A Good Christmas:

Before any gift giving between Harry and anybody else occurred, he wanted to deal with his diminutive friends first. Harry had realised that Elves were rather creative and they only required thoughtful gifts. Harry also wanted to give the Goblins something as Bloodaxe and King Ragnok had been helpful. With these decisions being finalised, Harry prepared accordingly.

The House Elves were given bags of art and craft supplies along with cloth, pins, thread, needles, knitting supplies and sequins. This had been planned as a combined gift from Harry, Hermione, Priya and Lorna. Naturally, every warm human body in the room was presented with a set of oddly coloured knitted hats, socks, and scarfs from the elves after they opened their presents. All the other parcels for those who were not present had been gift wrapped and Harry looked forward to Hermione receiving her knitted items.

Harry had prepared ten small supercapacitors as gifts for Bloodaxe and King Ragnok. Harry wrote personal letters and attached the entire affair as separate parcels of five each before using Grace to send everything off.

When Bloodaxe received the gift, he laughed. Harry Potter was an unusual wizard. However, the gesture had been heartwarming as the boy was rather thoughtful. Harry was probably the first Wizard to openly give a Goblin a Yuletide gift in a very long time. As Bloodaxe read the letter, he considered the fantastic claim and decided to test the 'power cell', thinking that perhaps Harry was just merely excited.

That was until he tried dripping magic into the device and then he realised that Harry Potter had invented something truly revolutionary. The small object absorbed large amounts of magical energy, and it easily outstripped Goblin Power runes by a mile wide. And he built this as a rush job yesterday? Gobblydook's nose be damned. The Peverell Lineage was back and already on the way to changing Magical England. Bloodaxe immediately took the other parcel to King Ragnok.

"Hello my King. Lord Peverell is at it again. He sent us Yuletide gifts, which alone is a cultural olive branch we have not gotten for so long. But this 'power cell' my King, try charging this with energy, and don't bother to be forgiving."

One of the ongoing issues was that runes whether Goblin or otherwise generally failed to store large amounts of magical energy, and also failed to deal with high energy draw effectively. The Goblins had developed a method to run multiple power stones in parallel to accommodate this issue, but it had become tedious to deploy. As King Ragnok probed the device, he realised that a single 'power cell' could store as much power as 50 Goblin Power runes. Lord Peverell had just given the Goblin nation the equivalent of 500 power runes, in the palm of his hand.

"By Bargrivyek's Titties, this is fantastic! I could tell that the boy was intelligent from what I had seen of his memories, but this? This alone is worth Order of Merlin First Class. And he built this in two days as a rush job? Ha! Grankhul, carry these to the Hall of Artifacts and let the primary Ward-mistress use these as power storage for the new ward that we reverse engineered from the bearded menace!"

The Goblin came over and took all ten devices.

"Well, my King what now?" asked Bloodaxe.

"Your assignment is simple. Build a positive relationship with him. It helps that he, like his great ancestor is genuinely entertaining and likes us. As you know, the other international Goblin Conclaves have been doing well, and we in England have been suffering and are the rock bottom of everything, indirectly through the attitude of the Wizengamot.

Whatever he needs, we will accommodate. I suspect as our top client, he will be able to mint a 'Most Ancient and Most Noble seat' at Ten million Galleons in the Wizengamot eventually. If he is short, I will put money from our coffers if we must. He might be how we could revitalise the economy. Did he ask for any help recently?"

"No – but I will be mindful. I get the feeling my King, you are enjoying this. Letting the boy build items and secretly grow his competence. This is revenge for Dumbledore forcefully summoning you to the Wizengamot twenty five years ago, isn't it?"

"Indeed. But more importantly, while some might look at him as a new thing, his behaviour reminds me of the old ancient days. Days when we openly traded with Wizards fifteen centuries ago, above ground. Days when the Elves and Wizards shared a laugh. Days when the Centaurs would frequent the Druid college on Ynys Môn and debate philosophy and teach the Druids about the stars.

He will have to tear down the entire system. He will have to make blood flow like a river. He will never retire into a happy life as an old man but I feel he just might accomplish everything. He needs to succeed if our agendas are to go forward.

It all comes down to if I will bet on him or Dumbledore. He decided he was going to put bullets into all his enemies, and his memories hint that he is committed and brave. Dumbledore is a manipulator and has a limp cock when it comes to killing his enemies. Utterly spineless.

I have to take a risk for the welfare of the Goblin nation because if the Dark Lord returns, you and I both know should he win, he will not spare us. Killing children is something he specialises in, Goblin or otherwise."

"You are saying our involvement and support of his talents might allow him to win – and therefore we will win too. That I understand. His administrative fees are the highest already and he offered me a personal cut. The biggest cut in a long time. He even told Sharpsand that he felt like family here."

"Exactly Bloodaxe. I want you to imagine his brain and then the Back Fortune behind him. We will swim in profits. I have a feeling Azkaban is in trouble. Part of being King is to see the tides and ride them.

I have heard rumours that Sliverdagger has been leaking information to that kobold Malfoy. Let Lord Peverell know during the next visit and let us see what he will do."

"Noted my liege."

Harry naturally considered gifts for his family a top priority. Truthfully, Lorna had specifically asked Harry not to spend excessively behind her. He decided he would give her a book on politics. With a little research, he found Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince – a classic political book about statecraft and nation building. Yes, Lorna would either enjoy this title very much. Lorna was surprised and thanked Harry as she promised to give it a thorough reading, after receiving the gift.

Lorna knowing Harry's exact pants size bought him a cactus leather pants, but this time in navy blue. Also included were some high-quality turtlenecks and polos, along with a few sets of all black jeans. Lorna was rather proud that all the clothes were ethically produced and environmentally sustainable. Between the jacket and the boots he already possessed, Harry would look all business.

Harry began to wonder if he was Lorna's fashion project. He decided if this was the case, she could be trusted to do an accurate job of representing his vibe and tapping into his occasional inner goth. Harry had a love affair with the all-black look.

Harry had considered that Amba and Ved were Hindus and therefore desired to present them with something culturally appropriate. While most Hindus did not celebrate Christmas as a religious observance, it was not uncommon for gifts to be given and received as it was considered a traditional holiday. Harry after some research presented both of them with a set of handmade pottery, a dreamcatcher that had the wheel of dharma as its centrepiece, and some Lotus flowers that he had acquired from an exotic flower shop, already organised and set up in its pot. Grace naturally had helped with the transport of this item as it was already present outside the doorway.

Harry had scored eleven out of ten for that gift and had received the complementary pinch cheeks from his grandmother when she had checked in on the plant outside. A 'pinch cheeks' of that magnitude was considered an informal badge of achievement, and Harry had nailed it perfectly.

Amba and Ved desired to pass on a piece of jewellery to a child. Priya had enough as their only girl, but the opportunity to give Harry as a young man a piece of jewellery? There had been a single silver bangle that had been passed on as a family heirloom. Ved had thought that it would make a fine gift for his grandson. His daughter loved the boy like her own. He loved the boy as his own.

Ved explained the significance of the gift and gently placed the silver bangle on Harry's wrist. As Ved slid the bracelet on, it looked like it had been made for him. Ved took this to be a sign of good luck. Harry had teared up as Ved gave him a big hug, and whispered "Merry Christmas, grandson."

After all the commotion had stopped, Priya then appeared and Harry began to giggle.

Harry had presented her with a little unassuming piece of plastic that seemed to be a tiny cylindrical clamp. At first, she laughed and thought it was a practical joke. When Harry said, "Get the Medi-Bracelet, this is not a prank" Priya suspected that Harry had been busy, and he was very pleased with whatever the thing was – he looked a little too smug and his magic felt too confident for this to be a coincidence. She was surprised when Harry clamped the little object around the power rune of her bracelet and proceed to tighten the thing with a little precision screwdriver.

"Charge the Power rune. Go full blast, you will see why this is important."

Priya already had a suspicion about where this was going. To her surprise, the bracelet began to hum almost as if it was alive, which was a surprise. It usually took at least two or three tries to get the device to activate. The device felt responsive and there was no waiting period as she worked through the functionality. Her Medi-Bracelet was an entirely different beast.

"Son, what is this?" Priya asked, genuinely impressed.

Harry replied "Congratulations mum, you hold in your hand the world's first magical supercapacitor. Right now, it is stabilizing the power array in the bracelet."

"Are you kidding me? You made this?" she asked.

"Let us say my House magic can either augment my senses for combat or provide sensory amplification for making things. I can manufacture things with a type of mind-guided transfiguration. We have some copper foil, graphene sheets, some tissue paper and Hemlock electrolyte put together in the plastic sleeve to store energy. The power delivery of my 'powercell' is probably twenty times better than the stupid power rock."

"Harry, you could change the wizarding world with this? Do you plan to release it?" she asked excitedly.

"NOPE. No release." He answered nonchalantly.

"Why? I know a lot of people working with runes would love this. Any particular reason why?" she asked, with her voice now expressing curiosity.

"When the war is done and Moldypants and his Death Munchers are all dead I will definitely release it. Until then, no guarantee it won't be used against me if it goes out there in the wild. I will consider releasing a far inferior version on the market so that I can't be threatened by my innovation. Only your stuff is going to get this."

"My stuff?" she asked.

"Your bracelets – I am working on manufacturing them. Still far away but the other things that I am discovering along the way, good fun."

Priya noticed Harry was smiling too much which meant he had been up to mischief. She decided that eventually, she would find out.

Priya had chosen to give Harry two gifts. The first gift was AKG-M50x Bluetooth Headset. She had been advised that it was a quality headset and reasoned that Harry could deafen himself (within reason) with his playlists. The other gift had been a 3rd Generation iTouch with a bicep phone case. Harry could now do his morning workouts with music. Harry had given his mother a warm hug and had almost jumped to the roof. Harry had been considering purchasing his own devices, but now he would not have to pursue that option. While Harry and Priya talked, Lorna went off to the kitchen to meet Amba.

Lorna had decided to share a personal recipe book that her late aunt had used for British desserts and treats. Amba, a collector of such things was quite happy to receive the recipes, even if it was photocopied. Amba had walked Lorna through Indian cooking many times, so Lorna had received an Indian style Tawa. As a rather quality piece of cast iron, Lorna was sure she would nail those Chapattis now.

Everyone prepared to depart to the Granger residence. The House Elves were rather convenient as they got people around with no fuss, and with no disorientation.

For Christmas, Jean had offered to host the dinner as they hardly ever had visitors and she desired to pay Amba back the favour. Everyone arrived at Hermione's living room, and then the hugging and the "Happy Christmas" began to pour out aloud. Hermione had assaulted Harry with unusual but nicely selected gifts which included (after Harry tore through the paper) a mechanical keyboard and a nice multibuttoned mouse. Harry would enjoy the productivity boost, she reasoned.

Harry had purchased a small journal that featured leather covers, beautiful stitching, and engraved pieces of steel. It was almost as if a jeweller had done the work. More interestingly, the book possessed a led lamp and magnetic pen holder that kept everything secure. The best part was the included fountain pen. Hermione loved the gift and as she hugged Harry, she promised that this notebook would become their magical notebook, no different to the "Marauder Made Magical Mayhem" book his father possessed.

For Jean Granger, he had brought a few bottles of his wine along with some Port from a local speciality store. He also bought her a quality cast iron skillet. For William, Harry had bought a set of Alt-Berg combat boots, standard issue. Harry had looked at his footprints many months earlier and figured the sizing. William after thinking about how Harry could know his size smiled.

He commented, "Excellent. Good observation skills."

The Grangers had given Lorna and Priya shopping vouchers. Jean had clearly understood the young women and their shopping needs. Priya's parents had given the Grangers a set of Indian styled cutlery, serving dishes, and a serving tray which counted as a gift from the entire Singh Family. Jean and William had decided that every British family needed a Victorian Tea Set and Amba seemed particularly excited about using what she had received. Lorna had bought smartwatches for all of the Grangers. Hermione was already reading the instructions and was busy setting hers up as she had already torn through the gift paper.

After the gifts had been received, everyone sat down and there was only the clinking of plates, forks, and knives. There was laughter, jokes and general chit chat. Harry's soul felt light again. He pondered to himself and asked if Magic was also friendship and love.

Lady magic replied. She gave him a nod and Harry felt content deep down in his bones.

Ved had spoken to Harry and had encouraged him to get in touch with whatever religion his parents followed and to practice it openly and proudly. Harry decided for the new year he would begin to attend Church.

Harry's first proper Christmas had been truly magical. Lilly and James looked on in contentment. Their boy was safe, and no longer would he have to watch on in envy and tolerate Dudley running up and down the stairs like Augustus Gloop. No longer were there any corporal punishments, and no longer would he have to starve while Dudley ate as much as he wanted.

Hermione prayed deep down in her heart that she would always have gatherings like this – there had to be a Creator for such beautiful times to happen. While she had reservations about religion, she thanked the universe at large for being kind. Jean and William wished many blessings on everyone else and they hoped that their children, both Hermione and Harry would conquer all that came their way. Amba and Priya prayed that the Goddess Durga would watch over them all.

Priya and Lorna nodded at each other silently as if to say – A Slytherin and a Hufflepuff had created all this. So much for the useless house Hufflepuff and the house of pure evil Slytherin, what nonsense.

Invictus who was there silently as merely a pendant looked upon the gathering and prayed that Goddess Hecate would bless the souls gathered here at Yuletide. This little group of people made him feel alive. He remembered Lucretia and his late wife and realised that these folks were his charges – all of them. He would continue to teach the young wizards and witches everything they needed to know. Nobody would screw with his two daughters, along with his cherished grandson and his granddaughter.

Nobody would touch their families.

Harry contented that he had spent the day with loved ones, decided that he would spend the evening by himself when he arrived back at the attic. However, Harry had no problem with plotting in his spare time, and he began to hatch plans. Peverell Manor possessed a seed vault that contained magical strains of grapes, blueberries, strawberries, and cranberries. These seeds were special, as they matured approximately three times faster than their non-magical counterparts. The Vineyard would be ready at the end of January at the current rate of repairs.

The House Elves had explained that elf magic could speed up the reaction that caused grape juice to become wine. When Harry asked about the source of yeast, the elves explained that their magic could "kill the bad things, and only leave the good." Harry had done some research and was going to include standard winemaking yeast as the technology had advanced much. Harry also considered that Hydroponics along with the magically enhanced seeds in his possession would allow shorter crop cycles. Harry had noticed that Jean Granger had quite an impressive wine collection – she was an authority on the matter. Perhaps she could critique the wine?

So, that was one possible business opportunity. There was the Magical Ink and Graphene production as other possible ventures. Perhaps he could see if university students were interested in his Graphene? Harry considered that he was not interested in producing large amounts of graphene by meditating with his House Magic. He would have to invent a spell to produce the Graphene and he would have to automate the process with an assembly line. Being able to produce the Graphene foil and flakes in this matter would ensure that he could earn fairly decent money. Harry awoke the next day and began to wonder about how he might design a new spell. Harry then called Mipsy, as he combed through his magical theory textbooks and all the other binders that Lorna had acquired.

"Mipsy?"

Mipsy popped in quietly.

"Master Harr…"

"Just Harry, Mipsy."

"What does Harry need?"

"Question. When you do magic…do you need any language or spells?"

"No Harry, elf magic just needs house elves to think about what they want to do. How come Harry wants to know about elf magic?"

"My house magic can make a certain product that could sell for large sums of money. I am trying to figure out if I can put the magic into a wand."

"Harry will need to figure that out for himself. We elves are not sure?"

"Thanks. Off you go!"

Lilly Potter had coined a piece of magical theory called the "Grandfather Clock Paradox" as it related to Transfiguration. The premise of her question was simple. How did a wizard who had not a single idea of how complex mechanical systems worked, transfigure an object into a grandfather clock?

Lilly Potter had postulated that somehow, Magic was capable of drawing upon the latent knowledge of all humans and was able to provide the solution to the wizard. She had also suggested that if a wizard knew all the internal components of a clock intimately, it would cost less magic to produce the final result via transfiguration because Magic consumed more energy when it needed to 'guess' on behalf of the wizard. Harry considered that this argument had truth in it – after Harry had begun to think about Lumos as the excitation of the atmosphere to produce light, the spell had become much easier. She also had argued that as humans evolved and more complex technology came to the forefront, the ability of Wizards to transfigure objects into even more complicated ideas would occur – after all there was a time the best humans could do was a sundial. Wizards could not transfigure anything into a clock at that time, because the concept had not existed yet. Harry often smiled when he read his mother's notes. She was surely the most brilliant witch of her time. As Harry considered this theory, an idea came to mind.

Magic did not care about words. Humans cared about words. And words did not have any meaning, except the meaning everyone had agreed upon. Harry was glad that Hermione had sent some basic Linguistic theory for 'fun' reading. Harry held his wand in his right hand, and in his left hand, he held a piece of Copper Foil that he had rubbed lightly with art charcoal. Harry fell into his trance as he called the family magic forward.

"Familicus Magicus"

The Peverell Ring glowed slightly on his hand.

Harry imagined the carbon already deposited on the Copper foil, as the hexagonal sheets were stacked on each other. Harry then began to reduce the layers. He soon found that he could not go lower than five sheets of Graphene. This was technically graphite, but Harry reasoned from what he had read that this was good enough to get university students into the ballpark of what they needed for casual experimentation. He then recalled the feeling again and thought about everything in totality and sent the intention and his magic through his right hand. When he was convinced that he had done the job, he exited his trance and relaxed as casting the magic had almost drained his core. Harry then asked Mipsy to bring him a sandwich and some tea. He was sweating bullets.

Harry during his downtime realised he had a new problem. The same wand that he had committed the nameless spell was the same wand he used for his daily magical practice. If – and if the spell was successful, he would have to eventually erase the spell from the wand to study more magic. Harry decided he would take the problem one step at a time.

After Harry had regained his energy, he replicated the process again. This time, his transfiguration would only come from what was stored in his wand along with the external supercapacitor. When he was finished, he took the pieces of copper foil and fell into a trance again as he checked if his experiment had been successful.

He had managed to take his non-verbal intent and store it into a wand. And now he could execute the magic by supplying external magical energy.

Time to get Hermione involved. It was now dinner time and Harry was hungry. Harry stepped outside the null-box to call his sister.

"Hello Mione, I need help with a project. Can you come over? Oh, and bring something I am hungry. We might be here a while?"

As the indistinct reply came through the earpiece, Harry ended the call and returned to null-box. Hermione, who had access to the house-elves by Harry's explicit instruction, arrived fifteen minutes later. She appeared with a basket containing turkey sandwiches and bottles of ice-cold cranberry juice. She sat down and opened a smaller container that had assorted meats and turkey stuffing and placed it on the table where Grace had curled up like a cat loaf. Grace quite pleased with her treat, tore into everything in a rather dignified manner, with manners that outstripped many of the more enthusiastic eaters that were present at Hogwarts. Hermione then greeted Harry with her usual faux self-important sarcasm.

"So as the master of organisation, me, myself and I, yes thank you – let us start. What is the issue?

"So, you aren't aware, but after we had some success with triggering wands with the magical battery, I managed to improve the design. Yesterday, I rush built a couple of supercapacitors by using my house magic to transfigure carbon into graphene."

"You are kidding me, right?"

Harry then displayed his new supercapacitor and explained that he had managed to 'program a spell pattern' into the wand for producing Graphene. More interesting there was no name for the spell. It was merely a recording of his House Magic. He then explained how he did not want to lose the spell he had programmed, but he would have to use his wand to do other things. Many of the other wands in his collection did not channel his magic properly.

Hermione thought about everything carefully.

"That – that makes sense. Magic does not require language then. Well, we need to be able to copy a spell. Hmmm…"

Hermione ate a sandwich as Invictus woke up from his nap. Harry explained his problem and Invictus sadly had no answer for him.

"What you are trying to do, is something I have never even thought about. Maybe I might get a new surprise today. Two days ago, was already quite entertaining. Grandchildren, this one is on you…"

Hermione's face finally displayed a eureka moment.

"Maybe we need to revisit some common scientific ideas. I have been around your electronics area to understand series and parallel circuits well enough. I can remember the concepts from when you were soldering something, and you needed a third hand. Let us substitute magic with electricity. If you wanted to get the same thing a component was experiencing with your voltmeter…parallel connection right?" Hermione enquired.

"Series a lot of the time too actually. But for elementary purposes, parallel." Harry responded.

"Yes, but consider if a wand had two magical cores. Identical cores – or similar enough ones. You have already cast a spell. If you could disassemble the wand and you could take out the second core…that core would be in the last known state I think?"

Harry thought about it and suddenly jumped to the sky. "Hermione you are a GENIUS! Come with me right now!" Harry grabbed her hand and carried her to the worktable.

"Grace, I need two identical tail feathers, ones that don't affect your magnificent, good looks." Grace pondered and then produced two feathers that were dull and didn't seem to have the natural sheen that she often showed off. She then shook her head almost with an expression that looked like,

"The things I do for you Harry…"

Harry selected a wand from the stack of prototypes Glaucon had produced. He also selected a piece of six millimetre PVC pipe that he had bought at the hardware. Harry then took the same two sheets of copper foil with the graphene layer he had made earlier and also took some spare components that were leftover from his Christmas Eve rush project. He opened the door and went to his tool room in the shed and grabbed a cordless Dremel. He returned to the null-box and sat next to Hermione.

"Hermione take the craft knife and remove all the fluffy bits from this feather. Leave the main rib. I am going to mount this wand in this mini-vice here and drill two holes."

Hermione considered the discussion and realised exactly what he was doing – Harry was going to piggyback an external magical core into a known working wand! Realising this she added:

"I understand – parallel core. The tissue is for your capacitor? You are replacing the wood with a supercapacitor assembly, I think? Don't drill the hole too deep. Drill just before the core. Eyeball it? And I will sharpen the feather rib to a point. It will minimise leakage I think."

"You are my lab partner now!" Harry muttered assuredly.

"I was always your lab partner, you dolt!" Hermione giggled.

When the drilling operations on the first wand were finished, Harry took his time and set the parallel core into the wand, with a tweezer. The external core was now bent along the length of the wand, with one end that was placed in a hole that was close to the handle, and the other end placed near the tip of the wand. Harry began by casting Lumos, with his mage sight activated. When the primary wand conducted the magic, he could see the same magic being conducted in the piggyback core. Of course, the magic produced seemed not as potent, but it was certainly there. The spell from the wand did not seem to be as powerful as Harry's normal gusto and a lot of the magic was leaking from the bent, external wand core.

Harry disconnected the piggyback wand core and then stacked two layers of graphene-enhanced copper foil between a tissue paper. He then rolled all of the components together, with the feather rib at the core. The items were then placed into the PVC tube to provide structural support. Harry then began adding his Hemlock 'electrolyte' with a dropper. He explained his process to Invictus:

"So, I have recreated a wand – the supercapacitor material acts like a wand's wood, the core is what we had attached to this wand there, the PVC sleeve with this endcap provides the pinhole. Any words before we begin?"

"What are you waiting for grandson? Go ahead!" Invictus yelled excitedly.

Harry began to drip some magic into the apparatus. And then…

Nothing.

Harry was beginning to feel disappointed and then his ears caught on to something. Ten seconds had elapsed. Suddenly there was a humming noise – almost as if the capacitor was charging up.

A soft "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZ" was heard. Another second later…..

The makeshift wand glowed with a bright white light.

"Well, Christmas is the gift that keeps on giving. Or Yuletide as we used to say. Congratulations my darlings, I have the best grandchildren ever!" Invictus laughed rambunctiously.

Hermione then opened one of Lilly's notebooks, as she seemed to be looking for something.

"Harry, your mum Lilly had written here that James had enchanted two mirrors with a Protean Charm. That is a non-standard intent modified usage of the spell. You get where I am going with this?"

"No – What mirrors have anything to do…Oh. OH DAMN!" Harry yelled.

"Yes, if the Protean charm can reproduce changes…."

Harry was already busy. Harry then placed a sliver of Grace's feather rib into the tiny aperture that was present at the tip of the primary wand. Harry had reasoned that the core material of the wand could be better targeted if something was in physical contact with it. He then used his proto-death stick wand to cast the protean charm

"Proteus domini!" he said as he cast the charm on the feathered sliver that stuck out of the parent wand.

"Proteus servus!" he finished, as he cast onto the second wand that he had created.

Now he would test his hypothesis. Harry acquired some teacups he had not bothered to return to the Dursley kitchen and he placed one teacup behind the assembly. He procced to transfigure the first cup into rat, using the master wand. He then connected the makeshift pvc wand assembly to the supercapacitor. Harry had wondered if wand movements would matter. To his surprise, the wand responded immediately and it did not produce the quarter-second delay that was common for casting spells. The instantaneous nature of the spell-casting did not go unnoticed by Hermione and Invictus.

"I am noticing the spell time looks almost instant? That is a bit strange?"

"Maybe Mione, the wand's ability to store large amounts of energy allow it to reach like a….er…minimum critical energy level more quickly? Like you need enough magic to get the engine running?"

"But that – that means that powerful wizards can cast faster because of the increased power output and the familiarity with the spell."

"Exactly Mione. The wand wood can be substituted with better materials. Once the energy in the wand's energy storage is large enough, it doesn't take much to push it through. We can engineer that benefit for ourselves."

Invictus was rather pleased with this discovery. He did not have access to much of his knowledge. Any information that Harry would glean in his experimentations would be insightful until all the trunk material was translated. Harry then retested the entire experiment with Wingardium Leviosa and the Alarte Ascendare charms.

Perfect match. Every single time. Any successive spells had no wait time.

"Well Hermione, this is nice. Think you can help me with getting contained, clean surfaces for my graphene production?"

The discussion over the next three hours proceeded towards intent modified Evanesco charms that targeted everything else except nitrogen atoms, creative shaping of the bubblehead charm to act like a gigantic air container and rough ideas on how microcontrollers with servos could mechanically trigger spells by physically connecting and disconnecting magical power sources to custom made wand assemblies. Little did both of them know, both of them were very much the topic of discussion by those who resided beyond the Veil.

A new figure materialised in the misty environment. Lilly and James Potter, found themselves surprised. However, there was no question as to if the individual was supposed to be in their company – suddenly there was a recognition in the matter and consciousness that surrounded them. This person had certainly been assigned to the same space-time sector as them.

"My distant Grandsons, both of you and my Granddaughter….my name is Glaucon Peverell" Glaucon began. Now, even Invictus was surprised, and that was a rather difficult thing to achieve.

"In case you are wondering why I am here, it is because I have been assigned to work with you. I can't say upon what designs this had occurred, But I am supposed to be here. The fates mandate it so….here I am. And you know this, certainly."

"I am wondering if this is a practical joke?" Invictus asked.

"Perhaps? But we have our duties, and it is not our job to question. It matters very little. Now my dear James and Lilly…..

Congratulations. An absolutely fine boy you have there. I must say I am impressed by him. And his friend, Hermione? She must be descended from Lady Ravenclaw. Or perhaps she isn't and she is brilliant of her own volition. Either way, the Peverell magic does not give respect easily. Yet it would seem our house magic adores the little family he has assembled for himself.

I cannot wait to see what he does with his little apparatus. I was limited by the knowledge of my time, but your son and Hermione? They figured out something I only began to consider at the end of my life, with limited resources and with hardly any knowledge from my notes.

In one Hecate damned evening."

"Thank you for your kind comments….…grandfather? It pleases me greatly that Harry honours both your research and mine. I had suspicions but to see them come to life. I wish his knowledge had not cost my darling boy so much pain" Lilly said with tears in her eyes.

"He has truly suffered, I know. Do not fear for him. He is an eagle – His eagle is the Roman Aquila itself. He is fated for battle and when he is ready, he will wield the ancient might of the Roman Legions. Trust that lovely bunch of people he has around him, to take care of him. Trust him to return the favour. "

Lilly nodded, as she considered that Harry Potter was also Hadrian Peverell now, according to the laws of Magic.

It was at this point, that a rather tall man materialised in the mist. He was regal and imposing. He slowly lowered the hood of his cloak. The tall and severe-looking man gazed upon Lilly and James as he grinned. His steel-grey eyes and slick white brushed back hair immediately identified him.

The silver fox himself had arrived.

"Lord…Arcturus…. Black?" said Lilly rather surprised.

"Indeed, it is me Lilly and James. Hello to you gentlemen as well. Glaucon and Invictus I believe? Just Arcturus will do. I gave up the title Lord a long time ago when I left the mortal realm," said Arcturus.

"I dropped by because I and your parents James, have been assigned to Andromeda. But I felt that I could take a little detour. Mind you not my doing, you know things work around here. I suspect Lady Magic is guiding us, as she guides many things. I was told to do so, and I have been feeling my old House Magic being triggered by the Peverell and Potter magic. Naturally, I wanted to see the boy and the girl myself.

James, your parents send their love and congratulate you on your bravery and your sacrifice. And yes James, your mother specifically asked for you. She said to tell you she could not ask for a better son. Also, she could not ask for a better grandson. She also thanks Lilly for keeping you in line.

Lilly laughed. Dorea had always been gentle and kind and had always fussed over her.

"As for you Lilly, Dorea wanted me to inform you that you should be mindful of your job. It is a full-time occupation keeping Potter men under control. As for Charlus, he says that he is proud you James, grew a spine and dealt with Riddle standing proud and defiant. To his favourite daughter-in-law, he says that he misses having tea with you.

Charlus was not happy about the pain Harry suffered. The house magic even in the Veil informed him of Harry's experiences. Charlus has no control of the House Magic, but it still communicates with him. He is aware that Harry is recovering now, and he is becoming strong. I am happy to hear good fortune has come Harry's way.

My House Magic understands that my idiotic grandson Sirius will be saved soon from that disgusting place. More strangely I feel the house magic demanding the presence of this girl – Hermione Granger. If my house is to survive, Hermione Granger will play a big part in it. The house magic demands her adoption. I can feel it, as sure as my bones. She is intelligent and powerful, but she has a golden heart just like my dearest sister Dorea. She is healthy, has good genetics and is extremely disciplined. Yes, I like her!

It is time for the darkness to leave our lineage. For too long when I was alive, I allowed people to pick what side suited them. Riddle ran us to the ground. No more. No neutrality again. Let those who follow madmen kneel. House Black serves House Black and does not kneel to any other master.

Hermione Granger-Black is the next big thing, right after Lord Peverell. She will do well, as a daughter of House Black."

Glaucon looked upon Arcturus and spoke with much praise.

"Well said brother. Sometimes fate demands new and novel ideas. It seems rather apropos that my line will once again bring change to the magical world and I feel good that the oldest of the Britons – the Blacks are to play their part. I think we must thank my descendant Invictus here. His long term planning. I could not even claim to do such a job."

Invictus nodded as he spoke.

"As we say, fate demands things of us. I must say I am pleased with the direction the boy is going. Notice he is more concerned with the creation of things not with destruction.

I am not saying that he won't have to kill. I sense fate will make his hands bloody soon. But he will choose to protect people first as the main priority. He will save lives. Should he be pushed to attack, woe betide his enemies!"

"I must be going. It was nice seeing all of you. Let our charges go forward and do great things." Arcturus smiled as he walked away and faded into the mist. Fate indeed demanded great things of Harry Potter and his extended family.

Now the conversation had shifted to more mundane things, as Invictus and Glaucon had been paired off to work next to James and Lilly.

"Lills, I heard him whispering to himself. He wants to add an afterburner to a broom. Why do I get the feeling he will be the first to make 250 mph? Now, I am hoping he might put the broom down now because I am worried. What if he kills himself in a broom accident?" James gulped.

Lilly smirked "Haha, James Potter is suddenly sensible in the afterlife. I think you are getting nervous and possibly jealous. He is going to fly at speeds you could only dream about on your ridiculous put-put Cleansweep six."