A grand ten years old:

Two days before Harry's birthday, both parties had finally received their letters. While Harry and Hermione entertained themselves with their mad experiments in the cave, correspondence was already on its way to meet Harry.

Before Clementine Delacour had even opened Harry's letter, she had decided that she needed to meet this individual. She loved the choice of envelope. It was embossed and textured. Was this a mundane product? And the patterns? Clean. They seemed to represent some type of machinery. The paper felt thick and glossy. Better than crummy parchment, and the letters were clear and uniform. She liked the modern lettering and this was the aesthetic she had always wanted to utilize.

Whatever he was using, she wanted it all.

When she read the letter, she immediately understood that she was probably working with an apprentice of a very powerful family. She considered herself a maker of things, and for a long time her work catered to bourgeois clientele that were full of pompous ridiculousness. As she read on, she realised that perhaps, she could solve her ink problem. He seemed to dabble in both worlds.

Probably a Halfblood, like herself.

Portraits had lost a lot of their character because the ability to produce Portrait ink had declined. A mistranslation in a manuscript made many assume that charcoal powder was the primary ingredient. Rather, a French wizard had also discovered graphene flakes independently and had developed the practice of painting with it. The Painting of portraits was in decline because the recipe had been lost. Clementine was tired of buying portrait ink from Russia. The Russian family she bought her ink from, guarded their family secret closely and it was exorbitantly priced. While she was accomplished, the lack of ink curtailed her ability. Half her cost was to cover ink expenditure, and it would be nice to charge less.

She would enjoy this suggested project. Somebody to bounce around ideas with? A chance to speak English? After living in England for many of her years of her life as a young woman, she had the fluency of a natural speaker. Her pronunciation and vocabulary were excellent.

"Yes, time to dust off the old skills," she thought to herself.

The young man demonstrated an understanding of how the portrait creation process worked. He seemed to understand how information was processed and wanted to interface the painting into mundane "electronics"? Clementine's granddaughter Fleur had desired a smartphone, but her Veela magic continuously damaged the device. Perhaps this young man was the solution.

Finally, his signature had been done with a fountain tipped pen. It was the perfect mix of traditional and modern. His handwriting was absolutely beautiful. She passed her fingers over ink as she thought about the letter. She approved of the energy that was present in the ink.

Clementine immediately wrote a reply to Harry:

Monsieur Peverell,

It has been a long time since I have found myself among those with talents like mine. I would be happy to work with you on this unusual project. Perhaps there need not be a cost involved. I have a problem I need you to solve.

Attached to this letter is a bottle containing the ink that we use for portrait making. If you have the facilities to test the ink, I would like to know if any of these components are familiar to you. We used charcoal in the production of our own ink, but the results have not been satisfactory. We currently buy our ink abroad and the cost has hampered my ability to paint freely. As a fellow creator of things, you understand, trapped ideas in the mind cause depression.

I also do not know much about the Muggle world as the British call it, and I find myself fascinated by the stunning quality of your correspondence both in terms of your directness (which I find refreshing) and the aesthetic present in the materials. Your self-expression in your stationery is a style I have been working towards, but the materials at present limit me.

If you have gotten "smartphones" to work in the magical areas, this is a gift I always wanted to give my granddaughter. I would appreciate such a device. I do have a backlog of work and the earliest I can do is December the 21st. I look forward to our adventures. And please Hadrian, just Clementine will do. Ask Gringotts to portkey you. Arrangements will be made accordingly.

With love,

Clementine Delacour

Master Portrait Maker and Painter

Matroness of House Delacour.

While this reply along with a bottle of her ink was in transit, Remus Lupin continued to drift around in Austria. He was looking for the infamous Fenrir Greyback, the man who had bitten him as a boy and had forced him to live as an outcast.

Lupin wanted his vengeance. He had not always been an outcast. For a time, he had a pack of his own.

"Yes" he whispered affectionately "The Marauders. All brothers in magic and blood until you betrayed us Sirius. Guess Black blood wins out at the end of the day" he whispered sadly as he walked around the empty forest.

The Marauders – James, Sirius, Peter and himself. Brothers who would look out for each other when not gallivanting on their "missions". In time, he would count Lilly Potter nee. Evans as his sister too. The only sister figure he would have until her death, by the hand of Voldemort. She was easily the kindest witch he had met, and she never looked upon him with any suspicion. She had always provided him with a comforting ear when he wanted someone to talk to, when the testosterone fuelled band of baboons he called friends, could not comprehend that he needed a listening ear.

He wondered about Harry. In two days' time, Harry would have his birthday. Dumbledore had promised that he would be safe. Lupin had always desired to see Harry and had approached Dumbledore many times. He had always remained adamant. He considered it a security risk and always believed that Harry would be safer in the Muggle world. He would content himself with the most powerful wizard in the world protecting his Godson. Right?

Yet the wolf was not satisfied.

The wolf understood that the Dursleys were not what Harry needed. But why would Harry accept a werewolf? How could Harry understand the magical world? There were so many groups and individuals that would vie for his attention, and he needed to know how to defend himself. How would he cope, if he never learnt anything about magic?

Yet the wolf in him could sense foreboding now. The wolf had sensed it the night they decided to let Sirius become the secret keeper. He paid it no mind. And now again…..

He held the Gringotts correspondence in his hand. Fate had left a calling card and the Wolf was aware that the waves were raging. Something was coming. He opened the letter after detaching it from the falcon. This was clearly priority mail. He read hungrily:

From Gringotts c/o Lord Peverell

Mr Lupin,

Our correspondence is to inform you of two pending issues. Please report to Gringotts immediately to settle a matter of great importance. Also, consider our involvement with Aventine Artificer Lord Peverell (at his request) to be backed by our coin. We verify his claims upon his magic and as a friend to the Goblin Nation.

Lord Ragnok,

Goblin King, English Conclave.

Ifganauuth Shelep Gurakh

Remus' jaw dropped.

A letter from the King of the Goblin Nation himself on behalf of an Artificer and a Lord? A person who could afford to pay Goblins to verify his claims. Who was this person? Remus read the slightly threatening letter and realised that the Wolf already knew the problem. Harry had been in trouble and the Wolf had been right. Dumbledore had disappointed him again. He could almost hear Lilly's clear lilting voice in his ears

"We must depend on ourselves because we cannot hide behind Dumbledore's skirt all the time. James, Sirius and you, your idolisation will cost all of us!"

Lord Peverell was volunteering Gringotts verified evidence of Sirius Black's innocence? But then…Pettigrew. Could it possibly be….? The entire situation began to take on a certain type of long lost clarity. This person had information at his disposal. He knew about the Marauders and his Lycanthropy. He also seemed well funded?

At this point, Remus did not care. He needed to know.

Had Harry been in trouble? He would never forgive himself. How could he disappoint James and Lilly? No, he had to find out. International Apparition was generally possible if the Wizard was powerful enough. One of the side effects of being a Werewolf was that Remus possessed a magical core that was much larger than average. Even his human form had much more constitution than a baseline wizard. Lupin quickly planned out the fastest, but lowest profile set of apparitions that were generally below I.C.W surveillance – He would go to Poland, Germany, The Netherlands and then straight into England. He would use some of the unknown beaten paths and acquire food and lodging. He hastily scribbled in his aristocratic handwriting:

Salutations King Ragnok.

May your enemies perish.

Forgive the breach in protocol but I have been in want of information about my Godson. I did not receive any cooperation whatsoever from his magical guardian. Thank you for bestowing your attention upon my humble affairs. I am arriving as soon as I can. I will have to take well beaten but unknown paths. I will also have my werewolf transformation later this week. I will make the best time, bodily even if I must exert myself. I shall be there promptly next week Sunday.

The wolf in me can hear the wind howling. Let the predators hunt their prey.

By your grace,

Remus Lupin.

Remus then hurriedly attached the note to the falcon.

Harry had suffered.

He would rest tonight and move as quickly as his body would allow – Remus wanted to get to the bottom of this issue quickly.

Harry after having a fair amount of fun earlier at the cave, prepared for his birthday party at the Grangers late into the evening. He picked out his most stylish outfit and after he felt confident, got up to his usual mischief.

For the rest of the afternoon, Harry Potter did something so amusing, that Lilly and the other three in the Veil had to look on and laugh. Harry had created a water bottle version of Remus Lupin and proceeded to plan his first true prank as the son of a Marauder. He practised his questions and his interrogation methods, as he decided that grilling Remus Lupin under pressure would be entertaining. He would end the session off with:

"By the way, I am Harry."

Harry wanted to make sure that Remus Lupin would get the surprise of his life. He remembered many of Priya's mannerisms that she had displayed many times at school and decided the teacher vibe would work perfectly. When he was satisfied that he had done enough rehearsals, he relaxed, sketched some designs in his notebook and checked in on the progress of his job at the machine shop. Harry had designed a highly dense and cylindrical copper heatsink, and this would be a core aspect of his new emitters. These would keep the heat manageable.

Later at Hermione's house, Amba and Ved arrived driving Priya's shiny new KIA SUV. Priya and Lorna who were fully capable of apparating arrived to find Hermione and Harry working on a rather interesting looking mask. Hermione seemed to have an acceptable amount of skill when it came to painting objects.

Harry found himself the owner of some new industrial looking clothing that was filled with a lot of chains and straps. With the new physique Harry was sporting, he realised that Lona still considered dressing him to be a fun project. Jean and William had given him binoculars and Priya and her family had given Harry a brand new top-end workstation computer.

Hermione had been the most unusual but the most appropriate in her choice of gift. She had purchased a Rohde & Schwarz RTC500 oscilloscope and Harry had defaulted to being a hyperactive cat upon opening the box. Harry was so happy about the gift that he even made arrangements to carry it the old fashioned way because he didn't want any magic to affect the accuracy of the oscilloscope. Hermione realised that giving lab gear would probably become a common habit when it came to giving gifts. The elves had given Harry a sweater with the slogan "Greatest Wizard Ever!" and everybody had giggled as Harry slid the sweater on immediately, with absolutely no shame.

Harry and Hermione decided not to talk about the rifle development, as they spoke about their other projects and the night passed in laughter.