Myst at Hogwarts Part 3 (Patreon)

“Looks like they’re still getting their wands,” Hermione said as she walked back over to where Harry was waiting for her to look in the window of Ollivander’s shop. “I have twenty minutes before I need to be back here and I’ve picked up all of my supplies, any ideas?”

“Ice cream?” Harry asked hopefully, wanting to talk about magic a bit more.

“Not sure I have any money left,” she admitted.

“My treat,” Harry offered.

“Are you sure?” Hermione asked, not wanting to impose.

“Of course,” Harry said as he headed for the ice cream shop. “They have some interesting flavors that I want to try.”

“Like?” Hermione asked as she followed her new friend.

“I’ve heard Lemon Sherbet and chocolate frogs is pretty good but I sort of want to try the raspberry delight.”

“That sounds good. What’s your favorite book?” Hermione asked, curious about her new friend’s taste in books.

“It’s hard to pick a favorite, but I’m a fan of Magical Kingdom for Sale by Terry Brooks and some of the Pern novels, like The White Dragon and Dragonsong.”

Hermione grinned as she realized he had good taste in books. “That reminds me, do dragons exist?”

“Only technically,” Harry muttered with a heavy sigh.

“Meaning?”

“Meaning dragons should be intelligent magic using creatures of legend. The dragons the wizarding world are hiding are basically just large fire breathing dinosaurs, even if they can fly.”

“So they don’t hoard gold and gems?” Hermione asked, slightly disappointed.

“Nope,” Harry replied with a mock pout.

Hermione shook her head. “Probably for the best, considering some of the stories I’ve read.”

“Probably,” Harry agreed.

“I guess that means they can’t teleport either, right?” Hermione asked, curious if they were at least a little like Pern style dragons.

“Nope, other than having magic resistant hides and their ability to breath fire, they’re basically just big lizards with wings, it’s a bit of a let down really.”

“Traditional dragons would probably be too dangerous to have around,” Hermione admitted thinking about how difficult hiding teleporting dragons would be.

‘I wonder if you could crossbreed dircrawls and dragons to get a teleporting fire lizards like in Pern?’ Harry mused as they walked up to the shop. ‘I’d need to figure out a way to boost their intelligence or there wouldn’t be a point, maybe phoenix and dragons would be better.’

Hermione smiled as Harry opened the door to the ice cream parlor for her. She rarely got to see such polite behavior from boys her own age unless they were on a date. As they got into line the thought hit her ‘Was this a date?’ 

0o0o0

“Dandelion, you have a letter!” Xenophilius Lovegood called out as he entered the livingroom with a letter in his hand.

Luna Lovegood looked up in surprise. “I have a letter? But who would write me? Ginny would visit if she wanted to talk and I don’t believe Ronald is one for using a quill, unless he wants to scratch himself.”

“From one Harry James, a muggleborn student that is interested in knowing the truth about the wizarding world.” He handed her the letter with a smile.

“Dear Luna, I heard about the Quibbler and wanted a subscription and to see if you would be willing to be my penpal. You see, I was raised in the muggle world and know little about the magical one as of yet, so I would like to exchange letters with you to learn more about it,” she read aloud. She beamed as she realized she could get some of her questions answered about the muggle world while helping a new wizard out. “This is so exciting! I’ve never had a penpal before. I can tell him about the magical world and maybe learn something about the muggle world in return.”

“That’s my Truffle,” Xenophilius said cheerfully.

“What I should write about first?” Luna wondered aloud.

“You can tell him about the minister and his plot for destroying the goblins,” Xeno suggested.

“That’s a little much for a first letter, I should probably start with something simple,” she said thoughtfully, “like the corruption in the Wizengamot and Dumbledore’s plan to breed stupider politicians to limit the damage they do to society.”

“That’s a good place to start,” he agreed.

“Once he understands how our government doesn’t work I’ll explain how the schools don’t teach,” Luna decided cheerfully. 

0o0o0

Remus Lupin blinked as the door to the hotel room opened and he was suddenly face to face with a miniature version of James holding a book.

“Mr. Lupin?” Myst asked, recognizing the man’s horrible mustache from the movie and the description from the book, it really did look like a caterpillar had crawled up under his nose then died and that was being kind.

Remus barely managed to avoid blurting out Harry’s name. “Remus Lupin, call me Remus. You wanted to get a head start on your studies?” he asked, a touch surprised that his friend’s son was the muggleborn that had written to him about tutoring. ‘Then again, he didn’t say he was muggleborn, just that he didn’t know about magic before he got his letter.’

“I’ve found that it’s easier to stay ahead of things if you start ahead of things, which means I need some help help getting started,” Myst explained.

“How much have you covered so far?” Remus asked, curious how much magic Harry had already figured out, considering he’d said he hadn’t known about magic before getting his letter.

“I’ve got a good grasp on Repairo and I can light candles, which is really strange as you’d think Repario would be more difficult. I’d really like to work on transfiguration, but I can’t seem to get the matchstick to change into a needle.”

“You realize that is all taught at Hogwarts, right?” Remus asked.

“I figure everything in the book is taught eventually, but I’ve asked around, if I can show enough understanding of how to do it in class, I’ll have less homework, which means I’ll have more time to look things up, which means that I’ll have less homework in the future and thus more time to look things up!” Myst paused for a couple of seconds then grinned. “I’m sure you can see the logic, right?”

“I can see the logic,” Remus agreed, rather happy that he seemed to have inherited some of Lily’s better traits. James hadn’t minded studying all that much, but he’d goofed off enough that he’d generally still ended up doing far more work than he’d really needed to.

“So, you’ll take the job?” Myst asked hopefully as he took a step back so that Remus could come into the room. Sure, he could find someone else if he had to but then he’d actually have to worry about how trustworthy they were and if there was suddenly going to be a front page article in the Prophet about his studying habits, while the most Lupin would do was talk to Dumbledore.

“Of course, nothing like being prepared,” Remus agreed as he stepped into the room and glanced around. He smiled slightly as he noticed the books spread out over the table then raised an eyebrow as he noticed the cage with a couple of mice in it. ‘Strange pets, though they are popular in the muggle world.’ He noted the muggle notebooks and pens. “You realize that Hogwarts requires quills, right?”

“Sure, for tests and assignments, but these work a lot better for taking notes. Is that going to be a problem?”

Remus shook his head. “No, I was just pointing out that you might want to practice using a quill before you get to Hogwarts, it’s not the easiest skill to master.”

“It’s on the list,” Myst replied as he shut the door. “But I’m more worried about the magic part of things than I am the penmanship.” He was fairly sure his penmanship was a lost cause unless he found a dark ritual to help.

“I guess I can understand that, still some of the teachers are going to have problems with you using a muggle pen for notes.”

“Great, I’ll worry about it later. Right now, I want to try to figure out what I’ve been doing wrong with this levitation charm and maybe figure out how to change a rat into a snuff box.” 

“Any particular reason you want to create snuff boxes? It’s not required till halfway through the year.” Remus pointed out.

“If I get good enough, I figure I can sell them at various pawn shops around London for pocket change,” Myst explained, “two birds with one stone, that one.”

Remus winced. “I’m afraid that would be illegal.”

“Why?” Myst asked, trying to sound surprised.

“You’re not allowed to sell transfigured objects in the muggle world,” Remus cautioned.

“Let me guess, the government has a bunch of magic sniffing bloodhounds?”

“Crups can sense magic users, but they can’t sense magical objects like that,” Remus replied.

“So, they have wizards running around checking for transfigured objects?” Myst asked, honestly curious if there was a legitimate reason for wizards not to sell shit in the muggle world or if it was a case of the light side just blindly following the law and the dark side being too stupid to think about it.

“The aurors occasionally swing by various shops to see if anything magical has made its way into the muggle world,” Remus said thoughtfully, “not sure permanent transfiguration would be easily detectable after a few months time however.”

“I guess that completely ruins that plan,” Myst said sarcastically. “Still, it’s worth learning for class.”

“Right,” Remus agreed, suddenly seeing hints of James’ personality in Harry. “Let’s get started.”

0o0o0

Jane waited for her daughter to shut the car door before she looked in the mirror at her daughter. “How did it go, did you make any friends?”

“It went well and I made a friend, he likes books,” Hermione replied as she put her seatbelt on.

“What’s he like?” John asked as he pulled out into traffic.

“Nice, he helped me find a bunch of used books then... we got ice cream,” she admitted shyly. 

“Ice cream with a boy?” Jane teased.

“We had extra time and I’d ran out of money buying books so he treated.”

“Which means it was a date,” Jane said with a smirk, making her daughter blush.

“Honey, they’re just kids,” John said. “For it to be a date he’d have to do things like hold open her door, take her to places she likes, kiss her hand…” he smiled at Jane, as he reminded her of their first date.

“Who kisses hands in this day and age?” Jane teased back. 

“Um, Harry,” Hermione replied, then winced as the car swerved slightly.

“He kissed your hand?” John asked, trying to pay attention to the road.

“Yes, even opened the door for me at the ice cream shop and took me to a couple used bookstores… does that count as a date?” Hermione asked.

Jane snickered. “Definitely a date!”

“Maybe you should tell us a little more…” John suggested. 

Fifteen minutes later...

“Okay, it might not be a date,” Jane teased her indecisive daughter as they pulled into their driveway. “He might just be old fashioned and chivalrous. If it was actually a date, he would have gotten your number so he could call you the next day.”

“True…” Hermione trailed off as she saw the owl sitting on the front porch on a box. “Of course the wizarding world doesn’t use phones… it uses owls.”

“It could just be a wild owl that landed on a box the postman dropped off,” John said hopefully as he parked the car. 

“Right, now who’s reaching?” Jane asked as she got out of the car.

Hermione grabbed her bag then got out of the car and hurried over to check the package. She frowned slightly as the owl flew off as they approached. “Maybe Dad’s right?” She squinted as she noticed the slightly messy handwriting and the ink stains that reminded her of her first couple attempts to use a quill, only worse. “Or not.”

Jane snickered. “To Hermione from Harry,” she read aloud in singsong. 

“Probably books,” John said as he walked over.

“I’m guessing something more romantic,” Jane teased.

“Mum,” Hermione complained as she tore off the plain brown postal paper then opened the box inside the package. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to feel sad that it wasn’t books or happy that he’d gotten her flowers. She reached into the box and pulled out a potted rosebush with purple flowers. “He got me flowers.”

“Hah, roses!” Jane said gleefully. “It was a date.”

Hermione set the potted plant on the porch then grabbed the scroll that came with it. She unrolled it and blinked as she realized that it was a number of potion recipes. She reached down and grabbed the post it note. “Thanks for having ice cream with me, I figured you’d want to practice your potion making skills a bit so here is a magical rosebush and some recipes. P.S. Don’t play music while muggles are around, the plant likes to dance, Love Harry,” she read aloud. 

“See perfectly educational,” John offered halfheartedly.

“It’s roses, that’s romantic,” Jane argued, rather amused with the whole thing.

“Was is a date or not?” Hermione sighed, frustrated and not sure which option she would have prefered at this point. 

“Ask him the next time you see him,” Jane suggested.

“I can’t do that, it would be too embarrassing and it could hurt his feelings,” Hermione said as she scanned through the scroll. “I’ll just… see if he asks me out again.”

John considered pointing out that he’d signed it ‘Love, Harry’ but wisely decided just to go and have a beer instead.

0o0o0

Nana frowned slightly as she looked at Harry’s essay and the blotches of ink scattered over the page. “I could fix that for you,” she offered hesitantly.

“It’s just a practice page,” Myst grumbled as he glared at the quill as if it had personally offended him. “This used to be easier…” he trailed off as he noticed that she was looking at the ink blotches as if they’d personally offended her. “On the other hand, if you want to fix it, be my guest.”

Nana snapped her fingers and vanished all of the ink blotches and the smudges on Myst’s fingers and nose. “That’s better.”

Myst stared at the page, it was still his nearly illegible cursive but at least the blotches of ink scattered over the page were gone. “Can you teach me how to do that?”

Nana blinked, not used to having a wizard ask her how to do magic. “If it keeps you from making a mess of your papers, I’ll do my best.”

“Thanks. Speaking of magic and things, can I buy you cloth without it counting as clothes?” Myst asked hoping she wasn’t going to freak out.

Nana laughed. “Certainly families use the threat of clothes as punishment, but it’s just cloth. We normally use old pillowcases, but I certainly wouldn’t object to making dresses if you find better material. As long as you don’t intentionally give us actual clothes, we’ll be fine.”

“Good to know,” Myst replied, happy that Nana wasn’t as crazy as Dobby or Winky.

“Let’s start with a blank page and some ink, it will be easier that way. You just have to picture in your mind what you want to happen then push with your magic, it’s easy.”

‘Easy, right,’ Myst thought to himself as he grabbed a blank piece of paper. ‘At least I’ll get plenty of practice.’

0o0o0

Alice raised her eyebrows as she looked over Harry’s collection of books on the counter. “Alchemy, How to Tell if Your Neighbor is an Animagus? Basic Quidditch Charms For Home Use, Household Charms…” she trailed off as she glanced over the rest of Myst’s rather impressive stack. “You’re building quite an impressive library here.”

“I’m certainly trying,” Myst replied with a grin.

“Are you looking at being the next Dumbledore?” she asked with amusement.

“Are people really that lazy about studying magic?” Myst asked, honestly confused how anyone with the ability to alter reality at will weren’t willing to put forth a reasonable amount of effort acquiring the skills to make them minor gods.

“You’d be surprised, most kids learn just enough to pass the tests and then they pick up the spells they need in whatever job they end up with.”

“In other words, no point in worrying about being extraordinary?” Myst asked.

“You were at the top of the class in school weren’t you?” Alice asked with amusement as she started ringing things up.

“I certainly tried until I realized that I didn’t see a point in spending hours and hours pouring over every last detail of every essay I turned in. Mostly I just tried to learn enough to know how to look things up when I needed them.”

“That’s why I love books,” Alice agreed as she picked up the last book. “Enchanted Leatherworking? This is for Hogwarts graduates, a journeyman’s guide, are you sure you want it?” she asked, fairly sure he’d want it anyways.

“It should be fun to read. Besides, the more I can figure out now, the better I’ll be later.” He wanted the book because it was the only book he’d managed to find that actually detailed how to build any type of defensive gear.

“Far be it for me to object to anyone spending money,” Alice teased as she rang the book up. “Anything else?”

“Do you have any other pamphlets for sale?” Myst asked curious what else she’d come up with.

“I have a student survival guide, a couple cleaning, air freshening, grooming spells and other things I found useful in the dorms. Most people figure them out by seventh year but none of them are overly complicated and they make life a lot more comfortable, like warming charms and a spell to block out your friend’s snoring.”

“I’ll take it,” Myst said immediately about the less than fun roommates he’d had in the past.

She rang up the pamphlet and set it on the top of his stack of books. “Best of luck at Hogwarts.”

“Thanks,” Myst replied as he paid for the large stack of books, happy that he had enough books to keep him busy for the rest of the year. ‘I might have went a little overboard but getting all of the cheat codes to the universe was worth it.’ He glanced at the clock. ‘Crap, I need to hurry if I don’t want to be late for Remus’ lessons.’

0o0o0