Reviews
Mugen-Muse
No need to worry, Umbridge went mad and died in the Crossworlds.
He's looking out for the Lovegoods.
TrumpasaurusRex
Going to Microsoft would be way too public. Too many people would find out about the laptop coming from the future and then the American government would get involved because they'd want access to the advanced technology. Also, Mircosoft is a powerful organisation they might have tried to kill the MC and just take the technology. Add to that the MC wouldn't legally exist so he couldn't hire lawyers to help protect his rights or get a good deal.
It was much smarter for the MC to get the money he needed to keep himself going until he had time to start pillaging the Room of Requirement and now that he has the Hallow he has access to vast amounts of information about lost treasures as well as lost knowledge.
ZhaWarudo
He seems to know enough to get his job done and make an enchanted car. So what if he doesn't know what a rubber duck is for. Would you recognise a bath toy from Japan?
frankieu
I wouldn't really say they are selling Luna it's more about how an arranged marriage can bind two families together and the Lovegoods can't risk going against Dumbledore without support. Plus the family is a bit odd so I can see them coming up with an idea that the MC wouldn't expect.
Crossworlds 1 - Harry Potter
Part 16
Hiddleston Residence. Godric's Hollow.
With a slight cracking noise, I returned to my modest home having just finished with yet another errand. I was working to take control of Merge Publications so as to ensure that any book I wanted to be printed with their upgrading press would be printed without delay or anyone trying to block it.
I didn't care if any of my written works ever made a single knut in profit, because that wasn't the point of writing the books,. I wanted to shake things up here in the Wizard World so as to appease Loku, and I had plenty of other ways of making money.
Still, it was going to be expensive to keep control of the business, which I would have others run for me, but it would be worth the expense. With access to the printer, I could even publish my own news magazine to counter the Daily Prophet if that piss poor excuse for a newspaper ever started criticizing me.
Not that I wanted the attention of anyone working for that rag, but I was making waves and sooner or later someone, most likely the dark witch known as Rita Skeeter, would start looking into my life, and when she couldn't find anything she'd start making things up just she could write stories for the paper. She wouldn't care who her words harmed as long as she was able to indulge in her own brand of petty sadism.
As I entered my kitchen with the intent of making myself a nice cup of tea before I headed to the Chamber of Secrets (a place I was planning on turning into a backup base should my house become unsuitable, and that involved finding a way to keep Voldemort out) when I found an owl tapping its beak on my kitchen window.
I let the bird in and located something suitable for the creature to eat before I opened the letter. When I'd finished reading I found myself both insulted and amused. Gilderoy Lockhart had invited himself over for afternoon tea, and while this was very rude of him it was also something that made me happy because I'd been meaning to do something about him, and now he was going to deliver himself to me.
According to his letter, he was just stopping by to trade stories of our adventures, but I saw through him. Lockhart wanted to find out if I'd done anything worthy of turning into his one of stories and if I gave him something he'd try to wipe it from my mind. Not that I would allow this to happen.
In my view, Lockhart's actions were no different than assaulting someone physically because a person is the sum of their experiences. Profiting from the suffering of others is wrong, not that I was really fit to judge, and Lockhart was a clear danger to me as he might discover that I was a fraud because it takes one to know one, and I doubted he was totally stupid given that he'd been able to cover his tracks so well.
Killing Lockhart would be a little extreme. He was not nearly as bad as Umbridge, but he couldn't be allowed to go around messing with people's minds, nor could I allow him to try wiping my memories.
I quickly came up with a plan and since Lockhart wouldn't be here until this afternoon I had hours to set things up. I would take the prancing pounce as a prisoner and then get him to tell me everything about not only memory charming people, which was something I wanted to learn, but also how he turned real-life events into thrilling adventure novels.
The latter might seem an odd thing to learn about, but I wanted to become a published author and I intended to have my own adventures around the world once I'd finished with school. Having them documented could be fun. As such it would be good if I knew how to make my writing appealing to the people of the wizarding world.
Then once I was done with him then I'd wipe his memory, reducing him to a simpleton, which was what he deserved, and I'd leave him in the care of health care professionals in the Mundane world. I wasn't going to be needlessly cruel and I'd make sure that he was well looked after.
Wizards would never find him because they can't navigate the Muggle world as I can, and since Muggleborns rarely get important government jobs it was very unlikely that any of them would be sent to find Lockhart.
Besides even if they did he wouldn't be able to tell law enforcement anything and there was no way he'd have told anyone that he was coming to meet with Tom Hiddleston if he was going to try wiping my memory of an event so he could steal credit for doing something heroic.
As an added bonus this would give me someone to practice my legilimency upon. So far I'd been able to prevent Snape from testing my mental defences by claiming that I still hadn't mastered the art, and he accepted this since I was a first-year student, but he might try to take a peek so practising the mind arts further was a good idea.
If I happened to damaged Lockhart's mind then that was too bad, and better him than one of my fellow Hogwarts students.
(Line Break)
The Chamber of Secrets. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
To say that Gilderoy Lockhart was having a bad day would be a rather large understatement. He'd simply not been prepared for someone to turn the tables on him like that. There must have been something in the tea, he'd not thought to test the drink before helping himself to what was on offer.
He'd gone to the home of Tom Hiddleston expecting to find yet another successful wizard who was too humble to properly brag about his achievements and if they didn't want the attention then that was fine with Lockhart. He'd make sure that no one bothered them about whatever heroic thing it was they'd done.
Such people were fools. They simply didn't understand that fame was everything and that he was most worthy of that fame. With fame came money, prizes, attention, women and the lavish lifestyle he'd become so used to.
Lockhart had been born to a witch mother and a Muggle father, with two older sisters who were not only plain in looks they were totally lacking in any talent magical or otherwise. Lockhart blamed his father for that.
Sometimes he wondered if his mother ever had an affair and that his real father had been a powerful wizard rather than some working-class dullard. He certainly didn't share his father's appearance or outlook on life.
Gilderoy Lockhart was the only one of his mother's three children to show magical ability. Add to that he was when clever, at least when compared to his sisters, and he'd always been a good-looking boy.
He'd always been his mother's favourite, and his mother had begun lavishing even more attention upon him when he'd started showing signs of being a wizard rather than another useless muggle like the rest of his family. This had only supported Lockhart's opinion that he was special.
Going to Hogwarts had been a rather big shock to the young wizard. He'd discovered that not only were there others who shared the gift of magic he also found out that many of them were more skilled than himself, smarter, or better looking, and often they had access to a lot more money.
This was not to say that Lockhart had no talent. Indeed, his teachers at Hogwarts felt that he was of above-average intelligence and ability, and that, with plenty of hard work, he might make something of himself within the magical world, even if he fell short of the ambitions he shared freely with classmates.
The Sorting Hat avoided placing in Hufflepuff for good reasons. Lockhart didn't want to work hard, nor was he was loyal to anyone, and he wasn't a brave man. The Hat had given serious thought to Slytherin House, but the Hat well remembered what happened to another ambitious student with a Muggle father who'd gone into that House.
Lockhart achieved some good marks in his schoolwork, but he was increasingly unsatisfied. If he was not going to be the best at something he found that he would rather not participate at all
This was because unlike members of Ravenclaw House, many of which valued learning for its own sake, he only cared for the attention it brought him. He craved prizes and awards. He even lobbied more than once with the Headmaster to start a school newsletter. Dumbledore wisely refused since he knew that Lockhard would just use the newspaper to endlessly talk about himself.
Rather than seethe in jealousy or lash out at the unfairness of it all Lockhard doubled down and spent his time reaffirming how special he was to everyone. It had always been frustrating how others could not see his brilliance no matter how hard he tried to show them. He'd been punished for showing off more than once, but he'd never given up on his dream to show the world just how amazing he was.
He'd never been a bad wizard exactly, it was more that he was simply a lazy one who expected to have things simply handed to him because he wanted them (a product of his mother spoiling him too much) and after leaving Hogwarts he managed to hone his talents until he'd mastered one very tricky kind of magic. He became an expert at Memory Charms.
By perfecting this tricky spell, he'd been able to travel and find those who had done great deeds. Then he would get the details he needed, wipe the memories, and turn the recollections into a series of adventure novels.
He'd even changed his surname to Lockhart as that sounded better and he'd broken all contact with his family, even his doting mother so that they wouldn't drag him down into the muck he might have been forced to live in.
In truth, Lockhart was a coward and would run from a dangerous situation if he ever managed to stumble into one. When he opened his eyes and began looking around he soon realised that he'd been captured. Predictably this led to him panicking, even screaming for help, not that anyone heard him.
The only other person in the room was Tom Hiddleston the very wizard that Lockhard had targetted as the source of his next book. It was rumoured that the wizard was an adventurer who'd amassed a fortune while travelling the world. Just the sort of person who would have some interesting stories to tell.
Only this time it was Lockhart who'd become the victim and Hiddleston wasn't what he appeared to be either. This place was not somebody's home, Lockhart had figured that much out when he'd calmed down, there were no doors or windows, and it was set up for research if Lockhart was any judge.
"Oh good your awake," said Hiddleston "Well, good for me anyway".
Lockhart really didn't like the sound of that.
"You're going to tell me all about how to find the people who really did the deeds in your book" explained Hiddleston "And you're going to tell exactly how you managed to cover your tracks. Then we'll talk about how you wrote your bestsellers".
Well, that didn't sound too bad.
"After that, if there's anything left of your mind I'll make sure you're taken care of" Hiddleston let his captive know.
Lockhart really didn't like the sound of those worlds and when he found that he could speak he tried to charm his way out of this predicament.
"I didn't really do any harm" he insisted "Those people didn't want any praise or reward for their achievements, so it didn't matter if I took the credit".
Hiddleston wasn't buying it, or he simply didn't care.
"It's not like I hurt anyone or abducted them" he argued.
The other wizard simply didn't care for his excuses.
"A person is the sum of their experiences," said Hiddleston "You violated their sense of self and I think it's time you felt what that was like".
Lockhart began to cry.
"Let's start with the memory charm," said the dangerous wizard "And you better teach me right because I'll be practising on you".
Fearing torture Lockhard began spilling his guts figuratively so that he wouldn't end up doing it literally. Not that it was his guts that he needed to worry about. Hiddleston only cared for the contents of his mind and the captive couldn't help wondering how much of himself would be left afterwards.
(Line Break)
Room of Requirement. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
"How did you find this place?" asked Tonks.
I'd decided to bring the friendly metamorphmagus to my favourite part of the castle because her unofficial training room had been cleared out over the Easter holidays leaving her with nowhere to go when she wanted to practice DADA.
She needed to practice her duelling if she was going to become an Auror and I'd chosen to help because I spent more time talking to the dead than I did the living. This simply didn't seem healthy to me and I rather liked Tonks. Besides, it wouldn't be such a bad thing if a future Auror owed me a favour and I needed someone to train with.
"The House Elves know about it and I learned about it from one of them" I explained, choosing my words carefully so that I did have to lie directly to her "The room only makes itself available when it is needed so even the people who discover it might never find it again".
All true since I'd found about this room the same way Harry Potter did in the books, from Dobby telling the young wizard about this place, and the House Elves did know about this special room as did others even if they didn't understand it as I did.
When walking back and forth in front of where the door appeared I'd requested a room for practising the defence against the Dark Arts. Then the magic of this castle had provided us with a training area a lot like the one used by Dumbledore's Army during the year the school fell under the control of the tyrant Umbridge.
Within the space provided, there were several of the Death Eater training dummies here, and the floor was covered in old mats that look as if they'd offer only a little protection from impact if anyone fell on them, but they were better than the cold stone floor and we'd be applying the cushioning to everything if we mocked fuelled.
"I wanted somewhere private to study and practice," I told Tonks.
There was no need to tell her about the lost and found, which was what I called the massive pile of stuff this place became if you requested it. By now I'd identified and sorted nearly everything of value worth taking to Gringotts for storage or disposal, something made easier to do if you can take the form of a Niffler, but there were still a lot of books to go through and I didn't want anyone else messing with them.
This version of the room had provided us with books alongside some Dark Detectors, but nothing on the shelves was special, you could buy copies of A Compendium of Common Cures, The Dark Arts Outsmarted, Self-Defensive Spellwork, and Jinxes for the Jinxed, from bookstores easily enough.
"Let's get some duelling practice in" decided Tonks.
Since I planned to have John Hiddleston enter the junior division this year it would be good to get some more training done.
After we applied the cushioning charm to everything in sight in case of any mishaps we took up positions as far from each other as the room would allow before Tonks and I made the formal bow.
"3,2,1!" we both counted down.
Tonks struck first using non-verbal casting to send an unknown spell my way, and I defended myself with a magical barrier knowing that this shield could block and reflect a multitude of spells, such as most jinxes, hexes, and minor curses. Tonks was unlikely to cast anything harsher than a jinx at me, since as far as she knew she was firing spells at a 12-year-old. This was good as my shield would not stop a true curse it just wasn't strong enough, at least not yet.
"Cantis!"
The jinx I fired off was something I could in theory cast non-verbally, however, the training dummies can't sing so I didn't know if the spell would be successful. I didn't get to find out now as the young witch was easily able to defend herself.
"You need something a bit stronger than the Singing Jinx" she teased.
I was training to duel not to win a fight, I'd turn myself in a basilisk if I wanted someone dead, or I'd use a dagger in a sneak attack. Fair fights are for heroes and contests. Proper magical duelling could wait until I had more experience.
"Impedimenta"
That was a jinx that slows the target. It is only temporary, lasting about ten seconds against a human being, although it had more of an effect on smaller targets. Tonks had dropped her guard and while moving slowly I could have easily finished her off.
"Never tell anyone I dropped my guard around you" she insisted.
Tonks then sent an orange coloured spell at me.
"What was that?" I asked.
"The Melofors Jinx" I was told "Just point your wand, and the incantation is Melofors".
I had read up on that one as Cortana soon told me that the spell encases the victim's head in a pumpkin, although to those watching it seems to transform the victim's head into a pumpkin. The pumpkin can be easily be removed with magic or broken, and since it's a conjured item it would soon fade away.
"Hold on isn't food one of its Principal Exceptions?" I asked.
You can't conjure food I knew that much. Although you can summon animals and then cook them in theory I'd just never tried that since I have no desire to slaughter some creature when I can just go to the kitchens.
"Nah," said Tonks "You can't just magic up good food. The Melofors Jinx makes a rancid pumpkin. You can't eat it, but it's a great Halloween prank".
Could also be rather useful in future duels since no one was likely to suffocate with trained medi-witches around and it should be entertaining for the crowds.
That was something to think more about later for now I needed to deal with Tonk's attempts to hit me with the Stinging Hex. While jinxes and hexes weren't always dangerous or painful, spells labelled hexes were in some sense Dark Arts so they didn't do much damage unless you really wanted to hurt the person you were casting the spell at. As Potter discovered when he tried to use the Torture Curse on Bellatrix Lestrange.
They could still hurt as Tonks found out when he tried to dodge one of my Stinging Hexes by twirling her body and she took one to her backside.
"You hexed my bum!" she yelled "I bet you planned that you little pervert".
I couldn't help smiling.
"Just an attack of opportunity," I said "Now hold still so I can get the other cheek".
She started to take me more seriously and so I was forced to use wandless magic to trip her up, not hard given her natural clumsiness, and she blamed herself for the fall, and while that hadn't been at all honourable I remembered a quote.
"Honor is a fool's prize. Glory is of no use to the dead"
Okay so I wasn't likely to be killed in a Junior Divison duelling contest and I was no sneaky snake, but I'd be foolish not to use my skills to help me win at duels because one day I'd be duelling for real.
"Bugger" she swore as she tried to get up.
I pointed my wand at her and smiled as she did her best to roll out of the way of my tickling charm. She could be agile when she needed to be and managed to avoid my childish spells that I didn't put too much effort into casting.
"A dark wizard isn't going to stop the fight just because you tripped over your two left feet" I chided.
I let her get up and then I made use of the shield charm again as she vented her frustration at me. Her efforts bore fruit when she used a well-timed Flipendo to knock me on my butt.
"Ha!" she shouted.
I wasn't upset by my fall because I knew that duelling another member of the junior division wouldn't be anywhere near as hard as duelling someone who was training to become an Auror.
"Yes well done," I sarcastically praised "You defeated someone who's been practising magic for less than a year".
That sure took the wind out of her sails.
"You better win when you're in the duelling tournament" she instructed "It might soothe my pride a little".
I decided to throw her a bone.
"To be fair the Hiddleston's are a family of adventures and explorers who have a natural talent for duelling," I said to Tonks, now lying "And my cousin spent the whole holidays teaching me the family magic".
Family Magic wasn't a pure fan idea as it turned out. Some Wizarding families kept certain spells and potions that a family had created, and sometimes these secret bits of magic were recorded in grimoires along with a little family history. Snape's advanced potion making textbook was much like one of those special books as it contain his created spells that he would have passed on to his children if any woman had ever been willing to breed with him.
If not for the fact that I didn't intend to do any breeding, as my plan was to obtain god-like power and to live forever, I had I'd have quite a few magical secrets to pass on to any offspring. Perhaps I still would record some of my knowledge and share it with others before I departed this world.
Some magical talents did appear in a few bloodlines. The Black family for example were not only known to be highly skilled in the Dark Arts (a talent shared by quite a few families who'd joined Voldemort) they'd had a few Metamorphmagi in the past as well, but that talent had vanished, most likely due to the inbreeding. But the talent wasn't lost to the family as Edward Lupin, Tonk's son with Remus in the canon timeline would share his mother's talent.
"You've got something on your mind," said Tonks.
I smiled at her.
"Of course I do, I'm in Ravenclaw, we're always thinking unlike you empty-headed Hufflepuffs" I teased.
To be fair I could think of a few Ravenclaws who seemed to have little going on between their ears and Hufflepuffs certainly weren't stupid.
"Mean" commented Tonks "And don't change the subject. Something is bothering you".
There was something on my mind that I did wish to share. Oddly it wasn't the fact that I still had Lockhart locked up in the Chamber of Secrets. That I would not be sharing with the witch who wanted to become an Auror for obvious reasons and I didn't feel bad about what was happening to Lockhart at all. Yet I did worry about how Luna Lovegood would feel about her parents trying to get her to marry for reasons other than love. Overall I was a strange and complex person.
"My cousin is thinking about betrothing me," I told Tonks.
Arranged marriages in the Wizarding World were only informal agreements between families and allying with the Lovegoods wasn't such a bad idea since I intended to do some publishing. Also, I could just back out later and offer some money to the Lovegoods or maybe some fancy gift to say sorry.
"Bit old fashioned," my friend remarked.
I'd done some more reading on the subject since the Lovegoods made their proposal and even for Pureblood the whole arranged marriage thing wasn't much done anymore. Mostly they just tried to get their children to make respectable matches, to try to keep them from getting together with muggle-borns and sullying their bloodlines.
The pureblood families did try to marry daughters off to the sons of wealthy and respectable families because they didn't want to divide the inheritances between lots of children. Also, there was some silly belief that having more than one child would weaken you magically. Rubbish, of course, proven by Molly Weasly, mother of seven kids, when she defeated Bellatrix Lestrange who had no offspring.
"Who's the lucky girl?" Tonks asked.
"Luna Lovegood" I answered "She's the only child of Xenophilus Lovegood, the wizard who owns the Quibbler. She's nine".
Which wouldn't be much of a concern if I was actually 12 years old because what did a few years difference matter once we were both adults? However, I was not a child and while my actual age wasn't much of an issue given that was the immortal angel of a minor god of chaos, it still seemed wrong.
We wouldn't marry until after she finished school and since she was still over a year away from joining us at Hogwarts and because I doubted she'd want to marry right after her education was done, I'd give it a good ten years before we tied the knot. As I explained to Tonks
"Then why are you worried?" the witch wondered "A lot can happen between now and when you've both finished Hoggies".
She was right. And if I brought Luna into my confidence and she accepted me, which if anyone could it would Luna Lovegood, then she might make a good travelling companion. Besides, I didn't need to stay here in Britain to wait for her. I could easily drop out once I'd passed my OWL exams and spend years just travelling this world.
"Perhaps I am worrying about nothing" I admitted.
Luna might not want to marry John Hiddleston if she found out that he wasn't the real me or Tom Hiddleston might fall out with the Lovegoods. Lots of things could happen over the next ten years.
"You should be worrying about your end of year exams" advised the pink hair girl.
I wasn't concerned much given that Cortana could just tell me anything I needed to know that I had stored somewhere in my head or what passed for her mind, and my practical skills were years ahead of my peers.
"There's no real reason to worry" I assured Tonks "Only my OWLs actually matter as my grades in those subjects affect what NEWT classes I can take. It's not as if they'll hold me back a year or kick me out if I only do average".
If the likes of Crabbe and Goyle got through to their NEWTs I should be fine even without my AI helping me.
"Let's focus on you getting an Oustanding in your DADA NEWT rather than worry me having to make a pineapple dance," I said.
That would be a simple use of the animation charm. Nothing to worry about.
"Which means you need to study," I told Tonks.
I waved my wand, using the tool as showing off that sort of wandless magic would be a bad idea, and a book came floating over.
"Oh, not more reading" complained the witch.
She was for sure one of those people who learned better by doing than reading, but she still needed to do the reading for the theory part of the exam. To help with this I took us out of the room and got it to change into a comfy place for study.
"I'll sneak down to the kitchens and get us some drinks and snacks" I offered.
Tonks smiled upon hearing that.
"You'll make a good husband one day" she praised.
At least she'd stopped making jokes about marrying Tom. Even better she didn't send a Stinging Hex at me as I headed off to the kitchen. Something i might have done her place to get me back for earlier.
