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: Again, unreliable narration, lies and deceit. Just because a character says something does not make it true. Nick makes heavy use out of it. It's not like he can just say 'Hey, I know shit because I have knowledge of how things were for Harry Potter, which seems to match up pretty well for Violet Potter as well!' and expect everyone to just buy that without coming under some intense scrutiny, which he's eager to avoid.
Chapter 3:
"So, explanation..." Nick mused as he swiftly cleared the three chairs standing in front of his writing desk, dumping the various books, papers and post-it notes carelessly on top of a second smaller desk against the wall that was already dangerously overloaded with similar items, before he walked over and sunk himself down in the swivel chair in front of his computer. He flipped the monitor down for a clearer view of the other side of the desk, where Violet and Tonks each took one of the three chairs.
"Well, yeah. Explode myself? Voldemort s soul in my head? You killed me? You're a wizard and never told me? There are so many questions I need answers to that I don't even know where to bloody begin!" Violet ranted and shook her head in confusion, while Tonks stared in horror at her, then over at Nick who winced and held up his right hand in a placating manner.
"Well, yes. I am a wizard and the reason I didn't tell you is that it didn't really matter before. I thought about it when I found you locked out of your home since it would have been easy enough to just magic open the door, but I figured that you probably shouldn't be alone, so I brought you here instead of revealing it. I would have told you tomorrow and offered to let you into number four to get your stuff, then lock it again behind us." he started. "I recognized you when we first met, but it's not like that was the first time I've met a celebrity of sorts, so I didn't make a big deal about it. I suppose I could have told you that I was a wizard when we ate, but I figured that we'd barely see each other again after you had eaten and left, other then the occasional wave or 'Hello, neighbour' if we ever bumped into each other again. And after I picked you up in front of the door to number four, well... Like I said, I would have waited until tomorrow. I figured you had enough surprises for one day, even if that didn't quite work out according to plan."
"I'll say." Violet groused and crossed her arms, exhaling heavily and blowing a few stay strands of hair out of her field of vision. "And you're a witch?" she asked, looking over at Tonks.
"And an amazing one at that, if I say so myself!" she agreed with a determined nod.
"As for the rest, yeah, you really were about to explode. Or at least the uncontrolled magic around you would have exploded. There was a lot of it floating around and once you failed to get it under control and draw it back in again, well, desperate measures were needed." Nick sighed and shook his head. "I could have just stunned you, that would have been the easiest and simplest way to do it. The magic outside you was growing out of control, but it hadn't turned truly volatile just yet. It might have messed up my room a bit if I stunned you, possibly blown out my windows, but I don't think it would have done much more then that. But... That was a significant amount of magic, if I had stunned you, it likely would have done permanent damage to your magic potential. You would have grown permanently weaker. You are the most magically powerful person I've ever seen with my own eyes so you would still have been magical, just not as powerful as you were before. But I didn t' want to put you through that, so I needed another option."
"I've never had to do that myself, but my Mentor Moody has told me about it. He's had to defuse a few situations like that and have heard about others. There are a few times it's led to squibbing, but it's pretty rare. Usually the ones stunned are fine, but yeah, they do tend to be weaker afterwards. But that's standard Auror procedure when it looks as if someone is about to loose control over their magic and cause a mess, we stun them immediately if we can't calm them down. The Cheering Charm just tends to make the magic more excitable and Calming Charms tends to fail completely." Tonks added, glancing over at Violet again. "I'm an Auror, so I'll have to ask, what caused it?"
"If we can wait with that bit a while, it would be great. There's actually a great deal I was hoping to talk to you about and a few charges I would like to press, both in the magical and muggle world. So if you know of any policemen who are squibs or otherwise aware of the magical world we can bring in for that, it would make things a lot easier." Nick stated and Tonks eyes widened at that, before they narrowed as she shifted her gaze between both him and Violet for a few moments.
"I don't know any, but I can check with Moody, Shacklebolt and a few others. My mom might know some as well. I'll check." she replied after a few moments of consideration.
"If you can hold off on Moody and Shacklebolt, it would be great. If your mom doesn't know any, perhaps Madame Bones do." he suggested. "Dumbledore needs to be kept out of the loop for as long as possible and he has a previous relationship with both Moody and Shacklebolt."
Both Violet and Tonks were now staring pretty intently at Nick, who sighed and shook his head.
"Violet Potter is the girl-who-lived. I promised her earlier to ask no questions tonight since she had a rough day and that was before the mess earlier. But from what I can tell, she's been the victim of at least neglect and possible abuse by the relatives she lives with. Her rightful guardian is Sirius Black, who was thrown into Azkaban without a trial. There are no court rulings of her being placed into the care of anyone else, so her living with her relatives is pretty much kidnapping. Dumbledore has made numerous statements over the years that hint of the fact that he knows that she is safe and he also provided the only descriptions of her appearance before she returned to the wizarding world for her first year at Hogwarts. So before you give me any of that 'Dumbledore knows best', 'Dumbledore is a great man', 'Dumbledore can make no mistakes', 'Dumbledore is the leader of the light' or any of that other bullshit people usually sprout, keep in mind that he probably kidnapped Violet, illegally placed her with 'guardians' who have no right to be her guardians, 'guardians' who at the very least neglected her and possibly abused her, starved her, abandoned her, dressed her in rags and whatnot. That is why Dumbledore CAN NOT be allowed to even get a little hint at what is going on until it's too late. He obviously can't be trusted to do what's right for Violet." Nick stated decisively, then continued before Tonks or Violet could continue.
"And that's not even going into all the bullshit that happens in Hogwarts, right under his very nose. By the time we've made a complete list of just the bullshit Violet knows about and I suspect, he'll probably face at the very least a couple of hundred charges of attempted murder and many others. The worst thing is, he has enough political capital and goodwill that he could probably get away with murder if he had time to prepare. So, I'd prefer if he didn't have that." Nick added with a shake of his head.
Tonks mouth fell open and she just stared in horror at Nick. Violet was less surprised, but she still looked at him as if he was an alien life form or some such.
"So yeah, ask around, but I'd prefer if you stayed away from anyone who might tell Dumbledore that you are asking." he requested with a shrug. "Anyway, we were talking about the shorty possibly exploding. I didn't want to make you weaker or take the chance of turning you into a squib, so I needed another option." he changed the subject with a sympathetic glance at Violet. "You've got far more magic than me, so using my own magic to supress your and push it back inside wasn't an option. You need significantly more magic than the one you're supressing to do that and if it fails, whatever is used to try and supress it is just added to the volatile magic, so all trying that would have done is a bigger boom in the end. I haven't set up any Wards at all here, so there was no way to use Wards either. That kinda left me floundering, but I am pretty darn good at Legimancy."
"You're a Legimens?" Tonks asked and got a nod in return.
"What is that?" Violet inquired.
"At the most basic level, reading the mind of another. People who get good at it can not only see what you are thinking about, but also look back at your memories and even remove, hide, change or implant new memories and thoughts. With a bit of time on their hands, a skilled Legimancer could pretty much turn the nicest person on the planet into a murderous serial killer, completely twisting, changing and corrupting the original personality. The defence against this is another skill called Occlumency, which can be used to keep Legimencers out, but also helps with memory recall, organizing your thoughts and keeping calm under pressure. I've got some books on that and will be teaching you if you'll allow it." Nick explained, holding up a hand in Violets direction when he explained Occlumency, since it seemed like she was about to ask about that. "Those Legimancers who aren't just good, but frigging experts at it, can possess other people. That is what I decided to do. I figured I'd possess you and draw your magic back inside, then withdraw from your mind. But that's where I ran into a seriously unexpected issue."
Nick scratched the back of his head and took a deep breath.
"Have either of you read Lord of the Rings or watched the movies?" he asked, getting a nod from Tonks and a shake of the head from Violet. "In the Lord of the Rings, the second Dark Lord of that world makes a ring and imbues it with a significant portion of his own life force and powers. As long as that ring exists, he can't die or be truly defeated, just suffer temporary setbacks. When the island he is on gets sunk into the ocean, he becomes a wraith and returns to his headquarters where he gets a new body. When that body is killed, he turns into a wraith again but is back in action later on anyway. It is not until that ring is destroyed that he finally dies. There are other stories and legends like that, Liches, phylacteries, soul jars, mummies and whatnot." he explained and took another deep breath. "I am not sure how much the muggles who wrote about that sort of things actually knows about magic or if it's just some sort of weird coincidence, but it is possible to do that sort of thing with magic. The knowledge of how to accomplish it has been supressed almost since the first time it happened, but there are still a few books and scrolls around that describes how to do it. I believe Voldemort found one of those or learned about it from someone who had. But somehow, he learned how to create Horcruxes. A Horcrux is a soul container, used to contain a piece of the caster s soul. As long as the Horcrux exists, the one who created it cannot truly die."
Nick sighed and slumped in his seat, both the girls in his audience looked pretty pale and trembled in their seats, hanging onto his every word.
"Voldemort pretty much means escape or flight from death, he likely fears death more then anything else. Fear it enough to create not just one Horcrux, but several Horcruxes. Or that's my theory anyway. He had at least one of them when he tried to kill you when you were a baby and may have been planning to use your death to create another. Or that's the only explanation I can think of for why you had a shard of his soul inside of you. If he had already started the process of creating a new Horcrux, his soul would be pretty unstable and after killing your parents, it would have been even more unstable. So, when he tried to do the same with you, your mothers protection reacted and struck him down. His soul being unstable and with preparations already done to create a new Horcrux in place, a sliver of his soul tore away from the rest and imbedded itself in you, while the part that remained turned into a wraith and sodded off somewhere else." he explained. "Soul magic is a bit iffy and I'm certainly no expert in it, but when I compared your soul to the part of his soul stuck in you, there was a significant difference between them. His was tiny compared to yours. Creating a Horcrux splits a soul in half, but his was much smaller than half of your soul. That's why I believe he's created more then one Horcrux. At least three or four of them, possibly more, before he encountered you as a baby. Like I said, I'm no expert in Soul Magic, but I know enough that I figure I've got a pretty decent shot at being correct about this."
"He's alive?" Tonks whispered in horror.
"He is." Violet responded. "He possessed the Defence professor in my first year and possessed a diary in my second year." she admitted and swallowed nervously, while Tonks suffered through a full-body shudder and wrapped her arms around herself for comfort.
"A diary?" Nick inquired neutrally.
"Yeah. He possessed a diary and used that to possess... A friend of mine. He was sucking her soul out and tried to use that to create a new body for himself." Violet explained.
"You can't possess inanimate objects, you can only possess that which lives, has a soul and a sentient mind. Or that once had a sentient mind but lost it for some reason." Nick responded decisively. "What happened with the diary?"
"I stabbed it with the fang of a basilisk, it started screaming, bleeding ink and then it turned into just a regular diary." Violet explained while Tonks goggled at her.
"That diary likely was a Horcrux. The ones who create them generally hides them away, but the few people who have encountered one and lived to tell about it have left some stories behind. The Horcruxes bleeding black ichor is one, some could communicate in some manner and some actually managed to possess people who wore them or were otherwise in frequent contact with them. So yeah, he made at least one Horcrux before he came across you, probably more." Nick declared and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his desk and pressing his clenched fists together underneath his jaw as he studied Violet in her seat. "You had a shard of Voldemort s soul inside you for the lions share of your life and successfully fought it off for the entire duration, that's... Impressive. Incredibly impressive. Voldemort was VERY good at the Mind Arts, few had the ability to resist him and none I've heard of could do it for very long. You did so for years. From what I've heard, you've managed to accomplish some very impressive things over the years, especially so for someone of your age. But holding off Voldemort for so long, apparently without evening knowing that you did so? That's first-rate next-level badassery to the n:th degree, kiddo. Hold your head up high."
"I don't feel like a badass. I feel like I need another bath." Violet snorted. "Not only did I have that asshole inside of me, but you were also there as well!"
"Well... Yeah, I guess I was for a bit. Anyway, like I said, I discovered that shard of Voldemort and ran into a slight bit of issue. You have a lot of power, but know nothing of the Mind Arts, so while I am weaker than you that wouldn't matter as I should have been able to possess you pretty easily anyway thanks to my mastery of the Mind Arts. But like I mentioned earlier, Voldemort is a fair hand at the Mind Arts himself and inside your mind, he could draw upon your magical power and he certainly didn't want me to possess you. So I unexpectedly had to overcome both you and him at the same time, which was another issue. I knew that even if I did so, you would be pretty much completely defenceless for a bit after I withdrew, which Lilliput-Voldemort would be able to use to possess you after I left. That didn't leave me with very many options. If I aborted and pulled back, there was a chance that Voldemort would be able to follow me back to my mind and possess me, which would have been bad too. You don't have your wand with you, so once he was in my body, you'd be toast. If I possessed you, got your magic back and then pulled out, I'd have the Dark Lady Violet Voldemort in front of me when I got back to my body. That left me in a pretty bad bind."
"So... You killed me?" Violet asked while throwing her hands up into the air with a frustrated expression.
"From what I've read, it's pretty rare and incredibly stupid to use a living container as a soul container in the Horcrux ritual. If the container dies of old age, the soul shard escapes. If the container is killed, the shard escapes. It's pure speculation, but there's also a chance that the container will be able to sometimes read the mind and memories of the caster, which could be disastrous if the two are enemies. But what few accounts I've read on living Horcruxes all agree on one thing. The soul shard can't remain in a dead body." Nick explained. "So when I forced my way past both of your defences, I quickly pulled all your escaped magic back inside your body and then I went for a full shutdown of your entire body for a small fraction of a second. In essence, yes, I killed you." he admitted and held both his hands up at her, palm front. "But just a little bit, you were dead for like 1/1000th of a second and I started everything up right away." he hastily continued. "That meant the soul shard got disconnected from your body and perhaps more importantly, your magic. It also meant that I lost contact with my own magic and my possession of you failed. Without magic, our skills in the Mind Arts meant nothing. You noticed us right away and decided that you wanted no part of us inside you any longer, so you instinctively lashed out with your own magic. I suspected that you would do so when I no longer possessed you, heck, I was counting on it! So, I was ready and escaped back to my own body as soon as I could. Part-Voldemort was caught by surprise and wasn't so lucky. I felt him being torn to pieces, completely shredded and annihilated as I rushed back to my own body. So yeah, that's two Horcruxes that have been destroyed. Three, if your Defence professor carried another one Voldemort had been stupid enough to put into a living person."
"This is fucking insane." Tonks managed to get out, still shivering and hugging herself.
"And also, something you absolutely can't tell anyone. How to create Horcruxes and even knowledge of the possibility of creating one is something that have been supressed since before the Statue of Secrecy. I'm normally not a big fan of supressing or destroying knowledge, but in this particular case, I can see the sense of at least heavily restricting it. You are decent at Occlumency, I hope?" Nick inquired.
"Yeah, at least basic knowledge is required to be certified as an Auror. I was pretty good at it. My mom taught me the basics of it while I was still in Hogwarts, so I'm better then most." Tonks slowly responded. "But surely... Voldemort is alive! That's big! We have to tell someone!"
"Do you think Dumbledore knows?" Violet asked.
"He's been telling people for years that Voldemort is still a threat and will return." Nick replied after a few moments. "I'm not sure how much he knows about Horcruxes, but he has to at least suspect that Voldemort had one or some other way of insuring that he could return. He'd also had ample time to examine you and discover that you had something pretty darn weird inside your head. The problem is that he hasn't done anything else. We still have a legislative body full of former Death Eaters and their supporters. We have former Death Eaters and their supporters in the Ministry of Magic. Their foreign support is still intact. There is no international task force charged with hunting down Voldemort s wraith and act as a fast response team when he does return. The Death Eaters that didn't bribe their way to freedom are at Azkaban prison, a prison guarded by Dementors which Voldemort demonstrated his ability to gain the allegiance of during his first rise, so chances are that when he gets back, the Dementors and Death Eater prisoners will simply kill anything that stands in their way inside Azkaban and then walk out, ready to re-join their Dark Lord. The werewolves under Fenrir Greyback who didn't get themselves killed just slunk into the shadows and have increased their number over the years. The forbidden forest is now home to thousands of Acromantula, another creature Voldemort have previous experience getting to do his bidding. The economy of the Death Eaters who bribed their way out of jail took a temporary hit, but many of them have recovered their losses and then some over the years. We have a Minister of Magic who have done his very best to gut the Department of Magical Law enforcement for years. Fewer and fewer Hogwarts students graduate with high enough grades in Potions to become Aurors and the Defence scores of Hogwarts graduates are the lowest since the school was founded, so the general population are less able to defend themselves then ever." Nick went on and threw his hands out in a gesture of hopelessness. "Dumbledore has to know, he has to see what's been going on in our society and yet, what does he do? He juggles three full-time jobs, offers pointless platitudes and hoard both secrets and knowledge like a dragon while doing very little else that I can see."
"Fuck..." Tonks breathed, then focused an annoyed glare at Nick. "I'm not so sure I like you any longer. You used to be a great and funny drinking buddy who actually likes the muggle world, so you could be persuaded to go for karaoke, muggle clubbing or just a cool movie and some greasy fast food. Now you're this jackass asshole who keeps on revealing world-shifting depressing shit ad nauseum! I need a drink. A big one. A huge one. A bathtub-sized one!" she ranted and threw her hands up in the air.
Nick leaned down and opened a drawer in his desk, extracting a bottle of Captain Morgan and two glasses, which he filled to the brim. Tonks grabbed both of them and made short work of them, while Nick narrowed his eyes at her, before letting out a sigh and getting another glass out which he filled and hunched forward over in a protective manner, before holding the bottle out in Tonks direction, refilling one of her glasses.
"All right, you're forgiven. I think you're cool again." she said and took a small sip from her rum, putting the empty glass down on his desk. Nick looked at it for a few moments, then over to Violet, then back to the glass.
"Aw, fuck it. She's earned it." he muttered under his breath, then poured three fingers worth of rum into the glass and pushed it over closer to Violet. "That's all you get, so savour it. Or leave it, Tonks will no doubt take it if you don't." he added and put the bottle back into the drawer.
Violet blinked in surprise, but hastily grabbed the glass before he could change his mind or the Auror next to her could snatch it up.
"Amelia Bones has always struck me as one of the more reasonable people in the Ministry. Strict, but fair. She's one of the few people in the Wizarding World that actually seems to have some measure of common sense, which is probably the rarest trait imaginable in wizards and witches. Once some other things have been set in motion, I would like to bring her in on this. Heck, chances are that once those are in motion, she'll bring herself in." Nick mused while sipping on his rum. "There's also a bit of excitement coming to Hogwarts this year that will bring some foreign attention to jolly old England. There's a small handful of people that might make their way over here then that could be of immense value if they could be persuaded to take part in this."
"What's 'this'?" Tonks asked for clarification while sipping from her drink. Nick waited until she had swallowed.
"Us dismantling the Dark Lords support network and then getting rid of him permanently, of course." he said with a big grin.
Tonks stared at him, then over at Violet.
Violet stared at him, then over at Tonks.
"Is he insane?" Tonks asked. "Completely utterly irrevocably batshit insane?"
"Could be." Violet agreed. "But damn if it doesn't sound fucking awesome! Someone other then me who actually wants to do something about the immortal jackass? That sounds bloody awesome to me." she declared and took a big sip from her rum, letting out a muted cough as it burned its way down her throat.
Tonks looked down at her own drink and stared at it for a few moments.
"It kinda does, doesn't it?" she eventually agreed and all three fell silent for a bit, silently contemplating things while occasionally taking small sips from their drinks.
Main Questline: *Save Potter ( 5/150 )
Violet Alyssa Potter, Friend(Houseguest). Respect:57/100, Affection:25/100, Obedience:17/100
Nymphadora Natalia Tonks, Friend(Co-conspirator). Respect:75/100, Affection:37/100, Obedience:15/100
A decent amount of progress despite some truly unexpected events, Nick reflected as he hastily made his way through the different tabs on his status screen. Earlier experimentation had revealed that only he could see it. He'd even opened them up in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade a few times with zero reaction from the people around him, so not even other magicals could see it. He'd tried it in other countries as well when he went about preparing for this year after he first became aware of things. Life sure tossed some pretty darn weird curveballs at times, but the latest batch seemed to have brought some good things.
Violet now saw him as a friend and her respect for him had levelled immensely. She had also levelled from 16 to 19, with just 5% left to 20. Seemed like annihilating mini-Voldie had provided a decent amount of experience for her. Her Mana Pool had also gone up, she now sat at an even more impressive 72.
Tonks was at 61 respect the last time he'd seen her, so a bit of a boost there too and she was now classed as a co-conspirator. He wasn't quite sure if that last bit actually meant anything or had any sort of effect, but he took it as a good sign that she was actually onboard and willing to give a hand in the future.
Having the two of them meet like this had also seemed to work out pretty well. He had suspected that they would get along, but it was nice to see it confirmed. He had taken a bit of a chance by having Tonks bring over some of the potions he'd kept in his old apartment. He actually had all he needed both in his laboratory upstairs and in his personal gamer inventory, but had decided to introduce Tonks to Violet early. Having Tonks bring the potions over from his old place had accomplished that.
Besides, the laboratory was one thing, he could have had Violet help him upstairs to his laboratory with little issue. But if he'd suddenly pulled out potions from thin air like it would seem from her perspective if he removed them from his inventory, well... He imagined that would lead to a fair bit of questioning and suspicions, so he was happy to have avoided that!
He had levelled as well, going from 64 to 65, with 50% left to 66. Apparently beating both Violet and the Tommycrux in a mental battle also gave a good amount of experience. But yeah, he needed to catch up to her insane Mana Pool. Once he had some spare time to himself, it was time to switch things up a bit and focus on a few areas he had neglected while leveling and training since he first became aware. Voldie should have made her his equal, according to the prophecy, so he likely had an equally insane mana pool and Dumbledore probably wasn't far off either.
Not that he planned on facing either of them in a magical confrontation. But keeping the earlier unexpected little mental adventure in mind, it would probably be prudent to make sure that he actually could if his plans didn't work out. A big Mana Pool wasn't everything in a fight, but it did play a part. Most of his progress had been in a pretty nice spread of abilities and knowledge, but he had neglected pure magical strength in order to get that spread.
He also wanted to level his Observe even more, he could see more of other people's Status now then when his Observe was simply level 1, but it was still not as in-depth as his own Status screen. Would he be able to see just as much information about others if he maxed it out? He didn't know for sure, but hoped so. If he could actually access all their information like he did his own, it'd be pretty darn handy.
Once Tonks had either gone home or fell asleep in one of the guest rooms and Violet was asleep in her room, he should spam some dungeons and grind before getting a bit of sleep himself. Experience, levelups, skillups and drops. Some of the potions he could make needed materials that he'd so far found only in the dungeons he could create himself.
Ideally, he wanted to add at least Violet to his party, preferably Tonks as well, then run some dungeons with them.
He had experimented with that as well. He had used his mastery of the Mind Arts to get a muggle girl he'd met while clubbing with Tonks to accept a party invitation, then brough her along to a dungeon, where he pretty much power-levelled her for a bit. With her in his party, he had been able to spend the points she gained from leveling with him on her behalf, controlling what and where she improved. If he could do that for Violet, she'd have quite the edge and significantly improve her ability to face future obstacles.
The problem was that when he invited someone to a party, they could see the status screen, they could see him controlling their skillups and well, they would remember entering a weird dungeon with him fighting against hordes of enemies dropping loot and giving them experience while no time at all passed in the real world. With the muggle girl, he'd simply Obliviated her of it afterwards, giving her the impression that she'd suddenly just had massive improvements in several of her skills and abilities for no discernible reason. That had worked out just fine, but he wasn't very keen on going that route with these two girls. Repeated Obliviations could cause significant mental damage.
He could probably do it once or twice with little to no harm done, but anymore then that was pretty darn risky and not something he wanted to play around with in the long run. Especially not with Violet or Tonks.
But he also didn't want to reveal his weirder abilities and letting Violet get a peek at his Quest tab was just asking for the bad end of all bad ends.
Once their relationship was maxed out perhaps, but that was still a way to go. He was a bit regretful that he had spent so much of his time preparing for this school year instead of getting started on Violet, but there had just been so much to do, so much to set up, so many people to meet, so much to learn, that he'd had to let Violet deal with the end of her third school year on her own. He had snuck into Hogwarts intending to kidnap Sirius and tag Pettigrew with a tracker before he could escape, but he'd missed both opportunities and hadn't started working on his relationship with Violet until now, so it was still a bit shaky.
He might be able to figure out some way to get her to accept a party invitation, but he would need to be super cautious about what he revealed and showed her.
Should work out fine, right? It wasn't like she was a curious inquisitive teenager with heaps of determination or anything, right? It wasn't like she would pretty much instantly demand to know as much as possible and be very curious about the floating status screen or anything, right?
Fuck.
Dangerous, very dangerous.
But oh so very appealing.
Instead of spending hours upon hours for week after week to get her Occlumency up to par, she'd just need to read a beginner s introduction to get the skill in the first place. Then some power leveling in a party with him and he could just add whatever points she earned in it and bam, she'd be able to put up a decent mental defence against anyone trying to snoop inside her head. Being able to raise her competency in badly neglected abilities, skills and talents? Assigning useful perks?
Yeah, very appealing.
He closed the status screen and took another sip from his rum.
Right, game-face on. Adjust, adapt and overcome.
"How would we even go about doing something like that? Dismantling his support network and permanently getting rid of him sounds great in theory, but how to actually get it done?" Tonks eventually asked. "In spite of being a pretty fresh Auror, I'd actually rank myself pretty high compared to the rest of the force. Moody isn't really a barrel of laughs to be around, but damn that man can teach. But he is a lot better than me still and I know he wasn't able to do much damage when he came face-to-face with the Dark Lord during his first rise, so I'm not sure I'd give great odds of me doing any better. You kinda played with me during that spar we had and I certainly won't be underestimating Runes in the future, but I'm not sure I'd put my money on you in a one-on-one against the Dark Lord either."
"Your confidence warms my heart, truly." Nick responded with a wry expression. "But to be honest, I probably wouldn't bet on me either." he reluctantly admitted. "But whomever said he needs to be fought one-on-one? Dismantle his support structure, rob him of followers and force him out of his comfort zone, then overwhelm him with numbers. Don't fight the bastard fairly, chip away at him and his followers for as long as possible, then go for overkill and zerg the bastard with everything and everyone we can lay our hands on. Fighting dirty and cheating is only bad if the other bastards are the only ones doing it."
"Sounds good, but again, how?" Tonks inquired.
"Some preparations are needed, of course. Red here NEEDS to learn Occlumency, the two of us should be able to hold off anyone trying to snoop around and keep them from discovering anything they shouldn't, but Violet is kind of an open book now. By the time Hogwarts starts up again, I'm hoping that she's at least decently competent at it and able to hold off a Legimancer long enough to break the mental connection." he responded and stood up, taking a sip from his drink as he moved over to the big map taking up almost an entire wall in his office, gesturing at it as Tonks and Violet turned to face it. "This is what I've managed to find out about Voldemort s probable support network. Homes, properties, workplaces, sightings, friends, allies, acquaintances and dirty dealings of former Death Eaters. This map has far too many pins in it for comfort and there's likely far more that I haven't been able to discover. Some I know enough about that they could be put in jail for a significant amount of time, if they actually got a proper trial. But with so many of them or their allies actually having seats in the Wizengamot and the ear of top ministry brass, well... I don't like the odds of a proper trial actually taking place." he admitted and twirled around to face the two.
"Sirius Black is key here." he announced and grinned. "Fortunately, he has a furry friend who tends to ramble on about things he probably shouldn't be talking about when pissed off his gourd, so I know what took place during Red's last year in Hogwarts. I know that Sirius is a good guy who got thrown into Azkaban without a trial that should have seen him declared innocent and set free, able to raise Shorty as her guardian. With him declared innocent and with the Black family Wizengamot seat working against Voldemort, it is possible to start chipping away at this support structure and the corruption in the Wizengamot." he declared and gestured at the map behind him. "With less obstructive assholes in position of power, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement can get the funding it needs to be more useful. The Black name is known far and wide, not just here in Britain, but abroad as well. Getting foreign support will be a lot easier with someone speaking for the Blacks. Dumbledore is a political animal and he knows that, so why he just haven't forced the issue and gotten Sirius a trial boggles the mind. I'm guessing a free Sirius would be detrimental to whatever that bearded old guy is working towards."
"He can't." Violet sighed.
"He is the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, that enables him to give Sirius an international trial at the ICW. He is the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, that enables him to give Sirius a trial here in Britain. He also has enough political allies and contacts in all levels of our government to arrange for that trial even without using the special powers granted him as Supreme Mugwump and Chief Warlock, where he could just force issues onto the dockets whenever either of those two political bodies assemble." Nick replied. "Sorry, but he could get Sirius a trial very easily, he just elected not to do so for some reason. I suspect that a free Sirius Black would mean that your illegal placement at the Dursleys would come to light. Could also be that a free Sirius Black as your Guardian would mean that Sirius would be a more important guiding figure in your life then Dumbledore. Could be that Dumbledore wants you to remain at the Dursleys for some reason and not live with Sirius elsewhere. Could be some reason I've yet to think of."
"That's..." Tonks murmured and shivered. "Troubling."
"That bearded old liar!" Violet snarled. "What the hell is he thinking?!"
"Not sure. All I know is that he's playing a very dangerous game and seemingly willing to sacrifice immensely powerful allies to reach whatever goal he's aiming for. He was originally a friend, lover and supported similar goals to the Dark Lord Gellert Grindewald, but by all accounts and the actions he took against Grindewald and later Voldemort, he no longer seems to be on that path. But I'm not entirely sure that his end goal is entirely beneficial to the world as a whole either. What I am sure of is that whatever he's plotting isn't beneficial to you or at least seems designed to put you through a lot of hell in the process." Nick replied with a sympathetic look directed at Violet, who snarled angrily before nodding in agreement. "Fortunately, Albus Dumbledore will be extremely busy before long. There will be a lot of fires for him to put out. International reporters have spoken to both Grindewald in Numengard and Bathilda Bagshot in Godric's Hollow, learning a lot of things that Dumbledore would like to keep under wraps. When that bomb hits, he'll have a busy couple of weeks. Especially since there are a few undercover ICW agents here in Britain looking into a few oddities, some of which Dumbledore am involved in. That will also be a shitstorm and a half for him to deal with. Hopefully he will be so busy putting out fires and placating his allies, that he won't be able to spot and prevent a little surprise trial for Sirius Black. Until then, the priority is getting you competent in Occlumency and Tonksie here should also do some reviewing even if she is a deft hand at it already. Once Sirius has his freedom, we can hopefully arrange a meeting between him, Amelia Bones and us, then start making plans from that point onwards."
He sighed and rubbed his left temple, while draining the last of his rum from the glass in his right hand.
"There's also an international event, the Tri-Wizard Tournament, coming to Hogwarts this year. Students and teachers from both Durmstrang and Beauxbaton will be here and plenty of foreign visitors will visit during the course of that tournament. I hope to see some foreign dignitaries who I know have children or relatives amongst the students of those two schools make an appearance during the tournament. The head of Magical Germany's DMLE has a daughter who will be a seventh year at Durmstrang and has consistently gotten excellent grades during her schooling. She's pretty much guaranteed to be one of the Durmstrang students coming to Hogwarts. There are several others like that that I hope will turn up and be amendable to grant us a brief chat. But I'm thinking that with Sirius Black being the Black of Blacks and with Red being the girl-who-lived, very few of our foreign visitors will refuse a meeting."
"How do you know all this stuff? How long have you been plotting and planning something like this?!" Tonks suddenly interrupted.
"You know my fascination with Runes?" Nick asked as he moved back to his seat, plonking himself down in his office chair again.
"Well, yeah. There were always piles and heaps of books around your apartment about Runes and other crap. That shit you threw at me during our one spar also left quite the impression." Tonks snorted.
"Runes are amazing. If you know enough about them, how they work together and can be a bit creative, you can get them to do pretty much anything. That belt you're wearing, the one I gave you for your birthday? If you look at the clasp, you'll see a series of runes on that. Those runes make the belt a lot more durable, resistant to dirt and will resize it if you balloon out or slim down to a ridiculous degree, but they also let me locate that belt no matter where on the planet it is and gives me a warning if Dark Magic is used within fifty meters of it. A lot of items like that, with some runes covertly added to them are located near and on persons of interest in a great many places. Some lets me track them, others let me listen in on conversations taking place near them and others lets me see what happens around them. That's how I know that Sirius Black is innocent, that's how I keep track of former Death Eaters, know about a pretty scandalous series of articles that will hit the international newspapers in a few days and a whole lot of other different things." he easily replied and leaned back in his seat. "As for how long I've been plotting and planning? Years. That Voldemort wasn't permanently defeated had eluded me until very recently. But it wasn't exactly hard to tell that the wizarding world as a whole was in a pretty darn sad state, that former Death Eaters were getting closer and closer to pretty much running the country and that I would see another major conflict in my lifetime. I just figured that some former Death Eater would declare himself or herself as the new Dark Personage on the block and start a new reign of terror sometime within the next five years or so. When I found out that Voldemort wasn't quite as gone as I had thought, I just adapted my old plans to account for him being the Dark Personage on the block rather then some new player."
"You just adapted..." Tonks groaned out loud and shook her head. "I'm not sure if I'm impressed or horrified, but I do know one thing. You are an even crazier son of a bitch then I ever suspected before. Fuck it." she said and emptied her glass, then slammed it down on the desk. "I'm going home, I need to be where things make sense and try and get some sleep. Got work tomorrow, but I should be off duty after supper. I'll come around after that, there's still a lot of questions that need asking." she declared and turned to Violet. "Don't let all the revelations drive you bonkers. This bastard is a bit of an acquired taste." she added with a gesture in Nicks direction, which he responded to with a two-fingered salute. She frowned a bit and tilted her head, leaning forward a bit and then hissing, reaching out to grasp Violet's right wrist. "Fuck, you're sporting Magical Burns!"
Nick jerked in his seat and got up, moving closer to Violet and observed her arms, neck, face and feet, whatever part of her showing skin.
"Magical burns?" Violet asked and looked down at her arms, spotting what looked like blue veins on her skins. They were pretty faint, but now when she looked more carefully, it was pretty evident that something was off.
"Can happen sometimes when you've used more magic than your body can handle. It's usually just your hand and sometimes wand arm, but you've got it on both arms! ... And neck. ... Face. Heck, they must be all over you!" she hissed.
Nick sighed.
"Fuck, I should have realized that this would happen. You threw around a lot of magic earlier." he said and scratched his jaw.
"Is it dangerous?" Violet nervously asked.
"Long term, no. With some rest and lots of food, you'll recover. Short term? Using magic is a bad idea for a couple of days. You can if you need to for some reason, but it will hurt like hell and the burns will take longer to go away." Tonks answered.
"There are ways to treat it, speed up the recovery a bit. I can take you to St Mungo s if you want, that will probably bring your recovery down to one or two days instead of four or five." Nick mused, then winced. "Might be some uncomfortable questions though, they'll want to know how you got them and will be required to bring in the DMLE if they find out you were mucking about with magic in violation of the stupid underage laws in this backwards country." he realized and shook his head. "I can brew the potion you need, but it's not one you drink, it has to be massaged and absorbed by your skin. But you likely won't want me to lay my hands all over your body like that and seeing how Tonks rubbing my neck and shoulders feel like some form of horrible torture, I can't really recommend letting her lay her hands on you either." he added and then his head jerked forward as Tonks slapped the back of his head.
"My neck rubs are not torture!" she protested, then looked away as Nick looked at her with a disbelieving expression.
"There's a reason I've never let you do it while I was still sober. You're shit at it." he declared, then returned his attention to Violet. "I'll still take you to St Mungo s if you want me to. Based on the amounts of magic you tossed out earlier, I'm guessing it will start to tingle pretty soonish and by tomorrow, you'll probably want to crawl out of your own skin for most of the day before it starts easing off somewhat. But it will likely still sting and feel uncomfortable for a couple of days after that."
"It's okay, I'll try to deal with it. It's not like it's the first time I've taken a few knocks." Violet responded.
"Spoken like a true tomboy, shorty." Nick approved, but sighed. "It'll be bad though."