It was the twenty-third, nearly the end of October. The third meeting of Dumbledore's Army was that night. Harry wasn't as nervous as he had been the first two times. He tried to be the first to arrive at the Room of Requirement, with Ron and Hermione, on those nights they had a D.A. session. Not that there was a lot to do — it took only a few moments' thought to get the room the way he wanted it for that night's spell practice.
Today, he had decided to skive off the late afternoon Astronomy lesson (theoretical only) and hit the Room, instead. And he wanted to think a bit about Cho. She confused him just by looking at him. Why was that? She could make him blush with just a look!
Plus, his dreams had been getting worse lately. Not in subject matter, just more frequent. His scar hurt almost all the time, which sometimes made it difficult to concentrate. The detentions with the Pink Toad hadn't made it any easier. And the anger. He always seemed to be angry. He nearly lost his temper at the slightest provocation — no matter how trivial.
Now his hand ached almost as much as his scar.
Finding someone already there surprised him.
It was Fred, trying, and failing, to look casual as he leaned on the corridor wall just before the intersection to the corridor with the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by trolls in ballerina costumes. He was reading a book — upside down.
"Hello, Fred," Harry said, slowing his steps cautiously. Actually, it didn't matter what he called the twins. If it was actually George, there, he wouldn't admit it. And if it was Fred, then not saying he was George just made it all the more confusing.
However, a Weasley twin lounging in a corridor and apparently doing nothing sent little warning bells off in his mind. As should such a sight for anyone who knew about them — especially so for those who actually did know them!
"Oh." Fred looked disappointed. "Hi, Harry. Didn't think anyone would be interested at this time," he said, then sighed and closed the book.
Harry looked around and tried to spot George. "What're you doing?"
The teen gave Harry a guileless smile, "Oh," he said in an offhand manner, "nothing interesting, just . . . mucking about." He buffed his right-hand's fingernails against his robe.
He didn't fool Harry one bit. He shuddered at what the twins might be doing with the resources of the nearly limitless Room of Requirement.
Fred shoved his book into his rucksack after a quick look. He grinned boisterously. "We'll just do it . . . later, when it won't inconvenience anyone," he said airily.
"Hm," Harry said with narrowed eyes; that worried him even more. He slipped passed Fred and looked down the other corridor. Surprisingly, there wasn't a door in the wall opposite the troll tapestry. Instead, Lee Jordan was pacing back and forth in front of it while George watched, clearly puzzled at what his friend was doing.
Lee was massaging his temples with his thumbs and his face was scrunched up in concentration as he paced.
Apparently, what he wanted was either something the Room couldn't do, or he had only a fuzzy idea of what he wanted. Something too vague for the Room to create.
George looked over at hearing Harry's footsteps. "Oh. Wotcher, Harry," he said.
Harry sighed, exasperated. All he wanted was a little time alone, to think. He smothered the urge to start yelling. It wasn't their fault he was having difficulties. "Hi, George, Lee. What's up?"
"The ceiling," said George.
"The roof," said Fred, behind him.
Harry just blankly stared back and forth between them.
"Nothing bad, honest!" Fred said defensively.
"We just wanted to see what the Room could really do," said George.
"You know, what all it can . . . show us?"
"We were going to return it to the D.A. room when we were done."
"And we made sure no one was anywhere near here, so the secret is safe," finished Fred.
"Ah," Harry said slowly, nodding his head, then shaking it. He still had no idea what they were talking about.
"Come on," said George reprovingly, "Everyone wants to see what it can do."
"You can't say you haven't been tempted, yourself, can you?" Fred added.
Harry shook his head and arched an eyebrow. "Actually, I can say that I haven't. The Room delivered exactly what I needed it to," Harry said. He sighed. "Why would I need anything else?"
The twins shook their heads sadly, synchronized, as usual. It was rather weird.
Fred said, "Oh ye of little imagination."
George clapped his hand on Harry's. "You should broaden your mind a bit."
"We've so far gotten to experience a roller coaster, a water park . . ."
"Who knew water could be so much fun?"
". . . and a room that was all upwards-down and everything."
"And yesterday we made a room with an ice floor and skated inside it, it was pretty cool."
"Not to mention that the Room doesn't seem to have a size limit."
"We managed a broom race in it and never hit the walls!" finished George.
That was quite impressive actually. That would be useful, to be able to fly without fear of the Pink Toad seeing him. Knowing the Room, though, it probably held them still and made the area around them look as if it were moving past rapidly, and that they were far apart. Still, even the semblance of such carefree flying with fear of discovery was distractingly appealing.
"When did you start doing this?" Harry said, a bit annoyed. He didn't mind them learning about the Room and having fun, but if they got caught hanging around this spot, it might blow the whole "keep it a secret" aspect of the D.A. And the more they hung around the corridor, the more likely it was that that would happen.
Fred looked down sheepishly, "Not all that long, really."
"A couple of days, at most . . . two or three," added George.
At Harry's sceptical look, Fred weakly said, "Would you believe five or six?" He looked up hopefully.
Harry rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"Okay, the last two weeks."
"We've been really careful. We put a notice-me-not on the wall when we're inside,"
"And we carefully scout the area before we start."
"We wouldn't want anyone to discover the secret."
"At all!"