Hope you all had a good Christmas! Here's the next chapter for you to enjoy. If all goes to plan, then I should be posting the next chapter some time next week

Chapter 6

While everyone was at Hogsmeade Harry was staring at the wall on the Seventh floor corridor. He was out of practice recently, he needed to get back into shape after what had happened on his birthday. Especially now that Sirius and Remus knew that whoever was after him was upping up the ante.

For the past week Harry had been trying to keep a low profile. Partly because the school was too loud sometimes it threw off his perception of the world, and partly because he had a lot of work and didn't fancy doing it in the common room or the Library. So he came here, to the Room of Requirement. When it was needed by him it transformed into his bedroom at home, he found that it was easier to study this way. However the room wasn't always used for that, it was also used as his practice room. This is why he was currently staring at the wall like an imbecile thinking what he wanted the room to provide before he wished it. Finally deciding what he wanted, Harry paced three times up and down. Then checking that no one was near he slipped through the door that had appeared on the once blank wall. Once inside he locked the room with a thought and took in the sight before him. It was a large spacious room with dummies dotted at various points around the room. There was no padded floor - this was because if and/or when Harry became involved in a fight, he seriously doubted the attacker would be kind enough to provide a cushioned floor. So Harry learnt the hard way and had earned more cuts, bruises and damaged bones than he could count along the way. He did sometimes use the padded floors but only if the previous day it had been a tough training session and the various potions hadn't eradicated all the aches and pains. Targets were placed at various heights on the opposite wall. Daggers lay on a stand near by. Sirius had trained him with knives in case he was to ever find himself with out his wand. Sirius hoped this would stop him from being completely defenceless.

Harry walked over to the knife stand and picked up the belt containing various knives. Strapping the belt round his waist he turned to face the dummies. Slipping his wand out of his arm holster, he readied himself for the attack he was about summon. Closing his eyes he imagined the dummies to take on the persona of an attacker and to use any means at all to disarm him of both his wand and knives. Then he thought how he wanted some of them to be armed; either wand or knife and the others to come at him with physical force. Opening his eyes, Harry waited for the dummies to begin. The room was perfectly quite for a few moments then movement caught Harry's eye. Immediately Harry widened his magical aura to combat spell attacks and focused his senses to take in everything that happened. Without conscious thought Harry sent a silent stunner to the dummy that had moved. It fell immobile just as the other dummies started their attack. Various coloured curses flew towards him and he hastily threw up a shield charm as he took in his surroundings. His magic prickled detecting several dummies using magic. A plan formed in his head - first, disable magic users then use physical force on the others. Witches and wizards relied heavily on their magic so it would be a rare case that once disarmed they would use violence. Harry was taking no chances so his best bet was to bind or knock them out - less fuss in the long run.

Two engaged him in a duel, nothing he couldn't handle. Blocking their spells he fired a disarming hex and a binding hex in rapid succession. The dummy only just blocked the first spell but fell to the second. Not bothering to mess around this time with the second dummy it fell from a quick stunning hex. Quickly throwing two daggers they hit a dummy to the right of him. One in the arm holding the daggers causing it to fall uselessly to the flaw, and the second hit him in the stomach. If it had been a real person they would have bled out quickly, a fatal wound. Harry conjured a large table and quickly overturned it. Sticking it to the floor he quickly took in his surroundings. Ten dummies were left. Three with wands, three with weapons and four unarmed. Take out the wands and weapons Harry told himself, they're the biggest threat. Remus' training was ringing in his head 'always take out the biggest threat first. Any after that should be easy. Remember even in a group of people the biggest or strongest isn't always necessarily the biggest threat. Sometimes the little guy is the most deadly'. Muttering to himself Harry quickly moved from behind the table, adrenaline pumping through his veins. A volley of curses ranging from stunners to blasting hexes were sent his way. Rolling across the floor, the spells missed him leaving scorch marks on the floor. Harry quickly regained his footing then had to duck almost as soon as he stood up due to the knife that was flying his way. It sailed through the air and landed somewhere behind him. H didn't bother to check as that could lose him valuable time. Summoning his daggers from the immobile dummy he returned one to his belt and threw the other at the closest dummy. Then he sent three successive blasting curses at them and watched as the flew across the room and didn't stand up again. Disarming another two then stunning them, this left Harry with more room to breathe. Concentrating on the remaining threats, he could feel his lungs starting to burn and his arms and legs starting to ache. Running straight at the unarmed men he stabbed one in the gut, punched another square in the face then kicked its legs out from under them causing their head to crack painfully on impact with the floor. Blasting the other away from him, this left Harry with only one more opponent. Throwing two daggers at it, the dummy quickly ducked, and threw it's own dagger. It was a low throw and caught Harry on the side of his leg causing him to hiss in pain. Blocking out the pain he fired spells with his right hand and threw another dagger in his left. Both missed and Harry felt himself starting to slow down from fatigue. Shaking his head to clear the drowsiness, he concentrated on the danger and how would be best to approach him. Summoning his discarded daggers back to his belt, Harry sucked air into his lungs as he panted, never taking his eyes off the dummy. Sweat slid down the side of his face and he could feel his warm blood starting to run down his leg. He'd have to finish this soon and clean the wound before it became infected. Urgency then filled Harry as he threw everything he had into his next few moves. He needed to win. If things became life threatening he could banish the whole contents of the room with a mere thought but he would try to avoid this option - he wouldn't have it in real life once he was outside this room. The dummy darted round the room collecting it's fallen comrades daggers. It then proceeded to hurl four knives at Harry. Harry dropped into a crouch and lent to the right to avoid them but rose to quickly causing the final dagger to clip him in the left arm. Harry was momentarily distracted as he checked the wound and the dummy seized it's chance. Charging at Harry it punched him in the gut, causing all the air to flood out of him. Then while Harry tried to regained his breath the dummy punched him in the side of the face.

The impact dazed Harry. He was vaguely aware he had fallen to the floor. The room swarm before his eyes and he couldn't seem to concentrate on anything. The world snapped back into focus as the dummy dropped onto his chest and pinned his arms under legs. This action made it even harder for Harry to breath and he could for the first time during this training session feel panic starting to claw at his insides yet he wouldn't vanish the room. His pride wouldn't allow him to. The dummy's expressionless face peered down at Harry. The dummy shifted slightly and extracted a knife from Harry's belt. That's it, no way in hell am I going to be injured by my own knife Harry viciously thought. With a last surge of energy Harry kneed the dummy in the back, hard. This caused it to lurch forward and Harry head butted it with all he was worth. It jerked back to quickly and over balanced it's self. This then gave Harry the opportunity to slip from underneath it. Kicking the dummy over so it fell on it's back, Harry then grabbed the last knife on his belt and slammed it into the dummy's chest. Panting from the lack of air Harry bent over and clutched his knees. Feeling mildly better he straightened up and walked over to the knife stand. Placing the knives and belt back, he vanished the room altogether leaving behind only a small empty stone room.

Slipping the Marauder's Map from the back of his combats he muttered I solemnly swear that I am up to no good and proceeded to check that the corridor outside was clear. Seeing no one he used a glamour spell to disguise the back eye he could feel coming into being on his face. As his combats were black, the blood wasn't as visible however he did repair the rip in his pants. He then slipped from the room and strolled down the corridor thanking whoever it was to have decided to have a Hogsmeade trip today. Harry wouldn't have been impressed if anyone saw him in this state. He was out of practice and that session just reminded him of how bad it could be. The next thing Harry proceeded to curse in his head was the fact that he was in Slytherin. The dungeons were on the other end of the castle, were as he knew for a fact that the Gryffindor common room was only round the corner. Sighing to himself Harry proceeded on his solitary trek.

The seventh year boys dormitory was deserted when he entered it. He knew it would be. Heading straight to his trunk he routed around until he found his box containing his stock of healing potions and salves. Taking out the pain potion and bruise cream he threw them not so gracefully onto his bed and pulled out a black t-shirt and his comfiest pair of jeans. Throwing them over his shoulder he collected his medicine and entered the bathroom locking the door behind him. Harry then turned the shower on and cranked it up to hot. Uncorking the vial of pain relieving potion he threw it back and grimaced at the taste, then sighed as he felt the dull throbbing pain subside. Opening the bruise paste, he applied it to his eye and watched in the mirror as the angry purple bruise faded to a pale green. The bruise would be completely gone once he had finished in the bathroom. Next Harry stripped down to his underwear and checked his two knife wounds. The one on his arm was small and already the blood was clotting. Cleaning the wound with his wand, he muttered a healing spell and watched the wound closed over and looked to be a few days old. He then repeated the process on his leg. This cut was slightly larger however. Absent mindedly Harry reminded himself that he would have to bandage his arm and leg as the skin was still tender. He removed the last of his clothes and stepped into the hot shower, sighing in content. Grabbing the soap he washed himself free of the remaining blood and sweat. Once finished he quickly washed his hair, turned off the shower and stepped out. Drying himself he redressed in clean clothes and left the bathroom. He threw his dirty clothes in the washing basket near his bed, ready for the house elves to collect. Once again going to his trunk he dug out some bandages. Yanking up his pant leg he wrapped it round his leg and secured it. Next he moved onto his arm repeating the process. The edge of the bandage peaked out from under his sleeve. Deciding on having a nap he lay back on his bed and started to drift….

That was until Draco decided to barge in loudly causing Harry to bolt upright as he reached for his wand that was on his bed side table.

"Jeez Draco, you know not to do that" Harry snapped at him

"Well nice to see you too. I wouldn't have done it if I'd have known you were in here. Thought you'd still be practising. Anyway" reaching into his robes he pulled out a bag and unshrinking it, tossed it at Harry. " Got you these" Opening the bag Harry saw that they were chocolate frogs. He smiled his thanks at Draco as he proceeded to rip one open and eat it. Absently he looked at the card and read Morgana Le Fay, he must have about seven of her. Opening the top draw of his bed side table he placed the card inside. Finishing the mouthful of chocolate he asked " How was Hogsmeade?"

"Same as normal" replied Draco as he plonked himself on his bed opposite Harry " Had a run in with Davis, she wanted me to pass on a message. She wants you to look up Transformation and Vanishment ready for Wednesday. Then she issued a threat, and I quote - 'And tell him if he doesn't do it I will kill him, slowly and as painfully as possible'. I had a chuckle at that inside. I doubt she'd be able to do that. Even I have trouble sneaking up on you and I've been doing it most of my life"
Harry scowled as he heard the message. He'd been avoiding her and the Transfiguration project, he really didn't want to do it. Then she's almost cornered him last week by the Library and he had to resort to using his invisibility cloak to avoid her. The shock on her face when she rounded the corner and saw him nowhere in sight almost made it worth it. Sighing, Harry supposed he would have to make a start on it, and there was no time like the present. Swinging his legs over the bed he winced a little as he jostled his arm.

"Suppose I better make a start on it then, after all I don't fancy dying slowly and painfully just yet . Where's Theo?". Draco snorted at his earlier comment then replied

"Quidditch pitch, he's practising some chaser move he hasn't managed to crack yet" Seeing Harry was making a move to go where ever he was going, he carried on " I'll see you at dinner"

Harry hummed non committally and walked out the dormitory door. Walking down the steps to the common room, he searched the room for Davis yet he couldn't find her anywhere in the room. Yet he did find her friend Daphne Greengrass sitting on the couch near the fire with someone who looked like her, her sister maybe? Harry didn't know. Making a beeline for them, he walked in front of them and cleared his throat. The two girls cut off their hushed conversation and turned to face him. The younger of the two glanced up then quickly looked back down at her lap, she was still a bit intimidated by the older years. Daphne merely raised her eyebrow cooly and in a bored tone asked " Yes Potter?"

Responding to her cold tone he, he asked in a monotone voice " Have you seen Davis? I need to talk to her about Wednesdays lesson". She smirked at his question

" Finally decided to actually do the work then? You'll find her in the Library doing all the areas of the project. I'd get down there fast if I were you". Daphne turned back to her sister and restarted the conversation leaving Harry standing there awkwardly. Turning round he headed to towards the common room door and started for the Library.

This was the most difficult chapter so far to write but I'm happy with the way it turned out. I was going to include the Library scene but I decided that it deserved it's own chapter and partly because I didn't want to bore you all to death