Chapter 22: The House of Accomplishment

Albert woke up to complete darkness in the dormitory, with the faint sound of rain coming from outside the window. The rain from last night was still ongoing.

Sitting up in bed, Albert stifled a yawn. He blamed the strange dream he had last night for feeling so tired upon waking up.

Furthermore, he had woken up too early; the three other roommates were still sound asleep.

Albert reached out to the bedside table and picked up his wand, which was resting in the corner. He softly incanted, "Lumos."

The tip of the wand emitted a pale light as he brought it closer to his mechanical pocket watch to check the time: 5:40 AM.

Indeed, he had woken up too early.

Albert extinguished the light on his wand and settled back into bed, allowing his pocket watch to slip from his hand onto the sheets.

It was a gift from Luke to celebrate receiving his invitation letter to Hogwarts.

Since he was awake, Albert had no intention of going back to sleep. He sat up again, stretching lazily, and pushed aside the covers as he got out of bed, walking over to the window. He unlatched the wooden shutters and opened the window, peering outside.

A gust of cold wind blew in, causing Albert to shiver and instantly clear his head.

The rain was not heavy, and darkness enveloped the entire castle beneath a hazy curtain of rain.

"A great adventure," Albert lightly patted his cheek, murmuring to himself.

Closing the window, Albert returned to the side of his bed. He retrieved his robe from the trunk and picked up his pocket watch and wand from the bedside, tucking them into his pockets. Before leaving the dormitory, he paused and tossed his recently changed clothes into the laundry basket in the bathroom. The house-elf would use magic to clean the clothes and place them back on his bed.

Speaking of which, Hogwarts students actually lived quite comfortably. Many things did not require students to rack their brains; they just needed to focus on studying magic.

The common room was quiet, with only a female ghost sitting on the sofa, engrossed in her book. She heard the footsteps, glanced up at Albert, and then continued to lower her head, flipping through her own pages.

Albert didn't disturb the Lady Ghost, even though he wanted to chat with her. He gave up in the end because he disliked being interrupted when he was reading.

Albert didn't linger in the common room. He planned to explore various parts of the castle and search for the legendary Room of Requirement before everyone else woke up.

Pushing open the door of the common room, Albert bent down to step through the round hole. Fat Lady was still wearing her nightgown, sleepily watching the departing students.

She asked, "Where are you headed?"

"For a walk," Albert replied, looking towards the dimly lit corridor. He raised his wand and continued forward. This time, he decided not to take the same path as last night and explore different areas.

Perhaps due to the rain outside, the corridors felt chilly and damp, resembling a sinister castle from a horror film. It felt like a ghost could emerge from the walls at any moment, terrifying people half to death.

In fact, Hogwarts Castle did have ghosts, and quite a few of them. Even if a ghost were to appear from a wall right now, it wouldn't be considered unusual.

Just as he turned a corner, Albert spotted the staircase he had taken last night. However, this time he didn't descend but kept moving forward.

After turning another corridor, Albert noticed a large vase ahead. He glanced left and right, and to his surprise, he found the tapestry of the giant wearing a ballet skirt.

"Looks like luck is on my side."

Albert quickened his pace and reached the tapestry. He raised his wand, using its light to examine this bizarre artwork before him, which could only be described as hard to look at directly.

On the tapestry, a group of giants wearing ballet skirts held wooden or bone clubs, striking various provocative poses. One ballet instructor attempted to teach the giants to dance but was harshly beaten by one of them using a bone club.

While Albert observed the tapestry, the giants ceased their beating and turned to stare at him as if asking, "What are you looking at?"

If Albert had a camera with him, he would definitely capture this comical scene.

However, the main objective now was to find the Room of Requirement, which was on the opposite side of this tapestry.

Albert stepped aside, turning to face the white wall. Then he looked back at the tapestry, raised his right hand, and made a knocking motion towards the giants.

The toothy giant actually imitated him, raising its bone club and striking the poor ballet instructor.

It was a scene that was truly heartbreaking and tear-inducing.

Albert burst into laughter, walked towards the white wall, and reached out to touch it. It was a very solid stone wall, without any sign of the Room of Requirement.

To enter the Room of Requirement, one had to pass through this wall three times while concentrating on what they needed.

"Pass through?" Albert raised his wand, and a pale light illuminated one end of the white wall, revealing a window. When he turned around, he saw the tall vase again.

So, it's actually about walking through three times?

"A place to practice magic, a place to practice magic..." Albert focused his attention, walked to the window at one end of the white wall, turned around, and retraced his steps to the vase at the other end.

He whispered to himself, and on the third turn, the wall changed.

Countless patterns emerged from the white wall, gradually forming a smooth door.

Albert was in a good mood because he knew he had succeeded. He grabbed the brass handle, opened the door, and walked inside. It was a spacious room with torches lit around the walls, resembling a classroom.

There were many wooden bookshelves along the walls, with hundreds of books on them. Albert suspected that these books had been moved from the library. On the other side, there were some puppets used for practicing magic.

"Fantastic," Albert murmured softly. With these books, he wouldn't need to go to the library to find them specifically.

However, when using this place, he needed to be careful not to be discovered. After all, a sudden appearance of a door on the wall would easily attract attention.

Albert didn't linger and turned to leave the Room of Requirement. He planned to consider how to use this place discreetly.

To keep it a secret, he needed the Disillusionment Charm and the Marauder's Map.

He should be able to find the Disillusionment Charm among the books he just found, but obtaining the Marauder's Map from Filch wouldn't be easy.

Create one himself?

He didn't have that ability right now.

Oh well, he would take it slow. After all, he would be staying here for another seven years.

After Albert left, the door of the Room of Requirement slowly disappeared, once again becoming an ordinary white wall. There were only a few people in the school who knew about this magical room.

(End of this chapter)