Chapter Ten

New Information

Friday August 23, 1996

Wandmaster Daryl Whitehorn admitted to himself that this was the strangest wandcrafting class that he'd ever put on. He had the British Minister for Magic's niece, her friend, a full blown Seer, two elves and someone who the Seer had proclaimed to be a true Hero. He'd have laughed the entire idea off as being ridiculous if his gal-pal Mandy hadn't personally encouraged him to take on the class.

On the last week of class, their assignment was to make a great wand out of any material of their choice. The girls and the elves were making oak or elm wands with a unicorn tail hair for a core. Harry was working on using a liquid with Elder wood. The only thing unusual was that Daryl hadn't supplied any of the materials; instead requesting that the students acquire them on their own.

He asked the blond girl, "Where were you able to buy unicorn hair?"

Luna replied, "Harry has a small herd of them; well, not so small. They're quite chatty." The elves agreed that they were quite friendly.

He asked Harry, "What core material are you using?"

"Basilisk venom."

"How...?"

"I ran across one when I was twelve."

Luna added, "Harry needs to make a staff. You should use both cores and oak for that one."

The odd thing was that the others accepted the strange girl's statements as if she were casually mentioning that dinner would be at 5:30. Finally, curiosity got the best of him and he asked, "How did you manage to get a herd of unicorns?"

Dobby replied, "They wanted to live with Harry Potter Sir."

Daryl asked, "They told you that?"

Dobby replied, "No, Professor Sir. They told Ed that."

"Who is Ed?"

"He's the elf who speaks unicorn the best."

Daryl asked, "Harry, how many unicorns do you have?"

"I don't know, Professor; 16 or 18."

Winky clarified, "You have 19, Harry Potter Sir. There are 19 this week."

Daryl walked to the break room in wonder. He hadn't thought that there were 19 unicorns in all of North America. He brought out several handfuls of Orange Crush bottles for everyone and asked, "Why do you want to make a staff?"

Harry replied, "I want to make lakes, Professor. Mandy Taylor said I'd need one."

Daryl asked, "Do you fish?"

"No Sir; they'd be used for drinking water."

Daryl noticed that Winky's wand was unusually short. He asked her about it. She replied, "Harry Potter's Hermione is studying to be a healer, she told me that a short wand, held like a chopstick would be easier for precision work."

"What length is that?"

"Eight inches."

Daryl thought that it sounded like a clever idea.

… - …

During one of the breaks, Dobby mentioned that the unicorns were always shedding tail hair. Daryl offered to pay a galleon each for the longer pieces. The other elves listened to the conversation and heard spending money. Soon unicorn hair became Daryl's predominant classroom wand core.

… - …

DMLE Director Rufus Scrimgeour was in line at Gringotts, waiting to visit his vault when he happened to notice Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy in line, two lines over. He gave a second look; Lucius was complaining about the slowness of the line, which wasn't unusual. He had his walking stick wand cane.

Just then, Scrimgeour was at the front of his line and the teller asked, "How can Gringotts help you today, Director Scrimgeour?"

"I need to visit my vault."

The teller replied, "Onefang will take you now. Please follow him."

"Right. He gave one last look. The Malfoys were still in line.

An hour later, Shacklebolt was in line when he happened to notice Peter Nott and the Carrows in the other lines talking to their respective tellers.

… - ...

With a week to go in the second summer session, the group was having pizza for Friday night dinner. Dan asked, "What is everyone taking for classes this September?"

Dean replied, "The regular sixth year classes." After a moment, he asked, "I was hoping that I could come back next summer and take the second animated painting class. Could that work?"

Dan glanced at Harry, who gave a slight nod. As far as the other teens knew, they were staying at the Granger residence. Dan replied, "We'd be happy to have you stay here."

Susan and Hannah glanced at each other but didn't say anything. Susan wanted to stay here. The conversation moved back to sports and the nice weather. In a complete non sequitur, Luna mentioned, "You should dig your lakes deeper." It was completely out of the blue, as Harry had never mentioned the pond to the other teens.

Emma, who had been reading up on DIY ponds, asked, "Why do you say that, Luna?"

The brilliant slip of a teen, who was a true seer replied, "If you dig it a bit more than twice as deep, you'll find a natural spring which will keep your pond full. In the dry areas that you're thinking about, if the ponds are considerably deeper and cover less surface area, you'll have far less evaporation."

As the other three looked bewildered, Emma mentioned, "In both instances, your suggestions makes perfect sense. Thank you."

She added, "You're welcome. Plus, in your case, if the pond is deeper and you add a water circulation enchantment at the bottom of the deep part, the fish that Dr. Granger will ask you to add won't die off in the winter."

Susan was thinking to herself, He's here learning how to do this stuff and McGonagall is going to show us how to change a mouse into a frog; we're in the wrong school. She asked, "I need to go talk with Auntie. Harry, would it be OK if you took me home for the night?"

"How about if we go in six hours? It would be morning there. How long would you need?"

"Three hours would be enough."

… - …

Saturday August 24

Amelia had been expecting this conversation. Aside from the reality that it would put her in an awkward position at the Wizengamot, she didn't have a reason to say no.

Susie brought her marked-up course catalog and said, "These are the courses that I would to take for the next two and a half years."

World History I, II and III, Business Finance, Macro Economics, Civil Service, Public Speaking, 4 charms classes, 3 runes classes, Cursebreaking I and II, along with five marked undecided.

Amelia admitted, "For the most part, these aren't available at Hogwarts. What do you see yourself doing with these?"

"I could be the first Press Secretary for the ministry, go into Enchanting, work at Gringotts, or get a masters in Charms, I'll be ICW licensed to open a wandcrafting shop, or I could work at one of the publications. Any of them sound more practical than earning a NEWT in astronomy, or one-sided versions of clashes with goblins. Wouldn't it be better to enter the job market with a skill-set that 45 others don't have? I could take over Mr. Weasley's job; I actually know how electricity and cars work. What's the risk? Auntie, I don't want my career to just be someone's wife. I love you dearly, but I don't want to go into law enforcement. I want to do things myself. I might get a masters or two."

"Do you know for a fact that you'd be welcome where you're staying?"

Susan replied, "The Grangers have a big house out in the country. We take a portkey to get to the school."

Amelia replied, "I'm all but certain that the Grangers are living with Harry Potter, not the other way around. Tell me about your summer..."

… - …

That evening, Harry read several interesting quotes.

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act. The rest is merely tenacity."

"The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life, and the procedure, the process is its own reward."

– Amelia Earhart

Somehow, it resonated with him. He cut the quotes out of the magazine and put it on the cork board by his workspace in the garage.

… - …

Friday August 30

By the end of the summer, Harry had crafted his staff. While it would never see use in a finesse project; for its desired purpose, it would be perfect. He estimated that he could transmit five times the power with it as compared to his holly wand.

Though the British ministry had stopped using the magical sensing devices to track underage magical use, the notes from the school would continue to be sent. Hannah, and later Luna eventually crafted hundreds of 9 inch unicorn backup wands for the muggleborn and half bloods. Though neither went into wandcrafting as a career, they occasionally attended the school quidditch games for years, quietly exchanging backup wands and a two-wand wand holster for 25 galleons.

… - …

It was the last dinner before some of the teens would be returning to Britain. Susan would be staying. Hannah's parents wanted her to finish at Hogwarts. Luna saw that she needed to be nearer her father, except when she didn't, and Dean would also finish at Hogwarts.

Luna asked Emma, "What do you do for fun?"

Emma replied, "I enjoy studying different governments. I've been reading about tax practices in different countries. They're all different. Some places tax wealth, some tax income, while others tax activities."

Harry about choked when the other teens glanced at Hermione and him.

Luna asked, "How so? What is the role of government?"

Emma replied, "There are the very basics, such as police, fire, clean water and sewer, roads, education, public health, and at the national level, defense. Keeping the discussion at that basic level, almost everyone would agree on the need for those things. How they get paid for is far more subjective. Magical Britain has a 3% sales tax. If Harry decided to go buy 100G of butterbeer, he'd pay the merchant 103G and the merchant would pay the extra 3G to the ministry when they do their monthly revenue reporting. If Susan or Ron made the same purchase, they'd each pay the same amount of tax."

Luna and the others nodded. They'd never really thought about it and the workings of their own government wasn't a subject taught at Hogwarts.

Emma continued, "Magical Britain also has an estate tax, meaning when Professor Dumbledore passed away and his estate eventually is dispositioned, the ministry stands to collect 10% of its value.

"The social programs are all subjective and too frequently, politically motivated. Some people would state that they're needed for the greater good. Others would point out that they're little more than a means of buying votes for one group with money collected from the opposition party. Largely, they come down to the question of, who is primarily responsible for your well being and success? Some people would state that the individual is, some would state that it's the government's responsibility, others would state that it's a blend. Enough of politics. Did everyone have a good summer?"

Dean replied, "Fantastic. I've gotten started on learning how to do magical portraits."

Susan, Luna and Hannah all mentioned that it was so cool to have made their own wands. It had been a great summer.

… - ...

Saturday October 7

Harry took Luna's advice. He temporarily removed the vinyl sheets and dug his lake hole deeper until the ground in one section was consistently wet. As such, his lake bottom was slowly feeding water into his lake. He reset the plastic to cover the rest of the bottom and with the elves help, planted some aquatic plants on the shallow side that Emma had recommended that he use to keep the lake healthy. He set his enchanted water circulation device in motion.

On a moonless night, he was ready. He flew his broomstick a mile out to sea and with his staff called, "Accio water." A huge cloud of water was soon heading towards him. Not wanting to be drowned by his own watercloud, Harry zoomed off on his firebolt. After 45 minutes, he saw the lights that marked his lake. Directing the water with his staff, his lake filled with a gigantic splashing sound.

Dan, Emma and Hermione, who were up watching the event, were completely drenched by the falling sea water but were laughing at the success. When the water settled, Harry began the transfiguration process. Over and over he cast the spell until he was seriously tired. Finally, Dan proclaimed the water to be clean freshwater.

… - …

Mandy and Daryl were amazed at the results when they came by the next day with pizza for lunch. She asked, "How large is the lake?"

Harry replied, "It's 22 acres. There's a sandy beach over there with 75 feet of wadable sand bottom before the drop-off. The average depth is 40 feet. Let me show you the plans."

He explained the water circulation enchantment device. Any one of the major steps - the excavation, the sealing of the bottom, the aeration device, the filling of the lake or the desalination were master level projects. Taken collectively, the two academics were astounded. Harry proclaimed, "It was Hermione's mum, Dr. Emma Granger who originally suggested the idea to me. I just made it work."

Mandy replied, "Harry, there's no just anything in this. We're so impressed by your work."

… - ...

Emma had taken a roll of photographs during the construction of the lake and had two sets of prints made. She put one in a photo album and she filed the other set in their dental office under the patient name Ed Lakewood. Her daughter's boyfriend had performed an amazing feat and she didn't want to wake up one morning having suddenly forgotten about it. Dan was amazed at the scope of what he'd seen; yet part of him agreed with Sam Kinison.

… - …

After Harry completed the lake, Dobby found him one afternoon and asked, "Harry Potter Sir, can Dobby be talking with you?" This was Dobby's I have some serious business and I want something conversation opening.

"Sure. What's up?"

"Dobby is wondering if more elves can be living here?"

Harry was wiser in the art of serious conversations, thanks to the hours spent conversing with Ted. He asked, "How many elves are living here now?"

Little D squirmed a little, hemmed and hawed before answering "There are 20 elves here now."

Harry replied, "20. Who are they?"

"Besides Dobby and Winky, there be Winky's sister, Layla, then Nikki, Freddie, Johnie, Kaia, Sandy, Betty, Lily, Joannie, Jeanie, Leslie, Bobby, Connie, Maddie. Robby, Gary, Larry and Ed."

Harry clarified, "He's the guy who talks with the unicorns. He's a good guy. Dobby, my question is, how many elves and unicorns do we have room for? Also, Emma was wondering if we could grow some apple trees here?"

"Yes, Harry Potter. There be Granny Smith, Gala, Cortland, Empire and Haralson trees here – many of them. Haralson are Dobby's favorite. Winky likes them too." He put his hand over his mouth in a perfect imitation of Hagrid. There is plenty of room, Harry Potter Sir."

Harry replied, "I'm fine with more elves and unicorns living here, Dobby. As long as you're happy and they have something to do, I'm happy too."

… - …

Saturday October 21

A few weeks later, Harry saw Dobby and Winky out in the back yard. He said, "Hi, you two. How have you been?"

Little D replied, "We've been busy, very busy Harry Potter Sir, All of the elves have been moving downy birch trees, old oak trees and more Haralson apple trees. The unicorns are being very impatient."

"Dobby, how many elves are here now?"

Dobby looked at Winky, like they were holding a private conversation. A moment later, she answered, "There are 198 elves and 2 elflings."

Harry asked, "Shouldn't there be more elflings?"

Dobby asked, "Does Harry Potter Sir think so?"

"Of course." Now it was his turn to look at Dobby and Winky suggestively. After a squirmy minute, he let them off the hook, asking, "How are the unicorns doing?" Winky replied, "They are very happy here, Harry Potter."

… - ...

Harry and Hermione were having dinner together in town. Harry asked, "How do you like your classes this term?"

She admitted, "Chemistry and Biology are hard. There's a lot of material covered."

He asked, "Do you like them?"

"Nobody likes them. They're the weed-out classes for people going into healing. You just get through them. How about you?"

"Everything is fun. I love enchanting class. I think of interesting projects to try almost every week."

She smiled and said, "Eat your pizza. I'll suffer in silence." Her parents had gone over the academic and career path with respect to healthcare. The studious teen knew what she was getting into.

… - …

Friday November 8

Daryl Whitehorn and Harry had developed a friendship of sorts. Harry made a habit of stopping by Daryl's wandcrafting workshop on Friday afternoons to say hi and discuss their various projects. As there was no wandmaking class this semester, Daryl was puttering around the shop. When Harry walked in, the Master Wandcrafter said, "Hi Harry. I'd like you to meet my nephew, Devlin."

"Hi. Nice to meet you. Daryl speaks highly of you and calls you his favorite nephew." Harry was inwardly surprised; Devlin looked 20 years older than his uncle. They both resembled the movie character, the Dude. While Daryl still had light brown hair and a trimmed beard along with the occasional streak of gray, Devlin was nearly completely gray. His face was lined.

Devlin made the connection and asked, "You wouldn't have anything to do with the display in the lobby of the London Gringotts, would you?"

Harry nodded and remarked, "I thought that they would have taken that down by now."

"Not likely; they treat it like a shrine."

Harry made a connection of his own and admitted, "I'm a fan of your work too. What's the difference between making a broomstick and a wand?"

Devlin smiled and replied, "There are several runesets carved when the shaft is split before adding the core."

Harry nodded and mentioned, "My firebolt feels a bit like my staff. What bit of snake do you use for the core?"

Amazed that he'd made the connection, Devlin replied, "Ashwinder. What did you use for your staff core?"

"Basilisk venom."

Devlin remarked, "That must be a heck of a transmission device."

"The basilisk venom wand I made is about 140 efficacy. I'd estimate the staff is about 600. It's pretty tiring to use after a while."

Daryl shook his head in amazement at the remarkable teen and muttered, "I wonder why."

Harry asked, "What do the runes do?"

Devlin replied, "They set limits as to what the broomstick can do – angle of a dive or climb, how sharply the broomstick can turn, maximum height and speed are the common limiters."

"Brilliant. How do you carve them so small?"

Devlin admitted, "I don't. I use an expansion charm on the wood after I split it, carve the runes and resize it before gluing the core material in place, then glue the two sides back together."

Harry replied, "That's a great idea. I need to run. Devlin, it was fantastic to meet you. Daryl, I'll see you next week." He tucked his conversation with Devlin in the back of his mind, knowing that it would be important.

… - ...

Saturday November 16

Emma asked, "How is the water project coming along?"

Harry admitted, "I need to be able to measure loss in order to estimate how far I can really carry a single load of water."

She replied, "As I understand it, water in large volume is commonly measured in acre feet. Taking the example of your lake, for easy math, it's about 20 acres in area and 40 feet deep, giving you about 800 acre feet of water. I think you should focus on the end result, as it really doesn't matter how much you started with. So far, you were able to summon 800 acre feet just over 100 miles on what was your first try."

Harry nodded and let her continue.

"Let's say that someone wanted a 5,000 acre feet lake made. The size and depth combination to get to 5,000 feet of volume doesn't matter for the conversation. Let's say they had the ability to close air traffic for four hours – between one and five am. Could you make two trips?"

"I suppose so."

"If you practiced at this, would you get better?"

Harry thought back to his efforts at conjuring arrows. They lasted twice as long as his initial efforts. That said, he didn't want to over-estimate his abilities. He replied, "To be conservative, let's assume that there would be no improvement which might offset the assumption that the second load would be the same as the first. So we'll use a result of 800 acre feet."

"Could you do it three nights in a row? For sake of discussion, we'll assume the night before, the night of, and the night after the new moon."

He replied, "Yes."

"So that would give you 4,800 acre feet in a month." He nodded, still not saying anything to get off track.

She continued, "Let's look at it differently. If they managed to fill the lake themselves; if they piped in the water, how would that work?"

Harry replied, "It would be simplest if they had tow side-by-side ponds. They could be filling one with salt water while drawing clean fresh water from the other When it was full, the pump would shut off and we'd remove the salt. Actually, it would be better to have several lakes in reserve, so someone wouldn't always have to be there, desalinating the seawater."

"How long did it take you to clean the water in your pond?"

"A few hours. It might take two days to clean a 5,000 acre feet lake. It was pretty tiring."

She asked, "Could another witch or wizard who had their own staff do it? How about Hannah?"

"Maybe. She'd have to try it."

Emma said, "I bring this up for several reasons. If you do this with any regularity, you'd be gone a lot. Beyond that, when I originally lamented that magicals sould do something with drinking water, I was speaking in generalities, not suggesting that you take the world on by yourself."

"I get your point; I'd like to make a lake or three before deciding to make a company out of it."

She continued, "Suppose someone wanted to move water 350 miles and the money made sense. How would you do it?"

She'd finally got around to the point that had been worrying him – loss in transit. He replied, "A reasonable way of doing it would be to create several way-point ponds in between. In your example, we would need two, or three. Let's use 125 and 250 miles. If we knew the loss factor and understand if it was 50% with the initial lift, or constant along the trip, it would be easier to estimate. I may have lost 80 percent getting it from the ocean to here. If we had an 80 percent loss twice along the way, I'd only get about 4 percent to the final destination."

She thought about it a moment and said, "You could summon the water out of your lake and fly it around for ten miles then set it back into the hole. You'd be starting out with as close to a known quantity as we have at our disposal. You'd have a solid piece of evidence as to whether the loss took place on take-off, or along the way. If not, you could top off your lake again, fly the water around for 100 miles and set it back and get a good number for any repeat hops."

They both agreed that it made sense.

That night, Harry carefully measured the water level then summoned the water and flew around for five minutes before setting it down. When he did, he had nearly the same amount of water as what he started with.

He was quite pleased with himself until he spoke with Dan, who mentioned, "You lost half of the water when you summoned it. Fortunately, most of it landed back into the lake."

Harry asked, "How much did I lose in total?"

"Dan replied, "Less than 10 percent from the flight itself. Once the water decided that it had been summoned, for the most part, it stuck with you."

Harry thought about it a bit and observed, "Maybe flying the water some distance is more practical that I originally envisioned."

… - …

Saturday November 23

One Saturday, Harry heard a knock at the door. A man identified himself as John Steel and showed his MACUSA credentials. He looked to be about 40, so Harry guessed that he could be anywhere between 40 and 75. He said, "I was given your name by Mandy Taylor from the Salem Institute. She told me that you're interested in water."

"Yes Sir." He also introduced Dan to the man.

"Let me ask you a question. How do you think it gets used?"

Harry replied, "People drink it. That's important."

Steel nodded and said, "Yes it is. Go on."

"They shower, wash the dishes, clean laundry and the like."

"Good. How much water do you suppose the average person uses in a day?"

Harry guessed, "I reckon 50 gallons or so."

Steel nodded and replied, "Double it and you'd be very close. Magicals probably do use less, but on average for personal consumption, 100 gallons per day is a good number. Please tell me about the lake that you made."

"It's 22 acres in area and 40 feet deep."

"Impressive. For easy comparison. One acre is about the area of a football field. For quick math, an acre foot is 325,000 gallons. Keep those in mind. Here's the rub. You personally only use 10% of the water that's consumed per person."

Harry asked, "Where does the rest go?"

"Half is industrial use, 40% is irrigation and 10% municipal. That 10% is the 100 gallons per person that we talked about."

Emma said, "So Harry looking scruffy by only showering every other day isn't going to make much difference?"

Steel grinned and replied, "Probably not."

She asked, "Where are you going with this?"

He deferred the question and said, "If you wouldn't mind, please show me your lake."

Harry walked him out. Dobby and friends had moved thousands of fir trees so they ringed the little lake. By any measurement, it was gorgeous. Steel admitted, "This is the single most impressive piece of magic that I've ever seen."

"Harry replied, "Thank you, Sir."

"Out of curiosity, how did you fill the lake?"

"I summoned some sea water and transfigured it to be fresh water."

Steel blinked a dozen times in amazement at the statement and admitted, "I doubt that I could summon a bathtub full of water. Amazing."

Emma asked, "Without sounding naive, where does most drinking water come from?"

Steel replied, "Essentially there are two sources – either it starts as snow or rainwater and ends up in a lake or river, or it's pumped out of the ground."

"Why is so much used for industrial purposes?"

"Honestly, because it's inexpensive. It's used to cool things, wash things, cut things and filter things. The same holds true on the agricultural side. You water plants, wash produce and the like. The problem is that the numbers are fuzzy. In most cases, at least on the industrial side, the waters isn't consumed, just rented. Consider the Colorado River in the western part of the country. The water might originate as fallen snow on a mountain or hill. It melts, flows into a stream. Then it spends a few days in a tributary and ends up in the river. Along the way, some of it's used a dozen times, treated and goes back into the river. Remember when I said the numbers are fuzzy? Along the way, much of it evaporates."

Harry replied, "I had the same issue when I filled my lake. It's hard to measure."

John agreed, "For sure. As you continue with this, keep something in mind. They're not simply running out of water; they're slowly being forced to learn the painful lesson that there's a finite supply of free water." He asked, "So what exactly was your plan – to make recreational lakes, or drinking water for municipalities?"

Dan saw the issue. "Take one hypothetical county in Arizona for example. Essentially you have a city that's built in the middle of a desert. If they decide that they want to use desalinated water for their municipal use, you'd need your stated 100 gallons per person per day. The planners would take the expected city population, say four million, times 100 gallons and probably double it for expected future growth. That would be their designed capacity. They'd have to calculate the cost of running a really big pipe 175 miles; part of which would be through another country. Then you'd have to estimate the cost of building and running a desalination plant. Factor in a useful life of 100 years and you could arrive at a cost per gallon. Pick a number for discussion, say 4 cents a gallon."

John nodded and added, "I agree. Here's the problem; the public has always held the mindset that water is free. Obviously it isn't; there are treatment costs and the like. Let's say the national average current cost is 1/4th of a cent a gallon. That's radically different than your very reasonable estimate of 4 cents a gallon. On top of that, unlike Sir Isaac Newton, there are plenty of politicians out there who actually believe they can successfully negotiate against gravity. For sake of discussion, the elevation in your hypothetical county is 1,200 feet above sea level."

Dan said, "If I hear you correctly, you're politely stating that constructing and filling a 5,000 acre foot holding pond isn't going to solve their problem and charging them 4 cents a gallon isn't going to fly in 1996. Is that correct?"

Steel replied, "Politely spoken, exactly correct."

Emma asked, "Are you suggesting that Harry give up the idea, or try a different approach?"

Steel said, "I'll give you the name of a magical contact in Kuwait. Consider making a presentation to build a half dozen 50 acre lakes that are 100 feet deep. You'd minimize evaporation with that configuration. It's also a lot closer to get to the seawater. Besides that, you wouldn't be fighting a preexisting mindset that water is free. That will give you the opportunity to get more experience and figure out your costs."

Dan asked, "If magicals have the ability to do this, why hasn't it been done in the past?"

"From your science classes, do you recall the principle that a volume of gas will expand to fill whatever size container that it's held in?"

He nodded.

Steel continued, "People weren't meant to live in the desert. No matter how much water Harry manages to supply, it would get used. At first, it would be used for drinking water, then toilets, then luxury showers, then additional people, then golf courses, and hotels, then farming, then industrial.

"Harry's idea is the most elegant band-aid that I've ever personally seen, but it's not a sustainable solution. In six days, or six months the water would be gone. If he went back and refilled it, people would get the false impression that there was some underground spring that was feeding the lake and even more people would move there. Sooner or later, Harry wouldn't be there to refill it. Then what?" Most people fail to distinguish between being lent a hand and an ongoing handout. I'm sorry if it sounds cruel."

Steel continued, "Passive desalination is a proven technology. It can produce 1.5 gallons per hour of sunlight per square yard of solar collecting area. The closer that the solar collecting area is to the source of sea water, the lower the cost. The bottom line is, whether the cost per gallon is 2 cents, or 4 as you suggested, or 6 cents, it will never be ¼ cent as it is with collected river water. Harry may be an exceptionally capable wizard, but he can't change gravity, or make rivers flow up a hill.

"That said, I firmly believe he should try the Kuwait idea. They wouldn't bat an eye at whatever he chose to charge and he'd finish the projects with a far clearer understanding of his capabilities. I'd be more than happy to arrange a meeting whenever you're ready."

Dan replied, "Thank you. John, we appreciate your taking the time to come out and meet with us." The others nodded and said the same.

After he left, Harry looked crestfallen. Dad said, "Harry, he didn't say no. He was clearly impressed with your lake. He recommended that you perform your due diligence and get some live practice in a country with a different set of economics when it comes to drinking water. Let's get some maps. Do some research, be certain that the elves are on board with your plan, then decide what modifications you'd need for a deeper lake, pick a price point and prepare a presentation."

… - …

A/Ns

This Harry isn't an endless fountain of answers. He'll have to work for each one and he'll need help, a lot of help.

Thank you for reading.

Cheers