Ether hummed as he put in the next cord. They had finally come up with a working prototype for the goblins, one that ran on magic. Most of the important electrical work was lined with iron, since it tended to block or at least hamper magical interference.
He was almost done with the wiring. The power supply was like a modified lightning rod, only instead of lightning it was magic that it captured and redirected.
He had to calibrate the computer to handle the strain of all the magic in the air without it overloading. Fortunately he had learned how after installing the servers in Hogwarts, where the magic was two times as strong as Diagon.
When he plugged in the magic rod, the computer started to hum as it started up. It was a slightly outdated model, but it still worked and it had wireless.
A digitized goblin appeared, wearing full armor and standing in front of a gate that led to a massive maze and a rather odd castle. When asked later, Ether admitted he had watched the movie Labyrinth one too many times.
He was surprised to learn that Jared was actually real and so was the labyrinth. In fact he had helped the people make the movie, with a few modifications. He couldn't have people who had seen the movie think they could come in and escape like Sarah did.
"Welcome to the Labyrinth."
Griphook, the goblin who helped Ether set up the computer, uploaded his navi that Ether had created for him. He would most likely be making Navis all Christmas based on all the goblins from the lowest ranked to the Goblin who ran the entire bank. They all had armor of some sort. Fortunately they didn't mind if he used digitized armor on their goblin navis.
"Welcome, Keeper Griphook. May your gold always flow and your enemies fall before you. What business do you have with the Guardians of Gold?"
Ether added Fukurou.
"Welcome Navi Fukurou. What business do you have with the Guardians of Gold?"
"Guardian, we need you to perform a full system scan and practice run between Gringotts Server and Outside Accounts," said Ether.
"Very well. I need an account number to work with."
"Fukurou, give the Guardian the dummy account that I use whenever I take payments from people who use my programs for illegal activities."
"Understood."
Fukurou reached into his pouch and handed the Guardian a piece of data.
"Standby. Will commence with system scan and transfer. Amount of gold to be transferred?"
"Let's go with one hundred galleons worth converted to pounds."
"Very well. Please wait while scan is underway."
Two hours later, the Guardian made a bell-like sound, and then transferred a hundred galleons worth of gold converted into pounds to the account Fukurou had handed him. Fukurou accessed the account and waited a moment. Five minutes later Ether was alerted to the fact someone had just deposited a large number of pounds into his dummy account.
Because of his work with the police around the world and the fact he was known to work for Sci Lab, the account wasn't flagged. Besides he had told Chaud that he was going to be using it today for a test run.
Ether wrote down the amount and then handed the paper to Griphook.
"Is this amount correct? I never asked about the conversion rate."
Griphook did a quick calculation in his head.
"The amount is correct."
"So far the system seems to be working. I'll bring over your new Navis when I come back for school. If you encounter any problems while adding the account numbers, have someone send me an owl. I left clear instructions on how to add the numbers."
"We'll tell you how it goes when you return," Griphook said.
"So let me get this straight. The old man in charge of the school has repeatedly stolen your research notes and he is currently attempting to keep the school from going global?" said Chaud.
"I can get internet there, but the speed is so slow it's useless. And I suspect he's tampered with the wards to affect the PETs I helped to adjust."
"I told the researchers about that problem, and they've created a new program designed to go around wards."
Ether quirked an eyebrow.
"Why would they care if I had issues with wards?"
"They don't, but this is the perfect excuse to research it and find a way around them. And since you have a literal army of volunteers, they want to use you to get it working. I heard if it succeeds, then it's going to be part of the standard models for the police. Apparently they had this issue before."
"And what about the internet problem?"
"That? They fixed that last month. You get to test whether or not it works in magic intensive areas. How is the bank project going?"
"I left them with instructions on how to add the accounts to the server. Hopefully it will make things easier for the muggleborns with PETs."
"At the very least it will make it easier for them to exchange gold outside the Alley."
"Do we have any spare Terminals for the PETs?"
"Yes. And before you ask, when you told me about the new server we upgraded it to run on magic, so all you have to do is install it. We have three set aside for you to take back."
"Thanks Chaud. Oh, before I forget..." said Ether. He handed Chaud something and the boy gave him a look.
"Do I dare ask what this is?"
"Open it. Consider it an early Christmas gift."
Chaud opened the long package and blinked twice.
"Is this what I think it is...?"
"A goblin forged copy of Protoman's Wide Sword? Yes. I had them make it after I left them a clear picture of what it looked like."
Chaud chuckled.
"Only you, Ether, only you."
If people saw the new addition to Chaud's office, they made no comment. Needless to say the boy rather enjoyed the gift.
"Right over...here. Let's set it down boys!" said Ether.
The goblins sat the new Terminal for PETs near the edge of the teller lines. The three new devices were set to the new Gringotts server, which after a few mishaps with the account numbers, was up and running. Needless to say the goblin clans were rather pleased with the new server, since it meant the transfer of funds went a lot faster between the muggle world and Gringotts. Ether had delivered the new Navis which were roughly based on each goblin and could battle viruses with the same fervor as the goblins did intruders.
The new PET terminals did more than make the bank muggle friendly. It made the lines a lot shorter for muggleborns. The terminals were based off the ones in the Tokyo district. All the student would have to do was jack into the terminal and withdraw their gold directly. It had a set limit of a hundred galleons, which was roughly what the goblins set for the standard vault anyway. Any more and they would have to go directly to their vault.
It also alerted them personally as to the amount in their account and gave them the option of transferring their money from the outside to their vault.
Aside from a few goblins nearly tripping on the cords that ran to the server, it was more or less a success. Those who had PETs were very pleased with the new system. The goblins were happy that the lines weren't nearly as long as they used to be.
In order to keep the wizards from getting any ideas of the place becoming too muggle, Ether had taken the precaution of having the entire thing warded against magic. The only ones who could remove it were what the Ministry called 'non-human entities' like goblins, house elves, werewolves, vampires...the works.
Which meant the pure bloods couldn't do a damn thing about it.
Ether was the first to test it out, and after he withdrew thirty galleons (the gold clinked out much like a vending machine would) he cheerfully bid the goblins a good day. After that he spent the gold on some books in Knockturn Alley that had been banned.
A very successful venture.
The sound of cheering from the Ravenclaw house could be heard all throughout the school a week after the new term started. Why?
Ether had finally had success in installing broadband internet. Many a muggleborn had gone directly onto the net and started on their muggle education, which many of them had been forced to complete over the summer because internet didn't exist at Hogwarts.
Ether had even made it so that if people didn't do their homework on time, they were locked out until they did. The teachers were rather pleased by this.
Dumbledore was not. He had been thwarted rather effectively by the boy, and the house system was coming down around him. Slytherins were getting along with muggleborns, and Gryffindors no longer hexed their rivals in the halls. Even the Weasley twins were getting in on it, looking up new muggle pranks to use!
He had to find a way to stop this craze from spreading too far, before it became too late!
Ether frowned after he heard the third complaint about the connection. It had been working perfectly for over a month, and because it was in the private Ravenclaw library Dumbledore couldn't access it. Flitwick could, but he didn't want to mess with it since becoming addicted to Sudoku online.
So Ether checked the connection himself.
He growled. Someone had placed a ward specifically to mess with electronics...and he had an idea who it was. He donned his glasses and brought out Fukurou.
It was time to place a ward around the school that would allow devices to work despite other wards.
He wasn't seen for a week, and when he emerged he was starving. His homework had been sent to the teachers directly when informed of the assignment.
The amount of cursing from Dumbledore made his week of going without food or contact entirely worth it. Now there was nothing Dumbledore could do, since he didn't know how to work a ward to prevent wireless signals from working in the castle. To mess with those he would have to prevent the Wizard Wireless from working as well, and Ether knew that the teachers would immediately complain if something happened to the radios.
Some of them liked to listen to music while grading, according to Flitwick.
"I always heard Hogwarts final exams were frightful," said Hermione.
"Not with the addition of the PETs apparently. I had to shut down the inter-school net just so the teachers could be assured the students weren't cheating. Didn't stop a few muggleborns from using their notes during the exams."
"I still can't believe it didn't occur to them to have everyone hand over their PETs before the tests," Mandy chuckled.
"I did, however the reoccurring issue of the Headmaster's tampering with the devices made that idea rather impossible. Which is why I'm going to see if I can get a copy of the program that the teachers back home use to lock out students during test dates. It makes it impossible for the students to use their PETs for all but the most basic functions like calculators and translators...though the second one is also included in the lock down for foreign language classes," said Ether.
"Still, it is impressive. You've managed to do what many of the older students claimed was impossible and caused most of the fighting to become almost nonexistent in the school between houses," said Hermione.
"Don't forget what happened after I uploaded that potions book onto the server. Accidents in Snape's class have almost dropped to zero. Even Neville, who kept blowing up his cauldron until uploaded the book onto the library for download, has managed to brew a passable potion with that."
"And everyone else who refused to buy one has ordered the book from Flourish and Blotts," said Mandy.
"I still can't wait for you to digitize the library like you promised," said Hermione.
"It's a bit complicated. More so than the servers and the internet was."
"Why? I mean you got everyone more or less on the fast track to joining the non magical population in less than a year."
"That's because I had pre-made models and an army of researchers who were used to working around and with magic on PETs and servers. Scanners are going to take a bit longer, since a few of the things needed don't react well to magic at all. Why else would everyone have to jack into a terminal for the free for all battle systems?"
"You mean infrared lasers don't work?"
"Not in high magic areas. The only reason we can even get wireless is because those are radio wave based, not laser. And Dumbledore can't do anything about the signals because he doesn't know which frequency they're on and even attempting to block them would mess with the Wizard Wireless, which would raise a stink rather quickly."
"I didn't know that."
"In any event, so long as we are able to keep the PETs available to the student population, it will eventually bleed into the Ministry, and from there the British communities. Who knows...maybe by the time we graduate the magical community here will finally come out of the Dark Ages and not look so foolish in front of the world. I know for a fact everyone outside Europe looks down on Britain because it's so out of date that it's pathetic."
That was news to the girls.
"WHAT?!"
"Britain is considered a third world country magic wise. Mostly because they don't even acknowledge technology and cling rather desperately to the old ways. While it's considered a premier magical school, Hogwarts is on one of the lowest rankings for the magical school. About the only thing it's renowned for is the fact that it's a technology free environment. Why do you think I was working so hard to get the servers and internet connection up?"
"...I thought it was because you were an internet addict..." admitted Mandy.
Ether glared at her.
"Unlike most people, I can go without internet for months on end. I prefer books anyway. But one of the reasons I did it was so that Hogwarts can once again stand proud as a magical school for young magic users without being looked down upon for being out of the loop. But the main reason was because I noticed how some of the muggleborns struggled with their education, which I will not allow to continue."
He didn't notice people listening to his impassioned speech, or that it had spread to the rest of the muggleborns. Either way, he left Hogwarts knowing he had done something good.