Chapter 53. Room of Requirement. Part 1. Discovery
Slowly but surely, the eve of All Hallows' Day was approaching, Halloween, a strange holiday celebrated both in the Muggle world and in the magical one. For the occasion, houses were decorated with all sorts of holiday symbols: pumpkins carved with eyes and terrifying grins, with candles placed inside to make lanterns, decorative skulls and bats, and people dressed up in costumes of various monsters, wizards, and witches, then went door to door asking for sweets.
And, of course, such a holiday did not escape the walls of Hogwarts either. Though the general mood was not exactly festive, especially because of events happening outside the school, the Headmaster and the teachers did not pass it by. It was a kind of professional holiday for wizards, so they still decided to hold it, to dispel the unpleasant atmosphere a little.
The Great Hall was decorated in the best Halloween traditions. In every corner, pumpkins lay and hung, and candles appeared here and there, magically floating in the air. The house-elves helped very actively with the preparations, keeping themselves out of sight, and the ghosts were a bit excited about the upcoming event and could not find their place. Very often they could be seen studying pumpkins somewhere in the castle and discussing something amongst themselves.
The sky on the ceiling of the Great Hall, which used to be dark and filled with bright stars in the evening and show the sun from morning to afternoon, had acquired dark clouds with flashes of lightning. The teachers and the Headmaster tried their best to give the children a festive mood, to distract them a little from what was happening in Magical Britain.
Severus, meanwhile, sat in his quarters over books and continued studying everything he could about the founders, as well as plants and monsters, not skipping even fairy tales and legends. After all, in such fiction there was almost always a grain of truth, however insignificant.
He did not forget about Nagini either, but in two months, out of three unknown plants, he had managed to find only one, and that only by accident while reading a book by a certain Fredja Brew about his travels. After contacting him, Severus learned that this ingredient grew deep in the Amazon jungles. The man had stumbled upon it when he was running from a swamp monster, and it caught his attention with its beauty and pleasant smell. That confirmed the traveler's words, since the plant possessed the same properties as the one from Alan's world, and the external description matched completely.
Of course, Severus offered the man money to go back and retrieve the plant, but the writer refused, recommending that he not go there either, since the place was very dangerous, and finding one plant in the huge jungle was an extremely nontrivial task.
Severus, of course, did not plan to abandon school and travel to the other end of the world for that ingredient, but he still noted the place for himself, and if he did not find another source, he would most likely have to go there.
In addition, while scouring the library, he found mention of a wizard, the greatest alchemist living in France, who was currently six hundred forty-six years old. Though Severus had heard the name before, he had never been interested in him, but now he still decided to study his biography and learned about a strange, yet quite interesting object: the Philosopher's Stone, capable of granting a person eternal life. He cared little about that; he was more interested in the knowledge accumulated over that time. So, after talking with Nagini, they decided to postpone her transformation a bit until he finished Hogwarts, and then, together, they would travel to France and ask the old man about the plants needed for the potion.
Besides the potion, Severus also paid attention to the door he had found on the eighth floor. He had not stopped investigating it and had almost figured out the method of opening it. There remained only a small piece of runes, one rune consisting of a hundred others, and because of its inconvenient location near the Headmaster's office he could not linger there for long, so the decryption took quite a lot of time, right up to the twenty-ninth of October.
But from what he had managed to decipher, he finally more or less understood how exactly the door opened. He just needed to think about something he really needed and walk past the door three times, then it would open. But Severus had already tried this, and everything had been unsuccessful, so he assumed that in that inscription there was something else that needed to be done to open it, maybe some word or gesture.
Tonight he was once again planning to visit the old door and decipher the last piece of runes.
Closer to evening, leaving the library, Severus headed toward the dungeons to Professor Slughorn for extra Potions lessons.
He was already beginning to enjoy those lessons, since there he could really learn something new for himself, as with Runes, which he attended with pleasure.
As for Transfiguration, he hardly listened to the elderly professor. Everything she told them was already known to him, and if he wanted to, he could teach her himself, since these two months of Transfiguration could easily fit into two lessons.
McGonagall did not make masters out of students, but only taught the basics, not delving too deeply into her subject. She understood that only a few among the children truly wanted to learn, so she tried to drill into their heads only the material that could eventually be useful in life.
He hardly attended the other subjects, except for Runes, Herbology, and Charms.
He studied Charms to better know what the wizards of this world were capable of, Herbology mainly to compare plants from his world and this one, and Runes to understand how the local artifacts and the spells built on their basis worked. And what was most interesting, the elderly Runes professor did not simplify the material but presented it in full, so Severus hardly had to delve into this subject himself and waste his time searching for worthy literature in the library.
Going down to the dungeons, he heard a familiar voice that pulled him out of his thoughts. Stopping, he looked toward it and saw Regulus, looking a bit nervous, which slightly surprised him.
"I knew I would meet you here."
"Hm? What is it? We agreed to chat on the weekend, and right now I have lessons with Professor Slughorn. Or is it something urgent?"
"It is. my family is throwing a banquet in honor of the approaching holiday."
"I understand what you are getting at." Severus raised a hand and stopped Regulus mid-sentence as he finally descended the stairs. "But it will not work. If your grandmother sees me there, she will definitely have a heart attack." He winked with a smile as he walked past and patted him on the shoulder. "But thanks for the invitation."
"Wait!"
"What now?" Severus looked at him, puzzled.
"It will be a masquerade ball, and no one will recognize you if you wear a suitable costume!"
Stroking his chin thoughtfully, Severus shook his head a few seconds later.
"Sorry, but I cannot. I have too many things to do." Severus said regretfully, noticing Regulus's sad expression. "And if they do recognize me, you will be the one in trouble, and I do not want to set you up. You worked too long to earn your family's recognition."
"That is not true," Regulus began in a firm voice, looking Severus in the eye with determination. "After these two months you opened my eyes to many things, and though in places it was quite harsh, I realized that to become a worthy head of the family, I must think first of all with my own head, and I am sure that if I establish good relations with you, it will be the right decision."
"You are quite straightforward. but I am glad my lessons did not go to waste. Now all that remains is to knock the foolish prejudices about blood purity out of your head, and you will become a normal wizard. And do not look at me like that, you yourself must understand there are no differences between ordinary Muggle-born wizards, half-bloods, and pure-bloods. The example stands before you, and I can also name a huge number of Muggle-born wizards who are much stronger than pure-bloods. But all right, I will not bore you with my sermons." Seeing Regulus's sour expression, Severus waved dismissively, heading toward the Head of House's office. "I will come, thanks for the invitation." He waved the white envelope, surprising Regulus, who quickly checked the inner pocket of his jacket and then smiled crookedly.
"Severus, are you sure you are not a thief?"
"Who knows."
The lessons with Slughorn went in the usual manner, and after them Severus almost immediately headed to the eighth floor and continued deciphering the runes until one in the morning.
And finally, when he finished, Severus could not hold back a crooked smirk.
"And everything turned out to be so simple."
"What is it?" Nagini asked in bewilderment, seeing Severus's disappointed look.
"You will see for yourself now." He put the notebook in his money bag and raised his eyes to the blank wall. "I would like to see all possible literature on Legilimency." With that thought, Severus walked past the wall, then once more, and when he did it for the third time, steel three-meter double doors with patterns materialized before him. "To make them appear, you need to think about what you really need and walk past the wall three times. it is all so simple, and I had imagined so much."
"Indeed. A strange method to hide this room. Anyone could have made it appear by accident. But what is in it?" Nagini asked with terrible interest.
"Logically, I think it is exactly what I was thinking about when I walked past it three times, but I should still make sure. Ladies first." Nagini looked at Severus, then at her tail, and back at him.
"I am going to bite you now."
"I am just joking. But when you become human again, I would not mind that." He paid no attention to the bared fangs and unfriendly look and, grabbing the handle, opened the right door.
Before him appeared shelves, a huge number of wooden shelves that went on endlessly, and all of them were filled with books on only one topic: Legilimency. And on that day Severus understood: he had found his new abode, and Nagini realized she would not get him back. He was lost to her for the coming years, and perhaps decades.
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