Tom glanced at them and paid them no mind. He sat down, pulled out his Herbology book, and started reading.
His roommates had been unusually well-behaved these past few days. He didn't know whether he'd finally put them in their place or they were scheming something behind his back.
Tom couldn't be bothered to care. As long as they didn't cause trouble, they could all get along. If they tried anything, he had plenty of ways to deal with them.
Before long, Saturday arrived. After breakfast, Tom and Daphne got Hermione to help them quickly finish the following week's homework, then slipped off to the Seventh Floor with a clear goal: find the Room of Requirement.
Study Space was powerful, but only his mental form could enter it. Casting spells there didn't use magic, so it couldn't give him realistic feedback for practice.
Tom knew that wizarding combat wasn't just a contest of magical power. Practical experience, reflexes, alertness, and even luck could all affect the outcome.
Andros had been urging him to train in the real world, too, so his body could learn the feel of casting spells.
After thinking it over, Tom decided the Room of Requirement was the best choice. It could provide a safe space and adjust the difficulty.
The Room of Requirement and the Headmaster's Office were both on the Seventh Floor. One was in the main building, the other in the South Tower, so they weren't close to each other.
Tom wasn't worried about running into Albus Dumbledore. That would only happen if the old man got lost again and couldn't find his office.
There weren't many rooms on the Seventh Floor, and the walls were hung with plenty of paintings. Tom soon found his target: a tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy Bashing the Trolls.
On the tapestry, Barnabas was foolishly trying to teach the trolls to dance. Even with his face bruised and battered, he kept explaining himself. He was so ridiculous it was almost funny.
Tom watched for a while, then grew bored and turned toward the smooth wall opposite the tapestry. Focusing, he paced back and forth between the tapestry and the wall, murmuring to himself.
"I need a room with mushrooms." After three passes, the wall trembled slightly, but no door appeared.
Tom refused to give up and murmured again, "I need a room with an RPG." The wall trembled once more, but still no door appeared.
Then he shouted, "I need a room with a hundred AKs!" This time, the wall didn't react at all.
Tom's face fell. "Is this really what they call a Room of Requirement? Either I'm asking for too much, or the Founders' magic was too lousy to conjure up even modern weapons."
Andros rolled his eyes from inside Study Space. "Cut it out! You're here to train, not set up an armory. Get serious!"
"Fine, fine." Tom resumed pacing reluctantly, this time thinking of a suitable place to practice spells.
After three passes, a door suddenly appeared in the wall. It had a wooden door panel and a brass knocker, as if it had always been there.
Tom pushed it open. The candles lit by themselves, illuminating a spacious area.
The room was about half the size of the Great Hall. Inside stood dozens of dummies made from different materials, from wood to steel. They were clearly meant for practicing spells.
[Host has discovered the 'Room of Requirement' and earned 50 achievement points.]
"So many?" Tom's eyes lit up.
"Exploring other classrooms at night only got me two points. The Trophy Room gave me five, but this gave me fifty—ten times as much!"
That brought his achievement points to over three hundred.
Tom stroked his chin, pondering. "Looks like special places give more achievement points. A professor's office, secret passages, maybe even Albus Dumbledore's office could be worth more."
After muttering to himself, Tom put those thoughts aside and prepared to train, giving his wand a twirl. "I'll start with basic spells and work my way up. I'm so talented, after all—I shouldn't show off too much."
He aimed at a wooden dummy and flicked his wand, sending out a streak of red light. "Reducto!" The spell hit instantly, and the dummy exploded with a roar, scattering into countless splinters.
Tom's expression didn't change. He aimed at the next dummy. Even adult wizards rarely showed such power.
His magical ability far exceeded that of his peers, and Andros had been teaching him. He had a deep understanding of the Reductor Curse. He'd even held back just now; at full power, he could probably blow a steel dummy to pieces.
Tom knew that casting speed and accuracy mattered more than power. A spell was useless if it missed, no matter how powerful it was.
Soon, colorful spells filled the room. Stunning Spells, Petrificus Totalus, and Flipendo shot out one after another, striking their targets with pinpoint accuracy.
He deliberately slowed down, trying to teach his body the instinctive movements of casting and feel the flow of magic.
Before long, dozens of dummies had been blown to pieces. But after a ripple of magic, the fragments automatically pieced themselves back together. In just thirty seconds, the dummies were restored and began moving along tracks.
"Oh, they can turn into moving targets, too?" Tom raised an eyebrow, impressed by the Room of Requirement. "This is much more useful than Quirrell. At least I can work my way up to advanced training."
After a short break, the training began again. The moving dummies weren't very fast, and Tom's accuracy was already close to ninety percent.
Fifteen minutes later, the dummies had been wiped out again. After they reassembled, they moved twice as fast, and each one had a number above its head.
"You want me to destroy them in numerical order?" Tom's mouth twitched. "You're taking the difficulty from easy straight to hell. Are you messing with me?"
The dummies were not only fast, but often overlapped and blocked one another. Straight-line spells wouldn't work; he had to make them curve.
Tom scratched his head and gave up. "Can't be helped. Time to cheat. Andros, I'm counting on you!"
He activated the "Physical Practice" function and handed control of his body over to Andros.
The next second, a hearty laugh rang out from Tom's mouth, his voice brimming with excitement. "Hahaha! I can feel the touch of flesh and blood again at last. It's wonderful to be alive!"
"Save the reminiscing. You've got seven minutes, so hurry up!" Tom urged him in his mind. "Your approval of me is at sixty-three, which gives you just over seven minutes. Don't waste time."
The feeling was strange. Tom's body seemed to have developed instincts of its own. He could think about his own things while his body moved and cast spells automatically, and he could clearly feel the feedback. The flow of magic was even clearer than when he cast spells himself.
He couldn't help thinking that "Spirit Possession" would be a more fitting name for this function.
"Don't worry. Just watch and learn." Andros quickly settled into the task. Tom's gaze sharpened, and he flicked his wrist. "Stupefy!"
A streak of white light traced an elegant arc around the overlapping dummies and struck Dummy Eight, which exploded into dust.
"Reducto!" "Diffindo!" "Severing Charm!" Andros spoke rapidly, casting three spells in succession.
He could cast them silently and instantly, but he said the incantations aloud for the demonstration.
The three spells shot out at the same time from different angles, striking Dummies Nine, Ten, and Eleven. They shattered in precisely that order.
"Remember this feeling!" Andros explained while he had a moment. "Let your intent guide your movements. Your wand is an extension of your body. That's how you cast spells freely, even silently and instantaneously."
Tom activated Transcendental State, and the world seemed to slow in his perception. He clearly caught every subtle movement Andros made and the rhythm of the flowing magic, quickly memorizing and absorbing it all.
In less than thirty seconds, more than twenty dummies had been cleared away. Andros didn't wait for the room to repair them. He used magic to piece them back together and began another demonstration.
In seven minutes, he cleared eleven rounds in all. It wasn't because he'd run out of strength; Tom's magic had run dry.
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