Harry Potter - Gamer Neighbour
Summary: The new neighbour over the street at Privet Drive number five seems pretty normal, but not Privet Drive normal. But is anyone with the power of the gamer ever even remotely normal? No fucking way.
Disclaimer: I do own some shit, but not any recognizable characters, places or settings in this particular fanfiction.
AN: Well, what do you know. Finished chapter 10 a few minutes ago, so I figured I might just as well do final tweaks, spellchecking and upload this one to celebrate.
Anyway... Unreliable narration is a thing.
Characters will sometimes say stuff that isn't true, conceal the truth or divert attention from certain topics, so there will be a certain amount of uncertainty dotted all over the place. Just because a character has said something, does not necessarily make it fully or even slightly true. A character might even be thinking about something and still not reveal the full picture, just the part of it they're focused on right at that very moment.
I like that uncertainty. It's why I don't finish every chapter with a fully revealed character sheet for a character or something of the sort, I just put in a few bits and pieces of them when that particular part of it is needed or is the focus of the narration.
Violet is obviously a somewhat different beast from Harry. Her experiences are similar enough, but different. Appearances and gender different. Personality, well, there are similarities, but also vast differences. This is a person who not only had to deal with Dudley's bullying when growing up, but also the somewhat cut-throat world of young girls and the bickering, back-stabbing and snarkiness you'll sometimes see in all-girl gatherings. Violet knows how to snark back and isn't afraid to bring out her inner tomboy and physically fight back if verbal sparring doesn't work out well enough for her taste.
A woman scorned or held back from what she wants is a terrifying thing indeed. Imagine how much more terrifying a stereotypical temperamental ginger one would be.
Chapter 2:
She walked out of the bathroom feeling immensely refreshed after a quick shower to rinse off followed by a soothing bath and almost immediately spotted Nick standing over in one corner of the big room, taking slow sips from a glass while staring out of a window, seemingly lost in thought.
The Female Body Inspector t-shirt was too big for her, falling halfway down her thighs and leaving plenty of room. But it was soft and felt pretty good to wear. Not being super-fitted against her body was actually a pretty big perk at the moment, since she was going bra-less.
The soft shorts he'd lent her were equally oversized for someone of her stature, she guessed they would go just below his knees but on her they damn well nearly reached her ankles, being just a tiny bit too short to look like a pair of trousers for her. The waist was too wide, but she'd tied them tightly around her waist and it felt like they would hold up just fine.
But the silky briefs, ohmygod, she loved those. They too were too large for her and when she'd tried moving around in the bathroom a bit, she could feel them slowly slipping downwards, wanting to slide right off but held back from doing so by the shorts being in the way. But the material they were made of and how it felt like they were caressing her skin as she moved... Ohmygod! If she could muster up the courage to ask before she left, she'd ask if she could have them. They would probably feel awesome to sleep in. Or walk around in. Or sit around in.
She had thirty panties. She knew, she had counted them. Thirty panties, all of the same boring model, same boring white colour and it was probably the cheapest brand of panties available to purchase in bulk. There was nothing wrong with them, per say. She'd worn them without complaint in the past, but ohmygod, these briefs were spectacular. And purple! Now she understood why the other girls had such things as favourite panties and why she would sometimes see and hear Alicia, Angelina and Katie oh and aw over each others panties from time to time in the locker room. These were men s briefs, granted, but they had now been promoted to her favourite panties!
Heck, perhaps she could simply just... Not ask and instead just... Wear them without saying anything when she left?
She wanted them.
"Hi." she chirped out in greeting, feeling a lot more cheerful then before. She had a lot of time to think about things while soaking in warm water and had decided that while she certainly would have preferred to not have been just abandoned without a key to the house, the Dursleys would actually be gone for a while. She had no clue for how long or when they would be back, but they would be out of her hair for a while. Probably just for a couple of days, but she certainly wouldn't mind a bit of break from them, even if it had happened somewhat abruptly. She had a place to stay for the night, tomorrow she could reach out to either Hermione, Ron or both.
She ambled up right next to Nick and looked out of the same window as he did. She could see Hedwig sitting on a branch of the tree outside her bedroom window, staring with an unnerving glare straight at her. Heddy was not pleased with her at all right now from the look of things. Then again, Hedwig even got upset when she called her Heddy out loud.
Her owl was one of the greatest things in her life, but she sure could be a bit prickly and opinionated.
"Hi." he responded and glanced down at her, his lips twitching up into a bit of a half-smile. "Sorry about the clothes, I have nothing in your size, so that was the best I could do."
"They are actually pretty great, not really my size, but everything is really comfortable none the less." she hastily assured him. "And hey, if there's anyone who should say sorry, it's me. And thanks, most definitively thanks."
"No worries." he waved it off. "Feel free to turn on the telly if you feel like it. I was mostly planning on reading a bit, but I can do that in my office if you prefer to be alone. There's milk, Pepsi and Sprite in the refrigerator if you want some. Or I can put some tea or coffee on if you prefer." he offered.
"Oh, no. It's fine! It's your house. I can hide in the guest room if you prefer to be alone." she swiftly countered and got a slightly bigger smile in response, then his left hand plonked itself down on top of her head, giving her a brief pat-stroke kind of thing, before he pulled it away and put his thumb in his side pocket, returning his attention to whatever had caught his attention outside.
She let her gaze sweep across everything she saw and wondered what had caught his eye. Hedwig would be noticeable, but mail owls all had a bit of magic in and on them, so it was super-rare for a pure muggle to actually see them unless they knew they were there, somehow expecting them or the owls made a ruckus. But there wasn't much else to look at, just number four and about half of number two and six, nothing else really of note. She could see her window from here and the view from that wasn't much different from this one, boring scenery upon boring scenery with no excitement in sight.
Only this window here didn't have bars covering it.
Oh.
She winced which he apparently spotted out of the corner of his eye, then his hand once again snuck up to the top of her head, patting and stroking as he took another sip from what looked and smelled like a glass of whisky.
"Like I mentioned earlier, I'll listen if you want to talk about something, but I won't ask any questions tonight." he said softly and gently, while his hand slowly worked the top of her head.
She would usually have been spitting mad at anyone who messed with her hair, that tangled mess was enough of a problem without people pawing at it.
But for some reason she kind of liked it, she actually had to force herself not to push up against the hand alternately patting and stroking her disorderly hair. She had tried Sleek-something Lavender had recommended once and that had straightened it out to a nearly miraculous degree. She'd bought a bottle of it through owl-order, but rarely used it since it was somewhat expensive considering how much she needed to fix her hair for just a day. But she had just about half a bottle of it left and that bottle was in her trunk, awaiting some occasion when she truly needed to look her best.
That bottle sadly also rested in the trunk along with her wand, schoolbooks, homework assignments, robes, potion supplies, broom and everything else she had brought back from Hogwarts. That trunk was inside the house at number four. Locked into the same cupboard which used to be her bedroom until the Dursleys put her in Dudley s second bedroom. A house which was also locked.
She couldn't quite see Petunia running off for any significant amount of time while leaving her locked out. The two of them had never seen eye-to-eye on much of anything, but she had a hard time imagining her doing that. Vernon was a bit more of a possibility, but it was unlikely. He would not want there to be rumours about his niece being homeless or sleeping in the back yard. After all, that wouldn't be very normal, now would it?
She imagined Petunia had left the spare key, but Dudley figured it would be fun to take it with him. That moron had always had a problem with long-term planning and seeing anything beyond immediate satisfaction. He'd probably just thought it would be a fun way to mess with her and gleefully imagined the expression on her face when she couldn't get in, never considering that she wouldn't be able to get inside for however long they were gone for.
She stewed in silence for a bit, letting her thoughts percolate and settle down for a bit while weighing her options. But before she had made any decisions, the TV suddenly turned itself on.
"Is the timer still fucked after the move? What the hell?" Nick muttered and headed towards the TV, while she turned around to observe, only to freeze nearly solid at what the screen was showing.
Petunia and Dudley were on the local news.
"... was so surprised when I opened the envelope and saw that I won a five-week all-inclusive cruise in the Caribbean and South America. Luckily my son is on holiday from his school, Smeltings of course, very prestigious. That boy will go far, mark my words! And despite my Vernon being a very busy and important manager at Grunning Drills, he also managed to swing some time off on short notice so he could join us." Petunia babbled on, looking pleased as punch as she waved a colourful pamphlet around with a big white ship on the front. The reporter opened her mouth to speak, but Petunia had more to say. "Look, they even have a gym, a running track, a fruit and vegetable smoothie bar and a big world-famous salad buffet. My Duddiekins can eat healthily, work out and get a nice tan while we're on holiday and be back fit as a fiddle before school starts up again." she continued, interrupting the reporter who seemed as if she desperately wanted to be anywhere else and just wanted this interview to be over.
FZKT!
The screen of the TV turned black and sparks started to crawl along the power cord, all the lights that were on started flashing and going from extremely dimly lit to almost overwhelmingly bright. Violet felt her hair starting to move and her fists were clenched so hard that she'd probably broken her own skin and started to bleed, she certainly felt something moist and liquid slowly making its way across the skin of her fingers and palm of her hands at any rate. Violet felt angry, incredibly angry. Bright spots were floating across her field of vision, along with an occasional bolt of what looked like white-blue lightening.
"65 mana pool my arse." she heard Nick mutter for some reason, before he downed his whisky, put the glass down and walked over towards her. He reached out and gently grasped her clenched fists, lifting them up and turning them palm-side up. "Take some deep breaths, Violet. In and out, slow and steady. Breathe in, hold it, breathe out." he instructed calmly. "Your magic is going wild, you need to get it under control before it erupts. There's no telling what will happen if this amount of uncontrolled magic goes haywire, but my money is on kaboom. A big kaboom!"
"Five weeks! They left me here planning to be gone for five weeks?!" she snarled. "They've been complete and utter bastards to me for as long as I can remember. I've had to go for weeks with barely enough to eat. I've been doing chores from morning to evening, cooking, cleaning, moving the lawn, gardening, dusting, cleaning windows and even changing tires on Vernon s bloody car. They kept me in a fucking cupboard! Ever since I first started getting tits, Dudders have kept trying to get a good look at them! Hell, I've had to start bringing a chair into the bathroom with me when I go for a shower to wedge the door shut for almost two years now! They keep on saying that I'm a freak. I get nothing while Dudley gets everything! They say my parents were useless drunken layabouts, but they were fricking heroes! My parents loved me! But leaving me on my own, for five weeks?! What the hell are those fucking Dursley's thinking?!" Violet ranted and abruptly blinked as something truly odd she had absently noticed suddenly refused to be ignored any longer. "When did you shrink?" she asked in utter bewilderment.
"Look down." Nick calmly suggested and she did so, blinking in true and fathomless astonishment as she saw that she had risen up into the air, pushed up by visible streaks of pure glowing magic between her bare feet and the floor. Nick had tightened his hold on her hands and was holding her down, but she could feel the magic trying to push her higher off the ground. "You may want to try and put a lid on it, pull the magic back inside you. Not all at once, but slowly and carefully. Remember, deep breaths. In and out. Slowly." he instructed. She tried, she tried pulling it all back, but it just did not happen! "Feel how the magic moves through your body, sense where it's leaving you and reverse the flow. This magic is yours, take it back."
"I... I can't! It won't listen! My magic isn't listening to me!" Violet exclaimed, feeling more and more panicky by the second, silently pleading for help as she looked down at the still grounded man holding her down by her hands.
He looked torn for a few moments, then apparently came to a decision.
"Fuck it. Legimens!" Nick cried out as he stared up at her and she saw his eyes kind of... Bulge outwards for a split second.
Immediately after that, something incorporeal SLAMMED into her like a ghostly freight train. Nothing hit her per say, her body didn't register being hit. But something none the less struck her with what felt like enough pressure to shred her into confetti but somehow didn't hurt her or feel painful. If anything she suddenly felt bloated, like if she had just gorged herself on the welcoming feast at Hogwarts to such a degree that she couldn't say if she needed to burp, pass gas, tinkle, hurl, take a shit or all of the above at once. All she knew was that she felt like a balloon that someone had filled with a dangerous amount of air. She felt her mind just stop, everything froze for perhaps a split second, she was pretty sure that even her bodily functions stopped for that split second, it certainly felt like her heart had just stopped at any rate.
She was right. Violet did die.
Fuck and damn it all to hell!
Perhaps he should have just stunned her. It would have worked, although she would probably experience a permanent drop in her Mana Pool if he stunned her before she got her magic under control. Just going magically unconscious wouldn't get the magic already outside her body under control, but her reserves would no longer push outwards and feed the increasingly violent storm of magic with any more of it. It probably would have wrecked his house and set fire to half the neighbourhood, but she would be basically all right, if permanently a bit weaker magically speaking.
This way was just pure and utter insanity.
He knew that before he even decided to cast the spell.
She already had more then twice as much magic as he did despite his much higher level, thanks to all the training and grinding he'd done before returning to Privet Drive. She was a freaking powerhouse and likely always would be. Most people he had observed had a Mana Pool of somewhere between three and eighteen, with a rare few going above 20, with the highest he'd ever seen before Violet was an impressive 27, which weirdly enough had been his strange neighbour back at his old flat who he had scanned while leveling his Observation skill. He'd never expected to have a magical neighbour or that the more time he spent with her the more of his past he would recall, a past that actually involved the magical neighbor. But well, the proof was in the pudding so to speak.
Speaking of pudding, his brain certainly felt like one at the moment.
Violet had an insanely high Mana Pool of 65 when he scanned her earlier. He was honestly sort of doubting that number now, wondering if it might not actually be even higher then that. His own was a fairly respectable 17, not the highest he'd ever seen, but respectable enough. He'd spent his effort leveling other things then pure magical potential. While he was wondering now if that had been a mistake or not, that he had was also the very reason why he hadn't fried his own brain by using wandless Legimency on someone with a lot more magic then him. All he had going for at the moment and all that kept all that mind magic from bouncing right back at him was that he had maxed out his Mind Arts, had excellent control over all his magics and was stubborn enough for a whole pen full of pigs. He pushed more and more of his mind up against her, refusing to give up, refusing to surrender.
Fuck, Soulsplitz Junior is in there too. Almost forgot about that fucker.
From what little he could tell of the resistance he was facing, he was facing two consciousnesses, but only one source of magic. Was the horcrux leeching off Violets magic to fuel its own resistance?
Riddle was known for his skills with the Mind Arts, feared for them. If he had been able to pull on all Violets magic, Nick would have likely already lost. Heck, with his own mind wide open after a failed attack, the Horcrux might even have been able to use that failed attempt to possess him. Even lessened as it was, a piece of a piece of the original, it still represented a significant threat, especially with access to Violets potent magic.
But mini-Riddle could only use somewhat less then half of the available magic in Violet, Violet still held most of it and she knew nothing of the Mind Arts. Her subconscious just instinctively realized that her mind was under attack and reacted accordingly. What would give first? His assault or Violets defence? It certainly felt like the Tommycrux had more of an immovable object kind of thing going then Violet did, he did feel that he would be able to overcome her weak defence. But would he before he couldn't push anything more into his attack? It was a 1 vs 1+1 kind of situation here.
He was not very confident in overcoming that at all.
"Status." he growled inside the astral plane where this struggle took place and found what he was looking for. He had five unassigned attribute points he'd gained since the last time he assigned any. "Intelligence +3, Stamina +2. Close."
His head was already killing him, no point in leaving his status window open for any longer then strictly necessary or try and do something more complex then he already had.
Riddle was known for his skills with the Mind Arts, but Snape had managed to mostly resist him throughout the first rise of Voldemort. Riddle was very good indeed, but he hadn't fully mastered the Mind Arts. Voldemort wasn't a gamer, he had to learn, study, research, train and practise to get better. Nick just had to spend skill points, which had resulted in him completely maxing them out in less time it probably took Voldemort to learn how to clear his mind and he had a Perk that made him even better at them. And now he'd spent some Attribute Points. He felt the increase in Intelligence raising his Mana Pool as well, the tiredness he felt after his all-out assault was somewhat less overwhelming now with higher Stamina.
And in a worse case scenario, more Stamina meant more Health Points he could convert to Mana.
But his mana was already higher than it was a split second ago, his intelligence increase also gave his already powerful assault a sharper edge, a bit increased efficiency in his mental assault compared to earlier.
And he had already brought the fight to a stand-still before spending those points.
It felt like it had been half an hour or so since he first stupidly attempted to cast wandless Legimens on a witch about to blow herself up while lugging around a piece of Dark Lord inside her own mind and soul. But it was all in his and their minds, in reality it probably hadn't taken more then a split second or two since his attack first started to reach this point.
He felt Tiny-Tommy's faint note of surprise, then he just brushed aside both of his opponents and suddenly filled Violets mind and soul. It wasn't quite possession, but it was pretty darn close and in some aspects, it might even be more of a violation then Possession was. At the moment, Nick probably had more of his mind, soul and power inside her body then Nick did in his own. His soul wasn't quite split, but it certainly felt stretched to the limit. His mind ruled over hers and the mind was a horribly powerful thing. Especially with the soul backing it up, perhaps even especially so when both the mind and soul currently inside Violet was a weird blend of hers, his and a splash of Voldemort. But Nicks mental assault had won out, he was in full control.
He reached out to the magic he could feel, his/her/their magic. It was escaping his/her/their body, growing more and more out of control.
No more.
Every single little spark of escaped magic was sucked right back into Violets body in the wink of an eye. Violet was too young and untrained to do something like that as quickly, but with Nick in control, it was nearly instant.
Then he stopped her body completely, stopping all processes, just for a microsecond, just long enough to stop all active channelling of magic.
Another term for that is that he killed her.
Shiro Emiya was right. People die if they are killed.
And for just that brief microsecond, Violet is dead.
But the moment her body is no longer channelling active magic, Nick restarts everything again, effectively doing a hard reset of his houseguest. The heart goes on beating, lungs keep on breathing, blood keeps flowing and her body produces Mana to replace what has been lost to use.
And with both Nick and mini-Tom also having been disconnected from magic for a brief little tiny piece of a split second, they have to reconnect to it.
But they're inside Violets body.
Tommyboy had to leech magic of her or latch to whatever he can get from some other piece of his soul. The first is hard to set up for a split soul. It's doable on a baby, who is young and with an open mind, completely defenceless even against a weak fragmented piece of soul with hardly any magic of its own. Against an extremely powerful teenager? No fucking way. Connecting to some other piece of his soul? Takes time.
Same goes for Nick, the magic he originally pushed into Violet is more or less gone, only faint dregs remain. Same situation as Tommyboy, he has no chance of leeching any from Violet, so he had to get magic from his original body or return to it. Takes time, but not as long as it will take for Tommyboy, since Nicks body is right fucking next to Violet, still holding on to her hands.
As for Violet, both her mind and her soul were already inside her body. A body which not only still held a fairly significant amount of mana in spite of having spent a great deal of it in a failed defence of her mind, but her body was also regenerating that which had been lost. She had no need to reconnect to her magic, she was already connected to it from the very moment Nick restarted everything.
He just hoped he was fast enough.
"This is going to suuuuuuuuuuuck..." Nick moaned as his mind reached out for the magic in his body that was so close, just a split second away from where his mind and soul were mostly located at the time.
"Get the fuck out of my mind, body and soul, you degenerate perverts!" Violet screamed and her magic reacted instinctively to her will and desire to defend herself from the two intruders inside of her.
There were other pieces of Voldemort s soul still around, imbedded in some pretty powerful objects, the Diadem in Hogwarts and the cup in Gringotts even comfortably nestled in dragons nests of crossing ley lines, which provided plenty of free-flowing magic to draw upon. But the tiny piece inside Violet was just a piece of a piece of the original soul, it was tired after nearly sixteen years of struggling to survive inside the increasingly more powerful young witch and this most recent battle to protect their shared body against a brutal mental assault, only to then have pretty much all the magic it had been hoarding ripped away from it. Violet dying, even for that incredibly brief amount of time had disconnected it from her, it was still inside her out of virtue of not much time having passed, but it was no longer attached to her.
It was tired, it was slow, it was weak.
The horcrux was shredded to pieces and burned 'alive' by the conflagration of fury-indignation-hate-laced emotion-tainted magic that erupted from Violet, the furious assault overwhelmingly powerful against the weak Horcrux. Bits and pieces of it even travelled alongside the connections it had tried to make with the other pieces of the original.
Gringotts bank shook, causing the people and goblins inside it to stop for a moment in bewilderment at the minor tremor. Earthquakes in Great Britain? What was the world coming to? But the bank and the vaults were built to last, so after the tremor stopped and a very old dragon turned it's head towards the vault door near it for a few moments, listening in order to figure out what was going on. But things quickly settled down and it was business as usual in Gringotts again after that brief hint of excitement.
Kreacher yelped in the black townhouse in London as a dusty old desk exploded when the locket stored inside it released a pulse of magic that almost made Kreacher moan in ecstasy at the scent of sheer hatred that pulse carried. It was almost like when the great mistress was still alive instead of a painting! He looked eagerly at the locket he had been tasked to destroy, but consistently failed at. Sadly, no more oddly pleasurable pulses were released from it and the locket was still intact. Kreacher sighed, then set about repairing the old desk, once again hiding the locket he so dearly wanted destroyed.
The ratty old wooden floorboards that hid a ring beneath in an old shack fountained up in the air alongside a wall of heat and air, creating a vacuum behind as it expanded outwards. Vacuum tends to be filled and when this one refilled, the entire house was sucked inwards and everything wound up in a pile of broken wood, once again burying the ring that had so briefly been exposed.
Inside the Room of Hidden things, the Diadem send out a pulse of powerful wrathful magic set on destruction. The elves of Hogwarts certainly visited from time to time to get some extra work done, so it was nowhere near as dusty as it should have been, but it was still a room filled with old easily combustible items. The fire which quickly spread inside of it was put out by the elves within minutes of it starting. But the heat still caused the very old nearly sentient castle to let out a loud creepy pain-filled stony moan that echoed throughout the building and could be heard as far away as Hogsmeade. The people inside a large conference room on the ground floor, powerful people from several different nations, heard the moan and ran screaming from the castle. Most of them knew the signs of dangerous and terrible magic and the ones who didn't know certainly got the idea quickly when some of the most powerful witches and wizards on the planet hiked up robes and dresses and ran like the devil itself was in hot pursuit. All of them would later deny ever having done so.
The last car of a freight train moved westward across central Europe when the top of it suddenly exploded with great force, exposing a great big snake from which the explosion seemed to have originated. Within half an arms reach of the big snake, what looked like the worlds ugliest baby lied down with a stick in his/her/its hands from which a faintly shimmering energy shield had been erected, seemingly having protected the ugly baby and its pet rat from an explosion powerful enough to tear wood and metal to pieces. The dark baby Voldemort instantly declared that sneaking aboard a loud, uncomfortable, unreliable and highly volatile form of filthy muggle transportation was beneath him and that Pettigrew would burn first on earth then in hell, if he didn't arrange for another mode of transport back to England.
The Dark Baby Voldemort didn't say anything else, but he had never been more afraid and horrified in his entire life then he was at that very moment. He had felt the pure hatred in the attack heading towards him and Nagini. He had just barely been able to break the connection between him and the strange attack, then managed to raise a shield in the nick of time between him and Nagini before magic somehow exploded out of the snake, without actually harming the snake itself. It was the weirdest and at the same time scariest attack he'd ever seen. One that targeted someone s very soul from far, far away. He couldn't even sense where the attack had originated from, just been able to make out that it came from somewhere in the west. The very same direction he was trying to go.
Nicks mind and stretched soul shot out of her body like a rocket and hurled itself back into his own body.
Normally, this would cause no issues. The mind and soul had no mass, they would quickly reintegrate with what was left inside his body. Some faint dregs of the magic he'd held inside Violets body was dragged along in the spiritual wake the mind and soul left behind on the way back, but that wasn't much of an issue either. Magic did have mass, not a lot, but it did have some. But it was just tiny scraps of magic and in spite of the immense speed it came with, it was more like shooting grains of sand with a slingshot. It might sting a bit, but as long as you have enough distance and/or cover your eyes, it just smarts a bit.
The wave of emotionally tainted magic that Violet expelled to evict her unwanted intruders was just a bit more serious.
Nick flew backwards and crashed into the wall-mounted television, indeed he crashed right through the television and slammed into the wall behind it. The television broke in two and then some pieces, but two big pieces which fell to the ground below. Nick spent a few extra seconds smeared against the wall before gravity dragged him out of the intendention in the wall he had made with his body and caused him to fall forwards onto the floor in front of him, a floor littered with tiny pieces of glass, plastic and circuitry from the busted television.
"Ow, ow and ow." Nick moaned against the floor, his exclamations somewhat muffled because he couldn't even bring himself to turn his head sideways at the moment, so he was quite literally kissing the floor as he tried to express the sheer amount of pain he was in at the moment.
Two small hands grasped his shoulders and yanked his upper body upwards and then pushed him back onto his knees, so he was more or less kneeling in front of a slightly hunched over and very upset-looking red-haired teenaged girl who loomed over him like a killer robot from the future on the prowl.
The other one, Harry. The one Nick recalled, he had become the Master of Death, hadn't he?
Looking at Violet right now, it certainly seemed likely, even probable, that something similar was in her future as well. She certainly looked like she was itching to become his own personal grim reaper right this moment.
"Explain. Or I will shove your head up against that broken TV part and saw it back and forth until your bloody head have been sawed into two. But only after first shoving your groin up against that other part and slowly shave your man-bits off." Violet demanded in a tone of voice that brooked no argument and no procrastination.
"Uhm... Well. Long story short. You were about to explode and couldn't disarm yourself, so I had to go inside your head to do it for you. There was a bit of an issue because you had a piece of Voldemort s soul stuck in your forehead. So in order to both disarm you and get rid of that, I needed to kill you, just for a little bit. I brought you back before you knew it, but you were actually dead for a bit right there. But hey, at least you didn't explode and no longer need to carry a piece of Voldemort around inside your head." Nick managed to babble out, then blinked as his field of vision expanded a bit outwards from her furious green eyes which were locked straight into him. "Wow, cool highlights." he dazedly offered and watched as she grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled it out in front of her face.
Up until she nearly detonated herself, her hair had been a wild mess of seemingly random curly, straight and wavy bits. But it had a more or less uniform gorgeous deep red colour. That was no longer the case. Most of her hair still had that deep red colour, but it now had streaks of white and blue mixed in with the red.
Nick groaned as she pulled him right up to her own face.
"Your explanation sucks, is highly lacking and I hate it. Long story short, indeed." she hissed. "Try again!"
"The long one may have to wait for a bit. I think I've got a piece of wall mount stuck in my back, I feel like I've got more holes in me then a swiss cheese and I believe my left kneecap may be broken." he groaned and awkwardly managed to get his right foot flat on the ground, then pushed himself upright onto his right foot. "Yeah, my left leg is fucked. Maybe not broken, but fucked none the less." he winced after trying to put some weight on it, immediately stopping any attempts at continuing to do so.
"What the hell are you doing?" Violet hissed.
"Need to get to the fireplace, call for help." he responded and hissed himself as Violet squirreled underneath his left arm, wrapped her right around his waist and provided some support as he hobbled his way towards the fireplace. He grasped some Floo powder he apparently kept in an old wooden cigar box, then tossed it into the fireplace. "The home of she-who-is-divine." he managed to get out in a somewhat steady voice.
"Wotcher." a cheerful voice announced from the fireplace, then it dragged off into silence for a bit, before it continued in a less cheerful and more questioning way. "Why am I looking at a bleeding leg? Who are you? Where are you?"
"Hey, old neighbour. Nick here." he started to say, having shoved his left foot into the fireplace since he would have a devil of a time getting back up if he kneeled down to stick his head in the fireplace. But that was fine, as long as some part of his body was inside it, his voice would carry. "I ran into a spot of trouble and could use some assistance from my favourite drinking buddy. If you wouldn't mind terribly, I'd appreciate if you could use your spare key to my old apartment, find the bright red cardboard box in the back of the old living room and then bring it over here. It has got some pretty decent potions in it."
"I'm your only drinking buddy, you jackass." she snorted back in reply. "But fine, I'll be over in a jiff. What's the address?"
"The Floo is keyed to 'Number five, drunkard lane'. Thanks Tonks, I owe you a bottle of the good stuff."
"See ya." she offered and the flames went down as she shut the connection down from the other side.
"We may want to step aside for a bit. Tonks is a sweetheart and a barrel of laughs, but she does not travel very well. I pretty much expect that she will come shooting out of the Floo and knock something over. I would prefer if whatever she does knock over isn't me." Nick said with a weak smile in Violets direction. She sympathised immediately with whomever this 'Tonks' person was! 'Does not travel very well' pretty much described Violet to a T as well.
So well aware of just how dreadfully something others found simple could fail for her, she carefully helped Nick get a fair distance away from the fireplace well before the flames lit up again few minutes later. Seconds later, the flames spat out a young woman in a dizzyingly fast spin, but not much forward motion. Violet felt like hurling just from watching how fast and how many laps this new arrival spun around before she skidded to a stop and stood frozen like a statue for nearly half a minute with an extremely disquieting expression on her face.
"That's... Ugh... New..." she managed to get out. "Take the box, someone. I dare not start to move just yet."
Violet carefully got out from underneath Nicks arm and observed him for a few moments to reassure herself that he wouldn't keel over the moment she walked away, then she headed for the somewhat odd slightly older woman who looked to be seriously nauseous after her twirly exit. She didn't know who she was, but Violet immediately approved of the other woman. Not only did she have issues with magical travel and a very athletic body, pretty similar to Violet herself who was slimmer, more muscular and less curvy then most other girls at Hogwarts, but she had purple spiky hair! The leather jacket was cool, the ripped jeans and Rolling Stones t-shirt were awesome! This was a cool cat, a girl after Violet's own heart.
She did look like she was about to hurl however.
Violet slowly reached out and took the box, then backed with her eyes opened wide so she'd be able to duck out of the way if projectile vomit looked to be heading in her direction.
The skill to accurately judge the chances of and deftly dodge just mentioned projectile vomit was one you picked up pretty darn fast in Gryffindor. Not only did Seamus experiment with creating alcohol, but the twins experimented with pretty much everything and then needed to test their experiments, usually on whomever was careless or stupid enough to accept anything the twins gave you, left lying around or managed to sneak into your food. Quickly spotting if someone nearby looked ill and even more quickly getting out of the way if they did was a handy survival trait in the house of red and gold.
Then there was poor Neville and Potion classes. Her year had gotten pretty darn good at judging if the noise a wheezing cauldron made meant incoming explosion, fountain of ingredients all over the room, nasty acid mists, flash fire or just harmless smoke. So far nobody had picked up on how to tell if the cauldrons legs were going to animate and run off, only to erupt elsewhere, but that had only happened once so far so they hadn't had much of a chance to pick up the tells yet. But the other students had learned that if the Gryffs got out their gas masks, they probably should as well. If the Gryffs hit the floor, they had better do the same. If the Gryffindors remained seated and focused on their potions instead of Neville's hissing cauldron, then it was most likely safe for others to keep working as well.
Gryffs rule, others follow.
"What do you need?" Violet asked as she opened the box and spotted multiple identical vials with color-coded corks topping them off.
"Red one first, Blood Replenishing potion." he requested and gratefully accepted a red-lidded vial from Violet, which he uncorked and downed like a champ. He let it take effect for about half a minute, then reached behind his back and yanked out the wall mount with a pained grunt. "Light blue, Lesser Cure Potion."
She'd never heard of that one before, but it certainly seemed to do something, as she could see wisps of smoke coming out from multiple minor injuries and a larger stack of smoke from his back.
"Dark blue, Greater Heal Potion."
Also not something she'd heard about before, but the name was certainly descriptive enough. Small wounds and burns all over his body started swiftly close and fade just seconds after he'd taken it, then there was a horrific cracking noise from his left leg and after a drawn-out groan, he could put weight on his left leg again.
"What the hell?" Violet exclaimed. "Where has that been all my life, why haven't Poppy ever given me that?"
"Pretty rare, not sure she would even know that it exists." Nick grunted, then walked over to his liquor slash reading corner and poured himself another glass of whisky, which he tossed down like it was water, only to pour himself a second glass, which he just took a small sip from. "Phew, thanks for the assist, ladies. You are the best."
"You know it." Tonks suddenly exclaimed and walked over to stand next to Violet. She walked slowly and carefully, but looked and sounded pretty well alright by now. Violet certainly felt as if the risk of projectile vomiting had lessened to just about zero by now. "Pretty snazzy place you've got here." she commented as she looked around. "Well, before whatever crazy little thing you were experimenting with blew up at least." was added with a chortle.
Nick glanced over at Violet.
"Experimenting with crazy little things, yes... You could put it that way, I suppose." he admitted with a wry grin and shook his head in mild disbelief over what had taken place. What the hell sort of consequences would it have with Violets horcrux gone well ahead of time? What would change due to this? How much of what he thought he knew could no longer be trusted? Granted, what he thought he knew was mostly based on a Harry Potter rather then a Violet Potter, but it was still a valid question.
"Oh, sorry. Never introduced myself. I'm Tonks, newly minted badass Auror!" she cheerfully exclaimed.
"Violet Potter. My mates usually just call me Vi." Violet countered, trying not to let being referred to as a 'crazy little thing' get to her too much. She swore that there would be a future reckoning for that however.
"I did notice who you were, even with the new hair colours and whatever this weird comfy look is." Tonks said with a gesture at what Violet was wearing. "I am an Auror after all, I'm trained to spot all sort of things!" she pompously announced and turned around to no doubt say something to Nick, only to step on a piece of wood, misstep her next step and then faceplant on the ground. "I meant to do that." she whimpered and sat up, gingerly poking her nose back and forth for a bit before it seemed to snap into place.
"Tonks and I were neighbours where I lived before. Her family seems fond of names based off astrology and mythology, which means that some of them have first names they aren't necessarily all that keen on. Tonks is one of them. I believe they started calling her She-who-must-not-be-named-no-matter-how-often-someone-dares-you-too or some such around her fifth year." Nick offered with a gesture towards Tonks.
"Third year." Tonks corrected.
"Violet here is my new neighbour slash hostage here at Privet Drive. This is the second time I've kidnapped her. She appears kind of quiet and shy at first, but piss her off a bit and she gets more talkative." Nick introduced her with a small shrug.
"Speaking of me, I think it's time for you to give me the longer explanation now." Violet said, crossed her arms and started tapping her right foot impatiently on the ground.
Nick widened his eyes, let his gaze move across the room and slumped at the mess it was in right now. Thanks to him sucking in all the runaway magic when he was in control of Violets body, he still had a house left standing. Thanks to the burst of magic she used to throw him and part of Riddle out of her, this room was in a right mess. Most of the actual destruction was where the two of them had been standing in front of the television, but there was soot, pieces of broken television and a lot of overturned stuff all over the room.
And she wanted him to explain, with all this mess to deal with?
He opened his mouth to protest, then blinked as an idea struck him.
"I seem to recall someone repeating a rumour to me at some point. Something about you having some problems with a house elf and setting it free?" Nick mused out loud and looked at Violet.
"Dobby? Yeah, that was a right messy ride all right. What about it?" Violet asked with a bewildered expression.
"Can you call this 'Dobby' over?" he asked and she tilted her head, then shrugged.
"Dobby?" she called hesitantly, which had pretty immediate results. The elf in question instantly appeared in front of her with a loud pop.
"The Great Mistress Violet Potter called Dobby?" he asked, almost bouncing in place as he looked up at her, ignoring everything else. Nick waved his right hand and a faint glow of magic appeared over both Violet and Dobby, a faint glowing line connecting the two of them.
"Yeah, you may have set him free at some point, but he seems to have bonded himself to you after that." Nick replied and smiled as the magic surrounding a surprised Violet and a faintly bashful Dobby slowly faded. "If you can ask him to tidy things up here after the earlier mess, I guess I have time to explain a few things." he agreed.
"You bonded to me, Dobby?" Violet asked and Dobby nodded, lowering his gaze and shyly dragged one foot behind the other.
"Dobby sorry, Great Mistress Violet Potter. Dobby needing to serve to live, so Dobby decide to serve Great Mistress Violet Potter." he admitted, then glanced around the room and his eyes slowly opened up wider, nearly popping out of their sockets as he started to slowly bounce up and down. "This messy, this very messy. Dobby can clean this house, Great Mistress Violet Potter? Not much to clean in Hoggywarts without students making messes."
"Uhm, you can." she responded with a confused somewhat dubious tone of voice. "But we will be talking about that bonding business at some point." she added more firmly.
Nick moved over to the kitchen area and got out a small textile pouch from one of the drawers there, which he walked over and handed to Dobby.
"There's somewhere around 100 galleons in here, use those if something can't be repaired and needs replacing. You can use the rest to buy something for yourself or save it for later if you feel like it." he told Dobby, who took the pouch but looked somewhat dubious.
"Dobby take for now, Great Mistress Violet Potters Nicky. But Dobby return leftovers!" he declared and Nick furrowed his brows.
"But Dobby, the Great Mistress Violet Potter has a birthday coming up. Wouldn't it be nice to have some Galleons to spend on a birthday present for the Great Mistress Violet Potter?" he asked and gestured at a now blushing Violet.
Dobby instantly started nodding at a break-neck pace.
"The Great Mistress Violet Potter has wise friend!" Dobby exclaimed. "Dobby agrees, Great Mistress Violet Potters Nicky! Dobby clean, repair, replace and buy nice presents for Great Mistress Violet Potter!" he announced and then vanished, along with all the broken bits and pieces of television in the room.
"Well, I've got some chairs in the office. Might as well stay out of the way, so the Great Mistress Violet Potters Dobby can work without us being in the way." he said and started walking towards his office, Violet instantly following and Tonks doing the same after Nick gestured at her to follow as well.
"You had better forget all about that 'Great Mistress Violet Potter' stuff. If you call me that again, I'll take a cheese grater to your private parts!" she hissed angrily.
"Sure, sure, shorty. Whatever you say." he flippantly responded.
"Cheese grater!" she interjected right after he called her 'shorty'.
"Well, not like I had anything planned for the evening anyway and this could be more fun then vegging out in front of the TV." Tonks mused as she followed the two bickering magicals.