Not My Magical World
Chapter 7
Harry stood in a conference room in the recently renovated black wall power plant. He moved his arms behind his back as he stared at the three individuals sitting at the table. Easing himself into a chair, Harry cleared his throat, his gaze flicking around the room and taking in the pale white walls and a large glass window that looked out over the plant.
"Thank you all for coming, I realize you are very busy, but I truly believe my technology can revolutionize Britain."
Monica Green, head of waste management for Britain, leaned forward.
Monica was a pale short round woman with wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, long, faded blonde hair piled into a bun, and Hazel eyes. She wore a white blouse that drew attention to her figure, a dark blue blazer, and a matching knee-length skirt.
"I have seen the land that used to be a landfill. If your technology is responsible for its transformation, it is incredible."
She turned to the far end of the table, focusing on Prime Minister Mitchell Daniel O'Connor. He was 6'0" tall with broad shoulders, a wide square-jawed face, brown hair, and green eyes. Like Monica, he was dressed for business.
He wore a lavender button-down shirt, black blazer, black slacks, and matching shoes.
"The land has been tested; it's clean and ready for use again if Mr. Potter is willing to sell it back to us." Both Mitchell and Monica turned to Harry.
"I don't have a problem selling it back to you for 10 percent above market value."
"Come now, Mr. Potter," Mitchell began with a wide smile. "Don't be greedy." His eyes narrowed, "Besides, I'm sure there is some law that would allow us to take it."
"You can try, but I would fight back, and you probably wouldn't get reelected. After all, who wants a Prime Minister who takes what he wants from the people he is meant to serve?"
"This is all very interesting, but why am I here," said the room's fourth occupant.
The group turned to Justin hammer.
Justin Odysseus Hammer was seventy-one years old, thin, with high cheekbones, a narrow nose, and large ears that stuck out from his head. His gray hair was slicked back, drawing attention to his large forehead.
He was dressed in a pink button-down shirt, grey blazer, slacks, and grey shoes. A cane with a golden top leaned against his chair.
"You are here," Harry began, "because I want to buy your power plants." He pulled a slip of paper from an inner pocket and slid it across the table to Hammer.
Hammer's eyes narrowed as he stared at the slip of paper, "Why would I sell my plants to you for this price?"
"Because you are losing money and sanctions, once you sell it to me, it'll be my problem, and you can spend more money and time on your true passions competing in weapons development with Tony Stark."
Hammer looked at the price again, and slowly, he shook his head, "Despite the money the sanctions are costing me, it is still generating a profit."
Harry shook his head, "it is for now, but as I develop more stations, you will lose contracts because I provide cheaper power while also providing another service. I am giving you an out here for practicality's sake."
Hammer's hand curled into a fist as he scrunched up the paper.
Carefully Harry reached out with his mind, nudging the fears that had blossomed in Hammer's mind.
Hammer grabbed the cane beside his chair and levered himself to his feet. Moving over to the large window at the back of the room, he looked down at the Black- Wall Power Plant.
Three cylinders lined either side of a rectangular depression in the floor. Each one held twenty golden orbs. Wires ran from the three cylinders to plug into holes in the floor on the left and right sides. Thicker cables ran into a spot at the top and bottom of the depression. All of the wires glowed with a white-yellow light.
As the man stared down at his plant, Harry pushed a little more, just a minor suggestion to make him more agreeable to the deal.
"How much power does this facility produce?"
"Each mini sun can power London for a year."
Hammer's eyes widened, "I'm counting at least 120 down there."
"There are ten more in the generator itself, meant to be a backup in case something happens."
Hammer turned to him, his eyes hard, his knuckles white on his cane, "Fine, I'll have my people draw up a contract." With those words, Hammer strode from the room, slamming the door shut behind him.
Harry turned to Monica and Mitchell, "What about you two?"
Monica flipped through her papers before focusing on a specific sheet. "How will your inventions affect other industries, more specifically recycling?"
"Recycling won't be affected at all. I only need to use the stuff that gets left to rot."
Mitchell sighed, "Since you've got Mr. Hammer on your side, I can't afford to fight with you. I'll give you eight percent per acre above market value for the 2500 acres you've already cleared off."
By this point, Harry was getting tired and wanted them to leave. He had more work to do, "Deal."
–XX –
After his guests had left, Harry pulled a mental projection of Clarice, Fabian, Gideon, and Kreature, the temporary leader of the Spark, into the conference room.
The pale translucent purple double of Clarice grimaced in her chair as Fabian and Gideon flinched when they shimmered into existence.
Kreature looked unperturbed as he stared around the room.
"I really wish you wouldn't do that," Clarice said, giving him the stink eye.
"I'm sorry, but I wanted to let you all know the news as soon as possible." He focused on Gideon and Fabian, "I have successfully purchased Justin hammer's power plants," he turned to Clarice, "he is going to have a contract sent over. I trust you to make sure everything is in order."
"Yes," Clarice smirked. With this deal, they stood to make billions in clean energy.
"Once the contract is signed, I want the companies rebranded from Hammer's power to Celestial Enterprises."
He turned to the Prewett brothers, "I trust you two are okay being in charge of this project."
As they nodded, Gideon pulled a cigar out of his toolbelt and shoved it into his mouth. He let it with a spark of power from his thumb, "so, how are we going to go about retrofitting each of the plants."
"The black wall plant will be able to power London; if pushed, no one should be without power."
"Kreature," Harry turned to the Spark. The Spark in question was 3'2" tall with broad shoulders, thick muscle, a wide face, bulbous nose, and liquid flamelike eyes. His copper-colored hair was shaved close to his head, and silver freckles decorated his Ebony-colored skin.
"Yes, Master Harry," Kreature croaked in a deep gravelly voice.
Harry shook his head, "How often do I have to tell you I am not your master?" He asked in an exasperated voice.
A sly smile spread across Kreature's face, "Just one more, sir," he said, amusement heavy in his voice.
The three other occupants of the table shared a grin. Though they would never admit it out loud, they were amazed that Harry had been able to grant the house elves bodies, let alone break the contracts and create an entirely new species.
"Anyways," Harry began ignoring the looks of his other companions, "you can use the rune Forge in my workshop to create magical nanorobots that will transform existing matter into what we need in the power plants."
He turned to Clarice, "Get Norman on the payroll and Make sure he gets control of the electronics in the power plant if Justin leaves an infrastructure that could be detrimental to us. Also, it will cost us money but before retrofitting each plant, send the workers home with booklets about how to run the new technology and pay them while the Prewett and Spark are working.
He turned to the Prewett brothers, "I trust you two can build my generator now that I've completed the first one."
"We could have built the first one," Gideon grunted, "but until the sparks came along, it was a lot more difficult to put this place," he gestured around them, "back together."
"Good, have a few of the Spark work with you and make sure to work on the plants one by one, shifting power distribution before you begin working. Blackwell should be able to carry everyone in England and Scotland if we are willing to burn through half of our stored mini-suns."
Standing to his feet, Harry stretched his back while facing Kreature. "Next time you contact Dobby, let him know I want to purchase an island a few hundred miles off the coast for your people. Once we settle things here, you and the rest of the Spark can go with me to the island, and we will begin creating the home you desire."
Straightening up, he looked into Kreature's eyes. "I hope we can continue to work together once you have a home."
Kreature inclined his head, "We would like that. Your help is needed to help us establish a place for ourselves in this world. Right now, we can't go into the mundane world, and those of magical society don't know what to make of us."
Harry's eyebrows drew together in thought, "If you're willing, I believe we can develop something that could allow you to take on a more human appearance and interact with the world. You are as much magical technology as flesh and blood; it should be easy to integrate a new component into your bodies."
"I will talk it over with the others." inclining his head Kreature vanished.
Harry looked over at Gideon, Fabian, and Clarice, "Did either of you three need anything?"
"We're good," Gideon and Fabian said together.
"I'm fine," Clarice said, "but I would like to hire some help."
Harry took note of the dark circles under her eyes and the slump of her shoulders, "That's fine; just make sure you can trust them, but know they won't get the same deal you did."
Clarice nodded.
"When the land sale is complete, use the money to buy more landfills. Let me know when it's done, and I will transport the mini suns to their locations."
Clarice nodded, and the trio phased out of existence.
–XX –
Appearing in his lab, Harry swiftly moved to a shelf and grabbed a long paper roll. Moving over to a drawing board, he enrolled the paper and sat down. Snatching a pen from a cup in the top right corner, he began drawing.
While talking with his partners, he'd gotten an idea.
If he could link all the power plants together in a network of sorts, they could produce more power than they could separately. Slowing down in his drawing, he stared at his creation.
His current idea was to take materials from each power plant and form it into an octagon-shaped frame, then use different materials to create wires that would flow from each point of the octagon to the center. The center would contain a piece of copper from the generator with a rune in its middle.
By using elements from each power plant and a rune to connect them, they could be joined by sympathetic magic and work as a single unit.
Sympathetic magic is the connection between two objects made from the same material. They were once whole and would naturally want to be whole again. By using this desire, certain magics could be pushed through it to cause effects between two different locations
By fastening what he was calling the Tether to the generator, the power plant should be able to use this to share energy, lessening the burden on any individual facility.
Writing a note to Kreature in the bottom corner of the paper, Harry stood to his feet, his eyes locked on the Tether. He thought this had drawn him to the lab, but his instincts told him he needed a new tool.
Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and allowed his instincts to guide him. Moving over to a nearby shelf, he grabbed ingredients. When his arms were full, he moved away and over to the runic forge.
Placing the ingredients inside, he moved to the pedestal and put his hand in its center.
–XX –
in a flash of light, he appeared before the translucent table. His body stiffened as the tendrils of power flowed out from the swirling runes and connected to his temples. As runes flowed across his eyes, he stared at what he had grabbed.
Powdered quartz crystal, a small piece of carbon, a small granite block, and a bundle of copper wire sat on the table. With a gesture, the components broke apart into their base atoms.
Working on instinct, he combined the carbon and powdered quartz crystal. Moving his fingers, the atoms of the two components began to swirl, taking the form of minuscule block-shaped runes that symbolized strength.
Slowly, those runes formed the outline of a rounded eight-faceted jewel that reached a sharp point at the bottom. Thin lines of straight runes with lines running off them and all different angles begin forming the interior. They flowed and linked together to form little chambers inside the crystal.
Harry reached forward as the last chamber formed, closing his hand around the translucent three-dimensional image. He concentrated on imparting the concepts of transformation, separation, unity, collection, categorization, and healing to the objects. He'd never done it before, but it felt right. A part of the realm of knowledge was guiding him, and he didn't know why.
Nothing happened for a moment, then the tendrils connected to his temples spasmed as a flame appeared in his mind, and an infinity symbol appeared below it, a caduceus, a winged staff with two serpents wrapped around it appeared forming a triangle.
The three characters flew together, filling Harry's mind and eyes with a blinding white light. Though he didn't see what the three symbols created, he felt them move against his skin as they flowed into the immaterial object in his hand.
Still holding the image, he felt energy flare from it, pulling the granite and copper wire into it like matter into a black hole. Releasing the orb, Harry stepped back, staring at the swirling gray dots and bright bronze-colored particles swirling around the now corporeal crystal.
Slowly, the granite formed a bowl around the crystal. The copper wire moved, creating blocky runes that curved around its lip. As the last rune fell into place, the image solidified into a stone cauldron, clawfoot legs growing from the bottom as it floated to the table.
On the side of the cauldron was a red serpent, Angel like wings flaring from its back. Its eyes were made from the infinity symbol, and flames danced in the center of the loops. Moving forward, Harry stared at the object in the center of the table, "You are the cauldron of creation, but why would I need you?"
A ringing pulled Harry out of the runic forge.
–XX –
Glancing at the cauldron floating in the ring above the pyramid, Harry moved over to an old fashion Rotary phone hanging on the wall. Grabbing the seafoam green seashell-shaped receiver, he pressed it to his ear, "Hello."
"Harry, is that you?"
"Callisto, it's good to…."
"No time," she said, cutting him off, her voice quick with agitation, "you need to come to New York fast."
Tension began to bleed into Harry's body as his stomach roiled, he hadn't known Callisto long, but he could tell by the first meeting she didn't get agitated easily, "Why, what's wrong?"
"Robert Frank is dead, and Junior is missing."
Harry's world tilted as it felt like he was punched in the heart. Robert Frank had been the one to take him in when he appeared on the streets, he taught him about the world, and though Robert disagreed with Harry's method of justice, he allowed him to stay in the old cabin in the woods, he was the closest thing Harry had to family in this world.
Voice distant, sounding like it came from a world away, Harry spoke words he only partially heard, "I'll be there soon."
