It felt like I'd been waiting for July 31st for a month, when really it had only been a week since Ember and I arrived in this world. I ate breakfast with Harry, Remus, and Ember then told them I had to go finish Harry's birthday present and might be gone until dinner. Ember and Remus had both gotten gifts for the kid and they all looked a little put-out that they had to wait until dinner to do the party, but they agreed to wait. Remus and Ember were going to take Harry out for the day to get his supplies and then goof around a bit.
I arrived at the Leaky Cauldron early just in case, and immediately spotted Quirinus Quirrell headed out the back. He had a little more than a full soul, with the extra taking residence in the back of his head. I'd really hoped this would play out like it did in the books, but without Hagrid taking Harry to Diagon and with all the other changes I'd made it looked like improvisation was the way to go. I didn't sense any unusual magical items on him, so it was unlikely he already had the stone. I followed him out and into the Alley, then ducked into an alcove and made myself invisible before resuming my pursuit. He was headed straight for Gringotts.
The books had never gone into detail about how Quirrell had broken into the vault containing the philosopher's stone, or even how he'd known about it. I was going with Voldy scouting around in wraith form, but that seemed like it would have grabbed the attention of the goblins. Maybe I wasn't the only one who knew the value of divination? Either way, he strode with purpose into the bank, past the tellers, and toward the area with the carts and offices. Nobody even looked at him oddly when he stopped by a door to wait as if he had an appointment coming up, nor did they see him when he darted into the tunnels.
Someone had obviously done some scouting, because Quirrell/Voldy seemed to know exactly where he was going. He deftly avoided a few pitfalls and patrols, led me the long way around a vault guarded by a dragon, then finally stopped in front of a vault and raised an artifact of some kind to the door. Why wasn't he using magic? Could this world's magic be detected by the goblins?
I crept closer, silencing myself as I went with [Illusion]. The man was unlikely to smell me, and now he wouldn't hear or see me either. I [Haste]d myself, conjured a pretty red stone in one hand, and started pooling [Holy] energy in the flesh of the other. The moment the vault door opened everything went wrong for the would-be-thief. Just as in the movie there was a wrapped package radiating magic in the center of the vault, and just as in the movie Hagrid had come for it. There was a cart carrying the half-giant and a furious-looking goblin racing toward him.
I quickly conjured a bag around the stone in my hand that looked as close as I could make it to what I saw, then switched the two with a clever application of [Teleportation]. Since the goblin and half giant were coming and I was thus far unspotted I put the stone in my inventory and waited. Quirrell ran into the vault, the goblin and half-giant ran in after him, shouting for guards, and I directed the ball of [Holy] magic I'd been gathering in the most powerful smite I could muster on short notice. A blinding light and an unearthly wail heralded the completion of one of my main quest objectives, and I teleported away before anyone could figure out where the light had come from.
[Quest Complete! Permanently defeat Voldemort!]
[You've gained a level!]
-
Giddy with success, I returned to the warehouse and [Observe]d the stone in my inventory. It was real! It was really a philosopher's stone! It was really cursed to kill anyone who used it! Fuck! There was a tracking spell on it too. Could people track things that were in my inventory?
Options. I had options. I could try to remove the curse and either keep it in my inventory to hide it or dispel the tracking charm too, I could destroy it like Dumbledore claimed to have done in the movie, or I could try to find a way to send it back to Flamel with a note. The first might disrupt whatever magic was inherent in the stone, the second would ruin possibly the only philosopher's stone I wouldn't have to pay choice points for, and the third might be impossible or leave me with a six hundred year old alchemist turning his attention on me. All three required me to remove it from my inventory, which would remove whatever protection I might or might not have from the tracking charm. Washu was laughing at me again. I could hear it.
Fuck it. I turned invisible, silenced myself, and teleported to a street I remembered from my first life in the United States. It wasn't quite how I remembered it in 1991, but this was also a different world. I walked into a gas station bathroom, closed the stall door, and pulled out the stone. [Remove Curse] took forty tries to work, even backed by my skill level with [Holy]. Now I needed to get rid of the tracking charm. 'Please let this work!' I thought to myself desperately, and targeted a [Dispel] at the stone with the tracking charm in particular in mind.
Just before I actually discharged the spell I realized I was an idiot, despite having 400 intelligence. I could see the tracking charm's magic, and it was separate from the stone's. I could manipulate magical and basically every other type of energy on such a fine level that it was like using a scalpel to [Dispel]'s chainsaw. I picked the damn thing out of the stone just before a series of pops like gunshots sounded outside the gas station. I dropped the stone in my inventory and teleported to Seoul, then ran like mad invisibly with no aura and making no sound for something like twenty minutes before I turned into a fox and dived into a portal to the warehouse. The sound of half a door splintering and falling to the ground reminded me that the portal had been in use elsewhere, and I absently walked over to the fallen piece of wood. I checked my watch. It wasn't even ten yet. Also: why did I need or want a philosopher's stone? I could literally conjure gold and druid magic allowed me to make a more effective solution to aging.
I very deliberately teleported back to the Dursley home's hallway and was very thankful not to find any of the horrible people home. I reopened the portal to the warehouse in the proper place, then picked up the broken bits of door with telekinesis, moved them out of the way, and conjured another that hadn't been torn in half by a dimensional rift closing through it. With a tired sigh I took the ruined wood into my home, exited into the warehouse proper, and burned the wood with the hottest plasma I could create and contain in such a confined space.
[You've taken radiation damage!][1]
[By doing something "special," you've created a new skill: Energy Affinity (Radiation)!]
Damnit. Now I had to figure out a way to clean up radiation! And it didn't even tell me what kind!
[You've taken radiation damage!]
'I know already!'
Concentrating on my [Divination] ability and the need to be able to detect radiation that was potentially harmful to humans lit the entire place up in my sight and senses, but most of it seemed to be on surfaces that were directly visible from the place I'd burned the door.
[By doing something special, you've created a new skill: Divination (Sense Radiation)!]
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[Divination (Sense Radiation) has leveled up!]
[Dispel (Radiation) has leveled up!]
I cracked my neck and cast the damn thing again. It wasn't really dispelling so much as it was cancelling, according to the description. That was great, because moving gamma radiation or whatever this was around was less helpful than cancelling it. I'd finally finished removing all of it that I could see from the Warehouse, and Washu had finally stopped laughing at me. Then she addressed me, I and felt like an idiot. This really wasn't my day.
"You know that was all harmless background radiation right? The only reason you took damage in the first place was because the energy output from your plasma-based incinerator briefly spiked into the gamma and x-ray range. You should really learn to vanish your messes like every other wizard in the PotterVerse. Also: no, items in your inventory cannot be tracked by the locals. You might be able to find them since your skill with divination and teleportation can cross dimensional barriers now to some extent."
Well that just made a lot of my day less helpful. I was an electrical engineer and a programmer, not a nuclear physicist! I deliberately ignored the fact that I could have very easily worked out the radiation bit on my own. Checking my watch revealed that I still had time to prepare something nice for Harry's birthday dinner. I turned invisible and teleported to an alley near the grocery store Ember and I had been purchasing supplies from, then made sure nobody was around before shifting to random white guy #38's form and dropping the invisibility.
"Ember, can you check what flavor cake Harry wants?" I sent telepathically.
"He's not really sure, but Remus said his parents were big fans of Black Forest chocolate cake."
Since the day had been going so well, I bought ingredients to make everything I wanted and a pre-made cake. Then I bought a variety pack of gourmet cupcakes. I'd drop by and order some pizza to be picked up later too, and if I managed not to screw up dinner it would stay in my inventory until it was needed. The idea of fresh, hot pizza stored in stasis and available at all times made me cry in joy. Just a little. The checkout clerk didn't say anything about me crying, anyway. I ducked out of sight, concealed myself, and teleported back to the kitchen of the warehouse home.
When everything was cooking and I had a bit of free time I started practicing the household spells I remembered from both Pettigrew's memory and from the various school books. They were exceptionally helpful, and saved me quite a bit of time. That done, I sat down at the table and pulled out my leatherworking kit. Harry was going to need a backup focus or twenty in case his wand was unavailable, and I wanted to give him at least one really good one. I'd purchased some dragonhide a while back, and I was pretty sure I could make a pair of glove foci like mine that could turn into full safety gloves for use in potions and herbology. They'd need to be able to go over or under rings too, in case he ever got any fancy head-of-house rings or anything. And they'd have to re-size. I'd never done that before, but I could test it myself with [Shapeshifting].
By the time Ember, Harry, and Remus returned I had dinner and a variety of pastries on the table under stasis charms. Those would be particularly useful in the future, especially if I could adapt them to work on living things. I'd taken to re-enchanting one of my pistols, since I'd gained a lot of skill since I did them last. The one I was working on was now more powerful than the original enchanted sniper rifle, the projectiles were far more capable of piercing supernatural barriers and resistance, and the lockout features now made the entirety of the enchantments switch over to keeping the damn thing from working if anyone but me handled it. Instead of just blocking the hammer from striking the bullet the entire chamber and barrel were filled with solid material and the hammer became locked in place. Any bullet in the chamber at the time would be vanished as per Harry Potter magic.
Harry took one look at the table laden with food and froze, seeming unsure how he should act. Remus kneeled down to comfort him and Ember came over to hug me. I returned it gratefully, then indicated where I'd put my wrapped present on the counter. She went to her room and got a couple of packages to put next to it, then went to comfort Harry in Remus's place so he could do the same. After we finally convinced the little guy that yes: this was a party for him and he had special food and presents and the whole deal we sat down and sang him the happy birthday song. I even conjured him a little party hat. When Harry had blown out the candles, I called attention to myself by clearing my throat.
"Everyone: I told you I had something important to do today, and I wanted it done before Harry's birthday. Well, happy birthday kiddo. The Dark Wanker is no more. I sent the last of his soul packing today. You're free. Also, Remus: you need to apply for the Defense Against the Dark Arts position and reveal you're no longer a werewolf to Dumbledore. I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention who healed you."
Remus looked slightly skeptical, but Harry and Ember were thrilled. For some reason Guinevere once again chose that moment to join us. Where the hell did she keep going, anyway? The presents portion of the evening went swimmingly, with Remus and Harry both impressed by the focus gloves. I hadn't added studs to them since Harry wasn't trained for unarmed combat, but being able to pull off what looked like wandless magic was awesome. Since I had Harry available and the gloves had been demonstrated, I tuned them so only Harry and those related to him could use them as foci and that they'd teleport to Harry if he called for them. I'd made them as indestructible as I could since I hoped Harry would pass them down as an heirloom. Also he was a child, and children often didn't take great care of their things.
-
The month of August seemed to fly by. Sirius Black was cleared of all charges and sent to St. Mungo's to recover. Remus visited him often and explained the situation with Harry and his "friends," but constantly had to deny it was a prank. He also got the defense position, and continued tutoring Harry while Ember and I studied different things then [Tutor]ed each-other on what we'd learned. This took advantage of our [Tutor] skill quite nicely, and we were quickly heading into Ordinary Wizarding Level test territory both with and without wands. Harry was picking up occlumency nicely, and at night I ground my skills for all I was worth. The most notable achievements there were my gaining complete immunity to cold, near-mastery of water-walking, and two new levels in [Multi-Focus] that had allowed me to start conjuring materials and using the instant version of my [Crafting] skill while I did other things. I had hundreds of imperfect copies of, funnily enough, the [Copy] skillbook. I was testing them first by seeing if I got the prompt to learn the skill and second by speed-reading through them for errors.
It turned out [Copy] was a lot like the stupid cheating eyes of the cheating Uchiha clan from Naruto, but not quite the same. The skill didn't grant precognition or any other powers other than copying techniques and only allowed a short window for the user to throw copied skills back at the opponent, but the length of time users retained the copied skills increased the better the user was at [Copy]. I assumed this meant that at some point it would become permanent, and was a little disappointed since I could already sort of do the same thing given my perfect memory and ability to see and sense mystical energy. Come to think of it, I could probably duplicate a lot of what I'd seen in The Gamer now if I wanted to. If it came up I'd give it a try.
With the first day of school fast approaching on September first I pondered what to do about Dumbledore. With the Dark Idiot dead for good there wasn't any reason for the man to manipulate or otherwise interfere in Harry's life anymore. Sirius was set to become Harry's guardian when he was released from St. Mungo's, so the boy would never have to return to the Dursley home after school started. I'd either killed or beggared all the Death Eaters I could think of, which had most likely irked the old man quite a bit but I didn't think he could pin it on me. There was no quest to eliminate Dumbledore, and he could potentially be a really good guy. The problem was his behavior in the books indicated he'd been either senile or malicious with a side of sociopathy and paranoia. I eventually came to the conclusion that if he was made aware the prophecy was no longer in play he shouldn't cause too much trouble. I'd planned to stay the first year or so anyway to benefit from the Hogwarts professors and library before moving on. I'd send Dumbledore an anonymous note to check the prophecy orb.
Ember gave me funny looks when I started stacking up gold and silver ingots in the warehouse one evening when everyone else was getting ready for bed. I'd decided to do some house cleaning and [Crafting] allowed me to reform the numerous trinkets and coins I'd acquired into ingots very quickly. I went over the brooms I'd gotten from the Room of Lost Things and the various Death Eater homes to remove personal markings then donated them to the school except for the ones I gave to Harry and Ember. Any of them that hadn't been in good shape I'd either fixed myself for practice or used as kindling.
[Quest Updated! Eliminate dangerous elements around the school!]
With Remus's help and some correspondence from Sirius I'd managed to recreate both the Marauder's Map and their communication mirrors, but since I already had a fiat-granted copy of the map I gave this one to Harry. Remus actually smiled at me without any kind of suspicion when I asked him to explain the piece of parchment I'd handed the boy. My divine power was pulsing again, which made me sigh and pout for no reason anyone but Washu could discern. She made fun of me.
Finally, the day before we had to leave for school, I called Washu about the Deathly Hallows. I'm pretty sure Death had been watching me for a while and could read my thoughts just as easily as Washu, since it showed up in the form of Terry Pratchett's Death: a tall skeletal figure with a scythe, sword, and black robe with tiny blue pinpricks of light in the eye-sockets of its skull. Also, Death of Rats was on its shoulder. I asked Washu if I could give Harry the cloak afterward, but other than that left all the talking to her. Being multi-dimensional deities, they of course came to a conclusion more or less instantly from my perspective. I wasn't sure if that was because they'd already planned how this would go or because they were being godly, but Death took all three items. He made the wand and the ring disappear, then the divine aura of the cloak dimmed a bit and he handed it back to Washu. Then he turned to face me.
YOU HAVE SAVED ME A GREAT DEAL OF TIME AND CLEANED UP A MESS LEFT BY MY PREVIOUS AVATAR HERE. WASHU HAS EXPLAINED YOUR QUEST, AND I GRANT YOU MY BLESSING.
SQUEEK!
My own divine energy shifted in a really odd way, then grew a lot more powerful. Washu looked insufferably smug. I gave Remus the cloak the next day, saying I'd found it while gathering the horcruxes for disposal. He seemed to have become used to my doing odd, illegal, and/or impossible things by that point since he just nodded with a smile and promised to return it to Harry.
[1] : The Gamer is being silly and putting all types of harmful radiation under one category. I think this means I'm now resistant to tanning beds.