BXBX NOVEL Chapter 27 - Rant, And The New Base
The link is also in the synopsis.
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In Ravenclaw common room, every complimented Quinn on his predictions. Then the prefects asked them to leave the common room for the first year\'s inauguration to Ravenclaw by Flitwick.
Quinn checked the assignment chart for the dorm room and climbed the boy\'s dorm stairs to his new dorm. He found that Eddie and Marcus were already there.
"We are roommates again this year, nice," said Quinn to his first-year and now second-year roommates. After getting changed, Quinn retrieved two A.I.D calling cards and presented them to Eddie and Marcus.
Eddie looked at the black and gold card in his hand and questioned, "What is this?"
Quinn moved his hand behind his back and explained, "If you ever need help. Help with anything, anything at all. Come to this room, and I will help you for a suitable price or an I.O.U. In this room, you would find the solutions to all of your problems."
Marcus looked away from the card and asked, "Even for homework?"
Quinn chuckled and waved his hand, "No, you can ask me about homework here. I won\'t charge you guys for homework; just think of it as roommate perks. But, anything other than that, come to that room, and I will give you a roommate discount."
"Do you have permission to use this room?" asked Eddie as he placed his card in his dorm desk drawer. Quinn nodded and replied, "Yeah, I have Flitwick\'s permission. Wrote him a letter in the break."
Quinn was transferring his clothes to his dorm cupboard when he heard a knock on the door. He looked up to see one was one of the Ravenclaw prefects at the door.
"Yes?" asked Quinn as he walked towards the door. The prefect handed Quinn three sheets of parchment. "Here you go, this is the timetable for second-year students, take one and pass the others to your roommates."
Quinn received the sheets from the prefect and spoke, "Thank you."
He dropped the other sheets on Eddie\'s and Marcus\'s bed and climbed his own bed to check the timetable. "Oh, this is great! I have the whole of Friday free. This is much better than last year," Quinn spoke with delighted in his tone. With the Friday free, Quinn would have three straight free days.
After sorting his memories for the day in his mindscape by memory immersion, Quinn decided to turn in for the day and sleep for the first working day of his second year at Hogwarts.
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The next day, Quinn got up nice and early for his day. After brushing his teeth and washing his face. He took out his running shoes and changed into sportswear, and headed to one of the grounds in Hogwarts\' premises.
Mind, Body, and Soul were three facilities for magic. Quinn had been developing mind since he was eight and met Alan D. Baddeley. He took on developing the body: the second facility when he was nine years old and started exercising outside of his dance lessons with Ms. Rosey.
Every morning he would go out for a run and run a 5k (5 km/5000m/3.1 mile) every day. It would usually take him around twenty-two minutes every day to complete his track in which he would think about the upcoming day and what he wanted to do on that day. Quinn found that going on a run was an excellent way to start his day with a clear mind. So after roughly a quarter of an hour after waking up, Quinn would be back in his dorm room, getting ready to take a bath.
After spending fifteen minutes in the bathroom, he would come out refreshed and wake his roommates. Marcus would wake up with a light nudge, but Eddie wouldn\'t wake up with anything less than a kick.
By ten past seven (7:10), Quinn would be out of his dorm room and the Ravenclaw common room and would be on his way to the Great Hall for breakfast.
Today, Quinn was eating his breakfast like usual when he heard Flitwick calling out to him from the High table.
"Mr. West, please come here when you have finished your meal," said Flitwick from his chair at the High Table. Quinn nodded in response, and he especially noted that no one else heard Flitwick.
\'His voice only made its way to my ears. Now, how did he accomplish this? Sound isolation? No, that would restrict the movement of voice in an area. He must have used a sound spell that allowed him to target his voice to the listener. But then how did he make sure that his voice didn\'t leak as the distance increased...,\' Quinn thought as his hands moved automatically to feed himself as he thought about the concepts behind Flitwick\'s show of magic.
Quinn didn\'t notice that Flitwick was looking at him and laughing in his squeaky voice. Flitwick could have charmed a parchment to fly to Quinn to convey his message, but he decided to use his current method to see Quinn\'s reaction. It did not disappoint him when he saw Quinn deep in thought, obviously thinking about how he could talk to him with no one knowing.
After Quinn finished eating his breakfast, he made his way to the High Table and greeted the professors who were looking at him, "Good morning, Professors. I hope you all had a pleasant sleep last night."
Flitwick smiled at his charge and immediately spoke, "Good morning to you as well, Mr. West. Did you figure out how I called you?" Hearing that, Quinn realized Flitwick did it on purpose, knowing that he would think about it. It made him chuckle in reply, "Not yet, professor. But, do give me a day or two, and I will get back to you with an answer."
Flitwick grinned and asked, "Or, I could give you an answer right now." Quinn shook his head and refused, "No, thank you, professor. But, I would like to find an answer on my own. This way, I would learn a lot more than if you spoon-fed me the answer right now."
Flitwick clapped his hands and praise, "I wouldn\'t expect anything less than you, Mr. West."
Quinn felt a gaze on him and turned to the source and found Lily Potter staring at him with interest. He decided to ask, "Is something wrong, Professor Potter?"
She shook her head and responded, "Oh, it\'s nothing. I was just listening to your conversation."
Flitwick jumped in and introduced Quinn to Lily, "Lily, meet Quinn West. He is at the top of his year, the smartest of his class. He scored number one around all the subjects."
Quinn smiled in humbleness, "You exaggerate, professor."
Lily looked at Quinn and asked, "So, Mr. West, do you have plans to take Muggle Studies next year?"
The question elicited a laugh out of Quinn, "Oh god no. No offense to your teaching capabilities, professor, but the Muggle Studies subject at Hogwarts is worthless."
Lily Potter frowned as she heard Quinn\'s response, "Do you consider muggles lesser than you, Mr. West?"
Quinn laughed a little louder and responded, "Of course not, professor. The magical kind is just a minor part of the world. The non-magical kind outnumbers us in population by an extremely large margin. I don\'t consider le non-magiques, the muggle, the no-maj, the can\'t-spells, lesser than me, I do not. I believe the muggles are not lesser, but others. Not worthless, but of other value. Not disposable, but of a different disposition. Magic is a gift that blooms in rare individuals, and even among them, a few really appreciate it. I don\'t look down on non-magicals, but I do consider them different from me, a person who can use magic, not because I can do magic, but because of the society I was raised in." Quinn gestured at the Great Hall behind him and continued, "Most of the people from magical families have no connection to the world outside the magical community. They do not know how large the world is, and the class at Hogwarts will not help them understand that."
Quinn turned back to Lily and asked, "Professor, you are a first-generation magical, right?" Lily seemed confused and asked, "First-generation magical?" Quinn understood her confusion and answered, "A muggleborn, professor."
"Oh, yes. I am a muggleborn," answered Lily after she understood what Quinn meant.
"I have read the curriculum of muggle studies; do you as a muggleborn really think that the severely outdated curriculum would help them understand them about the big world outside? Professor Potter, I am a pureblood with no non-magical ancestors for generations upon generations. But, I know the non-magical world, I visit it frequently, I love watching movies, eating at fast-food joints, trying out their clothes, and experiencing many other things the magicals couldn\'t even imagine. The architecture, the technology, they have things we haven\'t even started to dive in. I know how different it is from this one, and I can, at this moment, leave the magical world and be a part of the non-magical world. It is because I genuinely gave it a chance. Opting for muggle studies isn\'t giving the non-magical world a chance. So, my final answer? No, I am not going to join the muggle studies class next year."
Quinn immediately turned to Flitwick and asked, "Professor Flitwick, why did you call me?" Flitwick snapped out of his trance and took out a key from his pocket, and spoke while giving it to Quinn, "This is the key to the room you asked for."
Quinn took the key and smiled brightly, "Thank you, professor. It was really kind of you to accept my request. I promise I will use the room properly. Now, please excuse me, I have to prepare for my classes." Quinn was going to leave but decided to say one last thing to Lily, "professor, if you really want to introduce the non-magical world, then I would suggest that you change diverge from the curriculum and teach what you think would help. It probably won\'t help them pass their exams, but it would help them understand the non-magicals." He smiled before finishing, "Professor Potter, I hope that you would have a great time at Hogwarts." And with that, Quinn left.
Flitwick and Lily sat in stunned silence about what had just taken place. It was a while before Flitwick spoke, "Last year when I had just met Mr. West, I thought he was like you. Bright, smart, intelligent, but as I came to know him better, I realized Mr. West differed greatly from any student I had ever taught. He is smart, he is bright, intelligent, and much more. From what I have seen, Mr. West truly loves magic. As long as it has something to do with magic, he would be interested in it, but he doesn\'t ignore the things that have nothing to do with magic. He loves new experiences. Do you know he explores the castle every single day? To him, this castle isn\'t just a building but a magical marvel that needs to be studied and explored. He just doesn\'t learn a spell\'s incantation and wand movement; he dives deep into the concept behind the spell and works to truly understand the magic from its very core."
Flitwick smiled before continuing, "He is polite and curt. He knows how to hold a conversation and has excellent social skills. He is quite popular among his peers because of his personality and how he handles himself." He chuckled before continuing, "Mr. West is the only student in Hogwarts that Severus doesn\'t dislike, and that is quite something. If it wasn\'t for his obsession with magic that keeps him busy and gives him barely enough time to socialize with others, I would have considered Mr. West to be a perfect child. I really look forward to his growth, Mr. West is an enigma, and I want to see him grow."
Flitwick didn\'t comment on what Lily should do with her subject as it wasn\'t his place to tell her, and Flitwick himself didn\'t know too much about the non-magical world. But he understood what Quinn was trying to say as he himself had to navigate between two different worlds because of his ancestry.
Lily Potter just stayed silent as she thought about the things Quinn had said to her. She had imagined a lot of ways her first day as a teacher at Hogwarts would go, but one thing was for sure, that what happened now wasn\'t one of them.
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Quinn didn\'t have his first class till eleven o\'clock, so he decided to visit his newly acquired base of operations for A.I.D and set it up for business. Quinn was excited to see the classroom and excitedly climbed the stair to the fifth floor. He was so excited that he almost got caught in one of the trap stairs in a staircase.
The allotted classroom was in the opposite direction from the fifth-floor entrance to the Ravenclaw tower. So, there weren\'t many students loitering around in this area. Quinn found the room quite easily, as it was on the main corridor of the fifth floor.
\'Hats off to Flitwick; he gave me a prime piece of property,\' thought Quinn as he used the key to unlock the door to the classroom. The door unlocked with a thump, and Quinn entered the classroom by pushing the door open. Age-old dust immediately greeted him and prompted Quinn to fan the area in front of his face.
He saw a large classroom caked with dust; in the room were a few desks and chairs piled in the corner and blackboards on both sides of the room; the floors near the walls where the blackboards were hanging were raised to form platforms for teachers. It had no windows because of its location, and the only source of lighting was the three candle chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.
Quinn walked to the center of inside the empty classroom and closed his eyes. He began concentrating his magic, gathering more and more magic from his magical core. When he thought the magic was enough, he casted an abnormally powerful Scouring charm (Scourgify) for cleaning the layers of dust and dirt in the room and a Skurge Charm (Skurge) to clean the sticky green ectoplasm created by passing ghosts.
The wave magic emitted from Quinn as the center and inch-by-inch the grim dirt and choking dust cleared out of the room, leaving squeaky clean surfaces all around the room. The green ectoplasm was eradicated from existence by the Skurge charm.
Quinn looked around the room with a smile, "Much better." The room still needed a lot of work. He needed to polish the floors, touch up the walls, and ask the house-elves to provide magic candles for the chandeliers.
Quinn roamed the room and decided how he was going to use it. He decided to partition one part of the room near the door for the meeting room for A.I.D and use the rest of the wide classroom as a workshop to work on projects.
"I would need a big table, some chairs, and decor for the meeting room," he turned to look at the rest of the room and noted, "A lot of workstation tables to line the walls, cabinets to store the paperwork, maybe a center island." He stepped back a few steps and continued, "The partition would go right about here."
Quinn tapped his chin with a finger and said to himself, "I could get most of the stuff I need from Room Of Requirement. The room of hidden things would have all the furniture I would need, and I could use the glass panes in the room of hidden things for the partition. A little Transmutation to make one huge glass partition, unbreakable charms to strengthen the glass, and maybe frosting it to make it opaque."
Quinn took out his pocket watch and considered, "I still have time... Okay, I will go to the room of hidden things to get the stuff."
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It had taken Quinn quite a while to find the appropriate furniture for his new base, and all of it was broken in some way; Quinn would have to fix every piece of furniture to make it useable, but overall it was a great find. He shrunk all of them down and transferred them to the new A.I.D base.
He looked at his pocket watch and thought, \'I will return after school to fix all of this.\' It had taken quite some time to find the things as the room of hidden things disabled the use of Summoning Charm (Accio) to find objects. Quinn had to manually find all the furniture he needed. He was also very grateful that he didn\'t find Voldemort\'s diadem Horcrux, as he was neither equipped nor confident to deal with a Horcrux.
After his classes for the day were over, Quinn went to his dorm to get changed, and then instead of going to the new base, he went to the outskirts of the forbidden forest to collect wood scraps and swiped wood used for lighting the fireplaces. He needed the wood to fix the furniture; they were missing parts that couldn\'t be restored with the Repairing charm (Reparo), so he needed extra wood to substitute missing parts.
In the base, Quinn began fixing the wooden furniture by using the Repairing charm and used transmutation to add wood to the broken furniture and finished the furniture with liberal use of color-changing charm to give the repaired furniture an even color.
Next, he dumped all the glass he had found in the room of hidden things on the floor. Quinn didn\'t care if it broke; it was all going to be broken down by transmutation. One by one, Quinn transmuted the glass into one enormous glass wall that went from floor to ceiling that divided the room into two parts. He finished the work by layering Unbreakable charms on the partition to strengthen it.
He moved the table and chair to the meeting/office area and stepped back to admire his work. The office was bland and empty. The glass wall looked beyond ugly because of the numerous different glass used to create it. The walls were faded and looked old, plus the floor beneath his feet was dull, and overall the room needed a lot of work to make it presentable.
"But it is a start," spoke Quinn as he thought about the future of this operation.
"I hope it will be fun."
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Quinn West - MC - Repairman/Handyman - Wood thief - Entrepreneur.
Filius Flitwick - Charms professor - Finds Quinn interesting.
Lily Potter - Muggle Studies professor - Deep in thought about her future as an educator.
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The link is in the synopsis.