The room in which they were in was huge. It was brightly lit with torches all around the walls. It also had a very high ceiling, giving Albus the impression that he was in a cavern. There seemed to be a lot of statues surrounding them, and most of them had concentric circles at their centre, kind of like a bull’s-eye. On one corner lay many tiny, pink cushions similar to the ones they often used in their Charms lessons. There were shelves full of many fat books lining the walls, along with a reading table and a chair in one corner. The middle, however, was clear of any sort of furniture.
Victoire looked at the room proudly. “This,” she said, “is the Room of Requirement.”
“Eh?”
Victoire turned to look at Albus. “The Room of Requirement, Albus! Don't tell me you don't know!" When Albus shook his head, Victoire sighed. "Guess Uncle Harry didn't tell you everything... The Room of Requirement, as it's name suggests, can become whatever you need. All you’ve got to do is walk past the wall outside three times, thinking hard about what you need, and that’s exactly what it’ll become.” Albus recalled what they had had to do to get in there. “However, it does seem to malfunction sometimes,” she added, frowning slightly. “That’s probably due to the Battle of Hogwarts. I heard that the room was nearly destroyed during that time.”
“How did you find about this place?” Scorpius asked, looking around the room.
For some reason, Victoire blushed and mumbled an inaudible response. Albus had a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with a certain Teddy Lupin.
“Right,” she clapped her hands. “So... Al, first I want you to try to disarm me, alright?”
Albus nodded. He saw Victoire walk up to the clearing and he followed suit, realizing why the space had been cleared. They were going to practice casting spells there. Andrew and Scorpius went and sat down on the cushions at the corner. Rose was still in the Library and hadn’t returned to join them in time.
Victoire whipped out her wand and took position, as if ready to duel. Albus took out his own and pointed it at his cousin.
“What is the spell, Al?” Victoire asked.
“Expelliarmus,” Albus answered. He remembered the first DADA lesson they had had with Professor Parkers.
“Good, now disarm me.”
Albus closed his eyes and focused. "Expelliarmus!" he said loudly and confidently.
Albus peeked and saw a flash of light soaring through the air towards Victoire. In a second, Victoire’s wand had fallen out of her hand onto the floor with a clatter.
“Good!” she said, beaming, while his Scorpius and Andrew clapped from the corner, shouting words of encouragement. “Now let’s see how fast you are. We’ll both try to disarm each other.”
Albus nodded. Both of them cast the spell at once. Victoire, obviously being the faster one, disarmed Albus before he could even finish saying the incantation. His wand flew out of his hand and landed a few feet behind him.
“We’ve got much more work to do,” Victoire said, crossing her arms as Albus shuffled back to fetch his wand. “Keep on disarming me.”
It took a long time before Albus managed to finally disarm Victoire successfully before she could do the same to him. Feeling elated, Albus collapsed onto the floor.
“Excellent, job, Al,” Victoire panted, conjuring a cushion and plopping down on it. "Let’s take a break shall we? After that we can try this a little more just to see if you've got the hang of it, and then we can start on the Stunning Spell.”
“I’m hungry!” Albus said. His stomach growled in agreement. “Why don’t you get us some food, Victoire?”
“You can’t conjure food out of thin air, Al,” Victoire said patiently. “We’ll go get some food after we’re done with the Stunning Spell.”
Once Victoire was satisfied that Albus would have no problem disarming his opponent if he needed to, they started on their next topic: The Stunning Spell. Mastering the Stunning Spell, however, wasn’t that easy, and being stunned wasn’t a pretty feeling, either. So after Victoire had stunned him for the third time in a row, Albus felt like going to McGonagall and asking her to expel him just so that he wouldn’t have to take part in the tournament. He was tired and hungry, and he wanted to go to sleep.
Once he told Victoire that he wanted to call it quits, she looked at him with a furious expression on her face. She resembled an angry vulture more than her pretty self. So instead, he found himself facing her once again, dodging her red beams of light and trying to hit her with one of his own, while his friends snored peacefully in the corner.
“Come on, Al,” she gasped, casting her spell non-verbally as she gracefully sidestepped Albus’ haphazard spells. “You can do better! Focus!”
“Stupefy!” He shouted. This time, his spell didn’t miss; it shot strait towards his cousin and hit her squarely on the chest. Victoire turned into a statue in the exact position she had been in.
Albus let out a jubilant yell, punching the air, a big grin plastered on his face. He’d finally managed to hit Victoire with his Stunning Spell!
Hearing his yells, Andrew jerked awake. Groggily rubbing his eyes, he mumbled, “Where’s the fire?” However, he returned to snoring in a few seconds.
Ten minutes later, when Victoire had been un-stunned, she looked at Albus proudly. “Congrats, Al!” she said, rubbing her neck ruefully, which had become rather sore due being stuck in the same position (Albus didn’t know the counter-spell). “I think that’s enough for today. Plus, it’s almost past curfew. We should go now!”
Looking at the two sleeping forms of Andrew and Scorpius, Victoire shook her head and shot out a jet of water in their direction. The two boys woke almost instantly as if they had received an electric shock, muttering profanities under their breath. The prefect smirked as she replaced her wand inside the pocket of her robes.
“Al, there you are!”
Albus and the others were greeted with Rose’s squeal the moment they clambered through the portrait hole. Rose skipped towards them, her mane of curly red hair flying behind her. She had a triumphant look on her face, but she also seemed to be rather disturbed. “I figured it out!”
“Really?” Andrew asked, his eyes wide open. Beside him Scorpius grinned broadly and gave Albus a hi-five. All thoughts of sleep seemed to have vanished from their mind. Rose, however nodded solemnly. Albus' heart sank at Rose's expression
Victoire however, looked puzzled. “Figured out what?” She asked.
The others looked at Albus. He hesitated; would it be good to tell her? Would she say anything? Albus thought it best to hide it, because if anyone got to know about it, Longbottom would be in trouble. So instead he said, “Nothing, we were just researching on the theory of the spell to transform a beetle to a needle.”
If Victoire had any doubts, she didn’t show it. Instead she yawned and said, “Whatever, I’m off to bed. See ya!” with that she marched up the steps of the girls’ dormitories.
Once they heard her door slamming shut, they looked towards Rose. “Well, what is it?” Albus asked. “What’s a Kraken?”
Rose thrust a book into his arms. Albus stared at it. It was titled Magic Creatures of the Deep Sea. “It’s a book?”
“No.” Rose shook her head grimly and took the book back and turned to a specific page. “This is what it is.”
Rose dropped the book onto the table with a heavy thud. They all huddled around the book as though they were looking at a treasure map.
One of the most dreaded creatures that dwell the sea is the Kraken, a gargantuan squid that can reach epic proportions. They are said to inhabit the coasts of Norway and Iceland. Many Muggle sailors mistake them for small islands, but the real danger is not the creature itself, but the whirlpools they create after they sink back into the ocean. However, if any of these ships collide with a Kraken, it wraps it with its tentacles and pulls it down to the watery depths. So far, no known Muggle or Wizard has escaped the fearful clutches of a Kraken’s tentacle, which is strong enough to squeeze a fully grown blue-whale to death. Its thick skin is almost impenetrable to any sort of weak spells cast by a Wizard, making it almost impossible to slay.
The largest known Kraken is said to reach sixteen kilometres from tentacle to tentacle.
“That,” Rose said sullenly, “is your Kraken.”
Albus looked up in Horror. “I-I’ve got-got to face... that?”
“You’re done for,” Andrew squeaked in a high pitched voice. “I think I saw this thing on TV once. It ended up nearly Killing Johnny Depp.”
“Who?” Scorpius asked, puzzled. Nonetheless, he looked very scared too.
“Never mind that,” Rose said. Looking at her cousin, she said, “Albus... start learning every sort of spell in the next few months. That’s the best option you got.”
Albus gulped. Feeling that things couldn’t be any worse than this, he nodded.