Chapter 4

A/N Sleep is for the weak! Here's another 2.5k

The first thing me and Luna do is grab Ginny and take her to Quality Quidditch supplies. Like me, Luna also noticed Ginny wanting to go there. As we enter we spot Harry and Ron looking over the latest brooms, and the others milling about the shop. Ginny seeing Harry has a slight blush. 

"At least she doesn't turn into a stuttering mess at the mere mention of his name anymore" Luna comments teasing Ginny

"Aww I kind of miss her being like that" I reply, this goes the same with Luna, but she's much more confident now. You win some, you lose some I guess. 

"I hate both of you! And Luna, not long ago you weren't much better in front of A-mmhh" 

"What was that Ginny? You wanted to go greet Ron and Harry? Sure let's go" Luna says dragging Ginny, with one hand clamping her mouth shut. 

With a soft chuckle and a head shake at their antics, I follow them towards the two second years. 

"Hello Ron. And you must be Harry" Luna says, greeting the two. "I'm Luna, I'm starting Hogwarts with Ginny this year" 

"ah, hello Luna. It's nice to meet you, I'm Harry Potter" he replies "and nice to see you again too Ginny. What are you doing here? Do you like quidditch?" he continues, eyes lighting up at the thought of sharing his interest about quidditch. He really did take to the sport like fish to water. Good for him, he needs an outlet for when he's not dealing with all the BS the world is going to throw at him. 

" Nah, it's just Ginny who's a quidditch maniac, she really wanted to see the brooms they have on sale" I replied walking up to them "Hello Harry, I'm Alexandra. Alex for short, and Hello Ron, I haven't seen you since you started Hogwarts" 

"Eeep! H-hello Alex. Yeah we haven't seen each other much. Haha. I forgot you're starting Hogwarts this year" 

"You alright mate? You're shivering, it's not that cold is it?" Harry asks turning to Ron, who subsequently pulls him close and harshly whispers "Listen Harry, she's a demon. You don't want to get on her bad side, she's worse than Hermione when we forget to do our Homework!" 

Sigh, Ron really needs to work on his whispering. Harry looks back at me, uneasiness on his face. 

"She's not that bad, Ron just likes to exaggerate" surprisingly it's Ginny who replies to Harry, without a stutter in sight. 

"So what's special about these brooms?" Luna interrupts, sparing everyone the awkwardness after Ron's comment.

"Ron was telling me about all the enchantments on this broom. It's not as fast as some of the others, but it has better control enchantments and it can shrink for easy carrying as well" That is actually impressive. Flying enchantments are some of the more sensitive ones, even more than some medium level expansion charms. And to be able to put a shrinking enchantment on them without it blowing up the broom is pretty amazing. 

"You are right, this is amazing. The way they've weaved the enchantments is quite inspiring, and without compromising the performance too much" I say, brushing my hand over the broom, the unmistakable feeling of Magic on my fingertips. 

"Yeah, I wish I had my own broom. One like that, but Mum really doesn't want me to play quidditch, so I don't even get the hand me downs" Ginny dejectedly replies. 

I scoff at that and pick up 3 brooms and take it to the counter, with the others following behind me. "Excuse me, I'd like to buy these 3 please" 

"Are you sure? They're a bit pricey, not to mention 3 of them" the man behind the counter replies

"Yup, I'm sure" I say taking out a sizeable amount of galleons from my my moskin pouch and hand it over

I can feel Harry and the two weaslyes being  gobsmacked at the number of Galleons I just spent, Ginny knew I had money, but only the Lovegoods and my mum know how disgustingly rich I actually am, and how much it grows everyday. Luna just chuckles at their reaction. 

I shrink the 3 brooms, keeping one for research. Of the others, one goes to Luna and the other to Ginny. 

"I can't take this Alex, it's too much" Ginny replies, trying to give it back 

"I'll take it! It's not like she'll be able to use it in her first year" at that I give Ron an unimpressed look "I-I mean, Ginny you shouldn't refuse it. Alex clearly wants you to have a gift, and she's already paid for it" 

"I guess, but Hogwarts doesn't allow brooms for first years" 

"That's not true, they don't allow first years to fly brooms, but they can still carry it. And with the shrinking charms it can make for a really good emergency getaway. Correct me if I'm wrong, but rumor has it a troll got into Hogwarts last year no? What's to say something worse won't happen again in the future, breaking Hogwarts rules and running away on a broom would be the logical option" I say to her, Luna gave me a weird look when I talked about the future there. I wonder what that's about. 

"Hey Ginny, me and Alex are going to the Trunk Shop opposite, you can look around here more and get us when you go to the Bookstore" Luna says, grabbing my hand 

"Yeah, okay I'll look around some more. Thanks for the Broom Alex. I'll make sure to take extra care of it." 

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"So did you have another vision in there?" 

"Yeah, but it was weirder than usual. It kept on changing. One moment I'm seeing Harry riding a Broom, flying away from a dragon, and then it disappears like it was never supposed to happen. I can feel both outcomes are supposed happen at the same time, but its not set which one will happen"

Hmmm, Luna is picking up on the waves that my existence is causing. Ah well, I'll deal with it when I get to it, from what it seems like that was a vision of the tri wizard tournament, so still 2 years away. 

"Don't worry about it Luna, you know your visions are wonky when near me" 

"Yeah I know, but that felt important somehow" probably because if Harry doesn't participate in the tri wizard tournament, Tommy boy doesn't get a new body. 

"Well forget about it for now, how are you doing with controlling your powers?" 

"My Occlumency is getting better at helping me control the dreams, as well as the meditation you taught me" 

Her visions got worse ever since I saved Pandora, so I suggested for her to learn it alongside me. Of course we won't be masters at the art any time soon, after all it's a magical art and our cores just stabilized recently. For this reason, Luna focused more on the organisation aspect of Occlumency, forgoing the protection aspect of it since it's not needed for her at the moment. I also forbade her from suppressing her emotions, because it's unhealthy for someone so young to do so, instead I made myself available for her to rant to whenever she got an unpleasant vision, and comforted her. 

Me, on the other hand, went a different route. I still wanted protection for my mind, but I didn't want to strain my magical core, especially if someone broke my shield which would cause a minor backlash to my core and pain to myself. The first is a no go, because of the soul-core merge I want and the second is a massive disadvantage when in battle especially when my shields would've broken if someone looked at them funny, with how little magic I was willing to give them. So I left the door open to anyone who wants access to my mind. Of course when they get there, that's when the fun starts. At first glance all they'll see is an open field, but take one step and they'll be teleported to a random place. Doesn't matter if they fly, apparate or crawl my mindscape is filled with invisible and undetectable wormholes, along with patches curved space - where up is down 

,down is right and left is backwards. Good luck getting through that. And if they do get through that somehow, then I've done the antithesis of Occlumency, and disorganised my mind as much as possible, and my memories are spread all over the place. 

The thing is, with my Eidetic memory I don't need to organise my mind to have perfect recall. So I don't need a computer in my mind with a search engine, or a library with neatly labeled shelves and books to store my memory. And that means any intruders don't get that luxury either. If they manage to traverse the field then the best they'll get is random, out of  context memories that'll make no sense whatsoever. And with nearly a millenia worth of  memories the chance of the memory they find being completely useless is quite high. Try explaining why you're seeing flashes of an old man in his nineties playing Overwatch 3 raging at strangers online, or stumbling upon…adult material. Of course I didn't leave it at that, it's still risky no matter how small a chance of an attacker stumbling upon something I don't want them to see - so as a final fuck you I heavily encrypted all my memories and they would have to be individually unlocked. And the key? A complex maths formula using the biggest prime I know off, something that took the most powerful supercomputer at the time a year to calculate. I also made it so you need a bit of my soul energy, pure soul energy that's not been transformed by my magic core yet. If you don't have both, well you're shit out of luck. 

My next step would be to build the strongest shield I possibly could, to trap people inside my mind. Imagine forcibly taking someone into your mind, a place where you control all facets of reality with no chance of escape. And then taking it a step further - Occlumency for the soul to protect from soul attacks, and making a soulscape that you can pull people into - reality marble anyone? Ahg! So much to research. 

"Have you chosen what trunk you want to buy yet?" I ask Luna

"Yeah, this one is enchanted to have 4 compartments. One specially made to hold sensitive potion materials. What about you?" 

"I had a custom one commissioned a while back, so I don't have to wait for it last minute" 

"Oh OK" she says paying for her trunk "well let's go, they're done with the quidditch shop" 

"Yeah let's go, we have the bookstore and the the robes to go to" 

"Why do you need books, I'm pretty sure you probably would've bought a copy of all the books in there" 

"Yeah, I do. But I hear something interesting is happening there today, and Ginny still needs to get her books" 

"Hmm. My seer sense is tingling, I don't believe you" Luna sing songs 

"I told you, I'm not calling it that unless you wear a spiderwoman costume" Am I at risk of turning Luna into NEET? Yes, do I care? Hell no. 

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-Flourish and Blotts-

"Well well if it isn't two half bloods together, hanging around the Weasles. Well what can you expect" Malfoy Jr does what I can only assume is a failed attempt at a sneer, looks more like a gaping fish if you ask me, whilst Malfoy Sr's confrontation with Arthur in the background is heating up. 

"Fancy seeing you hear Draco, what are you doing here? Don't you have servants to do your shopping for you, are you too poor for that?" Ahh his face, so easy to rile up. Unfortunately this isn't the first time I've had the pleasure or interact with Draco, his family loves to throw extravagant parties for his birthday every year, to show off their wealth to the other Pureblood. And on more than one occasion I've had to go with the Lovegoods to keep Luna company. 

"WHAT!?" he squeaks "we aren't poor, if you'd know anything about wizards blah blah blah" oh look Malfoy senior dropped the diary into Ginny's cauldron. Making sure nobody is looking, a light application of telekinesis ensures the diary is left behind a bookstand, hidden from most ready for me to collect when leaving. 

"and remember my father can ruin you and your family's life" and with that he walks away. Funny thing is, his father really can't do shit to me. Putting aside my hidden wealth, I am politically untouchable. See when I solved one of the millennium problems, GCHQ and MI6 approached me, a young genius to hopefully cultivate and employ. When I refused and told them I'd be going to Hogwarts, and then maybe I'd come work for them, they were ecstatic. They of course new about the wizarding world, being the queen's covert intelligence agency and all. They saw potential in the young genius, who's also a witch and is going to work with them, so they sought to secure their investment. You see the upper echelons of the government don't mess with Wizarding affairs, but that doesn't mean they can't. When they want, they can throw their weight around, they hid my family's details from outside inquiry and protected us. Long story short? I have diplomatic immunity in the Wizarding World if I ever need it. Of course I have no plans to work for the MI6, that was just a clever lie on my part to make the best out of the situation. 

With all the commotion dissolved, our group starts heading out of the store, but not before I grab the diary on the way out, with Luna joining me after paying for her books, not that she needs them either. I have been teaching her magical theory as well, and she knows all about me wanting to rebuild magic from the ground up. 

"So what's so special about that diary? My seer sense is tingling nonstop" 

"I'll tell you later, in private, probably when we get to Hogwarts. For now let's enjoy the rest of our shopping trip" I wonder if I should get a personal owl. Mum has one that I can call for via magic. And I hardly write to anyone regularly apart from the Lovegoods. Well maybe any magical scholars I can find, but I can just borrow an owl. And if I really need one, I can buy one. I just can't be bothered to take care of one, no matter how useful they are. Seriously, if Amazon knew of Owls, they would breed them like crazy. Delivery drones that work on pieces of bacon and can deliver anywhere, to anyone in the country in the same day? On top of that, they can carry heavy parcels as well. 

Yeah, so much untapped potential. I feel like that'll be my catchphrase by the time I finish Hogwarts. 

*Giggle* Damn seer tingle.