[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
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As the three of them climbed the last flight of stairs to the eighth floor of Hogwarts, Draco nudged Harry.
"Go on, take a look."
"Why me?"
"We've had enough for today, just go."
Reluctantly, Harry poked his head out first.
"No sign of Peeves," he called back. "Come on!"
Amanda and Draco both exhaled in relief.
But the moment they stepped forward, they froze, staring in horror at something behind Harry.
Harry frowned at their expressions. "What's with your faces, uhhhhh!"
Peeves suddenly materialized behind him, grinning, and upended a bucket of filthy mop water over Harry's head.
"Run!" Draco shouted, dragging Amanda with him.
They bolted in panic, corridor after corridor, curtains whipping past as Peeves' shrill laughter followed close behind.
"Woo-hoo! My darling first-years want to play hide-and-seek! Come on! Hahaha!"
They ran until their legs felt like lead. Amanda and Draco slowed, breathless, just as they turned another corner.
"Amanda! Draco!"
Harry was standing there, soaked to the skin but grinning in relief.
He pointed at the wall beside him. "Look, this tapestry?"
Before them hung a comical scene: trolls in pink tutus dancing around a small wizard in the center.
And opposite the tapestry, there was a plain wooden door.
"What were you thinking about just now…" Amanda asked, but Peeves' gleeful shriek cut her off.
"Yoho! Found you at last! Game over!"
"Hurry!"
Without hesitation, Amanda yanked both boys through the door. At the very last second, before Peeves could swoop down on them, they slammed it shut. His cackling was muffled instantly on the other side.
"Whoa…"
When their eyes adjusted to the sudden bright light, they realized what kind of room they'd found.
Against turquoise walls stood rows of washing machines, boxes of detergent and fabric softener stacked neatly on a counter. A dryer sat in the middle of the room, and through a small side door was a bathroom complete with a bathtub filled.
"This feels like stepping into a Muggle laundry room," Draco muttered.
"Don't doubt it. That's exactly what it is," Amanda replied.
Overjoyed, Harry pulled off his school robes and tossed them straight into the washing machine, followed quickly by his shirt and tie.
"Amanda, maybe you shouldn't be here for this."
He clutched his belt awkwardly, cheeks flushing.
"I don't mind," she said.
"Well, I do!"
Blushing furiously, Harry retreated into the bathroom, drawing the curtain and passing his clothes to Draco.
Draco pinched the uniform between two fingers in disgust and dropped it into the washer.
"Muggles actually clean things with machines that spin clothes around like this?"
"Yes, though… I think we'd better master the Scouring Charm as soon as possible," Amanda remarked.
When Harry finally emerged, clean and dry, the three began examining the room.
"You and Peeves ran so fast I lost you almost immediately," Harry explained, still animated. "I was grumbling to myself, 'I'm filthy! I need somewhere to wash up!' And then, this door appeared out of nowhere!"
He pointed proudly at the tapestry. "Right here! I thought, this must be what Amanda meant. So I stayed and waited."
Draco let out a low whistle. "This place really is incredible. I bet hardly anyone knows it exists."
"If we want a proper room for our SO group, what should it have?" Harry asked.
"A blackboard and chalk, plus some tables and chairs," Amanda suggested.
"And a dueling area for spell practice," Draco added.
"And a workbench with a cauldron," Amanda finished. "That should do for now. Let's try it."
They stepped out again and, thankfully, didn't run into Peeves.
Walking back and forth three times before the wall, the door appeared once more.
This time, the Room of Requirement was almost exactly what they had imagined, if not better.
It was a seamless blend of a Charms classroom, a Potions laboratory, and a polished dueling arena.
"Someone must have thrown in a stray thought," Draco said suspiciously, eyeing Harry.
Because on the worktable, a cauldron was bubbling, not with potion, but with mashed potatoes and cheese, filling the room with a savory smell.
Harry rubbed his stomach sheepishly. "Well… it's been a day. I'm starving."
Amanda looked around, satisfied.
"Yes. This will be perfect for our meetings. But until we recruit members from other Houses, it's more practical to meet in the common room, except when testing spells."
…
Later, as they returned to the Slytherin common room, Draco looked uneasy. He was dreading his talk with Pansy.
"Remember, watch my back and drag her off if she tries to claw my face," he whispered urgently.
Pansy was already waiting at the entrance. At first her brows furrowed in disdain, but when she spotted Draco, she quickly forced a bright smile.
"Draco, let's go." She slipped her arm through his, shooting Amanda a scornful look.
Draco waved frantically behind his back to Amanda and Harry.
Harry stifled a laugh and winked. Amanda simply raised an eyebrow.
Whoever ties the knot must untie it. Better to rely on himself than others.
Draco and Pansy disappeared into a secluded corner, while Amanda and Harry settled at a low table in the common room.
Though they couldn't hear the conversation, Amanda could see Draco and Pansy casting glances in their direction now and then.
At the moment Amanda was explaining the principles of the Transfiguration Spell to Harry in detail, a sharp cry suddenly rang out in front of them.
"No!"
Pansy's eyes were red as she staggered away, covering her mouth.
Many curious eyes in the Slytherin common room turned toward them.
Goyle, sitting on a leather chair not far away, took a greasy bite of pizza and muttered flatly:
"Master Draco, did you break up with Pansy?"
Blaise walked over, giving Draco a confident, charming smile as he patted him on the shoulder.
"Draco, even if you're heartbroken, you can always fall into my arms instead."
Draco curled his lips.
"You must be joking. Don't treat me the way you treat girls."
He walked over to Amanda and Harry under everyone's gaze and sat down across from them.
Harry set his book aside, leaned forward, and asked curiously:
"What did you say to her?"
Draco laced his fingers together, looking slightly uneasy.
"I simply told her that I didn't actually feel anything for her. My previous dealings with her were mostly out of consideration for the Parkinson family. But her behavior lately just disgusted me. I also told her that I had already written a letter informing her parents."
When he finished, his voice gradually lightened, as if relieved of a burden.
"Although the Parkinsons idolize her, they won't allow her to disgrace their family. I also warned them of the consequences of crossing the descendants of Merlin and the Boy Who Lived."
Harry smiled.
"What a blow. She won't be able to bully us anymore."
Amanda shrugged.
"I hope so. Don't forget, Pansy is also a Slytherin. I don't want all the points we've worked so hard to earn taken away because of her."
Draco sighed.
"Amanda, I've done everything I could."
"Well, you did a great job."
"After all, Pansy is only eleven. Considering that we're both heirs of the Sacred Twenty-Eight I hope you can give her another chance."
"I never denied her a chance. She was the one who chose whether to take it or not."
Amanda blinked, and Draco clearly understood what she meant.
Pansy, the spoiled only child, had never faced any real obstacles in her life.
Amanda had far more important things to focus on.
"Even so, Slytherin still has bigger idiots than Pansy, like Goyle and Crabbe. I bet they'd fall for anything if you offered them a piece of cheese."
Amanda pointed to the two hulking boys nearby, feasting on stuffed pizza, crème brûlée, and buckets of pumpkin juice.
Harry laughed.
"My God, Draco, look! They can eat more than me."
"Of course I know. They've always been like that."
Draco's face darkened.
"If Neville still refuses to join us, we'll have to start our O.W.L. testing team with them," Amanda said.
"I guarantee they'll have no idea what you're even saying…"
Draco smirked.
"Wouldn't that make it even more entertaining?"
"If it actually works."
The three of them turned to look at Crabbe and Goyle. The two boys immediately felt a prickling on their backs, though they had no idea they were about to become unfortunate test subjects.
Crabbe lifted his head from the pudding, bewildered.
"Goyle, why do I feel like something's behind me?"
Goyle shook his head, looking confused.
"Strange… I felt the same. Forget it, let's just drink more pumpkin juice."
…
Later, back in the dormitory, Amanda sat on the edge of her bed, looking around at the sparse decorations of the dungeon room.
She intended to practice the Transfiguration spell she had learned earlier that day.
The difficulty of Transfiguration increased from small to great: from solid to liquid, then gas, and finally from inanimate objects to living beings.
In that case, turning a matchstick into a needle was likely the simplest spell of all.
Transforming household decorations was only slightly harder.
First, she tried to change the four bedposts into snakes.
"Vera Verto"
She pictured the decorative snakes from the Slytherin common room.
After several attempts, she finally succeeded. She realized the wand had to be moved with just the right precision, neither too wide nor too small, and she had to focus intently on the specific form.
But her memory of the decorative snakes wasn't detailed enough.
As a result, the four snake forms remained somewhat rough and clumsy.
Still, it was incredible progress for someone attempting Transfiguration on their very first day.
If Professor McGonagall had been there, she would have been impressed with Amanda's talent and intuition.
Amanda continued, transforming the fireplace, windows, tables, and chairs into various small snake decorations. She then attempted to trace a circle of European-style patterns around the fireplace.
But she wasn't exactly an interior designer. Once she had done all this, she wasn't sure what else she could transform.
"Seems I'll need to sketch some of the common room furnishings in the future. That way I can use them as direct references when redecorating my dorm."
Amanda settled into an old armchair by the lit fireplace. She reclined lazily, picked up a quill, and began sketching on parchment.
She drew a timeline, marking the important events from the original plot of the first semester.
Her fingers traced the parchment until they paused at one key moment.
The most significant event of the first half of the semester was the troll breaking into Hogwarts.
It was Halloween night, exactly two months away.
During the feast, Professor Quirrell had burst into the Great Hall, pale with terror, shouting:
"Troll, in the dungeons! Thought you ought to know!"
Then he had collapsed in a dead faint.
At the time, no one suspected Professor Quirrell. Naturally, no one kept watch over him. Everyone thought he was merely frightened into unconsciousness.
Their attention was entirely on the troll. Even Professor Dumbledore had not seemed surprised.
But Amanda speculated that Quirrell's real purpose in unleashing the troll wasn't simply to distract the teachers so he could steal the Philosopher's Stone.
Although Dumbledore had explicitly forbidden students from entering the corridor on the right-hand side of the fourth floor, Quirrell couldn't be sure if that was a bluff. If he rushed in recklessly, he would immediately expose himself.
His true purpose, Amanda thought, was to observe the professors' reactions, to discover the Stone's real location and gather clues.
Just like a thief who watches what valuables the owner runs to check first.
That being the case.
"If, while Quirrell was pretending to faint, I had pulled off his turban and let everyone see the back of his head…"
Amanda's heart raced.
"My God, that would have been thrilling."
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