Author's Note: This was originally chapter one of book two, not all of which is written yet. (I have six more chapters beyond this written.) The disclaimer remain unchanged. The plan is to continue this. I may not go as far as I originally planned, but I do intend to get to a good ending on this before I mark it complete.

Finally, if you do like this could you consider following it or marking it as a favorite?

Lafiel could hardly believe that her second year at Hogwarts was about to begin. It felt wrong somehow, like after all that time in Atlantis they should be doing something more. There was also Nadia to consider. She was staying with Nemo in the Nautilus, but was that right? She knew that they didn't want the Blue Water generally known, but Nadia could no longer live for extended periods without it.

In some ways Captain Nemo had it better off, but he was never the primary key for the Atlantis wards. Nadia managed to suspend him in time, even while she herself had some dim knowledge of time passing, even if she didn't want it.

They had money. The company the goblins had helped them create had the money from the result of the flying suits. It wasn't unlimited, but it was enough for now.

She considered just returning to the island. They could begin their work there, but that wasn't fair to everyone else. It had been suggested that Nadia just hide the Blue Water, but they might as well try to hide the sun. Someone without magic may not notice the gem inside a thick shirt, but anyone with magic could feel it easily, and while she could go without it for awhile, it probably wasn't a very good idea to do so.

The Blue Water was another item of interest, at least conceptually. She could easily imagine taking what they knew now and one day making something like it. It was unlikely they could duplicate it in detail. It was the crowning achievement of a civilization after all, but creating a computer that could store and assist in magic, well, that sounded very useful indeed and that much was probably possible.

She was fairly sure they would need something like that to correctly plot a route home through space and time. Nadia had expressed an interest in joining them, so it may be that they could just use the Blue Water for this purpose, but that was a horrible plan. It relied on an irreplaceable item that wasn't even intended for this particular purpose that Nadia needed to live.

Her own people's rules must also be considered. It was not well known, but true artificial minds were possible. They seemed even more possible with magic. They were also absolutely forbidden by Abh society. It was a bit of irony, but while some would consider them artificial people, they had long ago vowed not to let their machines exceed their own potential. In a bit of strange coincidence, the other major power in the galaxy, the United Mankind had the exact same rule. She would have to be careful not to break it.

She made a note to talk with Nadia. If what she had was a true AI, then perhaps there was a way to fix things so it wasn't, or her life was sustained by something else? She had some flexibility now, since the only one that absolutely had to obey Imperial law in this time was herself.

Fleur and Victor elected to return to their respective schools to finish out their educations and perhaps teach some of what they learned. Fleur was going to publish the official version of the book Lafiel had given them. It was decided that, on balance, letting everyone have access to it, was better than not, even if some would use the knowledge for less than noble purposes. Lafiel had given her a translation in French. The story they were going with was that it was found in a Veela enclave.

Victor planned to publish a Bulgarian version after trading some owls back and forth with Fleur. It was all for show. Fleur already had that version, but it was a necessary show. Hermione was officially working on the English translation, though again, it was already done by the computer on Lafiel's ship, just like the other two. The money would go to their respective families, though in practice it was also expected to be available, should they need it.

Harry smiled as he walked along side his friends back into the Arithmancy classroom for the first class of the year. His smile fell flat when he noticed Draco Malfoy sitting in Fleur's spot. Fleur not being here was of course expected. This was not.

Draco drawled, "What's up scarhead?"

Septima Vector came out of a side door into the classroom just as Harry was about to respond. She said, "Yes, I promoted Draco. His scores earned it. His mouth on the other hand..."

Draco looked sheepish. He said, "You guys saved Astoria, when I couldn't do anything. She is a little different now, even a little more powerful, but still Astoria, and according to Pomfrey, might outlive us all."

Harry finished walking in and held out his hand to Draco, who surprised, took it. They shook.

Septima said, "Now if that bit of drama is over, how bout we figure out what we are going to do this year?"

Draco said, "I've never been in a class where we pick our assignments."

Septima said, "Their projects are more interesting than anything I might bring up, or at least have been so far."

Draco said, "Speaking of weird things, just where did you guys end up after the second task?"

Lafiel smiled and said, "Didn't you read the paper?"

Draco laughed. "Fair enough I suppose. So, what will we be working on?"

Harry pulled out two communications mirrors and a scroll, setting them on the table, before pulling out his new wand, which was much like his old and with a wave, the contents of the scroll appeared on the blackboard.

He stood. "My godfather gave me these and our old defense professor wrote out the arithmancy for them. They are paired communications mirrors."

"So we are going to copy them?" asked Draco.

Harry said, "Well that is one outcome. Hermione, you've already gotten started on this, can you go over our plans?"

Hermione stood. "Many of these type of things have with them a single charm, or the runic equivalent at the heart of them. In this case it is the protean charm. It provides a link between magical objects." She flicked her wand showing the spell equivalent for the protean charm as well as a common runic form of it in the air.

She continued, "This variation of the protean charm is useful for a simple one to one mapping." She pulled out a two pieces of ordinary paper with the runic sequence on them, along with another runic sequence. She motioned with her wand, and both pages flew to the wall. She then turned to Draco and asked, "Can you tell me how those two pages are linked?"

Draco got up and looked at the two pages, with slightly different runic formula on them. After several minutes starring he tapped the one on the right changing it from white to green. The one on the left also changed to green. "It's just linking a color changing charm."

He looked back at Hermione and asked, "So did I pass?"

"Not yet."

Draco laughed.

"For a passing grade, change the existing or create a new runic scheme to duplicate what is written. Permanent or temporary doesn't matter."

Draco went back to his desk and started drawing different symbols. After several minutes he said, "I do not know how to do that."

Hermione nodded. "Luna, do you want to do this one?"

"Pass."

Hermione glared at her fellow bluette.

She turned to Harry. He sighed and got up.

He said, "I'm going to take the lazy way to do this, and if it wasn't for Lafiel explaining how a computer printer works I'd probably not have figured this out."

Hermione grinned and sat down to watch, as did the others.

He pulled out a pack of post it notes from his bag, then carefully created the same runic sequence as on the papers on the left and right half of the top post it note.

Draco looked on skeptically.

Harry then used the duplication charm to copy the runic ink to the other post it notes, before using a severing charm to cut the stack in half. He then started pasting them on the left chalk board. He ran out before he had half the chalkboard covered. He then took the other stack of charms and pasted them on the other chalkboard in the same pattern.

After that he pulled Luna up to help activating the post it notes in pairs. Ten minutes later the runic post it note chalkboard was activated. He let Luna do the honors. She wrote her name in every color of the rainbow by selectively activating blocks.

Septima said, "We'll that's certainly a solution I hadn't thought of. This is how a muggle device works? Can you explain more Lafiel?"

Lafiel stood. "Actually, the muggle computer printer I'm familiar with creates images by controlling a line of small dots. Each dot is controlled, and may be heated or not heated. This heat causes a black powder to be stuck to paper selectively. The entire page is created by moving the paper slowly and writing additional lines of dots."

Septima asked, "Could you duplicate this? Paper in one end, and copy of paper out the other end?"

Hermione said, "It would be like a magical fax machine!"

No one else was familiar with the term, but she quickly explained.

Lafiel stood, "I think we could duplicate it. I know that the workshop we specified before the second task has been completed and the equipment we ordered is there. The problem is the scale of the runes. The equipment we purchased can produce them very small, but not that small. We would either need to use a different method or change the rune scheme. Since we already know variations of the protean charm that can send more complex information, I suggest we use those. A variation of the rune scheme used for these mirrors could be used to selectively apply ink to paper." She sat down, apparently not particularly interested in the task.

Septima said, "I suggest making it and getting it patented. If you can do what you just said, well I'd feel sorry for all the owls in the world."

Harry looked pained at that. Hedwig had been fine when he was gone, but she had missed him a great deal, and while Hagrid took care of her, it was not what she wanted. He said from his seat, "Maybe we shouldn't.."

Lafiel replied from hers, "I understand, and we can certainly choose not to do this, but do the pluses truly outweigh the minuses if we don't do this?"

Septima looked interested. She said, "We'll why don't we list them?"

Hermione said, "I could write home to my parents at any time, or even make copies of books."

Luna said, "I'm not sure if it would bypass copy protection charms, but if you could, well some people make money on books."

Lafiel said, "It would be simple to add protections against copying things that were magical in nature or to check for specific charms, so I think we can address that negative though someone else might be able to bypass it."

Luna thought about it for a few seconds before nodding.

Hermione said, "I just think the ability to instantly communicate like everyone else does in the muggle world would be useful. I suppose we could also use it to deliver newspapers and such. That might be useful to Luna."

Luna perked up at that. "It is true the army of owls we have to keep is our biggest cost."

Septima asked, "How far apart could your charms be?"

Hermione looked through her own notes before saying, "I'm not seeing a clear number here. It probably depends on the magic the sender has access to. I know these mirrors work from here to England."

Septima asked, "How much would the devices cost, and would they be expensive to own?"

Lafiel did several calculations in her notebook before saying, "I'm estimating here assuming we make these in our workshop. The tools there can do it, but not particularly efficiently. If we limited the design to simply two aluminum plates, one of which has a reservoir of ink, then I'm thinking we could build a few a day. The cost of the raw materials would be probably be a couple galleons or so. The magic isn't particularly difficult to apply. The equipment cost for our workshop was around five thousand galleons, but it wasn't intended for mass production."

Hermione saw Draco's confused expression and a similar one on Septima's face. She said, "Mass production is how muggles make most things. They create elaborate machines that can be used to make thousands of copies of all kinds of things. Presumably, if we could get a muggle company to make the parts for the device and then enchant them, we might be able to make them for sale quite cheaply, maybe five galleons or so, with say at least a galleons profit."

Septima said, "Well we will avoid the muggle company, until we are absolutely sure there can be no breech of the statute, and even then they can't be given anything with runic script. The possibly of them making the raw castings is there though, though I suspect the Wizengamot would frown on it. It might be better to just do it yourself."

Luna said, "Couldn't we make a printer to print our printer?"

Septima's eyes widened. "Could you?"

Lafiel shrugged. "Un-powered runes are just cuts in material. Transfiguration can be permanent if your only changing the shape of a thing. Runes can be used to do transfiguration. I suspect something is possible by adding the runic equivalent of the Gemino curse. It would take some time to figure out the details, and I had hoped to make a better version of these mirrors which work with more people, though come to think of it, this project is likely better."

Harry said, "Remus did offer to make us additional sets."

Lafiel nodded.

Septima asked, "So, given that this should be the last class of your day, how about we go to see your workshop? I confess I've been wanting to do so ever since it was built, but your area is securely locked."

Draco asked, "Is that what was up with the new boathouse?"

Lafiel replied, "Yes. We wanted a place to put some muggle equipment, so it would be away from some of Hogwarts magic. The boat house needed rebuilt, so we offered to do it, if we got to use half of the new building. As far as it being locked, you could have probably gotten a key from Garnok."

The new boathouse was at least three times the size of the old one. It was made of fit together dark stone and mortar. The ground floor was at least fifty percent bigger and the upper floor was new, and was all open space save for a house sized propane tank on one side and a large generator next to it, still sitting on a pallet.

The ceiling was lined with several rows of fluorescent lights, that were currently dark.

Hermione's eyes widened when she saw it. "That tank isn't supposed to be on the inside. That generator either. We have to breathe in here."

Lafiel said, "Let's take inventory. I suspect we have our work cut out for ourselves assembling all of this, and your right, that gas tank must be stored outside, just in case it would leak. The generator will need a small building built around it as well." She paused in thought as she considered. "I'd like to replace the generator with solar panels of some kind, but there are not currently any efficient enough for our purposes, plus we would have to source batteries. Maybe we can do that next."

They opened all the boxes. The one that most surprised them was the very large one that contained, of all things a large steam powered generator. They quickly moved it to the far right corner before filling it with water using a spell.

Looking into the boiler they found a note from Garnok. He had engineered the rune scheme that was present on the metal plate inside, which would, with application of magic generate the heat required to run the generator. Garnok's notes said in their tests they had to recharge the rune scheme several times a day, but he expected more would be required if the generator was actually used for the shop. Left unsaid was this was a safer and much smaller version of what they had made for the Nautilus.

They quickly found the heavy cord meant to connect the generator to building power and plugged it in. Hermione found the starting instructions for the steam generator, which were fairly simple, since while it was a steam generator, it was, apparently a steam generator made with modern technology and safety standards.

They activated the rune heater and watched as the water began to heat on the temperature gauge.

Draco asked, "Is this supposed to be doing something?"

Hermione responded, "The magical energy is being used to create heat to boil water to create steam. The steam creates pressure that can be used to turn the generator creating electrical energy. It's sort of like how the Express works, without all the dirty smoke from burning coal."

"So why is it taking so long?"

Hermione glared at him. "You've never had to wait for a pot of water to boil?"

"No?" said Draco in surprise.

Luna said, "I doubt Draco has ever had to cook. Potions take time to boil. It is the same thing."

Draco nodded.

Steam started to be released from the vent that pointed out the window.

Lafiel turned the valve that directed the steam to the generator. It spun up rapidly and the room became as bright as day.

Lafiel quickly went to one of the largest boxes and opened it to reveal a ten foot by ten foot contraption with a table that moved in one direction and another thing above that moved in the other two directions. Attached to the side of the table was a fairly standard computer with a twenty inch screen.

Lafiel immediately found the power cord for the whole assembly and plugged it in. She then turned to Draco and asked, "Will you keep the secrets of our group?"

Draco looked at the first blue haired young woman and not for the first time wondered. Not long after she arrived his father was charged and executed. Not longer after she arrived they saved Astoria. Now her mother seemed happier. What's more Potter had shook his hand. Could he keep their secrets? Who was he kidding? Potter and his group were going to, no were changing the wizarding world. If he wanted in, he would have to do his part.

He said simply, "I will."

Lafiel pulled her tablet out of her pocket and tapped it a few times before saying, "Take control of this computer and report necessary steps to test the x-y router using wood. Respond in English."

"Confirmed. System starting up. Initial recommendation is to install in the router collet the third end mill from the set labeled for wood. Instructions to do this will display on the computer display."

Lafiel quickly did that with a bit of help from Harry. The tablet said, "Now place one of the two foot by two foot plywood samples on the table as shown in the video. Clamp down as shown."

They followed the directions. The tablet said, "Setup is confirmed. What do you wish to mill?"

"Do you have a copy of the runes used for the communications mirrors?"

"Data is available."

"Make a set of four, leaving a half inch rounded border."

"Executing Task."

The router spun up and the x-y table started moving to quickly cut the rune patterns into the wood. This was a very small end mill and it took it fifteen minutes or so to etch all of the runes and round the sides. Lafiel removed the material from the table, then cut the remaining pieces apart with her wand before handing the stack to their teacher.

She looked them over closely before saying, "The work is top notch. Oh it could use some minor sanding, but that is easy enough to do. I believe this would work, though I think this variant uses a potion and a sheet of glass. Of course, it would be better if it was in metal..."

Lafiel said, "This can do metal, but not hard metals, at least not well. We might be able to change that with magic though."

Draco said, "I thought all this stuff didn't work around magic?"

Hermione replied, "This stuff won't work in Hogwarts. We think it will be okay way out here, but we might have to replace it sooner or later."

Septima asked, "Why not do one in silver?"

Hermione started looking through the shelves. "I don't think we have any. We have aluminum and copper though."

Septima said, "I should have some in my supplies, or you can order it from Gringotts easily enough. For now, we should probably get back to the castle."

They nodded. Hermione canceled the magic heating the water and turned off the generator. It would take time to cool, and would need drained later, but it was okay for now.

Septima stopped by Severus's personal workshop after her meeting, still holding the four, pieces, of well very high quality plywood that had been milled with runes.

Severus opened the door after she knocked. He saw what she was holding and held the door open for her as she set the pieces on one of his open work benches.

"What have you got there?"

"A copy of a rune scheme for communication mirrors etched into a muggle wood product."

Severus picked one up. "How curious. The rounding on the edges as such looks unfinished. It is not bad, but I'd not have expected this. It is actually impressive with how even it all is. The runes are extremely precise, except all the ends are slightly rounded."

"Guess how long it took to make it."

"Few days?" he suggested. "It is high quality work. A bit of sanding would fix the edges."

"Fifteen minutes, or thereabouts."

"Potter's group, I'm guessing?" said Severus.

Septima nodded. "They have a muggle machine. It takes flat material like this, and it did the rest by, well, do you have a pensive?"

Severus nodded, pulling out a small pensive. Septima pulled out the memory. Severus and Septima looked at the memory.

He asked, "Has she told you any more?"

"No, not yet. I can guess some and she has a right to her secrets."

He nodded. "You probably shouldn't mention the thing she pulled out of her pocket."

"It's beyond what muggles can make, isn't it?"

He nodded. "I still can't believe how much obvious stuff we have missed ignoring the muggles. That thing she used to not have to bother with figuring out the muggle thing, that may currently be beyond muggles, but the rest was their work. Complex rune work done in minutes, and she said it would work in metal. It's crazy."

He looked over the wooden pieces again, looking for one to the next. He asked, "Do you want these back?"

"I wouldn't be opposed if you would perhaps make the potion needed for these. I could bring by the glass tomorrow, and we could see if these work? If they do, I want one."

"Sure. I have a book somewhere with the potion in it. Do you have a plan for the other two?"

"Beth and Filius maybe? Not sure."

Severus shrugged.

"So, did they do anything else of interest?"

Septima pulled out the memory of Mr. Potter and the post it notes.

He viewed it then laughed. "I can just see all the pure bloods be absolutely furious that the fine art of runes was being mocked with muggle sticky notes. I wonder how long that bit of magic will last? Did you take them down?"

"Not yet. I think I'm going to leave them for my other classes to see. I won't mentioned Harry's name, just that it was my advanced class and explain one of the students came up with it for an on the spot demonstration of row to apply runes to solve sending data. They actually gamed out how to use this very design to copy pages before Lafiel pointed out that it was needlessly complicated and they could just use the mirror formula."

Severus laughed. "I've known for awhile that the Potter brat wasn't dumb, but he does definitely favor brute force over alternatives."

Septima said, "I think Mr. Potter's idea may work over further distances, though I'm not sure."

Severus nodded before yawning. He said, "You're welcome to stay for dinner if you want, but if I'm going to get your potion done I need to start it now."

"It doesn't have to be today."

"And yet, I totally do not care that I might be a little sleepy tomorrow in class. Why again am I still teaching? Yes, I recall. Marnok didn't really want the job."

Septima laughed.

Severus examined the muggle machine carvings again that Septima left behind. The potion was almost done, but he still was not entirely sure if this material would work. The use of alternating layers of wood in opposing grain directions held together by glue was just not done in the magical world, so it was hard to be certain the potion would not react negatively to the glue. Still, there was also no reason to believe that it would react negatively either.

He looked over at the potion and decided it had sit long enough. He cast a quick spell to make sure no dust or debris was on the carvings or his bench. For caution's sake he slipped on a pair of muggle safety glasses. The potion was safe enough, but when doing something new, well better to be safe than sorry.

He fed a little magic into each rune. It was not enough to activate it, but it should attract the potion. Taking a glass dropper he carefully dropped a drop of the potion into each rune, going back to drop a bit more in the ones that still seemed low. He did the other three, then cast a stasis charm over the remaining potion in the cauldron.

Several minutes later, the potion had been absorbed by the blocks. The blocks seemed a touch darker. He cast several diagnostic charms on the blocks, and when nothing seemed wrong he removed the stasis charm on the potion and repeated filling the blocks.

This would have been easier with a metal foundation. Wood conducted magic better, which could change meaning a little bit here. The design that was known to work with metal, and with silver in particular, might not be quite right for wood, let alone muggle wood. He made sure to keep his thoughts near empty, so the magic would not pick up his own stray intent, beyond hoping this actually worked and he hadn't wasted his time. The wood was seven layer cherry plywood. Did that make it magically stronger? He honestly had no idea. Still, if you were going to use layers of something, then seven seemed a good bet.

He filled the runes twice more successfully. His next try failed. The rune was empty, but the liquid would not drop down into it. He carefully used the dropper to pick the liquid back up and dispose it before repeating the test on the other three blanks. All were the same. The wood was saturated with the potion, and would need to sit well, only a few hours, but most of a day would work as well. Then, from the notes he found with the potion, the magical glass could be fused with the surface and the runic arrays activated. His notes said it was best done by the actual people who would use them, and ideally at the same time, which should be easy enough to arrange.

The next day Severus was a bit surprised that the headmaster had found out about their little experiment and had gathered the staff for a teachers meeting after lunch. The headmaster himself provided some enchanted glass he had in his stores, that they quickly cut to size before sealing.

Activation was anti-climatic. That annoyed him. He was running out of reasons to curse Potter's name.

The mirrors worked well, despite the images partially showing the runes and the wood grain. He supposed silver really would have been better. When all four were active, then the user saw and heard whoever was trying to talk. If more than one person was trying, it got a little muddled with overlapping images and sound, but they worked. The actual images were about eleven by eleven inches, which was a decent size.

The headmaster suggested they test how far apart they still worked, but that could wait for later. For now the test was if they remained working.

The headmaster and Severus managed to tag along later that day when they went back to their workshop. Potter's group had apparently acquired a small fortune in silver bars. Muggle in origin, from what he was guessing. They were about 5 x 12 x 3 inches, and looked fairly heavy.

Lafiel was the first to speak. "Who is best at transfiguration? The x-y table is ten foot by ten foot but we don't need to do both mirrors at the same time. I'd really like to see if we can create two that size."

Albus said, "The magic required to charge such a set, let along the potion required is going to be considerable."

"But not particularly dangerous, right?" asked Lafiel.

Albus turned to Septima. She shrugged.

He said, "I'll help you make what you need. Severus must approve the potion before it is used, and I think given the quantities involved you will have to make it yourself. You may need to source muggle glass as well, and even then it may be difficult..." His voice trailed off when Luna absently pointed to a vertical shelf where sheets of thick muggle glass that big were sitting.

He said, "Moving on… Just be careful. Have Samantha look over the result as well before activating it, and I'd quite like to be there as well."

Lafiel nodded.

The headmaster asked, "Can you draw on the floor or otherwise give me something to use to base the size of this silver on?"

Lafiel found some wood blanks that were intended to be used on the x-y router to test its maximum size. She and Harry pulled one out of the vertical shelving. Hermione and Draco pushed together two muggle folding tables to support it before Lafiel and Harry set it on the table.

Harry cleaned the top of it with a whispered spell.

Harry asked, "Will that do?"

"Excellent," the headmaster said, even as he started levitating half the silver bars to the plywood, stacking them all in the middle.

"Everyone should stand back a little. I'm sure my alchemy is a bit rusty, but I'll see if I can't purify this a bit before we begin." His wand spun in a circle, and suddenly the bars rose and started spinning in a circle above the wooden blank. The metal then suddenly flashed to liquid, spreading the silver into a silver torus. Several more wand movements and what appeared to be deep concentration on the headmasters part resorted in a thin mostly copper colored layer of something lining the outside of the silver. He flicked his wand again and the layer peeled away as if unwinding a fine spool of wire. The resulting wire spooled into a mottled spool on the floor leaving the bulk of pure silver behind.

He then took the still spinning silver and lowered it to just above the plywood blank, before, with another wand motion it instantly spread into a rectangle of even height, then with another motion it cooled. A final twitch to his wand resulted in nearly an half inch thick block of silver, 10 foot by 10 foot.

Lafiel said, "Unfortunately that is close to two thousand five hundred pounds, which is above the capacity of the x-y table by about a factor of two. Can you cut it precisely in half?"

Albus nodded, and soon there were two five by ten foot sheets of silver. He said, "I've worked with pure silver a bit. Even as heavy as that is, its probably fairly easy to bend."

Hermione said, "We planned to handle it with magic, and include strengthening and lightening runes in the rune scheme.

Lafiel levitated the first plate onto the x-y table. Given the weight there was no need to explicitly clamp it down. She then went to the computer and spent about ten minutes working on the program she needed for the x-y table before starting the table.

The table moved far more slowly than it did the previous day, possibly due to the material, but, nevertheless the required runes quickly started filling the surface of the silver.

"Remarkable," Albus stated. "Most remarkable. Do you have what you need for the potion?"

Lafiel said, "Not yet." She pulled a printout of the potion and held it out to Severus before asking, "This is what we have for the potion. Could you review it?"

Severus looked at the crisp type and clear instructions. He quickly read to the end. "I don't see anything obvious, but I'll take it with me and compare it to what I have down and let you know tomorrow if there are any required changes. My only suggestion is to ignore the directions about adding potion until the rune accepts no more. It may be better to just fill them once and try that, given the size your making the runes. You will, however, want to take extra care to make sure to fully fill each rune the first time. Having three people working to fill the runes simultaneously may also be beneficial."

They nodded.

Samantha reviewed their work the next day and agreed with the recommended precautions. They spent their entire weekend working on large cauldrons of the potion, which late Sunday Severus approved all but one batch of. Conveniently enough it was the one Harry created.

They had enough either way, though Harry did glare at the professor a bit. The potion master's grin pretty much confirmed the reason for Harry's glare.

Severus helped Hermione and Luna fill the first mirror. That took over an hour of painstaking work. They then switched to the second mirror which was another hour of painstaking work.

Lafiel levitated the cleaned glass in place and used a cutting spell plus a bit of minor transfiguration to round the edges. Severus added to that by fusing the glass to the underlying silver.

A bit later the headmaster showed up along with another blue haired young woman. He said, "I take it, everyone here already knows this young woman?"

They nodded.

Luna asked, "How is Fawkes?"

"He is fine, though he is a picky eater."

"Yes he is," said Albus. "Let him know I expect a visit."

"I will."

Nadia, Lafiel, Hermione, Harry, Daphne, and Luna all formed around the pair of mirrors and quickly joined hands.

The Headmaster's focus immediately went to Nadia's chest and the blue glow flaring from under her robe. He held his commentary even as he watched a truly incredible amount of magic being absorbed by that pair of enchanted mirrors.

A moment later he felt it. Resistance. The group stopped at the same time having apparently felt the same thing.

"Back away," he said absently. "Let the magic settle."

They did so, waiting several minutes before Samantha started casting diagnostic spells. She finished a few minutes later, before floating one down to against the wall on the far corner of the room and the other to the opposite wall. "Everything checks out. I suggest Luna and Nadia try them. They probably will use them most often, so they might as well be primarily keyed to them."

Luna jogged over to the far side and held onto the mirror, swaying a bit before an image seen from the other side of the room appeared, which was immediately replaced by an image of Nadia.

Nadia smiled and said, "Hello Luna Lovegood."

"Hello Nadia."

"I should probably go. Your headmaster appears to have many questions."

"Probably, can you handle the mirror on your own?"

Nadia touched the gem through her robe and the mirror immediately picked itself up and started following her out the door like a lost puppy. She walked through a side gate and outside the wards before vanishing.

Ten minutes later Nadia's image appeared again. When she stepped out of the way they could see out the front windows of the Nautilus and hear Nadia say, "Range doesn't seem to be a problem, at least not yet. Thanks, I appreciate being able to talk with everyone."

Albus moved to stand to the side of Luna. He said, "I don't suppose you could..."

"No."

Lafiel said, "Some secrets must be kept."

Albus sighed and nodded. He was certainly guilty of doing the same. He said, "The initial difficultly turning on the mirrors should lesson in time, but if it does not we might have to deactivate them and start over with more potion."

Snape nodded.

Albus said, "If this works well, perhaps you could make me a set to link Hogwarts with Beauxbatons and Durmstrang? The Board of Governors would probably pay for the silver, and presumably Beauxbatons and Durmstrang would also pay for their part in things."

Harry shrugged. "Silver is expensive, but not that expensive. The potions ingredients cost almost as much, but we still have some of that"

Snape said, "Then use it to make a smaller set. The potion for a linked set has to be made at the same time, but not necessarily the same cauldron."

Nadia said from the submarine, "The mirror design appears to be stable. The activation I did in the sub was not a significant drain on my magic. As for the silver goes, I can collect the needed material, but it will take the systems here a few weeks to extract that much silver. It is not very prevalent in ocean water, but I can extract it with no great difficulty."

Snape said, "I know where to get the ingredients in bulk more reasonably than I presume your getting them through either the goblins or owl order. I'll get you cost estimates in the next few days, but if we are buying this much we might as well save some money."

"Agreed," said the Headmaster. "There is no pressing need. If we can do this from our own resources without asking the board of Governors or the other schools then it might be best, since it will avoid needless politics."

Harry said, "It really isn't that much money." He shrugged.

The headmaster replied, "No, it isn't, but your already contributing a lot to this effort. It is better if we contribute as well. Can you get a hold of Fleur and Victor to help with the initial activation?"

They nodded. The headmaster smiled and then turned to Draco. He asked, "And what do you think Mr. Malfoy?"

Surprised at being addressed Draco replied before thinking. "I think they are going to bloody change the world."

"Yes, I think so as well," admitted the Headmaster. "Not that long ago you would have supported changing the world. What do you think of this approach? Take a look at what they have done, and what they have done it with."

Draco muttered, "Mostly muggle technology applied to runes and arithmancy."

"Yes," the headmaster agreed. "And do you have any idea how long those two mirrors would have taken for a wizard craftsman?"

Draco looked again. "A week? He guessed."

Samantha said, "To get that level of detail correct I'd have estimated a half a year. Artisans would typically make elaborate fixtures to hold the work and correctly place the next rune in the exact right spot and even then each rune had to be done with painstaking care. A few magical fixes might be okay, but more, who is to say what would happen?"

"The alchemy before?" Draco mentioned.

"The headmaster is one of the few masters that can return the material as pure and as close to magic free as possible. I certainly can't do what he did. I'd have probably gotten the plate made in the muggle world, or worst case risked pure transfiguration, then finited it a dozen times, then ideally left it on a shelf for a month to let residual magics fade. It would have probably worked, but been weaker, since I would not have removed the impurities. Muggles can also do that. It takes them longer of course, but they can do it, if not as well as the headmaster, but certainly better than I can."

"I had no idea...," he muttered.