Chapter 45: Gambit
"What's in the box?" Harry asks when I meet them outside the bank.
"Just a little something for an experiment." I shift the box under one arm.
Mad-Eye laughs. "Little? Hah! Just make sure I'm far away when you try it. I remember sitting in on one of Albus' 'little' experiments. Best be getting back now." His eye spins around, no doubt looking out the back of his head.
Moody draws out the piece of rope again and we huddle together. Freya deposits us straight into the living room in Grimmauld place. One of them anyway.
"Gah!" Somebody squawks. "Look at what's happened now!"
I turn to see Sirius kneeling in front of a pile of playing cards, it looks like he'd been trying to stack them.
"Those are exploding cards, Sirius." I tell him. "They'd just explode if anyone said snap." To iterate my point, a couple of cards popped.
"That was the idea!" He says enthusiastically. "I build the tower, say the restart phrase and BLAM!"
I pull out my wand. "I'm not sure if I can do this really." I wave my wand, hoping to build a tower. The cards slide over each other and start to build a triangular tower. "There we go. How do you set all the cards off?"
"Reset!" He cheers. The tower blows itself apart in a spectacular fashion. Sirius gets up and dances around the room.
"I wonder what makes these things snap." I say after most of the Order clear the room. Harry and Hermione exchange a look and duck behind the sofa as I pick a card up.
"Is this a good idea?" Harry asks me.
"It'll be fine." I inspect the card. "Runes check the card above and below. Check for a match, if there is one they are primed, then it listens for the word snap. The word reset makes them all go off. But what … ah! There it is." The rune cluster than makes the bang. A smile spreads across my face. "How does a super charged exploding snap card sound?"
Hermione groans from behind the sofa.
"Awesome!" Sirius claps his hands. "How much stronger?"
I run my finger across the card, causing it to glow. "Oh, a fair bit stronger. Add in a contact trigger and ..." I trail off and flick the card at Sirius.
His eyes barely have time to widen as it hits him in the chest and explodes, knocking him off his feet.
"Oh god." Harry says with a laugh.
Sirius is writhing on the floor in laughter.
"Merlin, if only we had those when we were in school." He pats his body to make sure he is in one piece. "Where'd the card go?"
"It uses itself up." I say whilst gathering the other cards up into a stack. "You've got a target practice room in this house? I can charge the whole deck and we can play around."
Sirius' eyes light up at this. "Follow me." He quickly leaves the room. "The targets can be set to move too."
We walk down a long hallway until we reach the target room, it's like a muggle shooting range.
"This is pretty cool." I say as we enter.
"Yeah, I used to spend hours in here in my youth." He vaults over the counter. "I don't know about you guys, but I can't throw a card very far, so we might as well be inside the range."
Sirius conjures a small table for the cards, I start the charge them up. It only takes a touch now I understand it, If I tried to do the whole deck at once I'd probably end up making a big bomb. I sit against the wall once I'm finished.
"Give me a minute to catch my breath." I say. "Not all of us can be Harry Potter." I laugh.
"I'm not that powerful." Harry mutters, picking up one of the playing cards. "How do these work then?"
"Press the centre of the card between you finger and thumb, then just throw it." I explain.
Harry squeezes the card, causing it to glow, then flicks it towards a target. There is a loud bang and the target has a small scorch mark on it.
"Awesome!" Sirius says, grabbing a card of his own.
"oh, and don't drop them after you've turned them on." I say. "Might lose a toe."
Sirius' card impacts against the target, leaving a red scorch.
"Red suits make red marks?" Hermione asks me, gingerly picking up a card.
I shrug. "Apparently."
She pinches the card and throws it at the target, hit's it right in the centre. I stand up and flick a couple myself.
"Sirius, stand down the range a bit and bring up a protego shield." I say as I pick up one of the last cards.
He looks confused for a moment, but complies. "Protego."
I throw the card at the blue dome and it passes straight through, throwing Sirius to the floor.
"The card is solid, not a spell. So it gets past a spell shield." Hermione says whilst Harry laughs at his godfather.
"I think that one packed more of a kick." He says as he sits up.
"One card left." Harry says, passing it to me. I raise an eyebrow. "How strong can one card be?"
"Ah." I smile. "Now you're speaking my language." I jump over the counter. "You'd best take cover."
They scramble over the counter, hiding behind the enchanted barrier.
"Harry, You're going to need to charge this one." I hold the card up. "Just grab onto my arm and pull away when you feel the drain." He nods and holds on.
It only takes a second to manipulate the enchants to make the new charged card, Harry pours more power into the card than I have in my whole body.
"Ok, stop." I say, shaking his hand off. "Don't want to kill us. I stand up and activate the card. "Fire in the hole!" I throw it down the range and duck.
There is a loud bang that leaves my ears ringing and when I open my eyes the whole room is covered in ashes. When my hearing returns I can hear Harry coughing.
"Might have put a bit too much into that one." I groan, laying flat on my back.
I hear Sirius wheezing in a poor attempt to laugh beside me.
"No one dead?" I say. "Can anyone conjure some water? I think my lungs are dying."
Harry makes some glasses for us and Hermione fills them with water. The cool liquid is a blessing.
I take a look down the range, the previously white room now looks like a bomb went off. It kind of did.
"Wicked." I hear two voices from the door. Fred and George apparently heard the explosion.
"Zack." Hermione says. "Do not. I repeat. DO NOT. Give the twins any of these. Ever."
"Don't worry about that." I laugh. "Harry is the only one that can charge a card that strong."
"I don't even feel drained." He says.
"Oh god." I wheeze again. "Harry and his monstrous powers. Don't give him to the twins. I could charge a few to that strength with Sirius' motorbikes core."
"We just came to give you this chest," Fred says.
"Mad-Eye says it was yours."
"You tried to open it, didn't you?" I ask.
"Well we couldn't leave ..."
"A poor chest sitting there, could we?" Fred looks appalled at the idea.
"Thanks for the delivery then." I take the chest.
"What's in it anyway?" Harry asks.
I slide the deadlock open and pull out the giant sapphire.
"That makes Sirius' one look like a peanut." Harry laughs.
"It's rather impressive, isn't it?" I rotate it in my hands. "I'll have to wait a few months before Freya leaves enough ash behind to enchant it." I place it back inside the chest. "Then it'll take months to actually enchant. Gonna be fun."
"What's the bottleneck for enchanting it? Power?" Hermione asks.
"Once I draw up the matrix, which will take me a while to figure out, the only thing needed is power." I lock the chest. "I can design the enchants whilst I wait for the phoenix ash to accumulate. Freya could force a burn, but they are rather unpleasant. She would have to age her body at a ridiculous rate until it died. She'd be out of action for a while. I'd never ask her to do that anyway."
"Could I help?" Harry says. "With the enchanting bit I mean, you say I've got power, no point in letting it sit there."
My eyes widen at this. With Harry's help I could get the enchanting done easily, depending on how much he actually has.
"That'd be great actually, after I have enough ash I'll come and get you." This alchemical lapis is going to be able to hold so much power and channel stupid amounts at once. When I upgrade the boots and gloves with a few phoenix feathers I'm going to be able to fly really fast.
"Anyway, Mum says dinner will be ready soon." The twins take their leave.
"I'll clean this room up tonight." Sirius says. "The order members like to practice in here." He looks along the scorch marks on the walls. "Having one of those blasting cards slip through your shield in a duel would be a pain." He looks at us. "The normal ones, not this Harry-power one." He grins.
"I think either one would throw you off. I might throw one at Malfoy this year." Harry says will a smile.
"You're a prefect now, you can't go attacking people." Hermione chides him.
"Our dear Draco is probably a prefect now too." I remind them. Harry groans.
"We should get cleaned up." Sirius gestures to our soot covered clothes. "Molly won't appreciate us dragging this through the kitchen."
We go to our various bedrooms for new clothes and a shower. I'm not entirely sure where all the ash came from, but it got everywhere.
I should keep a charged deck on me all the time. It'd be a good distraction in a fight, give me time to escape or give enough of an opening to hit them.
The smell of food wafting into my room reminds me of how hungry I am. I grab a shirt and head downstairs.
"Smells great, Mrs. Weasley." I say. I suppose that cooking everyday for however long she has means she's good at it.
"Thank you dear." She smiles at me. "It'll be a few more minutes, could you get the drinks ready?"
I open the fridge and retrieve the jug of pumpkin juice. I wonder where they grow all the pumpkins to supply everyone in Britain with the juice. I pour the drinks and sit at the kitchen table.
"All freshened up." Sirius says from the doorway.
"We should have a look around for another deck of exploding snap. Y'know give us something to do on the train." I say to him.
Exploding snap is a popular pass time amongst wizards, the guy that invented them is probably minted now. They only have enough power for a couple of hundred 'snaps' and the production of them is cheap, easy, and most importantly, fast. Because of this they have no protections on the charms, they are easy to manipulate.
Molly begins to serve the food as the others arrive. Ginny sits opposite me, her clothes are far too small for her. I'm completely OK with this.
"What was all that banging earlier?" Molly asks once we're all seated, she looks at the twins.
"Wasn't us this time!" They chime together.
"We were just playing some exploding snap." Harry says.
"With a bit more emphasis on the exploding part." I add with a smile.
Arthur enters from the floo and takes a seat.
"Long day dear?" Molly asks as she kisses him on the cheek.
"Someone was under the imperius curse and tried to break into … the Ministry." He stops himself from revealing too much
A/N: Back to Hogwarts next chapter. Enjoy!
