VVVVVV

After the incident with Snape, the rest of the week in class went fine for Mat. His Astrology lesson went well. Some Wizarding kids marvelled at the power of the muggle telescope. Turns out the wizarding telescopes were as archaic as Mat thought. Apparently, the builders refused to accept that muggles could build anything better than they could. Regardless, Mat was not the first or the only one to bring a muggle telescope to Astrology. One other kid, a Hufflepuff named Matthew Summers, Matty to everyone else, had brought one, his dad was a muggle and was an amateur astrologist. The other classes were not very exciting for the rest of the first week. He did have another run in with Carrow and his band of tools though.

They tried to pick on a kid called Cormac McLaggen. Mat remembered him vaguely from the movies, he was very unmemorable. Carrow was pointing his wand at Cormac whilst two of his goons were holding him down. Mat used the same tactic as before and set off flashbangs, he knew where they were now though so aimed three low powered ones right next to their heads and set them off at the same time. He ran in and flying kneed Carrow in his kidney, sending him flying into the wall, breaking his nose again. He quickly incapacitated the other two by an uppercut elbow to the one on the right of Cormac, who was holding his head in his hands screaming, and to the one on the left, who was silently screaming and was looking around like a tit, Mat punched him in his jaw knocking him out.

Mat turned to Cormac then, who was sitting with his back against the wall looking up at Mat in wonder. "You alright?" Mat asked.

"Errr, yeah thanks, that was amazing!" Cormac exclaimed.

Mat just smiled and held out his hand pulling him up, "I'm Mat".

"Cormac" he said after he brushed himself off.

"Nice to meet you, mate. Come on, let's get out of here." Mat said.

Cormac agreed and they walked together to the library. Mat took in what Cormac looked like now they were out of potential danger. He was of similar height to Mat, had pale-ish skin and curly, short blonde hair with blue eyes. Like most of the kids in Hogwarts, he was wearing his uniform at the time. He learned that Cormac's family were 'big in the ministry', whatever that meant. And like his name suggested, he had a Scottish accent, though Mat couldn't place from where.

VVVVVV

Snape was out of it for a couple of weeks, Dumbledore had taken over potions and was an excellent teacher. The teaching room smelt much better since the last time Mat was there. Apart from Snape, Mat had no problems with the teachers here, even though they still had that annoying habit of not giving anyone the chance to react when they said to do something. Mat seemed to excel at Defence Against the Dark Arts. Professor Quirrell was quickly becoming his favourite teacher after Flitwick. DADA was awesome, they learned how to counter dark curses and watch out for certain animals that were considered dark. Strangely Banshee's were considered dark, Quirrell explained that the ministry considered any creature that was inherently violent or could easily kill someone was classed as dark but not inherently evil. Cho Chang asked about the banshees that performed with Celestina Warbeck which Quirrell explained that some have been known to interact with people but most are very territorial and protect their area viciously. Mat wondered to himself what it meant to have banshee wisp in his wand. He decided to speak to Ollivander about that and thought about sending him a letter.

True to his word, Flitwick called for Mat on the Monday of his second week in Hogwarts, they were in the Charms classroom and Flitwick explained to him what he was going to teach Mat. He couldn't contain his excitement.

"Now then Mr Lawson, I have heard of a couple of rumours of you having another fight with some other children, you need to learn how to control yourself and incapacitate people without causing damage. This will be my first lesson to you. Firstly, show me how you would stand if you were to engage an opponent with your wand" Flitwick told Mat in his jolly high-pitched voice.

Mat turned to the side slightly, had good footing which was not too far apart and not too close together, so he had a good central balance. He pointed his wand away from himself but not arm outstretched, he held it like he would a knife, clinical yet flexible. He opened his left hand slightly to point in front of him toward the imaginary opponent, he stopped doing that when Flitwick raised an eyebrow. Flitwick then walked around him, nodding approvingly.

"Very strong stance indeed, Mr Lawson, I could give you a couple of pointers but there would be no point until we figure out your strengths and weaknesses." He summoned a training dummy from across the room "I will teach you some first year spells which you could use in battle and would be effective against some of the greatest duellers out there, even I got hit by a couple of these when I was in the circuit." He nodded to himself while getting out his wand. "The first one, I am sure you have you have read about is the body-binding curse, Petrificus Totalus!" Flitwick barked at the training dummy. It was wobbling around like a tube man until it was hit with the curse. Then it went rigid and toppled over like a tree. "You perform with a rounded swish, a line and then a quick flick upwards while incanting the spell, like so." He showed Mat how to do it, Mat nodded and closed his eyes, concentrating before performing the curse. Flitwick then deactivated the curse and the training dummy and it sprang up, wobbling its arms around again.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Mat shouted. The spell shot off perfectly and the dummy did exactly the same with what happened when Flitwick performed the curse. Mat grinned.

"Excellent! Excellent! Perfect casting, I will now demonstrate the tripping jinx…"

They practiced for a good two hours, Mat was having fun and he had over 20 new spells he could cast in his arsenal. He only had 30 minutes to get some food, so he ran off to get some, tired yet invigorated at the speed at which he was learning.

The classes of the first semester went smoothly for Mat and his fellow Ravenclaw's. He continued his private lessons with Flitwick, he had them twice a week. He also started having private lessons with Babbling in runes. It was mainly theory at the moment, but with the rate he was memorising clusters and the runes themselves, he wouldn't be far off carving them soon.

VVVVVV

Outside of the classes was annoying. Carrow and his merry band of purebloods were on his case all the time and small skirmishes were a weekly occurrence. Nothing serious though. Fighting Slytherins wasn't the only case of violence that Mat was involved in.

It was about three weeks into the semester, and he was just coming out of Ravenclaw tower, heading for the Library, when Mat overheard some shouting and what he thought were two girls screaming. He rushed to the end of the hallway, believing it was more Slytherin boys harassing some other kids. Mat seemed to have built up a protective reputation over the weeks he was in Hogwarts. He activated his magic and pulled out his wand as he was closing in on the corner. As he turned he was surprised to see some 7th year Gryffindor's shooting spells at two first year Slytherin's. He was not amused.

There were three of them all together. The one who Mat assumed was the leader was laughing while he shot spells at the two girls. He was, at this point, shooting some water out of his wand at them while his mate was holding their wands, leering at them with a feral grin. He aimed and activated three low-ish powered flashbangs next to the three boy's heads. The third boy was on lookout and activated a protego maxima as soon as he saw Mat turn the corner. The explosions went off like were planned and he hit the first two dead on. They collapsed to the floor, completely disorientated. The lookout was much more prepared and the protego protected him from the flashbang. Mat slowed to a walk taking in the surroundings and keeping his eye on the lookout.

"Oi! What do you think you're doing?" the lookout shouted at Mat.

Mat eyed him "what's it look like?"

"It looks like your looking for a fight, firstie. You spoilt our fun, now I'm going have some on you!" the lookout shouted at Mat. He dropped his shield and immediately shot a silencing charm, jelly legs and a stunning spell at Mat. "Silencio! Cruso labo! Stupify!"

Mat widened his eyes and quickly dived out of the way, all three sailed harmlessly past him while Mat hid behind one of the suits of armour. Mat was panting and scenarios were bouncing around in his head. "Right" he thought "how to take him down fast?". He quickly picked a few spells from his small arsenal and decided to peek his head out from his hiding spot to see where the lookout was. As soon as he did a spell was coming straight for him "Shit!" He swore. The lookout was walking straight for him, on guard but obviously not used to fighting with the way he was walking with his wand pointed straight out and not at an angle. Mat decided to squeeze around the armour to pop out at him unawares. He looked up to the statue and he saw it glow in a strange pale white light and its head turned toward him "oh shit" Mat swore again as he dived away. The suit of armour fell off its plinth at Mat and clattered on the floor, pieces of arm or clattering every which way.

"Fuck sake" Mat growled. He prepared to cast a flocking charm and body binding curse. He heard the lookout whisper a leg-locking curse. Mat was slightly faster at casting. "Avis!" he shouted, and a flock of jet-black birds shot out of his wand. The lookout managed to cast his leg-locking curse, but it went wide. Mat carried on casting the flocking charm until he could get a good visual on the lookout and cast the body binding curse. The lookout was flapping his arms about trying to hit the birds so was completely open for Mat to cast the body bind "Petrificus Totalus!" he yelled, and the lookout went as stiff as a rod and fell backwards. He did the same to the other two who were only just coming around from the bombardment against their senses. He made sure they were incapacitated and then turned to the two girls who were cowering in the corner, staring at him with a mix of fear and admiration, their eyes as wide as a deer in headlights.

He gave them a nod "you okay?" he asked the girls, who he recognised as Pomona Nott and Arianna Murray, two of the girls who were in his boat on the Black Lake.

Pomona quickly came to her senses and schooled her face to her usual pureblood features and got up, slowly followed by Arianna. "Why?" Pomona asked.

"Why what?" Mat replied.

"Why save us? You're not a Slytherin." She said.

"So? I saw two kids being bullied, doesn't matter which house they are in. I don't like it either way." Mat answered. They both stared at him like he had grown a third head. Mat just gave them a reassuring smile and held his arm out for Pomona to take. Which she did and she ushered Arianna to come with "where were you two going anyway?" Mat asked them.

"We were going to the Library until…" Arianna replied, looking back at the paralyzed trio of Gryffindor bullies.

"What a coincidence! So was I!" Mat exclaimed, making them both giggle. He was trying to keep their spirits up after the whole ordeal. He hoped it was working. He started some small talk with them trying to get to know them better. They were much more friendly, yet also a bit more guarded after what happened. It was a bit of a conundrum to Mat. Regardless, they went to the library to study and that was that. He hoped that there would be less shit between the Slytherins and himself now.

VVVVVV

The next few months were rather uneventful all things considered. Mat had made a name for himself for being brutally effective as a bully deterrent. Nearly all of it had stopped and the school seemed to be all the happier for it. Snape came back into potions and carried on like his usual self, but completely ignoring Mat as if he wasn't there, Mat found that hilarious. Potions was as shitty class as he thought it would be and they only learned by figuring stuff out themselves.

He also started exploring the castle and finding new places to train and keep himself fit. He discovered that around the black lake was empty in the early mornings, so he went running around it a couple of times every day. He also went to discover the Room of Requirement.

He discovered it by pacing three times in front of where it should be and wishing for the room to appear. Turns out it was exactly where the books and movies said it was, right in front of the portrait of Barnabas the Barmy and his attempt at getting trolls to do the ballet. He walked into the room and couldn't help but smile. It was a full-on gym complete with ring and punching bags. There were some practice dummies with their hands up as if ready to spar. He started going there every other day to keep himself sharp and alert.

His personal training sessions with Babbling and Flitwick went extremely well. When he duelled Flitwick for training, he got his arse kicked every time by the diminutive professor. He was extremely good. Mat learned by leaps and bounds during this time with Flitwick, adding many spells to his arsenal and used them to great affect with his opponent. He was becoming intimately familiar with the spell he cast more often and found that he barely had to move his wand to cast them. He asked Flitwick about this. He explained that as wizards get used to the spell, the less action they have to do to cast it. Mat then asked about the incantation itself and he was told that wizards, over time sometimes don't say the incantation, but that was usually reserved for the most adept and powerful wizards and witches. Mat knew this already but decided to claim ignorance on the subject. He could feel himself getting more powerful, he knew he was one of the most powerful wizards in the school on pure magical power, due to the way he could perform his flashbangs and personal shield.

It was during one of these combat sessions that he was in a particularly strenuous bout with Flitwick that he unconsciously activated his sine site. What he saw made Flitwick see an opening in Mat's defences and so he cast an extremely powerful disarming charm which numbed Mat's hand in the process. Mat hissed, held his hand to his chest then bowed in submission to being defeated, which was custom apparently in a wizard's duel.

"What happened Mr Lawson? You lost concentration, most unlike you" he walked up to Mat giving him a concerned look as he came closer, looking up at him as he did.

"Yeah I know, I just thought I saw something is all" Mat replied, looking at the wand in his hand.

"Interesting, what do you think you saw?"

"Honestly? I don't know, I think I can see the spell before it's cast. Like, I could see what you were going to cast before you did. It's hard to explain" Mat said.

"Hmmm, can you describe what you saw?"

"Yeah, like a mist flowing up from the elbow and into the wand"

"I see, very unusual. If I cast a spell, do you think you could try and see it again? Why don't you say the spell before I shoot it?" Flitwick suggested. Mat nodded in agreement and tried to focus and watched Flitwick get ready to cast something. Flitwick aimed at a training dummy he had summoned and shot a spell at it, the same disarming spell he cast earlier. Mat shook his head to say he didn't see it. He then closed his eyes and focussed his Sine Sight and nodded for Flitwick to cast again.

Mat could see the spell form this time, it went extremely quickly and so he couldn't see what is was. He said as much. He asked Flitwick to cast it again and tell him what he casted. It turned out that each spell had its own colour. The disarming spell had a grey colour, almost like an absence of colour, if that was possible. They tried a few more, the darker magics had darker colours, usually it was curses that had these, the cutting curse for example, had a dark red, like blood and the healing spell, a bright golden colour. The even though the darker the spell had a darker colour it turned out that some spells had the same colour, but different shades of it. So the blood replenishing spell had a bright blood red colour. Mat didn't recognise them immediately and it would be something he would have to practice on. This would be a very affective skill to have. Turns out that Sine Sight would be an extremely handy skill and he was curious as to what else he could do with it in the future.

VVVVVV

Runes were going swimmingly, and he was learning how to carve them. He was given small pieces of slate to practice rune clusters on. He was given a sort of stylus which he was to carve the runes on with. It was extremely sharp, sharp enough to scratch the slate. Mat found this very therapeutic and couldn't wait to start enchanting stuff with them. He wasn't allowed to activate any of the runes yet. The idea was to get him confident with understanding the runes so he could notice if any rune clusters were wrong before they were activated. The consequences of a faulty rune cluster could be deadly.

Overall, Mat's first semester went well, he was absorbing the magical knowledge like a sponge and was at the top of most of his classes, he was in the middle of classes such as Herbology, Potions, Flying and History of Magic. He just didn't really care for them as much. Turns out his hatred for heights had continued into this life. He had read most of the history of the magical world already and had filed that away in his Palace. With Herbology and Potions, he understood the benefits but just had a general disinterest in them.

Mat's main goal was to befriend as many people as he could and try and form alliances, he left the older kids for when they had left Hogwarts and Lawson Enterprises could snap up the potentials. Mat focussed on his year and some others older than him. He had already befriended the Weasley Twins and had contracted them to terrorise Carrow and his little crew sometimes. He knocked about with the Twins every so often, hanging about and sometimes planning pranks on people, usually on Filch, he was as much of a wanker as he was in the films. Out of all the Gryffindor's, he had, kind of good, relations with Cormac McGlaggen and Katie Bell. Cormac was always happy to see Mat, he thought it was due to Mat saving him. Katie was very friendly and Mat liked her, she was always with Angelina Johnson for some reason, they were probably friends before they came to Hogwarts. He had partially befriended Lee Jordan due to being mates with the Weasley Twins, but that was as far as it went.

The Slytherin's were proving to be annoying to socialise with, but it was coming along slowly after the incident with Pomona and Arianna. The two of them and their friend, Olympe, didn't dismiss Mat anymore and were quite open to conversation with him, but he had to initiate conversation with them. Turns out that Pomona was quite witty and funny when she wanted too. Arianna was timid and shy but had a keen intelligence. Olympe was naturally bubbly but put on a stern façade, her smile lit up the room, Mat commented on that which made her blush.

Nearly all the Ravenclaw's in his year were friendly with him, Cho was a naturally friendly yet a bit of a quiet girl, Mat liked her. Marietta Edgecombe was in fact a very nice girl, very supportive and defensive of Cho, that was the only person she was like that with. She was always cordial and nice to Mat, and so he was to her as well. Milly Jackson was very clumsy and had a short fuse, yet she had a keen intellect and was very inventive when she wanted to be. Mat was stuck at the hip with Eddie, Rand and Craig. The four of them were hardly separate, Mat appeared to be the leader, which he was fine with. Eddie was a smart and determined lad, had his nose in a book nearly all the time, didn't speak that often. Rand was also quiet and didn't speak that much to Mat, though he did ask about runes when he saw Mat reading up on them, turns out he wanted to learn about them too, so Mat decided to tutor him a bit. Craig and Rand ended up best mates, when they weren't with Mat and Eddie, they were always together. Craig wasn't an overly smart person but when he set his mind to something he was extremely determined. Marcus Belby was a loner and refused to socialise with any of them.

The Hufflepuffs were a bit of a conundrum. They were always distant yet friendly to Mat and he found it difficult to truly think they could become allies. He was trying to befriend them but for some reason he couldn't. They appreciated him and always thanked him when he had stopped some kids bullying Hufflepuffs, but that was it. The closest he could get too seemed to be Matthew Summers, and that was only because he was in his class. Mat decided to put that on the back burner for the time being and see if anything natural occurred.

Mat still did his usual thing of helping kids with their work. Nearly all of them were receptive apart from the Slytherins, they appeared to feel they were too good for his help. Mat could tell that Arianne, Pomona and Olympe wanted to agree to his help but something was holding them back. Their grades were not as good as the rest of the houses.

He was generally pleased with himself over this school year so far. He had gained some friends and allies, made a name for himself and became more powerful and knowledgeable over this first semester. Christmas quickly creeped up on them and everyone, including Mat was looking forward to going home.

VVVVVV

The trip from Scotland was a boring affair, there was a weird mix of excitement and sadness emanating from the kids on the train. The Express pulled up in London, he shared a cabin with Eddie, Rand and Craig on the way down, Rand had his nose basically pressed against the window, he missed his parents. The train pulled in and everyone clambered out to find whoever they were supposed to meet. Mat found his parents quickly enough. They went to meet with his Nana and Grandad which was a pleasant surprise. Instead of going straight home, they stayed in London for a couple of nights on a little family shopping holiday.

They got home and once everything was settled, Mat asked them how the company and recruitment was going. He was informed that everything was going fine, profits were up, they had found a couple of wizards and witches to join them who were grateful of the opportunity but didn't fully trust Lawson Enterprises, which was fair enough. The muggle military part was also going well, they were gaining contacts both abroad and in the UK. Bear in mind it wasn't too long after The Troubles, so people were a bit paranoid about speaking to people about arms deals and ex-soldiers. The three wizards and two witches were all muggleborns who had been forced out of work due to pureblood bigotry and the goblins, true to their word, had mentioned Lawson Enterprises to them to gain their interest. Four of them had already started semi training with Mat's uncle and his mate, they were mainly scouting potential training areas and finding new people to join them.

Clair Darby was a 30 odd year old muggleborn witch who had just been taken on by Lawson Enterprises and agreed to tutor Mat in Runes over the Christmas period. She was a kindly person, had shoulder length blonde hair that framed the face and had bright blue eyes. Dressed in muggleborn clothes she did not look like a witch at all, she them that she was living in both the wizarding world and the muggle world and could blend in well in both. A floo had been set up and Mat was waiting in the library for her on Monday afternoon. She stepped out with books held to her chest and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the library. She eventually noticed Mat walking up to her and smiled at him while also taking in the rest of the Library. Mat did admit, the designer had done a stellar job. It was a classical looking place with huge windows that lit up every corner, it had a large central oak table and a couple of booths nestled underneath a couple of windows. It also had a rich green carpet and an archway which was hidden to muggles which had the magical section of the library that was a mirror image of the one she was in. She placed the books on the table and held her hand out to Mat. "Hi, Mat?"

He took her hand, "yep, Clair?"

"Yep" she replied. "aren't you a bit young for studying runes?" she asked "you mum didn't actually say how old you were."

He smiled back, "I started this year, but Babbling said I'm a prodigy. Fancy that?"

"Huh, well, let's see what you can do eh?"

Mat decided to not beat around the bush and basically lectured Clair on what he knew about runes and what he wanted to use them for. "I've had an idea bouncing around in my head ever since I found out about runes. I want to make a rune cluster that can help muggle electronics work in a magical place. I have a laptop in my trunk at Hogwarts and have it in a magic nulling field which I thought would work. But the bloody thing blew up when I turned it on. So, I think that we could buy some cheap electrical things and carve runes on them to get a basic understanding of what we need to do. Also we need to understand why magic affects electronics, especially more complicated electronics." Clair sat there, blinking without an expression on her face. Mat thought that he's broke her somehow "errr, Clair?" he tapped her on the leg and she jumped.

"Why haven't I thought about that before? That's a brilliant idea!" Clair exclaimed. Mat could only partially take the credit for the idea, after all, he did steal it from other fanfics in his old world. The next few weeks were full of Christmassy things and attempting to get runes to work with electronics. They did the testing in the magical side of library, turns out that magical books gave out ambient magic, which was enough to interfere with electrical objects.

The magic nulling runes didn't work, apparently magic nulling is still magic. So, they attempted magical absorption. That did work, to a certain extent. So because they had a baseline of what to do, they etched small runes clusters into the casing of the object to suck the ambient magic out of it and store it somewhere else. It was a complicated rune and took a large amount of power to activate. They got a plastic radio, took the outer shell off and etched runes on the inside of it. They linked the runes to a small housing container which they invented to store the magic in and stuck it to the side. Mat was extremely happy to discover that the radio worked perfectly. They could make money out of this. He decided to pitch the idea to the goblins and make money selling this stuff in Diagon Alley. They would need time to research and mass produce so they could add the runes clusters to other pieces of tech. He thought that he could take the radio prototype to school, he missed music and keeping up to date with current events, maybe catch the odd football matches on Radio 5. Mat gave Clair the promotion which she happily accepted and commissioned her to run the project. Lawson Enterprises had now officially had a foot in the magical world.

Mat had two other tasks to complete over the Christmas holiday, one was to send an anonymous letter to Amelia Bones about Sirius Black. He got in contact with the Goblins about making sure it could not be traced back to him. The letter read:

Dear Ms Bones.

You do not know me. I have recently been researching into the aftermath and the convictions of wizards and witches after the 2nd wizarding war. One particular case popped out at me of a Mr Sirius Black. I cannot find any public information on the trial which sent him to Azkaban. May I commission a copy of the trial transcripts? Otherwise there would have to be a public inquest of why a member of the illustrious Black family was imprisoned without trial. Please deposit a response into Gringotts Vault number 5301.

Kind Regards,
Unknown

P.S. He will return.

He thought that was mysterious enough to raise suspicion and hoped that Bones follows it up and hopefully get the ball rolling fast enough for Black to possibly take custody of Harry, considering the man was sane enough.

He also sent a letter to Ollivander, asking him about the reason behind banshee wisp in his wand. The man wrote back explaining that banshees have an innate connection with sound and are highly protective of their home. He also said that they are a variant of siren, while sirens lure sailors into their den with their beautiful singing and consume them, banshees prefer to kill any invader that they perceive a threat. The banshee wisp in his wand would be powerful with protective spells and powerful offensive spells as well as darker spells, due to the banshee's nature. The Alkonost hair was excellent in the finer magic, such as transfiguration and lighter spells such as healing due to the Alkonost's nature of being a light creature and its personality of being joyful. Alkonost hair would be the best in mind magics though, their singing was known to be so beautiful that people forgot what they were doing and entire wars were stopped to listen to the music. While the two cores were technically opposites in every way, the pear wood's ability for resilience helped in binding the two together to create a truly powerful wand, second only to horned serpent core and elder wood wands, of which none have ever been sold to his knowledge.

Having his curiosity sated and piquing other people's interest in certain people, Mat happily went back to Hogwarts after Christmas came and went. He set up his radio in the dorm room which became hugely popular in the Ravenclaw tower, especially on Saturdays with the football and the small gathering they had with some of the older students. He had received information that Clair had perfected the radio rune clusters and could create them faster and with less magic. Mat got her to send him 4 radios, he gave one to each house, this made him hugely popular, he told the kids what he had designed and what the future plans were for this stuff. Some of the purebloods outright snubbed it especially in Slytherin but Olympe, of all people loved it when he gifted it to the three girls.

VVVVVV

He was walking back from his nightly spar with the practice dummies in the Room of Requirement when Mat's arms and legs snapped to his side and he fell flat against the floor, his nose erupted in splash of blood and he could see stars. He activated his Sine Site to get awareness of what was going on. He couldn't move, and panic started to creep in. He could feel and see splashes of light of the footsteps coming slowly toward him from three directions. He couldn't identify who they were due to the pounding in his head and the panic. He heard Carrow's voice, "we got him! The filthy mudblood isn't as smart as he thought he was." Mat could hear the smile in his voice and he became furious.

They levitated him and turned him over, one of Carrow's goons holding him up while Carrow himself was pointing a wand to Mat's face. "Carrow" Mat hissed.

"That's right you filthy mongrel, I've got you now, Diffindo!" Carrow whispered. Mat screamed as the cutting curse slowly cut his face open. Carrow smiled in glee, his eyes wide as the cut bled, dribbled down Mat's face and dripped to the floor.

"Stop now you little cunt!" Mat screamed at Carrow, "I will destroy you!" he raged impotently.

"What you gonna do? You can't punch me this time halfbreed." Carrow responded "Diffindo" he whispered, opening another cut on Mat's forehead.

Mat screamed again, this cut was slower than the last one, he unleashed his magic, not knowing what it would do, or if it would do anything. He couldn't for the life of him cast spells without hand gestures so he didn't think he could anything, he tried anyway. He screamed in rage, his eyes focussed on Carrow, the boy opened another cut on Mat's arm, it was the longest one yet, he took his time with this one as well. Bringing it down from his shoulder toward the elbow. Mat took a big deep breath in and shouted at Carrow, a pure, primal scream. A golden pulse of pure energy exploded from Mat's mouth into the face of Carrow. The boy flew backwards, into the wall of the corridor, the primal scream pinning him there. The boy couldn't move, and blood started coming out of his ears. He was screaming back but Mat couldn't hear him. The magic was pushing its way out of Mat's mouth in pure golden energy and he felt a sharp pain in his side. One of Carrow's goons, Mat turned his head as much as he could and the energy only just hit the goon on the shoulder, it sent him hurtling away down the corridor. Mat then dropped to the floor as the third goon released the levitation spell on him. He ran over to Carrow who was sat up against the wall he had slid down from, picking him up and dragging him away. Carrow barely walking. The trio fled the scene while Mat's magic kept pouring out of him.

The golden energy started pulsing, like a kick drum, Mat couldn't reel it in. He was shouting at one spot and he saw that with each pulse the ground shook and the wall he was staring at started to crack. More pulses shot out of him, into the wall in front. Mat was on the verge of passing out. More pulses and now more powerful shockwaves were pouring out of him. The walls started cracking even more. Mat watched a large crack snake up the wall into the ceiling and a large boulder broke off. It hurtled straight towards his head. He knew no more.

VVVVVV

Mat woke up to the rustling of sheets next to him, he was exhausted. Madame Pomphrey was fussing over him while he laid in bed. He moaned, reaching up to his head which felt was splitting open. He noticed his arm was bandaged, but he didn't really care, the pain was unbearable, he moaned then hissed as his hand touched his temple. "shh shh shh, it's ok, just stay still dear, you're in the hospital wing. You've had some serious damage done to you, nothing that I couldn't fix." She gave a reassuring smile which did in fact, reassure him. She gave him a potion that he drank without hesitation.

"Jesus!" Mat coughed and spluttered "the chuff is in that?!" He was more focussed on the foul taste of the potion that he didn't realise that the pain in his head had disappeared.

She just smiled again, "just a simple pain killer and nutrient potion dear, now rest up. You are not to leave this bed for any reason apart from the loo. Not just my orders, but the headmaster's as well. You've had a serious case of magical exhaustion and serious injuries, you were in quite the state when professor Snape brought you in."

Mat looked at her in shock "Snape? Snape brought me here?"

"Yes, Professor" she emphasised the professor "Snape brought you here. He said you had lost control of your magic and collapsed a part of the castle corridor. You should thank him when you next see him. You were bleeding heavily and would have been in a much worse state if he hadn't brought straight to me". With that she turned away brooking no argument from Mat.

He settled down in the bed and tried to relax, he tried to go into his mind palace but that didn't work. Maybe due to the magical exhaustion? He needed to replay the events of what happened and make sure it didn't happen again, and if it did, he had to make sure he could control it. Could he replicate the scream again? If he could, that would be a major boon. He also needed to contain any collateral and also train even harder so he would not be ambushed again. He got complacent. He had learned first-hand that even the most untrained idiot could take him down if he got complacent. He remembered the feeling of when he fell to the floor. He was scared, that's the first proper time he felt scared in this world. He vowed to never let that happen again, there was too much at stake.

VVVVVV

After one potions class, Mat waited until everyone had left and walked up to Snape who watched him over the book he was reading. "What is it?" he drawled.

"Thanks for taking me to the hospital wing the other night." Mat said. Not backing down or showing any kind of intimidation.

"Don't do it again, I do not want to waste anymore time taking you to the infirmary during your time here, boy" he then basically dismissed Mat by turning back to the book he was reading. Mat shrugged and walked away. That was probably the most civil conversation he had with him.

VVVVVV

Over time Mat got stronger and stronger. He couldn't fully recreate the Primal Scream, but he could create something similar, it took a lot of energy out of him. He thought that it may because his core isn't big enough yet, but he should be able to do it in the future and it would take less energy the more he did it, like most magical abilities. Only time would tell.

The resentment with Carrow and his group of cockwombles had spilt over into a sort of war between him and his peers. Carrow was usually outnumbered. Slytherin's, if they were close, usually joined on his side but some eventually decided to not get involved when small skirmishes broke out in the school hallways. It was always Carrow and his goons who were the initiators. They nearly always lost. When they won it was because Mat wasn't with them. Due to the tensions in the school, Mat decided to offer some of his friends to fight properly and teach them a few things that Flitwick taught him about wizards duelling. This way he could hone his martial skills as well as magical.

He had managed to get a small group of people to join his little combat club. The Twins had joined, as well as Lee Jordan, Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet, they were there for the early engagements and took out some older Slytherins when they joined in. All the Gryffindor's in Mat's year had joined, Katie Bell, Cormac Mclaggen, Agatha Koch, Gregor Findlay, Evie-Grace Hendricks, Ty Shah and Sakina Smyth. Mat had relations with them all and he was happy they did. None of the Hufflepuffs joined, Mat was a bit pissed off with them for that, but it wasn't unexpected. If they did see anything happening in the corridors, they protected people from spells but never fought back. All the Ravenclaws in Mat's year, apart from Marcus Belby had joined. They told Mat they only became because they were in the firing line due to being associated with him. But Mat saw the gleam in Cho's eye when they said that which suggested that she was excited to learn.

The group had formed mainly due to information from Pomona about the older Slytherins training Carrow's bell ends. Mat told the Twins who then suggested that they did the same but learn from him. Mat was happy to implement that, and he told them about the Room of Requirement. Before he did though, he got inspiration form Hermione's idea of the practitioners about signing a similar contract which forbid anyone from telling anyone outside of the club where the group met. The Twins had enchanted some nasty surprises for anyone who broke the contract. That made everyone shiver in fear.

Most of the older years were amused at their antics and decided to stay out of it for the most part. He had heard about bets being taken about who would come out on top. Carrow had been told multiple times to stop what he was doing, nearly the entire school told the teachers that it was him who was initiating the violence. He was nearly constantly always in detention. Mat had had enough one day after a particularly violent battle and went to Flitwick about going to see Dumbledore about it. The professor agreed and they made their way to the headmaster's office.

VVVVVV

The password this time was "chocolate dip" and they made their way up the stairs. "Ah, Matthew, what can I do for you today?" he asked and smiled his grandfatherly smile.

"I want Carrow expelled" Mat demanded.

"Oh? Whatever for?" Dumbledore asked.

"What, whatever for? Mate, you serious? He attacked me loads of times, he is a pureblood bigot and insults and bullies everyone he comes across who's not a pureblood, he tortured me, he causes fights all the bloody time with his idiot hang-on's, who I still don't know the names of yet, he is the instigator of all the chaos that's been happening with the younger years in the school and as far as I know, nothings been done about it. Its basically a war zone out there and the teachers aren't doing anything about it. I've had to create a club to help train people who he's targeted as he's getting special training from people in Slytherin. And you asked me why I want him expelled?"

"I see, that would be a problem, but I cannot justify expelling a student over harmless pranks" he told Mat.

"Harmless pranks? He put me and other kids in hospital with his fucking harmless pranks. He either needs to stop or needs to be kicked out!" Mat was furious at the headmaster. The lack of action was absolutely appalling to him.

"I get your point Mr Lawson, I will send a letter to his father about the issue, but you must understand, I cannot expel him for this. I will encourage Severus to be harsher in his detentions. I know this must be frustrating, but rest assured, the matter will be solved in due time." The man then stood up, nodding in dismissal to Mat and Flitwick. They both turned and left.

"How do you think that went sir?" Mat asked Flitwick once they were well on their way back to the Ravenclaw dorms.

"He may seem rather aloof, but once he promises you something, he usually gets it done, believe me Mr Lawson, you won't have to worry about this much longer." Flitwick replied, he placed his hand on Mat's arm, reassuringly.

Mat nodded, "I hope so, its really starting to piss me off."

"I understand, how about we have a little duel to unleash your frustrations?"

Mat grinned, "that sounds brill".

VVVVVV

Over time the skirmishes stopped. Mat continued on his studies and he became more powerful with each new spell he learned. He also continued on with the battle club he had formed. A couple left the club, well, two Gryffindor's, Agatha Koch and Evie-Grace Hendricks, the rest stayed in due to them finding it fun and them learning at a faster rate than they normally would in class, as well as the friends they made. They all left pleasantly magically and physically tired. The year soon came to a close, end of term tests were a breeze for Mat due to his ability to remember most things he was told. Luckily these tests were much like muggle ones in that most of the time all they wanted you to do was regurgitate what someone told them. He aced them.

It quickly came to the end of term, and during the end of year feast, the house cup was decided. Slytherin had come last, mainly due to Carrow. This angered the whole house and there were more than a few angry stares at the boy. He glared back most of the time. Hufflepuff won. Which was a bit of a surprise. But because they were the only house not to get involved in the skirmishes, none of them lost points. It was a close call between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff though.

Mat had packed all his things and made his way out of the castle wit the rest of the students to catch the Hogwart's express. He had plans for the summer and couldn't wait to get them started. Like at Christmas, his parents were waiting for him. Mat quickly said final goodbyes to his mates and other people he knew, and walked went to his parents. But unlike last time, they headed over to the floo's. He decided to chill out and catch up with his parents then start the work the next day when he made It home.

Mat went to his usual spot in the little temple in the garden and meditated the morning after he got back. Colours rushed into his mind as he turned on his Sine Sight. He recognised most of the plants like lost long friends. He enjoyed the reconnect. He then delved into his Mind Palace to plan what to do next. He had to take stock of the yearly events, there was no where like this he could think of in Hogwarts to fully meditate. There appeared to be too many disturbances in that place. He planned for this summer and when the next school year started. That year would be when Harry comes to Hogwarts. Things would hit the fan soon after. So Mat decided to get some personal tutoring done over the summer holidays, mainly in runes with Clair. So off he went to meet up with her and see what she had done.

Mat and his mum arrived in the remote area of Yorkshire where the facility was placed. It used to be an old mill which they had converted into a factory. It was an aesthetically pleasing place, whitewashed outside walls with wooden beams gave it an air of oldness which contrasted well with the lush green spring countryside. It was in the middle of nowhere and no one would bother them here. The had also constructed small living quarters in the factory to house the workers, they were all basically destitute when they were hired and didn't have much so they happily moved here, apart from one lady who had a family in Birmingham. She apparated there five times a week.

Mat climbed out of the black Jaguar X-Type and waited for his mum before they made their way to the factory. Clair came out to greet them. Mat smiled at her and they said their pleasantries then headed inside. He met the 8 magicals in the building. One guy, a Martin Lightman, was responsible for the breakthrough in the rune cluster, Mat congratulated him and asked them about it. All they did was change the order the runes were in and it worked like a charm. There were stacks of radio's and TV's in the main storage area, all of differing quality to be sold to people who could afford them. Mat asked how they would get TV stations, of which Clair explained that they had managed to create another rune which picks up ambient satellite signals and the TV picks up what it found. They come with their own instruction handbook for the wizarding world customers. Mat congratulated them all once they showed him how it worked and gave them a bonus. He told Clair to hire someone to open up a store on Diagon Alley to start selling them as soon as possible. Which they did.

After that pleasant time at the factory, Mat then went to one of the converted warehouses that were dotted around the country for training. Mat's uncle had managed to hire a couple of people and he was also with a wizard who used to be in the Auror's but quit after his partner spread false rumours about him. Trevor Keddle was a pleasant man but had deep trust issues with people in authority. Understandable. They had already been training with some of the ex-forces, surprisingly most of them were fine with it. They had an inkling and the military had rumours about magicals but didn't know the extent of it. They had quickly managed to find certain rolls for people to fill. They would be placed in teams of five or six, depending on who was in which group. Usually it was three muggles and two magicals. Sometimes four muggles. The magiclas main job was to protect the team and heal anyone if they were injured. Turns out that shields were very effective against bullets, but the sheer amount of them would overwhelm it in a shot order. So one bullet would be no problem, but 60 bullets shot in a short amount of time would quickly overwhelm the shield and it would break. Also, only the most powerful of magicals could cast a shield that could encompass the whole group so they would have to be localised to protect certain areas or people. They had enough people for 2 teams at the moment and they sparred with each other daily, trying to outwit the other.

So far, some tactics included having two people lower the shields with massive amounts of firepower and another to shoot the enemy with high calibre ammunition to take them down and the magicals defending them from counter attacks, this appeared to be the most efficient option. The other two are firstly to have the wizards focus on destroying the shield and the muggles attack the enemy using flanking manoeuvres, and secondly, staggering the wizard with explosions and flash bang grenades. They quickly found out that disorienting a wizard was very effective due to the wizards need to keep concentration to cast a spell and then having the muggle take them down with hand to hand combat. The latter would be useful in taking down civilians or high value targets for capture. Overall, plans were in place and Mat was satisfied.

Mat got Clair and a Muggle soldier, only known as Sarge, who was one of the better trained, to work together to find solutions to use technology in a fight without magic interfering with it. Overall the summer was busy and Mat felt suitably prepared for the future, at least for now, who knows what the future would bring?