Disclaimer: The characters used within this are mostly the property of others. I have a few originals, but the vast majority are not original. Everything here is fiction. This is for entertainment only and not for profit.
-=oOo=-
To Green Angel Tower - Chapter 9
-=oOo=-
The very old woman examined the carbon fiber and silver thread outfit with a critical eye. She was startled with Adriane, and the former Professors Vector and Babbling all endorsed it. She looked over at her French counterpart.
"Is this thing safe?"
"No, but it is less dangerous than most brooms, and we approve those."
She turned to her assistant. "Penelope, are you willing to test this?"
"I am."
"I'll want you to repeat and document everything their testing did. Verify all information."
She then turned to Harry and Adriane. "You will of course pay Penelope's normal salary, since you are denying me her help during this time."
"Okay," said Harry.
"Can I try it now?" asked Penelope.
"You can, though if you don't mind waiting a bit, we will make you a set that fits you," said Adriane.
"Can't you resize it with magic?" asked Penelope.
"Once activated the runes will block most magical changes, up to their failure point. That also means they block stunners. Typically they will absorb about two. The third will typically destroy or at least disrupt the suits magical properties and cause a person to fall," said Adriane.
"And that is not a problem?" asked the department head.
"Stun a person on a broom and they are apt to die, so we assumed it was fine," said her French counterpart.
"What about making law enforcement's job harder?"
"I can design runes to do a task, though in fairness this mostly isn't my work. Either way, if you made it so it wasn't resistant to magic, then it would be easier to harm the person in the air. I fail to see how such a change helps," said Adriane.
"I'll want your thoughts on this too Penelope."
"Of course."
"I am going. Enjoy your French vacation my dear." She pulled out a port key and vanished.
The next day Penelope was flying around and having a ball. She, however, took her work seriously and began to slowly go through the needed process.
A week later Kevin stopped by her work.
"Having fun?" he asked.
"Actually yes. It is rare we get something new to review and it is important I get this right."
"Would you have any interest in staying on and doing other work after this is done?"
"Maybe. Would it be with Harry and the others?"
"There is a lot of work to do. To an extent that would be your choice."
"Like what?"
"Before I elaborate, I want your word you won't discuss this outside of this group. We are not breaking any laws or doing anything bad."
"Alright."
Ken came running in. "Mission. Need to go."
"Can I bring this one?" asked Kevin.
"It's dangerous."
"I'm okay with that," said Penelope.
"Then come on. Fleur is out front, waiting to apparate us."
-=oOo=-
"Oh my. A muggle plane."
"Get in, if you want to. It will be dangerous," said Ken.
"I wouldn't miss it. Should I still be wearing the suit?"
"I don't see why not."
They piled in.
"All systems are up. Course is clear. Engaging engines."
They were pushed back into their seat as they rolled out.
"Rotation and ascending. Now tell me the real mission," said Dave.
"We did."
"We are seriously going to take this ship into space?"
"Well, we are going to try. If things go bad we turn around or port key to safety," said Ken.
"Why? I mean is that even safe?" asked Penelope.
"The astronauts on the space station need medicine they don't have. We are the only ones who can get it there in time. Officially they will find that they had it all along."
"Passing twenty thousand feet and accelerating."
"I can't believe we are going to space," said Harry eagerly.
"What is this ship anyway?" asked Penelope.
"This is a magical version of a muggle ship. We are still working on a purely magical version," said Adriane.
"It's so fast and relatively silent. I've been on a regular jet. It isn't this silent. How long will it take us?" asked Penelope.
"A couple hours, I think. I'm not sure honestly," said Dave.
"The station is on the other side of the planet, for one," said Ken.
"How will we find them?"
"Point me is such a wonderful spell," muttered Harry.
"Seriously? That thing?"
"The magical map thing Adriane mostly did is good, but has a limited range. We have to get closer, somehow. It does the trick, or has so far," said Harry.
Fifteen minutes later they were in space. They all had to strap in to keep from floating around.
"So are we okay?" asked Ken.
"Everything magical seems to be doing fine. The air shield is part of that," said Adriane.
"Speed is hard to control. Without gravity or air resistance, we get going fast without really trying," said Dave.
"Three of you, stop supplying magic," said Adriane.
"I'll keep going. The rest of you can stop," said Daphne.
They did so.
"That helps a bit. Thanks. I want to make sure we see anything in enough time to not hit it. There is also a lot of space junk up here. I don't know if we can fully avoid it, but I'd rather not increase the speed of our collision too much," said Dave.
"The magical map should detect objects, but I never considered small objects, so don't trust it too far," said Adriane.
"Got it."
They got peppered by small debris four times before they finally saw the station in sight. When they got closer Ken pointed Adriane to a particular module. "Think you can drop this package in the middle with a portkey?" He handed over the package he was carrying.
"I believe so." She tapped on the package and it was away.
Ken unbuckled his belt and carefully floated his way to the back to fetch a metal sphere about the size of a basketball from the back. He unscrewed the top half and pulled out a small radio.
"This is the ISS. Thanks for the medicine."
"We are glad to know you got it, and of course, we were never here."
"Understood. ISS out."
He turned off the radio and screwed the top back on.
"Did that protect that thing from magic?" asked Penny.
"Yes, though obviously it is pretty crude. We are working on better."
"Should we portkey back?" asked Dave.
"No. Port keys have not been tried from these distances. We need to try to return at least to the atmosphere. The test from these distances should be done solo, and we should start from lower," said Adriane.
"Agreed," added Ken.
"Alright, bringing us back down. We took a little damage, but it seems not to be a problem."
"I'm in," said Penelope.
"They got you too huh?" asked Harry.
"You just went to space!"
"This ship isn't intended for space," said Kevin.
"But I bet you are building one that is!"
"Sorry, can't comment on anything like that we may or may not be doing, though if you were to sign some forms..."
Penelope laughed. "Say can we unbuckle and float around a bit?"
"I'm going to say no. This ship took damage. We are running in untested conditions. I'm sorry, I can't justify the risk of delay," said Ken.
"I understand."
A little over three hours later they port keyed from about thirty thousand feet up back to just above their base and then landed. They got out to inspect the craft only to see a hole the size of a baseball in the wing.
"Damn. We are going to have to do better," said Kevin.
"We can detect objects better. I know we can. I just totally didn't anticipate those conditions," said Adriane.
"We aren't faulting you. Neither did we. Ordinarily we track every single object in space. I mean not just us, but a lot of countries share the information. It is just that we can't actively use any of that with the magical systems. We need at least some integration too, even if it is just sending our position back and a radio. We need something."
"Could we get some of this stuff out of space?" asked Daphne.
"Possibly. I have some ideas, but it would take some thought," said Adriane.
"You figure it out, and our government will figure out how to extract payments from other countries for either doing it, or providing how to do it," said Ken.
"Or we just make it free. That might be better for this," said Kevin.
Ken nodded.
"Making a ward that attract objects is not particularly hard. We have to limit what it attracts, and possibly have people up there just in case. It wouldn't be instant, but it should work. Then presumably it would need something to drop out of orbit and burn up," mused Adriane.
"So what release thousands of them in safe orbits, and let them clean up?" asked Ken.
"Maybe, though even if we can build them in an automated manner, that many would take a lot of wizards or witches to charge and a lot of trips to get up there."
"True. Perhaps we can improve that. Automated rockets would be a lot easier, if they were just lighter."
Adriane's eyes widened.
"You begin to understand just what kind of a game changer magic truly is."
She nodded.
-=oOo=-
Ken walked in to the meeting room. Everyone else was already there. He brought in a class cube filled with water and plates, as well as a power supply.
"If you give me a moment, we will get started."
He set the cube on the table, connected two small hoses to a little metal stand and then plugged it in. He waited a short time then pulled a lighter out and lit the point where two small pipes were connected to the small hoses.
"Hydrogen is our guess in how to commercialize space travel. This is a very basic cracking rig to separate hydrogen from water. It also separates out the oxygen. Hydrogen is an utter pain to store. It leaks everywhere, but it has the highest energy density. Obviously you have to store oxygen as well, though it is less of a pain. Both can be compressed. Cool them enough and you have liquid, but that is really hard, particularly with hydrogen."
A man wheeled in a steel tank that had been cut in two long ways. He then helped lay the tank halves on the table and wheeled out the dolly.
"This is a typical pressure tank. This one was intended for carbon dioxide, but was never used. Our question for you, is can you make one of these safe, that holds more than it should? I assume we can make one safe that is lighter, but that also must be proven."
"I'm not aware of any magical attempts to expand spaces that contained compressed gasses. The issue I'm seeing is you are talking about leaving the interface open, which would, over time, destabilize it," said Adriane.
"We could potentially connect tank after tank, though that is quite a bit harder."
"Could you not have a non magical part of the tank connected to a magical part, and have it open to refill the non magical half periodically?" asked Fleur.
"Perhaps," conceded Adriane.
"Okay, one thing we have to underline here. Pressure vessels are dangerous. I don't mean dangerous in that you will be injured. I mean dangerous, in that if they rupture death is likely. We can start small, use safer gases all that, but I don't want to misstate the danger here," said Ken.
"There is also the fact that if we say use a harmless gas, but it escapes, it could still cause you to die due to a lack of oxygen," said Kevin.
Ken nodded.
"I think we can manage the risks. I've managed things that scare me far more than the work I've done here has," said Adriane.
"How would you trigger the interface?" asked Daphne.
"Well I don't know if it will help, but making a spring loaded trigger that would open a normal value is likely doable. Adding enough hysteresis is harder, but I think we can do it," said Ken.
"Hysteresis?" asked Hermione.
"Ah a word you do not know. All it means is that the pressure that it opens is different than the pressure where it closes, so it is not continually opening and closing."
Hermione nodded.
"Making a ward array oscillate is not difficult. Avoiding that is usually the key, though coming up with a method that opens say once every minute for a few seconds may be doable. I am guessing here. I'll know more once we really get started," said Adriane.
"That would be ideal, if you could avoid a mechanism that might break," said Kevin.
She nodded.
"How much additional space are we looking at, assuming you can store at pressure?" asked Ken.
"I think around a hundred times the physical space is typical. Pushing that too hard risks instability, so most stop there. Some cheaper bags and such do about ten times."
"Twenty is typical for handbags unless you get a special order," said Daphne.
"Twenty five is typical in France," added Fleur in mild amusement.
"We will have to go shopping some time."
Fleur nodded.
Adriane pulled out a small seeming bag from her pocket and tossed it to Fleur.
"That one is two hundred sixty nine times bigger. It turns out a prime number helps somewhat."
"How do you get anything out of it?" asked Ken in confusion.
"Is it keyed to you?" asked Fleur.
"No, I couldn't manage that and the expansion. You can reach in. Pull out Hogwarts, a History. I know I stored it at some point just for fun."
Fleur opened the pouch, focused, reached in and pulled out the massive tomb through an opening that temporarily got bigger to do it.
Ken bust out laughing. "We are so going to change the world."
"Why Hogwarts, a History?" asked Hermione.
"It was the biggest book I could find at the local magical bookstore that was really cheap."
Harry chuckled before Hermione's glare silenced him.
-=oOo=-
Several weeks passed. Dozens of designs were tried. They all worked as expected until pressure was introduced. Then they blew up, and it was only their extreme care that prevented anyone from getting hurt.
Ken brought in another idea the next day. He had a small thermos with him.
"Propane is not normally considered an ideal rocket fuel, but with your expansion charms, maybe it can be. This is just a coffee thermos, but the contents within are well below the point where propane becomes a liquid. Let's do this demo outside."
He grabbed a small plastic bucket.
"Isn't that dangerous?" asked Hermione.
"A little I suppose, but no one is making sparks, and it will remain in the liquid state for some hours yet."
They walked outside to a small picnic table. There he set the plastic bucket down, put on a pair of gloves, opened the thermos and poured a bit out.
"You will note that the propane begins boiling almost immediately if exposed to warmth. If someone would be foolish enough to make a spark, it would burn."
"Wouldn't it explode?" asked Hermione.
"That takes fairly specific conditions. It certainly could in the bucket though. There is enough air flow out here outside of it is unlikely. Don't get me wrong, this is a dangerous experiment."
"So your thinking we keep it cold, use an expansion charm designed for a liquid, and then it solves some of our problems?" asked Adriane.
"Probably hoping more than anything," he admitted.
"What about the liquid oxygen?" asked Hermione.
"I'm hoping we can do the same thing. It is a cryofluid, but not nearly to the extent of hydrogen."
"Let's give it a try," said Adriane.
That worked. Oh there were details to work out, but they were not nearly so difficult. They had a test area with ten propane heaters running on cylinders that contained ten times what they should in half the original full weight. It wasn't where they wanted to be, but it was a start.
Unfortunately, that is where there success stalled. Liquid oxygen was much harder. It wasn't working and the explosions were getting dangerous. Nearly everything burned in the presence of one hundred percent oxygen. They were about to go back to the drawing board when two people showed up at the door. Adrian opened the door.
"Perenelle?" she asked, surprise.
"It has been awhile, hasn't it my dear?"
"Yes. Over ten years. Can you help? This is important work, and we are stuck."
"That is why we are here. You know you could have asked. Had to get an update from Albus, about the third request for more information from Hermione that he couldn't answer," muttered Nicholas.
Hermione blushed furiously.
"I assumed when you faked your death that you intended not to be found," she replied.
"So you didn't believe it?" he asked.
She snorted. "You, say it is time to move on made no sense. I didn't buy that the Headmaster ever got the real stone. You may help with the Dark Lord problem, but risking the real one seemed unlikely. That had to be a trap."
"Wait, we risked our lives for a fake?" asked Harry in surprise.
"You did. The stone would have poisoned him in a very nasty way," said Perenelle.
"Well, I feel like an idiot."
"We were eleven. We were idiots," said Hermione.
"Don't I know it. It took till I was like eleven and a half to hate Malfoy," added Daphne.
Harry laughed.
"So you will help?" asked Adriane hopefully.
"We will," said Perenelle.
-=oOo=-
Their work picked up substantially in the subsequent weeks and then stalled again. Kevin brought in a fellow engineer named Michael to work with them.
"Okay, I don't pretend to really understand magic, though I have read some of the material we have created. My point is, I'm not going to suddenly know magic better than experts, particularly immortal ones. I do, however, know engineering, and I do have a question."
"Don't just keep us waiting," said Kevin.
"You do know that the work you are creating is initially for unmanned launches, so we can afford a certain degree of risk, and that the rocket has to last about an hour. If your magic dies after that, well that may be fine if the fuel is gone."
"I thought we were doing this to eventually have these engines..." Hermione trailed off.
"We have already signed the forms," said Perenelle.
"They have," confirmed Kevin.
"We thought the engines would be part of our craft, to have a non magical method, sort of, to go further," she finished.
"So? Don't worry about it. Solve the problem in front of you. That alone has value, and by doing it, you may learn what you don't currently know," said Michael.
"He has a point," noted Nicholas.
"The basics we use to construct expanded spaces was determined through a lot of trial and error long ago. We figured out a lot of it ourselves. I'm afraid I honestly don't remember much of that, though we do have a book of notes from our work back then. We will have to go get it," said Perenelle.
"If you look at the magic involved, I think that we may be able to increase short term stability at the expense of long term. We will get started while you get your notes," said Adriane.
-=oOo=-
"So it really works?" asked the French President.
"We launched a scale model a hundred thousand feet. It is quite simple really. You just have to launch the rocket relatively soon after you complete the enchantment and fill it," said Kevin.
"I assume you realize this could also be used for weapons?"
"If we ever have a case where wizard and witches are unable to police their criminals and we have to it, it may get a lot worse than this. Imperio alone is far worse. They might be able to command a nuclear launch with enough, or simply control the set that is required."
"I'm sorry. I know you already think of these things. Good work. If you think they can figure out a way to better secure the world's nuclear weapons and such against such threats, well use your own judgment. What about the devices to collect the space garbage?"
"Carbon fiber balls seem the simplest. They get sewn with runes that give them structure. They should burn up cleanly once they pull in enough junk to activate the second part and pull them to Earth."
"Let me know when you are ready for a full scale test."
"I will."
-=oOo=-
It took a couple weeks later to have a couple prototypes ready to launch. They all took the jet to French Guiana, which was northeast of South America. They launched without incidents and reached their target zone in space.
A week later Kevin and Adriane addressed the magical sub group of the United Nations.
"We are going to present today our efforts to remove space debris from our skies. Our team developed an easily made rocket we will show you, as well as the magical device that has collected a considerable amount of debris and should be pulled to Earth soon."
"You say it is a magical device?"
"I'll answer questions at the end. Let's show the video now."
They showed the test launches, as well as the footage the space station had managed to take of them drawing trash to them.
"How much do they cost?"
"They are relatively cheap. We think we can make them for less than one hundred fifty thousand a piece, assuming you can provide sufficient wizards and witches to enchant them. It is not that much magic really. The biggest cost is the low volume parts runs. Considerable accuracy has to be attained for these to operate normally."
"How many of these will be required?"
"That is the hard part. If you are good with about eighty percent, we might get them done in a couple hundred launches. It gets really hard after that. The returns get thin. We think we can get to ninety five percent with a thousand launches. All of these numbers are preliminary."
"So fifteen million plus salaries? That's peanuts. Let's do it."
"We considering just doing it ourselves, but we wanted to encourage some international cooperation, and this seemed like a good place to do so."
"We can certainly help there."
-=oOo=-
The president of France flew back with them on their jet.
"I just wanted to thank you all for doing this. The actual costs for the rockets is about a third of what we said, but we are also paying for your research on this and future research."
"Do we get a bonus?" asked Adriane.
"I don't see why not. Kevin."
"There is a ten thousand a piece bonus for all your work. I didn't want to mention it till it was approved, but it was earlier today."
"So will this work help you with the space ship?" asked the president.
"It does help, just not enough," said Kevin.
"We probably should keep working. The design we made works for this, but I think we can improve it. We already have some ideas. I say we keep going as if we hadn't settled on this," said Adriane.
"We have no problem with that and agree, but we probably won't change what we use for the space junk unless there is a compelling reason. If nothing else, it reduces the odds of the better work getting out," said Ken.
"As long as we can send some up, it shouldn't matter."
He nodded.
-=oOo=-
Three weeks later Adriane was drinking coffee and reading one of the rare global publications on the state of the art of enchanting, when she spotted the article.
"Well shit," she muttered as she kept reading. It seemed that one of the helpers they involved from other countries had solved the problem, and didn't keep the solution to himself or some responsible group.
She brought the report to the main office and showed Ken and Kevin.
"Will that work?" asked Ken.
"I think so. Obviously, I haven't tried it. I just read it."
"Well that's great. It's also not your problem. We will do what we can, which may be ignoring it on the surface. I suggest not going in public for awhile. Figure out how to make it work, but your work is to remain secret."
"I understand."
In the end they could only hope it wasn't used to build missiles or something. They did their best not to draw attention to it. The key difference was that you didn't have to apply the expansion charms in all three dimensions. You could, in fact do them in only two or one. It was the same volume expansion either way, but by the diameter of the area being held constant and the expansion only occurring in the middle area where it was perfectly round, you could get a stable expansion. It just took increasing amounts of magic and coordination to set them up. They tested up to a prime expansion factor of three thousand and thirty seven and decided to stop. The amount of magic was beginning to become a concern then. It was ironic that another leading enchanter debunked the suggestion as useless, as you could not reach in to get any of that out, and none of the charms they had would work either.
-=oOo=-
Heather stumbled out of bed at her dorm at the University of Hawaii. She fumbled for a bottle of half drank water and downed it.
Her roommate woke up with an amused expression. "I told you not to go out partying and drinking before a new job."
"It's just some space crap. I look at pictures and make sure no rocks are about to kill us all. Should be easy." She found another half drank bottle of water and started on it, though spilled about a third of it.
"You better eat something light before you take that Aleve and then drink another full glass of fresh water."
"Your not my mother."
"I am," however a veterinary major, which means I know a lot about how bodies work, even if I specialize in pets. The water is the main thing. The food protects your stomach from the pain reliever, and gives you some energy for tonight."
"Fine."
Two hours later she was on her third cup of coffee as she squinted at the little monitor they gave her to find an asteroid on in the observatory.
"That doesn't look right, does it?" she asked.
She spend another hour looking at it before fumbling around to find her supervisors phone number, and praying she didn't get fired for waking her.
"What is it?" said a clipped voice.
"You can see these without coming in right?"
"I can."
"Look at image thirty four seventeen."
"There had better be something there."
"Please just look. I didn't want to call. I kept looking at it, but it didn't go away. It's in the ones that follow as well."
"Alright."
The phone was dropped on the table as her boss logged into her computer and began reviewing images. She got to the image requested and the ones that followed.
"Oh shit." She reached for the phone. "Stay there. Contact no one. I"ll handle it."
"Okay. I get overtime for this right?"
"Yes." She hung up and then searched for the actual phone number she needed.
-=oOo=-
"What do we have?" asked the president.
"It appears to be an asteroid. We weren't terribly concerned until we confirmed it. It is heading for us. The odds are near certain. Sir, it is an extinction level event."
"How long?"
"Thirty three days."
"You have the information?"
"On the flash drive with me."
"Come with me. The information you will receive today is top secret. You will never divulge it. Do you understand?"
"Yes sir. Where are we going?"
"The situation room, just not the one you think."
They passed down to the basement, and then a pair of guards he had never seen tapped on a section of the wall and it vanished. They walked in.
"Why are we here?" asked the elderly Wizard that walked up to him.
"You reported that France was working on magical space travel. We need that working, and we need it working right now. There is an asteroid heading for us. We have thirty three days."
"Sir, any feasible way of stopping it must be as soon as possible, while it is farther away," said the aide.
The wizard opened a cabinet along the wall and pulled out a mirror from a particular slot with France written over the edge. He tapped it with his wand. "I need to talk to someone now. This is an emergency."
"It may take awhile before their box is opened and someone answered."
Two minutes later he saw his counterpart. She was a an elderly witch. "What is it?"
The president moved in front of the mirror. "Our people have found an asteroid heading for us that will kill us if we don't stop it. Can you help? It is urgent."
"I'll have to talk to the president. His group is pretty tight lipped about what they have. I need you to port key what you have here."
"I'll have to get it printed. The computer drive won't survive the port key."
"Do so. I have calls to make." The screen went black.
The president turned to his aide. "Go get that printed in the best quality you can quick. Someone help him find his way out of here and back."
-=oOo=-
"And we thought holding off on building the full spaceship was a good idea, because so much was likely to change," said the president of France ruefully.
"There was a portal design in the library's work. It was impractical, well before today anyway. Hermione, you have notes right?" asked Adriane.
"I do."
"You think we could have one here and one on the asteroid?" asked Ken.
"Don't know. We need to build a set here first."
"Go do it. Everyone go do that. We will handle the rest."
"Can our little jet really go that far?"
"Anything else at this late point would be a bigger risk. We are air sealed. The magic will keep the air fresh. We have to try it," said Kevin.
"Assuming they can pull off the portals, what is next?" asked the president.
"Honestly, a lot more of the tanks and engines we have are a good start. We want to keep making them and have others make them. We are going to need to position them at several spots on the asteroid and control them somehow, so it just doesn't spin, then run at full rate."
"Would nuclear weapons be better?"
"Are you seriously suggesting we send a nuclear weapon through a magical gate? I'm not liking the idea of sending even the rocket engines through it and we are shielding those."
"I see. What about carrying it on the jet?"
"Too small probably. Even if you somehow got it in a deep hole it is unlikely to do much. It's the size of Texas. No, the propulsive force the rockets can generate over a period of almost a month, with that group trying to reduce the mass of the asteroid, even a little, is our best bet."
"All resources you need are yours."
"We will get it done."
-=oOo=-
"Well it works," said Adriane ruefully.
"How the heck did anyone make these? Were they stronger than us?" complained Daphne.
"There was a runic array for sharing power in the foot notes. I remember that much. You four can do it without it. Most can't. Did you write it down Hermione?"
"No."
"Damn. I know some others but they probably have more risk than using the one we know works. Okay Hermione, you and I are going to my house to use my pensive. Nick, go collect anyone you know that is really strong. Harry, go collect Albus, and anyone he knows. Fleur/Daphne do the same. If they are strong, and they will work with us to save their own skins, bring them," said Adriane.
-=oOo=-
Harry walked into the great hall at Hogwarts during lunch, after Hagrid let him in. He walked right up to the Headmaster.
"I need to talk to you."
"It is important I take it."
"Yes."
"Let's go to my office."
They walked there with Harry not saying a word before the door was closed.
"What is the problem?"
"Are the paintings secure?"
Albus waved his wand and all the portraits were frozen.
"There is an asteroid the size of Texas going to destroy the planet if we fail. We have just over a month to stop it, but we have to start diverting it soon. We have a portal array from Alexandria that might be key."
"Are you serious?"
"Yes, I'm dead serious."
"I'm guessing power is the key. I studied those once too you see. I presume your having problems supplying enough magic."
"No, we can, but barely. If we have to leave two of us here, it probably won't work. We are gathering up the strongest witches and wizards. We were going to build a space ship, but we waited too long. We just have the jet, but we might be able to have a few more on it. We are hoping the magic sharing array will anchor this end."
"What are you doing with the portal, assuming that even works?"
"We are going to move some of the rocket engines we made through and try to divert the asteroid."
"I'll collect some more to power it. I assume Nick and the others are also trying."
"Yes."
"Do you have any more stops?"
"I was going to go Gringotts, to see if they could help."
"You can go ahead and go. We will meet you at the Delacour house as soon as we can."
"That works. You can send one of us a patronus when you get there."
-=oOo=-
Harry hurried out of the Hogwarts wards before apparating to above the steps of Gringotts and landing softly.
The guards glared at him, but didn't say anything. He walked in and then found a line that was empty.
"What do you want?" asked the surly goblin.
"I need to speak with Lord Ragnok immediately."
"Why should he speak with you?"
"May I cast a muffling spell?"
"Fine."
Harry did so. "This is top secret. If you cause a panic and tell people without some plan, you will get people hurt. Some muggles found a asteroid the size of one of the bigger American states headed for the Earth. We are going to try to stop it. No, I am not kidding. Yes, I will take veritaserum if you insist. The reason we are here is to see if you can help solve this mess."
"You do realize that if you lie to gain admittance we could kill you."
"Doesn't matter. I'm not lying."
"Your claims will be tested under veritaserum. Goblin veritaserum. We can tell if you are fighting it."
"Fine."
Harry was led to an empty room that was little more than five by five. It had a small table and a chair. He sat down in the chair. A goblin game in with a small vial. Harry sighed and stuck out his tongue. Three drops fell in.
Ragnok himself came in. "Is what you told our teller true?"
"Yes."
"What do you need of the goblin nation?"
"We are pulling in strong witches and wizard to operate a portal. I don't know the exact details there. I stopped by here in case you could help. It would seem foolish not to at least ask."
"Give him the antidote."
"He already burned through it, though I think your first answer was under it."
"Recall all curse breaking teams. Assemble our best. Where will we make our stand?"
"I can take someone directly to our staging area, or I can make a portkey there, or you can meet at the Delacour home."
"Your port key will do. You can create it here, though not use it from here. We can copy it."
"This table?" asked Harry.
"That's fine."
Harry pulled out his wand and started etching runes into the surface using his wand and magic as a carving implement. It took him several minutes to finish.
"This should allow two way use for awhile. I assume you have people that can check when it is no longer safe. I'm not adding all the safeties. I never memorized the full array."
"We do."
Harry then touched each symbol and filled the array with power before finally muttering Portus as the whole thing glowed and dimmed.
"You do realize that creation violates about six ministry laws," said Ragnok dryly.
"At the moment I don't care. I assume you won't be turning me in."
"Hardly."