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 11
-=oOo=-
"You four really don't have to use the rockets if you don't want to?" asked the American engineer.
"No, we are generally fine without them. It is a bit tiring, but we would rather save them for true emergencies. There is a lot of fuel in them, but it is not unlimited," said Daphne.
"Greg, I still find it more impressive that they don't even have landing gear," said a younger woman in her mid twenties with long auburn hair.
"Good point Lisa. I wonder how much magic that takes."
"Not much. The levitation array rarely needs charged. The ship extracts magic from the environment when it is parked on Earth. It is not enough to run it, but it is certainly more than enough for the levitation," said Hermione.
"How do you stop?" asked the other older male engineer, who looked not far from retiring.
"It is a similar effect to the Aresto Momentum spell in a rune array. The actual working theory is different, but that is the effect," said Fleur.
"And all of your electronics work? We still haven't gotten that," said Lisa.
"Gold was the key, well one of the keys. The reason it is hard to make with magic is it blocks most magic. There is more to it than that, but gold is the key, or at least the best we have found," said Hermione.
"I thought magicals used enchanted gold," said Greg.
"We do, but those charms are fairly special, and if you examine it the magic doesn't really penetrate the gold much. It wraps it and anchors to itself," said Hermione.
"Doesn't gold make this ship horribly expensive?" asked the older engineer.
"They have the money based on all accounts," said Greg.
"We actually had a friend of ours donate the needed gold," said Harry with a bit of amusement.
Daphne snorted.
"There seems a story there that we aren't getting," added the older Engineer.
"Tom, of that I have no doubt," added Greg.
Fleur continued to accelerate out of the atmosphere.
Twenty minutes later Greg asked, "Your still continuing to accelerate?"
"Our target velocity is our max rated speed of ten million kilometers per hour. That will put our destination at a little over six hundred hours or.."
"Twenty five days," finished Hermione.
"And it took us four months to get out that far. Your approximately four times as fast," finished Nick.
"We didn't actually find an upper safe bound on speed. Ten million was tested, and as no one is dying, so we aren't going to exceed it. It really depends on what the integrated shield charm can take," said Harry.
"That is hard to test, so we are being cautious," finished Hermione.
"You built a main deflector dish too, like off the Enterprise?" asked Lisa.
"No, it is just part of the ships design. There is nothing visible," said Daphne uncertainly.
"How good are your sensors?" asked Tom.
"We think we can catch anything that would cause us danger and maneuver to avoid it, but it is hard to test these things," said Hermione.
"Can you see our ship from here?" asked Lisa.
"We have optics that could, but our active sensors can't. The optics assume your in an orientation suitable, and as we are riding a gravity deflection course to speed this up, we currently can't," said Hermione.
Four hours later they swapped pilots to Hermione. Six hours after that they stopped accelerating.
"I've got here for now, though at least one backup must remain on the bridge per our rules. If the rest want to eat something they could," said Hermione.
"I'll stay. Perhaps I can learn something," said Tom.
-=oOo=-
"I actually lost the argument to have the ability to cook food. The engineers basically said, 'You have stasis magic. There is no need to haul all the crap necessary to cook,'" said Harry.
"I still want it. Food kept in stasis never seems quite right," said Daphne.
"It all tastes great to us," said Lisa.
"This is way better than the MREs we stuffed in the other one," said Greg.
"MRE?" asked Daphne.
"Meals ready to eat. Same idea, but with no magic."
Daphne grimaced at the thought.
"We did use magic to store a lot of them, so they won't starve."
"I am so grateful we took the time to properly finish this," said Fleur.
"Even if we didn't get a kitchen," added Daphne.
"Have you thought of weapons?" asked Lisa.
Daphne looked at them for a moment, and then shrugged. "We have a couple torpedoes that have to be port keyed out. We also have a locked closet with backup wands as well as muggle P90s that we had to train on. None of us like them, but they are there if we have to have them."
"Sorry, I didn't think about that question before I asked it."
"We are on the same team. We all want the best for Earth," said Fleur.
"That we do," said Greg. Lisa nodded as well.
"We have a couple nuclear torpedoes in ours," said Greg softly.
"Is that actually sane?" asked Daphne.
"You mean with all the magic?"
Daphne nodded.
"Probably not."
"We will need to know where these missiles are and any precautions required. We are very strong. It is possible our normal use of magic could endanger us all," said Fleur.
"They are not far from the engines, which is what needs work," said Greg.
"Can we get rid of them or is your work simple enough to risk doing it while next to those things?" asked Daphne.
"It really isn't. We brought primary components, but your cargo capacity, while good, wasn't enough to fit new engines," said Lisa.
"Really?" asked Harry.
"Our ship is over twice the size of Tempest, and the engines are big," said Greg.
"Then why are you so slow?" asked Daphne.
"The engines, um, use a nuclear reactor to vaporize water as propellant. We have massive quantities stored with magic. We thought it would be better," rushed Lisa.
"Bloody hell," cursed Harry.
"Perhaps we could leave the engines and those missiles behind and develop a magical drive to get you home?" asked Fleur.
"We have mages aboard, but none strong enough for flying that," said Lisa.
"We can fly it. Our ship could go back using the rocket engines," said Daphne.
"What was the point in using nuclear power for this? I have to admit I don't know a lot about it, but our design for propulsion is simple and light. I know Kevin and Ken briefly explored nuclear, but it didn't make sense," said Harry.
"We were well down the nuclear propulsion design for another project, and well, we didn't change. It was the only way to meet the deadlines," said Greg.
"We won't be able to remove the engines. They provide too much structure. We can, however, remove the nuclear fuel and the missiles if your absolutely sure you can make this work," said Lisa.
"We won't know for sure till we study your ship, but we also won't use any large magic if there is a large risk," said Daphne.
"We are certainly not complaining. We may be able to just fix it with what we brought. We will just have to see," said Greg.
"So, anyone wanna suggest we press to see if we can safely go faster when we get back?" asked Harry.
Three other hands rose.
Lisa laughed.
"We should get something ready for Hermione to eat. Who is taking next shift anyway?" asked Fleur.
"I'll do it," offered Daphne.
"I'll make, well get her some food ready," said Harry.
"We can take a shift as well if you want," offered Lisa.
"That doesn't work unfortunately. Someone with magic has to be in one of the principal seats. Some of the systems feed information back that way," said Fleur.
"You could take a shift, but it would be with one of us," said Daphne.
"We have no problem with that," said Greg.
"I can pair with one of you, while Daphne does her part," offered Fleur.
"I'll do the first, if that works," offered Lisa.
Greg nodded.
-=oOo=-
The month of boring travel was over. They were now the second humans out this far. Furthermore, they had gotten official permission to dump the nuclear fuel and missiles at their discretion.
"She is pretty," offered Harry.
"Harry, your not supposed to complement another team's ship," said Daphne.
"Ah. I suppose the fact that the Tempest is largely self sufficient, faster, and could potentially travel for decades makes ours the best," added Harry quickly.
Fleur laughed.
"Nice save Harry," offered Hermione.
"Can you really?" asked Tom.
"Sure, we have been running on zero resources other than food the entire time. The main power generator is magitech and is no great burden to keep going," said Hermione.
"Wanna trade?" joked Greg.
"Pass," replied Fleur.
"Let's get to work," said Tom.
"There is no way to dock, I assume you know that," said Lisa.
"We will grab space suits, drop the air pressure in the cargo bay to zero and load your stuff into the magical transport platforms. It should be no big deal, assume you can at least open your cargo bay," said Harry.
-=oOo=-
Hermione marveled at the fact that she was in a space suit, with one of their flight suits inside, pushing a magical cargo handler cart through space into another ship build by the yanks, and it was all quite easy. It was a long way from Wingardium Leviosa.
By her side Harry was moving more of it, while Daphne was actually pulling the other three along, who didn't want to apparate. Fleur was minding the ship. It would take a few trips, but they would have the cargo moving over in the next hour.
-=oOo=-
After they got back Daphne and Fleur took the helm while Harry showed the Captain, first officer, and medical officer their kitchen, such as it was.
They ferried several others back and forth over the next few days as the engineers debated on whether or not to go with the proposed plan B. The repairs that could be made had been made, but they weren't really liking them.
On the fourth day Greg, Lisa, Tom and Captain Jason Reynar met back on Tempest.
"Simply put, the nuclear reactor is damaged. It is safe enough while idle like this. We are less than sure it will be safe if we run it back up to propulsion levels," said Captain Reynar.
"So you want to try to implement a magical drive? You understand that our ship works because we are stronger than we have any right to be," asked Daphne.
"Doesn't matter. Yes, we want to bring the ship back, but most likely the drive at minimum will need replaced with a new design, if not more. Really your ship pretty much confirms we need to make some big changes. Just get us home and we will deal with the rest."
"Can you safely remove the nuclear fuel and weapons?" asked Fleur.
"We want to keep the weapons, and just remove the warheads. The nuclear core of the reactor was designed to be jettisoned, so that is not a problem."
"But everything radioactive will be gone right?"
"Save some trace radioactivity in metals and such, yes."
"Before we take any steps we can't undo, we should come over and come up with a design. Surely that is safe enough?" added Daphne.
"Can't you just copy this one's?" asked Jason.
"No, to work it must be tailored to the vehicle. Your craft is quite different," said Fleur.
"Thankfully, we do have the computer programs we developed to help design. This is going to take some time," said Hermione.
"How long?" asked the Captain.
"A month or two, is my guess, though we will be able to tell you if we think it will work far before that."
"Understood. Let's get to work as soon as your ready."
-=oOo=-
They were nearly certain they could make it work after their first tour. They too used a combination of printed vs fabricated titanium panels. Their magic shielding was roughly where their own was two years ago, meaning their array would fry their non magical systems, though they had enough spare gold on tempest to shield at least their sensors. Their magical work would take over environmental, so that was a non issue for now.
They were going to establish a linked two way mirror, using bathroom mirrors as the start, with details. The plan was for Tempest to lead the way back, but the Dragon, which was their ship name, to follow. The magical mirrors and other work they would do would insure the ships stayed far enough apart.
They were two weeks into the work when Harry suggested, "You know I wonder if we landed on Pluto and drew out a portal array, if we could bring the jet here, maybe with Adriane on it."
"Possibly, but why?" asked Daphne.
"In the game they copied the basic design for this ship from this ship was part of the Pathfinder program, to find new worlds for humanity. If we could prove people could come through..."
"Then it doesn't need to be a person. An animal or similar would be a safer test. We just want to know if there is a limit on the portal range," said Daphne.
"Sure."
"We are planning on going back with them, so we can't do this afterwards, unless we come back. I say we present the idea and make it a group project," said Fleur.
The others agreed and it took very little time for them to support the idea. In fact, they thought their government would try to create a magical base out here, as a bit of an early warning sentry. Back home their request was also approved with a surprise. They requested the Dragon be landed on Pluto to serve as interim quarters for the now planned Pluto base. They now planned to bring more parts through and eventually repair the main reactor on the ship, at least for the purposes of power.
The repairs they did were easily enough for them to land normally on Pluto. They then spent a couple weeks setting up the portal zone before it connected smoothly to Earth. Earth sent a monkey to test, which they sent right back. The monkey was unharmed.
They spent another month there helping them setup their new base, and making sure they could easily establish outbound connections with the wizards and witches they brought before flying home only to find out that their group got a big contract to duplicate Tempest. It wouldn't work as well with four different witches and wizards, even if they were as powerful, but it would work. They just might need to rely on the rocket engines a bit more. Fortunately, for the most part, other than some final touches they didn't need to be involved with that.
-=oOo=-
A week after they got back Ken walked into the briefing room while still reading a document.
"Busy?" asked Harry.
"You have no idea. It's not just the Americans. We have now four we need to build."
"Think we could continue the high speed tests, to find an upper bound safely?"
He looked over at Harry thoughtfully. "We never really did find any indication of a stopping point. I'm okay with that, though we will need more approvals than just me. The main thing is no one gets hurt. Did you have anything else?"
"Food."
"You still want a kitchen then?"
"We do," said Fleur.
"Well as long as you stay within the power limits of Tempest, I really don't see why we can't have a kitchen module we load in the cargo bay. You still have to help shield some of it, and it should be all non magical, since I'm not going to authorize a greater magical mix that might invalidate our earlier work, but the space is there. It just would probably have to be removed if we needed the cargo area."
"That works," said Daphne.
"I'll get management to assign you some people to work with. I am, unfortunately swamped, but again, no magic, stay within loading and power limits, beyond that, well, you need to be flying with some weight in the cargo bay for real tests. It might as well be this."
"Thanks," said Harry.
"I regret we had to tell you no before, but it would have reduced the ship in some other way. If we ever get through these orders we might consider craft with more luxuries."
"We understand," added Hermione.
"Well if you have nothing else, I've got to go figure out the logistics of building four of these."
"Get some rest when you can," said Harry.
"I will."
-=oOo=-
Adriane was not idle while the others were busy. She called in some favors and returned to the Library of Alexandria, with both Nick and Perenelle.
"I'm still not sure if what you are seeking is possible, let alone recorded here," said Nicholas.
"I don't think any time spent here is ever a mistake," said Adriane.
"None of ours has been that is for sure," added Perenelle.
-=oOo=-
"What we have this evening news is something I don't fully understand. This was recorded by a big telescope in Peru. They were tracking the Tempests flight tests. That craft, if you weren't aware were trying to establish a safe upper bound for their maximum speed. Just watch."
You could see the craft flying through the space as normal, and then they just vanished.
"At first people thought they were testing some kind of cloaking technology, but then we received this view from another telescope that was pointed near the International Space Station. The times stamps on this say less than fifteen seconds have passed since the previous video."
The screen showed Tempest appearing out of nowhere, realizing where the heck they were and executing a slingshot course around Earth to bleed speed.
"If our math is correct, and the times are correct, for a very brief time they went faster than light. When contacted the French would only say that they were aware of the video and were currently investigating. Have they done it? Can they do it again. Has the door truly been opened for mankind to explore the stars?"
-=oOo=-
On an expedition in the Himalayas Luna looked up and smiled.
"Did you see something Luna?" asked her Father.
"Just the future being called awake."
"Oh alright, well if you see any snorckacks you let me know."
Luna smiled and nodded.
-=oOo=-
The French president was on his second cup of coffee when Ken and Kevin came in.
"What do you have?"
"It wasn't intentional. They were kind of linked, as they sometimes do, and thinking something along the lines of what if apparition worked with the whole ship and it happened. They almost totally freaked out, but somehow kept control when it or whatever occurred. They had to execute the emergency maneuver at Earth to prevent crashing into the planet at the speed they were going," said Ken.
"They also fried most of the non magical systems on Tempest. It's a bit of a mess," said Kevin.
"Can they do it again?"
"Maybe, though the technological side frying is a serious problem. Fortunately, that ship will fly without it," added Ken.
"Top priority. I'll get others to take your roles with the duplicates. You will sadly still have to help, but it is the best I can do. Make sure no one dies or any risks are taken that can be avoided, but as long as everyone is willing, this is big. This is really big," said the president.
"We know," responded Kevin.
"What are we going to tell the press?" asked Ken.
"I've got my science staff, and the Americans for that matter, trying to think of an appropriate explanation. Needless to say they are salivating at the possibility. I'm thinking about a joint venture."
"Even if we can duplicate this, this is bound to have risks and dangers we do not anticipate. Frankly, we may need the help. Had they delayed their reaction even five seconds, they would be dead," said Ken.
"I see. Is there any word from Adriane?" asked the president.
"Ironically, one of the reasons they went to Alexandria was to look for some clue to something like this. There is no real way to contact her directly there, though we did send an agent to Alexandria to pass to the keepers to hopefully reach her. It is an encrypted letter. She has the cipher memorized, so she should be able to read it."
"Well there is that at least. I'm assuming the automatic control systems that would have tried to prevent a crash fried with everything else."
"They did," added Kevin.
"Keeping the safety systems alive has to be nearly the same priority, or making them with magic.. something, since for every time someone does react quickly enough in such a situation you will probably have two that don't."
"Gold is an amazing shield, particularly with the rune sets we carve into it, but anything we actually use can only have so much gold surrounding it, or we can't use it," said Ken.
"We need something clear for the front of controls, that is also an effective block," added Kevin.
"Any possibilities?"
"Maybe leaded glass. It doesn't work well, so we didn't add it when we thought we had good enough, but it is not useless."
"I doubt it is enough," added Ken.
"We could share this task with the Americans. Actually, we probably are both doing the work. We might as well cooperate."
"Agreed."
-=oOo=-
They had just gotten back to near Earth from another test when they got the message from Kevin. "There has just been a bad Earthquake in Peru. It triggered an avalanche. Two towns have very little time left."
"Heading there," said Fleur.
"At best we can save a single town. I'm not trying to be cruel, but pulling an entire town into another dimensions is pushing it. We try to do both, and everyone dies," said Daphne.
"The northern town has more people. I'll try to direct resources to the southern town," said Kevin over the radio.
"Damn it," cursed Harry.
"Let's save who we can save. There will be time to mourn those we cannot later," said Hermione softly.
"I know."
"I'll land in the middle somewhere then apparate to the southern apex for the shift," said Fleur.
"I'll take the North," said Harry.
Hermione grimaced. "East. It doesn't matter, but i'll take east."
"West. North is going to be the worst, but Harry is still strongest," said Daphne.
The three others apparated out and began even as Fleur hurried to set Tempest down in the middle of a park. The craft was already locked, so as soon as she was touching down she apparated to just south of the city and began carving runes into the cobblestone with her energized wand.
"What ya doing?" as girl asked.
"An avalanche is coming. Get inside somewhere safe. We are trying to save the town."
She suddenly heard the terrible rumble as she hurried to catch up to where the other three were. Three more sigils. One, two, three, then she threw every ounce of magic she could into the array and prayed while the little girl looked on in awe as reality seemed to shimmer and grow dark.
Fleur stayed awake for nearly thirty minutes before she collapsed and passed out. Suddenly there was ten feet of snow outside their village. She ran to her mother and said, "The nice lady needs help."
-=oOo=-
Babajide Akingbade sat in the small house with the four that had saved this town. Thankfully no one really knew they had done magic, and the little girls explanations weren't believed.
Daphne stirred first. "Oh, what hit me."
The ICW leader subtly cast a ward against listening. "You saved the town. I regret to say the other town was mostly a loss, though nine hundred people were saved thanks to the efforts of those that came."
"Contained?"
"Not as well as we would wish. Some are calling it a miracle. Ten feet of snow outside the city and not a drop inside."
"Are we in trouble?"
"No. It was a violation, and one day we may have to call you on it, but we aren't going to prosecute. Our people are vanishing the snow as fast as we can, to try to erase this history. This city has no modern communications, which we are thankful for. We are going to be obliviating down here for months. They will not know what you did."
"Good. Was their another way?"
"There are runic arrays that might have diverted the snow if you had time. I didn't know about them either, so we can hardly blame you for not knowing. You are required to learn them and use them, if you possibly can, if this occurs again."
"We will of course do so. We might have saved far more lives had we know. Our ship?"
"We put up muggle repelling wards around it, though we would appreciate you getting it out of here."
Daphne reached over and let a trickle of her magic flow into Fleur. Her eyes blinked open.
"We succeeded. The ICW is handling the obliviations. We need to get the ship and get out of here."
Fleur nodded, before reaching over to touch Hermione, while Daphne touched Harry, each sending a trickle of magic in.
"You get away with that with no consequences, yet for the rest of us, what you do is not entirely safe."
"We are a bit weird that way," offered Daphne.
They repeated their explanation before they all apparated away. When they got back Adrian and the Flamels were there to greet them.
"Heard you had some fun," said Nicholas.
"There was apparently a way to save everyone if we knew how to divert the avalanche," said Harry sadly.
"Yes, such a ward scheme exists. No, you had no way to get it in place in time," said Perenelle.
"But," said Hermione.
"You didn't. You would have had to been half way up the mountain. By the time you got to the town it was too late. The snow was already there. I don't even know that array, but I have it in books somewhere," said Adriane.
"If you can't find it, you can check our books. I don't remember it either, beyond knowing it exists. That is an extremely obscure bit of rune work," said Nicholas.
"Did you have any luck in Alexandria?" asked Hermione hopefully.
"Not as much as you it seems, but some. We will talk tomorrow. You are to go to the healers and be checked over. I know you have at least one day medical off, and I tend to bet it will be extended," said Adriane.
"It will. I'll go with them and make sure they are checked thoroughly. That array collapsed when you were drained to the point of passing out, right?" asked Perenelle.
"Yes," said Fleur.
"I'm extending it to a week minimum, regardless what the base healer says," said Perenelle.
Adriane nodded unsurprised.
"Is that really necessary?" asked Hermione.
"Yes, it is. Losing control like you did is bad. That was too much, even for you," said Adriane.
"I'd do it again," said Harry.
"So would we," said Daphne.
"No one is telling you not to do your best, or to forbid you from risking your lives. Of course, if you start taking risks that have no chances of saving anyone, then we will have words. You all know you can't save anyone else, if you die," said Nicholas softly.
"But if you do insist on doing such things, then you have to give your bodies and magic a chance to rest, so you fully recover," said Perenelle.
"Understood," replied Hermione soberly.
After they left Adriane said softly, "They are growing stronger. That should have killed them."
"It is always a gamble when you ask far more of your magic than you have any right to. Sometimes you get lucky. They got lucky, and benefited from it," said Nicholas softly.
"This time," noted Adriane.
"Your not going to change their actions, and if they doubt themselves, the odds of surviving drop to basically zero," said Nicholas.
"I know. We can, however try to get them some backup," added Adriane.
"Penelope Clearwater and Bill Weasley perhaps?" suggested Nicholas.
"Perhaps. Bill was certainly beyond competent. Penelope has an eye for detail, which is important. Her magic is only average, yet you need someone that is not doing crazy stuff, that will be there to help clean up the mess."
"True, though I think you might underestimate her," agreed Nick
"Oh?" asked Adriane curiously.
"She does not have your grasp of theoretical magic, but her analytic mind is very good. Did you by chance read the report she turned in on the suits?"
"I didn't have time."
"Do so. You will likely be surprised. I didn't see anything notable enough to justify more of our time on it, but I did forward a few of her comments to our bosses, if someone else had time."
"I will read it."
Nick nodded.
-=oOo=-
Penelope Clearwater apparated to near the burrow. Ever since her relationship with Percy soured, she had been wary to come back here, but it was time to meet her new teammate.
"Penelope?" asked Mrs. Weasley as she answered the door.
"Is Bill home? I'm going to be working with him and wanted to get started."
"He isn't back yet. I believe Gringotts was quite annoyed when he asked out of his job."
"Oh."
"Would you like to come in and wait for him?"
"If it is no trouble."
"Nonsense, you are always welcome here. I still don't know what was in Percy's mind when he and you broke up."
"He valued his career above, pretty much everything else, including my career."
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't bring up bad memories. I'm working on dinner."
"I suppose I could help for a bit if you wanted."
"Thanks. I only have one daughter, and she has zero interest in the kitchen. Bill would sometimes help, but so far none of the others."
"Well I'm not great in the kitchen, but so far, I haven't starved."
"Come on. Let's get dinner done."
-=oOo=-
Bill walked in half way through dinner to a full table and Penelope sitting at the far end of it.
"I'm sorry. I got swamped. I managed to talk the Goblins down to one weeks extra work, which is thankfully finished now, but they got their money's worth."
"That is no problem. I got a chance to have a bit of fun cooking. I still can't believe what Harry and the others have stumbled upon," said Penelope.
"Sure, but then we need to make it work safely, and that is going to be hard."
"What are you talking about?" asked Fred.
"You can't tell anyone," said Bill.
"Tell anyone what?" asked Arthur.
"Harry and the others have found well possibly found a way to basically apparate their entire ship, except I don't think it is really that," said Bill.
"Cool," both twins said.
"What does that mean?" asked Molly.
"Do you know how apparition is much faster than walking?" asked Bill.
"Of course."
"And port keys are faster than apparation?"
"Well yes. That is why they are better for long distance."
"Did you know that the light we see from the sun travels at a certain velocity?"
"I don't understand."
"The way it was explained to me, was that if light could travel around the surface of the planet it would take about a second to make ten revolutions around the planet."
"Um, okay," said Molly.
"What Harry and his friends stumbled onto, if they can duplicate it, is a means to go faster than that in their ship."
"That's crazy."
"But it is also what they need to seriously explore space," said Penelope.
"Is all this safe?" asked Arthur.
"My previous job wasn't really safe. This one will likely be no worse," said Bill.
"If they weren't working on such things then we would all be dead. I don't think we can just say it is too risky and stop," said Penelope.
"But we stopped that thing years ago, and your new one is much better," said Molly.
"The next one might come much faster, or be something else. If we have space ships, then maybe there are others that have better spaceships," said Bill.
"Your talking nonsense," insisted Molly.
"Another reason to travel in space is to find a new places for humans to live," added Penelope.
"Why would you need a new place?" asked Arthur.
"Have you never seen some of the crowded muggle cities and such? Most people don't have nearly the space to live your family has," said Penelope.
"Really?" asked Arthur in surprise.
"I was only in a big city once. It was a mess," said Bill.
"And you think you can find another place in the sky for people to live?" asked Molly doubtfully.
"Probably not, but we will make steps forward and maybe those that come after us will," said Penelope.
"How can it be possible to go so fast?" asked Arthur.
"We don't know. We know it happened. Now we have to figure out how," said Bill.
"Do they want more help?" asked George.
"You two just barely passed Newts and I don't think you took Arithmancy at all, did you?" asked Bill.
"So we would need an Arithmancy Newt?" asked Fred.
"I've no idea what they want, but if I was wanting someone to help solve such a problem, I'd want one," said Bill.
"We don't honestly have more money for education," said Arthur.
"If they want to study, seriously, I'll teach them when I have time and pay for the testing, but if they are not serious, I'll end it," said Bill.
"I thought you were trying to start a store?" asked Molly.
"We don't have the money for that yet, and Arithmancy would certainly help with that as well," said George.
"Boys, if you two do this, then you will make sure you do enough work that Bill comes out okay," said Arthur.
"We will."