Chapter Seven

At first, Voldemort thought it was just a minor cutting curse or something he could easily heal. He looked back at the man coming toward him but he had stopped and moved over next to the boy instead of attacking again.

Voldemort went to raise his wand, a sneer forming on his lips that quickly turned to a frown when he realized he couldn't lift his wand. Confusion became obvious on his face at the realization.

Suddenly Dumbledore appeared only about a meter away from Harry.

Voldemort half laughed as he looked at the old man and the young man. Both of his enemies right in front of him and he couldn't even use his wand. His eyes slid over to the other guy. He still couldn't figure out what that man was. He looked like a normal man but he obviously wasn't. Then he looked back at Harry.

"What spell did you use on me, Harry?" he asked in a raspy voice.

"I wish I had a name for it. I never could decide on a name, you see. I created it just to kill you but I wasn't about to name it after you. I supposed it's a dark lord killer but I decided to keep it to myself. Too dangerous for the public to use."

"Huh…," he said then sat down heavily on the ground as he was now too weak to stand.

Voldemort was finding it increasingly hard to breathe or stay upright, but he asked a question.

"Now that I'm dying… would you share… with me… the part of the prophecy… that talks about… a power… you will have… to defeat me?" he asked slowly. "What power?"

So he did manage to hear it after all, Harry thought to himself before answering. "Oh, well, to put it bluntly, I'm simply a lot smarter than you. My genius is my power. You see, I'm not just a genius. I'm what's known as a super genius. My IQ is basically off the charts. Oh, and I'm just as powerful magically as you are," Harry threw in for good measure. "This man you see here," he said gesturing to One, "He's not really a man. I named him Number One. Why? Because he's my number one.

"I invented him. One is a droid. Your Muggle upbringing should have a reference for that word whereas the magical world will not. By the way, One is smarter than you too."

"A… a…. droid?" he asked with even less breath.

"Yes. An AI to be more accurate, or Artificial Intelligence if you spell it out."

"So, those 50 men in grey were yours as well?" asked Dumbledore.

"Yes, I call them Terminators. I'll likely reprogram them tonight to remove that program. I can always install it if ever I need it again."

"We may need them at the Ministry," Dumbledore said. "I'm not sure how many Tom left there but I'm sure it's not empty. Where are those other guys anyway?" he asked looking around.

"They were instructed to return to their stations when the mission was completed. We won't need them at the Ministry anyway. We can just take One with us. He'll be all we need."

Dumbledore nodded. He did not need convincing about Harry's friend.

They both looked over to check on Voldemort about the same time, only to find him dead. He had fallen over backwards with his eyes still open.

"Well, you did it, Harry," Dumbledore said as he looked back at the young man. "He made himself very hard to kill but you certainly managed it. Are you sure you can't share that spell with me?" he asked.

"No. I better keep this to myself, Headmaster. I will tell you though that it was far more effective since he went through that dark resurrection ritual. It would have taken longer otherwise."

"Interesting. Let me take care of Tom's body before we find Kingsley and the other aurors and head to the Ministry. We can throw Tom's body through the veil just to make sure there is no body left around for any followers to fiddle with."

"Go right ahead, sir."

Dumbledore transfigured Tom Riddle into a statue and shrunk it down to pocket size before summoning it and dropping it into his robe pocket. They then set off toward the castle to gather the aurors.

Harry had left a single terminator to guard his trunk in the Shrieking Shack. He sent One to send the terminator back to his station then pick up the trunk as Harry and Dumbledore continued to walk toward the castle. One caught back up with them before they had gone very far, trunk in hand.

Harry shrunk his trunk and put it back in his pocket before they continued on.

"Are you sure just one of your guys will be enough, Harry?" asked Kingsley as they stepped out of the floo at the Ministry. "There's no telling how many were left here we'll have to deal with."

"Trust me. Number One will be far more than enough, Kingsley. I'm sure you'll get to see him in action before too long," he replied to Kingsley then turned to One. "Be sure and keep an eye out for our friends as well, One. If you can prevent losing anyone in our group that would be stupendous."

"No problem, Harry."

Harry stopped and looked around. "Well, where is everyone?" he asked.

Suddenly at least ten Death Eaters started firing spells at them from different places of concealment. Many shields went up from the group but they were amazed when One intercepted every one of the spells before they had a chance to reach the group who came to take the Ministry back.

They were in even more shock when they saw him move at incredible speeds slicing through all ten of the Death Eaters firing spells.

"I see what you mean, Harry," Kingsley told him in awe.

"Wait until I send you the fifty-one Death Eaters he killed when we caught them attacking muggle towns and villages," Harry informed him.

"Wait! What?" Kingsley asked.

"You'll see soon enough," Harry answered then turned to his droid. "Thanks, One!"

"You're welcome, Harry," One replied in his casual tone as they all moved forward.

They ended up rooting out the contingent of Death Eaters left to run the Ministry when Voldemort and his army attacked the castle. The group of aurors, Dumbledore, Harry, and One simply went through the Ministry and took out all the Death Eaters left. There ended up being close to fifty left at the Ministry. One made sure to protect Harry and all those with him.

Many workers were there too but were just continuing to do their jobs and keeping their heads down. These had their lives spared. Their loyalties were questioned but promised a more thorough inspection once things quieted down. In fact, those who posed no immediate threat to the group were allowed to live. On the other hand, Death Eaters who mounted an attack, died quickly, usually by One doing his thing.

When it was all said and done, the Ministry was back in the hands of the right people. They were anxious to get things back to normal, but hopefully a better normal than it was before.

Harry decided it was time for him to leave. He and One still had plenty of work to do, preparing for the day they would open the new company. They said their good-byes and left for home.

Harry sent the dead Death Eaters in his trunk space via portkey to the Ministry atrium for them to sort out. He was kind enough to leave a note so they would know who sent them and what the Death Eaters were doing when they were taken out. He kept them in stasis so no decomposition occurred and they were easily recognizable.

After Harry turned 18, he quickly filed and started his company. He had already been looking for a place to build and store his droids. He had plenty of money from his investments, plus his Potter fortune that he didn't want to touch if he can avoid it. When several acres of land just outside of London became available, he quickly bought it to build a warehouse with facilities and some offices.

He figured he would open an office in London sometime soon in the future to act as the sales office. Hopefully, at some point he wanted to buy a building within the city that he can renovate and make it his corporate center. That would be after he made some good profit though.

He didn't think it would take all that long given what he was offering.

Harry still had his trunk and it was full of droids already built, just waiting for the right programming. They would be the start for his first sales. Once he had the warehouse fitted out with his technology to build more, he would then have a presence in the non-magical world that anyone could see.

He hired a construction company to build his large warehouse. It was to cover several acres of space with only a dock at the back for deliveries and a parking lot surrounding the building. To keep his business secrets secret, he planned to use his droids to build out the inside. Number One would be in charge of the crew while Harry concentrated on setting up sales meetings to get the ball rolling.

As part of his plan to help sell droids, he took One with him to act as a demo model. He had One change his looks for this because he wanted One to be heavily involved in helping him run the company without anyone realizing he's a droid. He would also continue to serve as Harry's bodyguard.

One had developed a look he liked to use as his own so Harry made sure he changed his looks for the sales meetings. Often they would enter the meetings with One looking like a nice looking, young female assistant. Then when it was time to demonstrate, Harry would have One do so.

The surprise on their faces was always worth it when the young man or woman with Harry, who was conversing normally with everyone at the meeting, suddenly became a droid with amazing abilities.

Sales took off quickly and Harry was able to sell a lot of droids. The first ones to sign on was the city of London. The police could always use a droid that couldn't be hurt by bullets or explosions. That would save lives. They ended up buying a droid for each precinct.

Some government officials bought personal droids for protection, including the Prime Minister. Five droids were assigned to protect the royal family.

The interesting conversations came when the military wanted a contract to buy a thousand of Harry's droids just for the initial investment and he said no. They were quite indignant when that happened. They even tried to force the issue, but Harry was not intimidated.

He got the Prime Minister involved, who had become a personal friend, and explained to the military that he did not build these droids to be used as an army to take over the world or to become a super power who intimidates other countries because of their might. As a matter of fact, he told them his plans to sell to other countries but not to their militaries.

"If I sold to one military then I would have to sell to all militaries," Harry explained.

They looked at him like he was crazy because from their viewpoint he was a fellow countryman. How could he not support them?

"Let's face it," he continued. "There are some countries who we can't trust with that ability and I'm not confident our own military and government can be fully trusted either. While I would be making a tremendous amount of money, the fact that all those militaries would be using my droids to basically fight against each other makes my blood boil. It would be pointless and I won't support that. We also know that there are politicians and others in our own country that can't be trusted with this either. So the answer is still no," he finished.

"Mr. Potter has a point, gentlemen," the Prime Minister agreed when the generals and staff were shocked that anyone would refuse them and such a lucrative deal. "He is a private citizen and his company is privately owned. We can't force him to sell to someone or an organization he's not comfortable with."

"What happens though if these foreign governments convert your droids over to military use?" one of the generals asked thinking he had a good argument.

"I'd say good luck with that. First of all, I control all the programming and prevent anyone else from changing my droids. However, if they happen to succeed and break through my protections, which is highly unlikely, then they will destroy all the programming in the droid they're trying to change, rendering it worthless. It's a failsafe I built-in. There are many layers of protection that I put in to make sure no one uses what I created for evil.

"I realized the potential for great evil using my droids when I first hatched the idea as a small child," Harry continued. "The plan from the beginning was to make sure no one could break into my code to change one of my droids. However, I went much further than that, but I will not expound any further than I already have on what all I did. That's company secrets."

"What if someone in one of these foreign countries we don't trust develops their own droids? What if they then sell them to their militaries?" a colonel asked.

"Then we would have a different problem, wouldn't we? First of all, I would have some competition… maybe. I say maybe because I doubt if these new droids would be able to do what mine can do. But for sake of argument, if they did build copycat droids capable of the same thing as mine and sold them to their own military then I would provide our military with droids so they could protect us. I'm just not sold on that coming to pass anytime soon."

They continued to argue with him more and even pleaded to get just one of the droids, but Harry was steadfast with his refusal. There was nothing they could do legally so they eventually dropped it.

"How many guards do you count?" asked the leader in a whisper over their headsets.

"It looks like they only have 3 each on the front and back side of the building, constantly patrolling, Sir," his answer came back. "I confirmed 2 on each of the ends for a total of 10 guards."

"Good. They looked to be just standard, hired security guards with little training, which is typical. Don't kill anyone. I repeat. Don't. kill. anyone. Just use the tranqs and put them to sleep for now. We'll get what we came for and leave before they wake up. Everyone clear on those orders?" he asked.

After everyone affirmed they understood the orders, he had them move out while the sharpshooters with the tranquilizer darts sighted on a security guard each on the back side of the warehouse.

The order was given so the sharpshooters shot their target with a tranq dart while the rest of the team moved toward the building.

"Something's not right, Sir. I swear I saw my dart bounce off that guys neck. It didn't look like it penetrated at all," one of the snipers reported in.

"But they're all down. Every one of them in my sight are down for the count," he replied. "They're not moving at all."

"Just reporting what I saw, Sir."

"Keep your eyes open then. We'll keep moving forward and check one of them when we get close," he replied back.

"Aye, Sir."

A few minutes before.

"I have movement at the back of the property. It appears to be a team of 30, mostly men and some women, approaching. All are dressed in black with weapons. I will maintain my camouflage, get close, and see if I can ascertain their intentions," the voice came through in their internal communication node from one of the droids patrolling the perimeter.

A little while later they heard back from the perimeter guard.

"It appears they are here to steal but they do not want to kill anyone. They plan to use tranquilizer darts on you so they can put you to sleep. I contacted Number One and he wants these guys detained. He said Harry will deal with them tomorrow."

There was a two second pause before the perimeter droid spoke again.

"Let's do this. Pretend when the dart hits you that it puts you to sleep. When they get close to you capture them. After they fire the darts I'll take out the three snipers and hold them here. Once we have them all rounded up we'll put them in storage and hold for Harry and Number One."

All the droids affirmed the plan, including the other perimeter droids.

The perimeter droid was standing right behind the group camouflaged so well they didn't see him. He even hi-jacked their signal so he would hear everything they said over their headsets.

As soon as the darts were shot and the team moved toward the building, the perimeter droid started knocking out the snipers. The last one he took out managed to report back to their leader before he reached him. The droid just waited until the communication was completed before he took out the last one.

When the team reached the building and one of the guards that looked to be asleep, the leader approached the security guard and took a closer look at him. When he did, he was met with a smiling face.

This shocked him. Then the security guard spoke.

"I'm afraid we have to detain you. Those are our orders," he said as he stood up.

The group started looking around but they saw that almost all the security guards had surrounded them. Another was dragging their three snipers toward them from where they entered the grounds. He didn't look like he was straining either.

"We appreciate you not wanting to kill us so you opted for tranquilizer darts. That was a good decision you made. Either way, neither one will work on us. We are droids.

"That figures," the leader said exasperated. "Brass makes a really bad decision but we are the ones caught in the middle," he said frustrated.

"We don't wish to hurt you but we will detain you. Those are our orders. You can hand over your weapons and come along quietly or we can take your weapons and detain you anyway. We leave it up to you to decide."

"Alright, listen up everyone," the leader told his team as he turned to them. "Put down your weapons. All of them. I've seen the demo of what these guys can do. We will cooperate to the fullest." He turned back to the droid. "Sorry about this. We were just following orders."

"I understand. We always follow orders." When all the weapons were laid on the concrete, the droid continued. "Follow me, please. The others will collect your weapons for you and store them in a safe place for collection later."

The team followed the droid to inside the warehouse. They looked around as best they could as they followed him to a large room with plenty of roomy bunkbeds. They were suitably impressed with the level of technology they saw on their short tour.

Once they were in the large room with the droid standing at the door, he spoke again.

"There are two fridges on that wall," he said gesturing toward the appliances. "One is full of bottled water while the other is full of snacks in case you get hungry. Those cabinets also contain food items that do not require cooling. There are loos on that same wall. I am told the beds are very comfortable. Try to get some rest and we will see you in the morning. Good night."

With that he closed and locked the door before stationing himself to guard it. Another droid took his place outside patrolling with the other droids who were already back at their assigned positions.

The next morning, Harry and One showed up to the warehouse. One had already informed Harry of their visitors in the middle of the night and where they were being held. They approached the room with the droid standing guard.

"Any issues?" asked One.

"None, sir," the guard replied.

"Good," replied Harry. "Very nice job you did. Now let's have a chat with our guests, shall we?" he asked.

The droid unlocked and opened the door. One stepped in first, followed by Harry. The droid guard stood in the doorway.

"Good morning everyone! I trust you slept well?" Harry asked them pleasantly.

Some were still lounging on the comfortable beds but they sat up when Harry spoke to them. The leader stood and walked forward. He stopped about half way.

"I'm Captain Richards, Mr. Potter. I'm very sorry about this. We were simply following orders."

"Then I have just one question to start with, Captain. Who gave you the order?"

"Colonel Halstead, sir."

"Do you believe Colonel Halstead originated the order or do you think it came from above him?" he asked.

"I'm fairly certain it came above him, sir."

"Do you know who that might be?"

"No, sir. It could have been any number of higher ups. I can't be certain. Most likely a general though."

"Thank you, Captain. I will narrow it down from there." Harry turned toward the guard. "Escort them off the premises and to their vehicles. Give them their weapons after they are back at their vehicles." He turned back to the captain. "I trust this has been a learning experience to you and your crew?"

There were many affirmative nods from the troops and the captain.

"Please relay this message to your superiors that I said this is the reason why I won't sell droids to the military. They can't be trusted to do the right thing. This much power in their hands would be too dangerous to trust them with it." Harry started to leave but turned back. "Oh, and have a pleasant day," he told all of them. "Please leave my property and don't come back. I can't promise niceties will always be offered to you if you make bad decisions and return uninvited. Am I making myself clear?" he asked them.

"Yes, sir. Crystal clear, sir," the captain responded. "Thanks for your hospitality and very comfortable beds. Prepare to move out team!" he said a little louder.

Harry turned and left with One following him. The droid guard stepped aside to let them pass.

As Harry and One headed toward the offices, Harry told One "Make sure there are plenty of droids to help with the escort. Leave a good impression."

"Already taken care of, Harry."

"You're the best, One!"

As time moved on, Harry had droid sales all over the world, just not to militaries. He was able to buy a building in downtown London and completely have it renovated for his corporate office. He even had other buildings put up in other big cities in other countries just so they could keep up with demand.

When Hermione Granger finished Hogwarts and then went to several years of college in the non-magical world, she called Harry. It took a while to get through to him since he had people screening his calls. So many people wanted to talk to him it was very necessary. It wasn't until One was told that she had called several times that he recognized the name.

Her number was given to Harry who called her back.

"Hello?" she answered not sure of the number.

"First of all, Hermione, if you want to talk to me you should call this number I'm calling you on. Very few people have this number and I'd like to keep it that way. Do. not. give. this. number. to. anyone. Got it?"

"Wait! Who is this? Is this Harry?" she asked.

"Got it in one, Hermione!"

"Harry!" she said way too loudly.

Harry had to pull the phone away from his ear some. "Too loud, Hermione."

"Sorry, just a little too excited, I guess. I've been trying for weeks to get a hold of you, Harry. Unfortunately, no one at that company would believe me that I'm a friend of yours."

"Sorry about that. I'm just very popular. Everyone and their dog wants to talk to me. I have to have a team of people screen my calls."

"Wow! Well, you are quite successful and well known all over the world. How have you been? I mean, other than super busy running a massive worldwide corporation."

"I'm good, but I've got a better idea. How would you like to catch up in person? Can I invite you over for a meal and we can talk as long as you want."

"You're not too busy for little ole me?" she asked.

"I own this thing. If I want to do something then I can do it. I have people who can keep all the balls in the air while I'm busy elsewhere."

"Must be nice being you."

"It has its perks!"

The End