Population Boom, Hogwarts Part 11

"Since when could Mist use a lightsaber?" Hermione asked Harry as they watched him and Anakin spar, surprised that Mist was able to keep up with Anakin.

"No clue," Harry admitted, looking forward to getting a chance to play with the training sabers that Dawn had sold them for a handful of gallons.

"He used a magic crystal and claimed the power of the ancients," Luna told them with a smile as she watched the blue and purple beams of light clash.

"Magic crystals?" Ginny asked, wondering about her friend's sanity.

"Or maybe he's just cheating with magic," one of Luna's clones offered.

"Pirate?" Luna's other clone asked thoughtfully.

"Pirate," Luna agreed with a smile.

"Pirate?" Hermione asked as Anakin twisted his lightsaber and sent Mist's training saber flying through the air.

"Wizards are like pirates, if you're not cheating you're not trying," the clone replied as Mist conjured a glowing shield to block Anakin's attack.

"Is the shield something you can teach?" Anakin asked as Mist's training saber flew back to his right hand, wishing he had a magical shield that could block lightsabers and blasters.

"If you get the mana, I'll give you a crystal so you can learn the spell," Mist replied as he pressed the attack, taking advantage of the fact that his shield covered most of his body.

"I thought we agreed not to use magic since I can't use the Force here," Anakin complained good naturedly.

Mist laughed as he blocked Anakin's lightsaber with his shield, causing the blade to flare up where it touched the shield. He lashed out with his lightsaber and almost caught Anakin's hand before he pulled it back. "No, I'm pretty sure you said something about not using the Force and I agreed that it wouldn't be particularly fair if I used magic. Suck it up, you've had years of experience with a lightsaber."

"You're doing surprisingly well for someone that claims to have never used a lightsaber," Anakin argued as he worked on figuring out a way to get around Mist's shield.

"Only because you can't use the Force," Mist replied as he went on the attack, trying to find a moment where he could bash Anakin in the face with his shield and stab him.

Neville glanced at the glowing hand that appeared behind Anakin's feet. "This feels like cheating."

Dawn snickered as Mist lunged forward and hit Anakin with his shield at the same time his magic hand grabbed the Jedi's foot, causing Anakin to stumble just enough to get hit in the chest with the purple stun saber. "Like your friend said, if you're not cheating, you're not trying."

"That was dirty," Anakin complained good naturedly as he rubbed at his chest where the stun saber had hit him, trying to get the tingling feeling to go away. "That wouldn't have happened if I had access to the Force."

"If you had access to the Force and this was a real fight, I would have hit you with lightning until you stopped moving," Mist pointed out. “Probably from a half mile away, just to be safe.”

"Yeah, that's fair," Anakin admitted. "I'm going to want to learn that."

"It's on the list as soon as you get enough magic," Mist assured him.

"That's the spirit," Dawn offered as she 'ignited' her practice blade, creating a green blade out of the end of her lightsaber hilt. "Ready?"

"Hell yeah," Mist replied as he shifted his focus to Dawn, looking forward to the fight since he wasn't as focused on winning and could just enjoy himself.

Anakin walked over to stand next to the rest of the group so that he was out of the way. "Do you have any proof about Palpatine being a Sith Lord?" he asked, trying to distract Mist so that Dawn had an easier time winning.

"No, but most of the rest of the details line up, you grew up in Watto's shop and Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan rescued you," Mist replied as he traded blows with Dawn. "You met your angel on that ship and you won your freedom with a pod race. There's a chance that your version of Palpatine isn't a slimy bastard but he's a politician from Naboo that managed to get himself elected chancellor after his planet was attacked."

"It's worth checking," Anakin admitted, realizing he was going to have to have a weird conversation with Yoda when he got back. "What's the best way to get enough magic to use the shield?"

"We have a couple of options-" Mist cut off when Dawn used magic to pull his feet out from under him and stab him in the chest with her training saber.

"Point for the Sticky Side," Dawn said smugly.

"Point," Mist agreed as he dropped his shield spell and turned his training saber off. He floated back to his feet and gave Dawn a smile, figuring he deserved the cheap shot because of how he won against Anakin. "I'm going to skip suggesting a warlock pact considering you're not sticking around and I doubt you really want to make deals with higher powers and instead suggest one of the two magical items I can craft that permanently boosts your available mana."

"I'd rather not have to sign a pact with demons or higher powers," Dawn complained, thinking about the so-called 'Powers that Be' that had screwed Angel over. "What type of items can you make?"

"I can make a collar that increases your mana if you have sex in public locations and underwear that increases your pool by a small amount every time you kill a monster while wearing the underwear."

"Public sex?!" Anakin sputtered, knowing the council would start ranting about attachments, darkside artifacts and code violations if they ever heard about the collar.

"The amount varies depending on the location, but a couple of hours of work would give you more than enough mana to cast the shield and a Regeneration spell that you could use to save your mother."

"Would the Tusken Raiders count as monsters?" Anakin asked, thinking about what Mist had said about his mother getting abused by the raiders and how Tatooine would be better off without them.

"Path to the darkside that would be," Mist replied in his best impression of Yoda.

"That was a horrible impression," Dawn complained.

"I know, but the point stands," Mist replied as he focused on Anakin. "The raiders are homicidal and xenophobic to an insane degree, but they're technically people. Of course, the fact that they're cultists would probably give you mana for killing them because of the other half of the enchantment but that's still a dark road."

"They're slavers and they don't have any problems shooting at the people racing pods," Anakin snapped.

Mist shook his head. "That doesn't make them monsters, it just makes them homicidal assholes. I can understand the rage."

"I don't think you can," Anakin told him, thinking about the friends that he'd lost growing up because of the raiders.

"You're right, I'll never understand wanting to see the world burn because some random piece of shit did something to make me furious, my rage was always directed. But it doesn't matter, I can't use the Force, I don't have a link in the back of my mind echoing my emotions, feeding on my rage or pushing me to feel it a thousand times more intensely. I'll never have to wonder if the visions of doom I'm seeing are a result of my fears or if they're a product of the Force trying to warn me that I need to travel halfway across the galaxy and kill a bunch of people so that the world can keep spinning."

"I get it, let the rage go," Anakin grumbled.

"Or you can pick up your lightsaber and take this rare opportunity to vent some of the rage in a constructive fashion. You're allowed to feel emotions."

Anakin sighed as he thought about some of the council members. "That's not what the council says."

"Arrogant the council is, assume that there is only one path they do," Mist replied in another bad impression of Yoda's voice. "There were plenty of Jedi codes over the years or at least there were in the books and the games because they focused on other time periods. I think my favorite was the old one from the Sith Wars, Emotion, yet peace. Ignorance, yet knowledge. Passion, yet serenity. Chaos, yet harmony. Death, yet the Force."

Anakin shook his head. "I can't see the council following that."

"And I don't see a point in following a code from a bunch of old people that actively encourages the destruction of the population with the ability to use the Force," Mist replied with a shrug.

"What do you mean?" Anakin asked.

"The ability to use the Force is genetic. If you keep a large segment of the population of Force users from having children, you're reducing the chances of having someone that can use the force born, if you continue to do that for thousands of years, you're going to see a massive drop in the number of people that are Force sensitive running around. So yeah, I don't really like the Jedi council or at least the movies and the books painted them as idealistic idiots for the most part."

"That's more accurate than I'd like," Anakin admitted.

"Since public sex is off the table, let's kill some monsters," Dawn suggested. "What do we have available that isn’t morally objectionable?"

"I have a spell to make monster filled caverns, we just have to get far enough away from the castle that we're not hitting the dungeons or any of the pipes," Mist told them, knowing his spell would damage anything in the way.

"Sounds fun," Harry said, speaking up.

0o0o0

"Is there a reason you want to put the entrance to the cavern in the passage under the Whomping Willow?" Harry asked when he realized where his brother was planning on casting the spell to create a monster filled cavern.

Puck glanced at Hermione. "We're going to get in so much trouble."

"It's worth it," Hermione argued, knowing that Anakin would be able to save countless lives if he didn't end up going insane because of the Emperor.

Mist glanced at the Forbidden Forest then focused on Harry. "The tunnel is technically still on the grounds and there aren't any rules against using the tunnel which means that we're technically in the clear when it comes to the rules."

Ginny laughed. "Do you honestly think that will save us?"

"Of course not," Mist replied with amusement as he conjured a magic hand and used it to hit the knot in the tree that was charmed to paralyze it. "Are we still good?"

"Should be," Harry replied as he checked the map to make sure no one was on the grounds other than Hagrid who was in his hut. "We're good."

"Follow me, we probably only have a minute before it starts trying to kill us," Mist explained as he headed for the tree.

"I'm going to be annoyed if this results in us getting expelled," Bella complained as she followed the group, feeling nervous about breaking the rules.

"Don't worry about it, I doubt the headmaster will expel you for wanting to help make sure none of the monsters escape," Mist replied as he ducked into the tunnel under the tree.

Ginny's clone brought up the rear of the group, looking forward to earning some pocket change from the loot the monsters were supposed to drop and enough mana to cast some of Mist's more impressive spells.

Harry checked the map again once everyone was inside the tunnel then folded it up and stuck it in his pocket. "Do we have an actual plan?"

Mist cast his continual light spell on a pebble then picked it up and started walking down the tunnel. "Yeah, we're going to walk halfway to the shack then I'm going to cast the spell to create the cavern. Once we have a better idea what type of monsters we're dealing with, we'll go from there."

"What happens if the monsters are too dangerous?" Hermione asked warily as she followed Mist, not sure what to think about his plan since willingly creating monsters would get them in trouble with the ministry if they got caught.

"I'll probably flood the cavern or get Dumbledore to seal it," Mist replied, figuring he'd just keep tossing clones at the problem until everything was dead if they couldn't deal with the monsters themselves but not wanting to admit that in front of the rest of the group until he talked them into getting mental protection.

"How many times have you used the spell?" Neville's clone asked.

"A couple, we should be fine," Mist assured him, hoping Murphy didn't end up screwing him over now that he'd said it.

"What type of spells can you hand out?" Dawn asked after another thirty feet of walking through the tunnel.

"Every spell that I learned in Hogwarts and a bunch that I learned over the summer, including the spell to create monster filled caverns. I've also cobbled together a decent collection of spells from combining the spell runes that my enchanting spell gives me that you might be interested in, like the stone shaping spell I made out of the chocolate shaping spell I picked up from a book."

"Do you have any spells that let you conjure cookies?" Dawn asked hopefully.

"You can't conjure food," Hermione warned her.

"I technically have several spells that probably break that particular magical law, I can conjure chocolate that is perfectly edible and there's nothing wrong with my spell to summon garlic stuffing or the spell that summons spices," Mist argued.

"That just means they shouldn't have any calories," Hermione argued.

Puck playfully swatted her twin on her butt. "Or the law is more of a suggestion, we can always run some tests later."

"Can I get some chocolate?" Dawn asked.

"Sure," Mist replied as he stopped walking long enough to conjure a chocolate dildo and toss it to her. "Have fun, it only melts in your mouth."

Dawn laughed. "You'd make a good Sticky Side Jedi."

"I'd make a terrible Jedi," Mist replied as he increased his pace, "I don't have my brother's saving people thing or any real desire to put my life at risk to save some politicians a few thousand credits when they could just hire more law enforcement agents."

"I don't…" Harry sighed as he realized that he'd be lying if he finished that sentence. "Okay, fine, I might have a problem letting bad things happen if I can stop it."

"We should probably get you a shirt for that or a twelve step program," Mist teased.

"How did you end up in Gryffindor?" Ginny's clone asked Mist.

"Process of elimination," Mist replied, not actually sure if he'd been stuck in Gryffindor because that's where the Company stuck him or if he'd actually been judged by the reality revision spell that and that's where he fit. "I'm crazy enough to jump into battle with monsters for power but I don't care about proving myself to other people or my reputation which means that Slytherin wasn't on the table despite a desire for power. I'm not particularly loyal to idiots or obsessed with work so Hufflepuff was right out and I don't feel any particular need to prove that I'm intelligent which means Ravenclaw was less of a factor than insane bravery. Or maybe the hat just figured that I'd end up killing a lot of Slytherins if they tossed me in the snake pit."

"That makes sense," Ginny’s clone admitted.

Anakin shook his head as he watched Dawn bite the end off the chocolate dildo that looked way too realistic for comfort. "How much longer?"

"Close enough," Mist replied as he stopped walking. He raised his hands and pushed as much mana into his ‘Blood Queen's Cavern of the Damned’ spell as he could, wanting to create something impressive or at least a cavern with a lot of monsters so that everyone could boost their magic a reasonable amount.

Dawn felt a shiver run down her spine as Mist pushed enough mana into the spell to level a good sized town or a small city depending and a three foot wide pit opened up in front of the group. "That's going to take a lot of magic to replicate."

"Speaking of mana, does anyone want mental shields at the cost of their modesty?" Mist asked as he pulled the mental defense stamp out of his inventory.

"How much protection would the mental shields give me?" Anakin asked.

"I wouldn't suggest jumping into a dark side nexus or giving Yoda a reason to rip your mind apart but it should let you avoid dealing with emotional backlash or the Jedi council passively reading your mind or emotions. The stamp doesn't damage your ability to understand cultures or social norms, you just lose any embarrassment being naked would normally cause," Mist told him.

"What do I have to do?" Anakin asked, more than willing to ditch his modesty if it meant he wouldn't have to worry about the council picking up something they shouldn't, much less being less susceptible to the dark side.

"Drop your pants and let Dawn or one of the other girls stamp your behind with the stamp. The stamp only works if someone of the opposite sex uses it," Mist explained.

"I'll stamp your ass if you stamp mine," Dawn teased, figuring the mental defenses were more valuable than the shreds of her modesty that were left after becoming a Sticky Side Jedi.

"Deal," Anakin replied as he started loosening his pants.

Mist tossed the stamp to Dawn, relieved that Anakin had decided to get the mental defenses as it made him worry a lot less about Anakin going insane at some point and using the magic for seriously dark shit.

"I'm going to need my bottom stamped," Luna said thoughtfully.

"Same," Neville muttered, wanting to make sure he never had to worry about losing his mind like his parents or getting controlled magically. "Can the rest of us use it?"

"It doesn't have charges, knock yourself out," Mist replied as he pulled the box of enchanted underwear out of his inventory that he'd had Vanessa transmogrify and the box of magical rings that he'd created earlier. "The underwear will give you the ability to gain mana and the rings should double the mana you gain."

"What type of monsters do you think we'll have to deal with?" Ginny asked as she peeked down into the hole.

"Gremlins," one of Luna's clones suggested.

"Green things," Luna's other clone suggested.

"Evil Christmas elves," Puck offered, getting into the spirit of it.

"Vorpal rabbits," Luna lied, fairly sure it wasn't actually rabbits.

Ginny shivered. "That sounds horrifying."

"If it's bunnies, we're flooding the cavern or setting the entire thing on fire," Hermione declared, thinking about the bunny from the Holy Grail.

"That's fair," Mist agreed without any hesitation, not interested in fighting something that nasty.

"Something borrowed," Luna suggested as she watched Dawn stamp Anakin's behind.

Dawn waited until Anakin fixed his pants then tossed him the stamp and pulled her pants down far enough that he could stamp her ass, appreciating the attention everyone was giving her.

"How hard would it be to make another stamp?" Anakin asked as he carefully stamped Dawn's ass, wanting to make sure he didn't smear the ink or screw it up.

"Easy enough, why?" Mist asked.

"I was thinking about Padme, if Palpatine is actually a Sith Lord, making sure she has decent mental defenses would be a good thing," Anakin replied as he took a step back.

"Thanks," Dawn replied as she finished pulling her pants and pink panties off so that she could grab a pair of the magical panties.

"Ah…" Neville trailed off as he stared at Dawn.

"What?" Dawn replied with a grin. "We need to swap underwear and I don't have any modesty left."

"How much did you have before?" Puck asked.

Dawn licked some of the chocolate off her lips from earlier and smiled at Puck. "Not enough to matter."

Mist tossed Dawn a pair of sheer blue panties from the box. "Here."

"Thanks," Dawn replied as she pulled the panties on.

"Who's next?" Anakin asked, trying to get things back on track.

"I'll go next," Luna replied as she pulled her skirt up and pulled her polka dot panties down so that Anakin could stamp her butt.

"Might as well," Bella said as she pulled her skirt up, wanting to make sure she never lost her memories again as it was terrifying even if she was fairly sure that she was better off without a lot of them.

Mist watched Luna and Bella get their bottoms stamped then set the boxes down and headed over to the hole to see if he could figure out what type of monsters they were dealing with.

Anakin handed the stamp to Dawn so that she could stamp Neville's behind. "What are we dealing with?"

Mist stared down at the green humanoids with balloon-like heads and enough teeth to give a shark pause that were running around in the parts of the cavern that he could see as the cavern was a massive warren swarming with the creatures. "Looks like they're goblins."

“We tunneled into the bank?” Harry asked in disbelief.

“Not that kind of goblin,” Mist told him, “think video games and anime.”

"What do we need to know?" Anakin asked as he walked over and looked down at the cavern filled with goblins and glowing crystals.

Mist frowned as he studied the goblins for a few seconds. "They shouldn't be particularly nasty but they'll probably swarm and their bite is probably nasty."

"Do you have any defensive gear we can borrow?" Bella asked hopefully as she swapped her underwear for an enchanted set.

"Yeah, give me a minute," Mist replied as he took a couple of steps away from the hole and conjured a pair of aluminum bracers.

"If you're expecting us to block hits like Wonder Woman, we don't have the agility," Puck pointed out.

"It wouldn't help, the bracers absorb physical damage and apply it to themselves, they're also about as durable as wet cardboard right now which means that you don't want the bracers getting hit."

"Then what's the point?" Ginny's clone asked.

"They get a tiny bit more durable every time you kill a monster which means they'll eventually become nearly indestructible and able to take hits from a giant without your arms snapping like twigs," Mist explained as he cast his Enchanting spell. "They also have a small chance of picking up minor magical abilities or resistances every time you kill something while you're wearing them."

"How long does it take to make a pair?" Anakin asked, wondering if he could get some extra bracers to take back.

"About a second each, I can conjure them," Mist replied with a grin. "I can also toss an enchantment on the bracers that will act like a force field."

"How durable are we talking about?" Anakin asked.

"Durable enough to block a metal pole unless it's swung by a pissed off Wookie, I haven't tested it against a lightsaber or anything particularly nasty but it works well enough against blades," Mist told him as he tossed the bracers in his enchanting box and looked for the runes that he'd need for the defensive enchantments.

"You could make a fortune selling those," Bella pointed out.

"I already have a vault filled with gold, but you're probably right," Mist admitted as he worked on assembling the runes. "It wouldn't hurt to come up with a list of items that I can enchant and a price list."

"You should probably talk to the twins, they're planning on selling joke products, they might let you toss some stuff in their catalog," Ginny suggested.

"Not a bad idea…" Mist trailed off as he realized he'd forgotten to deal with Bagman and the fact that he owed the Weasley twins a decent amount of money because of their bet at the World Cup. 'I should probably talk to Fudge's clone about Bagman while he still has something that he could sell to pay them.'

"What's the matter?" Hermione asked.

"I just realized that I'm going to have to come up with a list of magical items that I'm willing to sell and a price list, so much for having free time," Mist complained good naturedly as he finished assembling the string of runes he needed and enchanted the bracers, giving them the ability to project a force field.

"Don't worry, we'll help for ten percent of the profits," Puck offered.

Mist laughed. "That's highway robbery."

"Nah, twenty percent would be highway robbery," Puck stated matter of factly, trying not to laugh at the look of disbelief Hermione was giving her. "Besides, for ten percent of the profits I'll deal with the business side of things."

"That's a bit more fair," Hermione admitted.

"Deal," Mist replied as he took the newly enchanted bracers out of his inventory and handed them to Puck. He conjured another pair of bracers and tossed them into his enchanting menu and hit the button, enchanting the second set of bracers with the same enchantment. "Okay, everyone get changed and we can start killing goblins."

"Fantastic," Anakin agreed, looking forward to working off some of his current frustration.

0o0o0