(Obligatory no ownership disclaimer)
AN: Hey guys.
Two meeting in this chapter, both important but for different reasons.
Hope you guys enjoy this one.
Chapter 13
"So, how difficult was it to set up this meeting?" Harry asked Arthur Finch-Fletchley.
"More than I wanted, but less than I feared." Arthur responded, while he opened his briefcase and took out some documents.
They were currently in a meeting room inside the Palace of Westminster, waiting for the prime minister to show up for their scheduled meeting. Arthur was able to set up a meeting, even if he said it was quite difficult to do it, due to the fact that they didn't want the meeting to be held in the office of the prime minister. He was only able to do it due to a stroke of luck, having met the prime minister in late April at a golf club that he was invited to. Arthur was then able to talk directly with the prime minister, presenting his request and dropping a pretty major hint that the heir of the trust Arthur manages, Harry, was involved with the people responsible for a certain portrait in the office of the prime minister. After that, Arthur said that setting up a meeting became easy, the prime minister taking an active stance in facilitating the meeting.
Harry was a little nervous about this meeting. Sure, he had met the minister of magic just last summer, but that one was an unexpected meeting in the leaky cauldron, and he didn't have anything important to talk about with the head of the magical government. This meeting was planned, Harry had been expecting it ever since Sirius told him that the meeting was set up, and the meeting was about something extremely important; this one meeting could make things a lot easier for their company on the non magical side.
The company, Elemental Energies, was already incorporated, and they already started the process of hiring people. Arthur and Sirius have a meeting tomorrow where they will hopefully hire someone to be the CEO, although the meeting will be watched by Harry and the girls using one of the mirrors. They are the shareholders, and even if Penelope is the only one of age in their group, they are still the ones that decide if someone is hired or not.
But even if a CEO hasn't been hired yet, the company is already making a few moves. They have already bought a test site near Lancaster for the first reactor. They found it funny that the first power plant built with magic will be built in a place in which so many witch trials happened. Returning magic to such a place was a nice little bit of petty revenge.
They also bought land and were already building a research centre near Reading. It was a perfect place for a research centre, a nice middle ground between London, Oxford University, the ports of Southampton and Portsmouth. Oxford was one of the best centres of learning in the world, and a place they hoped to hire some graduates from in the future. And being close to both the capital of the UK and two of the largest port cities in the isles could only help them in the future.
They even already had a couple of people working for the research division, Penny had left the Hogwarts during the weekends to both look for temporary labs, as well as hire a couple of scientists for their research division. She had only hired two before the end of the school year, and both of them had magicals in their families, so they were allowed to know about magic, even if one of those was stretching the statute a little.
Hermione's cousin, David Granger, was one of the new employees of EE. He was the one that sent some books to Hermione right at the start of the school year, so it seemed right for him to be one of the first to be hired to work with them, in a way he was involved in it right from the very start. David had recently achieved his masters in mechanical engineering and from what Penny said, he was quite happy to work with magic.
The other person hired was Catherine Leahey, a mid twenties Irish woman who was the older sister of a recent Hogwarts graduate, a classmate of Tonks actually. Catherine had both a bachelor's degree in computer science and a master's degree in mechatronics, and according to Penny, she was really looking forward to meeting both Harry and Hermione. Catherine wanted to work with robotics, and according to her, both Harry's research on lasers, and Hermione's research on superconductors could really help in robotics. Harry's research would help in a more indirect way, by improving the manufacturing process of integrated circuits. While Hermione's research on superconductors could be used in a bunch of different ways, both direct and indirect.
Both David and Catherine were studying rune books that Penny gave them, they needed to learn a bit about magical theory and how runes worked before they started to use them in their own research. That was something that Harry was really happy about, the fact that it wouldn't be just the scientists teaching them new things, but they would also be doing a bit of teaching of their own. A witch or wizard would always know more about magic than someone who doesn't have it, no matter how much they read the theory, practical experience was always more important, and that was something that a non magical could never have.
The entire group was looking forward to learning from actual scientists, instead of just reading from the books. Theory only gets you so far in scientific pursuits, just like it does in magical ones.
They were still looking for a lot more people to hire for the research division of EE. There were still a lot of areas they needed to cover, a geneticist, so Luna could have someone to learn from, a theoretical physicist would also be a lot of help, and a molecular chemist was also a priority, someone that could help Harry better understand the elements that he used in his alchemical transmutation.
But the biggest priority at the moment was an astrophysicist.
Harry's discovery at the end of the school year was probably the biggest one they ever made. Sure, it wasn't working, and it probably would take an extremely detailed way of asking for a working one, but the fact that the RoR could create a spaceship was massive. The ability to take apart and study any and all technology, real or fictional, was an advantage like no other. They would be able to study anything they wanted, as long as they asked in enough detail.
It also caused a bit of a philosophy debate between the group, because the discovery also showed that willpower can easily be exchanged for belief, if you believe enough in something, magic can create it, even if it doesn't actually exists. Parvati was the one that ended up asking the question that started the whole debate. What Happened to the magicals that pretended to be gods back in old times? Did the belief of the people actually turned them into gods?
It was pretty common knowledge that some of the gods of old religions were magicals pretending to be gods. But knowing the fact that belief shapes magic, one can make an argument that if enough people actually believe a magical is a god, said magical could become a god.
Hermione didn't agree with that theory. It wasn't a surprise to Harry, his girlfriend might have had her mind opened for the more mystical when she learned about magic, but finding out that magic can be used with science, and explained by it; she reverted back to what Harry imagined was her pre-Hogwarts stance of only believing in something when there was empirical evidence. So Hermione ended up leading the group of those that didn't believe that belief could turn a magical into a god. A group that consisted of Hermione, Penelope, Ron, Hannah, Sue, and Neville.
It caused the first small fight of their relationship, because Harry was firmly on the other group, he thought that belief could maybe grow the power of a magical. A theory that Harry had at the moment was that it wasn't so much as turning magicals into gods, but more likely making their magic so strong that godhood became basically semantics. Harry believed that something like that might be the reason some magicals are more powerful than others even to this day.
Someone like Bellatrix Lestrange, who probably believed so much in her own power that her magic grew to the point of making her as powerful as she believed herself to be. People like Dumbledore, Voldemort, or even Harry himself, who people believed are powerful wizards, so they ended up becoming powerful. Harry was by far the most powerful of their year group, probably the most powerful student in Hogwarts no matter the age. He didn't know the most spells, Hermione took that spot, but when it came to raw power, there wasn't a single student in Hogwarts that could match him.
And the best person to prove his theory was Neville. Their entire group could see almost daily how much Neville's magic was growing as he grew more confident in himself. Working with Luna and just being part of their group was having a major impact on Neville, He seemed more sure of himself and his place in the world, and his magic was growing stronger at the same time, which made him even more confident.
Hermione denied that confidence could play a part in Neville's grow in magical power, saying it could be just causality, but Harry was determined to prove her wrong, and he wasn't working on it alone. Luna, Parvati and surprisingly Daphne were more than willing to him. Luna and Parvati always believed in the more mystical side of magic, which were exemplified by Luna's fascination with mythical animals like her fabled Crumple-horned snorkack. Or Parvati's talent for divination, the most mystical of the disciplines they learn in Hogwarts. And Daphne had apparently read in old tomes in her family library that mentioned how, in the old days, the most powerful healer druids were the ones that had the most people searching for their help.
Harry looked to his right where his girlfriend sat and smiled. Hermione looked even more beautiful than usual, her blue dress falling down in gentle waves like a calm ocean, her hair was a little more tamed, but still had enough of its normal bushiness for Harry not to miss it. He always loved her wild, untamed hair. Her eyes were shining as she tried to look everywhere at once. Seeing her like that made it hard to believe he was good enough for her, but Hermione would probably punch him if she heard his thoughts, she did the last and only time he said it out loud. So he immediately stopped thinking it.
She was the one the girls decided would join him in this meeting, it would be impossible for them all to come, some Hermione was chosen to represent the others.
Apart from Harry, Hermione and Arthur, Sirius was the only other person they brought to the meeting. It was necessary, since Harry was still underage and Sirius was his legal guardian. He had joked that this would be the first and only time that Harry would see him live up to his name, and he certainly delivered. He looked like a serious person, with his three piece suit and perfectly combed hair, his usual casual, joking expression was nowhere to be seen, replacing it was what Sirius called his grandfather's Wizengamot face, which seemed to be a male version of the look professor McGonagall sometimes gave the students.
"Prime Minister Richard Smith, and Director General Antony Sinclair" Harry heard a voice announce and two men walked into the room.
All four of them stood up and waited for the two men to seat down before they sat again. Harry looked at the two men in front of him and thought that they both looked similar, with greying hair, and lines of their faces demarking their age, they both also had blue eyes and looked to be around the same height.
"Arthur. How was the weekend? Had a good game?" The Prime Minister was the first one to break the silence once the guards walked out of the room.
"Good enough, prime minister, and Michael won the game." Arthur responded with a smile.
"He's been winning ever since he bought that new wedge." The Prime Minister said, in an annoyed tone.
"True, he does love that new wedge." Arthur said chuckling a little. "Now that the obligatory small talk is done, let me make the introductions." Arthur added, making the Prime Minister chuckle. "The man to my right is Mister Sirius Black, to his right is Mister Harry Potter, and to his right is Miss Hermione Granger." Arthur introduced them.
"Mister Black, I heard about the circumstances of your illegal incarceration, that such a thing could happen on your side of our isles has been deeply disturbing news for our government. We know you have advantages over our justice system, ways to establish the truth, and the fact that even with these advantages, your justice system could fail you in such a way is a disgrace." The Prime Minister said, sounding a little angry.
"Thank you for your kind words prime minister Smith. I believe my situation stayed unresolved for such a long time because a certain politically powerful man wanted me out of the way so he could illegally seize guardianship over my godson." Sirius responded, and the man seated on the other side of the table nodded his head.
"From what my agents tell me, Dumbledore seems like the kind of man that likes to be in control of everything." The director general said, and Harry could see that Sirius was a little surprised.
"Mister Potter, I heard you are quite an important person on your side of our isles. I have even heard how your fame is akin to the Beatles at their height" The Prime Minister said.
"Yes, prime minister, and sometimes it seems even higher. I don't exactly like it." Harry responded, trying to keep his tone neutral. He always wanted to be just Harry, not the Boy-who-lived.
"I imagine you wouldn't, given its source." The Prime Minister said, in an understanding tone and nodding his head a little. "And you Miss Granger. I believe I remember you winning a few national academic competitions."
"Yes, prime minister. I won a few spelling competitions, and the national mathematics Olympiad for my age group when I was ten." Hermione said, blushing a little at the fact that the prime minister recognized her.
"I was quite happy to hear news about potential contact with people from your society that aren't members of your government, Mr. Black, as was Mr. Sinclair here." The Prime Minister said, looking at Sirius again.
"If you don't mind me asking, prime minister, how does Mr. Sinclair knows about our society? I was under the impression that it was only revealed to the current prime minister of the time." Sirius said, giving voice to his early surprise.
"Yes, your minister was quite clear on that point." The Prime minister said, chuckling a little. "But your statute of secrecy is far younger than our parliament, and no true government would destroy all its records, some are always kept hidden. There are still records of magical society on our country, and I would be willing to bet, every single country." The Prime Minister said, and Harry could once again see that look of surprise on Sirius' face, and this time there was even a hint of shock.
"As to how Mr. Sinclair knows about your society. It is the job of the director general to know everything that happens inside the isles." The Prime Minister added.
"MI5 has a group specifically tasked with watching the magical society; most of that group is consistent of those you call squibs, although there are also a few of the so called muggleborns within our numbers, those who decided they wanted to leave magical society after their education." Mr. Sinclair says, and Harry can see another emotion being added to Sirius surprise and shock; a hint of fear.
It isn't much of a surprise to Harry, he honestly expected it; all governments like to know everything, and it is not like the magical government isn't also spying on both the population, and the non magical society. He can understand a little of Sirius' fear, most squibs aren't treated well by their families, so they are understandably bitter towards magical society as a whole, so having them working for MI5 could end up giving the intelligence agency the worst possible view of magical society.
He also realized that the prime minister must want something from them. It was one of the lessons he learn from both Andromeda, who would always give him little bits of advice in between their dancing lessons, and Daphne, who liked talking about politics and human behaviour. They would always talk about how, if a politician reveals important information is because they want to earn your trust, because they see something even more profitable they could gain from you. It was something that Harry could easily understand, despite his limited knowledge of politics, Harry knew that most politicians would work to benefit themselves, their party and their nation, in that order. The only time that every single politician would put the nation and its people first, was when negotiating with foreign powers, and Harry imagined that, despite being in the same isles, magical Britain was basically a foreign power to the prime minister.
"We should leave the politics for another time, and talk about the reason you requested this meeting." The Prime Minister said, trying to move the conversation forward.
"Yes, we should." Arthur said, taking a few papers from inside his briefcase and handing it to the prime minister and the director general. "The reason we requested this meeting is Elemental Energies, a newly incorporated company that is owned by a group of young magicals, of which both Mr. Potter and Ms. Granger are a part of. I will let them do the talking now since they know more about the company and its eventual products than I do." Arthur added, making both the prime minister and the director general look towards Harry and Hermione.
"Before she died, my mother was working on a way to integrate magic and technology, I learned about it at the start of the year, and with the help of Hermione I decided that continuing her research was a good way to honour her memory. So, the two of us and a few other friends decided to start researching ways to make magic work with technology." Harry started the speech that both he and Hermione had practiced before this meeting. And he could see that it gathered the interest of the prime minister.
"We made many different discoveries about how magic interacts with basic science, but the first experiment we performed was getting a portable radio to work in a highly magical environment, something that was deemed impossible before, but Harry was able to solve that problem and get a radio to work at our school." Hermione said, smiling at him, and making Harry blush a little. He didn't think that his contribution was that big, but it felt nice when Hermione looked at him with that pride on her eyes.
"After that first successful experiment, our group divided into a few different projects, a few of them trying to recreate technology with magic, and others trying to make something electrical using magic, and in that process we managed to create a electricity generator using magical runes, one that has a consistent output, doesn't need fuel, has an extremely low maintenance cost and is more secure than any non magical way of generating electricity." Hermione added, and Harry could see the hint of greed that briefly appeared in the prime minister's face before he controlled himself again.
"We decided to use this generator to build a power plant and sell energy, both as a way to benefit society by making energy cheaper, and as a way to further our research. Our thought process was that with a company set up, we could create a research division for said company, hiring scientists that could both teach us better than the books we were learning from, and help us with our other areas of research. Like the even more efficient generator that Hermione is working one, one that is vastly superior to the current model we have available, or our friend's research into engines that has already produced a V8 that is 25% more efficient than the ones currently being used, or my own research, that could end up revolutionizing the manufacturing of integrated circuits." Harry said, hinting at a few of their future products.
"But, as you can imagine, we would end up having problems on both the magical and the non magical side. We can deal with the magical side easily enough, if we only use magic in the manufacturing process and don't sell anything that works with magic, we won't be having any troubles with the ICW for breaking the statute of secrecy." Hermione said, ending their part of the talks.
"And we were hoping that with your help we could clear the red tape. We certainly don't want any regulatory agencies looking too much into how our products work. It would only cause troubles for both our company and the governments, both magical and non magical." Sirius said, finally broaching the subject that they wanted.
"As you can see in the documents I gave you, our initial estimate is that we will be able to lower the price of electricity by 50%, with our second generation reactors cutting the already lowered price by another 75%. And that is just the first market we will be operating on, as Mr. Potter and Ms. Granger said, they are working on many new technologies that could revolutionize already existing industries and create new ones." Arthur finished their sales pitch.
They stayed in silence for a couple of minutes while the prime minister and the director general looked at the documents that Arthur had given them. Harry kept looking at them, trying to see their reactions and find out how good his chances were, and how much it was going to cost them. He wasn't as good at it as Andromeda or Daphne, but he had learned enough from the two of them, and his own time at the Dursleys had taught him how to read a person's body language, it was a necessary skill for his survival to know when his uncle was angry, or when Dudley was planning another round of 'Harry hunting'.
But the two men were good at what they did, so Harry couldn't get much from them. The prime minister seemed interested, so their company would probably get some help, but Harry couldn't find out more than that. His skill at reading people didn't translate to knowing how those emotions would make someone act.
"This certainly seems like something we want to encourage, the benefits of your company working on our society would be immense." The Prime Minister said, after a whispered conversation with the director general.
"The best way we can help you is by declaring your company to be of national strategic interest. It would clear a lot of the red tape, making it possible to bypass the regulatory agencies by using the military to do any necessary inspections. But to do that, your company would need to take a few military contracts, and the government would need to have both a participation in it, and a person as a member of the board." The Prime Minister added, and Harry started to realize what he wanted.
"We would also like to have a similar agreement with your company in the magical society, I believe it is called Marauders Inc." The director general said.
Harry understood exactly what they wanted, to spy on both the company and magical society. Having some of those muggleborn MI5 agents working for Marauders Inc. would make spying on the magical society a lot easier, Harry could already see how they would be 'encouraged' to invite some of those agents to things like Andromeda's upcoming ball, giving the agents direct access to the magical high society, including people like the minister of magic.
And he could also already see how they would try to reverse engineer the generators and any other future magical items from EE, but he wasn't worried about that. The generators have a record of magical signatures inside them, similar to how a wand records the magical signature of its owner so the DMLE can use that as criminal evidence, only those with a recorded magical signature can open the generators without activating the self destruction, which burns out the runic array in a way that it can't be recognized. It was Harry's idea to add that security feature, and the girls all thought that it was brilliant.
So there were some downsides and some upsides to the offer, but Harry was willing to accept, depending on how that military participation was. He looked to the side and saw Hermione giving him a small nod signalling her agreement, she probably already thought about the same things and reached the same conclusion he did. So Harry turned towards Sirius and Arthur and nodded his head to show that they agreed.
"We are willing to provisionally agree to this solution, but we would for our new CEO to negotiate a few details. When could a second meeting be scheduled?" Arthur said, making the prime minister smile. It was another thing they agreed upon before the meeting, they would only agree to the most basic terms and let the CEO they are going to hire the next day negotiate the details in another meeting. None of them knew how to negotiate something like this, so they would leave it for the expert.
Another meeting was scheduled for two weeks later and Arthur managed to get an agreement to build the test facility in Lancaster, so the four of them left the meeting room pretty happy with what they were able to accomplish. Once outside the Palace of Westminster they said goodbye and went their separate ways, Arthur going back to his office, and Harry, Hermione and Sirius going back to Grimmauld Place, where they would have lunch with Hermione's parents and then Harry and Hermione would take a portkey to the temporary labs, where they would meet their friends and the two scientists.
"Haaaaaaaaaa." Hermione screamed when they opened the door, jumping in fear and then hugging Harry, her face burrowing on his shoulder.
Harry was a little scared as well, alright he was terrified, but he was holding it in because Hermione needed him right now. There was an abomination inside the room, the thing had a crab-like body, with pincers instead of hands, wings made out of soft, membranous tissue, it's head an ellipsoid with little tentacles coming out of it, and to make it worse, the abomination was bubblegum pink. Harry was starting to regret giving those books to Luna.
"Luna, is that a Mi-go?" Harry asked, walking inside the room. Taking care not to displace Hermione, who still had her face digging into his shoulder.
"Yes, daddy has been teaching me how to make illusions. He said that maybe we could attract a male Crumple-horned snorkack if we make an illusion of a female one." Luna responded in a happy tone, petting the illusionary Mi-go.
"Can you put the Mi-go away so Hermione can stop trying to disappear into my shoulder?" Harry asked, keeping his tone calm for Hermione's sake, but inside he was terrified. That thing looked to real.
Luna ended the illusion and Harry nudged Hermione a little, showing her it was ok to look again. Looking around the room he could see that almost all of their friends were around, Hannah was in a corner of the room with a man that looked like a male version of Hermione, they were both looking at what Harry thought might be one of Hannah's modified V8s. Penelope, Padma, Parvati, Sue, and surprisingly Daphne, were talking with a redheaded woman. Tonks was also there for some reason, standing in a corner with Tracy Davies, and the two of them were almost rolling on the floor with laughter, but no sound was coming from it, probably a silencing charm.
Harry didn't understand why Tonks was there, sure, she visited Grimmauld Place almost every single day since they met, and she was quickly becoming a good friend to both Harry and Hermione, even if Harry couldn't understand why she always called Hermione a pervert whenever Hermione asked her to show off her metamorphic skill. But the fact was that Tonks wasn't involved with their research in any way, she had even less of a reason to be in the room than Daphne or Tracy, who were both actually starting to read a few science books.
Ron and Ginny were absent because Mrs. Weasley grounded them due to flying their brooms were the muggles could see.
And then there was Neville, who was standing next to Luna looking absolutely terrified.
"David!" Hermione screamed again, running towards her cousin. Harry following her at a more sedated pace.
"Hey little Queen of Sicily, I guess you are my boss now, right?" David said, chuckling a little and receiving one of Hermione's signature impact hugs.
"No, I'm not." Hermione said, pouting a little after breaking the hug.
"So, you're the genius one?" Harry heard a voice from behind him. Turning around, he saw the redheaded woman standing behind him, the entire group was now near the engine that Hannah and David had been looking at, Tonks and Tracy were still looking at Luna and chuckling a little.
"I'm guessing you're Catherine?" Harry asked, and the woman nodded her head. "If you're talking about Hermione, then yes, she is a genius, but if you're talking about me then someone has been lying to you." Harry added with a smirk.
"The girls said she is a genius, and these girls know a serious amount of science, despite their lack of a proper non magical education." Catherine said, making Hermione blush a little.
"I'm not that smart." Hermione complained, but no one took her seriously.
"And don't sell yourself short, boss..." Catherine started, but Harry interrupted her.
"Call me Harry." He said, and frowned a little when he saw Padma drop a galleon in the hand of her twin.
"I told you it wouldn't take more than a few sentences." Parvati said.
"Yes. Well, ignoring the little bet. As I was saying, don't sell yourself short, I heard you are working on lasers and also some kind of new metallic alloy." Catherine said.
"I am. I'm still having some troubles with my Excimer laser, but I was able to create a magical crystal that can be used to transform a lumos charm into a laser. And the metal I'm trying to create should have the same properties as vibranium, from the marvel comic books. I think I'm pretty close to a breakthrough there, and I should have a sample in about a month or so." Harry said, talking about his most advanced projects at the moment.
"A metal with the properties of vibranium would be a huge deal." David said, sounding a little impressed.
"I can already imagine how much a metal like that could advance robotics." Catherine added, also sounding impressed.
"Hermione has almost figured out how to make superconductors work with magic, and she is also working on a generator that could rival fusion power." Harry said, trying to take the attention away from him and put it back on Hermione.
"I'm actually looking forward to a smaller version of that generator. The runes can still work in a smaller size, and the energy output should still be enough to power an electrical engine." Hannah said.
"If we are talking engines, it would be easier to use hydrogen fuel cells. We already know how to configure the air making runes to make a single gas, so it shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks to build a fuel cell out of it." Harry said, drawing looks of shock from David and Catherine, and making Hermione give him one of those hugs that said he just had an amazing idea.
"We better catch up quickly, or the little geniuses are going to leave us in the dust." David said, and Catherine nodded in agreement.
"So, Harry. If you have that crystal with you, I have the tools in my lab to measure out its output." Catherine said, making Harry perk up. He did had the crystal with him.
"Lead the way." Harry responded, and then the entire group left the room towards Catherine's lab.
AN 2: Some government help to clear the red tape for the company.
And a couple of scientists hired, one of which was hinted in the second chapter.
Next chapter will probably be the ball, where the new magical TVs will be announced in front of an international audience.
And maybe our group will also get to meet a certain french girl, who Hermione may or may not end up drooling over.
Chapters 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 are already out on the pat re on. If you guys think my work is good enough to support and want to read ahead you can find me at pat re on .com (slash) TheUnseenScribe
I will see you guys in the next one.