A Cadmean Victory by DarknessEnthroned

Chapter 11: Too Little too Late

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine; everything is J K Rowling's.

New chapter :)

It's not Fleur, you can all breathe easy.

Chapter 11

He had stormed out of Charms, furious with Hermione for taking the side of Angelina, Ron and all the other Gryffindors who had turned against him. There had been no way he was going to back to the common room after that, and he hadn't been in the mood for Salazar's sarcasm either, especially when he had wanted nothing more than to unleash another barrage of spells into something that would break in far more satisfying way than a clay tile.

Harry had wandered about the school instead. He'd passed the first floor bathroom from which he had carried Ginny Weasley having saved her from Riddle, the third floor corridor from which he had been carried after stopping the loathsome shade of Voldemort that had possessed Quirrell from obtaining the philosopher' stone. He paused to look out over the whomping willow that stood over the passage to the Shrieking Shack where he had met Sirius, his godfather. He desperately wished he could contact the man, but it was too dangerous to risk. His godfather had already nearly been kissed by dementors once.

There were no such memories attached to the floors he had risen to beyond that. The fourth, fifth and sixth floors had drifted past without incident, but then, upon reaching the seventh, he had stumbled on something Salazar had spent years searching for.

He wasn't exactly sure how he had found it, only that he had. Wandering up down the seventh floor corridor, wishing for a place that he could let off steam in and where he would be left alone, a door had appeared. The stone of the plain wall opposite one of the tapestries had shimmered and a small, ordinary door had materialised.

The room within had been anything but ordinary and when he saw the rune covered walls, glass targets and mirrors he had known what he had found. The Room of Requirement Slytherin's portrait had described.

The Chamber of Secrets held a special place in Harry's heart. It was somewhere that only he could enter out of everyone within the school and had become is sanctuary away from the noise and distraction of Hogwarts. The Room of Requirement was beyond even that.

When Harry had wanted to release his anger it had provided him with a whole room of things to destroy and books full of spells to accomplish it. When he had decided he needed to learn how to keep everything a secret because he knew Hermione was searching for where he was going it had provided him a virtual library on protective enchantments and even several books on the arts of the mind. Harry had been fascinated to note that had basic steps to the mind arts were remarkably similar to the exercises he had learnt to help focus his intent and improve his spell casting.

The pattern of his progress shifted.

Every morning for the last two days he would wait for everyone to leave and then, using the Marauder's Map and his father's invisibility cloak sneak to the seventh floor and return to the fabulous room.

Spending the rest of the day reading his way through every book that the miraculous room could provide and practicing anything he dared attempt he would wait until evening then slip off to the Chamber of Secrets.

Salazar's time-turner could not be removed from the chamber so he couldn't take it to the room itself and he already tried and failed to get the room to provide him one itself. There was still more than enough for him to learn in the chamber, so he repeated the day from the beginning, learning from Salazar while his past self was in the Room of Requirement, out the way, and rendering it impossible for anyone to notice his duality.