"So soon? Did I miss the invite?" Loki wondered for a moment as he noticed Hermione's name on the map, but he quickly realised that this wasn't the first meeting of Hermione's little club.
No, not everyone was here in the room right now.
It was only Hermione, Luna, Astoria, Harry, and surprisingly Cedric.
"Are they scouting out the location?"
"Hmmm…"
A funny idea slipped into Loki's mind.
'I don't have the Mentor of Deceit Beyonder Characteristics…but I should be able to deceive Harry as long as I just use the Room of Requirements defensive barriers by incorporating them into my 'act'.'
Even though it seemed like Loki was doing this purely for fun, he was not.
Loki spoke softly-
"Could you prepare five more cups of tea for me?"
The room responded with silence, but for a second the teacup hovering beside Loki buzzed a little as it split apart into two then the two cups buzzed until they doubled into four before one cup from the new pairs buzzed and divided into two, leaving five cups hovering around him.
'That's nice…'
Loki then willed the Room of Requirements to take the shape of the Sefirah Castle, making sure to imagine every last bit of the castle to be as he remembered it to be along with the vast amounts of grey fog hovering on the floor.
In front of his very eyes, everything around him was deconstructed into pallets of colours before they were rearranged, expanding and morphing into walls, floors, and tables that looked like they had been plucked straight out of his monochrome imagination.
Loki examined the area with a sharp gaze as the room's magic halted for a few moments as it waited for his eager praise.
'Hmm…'
Loki kicked a bit of the grey fog that was cascading around his foot.
He obviously didn't feel any special powers from the grey fog that the Room of Requirements had created, but it looked indiscernible from his imagination.
To anyone other than himself, who had a deep sense of connection to the grey fog, the scene inside the Sefirah Castle and currently in the Room of Requirements would seem identical.
And so Loki nodded with a light smile.
"Phew! You're good!" Loki said as he felt the room's magical fluctuations buzz in joy.
With that done, Loki imagined something else.
A few minutes earlier-
Hermione looked around the seventh floor corridor as she waited for Luna along with Harry, Cedric and Astoria.
"Are you sure there's an abandoned classroom for us to use here Hermione?" Cedric asked with a frown since he couldn't see anything different around them. "Could it be that we have to walk into the painting and it's just an illusion?" He asked, placing his hand on the tapestry depicting Barnabas the Barmy teaching trolls to dance.
"Nope…it's as real as such an old painting would feel…" Cedric concluded after the troll wearing the pink tutu fell backwards as it felt Cedric's fingers flip it off balance while it tried standing on its toes.
Hermione observed this and frowned, but once she looked at the stars through the large window at the end of the corridor she relaxed.
'No stars of warnings for me in the sky…'
'Although…Mercury is entering retrograde soon…is it a warning of misfortune since Neptune is in the sky too?'
Hermione frowned for a few moments before shaking her head and looking back at the staircase as she heard soft footsteps.
It wasn't the sound of heels clicking against stone but rather the sound of soft feet stepping over the cold stones of the castle.
Hermione quickly walked towards the stairs and watched as the blond head of a girl only a year younger than her appeared after a turn as she climbed the stairs.
"Luna! What took you so long!?" Hermione asked a little annoyed.
Luna looked up and spoke blankly-
"The Nargles were playing tricks aga-"
Not one to have the patience to listen to Luna's nonsense, Hermione quickly shook her head and interrupted while grabbing Luna's hand and pulling her up so that they could do what they'd come here for quickly.
"Where's the abandoned classroom you told me about? I want to check if we'll need to make any modifications…you told me it would be large enough. But I want to see if we can include a small dueling range in the room so that we can also gain some practical skills…"
Hermione continued speaking and Luna only looked at her with her perpetually surprised expression. Yet if Loki had been there he would've realised that Luna was thinking something along the lines of-
'What a strange creature…it speaks so much…'
When they reached the middle of the corridor, Luna tugged at Hermione's hand, causing her to stop.
"What happened?" Hermione asked confused.
Cedric though interrupted-
"Where did your shoes go?"
Luna looked at him but just as she was about to speak, Hermione spoke again because she didn't want to let Mercury enter retrogade-
"Later. I want to make sure that there'll be no problems today. And the sooner we see it, the sooner we can learn if you and Harry have enough space for a mock duel."
Cedric felt a little surprised by Hermione's restlessness but nodded nonetheless.
As such, Hermione turned back to Luna and asked her a simple question, "Where's the room, Luna?"
Luna simply pointed at the painting.
"Through the painting…? So there's some secret hiding within it after all." Cedric whispered as Harry quickly activated his Eyes of Demon hunting.
Harry's already green eyes shimmered as green runes floated around it.
But Harry only frowned.
"There's nothing behind the wall…I can't see any signs of the wall having been moved. Are you sure?"
Luna nodded. She then freed herself from Hermione before she began walking up and down the corridor while mumbling something that all the Beyonders there quickly caught.
"A room for studying Defence Against the Dark Arts."
Just as Hermione was about to question Luna again with the question on everyone's minds, they froze when they felt the wall opposite to the tapestry tremble a little.
There was no dust or even shifting around.
It was as if a true miracle had occurred.
The stone bricks used to create the wall collapsed in on themselves soundlessly as they gave way for an inconspicuous door that would blend well since it appeared just as one of the many broom closet doors in the entire castle.
Cedric's brows shot up in surprise as he looked at Harry, wondering if he'd caught any changes but Harry shook his head and shrugged to show his failure to comprehend how all of it worked.
Luna simply looked back at Hermione wordlessly.
"How did this remain so…" Hermione started but Cedric finished- "Hidden?" and Hermione nodded.
"Yeah…George and Fred should've found it long ago! I'm surprised they didn't know about it!" Harry chimed in.
Everyone looked at Luna for answers and she did not disappoint them-
"This is the home of a God."
-except everyone froze at her answer.
Cedric and Harry looked at Hermione, she was the current 'team leader' and so it was up to her to decide what they would do.
Hermione looked back at the stars to make a guess about her own fate and disregarded Luna's words when she saw that there was no twist waiting for her apart from what she'd seen earlier.
'No immediate danger…' Hermione reminded herself.
Hermione sighed to release her tension before simply pushing open the door and entering calmly.
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A/N : Four Missed. Two Posted.