Chapter 24

I woke up with a start and jumped up to my feet so fast I nearly had whiplash. I felt confused for a moment before memories came rushing in and I remembered blacking out during the end of the ritual. I glanced down at myself and didn't see much difference in my physical appearance except a couple inches added to my height, no extra appendages had made themselves known and as far as I knew my face hadn't arranged itself into a facsimile of an aberration of a horror movie. A more in-depth observation would have to wait as I realised I had little time left till breakfast courtesy of the Tempus spell and my illusion would hardly stand in front of any decent magic user because while I was vastly more powerful than most of the citizens of the Wizarding World, I was lacking in skills and experience to call myself one of the best. I could vastly outperform the majority of people at Hogwarts but Dumbeldore (obviously), a few of the seniors, all the professors except maybe Trelawney would be able to combat my sheer raw power with their greater spell repertoire, understanding of magic and plain, old experience. Well, I was seeking to rectify those shortcomings by my third year so it wasn't all bad.

I rushed out of the RoR after a quick Scourgify and ran at amazingly fast speeds with my entire collection of disillusionment spells to the Ravenclaw dorms before my illusion gets caught. I noticed my speed had increased, a lot, but I was lacking the control to really let loose. I was sure it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to call me a superhuman with the physical prowess I now had. That ritual sure worked wonderfully.

Maneuvering around the few students who had gotten up late and were rushing to the Great Hall, I rushed in the Ravenclaw Common Room (the door was fortunately unlocked) and found a few prefects going around the dorms looking for stragglers and lazy bums. I barely had the time to get inside my dorm unnoticed and dispel the illusion when a prefect opened the door to find me fully dressed and about to go to the Great Hall. He gestured me to go on and I was thankful for his taciturn nature because I wasn't really up for talking right around now.

By the time I made it to the Great Hall, I had cast a few household charms making me look immaculately dressed. I made my way over to the Ravenclaw table and joined my housemates who were already eating but no one had finished their food yet because thankfully I was late by only a few minutes. I was still feeling a little paranoid about messed up timelines and the state and strength of my occlumency shields because Snape and Dumbledore might be able to read my mind if they proved to be inadequate and that would be a disaster of epic proportions.

I could probably use a Time-Turner once more but I doubt it would work this time since the fact that I was currently aware of the possibility of a doppelganger from the future, seeing as I had acted as one myself, would result in me making preparations. I would have to make sure to not be caught unawares like my pact-addled past self because I really don't want to be stuck in a self-made time loop with my doppelgangers taking over my selves and killing each other until no one knows who is the original...

Alright, that would be a bit too much (would make for an interesting story though) but the point is I was more focused on matters of higher significance than something as mundane as social interaction which is why I barely made any conversation with my fellow first years during breakfast, which made them ignore me and I was perfectly fine with that.

Since there were no classes today or tomorrow, I had plenty of time to check out the effects of the ritual and maybe plan a few more. This time, I would spend my time in the Hogwarts library or the Ravenclaw Common Room library instead of working like a madman possessed by a ghost who died from working too hard in the RoR.

I hadn't yet decided on how I would interact with people, especially the major characters, both students and adults, and after a moment of pondering I decided to not bother to make plans regarding that. I would take things as they come and without the ridiculous pact affecting my mental functions I was sure things would be nowhere near as disastrous and cringey as last time.

Soon, I was finished with breakfast and I joined my housemates to a casual walk around the castle and it's grounds. I was itching to test the results of the ritual but I figured it would be better to take a break for a while because I had barely taken any proper rest since I had found out about the pact, what with all the time-traveling and rituals.

I silently admitted to myself I enjoyed the peaceful walk around the grounds and the calm refreshing breeze made things even better. A few hours had passed by the time I walked back to the castle as the grounds were really big and the castle and it's surroundings were beautiful. I hadn't pegged myself as the artistic or romantic type but I had gotten lost in the breathtaking grandeur of the ancient castle.

By now I had calmed down and my paranoia had taken a back step for a while. I was feeling so good that I expected something bad to happen to me because this was clearly the time some event occurs that sours the mood of the protagonist. I suppose I was being arrogant when I called myself the main character because nothing untoward happened and I made it to the RoR without further distractions.

It was time to check out the results of my ritual.