Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling. This version of Aleister Crowley, along with 1,083,092,867 others, was created by Kamachi Kazuma.

I mentioned this before but I'm going to say this again: spoilers for Aleister Crowley's backstory in Toaru (that means all the way up until New Testament 22).

Chapter 02: Hidden Away by Magic – 魔法隠し。

Part 4

"Perhaps it might be time," Elly muttered.

"Time?"

"To tell you where I'm from, Harry." The silver-haired magician circled round to sit back behind her desk. Now that we have proof that 'Muggles' can learn magic, that is. Unless the Branwen girl is a late bloomer? But Hogwarts begins schooling at eleven years of age, which implies that a child in this world would show signs of magic before then. But I didn't really need to wait for that experiment to conclude, not really. In any case, now that that's happened, any Legilimencer who chances upon the children here will have much more to worry about than me.

But Harry still needs to learn to defend his mind, even though I am by now well-acquainted enough with it to put up barriers in his place.

…In truth, though, that, too, is also an excuse.

Harry perked up instantly. Finally! He sat down, his heart brimming with excitement.

"You know there are two forms of magic, right?"

"There…are?" Harry was instantly confused.

"I suppose that conclusion is difficult to come to if you are unfamiliar with magic." Elly said. "How about I start with something else? Quantum physics, for example."

"Quantum physics." Harry mulled over the term, which was now much less alien after months of studying. "Okay."

"You know that there for any event that occurs, there can be many possible outcomes?"

"Yeah," Harry said. He remembered this, as well as the example that Elly had given. "Like a coin landing tails or heads or in a gutter somewhere."

"Exactly. Now, the common interpretation of quantum mechanics is that when an outcome is realised, all the other possibilities cease to exist. So when a coin is in the air, it could have landed heads or tails or anything in between, but after it lands on one side, it will only have landed on one side."

Harry nodded.

"Another way to see it is the many-worlds interpretation. In the world you are in, the coin lands up heads, and that is what you see. In another world, the coin lands up tails, and another Harry sees it lands as tails. And in another world–"

"Another Harry sees it land in the gutter or something," Harry finished.

"Correct." Elly said. "So, to answer your question about where I am from: I am from another world."

"So you're…a different version of me?" Harry said.

"No, no, that was the example." Elly waved a hand. "I'm from another world where magic works differently. Where people don't need to be born with magic and wave sticks in order to use it, but instead do things more like what I told you to teach Branwen."

"But Branwen could use magic like how you taught." Harry pointed out, confused.

"Yes," Elly said, with a smidgen of frustration. It's like I'm explaining things to a small child…which of course I am in a sense. I shouldn't expect Harry to be mature past his age all the time. "So here, both ways seem to work, but it seems that inborn-wand-waving magic is more established, with them having a school and all."

"So you're from another world. Okay." Harry genuinely couldn't see what the big deal was. "What was it like?"

"A tough question to answer, with many possible responses." Elly took a sip from her teacup. "I suppose my old world was much like this one–nothing so drastic as having different continents or countries–but technology had progressed a bit more. And I suppose there was this whole thing about espers as well."

"Espers?"

"People with superpowers gained from drugs and training." Elly summarised neatly.

Harry's jaw dropped open. "You can just give people superpowers?"

"It's not like magic where a magician can cast many different spells. A person can only have one superpower, which can't be changed at all." Elly's words echoed a lecture that Leivinia Birdway had once given Accelerator and Hamazura Shiage.

"Oh," said Harry.

"And of course, not everyone can achieve the same the same level of power. The same amount of resources invested in one person could have vastly different returns when invested in another." Elly went on. She decided to not say much about the prioritization of said resources caused by the Parameter List just yet.

Harry considered this, but gave up. There were just too many possible questions he could ask. But more importantly, this topic was not exactly related to Elly…or so he thought.

He tried a different approach. "So what did you do? Were you also a magician? Or…" Harry took a wild guess. "A teacher?"

Elly cracked an ironic smile. "Sort of. In Japan in my old world, there was a place called 'Academy City'. It was a city with a lot of schools, and a lot of students; a city where cutting-edge science was both taught and developed. I was the General Superintendent of that city." At Harry's confused look, Elly elaborated. "That means like a mayor or prime minister. Basically, I ruled the city."

"So like a principal." Harry said. "Of many schools at once."

"You could say that." Elly laughed at Harry's comparison; no doubt the boy's mental image of her was much more benevolent than reality had been. "Now here's the fun part: that city was the only place in the whole world where you could get superpowers–esper powers, to use my term."

Harry's jaw dropped open.

"Yes." The magician formerly known as Aleister Crowley went on, pride in her voice. "I was the person that built an entire city, and created a way for children to get esper abilities beyond normal humans." Even if the City had been built to attract the Imagine Breaker, even if it was just an alternatively-shaped Thelmic temple fortified with the Archetype Controller, it had been one of her great successes.

And it produced several wonderful students as well. A drop in the bucket of sins that I've committed, and tragedies that I've caused, but a shining, beautiful drop nonetheless.

At this point Harry truly gave up. Sure, he had been taught about science and cities, but that did not meant he could really grasp what it meant to create an entire city, or an entire field of study. "Wow."

"That is an appropriate degree of awe for such an achievement, yes." Elly said, before her face became a shade more sombre. "But I do have to admit that I was also…not a good person."

"Not a good person," Harry repeated. "But…"

"I caused a great deal of pain and suffering, Harry." Elly said. She removed her pointed hat and placed it on her desk. "More than you could comprehend. Remember what the Dursleys did to you, and imagine that I did the same thing to…a lot of people."

Harry conjured the mental image as he was asked, but ran into a brick wall. He simply could not reconcile the person that had saved him, who had taught him so much, with the notion that she could be a monster worse than his Aunt and Uncle. "I don't think you could ever be evil, Elly."

The magician laughed again. "You're too kind. More kind than I deserve." She stood. "Well, I think that's enough about me for today."

"But you'll tell me more stories tomorrow, right?" Harry knew when to stop, but at the same time, he still wanted to know more.

"You shouldn't." Elly said, as if she was reading the mind of her young charge. "Want to know more about my world, that is. I don't think it's ever possible for me to go back, and frankly, I have no desire to. For all intents and purposes, that was just a long dream." She glanced at Harry's pleading look. "But I suppose a few stories here and there wouldn't hurt. Lord knows my life has been eventful enough to fill several long volumes."

~~[a]~~

"Sagittarius. Vau, Yod, Heh, Heh. Guide the light of the ninth sign, angel with a eight, I mean nine–oh."

There was a tiny flash of blue, and Branwen felt a slight prickling of heat in her fingertips, but no more. The liberated mug of cocoa remained stubbornly cold in the winter air, and a few more flakes of snow settled on the drink's surface.

"Come on, you can do it." Sally said idly, leaning back against the wall. From her own mug a wisp of steam trailed upwards, the result of a successful Warming Charm. Harry's own cup, too, was warm, but from a sustained use of Incendio instead; he was practicing casting endurance.

"Sagittarius. Vau, Yod, Heh, Heh. Guide the light of the ninth sign, angel with a nine letter divine name. Warm my cup for me!"

Said cup glowed blue and began emitting steam.

"I'm surprised it worked without the funny language," Harry remarked.

"I guess even angels show mercy to poor children like us on a cold winter's night." Sally responded. She took another sip. "Where's the bread?"

"Here." Harry passed over a roll. "Strawberry jam. Actually, on second thought," he glanced at Branwen's expression, "you can have blueberry instead."

"Yeah, stand up for her, would you." Sally grumbled, but acquiesced, and Branwen took the offered bread happily.

~~[a]~~

Before they knew it, the last days of December had arrived–the border between the current year and the next. Despite the addition of one more person who could do magic, Harry's daily life did not change very much.

"Merry Christmas," Harry greeted, as the ceiling boards above him shifted yet again. What had been a previously unusual occurrence had now been accepted as nothing more than usual shenanigans.

"Mm." Sally said glumly. She dropped down beside him.

(They had used and then Scourgify-ed the crawlspace above so many times now that Sally could do so without cleaning herself off.)

"Don't like it?" Harry asked. From his memories, it was one of the few times of the year where the Dursleys had left him alone, a time where they had mercifully pretended he did not exist as opposed to venting their frustrations on him. It helped that the leftovers from dinner were more delicious than his usual fare.

"No." Sally said simply. Much of her usual flare was missing, and she lay flat on the bed, gazing outside. Through the window one could see that it wasn't snowing–not a white Christmas–and though it wasn't the correct angle, the stars were clear pinpricks of light above.

"You want a present?"

"Shut up." She seemed to be more unhappy than most today.

Harry just sat up next to her, and watched in silence. Have any ideas, Elly? Or…

Oh, it's actually a very simple psychological issue. Elly's voice came, matter-of-factly.

We're not all old people like you.

It's not all that difficult to figure out. Elly lightly admonished. Don't rely on me to do your thinking for you.

Harry sighed. From a drawer he retrieved a few wrapped cookies. It had been part of St Ursula's (apparently) traditional Christmas fundraising event: making sweets to sell to the public, mostly done by the adults and helped by the more well-behaved children. And he didn't even need to steal this time; it was part of his payment for a job well done.

He threw a wrapped cookie at Sally.

"Ow!" She sat up and turned to him. "You want a fight? Now?"

"Take your present, idiot." Harry said.

"That's yours." Sally said. "You sure you don't want it?"

"If I wanted to keep it I wouldn't have gave it to you in the first pla–"

"Thanks for the food, then." Without hesitation, Sally tore open the wrapping (well, it was single square of clear plastic, and she undid the single string that tied the corners together) and began to eat.

"Oi! Don't get crumbs on my bed!"

"Sorry." Sally said, not even sounding sarcastic this time. She immediately crammed it all in her mouth and began to struggle.

Harry merely sighed. Good memories, huh? An answer came to him, and he wondered what he could give.

…Nope, he still had no idea.

"Do you want anything?" He turned to his friend. "For Christmas, I mean."

After she finally swallowed, Sally glared at him. "I don't deal with material objects." Her tone was a tad haughty.

"I meant if you wanted me to do anything special for you. Idiot." Harry lightly retorted.

"Hmm. I could ask you to dance like a clown," the girl mused. "Or maybe act like a baboon."

"I'll do it, you know. But only this once." Harry was serious.

"Yeah, you being so willing makes it not fun at all." Sally flopped back down onto the bed. "Whatever. I'm bored. This is stupid."

"Still better than sneakily eating leftovers while cleaning the kitchen." Harry muttered to himself, leaning back against the headboard.

Sally twisted around, looked up at him from the foot of the bed. "Aunt and uncle, huh?"

"How do you–right, perfect memory." Harry shook his head. Every time he thought he got used to it, he was still surprised.

"Yeah." Sally said again. "I never apologised…for everything that I did, right?"

"I can't remember." Harry said. It was true–he indeed could not remember. "And I don't really care." Also true.

"Okay. Okay." Sally breathed.

"Wait." Logic fell into place, and Harry tilted his head. "Shouldn't you be able to recall that?"

"It doesn't extend to every moment of every day, idiot." Sally said. She turned again, gazed out at the clear night sky through the window. "Only when I'm paying attention. Or if it's a book. Or if…" she took a breath. "If it's a…"

Harry reached over and rested a hand on her back. "You don't have to say it if you don't want to." Besides, he could guess enough to fill in the blanks. "If you can't forget your bad memories, then just make enough good ones to balance them out."

Sally laughed. "You really are a freak, aren't you? To be able to get into people's heads like that."

"I don't want to hear that from someone who broke into the filing room and blackmailed everybody with their traumas." Harry said. "I think only a freak would even think of that."

"Eh, you got me." Sally conceded without rancor.

But Harry was still curious. Standing from the bed, he walked over to his closet, where he retrieved a certain item, which he tossed to Sally.

Sally caught the toy knife, the grey dagger of hard rubber, and did a few practice swings with it, slashing the air. "What about this?"

"I remember what you said. You don't like to keep stuff. You never steal…things. Why?"

"There's no point in having things that can be stolen." Sally said simply. "And there's no point in being attached to things if they can use it against you."

"'They'..." The word escaped Harry's lips before he could stop himself.

"Yeah." Sally closed her eyes. "'They'. But it was only one person, really."

"Are you really okay with telling me this?" Harry said immediately.

"If I didn't want to let you know I wouldn't have brought it up in the first place." Sally echoed Harry's words. "Plus I know all about you already, fairytale orphan."

"What did you just call me?" Harry blurted, with a bit more anger than was strictly necessary.

"Dead parents, abusive relatives, secretly knows magic. That's really something out of a story." Sally shrugged.

"I'm not the only idiot that knows magic, you know." Harry narrowed his eyes.

"Compare that to me. All I did to end up here was to have a crazy…woman…for my mother." Sally breathed. "Truly a master when it comes to using the carrot and the stick. At least now nobody tells me how to use my perfect memory, and the adults here seeing me as just another kid is miles better than being treated as some sort of portable library or tape recorder."

"And your dad?" Harry asked, almost automatically.

"Dead. But at least I remember him loving me before he died." Sally flopped back down and crawled over to rest her head on Harry's pillow. "I know it was really an accident, but…sometimes I think my mother killed him so she could use me for herself. And sometimes I can't help but hate him for dying and leaving me behind."

Harry had no response to those heavy words. "You've been…waiting a while to say that, huh?"

"Waiting for someone who actually cared. Not like an adult who asks questions because its their job, or the kid next to you who only cares that you can give them the answer to last night's homework."

"I…"

"You've never asked me to use my ability for yourself even once, and you said that you'd be my friend even after all the horrible things I did to you. You clearly like me enough to care."

Really, now? Harry thought sarcastically. "Maybe all I said was just a lie, and I'm just waiting to take my revenge, bwa ha ha–oh." He instantly cut off his joke as Sally's expression palpably changed, as instant as a dark cloud blocking out the sun. "No, no, I was just kidding." He hurriedly rushed over to reassure her.

"Never say anything like that again." Sally's voice was quiet and serious, and her gaze had become dull. "You can joke about anything else, call me a freak or any other name, even, but never ever–"

"Yeah, I get it." Harry gently patted her head, before seizing her in a proper hug. Their cheeks brushed past each other, and Harry felt a hint of wetness, of tears. "I'll never betray you. I'll be your friend for as long as you want."

"Forever." Sally instantly said. "For as long as I remember."

"That's a very long time." Harry said mildly, trying to diffuse the heavy atmosphere.

"My Christmas present, Potter."

"For goodness's sake, Perks." Harry made to detach himself, but the girl made no sign of wanting to let go.

"I want many more good memories."

"…"

For a while the two of them simply stayed like that, each enjoying the other's warmth, neither really thinking of anything.

Of course, as the situation went, they eventually got uncomfortable.

"My neck's tired," Sally remarked afrer some time, as if she hadn't been crying like a (albeit quiet) baby. "Got any more cookies?"

"Not for you, idiot." Harry retorted. "We could probably sneak into the kitchens later." More to continue the conversation than anything, and also because it was something he had been curious about for a while now, he asked a question. "Hey. Remember when you asked me to teach you magic?"

"Yeah?" The girl replied, her voice slightly hoarse. "I remember everything, Scarhead."

Harry rolled his eyes back in response. "As in, why? Why did you think I could teach you stuff? With me being younger than you and all."

"Dunno." The girl shrugged. "I guess...hmm."

"So much for having a perfect memory." Harry snarked.

"That doesn't apply to my every thought at every waking moment, idiot." Sally shot back. "But yeah, I recall now. It was when we fought on the roof."

"Oh." Harry cringed. It was one of the moments where he had lost control of himself.

"You did some funny stuff and made...a cane...appear." Sally gritted out the last part, as if even the word cane itself was hard for her to say. "I couldn't conjure things, so I thought you knew something I didn't."

What did I tell you, Harry? Elly chimed in from within him. Harry chose not to respond.

Sally paused from where she was rummaging through Harry's desk. "Now that you mention it, you've never taught me that spell."

"I'm not sure you can learn it." Harry said the partial truth hesitantly. It wasn't wizardry, after all, but the other kind of magic that Elly had.

"C'mon, Harry." Sally whined.

"It's...I promised someone that I would keep it secret." Harry said. "And I can't break that promise."

"Oh?" Sally perked up in interest. "Who?"

"Someone." Harry said. If he divulged that his magic teacher was a personality living inside his head, he probably would never hear the end of it from Sally.

Harry. Elly interrupted again. Remember that Sally doesn't see any difference between my magic and the spells that I've been teaching you.

Right.

"Elly, right?" The brown-haired girl said, quietly.

"What?"

"Never mind!" Sally spoke in a louder voice. "I'll just accept it as part of you being mysterious."

"Me being mysterious?" Harry said, a touch indignant.

"Well, I kinda sorta sensed that you had magic from the start." Sally stared up into the sky. "I think it's why…I tried to hurt you the most."

"Huh," Harry marvelled. He didn't exactly know how to respond to that. He paused. "Hey, do you want to call Branwen over?"

"No." Sally said. "Just shut up. And hand over the damn cookies."

Just to be clear: we don't know the backstory of the actual Index in Toaru. Sally's background here is my own creation.

Review please!