Harry Potter and the Magic of Books Part 27

Thom Merrilin rubbed his temples as he glanced around the backroom he’d woken up in. “You’re telling me, that you stole our win against the Dark One and that we have to repeat the same shit all over again?”

Harry snorted. “No, I’m saying that one version of you lived through all that crap and graciously consented to give you his memories so that you didn’t have to go through the same crap he did.”

Thom looked over at Matrim then over at Moiraine who was still recovering from getting a bunch of memories herself. “Once my head stops hurting, I’ll probably thank you but right now I feel like stabbing you with my knives.”

Mat laughed. “Why do you think we took all of them while you were unconscious?”

“Can someone at least get me a drink?” Thom asked the room.

Sarah conjured a mug of mint tea with a hint of lemon and handed it to him. “Of course.”

Thom sniffed the tea then decided that at this point he didn’t care if someone poisoned him. He took a drink of the lemon mint tea. “I could have done with something stiffer in it but that works. Nice sleight of hand.”

“You’re welcome,” Sarah replied with amusement.

Moiraine groaned as she sat up. “That was rather unpleasant.”

Nynaeve grumbled as she rubbed her head. “Just getting to see a bunch of memories secondhand sucked, the Tower can suck shit if they think I’ll ever put up with their horseshit.”

Mat laughed. “Language.”

“I will smack you if you don’t keep your voice down.”

Lan frowned slightly as he looked over at Nynaeve. “Where does that leave us?”

“Unmarried and interested… I remember large pieces of the other Nynaeve’s times with you but most of the rest of her adventures are like seeing a favorite play repeatedly. I’ve seen them, I can recall them but I didn’t really live them.” Nynaeve looked at Moiraine, I remember you showing up and dragging the boys and Egwene off for adventure but the emotional context is muted. I know why she was angry but I also know it was the right choice.”

Moiraine glanced at Nynaeve then looked back at Harry and asked, “Why the difference?”

Harry glanced between Thom and Moiraine. “Because your life was basically the same as the other version until you got to the Taren.”

Nynaeve said, “I’ve spent the last eight years being trained by some of the best healers around while taking care of the village. Unlike the last time, there were other people to help when I needed breaks. I’ve had other adventures and done other things which means that I’m not the same person she was.”

Mat asked, “Where does that leave us?”

Moiraine considered the question. She knew they had to get to the Eye of the World but at the same time the Forsaken had used the boys’ presence to find the location the last time. She looked at Nynaeve and asked, “How much of the other Nynaeve’s combat ability do you have?”

“I’m actually better at combat than she was.” Nynaeve paused as she considered what she knew about the Forsaken. “I should be be able to kill most of them without too much trouble provided they don’t get lucky or ambush me.”

Lan asked, “How?”

“We have some items that work similar to the other Mat’s ter’angreal.”

“That was useful the last time around.”

Mat asked, “Any chance of duplicating the foxhead, I’m going to need something if I don’t want to be killed out of hand by the Forsaken.”

Harry nodded. “That’s the top of our list of things to copy because it has protection from dreams or at least from a dreamwalker attacking you which is better than what we currently have.”

“And my spear?” Mat asked hopefully.

“It’s on the list of things that I’d like to be able to duplicate but we can live without the spear. If we can’t duplicate it exactly, we’ll consider other options.” Harry didn’t see a problem with creating a power-wrought spear of some type.

Moiraine said, “We still need to get to the Eye of the World. What other ter’angreal do you have access to that could help?”

“More than the other versions of us had at the end. Our version of Elayne has been rather busy crafting ter’angreal that should help and we have a decent number of channelers that can help.”

“Your version of Elayne?”

Sarah said, “As you’re aware, Elayne has a talent for making ter’angreal. Thus we recruited a version of her from the mirror worlds when we went recruiting. As for a decent number, two thousand girls volunteered for the project.”

Moiraine blinked a couple of times in shock. “What?!”

Sarah laughed. “We’ve been raiding other worlds for talents for eight years with better methods than the White Tower uses. It’s not surprising that we’ve found a vast amount of talent. This will not be like the last time where a plucky group of heroes stumbled through things then lucked into a pyrrhic victory. We are going to crush the forces of the dark and destroy the Dark One this time around.”

Thom asked, “What about the prophecies?”

“They’ll be confirmed or not as the wheel weaves,” Sarah wasn’t overly worried about the prophecies.

Harry spoke up, “I’m going to drop some people off in my world then return for the dancing and party tomorrow. I’ll see what I can do about your spear and medallion. If you can think of anything else you need, make a list.” Harry had barely made it out of the door before he was pulled into a hug by an older version of Hermione and had his face pressed into her breasts. Breasts that were larger and even nicer than he remembered.

“I missed you.” Hermione hugged him tightly much to the amusement of Anna, Beth, Elayne and Egwene who were watching the scene with amusement.

Harry floated up so that he could kiss her on the lips.

Elayne said, “You’re right, he’s rather cute though not as cute as that red haired man I saw earlier.”

Anna snickered. “You and your red hair fetish.”

Beth chuckled. “There’s nothing wrong with liking redheads.”

Hermione let Harry go. “I’ve got so many memories to share.”

Harry was just relieved that even after eight years Hermione still wanted to be with him. “I’m looking forward to seeing them but first we should get the teachers back home so they can prepare for another year at Hogwarts. Besides, I need to look at your collection of magazines.” He turned his attention to Anna and Beth who had both grown into lovely ladies.

“What are you thinking?” Hermione gestured and created a shield against sound so their conversation couldn’t be overheard and gossiped about.

Harry pulled his attention back to Hermione. “I’m looking for magical libraries that connect between worlds. My other idea involves studying the waygate and possibly making a separate version of them created with wand magic that connects the various worlds that I want connected but I’m not even remotely sure how to do that.”

“I have a couple of ideas, I did a project on them in school but we’d probably need Helena’s help to finish the idea and we’d need Elayne to copy the talisman of growing so that we can take it to her.”

Harry muttered, “Which would likely cost us the last of Voldemort’s soul fragments.”

Elayne frowned as she considered how difficult copying a male ter’angreal was at the best of times. “I might be able to copy it and I’d certainly like to try but I’ve got a couple of teachers back at the academy that are much better at copying things than I am.”

“Okay, we’ll pick them up on the way.”

Hermione smiled as a thought came to her. “I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the waygates and the Black Wind over the last couple of years. Do you think that a ghost trap would capture it?”

“It might, why?” Harry asked.

“I have a feeling that Helena could absorb the souls of the corrupt and send the souls of the innocent back to where they belong. It would also likely pay for the information on how to create the waygate. Besides, if we capture the Black Wind the ways would be safer.”

Harry nodded. “That shouldn’t be too difficult to manage. A point me spell should find the location of the growing talisman then it’s just a matter of borrowing it for a few minutes.”

Anna asked, “How can we help?”

“Roundup Dumbledore and the rest of the teachers so that I can drop them off.” He turned his attention back to Elayne. “Lead the way.”

Elayne reached out and opened a gateway back to the traveling room at the academy. “Let’s go.”

0o0o0

Harry glanced back at the open waygate behind him then back at the inky darkness the vast number of magical lights was doing little to push back. All of the girls other than Sarah and Hermione had already left through the gate just in case he had to jump out of the book because the circle of protection that he’d set up failed for some reason. The strange whispers coming from the darkness were annoying but merely that thanks to the protection rings and magic circles. He smiled gleefully when a cloud of darkness moved through the light and spread out against the circle of protection. “Ready?”

Hermione aimed her proton pack’s wand at the darkness. “Ready.”

Sarah waved her hand and finished the larger circle that closed off the creatures’ escape. “Circle is up!”

Harry laughed as he pushed the button on his newly acquired proton pack and shot the darkness as it pushed against his circle of protection. He winced as the volume of maddening screams intensified.

Sarah laughed as the creature screamed as the energy from the two proton packs ripped through it. She tossed the ghost trap, it skittered on the pitted ground and came to a stop inside the darkness. She pushed the button and smiled when the trap actually worked and sucked the creature of darkness into it taking the voices with it. She closed the trap. “I wasn’t expecting that to actually work.”

Hermione turned the proton pack off a second after Harry. “I feel like dancing and or writing an essay to my old teacher about this.”

Harry laughed. “I don’t suppose we could just copy your education into my head?”

“That would be cheating.”

Harry pouted. “Is that a no?”

“That’s a no. I’ll grab the girls and we can jump into the book with Helena.” Hermione turned and headed for the gate.

Sarah frowned as she glanced at the lights that still weren’t putting out as much light as they should. “We’re going to need to figure out a way to cleanse this mess.”

Harry shrugged. “I’m less worried about that and more worried about figuring out how to get everyone back to Earth.”

“We’ve got the talisman of growing that was in one of the storerooms which means we have what we need to at least try. If not we’ll pull the important people out via the doll and closet method and call it good.”

“Point,” Harry replied as Elayne walked out of the gate followed by Hermione, Egwene, Anna and Beth.

Anna said, “You’re going to have to share the memory of your fight.”

“It wasn’t that impressive, we used proton packs and a ghost trap and that was that. Mostly it was just a fair amount of waiting.” Harry pulled out the fantasy module and set it on the ground then waited it down with a rock.

Beth laughed. “In that case, perhaps we should talk to the gleeman about polishing your story before you share it. I mean this is the Black Wind we’re talking about.”

Harry reached out with his magic and pulled the girls into the module near Helena.

Helena blinked as Harry and several people she didn’t recognize appeared in front her holding something that contained a great number of souls. “You brought me candy. Have I mentioned I love you yet?”

Elayne stared at the demon girl curiously.

Egwene frowned slightly as she looked around the city they found themselves in.

Harry gave his favorite demon a smile. “I’m guessing you’d love to have the souls in the box?”

“You know I would,” Helena replied.

“Some of them are innocent which you can’t have, some are dark and evil which you can eat provided you give me a decent price.”

Helena asked, “What are you looking for, most of the dark souls aren’t worth much.”

“I want four things, a copy of the Ogier tree singer’s ability, knowledge of how to adapt a ter’angreal growing talisman, the ability to naturally see magical energy of various types including saidin and saidar and knowledge of how to create ter’angreal using wand magic.”

Helena pouted cutely. “Do you know how little return I’d get for such amazing gifts?”

“Less than you’d like and more than you’re implying,” Harry replied playfully.

“How do you figure?” She asked with a twinkle in her eye.

“I can already transmute things so the tree singing power is just a bit of knowledge, maybe a slight tweak. The knowledge of how to make a waygate to alternate worlds is a neat trick but I’m giving you thousands of little dark souls so that’s not really a deal breaker, right?”

“Most of them are really little souls,” Helena pointed out.

“Sort of like Lays Potato Chips, you can’t eat just one.”

Hermione shook her head. “I can’t believe you just said that.”

Anna shook her head. “That was just horrible Dad.”

Harry shrugged. “She’s a cute soul eating demon.”

Helena mock pouted. “And here I thought we were friends.”

“You are but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re a cute soul eating demon girl.”

Helena laughed. “I’ll give you that one. The magic sight is a tweak and something you could do anyways with training so it’s not a big deal. The last one though, you’re going to have to explain how it’s a mere tweak rather than a massive upgrade.”

Harry did his best to keep a straight face as he answered. “It’s a mere tweak in that it’s a set of conversion charts and such built into my head that helps me expand my enchanting abilities.”

Helena shook her head, “Hmm, still, after taxes and paying out for your abilities, I’d be getting very little from this deal. I think you’re going to have to sweeten the pot.”

“What are you after?” Sarah asked curiously.

“Harry wants an entire new aspect added to his powers, does that mean I get an aspect of his magic in trade?”

Harry thought of some discussions he’d had with Sarah about wand magic. “I’d trade my ability to make wizard oaths and unbreakable vows and the evil souls in the box for the four abilities I described.”

Helena stared at Harry in amused disbelief for a couple of seconds before she found her voice. “Let me get this straight, you expect me to carve out a particularly shitty cursed aspect of your powers for free and give you something for my trouble?” She laughed. “I knew there was a reason I liked you kid, you’ve got balls of steel.”

Sarah said, “Yes, yes he does.”

Harry grinned. “You asked for part of my magic, that is the only part I’m willing to part with.”

Hermione had to agree with Harry that was the only part of her magic that she’d give up as well.

Helena make a show of looking at the other girls before looking back at Harry with a smile. “Okay, I’ll make the deal under one condition.”

“What’s that?” Harry asked curiously.

“You have to get me out of this world.” Helena smirked as she was fairly sure he wouldn’t do it even if she hoped that he would.

Harry blinked. “Ah… what do you mean?”

Helena smiled seductively at Harry. “I mean a nice juicy hamburger and fries sounds nice. Most of your world doesn’t believe in magic which means that if I ask for their soul in exchange for something cheap and they’re stupid they’ll make the deal. Here, everyone knows better so all I get are bits and pieces most of the time.”

Hermione frowned. “I’m not sure that’s a good deal, she’d cause a lot of chaos and what if she gave our enemies power?”

Helena snorted. “Oh please, I happen to like Harry and I’m not in the business of screwing over my friends. There are millions of people out there with petty stupid desires that I can ‘help’ that won’t miss a few chunks of their soul.”

“Do I have your word on that? Assuming I made the deal and pulled you into my world, would you promise not to snack on the souls of the innocent or even mostly innocent?”

“I’ll even promise to use a generous description of innocent.” Helena smiled innocently or at least as innocently as she could which wasn’t very.

Harry glanced at Egwene and Elayne then back at Helena. “If I let you out can I talk you into giving Egwene and Elayne wand magic in exchange for the other two soul anchors that Voldemort has?”

Helena laughed. “That’s one of the reasons you shouldn’t split your soul folks. I’m perfectly happy making that deal.”

Egwene asked, “What type of side effects would it cause?”

Helena said, “You might get strange hair or weird eyes depending on which family I’m copying the magic from. If I copy it from Harry then your hair is liable to get a bit wild, if I copy it from Hermione your hair will likely get frizzy.”

Egwene said, “I’m okay with wild hair.”

Elayne ran her fingers through her red and gold hair. “I can work with that.”

Helena frowned slightly. “On second thought, I think the best and easiest is a magic adoption ritual, you’ll inherit wand magic as if you’d been born a Potter and no I’m not trading this secret for anything you’re willing to part with so don’t ask.”

Egwene asked, “Will my other abilities and personality be intact?”

“If you had other wand based abilities they’d be replaced but you don’t so you’ll be fine.”

Anna snickered as she pulled Egwene into a hug from behind. “Welcome to the family sis.”

Beth laughed, “I’m going to enjoy fucking you even more now.”

Elayne shook her head. “That’s because you’re broken in the head.”

“Probably but you weren’t complaining when I stuck my hand inside of your-” Beth was cut off by Elayne’s hand closing over her mouth.

Elayne pulled Beth into a hug with her other arm so it was easier to keep her mouth covered. “That’s enough of that.”

Harry held out the ghostbusters ghost trap. “Okay, deal.”

Helena smiled as she accepted the ghost trap. She opened the trap then sucked out the dark energy that tried to escape the trap.

Egwene stepped back and raised her hands just in case they had to fight.

Helena finished her snack then handed the soul box back to Harry. “Are you sure I can’t eat the rest?”

Sarah shook her head. “We’re sure.”

“Fine, deal.” Helena snapped her fingers and gave Harry the asked for upgrades including full color mage vision and upgraded Egwene and Elayne’s magic using Anna and Beth as templates and the last of the power she’d stashed away in the demon soul bank over the years, which was substantial. She was going to be seriously screwed considering various enemies she’d made over the years if Harry didn’t keep up his end of the deal but she had faith that he’d at least get her to an Earth. Then again her store of power would be useless if Harry kept up his end of the deal as she doubted that she’d be able to access it from Harry’s world so there wasn’t much point in keeping it filled up and she couldn’t by guild law and magic contract use stored energy on herself which meant that spending it on a deal to generate good will was really the best use she could put it to. “Okay, you owe me two soul fragments but the girls are sexy powerful wand witches.”

“Just like that?” Harry asked suspiciously.

Helena shook her head. “I had some power stashed in the bank so I figured I’d burn that before I lost it. Let’s just hope that you get me out of here before I get audited for spending everything I’ve been accumulating for years.”

Egwene asked, “Audited?”

“The guild likes to keep a strict accounting of things.” Helena replied as she pulled out a hair and handed it to Harry.

Harry accepted the hair and curled it around his finger for safe keeping. “In other words, we should get out of here so that I can jump out and rescue you?”

“That would be appreciated. The sooner the better.” Helena figured she only had a day or two at most before she got pulled in for a review that she wouldn’t enjoy and probably wouldn’t survive.

“See you soon.” Harry reached out with his magic and pulled everyone other than Helena out of the book and back to the ways.

Sarah glared at the darkness. “Our waygate network better not look like this mess.”

“It shouldn’t considering we’re not using tainted power.” He handed Egwene the soul box then picked up the module off the ground and put it in his backpack. “We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

“We’ll meet you at the inn.”

“Stay safe.” Egwene leaned over and kissed Hermione.

Hermione reached out and caressed Egwene’s left breast. “We will.”

Elayne said, “We’ll close up the waygate and ward it against more shadowspawn using it.”

“Thank you.” Harry reached out with his magic and jumped out of the book with Hermione, Sarah, Beth and Anna.