Chapter 13
Chapter 13
Harry's -and the house elves'- first attempt at discovering what features the Room of Requirement had was tame: they recreated various types of expansive habitat, and it rivaled the trunks capabilities easily. The dueling mannequins had the same features as Alphard Blacks's, though, and since the man had tinkered with them -and greatly improved them- this confirmed how the RoR could model it's magic. It simply copied what was -or perhaps even what used to be-in Hogwarts.
It was nice to have an answer to that question, especially as that meant that the room neatly circumvented the wards to the restricted part of the library. Or any wards on the personal libraries of the staff.
The implications were less stellar, however.
"Wait," Harry said, "Let me try something."
He closed his eyes and pictured Dumbledore's most recent journal on the table they were sitting around. He swallowed when a leather bound book appeared in front of him. It was surprisingly understated for such an ostentatious man, but Harry guessed that Dumbledore didn't need to keep up any appearances with something that would always be kept private. He reached out to the journal before hesitating. He sat back in his chair and glanced at the elves, and Winky nodded approvingly with a proud smile. A pleased flush crawled up Harry's neck while Dobby sent several different diagnostic spells at the journal. It didn't seem warded which was unexpected. That didn't seem like something the headmaster would simply forget to do, after all. Dobby carefully opened it and they had their answer: it was empty.
Harry let out a sigh of relief.
He kept his own journals -where he kept track of his studies and plans- in the cottage trunk. The same one that contained Alphard Black's mannequins, which had been copied easily. The same one that was under a fidelius.
He had warded all his notebooks using blood wards, however. They were the strongest wards possible, though they had drawbacks of course. It's use was technically not illegal -the Pure bloods would never allow it- but it was heavily frowned upon by the light side. That didn't stop Dumbledore from supposedly using them on the Dursley home, and it certainly wouldn't stop the man from protecting his own memoirs.
Harry's journals should be safe, and a quick check confirmed that.
After the surge of relief had passed, he couldn't help but pout a little. It would've been fantastic if he'd been able to discover the headmaster's plans. Maybe the man might even have made sense to him after reading his diary.
Probably not, though.
"Tea," Winky said with a determined nod.
That was a great idea.
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After a cup of tea to fortify themselves, they continued their experiments.
"So, I was thinking about the secret passages and wondered whether the room could create one." Harry raised his eyebrows at the others.
Dobby bounced out of his seat in excitement at the idea. "Yes, yes, yes! Easy secret exit no-one knows would be great!" He closed his eyes and after a moment a mirror appeared -without a talking reflection, thankfully. "Winky is the bestest!" At those words, the mirror swung open.
"She is," Harry agreed. "I'd probably best stay here. We don't know whether the wards would notice me missing."
"Crystal should work so wese will test it, later. Someone should stay here so room doesn't disappear," Winky said.
And that was something neither Dobby nor he had thought about, given the little elf's wide eyes.
"Winky is the bestest," Dobby whispered fervently.
"Chop, chop," the she-elf said, simply, and Dobby scampered off.
It worked perfectly, wherever they could imagine as long as they remained within the original Gryffindor lands. The shrieking shack, the candy shop's basement, other secret passageways, the forbidden forest, the cave Sirius has used, the chamber of secrets and basically anywhere in the castle. They could even use the passageway to spy undetected.
The possibilities were endless. And while having a secret exit no one could anticipate was great if he ever had to go on the run, the RoR's best feature was the last of Harry's ideas. Nothing could trump it.
Throughout all iterations of the room a side table with a decorative wooden box had stood next to where the door had been before Harry had made that disappear -thus making it impossible to find them or the room.
"Dobby, how much time has passed?" Harry suddenly asked.
"Is almost an hour past. Dobby was going to warn Harry Potter soon."
The teenager nodded and walked over to the side table with a mixture of anxiety and a flicker of hope on his face. He glanced at this friends and swallowed harshly. "If this worked, it's a game changer."
Harry laid his hand on the box and hesitated briefly before lifting the lid. He stared at the contents for a long moment before looking up with a trembling smile. A door appeared next to the side table and he asked Dobby to pop to the hallway outside -unseen- and check the time.
When the elf popped back his eyes were wide and wild, and he mostly babbled nonsense.
Harry giggled when he looked between his friend and the contents of the box. "It worked?"
Dobby was unashamedly bouncing and popping around while murdering his t-shirt, but he nodded like a bobblehead in answer. Winky looked baffled by the actions of her family and stepped closer to the little table with determination.
Inside the wooden box were two clocks with helpful little copper plates describing their function. One counted the time spent inside the RoR and had just ticked over to fifty-four minutes. The other showed the time outside the RoR. It was almost eleven minutes past six o'clock in the morning.
"We arrived in this room ten minutes after six o'clock on the dot," Harry said softly.
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