My performances in some classes didn't go as I expected. As such, I'm now known as a student who is above his peers in Charms, Potions, and Transfiguration.

During one of the Charms Classes in which we were learning the Fire-Making Charm, Incendio, Professor Flitwick must've noticed me not paying attention. As the class progressed, Professor Flitwick suddenly addressed me, "Mr. Balor, if you would kindly demonstrate the Fire-Making Charm?"

Ahh hell, He must've noticed me not paying attention. I'll become a laughingstock if I fuck this up. Time to bite the bullet.

"Ahh yes.", I hastily replied.

I then wave my wand and chant Incendio. Instantly, a small flame the size of a lighter flame starts burning from the tip of my wand.

Yeah, this should throw him off. It's a small flame, I've seen students make way bigger flames.

The professor looks at me with a hint of surprise, then starts praising me, "Excellent control, Mr. Balor. Most students your age cannot control their magic output well. As such, they either conjuring too big a flame that is a hazard or too small a flame that extinguishes quickly. Your small flame being consistent like that is proof..."

No, wait.

"...that your control over your magic is refined well above your peers. Others should take notes from Mr. Balor. 30 points to Gryffindor."

As others look at me in astonishment, I was full of sorrow.

I then miscalculated in the very first Potions class. Potions class was taken by Professor Snape and was a joint class with the student of Slytherin. The professor quickly paired us up. I got paired up with Katie and then he revealed a blackboard with some writings on it.

"Today, we are going to be learning and making the easiest potion in the books, the Cure for Boils. Take a look at the board, it contains the recipe. Copy it and then recreate it.", Snape began.

I take a look at the board and see that it's an improved variety of the potion. It's a bit worse than my recipe but it should be really good by this world's standards. I lean to Katie and whisper, "Katie, write the recipe down. It's better than the one in the books."

"Really?", Katie whispered back.

"Yep."

As she writes it down, I quickly start to make the potion according to Snape's recipe as I thought making it mine would be a bit suspicious. While I was making the potion, Snape was making rounds on the students. Quite a few students messed up the process or had their cauldrons explode on them. And for each mistake, Snape deducted points, mostly from Gryffindor. Katie finished writing and then whispered to me, "Professor Snape seems a bit scary. I don't think he likes Gryffindor."

"Is that so?", I reply as I finished the potion.

I then whisper to Katie again, "Do you thin-" But I couldn't finish as Snape called me out.

"Mr. Balor, it seems you are having fun talking. Mind showing me your potion?"

"Yes, professor.", I give a brief reply and head to the front of the room.

I hand my potion to him and he opens it around, perhaps testing it before saying with a displeased expression, "Barely acceptable."

I sigh in relief, after which he hands me back my potion and head back to my table where Katie was waiting for me.

"Thank god, he didn't deduct points from us.", whispered Katie.

"No, thank me.", I say jokingly.

"Thank Sol, he didn't deduct points from us.", replied Katie with a smile.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

After the Potions class was done, we head back to the common room where Katie and Cormac start to recount the events and complain about Snape. Hearing the events, the Weasley twins exclaim, "Woah, you're really good at making potions-"

"-if Snape didn't deduct any points from you."

"What?", I ask since I thought I had heard wrong.

"Yeah, it's a well-known fact that Snape doesn't like Gryffindor that much, he deducts points from us every chance he gets.", confirms Fred.

"You're really smart to not get points deducted from you in Potions class.", praised Lee.

"He was always this smart.", both twins add.

As they keep praising me, I drop my head into my hands as I struggle to accept reality.

Why?

As for Transfiguration, I fucked up as soon as we started in earnest, meaning when we actually started to transfigure things. As the Transfiguration class started which was held with students from Hufflepuff, professor McGonagall showed us how to turn a match into a needle and then instructed, "Now, students, use the transfiguration alphabets and formula to transfigure the match in front of you into a needle. I've shown you the example and now it's your turn."

As the students start their attempts, I try to turn around and look at how they're doing. But under the hawk-like gaze of Professor McGonagall, I cease all attempts. I think of how to pass off as average.

Turning a match into a needle is fairly easy. But the others won't find it that easy, I think. Three, no, four attempts should do it.

I then start to transfigure the match in front of me. I 'fail' the first three times and then pull it off on my fourth try. I look up at the Professor who has an expression that is a mix of surprise and joy.

Wait, no.

"Wonderful performance, Mr. Balor. To think you could start transfiguration this quickly. 20 points to Gryffindor."

I really wanted to cry.

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When I don't have classes, you can usually find me talking with Katie and Cormac or the Weasley twins in the common room. If not, then I'm probably roaming around the castle or in the library. I've practically memorized the layout of the castle. Well, the Marauder's Map is a bit more useful because of its tracking feature. But, I can't do anything about that except occasionally take it from the Weasley twins. Speaking of the Weasleys, Bill has already graduated and is now working in Gringotts whereas Charlie is in his 5th year and is a prefect. Which means he has to give his OWLs this year. Percy was in his 3rd year but I don't really care all much that about him.

Back to me roaming around the castle, I still haven't found a suitable place for my work. And I've been really searching. The empty classrooms are a temporary measure and somewhere I'll be easily interrupted and I don't think I can ask the staff for a room for personal use. Not finding a solution to this problem, I turn to the next best thing, the library. Once I found out about the library, I spent most of my off time there but I still kept myself very social. Acquiring knowledge is good but too much at once will burn you out. So, I made a schedule for myself. It was basically wake up, do classes, talk to friends, study in the library, eat and go to sleep. Well, something like that with some margin of error.

Although the library has a good collection of books it's all for naught since I can't put them into practice. But I still read them and commit them to memory. I've already memorized the spells and potions that are taught to 5th years. But still, there are also subjects that I don't need to practice. Like Herbology and Magizoology. I'm still reading them. It's gotten to the point where Madam Pince, the librarian has stopped sneakily peeking at me. She seems highly possessive of the books. Well, I guess that's normal. Knowledge is power.

There are also ghosts everywhere. The most amicable one I've found is 'Nearly Headless Nick'. Yes, he is nearly headless. His neck is hanging on by a thread.

Is that your regret? That you couldn't be fully headless? Damn, the bloke's got his priorities straight.

Poltergeist Peeves, the one who tried to douse us with soup on our first night, tries to prank me any chance he gets. Pulling rugs from underneath me, throwing water balloons at me, stealing my things, you know, the type of shit those bratty kids pull, those who you can't help but beat the shit out of. If any of those worked, it'd actually amount to something. Every time he fails, he seems to get more displeased. Once I learned of his fixation on me, every time he failed, I'd smirk at him. This enraged him and gave me a good laugh.

More than once I've used the Disillusionment Charm on myself and roamed the castle at night, hoping to find something. I entered the girl's bathroom on the second floor. That's because I heard from Katie that it was abandoned. When I went there myself to know why, I got my answer. Ghastly sounds were coming from one of the stalls. It was creepy! On further inspection, it was a ghost! The translucent being looked like a girl with twintails and circular glasses on her face. She was a bit...eccentric. At first, she cried a lot, screamed at me, and called herself ugly a lot. When I tried to calm her down which took a long time, by the way, she warmed up to me. She even told me about her death. But, well it was a bit mysterious.

Apparently, she was crying inside her stall when she heard a boy outside, speaking in another language. She then opened the door to tell the boy to go away but died.

Wha-? That's it? You died just like that? Was it Avada Kedavra? No, in that case, she would know who killed her, if not hear their voice. Was it the boy? If I consider the killer to be the boy, then why did he kill her? And how? That's the biggest question. If there's a way to kill someone in such a way where not even the victim knows what happened, then I need to learn it.

Hogwarts sure has a lot of secrets. Well, I'll unravel them one by one.