translating_wizard
patreon
Chapter 981: The Magical Room of Requirement
🕑 Added 2024-01-02 04:48:28 +0000 UTCMeanwhile, Evan and Hermione were holding the Marauder's Map in the dimly lit corridor on the seventh floor.
The map showed the entire Hogwarts, with tiny moving black dots, labeled with names, showing where various people were.
The core of the Marauder's Map operation was Name Magic, where each person's name inherently possessed magical properties.
This kind of magic was not visible, but it was real, much like how zodiac signs or blood types could subtly influence a person.
Evan had done research using the Marauder's Map as a baseband. He could now use some of this Name Magic to track a person through potions or spells and determine their location. He once used it on Peter Pettigrew.
Therefore, as long as Peter was alive, Evan would sense him and track him in the Forbidden Forest at night.
The strength of this magical sense had its limitations, much like how the Marauder's Map could only display the internal areas of Hogwarts.
Moreover, it wasn't entirely reliable. Evan’s experiences from the previous semester had taught him that wizards who had processed their names, like Caresius, wouldn't be marked and tracked by the magic of their names. In other words, they wouldn't appear on the Marauder's Map.
However, it was still possible to use it to see where Umbridge, Filch, and other virtual members were.
They certainly wouldn't cast spells on their own names; they didn't have that ability.
"Harry and the others have finished training; the members are returning to the castle," said Evan, looking at the Marauder's Map. "Hmm, it's a bit strange. Harry and Ron stayed in the changing room and haven't come out. What are they up to secretly?”
"I don't know, but I hope they hurry up!" Hermione said, leaning over, "Where's Umbridge?"
"In her office," said Evan. "She hasn't even gone to dinner; she's been in her office the whole time. Don't be so nervous; no one has betrayed us, she won't know what we're planning. Ah, they're coming. Let's go in. Harry knows how to access the Room of Requirement; they'll come in on their own."
A group of people climbed up to the seventh floor, each looking particularly tense, with restrained excitement tinged with a hint of unease.
They only relaxed when they saw Evan and Hermione.
"You two look fresh and dry; it's really enviable," said George, his newly changed clothes were also damp. "I'm almost a soaked chicken!"
"And there's something worse," said Fred, clutching his own butt.
"You practiced in this weather?" Michael exclaimed, looking at Ginny who was also wet.
"Yeah, if you want to win the Quidditch Cup, you need to make some sacrifices, right?" Angelina replied. "I think our training is necessary. No one can guarantee what weather we'll encounter in an official match. If it's raining, we're prepared!”
"Please, I don't want to talk about Quidditch training. Evan, where’s the secret room you mentioned?"
Everyone looked around curiously, especially the students from Hufflepuff, as it was rare for them to come to the seventh floor of the castle. After all, apart from the Headmaster's office, there were no other classrooms here. Many people held a reverent attitude toward the Headmaster and generally wouldn't come to seek him out.
Dumbledore had no specific teaching tasks, and most students might only see him twice a term, at the beginning and end-of-term banquets.
"Come on, right over there!"
Evan and Hermione led them along the corridor and came to an enormous tapestry depicting Barnabas the Barmy’s foolish attempt to train trolls for the ballet. On the opposite side of the tapestry was a stretch of blank wall, where a moth-eaten troll paused in his relentless clubbing of the would-be ballet teacher to watch.
"Here we are!" said Evan. "This is the Room of Requirement. We have to walk past this bit of wall three times, concentrating hard on what we need. Remember, we now need a room to learn magic and practice fighting."
Ever since his first year, Evan had been using the Room of Requirement as a place to brew potions.
The room was magical; whatever he needed, it could transform into an appropriate room, fully stocked with everything he required. Even not long ago, when he needed a workshop to make broomsticks, it conjured one up, complete with various tools.
Evan had conducted research on the Room of Requirement and asked professors, but the conclusion was that the magic involved in this room was currently beyond anyone's capability. As for who left it and how it came to be, that remained a mystery.
Besides the secret treasures left by the Four Founders, this room might be Hogwarts' biggest secret.
Everyone followed Evan, turning sharply at the window just beyond the blank stretch of wall, then at the man-size vase on its other side.
"We need somewhere to learn to fight... Just give us a place to practice … somewhere they can’t find us …"
These thoughts seemed to be received by this stretch of wall. As they wheeled around after their third walk past, a highly polished door appeared.
"Alright, let's go!" Evan said, opening the door and leading the way into a spacious room.
The inside was completely built with large blue rocks and lit with flickering torches like those that illuminated the dungeons.
The walls were lined with wooden bookcases, and instead of chairs there were large silk cushions on the floor.
A set of shelves at the far end of the room carried a range of instruments used by Aurors such as Sneakoscopes, Secrecy Sensors, and a large, cracked Foe Glass that was definitely the one that had hung, the previous year, in the fake Moody’s office.
After Mad-Eye Moody came back, the Foe Glass was thrown away, and no one knew how it ended up here.
"This place is amazing!”
"Yeah, there’s everything we need!"
"There's even food, fantastic!" said Fred. "Hmm, it's still hot. Can we eat these things?"
"I think it should be fine," said Evan. "Someone among you must have been thinking about food just now, and that's why these cakes and hot drinks appeared. This room can fulfill needs to the best of its ability, that's why it's called the Room of Requirement."
"It's me; I didn't eat enough in the Great Hall just now," said George, picking up a piece of cake and stuffing it into his mouth.
"Look at these books!" said Hermione excitedly, running a finger along the spines of the large leather-bound tomes. "I was just thinking about adding some fighting books, and they appeared. I can see some that aren't even in the library- A Compendium of Common Curses and Their Counter-Actions … The Dark Arts Outsmarted … Self-Defensive Spellwork …."
She looked around at Evan, her face glowing, and the presence of hundreds of books made Hermione forget all her worries.
“This is wonderful, there’s everything we need here!"
And without further ado she slid Jinxes for the Jinxed from its shelf, sank onto the nearest cushion, and began to read.
