Kneel to Peverell Might: Book 4: The Prisoner

by Lord Anvil

Harry and his friends take pilgrimages, to find 'old magic' and new allies. Meanwhile, many students begin to suspect the game being played, and they take measures. Servants of the Dark Lord return and alliances are forged. Battles are fought, and innovations rapidly advance. Many are deceived. Harry has his pieces and the noose is around their necks - time to start pulling.

8. Chapter 8: Early Preparations

Chapter 8: Early Preparations

Part I: Hand Terminal v1

Albus was surprised when the Hogwarts group of students arrived at 12:30 a.m. He and Minerva were just beginning their patrol and the combined light from fourteen wands helped with identifying the group. Albus and Minerva were able to collect some steaming hot food, as the group broke apart and made their way to their common rooms. Minerva was now looking at everyone, as she had not seen them earlier.

"Oh Albus they look beautiful. Is Tracey Davis wearing…pink?" Minerva asked.

"Her favourite colour. Ms. Greengrass preferred to wear her house colours tonight. I did meet the young man she was betrothed to actually. I also met Ronald's girlfriend," Albus replied.

"So, you attended then. Are they not too young for that, Albus?" Minerva asked.

"Perhaps. But people in our world have been arranged to each other under far more difficult circumstances. Mr. Hari Patil is Padma and Parvati's cousin. He won the Artificing Guild runes competition. Very handsome and strapping young lad. Daphne and the boy are similarly minded, and they like each other very much. I enjoyed looking at them being smitten head over heels for each other." Albus laughed.

"Well…that is a blessing then. And what about Ronald?" Minerva asked.

"His girlfriend is a young potions prodigy. It was she who made the new Werewolf potion. She also taught Ronald. Now his outstanding potions capability is easily explained. A beautiful but fiery young woman. I pray that Ronald does not get her angry too often," Albus smiled.

"How was the celebration?" Minerva asked.

"Very much worth the trip. I enjoyed myself. Sadly, the understanding of foreign cultures has not reached our society yet. The only place to experience such a thing outside Hogwarts is in the muggle world. I was happy to see a lot of hugging and smiling tonight. House colours did not matter," Albus replied.

"Then it was worth their trip. I do love how my lions look. They look splendid all decked out in red and gold," Minerva replied.

As the groups entered their respective common rooms, most of them took turns as they went into the bathroom and apparated to the apartment. The takeaway and sweets went into the apartment refrigerator, as they had brought some items for their friends. In the case of Daphne and Tracey, they were met by Draco, Pansy, Jade Ethro and the usual stooges who were plotting their regular nonsense. For a moment, Pansy observed as Draco almost seemed entranced, as he looked at Daphne. Blaise decided to play the devil's advocate.

"Well somebody was out tonight?" Blaise asked.

"Sure. I suppose you want to know?" Daphne asked, as Draco frowned. He had not forgotten the Triumvirate debate.

"Pretty please?" Blaise asked hopefully. Pansy looked on carefully, and she was quite unpleased that Draco despite his misgivings, was sizing Daphne Greengrass up with his eyes.

"What we call the old ways are still present in many countries. The old ways of India are so old, that there is no distinction between the magical and the non-magical. And mind you, I am making some compromises on how I am framing this argument. The Indians could rightly complain that they do not see themselves the way that I am describing. But I have to put it into terms that you can understand.

Tonight, was Divali. What Magical England would call a feast day. Sacrifices are made to the gods, into the fire. And it is full of food, fireworks, sugary delicacies, and the whole deal. Hence, we acquired some appropriate outfits," Daphne replied.

"So, it is a pureblood celebration?" Blaise asked.

"No. The celebration is so old it predates the Roman Republic. Predates Western magic so that idea doesn't even exist. The non-magical people of India remember when the supernatural lived among then, and they don't discount the idea that the 'supernatural' is quite fine. The majority religion of India which is Hinduism, would be the last active and majority form of paganism on the planet. However, I should warn you once again…Hindus in India do not call themselves Pagan. But we can call it that, as we don't speak their language…" Daphne answered.

"The culture is different, isn't it? I suppose that is what makes different places different. I love the outfits, they are a nice change from the ball gowns and the dresses," Blaise asked.

"Indeed. Here, why don't you dig into a bag of sweets from the place. No, a magical did not make it. Magicals don't make most of the booze and the cigars that people consume in this House anyway. And how can we refuse what has been offered to the old gods tonight, in the fire?" Daphne replied.

Draco and Jade were now frowning. Technically anything that was made for a feast day celebration was to be treated with respect. Blaise seemed rather adventurous, and he decided to outstretch his hand.

"Why not? Why are you in pink Davis? Not that it doesn't look good - the outfit otherwise is very eye-catching," Blaise replied, as Daphne placed a huge bag of sweets from her extendible purse, in Blaise's hand.

"Because I look hot in pink. It is my favourite colour. Do all Slytherins wear green every single time outside of Hogwarts? People stared at my pink and black outfit, all night long!" Tracey replied as she raised her hands in exclamation. Now her huge biceps were in view of the small group. Tracey the gym rat had been revealed.

"Anyway, we are off. Good night, everyone!" Daphne replied as she walked off. She was unusually happy because she and Harry had a cuddle, and nothing could spoil her mood. Pansy wondered what could make Daphne so happy until she realised that Daphne was in love with someone. Pansy felt a sense of envy – whoever she had gotten an offer from had to be charming. He could certainly sweep a girl off her feet, based on the way Daphne looked tonight.

Pansy wondered why Daphne had to get the best of everything. She had taken her Triumvirate position, she was brilliant, she was fit, she had found true love, and she was politically savvy. Pansy was beginning to hate Daphne Greengrass even more, as Draco continued to stare at Daphne.

Pansy certainly liked Draco very much, but obligation was driving the arrangement. Lady Gwendoline Parkinson had explained to Pansy that protection of the 'culture' was a far more important job, and that she had gladly married her husband so that a proper child could be sired. And she was content to let feeble ideas of love and happiness fade away, as sacrifices needed to be made. The Dark Lord would return, and he would reward his faithful.

When the pair of snakes opened the door to their Slytherin room, both snakes could hear Blaise's voice as it echoed.

"I don't care what the rest of you say this stuff is damned delicious! Different too, I like that," Blaise insisted.

"It's made by a muggle!" Draco complained.

"That is almost everything that most people are buying these days. Besides isn't your father a Wizengamot Lord? As long as we have access to the luxuries, but we don't let the muggles and the muggleborns into the system, it might be even better that way. We do need them for the canned food items, remember? Draco, we do not make the food that we eat. Are you up to killing chickens and pigs?" Blaise asked.

Draco became silent and repulsed.

"Perhaps that arrangement can work if they will service our needs. But we should hold the leash as always. Muggles were always meant to serve us," Jade Ethro replied.

"Once they don't interfere with our politics and lifestyle, some things might be allowable. I thought Theo was coming tonight?" Draco asked as he tried to quickly change the subject.

"Theo is hitting those books hard. He says when he is needed for the cause, to call him. Until then, he is going to show others their rightful place," Blaise replied, as he covered for his friend.

"Theo is dependable at least. The world is going to shambles," Draco complained, as Blaise retreated into his head.

"Gotta find meself a bird like that. He is doing all this to impress her. Maybe I want to genuinely love someone too?" Blaise wondered to himself mentally.

---

The next day was fantastic for Seamus, Dean and the others. Neville had brought an entire container of sweets and other small delicacies. Ginny and Astoria had handled the other Gryffindor girls who were their close friends. Surprisingly was Fred and George who brought large boxes of food from the celebration. However, it was sneakily given to Angelina and Katie as they did not want to cause a commotion. The twins had already picked their preferred girls already, and Neville decided he would have a laugh with Ronald, much later.

Meanwhile Ronald after the morning exercise, had spoken to Cedric. Later that evening Cedric would assemble Hufflepuff House to see Priya's recorded performance. Hogwarts was abuzz with activity as the Badgers across all the classes were extra excited. When Pomona had asked why this was the case, suddenly she too could not wait. The conversation had even arrived in the hospital wing and Padma and Parvati immediately became very liked by Hufflepuffs.

"Ms. Pomfrey...how about if you go and admire the performance. We saw her in person, and it is only fair that you get a chance to see her perform too," Padma insisted.

"Dears that is wonderful but…" Madam Pomfrey began before she was cut off.

"We will hold down the fort. Twenty minutes. We know a lot of Aunty Priya's spells and we can fix a lot of the issues , you know what? You are going, end of story." Parvati replied bossily, with a smile on her face.

"Very well both of you, I will go. Truthfully, I am excited to see her perform. Maybe sometime I will visit her performances by attending," Madam Pomfrey replied, as the Hufflepuffs in the infirmary began to whisper.

Ronald departed for his Quidditch practice after lunch. During the afternoon Poults continued to push Charlie, Atticus, Violet and Vaughn as Ronald never missed. His flying became even more fluid as he began to improvise over the dragon flying techniques that he knew. When his practice was done, Poults even went as far as to ask why he looked like a dragon when he flew on his broom. Ronald answered the question with a lopsided grin as he prepared to apparate home – the reality was that two of the oldest and fiercest dragons in the world had taught him to fly the hard way, by tossing him around. Eventually, Ronald arrived much into the twilight hours at Hogwarts, as he made his way out of the common room washroom after changing at his apartment.

---

It was not uncommon for all of the Houses to watch Quidditch broadcasts during the evenings. Most magicals had gotten accustomed to the 'tv in the background' occurrence. Many purebloods had bought the 'flatscreens' and were unaware that the initial innovation was related to muggle television. That was good for Harry and Hermione, as they could control the media if it was necessary.

Some people often used the Hufflepuff common room flatscreen to play multiplayer games. Prefects were given control of the device to avoid undue squabbling. This was a common occurrence across the houses, except for the den of the snakes. Slytherin's flatscreen was purely controlled by Draco, and many people never bothered to fight the ponce for it. They preferred to watch their own business on their data slates. This was one other example of how the Hogwarts culture had changed, but purebloods did not complain as they liked the luxury. Harry had joked that eventually, he would stream David Attenborough animal documentaries to upset Draco, during the war. It was Draco's frequent hogging of the Slytherin TV that had caused Hermione to consider illusion based displays for everyone.

Cedric set up everything, as the Hufflepuffs waited with anxious baited silence. Then he instructed:

"Puffs, I would suggest that we save the standing ovation for our fellow Hufflepuff after she is finished. I don't think we are going to appreciate anything if we are screaming and shouting," Cedric insisted.

"A fair point. Surely the rest of you didn't think I would miss out on one of my favourite students?" Professor Sprout replied, as she entered the Hufflepuff common room with Madam Pomfrey in tow.

"Surely not. I want to believe the hospital wing is also covered?" Cedric asked Madam Pomfrey, softly.

"Indeed. The Patil sisters forced me to come and see her. They had attended the performance yesterday night, and they insisted I deserved to see her perform. I am glad they were rather firm about the issue," Madam Pomfrey beamed. While the reply had been muted, everyone had heard the healer. There was whispering, as the Hufflepuffs decided that the Patil sisters were an alright bunch.

As Professor Sprout and Madam Pomfrey seated themselves on a couch, the Hufflepuffs stayed dead silent as the camera zoomed on Priya Singh. The short bio that followed introduced her mundane education. For many that was a surprise. Most of them were shocked to find out that Priya Singh was a fully qualified Primary School teacher.

Then the classical piece of South Indian music started, as she assumed a stance for her invocation.

Her jewellery glinted and she began to dance the night away. Students were confused as the phonetic sounds of the drum were openly recited. However, after some small amounts of whispering, some of the Hufflepuffs had figured it out.

Priya had chosen a rhythmic and a fast piece. She had learnt much during the holidays. She had continued to take classes on the weekends in India, as the transporter had made that possible. The song she had chosen allowed for a lot of energetic extensions, stretches and acrobatic jumps. Priya's magic had settled, and it was used to smooth out her movements. She was bewitching and as the speed increased, her movements remained precise and controlled. Her hands and red-tipped fingers fanned out in any of the specific mudras, which were expressions that had both religious and theatrical significance. Even her eyes and facial expressions remained complex as her body engaged in the lighting fast pirouettes or chakkars. As the Mridangam thundered, Priya also seemed able to make huge steps from one place to another, as her feet arched between the toes and heels. She stooped, became straight as a needle, extended and bent in combinations that boggled the mind. And all she managed while, she matched the complex rhythms on her feet. She was sturdy and as her devotion overtook her face, she seemed angelic and divine. She had given herself over to the art form and there was no ego – only a sense of humility as she cherished every moment of the event, without being attached to it in a possessive manner.

And yet there was no outward physical struggle.

Rather, Priya seemed to be in her own little world as she utilized the entire stage. The mostly yellow outfit also earned the approval of the puffs as they stared at the woman. Many people wondered how a person could have such an expressive face, and to glide almost like a ghost. Most of the adolescent boys were awestruck, as Priya's perfectly done makeup and her jewellery made her look like royalty from a far off place.

Priya easily had on more gold than the entire of Narcissa's Malfoy's jewellery collection.

As the item came to an end, there was a standing ovation at Hufflepuff was filled with hooting, cheering and yelling. Hufflepuff was not necessarily the house of the average. Ronald smiled as made small recordings of the noise from the Hufflepuff room and sent it to Priya's terminal. As the Hufflepuff students left the common room all buzzing from what they had seen, Ronald was approached by many who wanted to hear his first-hand account of what he had seen. Those in Hufflepuff who had seen him leaving the Hufflepuff common the day before, sat around as Ronald shared the results of his casual reading and experiences. He had to launch into a casual explanation of the World religions, and his occasional travels to India and other places. He also mentioned some of the misconceptions about both non-magicals and magicals in foreign nations. He discussed his exposure to verbal, non-verbal and non-wanded magic as that was a pretty common thing in places like Africa, India and China.

"Wandless magic is common elsewhere?" Cedric asked.

"Sure, but it is not easy to summon. It is very difficult. I see the value of a wand, as it helps us focus magic far more easily. However, if you get dependent, your body adapts to its presence and you won't be able to summon wandless magic, not without great effort," Ronald replied.

"Is that the purpose of the exercises you gave me with the snitch? To let me use wandless magic to track it?" Cedric asked.

"Sure. I was going to get to that explanation eventually, but I have been focusing on getting the younger students to stun correctly. The informal Defence club is so large that we are reorganising things. By the way, Poults is quite aware of wandless magic during Quidditch. I use a little of that to track the Quaffle. Victor Krum does it all the time, but I think it is an unconscious effort. Charlie is learning to do it deliberately, and he is improving," Ronald replied.

"How can you do wandless magic? I remember you picked up your wand in the duel with Malfoy?" Cedric asked.

"Start by lifting a small piece of paper. Forget about the words and focus on the feeling. And yes, you also need to do breakneck exercise to manifest your wandless magic. You also need to stop eating most of the Hogwarts crap. The food is delicious, but that won't help you to build muscle mass. My size isn't a lucky coincidence. It is a lot of hard work. You need at least three hours of wandless practice every day for at least two years, and you will see results," Ronald explained.

"Three hours a day? Do you do that by yourself? You are a madman!" Ernie replied, as he looked at Susan.

The group of investigators understood the finer implications. Ronald had been trained by the Storm-Lord, in such a manner. Ronald had not noticed the implied meaning, but his admission meant that he had started his training in year one. And then he had produced the feat he had demonstrated at Christmas with Draco, last year. Ronald paid the detail no mind, as he casually talked about other topics. Most of the other Hufflepuffs left and only the group that was investigating the Storm-Lord was now present. Hannah and Susan wanted to know about what he had eaten, while he travelled around the world.

Ronald also fetched his old data slate as he shared pictures. He even explained that if a recipe caught his fancy, he would ask for it. Then he would have a recipe lab day. Depending on public interest, the kitchen would offer it. This allowed them to also keep items on rotation, and that allowed the menu to stay interesting. As Ronald laughed with everyone, Susan noticed the clear acrylic Hand Terminal, as it became active. It was peeking out of his backpack, and Susan pretended to reach for some papers as she slipped her hand and tilted the device. Ronald was facing Cedric anyway, with his back turned to her.

What she saw surprised her, and it cemented many of their suspicions.

Susan saw a picture of 'Mione' and Ronald as they seemed to share a cuddle and a polite peck on the cheek. The runes on the girl's arm and the area right under her eyes did not go unnoticed. And that was along with the illusionary floating writing, and the glowing specks of magic as it flared in the mostly translucent object. Susan immediately matched the item to the shadowy object that was releasing in a couple days time. She carefully reorganised her Transfiguration assignment and pretended not to see anything at all.

"All right, I think we had enough fun tonight. As always Ronald, thanks for sharing your insights. They are always interesting. You are not a man of culture. You are a man of various cultures!" Cedric joked.

"Thank you. I am going to the library to get something sorted out," Ronald replied.

"Gosh, I wish we could see her perform for real. She is so graceful and beautiful, like I don't even understand how that is even possible. And to think she is such a great Healer. Is she nice?" Hannah asked, as she looked at the woman on the Hufflepuff wall of fame.

"The sweetest person you will meet. But that is a story for another time. This was wonderful, we must do this more often," Ronald replied, as he stood up and collected his backpack. He then left the Hufflepuff common room.

---

Two hours later, Susan was scribbling as she explained the other piece of information that was impossible for Hannah, Ernie, and Justin to believe. Cedric had charmed a sheet of parchment to mirror whatever was written among himself and the four Hufflepuffs.

Hannah: "The Rune-Priestess is Ronald's girlfriend?"

Susan: "Yes! I saw her picture. Ronald has the new item that the Guild is already releasing. She was calling him!"

Ernie: "What does she look like?"

Susan: "Like a very witchy…witch. She has runes tattooed all over her arms and under her eyes. I thought she was a model. She is gorgeous! She has some blue streaks in her hair. She is full of muscles too?"

Justin: "What does the new tablet look like?"

Susan: "It looks like a piece of glass. The glass can show things that resemble the roof in the Great Hall. The writing just floats in mid-air! The glass glows in many colours, like there is some kind of special web inside it. It makes the data slate look ugly."

Justin: "Maybe they made a fancy one for release this year. Does the writing look like the stuff inside the helmet?"

Susan: "Exactly like that. But way better. More solid and….vibrant."

Cedric: "Are you sure it was her?"

Susan: "Yes. I saw the name 'Mione' with some hearts. The picture too has her kissing and hugging Ronald. They look just too…..perfect. That picture could make most of the girls in Hogwarts cry long tears."

Ernie: "So that is why his face is so smug. I wish the rest of us had seen her. Wait…maybe Cedric can help you draw the memory out? Then we could all see what she looks like, for the hols?"

Justin: "We are so doing that. I really want to see who this person is. Ronald is just winning at life. I do want to see how this pensieve thing works too!"

The night ended with the Hufflepuff investigators acquiring another piece of information. Their Ronald was dating the Rune-Priestess. Susan and Hannah giggled, as they considered that none of the girls in Hogwarts were going to surpass her. All of the year six and seven girls who were planning to ask him out to Hogsmeade were not going to get a single chance.

---

The same morning of the Divali aftermath, far different things were happening at Peverell Manor.

Hermione walked into Harry wrenching on room sized structure. He was making some final adjustments to a holographic panel. Hermione realised what she was looking at, as she had a gander at the item. The new reactor was approximately the size of a large twenty thousand litre water tank. It was certainly impressive, as it almost touched the roof. Still, she considered the design to be much smaller than expected. After Harry had input the parameters and generated the structures, even he was surprised with the solution that was displayed via the holographic projector, last night. Now the drones were finished, and Harry was looking at Hermione with his trademark cheshire cat grin.

"Ah, I was about to start it up. What do you think?" Harry asked.

"It looks like a giant heart mixed with an embryo and a Dyson vacuum cleaner. But I can see that the thing is very symmetrical across many different places. Also looks kind of turbine-ish. You had a productive night then?" Hermione asked.

"Technically, a productive day. I started at the wee hour of one o clock, this morning, and loaded up on the caffeine. Had a chat with my diminutive atomic friend, and I discovered a titanic piece of magical lore." Harry replied.

"Where did the inspiration come from?" Hermione asked.

"From Fred and George's fireworks. Something about how they bounced put me to think. Then I realised that the fusion reactions were bouncing around as if a third particle was hitting them. I literally simulated them with bloody marbles," Harry replied.

"The frisbee sized FiendFyre reactor easily runs the Thunderbolt and often has spare energy to run the rail cannon. How big is this thing?" Hermione asked.

"Eyeball measurements are like…approximately two Remuses tall and…"

Hermione laughed. Remus could be a unit of measurement.

"….the fusion area is roughly about fifty times bigger than the previous Thunderbolt reactor. It is supposed to be at least fifty times the power rating of the previous design. I can't say if the efficiency scales in a linear manner by the way. It is all guesstimates?" Harry wondered.

"What about the safety? I think you learnt your lesson the last time?" Hermione asked.

"The algorithm designed the safety features into the thing. The reaction is occurring at thirty thousand degrees. A little hotter than a plasma torch. The swords run at the same temperature, honestly. The actual fission reaction can happen at room temperature, it's the secondary FiendFyre reaction that runs hot," Harry replied.

"Well, let her rip then?" Hermione replied as Harry started the reactor.

"Sure, But I haven't told you the biggest secret. If this thing works, then I can tell you if my hypothesis is correct. Let me have some fun?" Harry suggested.

"Fine, fine. Go ahead. I want to see how many kilowatts we are getting per second," Hermione replied.

As the reactor powered on, the biologically optimised polymer vessels began to pump small amounts of atmospherically scavenged water. The liquid travelled then into a secondary reaction chamber via pumps. The pumps were very special - they were designed to mimic the construction of the human heart. As the lung-like electrolysis membranes received the water they converted it into hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen was exhausted as waste material, and the hydrogen was held between two Protego force fields.

In another part of the reactor, super heavy protons were created from a small pilot FiendFyre reaction, and they separated and crashed into a lithium matrix. The emitted pions then decomposed into muons, and they were guided into a magically superconducting field. Simultaneously, Harry's new mystery particle was injected into the stream of muon particles. The positive muons were siphoned away, and the negative muons were shot across the same force field that held the Hydrogen from the electrolysis cell. The electrons were kicked out of the orbits of the Hydrogen atoms, as the muons took their place. Then the particles were not allowed to react with each other as they were guided into the main reactor chamber. The muons were essentially subatomic particles that were almost two hundred times heavier than an electron. Now these particles which would normally decompose, were being sustained by magic. The distance between the modified hydrogen atoms would decrease by two hundred times - Fusion reactions could be facilitated far more easily.

The main reaction chamber was designed with many sweeping vortex-like structures. As the modified hydrogen sped down the sweeping curves, the particles eventually became close enough to sustain fusion.

There was a dull glow, as inside the Protego containment field, the entire reactor glowed like a small sun.

The polarization of the electromagnetic bubble field kicked in, as it dimmed to block all of the harmful radiation. There was not a scrap of radioactive radiation that Harry could detect on his Geiger counter. This safety feature was an adaptation of the stealth system, that had been repurposed in an entirely different way by the adaptive algorithm.

There were some differences between a standard fusion reactor and Harry's design. The helium waste from the fusion reaction was further decomposed into electrons, nuclei and a combination of subatomic soup. This was accomplished by a new arithmetically modified Fiendfyre reaction. This reaction co-existed alongside the primary fusion reaction, and the heat also encouraged the hydrogen atoms to become far more active.

The magical charge particles that were 'produced' were conducted across a new solid state magical power diode. This acted like a magical version of an electron sink. It automatically drained the magical charge and directed it into a circuit. If enough magical power was not being consumed, the power of the reactor self-stabilised. High power direct current was also available as the electrons from the FiendFyre reaction were conducted away to various mercury based power diodes.

The other remaining charged particles from the secondary Fiendfyre reaction were repurposed. Now Harry had free exhaust mass, that served the dual purpose of preventing overheating. The algorithm had designed the exhaust pathways in a manner where they circulated around the inner walls of the reactor in a vortex, to provide isolation. With the further injection of the mystery particles into the FiendFyre decomposition, there was enough mass from the super heavy subatomic soup to provide a ridiculous amount of propulsion. Finally, there was a Bose-Einstein condensate coolant and a water cooling jacket, that could be started when the reactor became too hot. The condensate could be freely ejected, but the hot water could easily be repurposed to do any number of useful things.

Many of the systems that had been evolved by the algorithm were synergistic with each other, as the reactor's construction very much resembled a living creature. As the reaction stabilized, Harry hugged Hermione and jumped for the sky.

The heart of the M.E.F Lilly Potter was now possible.

Hermione was now anxious to hear what was the big secret that Harry had been holding on to, but other questions plagued her mind. She decided to ask, in any case.

"Okay…I have questions. Some things don't make sense. Happy that it works though. The power readings are….can we even use that amount of magical and electric power? A combined thirty one megajoules per second is….." Hermione asked.

"Approximately 2.7 Terawatts of energy per day. We will find something impossible to do, with all of this power. That is the end of fossil fuels for the planet when the bloody war is over. But ask away at the real question?" Harry insisted.

"We are using a fraction of the gas that we use for the Fiendfyre decomposition reaction. What is making this thing so efficient?" Hermione asked.

"Are you familiar with Quantum foam?" Harry asked.

"Remotely. It states that at the quantum level, matter and antimatter particles are constantly created and destroyed. Which means…..oh crap….." Hermione replied.

"Exactly. I think magic must be related to vacuum energy. So, what did I do? Well, I can manipulate a new particle called a stabillion. And it…" Harry explained, as Hermione promptly cut him across.

"The stabillion? Have we graduated to ridiculous names then?" Hermione asked, with a small smile on her face.

"Yes? Anyway, the stabillion is a weird type of quark that can stabilize super heavy particles. Normally these heavy particles would decompose rather quickly. The stabillion may not even be a particle it could be a fundamental force too. I have no idea, but my brain visualises it like a particle because that is as much as I can abstract," Harry explained.

"Right, I am following for now. But how is this related to actually getting all of this magical energy from what seems to be vacuum energy?"

"The magical energy that we use exists everywhere in the universe. However, for it to interact with physical matter, we have to trade some our physical matter into the Quantum foam. The stabillion particle actually carries our normal matter, as a hand-off. Then the quantum foam takes the magical voodoo particle from God knows where, and pops it into our existence. The Fiendfyre reaction does this coincidentally," Harry explained.

"Did you say the magical voodoo particle?" Hermione asked, with genuine curiosity in her voice.

"This is like sacrificing some kind of goat to Satan. Really feels like that. I have never really seen atomic particles. They are all waves, but I have no idea what one would like. Photons don't get that small. So, I have to use images of particles as a mental abstraction. The magical particle thing is smaller than a quark. So small that it looks like sand even at the subatomic level, when I use my house magic. Quarks have subcomponents." Harry explained.

"And now, we have more questions. Gah, it feels like we are barbarians," Hermione laughed.

"I told you about this since the null-box days. Feels like we are having a go at being a bunch of clowns. We are just like the magicals in England, we don't know how magic works. I even tried looking at my own cells and saw that some of magical mitochondria do the same thing as the reactor, and I can't see the biological difference between those cells and non-magical ones" Harry replied.

"So how did our generators work?" Hermione asked.

"Stabillions can probably be produced by biological processes. So, we sacrifice some sub-quark particles within the bodies of plants, animals and humans to the Quantum voodoo thing, and the magical particles that accumulate hang around either in our magi-chlorians or in the environment."

"So now we are using some of the magic in the environment to start a series of reactions that allow us to trade in many more, heavier particles into the Quantum foam. And then we are getting heat, free electrons and exhaust mass. I wonder how these particle ties into the Yggdrasil…." Hermione asked.

"We trade some type of physical matter to the God of Voodoo to get magic to work in those areas? We might have to take the readings." Harry suggested.

"Maybe the Yggdrasil has some weird type of energy orparticle that can…..are you thinking what I am thinking?" Hermione asked.

"I am. You are taking me on a trip, right now!" Harry replied, as Hermione apparated both of them to Granger Manor.

Hermione entered a small room with Harry and locked the door. Then, both of them got seated. Then Hermione fell into her trance with Harry connected to her mind, and they began to quest the world tree, locally. As their disembodied essences explored the network, Harry could see the trillions of stabillions that were part of the Yggdrasil. Both of them exited the trance.

"Can we visit the big chungus again? You can drive?" Harry asked.

"Let us get Grace?" Hermione suggested.

"How does Grace completely become energy and travel the stars? I mean we leave our bodies here. She just goes?" Harry wondered.

"Harry? One question at a time please?" Hermione replied.

As soon as Grace arrived and the plan was explained, she decided to stay inside of the mind link instead of going herself. She claimed that her physical body would act as an anchor point – it was something that Anala had discussed with her. As the three of them began to leave the solar system, Lilly's alarms went off.

"They are passing through again. But…oh….that is much better," Lilly replied in relief.

"Where are they going?" James asked.

"Sagittarius A. But Hermione is driving. Grace's body is on earth. They will be pretty safe. Harry won't get lost this time. They left a faint magical trail that they can follow back," Lilly explained.

"How about if we give them a different pathway. We can guide them. Let them take a more scenic route. Somewhere deserted because Hermione has forgotten what buzzed her the last time?" Invictus suggested.

"No Alien magicals. Right. How about a zig-zag? Yeah, that will do. Actually, why are they taking the trip? I will keep an eye out," Lilly replied.

Lilly observed as Hermione quickly found her way around the alternate path. When they arrived far outside the accretion disk of the black hole, Lilly listened to the conversation. She was utterly surprised at what they had discovered.

"Well….shit. So the magical blackhole produces stabillions by the…..I have no idea how much. But it is enough to pump them throughout the galaxy. And that allows the exchange of sub-quark particles against the magical particles in the Quantum foam. That is wild. The doom-hole of the galaxy is the source of magic," Harry explained to Hermione.

"Doom-hole. I like that one!" Grace replied.

"So, with a stabillion projector, a person could stabilize magic then. Somehow Titanium and its several alloys can absorb this particle. Stabillions might be a part of spells. Any chance your cyclonic shields knock those away?" Hermione asked.

"I will have to re-examine that. I optimised the shields only with the knowledge of only subatomic particles, at the time. Could a stabillion snubber provide magical shielding, if integrated into our siphon generators?" Harry wondered.

"More experiments now?" Hermione suggested.

"This is depressing. Like, I might have to re-examine everything from the first set of things we have ever built, onwards. Don't even ask how the nervous system and the brain does all the magical stuff?" Harry wondered.

"The Eastern cultures talk about consciousness and energy being interchangeable. I used to scoff at that kind of thing. I might have to change my mind. Ah crud. Nothing is simple, eh. We can include this new information in the algorithm. Prioritise the production and exchange of stabillions? And then we iterate everything again?" Hermione commented.

"What are we going to do with the old reactor? I am attached to that thing I just made!" Harry asked.

"I have an idea. We give our friends our old stuff, for Christmas. And we make a donation to Hogwarts? A big energy shield?" Hermione suggested.

"A castle sized force field? You have my attention! And we are putting the cyclonic shields in too! I think we need more than just a reactor. Hogwarts needs a new subsystem to distribute the magical power and we need control of the castle. Might be time to deploy a whole ecosystem of drones and let them build what we need inside the walls. Then we can crack the walls and get junction panels when it becomes necessary. We can get emitters in the doors too. Then we get Alistair jacked in?" Harry suggested.

"We can also look at taking connections from the tunnels where we built the internal hover kart system, also. Why don't we stop by and speak to Hogwarts. Tell her what we plan to do?" Hermione suggested.

"We haven't been to the castle a couple of months well. It is quite beautiful out here. Could we technically stop short on another trip and go planet gazing?" Harry asked.

"Maybe? But I don't want to go off the beaten path yet. Come on let's get back," Hermione replied, as she considered the possibility of Harry meeting alien life. Hermione took exactly the same path back, and she soon arrived in her room with Harry and Grace staring at her.

"No time dilation. Good. That was much better than the last time," Harry laughed as he got up and stretched.

"It was, because I was the driver. Let us go and get busy. Christmas is coming soon, and we can give away our failed prototypes," Hermione insisted.

"The exhaust products from the reactor are so heavy that we could probably make it to the moon purely on subatomic thrust, even if we don't get the gravity equation figured out. I think it is time for the new Thunderbolt-III series – they could take all the new upgrades?" Harry asked.

"Harry, at the rate which we are going at, we will run out of gold soon. We won't have enough to build another fleet of Thunderbolts. Maybe we need to purchase some more gold from the Goblins? I mean we could use plastic and just coat the structural parts in Auramite to save on resources?"

"We will have to take a look at that," Harry replied, as the group prepared to return to the workshop and iterate new designs for everything, which would include stabillion injectors.

---

It was the 6th of November.

Sirius and Priya had a small combined birthday party, since Divali had occurred much earlier, this year. This year, the event had occurred at Black Manor. It had been rebuilt on the Peverell Land and the ward stone had been recently reinstalled. The building technically was not a Manor – rather it was a modern high-rise building. However, the word 'Manor' was often used in the magical world, so it was useful to describe it as such, to others.

Black Manor was littered with Luna's paintings, and lots of pictures that were just reflections of happy times with everyone. The internal design was very spartan and was filled with a lot of open spaces. They were illuminated by sunlight because of the many glass windows. Black Manor was the polar opposite of its predecessor, as everything was clean, and airy. The house was also filled with a lot of modern designer furniture, along with selected Indian pieces of craftsmanship - Priya had a hand in picking those pieces. There were traditional Black colours present, but there were Gryffindor and Hufflepuff accents throughout the building.

The best part of Black Manor was that one of Walburga Black's many picture frames was on display in the main kitchen.

Her portrait had been completely disconnected from any external locations. However, there was a network of portraits that resided in certain places in Black manor. Walburga had realised that Sirius had left these as a form of eternal punishment, as she was already muted. To her, Sirius' punishment seemed almost cruel in a sadistic way. For the past two years, she could hear what was being discussed, but could offer no reply.

The facsimile of the woman often found herself confused. The building was commissioned almost two and a half years ago. She could remember being modified by some Frenchwoman and being brought to an incomplete house. As the time went by the manor was completed, and Walburga had to wonder about the Black finances.

They had to be doing quite well.

Eventually, she was able to observe the gym sessions and was surprised at the muscle mass that her son possessed. He also practised against many mannequins, and Walburga had never seen such deadly fighting with the body. Then was the new thing called a 'shooting range', where Sirius practiced to blow heads off with some long strange pointy object that could cast spells much more effectively than a wand. She eventually found out that the item was called an SMG.

Kreacher revealed himself, eventually. He was much different. He looked almost like a dwarf, with pixie-like features. He was completely loyal to Sirius, and they often had a drink and discussed matters relating to House Black. Walburga was surprised when Kreacher would suggest brilliant things, and Sirius would bounce around ideas with him. There was a certain type of respect between both of them, that implied that they had buried the hatchet a long time ago. Kreacher would often look at her portrait with amusement and sadness.

She had been discarded.

She eventually realised that her son had claimed the Black magic. One odd day she could remember as Sirius stood before her and displayed the Obsidian. Then he summoned the house magic, and then the portrait understood the drawings that dominated most of the walls. The nine headed snake towered over everything in the room. Even she as a portrait could sense the purity of the construct. The Black totem was nothing like this. Not even Arcturus had summoned such power in his day. Then, there was the mysterious boy and girl who sometimes stopped by. She could tell they were absolutely powerful. Wandless magic was a passing casual thing for them. They never dwelled for too long, and they didn't seem to care about her portrait.

Finally, was the brown skinned beautiful woman who was Sirius' betrothed. Some days she used one of the biggest halls in the manor as she practised some type of ancient dance, with a type of discipline that was ridiculously intense. She looked intricate and sophisticated, as she moved with a grace that Walburga had never seen. She often wondered if the woman was a foreign pureblood. Eventually, she was able to figure out that the woman was Muggleborn, and that confused her. The woman's body casually hummed with magic. There were also small feats of wandless magic that were not as pronounced as the children. However, wandless magic at even her age was still unheard of – how could a Muggleborn be that powerful? Perhaps she had great magical ancestry and the details had been lost to time.

She also heard many references to Harry and Hermione and figured they were the adopted children. The other snippets of past discussions included the two hundred million galleons that Sirius had made. There were also small handheld devices that seemed like some type of parchment artefact. She often wondered if this item was being sold.

There were discussions about I.C.W missions. Apparently, Sirius was a Hit-Auror, and he had gotten international acclaim. Walburga was not sure how to feel about this – Sirius was powerful and accomplished but it was unlikely that he was advancing the interest of purebloods. She was also able to figure out that the woman called 'Pri' was a prodigious magical healer, who had created at least a hundred new spells. Walburga began to like the girl very much, as she reasoned that at least any grandchildren of hers would be powerful magicals.

Perhaps the girl was ambitious and talented. She was damned beautiful for sure.

Other conversations involved Lucius Malfoy, who was being bullied like a child. It seemed that Sirius knew exactly what other houses were discussing. Even their movements and preferences were known. Albus Dumbledore became an opponent, and this confused Walburga even more. The Blacks of her day had depended on spies in their day to collect information. Walburga wondered if the items that he sold were part of some nefarious plans. He often talked about "data slate surveillance" and that seemed a little too ominous.

About five months ago, there was about old magic. That was a discussion where even Walburga learnt something new, and yet it infuriated her. It suggested that English magical culture was relatively new, and there were older practices elsewhere. As of recently, everyone was departing for the holidays to undertake a pilgrimage. She had wondered what would happen.

When they had returned, there was a noticeable difference. Remus the childhood Gryffindor friend, somehow became a man who could change into his werewolf form consciously. Then a new whip-like weapon was unveiled, and Walburga observed as Sirius openly practiced cutting wand wielding dummy enemies into bloody ribbons. His movements were like a cobra. Sirius also practised grapples and holds and continued to fight with a combination of wand-based, wandless and hand to hand combat.

Today, there was a huge dinner and Walburga had seen many new faces. She had given up on shouting, as she silently observed everything. Walburga saw the beginnings of an absolutely powerful political block, as she recognised the Greengrass and Davis family. There were also the Weasleys who were doing well, and the Longbottoms who had somehow been cured by 'Pri'. Finally were the Lovegoods, and even some….muggles? As the dinner ended, Walburga still did not have enough information. She looked at the boy and girl as they walked off to another positively huge Manor next door, and wondered if there might be a portrait in that building.

She decided to take a risk.

As she stepped across, she found herself inside the portrait of another painting. However, she could tell that this portrait was quite different. There were many tools, and there was the distinct feeling that she was being hosted out of politeness. Several iron-like safeguards had been built, to prevent her from interfering with anything. She also felt small – the portrait had this massive magical presence and he towered over her like an adult towering a child. His mind felt ridiculously complex. He could not be anything but normal. Even the environment set against the background of the stars and the robes worn by the man were something else.

"Fascinating. Walburga Black. The portrait of the crazed woman herself," Invictus replied.

"And who are you?" Walburga Black asked very carefully.

"Master Artificer Invictus Marius Helvius Peverell the 2nd." Invictus answered, casually.

"Master Artificer?" Walburga Black asked, in total confusion.

"Indeed. I heard the old Blacks love lineage. Sirius isn't like that, but if it wasn't for our lineage, even the founders of Hogwarts would not have wands. It was our line who made them, and brought wandmaking to this nation."

Walburga was quiet, as she looked at the old, greyed man.

"It was I who contributed the majority funding to Gringotts to help them to get started. It was us who thought the Ollivander family the secrets of wand lore. It is my ancestor Glaucon who forged the Death Stick. You might want to be very careful about what you say to me," Invictus replied.

"There is no need to be hostile. I merely want to know what has happened?" Walburga asked.

Invictus spent the rest of the evening as he explained that everything she had ever loved was on its way to total doom. She had no escape, and she would be made to feel oppression. Invictus did not explain anything in detail that would compromise anyone. Rather he replayed the battle footage and merely gave the woman glimpses of the powerful artefacts that were being built. The three dragons were a nightmare, and Walburga stayed well into the night and observed as Harry and Hermione as they practiced against the dummies, with lightning-fast apparitions. She even noted the water and the lightning attacks.

Walburga started with her drivel about the Dark Lord returning and Invictus gave a pitiful laugh.

"We know how he did it. And we already eliminated some of the precautions. He doesn't even know. Too bad he has no privacy, ha!"

Then Walburga had to watch how the Dark Lord was tracked. The confrontation in the forbidden forest in year one, terrified the woman. Then the Dark Lord was bested and made to flee like a child. The weapons that she had seen were inconceivable to her. Yet they made sense in a strange but sensible manner. When Walburga suggested that Sirius didn't have the stomach to do anything unpleasant but give empty threats, she was surprised to see that her son had taken part in two bloodbaths already. And his style of fighting was so brutal, that it even instilled fear into her. He had killed by the droves, already. The Diagon Alley camera footage was put on display.

So many pureblood families snuffed out, as retribution. Walburga wasn't even sure what to say now.

"Oh you poor woman. Sirius has truly become the best Lord Black to exist. Everything you love will be burnt down. House Black bows to no one. Hose Peverell is the mightiest of the Artificers. House Granger, descendant of Morgana represents the arcanum in full."

"It is a trick! It has to be a trick! This, it cannot be true!" Walburga insisted.

"Next mission deployment, I am going to fetch you and let you see a remote feed. Good for you to see how we plan to exterminate your best friends. Although we have already done some of that," Invictus laughed as he taunted the woman.

"My lineage comes from the Roman Republic, long before it became the Roman Empire. And my darling Priya? Oh, her people predate that by many millennia. It is you who are qualified to be the small timer. I know you would willingly support the wanker when he comes back. But not to worry, we will have a battleship the size of Hogwarts, waiting for him. We will drown them in fucking plasma bombardment" Invictus threatened the woman before she became terrified.

Walburga arrived back to her portrait and sat as a broken woman. She had seen enough of the Thunderbolts and the other impossible things that were being built. The issue was that Harry Potter and Hermione were mudbloods, and yet their magical power and genius outstripped everyone. And to see Sirius kill without hesitation? Sirius had become absolutely ruthless when he decided to fight. The Black magic came to him naturally, and it was powerful. She often remembered what she drilled into Sirius, and now she realised that it would be to the demise of many of the purebloods.

"Power is power," had been turned against her and her generation.

---

The first Quidditch Match of the season was around the corner. There was much excitement, as Atticus believed he had a good chance of taking the Quidditch cup. Tracey Davis was not as skilled as Charlie Weasley but she would hold off Ginny, easily. He also knew that Ginny and Tracey were pretty good friends, and he expected a clean but competitive game. Atticus also had access to Poults' methodologies, and team Slytherin had been trained in a brutal manner. Ronald's workout program had become widely adopted, and the Slytherin Quidditch team had seen noticeable bodily changes.

However, Violet wasn't taking anything, lying down. She was the new Ravenclaw captain, and she had always been soft-spoken and bookish. That was until Poults had made her rowdy. A girl called Cho Chang had been the previous seeker, but she had been replaced. Violet found the girl to be too doe-eyed, as she seemed more interested in admiring Cedric. Ravenclaw was now fielding Su Li, who was far more talented than Cho. She was also very petite and light, and Violet had made the same adjustments that Poults had done for her. She had a lot of top speed.

Violet was planning to have Su Li keep the snitch off Cedric, and she would score the majority of the goals. Hogwarts had a technicality where a match could not surpass two hours if the snitch had not been caught. In this manner, Violet planned to win the match by attrition if necessary. But how was she going to get past Ronald? He could already block her shots, easily.

She was going to have the beaters hammer only Ronald, to keep him off task. And the Bludgers would only be released when the Quaffle was on the way to the goalpost.

Violet didn't expect her exploit to consistently work. She assumed that she would get maybe about two goals in, before Ronald adapted to the situation. It would be up to her newly developed plays to assist Twigs with denying the Hufflepuff chasers.

Violet and Atticus were dating, and both often laughed about the upcoming match. Violet insisted that she could win, as long as everyone played their part. Atticus accused his girlfriend of being ambitious, and Violet hoped that 'Wood' would surprise Atticus, and remind him of his place. Oliver had been getting advice from Charlie, and Atticus had suspected that Ginny had been pushing herself, and keeping her true abilities hidden. That was how Charlie had caught them off guard, the last time. There was also no rule that prevented Ginny and Astoria from modifying their brooms. Everyone understood that the girls could tinker with their sporting gear if necessary.

---

While the banter continued around the castle, everyone was on edge. Tomorrow was the 12th of November, and the mystery Guild item was being unveiled. Albus considered cancelling class when he was alerted by Hagrid - a certain Lorna Findlay had arrived. As Albus hanged up after receiving Hagrid's call, he waited patiently.

Albus was surprised when the former Hogwarts student showed up in his office. He was quite aware that the woman carried a lot of power. The Findlay & Tonks Retainer Group had expanded their operations and now had an international battery of twenty retainers. They had never lost a case. More fascinating, was that they never undertook legal representation for random clients. Rather, they always seemed to show up, where an oppressive case of the law could be trounced. Pureblood bigots worldwide, understood that the law firm never replied to people who they found suspicious. Albus considered that Andromeda Tonks was definitely working to deliver Lord Aurelian Black's vendetta.

Luna had designed a modern looking lawyer's suit that incorporated green and silver tartan as the main choice of cloth. There was also a mixture of green acromantula silk, a brilliant white blouse and other jewellery that hinted at Highland aesthetics. Lorna looked modern and chic. Under the stylish clothes were all of the common optimisations that could be made to the thread, that was no different to Priya's outfit. Madam Mankin now offered a non-protective high quality acromantula cloth for fashion designers and locals, while the H.E. Alloy thread was used only for Harry and his family. Albus could tell that the cloth was enchanted heavily to protect her, but he reasoned that people were after her.

"Retainer Findlay, a pleasure. I can distantly remember your face. But your hair? I remember it clearly like yesterday. Slytherin, wasn't it?" Albus asked.

"You can call me Lorna if you wish. I still think about you as the Headmaster I suppose. Today I am not here on retainer business, in any case." Lorna replied.

"Ah. What is the manner of business, then?" Albus asked kindly.

"Before I had managed to complete my Retainer course of study, I lived in the muggle world. Actually, I have always lived there, as I am muggleborn. I left Hogwarts and I could not get a magical job. I had to start over and retake muggle secondary schooling. But I am a Slytherin after all. I managed to get by via networking. I used to do small hustles, if you want to call it that," Lorna explained.

"I am sorry to hear that. The system does need reform. I try my best, but my hands are often tied," Albus replied sadly. He continued to listen to the story, as he was curious as to where the narration was going.

"I know, I know. Anyway, I have a company called Findlay Logistics. What we do is offer people efficient ways to get things done. A side business. I was contracted by an enigmatic party to offer a possible solution to a problem. Eventually, it happened to be the Artificing Guild, and the issue was the Hogwarts ruckus for the release of the new Hand Terminal," Lorna replied.

"Ah. I was merely debating the issue a while ago. I had considered giving the students the day off," Albus replied.

"The suggestion box on the data slate has always been left open, so the Guild could make improvements. From what they told me, the students don't like the rush either. Delivery via owl, en masse, can be confusing. So, they contacted me and explained the problem. Never have I met a group of such secretive people," Lorna replied.

"They still are an enigma to most," Albus explained.

"Headmaster, I was surprised that they used email. Their phone calls are done through a vocoder or a voice changer. All the banking is wire transfer. It was tedious. I don't care what people say, but they are muggleborn magicals. They are too familiar with the technology. I would argue they might be Information Technology specialist types."

"People believe that they are purebloods, actually." Albus laughed, as he found Lorna's comments insightful. It aligned with his initial suspicions after all.

"Nonsense. Anyway, my company is offering to set up a station in Hogwarts. Students will place their old data slate for recycling into a compartment, and they will receive a new Hand Terminal. A Gringotts representative will also register first time users. It will be done in small groups of twenty at a time. I have a proposed schedule here. No disruption to classes," Lorna explained.

Albus as he looked into the girl's mind saw only email communications, and phone conversations with secondary representatives. The Guild understood how to cover their tracks well. There were many evenings of backbreaking work, and nothing looked out of the ordinary. He even admired the information board that the woman kept.

"That would be welcome, actually. No problem at all. Do you have the new item in your possession?" Albus asked.

"I do. I also have sealed boxes if you would like to get one right now?" Lorna suggested.

"I met a young man who recently did some work on the item. I am most curious to see the device? I believe that is the muggle word for an electronic contraption?" Albus asked.

"Correct. Here?" Lorna replied as she opened a sealed box and handed Albus the transparent piece of glass.

As soon as the device touched his hand, the illusions flared into existence and the glass began to display its spider web glow as the runes were illuminated. He considered that the magic that made the Hogwarts Great Hall unique in the entire world, was now on casual display. Even worse was that the internals of the device were on display, and it looked like nothing was there.

"It really is something. I have no idea how the thing works?" Lorna suggested as Albus darkened the room. He conjured a Lumos, and he let the light pass through the item. Albus was surprised when the entire roof of his office was painted in complex runes. As he moved the light around, he could see the complex three dimensional patterns. There were neuron like patterns that were intertwined in a manner that boggled the mind.

"Looks a bit like a brain?" Lorna commented.

"Have you seen this pattern before?" Albus asked.

"Sure. Brain cells look just like that. Here, let me show you something?" Lorna replied as she took Albus' device and extracted the crystal matrix.

"This is the processing matrix. I understand that new matrixes will be available for upgrades. You just swap this thing here, for the upgrade. Could you examine this, by itself?" Lorna asked.

As Albus examined the item, he saw the liquid crystal fluid and the thousands of carbon and gold nano-strands. They were clearly placed in distinct patterns and Albus figured that information had been stored somehow. As the light shone through the glass 'chip' Albus could see various flakes of the gems as they coloured the light. The magnified light indicated that the runes, gemstones, and other components were utterly microscopic.

Lorna could see the worried look on Albus' face as he looked for anything he could understand. There were no wand cores, nothing that looked like the power storage ink or any of the previous designs. The runes were so numerous, that it would take a lifetime to figure them out. There were entirely new runes he had never seen before, and their function inside a runic array would not indicate what was their individual function. The items of the Artificing Guild had become so complex, that they could openly parade their innovations now. The construction of the device also indicated that massive advancements had been made. If this was a casual commercial product for the masses, what had been developed for their personal use? Albus was aware that the Storm-Lord and the Rune-Priestess were also Guild educated. Had their innovations advanced this much also? What would weapons and armour look like with this kind of advancement? The night of the Divali escapade, Albus had felt as the Elder Wand knew that it was no longer the most powerful wand of its kind.

"Ms. Findlay I would like to purchase more than one device. I would like to examine them because of intellectual curiosity if you don't mind?" Albus asked.

"Tell me how much you want and I will have it organised. They are half the price of the previous device. Three galleons. I have to admit I never thought about using the light to magnify the internals. Looks like runes, but I have never seen anything like….that," Lora replied.

"Nor have I. It is a fantastic magical innovation. You have my permission to set up a stall. I would like to get two hundred of the devices, for personal use? I want to examine them, actually." Albus asked.

"Sure. I think I learnt an investigative method, this afternoon. Sometimes we need to shed some light on the issue?" Lorna asked comically.

Albus laughed, as he replied, "Yes, my dear. Sometimes we do."

---

Later that night, the entire of Hogwarts was silent, as they waited for the shadowy object to unveil itself. Cedric and the rest were looking on with anticipation, as they had an idea of what the object would look like. According to the advertisement, the device was being unveiled and tomorrow morning, and it would be on sale at selected outlets. As the countdown continued, the device eventually became visible as the darkened object became slowly illuminated. Cedric and the rest saw exactly what Susan had described. A professional voice actor began to narrate the selling points in a manner that was no different to a smartphone launch commercial:

---

You asked. You waited. And now it is here!

It is time to go beyond the data slate.

Introducing the new Hand Terminal V1

Featuring a new holographic display. Do you need a bigger screen? Want to shuffle multiple documents in your parchment editor? Share movies and videos with your friends?

Hand Terminal V1 conjures your information into thin air. Enjoy the Hogwarts Great Hall experience in your pocket. Enjoy our winning augmented reality system.

Enjoy our new improved camera. With ten times the resolution of the previous data slate, cherish the times with your loved ones. We promise better pictures and video with the integrated quad-camera and tri-selfie camera system. Our integrated quad-camera now features a compliant Image Stabilisation mechanism that allows you to film in bumpy situations.

Featuring a new Perspex body that is anti-summonable and anti-transfigurable, the Hand Terminal V1 has been hardened with Nanographene and Nanoboron to ensure a rugged device. Don't worry about the water either, completely waterproof.

Hand Terminal V1 features our latest RuneOs 5 with an enhanced processing matrix. Ten times faster, complete with our new file management system called HippoGriff Explorer. Take control of your files!

Also featuring an onboard M.I. (Magical Intelligence) Neuralgrid co-processor. Neuralgrid learns your patterns and preferences, and can execute tasks on voice command. See our internal user manual.

Neuralgrid also enhances the quality of your audio experience, if you happen to be a Headphone junkie like our lot.

Hand Terminal V1 represents everything we have learnt in our time, as we attempt to provide services and goods to wizards and witches of discerning taste.

The core of Hand Terminal V1 features a new data-crystal layer that carries the core of the RuneOs. Time to upgrade? Keep your device and merely change out the data-crystal to upgrade. Your personal information stays on your Hand terminal, and you can get the best benefits of the new Runemathimancy routines. These are now stored on the device instead of being transmitted, to give you uncompromising performance.

Hand Terminal V1 is the most power efficient device that we have ever made. Merely the passive motion from your pocket or walking through magical places keeps our Hypercapacitor completely charged.

How could we forget our teachers? We were teachers ourselves too, back in the day.

Use our Lumos Presentation system to make interactive notes and interactive lessons. The holographic system can tag and label devices in the environment. Try our new discovery stations feature, along with the inbuilt tutorials.

All existing data slate accessories are backward compatible with our new device. All preferences and information are immediately carried forward. Trade in your old data slate for recycling and get a discount of one galleon!

And oh, about money?

Ask a Gringotts representative to provide blood based verification and have your personal Gringotts account linked to your Hand terminal. Check your balance? Send a friend some money? Make purchases at stores? Order your favourite products from the catalogue?

Gringotts and other banking institutions have worked with us to ensure that contactless payment is secure. Our guarantee is backed by their banking module.

For students, Hand Terminal V1 will be available on your school compound or castle, internationally. We have sent representatives to ensure that you do not have to mail order to obtain your device.

Follow the instructions provided by your teachers tomorrow morning and receive your devices in an orderly manner. We do expect that you will use our device to further your education after all.

We are aware we were silent for a long time. This singular project has cost us many sleepless nights. It represents our recent culmination of what we have learned, as we seek to master the art of crafting. We hope that you will appreciate our expertise.

Purchase Hand Terminal V1 for the low cost of 3 galleons, or 2 galleons with an accompanying data slate for recycling.

---

Now the entire school was whispering. The animated video of the Perspex conjuring a display mid-air was its own type of hype-train. The animations featured the phone, tablet, laptop, and a desktop mode. There were also many pictures for the Hogwarts students, showing the extended themes which included vast customisations for the various houses. For the mundane-born students this advertisement suggested other things.

"Atticus, I am telling you. Those guys are muggleborns. I swear this thing is like an iPhone commercial," Rothley insisted.

"I figured. I visited the Weasleys for the holidays, with Violet. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, the Weasleys have got a sweet place. Violet and I saw game consoles, desktops, and all the things. Percy is a Samsung guy through and through," Atticus replied.

"Well shite. What did you do there?" Mallory asked.

"He has a huge library. Also, he and Penny are researching the founders. I saw the information myself. Salazar was what most mundanes would call a basement goth. Liked to tinker with stuff, married a non-magical woman. Hardly any pureblood extremist. And I mean I saw solid, documentable evidence?" Atticus replied.

"And you are just telling us this?" Everest asked, completely scandalised.

"Oh, I have been thinking about the World Cup a lot. If it wasn't for those three who run the little Defence club, I have no idea how I would manage. Ronald helps a lot too, as he shares in our pain. Poults is a bastard," Atticus laughed softly.

Meanwhile, Draco began his usual tirade about the Guild being revolutionary, and that Purebloods still had control of the system. The usual morons nodded in agreement while anyone who understood technology, considered the opposite. This advert was a clear indication that the Artificing Guild had to be top tier 'techies' who were experts in design. Many of them realised that somehow the Guild had made magical analogues of flagship smartphone innovations. Some of the boys laughed at the name of the file explorer - HippoGriff Explorer was a funny name. The other giveaway was when the Artificing Guild openly admitted that they were headphone junkies. Meanwhile, Cedric and the rest were scratching their head in the Hufflepuff common room, as they were separated, but continued to communicate on the charmed parchment.

---

Susan: "Well?"

Cedric: "Exactly as you said. The thing looks like utter sorcery. Where are the insides?"

Ernie: "I swear the thing looks like they took the inside of their helmet and gave it an upgrade."

Justin: "We can purchase it and try the features out. Seems pretty fun. Congratulations, the Wizards might finally have the better smartphone!"

Hannah: "Those wizards and witches aren't us. We are just buying it from the really important people. And those people might be muggleborns. By the way, when are they starting the Defence Club?"

Cedric: "They are still organising some things. There are at least one hundred and fifty people. The majority are older students who are looking to improve their Defence Grades. People trust Neville. I heard that they are setting up an obstacle course somewhere between the owlery and the Quidditch pitch."

Justin: "An obstacle course? You sure? That might be important, actually."

Susan: "Because?"

Justin: "That is how muggle soldiers are trained. Not sure, but I think so?"

Cedric: "I will put that down on the books then."

---

By the next evening, everyone had traded in their data slate. The periods after class were filled with students fawning over the item. Many of them explored the illusionary interface and played with the settings. Other people were already taking pictures. Some of the students were using the device with the headphone unit, which clipped into a socket. Some students had paid extra to get selective YouTube services (minus anything that could be used to reveal the magical world) piped to their device. This was even a bigger indication of who the Artificing Guild were, as individuals. By the time the night had arrived, students were using their devices in the library. The desktop mode was popular as students silently collaborated with the messaging and annotation functions. Now students were doing assignments as groups, and they were not limited by distance.

Albus hosted his usual office investigation with Pomona Sprout, Fillius Flitwick, Minerva McGonagall, Horace Sughorn, Septima Vector and Bathsheda Babbling. Albus had considered that this mysterious Guild was not far off at all. Rather, Daphne's betrothed had direct contact with these people. And it also suggested that the Guild had French Origins. Albus decided not to ask Daphne to lend her expertise, as he was not sure how the Guild might respond. She was set to marry into the guild, according to her arrangement.

Fillius smiled, as he observed the device. He understood that this device was invented by Harry. He also considered that perhaps Daphne Greengrass was working with Harry Potter in secret. Her face had the look of a young woman who was in love with a dashing young man. Also, he noted that on Daphne's face was a total lack of excitement about the device. Rather she had the same look that she usually sported after a Charms assignment was successfully submitted. As Flitwick considered that the devil was in the details, Albus then began with his admission:

"As some of you know, Master Healer Priya Singh has yearly performances for one of her many religious festivals. And we allow our students to enjoy the festivities, as they are often invited. I attended the celebration, this year" Albus recapped.

"How was it Albus?" Fillius asked.

"Oh, it was fantastic. It heartened me to see hugging and laughter between all of our students regardless of house affiliation. This year I met two interesting young people. The first young lady was the inventor of the Skaði. Ms. Herminia Grimaldo. She works for Lord Black, and she is the apprentice of Gris Arbanoz at the I.C.W Potioneering Guild," Albus explained.

"She must really be something!" Horace asked.

"She has agreed to stay in contact with me, and to answer any questions that I might have. The next person is even more interesting, as he contributed towards the development of this….device," Albus replied.

"He works for the Guild?" Fillius asked.

"As an apprentice? Yes. His name is Hari Patil and he is the betrothed of Ms. Greengrass. Cousin of the Patil sisters. I finally met the mystery boy. I must say that he could easily get the attention of some of our more enthusiastic female students," Albus replied.

"I take it he is very handsome then?" Horace asked.

"Oh, both he and Ms. Greengrass are smitten with each other. He told me that he was responsible for developing a certain innovation. I would like to get your opinion on what we are seeing?" Albus asked, as he dimmed the room and projected some light through the Hand Terminal. Eventually, Professor Babbling caught on.

"Albus the runes…these arrays are…..there are thousands of them. And they all function predictably. How small are these runes?"

"Tiny enough that thousands of symbols could fit on a pinhead. But look at the structure," Albus requested as Septima caught on.

"The runes are done in three dimensions. There was a theoretical paper about that many decades ago. But I think the real question we want to ask is how was this thing created?" Septima enquired.

"I do not have the foggiest idea. The runes can perform the magic, and they don't seem to burn out. Illusionary magic was something that only Rowena Ravenclaw could do. Yet, it is on open display here. I have bought two hundred of these devices and I hope that we might be able to take it apart in further sessions," Albus insisted.

The rest of the night was spent as the group theorised what had happened. None of the suppositions were correct until they called Alex to consult. When the former Ravenclaw arrived, he was able to ascertain that the Guild were doing their own version of "semi-conductor manufacturing". Harry and Hermione continued to listen to the ideas as they were debated. Honestly, nobody had any idea of how far ahead the Peverell residents were, with regard to fabricating devices.

---

Part II: The Defence Club

It was the end of November.

The first quidditch match had arrived, and to everyone's surprise Ravenclaw had beaten Hufflepuff. The entire match had been a spectacle, and it became one of the most watched matches in the history of Quidditch broadcasts. Quidditch fans elsewhere began to speculate who would make the English World Cup team. Certain people during the match had distinguished themselves.

Violet had managed exactly three shots against Ronald Weasley. She had gotten the bludger and the Quaffle to travel in two different directions at extremely oblique angles. As Ronald had reached out to grab the Quaffle, and his arm was broken by the bludger. Of course, Ronald had started to channel his berserker mode. And when the hungry look filled his eyes, many of the more observant individuals realised that Ronald Weasley had a beast in him. Even Minerva had been surprised.

"Albus!…..are they trying to kill the boy?" Minerva complained.

"I do not think so. However, as they are all being professionally trained, the stakes and injuries have escalated. I am aware that Ronald went on a small pilgrimage. His mother explained that he has an inhuman pain tolerance. And we are already aware of his immense physical fitness. A broken arm is not going to stop that young man…" Albus smiled, as Minerva raised her eyebrows. She was a hard woman to impress, and Ronald had certainly managed to do so.

"He is a badger, and he is durable. We are made like that!" Pomona beamed.

"Young Mr. Weasley certainly gives your house that representation," Minerva grinned.

Ronald had quickly readjusted himself, and then nothing could hit him. He began to execute acrobatics that people could not conceptualise. Tyr and Vidar were looking on the broadcasts, and they laughed as Ronald put his experiences with the elder dragons to use. And while that occurred, the attrition between the two houses began.

Su Li was not a skilled seeker. However, she was a petite frame and Violet had tuned the broom. The Ravenclaw quidditch captain had only focused on one thing:

"Su…..you are going to be an eagle against Cedric. Trust him to find the snitch and trust yourself to block him. You are probably half his weight as a petite Asian girl. And we are putting that to use, quite shamelessly. Use your brain and pick better lines for pure acceleration. Swoop in….and hold him off….."

Su had practiced racing her broom around Hogwarts at random hours in the night, after she was done in the hospital wing. Padma even kept her company, as she often read her notes. Padma did want her house to have a shot at the Quidditch House Cup, even while being aware of Harry's general meddling. The girl did consider it to be a worthy challenge. It also helped that Padma had some experience with the jetpack. She was not as fluid as the others but she knew enough to fly pretty well. During the match, Padma smiled as her winning advice definitely counted for something.

Su Li during the next two hours, demonstrated that she did not have Violet and Carina's speed. Su Li was using her brain to get by, like any Ravenclaw. The next two hours had been riveting as Lee Jordan and Fleur had a great time explaining the brilliant plays of the eagles. She would often seem to be lagging behind, only to pass and upset Cedric just before he could grasp the snitch. The full acceleration came at the last moment, and onlookers were on their toes.

Would Cedric get the snitch? Or would Su Li swoop in and disturb him again? The crowd was filled with "Ooohs" and "Ahhhs" followed by ecstatic cheering and moans of disappointment.

Atticus on the other hand watched on in utter horror. His girlfriend delivered on what she had promised. Even Ginny was concerned, as the Gryffindor seeker. Tracey and Daphne had attended the match, and the louder of the pair took notes and video clips. Charlie was in the Slytherin stands, as it had become a common occurrence. Even Charlie was looking on at the match with morbid fascination.

"I can't believe this. She always is full of surprises!" Atticus complained.

"I thought you would be proud? That is your girl after all?" Charlie asked.

"Yes, but I want Slytherin to win. We are going to have to work doubly hard. It will be either Tracey or your sister to take on the Claws. But I suppose there is hope – we might be on opposing teams, but it is all of us as a singular team for the World Cup…" Atticus replied. The mostly neutral Slytherins who were nearby nodded with appreciation. In any case, Draco and the rest had boycotted the match.

"There is a technicality – two hours as the maximum time for a Hogwarts quidditch match. That is the rule she is going to exploit. But on the other hand, we have enough talent right here at Hogwarts to assemble multiple World Cup Quidditch teams for a couple of years well," Charlie replied.

"Definitely. Those local Quidditch leagues are going to have a great time. Look at how many of them are in the visitor stands?" Atticus replied, as Alicia, Katie and Angelina were seen talking to Quidditch representatives.

The Ravenclaws were like a pack of high-speed fighter jets. They were fast, and they denied the Hufflepuff chasers by merely using their bodies to intercept the Quaffle. To a certain extent, it was a fairly effective manoeuvre that Ronald used regularly. Also, they were aided by the Quidditch armor which had received several refreshes. Most of Harry's products were often augmented with scaled down and non-important versions of his most cutting-edge research. Harry and Hermione were not big Quidditch fans and even they had to bite their nails. Grace too had looked on intently, at the match. Technically their new brooms and other equipment had raised the standard for protection and performance. Now the game was even more brutal.

"Shit Mione, Ronald looks like he is limping through a damned war zone?" Harry commented.

"Look at the claws. They look like a pack of fighter jets. And that is coming from me, and I am pretty insane already?" Hermione giggled.

Eventually, the match ended as Ravenclaw was considered the "winner by default." Violet and everyone else had carted Su Li off the pitch, on triumphant shoulders. As Padma had walked off with the team, she pointed her fingers at Ginny, followed by Tracey. Both of them had gulped.

"Guess your sister contributed to the effort somehow?" Ginny asked Parvati.

"She is surprising me lately. Yes, I love my sister, but I am not taking this lying down. This is sibling war, now!" Parvati replied.

"I actually understand that, all too well." Ginny replied.

After the legendary "Weasley Showdown" Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, it was tradition for the winning team to treat the other house to free food. The winners would have to lose some pocket change in return for winning. The Hufflepuffs then got their favourite reward, which was mostly food from the Weasley-Singh kitchen. Then other World Cup players hopped in, as the 'after Quidditch snacking time' was its own event. Minerva and Pomona stayed with Fillius, as Ronald, Charlie and Atticus had a laugh with Violet.

By the time the cheering had arrived in the Ravenclaw tower, Luna had already done an impressionist piece of art. The entire team was painted as beautiful but smudgy blurs against the sky. It wasn't an exact reproduction and was very experimental. However, it captured the essence of Ravenclaw. Luna waved her hand and paintbrush, as the commentary on the common room 'flatscreen' blared in the background from the replays.

Luna had watched the entire match in the common room and painted everything as it had occurred.

With a wandless flick of her hand, she mounted the beautiful picture on one of the empty walls in the Ravenclaw dorm, as the rest of individuals cheered. And everyone knew that Luna deeply appreciated her housemates. Now others would look upon the art and remember today. Su Li and the rest of Ravenclaws began to receive fan mail and messages from adoring wizards and witches, not too long after.

By the end of the day, Albus had gotten an alert from Gringotts. The single match had earned more money than the entire of last year's annual Quidditch season. Albus had enough money to fund any type of war effort he wanted. And yet, he somehow felt that bigger plans were at play.

He wondered about the Storm Lord and the Rune-Priestess.

---

The next two weeks were filled with ceaseless work. Neville and the rest prepared towards training Hogwarts students, while they continued their studies. Meanwhile, Harry and Hermione seemed to be in 'hardware' mode. Apparently, they were building some type of drone. However, they did make time to check in on their friends. Everyone noted that Harry and Daphne sat next to each other, and the friend group began to hope that the both of them would become a couple.

Then, Daphne's birthday had passed on November the 24th. Greengrass Manor hosted a quiet dinner along with some musical chairs. Daphne had insisted on her gift not crossing twenty pounds. Of all the items she had received, her favourite item was a pair of sunglasses that Harry had designed.

It featured an auto-darkening function along with a full retina projected holographic display. The item also possessed a mini-HUD that linked into her cyclonic shields and provided a targeting reticle for her wand or her SMG. The item was rugged, anti-summonable, anti-transfigurable. It also sported charms to reduce the weight and automatically dry off sweat. The included gag was a remote temperature probe for judging the temperature of liquids, with an included daily coffee cup counter. Everything was operated by a cerebral interface that could sense her intentions, through an embedded antenna on the glasses' arms. To deal with the meddlesome headmaster and his mental probing, there was an A.L.B charm embedded into the device.

Harry had picked the ideal shape for the item to frame her face. Daphne looked very fashionable, as she strutted around Hogwarts with the item. When she entered a classroom, the lenses became crystal clear, and she used the holographic interface instead of the Hand Terminal to conduct her business. Nobody asked about Daphne suddenly needing glasses. Many people believed that she had been reading so much, that she needed them. Eventually, the requests came in as the rest of the group wanted either glasses or contact lenses that could offer the same functionality.

---

During the last week of November, the all-star group continued to manage their academic obligations. Neville conducted several smaller but separate Defence classes that targeted year five, year six and final year students. At least two thirds of the students were people he had worked with last year, and there was an informal but accepted set of rules that had developed. Everyone was welcome, and there were no house divisions. Slytherins and Gryffindors had very polite relationships and some of the attendees were dating in secret. The "Defence Club" was the place to learn practical skills and to meet your secret crush with no repercussions. There was certainly conversation and talking, but not enough where the classes were unstructured and messy. Several of the established squads even competed against each other in the leaderboards.

The Defence Club was also the place to get pizza or pasta – the Weasley-Singh kitchen had acquired a traditional Italian wood fired oven. Now some Italian nonnas and a passionate and heavily moustached Tommaso, took care of the authenticity of the items. The Italian restaurant operated independently but was majority owned by the Weasley-Singh kitchen. Weasley-Singh Pizza boxes became common around Hogwarts, and that drove Malfoy and his goons up a wall. Sometimes Ronald wondered if people were really coming to snack (particularly the Hufflepuffs), but he decided that was perfectly okay. Deliveries were sent secretly via a transport drone, and Ronald became Hogwarts' informal "food dealer".

Albus already knew of Neville's defence class. He decided to work Neville's remedial class into his long term plans. Soon enough, the class was co-opted, and it became an official 'club' at Hogwarts. While it had been called a club informally, being officially declared a 'Hogwarts Club' required the headmaster's permission and a Hogwarts budgetary allocation. Albus made the arrangements from the massive amount of funds he possessed and hoped that Neville would secretly raise an army for him by proxy. And to a certain extent, Albus was on the way to getting his wish.

The Defence Club was not openly advertised. The primary method of joining was a referral from five other existing members. Also, at least three of the members had to be from different houses. Everyone who therefore joined, was vetted by a small network of people who could trust each other. This also prevented slackers and other people who were not serious, from showing up. It also ensured that people who made the entry requirements were not in any cliques that were centric to any particular house. The Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws from the lower years began to slowly show up. Ronald was surprised, but he asked no questions. Ronald had even asked Hermione to look through the data slate conversations. There was nothing to indicate anything unusual. Ronald had not considered that his fellow Hufflepuffs were slowly skirting around the surveillance and mobilising their students, through Cedric's guidance. Terry and Anthony had taken the route of advertising that the class was 'very informative and quite fun' and that had attracted some of the bookish Ravenclaws. Neville had brought many of the Gryffindors easily. Finally, the reasonable Slytherins showed up with Daphne and Tracey. These families in particular, were other neutrals who had good relationships with Cyrus Greengrass.

Now Neville and the rest were running out of room. There were at least 160 members, and none of the Hogwarts rooms could host everyone. Even when the class was broken into four groups of forty, it was much to manage. Neville consulted Harry for advice:

"Take them behind the Quidditch field. Hermione and I will build an illusionary emitter. Nobody from the castle will be able to look out and see what you are up to. Hogwarts is a place that loves its oddities, and they won't ask any questions. Myrtle was killed by a basilisk, and nobody figured that out up to this day. At Hogwarts, pretty much anything can happen, and it isn't much of a concern really," Harry explained.

"True enough. What about Dumbledork?" Neville asked.

"We will leave a gap in the projection field, so he can see you in action from his tower. We will make sure that all the supervisory entities can examine you, but the students can't see you. Don't worry, we are really good at Trigonometry. As for what to do, use an obstacle course. Daphne can even invite Babbling and Vector on some days, and demonstrate her advanced projects too." Harry replied.

"I am thinking it is time to open up the morning exercise to the others. Exercising by ourselves is nice, but I think we want better outcomes for everyone. In any case, Charlie and Bill run their own thing in France. They have an elite couples club, and you need a French bird to get access!" Neville laughed.

"That is Ronald's portfolio for sure. Let him run the Hogwarts fitness program. We don't need the Defence Club fully trained, we need them to not be too soft. That isn't much to ask. Make the proposal to Albus." Harry suggested.

"I guess you have the start of your army?" Neville laughed.

"No, they are your army. You will lead them as we continue to dig deeper into the system. By the way, Lorna found out that Hogwarts is hosting the next Tri-Wizard Tournament next year. That is where the large sums of money have been going," Harry explained.

"Is that the contest where Wizards are usually killed? I remember something about a Cockatrice?" Neville asked.

"That was 1792, right here at Hogwarts. It was a damned rampage.

Initially, the plan was to hold the tournament every five years. That didn't work out. Now they hold it approximately every century. However, the 1900s were a bad time for the French as there was some type of magical insurrection. So, they didn't host the tournament. It is once again, our turn. Recently, there were debates about abolishing the tournament, but they decided to increase the age limit. For next year, it is seventeen and over if you want to participate," Harry replied.

"How are we going to keep an eye on what happens?" Neville asked.

"With good ol' galleons. Sirius is going to suggest that we sponsor the entire thing. In return, the Ministry saves all the money, and we can exercise our agenda as we see fit. Fudge is pretty corrupt, and he will not say no. We want to run the economic side of the event almost like a country fair. Hundreds of stalls, snacks, the nice stuff. Also, televised internationally and that kind of thing. There is a discussion about developing some of the land around Hogwarts. We will see where it goes."

"I am sensing something evil. Harry, what are you planning?" Neville asked.

"To embarrass magical England of course. And an English embarrassment is a pureblood embarrassment, naturally. Fleur is going to wipe the floor, as she is already practising for the competition." Harry explained.

"Ouch Harry. Did I mention you are absolutely ruthless sometimes?" Neville laughed.

"Anything to annoy the people who thought that both my biological and adoptive mother, did not deserve a chance, is fair game. And those types did in your mum and dad too. You know how much you suffered because of that. Losing the Tri-Wizard Tournament will inflame people's passions greatly, as I think we will win the World Cup and they will expect a second repeat of greatness. Basically, I am setting the stage for them to feel resentment. It will always be the muggles' fault. Moldypants will show up around that time. No death trap right now means double the death trap next year in year four. We might as well prepare," Harry elaborated.

"Well alright. Tell the rest?" Neville asked.

"Mmmhmm. Do that. Let me know how the suggestion with Albus goes," Harry explained before he hung up.

---

At the end of November, Albus summoned both the Runes and the Arithmancy teachers for an update on his favourite group of students. He also wanted a follow up on a personally assigned project. Both Babbling and Vector were surprised as the new additions were outperforming some of her best students. Even Albus was fascinated with the successes of the group.

"How have they been doing?" Albus asked both of the professors.

"As for the group, they are my best students. And their mastery is independent of Daphne's intervention. Ms. Greengrass is using teaching methods that are probably internal to her Guild. I have asked her to teach a couple of classes to observe her method. She does not believe in leaning the runes separately at first. Rather she learns how to use them only by building projects. She also does not believe in the idea of structured notes. Rather she will ask students to tell her what they have learned, after projects. She also does extensive groupwork and interesting student activities. I have adopted the Think-Pair-Share and the Jigsaw in my lower year classrooms with great success!" Babbling beamed.

"What about their Arithmancy scores?" Albus asked.

"The group has also shown a far higher aptitude to Arithmancy, than some of my long time students. I envy the group somewhat. I understand all of them know muggle algebra and equations. I have even adopted some of the techniques and I am making headway into some of my own abandoned research papers. I have come to conclude that while Arithmancy can be used to tell the future, that is only one of the several branches of magic that is possible with the discipline. And I am seeing the logic and reasoning of how the field can be extended. I want to believe that she is sharing as much as she can, without violating any oaths that may exist," Vector replied.

"So have your fears been allayed then, Professor Vector?" Albus asked.

"I am not worried about their performance. I however wished that Daphne was not moving abroad. The conditions are ironclad. I hope she will be…happy. I will miss her very much," Professor Vector replied, in a rare display of emotion.

"Thank you professors, for an explanation of their progress. I am happy that they are doing well.

Neville is moving his Defence Club to just outside of the Quidditch field. It is the largest club in Hogwarts with almost 160 members. I believe he is building an obstacle course and Ms. Greengrass has offered to create interesting items to test the students. Perhaps you can attend occasionally, if you would like to see her handiwork outside of class?" Albus suggested.

"I think I can speak for the both of us. Septima and I would be quite happy to attend. Daphne and the rest surprise us, often! More importantly, both of us have some findings to share," Babbling replied, as Septima nodded and pointed to the terminal.

"Did you find anything interesting, in your analysis of the devices?" Albus asked.

"Yes. I was able to obtain ten new runes which do direct conditionality. Take this curved rectangular rune here. If both sides with the runes are supplied with magic, they produce a single magical output. I call it a 1-and-1 rune. Any other combination fails to provide the magical output. There are also many others like this, with different types of logic. Direct conditionality in Runes has been theoretically postulated, but in this item it is being used openly. Some of the other runes don't have a meaning. Rather the meaning can be assigned as necessary. Some of them are repeating structures, and they contain a 'counter' value. Some of the runes are referenced to something that should behave like a wand, but I cannot see anything of the sort," Babbling stated.

"So somehow there is a wand, that is casting a spell?" Albus asked.

"I want to postulate that there is a deeper mechanism behind how wands work. That our wand, the wood and the cores are just methods by which we access the magic. Instead of a wand core, somehow the glass has the same elements. I have been looking at the arrangement and the runes themselves do not execute the spells. The computations are handed off to something else.

This is work that is much beyond me. And they who created this device chose to openly show their work, because they are challenging people to figure out their methods. I believe if one was to make a significant enough discovery, the Guild would get in contact with you…" Vector replied.

Albus was not confused – now he had no idea what to think of the Guild. Now, they were openly parading their work, and yet it seemed like nobody could meet their standards. He stroked his beard, as he wondered who might be able to analyse the device.

"I will ask Saul to look at the…..device. Continue your examinations. Do not involve Ms. Greengrass as that will be a conflict of interest. Thank you once again for your hard work, Professors." Albus replied.

---

A few days later, Neville had assembled the students at the obstacle course. Many of them were whispering in excitement. Moody was looking on, as he was now aware of the real issue. Amelia had explained that his favourite five students were being trained by the Storm-Lord and the Rune-Priestess. She therefore insisted on letting the boy train the Hogwarts students, as he saw fit. Whatever information Moody collected would aid in her investigations. Moody himself was curious, as he often considered that Neville knew a lot of magic for his age.

Ronald began with the introduction after getting everyone's attention.

"Afternoon everyone. So, our remedial Defence Class is now officially a Hogwarts club. The reason why we are out here, is because the club is too large to teach in a classroom. Also, we wanted to give you some experience with taking real objectives on a field. This obstacle course is somewhat like Auror training and if you can do well here, you can take care of yourself." Ronald explained.

There were a lot of excited students who were whispering - Neville was holding a sword in his hand. Luna had a bow and Ronald had a gigantic barbaric looking warclub. As the conversation occurred, Perkins walked up to Cedric.

"Well, I can see that they brought weapons. Think we might see some of the fancy stuff this afternoon?" Perkins asked Cedric, behind a privacy ward.

"Some but not all. I suspect that they can use wandless magic quite well. They won't go so far. They also don't seem worried. That means they already had worse," Cedric replied.

"True. I know Atticus well. He can be trusted to keep the secrets. He and Rothley and the other one are pretty chill. Should we tell him what we Badgers know? I know he is close to Charlie and Percy?" Perkins suggested.

"You sure that is a good idea?" Cedric asked.

"Positively. We need folks in Slytherin too. And he and Violet are a thing, so…." Perkins followed. Cedric considered the idea, and then replied:

"Right Perkins. We will see what they can dig up. We might need to all apply for holidays as we will want to examine the pensieve memories. Remember, we are operating quietly until we know more."

Cedric cancelled the privacy ward and they looked on at Ronald. The redhead was explaining the field setup and their objectives.

"We have about sixty combined fifth, sixth and seventh years on the field. They are in protected bunkers. It will be their job to stun us into oblivion. As for the obstacles, Ms Greengrass and Ms Davis have volunteered to create some really nasty surprises for us. I heard we have some very fancy runes and arithmancy this evening. I so hope our snakes approve of their resident geniuses," Ronald continued.

Daphne and Tracey were giggling as they waved.

"The idea is that we want to give you a taste of organic battles. This is what Defence Against the Dark Arts would look like outside the classroom. And yes, we do have weapons. We want to show you how non-magical things can take you by surprise," Neville replied, as the group lined up at the front of the obstacle course.

"3..2..1….GO! GO! GO!" Daphne replied, over a sonorus.

---

The trio then ran into cover. Ronald could host the entire battle link with his recent Viking augmentation. As the link was established, the boy hid his memories of Hermione behind a barrier.

"Plan?" Neville asked.

"Try to embarrass them but not much?" Luna laughed.

"Shields off. Mostly Melee and long range shots. Not too much power, and nothing to cause suspicion. Only what we have taught them before," Ronald suggested.

For the onlookers, the setup looked impressive. Most of the barricades were small wooden walls with slots that hosted at least five individuals. They had been distributed along the two hundred feet length of the course in a random zig-zag pattern. Most senior students could only manage five to six metres of range with rather terrible accuracy. This had dictated the placement of the bunkers, as nobody could fire across the entire field. The placement was designed to ensure multiple lines of covering fire. The arrangement was sensible, and the students wondered how the team were going to reach the other side.

The trio were now in a trench.

At least sixty stunners were occurring every other second. The students behind the barricades, were not sure the trio's location. They continued to send off random stunners as they tried to guess their positions. Meanwhile, Daphne had liberated old furniture items from the Room of Requirement. They were transfigured, animated and sometimes just tossed down the range with Wingardium Leviosa. Moody even dared to lob bombardas and other spells mortar style – his wand was pointed into the air, and the magic was travelling in a sweeping parabola.

The onlookers wondered if the trio were mad. That was until the animated objects found Neville and the group. And then a reply in kind, followed.

Neville's sword was used to slice and to hold off other suits of armour that had been animated by Daphne. As Neville held the suits off, Luna sent some arrows close to the barricades. Everybody could see that dung bombs had been taped to the shafts haphazardly. Very soon many of the students were running from the foul smell, while Ronald held a constant shield and the team advanced.

The team switched out responsibilities, as Luna now held a constant shield. Both Ronald and Neville could produce the equivalent spell fire of their combined enemies. Luna continued to hold the shield, as the group moved quickly from one barricade to another after knocking out the defenders. Leading targets and considering how much time the spell took to travel as a target moved, was a skill that many magicals did not know. While Neville had taught some of the volunteers the basics, many of them had not practised during the holidays. Neville and Ronald could land the shots quite accurately, every single time.

Moody had transfigured several of the broken chairs into wolves and attack dogs. As they raced to the group, Neville took over the shielding duties. Luna nailed most of the objects with only her bow. She often shanked the animated animals into the ground. The animals that Luna had not targeted attempted to jostle Ronald. He swung around his war mace like it was a child's toy, as he obliterated the transfigured objects. There were only whimpering noises that were heard, as the animals reverted to being broken furniture items. Everybody now knew that Ronald had an inhuman amount of strength, and the last Quidditch match made sense.

"Give them the damned mail-slot!" Ronald had yelled, as he rag dolled a wolf with his club.

Luna and Neville then began to demonstrate their effective casting range, as they pumped out large volumes of blue stunning spells. Now they were aiming for the slit in the barricades and the participants had ducked and were waiting for the barrage to be over. Neville continued, while Luna raised her hand in the air and began to bombard Moody and everyone else, by using mortar tactics with her spells.

It didn't take too long for the rest of the participants to scream "WE SURRENDER!" over a sonorous.

Now the entire group was looking at the assembled students with awe. Cedric and his investigators had a warded exchange, as they understood that their suppositions had to be correct.

"Damn. They could take on Aurors. I know many junior Aurors that can't fight like that," Perkins whispered to Cedric.

"Ron is a monster with that war mace. And to think they probably know how to use guns and wandless magic. Anyway, we will play along for now," Cedric replied.

The rest of the evening was spent as the student groups had an opportunity to be on the receiving end of being stunned by Ronald, Luna and Ronald. The objective for today was merely to summon shields and move from one area to another. Some of the 7th years barely managed as most of the school was stunned. The older advanced students had to hold the Protegoes, as they enervated the younger ones. Some of the adventurous students even replied with more dangerous spells and were surprised when they were casually flicked away by the group. There were some small injuries and cuts that were sustained. Parvati, Padma, Su Li and Marigold were on hand, as they healed everyone and fixed some minor bone fractures, easily. Some of the injured students had asked if they too were running the obstacle course.

"Next session it is an all-girls squad who will be running the course. And we will have someone from every house!" Neville replied.

Fillius Flitwick looked on at the group. He could tell that the trio were hardly pushing themselves. He also wondered what type of drills were being done by Harry. Whatever it was, it has to be so outlandish that it made the current setup look like child's play.

That evening, most of the students from the Defence Club limped and headed off to the common room showers. Now they understood why Neville and the rest had suggested comfortable but old clothes. The session had been absolutely brutal. A lot of the attendees were still trying to shake off the sensation of multiple enervates, and many of them had mild headaches. Yet, there was laughter on the face of many of the teams.

The obstacle course was a common experience that had forged a sense of friendship. While the attendees were not clear on the best way to go forward, they were sure that they would attend the next session. Neville had agreed that the obstacle course would be attempted once a week and that the other days would be spent as they corrected the shortcomings. Albus had looked on and was quite pleased with what he had seen. He wondered how Neville and the rest understood Auror tactics, until he considered that the entire group knew Luis Delacour. In any case, he would ask and confirm that this was the case. Albus had examined the boy's mind many times, and all he had seen was that the boy was a hard worker, and that he often thought about what would be required of him one day. His thoughts indicated that he would be willing to sacrifice for others.

"Such a remarkable boy. My heart grows heavy. Society asks me for solutions, and I must sacrifice that which was never mine to give. They always want blood from stones," Albus mused to himself.

"No Albus. I want blood for blood. This is my stage, and you are my puppet," Harry replied softly, as he continued to spy on the Headmaster. Albus had not checked his clothes, and the polymer tracker was transmitting his location and his whispers.

The old man was none the wiser.

---

Harry and Hermione were looking at their second innovation. Now it was confirmed that the M.E.F Lilly Potter would fly with gravity thrusters. After all, they were currently building a Thunderbolt-III with the new designs. So how did this revolutionary discovery come so soon, after the successful development of a magical fusion reactor?

Crookshanks had developed the solution by suddenly jumping on the workbench and swatting everything away.

Harry and Hermione initially, had made no progress in unravelling the arithmantic Gravity equations. Eventually, Hermione considered another way to analyse the problem:

"Maybe instead of gravity, how about we consider bending space time. Remember what happened in India? Sage Atri can bend space time to reflect people's attacks?" Hermione asked.

"So, we are moving away from the idea of gravitons being particles?" Harry wondered.

"Not necessarily, eh. They could be a sea of particles that behave like waves. However, the math itself might take a different direction. That sometimes helps me to solve a lot of strange issues. I just remembered something. This proposed time travel device from the Ministry. Do you think it can at least create a pocket of unaffected space time?" Hermione asked.

"That is the only way it can transport someone backwards in time. We scanned the research papers, didn't we?" Harry stated.

"We did. Why don't we have a looksie?" Hermione suggested, as Invictus overheard the conversation and projected the papers.

It did not take long to build the item from the scrappy drawings. However, the design was incomplete. Also, the pair were not trying to build a time travelling device. Rather they had eliminated those equations and were only looking to bend space time to create movement in a preferential direction. They also consulted the arithmantic code that they had acquired from the item in the Ministry research lab, and made some modifications. The newly constructed ring-looking device continued to elude the group. The previous design looked something like a thruster. T

Then Crookshanks sat on the table and began to complain. He wanted to be fed, immediately.

"Crookshanks, you had an entire can of tuna. You can't eat every hour," Hermione replied before the ginger cat swatted their project. The superconducting rings were rigidly locked, and the pair had not bothered to install an axle.

The pair were of the opinion that the concentric rings acted like some type of resonator. What happened next made everything clear to the pair of tinkerers. Hermione was sensitive to the environment, and she had to pull Harry's head out of the way. As the rings on the entire item spun, it shot off into a wall and exploded. Harry was now breathing loudly. While Harry was wearing his shields, he still had not expected the sudden acceleration from the item.

"Thanks for saving my head. Can't argue with the results." Harry panted.

"A time-turner. Tuuuuur-ner. Something that turns. Oh my God. Magicals are always so literal. Apparently, they didn't draw the axle in!" Hermione laughed.

"How about if we get a pizza, and then we have a go at this again?" Harry suggested.

"Sounds like a plan. I am thinking about the position of the arithmantic blobs. I had never assumed that they could spin. That might require a brand new set of calculations. You might have to show me, what you can see?" Hermione suggested as the pair left the workshop.

"Ah shoot, shoot, shoot. When we went to visit big chungus at the centre of the galaxy my magic was buzzing me. That was the problem. Yea, I want to believe we will get the thing to work now. We need spinny bits, as lame as that sounds?" Harry replied.

"Summon sparky, and query the situation?" Hermione insisted.

As Buzz the Peverellatom materialised, Harry began to spin the arithmantic points on the Gravity equation. He could see the gravitons being given off. The Peverell Atom was now bouncing around like an animated cartoon reactor.

"Right buddy thanks for that. You know this works – get ready to transfigure some stuff as soon as I am down with the flour and the cheese?" Harry replied, as the Peverell Atom popped out of existence, with a cantankerous sound.

"So, we are on to something. We can take a nap after, and we can try again." Hermione replied.

---

After another three days of continuous fiddling the pair were ready to test their new item.

A new piece of magical focus lore had been discovered. The expression of magic via a 'wand core' or any entangled material was not an unchanging physical structure. It also included the small changes in the structure that occurred over time, as the spell executed. Suddenly many of the differential equations that Hermione had been fussing over, had made sense.

"I cannot believe I was so stupid. Doing calculus at the time. Working on changing quantities. And I thought the arithmantic equations were as simple as linear equations!" Hermione laughed.

"What about me? I should have considered that all systems must have some type of feedback loop. Variable power delivery is something we have been doing for such a long while, and we never considered that the variable power delivery has a direct effect on the physical structure of a magically entangled nanotube. Meh." Harry replied.

"Well, we are done with the superconducting rings. Alright, I am going to float the entire thing, and…...there." Hermione replied, as both of them admired their handiwork.

The football sized apparatus resembled a time turner. However, instead of two rings on the proposed time turner, there were seven of them on their device. The rings were linked by superconducting positioning pads. They did not require any axles or pivot points for support, as they floated freely. The rings were filled with emitter matrixes that were tuned only to give off an exact copy of Harry's house magic, in the gravity configuration. Each ring had a specific magical resonance that had been defined by the equations. There were also tons of stabillion emitters that were entangled into the rings. A ruby ball was held at the centre, and it functioned like a wand – it was a power cell, processor and a magical emitter. It was loaded with a complex equation that was equally the product of a lot of guesswork, Ministry espionage and Hermione's mathematical brilliance.

The entire assembly was bolted to a heavy duty load cell. The load cell was calibrated to zero, and any force against gravity would register as a value.

This design was not final. Rather it was a concept that if functional, would be redesigned with Daphne's algorithm. Her algorithm could not discover new magic. Rather it could only provide optimised structures for creating devices that already had defined magical equations. The more details that were provided, the more specific were the designs. The pair were itching to see how the algorithm would redesign the item, combined with the new optimisations. But that all depended on if their device worked.

"Well…here we go?" Harry stated, as they powered the device at 0.01 percent. The rings began to spin, as the ruby ball began to rotate on its vertical axis. The ruby processing matrix began to glow brilliant red, as the loadcell immediately responded with a healthy 1.5 kilograms of force.

"Good, so we are going to raise the power gradually.….." Hermione replied.

The pair carefully tested the item, over the next hour. As Hermione and Harry had investigated the spinning rings, altering their orientation could produce gravitons that created forces in certain directions. The particles themselves seem to inherit some type of vector function. In other cases, a slightly different arrangement could nullify gravity within a certain area. The device was not doing anything that standard spells could not do – the issue was that most levitation spells were not efficient and mechanically controllable.

As they considered the applicability of the new tool, they decided on a small experiment to test the limit of the new spell. Daphne's algorithm and software suite were fired up, and the manufacturing drones were put to use. One rush project later, a test bed Thunderbolt-II was fitted with a miniature, optimised fusion reactor. The floating engine pylons were replaced with enclosed gravity generators. They were much smaller than the existing engines, which were disconnected and on a servicing scaffold. Also was a haphazard a 'tractor beam' that was attached to a superconducting pad, under the belly of the test Thunderbolt. The pair seated themselves in the modified gunship, and began to check through the issues, slowly and carefully. Both of them were prepared to jump through the open cockpit, in case of a malfunction. As they began the startup sequence, they felt odd as they bypassed the entire ion-thruster module. As soon as the fusion reactor was live, the engines were ready. As Hermione gradually lifted the aircraft, both of them observed as the aircraft stayed mostly silent. The only audible sound came from the humming of the heavy plasma exhaust from the reactor, which was not being harnessed for thrust.

"That is really fucking creepy. Dead fucking silent. I miss the whizzing and spinning noises. Take us for a little trip, play it safe?" Harry suggested.

"Definitely. This is gravity we are playing with. How about some gentle acceleration tests?" Hermione suggested.

As the next couple of hours passed, the pair now had a new problem. The gravity generators could produce such massive amounts acceleration that the G-Forces could probably liquefy their internal organs. Invictus had flown the item remotely with Harry and Hermione on the ground, and the sustained 500 Gs of Acceleration was not good news for a person's insides. They reasoned that they could build a gravity generator to cancel out the inertia in the cabin, for long term usage. This was the first time that some parts of the Thunderbolt creaked – this test bed had not been coated with Auramite, and the chassis was depending on the old gold-titanium alloy to provide the strength. However, the giggles that had followed were all worth it for Harry and Hermione.

While they were many spells or runes that could suspend, lift or lighten objects, none of them were cable of lifting sixty metric tonnes – the pair had tested the 'tractor beam emitter' as they levitated two completely filled thirty ton containers at various speeds and heights. The new optimised football sized fusion reactor did not break a sweat as it ran at a measly ten percent. Eventually, they set the aircraft down and they considered the implications. Both of them understood that they had gotten this valuable piece of technology via Ministry espionage, utilising their knowledge, copying somebody's work and ultimately guessing, after a cat had swatted their experiment.

"I think Crookshanks can get an entire chicken for his contributions to magical research?" Harry suggested.

"I already have Whootsy baking an entire monkfish for the fella. These inventions are going to change everything. A small reactor backpack could provide the new armour system with ridiculous amounts of power. As long as we can dampen gravity on the user, we could make an entirely new class of gravity based weapons." Hermione replied.

"Are we re-engineering the Thunderbolt? What about the Raven?" Harry asked.

"Both of them can be gravity driven, and will use selective gravity emitters to act as inertial dampeners. We will just reverse what we experience on our bodies. We can still use the plasma waste from the reactor for thrust – better not waste it. I am thinking we could do something for the dragons, as we don't need jets anymore," Hermione suggested.

"We could go about it, in many different ways. But we don't know is if this thing will work in space. Are we redirecting gravity or creating it? That is a question we also need to test," Harry considered, as he took a stretch.

"I am thinking about this in the other direction. Now the problem with the Lilly Potter is not the propulsion but the size. I would prefer to build most of it from Auramite. A onetime investment. We could afford its weight in gold, if we were willing to spend a hundred trillion dollars," Harry explained.

"Yeah, that could be expensive. Would be nice if he had our own gold mine. We could purchase it if we wanted to, actually." Hermione suggested.

"Yeah but..…..oh Daphne you sly woman!" Harry exclaimed.

"Say again?" Hermione inquired.

"If we do the right type of testing, we could just pillage a couple hundred metric tonnes of rare materials from some asteroids. Gold, platinum group metals, copper, steel. A fleet of fusion powered drones. We could test one of them as a proof of concept and bring home some material from the asteroid belt?" Harry suggested.

"If the proof of concept works, we should get the Goblins in on this. And if we do, they can do the mining for us. All we need is a mineral scanner, and it could work. We could make King Ragnok, Smaug the dragon?" Hermione replied, as she and Harry blurted out in a fit of laughter.

"If the drones are fool proof, we can attempt a moon mission with the Raven, eventually. I made the calculations, and the existing chassis can withstand total vacuum easily. Maybe we can ask the drones to eat away at the chassis and rework the structure with rigid internal Auramite bracing, on this test prototype. In other places they can fill in the microscopic holes. A good haul and we will have enough gold to build the Lilly Potter," Harry suggested.

"So that conversation about going to the moon at the old house, is coming true then. Well not too bad I suppose. I mean we can beat gravity, and we did get a power station to fit in a suitcase. Time to get us some spacesuits. We can start with geo-synchronous orbit for the initial tests. As long as I am flying, we should not hit anything," Hermione replied, as both of them walked towards the workshop.

A sudden flash appeared, and a person who Harry had forgotten about appeared.

"Ah. I suppose December is already here. Namaste and welcome to England, Nakula!" Harry replied as he greeted the orange clad teenager with folded hands.

"Namaste Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. Seems I found the place easily. How about a tour?" Nakula suggested, as Harry welcomed the expert swordsman to Peverell Manor.

"Sure. I argued that I am good at building things. I might as well show you around," Harry replied.

"The weapons and other things you sent for me were well received. I want to see if you and your mother have improved. Tomorrow morning will be our usual jostle. I have very high expectations of you, and I don't plan to show you any mercy," Nakula replied.

"Oh, I want to see this!" Hermione replied, as she noticed that Harry gulped a little.

---

Hogsmeade was one of the great attractions of Hogwarts. As long as you had gotten permission from your guardian, you could visit the sleepy little town. Initially, the ability to visit the place, was not available every weekend. Rather the Hogsmeade weekend was assigned when the staff had some free time. The staff would visit the village and keep an eye on things, while the students amused themselves. Usually on Friday, an announcement was made when a Hogsmeade weekend was available. By the weekend, the castle became a complete ghost town.

The introduction of the data slate had changed things.

Many assignments and paperwork trails had been eliminated. Also, there was a A.I. suite that assisted Professors with marking submissions. There were also any number of supplied templates that allowed professors to set all types of quick assessments. Grades were calculated automatically, and histories and graphs were available. Professors at Hogwarts had a lot of spare time, as their workflow had become highly automated. As a result, Hogsmeade weekend visits occurred from October throughout the rest of the school term, every weekend.

When the students visited their favourite places and stores, they functioned differently. Data slates could scan entire bags of items and total everything immediately. Bills were sent to data slates with a small tap, and purchases were approved. One person could run an entire business, and Gringotts took a very small commission for providing the entire commerce suite. Students would usually bring their own shopping bag, fill the items in them and proceed to the checkout line, where the cashing and payment of the items happened in less than three seconds.

Other places like Madam Padfoot and others that served food and drink, now had ordering systems via the data slate. A special data slate designated by the owner of the establishment, would manage everything. Kitchen staff just prepared whatever orders popped up on the management system, and then orders were taken to the correct table. A small tap of the data slate transferred the funds. Students could even offer to share the expenses equally or divide it according to how they wished. There were also little handy extras that allowed students to see the cost of items before they were purchased and to set spending limits. For business owners and students alike, the Guild was a boon. People could even choose to pay with coins if they wanted, but people hardly ever bothered.

These changes also affected the social interactions of the young people. Many of the shy wizards or witches preferred to ask someone out via messages. Or sometimes, a person would ask via messaging to speak to someone alone, away from their friends. Other people who were dating across houses (particularly Slytherins and Gryffindors) used the items to plan clandestine dates. Hoodies became quite popular especially when people wanted to take a walk with their controversial date, without causing a public uproar.

And these changes in Wizarding culture had Hannah Abbott and Tracey Davis every bit nervous.

Both of them preferred girls, but that was not accepted completely by Wizarding society. Some people like Ginny and Astoria were too obvious and didn't care about anyone's approval. Tracey often wondered if Hannah liked girls based on the rumours, and Hannah wondered the same about Tracey based on her "chadette" appearance.

Tracey had the option to spy on Hannah's conversations but that seemed too creepy for her. And she understood that was somewhat hypocritical – she had no problem spying on Theodore. As the poor lad laid his heart bare for his foreign girlfriend, Tracey and Parvati often giggled. Frankly, they approved, as the pair was quite dreamy. The son of a Pureblood Lord in love with a muggleborn non-white Brazillian witch was just too scandalous by Pureblood wizarding standards. Hannah Abbott often wondered if Tracey was dating anyone. Ismelda and Merula had passed a conversation along sometime in year two that alluded to Tracey wanting to see 'her rack', in year one. While the comment was rude, Hannah's face had been too pink that entire weekend. Then, what followed was the behaviour that Tracey had displayed in the Chamber of Secrets.

It was hard for a person to save you from death, and to not like them.

Hannah was utterly surprised when Tracey and Parvati had tackled the obstacle course with Daphne and Padma. That was the day that the Gryffindors and Slytherins cheered together. Hannah liked watching Tracey at the obstacle course – her methods were athletic and very agile. Hannah even wondered if Tracey was good at dancing. It was also interesting to see Daphne and Padma work together – apparently Daphne could speak Padma's native tongue quite easily. The yelling from across the field had left the attendees quite surprised. And Tracey and Parvati just knew how each other moved, and preferred hand signals. That episode was long over, and Hannah was on the way to her library.

Maybe Daphne could provide some information about her friend. Or maybe Parvati could help.

And somewhere within these thoughts, was the knowledge that Tracey knew the Storm-Lord and the Rune-Priestess. She wondered how she could find out more, without making Tracey feel betrayed. Eventually, Hannah managed to find Daphne in the library – it was a rare occurrence to see the snake. It was well known that 'they' were difficult to find on the castle grounds. Hannah approached Daphne, and she was surprised as the snake was having a soft conversation with Padma, in her native language of Marathi.

"Hello Hannah!" Daphne replied.

"Hi Padma. Hello Daphne. I was wondering if I could ask you a question about your friend, Tracey?" Hannah asked shyly. Daphne took her wand and silently erected a privacy ward.

"Nobody else can hear us. Come have a seat," Daphne replied, as the Hufflepuff sat down.

"I was wondering if your friend Tracey was…..available. And if she might be a…er….a witch's witch kinda girl?" Hannah asked, as her cheeks went scarlet red. Padma suddenly took five galleons out of her purse and handed them to Daphne. She had a small frown on her face, but there was a hint of a smile.

"I think Ms. Abbott, that you have an extremely good chance with my friend. She is single, and she does like chicks. Although, she would probably jump Cedric. She thinks that he is a luscious strawberry. But yes, she has been wondering how to ask you out. As for the galleons, I made Padma over here a bet." Daphne replied.

"Thanks. I didn't mean to pry but when you are….different…..things can get complicated," Hannah replied.

"No judgement here about that. My sister Astoria and Ginny Weasley definitely swing that way. Your face was so worried that I could tell, as you made your way across here. Thanks for five galleons!" Daphne grinned, as Padma looked at the snake with the most exasperated expression.

"Sure. I didn't know both of you were friends. You surprised us on the obstacle course," Hannah replied.

"Our parents started doing business recently. More importantly, I am fascinated by foreign magic and languages. I know a little Marathi and Sanskrit now. Padma is very bright in her traditional culture, actually." Daphne replied.

"Oh. Well, I am going to find your friend. How many languages do you know? I heard you translate mail or messages written in foreign languages, for people?" Hannah asked.

"My French is very good. Little German, Italian and Japanese. Sanskrit, Hindi and Marathi this one over here, taught me recently. I know some Devnagari script. I can speak some old Norse too, but that is a bit recent." Daphne replied.

"That is amazing! Why did you learn all of those languages?" Hannah asked.

"When you learn a foreign language and its conventions well enough, your subconscious adapts to thinking in that language. You can dream in that language too. It gives me mental flexibility for doing runes in unusual ways. The way we do runes in England is only based on Western methods. Lots of other ways to do magic too." Daphne replied.

Hannah even as a rather average student, had a 'a-ha' moment. Daphne's claims made sense. Padma followed with her explanation:

"Even I have benefited from learning some foreign languages. Master Healer Priya Singh speaks fluent French. That helps her get around quite easily, particularly in France. And I need all types of runes, for a lot of the things that I would like to do. So, we teach each other." Padma explained.

"Well thank you. So next time you meet your friend, can you tell her that I want to speak to her?" Hannah asked.

"Sure. That isn't a problem. I will also make it discrete," Daphne replied, as she flashed a brilliant smile.

Hannah was leaving the library and she had a skip in her step. Just when she arrived at the end of the corridor, she saw Tracey walking up the staircase.

"Hi Hannah!" Tracey replied.

"Hi Tracey!" Hannah responded.

"I am glad I ran into you. I wanted to ask you something," Tracey replied she suddenly became nervous.

"Yes, we can go to Hogsmeade!" Hannah replied.

"Uhhhh…really?" Tracey replied, with excitement in her voice. Now the Slytherin was tucking her short bangs of loose swept back hair, behind her ears. Her eyebrows were raised, in utter surprise.

"Yes! I actually…went to find out….if you….well…" Hannah replied, as she stopped mid-sentence. Tracey took a risk, as Hannah seemed flustered.

"Are into…..girls?" Tracey asked, with trepidation in her voice.

"Yes. But..…well I guess I know now?" Hannah replied.

"I will message you the details?" Tracey suggested, as Hannah suddenly hugged Tracey and tiptoed before pecking her on the cheeks. As soon as that occurred there was very loud clapping from Neville, Luna and Ronald who had just arrived at the top of the stairs. Hannah just gave a polite wave as she ran off in embarrassment.

"Eyyyyyyyyy! Getting some badger action, eh? You know I approve!" Ronald asked, as he grinned.

"So, our bird…found another bird. Nice!" Neville teased.

Hannah could hear the boy two flights of stairs down, and she was still red as a tomato.

"Shut it both of you. Be quiet just like Looney! Notice she didn't say anyhting?" Tracey replied, as the four of them headed off to the library to find Daphne.

Hannah understood that their guesses so far, were correct. So, they were friends after all. Later that evening, Hannah explained that she had scored a Hogsmeade date with Tracey. Susan and Ernie were quite happy, as they began to tease the Hufflepuff about being their "secret operative."

---

Part III: Quintillionaire

Harry and Hermione had asked for a private word with King Ragnok, Bloodaxe, Griphook and Barchoke. As the teenagers got seated, King Ragnok looked at the excitement on the faces of his friends, and grinned.

"This is going to be really good. I can feel the magic coming off the both of you." King Ragnok laughed.

"Definitely. So, we haven't spoken in a long time. We both went on a holiday, and we had an opportunity to learn old magic. Much of it is protected by oath, but we did manage to figure out the mechanism as to how Gringotts got such a great deposit of gold. Or at least we….think so?" Harry replied.

"That is one of our oldest legends, that even we do not understand. And you are saying you understand what was done?" King Ragnok asked.

"Well….." Hermione began, as she summoned the map of Yggdrasil.

The conversation for the next hour had recapped her time at the reserve. Even without the details, the King began to understand that Hermione had seen something that even he did not understand fully. She was happy to project the pathways and explained how particles of gold and other precious gems (that had been vanished somehow or entangled in the magical dimension) could have been forced to amalgamate into gold and precious gems with the right kind of enchantment. They also talked about their suspicions about where magic came from, and how the "abyss" generated magic stabilising particles and pumped it all over the galaxy. The conversation also delved into Astronomy, as Hermione was even able to conjure illusions of common processes that happened in the core of stars. This provided context as to where precious materials came from, on the planet.

The main points were that precious materials could float purely within the magical branches of the Yggdrasil. With the right kind of enchantment, the magic of the world tree could be used to amalgamate the microscopic particles, and physically manifest them into existence. However, the majority of precious materials were formed within the core of stars, and they were often found on a planet or in asteroids.

"So, this is what King Gobblydook did. We always wondered how a magical enchantment could produce wealth out of nothing. That seemed to violate the laws of transfiguration. Rather, the charm used was to gather what was already there. It was manifested and transported down the world tree. This is a titanic piece of magical lore you have shared with us. Both of you have grown much, in what you know." King Ragnok replied, as there was a nod of approval from the others.

"Oh, you haven't heard the best part yet. I can remember when I first greeted you so many years ago, I mentioned Smaug the dragon and his gold pile. And also consider that Invictus did donate his gold to get things kick started, with my brother. Both of us are going to make you Smaug this Christmas by…." Hermione began, as she explained their preposterous plan.

King Ragnok found himself shocked at the audacity of these teenagers – but then, that was the benefit of having a genuine partnership with them. He considered that if this operation was pulled off, he might manage four hundred million galleons in minted gold. Of course, King Ragnok had not asked how much gold the pair were interested in mining. He merely assumed the amount, based on what was a large amount of gold for him.

So, what was the outrageous plan?

The pair were going to send one thousand drones down a magical pathway that would allow them to mine gold from 16 Psyche, which was an asteroid that contained many rare materials. The apparition pathway would be open for a maximum of four days. The drones would apparate to the asteroid and use an emitter to fracture the asteroid surface into a powder, after conducting scans. Each drone would take one hour to full its mining cargo. Then the drone would return with the materials at Gringotts.

The wealth from this mining operation would be shared across the board 50/50. Harry and Hermione would take fifty percent combined, and the Goblins would take the other fifty. The Goblins would operate each drone individually, and Harry and Hermione would monitor the operation and decide where to dig, as they looked at the scanners. King Ragnok was expecting to get three or four metric tonnes of gold until Bloodaxe asked the relevant questions.

"How much space would we need to store all this material? How much tonnes of precious metals are we looking at?" Bloodaxe asked.

"Each drone can carry about 950 cubic feet of material. Or in metric, twenty seven cubic meters. Assuming that every drone made about eighty trips over the four day period, say about seventy six million cubic feet." Harry answered.

King Ragnok became silent, as he actually squinted.

"Let me just confirm that. Seventy five….million cubic feet?" Barchoke asked.

"Yes. Now some things that we must consider, too. The gold we might be able to process immediately. Many of the other precious materials will have to be brought back as powered ore. And then we will see if we can use magic to do the processing. Or, we have to sell them to other places to process them. We could lose as much as eighty percent of the material to just waste," Harry explained.

"But even with that being the case, the prospect of so much gold…it is mind boggling." Bloodaxe commented.

"We made so many drones because we need three hundred thousand tonnes of gold for the Lilly Potter. We have a new steel mixture that is as hard as diamond. We want to embed that into the plastic. We have many recent innovations to share. When we are finished with this, we can get you updated for our new steel recipe." Hermione explained.

"As hard as diamond?" Bloodaxe asked, incredulously.

"Yes. I learnt much in India with my mother. The Auramite is very heavy - a thin sheet of this metal feels very hefty. Monomolecular blades made purely from this High Entropy Alloy do not even get damaged when they clang on other objects." Harry replied.

"We have many places that when used together, will meet those requirements. What metals are we looking for?" King Ragnok asked, as now he was very excited.

"Primarily gold. The majority metal we might find might be iron and nickel, also. Platinum, Palladium, Iridium and those types of things also occur, as ores. That is where our advice will be important as we watch the scanners. As for the operation of the drones, it is the same as the existing mining drones. Some of the lesser occurring materials are so damned expensive because of their scientific applications. Rhodium is eight times more expensive than gold. And then we need bigger stockpiles of platinum group metals for our experiments too." Harry explained.

"This operation will be done under secret mandate. Is there any preparation that you need to make?" King Ragnok asked.

"We have the control room, and everything already built. We need to apparate the module and probably have the kitchen on hand – Hermione and I are not sleeping until this thing is over." Harry explained.

"Can this operation be done again?" Barchoke asked.

"Yes, but I would advise that we look to the smaller asteroids to mine after we are done today. These asteroids are how humans in general will get resources to live on other planets. After we make our heist this Christmas, Gringotts can continuously process the smaller asteroids. Hell, even if you got nothing useful you could sell the powered rock as sand!" Harry joked.

"Ah, an argument about using the environment responsibly. If this operation is successful, we will be responsible with the continuous mining. To borrow your language Harry, we are rolling out paper based bills next year, and fuck the rest of the other enclaves. We will be keeping our gold within Gringotts walls where possible." Ragnok laughed.

---

It was the 20th of December.

For the past four days the mining operation had proceeded without any issues. When the final drone had come in, there was a large round of applause and high fives. Everyone had so much precious materials that they could crash the world's gold economy if they attempted to sell everything.

The mission had started with the group hitting several Nickel and Sperrylite ores. Other drone operators had seen many gold deposits, that were embedded in various huge expanses of quartz. The glint from the drone lights had been enough to help Harry and Hermione to analyse the issues. Harry had copied his micro-bombardas into the emitters and as soon as the drones arrived, they anchored themselves and began to break up the rocks within a Protego containment field.

While most of the drones had their own cloaking bubble, Harry and the rest chose to work behind the asteroid. This was to avoid the telescopes picking up on any activity.

As the mining on the dark side of the asteroid occurred, pure quartz powder was ejected. The gold powder was siphoned with the use of magical emitters into the force field storage. The group had managed to get tens of thousands of tonnes of platinum ores. This, when refined would outstrip the entire amount of these materials that had ever been mined in human history, on planet Earth.

Gringotts, and the pair of teenagers were probably quadrillionaires. Mind you, if they were to cash their metals out there would be no worth to them. However, if they sold the metals in a controlled manner? They would have enough money for many generations.

Harry and Hermione were already organising with Lorna to build schools throughout impoverished places in the world. Grain and protein complexes were going to be shipped "anonymously" along with flash fabricated housing. There were open conversations about the relief work that Harry and Hermione were interested in doing, and King Ragnok decided that he too, would contribute to their efforts whether it was magical or muggle.

There were some other advantages that came out of the operation. Most of it was related to the testing of the drones, and these technologies would find itself in other places.

The EM Cloaking field was hypothetically capable of blocking out solar radiation for extended periods if it was powered from the reactor. These tests had been successful in the laboratory. However, extended torture tests in space were better at validating reliability. Not a single drone had registered any cosmic radiation or any high energy wavelengths that would damage human tissue. Also, the grav-drive on the drones had performed admirably in space and could easily manage earth's escape velocity. Each couch sized drone could carry twenty seven cubic metres of material. With the power from the new fusion reactors, these small devices had the ability to life extremely heavy objects. That would be handy in aiding in massive construction projects.

As the drones apparated into the storage caves, tens of thousands of metric tons of rare minerals were dropped off every half hour. The drone operators had gotten mostly gold, but also some copper and magnesium too. There were also thousands of tonnes of osmium, ruthenium and rhodium, which were ridiculously expensive. After the first four hours of continuous mining, Harry and the rest were already billionaires.

After the magical pathway shifted out, it would not be possible to mine the 16-Pysche asteroid. If the drones missed the apparition corridor they were stuck in space unless they were manually guided home. Harry and Hermione decided to leave the drones running as shift teams would continue to see what could be obtained from other parts of the asteroid belt.

Eventually the four-day period was over. However, they had exceeded all of their targets for precious mineral extraction. Gringotts had managed to get as high as sixty percent of the complete carrying capacity, full of precious metals and minerals. Gringotts London had an underground mountain of gold.

"Well, congratulations. We are the wealthiest people in the world?" King Ragnok joked.

"Magicals were flying in the air for at least one thousand years before the Wright brothers. And then they got stuck, and never beat gravity. This is what Magicals should have been doing." Harry replied, as they were nods from the drone operators.

"What now?" Bloodaxe asked.

"Time to take a rest. I sent the recipe for the HE Alloy to Timilf. Have fun with that. Hermione, think we are ready to add the grav-drive and the new reactor? Everything performed admirably. We could include the new and improved jump drive algorithm?" Harry asked.

"Sure. I will dispatch the drones to build the final modules. We do not have control systems for all the other things yet, that one is a bit of a doozy," Hermione explained.

"Alright people! This was great. I am going home to sleep!" Harry replied.

"Season's greetings. While you are human, we Goblins honestly think that both of you can pass for full Goblins now. Thank you once again for freely sharing with us," King Ragnok replied.

"Right back at you! Please do terrorise your competitors. Toodaloo!" Harry replied, as he and Hermione apparated out of the cave, via Grace.

---

The entire group of drone operators were staring at the various caves that were filled with entire mounds of gold powder. There was enough gold to take a swim just like Scrooge McDuck, in the infamous Duck Tales cartoon. Many of them while they were operating the drones, still could not believe what was happening. Lord Peverell and Lady Granger were impossibly brilliant and just stark raving mad.

"My liege, what if the other enclaves hear of what we have obtained? This amount of gold is…..I think I want to faint," a drone operator explained, in Gobblydook.

"The other Enclaves can do nothing Xixxa if I activate the force fields. We received an upgraded reactor package and other warding advancements, recently.

Oh believe me Xixxa, I understand all too well. We could afford to forge the entire of Gringotts in solid gold. We could crash the global precious metals market. Some of the other ores are far more valuable than gold. Particularly the platinum group of materials. I think we are going to have a fantastic World Cup after all. I think I can make some bets on the English this year. And we are rolling out the paper based money, fuck the rest of them," King Ragnok replied.

"My liege, what does Artificer Peverell plan to do with his share of the gold? I only ask because I am aware that he and Priestess Granger have built every single innovation that we use. His shields saved me from the cave-in many years ago. Is he….building something?"

"Ah Juraaq. Yes, I remember your incident. I might as well tell all of you. If he runs short on gold, we will find more for him. Consider everything discussed in this room information bound to secrecy as mandated by your King.

Out of the thirty eight million cubic feet of gold that we have mined, approximately 14 million cubic feet will be used to build a ship. This ship is called the Lilly Potter and it is a magical dreadnaught. The ship could be about 3300 ft long. He was initially planning to build one third that size, but he changed his mind as the materials came in."

The assembled goblins were flabbergasted as they had to pause. King Ragnok continued with his explanation.

"So why build such a ship? It is to explore the heavens. We as magicals will one day be able to put our feet on another world in the cosmos. And that is why this investment is so costly. But I understand. This ship must be self-contained in all respects and should be able to carry an entire society. The ship must be quite strong too. The air pressure that we consider normal does quite a number in the void where there is no air on the outside. I understand that most of the ship will be as hard as diamond. I personally cannot wait to see what he will do," King Ragnok replied.

"Is the steel the new seven metal mixture that we are using? Forge-Mistress Timilf says that the metal surpasses everything in the entire world. I saw the new armour, this morning. Not even dragon claws could get through that material?" a random goblin asked.

"That is our culprit indeed. It is called Auramite. It is a recent discovery that Harry made. We officially have the best weapons among all goblins worldwide. And we can afford to sell them quite expensive. The demand is quite high. However, know this too. Regarding this massive ship….Harry has no problem pointing every single cannon on that proposed ship at Voldemort and his supporters. And when the child-murderer and his goons return, understand that absolute hellfire will reign down on them. This will be justice for the Goblin Nation.

That the oath-breaker would dare to kill a Goblin family and a child? And there would be no repercussions? No, I know the name and identity of this so called Dark Lord. We will have our revenge.

But we all know what occurred that day in Diagon Alley. That was the day that the blood that Harry and his family shed forced us to watch on, in respect. And we are already hard to impress when it comes to violence."

"Let us hope that they will paint the streets red. I can see it coming. Let them all die pitiful deaths. We will not have upstarts like the Death Eaters challenging our commerce ever again," Barchoke replied, as the Goblins all nodded in affirmation.

---

Part IV: The Resistance movement

The Christmas Holidays had arrived. Most of the students usually chose to visit their parents. It was the day before Christmas Eve, and many were boarding the Hogwarts Express. As Atticus talked with Rothley and Everest, they considered that their conversations needed to be devoid of personal details. The three boys entered an empty compartment and locked the door. It was time to see if their hunch would play out. They immediately began with a search of every crevice. After some fumbling they found the small, framed membrane that was stuck under the chair. Atticus placed the item in a jar with a privacy ward and placed it in his trunk.

"So, we are in the big leagues then?" Rothley asked the other two boys.

"Looks so. Just as you predicted," Atticus replied.

---

When Cedric had approached Atticus some weeks ago, the Slytherin was surprised. The piece of parchment asked him to come alone, and to meet him far outside of the castle. He even found the instruction to leave his Terminal at the castle odd. However, Cedric was a mild person, and Atticus reasoned that as long as he had his wand, he would be alright. Later that day, Atticus had complied with Cedric's stipulations, as he arrived at the abandoned bench. He observed the Hufflepuff's worried face, and he caught on quickly enough.

"Cedric, is something…big….happening? Is that why we are so far from the castle? And why did you ask me to leave my Terminal behind?" Atticus asked.

"What I found out is…..it has me shaking. I need the cooperation of people who aren't aligned with Malfoys. Neutrals or Light side houses. No adults are to be involved. As for the Hand Terminals, they are being used to spy on us. They listen to all of our conversations. They know everything about us. What we like to buy, where we possibly live….it is alarming." Cedric insisted.

"Spy on us? But that would mean….ah shit. I have been listening to rumours. The darker houses are up to some kind of shit. I know they planned that Diagon Alley stunt. Something to do with that?" Atticus asked.

"Worse. The issue isn't immediate, but when it arrives….it could be really bad. I need you to send invites, and you have to do it by word of mouth. I am talking about another Wizarding War on the horizon. I have my reasons as to why no adults aren't involved yet. We have pensieve evidence, but considering that it was stolen from adults, well…." Cedric explained quietly.

"Alright. My family is good with some of the smaller neutral houses. I will put the call out. Is Rothley and Everest all right?" Atticus replied.

"Yes. See if you can get Violet. As I said, whatever you say must be done by passing notes or by being away from any places which are Wizarding Hot Spots. They are all being monitored, which includes the whole Castle. And I cannot say if the people who are monitoring us have good intentions. It is complicated. Consider this House business. If you have any friends who are half-bloods or muggleborns, ask them to explain electronic government surveillance. And not Percy, or friends of Neville. They are involved in this." Cedric explained.

Atticus frowned, before he nodded.

"Right. I will take the necessary precautions and I will try my best," Atticus replied, as he wondered about the Weasley's newfound wealth. Something made him suspect that Cedric was well informed. As Atticus arrived back at the common room, he led Rothley and Everest to a patch of open space, outside of the castle. He soon explained his strange requests to leave the Hand Terminals behind, as the horror of the situation unfolded.

"If Cedric says that he has evidence of surveillance via the Terminals, do you think the Hogwarts Express might be bugged? It could be lots of other places too," Rothley asked.

"One way to find out. How bout' a good ole' pat down when we are heading home for the hols?" Everest suggested.

Atticus frowned, until Rothley described the contextual meaning of the word.

---

Now that the item had been discovered, Atticus and the rest spoke via parchment scribbling. It was tedious, but it guaranteed their privacy. Atticus assembled a list of other people who were politically neutral, as he made the necessary plans. To deal with the spying, Atticus would use an old, silenced trunk to store his Terminal when it wasn't being used. When the Slytherin arrived home, he personally visited a small group of people he often met at some of the smaller soirées. Many of the neutral students were quite interested, as any information that they could gather was of value. Lord Black had hinted at something dark coming, and many of them reasoned that Cedric knew something.

And they were not wrong.

On the other hand, Siobhan McMillian was able to arrive at Justin's house via the Knight Bus. She made preparations to pick him up the next day, via apparition. Perkins, Rothley and Everest had the option to use the Knight Bus, but they decided they decided on a small road trip, as they organised everything via phone calls. Rothely's pick-up truck would be parked up at a nearby mall, and the group would skip across to the Leaky Cauldron. Then they would floo into Bones Manor.

Meanwhile, Sarah Abbott had arrived home, in time to spend Christmas holidays with her family. Her boyfriend had encouraged her to take therapy to deal with the Diagon Alley experience. Initially, she had not wanted to open up to anyone about the event that had happened two years ago. However, her boyfriend had insisted that he knew a dependable person. Eventually, Sarah got in touch with Charlotte Parsons, who was the only mind-healer at St. Mungos. Of course, the Hufflepuff was not aware that Charlotte knew exactly who was the Storm-Lord. Sarah had been encouraged to observe her memories from the third-person perspective, as Charlotte held her hand and helped her work through the pain.

There was the acknowledgement that while the experience had been frightening, she had not been violated. Sarah had decided that she would practice defending herself, as her boyfriend was a new recruit in the Auror core. Sarah was also quite happy to provide the memory to Amelia Bones, who insisted that she get to the bottom of the issue. Sarah arrived home to find her sister waiting for her. Hugs were traded, and Sarah had no idea what was coming at her.

"You look like you are up to mischief. Stole cookies from the jar?" Sarah asked.

"Worse. I know the thing that happened is really difficult, but I want to tell you about something that happened to me. Do you have your terminal on you?" Hannah asked.

"No, it is in my handbag in the living room," Sarah replied.

"Good. Keep it there. This is between us, as sisters. It all started one evening when…."

Sarah listened to the entire explanation, before Hannah explained what happened to Susan. Sarah had to hug her sister, as she realised that her sister had gotten involved in some type of madness at Hogwarts. As Sarah asked more and more questions, a faint picture of the entire situation built itself. Sarah listened, as Hannah elaborated all of the smaller details she had managed to piece together, along with Susan's experience. Finally, there was a mention of the letter that the Storm-Lord had sent to Susan's aunt.

"Are you sure you and Susan are not Gryffindors?" Sarah asked.

"No. We worked really hard to put all of this together," Hannah replied as her elder sister smiled.

"Well, I would like to find out more about my mysterious saviour. I had a crush on him for a while. Never told Jim, that would make him feel bad. So yes I am coming, and I will offer my memories if necessary. Yes, we will keep this secret between us" Sarah explained.

"Thank you. I don't know what I would do without you," Hannah replied, as she hugged her elder sister.

---

The next day at Bones Manor, quite a large group had been assembled. It included Cedric, Susan, Hannah, Sarah, Justin, Ernie and his cousin Siobhan. As the floo flared, the Hufflepuffs prepared for what would happen. Then, Violet along with Carina and Dale had arrived. The additional Ravenclaws were both Violet's best friends, and her Quidditch teammates. Violet gave Atticus a small kiss, and she wondered what all of the fuss was about. There was a small meet and greet while the Hufflepuffs waited for the others to arrive.

Anthony and Terry materialised out of the fireplace, ten minutes later. Rothely, Everest and Perkins appeared soon after, as they flooed from the Leaky Cauldron to Bones Manor. Finally, were the Slytherins who were in Daphne's year which included Ismelda, Merula, Roger and Oliver and Antoc.

"Season's greetings people!" Cedric replied as he pointed to a question on a piece of paper.

"Did you bring your terminals or any devices from the guild?"

After there was a collective set of no's from the group Cedric visibly relaxed. He erected privacy wards, and he began with the preposterous explanation.

"Right. Happy Yuletide and Happy Christmas. I asked you not to bring the items because they are being used to spy on us. I am going to explain what we know so far. Feel free to help yourself to some tea or sandwiches. And yes, we have pensieve memories as promised.

We have definite proof that He-who-must-not-be-named will be back. We also might have some information about the Storm Lord and his associates," Cedric explained. Now there was a flabbergasted expression on the faces of the motley group of people, who were assembled, as Cedric started from the beginning, of a rather convoluted story.

---

Three hours later, the entire group were scratching their heads. The Pensieve memories and the letter had been enough proof.

The memories had been separated with the non-violent ones being shown first to the younger people. Then the violent ones were poured into the pensieve, and the option was provided to pause the memory and withdraw if any of the older students became uncomfortable. The killing and the blood had been visceral, and vomiting had followed. Many of the girls had cried too. Many of the older students had to shake off the feeling of the magic, after withdrawing from the pensieve.

The Storm-Lord was not just a random magical. He was probably as powerful as Albus Dumbledore. His mind and his blood hummed war. And his language was something else.

Atticus was sure that his obscene vocabulary had been expanded. Hannah did not choose to talk about her experience in the Chamber of Secrets, but she alluded to knowing that Neville and Ronald owned fifty per cent of the Quidditch broadcasting service. She also provided snippets of reasoning as to why the star students of Hogwarts knew the Storm-Lord and the Rune-Priestess. As the entire group of individuals settled down, and Atticus stated the obvious observation.

"So that is why they can fight like that. That is why they had us run the obstacle course. It all makes perfect sense!" Atticus replied.

"Can you believe this? The Dark Lord was our Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. And the headmaster, he knew? And he didn't say anything? Not even after somebody else dealt with the issue?" Twigs explained.

"More like just the Dark Arts teacher. Draco almost killed us! The damned ponce! I wish I could show my father this!" Roger exclaimed.

"Me too. But Susan's aunt would probably murder her. So, we will hold our tongue for now," Oliver explained.

"That letter was illuminating. It also means your Aunt has some of his weapons and armour. I wish we could look around. He doesn't seem too bad, although he is absolutely ruthless in accomplishing his goals." Everest suggested.

"This is a guy who just looks at the Dark Lord, and decides to say…time to poke the bastard? That is still a little too much. How can they see through each other's eyes like that? And do they have Power Armour? Looks so?" Perkins exclaimed.

"Power Armor?" Atticus asked.

"We will get Justin to explain, he knows," Cedric replied.

"Neville's behaviour in the compartment with Slughorn – he knows. They probably know exactly what all of the Death Eaters are discussing in their homes, because they have access to the Storm Lord's surveillance. Know where they live too. Somehow, that gives me immense satisfaction." Atticus replied.

Antoc was suddenly having a miniature heart attack, as he began to wonder where his musical equipment had come from. Suddenly a certain green eyed bespectacled boy began to make a lot of sense. The overly quiet tinkerer guy who was just a little too big, and a little too easy going.

Him.

"There is no Guild. This is all a big game. Do we know what the Storm-Lord or the Rune-Priestess looks like?" Violet asked, as Antoc silently swallowed.

"That is where Ms. Bones will be able to help us. See, we know based on the Heads Up Display that they developed, that the Rune-Priestess goes by the name or nickname, Mione. And a certain 'Mione' called Ronald Weasley on the Terminal an entire thirteen days before the device was released to the public."

"And why did that happen?" Carina asked the group.

"Well, she is Ronald Weasley's girlfriend? Siobhan will help me draw the memory out. Also, there was an event that happened to me, and I met both of them. I am going to let Siobhan draw out all the memories and maybe we can try to figure out what they are using. These memories aren't violent," Susan replied.

Everybody began to squint. 'She' was Ronald's girlfriend?

"Wait I don't understand…..what happened Susan? You met both of them? But..how?" Perkins asked.

"Draco Malfoy placed an item on me. A diary. It had a piece of he-who-must-not-be-named in it. It possessed me and forced me to go down to the Chamber of Secrets, and unleash a basilisk. Then it petrified Ms. Norris, and I could not remember anything."

Not the entire group was watching Susan with morbid fascination.

"They snatched me from Hogwarts, took away the book and explained what happened. I got a tour of their workshop and I saw some of their things. They killed the basilisk and took the skin to make jackets, from what I understand?" Susan explained.

"Woman, get those memories into that pensieve immediately!" Carina replied, as everyone became excited. Susan nodded, before she focused on what she could remember. Siobhan carefully extracted the memory whisps while Cedric bottled all of the existing memories in pensieve. Then she placed the memories into the artefact, and everyone anxiously jumped into the pensieve.

As the group looked on, they saw as Susan examined the item in Ronald's bag. He was too busy talking to Cedric as she reached over under her papers and tilted the device. The group observed the picture of "/3 Mione /3" appeared on the device. They saw a girl in a tank top, with her arms and eyes filled with runes. The general fitness of the girl and her beauty did not go unnoticed. There was also an animated peck that occurred as Ronald received a kiss on his cheek. Then the memory ended, and everyone was transported to the fateful night when Susan had arrived in the lair of the Storm-Lord and the Rune-Priestess.

---

"I didn't mean it! He made me do it! I never meant to hurt Mr Filch's cat! Please don't hurt me!"

"You would think after he rescued you during the broom incident, that we want to hurt you? Rubbish. We wanted to have a chat with you."

"Tom said to trust him. He promised to bring back my parents!"

…

"Tell you what….the Storm Lord and the Storm Priestess are these mythical creatures, these great heroes that suddenly appeared in your world. How about if you take a look around our superhero lair, eat some of our snacks and we can tell you what happened?"

"Morgana, like that Morgana?" Susan asked.

…

"Sure. I am of her line. No, I am not related to her. Anyone with sufficient capability will qualify to join. I am a muggleborn. This one here is a half-blood. We are just hard workers." Hermione replied.

…

"Are you Hufflepuffs?" Susan asked.

"My mother is a Hufflepuff!"

…

"If you want. Tell you what. Do you want to meet his phoenix and my dragon?"

---

Everybody returned out of the pensieve. Violet immediately put everything together. The domesticated dragon, and the sassy bird was too much.

"This must be a recent thing. Charlie thought that Ronald was a little too happy-go-lucky when he had returned from his holiday in Norway. Even Charlie was wondering if Ronald had a new bird. That is why he seems to be in another land, far away when he is on a break at Quidditch practice!" Violet replied.

"Hey! I am happy for him. The Rune-Priestess is dating a Hufflepuff! She probably likes her men….loyal!" Perkins joked.

"He has known her a long time. I had liked Ronald in year one. He had the most…distant look on his face when I approached him in the library. He was unavailable since he landed in Hogwarts," Ismelda replied sadly.

"I figure that they were friends first for a long time. So childhood romance and all that," Merula added.

"Oh, poor you Ismelda. What is the big carriage looking thing, though?" Carina asked.

"I know exactly what that thing is! They built a fucking Babylon 5 Thunderbolt. I can't believe that. They are indeed people of culture! It is somewhat different, but I would know that design anywhere. Looks like it is pretty fast," Everest laughed.

"I have never seen a dragon that could talk. A phoenix and a dragon…that is absolutely wild. Susan, what kind of adventures do you get up to in your spare time?" Siobhan asked.

"Rothley, maybe you and Justin can tell us about the weapons that they are using. I did some reading on the guns. Why is the Muggle studies curriculum so out of date?" Cedric asked.

"Purebloods, the darker ones think muggles are living in the 15th century. They must be engineers. Did you see all the stuff in the background? They build their own shit. And they have German tools too. I know the look of Hazet tools, anywhere. They have CNC machines too! That is a proper prototyping lab. My sister would go wild in such a place, she is an engineer too!" Everest replied.

"I was wondering something. Susan, do you have a family elf?" Atticus asked.

"We do?" Susan replied.

"Summon the elf and ask it if any large objects were brought home by your aunt, recently. He likes to build large things, and everything is often put away in these big black boxes. They were all over his…..workshop." Atticus suggested.

"Booky?" Susan called.

"Yes, Mistress Susan," Booky replied, as he materialised with a pop.

"Booky, I need you to keep a secret for me. Pretty please?" Susan asked.

"Anything for mistress!" the elf replied, sensing the gratitude.

"Did any huge black boxes arrive recently with Aunty? I am doing a project for school, and I need to check something. And if Aunty comes home come and tell me alright. She isn't supposed to know," Susan replied.

"Booky will keep Mistress Susan's secrets. Follow me mistress!" the elf replied, as he led Susan and the group to an unused storeroom. The storeroom was at the end of the manor and was some distance away. When the group arrived and opened the door, Susan instructed elf to leave. The excitable creature received much thanks as Susan was quite happy she had found her aunt's stash of items. Rothley immediately opened all of the cases and they were met with the entire arsenal that Harry had supplied to Amelia.

Rothley took up the Type-7 Obliterator rifle and was shocked as the superconducting pieces disassembled. A targeting reticle and a laser sight was switched on, and an integrated ammo counter with the number 600 appeared. All of it was driven by illusions and there was a zoom function that did not require a lens. There were two sets of switches on the rifle.

The first was three way switch was labelled: STUN. EXPLODE. BYE-BYE

Also, was a firing mode switch that read: BEAM. DMR. SEMI. FULL AUTO

"Well damn. The thing looks like a Forerunner gun. Very Halo-ish" Justin suggested.

"I was thinking the same thing. I want to fire off a shot but the ammo counter will change," Rothley replied, while Cedric slipped on a torso piece for the body armour. Rothley stepped close to the armour and saw the power symbol on the shoulder pad. He tapped it, and a small hologram appeared.

"Welcome to the P&G Series 9 body armour. Stand by as we adapt the energy shielding to your body dimensions," the robotic voice replied. Protegoes flared and they began to confirm to Cedric's body.

"Protego and Cyclonic shielding online. You are fully protected from almost all magical attacks and all the unforgivables. Please pair the torso with the other pieces to ensure better coverage."

"Did they just say….all the unforgivables? But those can't be blocked? Well, I mean the killing curse can be blocked with his armour from the memories, but looks like they figured out the rest?" Violet asked.

"One way to find out. I don't have to kill or torture. Imperio. Cedric will have to tell us who his crush is?" Atticus suggested.

Everyone giggled, as Atticus did not seem to have any terribly bad intentions.

"Might as well. We need to know?" Cedric suggested, as everyone stared on anxiously.

"IMPERIO!" Atticus yelled, as he summoned all the magic he could muster. All that occurred was that the shield switched on, and there was a set of red sparks that flared. Now everyone was looking on, in amazement.

"This…..this could change everything. Could you try some stuns?" Perkins asked.

Atticus began to stun Cedric, and all that occurred were the miniature Protegoes, that were summoned. Atticus even tried a Depulso and a Bombarda and the armour just didn't care. Atticus then had a worried expression on his face.

"Look this is amazing. But I don't think the Storm-Lord and the Rune-Priestess would give away their most advanced artefacts. So, the question is what else do they have?" Atticus wondered.

"That is a valid question," Cedric replied as Justin tapped his shoulder. He was surprised when the armour ignored his hand.

"I have an idea. We can take some shots with the rifle, and we can change the magazine, and place a new one in?" Justin suggested.

The next thirty minutes was spent, as the group experimented with the rifle. Susan had a large backyard, and the rifle had a magnification feature on the rifle sights. After lobbing some objects far away, they managed to ascertain that the rifle had an effective range of 1200 feet. Many of older students could use the rifle easily, as there was no bullet drop and no recoil in any case. Justin and Rothley discussed the features and came to a rather correct conclusion.

"This has to be some type of plasma rifle. We aren't sure but seems like that. That beam doesn't look like a laser. The beam is quite hot, and it can melt metal," Justin stated.

"There is no wand that has this kind of range. And then, they have energy shields. The Death Eaters are going to be…..slaughtered. It won't go well for them, at all." Rothley replied.

"Good riddance. Susan, I am so sorry about your parents. But now that we know what Lucius Malfoy is, we will watch him closely. Your aunt at some time in the future, will have to gather the right people and have a chat with them. Now I am beginning to suspect Lord Black is very involved in these plans." Atticus stated.

"Cedric, I think I want to talk to you in private afterwards. I might be able to do some extra investigations," Antoc explained.

"Let us pack away everything. I think the way forward is clear. They are probably going to launch a surprise purge when the Death Eaters are vulnerable. Some of us will have to fight and keep them off balance, until they show up. Neville Longbottom and his friends might lead us until then," Siobhan suggested.

"Not all the Ravenclaws will not fight. Most of them will take the logical route and they will run home," Carina explained.

"Not necessarily. The logic of the situation becomes different if the risk is worth the ward. A good team of about thirty talented students could teach the rest during wartime. And if they feel confident, many will change their mind." Violet suggested.

"The best thing is for Neville and the rest to sharpen us up. When we go out for the new year, we attend the sessions, and continue with their morning exercise. By the time the Dark Wanker arrives, it must be too late." Atticus suggested, as the group began to leave the storeroom.

"You know, this was the best Yuletide for me. We are sitting on the biggest secret in magical England. Let us get back home before our parents start to ask questions," Twigs suggested.

---

Eventually the entire group made their way to their homes. Siobhan apparated Ernie back home. Everest, Rothley and Perkins were at the Leaky Cauldron as they decided to get a late night snack. All of the other people slowly flooed back to their houses, and Susan removed all of the evidence of the sandwiches and the tea. The Pensieve was placed back in her father's study as she emptied all of the original memories into the item.

Cedric and Antoc continued with their private but surprising conversation:

"Right Cedric. This is by Hecate's tits, top secret. I might be able to find out more about what they are up to. I visit the Weasleys and the Davis family regularly," Antoc explained.

"You are friends with who exactly?" Cedric asked.

"Ronald and Tracey. Great friends. We…..actually have a band, with yours truly on the bass guitar," Antoc replied.

"A…band? Are you serious? Who is in this band?" Cedric asked – he was clearly surprised.

"Ronald on the clean vocals, Neville on the harsh and the screams. Tracey on the drums. Ronald and Neville also play guitar. Ronald on the Rhythm and Neville on the lead. Luna on the keyboards and synths. Finally, Clara from your house on the violin, and the backup vocals. Or sometimes she will play the 2nd Rhythm Guitar…."

"Holy smokes. What kind of music?" Cedric asked, genuinely impressed.

"Heavy Metal, Hard rock, Industrial metal that type of thing. I don't think you will be familiar as those genres are really more popular in the Muggle world. But basically, one hundred times heavier than the Weird Sisters," Antoc explained.

"Geez! I want to hear you guys. Do you have recordings?" Cedric asked.

"I will send some of our stuff off the books. But make sure and keep the secret. More importantly, I do know that they have two friends that they always talk about.

They call them Jean and Hadrian. I wonder if they are….them. And then there was a practice session where I caught a glimpse of Lord Greengrass, Lady Augusta and Lord Patil. The Indian twins had just arrived at Weasley Manor, and they were surprised. I feel the introductions started that evening." Antoc explained, as he left out that he had seen Hadrian in passing.

"How long ago, was that?" Cedric asked.

"End of June. So, I do think they are recent to all this. When I go to practice will look around. One of the things we haven't asked the Weasley and Davis families is how they have normal muggle electronics running in highly magical places," Antoc replied.

"That is another important thing, to know. So, we can assume that they can use muggle things in magical places where they would usually not work?" Cedric asked.

"Yes. Actually, when I asked how they had managed to get their non-magical instruments to work, they said the Guild did a custom job. Tracey's drums aren't normal, someone built it. I would like to believe that the Storm-Lord and Rune-Priestess built my bass amp?" Antoc laughed.

"Right. I have a piece of parchment that I charmed with a protean charm. I will give everyone a copy, and then we can work on communicating silently. Keep an eye out at your band practice for us then?"

"Definitely Ced. The issue now is should I tell Clara. She is our violin player, after all?" Antoc asked.

"Tell her. You two are the people who are the closest to them, you might be able to find something," Cedric replied, before he cancelled the privacy ward.

Cedric signalled Susan, and she led him and Antoc to one of the unused fireplaces. Both of them flooed out of the manor, as Hannah and Susan made their way to the living room. Susan dug around in her pocket and gave Hannah a small item which was wrapped in gift paper. Hannah then took out a small present from her handbag and gave it to the girl.

"Happy Yuletide!" Hannah exclaimed, as she hugged the girl.

"Happy Christmas!" Susan replied, as she presented Hannah with a small jewellery box. As soon as they exchanged gifts, Amelia Bones apparated into the living room.

"Happy Yuletide Aunty!" Susan replied, as she hugged Amelia.

"Thank you, sweetheart. I didn't forget your gift. And I didn't forget you too Hannah," Amelia replied as she hugged the other Hufflepuff.

Little did the Head Auror know, that her two favourite girls were running their own intelligence operation.

---

"Harry?" Invictus queried, from Harry's comm device.

"Hmm gramps?" Harry replied.

"Somebody activated a rifle and a body shield. When I checked, I switched on the microphone on the rifle. Looks like Cedric Diggory is working with the Hufflepuffs. They suspect Neville and the rest. He is mobilising Hogwarts students. He also reached out to Slytherins from all neutral houses. I am fecking impressed, oh this is too good!" Invictus giggled.

"Nice. I like how he operates. I have heard from the rumours that he is handsome and charming. Good with his wand too. I want to suggest that he is good poster boy material?" Harry grinned.

"I think so too. Atticus is indeed a sly fox. He found one of our tracking devices in a compartment, and he took it home. The entire group left the terminals at their homes. They even managed to see a picture of Hermione, inadvertently."

"How much do they know?" Harry asked.

"Nothing that can threaten our plans. Rather, they seem to be willing to cooperate with Neville to help us. They were remarkably resourceful. They even figured out you are using plasma rifles, energy shields, and a HUD. Justin suggested that your armour does force amplification because he is a Si-Fi nerd. Susan was surprising. She shared all of her memories of the workshop tour, to convince the others." Invictus replied.

"That explains why a lot of young Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws are showing up for the Defence Club. They are communicating with other methods. Dispatch some micro drones to keep an eye on them at Hogwarts. You will send the recording and Hermione and I will start some bets. Actually, I will send Mipsy and Tipsy with a custom emitter to charm their buttons in their robes, or something else. I don't want Dumbles digging into their operation. Albus as an adult should try to do a better job,"

"I like them. They decided that they were going to handle this by themselves. Violet made a good point. She suggested that the Ravenclaws would logically fight, if they felt their skill could provide them the advantage. They also suggested that they could take turns to visit the kitchen, with the hope that they could meet you. They are aware that you and Hermione might eat there," Invictus replied.

"Hufflepuffs are not stupid. They just need to be nice because if they become cruel, the rest of us will have to run in absolute terror. As for the claws, I will speak to Helena. She will egg them on, for a laugh. We have the Hogwarts upgrade package to roll out. I want to ask the castle for permission first though," Harry explained.

"I honestly feel that these children are doing a better job than the adults. Albus is still too busy trying to ensure that his plan goes according to…...well whatever he has planned," Invictus replied.

"I think they are fantastic. I think we should not hide. Perhaps we should hang out with them when they arrive at the kitchen?" Harry suggested.

"You are enjoying this, aren't you?" Invictus laughed.

"The Peverell way is to be a troll. I want to look at them and speak to them and watch the gears turn in their little faces. And Hermione and I are not going to tell the rest how much they have figured out. I want to see how they will confront Neville and the rest!" Harry replied.