Harry Potter and the Hermetic Arts
Chapter 24: Material World
Flint, oil, sulfur, beeswax, wool, soot, water, rock crystals, feathers, red cloth, butter, sheet iron, gum arabic, straw, legume seeds, earth, lodestones, tallow, ground mica, phosphorous, lime, spiderweb, horsehair, dust, glass beads, glow worms, quartz, bacon rinds, licorice root and sand.
Harry checked the list one last time to make sure it included everything he wanted to acquire in what was left of the two weeks of holiday, then folded it and slipped it the chest pocket of his button-up shirt. As he had expected, he had been able to secure a room at the Footman for the fortnight he was back in town, but he expected he would not be there often, as it was not a secure enough location to do all the things he wanted to.
Some of the things he wanted to acquire would be easy to find in stores; others, like soot, he could produce himself with a little work. He also knew Romy had access to chemicals like phosphorus and sulfur in the laboratories at both her place of employment and at school, but whether he would be able to acquire some through her remained a question to be answered. Feathers, he could get for free; in fact, he already had the feathers Leia and Luke had molted earlier in the year packed away in his haversack, and he could think of several things he could do with them besides magic.
The encounter with the troll had opened Harry's eyes to the necessity of expanding his repertoire of spells beyond what he could cast with only gestural and spoken components; this meant he would need material components for his spellcasting, and that meant procuring specific substances that would make further spell research possible. He had the Player's Guide as a reference manual, but ultimately, he would need to fuel the research and development with his own time and energy.
When he went shopping on Christmas Eve, Harry had made sure to take the opportunity to purchase some things for himself, namely a well-fitting leather belt, a case of test tubes with accompanying stoppers and enough vertical tactical belt holsters to go around his waist. He had also spent nearly two thousand pounds on a Motorola MicroTAC 9800X mobile phone, a large rectangular gadget with a flipping mouthpiece that would allow him to call others without having to rely on a landline, which he might not have if he was out doing things with his day.
Now, it was Boxing Day, and the shops were open again, and it was another chance for him to acquire more things he needed. Not just the list of materials, either; his lack of success hunting meant he would either need to acquire better weaponry or increase the size of his stores, though doing both was also not a bad idea.
Harry checked his watch; if he left now, he'd be just in time to catch the first train into London.
~ooOoo~
Saturday morning saw Harry in the back room at Bourne's Comics and Games, the ventilation system running on full blast. Romy had left the potioneering kit he had gotten her for Christmas there, having made clear her lack of desire to try to brew potions in the flat she shared with flatmates in case something went wrong, and Jason had been kind enough to offer them the use of the back room for their experiments, though not without pointing out the mop, bucket, broom, dustpan and fire extinguisher first.
Romy was reading the instructions he had neatly printed onto a piece of notebook paper; she had insisted Harry not tell her what the result of the recipe was meant to create, wanting to make it a blind test, and he had agreed to her terms. Still, seeing her in a lab coat, head cover, safety goggles, apron, face mask and heavy rubber gloves, Harry couldn't help but be reminded of a mad scientist out of a weird science story about to embark on some chemistry experiment.
As Harry watched, the graduate student lit the fire under the cauldron and filled it with the water the recipe specified; not wanting to start a bonfire indoors, the two had rigged together several bunsen burners to provide their experiment with heat, using a couple tanks of propane for fuel, and they being something Romy was familiar with only furthered worked in their favor.
While waiting for the water to reach a simmer, Romy worked the mortar through the standard potion ingredients, a mixture of dried herbs, needed for the recipe; from the way she used the pestle, he could tell she had spent a lot of time using the tool. Once she finished, she carefully placed the powdered herbs to a beaker, using the bathroom sink to wash out the pestle and mortar before patting them dry, first with a washcloth, then sheets of paper towels.
She repeated the process with the next ingredient that needed to be ground into a fine powder; when she finished, she set it aside, and with the cauldron having reached a simmer, she added the ground herbs from the beaker, stirring carefully with a glass rod before taking it out, wiping it dry and setting it down on the towel, then returned to the preparation of ingredients while the mixture simmered over a medium heat.
Observing Romy was instructional for Harry: not only did she work with meticulous diligence, the graduate student also remained one step ahead of the procedures during the entire sixty-minute period of the experiment, staying busy either preparing ingredients or cleaning equipment. When the brewing period expired, everything the chemistry major used in the proceedings had been cleaned and returned to their proper places. Her cutting of ingredients had been measured and precise, every piece turning out the exact same dimensions, and he realized her skills were ones he could only aspire to at the moment.
As they waited for the brew to air cool, the graduate student explained her thought process to the boy, comparing notes with Harry, who had made the potion himself, though far less skillfully, during a double session of Potions in November. Though their methods differed, their philosophies had matched, both following the age-old adage of "measure twice, cut once".
"So, what exactly is this?" asked Romy, once the solution had cooled to room temperature and the two decanted it into vials Harry had purchased for the experiment.
"They call it Manegro Potion," said the boy with a shrug. "It's like Rogaine, except it works instantly instead of three three to six months."
"And how do you intend to test if it works?" asked the graduate student.
"Toby's been complaining about going bald since July," Harry said. "He still talking about it?"
"Every time he comes by to buy the new issues that came out."
"He usually comes around early Saturday morning, right? That should be today."
Romy checked her wristwatch. "He should already be here."
"Well, I'll go check," Harry said, smirking mischievously as he palmed a fistful of vials. "Can you put away the rest of this stuff?"
Before the graduate student could protest, the boy bounced out of the back room, quickly scanning the store for his target. Spotting the lanky early-thirties man at one of the milk crates holding issues of Marvel comics, the fluorescent light reflected off his shaved head, he bounded over, keeping a look of innocence on his face.
"Toby," said Harry in a familiar tone as he closed on the patron, grinning widely. "What's it been? Three months?"
"It has, hasn't it?" said the man, as he considered the boy. "Boarding school been good?"
"At least I haven't been sacrificed to the great god Imohotep yet," Harry replied with a shrug, before changing the subject, putting on his best earnest face. "Listen, chummer, Romy's been working on something like Rogaine, but completely herbal, and she's got finished product, but she can't afford to pay for clinical trials or human testing."
"What do you need me for?" asked the patron. "I don't have the money to invest…"
"No, nothing like that," Harry interrupted, presenting a vial of what Romy had managed to brew. "You've been bitching about losing your hair, so I thought you might be interested in trying this."
"Just one?" the man asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously.
"Well, I can get more, but I'd need a commitment from you first," Harry said, lowering his voice. "Wasn't easy to get Romy to agree to this; she doesn't think you've got the stones for it."
On hearing Romy's supposed questioning of his manhood, the man stiffened, his expression hardening in resolve. "Give it to me," he said, and Harry easily handed over the vial. The man unscrewed the cap, smelling the contents of the vial, then asked, "How do I use this?"
"It's like Rogaine, so orally," Harry said, glad he had managed to hook the comic book reader.
"What about side effects?"
"Well, you'll be the first human test subject, so we don't know," Harry lied. "But we doubt there'll be anything dangerous, given the ingredients involved. Maybe a few cramps or a little diarrhea."
The man scrutinized the boy for a moment, then shrugged, throwing back his head and swallowing the vial's contents, gritting his teeth and shaking his head as the brew went down.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the man suddenly began sprouting thick golden hair from his scalp, locks cascading down past his ears and shoulders, finally coming to a stop half-way down his back.
"This… this is impossible!" said the man after a moment. "What is this, magic?"
"Well, that's rude," Harry remarked. "Romy dedicates seven years of her life to studying chem, and you immediately credit it to magic. I bet she'll cry when I tell her about it."
"But this shouldn't be possible!" the man protested.
"Well, reality begs to differ," said the boy, gesturing to the man's cascading locks. "Maybe it's a miracle drug?"
"But a miracle drug can't act this fast!"
"Apparently, it does."
Stunned silence hung in the air for a moment; out of the corner of his eye, Harry could make out Jason trying to hold in his laughter at the exchange.
"Well, as much as I'm glad to have hair again, this way too much," the man said. "I'm going to go get a haircut."
"Sounds like a plan," Harry agreed.
"Thanks for this, mate."
"Null sweat, chummer."
Once the patron left, Jason stopped trying to hold it in, belly laughing loudly. "So, a miracle baldness cure, huh?" he said, after he managed to catch his breath.
"Something like that," Harry said, grinning himself.
"Well, your fast talk is still good," the shopkeep said. "Been using it much?"
"A bit," Harry said. "It's a good way to convince people of stuff by keeping them off balance."
"It's a good skill to have," Jason agreed.
"Karen's is better, though," said the boy.
"Well, she's an actress, and she does improv, so it damn well better be," the proprietor argued.
"You're probably right," Harry conceded. "I should get back to Romy and let her know the results."
"She was probably watching on the CCTV," Jason said. "I had some put them in, in October, because when we were getting hit by a rash of shoplifters."
"Huh, did not notice."
"You weren't meant to."
"I'm usually pretty observant."
"They can make cameras pretty small these days."
"How small?"
"Only the lens needs to be visible; the guts can be hidden elsewhere."
"Well, that makes sense. Still, got to talk to Romy."
"You do that."
Harry let himself into the back room, where he found Romy closing the doors on an armoire that had been in the back room for as long as he could remember, though he could not remember it ever being in use for storage. Instantly, he made the leap.
"Catch all of that on CCTV?" he asked.
"Jason told you?"
"Something like that. So, what do you want to with the potion?"
"What do you mean?"
"I don't need it, and you made it, so you should keep it."
"Really? Are you sure? You paid for the ingredients."
"I've got a full head of hair, and I can make hair grow with magic anyways."
"If I take it, I'm going to run lab tests on it."
"Go for it, and if you can replicate it in the lab, you should."
"Are you sure?"
"If you can replicate it in a scientific lab, it's a chemical compound, maybe a pharmaceutical drug. It can help people, so why not use it to help people? No reason why something that only being used to benefit less than one percent of the population because of their elitism shouldn't be available for the masses."
"You're right."
"You might want to water it down, though. Having hair grow out instantly would really raise suspicions… Maybe something akin to a millimeter per dose?"
"That's… a really good idea."
"Can I borrow your pestle and mortar?"
"What for?"
"I found these peppers in the Forbidden Forest. Dried them out the last couple months, so I'm thinking of crushing them up and making a solution out of them to put in a spray bottle, like a homemade pepper spray. Might be useful after the incident in October."
"You do that. I'm going to head to the lab and try to at least get started on the analysis."
"Later, chummer."
~ooOoo~
Harry had wanted to start house hunting right away, but Jason had suggested he hold off; as a minor of only eleven years, he was not yet legally allowed to own property, meaning he'd have to put it in some other name on the deed until he reached majority, and so Jason had suggested he use a holding company to purchase and own property until he reached eighteen, since he could legally own shares in a company despite being a minor. He had agreed to the suggestion, and Jason had started the paperwork on Boxing Day, but it had still taken until the second day of January for the paperwork to be processed, even after a few palms had been greased; as it turned out, liquidating five hundred gold pieces into pounds sterling had been a faster affair.
So, with only three days left on holiday, Harry was finally being shown properties by an estate agent, and though he was accompanied by Karen, who was ostensibly looking a house herself; the ultimate decision on the purchase was up to Harry, and he was carrying sixty-five thousand pounds in stacks of banknotes wrapped with currency straps in his haversack for when was ready to pay for a purchase. He would have preferred Ethan's economics advice, but he was spending time with his wife and two daughters, so Harry settled for whoever was available on short notice.
It was the third house they had seen that day Harry decided was the one, a two-story, three-bedroom, two bathroom affair that had just finished construction in November and had yet to be lived in. The entire ground floor had an open floor plan, but still had enough surfaces to provide tactical cover in the case of a firefight, and he could see the possibilities of what it could become once it was properly furnished. It even had a full basement, but most importantly, it was only a ten minute walk away from Bourne's Comics and Games.
"What'd you think about this place?" Harry asked Karen, wanting to make her feel included even though he had no real intention of weighing her opinion in his decision.
"It's really nice," Karen said. "I really like the way the kitchen and dining room are open and the stairs serve as a divider between that, the foyer and the living room area."
"I like it too," Harry said, glad at the way it turned out. "I think this is the one."
"Are you sure?"
"Am I ever not?"
"That's fair," said the actress, before turning to the estate agent. "How much is this property?"
"Sixty-four thousand pounds," said the estate agent, a primly-dressed woman in her forties.
"You'll sell it to us for fifty-eight thousand," Karen said, smiling.
"Why would I do that?" asked the estate agent, incredulous.
"We'll pay for it in cash," said the actress, and the boy pulled out a stack of banknotes to demonstrate the point.
The estate agent swallowed at the prospect of the quick sale. "Shall we return to the office to process the paperwork?"
~ooOoo~
"You want to do what?" asked Shaun, after he had looked over the interior of the house on Friday morning.
"I want the carpet torn out and floor boards put in," Harry started, ticking it off on his fingers. "Doors need to be replaced with something high end and secure, either solid wood or some kind of steel construction. Locks need to be replaced too; I want the best money can buy, and at least two per door. Walls need to be either wood paneling, brick or concrete, and sound-proof and bullet-proof; same with the windows. I'll be adding additional wards when I get back from boarding school, but the windows will need security bars. The basement will need ventilation; I'm going to turn it into a workspace for my other stuff. Master bedroom and basement doors will need additional locks. Oh, and I want murder holes put into the upstairs hallway floor to line up with the foyer downstairs, but placed so they can be covered up with a rug."
The construction foreman took a few moments to digest what the boy had just told him. "What are you building, a fortress?" he asked.
"Something like that," Harry said with a wry smile. "More a safe house, really. If the bogeyman comes for me again, I want to be ready this time."
"Smart," said Shaun, nodding in approval. "What's the timeline and budget?"
"This needs to be done by end of May, which should give enough time for the place to be furnished before the term ends for me in mid-June. As for finance, I'm leaving a hundred thousand pounds with Ethan, but don't forget you're a shareholder in Irregulars Security Investments too, so the faster and cheaper we turn this around without cutting corners, the faster we can turn a profit on renting a room out."
"If this place is for renting out, we don't need the renovations," Shaun reasoned.
"I'm planning to live here during holiday," Harry said. "I'd rather it be secure."
"That's fair."
"So, when can your people start on it?"
"Monday is the earliest," Shaun said, after checking a notebook. "I'm sure the owner will be willing to put a team on this project once the down payment is made."
"Ethan's going to handle the money on this project, but if there's anything logistical or layout questions, asked Jason," Harry said. "He's always had the best eye for designing safe houses when he played Shadowrun with us."
Shaun nodded.
~ooOoo~
Sunday morning, Harry checked his inventory one last time before checking out of the Footman; unlike when he left home at the end of August, he was going to be more prepared this time. He had restocked his stock of canned and dried foods and even added several sacks of dried lentils and beans. He had also prepared ten ice chests of frozen meat and another four of frozen fruits and vegetables; he had gone to school thinking he would only be cooking for himself only occasionally, but he was now returning knowing full well he could only rely on himself for food.
He had even managed to figure out how to enchant a container to maintain a cool but not freezing temperature, something he had achieved by combining the original freezing enchantment he had used to create the original ice chests with a much smaller fire enchantment made by etching the Greek and Roman symbol for the classical element of fire, △, into the inside of the lid and inlaying it with fire opal; somehow, even though he could not explain why, by intermixing the multiple traditions and languages, he had managed to create an environment that would never rise above four degrees centigrade or fall below one degree Celsius, making it perfect conditions for short-term food storage.
Producing another monoknife had been easy after he had made the first one; it was simply a matter of purchasing a high-carbon paring knife with a ten centimeter blade, stripping away the handle scales and then using spontaneous magic to reshape the metal; once the tang was the desired form and pins were added to the bolster, he produced a new handle from additional steel and set the blade inside it, testing repeatedly to ensure it would remain in both the open and closed configurations before finally using magic to refine the blade's edge to the thickness of a single molecule.
Turning the peppers he had found in the Forbidden Forest into a pepper spray was a simple task; once he had ground the dried fruit into a fine powder with pestle and mortar, he gave a small sample of it to Romy, who insisted she use high-performance liquid chromatography to determine the pepper's level of spiciness rather than allowing Harry to determine it by taste, a decision proven prudent when the results showed it to be over five million Scoville heat units, hotter than any pepper in the normal world. Afterwards, he ground down some black pepper, adding it to the pepper he had found in Forbidden Forest and then pulverized at home, steeping the resulting mixed powder in water he slowly brought to a boil. After the resulting brew cooled back to room temperature, he decanted it into several small, hermetically-sealed spray bottles before distributing them to his Irregulars for self-defense and keeping a few for himself.
Most importantly, though, he checked the belt pouches and the test tubes within; Romy had come through with the materials he needed, using her position at her job to help him purchase some from a vendor, and he had managed to procure the rest at either a department store, a home and garden center, or a specialist store.
The coming term was going to be a lot of hard work, but that wasn't something he was afraid of. After all, without hard work, where would he be?
Nowhere, that's where.
Author's Notes: Those of you with copies of the Player's Handbook for 2nd Edition D&D can now look up what new spells Harry's going to research and learn.
You had to know Romy being a chemistry major would have a pay-off. If she can figure out the Manegro potion, which appears in Harry Potter: The Trading Card Game, and can replicate it in a lab, she's going to be filthy rich with the only baldness cure that's guaranteed to work.
The theorycraft behind as to why Romy can make potions is that the process of potion-making is based entirely on the ingredients and the methodology; as Harry suspected, the magic used in the making of potions is drawn directly from the ingredients themselves rather than the individual brewing the potion, which is why it's his best subject, because all he needs to do is follow recipes, almost like it was right out of a cookbook. As for why potions react badly when the wrong ingredients are used or ingredients are prepared improperly, that's based more on the central premise of magic working because people believe it will work, and somebody who makes either mistake despite having the proper recipe would subconsciously know they're committing an error.
I had a lot of fun writing glib, fast-talking, con artist Harry; he's my favorite version of Harry to write because he gets to be bright, snappy and witty, which contrasts greatly with his normally more somber tone. Toby isn't a recurring character, but Harry would certainly know the name of the non-gaming regulars who are patrons of Bourne's Comics and Games.
When I was doing research into property laws in the U.K., I was surprised to learn that minors could not own real estate in Britain, but could own companies.
And of course Jason would be the one to know how to set up holding companies and shell corporations. Because that's what Jason does, knowing the shady and illegal stuff.
There's a certain level of paranoia that goes into building a safehouse; I know this from building safehouses across various tabletop RPGs, including Hunter: The Vigil, Spycraft 2.0, Shadowrun, and Cyberpunk 2020. In many ways, Harry's new place of residence is like an ideal safehouse from those games, albeit scaled back to a 1990s technology level.
And that's why Shaun is a builder. Everybody is useful.
Food will become more of a sticking point in the future; for now, it's more background, but it's important to Harry in ways that haven't been explained yet.
Harry making stuff is another thing I really enjoy writing, because it gives me a chance to show off thought process and research.
I specifically chose to make the pepper Harry found in the Forbidden Forest hotter than any pepper found in the normal world even today; to me, for the magical world to have something growing in the wild that can easily beat what normal people had to spend years working in horticulture to produce, it's another way to demonstrate the disconnect between the magical and the normal. For reference, the hottest pepper as of the publication of this chapter is the Carolina Reaper, which has 2.2 million Scoville. And yes, you can actually produce pepper spray in the method Harry did, but it won't last for that long because you probably won't be using a hermetically sealed spray bottle.
Review, PM... like a bookie paying out, you know the score.
Credit to Shinshikaizer for the original story pitch and goalie12345 for copy-editing. Furthermore, my thanks to Romantically Distant for additional editing and proofing.