Harry Potter and the Magic of Books Part 26 (Patreon)

Lady Moiraine frowned slightly as she watched several of the so called ‘Guards’ eat a late lunch while laughing and joking with a couple of the townsfolk. The trip to Emond’s Field had been an eye opening experience. Things had been normal enough until they reached the river that formed the border of the Two Rivers and found a large drawbridge rather than the simple wooden bridge or ferry they’d been expecting. Realizing the bridge was fused stone had been shocking and weird but that was perhaps the least of the strange things she’d seen since crossing the river. 

The young girl in charge of raising and lowering the drawbridge had said that the bridge had been there forever could probably be forgiven for that as she was only nine and a half. Seeing the strange color twisting uniforms the guard wore had been unexpected and a bit frustrating. When she’d asked about the obviously power-wrought uniforms the guard had merely replied that they were supplied by the Lord and Lady of the land and that any questions should be directed their way in Emond’s Field.

Lan said softly, “You’re frowning again.”

Moiraine whispered, “The innkeeper’s daughter can channel, quite strongly.”

Lan shifted slightly to look at the girl in her mid to late teens. Her hair was braided much like the other women in town. She was attractive such as it went but other than the way she moved there wasn’t anything overly strange about her at first glance. She moved like she knew how to fight which was a bit odd for the daughter of an innkeeper but a fair number of people in the Two Rivers moved the same way. “She also moves like a fighter.”

Moiraine’s attention was drawn to the door as it opened and someone even stronger than the innkeeper’s daughter walked through the door into the room. The red haired green eyed young lady in a smoky color changing dress was most likely the Lady Potter they’d heard about, the other young lady was the one that had more strength than the tower had probably seen for thousands of years. “Lady Potter?”

Lily turned to look at the attractive lady sitting at the table with a blue stone on her forehead hanging from a circlet. The stone combined with the mostly blue outfit and time and place made identification almost certain. “Moiraine Sedai or would you prefer Alys or Moiraine Damodred?”

“Moiraine I think.” Moiraine answered. She’d rather not be known for her family name as her uncle had drug the name through the mud.

Lily turned to look at Lan, “And that would make you Lan, hopefully you’ll forgive me if I don’t list off your very long string of titles.”

Lan nodded slightly. “Lan will do.”

She shifted her attention back to Moiraine. “I hear that you’ve been looking for me.”

Moiraine glanced around the room at the crowd of people trying to pretend not to be listening to their conversation. “Perhaps a more private location?”

Lily gestured toward the private dining chamber they’d helped Egwene’s father build a couple of years ago for when they wanted to conduct business over food. “After you.”

Moiraine frowned slightly when none of the ‘Guards’ even twitched at the idea of their Queen meeting people in private. Strangely enough there hadn’t been the usual sizing up fighters normally gave Lan. She followed Lan into the chamber and took a seat. She waited for Lily and the channeler to walk in and close the door before she said, “I’m curious how you knew my name.”

“I hear that curiosity is good for the soul.” Lily gestured toward Nynaeve. “I’d like to introduce Nynaeve al’Meara, Healer and the Wisdom of Emond’s Field.”

Nynaeve smiled but didn’t say anything else.

Moiraine asked, “Is she responsible for the guard’s clothes or did you find a ter’angreal?”

Nynaeve said, “A friend created the ter’angreal that we use to create the cloth for the uniforms which means that the Tower has no claim to it.”

“You’re claiming you know someone that can make ter’angreal?” Moiraine asked in surprise.

Lily shrugged. “I know of several people that can make ter’angreal. Just because the tower lost track of a talent doesn’t mean the rest of the world did.”

“Some maintain that all ter'angreal are the property of the White Tower,” Moiraine replied calmly.

“Considering that most of the artifacts have been lost for a very long time, I’m not sure that I care about their claim. Either way, even if I accepted their claim on relics of the past I wouldn’t accept their claim on newly created ter’angreal. The power is a gift from the creator as I understand it and should be treated as such. Either way, if the Tower has a problem with any of my subjects making ter’angreal they can complain about it in person. Which leaves us with why you’re here, you’re hunting the Dragon Reborn.”

Lan tensed as he glanced back and forth between Nynaeve and Lily.

Moiraine frowned slightly. “Do you know who he is?”

The door opened and Harry walked in. “Forgive the interruption Mum but I wanted to let you know I was back and the innkeeper said you were back here.”

Lily stood up, took two steps and pulled him into a hug. “You’re back.”

“I said I’d be back…” Harry trailed off as he realized who his mother was talking to. “Ah, sorry, I should let you get back to your obviously important discussion with Moiraine and Lan.”

“Not so fast young man, what kept you?”

“I ran into some nice people on the road and walked to town with them. I’m a bit surprised that Hermione isn’t here.”

“She’s finishing up a presentation for her mastery in defense, she’ll be here for Winternight as will Annabeth and their roommates.”

“That’s good to hear. I’ve got a couple of gifts to pass out so I’ll catch up when you’re done if you don’t mind.”

Lily laughed. “I’m looking forward to it.”

Harry frowned slightly. “I get the feeling that you’re laughing at me Mum.”

“Heavens forbid,” Lily replied sarcastically.

“I’ll be back in a bit then.” Harry turned and walked back out.

Lily glanced at Moiraine and Lan. “Ah, please forgive the interruption, he just got back from a trip, where were we?”

Lan said, “You were explaining why you think we were looking for the Dragon Reborn.”

“I’m fairly sure I wasn’t but sure, you’re looking because of a foretelling that Moiraine overheard when she was an accepted and you were tired of fighting a war that you couldn’t win. As for why you’re looking here, I’m not actually sure on that one.”

“How do you know that?” Moiraine asked curiously.

“I’m afraid that curiosity is good for you,” Lily replied.

Lan scowled. “You’re treating this as a joke.”

“We’ve trained him as well as we can without explaining who he is or why we’re training most of the village youths to defend themselves. He’ll pick the rest up or he won’t.”

Moiraine said, “That still doesn’t explain how you know things you shouldn’t.”

“You’re correct it doesn’t but I’m under no obligation to tell you how I know what I know. You’re of course free to visit the town.” Lily turned toward the door.

Lan asked, “Is there any truth to rumors of trollocs in the mountains or the guard using weaves of fire to destroy them?”

Lily scowled as she turned back to look at Lan. “Someone has a large mouth.”

Nynaeve snorted. “Considering several youths were with them, it’s not surprising.”

“If you must know, most of the guards can channel. We’re rather invested in making sure that the the Last Battle doesn’t end up the mess it was the last time.”

Moiraine asked, “Last time?”

“Time is a curious things, ter’angreal are interesting… and some prices were too high.”

“How come I couldn’t feel any of the guard?”

Lily held up her hand and conjured a small fireball over it using wandless magic. “They wouldn’t be very effective if people could sense them coming now would they?”

Moiraine stared at Lily in shock. “How?”

“Once again, I think I’ll have to say, curiosity is fun trait.”

“I used to think so.” Moiraine replied.

Lan asked, “What am I missing?”

“I can’t sense her, I can’t sense the flame either.”

Lily cancelled the fireball. “What is life without some excitement. Speaking of excitement, I’d rather you not tell people why you’re here, most of the townsfolk don’t know that the Dragon has been reborn.” She turned to look at Nynaeve. “I’ll see you later for a dance.” She apparated back outside.

Lan twitched as he looked around the room trying to figure out how she vanished.

Moiraine twitched as she noticed Nynaeve’s smile. “You’re enjoying this.”

Nynaeve said, “More than I should for some reason.”

“Invisibility?”

“Apparition, basically instant travel and no, I can’t duplicate it.”

Moiraine asked, “Why tell me?”

“Because despite Lily’s twisted sense of humor, we’re on the same side. She wants the Dragon Reborn safe and she wants the Dark One dead and gone.”

Moiraine shook her head. “I doubt that is possible.”

“It might be and it might not be but she’s going to try. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some people to yell at about arrangements and such for the party tonight.”

Lan asked, “You’re still having a party even though your guards encountered trollocs?”

“The people here have a saying, the Light willing, we’ll survive, if the Light isn’t we’ll still survive. We’ve known for a while that there would be an attack, we just weren’t sure exactly when they exited the waygate.”

Moiraine asked, “They used the ways?”

Nynaeve sighed. “There are several gates lost in the blight. Trolloc souls are small things, hardly worth noticing in small numbers which means they can occasionally slip past the Black Wind.”

Lan asked, “And the Fade?”

“Burned to ashes along with the trollocs. Now if you’ll excuse me, I really do need to make sure things are set up for tonight. It was nice meeting you.” She turned and walked out with a slight smile on her face.

Moiraine sighed as she watched the door close. “I was hoping for more answers.”

Lan watched Nynaeve with a frown on his face. “How much stronger than you is she?”

“If you picked up a kitten, that’s a fair comparison. She’s a great deal stronger than I am and unless I miss my guess she knows it quite well.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Lan asked.

“It remains to be seen.”

0o0o0

Mat woke up with the worst headache of his life which was saying something as he’d been drinking in some dives in places no one sane would have touched or at least he remembered drinking in some of the weirdest places in various cities and places that didn’t exist anymore. He remembered the stranger and he remembered that he’d been helping Rand put away the brandy barrels when he’s see the stranger again and then he’d woken up in a chair in the inn with a headache to end all headaches. He felt tears well up when he spotted Egwene walking over to check on him. She was dead and she wasn’t. In one set of memories, she’d gone off to the Tower to be an Aes Sedai and gotten killed in the last battle and in this life, she’d gotten training from Lily’s friends and was actually fun to hang out with and practice staves with, it was disconcerting to say the least. “Egwene?”

Egwene asked, “How are you feeling?”

“A bit light headed, I obviously need some of your mother’s honey cakes.”

Egwene rolled her eyes. “I guess you are feeling better. I can get Nynaeve or your sisters to check if you want.”

Mat shook his head. “No thanks.” He smiled as he looked at her happy carefree face. It had been so different the last time the other him had seen her. It was hard to keep the memories straight but at least some of the gaps in his childhood were filled in once more.”

Rand spoke up from where he was drinking a mug of hot cider. “You just collapsed.”

“I’ll be fine Rand…” Mat trailed off as he saw Moiraine and Lan walking out of the back room. Lan had less of a haunted look in his eyes than he remembered. ‘That little rat was telling the truth.’

Perrin grumbled as he walked into to the inn. His head felt like he’d let master Luhhan use it for an anvil. “I feel like crap.”

Mat stared at the hammer Perrin was carrying. “Your hammer, your eyes are golden.”

“Of course they’re…” Perrin trailed off as he realized that he had two sets of different memories. In one his eyes had been golden and in the other they’ll still been brown. He glanced down at the hammer in his hand, he could remember making it and he couldn’t. He’d made other interesting blade but he didn’t remember the hammer and yet he did. He could trace most of his adventures and yet he knew that he’d spent the last couple of years forging blades with the guards. “I’m going to need a drink.”

Mat muttered, “Join the club.”

Moiraine walked over to look at Perrin’s golden eyes. “What happened with your eyes?”

Perrin looked at her strangely. “What do you mean? You know damn well what happened to them.”

Mat said, “I don’t think she does. This is Winternight Perin.”

Perin blinked as his memories of the morning snapped back into focus. “Oh.”

Egwene glanced back and forth between Perrin and Mat. “Do I need to get Nynaeve to dose you.”

Perrin sighed. “No.”

Moiraine looked at Egwene and asked, “Do you know what is going on?”

“No, Mat collapsed and Perrin’s eyes went weird. I’m getting Nynaeve my talent for healing is crap.”

Perrin glanced at Lan then back at Moiraine who wasn’t showing an sign of recognizing him. “Maybe that’s a good idea.”

0o0o0

Sirius walked up to where Harry was leaning against the massive oak tree near the inn, “What did you do?”

Harry smiled innocently, “Who me? What makes you think I’m doing anything suspicious?”

“Because you’re laughing just like James used to after or before a prank.”

“Ah, I might have given Mat and Perrin their memories from the end of the series or at least most of them in Perrin’s case. They’d acquired a fair number of skills and Mat had so many memories in his head that a couple more weren’t going to cause too many problems.”

Sirius nodded. “I can see that. Are you going to do the same for the rest of the main heroes?”

“That depends on how stable our versions are. I have the future Egwene’s memories but she looked rather stressed.”

“Egwene went a little crazy or was pushed in the books so I think we should stick with having her view her memories rather than just downloading them all. Besides, Anna and Beth would kill you if you managed to straighten out her kinks. They also managed to twist an alternate Elayne around their little fingers so, giving her memories is out. While I like our version of Nynaeve, I don’t think she’d object to being able to watch some of her old memories. It’s something to discuss with her.”

“What about Moiraine and Lan?” Harry asked.

“I don’t see a problem with copying memories over. She certainly proved her worth in the book and more experience without the scars can only help. Besides, she knows who to talk to in order to make certain things line up like they need to.”

“Stupid prophecies,” Harry muttered.

Sirius shrugged. “Do you have a problem grabbing memories from a couple of different people?”

“I half charred the book pulling the other Perrin’s hammer out but memories shouldn’t cause a problem. What about Rand?”

Sirius considered the idea for a couple of seconds. “Grabbing a copy of his channeling knowledge from the end of the series wouldn’t go amiss but I think he can do without Lews Therin’s insanity.”

Harry shrugged. “That sounds good. I don’t suppose you have any ideas on how to get enough people out of here to make this all worth it?”

Sirius said, “You could try a vanishing cabinet as they’re linked. Basically you walk into one and out the other. You also might try talking to the master enchanter or that demon girl you know.”

“She’d want to trade for that juicy bit of knowledge.”

“So? It’s not a bad trade and the bank is holding the cup for us so we can cleanse it. We’ll be able to grab the diadem and then we track down Voldemort. After that we figure out a way to bring a legion of wand users and such back with us and we crush the idiots that supported the death eaters and then we look for somewhere tropical to settle.”

Harry asked curiously, “Speaking of settling, did you find a girl?”

Sirius laughed. “I actually did, Wendy is a cute redheaded telepathic wolf witch that can channel. I’ve actually got a little munchkin that’s best friends with your sister and Remus’s brat.”

“My what? Wait, Remus had a child? With who?” Harry blinked in surprise, he wasn’t sure which of those shocked him more.

“Nymphadora talked him into it.”

“Okay and my sister?” Harry asked curiously.

Sirius laughed as he thought of the little prankster. “Tiffany is seven and cute as a button.”

Harry winced. “Now I feel bad that I wasn’t here.”

“Everyone understood that it wasn’t possible. You’ve got a couple of days to figure out how to get everyone else out of the book, no pressure, right?” Sirius snickered at the look of fear on Harry’s face.

Harry blinked as he felt arms wrap around him from behind and pull him into a hug. “Hi?”

Sarah licked Harry’s neck. “I found a Harry.”

Sirius asked with amusement, “What are you going to do with the Harry you found?”

“Shrink him down and put him in my pocket so I don’t lose him again. I mean sure, it was fun wandering around for first couple of months but after a couple of years, I just wanted my Harry back.”

Harry twisted around so that he was facing Sarah. “You’re the one that wanted to explore and learn new spells and such things.”

“Stop talking and kiss me.”

Harry floated up and kissed Sarah on the lips.

Sirius rolled his eyes as Harry and Sarah worked on kissing each other senseless and ignoring him. “Right, I’ll just go collect everyone so we can get out of here.” He turned then smiled as he saw Egwene who had just stepped out of the door. “Any word from Hermione yet?”

Egwene pulled her attention off Sarah’s cute behind. “She just used her mirror, her presentation is done and she’s on her way over.”

Harry stopped kissing Sarah long enough to say, “Good.”

Sarah chuckled as she let go of Harry. “Harry this is Egwene, Hermione and the twins’ other girlfriend.”

Harry stopped kissing Sarah and turned to look at Egwene with a smile. “It’s nice to see you again. Anna and Beth snatch up all the cute girls don’t they?”

“They certainly try,” Egwene replied with amusement as she thought about Elayne and some of the other girls they’d invited over for fun.

Sarah said, “As much fun as kissing Harry would be, we should figure out how to bring everyone back with us.”

Harry looked over at Sirius. “Sirius’s idea about using the vanishing cabinets gave me a couple of ideas that might work. I just have to look through Hermione’s collection of magazines and books again.”

“Good because I was drawing a blank if that didn’t work and I didn’t really think it would,” Sirius replied.

The inn door opened revealing Bran al’Vere. “Egwene, Nynaeve wants to talk to you about Perrin and Mat.”

Egwene spun and gave her father a smile. “Of course, we were just coming inside anyways.”