26 The Arena!
Harry was sitting in the library reading something when McGonagall came and sat in front of him. He raised his head and was surprised to see her.
"Professor?"
"Mr. Potter, I have the item you requested from the Headmaster. He personally went to the ministry to log it in the books for you. Otherwise, no first year can get a time turner this easily. So, I expect you to keep your promise and not misuse this as it can cause some serious repercussions.
I don't think I need to tell you the rules for its usage. I believe you already know.
So, all the best Mr. Potter and on a separate note, I hope to see your great performance in the first Quidditch game this year" said McGonagall and got up and left.
'Hehe, finally. I was wondering if I need to go remind the old fogey again. But, this is great. Now, I have six hours extra every day. Coupled with the time I can save from sleep due to my meditation, I have almost ten extra hours compared to anybody else. I will start my training today in the room of requirements', thought Harry to himself as he picked up his stuff and went out of the library.
He went to get some dinner first where he met with Ron and Hermione. They were discussing something and waved at Harry as they saw him coming over.
"So, what are you guys talking about?" asked Harry sitting in front of Ron.
"It's about the upcoming Quidditch tryouts this weekend. Everyone is discussing if Gryffindor will get a new seeker. Obviously, they don't know about you so it's still a hot topic" answered Hermione looking bored.
"Oh yes, I forgot about that. Hey Ron, why don't you attend the tryouts?
You are a Weasley after all. You should be able to at least get into the reserve team if not the starting squad. Fred and George are also on the team and with Charlie being the last seeker under whom we won the Quidditch cup, you should be able to cut a few corners" suggested Harry.
Ron was surprised and excited at Harry's suggestion but shook his head.
"No Harry, it's useless. I know myself. I don't have that kind of talent that my brothers have. I will only make a fool out of myself" said Ron in a dejected tone.
Harry understood Ron's mentality and this is exactly the reason for Ron's hidden darkness. So, he decided to play it a little stronger this time.
"Listen to me, Ron. I don't know anyone who loves Quidditch as much as you do. Who cares if people laugh at you or not. All that matters is that you tried and who knows, maybe you would succeed. I saw you flying on the broom in our flying class and I must say you do have a talent in this Ron. So, I don't want to listen to any more excuses. You will go to the tryouts and get selected in the team and that's final" said Harry forcefully looking into Ron's eyes. He leaked a little bit of his soul strength while talking to Ron. It was a targeted attack of sorts on Ron's psyche. It will subtly influence him towards Harry's suggestion without any harm being done.
This was the first step Harry thought of taking in order to resolve Ron's darkness.
As they finished dinner, Harry went to the seventh floor directly.
He went to the tapestry of Barnacles and faced the opposite wall.
He pictured what he wanted in his mind and walked past it three times.
It took him a few seconds to specifically imagine his requirements.
Suddenly a door started appearing in the wall. It wasn't the first time he entered the room but he was always impressed with its magic. It was considered to be a semi-sentience type existence in Hogwarts and only a few knew about it. Even Dumbledore isn't aware of the methods to get into the room. But one needs to be very careful while entering as a very clear picture of what you require needs to be in your mind.
Also, it's better to think of a few safeguards while entering in order to stop others from following you. This was the reason why the Dumbledore's army got caught in the original story.
Anyways, as Harry entered the room, he thought of an absolute lock mechanism. The room will only open by explicitly thinking of the spell 'Sectum Sempra' in front of it. It was a custom spell invented by Snape as such only Harry knew about it other than him. Also, even if Snape wanted to find Harry here, he would never have imagined that Harry would use his personal spell as the key to entering.
It was a test that Harry thought after remembering how Neville kept the Carrows out of the room in the original story. If something like that can work, then why not this. And, as he entered the room picturing his test in mind, he knew he succeeded. If the test was something unacceptable, the room wouldn't appear.
Harry saw the layout of the room. It was exactly as he pictured it to be.
He needed a comprehensive training environment where he can go all out without fearing the repercussions. As such he created a spell training arena where he would fight enemies of different types. There would be specific modules that Harry would have to clear in order to move on to the next level. He based this on a few novels he read in his previous life. It was about a fantasy world where people could use magic to a much larger scale compared to this world. There were sects and clans who would fight for dominion over the world. They would create special zones for their young warriors where they would receive targeted training and as they got stronger, they would move over to a higher training area.
So, Harry thought of creating something similar for himself. He needed to figure out his elemental affinity and for that, a lot of experiments would be needed.
As such, the following rules would apply in the training arena:
1. The gravity would be double as compared to the outside. This could be increased with time.
2. The enemies could use spells of any element or even physical attacks
3. Harry would have to counter using a suitable spell
4. There would be rounds of thirty minutes each with a thirty-minute break in between.
5. Every round would be targeted around a single element. There would be no fixed order to the elements.
5. The session would end after six rounds and a score would be calculated for each round.
6. After every session, Harry could adjust the difficulty by increasing the number of enemies or increasing their spell casting speed.
The above would apply for each level. After Harry clears one level, he could move on to the next level.
Here the spells used by the enemies would increase in level. This would allow him to master the similar level spells to a certain degree before moving on to the advanced spells.
Harry would use his reaction speed and power behind his spells to judge the element that suited him the most. The increased gravity was something he added to train his body. He never forgot his original theory about training his physique to increase his mana pool.
Also, to increase the difficulty, he decided to go through each level without using his wand too. So, unless he passed a certain level using wandless and chantless magic, he wouldn't move on to the next level.
With this, he changed into his 'battle clothes' and entered the arena.
His battle clothes were similar to what the special forces wear along with a customized robe. It was more tight fitting compared to the robes wizards generally used. Since he would be using magic, he didn't need any extra pockets in his clothes and it reduced air resistance when moving at high speeds. He never understood the logic behind wearing 'airy' robes in a battle similar to the ones students wear during classes. It felt like a very inconvenient choice of attire for battle.
'Guess I will ask McGonagall the reason for such robe designs' thought Harry as he started the first training program.
Suddenly, Harry was covered with a slight fog and the world around him vanished. As the fog slowly cleared out, he found himself standing in an empty hallway inside a large multistory mansion. He could feel the gravity pulling him down but it was still at a level Harry could manage.
Behind him was an open door beyond which was nothing but fog. This was the starting point that Harry imagined for his session.
He would have to move across the entire mansion he was standing inside and clear it out. There were many floors which signified the different levels and as he clears out each floor he could keep climbing to the next one.
He fixed the number of floors to eight and the level of difficulty would double with each floor. As such, the last floor would be more than a hundred times stronger than the first floor.
He hadn't decided what kind of spells he would keep on the subsequent floors. For the first floor, he decided to use the spells up to the fifth-year curriculum. The second floor would contain all seven years' spells.
After that, he would decide based on his training with Snape, Flitwick, McGonagall and most of all Dumbledore.
As he was looking around standing at the door, there was a slight movement at the corner of the hallway. He immediately snapped out of his reverie and waved his wand firing the 'Stupefy' spell towards the target.
The spell hit the target's shoulder and it was immobilized instantly. Harry carefully saw the fallen enemy and was surprised at how it looked. It was almost similar to the kind of wooden target golems that the DA used for training in the story. The only difference was that it looked more humanoid with all the limbs and had a functioning wand in its hand. It also had a few targets painted on its body like the heart, head and the back of its neck. These were some vital points that could cause some serious damage if he used a physically harming spell. Just the shockwaves from the spell can disorient the target.
After that Harry hit the fallen dummy with a straight punch on its heart and the light in its eyes went out. Harry realized that this was how he needed to take out the targets. He needed to either physically damage one of the vital points or somehow destroy it with a spell.
At this time he felt a sense of danger and jumped towards the left.
As he got up he saw the place he was just standing at had a scorch mark. It was caused by a fireball spell. It was a pretty straightforward spell and could be easily countered with the water ball spell. This also meant that this round was a fire element round. He didn't want to use his physical abilities to solve his targets. He wanted to train his magical battle skills so he decided to use water or earth-based spells for now.
Then he looked around and could see a few targets moving about randomly at high speed and trying to box him in.
He smiled brightly and ran towards his enemies.
His lust for battle was slowly coming out and only time will tell how far this will grow.
