Chapter Fourteen

What's Next?

Sunday September 14, 1997

Emma was in the back yard reading the newspaper. Harry had come home two hours earlier. He and Hermione were upstairs resting for a while. She was about to turn a page when she saw one of the teenage girls, Katie Bell, appear looking highly distraught.

She said, "Good morning, Katie. Please sit down. I'll get you a cuppa."

"Thank you." Winky appeared, carrying a cup and saucer before Emma could have stood. Katie said, "Thank you, Winky."

Emma had grown far more subtle in the art of prying into teenagers' lives in the last year. Rather than blurt out, What's wrong? she simply asked. "What can you tell me?"

"My parents are nice enough people most of the time. They don't have much magic and it's been a problem since..."

Since the pause grew uncomfortably long, Emma asked, "Are you saying they're, what's the word... squibs?"

Katie replied, "Yes. No... it's a matter of degree... Magic is everywhere. It's how much can be absorbed and how much can be wielded that determines how powerful a witch or wizard is. Look at a scale of 1 – 100. You, or anyone have some. You've read it referred to as the spark of life. Let's say that you would need to be at a level 5 to light a wand. With practice, having 20 would allow you to consciously levitate a can of soup. With 25, you could begin to cast very simple spells like reparo and so on."

Emma nodded and asked, "Are you saying that on a normal bell shaped curve, most witches and wizards would fall into the 40 – 60 range?"

"Exactly. Hermione's in the 65th percentile or so and Harry's in the 90s." Katie could see that the conversation could easily go off track, so she got down to her point. "My mum and dad are at the low end."

"Low end 40s, or low end 20s?"

"Mid 20s. They're like the one weakling in a physical education class full of boys; most of whom are destined to become rugby players."

Emma whispered, "Little Harry."

She'd heard it and replied, "Exactly, except he grew out of it and became a handsome prince or something. Anyway, my parents, and a lot of people, are at that level. Usually they'd be pulled from Hogwarts after the first year and the parents would tell their friends that their child was being home schooled. If they were lucky, the little boy or girl would find their way back into public schools and get a proper education. If not, a lot of them disappear." Emma gave a shudder. She was no stranger to the vicious side of magic.

"My dad is good natured about it. He smiles, and says that he's gifted elsewhere, but my mum is ordinary looking and..."

"Bitter?"

Katie nodded.

"So they view their smart, beautiful, magically talented daughter through two different lenses. One is a proud papa who would have seen Dan's presentation and been ready to burst with pride over his daughter. On the flip side, your mother..."

"Didn't take it well. She was resentful of the attention, the whole idea. I never even mentioned the money."

Emma said, "When I had Hermione, and she was little, strange things began happening on a fairly regular basis. Once or twice I had memories of the same things happening to me when I was a little girl. I never told Harry, Dan, or Hermione but I went and asked my dad about it. To make a long story short, his mother – Hermione's great grandmother was a talented witch. She worked at the original St. Mungo's as a healer and was killed in the Blitz. My dad's at the level that you'd call a squib.

"Anyway, Dad and my mother either didn't talk about it, or he never mentioned it to her. She died a few years before Hermione was born. Dad's a dentist. I'm sorry for rambling, but my point is, that I believe that magic comes and goes in families.

"So you decided to put a bit of distance between yourself and your parents?"

Katie nodded and replied, "Politely spoken, yes. They can create a potion and are brilliant with magical plants, but mom doesn't see that as enough."

"Katie, you're always welcome here, but that's not quite the point. Your dad has learned to live with it. What makes your mother smile?"

"Orchids and rich soil, I suppose. I look at two piles of soil and see dirt; she sees differences in the soil that are beyond me."

"I'm guessing that she's frustrated that you don't share her love for Herbology and the minutia of why things grow; is that it?"

"Exactly. I can grow cucumbers and water house plants once a week, but doing so doesn't put a twinkle in my eye."

"What does?"

"Magical construction – without a doubt."

"The architectural, engineering or carpentry aspect?"

"All of them right now. I'm too new at it to know. Maybe the impact on peoples' lives. The idea that we made thousands of acre feet of good drinking water for people puts butterflies in my stomach. The fact that we made ridiculous money doing it is just..."

"Fantastic. I feel the same about pain relief. I see someone come into the dental office, knowing that they've been living in pain and know that I can help them. Unless I'm dead on my feet, I feel good about myself at the end of the day."

She added, "So come for the company. Stay and get a degree or three. You currently have the best part-time job on the planet."

Emma wasn't surprised to receive a hug. Katie asked, "Is there room?"

Emma did a quick count, "Susan, Dean, you, Harry, Hermione, Dan and I; you're in luck."

… - …

That afternoon, Harry, Hermione, Susan and Dean were out volunteering at a short lab for one of Hermione's classes. Emma and Katie were watching Star Wars for what felt like the 40th time. Emma asked, "So what do you know about elves?"

Katie admitted, "Next to nothing."

Emma pointed out, "Witches and wizards can self generate magic; meaning you have the ability to perform magic away from magical sources such as ley lines. You could perform magic out in space, or while riding your broomstick.

"From what they've told me, elves have very little self-generated magic. Instead, they absorb magic from a source such as a witch, wizard, or being near a magical place like Hogwarts in the summer."

Katie asked, "You mean like the force in this movie?"

Emma replied, "It's a close enough analogy. As it relates to the water project, if you like, an electrical capacitor, or a battery analogy would be fair. I've seen Dobby hug Harry to get a recharge then go out and perform tremendous feats of magic, like transport huge objects across the Atlantic."

Katie admitted, "Until the construction project, I've had practically zero direct experience with elves."

Emma asked, "Switching subjects, what are your parents' wands made of?"

The beautiful teen replied, "I'm embarrassed to admit, I've no idea. I never asked. Why?"

Emma remarked, "You've seen yourself with the two different types of staffs that Harry made for the crew. The unicorn ones work at a high level compared to using a lot of other wands. The basilisk ones work even better for those who can use that type of core material. Harry's friend, Neville used a horribly fitting wand for several years. I'm just wondering out loud if a better fitting wand might be of some help. I'll ask Harry some time.

"Back to the matter at hand, there's room for you here, and we'd love to have you stay. From everything that I've seen, Salem is a remarkable school. You can schedule your NEWTs here anytime; they're not expensive. You should go speak with Mandy Taylor. She's the school advisor who helps transfer students get settled in. When the others get back, Hermione will be glad to take you there and show you around the campus. If you decide that it's a fit for you, then you'll have plenty of time to take your exams, look through the course offerings book, and read ahead for the different classes that interest you. I expect, Algebra, Geometry, Physics and the like are in your immediate future.

"Katie, when you've decided, then I think you should go have a discussion with your parents. Invite them to a neutral setting like a medium restaurant. If you ask her, I'm certain that Winky could go collect your things and avoid an awkward situation."

"Thank you, Dr. Granger."

"Just Emma; we're all on a first name basis here."

… - ...

A few days after they'd returned from Kuwait, Dobby was sitting on a branch in the big Elm tree on Harry's land overlooking the lake that Harry had built as a trial for his lake building business and idly swinging his legs back and forth.

"What are you doing daydreaming up there, Dobby?"

"Me be thinking, not daydreaming, Winky."

"Don't hurt yourself," she grinned.

"You spend too much time around Emma and Goblin Healer Maysong. I be thinking about how nice Harry Potter Sir has been. He lets us live on his land. He lets us plant what we want. He gives us all that sand we been trading for trees, bushes and berries. We should do something nice for him."

"Like maybe taking all the rocks away and building a beach next to the lake?"

"That will do for a start. He'd need a few toys for the beach too. I need to think about it some more."

"You should think about Missy Hannah's beach too at Folkstone. Too many rocks. The little ones hurt their feet and can't build sandcastles when we visit."

"Oh! Be right back." Dobby popped away and returned less than thirty seconds later.

"Look at this, Winky." Dobby held out a National Geographic Magazine. "Page 49. Bermuda. Look at the pictures. They have pink sandy beach! Look at page 53. Wakiki beach. All the nice little huts and benches. Look at page 59. Barrier Island, Cape Codfishes. See the cranberry bushes!

"We need to make trades!"

Just then, Ed the elf, who was Dobby's friend popped in. "Ed goes with Dobby. I know where pink sand is found and many other places to find interesting things."

"How does old Ed know all these places with nice beaches and places to find stuff?" asked Dobby.

"Ed was bonded to crazy wizard for many years. Wizard had wanderlust. Joined the Navy to see the world! So Ed went with him."

…

Emerald Isle, North Carolina town hall department of public works.

"Joe, I know you're the Director of Public Works, and we joke about you being a miracle worker, but how did you fix the beach in one weekend? It looks fabulous."

"I made a trade. Five thousand assorted tree and bush seedlings of cranberry, blueberry, blackberry, apple, peach, pear and apricot for the sand to replenish the beach."

"I know the beach took a beating with the last storm and I know the town council is talking about sand replenishment, but we don't have the funds for a project that size."

Joe replied, "I had the money in the budget. The seedlings only cost me $6,250. I ordered them from the Arbor Day Foundation. Shipped over night. I had money left in the landscaping and trash removal budget. The storm took that big pile of stuff we needed to get rid of right out to sea."

"Who did you do this with and how did they get it to the beach? We're on a freaking island."

"Two very short funny looking guys with long ears. I swear they looked like some sort of Star Trek people, like a short Romulan or something. But they assured me that they could do the job and that it would be done last Saturday night between 1 am and Sunday morning."

"Did you pay them already?"

"Yes, they said they'd collect the day after they finished. You just missed them. I told them they could take all the old wooden beach loungers too if they could get it done when they said."

… - ...

Five Season Hotel, Waikiki Beach Hawaii.

"Robert, the beach looks nice. Where did you get the extra sand to top dress the beach and how much did it cost us?" asked the hotel manager.

"I did a trade with a couple of guys. They did it all in one night," answered the maintenance manager, who was blushing red.

"Just in one night? I didn't hear a thing. Quiet trucks and loaders. A trade? What did you trade?"

"Well, yes, I traded the left over 500 cases fresh pineapples from the sandcastle building contest for 500 tons white sand."

"Where did the Tiki Bar go?"

Robert replied, "I was afraid you'd ask that. When we were dickering, one of them pointed to the bar and asked if I'd throw in the little paper umbrellas. I told them to take what they wanted. I really didn't mean for them to take the bar. They also took Rita, the animatronic hula dancer," he said, red-faced.

The manger just walked away shaking his head.

…

Cape Cod National Seashore.

Two men with hard hats and rolled up maps were standing among the dunes.

"We've had quite a bit of erosion, Bob. We lost that last crop of dune grass we planted last summer. We need sand and grass."

"I know Johnny, but we don't have any money for a project that size this year."

Just then, two very short strange looking men walked up, wearing brightly colored Hawaiian shirts.

Ed asked, "Did we hear you say you need sand and dune grass and needs to be planting it?"

"Yes, but we have no money to do the project, and we need to protect the barrier dunes from erosion."

"Do you's have anything you could trade? We can get much grass and plant it too. Enough to cover all the dunes from here to the bluff at end of beach."

Bob was rubbing his chin. "What are you looking for?"

Ed replied, "We understand that cranberries grow in Cape Cod?"

Johnny piped up, "We got a few thousand left in the miscellaneous account. We could buy maybe ten thousand pounds of them."

Dobby asked, "Can you be's getting the Cranberry Juice Cocktail too?"

"I'm sure we can do that. Let's go back to the shop and we'll show you the maps and where you have to do the planting."

Two weeks later, Ed and Johnny were surveying the dunes. "I can't believe those two strange fellows got this all done and planted in one night. And the grass is thriving and spreading already. Maybe we can get them back next year for another trade?"

"Yes, but you know, no one will ever believe this story."

…

Ed announced, "We's got to go to New Hampshire, Dobby. I heard from the grapevine, a children's summer camp on lake Winnie the poo socky needs beach sand. Maybe we can trade?"

The strangely dressed men walked into the camp director's office after wondering around the camp looking at the installation.

"Do you have an appointment?" asked a teenaged girl with a nose piercing and sunglasses.

"Nope but the director will see us. We's heard you needs lots of sand to fix up your camp beach. We's got sand and we's here to deal."

The teen stared silently while a middle aged man wearing a Camp Woe Be Gone T-Shirt with a tag line that read: Where Families Camp for Fun! Came out. "I'm Mr. Tripper, manager of the camp. Did I hear you have sand?"

"We's got sand, we can deliver and spread it around nice, nice. We's don't want money we's want to trade for stuff."

"Whata ya want?"

"Boat rack, canoes, little row boats, life floaties, kayaks, paddles. The half sunk pedal boat. And finally, the gross of the child Hawaiian shirts that was in the recreation hall."

"Deal! When can you get it done?"

"Tonight!"

…

"Dobby!"

"Yes Ed?"

I's just heard of a Asian Fusion restaurant closing for renovations in Florida. It's called the Pink Flamingo. We's got a chance for some neat stuff."

He grabbed Dobby's arm and they popped away.

The two appeared in the lobby of the restaurant. They walked up to a man looking at plans on a large folding table. Dobby spied a coconut glass on the bar.

"We's heard you need some sand for the new beach motif you building here. We got sand. Want to trade?"

"What do you want?"

"You going to use the flamingo decorations?"

"Nope."

"How about the coconut glasses?"

"Trade twenty tons of white sand for those things?"

"When?"

"Now do trade. We delivered sand and you let us take stuff now."

The man walked outside to see a huge pile of sand.

"Boys, you sure work fast."

…

Bermuda Department of Public Works.

"I don't have the budget for it, Sydney. I can't dredge Castle Harbor channel of the sand that was pushed ashore in the last five years of storms and pay for 500,000 tons of sand for all of the public works projects."

"Can't you use the dredge spoils?"

"No, it's the wrong type of sand. We need clean sand for making concrete and for certain beach replenishments. I can't use the pink stuff because of the salt and all the ground up seashells that give it the pink color. And I can't dump the sand out at sea anymore or the Greenies will be after me. I just don't know what I'm going to do."

"Sir! We have a proposition for you," said two strange looking short men.

"Who are you?"

"We be Dobby and Ed. We'd trade you your pink sand you dredge up for nice clean white building sand. All you need. Here's a sample of our sand."

"How would..."

"Sorry to interrupt but you have a bocce court and volley ball court outside your windows."

"So, what about them?"

"They will be part of the deal."

"Again, how will you do this?"

"Let's just call it magic!"

…

Harry was sitting at the kitchen table trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes, while inhaling the aroma of fresh brewed coffee. He was trying to wake up, but was having little success. He'd had a very late night, first out with the gang to an under 21 club then sitting around yapping with his friends till almost 3:00 am in the living room. Too much coffee had been consumed. He didn't understand how Hermione could be so chipper in the morning.

It was turning out to be a typical uncomfortable three "H" midsummer day at Harry's home in Chesterfield, Massachusetts. It was Hazy, Hot and Humid. The temperature was already climbing into the high 80's F, well on its way to the 96 F degrees that the TV weather lady had predicted. The air hung heavy with the relative humidity north of 85%. It would be a nice day to swim in his self-built lake.

Dan was standing on the rear deck of the house looking at the lake as he enjoyed his coffee and warm cinnamon buns.

"Emma, you must see this. Come over here please."

She stepped out onto the deck and said, "That's incredible; and they did it all in one night."

Dan whistled a high pitched and long wolf whistle. It burrowed deep and painfully into Harry's head. "Nice beach you got there, Harry. I won't ask where the white sand came from, as that's obvious. But where the hell did Dobby find you a Tiki Hut Bar with a sign that says Five Season Hotel Waikiki Beach?"

"What?" Harry staggered to his feet and stepped outside to stand next to Dan and Emma. Emma and Hermione were trying to hold in their laughter but were not very successful. Harry couldn't believe what he was seeing. The elves had made a beach along the lake shore facing the back of the house. It was about fifty feet in depth and about one hundred yards wide. Smack in the middle was a Tiki Hut. On a rock pedestal was an attractive curvy fully automated animatronic women in a grass skirt, multiple flowered Lei's strategically placed to cover her chest, shifting her hips in a slow traditional hula dance, while holding a Ukulele and playing Tiny Bubbles by Don Ho!

"I really think the hula thing is a nice touch, Harry," observed Dan.

Harry face palmed. There were over one hundred lounge chairs in every bright fluorescent color in the rainbow. The loungers each had a floral cushion, no two alike, set in pairs with a little pink plastic table between them. Each table held a glass, shaped and colored like a half coconut. They appeared to have a beverage in them with a multi-colored straw and a little paper umbrella sticking out the top of every glass. Each lounger had a golf umbrella clamped to the arm. Each miniature chair had an elf sunning themselves, wearing a tiny Hawaiian shirt with a wide brimmed straw hat and Foster Grant Mirrored Sunglasses. The tables had small bowls of cut pineapple chunks and cranberries that the elves were snacking on. Scattered about the beach in groups were about two hundred pink flamingo whirligigs with their wings gently spinning in the light breeze.

At the water's edge, there was a group of about twenty elflings, supervised by a few adults, building an elaborate sandcastle. Just at the top of the beach was another older group of elflings painting child-sized lounge chairs to look like rainbows.

"Oh! look Harry, they made a volleyball court too!" said Hermione.

"Harry, look there is a little hut with canoes, little skiffs, a pedal boat and kayaks! Does that say Camp Woebegone on the side?" asked Emma, with a definite smirk on face.

"Hey, did anyone notice the bocce court off to the side?" asked Dean.

Hannah walked up to the group. "I just got off the phone with my mother. She said our beach changed. Somehow all the big rocks were removed, and the beach now has pink sand! This happened over night. Did you have anything to do with that, Harry?"

"You really shouldn't make the elves work so hard Harry," said Hermione, sporting a smirk that she clearly inherited from her mother.

"Dobby!"

…

"So you're telling me that you and Ed went all over the world, trading sand to make this beach and put pink Bermuda Beach pink sand on Hannah's beach?"

Dobby and Ed were bobbing their heads up and down, ears flapping. "Yes, Sir Mister Harry Potter Sir."

"Dobby, you didn't mention where you got the straw hats and sunglasses from."

Ed looked at Dobby whose face was getting very red. "Ed must be going. I hear the Unicorns calling."

"Dobby, you look very guilty. Come fess up, where did you get them?"

Dobby tilted his head to the side. "Don't tell Winky."

"OK."

Dobby and Ed traded sand to a Elvin nudist colony in Florida for hats and glasses. I didn't look, much."

… - ...

Friday October 31

Harry had asked Ted to come and meet with Dan and himself. They decided to sit by Harry's lake, since it likely was one of the last nice weather days of the year. After they'd settled themselves into the exceedingly comfortable Adirondack Chairs, Harry explained, "Rashad from Kuwait called me this morning. He'd like us to double the water that we supply him."

Dan clarified, "The original expectation was that he'd draw the water from five lakes during a 28 day period."

Ted asked, "Is he trying to double the municipal capacity, or use your water for industry? I see a risk with the latter."

Harry clarified, "No. The original estimate was 50 gallons per person per day for two million people. He wants 75 gallons a day for all three million people."

Ted asked, "Are you thinking to use additional refills, additional lakes, or both?"

"Some combination of both." Harry added, "He's willing to pay for the construction of two additional lakes."

Dan observed, "You can't do refills more than three weeks in a 28-day time frame. The long-term solution is to pipe sea water to the lakes."

Ted suggested, "Let's take that off the table for now. He can't run 30 miles of pipeline through the city anytime soon, nor can he run 40 miles of pipeline to follow the path that the flyers are currently using in the next six months. How much space does he have at that site for additional holding lakes? You essentially have a ten-day block when you can't do refills. Could you fit three more lakes on the site?"

Harry said, "Here's an aerial picture of the site that I took last week. There's good room for two. We shouldn't need more than seven."

"Your current business model is doing refills on Friday nights every other week. You have a 10 day blackout period that you're turning into 14 days. Your shortest term solution would be to park Fred, George and Cedric out there and have them do an extra fill a month for two months."

Harry observed, "Christmas break is 8 weeks away." They sat for a minute, considering other options.

Ted asked, "Have you considered constructing your lakes on weekends? From what Nym tells me, the actual fills don't take as long as they originally did – 12 hours for three lakes with your new method. Dobby and his pals could have the holes dug and marked. You want to seal the blocks within an hour or two of making them; I get that. One weekend, you could set the cornerstones for both lakes and probably transfigure the bottom course of blocks on lake seven while the others work on six. As far as that goes, you could probably get two layers the next weekend and still help Minerva with the sealing."

Dan observed, "This weekend is your full moon. You wouldn't have competition from the water project. Ted can draft a new contract while you make your telephone calls."

An hour later, Harry announced, "Everyone is in, except Professor McGonagall. She doesn't feel up to another construction project. Where's Dobby?"

Dan replied, "He and 250 of his pals are at the site, digging holes, and plotting what to do with the sand. By the time you get there, they may be half done digging lake six. When are the others leaving?"

"Four hours from now, at 9 pm, Salem time. Dean and Katie volunteered to teach Susan how to transfigure blocks. I need to tell Hermione."

… - ...

Two hours later, Harry arrived at M-Customs. Rashad was waiting for him and quickly signed the second contract. He'd committed to supplying the additional water starting the next morning and hoped that he wouldn't run out before next weekend.

When they arrived at the job site, he thanked Rashad and told him that the others would be at M-Customs in another two hours. Harry waved goodbye and went to work. Dobby and friends were finishing marking the lines. After a few dozen hugs, they were ready to start on the second hole.

Harry was sealing the fourth cornerstone block when Fred and George arrived with a Pop and said, "Harrikins, fancy meeting you here. Do you come here often?"

They smiled, made small talk for a minute and Harry went back to work. The sheet vinyl wouldn't be available for almost another week. Harry had asked them to clean the walls and floor on lake 1, as they weren't that good at transfiguring blocks.

The others arrived. Harry got them going on the blocks for lake 6. Between the work that he did and thanking the elves, he was beyond tired and went to his tent.

… - …

Saturday November 1

Harry got up a few hours later and noticed that the dining tent was vacant. He called, "Winky."

"Winky is sorry, Harry Potter Sir. We thought you would be sleeping for another hour. Elf friends are back at London buying foods to make and orange fizzy drinks. Breakfast will be ready in one hour."

"I'll go back to my tent for an hour then."

Two hours later, Harry woke up. Breakfast was ready. Dobby and 30 elves were in the dining tent waiting for hugs. As he finished his breakfast, another 30 came up to him. Harry asked, "Where are the others?"

Dobby replied, "They are down in lake 6. Elves work all night and finished the hole for lake 7. Dobby knows that Harry Potter Sir likes to work alone."

"Thank you, Dobby. Thank you, all of the elves. I'll be ready for more hugs in an hour." He picked up his broomstick and floated down into the hole for lake 6. Fred and George were working the clipboards keeping track of the progress on each section and numbering the blocks, George said, "The second level on the east side needs to be sealed."

Fred added, "So does the first level on the north side. Dean and Katie showed Susan how to make the blocks. She's finished a few on her own."

Harry nodded and replied, "Be certain that they're all eight feet thick." He flew off. While applying the permanent seal for the transfigured blocks wasn't horribly complex; it was taxing, and he was the only one doing it. After an hour, he flew back to the dining tent and had a large piece of pie and two bottles of Orange Crush. When he'd finished, another 30 elves came up for a hug. Weary from the experience, Harry sat down again and had another piece of pie.

During the day, Harry noticed that lake 2 emptied. It had been a third full the night before when he arrived. Rashad must have started his expanded delivery area.

When they stopped for dinner, Harry kept working another 30 minutes to finish the seals. The others were all there, chatting loudly when he walked into the tent. The beef and vegetable stew along with the french bread that they had was simple, but very filling. He had two very large slices of treacle tart and ice cream before he truly felt full.

As he was finishing, Fred and George sat down on either side of him. Fred said, "We weren't able to help that much today."

"Don't worry about it."

"We were thinking..." Harry didn't notice at first but the tent just became almost silent. "Since it's so cloudy outside, we'd like to make a water run tonight."

"Who is we?"

"Angelina and the two of us. Katie was too busy today making blocks."

"Let's step outside." Everyone got up. A sharp look from Harry had them back in their seats. "It looks to me that there's 75% cloud cover. You'd have to fly the long route out, or apparate, and stay at 1,000 feet on the way back, pop back out and do it again a third time; all without being seen. Each time out, you'd have to recheck the cloud cover and wait if necessary, Are you sure you want to try it?"

They all replied, "Yes."

Harry asked, "Has lake 2 been scrubbed?"

George admitted, "No."

"We'll do it." shouted the other voices in the tent in unison.

Harry waved Angelina and the crew back into the tent.

"Who thinks that this is a good idea?"

Everyone raised their hands.

"Tonks, do you want to follow behind them and be ready to cast a wide area confundus in case they get spotted?"

"I will, but they'll be disillusioned. If the cloud cover holds up, I doubt that the water clouds themselves would be seen."

"OK. Drop the water and go to bed when you're done. Dobby and Winky can keep the records tomorrow. You three, work on the water when you get up. I'd like to leave after dinner tomorrow." He wasn't happy with the decision; rather resigned to the fact that it needed to be done and that he was doing Rashad a favor – at least if it didn't all fall apart.

Fred and George weren't happy that they'd get no help desalinating the water but understood Harry's rationale; the construction of the other two lakes would get them out of feeling obligated to take those kind of risks over and over. Dr. Granger's previous statement that the water was only Rashad's priority made sense. He wanted the water badly enough that he was willing to pay for the extra storage lakes to allow Harry to use part-time employees.

… - …

Harry went to bed at seven; not out of disrespect for Fred and George's effort, he simply was exhausted. He'd helped recharge half of the elves during the day and performing that task took as much out of him as his own efforts. Worse, he knew that he'd be asked to help the other half of the elf contingent tomorrow.

Both holes had been dug. Lake 6 had 3 ½ courses of section blocks transfigured and sealed. Lake 7 had one course completed.

As he relaxed before going to sleep, Harry realized that aside from placing the cornerstones, his efforts would have been better utilized in lake 6 than 7. He wanted lake 6 operational before they left when they came back next weekend. Operational and full of drinkable water was very different than operational but empty because the cement was still curing. If he stayed an extra day, he could have the blocks done. Satisfied with his idea, he went to sleep.

Two hours later, he felt refreshed. He went into the dining hall, had yet another large piece of treacle tart, grabbed his staff along with his broom and went to work.

Whereas Dean had spent nearly ten minutes creating the granite section when he did the demonstration at Chesterfield, Harry was averaging one every 90 seconds. There were 70 sections to a side, 4 sides in a course, 280 sections along with 4 cornerstones in a layer and 10 layers in a lake. The difference between Harry and the others wasn't in the quality of the work; rather the quantity of blocks produced and the number of breaks taken in an hour.

In production, the workers each averaged a section in 5 minutes. After every two sections, they took a 5 minute break. By the time Cedric and the twins returned from their third trip, Harry had transfigured and sealed 280 granite sections by himself. He had another large snack, along with two bottles of Orange Crush and went back to bed.

… - ...

Sunday November 2

At 7 am, Harry and the fly crew met each other in the dining tent. Harry asked, "How did it go?"

Cedric replied, "The first two trips were easy. Before the third trip, we hovered offshore, disillusioned for half an hour, waiting for a big cloud to pass over and hide the moon. No one saw us."

Harry replied, "Good. Have a big breakfast and some pie before you start the water transfiguration. I'd suggest using Susan's idea, so you're not transfiguring the same water over and over. Good work."

Down in lake 6, Winky's sister, Layla numbered the blocks while Dobby marked the progress on the clipboard as Winky watched over him. Dobby recorded the block number, initials of who transfigured it and the name of the person who sealed it, ex 655, SB, Harry Potter Sir. Winky had little sympathy for her mate when he developed hand cramps later in the day.

By dinnertime, 8 levels had been completed. Hannah had to leave to get back to Hogwarts and waved goodbye to everyone.

After dinner, Harry said, "If we finish the last two sections tonight, the elves can install the liner Thursday morning. Fred and George, if you can put the cement on in two layers next Friday, it will cure quicker and we could fill and clean the water on Sunday night. We'll finish lake 7 the week after that and be able to go back to the every-other-week fill schedule. I'll work the west side for a while." When one side was done, he went on to another. Essentially Katie, Susan, Dean and Nym just stayed out of his way. They finished at 6 am, had breakfast and left. By the time that they got back to Chesterfield, it was 11 pm on Sunday night, local time. Harry muttered, "Hello," along with, "Good night," and went to sleep.

… - …

Monday November 10

The day after finishing lake 7, Harry and Hermione were having a late lunch at one of the quick restaurants at Salem and ran across one of that last people who they expected to see.

"Harry walked over and said, "It's a small world. Fancy meeting you here."

"Hello Harry. You must be Miss Granger. I'm Remus Lupin, a friend of Harry's father."

"What are you doing here?" all three asked at the same time.

"You go first," suggested Remus.

"We transferred here after our fourth year. I'm taking up healing, Harry's into enchanting. How about you?"

"I'm spending some of Sirius' money. I'm working towards a masters in transfiguration."

Harry replied, "Good on you. Could I interest you in a part-time job?"

He replied, "I'm listening."

"For the most part, it's two weekends a month. If you're done with class, I'll show you." An hour later, Harry had finished giving the tour of his two lakes and had shown Remus the photos. He explained, "We're currently pretty far along in discussion to construct some in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and in the United Arab Emirates. Also, we've recently received an inquiry from a guy in Oman."

Harry continued, "The construction is brutal and thereafter, they need to be cleaned and refilled twice a month. We do the refill work the weekends before and after the full moon."

"Brilliant."

"The pay is outstanding, but the work requires serious stamina and a great deal of transfiguration to make all of the granite sections before the lakes are sealed. The temperatures get to 115F in the summer."

Lupin asked, "What about the others?"

"I'm looking to add a second and possibly a third crew. The job in Riyadh would initially be for eight lakes and probably total out at fourteen. The one in the UAE would be six or seven to start with. Ten people seems to be a good size for a crew."

"Are you looking for more people?"

"Yes, but aside from yourself, it would be subject to getting the contracts. I have seven people in mind and would be happy to add another two or three."

Hermione asked, "Who did you have in mind?"

Remus replied, "I know a witch; two actually who would be both qualified, as well as grateful for the work."

Harry asked, "Would getting a passport be an issue for them?"

Remus replied, "I don't think so."

"Let's get you kitted up. If you're available, you can go out for a fill this weekend. I'll show you around and you can actually see how it works. You'll have a better idea what's involved. Try these two staffs..."

… - ...

Wednesday November 12

Ted met with Harry to discuss Lupin's role in the group. He suggested, "He might be a great crew chief for you. That will be an important role to fill when you add a second crew; you can't be everywhere all at once. It's likely that your business will continue to expand. There will be a lot of money to be made in the refill end of your business. Aside from doing damage control in the event of a mishap, there's nothing that you need direct involvement with."

Harry replied, "I get that; Hermione's mentioned the same thought. He has a quiet style and I can't be in three or four places at once. Thanks for bringing this up. I'll talk with him and see if he's interested."

… - ...

Friday November 14

As Ted had predicted, the group immediately accepted Remus. Harry had previously taken him on a water run for his own pond. While he couldn't use the basilisk staff, he was a perfect match for the unicorn version. As they were there for a fill, he was first in line as a flyer, he held his load up so it could be transfigured. When he was done, he joined the others transfiguring the subsequent loads, as the other flyers filled the other four lakes.

With five empty lakes, they used Katie's idea and portkeyed back out to the water collection point to save half an hour on each trip. They'd settled on picking up ten-foot loads, as they were the easiest to transfigure once they'd reached the job site. Adding Susan to the flying squad gave them enough flyers so there was a continuous supply of sea water to be transfigured.

When they'd finished, Harry announced, "Over the next month or so, I'll be bringing in some new people who will become a second team. I anticipate that contracts for a second site will be signed within the next month."

Katie asked, "Where is this?"

As Ted had advised him, Harry replied, "The contract isn't signed yet. I can say that they're other middle eastern countries. The only logistical difference is that we'd need to do a portkey watch recharge in Paris each way.

Susan asked, "Would the new crew do the construction?"

Harry replied, "In general they'd be larger job sites than this one. There would be plenty of construction work for those of us who would be willing to do it. That's all that I want to say about it right now. The vault transfers for this fill will have been finalized by the time that we get back. Let's go."

… - …

Tuesday November 18

Ted, Dan and Harry sat down to discuss the water treatment business. Ted asked, "What's the latest?"

"We have solid leads in Riyadh and the UAE. I expect that the Riyadh contract will be signed tomorrow."

Dan asked "Anything in the southwest US?"

Harry replied, "John Steel brought a serious inquiry from a large farm in California. The short of it is – not at our current price point."

"Are you going to pursue it?"

"I think they're a decade or three from getting serious. The government is issuing building permits with their head in the sand; the population keeps growing while the source of the water is barely holding steady, or is declining slightly. Our solution would be at least double what they're currently paying, because the federal government funded most of the river water delivery network."

Dan pointed out, "Ignoring the startup with the construction, your business doesn't have any real costs." He was at the edge of his relationship with Harry and knew that he may have stepped over the line.

Harry replied, "I haven't sent a counter proposal back yet and a group of talented teenagers with huge reserves of stamina can earn considerably more than the British minister for magic. As such, I haven't had any problem finding gifted people. I'm not sure that would still hold true if the rates were cut in half. Besides, there's no one person in the States who can say yes, allowing us to maintain the statute of secrecy. We might have better luck constructing recreational lakes for wealthy ranchers than supplementing dwindling municipal water supplies. While not strictly a cost, our level of effort varies based upon their geology and geography. Having Dobby and crew dig through 100 feet of mostly solid rock is a lot different than asking them to claw through 100 feet of sand. Similarly, making a 300 mile trip to do a fill has to be different than making a 40 mile trip. Assuming that they could even hold a spell that long, I could have a crew make two or three 300 mile water drops in an evening. If the river runs low, our solution would look like an answer to their prayers."

Ted observed, "Apparently the different states have different places in the priority line for the existing water. When the original water agreement was made, no one envisioned that so many people would move out into the desert. There must be places out there with lesser water rights that have real needs."

A moment later he asked, "Should you get another client in the Middle East, would you use the same crew, or hire a new one for the construction work?"

"I'm planning on using them both. The Kuwait crew has experience. I'd be a fool to not utilize them, at least part-time, as there still would be fills in Kuwait City to do. To keep the money fair, I'll keep track of who worked on which lake."

Ted asked, "Are the elves willing to dig the holes again?"

Dan snorted, "With that much sand at stake? I'm surprised they're not out there already."

They all laughed at the thought of the animatronic hula girl.

"I'll probably put someone in charge of the Kuwait crew and spend a bit more time on the sales side."

Ted replied, "That's a good answer. You could keep 10% of the revenue and treat it as an investment."

Harry replied, "I'm not ready to retire anytime soon. Hermione's not even close to finishing school yet, but I have some other projects that I'm also interested in."

"How's enchanting class?" asked Dan.

"We're looking at charging ward stones. I'm hoping that I could make one that would feed a set of working elves for a while. I'm also interested in learning how the Gringotts portkey watches work."

Ted pointed out, "They seem like very different projects."

"They're not. Actually, they're almost identical; the foundation for each is stored magical energy. Next semester, we're looking at activation mechanisms. The goblin nation is far ahead of us with respect to that."

Ted asked, "What do you mean?"

"Look at those portkey watches. You hold your hand over the face, say Activate, then name a destination that was associated with a pre-programmed coordinate setting and you're there. Ignoring how they did it, appreciate the genius of the method that they used to get it to activate – the user interface. It's simple and you don't have to learn Latin, or the goblin nation language to make it work. It's flat-out simple. You can use it, I can use it, Dan can use it.

"Dan, loan me your watch, please." He handed it over. Harry put his hand over the face of the watch and said, "Recharge." A moment later he said, "There. Now Dan can use it to get to Kuwait in two hops; not because he's not magical, rather due to the distance limitations of his version of the watch.

"I remember reading about the Auror who tried to wandlessly apparate too far, who ended up scattering himself into the ether. These have a built-in comparison of how much power is available compared to how far they're trying to go. If your geography isn't brilliant and you guess the distance wrong, you don't vanish – nothing happens. That's pretty ingenious, and honestly, counter to most people's perception of goblins."

Switching subjects, Ted asked, "What of the Wizengamot? Members of your generation are eligible to start taking their seats."

"Didn't you tell me that tradition dictated that people finished their schooling first?"

"Yes, so that shields you and Susan for a few years. It doesn't change the fact that the Flint seat has been taken up and the Nott seat will eventually be filled."

Harry asked, "Who sat as proxy?"

"No one. Apparently Nott presumed that he'd live forever. The same holds true with a small handful of other seats. Nothing will happen without Death Certificates but we have no control over that."

"Hopefully Madam Bones spent the last 18 months getting her agenda passed."

"Largely she did. She hasn't appointed anyone to the seats where the family line has ended. To my knowledge, there are ten of those."

"Ted, I believe that our viewpoints are largely aligned. In short, I'll be living here for at least the next two years. Where we live beyond that is largely up to Hermione. You know how that goes. I may invent something clever and open a shop in one of the alleys in London. If so, I could commute there in about the time that it takes Dan and Emma to drive to their practice. I may spend the next decade constructing lakes; I just don't know yet."

"Fair enough. If anything interesting comes up, I'll call. One thing of note; Hogwarts is languishing."

"Have they raised tuition? On a per class basis, and stripping off the value of room and board, Hogwarts charges about a third of what the Salem Institute charges. I believe that Professor McGonagall spent much of her career as Assistant Head pinching knuts, so I doubt that there are any large areas of wasteful spending to cut. If you're asking for a suggestion, I'd suggest polling a handful of the successful schools that the Board would like to emulate, see what they're offering and what they charge."

… - …

"Why is Dobby so excited over big pile of sand?"

"Harry Potter is most generous to elves. Lake client no want sand. Harry gives to Elves. Sand very valuable. Elves get rich."

Winky tilted her head in confusion. She had never thought much about sand. "I don't understand, Dobby. Sand makes big mess. Sand is useless. Gets everywhere."

"No, muggle peoples use sand everywhere. They make rocks called concrete from it, bricks, glass we see through and use to drink from, make roads safe to drive on when it snows, uses it in water filters, even Hoggy Warts Express uses it to help wheels stop and clean smoke stack. Crafty muggles use it to make many things, even tools used in medicine. Smelters make sand molds and pour melted metal into them to make things. Dobby knows all about sand. Dobby read book that Mistress Hermione left on a table one night."

…

All the elves were in seated around the big tree that Dobby and Winky lived in on Harry Potter's land.

"Now you all know that we made loads of coins for helping make the lakes in sand country. We even have a vault in Gringotts now. We will save those until we need them. But you don't know that Harry's client did not want the sand we dug out. Told him to get rid of it. Harry gave it to us. This sand good for trading."

"Did he give all of it?" asked Twinkles, who had helped. "That's a big mountain pile!"

"Yes, I want you all to put the word out on the grape vines. Harry Potter Elves have sand, we want to trade and will travel."

…

Dobby strutted into the little barn that housed the unicorn herd and found Ed feeding a newborn colt.

"Ed, time to saddle up. We got a sales call to make."

"Where we trading this time, Dobby?"

"We's going to the AG Hammerberger Brickworks in Terni Italy. I got a tip from an Elf in Birmingham. His cousin works for someone in Pittsburgh USA who has a cousin in Terni. Big wildcat rail strike and the works will run out of sand to make bricks and will have to shut down."

"Ciao! Mi Chiamo Signor Dobby E` Ed! Signor Aldo Agento se tu per favore."

A moment later Dobby and Ed were in the chief procurement officer's office of the Brick Works. Aldo looked at the two strange short men nattily dressed in white suits with dark fedora's pulled low over their heads.

Dobby stumbled over his Italian and Aldo brushed it off. "Speak English gentlemen, I do so. What can I do for you today?"

"Because of the rail strike, you need sand. We got sand. We can deliver tomorrow."

"How much?"

"All you need."

"What will it cost me?"

Dobby and Ed looked at each other. "5,000 kilos of assorted Italian produced dry macaroni, and not the export stuff, domestic market only," answered Dobby.

"Where do you want it delivered?"

"Here, we pick it up after we drop off the sand tomorrow night."

On the way out Ed asked Dobby, "Why the pasta?"

"Harry makes a great baked pasta casserole. Yum."

… - ...

A/Ns

Dobby and Ed make a great running bit in the tale. Tom has had a world of fun with them.

Harry is literally making millionaires of people who otherwise would have been looked down upon by magical society. Depending on what they do with their money, a few years of that could begin to change the political landscape.

Thanks for reading.

… - ...