Chapter 146: Lost

Unknown time, unknown place

(Jasmine Sayre POV)

Before he could voice his confusion, I channel my life force to the rune and activate it. He must have realized what was happening because I could feel his cosmic energy trying to stop the spell, but it was too late; the spell had activated and the time it would take for him to break it would take him at least a few decades.

The cosmic entity yelled in fury as he realized what was happening and while he was trying to stop it, he destabilized the spell somehow, creating a blast that sent us both flying. However, while I was flying back, I could see that my spell worked, that my enemy was frozen in time. I knew that he would be back but I would be ready for him, this time.

These were my last thoughts as I flew back towards the portal. I had no idea where I was going or how I was going to get back, but at the very least, I felt some satisfaction at my enemy’s temporary defeat. However, I swore to myself that I would be back and that I wouldn’t just let the multiverse be destroyed. Just as I made that vow to myself, I felt myself slip away, falling unconscious from exertion.

I woke up with a killer headache and my body was so sore that breathing was getting agonizing. It took moments to remember what exactly happened. The beating I got from Entropy, my last ditch trap that worked somehow.

It was an extremely risky move, I had to admit that. I wrote celestial runes with my blood, using my fingers, while not actually looking at what I was drawing. I even powered it using my life force not my magic, as I had usually. Calling it risky was an understatement. I could have blown up the planet, created a black hole, or even worse, I could have created an instability in time on just that planet. It would have made the timeline on this particular planet be outside the timeline of the rest of the universe. This meant that anyone on the planet would experience time differently. It could be slower for a second and then far quicker the next.

Anyway, while the rune worked, it was still unstable enough for it to emit a pulse of temporal energy that hit me and the portal. I needed to get home quickly. I was familiar enough with dimensional travel, not extremely so, but enough that I understood the theory. I had marked my home universe so that I would always be able to have a way back. I made it in case I was trapped in another realm, like in Asgard or a demon was able to trap me in his realm, I could easily use the marker to find my way back.

I spread my senses and I was immediately greeted by magic. Oh, thank the One Above All, this place has magic. I can feel my magic starting to fill up and heal my injuries. I try to look for my dimensional marker. Damn, the dimension is too far away for me to be able to power through. This meant that I had to gather energy using a ritual and then use it to power my dimensional jump.

I run a few quick calculations in my head, and then sigh in exasperation. No, even if I can drain this planet dry of its magic, not that I would ever do it since it would kill every resident on that planet; everything needs magic to live, after all, it still wouldn’t be enough for me to do a dimensional jump this far out. Entropy was right, only a cosmic entity would be able to do that.

So now, I had two choices, I could either keep doing jump after jump, trying to get closer to my universe, until I’m close enough, something that would take centuries, or I could actually ask a cosmic entity to do so.

Now, how the fuck do I summon a cosmic entity? I had no idea. I needed to get their attention, somehow. I had no idea how to do that, but that’s a problem for later. I needed to find out what resources were at my disposal, and to do that, I concentrate on the biggest concentration of magic. With the amount of ambient magic around, it would make sense that there would be magic wielders of some kind.

Huh, I was still on Earth, even the cities were the same, at least I won’t have to adapt too much. I was somewhere in England. I keep spreading my senses and find the greatest magical nexus near me to be in London. I teleport towards it, keeping myself hidden as to not scare people to hell. I arrive in front of a small familiar pub. It read, ‘The Leaky Cauldron.’

Huh, neat, I was in a ‘Harry Potter’ universe. It was somewhat similar to mine. I needed more data. What was the date, were there mutants here, was there an organization like SHIELD?

To find out, I chose to materialize myself in an empty alleyway close to the pub and made my invisibility cloak look like the normal robes wizards and witches usually wore. I always wore my invisibility cloak as my clothes. It made it easier for me to disappear at a moment’s notice and it allowed me a certain amount of protection that was far more powerful than any enchanted armor or clothes could provide.

I slowly walked to the pub and sat down. I ordered a butterbeer and asked for a copy of the daily prophet. To pay, I created a simple transmutation array to create around fifty galleons. Unfortunately, my personal dimension where I stored most of my items, was relative to my home dimension. Me being here, would mean that I would need nearly as much power to open it, as I would to actually travel to my home dimension. So, that was a lost cause.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

The bartender, Tom, smiled at me and immediately gave me a copy of the newspaper. The first thing I look at is the date, which was, July 13th, 1995. Damn, the time pulse really messed with the portal for me to be here. Entropy had attempted to get me to a universe with no wizards, mutants or anything with power, really. The temporal energy must have messed with the portal and changed to destination to this universe.

I then look at the actual articles written on the front page. I raise my eyebrows in surprise. There was one big title, ‘The Boy who Lies’. What the hell?

I kept reading and was becoming more and more surprised. Did they really use the entire first page of the national magical newspaper just to slander a fifteen year old boy? It doesn’t matter much, but what it shows is that I might be in the Harry Potter canon universe, right after Riddle was resurrected.

I spent the rest of the day browsing books in the library in Diagon Alley, trying to get as much information as I could on the magical world. After I was done, I did the same on the non magical side, and I was faced with a clear conclusion.

In the mundane world, nothing was out of place. I might have accessed a couple of restricted files just to make sure, but there was no superpowers, no super soldiers, no Hydra or SHIELD, just a bunch of greedy governments and politicians. It was nothing special, just a normal world with no super powers.

On the other hand, the magical world was exactly the same as canon Harry Potter. Like always, James and Lily Potter went into hiding, were betrayed by Pettigrew and killed by Riddle. Lily’s sacrificial magic did its job and was able to protect young Harry, and temporarily kill Voldemort.

This was the summer after the Tri Wizard Tournament where Cedric Diggory had just been killed and Harry Potter publicly announced in the middle of an international tournament that Lord Voldemort had returned from the dead.

The ministry, in an attempt to stop any hysteria, had decided to slander both Harry and Dumbledore for this statement. I could understand slandering Dumbledore, an experienced politician who pretty much ruled the progressive faction of the Wizengamot and had led Britain by the nose ever since he beat Gellert Grindelwald in 1945. But attacking a fifteen year old orphan who said something in hysteria after signs of visible torture under the Cruciatus curse. Of course, every investigation was being stonewalled by the ministry but even after the DMLE had investigated the cemetery, they found traces of dark magic, but it was nothing unusual, especially with the abandoned Gaunt hovel nearby.

Still, it was extremely childish and petty from the ministry to attack a teenager of all things, but people seemed to eat it up. Were they so used to being spoon-fed information that they stopped fact checking the information given to them?

This wasn’t my problem and I didn’t care to fix the public opinion of a counterpart of mine. Traveling the multiverse and fixing every problem would be a fool’s errand. But at least, I have a plan now. I was lucky to come to this universe, since it provided me with opportunities to contact cosmic entities.

Whatever methods I tried to contact Death had failed. She probably assumed that I was still in my previous universe and this one was already far enough that she barely noticed my attempt to contact her. I tried looking for the hallows in this dimension, but after sneaking into Albus Dumbledore’s office, I found out that the Elder Wand was powered by some sort of soul magic that takes an imprint of the previous user and adds it to the wand’s power. It was a basic form of soul magic and while impressive for a mortal to do, it was still far more inferior than my staff. The hallows must be just artifacts created by the Peverell brothers and were then mystified in legend.

So with no way to actually contact Death without doing anything drastic, like breaking the natural laws after which I would be severely punished, there was another cosmic entity that had taken interest in this universe, Fate.

True prophesies were words that will happen no matter what choices are taken. They are only spoken with fate’s permission, when every path in the future is one where the prophecy is fulfilled. Me being an outsider is something that Fate didn’t take into account, meaning that I could break Fate’s prophecy, especially the one between Riddle and Harry Potter. It wouldn’t mean much in the long run, but I could ritualistically magnify the disturbance when I break the prophecy. Giving me Fate’s attention, and I would be able to bargain with her.

Fate could just screw me, but I think that Entropy’s plan would be enough for her to hear me out and letting me come back to my universe to stop him.

The ritual would need a little less than a year to charge for the signal to be at its maximum, and meanwhile, I needed a proper way to monitor Potter’s situation. Lucky for me, there’s a job open as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts. I always loved teaching and I’m pretty curious how the castle is like when I wasn’t involved in building it.

Plus, I’m looking forward to driving Dumbledore insane with suspicion and if he’s anything like the Dumbledore in my universe, he would share a similar fate. I always disliked the bearded bastard.

Now, I only need to sort myself and create a good back story with a few fake official documents. If I’m going to stay here for a year or so, I might as well take care of myself while I do.

It will only take a couple of days for me to officially exist in this world and I would be ready for the interview with Dumbledore. Oh, this was going to be so much fun.

I suppress my guilt for leaving Selene and Wanda alone for a year. It was cruel to just disappear with no warnings. Not that I had a choice in the matter. I’m pretty sure that Selene could keep a level head, and would figure out that I’m trapped in an alternate universe. I had built trackers on our rings that allowed us to know if the other one is alright. She probably felt me fighting before, and the fact that I travelled to another dimension.

Selene will trust me to take care of myself, and for us, a year wasn’t really that long. The main problem I had was Wanda. I knew how rash she was, especially when she’s losing someone she loved. I could only hope that Selene would be able to contain her and calm her down, while I’m stuck here. It’s only been a day but I missed both of them dearly.