Thanks so much for all the reviews! 1001. Wow.

Chapter 28 - Gems for Patronii

After talking more with Flitwick, Harry intentionally wandered some of the busiest halls on the way back out to the lake. While the others were already probably back in the Room – Dean and Seamus would trust Neville more than other Gryffs might. Five years of sharing a dorm made it clear that Ron and Seamus were the two most likely to try to bluff, Neville to fold unless the hand was outstanding, and Dean to read all their attempts at poker faces.

Neville simply hadn't been wired to claim false competence. Harry thought that Seamus would likely be more successful with Neville's help than his own, as there was still a bit of if he can do it anyone can lingering among those who hadn't been there for all the DA. That is, if Seamus' wand worked well enough for Neville to be able to demonstrate.

When Harry got to the Room, Dean was prodding a silver skeleton of a dragon with his wand, and Neville and Seamus were in the middle of the contents of Seamus' nursery. Which included a twin bed with rails as well as a cot and a changing table. The contents of the light pine chest with "Toys" painted on it in bright primary blue seemed to have erupted out and onto Seamus who was sprawled on the floor. Neville was laughing and holding up the teetering pile that was still rising a bit from the chest.

Harry cast a shrinking charm on the top of the pile. Neville smiled then began to help Seamus up.

"Boy, you were a spoiled sot," said Harry.

Seamus shook his head, "Stupidly stubborn. Most of these are toys that I tried to take into my old room. Gran must've had a charm to put them in the chest, but didn't expand them or something."

Harry shook his head, "Was the chest shrunk?"

"Of course..."

"Then the overlapping charms canceled when you finited the outer charm – otherwise the toy chest would have busted, and the toys would have been smashed."

Neville almost smirked, "You're forgetting that it was a child's toy chest. Expansion charms on them are usually limited to the length of the child's arm – to prevent siblings from binning each other."

Harry waved a hand in dismissal, "Seamus's dad is a muggle – and it's painted not carved. I bet that it was a muggle chest- hence shrinking charms."

What Ravenclaws have you two been hanging with?" asked Seamus.

Neville smiled and asked, "Who's right?"

Seamus shrugged, "How would I know? My Gran packed it up forever ago."

Harry noticed Seamus was petting a well-worn bear. "Have you tried to fly any of those yet, Dean?"

Dean was so enraptured by his work that he apparently didn't hear Harry, as he didn't even flinch. Harry laughed, "I guess it's time to get to work."

"Seamus managed to get a forged gem to hold a patronus."

"Wow! That was fast."

Seamus answered, "I think it really helps to have a patronus cast from the same wand first."

"Yeah, the first ones I tried I barely got mist. Neville used mine while I took a breather, and after he had cast a few times – when I tried it was as easy as a lumos."

"Wow," Harry said. "Since it's confidence and the happiness of the memory… Maybe that would be a way to get people to learn it faster than they did in the DA."

"I don't think that's necessarily true," Neville said thoughtfully. "I think you'd need to test it, like putting Seamus and Ginny against a boggart dementor, and trying with people that had never tried the charm, or something like that."

Seamus added, "If it's the memory – maybe the good feelings already present brings out a better memory?"

Harry shrugged, "Did you use the same memory each attempt?"

"No."

Harry shrugged. "Back to Pals. I made a happy discovery in my mail." Harry pulled out of the bag a largish black box that had an opening with a ledge on its front and back. Were a muggleborn girl present there would have been comparisons to the Easy Bake oven. Harry followed the directions on the top, and soon a circular track went on the right side of the box from the front to the back – with a magical counter weight on the left. "This is supposed to be able to take gem fragments and with some added material forge a larger gem certifiable by muggle standards."

Neville added, "It's supposed to be more reliable than forging without, or melding smaller ones, but they have a higher leak rate."

Seamus looked interested, "So a diamond would still be a diamond, just drained of magic?"

Harry nodded, "The box has runes and other focuses that make the transfiguration essentially permanent, it models the process that formed the gem in the first place. So a forged gem by us would fall to pieces, but these don't. However, these become magic sinks for the natural magical properties of the gem. That's why there are so many large cursed diamonds in the muggle world – if they aren't charged with magic they suck it out all the honesty and luck they can – and for muggles it's a natural curse."

Seamus asked, "But it's legal?"

Harry nodded, "Some countries require a positive charge be given, and the machine comes with a special lead chamber to help with that."

Neville added, "But the magic leaks at a higher rate than natural gems, which is why we're only going to manufacture gems for the transfigured Pals. The higher rate of leakage might actually help recovering patients more."

"We're going to need to include a paper on the theory and why the gems will need at least recharged," said Harry.

Seamus broke in, "How do I order some gems? I was going to try to make some of my old plushies into Pals for my cousins."

Harry smiled, "I ordered some more and some plushies, but I still have a few from the first order."

"How steep are they?"

"Cheap really. I can afford a few despite Gran's grip on the purse strings," said Neville.

"Gems for charms and reservoirs can be visibly cloudy and the shape isn't as important. It's actually how goblins maintain their amount of conversion currency, they buy flawed gems from muggles, and sometimes sell forged ones."

Neville laughed, "The African Wizarding Nation has spells that take a percentage of the gems mined on their continent. They only pay like 5 galleons a year in taxes for water spell experts."

Seamus broke in, "While that is fascinating and a plea to force you to spend less time with Granger.."

"As little as a knut or as much as several galleons," said Harry.

"Bigger more expensive?" Seamus asked. Harry nodded. And then Seamus started to dig in the trunk his childhood belongings had been in. Soon he stood, holding a hideous ceramic goblin. Seamus nearly crowed, "Yes!"

Neville said, "That's just cruel, your goblin bank?"

Seamus shook his head, "Mum found that any of my old things brought elsewhere in the house would bring on a version of the curse – she said the only upside was she never had to worry about stepping on a toy car in the kitchen in the middle of the night."

"Do you know how to uncurse the coins?" asked Harry.

Seamus shrugged, "It's not like I'll ever bring a toy to Gringotts."

"A heating charm followed by an ice bath might activate the tamper proof runes," suggested Neville.

Harry nodded, "Won't hurt to try. Just in case. Better to try to prevent any trouble with the goblins."

Dean, in the meantime, had succeeded in the basic charming of the skeleton. "Look guys!" The skeleton dove and saored along with gestures from Dean's hand. And while there was some clatter from the hinges and joints – it stayed in one piece even as Dean brought it down suddenly. After tapping his hand with a wand – Dean asked, "So what do you think?"

"Brilliant!"

"Cool."

"Neat charm!"

Dean grinned, "I'll need Flitwick's help to try to make it turn on and off."

Harry suddenly thought about kids trying fly themselves or their baby siblings. "Does it have a way to keep living things from flying – just the toy?"

"It's a matter of weight, it can take no more than five pounds. But I am working on how the kids can turn it on and off, since they don't have wands."

Neville shook his head, "Only wizarding children could get them then, and then most parents would probably prefer activation with a wand. If they used it in front of muggles they could be charged with muggle baiting."

"What! Even if I do it so it's only at the owner's touch?"

Harry said, "I bought some stuff for my room this summer and it had to be all wand activated too. Any chance of a muggle seeing it requires it, apparently, unless it's on the Accepted List."

Seamus said, "And I don't think they've added to that in a decade."

Harry sighed, "I hope that McGonagall gives us the material that we were supposed to be learning on this stuff."

Dean snorted, "I think you can count on nearly everything that's logical being illegal."

Seamus laughed, "I thought everybody learned that first year, when Harry and Ron nearly got killed by a troll and got points for it."

Dean shrugged, and Harry briefly considered glaring at Seamus, but instead began to work on forging gems.

ooOOoo

Hours later when Seamus's stomach began to protest, Harry turned off the hourglasses from the slight ratio he'd put them on when he'd joined the others. Then he willed a clock to appear and double-checked that Dean wasn't wearing his watch. "Only an hour until dinner, Seamus, did you want to box any of the Pals you got done to be sent to your cousins?"

Seamus followed Harry's gaze to the clock, "Yeah, I think I'll send some to my muggle cousins first."

"Are you charming the collars at all?" asked Harry.

"Well, the retrieval spell is right out. I was thinking of trying a beeper, like those for lost portable phones, but don't know how to link a charm to two separate objects like that. I'm using a preservation charm. I wish there was a notice me not charm for death eaters.""

"I think you should add the self-cleaning and repair charms," said Harry.

Seamus nodded, "I wouldn't want it to be ruined in the wash, but think self-repairing is too much. Maybe a strengthener for the seams and buttons?"

Harry remembered plushies that Dudley had intentionally destroyed just for fun. "Makes sense."

"Most of my Mum's side is still pure-blooded, and stay in Ireland. So they should be fine."

"No DEs there?"

Seamus shook his head, "Too English for it to catch on. Family is more cherished in wizarding Ireland, especially family that was kind enough to move away."

Harry laughed. Seamus raised a hand, "No, really! Ireland has a bigger wizarding population than England, and even a couple of wizarding cities. So there are incentives for younger siblings to go elsewhere. When the population gets too high, the Secrecy Barriers break down."

"Are they bigger than Diagon? The cities I mean?"

Seamus shrugged, "I've never really explored there, usually only errands or a museum."

"There are museums?"

"Same as muggles – famous people's houses, art, history, and a zoo – not that different…"

The boys saw off six owls for Seamus' youngest cousins, and another for his muggle grandmother. Only she knew of the magical world – and therefore didn't have any compulsion. The others had a conjured card for each Aunt with a compulsion to give the plushie to their youngest immediately, and to make sure to always bring it along. It was a bit sketchy legally, but the cards would disappear soon enough, eliminating the evidence.

Dinner was surprisingly normal, Dumbledore and McGonagall were missing from the head table. Seamus and Dean sat with some fourth years that had been debating Manchester United's chances. Ginny hadn't shown at dinner, and there was some talk of a pickup game lasting all afternoon. Harry paced his meal, so that he'd be ready to go at the same time as the Hufflepuffs from the DA. Madame Sprout wasn't at dinner, normal for when she was closing the greenhouse for a break. Dean and Neville would be going to the greenhouses, while Seamus would try to grab some Ravenclaws, as Harry had no desire to talk to Cho.

Seeing Ernie was finished with his dinner, Harry pulled the DA coin out of his pocket and set the date to Thursday. Then Harry followed Susan, Ernie, and Hannah out of the Great Hall.

Back in the Room of Requirement, Harry and Seamus led Susan, Hannah, Ernie, Su, and Cho into the room they had used before to make Pals.

"So how did you find out how to do this?" asked Cho.

"Last summer, I was brought before the Wizengamot for protecting myself from Dementors. So this summer I wanted as much passive protection as I could get. The upside to the Pals is that they could help everyone. And they are supposed to help speed healing of dark magical damage, a double plus for kids in the hospital."

Susan hedged, "The only problems I see are the forged gems, and well.. when the Pals lose their spells."

Harry started to answer, but Susan cut him off, "No. I mean I understand there's no money for real gems. Just on Thursday, the forge mustn't be out, Harry. You're supposed to be over 21 to own one and need a permit for use."

Harry sighed, "The craft company didn't have any of that in the catalog."

Susan smiled, "The best craft company is out of Ireland, and they aren't required to pass their owls through customs. Their laws are different too."

Cho said, "The school owns forging equipment, its in the old Enchanting rooms on the third floor. The materials haven't really changed in 500 years."

Hannah chimed in, "They cover the history and detection spells for forged gems in Witch Weekly every year in the Valentine's insert."

"Really?" asked Harry. Apparently Hermione might have missed something by not being a girly girl.

Ernie coughed, "They also post warnings in the February Wizards Monthly."

The girls looked scandalized, while Seamus looked impressed, "Ok, what did I miss?"

"You are supposed to be 19 before you can subscribe to WM," explained Seamus. He turned to Ernie, "So how is Page 3?"

Ernie colored a bit, and Harry bit his cheek.

Cho huffed, "Was there any point, Ernie?"

"Well… Yeah. Harry, I'll get you the issue and maybe Hannah can get you the Valentine's insert?"

Harry shrugged, "Might have some other things that the library books left out."

Su Li asked, "What books did you reference? It may be that the seventh years still have the best books out."

"I'll have to check in my dorm. Could you see if there are any they'd especially recommend?"

Su smiled, "I'll see what they have."

Harry smiled, "Thanks. We've done a lot already to set this up, and I don't want to miss something."

Seamus said, "Since Neville got me through the process this afternoon, and now that you all know how to make one, I think we'll have enough people to help people through."

Before curfew, they all completed at least one Pal. Ernie and Seamus went with the girls to the Owlery to send off some of the Pals. Harry stayed behind with a wink and a nod towards forging some more gems.

C28 seemed too short, and so I tacked on more of the same Pals stuff here, rather than in 29 - seemed more fitting.

Happy New Year.