Traveling Magic Shop Part 9 (Patreon)

"Any luck?" Rose asked as she walked into the workshop where Myst was pouring a dark red liquid into a measuring cup half filled with cider.

"It's a work in progress," Myst replied as he finished adding the raspberry juice to the apple cider. He turned to look at the naked teenager as she walked over, doing his best to ignore the fact that she wasn't wearing clothes. "How's Harry doing?"

"Sleeping like a rock," Rose replied as she studied the red tinted cider. "Raspberry apple cider?"

"I wanted to test your theory about the workshop and I like the taste," Myst replied as he carefully poured the resulting mix back into the vaguely sphere shaped bottle that the apple cider had come in.

"Cool." Rose covered her mouth with her arm as she yawned.

Myst glanced at the clock hanging on the wall, slightly surprised that it was already three forty in the morning since it had been just after midnight the last time he'd looked at it. "Did you manage to get any sleep?"

"A couple of hours, I was having nightmares," Rose admitted.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Myst asked as he opened his Upgrade menu and checked the concoction that he'd created.

"It started with getting mobbed by fans at a concert then changed to Harry getting eaten by a book," Rose admitted. "I haven't had the crowd nightmare in a couple of months, the other bit is new and annoying."

"Do you have any dream or prophecy related powers?" Myst asked, wanting to make sure she didn't have any actual prophecy talents before he dismissed things as simple worry.

Rose shook her head. "Not that I know of."

"Just checking," Myst replied as he spent mana to boost the cider's age reduction quality from a month and a half to a year. He put the cap on the cider then upgraded it to remove any bacteria that might have gotten into the mix because of the raspberries or the fact that he'd opened the bottle. He smiled as he upgraded the seal, repressurizing the bottle. "Okay, that should do it."

"Congratulations, Raspberry Apple Cider of Youth has been added to the shop's collection. Please feel free to keep the prototype," a female voice announced.

"How much does it reduce your age?" Rose asked, wondering how much he'd boosted the cider's age reduction quality.

"A year if you're over twenty four," Myst replied as he selected the quality that reduced a person's age and poured his mana into increasing it, pushing it up to twenty years.

Rose shivered as she felt the mana Myst was using pouring into the bottle. "That's a lot of mana."

"Twenty years worth," Myst replied as he used his Upgrade ability to double check to make sure the cider was safe to drink and that he hadn't missed anything.

"Congratulations, Raspberry Apple Cider of Major Youth has been added to the shop's collection as a rare item. Please feel free to keep the prototype," a female voice announced.

"Don't mind if I do," Myst replied absently as he twisted the cap off, causing it to pop.

"If you have the extra mana, can you fix my vision?" Rose asked, knowing that while it was just a bit of farsightedness she didn’t want to deal with glasses like Harry had to.

"Sure, give me a minute." Myst took a drink and savored the taste for a couple of seconds then worked on drinking the rest of it.

"You looked better with the gray," Rose teased as she watched the touches of gray fade from Myst's temples and beard as the cider worked its magic, restoring his youth.

Myst finished drinking the bottle of cider and set the empty bottle on the table so he could use it to make another drink. "I'll take my chances," he replied as he double checked his health and the entry for his physical age, relieved but not surprised that the cider hadn't caused any trouble.

"This is going to make it a lot harder to get away with calling you Daddy in public without causing people to look at us weird," Rose mused, trying and failing to keep a straight face.

Myst shook his head. "That sounds like a good way to get in trouble."

"Promise?" Rose asked with a smirk then started snickering when he rubbed his face in frustration. "Don't worry, you were always Myst or Dad, never Daddy. I might be a kinky nudist but that's not one of my kinks."

"Good," Myst replied, not sure what else to say as she had memories of eight years being raised by him from the CYOA book that he didn’t. "Speaking of naughty witches, how many spells were you able to get working?" he asked as he used his Upgrade ability to check her vision, trying to change the subject.

"I haven't had the chance to go outside and really test things, but I could jump up and touch the vaulted ceiling in the greenhouse and I can summon my void blade. I can't sense arousal anymore, but that was probably tied to the pit of lust rather than my magic. Considering the emotional feedback I had to deal with, I'm glad it's gone."

"Makes sense," Myst agreed, thinking about some of the darker Mentalism spells that caused feedback loops based on the emotion that you were feeding off of, that he'd intentionally avoided learning during his studies.

"I'll probably have to work on some of my emotionally charged spells but everything else should be fine."

"If not, we'll find replacements," Myst assured her, glad that things hadn't gone completely sideways. "Do you think we should tell Harry he can't use the book?" he asked, worried about the danger since her trip had revealed it wasn’t nearly as safe as he’d thought it was.

"I'd like to, he's my twin and he's five but it's weird, I want my brother back and in my memories he’s older and maybe a tad wiser, more adventurous anyway," Rose complained. "Did you have any luck with Harry's defensive items?" she asked, hoping that he'd made enough progress that she could justify sending him into the book to catch up to her.

"I upgraded the protection bracelet to the point where he'd be able to ignore getting hit by an out of control semi truck while we were eating and his ring should keep him safe from most supernatural poisons and diseases that weren't created by a god of plagues."

Rose nodded. "Let's hope he has a nice boring adventure."

"Would be nice," Myst replied, not actually expecting Harry to have a nice boring adventure. "Do you want your vision to be twenty twenty or do you want to be able to see like a hawk?"

Rose shook her head. "Let's go with 20/10, it's rare but not unheard of and shouldn't cause a bunch of scientists to try to cut my eyes out to figure out how to duplicate it."

"You've watched way too many episodes of the Twilight Zone," Myst complained as he spent the mana required to boost her vision up to 20/10.

Rose blinked a couple of times when everything went fuzzy then relaxed when the enchantment on her sunglasses caught up and stopped trying to correct her vision. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," Myst assured her. "Did you need anything else upgraded?"

"Durability," Rose replied without hesitation, thinking of the various times she'd gotten hit by monsters. "I can tank a hit that will crack concrete thanks to my power blunting blunt force damage, but a mugger with a knife could still do me some serious harm."

"Yeah, let's fix that," Myst replied as he spent most of the mana in his pool to upgrade her durability, pushing it up to the point where you'd need artillery to seriously hurt her if you didn't have an enchanted weapon. "You'll want to avoid getting stabbed with enchanted weapons or shot with a fifty caliber but you shouldn't have to worry about random thugs anymore."

"Cool, now I just need to find an indestructible paddle and someone with supernatural strength to test my durability," Rose teased, trying to make him squirm a little as she recalled how much the version of him in the book did when she teased him the same way as she grew up.

Myst shook his head and tried not to show any discomfort from her clumsy attempts at flirting. "Not my monkey, not my kink but if you find a paddle, I'll make it indestructible for you."

Rose laughed as she turned her attention to the various games scattered around the workbench. "So, what else are you working on?" she asked, wanting something to focus on since she didn't want to go back to sleep until the memory of the nightmare had faded.

"I'm trying to figure out the best way to modify some of the video games so I can keep one without having to wait a couple of months for it to restock," Myst explained.

"Tweaking the map files should be enough but we'd need a computer unless you want to try upgrading the maps or the graphics quality with your Upgrade ability," Rose suggested.

"Worth a shot," Myst replied as he picked up one of the handheld games and looked at it with his Upgrade ability, trying to figure out where to start, as accidentally upgrading any of the physical qualities of the disk while trying to alter the game itself would likely be wasted effort.

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'Better to ask forgiveness,' Harry thought as he quietly snuck down the stairs and headed over to the table where Rose had left the adventure book, unhappy with the idea of his twin leaving him behind by… growing up. He set his snow globe on the table then climbed up on the chair so that he could reach the book, knowing that it was the key to catching up. He opened the book and stared at the options, doing his best to figure out what the words meant and trying to sound the words out in his head since he didn't want to say anything out loud. 'Lair of the Goblin Queen, Godric's Hollow(Dungeon Town), High School(Demon Girl Edition) or Midnight Hero(Tokyo City)?'

'I don't need high school, I need middle school,' Harry complained as he tried to figure out which option was the best one, half tempted to just close the book and wait for Myst and his sister, but worried Myst wouldn’t let him use it, as despite how calm he’d appeared he’d clearly been concerned at several points during Rose's adventure. 'I don't need to fight goblins and being a hero sounds dangerous.'

He picked up the snow globe and shouted, "Godric's Hollow!", wanting to make sure Myst and Rose heard him so that they wouldn't worry or think he was sulking. He blinked a couple of times as he found himself waking up in his bedroom in Godric's Hollow with a head filled with memories.

"Bloody hell!" Harry complained as he tried to shake the 'feeling' that his entire life was fictional and that he was actually a four year old that was crazy enough to use a magic book to 'catch up' with his twin.

"What's up?" Rose asked from the door.

"Weird dream," Harry replied as he got out of bed and grabbed his shorts, freezing when he noticed he was wearing the protection bracelet that Myst had given him in the 'dream', a bracelet that he absolutely hadn't seen before he woke up with memories about a magic shop. "Shite!"

"What's up?" Rose repeated, wondering if she needed to call her mom.

"I had a weird dream about growing up in a magical shop and used a magic book to explore a different life," Harry explained as he pulled his shorts on, not seeing a point in sitting around in his underwear when he wanted to get out and run a dungeon.

"You should write it down," Rose suggested. "I'd trade you, I was dreaming about dancing trolls."

Harry looked up at his naked sister, wondering what it said about his subconscious that she was bustier in his dream, then again she was only fourteen almost fifteen, not sixteen like in the dream. "Do you recognize the bracelet?" he asked as he held his wrist up, wondering if his father was playing a prank or if he'd gotten cursed.

"Let me see," Rose said as she walked over and grabbed his arm so that she could get a better look at the rune covered copper bracelet that her brother was wearing. "Where did you get this bracelet?"

"From a guy in a dream or at least I thought it was a dream," Harry replied, not quite sure what to think.

"Mum!" Rose shouted as she jumped back a couple of steps, knowing better than to take chances with random magical items.

"What?" Lily asked as she quickly rushed in the direction of her daughter's uncharacteristic shout.

"Harry is wearing a weird rune covered bracelet!" Rose shouted, wanting to make sure her mother understood there was a problem in case Harry had picked up a curse.

"I'm not contagious," Harry complained. "It's probably just Dad playing a prank."

"Mum would hex his bits off," Rose argued, knowing that no one was allowed to stick prank items on people anymore when they were sleeping, not since the Christmas prank war of eighty seven.

"Damned straight," Lily agreed as she walked into the room with her wand in her hand, having already checked the doorway for hexes. She waved her wand around the room, checking for curses then waved her wand over the bracelet. "Huh, I don't think it's a prank."

"Why not?" Rose asked.

"Because that bracelet probably costs more than this cabin," Lily admitted, knowing that James would have talked to her before spending a small fortune on defensive gear for one of the kids, especially since they already had remarkably solid gear.

"What?" Harry asked in surprise.

"It's nearly relic grade, you could probably survive getting hit by a rampaging dragon," Lily replied then frowned when she realized what she'd just said. "Don't try it."

"I wasn't going to try it, I'm not crazy," Harry complained, not sure why his mother always thought he was trying to get into trouble, it wasn't his fault that trouble seemed to find him no matter how much he tried to avoid it.

"Maddy Dragonheart," Rose teased.

"What about her?" Harry asked, trying not to blush as he thought about his rather attractive literature teacher.

"You spent most of last summer slaughtering goblins in a pathetic attempt to get a crystal unicorn to drop so that she'd flash you," Rose teased.

Lily laughed. "I've met Maddy, I can't really blame him."

"Stupid drop rates," Harry complained.

Rose snickered. "Which is why you're crazy."

"I'm not crazy, the goblin sorcerers have a chance to drop rare books and even the common books sell for a decent amount of silver," Harry argued, not willing to admit that getting to see his teacher naked had been a large part of his 'obsession' with farming the annoying bastards or that one of the smoking hot librarians was perfectly willing to have sex with him every time he brought her a copy of a book the library didn't have.

Rose shook her head. "Less than one percent for the rare books, no clue on the unicorn."

"One in two hundred and fifty, give or take," Lily offered, having looked it up when Harry started spending all of his free time killing goblins last summer. "It's a bit hard to judge considering the people that walk into the dungeon using luck potions."

"I wasn't expecting to find the unicorn, I was just farming books and trying to save up for a computer since someone won't let me take a portkey to America for a weekend to farm some dungeons there," Harry complained, still a touch annoyed that his parents had vetoed his idea to use luck potions to make raiding easier and more profitable because they didn’t want him to develop bad habits.

"You have to be sixteen to enter all of the dungeons in America and they have ghouls and super mutants running around, not to mention insane cannibals," Lily argued.

"I can shape shift and it's not hard to bribe one of the guards," Harry suggested which caused Lily to glare at him.

"You're not going until after you graduate high school and start the dungeon classes at Hogwarts," Lily told him.

"How come we have to be sixteen before we start Hogwarts? You and Dad got to start when you were eleven," Harry complained.

"Hogwarts didn't have dungeons when we went to school, I mean, it had a couple of dungeons but they weren't the sort with monsters," Lily told him.

"You could always ask Sirius to take a trip and grab a computer," Rose suggested.

Harry shook his head. "The last time I did that, he grabbed an Apple, it can't even run Doom!"

"I hate the Oregon trail, it cheats," Rose complained. “If you believed that lying game no one survived the old west because they didn’t wipe enough!”

"Can I keep the bracelet?" he asked, fairly sure he should have just kept his mouth shut about the bracelet and told them that it was a rare drop from a temporary dungeon or that one of the adventurers had sold it without realizing what it was.

"That depends, can you take it off?" Lily asked, hoping that it wasn't cursed.

"Sure," Harry replied as he took the bracelet off.

Lily flicked her wand at the bracelet and levitated it out of his hand. "Before I run a bunch of tests and take it to the item shop to have a professional check it, where exactly did you get the bracelet?"

"From a shopkeeper in a dream," Harry admitted.

Lily glanced at Rose to make sure this wasn’t one of her pranks then focused on her son, glad that he didn't have his father's sense of humor. "Explain."

"When I woke up, I had memories of living in a magic shop with Rose because their parents died when Voldemort showed up. The shopkeeper has a magic book that sends people on adventures and the other Harry picked Godric's Hollow. The shopkeeper gave him the protection bracelet and I woke up with it," Harry explained.

Lily floated the bracelet over to the desk then cast a couple of spells to check Harry's head for memory charms and curses. She relaxed a touch when she didn't find any evidence that someone had tampered with his memories. "On the off chance that this is actually a prank, if you admit it right now, I won't ground you until you graduate."

"I'm not playing a prank," Harry assured them. "I'm not Dad."

"I had to check," Lily replied as she glanced around Harry's room, looking at the weird items that he'd recovered from the various dungeons he'd explored over the last couple of years. "Did the shopkeeper give you anything else in your dream?" she asked suspiciously.

"No but he had a snowglobe when he used the book…" Harry trailed off when Rose pulled the covers of his bed back and he saw a 'familiar' snow globe with a castle in it laying on the bed.

"What does it do?" Lily asked, making a mental note to hex James and or Sirius if she found out they were responsible for whatever this was.

"If it's the snow globe from my dream, it stores memories," Harry offered, not sure how to feel about his life being a lie since he had too many of the other Harry's memories for everything to be a dream and they weren't fading.

Lily rubbed the bridge of her nose with her free hand. "Okay, don't touch the snowglobe. I'm going to grab my enchanting glasses and take a look, then I'm going to call your father and make sure he hasn't lost his mind and that this isn't one of his pranks," she told Harry then looked at Rose. "If he moves, stun him."

"What?!" Harry blurted out.

"You might have been cursed or you might be under polyjuice," Lily told him with a smirk then floated the bracelet into the air and left with the possibly cursed magical item floating in front of her, figuring a couple of minutes of sitting at wand point would make up for the fact that he'd scared the hell out of her with an animated sock monster last week.

"This isn't how I wanted to start my summer break," Harry complained.

"It could be worse," Rose replied with amusement, more relaxed now that she knew her mother was on the 'case'. "How much do you remember of the other Harry's life?"

"He spent the last three years in a magical shop with his sister and a grumpy shopkeeper jumping between worlds and selling magical trinkets," Harry replied with a shrug.

Rose shook her head. "I'm not sure a relic class bracelet counts as a trinket."

"That was the new shopkeeper, he took over for the cranky old coot," Harry admitted.

"What's he like?" Rose asked.

"I don't know," Harry admitted. "The other Harry only knew him for a day before he snuck down the stairs and used a magical book to have an adventure."

"Not real bright, was he?" Rose teased.

"He was four," Harry complained. "I seem to recall you trying to animate a doll army to take over the world when you were six, cut me-him some slack."

"That's fair," Rose admitted. "What happened to Mum and Dad in the dream?"

Harry scowled as he thought about the last time the other Harry had asked the old shopkeeper about his parents. "Voldemort killed them on Halloween after Peter betrayed them. We ended up with the Dursleys for a couple of weeks before they sold us to the previous shopkeeper."

"He must have found the claymore roombas on the porch," Rose mused, thinking about the story her mother had told her about the night Voldemort died.

"Or they didn't set them up," Harry suggested.

"There's always a chance," Rose admitted, not sure why they wouldn't have set a trap for the dark wizard that was trying to kill them. "What were the dungeons like?"

"No clue," he admitted. "The shop bounced between worlds and the old shopkeeper didn't like explaining shit or letting us run around outside, which is probably fair considering we were kids."

"What was the other me like?" Rose asked, figuring it would be easier to keep Harry in one spot if she kept him talking and genuinely curious.

"She liked reading and hated clothes," Harry replied with a smile, glad that some things were the same. "She used the magic book to become a teenage rock star and magic girl like the girls from the old animes."

"Weird, you'd think she'd go for being a Delver or a monster trainer," Rose mused.

Harry shrugged. "None of the worlds they’d jumped to had dungeons, at least not like the ones here."

"Makes sense," Rose agreed. "It's not like anyone knows why dungeons started popping up in eighty three. What type of magic shop?"

"It was a weird collection of video games, furniture, rare books, plants and magic cards that taught people spells," Harry explained.

"Sounds like a weird dream," Rose told him, wondering if their father had slipped him something or if Sirius had set something up. Giving him a relic level item as part of a prank might make sense if it was also a gift or inheritance, and their birthday was coming up. ‘They better have one hell of a gift for me to match it!’

"Yep," Harry agreed, hoping his mother could figure out what was going on.

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