The path not taken
The noise level within the hall had risen considerably. It was not that surprising as they had just found out that many things that there had been no proof even existed, did in-fact exist. Reincarnation and rebirth, other dimensions, It was a shocking thing to learn, Or it would be if they had been listening.
The ravenclaws all had their heads together muttering about the impact that it would have upon their society. Would the pure-blood system fade as they were obviously no longer the only magic users, this had been shown by the fact that a sleeping spell had been used upon the now named Chloe.
The hufflepuffs were feeling bad about what had happened in the story and were wondering how badly she would be affected by such a trauma. It was not something that one could get over quickly. The fairy girl had been right when she had advised the blond woman. Vert?
The griffindors were shocked at the thought of the boy-who-lived, well, not living. It was a source of pride for their house and them themselves that they were within the same house as the boy. He might be quiet and not interact much with others but they knew why. Whenever he was out in the public he would be mobbed. That was something that either made one egotistical or shy. Lady lily had made sure it was not the former as that had been the source of many of James issues when he was younger and had set out to ensure that it did not happen to her children.
The close family had been shocked at the revelation, well most of them as lily was furious about what had happened. She was pleased to see her child get a good family in vert and had spent the time during the break with the woman to learn more about her and had found an intelligent and conscientious person. Vert however made sure to keep her hobby hidden as it would ruin her regal image.
The slytherins were a mixed bag on opinions. What most do not know about the slytherin house is that they are generally split into different camps. This is kept hidden by the unspoken rule of being united and keeping their disagreements within the walls of their house common rooms. It was a system that came into being due to the preferential treatment the other houses tended to get. That as well as the general need to earn alliances for their houses to aid in the future.
Thus it was that you had the older students intrigued about the possibilities that this information opened. There were many business opportunities that would be possible and would benefit them. Then there was the other group that was lead by Draco Malford. These students have had a long running feud and rivalry with the potter boy thus were finding the situation highly amusing.
Lucius Malfoy was flinching as he saw his son and the way he was acting. He might not be a good person but he was overall a pragmatist with the goal of securing his families position. Seeing his son antagonize one of the most powerful people and families for such a reason made him cringe at the thought of what he had done without his knowledge. No he was not happy.
The teachers were either happy or upset as harry had created a polarizing affect among them. It was a love/ hate relationship between the staff and the boy-who-lived.
The book had appeared in front of the deputy head and transfiguration teacher, the previous spot had been clearly marked. Thus it was that she knew exactly where to begin and so when the hall calmed down she did so.
Chapter 2: Starting the road to recovery.
It had been a week since she had become Chloe, and in that time she had made it to around one hundred feet away from her room before panic set in.
Madam pomfrey nodded at this " an understandable reaction to what she has been through", "agreed" came the light voice of the fairy Histoire "If I am right it would take a deal of time to get over her death, This does not include any other traumas not to mention her gender change." explained the grimoire riding fairy. Her voice with authority. Everyone in the room could sense the wisdom and knowledge that her voice held.
A week filled with spending the majority of her time with her new sister, and getting to know her. Vert was patient to her, at least to her face, but she could tell her new sister was beginning to become frustrated.
Vert nodded at this, "true I would be getting frustrated" this caused a series of frowns aimed at her. Those that came from her world kept their faces neutral as they knew that she was withholding something, she was a chronic tease it had become second nature for them to just wait for the other shoe to drop. "It would however be at my lack of ability to help her" she finished with a small smile"
So today... today she decided that she will eat breakfast with her sister in the main dining hall, even if she had to run back as soon as she was done.
So she dressed in what her normal outfit currently was, jeans, T-shirt, and sneakers, she took a deep breath, and snuck out her door.
Albus spoke next with a trace of a smile hidden by his beard. " at least the girl is making attempts, it seems that she really appreciates you my dear." whilst the sentiments were good some of the people in the hall had not forgotten who was the reason for the situation that the girl was currently in and this drew some scowls at the old man.
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Vert was waiting for her breakfast to be delivered, she needed to spend time with Chika, her nation's oracle, as they had business to discuss, and Chika was pretty much Vert's sister, even without being a candidate.
Both of the woman were surprised to see a blond head peek out from around the doorway.
Here the flaming screen showed the image of the two women sitting at a large table that could fit a large amount of people. It was clear that they were in some kind of mansion. In the back ground they could see the shy face of Chloe slightly poking her head around the door, her nerves were clear for them all to see. In the opinion of a lot of the people in the hall it was a cute sight to see.
Chika was slightly pissed because she was looking forward to some alone time with Vert, but quickly hid it, as she could tell there was something truly wrong with her nation's new candidate.
Vert was shocked, although as the girl started to make her way to a chair, she could tell her sister was pale and shaking, along with being in a cold sweat.
The girl made it to her chair, and then nearly bolted as she saw the second person there.
Remembering her sisters description of the Lean box oracle, and how for the longest time Chika was considered to be a sister to Vert, spoke up in a voice that barely carried to the other two, "Good morning sisters..."
Chika's eyes widened as she heard herself be referred to as a sister by the candidate, and slowly stood up and walked to where she was seated. She then gave the girl a big hug, now knowing that that her position as family to Vert wasn't going to be usurped, only added to.
This proved too much for the girl as she passed out in the oracles arms, only kept upright by the older woman.
There was a series of chuckles that ran around the room from the image. Vert herself was shaking her head with a small smile. It had been a worry for her how, if she ever got one, her sister would act with Chika. She did not want such a good relationship to be ruined.
"Chika..." Vert almost growled.
Chika was sheepish, she didn't expect her new sister to collapse like that. "Sorry, I didn't think that would happen."
Vert sighed, and responded, "Well at least she tried, and so did you. Let me get her back to her room with a tray of food, then we can start today's business."
Suiting action to words Vert picked up her sister from Chika's arms, and brought her to her room, and ordered a tray of food to be brought. Giving the unconscious girl a kiss on the cheek she then headed out to do her job, the duties of which, along with the paperwork, she had put off for a week.
At this there was a collective groan. Just the thought of the paperwork that was required had many of the teachers, ministry workers and lord groan. It was one of the worst parts of their day. They were just thankful that their magic allowed them several ways to shorten the load. The most often used one being dictation quills.
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An hour later a old man had a heart attack as a scream of frustration and self loathing sounded from Green Sister's room as he was passing by. The scream was loud enough that Vert and Chika rushed to her room, only to find her crying into her Pyramid head plushy.
A few of the mundane born and half bloods were shocked at this. Pyramid head? Was that not from the silent hill series? How did that end up in another dimension? Little did they know that it would not be the first of the similarities and differences noted.
After calling for some medics for the downed man, Vert sat on the bed with her sister and pulled her into her side.
The girl's sobbing increased, and Chika was, at this point, feeling very guilty about her actions, and was about to leave when Vert motioned her to take Chloe's other side.
The girl didn't even stiffen when the second person put her arm around her, as she was too deep in self loathing, at how Vert waited so long for a sister, but got someone almost to terrified to leave her room.
Vert frowned, Chika being added into the hug should've gotten a reaction.
Chika, having been filled in on what little Vert knew of Chloe's past life realized that something needed to be done.
Vert was the loving patient sister, but what Chloe needed now was some semi-tough love. Without asking permission, she gave Chloe a soft slap, not enough to do more than sting, but enough to snap her out of her current depression cycle.
Looking at Pomfrey and Histoire for an answer They got a nod at it being a possible method. It was however Histoire who explained "Whilst not what would be called conventional, sometimes a person requires a small shock to bring them back out of their cycle." she nodded whilst gathering her thoughts before she continued " the small shock would allow her to be distracted enough to stop her from falling deeper into the cycle and also give a chance for those aiding her, in this case you and Chika, to talk and comfort her." Vert was frowning but understood why it had to be done, not that she liked it.
The others within the room nodded in understanding and appreciation of the explanation. Looking back to the current reader they continued watching the flame screen and listening to what was read.
When the girl looked to her, in a kind of shocked betrayal, Chika spoke, "Listen, you did nothing wrong, it was my fault for pushing you. I'll help you, just like Vert will. You did good to try and make it to breakfast, it was just bad luck I pushed you a little too far. Now dry your tears, and I'll stay with you while Vert catches up on her paperwork."
"Good, reassure her, don't allow her to blame herself for this as it would be counter productive. Comfort her to give her a sense of safety and stability." said Poppy in appreciation of what was happening whilst inadvertently explaining what Chika had done to the children who were confused, mostly the first and second years. Harry was shocked and embarrassed, here he was watching what was essentially a female version of himself. What embarrassed him most was that he could not help but think she was pretty luckily that was hidden from the others as they thought he was just embarrassed by the situation.
Chloe's eyes watered as she put her hand to her cheek, and Chika realized she might've made things worse, only for Chloe to abandon the plushy and latch onto her while sobbing.
Chika motioned Vert to leave, and put her arms around the crying bundle.
Vert was slightly upset at the slap, no matter how gentle, but the results she couldn't argue with. She didn't think she could do that right now, so she left her sisters to their time together, and went back to her towering stacks of paperwork.
At this the visitors from Gameindustry almost broke down into tears at the thought. Well almost all of them as Histoire was the one in tears at the thought, Neptune was just happily humming away completely and blissfully ignorant of the woes that her friends went through.
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After twenty minutes of tears Chika convinced Chloe to help her break in one of Chloe's new game systems. Playing Portal 2 helped calm the younger girl down as she got used to the controls, and having some laughs at the characters inside. Chika smiled as she played the two player mode with her new sister.
Chloe soon conked out as night started to fall, and Chika tucked her in, and left the nightlight on.
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They were again shocked at the similarities, Portal had been one of the most recent releases in the mundane world so to hear familiar names was dis concerting. There was however one of their number that noticed something. They used technology and magic togther. This left her confused and shocked at the revelation, she however did not say anything as she had no proof of it apart from there being technology whilst people having cast spells.
The next day, Vert and Chika were shocked to see Chloe trying again to have breakfast at the table with them she was still pale and sweating, but she looked less likely to bolt, at least before the meal ended.
The meal was delivered by some servants at the basilicom, and while Chloe flinched when they came close, she managed to stay in her seat throughout the meal, and listened to the details of her nation as Chika and Vert discussed them. They would normally have tried to keep Chloe in the conversation, but they didn't want to scare her off when she finally made it to the meal without passing out.
They politely ignored how she took off like a bat out of hell as soon as she was done eating.
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Chloe looked at the game box she had in her hand, and frowned. Chika had recommended she try it, so that she could try to get used to talking with others, even if it's not face to face.
"Hmm, that is actually a good idea as it would get here more used to interactions whilst also not having anything to fear about leaving what she considers her safe space. Easing her way into being able to interact properly" said Pomfrey with appreciation at the idea, she was getting many ideas on treating similar traumas from this, She was glad that it was not wasting her time.
Setting her face, she booted up her system, and after setting the voice scrambles so nobody could recognize her voice, she put the disk in, and the headphones with mic on her head.
Starting the game "4 Goddesses Online" she created her character.
At this point it had became obvious that the older generation along with those who had been raised in the magical world had no idea what the story was talking about. The confusion in minervas voice as she read made it almost painfully obvious. Vert took up the mantle (her being a gamer at heart) to explain the concepts and how they could create a 'picture' version of themselves. Be it idealised or totally different. It took some translating between as the terms in which she spoke did not translate well. Their world was just far to much advanced to allow for easy understanding.
She had decided on a ninja, one that had the same general figure as she did, but with some alterations, such as blood red hair, gold eyes, and red nail polish, and used the name 'Crimson Night'.
As soon as she logged in and entered the primary town, she was almost run over by another player. A player named Green Heart.
Those from Gameindustry chuckled at a blushing vert. "taking your work very serious eh" snickered Neptune "at least she does her work" groaned Histoire in response. "well it is not as if we did not know that she was a closet NEET" facepalmed noire getting a growl of agreement from blanc. Luckily for vert no one out of their group heard the conversation to her eternal gratitude.
"Apologies," the other player said, and then the player looked closely at her, and then asked, "Are you new?"
Crimson Night nodded, tongue tied as she hadn't expected to see, what was most likely her sister within minutes of starting.
Green Heart smiled, and said, "I'm meeting with some newbies of my guild, to give them some tips, would you like to come along?"
Crimson Night shook her head, as she didn't feel up to meeting a large group.
Green Heart smiled and simply said, "Let us exchange member addresses, so if you have questions, I could answer them for you.
After they did, Crimson Night wandered the town for a bit until she found her first class quest. It was a simple one, kill ten Dogoos, with an optional reward for keeping her damage below a certain point.
On her way out of the town she crossed paths with another new person, named Uni, whom was a thief.
Noire smiled at her darling little sister being there to help. She was always so proud of her, unfortunately both of them had the personality traits known as being a tsundere thus had trouble sharing with each other their true feelings. It did not mean that they could not be happy and proud of each other. They were both so similar that they tended to know what each other meant without being told.
"Heading out?" Uni asked, and upon getting a confirmation smiled and asked, "Want to team up for a bit? I have only an hour or so of playtime today."
Crimson Night thought for a second and nodded shyly, she was choking too much to really speak, but that seemed to be enough for the Thief, and the she offered a party invite, that was quickly accepted.
The two departed, and a half hour in, as they had both finished a few quest, and Uni was chatting about how she admired her sister, and how she wanted to be like her, then turned the conversation towards Crimson Night, and asked, "What about you? How are you with your family."
the game graphics then, in a moment of irony, started to storm in the area they were in, but Crimson Night answered anyway, perhaps talking to somebody not connected with the issue would help. "I feel like I'm causing nothing but problems for my sister, ever since I became her sister I've been too scared to really leave my room, and while she's been patient I know she's getting frustrated."
"Adopted, huh? Don't worry about it, as long as you keep trying, I'm sure you'll be fine, I'm sure she knows of the reasons why you're like that. Just take it slow and steady."
Crimson Night frowned, she hadn't fully confided in her sister on why she was scared, in fact she was scared to, and she told Uni that.
Uni Frowned as she filled another Dogoo up with bullets, and responded, "You need to tell her, and soon. It'll make it easier if she knows the full story, and might be able to help with overcoming the problem."
"Noire? Remind me to get your sister a gift of some sort." said vert with happiness clear in her voice from what they had seen. Noire nodded, she was pleased Uni only really had nepgear as a friend, it was something that worried her, true there was the twins but they were biologically younger and sometimes had difficulty connecting with the older candidates. This is why she was happy that this version of her sister might have a more active social life.
Crimson night frowned as she used her giant shuriken to bisect a Tulip that was trying to hit Uni from behind.
What Uni said made some sense, but she was still scared, what if her sister abandoned her because she was too weak to be a candidate? She couldn't stop a human from throwing him into a cupboard what if she started calling her a freak because of the incidents he caused? What if...
Her thoughts were interrupted when she got hit from behind, and she heard Uni shout, "Head in the game Crimson!"
Putting the thoughts out of her mind she re-engaged the hostile mobs, and finished off the set.
The time for the two to be together was at an end after the battle, because Uni had to leave, and so they exchanged member addresses, and Uni logged out, giving food for thought to the new player of 4 Goddesses Online.
She decided to log off for lunch... and to see weather she could make a second trip to the table.
"Uni has always been such a darling" said vert getting a confused look from the room. Histoire sighed, why was it that were ever she went she ended up being the portable exposition. True she was a tomb, that did not mean she knew everything! "Uni is the candidate of La-station and sister to noire" she said pointing at noire. The hall having had a explanation of the countries understood what she was saying.
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She did, and while even more skittish than in the morning, she managed to stay for the entire time.
She noticed the looks of concern the other two females gave her and she decided that she couldn't talk about her life before she was reborn, but she could write it down.
After lunch she asked for some pens and notebooks over the intercom, and after they were delivered, she started writing.
She wrote of her treatment by Harry's aunt and uncle, although she used the name 'Freak' instead of Harry as she didn't know her original name.
She wrote of how she was forced to do chores that only someone more than twice Harry's age when he died should do.
She wrote of the abuse, and constant near starvation.
She wrote how nobody in the neighbourhood helped him, weather adults or children, in fact his cousin had a gang that helped to beat him up.
Lastly, she wrote of his death.
With the final part of her last life put down on paper, she closed the notebook, and on the cover she wrote, "My last life."
This lead to a resounding silence in the hall, Such a book would be tough to write. Even those who could not stand potter had to have some respect for this version. Not that they would admit it. There were of course some who had other thoughts on what they were seeing.
Ron was stewing, how come he had nothing yet harry in both of the lives he knew about had everything. Chloe was beautiful and obviously rich with a caring family whilst in this life he had fame and fortune. The fact that he conveniently forgot about Chloe's life before hand did not even register due to jealousy.
Malfoy was still stuck on the fact that his self proclaimed nemesis had been turned into a girl. He found it amusing to the highest degree. His smirk firmly set on his face. The fact that the others around him had spotted subtle hints about Chloe. Her living in a mansion, having servants. The fact that her sister when she arrived had been introduced as one of the leaders of their world. No it was not a person that they wanted to antagonize, These facts however went right over Draco head.
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After breakfast the next morning, she nervously walked to Vert, and put the notebook on the table, and ran off before she could change her mind.
Vert looked at the notebook and saw the title, and her eyes widened, and she smiled, as it looked like her sister was starting to open up to her. She decided to read it later, in the privacy of her room.
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To get her mind off what she had just did, Chloe logged onto her online game, and was pleasantly surprised that Uni was on, and the two went monster hunting.
Uni approved of Crimson Night's action of writing it all down, and complemented her on her bravery, in how she decided to come clean about her past.
Well it would've been braver if she had told her sister to her face, but to do it at all was a step forward.
After their time was up, Chloe decided to try some other games.
Chika peeked in to the varied cursing of Chloe whom had died for the seventy-second time in Dark Souls.
Chika smiled as it was a step forward to have Chloe having fun and not crying like she had been too often these past days.
She closed the door as Chloe hit death Seventy-three.
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Minerva finished the reading with the image on the screen showing a large suite, Chloe on the bed with a controller in her hands and swearing. True many of the people that were in the hall had no idea what the devices were, however there were a few in the room who were giggling at the last statements about dark souls.
Lily was not a happy woman. Her anger had ebbed until she had seen the extent of the damage done to her darling. Again it had calmed when she saw how caring her child's new family were this however did not stop her from creating plans.
James was extremely angry his line had been killed off because of an old man and his mechanations. The fact that he would probably never meet that daughter did not help.
Harry and his sister were fascinated by the occurrences. The difference between them was that he was being needled by his little sister. She kept calling him pretty and sweet. While it was nice to hear that from his sister, It also drop kicked his ego, he was a guy not a girl dammit! The fact that he understood the muggle references as his mother had made sure that both of them were enough in touch with the muggle world so that they understood it and could operate their if needed.
Hermione was sitting next to her best friend harry with concern running through her head. If harry was in another world he would not be coming to Hogwarts. If that happened how would events turn out? Quirrel? The basilisk? The troll?
Sirius was intrigued about what he was seeing. The black family had known about the reincarnation cycle as it was stored in one of their books that it was possible to bind your memories to your magic and re-awaken in later times. Hell it had happened within his family. What worried him though was what would happen to him? When the potters had been attacked and knocked out he had been arrested as the culprit for the betrayal. Luckily James had awoken before he spent much time within the cells and had heard the aurors murdering about his shipment off to azkaban. He did not want to think about what might have happened.
Albus was looking at the girl in the screen. She looked about 14, She was unmistakably that woman Verts sister. With the trackers he himself had set up he knew that his alternate would be able to find them it was just a question of when. He also wondered how it would affect his plans. He needed the chosen one of the prophecy to defeat Tom. He was curious to see how his alternate would deal with that.
The other problem was that the girl would need to be within Britain to repopulate the potters. They were an important and powerful family. He could not allow them to die out. He was sure that his other would make plans for such an eventuality, he had in his backups. It was one of his earlier plans that he had not needed to implement due to the boys parents surviving. He would just have to wait and see how things turned out.