CmptrWz's Random Snippets

Created
Status
Ongoing
Watchers
1,604
Recent readers
1

A collection of random snippets from the mind of CmptrWz. Some may be funny. Some may be horrifying. All are probably a touch insane in their own ways. Don't expect much follow-up on them.

Which are which is an exercise left to the reader.

See this post if you want to use snippets.
Last edited:
Worm - Timelines

CmptrWz

𝕿𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖑𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝕬𝖚𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖗
Location
USA
Pronouns
He/Him/His
The Entities are known to collect any and all information, technology, and unique abilities from those they use in their cycles. But they aren't terribly creative themselves. By my interpretation of things, in Canon, this led to a number of things being faked with very good simulations. But what if they simply just didn't understand the costs associated with some of the tricks that they employed? Perhaps they didn't comprehend them, or perhaps those they obtained them from never knew either...



Thomas Calvert sat there, grimacing as things had just gone wrong. A moment later the timeline he was in was chosen as the one to discard, and the quantum wavefunction that allowed for the split to happen in the first place collapsed. The timeline was cast off, but Thomas was one of the lucky ones. He died instantly and painlessly as his powers were forcibly disconnected from him in an unsafe manner, as did every other parahuman on the planet.

Those near enough to a parahuman had the sudden death of parahumans or the 'popping' of Scion as the first sign that things had gone wrong. The next sign was the sudden detonation of the Endbringers, no longer connected to their extradimensional stabilizers, which was just the start of those problems. Earthquakes, tsunamis, and an incredibly bright light and sonic boom from low Earth orbit coming from the three resting points of the Endbringers themselves. Some would celebrate, but not for long.

The complete failure of tinkertech was the next sign, the extradimensional organisms that kept the technology functional no longer being connected. Some tinkertech lasted longer than others, but anything 'black boxed' either ceased to function or exploded instantly. The rest started to break down quickly, the stabilizing forces from outside of the local dimension no longer reaching the components.

Within a few hours there would be widespread devastation and panic, made worse on the night side of the planet as distant stars suddenly vanished, en-mass, from the sky. The few pinpricks of light that were other planets in the star system being all that remained. Very few people would notice even those vanishing not long afterwards, one by one, as they would be too focused on more pressing concerns in the wake of natural disasters on the surface of the planet.

Around eighteen hours in people have started to recover, only for those currently on the day side of the planet to notice that it's suddenly getting darker. It doesn't take long to realize that the Sun is shrinking, and then not long after just seems to go out. The entire planet is suddenly engulfed in darkness, and nobody is certain what they could, or should, be doing. Many think that it must be a trick, but they aren't sure what to do about it.

Twenty hours in, they arrive. Difficult to see at first, but the giant balls of teeth descend on the Earth, consuming anything and everything in their paths. They care not for what they consume is or used to be, just that it is there to eat. The only things they refuse to eat are each other, not that anyone on the planet has time to realize that. Everyone who survived all that came before finds themselves consumed by the beasts, the planet itself vanishing into their endless maws.

Twenty four hours after the undesired timeline was dropped there is nothing left, even the beasts having vanished to continue their endless task.



Back in the 'kept' timeline, Thomas marked the space as containing a mine, then split the timeline again before clicking on the next uncertain square.
 
Last edited:
HP - Self-Aware Vernon
Vernon Dursley was a bigot. A British bigot, of course, but a bigot. He knew it, and he knew that it was something that he had to control around others. No bigot could get where he was in his career without learning when it was inappropriate to show that they were a bigot, after all. That, and even though he felt many others were beneath him, that didn't mean that they weren't useful in their own ways. It had been a hard lesson to learn, and he'd nearly lost his job in the process of learning it, but he'd learned the lesson well.

Possibly more important than his bigotry was that he was a man of his word, which was the entire reason he hadn't lost his job when his bigotry got the better of him. So long as you kept up your side of the bargain, that was, because once you broke your end he'd follow suit in a heartbeat. Even if things turned sour on him, he wouldn't turn on those he'd bargained with until the other party had broken the agreement first. When he made a promise he did his best to keep it, no matter who that promise was with. That attitude had made him particularly popular with many of his clients, foreign and otherwise, which had helped him weather several dry spells at work when others hadn't been able to.

Which meant that the day his sister-in-law's husband came to him talking about danger to him and his family, he listened. The pocket watch offered as a token of 'good faith' was accepted, and he promised to keep it on him as much as possible. It was a decent pocket watch, if not the most expensive, and Vernon had agreed to keep it on him despite his dislike of his sister-in-law's family. He'd even agreed that if the alarm went off that he'd pay close attention to his surroundings. Looking back, he didn't know if magic had been used to make him agree, but given the eventual results he didn't care.

The first time the watch's alarm went off unexpectedly he had sworn about it. He'd barely remembered the 'pay attention to his surroundings' aspect of things at the time, but stopping to fish the thing out had delayed him long enough for another to be jumped at from the alley he'd been about to pass. He'd wondered if things were connected then, but couldn't see how at the time. A month later it went off again, and this time he paid attention to things. Whatever spell had been placed on the watch apparently saw sabotaging his career as a possible threat to him, because he found that a colleague he thought he could trust was trying to sabotage his work.

The alarm only went off once more after that, three days before his sister-in-law and her husband were apparently killed. He never figured out why it'd gone off that day, and had no way to find out. But it seemed to stop working after that point, and he didn't know if their deaths had stripped the watch of its magic or if the magic had simply faded over time. He only found out that it was magic after their son was left on his doorstep with a mere letter. He'd ranted for the better part of a week about the freaks, but eventually his rational mind kicked back in. Showing his disdain for the idiocy of the magical world and its people would never do him any favors, and even if they were idiots they obviously produced things that could be useful.

He'd never agreed to take care of Harry, but the boy's father had possibly defied their laws to keep Vernon safe. Further, better access to magic could very well help him in any number of interesting ways. Which meant that burning bridges was the last thing he wanted to do there, and he felt that he owed the boy's parents at least the attempt of raising their child right. Sadly, to accomplish that he'd had to distance himself from his sister, who'd never learned to hide her own bigotry in public. It was a small price to pay, all things considered. It gave him more time to work on little Harry's upbringing.

It was annoying that Dudley couldn't keep up with Harry academically, but he was able to console himself with the fact that Harry couldn't keep up with Dudley in most physical pursuits. Encouraging his nephew to look for practical ways to use everything was far more important anyway, because he wouldn't put it past the magical world to never think about alternative uses for magic. Vernon was hoping that he or Dudley could work with Harry in years to come to use magic to get ahead, after all.

To that end Vernon had learned to keep a tighter lid on his bigotry than usual, but that was okay. He had well-hidden outlets, and he didn't need to accidentally cause the two boys to sabotage their own futures through learned bigotry. The world was changing, after all, with more and more interaction with other countries. That and he had little to no clue about the magical world and didn't need either boy to burn bridges due to that. Instead he bit down on his own pride and found others to teach them how to respect other cultures, something he knew he wouldn't be able to do a proper job of.

Dudley's birthday was coming up, Harry's following not too long afterwards, so it wouldn't be long before the magical world should be contacting them. Though Petunia wasn't sure how they'd do so, apparently a letter had come for her sister and then been followed by a personal visit. But their parents hadn't had magic of their own, would the idiots forget that Harry was living with his non-magical aunt and uncle?

Vernon doubted it. Hopefully they'd figure something out easily enough when the letter did come.
 
Worm - The Ultimate Battle
The third had given plenty of warning, and it was nearing time to do battle. It had amassed a large number of abilities, some borrowed, others taken by force. It may not win the battle, but it would do its best to ensure that anyone wishing to defeat it would suffer for the attempt.

Luckily it had prepared in advance, for it turned out that the first interloper tried to make a move quite early. A tendril of power reaching across worlds to strike, slapped aside and directed into a black hole in another world entirely. It had been easy, too easy, as three more tendrils attempted to strike from the same place, each more powerful than the last. They still hadn't stood a chance, but in dealing with them a lesser of its kind would've missed the appearance of the second interloper.

That one had tried to drop a powerful artifact into the mix, one that would cause massive problems in short order. But a quick borrowed portal sent the artifact back where it originated, to one that should never have gotten access to it there. Let the interloper find a way to fix that, hopefully it would keep them busy. Two more interlopers, working together, came next. One aiming to intervene directly, the other indirectly, but both with similar goals and methods. It was obvious that they didn't care which of them made it through, only that one of them did.

Sadly for the two, it had solutions for both. The one looking to directly intervene was knocked onto a collision course with the local star, having to abort or be burned alive. At the exact same time the other was being used as a shield against the fifth interloper in an efficient move that distracted both. This left plenty of time to continue dealing with the tendrils from the first interloper while also dropping a distraction for the sixth in the form of a particularly tasty, if poison-laden, donut.

For days the dance continued, abilities beyond the ability of mortal men to comprehend being used to counter other such abilities alongside more mundane attempts for interlopers to intrude upon its domain. Some interlopers were much more persistent, others needed only a single rebuke before they left, but all had to be defended against. Several interlopers left willingly, others left less willingly, and the most stubborn left in pieces. Sixteen were destroyed utterly, too focused on their task to realize the danger they were in.

Nearly a week in things heated up even more, for it was getting close to the most crucial point of the entire ordeal. Dozens more interlopers attempted to position themselves to act, some of which were others like it, but it fended all of them off. But the numbers had become great enough for it to begin having problems keeping up with them, and it started to take damage as well. That, and it was starting to run low on new tricks that would take many of the interlopers by surprise.

A number of weaker interlopers attempted to make diplomatic overtures, attempting to prey upon its non-existent empathy and pity in regards to them. It ignored them, allowing them to fall prey to some of the other interlopers instead. Others attempted to get a foothold by offering to work with it instead of against it, but it saw through their ploys and rejected them. They invariably showed their true colors at that point, trying to usurp it more directly, only to be easy prey for other interlopers. Playing the numerous interlopers off of each other was the only way to ensure that none slipped through at this point, for most of them didn't want the others to intervene either.

As the final moments approached it sacrificed portions of itself that wouldn't be needed. None of it was lost forever, for so long as it survived it could restore the pieces later. But the sacrifices were necessary to ensure that it emerged victorious. It had held back the most dangerous and powerful tricks in its arsenal for precisely this moment, and with a little help from the third for timing it unleashed those reserves against the horde of interlopers. A hole was punched through the thousands of competing forces, a hole that it sent its own tendril of power through.

The anguished scream of defeat from the interlopers that had failed was music to its non-existent ears as it connected to the girl in the locker.

It was Administrator, Taylor Hebert was its human, and none of those other sources of power could have her.
 
Naruto - Kurama’s Headache and Revenge
No mortal could live forever. Sure, you could do a lot to extend someone's lifespan, but eventually all mortals had to die. Kurama, sealed within one Uzumaki Naruto, was well aware of that problem. Sure, he'd tried to keep the boy alive longer, but there was only so much that could be done. At the same time, though, this time around he'd finally had a chance to learn some new tricks.

Kurama himself wasn't mortal, and that's where the problems began. He'd been tied to mortals, as had his siblings, but only once was the shinigami involved. It had taken countless lifetimes to fully determine what was happening and adjust how he acted, but he'd done so, not knowing that once that seal was in place there was no way to escape. If the boy died, even if Kurama was out of the blasted seal, then Kurama went with him. Only Kurama couldn't die, and time rewound instead.

The first thousand or two loops ranged from minutes to hours long, the infant being overwhelmed by Kurama's toxic chakra and perishing in myriad ways. But Kurama had figured out the initial details of what was going on. Pulling back his chakra, adjusting the flow through the seal so that the infant could survive. Even that didn't help much, minutes to hours turning into mere days. But lots of experimentation had resulted in eventually finding a way to balance things so that the child didn't die. At that point Kurama spent a few centuries finding ways to escape the seal, eventually finding a dozen that let him escape without killing the boy. Except that when the boy died anyway Kurama was reset. At that point Kurama did his best to just wait out the seal. He'd get out eventually, once whatever conditions were put into the seal expired properly, right?

Except that no, that wasn't the case, and it'd taken the latest cycle to finally figure out why. For the first time ever he'd decided to work with the boy, mostly out of a lingering desire for revenge for those that had put him into this position in the first place. And they'd done absolutely incredible things, gotten that revenge, and the boy had grown into a man doing incredible things. Not to mention quite a few less than incredible things, one of which was eventually learning more about seals. In doing the latter Kurama found out what a few things he'd noticed inside the seal meant.

For the first time ever, Kurama had something he truly wanted, if not needed to learn, and Naruto was willing to help. The two combined became the greatest sealmasters ever known, surpassing everyone that had ever come before them. Despite that, there was no fixing the problem that bound them together, at least not in that lifetime. But that didn't mean that it couldn't be solved, and out of gratitude for the assistance Kurama was even going to forgive Namikaze. The man had been doing what he felt was necessary, after all, unlike the Uchiha.

As it was, as Naruto's life force started to fade away, taking Kurama's with it, two seals that only the latter knew about were activated. They temporarily bound specific pieces of Naruto to Kurama, just strongly enough to be pulled into the past with the fox. In theory, when dealing with this kind of loop it was hard to be certain. Ten minutes later, as the last of their life force faded, time itself shuddered and recoiled, a third seal activating just as time began rewinding nearly four centuries.

This time, instead of rewinding to the point where the shinigami was summoned, time rewound a little further back. Kurama returned not to the point where he was connected to Death, but instead to shortly before that point. He grunted in pain as he found himself chained and pinned inside of Kushina, but knew that it would be temporary. More importantly, he felt the bits of Naruto that he'd brought back with him settle into the unborn child that Kushina was carrying, which meant that the initial part of the plan had succeeded.

He didn't know enough about the seal he was now in to break it safely, and he had no desire to. At the same time, he had no clue how much time he had to work, so he started layering seals on himself. He also dropped three seals inside of the seal that he was currently in, part of his gift to Naruto for giving him this opportunity to begin with. And if this didn't work then they would likely make it far easier to prepare for the next time.

The various new seals were all barely in place when the seal he was in was forcibly torn open and he was pulled from his prison. He didn't fight it, both because that wasn't expected and because if he did then that would potentially damage the seals he'd laid. He came out of the seal and was face to face with a pair of sharingan eyes, and one of the seals that he'd layered on himself activated. His own eyes were temporarily destroyed entirely, denying the sharingan access to his mind. Immediately after that an awareness seal activated, giving him improved knowledge of his surroundings now that he couldn't see them.

The Uchiha that had pulled him out of the seal didn't seem to know what to do, especially when Kurama grabbed him with a tail that had another seal on it. This one attached itself to the man before any defense could be summoned and started to attack his own eyes. Not that it would matter much as Kurama finished exiting Kushina's seal, the ones he'd placed inside of it charging and safely healing the woman up. Instead another single-use seal activated, taking him and the Uchiha to one of Namikaze's distant kunai.

It wasn't long before the man was dead, eaten by Kurama to make it that much more difficult to restore him to life. Some supplies that the man had been carrying had been spared, though, in particular a scroll and some ink. Once the various contingency plans littering his body were removed and his sight returned he gathered said scroll and ink. A letter was written, and a seal was used to send it back to where Kushina likely still lay. With that completed, Kurama prepared to layer the seals that would prevent him from being pulled into another seal anytime soon, and those that would protect him from some of the more annoying techniques out there.

With that done, he set off to complete his revenge.



Dear Kushina and Minato,

As hard as this may be to believe, I bear you and your child no ill will. It is thanks to young Naruto that I am free to defeat my true enemy. That will take a few years, but in the end will mean a much better world for everyone.

Your child may behave oddly growing up, having memories of a life that he hasn't lived. I apologize for any problems that this causes.

Do be careful with the seal that remains on Kushina. I placed some internal reinforcements to keep it from collapsing and killing her, but digging too deeply into it could make those collapse.

As a warning, I'm going to be collecting a few of my siblings from those who would mistreat them horribly. This happens to include my youngest, and Suna isn't likely to be happy about it. Out of respect for the man that your son was I will be doing my best to ensure that the innocent containers are not killed. I can't make guarantees, but I'll give it a shot.

Finally, Minato, please re-read Tobirama's warning about the death seal. The copy that I'm aware of specifically mentions problems if you try and seal things that don't properly fall within the shinigami's domain. Like tailed beasts.

Kurama
The Nine Tailed Fox
Eldest Brother of the Tailed Beasts
Protector of Konoha
 
HP - Too Many Time Travelers
Hermione woke with a start, fumbling around for her wand when she realized that it wasn't under her pillow. Instead, her hand found an alarm clock on the table next to her bed. That was enough to jumpstart her brain, and after a few moments she recalled that there should also be a light on said table.

A moment later she'd turned said light on, found the calendar that she'd been using to mark off the days until Hogwarts, and nodded in satisfaction. She hadn't hit her target date, being just a little too late to be in Diagon Alley while Harry was doing his shopping, but she'd expected complications when she'd planned this whole mess. Sadly, that meant that she was likely going to need to wait until the end of the month to meet up with him. She hoped to be able to get to him before the Weasleys did, but in a worst-case scenario she'd hopefully get to sit with him before Ron did.

She never did find out if Ron had been intentionally sabotaging Harry or if it had been a coincidence, but she knew that Molly had been very much pushing for Ginny to become Lady Potter. All of that contributed to the eradication of the Weasley family, which Harry had perished trying to prevent out of loyalty to his friends. Which had been the beginning of the end for Britain, and Hermione had been lucky to get to France before it was too late. She'd then spent twenty years finding a way to go back and fix things.

Still, before September first came around she would need to review her schoolbooks and convince her parents that she needed a couple more things. She specifically wanted to get the ingredients for a potion or two, getting started on repairing the malnutrition that Harry had grown up with would go a long way to improving things in the future. Actually going after some of Riddle's trinkets would have to wait quite a bit longer, since she'd never actually had time to figure out how the trace worked. Well, perhaps she'd get lucky and the magic of the trace would recognize her as an adult already, but she wasn't willing to risk it until she could run a full diagnostic on her wand.

Thinking about that made her realize that she was going to need a rune kit as well, years before she would be taking a class that required it. How was she going to convince her parents to let her get one? Borrowing one was going to be impossible as a first year. And that was without some of the other headaches she had to figure out, like how to safely reveal who Scabbers was while also distancing herself from Ron. It was too bad that Harry was going to be sorted before her.



Ron was confused when he woke up, finding that he'd walked into a wall where the door to the bathroom should be. It took him a few minutes to realize that he was in his room at the Burrow, a building that hadn't existed for two decades. Grinning, he realized that meant that the ritual had worked and sent him back in time. It took him ten minutes to remember where the bathroom was, and then another few to get back to his room.

He had very, very few plans. They really should've sent anyone but him back. The only problem was that he'd been the lucky one to be old enough to make a proper difference. Everyone else available wouldn't be old enough to do anything in time, or in a few cases had been born too late. Luckily he thought that he could get significant results from three simple things.

The first was to question how 'Scabbers' had lived so long. Luckily he had a book that he'd been given by Percy that was supposed to help him take care of the rat, one that should hopefully mention their average lifespan. That should get his father to look into the rat much more closely, and hopefully get Sirius freed in the process. If Ron was lucky that would also help out Harry's home life situation.

The second thing to do was avoid befriending Harry at all, and perhaps push him towards Hermione and Neville. Maybe distract Malfoy in the process, if he could arrange to do so on the train? There was no way that Ron would be able to keep up with what Harry needed to learn over the years, but the other two should be able to handle it.

Lastly, if it came to it, he'd get that blasted diary away from Ginny next summer. There was no way he was letting her go through that again. Just seeing her alive was going to be hard enough on his self-control, after all. Not to mention the rest of his family and friends. He had no clue how he was going to survive around them for long without revealing things that he shouldn't.

Hmmm. Perhaps he could get himself sorted into Hufflepuff? There was no way that he'd qualify for Ravenclaw and Slytherin was right out, but Hufflepuff would keep him distanced from the most painful faces. That it would be a prank that Fred and George would've appreciated, if he could tell them the truth, was a bonus.



Draco woke with a start, and looked around the room he was in. A moment later he was patting himself down, only to start grinning. He had two hands again, which meant that the ritual had worked. He then frowned, because he now had to figure out how to actually use this second chance. Sadly, killing the Dark Lord's financial support by ruining his own family was probably going to be required, and would invalidate a lot of his other knowledge.

Worth it, all things considered. It wasn't like it would matter at all if the Dark Lord won again, and it could be recovered later. Destroying his family now would mean that he himself would be blameless and could be seen as trying to rebuild his family's good name when he was older. The problem was figuring out how to do so in a way that wouldn't draw attention to him. Perhaps he could start with a series of unfortunate events?

It took him the better part of the day to realize that the easy solution was a simple anonymous letter. Something that his father had ensured that he would be able to send out easily enough, not that he'd ever used those arrangements for anything meaningful the first time around. Merlin, he'd been a moron, hadn't he? Still, sending a letter to Madam Bones detailing how to get into the various secret rooms of the manor would likely be enough to ruin his father.

Sadly, it was while writing said letter that he realized that he had his new wand, which meant that it was too late to correct his horrible behavior in the alley. Well, properly befriending Potter was probably never an option. Weasley wouldn't allow it, for starters. It was too bad that his letter was probably going to tank his ability to have any influence in Slytherin as well, but trying to ensure that they didn't turn on Potter was still something he could attempt.

Well, including a few details he remembered about the Crouch family in the letter he was writing would certainly help erode the Dark Lord's support. For that matter, he could easily ensure that he didn't go down with his father by re-writing the letter with one of his school quills. Those would ensure that his magical signature was present on the parchment, ensuring that if needed he could prove that he had written it. For anything else it would be a colossal blunder, but doing so intentionally would ensure that he looked like a naive schoolboy if it came up.

To further cover his tracks he could use Dobby, and then ignore his father's warnings and give the elf some clothing. Perhaps after a few carefully chosen words to ensure that the blasted thing fixated on someone else. Though getting the elf to fixate on someone other than Potter might be a problem and would require some careful thought.



Luna woke with a start, then checked the date. She sighed, because her fears were correct and it was too late to save her mother. It had been a long shot, being able to get back far enough to change that, but she'd hoped that they'd gotten enough power to send her back far enough. Actually, she'd arrived far later than intended, and she wasn't sure why. They'd been certain that she should arrive in 1990 or earlier, not 1991.

It took her a few hours to determine why she'd arrived so late, and that made her realize that this was going to be a bit of a mess. Perhaps it was a good thing that she wasn't going to be attending Hogwarts this year, not to mention that she'd arrived too late to ensure that she could attend a year early.

Nodding, she smiled as she realized that she could go speak with her father. Perhaps she could convince him to let her place a bet or two with the goblins? She'd pay up front, of course, ensuring that she had no debt for them to act on if she was wrong. But she had a feeling that a number of things were going to go wrong, and there was a chance to make some money off of it.



Harry whistled quietly as he looked through his school supplies. It was the fourth of August, 1991, and the first thing he'd done upon waking up was curse. Once he'd remembered where he kept his glasses he'd spent almost an entire hour showing Hedwig how much he cared for her. With that done he'd then gotten started on his plans. He had plans to derail, but doing so was going to take some work.

To start with, he needed to fool Dumbledore's monitoring. Luckily there were a couple of easy ways to do that, and from reading the man's journals it was something that happened at least two dozen times over the years. Intentionally shifting all of the monitoring charms to Dudley would take a little bit of effort, but there was enough shared blood there to make it relatively trivial. Once that was done, he'd be able to take the Knight Bus back to Diagon Alley to do some shopping, since it should take at least three weeks for the core monitor to realize that Dudley didn't have any magic.

Luckily it looked like he had everything needed to brew the potion that he'd need for that, though actually brewing it without being screamed at would be trickier. He'd also have to wait, as it could only be started once the sun had passed the highest point in the sky for the day. But that was okay, he had plenty else that he could do to prepare for things. Ensuring that he wouldn't be bothered by his family shouldn't be too difficult with the correct wording, but disguising himself enough to not be recognized on his trip once he was done would take longer.

Regardless, by the end of next week he should have everything in place to perform the ritual that would purge his body of all hostile magic, something that the lingering sliver of soul in his scar counted as. Doing so as soon as possible was important, because something about the Hogwarts sorting ceremony disrupted the ritual's function and rendered it nonfunctional for a decade. Presumably something that the Sorting Hat did, but what was impossible to tell at this point. He just knew that those who didn't go to Hogwarts didn't have that problem, but in Britain you had to be in your twenties before the ritual started working again.

With any luck, having literally every marked Death Eater fall over dead at the same time that Tom's entire soul was forcibly pulled into the afterlife by the banishment of the sliver of his soul in Harry's scar would take care of most of the problems that Britain would normally have had over the next few years. He'd prefer to have more time to arrange for things such as Pettigrew's capture, but he'd talked to Sirius with the stone before coming back and his godfather had agreed that stopping Riddle was worth the risk to his freedom and the potential drawn-out revenge for certain others. Arranging for a trial once every marked Death Eater was dead and Sirius was still alive should be easier anyway, since Malfoy wouldn't be fighting it.

Finding an excuse to befriend Hermione without Quirrel letting a troll into the castle should hopefully be the hard part come September.
 
Worm - Runaways
Sarah smirked as she dropped another letter from her parents into the shredder. She would've preferred to be using an assumed identity, but being able to constantly give her parents the proverbial finger was fun too. But she didn't have time to muse on that right now, moving on to the next envelope in the pile. Volunteering to do office work between shows kept her busy, in the loop, and with a little extra cash in her account. She appreciated all of that, but it was also tedious and could be stressful at times.

Outside of the letters addressed to her that had gone straight in the shredder (after ensuring that there wasn't anything like money or checks in them, as unlikely as that was) she had everything sorted into suitable piles quickly enough. Going through the bills was going to be next, possibly followed by getting on the phone to their next couple of stops to ensure that things were still going to be ready for them.

She hadn't anticipated joining the circus when she'd run away from home, just wanting out, but it had worked out amazingly well for her overall. And this particular circus had enough muscle to keep her parents, not to mention anyone else that wanted to get their hands on her, very far away. Only the letters that came every other stop, and that she did her best to ignore. Sure, the group was benefitting from her powers, but they insisted on doing so on her terms and she got her fair share of the profits for when she reached legal adulthood. More so, they were serious about letting anyone that joined up leave whenever they wanted to.

Though she wished that Kurt would swing back through soon. He was much better than she was with the finances, even if she got better with every lesson that she got from the man.



Rachel frowned as she checked her supplies. She probably shouldn't be surprised that she'd gotten things wrong when estimating how much more food would be needed as the pups grew, since despite the help they gave her she still wasn't good with math. But there was a good chance that Sarah already knew that they needed more food for the dogs, so it was probably okay. Still, she didn't want to depend on Sarah keeping track of this for her, so she pulled out her notepad and carefully wrote out 'more dog food' on it as a reminder.

The notepad and pencil went back into the pouch on her belt before she moved down the line of supplies. She had plenty of treats, so that wasn't a concern, but the notepad came back out as she looked through the collars and leashes she had available. She was going to need some larger collars in a stop or two as the pups grew, and she'd found damage on a couple of the leashes so getting replacements would be a good idea. Getting '12 adult collars' and 'leashes' written out took her a couple of minutes, but it would ensure that she didn't forget later.

Nodding, she finished looking through things before heading back out into the yard area that she was using. It shouldn't be long before all of her dogs had finished eating, and she still hadn't determined which of the pups would be sticking around versus trained to go elsewhere. Selling off her dogs as pets was something that she didn't condone, having seen what some people did to them, but service dogs were much better treated and helped bring money in to take care of more dogs.

She was distracted from that thought by a couple of the dogs barking, and when she looked for why she saw that Ryan was back. Which meant taking some time to go over her act. Changing things up had noticeably increased the people that paid to see her trained dogs, which was another source of money to help more dogs with. It was also fun for her and the dogs, which was very nice.

The only problem with being in the circus was the constant moving, and lack of territory that resulted in. But that was tempered by the constant new experiences and the changes in the crowds, not to mention the help in keeping the police from throwing her in prison. She didn't know how they'd gotten the police to stop chasing her, but they had.



Jean-Paul amused himself as he usually did during his downtime when they weren't on the road, by doing his best to piss people off in video games. It was much less direct than his normal gig on show days, screwing with people just enough to keep them from winning the otherwise not rigged carnival games, but it was enjoyable anyway. Especially when he could get people into voice chat, and triply so when his siblings tried using games to 'reach out' to him.

They weren't crazy enough to attempt to get at him otherwise, and none of them took losing well, which meant that when they did find him in-game it was very enjoyable.

Though he did need to pick up a couple more reference books for the next time they were on the road. Who knew that understanding the nervous system would help him manipulate it in more subtle ways, and thus infuriate people with less obvious tells that they weren't in full control of themselves? Just the idea of inducing ever so slight transmission delays had been a godsend there.



Missy nodded to herself as she looked over the new VW Beetle. They'd significantly up-rated the engine and suspension, not to mention removed most of the interior just for the weight reduction, but the windows still needed to be painted over. That would come later, for now she needed to make sure that she could work with it safely. She climbed in, having no problems due to her own small size, and examined the entire interior. They'd put various bright yellow markings in place on key supports for her to refer to as she did her thing, but the more familiar she was with the space the easier she'd be able to work with it. They were also trying a new trick and had a series of yellow dots on the ceiling, where they wanted to put grab-straps.

Eventually she nodded and cracked her knuckles, not that she needed to, and reached out with her powers. The inside of the car expanded significantly, the grid of yellow dots on the ceiling spreading out but not deforming. It took more concentration than she was used to, but that was okay. This was partially an attempt to stretch her own limits, after all. Eventually she hit the limit of what she could do, and she ensured that she could hold it without too much strain. It would be nice if she could anchor these changes, but that hadn't worked out.

Nodding, she waved to the group outside of the car, then moved into a position where she wouldn't be in the way. The rest of the clown corps moved in, ensuring that they could all fit in without issue with all of their props. With any luck the grab-straps, once installed, would make it even safer for when the vehicle was moving. They could probably do even better if they could get their hands on a tinker that dealt with vehicles, but hadn't run into any willing to join up yet.

It wasn't long before the entire clown corps was in the car, more than they'd normally drag in, with their props. Minus Missy's own props, admittedly, but they kept her load light so that she could focus on the expansion of the car. Probably because of her age as well, admittedly, but they never tried to use that as an excuse beyond things that were legitimately dangerous. She disliked, but understood, why they insisted on the adults handling things like fireworks in states that let them set them off.

With proof that everyone could fit in the car, with the driver on the collapsing milk crate, they congratulated her and cleared out. She now needed to hold the change as long as she could so that they'd be able to apply proper safety margins time-wise. Safety was a very big deal in the circus, after all, even if it frequently looked like they were incredibly lax with it.



Jacob watched the door shut as Sarah left his office, having dropped the bills and other mail that she couldn't deal with for various reasons on his desk. Running a circus with more runaways than normal hires generated an annoyingly large amount of paperwork, but being able to prove that he was 'rehabilitating' the parahumans that might otherwise be causing problems for society had granted him an amazingly large amount of leeway.

Having accumulated the single largest collection of parahumans on the continent didn't hurt, of course. It wasn't what he'd expected to find after he'd killed his own parents, but running into the then-failing circus had turned his life around and provided him with a new purpose. That most of the parahuman recruits joined up while trying to escape problems with their own parents, that the Wards wouldn't be able to help with due to government idiocy, had originally seemed to be an accident.

Sarah had assured him that it wasn't, and that his own powers had something to do with finding all of the lost souls that needed help. It was now part of why they never planned more than three shows in advance, because he needed the flexibility to direct them to where they were needed. It also made their shows oddly more popular, because people jumped at the unpredictable chance to see them. It also helped explain how he seemed to be able to drop people into roles that they'd do well in.

Now if only he could convince a couple of the parahuman asylums to work with him. He was certain that some of the 'patients' could benefit from the circus, if only they could give them a chance.
 
Naruto - Sasuke’s Looping...
Sasuke woke with a start, gasping for breath, memories flowing through his head. It didn't take him long to turn on a light and unseal things from the storage seal on his wrist, the one that hadn't been there a mere hour before. Looking over his notes, he frowned and added to them. Getting two of his cousins to activate the Whirlpool contracts he'd found had only gotten Naruto pulled into the compound, and thus killed with the rest of the Uchiha. Which was unfortunate, because Naruto wasn't old enough and the fox had escaped. Oh, and the contracts had probably defaulted, obliterating the artifacts tied to the agreements with Whirlpool.

Sadly, that was only the third loop after he'd finally figured out what was going wrong in general. He'd started this whole dance after finding out that the Sharingan wasn't being passed down to his grandkids, but without anyone being able to figure out why not. Originally he'd hoped to avert the massacre in general, or at least to save more of the children, but that hadn't worked out. He only had a month before the stupid thing, assuming he didn't trigger it early, and his chakra control and capacity didn't come back with him. Just those memories he could hold onto each loop and the contents of the seal on his wrist.

Now he'd finally figured out what the problem was, and it was a difficult one to fix as it originated from before his own birth. Someone in the clan had placed seals on his parents to ensure that they had sons, and those seals had ensured that he couldn't pass on enough genetic material for the Sharingan to manifest for more than a single generation. That wouldn't have been a problem without the massacre due to plans for him to marry a distant cousin, actual identity undecided as of the massacre, but there weren't any female Uchiha left after the blasted thing.

Sighing, he looked back over his notes. Using the contracts to get two of his cousins out of the compound had failed because the clan had used their binding to Naruto as an excuse to bring him into the compound instead of getting his cousins out of it. Which meant that wasn't going to work unless he could prevent them from being able to move Naruto. Easier said than done, but the theory was still sound. Well, he'd gotten the idea from the loop when he'd basically done the same thing with the Hyuuga heiresses. Naruto hadn't been moved that loop, perhaps he could balance off the Uchiha influence by getting both of his cousins and both of the heiresses bound to the boy?

He started planning that out from the notes he had on the previous loop and the more distant one, thinking that it was a good thing that Naruto was an idiot. Not by his own doing, admittedly, but it made it a lot less likely that he would even consider taking advantage of the four. In fact, if the notes from the loop with the heiresses were correct, they'd have to push him when they grew up a bit instead of him pushing them. At the same time, the four girls would hopefully help correct his educational deficiencies, something that his notes said he'd really appreciated at graduation time.

The only other problem with this was that Sasuke was going to have to find somewhere else to spend the night of the massacre. Naruto's apartment wasn't going to have enough spare sleeping space, even if mending bridges with the boy was as simple as apologizing to him over a bowl of ramen. Which was going to be happening anyway, since having at least one true friend in all of this was quite nice.

It was too bad that he couldn't make more of the contracts though, because he would've loved to get some of his recurring 'fan club' tied to Naruto for a loop or ten.



Hiruzen sighed as he listened to the bickering of the two groups of men. Four different girls had found old contracts with Whirlpool and gotten caught up as part of the 'payment' clauses. If Whirlpool was still around then they'd have been able to get a sealmaster to come safely release the girls, but that wasn't an option. At the same time, it definitively proved that young Naruto did deserve the Uzumaki name, being the one that the contracts had bound the four girls to.

Neither the Hyuuga or the Uchiha were happy about this. The Uchiha were demanding to move Naruto into their compound for the protection of their two, which the Hyuuga were adamantly against as it would be moving their heiresses into the Uchiha compound as well. Admittedly, the Uchiha didn't want the Byakugan in their compound either. Had it been only the Hyuuga then they'd likely have gotten away with a couple of extra branch family guards on Naruto's apartment building, but with the Uchiha in the mix that wasn't going to happen either.

Perhaps he could swing getting them to agree to have Naruto and the girls put up in the old Whirlpool dignitary building? It would need some rapid, and slightly costly, repair work done, but having the two clans split the bill with a small amount from the village proper would easily cover it without straining anyone's bank accounts. Further, he could permanently station a couple of ANBU squads there in the extra rooms that existed specifically for security details.



Sasuke had to accept that he'd had a minor victory. For the first time ever he'd delayed the massacre. By three days, but he'd delayed it, and his two cousins had survived as well. Even better, somehow this had raised Naruto's standings in the village higher than just getting the Hyuuga heiresses bound to him had, which meant that it would be even easier to get him trained up for the problems that they'd be facing in the future.

Using his two cousins as an excuse to have Naruto visiting the Uchiha compound for training would be easy enough. Especially as this had prevented him from being 'the last Uchiha' and had partially negated some of the fangirl horde as a result. How much of that was him only being entitled to a third of the clan's property was unknown, but the lesser group just reinforced his overall opinion of the missing ones while causing him to grudgingly respect those that were still chasing after him this loop a little bit more.

Getting used to the older of his cousins stopping Sakura from bashing Naruto in the head was going to take some getting used to. He hadn't expected Riko to take to the whole 'servant' bit quite as completely as she had, and it obviously wasn't the individual contract seals doing it to the girls because the younger Hyuuga in particular was doing her best to be a pest within the rules of the things. Kanna and the older Hyuuga were both taking the whole thing in stride though, his little cousin having gone out and bought a maid uniform for cleaning in while the Hyuuga had taken to more of a personal tutor role for the time being.

How Naruto had made it this far in the academy while having the reading comprehension of a five year old was a mystery, but at least someone was helping to fix that. It just made most of his pranks that much more impressive by comparison. Though Sasuke had made sure to note that issue down in case he needed to correct it in the next loop.
 
Naruto - Kidnappings
At two years of age, one Naruto Uzumaki had become the bane of those assigned to take care of him. Somehow, and nobody knew how, he'd learned how to escape from almost anything intended to keep him contained. Several Uchiha had claimed that he'd vanished in the span of time that it'd taken them to blink with their Sharingan active, and at least one Yamanaka had been able to confirm that it had apparently happened that way on two different occasions.

Of course, escaping every day, if not two or three times a day, wasn't enough for the boy. No, invariably they'd find him only after he'd decided that it was time to sleep, and three out of five times they found him back in his own bed at that point. The only reason that they knew that he'd left the house at all was that he, somehow, found others his age in the village and brought them back with him to play. Initially civilian children, but they'd apparently been too easy and the boy liked a challenge.

He'd been caught the first four times he'd tried to grab Kiba Inuzaka, but somehow Naruto had found a way around the clan's canine partners. Shino Aburame had taken nine attempts, though some of that was Naruto finding insects more interesting to play with than dogs. Shikamaru Nara had only been taken once, on the first try, and that had apparently been too easy so Naruto had also grabbed Choji Akimichi that day. Ino Yamanaka vanished on a semi-regular basis because of the clan's 'pretty flowers', and Sasuke Uchiha was practically scheduled for 'play dates' due to Naruto's adventures in finding ways around the Sharingan. Exploits that the clan encouraged, because most of them seemed to rely on lazy guards. It wasn't entirely predictable, but getting around the 'spinny red eyes' was a favorite of Naruto's.

The biggest headache was when Naruto, through means nobody could explain, had learned of Hinata Hyuuga. Unlike the other clans, the Hyuuga had been able to keep Naruto out for nearly thirty attempts. It was a point of pride for them, even after the boy grabbed little Hinata for the first time. The elders had been furious, but Hiashi and his wife had found it amusing. Further, similarly to the Uchiha in general, they saw it as a good training exercise for the guards. After all, if they couldn't keep a two year old out of the compound then they were obviously slacking off.

Most days Naruto stuck to one of his preferred playmates, which were the ones that were hardest to get to. Once said playmate was discovered and returned home it was usually enough for the boy. Every so often he'd grab more than one, usually when the guards had been particularly lax on one of the kids. Occasionally Naruto wouldn't grab anyone, though whether that was because he'd failed to or hadn't tried was usually unknown. Most importantly, they'd found that if you distracted him in the correct way then you could get anywhere from a full day to the better part of a week without him grabbing anyone.



A couple months past Naruto's third birthday, as the year drew to a close, the village had pulled out all the stops to distract the boy for a few days. The treats and puzzles that could occupy his time had been carefully held back for a month, their return planned out carefully to hopefully get a full two weeks without him causing trouble. They only needed a week, admittedly, but were planning for more in the hopes of getting that week.

Two days in it appeared to be working, and they were very happy with themselves. Kumo's delegation arrived, and talks began. Things became strained in the background very quickly though, because it was obvious that the delegation was examining security of clan compounds far too thoroughly for anyone's tastes. Security measures were going to need to shift as soon as the delegation left, it seemed.

The day the treaty was signed there was a celebration, and that evening Kumo's Head Ninja attempted to sneak into the Hyuuga compound undetected. He was spotted, though the guards merely followed him and alerted others instead of attacking him directly. Better to find out what he wanted, and possibly catch him red-handed. That changed when he went straight for young Hinata's room, guards and two of the elders intercepted him as he entered the room. He was disabled successfully, only after which did anyone note that they had, somehow, not woken Hinata up.

That particular good mood was obliterated by the discovery that Hinata was not, in fact, in the room.



"Oh come on," the ANBU watching over Naruto groaned when he looked in on the boy. "When did you find time to grab the Hyuuga Heiress? And is that a cake? With candles? Where in the world did you get a cake, and how in the world did you light the candles?"
 
HP - The Hidden House
Eight year old Harry Potter wasn't sure why nobody ever came looking for him when he hid in the backyard of 7 Privet Drive. Nor was he certain why nobody seemed to care that the yard was never taken care of. His Aunt was unusually critical of every other house on the street, but never mentioned number 7. Perhaps she knew that it was a waste, because nobody lived there? Or at least Harry had never seen anyone, or even seen the lights on.

Unfortunately, today he'd been locked out by his cousin, in the cold, without even his admittedly poor jacket. He'd go stay with Mrs. Figg to warm up, but knew that she was away for a few days. Sadly, that meant that he had nowhere else to go as the sun set. Sure, eventually his Aunt would come looking for him, likely annoyed, but that might not be until he wasn't available to make breakfast in the morning.

Knowing that none of the other neighbors would want him near their houses, he found himself wandering over to number 7. He had a small stash of items under the back porch, but he didn't think any of them would help keep him warm. Sadly, he couldn't quite fit under there himself, not like he could a couple years prior. A quick check showed that he was right, nothing he'd hidden away would help keep him warm. Worse, the bottle of water had frozen, so he couldn't even drink some of it.

Grumbling to himself, he wandered the backyard a little, if only to keep moving, but wasn't sure what to do. Not for the first time, he occasionally looked at the back door of the house and considered trying to go inside. Nobody lived there, so there wasn't anyone to care if he went in. Except that he'd always been afraid that whoever did own the house would find out and he'd end up punished. Besides, he didn't know how to get the back door open, since he knew it was locked from some exploration after he'd first found that Dudley couldn't seem to find him here.

As the sun had set he'd tried to get back into number 4, only to find the doors still locked and nobody answering his knocks. He was having trouble feeling his fingers and wasn't sure what to do. He could try banging harder, or ringing the doorbell, but he wasn't supposed to do either and Uncle Vernon would be very unhappy with him. His resolve crumbling, he headed back to number 7. And, for the first time, he went to the front door. It was closer, and he'd barely even looked at it before.

Not expecting much, he'd put his hand on the handle, not even noticing as the door to number 4 opened behind him. There was a click, and the handle turned, allowing him to open the door. Blinking in surprise, he pushed the door open and stepped into the house, unseen by his Aunt who was now wondering where he'd gone off to. Instead he allowed the door to close behind him as several flickering lights came on automatically in the hallway that he found himself in.

He probably should've been curious about the lights, but he was more concerned with the fact that the house was warmer than outside. Not comfortably warm, but it was noticeably warmer and the lack of the slight breeze definitely helped. Still moving out of a desire to warm up, he looked into the room to the right, finding that it was a living room. One that had a painting of an old man sleeping above the empty fireplace. He stepped into the room, and like in the hallway some of the lights on the wall lit up as he entered, and he didn't notice as the ones in the hallway went out at the same time.

No, he was very distracted from the mysteries of the lights by the sleeping man in the painting waking up. "Wha? Who turned on the lights?" Harry blinked a couple of times, staring at the painting. Which was looking around the room, until the man spotted Harry. "Oh, it's just a sprog. It's been a while since anyone visited here. I think." The man thought for a moment, then waved his hand. "Whatever. Come over here, would you? I'd rather not strain to hear you."

Harry carefully, and slowly, walked across the room, looking for any signs of a trap as he did so. But nothing jumped out at him, and he eventually made it to stand in front of the empty fireplace, looking up the painting. "Er, hello sir?"

"Hello there. My name's Thaddeus. And who would you be?"

"Harry. Um, Harry Potter."

"Well then. I, er...sorry, what are you wearing? Those clothes don't look like they ever fit you. Did you get into Tilly's rag pile or something?"

That had Harry blinking, before he shrunk in on himself a little. "They're Dudley's old clothes."

"And Tilly let you wear them?"

That was the second time that the man had mentioned that name, though Harry had almost missed it the first time. "Tilly?"

A moment later there was a small crack, causing Harry to jump. There was now a small...something, wearing rags in even worse shape than his own hand-me-downs standing there. Whatever it was, it was a couple of feet tall and had very large ears, as well as looking like it'd been eating even less than Harry normally got to.

"Who called Tilly?" the thing asked, looking around for a moment. At least until its eyes landed on Harry, at which point they went wide. "Master Harry?"

The...whatever it was, likely 'Tilly', stumbled forward and grabbed Harry in a hug while mumbling things that he couldn't make out.

It was a minute or so before Thaddeus coughed, and Tilly looked up at him. "Tilly, why do you look like you haven't been taking care of yourself?"

"Master James told Tilly to get the important things to storage and hide in the basement until Tilly was called," Tilly replied. "Tilly is a good elf and hid in the basement until Tilly was called."

He nodded slowly at that, before looking between her and Harry. "And how long ago was that?"

Tilly looked proud while answering the question.."Tilly stayed hidden in the basement for seven years. Paintings would call for Tilly, but Tilly returned to hiding as soon as she knew that no living master or mistress had called for her."

Thaddeus grimaced at that, then looked at Harry for a moment before getting a determined look on his face. "Right then. Harry, you look like you could do with some warming up. If you ask her to, Tilly can help you with that."

Harry looked at Tilly, who looked like she was worse off than he could ever remember being. Though she also looked hopeful. "Are you sure? I don't want to hurt her."

"Trust me, the best thing you can do for a house elf that hasn't had anything to do for their family for years is to give them something to do."

Not entirely sure what that meant, Harry decided that it couldn't hurt to ask the...house elf? If she couldn't handle things on her own then maybe he could help her as well. He looked around the room, then specifically at the fireplace. Nodding to himself, he looked at Tilly. "Can you start a fire to help warm up the room?"

Tilly nodded, and he felt something happen. He wasn't sure what it was. A moment later the house elf raised her hand and snapped, and there were logs in the fireplace. Harry's eyes went a little wider at that, and then another snap had the flames lit. Tilly then looked at him and the fire, and a third snap had a little fence-like thing in front of the fire to keep anyone from approaching it. Oddly enough, she looked a little better after that.

Harry wasn't sure what to say next, and his stomach beat him to the punch by growling. He flinched, since that was usually something that he'd be hit for. As if it was a sign that he was ungrateful for what food his Aunt and Uncle gave him.

"Would Master like Tilly to prepare him dinner?" Tilly asked, looking very hopeful.

Somehow, Harry didn't think that this was going to be a trick. Half of the houses in the neighborhood would make offers like that and then he'd get a beating for having the audacity to make others think that he wasn't fed well enough, but for some reason he couldn't imagine Tilly telling his Aunt or Uncle a thing. Given that he was hungry, and Tilly had asked him first, he figured that it was thus likely safe to accept. Somewhat. "If you'd like to."

Tilly nodded. "Tilly will be right back!" She then vanished, causing Harry to blink a couple of times.

"Now then," Thaddeus said. "She'll probably be a few, as she may have to go obtain food to prepare. I don't think any preservation charms are intended for seven years without refreshing, after all. Why don't you sit down in one of the chairs here while I ask you a few questions, and perhaps answer what I can of a few of yours."

Harry looked at the chairs, certain that he shouldn't be sitting on something that comfortable looking. At the same time, an adult...of sorts, at least, had basically told him to do so, which meant it should be okay, right? He mulled that over for a minute before deciding that his Aunt and Uncle weren't likely to find out either way, unless this was all some kind of incredible trick being played on him, so he carefully climbed into one of the chairs. He found it even more comfortable than he'd been expecting it to be.

"So, Harry," the man said after another minute or so. "I'm a little out of touch, given that I've probably been sleeping for at least seven years. Probably longer. What can you tell me about yourself, and the world at large?"

For some reason, Harry thought that this was going to be an awkward conversation.



It was a couple of hours after young Harry had entered the house, and Thaddeus had wandered off to another portrait frame to rant while the boy slept in the chair. Keeping a lid on his anger as his own knowledge 'woke up' while talking to Harry, despite the muted emotions that he had as a mere imprint of the original Thaddeus Potter, had been taxing. Luckily, now that Harry had called her, Tilly was willing to listen to paintings when it didn't directly countermand her Master's orders. She was cleaning herself and the property up, as it was likely that Harry would need it. Getting information from the paintings at other Potter properties was going to be important as well, but young Harry's safety and wellbeing were more immediately important.

To think that he'd personally complained when he'd been placed in a renovated muggle home, purchased by James and hidden as a place near Lily's family as an intended Christmas gift to try and make it easier for her to reconnect with her horrible shit of a sister. That purchase may very well have saved young Harry's life, given everything the boy obviously hadn't been willing to admit.

What they needed to do was find someone who should be watching over the boy, instead of the horrible muggle relatives that he'd been staying with. Wasn't James's friend...Sirius, was it? He was the boy's Godfather, right? Why wasn't he watching over the boy?

"Tilly," Thadeus called, and the elf appeared a moment later.

"What do you need from Tilly?" the elf asked.

"Can you tell if Sirius Black is still alive, and if so if he's Harry's guardian?"

Tilly frowned for a moment, then vanished. A moment later she returned with a book and placed it on a table in the room. Opening it, she flipped through it until it was on a partially filled in page, then floated it up in front of the painting. "This will tell yous. Tilly would read it, but Tilly never learned how."

Thaddeus nodded, not surprised at that. But he was able to read, and could see that the family register showed that James and his wife Lily had been dead for seven years. It also showed that Black was indeed Harry's Godfather and Guardian, which also meant that he was alive and not legally incarcerated somewhere that would be preventing him from acting as guardian. Which brought up the question of why he wasn't watching over the boy. It was possible, likely even, that outside forces were keeping him away, and if so they now had a possible solution to that.

"Tilly," he said after a moment. "Thank you, and I think we need to bring Sirius Black here as soon as possible. By force, if needed, because he needs to answer some questions about why he hasn't been looking after Harry. Can you bring him here?"

The book that the elf had brought vanished, and she looked thoughtful. "Tilly can bring the dog man here, but only if Master tells Tilly to."

"Very good. We'll see about getting Harry to do so when he wakes up in the morning. Speaking of which, you may wish to prioritize ensuring that things are ready for Harry to clean up and change into a fresh set of clothing when he wakes."

The elf's eyes went a little wider before she started nodding. "Tilly will ensure that everything is ready for Master when he wakes up!"
 
Last edited:
HP - The Hidden House 2
Harry was confused when he woke up and wasn't in his cupboard. That he was in a far too comfortable location and had a warm blanket over him just added to his confusion, at least until his confusion started to turn into panic. When Uncle Vernon found out he was going to be...

"Master Harry is awake!" Tilly exclaimed, and the blanket vanished a moment later. "Tilly has prepared a bath for Master."

Blinking, Harry started to remember what had happened the day before, his original confusion and panic abating. Only to be replaced by new panic, because Aunt Petunia was going to be furious that he'd been out all night. "I have to go home before my Aunt and Uncle are even more angry with me."

"Nonsense," Thaddeus said, causing Harry to look up at the painting. "We were able to confirm that you never should've been left with your family in the first place, but will need your help to correct that problem. But first, you need to clean up and have breakfast."

"Come Master Harry," Tilly said, taking his hand and gently pulling him out of the chair. "The bath awaits."

Harry ended up allowing himself to be pulled upstairs and into a bedroom that felt like it had to be larger than the entire house, somehow. Off of that was a bathroom that was only half the size of the bedroom and shouldn't have been able to fit in the house either, not while leaving room for the other rooms in the house. Once there, Tilly snapped her fingers and removed all his clothing, before gently pushing him towards the bathtub that he could probably get lost in.

Very cautiously, Harry approached the bathtub. He knew from experience that baths were cold and the washcloth would be rough. But he didn't dare not clean up when he'd been told to, so he carefully stepped into the water...only to find that it was warm. That was a shock, and it took Tilly prodding him again for him to finish climbing into the bathtub. Tilly then made a washcloth and soap scrub him down. The softest washcloth and the nicest smelling soap that Harry had ever experienced. If he hadn't just woken up then he felt like he could fall asleep right there in the bathtub.

Nearly half an hour later, and without the water cooling off at all, Tilly declared Harry 'clean enough' and coaxed him out of the bathtub. She then made a towel dry him off, which was somehow even softer than the washcloth, before moving to lead him out of the bathroom. He, however, had other plans, and sheepishly moved towards the toilet.

"Tilly will wait for you outside," Tilly said when she noticed, and then with a small crack she was gone.

Harry moved over to the toilet, finding that it was familiar enough, though he couldn't find the other toilet paper. Maybe they didn't have any? It wasn't like they were expecting him to be there. Hoping that he wasn't going to get in trouble, he did his business and wiped with as little of the incredibly soft toilet paper as he could. It then took him a moment to figure out how this toilet flushed, as it was different than any of the ones he'd used previously. That done, he cautiously opened the bathroom door and headed out into the giant bedroom, wondering what Tilly had done with his clothes.

He'd barely made it through the door before Tilly had taken his hand and was guiding him over to the bed. It took a moment for him to realize that clothing that couldn't possibly be intended for him was laid out on the bed. Though it did look like they might actually fit him.

"Master Harry should get dressed," Tilly said, pointing him at the clothing. "Then wes can go downstairs."

Harry looked around the room to see where his clothing might be, but had no clue where to even begin looking when he didn't see any of it right away. With trepidation, because he had no clue how him wearing clothing this nice would be taken when he got back home, he started pulling the provided clothing on. All of it fit him incredibly well and was very comfortable, with him wondering where the clothing had been kept before now. Especially as he wasn't sure why they'd have clothes that fit him so perfectly, right down to shoes.

Once he was dressed, Tilly looked at him, frowned, then shook her head. "Tilly knows not to try and fight with Master's hair. Master James's hair was just as bad. Come! Downstairs to breakfast."

A couple minutes later Harry was in the dining room, which he hadn't seen the day before. For some reason he'd half expected Tilly to have filled the table with food, but similar to when she'd brought him dinner the night before there was just enough for him. Still more than he was used to, but he was starting to think that it would be better to just go along with things. Either that or he was dreaming and none of this was actually happening, so he might as well enjoy it while it lasted.

He was halfway through eating the delicious breakfast when Thaddeus appeared in one of the pictures in the room. "Good morning Harry."

Harry swallowed the food in his mouth before answering. "Good morning."

"If you don't mind, I'd like to have you ask Tilly to do something for me."

"What would that be?" Harry asked, even as Tilly appeared nearby again.

"I find myself needing to speak to Sirius Black. Can you ask Tilly to bring him to the study for me?"

Shrugging, Harry turned to Tilly. "Can you bring Sirius Black to the study to talk to Thaddeus?"

Tilly nodded vigorously. "Tilly will do so right away."

"Thank you," Thaddeus said as Tilly vanished. "Now then, finish up your breakfast and we'll see what else we can do with you while we wait for Tilly to return."

Harry nodded, figuring that it was time for him to do some chores. He hadn't had to make breakfast, so obviously there was something significant that they'd want him to do today. That's how it usually worked with Aunt Petunia, anyway.



Thaddeus had a scowl on his face as he entered the portrait frame in the study. Little Harry didn't seem to have any idea of what children did for fun. Originally he'd thought that the boy just didn't know about magical toys and games, but it quickly became obvious that the lack of knowledge extended to muggle options as well. Someone had a lot of questions to answer, and he didn't know if he wanted that someone to be Sirius or not.

Looking down into the study, his scowl deepened. Sirius was there in his animagus form, sleeping. "Tilly, where did you find him?"

"Dog man was on soul sucker island," Tilly replied.

That had Thaddeus blinking. "Tilly, that can't be right. Elves can't remove people from Azkaban."

Tilly shook her head. "The elveses there said that dog man didn't belong as the wizzy-knot did not send him there. They helped Tilly get him out, thanking Tilly for doing so as it would make feeding those that were supposed to be there easier."

By Merlin's ghost, had someone locked Sirius in with the dementors without even giving him a trial? That would certainly explain why he'd never shown up to take care of Harry, admittedly, but that kind of thing should never happen. If the ICW got wind of that...

Hmmm. That was actually not a horrible idea. Too bad he was just a painting, but perhaps Sirius could be persuaded to send an owl or two off as soon as he'd recovered a bit? Because if he'd been in Azkaban then he wasn't going to be suitable for much of anything for at least a week. Longer if he'd been there for the past six or seven years.

"Tilly," Thaddeus finally said. "Please ensure that Sirius is cleaned up and comfortable, and has a proper meal when he wakes up. I won't be able to talk with him until he's recovered more from the dementor exposure. As evidenced by the fact that he hasn't woken up."

Tilly nodded, and a moment later the study was empty again. Thaddeus sighed, shaking his painted head. This was getting more and more complicated, and he didn't have nearly the imprinted intelligence to handle it all properly. Nor did he have enough knowledge of what had been happening in the outside world for the past seven years.

As an example of his limitations as a painting, he had no good way to find out what was going on with the blue flashing lights on the street outside. Sure, he could ask Harry to take a look, but he didn't want to burden the child with anything serious right now. Tilly might be able to tell him, but if there were too many unaware of magic out there then he'd have to have Harry ask her to investigate instead. No, it was unlikely to impact the house and those inside of it right now, so he'd leave it alone.



Petunia was terrified as bobbies swarmed the area and she was dragged to one of the patrol cars. Dudley had been asked where Harry was at school, and had admitted that the boy had vanished after being locked out of the house and not returned in time to make breakfast this morning. That had resulted in the school calling the authorities, which had resulted in an all-out hunt for the boy and an investigation into why she or Vernon hadn't already reported the boy as missing.

Worse, they'd decided to check the house itself and found the cupboard that served as Harry's room. She hadn't been able to explain that, especially when they had a guest room and a spare room that was starting to fill up with Dudley's extra toys. Then there was her inability to warn Vernon about any of this, as he'd angrily headed off to work after not getting the breakfast he'd expected and she hadn't been permitted to make any calls while the bobbies searched.
 
Back
Top