CHAPTER 2 - Tales from Halloween and The Quidditch Enigma
Harry was exhausted. Days of studying, spending time exhausting himself practicing spells. He was practicing the stunning spell against a pillow in his room, time after time the spell being too weak. He hadn't left his room pretty much the whole day except for meals. It was getting on his nerves. He was well into the evening, before:
"Harry! You there?" Harry immediately recognized Daphne's voice. "Yeah, give me a second, I'll open the door.". He quickly shuffled to the door, legs and body weak. He opened the door to see a worried Daphne.
"You haven't been out all day! Blaise has been telling me that you've been practicing spells in your rooms after school, too?"
Harry groaned, but reluctantly admitted that maybe he had been practicing a little too hard. He was so fixated on being the best wizard, for accomplishing things, that he had neglected his friends.
"That too, it's the Hallow's eve feast! Did you even notice the decorations in the great hall?"
"Yeees...?" Harry said hesitatingly
From the look on Daphne's face he knew he hadn't given a satisfactory answer. Daphne grabbed him by the hand, quite forcefully, and dragged him out of the room.
"What Daphne! I get it, I get it okay!" Harry tried pleading with her, but it was no use. She dragged him out, into the common room, and he felt the pointed looks from the other slytherins. He was making quite a commotion after all.
Blaise was standing there, waiting.
"You managed to get him!? I've been trying and calling him all week, but suddenly when you show up he's suddenly some social butterfly?"
Daphne smirked. "Maybe I just have a charm to me that you don't. Right Harry?"
"Uhhhhhh…"
Daphne punched him in the arm. "Either way, we're all going to the Hall for the feast." They headed out of the common room, and to the Great Hall.
When Harry reached, he was astonished, to say the least. The hall was decorated with pumpkins of all sizes, the lighting a distinct colour of greenish orange that gave off an eerie effect. Harry was actually somewhat glad that Daphne and Blaise had brought him out, actually.
He saw Ron by himself, and decided to excuse himself from his friends for a moment.
"How are you doing?" Harry started the conversation.
"Pretty good, Harry. I feel kind of a jerk though." Ron said, looking down, slightly guiltily
"Why?" Harry questioned
"I may have said some things about Hermione, that may or may not have resulted in her crying in the girl's bathroom…" Harry sighed. Ron was definitely in the wrong for what he did, but he just couldn't figure out why Hermione was so socially inadept. Could she not spare the class from her knowledge, even once? Could she not act condescendingly towards her classmates even once? He wondered if she was this isolated when she was a muggle. Had she been like him? Alone?
After some more small talk with Ron, Harry headed back to the slytherin table.
"Ugh, Gryffindor favouritism yet again." Draco's voice was quite distinct. Harry turned around.
"What Happened?" Harry asked, trying to sound as unaware and innocent as possible.
"Well, remember that trap I set up? The brilliant one where they were supposed to be caught by Filch? It's been a few days, and it doesn't even look like they lost points for it."
"Are you sure they were caught?" Harry asked, again trying to sound neutral
"Do you really think a Weasley like him would be smart enough to avoid getting caught? No, it must be the doing of that Dumbledore. I must write to my father about this." Harry wondered how Draco seemed smug even when he was annoyed.
He dug in to the food, and Blaise was halfway through a joke when-
"TROLL! TROLL IN THE DUNGEONS!" Professor Quirrel collapsed on the floor dramatically, after slamming the doors open. He and his purple turban lay on the floor, unmoving. It seemed like he had fainted, and Harry wasn't really surprised considering the quality of his classes.
The entire Great Hall erupted into chaos. Students scrambled, gossiped, and some of the braver gryffindors looked quite disturbed.
"SILENCE!" Harry looked to see Dumbledore's full figure, standing up at the mast of the teacher's table. Harry guessed he had been headmaster long enough to know how to diffuse a situation like this.
"Prefects, lead your students back to your dorms. Make sure everyone is accounted for. The teachers and myself will head to the dungeons."
"What about the slytherins!" someone shouted. Harry facepalmed, and realized that the troll was in the dungeons, where the slytherin common room was.
"Apologies, slytherin prefects please lead the students to the study hall. While we deal with this matter."
Huge hordes of students lined up, separated by house, and were escorted outside. Harry was about to leave, but realized - HERMIONE! He immediately sprang some excuse to Blaise and ran towards the gryffindor section.
"Harry, what are you-" Harry grabbed the lapel of his shirt.
"Hermione, Ron, Hermione doesn't know about the troll!"
Ron's face went pale with fear.
"First the dog, now this? Our luck seems pretty bleak, huh Harry." Harry and him both knew the importance of the matter, so they both broke off from the crowd as inconspicuously as possible. Harry took no time to see Blaise and Daphne's reaction.
They ran towards the direction of the girl's bathroom, and suddenly, they stopped. They saw a large shadow from the corridor opposite, fit with a club, and heard footsteps, loud and booming. They both looked at each other in terror.
They ducked behind the corner, and watched in horror as it trudged into the girl's bathroom, the ugly beast, a demi-human with a club dragging behind it's every booming step.
They looked at each other yet again, and with as much gryffindor courage they could muster ran into the bathroom and charged forward.
They heard a scream as the Troll broke the lavatory stall doors, Hermione crawling in-between.
"Take this you great brute!" Ron picked up some debris from the ground, and threw it at the back of the troll's head. He instantly regretted it though, as the troll now had its attention on him. It swung its club, but Ron was able to narrowly dodge the swing that would have at least given him a guaranteed concussion.
"Ron, stay back!" Harry tried to exude as much confidence as he could muster. "Stupefy!" Harry casted, and his heartbeat rose sharply as he saw the proper red spell shoot out. Unfortunately, he hadn't realized that the troll's skin was hard enough to repel spells and almost had his head taken off with another swing. The troll grunted angrily.
Harry's mind went into overdrive. What could he do? The blood decomposition spell? He berated himself. He didn't even know the incantation, and odds were that he would hit Ron and Hermione with it.
He had no time left to think as he couldn't dodge the last troll swing as it came down on his left arm, shattering multiple bones, making him scream in pain. Ron and Hermione looked at his broken and bloodied shoulder with horror, their innocence seemingly fading.
Harry was angry. He was angry at this demi-human, this ugly beast that had even touched him. This ugly brute wasn't on the same level on him. This beast deserved no mercy. He gave out a sharp battle cry.
"Reducto! Reducto! Reducto!" Harry watched as spells flew out of his wand, bombarding the troll over and over again. He knew this wasn't the best option, but it would at least put the troll out of commission for now. From his readings, he knew the best way to kill the troll would be either dark magic, which he had no access to, or the use of sharp implements to sever his joints. He could not use either.
He only had knowledge of the second year spells, and had only really practised the first year spells along with some basic defensive spells like reducto and stupefy to prevent the older slytherins from getting any ideas.
He racked his brain with the new given time. He knew the weakness of the troll was its intelligence, and he suddenly formulated a plan.
"Diffindo!" Harry bellowed with his remaining strength, his throat hoarse from screaming. The curse severed the troll's eyes immediately. It clutched at his now lost eyes, whining pitifully.
Harry knew he had to put it out of its misery. "Diffindo!" With no eyes to see the spell, the troll could not block or counterattack, and the simple severing spell, taught in second year-charms was able to finally sever its head from its neck partially, before it's head fell off and rolled on the floor, blood everywhere. Harry winced before collapsing.
"Just what is going on here?" Mcgonagall's voice echoed. The scene was bloody; Harry's arm lay crumpled on the floor, as he was breathing heavily, Hermione in one corner of the room, huddled, Ron in the other, the corpse of the troll laying there, a signal of the bloodstained victory that happened.
Harry was able to sit up for a mere second. "I killed it!" He said, smiling, laughing a bit, before promptly passing out. The professors were horrified. Snape begrudgingly admired Harry's work. A first year, taking down a fully-grown mountain troll?
Harry awoke in the hospital wing a day and a half later, Blaise and Daphne by his side.
"He's up!" Blaise exclaimed. They both were relieved beyond belief. Madam Pomfrey had been furious, as usual, but that hadn't stopped the pair.
"Ughhh… what time is it?" Harry asked groggily.
"It has been exactly two days, Harry. You're the talk of the school!" Blaise grinned.
Harry was slightly proud, but at the same time his left arm ached too much for him to be able to put out a smile.
The door opened and Harry saw Dumbledore, Snape, and Mcgonagall walk in.
"Ah Harry, my dear boy, you're finally awake!" Dumbledore said, a familiar yet slightly unnerving twinkle in his eyes.
"Awake yet still feeling like a brick" Harry responded quite snidely.
"Yes,yes, I will leave you to your steady recovery, but first, I'm afraid that we have a few questions for you, administrative business and all that." Dumbledore responded.
Snape sneered. "Why were you battling the troll?" Mcgonagall asked, looking at him quite suspiciously.
"Unfortunately, my good friend Ron," Snape almost choked, "happened to make a mistake in his words, and managed to quite upset Granger, who was in the girl's bathroom. When the news of the troll was announced, we both rushed over there to try and save her. And by the way, if we hadn't done that, you would have had a dead student instead of an injured one."
Mcgonagall was surprised, but wasn't shocked. She had known that Hermione would have a rough time, but it saddened her that her own house was the perpetrator of her isolation.
"But what made you think that two first-years could take down a fully grown mountain troll?" Snape drawled
"I mean no disrespect sir, but we did take down a fully-grown mountain troll. Or at least, I did." Harry grinned, and Mcgonagall internally sighed. It seemed that even though Harry was a slytherin, he still had the infuriating Potter charisma. She looked over to Snape, who's eyebrow was twitching furiously.
"May I ask, Harry, what spells you used to take it down?" Dumbledore asked, but Harry knew that he was being tested.
"I used reducto sir, and I used diffindo as I had been reading up on the second year charms textbook and thought it was appropriate."
Dumbledore seemed to stare into his eyes for eternity before answering.
"Very well done, Harry, superb charms work. I'm sure both of your parents, especially your mother would have been very proud. Both of them had a penchant for wandwork that seems to have been passed down to you, the only exception being your mother's very potent ability in potions."
"Thank you sir. May I take my rest now?"
"Please do. Madam Pomfrey will inform you whether you can attend tomorrow's classes, I'm sure we have intruded enough."
Dumbledore and the teachers walked out, mostly with unsatisfactory answers.
"Albus, that boy is truly an enigma, isn't he?" Mcgonagall probed.
"I'm not sure what you mean, Minerva, he seems like quite the normal student to me. Exceptional, yes, truly exceptional, but nothing… outside of possibility or expectation. He reminds me quite of myself, indeed he does." Albus answered, still deep in thought.
"While I do admit that perhaps the boy is slightly above average in his ability, you two are unnecessarily flattering him. Did you see that grin back there? The mirror image of his father." Snape retorted.
"Yes, the image of James, except for the eyes. His mother's." Mcgonagall finished the conversation on a more somber note.
"Now, what in the HELL WERE YOU THINKING HARRY!" Daphne almost blew a blood vessel, her anger coming off her in waves.
Harry stood there, ashamed.
"It's not that you ran off to save Granger like some idiotic, lunatic, crazed Gryffindor, it's not that you managed to bloody think you could take down a troll, which by the amount of reading you do, you're familiar with it. You walked off without telling us. Not so much as a word. Could you imagine what would have happened if you had died? About our place in the house? The friends of Harry Potter, unable to stop him from running headfirst into a mountain troll? Hell they might have even thought we set it up ourselves!"
"Well, if we wanted to get rid of him it would have been a good-" Blaise stopped speaking after a particularly venomous glare from Daphne.
"I'm… sorry." Harry mumbled, feeling extremely guilty. He now realized why the hat had offered him Gryffindor as well as Slytherin. As ambitious as he was, he was at the very least reckless and thoughtless in tricky situations.
Throughout the rest of the week, he noticed many, many pointed stares. The troll incident had not been announced publicly, but after he had earned almost a hundred house points (Professor Snape had tried to make it two hundred, but Professor Mcgonagall would not allow "staunch shows of favouritism", apparently) and Ron Weasley not so subtly announcing to the rest of the school that he witnessed the next coming of Merlin strike down all evil that had ever descended upon the earth, most people knew that Harry had taken down the troll. He was pleased, of course, but he was also a bit annoyed that he would have to deal with being feared on top of already being a public figure in a weird situation.
The teachers, of course, were shocked; they had not seen anything of this proportion in their lifetimes teaching at the school, much less prowess like this from a first-year. Of course, Harry was nowhere close to some of the prodigies of the age, but very little prodigies or geniuses were able to accomplish such great feats so young. Harry reckoned the teachers would be keeping a closer eye on him, and debated whether that was a good or bad thing.
Harry kept pacing his room. What to do, what to do? He had finally hit a roadblock in his reading. Madam Pince simply refused to lend books to him from the restricted section, and he had finished pretty much everything he could get his hands on elsewhere.
He suddenly wanted to bang his head. THE BOOK! What had he been doing? He had forgotten the book that he had purchased at Diagon Alley, and suddenly his curiosity flared.
Over the next months, Harry spent his time pouring over the book religiously, reading. He had not yet decided whether to start learning the spells. They were dark magic, for sure, but what were the odds he got into a situation like the troll again, and could not defend himself? He had been lucky, and he vowed that next time he would be more prepared. Ugh. Where was the line?
He knew if he asked Daphne or Blaise, they would immediately warn him off. Going to the teachers would be like suicide. Snape? No. He was a teacher, despite his differences, and even if he didn't report Harry to Dumbledore there was no way he would get away with no consequence.
He decided to wander the grounds.
"Harry, what's up?" Blaise appeared as Harry was leaving his room, seeming to have just woken up
"I'm just going… to head out." Harry rushed past him. As close as he was with Blaise, he just didn't want to talk to him.
Blaise wondered what was going on with his friend. He knew something was off instinctively, but he didn't have the knowledge nor maturity to go about how he could solve Harry's problems.
Daphne had woken up about an hour ago to the sounds of her roommates bickering. She had a few friends, and Tracy, but to be very honest, it wasn't like Pansy Parkinson was very good company.
'So what if she's friends with him? It's not like it's a crime-"
"She's fraternizing with the enemy. Do you know how many parents of kids in our grade his actions put in Azkaban?" Parkinson cut Tracey off.
Daphne rubbed her eyes, and continued to listen.
"I still don'-"
"Of course you wouldn't. You're only a half-blood, after all. That's your muggle side speaking." Parkinson was on a rampage, and she knew that Tracey was quite timid normally.
"Parkinson, if you have a problem with me, say it to my face. Don't use my friends." Daphne had finally entered the conversation, trying to draw attention away from her friend.
"You know what you're doing is wrong, right? I hear the upper-years talking about it. If you're not a traitor, you're at the very least exceptionally unintelligent. Be neutral with him? Sure. Ally with him? That's pushing at him. You're putting a target on your back, and it's a big one."
Daphne was left to think. She had never thought of herself as an extremely emotional person, but her connection with Harry was leaving her open, Parkinson was right about that.
Harry was walking around the grounds when he noticed Hagrid's hut. He realized he hadn't talked to Hagrid in a while, and decided to head down there to see if he was there.
Hagrid was outside, hacking something that looked like the remnants of a carved pumpkin.
"Eh? 'Arry, is tha' you? Haven't seen you fer a while! Heard you been getting up to all sorts of business, what with the troll and all." Hagrid seemed pretty jolly, but Hagrid was jolly most of the time, so Harry wasn't surprised.
"Yeah… I've been pretty busy lately."
"Well, you wanna come in for a cuppa of tea? The kettles boiling." Hagrid's invitation surprised Harry, but he guessed he had nothing better to do anyway.
Hagrid's hut was a quaint place, but nonetheless a cozy one. Small, but robust at the same time. Harry actually found he rather liked the experience. Something about the organization and cleanliness of his room had left him missing a more untouched, natural vibe from his living quarters. That, and he hadn't been going outside all that much.
"Hagrid, you fought against Voldemort, right?" Harry surprised himself by being so forward, but his mind's gears were turning and he needed some advice, even if it was Hagrid.
"Don't say his name. But yer. I fought against him, alongside your family, many others and Dumbledore." Hagrid's face seemed to be a bit darker as he poured the tea for both of them.
"Were you guys winning?" Harry had genuinely wondered how the war had went, before Voldemort had been vanquished.
"No. That was the thing. We 'er all trying our hardest, but at the end of the day, he had gotten his grasp on so many o' the "old guard". Purebloods and the like. Telling em that the problem was muggleborns. He wiped out so many families, so many. That was where you came in. The saviour of the wizarding world, just a l'il baby.." Hagrid seemed to look pensive.
"Did you fight?"
"I couldn't fight very hard Harry. I didn't have a proper wand, for starters, but most people were in the same situation. They knew too many spells, too many dark ones, and half the time we didn't know what they were throwing at us until one of us got hit and we had to pick up what was left of 'em." Hagrid seemed slightly suspicious now. "Why do you want to know so much about the war and stuff?"
"I just wondered, you know, what was life like for my parents."
"Oh 'Arry. Don't worry, they were full of life before they were… done in. Ain't nobody who didn't see their happiness, Lily and James."
The rest of the visit happened without event. Harry thanked Hagrid and went his way. He had his answer.
It was defense against the dark arts with the Gryffindors, and yet again, Harry was bored out of his skull. Professor Quirrel was a quivering mess most of the time, and the most he'd got out of it was his tales about vampires, apparently the reasoning for why he smelt like garlic all the time.
"Class dis- dismissed. No homewor- homework. For to- today." Quirrel seemed as pathetic as always, Harry thought. But he quickly reprimanded himself. He didn't know when he had developed such a pessimistic outlook on his teachers.
"Not a minute too soon, Eh Harry?" Ron packed his bag and was ready to head out alongside Harry.
"Just one second, Po - Potter." Harry was surprised. He had never seen Quirrell call a student to stay. He told Ron to go ahead and stayed behind.
"Yes Professor?" Harry tried to gauge his face, but he couldn't
"It has come to my attention.. That you are quite a gifted student. I couldn't help but wonder if you have been doing any other practice in defense other than what we have done in class." Professor Quirrel seemed quite serious, off-tone from his usual demeanour.
"Not really Professor… I tried some of the second year spells, sure, but they were too hard for me… I'll probably wait for next year." Harry tried to play it as cool as he could.
"Very well. That will be all." Quirrell looked slightly disappointed, a fact Harry just attributed to him having hoped that Harry had gone to greater lengths to further his knowledge of the subject.
Harry left the room, slightly relieved that he would not have to deal with any teachers knocking on his dorm room.
"Master, the boy said it himself. I do not think that he is more than just a mere first-year. An absurdly lucky one, but a first-year nonetheless."
"We shall seee….. The boy had an… inhibition towards revealing his ability. I do not think we have seen his true ability just yet. Do not discount him. I made that mistake eleven years ago."
The first flying lesson had finally rolled around. Harry hadn't been anticipating this for long, but Blaise had been excited for weeks. From what he had heard, Ron had too. Daphne didn't seem all that interested though. Actually, she had been acting off as late. More distant. One-word answers to him and Blaise, spending more time with the slytherin girls, and just overall ambivalence. Blaise had said it was just a phase, but Harry wasn't convinced at all. I am Madam Hooch, and I will be holding your flying lessons. As you all can see, there are brooms lying on the floor. Please take positions near the broom." The class lined up, trying to be as orderly as they could. Hermione was sitting next to Ron, surprising Harry. He would have thought the two would avoid each other as much as possible after the troll episode. Malfoy had taken his positions next to his goons, Crabbe and Goyle. Harry had hoped that they would remain to be friends, but the slytherin spirit had finally taken him over completely.
"On the count of three, I would like you to hold out your broom and say 'Up', which will bring the broom to you." Many in the class tried it, many to no avail. Harry got it first try, noticing that Malfoy, Ron and Blaise had as well. He looked around further and saw most of the kids from the pureblood families had done it without so much as blinking. His other classmates, including Neville and Hermione didn't seem to be so lucky.
Harry examined the broom. It was
He looked away for a second, before-
"Mr. Longbottom! WHAT ARE YOU DOING! Mr. Longbottom!" Madam Hooch angrily tried to stop Neville, but it was too late. He had already mounted and was off, higher, and higher. Harry honestly felt sorry for the boy. Malfoy burst into laughter. Neville suddenly lurched forward and fell several stories, only catching the back of his robes on an arch before falling to the ground.
"Blast it. He's got a broken wrist. I'm taking him to the hospital wing. The rest of you, stay here and keep your feet firmly on the ground. If I find someone on a broom, the one riding it will find themselves out of Hogwarts before they can say quidditch."
She was gone quickly, helping Neville up the stairs.
"D'ya see his face? Maybe if the fat lump had given this a squeeze he'd have remembered to fall on his fat arse!" Malfoy was being insufferable today.
"Malfoy, you don't have to do this." Harry tried resignedly to calm the situation before it got too out of hand.
"Oh I think I do Potter. Where do you think I should throw this? Up a tree? On the roof?"
"That's enough." Harry had had enough with Draco's antics. "Accio remembrall!" The ball zoomed towards Harry. He caught it in his right arm.
"Where did you learn that spell?" Harry heard Hermione to his right, sounding quite envious.
"Fourth year textbook. First thing I learnt. What's the use of magic if you can't summon things for yourself?" Harry replied, wishing not to disclose too much.
"Well Potter, looks like the muggleborn side of you has finally started to show up. I thought you were different, you know, a true slytherin, but you're just like your blood traitor family." Draco seemed extremely wounded that somebody had stolen his moment.
"Take it back Draco." Harry was calm.
"Potte-"
"Take it back." Harry said it more firmly the second time. Draco backed off a bit and stormed away. He seemed to remember his and Harry's first interactions, but Harry had a feeling that he wouldn't be hearing the end of Draco.
"Professor Snape would like to speak with you, Harry." Blaise voice echoed across the common room as he entered.
"What for? I'm not in trouble, am I?" Harry asked
"It's probably nothing. Wait, actually, on second thought, it's probably about the Malfoy thing. Make sure to stand your ground if he questions you, though. Malfoy was being a prat, everyone in the house knows it." Blaise seemed slightly scared for Harry, though Harry could tell he was trying to keep it together.
Harry exited the common room, and headed down towards Snape's office.
"I presume you know why you are here?" Snape asked him as he entered.
"I'm not sure sir bu-"
"Then your accomplishments have gone to your head Potter! Drop the act. We both know it. Slytherin is feared by every other house, and you pick a fight with a fellow house member in public? Disputes are supposed to be settled in-house."
"But sir! Draco was out of line! What he was doing to Neville was-"
"I don't care. We settle disputes in Slytherin. Regardless of what he was doing, you could have handled it much better."
"Sorry sir." Snape sighed.
"I had Lucius Malfoy on my case. I presume you know about him?" Harry nodded.
"Then you shall not cross Draco again. I am saying this as much for your sake as mine."
"Yes sir."
"There is another reason I called you here." Harry's heart started beating fast.
"Yes?"
"That spellwork," Harry started to shake his head "Do not deny it. You have been furthering yourself much more than just an overeager student."
"I guess, sir."
"I do not recommend you go further than what you know. It is satisfactory for now."
"Yes sir."
And with that, Harry was dismissed from Snape's office. He had gotten out of it with less consequences than he supposed he would get.
The months were getting colder and colder. Harry had just finished his day of lessons, which ended with charms on the fourth floor. Mr. Flitwick seemed to be very happy with his progress, but Harry wasn't particularly proud. With the amount of time he had put into charms, he wasn't all that surprised. What he did get a kick out of, however, was the constant stares of jealousy from Hermione whenever he completed a task faster than everyone else.
"Harry, I've gotta go ask Mrs. Mccgonagall something, I'll see you later!" Blaise headed in the opposite direction to Harry.
It felt like years had passed since the start of the year. Daphne had completely withdrawn from the group, much to Harry's dismay. She was no longer the bright, sunny person he remembered. The last conversation he had had with her had been a month and a half ago.
Harry walked through the common room. There, sitting on the couch, was Daphne, reading a book. Or as people had started calling her, the "ice queen" of the first year. She had stopped talking to him and Blaise almost completely. Instead of the bright, bubbly look she normally had, she now had a face of neutrality; she rarely showed an emotion, and if she did, it was almost always a negative one.
"Daphne, what's up? How's everything going?" Harry hoped for an answer, trying to strike a conversation.
"Nothing, Harry." She hadn't even looked up from her book
"Is there anything we did wrong? Or anything we could -"
"There is nothing. It is probably best for both of us if you ended this conversation." Harry was hurt, as he was cut off.
"Fine then. I guess we just aren't friends anymore." Harry was trying his best to keep his cool
"Sounds good to me." Daphne had still yet to look up from her book.
Harry had finally found the resolve to finish what he had been planning to start. It was time, he thought. Time to delve into… darker things. Purely academically, of course. He remembered with fear the troll, and remembered Hagrid's tale. What if something like that happened again? In order to defeat the dark arts, he needed to understand them.
But who would help? It wasn't like he could ask a professor, and he didn't know or want to know anyone was deeply associated with the dark arts.
Either way, he started heading to the staircase down to the common room, but unfortunately he was diverted by the moving stairs, changing his direction from down to up, straight to the sixth floor. Figuring he had nothing better to do anyway, he continued walking.
He reached the sixth floor corridor, and found it empty. Everyone had already left for their dorms. He liked the isolation, and started pacing the corridor over and over, still deep in thought.
He needed a way to practice the spells safely, and without the notice of teachers. How was he supposed to accomplish that?
He suddenly stopped when he noticed it. A door, appearing out of nowhere, visualizing in the side of the corridor.
"What the…" Harry wasn't sure what to expect as he slowly pushed open the door to find an empty room, save for two practice dummies. "What is this place?" Harry couldn't stop himself from uttering the words aloud. Suddenly, a podium popped out in front of him. A book on top read "The room of requirement - a beginner's guide".
Harry had no idea what he had discovered. But he knew he had made a breakthrough. A breakthrough in his everlasting pursuit for knowledge and ambition.
A/N: I have a bad habit of abandoning projects. It's extremely hard for me to continue writing something and feel like it's as good of a quality as how I imagined it. I'm not sure this new chapter is, still, to be very honest. But I'm trying. And I figure if I'm having fun, might as well throw out another chapter of a horrendous fanfiction onto the internet. God knows there are too many already.