Over the next few weeks, the Duelling Club was slowly got filled with more people. Mainly with first and second years. There were a few higher years, one seventh who was only there for extra credit, Mat didn't mind, she was a good teacher. There were a good number of third years who had got caught up in the mini war the year before. Word got around about Mat and Flitwick's duel. Apparently, most had never seen anything like it other than at professional duelling circuits. The popularity and the spells learned in each class helped many students with their casting of spells and they couldn't get enough of it. Eventually Mat asked Dumbledore, who agreed to open up the adjacent room to have some tables set up for an extra study and communal space. Even Malfoy enjoyed it. Nearly all of them had seen a sharp rise in their grades, so more academically inclined students started joining. Overall, there was on average around 80 kids in the Club at the beginning of October.
During this time there was a lack of any drama, apart from Quidditch, Snape being a dick and a few duels which had got a bit too serious. Mat had to ask some of the teachers to oversee the classes along with Flitwick. He didn't mind, he thought it made the club more legitimate. Eventually Tiana and her friends joined the club, which Mat was both happy and annoyed about, he couldn't afford distractions. They had a small duel which Mat destroyed her in, also bringing up a few thoughts which he quickly stamped down. He was challenged by a few older years and Mat won every single duel, showing his aptitude in it. Flitwick enrolled him in the duelling championships over the summer. That was something to look forward too.
Mat had slowly started to befriend his target, Harry, as well as Ron, Hermione, and Neville. He tutored them all and pushed them. He made Harry to become more academic and studious, thereby increasing his power which was needed in the future. With Hermione, he tried to broaden her horizons and think outside the box, not trusting everything she read as well as attempt to think more critically and practically. Neville, he pushed and pushed to make him believe that he is capable of being a powerful wizard. Mat gave a parting comment to Flitwick about the wand Neville was using at the end of one session. It turned out that Ron was an excellent tactician. That surprised everyone, even Mat, perhaps that may be why Ron was so drawn to chess? Overall, he counted this as a success. Over the months the Club became a hive of activity and proved to be useful to both the students and school as a whole.
In the first couple of weeks of the semester, Mat made several trips to the Room of Requirement, mainly for training. He assumed that it would be quite popular with the people from the club regardless of having a new area to use. When it wasn't used by anyone other than the twins and Lee. He asked them why and it turned out that they had placed a memory charm within the contract that the other students signed which erased the location and the fact that they were in the Room from their memory, while keeping their memory intact of everything they learnt in there. That was an annoying oversight which Mat wished that he thought of beforehand. It was an excellent piece of magic though and Mat didn't even think of using magical contract to erase memories and such. They were a couple of geniuses them two.
While thinking of the contracts and how to use them, he went over some plans he had made for the future when he came to another realisation. The attempt to change the timeline has already been massively changed with what Mat had done at the school over the last year alone. Now that Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville are already a bit more competent and skilled, their timeline has already changed as well. With Mat now in the limelight with the Club and now named as Flitwick's protégé, Mat can't influence the from as much world the shadows as he believed. He was so eager to change the magical world that he did not realise what he was doing it and their image of Mat. It was guaranteed that Mat had already made some enemies in the Pureblood faction by angering Carrow and his goons. His name was definitely known by Malfoy's parents, thereby making it known to other people in their social group. Maybe Mat's alter ego, Unknown, may have to play a more prevalent role?
Within the first two months of the year though, the timeline is relatively intact. Harry gets told off for being outside of the dorm to meet Malfoy for a duel, Harry finds the Cerberus and he also gets into the Quidditch team as a Seeker. On Halloween the Troll breaks into the school. Mat expected this to happen and was prepared when a distraught Quirrell ran into the main hall.
"TROOLLLL, troll in the dungeon… I though you aught to know" he yelled and collapsed onto the floor.
The main hall erupted into fear, and panic filled screams and children started running around, it was pandemonium until Dumbledore created an extremely loud boom from his wand which made all the glassware, windows and furniture shake while all the people covered their ears and ducked on instinct.
"All prefects take the students to their dorms. Staff, to the dungeons with me" Dumbledore announced. Mat's eyes immediately found Hermione, safe and next to a worried looking Harry, Neville, and Ron.
Hermione was whispering something to Harry however and his features turned even more worried. Mat walked over to them and harry immediately told Mat the issue "Dean said some nasty things to Lavender Brown, and she was last seen heading towards the girl's toilets, we have to tell her!"
"Fuck" Mat swore "follow me!" all four of them did and they rushed to the toilets. He hoped that with Hermione and Ron on good terms that they didn't have to do the first-year rescue thing, he was wrong. They all stopped at the second to last corridor seeing the back end of the troll walking towards the girl's toilets. They shared a look of worry and jogged there. Kicking himself for not fully preparing for this situation he asked "Do any of you know how to deal with a troll?" all four of them shook their heads.
"I know they are resistant to magic" Hermione commented with a shrug as they stopped just outside of the toilets.
Mat nodded at her then looked into the toilets and said, "we need a plan before we…" he was cut off with an ear-piercing squeal of terror and an almighty crash of wood and stone. "Shit!" Mat swore again and ran into the toilets with the four first years behind him. He saw the troll taking up most of the space in there, its wide bulk only allowing about a two metre on each side while the ceiling was not as tall as it seemed with the troll being half a metre taller than it should have been. Quickly assessing the situation, he concluded that he needed more room to fully deal with it. So, by acting on impulse he sent an overpowered bombarda at the troll. It made the creature stumble and turn towards them, its beady little eyes full of malice. The quartet of first years followed his example and sent bombarda's at the creature also, two hitting it in the face, one in the chest and one in the chest while the fourth missed its left shoulder. It stumbled again, caught its balance and with a roar, charged at the five students. They beat a hasty retreat into the corridor with the troll on their tail, it had to slow down to duck under the archway leading into the toilets which gave them some space.
"You lot go left and distract it while I think of something!" Mat ordered Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Neville. Taking a quick glance at the four, he saw that they were all scared, yet they nodded resolutely and did as ordered. Mat went right and cast a disillusionment charm on himself and assessed the situation while he had time. The four first years were bombarding the creature with bombardas and a multitude of hexes, successfully distracting it while retreating from it further down the corridor.
Remembering the fact that the golden trio dropped the trolls own club on its head in the books, Mat reasoned that using physical objects and casting them at the troll would work. So, he levitated some masonry that the troll had brought down and a suit of armour he saw in an alcove and cast them at the troll using banishing hexes. The troll was beaten and whined with each hit it took. It still didn't fall. It looked dazed and unsteady on its feet however, and some parts of its skin cut and bleeding and it dropped its club on the floor. Hermione taking the initiative levitated the club and told Harry to copy Mat's idea and cast it at the troll, the wood must have been heavier than it looked a because with an almighty bonk on the head, the troll was out like a light.
"Fucking 'ell, that wo tough", with the stress of the situation, Mat's Yorkshire accent came through even more than usual, his heart with thumping in his chest, it seemed like the other four were in similar conditions and panting with exertion. Ron had a bewildered smile on his face.
They all had forgot about Lavender until Harry shouted her name. They all turned to find her covered in dust, a few light cuts on her face and holding her arm while her bloodshot eyes, staring at the troll in shock and disbelief. Mat walked over to her "Lavender, are you alright?" she didn't respond other than turn to look at him while the other four walked up, taking care to keep away from the knocked-out troll. Mat clicked his fingers in her face and she barely responded to that as well.
"What's wrong with her?" Ron asked.
"I think she's in shock" Hermione said.
"I think so too" Mat agreed. They then heard running footsteps behind them, they turned to see Professor's Snape, McGonagall, Pomphrey, Sprout and Babbling turn the corner and stop dead as their eyes locked onto the troll and then onto the children.
"Merlin's beard!" exclaimed McGonagall "what in blazes happened here? You better explain yourselves!" her stern eyes bored into the six of them, promising retribution if she did not receive a good enough answer.
"It looks like Potter was hunting for glory" drawled Snape.
Madame Pomphrey rushed past them and headed to Lavender casting a diagnostic charm on her and muttering herself. McGonagall, slightly distracted by the Hogwarts Matron hurrying past her and Snape raised her eyebrow while giving the five others with a death glare "Well?".
Mat stepped forward, "as you lot ran off and let the students fend for themselves, we knew that Lavender wasn't with us at dinner, so we ran to get her and bumped into the troll. If we hadn't come… well". Mat explained. McGonagall's eyes softened and she at least looked a bit ashamed of the fact that they had just left them there.
"Likely story" drawled Snape again.
"Shut it Severus" McGonagall admonished, she looked past the five and into the ruined toilets and then at Lavender, her eyes softened even more "ten points to each of you, now get to your dorms please, we will deal with the troll, professor Babbling, can you escort the children please?" Babbling nodded in confirmation.
"Professor, can I stay with Lavender please?" asked Hermione, in concern for the girl.
Madame Pomphrey replied "she has a few bruises and cuts but nothing a few potions wont fix, she can come to the infirmary if she wishes."
"Very well, now go, the lot of you" McGonagall said sternly, and they all headed off.
VVVVVV
Mat did not have many other interactions with Harry, Hermione, Ron and Neville, apart from in the Club meetings, he wasn't in their friend group fully so was not privy to what they got up to on their own. However, he did see their demeanour change and them working harder and more determinedly, with Lavender working harder as well. Lavender and hermione appeared to be more friendly with each other which was nice. He left them all to their devices throughout the year. Harry had joined the quidditch team as Seeker which was expected. The events of the Philosophers Stone appeared to have happened as usual, at least to Mat's observations. Quirrell was observed by most of the school ever since it was pointed out that his entire demeanour had changed. According to the rumour around school, one kid had asked him why he was acting the way he was. Apparently, he said that he was bitten by a vampire and was gravely ill and woke up with a stutter and a nervous disposition. That seemed to have sated most people's curiosity, but not for the most observant. The twins had seen him on the map at night when he wasn't on patrol and was completely disappearing from the map witch shouldn't be possible, according to the duo.
One day after classes, Mat returned to his room to find an envelope addressed to him. He read it to find that it was from Amelia Bones, it explained to him that she had found that Sirius Black had not been placed on trial and after meeting with him he agreed to be questioned with Veritaserum. After his questioning and allowing his memories to be seen in a Pensieve, they had agreed to take Black out of Azkaban and into a cell in the Ministry. Bones asked Unknown if he had any other information to help with Black's possible release. So, Mat sent a reply confirming Sirius's explanation of Peter Pettigrew's Animagus form, and that the Weasley's had a rat which had an unnaturally long lifespan with a missing toe.
It was during dinner that Ron was called up by Dumbledore's office. Apparently, he met up with Harry, Hermione and Neville looking pale faced and rather sick. No one knew why (apart from Mat obviously) and the next day, Sirius Black was officially released from prison with the news hitting everyone at once with a flock of owls carrying the Daily Prophet at breakfast in early February. A couple of weeks later Harry was called up to Dumbledores office to meet with his Dogfather and he could move in with him at the end of the semester, finally being able to escape living with the Dursleys. It was an unspoken observation that most people had seen how frail looking Harry was at the beginning of the year and yet only a few months in school harry had grown and filled out extremely fast and when talking about living with the Dursleys he had a haunted and worried look about him. After the meeting with Sirius, Harry seemed pretty happy, and it seemed as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Dumbledore on the other hand seemed to have gained the weight that Harry had lost and looked rather haunted for the rest of the year.
VVVVVV
Harry, Hermione, Ron and Neville had detention in the Forbidden Forest in which Harry came to the conclusion that Voldemort was alive. This led to the events of the trapdoor and Harry's eventual duel with Voldemort/Quirrell. Mat met Harry in the Infirmary afterward for a chat to see how he was.
"How you doing mate?" Mat asked with concern.
"Yeah, I'm OK. Its not every day you have a chat with your parents' murderer." Harry said with a forlorn look.
Mat huffed "yeah that's true. Was you injured at all?"
"Only a few scrapes, thanks to the Club I was able to put up a good fight, well, not really a fight, more like my reflexes were faster and I was able to dodge a couple of curses he sent at me." He replied with a distant look, as if he were remembering the events.
"Huh, well at least it helped you, can you talk about it?"
"No not really, I was told to keep it quiet, but Professor Dumbledore said all the school knows about it, so I don't know what to say really" Harry said, a bit confused.
"Oh, well, I'm glad the stuff we went over helped you then, so will you be joining again next year? It would be quite empty without you lot in there" Mat asked.
Smiling, Harry said "of course, I don't want to think about what would have happened if you didn't teach us how to use our bodies as well as our magic", shuddering at the thought.
Mat smiled back and gave Harry a little friendly punch to his arm "good lad, glad to hear it!"
With that said, the two lads had a conversation about nothing until Mat was ushered out by Madame Pomphrey. The school ended as usual and Gryffindor won the house cup, however, Dumbledore wasn't a dick this time and gave points to Harry, Hermione, Ron and Neville before he announced the winner of the House Cup.
VVVVVV
The school broke up as usual and the students got the Hogwarts's Express home back to London where all the families were waiting for the kids. Mat smiled when he saw a happy, yet nervous looking Harry talking to a similar Sirius. Mat met his parents and he said goodbye to his friends and Clubmates and went home for the summer.
Author's Note:
OK everyone, a short chapter here. I have made the decision to focus solely on Mat's perspective. I have ideas for at least 2 more books which cross over into other franchises and am going to mainly use this as a practice for writing and a build-up, world building and character development which lead up to the main story. The Harry Potter storyline will be secondary to what I have in mind and won't have much of an impact on the greater world apart from importing the characters and the wizarding world into my overall vison. Thanks to Navn Ukjent for pointing out that my focus for the timeline was over the top and I hope to rectify this, the mind palace however is there for a reason though my dude. If people have concerns for the over poweredness of Mat, don't be, things seem like that for now, with the plans I have in mind, you will understand why I have made Mat this way.
Still looking for a Beta and I hope to keep writing more of this story and have at least one chapter done a month.
Peace
