Harry panted as he made a small dagger out of blood. It was the second week of school. And he had gone from barely being able to make a few drops of blood move to making small daggers and in much less time. He had taken to practicing in an abandoned classroom something there seemed to be an abundance of in the castle. He also worked on making them more durable and sharper currently he had trouble piecing a table with his dagger and he doubted a table was more durable than a demon.
A negative of his summer slaying of demons was that the other students interest in him returned once more. It seemed every time the fame and attention that came with being the boy-who-lived began to disappear something made it come back in full force.
The door opened and Harry turned around with his wand drawn, he only relaxed it when he saw it was Dumbledore. "Hello professor," He nodded before looking around the room sheepishly, there were a bunch of destroyed chairs and ruined desks in the room. "I would offer you a seat but…" he trailed off embarrassed.
"No matter." Dumbledore shrugged flicking his wand and summoning a large chair comfy chair before sitting down. With another flick of his wand he summoned a chair for Harry.
He took the seat nervously. "Um not to be rude professor but-um-what are you doing here?"
"Just making sure it was you in here, the castle alerted me to the repeated use of blood magic in this area and while I was sure it was you I decided to make sure." He told Harry and he sighed in relief good he wasn't in trouble.
"Oh I thought I might have been in trouble for using the classroom without permission."
Dumbledore chuckled and looked around the room. "I remember doing something similar when I was a student here, in fact I think it was only a few classrooms down from here." He mused looking out the window. "But no matter. How is your training going my boy?" He asked.
"It is going fine I think." Harry said he had no bases for how fast he was learning. He could be learning faster than anyone in history or slower than a snail he had no reference point. He drew his knife and cut his palm and held the wound open with the knife. In a few seconds he had formed a dagger it was nothing fancy but it was a far cry from the pointy sticks he was making before.
Dumbledore looked at the dagger curiously. "Have you considered trying to practice wandless magic to improve your speed?" Dumbledore asked. "I believe it may help." he offered before standing up. "But I must be off, please do make sure to place a few spells on the door to make sure no one wanders in. it would not do have a student in the hospital wing because of a careless spell." he advised and Harry nodded taking it heart he would look up a few basic warding spells before his next training session.
"Professor!" he called before the old man could leave.
"Yes Harry?" he said stopping at the door.
"Why are the spiders still down there?"
Dumbledore sighed so he noticed. "The ministry refuses to acknowledge that there is a legitimate threat down there that has managed to hide for a thousand years from hundreds of headmasters." so politicians refusing to see trouble in even when it was obvious good to know some things never changed whether or not he was in the wizarding world or not.
"I used the remains of the basilisk to set up a barrier to hold them back till the summer. I have been contacting old friends to help me deal with them then." he told Harry, of course the dementors did not help at all they seemed to sense something on the grounds and it kept drawing them closer to the school, if a single student was attacked the ministry reputation be damned he would drive them all off himself.
After that meeting Harry began to actually throw himself into practice for his magic, call him paranoid but the odds of something not happening this year were pretty slim there was a mass murderer after him, soul sucking demons on the grounds and an army of demonic spiders below them the odds of this year ending peacefully were about as likely as Malfoy suddenly deciding he loved Ron and pulling him into a kiss. Eww okay he did not need that mental image in his head.
He sighed he wished there was a better place for him train this room was fine for refining his magic but to get real practice he needed something to fight. He walked down to the kitchen looking for a quick snack before dinner after a training session. He got the location of the kitchen from the Weasley twins, apparently they often snuck down there after a prank.
He paused halfway through a treacle tart according to the Weasley twins the elves cleaned the entire castle maybe they knew a place to train. "Excuse." he called to the nearest elf and it stopped and looked at him with wide eyes.
"Yes sir? Is something wrong?" the little guy asked looking like he was about to cry if something was wrong.
"No I was just wondering if you knew a place I could train?" the elf seemed to perk up when it realized nothing was wrong.
"Oh yes we elves uses the come and go room if we needs something." the elf gave him instructions on how get into the come and go room or the Room of Requirement as it was also known.
According to the elf it was basically a coin toss if it was there or not like a lot of other doors in the castle. When he got to the very strange painting of a man trying to teach trolls to dance there was no door across from it. He sighed and began to pace. Ever since the battle with the demons last summer he found it hard to stay still, maybe it was some kind of fighting instinct or something else but he found pacing helped him think he wondered what he should do, he had no doubt dumbledore could easily animate some of the suits of armor that littered the halls to fight for him but he didn't want asked the headmaster-when that door appear? His train of thought crashed when he saw a door come into existence. He opened the door and was surprised to find that inside several knights were kneeling. They looked identical to the ones that dotted the halls. He entered the room wondering why it appeared as soon as he did a book appeared opened to a certain page. Waving his wand to make sure it wasn't cursed he picked it up and read the entry.
I have found a marvelous room with the aid of House Elves, according to the stupid creatures they used this room for supplies when they were running low. Naturally a Proper wizard such as myself managed to discover the truth of the room by pacing in front of the door three times whilst thinking of what you wish for the door appears that acts as an entrance to such a chamber. With this I can finally gain an upper hand over those infernal mudbloods!
The next few entries were same thread how the room would let him be better than muggleborns spewing various explicites about various students and creatures insulting everything about them from their blood status to their haircuts. But he ignored it once he realized that there was nothing else that was useful in the journal.
He turned to the stationary knights. "How do I get you to move is there a password or…" he trailed off looking around expecting something to appear and explain it to him, but nothing happened. "Ugh! I just want to fight something!" he moaned heading for the door deciding to figure out the room later, but before he could reach the door the sound of moving metal drew his attention. He turned around and saw one of the knights about to attack him.
He rolled out of the way and the knights sword hit the ground. He panicked trying to dodge all the blows that the knight tried to catch him with. Luckily only one was attacking him and it didn't seemed to be trying to hard. Just enough to force him to try but not so much that it could kill him.
Finally he drew his knife and slashed his arm. Drawing blood he drew out as much as he could forming a very long dagger before the wound closed. Dumbledore had been right when he practiced his wandless magic he found it a lot easier to control his blood. He brought up the dagger to block a blow from the knight his arm shook under the blow but it held up. He ducked under the knight's blade and slashed at it's chest. It stumbled back before it recovered and attacked him again.
Several hours later he was tired but satisfied it had been a great workout. He noticed that by the end of the session he was holding the dagger in a better grip and the knight was moving slightly faster and hitting slightly harder. He assumed that the knights skill increased with his own always being just enough to be a challenge. He never went for a finishing blow the entire time always stopping once he was beaten and waiting for him to recover.
Harry snuck back into the common room and sighed in relief he nearly got caught by Filch halfway back, he hadn't realized how long he had been in the room of requirement before leaving.
The sound of someone clearing their throat made him freeze. He slowly turned around and saw Hermione sitting down looking at him angrily while Ron was half asleep.
"'Ello Hermione what are you doing up?' he asked swallowing nervously.
"Waiting for you!" she nearly shouted glaring at him. "Where were you!"
Harry shrugged. "I was training." he told them about his training but Hermione was busy with classes and Ron was too lazy to join.
"You shouldn't let that get in the way of your studies" she shouted before she could continue her rant Harry interrupted her.
"Has it gotten in the way of grades?" he asked making her come up short, Harry was now actually spending more time on studying than he did before no longer laying about as much.
"Well no but-"
"Than what is the problem? Yes I am late for curfew but what I do in my free time is my business." Hermione frowned so he continued. "Or would you like me to ask how you manage to take three classes at the same time?" he asked making her sigh.
"Alright fine." she conceded. "But!" she said seeing him walking off. "If you grades fall I reserve the right to check in!" she demanded.
"Okay!" Harry said holding his hands up defensively she looked like she was about to take his head off.
Harry headed in to class for defense to see Professor Lupin had returned from his sick day last Friday. "Hello Professor how are you? Feeling better?" he asked the best defense teacher they had so far, not that it was that difficult given one was a total fraud and the other was possessed by a dark lord.
"Fine thank you." he smiled looking exhausted. Harry looked at him worried. Before he held his head in pain. "Are you okay?" he asked worried when he saw Harry stumble and place a hand on his head. "Do you want me to send you to the Hospital Wing?" he asked.
Harry opened his eyes to tell the professor he was fine when he saw something that terrified him. Over Professor Lupin like some kind of spectral armor was a wolf like beast. He stumbled back again nodding. "Yes I think that would be best." he nodded heading out the door quickly, what the bloody hell did he see!
Done so Harry just saw Lupin's wolf and the spiders are still around this will end a lot differently than in canon. (insert evil smile if you don't like that to bad.)