Hi everyone! As usual reviews are appreciated, still looking for that Beta if anyone is interested. I will try and get the next one done ASAP, but time is weird at the mo. Anyway, enjoy.
The summer went quite well, and Mat was nonstop planning and training. He pushed himself this time due to it being the year Harry coming to Hogwarts, he had to make plans which didn't change the timeline too much. Training with Tom was going swimmingly, he could use his movement sensing effortlessly and could stand a good chance against Tom. That being said, when Tom put his all into it and kept Mat at range, he always won. He had a fear that if everything went too perfectly that Voldemort would change his plans and make Mat's plans moot. He had to let Harry get into those situations, he didn't like it, but it had to be done. He felt like a dick for doing it though. His main plan now was to make himself and Lawson Enterprises more powerful and help them invent new stuff.
Nearly a week after he got home, he was informed by his uncle that they had a breakthrough in one of the labs. Mat didn't even know that there was more than one. Turns out that four months after Mat met with the inventors of the Rune Radio and Rune TV, a very smart man, 2 years out of Hogwarts, was hired by Lawson Enterprises. His revolutionary idea for using the compartment that was attached to the Rune Radio and TV that collects ambient magic could be used as a battery and can be charged by wizards charging it with their magic. This revolution had two initial concepts, the first was to use it in transportation as a form of hybrid car or other on vehicles, the second was to power weapons. Through many bribes and information gathering, they managed, somehow, to obtain schematics for an experimental gun the US and Chinese were developing, the Rail Gun. The main principle of the gun was to push high velocity ammunition through electromagnetism. It had already been implemented in some warships by the time Mat was killed, but the beauty of the magic battery is that it can be used as a handheld version. These smaller versions, which were enhanced by runes to make the materials used withstand more force than they should have, could be re used and experimented with more efficiently. The experimental Rail Guns that the US and China had developed were massive and required a lot of electricity to run, the magical battery took away the electricity aspect. They were quickly able to develop this weapon and have a prototype ready for when Mat visited them.
Mat and his Uncle Bob stepped out of the Range Rover, apparently military people loved big 4x4's. They strolled up to the non-assuming, run down warehouse on the outskirts of Hull. Mat immediately noticed when they walked through the protection and notice-me-not runes. Bob didn't even flinch. Mat shivered as if he walked through a cold shower and followed his uncle. The first thing they noticed, as they walked through the door, was the three heavily armed men in full military garb, standing guard around a man in a lab coat. They exchanged introductions and pleasantries, but no names were exchanged which he was fine with. They walked through some more doors with armed guards, Mat immediately noticed the tough looking witch as they walked into the third room. She studied them, well, studied Mat mostly and gave him a nod, which was more than any of the others had done as they arrived. He nodded back and they finally went into a lab-cum-firing range. There were six more people in here, two guards and what Mat assumed were four scientists. They were wearing lab coats and black trousers with work boots. Turned out that they were Lawson Lab Coats, if the Lawson Enterprises logo on the left arm and right breast was any indication. Again, no names were mentioned, yet they all seemed happy they were here and knew who both Bob and Mat were.
"So, what you got for us?" Bob said in his clipped Yorkshire accent to the apparent leader of the group, the same man who was introduced at the beginning.
He smiled and gestured to an impressive, half-futuristic weapon displayed on a plinth, in fact it looked like a weapon from the Fallout games. It was sleek, about a metre in length, had a thick underside grip area that was attached to one of four prongs with ridges cut out of them facing inwards. It had a standard handle and trigger mechanism with the stock of a gun, a simple piece of wood. It seemed to have been a cannibalised back half of a shotgun. "This is the Rail Gun" he declared excitedly, he picked it up and handed it to Bob "what do you think?" he asked expectantly.
Bob studied the object and nodded in satisfaction and pressed a button which split the weapon on a hinge, like a single shot shotgun would have, he looked down the hole and asked the scientist "does the cartridge go here?"
The man nodded and gave him what appeared to be a solid metal shotgun shell "place the shell in there like you would with a normal shotgun, aim and shoot, its that simple" he then pointed to the shooting range where a partially destroyed car was in front of a solid wall of concrete which had some impressive chunks blown out of it, showing that it was reinforced with steel rebar.
Bob walked up to the end of the range, loaded it, aimed and shot. Mat was surprised to say the least. There was a build-up of electricity and what seemed to be small flashes of lightning that danced across the top of the gun and then an almighty boom. As soon as the boom happened, the car exploded, and part of the concrete chipped off the wall behind. Bob and Mat both looked at the gun and what was left of the car "Fuck me" they both said in unison, turned to each other and smiled.
"Fuck me indeed" the scientist said with a face splitting grin "we tried it on a protego maxima as well, it burst straight through it and kept going." Mats eyes widened at that, he turned to him "she wasn't harmed by the way" he gestured to the room beyond where the witch was stationed "she was a bit stunned though. We feel that we can develop this way beyond the current parameters. The optimal range appears to be 200m after which there is a rather large drop off in power and accuracy but can still kill someone outright at over 2 miles away if our calculations are correct. We have also discovered that the magical battery is drained quite a bit with each shot. The battery amplifies the electromagnetic current tenfold. We tried adapting it by pure muggle means but you would need to be attached to a power plant which wouldn't be very effective in a fight."
Mat grinned and gave them his full support. He told them to make it more efficient, increase the range and maybe add a cartridge and make it semi-automatic. After Mat had given them his suggestions, he and Uncle Bob left. On the drive back home, they had a rather reserved conversation about this new weapon.
"It's more powerful than I thought it would be" Mat said quietly.
"I know, we need to make sure that it doesn't get into the wrong hands and make sure this weapon is kept secret until the right moment" Bob said.
"I agree, I think we need to wait at least another year until people start training with it, also perfect the weapon before we unleash it. I hate to say this, but I don't trust a lot of people we have, are you sure you and Gary have fully made sure of these people's loyalty?" Mat asked.
"I think so, but I agree, I don't know what you and your parents know, but I feel a war coming, the way your pushing for all this, it feels, I dunno, like… were on the eve of something big" Bob said forlornly.
"We are, I can't tell you until the right moment, but there is a storm brewing and its going to be messy. Just… please be safe uncle Bob. We have to make sure we have the right people and the right tools to stop it." Mat replied, equally sombre as his uncle. Bob nodded in understanding.
With that, the trip continued in silence until they got a Burger King which raised their spirits. Mat took a big bite of a double bacon cheeseburger and straightened in realisation "Do you remember anyone's faces from that place?"
Bob looked Mat in the eye and paled "No".
Mat nodded, "thought so, looks like they have some decent security."
VVVVVV
The rest of the summer continued in the same fashion of work and research. Mat still hadn't come up with a proper plan apart from try and help Harry, there wasn't much time left until school started again. He was getting further and further with his rune clusters and was already on advanced runes, basically on the same level as the average 7th year. He was well chuffed that he basically had an eidetic memory, it helped a lot. Clair was also very impressed with his understanding and recollection of runes. She gave him tasks to practicing carving runes on different materials. Slate was easy to do, mainly because it was easy to scratch and the runes carved were carved at a similar depth all around, due to it being like paper. But harder or softer stone, wood and metal were different due to the resistances of each material. He had to make sure the grooves carved were all at the same depth and the runes carved were right, it was amazing how different and difficult it was to carve runes in different materials, therefore, the final month of summer, he was meticulously practicing with this to get it right. It was surprisingly meditative and therapeutic.
He got an owl from the goblins one breakfast with a letter within another letter.
Dear Mr Lawson,
Due to our agreement, the letter received from Madam Bones that was left in vault 5301 has been forwarded to this address.
Uggott
Mat grinned, fried a fresh slice of bacon for the bird, sent back a thankyou note and when the owl had left. He sat down to read a very official looking letter, made from expensive looking parchment and an actual wax seal with a family crest which, if Mat had researched it, was eerily similar to the Bones of Sussex. Cracking the seal, it read:
Dear Unknown
After a thorough search I cannot find any record of the incarceration of Mr Black and I have opened an official investigation, re-opening the case. While I do not agree with the cloak and dagger method that this has been brought to my attention, I appreciate the need for subtly and thank you for it. I do not understand the cryptic postscript of 'he will return' please clarify.
Kind Regards
Madam Amelia of the Ancient and Noble House of Bones,
Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
Mat sat back with a grin and decided to leave it a while until he contacted her again unless there was something regarding Sirius Black. Hopefully, Harry's third year would be clear of the events related to Sirius' escape from Azkaban from the third book and they could at least have a year of being a kid.
There were no more breakthroughs in magical R & D, but Mat wasn't sure what some of the research was and his parents decided to not reveal some of the projects that were ongoing, even though there weren't many, at least not yet. Lawson Enterprises were still relatively small but expanding fast. The stocks in big companies were paying dividends. The construction side was growing and had some rather large contracts. They were branching out into the muggle sciences in computing, aerospace and transport. The Lawson Technology Division or TLD were established in the months when Mat was at school. Anonymously, Mat suggested the use of multicore processors and cooling systems, hoping to jump start the processor race. He asked the head of the department to push for an agreement with AMD and Intel who had a technology exchange agreement so they would all benefit from this. He also suggested to experiment with LED technology for TV and increase resolution, increase in graphics research and increase computer performance. Mat also dropped a little idea of delving into solid-state drives, stating that he hated loading times. He felt that all this needed to happen sooner rather than later so that they could process information much faster.
The biggest leap that Lawson Enterprises had however, which Mat didn't realise how much of a deal it was, was the invention of fiber-optic internet. This massively increased the amount of data transferred which quickly placed them on the map as literally the fastest internet provider on the planet. They ironed out a government contract with the MOD within weeks of the announcement in which Lawson Enterprises decided to place a huge investment into perfecting the technology. Weirdly, Mat didn't have an input in this discovery. Because Lawson were new in the industry, they snapped up young minds and people who were ostracized for one reason or another, one of these people was one the inventors of perfecting the technology, a Mr Myke Dean. Fibre-optic cables were already being placed around the world, but Dean created a way to use recycled plastics and glass to make the fibres used and one of his colleagues improved on this by Ibrahim Saeed to a faster bundle of fibre-optics than what was currently available by tenfold as well as drastically decreasing the price of them. Basically, the government were paying Lawson Enterprises to get rid of waste plastics and they were selling the product far cheaper than anyone in the world.
About two weeks before Mat was to leave for Hogwarts, the Lawsons had a gathering of influential business people from across Britain. It was a relatively formal affair to celebrate the fiber-optics breakthrough, most of these people were from the telecommunication business. Mat wasn't interested in a lot of it, leaving his mum to do most for the business deals and general socialising. His dad was there but he didn't really feel comfortable with this kind of thing. He nodded politely to most for the introductions and was planning to disappear to his room as soon as he could to play on the PS1. However, that was when he was introduced to Mr and Mrs Finch-Fletchley and their son, Justin.
Mat immediately recognised the name. He shook hands with the boy, who was annoyingly a bit taller than Mat, had an aristocratic look, strong jaw, straight nose, deep set eyes and brown hair in a puffy combover. He was dressed, like Mat, in plain black trousers, belt, shoes and shirt, the main difference was that Mat was in a plain white shirt and Justin was in a purple one. They said their welcomes and Mat said that they should hang out soon, seeing that there are not many people their age at the event. He agreed and left for Mat to welcome the guests.
Once the guest greeting was out of the way, Mat went to find Justin. He found him in the library staring at the magical, hidden half of the library in wonder. He was brushing his hand over the shimmering portal that led into the other side "I thought you were" Mat said, making Justin jump and turn to him.
"What is it?" he asked, his head snapping to Mat and then to the portal and back.
"It's a divide that separates the normal side from the magical one"
"You're a wizard too?" He asked with a smile.
"I am, do you start Hogwarts this year? I've not seen you before" Mat asked.
"Yeah I start in about 2 weeks. Are you starting too?"
"No mate, I'll be starting my second year. Come on, better to speak in here, there are privacy wards, you know, statute of secrecy and all that" he nodded his head towards the portal and stepped through. After a couple of seconds, Justin followed him through. He waited near the table which had stacks of paper and rune designs on it, as well as actual practice runes Mat had been working on.
"Are all these magical books?" Justin asked amazed. He was looking all around the room trying to take it all in, he walked towards a shelf listed as 'year 2' obviously they were the books for Mat's second year at Hogwarts.
"Yep, once I found out about me being a wizard, I got my mum and dad to buy a copy of everything in Flourish and Blotts, I may have panicked a bit, but I found out I'm good at runes because of that, so it worked out ok. Also, I can read loads of stuff between school so I'm not proper bored. I mean, I like normal stuff, but, there's something…well… magical about magical stuff, sounds weird when you put it like that" Mat said with a bit of a blush.
"Ha! Yeah it does but I know what you mean, its like stepping into a different world. Diagon Alley was a massive culture shock when I went there last month, I wish I got more stuff though, I feel a bit under prepared at the moment, I have read nearly everything on the list though."
"Yeah, I know what you mean, I was kind of prepared for it, the ministry explained a lot of it when they came to see me at my school, I was a bit shocked. Here," Mat walked over to the history section and got a couple of books on wizarding history, law and etiquette, "these should help, they did for me, some of the stuff is, to us, old fashioned but you need to be prepared for… some stuff, like idiot purebloods" he said with his hand clenching into a fist.
"Err, what do you mean? Whats a pureblood?"
"Well, I'm what's called a muggleborn, which means none of my parents are wizards, then there are half-bloods, which means one parent is a wizard and the other isn't, then there is pureblood, which basically means that all their relatives are wizards. It also means that most of them are inbred, they control the wizarding economy and have a lot of power in the wizarding government. There's a lot of bigotry in this world. I had a lot of problems with a kid called Carrow, who thinks he's better than everyone else and tries to prove it by bullying people. I stopped him from doing that" Mat said that with hardness that made Justin step back a bit. "Anyway, read this, it will explain a lot, don't worry though, just prepare yourself for dick heads, like in every school"
Justin nodded and Mat diverted the conversation to a happier conversation and soon enough it was time to leave and the party soon dissolved. Mat gifted Justin the books which made his parents happy as well as Justin's.
After the party, the weeks went smooth and nothing happened really and Mat decided to chill out as much as he could.
VVVVVV
1st September soon rolled on, Lawson Enterprises was expanding and making a shit ton of money, the Rune Radio and TV were on the verge of being sold worldwide at the same time, he wasn't sure about any new weapons or anything coming out of the magical R&D aspect but there was bound to be something soon, people were smart. Mat decided to just go with the flow, if he couldn't change the timeline too much, he had to really. He did make sure to introduce Harry to the club and train him personally, force nutrient potions down his throat and introduce him to physical fitness, maybe bring him to the room of requirement and train him there. He needed the kid to be as powerful as possible. Mats personal training went very well, he was stronger and faster than ever. He had perfected his rune carving, now all he needed to do was remember all the known ones and then start creating new combinations out of them.
The main thing he wanted to do was raise suspicion about Quirrell, knowing that the parasite Voldemort was stuck to him, it was bound to make the man a bit odd. At least Mat hoped that was the case. He shivered to think that something didn't happen how they were supposed to because the timeline had changed. Regardless, step one was to create suspicion about Quirrell so he had less freedom to do what he wanted, hopefully then he would make mistakes because of the extra pressure. He would let Harry and the super group do their thing with the Philosophers Stone, maybe push Neville by inviting him to the duelling club and forcing Harry, Hermione and Ron to practice together as a team, thereby training them as a unit. Mat would realise a lot sooner that Neville's wand wasn't his if Neville was in the club and then persuade him to get a new one that matched him, thereby helping the poor lad.
So now, plans were in place, as vague as they were overall, and Mat and his family were doing the annoying, obligatory 4-hour trip down to London to go back up to fucking Scotland. He hated Wizards sometimes. His parents decided to stay over in London for a couple of days, Mat found out on the train, he asked them why they couldn't have gone a couple of days earlier with them and they all have had a little holiday. They blushed and apologised, saying that they didn't think of it. That kind of put him in a foul mood. He stamped it down with his occlumency and rode in silence for the rest of the trip.
Eventually they arrived in London at Kings Cross, he gave his parents a rather terse hug, in their defence they did kind of look guilty, but he wanted to emphasise that he was royally pissed off at them. He quickly went through platform 9 ¾ and found his mates, Craig, Eddie and Rand, they were all happy to see him they found a cabin that they could all fit in together. On the way they bumped into Cho, Milly and Marietta, they squeezed into the same cabin as them, well at first they squeezed, it didn't seem very packed to say that there were 7 kids in a cabin. He shrugged it off as a wizard thing.
Mat decided to take a trip as soon as the train set off, intending to find Harry Potter. Only a few cabins down and he found him, he looked like a fish out of water, staring out of the window at nothing. He was very small, his toes barely touched the ground, his clothes were way too big for him, the glasses he wore were cracked, he had a full head of bushy jet-black hair that almost came down to his eyes. The main thing that struck Mat about him, he was skinny, too skinny and his skin was a weird grey colour, he looked ill. Fury rose up in Mat seeing him this way, guilt also sprang up as well, could he have done something sooner? Sent the authorities or something to investigate? Or would there be something in place to stop an investigation? He smothered his emotions for the time being, occlumency was brilliant, he smoothed his clothes and opened the door. Harry turned to look at Mat, and he was stopped in his tracks by his eyes, they were like emeralds in the sun. Mat couldn't help but smile.
"Hi!" Mat said as he walked through the threshold and plopped himself on the seat across from him. He reached over and held his hand out for a handshake. Harry took it and shook it, the kid had a surprisingly strong grip.
"Hi, I'm Harry, Harry Potter" he said with an honest smile.
Mat grinned back at him, "are you really? Brilliant! Mat Lawson, I'm on the hunt for people to join my duelling club. Started it last year, I thought I'd try and recruit some firsties, helped us all out with our studies when I started last year, also made a load of new friends." Mat pitched at Harry, the kid seemed a bit overwhelmed but smiled again.
"Sounds like fun, but, do we fight each other or something? Like a fight club?" he asked a bit confused.
Mat barked a laugh that which made Harry jump "if it were a fight club then we couldn't be talking about it, now would we?" he gave the kid a wink, unfortunately the reference went way over his head which made Mat a bit sad, Harry tilted his head like a puppy, looking at Mat like he was a bit weird. "It's a quote from a film mate, you need to watch it, its epic. Anyway, no its not like a fight club, we do have small duels though, more like practice spells on each other or whatever else you want to do. We mainly do it so its an excuse for the houses to chat to each other outside of class, or you could do your homework there, whatever you want really, but we did notice that the ones who did come got higher grades overall in practical's though. So, you in?"
Harry grinned and nodded, was about to say something when the door opened and there stood a shy, ginger kid, with a rat held to his chest and some sandwiches in clingfilm in the other "erm, hi, can I sit in here please? Everywhere else is full." He asked, looking directly at Harry, at Harry's forehead to be exact, ignoring Mat him, odd that.
"Hello!" Mat stood up, stood directly in front of the lad and held out his hand. Ginger kid jumped and his eyes locked onto Mat as if seeing him for the first time "didn't even notice me eh? Why was the first thing you looked at was at Harry's scar? It's rude to stare you know kid."
He had the decency to blush, and shook it "err, hi, I'm Ron, Ron Weasley" he said looking up at Mat.
"I know mate, we met last year, I met your entire family in fact, I'm also mates with the Twins," he said with an over exaggerated happy tone, he then pretended to be hurt as he said "you don't recognise me? I feel a bit insulted." He then smiled, putting him at ease a bit. "Same offer I gave old Hazza here, duel club, I run it, interested? Harry's coming" throughout Mat's speech, Ron had many different emotions, mainly an embarrassed, pouty look, which for some reason pissed Mat off, as soon as he told Ron of Harry coming to the duelling club, he immediately agreed, no other sales pitch was needed 'weird that' Mat thought. "Anyway, here are the flyers with the timetable, I'll leave you two young'uns to it. Oh, I kinda forgot, watch what I do Harry" he looked Harry who nodded and tensed up as Mat pulled out his wand, he swished the wand in a pointed spiral and incanted "reparo". "Remember that spell mate, it'll serve you well" he then nodded to them both and left.
"Wicked" Ron and Harry said at the same time, Mat heard them and smiled as he left, he heard them both laugh.
'While it is a bit weird the way Ron acted around Harry, nothing bad will come of it, hopefully' Mat thought to himself, he did do the rounds to try and get more people and re recruit more people to the club. Pure coincidence that Harry was the first person he came across. While making the rounds, he bumped into Justin on the way and quickly got him and another kid to join, Dean Thomas. He met Neville, and basically browbeat him to join after he helped him and Hermione find Trevor the Toad, Hermione agreed to come as well. Overall, quite a few decided to join and re-join, he gave flyers to them all anyway. 'Hopefully some Slytherins come this year' Mat mused to himself. It took him about an hour to do the rounds, most of the older kids ignored him, some of the Slytherins outright threatened him, especially Carrow and that. Mat left them to it. He sat with the Twins and Lee Jordan for a bit and left after 10 minutes and decided to relax in his original cabin, happy and a bit tired from doing the rounds. He caught up with everyone then and relaxed for the remainder of the journey to Hogwarts.
Eventually, the train pulled up at Hogsmeade, the firsties were all herded to the boats, the ever-noticeable Hagrid yelling over the top of the hubbub for them to hurry, as per usual. The second years were a bit confused until a prefect shouted for all other students to grab a coach, so they did. They strolled up to a waiting carriage, it was jet black yet stood out in the twilight of the day, had a simple jet-black wood dado decoration and two candle lamps on arched poles attached to the front where the driver should be. Mat knew they should be pulled by thestrals, yet he couldn't see them. You were supposed to be able to see them if you had seen death. Strange how he couldn't, and he had technically died. Regardless, the seven of them could easily fit into the carriage, once they were settled, off they went. This journey wasn't as memorable as the boat ride, the trees on both sides made it seem a bit gloomy, yet the sun was out and the roof was down. The carriages took them right through the barbican, over the bridge, through the main gate and into the courtyard. They were told to hurry up and take their seats in the main hall by McGonagall. "Really Miss? We've literally just come off the carriage that only has one speed, there is a massive queue of others that are still coming up the hill, and now apparently we're to basically run into main hall because we are going too slow and need to hurry up? Why? The firsties hadn't even got onto the boats when we set off and that's at least a half an hour ride." Mat shut up when he realised McGonagall was glaring at him.
"Get in Lawson, now" was all she said, her Scottish accent bleeding through which indicated she's pissed off. Mat just shrugged and followed his mates who had bravely walked away when he was speaking.
As they walked through the threshold of the gate Rand turned to Mat "you're a nutter mate."
Mat huffed a laugh "We've been here 2 minutes and they tell us to hurry in as if they can't be arsed with us, dick move I think?" He replied, "I was close to snapping last year, hurry this and hurry that, hurry hurry hurry, it doesn't make anyone actually go faster, just makes people think you're an arsehole and freaks some people out who will panic and do something daft, thereby slowing the whole thing down." He justified to Rand.
Marietta chipped in "to be fair, I thought the same" she said in Mat's defence, there were a couple of nods in the little group.
They had finally got to the main hall and took their seats, it was still half empty and they had made good time just taking a stroll. Mat had a quick look around "looks like we're proper late, they've all had the food and fucked off already, look! Half of the teachers have already left! What are we to do?!" He exclaimed in mock panic. Rand and Craig laughed, and the rest just shook their heads. About twenty minutes later, the hall was bustling with the excited chatter of kids who hadn't seen each other in ages. Eventually silence was called as the doors opened and McGonagall strolled through, followed by an excitable gaggle of kids, she looked like a mother duck being followed by baby ducks. Mat couldn't help but snort at the image. Then he realised that they all probably looked the same last year and he sobered up at that. Eventually they all stopped, and the sorting began. Mat was relieved that everyone got sorted into the house they were supposed to be in. Harry and the younger Gryffindors were seated not too far away from Mat and he gave the kid a thumbs up. Mat welcomed all the others in his house, they were sat near him, would be rude not too. "It's going to be an interesting year I think" He said to himself.
