CHAPTER 9

The next nine months was a schedule of running daily starting at 2 kilometers and then progressing to 7 kilometers. At ten each morning they walked to the dojo to learn Karate. The instructor was a Japanese immigrant who they requested private lessons from and he was only too happy to oblige them for an extra fee. The lessons lasted two hours and they were all making progress. The instructor looked at them oddly because not only were they picking it up rather fast but they were the oddest group he had ever met. Within one month they had earned their yellow belts.

The afternoons on three days of the week were spent with various weapons. They had big problems to deal with because Australia did not allow personal gun ownership. Harry had to apparate to Indonesia and pick up rifles, shotguns, handguns, and ammunition for all of this. They then stored it in a special trunk that Harry had purchased from a magical community where he purchased the guns.

Within a month they could disassemble the weapons, fire them with fairly decent accuracy, and could reload them at a moderate pace. Hermione and Ellen were the best shots of the four. Harry went back to Indonesia and picked up two sniper rifles and had them customized for Ellen and Hermione.

The rest of the day they spent in researching physics and how they could measure the magic. It was slow and tedious work as they had to learn physics from scratch. They decided that it may be best to hire a tutor and doing a search led them to Sydney university. The professor was adamant at first that he would not do this at all as he had neither the time nor inclination to do so. Harry read him and found out that he was afraid his colleagues would laugh him out of his job.

Harry came up with the solution by renting an apartment away from the University that was easily accessible to the professor but could keep the secret that he was teaching someone away from prying eyes. Their learning of Physics increased at a surprising rate.

Another area that Harry ventured into was electronics. He got books on all kinds of subjects in electronics. He soon began to tear down anything electronics in the house and then purchased more equipment and items to experiment with. He soon had a computer and began to place his research notes on it.

With a purchase of a voltmeter and an oscilloscope (O-scope) he began to experiment with magic while the o-scope was on. He soon realized that the o-scope was a very useful tool as it revealed magic as a wave that was readily seen on the screen. Unfortunately if he was too close or used to much power with his spells the o-scope soon quit working.

When Harry investigated the o-scope's he found that the power supplies were burnt out. This led Harry to investigate the components in the power supply and to replace them to repair the unit. This gave him practice in how to repair the components but also gave him a better understanding of how the system operated and functioned. His progress was slow and steady.

The next month was a repeat of the first but a lot less soreness on everybody's part. They were getting used to the exercises and the physical demands of their schedule. The Dojo instructor was greatly impressed with their ability to learn and the care they put into their technique.

The instructor was greatly impressed with their progress and ended up advancing them two belts the following month. He began sparing with Harry so that he could get a feel for using karate while fighting. He was very impressed when Harry's reflexes allowed him to block all of his kicks and punches.

The third sparing match was no holds bar against Harry and he only got one kick through the entire time. Unfortunately it was on the side of Harry's thigh and left a huge bruise. The instructor felt bad but when he stated that he would not spar with Harry anymore, Harry loudly protested as he learned best with actions.

Unknown to both Harry and the instructor, when three advancements for the same people went to the international karate association's review, they sent a representative to investigate. He watched Harry and the instructor spar and was impressed. When he noticed all four people that had been advance were in private lessons he soon realized that they did this daily for two hours.

Most students completed two hours a week and it was usually five or six months to achieve advancement. These students were working two hours a day, six days a week. Every three weeks or so they would put in the required hours and the instruction they were receiving was more intensive.

The representative approached the instructor and they had a discussion for a few minutes and the instructor was smiling when he returned. Harry was asked to spar with the new person. The representative was told not to hold back but did anyway. When Harry put him down with a leg kick and then a punch to the gut, the next series were at full tilt. The representative could not get through Harry's defenses. It took Harry another three minutes to work himself into a position where he could punch / kick his opponent. When he did the representative went down hard.

The representative was impressed and plainly said that his defenses were far above most black belts already but he needed to work on his offensive techniques. He awarded Harry his red belt which was two belt advancements. He had videotaped the sparring session as proof of Harry's abilities.

It was apparent from their physics lessons that Magic was a different form of energy that had been unknown and never understood. It was so exotic that physics could not explain it. Hermione was reviewing a paper from a noted American physicist on wormhole theory. The paper was entirely about the possibilities of travel using this theory.

Hermione read the description and then realized that it was describing apparition. Hermione decided that since everyone else was working on Physics of magic she would focus on wormhole and particle physics.

Harry had worked on hardening the electronics circuits so that magic would not affect them. He was having a terrible time finding a material that would endure magical use without blowing up. Even the circuits he developed to pre-filter the power supplies were failing.

Hermione researched more about quantum physics and the more she understood the more she realized that humans understanding of Quantum theory was off because magic was not feasible with the calculations but she knew it existed and therefore making Quantum theory incomplete or just wrong.

They were beginning their seventh month of preparation and Harry was able to teach Hermione legimancy so that she could scan people's thoughts for any dangers that they represented. It was during one of their rare forays into the magical communities that she practiced this scanning technique that she found a man tracking her specifically.

She monitored his surface thoughts and found out he knew exactly who she was and was intent on kidnapping her, raping her, and then holding her hostage to get to Harry. Hermione's anger began to rise and she walked towards him while attempting to look distracted by window displays along the way.

Hermione could feel his thoughts as he discreetly pulled his wand and held it behind him. She also found him practicing the first initial spell he wanted to use. As she drew closer she looked into her purse and then suddenly looked up at him "Excuse me do you have something to write with?"

The man caught completely off guard looked shocked and then fumbled in his pockets looking for something to write with. Hermione smirked as this distraction gave her the perfect opportunity to surprise him. She place her hand on his shoulder and cast the spell 'petrifcus totalis' he completely locked up and Hermione floated him to the closest wall.

Hermione quickly whipped out her wand and performed Legimancy and learned all of his secrets within seconds. The man's name was Thomas Magis and he was a very minor player in the local criminal element.

Hermione took her wand and tapped his privates as she cast a spell he had never heard of before. She put her wand away and then looked at him "Listen carefully Thomas Magis because I will only tell you this once. Messing with me or my husband is a very stupid idea on your part. The last person who tried this cannot hold a wand anymore because he has no arms."

Thomas Magis looked on with wide eyes shocked that he had been caught so easily. He knew he was in trouble and there was nothing he could do about it. Hermione continued "Now as for the future my husband is going to know all about you and if anything should happen to me, well let's just say that Harry will come to visit and demand answers from you.

I hope for your sake you can help him find me in one piece and untouched because he will not be gentle or nice about it. I also placed two other charms on you. The first is a tracking charm and the other is a special spell I created for death eaters where I am from. I used on those that were the worst sort of rapists and to this day they have never forgotten what I did to them.

In order for the second charm to end you must be raped, when that occurs, then and only then, will your female parts turn back into your male parts." Hermione smiled "It seems only fitting what you would have subjected me too had your little plan worked."

Harry walked up to Hermione and asked "Is everything all right here?"

Hermione answered "Harry this is Thomas Magis a local thug who was trying to make a name for himself by trying to kill you." Harry eyes flashed and Thomas looked scared. "Don't worry," Hermione stated "he has been neutralized and will not be a problem anymore."

Harry touched his neck "Still I want him to stand here for a few days and think about ever messing with me or my family ever again." Harry placed another 'petrifcus totalis' spell on him "Harry smirked evilly "The combined strength of that spell will make it impossible for someone to enervate you before the spell wears off on its' own." The pair left and Thomas had to stand there for three days before it wore off.