Harry inspected the fossilized eye. It was not just fossilized… it was plucked from the living Thunderbird's Skull completely undamaged and enclosed in a crystal like matrix… but why would someone do that to a creature as powerful and regal as a Thunderbird?

He would need to grind and polish it… and to do that he would need to use the lathe.

So he read the text. It explained how to align the two cores… and how to add the cave toad tongue…as he laid them out and rotated the Shaft in the vice so it was perfectly flat before him. He then, using a 'silver' tool with a diamond sharp and hard tip to scribe a line from under the former not to the far tip…

Hermione had finished shaving the length of her shank her desired thickness, so it now looked vaguely Damascus like, so she transferred it to the vice on her table.

She checked her crucible, and found it halfway there, so she added something her magic said it needed, before she returned to the text.

Tish was laying across the door, her ears perked up, her eyes flickering about the room, taking in everything.

Harry switched the Lathe from woodcarving to Stone carving. He eased the "Eye' into the machine and started it spinning. He then began to shave away the unneeded diamond like crystal. The Tools were runed for strength, sharpness, and hardness in such a way as to not affect what they were carving.

First he made the 'Eye' into a perfect sphere, then he measured its diameter… and found it close enough. After polishing it with a fine cloth, he extracted it from the machine and balanced it on the talons of the former knot.

Hermione smiled as she took her place, and set her raw sapphire in the machine. And kicked it into motion…

Harry, using the dagger to prick the ball of his thumb, he traced the not quite straight line he had scribed earlier, leaving a light blood trail. He performed the ritual of binding as he wrapped the Occomi Feather and Hydra Heartstring together and settled them into the groove of the Focus base before him…

The wood 'softened' and 'split' almost hungryly absorbing the items. The feather and string stretching from the base of the claw to an inch or two centimeters of the far tip. It then closed on his 'offering'.

Since Hermione had finished her shaping of her stone, he reset the lathe to spinning wood and placed the Blackthorn shaft in the machine and performed the finishing ritual.

As he was spinning the shaft, he left his repoked and bleeding thumb resting on it. The spinning wood started to absorb the blood and mana in the room… tasting Hermione as well as Harry.

When it was finished, Harry was on his knees panting. "That was a rush. Not even the Wronski Feint is that good."

"And probably for the same reason." Hermione checked the crucible. "Okay big guy, I need you to pour the metal for me. Just pour it like you are pouring a hot potion into a vial."

Harry stretched his arms and shoulders, before he did as asked… and poured the liquid metal into the opening in the sand. When the mold was filled and the cup was empty, he set the cup beside the Kiln.

"And now I wait." Hermione turned to the Shank in the vice, before she turned it Ninety degrees, and using strips of sandpaper of various grit, and began to shape the butt of her pistol.

:If that's the way she waits… are you ever late?: Tish asked him, and by Hermione's lack of reaction, only him.

"Rarely, and only with good reason." He inspected the Blackthorn shaft. Was it his imagination or were the thorn bumps looking like closed eyes.

"Did you say something?" Hermione stopped sanding to tie up her hair.

"No dear." He grinned at her. "Your Focus is a chest plate harness. Jump on up here." He patted the work bench. "Now is it like mine?" He shifted to Puma and stood on his hind legs to show her how it fit across the collar bones and under his forelegs.

:The base… but can I get a solid plate from my collar bones to the base of my keel?: and the accompanying image showed a plate halfway to the chest strap.

Returning to Human, "Okay, for the shoulders to keel will be forged plates, above and below for a better fit. Do you want carry pouches on it or do you want to keep your travel pack?"

The face she made told him all he knew. "You will need to have Hermione enchant them. But let's see what the text says.

He found an entry for Griffin Battle Focus crafting. On the next page there was one for a Hertasi Battle Helm. He took some billets of a metal that his magic liked and he put them in the Hot flames of the forge. He cocked his head and added two more.

While the metal heated, he removed his harness and pouches as he inspected the rest of the Forge side of the room. A selection of hammers and tongs hung on the wall on the other side of a three sided anvail. He hung his harness on the hook by the hammers.

The text said that he needed to picture the recipient and shape as he was forging the individual items.

Using a set of tongs and HammerHe started with Tish's breastplate. When he needed to reheat it, he switched to her helm. Then he switched to a helm for Soran. Then he started on the small plates that he saw interlinking to hold her plate.

He lost himself to the work…heat, pound, reheat and switch.

He would only break for water when Hermione or Tish would remind him.

While Harry lost himself, Hermione had finished her shaping, but she needed to groove and chisel the channel for the barrel of her gun, and build the firing chamber.

When Dobby appeared with two water gourds and a plate of wraps, for the humans, and a bowl and roasted bird for the Kree, Hermione smiled at the little guy and rubbed his head. "Thanks for looking out for us. I will need the guns I picked up in that alley."

As she stroked her new baby, something perverse came to her mind…

She grabbed the black 1911. She ejected a round and compared it to her barrel. It fit perfectly so she turned back to the stock and began to resculpt the grooving. Using the 1911, a point forty-five caliber slide action, a Smith and Wesson thirty eight trigger assembly and a bit of fine tuning… she cobbled together a clip loaded four-five caliber pirate special.

Now she had to work out how to blend the wand aspect into it.

That meant more reading…

Tish watched the witch near her. : You are an Archive! And you are accompanying a Dhorisha'ke'a'char! I will have you as Proof!:

Hermione snorted as she turned the page. "You do realize that odds are that my Death is what caused him to Burn the Planet? That odds are that you are going to be at my side when he blows?"

:Shit! You're correct.: Tish sounded shocked. Before she 'grinned'. :But oh what a Story should we survive."

SPRB

Adriana huffed as she walked into the Craft Hall. She saw the Master… a man she only knew as Smythe, as he had been here longer than her two centuries, guide the Male Grunn in the working of his new Focus.

"I sense that you still have people working." Adriana watched the Grunn use a styles to trace and gouge the rune he had just inked.

"Besides Trogg here, the two Brits are in Room one with their Kree." He grinned at the Headmistress. "I Heard about the bet Grymsythe made. I am betting that the Boy blows up in the biggest eruption since the First Cataclysm… and survives." He watched the Grunn blow on the tile and drop it in a potion bath. "Oh… got a selection of Black Griffin Feathers, of an unknown breed, three Coatl feathers and three red Phoenix tail feathers."

"The Black Griffin is Mister Potter, the Red Phoenix is her payment for staying at Snow Point for the School Year. But…"

"Potter delivered them, but has not said anything about where he got them." He cocked his head. "He is flagging… and… oh Shit!"

The short man was moving at a speed that could only come from magical assistance.

Adriana huffed again as she appeared at his side as he peered into the room.

A massive Cheshire car was curled up sleeping on one Bench, and the Kree was testing her head on her forelegs as she watched the boy… pull a War Helm from the quenching oil. The boy tossed the helm on the floor before the workbench, as he drew out from the Forge… another War Helm, and pound it twice, muttering as he focused his magic and quenched in the oil. He did the same for twelve squarish tiles and a kite shield shaped plate. Each time he dunked something in the Oil, mana would flux and flare across the Whole Hall.

"Um… Smythe, is it just me or is that Focus beside the Kree watching everything?" Adriana hissed.

The man wretched his eyes off the boy's sweaty back to look at the shaft of Blackthorn… sitting in a Vice beside the Kree's hip. The Eye in the talon shaped knob swirled to look at the pair, and blinked… or was that a blink?

"Just what is in that thing?"

"If he paired them as I instructed, Occomi Feather and Hydra Heartstring with a Crystallized eye."

"Headmistress. Master. Good day." Harry approached the doorway with a gourd of water.

"Day ended six hours ago." Smythe sneered at the lad. "I thought you were going to be doing the Blackthorn and get a start on her harness."

"I did." Harry grinned. "I need to use the loo and then I can…"

"Get to bed." The Headmistress smiled. "The four of you are going to bed. After a good night's sleep and a good breakfast, you can return."

The Master glared at the boy. "You have the taste of Crafting, don't you?"

"Best Rush of my Life." Harry collected his harness, and inspected the helms and plates, and wandlessly moved them to the bench that the Kree had just vacated. "Even better than flying."

He released the 'cane' and then frowned at it, before he turned to the Master and presented it.

"A battle Focus… yes. Oh, she has some surprises for you!" He peered closer. "That's a surprise… She has two recognized Wielders… Miss Granger too it seems."

He stepped over to the cat on the other bench as he slid the cane into the side strap under his left arm and picked up the cat.

"I sense Miss Granger…" the Headmistress began.

: The cat.: Tish sounded smug as she followed her Dhorisha'ke'a'char out of the work room. The Craft Master closed the Room.

In the Main Chamber of the Hall, Harry approached the Grunn as he finished another tile.

"Impressive."

"Harr. You finish?" the brute grinned at the puny male.

"With one. Are you finished or…" Harry peered into the bowl of potion.

"Soak to attune bone to Trogg." He shifted to his four point standing. In this position he was shoulder to shoulder with Harry, but he was still three times his size. And a whole head taller.

"Come on. Dobby will have a cheese and nut plate for us when we get to the common room, before we go see to the night." Harry led the way out of the Hall. "We don't want to worry the Females… they tend to get over bearing."

The two professors watched him leave. "Damn, I only bet that he would survive." Adriana hissed. "You had to put that twist on it."

"He blows up and survives, we both win. He dies in any other manner, Grymsythe wins. He goes boom, and dies, we loose… he doesn't boom, but lives… you win. He just needs to enter the Gate alive."

SPRB

Harry was correct. The two female Grunn were playing a game that looked like Mahjong. He had seen Cho, Su, and the Patil twins playing now and again in the Great Hall, the rattling of the tiles was a bit soothing while he and Hermione were doing homework on the Gryffindor Table as Ron was slaughtering the older students in Wizard's Chess.

Trogg grunted softly as he brushed his forehead against theirs, before he joined Harry to eat quickly and then strolled off to the rooms set aside for the Grunn.

Harry carried Hermione to bed and joined her in cat shape, her tucked into his chest. Tish sniffed them both, before tucking in behind him.

:Kree is second to Humans!:

Puma Harry hissed, but didn't move… and his moment of stillness was the end of his day.

The two Brits awoke hungry and sticky. A quick shower in their personal bathrooms and they returned to the Common Room, to find themselves alone… with the exercise of Tish.

They arrived at the Dining Hall to find it half empty.

As they just sat rather than hit the Buffet, because Dobby liked to serve their meals. "Oh Dobby, please include a bowl of nuts with the water bottles in our workshop." Hermione scratched his ears as he delivered their plates.

"Did you feel thosse sshockwavess lasst night?" Verra asked as she swallowed whole salmon.

:Feel them!: Tish snorted as she shredded the ham in her paws. :He was the cause of them. He was Crafting my Focus.: Everyone around the table heard her mental giggling.

"Ssspeacking of Foci… is that one glarrring at me?" Verra was looking at the Blackthorn shaft under his left arm.

Harry pulled it out and laid it out on the table.

Soran reached out to pick it up and… couldn't budge it. He tried to use both hands… still nothing.

Trogg tired. Nothing.

He grunted in amusement.

Hermione frowned at the stick and reached out and the Blackthorn jumped into her hand. "She's cold fire… not mine, but I can carry her and use her… but only as long as I do it in your name or by your orders."

"Hermione, cast me a luminous."

"She is no longer cold…[Luminous]...[Nox]." The Cane had shrunk before it produced a ball of light at the tip. The wand was now Twenty seven centimeters. "And now she feels like she is laughing at us." She handed it back to Harry.

He placed her between Holly and the kriss. He frowned, before he drew her and returned her. "She doesn't like to be this high…" he placed the Blackthorn wand where Hermione was wearing her pistol. "And this she likes."

"Harry, try drawing her from the top of your hip on the side. Think of a Katana… Dean had a comic book on one." Hermione frowned.

Harry frowned, but did asked. "Nothing, but I think she needs to see it personally before she tries it. But those images of the Pirate in that book you were reading last week*..." He didn't have time to dodge the rabbit punch to his kidney.

As he picked himself up, he rubbed the tender spot. "As I was saying, the belt sash he was wearing…"

"That is doable. I need to see what is available." Harry stood. "I have some finishing work on Tish's piece and my Staff…" Tish followed him from the Table to the Craft Hall.

TBC

AN: this is in reference to the Story: Rocking the Boat. a Harmony story set after Fifth Year.