The scene inside the Room of Requirement remained unchanged.

Or, more accurately, the "Room of Requirement - Dump" remained unchanged.

As a wondrous magical room born alongside Hogwarts Castle, the Room of Requirement was like a parallel universe, with countless "parallel Rooms of Requirement". No one had ever counted their respective types, but it was certain that these rooms objectively existed.

In the standard universe's worldview, wizards could repeatedly enter rooms generated by "similar wishes".

This repetitive behavior could even span thousands of years.

Among these rooms, the "Room of Requirement - Dump," born from the wish to "hide things," was undoubtedly one of the oldest.

"Don't mind the things around us; we're not here to do a big cleaning today."

Aileen pushed open the door, stopped Hannah, who wanted to run off, and followed the little chick's navigation to the mirror.

The Mirror of Erised still stood quietly in place.

A pile of black velvet cloth lay to one side, not neatly, but rather as if someone had casually discarded it.

Aileen's eyes discreetly scanned the pile of fabric, and she raised an eyebrow, a look of "I knew it" appearing on her face.

Hogwarts possessed a certain, nascent "self-awareness."

This was a consensus she shared with many researchers.

In fact, from the moment she first stepped into this "Room of Requirement - Dump" last night, she realized:

There was an unknown force in this space that quietly organized the clutter after people left.

Otherwise, this place would have become a junkyard long ago, rather than a "city" with basic order. Judging from the movement of the black velvet cloth, this organizing force was slow and simple, but with some small assistance, it had a lot of potential.

While Aileen was examining this boundless space, the other three little witches nervously crowded in front of the Mirror of Erised, peering into it.

"Hermione, Hermione, what do you see?" Hannah whispered.

"I don't see anything—"

Hermione frowned, turning her face to look into the mirror.

Perhaps it was the wrong position, but she could see nothing in the mirror except Luna's reflection.

"Um, me neither... I can't even see you, I can only see Luna's reflection..."

"I can only see Luna on my side too. If the mirror isn't broken, then it can only mean—"

Hermione said softly, thoughtfully, turning to look at Luna, who was standing between them, preparing to ask something.

The next moment, Hermione's voice suddenly stopped in her throat.

Luna bit her lip tightly, staring blankly at the Mirror of Erised in front of her, two lines of tears silently streaming down her cheeks.

They had never seen Luna like this.

She looked like a helpless little animal, struggling to keep herself from whimpering.

Luna's hands trembled, as if she wanted to reach out and touch the mirror, but hesitated, afraid to reach forward.

"Mom?" she whispered, "Are you there?"

In the mirror, a woman who looked like an adult version of her was standing behind her, watching Luna in front of the mirror gently.

It was a million times clearer than the photo in her bedroom, as if she were a real person.

Luna subconsciously reached out, groping behind her, knowing if she really existed, Luna would definitely be able to touch her.

But Luna only touched air—just as Aileen had said before, everything in the mirror was an illusion in their hearts.

"She's not in the mirror, Luna, she's always here..."

Just then, Luna felt her hand fall into a soft, cool palm.

Aileen took her hand and gently placed it on Luna's chest, and with the other hand, gently wiped the tears from Luna's face.

"Okay, you need to rest now. It's time for Hermione and Hannah to look at the Mirror of Erised... Come over here and rest for a while."

Aileen couldn't guess what Hermione and Hannah would see in the mirror.

But Aileen knew what Luna would see in the mirror before Luna proposed coming to the Room of Requirement—without any suspense, it would definitely be Luna's mother, Pandora Lovegood, who had accidentally passed away in a spell accident two years ago.

In fact, after being caught sneaking around last night, Aileen had hesitated about whether to tell Luna about the Mirror of Erised.

However, after thinking for a few seconds, she chose to trust Luna.

If Harry in the original story could resist the temptation of the Mirror of Erised, there was no reason for Luna to be worse than Harry.

Unlike most young wizards and even adults, the Lovegood family had a unique way of coping with coexistence with the unreal.

On the other hand, Hermione and Hannah's reactions to the Mirror of Erised were much more subdued.

As Albus Dumbledore explained in the original timeline:

The happiest people in the world could use the Mirror of Erised as an ordinary mirror, because it reflected the deepest, most intense definition of 'happiness' in people's hearts—in other words, the happier people were, the harder it was to immerse themselves in the illusory world in the mirror.

Compared to Luna and Aileen, Hermione and Hannah obviously didn't have any strong desires that they couldn't obtain for the time being.

Especially after they were promoted to "reserve Major Arcana," most things in this world with clear price tags lost their meaning.

"Okay, the tour is over, let's play something else."

A few minutes later, Aileen clapped her hands, smiling and saying in a relaxed tone.

She had no desire to know what Hermione and Hannah saw in the mirror.

The Mirror of Erised had quite a few limitations, and it would change according to the user's state of mind and life experiences.

In the eyes of children who had not yet seen the future clearly and had no regrets, the Mirror of Erised was more for fun.

However, if it appeared in certain people's hands, under certain circumstances, the role it could play would be completely different.

After thinking for a few seconds, Aileen turned to look at Luna next to her and said softly.

"Luna, take one last look at it. Starting tomorrow, it should be moving to a new place.

"If nothing else, it will be temporarily stored deep in the inner world of Succubus City as a new SCP containment item. If you want to see it again in the future, it may take a lot of procedures. The desire for such ethereal things can only turn into a beacon of the future in a specific environment."

"No, this is fine."

Luna paused for a moment, looking at the mysterious mirror, then shook her head firmly and replied softly.

"Mom is just hiding, in my and Dad's hearts, in the mirror, around us—didn't you say that? The Mirror of Erised reflects the deepest images in each of our hearts, and just like what we see in the mirror, they have never left."

"...That's right."

Aileen looked at Luna quietly and nodded with a soft smile.

Then, she pulled out her wand, turned towards the huge mirror, and waved it gently.

(→?→)つ—☆【Shrinking Charm】

The Mirror of Erised, which originally reached the ceiling, quickly shrank, and in less than a few seconds, it quickly turned into a small square mirror the size of a palm.

As Hogwarts' public storage room, the items here had no ownership—Aileen picked up the miniature version of the Mirror of Erised and put it in her chest without any guilt, raised her hand and snapped her fingers lightly, summoning back the reserve food that was flying around in the air.

"Let's go out, prepare to reset this room, and try a new room."

"Reset?"

Hannah asked curiously.

"Of course, remember what I said before? This is... the Room of Requirement."

Aileen nodded, her eyes sparkling with bright light, surveying the endless space around her.

"We happen to be free this Christmas, so let's try its limits and record how many worlds it has. And, to what extent it can do things. Starting with you, Hannah, we will each make a wish in turn and imagine any scene."

Compared to the mere illusion of the Mirror of Erised, the Room of Requirement was a wish-granting room that truly responded to "wishes".

Most importantly, based on the information currently available, it was still a wishing well with no cooldown and no upper limit.

Aileen took Luna's hand and led Hermione and Hannah out of the room.

…………

Eighth floor of Hogwarts Castle, the corridor where the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy is being walloped by trolls.

As Aileen and the others stepped out of the "Room of Requirement - Dump" door, the door disappeared directly.

Behind them was a smooth, solid white wall, with no sign of any hidden passage—obviously, this was completely different from the passage leading to Professor Dumbledore's office. This was a true magical secret passage, rather than some kind of mechanism disguised by magic.

"So, let's start with you this time, Hannah."

Aileen raised her right hand and snapped her fingers lightly, summoning four small slates.

As she spoke, she distributed the slates to each of the little witches and explained seriously.

"We will each record the wish in our minds on it, as well as the appearance of the corresponding room that appears at the end—when the test is over, we will go back to the dormitory to summarize. For example, just now: 'A place to hide things', 'Room of Requirement - Dump', scene description..."

What Hogwarts, or rather the magical world, lacked was not profound magic, nor outstanding witches and wizards.

What most wizards lacked was scientific logical thinking.

Science has never been opposed to magic, nor is it on the same level.

It was quite ironic that, if one looked closely at the origins, wizards were actually the first group of people in human civilization to involve scientific concepts.

Whether it was the alchemists of the Middle Ages, the spell masters of earlier times, or even the ancient wizards of the earliest times of human civilization, those called prophets, shamans, sorcerers, and witches... they had been exploring and deciphering the rules of this world.

And what Aileen was doing now was just allowing the torch of human wisdom to once again radiate the light of magic.

As for the starting point of the revival, it was naturally—A Certain Scientific Hogwarts.

"Then I'll start? Um, I want, um... a place to store a lot of wine?"

Under Aileen's encouraging gaze, Hannah imitated the white-haired dumpling and walked back and forth along the corridor three times.

The next moment, the door that had just disappeared reappeared silently before their eyes.

They looked at each other, reached out, and turned the brass handle.

"Wow, incredible—"

Hannah stepped into the room, shocked at the completely different new room inside.

The cathedral-like space full of clutter from a few minutes ago had disappeared.

It was replaced by a long, narrow wine cellar that stretched as far as the eye could see, with a faint aroma of wine permeating the space.

Glug—

Hannah's throat bobbed a few times, and she looked longingly at the rows of wine barrels.

As the future heir of the Leaky Cauldron, her intuition was telling her how delicious these wines were.

"Cough, you can't drink them—minors can't drink alcohol—"

Aileen glanced at Hannah, who was eager to try, raised her finger, and said with a serious face.

"Except on Christmas Day, not at any other time. I don't want to be caught by Professor Dumbledore smelling of alcohol—if that happens, we're all done for. Even if we don't get detention, the result of telling our parents might be even worse, right?"

"Um, okay—"

Hannah reluctantly took her eyes off the tempting-looking wine barrels.

"Then let's start checking and recording? I have experience with this, I occasionally help with inventory."

According to the previous plan, in addition to summoning different rooms, they had to explore them.

They walked back and forth in the wine cellar while writing down serious notes on the slates.

"Record: 'Place to store wine', 'Room of Requirement - Wine Cellar'."

"Estimated wine storage..."

"Floor area..."

…………

Half an hour later.

The corridor at the entrance of the Room of Requirement.

"Um, let me see... library, magical creature arena, cultivation room, spell classroom, small playground..."

Aileen recited the records on the slate one by one, tapping lightly on it with a quill, as if thinking.

Just as she had guessed before, the Room of Requirement could faithfully realize most conventional scenes.

Even the "magical creature arena," which sounded a little strange, after several detailed descriptions of the wish, they finally completed the record as they wished with the help of the unknown magic of the castle: a large arena almost as big as a Quidditch pitch.

On the other hand, Aileen had almost figured out the rules of the Room of Requirement.

First of all, wizards could not limit or require anything in the Room of Requirement; they could only propose the functional requirements of the room.

For example, if they wanted to reach the "Room of Requirement - Wine Cellar", they had to go through "finding a place specifically to store wine", rather than "I want to go to a place with wine".

This also cut off Aileen's attempt to summon nuclear reactors, planetary engines, and the like.

Secondly, the Room of Requirement could not respond to certain vague, subjective special wishes.

The simplest example was that the Room of Requirement could not create a room exuding a high concentration of Amortentia, nor could it conjure up a "scary" room. The Room of Requirement could not understand any wish involving subjective feelings.

Of course, it could still create a door.

But inside was a relatively strange room, such as a potion-brewing room, or a dark room with no light.

Finally, and most importantly, the Room of Requirement "read" the most fundamental ideas.

Or, more accurately—primitive desires.

"Human desires are limitless. Even the most simple ones, quantitative changes will lead to qualitative changes."

Aileen looked at the white wall with a playful expression, and the little devil in her heart began to flap her wings and wag her tail involuntarily.

Perhaps she could start trying some more complex, difficult "wishes".

But she should start with reasonable but slightly difficult simple wishes, and then gradually narrow the scope...

Aileen wrote seriously on the slate:

"I need a place large enough to dock, repair, and maintain the 'Hyperion Battle Group'."

————

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Hooray! No break!

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