The first Quidditch match of the year had the whole school buzzing with excitement. Gryffindor versus Slytherin had always been interesting to watch, after all these two houses had been rivals for generations. The stands were packed with students. Students waved, banners, screamed chants, shouted in excitement as the game began while some leaned on the railings to get a better view of the ongoing game.
Wilhelm sat at the far end of the Ravenclaw stand, arms crossed and face showing no interest in the ongoing game. His housemates around him cheered and gasped with every goal, but he barely took interest in the game.
Once, long ago, he had cared. As a boy, Wilhelm had stayed up late with his friends to watch the Quidditch World Cup being projected in the auditorium at The Arc. The Projections were almost real as if they were sitting in the stadium while watching the match. He had done it all, watched the game with interest, argue over teams, trade cards and even dreamt about flying high in the sky like a professional Quidditch player. But that was before the explosion, before the world ended and before he decided to return to the past.
Now, Quidditch seemed childish. A distraction at best.
Wilhelm stood up without a word, ignoring the curious looks of the students near him and slipped away from the stands quietly. He had better things to do than waste his time on a game.
Wilhelm moved through the castle, making his way towards the 7th floor corridor, the sounds of cheers fading in the distance. With everyone busy with the game it was best he took his time to explore The Room of Lost Things and study the room itself a bit.
Pacing three times back and forth infront of the dusty old tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. A wooden door appear on the opposite wall.
Wilhelm stepped inside and was met with a dimly lot room filled with piles of books, furniture, artifacts, old cauldrons and more. Wilhelm's eyes lit up with excitement.
This was a treasure trove for someone like him. In the future artifacts like these were salvaged, studied and sometimes reverse-engineered. And here they simply sat abandoned, untouched and forgotten by generations.
Over the next few days Wilhelm took his time to scavenge for useful artifacts and items. Although most artifacts were useless some could be used as material for his future projects. While searching for artifacts, Wilhelm took his time to study the room itself, how it functions, how it provides for one's needs and how it could read a person's intent.
Wilhelm tested the limits of the room, of how much it could provide, how much it could conjure, how fast it could change forms.
"It's not just reactive," Wilhelm muttered taking notes about his observation. "It's intelligent. Not sentient, maybe, but deeply attuned to magical will. There's ancient magic at work here… old but not older than Hogwarts itself, possibly."
Through countless hours of observation Wilhelm came to a conclusion that the room of requirements was not simply an intelligent, will interpreting magical room but and interactive magical system itself. It didn't simply "know" what someone needed. It interpreted desire, filtered it through magical intent, and then translated it into physical space. The clearer the request, the more accurate the results. Vague thoughts gave vague rooms. Clear intent gave consistency.
To Wilhelm, it functioned like a mana-reactive construct, not unlike the mechanical synthetic arcane structures he'd seen in the future but far older and far more refined.
It didn't respond to verbal commands but to focused need. The words only helped channel thought. Emotion, urgency, and clarity amplified the result.
The room remembered. It held recordings of past requests, especially strong or repeated ones. That's why certain configurations like the Room of Lost Things remained stable. He theorized it kept "templates" of frequently conjured states.
Despite conjuring vast spaces and objects, Wilhelm could detect no mana drain. Either the room drew from a larger magical reservoir possibly the castle itself or from ambient ley lines. In either case, the cost to the user was zero.
It could not create food, following Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration.
It could not summon sentient beings.
Items created or found within were often projections unless tied to real lost or hidden objects. Some degraded over time.
Wilhelm discovered that the emotional state of the user affected stability. A desperate need produced fast, sloppy results. Calm, focused thought resulted in stable and lasting rooms.
Magical scans failed inside. It disrupted scanning, detection, and even simple homing spells. It was a naturally warded space likely to prevent misuse.
"The Room of Requirement is a responsive, semi-sentient spatial spell construct, bound to Hogwarts and fueled by a persistent magical core."
"Given that I have found a floo station here making travelling here easier and I can even slip here unnoticed, it can also serve as a potential lab for experiments. For now I'll keep studiying the room a bit more and try to learn from its mechanism."
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Snow blanketed the castle grounds, turning Hogwarts into a castle perfect for a winter postcard. Icicles hung from the windows like crystal daggers, and enchanted snowflakes drifted lazily through the Great Hall ceiling, mirroring the storm outside.
Students bustled through the corridors, dragging trunks and saying goodbye, their excited voices echoing off the stone walls. Laughter. Hugs. Plans for the holidays. The warmth of home awaited them.
Wilhelm stood silently near a window in the Ravenclaw common room, watching the carriages and Thestrals pull away into the white haze. His fingers held a book loosely, though he hadn't turned a page in ten minutes.
Christmas used to mean something to him bright lights, soft music, the smell of cinnamon and pine. He used to care about gifts, about snowball fights but now he has chosen to detach himself from it all.
By evening, the castle had emptied considerably. Only a handful of students remained behind, and Wilhelm made no effort to mingle. He even wanted to decline Headmaster's request to help others decorate the Christmas tree but under McGonagall's stern gaze he nodded without a word.
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Disclaimer:
I do not own Harry Potter or any of the original elements from the books, movies, or universe. All rights belong to J.K. Rowling and the respective creators. This is just a fanfiction made for fun. I'm not a professional author—just someone who had an idea and wanted to write it down. Please don't expect perfect grammar or writing, I'm doing my best and learning as I go.