Chapter 10

I was the first to wake up among my dormmates and judging from the slight darkness visible from the window, I'd say it was dawn or close to it. I didn't have any classes today as it was a weekend which meant I had two whole days to increase my understanding of the texts stuffed in my head and put some of my plans in action. For now, though a light exercise session would do.

After my morning workout, I showered and dressed in my new uniform, which consisted of a shirt, tie, pants and a robe over the ensemble, which spotted the Gryffindor emblem along with red and gold stripes. I had a quiet breakfast in the Great Hall, because there were very few people who were awake during this time of the day.

I thought it would be a good idea to take a walk throughout the school, and get a feel for where what room is, especially my classrooms, but it was a harder task than I thought it would be. After going through a maze of corridors and stairs and ending up places I didn't even know existed, I finally surrendered before the might of Hogwarts. I really needed to get my hands on the Marauder's Map as soon as possible or devise a similar artifact or spell. I actually wanted a sort of spell that would be permanently in place, with a toggle of course, which would tell me where to go to find a place or person, in my head, which I think would be a lot more efficient than an old piece of enchanted parchment.

After asking portraits and stumbling around unknown places, I finally managed to make it to my destination, which was the portrait of Barnabas the Barmy trying to teach trolls to ballet on the seventh floor. Yes, it was time to acquaint myself with the Room of Requirements.

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After a lot of experiments, I managed to find out what was and wasn't possible with the room and I was overjoyed to find most of my wishes to be true.

The Room of Requirements could make a sort of time bubble where time would go slower in the room than the outside, with a maximum limit of 1:5 so 5 hours in the RoR would equate to 1 hour for everyone else. It did have a couple of side effects, like the messing up of a person's biological clock, mental problems like apathy, irritation and even serious ones like cellular damage due to the effect of different time streams acting on the body. Wizards had already built time-turners so this didn't surprise me that much. I was dizzy with joy though, as this would make my plans go along a lot faster, 5 times faster to be precise. I would make the most of today and tomorrow, as they would be free days.

The room sadly, could not make a passage to any of the common rooms or the Great Hall or the Headmaster's office or really any where important. But that wasn't that much of a problem considering it could make a literal time bubble!

Of course, it could also make tons of different terrains which could simulate a lot of combat scenarios and combined with the amount of dummies and stuff it could make, it would feel like training in a wartime scenario, without the possibility of death, of course. On the other hand, it was possible to suffer loss of limbs and other similar injuries so unless I wanted to spend most of my time in the infirmary, I would need to regulate that sort of training.

Anyways, my favourite part of the RoR apart from the time manipulation of course, was the amount of books it could provide ranging from the darkest to the ones which even Dumbledore and Harry combined would find too 'shiny'.

By the time I left the room, it was dinner time, somewhat around 7pm and I could feel something as soon as I left the room, which was perhaps the effect of changing time streams. I felt dizzy, and a little disoriented but I wasn't the same guy I was when I entered Hogwarts. I cast a simple refreshing spell on myself and made my way to the Great Hall using my newly created GPS spell. I was starving, it was a rough 45 hours.

After entering the Great Hall, I made my way to the Ravenclaw table to meet Hermione because as much as I wanted to interact with Harry and my dormmates, Hermione was my favourite character in the Wizarding World and now that she was in Ravenclaw, I didn't doubt she would be a lot more formidable than when she was weighed down by Harry and Ron, especially the latter.

"Hello, Miss Granger. It's a pleasure to meet you, once again." I politely greeted her and with a little note of surprise I found her sitting alone, near the edge of the table. Hmm, perhaps her take-charge personality hadn't ingratiated her well with her housemates.

"Matthew?! What are you doing here? This is the Ravenclaw Table." She whispered fiercely, shooting furtive glances all around.

Taking up a seat besides her, I told her in a calm voice, "Calm down, Miss Granger. It isn't against the rules to seat oneself at a table belonging to a different House than their own. Besides, even if it was against the rules, I wouldn't mind doing the same." I added the last as an afterthought, my occlumency helping me say it as if it was natural.

She blushed a little but didn't comment on it. After a few seconds, she said, "So what are you here for? I doubt you made this trip to just spout a few flowery words."

Hmm. Clearing my throat, I stated, "Miss Granger, I have a proposition for you."

"That sounds...ominous."

"Don't fret, Miss Granger. I am sure you will find it enjoyable."

"Oh? You are making me curious, Mr. Arrington". The last part of her sentence was said in a teasing tone, making me laugh a little.

"Well, I wanted to ask you if you'd like to explore the world of magic with me." Her slightly widened eyes and the slight hitch in her breath clued me in to what she was thinking and I quickly spoke out to prevent any wayward thoughts.

"It isn't what you think it is, Miss. I am merely requesting you to accompany me to the library so we can learn and practise magic, and understand what it actually is."

She had calmed down now and asked me in a questioning voice laced with a hint of curiousity, "And what's stopping me from doing that on my own? Why should I study alongside you?" I could tell I had her, she was merely asking it to not look like an overeager witch. I pretended to not notice and played along with her.

"Well, you have by now seen my talent and genius, and I assure you, your studies would progress at a far faster pace alongside me rather than alone. Though, you are a very formidable force on your own and I do not wish to underestimate your own considerable intelligence. I will understand if you would like to refuse my offer but I implore you to sleep on it. If you want to accept my offer, meet me at the Great Hall, tomorrow, at 7:30 am sharp." After that rather lengthy speech, I bid her farewell with a wave and a small smile, leaving her dumbfounded and a bit interested, and made way towards my dormmates who were sitting together at the Gryffindor table.

Harry was the first to spot me and asked me,"Where were you, Matt? I didn't see you this morning at breakfast and couldn't find you anywhere else. Me and the guys had a bit of fun outside. You should have joined us." I could tell he was excited to have friends and I didn't want to lose any relationship points with the Chosen One so I quickly answered, "Ah well, I woke up before you guys so I had breakfast a lot earlier than most of the people here. And then I was exploring the magnificent marvel known as Hogwarts and before I knew it, it was dinner time." The rest of my dormmates and a few other Gryffindor students were curious to see why the Boy-Who-Lived seemed to be more friendly towards me than them, so they quickly bombarded me with questions. I answered a few and dodged a few others, but apparently I had made an okay impression on them because now we were all chatting harmoniously.

Soon, it was time for us to sleep so we made our way to our dorms. I spotted Hermione among the crowd of Ravenclaws and gave her a nod and a smile when she spotted me, which she reciprocated. After reaching out dorm, I bid the others a goodnight and quickly dived on the bed and soon dozed off. I was exhausted from all the training I did in the Room of Requirements and soon I dreamt of the events of that room.