Harry Potter, Hero of Legend, Stories and Elves Part 6

"Lovegrove Woodworking?" Harry mused as he saw the large wooden sign over the door of the shop that Kara had taken them to.

"It's a family name," Fianna Lovegrove replied as she walked out of the shop. She glanced over the rest of the strangers then focused on Kara. "Luna's in the shop."

Harry studied the lean yet solidly built elven woman wearing a suspiciously clean knee length black skirt and sort of dusty tie-dyed t-shirt that looked a bit out of place but sort of fit with her canary yellow hair that was pulled back into a ponytail.

"I'll talk to her in a minute, we actually came to talk to you about trading some enchanting work for some brooms," Kara replied.

"What type of enchanting work?" Fianna asked with a smile.

Kara gestured toward Sirius. "Sirius can enchant brooms to fly."

Fianna raised her eyebrows. "Did Luna put you up to this?"

Kara chuckled, knowing her friend had been trying to charm a broom to fly for a couple of months now. "No, he's one of the Heroes of Legend."

"Tell you what, if you're willing to give me two brooms that are enchanted to fly, I'll give you the twenty brooms that I haven't sold yet," Fianna offered.

"I can work with that," Sirius replied as a teenager with yellow hair walked out of the shop wearing a black skirt and a tie-dyed shirt.

"Luna?" Harry blurted out when he saw the girl that looked identical to his friend, if you ignored the canary yellow hair and the fact that her ears were pointed.

"Last I checked," Luna replied as she studied the young man that looked like her friend from her dreams.

"You know Luna?" Kara asked Harry.

Harry shook his head, not sure what was going on since the girl obviously wasn't Luna.

"She looks like a friend of ours from back home," Hermione offered, finding the resemblance uncanny.

"Other than the hair and ears," Harry added.

"Everyone has an evil twin somewhere," Luna offered as she turned to look at Sirius. "Do you play in a band?"

Sirius shook his head. "No."

"You should try it," Luna replied then turned to look at Harry.

"Evil twin?" Harry asked.

"Exactly, if you had a pair of glasses and a lightning bolt scar on your forehead, you'd look exactly like a friend of mine. Have you considered growing a goatee?"

"I have…" Harry trailed off when he realized that Hermione was staring at him strangely. "What's wrong?"

"Your scar is gone," Hermione replied as she reached over and poked at the area where his scar should have been, finding nothing wrong with his skin. "It probably healed when the priestess removed the curse and we just didn't notice."

"Same with the glasses," Harry mused.

"Hogwarts, Dumbledore, and Umbridge?" Luna asked thoughtfully.

"Old castle and school that teaches magic, the headmaster of the school and a ministry flunky that can't teach and shouldn't be near children," Harry offered.

"Or anyone," Tonks muttered, less than amused by the woman's stupidity and sadism.

"Nice to see you," Luna said cheerfully as she hugged Harry, happy to see her friend and feeling a lot better about their chances against the demons now that Harry was here.

"How?" Harry asked, not sure what was going on.

"Did you get sent here as well?" Hermione asked, trying to figure out what was going on.

"No, I've always been here and I've always been over there," Luna replied as she pulled Hermione into the hug, changing it into a group hug. "I'm Luna Lovegrove and my other half is Luna Lovegood."

"Like Jekyll and Hyde?" Xander asked.

"No, I go to sleep here and I wake up over there. If I go to sleep over there, I wake up over here, it makes perfect sense if you think about it," Luna assured them.

"Sure Pumpkin, let's go with that," Fianna teased.

Kara snickered. "Makes perfect sense to me."

"How long has this been going on?" Hermione asked when Luna reluctantly let them go.

"As long as I can remember. I thought it was normal until I started school," Luna admitted.

Fianna just shrugged when Tonks and Sirius gave her a look that said they were questioning her sanity or at least her sense of humor. "She was a kid, I just figured she had a couple of imaginary friends growing up."

"Sounds nice," Harry told her, wishing he'd grown up with a second set of parents so he'd had someone to talk to about the Dursleys.

"It was nice and then the demons showed up and I had to worry about trouble in both worlds," Luna grumbled.

"If I ever figure out how to travel to the other world, I'm going to slap the shit out of the Ministry for not dealing with their dark wizard," Fianna complained.

"They need it," Tonks agreed.

"Speaking of demons, we should probably get started so Harry can go scouting," Sirius suggested, trying to get things back on track.

"Right, this way," Luna said as she turned and headed into the shop.

Tonks followed the rest of the group into the stone shop filled with half finished projects sitting on wooden tables and benches. "What do you normally make?"

"Everything from cabinets and bookshelves to brooms and ornate doors," Fianna explained as she followed the group into the shop. "Luna's been on a broom kick the last couple of months, trying to figure out how to get them to fly."

"I'm getting closer," Luna argued as she gestured at the broom that was floating a foot above one of the tables.

"Closer?" Hermione asked as they walked over to look at her project.

"They always have a couple issues," Luna admitted. "Most of the spells from Hogwarts don't actually work or I can't make them work, so I'm sort of taking ideas and trying to cobble something together. This particular broom hovers a foot above any surface and you can go forward but you can't make left turns or stop without having the front of the broom hit the ground. Some of the brooms don't make right turns and some of them only go backwards."

"Can any of them actually fly?" Sirius asked.

"Not yet," Luna admitted. "I haven't figured out how to get them to actually fly."

Harry used his Appraisal ability on the broom that was floating above the table, curious if he could figure out why the enchantment didn't work right.

"Have you considered making hoverboards?" Xander asked thoughtfully.

"Like Back to the Future?" Luna asked thoughtfully.

"Yeah," Xander agreed.

"I don't have a way to keep it from twisting and tossing people or if I get a stable base, I can't get it to move right," Luna admitted. "Every time I focus on fixing something, something else breaks."

"What do you think, Harry?" Hermione asked.

Harry finished checking some of her other prototypes. "Some of the qualities are broken or questionable but the layout of the enchantment is solid. Even without Sirius's help, I should be able to shuffle the qualities around and create a broom that can fly ten feet above the ground and four or five brooms that can fly a couple of feet off the ground and do everything they're supposed to do."

"And with my help?" Sirius asked.

"The sky's the limit," Harry replied with a grin. "Most of the brooms have at least one or two broken qualities but it seems to be somewhat random. What type of material went into enchanting the brooms?"

"Each broom needs a crystal to hold the mana and I've been experimenting with different types of mana conductive varnish as it seems to improve the responsiveness," Luna explained. "Do you want a copy of my notes?"

"Absolutely," Hermione replied, hoping she could learn something or figure out why the process wasn't working correctly.

"It might be the crystals," Kara suggested. "They're not exactly a standard shape or of exceptional quality."

"I'm working on a budget and your current batch of homegrown crystals are needed for the wardstones," Luna reminded her. "It could also be the wood or the bristles or the alignment of the stars. I've been cobbling things together from books in the library."

Fianna walked over and grabbed one of the brooms that she'd finished off the rack and handed it to Sirius. "Here."

"Thanks," Sirius replied as he pulled his wand out of his pocket and got to work, charming the broom to fly, skipping some of the more complicated steps since he didn't need to keep the broom from working if it fell into muggle hands.

0o0o0

"Does he always fly like a lunatic?" Fianna asked as she watched Harry fly through a series of floating rings that Sirius had conjured over the pond and set on fire.

"Yes," Hermione replied, thinking about all of the crazy and reckless stunts he'd pulled off playing quidditch.

"I want one!" one of the elves that had walked over to watch the test squealed.

One of the girl's friends giggled. "To hell with the broom, I want the wizard."

Luna shook her head. "There are plenty of times when he just flies around during practice."

"Fine, he's only a lunatic when he thinks it matters," Hermione admitted. She glanced at the collection of elves that had gathered to watch the test. "Try not to copy him."

"He's not that bad…" Sirius trailed off as Harry flew through a ring then spun and sort of slid toward one of the smaller rings, looking like he was going to hit the ring with his broom for a second before the broom vanished and Harry 'fell' through the ring. He took a breath and let it out when Harry's broom reappeared under him and Harry flew through the next ring like a bat out of hell. "Never mind."

"I'm going to kill him," Hermione grumbled, annoyed that he was risking his life on an untested broom.

Tonks laughed. "Relax, he's doing fine."

"How much are you selling the brooms for?" one of the young men watching asked Luna.

"I'm sure we can work something out," Fianna assured the group.

"Harry!" Hermione called out.

'Right on time,' Harry thought with a smile as he flew through the last ring and headed down to face the music.

"What the hell was that?!" Hermione demanded as Harry dismounted, less concerned about his safety than his sanity thanks to the fact that he'd been flying over the pond and hadn't been all that high.

"Badass flying?" Harry asked 'innocently' as he put the broom in his inventory,

"You're going to get someone killed if they try to copy you," Hermione warned him.

"That's why we have a pond," Kara pointed out.

Harry glanced at the large crowd of elves that had gathered to watch the test flight once they realized that Luna's crazy invention actually worked. "To be fair, most people don't have an inventory and I was testing its drifting ability."

"That was awesome!" one of the female elves squealed. "Can I try?!"

"I bet I can go through more rings than you," one of the elves told his friend.

"You're on," his friend replied, always up for a challenge. "Do you have an extra broom?" he asked Harry.

Sirius flicked his wand and dismissed the flaming rings. "Sorry, you have to prove that you can fly before you can practice with rings."

"What?" the two overly competitive elves complained.

Harry pulled the five 'training' brooms he'd cobbled together out of his inventory and handed them to Sirius. "These are a bit slower and less responsive but that's probably a good thing to start with. Make sure they don't kill themselves, I've got to go."

"Harry…" Hermione trailed off when Harry vanished. "That's annoying."

Harry grinned as he headed toward the shop, rather impressed by his new stealth ability. 'At least this job came with perks.'

'Nice exit,' Sirius thought with a smile, knowing James would be proud. "Okay, I'm going to explain how the brooms work and then we'll let people give it a shot."

"Yes!" one of the youngest girls squealed, making everyone wince.

0o0o0

'Gorgan or Gorgon?' Harry mused as he made his way to the large tent in the middle of the massive camp filled with snake headed women that he was trying not to look at. He slipped past the pair of busty medusa-like creatures that were guarding the entrance of the tent and stared at the Hagrid sized minotaur that was sprawled out on a pile of furs. 'Just as well that I'm not looking for a fair fight.'

He glanced around the mostly empty tent then moved out of the way so that no one would walk into him if they walked in. He used his Appraisal ability on the minotaur. 'High magic resistance, demonic iron horns and extremely high durability and strength. At least he doesn't have a gaze attack that turns people to stone.'

He checked the loincloth the minotaur was wearing and smiled when he realized that he could steal the high armor rating for Hermione's loincloth. He turned his attention to the four rings the minotaur was wearing, checking the thumb ring first. 'Ring of the Eternal Bastard, any damage that gets through the wearer's armor or inherent toughness is redirected to one of his family members, as long as they're within five miles.'

'Would that work on Vernon or does it have to be a blood relative?' Harry mused as he checked the next ring. 'Armor storage? This ring stores a suit of armor in a pocket dimension and gives the user all of the benefits and none of the mundane negatives of wearing the armor. That's one way to pretend to be a lot tougher than you are,' he mused as he checked the next ring.

'Ring of the Serpent Cultist: Reduces the time pregnancy takes to a fifth of the normal time and makes you immune to poison and disease. Having children while wearing this ring gives the children claws, snake hair and increased durability, endurance and senses.'

He quickly checked the other ring, confirming that it was the other offspring boosting ring that Borgar had mentioned. 'Okay, now for the tricky part.' He walked over and carefully touched each of the rings, putting each of them in his inventory. 'No more armor and no more immunity to damage,' he thought as he pulled one of his daggers out of his inventory. 'So much for being a Gryffindor. Fuck that, he's as large as Hagrid.'

Harry moved behind the demonic minotaur, reached down and cut his throat with his silvertine dagger then jumped back as Gorgan started flailing around. He carefully pulled another dagger out of his inventory, trying to be as quiet as possible so that he wasn't heard in spite of his stealth ability.

"What the fuck?!" one of the guards demanded when she turned and looked at her dead commander.

"M-" the demon's shout was cut off by Harry's demon bane silvertine dagger sinking into her throat.

Harry hit the other demon in the throat with his second dagger then rushed forward and pulled them the rest of the way into the tent. He pulled his silvertine throwing axe out of his inventory and made sure the guards were dead then spun around and checked the minotaur that was sprawled on the ground not moving. 'It's dead, probably.'

He opened his Soul Arts interface and checked to see if Gorgan was actually dead. He sighed in relief when he saw Gorgan's name in his list of souls that he could convert into spells. 'Okay, I guess he's not faking it,' he admitted as he read the description of the spells that he could turn the demon's soul into, trying to calm down.

'Minotaur's charge: doubles speed in a straight line and conjures a pair of spectral horns on your head so you can pretend to be a bull or I can grab the spell that conjures a permanent cowboy hat.'

Harry used his Appraisal ability on Gorgan's horns. 'Demonic iron horns: Celestial Bane: five percent more damage against celestial creatures. Rust: the metal rusts twice as fast as iron. Corruptive: Injuries have a small chance of causing a rotting disease and being near the metal will push people closer to the darkness. Impact: the metal increases the damage dealt on any impact by a small amount. Four different magical qualities, that's probably worth running some tests on,' he mused as he walked over and finished cutting the minotaur's head off.

He stuffed the demon's head into this inventory then dropped the minotaur's loincloth into his inventory. He froze when he saw the size of the minotaur's equipment, fairly sure that it was smaller than his own. 'That explains why he had to hide it,' he thought as he opened his demon summoning interface and summoned Gorgan.

Gorgan glanced around in confusion then focused on his corpse. "What the fuck?" he asked in a squeaky voice that wouldn't have been out of place on a child that was abusing helium.

Harry stared at the demon for a couple of seconds then shook his head as he realized that his voice didn't actually matter. "No screaming or shouting or calling for help or leaving the tent without permission. Where did you stash the loot?"

"We already traded it to Hexen for a pair of arcane cannons and one of his daughters. He gave me a good deal," Gorgan replied proudly.

"Where are the cannons?" Harry asked.

"In the wagon behind the tent," Gorgan replied. "Did you find out who killed me?"

"I'm still looking into it," Harry replied, not seeing a reason to admit that he was responsible since Gorgan didn't seem all that smart. "How long will it take you to find your target?"

"Path says that we'll be in town in three days then we get to have fun with elf girls," Gorgan offered then frowned slightly. "Path has been saying this for a couple of days."

"I'll have a chat with Path, where can I find them?" Harry asked.

"Path should be on the wagon," Gorgan replied as he gestured toward the back of the tent.

"How were you planning on taking the town?" Harry asked.

"Arcane cannons!" Gorgan replied enthusiastically. "We can also catapult the children into the town so they can release poison gas on the way in."

"Got it," Harry replied and let the demon vanish. 'He probably makes up for brains with his combat ability or maybe he's just here to soften the elves up?' he mused as he headed back outside. He walked around the tent and froze in place when he saw the attractive and naked teenage girl with pointed ears, long dirty brown hair and glowing green eyes who was sitting on the back of a wagon with her legs spread apart and another girl's head between them.

Harry reluctantly pulled his complete attention off the pair of naked demon girls and looked at the steampunk-like cannons that looked like they were built on a swivel. He used his Appraisal ability on the cannons. 'Exceptional damage and horrible durability and the one on the left has an explosive flaw, use it too much and it's going to explode after twenty seconds, fun.'

He used his Appraisal ability on the demonic girls to make sure they were actually demons and not someone he had to rescue. 'System based Engineering skill, immunity to poison and disease and enhanced durability and intelligence. Should I try to talk them into helping or bind them after they're dead?'

'They're demons,' Harry told himself, doing his best to ignore the fact that the brown haired demon had a really nice ass. 'Worst case, I'll just release them.' He walked over so he was behind the demon sitting on a wagon and pulled his wand out of his inventory. "Stupify," he chanted softly, sending a stunner into the demon's back. "Stupify," he chanted, hitting the second demon with a stunner and dropping her unconscious before she realized there was a problem.

'Sorry, not sorry,' Harry offered as he cut their throats with his dagger, knowing they'd probably gleefully kill a bunch of elves if he didn't kill them. 'Path and Naughty? Weird.' He summoned the girls. "Path?"

"What?" the blonde demon asked as she looked around. "What's going on boss…" she trailed off when she noticed her dead body on the ground. "Did you kill us to bind us?"

"Sorry?" Harry offered not sure how to feel since she was being reasonable.

"Wicked, can we eat them?" Naughty asked hopefully.

"Is she always like this?" Harry asked as he shoved the demon demons into his inventory.

"She wasn't spanked enough as a child," Path replied as she looked around. "What do you need?" she asked, ignoring her sister sticking her tongue out at her.

"I'm trying to save the elves," Harry admitted.

"Which means you're going to kill the snake demons, how can I help?" Path asked enthusiastically.

"Seriously?" Harry asked, surprised that she sounded enthusiastic about helping.

"They're fucking creepy, they stink and most of them are dumber than a box of bolts," Path complained.

"If you need to kill snakes, I'm your girl," Naughty offered with a smile. "Especially if I can get some snake skin boots and maybe a leather coat if we can find a decent leatherworker."

"If we have time," Harry replied as he put his wand and dagger back in his inventory, not sure how he was supposed to feel about making clothing out of intelligent or at least vaguely intelligent beings. "Can you show me how to use the cannon?"

"Of course, but you should avoid using the left one, it's a death trap," Path warned him.

"Why?" Harry asked.

"My father doesn't want Gorgan to win, he just wants the elves in a bad shape so he can swoop in and capture the city. If a device just happens to explode from 'misuse' after he gave him detailed instructions, that's hardly his fault," Path argued.

"It's pretty simple, you just use the handles to aim and then flip the switch to turn everything on and pull the trigger," Naughty offered.

"It sends out a beam of plasma that should kill anything in the general direction that isn't immune to fire and lightning," Path added. "What are you thinking?"

"I killed Gorgan which means I currently have the ability to summon him, I was thinking about having him gather everyone important in front of the tent then blasting them with the cannon until they're dead," Harry offered.

"Can I pull the trigger?!" Naughty asked hopefully.

"You can use the right cannon," Harry replied with a grin. "Do you know the best demons to target?"

"Absolutely, I've been taking notes," Path replied with a smile as she skipped over to her bag that was sitting on the back of the wagon and grabbed her journal, excited about killing all of the annoying snake demons that had been hitting on her for the last couple of weeks.

0o0o0