The Room of Requirement

Albert woke to find the dormitory pitch-black. Faintly, he could hear rain outside the window; the rain from last night had not stopped yet.

Albert sat up in bed and covered a yawn with one hand. It was all because of that strange dream last night—he felt exhausted when he woke.

Besides, he had woken too early. The other three boys in his dormitory were still asleep.

Albert reached toward the bedside table, picked up the wand lying in the corner, and softly cast, "Lumos."

A pale glow shone from the tip of his wand. He held it close to his mechanical pocket watch and checked the time: 5:40.

Sure enough, he had woken far too early.

Albert extinguished the light from his wand and lay back down. The mechanical pocket watch slipped from his hand onto the sheets.

It was a gift Luke had bought for him to celebrate his receiving Hogwarts's letter of acceptance.

Since he was awake, Albert had no intention of going back to sleep. He sat up again, stretched, pushed aside the covers, and got out of bed before walking to the window. He undid the latch, pulled open the wooden window, and looked out beyond the tower.

A cold gust blew straight into his face, making Albert shiver. It cleared his head at once.

The rain was not particularly heavy, but it was still dark outside, and the entire castle lay shrouded in a hazy curtain of rain.

"A great adventure." Albert lightly patted his cheeks and muttered under his breath.

After closing the window, Albert returned to his bed and took a robe from his Leather case. He then picked up the pocket watch and wand by his bed and slipped them into his pockets. Before leaving the dormitory, he paused to toss the clothes he had just changed out of into the basket in the bathroom. The House-elves would use magic to wash them clean, then place them back on his bed.

Come to think of it, Hogwarts students actually had it pretty good. There were many things they did not need to worry about; they only needed to focus on learning magic.

The Common Room was quiet. Only a female ghost sat on the sofa reading. Hearing his footsteps, she looked up at Albert, then lowered her head and continued reading.

Albert did not disturb the ghostly lady. Though he wanted to chat with her, he ultimately gave up on the idea. He hated being interrupted while reading himself.

Albert did not linger in the Common Room. Before everyone else got up, he planned to wander around the castle and search for the legendary Room of Requirement.

Pushing open the Common Room door, Albert bent down and stepped through the round portrait hole. The Fat Lady was still wearing a nightgown, looking sleepily at the student leaving.

She asked, "Where are you going?"

"For a walk." Albert looked down the dim corridor, raised his wand, and continued onward. This time, he did not intend to take the same route as last night. Instead, he planned to explore elsewhere.

Perhaps because it was raining outside, the corridors felt cold and damp, much like a sinister castle from a horror film, where a ghost might burst through the walls at any moment and scare someone half to death.

In fact, Hogwarts Castle really did have ghosts, and quite a few of them. Even if one emerged from a wall right now, it would not be anything strange.

As soon as he turned the corner, Albert saw the stone stairs he had come up last night. This time, he did not go down them and simply continued forward.

After turning into another corridor, Albert spotted a large vase ahead. He turned his head and looked around, and actually found the tapestry depicting trolls in ballet tutus.

"Looks like I'm lucky."

Albert quickened his pace and walked up to the tapestry. Raising his wand, he used its light to examine the bizarre tapestry before him. It was truly painful to look at.

On the tapestry, a group of trolls wearing ballet tutus held wooden clubs or bone clubs as they struck all sorts of coquettish poses. A ballet instructor was trying to teach the trolls to dance, only to be viciously beaten by one of them with a bone club.

As Albert studied the tapestry, the troll stopped beating the ballet instructor and turned to stare at him, as though asking, What are you looking at?

If he had brought a camera, Albert would definitely have taken a picture of this hilarious scene.

But the Room of Requirement was more important right now. It was located within the blank wall opposite this tapestry.

Albert stepped aside, turned to look at the blank wall, then turned back to glance at the tapestry. Raising his right hand, he made a knocking motion toward the troll.

The tooth-decayed troll actually copied him, raised its bone club, and struck the poor ballet instructor.

The sight was enough to make anyone mourn at the sound of it and weep at the sight of it.

Albert laughed happily, then walked to the blank wall and reached out to touch it. It was a hard stone wall, with no sign of the so-called Room of Requirement.

The condition for entering the Room of Requirement was to pass by this stretch of wall three times while concentrating on what one needed.

"Pass by?" Albert raised his wand. Its pale light illuminated one end of the blank wall, where there was a window. Turning around, he saw the waist-high vase at the other end.

So he just had to walk past it three times?

"A place to practice magic, a place to practice magic..." Albert focused his attention as he walked from the window at one end of the wall, turned around, and then turned back again at the vase on the other end.

He murmured under his breath, and as he turned around for the third time, the wall changed.

Countless patterns appeared across the blank wall, gradually forming a smooth door.

Albert was in high spirits, because he knew he had succeeded. He grasped the bronze handle, pulled open the door, and walked inside. Beyond it was a spacious room, with torches lit around the walls. It looked somewhat like a classroom.

There were many wooden bookshelves along the walls, holding hundreds of books. Albert suspected that these books had been moved here from the library. On the other side stood several dummies for practicing magic.

"Wonderful," Albert said softly. With these books, he would not need to make special trips to the library to find them.

Still, he needed to be careful not to let anyone discover him while using this place. After all, a door suddenly appearing in a wall would easily draw attention.

Albert did not stay any longer. He turned and left the Room of Requirement, planning to consider how he could use this place discreetly.

If he did not want anyone to know, he needed to make sure he encountered no one when entering and no one else when leaving. Only then could he keep this place secret.

He needed the Disillusionment Charm and the Marauder's Map.

The Disillusionment Charm should be somewhere among those books, but the Marauder's Map was with Filch, and getting it would not be easy.

Make one himself?

He did not have that ability yet.

Never mind, he would take it slowly. He still had seven years to spend here, after all.

After Albert turned and left, the door to the Room of Requirement slowly vanished once more, becoming an ordinary blank wall again. Few people at the school knew that there was a magical room here.