Author Note.
As suggested by a few of my reviewers I'm doing a Harry Potter self insert. Thanks to Selias helping me with the plot. This chapter is dedicated to you as a thank you.
Also as this an AU I'm looking for some charters that could be in the same year as my character if you have a HP character who could end up being in the same social group as James then let me know.
Plot.
After randomly picking a reward James must now adapt to his new life as a student at Hogwarts. Given his knowledge of this world it should be simple enough for him to survive and prosper in this world. Shouldn't it?
Warnings.
Nothing major for now but there might be the odd swear word.
The First Gothic. Book One. A Wizard In Training. Part One.
The Hogwarts Express. Platform Nine And Three Quarters. King's Cross Station. London.
A loud noise woke me up and somewhere in the recesses of my mind I recognised the sound as that of a steam whistle. My eyes opened slowly and I found myself making eye contact with a strange looking blond girl who wore something that resembled those so called X-ray specs you got with comic books as a kid.
"Oh good your awake" commented the girl "I thought the Wrackspurts would never leave you alone".
Wrackspurts? What the hell were Wrackspurts? And more importantly why had they been bothering me?
"No I was just tired" I lied not really knowing what to say "I was in a bar last night".
The second part was true at least it had been night there at least although what time it was now I had no clue.
"Aren't you a little young to be drinking?" asked the scruffy looking pre-teen.
Well I'd always looked younger than I actually was but I doubt anyone would think me under eighteen even with that silly challenge twenty five rule.
"No I'm..." the words died on my lips.
My voice sounded wrong and it seemed as if I to small for my own body. Touching my face I felt the lack of facial hair and then with horror I figured it all out. I confirmed my worries by checking out my reflection in the window which was faint but I could see enough to know the truth.
I was a kid again!
How had this happened? Wait the Traveller that was right I'd picked a card and that card had shown what exactly? Me with a wand standing over a cauldron. That was it. So that meant I was a Wizard. Oh god I was in Harry Potter's world! And I looked like an elven year old!
Without meaning to I patted myself down, found the wand and did the first spell that came into my head. Aiming for the pile of books next to me I said.
Wingardium Leviosa
All of the books in the pile floated into the air and then dropped to the floor once I ended the spell.
I was rather pleased as those had been heavy books and had I remembered the flick and swish part it would of worked better.
Next I used
Accio
And brought one of the books into my waiting free hand.
"Wow that's amazing!" exclaimed the x-ray spec wearing dotty girl "could you teach me that spell".
For a few moments I didn't reply I just stood there going through a series of emotions each amazingly intense until I settled on a mixture of mostly relief and part happiness . I had a wand
that I could use and the spells that I remembered from the books (again rather clearly) seemed to work or at least two did so far.
I then got back on track and realised that the girl I was sharing my compartment with seemed to be waiting for me to say something.
"Oh yeah sure if you don't mind answering a few questions".
The girl seemed to take for granted that I'd be confused.
"The Wrackspurts will leave you a bit fuzzy for a while so I'll help you until you start remembering".
If she weren't clearly insane I'd call her sweet and rather adorable under her messy hair and silly toy glasses. I shook my head and tried not to feel like a man in his twenties who was hanging around with an underage girl alone in a train compartment who wasn't his daughter. It just felt to weird that way.
Thankfully it wasn't too difficult to try and feel the age I looked as I felt no desire to have sex with the girl next to me. Which made sense since if I remembered right I didn't start think of those things until I was at least twelve maybe even older.
Then I realised that I was going to have to go through puberty again and it hadn't been pretty the first time and bet they didn't have the products I'd used the first time round as this would be about 92/93.
Which also meant no Xbox 360 or even a regluar Xbox. How I would survive fifteen to seventeen without my Playstation?.
I stopped myself from having an embarrassing panic attack and made myself focus on the present. I could worry about the lack of video games and spot cream later for now I needed to find out not where I was but when I was.
"So tell me about yourself?" I asked knowing that an open ended question would be best for information gathering.
The young woman (as I tried to think of her as I didn't want to think of myself as a boy) went to into great detail about her life as if she'd been desperate to talk about this for a very long time. Most of what she said meant nothing to me but I learned a few things of importance.
She was Luna Lovegood. And this was to be her first year of Hogwarts. She knew she'd be in Ravenclaw. Oh the date on her magazine said that it was September 1st 1992 I knew this because her the sound of her gentle voice lost my attention quite quickly (although that could have something to do with me having a child's attention span) and I ended up reading the front page magazine which was upside down from my point of view but I discovered that it had something to do with gum disease and dark magic.
On the surface of things these four facts (the gum disease thing didn't count) didn't seem like much but it told me a lot.
If this was Luna's first years it was Harry Potter's second since is a year behind Harry in the books. Since it was the first of September it was to late to stop Tom Riddle's Dairy from entering the school. But I could take it from Ginny Weasley and destroy it if I could find something that could destroy Horcruxes.
I chided myself for thinking such things. It wasn't a good idea to get too involved in the events of Potter's life as it might get me killed. But maybe I wouldn't have to. I didn't have to destroy the Horcrux I could just get it out of the school and leave it somewhere no one would ever interact with it. If not one wrote in it then nothing bad would happen.
The one in the Gringotts vault never did anything because the Horcruxes needed to interact with people before they become active. So if I hid the Dairy somewhere then there would be no opening of the Chamber of Secrets and no risk of me turning to stone.
The train whistled again and started up just as an Owl flew through the window. The bird dropped its letter and flew off before the train picked up any real speed. The whole delivery took place so fast that Luna didn't notice anything until after the bird was flying out of the window.
"Was that your Owl" she inquired "it was very pretty".
I grimaced at the idea of owning something that could described as pretty but I didn't remark on that instead I said.
"Yeah I guess".
Ignoring any other comments the crazy girl made I opened the letter and read it.
Dear James.
After seeing what card you picked I have to admit that at first I was somewhat disappointed. I had such plans for my you. But then I remembered that there's a least a few hundred more of you out there to mess with and I cheered up.
I had to admit there had been better selections to pick from. Being the Overlord would have been awesome.
Anyway it occurred to me that letting you lose on a world you only know via seven books and eight films wasn't worth what I owe you. So being the kind hearted Cosmic Horror that I am I decided to give you a few advantages.
My heart beat sped up as I imaged what he could mean by advantages. Also the Cosmic Horror part worried me a little.
First I given you a sort of Occlumency shield that will work automatically with no effort needed by from you. You'll need this is as Occlumency is a hard skill to learn as it involves clearing ones mind of emotion which is a bit tricky for a child manage. Mastering it would allow you to trick anyone whose reading your mind by showing them thoughts and feelings that you want them to see but its doubtful you could learn this art before Snape starts reading your thoughts.
That did sound like a useful skill but I was glad that I didn't have to learn it as it would take too long.
From what I saw in your mind your quite capable of departmentalising yourself to the extent that not even a master Legilimens could tell what you are really thinking but this is of limited use if you ever face a true mind reader like say Professor X from the Marvel Comics.
Wow this guy err thing had really taken a good look around my mind. He seemed to know more about me than I did.
What I've done is to layer a fake mind around your own this way anyone trying to read your thoughts either by magic or mental powers will only see the mind I put up to cover yours.
I couldn't help but smile at this point as while being mind reader proof wasn't the kind of power I had been hoping for it was still something that would come in very useful. I'd be able to lie to the likes of Snape and Dumbledore with ease. I'd be able to get away with a lot of mischief this way.
As you have just figured out this little gift of mine will allow you to get away with quite a lot of mischief while at that silly school.
Guess he really did know me.
Its my hope that you do as it should very entertaining.
Wait was he going to spy on me?
No don't worry I won't be spying on you directly. I'll just pop by now and again to see what you have been up to. I'll likely be more amused by what the other versions of yourself are up to so I won't interfere I promise. It will be more like watching a movie or reading a fan fiction.
Now why didn't I trust that last statement? And what on Earth was he getting up to with other versions of myself?
Aside from making sure no interfering candy lovers and piss poor excuses for teachers don't go around raping your under-age mind I've also gifted you with a few other things.
I held my breath in anticipation.
Your an Animagus as well you can turn into a fox at will. Of course since your eleven you'll turn into an almost mature fox cub until you grown up a bit so be careful.
That sounded useful as well. Foxes weren't that odd of a sight in the UK. I'd have to be careful not to run into any fox hunts but other than that I should be okay.
Now onto some personal details. This is your first year at the school and unless things go very wrong you should complete all seven years before starting what I hope is an interesting career.
Knowing this world as I did I'd either end up with some low end ministry job or I'd be the next dark lord.
Your name is this world is Damien Mason
(Author Note: I'm reusing the name because I'm awful at making up names and I like Damien Mason its a good name)
Your the last surviving member of a minor Pureblood family of moderate wealth although you are a Half-Blood yourself with a now dead muggle mother and a wizard father who passed on a few weeks ago which will explain your knowledge of both the magical and muggle world.
So an orphan then, well at least it would it would prevent me from having to put up with having some strangers as a family.
Given that you have no living relatives (or at least Damien doesn't) arrangements have been made for you to spend your summers with a different Wizarding family ever year. You can't live on your own because there is no way any society would allow such a young person to live by themselves.
I'd read more than one Harry Potter fan fic were Harry gets emancipated at the age of eleven. That whole idea was ridiculous no court would let a pre-teen live unsupervised even if he did have the money to support himself.
You'll have to stay at the school for Christmas and Easter unless you get yourself an invite to someone else's home. I'm sure Luna would love to have a friend over she's got a gift of her own to share with you.
Not for the first time I wondered why Wizards who didn't worship Jesus (or anyone or anything for that matter) celebrated Easter with a holiday. Christmas I could understand as even I use to celebrate Christmas with my family even thought I didn't go to Church or even pray but why would magical folk do the same? The influence of muggleborns or perhaps they simply celebrated the older Pagan holidays of winter and spring solstice in a more modern manner.
To the best of my recollection the students didn't get a week of for Easter which made me suspect that this was alternate universe like which would be shown in fan fictions. In fact that likely why the Traveller's note mentioned fan fics.
I also thought about why the Traveller had arranged things so Lovegood and I met on the train. Was he setting me up with her? If so it might have been better to make us met when we were both a bit older. Then again beings at his level of power tended to have reasons for doing things that aren't apparent to us lowly mortals at least at first. I'd watched enough science fiction to know that.
I'd not failed to notice the part about Luna having a gift of her own to share but I'd have to wait to find out what that was. It wasn't as if I could ask if she'd gifted a power by a mysterious being who looked like me. Then again she'd likely tell me said even if she hadn't since kids tend to over-active imaginations.
You have a bank account the Key is in your trunk and you are due to inherit your families' modest fortune and properties at the age of seventeen. A trust fund has been set up to cover expenses until then. I took the liberty of supplying what you need for this year and added a sum of gold to your pouch.
So money shouldn't be a problem for me until after school. I was sure I could come up with a few ways to make some money before leaving Hogwarts.
Checking the pouch I found it heavy with gold, silver and bronze coins. An amount that should last me a while.
I also made sure that you exist in both worlds rather than just the wizard one. The paperwork is at your family home which will get access to when you turn seventeen.
By paperwork he must of meant a birth certificate and such. People weren't that I.D crazy yet I could remember getting into pubs at fifteen and no one had ever asked me for ID until the year two thousand came about. But if I wanted a proper bank account and a job in the normal world I'd need that kind of documentation.
If there something else you need write it on the back of this letter and I will get around to as soon as I can just don't go asking for to much or I might get upset.
That sounded mild but that the Traveller had ripped apart my mind, body and soul, then put it back together with pieces missing before making his own improvements as a sort of greeting. I really didn't want to find out what would happen if he got annoyed with me. I'd save requesting stuff for a emergences or maybe just ask for minor stuff that wouldn't require to much effort.
P.S Paperwork like your Hogsmede forum and OWL class choices were filled in by me. I'll let you guess what classes I signed you up for.
Knowing my luck it would be Muggle Studies and Divination the two most useless classes offered at the school but there wasn't anything I could do about that. The Traveller could do whatever it wanted to do to me and there wasn't a thing I could about it. At least it didn't seem to be deliberately cruel if anything it seemed more mischievous than evil.
"Who was that letter from?" asked Luna.
"My dad he died recently" I lied while trying to sound sad about it "he must of prepared this letter in advance its just school stuff".
The girl couldn't help but display her sympathy towards me by hugging me (which felt odd since I didn't know her) and I took note that Lovegood seemed much more open and well sane than she did in the books. I assumed that was because she hadn't yet been bullied to the point were she had been driven into her own little world inside in her own head in order to escape her torments.
I knew about such things it had happened to me. I hated bullies (still did in fact) but I'd never had the physical strength to match my tormentors who never worked alone anyway. But things were different now. In a world of magic being smarter than those who picked on you could actually help. Numbers mattered but only if you didn't have help of your own.
Given that I'd been through school once already I knew how to make friends quickly and carve out a place for myself in the social hierarchy. I just needed to find those who would accept me as a leader and win their loyalty.
Which is ridiculously easy when your an adult as you see that children really aren't that bright and that manipulating them is a doodle since most of them are quite swallow although its not their fault. In my opinion that was the secret to parenting and I'd seen it in action enough to do it myself.
I felt a strange absence of guilt when I thought about manipulating children for my own needs the lack of guilt was interesting to say the least. Did this make me some sort of sociopath? Or a psychopath or was that the same thing?.
Then again if I was honest with myself I couldn't recall feeling guilty about anything for a while now. I had no desire to hurt other people (which meant I wasn't psychotic at least) nor did I wish to go around committing crimes. But not doing that sort of thing didn't mean that you felt it was wrong in some moral sense it might just mean that you just didn't want to be punished.
However I had to admit that I was thinking about charming people in order to get them to like me but wasn't that how people made friends? Everyone did things to make other people like them I was just being honest with myself about it.
I tried to think about any ethics I might have. What were the things I wouldn't be willing to do even if I could get away with them?
Yes I could think of a few things that I would never do even if I could get away with it so I hadn't lost all my morals I'd just stopped worrying about doing things I knew I needed to do.
All this intent thinking was starting to give me a headache I could worry about my ethics later for now I should be focused on getting settled into my new life. That could start with making myself a friend so I'd at least have someone to talk to.
The opportunity for this came about quickly. The trolley laden with sweets and other junk passed the door accompanied by the shout of.
"Anything from the trolley"
I was already wearing the school robes and my money pouch was hanging from my belt. I opened it and marvelled at the shiny pieces of metal that were mine. I found it odd that people assign so much value to gold its not even that pleasing to look at its a bit tacky really. The silver coins were more pleasing to the eye.
"Fancy anything Luna?"
The girl bit her lip and I wondered when was the last time she ate. From what I knew of her dad he wasn't the best provider ever. Not a bad person in any way he just very absent minded. I couldn't imagine that Luna had money for treats unless she asked for it.
"Its my treat" I assured "least I can do since you looked after me while during my Wrackspurt infection".
She seemed to examine my words as if seeking out any sarcasm in them but my words had been toned correctly to make it sound as if I actually gave a fuck about her imaginary magical animal friends.
"You decide" she said at least
Like any woman anywhere in the service industry the Trolley Lady had mastered the art of hearing everything without looking like she was paying the slightest bit of attention to any question or request that wasn't directed at her. I'd hung around my school lunch room long enough to know that the women who served the food knew more about what was going on that the rest of the staff combined. I knew that if you ever wanted to know what is really going in a place you asked in the kitchens there like centres of gossip regardless of which gender is working in them.
I purchased a wide selection of the mostly surgery rubbish that was offered up to brats on this train and came to understand why the perfects are chosen before the school year begins. No amount of money would ever convince a teacher to supervise a train full of kids who would either be hyped up on sugar or driven by their hormones.
Right then and there I decided that if I was ever a prefect supervising this journey that I'd purposely injure myself in order to avoid this duty.
Sharing out the 'food' I had brought I discovered three very important things. One is that I hate pumpkin pasties and pumpkin juice. Its vile and should be banned. All pumpkins should be burned just so I'd never have to taste their horrid flavour ever again.
Second that chocolate and sweets really do taste better when your a kid. I'd forgotten how good the stuff could be. I ate so much that I should have been sick but somehow my stomach was able to handle the chocolate and didn't explode from the sheer amount of sugar I consumed.
After wolfing down so much chocolate I got rather thirsty and sadly for me discovered my third thing which was that I hate butterbeer.
This left me with nothing to drink until I remembered that I could create water with the spell. It was a simple matter to empty the bottle out the window, fill it with water and the empty it again before refilling it once more for drinking. After rinsing the bottle the taste of butterbeer was faint so I was able to get a drink.
Lovegood stayed quiet the entire time we ate and this created a sort of comfortable silence people who don't know each other very well will rarely experience. Of course it could just be that she'd forgotten that I was here her upside down magazine seemed to be quite the engrossing read.
This silence gave me plenty of time to study the girl who I hoped would be my friend or at least the start of a social group that I could use to my advantage.
She seemed to relatively sane at this point and any oddness she displayed could easily be explained by the traumatic loss of her mother some years back. Aside from that she gave the impression of a harmless girl quite open to making friends. She had the ability to feel affection (which was more than could be said for me right now) and I could use that my advantage later.
How I'd do that exactly I didn't know right now but there was no need for me worry about that yet I had years of schooling ahead of me and plenty of time to form my social circle that I was already planning to turn into my own group.
What I would do with that group I hadn't quite worked out yet. I felt as if I was planning to start my own Death Eater group but I didn't have any desire to start terrorising the Wizarding World. Not unless it forced me to.
Which given its unfairness and stupidity might actually happen but that wasn't something that I'd have to worry about for a while for yet and I had other things to concern myself with such as exams, homework and incompetent teaching staff. Those were things I was not looking forward to dealing with.
But I didn't really have any say in the matter until I finished school I was bound by a lot of rules and breaking them would just get my wand snapped or worse get me thrown in prison assuming I couldn't just bribe my way out.
The door to this compartment opened and a small red headed girl walked in and sat down next to Luna.
"Have you seen Ron?" Ginny asked Luna.
"No I haven't seen Ronald" replied Luna "but don't worry he'll make it to school he won't crash until he hits the angry tree ".
Wait how the hell did she know that? Was she a seer? Was that what the Traveller meant by her having a gift the share?
This was something I would have to investigate given the chance.
The girls sitting across from me started to chat about everything and nothing at the same time in the way only girls can. I had no idea what they were talking about so I droned it out so that their talking became background noise.
Knowing that this was going to be a long journey I took out a book and started reading A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Mr Switch.
The book quickly explained that transfiguration was divided into four branches Transformation, Vanishment, Conjuration and Untransfiguration.
Transfiguration seemed quite simple to grasp. You simply changed one thing into another but some of the transfiguration spells seemed useless. For example it was possible to turn a beetle into a button which sounded completely useless to me as the only reason to turn anything into a button would be if you needed a button to replace a missing one.
But why beetles why not something easier to find like say a coin or a bottle cap. It really made no sense?
The match to needle spell did make sense matches are common everyday items that people normally have lying around (even though you can create fire with magic matches are still handy because controlling the amount of fire you make might not be so easy) and if needed a needle for say sowing turning a match into a needle actually seemed like a handy thing to be able to do.
Worse were the spells that turn animals into objects like the spell that mice into snuffboxes. What a cruel thing to do to a defenceless animal. Killing a helpless animal just to create an box your never going to use didn't sit well with me.
While only Transformation spells were covered in any real detail this book but it mention the other three main branches of that magical art.
Vanishment the art of causing things to vanish or to make things go into non-being (whatever the hell that meant) wouldn't be taught until O.W.L level according to the book yet the text did actually tell you how it was done. It even told me the spell needed: Evanesco.
This seemed rather odd because if students weren't meant to learn it until third or fourth year why was the book telling me how to do it now?
It seemed very foolish to me as with this spell I could make anything I wished cease to exist. Even done wrongly I could end up killing someone with a single word by vanishing say a major organ in the body or even their entire head.
This Emeric Switch was an idiot there weren't even any warnings in the book telling not to try the spell. It just told me that I needed to focus my intent on the object and use my will.
On the other hand conjuration( the art of conjuring things bringing things into existence the opposite of Vanishment) was filled with warnings and no spells to demonstrate were offered. However it was explained that conjured items didn't last forever and would fade depending on how powerful the caster of the spell was.
Untransfiguration was simply undoing the transfiguration you yourself had done or the work of another. That was more complex than transfiguration because you had to identify what had been transfigured and then what the item had been transfigured into before you could reverse the magic.
After reading some more for a while I started to feel a bit tired (as blacking out doesn't count as restful sleep) I but the book down and decided to take a nap the train ride took up most of the day so I had plenty of time to sleep.