So, here we are. A new year (well, just the old one reheated, IMO), and some new chapters in the Cauldron for you.

This one is yet another throw of the dice for a Harry/Rias story, and probably my last for a while if this one cacks out. But I had an interesting thought. Part of the problem with a High School DxD crossover is ensuring that the crossover characters have power and a lifespan comparable to many of the characters. Potterverse wizards aren't exactly on the same level as High-Class Devils like Rias, after all.

As with Vellichor, I hit upon a Sacred Gear idea inspired by Doctor Who. But instead of giving Harry a hybrid of the TARDIS' interior and the Library of St John the Beheaded from the New Adventures novels, I actually realised that there was a villain whose powerset was easily adaptable to a Sacred Gear's. A villain who was a favourite of mine after I read the novelisation of his sole TV story, and not only watched the sole surviving episode of said story, but also read and listened to an adaptation of what would have been his second clash with the Doctor. A villain who made a comeback in one of last year's specials, played by Neil Patrick Harris, taking over from the late, great Michael Gough.

I am speaking of the Celestial Toymaker.

It's only in his most recent story, The Giggle (of which I have only seen clips of, thanks to Disney+ having the rights to Doctor Who in Australia, those bastards) that truly showed his full potential. While a mysterious, enigmatic and powerful presence in his prior stories, The Giggle showed how much power the Toymaker truly has. He even shows it in a sequence near the end of the story where he storms UNIT HQ, and basically pulls off a dance number to "Spice Up Your Life" by the Spice Girls.

That being said, this isn't a triple-crossover. The Sacred Gear Harry wields is derived from an expy of the Toymaker, who will be a hybrid of him and a number of similar characters.

In addition, Harry will still be heroic, albeit something of an anti-hero. Unlike the Toymaker or his expy, he won't inflict high-stakes games on anyone, save for those who have angered him. He'll seem sinister at times, a bit like a mish-mash of the Toymaker, Jigsaw, and Yami Bakura and Yami Malik from Yu-Gi-Oh!, but he's still on the side of angels...or rather, Devils.

Anyway, before I go, with the new year, I'm not sure what other ideas are going to come forth. Aside from this story, I'm also working on Eternity Smiles, and it's possible, though not certain, that they'll become full fics. I'm also putting serious thought into a couple of Nasuverse crossovers, and I have tentative ideas for crossovers with Beast Tamer and The Eminence in Shadow, believe it or not. And DZ2, while he's not writing anymore, has posted some interesting prompts, a few of which have caught my eye, and one of them is certainly exciting in its possibilities.

Now, as always, this is not guaranteed to become a full fic. But I hope you enjoy it regardless...

I WANT TO PLAY A GAME

CHAPTER 1:

THE DEVIL AND THE TOYMAKER

Lord Voldemort was wondering where it had all gone wrong. That attempt to get the Potter brat to find out that prophecy had gone to shit, and he wasn't sure why. It was only because of the confused, panicked messages from his peons, and the feeling, through their Dark Marks, that they had been stopped somehow, that brought him here.

Of course, he risked public exposure by coming here. He had intended to lie low until his forces were strong enough, and Potter had taken the prophecy. Then, he could rip it from the brat's mind, or else capture and interrogate him.

But things clearly hadn't gone to plan.

The Order of the Phoenix, that insipid group of ineffectual vigilantes that Dumbledore had gathered, were also proving to be a nuisance. Dumbledore may have fled Hogwarts, but Voldemort knew better than to believe the meddlesome old wether would stay away. Hopefully, Voldemort would be in and out before the Ministry took notice. Then again, knowing that bribe-hungry, empty-headed fool Fudge, he'd probably deny Voldemort's resurrection even if he saw the proof.

But then, Voldemort heard someone humming a tune. Boys and Girls Come Out to Play, if he didn't know any better. And was that what could have been the tramping of feet? No, too quiet, too high-pitched for that.

And then, out of the corridor leading to the elevator to the Department of Mysteries marched several small figures, all in rather family black robes, some with metal masks, and others not. In fact, they looked like dolls. Dolls of his peons, marching in formation, as if escorting someone. He recognised Bella, Lucius, Augustus.

Stranger still was to come. Striding out of the corridor was a hated figure. Potter. But not as he knew him. There was something different about him, something…dark. Something powerful. Voldemort rejected such a possibility out of hand. There was no way this little Halfblood brat would have the power to stop him, right?

And yet, those eyes. Even though they remained the emerald green of his accursed Mudblood mother, there was something ancient and dangerous about them now, like they were windows into an endless void. Like what was Harry Potter was merely a thin veneer over something eldritch and terrible and utterly insane.

So focused was he on Potter and his doll escorts that Voldemort only distantly heard the exclamations nearby. But Potter waved a hand carelessly. "Now that we have the spectators unable to interfere…I have something to say." A smile touched his lips, almost childlike, and yet more like the snarl of a predator. "Hello, Tom. I want to play a game…"

A young woman walked down the street in Kuoh Town, a rather unremarkable town in Japan not far from Kyoto. This may not seem like an odd thing, but there were many oddities about the woman, even to a mundane bystander. For one thing, she was clearly Caucasian, a relative novelty in the Japanese town. For another, she was absolutely gorgeous, with a buxom figure many would envy, her features framed by waist-length hair of an unusually deep shade of crimson, much like blood. Her teal eyes peered around the street, seemingly keeping an eye out for something.

But these were relatively mundane oddities, things people would shrug at and move on. She would draw attention, perhaps looks and comments of lust and envy, but they would not chalk down these oddities to her being anything else but a foreign exchange student. On a couple of occasions, the lust would cross over into pathological behaviour, but she was well-prepared to fend off any would-be rapists. The last one, she didn't leave enough to bury.

Then again, when you were a High-Class Devil who had inherited your mother's family's signature magic, and could annihilate most foes, any mundane rapist would end up having a bad time, albeit briefly.

Not that anyone knew that Rias Gremory was a Devil, outside of her social circle anyway. As far as the public in general and the student body of Kuoh Academy in particular was concerned, she was a foreign exchange student from Europe, albeit one who had Japanese friends. Her great beauty had marked her and her friend, Queen and sister in everything but blood, Akeno Himejima, as the Great Ladies of Kuoh Academy.

But they had no reason to suspect that she was anything but a human. She'd gambled that none of them had ever read the Ars Goetia, the infamous demonology book that was effectively a warped Who's Who of the 72 Pillar families. Her friend Sona Sitri, who had vaguely Oriental looks, was able to pretend she was a Japanese, going by the name of 'Souna Shitori'.

She'd come here not just to continue her education, but to actually try and feel…well, normal, or at least human. Being part of the Devil nobility, related to not only the Gremory and Bael families, but being the little sister of Sirzechs Lucifer, had its privileges. But it also had its downsides, with so many expectations made of her, and so many people seeing her for her lineage and status, not for…well, her. And then, there was that damned engagement to Riser Phenex, a man she utterly despised, a man who saw her as a trophy wife, and who was making waves to try and get their wedding date brought forward, even though she hadn't yet filled all the spaces in her Peerage, let alone finished her tertiary education, the latter being a stipulation of the contract.

However, school, for now, was not on her mind. And part of the reason for this trip was to distract herself from the too-often toxic politics of the Underworld and her mother's family, the Baels, to say nothing of the fact that she was engaged against her will to an utter bastard of a Phenex. The rest of her Peerage were doing their own thing. Gasper was playing games, Yuuto was training, Akeno was tending to her late mother's former shrine, and Koneko was buying some sweets prior to a session at the karaoke bar. You wouldn't think a Nekoshou, and one with such a petite frame, would have an interest in rapping.

And for Rias? She wanted to visit a toyshop.

Well, toyshop was a bit of a misnomer. It seemed to be an all-purpose toyshop and games centre, selling everything from puppets to action figures, from anime collectables to board games, from tabletop RPG sourcebooks to video games. It seemed to specialise mostly in Western stuff, but she had heard from Akeno, who had passed the shop once, that it had quite a few anime collectables. And that was what was drawing her to it.

It was simply called Players, in English, and had been established about a few weeks ago. There was some magic over it, but after some brief reconnaissance, Rias decided that it wasn't worth worrying about. It seemed like some wizards decided to set up shop, and given that the owners were apparently British, British wizards at that. Given the upheaval she heard about in Magical Britain, she was hardly surprised. True, she wasn't like Sona, who kept an eye on such matters, but she knew the general gist of matters.

In any case, as long as they didn't cause her any harm, or to her clients, she was fine with them being here. Perhaps she could even become a regular customer, depending. And maybe they could become her clients. Though she had to tread carefully. The Biblical Factions had an unofficial agreement to avoid meddling in the affairs of the wizarding world, lest it devolve into a renewed Great War by proxy.

With that in mind, she arrived at the toyshop, and took a moment to look at the various toys in the window. Teddy bears and puppets mingled with action figures and anime statuettes. It seemed eclectic, and yet fitting.

She entered. The store seemed to have a mix of old-fashioned and yet modern styles that managed to avoid clashing. But she also felt wary upon entering it. Like eyes were watching her, judging her. But not finding her wanting. It was as if something approved of her. It was almost like the very toyshop was alive.

Yet when she turned to the shopkeeper, she didn't quite see the same depth of scrutiny from him. He was a careworn bearded man, looking like a university professor, though his mode of dress could have been that of a rumpled, old-fashioned toymaker if you squinted. He looked prematurely aged. She sensed that he was only just turning forty, but looked to be maybe ten years older, his dark hair and beard flecked through considerably with grey. The nasty scars adorning his face didn't help matters. And was there something about his aura that seemed…bestial? He was certainly a wizard.

"Good morning, miss," the man said. "Can I help you?"

"I'm just browsing," she said. "Though I would like to know if you have any Gunpla model sets, Mister…?"

"Lupin. Remus Lupin. And Gunpla…ah, those Gundam models, right?" He ran a hand through his hair. "As it happens, the proprietor had to go and pick some new ones up. There was something of a problem with the supplier. They were left at the post office. He should be back soon if you don't mind waiting."

"No, I don't. But…you're not the proprietor?" Rias asked. She also wondered where she knew this man's name from. It rang a quiet but noticeable bell.

Lupin shook his head. "I'm a friend of the family, one of the few the proprietor has left. He's young, but he has a good head on his shoulders. But we had some…trouble in Britain, and came to Japan to get away from it. He allowed me to come along, along with my wife and son. We help him look after the shop. As for why Japan, well, an old friend of mine, a brother in everything but blood, left his properties to us after he…passed on. There were some real estate investments across the world, including here in Japan."

Rias nodded in acknowledgement. The Gremory family had real estate investments across Japan in general, but Kuoh was one of the places in particular that they focused on. She was still trying to figure out where she knew this man's name from, though.

"By the way, I apologise," she said, gambling that this man, wizard or no, hadn't read the Ars Goetia. "I hadn't introduced myself earlier. I am Rias Gremory, an exchange student from Europe. I'm studying at Kuoh Academy."

"Right, one of the local high schools. I believe it only became co-ed a year or so ago," Lupin mused, before frowning in thought. "Gremory…where have I heard that name before?"

"My family is an old one, but not truly that famous. We don't like to advertise our presence, but it's possible you may have heard our name in passing somewhere," she said, hoping that would deflect the issue.

"Nobility?" Lupin asked.

"Not something I like to talk about," Rias said, waving away his question. "I came to Japan partly to get away from that."

"Fair enough. That's why I came to Japan as well, to get away from my reputation."

That didn't come from Lupin. It came from behind her. She turned to see a young man, about her age, coming through the door, carrying a parcel. He moved past her with a muttered apology, putting the parcel on the counter, and then turning to face her with a smile.

He had a messy mop of black hair, framing handsome if scrawny features. Emerald eyes peered at her from behind glasses. She realised that he had a faded scar on his forehead, like a lightning bolt.

And now, she recognised him. Who else could he be but Magical Britain's most infamous figure of late? Oh, she didn't know the full circumstances behind what had happened, only that he had disappeared from public view, into seeming obscurity. Only, he had popped up in her territory.

She tried to school her features, even as he held out his hand. "Good morning. I'm Harry Potter."

Rias gave him a smile, and taking his hand, shaking it. "Rias Gremory. A pleasure."

They did not know this, but this was a meeting that would begin a friendship that would shake the foundations of power in the supernatural world. A red-haired teenaged Devil, a relatively moral paragon of her kind. And a human wizard turned toymaker, bound to a terrible power he was still coming to terms with. The seeds of this friendship were sown by this chance meeting. And it would bear both wonderful and terrible fruit…

CHAPTER 1 ANNOTATIONS:

So, Harry and Rias have met. But what is this strange power Harry has gained?

I'll elaborate later, but it's mostly the Whoniverse Toymaker's abilities as a base, albeit somewhat nerfed, with elements of the Millennium Items from Yu-Gi-Oh! Harry might have also referenced Jigsaw inadvertently, but he's closer to a more heroic version of the Celestial Toymaker from Doctor Who.

No numbered annotations this time.