It was the roaring thunder that woke Ronan up. He wiped his saliva off his face and wiped some which had flowed down to his table as well. He looked outside, it was still dark out there. He grabbed his pocket watch to see that it was 5:00 am. Today was his first quidditch match. He got up and stretched his body, it had been a tense few days for him.

Flint had been railing them for days in practice, he wanted to beat Gryffindor very badly. Considering that Malfoy was not a very good Seeker, he had changed their strategy and had decided to solely rely on Quaffle's goals to win the match. The good thing was, due to low visibility, Potter would have a hard time finding the snitch. So Flint had planned that during that time, Beater and Chaser would utilize all of their time to score as many points as they could.

Ronan liked the plan. And while everyone else in the team was hyped for the match, and was ready to face Gryffindor, the same couldnt be said for him. It was not because he was afraid of losing or making a fool of himself. It was just that he couldnt care less whether they would win or lose, because currently, he dealing with magic that could give him the thing that he craved for most. His freedom…

It happened a few days after he came to the school. He went to the Room and asked for books related to soul magic. To his surprise, only two books came before him. One of them was a spiritual book for wizards and witches that could cleanse the soul and help them increase the potency of the spell. That book was utter trash, and nothing else. But the same couldnt be said for the next book.

The second book was based on a creature called the Deming. Found in the Bermuda Triangle, this creature is aquatic, but it feeds on intelligent souls. Which is why the creature had managed to destroy every muggle transport that had ever gone through the triangle. But MACUSA, or Magic Ministry of America had hunted all the creatures to extinction. And that they were only able to do it, with the help of Deming-away Charm.

Deming was a creature with the face of an octopus and the body of a 2-foot-tall midget. These creatures would hide in deep water and would only come out when they would encounter unsuspecting souls in their territory. And as they could feel the intentions of a soul of an intelligent creature, they would not come out when they would feel danger from their victim.

This charm was an innovative idea by John Smith, a wizard from America. He designed a bracelet out of metal and Runes that could essentially imprint a soul’s signature on an animal. This would essentially make the wizard or witch appear soulless in the eyes of Demings. And when Demings would attack the unsuspecting animal, the wizards, and witches would kill them.

The charm is not used often nowadays. One could even say that it was worthless. But for Ronan, it was worth all the gold he had in the bank. When he studied the Deming-away charm, he realized that if he used this charm then he could transfer his soul’s imprint to animal. And that could render his trace to be transferred to that animal, hence giving him the freedom to do anything he wants in the outside world. But that was only a theory until he asked Professor Flitwick about the charm.

The professor confirmed his suspicions and they had a deep conversation about this particular charm. Although the old professor didnt give him a lot of information at first, knowing the ramifications of what would happen if the students came to know that they could get rid of the trace, albeit temporarily. But gullible Professor Flitwick seeing his enthusiasm and listening to his thoughtful questions folded in and gave him exactly what he wanted.

He thinks that the professor probably would have given him the information thinking that he wouldn't have any way to use the charm in the first place. What the professor didnt know was that he already had a book that could get him where he wanted…

Ronan looked at his desk. There were remains of a burned bangle on his desk. He remembers last night he was trying to engrave the bangle with ruins when it bangle got burned. Thus he fell asleep yesterday in the club room itself. He needed to complete this project before Christmas, at any cost.

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It was then his gaze landed on Marauder’s map, opened on his desk. He saw Daphne, awake and roaming around the first floor. Then she came to the second floor, seeing which he realized that she might be heading his way. Thus he started packing his stuff, he couldnt let anyone see what he was working on. As he was done, he sat down on the chair and started browsing through the map until Daphne came.

Ronan was looking around the map when he noticed something, which made him question his insanity. In the Gryffindor Tower, on the fourth floor, there was a small dot whose name was Peter Pettigrew. Reading the name, he was once again reminded of the conversation that he had with Scaklebolt. As well as reminded of the fact that he had seen Peter in Neville’s dorm room.

Is that a ghost? Because I dont think there is a boy in 3rd year Gryffindor who is named Peter Pettigrew.

The knocking on the door made him close the map. With of flick of his wand, the door opened, to reveal Daphne standing outside.

“What are you doing here?” Daphne asked as she barged in.

“Nothing… I was just working on some puppets,”

“This morning? Ronan, you do realize that today is Slytherin vs Gryffindor quidditch match,” she asked.

“I do remember,”

“Then you remember that you are the Chaser for our team, right?”

“What is your point Daphne?” he asked, exasperated. She was treating him like a child.

“Because you are not taking any of this seriously. That is my problem. You dont seem to understand how important today’s match is for us,”

“You know what,” he pushed himself up, “This is just too early for me to hear you nagging… I am out of here,”

Daphne got pissed after that. All the way towards the common room, she nagged him about how immature and selfish boy he was being, and how he dont understand what others would feel if he were to lose today’s match. At that time, he wanted to just cast a silencing charm at her, and just make her silent.

But it was then he realized something. The exodus of portraits he did, he cast a silencing spell on all the portraits, and yet he didnt receive any warning from the ministry. Seeing this he realized that the ministry might turn a blind eye to magical household when casting harmless spells. Just maybe.

It was then did he realized that he should really meet someone from the ministry and try to understand what kind of magic is the trace…

When Ronan reached the quidditch grounds, soaking wet, adorning the dark green robes, he was greeted with Malfoy's frowning face. And just beside him were two of his goons.

“Nervous, are we Ronan?” Draco sneered.

“Not at all. I just.. Wet,” he said, showing off his robes and smiling. But that only fueled the anger of Draco.

“What are you smiling at? Make sure that you keep your broom straight, destroy it and you won't ever be able to afford a new one,” Draco said.

Ronan stopped smiling and said, “Draco… I used to think of you as my friend. Maybe that is why I saved you all three when Buckbeak attacked. But I have grown tired of your attitude. If this is the path that you want to head, then so be it.” With that Ronan walked past them, leaving Draco behind…

***

Draco didnt know what to think. His father has explicitly told him that he should not be friends with Ronan Johanson, as he was a blood traitor. And friendship with that man would only soil the Malfoy name. He knew that his father brought this up because of the incident with Ginny Weasley. But he didnt think that Ronan deserved such treatment.

He had to admit, he didnt know what to think of Ronan. Even though he sat and mingled with pure blood, he still insisted on being friends with blood traitors and mud blood. According to him, they were more reliable allies than most of the purebloods, he himself confessed to him once. But he couldnt see it. But this year, after he boycotted Ronan, he finally started to understand that Ronan was indeed right. Pure blood friendships were mostly unreliable.

Draco had Crabbe and Goyle with him. But other than them, he had no one. In the two years that he had been here, everyone wanted to be his friend. But now… What happened?

Seeing everyone ignoring him, he vowed to take revenge on Ronan. He was still afraid of him, but he could do some damage to his reputation. Which is why he started spreading rumors about him in the first years. But that backfired quickly. And then Ronan saved him. Saved him from the attack of that beast.

He was enraged. He didnt ask for Ronan’s help. He never needed it. But the fact remained that Ronan saved him. And inwardly he knew, that Ronan saved him because he still thinks of him as a friend. He had noticed that Ronan knew what he was doing, but never retaliated. Draco believed that this was his weakness. But today, just before the quidditch match, when he heard Ronan’s words, he felt sad for some reason.

Their interaction made him rethink his actions. His father’s instructions were clear, but he couldnt help but think whether they were right. After all, Ronan might be a narcissistic weird man, but he was a very good friend. And he had been acting as a good friend since the start. It is him, who was being a jerk.