Chapter 12: Novocaine November

November was another time of the year that Harry adored – it was the birthday of Sirus and Priya, who were only one day apart on the third and fourth of November respectively. But more importantly, Priya would celebrate her birthday on Divali day – the religious festival had coincided directly with the 4th, and preparations were already underway. Sirius in a surprising turn of events had agreed to partake in the festivities, as he was curious to "experience a religion that seemed somewhat pagan, and very connected to the occult and mysticism."

Priya on the other hand continued her practice for her performance – she had promised Harry that she would prank him, and the owner of the small French dance studio was only too happy to facilitate her when she was off the clock from the I.C.U. Soon enough, the young woman apparated to England with the help of her trusty avian friend, and she began digging through all her outfits and other necessities.

When Divali had arrived, Sirius found himself helping Amba around the Singh household with the small errands. On Divali day, unlike last year, the event was now a "family trip" to Priya's favourite Mandir in London. Except for Clementine and her family, the rest of the attendees from Amba's birthday party were now seated, and Harry was looking around for Priya, who had gone missing for the last half hour.

"Where is mum, Grandma?"

"Oh, she will be here soon," Amba answered with a little smile. Suddenly the master of ceremonies on the stage announced:

"And now..…we will have a dance item from a person who hails from London, like many of us who are in attendance tonight. I can remember many years ago when this young woman would dance every year for our program. And then as I like to joke…She went missing for a bit, during secondary school.

But I was happy when she called me earlier in the year and told me that she had never stopped practising. I present to you 'Ai Giri Nandini' performed by none other than our Priya Vedvati Singh who is now a qualified teacher. She is a….."

The master of ceremonies merely provided a quick bio of her educational history and suddenly all the eyebrows that were attached to Harry Potter and his family (except for Priya's parents and Lorna strangely enough) expressed utter surprise as the curtain was rolled back.

Priya had chosen a mostly yellow and red outfit and as the flames from the lamps flicked in the background, she assumed her starting position, and intricately positioned her limbs. As the music played and the ancient drums thundered, she seemed to move around the entire stage almost as if she glided on the air. As she assumed some of the more expressive stances, the pleated front of her outfit fanned out and it gleamed under the stage lights. The jewellery sparkled and glinted through the hall.

She looked like an ancient goddess. Almost as if the Hindu Epics had been brought to life.

Priya on the other hand did not even gaze in the direction of her family. On her face, was a pleasant smile as she was in a devotional trance. As the complicated patterns of the drums were executed, the small bells that were attached to her foot or the traditional Gunghroo filled the entire hall with sharp but clear sounds. One thing was for certain – she had much control of her feet, and they landed every single time with much accuracy. The mark of any classical Indian dancer was their ability to understand the complicated oral system of drumming, and to match every pattern exactly with the right combination of footwork. Her feet - they spoke a language of their own.

And yet while the music was ethereal, the drums almost evoked a feeling of warfare. After all the premise of the song was one where a great demon had been slayed by the female form of the goddess, and Priya communicated this story through her expressions and hands. There was a chill in the air, as she lost herself in the performance.

Priya was aware that she was not truly a master. She had been instructed by a fairly talented dance teacher, who was an immigrant like herself. Now her next step was to visit India, to truly learn under a great Guru who would put her on the way to mastery. While this was a prospective milestone for her, for the onlookers they already believed that she had mastery over the artform.

By the time the dance was finished, the whole hall had given her a standing ovation. Everyone was cheering rather loudly. Harry realised that while his mother had desired to get reacquainted with her traditions, he and Hermione had been…..pranked.

And pranked in a classy way, with a lot of poise.

"Mum can dance? But Grandma, you never told me!" Harry asked, pleasantly surprised and quite proud.

"She sings too, but her voice is a little rusty. I am glad she resumed her public performances." Amba smiled.

"She is amazing! Oh, this is something I will remember for a very long time! That was fantastic!" Hermione replied.


Cyrus, Ophelia, Reginald, Amy, Augusta, Xenophillius and the Weasleys had been invited to the function.

They found the night to be fantastic and somewhat familiar – they were practising Anglo-Saxon Pagans and they found the night echoed within a similar vein of the themes of sacrifice, honouring traditions, honouring the ancestors and celebrating the triumph of good over evil. The ritualism and the lighting of many "deyas" made Cyrus smile. Soon enough the Winter Solstice bonfire would arrive during December at the Greengrass Manor, and he found the practice similar enough. Ved was only too happy to clear up some of the misconceptions after Priya had changed back into something far less elaborate to enjoy the rest of the festivities.

"So Mr Singh, Hinduism is a world religion? Followed by at least one billion? And magicals and non-magicals practice it?"

"Correct. Technically it is a cultural movement. Hindus can choose their ideology – some believe in the deities, and some believe in a singular God. Others follow a style of logic and rationality you would associate with the Greeks. Some are atheists. Some are agnostic. Some are strict with the traditions. Others are flexible. We aren't pagans, but many of the monotheistic faiths consider us as such. I can't say how the magicals follow it, although I want to believe it will be no different from us?"

"Fascinating. In the magical world, we had to deal with colonisation and Witch burnings. That is one of the reasons why Muggleborns are not welcomed particularly in the magical world by Purebloods. The worship of "ése" as we call it, only exists in magical England. The presence of 'Muggleborns' is equated with the presence of interlopers – people who are here to rip the system down. Some of the more extreme families only believe in "Lady Hecate" as the only justification for existence."

"I understand that all too well – our belief system had to survive the same thing. They came for us too. However, as they targeted certain practices, the Hindus managed to preserve much by resorting to oral transmission. Our rituals and art was used to carry and preserve what was broken, looted and burnt down. You will find the pictures of our deities colourful and almost animalistic. That has more to do with preserving the art and less to do with how we philosophically view the world."

Cyrus was now scratching his beard, thoughtfully as Ved continued to speak:

"I believe that all of the world religions will eventually grow out of their fear. I have noticed that the uneducated of any religious faith or society, tend to love fundamentalism.

The absence of the ability to solve complex problems leaves them in denial about their worldview when it is threatened by a foreign idea. I am sure the Death Eaters who were after my two daughters, are not too open-minded either."

"They certainly are not – they are attracted to darkness, but this time they will not harm anyone. Not if your grandson has something to say about it, and I think he had done much already. The extremist purebloods haven't considered that they are exactly what they claim to hate." Cyrus replied.


Remus and Sirius were flitting about the place as they purchased oddities and sweets. They also enjoyed the fireworks that were sent up into the air. Sirius chose to ask Priya many questions, and she was happy to explain the finer points. Harry found this somewhat endearing, as the questions he asked were rather deep. Then it hit Harry –

Sirius had probably thought about a lot of things when he was locked away in his Azkaban cell. Perhaps, he had asked all the questions that a man in despair would ask. The same kind of questions Harry would often ponder in the loneliness of the cupboard.

So, the pain was not forgotten – merely, it had become manageable. Perhaps that was all he could ask, for now. After all of the festivities were completed, Harry's soul felt light and happy.


The trio after seeing the performance and having some food, returned silently to their common rooms via Grace. Ronald, with the silencing activated, continued to talk to his two friends from his top bunk after they all changed and got comfortable.

"Grace is the best, isn't she? We literally slip out of the castle ever so often to go interesting places. I like seeing my family often. Percy should have come, but he is preparing for a test." Ronald mentioned.

"I love the designs – they are so pretty. I want to combine some of those ideas together. I think I am going to paint Harry's mom as a Yuletide gift. I can almost see her on that stage as she danced the night away!" Luna exclaimed.

"Oh, that would be a hard gift to beat. I love the painting you did for me. I think it is great that we got to see culture from elsewhere. The food was damned good. Let us hope next year that Daffy and Trace will join us on our excursion!" replied Nevile.

"It might be nice to get Parv out of the castle too. I think she and Padma would have enjoyed tonight. I think they were not too happy about being at the castle today – they probably miss the festivities." replied Ronald.

"Ah – it makes sense! Padma was easily the grumpiest Ravenclaw ever today. She also did not eat any meat for the two months at the breakfast or lunch or dinner. Probably, they silently observed their festivities. It suddenly makes sense now." Luna pondered.

"You know, maybe we can do something for them – at least with the food. I think they will appreciate that very much." Ronald wondered.

"Ronald and his brilliance strike again. Careful now, the rumour is that Padma already likes you." Luna laughed.

"Excuse me, I have eyes for a single witch. But that doesn't mean I can't be nice to other people" Ronald grinned as they all went to sleep.


Harry and Sirus were now chatting in the shop as they began to take some inventory and get some other small errands sorted.

"Well Sirius, this was your first birthday celebration and our first Divali. Mum had mentioned that she wanted to prank me, but I did not foresee this. I think you would have preferred booze and strippers, but I think seeing the world for a bit and having a new experience was good for you."

"Prongslet, I think that I will keep with this tradition, every year. I felt my magic as it stirred in my soul tonight. No, I think living my life with discipline is worth it - you have been good for me, even though I was supposed to initially take care of you."

Harry raised his eyebrows, as he was quite surprised by that admission. Sirius continued:

"I also like all the colours and the sweets and everything else. I did enjoy the dance item – it feels ancient and I appreciate such things after seeing Dementors for so long. After living in a world of grey and full of despair, the food was delicious. The sweets felt good in my mouth. So many colours too. I felt my senses returning after watching so many black cloaks, for most of my existence. There was so much laughter and happiness." he replied before he hugged Harry.

"I understand. I could remember being fussed over when I started to live with mum. When grandma asked me if I wanted more food, I….had to cry. From not having to experiencing abundance, it is a rough transition. Tonight your senses were satisfied." Harry sadly explained as he understood the situation accurately.

"They were, Prongslet. What I felt tonight feels like it comes from the earth and from times long forgotten. I think I will very much begin to observe the old solstice and pagan practices. I never was interested as a young man, but that must change."

"Yes, I think I will like that very much. My father observed such things – but I have had nobody to guide me. Taking up the faith of my mother, Lilly Potter, was not too hard. I am currently doing the observances for Advent too. I plan for us to have a big Christmas dinner. And I will go to much church and celebrate how my mother used to do it…" Harry explained.

"Cyrus will know. I think his family will be happy to show you the old ways. And I think you can offer him much – he certainly enjoyed all of the performances tonight. Amy and Ophelia, are already plotting to go shopping after what they saw tonight. Women love to dress up, can you blame them?

As for your Church visits on Sunday, I will come along so I can remember your mother. I miss her and James very much. You have much faith in you, and you have touched all of us…" Sirius laughed with tears in his eyes. Harry wiped his eyes before they hugged each other and cried, into the night.

Invictus listened to the conversation and prayed for his family. They would find their way.

"Blessed are the ancestors, and blessed is Lady Magic. Gods, old and new watch over them." Invictus whispered to himself.


Ophelia and Cyrus were now discussing the excursion, as they sat in the kitchen.

"Well husband, I think tonight was rather eye-opening. There is much we don't know."

"Definitely. It was heartening that the ancient ways are still here. I found the little lamps comforting – they reminded me of the solstice bonfire. The traditions are very ancient. But India has been that type of place, even in the days of the Roman Empire, Ophie."

"I loved the performances. Their drums seem rather complex. But Priya's dance tonight? Now I am beginning to consider if the world 'Pureblood' as defined by others makes any sense to a person like her. She honours her ancestors, and she does it well! I would argue within the confines of her own culture she is as pure-blooded as her possible detractors, like Lucius and his little gang. She is far more talented than many! Her style of dance is very demanding!"

"That….is an interesting question Ophie. How can we assume that magic is just western? What if the eastern traditions are just as old? Or most likely, even older? The assumption is that all muggleborn magicals are the same. The word has much complexity. Speaking to her father was enlightening.

He reminds me of Albion very much.

When I have some downtime, I think a systematic investigation into all the various world religions and their histories will be worth it. Perhaps not in full detail, but at least enough to understand more. Let us not get into the habit of painting everyone with the same brush. And it was nice to see the Mundane World. They were forced to improve, and not everything is perfect. But they are…trying. Remind me what we are doing?" Cyrus wondered.

"That is a good question. Oh, I wish Daphne and Tracey could have attended. Reginald and Amy enjoyed tonight very much. Perhaps next year?"

"I think so. Harry has had some success with a personal transporter. He is working on developing an adequate power source. If he figures it out, worldwide travel is not off the table. Such perspectives would be highly enlightening, and I know you love souvenirs."

"But of course! I l would love to expand my collection very much, Husband!"

"It was nice to speak to Neville, Luna and Ronald. Harry and Hermione are good influences on them. Daphne has been updating me on her progress. She and Tracey have been benefiting immensely, even if it is indirectly."

"I think Amy and I have decided on getting some of the traditional wear for ourselves. Something dark green. I do like what Harry picked out for you tonight, he has a good eye for style. You looked very dashing in it!" Ophelia giggled.

"Even as an individual piece, it is good to have. Everybody wears the same robes over and over. It can get boring. Astoria, you had fun?"

"Aunty Priya is so talented! I want to go next year! Ginny and I bought sparklers! I hope Gabrielle will come with us next year too!" the small black-haired girl replied.

"All in good time daughter. Off you go to bed. I suppose you are going to play with Ginny tomorrow?"

"Yes! Harry taught me and Ginny…"

Astoria then grabbed her father's wand out of his pocket and then yelled, "Lumos!" before putting down the wand, and running off to her bedroom, while giggling loudly. Ophelia and Cyrus considered that Harry Potter and Hermione Granger were probably very well suited for being future professors at Hogwarts. It seemed that they were capable of bringing out excellence in people.


The next day, Luna and Neville brought Padma and Parvati to another abandoned wing within Hogwarts, that was only accessible via a broom closet near the astronomy tower. When the girls arrived, they found themselves looking at Ronald who had a strange looking bag.

"Parv and Padma! Happy Divali!" Neville replied.

The two girls were rather shocked. They were only too happy to share in a meal that had come from the kitchen of Amba Singh. Ronald explained that his mother's kitchen was a joint effort with an Indian family, and he was aware of the traditions in passing. Luna chimed in, as she described her inferences from Padma's frown.

"I love fashion Padma! I would not mind combining your traditional clothes with the Hogwarts robes to make something that is all you. I will show you a collection of my ideas. Do any of you dance or sing? Or play an instrument? We saw a performance recently. We have an appreciation for it…." Luna asked.

"We both sing? Now we have confirmed that you three are indeed smarter than the rest of Hogwarts. People do forget that we are Indians and also Hindus you know? We have our own culture, thank you?" Padma replied crossly, before she smiled.

"I get that. The closed-off nature of Wizarding England will eventually cause even more stagnancy. No, we should be talking to everyone, and individuals should travel regularly if they can manage that. I am beginning to wonder what else did Wizarding England miss?

A close friend of mine explained if it wasn't for the majority of Muggles who attended Hogwarts, we would not be speaking modern English?" Ronald replied.

"We appreciate that you understand that. We are bi-lingual. We don't speak English at home so we have to take English classes privately, as we don't live in the Muggle world. My parents did the same thing too. And our lessons happened at Muggle places?" Parvati replied.

"Well, you sound like everyone else here. I would have never expected that to be the case," Neville replied.

There was small talk for the next hour until lunchtime was finished. Padma in particular had a little blush on her face as she spoke to Ronald. Then she noticed that his face was in a far-off place. Ronald Weasley was deeply in love with somebody else. While she was nursing a small crush on the badger, she decided that he would make a good friend - Ronald Weasley was not avaliable.

As the girls looked at the menu, they felt comforted by the name – perhaps they would not have to wait an entire year to eat what made them comfortable. The Indian twins both suspected that someone's grandmother was involved, which was a good indicator of authenticity.


The pair had continued to streamline the muscle weave, as all other research projects were temporarily suspended. After a very tiring two days of immense work, the pair now had four fully actuated muscle weaves that only possessed a few dead spots. Many hours had been spent consulting anatomy textbooks and fidgeting with various positions, lengths and pivot points. Gone were the exoskeleton braces that Harry had used in his first armour design. Hermione with her magic and the assistance of the muscle weave could run approaching 60kph for short periods. She spent an entire twenty minutes grinning, after running around Granger Manor and testing the item.

The other innovation was unusual but necessary. Grace had been given a similar but far smaller "spinal harness" and with enough experimentation, she could trigger invisibility by merely thought. A communicator was tied directly to her ear canal and this would allow people who did not share a magical link with her to contact her.

With the South American mission on the horizon, the pair continued to prepare as they streamlined their armour, reworked the jetpacks, and then added any number of enhancements to their swords, and wrist blades. Now, most of it would be triggered via the new spinal interface. Harry had managed to get his sword to hold a much hotter plasma, with the use of a sapphire gem which acted like a power regulator. Lord Ragnok had provided that tip, wheh he explained that gems were important to Goblins because of their magical properties.

Finally, to address the issue of the broom incident, Hermione already had a rudimentary heads-up display and a heartbeat sensor that acted like a friend and foe system within a twenty metre radius. The HUD was not polished, but three-dimensional waypoints and highlighting were now possible. And, the HUD could track invisible bodies, by combing through suit biosensors and painting a faint outline. The HUD very much resembled a combination of the Halo: 3 and the Crysis 2 HUDs, as they ripped the features from the videogames.

Hermione's skill with wandless illusions was advancing rapidly. Now she was beginning to conjure them, without any trances or a wand. She could also modify them easily.


Some of the products were now live and it was the 8th of November.

The news had spread like wildfire. Hundreds of catalogues went out and there was a mass flash mob in Diagon alley - people were looking for the businesses that were supplying the mystery items. When it became obvious that the business only operated via catalogue, this left many of the wizards and witches utterly confused. The purebloods who had bought into the rumours, believed that the Artificing Guild was not interested in having "Muggleborns contaminate their premises". Molly's kitchenware was being offered by Snakebite Luxuries, while the data slate was now being offered by Viper Vanities.

The real plan was to hook people into the dataslate, as that would act as the central purchasing device. Then the paper based catalogues would be scrapped. Gringotts was getting micro-transactions by ensuring that money could be paid via the device via account keys. People could also have Gringotts load the tablet with money, via verified mail or in-person visits.

Most adult witches by word of mouth had soon bought out the "Vege-master" and the "M.W. cooking set." The elves at Peverell Manor had suspended all the operations and were sending the items to Gringotts via portkey. They would then ship directly to customers, for another included commission.

Many students in Hogwarts purchased the data slates only out of curiosity, and the attached user manual explained the process of utilizing the device. The device also served as a guerrilla marketing campaign as they advertised:

"Live quidditch matches coming soon….stay tuned!"

The ability to access the Quibbler on the device also made for convenient news. Harry had gotten some displaced Muggleborn witches and wizards who were qualified in journalism, and Lorna was now running a team of eight who were writing fair, objective articles, with Xeno's supervision. Harry had also asked Lorna to acquire the pubescent "Witch Weekly" magazine. The alert for the Quibbler was now rebranded with a new slogan:

"Your news, the news that matters….delivered to you! Get instantly updated! For a cheap subscription fee of seven sickles a month!"

By the time the night had arrived, the pandemonium at Hogwarts had started. The fiasco that had followed had left Wizarding England changed. Hogwarts had been upset so greatly that the scheduled Quidditch match in two days, was postponed. The package delivery had caused utter chaos in the Great Hall. People had not shown up to Quidditch practice and class, as they waited for their owls to return.

Harry's rather brilliant decision was simple – technically he was operating at a loss by providing the data slate at the cost of four galleons. However, when the international market bought into the Quidditch broadcasts and other media houses began to utilize his ecosystem, he would break even, easily.

The other aim was to cripple the Daily Prophet. The Ministry of Magic printery division was now wondering how their state-owned newspaper would sell, considering that the Quibbler subscription via the "data slate' was cheaper and it involved no owls. And the ability to instantly put out articles?

The Quibbler had journalists working around the clock.

Xeno was now merely vetting articles, and deciding on how to layout the material – he had observed many muggle magazines and he was quickly taking up modern practices. Gone were multidirectional article headlines, and articles were sectionized. Cartoons, Crosswords and Sudoku were now included along with the newly listed "Classified" advertisements.


Albus Dumbledore had a staff meeting on the 9th of November. Their favourite Ravenclaw muggleborn wizard explained that "magical tablets" had arrived, and that being able to read thousands of books or news "digitally" was no unusual thing.

After destroying at least forty of the artefacts, the group ended up with a set of thin, torn copper sheets and black graphite ink, along with some stripped-out and dismembered magical cores. Saul Croaker had been invited and even he could not begin to understand how the item worked. Septima and Babbing found themselves scratching their head as they could not see any sensible runes or arithmancy, except for random symbols that did absolutely nothing. The group had a looked at all the other products and their "muggle" expert had no idea as to how the devices had been developed. With no screw holes and other defining features, it boggled the young man's mind.

"Albus, is it him again? With this artefact, students can purchase books! This artefact will lighten trunks. Bookmarks? Notes? Word Search? And he got many well-known authors on board. Even I am getting to purchase some lesser known titles that I could never find for many years!" Professor McGonagall explained.

Professor Flitwick then chimed in, "I am curious to see how how the Quidditch works? I want to believe it will be like the television that I own. Many people will be able to watch matches from afar. Albus, the Quidditch World Cup could change! And Xeno's Quibbler seems to be far different. There are no conspiracy theories anymore!"

"Xeno had explained that Wizards expect a newspaper to have a certain number of pages to feel official. The Daily Prophet has had people like Skeeter publish whatever they wanted as long as the articles were long. Now it seems like the opposite is fashionable." Albus commented.

"Whoever they are, they are very talented!" Fillius interjected.

"The products are excellent, no doubt. Once again, I am concerned. I wanted to believe that the Storm Lord produced the items, but I am hearing new rumours about an Artificing Guild that recently returned to England. We have an entire group of wizards with powerful abilities, and they are all offering fantastic things. They are secretive, and I have not been able to find out anything more.

All I know is that the Storm-Lord and Storm-Priestess had a disagreement and they were forced to leave the guild. They are being hunted down. Now I wonder if Magical England is caught up in something far greater. The catalogues in my possession seem to indicate that it is a pureblood owned set of businesses"

"Why so, Albus," McGonagall asked.

"Snakebite Luxuries and Viper Vanities. What do you think these names silently suggest? The situation has become more complicated. I will find out more from my informants…" Albus suggested.


"Well Harry, he bought the story once again. Hook, line and sinker." Hermione commented as she listened in on the conversation.

"Good. Let us see what Malfoy senior and his little gang of angsty men will do, as they will assume that the businesses are owned by purebloods. House Slytherin might buy the robes, ha! I provided easy colour options quite deliberately.

"Harry of course they will buy it – anything with a snake, and they will blindly support us. Wait…what…..Harry, there are intruders at Grimmauld Place, an alarm just went off."

"Padfoot bet me a tenner they would send assassins. Why don't we deploy an apparition disruptor and take the new armour for a spin? First mini-mission with the muscle weave? " Harry suggested.

Harry and Hermione slipped into the new muscle weave suit, and then the runic array transfigured the slit into a continuous join. Then, the muscle weave contracted and synced up to their spinal cords. The new armour plates were magnetically clipped on before the superconducting fields locked them to the firmly embedded studs. Now the entire time to armour up, after stripping down to their Speedo Fatskin bodysuits, was only two minutes.