Harry Potter and the Magic of Books (Patreon)

An: Most of this story will be posted for donors but here's a taste.

Harry Potter blamed puberty and the cute substitute teacher for the fat whale like creature that was chasing him. The well developed substitute had called on Harry and he’d answered a question correctly without really thinking about the consequences, hypnotized by how tightly her sweater was stretched across her chest. That might have passed unnoticed, but she’d called on Dudley next and he hadn’t been able to answer a simple question which had of course caused him to blame Harry, for some reason only understood by the fat idiot. Things had spiraled from there into another round of Harry hunting after school, only this time Dudley wasn’t giving up.

Harry had already ran seven blocks and Dudley wasn’t slowing down, though to be fair Dudley had punched some kid in the gut and stolen his scooter halfway through the chase, which gave him just enough of an edge to keep up. He gulped as he saw several of Dudley’s friends/minions trying to ride him down on their bikes. He turned and looked up at the window of the library which was his favorite hiding place. He wasn’t going to make it this time. The tension seemed to build until the whole world blinked and he found himself in his normal seat in the library. “What the heck?” He turned his head when he heard a crash and screams of pain from outside.

Harry stood up and peeked out the window where  two of Dudley’s minion had smashed into each other on their bikes. Another minion was looking around trying to find something. Harry ducked down on the off chance that they looked up and saw him in the window. ‘How the hell did that happen? I was about to be clobbered and then I appeared here.’

He took a deep breath then let it out as he tried to calm down. ‘I’m so dead when Dudley gets home. Maybe he’ll calm down, eventually.’ Harry glanced down and blinked when he noticed a glowing book sitting on the end table. “That’s neat, first time I’ve seen a book made out of glow in the dark material.” He picked up the book and looked at the title. “Libromancy For Dummies. What the heck is Libromancy?” He opened the book to see if he could figure out what what the book was about then twitched as the words on the page seemed to ignite with purple fire. He stumbled back and dropped the book on the end table. “What the hell was that?”

Now a more intelligent or at least less curious kid would have ran like hell to get an adult, but Harry was a curious kid, so he peeked at the pages of the strange book. He found himself spellbound as the words on the page flew into his eyes and seemed to burn their way into his brain. Had he been able to he would have screamed, he would have thrashed, and he would have cursed as the magical book worked to awaken magical talents never before seen in this world. As it was, he could do none of those things as the book gave up its knowledge before bursting into flames and turning to ash.

Harry lurched as he found himself once again in control of his body. “Brain freeze.” He rubbed his temples to try to get his head to stop hurting. He blinked as he realized that the book was magic and that he suddenly knew what Libromancy was or at least the basics. It was the art of connecting to the world of books. “Bloody hell.”

Harry’s eyes widened as he realized that he’d never have to fear the Dursleys again if he could make his new talent work. “That’s assuming I’m not lying in a pool of blood in the street or something imagining all this.” After a couple of moments of thought he decided that he didn’t care, because if it was a dream then it was a damned good one. ‘Okay, overuse of a book can char it which means that the book will be locked forever. That means I should practice with something that I don’t care if I lose access to.’

He looked around, but no one else seemed to have heard or noticed what had occurred. Harry glanced at the pile of dust on the end table that was evaporating as he watched. “I’m not sure where the book came from but I’m glad I found it.” He quietly headed toward the section in the library devoted to cooking and selected one of his favorite books on finger foods, like the ones his aunt would make for her little tea parties but he wasn’t allowed to touch.

He checked to make sure that no one was looking then opened the book. “Okay, let’s see, focus and…” Harry reached out and stuck his hand in the book. His eyes opened wide as he realized that his new magic trick actually worked. “Yes!” Harry immediately ducked and ran for it once he realized that he’d just shouted in the library. Thankfully the librarian was an older lady and contented herself with shouting, “Quiet!”

Harry pulled a delicious looking tuna fish sandwich out of the book. He sniffed the sandwich then cautiously took a bite and realized that it was the best sandwich he’d ever had. ‘Okay, this is going to be great.’ He quickly finished the sandwich then leaned up against the stack as he tried to figure out what to do next as he really didn’t want to go back to the Dursleys. ‘Okay, I can probably eat for a couple of days off this book, maybe a week or two before it chars. I need a better solution.’

He rubbed his mouth to get any crumbs off then headed toward the section of the library that held children’s tales. He remembered a book from a couple of months ago that should help, if he could actually pull magical items out of the books like he could food then he wouldn’t need to char the cooking book or go hungry.

A little searching and he found the book he was looking for, it was a story about a Russian family with a magical tablecloth that created food when you said, ‘I’m hungry’ and spread it on the ground. It wasn’t much as far as magical items go, but it was the only magical item in the story and there wasn’t anything else interesting in the story so it would be a good test.

He opened the book and flipped to a page with a picture of the magical tablecloth.  Okay, let’s see if this works.’ He reached into the book and pulled a copy of the magical tablecloth out of the book. He frowned slightly as the book looked a bit more worn than he remembered. He blinked as the book alternated between looking normal and looking worn, like a flickering image on one of the old school projectors. ‘Okay, that’s strange.’

Harry put the book back on the shelf then looked at the tablecloth. ‘Okay,

what else do I need?’ He spent the next ten minutes looking through the books in the children’s section for interesting things to acquire. He smiled as he saw The Little Boy Thumb. He remembered the story from school mostly because Dudley had thrown a fit about the magic in it. “I could use new shoes.” He opened the book and searched through it until he found the page with a picture of the giant’s magical boots. “I don’t think I can fit the boots through the book.” He flipped to the next page where the black boots had shrunk down to fit the little boy. “That’s better.”

Harry reached into the book and pulled the pair of leather boots out of the book. “Seven league boots, at least I’ll be able to outrun Dudley even if he steals another bike.” He frowned slightly as the book alternated between showing the boy with boots and showing him without them. ‘I should start a list of what books I’m pulling things out of.’

He smiled when he took off his ratty and taped trainers and slipped on the oh so comfortable magical boots. ‘I could get used to this. Okay, I need something that will keep me hidden and safe from everyone.’ He started reading the summaries on the back of the books and flipping through them as needed.

Harry was startled out of his searching by the librarian shouting that the library would be closing in ten minutes. He glanced down at his pile of books. ‘Hercules and the Nemean Lion, Billy’s Magical Bag, Sally’s Magical Wallet and Aladdin's Ring of Thievery.’

They were all children’s books and rather silly, but they had very useful magical items. Mostly he didn’t want to risk charring anything important before he mastered his new skill, which meant that he wanted to stay away from any of the more important and famous stories until he had a lot more practice pulling things out of books.

The Hercules book was a modern take on a child version of Hercules, the character reminded Harry a lot of Dudley, always going around and beating people up. He’d managed to kill the Nemean Lion that was guarding a temple so that he could steal ambrosa. Of course in the end the main character had ‘reformed’ and given up his magical coat of awesome so that some old man named Zeus could bring the lion back to life to continue guarding the temple. While he’d felt sorry for the cat, he couldn’t really picture Dudley ever growing out of being a bully or giving up a powerful magical item, so he suspected that the main character becoming a better person was crap as well.

Then again, that part didn’t really matter as all he needed was the coat. Harry reached into the book and pulled  out a copy of the magical coat. The arms of the leather coat had barely exited the book when the book caught fire. Harry dropped the book and jumped back then blinked when the book fell to the ground no longer on fire. He blinked again and the book was a charred mess on the ground. He focused on the book and watched in fascination as it flipped back and forth from looking like it had been pulled from a fireplace and an old dusty book.

He shook his head as he realized that he was wasting time. He looked over the coat then slipped it on. “That’s actually comfortable.” He turned his attention to the next book in his stack. ‘Billy was an idiot, but his backpack was awesome.’ Harry reached into the book and pulled out Billy’s dark blue backpack. He wasn’t sure why the main character had a magical backpack but the why didn’t really matter.

He smiled as he realized that the book wasn’t completely charred yet. ‘I might as well grab some school supplies while I’m at it.’ He reached into the book and started grabbing notebooks, scissors, pens and pencils until the book finally gave out. He set the charred book on the floor next to the other charred book.

He reached into the next book and pulled out Sally’s black leather wallet. Sure, Sally had eventually figured out that the money came from her saving account after going on a spending spree, but it was still a neat magical wallet that provided semi real ‘fake’ identification on command.

“Five minutes!” shouted the librarian.

Harry picked up the last book and reached inside of it. He pulled out the Ring of Thievery and slipped it on. He smirked as he looked down at his transparent arm. ‘I’m going to have so much fun with this.’ He used one of the notebooks to write down a list of the books he’d pulled things out of then put the books back on the shelf.

'Okay, if I’m careful, I should be able to stay here all night.’ He carefully put his magic tablecloth and the rest of his supplies in his backpack then slipped it on over his coat. ‘Okay, I need pants that fit and magic to fix my eyes, because these glasses are annoying.’ He wasn’t sure exactly what could fix his eyes, but since there were tablecloths that created food and rings that made you invisible there was probably something that could do it. He avoided a couple of people as they headed for the front desk and he headed up the stairs toward his favorite out of the way spot.

He sat down on the chair in ‘his’ corner and thought about what else he needed to grab before he left for his adventure. ‘I have armor but I don’t have a weapon. Even if I had a weapon, I can’t see anyone letting me wander around with it. Maybe I can find a magical weapon I can hide.’ He closed his eyes and drifted as he waited for

the library to close and for the librarian to go home.

~~

Harry almost screamed as he woke up and realized that everything looked strange and shadowy where the light from the window wasn’t hitting it until he remembered that his ring of thievery gave him sight in darkness. “Okay, that’s neat.” He grinned as he carefully and quietly headed down to the main floor to check on the librarian. ‘Okay, it looks like I’m in the clear.’ He resisted the urge to laugh as he looked around the empty library and realized that there was no reason to ever go back to the Dursleys since he could pull what he needed out of books.

Harry headed for the young adult books and started looking at the various book summaries. It didn’t take him all that long to find something interesting. “Indian In The Cupboard.” He smiled brightly as he opened the book, reached into it and pulled out a copy of the magic key, watching as the book seemed to age and grow brittle, but didn’t quite char. “Let’s hope this works.” He carefully put the key in his pocket and put the book back on the shelf. He turned and ran toward the magazine rack only to crash into the rack when everything sort of blurred and he found himself moving a lot faster than he was used to.

Harry sighed as he looked at the mess he’d made and at the scattered magazines and then down at his oh so comfortable magical boots. “That’s going to take some practice.” He glanced down at one of the magazines that had fallen on the ground and saw a female figurine that was wearing a translucent witch’s robe. “Okay, not exactly what I was looking for but at least she’s a witch, maybe she can teach me magic.” He reached into the magazine and pulled the foot tall doll out of the magazine. “Huh, that’s larger than I thought.”

He closed the magazine so that he could see the cover. “Girls of Fantasy Art Models and Accessories.” He opened the magazine and flipped through until he found a potions lab model that reminded him of old monster movies he’d see on television at Mrs. Figgs. He pulled it out of the magazine and set it on the floor next to the action figure. “Let’s see, you obviously need a toy broom.”

He pulled a stylish looking toy broom out of the magazine and set it next to the lab and girl. “Let’s see, what else. Oh, a library.” He pulled the library/desk out of the magazine even though he had to sort of tilt it a bit to get it completely out of the magazine.

“Let’s see, oh scrying.” He pulled the authentic crystal ball and stand out of the magazine rather than the plastic version considering he didn’t have to pay for it. He flipped the next page and saw a bunch of pictures of swords. He reached in and pulled out a model that had little plastic flames coming off the sword. He put the sword in the action figure’s hand. “Okay, that should be good enough for a

test.”

Sadly, five minutes of looking proved that there wasn’t anything he could use to bring the models to life in the backroom. “Crap.” He walked back over to the mess that was the magazine rack and stood it back up with a heave. He smiled as he started looking through magazines as he worked on putting them back on the rack. He stopped as he saw a clothing catalogue. “Okay, I’m tired of wearing Dudley’s castoffs.” He reached in and pulled out a black shirt and a pair of black pants that should fit and didn’t clash horribly with his boots. He stuffed them in his backpack then put the magazine on the rack and continued restocking the rack.

~~

“One non magical sword, belt and sheath from a weapon’s catalog, one overly expensive survival watch, some camping gear and a sleeping bag from a sports magazine and I should be set. Now if I can just figure out how to get out of here without being seen.” Harry headed to the second floor and opened the window after checking to make sure that no one was around. He climbed out the window then shut it without latching it just in case he needed to get back in.

Harry crawled over to the edge of the roof then climbed down a drain pipe as carefully as he could. He blinked as he looked up at the pipe that he’d climbed down then down at his ring. ‘There is no way that should have been that easy.’ Harry pulled out his magical wallet and checked to see if it had any cash in it and realized that it actually had five twenty pound notes in it. ‘Huh, it must have come with some money. That helps.”

Harry started running toward the furniture store. He had to grin as he dodged people on the path and outpaced the cars on the street. ‘I could get used to this.” He smirked as he saw a slightly open second story window that the shopkeeper had forgotten about in the hot weather. He smirked slightly as he climbed up the drainpipe and carefully walked across the roof to let himself into the storeroom. There wasn’t much to steal, not that he would have, but most of the stuff was boxed up and looked heavy. Thankfully finding an empty cedar chest the right size was rather easy. He carefully opened the chest and transferred his action figure and her stuff to it, He closed the chest, pulled his hopefully magical key out of his pocket

and placed it in the lock. He closed his eyes and gave the key a turn.

A soft voice called out, “Hey, who turned off the lights?”

Harry unlocked the chest and opened it with a grin as he saw her. He whispered, “Hi.”

The foot tall purple haired witch inside the chest grabbed her broom, tossed her leg over it, causing her skirt to fly up and revealing a distinct lack of undergarments to Harry’s gaze for a moment before she flew up so that she could look Harry in the face. “You’re a giant.”

“I’m Harry, Harry Potter,” he said distractedly as she wiggled on her broom and Harry’s brain started several lines of thought on what being her broom might feel like.

“I’m Sarah,” she introduced herself as she looked up at him.

He whispered, “Pleased to meet you.” The robe wasn’t as translucent in the dark as it had been in the pictures, but he really liked the way it clung to her figure.

“Why are we whispering?”

“Because we’re sneaking… wait you can see me?” Harry asked curiously, feeling a bit guilty at getting caught staring at her bits.

“Ah, well yeah, I can see invisible creatures. I’m a blade master, a nymph, and a witch. If I couldn’t see invisible creatures, I wouldn’t be very good at my job, species, or religion, now would I?”

“I guess not.”

Sarah turned and looked down at the potions lab, library and the crystal ball. “Let’s see, I don’t need these right now.” She gestured and banished her library, lab and crystal ball back to her pocket dimension. “So, you must be my new student.”

Harry blinked as the structures vanished. “Wait, new student?”

“Yep,” she agreed with a nod and a bounce that was quite distracting.

“I’d like to learn magic,” Harry said eagerly,

“Excellent, ah where are we?” She spun around or her broom.

“In a storage room in Surrey, England,” Harry replied.

“In that case, we should probably get out of here before you get caught, I can hear someone coming up the stairs.”

Harry carefully closed the lid of the chest, pocketed his key then headed back toward the widow. “What about you?”

“I don’t suppose seeing tiny flying people is normal around here?”

“Not at all.”

“In that case we’d better hurry. My notice-me-not charms don’t last all day,” Sarah said as she cast a notice-me-not charm on herself so that everyone other than Harry would ignore her.

Harry headed out of the window trying not to make noise, but wanting to get out of the room before whoever was coming up the stairs noticed the fact  that he’d opened the window all the way. Thankfully it only took a couple of seconds to get outside and partially close the window before he made his way back to the ground.

Sarah giggled as she flew down with her broom. “Remind me to teach you how to summon a broom later.”

Harry glanced around to make sure that no one was all that close before whispering. “Sure.”

“So where are we going next?”

“There’s a used bookstore that I want to hit.”

“Why?” she asked, deciding he must want to be an apprentice thief in addition to an apprentice mage.

“I can pull things out of books.”

Sarah stared at Harry. “Holy shit, you won the lottery for magical talents. Let’s go.”

Harry grinned as he led the way toward the used bookstore.