Chapter 14

(A/N: Were you wondering about the 'bad parts' I was talking about? Well, here it is!)

The eerie silence was broken by a sudden influx of cheers by the people who had listened to my clownish act and suddenly I was being thrown into the air amidst the loud shouts of "We have a God among us!", "Matthew is the King!", "Long live The King!", and some utterly random stuff like "Yeah! Hogwarts is Great!" or "I ain't wearing anything under these robes!" The last remark caused a second bout of silence momentarily but after a couple of shrugs, the cheers resumed once more. There were also a couple of people sobbing, spouting stuff like "I am never gonna get a girlfriend!" Or "Curse these ikemen!" That last one caused me to raise an eyebrow, that was....unexpected.

By now, the rest of the Great Hall were watching the commotion, though most of the girls were making a distasteful expression, Hermione even more so, while the adults were doing what I thought they'd do, Snape was scowling, Quirell was trying to stay hidden, Sprout and Flitwick were just smiling, Hagrid was clapping, Sinatra and Babbling were calmly eating, Trelawney was muttering stuff under her breath, Dumbledore still had that calm, kind grandfatherly look on his face while McGonagall seemed so angry it was a mystery her face hadn't already exploded from the sheer rage visible on her stern visage...

Before she could take action though, I decided to take matter into my own hands. The next time they were about to launch me in the air, I actively channeled mana into myself and used that added strength to leap using the momentum they were creating, which resulted in me shooting upwards, close to the simulated sky and floating candles but not enough to actually hit them. Midair, I took out my wand (though I didn't actually need my wand to cast most spells) and fired an harmless spell that created an ear defeaning blast while simultaneously manipulating pure magic to create an invisible platform midair which made me look like I was hovering.

McGonagall and the rest of the Professors were looking at me in varying degrees of shock on witnessing the magic I'd performed casually, which was far beyond the capabilities of an average seventh year, not to mention a first year, though Dumbledore hadn't actually acted that surprised and was calmly watching things unfold with curiousity and hint of interest showing in his twinkling eyes, while the student body were still suffering from the aftereffects of my 'harmless' spell. I took a deep breath, internally, to calm myself and decided to take advantage of this situation. I knew that Hermione's fledgling relationship (friendship) with me would very likely take a massive hit but task no.5 was of a higher priority than task no.6.

Casting a Sonorus on myself, I spoke out in a clear, loud voice, "Calm down, my fellow students. Yes, I know I made history by getting acquainted with a member of the fairer sex in less than 48 hours since my arrival in Hogwarts (followed by cheers) BUT I assure you we were only reading books (followed by boos). I may have taught her my self-created book reading spell but that's-" I paused suddenly, with a dumbfounded look of my face, when I saw the members of the Ravenclaw House suddenly become a well-oiled efficient military machine.

The professors had by now come out of their shock,and were about to take action when a bunch of Ravenclaws made way over them and started speaking something to them which somehow...pacified them? The rest quickly silenced the few Gryffindors who were still making noise along with a few Hufflepuff stragglers and suddenly a tall, seventh year student cast a spell on himself that somehow allowed him to float towards me. I extended my invisible platform to let him stand as well, which made him marvel at it for a few seconds, before he cleared his throat and asked in a solemn voice, "What was the book-reading spell you were talking about?"

"Err.. it's a sort of scanning spell which could imprint all the text and images present in a book directly to your brain in seconds. It's-" My explanation was cut short when the Ravenclaws, including the one standing in front of me, started salivating and cast hungry looks at me, making me shudder instinctively.

"Will-will you be willi-willing to share that spe-spell?" He spoke out between wiping out his drool with a creepy look on his face which made me want to punch the hell out of him or run and never look back. He was actually one of the better ones as a couple of other Ravenclaws were actually acting like drug addicts, though Hermione was only frowning at me.

"Err.." As I was about to reply, it struck me that this was an amazing idea to get publicity and money, and so I decided to alter my original reply.

I acted unwilling and fidgety and didn't meet the boy's eyes as I 'stammered' out unintelligibly, "Er.. Umm.. ". I was sure none of them would buy this act especially the smart Rave-

"I'll pay you! In fact, I'll help you with your homework. No, not just homework, I'll help you with whatever you want. So, what do you say?" His frantic, desperate tone made me realise just how much this meant to the Ravenclaws. Huh, well, mission accomplished.

"Umm.. ok." I acted as if I had made a 'huge' decision after 'struggling' with myself for a while and thankfully I didn't have to put my poor acting skills to test any longer as House Ravenclaw erupted into cheers.

Some professors started clapping too, and I was surprised to find Snape among them! Severus Snape, clapping for a Gryffindor, without being sarcastic or sneering? I thought I was dreaming and judging from the rest of the students, they thought the same. Even more surprising was McGonagall smiling. Her anger seemed to have evaporated but I didn't want to risk reigniting that rage of hers, so I decided to act cautiously.

I thought it would be prudent to stop 'hovering' so I created a set of stairs (invisible, of course) and walked down with the Ravenclaw senior following behind me. It was quite a sight, actually, because I saw the wave of students parting to make way for us, (read:me), while we were walking down from raised platform and due to the invisible nature of the stairs, it seemed as if we were walking on 'air'...

What happened next was almost a blur. After receiving congratulations (for what? I don't know) from my housemates, waves from my dormmates and smiles from the rest of the student body, I was pulled in a meeting with the Headmaster and the Professors.

Seems like my impromptu plan had somehow worked. Thank you, hot-headed Gryffindors...