The Room of Requirement

Gerald looked at the Weasley brothers and rubbed his temples.

They really did have energy to spare. For heaven's sake, I was planning to go to Hufflepuff in the first place.

"Gryffindors should go on adventures, explore the world, and do things that shake it to its foundations."

"Not hole up in the library reading books."

"Could you two stop trying to force everyone into your own mold?"

Lee Jordan looked up from behind a Chocolate Frog wrapper.

"Gerald, ignore them. They spent two hours beside the Quidditch Pitch this afternoon just to watch the Gryffindor team practice. Do you know what they saw?"

"What?"

"Nothing. Gryffindor wasn't even practicing today. Slytherin was using the pitch."

Fred and George's expressions turned awkward at the same time.

"We weren't there to watch practice," Fred said solemnly.

"We were gathering intelligence on the enemy," George added.

"The Slytherin Quidditch Team is our sworn enemy. Knowing their tactics and their players' strengths will help with next year's tryouts."

"You're not trying out until next year," Gerald said.

"That's why we've started scouting now. It's called thinking ahead."

Gerald looked at the two boys spouting nonsense with perfectly straight faces and shook his head.

"I'm going to change, then get dinner."

"Wait."

Fred stopped him.

"Are you busy tonight?"

Gerald thought for a moment.

He already had the Marauder's Map, had finished processing the spirit herbs and extracting the medicinal liquid, and had made his breakthrough.

He really didn't have anything to do that evening.

"No. Why?"

George lowered his voice, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

"For our great undertaking, of course. There's a special place on the Seventh Floor of Hogwarts."

"Special?"

"You might walk past it today and see nothing but a solid stone wall. Then, when you pass tomorrow, there might be a door there instead. Charlie said there might be a room behind that wall, but nobody knows how to get in."

Something stirred in Gerald's heart.

That's the Room of Requirement!

"So, are you coming?"

"Yes."

He had no reason to refuse.

The Room of Requirement was one of Hogwarts's greatest secrets, and he had already planned to find time to explore it.

After all, some spells and techniques weren't suitable for performing in front of other people.

"Great. We'll go together tonight."

Gerald nodded and turned toward the boys' dormitory.

After showering and changing into his school robes, he went to the Great Hall.

The dinner tables were as lavishly laden as ever.

Gerald sat down, and the golden plate in front of him was immediately piled with food.

After breaking through to the ninth level of chain-form essence refinement, his appetite had grown again.

After dinner, the boys spent two hours in the common room.

Gerald sat in an armchair beside the fireplace and read two chapters of Principles of Potions.

As nine o'clock approached, Fred tossed down his cards and stood up.

"Let's go."

Kenneth Towler hesitated, then decided not to join them.

His roommates were far too restless. He had no desire to end up in detention.

George didn't pressure him.

The four of them set off from Gryffindor Tower and climbed the moving staircases to the Seventh Floor.

Hogwarts felt entirely different at night.

The Seventh Floor corridor was quiet, and everyone in the portraits was asleep.

A medieval knight in armor leaned against a wall, snoring so vigorously that his armor plates trembled with each breath.

"Here it is."

Fred stopped at the end of an empty corridor.

Gerald studied the wall in front of him. In the torchlight, nothing about it seemed unusual.

But he knew this was the entrance to the Room of Requirement.

"Apparently, a door once appeared on that wall."

"Have you seen it?" Lee Jordan asked.

"No."

Gerald stood beside them, listening to their conversation, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.

To enter the Room of Requirement, they needed to picture their needs clearly and precisely. Only then would the room respond.

"Why do you want to get into this room?" Gerald decided to give the Weasley brothers a little help.

"To make it our secret base, of course," Fred answered without hesitation.

"And then? What would we do in our base?"

"What would we do? What else is there to do? Isn't having a secret base that only a few of us know about cool enough?"

Gerald's face darkened at the answer, but he restrained himself and continued guiding them.

"Besides being cool, don't we have a great undertaking?"

"Right, alchemy! We need somewhere to develop joke toys." George's eyes suddenly lit up.

Now we're getting somewhere!

Gerald was delighted.

"Now walk back and forth along the corridor three times, picturing what you need as you face this wall."

"You're not joking?" George looked puzzled, but he did as instructed.

He stood in front of the wall and took a deep breath.

His usual mischievous grin gave way to a seriousness Gerald had never seen on his face before.

I need a place big enough for us, with lots of alchemical equipment, where we can develop joke toys.

George thought this as he walked. On his third pass, the previously bare stone wall opposite him suddenly began to change.

The stone blocks slid slowly apart from the center, as though moved by an invisible hand.

A few seconds later, a heavy, old-fashioned oak door appeared out of thin air at the end of the corridor.

Its brass handle glowed red in the torchlight.

"Merlin's beard, there really is a door!" Lee Jordan's voice trembled slightly.

Gerald looked at the door with a flicker of curiosity, too.

He had read descriptions of the Room of Requirement countless times in the original books and rummaged through every chest in it in the game.

But watching a door appear from nothing in a stone wall was still an entirely different experience.

Fred reached out, took the brass handle, and gave it a gentle push. The door swung inward without a sound.

The four of them filed inside.

The room was much larger than Gerald had expected. At a glance, he estimated it to be three or four hundred square meters.

Several magical lamps hung from the high ceiling, casting a warm yellow light that was bright without being harsh.

An enormous workbench stood in the center of the room, its surface neatly arranged with all kinds of alchemical apparatus.

Cauldrons, measuring cups, scales, mortars, test tube racks, and glass bottles-everything they could want was there. There was even a rather professional-looking distillation apparatus.

For a moment, Gerald almost thought he was back in chemistry class.

"Gerald, you're a genius."

Fred's voice trembled with excitement.

"You have no idea. George and I have been talking about finding a secret base at Hogwarts since the summer holidays. We've spent nearly two weeks looking and haven't found so much as a trace of one. Then you come along and sort it out just like that."

Gerald waved a hand.

"I didn't make this room appear. George did. He was the one who worked out exactly what he needed."

"But you prompted me. Without you, I never would have thought to tell the wall that I needed somewhere to 'develop joke toys.'"

"How did you know that was what we had to do?"

Gerald leaned against the doorframe, folded his arms across his chest, and gave them an inscrutable smile.

"You know nothing about divination."

"Divination?" Fred and George repeated in unison.

"You can do divination, too? But we're only first-years. We haven't even started Divination classes!"

"Isn't that something you're born knowing how to do?"

"..."

Fred's lips moved a few times before he finally managed to speak.

"I've known you for months. How am I only just realizing you're a monster?"