Chapter 7 aka chapter 81

An hour later, they stood on a vacant lot at the edge of town and Milo said, "Perfect, I'll take it."

Money changed hands, papers were signed, the seller left, and Sirius said "Now what? Want me to get the names of some builders?"

"First let's see what I can manage." Milo responded, then cast

Summon Monster IV

An Earth Mephit appeared and Milo had it cast Soften Earth and Stone, turning a large area of dirt into mud.

"Was that a mistake?" Sirius asked. "I don't want to work from a mud hut."

"Wait for it." Milo responded. "I can turn the mud into rock, but we'll want to wait a bit first and let it settle nice and flat. Foundations should be flat."

Having gotten what he wanted from the Earth Mephit, Milo could have dismissd it. But on general principles he told it to fly a spiral search pattern, then return and report, since you never knew what may be lurking nearby.

"Nice flying monkey by the way, was it made of dirt?" Sirius asked.

Milo was trying to explain the Elemental Planes and their denizens when the Mephit returned.

It turned out that, in this case, what was lurking nearby was Remus Lupin.

Milo and Sirius hurried over to where a drunken Remus, bottle in hand, was slumped against a nearby building.

When Remus noticed them and figured out who they were, he said:

"He's dead. Fenrir Greyback is dead. They said it couldn't be done, but he really is dead - him and all his gang. They're all there. Well, pieces of them are anyway. Lots and lots of pieces. Pieces you can't live without. Pieces of mansion too. They've murdered more people than I can count, but they're dead now, so it was time to celebrate."

Sirius and Milo got Remus back to his apartment in the back of Cog's Cuckoo Clearinghouse.

An hour later Milo returned to his new vacant lot.

The mud had settled nice and flat, so he cast

Transmute Mud to Rock

And all the mud became a single solid slab of seamless stone, extending 4 feet underground.

On this new foundation, Milo started building.

He cast

Wall of Stone

and created two 20 foot tall, 30 foot long walls, about as thick as a brick. They came complete with window and door openings, and buttersses every 8 feet. Each was a seamless single solid piece, and were fused with the foundation and with each-other.

These formed the north and east walls of the building Milo was working on.

Another casting of the same spell made the south and west walls.

Then Milo got down on the ground, lay on his side and cast

Wall of Iron

to form an inch-thick flat iron roof extending 5 feet beyond each side of the 30' square building.

Wall of Iron always made a vertical wall, so to get it horizontal and usable as a roof, Milo had had to change perspective. From his perspective while laying down, the wall was indeed vertical.

The iron roof wouldn't remain a roof. Very soon it would become an attic floor. But it would still provide a lot of stability and support.

Then Milo used his 2-spell Pearl of Power to cast

Wall of Stone

twice more, completing the place.

That put a standard peaked roof above the flat iron roof, with enough stone left over for interior walls, a strong slab forming the ceiling of the first story and the floor of the 2nd, stairs, and some more buttresses.

There was extra iron - mainly the 5 feet extending beyond the stone walls on all sides, and Milo planned to use it.

He cast

Fabricate

and iron flowed from one spot in the flat iron roof, forming a new hinged hatch into what was now the iron-floored attic.

More iron flowed from the extra, thinning some of it from an inch thick to half an inch, and formed into shutters, doors, hinges, some beams and other supports.

Then Milo used the remaining capacity in that Fabricate spell to make some big gears, cogs, sprockets and other parts for a cuckoo clock. He didn't know how to make a cuckoo clock, but he knew what the inner workings of one looked like.

He wanted to make the building look like a huge cuckoo clock, complete with the inner workings. Customers shopping for a clock would appear to be standing inside one, and would be able to look up and see the various gears etc.

But that would have to wait for tomorrow.

Milo had already used enough high-level spells for today.

He went back to the store and announced,

"The new place is ready move-in anytime."

"No, no, no," Sirius reproved, "You've got it all wrong. See, to be funny, a joke has to at least be a bit believable. Though you are coming along nicely - you did get the 'surprise' part right. We need to do more lessons."

"Ok. But this was not actually a joke," Milo said. "The building is finished enough to move in to. It isn't complete - it still needs glass in the windows, for example. And there are no finishing touches like carpets, drapes or paint. But it has 4 walls, a roof, doors and shutters. And I can do a lot of the rest tomorrow if you know a good source of glass and fabric - it can be in any condition. Broken is probably cheaper and just as usable for my Fabricate spell."

"Show me."

Sirius led the way out.

They got there and climbed all through the new building. After trying all the doors and shutters, Sirius asked "Please tell me your funny hat didn't do all that."

"No," Milo responded, "its for combat. But the orange crystals orbiting my head helped."

"So what are the gears for?"

When Milo told him, Sirius responded "Why stop there? Cog shouldn't stay in the Weasley's yard anyway. Bring him here and have him use those gears and materials to make the place be an actual cuckoo clock."

Milo agreed and they discussed schedules and details.

-0-0-0-

When Milo got back to Hogwarts, he was immediately grabbed by Filch.

"Out without a pass, were you? That's a couple turns on the rack for you. Have you done your homework? If not we have a nice stint in an iron maiden for you as well."

Filch chuckled in glee. "It's time you students learned some discipline the old fasioned way!"

"Shall I whack him, boss?" Mordy squeaked.

"Not yet." Milo said.

Filch, who misunderstood, exploded. "Oh yes indeed it is time, and well past time. You just got an extra couple turns on the rack for defiance. Yes, this was the best decision the Ministry ever made, choosing me as Headmaster. They said they knew I could stop the chaos! Imagine, student Death Eaters being killed by other students in the halls. Anarchy! That's what its come to. Well, the torture room is back in use and it'll put a stop to that quick, fast, and in a hurry!"

Filch had Milo gripped tight by the collar and was hurrying him down the halls while he ranted.

They turned a corner and entered the torture room.

One look was all Milo needed.

He faced Filch and said, "Are you loyal to hard-core torture, or do you ever go easy on kids and, for example," Milo turned to stare intently at Mordy, "use the belt?"

Mordy had been with Milo since the beginning, and knew a disguised command when he heard one.

Squeak

He used his magic belt to cast Create Traps, positioning it carefully so Filch would hit it, and be hit, with his next step.

Filch had time to say, "No mercy!" before he hit the conjured tripwire and a conjured arrow flew into his chest and sank deep.

It was a version of Create Traps that Milo didn't often use, but it was appropriate for the occasion.

The arrow killed Filch in one hit.

Either it had been a Critical Hit, or Filch had been as weak as a Commoner.

Milo didn't get time to contemplate it. He was interrupted by mixed cheers and pleas for help coming from several iron maidens in the room. These were human-shaped metal shells covered in spikes or knives on the inside and designed to stab a person from all directions at once.

They had eye-holes and so Filch's death had many witnesses, all of whom clearly saw that an arrow from the hallway had killed Filch and Milo had not resisted at all.

As he freed various students, Milo noticed that Filch favored the more sinister type of iron maiden. The simple type was sized so that the occupant got stabbed - though just a little bit, usually about an inch deep or less - from all directions at once, as soon as the iron maiden was closed upon them. Then as folks stood there for hours or days, as immobile as they could, fatigue and pain would gradually make them slump more and more into the knives.

The more sinister type had a little more clearance between the knives and the occupant. So the occupant could avoid being stabbed as long as they stood completely immobile. Eventual fatigue made the results the same either way, but the sinister type offered some hope for a while. The granting, then crushing, of hope is what made it more sinister.

But in this case, it meant that the occupants had no serious wounds yet.

"Won't you get in trouble for letting us go free from punishment?" One student asked.

"The last question I asked Filch was if he ever went easy on students, and his reply - the last word he ever said - was 'mercy'. So, the way I choose to understand that is that I am allowed by Filch to let you all go." Milo replied, practicing being deceitful while technically telling the truth.

After sending all the students off to the hospital, and answering questions from both Aurors and McGonagall, Milo was absolved of any wrongdoing.

Then he was taken to a courier who had been waiting for him.

Couriers cost more than owls, and making them wait cost even more, but in this case it was worth it. The potions supply house that had sent the courier did not want to trust an owl with this package.

And Milo couldn't blame them.

He wasted no time, but got to work using it immediately.

Soon he was on his way into the Forbidden Forest. He normally waited until nightfall to adventure there, but this afternoon, he felt it would be irresponsible to wait.

Besides, with the latest Headmaster dead and many students recovering from torture, the professors were generally too busy for other things, as well as currently feeling a little sick about anything related to rules enforcement.

Milo stopped a little way into the forest and called out, "Hey Sneaky Hunter, are you there?"

From behind some dense shrubbery to Milo's right boomed the centaur's deep voice "Yea verily, I am here Boom Boy. Seekest thou the Acromantulas again?"

"Yup." Milo confirmed. "And this time I need you to clear the area. You and your people and anything you care about should get well back. This," he held up the carefuly wrapped soundproof package, "is a live Mandrake plant. It's scream kills everything that hears it. I will be using it on the Acromantulas."

"Asparagus! Indeed, thou art mad!" the deep voice exclaimed. "Give us what time you can to get clear. I go and warn my people."

Milo had never heard the word 'asparagus' used as a curse before, but he supposed every culture had its quirks.

"OK, Mordy, lets find some acorns for later. I really want to test that idea."

They spent a few minutes looking for, and then collecting, small acorns.

Finally Milo said, "Ok, that should be enough time for the centaurs and others to clear the area. Let's begin."

Mordy nodded and Milo cast

Deafness

first on Mordy, then, hesitantly, on himself. The spell was permanent unless dismissed, but dismissing it would be no problem. He hesitated, not because of that, but because, while deaf, he had a chance to mispronounce things and thus fail when attempting to cast a spell.

But he went ahead because, with the "vegetable nuke" as Hannah called it, he shouldn't need any spells.

He carefully undid the packaging and took out the innocent looking potted plant.

Now all he would have to do is yank it out of the dirt, and its deadly scream should kill everything nearby.

Thus prepared, they started walking towards the area the Acromantulas controlled.

As had happened when they'd come before, when they got near the webbed area a perimeter guard leapt out and posed menacingly before charging the nearest scarecrow.

The material Milo had read on Mandrakes said they were not able to scream indefinitely. Screaming took energy and that would be used up at some point, but when exactly varied a lot.

He didn't want to start early and perhaps run out early.

So he cast

Storm Blolt

to electrocute the giant spider.

But it failed due to his mispronouncing it.

Squeak

The Acromantula slipped on the Grease Mordy had cast, giving Milo time to try again.

Storm Bolt

This time, it worked and the miniature lightning bolt flew out and killed the spider.

Milo hurried forward, to get as close as he could to their nests before uprooting his 'veggie-nuke'.

The next two Acromantulas came from the sides. Milo might not have seen them in time but for his Robe of Eyes, which let him see in all directions at once, with 2 kinds of nightvision and other features besides.

He gave the hand signal they'd worked out in advance to let Mordy know he should handle threats to the left. then he took out the one on the right with a

Storm Bolt

With that one nicely fried, he turned to the left and tried to fry it too, but failed.

But Mordenkainen was having better luck, and kept the Acromantula greased up and ineffective until Milo could cast again and fry it.

They marched on.

Judging by past experiences, it would not be long until large numbers of Acromantulas started arriving.

Not wanting to pull the mandrake early, Milo thought it might be a good time to try out his cloak. Technically it was a Robe of Scintillating Colors, but Bellatrix had been wearing it as a cloak, and that counted, as far as Milo was concerned.

In tests, Hannah had said it looked like what Las Vegas only dreamed it could look like.

Sirius had said it looked like a rainbow vomiting.

And Fiona had said it looked like an intense drug trip - or what she'd heard they looked like anyway.

It started out comparatively tame, shining with every conceivable color, streaks and patterns of which chased each-other around the whole garment. The hues got brighter and more intense, and cascaded around in a dazzling display.

And that was just the warm-up

Then it got really intense.

At its height, Milo was effectively invisible. The light was so bright and dazzling that it was all that could be seen when looking even slightly in Milo's direction.

It dazed all who looked at it.

And that allowed Milo to run fairly deep into Acromantula territory before it ran out.

As the scintillating colors began to dim, Milo pulled up the mandrake root.

From the look on its little plant face, it was screaming.

Milo could hear nothing.

But he could see just fine.

And he saw Acromantulas falling dead all around him as he walked.

The Potions supply house had offered him a set of the ear muffs generally used for handling mandrakes safely. He'd gone with the deafness spell, mainly since it could not be accidentally knocked off, but also from a concern that, like the local broomsticks, it might not work for him, and that could not be safely tested.

He walked only a short distance before getting the idea that perhaps some Acromantulas, distant enough that they could not be killed by the scream, would either see others falling dead or hear something and flee.

He didn't want any getting away.

So he took out a Metamagic Rod of Silent Spell to make sure his deafness wouldn't make him mis-cast, and cast

Lutzaen's Frequent Jaunt

He used it's Teleport-like effect to hop straight north 500 feet.

All the Acromantulas here were already dead, telling him that the scream carried at least this far.

Next he hopped a thousand feet straight east.

The Acromantulas there died when Milo arrived.

So he continued adjusting the distances and hopping every round in a grid pattern to try to take out the entire Acromantula nesting area.

By the 3rd hop, he'd gained enough xp that he had to level-up to 13th level quickly. In six seconds, he chose Rainbow Servant level 8, the spells Plane Shift and Summon Monster VII, and his skills etc.

He didn't want to delay a hop. But he also didn't want to risk losing xp. That was rare, but it could happen in cases where enough xp was gained to go up two levels at once. It was only possible to go up one level at a time. So if those choices were not completed by the time the next level was reached, some xp was wasted. Loss of xp was one of the biggest tragedies there was, and one Milo wanted to avoid if possible.

Taking out hundreds of foes at once was exactly the sort of xp-rich situation where it could happen.

But Milo got his choices made in time. And xp kept coming in massive rushes with every hop, as hordes of Acromantulas of all sizes fell dead.

The area they infested was huge and the spell duration short.

So he cast a second

Silent Lutzaren's Frequent Jaunt

and kept at it.

Three hops before the second Lutzaren's Frequent Jaunt ended, Milo ran out of monsters. He'd apparently cleaned out the entire Acromantula infestation.

He used the last three hops making sure.

Then, with the thought that "waste not, want not", he tried re-potting the mandrake. It hadn't cost much, and he could certainly afford it, but it rankled to throw away value of any kind, especially when it was a devastating weapon.

Unfortunately, he hadn't put any skill points in Knowledge Nature, or any other skill that'd be relevant to plant care.

It didn't work.

Sure, sticking a root in dirt sounded like something any child could handle. But the mandrake fought him.

Logically, it should want to get back in the dirt and thereby resume a healthy plant life. But it was a perverse and stubborn litle plant.

Milo only succeeded at getting it properly back in the dirt after it was dead.

He watered it anyway, just in case, then began the enormous task of harvesting venom sacs from all the dead Acromantulas.

Their venom sold for good money, and these bodies were physically undamaged so none would have been lost.

He used the last daily use on that Metamagic Rod of Silent Spell to cast

Mass Unseen Servant

making one new Unseen Servant per level. He set them all, old and new, to harvesting Acromantula venom.

It took hours.

He checked the mandrake plant a couple times, but it was dead and stayed dead.

Deciding that he'd lost it, he made sure there would be no surprise comeback, and hit it with a couple

Storm Bolts.

Then he dismissed the Deafness spells.

"I guess we'll need something else to hunt when we come to the Forbidden Forest in the future. Remind me to look into that. I almost made it to 14th level though." Milo smiled.

"Nature abhors a vacuum - something else will move in now." Mordy pontificated.

"Suppose we should let the centaurs know it's safe again?" Milo asked.

"Nah, they know. Remember he called you crazy when you told him you had a mandrake. That proves they know the plant. And that means they know its limits and that it can't keep screaming more than a few minutes. I bet they're already back at home." Mordy opined.

"Good point. And that saves me a spell - I was going to make a big illusionary sign explaining it, but now I don't have to."

"How would they see it among all these trees? They'd have to be inside the danger zone first." Mordy asked.

"Not if I extended my coatl wings, flew up above the treetops, and put the illusion there." Milo said.

"You're just looking for an excuse to use them," Mordy responded. "You're always saving limited-use things like that until there's actual need, so you really haven't used them except for a couple test flights to learn how."

Milo admitted it was true and they chatted about Acromantula venom for a while.

They were interrupted by a loud roar.

A manticore was descending into the clearing they were standing in.

It clearly intended to attack, given how it was swooping down at them.

Charm Monster

Milo cast

And suddenly the manticore was very friendly.

Milo said "I have no orders for you right now, but please come and help me when I call. For now, go ahead and snack on these spiders if you'd like to."

It did so.

Defeating the manticore had given Milo enough xp to reach 14th level. He chose Rainbow Servant 9, and the spells Teleport Object and Stone Trap. Stone Trap was a wonderful spell that could make a very large stone invisible and hover in the air ready to drop on a target when a command word was given, or trigger conditions met.

The manticore would be Milo's friend for more than 2 weeks, but he didn't think it'd be a good idea to bring it into Hogwarts. So they arranged signals so Milo could call it when needed.

Then Milo let the manticore go on about its normal activities in the Forbidden Forest.

When the Unseen Servants had gathered all the Acromantula venom, containers of it filled two of the Bags of Holding Milo had found among the loot from Bellatrix.

There was so much that, if he tried to sell it all right away, the price would plummet. But he was in no hurry, and planned to sell a bit at a time.

He got back to Hogwarts after dark, found a note from Hannah, and sent an owl off to Cog, to collect his latest work.

Hannahs note said:

"I hate to suggest it, but you may want to leave Hogwarts. This evening they appointed a new Headmaster, to start tomorrow. It's Lucius Malfoy. You know how he hates you. Please be careful.

Hannah"

He considered that, then he used his new Stone Trap spell to set a couple traps.

After that, he did a little magic item creation work, by altering Mordy's rear-leg bracers so that they could cast the Ghost Sound cantrip in addition to the Silent Image spell they could already cast.

He set the Ghost Sound to be triggered by the same command word as the Silent Image spell, so that both could be used at once with a little mental discipline - thinking what you wanted each one to be as you cast them. Either one could be cast by itself by just not choosing what the other should be, thus voiding the casting.

Mordy practiced a few times to get it all straight. Soon enough he could do just a Ghost Sound - he preferred making the sound of a fart - or just a Silent Image - he preferred a giant rat silently stalking forwards - or both together. For that, they practiced making the image of a Death Eater and having him say 'Avada Kedavara' while waving a wand, followed by the green energy of a killing curse flying from the wand. It wasn't a real killing curse, but a convincing illusion of it being cast at someone and barely missing them would certainly get their attention.

Then, it was time for bed.

Milo unrolled the magic bedroll the owl had brought back, and considered it.

It was a Heward's Fortifying Bedroll and would give him all the benefits of a full night's sleep, including the ability to reload his spells, in just one hour. It could only be used once every 2 days, but Milo had an idea about that which he would be trying later.

Just before climbing in the Bedroll to sleep, Milo cast

Nightmare,

and set Tom Riddle up for a night full of nightmares about a masked and therefore anonymous Death Eater betraying him.

An hour later, Milo awoke refreshed and ready to go. He prepared his spells as he usually did every morning, except it wasn't morning yet. Not by a long shot.

He would be able to cast all his spells tonight and then prepare them again in the morning 8 hours later.

Such an opportunity must not be wasted.

He cast

Scrying

and observed Lucius Malfoy, just outside what appeared to be a hunting lodge by a lake, haranguing his guards.

Milo could not hear what was being said, but could see that Lucius was red in the face as he yelled. The guards appeared to be 3 vampires and a giant more than 20 feet tall.

Milo prepared himself.

He and Mordy each took out a coin shining with Celestial Brilliance and Milo attached them, with the Stick cantrip, to the outside of their gear.

The Unseen Servant Milo normaly kept around deployed a scarecrow, taking the straw-stuffed hooded robe out of Milo's pouch and getting it ready.

Mordy's Unseen Servant did the same.

The other Unseen Servants Milo had summoned to help with harvesting Acromantula venom were still around, and Milo had each pick up a sword.

Then he cast

Prismatic Eye

Mirror Image

Greater Blink

and

Teleport

and arrived in a meadow somewhere, with a couple cows sleeping nearby.

The trees, hillside, lake, and more especially, hunting lodge, which Milo had seen while scrying were nowhere in sight.

That happened sometimes. The more familiar you were with the target location, the less likely that it'd happen. Having seen it only once, there had been a 24% chance of missing the target and arriving somewhere else.

Milo took it in stride, and simply cast

Teleport

again.

Anybody watching the meadow would have seen it light up brilliantly for 6 seconds, then go dark again.

From such events, strange legends are born.

With the second Teleport, Milo and party arrived at the right spot.

But they lost initiative, so the guards got to act first.

The vampires charged Milo, despite being damaged by the Celestial Brilliance centered on him. As they did so, Malfoy's voice came from the lodge.

"That's it - crush the little freak! Suck the life out of him, but make him suffer first. That horrible little mutant has dared to attack me for the last time!"

The giant picked up and threw a huge stone. It flew right through Milo's image, but did not damage him, since he had Blinked to the Ethereal Plane.

The vampires attacked, and thereby dispelled, 3 of Milo's 7 Mirror Images.

The scarecrows and apparently animated swords carried by the Unseen Servants were ignored.

Milo Blinked back to the Prime Material Plane, and had his Prismatic Eye shoot the giant. What color ray came out was always random.

This time a violet ray struck the giant, and it vanished, having been sent on a one-way trip to another plane of existence.

There were only a couple dozen or so major planes of existence, but if you counted all the minor ones and variations of the Prime Material Plane, there were inconceivably many.

In fact, Milo wasn't sure this Material Plane was the Prime Material Plane. He was used to calling it that, as a sort of default habit. But it could not be that both his own Material Plane, and this one, were both Prime.

Milo resolved to look into that when he had some time.

Given that every plane had its dangers, and that not even the spellcasters of this plane seemed to know anything about plane travel, the giant would not be coming back from wherever it went.

That left the vampires, at least until Malfoy came out and joined them.

They were all next to Milo, and smoking as they burned in the light of both Celestial Brilliance coins, as well as the undead-destroying light emanating from Milo's Helm of Brilliance.

Milo took out something that looked like a scroll.

He let it unroll, revealing it was actually a grid of playing cards, fastened top to bottom and edge to edge with string, then rolled up like a scroll.

He spoke the command word and several of the cards changed, as their Secret Page spells were briefly suppressed, revealing Sepia Snake Sigil spells underneath.

Milo had not yet had time to enspell all the cards, but would eventually, since the scroll was very effective when several enemy managed to get close to you.

Three of the Sepia Snake Sigils trapped a vampire each.

Milo, Mordy, their Mirror Images, scarecrows, and their forest of weapons carried by Unseen Servants, were standing there next to the 3 amber forcefields each encasing an obviously defeated yet still burning vampire, when Lucius Malfoy hurried out of the cabin, finishing pulling up his pants and gloating.

"Die you monster! You've been a pestilence ever since we brought you from that other world. I'll make you pay though. You'll pay for everything you..."

He took in the scene and stopped in mid-rant. Then he immediately dropped to his knees, flung away his wand, and began to grovel.

"I surrender! Please, my new master. I beg you to spare your humble servant. I can be of use to you..."

"Shut up." Milo commanded.

Malfoy did so, and Milo continued "I don't want your surrender. This has been very much a 'take no prisoners' sort of fight, and *your side* started it and set the ground rules. There isn't any reason I should accept your surren..."

Malfoy cut him off by saying "I'll give you everything I own if you'll spare my life."

Milo went silent and got a strange look in his eyes.

Malfoy started listing off the businesses, land, and assets he owned.

It added up to a fabulous fortune.