Chapter Seven
"Come on!" Tom hurried everyone next to the barn. Jypsy was thankfully staying a bit further back. Letting the children play well keeping a distant eye on them. Unlike the other barns which were at the very back of the property this one was just behind the house, in between the Quidditch Pitch and the playground. The barn was in a fenced in area with runes. When actived the runes kept all the magical creatures inside the fences boarders. They couldn't even fly out. Still it was a pretty big area but not nearly as big as the entire property.
"Slytherin's got them trained really well" Tom smiled walking over to the side of the barn were a bell hang. As he rung the bell he explained "Whenever they hear the bell they know their supposed to come back to the barn"
Ruby was grinning wildly "How'd he get them to do that?"
Tom shrugged "He took Care of Magical Creatures in school. They all got unique tricks to training them. Wasn't as cool as it sounds though. He said some idiot went and did the exact opposite of what the instructor told them to do and got hurt so the school forbid most of the practical work. Harry had to spend most of that class reading and only occasionally going out and handling creatures but even then it was only the small harmless ones"
"That sucks" Akatosh growned "It's always someone that's got to ruin it for everyone else"
"Here comes one now" Tom grinned but as the boys looked around they couldn't see anything "Check her out" Tom grabbed an apple from a nearby barrel and held up apple and the boy's eyes grew wide as there was a crunching sound and suddenly the apple had a big chunk out of it. Tom grinned and started petting what appeared to be nothing "This is Fluttershy, she's a Thestral. Isn't she gorgeous!"
The boys looked uncomfortable but chose not to comment. Only someone who witnessed death could see a Thestral which led to some pretty unsettling thoughts about Tom. Who would even own a Thestral. They brought bad luck.
"Hey Dashie!" Tom yelled looking up into the sky the boys' eyes grew wide as a majestic pegasus flew over before landing next to Tom. The beast was bright blue with a rainbow main, a pretty rare bread. Pegasus quickly snatched the apple out of Tom's hand "Hey!" Tom glared as he began to scold "That was Fluttershy's apple! You know better then to take someone else's food" the Pegasus snort before swallowing. Tom rolled his eyes "This is Rainbow Dash. As you can tell she's totally full of herself" Tom teased as he began petting her to "Don't let her fool you. She and Fluttershy are best friends"
Ruby grinned as he started reached to pet her. The Pegasus eyes grew wide but Ruby calmly shooed it and somehow made himself look completely harmless bespite being so big. As the Pegasus calmed down he lightly touched her mane and gently pet her.
Tom grinned "You really do got a way with animals. Dashie never let's strangers near her"
"She just needs some tender care to get her out of her shell" Ruby insisted. As the other boys went too touch her she flipped and ran inside the barn, apparently Fluttershy went with her.
"Don't mind them" Tom dismissed "They'll get used to you"
"You just approached dem too fast" Ruby explained "I'll show you how to do it"
"Here's your chance" Tom grinned seeing two more flying at them "The Griffin is Manga and the Hippogriff is Silver Quill" he explained as they landed "I think Silver Quill is Harry's favorite. He's got a major thing for Hippogriffs. Plus Silver Quill is the most out going of all of them" Silver Quill demonstrated this but walking over to the guest and looking if they had any food well Manga stared at them suspiciously.
"No bloody way!" Ruby gaped looking at the sky "You got a Giant Eagle!" the 20 foot bird landed on the barn giving the boys suspicious looks just as Dash poked her head out of the barn to see what was going on.
"Is this everyone?" Wesley asked
"Nope" Tom grinned "We still got two more"
Their was a loud screech as the boys looked up to see a 12 foot long serpent with bird wins come over. He drapped himself over Tom's shoulder's as Mouse Gobbler glared at him.
"Get your own spot!" Gobbler hissed
Tom rolled his eyes as the larger snake informed "I just did"
Tom insisted "Behave yoy guys, we have guests"
The winged snaked scoffed "What's with all the hatchlings?"
"They're Tom's new friends" Gobbler informed "Humans are pack animals remember?"
The winged snake snorted but left it alone.
Akatosh got their attention "Er Tom?"
"Hmmm?"
"What are they saying?"
Tom shrugged "They're just curious about you. This is Feather Scale. He's a Couatl. They're real smart. They can even understand English"
Feather Scale held up his head and gave a smug smile.
The boys were detracted from the flying snake as the last creature arrived. Ruby started in absolute awe "That's a DRAGON!"
"Well sort a" Tom shrugged as a scaled winged lion cuddled up next to him "This is Fundor. He's a Dragonne. He's part of the Dragon family but it's legal to own him because he won't ever get nearly as big as a dragon and they're a lot easier to train"
"Wow" Ruby started working his magic on Fundor and it wasn't long before the dragon lion hybrid was cuddling him and purring "I always wanted a dragon"
"Well you can't have mine" Tom teased
Akatosh suggested "you might try getting a Kobold if you want"
"Kobold?" Hagrid blinked
"They're like House Elves only their part of the dragon family. Think really REALLY small dragons that walk on two feet. They're usually the servants of elder dragons but I know a breeder who can get you a well trained one" Akatosh grinned smugly at Wesley "Through Malfoy connections of course"
Ruby sighed "I could never afford it"
Akatosh shrugged not understanding not everyone had his level of money "Well just tell me if you change your mind"
"Who wants to ride who?" Tom grinned and just as the boys began to register that awesomeness their dreams were crushed
"Young Master Tommy is not to be taking his friends!" Jypsy scolded "The beasties must get used to the other children before Master Lord Slytherin Sir would even think to permit Young Master Tommy's friends to ride any of them"
All the kids growned but Jypsy encouraged "Would Young Master Tommy like to get the brooms from the shed? He and his friends can fly beside the beasties on the brooms"
Tom smiled "Sure" before running back to the shed beside the Quidditch pitch
Akatosh studied the elf "Why don't you get them?"
"Master Lord Slytherin Sir ordered Jypsy not to leave the children unattended around the beasties"
Akatosh nodded, okay with that now that he knew the elf wasn't just being lazy.
Tom came running back soon after with arms full of broom. Not just any brooms either but professional racing brooms! The Nimbus in fact. They were a new company that just started but their brooms were already being endorsed by professional Quidditch players they were that good.
Tom grinned as he started handing them out, including giving his elf one!
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Harry looked out his window from the private library in his room where all the spell tomes resided. A smile spread across his face as he spotted Tom soaring in the sky with his friends and the herd of magical creatures. The boy loved flying. Guess it made sense why Voldemort was so willing to painfully enchant his own bones with a flight spell like the ones cast on brooms. Honestly Harry wouldn't mind doing that himself if he could figure it out. He had a pretty high pain tolerance and the ability to fly under his own power would be worth a few hours of grueling pain... maybe...
Harry looked back down at his book. He had been reading about the Enchantment that created Slytherin's Diary but he had seen something interesting in the index. Flipping back to the front of the book he looked it over. This book was a list of various enchantments, Slytherin seemed to be an expert at them, and their was one that stuck out "Body Augmentation". After finding the correct page number he flipped to it. There nothing on flight Augmentation directly but it did explain who to physically enchant the body with a spell. There were a few warnings about it being vary painful and most people dying and that only a master Enchanter should attempt such.
Harry smiled devilishly. If it worked he wouldn't even need a broom to fly "Twinkle!" he called and the headelf instantly appeared in front of him.
"Yes Master Lord Slytherin Sir?" Twinkle smiled
"The Goblins said they trained you all to be master craftsmen correct?"
"Yes Master Lord Slytherin Sir" Twinkle declared proudly "We is the bestest carpenters, painters-"
"What about magical skills, say Enchantment?" Harry grinned
"Oh yes Master Lord Slytherin Sir, Twinkle knows how to Enchantment but Fancy is the best of us" oh how Harry loved elves. They could do pretty much anything and people kept overlooking their greatest skills in favor of having them do the dishes.
Harry almost squealed with glee "Think he's good enough for body Augmentation""
Twinkle looked very worried "Yes..." he said slowly "but such magic is difficult and dangerous... it be best to let him study up on it some more and-"
"Get me a scroll" Harry grinned "A big one. I'll translate this chapter for him and he can study it... also have him look over my Firebolt broom and figure out the Enchantment on it. He better not hurt my Firebolt though. It's one of my most treasured possessions. I just want him to figure out the Enchantment on it and graft the spell to my bones"
Twinkle yelped "Your BONES Master Lord Slytherin Sir!"
"I know it will hurt but trust me I've had worse" Harry giggled as he imagined flying through the air under his own power "What til Tom..." he stopped thinking about Tom. He promised to take him out this weekend and he could hardly do that if he was recovering from such a dangerous procedure. He sighed "Have Fancy be ready by the beginning of next week... I'll just... read more of these books until then" he looked around at the shelves. He was actually getting a little excited about learning Parseltongue magic if it could unlock things like this "Get the stroll, I'll use a Translation spell to copy everything down then Bring me a targeting dumbie. I'm going to practice a few spells" he smiled picking out a Parseltongue book on dueling spells
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After the boys spent a couple hours flying Jypsy made them come back inside so Tom decided to show them the game room. The boy gaped as the entered the huge room. The left side of the room was a freaking bowling alley where the right side had all kind of other muggle games. Things like pool and Ping-pong and various other table games. Then the wall to the far right had strange machines lining it. There were various one of the machines had a long row of basketball hoops, another looked like a box with a glass screen and had toy guns in holsters attached to it, then there was another box with a screen only that one had a lot of buttons and a few joysticks, then there were a bunch of other machines not even Weasley recognized.
"What are they?" Wesley asked walking up joystick box.
"They're called 'Arcade Consoles' Mister Slytherin commissioned them from the Goblins when he had the house built. Their made of a bunch of circuits and wires and A LOT of magic. Muggle tech isn't really up to what Harry wanted these to do so the Goblins enchanted them. The other ones are pretty simple but this one box" Tom patted joystick box "gots literally over a million games programmed in it. The computer stuff can only handle it because they are magically enhanced. You control the movement with the joystick and kick and punch and stuff with the buttons. It's really cool... wanna give it a try?" It wasn't long before the boys were cheering and taking turns fighting each other with pixelated warriors.
"Why doesn't Slytherin sell these things?" Wesley asked repeatedly pressing the buttons. Although he was talking to Tom his eyes were glued to the screen "I'd love to own one"
"There Goblin artifacts, he doesn't have any rights to them"
Akatosh snorted "You mean your dad owns a whole building sized room filled with awesome Goblin stuff and he STILL got that law passed to hand everything back to them!"
Tom blushed and nervously scratched the back of his head "Well... not really. You see Harry made a deal with the Goblins that these would always be allowed to be kept in the Slytherin family and the Goblins could profit from all the games he thought up for their devices without having to pay him royalties. Honestly I think they got the better deal. The Goblins actually already have a bunch of these devices in one of the larger shops at Hogsmeade's Mall but not a lot of kids know about it yet and barely anyone goes to the mall at all seeing how the only real store there right now is Harry's comic book shop"
Wesley shrugged "My parents are thinking about opening a techno magic shop there but they haven't decided on anything"
"That be pretty cool, Harry might even be willing to work with them to produce these themselves"
Wesley eyes turned huge and he made the mistake of taking his eyes off the screen giving Ruby the perfect death blow to his character. Ignoring the box's scream of "Fatality" he looked at Tom and asked "Are you serious?"
"Yeah" Tom shrugged "Harry thinks computer are the next big thing. A lot of the circuitry in the Arcade boxes is just the stuff you find in a computer shrunken down with spells. Harry things muggles could just build them that small themselves one day and wants to see it happen"
"Your average computer is the size of my bedroom!" Wesley yelped "How could they make it smaller without magic?"
"More precise machines for building. Human hands could never do it but if you build a machine you could build parts small enough to actually have a computer in your house" Tom grinned
Ruby blinked "If your dad has the idea for it why doesn't he do it himself?"
Tom scoffed "He's busy enough as is. He doesn't need to do more. Besides it would take years of research just to build machines that accurate and you'd still need a computer the size of a house to control it... maybe you should try it" he said looking at Wesley
"ME!" The boy yelped
"Well you could use Techno magic to build the machines then use the machines to build tiny computers for muggles. That would make TONS of money, a lot more then a computer just for wizards. There are a lot more muggles then wizards after all"
Wesley thought on it a minute "So he has the idea but he lacks the resources where my family has the resources and just needs the know how... Well if Lord Slytherin could give my parents the blue prints we could do it for him, but we'd want most of the profits since we'd be handling everything and taking on all the risk"
"Sounds fair to me" Tom assured "All his attention is on his comic books and all the social changes he's trying to make world wide. Plus Harry doesn't know anything about techno magic. He couldn't hope to make that stuff on his own. And remember, the Goblins have permission to use the games, they don't actually have exclusive rights to them"
"Oh Tom, this is so much bigger then games" Wesley grinned
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Harry blinked the next day when he got an owl from Mrs Weasley asking him to meet for tea to discuss a possible business venture... then gaped as Lord Crabbe sent him an owl demanding for a duel at the ministry for the 'dishonor' his 'son' gave their family.
"TOM!"