Interim Projects:

As for the Peverell residents, the smaller projects continued. Harry had sent Lorna as his representative to the Nimbus board. She had explained that they would continue their broom options, but also sell 'their' broom as the majority shareholder. Nimbus executives were rather curious as to the unusual construction and the missing twigs.

That was until they flew the thing, and they realised that for whatever reason, the majority shareholder had chosen to not run the company out of business, as a competitor. With the number of brooms and the replaceable parts that could be manufactured, Nimbus considered that merely redistributing the new 'broom kits' would be profitable, as they could not compete with the low cost. Nobody would be interested in their in-house brooms. This was perplexing to the Nimbus board. Why not run them out of business? For Harry, this was an easy decision - Nimbus was a cultural institution and having control of it, was better than demolishing it.

As the brooms were distributed to International audiences everywhere, Harry merely made a "competition thruster" that did two hundred miles per hour and it was offered through Nimbus' existing magical catalogue with engraved nameplates and custom wood stains. Nimbus was making record-high profits and the business owners did not care, as long as the galleons arrived. Soon enough, magical children everywhere were buying high-quality brooms at one hundred galleons, and Nimbus began to flat out hold a monopoly. The 'Stormbolt' became the broom that everybody could now own, and it did not go unnoticed among the politically astute what had happened.

The Artificer was now doing broom production and his broom was the cheapest and the best.

Harry and Sirius giggled at the crowd that hounded the broom store in Diagon Alley. As soon as the brooms were out of stock, the next day they were replenished and the endless supply that Harry had produced, and they began to quickly deplete, again.

Minerva had purchased new brooms for the entire Gryffindor team, and the other houses followed suit. The darker Slytherins who were already unpleased that the Storm-Lord was now manufacturing brooms, had no option to purchase his brooms if they were to keep up. While this admission had not been made public, the Slytherins with their political dispositions, already understood what was at play. Draco was now torn as he realised that his enemy was now producing the best broom. Suddenly the advantage that Slytherin generally enjoyed by having the best brooms was gone, and Minerva realised that Quidditch games would now be much fairer, as broom differences accounted for nothing.

Lucius Malfoy had tried to buy stock into Nimbus overnight but was surprised to find out that enough shares had been bought for some external party to now control the company. He continued to dig for additional information as he wondered if the Storm-Lord had bought the majority of the company. Malfoy however was a prideful man, and he could not reconcile the idea that he was no longer the wealthiest man in magical England.

No, it had to be a trick! In reality, this was the only piece of information that he had ever received that was not one of Lorna's designs.

Harry and the rest giggled as Albus and the other teachers dissected the broom one evening. Fillius was the first to realise that the individual pockets could offer different amounts of air to turn directions. He also during the analysis, figured out that having the air intake unobstructed generated more thrust. At this point, everyone was clueless as to why the brooms were using Muggle components. Fillius had called a muggleborn Ravenclaw prefect who easily explained that the connector was called a "hex screw". More fascinating, was that he seemed to keep hand tools on him? He took apart everything to its components and Albus tried his best to hone in on the magical signature. All the brooms had a signature that was similar to Hogwarts.

"You are saying that his own essence is not present in the casting of these spells?" asked Severus.

"Not one bit. It seems that he has found a way to capture Hogwarts energy and reuse it for making items. Or, he can mask his magical signature. I am afraid I will not get any more clues via this method."

Harry listened in and took notes, as he considered how to close any additional loopholes.

The entire staff was fascinated as the prefect had a hard time, explaining how a screw hole was created. The boy did not understand how one was machined, and he admitted that other Muggle careers specialised in this sort of practice.

"This guy is an engineer. He has to be! This thruster is a pot scrubber. It probably has more surface area, maybe that is why there is no weight reduction charm. That means that he can produce jet engine performance on a broom. I wonder if he builds aircraft? He has specialised access to certain spells too."

"That much we understand Alex. We suspect from the name of the broom, that the Storm-Lord is taunting Magical England. Particularly the Purebloods. So, you are saying some aspects of what you call 'jet engines' have been used?" Fillius replied.

"Yes. I only know a little in passing. One thing is for sure. He knows how to fly fast. I am kind of excited, I do want to see if he will build a personal aircraft. He might go for supersonic speeds probably?"

"What is supersonic speed?" asked Pomona.

"Fast enough where the sound arrives after the object has passed. The sound arrives as a sonic boom, where the noise can almost deafen you. The speeds are I think, Mach 1 is 700 mph. Mach 2 is 1400 mph. Mach 3 which is the ballpark of many fighter jets is 2100 mph."

"The Muggles can travel that fast?" asked Severus, as he still did not believe such things were possible.

"Those speeds are for atmospheric aircraft. The New Horizons probe in 2006 made 36,000 mph gradually. That one of course was for leaving the planet. Dad is a model collector of Muggle aircraft and he knows his aircraft speeds. Muggles generally send telescopes out in space with these things."

"Telescopes? Who has better telescopes? Not us?" asked Sinistra.

"Sorry Professor Sinistra, we own a far better telescope at my house, than the rubbish that sells in Diagon alley. You could not get me to take one of those for free. I never paid attention in your class because I could get far better information on the Internet. When was the last time a Muggleborn did badly in your subject?"

The whole room went silent.

"I am going to give you an Astronomy textbook that I am using myself. See for yourself what you are missing out on." Alex replied.

Harry smiled. The changes were beginning to come slowly.

Harry began working on a small StarFury prototype. It was a small demonstrator unit with only a total wingspan of only five meters. It featured an open cockpit so that Harry could exit with his jetpack if anything went badly. Remus happily welded everything together and after the quality of the welds had been passed off by an external welding inspector. Then, the installation of the avionics and the runic control systems was done daily. Many days were filled with bloody fingers, burns and problems where Harry and Hermione emptied the kettle many times. While the calculations and the engine designs were finalised, Sirius spent many of the days in the workshop utilizing YouTube. Remus had created a playlist that would help Xeno get a grasp of scientific concepts, and Sirius began to appreciate a lot of Lilly's research. He visited the Black Library and began to openly practice the Black combat magic, with many of the optimisations and cantrips that the pair had developed. The high-intensity casting was also difficult at first, but he found himself becoming more fluent as time passed. Initially, he would have been reluctant to learn the Black Magic but he decided as long as it could protect his family, he would learn it to perfection. The Black magic sensing Sirius' dedication, began to passively help push Azkaban's taint out of him.

The Goblins were happy to receive their weapons. The demonstration that evening in one of the smaller caves started with the kill setting and random floating targets. Many of the Goblins in the Honour Guard took to the pistols naturally, as the inbuilt laser sight assisted them with targeting. While Harry dealt with the weapons delivery, Lorna monitored the kitchen as it underwent the final repairs. The kitchen was large enough and Amba found the layout acceptable. Amba naturally suggested a workflow that was close to her home kitchen, as she believed that this would ensure maximum efficiency.

Amba had formulated a crude but effective business model – she wanted to use low prices to attract her customers. The goal was to sell a delicious 'medium' sized in London for six pounds and fifty cents, which was targeted at young people looking to save money. It was expected that the sales would go rather slowly, but as the plight of young students became known, the news would spread quickly.

Of course, Amba's idea of a 'medium' lunch was what others considered to be 'fucking huge'. And her expertise in vegetarian meals not only catered to people with specific dietary requirements but also as a way for people to skip the meat, and purchase a cheaper lunch that was just as satisfying.

The low price point would also put the exchange disparity between the pound and the galleon at the point where at least the Goblins could purchase regularly. Realistically, nobody in the Wizarding world was prepared to pay a galleon for a meal. From her discussions with her grandson, the idea was to use magic to offset the cost, and this would be accompanied by the development of magical appliances that could eliminate most of the hard work. After all, if there were spells that could wash dishes, chop vegetables and butcher meat, these things would save time. Molly Weasley's skills were the next missing piece of the puzzle and whether her magic was verbal or non-verbal. It did not matter. Harry would spend some time in the kitchen and understand how the processes worked before storing the magic. Harry could even offer her a royalty for learning her techniques.

Harry rubbed his hands, thinking about all the rich skanky Narcissa Malfoy type pureblood women who would demand of their husbands, that his appliances be purchased. After all, not all pure-blooded families had an elf. He also considered that if his brand became synonymous with convenience, any attempt to challenge him would cause an utter uproar. People loved their creature comforts. As good ole Q had said in Star Trek, take away the creature comforts from a Starfleet Officer and watch them turn into a bloody Klingon. While Harry considered the political ramifications of his products, Hermione was busy with solving problems that were far beyond Harry's scope – problems that if solved could end world hunger.

Hermione was working on a spell that could convert gluten into seitan. She had been inspired by the spell that turned Grape juice into Wine. She had begun to call on the Granger magic as she began investigating a lot of the good bacteria that were present but largely forgotten about in food. The presence of magic seemed to speed up reactions, but not by much. The bacteria apparently, had to be commanded by a spell. Another concurrent project was her investigations of how magical strains of crops had been developed. The grapes and any of the fruits in Harry's vineyard had such a fast turnaround time, and Hermione wanted that advantage for wheat and rice. The elves had indicated that they merely added magic to the soil, and plants would grow beautifully, but this did not answer the original question.

Hermione wondered if the creation of magical strains was driven by a particular spell or if it had happened via natural evolution. How could she mock processes that occurred over thousands of years? Harry's Mage sight had revealed that magic seemed to travel in the water of his Grapes and a small Kratky style hydroponic system was being run to investigate the issue. Hermione planned to use magically augmented hydroponic soybeans to create soybean milk, and then convert soybean milk to tofu, with a set of specialised spells that would greatly accelerate the process. If the tofu and seitan could be produced at a far cheaper price than the current market prices, they could easily flood the international magical market with the product. Her real long term goal was to send cheap meals to places where starvation was present.

Some of the methods that Harry had used to create spells offered no viable gain. Hermione was utterly stumped as to how ideas in her head did not map directly to the plants when it seemed easy to apply modifications to combat spells. Hermione continued to investigate with Harry who often felt useless as he had no idea how to approach Biology or Chemistry, in terms of offering any valuable insight.

Neville was quite surprised when the pair showed up one morning with strange muggle clothes and footwear one morning. His grandmother had been on the joke and thought that it would 'toughen' him. Neville then found himself running for his life around Longbottom Manor, with his lungs on fire and Harry and Hermione yelling

"More buddy, more! The magic needs exercise to flow. Push! Push! PUSH!"

However, as much as Neville did not enjoy the disorientation during the lap around the manor, it seemed almost as if something was buzzing in him. His muscles were burning but they…felt good? He asked about the strange occurrence.

"Your body has 'feel good' substances called endorphins. They flow in your body when you exercise. Trust us, the magic likes it. When we started, the first six months were terrible. It gets better." Harry replied.

Neville nodded as he secretly thought that this was the most severe physical agony that he had gone through. Then, it got worse as he realised the run was only part of the workout. Augusta looked on and realised that Harry and Hermione were fit as a fiddle. The pair had continued to work through the exercises like machines while Neville had stopped, and attempted to huff the contents of his lungs out. Even Grace seemed to be a part of the brutal workout. She seemed to enjoy zooming around the grounds in short sprints that left her panting. After the affair was finished, Augusta greeted her grandson and found him gasping for breath and his face red as a tomato. However, his eyes?

They were dancing and alive. His magic was alive.

"Hello Gran, we punished him badly this morning. Wednesday is the next day. Let him cool off. Lemme look at the back…."

Augusta looked on as Harry's eyes glowed.

"The energy is flowing a little better. A little movement. I know he feels terrible, his magic is fighting itself through the blockage. It won't be nice. But better to fix the issue early. Tell him to get showered, his classes start bright and early this morning."

"You heard your godbrother young man. You know what is coming. You will take your class, and you will apply yourself! We will be prepared for Lord Voldemort. And you young man will be at Harry's side!" Augusta commanded of the young man, but not unkindly as she held his face.

The boy nodded with a firm look in his eye.

One hour later, Neville found himself sitting next to Sirius in the workshop, staring at a YouTube video about atoms and molecules. Remus was taking Priya through some of the newer spells, as schools had been closed for some time. Both of them were carrying Harry's best kinetic barrier implementation, which included a total of ten miniature shielding arrays that contained an embedded GPS tracker. Harry had properly tested the pieces and had fine-tuned the spells to almost curve over the skin. You could almost miss the flaring of the spell, if you were not observant. Priya was slowly learning to fight in an all-out offensive manner, as the shields could soak up most spells. Harry was only too happy to share his new spells and Priya began to appreciate why he was so advanced.

"You treat magic like those worksheets I used to give you. You are a raving psychopath!"

"True mum. But did you say we needed a genius Harry? Genius Harry needs genius Hermione, and both of us needed to sometimes tap that Hufflepuff energy, that we got from you!"

"I feel sorry that I gave you guys that idea. Sorry for myself, to clarify. Casting a thousand times in half hour?"

"If you should need to fight, even without a rifle, these spells are deadly. The beam mode for the spells can punch through weak protegos. And the shields should avoid you getting surprised."

Priya nodded as the events from that fateful night seemed to haunt her. Harry hugged his mother.

"Nobody can ever put a finger on you. Trust me mum, to do what you did for me."

There were small tears that day in the workshop, as Lorna dragged in the various martial arts dummies that she had imported from Japan and China. These dummies had been magically animated to teach martial arts and they provided students with an opportunity to test themselves against various levels of fighting difficulties, with the only possible injuries being sustained to themselves.

The repairs to Peverell Manor were now underway, with the same company that Clementine had recommended. They were impressed with his Graphcrete additive. Some Protego emitters had been modified to create 'holographic formwork', and the construction was proceeding quickly. The new Black residence and Priya's new flat were under construction, and the style was modern and full of stainless steel and a lot of glass. The houses were built with almost a castle-like construction. Six hundred millimetres of solid concrete and thick rebar and I-beams were the order of the day.

Xeno and Luna arrived the next day and were given their first "Subway experience" after Hermione had met them beforehand, and ensured that their clothes and general appearance could pass for Muggle. Luna liked the billboards very much and thought that Muggles were very fashionable.

Neville had been taken along as he stared in shock at Automobiles, smartphones and the general hustle and bustle of the world. He also took a good look at the various stores. He had never seen so many clothes in his life. Neville was surprised to learn that one galleon was not considered much money, particularly if you were involved in business and he had never tried any food outside the tried and tested British classics, and found himself looking at the food court and smelling all the experimental food items.

That was the day that Neville Longbottom discovered hot sauce and hot wings.

The experience was painful on his mouth, and yet he hungered for more, while he openly fanned his mouth with his hand. Luna on the other hand had found some authentic paella and gladly shared it with her father, who had a particular fondness for seafood.

"I guess all of you are shocked, aren't you?" asked Remus.

Neville and Luna were too busy eating. They enthusiastically nodded their heads while Hermione and Harry were tearing into their separate portions of jerk chicken.

"The Purebloods have done such a good job of lying to everyone that they have convinced themselves the Muggle world is four centuries behind. Muggles are supposed to be starving animals who can't think for themselves – there is not an inch of magic that is responsible for their development. They were forced to think, and think regularly about how to solve problems. So here we are."

Neville was quite pleased when he arrived home later that evening, with a shopping bag full of fast food. He had every intention to introduce his Gran to Hot Wings, Onion rings, Club Sandwiches and everything else that he had tried. Luna, on the other hand, found herself rather confused because of a small observation she had made. Hermione had pointed at a particular place and Luna after thinking quite carefully about where she had seen the pose, went back to an old newspaper she had been keeping when she had arrived home, at the end of the 'tour'.

She looked back at the photos on the Daily Prophet and considered that she had been asked to paint a much larger version of a 'gun'. While the face wasn't visible and the robes were rather loose….the arms. The arms on Hadrian were the same too. She observed the way they stood and Hadrian had always been on the right. The robes seemed familiar. Maybe different colours, but the design seemed mostly the same. She considered the glimpse of the item Hermione had strapped to her leg the last time she visited, and the height of both of them. These observations pointed to one thing.

Hermione was the Storm-Priestess and Hadrian was the Storm-Lord.

Luna decided that when she saw them in two weeks, she would personally ask if that was the case. She would not mind keeping the secrets, because she considered Hermione and Hadrian were her older siblings.