Reviews

Alan

Thank you.

Mugen-Muse

Someone at the Ministry could be embezzling or diverting funds away from Hogwarts, or Lucius Malfoy got them to shut it down by bribing the right people.

Umbridge is only dangerous when she's working within a system that supports her. She couldn't get Hogwarts under her control even with Fudge's backing, because she lacked support within Hogwarts, aside from a few students and the caretaker.

Outside of that, she is a somewhat talented witch proven by the fact that she can perform the Patronus Charm and that's supposed to be advanced magic, although school children can learn it so maybe it's not that difficult.

So on her own Umbridge is no threat and is easily gotten rid of by anyone whose willing to get their hands dirty, she's just someone with a case of Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder mixed with psychotic tendencies who never would have gotten a government job if not for the fact that the Ministry of Magic is so corrupt.

Glitner

I'll do my best to create some sort of a character sheet.

ZhaWarudo

So what if Arthur doesn't understand how muggle technology works. Most muggles don't understand how technology works and we use it just fine. I don't need to know how an aeroplane flies to take a plane somewhere.

Fudge had Crouch Junior summerly executed (if the Dementor's kiss can be called that since it doesn't directly kill people) without even bothering to question him as part of an effort to cover up mistakes made. by the Ministry. So I think he would throw Umbridge into Azkaban simply to cover up an embarrassment. Also, her blackmail material could be considered treason since such documents might be used to undermine the entire government.

Character Sheet

Name: Kol the Wizard

Level: N/A

Class: Red Mage

Weapons: Wand, Goblin-Silver dagger.

Armour: Thestral coat.

Angelic Powers: Shapeshifting, Illusions, Burning Hands.

FF Spells: Dia, Cure, Stone, Poison, Barstone, Barsleep, Parazlyse, Protect.

(I gave him all the spells up to level 7 since poison is a level 5 spell and adding 2 levels seem reasonable given how deadly the magical spiders can be. Each alone is considered deadly enough to kill grown wizards and he killed dozens)

FF Skills: Chainspell, Sword Fighting, Dagger Fighting.

Wizard Magic: Wand Magic, Wandless Magic, Mind Arts, Potion Making.

Companions: An AI called Cortana.

Crossworlds 1 - Harry Potter

Part 15

Courtyard. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Flying lessons were not just about getting on a broom and trying to show off to your mates, or to impress the girls. The flying coach also taught us about broom safety, the rules of Quidditch, laws that governed flying, which was handled by the Ministry of Magic's Broom Regulatory Control, and broom maintenance. That was what we were going over during this lesson.

We had to check the broom we'd been flying on earlier for splinters and anything else that might show that the broom needed some repair. The flying objects also had to be polished regularly to ensure top performance.

"In my experience, there's nothing that feels better in your hands than a good Oakshaft" commented Madam Hooch as she showed us how to polish our brooms "Make sure you keep a firm grip on the Oakshaft as you polish your broom. Not too hard".

She had to know what she was saying. Yet I seemed to be the only student who found her words amusing. Not that anyone noticed my mirth since I was practising Occlumency which allowed me to focus on what I was doing.

"Are you going to go see your cousin over Easter?" asked Marcus Belby, my classmate in Ravenclaw "If you do see him say thanks for the brooms".

My actions as Tom Hiddleston had made John Hiddleston much more popular with my classmates. Not that I wanted to be noticed.

"I am and I will" I promised.

Technically he had just thanked Tom.

"Are you leaving for the holidays?" I asked, faking interest.

Easter wasn't a Wizarding holiday. If I'd grown up as a Pureblood I'd know if they celebrated any Solstices or not, but if they did no one talked about it.

"I'll spend some time with my family" mentioned Marcus.

Eddie Carmichael my other classmate would also be going home for a couple of weeks. We could all study for our end of year exams when outside of the school and it wasn't as if they really mattered as long as we didn't fail as when it came to jobs only the OWL and NEWTs counted since your OWL results decided what NEWTs you could do and the NEWTs were what employers would mostly care about.

I felt sure that I would be able to ace the exams, in fact, I was still planning to hold back just so I didn't draw too much attention to myself.

"My Cousin wants us to go on a trip?" I told the two young wizards.

I wouldn't be leaving the country I just wanted to give people the impression that I might be overseas. I didn't intend to disclose my movements over the two weeks I would be free from this school with anyone.

"Where are you going?" asked Eddie.

"No idea" I lied "My cousin is a treasure hunter, so maybe we'll go treasure hunting".

I might do that if I had time. I could question a few spirits and find some pile of lost gold to add to my bank vaults.

"That's it girls pick up the pace and really polish those brooms" I heard Hooch say "You're almost finished. Try to ignore any cramp in your wrists"

Okay, she had to be saying it that way to try to see if any of us reacted. Well, it wouldn't be me I would keep a straight face even if Cortana was giggling inside my head. To make it worse one of the girls somehow managed to get her polish all over her face.

"Oh it's all sticky" she complained.

At this point, even my mental discipline couldn't stop me from laughing it was just dumb luck that no one heard me over the girl's whining and the teacher's attempts to explain what she'd done wrong. However, I failed to keep the stupid grin off my face and the coach did not fail to notice my expression.

"What's got you so happy, Hiddleston?" she asked.

I couldn't resist saying something.

"Oh I'm just enjoying polishing my broom," I said.

She nodded in approval.

"Young wizards really enjoy giving their broom a good, long polishing," she told me "And it's a lot more fun if you have a friend to help".

Okay, she had to be doing this on purpose. She just had to.

(Line Break)

Hiddleston Home. Godric's Hollow.

I'd left the school along with the other students at the end of my second term at Hogwarts and after taking the train to London I'd popped into the public toilets, before taking the form of Tom Hiddleston and then creating an illusion of John Hiddleston that rode the Knight Bus to this village with me. I'd even kept the illusion going until I'd entered the house.

This I'd done because during the trip back I'd felt as if I was being watched and while that could be mere paranoia I couldn't help thinking that Dumbledore might be having me watched ever since I'd openly declared that I was no friend of his. Not many people would have picked up on that, but the Headmaster was more than clever enough to figure out what I'd really been saying.

My attempts to avoid anyone noticing something odd hadn't been planned out and I didn't think I'd been successful, but it wasn't as if anyone knew that I could create illusions and metamorphs can't be in two places at once so even if that news got spread about it wouldn't expose the truth of me.

Now that the Easter holidays had started up I was free to spend more time away from the castle and from my studies. My basement was magically protected in every way I'd been able to come with so I felt sure that I couldn't be detected down here even by someone like Mad-Eye Moody.

Since I was somewhat paranoid I'd decided to spend my time off school, coming up with a way to make sure no one was following me around, at least in certain areas. To that end, I'd began studying the Marauder's Map in the hopes that I could replicate this rather neat bit of magic.

I even hoped to improve upon it if given time as the map was far from perfect. One of the map's possible flaws was that it did not differentiate people who had matching names such as Barty Crouch Senior and Barty Crouch Junior.

Pettigrew was able to hide his presence from the map at least some of the time, and that made sense since he'd helped to make it. I figured that this meant Sirius Black and Remus Lupin should be able to do as well. I wanted to be able to track those two wizards if they came to the school as teachers or even just as guests.

There were some other issues with the map. Such as the magical defences of Hogwarts are supposed to make the castle unplottable and that implies that mapping Hogwarts is impossible, which is exactly what the Marauder's Map does.

Unless making a place unplottable might simply mean that it's only impossible for it to be mapped in a way that exposes a location. The Marauder's Map only covers Hogwarts and its grounds, not its position relative to anywhere else like if Hogwarts appeared on a map of Great Britain.

Nor does the map show the Chamber of Secrets or the Room of Requirement, and this makes sense as the map was created based on the Marauders' knowledge of Hogwarts and since none of them could speak Parselmouth, they wouldn't have been able to get into the Chamber to map it.

Besides given that Fred and George had the map during the opening of the Chamber of Secrets it seems very unlikely it showed the Chamber or they would have mentioned it to someone or gone after Ginny themselves. Most likely they have gotten themselves killed trying to look into the matter.

As for the Room of Requirement, it is possible that the Marauders did manage to find it and that the room is unplottable. I would only be able to find out once I attempted to make a map of my own.

Those were matters I'd have to correct since it would be good to know if anyone else was making use of the Room of Requirement, other than the House-Elves who wouldn't tell anyone, and since Voldemort would be within the school by September of this year I wanted to be able to track him as well as he might enter the Chamber even if it was just to check up on the big snake.

I did wonder why the map had never shown the twins that Quirinus Quirrell was possessed by Voldemort. Could the Dark Lord hide from the map? Wormtail could have told him how, but why would he have ever done that? Was it just a side effect of whatever Voldemort did to get around the castle's defences?

Aside from a map of Hogwarts I also wanted to make a map of Godric's Hollow, so that I could tell if anyone was spying on me. I could even make a magical map of Hogsmede and other places magical people were known to frequent, in case I needed to track someone's movements in different magical locations. Having one of the Ministry of Magic and St Mungo's could be useful, but the latter was a place I'd rather avoid as much as possible and the hospital might be too crowded to go and map.

There was only one person I could call upon to help with the map projects who couldn't go off to tell Dumbledore what I got up to, and that was James Potter. It seemed logical as if Lupin could make the map on his own then why didn't he when he thought Black was after Harry Potter? He could have at least tracked Harry with such a map.

No matter if I needed more help I would just find a way to get it. I could even go to Lupin and claim that John found the map before giving it to me. If I offered to pay him for his help in a project I could have him sign a contract so that he couldn't just go and tell Dumbledore what I was up to.

I'd tried asking the map directly as it could interact with people who spoke to it, but all it did was find ways to insult me for even trying.

After thinking on I knew that I would only find out the information I desired if I used the Resurrection Stone to call upon James Potter and soon that was what I did. He didn't seem at all surprised that I'd called upon him.

"Do you guys somehow know when I'm going to summon you?" I asked.

James Potter smirked at me before replying.

"News gets around," he said "It's not like those who have passed on get called back very often".

I supposed that was the sort of gossip that the dead would indulge in, and I was left wondering if all the magical humans hung out together in the afterlife, but I wouldn't let myself get distracted.

"Mr Potter, I brought you here because I want to be able to make my own version of your map," I told the spirit "If I can make my own then I promise to give the original to Harry Potter once he comes to Hogwarts".

That would give me months to make my superior map before I passed on the first one.

"I'm okay with that" replied James Potter "But you'll have to call upon my wife because I was never as good at Charms as Remus is and he might not want to help".

Since I'd never tried to call upon a spirit while I already had one with me I dismissed James and then called for both of the Potters. Which worked.

"Oh you must the new Necromancer," said Lily Potter.

I was rather confused until she explained that a literal Necromancer is someone who calls upon the spirits of the dead. Rasing zombies and such doesn't have much to do with real Necromancy that's more of a pop culture thing.

"Anyway, I called you here to help me recreate the Marauder's Map" I explained to Mrs Potter "In exchange, I'll give the original to your son".

Lily was not as eager for the deal as her husband.

"You could do a lot more for my son," she said "He's terribly unhappy and he needs protection".

I stopped her there.

"Mrs Potter, I'm in no position to go against Dumbledore" I explained, "Once he's at Hogwarts I can keep an eye on Harry and offer some help with classes, but I can't openly defy Headmaster Dumbledore without ending up getting labelled as a Dark Wizard at the very least".

Someone with his influence could easily make it difficult for me to be seen in public, he might even expel John from Hogwarts on some pretext if he was really petty.

"I even considered buying Grunnings drill company so I could put pressure on Vernon Dursley, with the idea of threatening his job unless he started treating Harry better," I told the Potters "But I don't know how well Dumbledore understands the Muggle world or how the magical protections at Priviat Drive would react if I started meddling with the lives of the Dursleys".

There were simply too many uncertainties

"Typical Ravenclaws, always overthinking everything," said James Potter "It's a wonder you ever get anything done"

I was going to take that lying down.

"Typical Gryffindor, never thinking anything through" I shot back "It's a wonder any of you survive. Oh, wait you didn't".

Thankfully Lily Potter prevented James Potter and me from really getting stuck in with the insults.

"Boys, grow up," she chided "We'll help you recreate the map in exchange for you keeping an eye on Harry for us at Hogwarts as best you can".

"You'll give him the original map, and tell him how to use it" added James.

Dealing with spirits who'd been dead for centuries was much easier because they had little on Earth to care about. Even the Founders only had some interest in the artefacts they'd left behind.

"Then we have a deal and we should get started," I said.

I wouldn't spend all of my time off on this project, and I'd likely not get it finished until the summer, but it was a nice change from my other work. And since I a quill set up to record anything spoken I didn't even need to do any writing as two ghosts talked me through the process of making a magical map. Since Lily Potter knew about the charms involved she must have learned all about the map after leaving Hogwarts.

As for Harry Potter, I could just offer to help with his homework if I found him struggling in the library.

(Line Break)

Slughorn's Cottage. Unknown Location.

Like some other Wizarding homes the residence of the retired Professor Horace Slughorn could not be found on any map and since I'd entered via the Floo, having travelled by fire, I had no idea where the little home was other than it being somewhere in Britain.

Not that the magical protections would stop me from finding this cottage if I really wanted to since I could turn into a Thestral and use that forms innate magical abilities to reach any destination I desired.

"Ah Tom," said Horace Slughorn as he jovially greeted me "I'm glad you could make it".

I'd sent the potion's master a letter requesting from him the chance to talk about supplying certain potion ingredients to people in need. Basically, I wanted to be able to sell stuff on the black market, but I lacked the connections for such transactions and I didn't wish to use Mundungs Fletcher as he was Dumbledore's minion. The sneaky bastard would willingly report any deals we made right to the Headmaster.

"Thank you for having me" I replied.

There was some small talk and we sat down for afternoon tea. I presented the retired teacher with a box stuffed with Crystallised Pineapple. I'd found some for sale at Honeydukes over in Hogsmede. The treat was made up of small pieces of pineapple cooked in sugar syrup and encrusted with sugar crystals. Too sweet for my taste, but Slughorn loved the stuff.

"My favourite," said Slughorn "How did you know?".

Because I could remember Tom Riddle using it to butter up the potion's master before asking about Horcruxes. I was somewhat tempted to do so myself just to see the look on the wizard's face, but I had no need for that information as I had gotten what I needed on Horcruxes from the source, nor would it be wise of me to upset a useful contact.

"Words gets around" I answered.

I quickly changed the subject.

"If you remember our brief meeting back at Christmas I mentioned some friends of mine who sometimes get their hands on some useful stuff that they send my way" I was now saying "Well they'd sent me something that you and other potion masters might have a use for".

Slughorn sat up, now looking more interested than he had been.

"You left in a hurry" he commented.

That had been a little rude of me.

"Something unexpected came up," I said as I carefully placed the pint bottle of Acromantula venom on the nearby table "Now I know that there is a demand for the venom, but I want to make sure that it ends up in the hands of people who can make good use of it".

Slughorn picked up the bottle and inspected the contents.

"Ah Acromantula venom" he realised "Nasty stuff, but it does have legitimate uses for potion brewing. I know someone who could be convinced to buy this much for about a hundred Galleons".

I didn't doubt that he'd get more from the right buyer and that he'd pocket the difference. Not that I minded as a hundred Galleons was pocket change to me and this meeting was about making connections, not profit.

Besides I still had more than a week off school so plenty of time to go treasure hunting.

"How long would that take to sort out?" I wondered.

Slughorn acted as if he was unsure.

"A few weeks," he said "If you leave it with me I can make sure it ends up in the right hands".

As long as it wasn't used to poison me I didn't really care what people did with it.

"Is there anything else in demand in your in your line of work?" I enquired.

Slughorn ate some of the surgery treats I'd gotten him before he answered.

"The two biggest shortages are dragon's blood and Unicorn tail hair" he let me know.

Dragon's blood was beyond my reach, but unicorns were not. I could even get more venom assuming that all of the big magical spiders hadn't been killed.

"I should be able to get you a supply," I said.

Should be simple enough to convince Hagrid to teach how he finds his supply. By next school year, Voldemort would be hunting them in the Forbidden Forest and I felt sure if I could prevent the death of a unicorn then a few tail hairs would get knocked loose or some would get snagged on a bush.

(Line Break)

Ottery St Catchpole. Devon.

Long before coming here I'd known that Ottery St Catchpole was a small village that contained both a Muggle and a magical community, the latter having been quietly established after the passing of the Statute of Secrecy back in the 17th century. This was quite common here in England, and there were whole groups of magical families who had homes hidden away in little settlements that few people would ever know about.

Godric's Hollow had a few magical people living within the village and yet the Muggles remained blissfully unaware of this. There were even wizard businesses, such as bakers and butchers to be found near more modern shops if you knew where to look and could get past the muggle repelling charms.

I also knew about the four wizarding families who were known to live around Ottery St Catchpole: the Weasleys, the Fawcetts, the Diggorys, and the Lovegoods. I didn't know much about the Fawcetts or the Diggorys, aside from the fate of poor Cedric, and I had no desire to go near the Burrow unless I really had to.

No, I'd come here to meet with Xenophilius Lovegood the editor of the Quibbler magazine and one of the few people in Magical Britain who owned a printing press. I would need to make use of the device for my anti-Dumbledore

I moved around the building before seeking out the front gate because I had to admire how the home of the Lovegood family looked like the chess piece called the rook. Once I was down admiring the house I moved to the front gate and found a little girl playing on the steps that led up to the Lovegood residence.

"Hello, Miss" I greeted "Is your father home?".

Nine-year-old Luna Lovegood might be the single most adorable child I'd ever set eyes upon. She had blonde hair and eyes that were silver in colour, and that wasn't something I'd ever seen in humans. I knew her to be the only child of Xenophilius and Pandora Lovegood. Hopefully, I'd been able to save the life of Pandora Lovegood by sending her that letter warning her of a magical mishap.

"Mummy and Daddy are upstairs," said the young witch "I'll go fetch Daddy for you".

She was smart not to invite me into the property and it didn't take long for Xenophilius to appear. Also, I was pleased to hear her mention that her mother was around as while she might still die from a spell mishap it seemed less likely to happen now if it hadn't already. I couldn't think of any method of asking about that so it would remain a mystery if I'd made a difference just yet.

"You must be Tom Hiddleston," said Xenophilius as he shook my hand.

I'd already contacted him about renting his printing press and I'd mentioned that I would pay well for his aid in publishing a book. I just not mentioned what the book was about.

"Yes, I am" I confirmed "And you must be the Editor of the Quibbler. I'm a fan of your runic crossword puzzles".

Even with the aid of an AI and Tom Riddle's memories, the puzzles were hard enough to provide me with a distraction as I ate breakfast in the great hall.

"I'm glad to hear it," Xenophilius told me before he introduced his partner "This is my wife, Pandora".

She looked very much like an older version of Luna and if the younger witch in the family grew to be as good looking I could see Luna being quite the sort after beauty once she'd gotten into her late teens and early twenties.

"Nice to meet you," I said.

Xenophilius led me upstairs to some sort of living room/workspace. I did know that the Quibbler had a proper office somewhere, but it was clear that the Editor liked to work from home most of the time. Given that he had a young daughter and wife who spend her time in research it made sense.

"May I offer you all an infusion of Gurdyroots?" offered the Editor "We make it ourselves"

I tried some and did my best to be polite.

"It certainly has a robust flavour" I commented.

Before they could offer me anything else that would offend my tastebuds I decided to get on with why I'd come here.

"I'm currently working with a co-author to write a book that I don't think any of the more mainstream publishers would print," I told Xenophilius "So I was hoping to be able to make use of your printing press if it can handle that much work".

Since I didn't know how they published their magazine it seemed best to find out if they had the equipment.

"We've never published a book before" Xenophilius let me know "Just the Quibbler and a few other magazines that pay us to use our equipment".

I'd wondered how the Quibbler made a profit given its low circulation. I knew that Merge Publications in Hogsmeade handled the printing and distribution of the Quibbler as well as other magazines, but I'd not known, until now, who that printing press belonged to. Although I'd suspected that the Lovegood's owned it since the Quibbler wasn't popular enough to be making enough money to support a family and Luna's mentions holidays spent aboard. By renting out the printer to others the Lovegoods could focus on their passions rather than on making money.

"Well, I don't know anything about printing on that scale" I admitted "So would it be possible to upgrade your equipment?".

By this time Pandora had rejoined us and little Luna was doing a good job of pretending not to be interested in what was going on.

"We could do that," said Pandora "But it would cost us thousands of galleons".

That was not a problem.

"Would five thousand do?" I asked.

I took out A Gringotts Cheque which like a muggle cheque allowed for the movement of money from one account to the other. By using one I got to avoid going to the bank and physically moving thousands of gold coins. The goblins would move the gold to the Lovegood vault for me and while they charged for that it was best to not bother the goblins in person unless you had to.

"Are you serious?" asked Pandora.

Indeed I was.

"The book I want to publish is anti-Dumbledore in nature" I explained to the Lovegoods "And given his popularity, there's no way any mainstream publisher would risk publishing the book as it might not sell well, but making a profit doesn't concern".

Even Skeeter, who delighted in bringing people down, had waited until after the Headmaster died before publishing her book and given how soon it came out after Dumbledore's death I figured that Skeeter had been sitting on it for a while.

Pandora and Xenophilius spent a moment just looking at each other. Having one of those wordless conversations that only married couples can have that seem like telepathy. Then again given the existence of magic and their exotic looks it wouldn't shock me to discover that the Lovegoods could have telepathic conversations since they were in fact part alien or something like that.

"We're not exactly fans of Dumbledore," Xenophilius let me know.

"But he can make life difficult for us" add Pandora.

At the very least the Headmaster could ban the Quibbler from the school and given his government positions he was able to do much worse. Not that he would I figured since then it would look as if he did have something to hide.

"How much to take that risk?" I asked, "I am planning a few books over the next five years so I'm willing to make a larger investment. I'll buy the whole press from you if needs be".

Again the married couple conversed without words.

"Paying for print is something we can discuss later," said Pandora "First of all we'd like to discuss making a betrothal between your cousin and our Luna".

I knew that arranged marriages were part of pureblood culture as a way of keeping the bloodlines pure, but there was no legal authority behind them, you couldn't get trapped in a marriage contract they were simply an agreement between two families. If I backed out of one it could however ruin me socially.

"Jon is too young to have a fiance" I pointed out.

"If we're going to be working together on some publications then we'll need to show a united front" explained Mrs Lovegood "This could be a big risk for us. We'd have to shut down the press for the improvements and that affects more than the Quibbler. We'd have to offer the other publications better terms for missing an issue since they'll have to rent time with another printer".

I could partly understand their concerns.

"If it's an issue of money I can pay more" I offered.

The married couple did their silent conversation thing again.

"I don't normally get involved in politics outside of a few articles" explained Xenophilius Lovegood "But if we publish a book that criticizes Dumbledore then we'll need an ally to help us weather any political storm. The Hiddleston family is wealthy and already anti-Dumbledore, but you aren't thought of as a proper pureblood family. The Lovegoods are even if we aren't well thought of, so betrothing our Luna to your Jon would give you a bit more political weight if you know what I mean".

Most of that I understood.

"Then there's the fact that Xeno and I want to have more children, but that will affect Luna's inheritance" mentioned Pandora "To be blunt she'll need a husband who can support her and won't mind letting her be herself. I hope Jon is that kind of person".

I'd have to give this some thought as there was no way I could hide the truth of myself from Luna if I stuck around to marry her. However, she might make a good travelling companion when I went to other universes.

"We wouldn't expect them to get married until after Luna's finishes school so there's plenty of time for Jon and Luna to get to know each other," said Pandora "And you won't need to worry about finding reasons to reject any offers from the darker families".

This had to be her idea since Xenophilius had never struck me as the type to care about arranged marriages. Although his wife's death could have changed him.

"There's no rush to upgrade the press" I assured the Lovegoods "The book is still being put together. So I'll think it over".

Before I could leave and find some proper tea there were a few more business matters to attend to and I would have to go over the details for this arranged marriage so I had all the information before refusing or making an agreement. I could also look into building a printing press as that might be the better option.

Perhaps Bagshot would have some advice for me? Being a magical historian she would have a good understanding of the importance of traditions within the Wizarding World and how an alliance bound through the promise of marriage would affect me.

It was easy to forget that the Wizarding World was a separate culture to that of the muggles not just some backwards society I would have to be careful not to judge the offer of a bridge for my John Hiddleston as a modern muggle human would.

Would agreeing to this offer of alliance make me more a part of the magical society thus allowing me to blend in better or would it just cause me trouble?