Magic Works

Min was trying to play it cool. As much as she wanted to go all fangirl the second she saw the badge, she was not about to freak out and make a babbling idiot of herself-she was just going to sit here very calmly until the panel started, keep her eyes on her phone, and only later run up to her friends and shout, "OMG I was actually in line right freaking next to Dumbledoreen! For real! No, I didn't ask her for her autograph or anything. She probably gets that all the time. I wanted to let her enjoy the convention, you know?"

That was totally what Min was going to do. Okay, maybe the little occasional glance out of the corner of her eye, because this was literally the first and probably only chance she was ever going to have to see what the woman who made her favorite fan videos looked like in person, but...not to gawk. That would be weird. Just a glance or two, noticing how cool she looked in her costume-it was a really amazing Hermione, matching the 'Cursed Child' outfit right down to the hairstyle. Dumbledoreen looked a little younger than Noma Dumezweni, though. And a lot younger than Min had always imagined. But you could never judge anyone by their screen name.

Min looked away, suddenly paranoid about staring too long. She was keeping it cool, she told herself. She was an experienced con-goer, she'd met celebrities before. She was just going to chill, not gush about how awesome the 'Harry Potter Goes to Xavier's School' mashup was, not talk about the video that Min was working on that was going to be her YouTube debut, not describe herself as Dumbledoreen's biggest fan, not-

"Nice Cho," Dumbledoreen said, giving Min a warm smile. "Is the wand homemade?"

"Omigod you're Dumbledoreen!" Min blurted out, suddenly very grateful that her olive skin hid most of her blush. "Um...sorry. You probably get that all the time. Um. No. It's not. Homemade, that is."

The other woman chuckled. "Honestly, I think this is the first time anyone's recognized my name in three years of conventions. I usually have to spend about five minutes explaining what I do at the beginning of every panel I'm on."

Min's eyes widened. "No way! You do the best HP videos, everyone I know agrees! I loved the one where Harry winds up on the TARDIS, and he freaks out because he thinks it's Barty Crouch but-" She clamped her mouth shut, forcibly reminding herself not to gush. "I'm a big fan-I mean, not your biggest fan, I'm sure everybody thinks they're your biggest fan. But I'm really a very big fan, um, Dum-um, Miss-"

"Just call me Doreen," the other woman said. "We'll both feel less silly. And you really did do a great job on the costume-you even got the hair right!"

"Thanks," Min said, suddenly a little too shy to meet Doreen's gaze. "I always liked Cho as a kid-I mean, she's probably Chinese, not Korean, but you probably know what it's like. When you're looking to see yourself in stories, you take what you can get."

"Or you make your own," Doreen said, thankfully not sounding irritated by Min's comment. "I think that's why I make so many mashup videos-I feel like I need to get inside them, you know? Really make them my stories too." She chuckled. "Well, that and I'd probably go nuts if I didn't. My day job isn't exactly what you'd call creative."

"Oh?" Min tried not to act interested, but it was hard not to wonder. None of the videos posted under 'Dumbledoreen' were vlogs, or even had voiceovers that weren't lifted from other sources. Even her avatar was just Squirrel Girl with a big bushy beard photoshopped onto the face. The only thing she ever posted to Twitter was an announcement whenever she posted something new. Sitting next to her, Min was suddenly dying of curiosity.

"Well, since you're a...very big fan," Doreen said, a sly grin crossing her features, "I suppose it wouldn't do any harm to let you know. I'm involved in video production for-" Just then, there was a sudden commotion as the line began to move. Min tried very hard not to scream in frustration as she scrambled to pick up her things.

"I tell you what," Doreen said, hooking her arm in Min's, "why don't you sit next to me during the panel? And after we're done, if you don't have anywhere else to be, we can find somewhere private and I can tell you a little bit more about my work."

*****

An hour of behind-the-scenes anecdotes from Jamie Waylett and Joshua Herdman later, Min found herself heading up the elevator back to her idol's hotel room to see her computer. She wiped her palms on her robes, trying not to freak out about how suddenly amazing this convention was becoming. She felt starstruck-literally, as though the sudden turn of events had smacked her on the head and left her a little bit dazed.

When they got into the room, Doreen gestured to a laptop sitting on the hotel desk. "There she is, my own personal Pensieve. I don't normally do much editing while I'm at a con, but technically I'm on call this weekend for my day job, so I had to bring a portable suite with me. Thankfully, I don't have to actually record anything-it'd be murder trying to soundproof things with so many parties outside."

Min wanted to take a look at the editing software Doreen used-she'd mostly been working with Filmora, and it sounded like Doreen had something expensive and top of the line and it would be so awesome just to get to play with it for a few minutes-but there was that tease again, hinting at a big exciting secret, and Min couldn't resist it twice. "So what do you do for your day job?" she asked, trying to sound casual.

"Believe it or not," Doreen said, taking off her outer robes and sloughing them onto a nearby chair, "I work for the CIA." She was grinning like it was a private joke, and Min wondered briefly if it was actually for some company that had the same initials as the government one...but then Doreen went on. "It's mostly making videos with hidden coded transmissions, for our sleeper agents in the field. Not that I get to know what the codes are, or where the videos go, or who sees them-I'm just involved on the technical end. It's incredibly boring. So I use the technology to make Harry Potter mashups in my spare time."

Min found her eyes shifting back and forth across the room, looking for...hidden microphones? Secret cameras? She didn't even know, really. It just seemed weird that someone would invite her up to their hotel room and then suddenly drop classified information on them. "Should you be...telling me this?" she asked, a touch of anxiety in her voice.

"I don't see any reason why not," Doreen said, flopping down onto the bed. "I'm not telling you what any of the videos are, or the methods we use to make them, and besides." She grinned a disconcertingly wide smile. "You're a very big fan."

This had to be a joke, Min decided. Doreen was teasing her, making up some line of BS so that Min would go back and tell all her friends about how Dumbledoreen wasn't just a cool video maker, she was actually a spy and everything! And nobody would believe her, because it was totally unbelievable because spies didn't invite cosplayers up to their hotel room to chat about their secret spy messages and-

"You have watched all my videos, haven't you?" Doreen asked, breaking into Min's train of thought. "I mean, if you are a very big fan, I expect you would have."

"Um, yeah," Min said, determined not to make this any weirder than it already was. She was just going to keep cool, answer the questions, stick to talking about editing and not get confrontational about stuff. Doreen could pretend to be a secret agent if she wanted, it wasn't like her videos became less good, right? "Five or six times, some of them. I'm trying to learn how it's done myself, so I'll watch some of the really long ones over and over."

"That's perfect!" Doreen said, almost breaking into giggles. "In that case..." She pulled her wand free from its belt and pointed it at Min. She gave it a tiny swish and flick, and intoned, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." And suddenly everything changed.

Min felt it inside her brain, like there was a whole secret tracery of hidden thoughts that slowly revealed themselves, each one intricately wound around her normal waking mind. She suddenly knew things without knowing how she knew them, each one a deep and unshakable truth that felt as solid and real to her as gravity. She looked at Doreen's wand and then her own, seeing them in an impossible new light. "I...what just happened?" she whispered, half in awe.

"Well," Doreen said, "you know how I mentioned that my job involves making coded transmissions for sleeper agents? What I didn't mention was that most of those sleeper agents don't know they're sleeper agents. I make, well...brainwashing videos. Videos with hidden, subliminal instructions that activate on the use of a key word or phrase from someone the recipient recognizes as authorized. It's all very top secret stuff, and probably a lot more boring than you'd imagine...but that's exactly the problem. It's not a good idea to hand technology like that to someone who gets bored easily."

She was still pointing the wand at Min, and somehow that felt inexplicably unnerving. Min knew it was irrational, but she couldn't help pulling out her own wand in response. Just to make sure it was close at hand, in case...in case...every time Min tried to finish the thought, she could feel it struggling against her old logic and common sense. But the struggles grew weaker as the new certainties grew stronger, until she was forced to admit it. She wanted her wand in case she needed to duel with it.

"Expelliarmus!" Admitting that apparently didn't make her any better as a duelist, though. Doreen's spell sent Min's wand winging from her hand as if she'd suddenly thrown it. Doreen's eyes widened in delight as she watched it bounce off of the door and land on the carpet with a gentle thud. "Oh, wow. I mean, I knew it would work, but...it's different to see it, you know?"

"Wh-what was that?" Min asked. But even as she said it, she felt absurd for even asking. It was the Expelliarmus spell, used to disarm a wizard by forcing their wand from their hand. It was one of the common spells taught in any decent Defense Against the Dark Arts class, because a wizard or witch without their wand was...Min gulped as the new parts of her mind finished that sentence. Helpless.

"I told you I wanted to get inside the stories and make them mine," Doreen said, a touch of the lecturer in her voice. Min could understand why she identified with Hermione so much. "This was how I did it. As long as you're under the influence of my Marauder's Mind, you will respond to any spells as if they were entirely real. I've wanted to do this for years now, but I never met anyone before today that I could be sure of enough exposure to the videos to lock in the effect. I guess I'm just lucky I met such a big fan."

"Yeah, well," Min said, chuckling nervously and edging toward the door. "I just really like your work, you know? I mean, you're really great and all, and I don't want to sound like I wouldn't love to talk more, but I, um...I've got some friends who will be waiting for me. Probably already are. I just need to-ah!" She made a sudden leap, snatching her wand off the carpet, and pointed it at Doreen. "Expelliarmus!"

Doreen's hand didn't even twitch. "It doesn't actually work that way, dear," she said. "The spells work on you because you know they're real. You can't disbelieve them. I don't have any such compulsions. So your wand does nothing to me, but...Rictusempra!" Min collapsed to the floor, writhing in sudden pleasurable agony as every part of her body felt like it was being tickled at the same time. "I think you get the idea," Doreen said, over the sound of Min's helpless giggles.

It took almost five whole minutes for the spell to wear off, and Min's stomach muscles were sore by the time she got back to her feet. "I...this is really unfair," she said. "I should really be able to magic you, too." Now that the initial shock had worn off, she was actually kind of enjoying the whole thing in a weird way that would probably freak her out if she thought about it too much. 'I've been brainwashed by a stranger on the Internet' was creepy as all fuck, but 'Magic is real and I'm a living Harry Potter character' was pretty cool, to be honest.

"Probably," Doreen said, grinning an indecently wide smile. "But I'm having a lot more fun this way. And if you could cast spells back, I wouldn't be able to do this. Petrificus Totalus." Min felt her arms cleave to her sides and go rigid, and her legs stand at instant attention. She tried to keep her balance, but none of her muscles would obey her commands and she began teetering. She rocked slightly, beginning to fall...

But Doreen was already on her feet, catching Min and dragging her immobile body over to the bed. "There we go," she said, pulling Min up and over to lie stiff as a board on the mattress. "Don't worry, dear. I wouldn't let anything happen to my...very big fan, would I?" She gave Min a wink. Min didn't return it.

"Now," Doreen said, reaching down with the tip of her wand to the hem of Min's robes. "Let's see what Cho Chang wears underneath all this, shall we? Wingardium Leviosa." She gestured, not with a swish and a flick but with a long, slow push of the wand against Min's skin. But the robes came up nonetheless. Min suddenly wished she hadn't been quite so practical about avoiding the summer heat.

"That is an adorable pair of panties,"Doreen cooed, reaching down to trace the line of Min's labia with her fingers. "Silencio. Obscuro." Everything went suddenly dark, and Min found herself alone with only the sensation of Doreen's gently rubbing hand to keep her company.

It was the most helpless Min could ever have imagined herself. She couldn't see, she couldn't speak, she couldn't struggle even a little. All she could do was feel. Even when Doreen's fingers slid inside her panties and massaged her clit until it was stiff and throbbing, Min couldn't even twitch in arousal. She heard her own breathing quicken, but that was the only outward sign of how creepily, squickily sexy this was.

Min tried to tell herself that it shouldn't be-she was alone in a strange room with a sinister brainwashing genius from the Internet who had paralyzed her and was taking advantage of her helplessness to finger-bang her, and nobody knew where she was. That was full-on horror movie territory, or at least it should have been. But...

She wasn't really paralyzed. She wasn't really blindfolded. It was all her imagination, tying itself up in knots until she was a character in her very own Harry Potter slash LARP. She was allowing herself to believe all this, and she was allowing herself to allow all this. Which meant that her helplessness was weirdly exciting, like some sort of fucked up bondage game that she had agreed to without actually realizing it. Min suddenly realized that she was wetter than she'd ever been in her whole life.

"That's it," Doreen purred, clearly noticing the evidence of Min's arousal. "My little witch likes this, don't you?" Min tried to whimper in agreement, but the spell of silence left it as nothing more than a gasp. "I thought so," Doreen said, her voice thick with arousal. She rubbed Min's clit faster and faster, moving her fingers in tiny circles as Min quivered with excitement.

"I think my little witch needs a wand of her own after all," Doreen whispered. Min felt the other woman's hand leave her pussy for a moment, then return with something far thicker than anything movie-accurate should have been. She slipped it into Min's wet cunt, then started it vibrating. "Accio orgasm, dear."

The spell didn't work-Min could hear a tiny, pedantic voice in the back of her mind explaining that Accio could only summon objects, not people or intangible things like feelings-but it didn't really matter. Min was coming within minutes anyway. Her eyes rolled up in the back of her head with the force of it; even though she still couldn't make herself move or speak, she heard herself letting out a thin whistle like a teakettle with the sheer force of the orgasm.

It felt like it went on for ages, but finally Doreen slid the vibrator out and tapped Min on the forehead with the wand. "Finite Incantatem," she said, and Min's limbs finally unclenched themselves. She curled up into a sudden ball, the orgasms seeming to hit all over again as her body finally reacted to them. She let out a high-pitched scream of release that probably would have gotten the police called on them if it wasn't the middle of a convention.

"Did you enjoy that?" Doreen asked. Min nodded shakily. She didn't see any point in trying to pretend. "Good. I don't want this to be one-sided, after all. But I really do need to come after watching that, so...Imperio."

Min gasped in shock-she'd somehow come to terms with everything else, but it still felt wrong to hear someone use an Unforgivable Curse. But the shock faded into dreamy, inexorable warmth as she felt her eyes mist over into an obedient stare. Somehow, the Imperius Curse felt even more powerful than the brainwashing that allowed her to believe she could be subject to the Imperius Curse. She felt blissful, lost in a thick fog of magical euphoria that left her eager to do whatever Doreen asked.

She wasn't long in finding out. "Undress me and lick my pussy," Doreen commanded, standing up to give Min better access to her clothing. Min complied with a hazy lassitude, her muscles feeling as though they were being gently massaged by the peaceful ecstasy of following her instructions. She slipped off the rest of Doreen's costume, and then knelt in front of her. With reverent bliss, she leaned in and began to lap at Doreen's wet cunt.

It felt wonderful. Min had never imagined going down on another woman, but everything about it seemed like it couldn't be more perfect. Min inhaled Doreen's musky scent with a helpless passion, tasting her as her tongue explored every inch of Doreen's pussy. She flicked again and again at the stiff nub of Doreen's clit, delighting in the way that the other woman twitched and moaned with each stimulation. If this was what brainwashing felt like, Min couldn't understand why anyone would call it unforgivable.

Min found her hand drifting down between her own legs, mimicking the action of her tongue on her own pussy as she licked and licked. She heard Doreen say things to her, instructing her, but it all just felt like one wonderful idea after another from the depths of her own mind. Of course she wanted to spike her tongue deep into Doreen's cunt. Of course she wanted to suckle at Doreen's clit like a hungry baby. Of course she wanted to feel Doreen's pleasure. Of course she wanted them to come. Of course. Of course. Of course.

When Doreen's legs became too shaky to support her, they moved to the bed so that she could lay back and allow Min to kneel between her spread thighs. Min couldn't stop herself from doing it. She couldn't stop herself from wanting to do it. It all felt so good that she never wanted to stop. Min felt her entire sexual orientation rewriting itself under the power of Doreen's magic spell, and she welcomed the transformation. She couldn't resist magic, after all. She didn't even want to.

Eventually, Doreen pushed her away and lay there for long moments, gasping for breath. "F-finite incantatem," she said, when she was finally able to speak. Min felt her thoughts return, but she knew that they were no longer entirely hers. She was changed, perhaps forever. And yet, everything felt perfectly normal to her.

Doreen sat up, still obviously a little bit exhausted from their efforts. "Now," she said. "As fun as that was, I can't keep you like this forever. It's not safe, especially if you happen to find yourself near a broomstick. I'll have to get you back to normal. But first..." She sighed heavily. "We need to make sure you don't let my secrets out. I'm not exactly supposed to be using CIA mind-control technology to live out my slash-fiction fantasies, after all."