Chapter Seven – Portal


Harry's House, The next Day

Harry looked at the bubbling tubes arrayed around the magically protected basement and then back at the paper he had swiped from Lois' bag the evening before. He had managed to grab not only that but the rest of the potion as well.

During his 'training' the one person utterly unwilling to give him a skill bundle had been Severus Snape. This was largely due to the man's hatred of Harry's father, and Harry himself of course, but luckily that didn't matter one jot. There were two ranks above Potions Master in the realm of potions and they were Alchemist and Master Alchemist. Dumbledore was an Alchemist and Nicholas Flamel was a Master Alchemist and Harry had skill bundles from both of them. So thanks to Snape's petty nature Harry had a far better education in potions than he would have gotten if he had just coughed up some skill bundles. Dumbledore had wanted Harry to have the best education possible for after the battle as well as for the battle.

It still gave Harry a warm feeling that Albus had cared enough to think of after the battle for him rather than just focusing on the war effort.

It did mean that, while he wasn't able to properly equate the chemical formulae that the cheerleaders had put forth for their assignment, he could do the next best thing and break it down to its component parts. He already knew, thanks to the conversation with Clark and Lois the day before, that it had Meteor rock in it. This interested him on several levels. The cheerleaders had been unable to make the potion work until they had put the rock in. The rocks apparently affected some people in the area giving them special powers and the rocks appeared to have an adverse effect on Clark given how he had looked after drinking the potion. He had not become anymore obsessed than he already was with the object of his desires and had only seemed to become ill instead. This didn't add up with the other behavior that Harry had seen from the other imbibers of the potion at all.

Harry was staying home from school on purpose that day to let the potion come out of the footballers systems before he showed his face in school again. Then he could hand in his quite complimentary report and hope things would be cool between him and the team. Harry had no wish to make an enemy in the school at all, especially with a group as politically powerful as the football team. Even if it was just school politics he was dealing with for a change.

He looked at the equipment around him and let out a sigh, it would take a while for that to work properly and do its job to his satisfaction. He had gone all the way to New York's magical community to get all the gear and was feeling quite tired from the journey. Apparition across state lines like that was not the easiest thing in the world and if not for his personal power Harry doubted he could have done it at all, and he had done it both ways. What he needed was an easier way to get around.

Once more his mind turned towards the game he had been playing of late. His character had just learned how to make portals from place to place. In the game they were set to specific locations. This was obviously a ploy to make things limited in the game to control the environment. If he could duplicate the spell as he had done with the fireball spell Harry suspected that he would be able to portal to any location as long as he had been there.

With that in mind he decided that this one was going to take a horrendous amount of number crunching. To that end he walked upstairs and grabbed his MagiNet Console. On it, he knew from experimentation, were several special arithmancy programs that he could use to crunch the numbers for him while he worked on something else.

He turned it on, it booted instantly something he wished his laptop did, and then he loaded the correct program and input the details required to make it do the work for him. Then he tapped his fingers thinking of what else he could do to keep his mind occupied.

Suddenly a message client came to life and a message appeared.

Jade: Hello Harry Black, I'm Jade Goodkind. I think Marie mentioned that I would contact you.

HarryBlack: Hi there, yes she did. Nice to urm – meet you.

Jade: I just wanted to check to see how you're getting along with the console and see what you're using it for?

HarryBlack: I've used MagiNet for researching a historical figure and a spell so far. Currently I'm using it to crunch some arithmancy for me. Did Marie mention that I'm a Spell Weaver?

Jade: No she didn't, that's amazing and just the sort of thing we need to test. How's it running so far?

HarryBlack: Seems okay so far, it's still in action at the moment. I suspect that it will take a long time to crunch the numbers on this spell.

Jade: Can I ask what spell you're creating?

HarryBlack: Sorry, can't tell you that. Spell Weavers Code ya know?

Jade: Fair enough, can you try to create some spells for me at some point?

HarryBlack: I can; normally I would charge for that, but since I got this console free I'll do you a few on the house Just tell me what you need and I'll try my best. Not everything can be solved with a single spell, or a combination, some things are not possible even with magic.

Jade: I'm not sure this will be, but first I need a promise from you that what I ask for will be kept a secret.

HarryBlack: Sounds ominous.

Jade: Nothing totally illegal, but it does brush the Statue of Secrecy a little.

HarryBlack: Tell me what you want and I'll say yes or no, either way I won't tell a soul.

Jade: I need some spells that will work with technology. We, and I mean my partners and I, want to create a few spells that the average Witch/Wizard can use in the mundane world to make their lives easier as you probably know. It's sort of our mission statement. I seem to remember you are from England right?

HarryBlack: That's right, yeah.

Jade: Well, over here things are much more integrated. Even the average Joe Wizard knows a little about technology and uses it from time to time. We need several spells that can be 'safely' used on technology. Things like locking a computer totally from outside influence. We would also like one that would allow a normal computer to connect to MagiNet.

HarryBlack: Mixing magic and electricity is tricky, very tricky, but I think I might be able to do the first, which would be two spells in effect. Lock and unlock. The second though I'm afraid I have no idea how it could be done I would need to know a LOT more about how MagiNet works.

Jade: That would take signing some blood contracts.

HarryBlack: I have no problem with that in theory. I've not got loads of time just at the moment though and I have school as well of course.

Jade: You're still in school and can Spell Weave?

HarryBlack: Muggle school actually.

Jade: Right, well, okay – we're based in San Francisco can you get the weekend off to come and see us sometime are you close?

HarryBlack: No, not close; I'm not in San Francisco but I might be able to apparate to you if you give me co-ordinates.

Jade: From where?

HarryBlack: Kansas.

Jade: Shit, okay I'll get you some sent over, not got Floo yet then?

HarryBlack: Unfortunately not, it's taking forever for them to come around and set it up for me.

Jade: I'll see what I can do my end to speed things up a little for you. Despite the fact we're controversial we're pretty powerful already.

HarryBlack: Need investment?

Jade: Always, but if you're in school I doubt you can help us.

HarryBlack: What is the magical currency here?

Jade: Still dollars, no need to have two.

HarryBlack: Then I would like to check you out and then maybe buy a few shares.

Jade: Every bit helps.

HarryBlack: Oh hey it's crunched the first part of the spell already – that's impressive that would have taken me three solid days of work on paper.

Jade: It's a powerful computer as well as a way to connect to MagiNet.

HarryBlack: Well I expect you're busy so I better not keep you. I'll contact you with a spell for the first thing you wanted in about a week or so. I need to get a load of old computers to try it on first.

Jade: Okay Harry – can I call you Harry?

HarryBlack: Only if I can call you Jade

Jade: Of course, see ya.

HarryBlack: Bye.

Harry closed the message window slightly impressed with this new communication method. Then he walked out of the room, leaving the console to work, and up into his living room where he had left his precious PDA/phone.

He quickly dialed a number and waited for it to be picked up, "Walt," Harry said by way of greeting.

"Harry, how are you – not heard from you in a couple of days."

"Not bad, had some fun here with a love potion of all things but other than that it's peaceful."

"A love potion in the mundane world," Walt asked sounding shocked.

Harry smiled, "Yep – I'm looking at it now to find out how worried we need to be, if at all, nothing magical about it as far as I can tell so far though. It might even be useful if I can do some comparison work."

"You're a potions master as well?"

"Urm – no, Master Alchemist actually, I was really given a lot of training during school," Harry said flushing slightly. He was aware that he was ridiculously powerful and trained beyond normal and beyond even weird for most people. In his head he had the wealth of knowledge from the collective Hogwarts staff, the headmaster and a few of his most trusted friends. It was almost surreal what Harry knew and he was determined, now that the war was over, to give something back to the world if he could. It was true that his life had not started out well, but it had gotten significantly better over the years mostly due to a somewhat manipulative headmaster. If Albus Dumbledore had not been light sided the world would have been in real trouble and Harry would likely be the most evil man on the face of the planet, luckily he was light sided.

"Good grief," Walt mumbled, "Well what can I do for you – only I have a meeting in about 15 minutes."

"That's no worry, I can call back if you like."

"No that's okay as long as we don't go over 10 minutes so I have time to get there," Walt told him.

"No this is easy really, I think I want to put some serious money into Jade Goodkind's business, I have no idea of the name but I know their mission statement and I like it a lot."

"Talked to her finally did you?"

"Why do I suddenly get the feeling this was set up in some way."

"Jade is Marie's god daughter," Walt admitted.

"Ahh," Harry said with a sagely nod, "Marie wanted me to help Jade out?"

"Not exactly, but I'll leave that side of the scheme to Marie."

"I don't do blind dates," Harry said quickly reading where that was going in a flash.

Walt chuckled, "It's easier to give in now Harry, Marie never lets up when she has her mind set on something. Jade is a very pretty girl actually, but I digress. How much did you want to invest?"

"A lot if you think they are for real," Harry said, "Not a controlling interest but close to it."

"Why so much," Walt asked.

"I really want my money to do good things Walt, I'm not against making lots for myself either but the more I get the more I have to use for the betterment of people. I've been lucky in life, recently, and I want to give something back. This seems like a good way of doing that. Jade's company looks to be pushing back the boundaries between magic and technology as well and that really interests me."

"It's a fascinating piece of work the MagiNet Console, mostly a computer built out of magical components," Walt told him, "If you get a chance to get the tour of them making one take it."

"I've got an offer to find out the specifics, they need some spell weaving done – I can't tell you what obviously. I do have a question, for you, considering your specialty."

"Need a computer?"

"Something tells me you know more than you let on, but I actually need a lot of computers, preferably working but old enough not to cost me an arm and a leg if I ruin them."

"I know one of the things she wants Harry, she already made me sign the contract when I went on the tour. But it stops me from talking about it with you at the moment so I guess you have not signed yet."

"Not yet," Harry admitted, "Can you set that up for me."

"Of course, you're lucky this is America or a squib would have no hope of doing that sort of thing."

"Well you're married to a witch," Harry said with a chuckle, "So you're the lucky one that wouldn't be allowed in England."

"Disgusting really, isn't it," Walt said a frown in his voice.

"Something to fight later on," Harry said. "I've learned to pick my fights and when to fight them. I want that to change but it's a long way off."

"Anyway, time is short, Harry, I'll get all that moving for you after my meeting. I'm also going to set up a better communication system between us at some point. You keep catching me on the way to meetings. Perhaps through my secretary or something for the little stuff; she can forward you to me if the need arises."

"Okay Walt, whatever is easier for you," Harry said.

"Either way I'll call you later Harry," Walt said and shut down the connection.

Harry closed the phone and placed it in the kitchen on its charger before walking back into his magical basement area. He was surprised to see that the arithmancy program had finished its run and was beeping at him with a flashing box saying it was done.

Considering all the things he wanted built into the spell it was an awesome display of computing power. He almost hoped this program wasn't going to catch on too much or the art of spell weaving could go the way of the dodo. Of course there was a way of thinking behind the weaving as well as an innate knowledge of magic that was required to create spells. In their last year of Arithmancy all students of Hogwarts were taught to create a simple spell themselves, but it was always an awfully simple spell.

Whereas the spell, or the two spells, that Harry was creating were extremely complex. They combined several other concepts of spells including apparition though it didn't use the same method of travel. It would also take considerable mental accuracy to cast the spell, the sort that came from a level of occlumency training few aspired to. Harry had it, Dumbledore had it and, oddly enough, Voldemort and perhaps Severus Snape had that type of skill, but Harry knew of no others. There was one other that could do it, only because he was light years ahead of the previously mentioned names and that was Nicholas Flamel and he had something like 500 years of practice. Then there was the worm-hole creation part of the spell and the portal itself to think of and a host of other details that would stop Harry from coming out the other side a different shape. The amount of error checking he had built in was staggering, which made the Console all the more impressive to Harry.

He walked to one side of the room and really focused on it, taking in every single stationary detail he could. Then he walked to the other side of the room and did the same thing, placing it with utmost clarity into his mind.

Then he walked over to the console and started work on the runic translations. He needed this step to find the incantation for the spell. Basically it was a combination of language and mathematics that almost staggered the mind and was probably the one part that couldn't be done by a computer as yet.

He worked for about three hours straight before he had two incantations. Oddly enough this particular spell had no wand movements, but then he had designed it to be a wandless spell in the first place rather than a spell he learned to cast wandlessly. Rather like the more traditional Apparition spell itself, which was also wandless, unlike that spell though it wasn't strictly an internal spell either. It took a fair build up of magic to cast it and in total Harry considered it would probably take him about a minute to cast to start with. After practice he hoped to get that down to as close to instant as he could, in the meantime though he had to learn how to focus the energies required by the spell. For a while he suspected that he would be the only person on the planet able to use it.

Once he had the incantations he walked to the first point in the room and conjured several odd items; some he could use to test their integrity after the transfer and others would measure the room magically for him and some were just wood, plastic and other types of basic materials. This was an important step in this spells creation and Harry knew he could not do his usual and just jump in himself. He could well come out the other side a different shape, or species.

Harry concentrated on building the energy for the spell, building it slowly so he could really focus on the feeling and then cast, "Patefacio Prodigium." The flow of power out of him was within expected tolerances so he was pleased, but he had to keep his focus for the full minute it took for the portal to open. A shimmering portal appeared in front of him, black and purple swirling together against what looked like a starry sky of all things. He looked at it for a long moment noticing that it appeared to be totally stable. This was good as he had put the utmost thought into the creation of the spell, had it not worked it would have been back to the drawing board for more than just the portal. If he had failed it would mean a new way of thinking about the problem from the very conception and onwards.

He sent the first item through, which was essentially a magical recorder. It flew through unhindered making the portal seem to shimmer a little more. Then across the other side of the room the target portal opened and deposited the recorder out the other side. Leaving the portal open Harry walked across the room and picked up the recorder going over the readings carefully. Oddly it had recorded absolutely nothing at all and had appeared instantly. He grabbed his wand and ran some diagnostic charms over the item and found that it appeared to be in perfect working order.

Just in case he took his wand and conjured another recorder and went back to the portal and sent it through. It could be his wandless conjuration had messed things up though he doubted that. He sent it through to much the same result as before and the same readings. This was interesting he had not concentrated too much on the actual worm-hole itself and it appeared that it was a null one, meaning that it travelled through a null dimension of some sort. There was nothing for the recorder to record so it hadn't had the chance to do its job.

Harry walked to the entrance again and started to send his other items through. Then when he had finished he took extensive readings from the room, and then closed the portal with a "Termino," and did the same thing again. Nothing had changed other than the ambient magic had gone up fractionally.

He walked over to his various items and diagnosed them as well and was pleased to see that they too had not been changed, though the temperature on each was a few degrees cooler than before. Even the packet of flesh he had created was fine, though it was a simple form of flesh. The real test would be, of course, him entering the portal himself.

Taking a deep breath Harry walked to a different point and began the cast again, "Patefacio Prodigium," he intoned this time in a mere whisper and felt the energies flow out of him for about 60 seconds before the portal was in front of him. He squared his shoulders, took a hell of a lot of readings on himself and then stepped through the portal only to appear the other side of the room an instant later. Nothing had registered in the journey at all and to him it had appeared to be instant. "Termino," he cast and the portal closed behind him.

He took more readings and found the same results as before, and his shoulders sagged in relief; he had been worried there for a minute. Now all he had to do was lower the casting time, it would be useless in a battle situation for it not to be an instant cast spell. Assuming that he ever used it in combat, but then the way his life went it was quite likely that he would.

He put his wand back on its shelf and went to work.

Harry's House, Evening

Harry flopped down into his chair with a big grin on his face. He'd done it, it had taken an entire day, but he had done it. Considering how easily magic usually came to him he knew it would be impossible for just about anyone else to duplicate, but he had definitely done it. He had cut the casting time down to instant cast which meant he could wave his hand and have a portal appear, go through it and wave his hand again and it would disappear. He even managed to make the casting silent, so it would appear he had just willed them into place. Since starting to play more games he had come to realize that most Wizarding magic was not all that showy and there was a lot to be said for a show of power at times.

He was jarred from his thoughts by his PDA ringing so he got up and realised with some pleasure that it had not taken too much out of him to constantly cast all day. This meant the portals had another success under their belt. The whole idea was to be an easier way to get around that took less magic and by his calculations they should take no more power to get to England from Kansas than it took for him to go from one side of the room to the other.

"Harry Black," Harry said by way of greeting as he hadn't looked at his Caller ID.

"Harry its Walt, just a quick call to let you know I've arranged everything you wanted."

"Thanks Walt that's great news, how much did we get in the end," Harry asked.

"How much did you get you mean; about 40% of the stock for the company which is just under a controlling interest. The company was started by three friends' right out of Salem Academy and floated on the magical exchange last year, at first not many people bought into the company because of the views of the old guard, but people are finally realizing just how revolutionary most of their ideas are."

"Excellent," Harry said with a grin, "This also means that if someone tries a hostile takeover I can stop it right?"

"Just about, though you would need the support of one of the originals to pull off your own takeover."

"Which I have no intention of doing, I want them doing just exactly what they are already doing," Harry assured Walt because the man sounded a little wary.

"You should contact Jade tonight, she will have heard by now," Walt told him with a smile in his voice.

"The money will help them right," Harry said.

"Yep, quite a bit considering everything; they've been running low for a while now I know."

Harry nodded to himself, "Good I like their work. That MagiNet console just saved me about a week's calculations work."

"Create anything interesting," Walt asked.

"Very, but I'm not sharing it, I think only I could really use it right now anyway, it's not a spell for sale though I suppose I should create some at some point. How are your contacts for selling that sort of thing in the Wizarding world, I know you're set up in the Mundane one but…"

"None really, but then you don't need mine you can market stuff through MagiNet if you asked them nicely I'm sure."

"That reminds me I need those computers soon, now that I've got the other one off my plate," Harry said.

"Tomorrow evening alright for you," Walt asked.

"Sounds great, where did you find them?"

"You brought all our old stock we were going to throw out," Walt said sounding smug.

"I'm aghast at your underhandedness," Harry said dryly, "Taking advantage of me to make some extra money."

"Hadeha," Walt said, "You were going to spend more believe me, this way I get to recycle a bit and make some stationery money."

"I'm not sure what that means," Harry admitted, "But I don't care either, as long as they work."

"They work, better than most would actually, we take care of our stock here," Walt told him.

"Seems almost a waste," Harry admitted, "I know I'm going to blow most of them up while I build in the right power levels for a wanded user."

"Must feel strange for you to use a wand for anything," Walt mused.

"Does a bit, now what about the blood contract," Harry asked.

"On its way to you by courier, may even get there by morning I didn't put a rush on but it's got to come from SFC so it could take a while."

"SFC?"

"San Francisco," Walt explained, "Their base of operations."

"I might pop down this weekend and check them out if the paper work is sorted out by then," Harry admitted.

"Good," Walt said that smile back in his voice.

There was a knock at Harry's door which he went to answer as he replied, "You need to stop trying to set me up there are several gorgeous girls here you know."

He opened the door to find Lana Lang standing there, "Talking of, I've got to go," Harry said with an inner smirk.

"Sounds interesting," Walt commented, "Anyway, that's about it I'll talk to Jade at some point to assure her you don't want to take over her company and tell her how to avoid that sort of thing in the meantime. Contact her yourself about the tour okay Harry?"

"Will do Walt, come in Lana – excuse me just a sec nearly done," Harry said the last to his new guest. She smiled prettily at him and stepped into the house as if she knew it, but then she had lived there for years so she actually did.

"Tell Jade I will contact her tomorrow okay, and I'm really not interested in stopping them from doing what they are doing, and have a good night Walt, say hi to Marie for me and tell her to stay out of my love life – such as it is," he said the last with a laugh.

"That's just asking for trouble," Walt laughed back as Harry rung off.