Albert woke up to find the dormitory pitch black. The sound of rain was faintly audible outside the window. The rain from the night before had not stopped.
Albert sat up in bed and covered a yawn with his hand. He felt exhausted from a strange dream he had last night.
What's more, he had woken up too early. The three people in his dormitory were still asleep.
Albert reached for the bedside table and picked up the wand that was placed in the corner. He whispered the spell, "Lumos."
The wand glowed a pale light. He held the glowing wand up to the mechanical watch and looked at the time: 5:40.
Sure enough, he had woken up too early.
Albert extinguished the light on the wand and lay back down on the bed. The mechanical watch slipped from his hand and fell onto the bed sheet.
This was a gift that Luke had bought for him to celebrate his invitation to Hogwarts.
Now that he was awake, Albert had no intention of going back to sleep. He sat up in bed, stretched, pushed back the covers and walked to the window. He opened the wooden latch and pulled open the wooden shutters to look out of the tower.
A cold wind blew in, and Albert shuddered. His head cleared immediately.
It wasn't raining very hard, and it was still dark outside. The whole castle was shrouded in a hazy rain curtain.
"A great adventure." Albert said to himself, patting his cheek.
He closed the window, went back to the bed, took out his robe from his suitcase, put it on, and then took his pocket watch and wand from the bedside table and put them in his pocket. Before he left the dormitory, he stopped to throw the clothes he had just changed into the laundry basket in the bathroom. The house-elves would use magic to wash the clothes and put them back on his bed.
After all, Hogwarts' students actually lead a pretty good life. They don't have to worry about many things, and they just need to focus on learning magic.
The common room was quiet. There was only one ghostly girl sitting on the sofa reading a book. She heard footsteps and looked up at Albert, then continued reading her book.
Albert didn't bother the ghostly lady, even though he wanted to talk to her. In the end, he gave up. He hated being interrupted while reading.
Albert did not linger in the common room, but instead decided to explore the castle before everyone woke up and to look for the legendary Room of Requirement.
He pushed open the door to the common room and stepped through the round hole, where the Fat Lady was still wearing her nightgown and staring sleepily at the leaving student.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"For a walk." Albert replied, looking into the dimly lit corridor and raising his wand. This time, he didn't want to take the same route as last night, but was prepared to explore other places.
Perhaps it was because it was raining outside, but the corridor was cold and damp, like a spooky castle in a horror movie, where a ghost could come out of the wall at any moment and scare the living daylights out of you.
In fact, Hogwarts does have ghosts, and there are quite a few of them. It wouldn't be strange if a ghost came out of the wall right now.
As soon as he turned the corner, Albert saw the stone steps he had come up last night. This time, he didn't go down, but continued on.
After another corridor, Albert found a large vase in front of him. He turned his head and looked around, and he actually found the tapestry of the Troll in a ballet dress.
"It seems that I'm in luck."
Albert quickened his pace and walked up to the tapestry. He raised his wand and used the light from it to examine the tapestry in front of him. He could only think of as indescribable.
The tapestry showed a group of Trolls in ballet costumes, holding wooden or bone sticks, and striking various seductive poses. A ballet teacher is trying to teach the Trolls to dance, but one Troll is beating her with a bone stick.
While Albert is observing the tapestry, the Troll stops beating the ballet teacher and turns to look at him, as if to ask, "What are you looking at?"
If Albert had a camera, he would definitely have taken a picture of this very funny scene.
But the main thing now was the Room of Requirement, which was in the white wall opposite the tapestry.
Albert moved aside, turned to look at the white wall, then turned back to look at the tapestry, raised his right hand and made a tapping motion towards the troll.
The toothless troll really did raise his bone club and hit the poor ballet teacher.
This scene was heartbreaking to watch.
Albert laughed happily and walked towards the white wall, reaching out to touch it. It was a hard stone wall, and there was no such thing as the Room of Requirement.
The condition for entering the Room of Requirement was to pass by the wall three times, concentrating on what you needed.
"Pass by?" Albert raised his wand, and a pale light illuminated the end of the white wall, where there was a window. He turned around and saw a one-metre-high vase.
So, it's actually three times?
"A place to practice magic, a place to practice magic..." Albert concentrated, walked to the window at the end of the white wall, turned around, went to the vase at the other end, and then turned back.
He muttered to himself, and when he turned around for the third time, something happened to the wall.
Countless patterns appeared on the white wall, and a smooth door gradually emerged.
Albert was in a good mood because he knew he had succeeded. He took hold of the bronze handle, pulled the door open and went inside. Inside was a large room with torches around the walls, a bit like a classroom.
There were many wooden bookshelves along the walls, with hundreds of books on them. Albert suspected that these books had been moved from the library. On the other side were some Magic Dolls for practising magic.
"This is great!" Albert whispered. With these books, he wouldn't need to go to the library to find books.
However, he had to be careful not to be discovered when using the room. After all, a door suddenly appearing in the wall would easily attract attention.
Albert did not linger. He turned and left the Room of Requirement, ready to think about how to use the place discreetly.
If he didn't want anyone to know, he would have to make sure that no one was there when he entered and no one was there when he left, so that the secret could be kept.
He would need the Disillusionment Charm and the Marauder's Map.
The Disillusionment Charm should be in the pile of books he just found, but the Marauder's Map is in Filch's possession, and it won't be easy to get it.
Make one yourself?
He doesn't have the skills for that yet.
Never mind, he'll take it slow! He'll be here for another seven years anyway.
After Albert turned and left, the door to the Room of Requirement slowly disappeared again, turning into an ordinary white wall. Not many people at school knew about this magical room.