The room was almost empty but there were a few items on the desk and one shelf of books situated above.
He noticed that the books were similar to the one on dueling he had found in the room of requirement that had been written by Salazar, this seemed to be the rest of his work on the subject.
On the desk was a silver dagger complete with a basilisk shaped handle with emerald eyes, a very old small portrait of Slytherin himself and a woman who Harry deduced was his wife and a simple silver ring that was decorated similarly to the dagger.
He gathered all the items and left the room knowing he had to make it back to the dorm before the others woke. He passed through the chamber for what he expected to be the final time before exiting the bathroom and making it back into his bed only a few minutes before Remus woke, completely unaware of the night Harry had spent with a basilisk and conversing with a portrait of one of the four founders.
(BREAK)
It was the next day that things took a turn for Harry, not a completely unexpected one, but not something he had anticipated happening so soon.
He had just completed his own morning training and had spent the time experimenting with some of the spells he had found in the recently acquired Slytherin books and arrived in the common room to find the rest of the marauders in their usual spot whispering conspiringly, whispering which ceased as he approached them.
"What's going on?", he asked as he took his seat.
The rest of the group shared a nervous look and seemed to have a silent debate on who would speak. It was Sirius that eventually broke the silence.
"Marlene wants to join our group with Lily and Alice", he sighed.
"And Frank", James added. Harry dragged a hand through his hair and sighed himself.
"How did this come about?", he questioned with a frown.
"Marlene asked where we kept disappearing to when we weren't in class", Sirius shrugged. "And Frank was looking for you earlier wanting to talk about Quidditch", James explained. "I told him you were training and he said he would speak to you about it".
Harry nodded his understanding.
"You guys know me really well and I guess Lily does too but the others don't and might not understand why I train the way I do", he began. "We don't understand why either Harry", Remus broke in.
Harry nodded again.
"James does", he replied simply. The three other boys looked towards James questioningly and he shook his head, a clear indication that he would not explain.
"Frank's Dad is an Auror also and if he finds out then I would probably be locked up for teaching certain things".
"Then don't teach them all of it", Sirius suggested. "Just give them some lessons on things that will be useful to defend themselves with just in case".
Harry sighed and nodded.
He had already considered this being something he would have to deal with.
"OK", he agreed. "Bring them along this afternoon to the classroom on the fourth floor, we will keep the other one just for us for the time being". The others agreed with the green eyed teen and readied themselves to attend their classes for the day.
Throughout the morning Harry pondered what he had agreed to and quickly came to the conclusion that he had made the right decision in deciding to add the others to their training schedule. In truth he didn't understand why he had felt a slight hesitation to agree to it initially but the moment he realised this truly could make a difference to how the future would pan out, any hesitation he had felt disappeared immediately.
The fact was that all of the people he would be helping now had either perished in his previous time line or had experienced a fate worse than death. The only exceptions to this was Peter, as he himself had not exactly gone on to a live a desirable existence and Remus, who had not faired well either. It was with these thoughts in mind that Harry arrived at the classroom in question after lunch to await the arrival of the others.
It was not a long wait as the others entered the room only a few minutes after himself, Lily and Alice looking confused, Marlene hand in hand with Sirius, smiling and Frank trailing at the back talking excitedly to the other three marauders.
"Are you going to tell us why we are here?", Lily asked, having clearly been kept in the dark as to why they had been brought to the classroom.
Harry frowned and shot a look towards Sirius and Marlene, of whom he thought had explained everything.
"Well, after what happened in Hogsmeade I thought we needed to be better prepared", Marlene answered. "I asked Sirius where he learnt how to fight like that and…", she broke off with a casual shrug and a point towards Harry.
"You're going to teach us?", Lily questioned, her frown turning into a look of excitement.
Harry nodded, dragged his hands through his hair and looked at the new arrivals, a sense of unexplainable nervousness setting in.
"I am, but I have a few rules", he sighed.
"Rules?", James cut in. "We haven't had rules", he pointed out.
Harry sighed.
"Things will be a little different, I've only taught you spells and shown you magic that you can learn from books in the library and restricted section at worst but after what happened in Hogsmeade, it's not enough", he conceded.
"We did well in Hogsmeade", Sirius interjected. "We did, but both Remus and Peter were injured and in all honesty it should have been worse, we got lucky and only because they didn't start firing off killing curses straight away did those three live", Harry returned gravely gesturing towards the three girls.
The others appeared to be pondering what he had said and paled as the reality of how lucky that had been became apparent.
"Shit", Sirius whispered in realisation.
The mood of the group became a little somber and Harry allowed them time to reflect. It hadn't been until Croaker had made him relive the times he had been in mortal peril had he become much more conscious and deliberate in his actions. Yes, he still had a tendency to act quickly but he would at least consider what it was he was about to do instead of being so brash and unaware of what the outcome could be.
.
.
.
👓☕️Consider supporting me and enhance your reading experience with the ready-to-read PDFs I have on my Ko-fi.☕️👓
🎯https://ko-fi.com/cmrowling🎯