And the simmering anger that dogged his every waking moment was gone, as well.
He grinned. Maybe it was time for a bit of carefree fun. He set out with a rather jaunty step after the older teen. For once, he was in a good mood.
Fred and George tagged along behind him, still a bit confused, as they started searching for the ship's engine room.
The corridors and rooms in the ship were all dark. Only the periodic, faintly glowing symbols provided any illumination. They obviously were supposed to be ancient runes — Harry thought he recognized one or two every now and then that looked sort of like the things that he had seen in Hermione's assignments. He shook his head at the thought of magical runes on a technology-based spaceship. He had to pity the Room of Requirement, resorting to magical means to simulate a science-fiction spaceship. Still, looking around at what they found, the Room had done a pretty credible job. Or, at least, he thought so. A real science-fiction fan, not to mention a real scientist, would probably find no end of things to criticize.
On the other hand, Harry could only watch, amused, as Lee hunted for the engine-room and the twins looked for anything interesting
It was not a small ship, by any means. Lee had managed to make the Room into the biggest thing yet. The twins' racing arena was probably the next closest. Corridors kept intersecting with corridors, room after room after room lined each corridor on both sides.
Some were small rooms, barely bigger than a broom-closet. Others were classroom-sized. Some were huge and matched the length of the current corridor the wizards were in. Most contained those strange glass-topped tables with weird symbols and peculiar stones on them. Some were simply empty.
Not every room had windows, but the rooms that did had spectacular views. The stars were unlike any he had ever seen — sharp, bright, steady stars in clear colours. Not even through the telescopes in Astronomy class had he seen so many, so bright, stars.
Lee shrugged when Harry mentioned it. "I suppose it's because we aren't seeing them through the atmosphere," he said. "I saw a comparison photo of the Crab Nebulae from Earth and from the Hubble. Night and day, Harry, night and day." He sighed sadly. "Pity we aren't anywhere near Earth — it would've been unspeakably awesome to see it from space."
It was Harry's turn to shrug. "What's Earth looks from space — do you know?"
Lee shook his head.
"I guess the Room didn't have any idea either."
One room, they were all relieved to find, was a water-closet area with toilets and sinks.
One corridor had one side lined with windowed small rooms that were clearly bedrooms. Storage drawers were evident below a generously wide and almost hip-high platform — clearly a bed of some kind — with a small table and chair nearby. The bed was remarkably soft, but there were no covers.
The rooms were paired to share a bathroom between them.
Another corridor had a row of small bedrooms, barely bigger than his at the Dursleys, formerly Dudley's Second Bedroom. There was a communal bathroom centred on either side of the corridor. Still another was bracketed by two rooms lined with triple-high bunk beds and a large communal bathroom in each — obviously a set of barracks.
The double-occupancy rooms, and barracks rooms, did not have windows.
"Boring! Boring! Boring!" George eventually complained, after peering into another room with pedestal tables.
"Why is it so dark in here, anyway?" Fred grumbled.
"We can't see anything," whinged George.
"Not that there's anything interesting to see anyway," Fred said dryly.
"Just corridors and rooms and stars."
"I'll give the stars, though. That's brill."
"How is this in any way . . . exciting?"
"You're both daft cows . . . this is exciting" Lee answered. "You uncultured, uneducated, uninformed swine."
"Blow me!" Fred answered agreeably.
"I keep telling you, you aren't my type! I prefer them smart, sexy, and beautiful."
Fred blew a raspberry at him.
They looked into another room. This one had rows of long tables with benches. There was a tall stack of trays in corner on a counter. They had found a dining hall. But oddly, there was no sign of a kitchen. Was it like the Great Hall where meals were prepared elsewhere and then transferred here?
"Berks," said Lee
"Ponce," said George.
"Duff," said Fred.
"Twits."
"Nancy."
"Todger."
Harry rolled his eyes, they were trading insults much the way someone would discuss the weather.
"Tossers."
"Prat."
"Swot."
"Gobshites."
There was a moment of silence, then Fred said, "Well, now that that's sorted . . . seriously, though, what's the point of this?"
"It's a spaceship," Lee explained with more than a bit of exasperation. He stopped and stood with his hands on his hips. "That's the point," he growled. He stared at them for a moment. "You know, if you find it all that tedious, get stuffed! Or shut your gobs."
Fred sighed tiredly, and said, "Well, we're already here."
George clasped his hands behind his neck and peered at the ceiling. He said, as if it were a great concession on his part, "I suppose we should see the rest."
"Find out what's so special about . . . enguines."
"Engines," Harry corrected him.
There was another moment of silence as they checked the next room. A smaller meals-hall, also with trays in one corner but still without an attached kitchen.
"Why is it so dark in here?" Harry said to Lee. "Did you want a dark spaceship?"
"A darkship?" said George.
"A dorkship?" said Fred.
Lee glared at the twins. "No," he said coldly. Then he sighed. "But then I didn't really specify that I wanted it to be well-lit, either," He shrugged. "Stop pissing and moaning, you twats. It's not like we don't have wands, after all."
"Your fakeship sucks, Lee."
"Shut up . . . wanker."