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Guest
No Raven is not useless anything she lost in raw power she makes up for in being more stable. She's hiding her true power.
Alan
No sense letting Sirus Black suffer when capturing Wormtail is so easy. As for Potter yeah, I think he'd be used to keeping his head down and would just go with the flow. Since he's 17 he won't see the Dursleys ever again and he knows that so he won't be seeking revenge.
Gforce1000's Rule 34 Economy CYOA V 1.0
World 1 - Harry Potter
Part 8
Twycross Manor. Wizarding World.
I picked up the day's paper and read the headline before a smile appeared on my face.
"Looks like it worked," I said to Raven.
The former demi-demon and I were sitting down to brunch together, Luna having gone out to help her father with something to with his magazine, and while we were due back at Hogwarts soon for today we were just going to relax, hence the late start to the day.
"What worked?" my chief consort asked.
Not so long ago I'd carefully sent a letter to Albus Dumbledore, going so far as to type the letter and to wear gloves while handling the communication, so that it couldn't be traced back to me. Within the letter was more than enough information to led the Headmaster of Hogwarts to discover that the Death Eater Barty Crouch Junior was in his family home hidden away after his father had busted him out of prison about the time his wife died.
If the paper reported correctly, Dumbledore had not sent a crack team of Aurors to the Crouch home rather he had gone along with retired Auror Alastor Moody, whose magical eye could see through invisibility cloaks, to the Crouch home on some bit of Ministry business. I figured he'd done it this way so as to take the credit for finding the Death Eater who had already been returned to his cell in Azkaban.
I was surprised that Fudge hadn't ordered The Kiss, but I could understand why as Dumbledore may have convinced the Minister not to as it wasn't as if Crouch Junior had escaped justice, not really as he'd gone from Azkaban to being a captive in this family home. The Kiss would have been better, but that might have made things worse for us.
One day we would come to a point when the free Death Eaters would become panicked due to how many of them were locked up, executed or just went missing, and then one of them would seek out the Dark Lord for his protection, and this could lead to Voldemort's return sooner than expected. Not that this would upset my plans much because we were prepared to weaken Voldemort enough for Potter to finish him off by removing the Death Eaters from the game board. However, I'd rather wait until my knowledge of magic was greater in case we ended up duelling some dark spellcaster in a wizarding war.
"So Dumbledore didn't let Junior escape back to his master," said Raven "Does this mean that Dumbledore is a good guy or not?".
I gave it some deep thought. Something I'd done plenty of before when dwelling on this subject.
"Do you know what utilitarianism is?" I asked.
She signalled that she didn't know.
"No, I don't know utilitarianism is" she then said, "but it doesn't sound like anything to do with Wizards. Sounds more scientific or maybe sociological".
I gave her a look of approval. I was very glad that I'd chosen not only a powerful magic user as my chief consort and adviser but also an intelligent one.
"You're right there it's not a wizard thing. Utilitarianism is a Victorian Muggle idea that would have been popular back when Dumbledore was growing up" I told her" and it's possible that those ideas leaked into the Wizarding World thanks to Muggleborns and Half-bloods".
She seemed to be keeping up so far.
"Someone who believes in Utilitarianism believes that the correct moral choice is the choice that ensures the greatest good for the greatest number of people" I explained, "While that sounds good in theory that means that a choice that makes a lot of people very happy at the expense of making one person very unhappy is the moral choice to make".
I thought of a good way to demonstrate this.
"You might know of a moral dilemma known as the Bystander at the Switch," I said.
Indeed she did.
"I do" she confirmed "There is a runaway trolley barreling down the railway tracks. Ahead, on the tracks, there are five people all tied up, unable to move and the trolley is headed straight for them. While you're too far away to get to them before they get hit, there is a lever. If you pull this lever, the trolley will switch to a different set of tracks. However, there's a person tied to that track so if you save five people you must kill one. But when you have superpowers like me this isn't much a dilemma".
Well, I hadn't been gifted with powers until recently so I understood the problem for mere mortals.
"Basically, you have two options: Do nothing and allow the trolley to kill the five people on the main track or you can pull the lever, diverting the trolley onto the side track where it will kill one person, but you will directly cause that death rather than simply being a bystander. So which is the more ethical option? For a utilitarianist, someone who believes in the greater good, a slogan Grindlewald and Dumbledore both used when they were friends, killing one person so save five is the right thing to do and it's not exactly wrong even if someone with a different set of morals would say that there is no right thing to do. In theory, I would pull the lever, but I know that its the lesser of two evils not for the greater good".
If I was actually there on the spot I wasn't totally sure that I'd be able to pull the lever, but it would be the least bad option. Actually given that I had magic I would change the tracks, free the one person trapped on the track by teleporting and then free the others, but I had magic.
"In our case, Harry Potter is the person on the other track, Voldemort is the trolly and Dumbledore is the guy by the lever" I was now saying "He's chosen to sacrifice Harry Potter to save other people, but that doesn't make him evil, at least not to a utilitarianist".
Raven considered this.
"So the reason Dumbledore is letting Harry suffer is that it makes other people better off?" she asked.
I felt some clarification was needed.
"Yes, Harry's suffering ensures other people don't suffer," I said, "That is utilitarianism in action".
I hadn't quite convinced her yet so I kept going.
"Think about Harry and the Muggles he lived with. Now from what we know Blood Wards protected Harry while he lived with his Aunt and Uncle which kept him safe from any remaining Death Eaters. So to Dumbledore, the abuse Harry suffered is acceptable because it kept Harry alive. Harry needs to live in order to beat Voldemort like he did when the Dark Lord went after him as a baby".
Harry beating Voldemort as a baby ensured wellbeing for most people as it prevented Voldemort from killing more people so even if Dumbledore did do something to direct Voldemort towards the Potters because of the Prophecy then it was still the moral thing to do. I wouldn't agree with that, but mortality is subjective.
"My point is that Dumbledore has a moral stance that allows him to let Potter suffer for the Greater Good. To you and me that sounds like a poor excuse but when Dumbledore was growing up utilitarianism was quite popular. Our morals and world views are shaped by the people we grow up with. Dumbledore grew up in a time when utilitarianism was enjoying it hight. If everyone followed utilitarianism we'd all agree that Dumbledore is right, but you and I are the product a very different society so we're seeing this from an outsiders perspective".
Of course, this was just my theory it made sense to me and Grindlewald seemed to have a utilitarianist view of how the world should be, although in his case he cared for magic-users not all people equally. Yet I couldn't help wondering if he'd been successful would peoples lives in this world be better for everyone? What if we were ruled by magical elites rather than people who just happened to have a lot of money?.
"So the Headmaster is a good guy, it's just we have a different idea of what it means to be good" Raven summarised "That doesn't really help us figure out if we can trust him or not".
No, it didn't.
"If he thinks we'll be a threat to his plans then we could end up in trouble," I said, "or if he thinks we can help him save the wizarding world he'll try to control us, but at least we know that's it very unlikely that he actually wants Voldemort to return to power, at least not for a few years".
This basically meant that our plans were unchanged. We'd keep the shadows for now and not make any moves where Dumbledore might see them. In the future when we had more resources, allies and power, then I could decide if it was worth the risk to expose our true selves to the Headmaster and offer our aid.
My trail of thought came to an end when the device that Rooby my House Elf had handed me after a delivery a while back began to beep. The small machine acted as an interface between myself and whatever force it was that made the CYOA work.
"What is it?" asked Raven.
It took me a few moments to figure it out.
"The CYOA has updated" I informed her "We're now running on version 1.0 rather than version 0.4. I guess we must have been beta testing it".
Raven didn't understand that term I could see her confusion.
"If this is version 1.0 then the versions were incomplete, not ready to be used by people" I explained, "I figured that we were used for testing the CYOA to see if it would work. Now that it does Version 1.0 will be available to whoever else that scary eye thing decides to mess around with in the future".
That wasn't all it meant
"There's a whole section that's been added for challenges," I told the former Teen Titan "We now have to play an active role in defeating the bad guys rather than just surviving them, and for doing that we get an extra 15 points to spend".
Raven became amused.
"So we are, or rather you are, getting paid to do what we were already doing," she said.
That was rather funny.
"Yeah, and its 15 points per level if we don't mind taking on one group of bad guys in some meaningful way" I informed, "So I have 15 points I can spend right now. I might get some perks since I'm not that powerful, or maybe another girl".
My consort advised me not to.
"The best perks cost a lot so its best to save these extra points," she said "and even if you buy another magic-user she'll be behind us in our schooling, and if you don't get a magic-user there won't be much for her to do. Besides, we're handling everything fine for now and if that starts to change then you can spend those points".
Tempting as it was to get myself the Lover Boy Perk I stopped myself. It might be fun to use it to bring the members of my harem to the heights of sexual pleasure, only I seemed to be doing a good enough job and it wasn't my purpose to please them, they were so supposed to please me. Becoming an awesome chef was also somewhat tempting and I might pay for while in another world as for now it would be rather pointless since we had House Elves cooking for us.
"You make a good argument," I said.
There was no need to rush, I was doing fine and it made sense to keep the points in case I ended up needing them later.
"Letter for you, young Master," said Rooby as he popped into the room "It was posted through the door".
It wasn't even a letter really more of a booklet. Did the wizarding world have junk mail?
"Underwhelming Essentials Meta" I read to Raven "It seems to a separate thing from the CYOA and covers stuff that the CYOA didn't, but that we don't have to worry about since I made sure I had a proper backstory".
My chief consort gave the booklet a good looking over.
"I don't think this has anything to do with Gforce," she said, "But it can't be a coincidence that it arrived when the CYOA we're playing updates to a fully working version".
The style of the booklet was all wrong for the CYOA.
"It's not useful now" I decided "That might change later, so if it works I should keep it on me".
Some of the worlds we would visit in the future would be rougher than this one or more primitive so then this meta thing could come in handy.
"I wonder if there's anything else like that we might be sent" Raven mused "I can't help feeling that we're being used somehow. Maybe as a form of entertainment".
Sometimes it did seem as if we were part of a poorly constructed story meant to amuse someone.
"Don't blame me I was browsing the net and then there was big flaming eye saying something about a happy stabbing day," I reminded my consort, "and I didn't want to get stabbed so I went along with this".
Which was quite sensible of me and to my consorts I'd been very reasonable.
"Maybe we'll figure it out someday," Raven said.
Perhaps we would.
(Line Break)
Hogwarts. Wizarding World.
Albus Dumbledore looked out of the window at the extensive grounds of the college, but he wasn't seeing anything as his focus was on matters that didn't involve woods and fields. He was deep in thought, pondering how things had progressed since Harry Potter had finally rejoined the magical people of this country.
The boy, the young man was much as Dumbledore had hoped he would be, a little too shy perhaps, but that was to be expected given how he'd been raised. The Headmaster had known that Harry's childhood would be far from ideal, yet he'd been better looked after than he realised what with the old wizard having one of his agents living close by.
As he'd known they would the wards on the Number Four Private Dive had done their job until Harry turned seventeen and from that point on it didn't matter as much where the boy stayed as long as it was with the kind of people that Dumbledore found suitable for him. This was why he'd not done anything to prevent Sirus Black from at last having a trail.
Keeping them apart now would be needlessly cruel and Sirus was a powerful wizard who had served the Order of the Phoneix well enough in the past, and he could do so again. Sirus would need time to recover and so it wouldn't take much prodding by him to ensure that Harry spent some time with a suitable family for part of the summer, so as not to strain Sirus.
The Weasleys would be best as they followed him without question, and while he didn't have the same level of influence over the Longbottoms both of Neville's parents had been part of the Order so the fact that Harry been befriended by both Neville Longbottom and Ron Weasley without too much intervention pleased the Headmaster.
What didn't please The Chief Warlock were the events happening outside of his control. First, there had been the capture of Peter Pettigrew, the capture itself didn't bother him only that he'd been taken so by surprise by it. A first-year student had found Wormtail quite by accident, and Dumbledore had no reason to suspect otherwise, in fact, he was surprised that Peter hadn't been caught sooner given what a weak Wizard he'd proved to be.
Thankfully he'd come out of that fiasco blameless as that horrible Skeeter woman had kept her focus on the injustice done by the Ministry to Sirus Black. Everyone had been distracted by Black's tale of misfortune, which had a happy ending for him, that they'd forgotten that Wormtail had been sharing dorm rooms with Hogwarts students for many years
James Twycross was the young man who'd discovered a wizard pretending to be a rat, although according to his deputy, Mr Twycross had been under the impression that a student had been transfigured due to a mishap, something that had happened at this school, and so smartly he'd brought the rat the Transfiguration teacher.
He'd looked into the Twycross family. Wilkie Twycross, James Twycross's distant cousin who'd been unaware of his relative until recently, was an apparition instructor for the Ministry, someone of no real importance. The main branch of the Twycross family, the one with access to the family fortune and manor, had been wiped out by Voldemort as far as anyone knew, only that turned out not to be the case.
The name James Twycross when it appeared in a pile of Hogwarts letter did draw a bit of attention and several of the teachers here at the school had taught the boy's parents, as such finding out that they had a child who'd lived had been a bit of good news. Between Grindlewald and Voldemort, so many magical families had been totally wiped out or nearly so that the discovery of a lost scion of the Twycross family actually made the papers and that wasn't the last time the boy was mentioned by the press.
As it turned out the boy was an average student when it came to his studies and without access to his family's wealth until he passed his O.W.L.s he was of no real interest politically. His discovery of Wormtail seemed to be a bit of random back luck for the Death Eater even it had wide-ranging repercussions for the Wizarding World.
Then the young Mr Twycross had saved Hermione Granger from a troll. That hadn't just been a bit of luck and that had made the Headmaster wonder more about James Twycross. From what Dumbledore had discovered by questioning the right people, the young man had not attended the Halloween Feast because he wasn't very sociable, not that this was any cause for concern, but he certainly proved to have some courage.
Saving Miss Granger was good as she was a bright young witch and the last thing Hogwarts needed was to decrease the size of its student body any further. Dumbledore couldn't find anything suspicious about the incident, there was no way Twycross could have known the troll would enter the school unless he was working with Voldemort and that seemed extremely unlikely since Twycross seemed to avoid the Defence Teacher, although many did since the smell of garlic was rather offputting, they'd never been spotted together by Snape or any of the portraits.
The only person Twycross spent any amount of time with aside from Miss Granger who'd become his friend after the troll incident (and that was to be expected given that he'd saved her life, such situations could form bonds between people) was a Miss Rachel Roth a Muggleborn witch who'd been raised in the same orphanage as James Twycross who Twycross had taken in upon gaining access to his family home.
This might seem a little odd as magical children weren't very common, so finding two of them at the same orphanage was highly unlikely, but the college's deputy head had found no evidence of anything odd going on at the orphanage. So Dumbledore had seen no reason not to award the young man a Special Services to the School Award to go along with this Order of Merlin for when he'd uncovered Wormtail.
Despite these awards, James Twycross didn't seem to be the type to seek any attention. He kept to himself and his studies. That along with a small, but still generous donation to St Mungo's suggested he was a generous young man who cared about others. Proof of this was that he'd taken in the Muggleborn witch who would have grown up with, funding her education rather than rely upon the school's limited funds for orphans.
James Twycross was someone he could look more closely at in the years to come. He would be at this school for many years and Dumbledore had far more important matters to concern himself with. Such as a recent letter he'd gotten via the muggle post. Not an oddity in of itself as Hogwarts had a post box address to allow Muggleborn students to contact the school and it allowed them to write home while at the college without owls turning up in Muggle neighbourhoods.
While most sent letters to the college's deputy head when they had concerns about a student's wellbeing and education some made it to him. A letter informing him that a Death Eater who was believed to have died while incarcerated could be found at his family home had seemed like a prank at first, but the tip had been worth checking out.
The Headmaster had, along with Alastor Moody, gone to the home of Barty Crouch Senior under the pretext of some Ministry business to find Barty Crouch Junior hidden away while under an Imperuis Curse as promised in the letter. Fudge, the Minister of Magic had been furious, the Ministry had been humiliated by the discovery of an innocent Sirius Black and now some Death Eater had managed to escape justice without anyone even knowing he'd gone.
It hadn't helped that Lucis Mafloy had advised Fudge to keep Black locked away in case he still was a mass murderer, as even if hadn't killed Pettigrew all those muggles had still died. As luck would have it Fudge decided to go with someone else's advice and have a public trial for Black, while passing the blame for the miscarriage of justice onto Barty Crouch Senior who'd been the person to actual order Black locked up without a trial.
If this wasn't enough to end Crouch's career, and it pretty much had been since he'd been fired sometime later, what happened next would have been. Finding that he'd broken his own son out of Azkaban and used dark magic to keep him contained was simply too much for even Dumbledore to forgive and now both Crouch Senior and Junior were guests of the Dementors.
Had this information not been sent to him via a letter that could not be traced to its writer then the Headmaster would have felt a sense of pleasure upon having justice being carried out. Having Crouch Junior locked up made the whole world a safer place. But Dumbledore didn't like not knowing who had sent him the letter.
After calling upon a Muggleborn student of the college who'd gone on to work in the Muggle world while keeping some contact with the Magical one, the Headmaster had discovered that the letter had been printed by some machine so there was no handwriting to be compared. The letter had been posted by someone who knew about muggle postage and that did somewhat narrow things down since the average pureblood wouldn't know how to use stamps.
The biggest clue for Dumbledore was the contents of the letter, only someone who'd been to the Crouch family home or someone who worked closely with Crouch Senior could have discovered that Crouch Junior was alive and at home. Perhaps someone had been to his home and spotted Junior or overheard Crouch say something to someone while at work which led to the sender of the letter discovering the truth.
So Dumbledore had begun investigating the Muggleborns and Half-Bloods who worked below Crouch Senior, the man hadn't any real friends so an employee sending off a tip to someone they thought could be trusted seemed the most likely explanation for the letter. Of course, the person wanted to remain hidden, but the Headmaster needed to know what they knew.
Only Dumbledore had found no one likely to have sent the letter, not that he'd been able to interrogate anyone properly since it didn't fit with persona, but people trusted him and told him the truth when he asked questions. Even Moody hadn't much luck and he could see things others couldn't and scare them in ways Dumbledore never would.
So had this been a one-off thing or did he have an alley somewhere out there? He figured that only time would tell.
(Line Break)
Hogwarts. Wizarding World.
While it was somewhat of a guess I knew that Harry Potter must soon go off to face Voldemort as this weekend there was the last Quidditch match of the season which would place Harry's meeting with Voldemort at the beginning of June, after the yearly exams but before the end of term feast. I could keep an eye on Dumbledore thanks to the map so I would know if he wasn't around and as we had the exams this week the school was rather busy so I didn't think he'd leave yet. Perhaps this Friday night would be the time.
Since you had to pass the end of year exams in order to return to the school next year Raven and I had been busy with our studies. Until the last term, I'd not paid much attention to my classwork, as I was more focused on learning the kinds of magic that would be of use to me in the future. Hence why I'd hired a duelling instructor, and while I might only be an average wizard that didn't mean I couldn't be a better than average duelist it just meant I had to work hard at it.
Alas finding someone to teach me how to use different melee weapons proved to be a waste of time as wizards don't use them and the magical races don't much like wizards or they were too busy doing other things to waste their time teaching me. Raven had been able to teach both Luna some basic hand to hand combat when we weren't at the college. My sparring with the former Teen Titan often led to other physical activity.
This was an important part of my education that I intended to supplement by seeking out a muggle instructor in karate. Such skills could be very useful against wizards as they wouldn't know how to handle such attacks. Sure I'd have to get in close to use my growing hand to hand skills, but it would still be worth learning as it could serve me well in other worlds in the future.
Luna was staying at my manor while keeping herself amused. I'd encouraged her to read ahead so as to be well prepared for her first year. I didn't want Raven or me to have to tutor in her schoolwork, even if that was unlikely given her smarts not when there were much more interesting things to teach her about. Her main value was her Seer ability, but I would like for her to be able to defend herself.
As for my chief consort, she had been spending a lot of her time with her projects most of which involved doing whatever she felt was important, such as preparing to capture Death Eaters, hunting Horcruxes, preparing to kill a Basilisk, learning about advanced spells such as Patronus charm, as well as brewing potions that could be stored away should we need them later.
"What happened to you?" asked Hermione Granger.
She'd noticed that I smelt of pineapple and had small bits of the fruit on me. As for why I had pulp on my clothes this had to do with me just finishing The Charms exam which consisted of applying the animation to an otherwise inanimate object. Put more simply the students had to make a pineapple dance across Professor Flitwick's desk. That part went fine until I mentioned that this was too easy so Flictwick offered me the chance to go for a higher grade than my predicted mark if I could something with charms to impress him.
"So I made the pineapple grow using the growth charm" I was now saying to the young Miss Granger "and that went fine".
The Engorgement Charm (Engorgio), also known as Growing Charm, is a charm that causes the target to swell immensely. If the caster attempts to engorge the target beyond a certain point it will violently explode. However, that was not how things went wrong for me.
"You see I meant to use The Shrinking Charm which is Reducio, only I ended up using The Reductor Curse which is as I'm sure you know is Reducto and as you also might know that is a curse that will blast solid objects to pieces, or in the case of pineapple into a fine pulp".
She couldn't help laughing and to be fair it was rather amusing.
"Was he angry?" I was asked.
He'd hadn't been.
"No, he found it very amusing," I told her "and while I messed up the Reducio it's a very advanced spell so I can look forward to an Exceeds Expectations even if I won't be getting an Outstanding".
My marks in transfiguration and potions concerned me. I didn't care for transforming small animals into objects they didn't seem to mind, but to me, it felt like animal cruelty and rather pointless too. Why would ever have a mouse just hanging about in my home? Still, I'd made a passable snuff box so I should pass the class. As for potions, well if Neville Longbottom could pass the class then I should be able to. I wasn't worried so much about passing my exams now that I had other things on my mind. One of which I should deal with now since the exams were finally over.
(Line Break)
Hogwarts. Wizarding World.
With the exams now over I'd brought Hermione Granger to the Room of Requirement so that she could have a sit down in peace and think about if she wanted in with my harem or not. I'd imagined her sitting down and piling questions on me until I felt buried by them. This would have been a lot of work, but for all Hermione's faults, she could bossy and very opinionated, she had a brilliant mind and I could do with someone for the R&D. Plus she was rather good with spells and having an extra wand in action would be useful in the future.
To my surprised Hermione vanished as soon as she took hold of the contract, something that hadn't happened to Luna Lovegood, and she wasn't gone for long, although she looked as if she'd been through an emotional ringer while she'd been somewhere else.
"Ron Weasley!" she yelled, "I'm supposed to marry Ron Weasley!".
My device informed me that Hermione Granger was part of my harem, but how she'd been convinced to join I didn't know for sure even if I could already hazard a good guess. Present Day Hermione was not happy with Future Hermione's choice in a romantic partner.
"I will not marry that lazy, stupid boy!" she was now declaring to the world "He has all the sensitivity of brick and the table manners of a gorilla!".
She had more to yell.
"I wanted to be Minister for Magic not a stay at home mother," she said before calming down "No that there's anything wrong with being a good Mum, but I want a career".
My thinking was that if I helped the next Wizarding War from getting too bloody then not much would change politically and Hermoine would never rise very high in the Ministry due to not have magical ancestors. Sure she still could have gotten far given her talents, but it sounded as if she wouldn't either bother trying and she'd give up and devote herself to motherhood. Not that I disapproved as I knew raising children was challenging work, something I'd avoided.
"Why Harry Potter has anything to do with that jerk when he could be friends with me I can't imagine" Hermione was now saying "and have you met his brothers!".
I'd negotiated prank immunity when I'd finished paying off the map and Percy Weasely had nothing to do with the first years as such I didn't have much to do with them.
"I don't really know the lad or his family," I said.
Okay so that wasn't totally true, but I had next to no first-hand experience, and this was something I felt grateful for. Not that this mattered now as we had more important matters to discuss. I was glad that the Hermione of this timeline had avoided becoming another version of Molly Weasley but something important would happen soon.
"Before the end of the school year, Harry Potter will face Voldemort and stop him from claiming the Philosopher's stone," I told the witch standing before me "I want you to go with him when the time comes and make sure he gets passed the traps".
Luna's visions of the confrontation between The Chosen One and the Dark Lord were not very clear she only felt certain that it would happen, and since my plans for the future, as vague as they were, did require Potter to remain in the spotlight so to speak. I'd drawn far too much attention to myself already and therefore I couldn't go with the Boy-Who-Lived on his adventure, however, Hermione could go for me.
"I think its time to you told me how you know so much" insisted my new harem girl.
While I allowed Raven certain liberties since she'd served me well as my chief consort and because she earned them I needed to reminded Hermoine that she'd sworn her service to me by signing the contract for reasons that I hoped extended beyond Ron Weasly. I was no Voldemort, I wouldn't harm someone just make myself seem superior, but she had to learn her place.
"Don't forget who is the master here" I warned the young Miss Granger "You signed yourself over to me, and you had your reasons".
I imagined that more than the horror of her terrible choices in romance had been a deciding factor. The allure of seeing whole new worlds must be great for someone who hungered for knowledge and Hermione was well aware that I knew plenty that she didn't. How this young woman wasn't in Ravenclaw was a mystery to me, but I felt sure the Sorting Hat had its reasons.
"You're right," she said, "I am sorry".
Since I was sure she meant that I began to explain that in the world that I'd originally come from the life of Harry Potter was documented in a popular series of books (not counting the Cursed Child since I'd never read it) and that those movies had been turned in a successful film franchise. Because I'd read those books and seen the films I knew about important events most of which were yet to happen and might not happen if I'd improved things for the better. Hermione knew I wasn't lying because she knew that the CYOA took the player to worlds that were supposedly fictional, but she was still a little amazed by all of this.
"I can't say for sure that the tests leading to the Stone will be the same, but just in case they are I'll tell you all about them and how to beat them" I was now saying "You might want to pack a few useful things in case the tests are different".
While explaining the troubles she might get into I handed her a compact that contained a small mirror, the kind girls might use to do their makeup.
"This is enchanted so that we can talk to each other," I told her "I'll use it let you know if Potter is on the move, you shouldn't have trouble convincing him to take you along".
She was already somewhat involved because she'd been looking into the owner of the stone and would have passed that information on to Potter and his friends. Also since Dumbledore wanted Potter to get to the Stone the tests wouldn't be too hard, and if Hermione couldn't deal with then she wouldn't be of much use to me.
(Line Break)
Hogwarts. Wizarding World.
Long before heading off to confront the beast Raven had done her research and had collected information from a variety of sources, including her own memory, as such she knew that the Chamber was home to a monster, a Basilisk, that was allegedly supposed to purge the school of all Muggle-borns. Although it seemed somewhat odd that Salazar hadn't used the creature before he'd been driven out of the school if that was what had actually happened.
Only the Heir of Slytherin could open the Chamber of Secrets, through the use of Parseltongue. Over the centuries after Slytherin's death, many Headmasters conducted searches of the school to find the Chamber. None, however, were successful, and the Chamber was dismissed as a mere legend by many. Until it was opened years later.
The Chamber was opened during the 1942-1943 school year by a sixteen-year-old teenager by the name of Tom Riddle, later known as Lord Voldemort. Through Merope Gaunt, his mother and a Witch, Riddle was the last remaining direct descendant of Slytherin, and he desired to see Muggle-borns driven from Hogwarts despite his own Half-Blood status.
In his Fifth year, Riddle located the secret entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. Tom Riddle turned the Basilisk loose on the school and many students were petrified as a result of the Basilisk's stare. The school was almost closed, which upset Riddle, who did not want to return to the Muggle orphanage in which he was raised.
To avoid this he framed fellow student Rubeus Hagrid, who had concealed a pet Acromantula named Aragog. Riddle convinced the Headmaster at the time, Armando Dippet, that Aragog was the monster that had terrorised the school. Hagrid was wrongfully expelled, and Riddle received a Special Services to the School award.
Raven was not the Heir of anything, but she was smart and so she'd come up with a plan to open the Chamber using Human Transfiguration which was a sub-branch of Transfiguration and a form of transformation in which one transfigures human body parts or an entire human being into another form. Human Transfiguration is more difficult than any other form of Transfiguration and as such would be beyond most students, but Raven had far more talent and power than other students.
Normally Raven would not have transfigured James into an animal as unlike an animagus transform someone transfigured into an animal lost the ability to think like a human and this was a good way to lose someone. However, Snakes were different, at least in this universe, they had the power of speech and certain magic-users could even talk to them. This was why when Raven instructed her lover to command the door to open it worked as snakes naturally spoke their own form of speech.
Raven ensured that James was secure before heading down the slide and soon the two of them, plus the Rooster which was in a cage that was covered by a blanket, headed down into the chamber the entrance of which was easily opened by James who was still a snake just commanded it to open. The entrance didn't know the difference between an Heir and anyone who could just make the right noises.
Open entering the chamber Raven put the cage down and reached into the pocket of her dragonhide coat, a birthday gift from James who liked to spoil her, and while it wouldn't help her against the big snake monster it looked good on her and it contained many surprises, such as pair of sunglasses which allowed her to see without actually seeing. A complex bit of magic that should protect her from the eyes of the monster.
"Try to summon the creature," Raven said to the snake that wrapped around her.
Snakes could not understand human speech as far as she knew, but James didn't need to as all he had to do was listen for Raven to say something at the right time to know that it was the signal. The scary monster soon appeared and when it did the blanket came off the cage and the bird within began crowing, and this killed the Basilisk stone dead.
It wasn't over yet as even a dead Basilisk could be very dangerous and only another snake could deal with its eyes which were said to be able to kill even if the snake monster was nothing more than a corpse. So as planned she had James, who was still in his snake form bite the eyes out before he was turned back into a human by her command of magic.
"Basilisk eyes taste horrible" he complained.
The task had been unpleasant and while the eyes themselves were not venomous they would likely give James a stomach ache. She'd brought along a sort of anti-toxin potion to ensure no harmful effects now that he was human again.
"Only a snake can look a Basilisk in the eye and survive" Raven stated, "Well Fawks managed in the original timeline but phoenixes are immortal and in many ways the perfect counter to a basilisk due to their healing powers".
While that was something she thought was interesting this was neither the time nor the place to discuss such things. They'd come here to remove a threat to themselves and the college, and it had all gone to plan, something Raven knew rarely happened. Perhaps the smoothness of this operation had been at least partly due to how well she and James worked together.
"Okay let's get some fangs" her lover declared.
Due to the venom, which would still be potent many years from now, they couldn't just yank the fangs out, they had to be carefully pulled out using tools held in gloved hands and then each fang was stored in boxes which were in turn stored in pouches that were much larger on the inside. The fangs were potent weapons that might be used to slay many foes in the future. They left a few behind in case anything happened to their collection while they were still in this world.
No doubt there was a wealth of potion ingredients now decomposing in front of them, but as James had pointed out it simply wasn't possible for them to harvest this bounty without someone becoming suspicious of them. There was a reason why they'd come down here this night when Potter was off meeting Voldemort, and that was because their actions here were far more likely to be missed what with the other important event going on.
"Let's check this place out" James was now saying "In some fanfics, Salazar has a secret study or even a vault for his treasures".
As it turned out there was a study that could be accessed, alas Voldemort must have taken anything of value decades ago, or someone else had before because the only thing they found down here aside from animal skeletons were scraps. A thousand years in a damp underground lair had reduced the contents of Salazar's study to rot. The table and chair had survived, as had an empty wardrobe, but anything worth taking was long gone.
"If there was anything here its long gone," said James.
With no reason to stay and many reasons to leave this unpleasant place the two of them headed out using Raven's magic to escape as she flew them up the pipe then come sliding down.
(Line Break)
Twycross Manor. Wizarding World.
The school year was finally over. Potter had faced Voldemort and while Hermione hadn't seen the actual meeting between them she'd gotten the story from the Boy-Who-Lived, it happened much like it did in the books. I figured that it happening this way was partly fate, the Prophecy in action, and Dumbledore's prodding. While I could purchase the Fate Breaker perk to end the Prophecy, for now, it benefited me to let things play out.
Next year should at least prove to be more peaceful as even if Ginny Weasly didn't get in the diary for some reason there was no monster to unleash on the school. The part of Voldemort in the diary might try to take somebody over, but since Raven and I knew about the Horcrux we should be able to find it and destroy it before any harm was done.
We would find and destroy the Ring Horcrux over the summer, and since I'd made contact with Sirius Black I should be able to gain entry into his home with the excuse of checking on him as to find the Locket Horcrux. Visting him would not be considered an odd thing for me since I was partly responsible for freeing him. As for the Horcrux here in the school that would be the first to go as we could access the room it was stored in at any time we wished.
"I need to ask you something," Raven said, sounding serious "Do you still find me sexually attractive?"
Her question confused me, but not for long. I figured that she hadn't totally gotten over her feelings of jealously when it came to me having more girls in my harem even if she had them under control. For months it had just been me and her, and Luna didn't require me to do much as she was focused on making sure her father could cope without her and she'd been doing her job at the Quibbler. Hermione on the other hand was more demanding of my attention because she needed it more, and she was less secure in the choice she had made to join my harem. Which meant I'd not been as attentive to Raven as normal since the exams. No doubt we'd settle things between us all and find some sort of balance as time passed by.
"Of course I do" I replied, "why would you ask something like that?".
Raven wasn't convinced. I had to wonder why given that she was an empath, she should know that I was aroused by her even if we hadn't been doing as much of the fun stuff lately. To be fair between the exams and all the study, and then claiming Hermione. I had been distracted and Raven was used to having regular sex with me.
"I need you to prove it," she said, "But I won't make any demands so you don't need to do anything right away, except watch".
Raven gave me a small smirk, then she kicked off her boots as I went and sat down. We were in the living room but that didn't seem to bother my chief consort. She began stripping off in front of me without concern.
"So Master, do you like what you see so far?" Raven asked.
Before I could answer Raven grabbed the back of her bra and unhooked it, but before she let it fall, she shot me another grin. She then let it fall exposing her breasts to me.
"Are these your favourite to play with?" she asked, "They're bigger than Granger's or Luna's".
Raven walked closer to me, completely naked except for her panties so that I could confirm her words. She then noticed the tent that was forming in my trousers and that answered her questions far more effectively than mere words.
"Master would you remove my panties please?" she asked suggestively "With your teeth, I bet that is really sexy".
Once I'd done my best to make her naked without using my hands she grabbed at my belt and undid my trousers, so that she could pull them off and then rather than touch me she decided to show me her ass. Clearly, she wanted some assurance that she was still my number 1 girl.
"I do so love that ass," I said.
Raven decided to twerk her ass at me making me unable to resist smacking her backside a few times, something that made her yelp, but in surprise rather than pain, even though she must have known she was making her backside a tempting target.
"I love you, Raven," I said.
That had been easier to say than I would have imagined.
"And I love you, master," Raven said with an obvious blush on her face "But don't get used to me calling you that".
Since I did love her, not that I would normally admit to such things even to myself, and because she seemed to feel the same way I would allow her to be informal with me, but she still needed to obey me as I was the master here.
"I want you to come and ride my dick," I told her.
With her soft hands, she positioned my dick into place before she dropped herself down onto my lap, impaling herself on my meatstick as a good girl should. Raven moaned as she began to bounce on top of me with her breasts swaying with each bounce. I did my best to maul her breasts to make sure she knew that I did really enjoy them, but it was her butt that ended up getting most of my attention. I pawed at it, pinched the flesh, smacked the cheeks, and she liked it even if it must have hurt due my strength.
"You must really want my ass," Raven said when she stopped for a moment "I know you always do but do you want it now?".
I considered this.
"Later, when I'm finished with you pussy" I said, "You'll need a break and time to do the spells".
I'd fuck her ass before I went to sleep, for now, she needed to finish pleasing me with her wet, warm cunt.