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Carthienes
Everyone who joins the CYOA will have their own reason. Raven did it to totally separate herself from her evil father. Luna wants protection and Hermione has a few reasons of her own. The others will as well.
If a magical item could only be used by a wizard or witch then there would no danger in enchanted items ending up in the Muggle World, assuming there aren't a lot of Muggleborns about, so that would be a good safety feature. However, even this was possible the safety feature would simply be removed by the witches and wizards who want to endanger Muggles. Although it would lessen accidents doing something like that would take more time than the group has in this world.
falseproffitt
I get people complaining that my SIs are too nice and people who complain when they aren't. You can't please everyone.
As for the whole beer and wine thing, I know that you can order wine, beer or cider with a meal if you are with a parent, but since I am an adult and I don't have children it doesn't affect me so I didn't remember that.
justlovereadin
The goblet and Harry are all that is left of the Horcruxes by this point in the story.
LuluViBritania
I cover that in this chapter.
skelly4128
I am aware I've used it before. I just like that spell because it reminds me of the Somebody Else's Problem Field in Hitchhikers Guide the Galaxy. To me, it's very British.
Tactical-Magician
The worlds he can visit are on the CYOA so unless its gets added he won't be going there.
Gforce1000's Rule 34 Economy CYOA V 1.0
World 1 - Harry Potter
Part 10
Twycross Manor. Wizarding World.
Ravenclaw's Diadem, also known by the more fancy title of The Lost Diadem of Ravenclaw, was the only known relic to once belonging to Rowena Ravenclaw, the founder of Ravenclaw House at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Etched upon its surface was Ravenclaw's famous quote: "Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure" or at least this had been so. It was said to have enhanced the wisdom of its wearer, which is Ravenclaw House's most treasured attribute as well its founder's.
The treasured diadem was later stolen by her daughter, Helena Ravenclaw, a fact that Rowena kept a secret from the other founders until her death bed, at least according to the stories. Centuries later, Tom Marvolo Riddle managed to charm the story out of Helena's spirit, now known as the Grey Lady, the ghost of the Ravenclaw house. Upon learning of the diadem's location, Riddle travelled to the Albanian forest shortly after he left school and acquired the diadem. He transformed it into his fifth Horcrux by killing someone and later chose to return it to the very place it had originated from when applying for a job at Hogwarts.
Tom Riddle was arrogant enough to believe that he alone had penetrated Hogwarts' most mysterious secrets, and thus he believed that only he had discovered how to gain entry to the Room of Requirement, where he intended to hide the diadem. Tom Riddle chose to hide the diadem in this room the night he returned to the castle when applying for the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor. Unlike the other Horcruxes, Riddle did not put up heavy magical protections for the diadem, due to his lack of time to do so, along with his arrogance concerning The Room of Requirement.
That just made it easier for Raven and I to get at it before destroying the artefact as we had our way own to get in and out of the castle. There had been some debate between us on the issue of destroying the relic of Ravenclaw because it might somehow be tied to the curse on the Defence job and Voldemort might wonder about his Horcrux at the school if Sirus Black kept his job. However, there was no proof of any real link between the object and curse. Besides, it would a full school year before the curse would come into effect and that gave us plenty of time to prepare if Voldemort did come to check.
What remained of the Horcruxes after a good fang stabbing had been destroyed by Raven with magical fire just to be on the safe side, aside from the stone Deathly Hallow as that was all mine. I wasn't going to wear it around Dumbledore, or at all if I could help it, rather it was going to stay safe in one of my pouches. If ever used I would only do so when summoning the spirits of people had no attachment to and I'd have someone with me.
I very much doubted that I'd ever get my hands on the other two Deathly Hallows, as the Cloak of Invisibility was passed on down a family line that led to Harry Potter and you had to win the wand which would involve attacking Dumbledore, at least if the lore was correct, but it wasn't impossible so I wouldn't destroy the stone or drop it into the deepest ocean even if that seemed to be the smartest thing to do.
"So how are we going to get at the cup?" I asked.
We couldn't simply storm the bank because even Raven would be quickly overwhelmed by the sheer number of goblins even if they didn't have any special magical defences beyond dragons. We couldn't do it the way it was done in the Deathly Hallows book as we didn't have any hair from Bellatrix Lestrange or the aid of a goblin.
"I'm not sure," admitted Raven "Do you have any ideas?. You seem to know the canon and the fanon fairly well".
This universe was semi-based on some fanfiction I'd read, but not totally, it was a bit confusing, but at least it helped to keep things interesting for me. Also, it meant that some fanon spells existed, such as the Notice Me Not Charm.
"Well, one of the tricks in the fanfics is to inform the goblins about the Horcrux that is hidden in the Lestrange vault and get them to destroy it," I said, "For some reason, the goblins are experts at dealing with Horcrux despite them being a wizard invention known about by a handful of wand wavers. Something to do with them turning up in ancient Egyptian tombs that the goblins like to plunder for treasure".
Raven raised an eyebrow.
"Horcruxes were invented by Herpo the Foul in Ancient Greece, not Ancient Egypt," she said.
Herpo the Foul was an Ancient Greek Dark Wizard, infamous for being a pioneer in the field of the Dark Arts, becoming the first known wizard to create the Basilisk, in addition to the first known Horcrux. He was also a Parselmouth, and part of the reason why so many Wizards think that being a Parselmouth makes you evil.
"I don't think Horcruxs actually work," said Raven "If they did then lots of dark wizards and witches from history would have them since they seem to have been somewhat common knowledge in the past. I can't be sure but if Tom Riddle found out about them enough to make one before he even left Hogwarts then others could do it too. I suspect in more recent times Dumbledore made an effort to cover up knowledge of them".
Something about what she'd just spoken about struck me as odd.
"What do you mean they don't work?" was my latest question.
Voldemort's existence in this world, as meagre as it is, suggested that they did work.
"I mean where is Herpo the Foul?" she asked back "If Horcruxes make you immortal then why doesn't Herpo rule the wizarding world?".
Thinking on it I realised that I had no idea. I could only guess.
"Someone destroyed it or he ended regretting what he did," I said, "Remorse is supposed to undo a Horcrux isn't it?".
I gave this some thought.
"We could always ask him," I said.
Raven didn't know what I meant.
"Ask who?" she asked.
I padded the pouch that contained the box which in turn contained the Deathly Hallow.
"Herpo the Foul," I said, "We can call upon any spirit we like, so if he's really dead then we can summon up his spirit and ask him all about Horcruxes".
I didn't need empathic powers to sense Raven's growing excitement.
"Before we try that give me some time to some research about spirits and how to contain them!" said my sexy consort as she raced off "Because if this stone works then we can win this level of the CYOA easily!".
It took me a few moments to figure out what she meant by that. She was thinking that we could summon Voldemort's spirit and contain it. To win this part of the CYOA we only had to ensure that Death Eaters failed and the good guys won, and that would be a lot easier if the Dark Lord Voldemort was contained. Potter would have to do something, but there was no reason why we still had to be around for that now the rules of the CYOA had changed.
"Don't forget we're supposed to go on holiday soon!" I called out.
I figured that while she had her nose in some more books that I would go and arrange a portkey to France.
(Line Break)
Paris. The Muggle World.
Hermione Granger had been expecting to see many things while visiting this city, such as the landmarks, the Eiffel Tower and the 12th-century, Gothic Notre-Dame cathedral, as well as some other wonderful sights. What she didn't expect to see was anyone she knew, so it came as a bit of surprise when she saw a certain friend from school, someone who she'd sort of enslaved herself to after getting a look at a future she most certainly didn't want.
That horrible nightmare future that would result in her being married to an insensitive red-headed prick had to be avoided, but it wasn't the only reason why Hermione had been willing to sign a binding contract. She'd not changed her body in any way that people had noticed, but she made some minor improvements. Her main motivation was to escape the Wizarding World, which was so bigoted towards Muggleborns, and to see other worlds, learning their magic could allow her to become a very powerful witch.
"James!" she called out.
The young man turned around and faced his friend, then he was forced to step back as Hermione flung herself towards him with a ferocity that was unexpected even by her. He'd not anticipated any sort of physical contact, and as such was greatly surprised when a bushy-haired 18-year-old girl, a woman really, rammed into him before hugging the young wizard.
"Oh, it's good to see you!" Hermione stated as she hugged her sort-of boyfriend once more "What are you doing here? You didn't tell me you were going anywhere on holiday?".
There were levels of trust, so as of yet James hadn't told Hermione all that was involved with the CYOA such as his plans. Partly that was her own fault as she'd become distracted with schoolwork towards the end of the year, and then there had been that whole business with a certain stone which while stressful for her had gone more or less as they'd expected.
"I'm just sightseeing," James replied, "What are you doing here, Hermione?".
Hermione wondered why he didn't that Rachel girl with him, but she wasn't going to ask about her, later she'd discover that her rival, in exams results if nothing else, was busy with a project.
"Oh, we come to the continent every summer" Hermione explained, "I wasn't sure that I told you this, there was a lot going on at the time".
Like many members of the female gender the witch could talk endlessly it seemed, without needing to take in any oxygen it seemed, and so from this point on James was bombarded with questions, while never getting a chance to answer any of them. Luckily for him, Hermione's parents stepped in, forcing their daughter to stop her relentless verbal attack and to introduce her friend.
"We finally meet the infamous James," said Mrs Granger.
The whole family insisted that the young wizard join them for lunch and finally he gave in. Hermione immediately became attached to her friend's side, beaming with happiness at the unexpected but welcome appearance of who her parents thought to be something more than their daughter's school chum.
"I tried to introduce you earlier to my parents at King's cross, but you weren't on the train," Hermione said. "Where did you go?".
There was a simple explanation for this.
"You don't have to actually take the train it's just a tradition" James explained, "I took the floo from the Three Broomsticks and went directly home".
Hermione nodded at this, accepting the explanation as she felt sure he'd mentioned it before around about the time of the exams when her mind had been elsewhere.
"It's such a wonderful coincidence that we would meet here isn't it James?" Hermione asked.
Yes, the chances of them meeting were rather low. Although not as low as someone might think since James had chosen to come to this city since he knew that Hermione would be here, he'd just not been sure they'd encounter each other.
"So where are you staying?" Mr Granger enquired.
If not for the fact that his daughter was so socially awkward he might not approve of this young man spending time with his only child, actually, he didn't much approve since he was a father, but he didn't express any of that as he knew his wife would not approve of him trying to intimidate the young man who seemed to be their daughters only real friend.
"I'm staying at a nice place over in Montmartre, that's the wizarding district located here in Paris" he answered, "to find it you need to enter the Place Cachée. It can be accessed through a bewitched Bronze Statue that only magical people can see moving. It's basically the Parisian version of Diagon Alley".
Hermione found the idea of visiting Place Cachée to be a very good one. James was less sure
"We don't even know if Muggles can get inside," the young wizard said, "But I guess we can find out and have lunch there".
(Line Break)
Place Cachée. Paris.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that non-magical humans could make use of the entry as long as they were in the company of a magic-user. Mr and Mrs Granger needed to have the statue pointed out to them before they could see it moving, and even then they had trouble focusing on it as they kept thinking that they needed to go elsewhere for some reason, but they got in once Hermione took them both by the arm and led them. Which made some sense as if Muggles relatives of Hogwarts students could visit Diagon Alley, as Hermione's parents might do this year, there had to be an easy way for them to do that.
"That is the Griffon Buveur," I told the Granger family as we walked around "It's much like the Leaky Cauldron".
We'd head there for lunch once I'd given everyone a quick tour or maybe the Cafe Abringer, it was more expensive, but I could afford it and while Hermione wasn't really my girlfriend it wouldn't hurt to show off to her parents a little.
"Over there is Dr Aziz Branchiflore, a wizarding apothecary that specialises in the highest-quality potion ingredients at reasonable prices," I said, "Although I've never seen a business that didn't claim to have the best products at the most reasonable of prices".
Mr Granger found that amusing.
"Next up we have the Cosme Acajor" I was now saying "A wand shop, which has wands made from elm, elderberry, vine and ivy".
I'd studied some wandlore so I knew about the different wandmakers in Europe, and that they tended to favour certain materials. Ollivander is known for his great knowledge of wand cores while the owner of Cosme Acajor had a flair for picking the best wand woods. I was sure that each of the wandmakers would state that their products were the best.
"Gaston McAaron sells brooms and accessories," I said next "Oh and Rammelle's Enchantée is a sweet shop. Monsieur Sanfin Chaudrons sells cauldrons. Also we have Cafe Abringer and The Hotel De Ginestou which is where I am staying".
They didn't need any of that explaining.
"And here is Animalerie, a wizarding pet shop" I informed the Grangers "Interestingly they have ravens which can deliver letters as owls do in Britain, like in Game of Thrones".
I regretted saying that last part right away.
"Game of Thrones?" asked Hermione.
I decided to ignore that question. Best to discuss what other worlds we'd visit once Hermoine had gotten more used to being a member of a harem.
"Last of all we have Maison Capenoir," I said, "It's a clothing store".
Hopefully, the Grangers would keep their mouths shut about that and we could all just go and have some lunch. I loathed clothes shopping unless it involved cool stuff made from dragonhide.
(Line Break)
Cokesworth. Muggle Britain.
Raven Aka Racheal Roth was very happy about getting to explore a whole new world, but there were days when her explorations led her to places that were less than glamourous. Raven took in the new sights, sounds and even smells of this city. It wasn't a pleasant place by the standards of Muggles who lived in this country, however, it could be much worse, and it wasn't as if they were going to have to stay here for very long.
The motorbike she was riding on, which was an experience she was enjoying, mostly due to the vibrations, came to a stop in a street that didn't look any different from those around it. Yet it was the right place because the bewitched bike seemed to know where the people sitting on it wanted to go. Something that their soon to be Professor of Defence Against the Dark Art Sirius Black had mentioned and that they had discovered for themselves and Raven figured that it had something to do with how the wand-waving magic users of this world could ride brooms.
"So this is Spinner's End," James said to her "The childhood home of one Severus Snape".
The Spinner part of the street name made the former Teen Titan wonder if the people living here were or had been heavily involved in cotton or wool spinning back in the past. James did mention something about the town of Cokesworth suffering due to post-industrial decline, but this was neither the time nor the place to discuss such things. Raven enjoyed the chats she had with her lover, which had been on a great range of subjects, she also loved the friends she'd left behind, only they'd never had much in the way of shared interests outside of their crime-fighting work.
Raven soon began to notice that this place seemed oddly silent, even for a Sunday afternoon, which was something James had also commented on about, and it wasn't a nice sort of peaceful quiet, it was more as if these streets, which should have a few people on them, had become devoid of life. Yet there were people around, already some light was spilling out of the houses where there were gaps in the curtains. It seemed as if the people of Cokesworth didn't want to acknowledge the world outside their homes if they could avoid doing so. Had Snape done something to his neighbours to ensure some quiet?.
"Keep your helmet on" her lover ordered, "At least until we're inside".
The Muggles shouldn't notice the bike or pay attention to anything to do with Snape's house as like other magical homes it was meant to remain hidden from the non-magical humans, but they couldn't be sure how far from the house this effect extended and somewhat like Dumbledore might check the minds of people in the area when he began to look into the disappearance of his Death Eater spy. The bike was hidden from view and if any muggles did see anything they would just see two figures in dark clothing who wore helmets.
"I wonder if we are near the childhood home of the Evans family" James was now saying "Where Petunia Dursley and Lily Potter grew up".
Rather than discuss this the two people from different dimensions moved closer to the House.
"I'm only picking up some Muggle repelling wards and basic defences" reported Raven "This place isn't wared by anything I can't overwhelm in seconds".
James wasn't surprised by this news.
"Snape's home is Hogwarts," he said, "This is just somewhere he goes when not staying at the castle. He doesn't care enough about it to protect it".
Using her powers Raven blasted the front door off its hinges, going for shock and awe. Once the door was open the two of them stepped directly into a tiny sitting room, which felt smaller than it actually was, as there was a sense of darkness here, well more of a gloominess really. The walls were completely covered shelves containing books, most of them bound in old black or brown leather. A threadbare sofa, an old armchair and a rickety table were about all there was in the place. Aside from the gloom, the place had an air of neglect, as though it was not usually inhabited, which made sense if he didn't really care about this place.
"Aldruon Enlenthranel Vosolen Lirus-nor!"
A curse more ancient than Malchior himself that had once been used by Rorek to entrap the evil dragon into his enchanted book was used once again used to trap Severus Snape inside another enchanted book. Even Raven would have some trouble freeing the Death Eater from this tome, and while he would get out one day, evil beings always did, it might happen thousands of year from now, so at least he not be bothering any Hogwarts students for a good long while.
"Okay let's ransack the place" James was now saying "You sort out the books, while I look for magical items and any treasure he might have. The guy must have spent his pay on something".
They had to move fast in case any alarms had been triggered, but if they had then no one came rushing to help the Potion's Master. Which was to be expected as he was unlikely to be on good terms with the Ministry and Dumbledore was not at the school they knew much. Hopefully, he was out of the country and wouldn't know about this abduction for a while.
Raven took some tiny trunks out of a pocket of her dragonhide jacket and then made them large enough to contain all the books they were stealing, before making them small enough to carry. The trunks were non-magical so she had to apply a featherweight charm on them to make them light enough to carry.
"I didn't find any gold or anything else worth taking," James told her as they moved to leave "and we can't stick around to search the place fully".
Best to leave rather be caught because they got greedy.
"Morsmordre!"
On the way out James fired off a spell using Snape's wand which hadn't been sucked into the book, and Raven knew that he did so thinking that it might confuse any investigation by making people think this was a Death Eater hit. It was somewhat public knowledge that Snape had turned spy and therefore betrayed his fellow Death Eaters. The Ministry might believe that Snape had been killed for his betrayal despite all the time which had passed. Dumbledore might think otherwise, but he was unlikely to suspect that a couple of students with only one year worth of education at his school would behind Snape going missing.
(Line Break)
Twycross Manor. Wizarding World.
Raven led me down into the candlelit wine cellar and then after moving a bottle she exposed to me the act that there was a part of the manor that I had never been in before. I didn't know what it had once been used for, and I might be better off not knowing, but I did know that Raven had been down here before so as to turn it into a space suitable for some advanced magic. Neither of us understood exactly what the Ministry of Magic could and couldn't detect, so Raven had warded this room so that nothing would leak out.
"This is where we will use the Hallow to summon up spirits," said my chief consort, "I think we should start with Binns, but getting rid of two professors in one summer greatly increases the chance of someone figuring out that it was us".
It might seem unlikely given how careful we were being, however another thing that neither of us knew where the exact limits of magic that could be used in an investigation. Plus we had to take into account that Dumbledore had the Eldar Wand so certain limits of wand magic might not even apply to him. Besides, we were here to learn magic and defeat the Death Eaters not to fix things at Hogwarts, and we could use the time spent by other students in history class to study what we wanted to study. If we were still around next summer we could discuss banishing Binns then.
"So who are we going to summon?" I asked.
Raven lit some candles with just the tips of her fingers before answering me.
"Quirinus Quirrell," she said to me.
I knew that before he began teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts, Quirrell went out in search of Voldemort, believing he could achieve recognition for finding him and could learn things that would ensure that no one laughed at him again. However, Voldemort, after finding out that he taught at Hogwarts, took over his body, though I'm sure Quirrell put up some feeble resistance. He died in vain while trying to murder Harry Potter at Hogwarts, but not many people actually knew this for sure, for them it was just one of many rumours. I didn't even know if that was what happened in this timeline as I'd been busy with Raven in the Chamber of Secrets.
What I did know for sure was that Quirrell spent his last year of life attempting to procure the Philosopher's Stone for Voldemort, and this included somehow breaking into Gringotts. Since no one knew how he'd done it we should be able to make use of that method. We might need to modify it, but at least we know about the dangers within the Lestrange vault.
"Okay let's make this quick" I decided "I promised Hermione that I'd visit her today and take her out for the afternoon".
The Muggleborn didn't socially interact much so I was going to take her a date of sorts. Raven, who no fan of her fellow bookworm, clearly didn't approve of my plan for the day, but she didn't say anything on the matter as we'd already gone over my reasoning for recruiting Miss Granger as one my consorts more than once.
"Summoning Quirrell should be much safer than summoning Herpo the Foul or Voldemort" Raven assured me "the summoning circle will contain the spirit so place the stone in the circle before you spin it three times and call out the name. Spirits don't belong in this plane of existence so it should answer a few questions in exchange for us sending it away and we can hold them here until they agree to cooperate, or I can trap them in another book".
While I was an average wizard in terms of power most wizards can do a bit of wandless magic such as moving things without touching them. I wasn't very good at this when compared to others but moving a small stone didn't much power. Once I'd done that I called out for Quirrell, using his full name and his spirit soon appeared.
(Line Break)
Park. Muggle Britain.
It was pleasant to sit in the park and eat chips while people passed by. It was actually a sunny day, this was one of those fair British summers that actually seemed like summer, so much so that there was a hosepipe ban. Which I learned about from Hermione as her father liked to grumble about such things. Compared to the problems other groups of people had with water, such as the lack of it and diseases, not being about to water your garden didn't seem like a bit deal to me.
Doing stuff like this wasn't what I'd imagined for myself when setting up the CYOA, and while it wasn't thrilling there were good reasons for taking my time and doing things the smart way when it came to dealing with bad guys. I had so much to learn about magic and despite its flaws, this world did have a lot to offer. I wasn't eager to leave yet even if Raven was working on a method of ensuring a quick victory over Voldemort.
"So what shall we talk about?" Miss Granger asked.
Since this version of the aforementioned muggle-born witch happened to look just like Emma Watson, only with frizzier hair, I'd been willing to recruit her. In fact, her intelligence and skill with spell casting, as limited as they were when compared to my chief consort, had made her a tempting companion to recruit. Her being a beautiful woman was just icing on the cake.
"Umm well," I said as I struggled to think of a topic of conversation "let's start with... tell me about you, Hermione".
The Muggleborn witch gave me a small frown.
"Me? You already know all about me" she stated.
I shook my head in disagreement.
"Actually I don't really" I admitted.
This was true. I knew a version of her, and what the version of her would do in the future, however, I understood very little about her as a person. I needed to know her better if I was going to make use of her in the future as part of the CYOA.
"You would really like to know about me?" she asked.
Well, I wouldn't have mentioned it otherwise.
"Go on tell me all about the young woman known to the world as Hermione Granger" I requested "Who is she, where did she come from. What do you want out of life?".
Hermione smiled and looked very eager to begin, so she soon started to talk. And of course, she ended up talking about her love of books.
"They were my escape route" Hermione confessed to me "I could just read and I sort of forget about my life while reading".
She was beginning to look sad.
"I never had any friends when I was younger" she admitted, somewhat tentatively "I mean there was this one girl, we were sort of friends for a while but then she moved away and we lost touch".
Keeping in touch with physically distance friends was easy enough with social media, however, that didn't exist yet.
"The other kids used to bully me," Hermione said, "All the children in my class at primary school and my High School, none of them liked me. I was always the girl picked last for everything".
Since I'd been bullied by other kids I knew how she felt.
"I had no one to talk to, I just hated it," she told me "I wanted more than anything to be friends with someone!"
She burst into tears, and I had to comfort her. This had happened before, hopefully, I wasn't going to turn into just a shoulder to cry on. Not that there was much risk of me ending up the friendzone since we'd already fucked and I could just order her to do stuff.
"I used to cry myself to sleep some nights; I felt that unhappy" she informed me "I've never told anyone that, not even my parents. I just buried myself in my books and reading, I didn't care that the other kids called me the bookworm or whatever, as long as I had my books and of course my parents".
She then managed to smile.
"At least all changed when I got to Hogwarts, I always knew there was something different about me, compared to all the other people I grew up with. I was so excited when I realised I was going to be learning about magic and getting to perform magical spells" she let me know "I thought that once I had got there that things would be different, that I would make friends straight away. Got that slightly wrong".
I fed her a chip and realised that I already had this girl eating out my hand, more or less. Some people were so easy to control at least for a time.
"We need to decide when we're going to Diagon Alley to get our school stuff" I reminded her, wanting to change the subject "I assume you've read ahead as much as possible".
This brought us back to the safe conversation of books, a topic that should not lead to any tears.