A Stranger Amongst Them
See disclaimer in chapter one.
Chapter four It's the idea that counts
Ginny sat in the kitchen going over the many notes she had made. She had owled Charlie asking about the availability of Dragon hide, and if he knew of any properties of the hide that would repel or absorb offensive spells. She had a pair of Dragon hide gloves that Charlie had giver her last Christmas, and she did some cursory experiments casting spells at them. The results seemed promising, but would require a lot more testing.
Shortly past five, Hermione appeared in the floo and stumbled out into the kitchen. "Hi Gin. What's up?"
"Nothing much Mione, just waiting for you. I'll order some take-away. What would you like? Chinese ok?"
"Yea, Chinese is fine, and a butterbeer."
Ginny called in her order, opened two butterbeers, and sat at the table, pondering how she should approach this with Hermione. She decided that she would only cover the aspects of spell shielding, and not her real purpose behind it.
"Ok Gin, What's on your mind that's so important to be kept secret?"
Ginny told her the story watching the Ivanhoe movie on the telly, and her thoughts on some type of shield other than spell shields. "What I really need, Mione, is to research everything that is known about things that block offensive spells. My idea is to build a shield much like the shields that were used by the worriers in that movie."
"So if you are successful, what are you going to do with such a shield?"
"Think about it Mione. Imagine yourself engaged in a duel. Spells are flying at you from every direction. You could cast a spell shield around yourself, but then you can't cast spells from behind the spell shield. Now imagine that you had in your left hand a shield made of something that would stop any spell before it hit you. And at the same time you could cast your own spells with your free hand unimpeded by your own non-spell shield. Think of the possibilities."
"Ok, but if such a shield were possibly, don't you think that someone would have thought of it by now?"
"Mione, were talking about the magical community here. A society that's centuries behind any technological advances. Look at my parents for example. Then look at us. Electricity, telephones, computers, modern appliances in our homes. I have read about flexible materials called Kevlar that can stop bullets. There are so many possibilities in the modern world that the magical world is totally ignorant of, is it any wonder that no one has thought of this before. I need to research the possibilities in both the Muggle and magical worlds."
"I need your help, Mione. I have gotten pretty good using my computer to research things in the Muggle world. But I don't know even how to begin researching in the magical world. You're the expert here, Mione. That's where I need your help. Please!"
Hermione thought about this for a minute. Not that she didn't trust Ginny, but something in the back of her mind was thinking that she had an ulterior motive for all of this. "Ok Gin. I think I can help. It's been pretty boring lately at the ministry. This sounds like something I could really get into. I'll start tomorrow. First, let's go over everything again, to make sure I know where this is headed."
Several weeks went by, during which time Ginny started a daily training regime to get herself back into shape and improve her dueling technique. She set up a practice mannequin to which she attached her Dragon hide gloves, and tested different spells against it with only moderate success. She had heard from Charlie earlier in the week. He could provide her with a piece of Dragon hide if she needed it. He said that Dragons were mostly unaffected by the normal spells that were used on other magical creatures to control them, but did not know why.
She met with Hermione each week, but she had nothing to report. She managed to purchase a used Kevlar vest for testing, but so far without success. She was starting to get frustrated as each clue ended in a blank wall. Finally, Hermione called her to say that she had something and would be over on Wednesday.
"I think I found something," Hermione proclaimed even before she stepped out of the floo. "Look at this. I copied it from a very old spell book I found in the Ministries' library."
"Sit down Mine, first things first. Take-away? Chinese" Butterbeer?"
"Yea, ok. Sorry. Go order it and lets talk."
Hermione showed her the copied article, pointing out that it was from a very old text, and some of the words did not make sense. "For instance," Hermione continued. "The article mentions a substance called Arum. I don't know what that is, Gin. Any ideas?"
"I'll look it up on the computer, but first, what does it do?"
"Well, according to the article, anything protected by this Arum stuff is not affected by most spells. It doesn't say how to do this, just the results. It also mentions something called bauxite, saying that it showed promise but that it was very rare. It's not much Gin, but it's a start."
"Thanks Mine. Your right, it isn't much, but it might lead to something. Remember, that book is very old, and it might be talking about something that was rare back then, but not now. I'll start researching on the computer tomorrow after Harry goes to work. I'll call you if I find anything."
"Good luck then. Ron will be home shortly so I have to go. Bye Gin."
"Yea, and thank you Mione."
The next day after Harry left for work, Ginny turned the computer on, paid a few bills, checked their accounts in London, and started her research. It didn't take long to find that Arum was Gold, and that Bauxite was a mineral ore from which Aluminum was extracted. Aluminum foil is available anywhere she thought.
With about another hour of searching, she discovered a textile company in South Africa that produced a woven cloth material made out of very fine Gold thread, and that it was available through the internet, albeit very expensive. She placed her order using Harry's credit card, knowing that she paid all the bills and that Harry never looks at the bank statements. She sent off an owl to Charley asking him to send her a piece of Dragon hide. She included the dimensions she thought she would need.
While she was on her computer, Ginny had the bright idea to research the night vision goggles she had read about in a Muggle magazine. They were large and bulky, but allowed good night vision in almost total darkness. She learned that a new technological development had enabled the manufacture of much smaller night vision glasses that resembled the Omnioculars Harry had purchased at the world cup several years ago, but without all the knobs and buttons. They were expensive, but Ginny thought that they would be useful, so she ordered a pair.
The next day while shopping in Diagon Alley, Ginny stopped by the twins WWW shop. While perusing the new products display, she noticed an item called Sun in the Sky. "What's this all about?" she asked George.
He replied, "Ah yes, one of our more brilliant ideas. Sins. We thought of it one night while watching a group of birds skinning dipping in Wadesworth pond. Starkers they were, and we thought a bit of sunlight above them would improve our view. Toss them in the air and direct them with a wand high over the subjects in question. Then a flick of the wrist and the right words and they explode into a brilliant light that floats slowly to the ground under a parachute."
"Brilliant George. I'll take a dozen."
"Hold on there little sister. These are experimental and not ready for the general public. We haven't decided yet how much to charge."
"Ok, I'll make you a deal. Let me take these and if they work as I suspect, I may be able to get you a contract for hundreds of these from a very reliable source."
George looked at her with a confused expression on his face. "And just what might you be up to little one?"
"I can't tell you right now, but trust me. It could happen. But you have to promise not to disclose who you gave these to. Deal?"
"If you say so. Not that we trust you, but in the spirit of entrepreneurship, they are yours."
Ginny took the whole box and thanked George profusely, saying her goodbyes.
Wow! Ginny thought to herself. My arsenal is growing. Those Sins things and the night vision glasses might just come in handy. And with those four materials, Kevlar, Gold cloth, Aluminum foil, and Dragon hide, I think that's sufficient to start some serious experimentation. But how to tell if the spells are being stopped? She thought about this for a while, then decided to use common household plants as her test subjects.
She purchased several flats of a flowering plant, the name of which she did not know. They were large and had an abundance of flowers in bloom. And they were cheap. She set all this up in Harry's training room, being careful to arrange things such that everything could be removed leaving no trace. Then she cast a few spells to determine their effect without a shield. Disaster. The plants exploded with such force that plant remnants and potting soil was sprayed all around the room. Even with magic, it took her hours to clean up. Back to the drawing board.
Then a brilliant idea struck her. The Burrow. Plenty of room. I could do it in the woods so there would be no cleanup. Molly volunteers four days a week. Great, she thought, problem solved.
The next day, Ginny packed everything she needed into a large rucksack and Apparated to the Burrow. She picked her spot near the woods edge and set up several rows of potted plants. She hit them with a dozen offensive spells, each time noting in her log the spell and the extent of the damage. Satisfied with the days work she Disapparated back home.
After about a week, she had all the materials she needed, having purchased a roll of heavy duty Aluminum foil at a local store. The Gold cloth was delivered by Royal Mail, and Charlie sent the Dragon hide by a large owl. She packed it all into her rucksack and returned to the Burrow.
She repeated her previous experiments with each item separately. She carefully documented the results, some of which were startling. It took her hours to complete all the tests before Molly would be home. Finished, she packed up and Disapparated.
Tomorrow was her weekly meeting with Hermione, and she wanted to be ready. She carefully prepared charts summarizing the results.
SPELLS NO GOLD DRAGON ALUMINUM
USED SHIELD KEVLAR CLOTH HIDE FOIL
Avada plants burned partially partially material
Kedavra destroyed hole blocked absorbed destroyed
Crucio plants wilted no affect partially blocked partially
blocked blocked
Defodio plants destroyed absorbed partially blocked no affect
blocked
Deprimo plants destroyed absorbed blocked blocked no affect
Diffindo plants cut material partially cut blocked material
cut material cut
Expelliarmus no affect no affect partially no affect blocked
blocked
Expulso plants destroyed partially blocked blocked no affect
absorbed
Incarcerous ropes around ropes around blocked blocked no affect
plants material
Reducto plants partially blocked partially material
estroyed absorbed absorbed destroyed
Sectumsempra Plants material partially cut partially material
destroyed destroyed material absorbed destroyed
Stupefy plants wilted no affect partially partially blocked
blocked absorbed
Note: no affect means that the spell was NOT stopped or absorbed by the material.
Interpretation and layer order:
1. Dragon hide provided the most protection, but it was weak against Reducto and Stupefy.
2. Gold cloth was strong against Reducto and others, but only partially effective against Stupefy.
3. Kelvar was effective against those spells that caused physical force against the target, making it most effective against Defodio, Deprimo, Expulso, and Reducto.
4. Aluminum foil was only effective against Stupefy and Expelliarmus.
Sectumsempra was the most difficult to stop, being only partially blocked by Dragon Hide. The spell did cut slightly into the hide, but was easily repaired.
End chapter four