Harry and the Magic Factory

A/N: Thank you for reading along. Hopefully you'll enjoy the upcoming chapters: there will be a lot of explanation, a lot of fun, and not a few dastardly pranks a la Roald Dahl.

Chapter 2

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Harry Potter was a positive ball of energy. Since he started walking with his crew of eleven Chosen, he hadn't stopped moving or speaking.

"…we've wanted to have people over to visit for ages, ten years or more, but it just wasn't possible. Now that you're here there is just so much to see and so much trouble to get into…"

Fred and George Weasley were listening in awe. This sounded like their version of nirvana.

"…now, we only have a few days together, I think, but you should be able to see a good deal of what we've set up here in Great Britain. I apologize that we won't have time to see the operations in the Americas, Asia, or the other parts of Europe. Not enough time, never enough, but I didn't want to risk all of you with one of our experimental time turners, now did I…"

That part caught Blaise Zabini's attention. He'd always dreamed of a career in the Department of Mysteries, but with his families questionable background, he'd supposed he'd never be able to pass the background checks. Maybe there was a way…

"…now this building ahead of us is not actually the Magic Factory. In fact, it's only three stories tall, but I set up a particularly wonderful illusion for our gullible guests outside. Illusion is one of my favorite classes of magic, I think, so I'll see if we can get us all in to Potter's Illusions, but I don't think it'll work out on this tour, you know…"

Here the massive building collapsed back down to a mere three levels. It was still an impressive building, but it was nowhere near as overwhelming now. Colin Creevey was kicking himself that he hadn't brought a single camera with him. Oh, the things he'd see. Oh, the things he'd fail to document.

"…now this is my ancestral home, Potter Manor, and it is also the home of Potter Farms. The largest swath of agricultural land is just behind here. Should be fun: newt grass, artichokes, and all the other tasties we have growing this time of year…"

Someone tried to interject that there was no such thing as 'newt grass' but Harry kept on talking. Luna Lovegood smiled. She knew that the Crumple-Horned Snorkack considered newt grass a particular delicacy. There would probably be a number nearby.

"…so, welcome to my home, we'll start the tour here, I think…"

Bracus Snape, like a petulant child, raised his hand and coughed. He'd been warned by his father exactly what sort of family the Potters were. His father had obviously been right.

"Yes," Harry said. "Do you have a question…"

"I have two: do you ever breathe? And why are we here?"

A few people giggled. Harry just flushed a little bit, shifted from foot to foot, and then smiled.

"Well, my apologies for keeping you in the dark, my good sir. It's just that I've been so excited about this for so long, I couldn't control my thoughts. Never been much of an organized thinker, I suppose…"

Bracus Snape cleared his throat this time.

"Right," Harry said. "Yes, when I calm down, I'll speak like a person again. And, secondly, you are all here as the first step in revealing the Potter Estate back to the world. We've been closed up as tight as can be since that awful Halloween Night. But now it seems a good time to draw ourselves back into your world, at least a little bit…"

No one in the crowd understood what Harry meant or how exactly important he would become in the next decades inside the British Wizarding World. But they were all curious enough to keep on moving through the tour.

Harry Potter walked up the steps to the imposing doors of the Manor House and threw them open. "Welcome to Potter Manor, please step through. So much to see…so very much…"

George and Fred were the first ones through. Their faces dropped in astonishment. Inside what they assumed was an average size hallway were nearly four thousand house elves. It was obvious they were thinking 'so this is where they went…'

The other Chosen stopped promptly at the entrance. No one seemed to have the will to move further inside. But Harry pushed his way through the small, cowed crowd. "Oh, now I see, you've never met our best workers, I see…" Here, Harry switched off into a burst of unintelligible clicking and chattering. "…so I asked only the Oompah-Loompahs to come up and greet everyone…"

Now, more than one person decided it was time to interject. "These are house elves." "There are no Oomper-Lumpies."

"…nonsense, you can clearly see the Oompah-Loompahs in front of you. There are more than three thousand six hundred Oompahs in this room. But only three dozen of their leaders, the Oompah-Loompahs. You should feel proud to meet them, each one heads up one of our divisions here…"

More muttering ensued. "House elves are called Oompahs here?" "They let these creatures run a business?"

"…so, thank you, my good friends, but we do not have time for tea quite yet… Actually, I'm quite sure some of our Chosen would enjoy seeing the gardens. Let's take five minutes and explore, shall we?"

The Oompahs and the Oompah-Loompahs all bowed toward Harry and then the massive room emptied. Seconds later it shrunk back down to the size of a normal hallway. More than one of the Chosen shrieked as a result.

"…they're all free, of course," Harry said, jabbering away as he walked rapidly across the hallway, "we found them in the most horrid of conditions, you know. Most of them were bound to wizards and many of them were abused and neglected, horrible, just horrible…"

Blaise and Bracus Snape, among others, felt anger that their house elves had been taken away by this unusual looking boy in front of them. But only Bracus admitted it out loud. "What gives you the right to take other people's property?"

"Property? Oompahs can think very well for themselves. My team here just did some research and figured out how to release the poor dears from their indentured servitude. Quite a bit less dreary now, aren't they?"

Harry beamed in pleasure. He arrived at the door at the far end of the hallways and threw it open. Neville Longbottom was the first to gasp in surprise. He ran out the door before Harry could stop him.

"…be careful, my good sir, this is the experimental section, I believe. It would have been safer if we went in near the radishes and turnips…"

More than one Chosen was muttering about how plants turned Neville on more than his well-stacked girlfriend. But Luna Lovegood didn't seem to hear their disparaging remarks. In fact, she stood on the steps and wouldn't go down into the fields. But everyone else did. They were slightly curious about the vast numbers of unusual plants on display.

The bread bush seemed to be in full bloom: wheat, pumpernickel, and rye. The hybrid pumpkin vines each grew a full-sized pumpkin in a few hours. The group just stared as small orange balls seemed to magically inflate in size and weight.

"…and over on the right, we have three very unique plants. The brown and gold bush produces a small amount of a reddish-gold liquid every day. That secretion is the best pain reducer we've ever discovered. Completely natural, you know, and not at all addictive. Wonderful stuff, really. The green and purple plants produce small fruits that taste of chocolate, imagine that, healthy fruit that tastes of delicious chocolate." Harry was quite enamored of the little fruits. "But it's that third plant that's truly remarkable. It's omnivorous, but it produces the most interesting fruit. Say we feed the plant a few pound of wheat, some eggs, a side of beef, and some apples. Well, the fruit would taste of Beef Wellington followed by flambéed apples. Truly remarkable…"

More than one student proceeded over toward the food tree. But it was Neville, clumsy Neville, who arrived first. Unfortunately, he managed to fall into the brown and gold bush, before the semi-sentient plant bounced him out of its branches, through the chocolate plants, and into the massive maw of the omnivorous fruit plant.

Neville shrieked for a second before a legion of Oompahs descended on him. They were trying to pull his inverted form from the hungry plants.

"…oh dear, poor, poor Bessie… Her fruit is going to taste absolutely horrible…"

But here Luna looked slightly concerned. Her face faded from dreamy for a second while she licked her lips and then said, "I think Neville tastes quite nice, actually."

"…Neville with chocolate… Oh, that won't do, unless we can figure out a way to sell it to the vampires… Maybe a special kind of blood pop for them, perhaps…"

The commotion died down and Neville was resting on the ground. The Oompahs had managed to free him and then promptly began harvesting the remaining, untainted fruit. They were all fairly angry at their ruined experiment. But one had the sense to draw a rune on Neville's forehead.

Harry noticed this, then clapped his hands at all the other Chosen. "Well, we must be off. Neville will rest up and perhaps he will rejoin us later in our tour. Come along, so much to do… so very much…"

He got the ten remaining Chosen back onto the stairs to the Potter Manor. Bracus and Blaise were both laughing at how Neville had been partially digested by the plant. But everyone else was disturbed by what they'd seen. Everything in the garden was wondrous, but there was a disturbing danger lurking behind it.

"Come, come," Harry said, his whole body resembling an excited humming bird, "next we have a visit to the Potions and Pranks division."

George and Fred Weasley both smiled. As premiere pranksters, they'd long dreamed of seeing where all the craziness came from. Who could design that many pranks and update and vary them so continuously?

Both boys, plus the other Chosen, were very excited and also nervous about where the remaining tour would take them.

But one Chosen, Bracus Snape, was taking everything in not just for his curiosity… well, he was genuinely curious… but also because he had specific orders about his time here. Dumbledore, his Headmaster and his father's employer, had given him one set of instructions. His father, Severus, had demanded different answers. Bracus was organizing everything he saw because he served many different masters.