Traveling Magic Shop Part 8 (Patreon)

Rose walked into the dressing room the band was using and stopped when she saw an overweight woman with a bowl cut in a faded pink suit that should have been burned twenty years ago standing in the middle of the dressing room. "Are you in the wrong place?"

"No, my name is Dolores Ragebottom, you've violated your contract which means your souls belong to the company," the woman snapped as the band walked into the dressing room.

"Sorry, I don't have a soul," the drummer replied smugly as he walked over to grab his bag.

"What are you talking about?" Dolores sputtered.

"I sold mine forty years ago, it's not my fault that your company failed to ask around," he told her, rather amused by the entire mess.

"To who?" she demanded.

"A guy, he owned a nightclub in L.A., it was a pretty sweet deal, ten years of fame for my soul after I died, it wasn't like I was going to heaven anyway," he explained with a shrug.

"That's not magically binding!" Dolores snapped.

"Take it up with the person that owns my soul," the drummer replied, rather amused by the idea of someone walking up to Lucifer Morningstar and telling him that one of his deals wasn't valid.

"I will," Dolores promised then turned to look at the singer they'd picked up. "Your soul belongs to the company."

"Not true," the drummer cut in, rather amused by the situation.

"What?" Dolores sputtered. "I have a contract!"

The drummer laughed. "Your company had a contract with the original crew of the Hell's Bitches, which includes half a dozen dead people and myself. I hired the crew as back up performers, they're not part of the band which means you can't do shit with their souls."

Dolores turned and glared at Rose. "She signed a contract, we own her soul!"

"Sorry, I can't help you there," the drummer admitted.

"Did you even read the contract?" Rose asked the woman.

"Of course I did, what do you take me for, a rank amateur?!" Dolores demanded as she sorted through her paperwork and put Rose's contract on the top. "It says, right here, that if you violate the contract we get your soul."

"Just out of curiosity, how did I violate the contract?" Rose asked, curious which one of the idiotic clauses they'd nailed her on.

"You're responsible for corrupting a minor," Dolores replied smugly.

"Bullshit, Dawn came that way," Rose argued.

"Willow Rosenberg," Dolores said smugly. "She was an innocent girl before she met you."

Oz laughed. "Yeah, no, I love her to death but you haven't heard her stories about bandcamp and you should see her search history."

"What?" Dolorus sputtered as she turned to look at Oz.

"Just saying, between bandcamp, black magic, and her search history, you're not going to win this one," Oz told her.

"What about the other girl?" Dolores asked.

"She fucked a corpse when she was seventeen," Oz replied with a shrug, thinking about her failed relationship with Angel.

"What?!" Dolores sputtered.

"What can I say, she's got some screws loose," Oz replied, fairly sure you had to be missing some screws if you had sex with a vampire.

Dolores checked her notes. "What about Harris?"

Oz shook his head. "Sorry, he's not remotely innocent, he dated a cheerleader and fucked a vengeance demon before he even met Rose."

"And he's still alive?!" Dolores blurted out.

"Yes," Oz replied. "From what I've heard, he's really good in bed."

"Fine," Dolores complained. "She's guilty of doing a private show and not reporting her income to the company."

"I didn't charge them," Rose argued.

"They provided breakfast, thus you made a profit and you didn't report it," Dolores replied smugly.

"I reserve the right to argue that gifts of appreciation aren't income but whatever, you want a soul you can have the dark wizard's soul that's stuck in my scar."

"That's not how this works, we get your soul. You'll be fucking every client we toss in front of you or you'll burn in hellfire," Dolores said smugly.

"I invoke the right of arbitration," Rose stated.

"Do you honestly think that's going to…" Dolores trailed off as a familiar dark haired man in a charcoal black suit appeared out of thin air, "help?"

"I'd be delighted, what seems to be the problem?" Frank asked.

"She didn't read the original contract, I made some changes before I signed it," Rose explained.

"Changes? What blasphemy is this?!" she demanded. "You can't make changes to a company contract!"

"It's a good thing you're not part of the legal department," Frank complained as he snapped his fingers and summoned the original contract. "What seems to be the problem?"

"She's claiming that I violated the contract because I accepted breakfast after doing a private show and she's claiming that a group meal was compensation and that I didn't report it and is demanding my soul," Rose explained.

"Breakfast? Really?" Frank asked with a raised eyebrow. "I understand that I'm a contract devil and that my morals are questionable at best, but that's a stretch."

"Perfectly legal, the boss wants her soul," Dolores demanded.

"That's bullshit!" the singer complained.

"Unfortunately, it's also legal," Frank admitted. "However, if you'd read the original contract, you'd understand that she owes you a soul, not her soul."

"That's not what the contract says!" Dolores complained.

"It's not my fault that your agent didn't file the proper paperwork or notice that the original contract had been altered before he signed it," Frank replied.

"This was your fault!" Dolores snapped. "You should have warned us."

"Feel free to look up the records, I called your HR department and told them that one of their contracts had been modified as soon as I noticed the problem, it's not my fault the agent ignored the warning," Frank told her then turned his head to look at Rose. "Do you have an extra soul at this time or do you need an extension?"

"Extension?!" Dolores sputtered. "We don't have to give her an extension."

"You're correct, you don't have to give her an extension to acquire a soul, but any competent infernal lawyer could tie your company up in court for years, do you want to risk it?" Frank asked.

"Twenty four hours!" Dolores snapped, knowing he could tie her up in court for weeks or months without any real hassle.

"I don't need twenty four hours, I have the soul of an evil wizard right here," Rose explained as she tapped her scar with the index finger of her right hand.

"Excellent," Dolores replied as she reached out and yanked Voldemort's soul out of Rose's scar, causing it to bleed and Rose to collapse in pain as the demon ripped Voldemort's screaming soul fragment out of her. "What the hell is this shit? It's mangled."

Rose smiled despite the pain as the contract prevented any of the bitch's actions from actually harming her, which kept Voldemort from ripping her mind and soul apart on the way out. "The contract didn't specify the condition of the soul."

"Fuck it!" Dolores snapped as she changed into a more demonic form and ripped the connection with the pit of carnal energy out of Rose, knowing her bosses would want it back.

Rose shivered as she felt the connection to her borrowed magic snap and the energy drain out of her. "Bitch!" She would have blushed if the situation wasn’t so tense as she’d done many things under the pit's influence she never would have without it… well maybe Dawn and Xander.

"We're demons, I'll just take your soul the easy way," Dolores said smugly as she raised a clawed hand, knowing they couldn't stop her.

"I'd like to point out that you're under contract not to harm her for the duration of her employment," Frank warned her.

"You're fired," Dolores told Rose smugly then lunged at her, eager to deal with the annoyance and reclaim the company's property.

"Idiot," Frank muttered when Dolores smashed into a protective force field then got hit over the head by Oz, causing her to drop like a sack of potatoes. "Best of luck on the rest of your summer plans Ms. Potter. If you'll excuse me, I need to get back to the office and tell the firm's partners why we should drop your previous entertainment company as clients."

"Thanks for not ratting me out with the contract," Rose told him.

"You get the service you pay for, maybe next time they'll remember to pay their lawyers on time," Frank mused then snapped his fingers and vanished in a burst of fire.

"So, now what?" Rose asked the rest of the band, not sure what to do now that she was free from the contract and the prospect of getting turned into a meat puppet by Voldemort.

"I want to keep singing," the singer said, not seeing a reason to stop just because they had to change labels.

"I'm good," the guitarist offered, not seeing a reason to stop.

Rose considered her options then shrugged. "I've got two weeks before I need to be back in London, let's rock!"

"I'll make some calls," the drummer said as he headed over to the phone to call some of his contacts to see what he could scrounge up.

"What are we going to call ourselves?" Oz asked.

"Hell's Angels?" the guitarist asked.

The singer shook her head. "I'd rather not get confused with a biker gang."

"Twisted Wishes?" Rose asked thoughtfully.

"Better than Hell's Bitches," the singer mused.

"Works for me," Oz agreed, happy to make some cash and have some fun before he went off to college.

0o0o0

"Rose giggled and started telling her brother about her adventure…" Myst trailed off as Rose reappeared in the middle of the shop with an oversized book bag hanging from her shoulder since he'd already read the end of the story.

Rose blinked a couple of times as she went from walking home from school on the last day of the school year to standing in the shop with her four year old brother and a giant. "Nice to know that it wasn't a dream."

Harry darted forward and hugged his sister, glad that she'd escaped her adventure in one piece. "Are you okay?!"

"I'm good," Rose assured him, glad that everything had worked out even if she was a lot smaller than she remembered and her bag a lot heavier. "Did I shrink?"

"Let me check," Myst replied as he used his Upgrade ability to check Rose's health and height, not particularly surprised that she was the same height as she'd jumped into the book. "You're in perfect health, at least physically," he told her, relieved and a touch disturbed that Voldemort's soul was gone as it raised questions about people's safety in the book.

"Cool," Rose replied with a grin.

"Did you have fun playing music?" Harry asked, glad that his sister was okay.

"The music was a blast," Rose replied, then 'pinched' her nose with her fingers, "getting stuck in a van with a bunch of people after they had Mexican, not so much."

"What's in the bag?" Harry asked as he let go of his sister, trying to pretend like he hadn't been worried about her.

"Art supplies, my class notes and my photo album," Rose replied as she pulled her 'oversized' book bag off her shoulder, walked over to the table where Myst was sitting and set it on the table. "Do you want to see some of the pictures from my tour?"

"Yes!" Harry replied enthusiastically.

Rose giggled as she pulled her photo album out of the bag, set it in front of Myst so he could see it without twisting his neck and opened it, revealing a picture of her and the original band in the studio. "Most of the band sucked but the drummer was actually pretty cool."

"Cool," Myst replied, not sure what else to say.

"Do you still have magic?" Harry asked as he studied the pictures of various locations.

"Sort of," Rose replied as she flipped the page, revealing a couple of revealing pictures of the replacement singer and a couple of pictures of her walking around various locations in costume. "I can't transform into my magic girl form since I lost my power source but I can pull off a couple of cantrips and my S.E.P. Field still seems to work."

"That sucks about not being able to transform," Harry offered, knowing that he'd be really unhappy if he'd picked up magic only to lose it.

"Yep," Rose agreed, a bit annoyed that she hadn't kept more of her tricks.

"What's a S.E.P. Field?" Harry asked, not sure what she was talking about.

"S.E.P. stands for someone else's problem, it's basically a luck based magic field that drastically increases the chances that people will ignore any magic or weird events that I'm involved with, either because they decide that it's someone else's problem or because they convince themselves that I'm just using stage magic," she explained.

"Does it keep you out of trouble?" Harry asked.

Rose shrugged. "It's great for dealing with teachers, it's not particularly effective on magic users and it's less effective if you know I have it or if I've been using a lot of magic which means it's practically useless against Mum and Dad. Of course, they're magic users so their definition of weird is a bit suspect."

"What were they like?" Harry asked, wishing he'd gotten a chance to get to know them.

"The version in the book? They were great. Dad likes practical jokes, so I got pretty good at not screaming my head off when I opened a drawer or a cabinet and found a giant spider or when he'd scatter random spells around the house that would turn your hair green or cause you to belch fire. He'd also occasionally hex the floor to make weird noises and he was always quick to share dueling tips with us, even if I couldn't use them."

"What about Mum?" Harry asked, noticing that Rose seemed a bit annoyed.

Rose smiled as she thought about her mother or at least the version in the book. "Mum would take us to parks and museums and make sure we could actually pronounce electricity and other important things that the wizarding world was clueless about. She also gave great hugs and baked fantastic cookies."

"Can I use the book?" Harry asked, eager to meet his parents or at least a version of them.

"Maybe tomorrow," Myst offered, wanting a chance to enchant a couple more protective items since Rose's adventure had been more dangerous than he'd been expecting and he didn't want Harry getting seriously hurt. "Rose probably wants a chance to read about her adventure and make a copy of the story."

"I'd certainly like to read it," Rose agreed, curious how much of her adventures had made it into the book.

"Let's work on dinner and give Rose a chance to get settled," Myst told Harry as he stood up, figuring she'd want a chance to read the book by herself. "Make sure to wash your hands, I'll be there in a minute."

"Okay," Harry agreed as he headed toward the stairs that led to the apartment, looking forward to learning magic and getting to be a hero.

Myst waited until Harry had left the room then asked, "How are you actually doing?"

"No clue," Rose admitted.

"That's fair," Myst admitted. "I spent a year back in school but that's a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of my life."

"Yeah, I remember spending eight years in the shop with you and Harry and thirteen with my folks in Godric's Hollow or at least a version of them." Rose sighed. "Or at least I remember growing up in both places, that makes it a bit hard to figure out my proper age. Am I four, almost five because that's how old I am physically or am I fourteen, almost fifteen because I have the memories of being fifteen?"

"Or are you seventeen or eighteen or even twenty one because you have extra memories?" Myst asked, not sure how to help.

"Basically," Rose agreed. "I don't feel like an adult but I'm certainly not as stupid or self centered as most of my classmates."

"Welcome to Self Delusion 101," Myst teased, glad that she seemed to have a sense of humor about the whole thing.

"Not exactly helpful, Dad," Rose complained, not even thinking about the fact that he didn't 'remember' the eight years she'd spent with him.

"Sorry, I've got a warped sense of humor," Myst replied as he flipped through the photo album looking at the pictures from her trip.

"I'm aware," Rose replied with amusement. "How much can you boost my magic?"

Myst scratched his chin for a couple of seconds as if he was thinking about it then said, "To infinity and beyond!"

"That was horrible, you should be ashamed of yourself," Rose told him, trying not to laugh.

"I'm aware," Myst replied with amusement. "Feeling better?"

Rose held her thumb and index finger a centimeter apart, a touch surprised to find out that she was actually feeling better.

"Good," Myst replied with a smile, glad that she was feeling better. "Joking aside, we should probably wait until you've had a chance to work on activating and practicing your abilities before we boost them to the point where you can destroy cities."

"Probably a good idea," Rose admitted. "Let me try something. Angel of Darkness, transform!"

"Was that supposed to do something?" Myst asked when nothing happened.

"Yeah," Rose grumbled. "Magic Girl Transformation?"

"You should try girl power or Dark Magic Girl," Myst suggested as he used his upgrade power to check the description of her transformation power. 'Dark Magic Girl transformation, transform into a stronger, faster and more durable girl that can leap tall buildings with a single bound by saying Snorkack? Is that because she's read the Quibbler or because the book is a troll?'

"Girl power?" Rose asked, sort of hoping to hell that it wouldn't work. "Nope. Dark Magic Girl, transformation!"

"Try Snorkack," Myst suggested with a grin.

"Crumple horned Snorkack?" Rose asked.

"No, just Snorkack," Myst replied with amusement.

"Snorkack," Rose replied sarcastically then blinked as she felt the transformation start and purple mist erupted out of her skin and covered her body. "Seriously?"

'Could be worse,' Myst thought as Rose floated two feet off the ground and shifted into an older form over the next couple of seconds, only partially visible because of the mist. 'Just as well that I didn't get a transformation,' he mused as the mist that was covering her pooled around her feet, leaving her naked and transformed into a tall red haired teenager with curves in all the right places. He watched as the mist swirled around her legs, leaving her with a pair of black boots and sparkles on her legs as it made its way up her body.

Rose giggled as the transformation finished, leaving her with her familiar skirt made out of black ribbons, her fingerless gloves and her heart shaped red sunglasses along with her skin covered with sparkles. "No vest!" she exclaimed cheerfully, ecstatic that she didn't have to put up with the annoying vest.

"We might need to boost your S.E.P. field," Myst mused, doing his best not to stare at Rose's body, something that was made harder thanks to the fact that she was bouncing around and stretching to test her flexibility and lifting one of the solid wooden tables with one hand to test her strength.

"Probably," Rose agreed as she put the table down. "I'm hoping I'll have less problems with the idiots now that I don't have a connection to the carnal pit of lust, the last couple of weeks playing in bars and local events weren't nearly as bad as the stadium events."

"You also looked thirteen and were playing for a new band," Myst pointed out.

"That's fair," Rose replied as she leaned over the table and started flipping through the adventure book, curious how much detail it gave on her trip and if it was worth copying before they let Harry use it.

"I'll start dinner," Myst said as he headed for the stairs, wanting to make sure she had some space if she wanted it.

"Cool, I could eat," Rose admitted, looking forward to the morning when the food reset so they could make something more interesting than tuna and noodles or canned soup.