Harry Potter One Shots

3. Caving || James Sirius Potter

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June 2025

"Landon, could you move all these items to room 36A? They're all sorted out in the storage room so it shouldn't be too hard. We've finally got ourselves some work." Claudia, Head of the Magical Artifacts Department, shoved a piece of parchment to my chest, brushing past me to hand out some more papers to our co-workers. Looking down, I saw that it was a list and I skimmed my eyes over the information provided alongside the objects. My eyebrows rose.

Apparently, after more than a decade since it was last visited, the Ministry has succesfully rediscovered the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts, every item inside somehow unscorched by the Fiendfyre that ravaged the place during the war.

The reason of the room's sudden resurfacing was unknown, but it did leave us with one thing in certain: plenty of work for the people in the Magical Artifacts Department. That meant me, and every single one of my co-workers who have been itching to inspect something other than soon to be released wizarding products, was finally gifted with indulging work.

Examining the list, I proceeded to the storage room where all the items were just recently delivered. A few people scurried to and from, levitating books and portraits along with broken pieces of furniture, the vast space of the storage room suddenly bigger than ever before and something about it sparked excitement in my chest. I ventured further into the room, examining the seemingly endless variations of items in glee and I had to continuously remind myself to sort out my priorities.

Roaming the area, I checked the grouped items labeled with their respective room assignments, but my eyes strained to find the ones labeled 36A. I must have scoured through the room twice now, and I'm quite certain I didn't fail to miss a labeled card seeing as almost half of the objects were already brought to their examination rooms by their inspectors.

"Looking for something?" asked a voice from behind me and I froze.

Again?

I slowly turned around and held out the paper to James Potter's face, keeping a blank expression on my features.

He took it into his hand, gave it a once over, and returned it with a sheepish chuckle. I crossed my arms.

"About that..." he pressed a hand to his forehead. "I forgot to tell Claudia to tell you that I moved them to your room in advance. I thought I'd just save you the hassle and I left them in your working area. I'm sorry."

I sighed, gently waving off his apology. "It's fine." I pivoted on my heels and headed for the exit, completely aware of the pair of footsteps that followed me. "Although I am perfectly capable of moving the items on my own," I muttered, just loud enough for him to hear.

Having worked in the Ministry for almost three years, the repetitive nature of my job has lead me to consider quitting countless of times before, but I'd never actually gotten the final push I needed to do so. However, when James moved into the building as one of the Ministry's newest Aurors, he's taken to visiting me every chance he could and to be honest, I'm not sure how I managed to stay in my job for a whole year and see his carefree smile trying to return what used to be between us during our time at Hogwarts.

Finally emerging into the halls, I walked down the line of doors and found room 36A.

"Aberto," I casted wandlessly and the door swung open.

"Been practicing now, haven't we?" he said as I stepped into the space.

I shrugged. "Work gets boring sometimes."