the secret of Erised {s.b.}

chapter 5: inquiry

Sirius did not visit Esmeralda the next day. He spent the entire day in the library, which was something that he never did, trying to find information about the Room of Requirement and the Mirror inside. He even asked Remus for help, but neither one of them found anything. Sirius left the library and went to Professor Flitwick. To him, it seemed like the most obvious choice since the Room of Requirement and the Mirror seemed to be enchanted.

Sirius opened the door to Professor Flitwick's classroom slowly to make sure that he was not interrupting a class. The classroom was empty and Professor Flitwick was in his desk. Sirius walked in and closed the door behind him.

"Ah, Mr. Black," Flitwick said without taking his eyes off the papers he was grading, "I don't recall giving you detention for this evening, or is there another reason as to why you are here ?"

"The latter," Sirius said as he approached the professor's desk, "I was wondering if you could tell me something about the Room of Requirement ?"

Professor Flitwick looked at Sirius and set his quill down. He removed his glasses and folded his hands in front of him.

"What do you know about the Room of Requirement ?" Flitwick asked raising an eyebrow.

"I just know that it's on the seventh floor"

"Mr. Black, The Room of Requirement is a room that a person can only enter when they have real need of it." Flitwick began, "Sometimes it is there, and sometimes it is not, but when it appears, it is always equipped for the seeker's needs."

"But why didn't it appear before ?" Sirius asked, "It's the first time I've seen it in my four years at Hogwarts."

"That, I am not able to answer," he replied and took a deep breath before speaking again, "Can I help you with anything else ?"

Sirius wanted to ask about the Mirror, but he didn't want to say anything about Esmeralda. He wanted to keep her a secret that only he could have, he wanted to have her as an escape to everything. Also, he didn't want teachers to think that he was going insane for talking to a mirror, he was sure that if they found out they would throw him in St. Mungo's Hospital. He chose his words carefully before responding to Professor Flitwick's question.

"Did you have a student called Esmeralda ?"

Professor Flitwick's eyes widened and he nervously put his glasses back on.

"I did," he replied, "I cannot tell you anything. If you want to know about Miss Dragonstone I think Professor McGonagall is your best option. Now, out of my office ! You wouldn't want to be late for dinner."

Sirius walked out of the Charms classroom quickly and shut the door behind him. He smiled. He finally had a full name; Esmeralda Dragonstone. Her name seemed too familiar, but Sirius wasn't sure where he had heard that name.

He arrived ten minutes early to the Great Hall. There were only a handful of people already there; mostly Ravenclaws and a couple of Hufflepuffs. Sirius was sitting alone at the Gryffindor table trying to remember where he had heard Esmeralda's name. A couple of minutes went by and James, Remus, and Peter walked towards Sirius. James sat down beside him and Peter and Remus sat in front of them.

"You should've seen Snape's face, Padfoot," James said, "I put color bombs in his pockets and they exploded and stained his skin bright red and gold. He's ready to cheer for Gryffindor at the match tomorrow."

"It was incredible !" Peter said, "Too bad you weren't there to see it."

"I was doing some research," Sirius replied.