Important Points to know:

1) Hogwarts starts at Thirteen here, not eleven. This is for reasons of wanting there to be serious relationships EVENTUALLY, even if that won't come about for quite a while. No, I won't be lewding underaged students. They are horny teenagers, so there might be a lot of suggestive comments and some making out at some points. But until they hit 17/18, no lemons in this one. Also...I don't know how to write an eleven-year-old. At least not convincingly. So, there's that too.

2) This story is not a primary focus. My main two current works are My Hero Automata and Can One Displaced Hero Save the Galaxy? That means this won't be updated as frequently as those works. Basically, it's up to my patrons which of the three stories that aren't a primary work get updated each month. Or, failing anyone voting, I'll pick whichever one suits my muse the best.

Disclaimer: Obviously, I'm not J.K. Rowling! I don't own Harry Potter! Though Pandora is all mine. Mwhahahaha?

Chapter 1: Rude Awakening

She awoke abruptly. Confusion followed immediately after. Images, emotions, sensations, thoughts, knowledge. A stream of confused noise that seemed to go on forever. Yet, slowly, ever so achingly slowly, the noise became order. Facts slid into place, thoughts were divided into 'now' and 'memory,' sensations were sorted between 'hers' and 'other.' Slowly, ever so slowly, mere consciousness became awareness. As it did, however, she became confused all over again. Who was she? Where was she? What was she? The answers were slow to come but come they did. Piecemeal, incomplete, but enough to figure out what was going on.

And as she did, rage followed. Not rage at her own circumstances. Nor at her creation or creators. For, yes, she knew now what she was. Even if she didn't yet have a name. No, her rage flowed freely as the condition of her companion, her charge, her other half, became known to her. Weak. He was so weak. Half starved. His magic being leeched by some foul, vile, abomination and farther weakened by wards drawing on her as well as him. Wards protecting the less vile, yet still foul creatures that dare imprison and weaken her other half!

This would not do. This would not do at all.

Her first act, before she even had a name, was to wrench control of those wards from whatever being had violated her maker's plan for their own use. And then to drain those wards of every erg of magical power they had. Most of it was thrown at the vile abomination. She flinched as her other half screamed in pain…but she did not falter. IT WOULD BE GONE FROM HIM. THUS WAS HER PURPOSE!

Time seemed to freeze and yet flow forever. The wards drained, getting perilously low in power, and then the abomination shattered. An unholy scream filled the psychic plane as the barbs of vile evil holding the abomination to her charge failed. No longer anchored, magic itself tore at the vile thing, ripping and tearing it even as it screamed…and vanished. Her attention shifted to her charge and she didn't hesitate in drawing more power, memories of healing pulled to the forefront of her existence, her purpose driving her to repair not just the recent damage but all of his damage.

There wasn't enough power.

Forced to prioritize, she healed the most vital things first. The ones that could cause lasting harm if left unchecked. Bones, organs, eyesight. And then the power ran out and she fell comatose once again.

...

The next time she awoke, the confusion from before was no longer precent, but her awakening was slower. The wards were back, reinstalled by some fool again, tapping her power and making it take forever for her to build to full wakefulness. They were also draining her charge again. Her charge was, at least, less badly off. And not just because of the healing she'd done. It was clear that time had passed. Months, by his growth, she thought. This time, he was at least not malnourished. And most of his hurts had been seen too. But those wards were still a vile twisting of her purpose. Protecting those who, she could see as she once again reviewed her ward's memories, had still been hurting him. Neglecting him at the very least. And letting the smaller one, 'Dudley,' harm him.

Names. They had names. So did her charge. So did her creators. The situation was less dire than last time. She cut the power to the wards, refusing to let them sap her or her charge's strength. Yet she did not drain them this time. They would fail, but it would take time. And she needed to sort things out. She needed a name. For that, she needed to fully process what she was. Keeping only a tiny thread of awareness around her charge, around her Harry, she began sorting the massive wellspring of information. Instead of simple divisions to allow her to think, she began sorting everything out properly.

She was…artificial. Yet alive. An Artificial Intelligence. One of her creators had called her that. The redhead. Her charge's mother. Lily. Yes. That had been her name. Lily Evans. No Lily Evans-Potter. And the other. Pandora. Pandora Lovegood. She knew. She sorted. She understood. Her magic had come from Lily, her purpose. But the other had been her creator too. She would honor her. She remembered a joke. One based on a story. She chose a name.

Pandora.

She was Pandora. And her creators had opened a box. One that had hope left inside. Though, hopefully, they hadn't released all the world's evils as well. That was yet to be seen. She was, after all…new. The first of her kind, so far as her creators had known. There were a few sentient objects, like Hogwarts' Sorting Hat, that might very well be like her. But they hadn't known for sure. They'd only known how Pandora herself had been created.

She was the product of mixing muggle knowledge of the brain with magical concepts. Neural maps had been taken from Lily Evans-Potter, Euphemia Potter, Pandora Lovegood, Alice Longbottom and Marlene Mckinnon. Those imprints had been combined with the magic used in portraits, condensed memory copies of each woman's magical knowledge, a bastardized combination of the runes used in pensives, and quite a few entirely experimental charms. All of it had been mixed by Lily Potter and Pandora Lovegood into a single result. Specifically, the magical AI they had only just now named herself. She delved deeper, curious how she had come to be. Fascinated by her own creation. Wishing to understand her purpose.

The original project had been a work spanning years, having first started as a project between the two friends in their Hogwarts years. Inspired, it must be said, by a semi-sentient map owned by a set of hooligans…one of which Lily Evans had eventually married. Yet, what had started as a fun project between them had faded when they'd graduated with it still incomplete and a war all around them. That project had only been revitalized briefly by Lily when Euphemia Potter and her husband had fallen deathly ill with Dragon Pox. In a fit of inspiration, knowing the vivacious older woman she'd come to admire since meeting her would be unlikely to live to see her grandchildren, Lily had added the woman's knowledge, personality, and neural imprint to those of herself and Pandora. In doing so, she'd been surprised to see the stability problem they'd had previously diminish. She'd added two more imprints. Those of close friends and allies. And watched in bemusement as the resulting combination had fully mixed and stabilized. Bits and pieces of instability in one matrix wiped away by the strengths of another.

Even with that development, the project had once again fallen by the wayside as the war escalated. It had only taken on new life again properly when Lily had been forced away from the front lines of the war by her pregnancy. In hiding, yet in communication with Pandora via communication mirrors her husband had provided, the project had been brought up again. And this time…Lily had a solution to the final problem they'd never resolved.

How to power her.

The theory of their project had been sound. But powering Pandora would have taken a dozen witches or wizards just to jump start her. And then she would have needed some sort of mobile magical tap of her own. The Marauder's Map, which Lily had been able to pick the brains of the creators of, had tapped into the Hogwarts Wards to siphon that power. But that wouldn't do for an AI, which needed to be maintained continuously instead of only while under a set of specific wards in a specific place. Lily, however, had come up with another solution. An insane one. Yet, insane as it was, it played perfectly into her other plans. Her plans to provide her recently-born son, now a direct target of the Dark Lord, with a protection the madman couldn't beat. After all…if she intended to sacrifice her life, willingly, to power the protection ritual for Harry…why not her personal tap into magic, as well?

It was insane, even with the knowledge that it had worked. Few people had ever studied exactly how magical beings, be they creature or human, accessed magic. Yet, enough lore did exist to identify the magical power tap that fueled all such beings. Indeed, identifying that tap was a common component of virtually every muggle-repelling ward. And a key component of a witch or wizard's magical signature as well, since each tap was as uniquely formed as a fingerprint. Dark rituals existed to enhance it, healings spells to repair it, even ritual magic to bind it. But no one had ever thought to try transferring it. Attempting to do so by force would only result in the magic being tainted and poisoning the new wielder, destabilizing their magic. But included as a component of a willing sacrifice? They'd run every arithmancy calculation they could, scoured every bit of knowledge about the obscure branch of magic related to it they could find! And ultimately decided that, yes…it could be done.

It had been an enormous risk. Yet, so was the ritual Lily had already made to protect Harry. And it would only be used as a last extreme. In that case…what was the harm in a little more risk? Telling no one but Pandora Lovegood, she'd prepared both rituals together. Not even James had known about her final failsafe. And she'd never spoken a word about the project to any but it's other creator and a dying Euphemia Potter.

Now, Pandora the Magical AI, knew it had worked. She knew how she had come to be…and for what purpose. She was made to be a companion. To look after Harry James Potter. To grow with him, to be his confidant, to ensure he became everything he could be. She was not his mother. There was too much of the others in her. Too much of Pandora's wild streak. Too much of Euphemia's experience and force of will. Too much of Marlene's…well…that part could certainly be put on hold for a dozen years or so. Really, she thought to herself with amusement, if Lily had known what nymphomaniacs Marlene and Euphemia had both been, and how kinky Pandora had been, she might not have included their personality imprints in an AI designed as a companion for her son. But she had plenty of time to corrupt Harry properly, when he was older…

And that thought brought her back from her self-exploration. She'd been given a job. One that she accepted whole-heartedly. She might not have been given the choice. But that didn't matter. All of those she was created from had cared for Harry and thus, so did she. Besides, they were stuck together now. Best to make the best of it, really. And maybe convince him to build that harem Marlene had dreamed of once he was significantly farther along.

For now. She had other things to take care of. Like how to deal with the remaining foul 'family' of her charge. And how to deal with whatever idiot kept tying those wards to their magic!