Chapter 68: Strange method
That night, James did not return to the strange hallway where the door appeared, as he was studying a new book on defensive magic in the common room, so he did not have time to return.
The next day, after classes and his quidditch training, which was getting more intense as the second match was less than a week away, James returned to the seventh floor.
He looked at the empty stretch of wall where the wooden door used to be, "Mm, what now?" muttered James.
He didn't know why the door appeared out of nowhere in the wall. He had a few suspicions. The first would be that it would appear at a specific time, from his robes he pulled out a pocket watch, 'It's 15 minutes until it's the same time as yesterday...' he thought as he waited patiently.
James didn't take his eyes off the wall. He wanted to keep an eye out for any change, no matter how small.
To his chagrin, fifteen minutes passed, and nothing happened. James shook his head. He didn't hold out much hope for this theory, as it would be very easy to find it if you only had to pass by at a particular time.
The second theory was the one James was most confident in. It was simple. The secret room provided whatever one required of it.
James trusted this, for when he entered the room there was everything he was looking for: magical dummies, books on offensive and defensive magic, and a large place to practice. It was too much of a coincidence. If he had come across a simply spacious, but empty room, he would not think of this reason.
'I want a large room to practice magic. With magic dummies and books on offensive and defensive magic,' James asked in his mind while looking at the wall, seconds passed, and nothing happened.
James repeated this thought several times in his head while staring at the empty wall, but nothing happened. He tried several methods: closing his eyes, waiting a few minutes, and opening them, but nothing appeared either. He turned his back to the wall and looked at the tapestry of the trolls, while he thought about what he needed. When he turned around the wall was still empty.
Twenty minutes passed, and the ideas were running out. Luckily, no one was passing through the corridor. It was desolate.
James with a frown, began to remember everything he did yesterday in this hallway. The only different thing he did was go back and forth like an idiot because he was kind of lost.
'Wait... It won't be half-turning, right?' thought James with a strange look on his face.
With nothing to lose, he gave it a try: he turned around sharply as he reached the window beyond the empty stretch of wall, then turned back, this walk he made, thinking about what he needed.
When he made the third run, it appeared. Again, he could see out of the corner of his eye the wooden door in the previous empty stretch of wall.
'What a peculiar method...' thought James in disbelief that it worked. He never thought something so random would work. The crazy thing is that he found the door by pure chance.
James eagerly walked in and noticed the same room as yesterday. There was only one difference, on a small table there was a magic chessboard with its pieces ready to start the game.
Noticing the chessboard, James smiled broadly. With this, he was assured that his theory was true. Unlike the first time he entered this mysterious room, in addition to being able to train, he asked if there was a chessboard, to see if it was true that he met the requirements of one.
However, James did not enter. He closed the door and returned to the Gryffindor common room.
It was not long before dinner, and although the corridor was not very busy, now and then a stray student might pass by. So he will return at night when everyone is asleep, and it is forbidden to wander around the castle.
He does not want someone to find the door by chance and know about the secret room, because as long as someone is using the room, the door will still be there. Someone perceptive will notice that there used to be an empty stretch of wall, and now it is occupied by a door, so he or she will know that something is wrong and might try to get in.
At 22:00, the entire student body was inside their respective common room. During this time it is forbidden to wander around the castle or its exterior. Failure to comply with this rule will be penalized with the loss of points for your house.
James heard that there were students who had even lost 50 points for getting caught, which made them the pariah of their house, as it is very difficult to recover from such a loss.
The marauders had already broken this rule countless times, but thanks to the invisibility cloak they were not caught. Although several times they came close to being caught by Filch and his cat.
If they had been caught every time they went out, Gryffindor would have negative house points and they would be hated by every student in the house.
"Are we going exploring today?" asked Lupin without taking his eyes off the book he was reading.
Even though he knew they were violating an important school rule, Lupin liked exploring, as he was one of the most enthusiastic about mapping out all of Hogwarts.
He knew his skills were poor when it came to designing a map, but he was learning and getting better every day.
"I'll pass. I'm tired," Sirius said, yawning and stretching. He had fallen behind on several tasks and had spent the entire afternoon devoting himself to completing them.
"Are you sure about what you're saying?" asked James with a slight smile.
"Mm, what do you mean?" asked Sirius as he put away a piece of parchment he had been working on today. They all looked at James curiously. They knew he had something on his hands.
"I found something very interesting today, and I was planning on coming back tonight," said James, acting mysteriously.
"Spit it out," said Sirius impatiently.
"It's a surprise. Only those who come exploring today will see it," said James with a smile seeing Sirius frowning.
"Fine... I'll go," Sirius said with no other choice. He'll have to postpone his sleep, if only for a few hours. The others were also very expectant wanting to know what James meant by his discovery.
At about 23:00, there were only the marauders in the common room. With no monkeys on shore, they searched for the invisibility cloak and left the common room. James had already told the location to Lupin, who had the best bearings.
Luckily, they weren't too far away, as the Gryffindor Tower was also on the seventh floor. How it is almost impossible to use the invisibility cloak for five people James was the non-invisible person.
This was for one simple reason. James knew how to use the disillusionment charm, which allowed him to disguise himself with his surroundings making him acquire the exact color and texture, turning him into a chameleon.
James would quickly activate the charm if he heard strange movements.
Luckily, they had no trouble and reached the hallway in a few minutes. Sirius and the others took off their cloaks and looked at James.
"Is this it?" asked Lupin a little doubtfully.
"This is... Barnabas the Nutcase," said Toby as he looked at the tapestry of trolls in ballet uniforms and punching the poor little man.
"How do you know that?" asked Sirius.
"I read it in the book History of Magic..." replied Toby.
"This idiot appears in a history of the magic book?" commented Sirius in disbelief.
"Guys... if Filch comes he'll catch us easily," said Peter, who not having the invisibility cloak on him felt unprotected.
"That's right. Where's what you wanted to show us?" asked Lupin, looking at James, and everyone listened intently.
"There," James replied simply, as he pointed his finger at an empty wall.
They all followed James' finger and noticing the empty wall, looked at him strangely again.
"It's just a wall..." said Sirius.
"For now it is. Look at me," said James as he started on the strange method for the hidden room to show itself.
He started walking under everyone's watchful eyes, stopped abruptly, and went back the way he came. This he repeated three times.
In the process, the marauders looked at each other with weird faces. They thought their friend had lost a screw or been bitten by a strange bug.
James finished the third lap. Sirius and the others paid no attention to the wall that was barely visible because of the darkness. They were staring at their friend in silence, uncomfortable to speak.
"Dude... Are you sick or something?" asked Sirius.
"Look at the wall again," said James. Again they looked at the wall, thinking James just wanted to tease them, but what they saw surprised them.
"A door...?" asked Toby as he rubbed his eyes. He was sure that seconds before he had seen that the wall was empty.
The others were also staring at the door gaping and somewhat suspicious.
"W-what is this?" asked Lupin, looking at James.
With an enigmatic smile, James looked at the marauders and with a graceful gesture opened the wooden door. A soft creak echoed in the air as the door was opened to reveal a large room lit by a plethora of torches.
"Welcome to my abode," James announced, holding out his arms as if presenting a secret treasure.
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