Population Boom, Hogwarts Part 2

"Fucking ministry," Mist muttered under his breath as he used his wood manipulation ability to bury one of Crookshanks' hairs in the apple wood wand that he was making.

"What has the ministry done this time?" Hermione asked as she walked over to where Mist was sitting against a tree in the orchard.

Mist glanced up at Hermione. "I'm just annoyed that it's nearly impossible to find any books on crafting wands."

"That's because the ministry doesn't want people having multiple wands," Hermione replied, thinking about the spell that would let someone check the last couple of spells a wand cast.

"I can't really see the point, there are plenty of junk shops and polyjuice exists, I doubt the shops keep particularly meticulous records and even if they do, you'd merely have to stun someone like Crabbe or Goyle, grab their wand and leave a broken wand in its place."

Hermione shook her head. "You should probably avoid mentioning that to the Weasleys, Molly would probably freak or start ranting."

"Probably," Mist agreed as he cast his enchanting spell. He dropped his wand in the enchanting box and hit the button to scan it.

"What happened to your wand?" Hermione asked.

"Officially? No clue," Mist replied with a grin as he studied the string of runes that would let him duplicate his wand.

Hermione stared at her friend for a couple of seconds, barely resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "Unofficially?"

"I dropped my wand in my enchanting box," Mist replied as he pulled his wand out of the box, causing it to reappear. He dropped his 'fake' wand in the box.

"Enchanting box?" Hermione asked.

"One of the spells I picked up," Mist replied as he worked on duplicating the rune string that would let him make a working wand.

"That doesn't actually explain anything," Hermione complained when she realized that he wasn't going to clarify anything.

"I'm aware," Mist teased as he finished copying the string with the exception of the tracking rune that was tacked onto the end of the rune string. He pushed the button and spent the mana to enchant the wand. "I'll explain if you promise that you won't tell people about it."

"Is it dangerous?" Hermione asked.

"The skill is perfectly safe," Mist replied as he pulled the wand out of his enchanting box and gave it a wave. "Luminos."

"Did you swap your wand for the fake?" Hermione asked, surprised that he could make the stick work like a wand.

"No, I just made an extra wand so I wouldn't have to worry about the trace," Mist replied smugly.

"Fine, explain," Hermione told him, knowing it would bother her if he didn't explain.

Mist focused on his enchanting spell and 'shared' the window, letting her see it.

Hermione stared at the translucent window that was floating in front of Mist that reminded her of the crafting options in some of her father's video games. "That looks like something from a video game," she offered as she sat down next to him so that she could see the window from the 'correct' angle.

"It certainly makes it easier," Mist replied as he conjured a long sleeved dark purple spider silk shirt and dropped it into the enchanting box. He pushed the button to analyze the enchantment, wanting to show Hermione the enchantment and figuring everyone in the group could use the protection from misinformation.

"Where did you get that?" Hermione asked.

"I conjured it," Mist replied with a grin.

"Your friend from the pub?" Hermione asked.

"Close enough," Mist replied as he selected the option to enchant the shirt and started adding the runes for permanently boosting your mental defenses and defenses against magical bindings if you broke a rapist's kneecaps.

"What are you doing?" Hermione asked.

"I'm layering extra charms on the shirt. I can conjure a t-shirt that permanently increases your mental defenses by a small amount every time you break a rapist's kneecaps so I'm stacking the enchantments," Mist explained as he finished assembling the runes and pushed the button, enchanting the shirt.

"Is there a reason you started with the silk shirt rather than the t-shirt?" Hermione asked, not sure how to feel about the translucent shirt.

"Do you want the politically correct answer or the honest answer?" Mist asked as he pulled the newly enchanted shirt out of his enchanting box and handed it to her.

"The honest answer," Hermione told him.

"You're attractive and the shirt is sort of sheer," Mist replied with a grin.

"Boys," Hermione muttered, trying to hide her amusement.

"You asked," Mist replied with a grin.

"I'm curious, what would you have said if I'd asked for the politically correct answer?" Hermione asked, glad that at least one of her friends knew she was a girl.

"Probably something about the silk being high quality and more professional than the t-shirt or maybe something about it fitting into the wizarding world better," Mist offered. "Speaking of girls and clothes, on the off chance that the staff hasn't lost their minds and we actually have some type of a reason to use the dress robes that we had to buy, would you be my date?"

"Aren't you supposed to wait for the staff to actually announce the event first?" Hermione asked.

"And give someone else a chance to ask you first? Not a chance," Mist told her, figuring he might as well take his shot.

"Can you even dance?" Hermione asked.

"Depends on the dance and I'm willing to learn," Mist assured her.

"Deal," Hermione replied with a smile.

"Excellent," Mist replied, glad that he wouldn't have to scramble for a date.

"What else can you do with the enchanting window?" Hermione asked, curious what else he could do and trying not to giggle that she had her first date.

"Basically anything you can do with charms and a bunch of things that shouldn't see the light of day," Mist replied as he conjured a cursed belt, dropped it in his enchanting box and pushed the button to analyze it.

"Like…" Hermione trailed off as she read the description of the belt. "Why do you have the ability to conjure a belt that causes a girl's breasts to explode?!"

"One of my abilities occasionally expands the list of magical clothing I can conjure if I kill monsters or cultists," Mist admitted. "I don't exactly have a choice in what I get."

"That's crazy," Hermione complained, trying to ignore the voice in her head wondering if it would be worth using on some of the female Death Eaters.

"Welcome to the dark side, we have cookies," Mist replied with amusement.

"Not funny," Hermione lied. "Is it bad that I sort of want to test it on a Death Eater?"

"I don't think I'm supposed to answer that," Mist teased.

"That's fair," Hermione admitted.

"Joking aside, the belt gives you the ability to conjure magical watermelons and the seeds that grow in their breasts before exploding can be eaten to increase your maximum lifespan or plant them to grow magical trees and nothing says you can't heal the damage with magic," Mist pointed out.

"You realize that would probably kill someone, right?" Hermione asked.

"Unless you have regeneration on or have a healer right there, yeah," Mist agreed.

"What else can you conjure?" Hermione asked, wondering if she could get him to make a list.

"The most useful is probably the belt that has ten inventory slots but the tinfoil hat that prevents mind control is sort of amusing and probably required if we want to keep Snape out of our heads," Mist grumbled, not looking forward to dealing with potions or Snape's shit.

Hermione shook her head. "Using Legilimency on people without consent is illegal."

Mist raised his eyebrows. "Do you honestly think that's going to stop Snape?"

"No," Hermione admitted reluctantly after a couple of seconds.

"Welcome to the wizarding world where everything is designed to favor the purebloods and the people that are pouring money into their pockets," Mist complained, rather happy that he had mental shields that would keep Snape and Dumbledore out of his head.

"How long do you think it will take the survivors to bribe their way out of prison?" Hermione asked, thinking about the Death Eaters that had attacked the world cup.

"Considering the paper is calling the dead Death Eaters victims of deranged wizards overreacting to a prank, they're probably already in the wind," Mist grumbled as Harry walked over with Ron.

"Food's ready, let's eat," Ron told them, unhappy that they couldn't start eating until everyone was at the table.

"Sounds good," Mist replied as he closed his enchanting window and stood up.

"What are you doing out here anyway?" Ron asked.

"I didn't want to get drafted to de-gnome the garden and I didn't want to listen to Percy whine about the thickness of cauldron bottoms," Mist replied as he held his hand out to help Hermione up, not seeing a point in admitting that he was avoiding Mrs. Weasley because he considered her emotionally and mentally damaged and would probably say something less than kind if he had to put up with another self righteous lecture on not using magic outside of school.

"What's wrong with de-gnoming the garden?" Harry asked as Mist helped Hermione to her feet.

"It's pointless," Mist complained as he let go of Hermione's hand. "The gnomes treat the entire process as a game and always find their way back after an hour or two. I have better things to do with my time."

"Like what?" Ron asked as they started walking toward the burrow. "You won't even play a game of chess."

"Not everyone likes chess, Ron," Hermione cut in, trying to prevent an argument.

"He could have just said that," Ron complained, feeling like he was being punished because he couldn't remember shite about one of his friends. "I can't remember anything."

"That's fair," Mist admitted. "Look, it's nothing personal. I don't particularly like chess and I've spent most of the summer stuck with the Dursleys. They lock our trunks in the cupboard under the stairs, which means we can't do any of the homework."

"One game isn't going to kill you," Ron argued, wanting a chance to chat and fill in some blanks while distracting himself since he couldn't remember anything about Mist.

"Fine, one game," Mist grumbled, deciding that listening to his whining would be more annoying than just playing one quick game.

0o0o0

Mist looked up from his book when the door to the compartment opened, revealing Malfoy and his goons. 'So much for having a peaceful trip.'

Malfoy glared at the bushy haired girl using Mist's lap for a pillow that was obviously sleeping. "Where's the Weasel and your other half?"

"Not here, you should leave," Mist told Draco in a quiet voice, trying to avoid waking Hermione up.

"Watch your tone," Draco snapped as he pulled his wand. "Get the door."

"No witnesses." Goyle quickly locked the door with a smirk.

Mist moved Hermione to his inventory, grabbed his spare wand out of his inventory, pointed it at Draco and chanted, "Stupify!" as the trio of idiots stared at the spot where Hermione had been in disbelief. He was almost disappointed when the stunner hit Draco and he crumpled to the ground unconscious. He quickly hit the two thugs with stunners as they tried to figure out what was wrong with Draco, dropping them unconscious.

"Fucking idiots," Mist muttered as he walked over and tapped each of the idiots on their forehead, picking up the ability to make copies. He shoved the idiots into his inventory then stripped them down to their underwear and dropped their clothes in a pile, glad that his inventory made the entire process easy. He glanced over at Crookshanks carrier, glad that Hermione's cat was still asleep.

He quickly made clones of the three idiots. "Get dressed."

"What's the plan boss?" Draco asked as he quickly pulled his pants on.

"That depends, do you have any actual information about Voldemort?" Mist asked, curious if they actually knew anything useful.

"No, I thought he was dead," Draco admitted.

"You're going to finish getting dressed then you're going to leave the compartment and pretend that you left after you didn't find Harry. Draco, you're going to actually try to be a reasonable human for once in your life, focus on studying and don't go out of your way to insult Harry or any of my friends."

"Does that include Weasley?" Draco asked in annoyance once they finished getting dressed.

"Currently yes, I'll let you know if that changes," Mist told him, not seeing a point in being nice if they couldn't keep Ron from freaking out and being an ass if Harry's name came out of the goblet. "What were you planning?"

"We were just going to scare you a bit," Crabbe admitted.

"That's it?" Mist asked.

"Yeah, doing anything drastic would see us expelled," Draco admitted.

"Fine, get out of here," Mist told them.

"Let's go," Draco told his minions as he unlocked the door.

Mist watched the clones leave. 'That's one less problem, now I just have to figure out how to get the actual Draco into a biker gang,' he mused as he sat back down and pulled Hermione back out of his inventory, setting her down in the same position she was so that she could continue sleeping. He pulled the note out of his inventory that was in the slot next to Ron's body and read it, curious why there was a note in his inventory that he hadn't written or put there. 'Mist, thank you for capturing the asshole, we have extracted the spirit which means your friend can go back to living his life, hopefully the delay won't cause any trouble.'

'Huh, it's nice to work for competent people. Now I just have to figure out the best place to stick him,' he mused as the door opened and Ginny walked in with a girl with blonde hair, Ravenclaw robes and radish earrings. "Trouble?"

"We saw the goons and figured we'd check," Ginny told him, trying to keep her voice low.

Hermione yawned as she woke up. "How long was I asleep?"

"A couple of hours," Mist replied as he gestured for Ginny and the girl that he was reasonably sure was Luna to come in pulling their trunks. "You might as well come in."

"What did Malfoy want?" Ginny asked.

"The usual, I think he has a crush on Harry or something," Mist complained as Hermione sat up and twisted around so that she wasn't taking up most of the bench.

"Malfoy was here?" Hermione asked in surprise.

"Yeah, he showed up with his goons, realized that Harry wasn't here, made some half arsed insults, his heart clearly wasn’t in it, and left," Mist replied with a shrug. "How are you doing Luna?"

"Good," Luna replied with a smile as she walked over and sat down. "Nargles infested our old compartment."

Mist glanced around. "I don't need any nargles here, have you considered using a spray bottle?"

"Do you think that would work?" Luna asked thoughtfully.

"It's worth a try but you're welcome to stay here anyway," Mist assured her.

"I'd like that," Luna replied, happy that she wouldn't have to deal with the annoying Ravenclaw girls that were harassing her.

"How was your summer?" Mist asked, figuring she probably had some interesting stories.

"Great, my father and I went to Africa looking for fwoopers, we didn't find any but it was an enjoyable trip," Luna replied with a smile.

"Sounds fun," Mist replied. "I hope you had hearing protection."

"Of course, we're not crazy," Luna assured them, managing to keep a straight face.

0o0o0

Snape glanced at the five students wearing conjured hospital gowns that were sitting on the infirmary beds looking confused or pretending to look confused. "We should interrogate Ms Lovegood."

Flitwick pulled his attention away from where Luna Lovegood was talking with her duplicate and focused on his fellow teacher. "Do you honestly think a student that has barely started her third year had something to do with opening cracks to another dimension?"

"She's a Lovegood," Snape replied flatly.

"It's okay, you don't have to believe us," Luna's clone offered with a smile, rather enjoying the boss's prank. "Just because you can't see the cracks between worlds doesn't mean people can't fall through."

"I didn't fall through a crack," Ron complained. "I was getting ready to watch the World Cup and then I woke up in bed with a doppelganger!"

"Pretty sure you're the clone," Ron's clone pointed out, not sure what was going on. "But if it makes you feel better, I'll be Ronald and you can be Ron."

"Fine!" Ron snapped, wishing he knew what was going on and why he had vague memories of being abducted by demons or aliens. 'Should I tell them? Nah, they'd just think I was crazy.'

"Why did they slip through the cracks without their clothes?" Tracey complained, a bit annoyed that her doppelganger had appeared in the middle of the hallway by the infirmary in plain view of a number of students.

"It's not like I wanted to flash everyone," Tracey's clone snapped, a touch annoyed at the boss for not creating her in an old classroom so that she could put some clothes on before she wandered to the infirmary.

Flitwick glanced at Luna then focused on Snape. "The cracks might destroy anything that isn't living."

"Or they're lying," Snape argued, annoyed that he couldn't use his Legilimency on any of the people that supposedly slipped through the cracks.

"Why would we lie?" Neville's clone asked.

"I don't know, maybe Potter put you up to it," Severus suggested, fairly sure this wasn't a Death Eater plot.

"Severus," Albus warned him. "We have no proof that the children aren't exactly who they say they are. So far we have two Gryffindors and one student from each house which means the cracks are scattered around the school. I've asked the school portraits, none of the students appeared anywhere in view of a portrait so we'll have to take their word for events until we can prove that something else is going on."

"Which is another strike against them," Snape argued, finding it rather suspect that none of the portraits saw them appear.

"There are a great number of locations that the portraits can't see," Albus pointed out. "I suggest the students spend the rest of the morning in the infirmary and catch up on their sleep, if they're stable and healthy, they can attend classes Monday with their twins."

McGonagall rubbed the bridge of her nose. "You can't be serious."

"Until we can find the cracks and discover a way to send them home, Hogwarts is the best place for them. We've tested the twins and asked them questions from random events from their time in Hogwarts and before, all of their answers match."

"What about Mr Weasley's memory loss?" Snape asked suspiciously.

"It might have something to do with getting hit by a spell during the World Cup," Albus offered, not sure why Ron was having issues with his memory, unless someone had obliviated him. "If you'll excuse me, I need to make some calls." He turned and left the infirmary, leaving his staff to sort things out.

"Fine," McGonagall agreed reluctantly. She turned to look at Flitwick and Severus. "See if you can find some evidence of the cracks."

"And if we can't?" Snape asked, wondering what they were going to find out.

"Then the cracks might only exist in their world," McGonagall offered, making a mental note to see if the Weasley twins had an alibi for the time period when the students started appearing, if only to prove them innocent.

"Can we leave or do we have to stick around?" Tracey asked, wanting to get out of the infirmary and get something to eat.

"I'm afraid that you're going to be stuck here until we can clear everyone," McGonagall stated, wanting to make sure the extra students weren't threats.

"Can we get some food?" Ron asked hopefully.

"Yes," McGonagall replied as she headed for the door, wanting to arrange the food and check on the Weasley twins before Snape found them.

0o0o0