On the eighth floor of Hogwarts Castle, in front of a massive tapestry depicting Grawp wrestling a troll, Alice, Theodore, Trista, Harry, and Ron stood together. Alice turned to Trista.
"So the secret, mysterious place you mentioned… it's around here?"
Trista nodded. "In a moment, all of you face the blank wall across from the tapestry. Focus on what you need most right now, walk past the wall three times, and a door will appear. Behind it is the place I told you about—the place where the magical flying sword is going to be born."
Alice wasn't even surprised anymore that Hogwarts hid secret rooms everywhere. A thousand-year-old castle without hidden chambers would've been far stranger.
Trista stepped forward first and slipped through the door that shimmered into existence. The others followed her inside.
All five of them had come for the same purpose: to create a magical flying sword. So when they entered, the room manifested exactly what they needed—swords of every size and style: broadswords, shortswords, and even a handful of floating daggers drifting lazily through the air.
Ron's jaw dropped. "There's a place like THIS at Hogwarts? Trista, when you were here before—were there this many swords then?"
Trista shoved aside a sword that was drifting a bit too close to her chest and shook her head. "Of course not. That's the magic of this room."
"It's called the Room of Requirement. It changes itself based on whatever the people entering need most."
"The first time I found it was six months ago. The fifth-year teachers were completely mad at the time—they kept burying us in homework for O.W.L.s. And when I came in here…" She shuddered. "This room filled itself with enough exam papers to bury me alive."
"Luckily, I finished them all. That's why I said I'm not worried about O.W.L.s!"
Ron imagined being swallowed by a mountain of test papers and shivered violently. Even the thought was terrifying.
Harry and Theodore, meanwhile, were silently studying the space, clearly imagining all kinds of creative uses for a room like this.
Alice watched the swords drifting past her, carefully examining each one. She'd never seen so many blades in her life.
Once everyone had settled down, Trista nodded to Theodore. He picked up the mithril and the dragon-blood sinew they had prepared. A worktable appeared out of thin air in front of her. She set the materials onto it, then looked to Harry and Ron.
"Ready?"
The two boys exchanged a glance and nodded.
Harry's hand brushed the lightning scar on his forehead. He didn't remember what happened that night, but the emotions—his parents' love, Voldemort's hatred—lingered like a living echo in his blood.
Alice raised a hand, and a silver-white ribbon of light flowed from her palm. At that same moment, deep in the Forbidden Forest, the old thestral buckled to its knees, trembling violently as though its very life had been hollowed out.
With the Souls-Banner amplifying its power, the thestral's racial magic surged into the Room of Requirement. Before the five students, a ghostly scene took shape:
A man who looked very much like Harry stood defiantly before a hideous, noseless figure.
"You will NOT harm my family!"
A blast of sickly green light shot from the monster's wand, striking the man squarely. He collapsed instantly.
Alice froze.
The Souls-Banner and the Room of Requirement… they had actually reconstructed Harry's past.
She moved to cut off the spell—but Harry grabbed her wrist.
"No, Alice. Let it continue. I want to know. I need to know what happened that night."
Alice hesitated, then let the vision unfold.
Voldemort stepped toward a beautiful red-haired woman standing between him and a baby in a crib. She faced him without flinching.
"Spare him. Don't hurt my son!"
Voldemort sneered—and fired another Killing Curse. Lily fell instantly. But the curse rebounded, striking Voldemort and tearing his body apart. The vision shattered.
Harry was crying openly now. Thin golden strands of light drifted out from his chest, swirling toward the mithril. Trista etched runes rapidly, guiding the gold into the metal. Then she turned to Ron, who looked stunned but determined.
"Your turn."
Ron nodded. Whatever memory he summoned made his expression grow solemn. Golden sparks drifted from him as well, sinking into the glowing mithril.
Trista worked fast, drawing rune after rune as the mithril softened into molten silver, wrapping itself around the dragon-blood sinew.
She closed her eyes, recalling the sword design Alice had drawn for her, and pressed her hands to the shimmering metal. Slowly, the molten mithril began to shape itself into a blade.
"Now, Alice!"
Alice unleashed a burst of immense soul-power. It wrapped around the forming blade, hardening it, defining its edges, breathing life into the metal. Gold and silver lights pulsed along the sword's surface like a heartbeat.
She carefully lifted the sword into her hands, hovering in the air. At the same time, Trista guided liquefied goblin-silver and burned runes of Sharpness, Lightness, and Mind-Link into the blade.
Now came the dangerous part.
Would the sword withstand the conflicting runes—or shatter?
"Next is the power core," Theodore said calmly. He opened a black ebony box, revealing a jet-black thestral tail hair.
"Are you sure about this? Its magic feels… just as unsettling as your soul-energy."
At Alice's wrist, the tattoo of the Souls-Banner was burning hot. She nodded.
"That's exactly why it's perfect."
The blade split open, swallowing the tail hair. A ripple of dread washed over everyone—everyone except Alice, who seemed to resonate with it.
Seeing her resolve, Theodore summoned a fireball and engulfed the blade. It screamed—pure, ringing sword-song—again and again. Then—
BOOM.
A shockwave blasted all five students off their feet. Every fake sword in the Room of Requirement vanished instantly, as if unwilling to exist beside the real one.
Alice rose slowly and reached out.
The completed magical flying sword floated toward her hand.
She wrapped her fingers around the hilt.
A razor-sharp, deafening sword-cry rang through the room—
and the Room of Requirement promptly kicked all five of them out the door.