It had been almost 2 weeks since Harry had stumbled upon the majestic gift that was the house elves laundry room. Since that fateful day, he had been unable to gain entry again. 'Not for lack of trying!' Harry thought to himself. Much like he had the first time around, Harry had begun to take detours down to the dungeons after scoping out the Room of Requirement. Each time he had been foiled. Whether it was the kitchens being full to the brim with elves, students hanging around the portrait or even his quidditch team members accosting him in the hallways.
Indeed, this was in itself an issue. What with quidditch and his ever-mounting pile of homework, Harry felt he'd be lucky to even get the time to sleep. Let alone get the chance to sneak around a part of the castle that, lets face it, he made no sense to be in. The one-time Harry had managed to sneak inside the kitchens he had had the forethought to do so under the guise of his invisibility cloak. This attempt too was thwarted when he found the door to the laundry room to be sealed shut. Not even Alohomora had come through for him.
'They know someone was in there.' He mused to himself. 'I mean, I was stupid enough to leave literal evidence. I'm a wizard for Merlin's sake! Scourgify! I know the spell!' With both getting in the room and the locked door being a problem. It had been a couple of days since Harry had tried again.
'Tomorrow is Saturday, if I can just get Quidditch Practice over and done with I can get down there Wait. Over and done with?! What is happening to me? This is Quidditch were talking about here.' Disgusted at his new obsession he headed to the Great Hall where he hoped that Ron and Hermione had saved him a seat for dinner.
Upon entering the vast hall Harry glanced around and he saw the bushy hair of Hermione before too long. Sidling between the long dinner tables he reached her and took a seat on her side. Ron was fully engorged with the steak and kidney pie in front of him and made no indication that he had even seen Harry arrive.
'Hi Harry.' Hermione greeted him. 'How's it going' he responded. She responded with what must have been a full breakdown of her classes that day. Harry couldn't tell for sure because his mind was elsewhere. Grabbing a slice of pie for himself, he began to eat, ruminating on the obstacles before him. What spells could he use to crack this door open? Aside from Alohamora, he was pulling up blanks. The only thing that kept spring to mind was Bombarda. 'That's just stupid, even for me.' He thought.
Eventually the background noise that was Hermione seemed to stop and Harry looked over to her. Her face was scrutinising his own. Harry could tell that she knew he hadn't listened to a word that she's said. She didn't look angry, more frustrated if anything. 'What's going on?' She questioned.
'Nothing. Just thinking about Quidditch drills for the morning' he lied. She seemed to buy this as she quickly rolled her eyes at his response. 'Hermione?' Harry said. 'Yeah?' she responded. Harry paused a moment, carefully considering his words so as to not give himself away. 'Uhhhh, If I wanted to break in somewhere, I'm not by the way. But if I hypothetically did want to, and uhhhh, well, how would I do that?'
She analysed him for a brief moment before launching into an explanation; 'Well the obvious is Alohamora. But really if that doesn't work then hypothetically, whoever has locked this door really doesn't want it being opened.' Harry stabbed a little too hard at his food. If Hermione didn't know then what hope was there?
'But Harry, lets drop the pretence here. You aren't going to be able to just saunter up to the room of requirement and open it with a simple charm.' Harry was momentarily confused, then his mind snapped back into action 'Yeah, I know that! I just thought you might have come across something in a book.' He blurted out quickly.
'Yew lukking chew break ihn sumwhere?' came from opposite them. Ron had finally looked up from his meal and spoke with a mouthful of food. 'Maybe.' Harry replied. 'Wha abou Shiriuses knife?' Harry's heart jumped at Rons words 'Sirius's knife! Ron you may actually be a secret genius.'
After they had eaten their fill, Ron more so, they headed up to the Gryffindor common room. After an hour of homework and a foot of parchment later, they went their separate ways to bed. Changing into his pyjama's, Harry rooted around his trunk for the Sirius's gift from 2 years previously. Tucked into the corner and obscured by an assortment of owl treats he found it. It was worn from what must have been a lot of prior uses by his godfather. Regrettably, Harry had never had the chance or means to use this gift. But know, his gift would be put to use. And soon, he'd be back in the laundry room. Hopefully.