Chapter 9: Accidents are still discoveries.
Harry spent his Boxing day, as he experimented with transfiguring the parts for the next major "bionic" surgery. Luis' old squadmate, Raphaël was excited when Priya explained that she was going to measure him for prosthetics. Harry had summoned his house magic and he was shaping some polymer with his hands. Ginny had apparated to the manor to borrow his metric tap and die set and saw that Harry was taking a break. The Peverell Atom was buzzing and out of curiosity and partly for fun, she poked one of the arithmantic points. Suddenly, the entire orientation of the atom changed. Now, there seemed to be particles that were appearing and fading into existence.
"Ginny, what did you do?" Harry asked.
"I just poked the thing? I need an M3 tap. Fine thread?" Ginny replied.
"Help yourself to the kit?" Harry replied as he flicked the Atom to his left hand. Then, he began to manipulate the arithmantic points and observed some of the magical effects, while using his mage sight. He spent the next three hours, as he tried all sorts of combinations and permutations. He grabbed his mother's research and began to read some of the earliest pages. Her accounts had described falling into an occulumentic trance as she quested with her wand in her hand. Harry then grabbed his phone and sent out a general alert to everyone that he was not available, before moving to his bedroom.
It was now early into the night. As he sat cross-legged on his bed, instead of connecting to just his magic, he also focused on his breathing and he blanked his mind.
Breath in. Breath out. Nothing. Breath in. Breath out. Nothing. Breath in. Breath out. Nothing…..
Harry found himself examining his mother's claims. She had no House magic. How did she ever figure out that Wingardium Leviosa affected Gravitons? She claimed that she saw what she needed to see in a 'trance'. He considered that his mother had a known predisposition to the mind arts. Harry thought about the Wingardium Leviosa spell in his meditative trance and realised something fundamental.
Hermione's arithmantic equations corresponded to the position of the seven blobs?
She often complained that she would skip certain pieces of the equations if they didn't make sense. What if all she was missing was a coordinate system? Perhaps the arithmantic solutions for a spell that propagated through a wand core were far more complex. If magic was energy before a spell was cast, the energy had to come from somewhere. And what if the equation wasn't exactly finished? What if the possible equation included not only how to produce the magic in the wand core, but also the final effect of the magic?
An equation that described the components, and the product. So less of an equation with unknowns and more of a complete arithmantic statement.
Harry began to think about Wingardium Leviosa, which was one of the first spells he had learnt. Suddenly the Peverell Atom displayed the arithmantic configuration of the spell, and he began to move the pieces around until he saw an entire flood of small particles that were emitted from the hydrogen atom. Many years ago, he had intrinsically known that he was looking at a graphene layer. He immediately knew that he was getting some type of new particle that served as the opposite of the graviton - This particle nullified gravity. From what Harry observed, this version of the Wingardium Leviosa was far more efficient, as it directly interacted with matter. However, its conjuration was very complex and was not as simple as pointing a wand. Technically, it was more of a magical representation of how to move objects – a general algorithm, instead of a direct Wingardium Leviosa.
This was the finer mechanics of the magical effect.
It made a certain amount of sense – you were putting in far more effort in the beginning to craft something far more exquisite. It required seven types of energy at different geometries and signatures, to create the effect. He explored all of the spells that he knew and found that they were wildly different. Harry stored snapshots of the various configurations in his memory as he decided that Hermione might be able to crunch the mathematics involved, at a much later date.
Harry wanted to look at many objects while his extended capability, was active. He exited the meditation and looked around before he saw something glowing in his pocket. He took out his wand and looked at the carbon nanotubes in the wand core. He then began to move around his arithmantic points by trial and error until the magic of his atom matched the emission of the wand.
Harry looked at the time and it was midnight.
He walked down into the workshop and began to experiment with many of the products that contained nanotubes. It seemed that he could now enchant any material with carbon nanotubes to become a wand core if he "entangled" the material. He also investigated how different lengths of nanotubes seemed to prefer different spells. He even tried to "entangle" different substances like steel, including various gems and plastics.
Harry had figured out that wand cores were merely antennas.
They interacted with some unknown magical field that probably was a fundamental force of the universe, and they channelled the energy into spells. All a person had to do, was to 'entangle' the materials to act as an antenna, and you had a magical core. Apparently, the doping of the core was a process that occurred naturally in magical animals. On this basis, magicals harvested feathers, heartstrings, and hairs from magical creatures to build wands. Now, he understood the underlying reason why this had occurred. It also meant that perhaps magicals had similar structures either at the cellular level or in the body. He would have to involve his mother and Hermione in that investigation. He also wondered if he could make a wand, where the entire structure was entangled in the magical field. And better yet, its structure and its storage would encapsulate everything he had learned, up to now. Harry decided to try an experiment.
He decided to combine a few of his religious beliefs into his science and his magic. It had been argued that the spine was a holy part of the body. This admission had come from several places. Magical lore, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and the Greeks? They all had made suppositions. Harry acquired some materials and laid them out on his bed.
He decided to shape the mostly translucent black-tinted PTFE tube into the shape of his spine. He made a miniaturized copy of the shape, size and nerve layout. His reasoning was simple – the structure of the spinal cord was integral to sensation, coordination, communication and the flow of magic. The strain on his mind was considerable, and it felt like he was pushing through a new barrier in his magic. It reminded him of his early crafting when he had struggled to transfigure graphene. He was gasping for breath, and he enjoyed being challenged. When he was happy, he took a break.
When he sufficiently recovered, he then powdered some synthetic ruby crystals by breaking the molecular bonds and then began to embed the microscopic ruby powder, along with graphene powder into the structure. Finally, he powdered some superconductors, after he reviewed some of Glaucon's notes. When he was assured of the homogeneity of the powders and the carbon nanotubes that were distributed inside the neuron-like structures of the wand, he drew upon his new house magic and entangled the wand to channel what he now called the "M-field" or the magical field.
He had to work through the wand slowly, as he took his time and tuned different parts of the structure to different dispositions. It seemed that the length of the nanotubes predisposed it to different types of magic, and now the bulb design of the elder wand made sense. As he began to finalise the design, he also cut away at any of the structures that did not have any function. Now the wand possessed several sub-millimetre air channels. Finally, to give the wand some strength he grabbed some Cobalt Alloy powder from his 3D Sintering machine and fused the powder into some of the voids to make the plastic very strong. The cobalt tree-like structure acted like a sympathetic resonator also and it made the wand feel warm and comfortable.
It was four in the morning and he was looking at a new wand. Harry had sweated so much in the process, that the bedsheet sported an impressive wet puddle, even with the air conditioning running full blast.
This wand had no core layer or energy layer storage. The entire matrix of the wand served as a core and capacitor. Spell patterns occurred within a network of free-floating nanotubes that had been left deliberately untouched.
Invictus who had been observing carefully via the cameras commented, "Well when I saw you were focused, I decided not to disturb you. You made a breakthrough?"
"I think so. I have a wand that is better than the Deathstick. And the inspiration was provided by Ginny. She merely poked the arithmantic points on the atom and discovered that she could move it around. The arithmantic points and their orientation have significance. A certain configuration can create magical cores. Other configurations can conjure a far more complex type of magic that is far more efficient. Requires far more effort though. Very difficult."
"Serendipity is beautiful when it happens. The wand certainly looks the part. Almost organic and alien? I like the porous-looking design. Tell me the features grandson?" Invictus asked.
"Copied my spinal cord for the main structure. This thing resonates when I hold it. Instead of picking a core that might be matched to your biology, I engineered a close enough copy of what I needed. I also fused the energy storage and the core. The magical circuits are closed and don't have to hop between the different layers in the wand. Strengthened the plastic with cobalt, We also have microchannels for air cooling. That was a nifty side effect. I wanted the wand to be light, initially."
Invictus whistled.
"So the bug becomes a feature, eh? Well, as they say, give it a wave?" the portrait requested.
Harry then tested the wand.
The wand stayed cool, and he could feel as the wand matched up with his nervous system. The wand was so powerful that stunners left smoking craters. With the other Fiendfyre spells, the beam was almost violet and needle-thin. The different length nanotubes provided the wand with the capability to execute any type of magic fluidly - The wand seemed to be very versatile. And the shields? They were far stronger. As Harry continued to push the wand, he considered that the PTFE plastic could manage the high temperatures that were associated with excessive use. A temperature probe was used to check the energy dissipation, and the two hundred and twenty degrees Celcius temperature meant nothing as Harry brutalised his wand with continuous casting.
Curiously, it felt like the wand's allegiance could not be won – Harry had locked the wand's characteristics to his spine. It was a wand only for him. The black PTFE tube almost looked like an unearthly skeleton-looking pylon that the grim reaper had summoned. The porous and translucent surface even glowed when he cast spells.
"Looks unearthly. I like it!" Invictus beamed.
"It does look cool. I have been wondering if I should move to organic shapes. The whole trapezoidal steel pieces are cool, but I have better capability now. Looks like a freaky insect robot from the matrix movie built this thing."
"Perhaps you should try for the challenge. I would like to see our bigger projects move to organic designs." Invictus suggested as Harry made his way back to his bed to sleep. Harry was already considering that he could build his proposed internal wand by modifying his right arm. His marrow would make a good place to house the materials, and he could tie his magical core directly into the amplifier. All he needed was to safely deliver the materials. That would require complex surgery, and he decided that he would give it some more thought.
When Albus awoke, as soon as he touched his wand, he understood that something was different. There was this restless feeling that the wand usually gave off – an acknowledgement that the wand was the most powerful in the world. The wand understood that something had surpassed it. And the acknowledgement wasn't just a mild intuition – it felt powerful and unchallengeable. Almost as if the new wand had only one master, and its allegiance was not up to the victor.
The wand was his, and his alone to own.
Albus began to cast some spells to test his death stick and while the power had not changed, it felt diminished. Somehow this wand knew that there was another that was far more powerful. Albus began to pace up and down as he realised that whatever innovation had been discovered would not only stay in the Storm Lord's wand, but it would become a part of his armour, his halberd and his guns.
Albus began to wonder if he would even manage to stop the Storm Lord. How exactly do you challenge the lineage that built the very wand you prided yourself on carrying? By magical standards, the young man knew more than Ollivander!
Meanwhile, Harry was having breakfast and was demolishing his sausages as he explained to Hermione and his mother, what had occurred earlier that morning.
"So synthetic wand cores Harry? In under a day? No wonder you locked up?" Hermione asked.
"Well, I haven't had any discoveries in a while, so that was nice. I also discovered that only the end of nanotubes need to be pointing to the target, The rest of them can be made into coils, and they often resonate with the right fiddling. No need to make a wand shape that is long and thin. If you want a bracelet to cast spells, let me know?"
"Gosh. Fashionable jewellery that can cast spells? Sign me up!" Hermione laughed.
Harry and Hermione laughed as they examined the new creation. Harry's wand was so well-tuned to his physiology that it felt dead to Hermione and Priya. They could not cast a single spell with it.
"How quickly are we getting new wands?" Priya asked.
"I will create yours, and then I will do Hermione. I will have to copy your spinal pattern, so a mind link might be required," Harry explained as he touched his mother's back and found that he could see the biological structure, almost as if it was a piece of steel.
"Well, that is…new. I can see your spine structure by touching you. That is odd. I didn't need a trance?" Harry wondered.
"Perhaps the distinction between organic and inorganic is going away. It is all atoms and molecules at the end of the day? Time for the big boy toys. Time to play with organic structures!" Hermione suggested.
"Oh, Gramps and I did discuss that last night!" Harry replied as he copied down the arithmancy that he had seen last night. Hermione after looking at the equations and a demonstration of how the arithmantic points could be reconfigured began to ponder if there were any existing mathematics that could serve her needs to unify the equations. Harry decided that he would build a couple of new emitter cores with the improved method that he had used for his new wand, so that the emitter could produce more copies of itself. He only needed to store his magic as arithmancy into handmade emitter matrixes. Then the handcrafted items could produce more copies of themselves.
Now there was no need to buy wand cores for his high-performance projects. He could build something far superior, and he could mass-produce it.
The first two weeks of the new school year had passed. Draco-Riddle wondered if he could punish Ronald Weasley – he knew his secret! It must have been him who destroyed his Horcrux? As Riddle looked for the trio, they became literal ghosts at the castle. And worse, was the rumour that they were teaching the upper years? He would have to bide his time. Even their siblings were hard to track.
He considered a mass attack on the students would be a far better option. And, it was more likely to stain Albus Dumbledore's reputation. After all, Myrtle died, and everything had returned to normal, eventually. Perhaps, it was time for at least two hundred people to die. The magical signatures of the eggs were getting stronger and he would soon have his serpentine army to command.
He would work silently.
Little did he know, that none of his plans was secret as people were watching his activities like Reality TV and were munching on popcorn.
It was January the 17th and Harry, Hermione and Priya had been invited to dinner at the residence of the French Minister of magic. His wife and his daughter had received the pair. Also in attendance were Luis, Apolloline, Fleur and Gabrielle. Harry didn't take long to figure out that the Minister's daughter Aliénor was very taken with him, as she gave him too many smiles and flirty eyes. Harry had continued to ignore the girl, as she tried valiantly to catch his attention. Hermione instead of being angry smiled as she considered all of it to be good entertainment. Harry was sure that Hermione and his mother would get a good laugh at it, much later. The Minister was left somewhat surprised by the etiquette of the visitors. They seemed to fit in, without any problems. He reasoned that Clementine had taught them what they needed to know, and their French was excellent. This made the conversation easy for his daughter and wife to understand the story of the odd group.
The initial discussion centred on recapping Harry's rise into power – his adoption by his mother, and then the story of the "Boy who lived". Harry explained the ritual his biological mother carried out, and then his inheritance of the Peverell Lineage. Priya took over as she explained Harry's harsh experiences had changed him, and that essentially he had been an adult before his time. Hermione joined the conversations as they reflected on the fact that they were equally mundane, about their magical research. A discussion about many of the ideas that the magical world had adopted, came forth and suddenly the perspective that Harry shared made sense to the assembled people.
"So you took the mundane computers and tablets, and made magical versions?" the Minister asked.
"Why stop at carriages and cameras? It is on this basis that we designed the data slate. All products and services that we have created are things that we already enjoy via our credit cards in the mundane world?" Harry explained.
"That…..makes sense. Why did we stop at carriages and old fashioned cameras then?" Aliénor asked as she had a look at Harry's smartphone.
"Romanticism – the Wizarding world wanted to preserve what they thought was beautiful and modern in their time. And for the English, that was the Victorian era. They stayed unchanged, and the magical world was left behind even after the Industrial Revolution had passed." Hermione suggested.
As he and Hermione spoke about Priya's kidnapping, suddenly Aliénor's demeanour changed, as she observed the boy. It seemed that his eyes were full of steel. There was no boyish behaviour. He wasn't an Auror or even the boogeyman, and neither was his sister. They were the people who you sent, to kill the fucking boogeyman. Finally was the discussion of Voldemort's immortality via necromancy and the Diagon alley showdown.
"I understand Hermione, that your father is on the S.A.S reserves? And he occasionally continues the training drills? Luis explained to me that he runs the operations?" the French Minister of Magic clarified.
"Yes. And…." Hermione replied, and explained the brutal regime that they undertook, and then the minister's wife and daughter were shocked to know that the teenage boy and girl were not even thirteen yet.
"You look almost sixteen!" Aliénor exclaimed.
"Correct. The magical body can take far more pressure, and we decided to forge it into something greater. To do that, we had to eliminate the laid back lifestyles of magicals, who flick a wand for everything. We had to physically push the body, to channel more magic." Harry replied neutrally.
That statement had caused raised eyebrows. However, the general fitness on display by the visitors solidified the claims. As the conversation meandered, the final discussion was about the legendary "Death Stick" arrived. The revelation that the wand was not a rumour, but merely his inheritance that was in the position of Albus Dumbledore was shocking. Harry was asked to rate his combat ability against Albus Dumbledore, and the nugget of information had been dropped.
"But surely you would want to reclaim it? He has your ancestral wand? It is rightfully yours?" the Minister's wife asked.
"Why don't you look at the replacement?" Harry explained as he levitated the wand towards the minister and his family with his hands. The alien-looking organic construction and the fluid blending of the steel and other materials left the family confused. Far more perplexing was when there was no core or wood choice. And the wandless magic was essentially a casual flex.
"No core and no wood?" Aliénor asked.
"The materials are modern. PTFE high temperature plastic. Powdered Yttrium Barium Copper Oxide, Cobalt Chrome MP1, Synthetic ruby crystal, Graphene and Boron Nitride nanotubes. As to why you can't cast spells, the shape is tuned to my spinal cord. That sounds outlandish, but our ability to interface materials into the nervous system is how Noémie's arm was developed. That wand is only for me. If you are willing to take oaths, I can do personal wands for you and your family." Harry replied.
"Do we have enough Order of Merlin awards to give all three of you? And I am aware that your mother already has one. But there have been so many discoveries! All of you are deserving! I consider elf therapy to be important! They have gotten so much better!" the Minister's wife explained.
"I think they can settle for one each. As for me. You can amend my order to include the additional achievements. My colleagues who assisted me, however, are all eligible for that award. I think that is reasonable enough. Bloodcurses have remained an enigma for too long." Priya replied.
The Minister nodded, as he committed the idea to a piece of paper. The entire team that had done both operations could be rewarded for the new year. The discussion continued as Hermione and Harry explained the cannon and the shield emitter that would be a part of Rapahel's combat augmentations, as they were too happy to run a second trial.
"Now to the real issue of the night. I called you in because we have an emergency. The Italian Minister of Magic has been dealing with mobs for some time. His two daughters have been kidnapped, and they are asking for the Italian equivalent of twenty million bezants in exchange. Lorenzo has been a good friend for many years and we have reason to believe that they will kill the girls anyway." the French minister explained.
"What else can you tell us about the mob?" Hermione asked.
"They are descended from the Republican Fascist Party. Italian history is surprisingly complicated. Er…." The Minister continued, as he wondered how to summarise everything effectively.
"If I had to guess, Fascism wasn't only a mundane thing in Italy. Many of the magicals probably agreed with Mussolini. The idea of establishing the Roman empire? That idea would be attractive to some of the more radical magical conservatives. So, they want to teach the Italian Minister of Magic a lesson?" Harry casually suggested.
"I wasn't aware you know about Mussolini? That is quite an…..accurate summary of the matter at hand?" the Minister joked, as he understood that the pair of children were well-read.
"It is always the same thing with these morons. Riddle had grandiose dreams. So, it is a hostage rescue case. How did you acquire the location?" Hermione enquired.
"We know an information broker. She will provide the location the day before the exchange on the promise that she wants the equivalent of one million bezants first. Half before, and half after the children are rescued. She guaranteed that they are currently alive."
"Ah, a selfish party then. She sounds like the black widow type?" Hermione wondered.
"She is. All we know is that her title is Zabini?" Luis replied and Harry asked Invictus to check through the dataslate chats. He found that not a single message had been sent by Blaise Zabini, even though he owned the device and used it to do schoolwork. And the device had never left Hogwarts - it stayed inside a hidden pocket behind the Slytherin common room fireplace. He continued to send messages the traditional way, via owl. Harry then called Grace and Invictus over her communicator.
"Mr Conceited has been very careful to cover his tracks. Unfortunately by avoiding the usage of the devices, he has made himself obvious. Gramps, dispatch a drone to monitor him. Follow his owl, while it is in flight. I want to see what is the possibility that we might have a relationship."
"I am going to change out his ink? We can get a location, maybe?" Hermione suggested as Harry nodded.
"There is a Zabini at Hogwarts?" Luis asked.
"Yes, but he might not be related. However, we heard that he lives with his mother, and he comes from Italy. So we are going to check. He happens to be very sneaky too. That cannot be a coincidence." Harry replied.
"Could people spy on me?" the Minister asked.
"We did not sit idly in your room. We had an artefact that swept for magical signatures and electronic bugs. We know that the house is private at least. The counter intrusion scanner, we can provide to you if you need such an item." Hermione explained.
The rest of the evening was spent as Luis spoke about the exchange that was happening in a week. As long as they could rescue the children, the rest of the men were to be eliminated as they were wanted terrorists. After the dinner was finished, the guests left and Aliénor had too many questions for Fleur.
"He is so handsome! Hard to believe that he killed three hundred already. This is the first time I have been ignored, and I know I am good-looking!" Aliénor asked.
"His mother's safety came from the ability to kill droves of men at the age of ten years old. You will find that his world is a dark place. I have seen a lot of his other innovations. His mind is genuinely a large place. He and Mione could dust out entire squads of Aurors.
"And they built everything. Even the dataslates too? And the brooms? He created the Stormbolt, the Morrigan and the Typhoon? And he built the pistols? And the appliances? How much talent do they have?" the minister's daughter asked.
"Enough to spare. All the Quidditch Armor gear and the broadcasting systems are also theirs. They thought me my English, and that is why I am quite fluent - I speak to them every day over my smartphone. The most important thing was when they built this bracelet for me. We only became friends after that. Veela discrimination has disappeared because of them." Fleur replied.
"You sure he isn't available? I don't know, he seems very dashing and brave! I would not mind experiencing him for a night if I cannot have him forever. He is younger than me! I should let him have a conquest he will remember!" Aliénor giggled.
"You are free to try. He is fighting a war against the last Dark Lord who did some kind of Necromancy that was so foul, that it made him immortal. Everything he does is in the name of preparing. You will find that he just doesn't care. But if you do succeed, tell me about it alright?" Fleur teased.
Aliénor frowned. Lord Peverell represented the first male that had ignored her.
Maybe he was just a busy man.
The new year had arrived. Hogwarts had resumed school.
Gryffindor had lost the house cup to Hufflepuff last year because it had taken a while for the Gryffindors to understand the penalties involved. When Minerva had taken away triple points from two of her fourth years for unduly harassing a pair of Slytherin witches, even Minerva became a hotly discussed topic in the Hogwarts Staff Room. This had occurred on the final morning of the school term last year, and it had disqualified Gryffindor for the House Cup. When Slughorn had heard about the triple penalties that had worked wonders to cut out bullying, he addressed the issue at the First Triumvirate meeting for the second term.
"I had been wondering why the Gryffindor instigation had almost disappeared. Imagine when I spoke to Professor McGonagall during Yule, and she explained that many of her lions had been given triple penalties during the previous academic year. It was on this basis that Gryffindor lost the house cup."
Slytherin's house became silent. Especially the darker houses.
"When I checked the records, the morning of the House cup awards she docked ninety points. When I asked why she would do such a thing, she explained that some things were more important in the long run. She decided that her Gryffindors will be punished severely for any issues with another house. And even if they are the victims, it is up to the Gryffindors to avoid or outthink any possible aggressors.
I am implementing the same system for House Slytherin. I don't care what you think. I have decided that House Slytherin is burying the hatchet with House Gryffindor. If you can't get over your hate, you might have to leave Hogwarts."
Horace Slughorn paused, and added for extra effect:
"Perhaps some of you are not as cunning as you think?"
With the new discipline rules in effect, things became difficult. The darker purebloods did not follow the rules at all. Points began to bleed out of the House Slytherin counter, as the totals dropped exponentially. By the time the next Triumvirate meeting had arrived, it had been a ruckus. They were not enough purebloods in existence for House Slytherin to deny other 'mudbloods' and 'blood traitors' entry. Harry and Hermione had laughed – the majority of House Slytherin was being forced to distance themselves from the fifty families that were staunch supporters of the Dark Lord. Even the Triumvirate had warned the darker houses about their behaviour, and Marcella and her group were called "traitors" that night. That was when Marcella did not hesitate to remind her accusers what they were purchasing. Darius and Cato seemed like they wanted to be sympathetic to the darker houses, but the idea of ignoring the tradition of winning the House cup at Hogwarts seemed like sacrilege - they had been winning for many years consecutively.
"It seems that when today's Slytherins are met with unfortunate circumstances, there is no cunning! Today we lost enough points to lose the house cup. We are allowing the Gryffs to outperform us?" Cato asked.
"And why should we participate in this appeasement game? We do not bow to anyone! Not to filthy muggles!" Jugson Jr. yelled.
"Watch your words, boy! The majority of this house come from such homes! How dare you! For all your blood purity, your grades and contributions Jusgson, have been dismal!" Slughorn roared. The night continued, as it seemed that many of the older students wanted to pull out their wands for the Slytherin Head of House. Daphne and Tracey observed the tensions and reasoned that within this particular meeting, true intentions and motivations were being shown, because of the emotionally charged circumstances. Harry was just finished with his assignments, and he was preparing his armour and weapons. As he listened to the tension in Slytherin house, he and Hermione ate some honey-salted walnuts from a bowl.
"This is hilarious. Who would have ever thought such a simple policy could change things? Minerva has put the fear of God into the Gryffs. Now they are running away, and Slytherin is playing brave if you think about it?" Harry wondered as the light bulb moment occurred for Hermione.
"Oh Harry, this is better than Malfoy tele, as I like to call it. He isn't interacting much with people. Some of his hair started to fall off. Maybe he could go bald? Sometimes I wonder if he is a Hufflepuff, with his loyalty?" Hermione wondered.
Hermione and Harry laughed as they continued to improve their weapons and armour.
Grace was following Blaise's owl for fun. While it was necessary for Grace to track the bird, she enjoyed the little stakeout. Harry was not surprised when the letter passed through several couriers who tried any number of misdirection tactics. That did not help them at all - Hermione had apparated into Blaise's room and had replaced all of the ink in his ink bottles. Any attempt to cancel the spell with a finite only resulted in a couple of letters losing the charm. A full stop had enough magic in it, to carry out the necessary job. Most of the tracking spells were normally cast on the envelope, the paper or the bird in any case.
Nobody ever targeted the ink.
The letter had arrived in a small hut, located in Tolmezzo in Italy. Now Harry was listening to the voice of Belinda Zabini, as she spoke to her associates. She had checked the letter and envelope for enchantments and she had missed the ink. She had even applied the finite and she had only damaged a few of the letters. Harry did not speak Italian, but Luis had gotten a translator to listen and transcribe the recorded conversations. She was a shrewd woman and she was even aware that the Alpha Kill Team was being deployed to deal with the kidnapping. However, she had no idea who these people were and all she had to go on was "G.B.P and P.B.I". She also knew that Lord Black was connected to this group, based on rumours that Blaise had sent her. Harry and Hermione were impressed that she had gotten that far.
"Ms Zabini, how will we find out about the new kill squad?" a man asked.
"We will use the telescopes. There is a nice spot in the mountains where I can look at the rescue operation. It is six kilometres away, and is at an elevation of two kilometres above sea level."
"So the children are alive then?" another henchman enquired.
"Yes. I have a friend on the compound. A cleaner. They only suffered a couple of slaps, nothing more." Belinda replied.
By the time Belinda had gone to sleep that night, the entire roof and many other places in her house were bugged. Her clothes in her wardrobe had been sprayed with tagging polymer via drones and Luis was given a live feed via a mirror.
Nobody in the Magical world was using the protean charm to act like a microphone and GPS tracker. The ink had been charmed so that when the direction of certain graphene flakes changed in relation to gravity, the behaviour was mirrored at Peverell Manor. A runic array converted the information along with the time, into a projected path. While a single particle could often be inaccurate with enough statistics, it was possible to round the errors out, by honing in on the central tendency of all the datasets.
Millions of microscopic accelerometers were present in the ink.
Information about the operation, slowly came forth as Luis assigned a team of translators to listen to her every word and work with intelligence operatives to gain more information over the next five days.
There was a small project that Harry and Hermione had recently completed in the Imperial College semiconductor lab. Harry was still using vacuum tubes to accomplish magical power control. Now, he was looking at a silicon-copper-titanium sandwich that he had developed, that was on par with a standard transistor package. As he replaced the components in his rifle, he took it for a test drive and examined the efficiency with his mage sight. Hermione was rubbing her hands, as she hoped that her calculations for the material thickness were correct.
"Well..it is dropped in..and…." Harry expressed, as he shouldered the rifle. He squeezed a shot out off, and he found that rifle kicked severely. It also seemed to run hotter and the energy expenditure was far less.
"I saw that. It looks like the plasma is running extra hot. I guess it is far more efficient than the tubes?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, at least twenty per cent if I go by eyeball measurements? If they don't fry out, we are doing replacements across the board. I will take every little bit extra that I can get." Harry replied.
"Now that we don't have to use these clunky vacuum tubes, we can just move to circuit boards? Solidstate magical microchips are the next thing. What about the collapsable helmet?" Hermione wondered.
"I have some pieces that I didn't complete. Time for a rush project then Mione? I have enough of the new materials to redo our entire armour."
"Well Harry, we do our best work before the mission, don't we?" Hermione asked as they got started.
While the last few innovations had been centred around the rail cannon and refining RuneOs, that did not mean that the armour development and many of the other smaller projects were not getting attention. Nor had Harry and Hermione stopped creating new spells. Rather, these things had been put on the back burner, and they worked on those projects occasionally when Harry and Hermione could take a break from their studies. The next planned iteration of the armour involved developing components that could assemble themselves. The project had been abandoned halfway because of packaging issues, as vacuum tubes required heat insulation and sufficient airflow.
Now they could resume the project and in their arsenal was the new wand core material that could be packaged within armour pieces, with only the end pointing in the direction of the needed spell. As the night went by, many small titanium pieces were attached to copper plates, emitter matrixes, small gems and superconducting tabs. Now, every armour hexagon could communicate with nearby pieces, and they located themselves properly via several pathfinding algorithms. Each piece had an interface that allowed them to pass coolant, electrical power, magical power and various data connections. They were also uniquely shaped to wrap around their bodies. The connections were very much built like small nerves and capillaries – Harry had access to far more organic designs that could be replicated with Hermione's arithmantic tweaks.
Glass visors were eliminated - images were projected directly into the eyeball via Hermione's illusions and they were overlaid with the necessary elements for the HUD, which included foe tracking, item tagging, zoom features, reticle functions, magical radar, sonar, energy usage and biosensor readings. Many of the features were jokingly ripped off from video games, and Harry and Hermione utilised a combination of Halo and Crysis features, with Invictus being the "hardsuit" computer.
The choice of project was not random. Harry desired to develop some type of programmable matter. However, the idea of nanities was daunting. He decided that small hexagonal plates the size of bottle caps were an attainable goal for now. There was also the hope that this pathfinding algorithm would be an integral part of the battleship, as he expected the floating pieces to be automatically reconfigurable.
Harry appreciated how Hermione's magic had progressed greatly. She had continued to develop more runes and her ability to conjure sophisticated images and holograms via illusions hardly required occulumentic trances, nor a wand. An outstretched hand was enough, as she continued to practice the exercises in Morgana's manuals. If Harry had become more powerful, Hermione was the queen of finesse. Now the pair were watching the pile of pads, and they were in their muscle weaves, which had a new superconducting collar attached to their necks.
"Here goes nothing!" Harry said as he activated the rune on his suit. All of the pieces rushed in, as the lower pieces built from the neck upwards. Instantly, the entire helmet was assembled.
"Well, it works on the first try. That is fantastic!" Hermione asked.
"Yes, everything works a little too good. Feels like I don't have anything on, complete visual and auditory coverage. Could we make the speed of the assembly a little slower? For the cool factor?" Harry grinned.
One hour later, Hermione had managed to add several embellishments which included plates that orbited Harry's head until they were ready to assemble, and pathfinding algorithms that left the eyes plates for last if Harry wanted to stare at the enemy into submission.
"This is almost..posh. Harry, you have 'the look' on your face?" Hermione teased.
"Forget about gun and weapon holsters. The pieces should float over our armour and they should assemble themselves when we think about them. Might even get your fancy princess crown in? I want to use the new m-transistors and the new emitter matrix in every possible block."
Hermione paused, as some obscure information from her casual reading came to the forefront.
"Talking about a crown, I don't see why you can get a Roman crest in – contrary to popular belief before crests became paper based they were usually worn at the top of helmets. I was thinking the standard roman red mohawk as I jokingly call it, might be a good fit for you?"
Harry was already on Google and looking at designs.
"Call Luna, we need her to sketch if she is up?" Harry asked.
"Oh hell yes, it is one of those nights then!" Hermione replied as she dialled her communicator.
During the rest of the night, Luna easily created several patterns based on a fusion of sci-fi pictures and historical sources. She had even broken down their rifles, shotguns and other weapons into geometric primitives that would match their armour aesthetic. Harry loved when designs were perfectly symmetrical. Now he was shaping the Protego forcefields into organic designs and the forged metal pieces looked like they had been grown on trees.
Harry and Hermione continued to forge new pieces for themselves, and for Remus and Sirius who would be accompanying them on their mission. After the initial helmet had been worked out, it was not hard to cover the rest of the body with enough panels. Daphne had been invited to help with the runes and she even suggested how Harry could improve his intimidation factor – She suggested that Harry's skull mask needed a more robotic vibe:
"Imagine if you can tell the Death Eaters, I have more skulls than you, I am the winner! Angular shapes, small overlapping pieces, more robotic looking and multiple red eyes? Say six in total? Like those robots from the first Matrix movie. Insect looking, and a total nightmare." Daphne asked.
"My first mask for Azkaban was somewhat like that, but it was a mostly organic shape. I am thinking we can improve the details with the new floaty bits. Hermione and I are going to give both of you a raise!" Harry joked.
"Sure. Harry, your head should be on fire, you need to look like the devil!" Luna suggested.
"You are the best friend we could ever ask for!" Hermione laughed, as Luna's face lit up.