Finding the Room

Danil spent the next hour finding different maps and using his bone dart to find the library. At first it was a map of Britain, then Scotland, and after he realized that the bone pointed him to the location of Hogwarts, Danil almost burst into tears.

Most recently, he had the most complete map of Hogwarts in the world in his hands and now he couldn't even use it! How was that fair?! Who knows when he'll be able to get another map–

"Oh, it's right here." He muttered, seeing something that resembled blueprints of a castle.

It was strange. He could find all the maps he wished to use with little effort, that was surprising, considering just how much stuff there was at the table. Danil had already begun to suspect that either the table or the cards themselves were enchanted in some form. If he could copy that enchantment, his life would certainly become easier.

Looking around, Danil lingered his gaze on his new acquaintances. The fact that none of them considered him to be an inferiour, stupid creature that could never be compared to humans was a huge advantage. He wasn't sure if he could've pulled away and not wrung the neck of some bigot. 

Not that he had the right to say anything, especially after his thoughts about Acromantulas.

But even so, with the appearance of new acquaintances, he still felt safe. It was obvious that Professor Trelawney, although she forgot to mention his existence, was sure that her students would be quite understanding of his situation. 

Speaking of other students...

"What are you doing?" A quiet question sounded right next to his ear, making the monster boy flinch in surprise.

"Do not do that." He spoke quickly and turned around to see who exactly prevented him from working. To his surprise, it was Parvati, a girl of Indian origin who was in her third year at Gryffindor.

"Sorry-sorry!" She waved her hands in front of her, hiding the smile that threatened to appear on her face. "I can never stop myself from scaring anyone. But I really am interested, what are you doing?"

Having calmed down a bit, Danil returned to the map of Hogwarts. This was one of the older pieces in the collection, as evidenced simply by how yellowed the parchment was. The ink had long since lost its color, but the drawing was still readable.

"I'm looking for hidden things at Hogwarts." He half lied, "passages, rooms, abandoned labs, things like that."

Parvati blinked; her eyebrows raised in surprise. "Really? I thought finding things like that was an extremely difficult and delicate process. It's hard to imagine that you found something worthwhile just by sending darts to the map." She said doubtfully.

But Daniel just shrugged. "It is what it is. I have no idea how other people use divination to look for things, but I won't let their delusions interrupt my magic."

Once upon a time, his sister began another lecture on magic in the world of Harry Potter and Danil served as her only spectator. She ranted and raved that, logically, the magic that Rowling showed in her book shouldn't work according to the laws that the woman wrote.

Danil didn't understand exactly how magic worked in his new world, but he knew one thing. Although he could feel the presence of the various wards both at Hogwarts and elsewhere, most wards couldn't detect him. The only reason Hogwarts's defenses – and through them the Marauder's Map – could detect his presence, was because Arwen had helped upgrade the castle's defenses in the past.

This meant that the wizards' main defense was useless in front of him, just as it was useless in front of his search spells.

"Here. Let me show you." Danil cleared his throat and lifted the bone into the air again with his magic. "In the name of the victor, I command: show me the hidden passages in Hogwarts Castle."

The bone dart shuddered in the air, completely covered in purple particles. For a couple of seconds, he only trembled, making Danil think that he had done something wrong.

Parvati frowned as she saw that nothing had happened. "... What did you-" Whatever she wanted to say was lost in the sound of the bone exploding and her cry of surprise.

Shards of the bone scattered across the map, piercing the parchment and leaving holes in their wake. The girl and the monster boy looked at each other and immediately leaned over the map to look at the result.

"Hey, I know this passage!" Parvati pointed to one of the small shards that caught her eye. "And this one too! To get inside, you have to pet the statue of a hamster hidden behind a pillar!"

"Hamster?" Daniel muttered in confusion.

"Wow, I didn't think it would work." The girl confessed. "There are passages here that I see for the first time! Padma would be across the moon if she saw this map."

Danil had no idea who Padma was, but he agreed, anyone would be happy to see such a card. The sheer number of secrets in the castle was mind boggling, as if every year, the Headmasters added more secret passages because they couldn't find the old ones.

Taking out another skeletal phalanx, the monster boy began sharpening it again. He doubted he could do anything with the smaller pieces stuck in the map.

He finished quickly, once again holding the new bone dart in his hand. This time he knew what he had to do.

"In the name of the victor, I command: find what was hidden from my eyes. Show me the way to the library of Rowenna Ravenclaw." Danil repeated and followed the darts with his eyes.

This time, it did not rush towards its target with incredible speed. This bone dart slowly left the boy's hand and gently flew towards the map, stopping somewhere on the seventh floor. The monster boy has never been there.

"This bone is much calmer than the previous one." Parvati commented while looking at the spinning bone with interest. It didn't even stick into the parchment of the map, just hovering over it. "I knew that living components could have their own character, but I never saw it with my own eyes."

Danil mumbled in response. "Interesting. Excuse me Parvati, I need to speak to Professor Trelawney." The girl nodded and walked away towards Lavender.

Rising from his chair, he collected the pieces of the exploded bone from the map and put the new bone in his pocket. He preferred a calm instrument that didn't need to be filled with magic to the brim for it to work.

Pulling out a pencil, he marked the spot where the bone dart had pointed and rolled up the map.

"Professor Trelawney?" He asked and the woman looked up from the book that lay on her desk. "Can I borrow this map for a while? I think I know a couple of people who would like to see it."

Trelawny raised an eyebrow at the map in his hand. "You found a clue already? Maybe I underestimated your connection to bone magic. A huge downside to the way we've determined your Divination predispositions." She said thoughtfully. "Anyway, yes, you can take this map, we have enough of them."

Nodding in gratitude, Danil left the classroom, disappearing into a shower of purple sparks as soon as his foot touched the floor.

"What was that?!" Someone shouted in shock, but no one answered them.

-=-=-=-=-=-

"All I ask is that you consider the possibility. This would be the perfect way to get closer to our neighbors, Albus." A man said to Dumbledore.

The monster boy made a short stop in his room to leave some things and throw the bone fragments into a small plant that stood on his windowsill. Mantis needed a stable home too, after all.

After that, he cast invisibility on himself and teleported straight to Dumbledore's office, only to find him in the middle of a conversation with a plump man in serious robes and a bucket hat in his hands.

"I understand, Cornelius. But I think we should discuss the details later, when Ludo is free." Albus said, expertly hiding the annoyance in his voice.

"Of course, of course. Then I will take my leave." Cornelius spoke quickly and within a minute was standing in the dead fireplace that was in Dumbledore's office. "Ministry of Magic!" He said clearly and threw some kind of powder into the coals.

The fire immediately engulfed the man from head to toe and he disappeared, not even leaving ashes behind.

"Floo travel." Dumbledore explained, turning to Danil. "The most common method of transportation in the country. It is said that the creator was inspired by Phoenix teleportation when he created this system."

Danil cancelled his invisibility and sat down on the chair in which that strange man was sitting minutes ago.

"Looks extremely unsafe." He said. "I want to know what the conversation was about?"

Dumbledore waved his hand, not looking particularly flustered. "Just the Minister wants to shove politics into school, nothing new."

'What sensible person would choose a peasant named Cornelius as their minister?' Daniel thought, but just shook his head.

"So what is the reason for your visit today? Anything I need to know?"

"Yes, actually." Danil put the map on the table and unfolded it on the seventh floor. "A few minutes ago, I found a lead on the location of the Rowenna Ravenclaw library. It's on the grounds of Hogwarts."

Dumbledore leaned over the table and took the map in his hands, his bright eyes immediately finding the mark on the parchment.

"Seventh floor… I think it's the corridor with the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy." The old man stopped for a second, only to twitch after a moment. "Now that I think about it, the solution to this riddle is staring me in the face. Maybe my age is finally catching up to me?"

Seeing Danil's questioning look, the Headmaster began to explain.

"Hogwarts, as you know, is surrounded by dozens and hundreds of secrets upon secrets. This castle is full of the unknown, and even I, in all my time here, couldn't uncover all its mysteries. But one of the secrets that I was able to discover is the Room Of Requirement."

Something stirred in Danil's mind when he heard the name of the room. Maybe his sister also talked about it in her rants?

"It is said that the room has the unique ability to provide or transform itself into anything that a witch or wizard required of it at that moment in time. For a long time, many have speculated that this room was created by Rowena Ravenclaw herself."

"It makes sense that she would have chosen to hide her library there." Danil looked again at the map and the cross he had placed on the parchment.

"Are you saying I marked Room Of Requirement on the map? Not anything else?" There was doubt in his voice.

"Exactly." Dumbledore confirmed. "I think I should assemble a group of professors and lead a small expedition into the Room. I would suggest that you come with us, but..." He trailed off.

"Students' safety is paramount. I understand, Albus. That's why I brought you the map."

After the last visit to the Catacombs, Danil lost his desire to explore potentially dangerous places for a couple of weeks. Even if he used the ground floor as a place to practice his magic against "living" opponents, it didn't make his outings any safer.

The old man smiled and nodded. "Thank you, young Danil. If that's all you wanted to talk about, then you may go."

Without hesitation, Danil said goodbye to the Headmaster and teleported away.

Dumbledore's smile never left his face, and when Fawkes squeaked a question, he smiled even wider.

"We're regaining his trust, Fawkes. Perhaps with the records from this library, we can make changes that will make students feel more at home here than in a cold cage again." He muttered hopefully.

The old worries that had weighed almost impossible on his shoulders were lightened considerably. Perhaps… Perhaps he will see a truly unified Hogwarts in his lifetime.