The Secret Room

[Dakota Cinellison]

The corridors were quiet and most of the students, were down in the Great Hall. Dakota, on the other hand, was on the sixth floor corridor, worrying about her exams. "I've failed them, I've failed them.." She breathed to herself, pacing back and forth in front of a blank stretch of wall, "I'm never going to become anything good, now.. The Ministry wont want to take me and.." She had to pause to catch her breath. "I just need somewhere to chill out, and I'll be fine." Exams were the only thing that worried Dakota. All else, was a breeze. And a breeze, was exactly what caught Dakota's attention.

She had paced back and forth, wishing for a place where she could just go to relax, to allow herself some time to have fun. Had it not been for that sudden breeze, curling around her ankle and passing by, the Ravenclaw would never have looked up to see that door. Dakota turned slowly, staring, long and hard. "What.." She whispered, the memory of that story a girl had recounted, in her first year, came back to her: "There's a room on the seventh floor corridor- The room of requirement. My friend managed to find it, once, but it's stopped appearing. No-one knows where it is, now, but I heard that it was still in the castle, somewhere."

The words echoed through her mind. Dakota was shocked.. But not enough to stop her from stepping towards the door and placing a hand on the knob. She turned it, slowly. A satisfying click, resounded, and Dakota went to push it open. As it began to creak, however, she heard footsteps behind her, and froze in position.

 

[Aeon Summers]

Aeon rushed through the corridor, trying his best not to drop the books clutched in his arms. Where the heck did that puffskein go? He thought in an annoyed way. His pet, Deo, had run off while he was about to leave his common room, or rather, it had bounded off with the way it bounced along. He's probably heading for the Kitchens again. He took the stairs down to the Sixth Floor and ran along the corridor, passing classrooms on his way. In the distance, he saw a small ball of custard coloured fur hopping along. "There he is." Aeon murmured with a relieved sigh, then quickly picked up his pace before he lost his pet again. But strangely, Deo wasn't moving anymore. He sat just behind a girl who looked roughly the same age as his master. As Aeon got close, a door appeared in the wall, and he stopped dead in his tracks. What the...? He crept closer, just as the girl opened the magical door, and noticed Deo shoot into the gap. This must be..but surely it can't be? His mouth opened as he realized what the door actually was. "You found it." He said simply, walking up next to the girl and flinging the doors open. "The Room of Requirement."

 

[Dakota Cinellison]

Dakota had seen a flash of fur, whizzing past her, but she had taken no real notice of it, still being in shock. She heard a voice, and vaguely recognized the boy from her year. She didn't complain when he dived forward to fling the doors open, yet, she was still the one who stepped inside, first: The room was about the same size as one of the larger classrooms, and it was filled with books, a wizarding music player, lots of cushions and a load of rubber balloons. Dakota blinked as she walked over the shelves, and noticed that none of the books were study ones, but ones that could be read for relaxation. That was something Dakota had not had the time to do.

She walked to the music player, and carefully, set some music to play. The room seemed to spring to life as some gentle rock music, started up. All the balloons, floated upwards and the cushions levitated, dancing about in private circles. It seemed that everything was enchanted, and Dakota was soon surrounded by the floating cushions. "I.. What..?" Dakota frowned, at first, but the music seemed to get to her, too, and she found herself just smiling, giggling even at the oddness of the situation. "Come on!" She called to the boy, "grab a cushion and have a dance!" She took plucked one from the air; it didn't stop dancing, and Dakota began twirling around with it.

If someone had seen her now, they wouldn't have known that only moments ago, she had been plagued by the thought of failing her O.W.Ls. They would have also, most probably, have thought her, quite mad.

 

[Aeon Summers]

Aeon stepped slowly into the room after the girl, looking around in utter amazement. "This is so cool!" He said, clasping his hands together. Deo, he noticed, was sitting on one of the large cushions, humming in a pleased way. Aeon smiled and shook his head, then closed the door behind him, remaining only just inside the room. On the outside, the door instantly shrunk down and disappeared into the wall. He moved away from the door and ran his fingers along a shelf, selecting a book at random and opening it to the first page. Pretty relaxing sort of book. Not of my interest, though. He thought, placing it back in the shelf.

Aeon was about to choose another book when music suddenly came on, causing him to jump in surprise. He spun around, just as the ballons and cushions floated upwards, dancing around in the air. Deo was clinging to the one he'd been sitting on, spinning around weightlessly. With a laugh, the Gryffindor boy bounced in time to the music, until the girl invited him over to dance. He moved to the middle of the room and took hold of a cushion, dancing around with it as the music played. "Woo!" He threw his head back and laughed loudly, then spun closer to the girl. "So, what's your name?" He asked over the sound. She'd let him in to the secret Room of Requirement, so he might as well know who she was.

 

[Dakota Cinellison]

"I'm Dakota," she announced back in reply, beaming with happiness, her eyes briefly drifting over to the ball of fluff, spinning around on one of the cushions. She outstretched one of her hands in a form of greeting, almost completely losing the cushion as it danced with the power of an elephant's trunk. The music seemed to slow down, a little bit, and the volume dropped, slightly. Dakota could almost hear herself think.

She had a funny feeling that this boy was one of the prefects chosen for that year. Momentarily, Dakota's mood seemed to drop, her thoughts switching between work that she needed to do, all the study hours she had to make up, and her O.W.Ls which she surely would fail at. A brief anxiety attack, swooped her breath away, but she paused to let herself breath, to chill out. She had, after all, found this legendary room.. Surely, this was some achievement? Dakota began to wonder about her future, about whether her desire to have a 'top job', was really the most important thing in the world. There were still undiscovered animals and plants, probably some more hidden worlds. She smiled to herself, thankful that her panic had only showed internally, and it was at that moment, that Dakota decided she would become an explorer.

 

[Aeon Summers]

"Pleasure to meet you, Dakota. My names Aeon, I'm one of the Gryffindor Prefects." The boy returned the greeting and spun off from his dancing cushion as the music lowered slightly, instead dancing in the middle of a ring of floating balloons which bobbed anti-clockwise around him. "I wonder if the room's sound proof? I sure hope so." Aeon's robes whipped around him as he danced and he brought his hands up into the air above him, the balloons flying outwards and back in again, switching from anti-clockwise to clockwise while he turned in the opposite direction.

"I have to thank you. I'd have probably graduated and left without knowing where this room was if it weren't for you. Who would've thought it would be on this floor?" He smiled at Dakota, showing all of his teeth, then asked, "How did you find it anyway? I'd love to come back again." Aeon hoped she would tell him, otherwise he might not be able to get back inside the room. Though now that he knew where it was, nothing would stop him from trying. The Room of Requirement was an amazing place, and from what he'd heard, there were heaps of cool things it could do.

 

[Dakota Cinellison]

Dakota suspected that the room probably was sound proof. Well, as it provided for their needs- or rather more specifically, Dakota's- surely it would make the room undetectable by others while they were in there? Perhaps, in the future, Dakota would come here to study, perhaps not. She was trying to make an educated guess at how many people had found the room since its change in location. She hadn't realised that her eyes were still on Aeon, almost staring at him. She refocussed as he thanked her, and she found herself looking at mouth, at his near-perfect teeth. Well, to her they were some of the loveliest teeth she'd ever seen. It was only once she had thought this through in her head, that she realised how creepy it was, and blushed slightly.

"Oh," Dakota said, knowing that she really ought to tell Aeon about how to get back in.. Well, it was only fair that he receive another chance to gain access, wasn't it? "I.. I.." Dakota paused, releasing her cushion entirely, blinking as she tried to think. What had she done to find the room? Well, she'd got stressed.. Was that it? Her brilliant mind was failing her. And then, like lightning, it all came back to her. "I walked." She said, before deciding that this needed more of an explanation. "I was on the sixth floor corridor.. I was worried about my exams and I was pacing back and forth, really stressing and thinking how I just needed to relax and then.." Dakota gave a slight laugh of disbelief. "The door just appeared." She beamed, the reality of her discovery, just dawning on her.