We didn't stick around to watch Vernon get arrested, mostly because neither of us wanted to see even a glimpse of that man's naked body. I even felt slightly bad for the cops.
"So how much money is in that stack? Looks like a couple of thousands at least." I gave the money to Pyra to count. There was a lot of it and I didn't want to do it.
"There are precisely three thousand pounds."
"That's it? I thought we would get a lot more. Did he get his paycheck yet?"
"Emily… ATMs have withdrawal limits. The fact that Vernon could get this much money without it raising any kind of fuss is surprising, and unless you want to do some wild shopping, the money should last us for quite a while."
"They do? Huh, I didn't know that. Anyway, we should go shopping for clothes at least. I don't know about you, but I don't fancy wearing conjured ones. Somehow, it makes me feel like I'd be naked, you know?"
"I'm sure that's just psychological, but suit yourself. How about we split up? I'll go get us food, and you can get something to wear." Pyra said after thinking for a bit, giving me half of our money.
Each of us went our separate ways, agreeing to meet back here in two hours. That should give me enough time to scour the shops and pick something nice. It, however, felt weird to just stuff that much money into my pocket. I had to get a wallet first.
An hour or so later, I was already making my way back to our meeting spot. Shopping with this much money was freeing because I didn't have to watch out for the prices too much. In the end, I bought a nice tracksuit, I knew I'd be running around a lot, two pairs of jeans, a few white T-shirts, and a pair of tennis shoes. So a pretty good haul overall.
Pyra was already waiting for me, with bags all around her. The girl was practically besieged by them.
"You're back. Let's pop back to the island and store all this stuff then." She called out to me as she made her way toward me, and by the time we put it all under preservation charms, it was the late afternoon. We pretty much just killed the day doing nothing at all, and I liked it that way. Now it was time to steal that house.
"How about we go house shopping now?"
"How are you even going to do that?" Pyra asked with a tilt of her head.
"Umm… Wingardium Leviosa on the ground the house is standing on? Should work. We don't need the pipes or the electricity, if they even have any."
"How are you going to get it here? You can't apparate with it, and if you shunpo, the spell will snap."
"I'm gonna launch it like an artillery shell and then apparate back here and catch it." I replied with a shrug.
"Please tell me this is not how you planned on moving Azkaban here…" She sounded exasperated.
"How else would I do that? Not even Voldemort knew how to teleport objects as large as that."
"Emily… what is my power as your Fairy?" Poor Pyra tiredly rubbed her eyes.
"Ummm— Anime stuff?" I replied unsurely because honestly, the whole meeting with Bobby was a blur, and I barely retained any information.
"Are you f— Nah, never mind. Not worth it." Pyra whispered to herself and shook her head, trying to shake out whatever thoughts were in there.
"I can combine your powers, and the spells you know are your powers too. So please just tell me what you want your new spell to do, and I'll make it happen."
*SMACK* That was the sound of me smacking my forehead very hard, gotta get those braincells moving.
"Shit! Right… Eh~… Oh, oh, oh, I know! Combine Fiendfire with Avada Kedavra." I got the most brilliant idea, and I knew right away that the spell would be diabolical. But why was Pyra staring at me like that? Oh— yeah, the house.
" *EHM!* Do that, but only after making a spell that could let me transport Azkaban anywhere I want… yes." I trailed off, embarrassed.
"You must write down important information if you can't remember it, or try constructing a mental palace with occlumency. Voldemort knew how to do that." She replied absently, her eyes glowing ever so slightly, looking almost like embers.
"Yeah, I know. I'll get a diary. I'm not going to use occlumency." I immediately checked my new knowledge, and while occlumency was indeed a great solution, I was definitely not the type of person who could sit down for hours on end, clinically sift through my memories, and meditate.
"I'll be sure to remind you of that then. Anyway, I'm done making the spells. Here you go." Two familiar streaks of light gently flew into me, and two new spells were born. I didn't forget how to use the original spells, but if what I'm feeling is correct, then just the basic Fiendfire is obsolete from now on.
"Porta Mundus and Infernum Mors. Did you come with those names yourself? I like them." I rolled the words on my tongue a few times, getting familiar with them.
"I did, I used the naming conventions of this world. Porta Mundus lets you open a portal to any place you've previously visited, while allowing you to pull anything you want with you, and Infernum Mors is mostly what you wanted. I just had to combine it with your Gluttony absorption. You can't absorb anything if you destroy the soul too. This spell will do exactly that."
"I'm sure somebody, someday will piss me off so much I unleash this, but I have one totally unrelated question. Can I use this Reiatsu to boost my spells?"
"No. It's an entirely separate source of energy. You need to get at least five energy sources, and then let me combine them into one to use them however you want."
"Hmm… and let me guess, each world has one energy source, right?" I wasn't bitter. It was just that I had a lot more of this Reiatsu than I had magic, and if I wanted to get my magic to the same level, I'd have to basically commit a wizard genocide. Which was not something I was going to do.
"The low-tier ones do, but the higher you go, the more energy sources there are."
"Well, at least I have something to look forward to then. Never mind. Let's finally go and get that house." My curiosity was satiated for now, and we had nothing to do for the rest of the day. So with that in mind, I took out my wand, well, Voldemort's, and used it to cast the portal spell.
"Porta Mundus!" The wand movement itself was cool, albeit a little too long. A circle drawn with my whole arm, and a downward slash from the top of it to finish it. As soon as I stopped casting, the air in front of us shimmered, and the until now invisible outline traced by my wand was shining brightly. Then the space just disappeared, and I was looking at the house I wanted to have.
Calling it a house is an overstatement. It was most likely just a bigger wooden cabin. A nice one, sure, but still a cabin. It was made of dark-stained wooden planks, almost black in color, the roof had burnt orange shingles, and the chimney at the back was obviously homemade, as it was slightly crooked at the top.
If I didn't know better, I'd think a witch made this, but there were no wards or enchantments present anywhere on the other island.
"Damn… there is nothing on the other side…" I murmured to myself as I walked around the giant portal.
"You are only able to see it from the caster's position. The other side of it is the same." Pyra confirmed what I was thinking.
"Hmm~ I don't even need to go to the other side, right? I can just cast spells from here." I tested it by throwing a spell through the opening, and lo and behold, it was just like I thought.
"Move to the side a bit, Pyra. I don't want any debris hitting you."
I focused for a bit, imagining what I wanted my spell to accomplish.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" I yelled with a flick of my wrist. Then all we heard was thunder.
The rock beneath the house began whining, stretching, and cracking. The grass-covered dirt was heaving, and almost looked like it was boiling.
Then the house broke free with pieces of mud and rock falling off the bottom, looking as if it would fly away at a moment's notice. All that was needed was a gentle tug with the wand to make the house start floating toward the portal.
"Hey, Pyra, can you square out the bottom a bit? Maybe cut off the pipes jutting out too." I called out to my companion once the house was on our island.
All that was needed from Pyra were a few precise sword swings, and it was prepared to be seated on the ground. I closed the portal and took a moment to appreciate the view of our new home.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go check out the inside!" I yelled out with an excited laugh and ran.
—
It was the beginning of the third day of my journey, and for today, we had some big plans. Hogwarts' school year was ending today, and I wanted to get my hands on Harry's invisibility cloak. After all, why not? I already had one Hallow, and according to Pyra, I needed to hold all three of them at the same time to absorb their power, something to do with how they were crafted or whatever.
The why was honestly not important at all, the what was. The supposed title of Master of Death was obviously all hogwash, but anybody capable of uniting all three of them would get quite the substantial boost to their magical power, and more power was always good.
"Hmm… we can do it the boring and safe way, or we can have fun with it." I said while eating breakfast.
"Define fun, Emily." Pyra asked me mid-buttering her toast.
"The word of Vernon's arrest should have reached Dumbledore already, right? That should mean increased security around Privet Drive. I can let myself be seen by an Order member, and then quickly go and take the cloak from Harry while he is on the train. Two birds, one stone." I was quite proud of this plan. It took me all morning to come up with it after all. I even had notes.
"Not bad, Emily… Not bad at all. You do know, however, that stealing one of the few things Harry has left from his parents would paint you in a terrible light, right?"
"For a while, yeah, but I can let Harry use the stone to talk to them when the situation calms down a bit. Wouldn't that count for a lot more than just an ancient piece of fabric? It's not like the kid could ever become the Master of Death, not when I have the stone." I briefly looked at my notes and recited one of the points I had written down. I made a whole list.
"True, and how would you get to Harry? No wait, let me guess… Kidnapping?" Pyra looked at me sceptically.
"Yes, it's a foolproof method. The portal spell you made bypasses all wards and protective enchantments. I could get in and out of wherever Harry will be living without anybody being the wiser."
"Hmm~ Most likely Grimmauld Place. I can see you thought this through. Could it be? Are you learning?" Pyra teased me and tried to reach my head to ruffle my hair.
"Pah! Stop that! I'll get hair in my toast." I promptly dodged the hand and quickly wolfed down the rest of my breakfast.
"At what time does the Hogwarts train leave?" I asked Pyra after we put away the dirty dishes. For being a Dark Lord, Voldemort knew a surprising amount of household charms. One could almost think he was preparing to be a house husband if the whole evil wizard thing didn't pan out.
"It always leaves an hour after breakfast, so in about twenty minutes."
"How long is it within the school's boundary? Five minutes?" The wards stretch far, and the train has to ride around the school until it's headed down to London.
"Not even that."
"Okay, so I'll go to Surrey in half an hour."
When I was done finalizing my plans, a brief time for mental relaxation was in order. I used my brain quite a bit today, but I must have been a lot more tired than I thought because I dozed off for a bit. After all, the next thing I knew, Pyra was shaking my shoulder rather harshly. I was a heavy sleeper, so that much was unfortunately necessary.
"Emily! Wake up, it's time!" She was doing that whisper-yelling thing people do when they try to wake up somebody and normal means are not working.
"I'm not sleeping! I was listening to the TV…" I woke up slightly confused, so instinctively, I channeled my dad.
"We don't have a TV." She chuckled.
"Huh? Then what was it that I was listening to?"
"Me. I was talking to you… Well, more like I was talking at you. Anyway, the train left Hogwarts ten minutes ago."
"Right! No time to waste." I stood up, slapped my cheeks to wake myself up completely, and went outside. Only for me to stand there awkwardly, as I didn't know the exact location of Privet Drive.
"Can you please give me the location? And while you're at it, the train's too." Pyra was already on it before I even finished my sentence. With the location now firmly lodged in my brain, I apparated away.
Instantly, I found myself in hell. Every house looked exactly the same as the one next to it, the only discerning factor being the cars in the driveway, and the meager decorations British townspeople deemed appropriate to place on their property. Which is to say, almost none.
The sea of houses looked nearly infinite from where I was standing, and I was immediately reminded of the American suburbs. Putting my distaste for this place away, I glanced around and noticed that I had apparated to the other end of the street. Dursleys' house shone like a beacon here. It was the only place with any magic for at least a mile.
"I can feel the wards from all the way here… Damn are they potent." I muttered while walking on the sidewalk. The walk was brief, and before I knew it, I stood directly in front of the house. I even felt the wards trying to do their thing and failing miserably. I idly wondered why that was, before deciding it had to have something to do with whatever Bobby did to my body by giving me Reiatsu.
In my running around and doing the next thing that popped into my mind, this rather important fact somehow slipped by me completely. I really had to sit down with Pyra and talk about all of this.
My inner musings were interrupted by a spell slamming directly into my back. I felt a brief tingle in my fingertips, like when blood flow is interrupted, but that was all. My body had to be at least partially resistant to wizard spells.
"Now that is just rude." I said and turned in the direction the spell flew out of. Only to be met by Remus Lupin. He appeared just as he did in the books, unkempt, dressed in shabby, worn clothes, and looking somewhat ill, and he was looking at me with a fearful expression.
"Tsk tsk, Mr. Lupin. Can't a girl just look at property, though I don't want that one, the wards are all messed up, wouldn't you say?" I tossed out, pointing directly at Potter's house. That seemed to wake the man up from his stupor because he whipped his wand up and started casting.
"Depulso! Confringo! Expelliarmus!" He fired three spells in quick succession. I obviously apparated out of the way.
"I won't let you hurt Harry!" Lupin snarled before his barrage of spells continued. A quick Protego halted all of them.
"Incarcerous!" I poured a bit more power into the spell, Lupin was a werewolf after all. They had some innate magical resistance, and wouldn't you know it? It worked like a charm.
"You didn't even make my heartbeat go up, Lupin. Shame." My job here was done, I was seen, and as soon as I left here, Lupin would get out of his bindings, he still had his wand. He was just too scared to move right now.
"I got what I came here for. Be seeing you, puppy." I grinned as evily as I could and apparated directly into the back of a moving train. The sudden change of ground beneath my feet was not pleasant. While I normally liked the gentle swaying of trains, this was simply jarring.
The corridors were mostly empty, save for one or two students desperately trying to find some place to sit. I heard laughter and hushed conversations coming from the compartments, but no sign of him just yet. I remembered to cast the disillusionment charm, and after walking through two train cars, I finally managed to find Harry.
Of course, the kid and his trunk just had to sit the furthest away from the door, by the window. I really hoped he'd be by the door for easy access.
"What can you do? Let's hope Ron and Hermione don't fall to the ground when I stun them. I wouldn't want to step on them." I muttered when I opened the door. Three quick stunners were all that was needed to take care of them.
"Now then, where is it? Hmm~" I hummed while rummaging through Harry's trunk, but I only managed to find it when I lost my patience and flipped the contents of the whole trunk onto the compartment floor.
"Oh my! What a lovely piece of fabric. Is it satin?" The moment I touched it, all I wanted to do was to wrap my whole naked body in it, but then I remembered that it belonged to a teenage boy, and that made me quickly fold it, stuff it in my pocket, and apparate away.