"Taylor," said Lysander thoughtfully, "do you like going to the beach?"

The girl regarded him oddly for a moment, then shrugged.

"Dunno, really," she said. "We only ever got to go once. It was really nice- that was the day Sophie and I made our friendship pact. I like the memory, I guess."

"What about the songs that we kept hearing around Christmas? Rose said they were Muggle songs."

"Yeah," said Taylor, "we all used to sing along with the radio every Christmas. It's really all the same songs but- but those were some of my favorites."

Her eyes had widened as she begun to realize what Lysander was getting at.

"You think that the castle is somehow trying to- to cater to what Taylor wants?" asked James. "How would it do that? And uh, why?"

"Not Taylor," corrected Rose, "Sophie." She briefly told James what they had learned about Taylor's friend and how she had been snuck aboard the Hogwarts Express. His face, which was still wearing a somewhat jovial expression up until this point, slowly began to fade into a grimace.

"So you think Sophie's still here," squeaked Taylor.

"There's the food that's been going missing," said Albus, grudgingly entering their conversation, "so even if she was- I dunno, stuck somewhere- she's being fed."

"What you said about the castle trying to give Taylor what she wanted," Rose said to James, tapping her fingers together, rooting through her memories of that summer. "Aunt Luna told me about something in the castle that does that."

"The Room of Requirement," said the twins at once.

"But it was destroyed during the war," Lysander reminded her. "Mum said they went back when they started repairing the castle, but there was so much damage, there wasn't anything any of them could do to fix it. They didn't even know the basic enchantments that had been used in its construction when the castle was first built. A lot of the old diaries from the Founders are-"

"Are missing or may not have existed in the first place," said Rose irritably. She was always irked by that part of the theory- of the four Founders, the only one of them who would have been at all likely to neglect a journal at least detailing his basic achievements was Godric Gryffindor. Some people were more comfortable saying that the journals had never existed rather than accept that they may have been destroyed, or were being kept as family heirlooms deep within Gringotts.

"Pet peeve," James told Taylor lightly, "don't mind her."

"But what if they were wrong?" said Rose.

"Rose, they-"

"Not wrong," she amended, waving away Albus' immediate objections, "that's not what I meant. We already know that they didn't know how to repair the damage caused to the room, but what if Hogwarts itself did?"

The others stared at her in silence, and she had to wonder if they thought she had gone off the deep end.

"I don't know," said Lorcan at last, looking thoughtful. "I guess it depends on the enchantments. It's been twenty years now."

"They had the castle ready to reopen for that whole Rededication Ceremony only a month after the last battle," said Lysander, his eyes glassy. Rose knew he was flipping through books in his mind. "There was extensive damage, but I don't think all of it was manually repaired. Hogwarts' own magic helped things along to a certain degree."

"So say there's a room that is designed by these four brilliant Founders to turn into whatever the user required," said Rose, her excitement mounting. "And a Muggle girl shows up and gets lost in the castle, and finds her way to this room because that's where Hogwarts wants her to go. What does she want more than anything?"

"To be at school with Taylor?" guessed Albus.

"For me to come find her," said Taylor breathily, her eyes watering. "You mean- you mean she's stuck in there because of me?"

Lysander frowned and scratched his head.

"No, that's not like Hogwarts magic at all," he said. "It wouldn't just imprison someone because they wanted to be found, that can't be right."

"It's all we have to go on for now," said Rose decisively. "Lysander, do you remember where the room is supposed to be?"

He nodded and led them back to the grand staircase. It seemed that all of the students who had remained indoors were gathered in the Great Hall. A few voices floated up to meet them, but they didn't see anyone as they made their way to the seventh floor.

"It makes sense with everything that's happened this year," said Rose with a grin, relieved to have finally figured this whole thing out. "The castle was helping send Taylor messages from Sophie. It just wasn't making them very clear."

"Couldn't have just sent an owl?" muttered Albus.

They found themselves in front of a large tapestry down a seventh floor corridor. The twins exchanged a look, then nodded.

"Taylor, you should do it," Lysander said. "You have to walk in front of it three times, concentrating on what you want the room to become for you. You want to find Sophie."

The girl nodded, her mouth set in a firm line. She took quick, small steps that echoed down the stone corridor. Before her last footfall had faded away, the outline of a door had appeared in the wall. Taylor gasped and rushed towards it, laying her hand against the stone.

"It's- it's still just a wall," she said, distressed. "What's wrong?"

"Give it a second," said Lysander, staring at the outline intently. Rose could feel her pulse thudding through her gut. She was vaguely aware of James wiping his palms on his robes beside her and was glad she wasn't the only one feeling unsettled by all of this.

A few moments later, the outline became to become more substantial. Out of the stone oozed the etchings of woodwork. Beams popped into existence with loud cracks that made Rose want to climb out of her skin. It was like the castle's magic was forcing the door into existence, even while its aching bones protested.

Finally, when the door appeared to be solid, a handle appeared. Lysander stepped forward before Taylor could lunge for it and covered the handle with one hand. He glanced back at Rose, and she saw an uncertainty in his eyes that made her more nervous than before. He knew that they were missing something; Rose could feel it as well. But he turned away and opened the door, leading them into the Room of Requirement.

"Lumos," Lysander said quietly. A small ball of light emerged from the tip of his wand. There was no light beyond the door, and Rose had to fight the instinct that told her she was about to walk off a cliff.

"Rosie?" said Albus quietly from beside her.

"I know, Al," she replied, her voice also hushed. "Me too."

But Lysander was already inside, with Taylor following closely behind. The others lit their wands and followed as well. Rose nearly collided with Taylor as Lysander came to a quick stop, throwing his arm out roughly to catch Taylor in the chest.

"Sorry," he said as she exhaled sharply, "sorry, but- look down."

Rose lowered her wand and gasped as it lit the floor. The space she was currently standing on did not exist. In fact, her feet appeared to be on either side of a thin wooden beam stretched between equally-unstable looking bars of metal. She couldn't extend her light too much farther, but the floor looked like the building had been torn to pieces.

She shifted so that both of her feet were on the wooden beam. Even though she had been standing just fine on the space around it, she couldn't bear to look down and feel like she should be falling through the massive holes on either side of her.

"What's wrong with it?" asked Taylor, her voice shaking.

"Muggle-repelling spells," murmured Rose, squeezing her eyes shut. In all of this, in all of her feelings about how brilliant she was to have finally figured this whole mess out, she kept ignoring one key fact: Sophie was a Muggle. She couldn't possibly be at Hogwarts because the castle wouldn't have let her in. It couldn't have.

"Hogwarts has many safeguards against being found by outsiders," Lysander explained quietly. "When Muggles approach the area, they suddenly remember something very important that they were supposed to do and leave. For some reason if that fails to defer them, they can't actually see Hogwarts. They just see an old manor set to be demolished."

"Like this," said Albus in wonder, shifting behind Rose. He took a few tentative steps forward, raising his wand.

The rest of the large room didn't seem to be in much better shape. Rose couldn't see the end of it and couldn't imagine how far it might extend, but the one wall she could see matched the appearance of the floors. Chunks of molding plaster had fallen away, exposing weathered beams and rusty screws. Where she should have been able to see the sky through the broken wall, there was only more darkness.

"What's- what's that smell?" asked James hesitantly.

They moved further into the room, searching with their wands. They came across the source of the pungent odor next. It had most likely been an enormous pumpkin, but certainly not for many months. The outer walls had collapsed inward, and the stench was so bad when Rose stepped near it that she expected to see cartoon wisps of scent rising from its rotting flesh.

"The Halloween feast," said Lysander, "remember? One of Hagrid's pumpkins went missing."

"We love Halloween," said Taylor, her voice sounding strangled. "Please, where- where's Sophie?"

Lorcan had remained silent since entering the room. Now he held out his hand to Taylor. She looked at it for a moment in confusion, then he gestured to the photograph she still held. Taking it from her, he looked at it and then continued walking further into the room.

Rose had only ever watched one horror movie, and it was a decision she definitely regretted. Besides the predictable storyline, she had found she did not care for the function of jump scares. Her spikes of adrenaline was not particularly pleasant, and she didn't feel the need to get scared "for fun." But she knew enough about the genre to know that this was exactly the way she would die in a horror movie.

And it certainly resembled one. The building around her was falling to pieces, even if that was only a facade. She was clinging to that facade as her last hope of Sophie being alright, because why would the room still be utilizing its Muggle-repelling charm if there wasn't a Muggle present? But her mind began whirling with secondary theories, and she desperately wished she could turn it off for a few minutes.

Past the pumpkin they began to find photographs. Taylor cried out and rushed forward, grabbing one off the floor.

"This is mine!" she cried, clutching the frame. "We- we left it behind, since she was- we didn't want anyone knowing she was coming, and- and-"

But it wasn't only photographs. The floor was littered with a myriad of odd items. Rose's eyes fell on a pair of worn-out pointe shoes whose ribbons had been knotted together. Her mind flashed back to Lorcan's sketch of the pigtailed ballerina, and she knew that they did not go unnoticed by him.

Albus and James were in another part of the room, their wands illuminating their heads down to their waists.

"We found more food over here," Albus called, kicking something that sounded metallic. "A lot of empty plates, tons of forks and stuff. Some of it looks like it was from the Christmas feast, if not earlier, but nothing's gone bad."

On the floor lay stacks of books, and then even more photos. Taylor looked at one and tearfully identified the boy with them as Richie, another group home kid whom Sophie had had a crush on before he had been adopted. James found a collection of comic books which looked like they had never been touched. Taylor squeaked upon seeing two fat photo albums, but upon opening them, she found that they were empty.

"These are Muggle CD's," said Rose, picking up the hard plastic cases and examining them with wonder. "I don't see a radio or player or anything."

Abruptly, Lorcan sat, making an uncomfortable grunt as his body hit the floor. Albus and James came back from their corner of the room, and Lysander knelt next to his twin, concern clear on his face.

"What's wrong?" asked Lysander.

"Taylor, I don't have my Seer's kit with me," said Lorcan, his voice gravelly. "There's a box by that wall. I need lavender and pomegranate oil please, and a chunk of quartz."

Taylor looked confused for a moment, then went over to the box.

"How did you...?" she asked, lifting the vials of oil and small crystal from the box.

"Room of Requirement," Lysander reminded her gently. "You brought the room up. You think of something, the room can pretty much make it happen. In theory. That's why I asked you. You're likely the one in control of this right now."

Lorcan closed his eyes and began to drip the two oils onto his forehead. The beads rolled down gently, breaking ways at his nose to run in even paths down his face. Rose knew they must be spelled to do something so symmetrical and found herself transfixed by watching.

"Tell me what happened when you went to Diagon Alley," said Lorcan, his voice back in his normal register, smooth and even.

"I- when I got the potion, you mean?" asked Taylor. When he nodded, she said, "I thought the Apothecary might have a section with readymade potions, and that invisibility could be a simple one to find. But they only had ingredients and supplies. So I left, but there was this little sign that said potions and I followed it around the corner. There was a wizard selling potions that were already made, and he had an invisibility one that he said would last twelve hours. Told me not to mix it with other potions, not to shake it before drinking, not to try and freeze it. I paid him and went back to find Professor Evariste."

Lorcan was taking long, steady breaths. Rose frowned and looked at Lysander, who had already turned to her.

"Twelve hours is a really long time for that kind of potion," said Rose, "even for a wizard. And the dosing would be different for someone so small- and I don't even know if it would work on a Muggle."

"It did!" Taylor insisted. "It worked! I lost track of her at the station but I know she made it that far. She was holding my hand."

Lorcan was now dripping oil on the backs of his hands and rubbing it over the crystal chunk.

"I don't understand," said James. "This wouldn't be happening if she didn't make it to the castle. So what happened next? Where is she now?"

"The potion," said Lorcan softly, tracing the rough edqes on the crystal with his fingertips, "it made her sick... She took a carriage with the rest... and tried to find where they'd put Tay. Like a magnet."

Taylor made another squeaking sound when Lorcan used her nickname. He suddenly dropped the crystal and grabbed hold of the picture, which let out a blinding white light. Rose covered her eyes as Lysander cried out. A moment later the light dimmed, leaving a softly glowing photo held by a softly sobbing Lorcan.

"Lorcan?" said Lysander, reaching out to his twin but not making physical contact. He knew better than to interfere when Lorcan was trying to See. "Are you alright?"

"Tay?" said Lorcan, his face breaking out into a huge grin.

It took all of Rose's strength not to fall over at that moment. Lorcan was now speaking in a female's voice. She didn't have to use any of her vast deductive skills to try and guess who he was channeling.

"Sophie?" said Taylor, beginning to cry again. "Sophie, is that you?"

Lorcan nodded. Taylor rushed forward but James and Albus lunged to grab her and hold her back.

"You can't touch him," said James firmly, "sorry. Don't wanna mess it up."

"Sophie, what happened?" asked Taylor desperately. "Where are you?"

Lorcan looked around, then let out a long, dramatic sigh.

"Still this dump, I guess," he said, rolling his eyes. "Tay, I think that cute professor bloke tricked you into thinking this school is nice. So far it's a fair awful."

Taylor laughed, wiping away at her tears.

"I've missed you so much," she said. "How- how are you still here?"

Lorcan paused, looking thoughtful.

"I don't really get it," he said slowly, "but like, it's all in here, ya know? So basically I ended up in this room, right? Got to what was supposed to be your super-perfect castle and turns out, it's a mess. So I try to find you, and I'm tired as all get out and starving because I couldn't manage to steal from that trolley lady on the train, and you had all the food in your sack."

"Sorry," said Taylor, her voice small.

"I've had worse days," said Lorcan lightly.

It was eerie, hearing this voice come from his body. Even his physical mannerisms were different. He was keeping both hands firmly locked on the photograph, but he was slouched in a way Rose hadn't seen before.

"Anyway," continued Lorcan, "I ended up here and went to bed. I figured I could find you after I slept." He looked around, confused. "Huh, my bed's gone. That's weird. Things come and go in here all the time though. I lost my dang radio at some point, really want that to come ba-"

Before she could finish the thought, a boombox had appeared next to Taylor. Lorcan sighed appreciatively.

"With a better paint job," said Lorcan, "this whole magic thing would really be great. But yeah, I kept trying to come find you and it just- it didn't work."

"What didn't work?" asked Lysander.

"I... alright, so turns out I was really sick," said Sophie begrudgingly. "Whatever, no big deal, I've been worse. And the, er... the castle kept trying to get me to feel better. Apparently it kept using its power to heal me, which is pretty freaking cool when you think about it, right? But it said it didn't work because I'm a Muggle."

"The castle- said that to you?" asked Albus, as if to make sure that he had heard correctly.

Lorcan shrugged again.

"I got used to it after a while," said Lorcan. "It's not like talking out loud, more like poof! Something new is in my head. Now I have all sorts of things in here."

"Why didn't you come find me?" asked Taylor, her voice small.

This time, Lorcan's pause was so long that Rose worried that he had lost the connection with Sophie. Finally, he continued, still speaking in her high voice.

"I didn't get better, Tay," she explained softly. "I messed up big by drinking all that potion. The castle's whole magic thing wasn't able to fix what I did. Apparently it just doesn't work that way. But it kept trying because that's what Hogwarts is literally designed to do- keep children safe and help if they're hurt. So it was basically this endless cycle of draining power from the castle, summoning things that somehow it thought I was going to like- except for a paint job, for some reason that never worked- and me just... not getting better. I just stayed the same."

Rose hadn't realized that she had begun to cry until the tears were starting to dangle from her jaw. She hastily wiped them away and focused on breathing through her mouth so no one would hear her sniffles.

"Sophie," said Lysander after a strained pause, "I'm sorry, but are you— where are you?"

Lorcan shrugged, seemingly unaffected by the horrid implications of the question.

"I'm not really sure," he said. "I've been close to… to something for a while and I don't know where that line is to be honest. I haven't really been in my body in a while, which made things easier, but I've still been stuck in here."

"Your, ah, consciousness?" asked Albus.

Lorcan nodded.

For a minute or two, there was relatively silence. Lorcan looked around the room, eyes light with interest. Taylor continued to cry, trying to muffle her tears the same way Rose was. Lysander had begun to pace, his hands balled up in fists and his face contorted in frustration.

Scorpius was the one to break the silence. It had been so long since he had spoken, Rose had nearly forgotten that he was there, standing a few paces back from the others.

"Taylor," he said, his voice firm, "you need to say goodbye to Sophie."

Taylor failed to muffle her cries at that point, letting them break free in earnest. James shot Scorpius a furious look, which Scorpius ignored.

"The castle is going to keep trying to support her," he continued, somehow ignoring the younger girl's cries. "Think about it. Sophie's been out of her body for a while. The castle has been using even more energy trying to put her back. Hogwarts is going to pull itself to pieces trying to fix this, and it can't be fixed. And we can't get back to the grounds of the school until things are set right. We'd be stuck here."

Rose was thankful that Scorpius had been brave enough to say it. She had realized it a few minutes earlier and was certain that Lysander had as well. Sophie had probably died over a month ago, and until she was able to move on, the castle wasn't going to stop trying to bring her back. She had clearly been waiting for some kind of closure with Taylor.

"I- I-" stammered Taylor, not appearing to notice or care that her face was covered with tears. "I miss you so much, Sophie!"

"I miss you too, Tay," said Lorcan calmly, "but I'm bored as all get out. I don't want to be stuck in this room anymore."

Taylor sank to her knees, covering her face and sobbing. At that moment, Lysander punched down onto his leg, startling a cry out of Rose.

"Lysander!" she said.

"This is not how this goes!" he cried angrily. "We're not doing this again! I'm tired of people dying here!"

Rafael Romolov's face flashed through Rose's mind, bringing with it a fresh stab of pain as he slipped away once more in her mind's eye.

"The castle has a hold on her," said Rose softly, "and we can't fix that. She has to be able to move on."

Lysander froze, his eyes locked on Rose, his mouth open in a small o. Then he sprang into motion, grabbing one of the pictures of Sophie from the ground and running to kneel next to his brother.

"I am tired of losing people," said Lysander, his voice cracking as he drew his wand. With a sharp slash, a cut appeared on the palm of his hand. As Rose cried out in protest, Lysander smeared the blood across his opposite palm and grabbed Lorcan's wrists, wand still clutched in his wand hand, dripped in blood.

Rose couldn't understand the words he began to chant, but she felt an immediate shift in the room. An instant later, Scorpius let out a howl of frustration. If she thought she had seen him angry before, that was nothing compared to now.

"You stupid bloody bastard!" he hollered, his voice echoing throughout the room. Though Rose could not see the walls, she could tell they were hidden away somewhere by how Scorpius' voice bounced off of them. "What the bloody hell- you stupid prick!"

"Hey!" cried James, taking an aggressive step forward. But even as Albus grabbed his arm, both Potters looked at Lysander uncertainly, frowning at what he was doing.

"I'm going to kill you," snapped Scorpius, pressing the balls of his hands into his eye sockets. "I am legitimately going to murder you when we get out of here, you stupid sodden piece of dragon dung."

"Scorpius-" began Rose hesitantly, but he shook his head and let out a low growl. He pulled out the necklace he wore tucked beneath his robes and used its sharp edge to slice his palm, just as Lysander had done. "Scorpius!"

"I'm going to bloody kill you," Scorpius repeated angrily before kneeling by Lysander's side and locking his hands over the twins'.

Rose stepped forward and pulled Taylor away from the boys, who had begun to glow an eerie grey hue. With Scorpius' addition, the photo in Lorcan's hands had begun to brighten once more.

"What are they-" began Taylor before she was shushed by Rose, Albus, and James at once.

The chanting was making Rose's stomach roll. It looked to be having the same effect on Albus, who had grabbed onto James for support. James had set his feet wide, but his eyes were closed and a sweat had broken out on his brow.

A number of things happened at once. There was a flash that filled the room like a bolt of lightning, and a force that rocked it like thunder. Lysander and Scorpius were thrown a foot back from Lorcan, landing on their backs and still maintaining a faintly grey tinge. And slowly, ambient light began to fill the room.

"About time," muttered James, who had kept his wand lit all the while.

Rose released Taylor and rushed forward to kneel by Lorcan.

"Lorcan?" she asked tentatively. "Sophie? Are you...?"

Lorcan blinked lazily at her, clearly disoriented, but nodded.

"Just me," he said, his voice gritty once more.

Satisfied with that response, Rose hurried to where Scorpius had landed. He was already starting to sit up, rubbing his head and groaning.

"I'm okay," he said, spotting Rose's face, "don't worry. Lemme go kill Lysander."

"Oi,' he heard Lysander grunt from a few feet away, "that seems awfully-"

"SOPHIE!"