with a lion in the center and other deadly magical beasts around it nearer to the walls.
In the center of the balcony was a great mirror, reflecting magically to somehow look through the walls at the Gryffindor common room, now,empty save a crackling fire, Rose's books in a neat stack next to her chair.
The floor of the balcony was covered with a huge mosaic of the Hogwarts seal, the animal figures that were part of the crest moving; the Gryffindor lion and snake of Slytherin looking very much like they were quarreling. There were bookshelves covering the walls on the entire second floor, stocked with ancient novels. There was also a large, round table holding what looked like a giant telescope and all kinds of old astronomical charts. The first floor held a few armchairs, several glass cases with weaponry and suits of armor, a large wall clock shaped like a sun, a coat rack, and an unmoving painting of a woman. Looking most recently moved was a large desk, on it, five cauldrons over heat, inside simmering teal liquid.
The room had an ancient feeling, like it had waited in silence for a very long time.
However old it was, there wasn't a speck of grime or dust anywhere.
"How'd you know it's really Godric's?" Rose asked, in awe.
"Family story says it has to be," James grinned.
"Where's that go?" Ellie asked, referring to a small door, off to the right side of the room, out of the way, practically invisible behind a golden banner of a lion.
"Personal chambers," Sirius dismissed. "Now, if we could have our resident potions expert have a look at what we've done so far," he prompted.
Rose put down the bag that she was carrying and walked up to the desk that had the potions on it, flipping through a book that sat open on the desk.
"Hmmm. So this is the base. And you're sure you have seven minutes before you have to add the moonlace?"
"On the dot," Remus replied, the wall clock showing seven minutes to two.
"There's only five cauldrons. Don't we each need our own?" Ellie asked nervously.
"Yeah, but Remus doesn't fancy dying painfully, so he's not going to do it," Peter supplied, using the answer his friends had given him earlier in the day.
Ellie looked like she wasn't about to settle with that, but Rose just dismissed it, rummaging through her bag for the moonlace. She handed a leaf to each of them, except for Remus. Then, she took the mandrake leaves from James, and handed those out too.
"Alright, take the mandrake leaf in your dominant hand. Put the moonlace in your other hand, and fold it longways with the ridges facing inwards. When that clock behind me hits two o'clock exactly, place the mandrake in your mouth, and then put the moonlace into your cauldron, still folded, with the open side facing down. It's important that we don't mix the cauldrons after this, because this is how we're tying the potion to ourselves. Don't swallow the mandrake. You'll have to keep it in your mouth for more than a month, from now until October 28th. Be careful not to lose it, or, well, things could get messy. And don't chew. It's not going to taste very good. Two minutes, now," she said, nervously glancing at the clock.
She went around and checked that everyone had it right. Peter's moonlace leaf was upside down, and he looked absolutely terrified when she pointed it out. Sirius had the large leaves in the wrong hands, but unlike Peter, he looked right into Rose's eyes and grinned, ready for the excitement.
Ellie looked nervous too, and gave Rose an 'I can't believe you let me do this' kind of look. In return, Rose just smiled anxiously.
James had taken the last cauldron in line. His preparation was fine, and he looked only the slightest bit anxious, more for the fact that he didn't know if he should trust her than anything else. He then must have realized that she could see all of that and smiled sheepishly.
Rose got back to her position, and double checked herself.
Good. Fine. Perfect. Ready.
The clock read five seconds to two.
"Four, three, two, one...now."
Immediately, there was a simultaneous motion of a hand going to the mouth of all five teenagers. Followed by a perfectly synchronized dropping of leaves into a cauldron.
They all looked at each other, and began to experience the sensation of the mandrake leaves in their mouths. They were large and thick leaves, and tasted like dirt, along with... Citronella, almost. Blech.
The cauldrons began to change colors.
Peter's faded into a dull brown. James' molded into something similar, a fawn shade. Sirius' turned a pitch black, looking murky and putrid. Ellie's turned another brown. Not deep enough to be bronze, but a rich shade of akin to James'. Rose's turned a chestnut hue, almost reddish.
She took a deep breath and unrolled her sleeves, pushing the now slightly smaller mandrake leaf into the corner of her mouth with her tongue.
"We're safe."
The words broke the moment of tension, releasing the breaths that everyone was holding. James and Sirius clapped each other on the backs and laughed along with Peter. Lupin had wandered over, and was talking to Rose and Ellie, pointing to each of the potions in turn, and discussing them.
"What's the color change mean?" Ellie asked, looking dubiously at Sirius' cauldron.
"It's the primary color of the animal we're changing into. It's the earliest possible indication of what that animal will be," Rose explained.
"What'd you reckon mine is?" Ellie asked, staring into the brown of her potion.
"I dunno. Never seen any animal that color," Remus replied.
"It looks to me like a squirrel," Sirius said.
"Oh, I hope not," Ellie replied. "I have an ungodly fear of squirrels."
"Then that probably won't be he animal that you're most closely related to," James soothed.
"What about mine?" Peter asked.
"Definitely squirrel," Sirius joked again, trying to help everyone ignore the anxiety that was slowly rising over what sort of animal they would turn out to be.
"You're the only one who'll end up a squirrel, if you keep that up," Rose replied.
"I wouldn't so much mind being something small," Peter replied, thoughtfully.
"James' and mine are hard too. Every other animal in the world is brown," Rose complained lightly.
"Hey, what about mine?" Sirius bothered, staring at his potion.
"Oh, that one's easy," Rose said. "The Grimm."
They all laughed his time at her mention of the black dog that supposedly was a death omen. Sirius pouted.
"At least I'm not going to end up something pink," he said, after a moment, slightly relieved.
After a little longer of talking and joking, they decided to break for the night.
James had a sudden thought.
"Aw, it's going to be hell trying to pull this over on McGonagall," he said. "She's already had to do it to become an animagus. And she's always on our case."
Peter promptly went white.
"Just pretend that it's Droobles Best Blowing Gum," Ellie suggested.
"And what about food? How're we supposed to eat?" Sirius complained.
"I don't care. Just don't lose it," Rose said. The brightest boys in her year should be able to figure something out. If not, then it was their fault.
"That hurts," Sirius replied.
"It will hurt more if you accidentally swallow it. Straight to the hospital wing, and maybe even St. Mungo's," she replied, packing up her materials.
"Noted," James replied.
"The next thing that we all have to do is at the end of the month. Until then, you have to stir it thirty times twice every day, at the same times of day, once in the morning, and once in the afternoon. Doesn't matter when, as long as it's within the hour of the day prior's time. Clockwise for lefties, and counter-clockwise for righties, using your dominant hand," she instructed. "I'm goning to come down before lessons tomorrow, and then just before bed," she replied. Everyone else made a mental note to do the same.
"Can we go now? I'm tired, and we have a potions test tomorrow," Ellie asked.
"Oh, are you really that bored by our company?" James responded, with mock hurt.
"Yes." Ellie pouted, giving up, too sleepy to come up with a sarcastic answer. She did that when she was tired.
"Then let's go. We've got transfiguration first thing tomorrow," Rose said, leading the way out.
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I really love the idea of Gryffindor having a chamber too, and I hope that it will end up being full of all kinds of other cool stuff too. I can't wait to write it. If you have any ideas about anything, let me know :) I'd love to hear anything that you have to say. Don't let the muggles get you down!
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post editing: i just found out when pottermore released the bits on other common rooms that this is a really cool way to play with the house dorms and such, and that i was right to think of this this way way back when, which is pretty cool. I also fixed some spelling issuses and added a few new bits. Wooo. Thanks for reading and reviewing!