Chapter 18

A week in the classes I noticed a few things. Some not that important but one in particular, mind-blowing.

Ron was apparently hanging out with Percy as this version of Ron idolized the stuck-up uptight Prefect.

Malfoy was still establishing his heirarchy in the Slytherin House and thus his bullying was minimal, if not non-existent.

Harry and Neville had become very good friends, and somehow Hermione too started associating with the Gryffindors more rather than the Ravenclaws. I hadn't seen Hermione after our encounter in the library as we had agreed to meet after the Troll incident.

By now most of the students and professors had learnt my spell and so far news of it hadn't been leaked out of Hogwarts, which was something Dumbledore and the rest were deliberately doing.

But my last and most important revelation came during the History of Magic class. Suddenly, I felt a huge jolt and a soft golden glow surrounded me for less than a second, and then disappeared as if if never existed.

And then I knew.

Paying no heed to anyone I dashed out of the classroom frantically and went somewhere where I knew I could be alone. Hastily casting a disillusionment and silencing charm on myself, I made my way to the RoR and promptly started pacing around once I made my way in.

I now knew why I was feeling a bit weird since the time I set foot on Hogwarts, and what was that jolt I felt a few days ago. Turns out, I had made a...pact of sorts when I was younger, which had been fulfilled a while ago and thus the jolt and golden glow. For some reason, I didn't even know about this and whenever I thought to try to think about anything remotely related to it, I would automatically forget my suspicions. But nevertheless, the fact that I had somehow managed to get in a binding contract without even knowing about it was... disturbing, to say the least.

I had always known magic was mostly based on intent and will but this was a whole different ballgame. Apparently, when I had 'vowed' to become strong when I was younger, my emotions which were purer because of my age, created a pact which would be upholded by my own magic. Even though I actually had the thought processes of an adult, my younger self had affected my emotions and thus that binding oath was made.

In my previous life, I was as mediocre as it was possible to be. Like most people who were similar to me I too wanted to be something...more. Later on I made peace with the fact that I was going to remain average and even hard work would only take me to somewhere near above average, not the heights I wanted to be. But apparently, those desires hadn't been completely squashed and came back to bite me in the ass.

My thirst for power made me work a lot harder than I would have done without the pact, which had apparently amplified my desires. In my younger self's eyes, I suppose my current skill level was enough to be labelled something vaguely powerful, and my current financial status could also be tentatively called good, more than enough to live a comfortable life, which was also something I desperately wanted.

These two desires were my prime wishes and the fulfillment of those (my current self didn't think it was enough but since the pact had been lifted I wasn't complaining) had resulted in the dissolution of the contract. Now I felt as if a haze had been lifted from my brain and felt..refreshed.

However, my hidden desire to become famous and have a few social relationships had nearly resulted in catastrophe. My normal self would have never done the things I did under the influence of the pact. Well, no matter, I could still resolve this.

Now, to get my hands on a Time-Turner...

I went out of the RoR and asked it to turn into the Room of Hidden Things. Once in, I had to wander around to find the broken Time-Turner, which I could hopefully make use of. After a few moments of wandering around I didn't find my desired object, but I did find the Vanishing Cabinet, which while fascinating, really wasn't the thing I was looking for..For a moment I pondered on whether I could get a Time-Turner from Knockturn Alley, but I let that thought process go. It was something my pact-influenced self would have done, but rational Matthew would never do something like that.

After a few more moments of searching, I finally found the Time-Turner with the help of my detection radar. The glass part of it was broken, but I didn't want to use it like that anyway.

My first test subject for the Integrator spell wouldn't be a living organism, but a magical object. Of course, I had to modify it, but I already had an idea regarding it so I suppose one session in the RoR with time dilation would result in me doing this by the time my History of Magic period ended. I left the thinking of a plausible excuse for my sudden dash from the class to my future self and proceeded to modify my spell, which would make me a very powerful wizard, very fast, if it worked normally.

Before modifying the spell, I proceeded to look into magical artifacts and after a bit of perusing, I found a spell I wanted. It was used by a certain set of people (A few Ministry officials and artificers) to analyse what a magical object did by scanning it's magical signature and finding out what sort of enchantments, runes and transfigurations were performed and engraved on it. The spell I found was most probably outdated and inferior to the one currently used, but since I had no other means to find and learn spells, I was content with what I had. I would probably try to improve the spell but right now I didn't have the time or the knowledge to do it.

With my second Mind, I also decided to read a few books on magical transportation like apparition or portkeys and illusions as well, to brush up on my basics. I couldn't apparate or make a portkey (yet) but I did know what they were and I could make pretty convincing illusions as well but it was hard for me to focus on multiple senses at once.

A plan had already formed in my mind regarding resolving the things I had done, and I hoped it would suffice.

(A/N: TADA!)