Chapter-44: Fight Club-1

It was a bright Sunday morning. Ronan was sitting by the lake, in his hands was the metal plates and the Runic pen. He was looking at his notes and was engraving the runes on the metal plates. That fine morning he had decided to extend his leave and didnt want to do anything that would consume his mind power. So he decided that it would be for the best that he engraved the remotes that he got the other day.

He was a engrossed in what he was doing there, that he couldnt hear someone approaching him. "What do you got there?"

He looked up and saw a man with a balding redhead and shabby robes looking down on him. "Excuse me?"

The man then knelt down beside him and started looking at the PlayStation remote that was lying by his feet. "What are you doing with these muggle things.. What is it by the way?"

Seeing Ronan's bewildered face, the man realized, "Oh I am sorry… My name is Arthur. Arthur Weasley, you saved my son the other day,"

"Oh…" He just now realized why the man seemed familiar to him. It reminded him of Ron, "It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Weasley," he shook hands with the man.

"So what are you doing here, with this?" Arthur asked. He seemed to be really interested in the remotes that he was working on.

"Well, I am trying to make an interface from which I could connect one of my projects with this." The man looked rather perplexed and excited at the same time.

"What do you mean?" He asked with enthusiasm.

"Well, you know how the muggle things dont work around Hogwarts and such places because of the magic." The man nodded, "I am trying to change the inner workings of the remote in such a way that it would work in a magical place like this. Then I will use this remote to control another project of mine."

The man looked rather baffled, "If I am not wrong, remote is the thing from which muggles use to connect their ele-vision right? What are you trying to use this on?"

Ronan passed the smile to the old man, "That is a secret for a now. But you might soon come to know about it during Christmas. I will make sure to send you one of my inventions."

"Well, I will be looking forward to it." The man said, and then suddenly the realization hit him, "I totally forgot why I came here." Mr Weasley said while rubbing his head, "I wanted to thank you. You saved my son the other day,"

He waved his hand, "That is nothing, Mr. Weasley. Anyone would have done the same thing if they would have found Ron and his friends in the predicament."

"But you found them. And you save them in time."

He passed the old man a smile, "Dont worry about it Mr. Weasley… Now if you dont mind, there is a particular reason why I came here. I need complete silence to work on them…" he then gestured towards his notebook which scribbled were the Runes that he needed to engrave.

"I will leave to your business then," Mr Weasley then went back to the castle, and he went back to the engraving…

***

On Thursday, Ronan had to attend the double potion with Gryffindor. But he was not looking forward to it, not even a little bit. Colin Creevey, a first-year Gryffindor was found petrified the previous Sunday. And because of the incident, everyone in the castle started spreading rumors about him. From the ones that he had heard till now, some people believe that he was the great-grandson of Gellert Grindelwald. Which was very weird as Gellert was not even related to Salazar Slytherin.

He did read a book on Britain's Magical families and knew that the last living relatives of Salazar were a family called Gaunt, but they had gone extinct. But that doesn't stop people from gossiping. And because of the rumors around him, whenever a muggle-born or half-blood sees him, they change their direction. And slowly everyone in the castle had started avoiding him. And it had started annoying him considering the future of the club that he was going to open.

As far as Slytherins were concerned, they were having the time of their life using his name. Hell, even Malfoy had joined in the fray, the other day he heard the man blackmailing some 4th-year Hufflepuff using his name. That boy will never admit that he used his name, but he didnt care about it.

But that day was important for him. Because that day, after the class he would be visiting Professor McGonagall to get permission for the club that he would be opening…

Potions lessons took place in one of the large dungeons that day. The afternoon's lesson proceeded in the usual way. Twenty cauldrons stood steaming between the wooden desks, on which stood brass scales and jars of ingredients. Snape prowled through the fumes, making harsh but true remarks about the Gryffindors' work while the Slytherins sniggered. Ronan felt that it was a little bit unfair because most of the Slytherin students were in worse then Gryffindors, but Snape didnt say anything to them.

Hell, Snape didnt even comment when Draco Malfoy kept flicking puffer-fish eyes at Neville and Harry. And the worst part was that they knew that if they retaliated they would get detention faster than you could say "Unfair."

But this was the usual occurrence in the class. That day they were brewing Swelling Potion, which was one of the most useful household potions. That is why Ronan was extra careful while learning it.

Between the classes, when most of the students were busy looking in the cauldron, Ronan coincidently stretched his body. His partner Daphne was pretty good at potions, so he believed that she wouldn't fuck the potion up. It was then he just glanced up, only to see Neville staring at him, looking rather nervous. It was as if, he was not supposed to look at him. He soon realized that Harry was missing from his station.

Ronan looked around, but couldnt find Harry. It was then from the corner of his eyes, he saw something small fall into Goyle's cauldron. He didnt know what fell into the cauldron. But he had a bad feeling, so he immediately pulled Daphne towards him and whipped out his wand. The cauldron exploded, and he yelled, "Repulso," making sure that none of the potions fell on him or her.

The potion showered over the whole class. People shrieked as splashes of the Swelling Solution hit them. Malfoy got a faceful and his nose began to swell like a balloon, Goyle blundered around, his hands over his eyes, which had expanded to the size of a dinner plate. Professor Snape was trying to restore calm and find out what had happened. Through the confusion, Ronan saw Hermione slip quietly into Snape's private supply room.

He heard a voice, "Can you let me go?" he looked down and saw Daphne staring at him, with her face red as a tomato. He automatically let her go.

"Silence! SILENCE!" Snape roared. "Anyone who has been splashed, come here for a Deflating Draught… when I find out who did this…" Professor abruptly stopped at him and Daphne. They were very close to the cauldron, but they were fine. It was rather suspicious, "Johanson! What did you see?"

"Something fell in Goyle's cauldron," he simply replied, "From over there," he pointed in a direction, away from where Harry had thrown the thing, whatever it was.

He knew that Harry and Neville were after the disaster. Neville's panic reaction and Harry's absence were clear indicators that they had their hands on this thing. But for the sake of it, in the end, he decided that it would be for the best if he kept their name out of trouble. Also, he was sort of interested in knowing what the hell got them so desperate that they were willing to disturb Snape's class. Because this was the same as poking a sleeping Dragon.

Snape didnt investigate immediately, he started giving everyone Deflating Draught, an antidote of sorts that would subside the swelling. When everyone had taken a swig of antidote and the various swellings had subsided, Snape swept over to Goyle's cauldron and scooped out the twisted black remains of the firework. There was a sudden hush around the class.

"If I ever find out who threw this," Snape whispered, "I shall make sure that person is expelled."

For some reason, Professor Snape started staring at Harry. Well, he was right, but still, it was weird that Snape's first and foremost suspicion went to Harry…

Carrying a box with all of his stuff, Ronan made his way to Professor McGongall's office. He knocked on her door and she allowed him to come in.

"Mr. Johanson, what can I do for you?" Professor asked. She was sitting on her desk looking through some assignments.

"Professor, I have come here to ask for permission to open a club." She stopped looking at the papers.

"You can get permission to open a club from Professor Snape himself. Any particular reason why are here?" She asked, glaring at him with a cold face.

"Yes," He then handed her a thick stack of parchments, "This is my proposal for the club. And I have also come here to make a demonstration of what my club would be about,"

Curious she took the paper and read it, "Fight Club? The name of your club is a Fight Club?" She muttered, "Is this some sort of dueling club?" She asked abruptly without reading the paper thoroughly. And he swiftly shook his head.

The professor took some time to read the whole introduction of the club and everything. He was sure that there was no way that she would read everything, which was exactly what he wanted. After reading the introduction, she looked at him curiously. "Is this true?"

He nodded, "Yeah. I have come to make a demonstration, and show you what the club would be about." Now Professor was giving him full attention. She shifted in her seat, "I would love to see what you have made Mr. Johanson."

With confidence, Ronan then uncovered the box that he was carrying. He then undid the shrinking charm and poured out all the contents of his box...