Author Note

As promised here is the second chapter to be posted this week. I really got into the zone.

Reviews

kent-jensen

I'm glad.

Aratherfluffyfatcat

You're welcome.

frankieu

Since Kol has the artefact for this CYOA he can look for the Elder Wand but he will never find it. I can't have everything going his way.

Spiritblade89

Yeah, I'm going with Hermione as the version of Luna in this story has a larger family and has many years of schooling left.

The muggle-born revolution has already started. S.P.A.M was just the beginning.

Crossworlds 1 - Harry Potter

Part 49

The Mall At The Crossworlds.

"Oh, so it is all true" I heard Hermione whisper as we entered the mall "I was thinking that you'd come up with some silly story because you wanted to drive me away".

That did sound more reasonable than me having a magical knife that can take you to another dimension, through a desert and into a mall by cutting open a rift in reality. Even to me it still seemed rather odd and this wasn't my first trip here.

"No, it's all real," I said, "I really am from another version of Earth and this is the Mall at the Crossworlds as I mentioned to you in my letter".

Bob, the man, assuming he was a man, who ran the information kiosk, called us over with a friendly wave.

"That's my line" he complained in a good-natured way.

While Hermione worked her mind on accepting that the multiverse was a thing and that it was possible to traverse it, I decided to pay off the debt I had made back when I'd been starting out. Bob remembered me and he was happy to take some of my goblin-made coins in payment.

I also purchased a bottomless bag for Hermione. Which she slung over her shoulder without saying a word. They were better than mokeskin pouches since they could contain a lot more items and they didn't cost very much. Besides, she might want to pick up stuff while here.

"Do you have a book store here?" I asked Bob.

I figured that Hermione would be better able to handle all of this if she were in a space that felt comfortable in, and as it turned out, nearby there was a bookstore/coffee shop, run by Starbucks to my surprise. Who knew they were an interdimensional company?

Hermione sat down at a table and just stared at nothing for a time. She wasn't coping with this nearly as well as I had, but to be fair I'd been under the impression that someone was chasing me for the world seed, and perhaps they had been, so I'd not had time to freak out or take my time processing.

I'd coped very well, but only because Bob had been around to help guide me and I'd had Cortana. While reading about such adventures on forums doesn't really prepare you for the real thing at least I'd had some concept of the idea that there was a multiverse out there to traverse.

As she struggled to accept her new reality, I left the young Miss Granger with some coffee, although I didn't go far from her, and I looked around at the books. Some of which I knew and others that I did not. I even saw a version of Karma Sutra that involved humans having sex with tentacle monsters. It was in Japanese and Cortana chose not to translate for me.

When I came across the Harry Potter books I smiled. If I just brought these and got Hermione to read them then I could save myself a lot of time that would be spent answering her questions. Although she'd have questions about the series, just not right now and it would give her something to do with her summer.

To my delight, I found out that in some universe that could be accessed from here George R R Martin had finally finished the Winds of Winter so I got myself a copy as I did find time for the reading of fiction.

I brought the books and stashed them in one of my pouches. The Harry Potter books I would give to Hermione later and then I went back to her table.

"So it's real," she said as she began to accept what was happening "The Crossworlds is this place, and you came to my world, you made yourself a child so that you could go to Hogwarts to learn magic".

That was the basics.

"Yes," I answered.

I decided to get on with things.

"We can't stay here for long" I warned "I don't know how fast or slow time is progressing in your world and I don't know how trustworthy the people here are".

I didn't even know what here could be considered a person or if the people here who looked human were in fact something else. Plus there was someone after the world seed and I didn't want to bump into them.

"While I want you to come with me during my travels that's something you'll need to think about," I said "For now why don't we get you a nice bracelet that will give you new spells or your own AI".

Taking on a patron god was a bit much for anyone who didn't desperately need the power and I didn't think any of them would suit her anyway. As for the Babel Fish that might also be something we needed to discuss.

"I don't know if I want someone living in my head" stated Hermione "The idea freaks me out".

Cortana made a remark about not taking that personally.

"You should at least get the bracelet" I strongly suggested "Having access to a few spells that you can use if your wand is lost or taken from you might save your life one day".

She agreed to that much at least and we headed off to where I'd picked up my class bracelet all those years ago.

"Since you're not one for hand-to-hand combat I recommend becoming a white or black mage" I was now saying to the young witch "I chose to be a red mage as they can use both healing magic and they get spells for attacking, but they are never as good as someone who has chosen to be a black or white mage. Black magic isn't dark magic it's just what they call spells used to attack in that world".

I had a bit more to say once we got to where we could pick her up a bracelet.

"White mages get a healing spell to start with that they can cast on themselves or others, black mages get a fire spell" I informed the witch.

Hermione gave the matter some thought.

"I can already cast spells to make fire," she said "So I'll go with the healing spell I haven't learnt any healing spells yet".

Since it should be possible to teach her to attack someone wandlessly or just have her hide a dagger on her person then having the healing spell did make sense and it wasn't as if it had taken much effort for us to acquire it for her.

Once we had the bracelet we would leave and I would give Hermione time to come to terms with all of this.

(Line Break)

Granger Residence. Muggle World.

As she sat on her bed, surrounded by her new books, Hermione Granger was feeling, confused, a little conflicted and somewhat annoyed, as if that hadn't been enough she felt amused at times. She'd been reading through the Harry Potter book series and the more she read the more questions she had.

To be fair, she'd only managed to get through the first three books at a good pace and would soon tackle the other much longer stores. She hoped some of her questions would be answered. Yet her desire for information was growing. She felt as if she'd burst if she didn't answer some of the questions.

Like what had happened to some of the characters? She felt sure that Ginny Weasly had mentioned having an older brother called Ron who was homeschooled, but she had so many older brothers it was hard to remember them all.

She felt glad that she'd never met the version of Ron Weasly in these books, he sounded like a very unpleasant boy who spent a lot of his time questioning book Hermione's mental health and arguing with her even though he was the one with poor judgement.

This idiot had decided that taking a flying car to school was a good idea despite the risk of exposing magic and the fact that he didn't even have a driver's license. How that stupid boy had avoided prison was a complete mystery to Hermione. The boy should be kept locked up for his own good and other people's safety.

Although in the books at least it made sense that Ron didn't go to prison since then they would have to arrest the Boy-Who-Lived, as well. The Minister of Magic seemed to like Harry Potter a lot, at least until Harry tried to make Fudge see that Siruis Black was innocent.

And who was this Draco Malfoy person who seemed to exist solely to torment poor Harry Potter? She'd heard of a Malfoy family and they weren't well respected by certain parts of the wizarding society. Somehow the whole family seemed to have vanished. She had a feeling that a certain wizard she knew had been messing with people's lives.

Then there was the horrible Professor Snape. He had been a teacher once, Hermione knew this because the older students, even those Slughorn didn't pay much attention to, had mentioned many times that Slughorn was a much better teacher.

If she recalled correctly, and she had a very good memory, she'd heard about a former teacher having burned down his house with the man inside due to what the Ministry called an accident with an experimental potion. Hermione wondered if more had been going on there, but she couldn't find it in herself to care. Not when she had so much else to consider.

There were other mysteries as well. Such as why had she never met this Lockhart person. Given how silly the book version of Hermione acted around the man and how foolish the wizard turned out to be, it was a good thing that he'd never been a teacher. Nevertheless, she wanted to know what had become of Lockhart. Where had he gone?

John or Tom, whatever he wanted to call himself, claimed to have banished her first defence teacher Profesor Quirrell and looking back that man had been rather odd in terms of behaviour, even for a wizard. As such Hermione was willing to give her friend the benefit of the doubt on that one.

He'd been quite direct when explaining in his long letter that he'd been banishing Voldemort's spirit and that it was You-Know-Who who'd killed the teacher who had betrayed them all by working with the Dark Lord by possessing the wizard.

Given that Quirrell had set a troll loose in the school, one that had nearly killed her in the books, she had little sympathy for the man and even less for the Weasly boy who'd sent the book version of her to the bathroom to cry.

She guessed with Quirrell out of the way it made sense that nothing much else had happened during her first year. John had ensured that Siruis Black was freed before he would have escaped prison in the book series so that was another year when nothing much had happened. John Hiddleston had ensured that the Chamber of Secrets had never been opened, something she was grateful for as spending weeks petrified didn't sound like fun.

In her mind, it was hard to be mad about John interfering with her life when the result avoided things like students being attacked by monsters.

Not just the giant snake they'd avoided having to be around those nasty dementors as well. Their duelling instructor, who Hermione liked, wasn't on the run, Hagrid had never been thrown into Azkaban, Buckbeak the Hippogriff had never been sentenced to death, and Professor Lupin still had his job.

It struck her as odd that Dumbledore had died from overwork given the book version of the Headmaster should have been under more stress, but there could have been more going on behind the scenes that she just didn't know about.

Hermione wondered if Voldemort would return in the future as John had apparently banished the spirit she would have to wait and see. The books should tell her more, but there would be a lot she needed to talk about with her friend once she had finished with the series.

(Line Break)

Hiddleston Residence. Godric's Hollow.

Long before Tom Hiddleston had become a member of the group I'd known that the Hogwarts Board of Governors was a group of twelve wizards and witches who in theory oversaw the running of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

While they didn't seem to do much as far as I'd been able to tell, they had a fair bit of authority over the school. The appointment and suspension of a Headmaster or Headmistress were up to the governors and could override the Headmaster or Headmistress if saw a reason to.

The Board was obliged to take action if any parent sought redress on any school-related issue. They also had authority over the staff and could inspect the school to see how it functioned daily, and even shut down the school entirely if they felt it was necessary.

Not they did so even when a monster was attacking students. Most likely because the victims had only been Muggle-borns. They had no important parents to keep a fuss and the corrupt Ministry didn't care. That and Lucius Malfoy had been threatening the group so it wasn't all their fault.

I was due to attend a meeting and the current head of the governors, some wizard who I'd never heard of before, had some paperwork for me to go through as well as notes that covered what happened in the last few meetings. Thanks to these notes I would know what they had been discussing as well as what would be spoken about in future meetings as the notes mentioned several unresolved issues.

Since Hermione was taking some time to decide what she wanted to do in the future and my exams weren't for another week, I had some free time to look into what the governors were having some trouble with.

I didn't need to revise before the exams as Cortana ensured that I would remember everything I'd studied and I'd already covered the material. This meant that going over it again would be pointless. As for the practical stuff I didn't want to do too well as that would draw suspicion.

There was no duelling tournament for me to enter over the summer, they'd been cancelled due to the World Cup finals taking place in this country, so I wouldn't be able to practice my duelling until I returned to school. So I could give the Board's concerns my full attention.

The Weasly twins were the subject of several complaints, but the governors couldn't directly expel students, at least not without a very good reason, and you couldn't be expelled for pranks. Dumbledore never would have let the twins get expelled the Weasly family were his loyal minions, or rather they had been.

I wrote a note to the chairwizard of the school board suggesting that he write to the Weasly family and advise them not to send the twins back to school now that they had done their OWLs so as avoid embarrassing their family and possibly getting expelled in the future.

The twins don't stick around long enough at Hogwarts during the main timeline to take their NEWTs and given their career plans they don't need those qualifications. I might still invest in their joke shop as it seemed as if it would make a profit and I had a lot of money just sitting around in my vault not doing anything.

A letter should work as getting kicked out of Hogwarts would be a huge embarrassment and it wasn't cheap to send children to the school even if you got support from the Ministry of Magic.

As for the rest, most of it was about confirming teaching positions that had been decided upon months ago. I'd not been a school governor back then so they didn't need my approval I was simply being kept in the loop as to the changes in the staff.

The governors weren't involved much with the coming events of the Triwizard, Tournament as that was a Ministry run event, and this was good as I didn't want to get called away for meetings when I needed to be preparing for events.

Assuming that I was actually chosen as the champion for Hogwarts. Cedric Diggory might be chosen by the Goblet of Fire to champion the school even if I happened to be more qualified as I had no intention of messing with the magical cup and possible screwing up a magical contract.

Only time would tell if I was chosen as champion and I was well prepared for that role, as such there was no sense dwelling on it. Not when I had other things that needed my attention.

(Line Break)

Diagon Alley. Wizarding World.

Jimmy Kiddell was a British wizard and wandmaker who owned the shop Jimmy Kiddell's Wonderful Wands here in Diagon Alley. He was presumably an inferior wandmaker to Garrick Ollivander as most wizard children get their wands at Ollivanders, but they might go to an inferior wandmaker if it was traditional to do so.

As it turned out Mr Kiddell was not an old man, rather he was young at least by the standards of wizards, and that likely worked against him as well as few would think him an expert in his craft.

Not that I minded as I wanted a wandmaker who wasn't too set in his ways and would be willing to make a deal that would be profitable for both of us because he needed the money. Ollivander didn't even have time to dust his shop by the looks of the place.

"Mr Kiddell," I said as the wizard came over to greet me so that we could shake hands "I'm Tom Hiddleston".

He had heard of me, his expression gave that away.

"Mr Hiddleston, what can I do for you?" he asked.

I reached in my pouch and carefully took out a small box that contained the three Thunderbird feathers that the magical creature had gifted to me during my time in the states. Mr Kiddell didn't pick any of them up, rather he leaned forward to inspect them.

"These would make for the cores of powerful wands" he commented.

I hoped so.

"Mr Kiddell I would like to have these three feathers used to make some wands for myself," I said "I plan to go travelling for years and I don't want to end up without a wand in some remote location".

Having more than one wand was considered odd and it was discouraged by the Ministry for valid reasons as if nothing else it was easier to disarm someone safely if they didn't have a spare. Proper duelling events didn't allow duellists to carry more than one wand, and during peacetime at least, it was fairly easy to buy a new wand.

They were quite similar to mobile phones in some ways in that people use them a lot, and depend on them yet it is rare for some to have a backup phone stored away. Instead, they will just go out and buy a new one when needed.

There were other factors as well, such as wands being complex tools that can have a will of their own, at least in part. Wands made from phoenix feathers for example seemed to dislike their witch or wizard even handling other wands. I might lose my connection to my aspen and phoenix feather wand if I started using others.

Tradition also played a part in this. Wands served as status symbols in the wizarding world and people became attached to them as if they were pets. Also, having many wands could make you look clumsy as if you had the habit of losing or breaking them. That might make you seem foolish or weak.

"That will be expensive" I was warned.

One of the ways the Ministry encouraged people to only own one wand was by making sure that it was much cheaper to buy and replace a single wand than it was to buy many. A clever way to help control people.

"Spare no expense," I said.

Kiddell was pleased to hear this, but it didn't last.

"Wands can be fickle," he told me "They might not all work as well as you might wish".

I was aware of this and willing to take the risk.

"They just need to be worthwhile having" I informed the wandmaker "The Thunderbird gave me the feathers so they should be compatible and I understand enough about wands to know that their allegiance can be won".

I felt sure that the wands and I would come to an understanding even if I had bleed to do it.

"Please follow me" invited the owner of this business.

Mr Kiddell took me into the back of his shop after taking custody of the feathers and we spent some time finding out if I felt drawn to any of the woods he had in stock. It was possible to create a wand to certain specifications, however, Ollivander would be unlikely to do this as he had too many customers to deal with as every witch or wizard heading to Hogwarts, or starting their homeschooling, would come to him during the summer.

Ollivander simply wouldn't be able to make wands suited to each child over the summer holidays. So they would either have to order a wand well in advance and even if they did that there was no guarantee that the wand they wanted would be well suited to a wizard or witch. It just made more sense for Ollivander to make wands when business was slow and then match them up to people later on.

This method was different. I had to try to feel the woods and see what I was drawn to. I ended up with three blocks of wood that could be made into wands.

"Red oak, ebony and aspen," said the wandmaker "How interesting.

From my studies of wandlore, I knew that the true match for a red oak wand should be someone possessed of unusually fast reactions, making it a perfect duelling wand. The wood can also lead to wands that are very pleasing to the eye.

Ebony wands are considered handsome as well as the jet-black wand wood has a reputation for being pleasing to the eye. Ebony wands tend to be well-suited to all sorts of manner of combative magic.

Aspen wands I knew well since I owned one. Aspen wands can look more like carved ivory than something made of wood and my wand was suited to charms. They were also prized by duellists.

"These wand woods are often favoured by duellists," said the wizard who had been thinking along similar lines to myself "They will be difficult wands to master, but well worth it if you can learn to work with them. Thunderbird tail feather wands are good at elemental magic, as the core comes from a bird that can control lightning".

Something I'd seen first-hand. As for mastering the wands, I knew that most wizards are rather lazy and would give up trying to figure out how to work with a few new wands. I would not give up as my life could depend on having magical tools that I could work well with.

"There's no rush" I mentioned, "I want you to take your time with these wands I won't be able to pick them up until next summer, so I'll pay half in advance".

I didn't want to be struggling to master new wands while competing in dangerous events or trying to duel.

"Mr Hiddleston I'm getting the sense that you'd like me to make these three wands the best I ever made," the wandmaker said.

He was correct and I mentioned that.

"If money isn't an issue then I can risk closing the shop for a few weekends, but that will be costly" I was informed.

This was no issue to me.

"I have a thousand galleons here for each order," I said.

Kiddell was shocked as I took out the pouches of coins.

"I wouldn't have thoughts of going over a thousand for all three" Kiddell was now saying "With this kind of money I could look into some ideas I have for strengthening wand woods by soaking them in certain potions".

That sounded interesting and I knew that few wandmakers would be able to explore such things.

"I want the best Mr Kiddell" I insisted "And I'd be happy to fund research as my new wands need to be tough. I don't want to be in the wilderness and end up in trouble because my wands were broken".

The wandmaker looked very happy.

"I'll get to work right away and send you an owl when the first is ready" he promised.

It seemed best to let the man get on with his work so I left.

(Line Break)

Hiddleston Residence. Godric's Hollow.

It made me happy that Hermione had decided that she wanted to join me in my adventures and then leave this dimension when we were ready. I'd known for a while that Luna would be harder to recruit since in this timeline she had a much larger family and wasn't a social outcast.

Wisely, Hermione wanted to finish her schooling and learn a lot more about using the local types of magic before leaving this world. She had a lot to learn and not just about waving a wand around. She'd need to master more wandless magic and some other tricks if possible.

Also, she needed to start carrying a dagger around as well as she might become a target if she travelled with me. Hermione had chosen to become a white mage, perhaps she felt that she'd be better off in a support role as unlike the Hermione in the books and movies, this version of her had never gotten involved in any fighting.

White Mages use staffs as weapons in the Final Fantasy games so perhaps I should have the dwarves I'd made contact with make her one and then find out if she had any skill with the weapon just as I had some talent for swords and daggers. I might need someone to train her with staff fighting, and I could look into that later.

Before the summer was out I would mind-wipe her parents as planned, but there were some matters Hermione wanted to take care of before I did that.

"You're working on a lot here" commented my companion.

I'd started making use of the attic that had been hidden by magic as a place to perform research with Hermione. The caller was still hidden and I wanted to keep that space for me alone and I intended to clear some stuff out of the Chamber of Secrets before ever letting my fellow Ravenclaw go down there.

While I didn't wish to keep things from the young witch she was still a student and I didn't think she'd understand if I told her about my use of captured humans as test subjects. She might understand when she was older.

"I've been working on some of this stuff for a long time" I mentioned.

Up on some blackboards I had notes involved in the creation of two new spells that I wanted Hermione to help me with because while my spell that recreated dragon's fire did work it wasn't stable enough to use in battle. As such, I'd come up with two spells for combat that should serve me better and I wanted her to go over them in case I made a mistake. Spell creation involved a weird kind of math that Cortana couldn't help me with for complex reasons.

They were called Pew and Kamehameha. The names of which made no sense to Hermione.

"What are these spells for?" she asked.

I was glad to tell her.

"Pew is meant to be like a gun going off only the wand fires a small burst of energy at the target. It can be blocked, but if it hits then it would be like being shot by a very focused blasting spell" I explained "Kamehameha should be a build-up of magical energy that can be unleashed at a large target that is either slow-moving or stationary".

They were just ideas and might never go anywhere, and we would have discussed them further if someone hadn't rung the doorbell. Thanks to certain charms I could hear the alert even up here.

I went to the door and found that my head of house at school had come for a visit.

"Professor Flitwick, this is a surprise," I said.

I invited the teacher inside and he handed me a letter.

"Hopefully this is a good time," said the demi-human "I can't stay long as I have some Muggleborn students I need to meet with".

I escorted the wand waver into my living room.

"Since you're taking your OWLs over the summer I thought you might like your exam results for the school year as quickly as possible," he told me.

I opened up the letter and found a small badge inside. It was a perfect badge.

"Not a surprise I know," said Flitwick "But you've certainly earned it. The fifth-year prefects don't have much to do, a few patrols and you'll escort the first years to the tower after the start of year feast. You'll find out more at the perfect meeting on the train".

I had a question, but I didn't need to ask it.

"Miss Chang is your female counterpart for her year" Flitwick let me know.

Better her than Edgecomb who was massive gossip and not the most reliable of people from what I'd seen.

Flitwick was then off as he had important matters to take care of so I saw him out. Hermione came down once he was gone and once she saw the badge she began to offer her congratulations before deciding she was going to go back to the Harry Potter books. She warned me that she had many questions that I would need to answer once she was finished with the series. I was not looking forward to answering them.