Harry Potter and the Magic of Books Part 24 (Patreon)

Selena gestured and conjured a fluffy aim chair for everyone. “Keep in mind, I wasn’t around for the first part of the story so this is taken from secondhand accounts and the archives. Basically, after you left, Arcturus and the rest of the magic users created a number of temporary towns and used Mr. Stark’s plans for the great cities. That helped with the population pressure and the various factions that they were having problems with.”

Albus sat down in the chair next to him. “What type of factions?”

“The details are a bit sketchy on that part of history but by the time I was born the factions had mostly vanished save for some interesting holidays that the original wizards incorporated. Anyways, they spent the next year working on creating domed farms for growing food and keeping the various magical creatures and plants alive. It was far colder back before we put in all of the thermal vents.”

Lily sat down in her chair. “Sorry about that, I guess we should have tried harder to sort things out before we left.”

Selena shrugged. “It’s ancient history. Anyways, we managed to acquire an interesting number of items over the years trading with other worlds.”

Albus asked, “Other worlds?”

“We used the portal stones, they’re large stationary magical devices that allow travel to alternate worlds. The wizard council used them to trade with other worlds and recruit magic users and craftsman. They managed to recruit a large number of channelers and people that could learn to channel the first couple of years before the Breaking started to get serious then they scaled things back to almost nothing. They shifted focus and poured a lot of effort into recording all of the wizarding magic books and recovered history books into forms that would last as well as recording their memories so the knowledge would be available for the future generations. Because of the number of non-wizards at that point in history the schools were mixed schools. Everyone took the theory classes and the people with the talent took the classes that helped.”

Pomona asked, “Why take classes for stuff you couldn’t use?”

“Mostly because at that point, we really needed to learn to work together and to know what everyone else could do. No matter what your level of skill is, your talents limit what you can do with this world’s magic.”

Harry asked, “Did anyone ever figure out a way to duplicate weaves with wizarding magic?”

“No but they discovered a number of spells that weren’t in the book by studying the effects of channeling and other things. If you’re going to be sticking around, I can suggest some classes.”

Albus said, “I’m looking forward to it.”

Lily said, “Some of us are going to be sticking around and some of us aren’t.”

Selena nodded. “Anyways, back to the story. It was considered a rite of passage in my youth to travel to a different world using the portal stones and see how many people you could recruit.”

Lily winced. “How many people died?

Selena said, “More than a few but typically speaking only the insane risked their lives traveling to blind addresses. There was a lot of glory in finding a new address and bringing it back so that you could raid it with your friends. Typically when we did it we used a luck potion and recorded as many safe addresses as we could then picked one to explore after coming back with a list.”

Albus asked, “How often did you use it?”

“Rather sparingly over the years, the stuff isn’t the safest elixir around but it’s safer than a blind jump without it. I was young and less wise than I am now. It was certainly a risk but every world we knew of allowed us to skim the cream of the crop for items and power. As our numbers grew and our cities filled in with channelers or wizards we cut back on the recruiting and just went for the best of the best to help keep our bloodlines viable. We also kept trade up with various groups both for secrets and for sanity.”

Poppy asked, “Wasn’t there anything you could do about the madness?”

“The taint can be slowed down but not cured with a ring of protection from evil. Various potions help but don’t cure it. We did what we could but sometimes the best solution was to cut them off from magic and go on your way.”

Hermione asked, “And the naked girls?”

“Ah, they’re called house girls. Arcturus used Kreacher to create a few thousand half elves with channelers over the first couple of years.”

“Why?”

“I’m not sure if he was trying to breed house elf magic into the population or make a large group of loyal channelers. The results look human eventually but they have a house elf’s magic and a strong desire to work and take care of a wand user or family of wizards.”

Hermione asked, “So they’re slaves like house elves?”

“No, they can leave and they aren’t property. They’re family. As for the lack of clothes, you’ll find that people dress however they like on the island. Most house girls dislike clothes, it might be a quirk of the magic or it might just be a cultural thing.”

Lily asked, “Are there house boys?”

“Not in this house.” Selena stuck her tongue out at Lily.

Tony spoke up, “What about the technology level?”

“We can repair the technology we have and replicate more parts for various systems but we haven’t pushed things forward because we didn’t want to be noticed and had other things to worry about. There are a couple of science bases on alternate worlds that are running experiments and doing more with science but that’s not my department, I’m the Lady of Blackgate.”

McGonagall asked, “How many magic schools do you have?”

“At least a couple per city and there are a decent number of cities.”

“So many?”

Selena shrugged. “We have around twenty five million people on our island. While a fair number aren’t wand users, they all have magic.”

Albus asked in disbelief, “What about the squibs?”

Selena sighed. “The law is rather clear on that. We’ve noticed that there are two types of squibs, some of them pass on magic genetics just fine, some don’t. We merely watch the first type and check on their children with glasses. Typically though that’s not a problem as incompatibility is something we can screen for. The second type are typically banished through the portal stone to an alternate world or temporarily castrated with a charm so they can’t pollute the bloodlines.”

Albus winced. “That’s rather harsh.”

“It’s temporary, if they leave the charm is reversed and they’re free to mix in magical genetics on other worlds. We have a watcher stationed on the world we send them to. If any wand users pop up we sweep in and recruit them or at least monitor things. We’ve also spread some genetics in various alternate worlds for the purpose of creating more magic users and to keep our island from getting too inbred. It’s not a perfect system but we have nearly twenty million wizards on our island which isn’t too shabby.”

Hagrid asked, “How do you keep them from wandering off?”

“We’re raised to believe in the mission, to know in our bones that one day we will raise up and sweep the darkness from the land and kick the dark one in the nuts until he dies. We have spent three and a half thousand years working toward this one goal. That and we have other worlds that we can wander around in. That said, we’ve been keeping a quiet eye on things in this one.”

Lily said, “Now that the main players are born, I think it’s time to unleash the dogs of war. I’m planning on buying the Two Rivers from the Queen and then buying out Teran Ferry. We have eight years to turn it into a fortified area and teach everyone to channel that can before the main players start on their quest.”

Selena rubbed her hands together. “I actually have some good news on that front. One of my earliest raids netted me a domination band which is an item that lets two females control a male’s channeling. This isn’t really all that useful except for a quirk. They can’t force him to draw more than he safely can while he’s wearing it. He can’t draw more than he should be able to while wearing it. I managed to design training bracelets based on it that let someone draw up to their limit safety. They’re some of the best ways to train people we’ve ever found.”

Poppy said, “The more I hear about this world’s magic the less safe it sounds.”

“Everything has dangers and yes, my telepathic abilities work just fine Sirius and no you can’t fuck me while in dog form.”

Sirius gulped. “I wasn’t thinking that!”

“I know, you were thinking doing other inappropriate things with you tongue.” She stuck her tongue out at Sirius to show that she wasn’t offended.

Sirius sighed. “I can’t win this can I?”

“Not really, I’ve been doing this a long time. Speaking of time, I’ll call for lunch and we can discuss strategy for the next eight years.”

Albus said, “I could eat though, if you don’t mind-”

“I’ll have the gender flipping belt sent for.”

“That’s disconcerting,” he admitted.

“You’ll get used to it,” Selena replied.

Lily said, “Actually, speaking of, can you help-”

“Help with the queen? Of course, I have several sets of heartstone that I believe she’d be interested in as well as a decent war chest.”

“Thank you.”

“I’ve been looking forward to the next step for a very long time.”

0o0o0

Harry felt his heart lurch as he realized that everyone else wanted to stay for the eight years that he’d be skipping. He clamped down on the urge to shout and gnash his teeth and tried to look at it objectively. His parents wanted to see what they could turn the Two Rivers into and Hermione wanted to go to a school that actually taught computers, science and technology alongside magic without anyone putting her down for being ‘muggleborn’. He glanced over at Anna and Beth. “Are you sure that you want to stay?”

Anna smiled as she glanced over at the very cute naked girl that had served the food then back at Harry. “Yes. I mean we’ll miss you but we’ll have Hermione and I really want to try to seduce Egwene and some of the other girls.”

Beth snickered. “Besides, we can always use the Loliblade and two youth potions and go to Hogwarts with you when we get back.”

Lily spoke up, “We’re going to miss you but it’s a chance to brush up on our skills and oversee the Two Rivers Project.”

James said, “She’s right, we’re going to miss you but this is a great chance to have some fun. Besides, like Beth said, we’ll still be going to Hogwarts with you.”

Harry sighed. “I guess I can understand, if I could stay without time advancing I would.”

Hermione asked hesitantly, “You’re not mad are you?”

Harry pulled Hermione into a hug. “Of course I’m not mad at you Mione. I just don’t want you to forget about me.”

Hermione hugged Harry tightly. “That’s not going to happen.” She whispered into his ear, “Besides, I’ll be thinking about you every time I have sex with your daughters.”

Harry smiled as she lifted Hermione up and spun her around before he set her down. “Don’t have too much fun while I’m gone.”

“I’ll try,” she replied with amusement.

Harry looked over at Lily and James. “Stay safe, I don’t want to have to bring you back from the dead again any time soon.”

Lily smiled as she stepped forward and pulled him in for a hug. “Don’t worry, we’ll be as safe as we can.”

“I’ll make sure of it this time,” Sirius stated firmly.

Remus stated, “We’ll make sure of it.”

James pulled his wife and son into a hug. “You’ve got the easy job, in and out and you’re back.”

“You’re right, in and out and I’ll catch you on the flipside.” Harry pulled the Loliblade out of his pocket and handed it to Hermione once James stopped crushing him. “Keep it safe and use it on anyone you need to.”

Hermione smiled as she put the bracelet in her pocket. “This should help a lot.”

Anna and Beth ran forward and hugged Harry being careful not to crush his ribs with their supernatural strength. “We’ll miss you.”

“I’ll be back on Winternight.” Harry jumped out of the book before he lost his nerve.

Lily sighed. “Eight years…”

James winced. “We’ll just have to stay busy. Speaking of busy, we should talk to Selena about the queen and their plans for the rest of the world.”

“I guess we should get started on that.”

0o0o0

Dealing with the Queen of Andor was easier than Lily had been expecting, it had taken two large chests of gems and gold and several sets of heartstone place settings but they now owned the Two Rivers as their own kingdom. She knew it was little more than legal fiction at this point as the region hadn’t seen a tax collector in generations but a couple of chests of trinkets, gold and replicated gems was a small price to pay for legitimacy and good relations as far as she was concerned. Another small cask of gold and the queen was willing to send fifty soldiers to inform the various Two Rivers townsfolk of that fact.

The next step in Lily’s plan involved having a group of wealthy ‘merchants’ walk into Taren Ferry and offer to buy various farms and homes for gold. They didn’t get all that many takers but that wasn’t the point. The point was to pass the offer around, buy up any land that people wanted to sell then ‘vanish’ for a couple of days inspecting property until the Andorian soldiers came through and informed the townsfolk that someone had bought the land from the crown.

Amusingly enough once Gareth Bryne came through with fifty Andorian guards a lot more people were willing to take the gold and move north to the city of Baerlon than were willing to put up with some crazy new ‘king’. Of course that attitude had been helped along by certain rumors that Sirius had planted but either way, they managed to acquire a decent amount of the town by buying off the people that lived there with gold and gems.

From there it was a simple matter of marching two hundred half naked battle trained combat girls in and setting up shop. The remaining woman’s council had a hissy fit and demanded that they cover up. The girls had laughed at them and told them they had a right to wear whatever they wanted in their kingdom. After that most of the woman dragged their husbands to Lily’s group and sold their homes and or lands and left for saner pastures north of the river.

The owner of the ferry had resisted leaving until a few of the girls had built fused stone towers on each side of the river then created a magic drawbridge. Once he realized that his livelihood was dust in the wind, he packed up everything he owned and left after selling what he had.

From there it was as simple as most of the girls putting on their uniforms and going south to talk to the mayors of Watch Hill, Emond’s Field and Deven Ride while the rest worked on building crystal pillars around the village that would violently deal with an shadowspawn that tried to enter the region. It wasn’t nice and tipped their hand a touch but at this point they didn’t really care.

Amusingly or not depending, people got rather polite when you showed up with two hundred combat trained soldiers. The mayors complained a bit about the transfer of power and about how they’d been governing themselves for generations but at the end of the day, Lily’s group wasn’t changing much of anything that mattered to the menfolk. The only change was cleaning up Taren Ferry by offering a more than honest amount for the various farms and buildings. No one could really complain about that other than some of the Coplins but they complained about everything.

The women’s council on the other hand was livid about the law that said people could wear whatever they wanted. Still, after some gnashing of teeth and some glares, they handled it better than the Taren Ferry folk by merely making it known that just because it was allowed, didn’t mean the villagers were allowed to dress scandalously. A couple of girls decided to push things and the guards laughed their asses off when various mothers and grandmothers chased the girls off with switches. The guards stepped in a couple of times when said girls got harassed by other people but eventually things calmed down to a dull roar on the part of the women and little more than passing amusement by the men.

0o0o0

Doral Barran looked up at the knock on her door. “Enter.”

Lily smiled as she stepped inside the Wisdom’s house and looked around the orderly home/place of work.

“You look healthy so I’m guessing you didn’t come for a cure Lady Potter.”

Lily glanced over at the seventeen year old young lady that was preparing herbs then back at the white haired old Wisdom. “I came to talk to you about Nynaeve and a fair number of the young folk in the region.”

Nynaeve squeezed her braid as she tried to figure out how the supposed lady of the region even knew her name but kept her mouth shut with an effort of will.

Doral asked, “What about her?”

Lily said, “I’ll be blunt, she can channel.”

Doral narrowed her eyes as she looked at Lily. “I’d wondered.”

Nynaeve demanded, “What do you mean?”

“I mean you have the potential to heal people with magic.”

“I’m like an Aes Sedai?” She asked with disbelief and some annoyance.

“You can channel, aside from that, not particularly. I’ve found most Aes Sedai to be annoying people, they twist words into lies of omission and generally think they know what’s best for everyone.”

Doral smirked. “See, nothing alike.”

Nynaeve scowled at Doral then looked back at Lily. “What of it?”

Lily  said, “I’d like to provide a teacher to teach everyone in the village with the potential. That is why I’d like the Wisdom’s help.”

Doral asked, “To what point?”

“The last battle is coming, the Dragon has been reborn and unless certain people play their parts the world will head down a very dark path.”

“Why tell us?”

“Because several key players in the last battle are from here.”

Doral said, “I noticed that you didn’t say born here.”

“You’re right, I didn’t but I’d ask you not to mention that little detail. None of them are ready to take their place in the wider world yet.”

Nynaeve’s mind flashed to Rand, the only child she knew of that hadn’t been born in the Two Rivers. “Are you sure you’re not crazy?”

Lily held up her hand and conjured a ball of fire over it. “I’m not insane. I’m not lying though I can and I’m trying to save the world.”

Nynaeve stared at the flame. “I thought Aes Sedai couldn’t lie.”

“Yes and no.” Lily dismissed the ball of fire. “Channelers are human which means they can lie which I’m sure you well know.”

Nynaeve though about some of the times she’d had to tell people it would be okay when she knew it wouldn’t. “Yes, I try not to but sometimes the only thing to do is hold someone’s hand and tell them it will be okay.”

“Aes Sedai are different, they swear on a ter’angreal that binds their vows to their flesh. In their eyes and the eyes of most in this part of the world, the oaths are what make them Aes Sedai. To put it bluntly, the oaths are foolish. No one with a lick of sense believes an Aes Sedai without carefully picking apart exactly what they said thus what’s the point in promising to be honest if people still can’t trust you?”

Doral nodded. “She has a point.”

“The oaths also robbed them of the knowledge of making weapons to use against the dark one because they might be used by men against men. I’ll be honest, swords are swords until you’re fighting monsters then I’d take a power wrought sword any day of the week over a piece of steel.”

Nynaeve asked, “Couldn’t you make a blade if you specifically intended it to be used against shadowspawn?”

“You’d think but they haven’t, either because they’re too stupid or because they believe that people might use it against other people eventually.”

Doral asked, “You’ve made your point about Aes Sedai, why train the children?”

“I want them to survive, without training some of them will die of a wasting sickness.”

Nynaeve snorted. “You want us to help you against the White Tower?”

“It’s not illegal in this land to channel, it’s not illegal in Andor to channel. It’s illegal to claim to be Aes Sedai in Andor and other places but that’s not what we’re doing. What we’re doing is preparing for the last battle and training children to channel.”

Doral asked, “How many of the girls can channel?”

Lily said, “There are dozens of them in the Two Rivers. You’d be a treasure trove for the tower but I’d rather that not happen. They failed this nation before so I’d rather see them trained by someone that doesn’t have their insane need to be in charge.”

Nynaeve asked, “I could heal people if I was trained?”

“Yes.”

Doral asked, “What do you want from her in exchange for training?”

“You mean beyond following the rules while she’s a student? I’d only ask that she uses her power as her heart desires. It’s a gift from the creator and hers to use as she desires. Of course, training the power might cut into her free time a little.”

Doral said, “I’m sure we can make it work.”

“I’d rather not abandon my training here.”

“I wouldn’t want you to. That’s why we’ll be bringing in a healer to train you and learn from Doral if that’s acceptable?” Lily replied.

Doral asked, “And the other children?”

“That’s why I need your help, I’m not sure how to convince everyone’s parents that they should have special education.”

“I’m sure I can think of something, I’m assuming you’re doing the same in the other villages?”

Lily shrugged. “Other than Taren Ferry, the blood was so diluted that only one of the girls could channel and her family had just moved there. We ended up hiring her to help keep track of the merchants and such things, at least officially.”

Doral asked, “Do you know how many of the boys can…”

“Can channel? We know several of them can.”

Nynaeve stared at Lily. “Who?”

Lily said, “I know a couple of names but we won’t know the complete list until we visit all of the farms and check.”

“What are you going to do to them?”

“That depends on the male in question. If they have the spark they’ll channel regardless of anything else. We have an island set up where the male half of the source is blocked. They can get training there so they can control their abilities using untainted magic. Once they complete their training they’ll have two options. Sign up with the magic guild who will provide untainted power or be prevented from using magic again until the source is cleansed.”

Doral asked curiously, “You have a way to keep them from going insane?”

Lily nodded. “It’s not the best but it works for now.”

“I’m sure we can work something out.”

Nynaeve asked, “When can I start?”

“I’ll send the healer with dinner if that’s okay?”

Doral smiled. “Thank you.”

Lily pulled out a mirror and set it on the table. “If you need to contact me, simply pick up the mirror and say my name.”

Doral stared at the mirror. “You’re trusting me with a ter’angreal?”

“You’re the village wisdom, I’m certainly not going to give the mayor a way to bother me about every little detail. You’ve been doing fine on your own for generations, other than starting a few mines in the mountains I don’t really see things changing all that much the next couple of years. Now if you’ll excuse me, people to see and all that.” She smiled then apparated to Deven Ride to talk to the wisdom there.