Mist of Shadows
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Harry Potter and the Magic of Books Part 29
🕑 Added 2016-08-31 18:44:31 +0000 UTC Harry looked over as the door to their train compartment opened and he saw a red haired boy and girl standing there with trunks. They both looked around his age though the girl might be ten for all he knew it was a bit hard to judge. “Yes?” He was glad that he was using his metamorph ability to disguise his hair to a nice brown color and his eyes to blue. There were enough people in the wizarding world that had an annoyingly accurate picture of him despite the fact that he hadn’t set foot into the wizarding world until a couple of months ago.Ron gulped as he counted the number of girls in the rather large compartment. “This one is obviously full.”
Ginny rolled her eyes as her brother hurried off to find a compartment that didn’t have as many girls in it. “Do you mind if Luna and I join you?”
Hermione looked up from her book with a smile. “We don’t bite.”
Anna said, “Speak for yourself and yes you do.”
“Only friends, come in and let’s get your bags put away.”
Ginny briefly considered picking another compartment but a lot of them were already filled as there were a lot of students. She walked into the thankfully enlarged compartment. “I’m Ginny.”
Luna stepped in and looked around the room at, Harry, Hermione, Egwene, Elayne, Anna and Beth. “I’m Luna Lovegood.”
Anna asked, “Can we test that?”
Beth reached up and smacked her twin on the arm, “Ignore her, I think she broke her mental filters.”
Luna looked back and forth between Anna and Beth. “It’s wise to occasionally make sure people are who they’re supposed to be but yes, I’m Luna Lovegood, you are?”
Anna said, “I’m Anna and the other me is Beth.”
Beth gestured to Elayne then to Egwene, “Elayne and Egwene.”
Harry stood up and helped Ginny and Luna with their trunks. “I’m Harry, nice to meet you.”
Hermione patted the empty seat between her and Sarah. “I’m Hermione and the other girl is Sarah, Harry’s familiar.”
Ginny asked, “You’re a familiar?”
Sarah grinned as she shrunk down to her foot tall form. “I’m fairly sure that Harry is my familiar.” She flew over and landed on his shoulder. “There, now Luna has enough room to sit.”
Luna stared at Sarah. “You’re a fae, aren’t you?”
“I’m a battle nymph, pleased to meet you.”
Ginny took a seat next to Hermione. “Are you all first years?”
Anna said, “Yep, though our parents trained us a fair amount already.”
Luna asked, “Does that mean your parents are magical?” as she took a seat in the other empty chair.
Anna nodded, “Mine were. My grandparents were magical on every side, great grandparents not so much for one of them, not that it really matters to me. I’m a witch, one of my best friends is a muggleborn, is that a problem?”
Ginny shook her head. “No, a wizard or a witch is a wizard or a witch to me.”
Luna nodded. “Same.”
“Good, because my parents weren’t magical.” Hermione was relieved when they showed no sign of distaste.
Harry asked, “I’m guessing the redhead that’s scared of girls was your brother?”
Ginny laughed. “One of them, he’s a bit annoying. I have two brothers in third year or what would be third year if they hadn’t changed things. Another that’s in fifth and two more that already graduated.”
Luna said, “I’m an only child.”
Harry said, “I have a younger sister.”
Egwene shrugged. “I’ve got four older sisters, none of them are magic.”
Elayne said, “A brother and a half brother but I haven’t seen them in years and they don’t have magic.”
Anna said, “Just my sister Beth. So what are you looking at learning?”
Ginny said, “I’m not sure, I didn’t even know I’d be going until a couple of days ago. Everything other than history I guess, Charlie says it’s really boring even if it’s taught by a ghost.”
Hermione said, “Don’t worry, the headmaster said he was replacing the history professor now that the governors released more money.”
“I’m looking forward to charms, Daddy says that it’s the best way to capture certain creatures.”
“I think my favorite subject is defense...” Anna trailed off as the train started moving.
Ginny looked out the window. “I keep thinking I’ll wake up and realize that I still have another year to go.”
Egwene smiled at Ginny. “Dreams are tricky like that.”
Harry pulled a deck of cards out of his pocket. “Anyone up for cards?”
Anna asked hopefully, “Strippoker?”
Ginny frowned slightly not recognizing the game. “How do you play?”
“I was thinking we should start with poker.” Harry pulled a large bag of Hershey's Kisses out of his bag and set them on the table. “We can play for chocolate kisses.” Harry noticed Ginny’s confusion and explained, “They’re a type of muggle candy.”
Ginny was a bit embarrassed that she didn’t have any candy to bet. “Oh, that sounds good but I don’t have anything to bet.”
Harry shrugged. “It’s fine, we’ve got plenty. Mum gave me two bags to share, this seems like a good use for one of them, that is if you want to play.”
“Sure.”
Luna nodded. “Deal me in.”
Beth grinned as Hermione explained the rules and the game got started. She was just hoping that everyone ended up in the same house.
0o0o0
Ginny watched Beth Potter join her sister in Gryffindor then stared in shock as Harry Potter’s name was called and Harry the boy that she’d been talking to almost the entire ride to Hogwarts, the boy she’d ridden across the lake with stepped out of line and walked over toward the chair. His hair changed from brown to red to a shocking blue to a pink that made her eyes hurt before hitting purple and green in a couple of steps. It finally settled on black as he sat on the chair with a smirk that lit up his face. She whispered, “Oh.”
Elayne smiled as she watched the sorting hat as it seemed to have a silent conversation with Harry. She whispered back, “He’s still the same fun loving guy you spent the last several hours with.”
Ginny tossed that thought around in her head and decided that her new friend had a point. She smiled slightly as Harry Potter ended up in Gryffindor. She watched the next couple of people get sorted before Elayne Trakand was called up. She wasn’t terribly surprised when the hat put her in Gryffindor after a couple of seconds. It felt like forever before her name was called.
She forced herself to walk up and sit on the chair.
The Sorting Hat said, ‘Ah, another Weasley. I know just the place for you,’ “Gryffindor!”
Ginny sighed in relief as McGonagall lifted the hat off her head and she joined Luna and Hermione at the Gryffindor table. She was a little disappointed that Ron ended up in Gryffindor but he really wasn’t cut out for the other three so she guessed it made sense. She whispered, “It looks like we all made it into the same house.”
Hermione patted Ginny’s arm. “We’re going to have so much fun.”
Ron took a seat next to Seamus Finnigan.
The last couple of names passed in a blur as Ginny tried to keep from squealing as she realized that she’d made it into the same house as her hero. The only thing that kept her from shifting to crazy fangirl mode was the multiple hours talking to him and realizing that Harry was just a boy, a particularly cute boy but still just a boy. She was going to have to ask him about some of the books though maybe not right away. ‘Better yet, I’ll ask one of the girls.’
Harry glanced up at the staff table where his mother and father were. Sadly, or not depending on how you looked at it, there was someone else there, someone he hadn’t expected but someone that he’d been hoping to find, the man with the purple turban. He was going to have to do something about the man. He listened with half an ear to Dumbledore’s speech about the third floor corridor being a death trap, he gave the girls from the Wheel of Time a week at most before they slipped in, disarmed whatever traps were there and removed whatever the old man was guarding. Either way it wasn’t his problem. His problem was how to sneak up on the man with the turban and pull him into a book before he shot him in the head with his magic gun.
Harry politely deflected questions about his life and about the other girls with Potter last names and about the teachers named Potter by simply saying Potter was a common name and it was, in the muggle world at least. His attention switched to Dumbledore as the ‘old’ man stood up.
Albus looked over the collection of students, there were about half again as many students as there would have been if he hadn’t allowed the two hundred students from the other school and what would have been next year’s first year students to attend early. Still, he’d seen the results at the other schools and had used the extra funding Sirius had wrangled out of the other governors to hired an entire swath of additional teachers to cover more subjects than usual as well as give all of the core teachers assistants. In short for the first time in years Hogwarts was a school that he could be truly proud of rather just proud that it functioned as well as it did with as little as it did. “As some of the older students might have noticed, we have additional students of various years that have transferred in after a magical catastrophe all but destroyed their school, therefore I urge everyone of you to be careful in potions as we do not need a volcano under our school.”
Fred Weasley asked, “How does one make a volcano in potions?”
Lily Potter said, “Very carefully, if you get a NEWT in seventh year I might tell you.”
Dumbledore smiled. “On that note, I’ll leave everyone with a few words, fizzwig nitworm and nuzzletuff.” He clapped his hands and the platters and plates vanished. “If the prefects would escort everyone to their dorms, you have an early day tomorrow.”
Harry stood up with the rest of the Gryffindors first years and followed Percy Weasley to the Gryffindor Tower.
0o0o0
Seamus finally decided that he’d let his curiosity simmer long enough. “What happened to your scar?”
Harry plastered a puzzled frown on his face as the common room feel silent. “I had a scar?”
“A lightning bolt on your forehead.”
Harry shrugged. “That would have been interesting.”
Ron asked, “What about secret training?”
“Why would I need that?”
“Because you’re the Boy That Lived?” Seamus asked hesitantly.
“Lived through what?” Harry asked with as much confusion as he could put into his voice.
“You Know Who hit you with a killing curse as a baby…”
“If that was the case I think I’d be dead. Seriously, where are you getting this stuff?” Harry asked curiously.
Ron said, “From all of the Harry Potter books, Ginny’s read them all.”
Ginny blushed and glared at her brother.
Harry said, “Ah, well, I’m not sure how many of the books I’d believe. I mean they gave me a lightning bolt scar, there is obviously some embellishment going on.”
“Does that mean you don’t know how to use a sword?” Ron asked.
Beth spoke up, “He’s actually rather amazing with a sword.”
Anna snickered. “And a wand, seriously girls, he can hit all the right spots.”
Hermione sighed. “Anna, we talked about this.”
“And I said, and I quote fuck it, he’s Harry Potter and if we can’t use his fame to get threesomes with hot girls then what’s the point?”
Lavender stared at Anna. “Are you off your rocker?”
“Nope, I’m just honest and you’re cute.”
“Ah…” Lavender blushed.
Harry said, “Okay, awkward introductions aside, I’m not sure how many of the Harry Books are even close to accurate, mostly likely none of them.”
Luna asked, “What about Harry Potter and the Monster Girls?”
“I don’t remember that one.”
Luna said, “It talks about you having sex with a bunch of monster girls.”
Ron snorted, “Like that happened.”
Harry said, “That one might have happened but I’d need to check.”
Ron blurted, “What?!”
Fred shook his head. “Don’t mind Ron he was dropped on his head as a baby.”
Ron scowled at Fred. “He’s having us on… he has to be.”
Hermione asked, “Why is that?”
“Because that’s just… ugh.” Ron stalked off toward his dorm.
Colin Creevey asked, “What about Harry Potter and the giant beanstalk?”
Harry shook his head. “I haven't seen that one yet.”
Percy called out, “As interesting and disturbing as this is, everyone should go to their dorms. First years ten or Eleven, see me, I have your dorm assignments.”
Harry got in line behind Neville.
0o0o0
Harry was glad he ended up in a dorm room with Neville, a quiet ten year old with short brown hair and a wolf wizard from the Wheel of Time world for roommates in the smaller dorm room rather than Ron or Seamus as they’d been a bit annoying with their questions. He knew that was probably unfair but they hadn’t made a good first impression. “How are you doing Neville?”
Neville said, “It’s strange, I have my parents back and it’s great but we’re still trying to figure out how everything fits and I’m here rather than at home. I want to be here but at the same time, they’re my parents and I want to get to know them.”
“I get it.” Harry turned to look at the ten year old. “I’m Harry, I didn’t get your name before.”
The kid sighed. “Erin, don’t worry, I doubt I’ll be staying here long.”
Harry frowned slightly. “Why?”
Erin muttered. “Because I’m a girl and this is a boy’s dorm. They messed up the paperwork and Percy didn’t want to listen when I tried to explain.”
Neville blinked. “You’re a girl?”
“Yep, sorry to disappoint.” Erin replied.
“My name is Jack.” The wolf boy looked at Erin and asked, “Can you keep a secret?”
Erin nodded. “Sure.”
“In that case, let me show you something.” Jack pulled his robe off revealing the fact that he had on a pair of boxers.
“Your secret is your heart boxers?” Erin asked dubiously.
“At least they’re not pick,” Neville muttered as he looked away.
Jack shook his head, pulled the back of his boxers down slightly then shifted into his wolf girl form. “Nope.”
Erin stared at the Jack’s cute wolf ears and tail. “You’ve got wolf ears and a tail.”
Neville turned back to look at what Erin was talking about and blinked as he saw Jack’s wolf ears and tail. “Merlin.”
Jack laughed. “And I’m female in this form.”
Erin shook her head. “Prove it.”
Jack rolled his eyes and dropped his boxers revealing that yes he was in fact female in his wolf girl form. “Is that enough proof?”
Erin grinned. “Yes.”
Neville looked away. “I suddenly feel all sorts of sick.”
“Why? She’s cute.”
“And he’s a boy and…” Neville trailed off as he turned to look at Harry. “Help me out Harry.”
Harry said, “Eh? It’s like looking at a naked statue of a girl, interesting but nothing to go crazy over.”
Jack laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m not into guys.” He smiled at Erin, “Does this mean we can talk you out of correcting Hogwart’s mistake?”
“Why would I want to stay in the boy’s dorm?” Erin asked curiously.
Jack gestured toward the bathroom door. “We’re in the old dorms, that means we have our own shower and I’d rather not get stuck with some creepy kid in here for a roommate. I mean can you imagine being stuck here with that creepy kid with the camera taking pictures of everything?”
Harry said, “Or Ron, Ginny says he snores.”
Erin asked hopefully, “Can I scratch your ears?”
Jack raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
“Because they look soft and fluffy and you’re cute.”
“Deal, as long as you remain our roommate.” Jack walked over next to Erin.
Erin giggled as she reached up and carefully brushed one of Jack’s ears with her fingers. “Awesome.” She looked at Harry. “I don’t suppose you turn into anything fluffy and cute?”
Harry said, “That’s a secret.”
“Is that a yes?”
“That’s a yes,” Harry replied with amusement.
“I can keep a secret, promise.”
Harry shrugged out of his robe and tossed it on his bed. “Dog or cat?”
Erin blinked. “You can pick?”
“Sure.” Harry grinned as he used his shape shifting to turn into a baby grizzly bear which took up most of the floor.
Jack snorted. “That’s not a dog or a cat man.”
Neville said, “That was brilliant!”
Harry changed into a cute baby white tiger and walked over to Erin and looked up at her with a pout that said pet me.
Erin carefully reached down and patted Harry’s head. “That’s soft.”
Harry grinned as he changed back to normal. “Thanks.”
Erin asked, “How did you do that?”
“Magic.” Harry replied with amusement.
Neville shook his head. “That’s impossible, animagi aren’t supposed to have multiple forms.”
Harry laughed. “Not to toot my own horn but I’m Harry Fucking Potter.”
Neville snorted. “Right, and the actual answer?”
“Shape changing magic, it’s flat out better than the animagus transformation.”
“Innate or learned?” Erin asked curiously. “Sorry, don’t answer if that’s prying.”
“It’s learned. I’d rather not spread that around though.”
“I can keep secrets.” Erin smiled as she looked at Jack. “How long can you stay like that?”
“As long as I want if I wanted to, why?”
Erin blushed faintly as she said, “Because I like your ears.”
Neville asked, “Can you teach us at some point?”
“I don’t see why not as long as you don’t spread the skill around.” Harry turned back toward the door. “We should probably ward the door unless we want some idiot walking in here to check things out.”
Jack yawned. “You’re right, I’d rather keep the number of boys that know about my ability to a minimum. Having guys ask you to change to check you out is just creepy.”
Erin frowned. “Sorry.”
Jack laughed as ‘he’ picked up his underwear and tossed them in the clothes hamper. “You’re a girl, that doesn’t count.”
“Good, in that case, let’s get some sleep.” Erin pulled her robe off revealing a t-shirt and a pair of boxers with little pink hearts on them. She put her robe on the hook by her bed and crawled into her bed. “See you in the morning.”
“Does anyone have an objection to me warding the place so that people other than us and McGonagall can’t open the door?”
Jack said, “None, I have a couple of friends in the older years but a couple of them are pranksters so I’ve got no objection to keeping them out of my stuff when I’m not here.”
Erin said, “If I’m going to keep my secret then it’s certainly required.”
Neville said, “I don’t mind.”
“If you see my nymph, she’s friendly so don’t worry about her.” Harry pulled out his wand and got to work making sure that only McGonagall, Hermione, Sarah, Jack, Erin, Neville and himself could open the door from the outside. Erin seemed nice enough and Jack was from the other world which mean that he wasn’t going to be waking up with a knife in his chest or his throat cut. It wasn’t as likely in Gryffindor as it would have been in Slytherin but a couple of them seemed shifty.
Erin asked, “If she’s your familiar, why isn’t she here?”
“She’s making sure the girls don’t have any problems or flirting with the new girls, I’m never quite sure with her.”
Neville yawned. “Let’s get some sleep.”
0o0o0
Harry wasn’t sure what to make of the first day of classes, he wasn’t worried about advanced computers with the teacher his mother had helped Dumbledore recruit or potions as his mother had flat out refused to teach a dangerous subject with a mix of Gryffindors and Slytherins, thus they had potions with the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins had the class with Ravenclaws.
Transfiguration was a breeze or at least it would have been if McGonagall had let him and Hermione use their wands rather than telling him that he should use a fake wand and work on wandless transfiguration. Still, it was a fun class and proved that McGonagall was exceptional at both teaching and transfiguration.
After that was history with a nice Irish historian that had went to university in America. History or at least the history of the wizarding world was merely an elective in the Wheel of Time world as most people didn’t care if you learned much of anything about the wizarding world other than how not to be an idiot. That meant that he wasn’t all that much ahead of everyone else in terms of knowledge about the wizarding world’s history.
Defense class was painful enough that he decided that he wasn’t going to suffer through another lesson with the stuttering moron of a defense teacher. Harry grumbled as he sat down in the library with Hermione, “The man is a spineless coward or at least pretending to be one.”
Hermione said, “I wasn’t particularly happy with the stutter but we can’t shoot someone just because they have a stutter.”
Sarah asked, “We can’t?”
Hermione looked at Harry’s shoulder where Sarah was resting. “Not for something out of his control.”
Harry sighed. “Considering what we’re paying for a ‘quality’ education I’m not sure why not.”
“We’re paying for a chance at the Hogwarts’ library and to meet new people.”
Sarah said, “Don’t forget the cute girls.”
Harry muttered, “Fine, I guess we’ll just shoot him because he has Voldemort in his turban.”
“That’s acceptable,” Hermione replied a touch too enthusiastically.
The librarian shouted, “Quiet!”
Hermione sighed and dropped her voice back down to a soft whisper. “We’ve got five minutes before Professor Quirrell should be in his office for office hours.”
Harry whispered, “In that case, see if you can cover for me for ten or fifteen minutes. It shouldn’t take more than a minute or two to deal with him.”
“Try not to be seen.”
Sarah laughed as she turned completely invisible. “Who do you think you’re talking about here?”
Hermione said, “A couple of trouble magnets.”
Sarah pouted, “She called us trouble magnets.”
“Life would be boring without a bit of trouble.” Harry glanced around then activated his ring and vanished when he didn’t see anyone. He quietly headed out of the library then toward the defense professor’s office. With any luck Quirrell would be alone during his office hours. He pulled his Star Trek phaser out of his bag as he flew toward the ceiling to make sure that he didn’t hit any of the other students on his way toward the professor’s office.
Three minutes later and a couple of detection spells revealed that the professor had placed a couple of tracking wards on his door frame so that he’d know if anyone snuck into his office and who was at the door. Harry solved that particular issue by pulling a few rocks out of his pocket and tossing one at the door rather hard. He smiled as he heard the professor ask, “W-who i-is th-ere?” Harry tossed another rock at the glass part of the door hard enough to crack the window.
“Now see here!” Professor Quirrell declared as he stalked toward the door and yanked it open.
Harry brought his phaser up and shot the professor as the man stepped past the door frame to look for whoever had cracked the window. Harry smiled as he reached out with his magic and repaired the window then used levitation to drag the unconconscious professor around the corner. He pulled out a manga about an old man sent to a cursed alien world without any other humans on it or much of anything other than five multicolored sugar happy immortal aliens then pulled the professor into the book. He took a moment to glance around the alien landscape then jumped back out of the book when he saw the creepy cheerful rainbow colored aliens gleefully running at them to say hello. He floated back up to the ceiling then flew toward the seventh floor where he knew the last fragment of Voldemort’s soul was.
0o0o0
Albus raised his eyebrows. “So you’re telling me that my Defense Teacher was possessed by Riddle and that you trapped him in an alternate dimension where he can’t die?”
Harry nodded. “Yep, the aliens or the world will just keep bringing him back until he’s completely insane and begs for death. The main character in the book makes some rather impressive attempts at killing himself and none of them work. I can’t see Voldemort lasting longer than a couple of weeks before the sheer happiness on that world drives him completely insane.”
Lily asked, “Did you cleanse the other soul anchor?”
Harry pulled the Diadem of Ravenclaw out of his backpack and set it on the headmaster’s table. “All taken care of.”
“Is that what I think it is?” Albus asked with surprise.
“It looks like a diadem to me. It was in the school, I figured you wanted it.”
Lily rolled her eyes. “Yes, it’s the Diadem of Ravenclaw. You should probably hand over Hufflepuff’s Cup as well.”
Harry pouted, “But that one is actually useful, it duplicates hot chocolate perfectly.”
“There are spells for that.”
“None of them get the taste exactly right…” Harry sighed as he pulled out the cleansed Hufflepuff cup out of his backpack. “Fine.”
The Sorting Hat called out, “What did you do with Slytherin’s locket?”
Harry mock glared at the hat as he pulled Slytherin’s cleansed necklace out of his backpack and set it on the headmaster’s table. “Traitor”
Albus smiled slightly. “Now that you have defeated Voldemort, what are you planning?”
Harry briefly considered mentioning his plan to seduce most of the female Gryffindors and play pranks that a first year couldn’t possibly pull then he decided to go with a version of his plans that wouldn’t get him kicked out or in too much trouble, “Mostly I just want the chance to meet new people and have some fun with my friends. Beyond that, I don’t have any plans, at least not in this world.”
Albus asked, “So you’re going back to the other world?”
“Now and then, I’ll probably jump to a couple of worlds over the next couple of years so I can expand my network of worlds but for now, I’m just going to concentrate on getting good grades and having fun.”
Lily looked at Albus. “Don’t worry, I’ll talk to a couple of people, you’ll have a new defense teacher by the morning.”
“Such a shame about him retiring because of nerves,” Albus replied.
“I’ll escort you back to your dorm as I’d hate to give Filch a reason to give you detention.” Lily held out her hand to her son. Mostly she just didn’t want Harry to have a legitimate excuse to vanish more of the staff.
Harry made a mental note to ask his mother about replacing Filch and his cat as they made their way out of the Headmaster’s office. He was looking forward to having a nice quiet year or at least a quiet Hogwarts experience as he could get his excitement out of books thank you very much.
The End.
Comments
Chichi son
This one is missing the Harry Potter tag
William Jackson
That was a fun story. Libriomancy is op.
Mist of Shadows
It was a fun story.
James Long
This was a fantastic story. I must say that I hope you are inspired to write a sequel at some point. (If it happened to crossover with your builderverse I would probably be halfway convinced that I was hallucinating).
Mist of Shadows
I've got a Harry Game style fic that I'll toss up, probably in 3 or maybe 4 so 5k chunks which gives me time to edit some original fiction which I'll post after the game stuff.
Marcel
Awww... what's next? :)
