Discovery of the Room of Requirement

The brief warmth of Christmas seeped quietly into Hogwarts' heavy stone walls like a stream from melting ice and snow, yet it could not change the castle's inherent winter chill. When the holiday ended, students gradually returned to school, and the castle brimmed with life again, but it also brought more complicated house rivalries and social networks.

Tom Riddle seemed to have turned all the loneliness and resentment he had accumulated over the holiday into an even more urgent drive to advance in the new term. Like a tireless hunter, he moved more actively between classrooms, the library, and Slughorn's club. He was the first to successfully cast the Levitation Charm in Charms, and in A History of Magic, he raised sharp, insightful doubts about the "official account" of medieval witch burnings, making even Professor Binns give him an unusually lingering look. When he discussed the Ministry of Magic's latest developments and the applications of Ancient Runes with upper-year students at the club, his sophistication and foresight made Slughorn even more certain that he had uncovered a treasure.

Yet Ares could sense that Tom was far less composed inside than he appeared. His thirst for knowledge and pursuit of power carried an almost pathological anxiety. No longer satisfied with classroom learning, he began frequently borrowing books from the Restricted Section—armed with special permission from Slughorn, he could always find dangerous tomes concerning soul magic, ancient curses, and Dark Magic Defense—or offense.

Ares tried to guide him, but with little success. Tom seemed bewitched, obsessively absorbed in pages that recorded great power, especially the vague passages concerning "immortality" and "the secrets of the soul." His gaze often became deep and feverish, while the magic around him took on an almost imperceptible cold, viscous quality.

"Those things are dangerous, Tom." One evening, beside the fireplace in the Common Room, Ares could not help reminding him again as he watched Tom close Origins of Malicious Curses, a book bound in black dragonhide with its title written in blood-red ink.

Tom looked up, his black eyes glinting strangely in the pale green firelight. "Power itself is neither good nor evil, Ares. What matters is how it is used." He stroked the Yew Wand in his hand, his tone carrying a distant air of superiority. "Dumbledore and the others are always trying to restrain us with excuses about doing it 'for our own good.' But true power has never come from following the rules."

Ares knew that these were Tom's true thoughts, and also the beginning of his growing departure from Hogwarts' mainstream values. He could not forcibly stop him. All he could do was stay closer, hoping to pull Tom back before darkness consumed him completely.

At the same time, Ares was conducting secret research of his own. He focused on the system reward, [Mysterious Gift Box (Blood Pact Related)]. Once opened, the gift box did not contain a physical object, but an obscure stream of information pointing to a specific place within the castle—on the Seventh Floor, opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being beaten by trolls, at a stretch of blank wall.

[Clue Analysis: When someone concentrates, walks past that wall three times, and strongly desires a specific place, a door will appear.—'Room of Requirement']

The discovery made Ares' heart race. A secret room that could change according to its user's wishes! It was undoubtedly the perfect place for covert research, practicing high-risk magic, or even hiding things.

He did not tell Tom immediately. He needed to confirm whether the place was real and safe first.

One night, when no one was paying attention, Ares went alone to the Seventh Floor and found the blank wall. He focused, imagining a place where he could study quietly without interruption, then walked back and forth past it three times.

When he passed it for the third time, a remarkably smooth door silently appeared on the previously bare wall. He pushed it open. Inside was a spacious, bright room lined with bookshelves. A huge desk stood in the center, covered with all kinds of research tools, and there was even a calming magic array that emitted gentle pulses of magic. It was exactly what he needed.

Here, Ares tested several Ancient Runes arrays for stabilizing souls and soothing emotions, which he had learned from ancient scrolls, and the results were remarkable. He also tried placing the Black Box from Gringotts in the center of the room, activating magic with the Eternal Cycle wand and the Twin Soul Key at the same time. The dark-red gem on the box flickered faintly, but it still showed no sign of opening. Clearly, it required a more crucial key or opportunity.

A few days later, after Tom nearly lost control of his magic again while practicing a spell learned from the Restricted Section that carried an obvious dark magic aura, Ares knew he could not wait any longer.

"Come with me," he said to Tom, whose face was pale but whose eyes were abnormally excited.

He led the puzzled Tom to the Seventh Floor and demonstrated how to enter the Room of Requirement before the blank wall. When the door appeared once more, Tom's face revealed an unprecedented expression, one that blended shock with extreme greed.

"A room... entirely belonging to its user?" he murmured. He strode inside and looked around at the research-room environment Ares had set up, the light in his black eyes blazing brighter. "Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful! Ares, you always bring surprises!"

From that day on, the Room of Requirement became their most important secret base. Tom immediately transformed it into a place better suited for his "research"—the room became larger and darker, the books on the shelves changed into more copied forbidden books on dark magic, alchemy, and bloodline curses, and a platform for complex magical rituals appeared in the center.

Here, Tom could practice those dangerous spells without restraint and study the mysteries of the soul without worrying about being discovered by any professor or caretaker. His magical attainments improved at an astonishing rate, but Ares noticed with concern that the cold, all-controlling air around Tom was becoming increasingly obvious as well. He began using small animals in the Room of Requirement—usually caught secretly outside the castle—to test the effects of curses and the Imperius Curse. Though Ares strongly objected, Tom only restrained himself on the surface and continued in secret.

Ares, meanwhile, used the safety of the Room of Requirement to continue researching the Blood Pact Box and stabilizing magic. He tried combining the soothing Ancient Runes arrays with the Power of Light and Dark Harmony of the Eternal Cycle wand, creating a more powerful field of tranquility. To some extent, it eased Tom's increasingly violent emotions caused by contact with dark magic, but it was only a drop in the bucket.

Within this magical room, the two of them moved in completely different directions. One sank ever deeper into dark knowledge, pursuing ultimate power and eternity; the other groped through the balance of light and darkness, trying to find a path toward redemption and protection.

The discovery of the Room of Requirement was like a double-edged sword. It offered them unparalleled convenience and privacy, yet it also accelerated the growth and expansion of the darkness in Tom's heart. The room witnessed the unbreakable bond between them, while silently watching the crack between them widen.

After successfully practicing a wandless, silent Fiendfyre Curse under extremely limited control, Tom stood in the center of the room and said to Ares with a smile that looked down on everything, "See, Ares? This is true power! Power enough to let us transcend every rule!" Ares looked at his face, illuminated by ghostly blue flames like that of a god of darkness, and for the first time felt a profound sense of helplessness rise within him.

He knew that merely following and soothing Tom might no longer be enough. He had to find a more effective way. He had to unravel the secrets of the Blood Pact. He had to possess a force of light powerful enough to counterbalance this darkness. Otherwise, not only would he fail to complete his mission of redemption, but he and the person he wished to protect might both be consumed by this ever-growing darkness.

The door of the Room of Requirement slowly closed behind them, sealing the two boys and the paths they had chosen within the castle's most secret corner. Inside were increasingly dangerous experiments and ideals drifting farther apart; outside was Hogwarts, still noisy and utterly unaware. In the silence no one noticed, the pendulum of fate swung heavily once toward the unknown.