Coming home
I had entered into a ravenous state, I spent the next 3 days without sleep constantly looking through every book in my possession. When I wasn't reading through books I was out buying more as well as large amounts of coffee and energy drinks. I pushed myself past what I thought was possible even for a magically enhanced person, I crashed hard and spent a day and a half sleeping and once I had calmed I collected myself and went through a mental review of what I had learned.
This universe followed the events of the MCU seeing as Steve Rogers resembled Chris Evans and there was a much younger looking Robert Downey JR being hailed as one of the most intelligent people in the world. I tried to find hints to other movie franchises or things that only existed from the comics and so far the only thing I've come across was a very old paper on human psychology gathering dust in the corner of a run down book store, the contents were fascinating but the thing that piqued my interest was the name of the author, one professor Charles Francis Xavier. The possibility of it simply being a person who had a likeness to professor X and just a regular Joe Schmoe was slim in my mind.
After my huge freakout I came to a realization, Harry for all his faults was an intelligent child but he was not genius level. If I spent my life dedicating myself to study and training I could become a very powerful person, the only problem was that I did not have a lifetime to dedicate, to much would begin to happen in the coming decade that I would be unable to quietly stand back and work on myself.
I needed to enhance myself mentally so I could take in and learn at a much more efficient pace, I could become a master in certain topics in only a few years if I didn't use my memory stealing, soul assimilating power. However for someone like Tony Stark they would only need a few weeks or a month or two if the topic was lengthy. My magic was also still attempting to destroy itself and constantly fighting that process was using up a significant part of my concentration that I could spend elsewhere.
I started listing out rituals I could gleam from Voldemort's fractured memories that dealt with mental enhancement, however they either required an equivalent to sacrificing a small village or the side effects were much to costly for it to be an option. I was sitting at my desk in the dead of night trying to find some way of enhancing myself that I could actually pull off and not become a raging sociopath in the process. Then it hit me... whenever I assimilated people I called upon a part of myself that had been blessed (or cursed depending on your opinion) by the void, the few times that part of my soul opened up I would feel detached from my humanity and it was child's play to absorb the person and their mind in its entirety. But I didn't want the soul of someone, I wanted to simply copy the framework of someone's brain, how their neurons arranged themselves the ratio of chemicals in their brain. In theory that should be much easier to perform than consuming someone's mind and soul, I just needed to find a way to call on that part of me consciously and not just instinctively and also have it focus on the more physical attributes of a person and not their souls and magic.
Technically I had performed this when I absorbed the nutrients from the body but the brain structure itself was left ingored, I wasn't copying DNA I was just stealing the basic materials needed for my body to maintain itself. With my mind made up I disguised myself and ventured into the dark shady pathways that made up Knockturn alley, I specifically went into the shadier alleys that any sane person would avoid from fear of being mugged. I however was hoping to encounter someone of dubious morals that wouldn't be missed by anyone, after all I needed to practice this ability of mine in order to find its limits.
I hit the jackpot, I was jumped by a single person who obviously saw me as an easy mark, they were pretty ugly but their hair was lucious and seemed to keep its shape while also looking like a flowing stream. I could tell it naturally looked clean by the fact every other part of him was filthy, I was looking forward to having the perfect head of hair with zero maintenance required. The mugger was making some demand I wasn't paying attention to, I was to busy focusing my mind and magic on taking the parts of his being that determined how his hair grew and shaped itself, I wasn't just taking DNA I wanted whatever chemicals, proteins and shape of the hair follicles located on his scalp.
I think the mugger was getting annoyed by my lack of response, but before he could react I grabbed his shoulder and forced my magic into him. His body seized and it seemed the only part of him that could move was his eyes, he couldn't even talk only letting out pained moans and exclamations of exertion. I felt this cold non-human presence slide to the forefront of my mind and for a moment I was something MORE. I watched with detached fascination as the magicka vessels on his body began glowing with a bright white light but also a dark inky blackness, I could feel the parts of his body my magic flowed through, as if I was hijacking his nervous system and stealing his body. I let my magic flow until every part of him was now under my control and although I felt slightly strained I still had enough fortitude to perform my next task.
I focused on his hair, I focused on how badly I wanted it. In my mind I kept chanting 'mine, mine, mine, MINE '. It's my hair, it belongs too me, I don't want it I NEED IT.
I lost myself for awhile there, but I felt some part of me grab hold of something and PULL . Shortly after I felt a tiny piece of... something, slot into me like it had always belonged there. I cut the connection and staggered backwards as my disguise dropped and I reverted to my base form. I was a bit shocked and went to grab my face to check if my facial features had reverted... But I slowly smiled as I felt my new luscious locks that flowed effortlessly from my scalp, my hair also seemed to have grown a bit longer and sat just on my shoulders and the notorious Potter's bird nest quality of my hair was still present but more subdued.
I took notice of the mugger looking at me in horror, he was lying on the floor. It seemed he had fallen over in shock after I had let go, I quickly closed the gap between us and flared my magic in his direction, this time with the intent to feed.
After my late night 'snack' I let the muggers memories slide into the back of my mind, he was no one important and had no one that would miss him. I took his wand and practiced channeling my magic through it, it took a few tries and I felt some resistance from both the wand and my own magic but eventually I managed to create a weak 'bubble' around the body. The 'bubble's' only purpose was to stop smell from escaping as I burnt the corpse to ash. Once the remains had blown away in the wind I held the dead man's wand in both hands and cleanly snapped it in half, the wood had 'died' with its wielder and no longer held any magical affinity, the core however was that of a magical creature and would always hold its power no matter what. I gently pulled out a thin, strong and grey string from the broken wand, a dragon heart-string. one core down, two to go.
A few days had passed and I had gone out on two more nightly strolls, I not only got in practice with my new ability to, steal? copy? physical attributes but also now had the other two remaining wand cores I needed for the ritual. I also spent some time reading that occlumency book I had picked up, I had managed to organize my mind in such a manner that I could easily recall any memory from my own experiences and from those I had consumed, not only that but my train of thought had become more efficient, I was able to perform calculations slightly easier and found it easier to grasp new concepts. The book mentioned that making my thoughts more organized also made them easier to read and I was still practicing on scrambling and unscrambling my mind, at first it took half an hour but now it took around 10 minutes. I would still need time to prepare for a mental assault but hey progress is progress.
I also came to a very embarrassing realization, honestly I should've found this out sooner. Considering that this universe is a mashup of the MCU and HP it makes sense that the timeline might be a bit different. It turns out the reason that muggle London seems more modern than I expected is because its actually the late 90's and not the late 80's like I had thought, also with geniuses like Tony Stark running around the technology of the time is more ahead than my original universe. This means I'll be attending Hogwarts in the early 2000's. This doesn't really affect my plans in any way, it just means I'm gonna have to do a lot of work balancing MCU events and HP events as there is going to be some overlap.
The next new moon was drawing close and I needed a place where I could perform the stabilizing ritual. I visited Gringotts and inquired about any properties I was entitled to, the only property I had left in my possession was the ruins of the Potter ancestral home. The place had been sieged during the first wizarding war and only the foundations were left, however I still owned the surrounding land and Gringotts had taken the liberty to establish wards around the area preventing trespassers both muggle and magical.
I was out surveying the remaining stone foundation of the ancestral home when I felt a very faint pull on my magic, I followed it to an unassuming brick within the foundation, completely unremarkable and similar to the surrounding bricks aside from the strange pull I was feeling from it. I placed my hand on the brick and channeled my magic into it... nothing. I sat there for a moment reviewing my memories until I came across a brief snippet from Voldemort about family magics being performed via blood. I made a shallow cut on my finger and let it drip onto the brick, for a brief moment there was silence and then I felt a surge of magic pour out from the surrounding bricks as they began folding in on themselves and revealed a narrow staircase descending into the ground.
Venturing down I found a decently sized room filled with shelves of old potion ingredients and a few sparsely filled bookcases, however the true treasure was a large tome that sat on its own pedestal, I could feel protective magics layering the cover preventing any access to anyone who was not of Potter blood.
Inside were entries penned by all previous heads of the Potter family, dating back to the founder of the family, one Linfred of Stinchcombe known locally as the Potterer and credited with advancing the potioneering branch of magic by inventing Skele-Gro and Pepperup. This book started out as a personal journal for Linfred detailing his advancements and work, it was passed down through the family where other members added to it with their own work until it eventually evolved into a family Grimoire.
Although the Potter family was not of the sacred 28 they still had a few family magics that were acquired through rituals which were able to be passed down genetically through offspring, this led to members of the family having an affinity for potions, transfigurations and combat focused magics. There were also a few entries from an Abraham Potter who was one of the 12 Aurors recruited by the first president of MACUSA over in America. I should see if I have any remaining family over there.
I moved out of the leaky cauldron in the following days and had all my stuff set up in the hidden basement at the ancestral home, I had a corner for potioneering with all my equipment and related books out over there, Another corner was research focused with my writing supplies and a bookcase I had filled out with my theory texts. Next to the pedestal with the grimoire I had moved a bookcase to fill with my more advanced subjects, so far only the ritual and occlumency book were there but hopefully my collection would expand.
On the surface I had the ritual circle drawn out with my blood and the candles on all four corners, it was night with the new moon barely visible overhead. I had stripped completely and stood in the centre and waited for the moon to reach its peak, thankfully it wasn't that cold out. Once the moon was in place I put my finger upon the circle and pictured in my minds eye, a phoenix being reborn. I felt my magic begin to build and channel itself down my arm, almost as if it was being guided by an otherworldly force. My magic felt like fire and I watched as the circle started glowing in the night, the candles lit aflame as if they were alive and I felt my magic surging throughout my body as the air grew hotter. Soon enough my entire body felt as if I was burning up and I passed into unconsciousness.