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Mugen-Muse
The MC has to be careful while undermining Dumbledore as he can't be seen as a real threat, but he's going to make more moves against the Headmaster.
frankieu
I don't think Harry would as he's smart enough to keep his head down over the summer.
Crossworld 1 - Harry Potter
Part 30
Little Whinging. Surrey.
"They just came into my home uninvited and took the boy away!" shouted a rather upset looking Mrs Dursley.
I'd returned Harry to Privet Drive last night without any fuss and then this morning I'd dropped by the Longbottom home as Tom Hiddleston to enquire if the Longbottoms would mind a visit from John Hiddenston and Harry Potter this afternoon so that they could celebrate Neville's recent birthday. I'd have sent an owl if there had been enough time, not that the Longbottom family seemed to mind, if anything Neville's mother had looked eager for her son to have some friends over for a few hours.
Having been rather socially awkward myself in my last life and thus not having many friends when growing up. I'd imagined that Neville would have been pleasantly surprised to have two friends come to visit unexpectedly and I'd even gotten the lad two birthday presents since I'd known that Harry wouldn't have the chance to go shopping for one. Given Nevile's interest in magical plants, he wasn't exactly hard to shop for.
My plan to help Neville and Harry to become better friends, as they both deserved to have good pals, came to an end when I found out that members of the Weasly clan had come by to take Harry to the Burrow. Potter hadn't protested because even going away with strangers was better than staying with his relatives. This was why he'd gone off with Hagrid when they'd properly met about a year ago despite Hagrid being a stranger and an odd one at that.
"They were all redheads?" I questioned.
She'd mentioned this already I just needed to be sure as the Weasley family served the Bright Lord Dumbledore. Recently I'd started to compare the Headmaster to Celebrimbor from the Shadow of Mordor games and that would make Voldemort somewhat like Sauron. On the surface Dumbledore seemed to be a nice guy who would offer support and wisdom to those in need when in reality he was no better than the Dark Lord, they both wanted to rule. Dumbledore was just more subtle about it and had already obtained a great amount of power.
"Yes there was a man and three boys, two of the boys were twins," she told me "They made fun of my Dudley".
That would be Arthur Weasley who'd recently sorted out my bike for me, George and Fred, who were in Harry's house at school, and most likely Ron who Dumbledore would want Harry to befriend even if they weren't going to school together. The Headmaster might even try to get Ron into the lion's den despite him having been sorted into the snake pit by my controlling of the Sorting Hat at the beginning of the last school year. Rules meant little to the Bright Lord.
Thinking about all of this made me smile on the inside. I was far too self-controlled to let my feelings show externally.
"This is very serious" I stated "Kidnapping is a crime".
Mrs Dursley, who normally looked at me as if I was some sort of mess made by a stray dog, now seemed pleased to have me here.
"Exactly!" she yelled "At least you asked permission, those.. people didn't even bother to talk to me, they just told the boy he was leaving with them and then took him. I couldn't have stopped them. They have unnatural powers they can use on me".
Predicatable as ever Dumbledore. The old man just couldn't stand having his plans messed with so he was doing his best to get things back on course. I couldn't have that. I had my own plans. I was the grey between Dumbledore's light and Voldemort's darkness. Too much dark was no different than having too much light, both blinded you.
"Quite right Mrs Dursley," I said, "They might have used their powers on you if you had tried to stop them. Maybe you did and you just don't remember".
Now that got her scared and if I handled this right I might get her somewhat on my side. That might aid in the future should I decide to spend more time with Harry during the summer holidays.
"This sort of behaviour is against the law," I told the housewife "My people are forbidden from using our talents to interfere with the lives of normal people. The redheads you mentioned certainly can't just come into your home and take your nephew. I'll go talk to my cousin and he'll go to the DMLE to report this crime. I promise that the kidnappers will be punished. I'll try to get him to spend the rest of the summer at my house since I'm sure you don't want any more of my people coming here".
That seemed to make the women calmer about the whole thing and I smiled to myself as I headed out the door. Oh, this was going to be so much fun. I really loved screwing with Dumbledore. Besides, Loki would like it if I stirred the pot some more and created a little chaos.
(Line Break)
Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The Ministry of Magic.
I felt sure that Amelia Bones, the witch who led the Department of Magical Law Enforcement hated days like this, when pampered purebloods, one of which I appeared to be, came to her to whine about something, so I did my best to get to the point.
"What can I do for you, Mr Hiddleston," said the annoyed sounding witch "I'm a very busy woman".
I was about to make her day so much worse.
"Harry Potter was kidnapped today" I stated.
Now that got her attention. The witch with the monocle hadn't even been looking at me until I'd spoken.
"Say that again" she demanded.
I knew that I had to choose my words with care. Lucky for me I'd had a chance to rehearse this while on the way here and during the time I'd been made to wait to see her.
"Around about lunchtime today my cousin, John Hiddleston went to the home of Petunia and Vernon Dursley, his muggle aunt and uncle that the Boy-Who-Lives stays with when not at school. John went to visit Harry Potter as he has done before, to get permission from Petunia Dursley to take young Harry to a friend's house. I made the arrangements earlier with Mrs Longbottom whose son had a birthday recently. The boys were to spend a few hours together today".
That was all fine and dandy as well as none of the DMLE's business so I got to the part that did concern her.
"I dropped John off just outside Harry Potter's home in the Muggle world. They were to get the Knight Bus to the Longbottom home and return the same way" I mentioned "But to my surprise, my cousin returned home much earlier than expected. He told me that four red-headed wizards, including a pair of twins who I suspect, are sons of Arthur Weasley, came to Harry's home and took him away. Potter's aunt doesn't recall them using force, but they could have erased her memory. Harry doesn't know the Weasley family according to my cousin yet Mrs Dursley says that he went with them willing. I'm worried that they might have used magic to convince him to go with them".
Most likely Harry had just decided to go because he really didn't like his relatives. The lad had a habit of simply going along with what other people wanted. This did sometimes make things easier for me and at others times it would make for trouble.
"So you think Arthur Weasley has kidnapped the Boy-Who-Lived," said Madam Bones "That sounds ridiculous. Arthur is harmless".
On his own, I would agree, but he was just a puppet for another
"Assuming that even was Arthur Weasley," I said, "They could have been people under the effects of polyjuice potion or maybe Arthur has fallen victim to the Imperius Curse".
The witch sat back in her chair and sighed.
"Well we can at least check," she said.
Soon the leader of law enforcement went over to her fireplace, lit it with a wave of her wand, and then threw some floo powder into the flames.
"The Burrow" she called out.
She spent some time talking to someone with her head in the fireplace. This seemed odd as her back was now turned to me I could have attacked her easily. Thinking on it I began to wonder if we were being watched or if Bones just thought that no one who attacked her in this office would be able to escape afterwards. perhaps the office was alarmed in some way. I didn't wish to find out.
"According to Molly they invited Harry to spend the rest of the holiday at the Burrow and he agreed to go with them" I was told.
This didn't settle the manner.
"Harry's legal guardian didn't give permission" I reminded the witch "Or does that not matter since she's only a muggle?".
Amelia Bones did not look happy.
"I'll have someone go over and get a statement from Mrs Dursley" she promised.
This had been a waste of time. I'd need to turn to other sources for help against Dumbledore.
"And nothing will come of it," I said as I got up from my seat "Good day Madam".
I would have to go to the court of public opinion on this one. Thankfully I happened to know someone who ran their own magazine.
A shame. I'd heard that Amelia Bones was tough yet fair. It seemed that she was just another bigoted pureblood who didn't care about the rights of Muggles. Not that I did unless it suited my plans, but I was still disappointed in her.
(Line Break)
Hiddleston Residence. Godric's Hollow.
I had many things to be getting on with over the summer such as experiments with different kinds of magic, my studies were not limited to what it was possible to do with a wave of a wand. Sure I took breaks and I even had plans to get some duelling practice before I went back to Hogwarts, but I was busy so I didn't wish to be bothered by anyone.
As such when an irate looking Sirius Black turned up at my door and started waving an issue of the Quibbler at me I was rather annoyed.
"Why did you do this?" he asked.
I assumed that he was referring to the article that I'd ended up writing for the Quibbler as Tom Hiddleston, the one that mentioned my concern over the kidnapping of Harry Potter. Mostly I'd written it on the off-chance that it made Dumbledore look bad and because I'd been annoyed at Amelia Bones. I owned the publishing company and the Lovegoods were happy to have such an interesting story in their paper.
"Because the friend of my cousin was taken from his home by people his guardians didn't know and without their permission" I answered "Then when I went to the DMLE the head of that department acted as if the kidnapping of a 12-year-old boy didn't matter".
I let the former convict into my home since we didn't want to be talking about this with the door open in case a passing muggle heard us.
"He wasn't abducted" Sirius explained.
I didn't agree.
"Did you give permission to the Weasly family to remove Harry from his aunt's home?" I asked.
The man let me know that he hadn't.
"Petunia Dursley is Harry's legal guardian and since she didn't give permission for her nephew to leave he was abducted even if he didn't resist" I explained to the wizard.
Hagrid also kidnapped young Mr Potter when he took him to Diagon Alley since the Dursley made it quite clear that they didn't want their nephew going to Hogwarts, however, since I liked Hagrid I was never going to bring that up. The half-giant would get all the blame if I made a fuss about that and he was too blinded by his loyalty to Dumbledore to question his orders. This was why it was Hagrid who took Harry to Privet Drive in the first place rather than Dumbledore doing it himself, as that was also kidnapping since Sirus Black had been Harry's legal guardian from the moment Lily and James Potter had died.
"When John told me about this I did what any good citizen would do and informed the authorities," I said "Only they didn't seem to care so I decided to alert the public in case Harry was in danger".
Black still looked annoyed.
"He was staying with friends from school," he told me.
That was a lie.
"John has spent many hours tutoring Harry to help with his exams" I informed the dog animagus "And he assures me that aside from himself the only student that Harry spends much time with is Neville Longbottom".
Young Mr Potter wasn't close with Hermione Granger in this timeline because they'd never bonded after the Troll incident.
"I'd made arrangements for Harry and John to go visit Neville" I was now saying "John was at Privet Drive to get permission to take Harry out as he has done before. When John got there Mrs Dursely was very upset about strangers entering her home and taking her nephew away. But the head of the DMLE doesn't care that. None of you Purebloods ever see anyone other than each other as real people".
Black didn't like hearing that.
"That's not true" he firmly stated "Harry is a half-blood and I care about him".
Of course, he did, but he didn't act as if he did and I could use that.
"Then why is Harry stuck with Muggles he doesn't like rather than living with you?" I questioned.
Sirus sighed and took a seat.
"Dumbledore..." he began to say.
I cut him off.
"Dumbledore is a school teacher, one who hasn't taught a class in decades," I said, "What does he know about raising children? He's never been a parent. You're Harry's godfather, the responsibility is yours not that of the Headmaster who arranges kidnappings. What would Harry's parents have to say about this?".
For a moment I thought Sirius might break down. Only he suddenly shot up and I wondered if he was going to try to hit me. Thankfully he didn't, and this was good as I really didn't want to have to hurt this man. He'd been through enough suffering already. I didn't like upsetting him, but he needed to be bullied a little into taking responsibility.
"James and Lily would be ashamed of me" he stated "I shouldn't be trying to blame someone else because I let Harry down".
People do have a habit of doing that.
"Excuse me I have a godson to go find," he said as he left my house.
I seemed to have lit a fire under the man. Good for me, and for my plans.
(Line Break)
Duelling Grounds. Wizarding World.
Since the magical humans of this country lacked television they had to find their entertainment elsewhere and these diversions tended to draw in large crowds whenever wizards got together they couldn't help showing off hence why the wizards who worked security here had already broken up several unauthorised duels. I'd already heard that someone had started celebrating by building a bonfire that nearly got out of control.
Then there were tents. Some of them would have blended in quite nicely in the muggle world, while others were clearly magical creations. I'd seen one with a freaking windmill attached like that kind you found on miniature golf courses. I noted that the Malfoys were here and their tent if it could be called that, had some peacocks hanging about the entrance.
Due to me being one of the competitors I hadn't needed to set up a tent near the duelling arena and then queue up before finally getting a seat I got to arrive in my own time. I was the defending champion so I didn't even need to take part in qualifying matches as I had done last year. My job here was to take down anyone who wanted to take my trophy from me.
Having to return the trophy was annoying as wizard contests could be very illogical in how they handled matters. I only got to keep the trophy for a year and since I had to give it back then I'd not really won it rather it had simply been loaned to me.
At least I didn't have to give back the money and I'd get another cash prize if I successfully defended my championship. Not that I needed the gold either, even if a little more pocket change would be nice because after this event I was going to claim a lost treasure that I'd been tracking down by talking to centuries-old spirits and going over a lot of maps. I'd even found spells meant to help with treasure hunting.
I had no one to cheer for me in the audience stands as while Tom Hiddleston would be seen escorting me home later he would just be an illusion and I'd not invited anyone. Although I did see a few familiar faces in the audience such as my Head of House and a few other students who attended Hogwarts. None of the students I knew and Flitwick's presence didn't surprise me since he used to be a duelling champion. He must still follow the sport.
Currently, I was standing on the stage used by the duellers. It was a bit of a catwalk, far longer than it was wide and if I got knocked off it then I'd also be taken out of the contest. Not that I needed to worry much about that as I was dealing with novices who didn't have much power. I knew this because I'd already knocked several wand wavers off the stage this afternoon with display displays of magic.
"Now for the final match of the Junior Division of the All-England Wizarding Duelling Competition!" declared the announcer "Defending Champion John Hiddleston will face off against challenger Draco Malfoy".
I'd watched the prat defeat several other duellists and he wasn't that bad truth be told. He knew spells that should be beyond a second-year Hogwarts student, and he had a very offensive style, he'd overwhelmed everyone he'd gone up against. I wouldn't be surprised if he or his father threatened or bribed some of them to let him win. Not that he'd tried this with me.
The count down began and before it ended Draco Malfoy fired off a spell.
"Densaugeo!"
The hex he'd just sent at me would have caused my teeth to elongate at an alarming rate if I hadn't shielded myself from it. I also knew that the Shrinking Charm can be used to counteract this spell, but it was best to never strike me.
"Protego!"
The spell bounced off my shield and struck the strong barrier than kept the audience safe from stray spells.
"That explains why you dropped out of Hogwarts," I said loud enough to be heard by the audience "You never learn to count".
Draco got angry and that was not a good idea in a duel.
"Serpensortia!" he yelled.
A rather dangerous looking snake appeared and I kept my mouth tightly shut as I didn't want to expose the fact that I could speak snakes as it was believed to be a sign of a dark wizard. Instead, I non-verbally cast a banishing charm at the creature and sent it flying towards Malfoy who panicked as most children would. He ran off the stage and that won me the match much sooner than expected.
"And the winner is defending champion John Hiddleston!" the announcer called out.
Well, that had been easy. A bit disappointing really.
(Line Break)
Gringotts Bank. Diagon Alley.
"If the Muggles knew that we had any of this they'd be screaming in outrage" commented the old goblin who was going over the treasure I'd brought in, weight coins and waving tools over jewels "Not that we'll be telling them".
As planned I'd recovered one of the lost treasures of this world, the original crown jewels of England that had last been seen in the possession of King John 'the Bad' who was particularly fond of treasure so much so that he'd taxed the nobility to the point that they rebelled and forced him to sign the Magna Carter.
Aside from his own desire for great wealth, he needed to pay off the soldiers who guarded him and he needed gold to use to bribe others to help keep him in power. Robin Hood was a real person in this universe, King John's spirit had confirmed it, and that outlaw had robbed the king several times before gifting the riches to the poor.
What was a matter of official record was that In 1216 King John travelled to Bishops Lynn in Norfolk, he arrived on the 9th of October. The area is aptly named The Wash as it was once a huge expanse of marshes and dangerous mudflats. While at Bishop's Lynn King John fell ill with dysentery and decided to return to Newark Castle via Wisbech. He took the slower and safer route around The Wash.
However, his soldiers and carts full of his personal possessions, including the crown jewels he had inherited from his grandmother the Empress of Germany, took the shorter route through the marshes. While there they were trapped by the tide and they were drowned somewhere close to Sutton Bridge. The treasure carts were lost and never recovered. King John died a few days later on the 18th of October.
What really happened is more complex. King John actually hide the treasure away in Bishop Lynn, his spirit had told me exactly where and why he had done that, and while the latter didn't concern me, it was a little interesting to learn that King John had hidden the treasure so as to deny it to those who wished to see him taken off the throne.
"To the Muggles, this would all be worth somewhere around 55,542,900 pounds" I was informed, "Not that you'd get anywhere near that amount if you had handed it in".
The current royal family would have claimed the collection and while I would have gotten a nice reward and quite a bit of fame for my find that would have been it. The treasure might hav even ended up in the Tower of London.
"How much of it can Gringotts convert into galleons?" I asked my account manager.
Even after factoring in the exchange rate and the Ministry taxes, there would still be far too much for the goblins to turn into currency. A lot of the treasure would have to be stored in my new vault which will be much larger and even more secure than the old one.
"I can't give you an exact sum yet," my account manager told me "but I can safely say that you are about to become one of our richest clients. Perhaps even in the top twenty".
This had my attention.
"Can you tell me how I stack up against the most wealthy of families?" I requested.
The goblin sneered at me, but that didn't really mean much given that they all sneer at everyone as far as I could tell. Even each other.
"I can't give you any precise details because of confidently," said the account manager "If you include properties, business investments and the contents of vaults there are about a dozen families whose assets could be measured in the hundreds of millions of Muggle pounds. We couldn't convert that kind of wealth into galleons because there wouldn't be enough coins in the bank".
Since I'd been in the Lestrange vault when I went to acquire Helga Hufflepuff's cup I knew that they had far more than just piles of coins in their vault. I'd been tempted to empty it, but I wanted to risk the goblins finding out that there had been a robbery and have them try to track the contents of the vault. Aside from that, the contents had been cursed making it unwise to mess with the Lestranges treasures.
"Your wealth is somewhere in the tens of millions of millions" I was told "Certainly above all but the oldest and most wealthy of families. The Blacks, the Malfoys and the Lestranges are among our most important clients and don't mind letting people know that".
They would have a lot of their wealth tied up in properties and land as well businesses. I only owned a single decent-sized house and I had no desire to live in a mansion because I was only one person. I'd have to bring in House Elves to maintain the property and House Elves could give away secrets by accident or one purpose if they were like Dobby. A smaller property was much easier to secure and I felt no need to show off my wealth to the masses.
I didn't need to be the richest wizard around I had more than enough for my plans and those wealthy families would soon be suffering losses as it was almost time for Kol to become active. I would need the diary first, but I had that well in hand.
"While I am here I'd like to talk to someone about acquiring some armour," I told my account manager.
The dwarven made chainmail was great but I would need more protection than that and I wanted my defences to come from a few different places so that no one would be able to easily trace them if they saw Kol in action.
(Line Break)
Diagon Alley. The Wizarding World.
Today could be the day, I'd been watching the magical map that I'd made to cover this area ever since Harry's birthday as I'd known that sooner or later Lucius Malfoy would attempt to plant the diary Horcrux on one of the students so as to derail some law that Arthur Weasly wanted to be enforced. I didn't care about the law as I broke them all the time, but Malfoy would and if possible he would try to plant the diary on one of the many Weasly children.
Malfoy knew the book was dangerous, he might even know that it would open the Chamber of Secrets, and he wouldn't care that this would endanger children. Perhaps he truly believed it would only harm muggle-borns as he used the diary even when his own son was attending the school. If so he was a total fool as the basilisk was directed by a different kind of monster who wouldn't have cared if Draco Malfoy got killed.
I'd checked the paper and it was August 19th 1992. If Lockhart had been around and not in a muggle mental hospital then I was fairly certain that this would have been the day he'd be doing a book signing. Which didn't seem like Lucius Malfoy's sort of thing so I assumed he'd chosen this day because there would be lots of people in the ally, or maybe his wife was a fan.
Harry, Hermione, and the Weasleys would have visited Flourish and Blotts to buy their school books. While there they would have discovered that Gilderoy Lockhart was signing copies of his new book, Magical Me. Lucius Malfoy and Arthur Weasley would have gotten into a fight, and Lucius would have used the meeting as a chance to sneak the Diary into Ginny's cauldron.
The Weasley tribe was not here and neither was Harry Potter so I didn't know why the two Malfoy males were here. Not that it mattered to me why they were here on this date I just needed to get the Horcrux that the older Malfoy would want to get rid of due to an increasing number of Ministry raids on the homes of suspected dark wizards.
I was hidden by a disillusionment charm and the shadows of Knockturn Ally, and that was a bit of a shame as I was in my full Kol outfit and one other than I would get to see it. I'd brought myself some nice dragon-hide boots that had buckles on the side, which I thought looked really cool, I wore my thestral-hide coat over a set of dwarven made chainmail, and I'd recently acquired a pair of goblin made bracers that I wore under the sleeves of my coat since I didn't want people to see them.
Lucius Malfoy had just left Borgan and Burkes with Draco in tow. I assumed he was showing his son how to handle business matters, and while it was tempting to stun Draco before grabbing his father that would unwise. Lucius Malfoy was a very important person and there would be a massive manhunt if he went missing. The Chamber should be secure, but I had a feeling that it wouldn't be a good idea to take Malfoy there and I knew to listen to these feelings.
Instead, I was going to use an illusion to trick the older Malfoy into giving me what I wanted. I created an illusion of a black-robed Voldemort appearing from some black mist.
"Stand aside" ordered the Death Eater.
The illusion pulled back its hood to show the snakey features of Lord Voldemort. He looked as he did after coming out of that cauldron in the Goblet of Fire movie. This was similar enough to how Lucius remembered Voldemort and this I knew because the Death Eater bowed before the illusion as did his son.
"My lord," said the older Malfoy "I did not know you had returned".
"It is not yet time for my return," said the illusion "I have come to you because long ago I left something in your care and the Ministry is hunting for dark artefacts. It is no longer safe".
Malfoy wisely didn't speak.
"This night you will take the object I left in your care to the home of Tom Hiddleston" the illusion instructed "Hand it over to him directly and then leave. Hiddleston will ensure that it is taken out of the country".
The older Malfoy didn't dare to disagree.
"I will do as you command, my lord" he promised.
The shorter the better for this meeting since I didn't know Voldemort well.
"Do not approach Tom Hiddleston again after tonight" the illusion ordered "Tell no one of this meeting. I will contact you when the time is right".
The illusion changed to some black smoke which soon vanished, and should all go well I would have the diary in my possession before I returned to Hogwarts. Soon only Harry Potter would be keeping Voldemort's spirit on this plane and I had another plan for dealing with that.
(Line Break)