Population Boom, Hogwarts Part 20

Flashback 

"Hermione was right, we should have just stayed inside and read a book," Mist grumbled as he glanced between the crystal ball that he'd enchanted to allow him to scry on people and the lake, not sure why the hell the staff had decided in their infinite 'wisdom' to require the students to sit on a bunch of bleachers in February to watch the top of a lake when there was nothing to actually see.

"Are you mad?" Seamus asked as he turned to look at Mist. "You expect us to miss the tournament?"

"It's pointless and it's bloody cold," Mist complained, ignoring the fact that he was immune to the cold for the sake of complaining.

"It could be worse, we could be watching Quidditch in the rain," Hermione teased, well aware of the fact that Mist was immune to the cold or at least resistant enough that taking a dip in ice water wouldn't actually matter to him.

"Try practicing in the rain," Harry grumbled, thinking about the times that Oliver had hauled the team to the pitch during the rain.

"No thanks, I'm not Oliver." Mist glanced over at the section of the bleachers where Fudge's clone was talking to some foreign dignitary. "This is almost like watching paint dry."

"That's just because you don't have a stake in the game," Lily pointed out.

"Just as well," Mist replied, glad that he didn't have to deal with Harry being in the tournament since the entire thing was something of a clusterfuck as far as he was concerned. "I understand that we'll probably be done in another forty five minutes, but this could have been amazing, we could have had a giant screen showing the contestants and someone running around selling or handing out popcorn while we placed bets on everything, but this… What's the point?"

"Wizarding tradition," James offered with a straight face, finding himself in agreement with his oldest.

"See, the Professor gets it," Seamus argued.

"Not really," James admitted. "Mist's right, it would have been easy to rig up a screen or something that showed the contestants, the ministry just wanted the prestige, they didn't put any thought into making it interesting."

Mist glanced between Lily and James. "How long do you think it would take to charm something that would blow up the image in the crystal ball?"

"Ten?" Lily asked James.

"I can do it in five," James replied as he pulled his wand out of the holster in his sleeve and quickly cast a couple of spells, creating a giant screen in the sky that showed the images in the crystal ball, deciding that 'begging' forgiveness was better than asking permission from the idiots since the entire event was dead boring.

Mist cast the popcorn spell he'd picked up from one of the monsters in the dungeon, conjuring a large paper bucket of buttery popcorn that he promptly handed to Ginny as he didn't want to deal with the popcorn and the crystal ball in his lap. "Here."

"Can I have one?" Angelia called out from a couple of rows back.

"One over here," Neville called out from where he was sitting with Hannah and Susan.

Mist glanced over at his friend that was sitting next to Hannah and Bellatrix and conjured a bucket of popcorn, glad that Neville was coming out of his shell now that his parents were back. He floated the popcorn over to Neville then gestured and conjured a bucket of popcorn in Angelia's lap with the snap of his fingers. "Anyone else?"

"Yes!" several dozen people called out at the same time.

"Raise your hands," Mist called out as he started conjuring popcorn, having fun turning the rather dull event into a party.

0o0o0

"Are you planning on betting on the tournament?" Sarah Snape asked the group as she worked on braiding Rose's hair, trying to distract herself from the somewhat obsessive studying the group had been doing for the last couple of days thanks to Hermione and Puck going into 'panic' mode over their end of the year exams.

Mist glanced up from his transfiguration book he was rereading and focused on his sister's girlfriend. "I wasn't planning on it, despite Fleur's poor showing in the lake, she'll probably do pretty well in the maze since she isn't worried about her sister and Krum is pretty solid when it comes to offensive hexes so I doubt he'll have a problem with Hagrid's pets."

"What about Cedric?" Ron asked, keeping his voice low so the librarian wouldn't have a reason to complain, not that she really needed one.

"He's got a solid chance, which is why I'm not going to risk my money," Mist replied, glad that he'd set up a ward to keep people from hearing their conversation so he didn't have to worry about the librarian kicking them out for being noisy. "I considered betting against Bagman since his luck seems to be shite but that would still be picking between three skilled contestants."

"I'm still surprised that you got Bagman to pay the twins, how did you manage that?" Ginny asked.

"Bribery," Mist replied with a grin.

"Mist," Hermione complained. "What did you do?"

"I gave him enough galleons to pay his debt off in exchange for a bunch of tickets for various professional quidditch games this summer," Mist admitted. "He's not technically allowed to sell them, but he can give them out to important people and friends and family of the Boy That Lived certainly count or apparently anyone that helps him out of financial trouble. He also agreed to change things up for the last trial and use James' spell to make sure we can actually see the action in the maze."

Hermione sighed. "That's a little shady but at least we won't have to just sit there and only catch bits and pieces of the last task."

"Exactly," Mist replied, not seeing a point in mentioning the fact that he'd also replaced Bagman with a clone to make damned sure the bastard didn't pull something stupid like pretending that they'd stolen the tickets or claim that he'd blackmailed him so that he could double sell the tickets.

"Do you have enough tickets for everyone?" Ginny asked hopefully.

Mist shrugged. "I have enough tickets to make sure everyone can go to a couple of games but I don't have enough tickets to let everyone go at once. We'd probably have to do some horse trading and trade them for a bunch of tickets in the normal seats."

"Or we could use them to go on dates," Jenny suggested.

"Works for me," Harold agreed, looking forward to having a fun summer for a change.

"Sure," Mist agreed, not seeing a reason to worry about it either way since the games were scattered all over Britain and he wasn't much of a sports fan. "I'm just looking forward to finishing the tests so Hermione will stop worrying about it."

Hermione sighed. "I just want to make sure everyone does well."

"I'm aware and I appreciate it," Mist assured her, "but I think our brains are going to start leaking out of our ears if we're stuck here much longer."

"Fine, what do you have in mind?" Hermione asked, willing to admit that she might have gone a bit overboard and that everyone seemed to have a good grasp of the material they'd covered.

"I was thinking about using the vanishing cabinet to head to the shop and then heading to London to see a play or a museum," Mist suggested.

"Do you realize how much trouble we'll get in if we're caught?" Hermione asked.

"None," Mist replied smugly. "I'm planning on asking Mum for permission, if we're caught, we'll just tell McGonagall that we had permission, if we're not, then Mum doesn't have to justify giving us permission for a night on the town."

"I have a list of museums that I want to see," Sarah piped up as she finished braiding Rose's hair.

"They'll be closed by the time we get there," Hermione pointed out.

"We can jump to the shadow realm, can you honestly tell me you don't want to look in the back rooms and maybe walk off with a couple of paintings?" Mist teased.

"Mist," Hermione complained.

Puck snickered, knowing that her 'twin' was tempted. "Sounds fun and taking a break would probably help."

Ron shook his head. "I think I'll pass."

"Seriously?" Ginny asked, surprised that her brother didn't want the chance to do some guilt free looting.

"Lavender is losing her mind studying and wants to blow off some steam messing around later," Ron replied with a grin. "I'm not going to pass up the chance to feel her up."

"That's completely fair," Mist assured him, unwilling to argue since it would be a lot easier to talk the girls into fucking everyone if Ron wasn't there. "We should probably invite the Lunas."

"Sounds good," Ginny agreed.

"Have fun with that," Ron muttered as he collected his books and supplies, looking forward to having some fun with Lavender.

"We should stop for pizza on the way," Sarah suggested.

"See you all later," Ron told them as he left, wanting to catch up with Lavender before she changed her mind.

"Just as well," Ginny said, looking forward to having sex with Harry and the collection of Lunas, something she wouldn't be doing if her brother was hanging around.

"To adventure," Rose suggested as she started putting her stuff away in her bag, excited about getting out of the castle and seeing the town. "Do you think Mum will let us go?"

"Probably," Mist replied with a shrug, not particularly worried about it since the entire adventure was just an excuse to get Hermione to relax. "Worst case, we can listen to music in the Room and relax in the pool."

"Let's talk to Mum," Harry suggested.

0o0o0

"How badly do you think the experts would freak out if we dropped a perfect copy of the Mona Lisa in the lobby with a note, saying that we found it when we tore out a wall of an old mansion with connections to the Italian Mob?" Mist asked thoughtfully, rather amused at the idea of shaking up the art world by 'stealing' the Mona Lisa from the shadow world.

Hermione pulled her attention away from the museum stairs where Rose was posing for naked pictures with Sarah and three of the Lunas and looked at Mist. "No torturing the scientists or the security guards by sneaking a painting inside the museum in the middle of the night."

Harry pulled his attention off of Sarah. "I thought the Mona Lisa was in France?"

"Correct," Hermione agreed. "It's stored in the Louvre, which is another reason we're not going with Mist's crazy idea."

"Oh please, Twist could pop over there with a vanishing cabinet and we'd be in and out in a couple of hours, less if we can keep you from geeking out over the artwork," Mist teased.

"Not happening," Puck piped up as she took another picture of the girls on the stairs, loving how the shadows from the shadow realm made the picture more interesting and added a spooky quality to the pictures.

"I think you're overreacting," Mist teased. "The scientists would have a blast coming up with theories on how the painting was duplicated or when da Vinci painted it, especially since they don't even know the exact year the original was painted."

Hermione shook her head. "And the guards would probably get fired and the museum would waste a lot of money looking for holes in their security. Not to mention the issue with the lab techs noticing that the paintings are exactly the same, which would probably get the wizarding world involved."

"Or they'd just assume that da Vinci came up with a way to make an exact copy of a painting four hundred years ago," Mist teased, knowing the painting would spawn a lot of questions and having fun winding Hermione up.

Puck took another picture of Sarah and Rose with her conjured camera then turned to look at Hermione. "Relax, he's not that crazy."

"Yeah, it sounds like a lot of work for a prank," Mist admitted. "I'd need to do a bunch of research on locations and find a place that used to be connected to the mob that could have hidden the painting and we'd need to figure out how to fake the proof."

"Or we could loot the Vatican and toss the extra artwork into the donation some anonymous group turns over to the British Museum," Harold suggested, having figured out that Mist was just having fun. "They'd have a hard time explaining the second painting."

"Especially if we tossed in some additional artwork or used magic to find genuinely missing paintings and stashed them in the collection we turned over," Mist suggested.

"They probably have magical protections," Hermione argued.

"It's probably more trouble than it's worth," Mist admitted as he headed forward the door to the next room. "Let's do some exploring then we'll grab pizza."

"Sounds good," Hermione replied, excited about being able to walk through the back rooms and actually examine some of the artwork not on display.

Jenny smiled as she glanced between Harold and the group of Lunas. "And then we'll see if we can find a couple of places around town where we can work on increasing our mana."

"Sounds good," Harold agreed, not seeing a problem with Jenny's idea.

0o0o0

Mist glanced up from the book of weird spells that he'd found on one of the monsters he'd killed when Hermione walked into the common room. "Did you find the secret extra credit question on the back page?"

"The one hiding in the lion print or the invisible rabbit that was moving around the test?" Hermione asked, managing to keep a straight face as she walked over to the section of the common room they'd taken over.

"Wait, what?!" Ron blurted out. "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Because we're not supposed to talk during tests and because Professor Potter mentioned the detection charm back in March," Hermione replied, fairly sure there hadn't been a hidden question because she'd checked but deciding to prank him because he'd blown off the last couple of study sessions to spend time with Lavender…s On the plus side the two girls did look more relaxed, though Ron was looking a bit shagged out.

"Great, how many people do you think noticed?" Ron asked warily, suddenly less sure about his Defense test than he'd been when he finished it.

"Just her and really, she was already doing horrible things to the curve, so I don't think it matters," Mist pointed out, fairly sure Hermione was joking as he'd tossed the test into his enchanting window to grab the runes for the anti cheating charms on it.

"At least she's not in Divination," Ron muttered.

"For the best," Hermione muttered, thinking about Professor Trelawney's lack of professionalism.

"I'm sure you did fine," Mist assured him, not particularly worried about it because with the exception of your second year tests playing a part in selecting your electives for third year, only your owls and newts really mattered in the grand scheme of things.

"Look on the bright side, you can't have done worse than Crabbe and Goyle," Harry offered, not all that worried about the test because he'd actually had a lot of time to study for once.

"Draco said they were actually studying, so they might surprise you," Mist added helpfully.

"Piss off," Ron replied, knowing he was just messing with him. "So, what are we doing tonight?"

Mist laughed. "Same thing we do every night Pinkie, try to take over the world!"

"Have you considered seeing a mind healer?" Ron asked, mostly joking.

Mist shook his head. "Nope, I've seen the wizarding world, I wouldn't trust them to pour piss out of a boot with the instructions written on the heel, let alone look around in my head for cobwebs or issues."

"That's fair," Ron admitted. “Had to see one when they caught Scabbers and he said I had a jealousy problem. Well, I’m off to… study.”

Ginny rolled her eyes. “Too bad Lavender’s bits aren’t on any tests.” She watched her brother leave with the identical girls.

“That we know of,” Myst said, only for someone to hit him with a pillow which he threw back hitting someone else, who conjured their own pillow to fling at someone completely uninvolved.

Hermione nodded, seeing where things were heading and tucked her book away before summoning pillow sized marshmallows and launching them around her at random, happy to blow off some steam. “Eat room temperature sugar!” she cried out as the pillow/food fight began.

0o0o0

"Nice marshmallows," Luna offered as she walked into the Gryffindor common room and saw her friends covered with marshmallow goo.

"Yeah, how can I help you?" Mist asked as he did a halfway decent job of wiping away the marshmallow goo that was covering his face.

"My parents are here to talk to you," Luna replied.

"Parents?" Mist asked, fairly sure her mother was dead.

"Yes, parents," Luna agreed with a smile as she levitated his goo covered form out the exit where the other two Lunas were waiting.

"Okay, that works," Mist agreed, not seeing a problem with talking to her father.

"You better not be dripping," Flitch complained when he saw one of the Lunas floating a giant marshmallow covered person through the hall. 'I don't want to know, if I just pretend that I didn't see it, I don't have to clean it.'

Mist blinked a couple of times when they got outside of the castle and he saw a woman that looked a lot like Luna standing next to her father. "Hello?"

"We wanted to thank you for saving Pandora," Xenophilius said with a warm smile.

"I don't remember doing that," Mist admitted, confused.

"And yet, I'm only here because of you," Pandora said with a smile.

"And here I was going to let you marry my daughter," Xenophilius said, sounding offended.

"Have sex with, not marry," one of the Lunas piped up.

"Yes, yes dear," he replied absently, checking to make sure his wife was still alive and well standing next to him.

"Hmm, tell me exactly what was done to save your wife, including dates and times," Mist suggested, figuring it was a time travel thing since he knew he couldn't obliviate himself because of his mental defenses. "Because I haven't saved her yet."

"Yet? Excellent, I guess that means you can marry my daughter," Xenophilius replied with a smile.

"You mean ‘have his way with’,” Luna corrected.

"Molest!" another Luna suggested cheerfully.

"Take on a trip to Pound Town," one of the Lunas suggested.

"Pound town?" Pandora asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It got Daddy to turn funny colors," Luna replied with a grin.

"Go easy on your father, he's easily embarrassed," Pandora told her daughter.

"How about we just put permanent silencing charms on her room and we never talk about this again? Maybe a nice confundus?" Xenophilius offered.

Pandora shook her head. "You don't need to forget her room exists."

"Luna has a room?" Xenophilius asked, playing into the joke.

"Perfect, now we just need the details," Luna said cheerfully, happy that everything was working out, according to plan, she just wasn't sure who's plan.

“At least I now know what I’m doing this weekend,” Mist said.

“Yes, me,” Luna agreed.

“Confundus is a wonderful spell,” Xenophilius told his wife.

0o0o0