Come and Go
As they near the entrance of the Great Hall, different Gryffindors walk up to Neville and congratulate him on his argument with Snape. After the 5th person thanks Neville for “knocking the git down a peg”, Neville looks near manic with exasperation.
“I don’t think I can take it anymore!” He cries out.
Harry snorts and Neville whirls around, “I bet you think this is funny, don’t you?”
Harry holds his hands up in mollification, “It’s a bit funny Nev--but! I will admit that fame doesn’t suit you.”
Neville blushes and Luna lays a hand on his arm.
“Why not look for somewhere else to eat?” She asks with a playful smile.
Suspicious, Harry asks, “Where would that be?”
“Oh? Did we hear some little Gryffindors--”
“--And a Raven!”
“--are looking for a place to eat?”
Harry spins around to see Fred and George standing along the corridor wall. They had mischievous smiles on their faces, with Fred crossing his arms across his chest and Geroge with his hands behind his back.
Neville startles at the unexpected voices while Luna drops her hand from his arm and clasps them together in front of herself.
Fred pushes off the wall and walks towards Harry, “Is little harrykins hungry--?”
George smirks, “-does he need to fill his empty tummy?”
Harry laughs at their twin-speak, needing a second to process their jumbling statements.
“Yes, Neville, Luna, and I are looking for a place to eat,” He says and then glances at Luna, “Though Luna seems to think you can help us.”
George strides forward and leans down with a nod, “Yes, we can--”
“-We Junior Mauraders--”
“-have scouted this castle from bottom to top--”
“-with that nifty map of yours--”
-and we’ve found the best place in the world!”
Fred wraps his arms around Harry’s shoulder, “The Hogwarts Kitchen!”
“But students aren’t allowed in the kitchens.” Neville sighs, seeming to realize where the day would be taking him.
Luna laughs, “Harry’s already broken about a dozen school rules, what’s one more?”
With an amused upturn of his lip, he let Fred and George escort the lot of them near the stairs leading to the Hufflepuff basement. Down the corridor, they stopped at a portrait of a fruit bowl.
“Now you have--”
“--To tickle the pear!”
“...tickle the pear?” Harry asks, walking towards the painting and observing the fruit bowl.
“It’ll reveal an entryway!” George and Fred say together, with jazz hands to illustrate their point.
Harry turns to Neville and Luna who shrug and giggle respectively, sighing to himself he turns back to the portrait and gently tickles the pear, jolting a bit when the pear snickers and reveals a pale green doorknob.
Harry blinks, “Huh. Alright then.”
The five of them enter the bustling kitchens and encounter,
“Good Wizard Harry Potter!”
Neville turns to Harry with a bemused expression, “Good Wizard--”
Harry flushes and waves his hands around in embarrassment, “Yes, Yes, we get it, Neville. No need to repeat it.”
George and Fred snicker as they mutter the epithet. Dobby looks up at them with round eyes that shine suspiciously with moisture.
“Oh! Please don’t cry Dobby!” Harry quickly exclaims, trying to stave off the outburst that the elf will surely make, but to no avail, Dobby begins his flow of proclamations.
“Good Wizard Harry Potter is so kind! CARING about DOBBY! The lowly house-elf that he is!”
Harry sighs as the quartet behind him bursts into laughter.
“Thank you--”
“Good Wizard Harry Potter is THANKING DOBBY! DOBBY WHO IS NOT WORTHY--”
“DOBBY!” Harry shouts, causing Dobby to quickly shut his mouth and look back up at Harry in awe.
“Yes, Good Wizard Harry Potter?”
I’m not getting rid of that title now am I?
Harry sighs and repeats, “Dobby. Could you help us find a place for us to eat lunch? While I’m sure we could eat in the kitchen, I wouldn’t want us to disturb you all.”
The kitchen falls into silence.
“GREAT WIZARD HARRY POTTER WISHES US WELL! LOWLY HOUSE-ELVES THAT WE ARE!” Dobby cries as the rest of the kitchen bursts into tears.
George and Fred clap Harry on the back as he groans.
“You’ve really--”
“Got a way with--”
“Magical creatures--”
“Don’t you Harrykins?”
Harry groans again as he watches Neville try to console the house-elves.
After a few minutes of crying and blubbering, Dobby was calm enough to give the location of their lunch place. He also handed off a bulging basket of sandwiches, drinks, desserts, and a few dishes.
They head up to the 7th floor where Dobby had instructed them to look for a peculiar portrait, in which they would pace and think deeply about their need for a meeting place.
Luna stops at a painting of dancing trolls and moved to the wall across from it.
“Is this it?” Neville asked.
Harry observed the corridor, of which was so close to the Gryffindor Common Room.
This room could come in handy if I wanted to talk to Umbra without him being in snake form.
George and Fred leaned against the wall with the baskets of food in their hands.
Luna spoke as she began to pace in front of the stretch of bricks, “What Dobby called the Come and Go room is also known as the Room of Requirement,”
A door emerged from the expanse of bricks in the wall and Luna added, “The room is also known as the Room of Hidden Things, with treasures that stretch from the floor to the ceiling.”
Harry stopped as he walked into the room after Fred and George, who had followed Neville and glanced at Luna, who looked oddly serious at that second. Then the moment passed, her dreamy expression returned, and she followed him into the room.
The room took the appearance of a multi-housed common room, a mish-mash of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, with Ravenclaw beanbags and Gryffindor plush chairs. A dark blue and bronze accented shelving with books as well as a red and gold table covered in wizarding games.
In the center of the room was a great hall-themed lunch table, simply downsized to fit the room and amount of people.
“This looks great Luna!” George (?), he did have a lower voice register, said as he dropped his basket on the table.
Fred nodded, “It’s a very nice mixture of the houses.” And deposited his basket on the table as well.
Harry, who had finished looking around the room, grabbed a sandwich and glass of pumpkin juice from the basket and sat at the table. Fred and George squished in on either side of him with suspicious grins.
“So--”
“We heard--”
“From a red and gold--”
“Little birdie--”
“That a little fierce lion--”
“Has had a change in Patronus!”
Luna’s eyes widen as Neville beams, “Yes! It was so cool, if not a little scary looking.”
Harry rolls his eyes and frowns with an embarrassed red flush staining his cheeks, “Tenebris looks perfectly fine.”
“...tenebris?” Neville asks in disbelief.
Harry looks around at the bemused and stunned faces of his friends, “What? Tenebris is a great name.”
Neville groans and holds his head in his hands. Luna pats his back while George and Fred give him their full attention,
“It’s not the--”
“Look that’s making ‘em--”
“Boggle Harrykins,--”
“But the fact--”
“That you’ve named your magic!”
Harry’s head whirls with the alternating streams of communication and information being processed in his already puzzled brain.
“I don’t understand! My Patronus used to be named Prongs when it was a stag I mean, but now Prongs doesn’t fit so I chose Tenebris which was meant to show how the Peryton--”
Fred (?), he did have that specific freckle on his hand, covered his mouth, and Harry opened his eyes, when had he closed them?
Neville, who had sat across from him looked at him with wide eyes, and he could see from his peripheral, George looking at Fred in astonishment. Luna who had that gentle smile on her face as always said, “You seem to be well versed in Patroni magic Harry.”
Harry, who feels like he is about to walk into a trap replies, “...I am.”
Luna claps her hands in glee, “Then you can teach us!”