Population Boom, Hogwarts Part 4

"I still think Malfoy is up to something," Harry complained, knowing something was up with the little shite since he hadn't caused any problems or even offered a snide word to anyone since the train.

"Just because Malfoy is being civil doesn't mean he's up to something," Hermione argued as they walked down the seventh floor corridor. "Maybe he's just growing up."

"Do you honestly believe that?" Mist asked as he stopped in front of the tapestry of dancing trolls.

"No," Hermione admitted. "I just figured someone should be the voice of reason."

"That's fair," Mist replied as he walked back and forth, doing his best to keep in mind what he wanted to find and trying to lower his mental defenses enough to let the Room of Requirement read his mind.

"Is there a reason you're pacing?" Ginny asked, following Mist with her eyes, wondering what he was up to.

"Yes," Mist replied, hoping he could actually summon the door and wouldn't have to try to talk someone else into trying to summon it. "I'm trying to open a secret door."

Ginny sighed. "Please tell me that you didn't learn about this from the twins."

"No," Mist replied smugly when a door appeared on the opposite wall from the tapestry.

"Huh, I wasn't really expecting that to work," Harry admitted as he stared at the wooden door that had appeared in the wall. "Where does it go?"

"To a room…" Mist trailed off as he opened the door, revealing a room that was split between a dimly lit muggle lounge complete with a wooden stage on the left and a muggle locker room on the right. "Huh."

"Weird," Hermione muttered, trying to figure out why someone would recreate a room with a muggle lounge and a locker room in the same room and what charms they used to keep the locker room slightly steamy, as if the showers had just been used. "Do you think this is for a muggle studies class?"

"No, it's supposed to be like a holodeck," Mist replied as he walked inside the room and looked around, curious if his mental shields had caused the room to glitch or if he'd let his mind wander while making it since he'd just wanted a lounge where they could relax.

"What's a holodeck?" Ginny asked as she followed the rest of the group inside.

"It's basically a magical room that can change into whatever you need, as long as you don't need food," Mist explained as he closed the door and locked it, wanting to make sure they weren't found.

"And you needed a locker room and a lounge?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"We needed a place to do a couple of rituals and relax," Mist replied as he walked over and sat down in one of the comfortable looking chairs.

"Do you think he was thinking about seeing us naked or just Hermione?" Ginny's clone teased, causing Harry to stare at her in disbelief that she'd gone there.

"Hermione," Ginny replied without hesitation.

"It could be both," Harry's clone mused, adding fuel to the fire. "I mean there has to be a reason that he didn't invite Ron."

"Ronald was busy making out with Lavender and Ron was helping the twins with a prank," Mist replied, ignoring Ginny's question.

"What rituals did you find and did you run them past Sirius?" Hermione asked, happy that he'd glanced at her rather than Ginny.

"Last I checked, Sirius was enjoying a tropical vacation, I wasn't going to bother him and I know the warlock ritual works," Mist assured them.

"If the ritual is good, why did we wait? We've been at school for two weeks," Harry said, wondering why they'd had to wait a week and a half before using the ritual.

"Because the ritual requires singing and dancing and I was looking for a location that we wouldn't get interrupted," Mist admitted.

Ginny glanced around, wondering if her brothers were hidden under a cloak or something watching. "Did the twins put you up to this?"

"No, my current patron is part of the Summer Court, she loves singing and dancing and keeping the dreams of children alive," Mist explained.

"Your current patron, does that mean there are other patrons?" Harry's clone asked.

"Most fey or supernatural creatures of sufficient power can serve as patrons, the problem comes in finding someone you can trust. They're generally chaotic or evil and I'm not summoning an evil patron when we have a perfectly good and reasonable patron that only requires a bit of song and dance to summon and doesn't require continuous sacrifices," Mist explained.

"Will it help me defeat Voldemort?" Harry asked.

"It would certainly help," Mist replied, knowing some of the abilities would probably come in handy if Harry had to duel Voldemort.

"I'm going to hex you if this is a joke, you know that right?" Ginny asked with a smirk.

"That's fair," Mist admitted as he pulled a book filled with children's songs out of his inventory and handed it to Hermione, figuring they'd need the help.

"So we just have to sing and dance?" Ginny's clone asked, wondering what else was involved.

"There's a bit of a ritual and I have to light some candles. It would normally be a bit harder to summon her, but my presence makes it easier," Mist explained as he stood up and walked over to an empty patch of the floor.

"Because you're a warlock?" Ginny's clone asked.

"Basically," Mist replied as he started pulling the ritual objects he'd need out of his inventory. “I’ve already got a connection to her, so no need to send out a call to other beings, which is what makes most of these rituals so complicated as you want to be careful who you call.”

"Candles, a tablecloth, napkins, bread and candy?" Hermione asked, curious about the ritual that Mist had refused to explain until they actually used it.

"Everyone likes candy," Mist replied as he knelt down on the floor and started setting everything up on the floor, using the napkins in place of plates.

Ginny glanced between Harry and Hermione. "Are we sure he hasn't just lost his mind?"

Harry laughed. "You're assuming he had it to start with."

"Just go with it," Ginny's clone said, thinking about the various times she'd had a picnic with Luna over the years.

"That's the spirit, childlike whimsy," Mist offered as he finished arranging everything, resisting the urge to flip Harry off for the crack about his sanity.

"What song do we start with?" Hermione asked as she flipped through the book of songs.

Mist glanced at the book of songs, knowing the specific song didn't matter so much as the intent. "Whatever strikes your fancy, I'm a fan of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star but Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, We're Going to the Moon would work in a pinch."

Hermione smiled as the book opened to a page with a silly drawing of a baker. "Do you know the Muffin Man?" she sang rather intently, as if afraid of doing it wrong.

'This could take a while,' Mist thought as he snapped his fingers and lit candles with purple flames, hoping that she'd relax as she got into the right mood.

Thirteen songs later:

"On a star," Hermione finished the song she'd been working on, already thinking about what song to do next.

Mist turned to look at the dark haired young woman sitting on the stage when she started clapping, not surprised to see the woman despite the fact that she hadn't been there the last time he'd glanced at the stage. 'Black felt hat, black dress and an umbrella, yeah, that tracks.'

"That's the spirit, you have a lovely voice," the woman offered as she hopped down and walked over to the group.

Hermione stared at the woman that looked like she'd stepped straight out of an old story, finding it easier to focus on what she was wearing than what she looked like. "Thank you."

"Such good manners too," the woman replied with a smile as she reached over and tapped Hermione's nose with her finger when she opened her mouth to ask a question. "Boop."

"Boop?" Hermione asked, not sure what to make of the woman that had just playfully tapped her nose with her finger.

"Bippity bop," the woman replied as she spun around and patted Ginny and her clone on their heads as she stepped up to look at Harry's scar. "Hmm, this won't do." She reached up and pulled something dark and twisted out of his scar.

Hermione shivered as she tried to focus on the twisting piece of wrongness as the woman pulled a scuffed up penny out of her pocket. "What is that?"

"Something wicked," the woman replied as she stuck the bit of darkness in the penny, causing the copper to turn black.

Harry just stared at the penny in Mist's hands, trying to wrap his head around the woman pulling something nasty out of his scar and stuffing it in a penny, but feeling a bit numb, like he’d just had an enormous weight taken off his shoulders.

"One way trip I'm afraid," the woman admitted with a sigh as she pulled a shimmering green snake out of the penny that was as long as her forearm. "Hello," she told the snake then let it crawl into her handbag.

"Did she?" Ginny asked as the snake's tail vanished into the woman's handbag.

"Yep," Ginny's clone agreed.

"Take care of this," the woman ordered as she tossed the penny to Mist.

"Of course," Mist agreed, relieved that he hadn't had to resort to drastic measures to deal with Harry's scar.

The woman turned to look at Harry's clone. "Belly button?"

"Belly button?" Harry's clone asked.

"Poke," the woman replied cheerfully as she reached over and lightly poked Harry's clone in the stomach, causing him to giggle. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to talk to a couple of moons and toss some trash in a painting."

"What…" Hermione trailed off as the woman vanished, turning into sparkles that swirled around and rushed into the candy on the tablecloth.

"What was that?" Harry asked as the loaf of bread vanished, trying to make sense of everything that had just happened.

"That was our patron, she's a bit whimsical," Mist replied as he dropped the cursed penny into his inventory as he didn't want to walk around with it out where it could attract attention.

"She didn't explain anything," Hermione complained.

"You'll get used to it," Mist replied as he gestured and caused the purple flames on the candles to vanish. "You should eat your candy before it goes weird."

"Goes weird?" Ginny asked.

"She's fey, even the best of them are strange," Mist replied as he gestured toward the stage and pushed magic into his spell to conjure a lounge singer, conjuring a very curvy red haired woman that was dripping sex appeal in a tiny sequined red dress and holding a microphone.

"What…" Harry trailed off as he turned and saw the gorgeous and very attractive woman. There was something off about her but he couldn’t tell what it was, his eyes having a hard time getting above her chest.

"Fuck me," Harry's clone muttered.

The woman laughed, a sound so sultry the boys had to adjust themselves, as Ginny's clone reached over and playfully swatted the back of Harry's head. "Sorry sugar, I'm happily married."

Hermione reluctantly pulled her attention off the attractive woman and focused on Mist. "Just because our patron isn't going to explain anything doesn't mean you're off the hook, start explaining."

"One of the spells I picked up summons lounge singers," Mist replied with a grin.

"Are you trying to distract us with sexy women?" Harry's clone asked.

"Is it working?" Mist asked with amusement.

"Yes," Harry's clone admitted.

"No," Hermione lied, having found her attention drifting back to the woman on stage. "Why is she… animated? She looked… almost real but animated, a bit. I don’t know how to describe it and her curves are certainly better than any human can reasonably expect!"

"I’m just drawn this way," the woman replied with a smirk. "Do you want traditional jazz or do you have a different request? I do like some variety."

"Highway to Hell?" Mist asked thoughtfully.

"With pleasure," she said, eyes lighting up as she snapped her fingers and summoned a band of animated anthropomorphic female penguins who were just slightly less stacked than she was along with their instruments. "Highway to hell, girls."

Harry stared at the animated penguins that were dressed like cheerleaders and had curves that were literally inhuman. 'I need to learn that spell, this is awesome!'

"Hell yeah!" one of the penguin girls squealed as she started playing her drums, making it sound like a thunderstorm was rolling in.

"Livin' easy, lovin free," the redhead started singing as the rest of the band, filled with animated penguin girls, started playing their parts with gusto.

"This isn't going to work," Hermione argued as she leaned up against Mist, deciding to take a minute and have some fun before she worked on getting answers out of Mist.

"I'll explain later, just enjoy the show," Mist replied in a whisper as he cast his enchanting spell and started cobbling together a mental defense stamp while they were distracted by the show, using the runes from the healing stamp and the tinfoil hat.

0o0o0

"What?" Vernon Dursley demanded as he stomped over to the door and pulled it open, revealing a woman in an old fashioned black dress that was holding a large painting of a jungle in one hand and a black umbrella in the other despite the fact that it wasn't raining, something that made him think of Potter’s people, something he didn't like to think about. "What do you want?" he asked, hoping he could get them to go away so that he could go back to watching the game.

"Are you Vernon Dursley?" the woman asked politely as she studied the morbidly obese man glaring at her, wanting to make sure that she had the right house.

"Yes, can I help you?" Vernon asked with a strained smile on the off chance that she wasn't one of Harry's folk.

"I'd like to discuss your nephew and your treatment of him," she explained politely.

"Fuck off," Vernon replied and slammed the door in her face, a bit annoyed when the latch failed to grab it and it swung back open.

"Language," the woman stated as she reached out and rapped Vernon on the head with her umbrella.

"Bitch!" Vernon snapped as he lunged forward to grab the woman, having lost his previous good mood at the mention of the freak.

She waved her umbrella at the man and he was pulled into the painting, causing the title of the painting that was engraved in a plaque above the picture to change from ‘Spoiled Child on Deserted Island’ to ‘Tropical Paradise Getaway’. She hooked the door handle with her Umbrella and pulled it closed, being careful to keep her hand from crossing the threshold.

She set the painting down so that the scene of The Dursleys standing on a stormswept beach was facing the street. "A little politeness goes a long way," she told the Dursleys as she pulled a card out of her purse and leaned it against the painting, letting the wizards know what had happened to the Dursleys and why.

She smiled at the neighbors that were watching her then opened her umbrella and floated away, causing a rather large spectacle and making everyone realize that the Dursleys were very much not normal.

0o0o0

Thirty minutes and several lounge singers later:

"The first group was better," Harry argued as the Elvis impersonator vanished off the stage.

"I don't know, if I didn't know better, I'd say that was actually Elvis," Hermione mused, surprised by how much he'd looked and sounded like Elvis.

"Okay, talk," Ginny ordered.

"What do you want to know?" Mist asked, trying to figure out the best way to explain things without revealing things he shouldn't because half the group didn't have the ability to protect their memories or thoughts.

"Everything," Ginny and her clone ordered at the same time.

"One plus one is two, one plus two is three," Mist offered, then held up his hands when Ginny glared at him. "Sorry."

"Bullshit," Ginny replied. "What did she pull out of Harry's scar?"

"If I had to guess, a piece of Riddle's soul," Mist admitted, deciding that he might as well be honest.

"What?!" Harry blurted out. "I had a piece of Voldemort in my scar?!"

"Probably," Mist admitted reluctantly, knowing that there wasn't a good way to explain. "Fey play by their own rules, it could have been Harry's connection to Voldemort or Harry's part in the prophecy or it could have been a chunk of Riddle's soul that came loose when he tried to kill us as a baby. Either way, not having the soul fragment stuck in Harry's head means that killing Riddle just got a lot easier."

"How does that make him easier to kill?" Ginny asked.

"It means that we don't have to worry about him trying to consume Harry's soul to keep himself alive," Mist explained.

"How did a piece of Voldemort's soul get in my scar?" Harry asked.

"Riddle's basically a lich, he ripped his soul into various pieces in order to create anchors that would keep his soul from passing on when he died. If we collect the fragments and toss them through the Veil of Death, he won't be a problem anymore," Mist explained.

"Where did you hear that?" Hermione asked.

"My patron gave me a couple of hints, you just have to learn to listen," Mist offered, not wanting to explain more than he had to as the magical world had many ways to get the truth from unprotected minds.

"So you're saying she's sort of like Luna," Ginny mused. "What do you think she meant by tossing some trash in a painting?"

"No clue," Mist admitted. "I'm not a seer, I don't have all of the answers."

"Just most of them?" Harry's clone asked.

Mist shook his head. "Not even close. I picked up a couple of spells and our patron told me how to deal with Voldemort, he should be dead by Christmas, unless someone pokes through your minds and learns something they shouldn't. So yeah, that's all I'm going to say on the matter until he's actually dead and gone or I get the mental defense stamp working."

"What's wrong with the stamp?" Hermione asked.

"It technically works, it just requires being naked when someone of the opposite gender uses the stamp on you and it drastically decreases your modesty," Mist admitted as he pulled the stamp that he'd created out of his inventory.

"Why would you do that?" Hermione asked.

"I needed a way to balance the runes to keep the stamp from igniting because of the mana cost and losing your modesty was less objectionable than some of the other options," Mist admitted.

"When you say we'd lose our modesty, do you mean we wouldn't care if you saw us naked or like we wouldn't see a problem walking through the bad part of town naked?" Ginny's clone asked thoughtfully.

"Seriously?" Ginny asked, looking at her alternate like she'd lost her mind.

"What? It's a valid question," Ginny's clone replied.

"It doesn't damage your common sense or your ability to know when you should keep your clothes on, it just gets rid of your shame as I understand it," Mist explained.

"One more question, would it stop us from getting possessed if we had it?" Ginny's clone asked, willing to give up a lot if it meant she never had to worry about getting possessed again.

"I wouldn't advise fighting a dark god, but yeah, it should stop you from getting possessed…" Mist trailed off as Ginny's clone reached down and pulled her shirt off without any hesitation.

"Just as well that Ron isn't here," Ginny admitted as she grabbed her own shirt and pulled it off, thinking her other self had the right idea.

"Are we supposed to turn around?" Harry asked, his sense of honor barely winning against his desire to see Ginny naked.

"No," Ginny's clone told him. "You're supposed to look and you're supposed to enjoy it."

"Or else," Ginny added with a smile.

"Yes Ma'am," Harry replied, deciding that he might as well enjoy the show.

"What else can you make?" Hermione asked Mist as she watched the redheads strip, enjoying the show more than she was willing to admit, at least out loud. 'Hopefully the boys don't mind stripping for mental defenses.'

"Just about anything I can get my hands on or that I've figured out how to make by combining the runes I pick up by scanning magical items," Mist admitted as Ginny's clone dropped her panties, leaving her naked. "Do you want Harry to stamp your ass or do you want me to?"

"Go for it," Ginny's clone replied with amusement as she turned so that he'd have an easier time putting a stamp on her butt.

Mist pushed mana into the stamp and stamped Ginny's right butt cheek, leaving a penny sized stamp of a pentagram. "How do you feel?"

The clone considered the question for a couple of seconds then smiled as she realized that the anxiety about her friends seeing her naked was gone. "Great. It's like I can't hear Mum’s voice ranting about proper behavior in the back of my head anymore or more like I can just ignore it."

"Harry please," Ginny said as she pulled her panties off and turned around so that Harry could stamp her behind, rather pleased with the way everyone was enjoying the view even if the entire experience was embarrassing.

Mist spent the mana and tossed the stamp to Harry.

Harry carefully stamped Ginny's butt, wanting to make sure that she was safe from spells that would screw with her head.

"And we're good," Mist said.

Ginny glanced between Harry, Mist and Hermione. "Strip, you're not leaving here without mental defenses."

"I have mental defenses," Mist assured her.

"Okay, you're not leaving without Hermione stamping your ass," Ginny's clone stated, looking forward to seeing the boys naked.

Mist glanced at Hermione. "Thoughts?"

"If I'm stripping, you're stripping," Hermione told them, trying to ignore the fact that her ears were red.

"Fine," Mist replied as he reached down and grabbed his shirt, glad that he didn't have all that much modesty to start with.

"I'm sort of annoyed that I didn't get to stamp anyone," Harry's clone admitted.

"You could stamp Mist's ass," Ginny's clone teased.

"I called dibs," Hermione said.

"I have another cheek," Ginny offered.

"That works," Mist agreed, not seeing a problem with her getting multiple stamps.

0o0o0