A Sweet Summary/End of Prologue part 2
August 1986
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It was the start of a new school year. The beginning of another year that was absolutely packed with more knowledge for Tom to learn.
His future looked bright and the days soon to come were sure to be filled with things he was genuinely excited to know about. Things that would propel him to much greater heights than ever before.
Speaking of achieving greater heights, the money he had received from selling the parts of the basilisk alone was enough that if he had decided to, he could legitimately buy his own castle, along with a noble title. And that wasn't even counting the rest of what he had sold! It was absolutely absurd how much money he was making to be honest.
He wasn't sure he was going to be able to spend it all. Not without travelling the world to collect rare artifacts and books from all over the world for his own collection.
The new trunk he had picked up from the luggage shop would also help with that a lot. Especially since it came with a complimentary book. One on how to create expanded spaces and use them properly, without causing it to collapse into a singularity. Or end up making it cost more magic than he could maintain on his own. Mostly because he didn't feel as though every world would have its own magic for him to siphon to power such things.
As well as that, Ollivander had also taken it upon himself to teach both Legilimency and Occlumency to Tom over the first few years of his apprenticeship while they took breaks from wand- and staff-making. Simply for the sake of him not accidentally leaking secrets. That would be extremely crucial when he went to places like Asia, lest he find himself trapped within the clutches of a hungry Gumiho, or some other such monstrous being.
That meant that he was already able to detect when he was being scanned, as well as send false impressions and thoughts to them to hide his true intentions. He was actually quite talented at both aspects of that magic, able to grow in leaps and bounds with the mind arts. Which incidentally allowed him to gain a bit of skill in the art of subterfuge.
All he needed to do was check what someone was most likely to believe based on surface thoughts and the implied impressions thereof, and he would be able to misdirect all but the most stubborn of individuals away from whatever it was he didn't feel like telling them. Simple, yet rather effective.
In fact, he was told that while the art was an ever changing and evolving one, he would likely be far ahead of his peers by the time he graduated, and he hadn't even had a chance to use the Time Turner to practice such things! It was quite horrifying to him that he was so good at the one thing he feared most, but it was also strangely comforting that he would be more easily able to defend against it than others of a similar age, or at least with a similar amount of practice.
"Haaah, it's good to have money," Tom sighed, drawing the attention of the other occupants of the train car. "Now hopefully I don't run into anything that can disrupt my studies this year."
Unfortunately, it was Hogwarts. Something was bound to go wrong. Like the Cursed Ice for example. That was something he had read about in his last life, but he didn't actually know when that was supposed to be happening, or how bad it truly was. He would simply have to be ready to avoid it, like everyone else in the school.
Tom tried his best to be optimistic. It would be a pain if things didn't work out or if he got cursed, but he would do his best not to worry about it, despite his inherent nature.
He knew it would be really bad for his health if he worried about it, but the tightness in his chest just wouldn't go away. Unfortunate and scary, but it was a fact of life. Until he managed to get his family to a safe world, this feeling would probably come back repeatedly, forcing him to prepare himself as much as possible, lest he be worried until the end of time.
"… And last year, I heard that there are more Cursed Vaults that could be opened at any time, by any poor sap that happens to stumble across them like some sort of moron!" Jimmy — the young boy from the orphanage — claimed with a groan. "And we all know the Weasleys are going to be neck deep in it!"
Perhaps it was a good thing to be paranoid in the end. Maybe he should worry about things like this.
It could save his life one day. Seriously.
"Hey, it's not Charlie and Bill's fault that they ran into such things. There's a conspiracy going on!" Tonks argued in their favor. She was really quite passionate about it and seemed to find the dangers within exciting.
Perhaps Tom would have to be careful of her in the coming years. He didn't want to get cursed after all.
Well, he would have to see how things worked out in the end. Maybe it would be okay?
"I wonder what crazy thing they'll get up to this year?" Jimmy asked.
Tom tuned out the rest of the conversation, hoping the train ride would remain mostly peaceful until they arrived at the school.
~~~~
September 1986
~~~~
Dumbledore didn't seem to be the most sober of individuals at the best of times. At least in Tom's mind.
Why was this, one might ask? Well, it was rather simple.
For some reason, over the past few weeks since school had started, the old Headmaster had decided to question him lightly, attempting to guide him while maneuvering people to keep him company more often. He wasn't entirely sure he had been found out for using Time Turners or the Room of Requirement, but he was beginning to feel as though he was reaching some sort of understanding with the man. Something entirely unrelated to those things.
It was strange, curious even, but Tom felt as though the old headmaster was warming up to him day by day, until finally…
"Tom, my boy. How would you like to learn the basics of Alchemy from an old man like me?" Dumbledore asked him, his blue eyes shining as he peered down at the dark-haired young man with a grandfatherly smile.
"If you can teach me without the use of Cannabis, then I don't see why not?" Tom told him, returning the smile with a genuine one of his own.
The man may be old, he may indeed be senile, and he was certainly high off his ass, but Tom had heard stories about the types of things the man was capable of in his youth. If the old man could teach even half of what he knew, Tom would be a fool to dismiss it without trying to learn.
"Of course! I will refrain from mind-altering substances when I am teaching you, simply for your continued health," Dumbledore told him with a chuckle. "After all, I find my aim and reaction times are a little off when I'm smoking this magical medicine I've received from an old colleague, and we wouldn't want any accidents to occur."
That made all too much sense to Tom. He could certainly see the magical weed having such effects, especially at higher doses.
Wait, hold on a minute. "Aim?"
"Of course, my boy!" Dumbledore chuckled. "The first step to learning Alchemy is Battle Transfiguration after all!"
Well shit. This was gonna be rough, he could already tell.
At least he would be learning quite a lot of useful techniques?
"Then— when do we start?" Tom asked with a tilt of his head, trying his best to hide his nervous sweat.
"Whenever you are ready, my boy." Dumbledore grinned, nodding to the entrance of a corridor in his office that had not been there before. "Whenever you are ready."
~~~~
December 1986
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It had been a harrowing experience so far.
The school was affected by the ever-creeping presence of the ice from the fifth floor, which seemed to adapt to any attempts at removal near instantaneously. Be it through magical or mundane means, if one tried to get rid of the ice, it simply adapted and grew slightly faster.
For obvious reasons, the classes in that part of the school were moved. Many students were given the option to house themselves at Hogsmeade, taking classes remotely instead of staying within the castle until they had sorted everything out. Something Tom wished he could make use of, but he needed access to the Room of Requirement to help continue his education.
It was certainly a good thing that he managed to get the house elves to find the vanishing cabinet within the Room of Requirement that was purchasable for cheap. Thus, he would at the very least be able to access the resources that were contained within Hogwarts, even after he left to do other things.
He would definitely need to learn how to make such things himself, and how to connect to them across dimensions. It was the only way he could see himself being able to study the Room of Requirement enough to make a more portable one. Tom would need it once he got to the other world, as six years just wasn't enough time. Even if he lived each day three times over, which he couldn't do if he wanted to remain hidden.
There was a hard limit on how much he could do at Hogwarts. One and a half days for every day would be looked at as if he was simply growing faster than his peers. Any more than that and he would be immediately caught. That was a risk he did not want to take.
Penalties for the apparent theft and misuse of a Time Turner could get him a year in Azkaban, regardless of chronological age. After all, how would they be able to tell he hadn't turned of age while he was travelling through time. And he did not want to give his magical device up either. Not one bit.
On the bright side, Tom had found something rather interesting to use as a ritual that the Room of Requirement showed him. One that would make him immune to any form of cold or ice, as the cursed ice crept closer to the Room. It only required the blood of a basilisk, the heart of a dragon, and the crystallized tears of a Yuki-onna.
All of which were simple to access, as he already had two of those things on hand, and the third was literally obtainable by mail order from a certain clan over in Japan. Needless to say, he was eager to get started on such a thing. After all, he was going to be meeting with them directly for a large purchase of some other things, so it wouldn't be hard to procure enough to do the ritual with during the winter break.
Perhaps he could even find someone that would be willing to point him to where he could find himself a proper magical familiar while he was there? Something that could grow stronger with him while he was travelling the multiverse, maybe.
As it was, he would simply have to survive the plane ride to Japan first.
"I know you hate flying in planes, but we can't exactly fly to Japan on a broomstick with you," Ashley told him with a small grin. "Besides, aren't we going to Japan to find you a pretty girl or something?"
"No dear, we're going there to make a business deal with a gem manufacturing group," Jerry told his wife chidingly, a small smile on his face. "We need to keep in mind that our young boy is very much doing his best to create a legacy for himself before he makes that kind of legacy. We don't want to push him to getting a girlfriend too early after all."
"You know what? You're right," his mother claimed with a sage-like nod, a teasing smile on her face as she tried to distract him from the flying metal deathtrap they were stuck within. "Just because we were childhood friends, doesn't mean that every lasting relationship needs to be the same."
At some point during their banter, Tom began to slowly relax and drift off to sleep.
~~~~
Summer 1987
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With the way his ritual had worked on the bodies of him and his family, he was not surprised that intense heat tended to make him feel a little uncomfortable at this point. Within his veins flowed the very same cursed ice that was plaguing Hogwarts. His mother Ashley had helped him with that, which he was thankful for.
It would adapt eventually, and allow him to withstand much greater temperatures, but its cursed nature was toned down quite a bit to make it compatible with a human host. His father, for example, was far more willing to test his limits. From eating burning hot food, to bathing in literally boiling water, the man seemed to push the boundaries of his new physiology as much as possible to allow himself to keep up with the other two, who had the ability to produce magic naturally.
He was able to absorb and adapt to magic since then, but he still wanted to be able to prove he was at least physically capable of keeping up with the other two, even if he wasn't able to actually cast magic of his own. It was something that was quite interesting to Tom, as Jerry seemed to make it a point to do his best to learn various martial arts so he could better protect his family.
And to think all it took was the mere mention of potential dark lords that would wish them harm for him to jump on that faster than a tiger on a pig in India. Which was where they were currently learning healing magic and potions, all for the sake of any potential injuries they may obtain.
After all, their blood was legitimately dangerous at this point and would likely kill anything that tried to imbibe it. Even getting it on the skin of someone that he did not want to kill was an absolute nope. It would be an excruciating way to die depending on where it splattered, and if they could remove the affected area in time.
"Well, I can safely say that while your father Jerry has no skill at casting any sort of spell on himself, he can safely imbibe potions and is able to heal himself — along with enhancing his strength — by concentrating his Chakras into the affected area just fine," the healer in front of Tom told him with a patient smile.
"Wait, Chakras?" Tom asked with a confused expression. "What is that?"
"Those are the physical and spiritual Chakra that he makes within his body as a result of coming into possession of a magical bloodline ability, yet not having magic," the man told him with a grin. "The Asians call it something different, but here, the mental and physical energies of a non-magical warrior are called the Chakras."
"Huh." Well, you learn something new every day, Tom supposed. It was almost time for dinner, however, and he was dreading what they were going to feed them that day.
It was spicy curry night after all.
~~~~
October 1988
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There was a certain sense of accomplishment one felt, when they realized that they held the ticket to all the dark and dangerous magic rituals they could ever desire, in a cage under the Draught of Living Death. It was even more poignant when he sent in a letter to Madame Bones, pointing out that Sirius Black had never stood trial, and that he had the so-called Peter Pettigrew that had supposedly been killed by the "Notorious Criminal" — and was given an Order of Merlin posthumously — locked up alive in a cage as a rat Animagus under potion to prove the man's innocence.
Of course, that meant that within a week, Amelia Bones had him meet with her in her office, guided by a team of trusted Aurors, and it was discovered that he was indeed telling the truth. Once that was established, he was told to remain for the trial so he could testify.
"Will I be held accountable if he does something incredibly stupid as a result of having been locked up in Azkaban for so long without a trial?" Tom asked with a grimace, not wanting to go anywhere near the man until he had seen a mind healer.
"Not particularly, no," Madame Bones told him with a look of disapproval. "However, we are going to have to note you down on record as the one who saved his life in the end, and you are going to receive a reward from the ministry, let alone Mister Black."
Leaning forwards a little, she gave him a small smile. "Between you and me, it's better for you to be in the room with him so that he knows his savior is watching over him. If I know him as well as I used to, he will want to cling to you and use you as a guiding star for a while, so you'll have the best chance at putting him back together right."
She patted him on the shoulder, "You at least can't do worse than James."
Was she implying what he thought she was? Damn. She was sneaky.
But if it meant that he was legally approved to take advantage of the guy for helping him, well… He wasn't exactly going to say no.
How hard could it be to hire a mind healer and just sit with him to talk when he needed it, after all? If all he needed was advice, then Tom was pretty good at that. And if he needed a friend, well, Tom could do that too, he supposed.
"I guess I can make the attempt," Tom told her with a light grimace. "It shouldn't be so hard as to make it impossible to help him, I think."
After a moment he sighed. "I make no promises that he will be in better shape than before his imprisonment in Azkaban, but I'll at least try to ensure he is capable of handling himself, if worse comes to worst."
Amelia Bones nodded at him, rubbing her eyes lightly as she showed her appreciation with a small smile. "Thank you."
"I am doing it because it's the right thing to do, not because I particularly enjoy it," Tom commented with a sigh, causing her to smile at him.
Of course, this was the farthest thing from the truth and they both knew it, but it would make her job easier if she didn't have legal reason to send people to watch over them. After all, he was well aware that if he specifically stated he intended to exploit Sirius Black, they would indeed be obligated to monitor him more closely. Something that would make it take longer for the man to recover.
He didn't want to deal with the consequences if the man went off the rails from being too closely watched. Especially because he was well aware that the first thing Sirius was going to do was check on Harry at the Dursleys.
Tom only hoped that Dumbledore wasn't going to stop teaching him private lessons on Alchemy and Battle Transfiguration once he realized that he had freed Sirius. After all, the man was the one who witnessed the Secret so it could be kept in canon, the one who casted the Fidelius ward, wasn't he?
~~~~
Halloween 1988
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As soon as the trial was over, Tom was brought over to meet Sirius Black in the recovery wards of Saint Mungo's. They were attempting to treat him for injuries both physical and not, and he was being incredibly insistent on meeting the young boy who saved him from the cold, dark days in Azkaban, with soul eating beings nearby at all times.
Tom understood why. Even if it made him want to tear his hair out at the fact that the man was already making death threats to the nurses. All because they told him he needed to rest and recover a bit longer before they could meet.
It was only common sense that he would need to rest in the young boy's mind, but Sirius Black wanted to know who saved him and why, so he apparently needed to go explain himself to what was essentially an ungrateful manchild from the impression he was given of the man.
He would have to hold back his judgement a little. At least, for now. It would look bad on him if he were to go in with the intentions to shut down any of his questions based on hearsay after all.
When he arrived in the brightly lit room he was guided to by the healers, he found himself face to face with an anxious child in a man's body. He could instantly see that the man had been through so much, and that he was looking for something, anything he could hold onto for just a tiny sliver of hope for the future.
"Hey," Tom called softly, moving slowly into the room to take a seat across from his bed facing him. "My name is Tom. Tom Dick Harry."
Yes, he did in fact say this deliberately. He figured Sirius would laugh at it, and it would break the ice. Unfortunately, it also had the result of reminding the man of his Godson.
"Oh my fu— My godson Harry! I need to make sure Harry is alright!" he panicked, and the nurses came in on the spot, ready to sedate him.
"It's gonna be alright, Sirius," Tom told him gently, waving the nurses off with a calm countenance. "We'll go find Harry, but you need to stay calm."
"Right," the distressed man began to take some deep breaths, "Alright."
"Now, I'm going to ask the nurses to bring Dumbledore so we can go get Harry, but we need you to stay calm, and keep taking deep breaths," the young boy told the much older man with a relaxed tone, allowing Sirius to center himself by listening to the sound of his voice.
Sirius nodded, following along just as he figured would happen. The man hadn't lost his rationality after all, he was just having a panic attack. "Okay, Alright."
After a moment or two, the Nurses came back in with Dumbledore, who was once again high as a kite. And he was with an apparently underfed and shoddily dressed child, who couldn't have been more than six years old by the looks of it. Of course, the glasses and thunderbolt-shaped scar barely visible under his fringe told Tom all he needed to know.
"Harry?" Sirius asked, as if afraid of the answer.
"I was told if I came here, I wouldn't have to go back to Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia," Harry shyly pleaded, as if he didn't quite believe the words himself.
That was the wrong thing to say in that moment, as Sirius began to inhale a sharp breath. Luckily, Tom was on the ball, and as quickly and quietly as he could, he cast a quick sleeping spell on the man, catching him before he could hit the floor.
"Sorry, he needs to speak with Dumbledore when you're not in the room Harry," Tom grunted, doing his best to help the nurses put him back into the bed. "Because something tells me you were not supposed to be living with your Aunt and Uncle, and that they were a really bad fit."
"Uh, but I'm not normal, so I'm not sure that it was their fault," Harry tried to defend them, doing his best to not get into any trouble.
"Oh god. It's worse than I thought," Tom muttered. "Can one of the nurses wake up Sirius once I've gotten Harry far enough away that he doesn't see or hear what's about to happen? Dumbledore should stay and talk it out with the man as much as possible, but I don't think—"
"How could you! I trusted you!" Sirius exclaimed, his voice loud enough for them to hear as he was awakened too early.
"He should have never gone to the Dursleys, you know damn well that that was stated in the will!" Sirius roared at him with the most pained and aggrieved expression on his face.
In the moment of shock Tom had experienced from this, Harry had taken it upon himself to sneak up on the poor man and pat him on the knee, causing Sirius to pick him up and hold him gently as though he could break at any moment. "Look at him, Dumbledore! They must have hardly fed him! He's so tiny!"
At this point, Dumbledore sighed, and offered Sirius a strange looking cigar while he took a moment to speak. "I cannot apologize enough for my actions, Sirius. My mind simply isn't what it used to be."
"And what's this for?" Sirius asked, not entirely sure what to do with the thing.
Dumbledore looked at him with a strangely serene expression on his face. One that seemed to make Sirius straighten up, his scraggly hair falling behind him as he looked at the man with an uneasy glare. "We are going to head back to my office and talk it all out. This will help the process immensely," the old headmaster told him in no uncertain terms.
"Tom, you may bring Harry once you have waited for midnight, but should he be asleep by then, try not to wake him as you do," Dumbledore told him with a sigh. And then they were off, making their way towards the floo.
Turning to Harry, Tom smiled. "Well, we have a few hours to burn while we wait for them. Why don't we see if we can get you some ice cream?"
"I've never had ice cream before," Harry breathed in awe.
And that was probably the saddest thing he had heard all day.
~~~~
November 1988
~~~~
Witnessing Sirius Black try to tear a completely stoned Dumbledore a new asshole was amusing for all of ten seconds. Mostly because it only lasted that long before the old headmaster of Hogwarts decided that he should simply give the rightfully angered man a blunt.
The results, while potentially hazardous to anyone within the same room as them for the next several hours, led to Tom gaining access to all of Dumbledore's most prized alchemical techniques and experiences in his advanced library. Completely unattended. It would have almost been funny if it wasn't for the fact that the techniques were not coded nor cursed, and in fact, were barely even locked up despite everything.
The only true barrier between Tom and that knowledge was the fact that he hadn't known where to look for them. They were all hidden in the notes within smutty novels of various kinds, a few tips and tricks for alchemy that would have been missed if he didn't hear from the man himself that that was exactly how he wrote his findings down.
While that was rather telling of the man's proclivities and mental state when he was a bit younger, Tom was unwilling to bet against this literally just being his own personal way to troll anyone who wished to learn his magic style. Fortunately, he was still physically too young to actually have much of a reaction. If that wasn't the case, he might have been a lot more embarrassed about the story of a calm and sweet Yuki-onna taking care of a sick man with her massive tits than he would otherwise like to admit.
Say what you would about Dumbledore, but the man certainly had taste.
~~~~
April 1989
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"Come on Tom! Quickly now!" Tonks called out to Tom as he made his way leisurely towards the Hogwarts kitchens. It was almost strange how the girl seemed to think they needed to sneak into them, despite the fact that they quite regularly had snacks delivered to them in their common room every day.
Was this some strange sort of thing young girls just did at this age? Did she feel the need to hide that she wanted to eat more from the others? How was sneaking into the kitchens quietly going to solve any of this when she could just walk in normally?
He had many questions, and with Bill and Charlie also tagging along, he didn't feel the need to question her. If only because they were walking straight past the entrance to the kitchens multiple times a day.
Tom found it quite amusing that she hadn't noticed it yet, if he was being honest with himself. It was as if she had simply glossed over what their head of house had explained to them multiple times over the years, for utterly indecipherable reasons.
Well, it was pointless to linger on it. He figured the little game had gone on long enough either way.
Tickling the pear on the entrance, Tom grabbed the handle that appeared and opened the door wide for the rest of them. With the air of someone who had been in the kitchens a thousand times, he made his way over to a table inside and sat down, greeting the house elves as he did. "Hey guys, brought some friends today," he called out to them with a small smile, knowing full well what the reaction from the students would be.
"Hey, what the bloody—" Charlie started, only for the group to be rapidly ushered in and fawned over by the house elves.
"Yous looks very hungry! Yous should eats!" one of the house elves claimed, offering home-made pumpkin pie for the entire group, topped with whipped cream and cinnamon.
Where they got fresh pumpkin for the group in April of all things was not something that Tom was going to question. Especially not when they had decided to give him a plate full of chocolate chip cookies and a glass of steamed milk to go with it for bringing them there.
The dark-haired boy nodded, grateful for their consideration of giving him cookies rather than pumpkin pie after he had already had so much of it throughout the year. "Thanks, I really appreciate it."
"Think nothing of it, Young Master Tom," a familiar cultured voice called out from nearby. "It is my duty as your new head house elf to anticipate and assist you with your daily needs."
Of course Larry was willing to help as much as he could. Tom could only barely remember the meeting with Dumbledore that day, where the old man had sold him three house elves for rather cheap, but he could at least remember that Larry, Curly, and Moe were all rather ecstatic about working with him in the end.
Apparently working with him had become a rather prestigious position while he was staying at Hogwarts. Especially with how well he managed to avoid all the random curses from the cursed vaults by sheer attention to detail and meticulous route planning. While he hadn't exactly had that great of a memory — at least before he started the process for a mind ritual that he needed to complete this year at the latest — his memory also wasn't the worst. So his ability to memorize his routes and timing to avoid danger was actually pretty spot on.
It would only help when he finished the Memory Permanence ritual that — while misleading in name — would allow him to store his memories in his soul instead of his mind directly, allowing them to last much longer as well as allowing him to keep them even if he suffered massive permanent cranial damage. It wouldn't do to lose your memories because you were smacked with something heavy after all.
The spell had the bonus side effect of making one's memories harder to tamper with and read, because they were not stored in the mind. Only those who could read souls would be able to read his mind when it was finished, and he was chomping at the bit to get the ritual finished because of this.
Still, this wasn't the time and place to get lost in thought. He should eat while the food was still warm.
"Why didn't you tell us that the kitchen was open to just anyone? We could have been doing this the whole time!" Charlie called out from beside him, snagging a cookie for himself.
Tom sighed. This was his life so far. "You never asked," he stated with another tired sigh.
"Well I never knew I could!"
Was this the thanks he got for being nice? Tom was certainly reconsidering doing anything for the Weasley brothers at this point.
Perhaps he could simply step away from them in the future.
…Maybe.
~~~~
Summer 1989
~~~~
Egypt was very sandy. Tom was beginning to hate that fact.
It was coarse, rough, irritating, and it got in all of his books for some reason. Something he wasn't enthused about in the slightest.
He was beginning to think that the time he spent looking around at the various tourist attractions and magical shops with his parents simply wasn't worth it as well. Because the only true difference between the books he could get in Egypt and the ones he could get in Britain was that the ones in Britain actually contained English in at least half of the book.
Sure, he had managed to learn how to read Egyptian hieroglyphs in preparation for his Ancient Runes course, but that didn't mean he was overly fond of reading entire novels in the language. Especially the ones that seemed more like badly translated Egyptian fanfics being sold as instruction manuals for various rituals and spells.
At least not everything was a bust, as there was a book on how to make your own Flying Carpet that essentially took less effort to create than learning to ride a bike. Just grab a carpet and imbue it with a spell while soaking it in special oils, and you were pretty much golden.
It didn't necessarily need to be a carpet either, or even have it soaked in the oils. In all honesty, it was just that it made the carpet stronger and less likely to tear. The oils also helped to keep it from rotting if it was stored in a wet area.
In all honesty, it was just annoying that there were so many scammers and scalpers, and his parents seemed to fall for every single one of their schemes. Case in point, the guided tour of the magical pyramids, with the young local wizard guiding them through it for the equivalent of a thousand British pounds. He was never letting his parents hold his wallet again, no matter what they claimed they were going to buy.
Hell, he had only went along because they were adamant about going with or without him, and Tom did not believe that they had decided such of their own free will. He simply wouldn't let the young wizard take his parents off to be fodder for whatever this man's foul scheme was, and he was quick to contact the local equivalent of the Aurors to ensure that things were well in hand.
They sent him in as bait with a few magical detectors and transmitters that they said should be able to see if there was any magical influence, and protect him from such, but they also made sure to give him a portkey that he could use if things got rough. One specifically designed to punch a hole through magical barriers, and that could be remotely activated if he was in danger.
He tried to get one for each of his parents as well, but they considered it too risky. That was utter bullshit in his opinion, but he had to listen if he wanted the help, so he did.
And lo and behold, the young man led them to a hidden magical door, filled with unfathomable magic power. Just as he expected.
"You three will make excellent food for my goddess," the young not-guide told them, holding up a magical book of some sort to the ceiling and allowing a bright light to fill the room.
When the light died down, the Aurors rushed in, subduing the man before he could finish whatever he was doing. Unfortunately, the book fell open, right at Tom's feet.
"The Fluffynomicon?" he asked himself, mildly drawn to it despite himself. Picking it up, he felt a strange warmth suffuse him, a giggle whispering through the tomb into his ears as he simply pocketed the book on reflex.
He would certainly go read it later. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to come here after all.
"Nooooo! My goddess! I only wished to summon thee!" the man cried in a corner, panicking and slowly turning into a tiny fox. Well, it was what he deserved. Or at least that was what he felt should happen to the man as punishment for messing with him.
Huh, something wasn't quite right, but he couldn't put his mind on it. What could it be?
The Aurors began to look around the area in a mad rush to find the artifacts that had caused the cultist to do what he had, but for some reason they came up short in the end. All their spells to search for whatever may have caused such a reaction came up blank, and their magical scans of the cultist came up as him having been cursed by Thoth to become a fox for their transgressions.
As a side note, Tom apparently had the blessings of both Θώθ and Inari lingering on him according to their scans. Something he had no clue how to feel about.
"So, I was blessed by the Fox god and a god of Furries?" Tom asked in confusion as he left the Pyramid with his rather shaken family.
"Just be thankful that any god or goddess liked you enough to provide a blessing. Please ensure that you do nothing to anger them," the Auror chastised with a hint of a teasing grin. "After all, if you're blessed by the fluffy ones, you will at least never be without companionship, nor will you ever go hungry."
Tom thought about that for a moment and realized the man was right. Furries were normally rich after all. So he could easily see how that would relate to him making enough money to never have to worry about being able to feed himself.
Huh, maybe he should write back to the Inari Fushimi shrine and ask how to make a shrine for his home?
~~~~
June 1991
~~~~
When Tom had decided to go to France for the summer, he really wasn't expecting to actually find the worlds most renowned alchemists in the modern age. Fortunately for him, his parents dosed him with liquid luck and told him to go find himself a date with a pretty woman, which he wasn't exactly keen on doing himself.
His mother might have had good intentions, but it was still annoying that she potioned his drink just to get him laid. She knew full well what his thoughts on such things were, and he was not interested in doing such things at this point in his life.
However, who he met instead was a kindly older couple, who saw him fuming in a bar while he poured over Albus Dumbledore's notes on potential methods to make a Philosopher's Stone, and decided to talk with him.
"Good evening young man! What school project do you have that's causing you such stress?" the gentlemanly French man asked, taking up a seat next to him at the bar. One glance at the paper had him laughing outright. "I see little AlbusDumbledore finally took on a student of his own, did he? I wonder what he'd think if his student managed to figure out the secret before he did?"
"Oh? Can you give me a hint?" Tom asked with a raised eyebrow, not entirely sure where the man was going with this.
"Tell you what, if you can tell me the fastest way to create a soul trap for a powerful magical creature such as a Lich, then I'll consider it," the man told him with a grin. "I'll be keeping my eyes on you from now on, so do impress me, kid."
After that, the man walked away with his wife in tow, and he was fairly certain he had literally just been given the answer on a silver platter. The Philosopher's Stone required the soul of a Lich or another powerful undead being to power it. And he knew where to get one of those things.
Well, he certainly wasn't going to waste his time in France trying to chase after his parents when he could be in England dealing with his little mortality issues. How cute it was that he had all the answers he needed, and so little time before the potion ran out.
Well, no time like the present to learn to apparate long distances, right? Maybe it was just the potion, but he felt confident in his chances.
So off he went!
~~~~
August 1991
~~~~
"So let me get this straight. You managed to figure out how to make a Philosopher's Stone, made one for each of Voldemort's soul pieces including the one we pulled from my godson, and now you're leaving us behind to look after your financial holdings while you fling yourself through time and space. Did I catch everything?" Sirius asked, standing with Tonks and Jimmy at the entrance to the ritual site in the Black Manor.
"Yeah, and now that all the rituals are done for my family and I," Tom rubbed his now silver goatee with a smile, his blue eyes shining with a knowledge they should not possibly have, "I'm going to at least attempt to find a world that is slightly less dangerous for us to live in."
"But Uncle Tom! What about us?!" a young Harry Potter asked in utter despair. It was clear that between going to Hogwarts and having the man that freed his godfather around to teach him more magic himself, Harry preferred the latter.
"You can come along if you want," Tom sighed, knowing that if he didn't at least offer, the kid would inevitably find some way to bring him back, or ruin his ritual and have him cursed for an eternity. "But keep in mind that I have a limited magical supply of reagents, so I can only bring so many people."
Sirius looked at him and nodded. "We'll come. But what about her?" the man asked with a tilt of his head, motioning to the girl that was hiding herself at the edge of the doorframe.
"Tonks?" Harry asked, looking as though he was not exactly sure what to think of the girl's distraught expression.
"So you're leaving me behind?" Tonks asked with a hitch in her voice, moisture gathering in her eyes.
"Well, yes," Tom noted with a sigh, brushing the hair away from his deep blue eyes. "Unlike us, you actually have a life here you want to maintain, and taking both of my parents, as well as Sirius and Harry will be enough to run through the entirety of my prepared reagents for the Multiversal Transference ritual."
"What if I asked you to stay?" Tonks asked, her body subtly shifting in an attempt to seem more appealing to him. Unfortunately, he just wasn't interested in her in the slightest.
He had grown up in this life knowing her when he was a child, and he himself still felt like an old man inside from his last life, if one with a bit more youthful vigor to him. It just didn't feel right to see her like this, but he was simply not interested in the type of hint she seemed to be throwing his way out of the blue.
Hell, it almost came entirely out of left field for him, so he had no clue what to do in this instance besides to tell her no. He wasn't exactly about to sacrifice the safety and happiness of his family for her after all.
"I would bluntly tell you no, and that you have goals in life and a lot to look forward to here in this world," Tom told her with a sad smile. "Don't ruin what good things you have just for the off chance you think you have of finding love in a man that doesn't have the same interests as you."
"But I love you! I always have!" the girl claimed, beginning to openly cry about it. It was unfortunate, but the silver haired man would have no part in it.
"I am sorry, I truly am. But I cannot force myself to love you when all I see in you is a great friend, and one I both admire and respect for your dedication to your dreams," he said, his voice kind and soft as he gently told her that he would indeed never be able to return her affections.
"That does not mean there will be nothing to remember me by," the man continued, smiling softly. "I will be gifting you and Jimmy each a portion of my corporate empire, as well as a few vacation homes across the globe filled with copies of all the knowledge I have collected during my time here, for your perusal."
"But I don't want books, I want you…" she whispered softly, earning a light cough from Sirius Black.
"I'll get my will sorted out while I finish reinstating the Tonks into the Black Family line, though I definitely won't be leaving my books behind," Sirius claimed with an awkward smile. "The things within those just aren't suitable for children."
"I'm not a child!" Tonks called out, before letting out an aggrieved sigh, "But if you really can't love me, what did I do wrong?"
"Nothing," Tom told her with a cheeky grin. "I just don't have a taste for women who are too young for me."
That seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back, causing her to leave the room crying to herself. Unfortunately, he doubted they would be able to reconcile before he had to leave, so he was unwilling to bother chasing after her.
"Uh, Uncle Tom," Harry asked with a slightly wary expression. "Was that really necessary?"
"It was better than leading her on and taking her from everything she knows and loves for no reason other than allowing her to suffer with us until we get set up," Tom explained with a nod. "Who knows, maybe she'll find herself a nice older man to marry, and have funny shapeshifting children of her own. I just won't be the one to do it myself."
"Well, I hope you at least know what you're doing, Tom," Sirius sighed, allowing himself to relax into his armchair.
'So do I,' Tom thought to himself, brushing his goatee with a hand.
Because at the end of the day, if he didn't, then he was well and thoroughly fucked.
~~~~
Day of the Ritual
~~~~
The day of the ritual was upon them.
With his family gathered, both his mother and father holding onto the luggage for them shrunk and stored within a few magical suitcases, he felt he was almost ready to go. Only Sirius and Harry, who would be arriving within a few minutes, were yet needed.
Deep within the depths of one of the trunks, the three house elves, Larry, Curly and Moe were doing their best to organize and store all of the many things that were being kept within. They, along with many other creatures and plants, would be coming with them to whatever worlds they explored, allowing Tom to have access to plenty of help and magical reagents should he so choose.
There was a knock on the door behind them, and the door to the coffee shop-like interior of the ritual chambers opened, revealing the solemn faces of the last two people he needed. As they closed the door, magically locking it behind them, Harry nodded and began the ritual.
"With magical fire to roast the Holy Beans of Life, powered by the souls of the Truly Evil, I begin this ritual in dedication to the Fluffiest of All," Tom began, standing entirely naked in front of a specialized kiln. He was focused, filled with enough caffeinated beverages to give him heart palpitations, and beginning to sweat already from using a Philosopher's Stone to fuel the ritual.
As the beans cooked, he watched them carefully. It was a very special process that needed the utmost attention, one that he could not spare even a moment to look away from.
Once the magic had soaked in and the beans were roasted to perfection, he pulled them out with wandless magic and put them in the magical grinder. "By the might of my magic, I crush the beans against the rocks from the Tallest Peak in the True North of the world."
According to the ritual, the more effort he went to gathering these things, the more likely he would be to summon the elder goddess, so he had actually climbed a mountain in Canada with full intent to mine the stone there for grinding coffee with. The locals looked at him as if he was crazy, but they were the ones smoking pot every day and enjoying their Fentanyl in the not so far off future, so he didn't truly care.
Finishing once they were finely ground, he used his wand to adjust his magic so he could gently lift each individual grain and put them into the French press like a stream of flowing sand. As soon as it was all within the coffee press, Tom smiled, holding a bottle of a very specific type of water. "And with the water collected from the Purified Sap of a thousand Maple Trees, boiled in Magical Flame, I brew you, Aiko Akiyoshi, a delicious mug of coffee."
He did exactly as described in the book, and poured it into the prepared mug on a magic circle inscribed coaster, adding normal cream and sugar to the exact specifications.
And then he felt it. The exhilarating feeling of being accepted by the goddess!
"Ah, you really didn't need to go through that much trouble," a golden blonde kitsune of nine tails claimed with a sigh, taking the coffee from him as she booped his nose. "Next time just go to a Tim Hortons and buy me a coffee there, just a normal Double Double."
Wait… What?
"Also, what the fuck kinda cursed book is this?" the kitsune puffed her tails up, shivering in disgust at a page somewhere within the ritual book that she didn't like. "I sure as hell hope you didn't try any of the other rituals in this or I'm going to have to give my daughter a spanking."
Sirius and Harry looked upon her in awe, her body glowing as she slid the book between her massive tits and let it disappear with a sigh. The constant pressure to summon her from the back of his soul seemed to dissipate instantly and he was left with the realization that he had indeed been cursed by that book for years and hadn't even realized.
Taking a sip of her coffee, she looked over them a bit more closely. "I can only help so much, by the way. If you have wishes you wish me to grant, like being sent to a random world within me, you'll have to complete a few tasks within there before you can actually summon me again. Otherwise, I'll accept the coffee through you, but I won't exactly answer your call until you have already passed on."
Did she just imply what he thought she did?
"That's not to say you should kill yourself to see me earlier. Nope. That would piss me off, so I'd make you wait for a thousand extra years per second of your life you would have had left normally, and you'll just be an angry ghost with no way to affect the real world around you, despite being cursed to wander around the space you died until I pick you up."
Apparently not. At least he hadn't accidentally joined a death cult, so that was a silver lining at least?
Flicking her ears in his direction, she continued her introductions and information dump. "By the way, all prayers to Inari will also reach me, as Inari and I have a sort of mutual Agreement to help each other out, since she is the goddess of Foxes, and despite all my power I am still a fox."
"Oh," Tom realized. He had made many wishes about being gifted good fortune and being sent to a world that was safer than this one, and had easier methods to travel between universes. "Uh, I apologize?"
"Why though?" Aiko asked with a tilt of her head, as if she wasn't sure what he was apologizing for, "I was only waiting for you because you didn't believe you could summon me, and because I needed you to save Harry and Sirius before I could take you away from here."
"So, you knew I would accomplish this?" he asked, his eyes wide as he thought of the implications.
"Hell no, I may be omnipotent, but I'm not omniscient. I can only watch so much for so long before my fluffy brain gets distracted by my own tails," Aiko chuckled, finishing her coffee with a grin.
Looking at all of them once more, she smiled. "Okay, so I'll grant the wishes within your hearts," Aiko told them with a slightly silly expression.
Not that he was going to tell her it was silly to her face.
"For Harry Potter, I grant access to and from the Room of Requirement to the three of you from any locked door, allowing you to return here at will," she claimed with a smile.
"For Sirius Black, I grant luck in all things Love to the party," she told them with a wink. "You will all find love someday, so long as you wait patiently."
"For Ashley and Jerry Harrison, I grant your son the name Thomas Richard Harrison, so that he will no longer need to have his name ridiculed amongst those in the know unless he allows it," Aiko told them with a smile, nodding her head at them in respect.
"And finally for Thomas, I grant safe passage for all of you into my inner worlds, that you may one day find the world you wish to settle on for good."
With that, her tails grabbed the party, swallowing them up along with their stuff and depositing them within the world she had planned out for their first stop.
The stage was set, and the story would continue in the next act of:
Home Sweet Home
AN:
Asdo21: Thank you all for sticking through with the prologue! Now for the actual story!
Kitsu: We had a prologue for a prologue, and now a prologue. Will we be doing a post-prologue epilogue now before the actual story or something? Lmao.
Asdo21: Who knows? Certainly not me anymore, I'm just winging it at this point. We should ask our Muse, but they refuse to tell.
Kitsu: I could ask the Audience for potential future worlds to go to, but that would be a disaster, especially since this comes out on Patreon far before it comes out anywhere else, so the only people who would even be able to make any suggestions would be those on the Patreon.
And while that would be a fair way to do it, since they're paying for it, I'd rather not have a bunch of people from QQ get the wrong idea.
Before y'all shit on this chapter for being dry and boring, there really wasn't much we could even do in Harry Potter, so Asdo21 asked me to condense it for the sake of getting closer to the good shit.
The good parts being the worlds where the MC can have a bit of fun. We have many ideas as to what worlds we want to go to to have the MC gain everything he needs in life, and hopefully finishing this chapter off like this helps it get to the part we want to get to wthout dragging it out too long.
Well, you likely know the drill by now. Join my Patreon if you wanna read this in advance, chat with me on discord if you wanna actually talk about the story and be a part of it, so on. My website has access to all of my stuff and even ways to buy comissions from me if you want your own entirely custom story: Aiko Akiyoshi's Carrd!
Thanks for reading and stay fluffy!
EN:
TheLetter_A: Whew, that was a doozy! Fun fact: due to time constraints, the first half of this chapter took almost a month to edit. The second half, about 12 pages, took only a day. I swear, man sent me an academic report, with a similar amount of spelling and grammar mistakes.
I'm just glad to get this thing over with. While I do enjoy the money, this did take up quite a bit of time. At least Kitsu's a pretty fun guy to talk with so we had some measure of fun while editing this.
Kitsu: So now that this one is out, if anyone wishes to see more, they'll need to join my ko-fi and or just straight up commission me directly from there for more of this.
If more does come out, it will go up on my Patreon first, but I'll be needing some people I can reliably work on to get more of this out in the future.
As a result, if you want to see something added to the story, you can now pay for exactly that to happen. Which, if you're on my Discord, means you'll be able to have direct access to the entire folder if you are signed up for monthly for this via Ko-fi.
You can contact me here: https:// aiko akiyoshi . carrd . co/ if you want to know more, via my Discord server.
TheLetter_A: Anyway, here's the mandatory advertising: I'm on Kitsu's discord, and if you manage to find me on bluesky you can contact me there!
According to Kitsu, I'm well worth the price, and I'm fairly free to edit fics nowadays, so don't hesitate.
Now that that's over with, Good Morning, Good Evening and Good Night to you all! :wave:
Kitsu: Thanks for reading and stay fluffy!