Harry Potter and the Physical Adept
Chapter 15: Ribbons
Harry didn't see it himself, as he hadn't attended the Halloween Feast, instead spending that precious time in research and development, but the talk that followed the incident made it impossible not to hear what had happened.
From what he could gather, someone had written something on a wall near the Great Hall about enemies of the Heir and the Chamber of Secrets being opened, then left the caretaker's cat hanging from a nearby torch, petrified, but not in the sense of being turned to stone, only made unable to move or respond to stimulus.
The part regarding the Heir was clearly a threat, and though the Hermetic mage had no idea who said Heir was, he was wary of any sort of threat, particularly one that came with a message in the form of a victim.
Still, this was a situation he could play to his advantage.
~ooOoo~
Argus Filch was found in his chambers the night the Chamber of Secrets was opened, reeking of alcohol and hanged from a noose made from an old belt. He had left a hastily scrawled note lamenting the petrification of his cat, his beloved sole companion, and the unbearable loneliness of being without her, several empty bottles of firewhisky strewn throughout his room.
No one thought to check the contents of the bottles at his feet, though it was unlikely any wizard who would have thought to check would know what flunitrazepam was.
Lessons were canceled the next day, and a small memorial service was held for the caretaker of Hogwarts Castle, though the only people to attend were the school's staff, even if many only did so out of a sense of obligation. Argus Filch was not well-liked by students.
That night, Colin Creevey followed Dumbledore for several hours until the headmaster finally retired to his quarters, taking photograph after photograph with the Polaroid camera Harry had gifted him. It was surprisingly quiet, but that was to be expected of a gift from the Boy-Who-Lived.
It had become easier to move around Hogwarts Castle after dark.
~ooOoo~
It was Liv who came to him the next morning with the idea for a solution to the problem.
"We should make Ribbons," the dragon told the Hermetic mage two days after the incident, suddenly putting down the controller of her Super Nintendo.
"Come again now?" Harry asked, confused.
"Ribbons!" Liv reiterated. "It's a helm in Final Fantasy II that grants its wearing complete immunity from status ailments."
"No shit?" asked the Boy-Who-Lived, and the dragon nodded. "That'd be immensely useful."
"If you just make the first one, I'll mass produce them," Liv said.
"You can do that?" Luna asked, and both of her roommates nodded. "Cool."
"Why do you want to do this?" Harry asked.
"You taught me it's my duty to protect people from the magical threats they're unprepared for," Liv said. "What good would I be if I can't even protect the other students here at Hogwarts?"
"You are aware this is going to require a lot of legwork, right?" asked the Hermetic mage. "That means less time to play video games until we've got this worked out."
"I'll do what I have to," the dragon said. "You've always told me nothing worth doing is easy."
"I'll help out wherever I can too," Luna offered.
"You don't have to do this," Liv said.
"But I want to," said the first-year Hufflepuff girl. "You're my best friend, and if you're going to do something that'll protect everybody here at Hogwarts, I can't think of a better way to spend my time than helping you do it."
"Thank you," the dragon said gratefully, before turning back to the Hermetic mage. "Tell me what you need me to do."
"Me too," Luna said.
"All right then," Harry said. "Liv, I need you to tell me everything you know about Ribbons, and Luna, I need you to go to the library and borrow every book you can find about protective runes; tell Madam Pince it's me asking, but only through written notes, because she doesn't like it when you talk in there."
"Got it!" said the blonde brightly, pulling on a long skirt, a flowery blouse and some comfortable shoes before departing the room.
~ooOoo~
As much as Harry did not enjoy enchantment, it was a skill he had come to terms with as being an essential piece of his repertoire. After all, it gave him the magical items he used every day, and it provided him with his permanent mental defenses.
Luna proved to be a skilled researcher, intuitively making leaps of logic without needing to overthink the approach or the result. Combined with Liv's report of the Ribbon's capabilities, Harry quickly determined exactly what was needed to create the prototype of the Ribbon.
To the Hermetic mage's knowledge, no synthetic matter had the ability to hold magical power, so his only choices for the textile that would be the base of the prototype would have to be an organic fabric. From his own library, he learned ribbons were traditionally made from materials such as silk, cotton or jute, and, on a hunch, sent out for a bolt of undyed mulberry silk produced by Bombyx mori silkworms, which he learned were the highest quality silk through consulting with Karen through coded letters; when his purchase arrived, he was pleased to find that it could hold Astral power without a problem, even if its capacity for it wasn't particularly high.
Acquiring the proper materials to create a dye for the cloth was the next task, and knowing the Ribbon needed to protect against poison, blindness, involuntary muteness, involuntary changes in form, curses, petrification and instant death gave him a place to start. Amethyst was known as a stone that protected against poison, so it was the first gemstone Harry would be using, while petrified wood was said to help those struggling with being stuck, the closest thing he could find to a material which protected against petrification. For blindness, he procured phenacite, apophyllite, green aventurine, citrine and golden tiger's eye, all stones said to promote eye health and increase visual acuity, while his existing store of fluorite would provide for the defense against curses, and for the inability to speak, aquamarine and blue kyanite, the latter of which was known as the "Speaker's Stone".
Grinding down the gemstones, which he had owled to him through his friends at the game shop, Harry mixed it with water until he formed a multi-colored pigment that could hold Astral power when he passed it through it; when the foot-long strip of silk he submerged in the dye dried, it had a beautiful shimmering look, and its capacity for holding magical energy had expanded greatly, thanks in no small part to the gemstones it was now rich with.
Runes and symbols were something of a speciality for the Hermetic mage; in creating the many enchantments in his life, Harry had become quite well-versed in ancient Norse runes and the symbology of various dead religions and ancient languages, thus making the runes portion of the enchantment the easiest by far. He started with the Eye of Horus, just like with his tattoo, and then added the ankh, the Egyptian symbol of eternal life, for defense against instant death.
Algiz, ᛉ, the rune he had previously used as a layer in his mental defense, would serve well enough as a defense against status ailments; due to its existence as a rune of protection, it would bolster whatever defense he set in the ribbon. Gebo, ᚷ, the rune used by Egill to protect against the poisoned cup, joined the other Norse runes Harry would use for the prototype.
Harry added the tree of life to the symbols for the Ribbon; while he had used it previously in his tattoo as a symbol of wisdom and protection, here he was using it as a symbol of immortality, as another defense against effects causing instantaneous death.
The most difficult thing to find a protection for, Harry realized after much research, was being polymorphed against one's will; it simply wasn't something ancient runes or sigils were prepared to protect against, as almost every such instance led to a quest to break the curse. It also meant he would need to invent a rune specifically for the kind of protection he needed.
He started with a stylized image of the sun, a circle with an aura of flames around it as its rays; the ancient Greeks had a proverb, ουδέν κρυπτόν υπό τον ήλιον, meaning, "nothing is hidden under the sun", and it linked the sun with the truth. Within it, he added the Vitruvian Man, a depiction of the human body in its ideal proportions. Hopefully, the combined sigil would represent truth of the body and ward off any outside attempts to change its form.
The implementation of the symbology into the fabric was a delicate task; as it was an article of clothing, and was thus likely to be washed, he could not simply draw it onto the material. Thus, he instead turned a silver piece into fine silver thread like he had when crafting Liv's wand, then carefully outlined each design on the textile before meticulously embroidering the designs onto the ribbon with the silver thread, all while filling the enchantment with Astral power. Once again, what he had learned while in the home of his aunt and uncle came in use; as he was only ever given his cousin's hand-me-down clothes, he had learned to sew and repair all his garments, a proficiency with needle and thread that served him well now as he manufactured the ribbon.
All the while, the dragon watched him work.
~ooOoo~
"It's incredible," Liv said, turning over the completed Ribbon in her hands. "The Astral energy coming off of it is unlike anything else you've ever made before."
"We still need to test it," Harry said warily. "I'm not going to put that out into production until I'm sure it'll protect against status ailments like it's meant to."
"What do we need?" Luna asked.
"Small animals to run tests on."
"I'll get them," the dragon volunteered. "Will rabbits or mice work?"
"Of course."
"I'll be back, then."
"Where are you going?" asked the Hufflepuff girl.
"To the Forbidden Forest, where mice and rabbits live."
~ooOoo~
Verifying the prototype's functionality took until the first Friday of November simply because Harry wanted to ensure Liv and Luna could both replicate the outcome of any experiments he performed on the small animals the dragon brought back from the Forbidden Forest as subjects, but when the results of all the tests were in, it strongly suggested Harry had succeeded in creating the Ribbon the Norwegian Ridgeback had proposed.
The next phase of testing was trials on a sapient subject, and though Harry would have used himself for the experiments, Liv argued otherwise, suggesting her draconic physiology would make her more resilient to the harmful effects of the tests they would be running, so, should the Ribbon fail to work properly, they would have longer before the status ailment became a serious problem, hopefully enough time for them to find a solution without visiting the hospital wing.
Only after Liv, with the Ribbon laced in her hair, withstood blindness, cloudkill, hold monster, silence, 15' radius, death spell, polymorph other and flesh to stone did they move onto the next stage, where they repeated the tests on the Hermetic mage wearing the Ribbon. The results were the same, with Harry emerging from the experiments unscathed.
Certain the Ribbon would function as intended, Liv began to produce them en masse, using materials Harry previously acquired to manufacture them at a rate comparable to a sweatshop worker, producing what took Harry hours to create in a matter of tens of minutes. Even with time taken up by classes, physical training and her own study of mundane subjects, which Harry insisted she learn to better understand the normal world, the dragon managed to produce a dozen Ribbons by day's end, enough for the Hermetic mage to gather his friends and allies in a secluded classroom that hadn't been used in weeks for distribution.
"What is this?" Hermione asked, as Liv passed out the foot-long silk strip embroidered with silver sigils and runes, turning the item over in her hands.
"It's a Ribbon," the dragon explained. "Since we don't know what petrified the cat, and it came with a threat, Bear and I thought it best we all have insurance against whatever caused the paralysis or petrification, as well as any other forms of status ailments we could think of, so it'll render you safe from petrification, paralysis, instant death, poison, blindness, silence and having your shape changed involuntarily."
"Where did you get this?" Fay asked.
"Liv made them," the Boy-Who-Lived said flatly. "Took a bit of research and a lot of testing, which Dia helped with, thank you for that, but we're pretty certain it works."
"How certain?" asked the Ravenclaw.
The Hermetic mage and the Norwegian Ridgeback shared a look. "About ninety-five percent," said the Hufflepuff boy, pulling a number out of thin air.
"If this does what you say it does, it would be more powerful than the most powerful of protection artefacts," Neville said, in a rare moment of insight unclouded by the clouds of cannabis smoke he usually smelled of.
"We plan to mass produce them, for sale," Liv said. "We won't be charging much, just enough to cover costs and turn a small profit."
"How much will you be selling them for?" Hermione asked.
"A gold piece sounds reasonable," Harry said. "We have to convert a silver piece for the thread used to embroider in the sigils and runes, and then there's the cost for the powdered gemstones that went into the dye, the high-quality silk that's the fabric base and the time we've invested in research and production."
"Some of the poorer students won't be able to afford a Galleon," Neville protested.
"Who the hell can't afford five quid for something that's pretty much guaranteed to save their life?" Harry asked.
"The Weasleys," said the two Gryffindors simultaneously.
"Who?" Liv asked.
"Slottin' who?" Harry asked at the same time.
"The gingers?" Hermione said. "You threw one of them down a flight of steps last year?"
"Them? They can't afford five quid?" Harry asked.
"They don't have pounds sterling," Fay said. "They've a pure-blood family who have never lived in the normal world, so they don't have money from there."
"Sucks to be them, then," Harry said, shrugging. "They could always just borrow it from somebody, or barring that, selling two silver pieces on the black market, which should get them six quid plus change. It's either that, or they can owe us an undetermined favor, to be called in at any time in the future."
"How are we supposed to wear these?" Colin asked. "I see Liv and Luna have theirs braided in their hair, but what about us boys? Our hair isn't long enough for that."
Harry rolled up the sleeve of his robe-like coat, revealing the ribbon tied around his left bicep. "We actually asked this during testing, and as far as we can tell, as long as you're wearing it on your person, it'll provide protection. You could even pin it on your clothes, for all that matters."
Hurriedly those gathered in the classroom put on the ribbons before the meeting degenerated into small talk and introductions, as Colin had yet to truly spend time with the two Gryffindors or the Ravenclaw.
"No matter what, though, use the buddy system," Harry said.
"The 'buddy system'?" Fay asked.
"Make sure to travel with at least one other person," Harry explained. "That way, if something happens to one of you, at least there'll be somebody else to report back what happened."
"Can I have a Ribbon for Su-Jin, then?" Hermione asked. "She's been helping me research the Chamber of Secrets since Professor Binns brought it up in History of Magic, and I want her to be safe too."
The dragon and the Hermetic mage shared a look, then Liv handed the Ravenclaw an additional Ribbon. "This is the only free one you'll get; after this, you have to pay for any extras."
"What about me?" asked Fay. "If she gets one, I want one too."
"Fine, but it's one free one each," grumbled the dragon, her avarice showing just a bit as she begrudgingly handed a strip of embroidered silk to each of the Gryffindors, but was then refused by the Hufflepuffs.
"I couldn't take it," Colin said. "You're both already doing so much for me."
"I don't need another one when you're the one I'll be with," Luna told Liv.
~ooOoo~
"Harry! You need to see this!"
Colin had just burst in through the door of the dormitory room shared by Harry, Liv and Luna, covered in a sheen of sweat and face flushed from exercise; seeing the two naked girls, however, caused the blonde boy to stop in his tracks, covering his eyes.
"You're naked!" Colin exclaimed.
"You're out of breath," Liv said.
"What?" asked the first-year boy.
"Sorry, I thought we were playing 'state the obvious'," said the dragon.
"We are?" Luna asked blithely. "Well, then, Harry's right fit."
"Ewww! That's my dad you're talking about!" the Norwegian Ridgeback said, shoving her friend playfully with both hands, sending her tumbling onto the bed before pouncing on her.
"Could you please put on some clothes?" Colin pleaded.
"Why? This is our room, and Harry doesn't seem to mind," Liv said, as she tickled Luna, who squirmed and giggled.
"Harry, please make them put something on," the first-year boy begged.
"Why? It's just the human body," Harry said. "There's nothing to be embarrassed about.
"So, what's so important you had to basically kick down the door?"
"I saw it! I saw what petrified Mrs. Norris," said the boy photographer, his eyes still covered with his hands. "It was a huge snake!"
"And how did you know it petrified Mrs. Norris?" Harry inquired.
"Because I was with Marilyn, and she got petrified!"
"Tell me exactly what happened," Harry said, suddenly serious.
As it had transpired, Colin had been tailing Dumbledore and had gotten pictures of him leaving the library with an enormous stack of books when he ran into the older girl; they had been chatting and walking down the corridor together, returning to the Hufflepuff common room, the girl checking her makeup in a compact, when the girl suddenly fell silent. Colin had then turned around to check on her and found her frozen in mid-step, eyes still fixed on the mirror in her hand. Behind her loomed a giant snake, and Colin had instinctively taken a picture with the camera that was always in his hands, the flash from the camera blinding the creature long enough for the first-year boy to make his escape.
"That's a humongous slottin' snake," said Harry, as he looked over the photograph Colin had presented as evidence. "You're sure about this?"
"Absolutely," said the boy.
"I don't like it, but I think you should report this to Dumbledore," Harry said.
"Why don't you like it?" asked the first-year boy.
"I don't trust Dumbledore," said the boy. "Last year, he was involved in the gauntlet to the Stone, and he hired Quirrell, who was possessed by Voldemort."
"Wait, what?" Colin asked, not sure he had heard correctly.
Luna was as serene as ever, quietly drawing a picture.
"Last year, Dumbledore had the Philosopher's Stone stashed on site in the castle, and set up a bunch of obstacles that a first-year student could get through in front of it," explained the Hermetic Mage. "He also hired Quirrell as the Defense professor, even though Quirrell was possessed by Voldemort."
"Who's Voldemort?" Colin asked, confused.
"You-Know-Who, He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named," Luna said.
"You seem awfully calm," the photographer said.
"It is what it is," said Luna with shrugging.
"Isn't she awesome?" Liv asked, and Luna grinned widely, kissing the dragon on the cheek. "See?".
"So, what, you think Dumbledore knew Quirrell was possessed by the dark lord, and he just let him into Hogwarts anyways?" Colin asked, flushing bright red.
"It's possible and probable," Harry said, ignoring the skinship. "Given that, I don't believe he'd do the right thing even if you reported the attack to him, but you don't really have a lot of options."
"I'm going to report it, even if he does nothing," Colin said, steeling himself. "It's the right thing to do."
"Wait!" Liv said, stopping Colin in mid-step. Going over to the boy, the dragon straightened his tousled hair, then kissed him on the forehead. "For luck," she told him, as he blushed an even deeper shade of pink at being so close to a naked female form.
"Th-thanks," stammered the photographer, backing out of the door and closing it behind him.
"What'd you do?" Harry asked.
"If you don't trust Dumbledore, then I don't either," the dragon said. "I replicated the magic of your tattoo and wrapped the effect around his head. It won't last more than a day or two, but while it's there, he'll be safe from having his mind read and his memories manipulated."
"Clever," said the Hermetic mage. "I like it."
"I thought you might."
~ooOoo~
Colin Creevey silently seethed to himself as he walked back to his room. He had believed Dumbledore was a great and just man, but what he had just experienced had brought that illusion crashing down on his head like a tonne of bricks.
He had gone to the headmaster to report what had happened with the best of intentions, but as soon as he had finished relating what he had experienced to the headmaster, he was being told he did not know what he had seen; when he showed the wizard the picture he had taken of the giant snake to prove he was telling the truth, the bespectacled, bearded wizard seized the photograph, tore it to shreds and then doubled down, petulantly accusing the first-year Hufflepuff boy of lying and repeatedly insisting there could be no such thing as a giant snake living at Hogwarts, as Hogwarts was the safest place in the world.
Then, to add insult to injury, the headmaster had threatened to expel him should he continue to lie and make up stories about a giant snake petrifying students.
By the time he left the headmaster's office, Colin Creevey was fuming.
Harry was right; meeting his heroes was disappointing.
But Harry was different. Even if he wasn't the beacon of shining light Colin had expected he would be, the Boy-Who-Lived still proved to be smart and insightful, and though he had wondered why Harry had wanted him to surveil the headmaster when he had first asked, the first-year Hufflepuff now understood why: Dumbledore was not to be trusted with anything.
Still, he didn't want to be expelled from Hogwarts.
Harry would have a plan.
But first, he was going to find that fucking snake and take even more pictures.
~ooOoo~
Back-channeling the story of the incident had been a great idea; by starting a rumor about what had happened and then dropping the photographs Colin had taken the night after meeting Dumbledore in strategic locations, Harry had gotten the entire school abuzz with whispers and speculation, all while keeping his surveillance asset's name out of it.
It had also gotten students asking Colin how he had escaped petrification, and he was more than happy to show inquirers the Ribbon he had worn as that had kept him safe. That was all it took to turn the Ribbon business into a profitable one for Liv, as student after student came to her to acquire one, killing the trade in amulets and talismans all while Liv ended up sitting on a small pile of gold and favors.
She did not, however, receive any visits from any gingers in scarlet and gold.
He later heard through the rumor mill that Dumbledore dismissed the students choosing to wear the Ribbon for protection as a "fad" and concluded, once and for all, that the headmaster was never to be trusted with anything with even an inkling of import.
Author's Notes: I just love Harry never being in the Great Hall for any of the major incidents. It completely fits his character.
Another one bites the dust. You had to see this one coming after the incident in "Prodigy Diligent Asset Friend", with the way Harry tends to deal with obstructions. Flunitrazepam is also known as Rohypnol, and was first discovered in 1962 and first saw medical use in 1974.
Like I said before, everybody's a nerd about something, and in Liv's case, her fascination with video games has very real implications within the story. The fact she still wants to help people, despite being raised mostly by Harry thus far, speaks more to her character than his, even if how she tackles tasks are probably much more in his style; after all, there's no reason she can't make something incredibly protective and also make a few pounds doing it.
In the actual creation of the item, I wanted to include the beginnings of Harry's magic progressing beyond just copying and using only things that already exists, because creating his own elements of magic is the next step in his process. That it works the way it does has something to do with the way magic works in this version of the Harry Potter universe. There's was never any doubt the Ribbon would be very powerful; the paradigm that Harry and Liv operate at is just something completely different than what's already existing by virtue of their ignorance of them.
I wanted to include an in-story way to show the disparity of wealth between the magical world and the normal one; while a Galleon is considered extremely valuable in the magical world, it's cost to a normal person is five pounds according to word of god, which would buy a little more than seven pounds of apples at the time, making it an amount of money most normal people could easily afford for something as powerful as the Ribbon.
It's not that this version of Dumbledore, who is not nearly as clever as he thinks he is, is a bad person; he's just bought into his own hype as well as the hype of Hogwarts, and is now going "La la la la la, I can't hear you!" and sticking his fingers in his ear when shown otherwise. I guess it's veering into Dumbledore bashing? I can't really tell, at this point, but it just feels consistent with how I wrote him in the first book.
Once again, many, many thanks to my long-suffering editor, Romantically Distant, for all their efforts in reading and proofing my writing. And now you've read this chapter, feel free to leave a review or just PM me, and, with the WARS pandemic at large, stay safe.