Chapter 23° Room of Requirement
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The girl sat hunched over the many books and parchments and examined the words. She hadn't heard Jaden come in, not even when he sat beside her. Amelia was so deep in thought that she completely ignored her surroundings in order to concentrate on her texts, to really understand the signs and runes.
And so she jumped frightened when suddenly a clear voice rose. But it was certainly not the voice of her beloved friend.
,,What the fuck-"
Amelia squealed slightly, as she winced in surprised manner. Turning her head rapidly to look who was disturbing the silence that came as Lia entered and left when she walked out of the room, the girl looked right at the marauders. All four of them were standing in the door frame, looking confused and surprised.
The four boys discovered the room of requirement years ago when they made their marauders map with lots of spells and work. After completing the map, Remus, Peter, James and Sirius often checked that the students coordinates corresponded to reality. And it was, but there was only one problem. There was a point on the map where a person was never seen or anything moved. Everything stood still there. After much deliberation and guesswork as to why it was so, the boys looked in vain for this room. This door was nowhere to be found in the castle until James, annoyed and disappointed, dropped his back against a stone wall and sat down. He wondered what could have gone wrong and why it just didn't work. Everything was right with the map, except for this avoidable space. He wanted the answer with which he could solve the riddle when he suddenly found himself in front of a wooden door. He felt how the wall that grazed his back changed and reshaped, so that he jumped up in shock. In front of him was a large wooden door that allowed him to enter with an iron doorknob.
Since then, the four students have been using the room to plan pranks, have game evenings or simply spend quiet time undisturbed by the others. Remus sometimes came here to read in peace and Peter enjoyed doing his essays and preparing for exams here without the distractions. James thought of new ideas how he could finally get Lily to go out with him and Sirius let all of his feelings enter when nobody was looking. They have never met or even suspected another person in this room before. The boys were either alone or together, but when they were they were always among themselves. And so the look at Amelia and Jaden sitting behind her brought a certain shock.
Seconds passed in which the students just looked at each other in shock.
,,Yeah, what the fuck?" Jay raised his voice with the same confusion in his voice that James had. For them it was quite the same. Whenever one of the four friends was there, none of them was ever accompanied by any other people other than Laurie, Lia, Jay or Mo. They had never excluded that someone else knew about this room, after all there were hundreds of students in this castle, but they were never proved otherwise. Until now, as Amelia and Jaden were confronted with another four people right now.
Lia once again jumped up frightened, as she didn't notice Jay before. He had sneaked behind her and placed himself on the chair, when she was too busy reading, not registering anything around her.
,,Holy sh-" When she turned her face into his direction, she sighed relieved and let herself fall right onto the chair again. ,,Since when have you been sitting there?!"
Laughing, Jay started patting her head playfully. ,,Maybe ten seconds before those boys came in. But you were too busy reading to notice."
,,Oh shut it. I'm here to help you, remember?" Slapping his hand away, Lia started smiling, at her friend who returned gladly. They looked at one another, smirking. In Jays look, she could see that he was actually thankful for her help and support and her eyes said it was a matter of course.
Being completely forgotten, the four boys were still standing pressed in the door frame, looking dumbfounded. They followed the short verbal conversation between the two, even after it seemed to continue non-verbally.
Sirius was the first one to clear his throat and step into the room, his friends following right behind him. Remus looked around and took in this room fully. It was really beautiful. The dim lighting and the light brown facility, paired with the fireplace on the wall was perfect. It all seemed so calm and peaceful, like he had never seen it before. He focused his gaze and looked over to Amelia who was now finding his eyes as well. Her face shone almost in an ivory color in the light that the fire beamed. Her brown her fell over her shoulder and framed her face perfectly, one side of her hair being pulled behind her ear. The humble smile that was placed on her rosy lips reached her eyes fully, making her look really cute. And she was.
,,Okay-" Sirius started, gaining everyones attention, looking at the Slytherin girl and the Hufflepuff boy in front of him. ,,How do you know about this place?" he asked, getting straight to the point, brushing his black, shoulder-length hair behind his right ear.
The girls loved Sirius' hair, him seeming really obsessive about it too and Lia couldn't help but agree. It looked really handsome and suited him quite well. However, Sirius was far away from being her type. He was too much of a player and a flirt. Many girls liked this bad-boy image, but it wasn't any attracting to Lia. She preferred the more reserved and cute type of boy. The ones who are caring and lovely, not just going for looks but for personality.
Focussing back on the current situation, Amelia thought about his question for a second. She didn't see any point in thinking about an excuse, as those four also knew about it, but she didn't want to say anything wrong about the way Laurie found this room. So she simply chose to say: ,,Laurie found it years ago and I looked for it in Hogwarts: A History afterwards"
As Peter and Remus nodded, but didn't know what to say next, Lia asked the obvious counter-question. ,,What about you guys? How did you find it?"
Now it was James' turn to step forward. He eyed both the students suspiciously, but couldn't find anything that sounded or looked like any of them was lying. And to be honest he didn't really see any reason for them to lie anyway. ,,I found the door years ago."
Remus once again looked around the whole room. ,,What are you doing in here?"
Jay looked up, and pointed at the books and supplies in front of him, also gesturing to Amelia. ,,Studying. Lia is helping me with Ancient Runes."
Amelia stayed silent, ran all these things through her head and looked at James, Remus, Sirius and Peter, respectively. Sirius held a small list of parchment in his right hand while Peter kept a full bag with him. James didn't take his eyes off her or Jay and Remus' eyes were always on Amelia. They have been using this room for several years and come here, she thought. They have writing utensils and other things with them, but by no means do they look like they want to study. Everyone seemed completely shocked and surprised that we knew about this room too. Suddenly, the realization fell from Amelia's eyes.
,,You're planning all your pranks in here, aren't you? Nobody comes here and you can wish for whatever you need without anyone noticing anything. Here you can think about everything beforehand and nobody will see it coming, because they can't anticipate your pranks."
As Remus' cheeks turned red when she saw through them so easily, Lia knew that she was right. She made it sound like it was the most logical and normal thing she had ever said. James and Sirius looked at her with wide eyes, shocked by her truthful realization, while a smirk started forming on Jadens face.
,,Damn, she's smart." Peter mumbled, but everyone was still able to hear it.
Lia started chuckling, as she faced the blond boy, also meeting the others gazes. ,,Why thank you, Peter."
Moments of silence followed. None of the six knew what else to say, as everything necessary seemed to be cleared up. However, as Lia looked back at the table and all the stuff she needed for studying, she thought about why the marauders are here right now for the first time since they opened the door.
,,We can leave and go somewhere else if you want." Amelia said quickly, goosebumps rising on her arms. This awkward silence, in which everyone just seemed to be expecting the others to say something made her really uncomfortable and nervous. It was this silence that once again made her realize how many eyes and ears were focussing on her words all along. Starting to close the ink pot, she got a little hectic.
Remus noticed her change of mood and stepped forward. ,,Amelia, you don't have to. You two have been here before us, so we're gonna go somewhere else."
James didn't think too much about his friends words, as he knew that Remus would think about the right thing to do. However, the fact that Lia wanted to pack all her stuff and leave the room to them shocked him once again. He expected her to say something like ,,I can't wait to tell the professors about it-" or ,,Seems like you have to look for another room now-", but it seemed like she proved him wrong. Again. After everything that happened in the last weeks, James also started to think different about the girl, even if it was very difficult for him. Maybe this girl was an exception to the other Slytherins, maybe she actually was different.
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After James, Peter, Sirius and Remus actually left with a quick ,,Goodbye" or ,,Good Luck with Runes" Lia and Jay were left alone in their room of peace and silence. While Amelia started looking for the right pages in some other books and swiped through her notes, Jaden leaned back into his chair, his back hitting the wood. He looked at the blush that was filling Lias cheeks since Remus told them to stay and started smiling truly.
,,How did your hogsmeade trip with Lupin go?"
Turning to meet his knowing smile, Lia decided not to back down or get embarrassed. She had a lot of fun that day and wouldn't deny it. ,,It went really good."
Jay saw the determination in her eyes and couldn't help but feel grateful that Remus decided to spend time with her and get to know her better. ,,What did y'all do?"
,,We first bought the moonstone that we needed for the potion and then Remus showed me around, as I'd never been to hogsmeade before. Yeah, I know that is my fault. However, we went to his favorite bookstore and let me tell you it was so cute-"
,,The bookstore or Remus?" Jay interrupted her flow of words, watching her reaction carefully, while grinning.
,,Both actually."
Jadens eyes widened at this honest and immediate answer, making Lia laugh. He didn't really know what answer he expected, but that was most definitely not it. The Lia he knew would never have answered so quickly and honest about her feelings, even if she was around Mo, Laurie and Jay. But maybe she was starting to change for the good, Jay thought. Maybe Remus was starting to change her. A smile rose on his lips, as Jay was debating silently wether she actually meant it or just said it for fun.
,,However-" Lia started to continue after stopping to laugh and starting to smile. ,,we spent some time in the bookstore and went to the three broomsticks afterwards, where Remus insisted on buying me a butterbeer for taking so much time in the store, which he actually didn't. And after we got back to the castle he brought me to my portrait hole."
,,You're quite talkative about this." he stated, watching her smile as the words just stopped spilling out of her mouth. ,,I like it."
,,Yeah, I had a really nice day." Lia said smiling, now getting back to the books and notes in front of her.
,,But now we have to start studying."