It reached the point where Professor Dumbledore was forced to announce that they were being sponsored by The Unit and what The Unit was. This was followed by what that meant for the students and how their summer training had them sitting OWLs and NEWTs in DADA and for a select few, NEWTS in potions, charms and transfiguration.
After watching Bucky and Sirius put them through a workout, down by the lake, the curiosity turned to sympathy, the few that had thought they could join them, found keeping up nearly impossible and they ached for days afterward.
The summer of 1997 was a busy time. They'd approached Tony for training in modern muggle technology and he'd been positively bouncing when he'd arrived on the island, to work with them. They'd used the Ten-in-One dilation and the mechanical genius had spent the first 'hour'… according to his inner clock… pulling apart a watch, to see if he find a physical reason for it following outside time. When that failed, he pouted for a while but the prospect of showing off his toys to someone that was interested, was too great to waste. All Obie wanted to see was weapons and Tony as getting bored with making bombs.
Tablet computers and smart phones, now that was a challenge!
Remus, Peggy and Flitwick had spent a few days under a previous dilation working out how to 'magic proof' an area so that Tony's tech would work properly. The idea of having to 'magic proof' his things infuriated the genius and he studied their work and made them talk him through each runic sequence and the reason for its use. He took the books for charms, transfig, runes and arithmancy, all the way from first year to mastery levels, into his room that 'night' and emerged the next 'morning' not having slept at all but having worked his way through all levels of all four subjects.
He proudly presented them with a small cell phone and watched as the wizards frowned.
"It's warded." He chirped brightly, his grin slightly manic.
"Warded?" Remus said.
"Well, yeah." Tony said, reaching for a pot of coffee. "The ward is basic, all it does is translate magical energy into usable electrical energy."
"But… how?" Remus said.
"Runes." Tony replied. "I read all the books that Filius gave me, last night and… it's simple. Using the runic alphabet as an alpha-numerical system, I wrote up a sequence that creates a ward that intercepts incoming magical energy and transfigures it into an electrical energy compatible with the item that the sequence is etched into and modulates it to the amp-age that the device uses to recharge itself."
"But you're a muggle, how did you activate the sequence?" Was the first thing that Remus thought of.
"Made it part of the sequence that it activated itself when it detected magic." Tony replied. "No magic and you have to charge the device electrically. Magic and the sequence handles all of that."
"You mean to tell us that you read through all Filius' books, last night, and now you're a runes Master?" Bill asked.
"Yes." Surprisingly, it wasn't Tony that answered but Bucky, Sirius and Peggy that all spoke at the same time.
"It's a Stark thing." Peggy went on. "Combine photographic memory, eidetic memory and intuitive comprehension and you've got a glimpse of how a Stark's mind reads something and instantly understands the language and theory behind the explanation."
"Howard used to piss me off with it, every time he got a hold of my notes." Sirius muttered.
"Nice to know the old man wasn't perfect." Tony muttered.
"Perfect?" Bucky spluttered. "Howard, perfect? Perfect asshole, maybe."
"Lost count of how many times he couldn't keep his hands to himself and would pick up something I was working on and would be stunned or blasted across the room." Sirius snorted. "Nothing perfect about him. He was a right prat."
"How many times did you stun him and tie him by his feet, to the rafters?" Bucky asked, tilting his head in thought.
"I gave up counting after a dozen." Sirius answered.
"And the pink and yellow clothing?" McGonagall asked. "I'm sure that was mentioned."
"Oh, it was." Bucky smirked.
"Only had to do that twice." Sirius said. "Tied the charm to him and any fabric he touched."
"It's wonder he didn't run around touching everyone else's clothing." Peggy said.
"Nah, I tied it to him." Sirius said. "It was part of the jinx, if the item belonged to someone else and they were in physical contact with it, the charm ignored that item. Any item that Howard thought of as his…?"
"Pink or yellow." Remus nodded.
"Waffling logic?" McGonagall asked.
"Of course." Sirius said. "It was a Marauder specialty. Let us target our pranks at one person and that one person only." He frowned. "However, there were times that somehow Snape bypassed it."
"That was quite simple." Snape said, sipping at his tea. "Most of the clothing that I wore at Hogwarts was second-hand. Waffling logic is easy to bypass by stating that the item wasn't solely mine."
Sirius blinked a few times. "Ooh… Yes… That would work…"
"So… Tony?" Kingsley had watched quietly. "Would you be interested in making some equipment for The Unit?"
Tony blinked, he'd been so focused on Sirius and Bucky's comments about his father, that he'd let the rest of the room fade away.
"Oh, sure, why not?" He nodded ."What're you after?"
"Communications, mostly." Kingsley said. "Some tracking devices. Maybe something that negates any magic cast at it."
"Hmm…" Tony's mind spun. Could he create a runic sequence that would absorb, reject or redirect magic cast at it while ignoring ambient magic?
Peggy's pocket started to chime with tiny bells.
"Oh, dear." She sighed. "I wonder what Phillip's problem is?"
"It that…?" Tony tilted his head, listening to the tune. "Is that America the Brave?"
Peggy smirked. "Of course. I did consider Phillip's obsession with Steve and using the USO theme but I couldn't face the memories it evoked, every time he has a question."
"Why are you talking to him?" Tony was always curious.
"Phillip was an army Ranger, Tony." Peggy replied. "And we would like him to set up a boot camp for The Unit, give the recruits some advanced training."
"They going to him or is he coming here?" Tony was still wary of the man, he looked so ordinary but he could be so lethal if he felt like it.
"Here, of course." Peggy said. "We'll need the dilation field, if we want them to get anything out of the time that he can spare."
"You know he'll want to bring his pets with him."
"I suggest that you refrain from calling Miss Romanov a pet, Anthony." Peggy shook her head. "Neither she, Barton or Phillip will tolerate that." She tilted her head. "Although it would be rather interesting to see what she or Barton would do to you, if you did."
"Yeah, not happening." Tony shook his head. "I thought the Hawk did all the talking and she was the action, boy, was I wrong? You know, just from looking at her, that's she's dangerous but he just slips under the radar, he's so… country-bumpkin looking, that you just look straight passed him. Right up until he pulls that bow out and… whoa, nellie…"
"He can take Phillip down, in CQC." Peggy offered.
Tony choked on his coffee. "The Hawk can drop Agent Agent?"
"Yes." Peggy poured herself a cup of tea and added a dash of lemon to it."
"Whoa…" Tony exclaimed almost silently.
"Want to stick around and watch?" Peggy enticed. "They should be here from the 21st of July, for a week."
"Can't." Tony muttered. "Got this thing at Culver, something to do with mom's scholarship. I have be there for a dinner on the 20th, workshops on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd, a presentation and another dinner on the 24th and then Obie's got me doing a government presentation on the 26th at Fort Lewis, followed by another at Benning on the 28th." He sighed. "Then August is just as bad, but it's dad's stuff at MIT and CalTech."
"Poor Tony." Peggy shook her head, amused at the sulky expression on Tony's face. "Having to visit the premier colleges in the US, such a chore."
"It's not the colleges, Peg, it the students." Tony corrected. "I have to sit through their presentations." It came out as a whine.
"Oh, hush." Peggy chided him. "You never know, you might find someone worth talking to."
"But they're students, Peg." Tony kept whining.
"And so were you." She replied.
"I know, that's why I don't want to go."
"Oh, stop whining, Anthony." Peggy sighed. "It's not me you have to convince but Stane."
"That's why I'm whining, I won't change Obie's mind and I know it."
"Then enjoy your time here and keep a standalone computer for The Unit's work."
"I'll go one better and write a rune sequence that will keep out anyone that hasn't taken The Unit's Oath." Tony said. "I trust Obie but it's clear that others don't and he hasn't taken the Oath. No Oath, no involvement."
"Thank you, dear." Peggy nodded.
Phillip Coulson was a surprise to most of the Unit's frontline personnel, as was Clinton Barton but Natasha Romanov wasn't, they could clearly see the coiled tension and constantly moving eyes as the young woman watched them.
But Coulson and Barton were a surprise. Watching them go from loose-limbed and seemingly relaxed to no-holds-barred 'I will kill you if my knife gets through your defence', came as a bit of a shock to some. Harry seemed to accept it as expected but given what he'd seen and been involved in over the years, that was understandable. Neville, Draco and Colin hung on Coulson's every word, absorbing everything he said and working hard to emulate the S.H.I.E.L.D. handler.
Euan and Dennis were fascinated by Natasha and not just for her looks. Her style of fighting was well suited to small lithe bodies and while one day, Dennis would be quite tall, if his father was anything to judge by, Euan's family were all short. In addition to the two boys, Natasha took the girls and gave them gender-specific lessons on how to use their bodies to the greatest advantage when it came to taking down the opposite sex.
Bucky and Clint had an on-again/off-again friendship during the training sessions they co-tutored. It wasn't a surprise to anyone that Harry and Draco were two of the best at hitting their target, with Luna and Natalie not far behind them.
Clint's expression on being handed a broom modified by Tony Stark was sceptical at best, until Sirius loosed a snitch and Harry took to the air, challenging the archer to join him. It took just three rotations for Clint to ask if he could try the animagi potion. It was with dubious looks that Kingsley and Andi approved the trial and Clint and Natasha both took the potion.
It was a resounding success.
Both were able to shift into animals well suited to the pair. Clint became a hawk and Natasha became a long-legged black oriental cat with her crimson hourglass on its chest. The only difference between Harry's Animagus form and Clint's were the feathers around their eyes and their size. In Clint's case, his larger Black Hawk-Eagle had the distinctive purple hue to its feathers while Harry's shone iridescent green in bright light and a few feathers on his crest stuck up, much like his hair did.
The Unit had one callout that summer. A wanna-be Dark Lord from the Netherlands thought that England would be ripe for the taking. He got a short, sharp lesson in what The Unit had learned and Coulson, Natasha and Clint learned that these kids might be kids but that when it came time to take down a Dark Lord and his entourage, they were as battle-hardened as any elite strike force.
They never hesitated when it came time to fire… or cast, as the case may be… at the enemy, they never doubted their abilities, nor did they overestimate their skills. Clint hovered high in the air watching as The Unit took on the self-styled Lord Maximus and Natasha settled in a tree with clear views while Coulson was forced to watch from a hilltop almost a mile away, using binoculars.
It was frustrating and upon their return to the island, he approached Andi and requested permission to take the Animagus potion, he was hoping his form would be something similar to Clint's. Unfortunately, what he got was a large-ish black terrier type dog. Useful in a field operation but not for observation. He didn't know whether to be pleased or not.
It did cause a little flurry of interest in the DoM, as the Unspeakables hadn't been aware that muggles or squibs could do any type of magic and now The Unit presented them with three muggles, a squib and a Partial Void that were all animagi. By the definition of the Ministry's Laws, being able to complete a higher-level transfiguration, such as the Animagus transformation was considered to be, allowed Coulson, Clint and Natasha to claim magical status of being muggleborn, with Peggy being classed as a squib-born and Bucky, due to his having married a pureblood, would be classed as a half-blood.
It had also Peggy contacting Tony and telling him, when he was able to get away, he had to come back to the island, she didn't tell him why until he arrived in late August. He didn't see the point until Kingsley told him that if he was classified as a muggleborn, he could do OWLs in potions, CoMC, charms, transfig, runes, arithmancy, history of magic and muggle studies, as well as NEWTs in transfig, arithmancy, runes, history of magic and muggle studies. That would allow him to sit a mastery in runes and arithmancy, which would legitimise his tech if the magical and muggle worlds ever came together and he decided to sell to his tech to wizards.
"I'm not waiting for the wizarding world to wake up and smell the twentieth century." Hermione ranted. "And I don't see why I should have to. I'm a muggleborn and my parents are muggles. Why should I give up my heritage?" She huffed.
"You shouldn't." Draco agreed. He'd come such a long way from being the pureblood snob that had tormented her in their early years at Hogwarts.
"No, you shouldn't." Tony said. "Nokia put out the 3110 six months ago, I can add my rune sequence to them, if you like." Tony suddenly seemed nervous.
"Yes!" Hermione jumped forward and hugged the startled techno-mage, as she had dubbed him. "I was going to ask you to when we saw you at Christmas."
"Now you don't have to." Tony patted her back warily and looked to Harry for rescue.
Harry just grinned. "You do realise that means you have to find something else as a Christmas present, don't you?"
The alarm on Tony's face had a few people laughing. "You mean I can't just give her jewellery?" He demanded.
"No." Hermione said firmly. "No jewellery." She knew that anything Tony chose would be astronomically expensive and she would be terrified of loosing whatever it was.
"Bugger." Tony huffed.