Fukurou stalked the halls. Ether wanted a complete overview of the castle, down to the last spec of dust. Luckily, Fukurou was no more than a digital ghost, so walls weren't an issue.
Apparently his unique nature also made wards a non-issue.
(This is probably why Peeves was willing to leave the Ravenclaws alone, provided Fukurou dropped whatever magical menace he had on hand inside the anti-poltergeist wards for him.)
It was because of his mission that he found a large three headed dog on the third floor. And promptly went past every trap, including the rather annoying fire ward. (Fukurou barely felt the flames.)
Fukurou stared. Inside the rather drab room was a mirror. Much to his amusement, he could see a vague reflection of himself in it. He always wondered what he looked like.
Wondering what a random mirror was doing sitting alone, he watched with surprise as his reflection pulled out a red stone and placed it inside his shuriken pouch. (Technically they appeared out of thin air, but Ether added it for appearance's sake.)
What really startled him was that he felt the thing that now rested in his pocket.
Very disturbed, he flew out of the room.
After that rather shocking experience, he encountered no more surprises.
Fukurou left the stone with his partner. Ether could find out what the hell it was and get rid of it.
Ether, upon finding his best friend upset, wondered what the rather boring rock did to deserve the Navi's ire. He would figure out what it actually was two weeks later by accident.
Hermione found the rather quiet Ether to be her only friend in the school. Fortunately, Ether made up for that unhappy fact with one simple trick.
He was planning on digitizing the entire Hogwarts library, down to the exclusive Ravenclaw one that first years had to earn the right to.
As it was, the minute the upperclassmen learned of his intended project, he found himself with an army of volunteers for later.
Ether had already dubbed the improved library Raven's Gate. He was already planning an entire society for mages he called Nevermore. Needless to say the muggleborns who caught the Poe reference found it amusing.
There was really only one tiny hitch to his plans.
The internet refused to make it through the wards at a speed he liked. Ether found it highly frustrating that the net refused to go faster than the slowest speed of that through a telephone line* instead of proper cables.
Not that he allowed his grades to drop below 'E' level.
It was their first flying lesson, and Ether was for lack of a better word...giddy.
(His enthusiasm had several of his fans/friends do a double take and wonder if the Prodigy had been switched with a pod person.)
Ether only half listened to Madam Hooch and to the shock of the teacher (who had noted with annoyance that the boy wasn't actually paying attention, despite his success at getting the broom up on the first try) had his hands at the perfect position for a proper take off.
Her shock only grew worse when Ether, already far too excited, took off too early by accident. He shot off like a bullet!
Everyone expected him to experience a nasty fall. (Particularly Hooch, who thought it would serve the boy right for not paying attention.)
Instead he demonstrates a textbook loop-d-loop before landing neatly on the ground.
The looks on everyone's faces made him choke back a laugh. The detention he got for his reckless stunt didn't.
"Ether! I can't believe you did that! What if you had fallen off?" said Hermione, upset.
"Then at worst I would have broken a wrist. Honestly 'Mione, this isn't my first time falling from the sky."
The Prefect who happened to be passing at the moment, sputtered in shock. Fortunately she also happened to be a muggleborn.
"I told you before that I love skydiving. And I highly doubt that I would break my collarbone twice."
"How long were you out?" asked the Prefect.
"Four long and boring days with only homework to occupy my time. Since it wasn't really my fault the wind picked my chute up before I could react, I wasn't grounded."
The Prefect winced in sympathy.
Ether spent his detention with Madam Hooch, and managed to mend the bridge he unwittingly burned by cheerfully debating broom models with her. When she learned of his rather dangerous hobby, she actually grew to like him.
(He promised to teach her how to use the parachute properly in exchange for letting him continue the flying lessons.)
Ether scowled. The night before he had finally found another method to deal with the pesky internet problem.
And now his notes on the subject had been stolen.
Ether rarely, if ever, misplaced something. Especially research notes on something interesting. And his Navi had always been able to locate anything he spent hours on. The longer he spent time on it, the easier it was to find later.
And now they were gone.
The Prefect (a half blood by the name of Roger Davis) informed him curtly that no one had entered the Ravenclaw dorm without authorization.
So Ether decided to ask the suit of armor instead.
And learned that a Gryffindor had entered the Ravenclaw Tower not three hours earlier. The only reason Ether knew this was important was because no active Ravenclaw had opened the door for them. And Flitwick never gave any other house permission to enter.
"'Mione, which house did you say Dumbledore was in?"
Hermione noted the irritation in his voice, but answered anyway.
"Gryffindor. Why?"
"Just confirming something."
Ether sent a short note to Chaud, and waited for the package. Much to the dread of his magical teachers, Ether was very good at making some rather disturbing magical constructs...which he always used if someone pushed him too far by mocking his name.
Along with his package was a note.
'Should I be worried and if so do you require any form of back-up?'
Ether grinned and sent a reply. Two weeks later he received the prototypes that Sci-Lab had developed if he got the PETs working.
(It had taken a week to do so, and they were now being beta tested by half the school. The Terror Twins had been delighted that Ether gave most of their products a vote of confidence after double checking them. A few had to be redone.)
The large modems were carefully hidden by the Ravenclaws, after Ether informed them of Dumbledore's thieving ways.
At least Flitwick could honestly claim that he had no knowledge of the items. Only a Ravenclaw could access the special library in their dorm. As a former Gryffindor, Dumbledore wasn't allowed in, headmaster or no.
Ether finally put the finishing touches on the algorithm he promised the goblins. All he needed was for his army of beta testers to work out the kinks. Upon learning what it was, the muggleborns were more than happy to try it out.
It turned out that he had made a few errors which were quickly corrected.
He would help set up the first model at Gringotts by Christmas.
The goblins were very eager to test it out. If it worked then it would make the bank run more efficiently. As the saying went 'Time is money'.
Ether felt like snarling. Dumbledore had once again stolen all of his notes on the problem he had with the net. To make matters worse there was nothing he could do to stop the man.
Well, almost nothing.
"Ether, what did you do?" said Hermione.
He had just received a summons to see the Headmaster.
Ether smirked.
"I laid a trap for the thief. I guess Dumbledore didn't like it."
"What...did...you...do?" she asked again.
"Hexed all of my notes so the thief wouldn't get away with it twice. Depending on what the person did, various hexes would go off."
Ether pretended he didn't get the summons just to see exactly what the old man did with the notes.
Apparently he was foolish enough to burn them.
Everyone in the great hall stared at the bizarre tattoo on Dumbledore's face. The Ancient Runes students quickly translated the letters...and several were startled to learn that the tattoo meant 'Thief' in ancient Greek.
Even more were shocked to learn why he had that tattoo.
Which lead to several uncomfortable questions as to why the man felt the need to steal the notes in the first place.
Ether was fed up with Dumbledore's nonsense. Once again his notes were stolen and burned. (This time the tattoo was in Norse runes).
At least he had the backup notes. He was very close to installing the magical equivalent of a broadband connection.
Once the teachers learned exactly what he had been up to, they agreed it was harmless enough to install. It also had the added benefit of giving those with ties to the normal world a way to continue their outside education.
Though the Raven's weren't surprised in the least to find out that Ether was beginning his first semester of college.
"Did I hear you right? The net will be open after Christmas?" said Mandy.
Mandy and Hermione had done insane amounts of work into the project. If it hadn't been for Ether's unique background, the muggleborn and half bloods would still be in the dark about the outside world.
As it was, Neville turned out to be a boon as he convinced the pure bloods that it was worth their time to check it out.
Which lead to a massive spike in owl ordered PETs. The muggleborn and half bloods were more than happy to assist their pure blood counterparts.
Ether had no illusions. He knew that once the Raven's Gate opened, and Nevermore became available, the unspoken class and house system would begin to fall apart.
It was time England came out of the Dark ages.
Ether barely tolerated Halloween...though the students all loved his prank on Snape.
Surprisingly, Snape actually made a beautiful woman...to the female teacher's ire.
Draco found that bit to be hilarious. Especially when the picture was sent to his father.
Narcissa had assumed Lucius was cheating on her with another woman (who was clearly better looking than her). All hell would have broken loose in the Malfoy household...if Ether hadn't sent a note explaining who the woman was.
(Once Ether soothed over the problem, more pure bloods soon joined in on the Nevermore world.)
But the events that happened after the first Quidditch match soon changed the fight between Dumbledore and Ether.
Ether watched the game with mild boredom. He would rather fly on a broom than watch.
Suddenly, both bludgers came barreling into the Ravenclaw stands. The students scrambled out of the way...all but Ether.
"Day Dreamer Summon!"
The errant balls were blocked by a large summoning circle...and were taken out by two four pointed throwing stars.
When the smoke cleared, a figure was seen.
The muggleborn and half bloods who worked with Ether to create Nevermore were stunned to see Fukurou in all his glory...with midnight black wings.
He was actually flying.
"Ether! Are you okay?" Hermione cried.
"Fine, though that was way too close. If I hadn't brought Fukurou out sooner..."
"Daijobu, Ether?"
"Hnn...Daijobu, Fukurou."
"Then I shall return to my place."
Black feathers rained down as Fukurou returned to the PET. Everyone stared.
"Ether...what...how?" stammered Hermione.
"I can summon Fukurou. I don't know why or how, but I am not complaining."
Much to his horror, it seemed everyone with a hint of magic and a PET wanted to learn how to summon them. While it wouldn't hurt the eventual reaction to the magic-run computers in pure-blood society, Ether knew that teaching them before the students were ready would only lead to disaster!
So he firmly told them that he wouldn't teach anyone until the pure-bloods in the school managed to catch up to the muggleborns in regards to tech.
The students were willing to accept that excuse when Ether introduced the most basic of all Net viruses into Nevermore for people to practice with.
Pure-bloods were having great difficulty with their net battling skills, while those who had their own sent from home simply brushed up on their skills.
Ether had an unpleasant surprise when Draco Malfoy came to him complaining about his net navi acting up.
Two seconds after looking at which one he had told Ether all he needed to know.
"How the hell did you get Shademan as your navi?" he asked in disbelief.
"That's his name?"
"It's no wonder he won't listen to you. Shademan is a pain in the arse rogue Navi that only shows up to destroy the order of the net. I have never heard of him becoming a human's Net Navi."
"Is there anything you can do?" asked Draco, already sensing a headache coming.
"Aside from getting you a new PET and making you a Navi?"
Draco looked confused.
"Can you just delete him?"
Ether pinched the bridge of his nose.
"My brother and I have tried to delete him repeatedly, but like all things, once it's on the net it's almost impossible to completely get rid of. And frankly he's not that much of a nuisance to make me hunt down his core data."
Draco didn't even try to understand what Ether was talking about.
"So what can I do?"
Ether had an inspiration.
"Does Snape have a PET yet?"
"No."
"Tell you what. Hang on to that one until I get the parts to make a brand new one just for you. I'll even through in some rare battlechips and your own Net Navi that you'll help me customize. Once it's done you can give your old one to Snape. If anyone can deal with Shademan as his Navi, it would probably be him."
Draco snickered.
"And the fact that he happens to be a vampire Navi...?"
Ether plastered an innocent look that didn't fool Draco for a minute.
"Why it's pure coincidence Professor!"
Draco cracked up. He liked Ether, despite his odd background. The fact he was willing to help him without once being condescending meant Draco was willing to be the boy's friend.
Snape was not as amused by his new toy as the boys were. On one hand, now he wouldn't have to buy one himself to monitor the newly dubbed Chamber of Secrets that Ether had installed.
(The closed server had become bogged down by the sheer amount of students joining Nevermore. Ether realized he had no choice but to install four new servers. One for each house and one for the professors.)
On the other hand, finding out that his new PET had a rather irritating vampire Navi annoyed him.
He had no idea where those blasted rumors about him being a vampire kept springing up, but this certainly wasn't going to help.
His colleagues however, found that fact to be highly amusing.
At least he didn't experience the same issues Draco had with the pest. They had come to an arrangement.
Shademan would listen to his commands with only a few complaints, and Snape wouldn't drop the blasted machine in a potion.
Apparently Shademan recognized that Snape was not a man to be crossed lightly. If anything having the irate potionsmaster as his operator was having a positive effect on the evil Navi.
Dumbledore was not a happy man. From the Japanese boy somehow managing to ruin decades of his plans to keep their world safely in the dark, to that odd creature on the pitch.
And he knew exactly who was to blame. The boy was far to intelligent for his own good. Alas, after his second attempt to keep the boy from integrating magic with muggle technology, the boy revealed himself to be as cunning as a Slytherin.
He had all the traits of the four houses, and was doing what many believed impossible since the school began it's first days filled with children.
He was slowly but surely uniting all four houses with a common goal. And in the process he was closing the gap between the classes.
What was infuriating was that the boy was doing all of this unintentionally! If only he could mold the child like he wanted to with the Potter heir!
But no, that brat had been missing since Petunia failed to find him on her doorstep.
Dumbledore ate another potion laced lemon drop, trying to figure out how to salvage an already trying year. Something had to be done about the boy, that much was obvious.
Ether felt like howling with rage. Someone (he totally suspected the senile old geezer) had managed to tamper with the magical field inside the PETs! Now half weren't working, and the other half kept glitching!
His eyebrow twitched uncontrollably. Hermione, who happened to see this, did the only sane thing and warned the school not to cross him until he vented out enough to be safe around.
Alas, Headmaster Dumbledore did not receive this warning.
Ten minutes of stewing in a rage, and Ether had the fortune of running into the Headmaster...who showed incredibly horrid luck as he choose that time to attempt Legilmency in a bid to learn the boy's weaknesses.
The headache from what should have been an almost-impossible-to-detect use of magic was the only tipping point needed to push Ether over the edge.
This entire incident happened three whole days before Christmas hols. Dumbledore would be out of commission for the next week from his concussion.
*I have had experience with this type of internet, and it is EXTREMELY SLOW. You could make a sandwich and a eat it, and the page would still be loading!