Chapter 13: Chapter 13
The events of the previous day had exhausted me which resulted in me waking up late, relatively speaking, of course. By the standards of my dormmates, it was way too early.
After my morning workout and shower, I dressed and went down to the Great Hall for breakfast and spotted Hermione, who had arrived a few minutes before our appointed time, probably because she didn't want to be late.
Making my way towards her, I greeted her a good morning which she reciprocated. After a bit of light conversation, I said, "So should I count this as an admission of acceptance for my offer, Miss Granger?"
"You may, Mr.Arrington" she spoke with a smile, and again, there was that teasing hint to her voice when she said my name.
I didn't want her to speak like that so I told her, "You can call me Matt, if you wish. You don't need to feel the need to reciprocate, however."
"No it's fine,...Matt. You can call me Hermione too." She said after a few moments of contemplation.
"Hmm. Well I suppose being on a first name basis is better than our earlier situation, isn't it..Hermione?" I said in a jesting tone, standing up as I had finished my breakfast.
"I suppose it is, Matt." She too stood up, and we walked in a silent, pleasant way to the library.
On reaching the library, Madam Pince watched us with an appraising eye and perhaps she liked what she saw because she didn't scold us like the rest of the student body.
Hermione and I quickly walked over to an empty desk, and I stopped her before she started picking off books at random that caught her eye and asked, "What would you like to learn right now? I am sure you have already learnt everything from our first year syllabus so would you like to revise that or add more knowledge to your repertoire?". After thinking for a couple of seconds, she told me, "Charms seemed interesting to me."
We picked a few books and sat down to peruse them, I had actually picked one that I hadn't read somehow, probably because in the RoR I read the more rarer ones.
On seeing we were alone and isolated, I whispered to her, "Hermione. Do you want to learn an interesting spell?"
It took me quite a while to actually get her to listen to me because she was extremely immersed in her book. She looked at me with a frown and said in a low voice, "This better be good, Matthew Arrington or I swear you'll not like the consequences." Note to self, DO NOT disturb Hermione while she is reading.
"Sorry about the interruption but I would like to teach you a spell that I am sure you'll like."
"Hmm. What is it?"
"A book-reading spell."
"..A what?"
"My self created book reading spell which acts like a combination of a magical scanner/camera and printer. You can 'read' a book in seconds."
"...Are you joking? You can already create spells?"
"Hermione Granger, I solemnly swear I am being truthful. I would never tell a lie like that, y'know? And yes, I can create spells. Perks of being a... genius." My initial serious tone had taken a hint of smugness by the end, which, judging from her reaction, amused Hermione.
"Yeah, yeah whatever, Mr.Genius. Now let's see what's this spell you were talking about..."
I taught her the modified version of my spell, which was rather rigid as it couldn't create 'tentacles' or anything of the sort that would allow for multiple books to be scanned at once. It also took a longer time to scan a book from the version I used, but it was fast nonetheless.
Honestly, creating the wand movements and chant (Lectito!) took me longer than it took me to devise the actual spell, which was saying something..
Hermione, even though she was intelligent and incredibly talented, took about an hour to cast the spell properly, and that was with me personally guiding her. Judging from the look on her face when she finally used it, I could tell which spell she would be using the most in the coming days...
When it was time for lunch, I had to physically pry her from the bundle of books lying haphazardly on the desk. She had gone on a 'reading' frenzy after learning my spell, and I could see a sort of crazed glint in her eyes. Perhaps I had made a mistake by teaching her that spell....Oh,well..whatever.
After an embarassing episode where she screamed and waved her limbs around frantically when I picked her up from behind, with my arms firmly holding around her waist, to get her to leave the library and go to lunch, she was finally pacified and sane enough to listen to reason. Though I suppose the sheer amount of embarrassment and mollification she felt had something to do with her relatively calmer face which was very red right now..and she was using her hair to hide it...
While we were walking towards the Great Hall, I spoke out, "Hermione, I didn't know people could become barbarians while reading books. I always thought they WERE savages because they couldn't or didn't read books. Thank you for opening a new door for me." I told her in a serious voice which was dripping in so much sarcasm I was surprised the floor hadn't melted already...
"..." She mumbled something under her breath and her hair hid her face from my sight so I couldn't even guess what she was saying. I suspected she was either apologizing or asking me to shut up, though I was leaning towards the former.
"I didn't quite catch that...Were you saying something, Miss Granger?" I spoke in a mocking voice, needling her needlessly but I was enjoying it.
"..." She once again mumbled something which prompted me to lean towards her with my ear facing her mouth. She apparently had enough as she shouted straight into my ear, "I said I am sorry, alright! Now stop bothering me!" which made me wince in pain. After her outburst, she pushed past me (I let her, I didn't want to aggravate her further by making her fall to the ground after she failed to budge me) and rather angrily made her way towards the Great Hall and subsequently the Ravenclaw table.
I consider running after her but decided to let her calm down on her own and come to terms with her actions. Sure, I could have avoided all this with a Compelling Charm but I didn't like using any thing that resembled mind magic so lightly, especially on people I considered important. Nevertheless, I was sure this incident would bring us closer and not to mention, the sheer amount of hilarity it produced more than made up for any troubles, at least in my book.
So, instead of joining Hermione at lunch like I planned to earlier, I found myself joining my dormmates at the Gryffindor table. After a couple of jokes and casual chats, Harry asked me, "Where were you?" Seeing his serious demeanor, I was about to reply immediately but instead opted to do something that I would later regret, immensely.
I dropped my voice dramatically and spoke with a conspiratorial whisper, which was still loud enough to let quite a few hear, and said, "I was at the library along with.." the pause made them unconsciously lean towards me and added a few more listeners, and with a wiggle of my eyebrows I dropped the bomb, "..a girl."
Instantly, silence befell my immediate vicinity and like a horror movie, the eyes of everyone who had heard me slowly turned towards me, including most of the first and second years and a couple of older students like the Weasley Twins.
Seeing their eerie actions, I reflexively let out a curse inwardly while sweating profusely, "Matthew, you dumb piece of shi..."
What happened next was pure CHAOS, a day so memorable and legendary that it was talked of for years to come...
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
WiseOldFool
WiseOldFool The bad part starts from here, but rest assured, it'll last only till chapter 18.
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