The Kitchen and the Room of Requirement!

By the time Rose came out of the library, it was completely dark. A few stars hung in the sky, and the crescent moon's reflection drifted and broke apart on the surface of the Black Lake as the cold wind blew.

As she passed the abandoned girls' bathroom on the second floor, she didn't see Moaning Myrtle, but she ran straight into Peeves. He was trying to hide inside a suit of armor by the corridor, ready to scare a passing student at random.

Nobody wanted to mess with Peeves, but Rose had seen him climb inside, so Peeves yelled at her, "Mind your own business!"

Rose raced downstairs.

But she had already missed dinner, so she had to go down another floor.

Blazing flames dotted the walls on both sides of the corridor leading to the Hufflepuff Common Room, making the basement even warmer than the Great Hall. Rose wished Professor Slughorn would come and take a look so he could rearrange his Potions Classroom.

Every Hufflepuff knew where the kitchen was, but they all stuck together and kept their mouths shut.

Rose stood in front of the enormous picture frame as two younger Hufflepuff students climbed out of a barrel. They stared at her in surprise, as though she were wearing a monkey suit with a sign on her chest reading "Welcome to the exhibition" instead of Gryffindor robes.

"Who are you looking for?" one of them, a curly-haired boy, asked her.

"Um, actually, I missed dinner." Rose put a hand on her stomach and spoke awkwardly. "But I'm so hungry. Someone told me the kitchen was here, so I came to try my luck."

"Oh, you must have had detention!" The boy shuddered. Detention was the only reason he could think of for missing dinner. Otherwise, who would want to go to bed hungry?

Rose nodded vaguely, hoping they would hurry off and do whatever they had been about to do so she could get something to eat from the kitchen.

"I'll tell you where it is!" the curly-haired boy said eagerly. The shorter boy beside him grabbed his arm, trying to stop him from making such a rash decision.

"It's all right-as long as she won't go telling everyone!" The curly-haired boy turned and asked, "You won't, will you?"

"Even if I told everyone, you wouldn't know!" Rose said, amused. He was ready to tell her where the kitchen was without even asking her name. Hufflepuffs really were so innocent and lovable!

"Edgar!" The shorter boy looked at her warily. "I knew it! She'll definitely tell everyone! Everyone wants to know where the kitchen is! Don't forget what we promised Diggory!"

The curly-haired boy, Edgar, stood there looking torn. He cautiously tried to negotiate with her. "Then could you at least not tell anyone I was the one who told you?"

Rose couldn't help bursting into laughter. She had never met such a serious and adorable boy.

"Rose Claude, second year," Rose told them honestly. "Actually, I know how to get into the kitchen. I was just worried you'd be angry if I swaggered in right in front of you."

Edgar looked relieved, but the shorter boy seemed even angrier.

"Edgar Bones. This is Dennis Macmillan. We're both in third year." Edgar introduced them one by one, then shook his head at Rose. "We won't be angry. The kitchen isn't Hufflepuff's private property."

"But Diggory said-" Macmillan tried to argue, because he was clearly angry.

"The Prefect only told us not to spread it around indiscriminately. If everyone came to the kitchen instead of going to the Great Hall, the House-elves would surely be very troubled," Edgar Bones said gently, making Dennis Macmillan feel a little better.

"Still, you really ought to be more cautious. What if I were a student who liked spreading rumors?" Edgar's kindness made Rose want to lecture him. "I'd tell everyone in vivid detail: Edgar Bones from Hufflepuff told me where the kitchen is! Absolutely reliable!"

Edgar shook his head and gazed earnestly into Rose's eyes. "I don't think you are. You look kind."

Rose felt a little uncomfortable under his earnest, innocent gaze. She blinked rapidly and changed the subject. "Go on, get back to what you were doing! I need to hurry and get something to eat. My stomach's about to eat me."

With that, she gave neither of them a chance to react. She turned, tickled the pear in the painting, pressed the black doorknob that appeared, and waved at them with her back turned.

"See you!" She slipped inside without looking back.

Hugging an enormous plate piled high with sausage pudding, apple pie, and Cornish pasties, Rose squeezed with difficulty through the door of the Room of Requirement.

She thought the House-elves could take up architecture as a second career. They were really good at stacking things high and keeping them steady without letting them fall!

"Oh my god, Sirius—a moving plate!" James Potter exclaimed.

"Please, give me a hand!" Rose's voice came from behind the distant plate. A pair of pale, scarred hands took it from her. It was Remus.

"Thank goodness, you four poor fellows can still share Remus's pair of ears!" Rose plopped down on the sofa, unable to resist the jab.

Sirius raised the book in his hand and shrugged at her, indicating that he was reading and couldn't help.

"Wow-pasties!" James picked one up and put it in his mouth. "That's just what I wanted!" His mouth was stuffed full, and his lips gleamed with grease.

"I wish all the girls could see you now!" Rose swallowed the mashed potatoes in her mouth, her expression full of disgust. She couldn't understand why James Potter was so popular among the first-years.

"Let's get down to business," Remus said. His face was pale, and he was lean but not frail. He was reclining in an armchair, looking at everyone gently and seriously.

"The Marauder's Map, what a good name!" Sirius put down the book in his hand. Rose noticed that Forgotten Ancient Magic and Spells was printed on the cover, which depicted an old witch with shriveled skin. Her hands were crossed over her neck, and her head had been opened, exposing strangely shaped brain tissue.

Clearly, this book wouldn't be found in the library. They must have sneaked it out of the Restricted Section.

"This is the floor plan of Hogwarts that Peter drew." James unfolded a sheet of parchment. It was a full two feet long, and almost every staircase and corridor in the castle was marked on it in dense detail.

"I didn't know Peter had such an amazing talent!" Rose looked at Peter in surprise. She couldn't connect the shy, round-faced boy before her with the bald, fat, sleazy middle-aged man from the film.

"Peter's especially good at remembering things. He can tell you exactly where every classroom in the castle is!" James said proudly. "He's just a little timid sometimes."

"Then all we need to do next is mark people's movements on the map," Rose summed up.

"All we need to do?" Sirius repeated. He threw himself heavily into the sofa, as though she had said something funny. "That's the biggest problem right now!"

Seeing that the two of them were about to start arguing again, James had to put down the map and prepare to settle the dispute.

"Some people can hear others talking now," Rose said coldly. She had always disliked Sirius Black's arrogance, as though everyone had to indulge him to keep him happy.

Sirius grew unhappy too. He sat at the other end of the sofa with a cold expression, and neither of them paid the other any attention.

"Are their tempers usually this explosive?" James asked Remus quietly.

Remus shook his head. He didn't understand girls very well. Although Sirius was sometimes mean and arrogant, most of the time he wasn't really angry; more often than not, he simply didn't want to deal with people.

In the end, everyone parted on bad terms. Rose returned to the dormitory after eating the last piece of pudding, leaving Sirius, who still looked angry, with the other three.

"She can eat even more than Peter!" Sirius snorted. He stared at the empty plate for a long time, then picked up the book beside him and bent his head to continue reading.

Peter Pettigrew, whose name had been mentioned, drew in his neck and sat down in the chair farthest from him. Clearly, he didn't want to get on his bad side at a time like this.

If I were Claude, I'd argue with him too, he thought. Apart from James and Remus, nobody in the world could stand his moody temper.