EVoNet Forward
Chapter 19
Magic for All
Minerva McGonagall had at first considered heading straight for Hogwarts where Dumbledore would soon be starting a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix but realised that Dumbledore wouldn't believe her about the EVoNet and Nergal without some kind of proof.
It had actually taken her a while to find a place that would sell EVoNet technology as she wasn't very versed in muggle world shopping. Though, when she got there, she was floored by how much stuff was branded EVoNet in some way or another, even though it was made by companies other than Nergal, which she figured it meant they used magic in some way. Though, of course she had stopped off at Gringotts to get some money, and there was a part of her that knew the goblins knew what was going on, and wouldn't be surprised if they had helped as Harry would do what Dumbledore and others promised and never went through with, and wizards and witches 'wondered' why goblins thought humans were untrustworthy arseholes.
Minerva had taken a long time with the assistance of a nice young woman to get a few things like a wand (which was branded with Nergal as apparently they were the only company with the ability to manufacture them at the moment), and food replicator because she needed some lessons in how they worked, and even still she didn't know much about the ins and outs but they both came with instructions. It was quite genius the fact that the wands had protective measures to stop illegal or murderous spells outright compared with a natural mages, and children's wands had parental controls so they couldn't use them for potentially dangerous things thankfully, and she wondered whether that kind of control could be placed over normal wands too.
McGonagall practiced with her new wand (it was a nice tan colour) by levitating her replicator, though they had offered free delivery, which was nice, but they couldn't deliver that day and she was sure they wouldn't deliver to Hogwarts anyway. She figured using the new wand to move the replicator was best. She would have bought more, but the replicator and wand were quite expensive, she thought, she didn't know how much in galleons it was as she only asked the goblins for some muggle money, she would have to figure that out another day, and she hadn't withdrawn enough money to get anything else anyway, and didn't want to potentially spend all of her savings, she would have to look into the galleon to pound exchange rate.
It took her no time at all to get back to Hogwarts, though it took some effort having to use her normal wand to create a portkey to Hogsmeade, as she wasn't confident enough to try apparating with so much weight, and her new EVoNet wand didn't make portkeys. She had to feel very impressed with the new wand though, as the replicator wasn't light; she would already be feeling the strain if she tried to levitate it this far for over twenty minutes, but this muggle wand wasn't even trying from what she could tell as she could sense the energy from it since she was holding it.
McGonagall sighed in relief or frustration as she entered the Great Hall, which was being used for an Order of the Phoenix meeting since school was out. She took note as they sat around the Gryffindor table that a few people weren't there, like the Malfoys and Greengrass, and several more people Albus Dumbledore didn't totally trust – or more put, people like the Potter's didn't want them around. Though, she knew a lot of Dumbledore's more fanatical supporters kept starting fights with them, and not really faring very well in the end as they just looked foolish jumping to the bait every time – bait that wasn't even there as most of the 'Slytherins' wanted nothing to do with them. It was no wonder so many Slytherins joined Voldemort or occasionally ran away to other countries as the 'light' pushed them there.
"Minerva!" Dumbledore called out in greeting. "Good, good. I thought you weren't going to make it. I do hope you managed to persuade the young girl that Hogwarts will be fun?"
"Umm…. No," she answered as she landed the large box on the table getting confused looks as they took note of the weird wand she was using, but Dumbledore frowned at what she said having not paid the wand a thought. "We might have a problem there," she said taking a deep breath to steady her nerves as around fifty or more sets of eyes were on her as she took her seat.
"What kind of problem?" he asked worriedly. "The Ministry has not discovered our dilemma with the muggle-born's have they?" he added, looking to be thinking of a way to stall them.
"No… this might be worse, depending on your view…" she said quietly as for her it was rather good news, but for Dumbledore it was going to be the end of his world as he knew it.
"You-Know-Who hasn't…?" Molly Weasley started worried but trailed off unable to finish, and McGonagall had to resist the snort as the woman didn't actually care, she had already lost four sons who wanted nothing to do with her because of how she acted about Harry, but more so as she had been quite racist towards Fleur Delacour at her wedding to Bill because Fleur wouldn't renounce her friendship to Harry, and McGonagall was certain Ginny Weasley would have ran far away too, or have nothing to do with her mother if the woman would just stop butting into her life for two seconds.
"No…" Minerva agreed after a few moments of thought and getting a lot of relieved sighs but then confused looks, even Dumbledore showed he was baffled. "He's done it… he said he would… he said it was possible, and… he's done it."
"Who did what?" asked James Potter sitting next to his slightly bored looking 'best friend' Sirius Black who wondered whether he could get away with stabbing James in the face with a rusty spork if he drew a ridiculous snake skull tattoo on his arm and pretended he was a remorseful Death Eaters afterward who needed help being good. Sirius just didn't seem to care anymore, but at least he did speak out and for himself. Though, he could be very sneaky in hiding his distaste for a lot of the crazy things they got up to. He just thought they were boring and a waste of time, and total bullshit. He had never been patient and always full of energy, so it was not uncommon for him to just flop out at these meetings like they drained the life out of the universe.
"Harry!" That one word brought about shocked gasps and looks of outrage as the mention of the traitorous Potter was taboo for the Order, but she continued on anyway. "He has given the muggles magic!"
"Nonsense…!" Severus Snape hissed out while others had paled, and some looked sick, but Dumbledore seemed to share Snape's stance on the matter, along with a fair few others. "That brat was nothing but trouble. He almost completely destroyed the castle for Merlin's sake!"
"Okay," she said pointing her newly acquired wand at the grease-ball, startling him. "Plait his hair and turn it pink!" she said and even Dumbledore's eyes widened in shock as Snape's hair twisted round plaiting while it faded from greasy black, the potion grease squeezing out down his robes as it turned into a fluffy pink. It made him scowl but he had gotten used to someone doing something like this to him, though this was the first it was another teacher he chose to say nothing.
"Oh my word," the tiny Professor Flitwick squealed in shock from his seat. "No wand movement and speaking in English… just telling it what you want?" he muttered as the holograph that had been lit up with words moments faded away to nothing, and he saw a small logo on the back end of the wand. "Nergal?" he whispered thoughtfully as he could just about see it as McGonagall sat next to him on his left and she was right-handed.
"Yes," McGonagall agreed. "It's the name of Harry Evans's technology company. Nergal Technologies Limited, and Nergal Heavy Industries. But I was told most people just call it Nergal since it doesn't seem to matter as most things made by them just have the Nergal badge on them anyway, except for the small print."
"Now this is more interesting," Sirius piped in as he eyed the machine with a grin as he couldn't believe it took so long for Dumbledore to see this, and he was expecting it soon. "That's quite hilarious, and ironic. You take magic from him and he finds the loophole and creates something that creates magic. That's brilliant," he said laughing and ignoring the many death glares he got as he was past caring about them around six or so years ago.
"It is not brilliant Sirius!" Lily Potter hissed at him angrily. "This compromises magical security!"
"If all of the muggles can use magic then why would they care about us?" Sirius asked shrugging. "Heck, this should be good… I mean we can walk through London using as much magic as we want, and the muggles won't care – well – as long as you're not being a douche bag with it."
"It's not good!" Dumbledore interrupted before an argument broke out. "If the muggles find out about Voldemort, or Harry just goes and tells them then they will start hunting Death Eaters and killing them."
"Who really cares?" interrupted a young blonde-haired woman, Luna Lovegood with bored blue eyes sitting next to her confused red-haired friend, Ginevra 'Ginny' Weasley one side with another red head the other side, Rosette Potter. Rosette was blushing slightly as she thought about her brother and tried to remain unnoticed. Nobody was really being that quick to respond to Luna's comment, either through surprise or because they either secretly or openly agreed with her as Dumbledore didn't have the complete faith of everyone no matter how much he tried to 'persuade' them to see reason they ignored him, which was frustrating as his 'powers' of persuasion didn't work on them for some reason he was too ignorant to believe, but he had to keep them around to keep his eyes on them.
"Now enough thinking like that Miss. Lovegood," Dumbledore eventually reprimanded but got no emotional response like he would with most of his Order as her opinion of him was kind of 'meh'. "They are mainly ancient and noble pure-blooded families! They need to be given the chance to see the light," he finished, many of the order automatically nodding along in agreement, but others looked like they also agreed that they should see the light – the light at the end of the tunnel leading them to hell.
"Yeah-yeah, whatever," Sirius said as he knew that Dumbledore would have his way so just shrugged and looked to the huge box in appreciative apprehension, and he was a little hungry. "So Minnie," he said annoying McGonagall with her nickname. "What's in the box?"
She smiled a little as she used the new wand to open the box and vanish it, (she could get used to such a clever wand). "This won Harry 'Evans' the Nobel Peace Prize!" she said proudly as she figured someone should be proud of knowing someone with such an amazing accomplishment.
"Really…?" Lily let slip in surprise and even wonderment as McGonagall nodded before she frowned looking towards the red-haired woman and she wasn't the only one, but that was an impossible discovery. However, a moment later, Lily scowled thoughtfully at the odd white platform with matte black glass top and some buttons and ports on it. "So what does it do?" she asked, being a little bit curious.
McGonagall just gave a tight-lipped smile as she switched the machine on, and once the screen read: ready. "I would like a cheese burger and fries," she said and instantly the glass flashed white and there they were in carton wrappings like at a muggle fast food place. "This one device has apparently been putting fast food restaurants all over the planet out of business – as well as farms, so I guess vegetarians and vegans and the like will be happy as this is an energy to matter food replicator."
"Cool," Sirius replied grabbing some fries and scarfing them, and after his last chew, he grabbed the rest and the burger, but it was Hermione Granger sitting next to Terry who stared in the most wonder and amazement, and had to stall her smile less someone see it.
"Damn, that's good eating," Sirius said in delight. "I'm definitely getting one of these beauties…" he finished with a chuckle.
"Enough Sirius," Dumbledore reprimanded but Sirius didn't stop eating. "You will not shame us by getting such a disgraceful piece of rubbish created by a mad boy that would have gone evil if we had not stopped him and banished him from our world."
"Whatever, man. You're mental. This is really good food on command," Sirius replied rolling his eyes. "And it… well look," he said as they turned to see Ginny and Luna and Rosette had secretly gotten themselves some food from it looking pleased while they had all been distracted, though Rosette did look embarrassed at being caught and hoping a certain other persons mother distracted everyone as she mentally counted down from three, and right on cue it happened.
"Ginevra Weasley!" You could set your watch to Molly Weasley's screechy reprimands as she glared at her adult daughter angrily. "What do you think you're doing eating that?"
She just shrugged sheepishly and finished the fry in her mouth. "Don't knock what you haven't tried, right dad?" she asked as Arthur Weasley was sitting opposite and was scooping some tandoori chicken and white rice onto a poppadum with his fork.
"Right you are pumpkin," he agreed smiling as he savoured every bite. "Damn, I haven't had a good Indian meal in years, but this is simply mouth-watering."
"Arthur!" his wife reprimanded angrily. "How could you disgrace our family like this, and to top things off you're eating foreign food. Do I not make you proper delicious English meals?"
"You know," Luna interrupted smilingly. "Technically most of its not actually English, as all cultures rip and borrow from other's countries, and have for thousands of years, coming up with new things… or liking what they have and leaving it as is," she said wiggling her fry. "The chip to us Brits, but in reality. FRENCH fry," she said with a fake French curl to her voice as her mouth snatched her fry, accentuating the word French loudly and clearly making Molly's cheeks flush with embarrassment as a few people openly laughed while others snickered.
"She has a point though," McGonagall agreed as she was using some chopsticks to pop a sushi roll into her mouth and savoured every bite. "I think the last time I had sushi was when I visited Mahoutokoro in Japan. It is nice to get to have such a variety of tastes."
"Too true," agreed Fillius Flitwick as he set down his lamb donner kebab and tucked in. "Delicious, not like most of those British kebab houses that say they do a real Turkish kebab, but instead might as well sell me – I can't even describe that strip stuff."
Sirius nodded along. "Strawberry milkshake would be nice," he said, happy the machine made it for him, and the others were quick in grabbing drinks too while the more fanatical Dumbledore worshippers looked on in horror and annoyance, and some looked on in envy, even Terry Potter looked like he wanted some takeout but knew he couldn't as Hermione patted his hand in sympathy.
"Enough of this foolishness…!" Dumbledore suddenly roared out startling them as he swiped his wand and the replicator was shattered, sparking electricity, and a light inside fading away to nothing before it fizzled and some of the insides had fused together and melted.
"You are paying for that Albus," McGonagall said in a no-nonsense annoyance. "That thing wasn't cheap – I think!" she said, but she continued eating knowing she'd get her money back one way or another, and she sneakily slid her new wand into her tweed blazer out of sight where she left the soft holster pouch it came with it that snapped around the waist and thigh like young Kitty Rivers wore.
"That was out of order," Sirius said shaking his head in disgust.
"Enough!" Albus spoke quietly but his power was now flowing to show he was quite angry. "I will not have members of my Order being foolish over some stupid food making machine made by a traitorous little brat!"
"Technically he didn't betray anyone," Luna commented off-handily. "He just had a dream so far out of your comfort zones that you feared it, secretly knowing that he was too smart to be left alone, and that he might actually succeed. Though, it looks like he was smarter than even you feared. After all, every visionary throughout history has been mocked, ridiculed and feared by their peers."
"Quiet Lovegood!" he said angrily and Ginny, fearing for her friend, was quick in grabbing her hand to get her attention. Shaking her head, Luna relented. "Good," the old man continued, not noticing that the two girls continued holding hands under the table.
"We must put a stop to Mr. Evans as soon as possible," Dumbledore continued commandingly, most of his Order looking up to him in admiration while others only looked to be paying half attention. "He will wreak havoc upon our world. If left to continue making magic he might gain the power to attack our world with more people than we or Voldemort could ever hope to get.
"We could possibly lose to him. We cannot let him come here and murder us all. After all, the muggles have always been jealous of our kind. Therefore, I say we attack Evans and whatever company he has created and destroy it before it's too late!"
"I doubt he would come here to murder everyone," Sirius said rolling his eyes. "His dream was to unite the worlds of science and magic, and he's doing a pretty good job from what I've heard today."
"Shut up, I bet you're going dark just like your family," hissed out Ronald Weasley in rage having been surprisingly quiet so far since he wasn't really sure what was going on, but he knew to defend Dumbledore in the only way he or people like him knew – if you had no counter-debate you attack someone's character.
Sirius sighed while rolling his eyes. "Yeah-yeah whatever, idiot," he said as he had finished his burger and fries, he stood up. "I'm bored with this, so if you're going to be talking about this crap all evening, I'm going home, later!" he said, just up and leaving, several others following too, when Ginny, Rose, and Luna got up to leave afterward.
"Ginny where do you think you're going?" her mother demanded with narrowed angry eyes.
"Yes! You too, Rose!?" James butted in snidely and she wanted to smack him.
Ginny sighed while also rolling her eyes; it became a thing around these people. "Luna and I have a deadline to keep, and Rose lives with us," she said glaring at Rose's idiot father. "So… well whatever, we're going back to our place where we won't have to listen to this anymore. We know where it's going to go. You'll all rant and rave for several hours where you'll come up with some weird overly extravagant and complicated plans that won't work. So we'll skip the ranting and just hear the plans tomorrow," she said while taking both of her friends hands and about to storm off with them when she paused as her mother couldn't just let them leave.
"Are you siding against us?" Molly demanded angrily causing Ginny to grimace. Did her mother have to screech such rubbish? "I will not tolerate a Dark Witch in the family," she said just Ron, attacking a character. "We should have never let you and Luna move in together – and letting Rosette move in with you too. Three single young witches, it's scandalous the things you might try with… boys!"
"No I have work tomorrow!" she retorted in frustration her eyes' flickering to Luna's looking amused. "And we don't invite boys around to our apartment either – we don't exactly have the time for partying either as Luna and I both work, and Rose has some course work to get done if she wants to get into healer school."
"She won't need to when she's married to me!" Ronald said smugly, and he didn't note the fury from multiple people.
"That isn't going to happen you piece of shit!" Ginny hissed out as she twitched for her wand while pulling Rosette protectively behind her.
"You'll see!" Ron said smugly while even Terry wasn't sure whether speaking was a good idea.
"Yeah, you'll see accidents happen!" Luna surprisingly muttered coldly.
"Are you threatening my son!?" Molly growled out as she twitched for her wand. "You're just as mentally unstable as your loony father, Lovegood!"
"Just go sweetheart," Arthur Weasley quickly interrupted before he had to pick sides and he wasn't sure whether he would side with his wife. He stood up quickly as Molly's ire turned to him. "I also have an early start with the Ministry," he said as he quickly fled as he ushered the girls out ahead of him. "Don't blame me," he said quietly to the girls. "Terry, James, and Molly are the ones who are going to help get Ron lynched. I'm against this bloody bollocks!" he said while the girls nodded in agreement feeling as confused about things as he was, so they knew how he felt.
"I too do not have the time to waste here," Snape surprisingly said as he stood up – though, not that surprisingly as he had other 'secret' things and places to be. "The Dark Lord is not expecting me to stay away for too long. Shall I inform him of this…" he looked at the name on the broken machine. "EVoNet and Nergal?" he asked the old man, curious.
"No, not right now," the old man said shaking his head. "He could complicate things, and then Evans might have no choice but to go to the muggle authorities."
Snape nodded but he was already heading off, as they were somewhat amusing as it seemed they wanted to get the shit beat out of them. They didn't see the smirk on his lips or the glimmer of amusement in his eyes. He seriously had to wonder whether he could get most of the Order declared mentally unbalanced they were that fucked in the head, and the sane ones looked like they wanted to draw wands and just put the nutters out of their misery.
He kept walking out of the castle and out into the grounds, looking around he saw no one as he tapped the right of his head, just by his ear to have a small black piece of plastic materialise with a little hand pointing forward, and then he tapped a button on the part that slid to his ear. That created a dim light in his right eye showing an augmented reality display.
"Call, code zero!" he spoke quickly and only waited a moment when the video call was answered; they both smirked at each other, though, Snape had no camera his side by just looking, the device scanned him to create a holographic image in full colour in the office. The wonders of machines of magic, or Zero Point Energy, Snape loved the conveniences.
"Good evening Agent Zero. What do you have to report? And who'd you let point a wand at you? Pink really isn't your colour, mate!" The young man in the office said as he sat at his desk and Snape sighed in annoyance as he almost completely forgot about that.
In the Great Hall, McGonagall sighed in exhaustion and anger, and frustration, and tried to ignore the ranting and raving that commenced. She sighed one last time as she watched a few more people sneaking away unchecked, surprisingly Terry Potter and Hermione Granger amongst them, so shrugged her shoulders and followed them out and headed back to her quarters feeling like she could really sleep a year or two.
To Be Continued…
It was a couple of hours later that Severus Snape walked into The Dark Lords base, thankfully after changing his hair back to normal and cleaning his robes, but on the plus, his air was clean, which got him some startled looks before many of the masked morons got over their surprise and eyed him suspiciously, not quite trusting that he was not really working for Dumbledore. If only they even suspected the truth those looks would be more aghast – and Snape would have to kill them, but just for those looks would he dare? No, that seemed like it would be much more trouble than it was worth.
However, Severus soon walked into the large house and into a large chamber with a green cushioned throne on which the Dark Lord himself sat in some black robes with a slimy bald head and crimson red eyes. Severus had to wonder though - what did Voldemort do all day? Did he just sit on that uncomfortable looking chair enjoying his minions grovelling at his feet – all day long?
"My lord," Severus greeted bowing low to his 'master' in respect. "I have news you may find interesting."
"I see," Voldemort answered with a cool hiss to his voice. "And what might this news be, Severus?"
"Harry Evans, formerly Harry Potter," he spoke quickly as he noticed the wand The Dark Lord had been holding and realising that that might be his entertainment and knew Harry's name would steal Voldemort's interest, so the torture curse was hopefully avoided, which was pretty easy as he just had to tell Voldemort whatever he wanted to know about Dumbledore's bullshit.
As expected, Voldemort paused fidgeting with his wand and spoke. "Harry Evans… the sealed child who almost made Hogwarts crumble to the ground?" he asked with intrigue in his expression. "Do not leave me waiting Severus! I do not like to wait!"
"Yes My Lord," he readily agreed nodding quickly. "Evans has somehow regained magic and is once more trying to give magic to the filthy muggles, but Dumbledore has found out and is as of now trying to think of a way to stop him."
"Indeed that is worthy news for my ears," the Serpent Lord spoke with a tiny smirk on his thin lips. "Well… I suppose we can leave Evans for the time being as Dumbledore might stop him, which leaves us free for a while. At the least the old fool will slow the boy down. Yes, it makes no sense for us to interfere unless we have too, and let Dumbledore show the world that he preaches one thing, while practicing something else. He practices the same as us, but in a different way, and someday I'll destroy him too!"
Voldemort laughed raspy and cold without any humour in the tone. "Yes… someday I will destroy the foolish meddling old basket case and his Order of the Phoenix!" he laughed some more, and Severus just shrugged turned around and left with the nearest pub being his next destination, have a few beers, buy a bottle of whisky, go home, have a glass of whisky while finishing his latest report, and then bed; these people were exhausting so he deserved a treat.
Meanwhile, back at Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore sat in his office brooding as he thought of ways to put a stop to Harry Evans's stupid and childish desire to give away magic to everyone. He could not let this continue, as over the past few years he had noticed that some of his Order were speaking out against him, and it would take stopping Evans and his evil ways to get them all to see the light.
Yes, he thought to himself smiling at his scarlet phoenix sitting on its perch watching him. Though, he didn't notice the sad look of pity in the birds' black eyes, and the moment he looked away the bird left in a flash of orange and yellow embers, but that was normal as Fawkes came and went all the time. Dumbledore just didn't know that the bird had had enough of his shit too and wouldn't return as he figured he could find a new and worthy human to hang with as Dumbledore sure wasn't worthy of his trust anymore.
"Evans has done nothing worthwhile!" Dumbledore continued ranting. "But Terry – yes – wonderful Terry! Terry, THE Boy-Who-Lived has saved them all, muggles included from the terror of Voldemort!" he said in delighted glee and if Terry saw this…? He would have probably defected to his brother and begged for his forgiveness and a place to hide.
