Chapter 17 : Enter! Room of Requirement part 2

October 15. 1990

Antares POV

I highly overestimated the local spy network and security. My plans and preparations were gone the moment I noticed the portraits are asleep.

And I ask you, why the hell are the portraits sleeping?!

They are portraits for Merlin's sake! They don't need to eat, drink or shit to function! So why in The Nine Hells are they asleep?!

Tomorrow I'm going to the library and I'm not leaving from there until I find my answers. I could ask the portraits if they know. But library will always be my first option for many reasons.

One of them is, how would I go asking the portraits about why are they asleep at night? They would ask how did I know they were asleep? I could answer that I either saw some portraits asleep at our manor, which I didn't, and they would then ask me why I didn't question our portraits and I could only say that I forgot, or that I saw them asleep on my way to our common room. That would probably be believable lie. But for my safety I'm not asking them anyway.

I'm paranoid, judge me.

So no, not going to the portraits until it's the last resort. Library first.

The other form of security, night patrols, isn't the best either. There are only eight prefects for night patrol and I bet that not all of them are patroling at the same time. The professors probably have times when they doesn't patrol either.

So, here am I, on my way to the seventh floor without any visible obstacles in my way. And the only spell I used so far was a simple Silencio on my boots so I don't make any kind of noise.

'Well, that was anticlimactic' I thought as I reached the tapestry. I'm kind of pissed. I was stressing about this for a week and it ends like this. I know I should be grateful, but can you fault a guy for wanting some excitement? So yeah, I'm kinda pissed.

'I need something that will let me be unnoticed'

'I need something that will let me be unnoticed'

'I need something that will let me be unnoticed'

I dutifully think three times and watch as the door appears out of nowhere. Opening the door I walk into a room where in the middle is fairly big pile of items. In the pile are slightly faded silvery pieces of fabric, some old and new books, tattered tomes and few chests.

Deciding to separate everything at first I start levitating the pieces of fabric into one pile following by the books and tomes making the second pile. I didn't bother moving the chests.

I decided to start with the pieces of fabric. Out of the ten pieces only six weren't tattered. I moved the four tattered pieces out of the way and started examining the remaining six. I focused my magic sense on the six pieces and only two of them carried a stronger magical signature then the rest.

When I picked the two pieces up I noticed they're not some pieces of fabric but cloaks. Curious about what the do I tried the one with stronger signature on.

I was pleasantly surprised when my body disappeared and only my head remained visible.

I was delighted that I now owned a Invisibility cloak, and two at that!

I was probably grinning like a loon but that didn't matter!

Invisibility cloaks are very hard to come by. Most invisibility cloaks wear out over time, losing their enchantments and eventually becoming visible. The ones made from a hair of Demiguise usually last noticeably longer that the ones made from basic cloth though.

Putting the Cloaks aside I decided to search through the chests next. I wasn't giving it any chances though. Who knows what's inside.

Once I was within safety distance (read on the other side of the room) and behind a small barricade which was provided by the Room at my request, I casted a simple Alohomora, yes it's possible from a distance, to unlock the chest or confirm it wasn't locked in first place, followed by Cistem Aperio to open it. This process was repeated few times until all the chests were opened.

After a few minutes of nothing attacking me, I hesitantly moved towards the first chest with my wand still aiming at it like it's supposed to come to life and eat me.

Looking inside I noted it was full of murky black and brown potions. It didn't take me long to conclude that they're all expired. I closed all the chests that were containing potions because most of them were either expired and those that weren't, or at least appeared they weren't, were useless to me. I'm not dumb enough to try potion I know nothing about.

The last chest which didn't contain potions was half full of rings.

To my disappointment the rings didn't make one invisible. Instead they enveloped the body with something similar to a second skin.

If my guess is correct then those rings were enchanted with Notice-Me-Not charm.

The ring itself is a nice idea to exploit. I would wear one of those rings if only the effect could be turned off.

That is something worth looking into.

Out of curiosity I cast a quick Tempus that shows that I've been her for at least four hours and that if I want to catch at least bit of a sleep I should leave, now.

Wearing one of the Cloaks, having the second one hidden under my night robes, I casted a Silencio on my boots and the door. Opening the door slightly, just so my head could go through, I check both sides of the corridor. After seeing nobody there I quietly crept out and closed the door.

On my way back to dorms I thankfully haven't encountered anybody and was glad that Ravenclaw doesn't do passwords.

Before I entered my room I casted yet another Silencio on the door, you've got to love that spell, and quickly slipped in.

When I was finally in bed I remembered that I forgot all about the books and tomes.

'Damn it!'