Tonks sighed deeply and put down her book. Mad-eye had told her to completely memorise it as it described what Auror's might have to deal with, the fact it was written by Mad-eye meant it was about as accurate as you could get.
The trouble is that she wasn't a fan of reading, but as Harry's official bodyguard she hadn't had much experience in the field. The end result was Moody focusing entirely on keeping her in top shape while Harry was off at Hogwarts.
When Dumbledore had talked to Madam Bones the previous summer about hiring an Auror as a bodyguard for Harry, she had been reluctant. But then the minister had gotten wind of the situation and stuck his nose into it, instantly agreeing to Dumbledore's request.
While she couldn't prove it, Tonks was almost certain the headmaster had made sure Fudge heard about that meeting. Admittedly it was a good plan. Publicly, Fudge could now say "The aurors are not just the best force in the world, they are also providing exclusive protection for the boy-who-lived."
Ever since that announcement had gone out the auror department had seen over two times the amount of applicants, which normally would've stretched the budget to breaking point if not for Dumbledore's extremely generous payments to the auror office. for providing a bodyguard, had gone a long way in paying for those new recruits.
Getting up off the sofa, she did a cursory examination of the wards. It was completely useless, but Mad-eye would flay her alive if she didn't.
'Yup, still the strongest wards in the world.' She thought dully after running a few examination spells.
With that done she went upstairs and knocked on Harry's door, before opening the door and stepping inside. "Hey Harry, do you fancy going out to get something to - Merlin!"
The reason for her exclamation was the giant silver circular tube in the centre of the room, which was filled with so much magic it was arching out in bright green flashes.
"Hi Tonks, what's up." Harry said gloomily, standing just behind the tube. It was quite hard to look at him as the flashes of green kept leaving after images on her eyes.
"Well I did come in to see if you wanted to get something to eat… What's with the tube?"
"It's my last attempt at making Mithraite, inside that tube a small ball of mithril is flying through the tube and soaking up magic. I need to force the ball to absorb enough magic to melt back into raw magic, then quite a bit beyond."
"That's a lot of magic." Tonks said sarcastically, not really understanding what Harry was talking about.
"Yeah, but before the ball can get anywhere close to crystallisation point, whatever mithril I channelling the magic melts. This tube design was my last hope as by moving the ball I can minimise the magic in the shell, but it's still melting."
Just as he said this, the tube gave off one final flash and promptly melted into a puddle of mithril. Despite having average magical sensitivity, Tonks could still easily feel the excessive amount of magic kept within that puddle. Harry then simply held his hand out to the puddle and absorbed the entire thing back into himself.
"I need to go talk to the goblins if you want to get something to eat in Diagon." Harry said as he packed up his stuff, which amounted to him summoning his coat and hiding various objects deep within the pockets.
His final act was to take off the ring that hid his gauntlet and throw it into the air, which caused his original ship to jump off its stand. But, rather than fall and crash, it flew over to the ring and stored it within its hull.
It then flew back to its shelf and settled back into its stand, next to the mostly complete galleon and several old books on ship-based enchanting. Most notable was a large book titled: 'A magician's guide to ship building, by Thomas Slade', which Harry had clearly read several times.
"Right, lets go."
Before they left the house they checked in with Dumbledore, then disguised Harry. His mutatio watch had changed considerably since last Christmas, unfortunately it still wasn't to the standard Harry wanted. The amount of magic it gave off while maintaining the disguise was around the average passive output of a wizard, meaning people sensitive to magic wouldn't notice anything odd.
But it still glowed with his green signature and was only a visual change, his physical body still remained the same. He was also limited in transformations, namely either no disguise or his brown haired disguise.
If he wanted to edit his disguise he had to change the ideology of the watch itself, which wasn't ideal if he wanted to change quickly or stealthily. Fortunately, for a trip to Diagon, it was overkill. Not that Harry let that stop him feeling dissatisfied.
The two had their meal in the Leaky Cauldron and mostly talked about plans for the summer, like Harry's plan to revisit the Dumbledorian University for another lecture. As they talked he grew aware of the tension within the room, by the way people kept glancing at the 'Have you seen this wizard?' posters it wasn't hard to guess why everyone was so tense.
While he and Tonks knew Sirius was innocent, the general public still thought he was an escaped mass murderer… a mass murderer who had recently been spotted within Hogwarts wards. But, with their meal finished, they could leave the people to their worrying and finish their business.
At the steps of Gringotts Tonks veered off as there was no point in her joining him inside the bank. If somebody tried to attack him then the goblins were honour bound to protect him… and if the goblins tried to attack him then a single auror wouldn't make a difference.
"What is your business today?"
"I want to talk to someone about goblin made items." Harry said vaguely, not entirely sure about what he should be asking for.
"Very well… wait here." The goblin then hopped off his stool and disappeared through a door behind him, only to reappear moments later.
"Follow me." Harry tried to memorise the route, but there were so many twists and turns it was impossible to remember. Eventually he ended up inside a office that was clearly under-used, it was extremely plain and sparse, even for a goblin.
What cemented this image was the buffest goblins he'd ever seen, who was still wearing a huge leather apron and gloves.
"You must be Mr. Potter. I am Maker Grukkukt of the Mithrilium, I was told you were interested in my work?" She said in a monotone voice.
"Yes, you see I've been making my own Mithril for a few years and had recently hit a roadblock, so I decided to talk to you to see if you'd be willing to help me."
"So you would have me give up my family's knowledge for free, simply because you were curious? Knowledge we have spent centuries amassing?"
"Of course not, I have the sword of Godric Gryffindor. But my issue is that I only have the sword to base my own work off, but if I had the knowledge then I wouldn't need the sword."
Grukkukt wiped her hands on her apron as she thought, before begrudgingly nodding. "I will of course be requiring you to take an oath saying you aren't going to use what you learn against the goblin nation, or to make any profit off what you learned."
"Not with those terms, but I will be willing to say I won't use what I learn to unjustly attack the goblin nation. As for money, I don't have any plans for making money, so I will agree to not use what I learn to take money away from the goblin nation."
"That… is acceptable." She said, holding out her hand for Harry to shake. He recognised it as a basic magical contract, which meant there was no direct punishment for breaking it.
However both parties would know when it was broken instantly. Breaking it would also forever taint his magic, meaning other wizards would subconsciously find him untrustworthy.
"Very well, follow me." She led him back out the door and down yet another labyrinth of doors and corridors.
"The first thing you should learn is the difference between your mithril and our meithralum, despite what you might've been told they are different. Mithril is the solid form of pure magic, while meithralum is metals completely imbued with magic.
"In practice, the two metals behave exactly the same. However only wizard kind are capable of producing mithril, while any magical species could theoretically produce meithralum. Meithralum also requires existing materials, which significantly raises the cost."
By then they had reached a large door, which she easily pushed open, Harry couldn't help thinking that the room inside was the coolest room he had ever seen. There were pipes everywhere, all of which seemed to be leading to a giant kiln.
There was also an area that was clearly for shaping the meithralum, judging by the goblin hammering a meithralum sword against an anvil. What completed the aesthetic was the fact the room was coated in soot, except for the mithril objects dotted around the room.
"I think it would be best if I showed you the entire process." Grukkukt mused. "First off we need to decide on what we want, as once our meithralum sets we can't change it without weakening the metal. It is important we have a clear image beforehand."
She walked over to a large crate and pulled out a large gold bar, then walked over to the forge area and put on thick dragonhide gloves.
"Because of how to produce our meithralum, we can shape the gold to the desired specification. In this case a sword. First we need to heat the gold up so that it can be beaten into shape, for this we use liquid fire… you might know it as Greek Fire."
Grukkukt then went over to a sealed pipe and opened the end, immediately dark green flames leaked from the end and dropped onto the floor. Before anymore flames could escape she carefully pushed the gold tube inside and sealed it back up.
"Liquid fire will burn nearly anything with high magical concentration, meaning any impurities will be removed. This is one of the reasons we use gold, as due to its high magical resistance it cannot fuel the flames."
Once the gold was hot enough to be malleable, Grukkukt started beating it into a blade. Harry could easily tell she was an expert of her craft and soon they had gone from a non-descript tube of gold to the beginnings of a short sword.
"Now that the blade template is finished we can turn it into meithralum, for this we need something a bit stronger than liquid fire." She took the sword and put it inside the kiln, where it joined several other gold objects. Once the kiln was sealed she turned a dial, which went from 'off' to 'dragon'.
A moment later a great roar shook the workshop and the pipes started rattling. The temperature in the workshop went from comfortable to boiling hot in a few seconds, which he would associate with the heat from the fire if not for one thing. He could feel something picking at his magic, warming it and subtly draining his magic.
Grukkukt seemed to notice his discomfort "That's the dragon's flame, in terms of physical heat the flame of a dragon rarely gets above 200 degrees Celsius. However much like liquid fire, dragon fire incinerates any nearby magic, given time it will eat through anything made of magic. That's why our protective equipment is made from purely muggle means, of course even then prolonged exposure to dragon fire would melt through it."
She walked over to the kiln and pointed at the pipes. "These are made from bismuth, which has one of the highest magical resistances of any metal. As such they can safely withstand the flames, allowing us to direct it into the kiln. Then to put it simply, the corrosive magic of the flames will slowly displace the gold until it becomes meithralum."
"Like with alchemy? Basically you're just transmuting gold into pure magic… and if you have to use pure gold every time I can understand why it's so expensive." Thrilled to have discovered bismuth's non-magical properties.
"Not exactly, but if that's how you want to picture it then it will suffice, the end result is the same anyway. Underneath the forge we have several dragons who will continuously breath fire into funnels located in their pens, funnels which lead to the pipes up here. Those flames need to be maintained until every item within the kiln is finished, otherwise they will set and be ruined.
"Once we take the sword out of the kiln we will have a few minutes to complete the forging process, during which time we have to ensure the blade is sharp enough and apply the enchantments. If we mess up this step then the entire sword will be useless and will have to be drained of magic, which is why apprentice makers do not get to create anything larger than a butter knife."
A timer then went off, which got the goblins moving. Grukkukt then unsealed the kiln and they all set to work, most of them grabbing the various meithralum items and moving them to the forge. Those that were left were resealed within the kiln, with Grukkukt taking the sword to her own station.
Each goblin worked on their own item as they all rapidly cooled. Harry Looked with his magesight and was thrilled to learn 'pure' meithralum was entirely white, with no colour whatsoever. It was only when the goblins started chanting in their own language and imbuing the items with magic did colour begin to seep in.
Grukkukt finished moments before her sword was fully overcome with the frost, leaving the familiar mithril behind. The goblin's way of making mithril was undoubtedly slower and more costly than his own method, but he could tell it produced more powerful items.
"Well there you are, our production from start to finish. This sword would normally then be further decorated then sold to the highest bidder, if it was intended for a goblin to use it would then also be tempered." She then handed it to him, much to his shock.
"You said you couldn't give over the sword of Ragnuk the First until you had something else to study, so now you have something else to study. It is not as strong as Ragnuk's legendary blade, but I hope it is satisfactory." There was a gleam in the goblin's eyes, which Harry identified as desperation.
He didn't know why, but it was clear the sword of Gryffindor meant a lot to the goblin. As such he quickly reached into his pocket and withdrew the sword, but held back on handing it over.
"There's just one thing, the crystals on the sword." He said, indicating the mithraite.
"Oh… That is one of our biggest achievements… and our greatest secrets."
"So you can't tell me?"
Grukkukt paced angrily, occasionally glancing longingly at the sword. Eventually she stopped and rounded on him.
"For what purpose do you want this information?"
"Basically, just curiosity." Harry admitted "But I also need to know how to make the crystals to finish my projects."
"A noble goal… If you make an unbreakable oath to say you won't teach anyone else the process… then I will be willing to teach you, in return for the blade of Ragnuk."
It should've been a difficult choice, an unbreakable oath should never be made in a hurry. And yet he found himself saying "Deal."
Over 2500 words, not quite to my old standard but certainly better than before.
I am planning on updating 'Conquers guide' next week, which prompts me to say this;
I highly suggest reading Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series, as it is one of my all time personal favourite book series'.
Things I think need explaining in this chapter:
Next chapter will explain why Grukkukt is so determined to get a hold of the sword. I have been planning this reason for over a year now, so I'm just hoping it will come across right.
Dumbledore being political, despite not being first person this story is primarily from Harry's perspective. As such stuff that happens in the 'background' doesn't get mentioned, like Ron and Neville going to Lupin to learn the patronus charm.
So just like real life, as Harry gets older he will gradually become aware of the world around him. Which includes everything Dumbledore has done for him behind closed doors.