Crossworlds 1 - Harry Potter

by gothicjedi666

The start of another series that I have planned out using a CYOA I found randomly online. It doesn't start off that well, as there's too much info-dumping, but it does get better so you might just want to skim them. I require a beta reader for some proofreading and to try to improve the chapters. Drop by my patron page for draft chapters. Waring some early chapters are info dumps.

1. Chapter 1

Author Note

I found this series online by accident while I wandering the net and I figured that it could be fun to do something that is similar to Jumpchain and hopefully I won't make a mess of it as I did with that series. You'll need to find the CYOA online and read it in order to understand what is happening because a lot happens very quickly.

As for the CYOA, I don't intend to visit all the worlds on it because I don't watch much anime and I'm thinking of turning the second world visited from a DC/Marvel mashup that doesn't last long into a story where the new MC and a friend join the Young Justice Team after attending Hogwarts.

I'll plan out what to do next once I actually start the second story as planning that far ahead always leads to me skipping to my next story before finishing the last one.

Feel free to ignore the setup as it is mostly for my own reference.

Crossworlds CYOA Set Up

Deity

Loki

Powers

Shapeshifting

Illusions

Burning Hands

(My plan is to appease Loki by using the powers he granted to play pranks on people so that he won't want to prank me)

Class

Red Mage

(I've never been a fighter and best not to specialise if your working alone)

Spells

Poison

Harry Potter World

School House

Ravenclaw

(Best to stay out of Gryffindor and Slytherin since I'm supposed to be hiding from a big bad that means being in the House of the main characters is a bad idea. As for the snake house I'm not a pureblood nor do I want to be Voldemort 2.0. I guess Hufflepuff would be okay, but I need to study hard and not get distracted by people trying to be all friendly. Plus a Ravenclaw you get two speciality classes)

Speciality Classes

Defence Against The Dark Arts

Mind Arts

(I need to learn to fight some evil bastard and to hide the fact that I'm not who I appear to be so these choices make sense)

Best Friend

Hermione Granger or Luna Lovegood

(She can be annoying however she is intelligent and she's a powerful witch. It will be easy to make her my friend when she arrives at Hogwarts since she has none until Halloween. Luna Lovegood might work better but she'd been two years below the MC and that could be a problem since she'd need to be 17 before moving on to the next world. I don't care enough about the other characters to hate or like them and I want the MC to have a romance with the person he's dragging to different universes for profit and adventure)

Artefact

Resurrection Stone

(I know where it is and there's no one dead or who I care about enough to be driven to kill myself so I should be able to call up the ghosts of dead wizards and witches for lessons. Maybe even restrain Voldemort's spirit and banish it to the afterlife. Not all prophecies have to come true and the one about Potter and Voldemort doesn't name anyone or even give you a time frame other than the chosen one being born at the end of the seventh month. It could refer to a future dark lord. Also the CYOA indicates that the stone does what it is supposed to do rather than creating illusions that convince you to kill yourself or something like that)

Inventory

Ornate Dagger - cuts through the fabric of reality

World Seed - must be protected

Hogwarts Letter

Personal Effects (food, clothes, toiletries, mobile phone, and laptop, some money)

Implanted AI (it takes on the appearance and mannerisms of Cortana from Halo)

Babel Fish (a translator)

Bottomless Backpack

Crossworlds 1 - Harry Potter

Part 1

The Leaky Cauldron. The Wizarding World.

It was understandable that I found this all a bit too much to deal with. One moment I'd just been heading for the shops to pick up some milk and the next thing I knew I was travelling the multiverse and I had no intention of ever looking back.

I'd been so eager to escape my old and boring life that I'd not stopped to think about leaving. Not that I should be mad at myself for leaving because it hadn't been totally selfish of me. I had to protect the world-seed from some big bad who wanted to endanger entire worlds, and I couldn't do that as the man I'd been.

So far it had been a wild ride, I'd gone home and grabbed a few things before heading to the Mall at the Crossworlds and getting a lot of stuff on credit, which I would have to pay back at some point if I wanted more help from that Bob fellow. Thankfully he accepted gold and they used that as money here and I had plans for making money.

Right now I was sitting in the wizard pub looking as if I was reading some paper while disguised as my adult self. I'd already gone to the bank to exchange some muggle money for the stuff the magical people used as I would need more than whatever charity it was that allowed orphans to go to Hogwarts as Tom Riddle had done.

If nothing else I'd need some bus fare when I headed to the nearest orphanage, so it helped that I'd not changed all of my muggle money in goblin made coins and I'd converted some back so that I had plenty of loose change in coins that hadn't been minted in the next century. The goblins hadn't noticed that my banknotes were different from what the locals used.

In case anyone ever noticed the mistake I'd shapeshifted myself so that the real me could still open up an account at Gringotts if needs be. I was keeping up the appearance of an adult because my actual body was ten years old and people tend to notice when children are by themselves.

"Fate has a way of making people fit when they enter this world," Cortana reminded me.

Before coming here I'd quickly visited a futurist city that installed AI into people's minds. Which sounded dangerous, but so far it was turning out to be a good idea. The AI only knew what I knew, however, she had access to everything I knew, including stuff I'd long forgotten, and with her presence in my mind I had someone to plan with who wouldn't forget my ideas and she'd no need to take any notes.

As I pretended to read the paper, which was a day old issue of the Daily Prophet, I planned out what I was going to do with the aid of my AI. I would go to a muggle orphanage and claim to have been abandoned, social services should take care of the rest, it wasn't as if they'd think that I was trying to get placed into an orphanage on purpose and they wouldn't be able to find any parents because mine were in a totally different universe.

Once I had a roof over my head I would need to do some accidental magic, only on purpose, and since magical outbursts were connected to intense emotions it shouldn't be too hard to make something happen as I was a ten year old again.

At that point Fate, which was a very active force in this universe, as such she, he, or it should ensure that the magical ten-year-old is shipped off to Hogwarts.

Or at least that was how things had been explained to me by Bob who ran the Mall at the Crossworlds, he'd not gone into a lot of detail, and I'd not asked because I'd been rather overwhelmed at the time.

Since this paper was only yesterday's edition I knew when I was as well as where. This was the summer before Harry Potter's 11th birthday, which Cortana knew since that information was somewhere buried inside my head, and so I should have a year to settle into Hogwarts, and to study magic before he arrives and makes things so interesting that I'd get distracted.

During my time at the school, I'd also need to find someone who I could take with me to other worlds as I would need allies, only it had been advised to me not to gather too many as I would need to pay them all attention and you don't want to risk losing someone in the confusion, you could end up stranding them in a universe they know nothing about.

The image of Cortana was small enough to stand on the wooden table in front of me and she looked more like a scaled-down model than the real thing, she was also naked, and not hiding the fact, keeping her blue coloured body on display. This image of a curvy AI would be more distracting if not for the fact that I'd reversed my ageing to the point that I couldn't become aroused.

My new physical state would be annoying as puberty was not something I wished to endure again, but it didn't compare to being murdered by some evil world wandering power-hungry bad guy, that was something I really, really wished to avoid.

"So we have a plan," she said.

Only I could see and hear her since the AI was actually an implant that someone had placed inside my skull. The sight and sound of her came from the implant being able to interact with the parts of my brain that took sights and sounds gathered by a person's senses and then made sense of them. So for me, she was real even if she wasn't corporal as fooling my sense of touch was something she'd not programmed to do.

"We go to a police station since that makes more sense, and you tell them that your parents left you in the middle of London" Cortana directed "Make up some sob story about them getting drunk all the time and yelling at you. We need a fake name and an address, but we can get the address wrong since children don't always remember these things right".

Fate and social services should handle the rest. No one would think that I was trying to trick the system because no one wants to be an orphanage. I'd heard of children who chose to stay with abusive parents rather than go into foster care because it scares them, although that had been second-hand information so I could be wrong.

If I acted oddly then social services should put it down to some sort of trauma and if they mentioned that I seem mature I can just say that I had to learn to look after myself. I'd just need to bluff a little and hope that Fate handled the rest.

"Then do some magic and someone from Hogwarts should drop by to recruit you for their school," said the AI.

In many works of fiction that I'd read magical orphans always got dragged into all sorts of adventures and might even end up saving the world, that was just how it worked in some universes and this seemed to be one of those realities.

"We go to the school and you spend the first year studying how to use magic in combat" she was now saying "We raid the Room of Requirement for anything of value that we can sell in this world for gold or trade it in other worlds that we visit later. Then when Potter arrives we can start worrying about the Dark Lord and his minions".

It would be very simple for me to derail the plot. I knew where all the Horcruxes could be found. I knew how Voldemort would return to life, at least in some sense, and I even knew how to defeat the man. I'd already considered just writing all of it down and posting it to Dumbledore.

Only I'd not done that only because the Headmaster was convinced that Potter had to save everyone and dealing with the Horcrux in his stead would involve killing him. There was no way Dumbledore would leave my mind intact if he discovered that I had access to such information.

As for killing Potter that might be doable if I could advance far enough as a Red Mage to learn Rise. If I did that I could kill him and then bring him back without any of Tom Riddle's soul inside his head. I'd want to practice that first and I'd need a heck of a lot of XP to get that far, but it was possible, and I'd bet that the snake monster down in the Chamber of Secrets would level me up a few times.

Plus there were loads of spider monsters in the Forbidden Forest who must be breeding like mad. I could cull the group for XP during my time at Hogwarts without them running out. A few years from now I should be able to go after Death Eaters and they must be worth a lot of XP. Add to that all the dark creatures in this world and I had plenty of targets for guilt-free killings.

The AI had more to say about our planning.

"I have an idea about your laptop and phone," she told me "They'll break down at Hogwarts, unlike me as I'm shielded against effects like that, so either we stash them somewhere or we can sell them to someone who back-engineers the technology. I was thinking that we could visit a university and try to find someone who is working on computer technology, someone who we can sell the technology to".

If I made the transaction while disguised as an adult and just took cash then no one should be able to trace it to me.

"I'll give it some thought," I said.

Since there was no point sticking around here as I had limited funds I decided to get moving and to go find a police station so that I could end up at an orphanage.

(Line Break)

Wool's Orphanage. London.

The orphanage that I'd found myself placed in was a square building surrounded by high railings. It was run-down and poorly painted, but always kept clean, and the orphans in residence were well cared for and as far as I could tell they seemed happy enough that they were unlikely to grow up into violent criminals.

Upon arriving here I'd found that the orphanage was built back during Victorian times by an industrialist called Mr Andrew Wool, who worked in textiles as the name suggested. I also knew that back in 1926, when heavily pregnant, the witch Merope Riddle came to the orphanage. This would be sometime after her husband Tom Riddle Snr abandoned her, which he did because she'd stopped doping him up with the magical world's version of date rape drug.

Shortly after giving birth to her son and naming him after his father, she died here. Leaving baby Voldemort with no one to look after him. I couldn't help wondering if this would have been different if his mother had survived to try to raise him.

The orphanage took care of the newborn, without knowing anything about his magical heritage, though unpleasant incidents occurred around him there hadn't been any solid evidence to condemn the young Tom.

Despite this, I was still surprised that no one called a priest to have him exorcised, which would have been an expected reaction back then, but they didn't and this was a shame as the Church might have dealt with the boy before he became an evil wizard.

If I'd been here in times past they might have called in a priest to deal with me because I'd blown out the lights, sort of purposefully, with magic and while the old wiring was blamed I got a few odd looks before people forgot about it. Unlike Tom Riddle I had no desire to torment children so it was easy to overlook one strange incident.

Tom had no sentimental attachments for the orphanage, and unlike he would terrorise his fellow orphans, however, I went out of my to be pleasant to people so that I wouldn't get into trouble and so people would forget about me should I not return here during the summer next year as I had plans to take adult form and do other things.

Another bit of history I knew about this place was that In 1938, the Deputy Headmaster Albus Dumbledore came to the facility to bring Tom to Hogwarts, Which for young Tom provided an escape from this place much like how Harry viewed it as an escape from his relatives.

Throughout his seven years of education, Tom deeply wished to avoid returning to Wool's Orphanage for the summers, perhaps to avoid the bombings during World War Two, he even made a special request to the then-headmaster Armando Dippet to remain in school during the holidays. He was refused and no doubt this further fed his resentment towards both the muggle and magical worlds.

Hopefully, Dumbledore would remain ignorant of me enough that he would never know that I came from this place as I intended to be a gifted student and if I got sorted in the snake house then he might think that I am Tom Riddle 2.0.

In his sixth year's summer vacation in 1943, Tom departed from the facility to head towards Little Hangleton to confront his Muggle father before returning. He murdered his father and grandparents and framed his maternal uncle.

Upon graduating and becoming a legal adult, Riddle departed from Wool's Orphanage forever, beginning his career at Borgin and Burkes. An odd step down the path to becoming the most feared dark wizard ever known.

As expected Fate had altered reality to make me better fit in. According to my file my name was John Smith and I'd always been here having been abandoned as a baby, I had no parents on file and there hadn't been a birth certificate for anyone to find, so I became John Smith with my birthday even being the day I arrived here at the orphanage.

Another oddity was that in my world orphanages like this one were phased out, at least in the UK, and they'd been replaced with special homes whose staff tried to simulate a more family-like environment for those in their care. Even this place was going to be shut down in a few years to make way for an office block.

Since I didn't intend to return here that wasn't my concern, in fact, if I could find someone to buy my phone and laptop I'd not be here much longer as I'd be able to rent a room at the Leaky Cauldron once I had some money. I didn't think anyone here would even notice that I was gone because there weren't enough staff members to handle the kids.

My only problem would be owl mail since I didn't know if owls went to the address on the letter, somehow knowing where it was, or if they were able to track people, if it was the latter then it shouldn't matter where I stay over the summer as long as I stay in the country.

That was a concern for later and it would be something I'd be able to look into. Right now I couldn't go anywhere because my Hogwarts letter had arrived and since I'd not been able to send a reply, as the owl hadn't hung around long for me to do that, I figured that some member of staff would come along to check up on me and to take me to Diagon Alley for my school supplies.

As it turned out that day was today and after breakfast, I was directed to the lobby where I came face to face with Professor Severus Snape who wore a muggle suit in black that could have worked in either this world or the magical one I guessed.

"Mr Smith," said the gloomy teacher in a bored sounding tone of voice "I am Professor Snape of Hogwarts and I am here to ensure that you are prepared to attend Hogwarts should you wish to".

Like I'd say no. I needed to learn as much magic as possible if I was going to survive travelling a dangerous multiverse and protecting the world-seed.

"Yes sir," I said, "I would like to attend your school, but I had no way of sending a reply".

His face changed to show an expression that meant something I couldn't guess.

"I rarely come out to meet new students" he mentioned, "But when I do they normally require some sort of proof".

Well, that made sense and I did my best to act as if it didn't matter. I knew that he could read my mind so I avoided eye contact.

"A lot of weird stuff has been happening to me lately," I told the teacher "Magic is a reasonable explanation for it and the letter wasn't hard to understand even if did leave me with a lot of questions".

He seemed to accept that and held out his arm after checking that the lobby was clear.

"Take my arm, this will be uncomfortable" he stated.

I took the offered limb and then suddenly we were in Diagon Alley. While it was indeed an uncomfortable situation I knew that I needed to learn how to magical teleport as soon as possible.

"Most people feel sick the first time," Snape commented.

I didn't as I'd gone through much worse feelings of dislocation when I'd moved between realties.

"I'm fine sir," I said "Good thing I only had toast for breakfast".

That had been because I'd never been one for eating much so early in my day.

"We will start with acquiring your robes" Snape decided "Hogwarts has money put aside for students in your situation, however, the funds are limited, so we will have to be careful".

I didn't bother asking the gloomy guy any questions even if that would be normal for someone to do in my situation as the teacher would just be annoyed by them, and since I'd been here before I wasn't gobsmacked by the sights.

"You seem subdued given what is happening" mentioned Snape.

Again I acted as if it didn't matter.

"I'm used to taking care of myself and keeping my own company," I said "No one in charge cared how I was feeling and the older children bully anyone who they think is weak, so I learned not to let them see how I felt".

The teacher nodded slightly as we entered a second-hand robe shop. Once inside he spoke to the owner and I was quickly fitted for some basic robes that the owner used magic to alter so that they fit me better.

"Nothing fancy in terms of enchantments," the store owner assured me as I tried on a winter cloak "But it will grow with you, and it will make sure you don't freeze in that drafty old castle. The House Elves know how to keep them clean. Standard for a new student even if they are a bit worn".

That seemed like more than enough to me as I'd never been a vain person.

"Does Hogwarts have a full school uniform?" I inquired.

There was nothing about that in the letter, but they do have uniforms in the movies so I was confused about the issue.

"Once you have been Sorted in your school house your robe will change to match its colours" Snape let me know "Other than that you will only need to concern yourself with what is on your list".

First-year students will require:

1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)

2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear

3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)

4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)

Please note that all student's clothes should carry name tags at all times.

I possessed a near-perfect memory since Cortana knew everything I saw, heard, and read, but not taste, smell or touch for reasons that had something to do with her design. This allowed me to recall a lot of information very easily, including the contents of my Hogwarts letter. Which she could make appear as part of a heads up display.

Next up was the second-hand book store and like before we wasted no time. Snape simply spoke to the owner and the required books were quickly gathered.

The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk

A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot

Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling

A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore

Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble

"Take a copy of Basic Potion Making as well" suggested Snape "Mr Jigger is a fine potion maker however he assumes that all of his readers will have grown up in magical homes and thus have at least some understanding of potions. A muggleborn such as yourself will benefit from the introductory material in this book"

I noticed that Snape paid for the battered and worn book himself with single a silver coin. I figured that he felt sorry for me having had a crappy childhood as he had himself.

"Thank you, sir" was all I said.

Before he spoke again we acquired a simple trunk for my purchases so far.

"I will expect an above-average performance in potions in return" he warned me as moved on to the next store, again wasting no time "Your wand will be last, next we shall acquire the other items on your list. Which are?".

Cortana provided the information without me having to request it and I read it off the heads up display.

"1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2), 1 set glass or crystal phials, 1 telescope, and 1 set of brass scales," I said.

If he was impressed by my memory he made no comment on it.

"You will have to do suffice with glass phials," said Snape "And with a second-hand set of scales as well as a used telescope".

I didn't care much for stargazing. For me, it was space travel or nothing and I laughed at horoscopes.

"I'm used to hand-me-downs" I informed the teacher.

Since I'd be the eldest of five children during my first life I used to handing stuff down to younger siblings. Rarely did that involve clothes as my family hadn't been that poor, but favoured toys and bikes saw many years of use in my childhood home.

"The purchase of a wizard or witch's wand is a personal affair so I will acquire the rest of the items on the list while you obtain a wand" instructed the professor as we parted ways outside the wand shop "Do not worry about the price, Ollivander will somehow know to charge the school. He always does".

Given that he could remember who buys which wand even years later it wasn't shocking that he'd know other things about those who went to buy wands.

"I shall be waiting here when you are done" Snape let me know.

Before long I headed into the dusty wand shop, and I was soon set upon by the wandmaker who got to work by shoving different wands into my hand one after the other.

"No, not unicorn tail" he muttered, "And most certainly not dragon heartstring, that just leaves...".

A wand that looked more like the horn of some exotic creature than a bit of wood was forced into my hand.

"Aspen 12 inches with a feather from a phoenix" I was told "How does it feel".

Words almost failed me.

"I feel like I've been reunited with a friend I'd forgotten I had," I said.

That was the only way I could articulate the feeling.

"I know exactly what you mean," said the store owner as he smiled at me "It's not the same for everyone, but the sentiment is often similar".

It was soon explained to me that phoenix feather was the rarest core type and these feathers are capable of the greatest range of magic, though they may take longer than either unicorn or dragon cores to reveal this, and this made sense to me since I'd chosen to become a Red Mage rather than a White or Black One. A White Mage would most likely have a unicorn tail hair wand while a Black Mage would get a dragon heartstring wand I felt sure.

"Phoenix tail feather wands show the most initiative, I've even heard of them acting on their own accord, a quality that many witches and wizards dislike" the old man let me know "Phoenix feather wands are always the pickiest when it comes to potential owners, for the creature from which they are taken is one of the most independent you'll ever find. These wands are the hardest to tame and to personalise, and their allegiance is usually hard-won".

That did sound suitable for someone who was travelling the multiverse to gain power with little in the way of support.

"Now as you can see wand-quality aspen wood is white and fine-grained, as such it is highly prized by all wand-makers for its stylish resemblance to ivory" Ollivander informed me.

Well, that explained why I thought it looked more like a horn than a stick.

"Aspen wood is also known for outstanding charmwork" I soon learned "The proper owner of such a wand can become an accomplished duellist. Perhaps you will become one too".

I was planning to focus on defence against the dark arts because I had a very bad and powerful person after me, and this sounded like a good wand for such an endeavour.

"The wand for this wood came from a fine specimen of Populus tremula which grows fight here in the British Isle" the wandmaker mentioned "I put a lot of work into this wand so please look after it".

I fully intended to and once the wand was boxed up I headed outside to find Snape waiting for me.

"Since we are done here I will return you to your... place of residence," he said, "I have your ticket here. You'll find the platform between 9 and 10, there is a barrier between them that muggles won't notice. Simple step through at a fast pace it if you are having trouble".

Snape filled me in on a few more details before we teleported back to the orphanage. There was no talk of pets, not that I wanted a mail-carrying bird since there was no one for me to send a letter to, only the most basic of instructions before we went our separate ways.

(Line Break)

Department of Computer Science. Oxford University.

Finding someone to buy my laptop, which was useless to me without wireless internet as Cortana could keep notes for me, turned out to be less trouble than expected as I'd been able to infiltrate the major university's network thanks to Cortana and she'd found me some researchers who looked just the type who could invent some advanced computer hardware. The software was Windows and so it would be better for the super nerds to focus on advancing the hardware as to avoid copyright issues.

I met with a few stereotypical geeks in the dead of night, and they were taking this far too seriously since buying computers from the future can not be any sort of crime, not unless there was a version of the TVA around here and if there was they'd be after me by now anyway. Even without that concern it was good that I could change my appearance so easily.

"Do you have the money?" I asked.

I met the nerds, whose names I'd chosen not to learn, inside a computer lab that looked more like it was a place used to store trashed machines rather than working ones. But as long as I got what I wanted it hardly mattered.

"All we could get together was ten grand," said one of the engineers "I didn't get as much for my car as I expected".

That was more money in 1990 than in my time due to inflation, but it was only a tiny fraction of what the laptop was worth given that it could be used to advance computer technology by a couple of decades by anyone with the right knowledge.

"Forget your care, we'll be millionaires in a year or two," said one of the researchers "Maybe even billionaires".

It would be nice if it all worked out for them.

"Are you really from the future?" one of the three men asked.

I just nodded.

"Aren't you risking the timeline by giving us this technology?" another asked.

Hopefully not.

"I'm from an alternate timeline" I explained "This isn't my past".

Saying that led to more questions, some of which I would answer since I was going to since I wanted to count out the money before I left.

"So multiverse theory is true," one of them said "Are you sure?".

Unless I was having a vivid dream in a coma right now it seemed that way.

"Yes, very sure," I said "World War 2 ended sooner in my timeline".

Something to do with Grindelwald it seemed safe to assume. My History of Magic book didn't cover such recent events and the muggle history books didn't mention the magical side of things.

"Got any advice for us?" I was asked.

Well, things could work very differently here, but there are a few things that seemed wise to share.

"The Soviet Union will collapse by Christmas next year, Kurt Cobain dies in 1994, avoid Bosnia for the next decade at least, don't let your Tamagotchi Die, Rachel and Ross do end up together, buy a Super Nintendo, avoid frosted tips they look stupid, Alanis Morissette doesn't know the meaning of the ironic, Bill Clinton did have sexual relations, Y2K is nothing to worry about, stay out of New York in September 2001, the world doesn't end in 2013, and stock up on toilet paper in 2019 so as to avoid the rush".

I'd not watched much news in the 1990s, nor had I studied that decade in the history books so I only had a vague sense of what would happen over the next ten years despite having lived through it. Mostly I recalled my mother gushing about the Labour Party and something about girl power.

Or so I thought as it turned out I had been paying more attention than I ever realised. Not that anything I recalled was certain to happen in this universe.

Since I had no desire to go into more details I took the money and headed out, leaving the nerds to their new toy.