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Chapter 9
The day after Harry's birthday, Fleur walked into Gringotts with a massive smile on her face. The night before with both of her loves had been an amazing experience. A little awkward, but it was all in how to do something they were trying, rather than any awkward feelings between them.
Fleur checked in to start her day and was just about to go to her mentor's office when the goblin manning the sign in desk directed her to go see Goldtooth, the manager in charge of the apprentices. Confused and a little nervous, Fleur quickly made her way up to his office, luckily only getting turned around twice in the maze Gringotts called its hallways. When she was a bit lost she bumped into Melody, who was able to turn her around and orient her in the right direction.
Once she knocked on the door, she was immediately called in. Goldtooth didn't waste even a second. "Ah Miss Delacour. I'm afraid that Ward Master Elaine Malory has called in sick today. One of her children is unwell and her parental responsibilities come first today. So I'm reassigning you to scut work for the day. Report to goblin Viperclaw. He is going over the records of a wizard who submitted all his required Forms in French. Probably an attempt to hoodwink the bank. I doubt however that French comprehension will be a problem for you?" He asked with a grin on his face that revealed a row of sharp goblin teeth.
Fleur was a little disappointed, she would much rather work with Elaine, but these things happened. Besides, it could be worse, she could be stuck running documents like Melody was today. In Fleur's opinion, translating French to English beat running back and forth through the bank all day. She quickly reported to Viperclaw's office.
Viperclaw was a more vicious goblin than any she had worked with so far. He was apparently one of the goblins who got to deal with difficult clients, those who repeatedly treated dealing with the bank as a war. However, if a client wanted to behave that way it was fine by the goblins, it just ment all your parchmentwork got extra scrutiny, and you were given someone like Viperclaw would actively look for any violations to their contracts that they could levy a penalty for.
"Ah Miss Delacour, come on in and have a seat. I presume Goldtooth told you what you were helping me with?" She nodded. "Excellent, I need you to tell me what this document says first." And he handed her a four feet roll of parchment. Every time they found a violation, no matter how small, Viperclaw would let out a mad little cackle and say something along the lines of, "that will be another five Galleons. Maybe that will teach the old bastard to try get one over on me."
They were just about to break for lunch when there was suddenly a lot of noise outside the bank. At first the two just tried to ignore it and continue working, as disturbances in the surrounding alleys weren't uncommon. Some thought that such behaviour was relegated to Knockturn Alley, but the truth was drunk humans were drunk humans. As both alleys had a pub, that meant drunken fools. Not that goblins were much better in that regard, they just didn't drink much in wizarding pubs unless business was involved. They preferred to drink in their own places and that kept their drunken fools as their own problem. Quickly, though, the noise got so bad that both Fleur and Viperclaw got up from their work to look out of the window. What they saw was incredibly disturbing.
A wizard was standing in the middle of a circle of dead bodies and firing killing curses like it was the only spell he knew. He was targeting everyone: wizards, witches, a few goblin guards, a woman who looked like she may have been a hag, and Fleur even saw the body of a small child clutched in the arms of a dead witch. Right then a squad of four Aurors arrived, and Fleur saw Tonks among them. The metamorph cousin of her boyfriend immediately started transfiguring the ground around the crazed wizard, surrounding him with walls of stone using the same spell Fleur herself had drilled into Hermione for the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. Instead of a personal shield, Tonks had cut off the wizard's line of sight.
While Tonks did that, two of the other red robed Aurors were casting what looked to be anti-Apparition and anti-portkey spells to prevent the wizard from just vanishing. The last Auror ran forward, and after a nod from the other three saying they were ready, he transfigured a hole about a foot wide in the wall while standing very deliberately to the side. Tonks and the other two Aurors immediately started firing what looked to Fleur like stunning spells through the hole.
No one could see if the spells had hit, but a few seconds later black smoke came billowing out from behind the walls and formed into the smoky torso of a disembodied laughing Voldemort. He started to speak loud enough for anyone in the alley to hear every word cleanly. "You thought you were safe? Thought I was going to be gone for over a decade again? My reign, your subjugation, my new world are inevitable! Unstoppable! HAHAHA!" He then flew away, still laughing at the destruction and the fear he had caused.
Fleur just stares in shock. Indeed she had hoped, like when Voldemort was defeated when Harry was a baby, that it was going to take him years before he was a problem again. She had known it was unlikely, Harry had been saying that Voldemort was going to be back soon and he understood Voldemort way better than anyone else she knew. But she couldn't help but hope it would have taken longer than a few short weeks.
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The next few days were a storm of fear in the magical world. The newspapers were full of headlines and stories about the attack. The wizard who had been possessed had gone completely crazy, to the point that a mediwizard had concluded he wasn't fit for trial, so he had been locked away in the wizarding equivalent of a mental health facility.
There were two major problems that The DMLE were currently facing. The first was that nobody knew if it was being possessed that caused the poor wizard to go insane, or that while he was possessed he committed mass murder that included his own wife and child. The second thing that was causing an issue was nobody knew whether or not the wizard had been possessed voluntarily or involuntarily.
The wizard's friends and family were all claiming that he never would have joined up with You-Know-Who, but they were accused of being a biassed source. Others pointed out the fact that he was a pureblood and his wife was as well, and that he had definitely been heard complaining about muggleborn in his youth. However, as a D.M.L.E. representative had said in an interview with Rita Skeeter, "prejudicial beliefs and actions based on those beliefs are entirely different. It is entirely possible that Mr. Cunnings had such prejudice, but we can find no evidence of him taking any actions before the incident in Diagon Alley a few days ago. Until such time as the healers are satisfied that he can reasonably be expected to give a coherent answer to D.M.L.E. questions, we have no choice but to put the whole case on hold."
The public were understandably terrified. They had visions of just walking down the street one day and suddenly just watching as their body was forced to do things they never would consider doing. The effect it had had on Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade had been immediate; they were now practically empty. The people who had to venture there to buy essentials were as fast as they possibly could be, just in and out again in as short a time as possible. The streets in Hogsmeade were deserted, with everyone Apparating or Flooing directly to wherever they needed to be.
Harry had thrown himself into developing a way to engrave the runic arrays for his drying doorway easily. He had gone to see a mundane engraver who did engravings of images on things like petrol-fueled lighters and had enquired about the equipment he used, which gave him a lead on what he needed. The problem was the engraving tool moved an electrical drill around to actually do the engraving work. While Harry could probably rent a mundane house and set up the equipment there, that would send the cost of the drying doorway plates he wanted to sell through the roof. And there was little point developing a way to mass produce an item quickly if the method made it so that most people couldn't justify the expense when they had drying charms. Harry had a sudden thought and couldn't help but laugh as he imagined the look his uncle Vernon would have had if he had learned that Harry's biggest issue for his project was a magically powered drill that didn't leave any magical contamination on what it was drilling. The idea of mixing a drill with magic might have actually been enough to drive him into such a rage it would have killed him.
Noticing that Harry was laughing, Dan came over to see what was up. " Care to share the joke?" He asked.
"Oh it's nothing. I was just imagining what my uncle would do if he knew my current stumbling block is that I need a drill that works without electricity," Harry explained.
"There is always a hand drill," Dan suggested, seating himself in a free chair next to Harry.
"Won't work. They don't spin fast enough. Plus actually cranking it by hand would be impossible as the drill needs to be constantly moving through the pattern I need it to carve. And powering with magic is out because it will contaminate the plate being carved. That's why Runes are carved by hand instead of being transfigured into or out of whatever you are doing," Harry explained.
"What about a dental drill? They are powered by high pressure air generated in a box a few metres from the head, could that work? Can you power it with some type of magic air compressor?" Dan suggested an alternative he was more familiar with.
"Hmm… maybe?" That had Harry thinking. It would keep any active magic away from the engraving. A magical air compressor would be complicated, but maybe there was a different way. He had already used runes to generate a lot of water, as runes to conjure the four elements were already well known. The only trouble might be generating enough air to power the drill, but that should be easy enough by just adding multiple copies of the array into the generator. "How much would a full dental drill set to experiment on cost me?" Harry asked, afraid of the answer as he knew medical equipment was expensive.
"For you? Nothing. Emma and I recently replaced our old equipment. It all still works, but the old models needed replacing to comply with newer guidelines. We still have the old equipment in a cupboard at the clinic. I need to check with Emma first, but you can probably have them." Dan said.
"That would be brilliant," Harry said, sure he could make that work.
Emma was agreeable, and the next day Sirius Apparated over to the Grangers' dental surgery around lunch time and had returned with the equipment shrunken in his pocket. Harry had had to wait for the Grangers to get home that evening for Dan to sit with him and explain how it all worked.
The best part of the dental drill was that, apart from the pumps on the compressor, the old model they had been using was entirely mechanical, plus the bits that were designed for the head were just as effective on the brass plates Harry was using. The issues all came from the compressor. First, it was a sealed unit, so Harry couldn't just carve the Runes on the inside of the drum. Second was the warning Harry got from Dan about too much pressure leading to explosions. The drum also wasn't big enough for the successive arrays needed to build up a high pressure to be carved into it. This meant that Harry was going to have to redefine the whole thing.
Some of it wasn't so hard. Despite Dan's warnings, the compressor drum had a safety valve in it, so if it was over-compressed the valve would pop, venting the air long before it got to the point of exploding. And a few Unbreaking Charms on the drum itself while leaving the safety valve alone so it would still pop at the same pressure should take care or any risks of explosive decompression. A small problem was going to be removing the air pumps and patching the holes they left, but a few bits of sheet metal and permanent sticking charms should cover that. Or he could ask Hermione to transfigure some suitable steel scrap into the holes sealing them up.
The big issue was how he decided to go about the Runes to generate the air. As there wasn't enough surface area to the drum, Harry thought putting metal plates inside the drum with the arrays carved into them might work. However, there were also two problems with that. First was getting the planes into the drum in the first place. There wasn't exactly a door he could open so he could put them in. The second was, with the plates inside the sealed drum, how was he going to turn them off and on? Sure, he could leave them on all the time with a tap on the drum to let the air out when not in use, but that would mean a constant annoying hissing noise. What he really needed was either a remote control runic plate, or some way to tie the activation to the amount of pressure in the drum. If he could have the plates activate when the air in the drum dropped below a certain level, then that would be perfect. It was something to think about.
Harry was fully aware he was throwing himself back into his project because he wanted to avoid thinking about what was in the newspapers. With the prophecy hanging over his head, he felt responsible, like he should be out there on the front lines fighting, especially after seeing what witnessing the Diagon Alley massacre had done to Fleur. He and Hermione had had to spend an entire day helping Fleur put herself back together again. Their French girlfriend was made of steady stuff, but she hadn't been witness to real murderous violence before. She had been in the Triwizard Tournament, but that was staged violence with safety people around, and she was unconscious while Harry was kidnapped and fought Voldemort. She hadn't witnessed any of it until then, and it had affected her just like it had affected Harry and Hermione in their third year. It was a lot more real for Fleur now, especially as she realised that if the attack was thirty minutes later it's entirely possible she would have been in the alley herself looking for lunch.
Unfortunately for Harry, every time he tried to think of something he could do to help the war effort, he got a sense of crippling anxiety in the pit of his stomach and just ended up feeling queasy. It was better to focus on something else and let his subconscious work on the subject. So, spending his time working on his project was probably the best use of his time.
-ϟϟϟ-
The Monday after Harry's birthday, both he and Hermione got their O.W.L. results with the morning post while they were eating breakfast at Grimmauld Place. Daphne and Tracey had decided to stay at Potter House that morning and have a quiet couples breakfast, so they weren't there. Hermione as always started fretting immediately and refused to open hers, convinced she had failed everything and that as long as she didn't open the letter she didn't have to believe it. That was quickly settled when Fleur just grabbed the letter herself and opened it for Hermione, revealing she had achieved straight Outstandings in every subject. This had Hermione's fretting immediately switch to elation as she and Fleur started hugging, squealing, and jumping around the kitchen excitedly before they were separated so that Dan and Emma could sandwich their little girl between them.
Harry was of course proud of Hermione, the only reason he wasn't on his feet congratulating her was the prospect of opening his own results. He didn't fear he had failed everything like Hermione did, but there was no way he had done as well as her. There was no way he had straight O's, hell there was no way he got above an Acceptable on every subject; he was bound to have failed at least one. Finally, he tore open his letter and read, skipping over the majority of the letter and jumping straight to the results:
1997 O.W.L for Harry James Potter
Astronomy - Exceeds Expectations
Ancient Runes - Outstanding
Care of Magical Creatures - Exceeds Expectations
Charms - Outstanding
Defence Against the Dark Arts - Outstanding
Herbology - Outstanding
History of Magic - Acceptable
Potions - Outstanding
Transfiguration - Outstanding
That wasn't bad, not bad at all and better than Harry expected. He had passed everything, and had Outstanding and Exceeds Expectations in every subject except History of Magic, the most mind numbingly boring subject Hogwarts inflicted on the students.
Hermione, noticing that Harry hadn't said anything since reading his results, took his letter and read it for herself, Fleur hugging Hermione from behind so she could read it too. "This is great Harry, six O's, two EE's and one A. You even got an Outstanding in Potions, I knew you could do it when Snape wasn't the one marking your work." Hermione sprung forward and wrapped her arms around him engulfing him in a hug.
"Not bad kiddo," said Sirius. "That's a little better than what your dad had for his results, mostly Outstanding with a few Exceeds Expectations thrown in. And nobody worth talking to cares about History of Magic. I think your results are about on par with Lily's, but I wasn't close enough to her before sixth year for her to go out of her way to tell me her results." Harry felt good knowing that he had lived up to the standard his parents had set. It felt like he hadn't let them down, an old fear of his since joining the magical world and learning the truth about them.
Emma was just coming around the table to congratulate Harry as well when she spotted something. "Harry, there is still something in the envelope." Harry looked, and indeed there was another piece of parchment. He quickly read it.
Special project assignments
Special project 1: Animagus form
Harry Potter has achieved mastery in the Animagus transformation and has completed all regulations regarding his transformation. And has been awarded an outstanding grade by Minerva McGonagall - Master of Transfiguration and a registered Animagus.
Special project 2: the drying doorway
Professor Sprout assessment - Outstanding
Professor Flitwick assessment - Exceeds Expectations
Professor Babbling assessment - Exceeds Expectations
Over all assessment - Exceeds Expectations
Notes:
This is an interesting idea that has the potential to go further. A little more polishing of the execution and you would have had an Outstanding - Professor Babbling
Harry read out the note to the room. Hermione checked her envelope and found a similar note regarding her own animagus success. Fleur had missed it before because it was short enough that it didn't poke out of the opened envelope, and she hadn't thought to check after finding Hermione's results, thinking anything else in there would just be a reminder of the things that they needed to get for their next year in school.
Dan, Emma, Sirius, and Fleur were all incredibly proud of Harry and Hermione's results. They decided that they would have to have some type of celebration that evening. Fleur made sure to give them both a hug and a solid kiss each, but unfortunately she didn't get a summer break anymore and had to get to work. Fleur disillusioned herself stepped outside and disappeared with a crack. They knew that Fleur was Apparating directly to the steps of Gringotts and rushing inside as soon as she landed. After the attack in the alley, she was too nervous to walk through the alley alone anymore.
She had told them that a bunch of the Gringotts employees had lobbied the bank through their bosses that they wanted an easier Apparition point in the bank or a Floo fire that the employees could use for their safety, but unfortunately employee safety was butting heads with bank security and the entire matter was still being deliberated by higher management. Harry had offered to Step Fleur directly into the bank, but Fleur had vetoed that suggestion immediately. If Harry Apparated into the bank the goblin guards would immediately assume it was an attempted attack, and both of them would most likely lose their heads. That had quickly stopped Harry from offering again.
Later in the morning Daphne and Tracey joined them, eager to see what Harry and Hermione's results were like. Hermione was quick to show off her and Harry's results. Daphne's O.W.L. results were better than Harry's, but not quite as good as Hermione's. Daphne suffered with the same problem Harry had with History of Magic, the inability to stay awake in his lessons, so she had also only gotten an Acceptable. The rest of her scores, however, were all outstanding. Tracey hadn't done as well. She wasn't unintelligent, but she was a solid Exceeds Expectations student. She had a Poor in Astronomy and Outstanding in both Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts, though. Tracey actually attributed her Outstanding in Defence to the lessons Harry had been giving their little group towards the end of the year.
After lunch, Harry decided he needed to visit a few places. Hermione had wanted to come with him, but he had to turn her down. She was a little put out until Harry told her that one of the things he planned to do was to look into a surprise for both her and Fleurt. She did insist though that Harry wasn't to go alone, which Harry accepted and Tracey ended up going with him. He asked Tracey because a girl's opinion could be useful, one of the stops he wanted to make was mundane, and because if it was only one person he could easily Step them away if there was danger.
"So where to first?" Tracey asked as she looped her arm in his, ready for him to Step them. They appeared right before a building in Diagon Alley. "The jewellery store, I wanted to get something unique made for Hermione and Fleur for Christmas. I have no idea how long custom jewellery takes so I wanted to come early, especially as I doubt I'll get a chance once we go back to school," Harry explained as they stepped inside.
"Oh custom jewellery, someone is being fancy." Tracey ribbed him.
"Hello Mr. Potter, did I hear you mention a custom job? Please come over here, I will see what I can do to help you." The store owner, a witch who looked to be in her eighties, waved them over. "What exactly are you looking for?"
"Well for now I'm looking for a quote, I have no idea how much this will cost. I'm hoping for six different designs: two rings, two necklaces, and two sets of earrings. A total of two matching sets, one for my one girlfriend and one for my other." She had addressed him by name, so he didn't bother to explain his two girlfriends; unfortunately his love life was public knowledge.
"Well that I can do, but the costs are largely affected by the materials. Gold costs more than silver, diamonds cost more than glass. Some materials are harder to work with and take more labour to finish. So why don't you tell me what you had in mind?"
Harry went on to explain the idea he had. Each piece would feature the same three semi-precious stones. Golden tiger's eye, malachite, and turquoise. Fleur's set would feature the turquoise supported by the tiger's eye and the malachite, while Hermione's would feature the tiger's eye supported by the other two. The idea was that the stones represented their eyes: Harry and his green eyes were the malachite, Hermione's eyes were the golden tiger's eye and Fleur's baby blues the turquoise.
When the discussion got to metals, Tracey proved why it was a good idea to bring her. "Hermione's colouring matches better with golds and coppers. Fleur on the other hand has a much paler complexion with light blond hair. For her I recommend silvery metals."
"Well I don't recommend copper for jewellery; it reacts with sweat over time and turns itself and the skin of the person wearing it green," the owner advised.
They talked it over for a while and settled on some choices. Harry had given the shop owner a photo of each Fleur and Hermione to work with, and Hermione's was going to be gold while Fleur was getting white gold. Harry didn't want to even risk the idea that one of his girls would take only one of them getting gold the wrong way. Hermione's were going to be a little simpler and more robust, whereas Fleur's was going to be thinner and more elegant. The shop owner had quickly sketched out a few designs and they looked amazing to Harry, and if Tracey's reaction was anything to go by his girls would love them. The last thing they settled on was the price of one hundred Galleons, almost five hundred pounds. It was a lot, but it was six custom pieces of gold jewellery. Harry put in the order and said he would be back shortly with the gold.
They did a quick run to Gringotts, where Harry took a trip down to his vault and grabbed three hundred Galleons and had 200 of them changed for pounds sterling for his next stop after the jewellery shop. He and Tracey looked around for Fleur but didn't see her, so she was probably working behind the scenes. Harry knew he was probably being excessive in the amount of mundane money he was getting out, but he had no idea how much what he wanted was going to cost, and better to have too much than have to run back to the bank again. They stopped by the jewellery store one last time and Harry handed over a hundred Galleons, and in exchange got a receipt and a promise they would be ready well before Christmas.
The next stop was in mundane London, so Harry Stepped them both to an alleyway near by the destination and they walked to the engraver that Harry had spoken to before. The engraver was easy to find, as you just had to follow your nose; the bakery just across the road smelled amazing. Once they got to the engraver's, Harry went right to talk to the owner while Tracey browsed what was for sale. Harry was hoping the man would agree to order Harry the engraving equipment he needed. The shop didn't just do engraving, it also did shoe repairs, some custom leather work including wallets, purses, and handbags, key cutting, and a bunch of other little things.
The owner of the shop was reluctant to order Harry the engraver because he wanted Harry to bring the engraving job to him and have Harry pay him to do the work. As much as the rates were reasonable, the Statute of Secrecy made that impossible. It was only when Harry made it clear that he wasn't going to outsource the work to anyone and that the only profit to be made was as a commission for the equipment that the man relented and agreed to help Harry.
The equipment was actually a lot cheaper than Harry had feared, only setting him back £450, and he was sure a good chunk of that was the man's commission. If the man hadn't been over six feet tall, Harry would have been convinced he had a goblin in his ancestry somewhere. But the £450 also included a thousand blank brass plates and 5 large tablets of brass for Harry to cut his engraving patterns into. Harry paid once more and got a receipt and was told to return to collect the equipment in a week once it was delivered.
As the equipment was cheaper than Harry expected, he decided to treat himself and Tracey to lunch from the bakery across the street. They each had a large sandwich that the bakery made from their own bread rolls and a selection of fillings, and Harry bought a large selection of individual cakes and pastries to take home with them. The Grangers may have their little war on sugar, but they were as susceptible as the next person to a fresh cream cake or custard slice. They ate their sandwiches in a local park, and then Harry Stepped them home, trying not to overbalance the number of large white boxes filled with cream-filled cakes and pastries he was carrying.
A/N
Sleep lacking, energy low I need comments, or energy drinks