Reviews
Selias
It's the story I want to write and I'm getting enough followers to know that plenty of people are enjoying my story.
Mugen-Muse
I might try writing the scene were Sirius finds the letter.
ZhaWarudo
I'm not writing for any of my other stories at this time.
I will try to have the MC interact more with other characters.
Carthienes
I went with Kol for his wizard name as it's Norse and not used in the books.
Alan
Many years ago I wondered if they were gremlins who were punished for the crimes. I do wonder if there are other kinds of elves in the magical world or if they are related to goblins in some way as they do look somewhat alike.
Crossworlds 1 - Harry Potter
Part 12
Former Dumbledore Residence. Godric's Hollow.
Since I didn't dare touch the important item directly I had the set of animated armour that I'd gotten from the Room of Requirement and then enchanted before sending it into the bank, to place the cup on a nearby table.
I'd ended up deciding against risking a human life as animating one suit of armour that only needed to move about long enough to carry out a simple task hadn't been much work, and the suit which was now done with its task went back to standing over by the door to the cellar so as to act as a guard.
No curse like the one on the ring would have affected magical animated metal in any meaningful way and I wasn't stupid enough to actually touch the cup even if it didn't seem to be cursed as far I could tell. I still went through the ritual bit of magic that should help to contain the Horcrux as it didn't take much effort and then I spent some time simply studying the founder's item.
As for the vanishing cabinet, it might be years before anyone in Gringotts even noticed that the cup was gone since anyone with access to the vault is in prison and the goblins only inspect them about once a decade. Still, it was best to smash my one of the pair just in case and then burn what was left before turning my attention back to the cup.
The cup was a creation of Helga Hufflepuff, the celebrated Founder of Hufflepuff House. It was described in more than one historical text as a shining golden cup with two finely wrought handles on either side and a badger engraved on its surface. Unless this was a good copy it must be the real deal as it looked exactly right.
Also according to the books, the cup was said to possess many magical powers, though the exact nature of those powers was not known. Helga Hufflepuff was brilliant with food-related charms and with house-elves, so the cup may have been the very first dining utensil at Hogwarts to assist in the magical transportation of food from the House-Elf Kitchens. At least according to the speculation of several magical historians.
The cup remained with Hufflepuff until the time of her death and then passed down her family line. In more modern times it belonged to Hepzibah Smith, a descendant of Hufflepuff who kept the cup as a priceless family heirloom. Perhaps I would return the cup to some member of the Smith family once it was cleansed?
In 1946, Smith showed the cup to Tom Marvolo Riddle, who was at that time employed at Borgin and Burkes due to his interest in artefacts. She dazzled Riddle with the cup and stated she could never part with it. That was what got her killed as Riddle murdered her for the cup so that he could turn it into a Horcrux along with Salazar's Locket.
I would keep the locket for myself since I had the owner's permission, but the cup was another matter and I figured it best to talk to the cup's creator before deciding what to do with the magical treasure. With that in mind, I turned the Hallow stone three times and summonsed to my side the spirit of Helga Hufflepuff.
"At last," she said, "I was hoping you'd call upon me!".
Well, at least she was much happier to be here than Rowena Ravenclaw had been.
"I just wanted to know about the cup" I mentioned.
My cellar was a secure place for me to do important work within as such as there was little to see here so before long Helga Hufflepuff stopped looking around and gave me her full attention. Helga had motherly look about her and carried herself much more causally than Ravenclaw had done. She wasn't a pretty woman, but there was a kindness about her, she reminded me of a grandmother.
"Oh yes I'd forgotten about it," she said "That blasted Riddle boy despoiled it, what a shame. I enchanted it to summon any drink in the castle so that I always had pumpkin juice when I got thirsty. But it only works inside the castle".
That was all?
"It's just a pretty cup that I turned into a prototype for the magic that allows the House Elves to send up food to the Great Hall without actually leaving the kitchens" she went on to say "At the time that was new magic, cutting edge as you would say these days, so I was rather proud of it, but beyond that its really just a display piece".
Not very impressive to me, but Ravenclaw's diadem had the same effect as wit-sharpening potion so by modern standards it didn't really come across as some great magical item worth killing over either.
"Guess I'll hand it over to Hogwarts once it has been cleansed and Riddle is no longer a threat," I said.
Since the snake was not yet a Horcrux, once I'd gotten the locket and cup cleansed I only had to worry about Potter and the diary, since the ring and diadem were already gone. Getting the diary was just a matter of time and as for Potter well he needed to defeat Tom Riddle, but if I learned the White Mage Spell that brought the recently deceased I could free him from the bit of soul in his forehead by killing him.
Then it would just be a matter of trapping Voldemort, assuming that his spirit didn't simply move on once it lacked its anchors. I might need to arrange a showdown, but I could worry about that later.
"Yes it would look like in the trophy room," said Helga "Is that all you wanted?".
Perhaps she wanted a nice chat, however that wouldn't be happening since I didn't care about food charms. As such I soon let the spirit go and headed back to the school as I had a lot of other tasks to be getting on with.
(Line Break)
Acromantula Colony. The Forbidden Forest.
I reverted back to my human form and found myself standing within a scene of utter carnage as I'd just used my basilisk form to kill many of the man-eating spiders and those that hadn't died I'd sent running for the hills, quite literally in this case as there were hills in the direction they run to.
The monsters had left behind their webs and their eggs, which I did feel somewhat tempted to stomp upon, but I had better things to be doing with my time and I couldn't be gone from the castle for too long. Besides, I might want to come back later and kill more of the monsters so no sense in killing their offspring.
While in the form of a basilisk my mere gaze had been enough to kill and when those huge spiders brave enough to attack tried to take down from behind I'd lashed out with my powerful body, crushing their more fragile forms. Overall my actions here had resulted in quite a bit of a mess.
I felt sure that I'd killed the big daddy spider, who Hagrid had brought into the castle when he was a student, and while I felt a little bad about killing the half-giant's friend, it did mean the students were safer and killing, Argog or whatever his name was, must have gotten me a nice amount of XP.
Now that the great serpent was gone the magical spiders would regroup so I only had a little time to do what needed to be done. I could feel all the XP that I'd gathered from killing so many creatures that were each capable of killing an adult wizard and as I'd slaughtered them in their dozens, I'd gotten a lot of XP. By getting so much I'd unlocked a few Red Mage spells that I simply now knew how to cast thanks to a special item that I'd picked up before coming here to the Wizarding World.
I now knew a Cure spell for healing as well as spells that I could use to lash out at foes, such as Stone and Paralyse. They would be a big surprise to anyone who ever disarmed me and thought me helpless. Granted I could do a few basic spells without a wand and move things without touching them, but the Red Mage spells were on a whole other level than that.
My new spells would come in handy if the spiders regrouped sooner than expected so I knew that I had to get on with things. I'd come here to not only massacre the spiders I was also here to make a profit and that involved extracting the venom from the still-warm corpses scattered around me.
Since I really didn't want to touch the spiders, they disgusted me, I'd needed to take a calming draught first, one that was so potent that I'd been able to walk to the edge of the colony while still in my vulnerable human form without any fear. The potion made it possible for me to be here and to extract venom without freaking out.
Because of the rarity of the venom, it could fetch up to a hundred Galleons a pint, maybe even more to the right buyer and Slughorn should be able to direct me to someone who can pay that much. I might even be able to collect more than a single pint if I moved quickly.
Sure a hundred Galleons wasn't a lot to me, but there was no sense passing up being able to make that kind of money just because I didn't really need it right now. Besides it would be bad it all go to waste.
"I wonder if the rest of the body has any value?" I asked myself.
Of course, I'd looked up that information as best I could but since the giant spiders were supposed to be found only in South America there wasn't much information available on them in this country.
Also if Tom Hiddleston started selling whole Acromantula bodies then someone would for sure connect it to what had just happened here and I didn't want that. Hence why I sell them venom via Slughorn who knew better than talk about such things even if he made the connection as it wouldn't serve his interests.
I'd just finished filling a bottle that was big enough to contain more than a pint of the venom when I heard the crashing of hooves heading my way which could only mean one thing. I might have panicked if not for the claiming draught and really I had no reason to panic since in my big snake form I could wipe out the entire tribe of centaurs that had for the most part ridden past me.
It didn't take a Ravenclaw to figure out that the centaurs were taking advantage of my actions and heading out to finish off the big spiders who would always be a threat to them unless they were all killed.
"You should not be in our forest, wizard," said one of the few centaurs who'd stopped here "but you have done us a service even if you did not mean to so you are free to leave in peace".
If not for the magically induced calmness I might be upset about the level of scorn in the magical creature's voice and if nothing else there might be more venom to collect so I had reasons to stay, and perhaps even punish these mortals for their attitude, but it wasn't worth the hassle and it wasn't as if I'd let them prevent me from returning if I so wished to come back.
"I leave because it suits me," I told the centaurs.
Either they didn't care about my motivations or they were wise enough not to anger a wizard who could do this much damage to other magical creatures, as none of them dared to stop me from simply walking away.
(Line Break)
The Room of Requirement. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Arithmancy at its most simple is just magical maths, but you can do a lot with it. With the right knowledge, you can try to predict the future using probabilities and break down spells to understand why they did what they did, it was even possible to create new spells if your understanding was great enough.
Ever since I'd started earning some XP by killing those magical spiders in the forest I'd gained access to new spells and the understanding of how to cast them without even using a wand. Since I was a Red Mage I had knowledge of both light and dark magic even without my Hogwarts education and some of Tom Riddle memories.
This meant that I'd learned to break down spells into something close to a mathematical formula so that I could reverse engineer them in some sense and even make modifications or invent totally new spells, or spells that were at least new to me. I'd begun to do this in the hopes that I could create wand versions of my Red Mage spells in the future in case I lost my band and also to better understand how Red Mage spells work.
Doing so was dangerous, as messing with spells this why was what got Luna's mother killed, assuming my letter hadn't shifted events, but I was going to be very careful and spend lots of time figuring all of this out. I also had the advantage of an AI helping me with my work although she wasn't as much help as she was normally.
"So what is a base 8 number system?" I asked.
Cortana had been complaining about wizards using a base 7 number system to create spell formulas. For some reason, it really bothered her.
"You're used to using Base 10 maths" she started to explain "You start at 0 then 1 then 2 and you go up to 9. At 10 you start back at 0 again and add 1 for 11, 2 for 12 and so on until you get to 19. When you get to 20 you've started back at 0 again, but add 1 on the left for 21. This you can do forever. You can add two zeroes to 1 for 100 or three zeroes for 1000 and just keep going".
Humans have ten digits on their hands so thinking of numbers in terms of tens just makes sense for us.
"I am basically made up of a binary code" Cortana was now saying "Base 2 maths which has only 2 digits: 0 and 1, but that's easy for me to convert to Base 10".
If she said so.
"Magical Maths is close to what I would call Septenary or Base 7 which has 7 digits: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, only in the magical world they are using 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and there's no zero. You need a zero for any real kind of math yet they don't have one for their spell formulas. Without zero I can't convert this nonsense for you into something easier to understand because I don't understand it. All advanced maths requires a zero".
The human use of numbers came from the practical need to count things, were as zero is only used to denote an absence of anything. You don't need zero to go buy half a dozen eggs, but you do need to design a nuclear weapon.
"But I understand this stuff, at least somewhat," I told the AI.
Tom Riddle's memories would only take me so far, but overall it wasn't that complex and I knew it would take a year or two before I could make a new spell. Modifying existing spells would take less time, but that would have to wait because it was risky to do without a proper understanding of the subject.
"It's all jibberish to me" admitted Cortana "Lucky for you, neither of us has to memories the formulas".
That's true. Harry Potter didn't need to know what Sectumsempra did or how it worked, he just needed to understand that it was a spell to use against enemies. As such memorising a formula wasn't required for using a spell once it had been created.
"What does any of this have to do with Frank and Alice Longbottom?" questioned my AI.
Since Cortana couldn't simply memorise what I was doing now I'd written down my ideas along with the formulas along with some other notes on the blackboards provided by the room.
"Frank and Alice Longbottom were tortured by dark magic and there's no counter to it with wand magic" I answered "But Final Fantasy magic works differently. In such games there are spells that can cause status effects, which can be good or bad, the negative ones are sometimes called status ailments, and what matters is that all of them can be undone in some way by either an item or a white mage spell, at least in theory".
I had more to say on this matter.
"My thinking is that either I'll learn a spell which can fix the Longbottoms or I can alter an existing one to do the job," I told Cortana "They were driven insane and while status ailments in the games normally run out in time or if you die, the Longbottoms are still under the effects of the torture curse because of the accumulative effects, so it's going to take a powerful magic spell to fix them up".
Aside from the White Mage spells that repel and damage the undead, and might be effective against dementors as the Patrons spell could be considered a White Mage spell, most of the White Mage spells are either about healing, buffing up your allies, or countering negative status effects. For example one of my Black Mage spells is called Poison which reduces health over time were as Regen is a White Mage spell that regenerates health and therefore could be considered a counter.
"All magic has a counter, even if the Killing Curse can be shielded against as Lily Potter proves" I was now saying "So there must be a way to heal the effects of the Torture Curse".
Nothing was impossible with magic as far as I was concerned even spells cast with a wand did appear to have certain limits. For example, you can't create gold with a spell, but you can transmute other metals into gold with the Philosopher's Stone.
"Sounds like you've set yourself an interesting challenge," said Cortana "But why are you bothering? You don't care about the Longbottoms".
At this point in the conversation I was reminded of something I'd heard on Doctor Who 'Every now and then a little victim's spared because she smiled, 'cause he's got freckles. 'Cause they begged. And that's how you live with yourself. That's how you slaughter millions. Because once in a while—on a whim, if the wind's in the right direction—you happen to be kind'
Okay so I was no mass murderer, but why I might have justifications for killing all those spiders, who had each been a sentient lifeform just trying to survive, I'd not done it to protect the school or to safeguard the unicorns they might prey upon, I'd done it for the XP, for power.
I might not have much interest in the darker aspects of magic, but that didn't make me a light side wizard. I would do what I needed to do in order to protect the world seed, yet even that was only part of my motivation for trying to obtain god levels of power.
No, I was doing this mostly for myself and I was willing to screw with the wizarding world to keep Loki appeased and because I wanted to screw with the established order. I didn't really care much about oppressed groups like the Muggleborns I just hated the entitled snobby purebloods.
I'd kill some of those purebloods so as to shake up the status quo and because it would make the world a better place, but I also wanted more XP and I thought myself better than other people because I felt had the right to sentence them to death for their crimes. None of which had been directed at me, at least not yet.
As for the Longbottoms? Well if I could come up with a spell to cure them then I should be able to create a spell to do almost anything I desired and this was a better use of my time than learning from schoolbooks.
"I'm partly doing this to make myself feel like I'm not such a bad person" I admitted.
As Edmure Tully once said, "All of us have to believe that we're decent, don't we?"
The motivations were important and they would drive me into uncovering the secrets of magic and that would be what gave me the power I desired so I best get on with it.
(Line Break)
The Three Broomsticks. Hogsmede Village.
As Tom Hiddleston, adventurer, explorer and treasure hunter, I entered the warm and welcoming Wizard pub. I noted right away how much more cheerful and bright this place was when compared to Leaky Cauldron down in London. I figured that it had to do with that pub having much more foot traffic and less savoury characters rather than it being a case of this business simply being better run.
Upon entering I was greeted by Madam Rosmerta who I knew to be the proprietor of the Three Broomsticks. She was at least in her 30s and likely a bit older since she was running the Three Broomsticks back in the 1970s when the Mauraders went to Hogwarts. I suspected her looks were a combination of the fact that magical humans can live much longer than their muggle counterparts and a few well-used cosmetic spells.
Madam Rosmerta was well known by witches and wizards from all over, including the teachers from Hogwarts, and even the Minister for Magic himself who would greet her by name in the Prisoner of Azkaban book. Not that this was very odd as the magical world was a small and isolated community.
"You must be Tom Hiddleston," said Madam Rosmerta, who somehow knew me on sight despite us never having met "Professor Flitwick told me you were coming. He's waiting for you in the backroom".
I'd come here to meet with the Ravenclaw Head of House as a final step on the path to adopting my base form, John Smith, in both the muggle and magical worlds. The Wizards didn't have social services as the non-magical world did because all the pureblood families were related so an abused or orphaned child would simply be sent to live with the nearest living relative.
In the case of Neville Longbottom that was his grandmother, and in the case of Harry Potter that could have been a number of magical families all of which would have been honoured to care for the boy.
"Did you hear about that trial?" asked Rosmerta as she lead into the back of the pub "Do you know, I had trouble believing it for all those years. I mean Sirius Black was never going to have gone over to the dark. He was always such a kind lad and so loyal to James Potter. I'm glad they let him go".
Black getting cleared of all charges had been a simple matter once they used that truth potion on him. Normally that alone wouldn't clear a person as the truth potion only makes you say what you believe is true. An example of this would be if you asked a Christian and an atheist if God is real you'd get two different answers and neither person would be lying.
In this case, the potion worked because they had Wormtail to question as well and that made it easy to compare the two accounts. According to the article, I'd read just this morning Sirius Black had been more than happy to admit everything and while not registering as Animagus was illegal the court had declared that Black had already been punished enough for any past wrongdoing.
Wormtail was sentenced to the Dementor's Kiss. I was surprised to hear that Dumbeldore, who led the trial hadn't prevented that, but even he had to bow to public opinion and Pettigrew would soon be soulless. Which made me wonder how Voldemort would return, but I had no doubt Fate would take matters in hand.
"Bloody Crouch" the owner of the pub was now saying "How could he throw poor Sirius into Azkaban without even bothering to question him, and then free his own son from that horrible place?"
Given that Wizarding Britain had been in a state of war at the time it made some sense of Sirius to be contained in Azkaban if they suspected he was a Death Eater, but there was no excuse for not questioning him because if he had been Voldemort's right-hand man as people thought then he would have had a lot of useful information about the Death Eaters. Yet it had all been swept under the rug.
Fudge was smart enough to blame the former Minister of Magic and Barty Crouch Senior who'd already lost his chance for the top job due to his son being exposed as a Death Eater, and how he'd be spending the rest of his life in Azkaban for using an Unforgivable on his son as well for freeing him from the wizard prison.
The Minister had spun all of it in an interview, stating that he was battling the corruption of the former administration and while I knew that Fudge was just as bad as those who came before I knew that the real issue was those who whispered in his ear. Lucius Malfoy's influence at the Ministry would only grow as long as Fudge was in office.
"I wonder what this will mean for Harry Potter," I said to Rosmerta "Once Black has recovered will he be raising his godson as he should be?".
If that topic wasn't already on people's minds then it soon would be as the owner of this pub was sure to spread the idea around. I didn't want to get involved directly with young Harry as I was in no state to earn the ire of Dumbledore, because even if he wasn't a Dark Lord with good PR, he was still a powerful political figure.
"Ah Mr Hiddleston" greeted Flitwick as I entered the back room he must have booked for this meeting "Please take a seat".
Without delay, I did just that and the nearby tea set began serving by itself. I didn't know who thought it was a good idea to have pots of scalding hot tea floating about so I saw it as just another example of the foolishness of the wand wavers.
"I just wanted a quick chat before young John moves in with you over the Easter holidays" explained Flitwick "I'm sure that you'll take good care of my raven, but I'd be negligent if I didn't at least meet with you first".
Where was this level of care when Luna Lovegood got bullied? Perhaps the blame could be placed on the Prefects for not reporting the bullying? Still, it seemed wrong to me for Flitwick to act as if he cared so much for John and not notice Luna's suffering a few years from now. Not that I intended to let that happen.
"I understand," I said.
Luna Lovegood aside it was sensible for Flitwick to meet with me and to check that I was prepared to take care of John.
"Now I've not heard anything about your employment" mentioned Flitwick "Will you be able to support John?".
While my fine clothing should assure him that I had access to plenty of money only a fool judges people only on their appearance.
"Money won't be a concern" I assured the teacher "The Hiddleston family has made a fortune over the last few generations and I've made some profitable investments".
I was still finding the odd valuable in the Room of Requirement when in the form of a Niffler.
"Do you have a suitable home?" I was asked.
Indeed I did.
"Before Christmas, I purchased a good-sized house in Godric's Hollow" I answered "It's quite modern and the village is mostly muggle, but that won't be an issue for John as he knows how to navigate their world".
I gave the teacher the full address for the school's records.
"John hasn't made any friends while in school and he is very mature for his age" I was informed "That can be put down to his upbringing and I wanted to inform you about this as I'm worried about John not spending enough time with his peers".
I had no desire to mingle with children, however, I might need to make an effort as I wasn't willing to withdraw from Hogwarts yet. Not when I wanted access to the Room of Requirement and the school's vast library. Besides, I wouldn't mind meeting some of the main characters next year.
"Over Easter, I'll talk to John" I was now saying "I should be able to convince him to join a school club at least".
Flitwick seemed pleased by my words.
"Many of my Ravenclaws can be loner types," said the teacher "It's just that it is unhealthy to spend too much time alone".
Well, I was never really alone not with the voice in my head.
"John might enjoy Charms Club or the Chess Club both of which I run" suggested Flitwick.
You'd think that Ron Weasly would be a member of that second club and it would be mentioned somewhere in the books. Then again Ron wasn't one for doing more than the least amount of work even when it came to his hobbies so I doubted he'd win against anyone who actually studied the game.
"I'll mention it to him" I promised.
Although Flitwick already had done that since I was John Smith.
"Now I just have a few more questions" mentioned the Charms Master.
They were easy to answer since I already knew how to get to St Mungos, and it wouldn't be much trouble to update the records at the Ministry.
"Glad to get all that sorted out," said the teacher "Young John has no problem moving in with you over Easter and this was mostly a formality. Now if you'll excuse me I do have some essays to mark".
We shook hands and parted ways. Everything had gone well and since there was really no need for me to do much else until the summer I should be able to devote a lot of time to my research.
