Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Infinite Stratos
Beta: Audiodelus
Chapter 3. The Sorting Hat
Chifuyu and Akio, Little Winning. September, 1
-"Chifuyu, our target has visitors. One contact."
-"Finally, so our waiting is over."
-"Perhaps."
-"Give me the picture." - In a quick flash, a holographic screen appeared before her. Displayed on it was a huge man who was leading Harry out of Privet Drive 4. A few seconds later, one additional man in ridiculous light-pink robes with sparking stars appeared near them - "First one came on foot unmasked?"
-"Yes, he just came out from neighborhood. You should know that the new one somehow interferes with some of our scanning equipment."
-"Preparing to go out, going to try establishing connection with Sage using my IS as soon as possible."
-"Right, on it… Wait, they just disappeared!" – To confirm this, the image on holographic screen was clear, no visitors and no boy in sight.
-"Damn it. Akio, what is their location? Can you get a reading?"
-"Can't track them by signal strength or direction. All radio signals from Sage vanished and the quantum signal is jumping wildly, sage's quantum beacon suggests that Sage's geo-location system went haywire. They might be still here though."
-"Send notification to Tabane. I will to fly around a bit, see if I can get a better signal"
-"No radio signals or radio reflections, no infrared, sound or sunlight refraction or reflections, no defined quantum signal… I want that cloaking system!"
Chifuyu and Akio, one hour later
-"Chifuyu, they are already in center of London. Target is moving towards King Cross station. They will be there in 15 minutes. They are using local Metro line."
-"Thanks, I'm on my way. King Cross estimated arrival time near 3 minutes."
-"There will be a lot of people nearby. Metro Entrance is under the station's roof and I doubt you will have enough space to fly, you might have to get down in order to move."
-"I know, Tabane said that I would have to board the train if the worst case comes to pass. Please relocate capsule closer to London."
-"Relocating. Got message from Tabane: the boy is not registered for any train so the ticket should be anonymous, you will have to observe him closely to make sure you don't lose him."
Four minutes later Chifuyu was on her foot waiting at King Cross station while observing local Metro entrance and checking surroundings. Just after ten minutes her target entered station.
-"Have a visual, target is not alone, one observer."
-"Any chance to do it now?"
-"May be, but I don't see a way to disable that huge man fast enough and this part of station is observed by cameras on all sides. I will have to wait till they reach platform. I see few cameras with good visual on boy, can you connect to them?"
-"No, the cameras are not connected to any accessible network. We are not in Japan and I doubt locals know about such things as internet. It is a wonder the station has own site, Tabane's influence probably."
-"Do they have security plans there?"
-"Basic plans on the way."
-"At least that's something. By the way, everything just got even harder with the boy."
-"What happened? Did they disappeared again?"
-"No, observer just left. Boy is all alone. That definitely means there are others or some kind of tracking device."
-"Scanning is impossible. He is already interfering with radio, so there should be some kind of device with him anyway. Check for cameras and other observers first then approach carefully so that I can scan him. And don't show yourself to the boy, he might recognize you."
-"And how recognizing me is a bad thing?"
-"He might cause unwanted attention. Also tracker may work as a bug. Take extra precautions."
-"Damn. So either I get him at platform in case he is alone or directly from train. And I can't spot observers, which is unnerving. Connection to Sage?"
-"None. Tabane did warned us about extremely low range."
-"Target has just turned to platforms 9 and 10, but he looks unsure. There is only one train. Check it please. Also I will try to get a bit closer to establish connection." - reported Chifuyu as she moved closer to the boy.
-"Full of Muggles as always. What platform do we need again?"
-"9 and 3 quarters, mother".
-"Huh?" -
Akio immediately recognized confusion in Chifuyu's voice.
-"What's wrong?"
-"Don't know. Whole Family of red-headed strangely dressed people were talking about 'Muggles' and platform 9 and 3 quarters. Get back to the task, target is at 30 meters."
-"Still no connection, in fact the signal is getting weaker."
-"I lost him. Do you have his location?"
-"Um, according to map he is staying at one place just at the center of the column and you are 20 matters away. Radio signal completely disappeared, but quantum signal is strong and traceable. Try getting closer. How did you lose him?"
-"Some flash to my right got my attention for a moment, when I turned my eyes back, he was not there. Sent you video log from wrist camera, check it."
-"Checking. Chifuyu, why are you constantly evading one side of the column?"
Sage, London, King-Cross station. September, 1.
Ok, this is not working. I can't block Harry's energy from reacting and leaving and shield is not stopping such weak impulses. Countering with pulses of my own is a temporary solution, but only if I want an impressive light show. Let's recall the meeting once more, may be it will help.
First, we quantum teleported to a small ice cream café. Just how Harry or these 'mages' are alive I don't know, but managed to acquire alot of data Tabane would kill for.
Thirty-seven seconds later we sitting in ice cream cafe and small part of Harry's energies that he constantly emits into atmosphere, gained vector towards our 'host', specifically toward something under table. That was curious but is not important right now.
(Secondary task and one more report for Tabane is enough right now, since it is not related to the problem directly).
During the talk, Albus was answering Harry's questions in a very vague manner.
(Harry didn't notice or got temporally misguided)
Seems to have turned down family related questions claiming that Harry is too young and basically confirmed that there is a serial killer set for Harry's blood. Again, Albus turned down/evaded questions related to said killer.
(High priority task confirmed: Gather any available information on 'Voldemort' and 'Death Eaters'. Keep guard up in magical world).
For some emotion-related questions Albus's eyes were twinkling. Again curious, unfortunately direct energy scanning was not available, scanner was busy.
When Harry asked about possibility to leave magical world and learn on his own since study program and school was clearly 'lacking', the aged man become alert (higher pulse and subtle sweating). He informed Harry of number of Ministry laws and school-contract limitations which prevented Harry from abandoning Hogwarts. (Need to research their laws.)
Albus told Harry few stories about familiars, mostly dangers of strong unrestrained and not registered magical beasts, questioned Harry a bit. He clearly had some ulterior motive here, but what it can be? During some of the questions I detected directed radiation emission: extremely subtle direct energy pulses were influencing Harry's 'field of energy dispersion' causing him to lose bits and peaces of his own free energy. It was siphoned in the sender's direction. Can't analyze what happens next - too subtle and too far to detect.
Immediate problem- lost energy was transferring imprints with same frequencies and amplitudes as Harry's brain waves and was previously located around Harry's head. Probability 83% - that it was something related to mind reading. (Emergency task confirmed: find a way to block unknown influence.)
The moment energy dispersed by Harry towards table lost it's vector, Albus left us with Hagrid, claiming that he was low on time.
Now, my problem. How to shield boy from that influence?
Harry, London, King-Cross station. September, 1.
Now that Hagrid left and Harry was free from the constant distractions, it was time to think about talk with Headmaster at Florian's ice-cream cafe.
"So lets sum the talk up."
Harry shuddered while slowly walking through crowded train station. Ice cream was tastiest thing he had ever tried in his life, not that he managed to try many foods in his life, but all that stares at 'The-Boy-Who-Lived' who was being accompanied by Albus Dumbledore himself caused a lot of nerves.
"According to Headmaster this school provides no education in any of the subjects required for a job in modern world, offers no qualification outside of magic society, no guaranties that there will be place for him in said society, places quite a numerous amount of restrictions on the students, does not prepare students for future life, no clubs or any other cultural activities. And that is only top of the Iceberg."
Few minutes ago he asked policeman about platfom 9 and 3 quarters and got a laugh. So just where was it?
"So why did I agreed to go? Why do I want to go?"
Spotting the sign for 'Platform 9' Harry decided to scout around it to see if he could find any clues.
"Probably because I want to learn magic and don't want them to bind my magical core, or secondary core as IS is referring to it. At least I know that the IS will work anywhere – Dumbledore said that Gringots and Olivanders are magically satiated areas, around same level as Hogwarts. That's a thought, what if magic allowed me to use IS?"
Harry was once again recalling his talk with Dumbledore, while searching for any abnormalities in his surroundings.
"Just where is this platform?"
Few moments later he spotted pillar with no people around.
"Strange. Everywhere else is crowded, however this pillar looks almost deserted, as if people were avoiding it."
Coming closer showed that the pillar was covered in some kind of silver and green waves, as if something was washing over it.
"Probably this is it" thought Harry pushing his hand through – "Found it" –
"Here we go."
Walking through wavy portal overloaded some of Harry's senses due to noise and light differences, casing him to miss the nearby big family of redheads whose Matriarch was screaming about 'muggles' and one low priority message from IS.
"Notification: Assigning code name 'Mage Sight' to CE type channels 178 and 189. Registering energy composition N70PC30, 0.04EU/h as potential power supply for 'Mage Sigh'. Channels 176-197 test progress 28%, ~268h till completion. Scheduling 'Mage Sigh' testing as medium priority task, blocked by current testing. Scheduling testing for other senses with medium priority."
Not that Harry would have paid any attention to redheads or notification as he was low on time, tired from all that noise on the station and the IS had literally been spamming Harry with messages today.
Harry, train's compartment. September, 1.
"Excuse me, do you mind? Everywhere else is full." - asked a redhead boy from the doorway.
Startled Harry rises his head from the book to look at intruder - "No, not at all, suite yourself."
-"I'm Ron by the way. Ron Weasley."
Harry once again raised his head - "Harry Potter. Nice to meet you"
As he realized what Harry had said, Ron's jaw dropped. "Should have expected this. Well, at least I can test new illusion - I hope wizards can't see through illusions. People stare at me to much and this illusion may be of great help. This boy doesn't look like exception, so he will definitely ask about scar or will try something funny."
-"So-so it's true?! I mean, do you really have the...the..." – "Definitely not an exception."
-"The what?"
-"Ugh, I mean... Scar...?" - ask Ron, nearly whispering the last word.
-"What? Scar?"
-"Yeah, near… erm. At your forehead?"
-"Huh? I don't remember having any." - with this words Harry lifts up hair. - "See?"
Ron couldn't see and the disappointment and surprise was clear on his face.
-"But... but… but you defeated the Dark Lord!"
-"I don't remember defeating any Dark Lords."
Ron expression was hilarious, as if his entire world had just crashed.
-"If you don't mind, I will be reading."
Ron didn't react, still motionless in deep shock. Unfortunately for Harry, shock lasted only few moments.
-"Are you sure you are Harry Potter?"
-"I am."
-"And you never survived killing curse, fought dragons, nundus or werewolves?"
-"I don't know what killing curse is. Never heard of nundus. And never saw dragon or werewolf. In fact I only found about magic a month or so ago." – badly suppressed mirth was in Harry's voice. Even if all he told was the truth, Ron's reactions were just to much to ignore.
Ron did not disappointed Harry once more - he stared at Harry with blank look and half opened mouse.
-"Oh. I know..." - Ron's voice sounded angry – "The twins are pranking me again, right?" – It seems like the boy misunderstood reason of Harry's joy. – "They saw that you look like him and asked you to say that you are Harry Potter. But you have no scar, don't use glasses to read and clearly making fun of me. I'm out of here."
If anything, Ron's last outburst, his quick retreat and the noisy commotion with the other redheads outside amused Harry a lot. He was going to keep this illusion and video recording. "But just how did he know about the glasses? My sight was fixed two month ago before I was informed about magical world and before I first visited Diagonal Alley."
-Anything from the trolley dear?
Sage
I was sure that there will be no more big surprises, but 'magical world' keeps throwing things at me with remarkable regularity.
Teleportation, thought reading techniques , rats with high energy readings and strange portals on the columns. And now I'm trying to scan a moving chocolate frog. Even with all changes to my base it's a surprise that I'm still working without any reboots from a simple overload.
And its been only half a day.
Harry, one hour later.
There was a knock on the door of Harry's compartment before a tearful looking round faced boy came in.
-"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"
-"No, and I'm sure there is nothing alive in this compartment beside me and you. Did it run from you?"
-"Yes! He keeps getting away from me no matter what I do!"
-"He'll turn up, just don't give up." said Harry confidently.
-"Yeah, thanks."- said the boy miserably. -"Well, if you see him…"
He left, but Harry's peace was not long. Only five minutes later the toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him who was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.
-"Have you seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.
-"I haven't. And ..erm.. Neville, was it?" - receiving a short nod, Harry continued - "Neville had already been here. By the way, why don't you ask older student to use some kind of summoning or searching charm."
The girl froze in, making it clear that such simple solution never entered her mind.
-"Oh thanks, never thought of it. I saw few students nearby, who probably can help." - said a now much less tearful Neville - "I guess I'll go then."
-"I will go with you. I don't want to miss opportunity to see or hear about new spells. And may be even ask few questions. My eyes are a bit tired of reading anyway." - said Harry while automatically tossing book to the side and heading towards the compartment door.
-"Um.. Neville Longbottom. You can call me Neville." - Neville moved towards Harry extending his hand to which brought Hermione out of her meditative state.
-"Hermione Granger. Did your book just disappear?" -
-"Call me Harry then." - Harry accepted handshake, then turned to Hermione - "And no, my book didn't disappear. I have magically extended bag here, which you probably did not notice. You know, it's really useful stuff to take most of you books with you." - He did have such a bag beside him, for the purpose of masking IS storage. It was too small to store more then 3-4 books and some supplies, but it was fine as an excuse.
If there were any interest in Harry's surname, it was redirected toward small bag at Harry's shoulder.
-"Why did I never thought about this! I knew that wizards can expand space just by visiting Gringotts, of course something smaller shouldn't pose a problem. I will need to ask my parents to get me such a thing."
-"We were going to help Neville weren't we?" – said Harry leaving compartment - "These bags are far to too expensive, from 50 galleons for double volume and I kinda had no choice. Trunks are a lot cheaper and have more space. You also can try making your own storage first. I'm planning to try enchanting or charming my pockets."
Hearing the confession of the pricing lowered Hermione's eagerness down a grade nearly instantly.
-"This way, there were a few Hufflepuffs three compartments away. Um… So you like learning and appear to be smart. Ravenclaw?" - asked shy boy.
-"House for those who like to learn? Probably. It suites my needs. Same as Hufflepuff."
-"You can't know what house you will be in. We will take some kind of test to be sorted." - Hermione voice was resembling a lecture from one of Harry's teachers at school.
-"But it doesn't mean I can't have a preferred house, does it?"
-"Probably not."
-"What would be your house then?"
-"I would want to be in Grifindor. Dumbledore was there. And you Neville?"
-"I don't know. My parent's were in Gryffindor, but I'm nowhere near that brave." - replied sad voice.
-"Hmmm. Neville, you know, you can tie some kind of spell or enchanted device to your toad. It will be much easier to search for. I bet professors will be happy to help with this." - Harry said - "By the way, such enchantment can be an interesting research project" - "I definitely should research it - can be useful both in life and combat, for example to detect opponent or to orient in space 'blindly' using marks as lighthouses. Something like that was in software database, but for satellites. May be it will solve problem with malfunctioning navigational system."
-"Never thought of this. You are definitely a Ravenclaw, and here we are".
-"Than what are you waiting for?"
-"Right, Sorry." – Neville knocked and after receiving invitation slid the door open. – "Sorry. Em … can you …"
Seeing as Nevile was barely able to speak, Harry interrupted - "Sorry Guys, Neville is a bit shy. We figured we could ask you to use some kind of location spell to point us towards Neville's toad."
-"Oh, sure" – replied fifteen year old girl – "What is the name of you toad?"
-"Trevor."
Girl took out her wand and one of the writing feathers, pointed her wand at it and said - "Scrutor toad Trevor" – feather immediately started to hover over girls hand. – "Follow me, we will find it in no time".
-"Well. Good luck, Neville, I will be back at my compartment."
As Neville turned to look in the opposite direction, Hermione turned towards Harry.
-"I will go with you, I want to ask few questions about enchanting trunks."
-"Thanks, see you later then."
Harry and Hermione, Harry's compartment
-"And I thought, I had took a bit to many books with me but your collection is twice as big."
-"What can I say? I couldn't leave them at my house. My relatives would have destroyed them."
-"Why would they destroy books?"
-"They hate magic and anything related to magic."
-"My parents took news that I'm a witch with much more acceptance. Don't worry, yours will calm down in time."
-"I doubt it."
-"Trust me, they will. They just are in shock after the demonstration."
-"Demonstration?"
-"Didn't the person who brought you your letter show you anything?"
-"Um. Hagrid, gamekeeper of Hogwarts, came one month ago. Said that I'm a wizard and next morning took me to Diagonal Alley. Nothing more." - Harry doubted he should tell about pigtail.
Hermione was going to ask something else when the door slid open and blond pale boy entered compartment. – "I heard there is Harry Potter somewhere on the train. Have you seen him?"
-"Sorry, haven't seen him here. Have you, Hermione?"
-"No."
-"Of course, like he would be interested in some no-names" - the boy glanced over some of the books on the seat, taking one in the hand - "Biology?" – he threw book back and looked over Harry and Hermione with disgust - "Just two more mudbloods, lets go." – said the blond to two mean looking boys in the corridor.
-"What was that?" – asked Hermione.
-"I don't know, but I don't like him."
-"Me too. By the way, you never said your surname."
-"Well, I'm Harry Potter."
-"Very funny. You are definitely not him."
-"Why is that? Is there something special about him?" – Who said Harry couldn't get some fun from being a celebrity?
-"Haven't you read about national celebrity Harry Potter? Surely some of your books mention things about him?"
-"As you can see, those are mostly books on runes, crafting or for mundane studying. So- enlighten me."
Hermione gazed over Harry's books but was not able to find anything related to history - "Ok, there are a lot of hero-stories and books about him and his adventures. First I thought they were just that, tales for children, but after series of articles in Daily Prophet I cha…"
-"Stop, stop, stop. What articles?"
-"Articles about incident in Leaky Cauldron, Harry Potter used ancient, wandless shield there known as 'Teguminis'. And that is why I believe that at least part of the tails is true and you can't be Harry Potter. He would have known searching spell. In the very least he would have been more self-confident then you and should have known about magic from the start."
Harry groaned, then gave a command to turn off scar-disguising illusion and raised his hair – "I don't know what was in your books but they are definitely wrong."
The resulting photo captured by IS of the agape Hermione would be a good 'compromising material' for later, but Harry was too distracted by recent news to be amused.
Sage, Great Hall
The Hat that the professor put on Harry's head was extremely complex in the energy specter. Thousands of energy lines were forming squid like creature with 10 tentacles. And those tentacles were actively doing something to Harry, sending small energy pulses and receiving them back as week single-pulse responses from nowhere. Dumbledore did something similar in that ice cream cafe, but the Hat seemed to be more direct in it's method and not influencing 'dispersion' field at all.
One of tentacles finally stopped in one place and started sending much stronger pulses and receiving series of pulses in response. Immediately dozen or so extremely thin channels were highlighted, channels which were connecting together various nervous centers responsible for audio and speech processing.
Realization had just drowned upon Sage. Dormant Channels.
Those channel were always there, they just were almost inactive or had too little energy to be detected. The other tentacles apparently were searching for memory and world perception related channels if the zones they were scanning were any indication. That wouldn't do at all.
Sage was not able to find a way to shield Harry from this influence, but now he knew that there were channels, and channel were something he could work with. Even better, he needed only to detect and sort them, then feed information to a firewall. Setting up firewall to 'ignore' all memory related signals from outside will be a piece of cake.
Setting up filter for blocking all enforced signals onto Harry's senses will be a bit harder and longer (almost 2 seconds), but still possible. Of course he would leave the sound/speech channels, it looked like the Hat was attempting to converse with Harry.
Actually all those channels were too thin to be marked as energy channels, marking them as communicational channels and would make working with firewall easier and provides more reliable and effective substitution for neural connection and 'Hyper Sensor' technology.
The usually emotionless Sage was now feeling something close to .. boast and mirth? Immediately Sage went to work using his own knowledge of human brain, recordings from interaction with Dumbledore and newer data gained from Hat's ministrations.
But would that be enough to cover Harry's thoughts from others?
Sorting Hat, Great Hall
At first this was a usual routine - an usual order from director to scan 'promising' students more properly. Hat had been doing things like this for centuries.
But as soon as the Hat was able to establish steady mental connection something went terribly wrong. From the Hat's point of view, boy's mind started disappearing, literally.
Previously the Hat's probes were able to feel what was 'thoughts', regular mental activity, even grabbed some recent memories. But now it felt almost like the Hat was by itself on a chair - except previously established link there was only emptiness.
The Hat was now confused and disoriented. For this particular child, his orders were to distract, scan and then send him to Griffindor, but it could do neither without reading boy's mind. "May be the barrier is so strong, that I can't feel it? But it feels so empty. I wonder can this be a sign of 'void' headmaster asked me to look for?"
-"Can you please lower you occlumency shields? I can't sort you with them up."
-"I don't know what occlumency is, sir."
To the Hat's shock, it could not determine whether the student was saying the truth or was lying, even the boy's emotions were now concealed.
Harry Potter, Great Hall
-"Just concentrate a bit more on the memory which has greatest significance for you and biggest amount of related emotions."
With each minute Harry was becoming more and more annoyed by the Hat. Almost five minutes long it was trying to convince him to lift something called a 'Legimency barrier'; to 'think louder'; 'clear his mind' and image himself in a calm place. The Hat's persistence was machine-like and it definitely was not going to sort him without reading his mind. On the other hand Harry had some kind of feeling that whatever was the reason, it was related to IS and was doubting that opening his mind for reading was a good idea. Harry was not as cooperative as Hat wanted him to be.
Harry had already chosen the House he liked and that didn't really matter where to learn if that was your goal. So why should he wait? In the case that the Hat was malfunctioning, what should he do? Inform the professors? And as a result gain much more attention - thank you very mach, he had enough attention as it is. Was there something he could do by himself? May be he could use an illusion? That should be simple - he already had a recording with hat screaming the house's name, he just needed to extract hat images from it, than process into 3d and send it to ECG.
Software for such cases was installed by default and were simple to use - copying object's visual in battle situations and then reproducing it in various places was considered as advantage at battlefield. With a virtual keyboard harry could do it in few seconds, but it was not usable now (printing something at keyboard only you can see when everybody is watching? Not the best idea). Add to this the need to synchronize speakers with illusion and refocusing barrier to cut sound from hat…
Childish? Yes.
Stupid? Yes.
But Harry honestly could not thing about anything else and it was better to be scolded by professors then to be discussed by all students. In the very least barrier was same as in Leaky Cauldron and Harry was going to use illusions all the time anyway.
With a mental sight he got to work using neural output interface.
-"Sorry Mr. Hat but I have made my choice."- came last readable thought.
-"RAVENCLAW"
Accompanied by complete silence, Harry raised from the chair. First thing he noticed – dozens new messages from IS with different priorities and the ceiling. Plain, dirty ceiling of the Great Hall.
Albus Dumbledore, Great Hall
Albus was observing the sorting and thinking about one raven haired youth. Harry Potter being in Ravenclaw was changing a lot of his plans and limited control. "What could have possessed Hat to sort Harry in Ravenclaw? I will need to question it later." Worst of all - a smart and knowledgeable Harry means that Voldemort potentially could gain more knowledge the connections they share. Harry simply had no chances against accomplished legiment of Voldemort's power or some rituals even with decades of training.
A slight pull from wards made Dumbledore aware of some kind of notebook in Harry's hands, the boy was writing something into it dictated by older student. "Where had it appeared from?" What worried Albus was magical aura of the book - it was soaked in Void magic, almost like in description of Void Dragons, albiet probably a bit weaker. If that was a dragon, was it counting Harry as it's property, or was the book just tugged along? Or was it something else?
That was one more problem. Of course Albus had previously thought that the 'power he knows not' is power of love - magical protection left by Lily and as result was not really combat oriented, just one more definition alike 'the mark of equal'.
Was this power related to Harry's familiar? Perhaps familiar itself? If so, it can give a real edge against Voldemort, but Harry is still a potential Horcrux and is definitely channeling a lot of raw magic into his scar. He still must die sooner or later and be as far away from any important and usable knowledge as possible, no matter how much it pained old Headmaster.
One more pull from wards, this time much stronger, and Dumbledore noticed that notebook was in hands of other student. Immediately he was sweating - was void beast dissatisfied by location of the book? Albus was going to rise when he noticed much bigger book in Harry's hands "Oh, he just got one more muggle book, that's a relief. I wonder, is Harry aware of his familiar in any way? He never showed any signs of awareness during talk in the morning, so the book probably is from that bag. Still, the beast is unpredictable, thus dangerous. I need to get rid of it as soon as I finish with aspects and species test. Plans over Harry I will fix after talk with the Hat."
With this last thought Albus switched to his 'game' of predicting houses for new students.
