Reviews
Alan
Well someone needed to sort her out if only to make her less annoying. She doesn't have Harry's friendship in this timeline and without that, she could end up being as badly bullied as Luna Lovegood and she doesn't really deserve that. Even in Ravenclaw, she could get into a lot of trouble without any guidance and she's muggleborn so she's a target for Pureblood bigots.
jiromanawari
Given the amount of follows, favourites and views I'm getting for this story, then clearly some people do care, and I write about what interests me, and what interests me is why if my story annoys you so much did you keep reading it?
I'm not a professional writer and I don't charge you to read my stories, so if you don't like my writing then just don't read my stories.
Resurrection99
Thank you.
sandmanwake
It wasn't kidnapping because they had permission from Harry's Aunt to take him back to the castle. Flitwick as a character seems a decent enough teacher, but he's not the best at seeing what is really going on around him. Luna being bullied is an example of this.
Getting them wand holsters is a good idea.
Crossworld 1 - Harry Potter
Part 25
Old Classroom. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
"It's getting out of hand" complained Hermione Granger
For once she wasn't simply whining, she had real reasons to be upset, as there was now a conflict going on between the Gryffindors and the Ravenclaws. The twins, and while I couldn't prove it was them I didn't need to, had recently attacked Ravenclaw tower with dung bombs making it inhabitable for a good part of a day.
More to appease Loki than anything else, I'd stuck a charm on the Fat Lady's portrait so that she couldn't hear anyone speak the password to her until the spell had been lifted. That hadn't been much and I'd used that spell because it looked like something a younger student would do were as the trick with the bludgers had been much more advanced. No sense in being consistent with my level of spellcasting if I wanted people to think it was someone else causing trouble.
I felt certain that Loki, my patron was enjoying the minor bits of chaos, but it was also getting dangerous to walk the corridors alone as hostile spells had been exchanged between members of the two houses This sort of thing normally only happened between Gryffindor and Slytherin students.
"These things tend to calm down after a while," I said "And if they don't then we'll crush those lions with our eagle claws".
Neither Harry nor Neville had anything to say about that. I didn't think that they had much House loyalty. For Harry, this must be a result of him never having joined the Quidditch team and Neville hadn't become popular in the main timeline until he joined Dumbledore's Army.
This version of Harry had no interest in the Third Floor corridor despite the fact that Dumbledore must be dropping a few hints. He simply wasn't the heroic type and that pleased me as no child should be put in danger like he was.
My thinking was that without having to battle the troll and without having joined the Quidditch this version of Harry simple didn't see the point in taking risks. He didn't know he'd be rewarded for acting the role of hero.
Dumbledore must be quite upset about that, or maybe he was just going to wait until Potter was a bit older before trying to mould him into the kind of person who would die to save a society that perhaps wasn't worth saving.
I had other plans for the boy, ones that didn't involve having a child fighting a Dark Lord, and if the Headmaster was making efforts to keep me from influencing young Harry then he was doing a poor job of it.
Another reason for Harry's lack of interest in finding out about the stone was the absence of Snape. There's no here at the school for Harry to be suspicious about and no one is actually going after the stone.
I couldn't recall Harry ever telling me about going off to see Hagrid who would have mentioned Fluffy the Cerberus since he couldn't keep a secret to save his life. Best to keep them apart until the next school year if possible.
Another factor was that Neville Longbottom was far more cautious than Ron Weasly and since this Harry didn't have Hermione nagging him about schoolwork, and putting him off studying (I made sure that she didn't nag anyone during my tutoring sessions) this Harry was focused more on his schoolwork.
"That doesn't help, John" young Miss Granger complained "We should do something".
I spoke before she could lecture anyone.
"Hermione you are a first-year student" I reminded her "There is no reason for anyone older than you to listen to anything you have to say and so trying to talk the other students out of whatever it is they have planned will just result in you becoming ostracised form your peers".
At least she'd started to listen to me.
"You have no influence over the student body" I reminded "And the teachers will be insulted if you try to solve their problems for them as it will make them look foolish".
I had more to say on the matter.
"Keeping order in this school is the job of the teachers and the prefects, not us" I firmly stated, "Let's stay focused on your exams and if it gets to the point that these incidents are affecting your schoolwork then you need to write to someone at the Ministry who had authority over magical education".
It was doubtful anyone in the Ministry would care, but it would keep her out of trouble and let her feel as if was doing something.
"We're here to work on you three becoming proper witches and wizards" I reminded the students that I tutored "And I have something that will help with that".
I prested to Harry and Hermione their own wand holsters which they knew Neville and I liked to use. They were proper dragonhide ones that would help to prevent any magical mishaps as dragons hide is resident to magic even when it's not attached to a dragon. Although the hide along is less effective once separated.
"They'll prevent anyone from summoning your wand as long as they are in the holsters" I explained.
I showed them mine that was secure inside my jacket.
"Thanks," said Harry.
He struggled for something to say since he wasn't used to getting gifts. Hermione was less silent on the subject.
"Isn't dragonhide expensive?" she asked.
I was sure that she knew.
"Yes, but a holster is important because wizards and witches have injured themselves by placing a wand in a pocket," I told her "It's an investment in your safety. Besides what's the point of having money if you can't use to help a few people".
I didn't acquire wealth for the sake of being rich, although being rich was nice, money was a tool nothing more.
"John, I'm worried about what my Gran will say if she finds out I have a new wand" Neville mentioned "I haven't written to her about it and she might find it over the holidays".
I assumed that his grandmother was not the type to respect his privacy. I knew from my first life that parents and guardians could use being concerned for a child as justification to go through their stuff. Made hiding the porn magazines a real chore.
"Well, you could leave the new wand at the school with a teacher" I suggested "Or give it to me and I'll give it back to you once term starts".
He went with the second of the two choices since he actually trusted me, and I didn't blame him for not standing up to his grandmother given that he was the same age as Harry so he wasn't even 12 years old.
"Over the two weeks we have off for Easter I want you to focus on Transfiguration theory and to answer the essay questions I set you," I said.
Only Hermione seemed to have any enthusiasm for this.
"It will help the exam" she insisted.
She simply didn't understand why the two boys didn't look happy even if they were grateful that I'd gone to the trouble to help them prepare for the exams.
"Some people simply learn better by doing than by studying," I told the eager witch "There's always been a debate over practical learning vs academic learning. Harry and Neville are just better studied for the more practical stuff".
Harry was even more suited to the practical stuff than Neville when it came to learning. Harry was an amazing flyer and a fine spellcaster, and he was okay with book learning he just had no passion for it. Neville was better with the theory than Harry, but for him, it was just something that needed to be done and the practical stuff worried him due to a lack of confidence. Lucky for him the confidence issue was something I could help with.
"That's why I try to mix the practical and theory stuff together," I told the group "I don't want you doing the actual spells without my supervision until I've seen you do them. I'm not that different from the good teachers at this school in that respect".
Our transfiguration, charms and potions teachers did a good job of making sure we actually did some magic between them lecturing us on the theory side of things. Snape had never been very good at letting one kind of teaching follow the other.
Astronomy and Herbology never had quite the same balance. At least not in my view, but that could be biased due to me not caring about those subjects. Herbology involved too practical in my view and there's so only much time you can spend mucking about in a greenhouse before it gets dull.
"What are you doing over the holidays?" asked Harry.
The poor lad might as well be a prisoner in this castle. I didn't see the point in taking him to my place as there was no way he'd be allowed to leave even if I could convince his aunt to give permission. Frankly, I just didn't want more Aurors turning up on my doorstep.
Right now, I was thinking about trying to get out of his relative's house for at least his birthday over the summer since he wasn't likely to get an invite to stay at the Burrow. Even as John Hiddleston I could at least take him out for a pizza or something.
"I'll mostly stay at home and study," I said.
That wasn't the total truth, but he didn't need to know what else I had planned.
"My Gran will have plans for us" mentioned Neville "But I will study the stuff you want me to".
He'd do it to make his parents proud and no doubt he'd see them during the holidays. It was such a shame that a simple Cure spell was unlikely to have any effect on them or I'd bring them out of the cursed state so that Neville could get his parents back.
Raise might just work, but that was a very high-level spell even for a White Mage and Red Mages such as myself, who don't specialise in some kind of magic, take much longer to achieve that level of power with healing spells, and we don't get many of the White Mage spells. Nearly all of my Final Fantasy spells were offensive in nature.
My attempts to convert Final Fanasty Spells into wand magic, and then finding some way to make them more powerful was something that could take years even if it came to anything at all.
Perhaps it would be worth just going to the hospital and hitting both of the Longbottoms with the Cure spell a few dozen times to see if the magic could undo the damage with some sort of accumulative effect.
"Oh you should come to my house, so we can study together" suggested Hermione.
Since my mind was elsewhere I simply agreed to that and started planning out a trip to Saint Mungos. I would need some test subjects to practice the spells upon and they would need to have some sort of brain damage. That could be arranged.
There was also something else I needed to take care of while I could be out of the castle for a few days. Something I'd thought about doing before.
(Line Break)
Little Whinging. Surrey.
A year ago I would have not dared to do this due to my fear of gaining Dumbledore's notice, but things had changed since then, Tom Hiddleston was now a known enemy, at least politically, of Albus Dumbledore, and so now I was willing to mess with Vernon Dursley. If needs be I'd do him physical harm, but I'd avoid it if I could as I didn't want to get into trouble with the Ministry.
While the Headmaster had recently tried to contact Tom Hiddleston, with the intent of making friends judging by the tone of the letter, I was at peace with my position and I had set myself the mission to undermine Dumbledore when possible.
Not that I would be a big concern for the Headmaster as he had other matters to concern himself what with his three jobs and political foes who were far more dangerous than me. Lucius Malfoy for example was always working to expand his influence at the Ministry. Compared to that the book I'd helped Bagshot write was nothing more than a bump in the road.
Aside from that, there were other Death Eaters moving freely about in the Wizarding World for the Headmaster to worry about as well as the spirit of the Dark Lord trying to return to power.
Compared to all of that Tom Hiddleston was a minor concern, someone who'd annoyed the Headmaster, but I certainly wasn't worth expending a lot of resources to worry about, or at least that was what I told myself as I carried out one of my plans.
The building I was looking at from across the street had ten floors, and it served as the corporate headquarters for Grunnings, a company that made drills for a variety of uses from supplying delicate drills for dentist's offices to industrial tools for construction projects. While the company did make a small profit it wasn't as successful as the owner would like so he was willing to sell so that he could retire.
I'd been more than willing to pay a greater amount than the company was worth because then I'd own the company as Tom Hiddleston, who also existed in the Muggle world, and while more than once I'd given doing so some serious thought, only now I had gone through with it. I know owned Grunnings and that was useful to me.
Not that I'd had to do much to as Gringotts had done most of the work. In the magical world, any amount of money you couldn't carry on your person went through Gringotts when you spent it, this meant if they couldn't handle a business matter for you then they knew someone who could and the creatures found a way to profit.
I was standing outside the bakery looking at the tall building and I'd just finished off a lovely apple turnover when Cortana reminded me that it was soon time for my appointment with the director of the company that I'd so recently purchased.
As I headed for the building I dropped the illusion that kept me out of sight and had anyone been looking right at me they'd see a somewhat handsome man in an expensive-looking black suit suddenly appear before their eyes.
Once I entered the building I gave my name to the woman at the front desk, who soon realised exactly who I was and why I'd come here, and so she showed me up the lift while doing her best to suck up to the new boss. I went up to the ninth floor where Dursley's office could be found and was asked to wait by a stereotypical secretary.
"Mr Dursley will be with you soon," said the young woman.
Given that I was the boss it seem very rude of the director of the company I'd just hired to make me wait, and I wondered if this was some sort of power game or if Dursley was now frantically putting his office in some kind of order.
The delay did give me a chance to practice my legilimency, which like other more subtle forms of magic couldn't be detected by the Ministry who monitored some parts of the country.
I went into the mind of the secretary and found that her head was filled with images of buying new shoes, trying on different kinds of nail polish, making coffee and oh dear lord being bent over her desk by Mr Dursley, something I would be much happier having never seen.
Not this meant it had ever happened. I knew that when you looked into someone's mind you couldn't always tell if something was a memory or a daydream, so you had to be able to understand what someone was feeling at the same time to get the right content for what you saw in someone's mind.
This was something I'd not realised as the books don't explain it that very well and I'd only recently started to practice this part of the mind arts. Given the slight twinge of revulsion that came with the images, it seemed likely that it was bad memory or maybe a recollection of a nightmare.
Before I could go further the door to Dursley's office opened and a middle-aged, overweight man came out to greet me, he shook my hand and overall seemed very pleased to meet me. I knew that he was just sucking up to the new owner of the company. Not that there was any point to this as I already loathed the man and that would never change.
"So would you care for some tea, Mr Hiddleston?" asked Dursley once we were sitting in his office "I could send out for some cake?"
I would not care for tea, and I had no desire to waste my time with social niceties, not with this poor excuse for a man and I'd already been to the bakery.
"Before anything else, I should tell you that I brought Grunnings because I want to use it to make a better life for Harry Potter," I told Dursley.
He needed a couple of moments to try to process that, and to be fair it wasn't a very direct way of achieving my goal, but it made sense given that the Dursley family was watched by a minion of Dumbledore and protected by blood wards. There would be ways around those defences, but I didn't wish to risk running afoul of them.
"You're one of those freaks," said Dursley "Get out of my office before I call the police!".
Hearing that amused me as I'd been expecting him to threaten me this way.
"Mr Dursley I am really the new owner of this company" I reminded him "And being a wizard isn't actually a crime so there's no reason to call the police. As a matter of fact, no one in this country has been arrested for performing magic since the 1940s and the Witchcraft Act was repelled back in 1951".
I'd actually checked this out before coming here and found out that it is legal to practice witchcraft in this country and while what defined witchcraft exactly was unknown to me I felt it important to know some of the legal details before this meeting.
"So if you do call the police you'll be one wasting their time which is actually a crime" I informed the director "And I'd fire you".
That last part was something he cared about. The Dursleys took pride in their lifestyle. They were normal people. Vernon had an important job, his wife stayed at home and looked after the house, his son went to school, there was nothing remarkable about them as far as the world was concerned.
Well, there was the kid they abused, that wasn't at all normal, and I was here to do something about it. I'd wanted to for a while as it bothered me even though I knew that there were many children out there who could be considered to have much worse lives.
"We're protected against your kind," Vernon said "We were promised that".
And it might very well be true. I certainly wasn't going to test those defences by physically harming any of the Dursley. Not unless I really had to and sometimes a threat alone can be very effective.
"Your home is protected," I told the director of this firm "But you are not at home. Your son is not at home".
Vernon paled, going from a shade of purple to something also unhealthy looking.
"You can't stay at home all the time," I said "And I don't need to lay a hand on you to hurt you. I can ruin you. I can sack you and make sure that you never get a decent job ever again by contacting every employer in the area. I'll tell them that you believe that wizards are after you, that you fucked your assistant. That you embezzle funds".
This was how you controlled Vernon Dursley, you threatened what he cared about.
"What do you want?" asked the man sitting behind his big desk.
I smiled at the director, and it wasn't at all a friendly thing.
"My young cousin goes to school with your nephew, and he's become rather fond of the lad," I told Dursley "He knows about how your nephew is treated. That is going to stop".
Vernon was now turning red. It was amazing how many colours this man could display without being a shapeshifter.
"How I treat people in my home is my business" he insisted.
That made me feel a little upset.
"But it's not!" I yelled "It is not okay to abuse a child and if it doesn't stop I will do everything in my power to ruin you. I will sack you, I will find a way to make sure your wife is the laughing stock of this town. I'll make sure that you have social services knocking at your door before the end of the day. I will call the police and tell them you've been stealing from this company".
Which might even be true and if wasn't it hardly mattered as I knew that Cortana could figure out a way to mess with the accounts and make it look as if Vernon had stolen from the company.
"You might be protected from my powers, but I have to wonder what would happen if you were in your car and the brake line got cut?" I was now saying "Would you be protected then?".
He'd gone back to being very pale.
"Just tell me what you want" he requested.
I took a deep breath and got myself under control.
"You don't need to love the boy, just treat him decently" I ordered, "He won't be around forever and once he's seventeen you'll never see again if I have anything to say about it. Until then you just have to put up with him for a few weeks during the summer. You won't lock him up, you will feed him proper meals, and you'll do your best to ignore his presence unless he needs something from you. Not a hair on his head is to be harmed".
I gave Dursley a moment to take that in.
"If I find out that if you or any member of your family has done anything to abuse Harry Potter I will find ways to hurt you" I promised, "You will never be safe from me. I can get to you whenever I wish. Is that clear?".
He just nodded and I was pleased by how well this had gone.
"Good," I said "Now you will carry on doing your job as you did before, and you will never mention my presence here. You will put your home in order before the summer or by the end of summer you'll have nothing left".
Since there was no reason for me to stay here I just left the office and headed out of the building. I only had a couple of weeks off for the Easter holidays and when I got back to school I'd be busy preparing for the exams, tutoring three different students all while doing my research into different kinds of magic. As such, I needed to get on with things.
(Line Break)
Abandoned Building. London.
I sat on the edge of the building, eating a rather nice takeaway from a Chinese place that I had stumbled across while exploring the city. As to why I was here, I needed to refill my coffers after buying Grunnings as that company didn't make enough profit for my needs and more importantly I also needed some test subjects.
While I could go after Death Eaters and other dark wizards I didn't feel ready to handle them, and I didn't want to worry Lucius Malfoy as then he might not try planting the diary Horcrux on a student during the summer. I needed to destroy or absorb the power of that book so that Harry was the only Horcrux left.
That was a concern for later and I could hunt Death Eaters once my magical education had progressed a little further. For now, I was limiting myself to muggle prey as few people in this country had guns (most people killed by crooks were stabbed) and no one really cared if a drug dealer went missing so they'd be decent targets.
As to why I needed live humans who no one would miss, that was because there were a number of spells you could test on people and I wished to perfect my use of legilimency, something that required venturing into many minds and if my experience with Lockhart was anything to go by then the mind you're going into might be damaged if you did things wrong.
Someone else would take their place before long and the dealers didn't have much cash so I was looking to move up the food chain and find out who the dealers were getting their junk from. They'd have more money on them and more useful information than some punk working the streets.
I also wanted to find out what would happen I took someone who was damaged in the head by magic and kept filling them with healing magic. I didn't think I'd be able to cure a disease that way, but physical and mental damage was different.
Since I was the true Heir of Slytherin, proclaimed by the spirit of Salazar himself, I was able to create portkeys that would take me directly to the Chamber of Secrets. The Chamber wasn't covered by the spells that prevented anyone other than Dumbledore from making portkeys that led to the school.
Normally only the Headmaster of the school could make a portkey that allowed a person to get in out of the school, which is why Draco Malfoy had to use the Vanishing Cabinets to bring Death Eaters into Hogwarts.
This is also why Barty Crouch Junior had needed to subvert the Triwizard Cup so it would detour to the graveyard rather than have it simply take the person who grabbed it out of the maze and put them down in front of the audience.
Once I had a subtle target contained I could root around in their heads until I found that I needed and perhaps I could go after their boss or destroy the place that was used to make the drugs. It depended on what I could find.
If I damaged their minds either by uncovering all their secrets or by wiping too much of their memories, then I'd just dump them off somewhere if my attempts to fix the damage didn't work. Anyone really bad could look forward to spending the rest of their life as an animal as I also needed to practice my transfiguration.
Fighting a one-man war on drugs would be pointless since I could not affect more than this country and if I did too much either the police would get involved or the Ministry would notice something going on. They would conclude that some dark wizard was going about attacking muggles for no good reason and send the Aurors after me.
As foolish as most wand wavers were I wasn't anywhere near ready to tangle with Mad-Eye, nor did I wish to duel Tonks as while I should be able to defeat her as I knew her fighting style I was rather fond of the witch and didn't wish to hurt her.
Hence why I was sitting on a roof, eating decent takeaway while hidden by an illusion, and listening to some dealer work out prices with some sort of distributor. I'd followed the dealer here from a nightclub, after spending a little time peeking into his mind and wiping the memory of our meeting, and that had been successful, yet I still wanted to practice as it made perfect.
I waited until the dealer left, knowing that he'd go out of business fairly soon without his supplier and then as my meal came to an end, I teleported myself down to the ground before firing off a stunner. That kind of magic could be detected so I quickly made a portkey which got myself and my new test subject out of sight.
The supplier would provide me with all the information I needed to find a bigger target and I could do this more over the summer so as to start refilling my accounts. I'd need to target some of the real leaders for that sort of money, but I didn't mind working my way up crime organisations.
(Line Break)
Drug Lab. London.
The next night and one slightly brain-damaged supplier later, I had the names of dozen local dealers, their addresses and the location of what you could generously call a drug lab as well as directions to the homes of quite a few people who grew cannabis as well as some illegal mushrooms.
I decide to ignore the weed growers as there wasn't much money in that market and cannabis was rather harmless in moderation, or at least it had been for my friends and me when we'd been younger. Besides I wasn't here to pass any kind of moral judgement on people I just cared about the money.
No, my focus was on the drugs that ruined people's lives because they sold really well and I might actually end up helping a few people while helping myself then that was just a nice bonus
This was something I told myself as I entered the house that these criminals used as a base of operations. It was a dump on the outside and burning it down would likely be doing the neighbourhood a favour assuming that the fire didn't get out of control. The inside was much nicer and rather well organised. These people even had some lab equipment set up to make precise measurements with.
"This is a pretty impressive set-up," I said to Cortana "For a bunch of low-level crooks".
As long as I avoided bumping into anyone and breaking the illusion I might as well not be here I could not be seen or heard. The people here didn't notice me as they went about their business. They were packaging up their product for the suppliers to take to the dealers. Given the sheer amount of drugs here I had to wonder how many dealers were getting their stock from just this one lab.
"You know if you became a supplier you can make a lot of money" the AI reasoned "You can use your magic spells to increase the volume of any drugs you acquire so that you end up with a lot more than what you paid for".
Not a bad idea, but I didn't have the time required to run any sort of business, and I'd have to keep track of a lot of things. Plus they'd be rivals to deal with a lot more chances of getting caught by the Aurors if I ever fell into familiar patterns. Best to keep moving, grabbing a few dealers, finding out where they got their stuff from and then move on.
If I became predictable then someone would catch me, it could even be the muggles who managed it as their leaders knew magic was a real thing and they might have plans in place to handle a wizard who tried to become a crimelord. They didn't seem to have any luck dealing with Death Eaters, but they were raiders, attacking and then fleeing before the muggles could respond.
"So any ideas who is in charge here?" I asked my AI.
They were preparing their product to sell and processing it somewhat, but this was just part of a larger operation, they must be getting their materials from somewhere and one of these people should know.
"If you're not interested in getting into the business then I don't think it's worth bothering to find out and you have other things you could be doing," said Cortana.
She had a point. There were still other ways for me to make money.
If this was my native universe I'd just steal someone's smartphone so I could check their texts and emails, but they didn't even have a computer here, and I saw no letters that looked important. I did find someone's stash, an old biscuit tin full of money, hundreds of pounds at least maybe a few thousand, which I took as it wasn't bad for a night's work.
"The drug trade isn't as profitable as I'd imagined" I commented.
Perhaps I should work my way further up the food chain over the summer. I might just go treasure hunting instead it could be more entertaining.
"Crime isn't as lucrative as you might think," said Cortana "Most of the profit will be made by a few men who are very high ranking within the organisation. They'll be well protected and have important contacts with local law enforcement as well influence with local government".
Well, I'd looked into the trade mostly to grab test subjects for the learning of the mind arts not for profit, that would have been a nice bonus, so I selected my target, someone who might know something useful.
I tagged him with a portkey and then set the lab on fire with a little wandless fire before I triggered my own portkey. I needed to secure my latest test subject and to find out if there was any more money to be taken.
