Chapter 39: 39 Time Waits For No Wizard Part Two

It took less than a month for Luna to reach Level 20, to Hermione and Padma's shock. It was all thanks to Luna's wacky idea about using failing potions to cause massive explosions, which cleared out entire waves of rats, bats, and centipedes in the Level 3 Hogwarts Dungeon. It used up a cauldron each time; but, that was a very cheap price to pay to gain so much loot and experience in one go.

Harry always hugged the brilliant blonde and snuck in an occasional kiss to her cheek, which he very loudly whispered that they should never tell Padma about, even though Padma stood not two feet away from them. Luna always giggled like mad and both Hermione and Padma shook their heads and fought to not laugh at his antics.

With Harry as the heavy hitter, Padma as the ranged specialist, Hermione as the strategist, and Luna to think outside the box, the odd and very effective Party mined that dungeon as much as possible. They wouldn't upgrade it until a long time after adding more members, unless they could somehow find another dungeon to use for new members.

After another month of school and dungeon diving, Luna gave them another wacky idea. They should roam through the Forbidden Forest to see if anything triggered. There were a lot of creatures inside the forest, so there had to be at least one dungeon to unlock. That it was also Halloween was not lost on the other three explorers.

After nearly half a day of exploring, they had discovered three of them. The first one was a Level 1 Dungeon near a path where the Thestral herd lived. It was filled with everything small in the forest, like pixies, insects, birds, rabbits, deer, and other wildlife. It ended with a wolf pack and the boss was the wolf's Alpha. It was an easy repeatable dungeon and would be perfect for new members.

The second one was half a mile inside the forest and was a Level 2 Dungeon. This one was much harder with large boars, roaming wolves, bears, bobcats, and eagles. It ended with a wild Centaur herd and you had to kill the Chieftain. They had swords, bows and arrows, and could trample you like horses. It was also repeatable, which meant it didn't kill any of the actual local inhabitants.

The last one was a doozy. It was a Level 5 Raid Dungeon and was three miles inside the deepest and darkest part of the forest. Harry didn't activate it, because he could tell just from the description what it would entail. Spiders. Lots and lots of spiders. His Identify skill told him that it was a very dangerous dungeon and that the Acromantulas went from an inch in size to giant man-eating spiders that were the size of cars.

“I think this is going to be another one that you and the goblins can handle all on your own, Harry.” Hermione whispered and both Padma and Luna nodded their heads several times.

All four of them very slowly backed away from the area until they felt that they were far enough away and then ran. They would have to research some specific spells to help fighting so many creatures, because if the Level 3 dungeon and how many creatures it spawned was any indication, there would be thousands of the spiders to take care of.

“I'll owl the goblins and tell them they have until next summer to look for more fighters, or start training more.” Harry said and shivered. “There's no way I'm going in there with less than 50 swords and shields. Maybe 20 archers if they have them. Any less would be guaranteed to fail.”

“We can start brewing lots of spider antivenom potions, too.” Hermione offered.

“Good idea.” Harry said and looked at Luna. “Do you think your exploding cauldron trick will work?”

Luna shook her head. “Anything with legs as long as I am tall, can easily get out of the way of anything you throw.”

Harry sighed. “That stops us from throwing immolation potions, too.”

“Unless you want to light that whole section of the Forbidden Forest on fire.” Padma said and the other three looked at her with wide eyes. “You know the whole place is going to be covered in webs, especially the trees.”

“Acromantula silk is very expensive and difficult to gather safely.” Luna said. “They keep eating the harvesters.”

Harry, Hermione, and Padma stopped walking. “Auto-loot!”

Luna giggled and stopped to turn as she smiled at them. “Harry needs some climbing gear if he's going to get high enough to get all that webbing.”

“A trip to Flourish and Blotts in Diagon Alley could give us more ideas to handle the spiders.” Hermione said, her voice thoughtful. “We could also check to see if Madam Malkin can work with that shed basilisk skin.”

“Or Twilfitt and Tattings.” Padma said. “They deal in more expensive fabrics and materials.”

“I want an ice cream float from Fortescue's.” Luna said and her smile changed to a dreamy one.

“Ice cream does sound good.” Hermione said.

Padma smiled. “We've walked all over the forest, so a little reward wouldn't hurt.”

The three girls paused dramatically and turned to face the only male among them. “Ohhh, Harry!”

Harry chuckled at their identical begging puppy expressions. “We'll head back to a good spot and then I'll pop us over.”

“Yay!” Luna said and was the first to give him a hug.

The other two girls gave him a hug as well and Harry motioned for them to keep walking. The girls continued to discuss the trip to Diagon Alley and Harry couldn't help but feel happy that the three girls were getting along so well. His life had quickly become much different than it had been before he came to Hogwarts and he felt nothing but gratitude towards the System and whoever had given it to him.

*

Harry finished teaching another spectacular History of Magic class with the first years, because he had the class period off anyway and had nothing else to do. It was the last class before the Christmas holidays and all of the first years in Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff looked at him with eyes filled with adoration and awe.

“I hope you all have a great holiday.” Harry said and waved his wand to give them all sets of figures to keep. “I still have this class period off after the break, so I hope you don't mind if I keep teaching you.”

They all cheered and clapped, so Harry bowed as a top hat appeared on his head. He swung it off and a row of glitter and sparkles came out of it as he swept it across the floor. As the glitter landed, a bunch of teddy bears wearing wizard robes grew out of the glitter and carried small boxes of chocolates.

“IEEEE!” All of the girls squealed and scooped up the bears and hugged them.

Harry almost laughed as a few of the boys twitched and looked like they wanted to pick a bear up. “I won't say anything if you won't.”

Three of the boys grabbed a bear and stuffed it into their robes and ran from the room.

Harry changed the remaining bears into just boxes of chocolates and the remaining boys accepted them and left with the very happy girls.

“Thank you, Harry.” Luna said and had her bear in a headlock.

“Ease up, there. You might hurt Shelly.” Harry said and pointed his wand at her bear to transfigure it. “I asked your father for a drawing and I hope I got it right.”

Luna almost dropped it when it changed into a plush Crumpled Horn Snorkack. “IEEEE!”

Padma entered the room and laughed as she walked down the stairs to Harry and watched Luna physically assault the thing in her arms and then she started cooing at it and asked for forgiveness.

“I think you got it right, Harry.” Padma said and hugged him.

Harry nodded and put an arm around her as they enjoyed seeing Luna dance around with the physical representation of her obsession.

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*

Hermione came back from her family's Christmas ski trip and was a little confused. She stood in her room and wondered why there was an extra door next to her closet that hadn't been there before. Being the inquisitive mind that she had always been, she stepped forward and knocked. No one answered, so she shrugged and opened it.

She saw what was inside and promptly fainted.

*

“You know you are never going to top a gift like that.” Padma said to Harry, who just happened to be installing a copy of the same Ravenclaw library in Padma's room at home. Undetectable expansion charms were the best.

“I'm sure I can come up with something good for next year.” Harry said with a chuckle and started filling the shelves with books.

“Uh huh.” Padma said and kissed his cheek. “I hope you don't think this counts as my gift.”

“Wait, it doesn't?” Harry asked with a grin and she slapped his arm.

“I expect to be properly wooed, Mister Bones Patil.” Padma said, haughtily.

“I would do nothing less than the best for you, Mrs. Patil Bones.” Harry said, just as haughtily.

“Good.” She said and turned his head to kiss his lips. “My parents still can't believe we paid off everything for them last year.”

Harry smiled. “What do you think they're going to say about this year's gift?”

“I think dad will faint and mom will try to haul us off to Paraguay or something so we can get hitched.” Padma said with a giggle.

“Ha ha!” Harry laughed and put the card catalogue just inside the room beside the door. “I better get going, then. Your mother's a fast runner.”

Padma laughed and kissed him again. “We'll be over for Christmas dinner tomorrow at seven.”

“See you then.” Harry said and stepped away before he disappeared with a soft crack.

The next morning, another goblin delivered the deeds for the shipping company the Patil's used for their business and for the company that they usually bought their products from, which meant they pretty much received everything for free and had no overhead for their business.

Sanjay actually did faint and Madi ran around the house as she screamed for Padma to hurry up and change for an overseas trip.

Padma completely ignored her, because she had opened her gift and was struck speechless. Inside the ornately carved wooden case was the legendary Diadem of Ravenclaw. Even though it had been supposedly lost for centuries, she knew it was real, because her Identify skill told her so. Tears rolled down her eyes, because she didn't know what to feel about it. It was a national treasure and she had received it as a gift.

“Padma? What is it?” Parvati asked and then gasped when she saw the diamond encrusted enchanted object. “How much did he spend on THAT?!?”

“It... it's priceless.” Padma whispered and a little card appeared on top of it. She picked it up with a shaky hand and read it. “It's only a trinket when compared to you, the priceless treasure of my heart. All my love, Harry.”

Parvati sighed as her sister broke down crying and hugged the card. “I think this is the first time I actually regret that I don't like the same things you do.”

Padma nodded, because she knew what her sister really meant. They couldn't successfully switch places anymore and Parvati couldn't share in the wonderful relationship that Padma had with Harry.

*

Eliza was in her cubicle at Gringotts and she studied hard for her next internship test. It was a great opportunity and she thanked her lucky stars for the chance. She had been pretty surprised when one of the bank's curse breakers had approached her the week after she had gotten her NEWTs results and had asked her for a sample of her work.

When she handed him her Runes project that had taken her nearly a year to complete, and that was only thanks to the two books that Harry had given to her, the man had smiled widely and handed her the job application.

Now here she was, on Christmas Day, and crammed for the field test that would happen on New Year's Eve. The goblins didn't celebrate human holidays and she understood why. They had their own holidays and she would get those off instead.

“Package for you, trainee.” A goblin she didn't know said and handed it to her.

Eliza nodded her thanks and noted the dented chest armor and the dried blood on it and the sword over his shoulder. He nodded back and walked off. She had seen a few goblins walking around in a similar state and decided that she would ask one of them later what had happened.

I wonder who this is from? Eliza asked herself and opened the brown wrapper. Inside was a small wooden box that was ornately carved and there was a card on top.

Dear Eliza,
I finally worked out how to get the damn runes to stop interacting violently and cracking the glass. It was a pain to get this done and I hope that you can put them to good use. Somehow. Wink wink.
Your friend, Harry

Eliza looked at the odd note again for several moments and shook her head. She had no idea what he meant, so she put the card aside and opened the small wooden box. She stared at the very expensive golden reading glasses inside and wondered what in the world Harry was thinking. She didn't need glasses to read. A business card appeared and she picked it up and read it.

“Put me on.” Eliza whispered and looked at the card, at the glasses, then at the card again. With no real reason to refuse, she put the card down beside the note and took out the gold rimmed glasses and slipped them onto her face.

Everything in front of her snapped into perfect focus and she caught her breath, because there were little names on things. The business card said it was a business card. The note said it was a note. The box said it had Stefano's Protection Ward on it.

No, it couldn't be! How... how did he manage... Eliza stopped that thought and took out her wand. She performed the spells required to dismantle the ward and the part holding the glasses folded away.

Inside was a small instruction book on what the glasses would let her see, what it could detect, and what functions it had for night vision, low light, bright light, and what wand taps were needed to switch between them. On the very last page was another note.

I've done most of the easy work for you, Eliza. It's up to you to have fun and earn a lot of gold, since the glasses will only work for you. Good luck, Cursebreaker! All the best, Harry.

Eliza took off the glasses and the note disappeared. She caught her breath and put the glasses back on and the note returned. “That little bastard enchanted them to see invisible ink!”

“SHHH!” Someone from the next cubicle hissed at her.

“Sorry.” Eliza said and turned to look, only to see the guy's name and 'Idiot' above his head. She clamped her mouth shut and barely stopped her laugh. She ducked back into her cubicle and giggled. I'm going to get you for that, Harry! She thought with amusement and put the business card and the instructions back in the box and moved it aside.

When Eliza looked at the original card, it now had the words 'engorgement charms are your friend', 'always keep your boots on', 'always wear dragonhide gloves', and 'if you can't cast the water making spell Aquamenti, learn it NOW' scattered all over the thing.

Eliza felt warmth inside at the advice, because not only was it sensible, it would save her life while in the Egyptian desert. Thank you, Harry. She thought and kept the glasses on as she went back to studying. No one would question her about them, either. They were just glasses, after all.

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