Room of Requirement

As it turned out, the invisibility cloak was to be useful for more than wandering around the castle aimlessly.

Now, in Harry's opinion, wandering around the castle aimlessly was plenty productive – after all, there was so much to explore – but Tom insisted on highlighting its more practical benefits. For example, it allowed Harry to easily access Tom's Christmas gift. That's right, Tom gave him a Christmas gift. It was called the Room of Requirement.

Show me the place where everything's hidden

Show me the place where everything's hidden

Show me the place where everything's hidden

Harry had been awed by the sight of it; it was vast, enormous, and filled with clutter.

The room itself was the size of one of those old, ornate cathedrals he'd never been into, and it stretched out before him like a miniature city, built from hundreds of years worth of abandoned trinkets and treasures. Narrow paths wove between treacherously stacked piles of old furniture and massive piles of books, some stretching on and on, meandering through the labyrinth of hidden things, and others coming up short before a wall of wood, stone, parchment, and dust. Hidden in cracks and crevices were chipped bottles of treacherous-looking substances, funny old hats, dulled jewels, dusty cloaks, cracked shells, and other random items he didn't expect to find. He also found dangerous objects like rusting swords, daggers, and shields, and even more foreboding items like a thick, heavy, blood-stained axe. And then there were things that were just plain odd, like the enormous stuffed troll he found cowering in a rickety old wardrobe, and something in a cage that had long-since died, its skeleton having not two, not four, but five legs. He thought he would have rather liked to have met whatever had died in that cage, as it would probably be very educational to ask it how exactly it managed to walk with 5 legs.

Harry was convinced that was he so inclined, he could have spent years in there without getting bored; there were thousands of books to read, cupboards to search, and trinkets to fix. It was a truly fantastic place. Imagine Harry's shock when, after wandering around in there for a few hours, he was informed by Tom of the true nature of the room he was in. It was a room with endless possibilities; the Room of Requirement could be whatever he wanted it to be - all he had to do was pace in front of a wall in the seventh floor corridor, thinking about what he wanted.

A warm fire and hot chocolate

A warm fire and hot chocolate

A warm fire and hot chocolate

Sure enough, he was able to summon a plush, cozy couch in front of a fireplace, complete with a table holding the biggest mug of hot chocolate he'd ever seen...except there'd been no hot chocolate in it. Apparently, the Room of Requirement, or the Come and Go Room, could do just about anything except create food. It made sense, of course, but Harry had to give it a try, much to Tom's annoyance.

However, just about anything else was fair game – so far, he'd summoned an exact replica of his dorm room, a copy of the Slytherin Common Room, a gigantic heated swimming pool, several libraries, and a small forest. To be honest, Harry thought that the Room of Requirement was undoubtedly the most spectacular feat of magic he had yet witnessed - truly, he hadn't even considered that such a thing could be possible; even knowing how incredible magic could be, he would not have guessed that something like the Room of Requirement existed. He was filled with wonderment every time his mind wandered to the Come and Go Room, and he was entranced by its boundless potential and the fact that he had no idea how it worked.

Tom didn't know either. He just said it was a gift from Hogwarts.

And what a gift it was. Now Harry had a place to go when he needed to be on his own, or wanted to practice spells that were...best kept private. It was the perfect gift, and he couldn't thank Tom enough.

However, exploring the Room of the Requirement wasn't the only thing that had occupied his attention of late. Aside from giving him ready access to his Christmas present, the cloak had also allowed Tom and him to further their goal of solving the mystery of the Philosopher's Stone. Or, more specifically, it played a key role in assisting their eliminating of the conundrum that was discerning Professor Quirrell's loyalties.

Tom said there was something called a 'warding spell' that he could perform on the room where Fluffy was chained up. Simply put, the spell would alert him if Professor Quirrell in particular entered the room and opened the trap door. It was not a simple spell, and Tom was quite insistent that he needed to perform it with his own wand. Even then, it would take a couple of hours to properly cast, and would drain Tom of so much energy it would take months for him to recover – indeed, while the ward remained undisturbed, he would need to be constantly feeding it his own magic, because apparently Harry's wasn't quite up to the task.

"Your magic is just about as subtle as a tidal wave. Wards are intricate magical structures, and unfortunately, everything your magic touches tends toward entropy."

Harry'd been nigh heartbroken to hear this, because he really, really wanted to learn this warding thing.

"B-but...no...that can't be - I...I don't know how to deal with this, Tom!"

It had taken several rather pathetic attempts to console him before Tom finally convinced him that a few years of practicing magic with a wand would force his magic to confine itself more readily, allowing him to perform more delicate spells like warding. Suffice it to say, Harry was very relieved, because he didn't know if he could handle hitting a wall so early on in his magical education.

Soon after they'd managed to ward Fluffy's room, students began returning from their holidays, the castle filling itself to the brim once again. Harry was a bit put off by the return of what he could not help but absently think of as 'human clutter' (somewhat less interesting than the clutter in the Room of Requirement), but he was looking forward to seeing his new friends once again.

Naturally, when Hermione and Theo returned, he was eager to show off his new presents. He wasn't quite sure what the protocol for showing off presents was; indeed, he didn't want to seem too smug, or, Merlin forbid, rude. He'd agonized over the matter for about a night before Tom told him to stop sulking and just show them his presents. Apparently, it wasn't a big deal. Harry reluctantly agreed.

....

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