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: Happy new year! Hope 2021 will turn out to be a better one then 2020.
I did briefly ponder possibly uploading multiple chapters between xmas and new year s, so chapter 8 would have been uploaded today since that has a kind of rebirth/new start theme to it which would have gone along well with the first day of a new year. But I eventually decided that I liked the feeling of having several months worth of chapters already finished too much to rush it, so I ll stick with the 1 chapter a week schedule for a while longer.
Chapter 6:
Violet grinned vindictively as both Hermione and Mrs Granger looked somewhat unsettled after being side-alonged to number five, she by no means found it a pleasant experience either, but having already been side-alonged several times today, had somewhat managed to get used to it. Served them right after laughing at her! They now swayed a bit on their feet as she observed them and Nick walked over towards the stairs where he started emptying his pockets and unshrinking bag after bag from todays purchases, neatly lining them up by the side of the stairs. He also hung up the ladies summer jackets which he'd liberated the somewhat dazed Grangers and somewhat more stable Violet of right after they arrived. He nodded in satisfaction once his pockets were empty of shopping bags and left arm of jackets, then walked over to the kitchen area.
"Coffee? Tea? Orange-lime juice? Fruit and berry smoothie?" he asked over his shoulder.
"Smoothie!" Violet declared, already having decided during breakfast that the sweetish with a hint of acidic kick treat was one of her new favourite drinks and appealed more at the moment then tea, coffee or juice.
"Tea for me, if you'd be so kind." Mrs Granger replied, swallowing a couple of times, but then seemed mostly recovered from the shock of apparition.
"For me as well, thank you." Hermione responded primly, looking around the room with a curious expression. Violet smirked in satisfaction as she saw Hermione's eyes widen and her hands starting to twitch once she spotted the big well-stocked bookshelf over in the reading corner.
"Now, now, Hermione. It would be incredibly rude to just rush off and start browsing through all those books right away. Wouldn't you prefer to sit down at the dinner table and relax a bit rather then look at a bunch of books? I mean, some of them are incredibly old and rare. Really boring stuff." Violet teased with a wide grin, having expected Hermione to spot the books and instantly want to have a look at them, so she had been prepared to head her off as further vengeance for Hermione's earlier teasing. Hermione's head snapped over to look at her, a betrayed expression on her face. She looked over at her mother, as if searching for support for her obvious desire to browse.
"I'm afraid your friend is correct, Hermione." Jean Granger chuckled warmly. "Tea first, bookshelf snooping later."
"It's these kinds of things that gave you so much bad Karma, Vi." Hermione snarked, but did make her way over towards the dinner table where Violet instantly took the seat she'd used the last two days.
"Please, sit down and kick back. I'll have your tea done in a jiff." Nick assured them and placed a glass of his home-made smoothie in front of Violet and a wicker basket filled with three different kinds of biscuits in the centre of the table, then returned to prepare tea for his guests and no doubt coffee for himself.
Hermione had grown increasingly Hermione:ish back at the book store, nearly vibrating in place as she was clearly eager to start shooting questions at her friend, but managed to hold herself back from doing so in public. Nick had observed her with a bemused and confused expression for a bit, then seemed to cotton on to what was going on. The Grangers had thus promptly been invited over for tea and a chance for Hermione to interrogate Violet in relative privacy.
"You have a lovely home, Mr Jones. Very modern and I love the open-floor-plan." Mrs Granger stated, having had a few chances to glance around the gigantic room herself, but unlike her daughter her glances weren't solely locked onto the bookshelf in the other end of the room. But Violet noted that her gaze had drifted over there multiple times, seemed like she had passed down an interest in books to her daughter, though Hermione took it to extremes.
"Thank you, Jean." Nick responded warmly and returned to the table, putting the pitcher of smoothie down next to Violet, who had finished off most of her first glass already. "But please, call me Nick. Mr Jones makes me want to look around to see if my father entered the room without me noticing and it feels doubly odd having a beautiful lady such as yourself referring to me as 'Mister'." he purred, then whimpered as Violet kicked him in the shin.
"Stop perving on married women already, you degenerate." she ordered him, grinning a bit as he raised his leg and rubbed his shin for a few moments. She had been told on several occasions that her tendency to display her annoyance with others in pretty physical ways was one of her least appealing traits, but it just felt so good to properly vent when she was frustrated! It was probably one of the reasons why she so often found it easier to relate to boys then other girls. If she gave Lavender a slap to the back of her head to express her displeasure with something Lav had done or said, she'd get a teary-eyed look and get questioned about why she was so bloody violent. 'Violent Violet' had been something she'd overheard people calling her from time to time, though never to her face.
But if Ron annoyed her enough that she gave him that same slap to the back of his head or an even harder one then she'd ever dare to lay on Lav, he'd just call her a bastard, retaliate in some way and five minutes later, they'd be playing Wizarding Chess, talking Quidditch or trying to see who could eat the most Yorkshire Puddings in one sitting as if nothing had happened.
It was just so much simpler with boys. There were other issues, but it was generally less complicated to interact with them.
"Not sure I ever started to 'perv'." he protested. "Appreciating beauty and offering compliments is pretty different to 'perving', I feel. But fine, shorty. To appease the tiny little green-eyed monster in the room, I'll refrain." he agreed and patted her head before returning to the kitchen area.
She growled a little bit as he once again teased her about her height deficiency, then drained the last of her smoothie and refilled the glass, the anger vanishing as quickly as it came along, as usually was the case with her.
"And it wouldn't hurt for you to wait for our guests to receive their drinks before starting on yours." he added over his shoulder and she blushed faintly, while the two Grangers bemusedly observed her guilty expression. Hermione found it quite refreshing to see and while Jean had only briefly bumped into Violet at Kings Cross and Diagon Alley, she'd heard enough stories about Hermione s best friend to know how unusual it was for the brash young girl to actually listen and care when someone admonished her for anything.
"Sorry." she muttered and pushed back her hoodie, shaking out her hair and pulling it back into some semblance of order. Or what passed for order. When it came to her unruly head of hair, order was perhaps a bit of a strong word for what she managed with just her hands.
"Okay, Vi. What happened to you? What's up with your hair and those marks? Where are the Dursleys?" Hermione demanded to know.
"Well, there was a bit of a magical mishap." she admitted somewhat shame-facedly. "You remember when Percy forgot about his date with Penelope?"
"Oh yes! He was so caught up in reading a report on the different approaches to studying Arithmancy in different parts of the world that he lost track of time and accidentally stood Penelope up for a planned date in Hogsmeade. She was so angry! I heard she overturned one of the Hogwarts carriages with a burst of accidental magic. She had these blue lines all over her arms and hands... For... Days..." Hermione babbled away, trailing off at the end as she looked silently at Violet who held up her hands next to her face, blue lines visible here and there.
"Yeah, that." Violet agreed with a wry grin and grasped a handful of her hair, pulling it out so that she could look at it. "I had a similar little incident, seems to have had a bit of an effect on my hair as well." she admitted as Nick appeared at the table again, putting down honey, sugar, lemon wedges and cream on the table, before departing again.
"Are you okay?" Hermione asked. "Penelope only had them on her arms and hands, but you've got them on your face and your hair as well!"
"I'm a bit stiff and the marks do hurt sometimes, but it's getting better. It's nothing to worry about." Violet tried to assure her best friend. "Besides, I kind of like the hair. If it returns to normal, I may try to get something similar done."
"It's a bit worse than any other case I've read about, but it should be cleared up in a couple of days. The hair, well, we'll have to wait for it to grow a bit to see if it's just the hair or if your follicles changed as well." Nick announced as he placed cups of steaming tea in front of Jean and Hermione, before he seated himself with his own cup of coffee in a firm grasp. "Please, help yourselves." he added and indicated the biscuits and the various tea condiments. "White chunks in the biscuits mean white chocolate and marshmallows, brown chunks mean milk chocolate and dark chocolate and the last of the trio are walnut and hazelnut." he concluded.
"Thank you." Jean stated and added a dash of honey to her tea, before reaching for one of the nut biscuits.
"Thanks, Mr Jones." Hermione offered, adding a squeeze of lemon to her tea before tentatively reaching for a chocolate biscuit.
"Oh, you're in for it now." Violet grinned and snatched up one of each biscuit.
"In for what, Vi?" Hermione inquired.
"She's probably referring to my intense dislike of being referred to as 'Mr Jones' and my habit of using derogatory nicknames, teasing and outright insults to force the offender to change their mode of address." Nick calmly admitted and sipped from his coffee. "You're sure you want to go that route instead of just calling me 'Nick', Miss Hermione Granger?" he asked as he graced her with a shark-like grin.
"Uhm, not sure what you're talking about... Nick." Hermione hedged and took a bite out of her biscuit.
"Are you a Muggleborn Wizard, Nick?" Jean asked. "You seem a lot more natural and well... Normal, then other Wizards we've seen and met. Sorry if it's rude to ask, but you do seem quite different then others."
"No worries there, Jean. Well, no, both my parents were magical. But they were both mostly living and working in the Muggle world, so I was raised Muggle but knowing about magic. It's probably why I possess such vast amounts of the Wizarding Worlds most rare, uncommon and precious commodity." he easily replied without a hint of offence.
"What commodity is that?" Hermione asked.
"Common sense, Hermione. Common sense." he responded in a deadly serious manner. "That is something which is frightfully uncommon in the Wizarding World."
That announcement was met with complete silence for several seconds, before all three in his audience started laughing.
"I'm not so sure I can take your claim about common sense seriously. After all, you are the guy who was talking about using Runes to make the only cat in the world that would be even more of a freak of nature then Crookshanks and Mrs Norris." Violet snorted once they'd finished laughing, causing Hermione to look seriously offended on Crookshanks behalf.
"Make a cat?" Jean questioned with a seriously confused expression.
"Runes?" Hermione piped up with an interested expression, her offended one quickly fading away as she focused on that.
"Shorty was looking down on Runes, so I gave her an example of how awesome they can be compared to boring common spellwork." he sniffed. "Apparently I failed to convince her about the glory of Runes. Then again, my example wasn't related to something edible or drinkable, so I guess the fault lies with me for using a poor example for my mentally impaired sustenance-focused audience." he added while Violet poured herself a third glass of smoothie while at the same time reaching for another trio of biscuits.
She gracefully ignored the dig at her state of mind and the fact that she liked to eat and drink, perhaps a little bit more then she should. Then again, it wasn't as if she ever seemed to gain much weight in spite of over-indulging at times and she was pretty active, so when she did retain some weight, it was mostly in the form of muscles or the occasional further expansion of her chest.
"You were talking about making a green sabretooth that could go invisible and shoot lightening bolts out of its ass. It is not MY sanity that is in doubt." Violet instantly countered.
"That... How would you even? A living... Invisible... Well, Iwaz or perhaps Uruz..." Hermione rambled.
"Either Iwaz or Uruz could work for the invisibility, which would be used depends on the assembly and the earlier configuration." Nick commented and sipped from his coffee again, then looked over at Jean who was the one most out of her depth at the moment. "If you think of the universe as one big computer, then Runes are the programming language of the universe. As long as you know how to write the code, you can pretty much do whatever with them. It's somewhat time-consuming to figure out how to write the code and then actually write it down, but it is an incredibly flexible and vastly powerful field of magic for those with the dedication and devotion to master it."
"You could actually use it to create life? To make a living sabretooth tiger?" Jean asked somewhat dubiously. "Professor McGonagall transfigured a cat from a teacup and actually turned herself into one when she came to tell us about Hermione being a Witch and Hogwarts. But she said that the transfigured one wasn't really 'real', that it wasn't alive, just acting like it was because that was how she imagined it acting."
"Magic can't create life or restore life that has been lost." Hermione sighed with a disappointed expression.
"There's a bit of a debate over if it is possible or not, it's advanced theory and not the sort of thing you'd usually come across before leaving school." Nick reflected. "I believe that it is possible to create an actual self-sustaining living sentient creature with Runes, one that would live, think, react, learn and eventually die at the end of its life span. The two problems is first that the amount of Runes, the amount of code needed for that kind of program to execute, would be massive on a highly impractical scale. The second is that you need to be very knowledgeable in how a mind and brain works to write a Runic Assembly that would replicate that. Doesn't matter if you are a real wiz at Runes, if you don't know how the brain works. So it would take at least as much studies in biology, psychology, behaviourism and the like as it would take studies in Runes to pull it off. That's just for the mind, then there's how the body works, how food is digested, the workings of the immune system and the like. You'd have to be massively knowledgeable in a lot of different fields to know how to truly replicate a sentient living organism."
"Making a rat replica that looks for the fastest way out of a maze, but can't do anything but that? Simple, I can jot down the runes for that in fifteen minutes or so. Making a faux rat that can spot a cat, realize that the cat means danger and then look for the best spot to hide in a completely unfamiliar environment? Harder, but doable. A human replica able to handle a multitude of different situations, experiences, stimuli and relationships for multiple decades of an actual life? I'd have to fill a couple of football fields with tiny runes for it to come close to even remotely resembling a real human being and it would probably still feel somewhat off when it interacted with real humans since mind and behaviour are quite tricky things. It would be more of a newly created AI then actually living, at least until it could learn better." he continued to explain and then shrugged. "But with enough Runes, enough detailed descriptions of what you want magic to do and the knowledge of how things work naturally? Yeah, I believe creating true life is possible. A massive undertaking, but none the less possible."
"Hermione, stop drooling. If you think I'm going to let the two of you start filling the world with Runes in order to make Crookshanks the Second, you've got another thing coming." Violet suddenly interjected, holding her right fist up very demonstratively to illustrate what would happen if she found Hermione taking over some abandoned classroom in order to make herself a Rune kitty to keep Crookshanks company.
Hermione slowly blinked and turned to face her friend. There was utter stillness for a few moments, then Hermione's hand went up.
She'd never seen Hermione give anyone a two-finger salute before, but it was somewhat gratifying to see even if it was Violet herself who was the target of it. Hermione had been such a timid girl when they had first met, but she'd certainly loosened up a bit as well as grown bolder and more confident after they became best friends. Ron helped as well, his generally carefree attitude and tendency to do many small things which annoyed Hermione to bits, had certainly made her a lot more vocal about things. The fact that Violet also had that generally carefree attitude and a similar tendency to annoy Hermione, had made the other girl much more likely to speak up, snark back and generally helped her to grow a spine which had been seriously lacking at the start of their first year. The current Hermione was certainly a lot more fun then the shy, timid little thing who had ran off to cry in a bathroom in first year.
If Ron actually managed to annoy her enough these days, Hermione was far more likely to use Wingardium Leviosa to hoist him up to the ceiling by his underwear then run off for a cry. Granted, whenever she did retaliate, Hermione did tend to feel guilty about it afterwards and sometimes did cry a little bit later on in the day, evening or night, but as far as Violet was concerned, it was still a massive improvement from when she'd first met Hermione.
Violet grinned, having overheard a few rumours in the past that claimed that the three of them were in a complicated three-way relationship, in which Hermione wore the pants and did her best to rein in her two impulsive lovers in 'The Golden Trio'. The two girls in the grade below her whom she had first overheard that particular rumour from had been mortified as heck when they realized that Violet had been walking behind them and overheard, something which had become evident when she suddenly burst out in gut-wrenching gales of laughter.
Hermione was without a doubt her best friend forever and Ron provided a nice fun contrast to the more serious Hermione, at least in smaller doses and when Mrs Weasley wasn't around to try and push the two of them together. But being in an intimate relationship that in any way, shape or form involved Ron Weasley? Fuck no!
"Hermione Jean Granger!" Jean hissed in outrage while Violet and Nick chuckled. Hermione kept up her two-finger salute for a bit, but lowered her hand with a bit of embarrassment on her face. No apology came forth however and Violets wide grin of approval was clear evidence that she hadn't minded.
"Anyway, yeah. That's a bit on the more theory-heavy side of Runes. As for more practical applications that doesn't take years and years to arrange, well..." Nick mused, then snapped his fingers. "Today is a pretty hot day, right? It was downright unbearable outside at times?" he asked and got a few nods in response. "You see any air condition or other temperature regulating devices around here? Nope, you don't. This house is temperature-controlled by a slab of wood in the attic that I scratched some Runes into. A five-minute job and now I have free Air Con for as long as I live here, no electricity or maintenance needed. No draft either, as it chills the air directly in the room instead of pulling it through complicated machinery and then blasting it out through vents."
"What?" Jean asked, looking around for vents or anything else that could disprove that statement. She hadn't really thought about it until he pointed it out, but the temperature and humidity were indeed unexpectedly pleasant inside.
"You used Runes to save money on air conditioning?" Hermione asked with a bewildered expression that indicated that she couldn't decide if she was impressed or indignant that he used Runes for such a mundane purpose.
"Sure did. Some people use Runes to make staircases that move and risk throwing children to their deaths in what should be a safe place of learning, others use them for safe, practical, useful and environmentally friendly real-world applications." Nick agreed easily. "You should know all that is needed to do the same sometime in your sixth year, unless your parents badger you to learn it before then, of course. Oh, did I mention that it can also be used to heat the house in the winter, not just to keep it cool in the summer?"
"Hermione. Me and your father want you to do well in Runes. Very well." Jean suddenly announced in a deadly serious voice, then turned to Nick. "Are there any other 'practical real-world applications' for Runes?"
"What car do you drive and what sort of mileage do you get out of it?" Nick asked with a wide grin.
"That guy is scarily brilliant, Vi." Hermione announced after Violet had taken pity on her friend and taken her over to the bookshelf in the reading corner, while Nick guided Jean around the yard, pointing out various small items covered with Runes that did everything from keeping pests away from his green house to keeping the temperature in the pool up all-year round.
Violet kind of regretted not taking Runes as an elective now, but shrugged it off. She wasn't the sort of person who spent a lot of time and effort on regrets. She acknowledged them, then moved on.
"Brilliant. Mad. Either. Both." she replied.
"Scarily good at distracting as well." her friend continued. "Why are you here, Vi? Where are the Dursleys?" Hermione asked, something she had been trying to find out since meeting Violet in Diagon, but which had yet been answered.
Violet sighed and sat down in the love seat, throwing her legs onto one of the footrests.
"Won a five-week cruise and went off without me. Didn't leave a key or more likely, left it and Dudley nicked it before leaving." Violet admitted. "Nick found me feeling sorry for myself outside the front door, agonizing over where I would sleep that night. I had just about decided to sleep in the tool shack in the back yard until I could contact you or Ron, when he dragged me over here and told me to sleep in one of his guest rooms. Just being abandoned like last weeks trash was what caused my little magical mishap."
"You know him well, then? You've never mentioned him before." Hermione asked with a somewhat bewildered expression as she made her way over from the books and sat down next to Violet. Violet did have a tendency to barely mention anything about her home life other then that it was bad, changing topics as soon as she could. So she figured Violet would have babbled nonstop about Nick to get away from talking about the Dursleys and her home life at number four, but Hermione had genuinely never heard about him before.
"We've, uhm, known each other for a while." Violet deflected, but knew right as the words left her mouth that she hadn't been convincing enough. She had successfully lied to or concealed part of the truth from Hermione a few times in the past, but those times were usually few and far between.
Hermione just looked at her, not saying anything.
"He moved in not too long ago, never met him before this summer." she admitted with a sigh.
"Viiiiiiiii." Hermione whined with an intensely disappointed expression.
"Aw, come on. He's probably shown me better care since I came back from Hogwarts this year then the Dursley's combined have throughout my entire life. He's a good guy." Violet insisted.
"Who you barely know! Who currently seems well on the way to making my mother develop a little crush on him." Hermione countered and gestured at Nick and Jean who were still out in the back yard, where Nick was now showing her mother what looked like a little wooden spatula he'd removed from the ground underneath a healthy-looking apple tree. Jeans eyes were open wide and there was a huge smile on her face as she stood a bit closer to Nick then what probably was appropriate as she looked intently at what Nick was showing her.
"Bah, he'll probably annoy her before long. He kinda does that." Violet said dismissively, but she did keep an eye on the two of them in the corner of her field of vision. She did not want him to snatch up Hermione's mother with his weird money-saving runic seduction techniques. Granted, she had no idea what sort of techniques were usually employed to seduce married women, having no personal experience or heard any stories about that sort of thing. But she figured that talking about using Runes to save money probably wasn't one of the more common ones, so it had to qualify as pretty weird.
"You have your wand? You remember how to cast Stupefy in case he does anything?" Hermione inquired.
"I have my wand. I have my wand BECAUSE he went over and got it for me while I was sleeping in the guest room, yes." Violet replied. "If he had wanted to do something, there was plenty of opportunity then. And look, here I am! Unmolested, fed, in clothes that fit and a bed where the springs doesn't poke through the sheets."
The unmolested bit was stretching the truth quite a lot, considering the 'treatment' for her Magical Burns. But that little stretch did seem to have flown underneath Hermione's bullshit radar.
Hermione didn't seem entirely convinced of her safety, but seemed to realize that Violet had made her mind up and wasn't going to accept any attempts to change it.
"The Dursleys are gone for five weeks, huh?" she commented instead and shook her head. "My parents wanted to go on a vacation starting next week, but I can probably talk them out of it and get them to cancel. You could stay with us."
"If it's okay, I might come over and visit a bit once these have cleared up. It'll be hard to cover them up without magic." Violet responded and waved her Magic Burn-covered right hand around a bit. "Nick said I could stay here for as long as I wanted or needed."
"Is it bad? I remember Penelope saying they itched pretty bad at times and she only had them on her arms and hands." Hermione asked with a concerned expression.
"It's not the most pleasant of experiences. I'm getting treatment though, that helps." she admitted after a few moments, downplaying things quite a lot, then glanced aside as Nick and Jean returned through the back door.
"... and it will work just as well with the lawn mover as the car?" Jean inquired as the two of them made their way inside.
"Almost zero emissions and zero gasoline costs." Nick assured her and Violet smirked at Hermione. "Since it's conjured it doesn't last, but as the engine uses it up almost as soon as it's conjured, that doesn't really matter."
"You do realize that you're going to be etching Runes for your parents the entire summer, don't you?" Violet asked Hermione.
"I'm underage, I can't use magic outside of Hogwarts." Hermione protested.
"You can't use wanded magic outside of Hogwarts until you are of age and have your OWLs." Nick corrected as he and Jean arrived in the reading area of the room. "There's nothing preventing you from making Potions, carving Runes, non-wanded Divination and the like. You can also apply for exceptions, like if you are being privately tutored outside of school. But due to the wide-spread corruption in the Ministry of Magic, you would probably have to offer up a bribe or have highly-placed connections in order to get one in any sort of reasonable time frame."
"That sort of thing is common in the Wizarding World?" Jean inquired with a slight frown.
"Terribly so, I'm afraid. The Wizarding World is a bit of a conservative stagnant society and culture due to the extended lifespans magic grants and isolation from the rest of the world. Hermione's headmaster was born more then a hundred years ago and he has several still living contemporaries and some who are even older than that. The legislative body has several people on it more then a hundred and fifty years old, some who can be expected to serve for another couple of decades. They grew up in a world much different then the Muggle one and keep in mind, the stagnation isn't a new thing. The Wizarding World of a hundred years ago that Dumbledore grew up in wasn't like the Muggle World around that time. The Wizarding World a hundred years ago more closely resembled the Muggle World two hundred or three hundred years ago with some ideas, traditions and customs being even older than that. Change comes veeeeeeery slowly." he mused and shook his head. "There's also the little added complication of wide-spread corruption which further benefits the traditional and conservative. During the last bit of civil unrest one and a half decade ago, just above one hundred and fifty marked followers of the Dark Lord were arrested and put on trial. Do you know how many served any jail time at all for their crimes? Less then half. The rest had the money and the connections needed to go free, several of them now hold important posts in the Ministry or elsewhere in our society and a great deal have hereditary seats in the legislative body. Many didn't even have to go on trial, the charges were just dropped before any trial took place."
"I knew it was a bit... Backwards, but... I can't believe that things are so bad, surely you're exaggerating." Hermione protested.
"Did you know that your friend Ron s father is considered the Ministry's foremost expert on the Muggle world?" Nick asked with a wry expression. "I met him in the Ministry elevator last week when I visited to pick up my friend Tonks for lunch. When he found out that I was there to take out Tonks for Sashimi in Muggle London, I was bombarded with questions on everything from printed money to how airplanes worked and if I had ever seen anyone selling 'Eckeltricity' in the Muggle world since his battery collection apparently needed some from what he had been told." he chuckled and shook his head in disbelief, while Violet and Hermione both groaned. "Nice and all, but a bit of a goof and most assuredly not any sort of 'expert' on the Muggle World. Now then, considering how the majority of Wizarding Britain is actually made up out of Muggleborn and Halfbloods with at least some measure of contact and much deeper knowledge of the Muggle World then Arthur Weasley has, can you explain why he is the Ministry's foremost expert on all things Muggle?" he asked with a more serious expression.
"Because most Wizards and Witches are stark raving bonkers?" Violet suggested and Nick laughed out loud at that.
"That and the fact that he's a Pure-blood from a fairly old and renown Wizarding family. They may have fallen upon hard times in recent decades, but the Weasley name is still an old and decently well-regarded family. His blood and family are more then enough to get him a good job at the Ministry of Magic, that he has a pretty lacking knowledge of how the Muggle world actually works doesn't really matter. It's not like any of his superiors at the Ministry knows any better, so if Arthur makes a statement about the Muggle World, they likely take it as gospel and believe him. How pure your blood is and who's asses your grandparents kissed is pretty much all that matters at the Ministry. The only head of a department I know of that actually deserves their current job, is Amelia Bones who heads up the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. She has the pedigree too of course, but she would probably still have her current job even if job progression in the Ministry was based only on pure knowledge, merits and accomplishments. There might be some others, but if there are, they're not well-known enough for me to have heard of them."
"That's why I took evening classes during and went to both college and university after I was done with my magical education. The main Jones family line is actually pretty respected, but I'm from a disgraced Muggle-loving branch family, so my family name won't help much, if at all. That means a career at the Ministry is pretty much impossible for me. Other possibilities exist, but most people and companies do favour Pure-bloods from a good family over other applicants, even over how suited they are for an available position. Thankfully, I can live entirely off my royalties and Muggle investments without having to work. Being a deft hand at Runes has also allowed me to build quite the sizeable nest egg, so I can just bury myself in my research, experiments and cooking, only occasionally forcing myself to do some writing for a few months to keep the royalties coming in and sell a few Runic Assemblies from time to time. But even without that, I could find employment in the Muggle world thanks to my degrees."
Jean looked questioningly at Hermione, while she looked back at her mother with a determined expression. A silent conversation or argument seemed to take place for a few moments, before the deadlock broke and they appeared to decide to put any sort of verbal discussion off for later. But it did appear that Hermione was at least somewhat aware of the challenges she would face in the future, but still looked determined to face and beat them head-on.
"Oh, I almost forgot." Nick suddenly announced, then scurried off towards the mass of bags near the stairs and looked over them for a few moments, before bending down and grabbing two books from one of them, which he brought over. "Here, shorty. Your copy and I'm guessing you might want your friend to have another." he declared and handed Violet the two books.
She glanced down at the cover and read the title. 'Mentally yours. The art of Occlumency and how to keep your private thoughts private.' by Fflewdur Owens.
"It's pretty much the best introduction to Occlumency I know of." Nick quietly approved of the book.
Violet looked at the two books for a few moments longer, considering how much and what to tell Hermione at this stage.
"Here, Hermione." she finally said and handed her one of the books. "It's a book about how to keep people from reading your mind." she further explained, extremely briefly summing up what it was about.
"Wow, thanks! That's amazing!" Hermione approved and furrowed her brow, apparently quite confused at being given that particular book.
"That is the ultimate goal of Occlumency, but side benefits include better and quicker memory retention among other perks. Fflewdur explains it pretty well in the first chapter." Nick added. "Doesn't take magic to get the hang of the basics either, so it's something your parents can start to learn as well if they feel like it. Without magic, it's not possible to stop a Witch or Wizard who really goes for it, but they can no longer do it covertly without the victim being aware of it. And the side benefits still make it a worthwhile time investment."
"And I should be learning this, because?" Hermione questioned, but based on the way she clutched the book to her chest as if afraid that Violet would try to take it back, she likely intended to learn no matter what the response was. She looked at Nick with a suspicious and demanding glint in her eyes, but he remained silent, looking down at Violet.
"There's a few things I know about that are... Pretty sensitive. Others that I will probably learn in the future. Unless you know Occlumency and can keep your mind from being read, I won't be able to talk to you about them as long as they need to remain secret." Violet eventually responded, figuring that Nick probably left it up to her to decide what she'd tell Hermione at this stage, since it was pretty unusual for him to shut up when there was an opportunity to talk. The contrast between his babbling long-winded explanations and her own extremely short summations were quite noticeable. She guessed he liked talking a whole lot more then she did.
"Who'd even know how to read my mind? And this is amazing! I've never seen anything about how to do it, just mentions of it being possible sometimes and I've looked through a lot of the Hogwarts Library for interesting books and rare magic knowledge." she exclaimed.
"It's not forbidden knowledge, but there are those who do their utmost to restrict it and especially any knowledge of Legimancy, which is the actual art of entering the mind of another. The Hogwarts library has likely been cleansed of any actual facts about both decades ago. Schools in more progressive parts of the world still have them and I know at least a few in Asia actually have classes in them on the curriculum. Most bookstores have at least beginner books on Occlumency or can order them, but the more advanced stuff and anything on Legimency at all is usually only found in old family libraries or taught by a Master to an Apprentice these days. But yeah, there's at least three or four teachers at Hogwarts who can read minds to varying degrees, probably a few of the older students as well, especially those from older Pure-blooded families. Occlumency is a bit more common, most Pure-bloods and some Half-bloods will learn enough to be competent at it before leaving Hogwarts and venturing out in the adult world." Nick said and Violet nodded to herself. Nick really did like to talk. She wouldn't have spent more then a sentence replying to Hermione's question, much preferring to just give a short answer and then see if any further questions popped up that she could give similar short answers to. Probably why she quite often found it so hard to write essays, where she couldn't just write down a single sentence with her answer or conclusion and be done with it.
Hermione looked absolutely horrified.
"Hogwarts restricts knowledge? Impossible! Dumbledore would never allow it!" she insisted.
"I don't think the records and minutes from Hogwarts Board of Directors meetings and Staff meetings are available in the library these days, yet another little nugget of knowledge that has been restricted over the years. But copies are being held at the Ministry archives and are available for public perusal. The first staff meeting after a school year is over is usually when the Hogwarts library is discussed. What books if any to add, which should go inside the Restricted Section and which should be removed entirely from even the Restricted Section. It's not hard to discover that the Restricted Section has nearly tripled in size since Dumbledore took over and that more books have been removed entirely during his tenure as Headmaster then during the schools entire history before him." Nick mused and shrugged. "Sometimes the Board brings up a specific volume or two during meetings that one or more of them want gone from the library, but the mass removals or moves into the Restricted Section are usually instigated by Dumbledore. If you ever visit the ministry archives, just look at any staff meeting minutes from July in any year since Dumbledore became Headmaster."
"B-but why would he do that?! Knowledge should be free!" Hermione yelped out.
"Dumbledore is a bit of an enigma wrapped in a mystery in the shape of a riddle. I don't think anyone other then him knows why he does certain things. Sometimes I'm not even sure if he knows. Alzheimer s and Dementia are mostly unheard of in the Wizarding World, but I'm fairly confident they exist. If you read between the lines, you'll find out pretty soon that the older Witches and Wizards get, the more batcrap crazy they become. He's not the oldest Wizard around, but he is up there. I wouldn't be surprised if he had either or both, but since the Wizarding World doesn't really know about it or check for them, the ones suffering from it are just allowed to go about their daily business as usual, while their surroundings get to deal with the chaos and problems they cause." he reflected. "I think they still have an account about Dark Lords of the 14th century at Hogwarts. Check out the entry for Dark Gwynn the Ancient, how she was described sounds pretty much like a text-book case of Dementia to me and she's far from the only utter nutter you'll find if you check out what happens to the older Wizards and Witches throughout history. I'm not entirely sure that is what is going on with Dumbledore, could very well be something else or just concern over the sort of knowledge young impressionable minds have available, but he sure does like stripping the Hogwarts library of books. I can somewhat understand his reasoning for restricting access to some of the books that have been removed, but I'm no big fan of entirely removing books from being accessed at all no matter how inappropriate their contents might be for young minds."
Hermione looked betrayed, her expression one of utter horror. It was as if she was looking at a library filled with rare books being set on fire.
"He's certainly the oddest Wizard I've seen or heard of." Violet agreed after a few moments of consideration. "Should have realized that he'd gone wonky during the first opening feast, that was pretty much a clear sign that he'd gone completely around the bend."
"Violet!" Hermione protested.
"Oh, come on. He spat out some nonsensical words, threatened the entire student body with gruesome deaths and thought the best possible way to defend a piece of Dark Lord bait was an obstacle course that me, you and Ron handled after barely a year of studies. If that isn't a sign of someone who's lost his grip on reality, I don't know what." Violet snorted. "How would you protect a small item no larger a clenched fist that you knew a lot of people wanted to get their hands on, if you had to do it?" with a glance over at Nick.
"If keeping it out of enemy hands was all there was to it and I didn't need it myself, I'd probably destroy it or throw it in a volcano or the ocean if I couldn't destroy it." he instantly replied. "If I did need it for something further down the line, hide it without telling anyone where. I'd probably put a damper on it if it emits any sort of traceable magic, then stick it underneath my compost heap or sneak onto a random farm and hide it under a manure pile. I rather doubt anyone would be looking for something valuable in any of those places." he finished.
"Disgusting, but yeah, that sounds about right." Violet stated with a horrified expression. "Instead Dumbledore stuck it in a school, had the Professors make some pretty simple obstacles and called it a day. Oh, and involved Hagrid who can't keep a secret to save his life, so rumours about it spread far and wide." she snorted.
Hermione had turned pale and wide-eyed, staring in horror at the two of them.
"So, yeah. Dumbledore knows the art of reading the minds of those around him. Do you want the possibly crazy demented old guy able to read your mind if the notion to do so strikes him? Or some seventh year eager to have a taste of a younger girl before leaving school? Once a Legimancer has entered a mind, they can not only read minds, but rewrite memories, remove them, add fabricated memories and a lot of other creepy shit. If you want to stop anyone from doing it to you and learn if someone has done so in the past, I'd recommend having a gander at that book." Nick stated and pointed at the book in Hermione s firm grasp.
A phone beeped and Jean extracted hers from a small purse, glancing down at it for a few moments, before she put it back again.
"Oh, that reminds me." Nick said and scurried off for the bags again, soon returning with a cardboard package and a smaller plastic one. He handed both to Violet. "Here. Every teenager needs a phone. The number is written down here." he added and pointed out the number visible on a piece of paper or cardboard through the smaller plastic package which contained her SIM card. "Just be aware if I catch you playing stupid games or watching porn on it when we eat or all throughout the night, you'll be fed nothing but Brussel sprouts for a couple of days. But now you can text or chat with friends in the Muggle World for hours on end, as per usual for girls your age. Won't work at Hogwarts, but I figure it could come in handy until you return."
He still had no idea why she had been so vehemently against Brussel spouts earlier this morning, but hey, if she loathed them, it was a viable and suitably joking threat.
Violet seemed mostly confused by the gift, somewhat embarrassed when he hinted that she might somehow use it to watch porn, turned whiter then a sheet as he threatened her with Brussel sprouts, then seemed to realize what it meant. She looked up at Hermione, who smiled and pulled out a cell phone from the pocket in her jeans. She snatched up Violets SIM card package and deftly entered the number in her own phone.
"Now we can talk whenever during the summers." Hermione said with a big bright smile.
Violet sat there mutely, barely moving other then to accept the SIM card back from Hermione. She carefully put the phone and card down on the floor, then darted towards a surprised Hermione, actually being the one to instigate a bear hug for once. Hermione offered her a shaky smile, then wrapped her own arms around Violet as the two of them hugged each other with wet, teary eyes. Hedwig was great and she'd certainly never admit it out loud when her proud owl might overhear it, but the inherent delay involved with sending and receiving owl post did put a dampener on things. Now, Violet had the ability to talk to Hermione whenever she wanted, no delay required!
"Just remember, if I catch you chatting or texting the entire night away instead of sleeping, there will be a significant amount of Brussel sprouts in your future." Nick reminded Violet and she let out a shaky laugh, then released Hermione and jumped onto her feet, catching Nick in another bear hug, hiding her face against his chest.
Or well, face against upper stomach and forehead against his lower chest.
"Thank you!" she squeaked out and he chuckled, reaching up and patting the top of her head.
"No worries, shorty. Like I said, every teenager needs one. That the Dursleys haven't dealt with that is a disgrace, another one in a long line of them." he said with a displeased expression at the thought of those assholes.
"Thank you, Mister Jones." Hermione added her thanks and Nick's smile turned stiff for a moment, then he leaned over towards the couch and reached over to give her a head-pat of her own, messing up her hair even further in the process.
"No worries, less-shorty-but-just-as-frizzy-haired." he offered in response as Hermione slapped his hand away with a displeased expression.
"Point taken, NICK." she muttered as she leaned away from him, in case that hand darted out to mess with her hair again. Violet pulled away from him and chuckled at Hermione. Not only had she seen her give Violet herself a two-fingered salute earlier, but now she'd also gotten to witness Hermione expressing her displeasure in a physical way with someone Hermione barely knew who was an adult to boot! Violet was rubbing off on the authority-worshiping Hermione! She was so proud and happy for her formerly timid BFF!
"Hey, now you have your own hyphened title!" she approved. "Now we really are best friends! The-girl-who-lived and Less-shorty-but-just-as-frizzy-haired!" she said as she sat down and wrapped her arms around Hermione again. The occasion deserved a bit of the touchy-feely stuff Violet usually had a bit of an issue with.
"If you ever refer to me as that in public, my vengeance shall be swift, sweet and legendary." Hermione groused, then perked up a bit. "So about that sleepover? Can you come over if you get better before we go on our vacation?" Hermione asked, then looked at her mother. "Can Violet come over for a night or two when her burns are better?"
"Of course she can." Jean replied with a fond smile.
Violet looked up at Nick, widened her eyes and pouted a bit at him.
"Pleeeeeease?" she requested in her most cutesy voice.
Hermione arched an eyebrow at that. Violet turning to an adult for approval to do something or help with something? That was so incredibly rare that it warranted her full attention, possibly some later teasing. The girl who was so dismissive of adult authority was asking for permission? Hermione was rubbing off on her best friend! Nick seemed somewhat surprised to be asked for approval as well, but he recovered almost instantly. His surprise seemed to clue in Violet that something was odd as well, but neither of the two commented upon it and Nick just replied as if there was nothing odd going on.
"Yes, yes, you are very pretty and that is quite the adorable look for you. Well done and all that jazz." Nick sighed and rubbed one of his temples. "Look, I'm a straight-forward kind of guy and not easily offended or slighted. You can just tell me or ask me for or about anything and it's pretty unlikely that I will take it badly. Most likely I will just listen carefully and then either give you a positive or negative response, possibly ask some questions for clarification if something is unclear, but then I will give you a reply. If the response is negative, I will explain why I made that decision and you will then have a chance to argue against my decision and restate your case with new and improved arguments which may or may not change my mind." he explained as Violets lost that puppy-dog-eye look and her expression instead turned attentive and more normal then it just had been. "Logic and reasoning, girl. Give me that! If you can present me with a good logical reasonable argument for something, I am by far more likely to respond in a positive manner then if you just widen your eyes, pout your lips in my direction and change the pitch of your voice." he snorted.
Violets brows furrowed as she considered what he had just said.
"And for something as minor and reasonable as 'Can I have a sleepover at my best friend Hermione's place?', that is pretty much all you need! If you already have permission from her parents in addition to your request to stay with your best mate, you've pretty much gotten a 'yes' before you even asked the question." he said. "Now if you had wanted to join the world tour of a rock band known for their drug-fuelled sex orgies as a groupie for the next three months, you would need some pretty darn convincing arguments to get me to say yes. But for the minor stuff? Just ask. No need for theatrics or convoluted explanations." Nick told her.
Yeah, the head pat she was expecting came right after that.
Jean had a big approving smile on her lips as she observed the two and even Hermione looked up at him with some measure of respect and approval.
Violet now had an adult authority figure in her life. If Hermione hadn't seen it, she wouldn't have believed it.
"I had hoped to get you some Wizarding clothes and see about a gown for the Tri-Wizard ball today, but it's not like there's a big rush. Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade is just a Floo or Apparition away anyway." Nick said after the Grangers had left and he helped carry the purchases for Violet to her room. It took the both of them four trips to get all the bags upstairs and into her room. She now officially had more Muggle stuff then she did Wizarding stuff and she freaking loved all of it. The phone had been unpacked, the SIM card installed and it was now being charged from a socket over by the bed.
Amongst other things, Nick had also gotten her new bedclothes, curtains and carpets for the room with some Gryffindor colours instead of the rather more neutral stuff that had been in there before. Hedwig had opened one eye and bemusedly observed the two of them for a bit, but shrugged off the disturbance and soon fell asleep again on her perch. The room had an abundance of closet and drawer space, but by the time everything was finally hung up, placed down, packed away and situated, there were barely any left.
"Should have taken you shopping for pictures, paintings and beef-cake posters too." Nick suddenly mused as he looked around the room, noting that while it now looked a bit more lived-in as opposed to waiting for a temporary guest, the various pictures of city skylines that adorned the walls likely wasn't what Violet herself would have chosen for the walls. "Ah well, same there. No rush, but remind me about it the next time we go shopping if I forget."
"Beef-cake posters?" Violet asked with an arched eyebrow.
"Another thing every teenager needs." he nodded sagely. "Or well, teenaged girls or teenaged boys who are so inclined." he amended with a big smile. "You are also lacking a 'No Adults Allowed!' or some such sign for your door."
"Dudley did have one of those." Violet mused and Nick's smile went away, replaced with a more serious expression.
"Might just as well have a brief chat about that before Tonks turns up." he said and sighed, leading her over and pushing her down to sit on the bed before he took a seat in the chair in front of her desk, turning it around to face her. "I still haven't asked, been kind of a busy day and all, but I do have eyes, ears and a functioning brain, so I know that growing up with the Dursleys must have been less then ideal for you." he started and after a few moments, Violet did give him a faint nod but no verbal acknowledgement. "I walked back and picked up the note they had left at their door yesterday, put it in a plastic folder and it's now in my office. That's a pretty damning piece of evidence of their neglect along with them having left the country. That leaves us with a few options."
He took a deep breath before going on.
"As you may have gathered by now, I do not mind having you around and would in fact prefer for you to stay here rather then ever having to return to the Dursleys. Those people have no business being your guardians. But how to proceed is up to you now. Option one, is to turn over any evidence we can get and for you to tell your story to Tonks and whatever muggle law enforcement person we can get that also knows about the magical world, then let both Muggle and Wizarding law enforcement deal with it. The adult Dursleys will likely serve some time in jail if my suspicions of how they treated you are correct. Your guardianship, well... It will probably be decided by a court. But know this, I will put my hat in the ring and fight my darndest for it if that is something you want." he explained to an extremely attentive listener.
"Option two is to do nothing and wait for Sirius to be a free man. He should be your legal guardian in the Wizarding World and as such, the Wizarding authorities will ensure that he becomes that in the Muggle World as well. Your room here will remain and you are welcome to it whenever you want, but I suspect Sirius will be a much better guardian for you then the Dursleys ever were, so it likely won't see much use. Once Dumbledore is busy, we can have Sirius come in and get him his long-awaited trial, after which he will be a free man. After that, you can just forget about the Dursleys or we can sick the law on them anyway, only then you'll already have another guardian, so there'd be no court ruling mucking that up." Nick continued and Violet nodded.
"Option three is that once the Dursleys return, I go and... Have a little chat with them. I'll get some photographs from around and inside number four, a statement from you and I already have their note. I will not be kind during the chat and will tell them just exactly how much fucking trouble they are in if I go to the authorities with what I have. Or how quickly a Wizarding lynch mob will have their heads if I go to the media. Once they are aware of just what the fuck they have done and how much trouble they are in, I'll lay down whatever terms you want me to give them. But one way or the other, they'd be treating you right after my little chat with them. Or just ignoring you while doing whatever I say as you stay here or with your friends." he promised with a dark chuckle and Violet had a toothy grin as she imagined the Dursleys being blackmailed like that.
"You're adult enough to decide for yourself what you prefer and you don't have to decide right this minute, but you should at least think about it. Tonks really should have already reported that something funky is going on during our chat yesterday, but she's both cool and easily bribeable. I'll whip up some sort of dessert and put a cider or ale in her hands as soon as she arrives, after that she should be willing to follow our lead in this." he finished with a wry grin.
"You know, I probably don't say this enough, but... Thank you. Thank you very much." Violet managed to get out after a while, her voice strained and choked up, her eyes wet as she tried to hold her tears back.
Nick's expression was a bit strained at that, but he got up and plonked himself down beside her, wrapping his right arm around her shoulders.
"Don't sweat it, kiddo. Really. Don't sweat it." he said, a guilty expression on his face now that she could no longer see him as her head leaned up against his chest.
Fuck.
He really was the biggest fucking hypocrite to ever walk the planet.
He truly had no fucking right to be angry at the Dursleys. They might be assholes, but as far as he knew, they'd never groomed Violet like he was doing. His mind briefly brought to mind the start of the Wikipedia entry for child grooming he'd looked up earlier on his phone while out for a smoke.
'Child grooming is befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a child, and sometimes the family, to lower the child's inhibitions with the objective of sexual abuse. Child grooming is also regularly used to lure minors into various illicit businesses such as child trafficking, child prostitution, cybersex trafficking, or the production of child pornography.'
Granted, he had no intention whatsoever of becoming involved in trafficking, prostitution or pornography. But that didn't exactly make him feel any better about it.
He didn't even want to look at the status screen at the moment, but he just knew that their relationship had improved even more since last he looked.
And he'd continue to work her in that direction, the Sub Quest and uncertain doom a failure would bring about looming up ahead like a fucking sword of Damocles. The road to hell and all that jazz sprung to mind.
But he swore to himself that he'd take really good care of her, annoying Sub Quest or not. He'd fucking ensure that it would be a choice she could be happy with if she did indeed choose to go down that route.
But that just made him feel even more like an asshole then before.
Biggest fucking hypocrite to ever walk the planet.
He tightened his half-hug around her shoulders as she burrowed her face into his chest.
Biggest fucking hypocrite scumbag in the universe.