They were two Hufflepuff second-years and a Ravenclaw third-year. Jenny Cupperwigg, the Ravenclaw, had had it straight from Tobey Sanderpatch, who’d heard a rumor from a group of Slytherin fifth-years, who’d heard it from the Bloody Baron himself.
Naveeda Chendra, one of the Hufflepuffs, scratched her head with the tip of her wand. “What’s a Room of Requirement, though?” she asked. “What are we supposed to require?”
“Whatever we need at the time, I s’pose,” said Jenny.
She tapped on the imposingly blank wall once, twice, with her wand. “I need a place where I can study and do my homework in silence,” she said.
The Hufflepuffs rolled their eyes behind her back as the wall obligingly transformed into a door and let Jenny in. They glimpsed a small, low-hanging cubbyhole with a comfy-looking desk and chair and flickering candlelight before the door slammed shut behind her and disappeared.
“Jenny?!” called Magren McDougal, the younger of the two. But the wall stayed firmly shut until Jenny opened the invisible door and stepped out of it a moment later.
“You guys gotta try this thing!” she said.
“So we just have to need something?” asked Naveeda. “Um… I need a copy of Quidditch Through the Ages!”
“Oh!” Magren added. “And I need a copy of Celestina Warbeck: an Unauthorized Biography!”
“Oh! And if you have anything about Harry Styles,” Jenny chimed in. They shot her a look. “What?” Jenny asked. “He’s hot!”
The wall changed and the door creaked open with a clang. Only this time it wasn’t a small cubbyhole at all, but a cavernous room stacked from floor to ceiling with piles of books and parchments and papers, stretching lengthways as far as they could look. Jenny nudged a pile with her toe as they walked in, and a magazine with a giant beaming picture of Harry Styles on the cover fluttered to her feet.
“Here’s Quidditch Through the Ages!” said Magren. “Oh, and here are four different biographies of Celestina Warbeck!”
“Do you think this place has anything about 14th-century werewolves?” Naveeda asked. As she finished speaking, there was a sudden woosh of air in the room, as if someone had let in a draft. The sound of riffling papers echoed all along the chamber as documents rearranged themselves and flew hither and thither until suddenly a large sheaf of parchments landed at her feet. “Medieval History of Lycanthropy and Lycanthropes, 14th-15th Century,” she read aloud. “This is incredible!”
“Can I get a story about a Victorian detective and a faithful companion trapped on an alien planet and forced to disguise themselves as astronauts?” Magren asked the room thoughtfully.
There was a dutiful woosh in response, and a few slips of paper shuffled to her feet.
“Wow,” said Jenny. “Can I — can I get stories about Harry Potter?”
This time, the woosh was voluminous.
*****
There’s a fannish Room of Requirement waiting just for you at the Archive of Our Own.