Return
In the Gryffindor common room, Angelina caught up to him and demanded a turn quizzing him through the fifth-year arithmancy material that he'd covered so far.
She seemed surprised, "did you do anything other than study over hols?"
"Yes," said Harry, "a little wassailing, listened to the Wizengamot, and was part of negotiations for three betrothal contracts."
She gawked, "Who?"
Harry shook his head, "Perhaps Lord Black merely wanted my point of view as a reference?"
She narrowed her eyes, then shrugged, "That was another ploy to trick me into thinking you're off the market?"
Harry smirked, "I keep telling you, I'm never off the market, but to get a breeding contract, you'll have to impress most of a board of heads of families within the Houses of Potter and Black."
She rolled her eyes, "Never mind."
"Alright," said Harry, "what can you tell me about using electrum for engraving?"
"Don't?" she said, then sighed, "it's better with Greek or Coptic, and even worse with Norse or Assyrian."
"Um, alright," said Harry, "which of those does better with zero, or extremely small fractions?"
"Either of them is better than Norse, why do you need zero."
Harry shrugged.
"You're almost always better off directly eliminating a block that demands an effect, rather than demand the effect then reduce it to zero."
Harry shrugged, "that makes sense. Um, wizard tents are usually enchanted in Greek, right?"
She blinked at him, "no idea, probably."
"Hmm," said Harry.
"You're making tents?"
"Manipulating space, still," said Harry, "but ready to be branching out, and seeing more things that have already been done."
She nodded, "Good."
Harry shrugged, "Oh, you were asking how much I studied while I was away: more than if I'd stayed here certainly."
She nodded, "Obviously."
.
By the time Hermione came and found him, he was still in the Gryffindor common room, but he'd mostly run out of people to greet, and had returned to reading her Christmas book.
She poked him with her toe, He looked up.
"So, how were your Christmas hols?"
"Offered betrothal contracts to Ginny Potter and Parvati Black."
Her eyes bugged open, "Both, that's? And which … And they both said yes?"
He nodded. And stood up.
"What?" she said.
He took both her hands and held them up almost like he was confused about which one to kiss or something. But he wasn't, he just … wanted to be holding them when he said the next part.
"Some year soon," said Harry, "they're officially going to be part of my family. Some year soon, you're going to have a house of your own, officially I mean."
She nodded.
"But I'd rather you always consider yourself my big sister and feel free to give me advice, even if sometimes the nature of that advice might require it to be given in private, or publicly disavowed or anything."
"You're hanging out with way too many slytherins," she said.
Harry shrugged, "you have no idea."
"Actually I kind of do," she said, "I have been also because I understood you perfectly."
Harry smiled.
She snatched her hands away so that she could hug him hard.
"Of course, I'll keep being your big sister, Harry."
After a moment she let go, "What happened to your hair?"
Harry shrugged, "It all disappeared to let Ginny rub my head better, and when it came back it was four inches shorter. The texture is different because Parvati has begun trials for how her 'best hair product ever' formula should be altered for my hair specifically."
Hermione rolled her eyes, "ah! Of course."
Harry grinned.
She leaned in and kissed his cheek, then stood back. And nodded, "Obviously all those things were the more important for you, but … Were you there for the historic Wizengamot meeting?"
Harry grinned, "Yeah, I was."
She stared at him.
He whispered, "and yes, I voted with you-know-who, for the Greyback amendments for werewolf rights."
"I didn't think Greyback was on the Wizengamot."
"He's not," said Harry, "But sometimes bills or packages of amendments are denoted by their philosophical author rather than their nominal sponsor."
She shrugged, "Is you-know-who on the Wizengamot?"
"Not technically," said Harry, "but a woman with his Mum's maiden name, and no paper trail, but with the blood and magical signatures to be heir of her house, chose for a proxy, another woman who doesn't exist on paper, but looks just like her."
"That's an interesting coincidence," said Hermione.
Harry nodded, "I've been working under the assumption that one of them is you-know-who in disguise. But …" he shrugged, "significant swaths of personality don't line up, and I'm starting to doubt."
"Yes, well," she said, "is it just a 'slytherins wearing masks' issue, or do you think it's deeper?"
"It might be that, or it might be everything I know about you-know-who is hear-say and probably propaganda from one side or the other."
Her eyes bugged open.
"What I know from personal experience the few times I've met him are consistent with … I don't know, a slytherin prefect and head boy, who decided that the ministry needed modernising, or was modernising the wrong direction thanks to inertia left over from Grindelwald and reactions to it. I'm just not certain, that like every dictator ever, whether the policies that he espoused in order to survive, and those he espoused in order to gain power, will at all match, those he espouses to stay there. Also that we haven't already modernised a bit farther than he preached, while he was gone, so … something about the way so many PMs decry the excesses or austerity of their predecessors, and as soon as they see the budget and the intelligence reports, are suddenly also for maintaining the status quo, or progressing very deliberately so as not to break things."
Hermione nodded, "Is he in your head?"
"What?"
"Draco said he might be."
Harry blinked, "Interesting. I'm not going to say 'no', but … not really. He resurrected by absorbing Nim's thrall mark, he's not quite my thrall, and he's definitely not at all my familiar." Harry shrugged, "But the way he explained it, it tries to control him, and … he's smart enough to read a lot more into its inspirations and vetos than I might prefer."
Hermione nodded, "alright, I'll have to think about that."
Harry nodded.
"So how are you finding my book?"
"It's excellent, thank you so much," said Harry, "The appendix on protocol examples was the first thing I read, and it helped me tremendously when I was seated and had to vote. The historical part is a bit denser, and it's … well it has settled down a bit more now, but the first several chapters are chock full of references to Merlin and the establishment of the Hogwarts board of governors, as the founders died and their heirs died or abdicated. I might have to read Hogwarts a History, for some more context."
She raised an eyebrow, "You still haven't read that?"
Harry shrugged, "Not yet."
"You really should."
Harry nodded, "alright."
"I'll lend you my copy," she reached for her bag, then frowned and her eyes flicked toward the tower stairs, "I'll leave it on my desk in Lion's-Keep."
"That's fine," said Harry, glancing at how much of his current book he still had left, "Thank you so much."
She rubbed her cheek, "umm, clarify something for me?"
"Sure?" he shrugged.
"You're still talking about Parvati marrying you, that hasn't changed to her marrying Sirius or anything."
"Oh! Yes, that's correct, he made me his heir which once he dies puts me or my heirs in charge of the House and Family of Black and those assets, but 'in charge of' isn't the same as 'in ownership of.' So it's …" Harry shrugged, "kind of a corporate administration job, not a 'here this will all be yours someday' transfer of wealth."
"Hmm," she said, and gave him the glare she gave when deciding how much of a sermon she needed to give about house-elf rights.
"The wealth and titles will still belong to the House of Black, not to me."
She nodded, "Yeah, I've heard that before, but I'm still suspicious about how it plays out in practice."
Harry shrugged. "Did you ever see a company get bought out and all of a sudden everyone working for it suddenly got company cars? Or …" he shrugged, "started or stopped wearing uniforms, or got more official-looking company paperwork for customers to sign?"
Hermione shrugged, "What's your point?"
"I think, there's a mindset that I've seen with rich purebloods, the adults I mean. Where they're kind of … just terribly poor, until you show them a verifiable business expense, or educational expense, and they blink and grin and pay for it like cost means nothing. And I think it's because…" Harry shrugged again, "the budgets have been set for centuries, and have the force of law, and either no one can adjust them to reflect current market prices, or they've forgotten that it might be possible, so they just muddle along barely able to pay for, I don't know, clothes, but they can for sure pay for Hogwarts uniforms."
Hermione giggled, then frowned, "That's not your problem?"
"No, but …" Harry shrugged, "I really need to get access to the Potter and Black House contracts."
"Charters," said Hermione, "I've been calling them 'constitutions' but I think 'charter' is the traditional word."
"Uh, ok, thanks," said Harry.
"Is it Sirius's problem, expensive brooms and communication mirrors, instead of just floo powder?"
Harry shrugged, "I haven't been shopping with him, so I don't know."
"You haven't?"
"Last summer I went school shopping with Tonks, which was extremely efficient, since she was also my auror escort, and could give me knowledgeable advice about …"
Hermione raised an eyebrow.
"Accessories marketed to 'Auror wannabees,' and which of them were dragon dung."
Hermione snickered, "Yeah, I suppose she would have an opinion about that."
Harry smiled then yawned.
Hermione glanced away, "Umm, what do your contracts specify about child abuse? Could, for instance, Sirius confiscate your children to have them raised elsewhere?"
"The hell?" said Harry, "Umm, no? The contracts don't say that."
Hermione bit her lip.
"The house charter thingy might," said Harry, "No idea, now I really should read it."
Hermione gave him a very very sober nod.
"Why did this come up?" said Harry.
"In keeping with, celebrating all the traditions in order to choose which ones we want to make house official, I read the Saint Nicolas myth to all my little purebloods, and two of them immediately agreed it was bullshit, not because they'd never received presents in their stockings, having never put their stockings out for this, but because they'd never been judged bad enough to get confiscated from their parents by Black Pete."
"Damn," said Harry, "that's an excellent strategy, I should have thought of that."
Hermione rolled her eyes, then smiled wryly, "how many times have you been kidnapped?"
"Oh," said Harry, "Weasleys, you, Sirius…"
Hermione nodded, "I never considered whether upholding the Christmas tradition might properly involve redistributing children as well as food, until Vincent and Gregory spent three days greeting me with hugs and calling me Pete."
"Oh, dear," said Harry, "I … wow that's… uh, clarify something for me?"
She shrugged.
"Do you have their parents' approval to be pulling them into the House of Granger?"
"Not directly," said Hermione, "a few of them were told not to come home next summer if they don't want a dark mark."
"Oh," said Harry, except it came out almost as a whine.
Hermione bit her lip, "we've kind of been working under the assumption that the warning came before winter hols, in order to provide them with an extra opportunity to network for, or verify and critique, whether they could find a better option."
Harry sighed and nodded and tried to swallow the not-quite-there lump in his throat.
When he was sure he could talk again, he said, "Yeah, I see. That's …" he shrugged.
Hermione nodded and turned away.
"Ok," said Harry, "I guess, if nothing else, that clears up a lot of my reservations about your selection criteria."
Hermione flinched, "Merlin, don't go there."
Harry sighed, "I still have nightmares sometimes where your parents don't understand why you'd spare a second glance for a scrawny scar-head like me and order you to put me back where you found me."
Hermione snorted and spun back to face him, "Don't call yourself that Harry."
Harry shrugged, "it's true, but … like beauty, ugliness is only skin deep."
Hermione narrowed her eyes, "I prefer the proverb about 'beauty is as beauty does,'."
"Do what?"
"How you act is more important than how you look."
Harry nodded, "obviously?"
"That's what the proverb means, but it's … deeper than that, implying that, to the practised eye, it's … not difficult to see and love and admire the person for their actions and personality, not the skin and clothes that they wear."
"Well yeah," said Harry, and smiled, "alright, I still have reservations about whether the proverb is properly grammatical."
Hermione chortled, then hugged him again, "alright, we'd better get to dinner, I need to grab something, oh, and that book."
"Yeah, see you."
.
As usual, Dinner after the holidays was loud and feast-like, with everyone greeting their friends, and exchanging stories and lists of gifts received.
But he'd already discussed that with Ginny and Ron on the train, and Hermione was quiet.
"What are you thinking Harry?" said Ginny.
"That now we each have good friends in other houses," said Harry, "it's safer this way for school politics, but it's less … I don't know, meals are different when more than half the people you want to be talking to are at different tables."
Hermione glanced up.
"Who are you missing most?" said Ginny.
"Susan," said Harry, "I didn't see her over hols, and only for like 8 minutes on the train."
Ginny nodded, "You should talk to her."
"I plan on it," said Harry, "I'm just not sure when."
"Before bed," said Ginny, "you know she gets weird ideas about how much we like her because we're not as demonstrative about it as Hanna."
"I guess," said Harry.
"She might not visit us tonight," continued Ginny, "she's probably had enough Hanna to last for several days, but she'll want a day to catch up with the rest of her dorm. But we want her to keep feeling welcome in Lion's-Keep."
"Agreed," said Harry.
Hermione smiled and returned to eating.
Wait, just how slytherin is Ginny? And how much did she already know about House of Granger?
Or did she only know what everyone knew: that Hermione had prefect duties now and didn't sleep in Lion's-Keep as often as last year.
But Harry couldn't keep his mind off Susan, and Pansy.
He couldn't imagine anyone liking being as helpless as Pansy had been. Not that it was much of a handicap if both Crabbe and Goyle were already significantly stronger than her, but also completely obedient to her. Perhaps because she could out-fence them and they knew it. Or had that dishonest fencer been someone else?
And yet, he had the feeling that Susan … would never accept 'helpless' as a reality. She might even enjoy being put into that situation to see if she could find a way to escape. She certainly hadn't panicked or gone depressed when portkeyed into a cage she didn't have a key to.
She had backed away and hidden when you-know-who himself entered the room, but 'not coming to his attention unnecessarily' was a valid desire, separate and distinct from being in or out of a cage.
"What're you thinking, Harry?" said Ginny.
"New sewing project," said Harry, "a prank game for Susan."
"Oh?" said Ginny.
Hermione hadn't looked this way, but she'd stopped chewing and might be holding her breath.
"Wondered if she'd enjoy learning to escape from a straight jacket."
Hermione shook her head and resumed eating.
"What's a straight jacket?"
"It's like … it's how muggle mind healers used to tie up their patients to keep them from hurting themselves or others."
Ginny tensed.
"I'm not sure if they still use them," said Harry, "anyway, I was thinking that Susan might have watched Auror trainees escape being tied up lots of ways, the difference with a straight jacket is that it is intended to be comfortable."
"You think she'd enjoy the challenge?" said Ginny, "She might, do you know how to make one?"
"Not exactly," said Harry.
Ginny shrugged and went back to eating.
"Actually," said Harry, "I could probably start experimenting from Gladrags finds."
Ginny nodded and looked interested.
"Do you want to come with?" said Harry, "and there will probably be plenty of Greek rune arithmancy to do before that, in preparation."
She grinned and nodded, obviously she understood what sort of, 'Let's spend time together doing a thing,' offer it could be.
Come to think of it, those portal tapestries had been the best way so far to get her to loosen up enough to talk about herself.
...-...
January: Natural progressions
" " "
Molly Weasley et al,
The Burrow
Ottery St. Catchpole
Your firm was one of several caterers nominated by at least one of the several members or junior auditors of our newly forming "Committee on Protecting Muggles and The Statute of Secrecy in light of Cross Statute Investing." Please submit for review a copy of your catering menu including descriptions and prices. Based on an expected meal count of 30 to 50, one or two evenings monthly.
Thank you for your consideration.
~Lord Greengrass of Greengrass
" " "
"Well," said Molly Weasley, "there seems to have been a mistake somewhere." But without knowing whose mistake, or what the mistake was, she was powerless to send the appropriate howler.
It gnawed at her until finally, she decided to consult her Aunt Muriel for advice.
.
"Hello!" said Susan leaning over between Ginny and Harry, "This doesn't look like fourth-year Runes."
"'Tisn't," mumbled Ginny, "Arithmancy for better portals."
"We need more portals?"
"Safer portals," said Ginny, "Longer distance, and without the internal space."
"The internal space makes them safer in at least three ways, how are you getting around the distance problem?"
"Electrum," said Harry, "Padma brought it to my attention, we're trying to figure out how to use it."
"Oh, you said that on the train," said Susan, "I'll be right back."
She disappeared to drop her bookbag and outer robes and came back with parchment and quill, "Alright," she said when she returned, "What are the properties of electrum, and how do they help?"
"It's an alloy of copper, silver, and/or gold. The goal is generally to get the properties of silver using mostly copper and only enough gold to adjust things the last fraction, if your project even requires that close a match to silver. Zinc is also sometimes used."
"I think you just described Corinthian bronze, not electrum, electrum is silver and gold only," said Susan, "Originally a tactic of collecting seigniorage. Turns out that certain numerological ratios are propitious for rune work."
"Um," said Ginny, "Possibly, can you prove that?"
Susan frowned and went back to get her runes book.
Ginny glanced at Harry, "How bad is it if she's right?"
Harry shrugged, "we've spent some time solving to use the properties we looked up, if it has different properties, or especially if something with a different name has the same properties, then the only difference worth worrying about is the question of cost."
Ginny frowned for several seconds, "So, maybe she's saved us money buying material that wouldn't do what we need. Maybe she's saved us time finishing these calculations, if we need to start over with different numbers."
"Exactly," said Harry, "or maybe she's wrong."
Ginny sighed.
"Either way, it's been practice calculating annoyingly tiny fractions."
Ginny rolled her eyes, then put down her quill and reached for her books.
Susan returned and they all flipped to the correct chapters or appendices to find the lists of metals that were most compatible with engraving.
Based on cost alone, a base of copper was ideal. Taking strength into account, an alloy with iron or manganese or silver would be better. Taking rust resistance into account nickel would be ideal, taking into account the requirement to be non-toxic for prolonged skin contact, nickel was out, as was lead, of course.
Using gold or titanium in place of nickel, would allow for a skin-safe item, but would drastically increase cost, titanium was cheaper than gold, (market price measured in kg or lbs, not in g or ozt), but not available by owl order, most of the special purpose metal working charms hadn't been updated for use with titanium, even though there was starting to be a decent market for it.
That left, as Susan had suspected, Corinthian Bronze, specifically the modernly produced commodity at the seven to three to one ratio, copper to silver to gold.
Ginny went to Padma's desk and got out a popular industrial owl order catalogue that they all recognised from the back shelf in the runes classroom.
It took them a few minutes to find Corinthian rather than standard Bronze, but find it they did. It was even available from several sources in .3 mm and 1.4 mm sheets ready for framed or mounted engravings and 2.5 mm plates for stand-alone engraving or mounted embossing. The cheapest source even sold round and elliptical plates in several sizes, perfect for magic mirrors.
They sold their product under the trade name, 'Runic Electrum'.
So much for truth in advertising. So much for appropriation of technical terms.
The runic properties were close to that of silver, the strength properties were close to that of bronze, and the tarnish rate was reasonably close to pure silver (in the absence of atmospheric sulphur, no thanks muggle industry) or within the expected range of cupronickel alloys.
And it did not have the allergenic properties of an alloy with nickel.
Therefore…
They went back to work.
Susan flipped back through their notes and soon seemed to be trying to mirror their work, without consulting it too much.
About half an hour later she exclaimed something about 'that seeming too easy,' and started scribbling faster.
Ginny and Harry looked at each other, glanced at Susan, looked at each other again, and shrugged.
.
"Oh, is that all," said Susan, "I should have suspected that's all I had found."
"What did you find?" said Harry.
"Portals are time travel," said Susan, "a useless tautology, not a useful shortcut how to describe a desired portal."
"But are portals time travel?" said Harry.
"Obviously," said Susan, "expelling bits of traversing matter throughout a time span roughly three times the duration that the portal existed is a common failure side effect for several kinds of portals."
"Can that be harnessed for safe and reliable time travel?" said Harry.
"No," said Susan, "explosions do not make a reliable transportation method, not even if those explosions are tilted into another dimension."
"Tell that to rocket manufacturers," said Harry.
Susan rolled her eyes, "besides two copies of the same spirit in the same state cannot exist at the same time, as soon as either one of them sleeps it will fade into the other and become lost. This is why no one bothers to build time turners that go back farther than about six hours."
"And you just happen to know all that?" said Ginny.
"What are time turners?" said Harry.
Susan stared at both of them, then rolled her eyes again, "sorry, for a second I forgot I wasn't talking to Hermione."
They kept staring at her.
She shrugged, "Fundamental magical theory, we may not know what spirits are, but we know almost everything that they are not. We may not know what time is, but we know that it has some similar characteristics to space, and several that are very different."
"You're right," said Harry, "Never mind."
"No, seriously," said Ginny, "how do you know all that?"
"Hanna's Mum … studied to be an unspeakable," said Susan, "she still has a bunch of her old books laying around, the publicly available ones, you know." She shrugged.
"Oh," said Ginny, "Yeah, I guess."
Susan nodded and tore off a new sheet of parchment to work on.
.
Luna came in, kissed Ginny on the lips, then wandered away to 'do something with her hair' that made the bedroom smell herbal for days afterwards. By and by she wandered back and glanced over Susan's shoulder.
"Um, you're going to have a vacuum problem, if you don't add more exceptions."
"Maybe I wouldn't mind a vacuum," said Susan.
"You would between when you activated it and you got it installed in whatever artefact it's supposed to be part of."
"Oh," said Susan, "Hmm, maybe, an exception for air then?"
"Probably," said Luna, "Or just a time delay long enough to allow room temperature air to bounce away again before it got caught."
"Which would be a rather annoying method of just exempting all gas," said Susan, "I could just make exceptions for … oh."
Luna nodded and went out again.
"She's not dressed," hissed Ginny.
"She's not going to class," said Harry, "She's dressed enough for wandering the halls. Even if she weren't invisible."
Ginny shrugged and returned to her figures. Harry copied her.
.
About twenty minutes later Harry and Ginny each had the solutions they'd set out to find, and compared notes, (Success!) which seemed to mean that: maximum stability started dropping off when internal space dropped to less than 1/448th of Circe's cubit, about 1.6 mm or about 1/16th inch. And should be stable to distances measured in tens of thousands of cubits, perhaps millions of cubits, depending on how quickly the various factors that controlled the instabilities grew.
And so they turned together to the reference manual for Greek runes to begin sketching out how, long-distance, ultra-thin internal space, portals could be described in practice.
.
Long before they finished, Parvati returned from her potions project time with Lavender, Lily, and apparently now also Romilda. And Padma returned from the study session she ran twice a week for first-year ravenclaws. Maybe about how to make respectful use of the ravenclaw library. Or about how to study things in books constructed to modern magical standards, which was to say, no appendices or glossary, but charmed to be compatible with the searching charms used in place of such luxuries. (and to resist the common ways to botch those.)
And so Ginny and Harry put away their project and split up to their respective regularly scheduled revising companions.
Which yes, meant Ginny would need to go track down Luna.
But she now had access to the power flowing to Sher's runes, and should be able to walk right to her, currently in the library.
.
...-...
The need to look gift jewellery in the mouth
Content warning: Sex and more unauthorised existential portkeys.
Arithmancy and Potions revising went well enough but transfiguration kept shaking off his attention towards other things.
"Ugh," said Harry and scrubbed his face as he sat back.
"It's not that bad," said Padma.
"It's not the transfiguration," said Harry, "it's my state of mind, does anyone want sex."
"What exactly are you trying to ask," said Parvati.
"I want sex," said Harry, "I wouldn't turn it down from any of you, I have a mild but not controlling preference for … I think it's whoever it's been longest since I hugged naked, whatever that bit of psychology is called."
"My name is Susan," said Susan.
"I know your name Susan," said Harry, "I'm just saying, you're first on the list, for whatever reason, not Luna, who it's been longer since I had sex with but not longer since I slept near. I … apologise for … having two conversations at once, Susan, would you like sex? Everyone, I notice a mild inclination for a rotation that seems at first glance like 'taking turns.' Except a strict implementation of 'taking turns' might imply we all have an appetite more like the constant need for food, rather than what I'm fairly sure it is, a more personal intermittent desire for several different things, some of which naked hugging might satisfy just as well. And I'd rather not have continual bickering because one person doesn't want sex that often or another person wants it slightly more often."
"Or drastically more often," snorted Padma and reached across his parchment to take the quill out of his hand, "Go shag Susan so that you can both concentrate after."
He and Susan looked at each other, rolled their eyes, then grinned, then stood up.
Harry circled the table bowed to her, and held out his hand, "Heir Bones, may I have this dance?"
She giggled, and dragged him into the bedroom.
.
When they'd finished making pig noises and were laying still, they opened the curtains again, mostly to let in fresh air, but also to hear the tail end of an argument about Padma's breed contract, and taking turns. About the letter vs. the spirit of the law. And in general … references to other psychology that they must have discussed earlier in the argument.
"Oh good grief," said Susan, "How much do you think we missed?"
"No idea," said Harry.
"Does her breed contract really say …?"
"That my nominal wives have a more fine-grained control over my breeding schedule than she does as merely my client for getting an heir when she's ready for one."
"In practice?"
"She can demand help getting pregnant every month, she cannot demand help any hour any day, etc."
"I like my pseudo-walking marriage contract better."
"What is a 'walking marriage'?"
"To simplify: There are places in the world where family name and hereditary property rights are calculated through the mother's line, not the father's, everyone nominally lives at their parent's house during the day, men may or may not visit their desired woman at night, their woman or her family may or may not invite him in, etc. He might or might not be the only man that that woman invites in regularly, though usually, he is. The man nominally doesn't have a lot to do with his offspring, perhaps only clothes sometimes and graduation gifts and such. Most of the time he'd be investing his time and resources in the wealth of his family and the offspring of his sisters."
"I can see how that could simplify a significant number of things, and complicate a number of others," said Harry, "also how the breed contract between us mirrors some of that."
Susan nodded and snuggled tighter into the space under his arm.
"I can hear them talking," said Parvati, "They must have opened the curtain."
"Certainly," said Padma, "I'll be back after a while."
"Enjoy," said Parvati.
Susan barely had time to sit up and stare her bemusement at Harry before Padma appeared and looked in on them, "Did you wear him out?"
"Of course?" said Susan, "Why?"
"Did he wear you out?"
"Ummmmmmmm…" said Susan, "Maybe? How much does that matter?"
Padma held out a strap-on at Harry, "Does Leona know what to do with this?"
Harry nodded, "In theory at least. And yes, I'd like to back that up with practical experience."
"Good," said Padma, "Right now?"
"What is? … Is that one of? Hermione's …" said Susan and touched it, "not conjured?"
"Real, Muggle-made, Christmas present from Parvati and I, to ourselves," said Padma, "The only charms on it are durability and cleanliness related."
Harry stared at the ceiling for several seconds, then at Padma, and nodded, "Yes, Padma, I'm willing to be Leona for you."
"Hmm," said Susan, and climbed out of the way, not to leave, just to sit on the far corner of the bed and watch as Padma stripped and Harry, now as Leona, made sense of how to wear the contraption.
"Traditionally," said Padma, "We usually give you the first and third turn on top, but … what do you want right now?"
"I'm still up for that," said Leona, "though that first turn on top might be much shorter than usual."
Padma nodded and moved to crouch where she'd soon be laying down, but before she lay down, she helped Leona fiddle with the straps.
"You want it tight enough to not chafe, but not so tight as to cut off circulation," she instructed.
"I believe you," said Leona, "But am not sure what that should feel like in practice."
Padma shrugged, "I'll help, but … probably it will take practice to figure out."
Leona nodded, "Yes, well."
.
After a while Susan looked up to see Parvati standing nearby, watching.
"So, have you two given up your vow against lesbianism?"
"No," said Parvati, "I don't know that we ever had one of those."
"Ok, then … what did you have?" said Susan.
Parvati shrugged, "idealistic instincts which had not yet come to terms with the real meaning explicated in Hermione's speech about being fluid bound."
"Say again?"
Parvati sighed, "I became fluid bound to Harry, and became financially and socially bound to Harry, after which I realised that I have exactly zero qualms about sharing myself with others for whom all three of those are true."
"So … all of Lion's-Keep except me and Hermione?"
"And Luna," said Parvati, "I'm fairly sure Luna is a thrall of the house of Potter, not the house of Black."
"Oh," said Susan, "I hadn't considered that question."
"Padma has special dispensation to guard her, but that predated any of our contracts."
"Predates any, written contracts," said Leona.
Parvati shrugged, "Just saying, that it doesn't change anything for me, but I'm not sure about Padma."
"I'm not sure either," said Padma, "I'm not going to worry about it until she asks me for something different."
"Fine," said Susan, "So … it's not that it matters who is fluid, and financially, and socially bound to Harry, it matters who is already bound to you?"
"Maybe yes," said Parvati, "Maybe Ginny is the exception that I let in because she's married to Harry, rather than Luna being the exception that I'm very aware is not part of my House."
"Makes sense," said Padma, "Marriage means legally the same person, makes sense that you'd find it transitive across Harry to Ginny."
"Sure," said Parvati.
"And grouping yourself with Harry, to keep me sexually satisfied, which granted was only the spirit, not the letter of my breed contract."
"Sure," said Parvati.
"But then wouldn't that also include me and Luna," said Susan, "as being people with legal rights to sex with Harry or Harry has rights to have sex with?"
Parvati glared at Susan, "Oh, Shut up. I'm telling you what my instincts were telling me, not giving you permission to conduct legal arguments with them."
Susan faked a pout, but then chuckled, "Fair enough."
"You really thought I had a no-lesbian thing?" said Parvati.
"Yeah," said Susan, "So it was really that you were gryffindor?"
Parvati shrugged.
"And a virgin," said Padma.
"Oh!" said Susan, "Fair enough."
"And wanted Harry to be her first," said Padma.
"Nuh huh," said Parvati, "I wanted my husband to be my first."
"Oh," said Susan, "Yeah, that is a nice … I don't know what word to use."
"Padma," said Leona, "either focus or say permission for me to roll on top again."
"Granted," said Padma, "By all means, granted. Please."
.
"So, Mrs. Black, and Mrs. Patil," said Harry.
"What?" said Padma.
"Tell me about your anklets?"
"Silver, house crests and personal runes, very traditional for wedding presents," said Parvati, "Grandma gave them to us, then everyone knew, both sides of the family."
"Yes," smirked Padma, "apparently Mum wore hers for roughly a year, which cemented the idea in Da's family that she didn't mind assimilating. And annoyed the hell out of Mum's family: apparently, they had some sort of taboo against going barefoot, and she rejected their attempts to call her on it, and wore her sparkly and loud wedding jewellery to prove her change in status and jurisdiction. Grandma remembered, and thought it would be an appropriate way to celebrate our engagements."
"Oh," said Harry.
"And given that the parts she got right are the silver and the tinkling beads. Da's family would have been blind not to know what they meant, the fact that mine very clearly has the Patil Smiling Blue Scaffold of Evident Truth, and the Gaunt symbol of the ouroboros waiting in its den with a wand. And Parvati's have the skull, wand, and three ravens of the House of Black… They were very obvious clan badges for English Mage culture, despite being thematically Indian."
"Hmm," said Harry, "I take it that they went over like a sack of bricks?"
Padma smirked, "There's this lovely tradition that they either mean married, or they mean unmarried but brave."
"And in this case, they sort of mean both?" Harry guessed.
"Yes," said Parvati.
"How do they mean both?" said Susan, "I don't mean you, I mean in general?"
"Without wands," said Harry, "the genders are a lot less equal for muggles, sufficient training or genetics or both, can and does overcome just about any handicap, but cultural traditions tend to crystallise around the average situation not the exceptional."
Padma nodded.
"Say it to me, not to Padma," said Susan.
"He means," said Padma, "girls tend to be either protected, or hidden, married women protected yes, but shown off."
Susan blinked, "Wearing loud jewellery is showing off. Showing off means either you have a husband to protect you, or you can protect yourself?"
"Exactly," said Padma.
"Nice," said Susan.
"Another tradition," said Parvati, "but not from Da's family's part of the continent, is that clan crests or enamel bead colours or whatever, are worn on them, Grandma followed that tradition, in just about as confrontational a way as possible. I think, those usually aren't as jingly. They don't mean 'look at me' so much as they mean 'remember I'm a part of my clan and carry the protection of that clan'."
"So … what exactly happened?"
Parvati shrugged, "The Brice family knows we're married and have Grandma's blessing about that, The Patil family knows we're marrying English, and there's nothing they can do about it."
"Ah," said Harry, "May I see the crests?"
"Sure," said Parvati and sat down so she could lift her feet up where he could see.
There was no shield or ribbon around it, but the skull and wand, and three ravens were there, "Yes, that's House of Black." Next to that was the block art of the family colours he'd seen hanging in Mrs. Patil's potions lab.
He touched them, and felt both the warmth of a heat-conducting metal laying on bare skin, but also the warmth of a fully charged rune array waiting to be used.
He sighed.
Padma showed him hers.
The embossed black scaffold holding up a raised moon was … it might very well be a European rendering of a traditional thing. But given how the shield and ribbon were missing from the Black crest, he wouldn't bet on how complete a rendering of itself it was. The other was a rectangle with its points trimmed off, with a circle inside, and a line bisecting it. The box was a mere line, but both the circle and its bisection were very definitely wide enough to show a tartan pattern … or if that was supposed to be a snake, perhaps it was a diamond-back pattern.
There also seemed to be a light cone flowing down from the wand tip, though that was understated enough to almost be invisible.
It also seemed to be enchanted.
Hmm.
He checked her other anklet.
That one too.
Alright.
"So," said Harry, "Did she tell you how they were enchanted?"
"Portkeys: One to Mum's house, One to one of Grandmum's dens."
"Ah," said Harry and suppressed a sigh that was also a yawn, "That figures, and I'm supposed to provide the one to my den, by and by?"
Parvati looked guilty or embarrassed.
"Yes," said Padma, "We sort of had to keep our mouths shut on who gave them to us because it would have been a little more traditional for you to have given them."
"Understood," said Harry, "As soon as I have a more appropriate place than Lion's-Keep, and identify a portkey maker that I can trust, we can go shopping for appropriate jewellery."
Parvati leaned forward and kissed his cheek.
...-...
The continual search for loopholes
Content warning: No warning, the title just wanted to start with 'the'
"Draco?" said Harry.
"Yeah?"
"Are you still having trouble transfiguring a door into a stone wall?"
Draco's eyes bugged, "Yes… we can do tables but not doors, it should be the same."
"Because the Hogwarts wards specifically block transfiguring the castle structure, except by members of staff."
"Damn it," nodded Draco, "Hogwarts a history, chapter eight."
"Yep," said Harry.
"What do we do?" said Draco.
"Do the doors come off their hinges?" said Harry.
"I suspect they're warded against that too," said Draco, "though perhaps somewhere more accessible to a maintenance crew, and therefore to us."
Harry shrugged, "Or you can prop the door open, and transfigure something else into stone?"
Draco shrugged, "that might be worth a try. I'll tell Theo."
Harry nodded.
"Thanks," said Draco, he squinted, "Are you who told Goyle how to fix the sinks?"
"I sent him a hint of one thing I saw wrong with it," said Harry, "not sure if that was the only thing he needed or not."
Draco nodded, "Thanks for that too."
"No problem," said Harry.
Draco stared into space, "Harry?"
"What?"
"Do you have any enchanting problems you'd like help with?"
Harry shrugged, "Is it possible to duplicate a portkey?"
"Before it's been used, or after?"
"Either one."
"Yes, on before, No on after, unless you're very very fast, that technique is generally used to turn a single-use portkey into its inverse, the return portkey fraction of a multi-use direct portkey."
"What about standard multi-use portkeys?"
"Hmm, those are more complex, direct portkeys or anchored portkeys?"
"I'm not sure I know the difference."
"Portkeys … gather and store up massive amounts of power, then, when activated they search out the shape of the planet to find and adjust for the current day and year motion, then apply the intended change in distance, and then cancel the previous adjustment for the planetary motion. That's a local direct portkey. International doesn't cancel the previous adjustment for planetary motion, it guesses a new motion for the destination and adds that instead."
"Alright."
"If that uses up all its energy, the enchantment will dissipate, if it does not, it might recharge and you can use it again to come back."
"The farther you move a direct portkey from where it was made, the more dangerous it is. Both because it is more likely to drop you above or below the ground. East and west movements can be safe, depending on the local geography of the start and end points relative to each other and the same relation after the move to the new start point. North and south are more complex, If you transport a south-going portkey south from its intended start point, or a north-going portkey north from its intended start point, it will drop you up in the air, which may be survivable, If you do the opposite, move a north-going portkey south, or a south-going portkey north, you're almost certainly going to be deposited underground."
"Um, alright."
"An anchored portkey is lots safer in some ways, and lots easier to sabotage in others, but harder to make, instead of worrying about cancelling the planetary motion in order to have the pre-determined direction even make sense, it doesn't even worry about direction or distance, it just cancels all motion, then matches the motion and location of the anchor."
"Alright," said Harry, "I guess I have heard of those also."
"That's usually safe, the classic sabotage methods are throwing an anchor in the ocean or burying it, or hanging it from the ceiling, a broom, or a tower, or moving it into your dungeon or that of the enemy of your enemy."
Harry nodded.
"Unless you're watching plays from the other end of Horizont Alley, in which case, it's always just shoved up the rear of a conveniently passing erumpent, as if those are easily found wild in all parts of the globe."
Harry smirked, then rolled his eyes in mimicry of Draco, "I think I'd use a switching spell for that," said Harry.
Draco nodded, "and just for that you've proved yourself much too erudite for that end of Horizont Alley, perhaps when you have five and six-year-olds to entertain you'll reconsider."
Harry grinned, "I have been given to understand that it is important to consider the tastes of one's guests."
"Quite," agreed Draco, then dropped his nasal accent with a nod, and resumed his serious professorial accent, "If you copy an anchored portkey, you have another portkey to the same anchor, if you copy a direct portkey you have an identical direct portkey, which is useless except for offering to the other half of your much too large party, or to chase down someone who used the portkey you copied from. But that's only useful if you know in advance they are going to steal your portkey. Why not just pick up your portkey and take it with you, and leave a surveyor's stake in the ground instead."
"Oh," said Harry.
Draco nodded.
"So just to be clear, if I had a direct portkey from … London to Hogsmeade, to bypass the train journey."
"Sure," said Draco.
"Then I copied it."
"Sure," said Draco.
Then I used the original to get to school and turn it over to McGonagall like an obedient student.
"Right," said Draco.
Then I decide I need to attend a Wizengamot meeting, and pull out my copy?"
Draco nodded, "You copied the original in London before you used it?"
Harry nodded.
"I hope you brought your broom, because otherwise, it's going to be several miles of falling, then a chilly swim to the Faroe islands."
"And in the opposite case?"
"You have been given a portkey from Hogsmead to London, but you're not feeling in such a rush after all, and take the express?"
"Sure," said Harry.
"Now you finish up your holidays and decide you are in a hurry to get back to Hogwarts, and pull out your portkey."
"Sure," said Harry.
"Oh, maybe about … Nevers, France."
"Got it," said Harry, "So the correct thing to do is copy it, use it, copy it again, label both copies very carefully, and give the original back to whoever, and then I have the ability to go either direction."
Draco shrugged, "except the first copy is not usable until after you've used the second copy, it's pointless and redundant, use the first, then copy it and give the original back. Unless you've got a specific scenario in mind that has more complications than you've told me."
"Not really," said Harry, "I think I've got a handle on multi-use direct portkeys, anchored portkeys always go the same place, no matter where you start from?"
"No," said Draco, "They always go to the same anchor, which is almost always a rune inscription, sometimes a large enough block of stone to preclude anyone moving it by accident, but still. Or a small piece of metal. Preferably buried to a precisely known depth, to keep anyone from wandering off with it, and allowing the portkey to be aimed, a precisely defined distance above the anchor."
"Understood," said Harry, "Thanks."
"No problem," said Draco.
"Oh," said Draco, "And there's one more class of portkeys, almost never used anymore, and now illegal in Britain, but the fact that it was the original formulation and the arithmancy for them is still taught first in some classes, means that it still informs how some practitioners restrict their portkeys even though the restrictions are no longer needed on the safer formulations."
"Huh?"
"That formulation doesn't calculate anything for themselves, they were just set to go off at a particular day and time when the pre-computed values happen to all be correct."
Harry could easily see how many many ways that could go wrong. Including muffing the calculations or having a muggle wander off with your artefact, regardless that you tried to make it look like an old mouldy shoe.
"I've heard that formulation feels very intuitive to those who both apparate by rote rather than by searching spell, and can also imagine a future apparition vector. Whatever that means?"
Harry raised one eyebrow and frowned with the other, "I have a vague idea how that affects the maths, but not how to do those maths, so … yeah."
Draco nodded, "Basically."
"Thanks!"
"No problem," said Draco, "So now you know, … most of what I could comprehend (and still remember) from reading a discarded portkey license study manual when I was about 10. There's for sure about 4 times as much to know, but you know most adults choose to apparate instead, because the arithmancy is more intuitive and the license requires two orders of magnitude less insurance."
"Oh, ok."
"So, See you at AHDT."
"Likewise," said Harry.
...-...
COPMaSSiloCSI January: going and coming
"Gather 'round dumplings," said Tonks, "I'm going to go over some rules, and call the roll before we portkey to the ministry for this meeting: Unless you've been told you are a committee member or a committee member's second, you are there only to audit. That means you don't have the right to talk during the meeting, but feel free to take notes or pass notes. Don't abuse the privilege or you might not be invited back. Once we get to the correct meeting room, you'll notice some refreshments, they are free, help yourself to a plate before the meeting starts, but do wait for a break before grabbing more. The committee members, especially whichever committee member invited you, might call on you to ask you questions or to give you a chance to ask them questions, don't abuse this privilege, or you either won't be invited back, or they just might only ask for your contribution after the meeting is over in future."
"Any questions?"
"Why are we invited?"
"Because the Head of the House of Potter or the House of Greengrass or the House of Malfoy invited you," said Harry.
Everyone started looking around.
"Hmm," said Hermione, "Draco?"
"Wasn't me," said Draco, "Ask Daphne or Harry."
Hermione looked at Harry and raised an eyebrow then a look of understanding crossed her features, "Oh obviously, thank you."
Harry nodded.
"May I invite Theo?"
"There's not time tonight, but," Harry shrugged, "Tell Heir Malfoy to tell his Mum that I'm inviting him on your behalf."
"Oh," said Hermione.
"Sure," said Draco.
"Is his animagus form a crup?"
Hermione blinked, "'My grandmother lives in Edgewater', much?"
"You'd be surprised," said Harry.
"Oh," said Hermione, "No idea, I'll keep that under consideration."
"Hermione," hissed Ron, "you're no longer being convincing."
"About what?"
"That you're not a slytherin."
"Oh hush," said Hermione.
.
"If that's all the questions!" shouted Tonks, "Please form a loose ring so that we can all touch the portkey."
.
.
.
"Well that was informative and depressing," said Hermione.
"In what way?" said Draco.
"Among other things, It's a real shame that it has taken this long for anyone to think to regulate this."
.
"Wotcher, Harry, wait up."
"Yes, Professor Tonks?"
"This one is for you," said Professor Tonks, "I hear you have Wizengamot meetings to attend."
"Oh, Yes, Thank you."
"Wards placements and things dictate that it's only possible to use it in this room, or outside the gates."
"Understood," said Harry.
"There are supposed to be enough for everyone by next month, but I'm so far from counting on that, that I'm going to specifically ask you to bring yours next month. In case we need to share."
"Makes sense," said Harry
"Be responsible with it," said Professor Tonks.
Harry nodded.
She leaned close and muttered, "Page hours are 9 to noon and 1 to 4, if you want to blend in with the rush. The uniform is the same as Hogwarts, except lose the tie. If you want additional hints on how to blend in, there's a lot of rules on the back of the door."
Harry blinked, "What?"
She widened her eyes innocently, "I didn't say anything."
"…Right…" said Harry.
She grinned and pranced away. Which would have worked better if she hadn't crashed into the door frame on her way out.
"I'm still not clear how she's related to you," said Ginny.
"I can draw you a diagram," said Ron.
"No, I meant, the clumsiness," said Ginny.
"Right after changing shape, I always feel a bit clumsy, too," said Harry, "I usually manage with a stretch and a pause for my instincts to settle, not dashing off immediately. I'm starting to suspect my not-changing-while running problem is entirely a mental block."
"Hmm," said Ginny.
"But it seems to keep me from looking like an overgrown toddler, or breaking my nose."
"And since you can't just regrow your nose on command?" said Ron.
"Good point," said Harry.
.
"The food was surprisingly good," said Ginny, "almost as good as Mum's."
"Yeah, tasted alright but didn't smell as good," said Ron, "And the portions were too small."
"I told them if it wasn't as good as your Mum's," said Harry, "I wasn't seeing the point in having it catered, instead of just ordered from one of the ministry snack carts. I guess they … sort of listened."
"Makes sense," said Ginny, "Dad says only about half of those carts have survivable meals available."
"He has more experience with them than I do," conceded Harry.
"Why did you invite me?" said Ginny.
"Imagine you have about fifty thousand galleons to invest," said Harry, "and already had your farm set up, where would you put the extra to make sure it was still available to pay for your kids to go to Hogwarts, and maybe grow some interest in the meantime?"
Ginny shrugged, "Mostly I buy clothes, quidditch gear, or give it to the twins to wager with."
Harry nodded, "and what is the average return on each of those?"
"Um, what does that mean?"
"On average, do you see that money again, and if so, how much of it do you get back?"
She frowned, "I get the use of the clothes or gear until I outgrow them, sometimes I sell them at Gladrags, or give to Mum to sell."
Harry nodded, "How much do you think you get back on that, half?"
"Usually two-thirds, if I don't buy new. Yeah, closer to one-third if I bought them new, I guess you could average that to a half."
Harry nodded, "and you have the use of that stuff in the meantime, not a bad investment, as long as you only buy things that you'd really wear. How about what you give to the twins, how much of that do you see?"
Ginny shrugged, "Our usual deal is that whenever they win with my money, they keep half the profit, and the other half is mine. And they give me half of that right away, and add the other half back to my original."
"Give me an example."
"Usually they divide it into quarters and bet on the underdog or whatever for the next four quidditch games, unless the odds are too far different than whatever they think the odds should be, in which case they bet the other way, or just wait for the next game."
"Alright," agreed Harry, "how does that usually go?"
"Often they make something like 5 to 1 or 7 to 1, when it pays out."
"How often does it pay out?" said Harry.
Ginny shrugged, "one time in 3, I think."
Harry raised an eyebrow, "remind me not to bet against them."
"Never bet against them," said Ron, "But there's a difference between betting against them and betting on their competitors."
"Say again?" said Harry
"What if they graduate and go into professional quidditch?" said Ron.
"Sure," said Harry.
"I might bet on a team that was playing against them," said Ron, "I wouldn't accept a wager on a game that I knew they backed the opposite outcome."
"Oh, I see," said Harry, "So I'd bet on you playing against them if the game was chess. You're saying for instance that them betting against you at chess might be a good reason to not bet or find out what they know about your opponent?"
Ron raised an eyebrow, then smirked, "Exactly."
"I've got it," said Harry. He turned back to Ginny, "You were saying?"
"If they made 5 to 1 on a sickle," said Ginny, "That's 4 sickles profit, two are theirs, two are mine, they give me 1 and put the other with the first, that gives me twice the deposit, plus I have back the sickle I started with."
Harry nodded. "And they win 1 in 3?"
"Yes."
"And if the wager pays out 5 to 1, they're taking half the difference, which means you're only making 3 to 1, which means breaking even on a 1 in 3 win average. Over time the amount you have on deposit with them dwindles away, but meanwhile, you'd have siphoned off about what you started with, meanwhile, they're raking in the other half of your profits."
Ginny shrugged, "but sometimes they make 7 to 1, and usually I don't need my money for anything and I hold onto it for a week or two then give it back to them."
Harry sighed, "I can't tell without checking their books, whether they're making you any money in the long run, or just taking advantage of you without actually cheating you. How much do you still have on deposit?"
"About 200 galleons."
Harry froze. Ron whistled.
"How much did you invest?" said Harry, "not counting re-investments you've just given them back."
"I didn't really keep track, probably getting close to 12 galleons."
"For how many years?"
"Getting close to 8 years," said Ginny, "But they didn't win as much at the beginning."
"Averaging away their improvements, which if real, skew things even better towards the end, that's about 16x growth, that's 4 doublings, that's a doubling every two years, that's 36% interest," said Harry, "8 galleons a month for two years is … 196. Would you rather your allowance annuity as a lump sum to invest with the twins?"
"What?" said Ginny.
Harry kissed her hard on the lips, until she pushed him away.
Harry stared at her, "And how much have you … withdrawn."
She gave him a confused look.
"How much have they paid you, and you had something to spend it on, so you didn't just give it back to them later?"
"Oh," said Ginny, and shrugged twice or three times, "Maybe eighteen galleons, I didn't keep track of it like that."
"So at least 17.5 x growth," said Harry, "Perhaps more depending on when in the period you made those withdraws."
Harry chewed his lip, "I want to run some numbers, but … ask them, if I gave you some more money, could you invest it with them also, or are they already trading close to the maximum of what their markets can bear?"
"Um?" said Ginny, "Do you want to talk to them yourself?"
"I want us to talk to them together," said Harry, "but I want it to be clear that … whatever they do with your money, it's your money, and you can let them manage it also, or you can ask them or I or Luna or the Patils to help you find something else to do with it, or you can just hold on to it until something at the committee meeting catches your fancy, or you can split it up and do several of those things, or you can give it to the twins to manage until you find something else and research it long enough to get comfortable with how it's supposed to be done."
"Alright," said Ginny.
...-...
{End Chapter 24}