The Devil as a Father – Chapter 30

Ron was surprised when a little elf picked up all his stuff, and delighted when he got a room to himself, which Lucifer made next to Harry and Neville's room. His Mum and Dad seemed delighted too, and kissed him goodbye. He expected the Morningstar family to make fun of him but instead, they all smiled when he was hugged in a happy way, like it was a good thing.

Then Harry gave a presentation on what they had made to Headmaster Flitwick. At first Ron thought it was a lie, mere kids making something like that, but then he learned that the smartest one was Trixie, who was a plain old muggle, but super good at math. When she explained math in a way that made sense to Ron for the first time, he began to believe them. They didn't consider themselves to be particularly smart, just having a lot of fun helping the Ministry of Magic and learning all sorts of things.

Headmaster Flitwick was delighted and had tons of questions and practically danced in glee about the things they had done. Ron began to feel like he had fallen into a gnome hole with gold at the end. They all wanted to have fun, and everyone was nice, even the little rescued squibs, and they had the coolest pet, a miniature fire breathing dragon and a little dog who was actually a hell hound, and the Lady who taught them defense was a real demon. And Lucifer seemed very powerful but very kind.

When the presentation was over they had a Mexican meal of something called Carne Asada, with rice and beans and flan that Harry had made. It was all new and interesting and very tasty to Ron. In fact he decided he was in love with Mexican food. He ate everything on his plate and was pleased when he asked for more to actually receive it.

That night, Lord and Lady Morningstar tucked him into bed. His Mum hadn't done that in a while, and at first he was embarrassed, but then he decided he liked it after they mentioned they tucked ALL the children in every night.

The next morning Lord Morningstar made the biggest bestest breakfast in the world. Ron woke up early and watched and asked to help. Some day he would live by himself and have to cook for himself and he wanted to know how to make awesome food like Lord Morningstar did. Soon Harry was up and also helping. In fact, Harry made orange and blueberry scones. Ron watched him, but kept an eye on his own tasks. It seemed like no one was lazy around here, so he would work hard too. Maybe that the secret to why this was such a neat place. There were eggs, fried tomatoes, fluffy pancakes, sausages, ham, omelets, the orange scones and the blueberry scones, there was apple juice, which he'd never had, there were fried potatoes cooked with onions and cheese and Ron actually was full for once.

Then all his new business partners went with Lucifer to visit the Ministry of Magic and he stayed there with Lady Black and Lady Morningstar. Now they told him she had some magic but they didn't know what kind, but he observed her for a bit and decided she was tough as his Mum and that was saying quite a lot. She was also sweet and less emotional than Mum, which he liked. When Mum got emotional she tended to squish him. The ladies taught him about table settings and which forks and stuff should be used at fancy dinners. Then they took him around the penthouse and down to several floors.

They showed him where Harry practiced flying, which was indoors but had very tall ceilings. Then they took him to a whole floor that was all greenhouse with flowers and salad greens and other great things. This was better than herbs at school. He would grow things he could eat, or that he could give to people to eat. They had a small section of magical plants for making potions, and Ron was surprised that he knew what every plant was. They showed him a potions lab that was bright and shining, with something called fume hoods over each cauldron, and lots of protective gear. They made a potion or two that were for candies. He learned how to make his own chocolate frogs, and he didn't blow up anything.

Then they let him use the elevator controls and took him to where the little restaurant was and he liked it immediately. It was clean and bright and everything was new.

Then they showed him Lady Black and Draco's apartment, which was nice, and had lots of potted flowers growing. Then they took him to visit a real seer, Mrs. Edwards, who was not a fake like Trewaley who was always telling you that you would die.

This lady was kind and had fresh-baked cupcakes. She sat with him and talked to him and didn't tell him he was stupid, or bad or anything. She showed him how to work the non-magical things in her apartment and he helped her to take out the garbage. They showed him all of the building and the swimming pool, which was wonderful. Then they went back and Lady Morningstar suggested writing his Dad a letter about the non-wizarding things he learned and describing them. "Dad loves muggle things, er, I mean non-wizarding things, especially things that move and stuff," he said to the two ladies, and then wrote a letter with a no-mag pen, which is like a quill but worked way better. His handwriting looked really nice. He told Dad about how tall the building was and how many floors he counted, about the elevator, the stove, the refrigerator, the air conditioning, the lights, the running water in the bathrooms, the locks, and then told about the food in detail too. He really liked the meals.

Lady Morningstar asked if they could read the letter to see if everything was spell correctly, and Ron was proud to show her his vastly improved handwriting. Both ladies exclaimed over his penmanship and only had to magically correct a few words from the no-mag world. Ron was really pleased with himself.

"Octavian and Hercules wanted to ask you something," said Lady Morningstar.

"Sure," said Ron, in a good mood because it was looking like he wasn't as stupid as he'd thought.

"They want to know if you could start to teach them both chess. They were really impressed that you gave Lucifer such a great match and they want to do the same someday."

"Sure," said Ron. The two boys that were supposed to be squibs were nice little kids, and Ron was careful with them, because he knew they had been tortured and thrown away by their families. He taught them how to set up the board, and all the pieces and the way the pieces were allowed to move. He patiently let them practice some of the way the pieces moved and was surprised when the boys seemed sharp and remembered everything he had told them.

Lady Black came in with Sirius Black and both watched him work with the two boys.

Lord Black looked at Ron with enthusiasm, "You are a good teacher, Ron. You should be the resident chess master and train all of us to play chess."

"Wow," thought Ron, "A Lord thinks I'm a good teacher."

They had lunch with Lord and Lady Black, Lady Morningstar and Octy, Les, Rose and Daffodil. It was fresh breads that had been baked in several devices made by non-magical people, called a bread machine. And soup was prepared before the group had left for the Ministry of Magic in another device, called a crockpot, so it was ready and hot when it was time for lunch. Ron was impressed. There were leftover scones too. The soup was a black bean soup with lots of tender ham in it, and green and red peppers, garlic onions and various herbs.

Lord Black asked him what things he liked, while he ate. "Sir, I like games, and chess, and especially flying on a broom. I liked teaching about chess today, and I like the pens you have from the non-magical world. They are much nicer than quills. I liked helping with breakfast too. The food was so good."

He spent some time playing hide and seek with the littles and found out that they were magical after all. He saw Octy turn into a shadow and sat down on his bum. "Octy, I don't see you but that was absolutely WICKED!" he said excitedly, "You turned into a shadow."

Octy slipped out of a shadow and stared at Ron. "You don't mind."

"No, but I want you on my team from now on." Octy grinned and started to jump up and down.

Lucifer Harry Lucifer Harry Lucifer Harry

Lucifer arrived at the Ministry of Magic with Maze as bodyguard, and all the older children. "We are here to see Madame Longbottom," he said politely. There was a different person at the security desk, who looked up at Lucifer and grinned. "You are the ones who healed Mad Eye, the best Auror ever. He saved my parents' lives during the war and lost his leg in the fight. You grew it back. I saw it in a pensieve. Thank you, Sir."

Harry noted that his Dad blushed, while the others looked pleased.

"You are most welcome, young man," said Lucifer.

Harry figured this was an improvement over the last time they visited.

They were escorted by Madame Longbottom's secretary, Rose, who was excited to meet all the children, first hugging Neville and then hugging Maze. She bowed very politely to everyone else. "It is so nice to see you. You wouldn't believe all the changes Lord Morningstar had made just by discussing magic. The hospitals are working on it and they are begging for parseltongues to help them. Several people who kept their ability a secret have come out of hiding and are now being treated very well."

They all piled into the elevator and went to the main office where they were greeted with tea, coffee and snacks. Mrs. Longbottom bowed to them and then hugged and kissed Neville. "Neville, I have missed you so much. Are you having fun?" she asked.

"Lots, Grams, and I'm part of Harry's company. We all worked together with Lord Lucifer and the house elves and we think you will like what we made." Madame Longbottom looked at Lucifer as if to make sure it was really true and he nodded at her. Her face cleared and she smiled at her grandson.

"Are you ready for our presentation?" asked Lucifer.

To Madame Longbottom's surprise, Lucifer popped a magical screen and Neville and Harry did the first part of the presentation, explaining what the devices looked like, how they worked with magic, and how Lucifer made them invisible to anyone who wasn't into law enforcement.

"Oh Madame Bones will be so excited at this," murmured the Minister of Magic.

Neville explained that the magic made them work everywhere, and that they wouldn't set off no-mag devices like some magical devices did.

Then he explained about applications. "In the non-magical world, phone devices have additional things called applications. We thought the magical world; especially law enforcement could use ones too, so we made applications on the phones. Miss Hermione Grainger and Mr. Draco Black will present the applications and Miss Trixie Morningstar will present the math behind some of the more complex applications."

Draco and Hermione began to give a summary of each application. The first was a database of magical criminal law. The second was the ability to take photographs at crime scenes with an extra ability to take distances. Then they told about the ballistics application and how it could be applied on the crime scene and identify the magic of the user.

Madame Longbottom got really excited, and called Madame Bones, who made the acquaintance of Lucifer with near glee. "I was excited when the children told me what they are working on. I would love to see their presentation."

So first, Lucifer showed her the phone, explained that it could call another phone from anywhere, could only be seen by the inventors, or the aurors and Minister of Magic, and even had an emergency button that would inform the Ministry that an auror was in trouble.

Madame Bones was a very stern looking woman, but she got very excited. "This could save lives," she said ecstatically.

Then Neville smiled and said, "It does other things. He went over the database of Magical law, then the ability to use the small device to take good photographs, and then told her about the sensor that identified magical signatures and ballistics of magical spells."

"By Merlin's beard, we have nothing like that in the Auror Department. This is astounding. Who developed it?"

Trixie shyly came forward and said, "It was my idea, because my parents are no-mag aurors, and they have non-magical things like this to help them in their jobs. They use things to figure out ballistics of gun shots, but in the magical world you need to know who cast the spell, and where they cast it from."

"My dear child, where did you school?" as Madame Bones, wanting this little genius for a family friend.

"Oh, I never went to magical school. I only learned I have magic when the bad men attacked my Daddy Lucifer. I just really like math and what it can do."

"And you made this for the magical world," Madame Bones looked astounded.

"Yes, and I'm working on a cure for werewolves too. But aurors need to have good tools to do their jobs, so I wanted to help."

Madame Bones turned pale and her eyes glistened with unshed tears. She sat down rather abruptly and said, "Miss Morningstar, you have made a wonderful thing that will solve crimes, and protect people, and I am very grateful."

Trixie didn't know it, but she just became a hero.

Harry was very pleased.

So after another hour, they had gone over all the things the device could do. It had the laws; it had a medical database of poisons, potions and plants, including rare plants. It had a database of pictures of known criminals that would alert the auror when they took pictures of a suspect. It had a dictation device for reports and notes that could be uploaded at headquarters. Then the children explained about finger prints so they could use that to trace when magic wasn't used, and in the case of squibs committing crimes. The fingerprints could also be used as secondary identification when magic was identified.

Neville suddenly smacked his own forehead, "We forgot, we have five-party conferencing, so five different people can consult together on the phone."

"It's like an Auror station and potions lab in a small box that opens," said Madam Bones.

Then Hermione and Trixie gave a talk on arithmomancy and the cost of the phones.

"How can you afford this?" said Madame Longbottom, "these phones will be inexpensive to buy and to keep running."

"First of all, we were going to remake phones, but then decided to make them all from a template, a magical template. We have made 50 of them and will sell them to you for 5 gallons apiece, then a gallon a month each. That's still a lot of money, Madam Longbottom," said Trixie, who was worried they couldn't afford it.

"No, this is a wonder and the beginning of a whole new era in keeping the peace," said Madam Longbottom while Madame Bones was staring at the device in her hands in open wonder and asking questions.

Neville trained her patiently in opening, closing, turning the phone on and off, and using the camera. Then he gave her lessons on the other applications.

Madame Longbottom watched him proudly and gave Harry and Lucifer a warm smile.

Lucifer snapped his fingers, and boxes appeared with the logo of 'Morningstar Farms – where we grow ideas'. "We will set up training. I would like the children to do the training, so the aurors understand that it is easy, and its good practical experience for the children. They did wonderfully on the presentation."

Madame Longbottom seemed especially pleased at that idea and nodded her head. "My Lord, your children have done something wondrous. To see my grandson doing so well, and helping with this makes me so proud."

She pulled out a contract, "This was written by the goblins, and you all should read it with Lord Morningstar. He will help you. Knowing how to read a contract can save you money. Not understanding it can lose you money, so it's very important."

Now Trixie got really excited. She loved this place and the nice, but weirdly dressed people. She actually liked the way they dressed and all the magical things going on. And she had made something to help aurors, which were policemen like her parents. She grinned up at Lucifer and grabbed his leg in glee. Instead of wincing, like he used to do, he picked her up and gave her a huge hug.

"Thank you so much ladies for sparing us time for this presentation," said Lucifer. "We will return home and start reading the contract, and then visit the Goblins and get their suggestions."

The two ladies waved goodbye, after Madame Longbottom gave Neville a kiss on his head, and Lucifer popped everyone back to the Lux.

They returned to absolute pandemonium. Ron, Lady Black and Chloe were chasing all the littles around and tickling them. Lucifer observed that Ron was happy and being very careful to not hurt the children. Then Daffodil shrieked in glee and raced to him and he picked her up. Picking up small bodies was one of his new favorite hobbies. Now he was surrounded by the children, Ron, Chloe and Narcissa. The children hugged and kissed and laughed. Chloe kissed too. Narcissa bowed and Ron looked unsure of himself and then gave him a careful and very polite bow. Lucifer reached over, grabbed the boy and gave him a hug. "Did you have a good day?" he asked, and Ron's face lit up. "No one asked me if I had a good day, they want to know what I've done or if I finished chores or got good grades," thought Ron, astonished." These people were different.

"I had a great day, Sir," said Ron happily, "I wrote my Da a letter about all the no-mag devices, and about the great food. I also helped teach some of the beginnings of Chess to the little ones. They're wicked smart, and Octy can melt into the shadows. It's great."