My business with Gringotts complete and a shiny new vault key in my inventory, I made my way down to Knocturn Alley. I was only ambushed twice, and got a little practice swatting spells away with the backs of my gloves. Since they were willing to attack me I also left them strung up in nothing but their underwear and acquired some cash, clothing, and dark artifacts. I used [observe] on each one to see what it did but the only remotely interesting thing was a sacrificial dagger meant for use in ritual magic.
Borgin and Burke's was a quaint little store full of horrible awful things. And one vanishing cabinet. I haggled the clerk down to what I thought was a reasonable price for an unmatched cabinet that apparently didn't even work. It turned out fifty galleons was worth a little under $370. With that paid for and the cabinet shrunken in my pocket, I asked if he'd be interested in some trinkets I'd just acquired. I walked out with more money than I'd had when I entered, and casually made my way back to the apparition point and took a moment to gather information.
Knowing what you're looking for when scrying is basically the only thing you really need with enough time and power. The magic I was using was not of this world, and was part psionics at this point too. I found a dilapidated shack just outside Little Hangleton with a snake nailed to the door, then scouted a place a good distance away from the nasty looking wards and under cover to teleport in. I really did love [Mystical Energy (Sense)].
The shack itself took about two hours to break into, since I was systematically destroying the wards and other magic as I went. The inside was disgusting, full of spiders and other creepy-crawlies, and so dusty every step kicked up a cloud. The twisted soul energy inside led me straight to the floorboard underneath which the ring horcrux was hidden, but I didn't bother pulling up the board just yet. I gathered myself, then launched a wave of [Holy] energy through the ground in the most powerful exorcism I could perform. It turned out to be overkill, and actually washed away the dark enchantments on the ring itself too. I had intended to do that separately, but it wasn't a problem. Prying up the floorboard and opening the box underneath, I took the ring and conjured a permanent copy to replace it.
[Quest Updated! Permanently defeat Voldemort!]
[Quest Complete! Obtain the Deathly Hallows!]
[You've gained a level!]
After putting the box back and the floorboard back in place I left, a little aerokinesis smoothing out the dust to eliminate my footprints. The wards I didn't bother trying to reset - they were gone and they would stay gone. Now where was the graveyard from here? And the nearest roadkill? Scrying made finding both easier, and a little bit of applied fire magic turned the roadkill into a skeleton. It was here that I ran into a problem. I'd never transfigured anything except myself before. I knew the theory of course, from multiple worlds now in fact. I'd see if I could cheat my way through it using the Gamer's Skills when we got Tom Riddle Senior's grave. It worked, but it took a while. Grave robbing and desecration complete, we left the place with a deer skeleton changed to match what we'd taken. I'd grown grass over the freshly-disturbed plot with Druidic magic.
I still had a few hours until I needed to be back at the Dursleys'. I still needed the diary and the locket, and for those I'd need access to the houses of Malfoy and Black. I knew only a bit about each, but there was someone who could give me more information and needed to be captured anyway. I scryed for the Burrow of Ottery St. Catchpole, home of the Weasleys and hiding place of Peter Pettigrew the betrayer. With that much information, it only took ten minutes to find it and another two to find a place to teleport in.
Percy Weasley's rat went missing from the Weasley home on July 28th and was presumed to have died or escaped. There was nothing to indicate otherwise.
[Stealth has gained a level!]
-
I whistled happily, carrying an indestructible cage which contained an unconscious rat-man. I slipped into the DMLE under the guise of random white guy #39 (I was saving #38 as my legitimate adult identity) and left Pettigrew's cage with a long and detailed note including how the previous administration had thrown Sirius Black under the bus without even questioning him, and that Peter Pettigrew was the real secret keeper. I signed it Cassandra after the famous oracle/seer and added a postscript about Barty Crouch Junior's continued existence and circumstances. Identical notes were left in the Minister's inbox and at the Daily Prophet. Job done, I popped over to the edge of the Malfoy property in Wiltshire. Peter's mind had been just full of useful information.
Sneaking into the house was easy. As I had no aura the wards could only detect my physical presence, and they weren't meant to do anything about non-living things (aside from the few paranoid warders who also protected against high-speed projectiles, anyway). I strolled up to the closest open window invisibly, hopped in, and roamed around until I found the drawing room. It took me some time sitting there to unravel the wards over the secret door and in the room below, but when I finished I shifted down into a chamber full of goodies and blackmail material. After I found the diary and threw it in a lead box to be sure, I put everything in my inventory and teleported directly to the alley used for apparition to the Black property.
Dropping my invisibility and walking casually, I approached the door and knocked firmly. I had one final copy of the note I'd given to the DMLE, the Minister, and the newspaper, and I planned to hand-deliver it. An annoyed house elf opened the door, and I addressed him politely.
"Good evening. I have a missive for your master Arcturus Black and business with the house as well. Could you deliver the message and ask if he'll meet with me?"
Kreacher, the grumpy little bastard, snatched the note from my hands and slammed the door in my face. I waited. Ten minutes later he was back to escort me inside, but was muttering to himself about his master's health and not receiving visitors the entire time. Arcturus was almost as rude as the house-elf, but that was understandable given he looked to be on death's door. When he asked me why I'd come in person and who Cassandra was, I explained that I was hired because I was an exceptional healer and there was some additional work that needed to be done.
Black looked at me warily, but apparently decided he had nothing left to lose. He still ordered Kreacher to kill me if I hurt him, though. A wave of pearlescent silver light washed over him, looking as if it came from the tip of my wand for the sake of not having to answer any more questions than necessary, and the man's pallid skin took on a much more healthy color. Strength returned to his limbs, and his magic flared a bit as it was relieved of the burden of keeping the man alive. The discussion that followed netted a confession of Regulus's last wish from Kreacher and an additional item for me to cleanse. They wouldn't let me have it until I swore on my magic to either cleanse it completely or destroy it, but I did get the locket.
Arcturus watched me leave, fingering the note I'd delivered thoughtfully. With law enforcement, the Minister, the media, and a powerful lord invested in the future of his family all aware of his plight Sirius should be out soon. Given the general stupidity of wizards, I wasn't counting on it. I had one more stop to make tonight: Azkaban. The same scry and teleport trick worked for me again, but this time I made sure I was both in animal form and invisible before I teleported. I had to fly over the wall of the fortress to reach the front door, then wait for an auror to come out on break before I could get in. From there it was fairly simple to find the warden's office and start looking through records. It took me a while, and I had to duck into the corner a few times, but I found both the prisoner records themselves and the record of dementor activity.
Either I was in luck or they really didn't go out all that much: all the dementors were currently in the prison itself. I snatched a few of the anti-dementor amulets the aurors usually wore and made my way up into the prison proper. It was said that dementors ate happy thoughts but were repelled by the same thing in the form of patroni. I wasn't sure about that, but I knew they liked souls. I'd use that when I was done here. Avoiding the whole two aurors on patrol was easy, and a few conjured shards of ice moving at near the speed of sound found their way into the foreheads of the various Death Eaters I passed. Even if it didn't kill them, wizarding Britain was woefully inadequate at healing brain damage. By hitting them in the forehead and embedding a projectile into the prefrontal cortex I'd have destroyed their ability to reason and form short-term memories. The conjurations weren't even permanent, so the ice wouldn't have a chance to melt before it faded away.
When I reached Black's cell I warded it with [Holy] and a little bit of pyrokinesis to ward off the cold, anchored it so the ward would collapse if the man himself left, and cast a healing spell on the dog that was starting to peek out from under a half-rotted blanket. He would be fine for now. Just in case I also tossed in one of the anti-dementor amulets and anchored his soul to his body, making him theoretically immune to instant death effects and the dementor's kiss. Now it was time to start the big show. I went up another level and started pumping out an aura of pure soul energy. Horrible screeching rose pretty much everywhere in the prison at once, and I could feel the dark presence of each dementor immediately turn in my direction. I continued to ascend until I reached the highest part of the prison, then found a spot with only one exit and turned to wait.
The first dementor showed up only a few seconds after, and I dropped a magical barrier between us. Since integrating my powers from the Pokéverse my force walls had evolved to be much more flexible, the skill itself even changing from force wall to [Barrier]. As more and more dementors piled up against the wall and the air grew colder around me, I mused that Gamer's Mind really was wonderful for this sort of thing. I started counting. The aurors in the levels below felt like they'd barricaded themselves in the warden's office, which was probably a good idea. When the last of the dementors entered the struggling mass in the corridor, I dropped the wall and concentrated hard on drawing up as much [Holy] power as I could as quickly as possible.
The horde surged toward me, eager to devour my soul. A brilliant point of blinding light formed in front of me. The first dementor to approach disintegrated under the power of it, and while the rest flinched back it was far too late. My eyes opened, shining with the same light as the impossible power before me, and it exploded down the corridor and out the windows. Every dementor in Britain perished, and I teleported back to the Dursley residence to eat dinner with Harry and Ember. I thought I'd accomplished a lot for only one week in the Potterverse, and cleansed the remaining horcruxes in celebration.
[Barrier has gained a level!]
[Holy has gained a level!]
[Holy (Smite) has gained a level!]
[You've gained a level!]
-
Dinner with Harry and Ember was fantastic. Ember had picked up [Tutor] while teaching him, which was great since I still had a few things to do before I could teach him myself. Harry told us about the mysterious letters that had started arriving for him, and we assured him he would get one. Before we sat Harry down to play with some conjured toys I bathed him in [Holy] light again to ensure he continued to become as healthy as possible. I had very little in the way of knowledge regarding reversing prolonged malnutrition, so this would have to do until I could figure out a better way. Guinevere had taken to spiking the boy's food with her tears when she wasn't out and about. I wasn't quite sure how her flame teleportation worked yet but I'd started integrating parts of it into my own since it was more efficient in some ways.
With Harry distracted I removed the last of Ember's dark mark, then listened patiently as Ember explained the basics of occlumency to me. We'd have to get a book on legilimency to actually test her defenses, and I'd have to temporarily turn off Gamer's Mind to test mine in a defensive capacity. I knew a lot of what she was talking about already, but the magicals of this world had taken a different approach to defending the mind and I wanted to learn it. Since we couldn't spend all day working without going stir-crazy, or at least Ember couldn't, we stopped to play around a bit in our ninetails/kitsune forms before she and Harry went off to bed.
[Quest Complete! Remove the Dark Mark!]
I shifted to adult form and cleaned up the home quickly, making as little sound as possible so as not to disturb the sleeping occupants. I'd need to secure the area and go out again tonight, and there were some skill books I'd forgotten to read from the last Jump that I wanted to get copied. Since I was no longer in a place where such things were easily obtainable I didn't want to hire anyone to do it, which meant either hand-copying them or practicing my copy trick with [Conjuration] a whole lot. It'd been useful so far, but I didn't think it would handle such complex objects as books without my knowing the entire text at my current skill level. With the house clean I teleported to the local part invisibly, then sat down to scry for my next target: Remus John Lupin, werewolf, Moony of the Marauders.
When I found him he looked like shit. I'd forgotten that yesterday was the full moon and today it was waning but still almost full. I didn't want to just drop in on him, but he clearly needed healing. I sat for a moment watching the man in contemplation before I came upon a solution. I'd yet to find a limit to the distance at which I could telepathically communicate with someone, and I could literally see the man. I tried it, and despite his apparent ill health and fatigue the man jumped to his feet with his wand out, eyes scanning the worn-down room.
"Remus John Lupin?"
I waited until he seemed to have calmed a bit, then tried again to much the same result.
"Remus Lupin?"
I didn't wait this time. I was getting a little impatient.
"Would you stop that? I'm not going to hurt you and I seriously doubt you could hurt me."
"Who are you? Where are you? And what do you want with me?"
"I am called Wren, and I am currently caring for Harry Potter after finding him abused by the relatives Dumbledore left him with. I want you to come and help me with that." Remus let loose a very wolfish growl at the mention of Harry being abused, and didn't seem to notice or care that I'd mentioned Dumbledore.
"I can come to you if you'd like. We can speak face-to-face, and I can help you recover." Remus wheeled around again, growling more loudly this time.
"Where the hell ARE YOU!? I can't see you, I can't hear where you are, and I can't smell you!"
"I told you Mr. Lupin, I am currently with Harry Potter. To be honest I have no idea where you are, only that I can find you with magic and speak to you. I can...apparate would be the closest term...to your location then bring you back if you wish. You would be able to see Harry and question me all you like."
"Very well. Show yourself," he replied waspishly. I wasn't sure how much of his anger was because of my approach and how much could be attributed to his being a werewolf the day after the full moon, but I teleported in about ten feet away from him with a full-body shield raised. He sensed me the moment I appeared in the room and whirled around with his wand raised. I raised my gloved but empty hands in the air, hoping to show myself in a less threatening light. He studied me carefully for a time, and finally spoke with a bit less hostility.
"Wren, was it? You can take me to Harry? I can see the cub? And what was that about helping me recover? I've never heard of a treatment to alleviate the symptoms of what I'm going through, and you shouldn't even know about it unless you've been spying on me before tonight." Ok, so only a little bit less hostility. Convincing him to let me heal him was less difficult than I thought it would be, but he did keep his wand on me the entire time and actually tried to hex me when I laid a hand on his shoulder. He was momentarily confused that it didn't affect me at all, then fell back into his chair in shock when [Holy] and [Remove Curse] rolled through him in the next moment. He continued to stare as I channeled [Holy] into his body at a distance, no wand in hand, and his weariness was washed away along with all of the old aches, pains, and scars on his body. I was getting better at this.
[Quest Complete! Cure Remus Lupin!]
"What the fuck was that!?" He shouted. There was no anger this time, only wonder and a bit of fear. He looked down at himself curiously, and began to notice the changes. I was pretty sure he'd forgotten I was even there, and this was confirmed when he started to strip down to find out if the rest of his scars were missing. I politely looked away, turning my back on him as a sign of trust but keeping the shield activated and close to my body. It was probably ten minutes later when a very small-sounding Remus Lupin's voice sounded again from behind me.
"What...what are you? What did you do?"
I glanced back to ensure he was again clothed, then turned. Not wanting to play the "I'm a god" card (it still felt wrong), I skipped over his first question. Eyeing him carefully with [Mystical Energy (Sense)] to check the after-effects of the cleansing I spoke carefully.
"I cured you, Remus Lupin. Greyback's curse is gone. Now I would like to take you to see your honorary nephew. There is much left to do, but time remains. In the morning you can have another healer confirm what I've told you. Will you come with me?"
Remus numbly shook his head and sat back down. It would be annoying if he didn't believe me, but I still had a few cards I could play. He seemed to be an animagus now, which meant I'd only washed away the cursed part of the magic. If he had studied with the other Marauders or had any sort of intuitive understanding of the process I might be able to convince him to transform to wolf form and back again. I could also come back after he'd checked with a healer. He surprised me by turning his own wand on himself after a few minutes and muttering a spell, "lupinotuum pectinem deprehendere."
Whatever the spell told him he twitched at the results and looked back at me with….oh crap. Was that worship? My divine energy flared just a tiny bit higher and I internally groaned. Even if it wasn't formal worship, the gratitude and belief in my power were fueling my growing divinity. It was so very slow, but it was there. I decided to try and move the conversation along rather than let him stare at me like that forever.
"Congratulations Mister Lupin, you are now a wolf animagus. Would you like to come and see Harry Potter now? He's asleep, but you'll be able to speak properly in the morning."
Remus just nodded dumbly, and I barely resisted rolling my eyes before I enveloped us both in a teleport back to my home in the Cosmic Warehouse. It was getting to the point where I barely noticed passing into or out of the sub-dimension with all the practice I was getting. Ember was at the dining room table studying the Standard Book of Spells Grade One when we arrived. We'd bought extra copies so we could absorb them, but she still wanted to read over and memorize the text. I guided Remus to the room we had Harry staying in, then motioned for him to be quiet before opening the door. Guinevere landed lightly on my shoulder, but Remus didn't even seem to notice.
Inhaling slowly and deeply as he approached the boy, Remus Lupin shook with emotion. He placed a gentle hand on the sleeping boy's head and simply stared. This was probably some deeply emotional moment. I was sure it would be if I were in Lupin's place. I wasn't going to leave them unattended though. There was a faint possibility that Lupin could choose to try and run with Harry. He didn't know he wasn't completely in the real world at the moment, so he might try to apparate them both away. It would be foolish in the extreme, but he could try. I let my mind expand a bit, testing the emotions in the room. There was a lot of regret and affection, but nothing to support my paranoia. With a sigh I connected to the man telepathically.
"Mr. Lupin, we should let him sleep. I can show you to a room and you can talk in the morning. He knows almost nothing about his parents, and we regretfully cannot help him there. I'm sure he would love to hear about them while you become acquainted."
Remus nodded and followed me out of the room, eyeing the phoenix on my shoulder speculatively. He refused my offer of food or drink, but accepted the use of the third guest room for the night. I notified Ember that our guests had both retired for the evening and I was going out into the rest of the warehouse to train and look over my inventory. I had quite a few things to think about, and I could do that while I worked. I opened up my inventory and ran a search for books, then blinked in shock.
"That cannot be right. I can't be that stupidly broken."
I reached into my inventory and pulled out skill books for Mokuton/Plant Manipulation, Wood Clone, Sealing for Beginners, Chakra Control Techniques, Gunsmithing, and Copy. My eye twitched. These were more valuable than...I couldn't really come up with a comparison. It would be criminal to simply absorb them without copying them first. My mind immediately went back to one of the benefits I got from having such a high intelligence and I grinned a little maniacally. I had eidetic memory. If I took some time I could memorize each page then conjure or manually recreate them later. I sat down to read the skill books I'd picked up from Anime Attack.