"It's a magical place I found. It gives you whatever you want, as long as you need it."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Anthony shook his head.
"We can head up there tomorrow afternoon. You'll see what I mean."
Truthfully, Charlie wanted to explore the rules of the Room of Requirement more thoroughly himself.
Last time, his intense desire to practice the Softening Charm had forced him to cut his curiosity short.
With two friends helping him test it, figuring out the room's mechanics would likely be much easier.
The next day, inside the greenhouse.
The fungi were developing rapidly. At this point, the young wizards were all closely inspecting their individual pots.
For some, their Leaping Toadstools were already the size of a fist. The smaller ones were roughly the size of a large plum.
Charlie looked down at his own pot. His toadstool was fist-sized, but it certainly wasn't the largest in the greenhouse.
The largest one sat diagonally across from him, currently being tended to by Neville Longbottom.
"Looks like you really are a natural at this, mate," Charlie said quietly.
Neville's face flushed bright red all the way to his ears. He didn't say a word, just offered a wide, bashful smile.
The cap of Charlie's toadstool was beginning to flush a deep red from the center outward. Every time he turned the soil, he could physically feel the small fungus vibrating.
It seemed to possess an instinctual, restless desire to break free from the dirt.
By next week, the Leaping Toadstools should be fully mature.
Once class ended, with plenty of time left before lunch, Anthony and Hector immediately grabbed Charlie, absolutely desperate to see this supposed magical room.
Left with no choice, Charlie led them all the way up the shifting staircases to the eighth floor.
"Where is it? There aren't any classrooms up here," Anthony asked impatiently.
"There's nothing memorable up here except that absolutely repulsive tapestry—"
"You hit the nail on the head. It's right across from that repulsive tapestry," Charlie laughed.
He stopped, standing directly in front of the blank stretch of wall where the Room of Requirement hid.
"All you have to do is walk past this spot while focusing entirely on the type of room you need. After a moment, a door will appear right on this blank wall."
"Seriously? Let me try. How exactly do I think about it? Do I just repeat the request in my head? Or do I have to visualize the exact layout I want?"
"When I did it, I just gave it a verbal command. I haven't actually tried vividly imagining the room's layout yet."
"Let me give it a go, then," Anthony nodded.
Charlie and Hector stepped back, giving Anthony the space he needed in the corridor. He began pacing back and forth, carefully and vividly sketching out the exact room he wanted in his mind's eye.
A moment later, a door materialized.
"Bloody hell, it actually works!"
Hector and Anthony stared at the door in shock. Barely able to contain themselves, the three boys pushed it open and stepped inside.
They were greeted by a spacious room. Right in the very center sat a small bed.
On the right-hand wall was a window, but looking through the glass revealed only solid, unmoving stone. Pressed right up against the window was a standard desk and chair, exactly like the ones found in the Hogwarts classrooms.
"What exactly did you ask for?" Charlie asked.
"I tried to visualize my bedroom back home. But this window is weird, and that desk and chair are definitely from the school. The furniture in my actual room looks completely different."
Anthony paced around the room, critically comparing the magical construct to his real bedroom.
"So the layout is exactly right, but the individual pieces of furniture are all wrong."
"Look at this bed. The frame has red curtains. I bet you anything this is a Gryffindor bed."
"And this candelabra is brass, but it's studded with emeralds. Has to be Slytherin."
"Even the rug—it's the exact same size as the one in my room, but the pattern screams Hufflepuff."
"So you're saying... this enchanted room read the layout you visualized, and then used whatever materials it had on hand to..."
"Imitate it? Piece it together?" Charlie finished the thought.
"Exactly. It looks like it's just cobbling together whatever I asked for using random bits of Hogwarts property."
"That's brilliant! But where does it keep all this stuff?"
"Hurry up, let's try again!" Hector and Anthony spun around, rushing back out the door.
This time, it was Hector's turn. Charlie and Anthony stepped back to give him room.
Moments later, a massive set of double doors materialized.
They were truly colossal—easily twice the height of Hagrid.
"What on earth did you ask for?" Anthony yelled in surprise.
"I said, 'I need to go to your storage room. The place where you keep all the Hogwarts stuff,'" Hector explained. "It has to keep all the furniture it uses to build these rooms somewhere, right?"
Charlie stepped forward first and pushed against the door. He didn't have to push hard. The moment his hands rested on the heavy wood, the massive doors swung open automatically.
Beyond them lay an unfathomably massive space, filled with towering, mountainous piles of absolute junk.
Looking up, the ceiling had to be at least fifty feet high. A thick, suffocating smell of dust immediately invaded their noses.
"So this room can't actually create real windows, can it?" Anthony noted. "When it made my bedroom, it gave me a window frame, but there was nothing outside it."
"And given how thick the dust is in here, I'd wager this place has absolutely zero ventilation."
The three of them stepped fully into the room, and the massive doors slowly swung shut behind them.
They didn't panic, simply continuing their exploration forward.
Cabinets, chairs, broomsticks, bottles, jars, plates, and saucers.
Curtains, rags, and even a smashed-up urinal.
"Storage room? This is a bloody rubbish dump," Anthony muttered.
"Not entirely," Hector shook his head, resting his hand on an elegant wooden table.
It was a beautiful piece of furniture. It had no drawers, but was crafted from thick, solid wood, featuring simple yet exquisite carvings along the edges.
Suddenly, and somewhat inexplicably, Hector looked up at the ceiling and said, "Make sure you put this exact table in the next room we ask for."
"I've tested it before. It's not particularly intelligent. It doesn't seem to fully grasp complex or multi-step commands," Charlie pointed out.
"Really?" Hector nodded thoughtfully. "So it doesn't have a memory function?"
Anthony looked intrigued as well.
"Want to test it again?" he suggested.
"Be my guest," Charlie said, perfectly happy to let his friends run their own experiments.
They walked back out of the massive storage room. Once the giant doors vanished, Anthony stepped up to the blank wall once more.
"This time, I just want my bedroom," he declared.
"I'm not going to visualize the layout or what it looks like. I'm just going to verbally ask for my bedroom."