The Room of Requirements

Dashing back to the Slytherin Common Room, Ron hastily rushed to his room, grabbing up his Charms book and the Marauder's Map. Then he rushed back out, much to the bewilderment of his housemates. While Friday afternoons might be off for them, they weren't for Ron. Friday afternoon through Monday morning was money-making time.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Seeing a live map of Hogwarts emerge from a drop of ink, Ron grinned. Brilliant.

But as he looked it over, Ron frowned. As a 2D representation of a 3D space, the map was extremely difficult to follow. The different floors overlapped, and he had to squint to see which room was which.

Moreover, with hundreds of students, not to mention teachers, ghosts, pets and all manner of other creatures, finding a specific person was impossible unless you knew where to look. Also, whatever magic Voldemort used to merge with Quirrel, the map couldn't detect it, only showing 'Quirinus Quirrel' pacing in his office.

Finally, the map only showed the parts of Hogwarts that the Marauders had explored. Unexplored areas like the Chamber of Secrets and Slytherin Common Room were missing, as was his current destination.

Still, the map was useful, and nothing prevented Ron from improving the map when his abilities improved. Planning a route that would avoid most students, he rushed off to the seventh floor. When he arrived, it took a little wandering until he found it, a tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, teaching trolls how to dance.

'I want a room where magical repair can be done.'

Taking three passes at the tapestry, Ron found a door had magically appeared. He had arrived at the Room of Requirement.

Of course, as a Harry Potter fan, he would abuse the hell out of the Room of Requirement. It was literally a sandbox world, where he could create whatever the fuck he wanted without needing to learn obscure transfigurations.

You need a place to study magic? Go to the Room of Requirement. Need a place to hid from Filch? Just go to the Room, baby! Need a secret room to get it on with a girl? Well, it wasn't called the come-and-go room for nothing…

Entering the room, his name disappeared from the Marauder's Map as he entered a workshop that would surely be a tinkerer's wet dream. Magical forges, tools and workbenches lay as far as the eye could see. Forget about repairing, if he could sell this equipment, he could make a tidy sum all by himself. Unfortunately, he couldn't do that.

Picking up a small welding device, Ron left the Room, only for it to vanish into thin air. The items made in the Room could only exist in the magical environment of the Room, like a magical version of the Star Trek Holodeck.

"What a shame." Ron muttered, stepping back into the Room.

Still, the importance of the Room couldn't be understated. There were two things that prevented any random bloke from learning 'Reparo' well and putting Ron's entire business into jeopardy. The first was time, and the other was material.

Most students had time, but as for material, who would be randomly carrying tons of scrap pewter around with them? If you had the space, just buy a spare cauldron for a couple sickles. Even if you had the pewter, you'd need high temperatures to smelt it, otherwise you couldn't repair shit. Fortunately, the Room could do that for him as well.

As for the pewter itself, Ron had an idea…

'I need scrap pewter from the Room of Hidden Things.' He thought with his eyes closed.

When his eyes opened, he broke into a grin, seeing a pile of banged up old Cauldron bits in front of him. Taking them out of the Room, he confirmed they were real.

This was the last piece of the puzzle. The Room of Hidden Things that Malfoy had used to sneak Death Eaters into Hogwarts. Everything in there was real, not a conjuration. It was the collection of everything that had been lost or misplaced in the Room of Requirement over a millennium of Hogwarts students.

Of course, most of the stuff was ancient, and he didn't expect it to be of much use, but it was still excellent raw material. Looking at the scrap pewter he found it excellently preserved by the Room's magic, without so much as a trace of rust. Grinning broadly, Ron set the Marauder's Map down to keep an eye for turban-headed visitors, before starting his work.

After all, even with all this equipment, Hermione's cauldron wouldn't repair itself. Summoning a book on advanced cauldron repair from the Room of Hidden Things, he started working on the cauldron.

First, he needed a cast for the cauldron, provided by the Room. Then he needed to smelt the pewter in the furnace, provided by Room. Finally, he needed to pour in the smelted pewter, using the mending charm to set it in place.

Ron had to admit, it was quite a bit more complicated than he first thought. Without the Room, even Blue-level Mending might be insufficient even to fix a small leak like this. But with it, he was finished in an hour. There was still a noticeable lump on the cauldron, but it wasn't something that would impair functionality.

Then, Ron started working on his other hand-me-downs, like his torn dragon-hide gloves and his damaged Potions equipment. Time flew by as he went hard at work, and soon he found that it was an hour before curfew.

Packing up his newly repaired goods, Ron felt as though he'd 'leveled up' from a poor student to a lower-middle class student. He was still using hand-me-downs, but at least they were all structurally sound now. Well, all except his wand.

Ron looked at the old ash wand, a bit of unicorn hair sticking out the end. He'd tried to summon a wand from the Room of Hidden Things, but his luck had run dry. All the wands left in there were far more damaged than his. After all, a wizard would rarely give up their wand if it was in any condition to be used.

With that in mind, Ron prepared to depart, but wanted to see one more thing. Confirming Quirrel was still in his office, he made three more passes in the corridor.

'I want to enter the Room of Hidden Things.' Ron 'reset' the Room.

It was a long shot, but maybe some of the junk in there was resalable. It wasn't. Ron didn't know what he was expecting as he entered what was in essence, a massive landfill. Broken trunks, banged-up cauldrons, battered books…

The only things in decent condition were older than Aunt Muriel. Brooms from the 1800s, books from the 1750s… Sure, he could probably fix some of these up and sell them, but he'd barely be getting a few sickles per sale and if he sold too many, it might garner attention.

Ron was disappointed, but it wasn't like he was surprised. He wasn't the first broke-ass loser to come here. Tom Riddle had probably emptied the Room of anything valuable 50 years ago, when he first found it, to raise funds for his army.

If he dug deep, he might find some rare antiques, but Ron had neither the knowledge to identify them nor the confidence to sell them. Once or twice might be okay, but if he started selling huge quantities of mysterious artifacts, someone would definitely catch on.

The only things in here with any obvious value were things Ron wouldn't dare sell, including a glittery crown on a bust of a pockmarked wizard. This was Ravenclaw's Diadem, said to improve the wisdom of the user. But now, it was a horcrux.

Of course, he wouldn't be thick enough to try it on. The Ring had cursed off Dumbledore's entire arm and he was fucking Dumbledore! If the Diadem had a curse that was even half, no a quarter as powerful, Ron's entire head would explode.

No sir. Shaking his head, Ron looked around for a bit, before finally finding something he could use.

A large, battered cabinet, big enough for a couple people to fit inside. The Vanishing cabinet. The first thing Ron did was to move it to more hidden place, terrified Peeves would destroy it like in canon. If he could buy the other from Borgin and Burkes, he could come to Hogwarts whenever he wanted, even during summer.

But that was far beyond his current means. He was still scrounging for Sickles, while the items in Borgin and Burkes were measured by the Galleon. Leaving the room, Ron headed back to the Common Room, planning on revisiting it tomorrow.

As he left, Ron swung by the library, on the off-chance Hermione was there. She was, berating Neville as he struggled to recite the formula for the cure for boils.

"After, Neville! After! You put in the porcupine quills AFTER the fire is turned off! Not at the same time, not before, AFTER!" Hermione repeated.

"Err, sorry…" Neville said awkwardly.

"So, what's the fifth step again?"

"You turn off the fire AFTER you put in the porcupine quills."

Hermione smacked her forehead.

"Seems like fun, how's about I join in?" Ron called out.

"What do you want, Ronald? Aren't you meant to be off creating pewter from thin air?" Hermione huffed angrily.

"Already done it." Ron said, slapping the cauldron down on the table with a grin.

Hermione's expression shifted as she heard this. Standing up, she looked into the familiar cauldron, finding it had been completely repaired. If not for the slight lump where the hole used to be, she'd have thought Ron had switched it out for another cauldron.

"How did you do that?" She whispered in surprise.

"Magic."

"It isn't conjured pewter, is it?" Hermione asked sceptically. "Because conjurations have a time limit and-"

"Relax, conjurations are O.W.L. level and I'm not quite that advanced. I just found some spare pewter." Ron dismissed her concerns.

"Where?" Hermione questioned.

"Do you want me to give away trade secrets for free?"

"Trade secrets?" Neville piped in curiously.

"Of course! I plan on making a business out of this! Ron's Rapid Repairs! Give me a cauldron, book or robes, and I'll mend them right up for you, at a quarter the cost of getting a new one!" Ron advertised with a grin.

"But how'll you have time for studying, then? Surely your marks will fall behind." Hermione jumped in.

"No need to worry about that. Just tell others about me, and I'll figure out the rest." Ron said with a smile, leaving the duo to their studying.

He could see that Hermione still had a dozen questions, but he had no intention of answering them.

Time was money, and it was time to make some money.