Author Note
According to a guest review, I missed a bit when posting this story from QQ. If anyone has noticed anything missing then let me know so I can correct my mistake.
If you're enjoying this story and can spare it then leave me a tip on Ko Fi I have the same username on that site.
Reviews
Shadowpawzzz
I hope you're enjoying it.
Helily
I've been installing a few mods to add to the game as I've started playing Skyrim again recently. It is lots of fun just going off and exploring. I've been filling a ship I downloaded as part of mod with sorts of stuff.
aaronwilliams525
You're welcome
Teralax
I don't have any plans for the Rogue Trader series.
loki98065
I'm having a vote on QQ thread and it looks as if DC will be next. I'm planning to base the universe he visits on DCAU, but I'll mix things up a bit for fun.
erozoth
Children learn faster than adults despite their attention spans. Mental buffs only help so much as for the rest I already went over this stuff on the QQ thread I don't want to do it again.
dakotafogarty
I do have some ideas for enchanted ammo.
Markarth. Skyrim.
Since Val wanted to get right to work studying crimson nirnroot I'd left here at the college to get on with that while I took Sera with me to go and acquire more materials for my own needs.
The city-state of Markarth was situated deep within a part of this country known as the Reach. It was part of the Druadach Mountains that made up the border between Skyrim and High Rock. A place that would have taken us some time to reach if not for my ability to teleport around.
Markarth, was actually built on the original dwarven settlement, once known as Nchuand-Zel, which was built around a large rock formation with twin rivers flowing past. This gave the settlement access to plenty of clean water and had the terrain been flatter, and safer, they could have gotten a lot of farming done around here.
Most of the industry in this part of Skyrim involved mining and smithing. There's gold in them thar hills. Silver too, and no doubt some other metals. Not that I had any interest in non-magical metals as I could those easily enough elsewhere.
While the city itself wasn't the safest place you could find yourself, going outside of the city meant entering some very hostile territory, as this part of the country was filled with bands of those Forsworn nutters, and the Divines only knew what else.
The seat of power in Markarth was the Understone Keep, that place contained an entrance to Nchuand-Zel, which could be found underneath the city, and it was the focus of my interest since I'd come here primarily to acquire more of the dwarven metal.
My interest in dwarven metal mostly had to do with it being in such short supply. No one knew how to make more of it and I figured that people with an interest in metals, such as the goblins of Gringotts, might be willing to trade something I wanted for the material.
Another option was to learn how to smith the metal and use it to forge stuff that could normally only be found in this universe. I'd like to find out if it was possible to acquire such skills quickly, via some magical means perhaps, but if needs be I could learn the slow way. I had time for such things.
I might even discover how it was made. The dwarves had been very advanced, but they weren't more sophisticated than some of the civilizations out there that had experience with both magic and science. There were many experts I could one day consult.
Nchuand-Zel had been a major dwarven city back in its day, so it should be able to supply with me plenty of the metal. I could then pay someone to melt it all down and turn it all into ingots. Anything I made from the metal would be inferior to real dwarven metal craft, so hopefully, we'd find some good stuff while exploring the dwarven city, such as real arms and armour.
"Oh good morning," the old man in charge of the exploration of Nchuand-Zel greeted Sera and me. "Forgive my foul mood. We lost another mercenary to that damned spider. My research is halted until she's taken care of, and I can't find anyone competent enough to get rid of her".
While neither of us looked much like adventurers really, we were both powerful mages and easily capable of dealing with some massive spider, even if I'd rather not tangle with such a creature due to my distaste for such creatures.
"Perhaps we could be of some help," I offered.
The scholar went on to tell me about the big ass spider that had appeared without warning and had started killing anyway who tried to go down into the dwarven ruins. Apparently, the Dragonborn had never stopped by this part of Skyrim and dealt with it.
"I would be in your debt," then the man who I thought was called Calcelmo, replied, "and you would be paid for his services".
The money didn't matter, but I'd take it anyway so as not to appear suspicious. Besides, I could always set up another vault somewhere.
Sera and I headed underground. It was clear to me right away that there had been workers done here recently and that they'd left in a hurry. Tools had been dropped and there was a wagon full of dwarven metal. I decided to leave these samples alone.
Calcelmo likely knew about these samples and would notice if they went missing. I'd rather not upset the man and end up in trouble with the local authorities. Sure I could teleport away if I did, but there were bound to be better examples of dwarven craft further down.
We encountered some small frostbite spiders along the way. Since spiders were not known for group action I assumed these to be the offspring of the big spider we were supposed to be taking down. They didn't last very long as by now I'd gotten rather good at zapping monsters with lightning.
The things really creeped me out so I gingerly stepped around their corpses. I could tell that my companion was amused by my actions even if she didn't say anything on the matter.
"This won't take long," said Sera.
The sight of the massive arachnid made me shiver. I'd never seen such a gigantic spider before. Yet for all its size it didn't last long as my companion strikes the monster with cells made from magic as I zapped it with lightning.
Once the big spider was dead we set around burning the eggs sacks that contained spiders that had not yet hatched. This was a good thing we were doing because if we didn't the young ones would soon be born and they'd head up to the surface in search of food.
Given the sheer size of the spiders and the amount of young they had, I had to wonder why they weren't a more common sight. Did they have a natural predator? If so I felt fairly certain I didn't want to meet that predator.
The big door on the opposite side of this chamber was heavily covered with the spider's silken webs that we set on fire since for some reason webs of magical spiders were very flammable and burned away quickly.
Upon closer inspection, I found a carcass that was still wearing the uniform of an Imperial soldier. Sera approached the body and examined the corpse. I still hadn't gotten used to seeing the corpses of people.
Soon she handed me a note which was addressed to someone called Salonia. The soldier had apparently been hired to guard an expedition into Nchuand-Zel. The soldier's name was Alethius. I wondered if he'd died doing his job or if the whole expedition was now dead and dried up in cocoons.
While I read Sera went over to the massive spider and began to do something that made me feel a little ill.
"Mother would never forgive us if we didn't harvest the venom of such an impressive specimen," she said.
I decided not to watch the venom milking.
"Are we going to enter the ruins?" Sera asked me once we were both back in the tunnel.
I was itching to delve further into the ruins right now, but I knew that it was best to let Calcelmo know the spider would no longer be a problem.
"We'll go deeper underground," I said "But let's check in with the guy who's supervising this site before we do. I'd rather not upset the Jarl if it can be avoided".
With that we headed out, walking so as to make sure we'd gotten all of the spiders as we left. I wanted to make sure that we did a proper job before we claimed our reward.
Markarth. Skyrim.
The old man in charge was somewhat grateful for our efforts and he paid us a nice amount of gold coins for slaying that massive spider, then he ranted about how he would be able to get back to work. I waited until he was finished before showing him the note.
"Hmmm," he commented as he read it over. "Where did you find this?".
I hadn't. I wasn't in the habit of touching dead bodies.
"On a corpse in the spider's lair," Sera replied "I found it on the body of someone in the amour of the Imperial Legion".
Hopefully, this robed guy hadn't been overly attached to the dead man.
"He must have been someone from Staubin's little group," he stated while putting the note away "A brave scholar, but not very wise. I assume you're anxious to do some exploring of your own?".
Indeed we were. I desired a great deal more in the way of the dwarven metal as aside from trying to figure out how it was made I wanted to learn to use it to forge some weapons and armour.
"We'd like to look around" I answered.
I wasn't going to mention my desire to loot the ruins.
"Very well," he said "You've proven your skill. If you find anything useful, please bring it to me, including any notes you may find from Staubin's group. I doubt he's alive. It was weeks ago when they wandered into the ruins, but there's a chance they uncovered some useful information before meeting their demise".
Now that we had permission it was time to go back down. It didn't take long to get back to the doors because we'd already cleared the way and when we made it we were able to open the large doors and enter the dwarven city.
Nchuand Zel was amazing even when seeing it through a set of night-vision goggles or via a spell which had the same effect on a person's vision.
Sera and I were standing atop a ramp gazing out over the underground city. Various buildings and towers reached great heights despite the fact they had been built without a sky overhead, and they were all connected by narrow bridges.
The entire city was built within an underground cavern that was lit by some sort of bio-luminescent mushrooms that lined the ceiling and walls of the cavern. So that even without my special goggles I would be able to see where I was going as long as I was careful.
Still, I was glad of the glasses as they allowed me to see the underground city in great detail. I had never seen anything like it before. It far surpassed the expectations I had from playing the game. I was so glad that I had come to this great Dwemer city.
Okay so it wasn't as impressive as Blackreach, but it would have been worth coming here even if it was just to see the sites. This was a big part of what made travelling the multiverse so worthwhile. Acquiring power and wealth would be rather hollow if I didn't get to explore places like this.
"You do take me to some wonderful places" Sera commented.
The prospect of such explorations was part of what I'd used to entice her to become my companion.
"I did promise that we'd see some sites," I said "I just didn't think we'd be bringing your mother along with us".
Val could be abrasive, but she was a skilled alchemist and skilled with magic, so overall she was worth keeping around, it was fairly easy to keep her occupied. Plus there was the mother/daughter kink factor. I'd never thought I could get into that.
"That wasn't my intention either" stated Sera.
We stopped talking when we both spotted movement.
"Falmer," Sera whispered.
They were once a great race of elves, who were called the Snow Elves because of their choice of habitat, which had been the snow-covered mountain ranges of Skyrim and Morrowind if my research was correct.
In the past they had fought against the Nords, the Chimer, the ancestors of the Dunmer aka the Dark Elves, and the Dwemer, the Dwarves, in order to maintain their hold on their lands. When it looked like defeat was imminent, they asked the Dwemer for help. Which had been a huge mistake.
Their elven cousins agreed to hide them within their underground cities, but they tricked them, feeding them some sort of fungus that caused blindness. From then on, the Snow Elves became slaves to the Dwemer.
The Dwarves were gone now, but after centuries of living below the ground, the Snow Elves were now known only as the Falmer, a grotesque, blind race who prowled the shadows, who were willing to eat humans, and they struck fear into the hearts of those who dwelled on the surface.
They roamed the ancient ruins as well as caves that they had found access to because of their proximity to the underground cities, and any unprepared explorer who delved into the depths often found themselves at their mercy, not that they had any.
"Unless you want to fight all of them were going to need to employ some stealth" advised Sera.
Turning invisible would be pointless since the hostiles here were blind and we might lose track of each other, so it was making noise we had to worry about. There were spells to muffle sounds and this was a good chance to practice using them.
Not that this helped much as it turned out that the falmer could detect us anyway if we got close enough. Maybe they had Daredevil sense or something similar.
Before long we entered one of the buildings, and we quickly took care of any Falmer that we came across as we crept through the ruins. They couldn't actually hurt us, it would have just been easier to sneak around. Plus fighting the Falmer meant running the risk of damaging the artefacts that I wanted to claim.
This building appeared to be a residence of some sort, as it was divided into various living areas. I figure at some point in the past that several family groups had probably dwelled within the building.
It quickly became apparent to me that the Falmer had set up their own dwellings within this building. They lived in odd-looking tents, which I had no desire to examine, the Falmer were a crude race and I wanted nothing from them.
I did claim the pots, pans and so on that were made of dwarven metal because they were valuable and I could sell them in different worlds to people who wished to collect such things, or maybe I could melt them down.
It was here that we found two corpses, who in life had obviously belonged to the expedition that had died down here. One was a guard, the other appeared to have been a mage or scholar, perhaps both.
Sera discovered a diary on the mage and by reading it I discovered that this man had been named Stromm. He had opted to stay behind with the guard to research the dwellings further and had written his findings in his diary. I pocketed the small book with the intention of giving it to Calcelmo when next I saw him.
"I think that's everything of value in here," I commented.
We took one last look around in case we'd missed something important. It didn't look as if we had.
Back out in the caverns, we found the next portion of the passageway to have been flooded. But since I could teleport us we didn't have to worry about getting wet in order to reach other parts of this underground city.
Inside the next part of the city, along with several more Falmer, we found weapons, armour (most of which we took leaving only a little behind for future explorers) and many inactive Dwemer automatons that could be mistaken for statues or some sort of art.
I knew that some of these ancient creations still worked in the ruins, even hundreds of years after the disappearance of their creators, and I also knew that no one understood how they worked,
As we explored, we encountered a few more dead guards from the previous expedition as well as another researcher. Sera found his notes on his corpse and passed them to me so I soon discovered his name had been Erj.
Within this part of the ruins, I found plenty of dwarven metal that I could recycle later that had been gathered by the Falmer for some reason. What the purpose of these bits of junk was I could only guess and this was neither the time nor the place to inspect them.
Before long we continued on to the next building, and this one was full of steaming pipes and dozens more Falmer. Thankfully the nasty creatures only had arrows and swords, so they weren't much of a threat to people who couldn't be harmed in mortal ways.
It wasn't long before we found ourselves in a room that contained the corpse of a guy called Staubin who as Calcelmo had mentioned was the leader of the group who had come down here.
"Staubin knew that they were too outnumbered by the Falmer to fight their way out" I explained after reading his notes "He wanted to turn the automatons on".
Not such a terrible idea as they'd kill all the Falmer and take losses while doing so. Perhaps enough to make it possible for what was left of the expedition to leave. Alas for them they'd not made it far enough.
"I don't want to battle one of those giant centurions," Sera said to me.
That didn't concern me too much as I had no intention of fighting those creations.
"If there's ever going to be a full expedition down here then we need to clear out the Falmar," I told my companion "We can turn on the defences, teleport out and then let the Falmar and the centurions destroy each other, then anyone else coming down here will only need to deal with the survivors".
And they'd know how to turn the defences off as I could leave instructions.
"Maybe we could wait and deactivate them ourselves" suggested Sera "You could teleport us back here in a few hours to switch it all off. If it is that simple".
That did make sense.
"Okay we'll do it that way" I agreed.
We moved on and soon found what we were looking for as we climbed a ramp. We took out a lone Falmer mage who had some sort of staff, and then we let ourselves into a small room which had a lever in the centre of it. That mage hadn't even been able to ward himself and thus had fallen quickly.
"That must be it" Sera stated.
It might be the on switch for one of their lifts, but if it was that was fine as it would just lead to more exploring.
"I think so," I replied
While preparing to teleport us away if this went wrong and caused a cave-in, I pulled the lever. It was a bit stiff from so many years of remaining in one position, and even with Serana's help, it was a bitch to move.
Loud mechanical sounds filled the space around them as pumps and gears began to work again, and whatever mysterious machinations that controlled the automatons started to do their work. Before long we began to hear sounds of fighting in the distance. The automatons were doing their job and the Falmer weren't going to go down without putting up a fight.
"Okay let's get out of here and come back in a few hours," I said to my companion.
I might even be able to salvage some more materials from the automatons. Then I would seek out Calcelmo and give him the notes we'd found.
Gwynedd. Wales.
I'd left Skyrim as soon as I'd felt that I'd adapted fully to the local magic for a few reasons. To start with my relationship with my fellow apprentices had soured because J'zargo had been killed by the rogue mages they'd been sent to recover the books from.
Brelyna and Onmund had both become distant when they returned to the college and I didn't think they blamed me totally, nor did they hate the Arch-Mage as it had been a volunteer assessment, but clearly they both felt that J'zargo would be alive if I had gone with them, and they could be right.
Without the near disaster involving the Eye of Magnus nothing really changed at the college. I'd spent the rest of my time there in intense study. I still had years to go before I mastered Skyrim schools of magic.
At least I'd not burned any bridges. I was free to return to the college in the future and I would go back to Skyrim to pick up some things I'd never gotten around to collecting. For now, I intended to stay here in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter to study more and to take care of some business.
Serana and Valerica, it was safe to use their names in this world as Harkon had no agents in these lands, were both experienced mages and would be able to teach me more about the magic of their world. Assuming that Valerica could be dragged away from her studies of this world's magical plants.
Already she was casting some minor spells to see if she still had access to her magic, and her powers seemed to be working. Although that might be because she'd brought some of her world's energy with her. Only time would tell if she would need to return home to her universe due to being incompatible with this one.
"So Macross, this your country estate," said Valerica "It has potential".
That was a somewhat accurate description of the place. I'd told my two companions about my properties in this world before now. Now that they were seeing it in person they had a much idea of the standard of living I could offer.
"I own the house and the surrounding land" I confirmed "Mostly the land is used as gardens for magical plants and I have a few greenhouses, but other than it's not much of an estate. I don't keep any animals here".
This was somewhat like an English country house owned by the gentry. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a townhouse, which I also did, and had ownership over land in the country. I didn't own that much land, so I didn't consider myself to be any sort of nobility.
In the Muggle world, such estates had a great deal of indoor and outdoor staff, as such country houses were important as places of employment for many rural communities. This was less true in more modern times due to the industrial revolution which made cities and towns more important than they had been in times past, however they were still important places.
Since Valerica was a medieval noble in some sense, she saw my country home in that way, and so it didn't surprise me much when she asked to be put in charge of the lands here as well as the house.
"Mother we've been in this world for less than half an hour and you're already taking charge" complained Serana.
Since I didn't want to run the place I was happy to have her do it.
"Your mother will make a fine..."
I wasn't quite sure what the title would be.
"Seneschal" supplied Valerica "I've run estates like this before. With your wealth, you should have no trouble buying up the surrounding land if we require more room. We'll need more greenhouses and fields to use as pasture land for useful animals".
If enough land could be purchased and then warded properly it should be possible to safely keep some magical creatures here or mundane kinds. I didn't need to keep chickens, cows and goats, but Serana's mother wanted them and I could acquire some more house elves to take care of them.
Overall, I saw no harm in letting Valerica run an estate for me while I did more interesting things.
"I did think about planting some trees that have wand-worthy wood" I mentioned to Valerica "They are used in broom manufacturing as well and a forest filled with the right kind of trees could be profitable".
Magical plants from other worlds would need to be kept inside greenhouses because it can be dangerous to introduce alien species to this environment can cause problems. As a child, I remembered hearing about how grey squirrels that were imported from North America overtook the native red squirrel population and nearly wiped them by being more successful.
I'd need to check with my account manager at Gringotts and perhaps some parts of the Ministry to make sure that I could legally grow trees that could be harvested for wands and brooms. There could be families out there that had control over such things.
"There will be plenty to keep me busy," said Valerica as she walked away "I'll catch up with you after I've inspected some of the grounds".
I stopped her for a moment before calling for my House Elf.
"Sir is home!" called out the happy elf.
I'd explained to my two companions about House Elves and since they dealt with the daedra in times past a House Elf didn't freak them out. They were also used to having servants so they didn't care that Tippy was basically a slave.
"Tippy the ladies with me are Serana and Valerica Volkihar," I told the magical creature "They are my companions and you will treat them as if they are my family. I want you to go with Madam Valerica, show her the greenhouses and then the house".
That would keep the older woman busy for a while and I could get into my study as there were things there I wanted to check. Serana took my arm as I led her into the house.
"Despite my complaints about her need to control people, I'm glad mother has found something to do with her time" the younger woman mentioned "If nothing else it will keep her out of my hair".
Valerica wasn't much into going off and exploring. At least not when compared to her daughter. It was best for us all if she remained occupied at home.
"Keeping her to run things makes sense" I stated "I was thinking about selling some of the stuff we found in other worlds in a shop. Nothing dangerous or powerful, more like curiosities and luxury goods, but with me having to stay in other universes for months at a time it wasn't practical. Your mother could easily manage to keep this place in order and manage a shop if we get her the right help".
I'd need a couple more House Elves to do the work here and there were bound to be a few muggle-borns or squibs who could work in a shop. If the Weasly twins could set up a successful business then there must be people around who can run one for me and Valerica would just need to pop in once in a while to make sure things were running smoothly.
The Weasly twins sold prank products not medical potions so imagined that I might be able to have my shop sell things like invisibility potions even if I couldn't sell healing potions. I would need to check out what laws the wizards had to govern such things. I didn't even know if they had health inspectors or an MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) type of organisation.
"What about your townhouse?" questioned Serana "We will be staying there?".
Given their past, the two former vampires got on very well, yet despite this, they would need to spend time apart.
"This house is known to the public" I explained to the mage "I come here to meet with visitors and to take lessons with my tutors. My townhouse is less well-known and more secure. That's why I do my research and keep some of my treasures. I go there when I want to be alone".
I had more to say about the place.
"It used to be the family home of some dark witches and wizards, I had it cleared out, but it a still a bit gloomy," I told her "If you were still a vampire you might like the place as it doesn't get much sun. It's smaller than this manor and doesn't have a garden so I figured that your mother would want to stay here".
That house was also where I intended to put some interesting objects on display. Such as the dragon-claws that I'd picked up during my travel.
"Sounds like it could do with a woman's touch" hinted Serana.
It would be good for us to have somewhere away from her mother.
"Let me check my mail and I'll take you to the townhouse for a tour," I said.
I was expecting to see quite a pile of letters and newspapers on my desk, the lack of them was surprising. I wondered if my mail had stopped for some reason, but I felt sure that Tippy had taken care of everything.
Upon checking the papers I found out why my desk was not as burdened as I'd imagined. If the newest paper was today's edition then I'd been gone just a bit more than three weeks rather than several months as planned. It took me a few moments to begin to process this possibility.
It was interesting as it meant that time might be running faster in Mundus than it was here, and somewhat of a problem as I'd been expecting Tonks, who I had been sort of dating, to have moved on while I was gone. If I had only been gone for three weeks then seeing her again could be awkward.
I explained to Serana about the time difference and she seemed confused.
"So you've been gone weeks?" she asked "Is it a big deal? It's not like your ageing".
Well, that wasn't a concern at least.
"I was hoping to set up lessons with smiths and warriors in Skyrim" I mentioned "If time is passing at a different rate in your homeland then it will be nearly impossible to be on time for appointments".
Serana had taught me a little about fighting with a dagger. Many mages used them as backup weapons for when the enemy got in close.
"I can see that causing you some trouble," she said "Maybe you should make use of that Sigil place you told me about".
Before long I noticed that she seemed as if she had something else on her mind.
"What's the matter?" I asked as I began to look through my letters.
My account manager at the bank wanted a word, it didn't seem urgent, and I'd been invited to a few more social events that I didn't care about. Dumbledore was asking again to meet with me. The man really needed to take the hint and go bother someone else.
"Macross, I need to talk to you about something. One of the reasons why Mother is interested in having a nice home to live in is that she wants a grandchild or two," Serana let me know "She's offered to look after any children we have so that we don't get tied down. I think she wants to make up for her mistakes with me".
Valerica didn't exactly regret sealing her daughter away because Serana needed to be protected from her father, however, the older woman recognised that she'd gone about it the wrong way. She might see doting on a grandchild as a way to correct that mistake.
"And what do you want?" I asked.
At the end of the day, it was Serana's choice as it was her body that would make any babies. It wouldn't be too much effort for her to tempt me into providing some DNA even if breeding didn't appeal to me, and it wasn't as if I'd have to do much if Valerica wanted to do the work. I was rich and didn't have to do much actual parenting.
"I don't want to have children right now" she admitted, "I'm not a family person, I don't want to be a wife and stay at home, but I do like the idea of having a daughter of my own to teach as my mother taught me, or a son if he takes after you rather than my side of the family".
Made sense to me.
"So Harkon isn't on the list of baby names?" I joked.
Serana punched my arm.
"Daughters are the way to go" she stated "There must be a spell to ensure that".
I didn't doubt that we could find somewhere, but I had other concerns.
"We might not be able to have children" I warned Serana "Some kinds of immortals can't and I'm not from your world. I don't know if we're compatible in that way".
Granted humans and elves could have children together in her world, but they were at least from the same plane of existence, I'd evolved from primates, Serana's people had been treated by divine beings. We might seem very alike superficially, however, we were very different in some respects.
"I'd already thought of that," she told me "I figured that we could just have lots of sex and if I don't get pregnant we can talk about adopting a child. Skyrim isn't exactly lacking in orphans".
If Valerica wanted a child to raise then maybe going to Skyrim and bringing a war orphan here wasn't such a bad idea. Children were adaptable in a way adults weren't. Perhaps they could learn wand magic and go to Hogwarts one day. Even they couldn't learn that kind of magic everyone who lived in Mundus was magical and that talent could be nurtured.
Something to think about.
"Let's get you set up in my townhouse before we start worrying about children," I said "We need to find out if you and your mother can even live here before anything else".
Earth had different physical and metaphysical laws than Nirn. I worried that Serana and her mother might get sick or lose their powers due to magic being different here. If so perhaps the Eye of Magnus could be of aid. I would look into that later if it was required.
Grimmauld Place. London.
Since I'd been able to summon up the spirit of Herpo the Foul using my Deathly Hallow sometime ago, and he the mage who'd created the first Horcrux, I had quite a lot of information available to me on that most horrible of magic.
Once I'd shown this work to Serana she'd requested to be able to examine a Horcrux. She was an expert at Soul Magic, which as the name suggested involves using magic to manipulate souls. I should have remembered that from how in the game she gets the Dragonborn into the Soul Cairn.
Plus there was that mage who puts the Dragonborn's soul into Azura's Star and then gets it out again. That was a complete soul and so it made sense that extracting a fraction of a soul and putting it into a soul gem should be possible.
Despite wanting some distance from her mother Serana soon recognised that it would be for the best to bring Valerica here and seek her aid with the project. The two former vampires soon began working out a way to defeat Voldemort using their knowledge of soul magic.
I'd left them to it most of the time that they'd been working at this as I'd had a meeting at the bank. I was in the process of buying up the land around my house in Wales and purchasing property in Diagon Alley so that I could open up a new store that sold stuff from other dimensions in this world.
The extra land was needed for the addition of more greenhouses and we hoped to add homes for magical creatures to the estate, as well as a small forest made up of trees that could provide for wands and brooms.
This wouldn't take too long as I was willing to throw money to get things done and the goblins were pleased that I was investing more of my gold into some property. By opening up even a small business I would be helping to keep money in circulation by hiring people and selling items, rather than hoarding so much of it. Which was better for the economy.
When I'd returned they'd told me that they had made some progress and that they should be able to destroy the Dark Lord.
"So how is this going to work?" I asked as I watched the mother and daughter study the Cup of Hufflepuff "How can you use this Horcrux to destroy Voldemort?".
That was the whole point of our gathering here and combining our collective knowledge.
"I believe we can use sympathetic magic to soul trap all of the soul pieces of this Voldemort by drawing the soul piece out of one of these Horcruxes," said Valerica "However there are protective spells placed upon this cup".
In sympathetic magic, a person or thing can be supernaturally affected through its name or an object representing it. Voodoo dolls are an example of this as is the ability to bind or even control certain types of supernatural creatures by knowing their true name. This was one of the reasons why I went by Macross these days.
Given that his Horcruxes were defended against sympathetic magic, Voldemort must have studied Voodoo when travelling the world to learn magic before returning to Britain and declaring himself to be the Dark Lord. That or he'd found instructions that told him to properly defend his Horcruxes in some book.
"I could just drain the Horcruxes of magic," I told the women "But then we'd lose the objects that were made into Horcruxes and the bit of soul would get stuck somewhere between here and the afterlife".
According to the spirit of Helga Hufflepuff, her cup was the prototype for the special plates and such that are used in Hogwarts. Food and drink are transported from the kitchens to the Great Hall thanks to Hufflepuff's enchantments. The cup only worked within Hogwarts due to the magic and so had no real use to me.
I might simply donate the cup to Hogwarts, and claimed to have found it while off on my travels. Or maybe the Smith family would offer something in reward for the cup as it had belonged to a member of that family before Tom Riddle took it. I didn't need more money, so hopefully, they had some old books on rare bits of magic that they would be willing to trade.
"What we need to do is strip away the protection of the object," said the older of my two female companions.
Serana drew our attention to the board where I'd stuck up some papers that contain important information.
"According to your notes Harry Potter is an incomplete Horcrux and might not have the proper protections," said the younger woman "Maybe we can use him?".
I didn't like the sound of that.
"He's just a boy" I pointed out.
I might be a bit of a bastard at times, but I'm not going to harm a child.
"A soul can be removed from the body without killing the body," said Valerica "We have plenty of healing magic to aid in keeping the boy alive".
That wasn't the only concern and I wasn't the only one who realised that.
"What about the prophecy?" asked Serana.
Her mother didn't seem bothered by this.
"Your father believed in a prophecy," said Valerica to her daughter "He believed he could block out the sun and make it so vampires become the rulers of our world. The bow he needs for that is downstairs in a display case and he can no longer use our blood. Prophecies are only possible futures, they are not absolute, you have proven this".
She had a point. Besides the prophecy Dumbledore believed in is so vague in parts that it might not apply to Voldemort at all, nor does it say that the Chosen One will be born as the seventh month dies, it says approaches so it could mean that the Dark Lord's equal could arrive in the county at the end of July.
"We need this boy" stated Valerica.
I could get him. Given the hour he'd be asleep in his dorm room and I can teleport into Hogwarts whenever I wished. The concern was that Dumbledore could track Potter here if the boy just vanished.
"How long would you need him for?" I asked.
If the spell to remove the bit of Voldemort's soul could be done quickly enough then I could teleport into Hogwarts, grab the Boy-Who-Lived, teleport him here, let the ladies do their thing, and then drop him back off again. I'd have to stun him so he couldn't identify us.
"Mere moments," said Valerica "I just need to take the soul fragment out of the boy and place it in a soul gem, then I can use it to gather the other pieces. Once the parts of the soul are contained we simply send them to the Soul Cairn".
A fitting fate for Voldemort, for his shattered soul, to be consumed. As for Potter as long as he didn't die I could fix him up with a segment of a golden apple. He might come out of this healthier than before.
"Couldn't we just soul-trap a Horcrux and then destroy it?" I asked, "Then you'd have your soul fragment. The diary doesn't really have any value".
Valerica had already considered this.
"I would still need to draw the fragments of the soul to one place" she explained, "Including the bit of soul in the boy. He could be harmed or even die if he isn't here to be tended to".
And even if she fails to gather all the fragments of the soul then we can at least stop Potter from being a Horcrux. Once he isn't one anymore then I can sacrifice the other containers if needs be even if I'd rather not as the cup and the locket are worth a lot.
"Will you have enough power?" I asked.
They drew power from Aetherius for their magic, and that dimension was far away. Gathering magical energy from that realm was harder for them when not in their home universe it turned out, but there were enchanted items to help boost magical power as well as potions that could help with that.
The two mages weren't cut off from their magic because their souls had a connection to Aetherius that couldn't be broken by mere distance. My powers worked differently so I wasn't affected by being away from Aetherius at all.
"I'll borrow your amulet," said Serana "Mother can use your staff".
The reforged amulet boosted a person's energy levels and not just the amount of magical power they could access. It was a very useful enchanted item. As for the Staff of Magnus, it was charged with lots of magical energy and that power could be tapped into. The amulet and the staff must also have a connection to Aetherius that had been maintained.
"I'll bring you the boy once you're ready," I told the former vampires "We'll need to send him back to his school as quickly as possible in case Dumbledore tries to track him here".
What would become of Potter if he wasn't a Horcrux anymore? Would the Headmaster groom him as a replacement? He wouldn't know right away that Voldemort was defeated, would he?
These were thoughts for later. For now, I needed to ward this room in every way I knew so as to limit the possibility of Dumbledore being able to track Potter here when I grabbed him.
The Hospital Wing. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy.
Albus Dumbledore prided himself on being a man who normally had a decent idea of what was going on. Even when he didn't have all the facts he was able to draw some conclusions and come up with theories based on what information he could easily gather.
Not this time, he was mostly clueless as to what had happened to Harry Potter last night, beyond what the school's healer had been able to tell him and what his own spells had confirmed once he'd been able to get a good look at the Boy-Who-Lived.
All he could do was speculate based on what little information he'd been able to gather so far and that was proving stressful because the ideas he was having were very worrying ones.
From what he'd been able to piece together, very late last night Harry Potter had vanished for a time from within his dorm room in Gryffindor Tower here in the castle.
No one had seen him leave, nor did they know if anyone had entered the tower, the Fat Lady who guarded the entrance to the tower had not opened for anyone past curfew aside from when the patrolling prefects had done their duty.
Dumbledore only knew for sure the boy had left the castle as he'd been alerted by the monitoring devices that had woken him up. If not for them it might have seemed as if Potter had somehow been transported to the hospital wing.
By the time the Headmaster had dressed, double-checked his devices, and begun trying to locate Potter, the boy had been returned to the school via some unknown means. The young wizard had been gone for mere moments, yet had come back drastically changed.
Dumbledore had long been aware that a part of Tom Riddle had somehow ended up inside Harry Potter. It was what confirmed Albus's theory that Voldemort created at least one Horcrux and possibly many more.
Now that scar was gone. It had been healed after the part of Voldemort's had been removed and the Headmaster had cast a number of very rare spells on the boy to be sure of this. There was no trace that he'd ever been hit by the Killing Curse. It was as if some great power had healed Potter.
This should not be possible. Dumbledore had researched Horcruxes and come to the conclusion that the only way for the Dark Lord to be defeated was for Harry Potter to die.
Things had suddenly changed. The scar was gone, somehow purged, and the Boy-Who-Lived had been healed. According to Madam Pomphrey the lad wasn't just in good health he'd been healed of past injuries and his eyesight had somehow been fixed. This was all impossible as far as Dumbledore knew.
Somehow a person, or perhaps a group of people, whose skills surpassed that of the great Albus Dumbledore, had kidnapped Harry Potter, removed the piece of soul from him, healed him and then deposited him here in the Hospital Wing before Dumbledore had been able to start tracking the young wizard.
The idea that even a group of wizards working together could do this was worrying, to say the least. There were ways in and out of Hogwarts, but you couldn't just appear, grab someone and then vanish into thin air.
Not even Voldemort could do something like this and even if he had found a way the Dark Lord would have killed Potter rather than have gone to the trouble of returning him.
Dumbledore could only theorise that a group of powerful wizards and witches somehow knew about the Horcruxes and were taking steps to ensure that Voldemort was defeated.
Given that they had healed Potter rather than destroy him suggested that they were good people, working against the dark and that they had access to powerful light magic that counter the evilest deeds of Voldemort.
However, no such group should exist without Albus knowing about it. Wizards of that calibre were rare and those inclined to battle the dark saw Dumbledore as their leader and flocked to his banner.
Yet there seemed to be a group working to defeat Voldemort if recent events were anything to go by.
The death of Lucius Malfoy had been unexpected even if wasn't odd that the Death Eaters who had escaped justice would want to silence the man before he could talk and expose their crimes. Malfoy murdering Umbridge had never made sense to Dumbledore.
Driven by his own cleverness rather than the evidence the Headmaster convinced himself that there was a group of witches and wizards out there who had their own agenda and that they must be foreign or he'd already know about them. They had their own agenda that involved taking down Voldemort.
Dumbledore also wondered if they were good people because if they were then why wouldn't have come to him with their plan to help Harry Potter? Perhaps they sought to remove Voldemort for less-than-noble purposes and wanted Harry Potter alive for some reason.
That was something to dwell more upon when he had the time. For now, he needed to soothe Siruis Black who had just rushed into the Hosptial Wing. It wouldn't do for Black to remove Potter from Hogwarts due to concerns for the boy's safety.
Diagon Alley. The Wizarding World.
"This will do," she said.
Valerica of the Volkihar Clan, the estranged wife of Lord Harkon, and mother of Serana Volkihar was pleased by what she saw and the direction her life was going in. Leaving the Soul Carin when Serana found her and attaching herself to the household of a new lord had proven to be the correct thing to do.
There were a few things about being a vampire that Valerica missed, but they were unimportant compared to what she'd gained. Now she could walk in the sun, and be nourished by normal food, as a bonus her new form of immortality protected her from death in ways vampirism never could have.
Reconnecting with her daughter was also pleasant as was being able to leave her fool of a husband behind. Harkon would never find her here and she had a new world to learn about. It also helped that her new lord saw value in her skills and Serana seemed taken with the young wizard.
Letting the two of them go off to explore and develop their powers made sense to Valerica. She didn't share their love of adventure having gone through that period of her life a long time ago. Such things were best left to those who had their youth.
For her, it made sense to run Macross's household and business interests. She was even willing to raise any children her daughter wish to have as while immortals don't need heirs it would be nice to have someone to pass on her knowledge to and she was too old to be getting pregnant.
As for the store, it was small, but since it was located in a busy shopping centre that was to be expected as space would be limited even with the aid of magic. The entire building had some appeared between two existing stores, an impressive feat.
Valerica knew that even on a quiet day, there would be plenty of people passing by who could be drawn into the store as the magical humans of this world saw no reason to rush about and this shop would offer items of interest to a population that rarely saw anything new.
The novelty of there being a new business in the alley would wear off after a while and Macross had told her that the magical people of this nation had a rather limited population, so Valerica knew that profits would not be great, but making money wasn't the point.
Macross was so wealthy that he had to invest some of his riches into business in both the magical and non-magical world in order to avoid destabilising the finances of this isolated community. That was what the goblins who rank the bank had told him so when Macross had been setting up vaults for both mother and daughter.
Valerica found the idea of goblins running anything to be amusing. She knew them as tribes of savages living in caves, yet she had seen for herself that they could be more than barbarians and had been wise enough not to express her opinions on the matter.
What mattered was that the influence of her lord over this community would spread and Valerica would reap the benefits of this. She'd been involved in politics for longer than most people lived and while Macross had no desire to get involved with the politics of the magical community she wouldn't mind at all.
"It's good that they managed to set this up so quickly" stated Serana "I worried that you'd be bored while Macross and I were gone".
While their lord finished up some business at the bank his two companions had headed to the store to start putting it in order. Valerica wanted the store opened as soon as possible as it would allow her to start meeting some of the magical humans. She would use her position to start making allies and to discover who would be her enemies.
They'd gotten rid of that Voldemort by sending his spirit off to the Soul Cairn and with him gone the former vampire could focus on spreading her influence over this community like a spider spinning her web. She would entrap both allies and enemies in the web.
"Money can make many things happen," she told her daughter.
Macross's wealth would be of great aid to her as she made a place for herself in this world.
"There's more to life than riches" Serana chided.
Her daughter was quite right. There was power, influence, and wealth. These things mattered and she would acquire more of all of them.
Gringotts Bank. Diagon Alley.
I hadn't just come here to finalise the lease of the shop, I was only renting the property as outright buying a building in the shopping centre would have taken far too long to sort out, as while here I'd found out that some of the work I'd requested done by the goblin smiths had gotten done.
"They are so beautiful" I commented.
Coins aside, goblins are not in the habit of mass producing anything as such each of the bullets resting inside the velvet-lined box was a miniature work of art.
These 24 bullets were made from goblin silver which meant that they were forged with magic to make them more durable and like goblin-made blades, these bullets could take in properties that would make them stronger and repel what would weaken them.
These bullets would not become tarnished and if exposed to a poison they would take in the essence of that substance, even basilisk venom a substance that could destroy even a Horcrux would only make a goblin weapon even deadlier.
I had a small supply of acromantula venom. As a poison, it could paralyse a living creature and I would like my bullets to have the ability to disable a target like that.
On the subject of acromantula, I had no doubt that soon I'd be taking a trip to the Forbidden Forest to acquire some fresh venom for Valerica who want to compare it to the venom of Frostbite spiders that were native to her homeland.
"We goblins are not as ignorant as most magical peoples are about the weapons of the muggles" stated Ironhammer, the goblin smith who had made these bullets for me "We know that recovering the silver to be melted down and used again would be difficult".
Goblins believe that the person who creates something is always the true owner as such I was only renting these bullets. However, there was a loophole of sorts in that rule, if a goblin-made object is lost then it can be compensated for without making an enemy of the goblin race. It would cost a fortune so it was good that I had many of those.
"Losing such fine work would be a shame," I said to the goblin who wore overalls and an apron rather than a suit "But that was reflected in the price. We have a deal Ironhammer".
These projectiles were worth any price as far as I was concerned. Not only were they durable silver, something I could end up very grateful for such I encountered a werewolf, but the bullets could also be made even more deadly. Due to the magic involved these bullets should be able to kill creatures that don't normally die when shot with a gun. Such as Vampires who were also a concern for me.
"Gringotts doesn't normally make such deals" the goblin was now saying "But if you could acquire some samples of the strange metals you showed us I would be willing to forge more bullets for you made from our silver and those metals. I have peers who could even create rings or amulets that would be yours in our eyes since you would be providing the raw materials".
I was surprised to hear this. I'd been under the impression that goblins simply didn't make deals such as I was hearing. They must really want more of the metals I'd brought here from Skyrim for their smiths.
Of course, I had no doubt they would keep most of the magical metals I brought in for themselves, but I could always get more, and since I was the only supplier the goblins would bend over backwards to aid me so as to keep the samples coming.
"We can make an arrangement," I said.
I'd considered going to the dwarves for the forging of magical bullets, however, that race tends to be better with materials such as wood, steel and glass, dwarves are builders and very good at it. I'd hired them again recently to build a workshop and more greenhouses on my property.
"Your account manager can finalise a deal," said the smith as he turned to leave "I look forward to forging for you, Macross".
For a goblin that had been downright friendly. The magical being who directed me back to my account manager's office was far more formal. I knew that the goblins would honour any deal they made with me and that they bargain hard so the following talk would be an important one.
Shop. Diagon Alley.
A short time later I was walking out of the bank with a contract that gave the goblins the right to forge any exotic metal I could import and only they could sell items forged from those metals.
This wouldn't stop me from trying to work with those metals I just wouldn't be able to sell any of my work in this world. That was fine with me as I can get money anywhere and the magical people of this world wouldn't be much interested in buying whatever I forged anyway.
When I entered the new shop, which had been named Trinkets and Tronkets, for reasons that made sense to Valerica, I found that my two companions were hard at work setting things up. Already the shelves were partly filled with items from other universes, mostly from Skyrim.
We weren't allowed to sell potions used for medical purposes, you had to be a licensed apothecary to do that, but we did have potions for sale. Ones that granted invisibility for a short time, for pranking for example. We also had potions that let a person breathe underwater for a time. No need for gillyweed here.
I'd picked up some fine clothing that the two former vampires had put on display, but I didn't expect that such things would get much interest. The circles, bracelets, necklaces and amulets, made from bronze, silver and gold, rather than more exotic metals, had minor enchantments upon them to boost magical power and would sell well.
On some of the shelves, I could see mammoth tusks, the fangs of large predators, furs, and things I didn't even have names for but must have been collected by hunters back in Skyrim before being purchased by me.
In display cases I could see some daggers of different designs, they were just steel weapons of different kinds that might look good on a mantlepiece. They were locked up so that no children could hurt themselves by messing with the weapons.
We even had a display of wines that I'd acquired from a few different worlds. Arbor gold from Westeros, Alto Wine, Stros M'Kai Rum, Spiced Wine, and Cyrodilic Brandy from Nirn. They were next to some chilled bottles of mead. Thankfully you didn't need a fancy licence to sell strong drinks in this culture.
The counter had some gems that could be viewed along with some fancy-looking rings of Nordic style. Along with some minor bits of art, statues and figurines carved from different materials, such as bone, ivory and wood.
"You did good work here" I commented.
The store wasn't big enough to put a lot of merchandise on display, and that was okay as there was room in the back. Before Serana and I went off to spend months on a single world, I would make sure that Valerica had new novelties to sell.
"Serana did most of the work" stated Valerica.
A young witch I didn't know came out of the back and headed out the door.
"I just interviewed her for the job" the alchemist explained.
My intention was to leave the running of this place to Valerica and not involved myself much once it was set up. I just wanted her to hire muggle-borns or squibs as such people had trouble finding work in the magical parts of this world
"Do you plan to open soon?" I asked.
I did want to be here for the grand opening.
"We will open our doors to the public on Monday morning," said the mage.
That was good to hear. Valerica would have plenty to keep her busy while Serana and I went off to the next world.