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Chapter 8: School Shenanigans     (2 Days Later)   It was now Wednesday and today we would be having our first Transfiguration class with th

Chapter 8: School Shenanigans

(2 Days Later)

It was now Wednesday and today we would be having our first Transfiguration class with the Slytherins with this being one of the only two classes we shared with them, the other being Astronomy.

The past two days I had spent them mostly exploring the castle along with Rose, Harry and Ron so they could get a feel for it and wouldn’t get lost and wander somewhere they weren’t supposed to like the third-floor corridor.

Luckily it seemed to have paid off as Harry and Ron had been rather silent about accidentally wandering into said corridor by accident which I was thankful about.

One of the objectives of the No Fate mission was preventing Harry from finding out about the Philosophers Stone or discovering the forbidden corridor. Since I couldn’t be at two places at once, or at least not yet, I had tasked Maya and Ilulu to check the Bounty Tracker and run intervention if they ever saw Harry heading to the corridor.

For that I had bought another two purchases of the HUD perk for the two of them so they could keep track of the kid without my company phone.

Lastly, I still needed to sneak Varina, Keros and Cliffo into the RoR (Room of Requirement) with that happening tonight after curfew. I would be using the One-Eyed Witch passage to get them in the castle when everyone was asleep to prevent running into Fred or George.

Hearing a voice calling my name I was pulled from my thoughts only to blink when I noticed that I was just standing like an idiot outside of the Transfiguration classroom when everyone else was already inside and seated.

Feeling my cheeks burn slightly in embarrassment I made my way inside finding that Rose was already sitting down next to Padma Patil leaving me without my usual seat body.

Waving away her worried look with a smile I quickly scanned the classroom and only found one empty seat at the front of the class next to a head of blonde that I immediately recognized.

Reaching the desk, I politely coughed once grabbing the blonde’s attention. “Excuse me, mind if I sit here?” I asked with a small smile on my face.

The blonde, Daphne Greengrass, upon seeing my face or more specifically my eyes, couldn’t help but blush before getting ahold of herself and nodding her head. “Of course.” She whispered then turned her head forward again as if embarrassed.

“Thank you.” I thanked her, taking a seat and putting my bag down before turning to her and extending my hand. “Pleasure to meet you Miss Greengrass I believe? My name is Aether Cordelia.”

Turning to me again Daphne nodded her head and shook my hand once before pulling her hand away almost immediately all the while avoiding looking into my eyes again. “Likewise.” Daphne muttered with a soft voice almost sounding detached if it wasn’t for the blush still coloring her cheeks.

Introductions done, we focused again as McGonagall stood up from her desk and started the class warning us of the dangers of Transfiguration before turning her desk into a pig and back again. Unfortunately, right after that she made us take notes for most of the class.

“Now you will be attempting to turn a match into a needle until the end of class. Please remember to make firm and decisive wand movements whenever you’re casting. You may begin.” McGonagall instructed us as she used her wand to pass around matches to everyone in class.

Looking down at the match on my desk I shrugged and performed the necessary wand movements and muttered the spell somewhat succeeding on my first try getting the match to turn all pointy.

Immediately after that I saw a notification on the corner of my vision letting me know that I had successfully learned the Transfiguration skill thanks to my template.

Since there were a ton of spells to learn in the HP world instead of getting a skill for every individual spell, my template had only given me a skill for each branch of magic. For example, I had a DADA, Charms and now a Transfiguration skill.

The problem was that while I could perform a spell on either the first or second try, mastering the spell to its greatest potential required real work from me since I couldn’t just spend points to level up the skill yet. That meant that I wouldn’t be calling myself a master of magic anytime soon.

My ridiculous learning speed had also unfortunately earned me the envy of most of my peers with Rose being one of the only exceptions probably because she was already stamped.

“Mr. Cordelia, why are you just staring at your match? I thought I made my instructions clear.” McGonagall suddenly asked, bringing the whole class’s attention to myself.

Ignoring the mocking chuckles from some of the Slytherins, I looked at the woman with an apologetic smile. “Apologies professor, I just didn’t know what to do since I already finished.”

“What!?”

Blinking at my answer and ignoring the shocked muttering going around the classroom, McGonagall walked up to our desk and took a look at my needle before blinking in surprise. “Please do it again.” She requested and with a wave of her wand returned the needle back into a match.

Nodding my head I performed the spell again, this time being much smoother than before and watched as the match turned into a silver needle.

“Astounding… It seems you have a knack for Transfiguration Mr. Cordelia. Take 5 points for Ravenclaw.” McGonagall congratulated me with a small smile before asking me to keep repeating the process in order to get a handle of it.

Agreeing to her request I spent the next five minutes turning the match into a needle then back into a match again over and over again until a slightly annoyed voice interrupted me.

“How are you doing that?”

Turning to the voice I blinked remembering I was sitting next to Daphne who was looking at me with some frustration. Looking down at her own match I saw that while she hadn’t succeeded, she had made some progress as her match had a silvery sheen to it with pointed ends.

Straightening up on my desk I made use of my Educational Talent and quietly explained to the girl how the spell worked. “First you have to…”

A few tries later a smile grew on Daphne’s face when she finally succeeded and she turned her head my way meeting my eyes again. “Thank you.” She muttered softly with a small blush.

“You’re welcome.” I responded with my own smile.

Unfortunately, before any conversation truly could start the class ended and we went our separate ways when Rose and Tracey called out to us respectively.

Before losing sight of her though I did catch Daphne turn her head and giving me one last look along with a small wave goodbye.

‘Haah, that girl is something else. Instead of charming her, she managed to charm me instead.’ I thought in slight amusement joining Rose and Padma on our way to the next class.

=====

(Later That Night)

“Alright girls, follow me.” I whispered before taking the lead and walking forward hearing three sets of footsteps follow behind me.

I was currently leading the girls to the RoR all the while constantly checking my Hud to make sure there was nobody around. It was around midnight at the moment which was kind of creepy with the castle being rather empty but nonetheless we quietly made our way around the empty halls until we finally reached the seventh floor corridor.

“Now stand aside for a moment while I open the room.”

Moments later we could finally breathe easier now safely inside the room.

“Haah, we made it.” I said in relief only to yelp as two hands suddenly pulled me backwards and smothered by a pair of rather big breasts.

“I missed you so much Master~” Keros happily cooed, rubbing her cheek against my hair affectionately and even taking a few whiffs of my scent.

“I missed Master too~” Varina said from in front of me before hugging me around the waist and resting her head on my chest with me now sandwiched between the two.

“Whoa~ Is this where we’ll be staying from now on Master?” Cliffo suddenly interrupted our moment with a shout already curiously poking her head into one of the Vivarium.

Sadly pulling myself free from my confinement, I spent the next 30 minutes showing the girls how the Vivariums worked and the different terrains of each before finally making my way back to the dormitory after wishing the girls goodnight.

‘Alright, now I just have to keep Harry from discovering anything about the stone or the forbidden corridor. How hard could it be?’

=====

(Two Months Later)

It was fucking hard apparently.

I had forgotten how nosy and how much of a trouble magnet Harry was without even trying. The little bastard had me almost pulling my hair at how many times he would coincidentally just wander near the third-floor corridor or being too nosy for his own fucking good.

In just the past two months we had to intervene five times.

The first time when we were visiting Hagrid where I had sneakily hidden the newspaper in my inventory preventing Harry from reading the headline of the robbery at Gringotts. Then I had distracted Hagrid when I asked him to tell me what he knew about Thunderbirds which he was more than happy to answer.

The next was during their stupid midnight ‘duel’ with Malfoy where I went with them and using my map got them back to the dormitory preventing them from ending up in the forbidden corridor. On a positive note, I did end up earning some points from Hermione when I prevented them from getting in trouble.

Finally, the last three were just times when he would randomly end up in the corridor and either Ilulu or Maya had to scare them away from it.

Another positive note was that since our first Transfiguration class, me and Daphne had ended up partnering up every time causing a tentative friendship to grow between us. It also probably helped that she was being bombarded by Love Spot and my new Don’t Stand So Close to Me lure.

Speaking of purchases, I had bought most of the lures since I had the credits along with getting rid of the No Skill Framework Intensity with Buyback setting me back 1500 credits. Since Asako was still out in the world hunting down targets for me, I had been able to accumulate enough of them for the purchase.

Today though I awoke on Hallowe’en morning to the delicious smell of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors. The castle had been decorated for the occasion with tons of decorations and carved pumpkins everywhere you could see. Thousands of live bats flittered from the walls and ceiling and more swooped over the tables in low black clouds at the Great Hall.

We had our flying lesson today which I was pleased to say I had been a natural at along with Rose. Though I somewhat expected that going by the memories I remember of the hundreds of hours my other self had flown through the years.

Now we found ourselves having dinner in the Great Hall for the Halloween feast with my eyes glued on my Hud eyeing the two dots currently in the girls’ bathroom belonging to Hermione and Daphne surprisingly.

‘So that idiot Ron still ended up insulting her huh?’ I thought quickly finishing my meal before excusing myself from Rose with the excuse of going to the loo. ‘Who would have guessed that Daphne would end up getting involved in this as well though?’

As I quickly walked out of the Great Hall, I saw a red dot appear in my map quickly approaching the hall where the girls were and took off in a sprint.

=====

(Daphne’s POV)

Finishing up using the loo, Daphne pretended not to hear the sounds of loud sniffing coming from one of the stalls, already knowing who was behind it due to how fast news traveled in Hogwarts, and silently washed her hands all the while her thoughts wandered as they always did the past two months to a certain boy.

Aether Cordelia.

A boy she had first met during the sorting ceremony due to how he stood out from every other first year, even the famous Harry Potter had not come close to catching her attention as he did.

First of all, he was much taller than every other first year and seemed more fit than even some of the older years which was a rarity as wizard kind tended to be very lazy. Aether was tall, broad shouldered and even if she was embarrassed to admit, the most handsome boy she had ever seen in her life.

His eyes especially, they were an almost impossible shade of blue that reflected the morning sky perfectly much like his namesake. She was embarrassed to say that she found herself transfixed by such eyes on more than one occasion and was sometimes even caught by the boy only further increasing her embarrassment.

Next was his prodigious talent in anything magic related based on her own experiences with the boy and from what she had heard about from his peers. Since Ravenclaw and Slytherin sat together, it had not been hard to overhear his fellow Ravens talking about the boy in either awe or envy.

Daphne had firsthand experience at how knowledgeable the boy was as she always ended up being partnered with him during Transfiguration. Every single time they had been asked to perform a spell, Aether always either performed it on his first try or second.

Every single time without exception.

What’s more is that whenever she would gather up the courage to ask him how he was doing it, the instructions he would give her were somehow clearer for her than even Professor McGonagall’s. Before she knew it, she had ended up forming a tentative friendship with the boy for convenience’s sake, at least she kept telling herself that.

‘Ugh, why am I thinking about him again?’ Daphne thought in frustration as she dried her hands. ‘You know better than to get too close to someone who’s friends with Harry Potter, Daphne.’

With that last thought in her mind Daphne headed for the exit of the bathroom only to stop in her tracks when an awful stench hit her nose causing her to almost puke.

Holding her nose with one hand, Daphne looked up with teary eyes when she heard the door to the bathroom open only to gasp in horror as standing at the entrance was a mountain troll with its club raised over its shoulder.

‘A troll!? What’s a troll doing here!?’ Daphne thought in shock as she slowly backed away from the door and pulled out her wand with a shaky hand even if she knew it would be pointless.

Unfortunately for her the troll finally noticed her and immediately raised its club over his head and brought it down a moment later just missing her by inches.

“Eeeeeek!” Letting out a scream in fright, Daphne scurried backwards before tripping and landing on her behind forcing her to crawl backwards as fast as she could trying to get away from the creature.

“Raaaahhh!” The troll let out a roar in anger at missing its target and tried to hit her again.

Not even hearing another voice scream behind her, Daphne covered her head with her hands and closed her eyes in fear knowing that she couldn’t get away this time.

‘Someone, please save me!’

“Depulso!”

=====

(Regular POV)

‘Made it just in time.’ I thought in relief seeing my banishing charm pushing Daphne away from the trolls’ attack thus saving her life.

“Daphne! Hermione! Hurry, get behind me!” I yelled out to the two girls as I distracted the troll by banishing the debris on the floor at it making it cover its face with its club in annoyance.

Once the girls were behind me and no longer in danger, I pointed my wand at the floor and concentrated.

“Aguamenti! Glacius!”

A powerful jet of water was suddenly launched from my wand and spread through bathroom floor before following it up with the freezing spell. The freezing spell being strong enough to freeze all the water I had created and freezing the troll up to its ankles.

“Did it work?” I heard Daphne ask in a whisper from behind me.

“No, that’ll only slow it down.” I said with a shake of my head and my words were proven true when a second later the troll managed to get one of its legs unstuck from the ice with its sheer brute strength.

“Tsk.” I clicked my tongue in annoyance at being forced to show my skills so soon into the year but went through with it regardless. I was so thankful at having gotten rid of the No Skill Framework intensity months back allowing me to boost my learning of magic by a tremendous amount.

With a silent wave of my wand, I ripped the club from the troll’s hand and proceeded to beat it over the head with it until it lost consciousness.

“Haah, that should do it.” I muttered before walking towards the Troll with Daphne and Hermione at my side and inspecting it for a bit. Seeing it not reacting even as I gave it a good kick, I nodded to myself and turned back to face the girls.

“We should go, I really don’t want to be here when all the teachers show up demanding answers.” Without waiting for a response, I gently grabbed ahold of Daphne and Hermione’s hands and led them away from the troll.

Seeing that the girls were strangely quiet I looked at them from the corner of my eyes and smiled a bit at seeing them with a blush covering their cheeks and with their head slightly looking down even if I have no doubt they had a million questions right now, especially Hermione.

When we were about to turn a corner, we heard rapid footsteps heading in our direction and stopped, thinking we had been caught.

‘Damn, it appears I might have lingered too long.’