Chapter 14: But I just want some…Thrust!
For the next two weeks, after the humiliating defeat of Slytherin house, the snakes had become rather quiet. Daphne and Tracey continued to push ahead by scoring points. With Horace Slughorn presiding over the weekly Triumvirate meetings, the darker houses had become rather reserved and even cautious. With Severus Snape now gone, they did not openly exercise their "noble rights."
"The Wizarding World is surely losing its prestige," Pansy complained, one evening.
"Slughorn is a muggle sell-out!" Draco replied.
"I do hope that we imprison the criminals who murdered Lord Goyle and Lord Crabbe! Don't worry, they will be brought to justice!" Pansy explained as she sat on Draco's lap, and played with his hair.
Malfoy had nodded emphatically and had already forgotten the troll incident already. He was a little boy, and his identity revolved around the power of his father. He did not consider the long term implications of what had occurred. Draco had been so fixated on himself, that he did not evaluate the armour, their magical skills, or anything else. Many of his friends, also trusted Lucius to fix everything. Lucius Magic-Man could always pass the galleons, after all. Blaise had heard the rumours and was surprised that Draco was so dense. He seemed to live in a fantasy land. But then, he was spoilt and supposedly the richest person in Magical England. Blaise reasoned that Draco's behaviour was to be expected.
"Father says that the criminals are renegades. The Artificing Guild is looking for their heads. They will be punished by their authorities. We must hope that those upstanding wizards will honour their word. Look Pans, these artefacts are amazing – they are Purebloods, so their ability to do magic is better than the hooligans!" Draco yelled in the common room.
Gregory and Vincent had arrived in the common room.
"Well, did you find them? Did you punish them?" Draco asked.
"I swear, is like dey are ghosts or sumting. I can neva find dem!" Vincent complained.
"Can you two do anything right? Three traitors to punish. How hard can it be to find them? They share the same castle with us!" Draco screamed, in frustration.
"Er boss, maybe dey spend time indeir comon room an' hardly eva leeve?" Gregory suggested, almost as if that entire sentence had been mentally taxing in its construction.
"Lungbuttum! Luvguud! and the Weasel! I am going to hex all of them one day! And my father is going to run them to the ground! Some things, you have to do yourself!" Draco complained.
Harry had chucked as Invictus had played back the recording later that day.
"Oh, my young grasshopper, if you only knew. You are being strung along. I am the puppet master, and you are all my puppets on the stage…" Harry whispered to himself.
The trio if they were ever confronted, were a rather dangerous group of duellists. Their practice spanned at least three hours, and it was a daily affair. While the other first years were having fun, they were toiling. And everyone knew – Ronald, Luna and Neville never played Gobstones, Exploding Snap or anything else. They were also dead quiet unless they were asked a question. Nor was there any attempt to interfere and comment on the affairs or ideas of others. This had always been deliberate – they were crafting an identity that was non-intrusive to others. Many of the others even called them….quiet.
Quiet and Dangerous. They were preparing.
Of course, they were not alone. The daily practice would begin with Neville and Luna drilling Daphne and Tracey. They were not accustomed to high-intensity casting and found themselves sweating beads of perspiration as they attempted to shield. Daphne got familiar with the taste of Gatorade quickly. Tracy on the other hand was going through a phase of discovery – somehow she liked when her body was physically stressed out. Occasionally, they would execute correctly on the combat skills, and this was enough of an achievement. Most of the other times, they were regularly knocked out.
"Ouch!" Daphne complained as Neville helped her up, from the mattress.
"How many times were you knocked out, when you were learning?" Daphne asked as she hoped to probe Neville. He had not noticed the implied evening.
"Sometimes a hundred times a day. My magic teacher is experienced. His style of training is brutal. I had to learn quickly under pressure."
Daphne and Tracey nodded – this implied that the trio was being trained for some long term reason. Neville and Luna were only too happy to help them with charms, and Ronald began to share a good relationship with the Ice-princess. Both of them were talented at potions, and Daphne soon confirmed privately to herself, that the Storm-Priestess had taught Ronald enough of her personal tricks. Ronald even had a private stash of "muggle compounds" and he often used them to do impossible things. Daphne was soon using a lot of these methods, as she realised that perhaps her mother had a similar story. Lilly knew Muggle Chemistry and she had told Opelia about the source of her inspiration. As the pair of snakes listened on, she realised that their knowledge of the muggle world or the mundane world as they called it, was deep. And they even seemed fairly educated in some of the subject areas too. They were multi-specialist types and Daphne and Tracey often wondered what were the talents of their….teachers.
Soon enough the snakes were leading the year in Defense against the Dark Arts after the trio, and Professor Quirell even seemed pleased. He would often call Daphne and Tracey forward to sometimes demonstrate spells. Some of the more observant students saw the smirk on Neville's face.
"Hey Susan? Did you notice it today?" Ernie asked.
"Yes. The trio know the Slytherins. They are good friends?" Susan speculated.
"A lion and a snake friends?" Hannah asked.
"Daphne and Tracey are neutrals. And they even saved people, remember?" Wayne suggested.
"Makes sense? They don't hang around Dragon Dung Draco. My father always said Lord Greengrass was a very reasonable man?" Ernie wondered as Ronald appeared out of nowhere, and it seemed he was sweating bullets.
After the snakes left their evening practice, was when the real training of the trio usually began. Harry had given the trio combat drones that would allow them to investigate anything they desired from the comfort of their common rooms. Of course, the drones could belt stunners at far faster rates. All of them had suffered a fair number of knockouts during their training practice. And while they certainly looked dishevelled after their workout, nobody was any wiser about their activities, as they walked about the castle.
So how did they manage to slip under everybody's observation?
Harry had decided that they (the trio and Percy) were responsible enough. They were now carrying shielding devices and invisibility bracelets. Their excursions were done under full shields and invisibility. Vincent and Crabbe had a hard time finding them, as the trio would often walk past them, many times in the corridors. Some days they would stun them, just to annoy them. The Malfoy henchmen began to fear walking about the castle. Now the final part of the puzzle for the trio, was for Daphne and Tracey to join their little gang as full members of "the Supreme Leader's squad."
One evening, Daphne had to deal with an older third Slytherin year attempting to touch her inappropriately. She had put the older boy in a body bind curse, followed by a quick stun. Finally, for emphasis, she froze his crotch with a freezing charm, after completely soaking his robes in water. The entire sell chain had happened in under one second and while it was verbal, the wand movements were buttery smooth and the spells were just whispered. Even some of the seventh-years did not have that capability.
"If any of you want to be on the end of my wand, try your luck. My father will be having a word with Lord Stebbins. You will find that I am not one to trifle with, and nor is my friend Tracey. This is what real ambition looks like?" Daphne yelled in the common room, as she openly displayed her magical prowess.
Many of the Slytherins gulped, as they realise that the soft-spoken and articulate girl was talented with her wand, and Draco began to realise that Greengrass was not to be unduly harassed. Pansy was now thinking twice about bullying her – she would have the upper hand.
Cyrus, Reginald and Arthur were running the main Peverell and Granger Operations, while the duo was now attempting to rectify the previous issue of being unable to monitor Hogwarts, completely. All the research projects were suspended as Harry and Hermione systematically tagged every room with proximity sensors and microphone stickers. In hidden recesses, the pair deployed pinhole cameras during the nighttime. Fred and George had attempted to patrol the same places and found nothing. The pair wondered how the twins seemed to be able to find them, and many nights Harry and Hermione often enjoyed pranking Fred and George. Harry had even left a rubber ducky for the twins in the middle of one of the corridors as a joke.
"Gred, they know we are on to them!"
"Forge you recon it is our gracious employers? Who else has rubber duckies?"
"A lot of people. But we can ask them for Yuletide. Percy knows the whole deal. I guess we will wait."
The twins wondered if their prospective investors were perhaps the people who had handed the trolls about two weeks ago. The rumours had spread through the student population, particularly through house Hufflepuff. One thing was for sure – the Marauder map had been useful in helping them ascertain some useful guesses.
Harry and Hermione were building a portable drum kit for Tracey Davis. This was being done as a project to relax – something fun that was more of a gag item. Harry had ensured that the surface of the drum was flexible and easy to play. It involved shaping rubber, and the material was challenging to manipulate with his House Magic. Hermione worked into the evening to develop runic variables and structures to specify frequencies, manipulate amplitude, and quantify pressure sensitivity via feedback loops. When they were finished they had a facsimile of an electrical drumkit, where the sound came through a headphone or a standard speaker, and the response of the sticks on the surfaces felt natural. Any number of pads could be configured for different sounds. They had even exported a lot of different software drum kit sounds for Tracey's experimentation.
"You know, these sensitivity feedback runes…could we use these to quantify the spinal feedback," Harry asked.
"Why don't we try to interface it into the weave?" Hermione wondered.
As usual, it seemed that projects from everywhere found their way back into their cutting edge weapon applications. As Harry had always believed, one received when one chose to give freely. Now they could control the neural feedback of the muscle weave. Developing the Drum Kit as a joke had opened up an entirely new and important enhancement for their armour. The pair began to discuss the South American mission, and the reactor development after they packaged the drumkit into a box. Tracey now had her gift.
"Harry, I was thinking about the crystal power regulator you recently designed for your sword. Glaucon had used gems to store power if I remember correctly?"
"Correct, but they don't store much, Mione?"
"Well, maybe they need modification. What if you could implement the nanotube energy capacity structure from the powercell within the gem material? Gems seem to be a sort of a magical catalyst more than an energy storage medium. We should take all the help that we are getting though?"
Harry's eyes opened quite wide as he gave it some thought before he replied.
"That…That is brilliant Mione! It should not be harder than graphene production. As long as I can do a small piece accurately we will use emitters to do the rest if we store the magic. What about an insulator?"
"Well, you could try mixing another nano-material into the matrix. How about Boron Nitride nanotubes sandwiched between traditional carbon nanotubes? Can you remember that nice piece of industrial ruby you had put away? Why don't we try to use that? It has been languishing in that box over there?" Hermione joked.
When Sirius and Remus had checked in on the duo and they saw them totally oblivious to everything, they decided not to intervene. Sirius would only show up with food, coffee and tea. He however smiled, as he understood that they were on the edge of another breakthrough. Remus did not bother to run any of the CNC machines in the workshop, and only the sound of Evergrey's 2008 album, Torn, could be heard on repeat. The pair became so engrossed in the development of their new ideas, that they disappeared for almost one week. For everyone who was accustomed to hearing from them, it was unusual. Even Ginny and Astoria had been told not to disturb them if they entered the workshop to get anything.
"What is that big spiky thing, Ginny?" Astoria asked.
"Looks important. Maybe it might be a nuclear warhead?" Ginny replied.
"Is that the one that can blow up a big part of the planet?" Astoria asked.
"Think so. Well, if they fail, we will…know?" Ginny replied and there was giggling in the workshop. Harry who had heard the whispers told Hermione, "You know, they aren't too far off, right?"
"They are the best kind of company, around this place!" Hermione smiled, as they continued with their new, outlandish project. They were playing with fission reactions, after all.
On the fifth of December, Remus and Sirius walked into the workshop. In a particular corner, was a table-sized device attached to a complex set of runic arrays. The energy field looked like an adapted protego, that was encircled by a collection of titanium and copper plates with haphazard wiring. In the field were a set of strange spikes, and the orange-reddish FiendFyre seemed to be swirling around lazily.
"Well….let us power it up and see what happens? The pilot reaction looks good and stable." Harry suggested as he rubbed his hand. He instructed Hermione on what settings to input, and both of them looked on with laser goggles. The orange energy became violet and suddenly a humming was heard. For the onlookers, it seemed like power was being siphoned off to charge an entire array of cylindrical red looking glass items.
As both men continued to examine the Frankenstein apparatus over the next twenty minutes, suddenly an alarm went off. A massive chill was felt as the entire apparatus seemed to instantly freeze and create a thick layer of ice. Now the red cylindrical gems were glowing eerily. The entire apparatus made the workshop look like some type of mad-scientist lair. The pair gave each other a cantankerous high five, as they walked over to the couch and collapsed. Sirius had a look at the glowing bits and then came over to check in on both of them – it was clear that they had hardly slept at all.
"Need anything Prongslet and Teethsie?" asked Sirius.
"Just something to eat thanks?" Harry replied, in a voice that Sirius had never heard. Harry was extremely tired. Hermione looked like she could barely talk. Sirius made a call, and Grace bought some containers of food for them. They ate quietly, and Sirius casually checked in on the inventory for all the Weasley products. After eating, both of them were sound asleep within fifteen minutes. Remus had to cover both of them with blankets. Sirius was not sure what they had built, and he decided that he would find out soon enough.
When Harry awoke the next morning, he soon roused Hermione as they went off to shower and get themselves ready to visit Gringotts. As they ate breakfast in the workshop, Sirius who had stopped by, enquired, "You guys alright?"
"Yes. Linking our minds to do work, has a high energy cost. It is mentally exhausting. And I am getting better at the skill. It is like a muscle you have to exercise. But we did manage to make something….amazing.."
"And what did you build? This one looks very complex?" asked Remus who came over and helped himself to some toast and beans.
"Just as the B.M.P – the Big Mama Powercell was the cornerstone of our entire set of inventions that broke Sirius out of Azkaban, we invented a new power storage device. We are using crystals now. Synthetic ruby. The glowy bits, over there. I guess we can call them Power Crystals."
"How much improvement did you get?" asked Remus.
"For the proportionate size, about sixty five times the capacity of our biggest cells, if the indicator is correct," Hermione replied. Sirius whistled, and Remus was curious as to how they were charging such large power sources. He then asked, "What is the other thing and how does it work?"
"It is a magical fission reactor," Hermione replied. Remus who was quite knowledgeable as the resident bibliophile after the pair, was utterly surprised. Harry explained:
"Well….maybe I am not sure if it is a reactor.
What we have is an apparatus where we can control the FiendFyre decomposition reaction and we can siphon off the magical energy. We start with a stable Fiendfyre reaction. We use Hydrogen as a fuel and we figured out that rotating the plasma keeps it contained and makes it safer to work with higher energies. We were….inspired by the Stellarator and Tokamak projects.
We make the atoms collide with each other artificially. This creates a hyperactive FiendFyre, and it generates a lot more power. I guess it is like enriching the standard Fiendfyre. The more saturated the reaction, the more energy it produces. As the reaction occurs, we begin to conduct the excess energy away into the crystals. As we draw off the magical charge, the reaction slows. The magical energy that would cause the reaction to uncontrollable and explosive is being siphoned off via a vacuum diode."
"Ah, I understand. Arrest the reaction, take the excess energy, and put it in your new power cells. Can you do this continuously?" Remus asked.
"No the reaction eventually saturates. Some of the atomic particles that are being used don't exist in the standard model. But we know how to get what we need from the reaction, even though we don't understand it properly. And we want the magical power." Hermione replied.
"That is fascinating!" Remus replied.
"There is some indication that some of the Pureblood rhetoric might be partially correct. Magic seems to be present in all items as a fundamental force of the universe. That implies we are dealing with High-Energy physics. As we run this reaction, we are just harvesting some of the magical energy from breaking down high-energy plasma into some type of sub-atomic soup. The Tau particles I can barely visualise, but they pop up ever so often. We can control those and keep them contained with the superconductors. They are also quite heavy. I have no idea why they hang around for quite a while, as they don't seem to decompose quickly…"
Sirius was now confused, but Remus understood most of it – Harry and Hermione were playing with magically created super heavy electrons. And as they had an electrical charge, standard scientific methodologies would apply, in terms of controlling their behaviour.
"What about the ice?" asked Sirius, as he found the sudden freezing over of the system to be curious.
"Eventually the rate at which the energy is being produced surpasses the ability of the powercell to absorb energy. Remember the crystals have to store what energy is being provided to them. It requires less and less energy to top off the crystals, as they are filled up. And if we can't absorb the energy quickly enough, what do think is next?" Harry asked.
"The FiendFyre will become unstable because it is self-sustaining? Then a lethal explosion?" asked Remus.
"Correct. As soon as it gets unstable, we arrest the entire reaction by flooding the chamber with something that appears to be the magical version of Bose-Einstein condensate. We managed to invert the properties of the Fiendfyre with a runic array, to create a spell that can instantly cancel all the energy present in the area."
"So, a freeze ray?" asked Sirius.
"Exactly that, but it is more like a bomb. Although, thanks for the idea. I think we can add it to the gun if we condense it to a beam." Hermione commented as she made a little scribble on her notepad.
"Are you going to power the teleporter with the new power crystal? I do happen to know that it requires a lot of energy?" asked Remus
"Yes. We are going to buy large pieces of industrial ruby and we will make an entirely new set of power cells, that will be backwards compatible with existing stuff. The next development will be to control a much larger reaction and sustain it for as long as possible. With enough magical power, synthetic emitter cores and the correct power control structures? We could have our reactor for our battleship." Harry answered.
"I see you are dressed. Heading out to?" asked Sirius.
"Gringotts. We are going to ask them to do a rush project because we can power the thing now. And we will deliver a couple of the new power crystals. I am sure they will find something interesting to do with them?" Hermione suggested.
When Bloodaxe had answered his phone, he could hear the excitement in the boy's voice - he had discovered something. He prepared himself accordingly before the infamous phoenix dropped the two teenage looking children into the Potter lobby.
"Hello Harry and Hermione. I know that look. What did both of you do now?" asked Bloodaxe as he ate the ice cream that Harry had given him.
"I have something rather experimental again. Will I be able to speak to King Ragnok and Timilf? I think he left his phone unattended." Harry replied.
"I believe so. They are in the forge caves? Let us go." Bloodaxe replied.
Fifteen minutes later, King Ragnok was surprised but happy to see the young man. The king considered the boy and his sister to be friends of the Goblin nation, and they had dropped the formalities. And he also observed that they had a case in their hands. That meant that they had built something.
"Ah, Harry and Hermione, how are you?" the King asked.
"As you can see we are grinning. We are here to commission an emergency piece of work, but we also come bearing gifts."
"Oh? Tell me what you have wrought" King Ragnok asked. Harry then opened the case and handed King Ragnok one of the many Ruby power crystals he had modified. As soon as King Ragnok touched the crystal, he immediately knew that this was an upgraded power source.
"Gobblydook's nose, this is a huge improvement. You, call the Wardmistress!" the King commanded a nearby goblin. "You always seem to do your best around Yuletide?" King Ragnok continued.
"Maybe? I took your advice and Hermione convinced me to modify the crystal structure to do energy storage. Then I built a primitive but okay functioning FiendFyre reactor to charge the devices. It needs a lot of refinement, but this beauty here is sixty five of the previous big power cells. The new system does not deplete magic from the environment."
"Will our power systems be able to take this upgrade?" asked the King.
"Sure. Direct swap. I will have to charge them for now as the reactor isn't stable – but you will be getting your own reactor soon. Forcefields for everyone!" Harry explained as he laughed.
"I take it that these innovations are towards building the M.E.F Lilly Potter?" asked Bloodaxe.
"Correct, but that will require untold amounts of power. For now, we have enough power to at least build a smaller form of transport. I had managed to shape the mould beforehand, and I abandoned the project. But after building this power source, I want to eat my cake and have it for Christmas, and I am willing to pay."
"Timilf, give him whatever he needs. Put everyone to work in the forge caves, we can resume operations when the surplus weapons are sold. No bill Harry. I want my own, whatever you are building?" King Ragnok replied before he left. Hermione and Harry had grinned, and the Goblin king had ascertained that it had to be something outlandish.
He considered that some of the miners could use a little rest. The forge cave would be busy and the mining teams could take a break. King Ragnok reasoned that Gringotts England would get ahead by investing in manufacturing innovations. Harry and Hermione seemed to be on a creative spree – better for their ideas to get out of his head.
As the forge Goblins prepared themselves, Harry then took out a runic array that he and Hermione had developed to store three dimensional shapes. Suddenly a complicated Protego field flared into existence, as it provided the shape of a full-sized negative mould for a Starfury Thunderbolt. Better yet, the shape had been optimised with generative design and topology optimisation. The structures on the outside seemed to look average until you carefully examined the internal shapes – they were free-flowing and full of organic structures and spars. The shape had been optimised to ensure maximum strength and minimal material usage. Harry in preparation for the rush project had even doubled the engine size. With the new power crystals, he would have enough power to run absurdly larger compressors.
As Harry, Hermione and the Goblins worked for the next four days, many of the other innovations that were experimental were enhanced by the Goblins. They often offered their massive experience with manipulating magic. The ridiculous power storage of the power crystal also allowed standard magical materials to behave in a far more enhanced manner. Harry redesigned many of the mould pieces, as the ideas came to him. The plasma torches were used liberally as Timilf demonstrated her welding expertise. Harry had finally gotten some of the classes that had been promised, as he had been too busy to execute everything he usually planned.
Air superiority was coming to Magical England.
The others were aware that Harry and Hermione had disappeared again. They merely continued with their lives. Harry had left instructions before visiting Gringotts and Remus and Sirius were busy enough. Molly and Amba were preparing for a public launch of the kitchen. On December the 20th, the day of the South American operation, the Weasley-Singh kitchen would open to the public.
The Weasley residence was now hosting a solid graphcrete structure that had been built in the same style as the wooden Weasley house. However base floor was at least three times bigger and the building was much taller, with a total of fifteen floors. The impressive structure was made of seven hundred and fifty millimetre thick walls and was solid. Harry had insisted on extensive steelwork and the main steel structure was made out of impressive I-beams and extensive amounts of corrugated steel. There were no bricks – only cold hard unforgiving concrete. The place could easily survive an apocalypse, and that was deliberate.
The Protego formwork had been easy to use, and Harry had modified some concrete ransoms for the French Civil experts many months ago. It was quite easy to handle a single floor at a time after the initial steel structure was built. The construction team would stay on an open floor, summon the protego based formwork empty the concrete Ransomes. Now the shield spell would support the concrete as it dried. The structure hardened within a couple of days because of the concrete additive and the magic that was emitted by the new power crystals. Then, it was a case of wash, rinse and repeat as the team worked from the previous floor to construct the next level.
The entire structure had been done in less than a week.
Now, Harry's favourite group of contractors were outfitting the structure with paint, tiles and other amenities. There were also a lot of stainless steel windows, plumbing and electricity conduit being installed. Against the verdant green fields, the all-black structure looked like a fortress. The only house that was remotely nearby was the Lovegoods and they were scheduled to receive a modern flat next year.
Magical England was not even aware of the massive construction projects taking place at the burrow. And soon everything would be under an invisibility field.
As Arthur had rummaged around the Weasley vault with Bill, they had found an ancient Weasley warding topaz that had been liberated from one of the older Weasley manors, many centuries ago. Harry was too happy to hear this, as the Goblins had offered to rework the warding gem with a combination of the latest rune schemas that Hermione had developed, along with their enhanced wards. Finally, Harry insisted that a small "shuttle pad" be installed at the tip top of the Weasley residence.
"Well Mr François, this was rather quick?" Arthur commented as he observed the mostly liveable vertical mansion.
"I was concerned when Clementine had asked me to take oaths. Of course, our company has benefitted from Mr Preverell's expertise. This magical concrete additive along with the shielded formworks allows us to erect the buildings overnight. Grace has been quite handy too, as she can transport I-beams and other materials easily."
"Yes, we only met him recently. Grace is fantastic for deliveries."
"The Concrete randsoms are also quite useful. We use multiple mixers to mix large amounts of concrete. Mr Peverell has asked us to distribute the additive, and Europe is rushing in to buy it. Our business has been making record profits! I suppose he doesn't have time to run everything, which is why he delegated us to handle this?"
"I understand that all too well. He looks after the people he considers his family, and his immediate associates. Our world changed overnight." Arthur commented.
"The Good Lord bless him. My child lost her lower right arm in an accident many years ago. He and Ms Granger called me over to their lab yesterday. They are hoping to build a prosthetic for her. They have figured out the muscles. They hope to have something completed in the next couple of months, and I am excited! I don't think anyone has even tried to do what they are doing. They seem to love the challenge?"
"They have brought a lot of smiles to many. I do hope things work out for your daughter."
"I hope so too, Mr Weasley. I was told that your house must be sturdy to survive a war. I think we will not disappoint. This is one of the strongest and lightest concrete mixtures in the entire world. This will do fine for an apocalypse grade house. The strength is 200N/mm2 which is eight times harder than the C40 mixture that Wizards rarely ever use."
"I am aware Mr François. I have been reading much lately. Harry and Hermione are just…..brilliantly mad. They even did the elevators as a joke. I liked the elevator at the Ministry and once Harry and Hermione heard, well…"
"Yes, Mr Weasley they enjoy their pranks very much. I do enjoy them too. This concrete is so strong that it takes hundreds of Bombardas to crack it. The additive soaks up magical energy and only becomes stronger, the more you cast spells at it. When we discovered that, we all laughed!"
"As Harry often says, serendipity is a beautiful thing." Arthur Weasley replied as he looked on.
The Weasleys were back.
Sirius had been assigned other projects as the pair worked away in the caves – he had also spent time outfitting the Greengrass and Davis households with emitter illumination and some choice muggle appliances. Even Cyrus had gotten in on some of Remus' tool action. Sirius seemed to be good with any type of plumbing, and he liked it, very much. It was strangely therapeutic for him.
Between him and Remus, both houses now possessed a magically shielded solar powered system. Harry also had any number of diesel generators and other backups. Harry had been exhaustive about his options and was talented with wires. Between Cyrus and Reginald, Tracey and Daphne were now sporting all the latest luxuries which included shielded televisions, computers and many other muggle appliances. Grace who could carry up to 1,000 pounds within England had made transportation easy, as long as the devices were properly protected and shielded.
Ophelia and Amy had any number of premium grocery items stocked in freezers and refrigerators. Now supermarket purchases with the ATM card were normality. Amy and Opelia liked the trendy clothes of the muggle world and Cyrus had been caught staring at her.
"I guess I am looking….different? I can't wear robes in public sweetie, but I look chic, and I like it?" Ophelia joked.
"No complaints from me. You look good in it! It…..ahem….flatters your figure…very well." Cyrus smiled.
"If you like staring at my behind, fine by me husband?" Ophelia teased, as she stuck out her tongue like a seventh year student.
Ophelia found herself sometimes experimenting and looking at the MasterChef series, as Amy explained competitive cooking and the advent of "foodie culture". Gordon Ramsey became the most severe man the world had ever seen according to Ophelia, and he provided hours of laughter for the pair of women.
"THE FUCKING BASS IS F*ING RAW!"
Most of the assembled people had quite the laugh that night.
The ability to combine supermarket products along with the hydroponic revamp of the Greengrass and Davis Greenhouse had put many new options on the table. The women found it convenient that they could store away poultry, seafood, and other cuts of meat for long periods. Ophelia loved her kitchen aid, as she wondered how she had ever managed without one. Cyrus and Reginald often found that dinners were exciting, as they slowly got exposed to other modern things. And of course, beer and cider by the can became easily available. Cyrus had a love affair with Guinness.
For the others, it would a fantastic Yuletide. As for Harry, he understood that his Christmas was going to be bloody. As he worked away and used his knowledge to manufacture his parts, he knew that his hands would be red soon as the 20th of December approached.
And Hermione? She would not accept being absent
William and Jean Granger had taken a holiday from the dental clinic. Now they were acquainted with the new additions to Harry Potter's circle. Cyrus and Reginald realised that behind William's polite easy going behaviour, he was highly trained. His recollection of his missions had been harrowing. To the magicals, he seemed to make Aurors look like children. Remus and Sirius had joined the nightly sessions ever so often, where they all practised targeting with their rifles. Then afterwards was beer and sometimes barbecue, if Sirius was in the mood. Jean had spent many nights night talking about her experience as a "Muggle" who had a "Magical Genuis" for a daughter with the other women, as they cracked open a couple of different wines from the Peverell vineyard.
"Harry has been quiet as of lately. It is concerning that a fragment of the Dark Lord is roaming the school, as a part of a teacher's head and Dumbledore isn't even aware!" Ophelia wondered.
"Oh Ophelia, I think Dumbledore knows all too well. It is a game of if he can bait Moldy into a trap. He is probably weak and will not engage any student directly. Of much bigger concern is what they are building. A couple of days well, they have been down in that cave?" Jean replied.
"I take it you were aware of many of their initial discoveries?" Amy asked.
"I was, and many days were like this. Harry got started with producing Graphene. And he used to sell the material to Universities. Hermione started to buy takeout from everywhere. I honestly thought she was doing drugs until we showed up at Harry's null box, and found them genuinely producing lab-grade materials. William, a person who had never seen the magical world before had to walk into Gringotts with entire hardshell cases of loose bills. And they were making tens of thousands of pounds."
"That was probably a pleasant surprise?" Amy asked.
"It was until the experiments became far more dangerous. Hermione would just disappear for days on end and show up with gashes, cuts and sometimes acid burns. That was until the development of the Medi-Spray. Of course, now her potion fixes her skin all too well, so she and Harry look flawless. Harry often says if he isn't bleeding, he has done something right?" Jean explained.
"Do they get injured regularly? But they seem perfectly fine?" Ophelia asked.
"I don't know if it is because of their accelerated magical development and the exercise, but they have very high pain tolerances and they heal quickly. I also think they practice the Mind Arts regularly. I don't know if they can suppress pain, deliberately. How dangerous is FiendFyre? I understand it is a truly dangerous spell?" Jean asked.
"It was said that only the Dark Lord and only his faithful could summon it. You can imagine how surprised I was when I saw how Harry seems to casually incinerate things with it?" Amy explained.
"Hermione shared a memory with me – I have enough magic in my blood as a near squib to use a Pensieve. I can remember watching Harry deciding to crash into a concrete wall with his shielding array. Trust men to do dangerous things….all of them! They think they are indestructible. My husband downstairs is guilty. And Harry is also guilty…" Jean laughed.
"Ah…Cyrus was exactly like that as a young man. I think as young women we were attracted to that sort of thing. Our husbands might not admit it, but they all love the guns Harry made for them. My husband practices with the pistol quite regularly. He loves shooting glass bottles like a child!" Ophelia laughed.
"As the expression goes in our world, boys and their toys!" Jean replied and the other two women giggled.
"Both of them are awfully ambitious aren't they?" Ophelia joked.
"Hermione was always gifted, but lonely. She even begged me to have another child, and I was considering it. When she met Harry and her magic checked out, well that was it. Hermione will follow Harry to the end of the world if she must, no questions asked. Harry honestly became our son too, soon enough. And Hermione considers the Singhs her grandparents. Lorna is Hermione's favourite aunt and Priya is mom number two. I guess we all share them up?" Jean explained.
"Priya did tell me about the night of her kidnapping. I am happy that she is safe. But what they were required to do….it broke my heart." Ophelia explained.
"I know. My husband said it was the hardest day of his life. He asked his child to…..take a life. To kill. But we didn't see any other way to assure their safety. And Harry? Oh, he wasn't taking that lying down. But somehow we recognised that this was Hermione's world and because the magical world is different, it has its intrigue."
"I would say your children are outplaying everyone, and it is hilarious. I gave Harry every memory that I could summon of Lilly from my head. I know he watches them a lot. I miss my friend."
"I know. His parents Lilly and James are sacred to him. My child was never religious. But if Harry was praying and he was vulnerable? As long as Hermione was there and standing at his side? Nobody could dream to touch him, if he was on his knees and his hands were folded." Jean replied.
The StarFury Thunderbolt was now finished - or at least the Mark I version of it. As the entire group beheld the creation, there was much satisfaction. Harry who was rather excited had hugged everyone in the cave.
"This is the most complex thing I have ever built! That all of us have built! It is a masterpiece! " Timilf exclaimed proudly.
"Oh, I have been dreaming about this for such a long time. Well time to see how it flies?" Harry replied as he rubbed his thumbs against his forefingers in excitement and mild panic.
Hermione entered the ramp and sat down. As she powered up the aircraft, she began to prime the engines. She opened the bottom vents and the turbine roared off in the distance, as the air became warm in the cave. Now the Thunderbolt had tilted its engines and the various ported vents on the pylons were now open. As the craft easily lifted off the ground, Hermione retracted the landing gear. Hermione then toggled the multidirectional thrusters as she tested the hovering and the ability of the craft to reposition without drifting – everything checked out. As everyone clapped, Harry passed around and examined the entire thing, as it levitated under its own power.
There was a little tear in his eye.
Their Starfury had some custom modifications that were far different to its counterpart in the famed Babylon 5 television show. As the construction progressed, the superconductors entered some type of Hyper Quantum Locking state under the increased magical power supply. Even more curious, was that magical power transmission occurred across the hyper-conducting gaps. Now the tip of the pylons and the jet engines on their tips could swivel freely as they were suspended in thin air. One could think a Wingardium Leviosa was holding the entire craft together. That was however not the case. The gripping force of the superconducting flux field seemed to be stronger than the rest of the material. The ship looked almost unearthly as the cockpit sat detached but firmly connected to all the other surfaces. This included the swept-back pylons, the canards and the various airbrakes and flight control surfaces.
The Gringotts modified titanium-gold alloy had been used to build the entire frame and many of the control surfaces. The alloy was magically conductive and Harry only found himself needing to run only a single shielded cable to connect the other side of the magical circuits - the entire body was used as a negative terminal. Timilf had used a personal piece of magic to manufacture heaps of artificial muscle fibre. Now the actuation of certain control surfaces did not require any hydraulics or levers. The elimination of the complex hydraulic connections simplified most of the systems. The artificial muscles were ridiculously strong and the pair had managed many separate sets of redundancies throughout the gunship. The long term plan was to connect to the spinal interface to control most of the flight by instinct. However, that would require some time as their brain made the necessary connections. The main nervous subsystems had been installed, but the final set of optimisations had not occurred.
Until such a time, the aircraft possessed a standard joystick and thrust controls. There was also a runic array that could allow Invictus to autopilot the aircraft via protean linked control systems. The inside of the aircraft was a hodge-podge of standard avionics, that had been mixed with magical systems. Harry had thoughtfully designed the entire instrument package as a drop-in module, and he merely needed to unbolt the item from the workshop frame and re-bolt the entire module into the new aircraft.
The new modifications that were last minute were the offensive capability. This had not been initially planned. However, with any of the superconducting pads that were present, it was not difficult to retrofit new additions. The first armament was a floating cannon turret – with the superconductors energised by the high energy capacity power crystal, Harry had taken the micro cannon that he had designed for Remus and scaled it up to three times its size. The last minute addition of such a cannon had resulted in Harry processing at least three hundred wand cores. It hanged from the belly of the Thunderbolt, and it was retractable.
The second set of armaments was six SMG and Assault Cannons that freely floated on multiple gimbal systems. They allowed them an almost hemispherical range of motion. These guns also operated on the same principle as the turret, but these would not be utilised as a group. Calculating the angles for all the guns to meet a common point was not something Harry was planning to do anytime soon. However, they were individually controllable which meant that any person could cycle through any of the guns and fire each one individually.
The image from the lens array of the main cannon and the other guns had been piped directly into the HUD that Hermione had developed. Hermione or anyone with the correct helmet could aim the gun by looking at the video feed from inside the gunship. That would bypass the need for complex targeting systems, as they would rely on line of sight until a replacement was made.
Finally was the pièces de resistance.
Finally, to keep "her" (the aircraft) unnoticeable and impenetrable, the last two optimisations included many redundant emitter arrays that provided a twenty millimetre enhanced kinetic barrier that could be summoned on demand. The second innovation was a combined invisibility and cloaking field. The custom modification that Hermione had implemented, was a runic array that allowed all electromagnetic waves to warp around a projected bubble.
Hermione had laughed her head off, as she realised that the frequency manipulation runes she had developed for Tracey's drumkit had provided a solution to one of the most controversial problems of being detected. She had looked at the invisibility spell that Invictus had created, and had broken the spell down into arithmancy and runes. After some third-order differential equations and some small optimisations with her logic runes, she had built an expression that would merely expand the frequency of the energy that was being blocked by the shield.
Instead of forming a pocket that blocked only visible light, now it could block any electromagnetic frequency on demand, as long as you could meet the power requirements. A shield with a powerful enough reactor could even block up to gamma and cosmic radiation. Hermione had tuned the shield envelope to handle from E.L.F wavelengths to the visible spectrum. This range of frequencies included radio waves, radar, infrared and visible light – she was now a silent predator with no trace. As Harry examined the new shield with his mage sight, he hugged Hermione.
"If you had told me that Tracey's drumkit would have given us complete immunity to Radar, Infrared, and visible light, I would have never believed you." Harry smiled.
"Hey, we are good people - we wanted to make someone happy for Christmas. Look I am sorry and I told Ms Weasley this already. Celestina Warbeck is terrible. We should provide witches like Tracey with instruments because the music in Wizarding England sucks ass. So, we deserve this!" Hermione had replied as she continued to recheck the runes.
Now it was all finished, and the craft was ready.
King Ragnok who had heard the noise from a nearby cavern, came to the forge-cave. When he saw what they had built, even he was unusually surprised. The object looked potent, modern, magical and somehow mundane, all at the same time. He asked the obvious question, as he wondered how the rather large object would leave the cave system.
"Can Grace transport such a large object?" King Ragnok asked.
"No, not this big. That thing is about 6,000 pounds. Super light by modern fighter jet standards, but still too heavy for her. She can do only 1500-2000 pounds maximum within England, and she normally needs a three hour break between such a taxing apparation. Wondering how we are getting out?" Harry replied.
"Indeed?" King Ragnok asked.
"Time for a surprise. Hermione? Take her 300 hundred meters up!"
Hermione powered up the transporter. She input the latitude, longitude and elevation values in and waited for the runic array to prime the emitters, which would begin buffering the entire matter stream into the alternate location. Hermione had built in an exhaustive set of safeties to detect if the matter stream had enough integrity, and as long as there was a single whiff of a problem the final runic array would not execute. She got a green alert as the countdown occurred.
"Jumping in 3…2…1…" she replied.
For the rest of the Goblins, the entire aircraft disappeared in a flash of lightning, which was quite similar to Grace's apparition. King Ragnok had already suspected what had occurred, and it was quite an achievement.
This boy and girl had built an artefact that could emulate portkeys.
Hermione found herself floating about fifty meters above Gringotts, as she took out the landing gear, and she gingerly positioned the aircraft to fit in the limited space of the Gringotts roof. Now the engines and the pylons were hanging over the roof of the institution, but the vessel was visually cloaked. It made no difference to the people who went about their business in the street.
"We have a successful jump. Snug like a bug on the roof!" Hermione exclaimed as everyone else listened in via the communicator. There was even clapping from the Golbin Wardmistress and Timilf.
"Fantastic. I am bringing us up there to have a look. Take the jamming wards off." Harry replied. Bloodaxe, Timilf and King Ragnok closed in as they prepared for the Grace to teleport them.
"Grace? Hermione is inside one of my projects. It is parked on the Gringotts roof. Take the four of us up please?"
ZAP!
The four of them found themselves in the cockpit of the gunship. As they looked down on all the magicals who were conducting business, the outlandish reality of what they had done became apparent to the Goblins. King Ragnok was smiling and Timilf gave Harry a high five. Bloodaxe was honestly curious about how Tom Riddle was going to survive this new weapon, as he scratched his chin.
"I must say congratulations. Did you manage to develop a portkey system? That is no easy magic. Even we are not too sure how it works. Do you understand the method by which it operates?" King Ragnok inquired.
"Somewhat. Our system is a bit different. Portkeys are a bit unstable and cannot occur across international borders without clearance. They are also blockable by wards. They don't respect orientation, speed or anything else before you begin the transportation. They also require a person to know the destination in advance to use the Portus spell. So we went with Grace's ability instead." Harry replied.
"Yes, she would be a good choice indeed. Your system is different in what manner?" King Ragnok asked.
"If I can get a large enough power source, it can go anywhere. This small jump emptied most of the power crystals. Respects the orientation, speed and everything else. Can go to new locations that I have never visited on the planet with mathematical coordinates. Untraceable. Possibly capable of leaving the atmosphere, but I don't want to chance it. We didn't pressurise the cabin for spaceflight and we don't know how coordinate distances will work in space." Hermione replied.
"That is quite the achievement, even to have it work at a diminished range. I believe you will eventually correct the power issues?" Bloodaxe asked.
"Yes, we have plenty of time. On the bright side, a single power crystal and our personal wrist transporter can do eight hundred miles for a single person about my size. It is because we figured out a personal transporter, that it was scaled up for its integration into this…er….gunship I guess? Do you guys want personal transporters?" Harry asked.
"Oh yes! That would be appreciated very much! One for each of us? And I do want a couple of these for Gringotts?" asked King Ragnok.
"Sure, let me work out the kinks. Well, we are going to take a test flight. We will be in touch. If you want one of these made for yourself, I have no problem providing our plans. However, I would advise that you let me work out the issues. As soon as we can verify it is safe, we can build yours." Harry explained.
"I think I would like that. This was entertaining. I think I will build a landing area not only for you but for myself. As you know, outperforming other branches of Gringotts is my new goal. I think I would like to learn to fly. Are you willing Priestess, to give lessons?" replied King Ragnok.
"Definitely. But I am not sure if that is a good idea. I have never flown anything. Harry is trusting my reflexes. He is a bit crazy, and our parents….don't know anything?" Hermione replied.
"I hope you don't die? I think you will be competent enough. Grace, you can carry us back into the caves please?" King Ragnok requested, with a smile on his face.
ZAP!
"Well Hermione, this is the best of our rush projects. You always wanted to fly. Well?" Harry asked.
"I think what we have accomplished is fantastic. If we have enough fuel, and we are fast enough it won't matter if we don't have enough power to jump directly to specific locations. We can just change our direction and evade whoever is in pursuit with an escape jump. We will just need snacks and a loo for long flights and we will be fine. Ready to test the E.M. Cloaking, Harry?"
"Sure. Alright, let me get seated." He replied, as he strapped himself to the superconducting floating seat. Hermione restarted the turbines.
"How can you find home? We could technically use Waze?" asked Harry.
"Compass and memory, for the fun of it. I am good with directions. We can install the other stuff, as we need it. Navigational Computer is next. I want nifty holographs for our navigation."
"Oh yes, true." Harry laughed. "For all my talent, I would be lost without you."
"Aww, thanks. Your talent is for commanding troops. But flying something with engines? That is my talent, I can feel it. Let us hope my magic is buzzing me in the right direction?" Hermione laughed.
Almost half an hour later, the aircraft had topped out at a conservative 1600 kph and was beginning its approach run to land in the Peverell Manor hangar. Harry had observed as every type of electromagnetic waveform slid off the magical bubble, with his Mage sight. As they uncloaked and flew into the hangar, Sirius and Remus were looking on in shock. They had gotten bored and Sirius had decided to have a small barbecue. As the golden coloured aircraft extended the landing gear and gently shut off the engines, the ramp opened up and Harry and Hermione walked out with proud looks on their faces. Remus was now looking at the floating bits and Sirius began to laugh loudly.
"Padfoot, what is so funny?" Harry asked.
"Do you have any idea what a huge prank this is? How did you build this so damned quickly?" Sirus asked.
"We got help from at least fifty of Timilf's metal workers. We picked up some new tricks too. The whole ship was cast at once, as a single big piece and we collapsed the shield. The engines are mostly forcefields from repurposed protegoes. And there are cylindrical sleeves where we can insert wand cores. Look, we cheated a lot of the time." Harry explained.
"Oh! That makes sense. Why are these bits floating?" Remus asked.
"For style? Okay, we are testing the ability to use magically enhanced superconducting fields to hold immense loads. Even more hilarious is that the magical power can flow across the field. That opens up options for making things reconfigurable. We can swivel the entire engine easily." Hermione answered
"How fast did you manage to go?" Sirius asked.
"We made Mach 1 but barely. However, this is the first design and there is plenty to improve. Can you fill us up? We still use good ole JP-7. The red cap under that flap over there." Hermione replied.
"Are you taking us along for a trip?" Sirius asked hopefully.
"That wasn't the plan. But we do have collapsable chairs. If we get in trouble you will share in our mechanical pain. Mione?" Harry asked.
"Why not? Just make sure you use the loo because we haven't installed a toilet. You might want to walk with some water too. Maybe some light snacks, and some sandwiches? We can grab something from the kitchen."
Two and a half hours later Hermione was flying over Portsmouth. Harry sat in the tandem gunner seat that was raised above Hermione as he looked around with the gunsights on the main cannon. Sirius and Remus were seated on the left and right on seats that were right behind the pilot and co-pilot cluster. The last two seats were empty but were strapped up with some small snacks, and other things from the kitchen. Hermione had gotten the opportunity to get to know the aircraft rather well, and her quick reflexes and ability to do minute adjustments had helped immensely. With the trust vectoring turbines, she had options. Harry and the rest had to stay strapped in the chair with the acrobatics that Hermione performed – the aircraft manoeuvred no differently from a jackrabbit. While in hovering mode the entire gunship could reorient in any direction in the yaw, pitch and roll axis without drifting as much as a coin. She flew at a three kilometer altitude and took her time as she did not want to hit any birds or unplanned surprises.
She was now over the ocean and she began to open up the throttle. The passengers began to feel the g-forces push them back into their seats. Invictus who was connected to the aircraft provided them with necessary information via the ship speakers.
"…400….600….800….."
They continued to accelerate.
"1400…1600….1800…1900…2000
2010…..2015….2020…..2,025 kph and holding….."
Hermione was too busy enjoying herself to notice that Sirus and Remus were genuinely feeling strain under the intense g-forces. With the extended fuel tanks and other clever optimisations, Hermione had managed an easy four thousand kilometres over the ocean, before she slowed down two hours later. Harry on the other hand had monitored his engines, and he was pretty pleased with the performance.
"How far are we out?" asked Harry.
"Halfway between home and South America. Check the power reserves?" Hermione asked.
"Fuel is 45 per cent. About five power crystals are dead. Not bad for the quick charge that we gave the thing from the reactor. Hey, you lot? How are you coping?" Harry asked.
"My chest hurts?" complained Sirius.
"Same. Can't complain about the view. The moonlight is rather beautiful." Remus commented, as he smiled.
"Well, we haven't been shot down. So next on the to-do list is a magical radar package, so we can scan the area. Harry, want to try the cannon? How about our new…..freeze ray? We might be able to land?" Hermione suggested.
Ten minutes later, the new freeze ray was used to create a small artificial iceberg that was easily large enough for the crew to land the aircraft and have a little walk around. After enjoying the cool night breeze and an informal late-night picnic, Sirius took pictures of the entire ordeal. After he and Remus updated Harry on the new appliances and other luxuries that they had installed at the Greengrass and Davis manors, Arthur spoke to everyone about the progress of the new Weasley Manor.
"Alright time to pack it up. Nobody say a word about anything. This is our little joke for Christmas. I am planning to get back at mum?" Harry explained as he rubbed his palms with excitement.
"Oh yes, that prank was rather tastefully done. She caught us all by surprise, didn't she?" Sirius laughed.
"Yes, she did. I do like the idea of telling her….oi mum, I built a spaceship!" Harry replied. The other three people got into the aircraft and Harry entered last, before the back hatch was shut closed. As the hovering thrusters were started, when they got far enough Harry merely placed many "incendiary bolts" into the temporary iceberg. Everyone observed as the whole thing went up into steam.
"That is quite a lot of firepower," commented Remus.
"It is. But in our line of business, you can never have enough. The cannon is three times bigger than your toy and is controllable from a helmet. When I am done, I wanted to be armed to the teeth." Harry replied.
Three hours later they were back at Peverell Manor and once again Sirius gave Hermione the customary tenner, as Harry went about his usual nitpicking by himself, as he scratched his chin.
"Harry, are you aware the next best thing in the Wizarding world is the Beauxbatons flying carriage? It is essentially a house and Abraxan horses carry it to wherever it needs to go?" asked Hermione.
Harry did not even answer.
"Earth to Harry?" Hermione enquired again, as she realised that his mind was elsewhere.
"Oh, nothing. Thinking about some optimizations. Nice flying. Your dad is going to have a heart attack. Time to get flight suits. We need more power. We just need some more thrust. I have an idea eh, maybe later." he replied.
Harry spent the rest of the night, as he sketched an idea in his notebook. He was honestly rattled, but he tried to pay it no mind. Then, he received a call.
"Hello, Clementine!"
"Hello Harry? How have you been? I suppose…busy?"
"A bit….not good. But I am managing? I heard you are doing ceaseless portrait renovations?"
"Yes, I am! Luna has far to go, but she is learning very quickly. This has been the best period of business for the Delacours. But anyway, I called as I wanted to offer you something. I do have a small property even deeper in the countryside. Surrounded by excellent bakeries and restaurants. I was planning a getaway with our family, and all of our associates, as I had promised Invictus. However, I have a lot of work to do. I will have to postpone. Perhaps at the end of the school year, next June. I was wondering if perhaps you would like the key?
I think you deserve a rest, young man."
"Ah, a little holiday. You know what? I think I want to spend some time by myself. I do want to think about things. I sometimes don't sleep, when I think about…..well…mother's rescue. Something recently popped up, and well…I am thinking about it."
"I understand. You carry many burdens. No, connect with nature. Listen to the birds, walk in the rain if you must. Let nature talk to you. Have a meal at any of the restaurants in the area. Drop by at my house when you are ready, and we will send you off, via floo. Your French is excellent, you are learning the language rather quickly."
"I will be there in about four hours," Harry replied, as he considered the piece of information he had secretly heard – he had not shared this with anyone yet. Perhaps he needed a break. He prepared a small travel bag for himself and went to the Workshop.
"Sirius? Hermione?" Harry inquired, sometime later.
"Prongslet?" Sirius replied as Hermione looked up, from instructing Ginny and Astoria.
"I am going on a little holiday. Some personal time. No work. I will carry only a notebook and a pen. I think I want to journal my experiences. Clementine offered me some time away, in the French countryside."
"Wait…you are taking a break?" Hermione asked, as Ginny and Astoria looked on, rather surprised at the workaholic's sudden change of heart.
"Yes. A change of scenery will do me well. Just Grace and I will go. So, make your arrangements as necessary. Sirius tell the parentals and other folks. How are the Weasley projects looking?"
"Molly and Arthur are fine. The Weasleys have their little nest eggs." Hermione explained.
"Right, continue to keep things running. After I get back on the 15th, we are preparing for deployment on the 19th so that on the 20th we will be in the Amazon rainforest."
Harry then summoned Grace, and he was off to France. Hermione knew her brother better than anyone – he was troubled by something, and Harry generally had a high tolerance for stress. Whatever it was, it was probably something ominous.
"Mione, he isn't feeling too good, isn't he?" Sirius asked.
"No, But he will figure it out. This little holiday will be good for him…" she replied.
