Chapter 50: Weaslette, Divergence, and Profits
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Walking in the Hogwarts corridors could be a daunting challenge if you didn't know your way around. There were too many corridors, cuts, paths, doors, and goddamn stairs that liked to shit with people. But, those who spend an ample amount of time in Hogwarts could find order in chaos.
So, when Quinn walked in the corridors of Hogwarts, with a dazed look in his eyes, you didn't need to worry about him. As even with his mind somewhere else, his legs were taking care of the navigation.
The cause for the dazed Quinn was because he was thinking, which was crossing over to daydreaming about the riddle of the second vault. It had been a couple of days, but he hadn't been able to make any serious progress.
The wording of the riddle was vague, and Quinn didn't know what to make out of it.
'What is the stage of completeness? Is there something known as oil of green revenge? To get to the reward, I need to appreciate accolades? What was Friar on when he was thinking of this?' Multiple thoughts circled in Quinn's mind as he walked in the corridors, not really paying attention to his surroundings.
"Ouch."
"Umph."
Quinn walked into something, and while he didn't move at all, the thing he collided into did fell down.
Focus returned to his eyes, and he looked at the 'thing' he walked into and saw the 'thing' was actually a person.
A head of flaming red hair greeted him. The person looked up to show her freckled complexion with light skin, a very petite stature, and bright brown eyes.
The person on the floor was the only female progeny of the Weasley family, Ginny Weasley.
Quinn's mind, which had been solely focused on figuring the sense of the riddle, stopped and reassigned itself to the person in front of him.
"I am very sorry. I wasn't paying attention, and look what happened," spoke Quinn, as he helped the first year Weasley up.
"It's okay. I, too, wasn't looking," said the girl. She noticed the golden ring on Quinn's finger before she looked up and saw Quinn's face.
"Red hair, hmm... a Weasley? Oh, wait. I remember you. You are a first-year, aren't you?" said Quinn, breaking ice into a conversation. "What is your name?"
This was the perfect chance to have a conversation with the carrier of Tom Riddle's diary, a.k.a Voldemort's first Horcrux.
"My name is Ginny," replied the Weaslette.
"I see, Ginny. What are you doing here? There aren't any first-year classrooms here?" said Quinn, glancing around to see if there was around. It would be better for him if there wasn't anyone around. Easier for him to work when there weren't any witnesses.
But, at the same time, Quinn was nervous as he wondered if the girl in front of him wasn't Ginny but Tom Riddle. It would answer what a first-year was doing far away from the usual first-year student hotspot locations.
"... am l-...."
"Pardon me, but I wasn't able to get that," said Quinn, leaning towards her.
"I am lost!" half-shouted Ginny, her face becoming as red as her hair in embarrassment.
Or, it was a lost Ginny Weasley in front of him, thought Quinn, not really sure if Tom Riddle would be able to pull off a red-hot embarrassed expression.
"Ah~ well, there is no reason to get embarrassed because of that," assured Quinn, comforting the girl who truly had become red as her hair. "You are a first-year, and Hogwarts is a confusing place."
He smiled and offered, "Where do you want to go? I will take you there."
Ginny looked relieved as her flush receded, leaving behind a faint blush on her cheeks. "I want to go to the charms classroom."
"Alright, let's go. We are on the fourth floor, but the charms classroom is on the third floor. You must have stepped on the wrong flight of stairs," replied Quinn.
And, when Ginny made eye contact with him, Quinn wasted no time and took the opportunity to send a mental probe into Ginny's mind.
'Got in,' thought Quinn, latching his probe into Ginny's unprotected mind.
"Come on, let's go, or you will be late," said Quinn, as he broke eye contact and funneled magic and focus for maintaining the connection with Ginny's mind. This technique, while tricky for most Legilimency practitioners, for Quinn was easy as his way of practicing Legilimency was to sit in the Great Hall and eavesdrop into people's minds, 'listen' to their surface thoughts and emotions.
In the past two years at Hogwarts, Quinn had become weirdly good at using Legilimency without maintaining eye contact.
"So, how are you finding Hogwarts? Having any fun?" asked Quinn, making idle questions as he navigated his probe deeper into her mind, trying to reach the layer where memories resided.
"... Gryffindor common room is fun," said Ginny as she finished speaking, showing the starry-eyed expression of any new first-year.
"Nice, when I was in my first year, I kept a diary and wrote every new and fun thing I saw in it. Believe me, Hogwarts doesn't have a shortage of fascinating things. By the end of the year, my diary was full of fun stuff."
Quinn sneakily and smoothly deployed his standard Modulus Operandi (M.O.) of mentioning a keyword relating to the memory he was looking for. Hoping that it would trigger the memory in the target's mind, causing it to rise on the surface, making it easier for Quinn to find the relevant memory.
Quinn furrowed his brows a fraction as nothing relevant came to the surface, only Molly Weasley's house budget diary and Arthur Weasley's work diary.
'Gotta do it the long way,' thinking that Quinn focused deeper and dove deeper into Ginny's mind, trying to find anything relevant, and it was when they reached the grand staircase did Quinn finally found something.
'Got it!'
It was the memory of the day of shopping. The Weasley family, along with the Potter family, went shopping for school supplies. Just like the books, they met up with the Granger family. They ended up meeting Gilderoy Lockhart at his signing event.
Like the books, the real-life didn't cut out the brawl between Arthur Weasley and Lucius Malfoy. It almost made Quinn chuckle when he saw Arthur throw himself on Lucius. The two men knocked themselves into a bookshelf, starting a domino chain of falling bookshelves.
While Quinn watched the memory, the duo of younger Gryffindor and older Ravenclaw walked down the stair. As they descended, they heard a shout,
"Ginny!"
Quinn focused and saw four people on another flight of moving stairs. It was the golden squad: Harry Potter, Ivy Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley. The one who called out to Ginny was her brother, Ron.
'Time's up, I guess,' thought Quinn as he looked at them.
Quinn and Ginny reached a relay point to change stairs. Quinn looked at Ginny and smiled, "It seems my job ends here. Your friends would guide you from here on."
Quinn took out an A.I.D card from his pocket and handed it to Ginny.
"If you need help with anything, you can see me here. I will try my best to help you out," said Quinn. Ginny looked at the card and nodded.
"Good, now I will take my leave," said Quinn and stepped onto a staircase that came to the relay point.
"Wait, what is your name?!" called out Ginny.
Quinn turned as the staircase started to move and smiled, "Quinn West, and it might be late, but welcome to Hogwarts!"
The next set of stairs that arrived at the relay point were the golden squad's stairs, and as they stepped off the stairs onto the platform, Ivy asked,
"Ginny, what did he wanted from you?"
"Hmm? Nothing, I was lost, and he was guiding me to the charms classroom. He was nice," said Ginny. While Quinn did spend all the time looking at Ginny's memories, he made sure to hold a proper conversation with Ginny.
"What did he give you to at the end there?" asked Ron.
Ginny held the card in both her hands and showed it to Ron, "He gave me his card."
"Show it to me," said Ron as he tried to take it from Ginny, but the smaller Weasley was faster and snatched back her hand before Ron could get his hand on the card.
"Nope, if you want one, get it from Quinn," said Ginny, looking at the card in her hands. It was the first time she had received something like this, and she didn't trust Ron with it.
"I will give it to you later," Hermione spoke to Ron, who was trying to get the card from Ginny, who was effortlessly evading her brother.
Harry glanced at Hermione and asked, "You have one?"
"I have multiple cards. They aren't difficult to find. You can usually find them under the classroom tables," replied Hermione, and then quipped, "Of course, you wouldn't know it, would you."
She was commenting on Harry's lack of attention during lessons.
"What do you mean by that?" asked Harry, getting ready to quarrel with Hermione.
Ivy looked at her brother and best friend and immediately recognized the signs of another childish exchange, their usual thing.
"Okay, you two stop," she interrupted the two who were rearing to go at each other. She looked up and was just able to see one last look at Quinn before he was out of their sight.
She turned to Hermione and asked, "Why do you have multiple of those?"
Hermione's eyes shined as she exclaimed, "The cards aren't always the same. I have six different versions of cards, each one better than the last one. The charms on the cards are so fascinating; every card has charms I don't recognize. Even now, I don't completely understand what went into creating them. I am seriously considering taking the card to professor Flitwick to get some answers."
Ever since Hermione had found that there were multiple versions of A.I.D cards, she had started to collect them. She even went to older students to look at their cards. And had traded with them to have all the versions.
Hermione Granger was Hogwarts' first A.I.D card collector.
Ron didn't know about the guy and just thought it was another one of the bookworms from Ravenclaw, and Hermione's fascination with Quinn cemented his image of Quinn.
Harry, on the other hand, knew about Quinn. He had seen Quinn plenty of times talking to Katie Bell, who was his Quidditch teammate. He had seen him talking to Daphne Greengrass, who he recognized.
Plus, he had seen him once last year during his time in the Hospital Wing, and his mother had praised Quinn for being a good student.
Now, he caught the sight of the card in Ginny's hand and noticed the words A.I.D.
"Where have I seen that," Harry thought out loud. He couldn't place a finger on where he had seen those words.
Ivy helped her brother out and spoke, "A.I.D or Quinn West is the one who wrote the exam notes mum gave you. The colorful one."
It finally clicked in Harry's mind, "He made those notes?! I thought mum wrote those for us."
While Harry wasn't particularly active in the classroom, he wasn't stupid. He had been raised by Lily Potter; he made sure to regularly study as he had been taught to do by his mother.
Ivy looked at her twin like he was an idiot and said, "Didn't you see them with like everybody? Why would mum make them from everyone?"
"Hey, I don't really have a carefree last year," said Harry, defending himself.
Ivy didn't give him a hard time, as last year had been a little rough on Harry. He had been in close contact with Voldemort, and that caused his scar to hurt a lot. Plus, there were some attacks on his life.
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While the golden squad was talking among themselves, Quinn had a peculiar experience.
'Damn it! Damnit! Damn it! Damn it!' repeated Quinn in his mind.
"This cannot be happening," exclaimed Quinn, his tone showcasing panic. He had just experienced something that shouldn't have happened, or at least Quinn hadn't thought of happening.
Like a wrecking ball, a grave piece of information had hit him while he thought he was making progress.
When in Ginny's mind, reading her memories to see the influence of the diary-Horcrux on her mind, Quinn could only find a single memory related to Tom Riddle's diary, and that was the fight at Flourish and Blotts.
In that memory, he noticed a glaring issue. A smoking gun that blew the whole situation apart.
Lucius Malfoy didn't sneakily give the diary to Ginny.
Meaning that Ginny Weasley didn't have the diary-Horcrux.
Meaning that there was a divergence from canon events.
Quinn had checked thoroughly and didn't notice anything going to Ginny or any Potter or Weasley children. Lucius Malfoy didn't have a chance to slip anything into Potters, Weasleys, or Hermione when he was busy being restrained by Auror James Potter for disrupting order by fighting in a public place.
Tom Riddle's diary wasn't with Ginny, and that made some glaring problems. Problems that down the line could create grave situations.
"Now, I don't know if the diary is in Hogwarts or not." Quinn paced back and forth, thinking about the ramification of his discovery.
The locations of Horcrux were crucial information to Quinn. As long as he was aware of the position of the Horcruxes, he had the upper hand on Voldemort.
But now, he did not know where the diary-Horcrux was.
Quinn began to think about the diary-Horcrux and came up with three possibilities.
First, the diary-Horcrux could still have made its way to Hogwarts but with another student. Lucius Malfoy could have simply dropped it with another student, resulting in it coming to Hogwarts. If this was the case, it was the closest to the canon events, and Quinn would like it the most.
Second, the diary-Horcrux remained at the Malfoy Manor, safe in the protected Manor, as it had been since Voldemort had entrusted it to Lucius. If this was the case, it caused some problems, as when Voldemort gets a body, there was a high chance Malfoy Manor would become Voldemort's headquarters. If that happens, it would mean that Voldemort would have a Horcrux close to him, which was not a pleasant thought.
Third, Lucius had sold the diary-Horcrux, and its location was unknown. This was the worst of the scenario, as that would mean that a Horcrux was out there, and as long as it was intact, Voldemort couldn't die.
This scenario was the least plausible, as Lucious might not sell something given to him by Voldemort. But, one could argue against it by saying that Lucius was carrying the diary with him on the day he was selling dark objects to Borgin and Burkes to get rid of it. He wanted to sell dark items to protect himself if the Ministry arrived knocking at his door because of the stricter standards.
And, let's say that diary-Horcrux never came to Hogwarts, which would mean that diary-Riddle would never wake the Basilisk up and Harry would never kill the beast, and it would be still alive. If Voldemort attacked Hogwarts, then the Basilisk would definitely be part of his forces. A magical beast that could kill with a single glance was a game-changer. It would be more effective on a battlefield than Voldemort himself.
Quinn heaved a heavy sigh as he thought about the situation that was getting out of his hand. The future knowledge was an essential asset for Quinn, and every change would decrease his safety in this world.
He looked up at the ceiling before glaring hard.
"I blame fate for this. Did you hear me?! I blame you!" screamed Quinn at an entity he didn't know if it even existed, but it was the action he took, and while it didn't solve the situation, it did help slightly to alleviate frustration.
He stomped hard on the floor before walking away; he needed time to think and make sure he was safe in Hogwarts.
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It was true that Quinn was having a not-so-good time because of the Horcrux situation or that he had made little progress with the vault riddle, but there was a single thing that was buzzing with positive activity.
Gilderoy Lockhart merchandise produced by Quinn and sold in Hogwarts were selling like hotcakes. Lockhart was good at one thing other than using Memory charm, and that was his ability to create an excellent public presence and knew how to maintain a positive image of himself. His fame and reputation were always riding high, and the common public was full of praises for him.
Riding on the wave of Lockhart's popularity and fame, Quinn sold tons and tons of Lockhart figurines, posters, lapel pins, exclusive trading cards that showcased Lockhart in different poses and with different quotes on each card, and many more products.
Countless students, mostly girls, coughed serious cash to get their hands on the Lockhart products. Quinn worked hard to meet the demand, and because of good planning and preparation, Quinn was able to keep up production and sold so many items that his dream of swimming in a pool of sickles took a significant jump in progress.
Lockharts, the Hogwarts fan club, was the official site for the sales as Quinn had hired a girl in the fan club to handle the sales for a small payment. He didn't have the time or the want to deal with sales, and neither did he want to stay in the club room all day to sell to take orders. He didn't need the A.I.D office to become a place where Lockhart fanatics mingled, so he made sure everybody knew that the club room was the place to go.
Quinn's life was complicated as he made the most money he had ever in his life but didn't have the opportunity to celebrate.
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Quinn West - MC - Has money - check, Hates fate - check.
Ginny Weasley - Gryffindor - Things are looking up for her as she escaped the fate of Voldemort controlling her - Good for her.
Hermione Granger - Collector - Looking forward to the new edition of A.I.D cards.
Lockharts - Cash cows - Being milked for money~.
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50 Chapters!
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