The back half of August was frantic as the adults kept up the fight in the ministry and against the old man. Amelia and Aurora made huge sweeping changes to the ministry. They beefed up security to the building and doubled the DMLE's budget. They also started busting other people using the questions under truth potion during the trials of the Death Eaters. Malfoy alone netted them three dozen more arrests. Every crime they confessed to under truth potion was recorded and then Amelia would ask them to name anyone present during the crimes. This would get them many names. By the first of September the Wizengamot was missing five more members and the cells under the ministry as well as Azkaban were full. They had dozens of pureblood heads of houses sitting in cells and they collected fines and taxes off of each of them.
That was an unexpected outcome from these trials. It would seem that most of the dark pureblood houses never paid taxes. They would bribe the minister or someone in the treasury and never pay the sadly low tax percentage they were required to pay. It was a scam that had been going on for decades. Amelia saw the amount of gold they were collecting in back taxes and she contacted Madam Malkin's shop to order dragonhide vests. By Halloween the whole auror force would have vests.
But the pressure wasn't just applied in the ministry. Augusta and Amelia showed up at the school board of governors meeting with Mary Abbott, Andromeda now a Black again, and Sirius. With six of the nine board members in jail Minerva, Augusta, and madam Marchbanks had the the four sworn and they now had a voting block. Even if Albus could get three of his cronies on to the board they would still have a six to three majority. In that first meeting they fried Binns, Trelawny, Babbage, and they were in the process of calling for Snape's head when the old man lost his temper.
"You six can calm that those three were unfit to teach, but I put my foot down when it comes to Severus. He has sacrificed a lot to the light, he worked as a spy for most of the war, and I need him in place to keep an eye on the Slytherins. Aside from that he's a decorated potion's master, and a top notch brewer!" He practically yelled at the group.
"And he's a top notch arsshole on top of that. The man can't teach. He puts instructions on the board and then goes around the room traumatizing students and making a mockery of the already broken house points system!" Minerva said.
"I will personally work with him to improve his teaching skills but we can't fire a Potion's Master on top of the other three. We have four spot open and just two weeks to fill them. We can not fire Severus as well. As it is we might have to start the year off down a Divination teacher. Do you have any idea how hard it was to find someone with the sight?" Albus asked looking haggard a beaten.
Albus was not having a good time. Life was taking every opportunity to dump on him. The press was up his ass, the ICW dropped him, he had to use every bit of power he had left to stay chief warlock of the Wizengamot, and now they were making him fire the teachers he hand picked. Worse yet was they did all of it above board. If he pushed back against them he could be ousted from the school with one good article in the paper. As it was he still had two of his three titles.
"Then lets us help you fill those positions right now. Mary is a halfblood that lives in the muggle world. She would be happy to take the Muggle studies job. It will be nice to have someone that actually know something about muggles in the job for a change, and we talked about this earlier and Grisdale is willing to cover the history class until a permanent replacement can be found. As for divination, why do we have to offer it in the first place? It's a soft option for people looking to get out of taking a real elective. Unless you have the sight then you are wasting your time staring at tea leaves. This will force the kids to take Arithmancy or runes." Minerva said.
"While I can't argue with you on that point I would still like to keep the class open until the student's that are taking the class can pass either their OWLs and NEWTs in the subject. I propose that we keep trelawny on the staff and let her teach the students that are already enrolled in her class, but we stop taking enrolment after this year. That will give us a chance to faze out the subject and see if we can find a suitable replacement for it." Albus said in a haggered tone. The people around the table knew they had broken him for now. They would give him his two teachers but they still managed to get rid of Binns and that froud Babbage.
"Good, we'll go with that for now, and your boy Snape is on probation as far as I'm concerned if we get one report of him pulling any of his old shit with the students this year then he's out. And I'm not just talking about the school. One right question under truth potion and he's spending the rest of his days in a cell." Amelia said.
"I will speak to him." He said.
"Good, I'd hate to have to get rid of him, as you said the man is a potion's master and those don't grow on trees." Amelia said with a smirk.
The last two weeks of august were extremely busy for Harry and Hermione. They started pulling triple duty everyday. The would go back 48 hours and spend the first 24 hours in the trunk working on the list of projects they needed to complete before they headed off to the school. They added sleeping bags to their normal kit as well as dog beds for their two huge dogs. After twenty four hours they would leave the trunk and head to the shed to do their next twenty four hours. They would spend the up day hanging out with friends and resting as much as they could but they still tried to put in a good six or seven hours on their work. Everyday they gave a list of books and subjects to Minerva and everyday she brought them three or four books. The next day they would hand them back to her and ask for more. By the end of the first week she got suspicious and talked to Emma and Amelia. On Friday on their up day Emma, Dan, Amelia, Aurora, and Sirius sat them down and asked them what they were doing. Harry and Hermione traded looks back and forth before they both nodded.
"As you both know Axton Archer was an Unspeakable. A career path we both want to pursue in the future. In the course of looking through Axton's journals we came across names and descriptions for everything that came out of that house. This included the guns that conjure bullets as they are fired, the vests that we wear every day, and the robes with the invisibility charm. We also found a gold hourglass on a gold chain. We found the name and description for that as well. It's called a time turner, and by the shocked gasps most of you know what it is and what it does but for everyone's better understanding we'll explain it. A time turner is a device that can literally turn back time. One hour for every turn of the hourglass. For the last three months we've been using the time turner everyday." Harry said as Amelia let out a shocked gasp.
"How many hours?" Amelia asked.
"At first we were doing 48 hours back everyday. This lead to fatigue and a drop off in returns. After a few weeks we worked out a system that we found most useful. 16 hours. We would get up at 6am. Head into the woods, and into a clearing in the back of the property where we set up a training grounds. Later we would move this training to a shed I built just inside the woods. We would walk into the woods in the morning and spend 16 hours training, studying, meditating, sparring, and playing with our dogs. We would take a nap in the tent I made for the last four hours. At 10pm we would turn back time 16 hours, put on our invisibility robes, and walk into the back door of the house ready for a full day of regular time. This schedule held up for the last two months. That is until last week where we went back to a 48 hour system to cover all of the extra work we wanted to get done before the start of the school year. Projects that are vital to both us, and our group as a whole. Now this is where you adults are going to try to take away the time turner or try to get us to slow down or whatever else idea you all just formed in your heads but let me just say this. We are the most responsible two people, not kids, people you know. The things we did were done for a purpose. We worked our ass off becoming the two most powerful people in our group and the work we are doing is for the betterment of the group as a whole. Do you want to know why we're looking at runes and arithmancy? We're building a trunk doorway system to walk between the castle and this house instantaneously. We have that work done already. We did it last week. We have a working network of doors between the trunks we made and the shed. Do you want to know why we are looking into healing magics? We're developing a potion to kick start the reproductive system in women over thirty and women having trouble conceiving so that Aurora and Emma have a better shot at having children. Next thing we're working on is Neville's parents. Now why can't we continue the vital work we've been doing?" Harry asked in a calm and rational tone of voice that threw everyone off balance.
The adults sat there looking shocked and stunned. They didn't know what they expected when they sat down. They knew from Amelia what the possibilities were. They knew something like this could have been going on. What they weren't prepared for was the rational and simple explanation delivered in in the calm and adult way it was delivered. Then again they should have known they were going to get something like this. With these two there was almost no chance that they were playing with time just to play with time. Then the information they gave them started to sink in. A door system to connect two places with instantaneous transportation? Fertility potions? They were working on fixing Frank and Alice?
"Um." Amelia said eloquently. Her mind wasn't working. She loved Frank and Alice very much and she visited them every few weeks. It broke her everytime she went. The Longbottoms were good Aurors and more importantly they were good people. If there was even a chance…
"Kids, how did you?" Emma asked as tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Mom I have eyes and I saw you two trying and failing five years ago. And we also know Aurora wants kids, but years of drinking can't be fixed with just a few health tonics. Harry is good but he's not that good. The tonics will help but what we're working on will guarantee conception of a health baby. We're days away from having it." Hermione said with a teary smile as she hugged her mother.
"Can you really fix Frank and Alice?" Amelia asked in a soft tone almost as if she was afraid to get her hopes up.
"We know we can, it's a matter of learning everything we can about brain chemistry and mind healing. Once we have a good understanding of it I can make the potions we need to fix the damage done to them. It's going to take weeks of research. But once we have it we'll be able to mass produce a less potent combination we can give to the medical field. Neville's parents aren't the only ones suffering from this. Like with the fertility potion we're hoping to offer it up to everyone. This work started off for us, for Emma, and Aurora, and Neville, but we hope to help many more with our findings. We're not greedy and we don't need money but what we do want is for the pain and suffering that Neville and Emma suffered to never happen to anyone else. This is the start of what we want to do with the rest of our lives. We want to help people. After this we're going to work on Wolf's Bane. We know there's a better option out there for werewolves. Moony is such a nice man. The fact that he has to suffer every month until he dies from the curse is just wrong. If we can't cure him then we'll make a better potion! One that doesn't cost an arm and a leg to make. We want to find alternatives to all the potions. Axton's notes were impeccable. We are going to build on his work to heal the magical world at half the cost." Harry said confidently.
"Pup, thank you." Sirius said trying hard to hold back tears. Dan and Sirius were the only ones not crying at the table and he was slowly losing it when Harry mentioned Moony.
"It went on the list as soon as we met him last week. As it is we have about two dozen potions we can start publishing right now. Most of them are cheap alternatives to expensive healing tonics. Axton's note provided us with a ground work and from those notes and ideas we built on them. We were going to take it to Andy soon to ask her how we can get them out to the public. We don't want anything for them but we want to make sure Axton gets the credit he deserves for the leg work he put in before his death." Harry said.
"I think we can work something out. What I think we would like to see, is your workspace as well as your work." Amelia said.
"That can be arranged but not at the moment. We are technically inside Harry's trunk and the shed at the moment, but what we can do is show you the trunks we're going to hand out to our friends. We have those done and we can show you the doorway. We'll use Susan's trunk." Hermione said pulling a punch off her belt and reaching her whole arm inside to the elbow. She pulled out a shrunken black leather trunk with a skull and crossed bones embossed on the lid with the word dust to dust under it. It was the old Bones family crest and expanded it to the size of a big steamer trunk.
"Actually Hermione I think we should expand all of the trunks so we have places to go." Harry said smiling at the looks on everyone's faces at the small pouch.
"Good thinking we can also hand them out so we can start using the doorway system. It will work as a beta testing." Hermione said pulling out five more trunks and expanding them. Each trunk had a family crest on it corresponding to each of their friends.
"We are also going to install a doorway in the house. This was our thought process. We can keep up this two days turned for every up day schedule if we don't have to do much on one of the days. We were going to use one of the turned days to work in the shed or trunk. Then we were going to spend time here at the house as kind of a rest day. Lastly we were going to spend the up day in the castle attending classes and doing homework. We were going to test this system out for a few weeks and see how well it was working for us. If it worked well we were going to offer to bring our friends with us. They can spend the day with us in self study or practising their saber skills and wandless magic. As it stands they are all up to second year spells wandlessly. We can keep that pace up and we can all sit for our OWLs in third year. Our NEWTs the year after that. We'll be 17 by then. They have to let us take our OWLs when we're 15. It's the law after all. Well we'll be 15 in a few years if we use this system. We'll also have time to get a muggle education on top of our magical study." Harry said as he opened Susan's trunk and showed them the huge fifty foot room inside the trunk, and the small trunk on the shelf for school things.
"What do you mean?" Emma asked.
"Well, if we do two turned days on top of the regular days that mens we're going to experience close to 835 days in a school year if we cut out Sundays to give us time off that's about 1,200 days a year. We'll be thirteen next summer and sixteen the summer after that. On the brightside we'll be here everyday so while it will feel like you guys are missing a lot of time with us we'll also be here all the time. It also means we get three birthdays a year." Hermione said with a smile.
"Three christmases too." Harry said leading the group down the ten foot ladder into the empty trunk. The only thing in the trunk was a door with runes and symbols carved around the frame.
"This is the door, it works like any door but what you do is activate a symbol to call up the door you want to travel to. As you can see this door is locked." She said trying to turn the handle. "But if we touch the Longbottom symbol." She said hitting the Longbottom crest and it glowed. "Now the door opens." She said pulling the door open. They saw another door like joining hotel rooms. She opened that door and walked through into another trunk.
"As you can see the two trunks are identical now, but once I make some furniture for them each trunk will be it's own little one room apartment where our friends can go to relax, read, and hang out. Each trunk will have a pot belly stove that will control the temperature in the trunk, and depending on the furniture they want it can be a simple sitting room or a bedroom. We can take a look at Hermione's new trunk for a good example of what we're talking about and it will also show you how convenient the doorways are." Harry said closing the door.
He hit the jedi symbol with the flowers wrapped around it in a circle. The symbol light up and soon they were standing in a trunk with soft blue walls and light wood floors with blue and white area rugs. There was a cream colored couch, and two matching chairs by a potbelly stove with a tea kettle on the top and a coffee table with a few books and a antique tea set on a tea tray. There were book shelves with books on the walls. A big light blonde wood desk with a big office chair. A light wood table with four chairs was set off to the side. One whole corner was left clear with mats on the floor for sparing. On the walls were family pictures and a painting of her horse Lady.
"The other trunks will look like this. We are using my trunk now as a work space but it's essentially the same as this but in darker colors. It has more of a gentleman's study look to it. We'll probably add beds to each trunk so we can sleep in our own trunks for the second turned day." Harry said.
"This is amazing." Emma said looking around the room.
"How do the doors even work?" Amelia asked looking at the runes on the frame.
"It works on a combination of teleportation ritual and collapsed space arithmancy. But mostly it works because Harry made it." Hermione said.
"Unbelievable." She said shaking her head.
"We plan on setting up a doorway in the house here at the Granger residence. All of us will come through the door here at the Granger's house and we'll portkey out from here. We'll get a whole day in our own homes. On our second day they can portkey back and use the door to get to one trunk and from there get to their own trunks for their second turned day. When the 24 hours is up they exit their trunks and they go about their day like normal." Harry said.
"I can see that, but my question is why do you have to turn back time so much? It seems like you don't need to really spend too much time doing homework with the ink spell. And you'll all be a few years ahead of your class. Why not just go back to the 36 hour days? come through the trunks to this house and spend 16 hours here then go back to your trunk and turn back the hours to the morning and go to class." Emma said.
"We could try but if we did that then we'd most likely go to a 48 day to get a full night's rest in our own beds." Harry said scratching his head as he looked to Hermione.
"It's possible, we could also do a few 72 hour days during the week to catch up on work." She said doing the math in her little black book.
"That will give us what about 700 days a year?" Harry asked.
"Exactly 700 days. Four 48 hour days, two 72 hour days, and a regular 24 hour Sunday during the 42 week school year. That's 630 days. Add a regular summer and we're looking at 700 days. If we do 36 hour day during our 10 weeks off for summer and christmas we're looking at 735 days. Either way we're going to be able to take our OWLs at the end of third year and our NEWTs by the end of fourth year." She said doing the math.
"Man am I glad you're good at that." Harry said looking like he was getting a headache.
"It's something you need to get better at." She said with a smile.
"But I don't have to, I have you for that." Harry said.
"So two years every year?" Emma asked looking pained. On the one hand she would see them every day but on the other it felt like she was losing them. They were at this place where they were totally independent and adult enough to be on their own, but they still liked having her around to hold them and look after them. That would be gone soon and she wanted to savor that feeling as long as she could.
"I'll keep track of dates and we'll do double birthdays and christmas every year." Hermione said reading the pained expression on her mother's face. She walked up to her and hugged her.
"You two really take the fun out of being the adults." Dan said speaking up for the first time in a while, but it had the effect of breaking the tension and getting everyone laughing. That's what Harry loved about the man he spoke seldom but when he did it had a purpose.
"What can I say? We like pushing things along." Harry said leading them out of the trunk and into Hermione's room. When they walked out to the back yard they saw Dora was back with the rest of the group. They handed out the trunks and Harry spent the day making furniture for the trunks.
Two days later Harry and Hermione came from the shed and sat at the table looking exhausted but they had smiles on their faces. Emma jumped out of her seat and looked the two over but Harry waved her off with a smile.
"We're fine, we just didn't get much sleep over the last two days. We've cracked the fertility potion." Harry said waving at the table and making a nice breakfast spread.
"I thought you two weren't going to push yourselves too hard? And you didn't have to do that Harry I could have cooked." She said hugging the two of them.
"I told you I'm fine. I'm not magically weak, I'm just tired, we both are. We hit a breakthrough at about eight last night and we worked through most of the night to finish. But, we have this!" Harry said pulling a leather case out of his belt pouch. He expanded it to the size of a briefcase and opened it to show Emma and Aurora the rows of test tubes full of blue glowing potion. Emma took a look at the potions and almost fell into her seat next to Dan.
"Is that it?" She asked looking hopeful and fearful at the same time.
"Yes. Now pay strict attention to what I'm about to tell you. This is not just one potion, it a regimen of three portions a day. You have to take them at the same time every day. It has to be down to the minute. You can pick any three times but they have to be about six hours apart. If you both start taking this potion today I will personally guarantee conception of a healthy baby by late fall at the most. I made a case for each of you like this. I also made you a carry case that can hold three doses. Set a watch, set three or four of them, but make sure it's the same time, every time." Harry said passing the case to Aurora who took it like the treasure it was. "The cases are indestructible, I made them that way. There are two trays in here. You have a ninety day supply in there. These are the carry cases." Harry said pulling out a second case and two small cigar holders made of a shiny metal. As he passed out the cases he saw Emma's hesitance. She saw him watching her and she smiled sadly.
"We tried drugs before, and we tried not to get our hopes up, but we did, and after two years and enough money to send Hermione to university we still didn't conceive." She said taking one of the blue vials out and looking at it.
"Emma, Mum." Harry said softly as he took her hand. "Have I ever made a promise and not kept it?" He asked softly with a gentle smile. Emma's whole face lit up when he called her mum and she hugged him to her chest.
"No, and I know this will work. I love you very much. Thank you." She said smiling at him.
"If you both wait a few minutes it will be seven. You can take it seven, one, and seven tonight." Dan said again supplying the emotional break they needed.
"So if you guys cracked this then what are you working on next?" Sirius asked.
"Neville's parents, we have a few books on mind healing we have to get through but soon we'll be looking at treatment options. They've been on a steady diet of health tonic and high nutrient IV bags. They are both as healthy as they possibly can be. Which is good because we might have to try out a few treatments on them, but once we get the right set we'll be able to mass produce it at a very cheap price. The potion you guys are holding in your hand cost less than a few silver sickles to make and only an hour to brew a big batch. It also scales well. We brewed all of those doses in a big gold cauldron at the same time." Harry said.
"We also have to run the group through a spell quiz to make sure they're learning the second year magic." Hermione added.
"I also wanted to make a set of gear for our friends as well as stock the trunks with supplies and we need to look into old enchantment spells, we also need to start filling out the home school work books we got two days ago in the mail, they are due on september 3. We have so much to do before we leave. Even though we'll be coming home almost everyday we still need to get our things in order before we set foot in that castle. I want to prep for anything." Harry said looking haggard.
"I think you two need a break, you've been going at it for two weeks straight and you've been burning the candle at both ends. I think you, me, Sirius, and Neville should go golfing today. I think Hermione should hang out with her mother today. I think if you don't you'll end up dead by the time september first comes around." Dan said.
"But all the work…" Harry started but stopped when both Dan and Sirius put their hands on his shoulders.
"You need to take a break pup. You're not just running yourself into the ground. Your friends are tired too and they just have to deal with you on the up days. You can push too hard. You said it yourself that you guys tried doing this before and wore yourselves out. We'll do like Dan said. I've never been golfing before." Sirius said looking excited.
"None of you have, I've been wanting to take Harry for a while now but I saw how much work he was doing and I didn't want to distract him but it's like you were saying, he's going to ruin friendships soon. The Girls were really not liking the drill sergeant attitude yesterday. You both have the tendency to dam everything and go for your goal with both hands. Somethings in life need to be taken slow. Now Harry will make you guys some shoes, clubs, and balls. And we'll hit the road as soon as Neville gets here." Dan said.
When the rest of their friends got there Dan rounded up the guys and headed out in the land rover. Once they were away from the house Dam turned to look at Harry with a conspiratorial look on his face.
"Harry, I wanted to go golfing and we will but there was something else I wanted to do first. I set up our tee time for half past ten so we'll have a lot of time but I wanted to ask you if you can repair cars like you repaired your motorbike?" Dan asked.
"I should be able to, why?" Harry asked.
"Emma's birthday is coming up in a few weeks it's right before Hermione's as you know and I wanted to get her a classic sports car. I found this dealership that deals in rare classics but he wants crazy prices. But he has an old BMW 507 roadster on his lot that he's willing to part with it for a very low price. The catch is the car barely runs and it's rusted through in most places. The car is worth as much as our house if it's in mint condition." Dan said.
"You want to buy the car, and have me repair it for Emma? That shouldn't be a problem. Now copying it?" Harry said shrugging.
"Oh, I wouldn't even ask you to attempt it." Dan said.
"Well, if I took it apart I bet I could make one easy. Just like the bikes. I could make ten of them a day without getting drained. Copying none magical standard metal things is nothing. I think we need to find a simple car and test it out. Something with not too many moving parts." Harry said.
"Something like a classic Mini or a beetle. Maybe a Caterham 7. It barely has two seats and doors." Dan said.
"We'll add it to the list. Maybe we can work on it as a weekend project on our off days." Harry suggested.
"Good thinking son." Dan said nodding, he never saw the smile Harry had on his face.
They pulled into the parking lot of a classic car dealership and Harry's eyes were wide as dinner plates. The rows of shiny chrome and curvy steel made parts of his body he didn't even know he had tingle. He all but ran up to a classic black boss mustang. The rest of the group followed with big grins on their faces.
"Found something you like?" Dan asked with a smile.
"I want, I want all of the shiny." Harry said in a tone of voice that could only be described as lust.
"It funny you've never really showed much interest in cars before Harry." Dan said.
"That's because all the normal cars look the same. These are works of art. Look at the lines. This car has style." Harry said running his hand down the hips of the boss.
"Good way to put it. I'm Nigel by the way, You gentlemen in the market for a classic?" The salesmen asked.
"We are, I'm Dan Granger, we spoke on the phone. I wanted to buy the BMW 507 roadster you have." Dan said.
"Right! Those cars are in the back lot. That's our trade in lot. Sometimes we take a car in trade. We store them back here until we can get them show room ready. Sometimes we trade them to other dealers. Every once in awhile we get someone looking for a project car. I'm guessing that's what you're going to use it for?" The salesman asked.
"Yes, it's going to be our weekend car." Dan said.
The salesman lead them through the showroom Full of italian classic that had all of the men making noises and pointing, and out the back door to a parking lot full of junky rusty cars. They were still classics and they still mostly had the curves and lines that Harry found so beautiful but these cars need some love. There were a dozen cars in the lot and Dan walked right up to a small sports car off to the side. It was more rust colored then silver and it was missing some pieces, and most of it's red leather interior.
"This is it. It runs, and despite how it looks it drives too." Nigel said reaching under the steering wheel and turning a key, the car started up after a few cranks and it ran really rough.
"What do you think Harry?" Dan asked.
"I think we need this car and few more. We'll take them all with us." Harry said looking at a old mini with flared fenders in black with red racing stripes. There was also a few old sports cars, and muscle cars but Harry was looking at a silver boss mustang. "We'll take the lot. I can shrink them." Harry said just loud enough for Dan to hear.
"Won't Nigel see?" Dan asked looking at the salesman.
"I can mind trick him. It's not the most ethical thing to do but, with the amount of cash we're about to spend I think it's fine. What are all these cars?" Harry asked.
"Really nice and expensive. That smashed up black sports car over there is a Ferrari Daytona. And this beefy looking muscle car is a Aston martin v8 vantage. That's a Bond car. Those are a pair of porsche 356 convertibles, it looks like a classic 55 and a 60 wide body racer and that little car in the corner is a jaguar xk120. That one is an E-type. You sure you want them all? Some of these cars aren't worth a lot. Like these three over here. You got an interceptor, escort mk1, and that hunk of rusty junk is an mgb roadster. You sure you want the lot? This is going to be expensive even if they are wrecked and in bad shape. You're not even old enough to drive yet." Dan said laughing.
"I can make gold with a thought. I'm tempted to hand Nigel a few dozen gold bricks and take the whole lot, I can make a garage in the backyard." Harry said.
"Okay, I'll work out a price, I hope he's willing to take a check for all this." Dan said.
"Or I can pay the man in gold Krugerrands. I can make a case of them right now. I've been practicing in case we need fast cash." Harry said with a smirk.
"You can make… Right. Go back to the land rover and get the case." Dan said loud enough for Nigel to hear.
"Right dad." Harry said walking off.
"We would like to buy your whole back lot. We'll be paying in gold Krugerrands. I hope that's not a problem?" Dan asked adding a south African tinge to his voice.
"Krugerrands?! I've never seen those before. You sure you're going to have enough? There worth what? 200 pounds a coin right?"
"210 pound per coin and we brought a briefcase full of them." Dan said shaking his head as Harry walked over and opened the lid of a metal briefcase. Inside were rows of wide gold coins with an antelope on them. Nigel took one look at the case and his eyes lit up.
"Come into my office and we'll get you the paperwork for your cars." Nigel said with a big smile.
A half hour later and they finished counting out 494 gold coins or just a little over 100,000 pounds and the case was still half full. Harry shrank all the cars and waved his hand infront of Nigel's face.
"A truck came and took the cars." Harry intoned.
"A truck came and took all the cars." Nigel said.
"Good, here, take a couple dozen more coins." Harry said shoving about twenty more coins in Nigel's hand as they got into the land rover because he felt guilty for mind tricking him.
"I can't believe you gave that crook more gold for nothing." Dan said shaking his head. "He totally fleeced us on the price. We should have paid less the 80,000 for the whole lot." Dan said as they drove towards the golf course.
"I made the gold coins from thin air. I can make you a room full of these gold coins. I was hoping you would have handed him the case and said thanks, we'll also take the black boss mustang." Harry said.
"It's not the point Harry, it's the principle." Dan said trying not to laugh as Harry made another case.
"Free gold. Form thin air. We paid nothing. Well, that's not entirely true, I took half the tow chain in the boot to make the case and I used the other half to make this one. On the bright side you can buy a new one." Harry said laughing.
"You really make life interesting son." Dan said shaking his head and laughing.
"Harry, can we go vintage motorcycle shopping next week?" Sirius asked trying very hard not to laugh.
"Definitely, I might not have spent much time looking up classic cars but I found a book on old motorcycles. I want an old Harley Davison LWA and a 1937 BMW R7. I think that's why I like classic cars so much, all the chrome." Harry said as they pulled into the parking lot of the country club.
"Alright, we're here and we're almost late, these people hate that, also if they ask you two how old you are tell them you're 13. You have to be that old to play here. This place is very up scale and they look down their nose at anyone that's not old money. I almost never play here but I wanted your first time to be at a nice place." Dan said helping them get their clubs out of the boot.
"Got it." Harry said standing up tall to his full height of four and a half foot tall. Neville didn't have to worry, he was taller than Harry by a few inches.
Dan's words were prophetic. They got shit at the front desk for not being early for their tee time. They also questioned the two boys ages. Harry reached out his hand and dropped five gold krugerrands on the desk making the man shut up and causing the group to burst into uncontrollable laughter. He repeated this same move with the guy managing tee times and by the time it was their turn to play Dan was almost as bad as the kids and Sirius thank's to his laughter. They all played like garbage but they had a blast doing it. No one hit a good drive that day and they all shot close to or in the 100 range on a par 70 course. They were so bad they held up not one but three other groups. Each time a foursome would get close behind them and start to complain Harry would hand them a stack of gold coins making the guys laugh harder. By the time they got home it was after two and they were loud and boisterous. They found the house empty, and a note on the fridge said the girls took the day off to head to a spa. The guys took the time to extent the driveway back into the yard twenty feet and Harry made a huge carriage house style garage with three big doors. Harry wavered in place for a second before almost falling over but Dan and Sirius caught him.
"Harry are you alright?" Dan asked looking worried.
"Yeah, I just overcooked it a bit. I'll be fine in a minute, that's why I have these just in case I do something like this." Harry said pulling a glowing white potion out of his belt pouch and drinking it. Instantly color rushed into his complexion and sweat began to pour of his head. "Wow that tonic has a kick!" Harry said bouncing up to his feet. He started pacing back on forth for a second.
"You okay Pup?" Sirius asked.
"Not really, I made the power tonic too strong. I feel like I just drank fifty cups of coffee." Harry said as his eyes started to glow and a visible white aura surrounded him.
"Harry!" Dan said starting to panic as Harry floated off the ground and lighting shot from his fingertips.
"I have to use this or my core is going to pop like a balloon. Neville get the cars!" Harry yelled as he flew, literally, to the carriage style doors and threw them open with a wave of his hands.
He threw his hands out and the wood walls turned into stone and mortar construction with a shiny concrete slab but it had no effect on Harry. He was still floating and glowing. He waved his hands and the inside of the garage expanded by a hundred feet wide and seventy-five feet deep. Harry dropped a foot but he was still floating and glowing. He grunted in frustration and waved his hands around the room. The walls were filled with neon signs from petrol stations. Large paintings of classic cars they saw in the car lot and a few vintage military pinup girls from Dan's study. There was a pair of old fashioned gas pumps by one of the three doors and a shiny wood bar in the back corner with three glass door coolers and ten bar stools. Harry dropped to the floor but the light around him was still glowing bright and his clothes were soaked in sweat. Harry looked at the peaked roof and wood beams and waved his hands at it. The roof raised ten more feet and a loft made of shiny wood with stairs grew out of the back wall and stuck out fifty feet and ran the full length of the back wall. A railing sprung up out of the floor of the loft and Harry's glow died down a bit but he was still hard to look at. Neville ran into the garage with the box of shrunken cars.
"Harry, I got the cars!" He said.
"Good, I'm running out of ideas!" Harry said in a booming voice.
Harry waved at the box and the cars expanded and lined up next to each other in a neat row. He waved again and they were all factory new and shiny like they just had a wash and wax. Harry's glow faded almost entirely. Harry eyed his glowing hand with narrowed eyes. He ran over to the sporty black and red Mini. He moved it off to the side and waved at it. The car exploded for lack of a better word. Every part was laid out on the garage floor. Harry looked at each part he waved his hands over them and nodded before he waved at the parts and they reformed into a car. He then waved at the space next to it and copied the car in red with black strips. All of this did almost nothing to his glow. He waved his hands four more times and four more minis in different color combinations were sitting next to the pair of minis. Harry was still glowing.
"It's not enough. Copying those had almost no effect on my power level!" Harry said starting to panic a little bit.
"Then do all the cars! Or make the loft a house. Make rooms and furniture!" Dan said really starting to panic too. Sirius was running scans on Harry and he too was looking panicked.
"Right everyone out! I'm going to unleash a lot of raw power and I don't want any of you to get hurt!" Harry said.
Neville ran out but the two men looked like they wanted to stay so Harry pushed them out of the garage and slammed the doors shut. Harry stood in the center of the room and let go of his power. blindingly bright light shot out of his hands and he had to squint. Cars were blown apart and put back together. Walls shot out of the loft floor. Cars started to appear. The last thing he remembered before passing out was seeing the whole garage full of cars. Outside the garage both men found themselves on their asses looking at the big garage as it flashed and shook. Soon the light died down and they both shot to their feet and ran into the garage. There were six copies of each car in different colors and the loft had a sitting area with two brown leather couches, a few chairs, some tables and a big movie screen. The rest of the loft was now walled off with shiny wood planks with windows and a door. They found Harry laying on the floor next to a white Ferrari Daytona. Sirius ran some scans on him and sighed.
"He's fine, just resting now. He's a bit drained but he should be up soon. Let's get him to a soft place. One of those couches up there will do." Sirius waving his wand over Harry. He floated up and they moved him to one of the big broken in soft leather couches. As the men sat in the chairs and Neville took a seat next to Harry they all took a deep relaxing breath. Dan shook his head and started laughing.
"I can't believe all of this just happened. Look at this place. This is crazy. We're sitting in a building that didn't exist ten minutes ago. Harry has great taste. These chairs are perfect. This whole place is perfect. I wonder what behind the door?" Dan said looking at the green door.
"Only one way to find out." Sirius said smirking as he stood up.
They walked through the green door and saw an entryway that was well light by a black wrought iron chandelier and wall sconces. There was a round table in the middle of the room with a glass vase full of flowers. The walls were made of a light wood that contrasted with the darker wood floors. In the floors were green marble diamond shaped inlays. The room opened up into a living room with a green marble fireplace. Light brown leather couches and wrought iron tables with glass tops and Tiffany lamps.
"I've seen this before. All of it. It was in a magazine. My wife had it on the coffee table. Better homes and garden I think." Dan said.
"This place looks great." Sirius said as they looked into the three bedrooms down the hall. Each room had light colored area rugs, mahogany dressers, a big four poster king sized bed, a walk in closet, and an attached bathroom with white tile and antique brass fixtures.
"Emma's going to want to move in here." Dan said looking at the master suite at the end of the hall.
"Rock, paper, scissor for it?" Sirius asked with a smirk which fell off his face as Dan all of a sudden looked pale and sickly.
"I distinctly remember Hermione loving this house. I have a feeling that one day my little girl will be living in this house." Dan said in a voice filled with too many emotions for Sirius to decipher.
"Oh, OH! In that case, mazel tov?" Sirius said trying to hold in a laugh.
"Yeah." Dan said closing the master bedroom door.
"How are you feeling Dan?" Sirius asked trying but failing to hold in the smirk.
"I don't know." Dan said walking down the hall to get out of the house in the loft.
"Come on, you have to have some thoughts." Sirius said laughing.
"I really don't know okay! Now let's see how Harry's doing." Dan said closing the door behind him.
"Harry's fine, let's go take a few of these cars for a spin." Sirius said tossing a monitoring charm at Harry to make sure he was okay.
"He's sleeping. I heard him snore." Neville said with a smile.
"Good, come on Nev, let's go look at the cars." Sirius said waving the boy down with them. "Look at the all the shiny! I'll take one of everything." Sirius said standing on the top step to look out over the sea of cars.
"That's fine, but I have dibs on the black set." Harry muttered causing the three men to turn back and rush up the stairs. Harry was groggy but he was half sitting up and alert.
"How are you feeling Pup?" Sirius asked dropping into the seat next to him and running a scan on him one more time.
"Fine, I was just winded. I won't be doing any magic for a few hours but I'm fine. Now let's go look at the shiny." Harry said with a tired smile.
"Good boy." Sirius said hugging him to his side.
"What happened Harry?" Dan asked.
"I made a potion to restore half of my magic surplus. It's supposed to bring me back up to half full if i'm running low. The thing is I think I messed up the math when I made it. I think it restored five times my magic to me. I needed to burn it all off to stop my core from popping like a over full ballon. I did. I drained it back down to almost empty. It wasn't all bad though, I now know that I can cut that batch of power up by ten to make it safe, and I know I can now handle a huge influx of power. What I did today would have killed a normal mage. If Neville would have taken that potion he would have exploded. I'm not taking this lightly and I know I just dodged a bullet but I also know I can handle a lot more than most. Now let's go look at the cars. I made the black set for me." Harry said with a smile as he stood up and walked down the stairs with more confidence then he felt.
The guys got to test drive a few cars with Harry and Neville riding shotgun for the next half hour before the girls got back. When they did they saw the huge stone and wood four car garage that wasn't there when they left the house a few hours ago. They went inside and saw all the cars and the loft and the bar. They were shocked until the boys drove up in two muscle cars.
"Harry how did you?" Emma asked waving at everything. Hermione however was on him the second he got out of the car.
"What did you do?!" She all but yelled at him.
"Well, we bought a dozen classic but wrecked cars. We needed a place to store them so I magicked up a garage made of wood about a tenth of this size. But I was drained so I took one of my magical booster potions. Funny thing about that. I may have miscalculated the dose when we first made it." Harry said with a shrug and a tired smile.
"By How much!?" She asked looking afraid of the answer.
"It's off by a power of ten." Harry said flinched as he knew this was going to be bad. He was right. She was hugging the life out of him and running magical scans over his chest as tears streamed down her face.
"How are you? Did you? Are you feeling okay?" She finally got out through her sobbing.
"I'm fine, it was touch and go for a few seconds but as you can see I burnt off all the excess magic without hurting myself or anyone else." Harry said hugging her to his chest in a reassuring way.
"How were we so off?" she asked softly looking up into his eyes with a shocked look.
"It was one of our first creations. We do a lot more testing and planning now. This was just a bad call. What we need to do is cut this potion and store it. Aside from it being way overpowered it worked really well." Harry said with a smile.
"Harry this is no laughing matter you could have exploded." She said hitting him in the chest.
"I know, but I didn't and we have to move on." Harry said rubbing her back.
"Well I would like you to clarify it for me." Emma said looking angry and worried.
"I will mum, why don't I tell you as you take your birthday present for a spin?" Harry said waving at the BMW 507 in silver with red leather.
"This is mine?" She asked looking shocked.
"It's the reason we did all this in the first place. Come on, I restored it myself." Harry said leading her to the car with Hermione glued to his chest. "The rest of you pick a car, any car, as long as it's not black!" Harry called out to the group as he walked away.
"That boy is getting better at handling a panicked woman. Now why can't we take one of the black cars?" Amelia asked looking at the black Jaguar XK120.
"Because they are Harry's cars." Dan said.
"Well I can't argue with that. I'll take the little white Jag." She said practically running over to the little sports car with her niece following her.
"I kind of had my heart set on that one." Neville said looking disappointed.
"Just color change that ugly yellow one. Harry did make some ugly color choices in the heat of the moment." Sirius said looking at the yellow Aston Martin V8 vantage.
"They were Mini colors." Dan said.
"Hey what's wrong with the yellow?" Hanna asked walking up to yellow 1955 Porsche 356 convertible with a big grin.
That evening all of the adults and kids picked out cars, and the adults drove a convoy of classic cars into town. They ate at the old fashioned diner in town and headed to the ice cream shop for floats after. Harry handed Lyonel a hand full of gold coins for every bottle of Rootbeer and and orange soda he had in the shop so they could fill to two of the coolers behind the bar with sodas. Over the last two weeks of summer Harry and Hermione worked on the Longbottom's case and spent their up days adding cool things to the garage/pub. Harry made a pool table, dart boards, foosball table, ping pong table, and even an air hockey table. Dan found an old Jukebox in the paper and with a wave of his hands they had an antique Wurlitzer full of 45s from the 50's and 60's. The guys took a trip to a music store and filled the jukebox with AC/DC, Journey, Queen, and Foreigner. The kids spent most of their time in the garage and so did most of the adults. Dan filled the other cooler with Guinness, and lager and he loved to tend bar. On Wednesday Sirius took the guys to a junkyard that stocked motorcycles and that night there were a dozen bikes parked off to the side of the garage. They also added a car lift and tool boxes. On the last Tuesday in August with six days to go until they left for school Harry took Neville aside.
"Nev, I wanted to give you an update on your parent's case. We're breaking down the material we can get our hands on right now and we have a good working understanding of brain chemistry and mind healing but we need more books and more time. The other reason i wanted to pull you aside was to tell you we have to stop working on the case for a few days to work on something very important. Sirius told us how we're going to be sorted and we looked into the charms and magics that would go into something like that and we think we can replicate the hat here and do a practice sorting to make sure we all end up in the same house. This will make things easier on us in the long run." Harry said.
"No I get it. We need to be sorted into one house so we can continue or advanced training. This is a more pressing issue." Neville said nodding his head.
"Thanks nev. Just know that as soon as we get settled into the castle we'll get back to work." Harry said going back to the group sitting around the bar. As they took seats at the bar. Dan who was standing behind the bar with his sleeves rood up and a hand towel tossed over his shoulder walked over to them with a big grin on his face.
"What'll it be boys?" He asked grabbing the towel and wiping the bar like an old pro.
"Two root beers in frosty mugs." Harry said slapping a gold coin on the bar.
"Two sweet and foamies in frosty coldies coming right up!" He called out going to get their drinks.
"I think he's loving this whole bar tender thing way too much." Harry said as Dan poured both mugs of root beer at once by holding the two cold mugs at an angle in his left hand and the two bottles of root beer in the other hand. He set the two mugs on the bar and tossed the gold coin into a big glass jar at the end of the bar.
"Two cold ones boys, enjoy." He said as he walked over to his wife sitting at the bar chatting with Amelia and drinking wine.
"I wanted to thank you Harry. I know what you and Hermione are doing is crazy hard work and we are all thankful for the amount of time and effort you both put into this group." Neville said.
"Think nothing of it. We all have a responsibility to look after our friends and family. This group as a whole is our friends and you, Susan, Hanna, and Dora are family." Harry said patting him on the back as Dora called him over to the pool table. Neville sat deep in thought for a few minutes until Dan walked over and started wiping the spotless bar in front of him.
"Something on your mind son?" Dan asked in a wise old timey bartender tone.
"I tried to thank Harry for all the hard work he's putting in on my mum and dad's case but he just waved me off. He said i was family and that we look after family. The problem is I always feel like he's looking after me more than I ever look after him. I feel like the debt I owe him keeps getting bigger and bigger and I don't think I'll ever be able to pay him back." Neville said as he took a drink from his mug.
"Well son, you seem to have a real conundrum on your hands. Have you ever thought that your friendship is enough?" Dan asked with a smile.
"No, I mean, I'm no good as a friend either. I always need Harry's help to do everything. He showed me how to cast wandless magic, and he showed me lightsaber combat, he even showed me how to ride a broom and he taught me how to fix and ride a motorbike. I've given him nothing in return." Neville said.
"I wouldn't say that. Before you came along Harry was too mature for his age in an extreme way. He didn't know how to have fun at all and my daughter was no help either. She was just as big of a stick in the mud. But she learned how to act like a young girl when Susan and Hannah came along. And for a while Harry was even more alone because he was the only boy in a group of girls. Then you came along and Harry had a buddy. A guy to hang out with when the girls wanted to do girly things. You were there when Harry found his motorbike in that shop in town. You were there to help him take it all apart so he could figure out how to make one of his own. You were there for him when his godfather turned out to be innocent. You get what I'm saying son?" Dan asked with an easy smile.
"I think I do." Neville said nodding.
"Good. A man needs a wingman. A buddy, and you're Harry's buddy. Don't you forget it. Remember that movie i showed you two? Top Gun? You're his Goose. You watch his six and you make sure he has fun and stays loose." Dan said patting Neville on the back as Harry called out his name.
"Hey Nev, i beat Dora in 9 ball and got her off the table. You want to play me?" Harry asked spinning the cue over his head like a bo staff.
"You're on Harry!" Neville said with a smile as he hopped off the stool and walked over with his mug in hand.
"You're the only one here that gives me a good game. Come on table runner." Harry said with a smile and handed him a cue as he racked the balls. Neville smiled and turned to give Dan a nod but he was making jokes with his wife and wiping the bar.
