Demons and Botched Rituals Part 28 (Patreon)

"This would be so much easier with magic," Ginny grumbled as she scrubbed at the stubborn stain on the wall that refused to come out, frustrated with the busy work and annoyed because there wasn't any word about Harry and Hermione.

"Excellent idea!" Fred said cheerfully as he walked into the room and waved his wand, instantly cleaning the entire wall.

"You realize Mum is going to complain because Ginny used magic, right?" George asked as he followed his twin into the room, knowing his brother didn't care.

"How is that our problem?" Fred asked with amusement as he looked around the mostly empty bedroom. "The room is clean and we'll be back at the shop in a couple of minutes which means we don't have to listen to the ranting."

Ginny dropped the brush in the bucket. "Don't worry about it, I'll just blame Ron."

"That's cold…" Fred trailed off when Harry appeared wearing a low cut red dress that glittered where the light hit it just right.

"Harry!" Ginny blurted and lunged forward to hug him, stumbling through him and crashing face first into the bed. "What the hell?!"

"Sorry about that," Harry offered, doing his best to hide his amusement and glad that she hadn't hurt herself.

"What the hell?!" Ginny demanded as she stood up, spun around and glared at the twins. "Is this your idea of a joke?!"

"We had nothing to do with this," Fred assured her, wanting to avoid getting hexed for a completely tasteless joke they were actually innocent of. "He's using a crystal ball."

"They crashed the order meeting, we wanted to tell you before we headed back to the shop in case the adults didn't," George added.

Ginny glanced between Harry and her brothers then focused on Hermione when she appeared behind the twins wearing a black silk dress that clung to her curves in a way she doubted her friend would actually wear. "Why is Harry wearing a dress?"

"Do you want to take this one?" Hermione asked Harry.

"Sure. Officially? I'm blaming it on the crystal ball we're using to talk. Unofficially? I was being lazy and I haven't figured out how to adjust the settings," Harry explained, figuring that would cover any changes when he upgraded the crystal ball.

"Where are you?" Ginny asked, wondering when they were coming back.

"The Swamp of Stench," Harry offered with a grin.

Ginny looked at Hermione. "Swamp of Stench?"

"It's not very original but it's certainly descriptive, the bubble head charm helps," Hermione explained, glad that she had a couple of ways to deal with scents because the swamp was horrible.

"Why are you in a swamp?" Ginny asked.

Hermione glanced towards the door where she could hear someone walking up the stairs. "We're helping a friend with her alchemy shop."

Fred glanced between Harry and Hermione. "Can you scry on anyone?"

"Not exactly, it's limited to places I'm familiar with but it takes some adjustments," Harry explained, not wanting to admit that he could make the crystal balls, at least until they had better mental defenses.

"Lunch!" Mrs Weasley called out as she stepped off the stairs and into the hallway.

"We've got to go, we left some things unexplained to the Order for security purposes," Harry explained then dropped the connection, not wanting to give Mrs Weasley a chance to raise hell because of his earlier vanishing act and the present he'd left Dumbledore.

"Sorry," Hermione offered and dropped the connection.

Jessica rolled off the bed and bounced to her feet with a smile. "If you're done scrying on people, can you finish our defensive gear so we can go monster hunting?"

"Sure," Harry replied with a smile as he watched her breasts bounce. "I picked up some bracers I want to duplicate."

Hermione pulled her gaze off Jessica's breasts. "I should probably get back to work making potions."

"I'll give you a hand," Jade said as she twisted around and set her feet on the floor. "I found a couple of recipes I want to try."

"Have fun," Harry suggested as he turned and headed for the smithy.

"Crafting!" Jessica said cheerfully as she followed Harry.

"That's the plan," Jade replied as she grabbed the alchemy journal off the bed and headed for the portal to the shop.

"Which recipes?" Hermione asked as she followed Jade.

"I wouldn't mind trying everything eventually, but I'm curious if we can stabilize the elixir that gives people magic or Merlin's failed elixir of dragonbreath," Jade replied as they walked through the portal and into the lab.

Hermione stopped and stared at Jade, thinking about her parents. "You can give someone magic with a potion?"

"Technically," Jade replied as she glanced over at where Selena was working at a cauldron, slightly disappointed that she'd gotten dressed. 'Hermione lucked out on summoners.'

"Let me guess, it drives people insane?" Selena asked, not looking away from the fire salt she was adding to her potion.

"No, it just caused three of the twenty five test subjects to explode," Jade replied as she walked over to an empty workspace and set her book down.

"Did he ever figure out what was wrong with it?" Selena asked as she finished adding the fire salt.

"Not that he wrote down," Jade replied as she walked over to the alchemy cabinet to grab some ingredients, fairly sure she'd have to make some substitutions since she didn't recognize a couple of the ingredients. "I'm hoping the system can tell us something about the finished potion."

"It's worth a shot," Selena replied as she picked up a glass stirring rod and gave her cauldron a stir.

Hermione walked over and checked the list of potions they still needed. "Do you want me to get started on the bug repelling potions or the healing potions?"

Selena gestured towards one of the other cauldrons with her left hand. "Go ahead and bottle the last batch of bug repelling potions when the timer goes off, we have another twelve minutes on the healing potions."

"Any idea where to get sands of time?" Jade asked thoughtfully.

"Not a clue, try dream sand or river sand," Selena suggested as she set the timer for her fire resistance potion, knowing they had plenty since the dream sand came from a level in the dungeon and was used in a cheap sleep tonic and the old alchemist had bought a barrel of it a couple of weeks before he died.

"Might as well," Jade agreed as she grabbed a jar of the sparkling rainbow colored dream sand.

"Did you have any luck…" Selena trailed off as she turned around and saw Hermione, not used to her looking human. "Lesser shape change?"

Hermione smiled as she turned off her lesser shape changing skill, going back to her normal demonic appearance. "I just figured things were complicated enough without looking like a purple elf."

"There's nothing wrong with being purple," Selena assured Hermione, glad that someone hadn't cursed her demon. "How did your message home go?"

"Better than I was expecting." Hermione replied as she walked over to the cauldron filled with a soupy black liquid that smelled of mint. "We let everyone know that we're alive and well and we left before we had to answer too many questions."

"Any idea what we can swap for unicorn tears?" Jade asked thoughtfully.

"Do we have any phoenix tears?" Hermione asked thoughtfully.

Selena shook her head. "I'm not sure where we'd find phoenix tears, they're rare. I have a better idea."

"What's that?" Jade asked.

"Grab an onion," Selena teased as she moved to the next cauldron and started adding the cut up ingredients. "You should have enough magic to make it work."

"I'll be right back," Jade said as she headed for the stairs as the timer for the bug repellent potion went off.

"Any trouble with the shop?" Hermione asked as she grabbed a ladle and funnel and started filling the conjured potion bottles.

"Nope, River volunteered to run things," Selena replied, rather happy with the arrangement as it let her concentrate on refilling their inventory and grinding her alchemy skill. "Are you still planning on heading into the swamp for herbs?"

Hermione capped the potion she'd been filling. "Herbs and leather, I'm just waiting until Harry finishes our defensive gear."

"Good, no point in rushing things," Selena replied as she finished adding the snake venom for the antivenom.

Hermione smiled as she continued bottling the potions, getting a tiny sliver of experience for each potion for her Alchemy and Time Warped Alchemy skills.

0o0o0

"Next!" Ron heard as the bright lights in his eyes and ringing in his ears decreased to something approaching manageable.

"Welcome to the afterlife, you're now part of the guardian angel corps, once you've finished your basic training, you'll be sent to a worthy hero," the man stated, sounding like he'd said the same thing countless times before.

'Where the hell am I?' Ron thought as he looked around at the stadium, ignoring what the man was saying, mostly because he was only catching every third or fourth word thanks to the ringing in his ears. 'Quidditch field? No goal posts, maybe muggle sports? Or they took the goal posts down?'

"Are you listening trainee?" the man demanded.

"No," Ron replied as he turned his attention to the severe looking man wearing white robes, doing his best to blink the spots out of his eyes. "That flash of light and thunder blinded me, give me a minute."

"Great, another one," the man muttered, wondering who he'd pissed off in HR to get all of the idiots. "Fine, let's start from the top, you're dead, you've been selected to be a guardian angel, once you finish basic training, you'll be assigned a worthy future hero based on your placement score."

"I'm not fucking dead!" Ron shouted at the man, not sure where the hell he was or why the lunatic was insisting he was dead.

"If you think we've made a mistake, take it up with HR after you finish basic training," the man replied, sounding a touch annoyed but mostly bored.

Ron gestured at the strange field filled with tires and other things he didn't recognize now that he was actually looking at the field rather than the stadium and the bright spots were fading from his vision. "This is a mistake, I shouldn't be here-" whatever else he was going to say was lost as the man with robes raised his hands and zapped him with lightning.

The man frowned slightly as the trainee screamed and thrashed on the ground rather than the normal reaction that most of the guardian angel trainees had, which was shrieking and quickly realizing that they weren't in any danger. "That's pathetic, you don't have a body, you can't actually feel pain. Get up! Twenty laps or I'll keep blasting you until my morale improves!"

"Fuck!" Ron screamed, none of his limbs wanting to move.

"Fuck it," the man complained as he gestured at the idiotic trainee. "Get up!"

Ron screamed as he found his body moving despite his overwhelming desire to lie on the track and his inability to actually move his limbs thanks to the lightning. "What the fuck!"

"I said give me twenty!" the man shouted, sending the trainee running down the field.

'This is Harry's fault,' Ron complained as he ran down the field against his will, thinking that this wouldn't have happened if Harry had just taken him with them. It took a quarter of a lap of running before he decided that it wasn't actually Harry's fault, mostly because they'd left him behind and hadn't wanted him to use the ritual. 'Fine, it's my fault,' he admitted, not that he was actually going to admit that if anyone asked.

'Nah, I'm not that self aware. Fine, if it's not my fault, whose fault is it? Snape? Nah, wasn't his fault, yeah, no it's always Snape's fault, fucking Slytherins,' he thought as he ran down the track, not realizing when the compulsion faded and he continued running as his mind was on who to blame for the mess that he'd caused by using the ritual.

0o0o0

Jessica smiled as she slipped the rune covered mithril and adamantite bracers on and watched her defense score jump a decent amount. "Nice!"

Harry smiled as he watched his summon shadow box for a couple of seconds, causing her bare breasts to bounce. "Try the rings," he suggested, wanting to make sure they didn't drop her defenses too much.

Jessica equipped the two mithril rings that Harry had forged for her. "Nothing, I don't think rings count as clothing."

"They still boost your strength, right?" Harry asked, wanting to make sure.

Jessica laughed. "Yeah, fourteen points each, twenty eight total and fourteen points of slashing resistance which means most people would have trouble hurting us with a dagger unless they're stacking abilities or they hit like a truck."

"You should probably check the loincloth," Harry suggested as he slipped his own rings on and checked his strength score, "That's another one hundred and forty pounds casually, probably seven hundred pounds of hard effort."

Jessica equipped her loincloth to see how much it hurt her defenses. "Huh, my overall defensive rating dropped a couple of points, but the defensive rating for my legs jumped and my defenses against demons skyrocketed for my legs."

"I'll take that trade," Harry replied with amusement as he watched Jessica go shift her stance and toss a couple of punches. "Any problems with the bracers?"

"Nope!" Jessica replied with a grin as she lifted the cloth part of her loincloth up to see if that changed the defensive rating. "I guess it doesn't matter."

Harry smiled as Hermione walked into the room. "You should try your gear."

Hermione glanced between Jessica's bracers and her loincloth then gave Harry an amused look. "Where's the rest of it?"

"Oops, I forgot the boots," Jessica said as she equipped a pair of black leather boots. "I almost forgot the Boots of Jumping."

"You get less armor from the bracers the more you wear and the magical defenses are impressive, the loincloth barely drops your overall armor and gives you a massive boost to anything below your waist," Harry explained.

"Probably because the silk is practically transparent," Hermione replied, trying not to laugh as she pictured Mrs Weasley's apocalyptic reaction to the outfit.

"It also doubles your armor against demons," Harry added with a grin as he tossed her the mithril and ruby belt he'd made for her.

"If you'd wanted to see me naked, you could have just asked," Hermione joked as she examined the translucent and sinfully soft red silk.

"Can I see you naked?" Harry teased, not actually expecting anything.

"Sure," Hermione replied with a grin as she swapped her pants for the loincloth on her equipment doll. 'It's not like you haven't seen Jessica nude and she's practically my twin.'

'Damn long shirts,' Harry thought as her t-shirt was just long enough to cover her crotch.

"Nice legs," Jessica offered cheerfully as she handed Hermione her bracers, enjoying the view.

"Thanks," Hermione replied as she looked at her defenses, trying not to blush. 'It's not like the girls aren't walking around naked, you've been to beaches, get over it, it's just Harry.' She dropped the bracers on her character doll and checked her defenses, rather impressed by the increase. "Nice boost against demons," she said, thinking about the demonic army that she'd caught glimpses of when she'd arrived.

"Every bit helps," Harry agreed, doing his best to keep his attention on her eyes.

'He asked, just go for it, be a Gryffindor,' she told herself then quickly pulled her shirt off of her character doll before she could change her mind, deciding to hell with it and that she was going to stake her claim before Jade or Ruby got him first.

Harry stared at Hermione's breasts for a couple of seconds before his mind rebooted. "I might be able to kill a dementor now."

Hermione laughed as she realized that Harry wasn't going to freak out on her. "Happy to help." She stared at her character sheet, surprised by the numbers. "That's a huge boost to armor compared to wearing a shirt."

"They're called Bracers of Nudity for a reason," Harry replied. "We might be able to use a translucent shirt that protects against arrows without dropping the armor rating too much but I haven't had a chance to boost my tailoring enough to make it."

"At least the boots don't seem to drop my armor," Jessica mused as she walked around Hermione so she could look at her butt. "Let's head to the library."

"Why?" Harry asked in confusion.

"She's a bookworm, what's more romantic than fucking on a conjured bed in the middle of a library?" Jessica asked with a grin.

"I'm sure Hermione wouldn't-" he stopped when Hermione coughed.

"I am perfectly capable of speaking for myself," Hermione stated then turned to look at Jessica. "Personally, I'd love to spend some naked time in the library but I don't think Harry is brave enough to ask me." She turned and gave Harry a challenging look, trying not to appear nervous.

"Hermione, would you like to go to my library with me and do things that would get us kicked out of the Hogwarts Library?" Harry asked, doing his best not to stammer.

"Was that so hard?" Hermione asked with a grin as a door appeared in the wall, connecting the smithy with the library.

"You know I can tell when you're nervous, right?" Harry asked as they headed for the door.

"If you let me have this one, I'll do that thing you like," Hermione offered, knowing that she was just as nervous about the whole thing.

"I don't know what I like," Harry replied.

"That's what we're going to find out," Hermione promised.

"Deal," Harry replied as they walked through the door into the library.

Jessica snickered as the door vanished behind them. 'About damned time!' she thought as she picked up a chunk of mithril and tossed it in the forge, figuring she'd keep busy.

0o0o0

Ginny compared the burned out runes to the diagram in the journal, fairly sure the ritual wouldn't work in its current state or at least wouldn't do anything useful. "That's a wash," she muttered as she turned to walk away from the circle on the ground.

'Master said to clean the house, taking out the trash is cleaning.' Kreacher snapped his fingers, 'restoring' the runes that he remembered one of the previous Blacks using to get rid of a cousin that wasn't living up to the family's standard. "Janus, Kreacher invokes thee."

"What?!" Ginny shouted and lunged for the house elf as the circle lit up with blue fire, shivering when she suddenly found herself on a rocky ledge in a cold and windy mountain pass overlooking a trail where a group of green skinned humanoids with crude spears were fighting a sword wielding woman with red hair that was wearing tiny scraps of what looked like chainmail instead of underwear. 'What the fuck?!'

'Looks like someone shrunk a dozen trolls to the size of a house elf,' she mused as she pulled her wand out of her pocket and took a couple of seconds to try to figure out what was going on. 'They're probably not good guys considering the nasty looks on their faces and the hot redhead they're attacking.' She pulled her wand and started raining down hexes on the small army the woman was fighting, doing her best to disrupt their coordination with spells that wouldn't draw their attention.

0o0o0