The path not taken
Molly Weasley was not a happy woman. Whilst it was true that she loved her family dearly. She was also desperate. The Weasley had once been a influential and powerful family. They were highly regarded within the community. This however came crashing down due to one of the previous heads of house squandering their assets this however lead to where they were now.
True they were well known for being strong supporters of the headmaster. They were also known for being industrious and successful in their chosen fields. This however was not the issue for molly. Her lack of money was the issue. True it did not take much for a magical family to survive due to multiplication and other such magic's existing. This however did not help things as the cost was low so was the wages.
This was one of the reasons that all of the money was tied up within the old families. Molly herself came from a wealthy family, the prewits. They had created a marriage contract with the Weasley when they were still prosperous. The contract had then been promptly forgotten until it had activated during her time within Hogwarts.
Wishing to get her family out of the conditions in which they were currently in molly had came up with the plan of having her daughter or son marry into the potters. Her plan on how to do so had changed several times but it generally consisted of the same goals. Now however she was shaking as the headmaster has had several revelations made about him, some of which she had never even considered. Thus she had a very real fear of her plans being released.
Ginny was shocked,According to the book she was dead. She knew that it had been a close call during the chamber incident but she did not realise just how close. So no she was not paying much attention.
Ronald was having mixed feelings. He was a simple person who was arrogant jealous and hateful. True he considered himself a friend of harry. He had gone through the adventures with him however he had not done anything significant within their time together. The one thing he did do was the chess challenge during the first year. Something that harry or Hermione could have done.
Here he was now listening to a book about another version of his friend. A girl version and he had no idea how to feel about it. True she was a beautiful woman, Powerful and rich. It was like the perfect deal for him in his eyes.
This however caused issues as he did not know how to relate to such a girl. Thus came the fear of what the girls older sister would do to him.
The rest of the school were excited. The last time left off just before the hat had sorted her. This had made many to speculate about which house that she would be sorted into from what they knew of the girl. There were even a few subtle bets that had been placed.
With this Sirius black now had the book within his hands. This caused a look of confusion for the man as he was hardly the best person to do the task at hand. He did however begin from where it had left off.
Chapter 9: First day of classes.
"... Hufflepuff!"
The hall was silent for a few seconds before the yellow and black table erupted into cheers. They did not often get high profile students within their house. It was usually slytherin or grifindor. So yes they were happy with this outcome.
There was silence, then two houses started laughing, and mocking her. This was because she went into the house that more than half the school considered the 'leftover' house.
the Ravenclaws were disappointed that they couldn't grill the candidate for info, at least as easily and with direct access. They would have to pin her down later.
The Hufflepuff's were ecstatic on the other hand. They rarely got such a high profile person. Many doubted the goddess candidate thing though.
To be fair to them, so did over ninety-nine percent of the school.
Also to be fair, both Chloe and Vert were hoping this to be the case, to give Chloe a chance at a relatively normal childhood, well beyond her duties of course.
A little uncomfortable with the fact that she was being mocked for loyalty and hard work, she let out a bit of her power.
The hall went silent as she emitted, just for a moment, enough magic to intimidate Dumbledore. And she was still holding back much of her power.
Once again silence reigned supreme. As far as most of the people within the hall were aware Albus was the strongest wizard alive with the dark-lord close to him. None were sure if the dark-lord was more powerful or less but they were both within the same ball park.
Thus hearing that this slip of a girl could exude enough magic to be intimidating to the headmaster and still have some left over was a scary thought.
There were still mocking thoughts of the students, but her obvious power made them leery of taking direct action, or mocking her openly.
Who knows how long that will last?
Chloe looked at the food that appeared with distaste, so did CC. They started looking for stuff that wasn't too greasy, or over cooked. They found more than enough, although the quality was far less than the two were used to, well what CC was used to when spending the night at the basilicom.
"What!?" came a shout from one Ronald Weasley He was well known for his almost bottomless stomach and his love of the food that was available. Thus it was easy to see that he was angry at the insult to one of his favourite pass times.
The fact that the girl was literal royalty and would have the best cooks and ingredients used to feed and water her did not even enter his mind as he was focused purely upon his self perceived insult.
"Yes mister Weasley" started Chloe, the ice in her voice becoming apparent "Being the leaders of our nations we generally tend to have the best provided to us. Though we do not ask for such treatment." explained the blond more for the others within the room than the irritant.
Soon enough the meal came to an end, and Dumbledore made his announcements, the fact that dementors were set up to patrol around the castle, and that there was a new defence against the dark arts professor.
Soon the students were dismissed after a horrendous rendition, of an even more horrendous song.
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Chloe had to sigh again as she became centre stage due to her internal thoughts. Then again when one has Lyrica to compare to these children it was rather easy to know how much better of a singer the shy idol was than the catastrophe of noise that was designated as the schools anthem. That however was not what caused her to sigh, no that was the fact that she knew that she was going to be getting those looks often.
In the basements, the Hufflepuff house met, and entering was as simple as walking through the door, if you were of that house. as soon as a student was sorted in the house their magical signature was taken, and the student would be allowed entrance.
The Hufflepuff common room was tastefully done in yellow and black, with the shades of yellow being muted so that it wasn't overly bright.
A portly woman was waiting for them when they entered, and began the welcoming speech, "Welcome new students, and bodyguard! My name is Professor Sprout, and I'm both the Head of Hufflepuff, and Professor of Herbology. Out house had rooms that fit two in each one, three if you don't mind being cramped. This is to allow you a chance to be friends, and to provide a semblance of privacy.
Now in other news, three years ago, Professor Dumbledore set up a game-room with devices from Gameindustry, and this has had a great effect on grades and behaviour. If you don't behave, or keep your grades up, we will ban you, either until your grades improve, or a certain amount of time. I will be even harsher on you than the other professors, be warned."
Chloe wasn't disturbed, by the thought of being banned, after all she was her sister's sister, she had her personal state of the art system, computer, and TV, as well as a miniature magi-tech generator. All a hundred years ahead of the cheap units the headmaster purchased.
Hermione was grumbling under her breath at this. True she had known that the other world was much more advanced than those of this one she did not however expect the gap to that big.
Harry and his sister were amused by the bushy haired girls response to what was said. They knew that she hated the idea of information not being at hand or being freely shared. She knew and understood the reason for secrecy as well as security this however was something that she would hate till her dyeing breath. It was also something that she had inherited from her parents.
Chloe and Cyberconnect2 ended up, as they expected, sharing a room, after all, a 'bodyguard' that is forced to stay in a different room, isn't a very efficient one.
Both set up their gear, counsels, computers, and generator to keep everything working. Then Chloe cracked open her books, to read the first couple of chapters.
She didn't know what classes she had the next day, so she wanted to be prepared.
She fell asleep drooling into the history book.. it was just too boring and irrelevant to her nation.
Cyberconnect2 chuckled and put her to bed, and then turned in herself.
Vert nodded in agreement with her little sister about the history of another world being irrelevant to them. True it might be interesting for academic reasons but for Chloe it was not needed. She could not however stifle the chuckle that started when she heard about her condition whilst attempting to read the book for the history class.
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They woke up the next day at five am, and headed outside to practice. Only to run into their head of house.
"And where are you two going?" She asked.
"Practice and sparring, so we don't get rusty," came Chloe's reply.
Sprout was about to reply, and then she stopped. Taking a good look at the book wielding candidate, she realized something.
"Cyberconnect2 isn't a bodyguard is she?" came Sprouts slow reply.
Cyberconnect2 shook her head, "I'm more her partner. I cover her weaknesses since they are my strengths, bodyguarding is my job in only the sense that I'm her backup and a second set of eyes."
Sprout closed her eyes, and sighed. The thought of such a young girl learning the art of war to the point that she practices daily didn't sit right with her, but with a motion she indicated that the two could go.
Ten minutes later blades and spells were being exchanged. Cyberconnect2 wasn't lying when she said her strengths were Chloe's weaknesses. She was physically faster and stronger than Chloe, but the fact that Chloe could use her easier spells without a chant allowed her to score some hits.
Three hours later, the two walked in to get breakfast. Much of the conversation in the great hall stopped upon witnessing the two, dirty and bruised, with torn clothing, but not in anyway that compromised decency, and acting like it was nothing special as they took their seats to eat breakfast.
After everybody recovered, there was a lot of sneering at the two, and muttered insults. After all it looked like the two had been in some sort of physical confrontation.
There was a clear undercurrent of distaste at the notion of such things. In the mundane world it was normal as well as within the other world. Thus the very idea that keeping oneself healthy confused the goddesses as they all did such exercises. Even Neptune.
Looking at the schedule, she noted she had potions first thing, and then history of magic. It seemed to be a very short schedule, as the classes would take about three or four hours total, leaving the rest of the day free.
The regular schools in Gameindustry would have between six and eight hours of classes a day, especially Gameindustry Academy, which Chloe convinced her sister to convince the other goddesses to reopen as an elite school, and to expand it to include a military officer school.
The militaries of the four lands have never been more at peace with each other in joint military operations... nor as fiercely competitive in the biyearly war games.
Anyway, back to the patiently waiting... or not so patently waiting as she had already headed off to potions while the author went on his tangent.
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Severus suddenly got a chill running up his spine at the thought of the girl within his lab. He could not for the life of him tell why but it was similar to the one he got from Longbottom and he did not like the implications.
Potions had started and the professor had just finished praising the subject, and hitting the students with questions nobody could answer since they were from further on in their education.
Then he put the burn salve recipe on the chalkboard, and set them loose.
He looked at how Chloe and CC were looking at the cauldron warily
, and suddenly had a bad feeling.
It was worse than Longbottom.
The potions master lowered his head to the desk in resignation. There was always that one person who just could not get the art of potions right in anyway shape or form. Lilly was giggling as despite being an accomplished potioneer herself she had known from the moment her exploits in the kitchen had been said that the poor girl would fail terribly at the subject
His feeling was vindicated as Chloe pored the water into the metal container... and the water came alive in the form of water tentacles that started attacking the clothes of anybody that came close to it. Fortunately the students scattered as they realized it. It was also fortunate, due to Chloe's actions, that nobody had gotten past their first ingredient.
A rapid stream of fire-bolts not only evaporated the water but melted the cauldron into slag.
Snape looked at the cooling metal, opened his mouth, closed it, thought a second, and then said, "Chloe, get out of my class, come back at seven pm to clean up your metal. You are also banned from class, I will give your head of house the written assignments, and I expect them to be done on time, and turned in to your head of house. now get out."
Chloe and Cyberconnect2 left the room with their heads held high... then ran as every cauldron around her came to life, followed by every other student and the professor.
The professor cast fiend fire at the room, thankful that everything in their was easily replaceable, to eliminate the newly spawned monsters.
Turning to where the girls had vanished he glared, and vowed to make sure she was banned from the dungeons entirely.
She wasn't in his house anyway, so it should be easy enough.
He liked the girl, but he wasn't willing to put up with her ability to screw up potions that badly.
Her eyes looked so familiar though.
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Hours passed and then it was history of magic.
Both of the other dimensioners were out like a light within five seconds of the professor's voice. If it was Gameindustry history they would've paid attention, or at least tried, but this world's history is irrelevant to them.
At the end of the class Chloe was woken by one of her housemates' and she woke Cyberconnect2, and they went on their way.
Eyes turned to Chloe at this point as they could feel the simmering magic just under the surface, rage was clearly seen upon the girls face. Whilst they did not know why they could tell that what ever was going to happen angered the goddess to an extreme extent.
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On their way out from history, they met the redhead from the train again. He was upset that she had 'lied' to him, by not telling him that she was the one she was looking for.
He decided to have some payback, and have a 'feel' of his 'fiancee'.
Ronald the afore mentioned red head tried to disappear from where he was sitting as he could literally feel the glares burning into the back of his head. Now then he could live with as they were only hear temporarily, the looks of disgust from those around him from his house and the others however he could do nothing about and his reputation within the school had taken a massive hit. The fact that the majority of his reputation came from being close to harry did not matter as harry could only shield him from so much. Not that he intended to this time. The situation was precarious enough for harry to even attempt to aid the floundering red head.
He grabbed her chest, and while she was so chocked by his audacity, he gave her a kiss.
Unfortunately, for him at least, she recovered quickly, pushed him back, and threw a punch.
Now while her strength growth rate was only a C rank, she was level forty, facing a level three, and as such her punch, which she managed at the last second to lower the power, was still enough to shatter his jaw, and have him make an impression in a nearby wall, and break five ribs, as well as give him a concussion.
Through bleary pain filled eyes he looked at the candidate whom was thunderous in fury.
Her arm slowly came up and a fireball appeared in it, she was about to launch it when a old but still strong voice sounded behind her.
Ron was trying to make himself as small as possible as more and more glares joined those from the other world. Lily potter, James potter and Lucius Malfoy were amongst those that were giving him killer looks. No he was not happy about this, he could possibly loose his best mate due to this stupid book as he could see harry glaring at him as well. No this was not good at all.
"What is going on here?" the voice said.
The fireball guttered out as Chloe turned to the voice.
Upon seeing Dumbledore Chloe explained, "This asshole molested me, and when I was stunned by his actions kissed me."
Dumbledore's face darkened, and said, "so you were going to kill him?"
Chloe took a deep breath, and snarled, "if he was willing to do this, how long until he tried to do more?"
Dumbledore looked at the pissed off face of the candidate, and replied in a soothing way, "I take it his current condition is due to your initial reaction?" at Chloe's nod he continued, "We will leave that as his punishment for now, and I will explain to him, that if he attempts it on anybody else, he will be expelled, his wand snapped, and his magic bound. You will have a single detention with me, tonight, since I have some questions for you. The password is gummy worms."
Chloe was about to say something, probably unnecessarily hurtful, when CC put her hand on her shoulder. "That's fine sir, but we will be contacting Lady Green Heart and having him banned from Leanbox upon pain of death. And keep him away from Chloe, since they are in different years and houses he really doesn't have an excuse to be near her."
the old man nodded, and levitated the boy, while heading towards the hospital wing. When the boy wakes up he will be having a stern talking to, and he will be telling is mother about his actions.
He didn't know it, but that decision would ruin any chance of the Weasley's being allies with Chloe.
Cornelius had been enjoying this, everything had seemed to be going smooth from what he could see. The new world seemed to be a good place to start trade with. They would be able to access new and exciting trade and this was only from lean-box not to mention the other countries over there. He knew that they had magic and used it in ways that they did not so they could, if things went well possibly learn these knew magic's. So yes he was an excited minister.
His mood however did something that it rarely does when he heard about the idiot boys attempt. He became serious and thunderous. It was something few had ever seen from the man. No the minister of magic was not a happy man, he would however wait and see as it was possible that things would get better. Yes he would wait and see.
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Dumbledore walked back to his office, after leaving instructions with Pomfrey to not let the boy out until he spoke to him tomorrow, and was surprised at the pissed looking werewolf at his office door holding a newspaper.
He put young Ronald out of his mind, the boy was still in the second year, despite the fact that he should be in fourth. He was finally maintaining a grade average that would allow him into third year.
He had half an hour until Chloe was supposed to arrive so he waved the man in after he gave the gargoyle the password.
After they entered the office and Dumbledore sat down, threw a silencing spell at the door, and then Lupin threw the paper in front of the desk.
Curious, he opened it, and paled, it was an old paper, and on the front page was the story of a murdered green eyed child.
"Explain," the werewolf said.
The old man sighed, and spoke, with a voice laden with regret, "I made a mistake. I had used powerful protections, protections that required Harry to live with a relative, and he had only one living one. I was just not expecting them to kill him, or allow him to die. I can't say much, but I can say that he was reborn, with all Harry's memories, but I promised not to tell anybody who the new person is."
"And the reason why you wouldn't tell me where he was? I would've checked on him, and told you if he was being abused."
"I had somebody there, but she didn't report that it was too bad."
Remus's eyes narrowed as he locked on to two words, "Too bad? TOO BAD!? You mean you knew he was being abused?!"
"It was the only way to guarantee his safe..."
"SAFETY? Being abused is not SAFE!" came the interruption.
"If you would let me explain, I was led to believe that it was just swats, and mean words. I later found out by asking the source that it was much worse!" came the man's hot headed response, "and I didn't tell you because I thought it would make his treatment worse if you kept dropping by!"
The two men glared at each other only to turn to the door as it opened.
Remus was uncomfortable and understandably angry. His wolf was not helping matters as its view of the pack was influencing him. One of the pups had gotten hurt and he could have done something but did not. This was not helping him what so ever. He also knew that Albus was in the right in keeping the identity secret for many reasons that however did not help in the matter due to his nature. Whilst he could see Albus point he also knew how to live in the mundane world and thus he probably could have gotten away with it. So no he was not a happy wolf.
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Chloe, whom had calmed down from murderous rage, to merely annoyed, looked in the room, and noticing the very angry men said, "I can come back tomorrow if you want."
Dumbledore shook his head and looked at his professor, "Can we continue this tomorrow? I will try and get permission to tell you later. I am very sorry about what happened, and if I had known just how bad it was, he would've been removed immediately. How she called broken bones 'minor boo-boos' I don't know."
The other man nodded thoughtfully and left.
"Now Chloe, we need to talk about today, I understand you are stronger than Humans," he paused at how Cyberconnect2 turned her chuckle into a cough, but then continued, "but you need to remember that as well and hold back, a little bit more and you would've killed him, not to mention the fireball you were about to hit him with."
Chloe leaned back in her chair until it was on two legs and replied offhandedly, "I did hold back, well at the last minute. If I had hit him full force, I would've torn his jaw right off. And the fire-bolt wouldn't have killed him, neutered him yes, killed no."
The males within the room were pale at the thought. The fact that there was a small but noticeable coming from the table containing the otherworlders did not help matters.
Dumbledore paused as he digested the information. He then uprated the girl's danger level upwards.
His musings were disrupted as Chloe continued, "and as to being stronger than humans? CC here is much stronger physically than me, my Strength growth is rated a C hers is an A, and it's an absolute scale, applicable to both humans and goddesses. She's also twenty levels higher than me, which makes her even stronger. She was chosen to be my permanent guild partner for two reasons, one is that her strengths cover my weaknesses, and the fact that she is highly trusted."
The old man went nearly transparent. He had simply assumed that this Cyberconnect2 was simply for companionship, as a goddess candidate he thought that she wouldn't need protection, but if the other female is stronger... another thought hit him, "what are these levels, and what is mine?"
"Levels are a measure of strength, and tend to increase the most from going out and fighting, we generally fight and kill monsters. Training can increase it as well, but at a much slower rate. The stronger the opponent, the more you gain towards your next level. Your level is twenty-five," Chloe answered offhandedly.
Dumbledore sighed, he had let two people into his school, that apparently was much stronger than him, but at least don't seem to be causing much trouble... intentionally.
"Now there is one more issue, it's about what you did to that dementor."
"Sacred lance, a holy element spell I discovered in the basilicom archives. It looked useful, so I learned it," Chloe explained.
"Could you teach it to others?" came Dumbledore's question.
Chloe giggled as she responded, "No, not at this school, it would kill anyone under level twenty-eight by the strain it puts on their body, and that's if they have my level of magical potential which is S for skill points, what I spend to use them, and S for Intelligence, aka magical power."
Those within the hall were now getting a very clear image of just how vast the gaps between them and Chloe was. Being able to cast such a spell would be useful but costly. It was a similar situation in which fiend-fire was.
Dumbledore was disappointed, a way to kill those things would be invaluable when Tom returns, but if it takes getting a large number to above Chloe's level it isn't practical.
The conversation continued, as he probed the laws of Gameindustry and discovered that he needed to warn whomever would be the ambassador that spells that are common here would be a death sentence there.
Specifically mental manipulation, and memory erasing spells. The laws were clear that such things, weather by technology or magic, were illegal in the extreme, beyond a few of what they call 'status effect' combat spells, and even then they are mostly used against monsters, and are very limited in duration.
Other crimes had worse punishment than he expected, but upon further reflection since the goddesses are female, executing rapists makes sense from their point of view. Premeditated murder was also an executable offence.
He thought the laws were harsh, but they were applied fairly. In fact Chloe expressed interest in Veritaserum, a truth serum that would speed up trials immensely and allow great accuracy. She would Guess that an exception to the mind control laws would be made, allowing suspects to be questioned about their crimes.
It was late when the conversation ended, and the two were given a pass in case they ran into a professor, and set off for bed.
The next day would prove to be the nail in the coffin to having a good relationship with a red headed family.
Histoire pushed up her small pair of glasses. Indeed to a more patriarchal styled society the laws would seem harsh, as well as to a pacifist such as Dumbledore. However the laws had been such since well before the current nations were about. They had served them well. And would continue to do so.
She could also see such an exception being made for the substance called Veritaserum. After a thorough testing of course.