Interlude Chapter: Generic Hero Part XI

Ethan took a deep breath of fresh air before entering the old pub. It was a day before Harry would visit Diagon Alley. He didn't want to risk missing Harry because the subway was late or something, so he would spend the night there and wake up early.

The barkeeper, Tom, gladly offered him a room, including breakfast for three gallons a night. The breakfast turned out to be a classical English breakfast, as British muggles liked it. To his surprise, when he went down from his room at 6 am, the pub was already half full of people. Some of them reeked so heavy that he was sure that they hadn't arrived early and instead drank through the night. An hour later, a lot of people started to arrive, but just went through the bar directly towards the entrance of the diagon alley.

Ethan sat in a dark, shadowy corner of the pub and was observing all the people coming through. He even noticed a few Muggles with their magical children coming through. He was sure he even spotted a few people from Harry's grade coming in. Especially Hermione Granger was quite obvious to spot. She and her parents looked a little overwhelmed and nervous at seeing so many people who looked like they came from the middle ages, but Tom guided them like he had guided many other people that came through. Ethan had considered talking to her, knowing how important she was in the original story and how much potential she had, but decided against it as it might cause him to miss the chance to eliminate Quirrell.

At ten o'clock, Quirrell arrived. He ordered pumpkin juice and waited at the bar. Ethan didn't know what Quirrell was waiting for or why he didn't immediately try to steal the stone, but that was none of Ethan's concern as long as he waited till Harry came.

Quirrell slowly drank his juice and mumbled something, but no one seemed to listen to him. Ethan was sure that Quirrell was talking to Voldemort, which caused Ethan to grin in anticipation. He could already imagine Quirrell falling to dust as Harry touched him and causing an international search for Voldemort while he was nothing more than a defenseless shadow.

Half an hour later, when Quirrell did nothing more than mumble behind his hand, the door to the pub opened once again, and Hagrid entered closely, followed by Harry.

The pub immediately became quiet when Hagrid announced that he was here on official business and was escorting the young Harry Potter to get his school supplies. A murmur went through the pub. At first, it was just whispers of Harry's name before all the people jumped up, eager to greet the child that lived. Ethan could see Quirell frown a little at that, but that expression was quickly masked by a light smile. Ethan, too, stood up and went forward to greet Harry, but he wasn't pressing forward like the others. He just wanted to be in position when Harry greeted Quirrell. To his annoyance, Harry had to greet everyone in the pub at least once before he could even take a step in Quirrell's direction. Some people were so annoyingly happy to see Harry that they wanted to shake his hands twice.

Then finally, Hagrid saw Professor Quirrell and went to introduce him. Ethan saw how Quirrell was stuttering while he returned the greeting. The moment Harry wanted to shake hands with Quirrell, Ethan made his move and hurriedly took the two steps he was away from Harry to "accidentally" stumble over his feet and push Harry on Quirrell.

When he took the first step, he saw that Quirrell's focus shifted from Harry to him. He glared him deep into the eyes, but Atlas didn't care, as he already saw him crumbling to dust as he threw himself at Harry.

The moment seemed to slow down as he saw Quirrell looking at him in fear and jumped back before Ethan could even touch Harry.

He could see Harry trying to grab something, but Quirrell was already too far away, so it looked like Harry and Ethan would crash to the ground. Moments before that happened, Hagrid caught both of them with one hand each.

"Blimey, now, you best be cautious, we wouldn't want yeh t'get hurt, now would we?" said Hagrid, his voice all gentle-like as he set them straight.

Ethan immediately started to apologize to Harry and could only helplessly watch Quirrell leave the pub.

After apologizing multiple times to Harry, Hagrid led Harry away to the Diagon Alley.

The only thing Ethan could do in that situation was curse his bad luck and Quirrell's fast reflexes. He just hoped that this wouldn't change the plot too much for no gain. The only thing that irritated him was the look of fear Quirrell had shown him. It looked so real, but he wasn't sure if Quirrell was such a good actor that this was just a way to not give away his persona.

Ethan waited for a few more hours in the leaking cauldron. After three hours, Hagrid and Harry had returned with a big load of supplies and Harry's Owl Hedwig. He could hear that Hagrid told Harry the story of how his parents died and who Voldemort was. To Ethan's disappointment, Quirrell didn't come back to give him another chance.

Frustrated Ethan made his way back home to his grandma. The moment he left the leaking cauldron and went two steps, he could hear a quiet pop and saw a violet flash before he felt as if he were being pressed through a small tube. Just when the feeling stopped and he felt like he needed to puke, his vision turned black.

When he woke up, he was in a dark basement, his whole body bound by large ropes. The only source of light was a small candle on an old table. As his eyes got used to the darkness, he saw Quirrell standing in front of him.

"Good, you are awake." said Quirrell and got closer. Ethan could smell an intense smell of garlic as Quirrell arrived in front of him, which covered up the stench of rat shit that had permeated the basement before.

Before Ethan could say anything or react, Quirrell pulled out a vial and forced him to drink its contents. It didn't taste any different than water and was odorless, and Ethan was unsure what the potion was for until Quirrell began to question him.

"Who are you?" asked Quirrell confident and without stuttering.

Ethan didn't want to answer but realized that his mouth was opening against his permission. He tried to stop himself by biting down, but that didn't stop him from being able to voice out his name in perfect clarity thanks to his speaking skill.

"Why were you in the pub?" asked Quirrell.

"To kill you." answered Ethan against his will. Luckily, he was at least able to keep his explanations short.

"Why would you do something like that?" asked Quirrell with a threatening, sharp voice.

"Because you host Voldemort in your body." answered Ethan, which caused Quirrell to look at him confused.

"Why do you think that, and how would you have intended to kill me if that really was the case?" asked Quirrell curiously.

"Because I have seen it in the movies. You are the host of Voldemort, and you will die when Harry touches you. So I tried to accelerate that happening to delay Voldemort's return and get a better teacher for defense against the dark arts." Answered Ethan surprised he even added the part about having the hope to get a better teacher.

"Movie? Like the things that muggle watch on those big boxes?" asked Quirrell, surprised.

"Enough; I will take over from here." said an ice-cold voice. A Python, around four meters long and as thick as an adult man's fist, was coming to a few in the dimly lit room. The strange thing wasn't that Ethan could understand the snake; the strange thing was the human face that was forming on the snake's head.

The snake was nearing Ethan's face, and he could see into its slit like pupils before it changed its position so that Voldemort's face was directly staring into his while the snake was wrapping around his body.

"What movies?" asked Voldemort, and Ethan began to explain how he reincarnated and how his old world had movies about this world.

Ethan was feeling more and more drained with each word he said, and Voldemort's stare made him uncomfortable, and he had the feeling he got a headache, which reminded him that Voldemort was one of the most proficient legilimence users.

The draining feeling continued, and it felt like he went through every detail of the first movie and an overview of the whole story.

Ethan could feel the anger in Voldemort's voice after a few revelations, like Malfoy giving out his diary, him being unable to kill Harry, Snape's betrayal, and most importantly, his own death.

As the questioning continued, his headache became more and more severe.

"Master, his mind will break at this rate." Said Quirrell.

"I know. Change of plans, Quirrell." Said Voldemort, and the snake dropped to the ground, black smoke leaking out of it. The smoke transformed into a human face.

"I will take your body, Quirrell," said Voledmort, and his voice echoed from the basement walls.

"But master, didn't the kid say that I would die if the boy touched me?" asked Quirrell, kneeling on the ground.

"Idiot. That might have happened because I didn't know. But now everything will be different. We will get the stone; I will get my body back without using the boy's blood, and you can use the stone to recover any side effects."

"Yes, master!" said Quirrell, and the face flew into Quirrell's chest, and Quirrell began to scream as he fell to the ground.

If Ethan wasn't fighting his massive headache, he would have been able to smile at that, but he was barely staying conscious and knew that he also feared that he wouldn't even be able to leave the room alive. In a way, the headache was the only thing stopping him from panicking and crying.

He didn't want to die again; he didn't want to leave behind his grandma, Amy, or Leona. He wanted to live. He wanted to become someone great.

After a few minutes, Quirrell stood up. He took off his purple turban, and the back of his head showed the face he had to stare at for the past hours.

Voldemort then picked up Quirrell's wand and pointed it at Ethan. "Legilimence"

If it felt like a headache before, Ethan was sure someone had bashed in his skull with a hammer now.

He lost consciousness a few times, which gave him much-needed relief. When he woke up again, he could hear Quirrell speaking to Voldemort.

"But Master, are you sure that this will work? Are you sure you can trust them? What if Dumbledore notices?"

"You fool. It doesn't matter if he notices. One way or another, he won't be able to stop me. Not anymore. The only problem would be to keep the boy in check. While it's not really a problem to keep him here for a few days and search his memory without completely breaking him, it could become annoying if his grandmother notifies anyone besides muggles about his disappearance." Answered Voldemort.

"He is awake." Said Voldemort, and Quirrell immediately pointed his wand and shot a red bolt at him, causing him to get knocked out again.

-----

Ethan woke up in bed with a massive headache. The last few days at home were a pure nightmare. Even after his visits to the apothecary, his headache only increased. The headache got so bad that he took the skill "potion making: healing potions" after the third day. He had to go out a few times to get the ingredients, but even after a week, the headache didn't lessen.

This had the side effect of him starting to sell healing potions too. Not only was the ordered amount ten times that of the memory potions, but the profit per potions was also five times that of a memory potion. Even the first sale at the end of the month made him rich. Not just above average but actually filthy rich. He was even able to buy his grandma a car. The business was so profitable that he focused his whole attention on it, even ignoring his other skills like his marathon skill or the jab skill, which he normally trains for half an hour to an hour each day.

The only bottleneck he faced was that it took time for him to grow the ingredients, so he had to buy them from outside sources, which couldn't really keep up with him unless he was willing to spend a fortune on it. Which he did just so he could grind his skills further.

When the last day of his holidays arrived, he thought again about how to effectively stop Voldemort. He knew that Voldemort would try to steal the stone to revive himself and that Quirrell would die trying to stop Voldemort and rescue Harry. He also knows that Voldemort, in his weakened body, would die to Harries touch, which was the way he died in the movies, so he wouldn't need to intervene this year. All he had to do was wait and grind his skills for the years after that and create favorable conditions for them. The first step toward that would be to increase the size of his business and train. If Malfoy could use bribery to control the ministry, he could also do it. And if he was richer than Malfoy, he could do it even better. He naturally wouldn't be able to do it alone, so he would need the help of Amy, Leona, and Hermione. He had thought about it and knew she had enough potential to actually be of help to him. It definitely had nothing to do with the fact that he knew how hot she would become in the future. The only problem would be that he knows that Amy might have a problem with it, but he might be able to fulfill his dream of a harem if he slowly integrated Hermione into his group and make Amy accept Hermione slowly.

---

The first day back at Hogwarts was just as he had expected. As a second year, he took a carriage instead of the boat the first year used. It was almost a pity, as the few from the lake were magnificent, but not needing to row was a good trade-off.

The welcome ceremony was also as he expected. It was a bit surprising to really see the hat take so long to send Harry to Gryffindor. The whole atmosphere was tense as the hat took five minutes, and everyone expected great things from the boy who lived. Leona was quite disappointed that Harry went to Gryffindor, as she was quite a huge fan. Not as much as Ginny was, but she still thought that he would be an amazing wizard if he was able to defeat Voldemort as a child.

The next day, he asked Hermione at the first opportunity to study with him. Something the young witch happily agreed to.

Author Note:

I hope it is clear that Voldemort changed Ethan's memories. Every visit to the apothecary, store or something like that was just the memory displacement. The shifting of his goals and personality was also just a way for Voldemort to control him, but Voldemort could only work with what was already there and amplify it. He wouldn't get Ethan to do something like taking a skill for rope jumping or something like that. He also couldn't force Ethan to love someone or even work towards the goal of creating a harem if the tendency wasn't already there. At least not long term. 

For those that only saw the movies. Voldemort only possessed Quirrell after Quirrell failed to get the stone in Gringotts. In the movies it is depicted in a way that Quirrell is refraining from shaking Harries hand, but in the books they did shake their hands. It isn't known what form Voldemort had before that. It is only known that he inhabited a few rodents and snakes (he preferred snakes). So even if Ethan achieved his goal, it would have changed nothing.