Damian's statement created an air of suffocation for the Slytherins, many of them thought even if he is strong, with enough time to pressure him, he will eventually give in, but looks like if they pushed him into a corner, he won't hesitate to drag them down with him even if it means killing himself.
Other three houses may not know the real story about those rumours, but Slytherin students had a suspicion this is caused by Damian. He is the prime suspect in their eyes, but they got no proof and the theory of bypassing the mana authentication itself is an absurd statement, because even polyjuice potion don't have that effect. Not to mention, this isn't done from one magiphone but almost a hundred.
And this is what terrifies them, if he can make other factions crumble and bring forth a collapse that may take several decades for the families which have deep foundations in Britain for several centuries or even a millenium then what about them, that thought alone is terrifying, the example of several families leaving behind all their businesses and facing threats all around the world is a good example of Damian is capable of now. They don't want to go through what Marcus Flint and Gemma Fawley did.
Better to save your face when you have the chance and better to not anger the beast while it's sleeping, the best way for them is to bypass the beast and survive the day, that's what the thought everyone has. They don't want to mess with Damian anymore. Especially since his personality proved to be tended more towards unleashing chaos onto his enemies in a way they won't recover.
But his words caused confusion and fear in other houses. Especially Hufflepuffs who is used to Damian's company. Cedric is the only one who isn't affected by this statement, as for Griffyndor, Ron is going on with his wild theory about how he proved to be a perfect Slytherin with those cunning tactics and that dark personality, he said Damian suits those slimy snakes.
Well, he is also terrified after seeing Damian killing all trolls by himself. The professors had a different reaction though, the most concerned was Snape who had sleepless nights recently because of Damian, he even cancelled detention to Damian to take rest, he is dealing with purebloods and also keeping an eye on Damian, afraid what next headache will that guy give to him.
McGonagall is the least concerned, he isn't Griffyndor, so she don't have much trouble, moreover Damian saved three Griffyndors yesterday and had good friendship with them.
Flitwick is concerned about Damian's personality, in his eyes, Damian is a good student that Hogwarts rarely had, with enough effort and time, he is sure Damian will make a good future for himself and bring glory to Hogwarts, but now seeing the statement in forums, Flitwick is concerned about this future.
Panoma Sprout sees this as facade of Damian, seeing him getting well along with Hufflepuffs made her think he is a good kid but has trauma that somewhat disorted his mind and personality, given enough care for someone like him, she is sure he will recover back to very good child.
Quirell, well he is sulking because of the statements in forums calling him a coward. And also he is very angry on Damian, many said Damian is more suitable as a professor than him.
Trelawney is the most afraid among the professors, she is always calling Damian a bad omen and a next generation dark lord. She said this the moment he is sorted.
Dumbledore is somewhat relieved Damian at ll cares for his friends and also concerned about the growing twisted nature of the boy in his eyes. He is thinking, Damian needs time alone with friends and the people who care about him to bring the Good out from Damian's heart, the long buried child in Damian outside.
And what is our mc doing at this moment, he is currently preparing for the ritual, from the forbidden forest, Damian acquired some useful herbs which can help him for the ritual along with blood of some magical creatures. The body strengthening ritual needs to absorb the magical energy from the blood along with the herbs and some other items to strengthen his body and mana pool.
At least that's what written in the ritual, so some complimentary ingredients can also help him, likenthe demiguise, he searched for a week before catching one, he didn't kill that, just knocked it out and then collected it's blood before letting it go. Wampus cat is too much for him to take on now, and they're also very rare and dangerous. Especially with the hypnosis and legilimancy.
So Damian left this item to Evelyn to gather for him. Along with the blood of Manticore he stole from Snape's potion supplies, it's going well for now. The supplies to this ritual and part of the supplies to next mana heart ritual will arrive soon with the help of Evelyn.
He is preparing the room of requirement for the ritual, the ritual circle has been arranged to the pattern in the ritual book, Damian is prepared to do this ritual. This body strengthening ritual also helps him in purifying his mana and may bring unexpected gains if done correctly, it can held back the obscurus for him for a few months at least and buy him more time.
Now only the items to be delivered is pending, once he had them, he will do the ritual to strengthen his body. As Damian made the preparations for the ritual, Evelyn is also preparing to deliver the items that Damian asked.
Though she asked her subordinates to write the down list of items and look for any ritual that can be done with them. Unknown to her, Damian may have asked for the key ingredients but he never revealed the full list to her and even then doing this rituals isn't simple, it can only be done in Hogwarts, the ritual needs magical influx from the mana veins of this planet, lucky for Damian, Hogwarts is built in top of giant mana veins giving a huge source of pure and ambient magic for him. And the room of requirement ritual room is built to draw this magic for him through the ritual circle there.