The four children were not very pleased with the dark-haired girl's words. As Gryffindor students, they all deeply respected-even admired-their Head of House, Professor McGonagall.
Now a Slytherin was actually speaking ill of Professor McGonagall-even if it might not really count as speaking ill of her. Still, the four children were very unhappy, each glaring at her with puffed-out cheeks.
The dark-haired girl did not mind. She pointed at the tea on the table and said, "Help yourselves. No need to be polite. Well, none of this is mine anyway. The school's house-elves prepared it all."
"What exactly is this place? The Room of Requirement-why is it called that? Why is there a hidden room?" In the end, Hermione, whose thirst for knowledge was stronger, could not help asking.
"This Room of Requirement... how should I put it? It's a special kind of magic combining the mind and space. The Ravenclaw family who built this Castle were incredibly talented and came up with all sorts of interesting things.
"And the Four Founders who came later were extraordinarily powerful wizards, too. They built on that foundation to come up with all sorts of fancy tricks. I don't know when this Room of Requirement was created, but it certainly is amazing.
"When you urgently need something and don't have a suitable place, this is a very good choice," the dark-haired girl explained casually.
"Quite a few people like hiding things here, but I wouldn't recommend it. If you do, someone else hiding things here might take yours. Or you might put something here yourself, only to be unable to find it when you want it.
"One unlucky fellow hid something very important here, and things ended rather tragically for him." At this point, the dark-haired girl gave a very wicked yet very