The Protagonist System

Amy took to the adventuring life like she had been born to it. She was full of enthusiasm and excitement as we travelled across the world and investigated everything she had ever heard of. Any rumors, old stories, and tales of bygone eras were now clues to follow and points of curiosity, instead of a list of dry historical facts.

We did the adventuring thing for several years as we grew up, with magic being the equalizing factor that stopped anyone from asking why a couple of kids were so far away from their homeland and digging through ancient ruins for different kinds of treasure.

Thanks to the Touch of Divinity and the Blessings that Amy had gained a share in, we both grew up and developed divine bodies, making us perfect in every way. Neither I nor Amy missed how we each gave each other intense looks of scrutiny, just to see if there were any flaws left, and didn't discover anything.

Travelling roughly didn't mean the same thing with people that had access to an inventory that grew with the amount of power we could accumulate. Since Amy needed experience points, we did many side missions rescuing people from environmental disasters, stopping many crimes against humanity, and taking down many slave markets and criminal enterprises across the world.

It was no surprise that dealing with the drug cartels in third world countries had given us the most experience and Karma Points, since removing them would eventually change the fates of the most people, most for the good and some for the bad. Kicking addictions was a hard habit to break, so we did several more side missions to heal people in hospitals and in the various slums across the world.

I also taught her a lot of what I knew, thanks to information sharing with the party. Amy adored me even more after she learned all of the little details I had skimmed over while giving her an overview of my various lives. The little slights, the bad turns of relationships, and the mistakes I had made when trying to do my best, really gave her the best and worst view of me that anyone would ever have.

“It just means you're still human, even after everything you've been through.” Amy told me, then she kissed me deeply and passionately.

She would turn 17 in a few days and that was considered an adult in the wizarding world. She had tried to jump the gun with me a few times, as the old saying goes, and I had carefully fended off her advances to let her both gain power and to make a fully informed decision about us, instead of only relying on her previous experiences with the other me and how much fun we had as kids.

It had frustrated her that I didn't take advantage of her, even as her body formed into the perfect version of itself, thanks to the shared Blessings. That didn't stop her from giving me many inappropriate kisses at inopportune times, grabbed things she shouldn't have while in public, and teased and tormented me for not ravaging her like the stories I had reluctantly shared with her about my many sexual exploits.

It was almost funny as she caressed me with parts of herself that didn't involve her hands, which took talent and more than a little practice, which I didn't admonish her for. Why? Because she kept reminding me that delaying wasn't denying, so she knew I desperately wanted her as much as she wanted me, only I was too damn noble to tear off her clothes and take her without her express permission.

On her birthday, I gave her a card with her birthday present on it. She looked shocked and then gave me another passionate kiss before I brought her to the British Ministry of Magic to an appointment with the education testing authority and she sat for her OWLs. It took a week to do the same trick I had done in the other world and she took 10 more OWLs as make-up exams and passed them all.

The week after that, she sat her NEWTs and did the same make-up trick to take the rest of the ones offered. She passed them all and became one of the most educated witches in Britain, since the local Harry Potter had made all of his wives pass with flying colors with the top scores years ago. It let Amy excel and didn't bring attention to herself.

When she received her certificate, Amy kissed me passionately, right there in the education department's office. It made the old woman behind the desk blush and also look wistful as she remembered her own times doing similar things years ago to shock people.

“I'm ready now.” Amy said, her face red.

“I know.” I said and bid the old woman a good day and we left the department. Instead of going all the way to the Ministry's Atrium to leave, Amy used her recently developed transportation ability to fade us from there to appear back in the house a street over from Privet Drive that was the indoor amusement park I had made for her.

“I really love this place, you know.” Amy said and pushed me down the huge slide.

I let her and tumbled down the thing backwards and fell into the cushioned ball bit at the bottom. I knew what she was going to do, so I stored my clothing and floated on the top of the pit to catch her. Amy came barrelling out of the slide with a joyous look on her face and she saw me waiting for her, completely naked. Her clothes vanished and she tackled me down into the pit.

What followed was a wonderful time for the both of us, as we worked off years of sexual frustration and repression. As we went at it, she nuzzled my neck that gave me a familiar feeling, then she kissed me with a tenderness I knew I had only felt a few times before. It just wasn't coming to me where that could have been.

We reached the bottom of the ball pit and Amy braced herself and rode me fairly hard, with our magic pushing the balls away enough to see each other as we had fun. I tried to warn her about not hurting herself as she tried to have as much pleasure as she could and as quickly as she could, only to be met with a flickering Amy.

I blinked my eyes at her and wondered what was happening, then Amy reached her peak and screamed out her pleasure. She tightened up down there so much that I finished as well, giving her another orgasm and she yelled, and thrashed, and then her entire visage faded away and she became completely invisible.

I was so shocked by this turn of events that I didn't react when she stopped moving and leaned down to give me the same fluttering kiss I had received many times before. I now remembered where I had gotten it and stared up at her, even though I couldn't see her, even when using my various powers.

“Reading buddy?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

A familiar giggle came to my ears and my mind immediately connected it to all the times I had heard Amaryllis laugh over the years, ever since she was old enough to ambush me in the kitchen, so I would swing her around in a helicopter spin to make her happy.

“Why...” I swallowed audibly and took a deep breath, then continued. “Why would you choose to do this?”

I felt her access the gift shop, something she hadn't been able to do before, and a magnetic board with alphabet letters on it appeared in front of me and a bill for 10 Karma Points, which I paid without question. The letters formed words and I mentally added Amy's voice saying them in my head.

Because I love you and you need me to be like this. I don't want to stay here on this world after you leave, so this way I can always be with you.

I closed my eyes and felt tears form, then felt her kiss them away before she hugged me and faded away completely. “Fuck.”

I laid there for several minutes as I came to grips with what she did to herself, or had accepted whatever her growing powers had done to her. We hadn't even finished levelling up her Adventurer Card and now we never could.

She had chosen to do the things she had heard about me doing with my reading buddy between my various lives, and sometimes during the worlds themselves, when I intentionally paused them to make a pivotal decision or needed time to think.

I cleaned everything up with a cleaning spell and stood up as I equipped some basic clothing. I ignored the balls around me and thought about what else I could do here. I couldn't think of anything, since everything else here had worked out. I still had that special package in my inventory that I had to deliver, which meant I had many years to wait before I could take it out to reveal it. If I did it too soon, it would change how future events happened.

What did that mean? It meant I had other Harry Potter worlds I could visit while I waited. I had already established I could step sideways, once I was in a certain type of world, and this one had many variations I could spend a very long time inside of.

I would need to be judicious about picking the right scale of time to step into, too. It was years past the normal time for a Harry Potter story, so I needed to narrow my focus to those timelines that had been jumped forward to allow a bigger threat from emerging technology and the wizarding world being discovered.

It would take me a while to search, so I stepped out of the ball pit and into the living room. I plopped down onto the beanbag couch and closed my eyes as I searched for a good candidate to spend a year or two with to fix their problems. Depending on the circumstances, I might even stick around for a while.

*

Harriet Potter sat on a rock beside the Black Lake and tried to not cry. Her name had come out of the Goblet of Fire a week ago and all of her friends had turned on her and called her a cheater, even her best friends, Hermione and Lavender. The worst was from the boy she liked, Ron Weasley. He accused her of lying to him about entering and he called her so many names behind her back.

“Why? Why me?” Harriet asked the calm water and wished she could be so calm.

“Because it's always about you.” A male voice answered.

Harriet rolled off to the side, drew her wand, and braced on one knee as she aimed at the face of the young man behind her that hadn't been standing there a minute ago. She hadn't even heard him approach.

“Good reflexes.” He said and walked around the rock, gave it a glance, then waved a hand at it and changed it into a very nice stone bench that was wide enough for two people to sit on it.

Harriet stared at the casual wandless magic and felt a little envy, because she had always wanted to do things like that, then she concentrated on the young man as he sat down and visibly relaxed, with one arm resting across the back of the bench.

“Before we start, if they don't believe you and call you a liar, then they're not good friends.” He said and smiled at her.

Harriet was shocked. How did he know...

“You're not the first person to experience things like this and you won't be the last.” He answered her unasked question. “So, do you want to tell me all about it, or should I assume you're too stubborn to share?”

“What if I am?” Harriet said and slowly lowered her wand. She didn't feel any kind of threat from him and she usually trusted her instincts.

“We can skip the heartfelt conversation where I reassure you that you're a good person and worth having as a friend.” He answered and Harriet blushed. “Then, we can move on to what you need to do to get through this and still be alive at the end.”

“You believe that it's a plot against me?” Harriet asked before she could stop herself.

The young man chuckled. “This is your fourth year at Hogwarts. When has it not been a plot against you?”

Harriet opened her mouth to defend herself and her actions, then she realized he actually agreed with her. She stood up from the crouch she was in, walked over to the bench, and sat down. Surprisingly, she didn't blush when her back leaned against his muscular arm and she felt the warmth seep into her through her school robes.

“Now tell me everything.” He urged.

Harriet took a deep breath and let it out, then she started talking. “It all started when I received my Hogwarts letter...”

*

Everyone in the Great Hall were shocked when a much different looking Harriet Potter entered it for the evening meal. Her robes were the finest acromantula silk and her shoes were actually stylish calf-high boots, that showed off her shapely legs covered in fishnet hose, instead of the black tights she usually wore. She also wore a skirt that was well above the knee length it should have been.

It was her hair that caught the most attention, though. Instead of the short and badly cut dark bird's nest she was known for, it was a long silky black full of gentle waves that made a lot of the girls jealous and more than a few of the boys stare at her with desire.

Instead of balking at the scrutiny, a now bare faced Harriet Potter almost basked in it and walked with confidence over to the Gryffindor table and sat down with her yearmates and also slightly apart from them, as she was forced to do ever since her name had come out of the Goblet of Fire.

Everyone stared at her and she looked amused at their reactions as she started to eat. Almost no one noticed the telltale lightning bolt scar was gone, except for two people. Hermione Granger and Albus Dumbledore. With her large thick glasses out of the way, the scar's absence really stood out to the two observant people.

Also, they noticed how exceptionally pretty she was. How had they not seen it or noticed before? Was her previous appearance so off-putting that they never looked below the surface? Hermione had even shared a dorm with her for over three years and still hadn't noticed.

“What happened to you?” Lavender asked and her voice was a bit harsh, because not only had Harriet lied about entering the tournament, she had been hiding how beautiful she was and that pissed her off. They could have shared so many beauty secrets and Harriet had kept them all to herself.

Harriet paused eating and swallowed before speaking. “I decided I didn't need to keep my fake friends happy anymore.”

Nearly everyone that heard that answer gasped, even a few of the guys.

“You revealed your true colors and how you really felt about me, so I no longer have to keep my head down and let someone else be the smartest...” Harriet paused talking and glanced at Hermione, to make sure her ex-friend knew she was talking about her, then she looked back at Lavender. “...or the prettiest.”

Surprisingly, neither of the pointed out girls said anything to deny that they were the smartest and prettiest.

“You see this face? Unlike yours, there's not a trace of makeup on it.” Harriet boldly claimed.

Lavender caught her breath and felt like she was stabbed in the heart. She put a hand over it as she leaned back from the predatory look on Harriet's face. “H...Harry...”

“Only my friends can call me Harry, Miss Brown.” Harriet said and cut her off. She quickly finished off the food she had put on her plate and stood. “Excuse me, I need to talk to Professor McGonagall about new sleeping arrangements.”

Everyone at the Gryffindor table was stunned to hear that and watched as Harriet walked with a slight sway to her hips and made her shorter skirt swish a lot more than it should have. It caught everyone's eyes, even the disgusting teacher she hated and he hated her right back, Professor Snape.

“Miss Potter, we will be having a discussion about appropriate skirt length and hose requirements.” Minerva said as the young girl approached her.

Harriet ignored her. “It's been recently brought to my attention that the Goblet of Fire spat out my name under an unknown fourth school, as agreed by the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamut and the Headmaster of Hogwarts himself. Therefore, I can no longer be a student at Hogwarts.”

A lot of the teachers were shocked to hear that, as was Albus Dumbledore.

“Harry, I'm sure that we can work out an appropriate schedule...” Albus started to interject.

“Excuse me, sir.” Harriet interrupted and shocked everyone again. “I am discussing my withdrawal from the school with the Deputy Headmistress. Please do not threaten to make me lose my magic by violating the Goblet of Fire's binding contract, which you insisted cannot be broken and I must compete in the tournament against my will.”

That shut the old man up and a lot of the students started whispering about it.

“Professor McGonagall, I need a copy of the withdrawal papers and then I need guest quarters prepared for myself as a visiting student and another for my homeschooling tutor, which I'm told I'd need to allow me to survive the upcoming tasks.” Harriet continued.

Minerva could only stare at her and didn't say anything else.

“Do I need to take this to the school board?” Harriet asked. “I'd like to have this handled before the wand weighing ceremony next week, just in case that counts as an official tournament event and I violate the contract by having two Hogwarts students participate in it.”

Minerva shook her head. “No, I... I was just...” She sighed and stood. “There's no need to contact the Board of Governors. Follow me to my office and we can handle the paperwork right away.”

“Minerva, I believe you should wait and hold off...” Albus tried to interject again.

“Do you want her to lose her magic over this after stating she had to compete to keep it?” Minerva asked, quite pointedly, and the old man closed his mouth. She nodded and walked around the teacher's table and stepped down off of the raised platform and Harriet walked alongside her.

A lot of people were surprised that they kept pace with each other and the two of them left the Great Hall without anyone making another sound, then the large doors closed and everyone started loudly talking about everything that just happened.

Albus looked put out and wasn't sure how his plans were going to work going forward. Snape on the other hand, looked like Christmas had come early and his scheme to get Harriet Potter out of Hogwarts was working out even better than he had anticipated.

He would need to work hard to keep his involvement a secret as he helped the idiot girl win the stupid tournament and then he could send her to the Dark Lord as a sacrifice. It had been him that had put her name into the Goblet and then had accused her of doing it herself for fame and glory.

Snape had enjoyed the betrayed and devastated look on her face and held in his amusement that it had been expected of him to accuse her, since everyone knew they loathed each other from the moment they met in first year.

Even with Mad Eye Moody hounding him because he was a Death Eater, he was sure he could pull the plan off under everyone's noses. He had been working for the Dark faction for years and no one suspected anything, thanks to Albus Dumbledore's endorsement that he fully trusted the potions master.