We've Got a Broom!

The search for the Diadem still hadn't made any progress, and Rose gradually began visiting the Room of Requirement less often.

After October began, the temperature dropped sharply. Rose was roused when the sky outside the window was only just beginning to lighten. This was her first Quidditch practice. McGu strode along full of energy, followed by a line of bleary-eyed team members.

Rose yawned, tears welling up at the corners of her eyes. She rubbed her dry, swollen eyes and quickened her pace to catch up with the group. James Potter walked unsteadily ahead, his black hair sticking out at the back of his head even more wildly than usual.

"You look like you're about to pass out, James," Rose teased, holding James Potter by the shoulder so his head wouldn't slip off the broom it was resting on.

"I'd only just gone to sleep when McGu woke me up." James yawned deeply and rubbed his face hard with his palms a few times, forcing himself to perk up.

"Did you go wandering around at night again?" Rose asked. "Where did you go? The Forbidden Forest?"

"Keep your voice down-" James glanced warily at the other team members. "We went to Hogsmeade yesterday."

"What's there to do at night? The shops are all closed! Besides, we'll be allowed to go next year," Rose said. They had reached the pitch, where McGu was shouting at everyone to wake up.

"We went exploring at the Shrieking Shack." James mounted his broom, speaking casually.

"Did you get inside? Isn't there a Whomping Willow there?"

"No, but we've already found a way in," James Potter said smugly. He pushed off with his feet, and his broom soared into the air.

Poor Remus. Rose worried about him.

Rose quickly mounted her broom too. Madam Hooch had agreed to lend it to her until she had one of her own.

The sun rose slowly over the mountaintops, painting the sky blue and violet. The damp chill of the early morning air carried the scents of wood and grass. After scoring several goals in a row, Rose felt her back begin to warm and a thin layer of moisture form on her palms.

By the time the sun had fully risen, McGu called an end to practice. Rose's sleepiness had vanished, and her cheeks bore a healthy flush from the exercise.

By the time she climbed through the portrait hole into the common room, students were beginning to leave in ones and twos. In the dormitory, Marlene and Lily were already ready and waiting for her and Mary.

"Three minutes-" Rose quickly changed out of her Quidditch uniform and into her everyday clothes, splashed her face with water, and packed her textbooks into her bag before heading to the Great Hall with them.

Lily announced that she liked Quidditch a little more now, because the sport meant she no longer had to spend several minutes every morning just waking her best friend up.

Rose could only promise her repeatedly that she wouldn't stay in bed anymore.

A whole morning of Transfiguration kept them on edge. Although Professor McGonagall was their head of house, she was a serious, cautious woman, and no one wanted anything to go wrong in her class.

At lunchtime in the Great Hall, James Potter found Rose and told her the broom had arrived. He would give it to her in the common room after dinner.

"Thank you so much, James." They had already agreed on a price, and it wasn't high; Rose could afford it. She had earned pounds working over the summer, and the exchange rate between Muggle currency and wizarding money was very favorable.

"You're welcome-oh, hi, Evans, you're here too." James greeted Lily with a goofy smile, as if he had only just noticed her.

Seeing that goofy look, Rose was sure he had fallen for Lily at some point. Perhaps he hadn't even realized it himself.

Lily didn't look as though she wanted to pay him any attention, but her good manners wouldn't allow her to reject a friendly greeting. So she reluctantly raised her head and greeted him halfheartedly. "Hi, Potter."

James Potter looked even goofier. Rose sat beside Lily, with a perfect view of the show. So this is the joy of shipping a couple. She was bubbling over from the sweetness of it.

"Sirius is at the entrance to the Great Hall. He looks like he wants you for something." She decided to salvage James Potter's image after all.

"Oh, of course. We're very busy." He came to his senses and seemed to realize how silly he looked. He tried to recover. "You should know, Evans, there are lots of things waiting for us to do every day."

Lily rolled her eyes and said impatiently, "Busy serving detention?"

"Oh, come on, Evans, don't say that-" James Potter's face turned bright red, and the students around them giggled at him.

"See you in the common room later." Although he didn't consider it embarrassing-Rose even thought he seemed a little proud of it-James still hurried away to join Sirius Black, who was leaning against the entrance to the Great Hall, grinning as he watched the show. The two of them shoved each other as they disappeared at the end of the Marble Staircase.

"James Potter is such a pest," Lily couldn't help complaining to the girls. "How many points have he and Black lost for our house?"

"But you have to admit they're clever-" Rose swallowed the last bite of her treacle tart, shuddering at its cloying sweetness. "They've earned more than half of them back in class!"

"Oh, they're just a little full of themselves. Boys-" Marlene agreed with Rose, putting on a mature air.

"See you later, girls. I'm going to look at my broom now!"

The Gryffindor Common Room was empty. Most of the students were still in the Great Hall, where there were bright fires and an endless supply of desserts.

James Potter was sitting on the long sofa they often monopolized, his head close to Sirius Black's as they whispered together. Remus Lupin sat in another armchair, reading quietly.

A long, narrow parcel wrapped tightly in brown paper lay on the table in front of them, but none of them were paying it any attention.

"She's here." Sirius Black was the first to spot her, and he nudged James beside him with his elbow.

"I'll go get your money from my dormitory-" Rose couldn't wait to get her broom. She ran toward the spiral staircase leading to the girls' dormitories.

"Wait-" James Potter called her back. "There's something we want to talk to you about."

"What is it?" Rose asked.

James Potter looked around, making sure no one could overhear their conversation.

"I'd like to make a trade with you-" he said hesitantly.

"We want to know how you suddenly appeared in the Seventh Floor corridor." Sirius Black seemed to think he was taking too long to get to the point. He stood up and asked directly.

"Right. In exchange, you can have this broom without paying. Of course, if you don't want to, forget it," James said. He shook his head at Sirius, who was making signs at him. "Sirius, we have to respect her wishes. Besides, we can definitely find a way on our own!"

Though Sirius didn't agree with James's decision to make things harder for themselves, he said no more.

"I can tell you." Rose thought for a moment, then decided to tell them the secret of the Room of Requirement.

When someone on the Marauder's Map entered the Room of Requirement, they disappeared. Rose wasn't sure whether the boys had never discovered the room's secret before graduating, or whether they had deliberately designed the map that way.

Whichever it was, she was willing to tell them the secret now, because of James Potter's help and his kind nature.

"That's brilliant!" James Potter said excitedly. "That'll save us a lot of work!"

He told Rose to sit between him and Sirius. The two of them stared intently at her from either side, while Remus Lupin put down his book and sat up a little straighter.

"On the Seventh Floor, behind the Tapestry of a Troll Clubbing Barnabas the Barmy," Rose said slowly.

"There's nothing behind it-" Sirius Black interrupted her. "We checked."

"Of course there isn't!" Rose glared at him, her blue eyes gleaming in the firelight. "Because you don't know how!"

Sirius Black was left speechless. A strange expression appeared on his usually carefree, ever-smiling face.

"You also have to walk past the tapestry three times, thinking about the room you want most," Rose said.

"What room?" James Potter asked foolishly.

"Any room, as long as it's the one you need most!"

Her words set the boys' hearts pounding. "That's brilliant!" James Potter shouted, and Pettigrew's eyes widened dramatically.

"What were you thinking of then?" Sirius Black leaned close to her ear and asked softly.

"A place to hide things," Rose said vaguely. Sirius's breath tickled her a little as he spoke.

Sirius Black thought she was lying. He was just about to speak when he noticed her pale neck suddenly shrink back and the tip of her small ear turn bright red.

For a moment, he forgot what he had wanted to say. He sat up straight without thinking and responded to James absentmindedly.