Author Note
I know it has been a long time since I updated a story. I hope no one is too mad.
Reviews
Shadowpawzzz
There has been some real-life stuff getting in the way for a while now, but I am now getting back into my writing and I'm glad you like my stories.
Augment Gothic was mostly Joe Lawyers work anyway and I had problems keeping track of the changes he added. I thought he'd made the character more complex than he needed to be so I decided to let him have the whole thing.
Alan
My intention is to let that power grow as he masters it. I don't want my character to be too powerful too soon as mastering his existing powers and gaining more is a good motivation for the character.
They do have animated suits of armour in the last book so I don't why you a wizard couldn't make a golem of some sort. I assumed wizards don't because they prefer to simply wave their wands around rather than get their hands dirty making something.
ZhaWarudo
There are plenty of other ways to make money in Harry Potter's world. Hunting dark creatures, harvesting rare potion ingredients, stealing from dark wizards, he has ways to refill his vault.
Crywolfseven
Perhaps I can find a beta reader to help out.
Crossworlds 1 - Harry Potter
Part 7
Hogwarts School. The Wizarding World.
It was really amazing what you could buy in the wizarding world if you had both the money and the right contacts or at least money and the ability to pay people who had their own contacts to do make use of them on your behalf. I didn't think Borgin and Burke wanted to give up the book they'd acquired on Horcruxes, but money talks. What mattered was that the book became mine and as I sat in the comfortable reading room that the Room of Requirement had provided me with I carefully went over the words until I found something that caught my interest.
"This could be a game-changer" I muttered to myself.
Cortana signalled her agreement as I again went over the chapter of the book that provided information on Horcruxes. I'd already known how to both create and destroy them what I hadn't known was that it was possible to absorb the bit of soul within a Horcrux so as to add it to my own soul for a small power boost.
Unlike some people whose ideas I'd read about on the Internet I understood that a dark wizard did not divide their soul in half when creating a Horcrux because the soul is not a physical thing it can't be divided into fractions or carved into slices like a pizza.
You can still place some of it in an object and the bit of soul isn't really separate because if it was the dark wizard would lose some of their power when the Horcrux was made. It was hard to tell if Voldemort noticed a loss of power because he mutilated his soul quite a bit. This book suggested that a wizard would know, but it never used Horcruxes in the plural so I guessed the author hadn't considered that a dark wizard would make more than one.
Even if the nature of the soul wasn't fully understood by the writer of this book he claimed to have located a Horcrux and taken in its power as well as memories of the mad mage who made the Horcrux. If this ritual worked then I could take some of Voldemort's power for myself.
The ritual would not make me like Harry Potter I would absorb the bit of Riddle's soul and make it part of me. The power boost wouldn't turn me into a super wizard, it would just weaken Voldemort a little and make me stronger. Aside from learning more about Voldemort and gaining some power, I might even be able to start talking to snakes.
Although I could already do that by becoming a snake using my shapeshifting powers. Oddly the Babel Fish didn't allow me to understand snakes, I assumed it had something to do with the language being magical in nature. I wondered if snakes in other worlds would understand me if I tried talking to them.
As for the ritual, it was not complex, the tricky part was getting your hands on a Horcrux as not only were they very rare they were normally ver well hidden and defended. For me, the trouble wasn't in finding one it was in choosing which Horcrux to go after.
"Do you think it's worth the risk?" my AI questioned.
Magical rituals could go wrong, however, I'd no reason to doubt this one would and no I could test it on without exposing myself.
"Yes," I decided.
Riddle wasn't my concern as I could leave this world whenever I wished and I didn't care much what happened to this primitive community of wand-waving fools. Still, if became involved I should make sure that I left Potter with this information he needed to finish destroying the Horcruxes.
"The book only covers absorbing the power of one Horcrux so I don't think you should do this ritual more than once," said Cortana as she spoke inside my head "Will you use the Diadem?".
The fancy tiara was closed by, but I would not use it in the ritual as I had hopes that it could be reclaimed in some way,
"No, I'll use the ring" I replied, answering her out loud "I'll hire some curse breakers over the summer to remove any defences from the Gaunt hut".
Gringotts curse breakers were the best of their trade and there were magical contracts a curse break could sign so that they wouldn't be able to talk about what I hired them to do. They'd secure the ring Horcrux for me and then I'd use the ritual to destroy the ring once the curse on it was removed. Curse breakers dealt with magical defences all the time, that along with their contracts made them the perfect people to outsource the dangerous part of hunting Horcruxes.
"Wouldn't a Horcrux that he made later in his life contain a lot more useful information?" Cortana wondered "And wouldn't he be weaker when he was just a kid?".
Possibly, yet I had my reasons.
"Voldemort was always very powerful so I'm not worried about a lack of a power boost" I pointed out "Besides I don't want him to influence me and get me drawn into the dark arts".
That wasn't my only reason.
"The ring has no value outside of being a Horcrux as the stone, which is the bit that matters, won't be destroyed as it a Hallow and separate, and even it is destroyed that might not be such a bad thing" I mentioned.
While I didn't think the Resurrection Stone actually drove people to kill themselves, as Harry Potter chose to die for his friends before he used the stone and Dumbledore fell for a compulsion Voldemort placed on the ring along with a nasty curse, I would still be very careful with the stone and if I never got to use it I wouldn't be upset.
"The Diary is the same, it's just that I can't be sure that Malfoy will sneak it into the school in this timeline and I can't think of a sure way of taking it from him without trying to pretend to be Voldemort" I was now saying.
I might be able to use an illusion to fool Malfoy, or since he actually knew the Dark Lord he might also realise that I was an imposter. Also of concern, Voldemort might find out that someone faked being him and that could cause trouble for me later on. Besides if I was going to pretend to be any dark wizard it would be one of the Death Eaters who escaped Azkaban I could do something in public while looking like them and then see if the Ministry did its job for a change, but that was a prank best left for when I more control of my power of illusions. Another idea was to attack a Death Eater while looking like another dark wizard so as to get them to go after each other. Something to ponder more on later.
"And if someone is after me I need the power sooner rather than later" I went on to say "It might be worth trying to get the Horcrux over Xmas".
I doubted many curse breakers wanted to work over Yule, so I would have to pay more than normal for their services, yet it would be worth it because all the other rituals that offered increases in power required sacrifices I wasn't willing to make such as offering up my firstborn or killing a magical baby under the light of a full moon. The Horcrux ritual was different because the price for the power was paid for by the fool who made the Horcrux.
"If the diary does get brought into the school you might consider performing the ritual again if it works well the first time as a lot of time will have passed" advised my AI.
I carefully considered her words. If the book was right about Horxcruxs only containing a small bit of soul was correct then doing the ritual once shouldn't change me much, and it might be worth doing twice as I might need the extra power, but I could revisit the idea when I actually had the diary and it would be best to get it before Ginny Weasly started feeding it with all her emo rubbish as if the Horcrux got too strong I'd have to destroy it.
The holidays would soon be upon us and I'd spent this term mostly with my nose in a book. Not so odd for a Ravenclaw, however, it might start to look odd if I didn't get seen in public so I decided to let myself be seen in the Great Hall before they stopped serving dinner so that I could grab a snack.
(Line Break)
Hogwarts School. The Wizarding World.
"Mr Smith please wait behind for a moment" requested Professor Flitwick.
We'd just finished yet another class on the Levitation Charm aka Wingardium Leviosa, which was taking a lot of time to cover since the spell had more uses than most people would imagine, you could use it to stack shelves, to clear a blocked passageway and as I'd already discovered you could use it to more safely handled cursed objects. However, while I'd at least come close to mastering the spell the same wasn't true for some of my classmates so I spent my charms lessons going over material that I already knew and trying to read newer stuff while doing my best to ignore the people around me as they worked over the basics.
Thankfully Flitwick having realised that I was ahead of my classmates just let me get on with my reading and I felt that I was already prepared for the end of year exam, something I'd asked an older student about and apparently the first exam always involved making a pineapple dance across a desk. Since this was something I could do already I knew I'd be able to pass the exam. I might ask for something more challenging and see if I could get an Outstanding grade.
"Can I do something for you, Professor?" I asked.
Flitwick waited until the room was empty of everyone other than us before speaking.
"Over the weekend I received a letter from a Mr Tom Hiddleston" the teacher started by saying.
This I knew because I'd sent the letter from the owl post office in Diagon Alley. I'd also sent myself a letter at the same time, so that adult me could formally introduce himself to child me, and inform me that Tom intended to adopt John. I'd done this so that there would be some sort of proof of contact should anyone look into the matter and start noticing that John's adoption didn't make much in the way of sense.
Over Xmas I had plans to send out more letters, having decided to do something about Wormtail who I'd been able to confirm was here at the school as Scabbers, the pet of Percy Weasley, I'd considered going after the rat myself in the hopes of some big reward, however that would draw far too much attention to me, and while I wanted to shake us the status quo I also didn't want to draw attention to myself.
So it seemed wise to tip off the DMLE and see if they did anything before taking any drastic action. As I'd planned a letter claiming that I knew that an animagus was hiding out at The Burrow to Amelia Bones a witch who was in charge of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement advising to check out the rat over the holidays. Hopefully, she would take it seriously and even if I didn't know much about her from the books I was sure she was not close to Dumbledore.
If Peter Pettigrew turned out to be alive that should lead to people asking questions about the guilt of Sirius Black. The fact that Wormtail was in hiding should hopefully result in the DMLE questioning him as well and the truth coming out. I was worried that the Minister for Magic would try to cover everything up so I would also inform the Daily Prophet during the holidays as well so that the case would be too public to simply sweep under the rug. It could still go wrong, but I considered it worth the effort.
If that worked out well I could send another tip this time about Barty Crouch Junior who should be hidden at his father's place by now and I didn't want him escaping to re-join Voldemort any time soon, not now that I had plans to deal with the Dark Lord on my own. At the very least I'd rather delay his return until after I'd decided to leave this world.
"Mr Hiddleston claims to be a distant relative of yours and that he has begun the process of adoption in the Muggle world," he told me.
Flitwick was bright enough to notice that I was not surprised.
"You knew already," he said rather than asked.
I'd been prepared for this.
"He sent me a letter as well explaining who is and what he's planning to do," I told my Head of House "I don't know if he is my cousin or not, but I don't know why he'd lie as I don't see what he could gain by doing so unless some inheritance is involved and that's easy enough to check out ".
Flitwick accepted this as it made sense.
"He wrote to me to let me know he would be making contact" the teacher let me know.
I'd sent him that letter as Tom telling Flitwick that I would be making contact since having an adult man sending letters to an 11-year-old boy he didn't know could be considered very creepy. Flitwick as my Head of House was partly responsible for me and therefore would need to be involved on the magical side of things.
"You don't seem happy about this," said Professor Filius Flitwick
I was getting more used to hiding my feelings as part of my training in the mind arts.
"Nothing has happened yet," I told the master of charms "and adoptions don't always work out".
Professor Flitwick seemed a little concerned about my lack of reaction to this news, but he didn't speak on the matter.
"Mr Hiddleston wishes to met with you over the Christmas holidays, but I'd like you to wait until the Easter holidays just so I can do some checking into the man's background," said the teacher "I need to make sure that he's a suitable guardian".
It could be argued that it wasn't Flitwick's business, and it wouldn't be if he wasn't my Head of House. Since I was a Muggleborn my Head of House was supposed to look after my interests for me in the Magical World. Not that this gave the teacher the right to block an adoption it just meant that he had the right to look into the matter.
I wasn't worried about this because Gringotts could do a lot for someone like me including making sure that I had all the proper paperwork. These services along with the house I'd just brought and my recent purchases had drained my coffers, so it was good that I was already planning on ways to refill my vault.
"Makes sense" I replied "I wanted to stay in the castle over Christmas anyway".
With so many students out of the way, this was a good chance to leave the castle and spend time as Tom, as for John he was known for spending a lot of time alone.
"Thank you for looking out for me," I said to the teacher.
No sense rocking the boat and making things difficult. Besides I wanted to come off as a mature, polite and harmless student.
"Unless something comes up you should be ready to meet your cousin by Easter," said my teacher "I'll meet with him over the holidays and examine the paperwork".
I nodded and then headed out of the classroom. I was sure that my plans would work even with a delay in the adoption.
(Line Break)
Hogwarts School. Wizarding World.
Taking the form of a bowtruckle was an interesting experience as while the real ones were keeping their distance from me, I was able to see enough of them to mimic their physical form with one of my Loki given powers. Not only did I take the form of the magical creature I also had its abilities, both magical and mundane.
As such I soon found myself becoming very attached to the tree near the edge of the Forbidden Forest. I could feel that it was magical and this made sense since bowtruckles make their home in trees that can provide wood worthy of turning into a wand. I knew that the little creatures would do their best to defend this tree should anything threaten it and acting as a group they could be quite dangerous despite their size.
Since I was no wandmaker and because I suddenly found the idea of eating woodlice to be far more appealing than it should, I climbed back down to the tree and after looking around I once more returned to my base form of John Smith first-year student here at Hogwarts and proud member of Ravenclaw house.
"Wha' are yeh doin' here?" I was asked.
Hagrid the half-giant Groundskeeper had just come out of the forest.
"Students aren' allowed here," he said.
While I wasn't actually in the forest, he had reasons for wanting me to keep my distance since the woods were full of things that could kill a first-year student without much trouble and he had no idea that I was more than I appeared to be.
"I just came to see the bowtruckles" I answered.
That made the big man smile.
"Int'rested in magical creatures are yeh?" he asked.
Yes, but I had practical reasons for this.
I wanted to make more money so that I could refill my vault and being able to turn into magical creatures could help with that, but I needed to see them first.
"Are there any Nifflers about?" I asked, "Or unicorns?".
I knew from my reading that the Niffler was a magical beast with a long snout and a coat of fluffy fur that came in black most of the time, although rarely you would find one of the creatures with a more colourful coat. Nifflers, in general, are usually harmless, however, they are strongly attracted to shiny things, which made them wonderful for locating treasure, but that also meant that they can wreak havoc if are let loose somewhere indoors, say like a bank.
"Unicorns rarely come near boys," said Hagrid.
I knew that and they liked virgin girls the best due to their purity or some such nonsense, yet a male human could earn the trust of a unicorn if he was pure of heart and patient it would just take time.
"Seeing one from a distance will be fine" I assured the Keeper of Keys.
Hagrid smiled.
"I can' promise tha' yeh'll see a unicorn, but I can show yeh some nifflers if yeh wan' ter help me feed 'em" he offered.
That seemed like a good use of my time so I followed the big man.
"Mr Hagrid do you know how Nifflers handle cursed items?" I questioned, "I was reading about them and the books don't mention what might happen if a Nifflers picked up say a cursed golden ring".
I knew that Gringotts curse breakers make use of the magical animals to help them find treasure and that Nifflers can be fooled by lepracorn's gold, but nothing I'd read about them in the books mentioned if they fell victim to cursed objects.
"Nifflers avoid cursed objects tha' are shiny" Hagrid informed me "but they ignore anything tha' isn' shiny unless its food so they aren' much help in dealing with cursed stuff because they won't dig em up".
That made sense as it explained why the Ministry didn't use the animals but Gringotts did as the goblins would only care about if an item was cursed or not if it was made out of something valuable like silver or gold so they might place a Niffler near a suspected cursed object to see how the magical animal reacted.
I cared because with such a creature's senses I'd have a much easier time finding valuables within Hogwarts both within and outside of the Room of Requirement. I didn't wish to steal from anyone so I would avoid the dorms, the classrooms in use and the teacher's spaces, but the castle was big so there should be plenty to explore and if Nifflers could feel danger from a cursed item like how a bowtruckle can feel wand worthy wood it would make exploring the castle as a Niffler much safer.
Hagrid told me, in very simple terms that Nifflers are herbivores. They will dig around in order to find roots vegetables and other plants, which they will bring back to their lairs to share with the group. They also tend to eat weeds and shrubs, though they will not eat flowering plants. I learned this for myself as I helped the ground keeper feed the adorable animals that were presented to the Care of Magical Creatures classes.
"I can't wait to join that class" I mentioned to the groundskeeper.
Hagrid smiled upon hearing that not suspecting that I had a selfish motive and invited me to come round his hut if I ever wanted to talk on the subject. Which I would do as I wanted to learn more about magical creatures I could take the form of could do without training.
(Line Break)
Hogwarts School. The Wizarding World.
I didn't wish to steal but given how often I sneaked out of the castle it was only a matter of time before the Weasley twins noticed me on the map, and what if I needed to visit the school as Tom and they noticed that the map didn't label me with the right name. Besides they were just using the map to play pranks and I could use it for something better.
There was a bad guy after me who wanted the world-seed badly and if I had the map it would be much easier to look for strangers who were poking around. I could also identify everyone on the map and double-check their backstories. I wasn't sure how I'd do that for people who weren't named as characters in the books, but I had time to find out.
Since the Marauder's Map would be of no use to me once I left the school I would hand it over to Harry Potter or one of the still-living Marauders, if there were any left by then, as it belong to them, and it wasn't as if the twins had any real claim to the map as they'd stolen it from the caretaker's office during their first year.
It would be the Xmas holidays within a matter of days, the term having flown by since I'd been so busy, and soon the twins would leave the school so I wanted to grab the map now. If my plan to expose Wormtail worked I figured that the twins would be more careful with the map in future as they might start looking for other suspicious characters rather than just avoiding teachers.
Getting into Gryffindor tower had proven to be harder than expected. The towers of Hogwarts were strange in that I couldn't keep track of them all and the stairs that led to the towers liked to change. I didn't even know what half of the towers were even used for and all of the windows of Gryffindor tower were closed. Not odd considering that it was winter.
Since getting inside the tower in the form of a bird wasn't possible at this time and while I considered changing my appearance to that of a student of that House, I didn't know their password, and it was too late at night for me just hang about and wait for a student to return. So I decided to turn into a cat and to see if there was some way for small animals to get in and out of the tower.
A rat might have more luck, but if I ran into Scabbers, aka Wormtail, I wanted to be in a form that could deal with him as a rat, not to mention I wouldn't be the only cat around and I had no desire to be attacked if I took the form of a smaller animal. However I couldn't find any way of getting in, but there must be given that cats like to wander and come back in again in their own time.
"Meow," I said to the portrait in front of me.
Gryffindor Tower was located behind the portrait of the Fat Lady here on the Seventh Floor of Hogwarts Castle so if there was a way for pets to get in and out it would be around here,
"Oh hello" replied the Fat Lady "Whose a good boy?"
How did she know my gender in this form? Not that it mattered because she moved over to the side of the painting and exposed the existence of a cat flap.
"Off to bed now kitty" she instructed.
The common room was a circular room in which Gryffindor students could relax after a long day of studying. The common room was full of squashy armchairs, tables, and a bulletin board where school notices, ads, lost posters, etc. were posted. A window currently covered in shutters must look out onto the grounds of the school, and I noticed that a large fireplace dominated one wall.
Compared to the Ravenclaw common area this space was a mess and yet it seemed cosier as well. There were a lot more portraits in here, all of which were snoozing at this hour. There were two doors leading off from the common room that opened to spiral staircases. One of them led to the girl's dormitory, the other to the boys. The stairs to the girl's dormitories were enchanted to become a slide if any boy attempted to climb them, but not vice-versa.
This makes some sense as if a girl sneaks up to visit a boy in their dorms and gets caught she'd have trouble accusing the boy of taking advantage since she would have gone to him knowing that something could happen. Or maybe I was simply overthinking the matter.
Like in Ravenclaw tower I found that students move up rooms every year so the first years are at the bottom were as the seventh years are at the very top. Not that there was any difference in the rooms as far as I knew.
I found the door leading to the correct year and after opening it as a human I slipped back into cat form thinking that if anyone saw me enter they'd just assume that the door hadn't been shut and that the cat was simply looking for somewhere warm to sleep. As it turned out all the boys had the curtains of their beds drawn and so I took the form of a Slytherin student whom I knew to be a trouble maker so that he could get the blame if someone saw me as a human.
After casting silencing charms on each bed, a spell I'd practised this very evening I began to examine the trunks. Hopefully, neither of the twins slept with the map and I figured that while their trunks were cheaply made the twins were clever so they might alarm them somehow. If so I would transform and hide under one of the beds as a cat.
The trunks were not alarmed as it turned out, and it wasn't as if they had anything worth stealing given that the family was known to be poor, and yet I found some objects that didn't catch my eye, early versions of their pranking products. If I was around after they left school I would invest in that business for sure.
While being careful not to touch anything I found what looked to be some old parchment that must be what I was looking for, but I had to be sure.
"I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good" I whispered.
This was the Marauder's Map, a magical document that reveals almost all of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Not only does it show every classroom, every hallway, and every corner of the castle, but it also shows every inch of the grounds, as well as all the secret passages that are hidden within its walls and the location of every person within the grounds, portrayed by a dot. It is also capable of accurately identifying each person, and is not fooled by Animagi, Polyjuice Potions, or Invisibility Cloaks; even the Hogwarts ghosts can't go undetected from this.
Peter Pettigrew did not appear on the map, but since he helped make it I figured that he must know how to hide from detection. Perhaps he took his human form and would cast a spell on himself every so often and simply forgot during Harry Potter's Third Year due to becoming stressed out.
No matter if the DMLE didn't find him over Xmas I would use one of my other plans. For now, I needed to hide the map in the Room of Requirement which the twins didn't know about in case they had a way to track the map. With that in mind, I returned to my cat form and headed out.
