Chapter 23

McGonagall gave us the same stupid spiel as last time, talking about House points and the Cup and House bonding and what not. After finishing her speech that I let in one ear and out the other, she led us through hallways and corridors and soon we found ourselves in the Great Hall. Hermione once again muttered about enchanted ceilings and old history books no one reads. I did find Ron this time, and boy the twins certainly did a number on him, he was going on about fighting trolls and whatnot. I noticed a few other major characters like Neville, Draco, Seamus, Dean, the Patil twins before my attention was diverted by the god-awful song coming out of the relic of a hat.

My ears being assaulted resulted in me being somewhat surlier than usual which is why I didn't pay much attention to the Sorting. The haze lifted from my mind when I heard my name and I walked towards the stool, this time with no cringey stuff.

As I expected, I was sorted into Ravenclaw and was politely applauded when I sat with the Eagles. Soon it was time for Harry Potter's sorting and for a second, I thought that maybe the timelines had been changed, maybe some catastrophic event had occurred, but my worries were assuaged by the Hat shouting, "GRYFFINDOR!" and I silently heaved a sigh of relief.

Potter was joined by Granger and Weasley and soon it was time for the feast. Dumbledore gave his customary short speech before the feast, leaving the main course for after we finish eating, as usual.

While eating, I casually let my eyes roam over the teachers' table and to no one's surprise found Quirrell looking anywhere but Harry and Snape looking only at Harry. The occassional twinkling glances of the old Headmaster and the sharp scrutiny-filled gaze of the cat Animagus at the Boy-Who-Lived was also expected. But then again, nearly every student was staring at Harry with different emotions so nobody really noticed the excessive attention of Dumbledore and his pet spy on a small, malnourished kid of 11 with a scar.

Oblivious to the attention he was receiving, I observed Harry chat with the Weasley Twins, Pompous Percy, his dormmates and of course, the duo of Ron and Hermione. As I observed the rest of the students around the Great Hall, I found the blond figure of Draco Malfoy and silently let out a sigh of relief when I saw him scowling at the boy who was being examined by the entire population of Hogwarts. There were a few who weren't part of the pack, so as to speak, like Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis, who were minding their own business. The latter did occasionally glance in the direction of the Gryffindor Table, but it wasn't as excessive as the majority of the students.

My casual scrutinisation of the school ended, I attacked my dinner with greater fervor and soon it was time for Dumbledore to give his usual start of term announcements with an unusual twist this year due to the presence of Harry. I was almost sure he put the Philosopher's Stone in the school, especially with such elaborate but ultimately weak traps because he wanted to test Harry.

After Dumbledore's mention of the forbidden third floor corridor, I saw his eyes flicker for a fraction of second to Harry and I wouldn't have noticed it had I not been observing him closely. Huh, so I guess he did want to test Harry.

Soon, we were led by prefects to the Ravenclaw dorm where we had to answer a riddle to enter the dorms. The prefect answered tonight's riddle for us (What is always coming but never arrives? Tomorrow) but she did tell us to try to answer them ourselves next time.

In Ravenclaw we were given individual dorms and I was thankful for that because I hadn't liked sharing rooms with anyone. As the new students were settling in and the old ones mingling around, I decided that this would be the best time to sneak out to do the ritual as I was getting a little antsy hiding my older self in the trunk for any longer than I absolutely had to. Leaving an illusion in my room, just in case, I cast a set of spells that gave me invisibility nearly similar to the Deathly Hallow Harry will get, along with the removal of sound and touch as well. It was still a lot lacking compared to the Cloak of Invisibility but it would suffice.

I snuck out the Common Room and quickly made my way to the RoR. I already had my trunk with me as I had never unshrunk it on the train and I didn't like letting my belongings out of my sight, especially when I was hiding a human in it. It was easy to find the RoR as I had turned on my GPS spell the second I entered Hogwarts and it still worked as I designed it to.

Walking three times past the blank wall on the seventh floor opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy I concentrated on a room fit to cast rituals and soon I was rewarded with a door appearing in the previously blank stretch of wall.

The RoR had changed into a medium sized room with a big open space in the middle, a few pieces of ritual equipment like chalks and candles on a table near the centre as well as a bookcase on the other side of the room with plenty of books.

Deciding to solidify my knowledge regarding rituals, I first perused the books at what could be called super speed and corrected a few mistakes I had made in my original plan, which while harmless could have potentially devastating consequences down the line.

Soon, I had drawn the required diagrams with the magical chalks, and placed candles at appropriate places. Then I took out the still stunned body of old me and placed it in a place clearly marked my chalks, and stabbed a bit in his arm and drew a few symbols with the resulting blood. A few more symbols made from my blood and it was done.

Taking a deep breath, I sat down cross legged and started chanting in a low voice, while constantly pushing magic through the runes I was surrounded by. As my voice rose in volume, and my magic flared, old me began to wake up. I ignored his screams and questions and attempts to escape and focused on completing the chant with no mistakes. Any intervention at this point would cause a backlash the likes of which would either turn me into a squib or I would die.

It started with blood draining from the body of the old me and soon evolved into shedding of the skin and muscles leaving only a skeleton which soon turned into ash as well and swept into the runic diagrams with the earlier stuff and soon there was nothing left where the body of old me was previously present.

Magic, the likes of which I had never felt before, flared up all over the ritual and I could feel... something.... rushing towards me and before I could puzzle out what was happening, I blacked out.