Reviews

Guest

Most humans while perhaps not innocent in the sense that children and animals are innocent aren't exactly evil either. At least they don't deserve to be murdered for their XP. Going after crooks is an option it's just finding them that's the issue. He can't go around attacking prisons because the statute of secrecy would be violated and the criminals worth going after for XP would be far too dangerous to go after until the MC becomes a more powerful wizard.

Alan

Given the name I would assume so and that creating new worlds can threaten existing ones. I suppose it would depend on how it was used.

Thinking on it I might take Luna instead as Hermione as Luna is more fun to write and she'll be in the same school house. If I change my plan it will be much later in the story.

loki98065

All the SIs are versions of me from different universes it's just that some of them don't use Gothic as a name.

kent-jensen

I'm glad you like it

gavinlinville

More Rogue Trader should be sometime next week. I have a chapter ready I just need to proofread it.

rankieu

The Dresden Files didn't exist back then so no one will get the reference other than us.

Crossworlds 1 - Harry Potter

Part 6

Gringotts Bank. Diagon Alley.

No sooner had I entered the bank than I was rushed into someone's office by a very annoyed looking goblin. Well I assumed he was annoyed, they all tend to look upset when anyone was around, but they seemed more annoyed than normal this time.

"We had no means to contact you, Mr Hiddleston," said my Account Manager, a goblin called Bloodknife "That's makes it difficult for us to do business".

According to the books I'd been able to find on the subject of owls, the birds not the exam, do find people using their name, but they still need somewhere to fly to and I guessed that they couldn't tell that Tom Hiddleston and John Smith were the same person. Not that I wanted letters sent to Mr Hiddleston going to Hogwarts since he wasn't a student or a teacher.

"I travel quite often" I told the goblin whose office I'd been directed to "I'll be out of contact most of the time, but I will need your banks services often so person you can hold any letters for me here or arrange for them to left at an address once I have a property set up".

The goblin directed me to take a seat suitable for an adult human and sorted out his papers before replying. This gave me a few moments to look around his office. Clearly we were underground given the lack of window and the fact that I'd come down some stairs to get here. Yet the room was more well lit than the candles and lit fireplace should allow for.

Walls that could be bare stone were covered in shelves that were themselves filled with scrolls, books, and small wooden boxes that contained things I could only guess about, along with weapons that were proudly on display. The walls not covered that way were kept hidden by drapes of a rich red that matched the carpet and wondered if they were that colour to hide any spilled blood.

The desk, chair and shelves were all made from a dark wood that I found to have a pleasing appearance and the desk was covered in pieces of parchment, scrolls and there was even an abacus that sat on the desk with some other instruments.

"One of the services Gringotts offers is a post box service" explained Bloodknife "Normally it's used by wealthy and somewhat paranoid Purebloods who have us check for cursed items in their post before we direct their mail to them. If you chose to keep the letters we check in the secure post box that's no business of ours. The Ministry provides a similar service as I understand".

I had no desire to deal with the magical government any more than I had to given how corrupt it was. Sure goblins were greedy and their understanding of property differed from that of a human, but if you were rich they were quite happy to help you get stuff done, for the right fee, and anything involving money involved them at some stage anyway.

"To begin with Mr Hiddleston we have finished inspecting all the items you brought into the bank, we've returned to what we can't deal with, melted down anything cursed that was worth melting down and stored everything safe in your vault" I was informed "Gringotts does not normally repair trinkets, but our cursebreakers fixed what they could for a small fee".

I didn't mind that as I would have just had to pay someone to do the repair work anyway.

"Again we melted down any metals of worth and after throwing out only the most damaged of goods, not counting the books and a few other items that weren't worth dealing, along with anything we couldn't find a buyer for, your new account comes to slightly more than 200,000 Galleons, that is more than 1,000,000 British Pound Sterling. Converting your jewels to galleons was not easy the jewels were not of a standard size or weight. Then we subtracted the fees to find a number we were willing to work with. Assuming you agree to covert the jewels into spendable currency".

This wasn't counting all the jewellery that I'd been collecting and all the coins, nor the silver goblets I'd found recently and that was good as wizarding money would be worthless outside of this world. Given the exchange rate there was no way that a Galleon was actually made out of pure gold that just wasn't possible.

It was possible to expand the volume of something with magic even if you could make gold using magic so I figured that the galleons might actually contain five muggle pounds worth of gold that simply been expanded in volume or they were simply coated in a layer of gold that you couldn't remove otherwise some smart muggleborn would be trading galleons for British pounds and melting the coins down for the gold.

"Yes I agree" I said.

Finalising this process took some more paperwork, or parchment work in the case, and then my bank statement changed to show that my account was in indeed more than 200,000 Galloens and as of yet I'd not yet given single one of the coins I'd found to the bank. Whomever had left that chest full of jewels in the Room of Requirement had made me a wealthy man.

Now that I had a very full account I needed to think about acquiring wealth that I could spend in other worlds since they were unlikely to accept Galleons. I would need to focus on collecting items that could be sold on their own such as the set of silverware I'd recently found that just looked as if it needed some good polishing.

I wondered if it might be worth returning to Bob's Mall within the Crossroads to see if he would be willing to convert items into some sort of currency. Or maybe I should just no convert anything else and start storing stuff in my bottomless bag. That was something to think more on later and I had years ahead of me do so and right now I had another matter that I needed to focus on.

"Mr Hiddleston I took the liberty of speaking with a wizarding real estate firm that we often do business with" said my Account Manager "If you are still looking for a small home here in this country might I suggested a property we going for 58,000 British Sterling in Godric's Hollow. Prices in that area are lower now than they have been for some time and there's little demand for family homes at this time so I don't see the value increasing any time soon so it could be a nice property for you decedents to inherit".

Not that I planned to have any decedents, however I would need a family home so that Tom Hiddleston the adult wizard could adopt the orphan John Smith.

Bloodknife passed me over a file that wouldn't have looked out of place in muggle office despite us being in a work space that seemed more Victorian than something of the 1990s. The information in the file along with my own memories meant that I soon knew about the village.

Godric's Hollow is over a thousand years old, evidenced by the fact that it was the birthplace of Godric Gryffindor who I knew to have founded Hogwarts during that time along with four other magic users. Since the village was named for Gryffindor it seems likely it originally bore a different name during his early life, and was renamed for Gryffindor sometime after his historical achievements became commonly known.

Over the years Godric's Hollow has contained a magical residents something that can be proven by the local graveyard for example Ignotus Peverell, one of the three brothers of Deathly Hallows lore, is buried there and passed his Cloak of Invisibility down through his descendants who lived in the village all the way down to Harry Potter who'd lived there with his parents before Voldemort came to pay a visit.

Bowman Wright also lived here when he invented the Golden Snitch in the 1300s. I didn't why the file mentioned that, but it did, perhaps the goblins were under the impression that all wizards cared about that silly game. I'd never been a single match and I doubted that I ever would.

When the International Statute of Secrecy was enacted back in 1689, Godric's Hollow, like Tinworth, Upper Flagley, and Ottery St. Catchpole, attracted a number of magical residents who became communities within a community according to some of the history books that I'd read. Among those who have lived there more recently are the Dumbledore family, Bathilda Bagshot, author of A History of Magic, and the Potter family that had been made up of James, Lily, and their son Harry.

Gellert Grindelwald also spent a summer here, having come in search of the Cloak of Invisibility in 1899. He stayed with his great-aunt, Bathilda, and spent his days with Albus Dumbledore. I doubted either of them ever realised how close they were to the cloak.

Though always famous for being Gryffindor's origin, the town sealed its place in wizarding history on October 31, 1981, when Voldemort killed Lily and James Potter and attempted to kill Harry, inadvertently destroying himself instead. That house now stood as a monument to the event having been left by the Ministry of Magic.

"The Village contains a pub and a few small businesses that cater to your kind" explained Bloodknife "Should you purchase the property I should warn you that it is considered to be cursed due to what happen to the family of its owners the Dumbledores. Two members of their family died in that house for reasons that are not in records I could access".

I knew that is was no curse. Albus Dumbledore's sister and mother died there because of an accident and because of Grindlewald, but I could understand why the general population could think that it was cursed.

"The property has been modernised" the goblin told me "It conforms with muggle standards and exists in their world as well as the magical one. The divide between magical and muggle is somewhat blurred in Godric's Hollow and while the muggles don't know for certain that they live with magical people they do seem aware that something is going on. However the charms are still working so your privacy is assured".

Having anything that connected me to Dumbledore seemed risky, however I doubted he'd even stepped foot in that house since he took up a teaching position at Hogwarts and I knew that his brother lived in Hogsmeade. Besides I'd have every defence that money could buy thrown up around the house as soon as possible and if it existed in the Muggle world it would be a good home as it meant that if someone from social services wanted to check up on John Smith then they could.

"I'll want to check out the house first" I said "But it looks promising".

Only a total fool would invest in a property without first looking it over.

"That can be arranged" promised my Account Manager "Or you can simply pop into estate agents yourself its not far from here".

Best to do that, and since it was the weekend I did have time.

"I also wanted to offer an apology of behalf of Gringotts" mentioned Bloodknife "Our employs sign oaths that prevent them from taking about the banks business in anyway that betrays the privacy of our clients, however that doesn't prevent gossiping by our customers and when you displayed your jewels to the teller he should have brought you to someone working in New Accounts right away".

While I'd wanted my adult self to be unknown by the public the newspaper article had been mere speculation so I wasn't worried.

"It was as much my fault for not being more careful" I said.

After that there was a bit more paperwork, and at the end I had a vault key. I would set up a trust vault for John Smith once I had custody of my young self, but until then the older me would remain focused on sorting out the adoption and acquiring a proper home.

(Line Break)

Wool's Orphanage. London.

As it turned out there isn't any sort of Child Services at the Ministry of Magic and while at first this seemed very odd it started to make some sense once I truly started to see how all the old Wizarding families were connected to each other. There was very little chance of a Pureblood child ending up in orphanage due to all the Purebloods being related to each other, there were would always be some family member able to take them in.

Tom Riddle and Harry Potter, while both half-bloods, were something of an exception to the rule, and as for Muggleborns the Wizarding World didn't care enough about them to do more than make sure that they got brought into the Magical World via education. There was no system in place to check up on those born with magic who weren't part of the right family. I figured that the Purebloods who were running the Ministry didn't want to spend any time or resources on Mudbloods.

Since the Ministry simply didn't care about John Smith outside of him going to Hogwarts, and there was some sort of special roll that took care of that. According to Hogwarts a History up in a small locked tower, which is never visited by any student at Hogwarts, sits an ancient book that has not been touched by human hands since the four founders placed it there on completion of the castle.

Beside the book, which is bound old dragon-hide, stands a small inkpot along with a quill. These are the Quill of Acceptance and the Book of Admittance and they constitute the only process by which students are selected for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

If anybody understands what powerful and long-lasting magic causes this book and quill to behave as they do no one knows. The Book and Quill's decision has the first and only say in the matter, and no child has ever been admitted whose name has not first been inscribed on the book's pages.

In theory at the precise moment that a child first exhibits signs of magic, the Quill, which is believed to have been taken from an Augurey, floats up out of its inkpot and attempts to inscribe the name of that child upon the pages of the Book.

Those few who have observed the process (several headmasters and headmistresses have enjoyed spending quiet hours in the Book and Quill's tower, hoping to catch them in action) agree that the Quill might be judged more lenient than the Book. A mere whiff of magic suffices for the Quill. The Book, however, will often snap shut, refusing to be written upon until it receives sufficiently dramatic evidence of magical ability.

I figured that I must have triggered the book and quill when I blew out all the lights at this very orphanage. I wondered if there were magical people out there who just don't draw the attention of the book for some reason? Not my concern as I had other matters to attend to and only magical child to worry about and he was myself.

"Mr Hiddleston" said the orphanage's chief staff.

She was called Mrs Cole and it was a Cole who ran this place when Tom Riddle was sheltered by these walls. Either more than one member of family had devoted themselves to this place or it was just a common surname in this world.

"Mrs Cole" I replied "You have news for me?"

Since the Magical World would be no help I'd decided to track down myself in the Muggle part of the country and adopt myself that way. Since the Wizards didn't see a problem with Potter being sent to his Muggle Aunt, who was actually Harry Potter's closest blood relative, then if I legally adopt John Smith in the Muggle World the Wizard part should accept that.

"Yes I do" answered Mrs Cole "We lost touch with John at the start of September, but the school he got into has let us know he's there and safe, he must have made his own plans".

This was careless of the staff here, but given the lack of concern I couldn't help wondering if magic had employed to soothe things over.

"We've been informed that while he can return for Christmas and Easter he might chose not to and so you might have to wait for next summer" I was told.

I didn't wish to wait that long as it would be easier if I had this all sorted out before then so that younger me had somewhere to go that didn't involve having to hide out as all sorts of things could do wrong with that.

"Forgive me for being rude, but how could you lose contact with an 11 year old boy?" I asked.

I didn't want to rock the boat too much and have people asking questions, however if it became clear to everyone here that John Smith wasn't being cared for that might ease the process of me taking the younger me as an adopted child.

"We have many children in our care" Mrs Cole explained "And many of them require a lot more attention than John who has always been mature for his age. He's quite responsible and the school sent someone to help him prepare. I'm sure his transport was arranged".

I decided not to cause the woman any further distress.

"My intention isn't to place any blame" I stated "To tell the truth I'm not surprised that he's attending that boarding school it would have been arranged many years ago".

Mrs Cole looked confused so I felt the need to speak again.

"If John is who I think he is then he's attending that school because his parents would have when they were his age" I told the middle-aged woman.

She accepted that and once more I was happy to have Fate working on my side or at least towards and end that would suit both myself and Fate.

"John never even had a visitor until a teacher from his school dropped by" Mrs Cole was now saying "So how did you track him down?".

I'd rehearsed this story well in advance.

"My parents were the type of people to live off the grid" I started by saying "They liked to seek out ruins in jungles that sort of thing so I got moved around a lot when I was younger. After they retired to live with an isolated tribe in South American I began doing some travelling of my own and I got into contact with my mother's parents who were still with us at the time. They were wealthy shut who dabbled in collecting valuables when they were still willing to leave the house. When they passed away due to illness I was left to inherit everything, this included their attempts to locate my cousin and his wife who they were given to think had a son who they wished for me to share my inheritance with".

This could only happen in fiction as far as I was concerned, but this was a world at least based on what I thought of as fiction, and it seemed to be make sense to Mrs Cole who listened to every word I had to say.

"When I discovered that I had more family I decided to follow the trail and it seems that that my cousin and his wife were in some sort of trouble, they fled the country with my baby cousin it seemed, however there's no record of the boy" I was now saying "I don't think he left the country with his parents I think they left him here and not only is John the right age he's attending a private school that takes students in from select families, a school his parents met at".

I had no proof, however that shouldn't matter as there were magics in place to confound people and even to alter memories. Once I had custody of myself I could easily disappear from the Muggle world.

"If John is your cousin and you can support them then of course you should have custody of him" said Mrs Cole "Wool's Orphanage will be closed in the next few years and while we have places prepared for the children it would be best if he was adopted. With this fancy school of his and support of his family he could go far".

Further than she could imagine.

"So what will I need?" I asked "I'm planning to purchase a nice house in to start with and his education is already being handled".

Mrs Cole gave it some thought.

"The whole process should take about six months" she told me "Social services will want to met you and inspect your home, and you'll need to prove that you have the means to support John. Having that prepared in advance can speed up the process. Assuming that all goes well John should be living with you by the time his school sends the students home in summer".

That would be ideal as it would give me plenty of time to learn how to mess with the minds of people from Social Services and to purchase a property in the muggle world as well as the magical one. The chest of jewels along with a fraction of the junk I'd found in the Room of Requirement was valued at a million muggle pounds so I didn't think that I'd have to worry about social services saying that I was too poor to take in a child.

"It would be nice if he didn't have to return here" I said to Mrs Cole "I don't mean any offense, its just that it would be wrong of me to allow John to stay here when I can so easily give him closer to a family".

If the woman was offended she hid it well.

"I know what you mean" she assured me "If it were up to me none of the children would be here at all".

Not for the first time this weekend I was presented with some paperwork. This time the forms were more familiar to me since they'd been typed and they would begin the process by which I would take formal custody of John Smith.

(Line Break)

Godric's Hollow. Wizarding World.

Even on the muggle side this was a small community, which centred on a village square with only a church, a post office, a pub, and a few retail shops. The residential streets were lined with quaint cottages and streets had very unimaginative names, there was a street called Church Lane that lead up to the church as if that was hard to guess.

The Wizarding side of the village wasn't hidden away like Diagon Alley or Platform Nine and Three Quarters there was no real divide between the two in any physical sense, however it was clear that some of the homes and business were for magical folk only as the No-Maj as the American witches and wizards would call them, simply ignored the existence of the magical businesses.

Aside from a pub called the Griffin's Claw, a bakery, a green groceries and a sweetshop that sold sweets along with other items kids would be interested in as well as few objects that the parents might need much like one of the many muggle corner shop that I would have visited during this time period.

I had wondered where wizards and witches got their normal shopping from when they didn't to visit Diagon Alley, as it turned out they were tucked away in villages like this, with House Elves the grocery and the bakery could easily have their goods transported around the nation. This would make sense since the magical world is hidden in the muggle one.

Unlike in other works of fiction when a character discovers that magic is real there is no separate magical land here in the Harry Potter universe. You can't fly to Neverland with fairy dust, there's no Narina in the back of the wardrobe, or anything like that.

Since real estate wasn't going to be a big business given the small magical population I was able to easily book an appointment that suited me, and this was important as I could sneak out of Hogwarts during certain times. I made sure never to use my child form when outside of the school in case people took notice as that could cause trouble for me.

So a witch called Maggie Movelots, yes that was actually her name, met me in the pub and then guided me to a house that on the outside could have easily fitted in with the muggle world and the inside wasn't much different. The house was old, it was done in Tudor style and could easily be that old, but it had clearly been refurbished in the later part of this century.

"The property has been done up with the intent of selling it as a family home for magicals who don't want to completely separate from the muggles" I was told.

I could see that as the house had electrics. Magic is known to interfere with the functionality of Muggle technologies powered by electricity. Most Muggle electronics, including computers, radar, and bugging devices, are supposed to stop working in Hogwarts's magical environment However this seems to be something that applies to Hogwarts as otherwise magical places like the Ministry, St Mungos, and Diagon Alley would be screwing with the electronics in parts of London.

Also Harry's uses of accidental magic such as when he inflated Aunt Marge did mess with the electronics a bit, but that was just a bit of lighting going haywire, I knew for a fact that magic could disable electronics because I'd done it myself, but it tends to have a short term effect and rarely does more than require the replacement of a few lightbulbs.

Hogwarts has much denser mount of magic than you'd get at an average wizards house. The castle is surrounded by heavy protection charms and has been a school for a thousand years. So much magic in one place is bound to cause some sort of build-up.

"Everything here runs on magic" I was informed "And it comes fully furnished".

Even for the 1990s this was a little old fashioned. There was no TV set, but I figured that one than ran on magic should be possible if you make a magic-powered radio, and the oven seemed to be an older style gas oven, although there was no actual gas of course. It should look good enough for social services and it would easy enough to decorate one of the rooms, and to fill with stuff suitable for an 11 year old. Not that the lack of a TV was much of a loss there was like four TV channels available unless you have cable and that wouldn't be possible here.

Other than that this place did look perfect to serve as the quiet little hideaway that I wanted as a home for John Smith. The house was large enough to contain a study for Tom and I could do something with the attic so that John had a study area. I might make friends as an adult or a child so it would be good to have a place to bring them.

The Attic would be better for turning into a potions lab since while it was made of wood it would have better ventilation and I was sure there were ways to make it safer.

"I can see that this house is meant to appeal to a more mixed household" I commented.

Which made sense as the Pureblood Elite make up a minority and would keep properties limited to their own kind as much as possible. This house while large was clearly more middle class.

"Yes we furbished it as a home for half-bloods, for people with a foot in both worlds" Maggie said "You could have a muggle visitor and they would never know they know they were in the home of a magical person".

Well they would if the wizards and witches were careless enough to leave the wrong sort of books on the shelves or to leave magical games lying around, but that sort of thing could be kept upstairs.

"I like this place" I said "It feels cosy and I can see my cousin being happy here".

I'd already mentioned that I would be bringing a young cousin to live with me.

"Is it still on offer for fifty-eight thousand?" I asked.

That were hidden charges from the bank that hadn't been mentioned before, but Miss Movealot was eager to sell and so she dropped the price enough to cover those charges. I decided that to purchase the house with the actual sale going through Gringotts so as to keep it all as private as possible. I didn't want the Headmaster to find out too easily whom had purchased his old family home. Assuming that he even cared.