Harry Potter and the Twisted Game Part 3 (Patreon)

Xander looked up when he saw a shadow on his cards and smiled at Dawn and Hermione. "Are you ready to watch Kenny die?"

"You're not going to…" Kenny trailed off as Xander tapped his mana battery card with his finger then dropped an elder warlock card on the table. "That is blatantly unfair, you know that right?"

"You're the one that let me get enough mana," Xander replied as a hologram of the warlock appeared over the card and tossed lightning across the table into Kenny's army, causing all of his holographic troops to vanish.

'That's a lot better than gobstones or chess,' Harry thought, wondering if he could figure out how to duplicate the cards so he could bring them back, assuming he could even get home.

"That's just…" Kenny trailed off as Xander tapped his witch with his finger so she'd pay the mana cost and played a spell card to double his warlock's damage just to add insult to injury. "There's brutal and then there's that."

"I didn't want you to think that I wasn't giving it my best effort," Xander replied with a grin, wanting to make sure Kenny didn't pull something out of his hat to save his army.

Kenny shook his head. "The sad part is, I know better and still almost believe you. How the hell do you do that?"

Dawn laughed. "With style."

Kenny gave Dawn a look. "I meant sounding sincere when he's anything but."

"I'm perfectly sincere," Xander replied. "You're the one that wanted to play my best deck."

"Yeah, I learned my lesson there," Kenny replied sarcastically. "I didn't think you had multiple copies of some of those cards."

"I've invested a fair amount of time and effort into the game," Xander replied, not seeing a reason to mention the warlock in question liked showing up to the family's barbeques and knew how to hide his name when he made the cards.

Dawn glanced at the ante pile where she could see her friend's other warlock card covering another card. "Did you win anything good?"

Kenny glared at Dawn then slid both of the ante cards across the table. "My best card."

"Fair is fair. I wagered a copy of the dark warlock," Xander replied with a grin as he showed Dawn his new enchantress card.

"I didn't know he had multiple warlocks," Kenny grumbled.

"Live and learn," Xander replied as he started collecting his cards.

Kenny scowled at Xander. "I learned that you're a card shark."

"Just now?" Willow asked as she walked over, holding a small stack of cards.

Dawn shook her head. "You're known him for years and you're just figuring this out?"

"Usually, he doesn't shark us," Kenny complained.

"You're the one that wanted to play my best deck," Xander replied with a shrug, not feeling particularly guilty when Kenny would have gleefully collected his warlock card if he'd won.

"Fine, I'm going to go cry a river of tears," Kenny muttered as he started collecting his cards.

"Do it outside, no point getting tears on the cards," Dawn suggested as she pointed towards the door, causing Hermione to stare at her twin.

A fat teenager at the next table asked, "Is it that time of the month?"

"Does anyone want to take the idiot outside and beat the shit out of him?" Dawn asked as she pulled a sorcerer card out of her deck and held it up.

"Shit, I was just joking," the teen replied before turning around and playing a card, remembering why he kept his mouth shut around her.

Willow plucked the card out of Dawn's hand. "Nice fire elementalist, you're probably overpaying."

Hermione glanced between Dawn and Willow. "Isn't that a bit harsh?"

Dawn shook her head. "Not really, he's just trying to get Xander to give his card back."

"Was it that obvious?" Kenny asked Xander.

"Just a bit," Xander replied as he finished putting his cards away.

"You like to play poker, right?" Dawn asked Kenny with a grin as she collected her sorcerer from Willow and stuck it back in her deck.

Kenny gave Dawn a look. "Not with you. I might be a bit gullible but I'm not stupid."

"You can't blame a girl for trying, can you?" Dawn asked 'innocently'.

Kenny flipped Dawn off then looked at Taylor. "I don't suppose you play Avatar?"

"Doesn't everyone?" Taylor asked with a shrug, trying to imply that she wasn't a card shark without lying.

Kenny glanced between Harry and Taylor then shook his head. "On second thought, never mind, you obviously know Harry."

"If it makes you feel better, I don't have any dark warlocks in my deck," Taylor offered, looking forward to picking up some new cards.

Kenny frowned when he noticed the slight twist of her mouth. "Yeah no, find some other sucker."

"I'll beat your ass black and blue any day you want," the fat teen offered Taylor.

Hermione stared at the fat teen, trying to figure out if he'd actually said what she thought he'd said.

Dawn snorted. "You couldn't beat a dead hooker black and blue and that's about the only person that would touch you."

The fat kid smirked. "Nothing wrong with fucking a zombie."

Dawn shook her head. "You're seriously fucked up."

"It's a talent," he replied with a smirk.

"Let's go," Xander suggested as he stuck his cards into his inventory and stood up.

Dawn glanced over at where Lily and Annette were watching them from near the entrance while talking with the owner. "Probably a good idea."

"Is he a necromancer or just fucked in the head?" Taylor asked as they headed towards the front of the shop.

"Yes," Xander replied. "Don't worry about it, he sort of grows on you."

"Like warts or mold," Dawn added. "This is Xander and Willow in case you didn't recognize them from the photos."

"I figured but it's nice to have confirmation," Taylor replied as they threaded their way around the tables.

0o0o0

Annette relaxed when she stepped through the mist-covered gate and the noise of the city vanished along with the feeling of being watched. "I'm surprised you haven't snapped and started blasting the idiots."

"You get used to it," Lily replied as she turned to look at Harry. "Now that we're actually behind wards, how did you end up with a nine in enchanting?"

"No clue," Harry admitted as he focused on his inventory ability, trying to open it and wishing he hadn't closed it after stealing the bracelet.

"Can you make me a card?" Willow asked hopefully.

"It was probably just a glitch." Harry grinned when he managed to open his inventory and he saw the icons in the first row. 'Twenty seven silver, my father's invisibility cloak, an old leather bound book, half a dozen pens, notebooks, five boxes of cards, several pairs of signed underwear, what the hell?'

"Let me guess, your stealth skill was just a glitch as well?" Lily asked, wondering if he'd borrowed his father's cloak.

"No that actually makes sense," Harry replied absently as he checked everything with his inspection ability, trying to figure out what was giving him a boost to a skill he didn't have. 'Concealed magic. Teaches Quality Reassignment, the ability to move magical qualities between items.' He pulled the leather bound book out of his inventory and opened it before anyone could stop him.

Lily frowned as she felt the book's magic wash over her son. "Are you trying to get grounded?"

"No, I checked the book. It just teaches the ability to move qualities between magical items," Harry assured her as he stuck the book back in his inventory.

"Where did you pick up the book?" Lily asked, fairly sure it was safe if he'd actually checked it with his inspection ability, mostly because James had never found anything his family magic couldn't identify.

"Used bookstore," Dawn piped up, thinking about the book on various types of teleportation magic that she'd found in the same stack of unsorted books.

"Someone must have found it in the dungeon or stabbed someone that had it and hocked it without knowing what it was," Lily mused, surprised that they'd found a legendary book in the used bookstore before one of the guilds had snatched it up.

"Does that mean I can use it?" Dawn asked hopefully.

"Not so fast," Lily replied as she turned to look at Annette. "I want a second opinion on the book to make sure it's not cursed."

"Fine," Harry replied as he pulled the book out of his inventory and held it out, trying not to sound like a spoiled child.

"Give me a second…" Annette trailed off as she used her inspection ability on the book and realized that Harry had undersold the usefulness of the book. "Huh."

"Huh?" Lily asked as she turned to look at her friend.

"Congratulations, you found an artifact," Annette replied, not surprised that someone hadn't noticed the book considering the concealed magic trait.

"Congratulations," Xander offered.

"Thanks. How can you tell?" Harry asked as he checked the book, not seeing a tag or anything that identified the book as an artifact.

"Most magical books can only be used once or twice, some of the rarer ones, maybe a handful of times before they lose their magic and fade away or turn into reference manuals, anything that has unlimited uses and a halfway decent skill counts as an artifact even if it doesn't have a tag," Annette explained.

Dawn held her hand out towards Harry. "Can I borrow the book for a second?"

"You should probably ask for something in trade," Lily suggested with a grin.

"Mom!" Dawn complained.

Harry laughed as he handed the book to Dawn. "You owe me a favor."

"Deal." Dawn quickly opened the book and grinned when the book imprinted the skill into her mind. "This should make running the dungeon a lot more profitable."

"Not to mention safer," Lily added as Dawn handed the book to Hermione.

Hermione opened the book and blinked a couple of times as the information was copied into her mind. "We should probably run some tests."

Lily turned her head to look at Annette. "Do you want to get settled and grab some food or do you want to hit the lab?"

"Lab," Annette replied with amusement as she started walking towards the stone building that was tucked against the wall, looking forward to studying the process to see what she could figure out before she talked Lily and Harry into letting her use the book.

Harry glanced at Hermione then followed the rest of the group, fairly sure he wasn't getting his book back without issues until she'd read it or at least looked through it. 'Maybe you'll find something useful and I doubt being a bookworm is out of character. I just wish I knew what I was supposed to act like.'

"I don't suppose you have any stories that my mother didn't share?" Taylor asked Lily as she glanced over the plants in raised beds next to the path leading to the stone building. 'I don't think any of these grow on Earth Bet or if they do, I don't recognize them. Not exactly impossible considering I wasn't into botany but I think I would have noticed glowing lilies.'

"Like the time she had her clothes ripped off by a raid boss?" Lily asked after thinking about it for a few seconds.

"Exactly," Taylor agreed.

"Make sure you include how you distracted her," Annette suggested with a grin.

"Let me guess, you seduced her?" Dawn asked with amusement.

"Not exactly," Lily said as she opened the door to the lab.

"She tossed Remus at the plant woman and looted the chest while she was trying to eat him," Annette explained as she walked into the lab.

Harry nearly ran into the wall in surprise. "You tried to kill Remus?"

Lily laughed. "Of course not, she's leaving out a couple of important details to make it sound a lot worse than it was."

"Such as?" Hermione asked as she followed the rest of them into the lab.

"The fact that he volunteered. Werewolves are immune to her venom and the only reason I tossed him was that he couldn't make the jump to the platform by himself and I'd drank a potion of strength. Besides, Sirius was healing him when he wasn't laughing too hard to see straight."

"Yeah, that sounds like Dad," Willow admitted as she walked over to the table where her father and Remus were working on enchanting compact sized mirrors.

"I had to burn those clothes," Remus complained as he set the mirror case he'd just finished enchanting off to the side.

"I remember that shirt, burning it was a public service," Annette said as she walked over and pulled Remus into a hug. "It's good to see you again."

"Same. I'm sorry to hear about Danny," Remus offered as he returned the hug.

Sirius grinned, wishing he remembered the smiling woman and sort of glad that he hadn't asked Remus for details as it would have quickly become apparent that he was missing a large chunk of memories.

"Thanks," Annette replied as she let him go. "We'll get him back."

"We'll certainly try," Remus assured her, knowing the ritual didn't always work, especially for elves.

"Why was burning it a public service?" Taylor asked as the rest of the group walked over.

"It had a monster attraction flaw," Remus admitted.

"It was also bright yellow and pink," Lily complained as she walked over to their reject chest and started looking for things they could use to test Harry's new skill.

"Nice to see you too," Annette assured Sirius.

"Same," Sirius replied with a smile, looking forward to hearing more stories about their adventures and getting to know her.

"Group project?" Remus asked as he watched Lily pull a collection of junk out of the chest.

"Harry found an artifact book with a skill I've never heard of, we're running some tests," Lily explained as she hauled her collection of rejects over to the nearest table.

"What type of skill?" Sirius asked, figuring that was a fair question.

"I picked up the ability to move magical qualities between different items," Harry replied as he walked over and started scanning the collection of magical items with his inspection ability. 'Boots of uneven jumping, an extra eleven feet with the left foot and two with the right? I'm fairly sure that's useless and painful.'

Remus glanced at Harry for a couple of seconds then looked at Lily for confirmation then looked at Willow when Lily nodded. "We could make a king's ransom if Willow can reverse engineer the altered gear."

"I'm willing to try," Willow replied with a grin.

Harry scanned the other set of boots. "Boots of explosive landing, creates a fireball if you fall or jump more than five feet?"

"They'd be useful except the boots aren't immune to fire which is annoying considering the enchanting schematic requires fireproof boots for the enchantment to take," Lily complained.

Remus pulled a pair of fireproof boots out of his inventory and set them on the table. "See if you can move the quality to the fire lizard boots."

Harry focused on his skill and blinked when a translucent interface appeared in front of him with two boxes and a collection of options. "Nice, it comes with an interface." He grabbed the explosive boots and tossed them in the first window then tossed the fireproof boots in the second. "One property to grab, push the toggle to the edge," he finished the sentence in his head, 'just like one of Dudley's video games that Vernon doesn't know he has.' He adjusted the toggle then tapped the button and watched the progress bar.

"Anything?" Dawn asked.

"Ding," Harry replied when the bar filled up and he heard a soft ding. He glanced at the readout for the fireproof boots then set the boots on the table so everyone else could scan them. "Do you want to see if I can make them boots of explosive landing and jumping?"

"Go for it," Remus replied, knowing he could sell the boots for a decent amount.

"Give me a second," Willow suggested as she picked up the boots and used her reverse engineering ability to conjure a schematic for the boots. She glanced at the schematic then handed it to Remus. "How does that compare with the original?"

Remus looked over the schematic. "More mana and a gemstone, it's actually cheaper just to have Harry move the quality and pay for the leather twice if you're running the dungeon."

"Which means we'd charge like we're using the gemstone, right?" Willow asked, wondering how much money they could make off some of the drakes.

"That's the idea," Remus replied.

Harry set the original explosive boots on the table then picked up both sets of boots of jumping and dropped them in the windows. He adjusted the toggles and swapped the jump values then adjusted the toggle so that he was only transferring eleven feet from the slightly better pair of boots rather than eleven and a half feet and hit the button. "That should leave me with a set of boots that let you jump up to an extra eleven feet and a set that lets you jump an extra two feet."

"That would be useful," Annette said, thinking about the number of times being able to jump an extra eleven feet would have been useful in the dungeon.

Remus glanced at Lily. "What do you think?"

Lily considered their options for a couple of seconds then shook her head. "I think we'd be better off moving the two foot boost to the explosive boots and selling them. In order to take advantage of the explosive effect, we'd need all of our gear to be immune to fire damage and we'd have to get used to bouncing around. Besides, if I was going to bother, I'd want to use the hide from the lava dragon boss, it would give us a more impressive blast."

"Probably a bit too impressive," Remus admitted, wishing the explosive enchantment was more controllable.

Harry frowned when he noticed that the set of jumping boots wasn't quite even. "The two feet aren't quite right, I should probably fix that but the eleven feet are even."

"Do we still have any of the floating boots from the dungeon?" Xander asked thoughtfully.

"No, I traded them for supplies," Remus replied with a shrug. "It's not exactly hard to make them and we have a couple of sets that don't have any downsides, we just don't have any that also boost your jump."

"If I give you a combined schematic, do you think we could get some interesting results experimenting?" Willow asked her father.

Sirius grinned as he thought about the various charms he could apply to their gear that Willow might be able to reverse engineer to make something fantastic. "I might have a couple of ideas."

Harry glanced at the dancing pants of stench. "I can probably move the dodge bonus from the dancing pants and the bonus kicking damage from the tap dancing shoes of pain though I should probably test that on something else first considering they're cursed."

Hermione glanced up from flipping through the magical book. "Should we just hand the book around?"

"Might as well," Harry replied, not seeing a problem with sharing with family and friends.

"No objections to sharing with this group, they can keep their mouths shut," Lily said, trusting everyone in the room not to run their mouths about the book or the skill.

Hermione closed the book then handed it to Taylor. "Here."

"Thanks," Taylor replied as she opened the book and learned the new skill. She handed the book to her mother. "What type of equipment do we need for the first boss?"

Remus turned to look at Taylor. "A decent weapon or collection of spells, it's always a caster. If you weren't immune to magic, you'd need a decent collection of wards or resistances and someone that can keep the boss from casting. Everyone also needs some basic armor or force fields to protect against earth or ice shards on the off chance that one of the mages gets creative."

"Making sure everyone has jumping boots would let us skip a rather annoying gauntlet," Lily added.

"What about the loot?" Dawn asked.

"There's a boulder trap near the boss, if you set it off from the other ramp, you can watch a bunch of boulders hit all of the mages on the way down without having to frantically dodge or jump them. After it stops, you can just walk down and collect all of the loot," Lily explained.

Hermione winced as she thought about the damage that would cause. "That's mean."

"I'm not the one that put the trap there, I'm just taking advantage of it," Lily replied. "Besides, none of the dungeon mobs are really sapient unless they leave the dungeon and the only way that can happen is with special tokens."

"Let's put together some 'basic' equipment then we'll hit the dungeon and take a look at the first couple of bosses," Remus suggested, more than ready for a break from enchanting the mirror covers.