Harry grinned, waving at the cameras as he sat in one of the four sofas, joined by several other arithmancy masters. Joe walked up to the interviewer's seat, to the applause of the crowd. "Welcome everyone, to the first panel of the day. Today with us, Arinda Sephari, who pioneered the use of the fractional decimal conversion, Arnold Lesaut, who was one half of the duo responsible for the rediscovery of ancient Samarian armithical knowledge, and Harry White, who of course was responsible for making us all look quite silly when he refuted the Drafus principle by proving there are numbers more armithically powerful than seven."
There were polite laughs from the audience as Harry waved with faux innocence. "Anyways, today's panel is on encouraging more talent to enter the field of arithmancy. So, seeing as he's the very ideal of youth entering into our field, why don't we start with Harry. Why don't you tell us what inspired you to study deeper in arithmancy?"
"Well Joe, I've always had a fascination with a muggle concept called statistics when I was younger. Basically, it suggests that over a long enough period of time with enough samples, it is possible to aggregate a trend and predict...well, anything. For instance, muggles can predict the temperature by mapping the trends of previous years onto data onto the most recent statistics to extrapolate trends. The idea that everything can be boiled down into numbers...it's fascinating, for me at least, and inspired me to really study numbers. In fact, if you would indulge me for a moment, I can tell you a bit about the fascinating history of how arithmancy and divination were once interlinked."
"This I must hear," Joe mused intrigued.
"Numbers are an extrapolation of the reality around us. They represent the abstract concept of trying to finite something infinite, to ascribe meaning to the things we observe. Today, we often take counting for granted, for instance: you have one wand...two wands...three wands, but what about lasagna, for instance. You put one lasagna on another and you still have one lasagna. This brings in the concepts of greater and lesser infinities. Fundamentally, we accept these discrepancies in logic because without these axiomatic assumptions we could not ascribe meaning to anything. Next I will bring in the idea of historicity, which is the belief that history has a purpose, and either is cyclical in nature or has a natural progression to a final state. This is fundamentally what has led to the attempts to predict the future using numbers, the true origins of arithmancy, far before we discovered its more...practical purposes in it. Keep in mind, the idea of divination through arithmancy was when wizards and witches still hadn't invented wands and were using very basic wandless magic. Whether you ascribe to historical cyclicalism or historical progression, you fundamentally believe that there are patterns that can be observed, and thus in combination with observing for signs, can predict with greater accuracy than just guessing."
"Fascinating," Joe murmured, before brightening. "Even if I doubt most children would have been thinking about anything more than quadribol or dresses, I must say you've enthralled even us old wizards and witches here. You believe that arithmancy is capable of this?"
"I know it is," Harry chuckled. "Let us use the analogy of a ship. There are one hundred seats on a boat, how many tickets do you sell?"
"I suppose one hundred," Joe replied confused.
"Arithmancy would say over one hundred," Harry chuckled, causing murmurs to emerge from the crowd. "Can you say, with absolute certainty, that every single individual who purchased a ticket will show up?"
"I suppose not?"
"Indeed. Let us say that one in a hundred individuals do not show up. Tell me, how many tickets should I sell now?"
"A hundred and one?"
"Let us continue exploring this! Because given enough days, for every one hundred, only thirty six of those would all show up if you sell one hundred and one tickets. Yet if you sold a hundred and two, such an occurrence would increase to seventy three days. Thus, imagine a company policy in which if you bought a ticket but aren't given a seat you are refunded your ticket and paid double. In the case you sell a hundred and one tickets, on thirty six of one hundred days, you lose out on two tickets' revenue, meaning you're earning for ninety nine on the worst day. If you sell a hundred and two, on thirty six days, you have to refund four ticket's worth, two for each of the two who missed their tickets and on thirty seven, you have to refund two ticket's worth, for the one individual who can't travel. If we take this to the logical limit, we could easily envision you selling well over a hundred and fifteen tickets to maximise revenue."
"Fascinating…"
"Indeed, arithmancy has the potential to revolutionise the very way our society functions, and yet...we've allowed a stigma of it being meaningless numbers with niche purposes to dominate the public consciousness. How can we expect fresh talent when we've allowed the field to be stagnant and closed off." It was a testament to the influence he had on the minds of the audience that there wasn't a massive outcry at this statement. "I think, we first need to look within, at what advancements we've made as a guild. I challenge anyone in this room to name ten groundbreaking arithmetic advancements in the past three centuries."
Many indignant looks fell way to ducked heads of shame and discontent mutters. Beside him, the other panelists looked uneasy. "We cannot pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Knowledge must be applied, shared, built upon in order to truly hold value. Arithmancy has become so disconnected from society at large, it's a wonder that it's still being taught at most schools. If we studied it, how many schools do you think only teach it for the sake of tradition? The reality is, we must look within as a guild, not just on furthering our own knowledge, but on applying it, to give it new meaning and new life as a contribution towards society at large. Only then, can we begin to eliminate the stigma the subject faces."
"A very...poignant argument," Joe mused diplomatically. "Arinda, Arnold, do you have anything to add?"
"I...Harry here brings up some very good arguments. I will admit that I...well I was always considered quite the loner nerd back in my school days," Arinda chuckled self-deprecating. "Arithmancy was an escape more than anything."
"Arnold?"
"I have to concur. As much as it pains me to do so, the stigma our field faces is well known to everyone present. I think, for too long we have blamed others rather than, as Harry put it, look within," Arnold conceded with a grimace. "Though I would be curious to see Harry's thoughts on immediate steps to rectifying that."
"Well, Harry?" Joe prompted. Harry rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Perceptions take time to change, and we've already covered the need to integrate our findings back into society, so let's look at a different problem: the barrier to entry. In my experience, much of my time at school would have been spent retreading ground already covered: creating my own multiplication tables and datasets. I believe this has to change; if we force students to focus all their time on repetitive calculations, then we limit our field to just that. I believe the first step is to reduce the need for this. I'm not saying that they don't need to understand the fundamentals, but certainly, I don't think three years of study, or even longer in some cases, is needed just for writing out repetitive calculation lines. My asian and middle eastern friends here will be aware that abacus were used by muggles for a long time. Today, muggles actually have far more advanced devices that can compute large numbers." He pulled out a calculator from his pocket. "You, give me a multiplication between two large numbers."
"Three thousand seventy four divided by eighteen," the audience member he pointed to called out
"A hundred seventy and seven ninths," Harry answered after pushing the numbers in the calculator. There were confused and disbelieving mutters from the audience, who expected Harry to have to take at least half a minute to compute the value. "As you can see, muggles have found a way to expedite calculations. In a similar vein, our field must do the same if we're to push the next generation farther than what we dreamed of. So much lost time, lost potential because we inhibit the field, and for what? We need not reject those that don't have the number sense we possess, or the patience to compute tens of thousands of calculations by hand, no, we need to nurture these individuals, who so often are the ones most creative, with the most unique perspectives. I believe that is the first immediate step."
"I daresay this panel is...well, far more than anyone of us could have hoped for. Certainly our colleagues who did not show up will regret it," Joe chuckled, causing many in the audience to laugh. "It seems Harry here is full of surprises. But let's not leave out our other two panelists. Arinda, what are your thoughts."
"Well, I would be remiss not to firmly support Harry's point of view. I admit my personal...distaste towards muggles, but certainly given what we've been shown a bit of humility and willingness to learn is needed in all of us. I was going to suggest that members of the guild host more open sessions with students...but that just seems silly now," she admitted, drawing chuckles from the audience.
"On the contrary, Arinda, it's a wonderful idea," Harry interjected. "If each one of us in this room could inspire just two students to pursue arithmancy, then our field would be all the better for it."
"You are too kind," the woman inclined her head, a motion Harry returned. "Certainly I daresay I'll be using your words today as a template for recruitment, if you don't mind."
"I'm flattered. Arnold, anything you wish to add?"
"Da. Where can I get one of those...calculators?"
"Here, have mine," Harry offered easily, handing over the one in his hand to the surprised man. "It's got some runes to shield it from most magic, though try to avoid more populated magical errors, as it will short out eventually. No need to look so dour, Arinda, I have spare for you and Joe as well. For everyone else, alas I do not have several hundred to give out at the moment. I will say that you can go to the muggle world and look for a stationary shop. Most of them will have calculators in the range of...ten galleons in muggle currency. They're quite fun to play with. Alternatively, I'm working with some friends on mass producing magic resistant calculators, and they should be coming to market in the coming year."
"Excellent...excellent, I daresay many of us look forward to the product launch," joe mused absently as he fiddled with the calculator in his hands. "I must say, this panel was far more enjoyable than I expected. Alas, that's all we have time for, as we're already a few minutes behind schedule. Everyone, we'll be taking a five minute recess before the next panel on the evolution of arithmancy takes place. Thank you panelists."
Harry shook hands with the other two arithmancy masters and Joe, heading off the stage.
-Break-
Helene took a deep breath as she descended down the steps from the balcony. The speech had enraptured her, despite knowing little on arithmancy. The way Harry commanded attention and respect...if anything, Albert had undersold his boss.
She tugged on the hem of her dress, nervously, waiting at the side entrance. When their gazes met, she conceded that her heart skipped a beat at the grin he shot her. He quickly wrapped up his conversation, giving her a few moments to prepare before he was in front of her, hands out.
"Impressive speech, sir. I daresay you've captured the room," she complimented, inwardly cursing for the corny line. As if he needed to be told that! To Helene's relief, he merely chuckled appreciatively.
"Helene, good to meet you at last. Albert has been singing praises about you," Harry took her hand, placing a kiss on it. "Walk with me, we have much to discuss."
"So we do," Helene agreed. "I'll give you a quick summary first before we go into specifics. In general, investments here have been successful. I've managed to invest in the technology and arms manufacturing companies, and acquire some of their more...confidential documents. I've managed to liquidate much of the rare earth metals to the US government by setting up several dummy mining corporations, which is funding much of this, though we're starting to run dry on material."
"I'll have some sent over soon, I've been admittedly too busy to do much of the alchemical sacrifices recently. I've received your shipments, by the way, no need to worry," Harry assured. "Have you liquidated your positions in oil and natural gas?"
"Yes, we're fully decoupled now. If I may be so bold, why? The energy sector is projected to grow significantly with the rise of the Asian economies."
"I've some insider knowledge that there's going to be a significant boom in alternative energy sources," Harry commented mysteriously. Helene bit down on her lip to resist asking further, knowing she had likely already overstepped her bounds. "Is there anything else that I should be aware of?"
"I've received official invitations from the Cherokee and the Apache for you to visit. It seems their leaders heard of your work promoting native american runes and wished to speak with you. I've booked you in the day after tomorrow to visit."
"Good," Harry smiled, causing Helene's heart to flutter again. She quickly shook herself out of her stupor, doubting that her boss's boss would be impressed if she started fangirling. "I believe the rest of my day is free. Would you care to join me for a trip to Hawaii?"
"It would be my pleasure," she tried in vain not to sound to eager. Thankfully, even if he obviously could sense it, he didn't comment, merely leading her down to the reception area. Naturally, he was obliged to shake several hands and offer small talk with several other famous arithmancy masters, posing for several photos, before he was finally able to disengage from the crowd and rejoin her for their portkey. "Spam."
The two held onto the ticket as it formed a vortex and pulled the duo through space folds, before spitting them out in Hawaii. Helene nearly squeaked as she tumbled, only saved from falling face first on the floor by Harry's timely intervening hands. She had no doubt a blush coloured her cheeks.
"Are you alright?"
"Fine...just...slipped," she chuckled uneasily. He merely smiled mysteriously, leading her past the security checkpoint. "What brings you to Hawaii? There's not much of a magical presence here, mostly tourist bait."
"Mhmm, I was more fascinated by the potential for magical gemstones here," Harry explained. Helene frowned in confusion, never having heard that before. "Don't worry, not many people have hard of such rumours. I admit I don't even know if they're true."
"So what part of the island are we heading for?" Helene queried.
"Kilauea, it's where a ley line is centered. It's also the most active, meaning it's bringing out significant deposits of material from the Earth. Take my hand." She did so, masking her blush as she fought off the discomfort side-apparition brought. Looking up, she nearly goggled when they were at the base of the volcano. Harry closed his eyes, concentrating, and they disappeared, the sensation of being squeezed through a tube returning as they appeared right on the bank of a large circular pit of bubbling magma. "Excellent, here we are."
"So we are," she breathed, sweat already beginning to form on her forehead at the head being radiated out. Thankfully, Harry quickly applied cooling charms on them, removing the uncomfortable sensations. She watched as his eyes skimmed the surface, before he took out his wand and began waving intricately, casting what she presumed to be detection spells.
"Anything?"
"The beginning of something," he answered, jabbing his wand and sending out a blast of yellow energy. A plume of magma spurted up into the air, causing Helene to scream in panic. "Calm down! Everything is perfectly under control."
"Yes...right...sorry," she eeped.
"Would you prefer I take you back to the bottom?"
"I...no, it's fine," Helene shook her head. She was determined not to appear a coward in front of her boss's boss. Besides, many people would literally kill to be in her position to observe a prodigy at work. Nodding in acceptance, Harry bent down, drawing out several runes on the floor and channeling a jolt of magic, causing them to light up.
Whatever result he got must have been good, for Harry smiled as he flicked his wand, sending several more jets of energy into the volcano pit. More columns of lava shot into the air, coughing out several gemstones, which Harry summoned to his grasp. How he managed to touch them was beyond her, given their heat, though Harry seemed to have no problem inspecting them and pocketing the stones. They were of various shades of red, orange and pink, all pulsing with a fiery aura she sensed even several meters away from them.
He must have been satisfied, as he walked away from the magma pool and back towards her. "I've gathered what I needed. It seems the rumours were true to an extent."
"Sir?"
"The gemstones have a radiance to them, these particular ones have affinity for fire. I seek to collect stones for the other elements. They will serve me well," Harry explained. Despite not really understanding, she nodded politely, and he dropped the subject. Helene latched onto his hand as he apparated them away.
-Break-
Sarah wandered down the streets with bubbly curiosity. The pavement was bustling with passerbys being lured into various shops. Her eyes widened when she noticed a sign that read Kowalski's quality baked goods. There was a long queue outside, and she decided to visit later, even if the heavenly scent of pastries sang to her.
Continuing down the alley, she slipped through the disguised fountain, entering through into the New York Magical District, or affectionately 'the big apple'. Her senses were immediately assaulted by a barrage of sounds and sights, from the small country fair attractions that weaved into the buildings, most notably a rollercoaster carrying screaming children at speeds most quidditch players would envy, to the bustling marketplace, which contained various food stalls.
Skipping over to one of the stands, Sarah bought herself a hot dog, cutely shaped into a puppy and letting out happy barks. It almost pained her to bite its head off, though the enchantment quickly wore off after that, allowing her to finish the rest of it without as much disturbance. She licked her fingers of the mustard and ketchup, grabbing a napkin to wipe off what remained, and continued exploring.
Onion rings that spun like hula hoops, spicy buffalo wings that spontaneously erupted into flames, though remaining intact, much like a phoenix, racks of slow cooked ribs that dripped juices, and much more. There were also an assortment of bottled soft drinks, ranging from bubbly blueberry to luxurious lime, though the centerpiece was simply entitled 'coca cola'.
"Ah, young miss, first time?" Sarah turned to see she was being addressed by the jovial looking stall owner. She nodded sheepishly.
"That obvious?"
"To experienced eyes like me, definitely. Here, have a coke cube." He handed her a small plastic cube coloured a syrupy brown. She eyed in confusedly, looking towards him for guidance. "Just pop in in your mouth, it'll melt and explode in flavour."
Doing so wearily, she found the man's words were indeed true, as a fizzly sensation tingled her throat to the point of being just a touch under uncomfortable. Sweet, sour and with notes of citrus, vanilla, the bitter taste was oddly enjoyable to her is it swirled in her mouth and down her throat.
"This is good, do you do it for other flavours?" Sarah inquired. The man chuckled.
"Of course, all the popular drinks have cubes."
"Great, give me ten of each with a stasis charm container. I'm sure my family would enjoy the experience," Sarah nodded, eyeing the price of eight knuts a piece and doing some mental calculations, handing over two galleons. The man's eyes bulged, before he grined ear to ear, quickly ducking down into his freezer unit and fishing out her order.
"Here ya' go, miss. Any beverage needs, you come back to old Frank, alright?"
"Will do," Sarah agreed happily, taking her order and shrinking it before placing it in her pocket, waving the stall keeper goodbye. Continuing down the alley, she largely ignored several clothing, perfume and jewelry stores, rolling her eyes at the clusters of girls and women that entered the store.
Instead, she found herself wandering down a side alley, frowning as a sense of danger tingled in her. Her wand slid into her right hand, while a blade found itself in her left. Four thugs suddenly emerged.
"Well lookie here, a tourist girl," he licked his lips greedily, and Sarah suppressed the sense of disgust she felt. "Give us your money, and we might not be so rough, ey?"
"How about you piss off and I let you live," Sarah replied sweetly. "Avada Kedavra!"
The other three watched in shock as their leader froze up in fear and fell down to the pavement with a thud, the life in his eyes lost. "Please, run, scream or fight back. It will make this all the more enjoyable."
Much to her merriment, one of the thugs turned, beginning to bolt for it, another let out a shriek and the third flicked his wand, an incantation on her lips. All were too slow given her training. Her blade lodged itself in the fleeing assailant's foot, causing him to collapse to the ground. Her wand had already fired the cruciatus curse, causing the man to drop his wand, convulsing in pain. Turning to the screaming man, she kicked him from below the jaw, causing an audible snap as the man fell to the ground dead.
Sighing, she quickly AKed the remaining two individuals, liberating the few possessions worth anything on them, before casting a flame curse and burning all their bodies. And just in time as well, as two aurors turned the corner, wands out.
"You! Did you hear screaming?"
"It was that way," she pointed shakily, adding a tremor to her voice. The two aurors nodded gratefully, hurriedly rushing in the direction indicated, and missing her amused smile as she returned to the main alley.
Idly, she cast several cleaning charms on the street, enough such that even a relatively thorough wand inspection would not bring up her unforgivable curses. Perhaps paranoia, but Harry had drilled this practice into her. Continuing down the row of shops, she hummed a merry tune.
Author note:
The first of three planned summer chapters. I've definitely worked on trimming down the fat, as I know shopping montages get boring for everyone when they're done too often. Don't worry, that doesn't mean we're not going to see worldbuilding, I promise, next chapter we'll go into quite a bit of depth into native american culture, though I admittedly will need to do some quick google searches to read up on that before I even think to begin writing.
Thank you for your kind words, Lord of Erebor. I managed to get a place in the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), which is very exciting as I've dreamed of going there for much of high school. I'm doing an economics degree, a subject which has always fascinated me, as much as I dread the mathematics.
We get to see Harry's influence on a large crowd, as well as more intimately from Helene's perspective. There's a reason Harry was able to assemble his circle so efficiently, aside from his ruthlessness and ability. His charisma and rhetoric are definitely not second to the other Titans of Voldemort, Dumbledore or Grindelwald, who were all fantastic orators in their own right. All just have a magnetic presence that emboldens their supporters and dampens their opposition. Also a bit more hints on elemental magic. Yes, certain objects can be inbued with an affinity for certain types of magic. I've always found the idea of the sword of griffyndor fascinating, and wanted to expand more on the role of such enchanted objects within the magical world. From cursed blades to charmed gemstones, hopefully over time we'll get to explore their uses, properties and weaknesses.
A random note, muggle technology is definitely going to be comparatively underpowered tit for tat with magic, as I've never quite understood the appeal of a magical world in which Voldemort can be killed by several machine guns. While I agree the average witch or wizard couldn't cast a decent shield charm (keep in mind, thus far we've seen the perspective only of very talented individuals within tier 1 institutions, meaning they are the creme de la creme), an auror is going to be far more effective than a platoon of muggle soldiers.
Anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please do consider following, favouriting and join our discord server with code: 8tE6SmXETw. Until next time, toodles!