the_debt_of_time

Harry shook his head. "I don't even know what I'm looking for. I know it'll be
something small like the rest, and it'll probably have belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw. I say
let's go to the Room of Requirement and maybe see if there's a Ravenclaw who could help."
"Might be the diadem," Sirius suggested offhandedly as they walked.
"What's a diadem?" Ron wondered.
"It's like a tiara," Hermione explained. "But wait, how do you know about the
diadem?" she asked Sirius. "I only heard about it because Luna's a Ravenclaw, and she was
mumbling about it on the train one year."
"We all went looking for the thing fourth year," Sirius disclosed with a shrug.
"James, Remus, Wormtail, and.. ." He stopped, changing his train of thought. "And I."
"Did you four ever study?" Hermione demanded in exasperation.
Sirius laughed in reply and winked at her. "If we make it through this, I'll tell you all
about how I got nine O.W.L.s."
"Nine!?" Hermione screeched, her eyes wide. "That's impossible! I got eleven, and
I nearly killed myself doing it!" She stormed ahead of him in a huff, her curls—which had
recently loosened into soft ringlets that fell gently down her back—frizzed up, sparking at
the ends with agitation as she moved. Sirius, Ron, and Harry snickered from behind her.
Once they reached the seventh floor, Harry rushed to the entrance of the Room of
Requirement while the other three remained behind, watching silently as Harry paced back
and forth in front of the empty wall across from the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. As
though the room had been waiting for Harry's arrival, a door appeared on the wall in front
of him.
Slowly, he reached for the handle and opened the door, stepping inside; the other
three followed him in.
The room was enormous and looked rather like the interior of a particularly
sumptuous tree house or perhaps a gigantic ship's cabin. Multicoloured hammocks were
strung from the ceiling and from the balcony that ran around the dark wood-panelled and
windowless walls, which were covered in bright tapestry hangings.
They saw the gold Gryffindor lion emblazoned on scarlet, the black badger of
Hufflepuff set against yellow, and the bronze eagle of Ravenclaw on blue. The silver and
green of Slytherin were noticeably absent. There were bulging bookcases, a few
broomsticks propped against the walls, and in the corner, a large wireless in a wooden case.