Chapter 2

The halls were just like John remembered them to be when he had accompanied his sons to Hogwarts for their first time. The younger of the children he had been talking to, young Astoria Greengrass, had been sorted before Juno. She had ended up in Slytherin, for which John was glad as he had hoped the girl had gotten in the same house as her sister.

It was finally time for Juno Mercer to be sorted into a Hogwarts house, and he had sat upon the rickety old stool upon Professor Minerva McGonagall's verbal prompt of calling his name. John was happy to note that Harry and Kevin's faces were hopeful, and were paying close attention to Juno.

The old, talking hat was lowered onto Juno's head so that the Avatar couldn't see out from underneath the brim. Immediately following the aging professor's hand releasing the hat, Juno could feel tendril-like prodding into where his mind would have been. It eerily reminded John of what he usually did when consuming a person, and had reinforced the already-there defenses so as to better resist the different tactic of intrusion. So far, John had only encountered brute-force techniques, or techniques following a similar design to that of computer viruses. This one was slightly different, and John thought that it would probably be because of the fact that the old, tattered hat was literally made solely for mental intrusion.

Then, Juno heard a voice whispered into his ears, and he knew it to be from the hat upon his head. It said, "I do not mean you harm, young one, I just need to sort you. No-one will know but me what resides in your mind."

Juno had snorted in amusement, and he replied with, "I'm sure I could trust your word on that, what with how much a hat has honour." It was said dryly, and with an undertone of amusement. "How am I to trust you, an unknown that does not have any proof of what he claims?"

The tendrils that John felt across his psyche had frozen in place for but a moment, and John could practically feel the surprise that they gave off upon his whispered reply. Then, the hat on Juno's head had gave a quiet chuckle, and then it had said, "I suppose I don't need to see into your mind then. You would do well in Slytherin with the way you protect your secrets, but in Ravenclaw lies those that use logic to argue their side, such as how you do. The choice is yours, all you need to do is make it."

John thought about the two possible houses very carefully. In Ravenclaw John would have the ability to have Juno closer to his "cousin", he would have the prestige of being intelligent already, and there was the added benefit of having the chance to scout out studious individuals for hiring. For Slytherin, there was the issue of being looked at as "Dark" by the "Light" sided magicals, there was the benefit of having an easier time of making connections and rising in power as there normally resided the political families. There was a strange sense of loyalty that John had observed of the snake den, in that they tended to stick together against non-slytherins, but they had absolutely no problem of stabbing fellow Slytherins in the back.

John had weighed each and every pro versus the cons on why he should choose Slytherin or Ravenclaw, and eventually a conclusion was reached - that which took less than a second when he used all of the dormant processing power that he had available to him. He chose Ravenclaw, as it would be best suited for his goal of being there for his children, and for his plans of being in the magical world.

He probably could have done a mass memory change, but he didn't really want to at the time as he didn't want to affect any children's minds with his usual methods. He wasn't too sure, but it could have adverse effects on a child's mind, so he resolved to only use such things in emergencies. That, and he wanted a better perspective from the student point of view, as it would be better for when he reformed the educational system.

Luckily, he had already secured the Defence Against the Dark Arts position at Hogwarts this year. When asked, it was either his Avatar Joanne "Jo" Rowling - a woman posing as a witch with blonde hair and blue eyes and named after the women that had written the Harry Potter books in another Sector - or a man named Gilderoy Lockhart. Apparently, Dumbledore and McGonagall, his interviewers, had "felt that the man wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a matchstick and a needle, let alone how to teach a class." That, and apparently his Avatar appeared able to "hold her own against the curse of the position."

John had understood it as a cross between a transfiguration joke, and a slight against a wizard's ability if they couldn't do a spell taught to first year students. He felt that he needed some time to get used to the educational jokes he was going to be subjected to.

Back to the sorting ceremony.

It was always strange being in more places at once, no matter how much John did it, and it was even stranger so when he watched from multiple perspectives in the same room. John briefly entertained the thought that Agent Smith in that one media product felt something similar.

He wondered if he would ever find the world in which they actually existed. If he did, it would be further proof of his theory that every piece of fiction was only fiction in the Sector it was written. John figured it would be fun to verbally chew out the machines that had turned to Sapient beings for energy. Then again, John really wasn't one to talk, having a look at his species' past.

To be fair, his species was specifically designed to do so, though. There was a reason why he was classified as a weaponized pathogen; it was because he was. In fact, he was up there with an extinction level event, but that was before he reached the stars.

Now he was much more dangerous.

Because it was deemed as an unimportant thought, the particular train of thought carrying the idea of what John was thinking used Juno's brain as the tracks. So it was a pensive-looking Juno that followed the prefects to Ravenclaw tower, with his mind on whether he should create a race of AI again. He defiantely knew how, but that was part of the problem.

He figured he wouldn't do it now, as he was in a state of, "Been there, done that," in regards to AI. Part of the reason why he had done it to begin with was to challenge himself, to see if he could do it. In the end it was fairly simple, really, of how to do it.

Maybe if he steadfastly refused to do it the same way, he would be able. After-all there had to be more than just three ways.

Maybe he should make it with magic this time? No, that would be too easy. After-all, a thousand years or so ago, four "educated" individuals had created artificial life on a whim.

He could try to use "Technomancy". Before he did that, though, he would have invent Technomancy as a branch of magic, and find a way to converge technology and magic to make such a thing possible. Perhaps he could use Juno and Jo could work on the project together, as Jo was a Professor at the school so she had the excuse for why Juno was so busy.

Besides, Ravenclaws were supposed to be studious, so most wouldn't bat an eye if one had approached a professor for extra help on project. It just so happened that Jo, or Professor Rowling had "noticed" Juno's potential, and had granted the help.

John wondered if he could apply chemistry to potions. It would be worth the trouble of the experimentation process, if only to see the sorry excuse of a Potions Professor's expression upon realizing that an eleven-year-old had out brewed him. He also wondered if he could get away with having an eleven-year-old as a Professor in the backward educational system that was present in magical Britain.

Speaking of magical Britain, the citizens that belong to the magical world had still had to answer to the British monarchy. In fact, that had included the countries that had gone through a revolution. Apparently, when there was a revolution in the mundane populace, it had never carried over to the magical aspect of the society.

That meant that a lot of countries still had active magical loyalty oaths to the British monastery. In fact, the only country that had had the foresight to include the magical side when the mundane populace had deemed it time to part from Britain, was Canada. Apparently, when a country had a revolution or a declaration of independance, the nature of the magical Loyalty Oaths had prevented the magical side from participating. They prevented the magical governments from having a recognised break from the lion and unicorn. Apparently, it wasn't recognised as legal, but when Canada had taken its legal action for separation recognized properly for both sides by Queen Elizabeth II, magic had released the community from the Loyalty Oath as a whole.

It was why Canada didn't have to adhere to the Statute of Secrecy like the rest of the magical community. Of course, out of respect and politeness, the Canadian populace had kept the secret so as not to out the rest of the communities. It also wasn't really a problem as Canada's population was so low - compared to the rest of the world - that it didn't have many "in the know" to begin with. It was mostly treated as an open secret.

It was also because of this Loyalty Oath that magical Britain was the most powerful in the world, yet they didn't realize it, because they were self-governing from the Queen. They didn't really have the decency to keep her informed of the entire world that she controls and only lets them self-govern out of goodwill because she was "Only a useless Squib."

When John had found out, and had figured out about all of this, he had been immediately glad that he had been knighted in the old way.

His position in the Wizarding World in the terms of Law was not dissimilar to the Spectors of his original Sector, with only the Royal Court that he had to answer to. Of course, being who he was, he technically didn't have to answer to anyone, but he would play nice.

Really, if he was so inclined, he didn't even have to stay on the planet.

John briefly wondered if he should become friends with the Queen, and if he should expand to Canada. He didn't see any reason not to, and it might be interesting, so he decided to do it. Besides, he thought it would be about time that the Queen of most of the Wizarding Word.

If he did, he would bring his sons with him. It would be a good learning experience for the boys, meeting their Wizarding World knew what was going on. That, and the time to make friends was always before you need them.

The musing that had been going on using Juno's brain had stopped - or been interrupted - when the Avatar along with the others in the group said Avatar was following had arrived at Ravenclaw Tower's entrance.