This story about Harry Potter playing with runes and upsetting the applecart that is Magical Britain is shared with everyone on FanFiction for fun. Some surprises as Harry's Third Year begins to wind up while he explores runes.
Chapter 12: Muggles, Runes and RingsAfter the students returned to their normal Saturday plans, Harry made his way into the library and wandered into the stacks with books on Muggle Studies. He looked over the titles that included 'Mistaken for a Muggle', 'Lost in London' and 'Everything Muggle'.
The first book, 'Mistaken for a Muggle', had been published in 1954 and portrayed the adventures of a witch who hid in the muggle world to avoid her husband. According to the author, the British muggles still struggled with transportation (horse and buggy). It mentioned the scandalous clothing worn by muggle women (ankles and forearms showing) and worried that the population of the muggles (at least ten million in Britain) would grow to unmanageable numbers.
'Lost In London' was written in 1963 and included pictures of lorries, buses, and the large crowds of people on the streets. Harry went back to the front of the book and found that the book was considered a work of fantasy and the author, an adventurous pureblood witch, had been housed in the Janus Thackery wing at Saint Mungo's until she had been declared 'cured'.
The third book, 'Everything Muggle', had been published in 1972, and it was filled with pictures from the last years in the 1800s with the large locomotives, horse-drawn buggies, and Victorian fashions for women and men.
'The muggles are numerous but no match for wizards and witches so long as we do not attract their attention,' wrote the author, Aberforth Dumbledore.
'Isn't that guy Dumbledore's brother? Wonder if he really wrote it or if Dumbledore did?' Harry asked himself.
Putting the books back on the shelf in their proper locations, Harry walked from the library thinking, "Dobby is right. Wizards be stupid."
CHANGE SCENE: Runes in an ArrayWhen his class schedule allowed Harry to hide in his private classroom, he began looking at ideas for making a 'birdshot' spell that would ignite from a ring to supplement his wand attack against an opponent.
He investigated many different words for the 'weapon' to have present in his ring; shot, rock, needle, knife, and a grenade were all words he considered. And he wanted to test his 'weapons' from a paper cartouche before creating a ring that he'd have to banish if it didn't work like he wanted. After preparing five cartouches, he made his way to the seventh floor and asked the Come and Go Room to provide him with a room to test his weapons.
The door was a bit slower in appearing today and Harry found the door would not open for him. Then he remembered his promise to his elf and called out, "Dobby!"
The elf appeared with a laundry basket full of clean clothes in his hands and scowled, "Mr Harry Potters remembered to have elf in room when testing nasty spells."
Smiling briefly, Harry nodded his head and said, "All wizards be stupid, Dobby. You've told me this before, but I am trying to learn not to be stupid."
The elf snapped his fingers, the laundry basket vanished, and the door opened. Harry found a room with mattresses hanging on the walls, a trio of dummies that resembled wizards in long robes standing at the end of the room, and a stone wall about three feet tall standing between Harry and the dummies.
Walking into the room with Dobby coming behind, Harry walked up to the dummies and found they had some magic shimmering around them. In the right or left hand of each dummy was a magic wand and when he reached out to touch a dummy, it spun around, threw up the arm with a wand and after a moment, returned to the original position.
"These be practice dummies. Wizard blast dummies and dummies fights back with easy spells same as wizard knows. Magic fixes dummies when wizard blasts them apart," Dobby said. Then the elf pointed to the wall in the middle of the room and added, "That be where Mr Harry Potter hides when he fires off his spells at dummies."
"Hide?"
Dobby stared at the teenager and frowned. "Hides! Or Dobby and Miss Hoggiewartle not let Mr Harry Potters play with strong magic!"
Setting one of the paper cartouches on the wall, aimed toward the dummies, Harry ducked down behind the wall with Dobby before reaching up with his wand and tapping it on the paper.
There was a single loud bang as a grenade exploded among the dummies. Looking around the end of the wall, Dobby said, "Be safe for Mr Harry Potters to go look at dummies."
Popping up from behind the wall, Harry found all three dummies spinning around and each of them had some pieces of shrapnel stuck inside them. The dummies stopped spinning and then the magic repaired them. Turning back to the wall, Harry saw Dobby pointing toward the mattresses that covered the front of the wall – shrapnel was embedded in each mattress.
Harry turned pale thinking about not having the wall in front of him when the muggle style grenade exploded. He nodded at Dobby, walked back around the wall and pulled out his bag again. This time he purposely selected the one with 'knife' as the weapon and fired the runic array. The results were less satisfying when he found a single knife embedded in the mattress behind the dummies.
Pulling out a biro, Harry pulled out the paper cartouche with rock and added '50' before the word 'rock'. Ducking down and reaching up with his wand, he hesitated for a moment and wondered about just using his finger.
'I'll try that experiment later,' Harry decided. 'I can't get side-tracked.'
This time, there was more damage to the three dummies as fifty fist-sized rocks had smashed into the dummies. Another idea appeared in his mind and this time he did try it. He pulled out a clean cartouche, wrote '3 big rocks', and fired that array. This time the dummies were knocked off their stands with the same amount of damage as from 50 rocks.
"Hmmm, this is interesting," Harry admitted, running back to the wall, and pulling out his notebook to write down his observations. Then he tried '1000 needles' that left the dummies and the mattresses behind them looking like pin cushions.
With another cartouche, Harry tried '10 shots' and was disappointed when the dummies and mattresses had ten hypodermics stuck in them. It didn't help that the elf laughed for three minutes, accusing the wizard of 'playing healer' with the dummies.
Helping Dobby clean up the room, Harry said, "Dobby, thanks again. I learned a lot and will make a ring with about 25 knives that shoot out."
"Dobby thinks that good idea. We tests tomorrow and see how many times it works before Mr Harry Potters be tired. And Dobby hopes to laugh again. Mr Harry Potters not be stupid but has strange looks on his face that make Dobby laugh."
CHANGE SCENE Weasley SurpriseOne morning began with a surprise when a large owl flew into the Great Hall and delivered letters to Percy Weasley, then to George and Fred Weasley, a third letter to Ron Weasley, and the last to Ginny Weasley. After reading her letter, Ginny began dancing around the room with the paper in her hand. Ron shouted with joy and screamed, "We're rich! We're rich!"
Fred and George took the letter in hand and left the Great Hall. Harry watched the kerfuffle at the Gryffindor table as some students gathered closer, while others moved away from Ron and Ginny as they celebrated. The stories that spread from table to table included Arthur Weasley inheriting a fortune, Molly having some luck with a lottery ticket, or Arthur being promoted to the role of liaison with the goblins.
As the students began to filter out of the hall and go to their next class, Harry noticed that Percy Weasley collected the letters that Ron and Ginevra received. He folded them and placed them inside a robe pocket. Fred and George were their usual jovial selves that evening, but Percy was unusually quiet and ignored Ron and Ginny talking about buying new robes and brooms.
Ron focused his attention on Harry for a moment and said, "Not the only one who's rich now Potter, are you? And a rich pureblood is always better than a rich mud – uh – half born."
Neville shared a letter from his grandmother that said the goblins had uncovered some ring that gave Arthur Weasley a vault long closed at the bank, and he'd become a member of the Wizengamot with responsibilities in the government. He'd been promoted and had a larger salary as well. Mrs Weasley had rushed to Diagon Alley and spent too much on garish robes that resembled Dumbledore's blinding robes.
Lady Longbottom's letter also noted that Madam Bones and Mr Abbot had each received keys from the bank. Already a noble house, Madam Bones received an additional vote in the Wizengamot, and Mr Abbot was to become Lord Abbot and take a seat in the body sometime this summer.
Neville said, "I hope Hannah is okay with this. She'll be skipped over for her younger brother as Lord Abbot after their father dies."
Harry didn't express any opinion.
CHANGE SCENE Runic Array Weapon and ShieldsWorking on a ring to add to his attacks during a fight, Harry read a lot about shields that wizards used to protect them from another wizard's attack. He mentioned his interest in a note with his weekly bag of gold to Bloodhook who sent back a wizarding book on different types of shields approved by the Ministry of Magic. These shields were created by use of Latin spells, Norse and Egyptian runes, and possibly Sumerian and Babylonia runes.
'How does a wizard keep up shields while attacking?' wondered Harry. 'I got some much still to learn and I'm not ready for a battle with a kneazle let alone a wizard.'
This realization only made the young wizard more determined, and he carried a book with him everywhere between classes, searching for more information. Realizing his studious habits had caught the attention of several of the staff members, Harry managed to refrain from reading in the Great Hall and talked with people up and down the Gryffindor table. Fred and George Weasley seemed to be particularly quiet and while he didn't pry, the twins told him a big secret about the letter they'd received.
One twin, George possibly, said, "Dad's family is very large and he's the youngest son of our grandfather, who is Lord Weasley."
"There are four uncles and sixteen cousins ahead of Dad and our oldest brother from ever being 'Lord Weasley'. We're like someone who is distantly related to the queen. It sounds good to everyone…" Fred said to continue.
"…except everyone else that's distantly related to the muggle queen," George added without pausing.
"Anyway, Dad is the youngest son so that ring the goblins found, made the current Lord Weasley's youngest son into a lord, skipping over all the other brothers."
Harry smirked and said, "That'll make the next family gathering fun."
"Oh, it's worse than that," George said, shaking his head.
"Our brother, Ronniekins…" said Fred.
"…dear studious little brother, Ron," added George.
"He's now dad's heir," said Fred with some strange tone in his voice.
"Huh?" asked Harry gobsmacked.
After Harry blinked as he processed that information, he thought it was George who explained, "The title always goes to the youngest brother."
Harry begged forgiveness from Gred and Forge after he laughed, and he snickered for the rest of the day, thinking, 'Ron Weasley is an heir to a title in Magical Britain? Merlin must be spinning in whatever grave he's buried.'
CHANGE SCENE: Stones of DeathEnd of Year examinations began and harry spent his spare minutes revising with Justin and other third-year students. With Justin acting as moderator, Hermione Granger worked with the study group in their final preparations for the exams with some success.
A week passed with the students keeping close to their dormitories or the library – the fifth and seventh-year students had priority in the library and offices of the professors while they revised for their OWLS and NEWTS, so Harry began to relax once the hardest exams were behind him. (He was confident he'd passed the practical and written exam for DADA despite having been worried about Lupin).
While he began to think about things to explore this summer, he looked at the fifth-year textbook for runes and found a passing reference to 'layers of runes' with an illustration of two sandstone plates – one on top of the other – being fused together and shrunk down into a medallion to make a 'two layers runic array'.
'That might let me shield and attack at the same time from a ring,' he realised just before being called into the classroom for the practical portion of his Charms exam.
That evening, his last exam complete, he went to his private classroom and worked on a cartouche with the runes and words to make a ring with '100 rocks' as the weapon. With a golden nugget from the bag of gold he'd made for Gringotts and a limestone pebble, Harry Potter made his new ring. Hurrying up to the seventh floor, he called Dobby who appeared and stared at the new ring.
"Mr Harry Potters make spell on ring, but it not shoot back at wizard, so wizard without shield not be stupid – this time," the elf said while waiting for the Come and Go Room to provide the door to the battle room.
Stepping inside and remaining behind the wall, Harry moved his left hand forward and thought of the ring igniting the spell to throw rocks at his opponents.
WHAM!
Harry stared as the rocks flew across the space between the half-wall and the three dummies. But then, the attack continued.
WHAM! WHAM!
More rocks flew across the space and the repeated bludgeoning of the dummies with fist-sized dummies began to tear them apart.
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
Harry willed the ring to stop, and rocks ceased to fly across the room. The wizard and elf walked around the wall and examined the dummies. They lay in pieces underneath shattered stones and while they watched one of the mattresses fell off the wall behind to reveal a pot marked stone wall.
"What numbers did Mr Harry Potters use for stones of death?" asked Dobby in his usual tone of voice.
"One hundred."
"Ten tens?" Dobby replied and then waved his hands over the wizard. The elf looked satisfied when he reported, "Mr Harry Potters learning. Not take magic from wizard's cores so ten tens of rocks can fire ten tens time."
"You think I could use the ring for a hundred times with a hundred stones each time?"
"That be what Dobby said," the elf replied. "Good weapon and breakthrough shields putting down wizards stupid enough to attack youse. But Mr Harry Potter realise he be killing wizards?"
Looking at the ring and then at the wall, Harry asked, "If I did all one hundred here in the Come and Go Room, what would happen?
"Room gets new window," Dobby explained. "Make big mess and elves be happy to rebuild dummies and walls."
CHANGE SCENE: Thinking about Improving BirdshotAs the last weeks of the spring term passed, Harry Potter examined his fun with runes in his third year at Hogwarts. The gold that pleased the goblins was important and would help pay for his future.
In his notebook, Harry wrote down ideas to figure out the words and runes needed to prevent anyone from taking his wand, and maybe look for ones that could improve his aim and the range of his spellcasting. He understood that once the runic array was created, it could be shrunk and attached to the side of his wand.
'And what about these shields that protect me?' he wondered. 'More things to think about this summer and learn next year.'
The ring he'd made to magnify his spell casting was powerful and he needed to test it somewhere this summer behind strong wards to protect it from being detected by the Ministry for Magic. And his Sirius Black ring was ready to deal with that wizard if he ever appeared again.
'It works to turn a person into a figurine,' he told himself. 'Well, maybe it does. It turned Ron's rat into a figurine. And maybe this summer, I can find some adult I can trust and get some advice about the rat that turned into the figurine of a wizard.'
He'd made another ring with a piece of granite in the setting – this was his birdshot ring. When he fought some wizard – not a duel – a fight, this ring threw out one hundred stones at high velocity. It appeared to be powerful enough to repeatedly throw out the spell for a time – the test in the Come and Go Room had stopped after six shots that left the test dummies shattered, and the stone walls impacted. Dobby assured Harry everything could be repaired by the elves this summer when there was little to be done.
'I need to see about making a birdshot ring that uses different things. Maybe a dozen silver stakes, five basilisk fangs, eight muggle grenades, or brimstone? The grenades will have to explode only when a safe distance from me…maybe bullets would be better. And can the ring repeat the attacks?'
"But, right now, I don't know how to get four things inside the same runic array, he muttered aloud. Looking at Dobby who looked interested, Harry added, "That'll be something I can work on this summer."
END CHAPTER