Wild cards
Chapter 20

…

Mimsy hummed to herself as she danced around the floor with her brooms tidying up. She'd been at the mess all day. Her master really could create a clutter when he wanted. She wasn't the least bit surprised when he apparated in looking tired and disheveled. It wasn't the first time.

"Mimsy" he panted.

"Good evening master, how was your day" she greeted cheerfully, her brooms hopping off into their cupboard.

"Day? Was that how long we were gone?"

The little elf nodded, "Mimsy was just finish tidy up from this morning."

Andrew nodded while shifting the weight on his back, "Temporal differentials."

"You has friend?"

"Yeah, he sort of instigated this whole trip without meaning to."

"Young sir is just like master" the cheeky elf observed.

Andrew gave her a look then pulled something from his pocket and tossed it to her. Mimsy took one look at the item and her eyes nearly popped out of her head.

"Master?" she quivered

"Keep it safe till I come back. I should only be a few minutes" he said.

He strode into the Leaky Cauldron and found Tom waiting anxiously.

"Evening Tom."

"Is that?"

Andrew glanced back at the unconscious burden on his back, "Harry, we're back."

Harry mumbled and groaned a bit but refused to wake.

"Is he alright?"

"Just tired" said Andrew, "and rightly so."

Tom led Andrew up to Harry's room and they tucked him into bed, under the watchful eyes of a certain snowy owl. They spoke briefly of the word going around about that mornings attack and Andrew left a few minutes later. He had things to do.

He returned to the card shop and found Mimsy dug in for war, "A bit much, don't you think?"

"Mimsy politely disagrees" said the elf in the trench coat from behind her sandbag barricade.

Andrew shook his head and walked around the barricade, careful not to jostle the gun emplacements. He removed his scan box and opened a hidden drawer where he plugged it in before closing it.

"What will master do?"

He considered the question, "Something dangerous and stupid."

He'd been attacked, his business damaged. The people responsible would pay. Problem was, he didn't know who they were. He needed to draw them out, and the only way to do that was to put the thing they wanted on clear display. He had an idea, but he needed a little help.

"I'm going out" he said holding out his hand.

Mimsy dropped the D jack into his waiting palm then hunkered down behind her wall again as her master walked out the door.

Morning came, and Harry rolled out of bed achy and sore but smiling. Smiling because he rolled out of bed. Bed, he'd learned a whole new appreciation for the institution.

"Good morning Hedwig" he said.

His owl hooted then hopped over and began preening the unruly rats nest that was his hair. He let her. He found he liked the attention. It was better than the kind he'd been getting. He let her preen a bit before suggesting breakfast, another institution he had grown fond of. His owl was more than happy to join him for breakfast, or as she thought of the meal, days first bacon.

He greeted Tom who seemed exceptionally happy to see him and mentioned Andrew asked him to stop by some time before lunch, but not too much before lunch. Harry smiled, he'd be glad to see Andrew now that their lives weren't in jeopardy. But after breakfast, and a post breakfast nap.

…

"Good morning An… Mimsy!"

The elf smiled at him, "Good morning Harry sir."

"Is Andrew up?"

Mimsy nodded, "Only just. Is good you waited…" her ears twitched, "master Andrew says to go on back."

Harry found Andrew sitting at a table covered in small stacks of cards, "Mornin."

Harry smiled, "Morning."

"Had a bit of a surprise when you woke up this morning?"

"It was warm and soft and not the inside of somethings stomach" said Harry.

Andrew snickered at the young man's assessment, "How ya feelin?"

"Sore" he said honestly, "a little tired, but happy to be back."

"For your first interdimensional walkabout I'd say you did pretty well."

"Is that what we're calling it?"

"Ass what I'm calling it" said Andrew.

Harry grinned, "Wicked."

Andrew just laughed, "Pull up a chair and check out the haul."

Harry did, gazing down at the cards in awe. It was their entire journey in card form. The harpy and the lava hound, the sea serpent, the bandits and their bear beast.

"Hold on, how'd you get these?" he asked of a familiar group of undead monsters, "I'm sure you never had your wand out then."

"Don't have to" said Andrew, "the wand is just for zeroing in on things. The box passively scans all the time. I use the wand because it gives me control of what's being scanned. Box only picks up on things with really strong impression as a close distance… usually."

"Usually?"

"Here" he said, pointing to a mass of level one and two monsters from High Lorraine.

"Wow" there sure were a lot of them.

"Yeah, that was a surprise."

"So, what now?"

"I thought we'd get you ready for that tournament."

Harry stared, "tournament?... The tournament! That's today!"

"Tomorrow" said Andrew.

"Wha, no I'm sure it's…"

"I know this seems strange, but we arrived back here the same day we left."

"What?"

"Time moves differently between dimensions" he explained, "and given how many we jumped through we're lucky we gained a day instead of losing a year, or ten."

"That could happen?"

Andrew shrugged, "One of the dangers of D walking."

Speaking of which, "What happened to the D jack."

"It's safe" said Andrew.

Harry thought his friends smile suspicious, "So, tournament huh?"

Andrew nodded, "You needed to improve your deck and the tournament has a hundred-card entry limit."

"Entry limit?"

"The max number of cards you can bring in. You don't have to use them all but your only allowed to use those."

"So, I could have a different deck each duel?"

"Yep."

"But I don't have that many cards."

"Not true" he said, "a portion of these are yours."

"What?"

"If not for you I'd never have gotten these."

Harry didn't know what to say. Andrew did though.

"So, let's build a deck then, shall we."

Harry smiled, "Yeah, lets."