Something woke Harry early in the morning. Dressing quickly, he noticed that the Blackthorn had grown, but was still poking out of the pouch.
"Do you still want to ride on my hip?" Harry slung the Pack Harness onto his shoulder. "Or is that good enough."
:Both if possible. Your hip is for fighting or whenever you are not wearing this thing.: the mind within the Shaft smirked.
"I presume that your brain is in the big Eye." Harry stroked the clutched orb. "I have had a bad experience with some Intelligence that had no brain."
"My Brain, as you called it, is centered in the Eye… yes. But when you bound the Stick to your Magic, you released me to fill the whole shaft, while binding me to you and you alone. Because She was working in the same shielded space…"
"Hermione Granger or Mynx." Harry grinned as he looked at the girl sprawled in the bed he had just vacated. "She has Full User Rights. If she is clear of all influence, she is allowed to use you to cast any spell she wants… even if it is the killing curse at Me." He turned and left the room, Tish just ahead of him.
: You trust her that much?: it was a echoed chorus from both minds listening to him.
"Yes." He ducked out of the tent, and heard the whistle snoring of Verra in her cushion nest. He shook his head and continued out into the common room.
Trogg sat on the Floor at the coffee table peering at the tiles laid out before him.
"I see you are blocked." Harry wandlessly Summoned a low stool to the table so he could sit beside the brute. "You did a good job so far. What is the problem?"
"Can not link tiles." The Grunn grunted.
"How should they link?" Harry crossed his arms. "Picture it in your head… now examine the edge of one of the tiles… all the way around the edge."
Trogg hummed to himself. "Nothing. Edge to edge." He held out his left hand and brushed his right along its back, "Fingerless gloves… made of Bone."
Harry picked up a tile, and placed it on the back of Trogg's left hand. "Four across." He moved back to the wrist. "Three across… three down… like gloves…" Harry replaced the tile on the table. "Two options that come to mind… tongue and groove which would directly link the tiles to each other and chain linking with a mana conducting metal, which would allow for better flexibility. Both will require some work."
Trogg rocked as he thought. "Both." He nodded. "Groove for back and sides… link for corners." He started to shift the tiles selected into layouts for the back of hand, sides, and forearm.
"You took Combat Arts, correct?"
Trogg grunted affirmative.
"How do you walk?"
Trogg placed his knuckles on the table, the first knuckles up from the base of the fingers.
"And how do you punch?"
The hand rose and tightened into a fist.
Harry smiled. "Would you like to add something to align between the fingers to add to the damage when you punch but are short enough to vanish when you are walking?"
Trogg grunted questionly.
"Dobby. Can you get me just the teeth from the snake? Don't force anything." Twenty teeth appeared in a wooden bowl from the 'kitchen' in the tent. "I was thinking that these could be…" he shifted a tooth between two of the four tiles arranged for the back of the glove.
Grunting his approval, Trogg started to reach for more.
"Careful. These are from a massive serpent. I have not tested them for venom or the like." Harry patted the big hand reaching. "I never asked, but presume you are a mage, correct?"
"Yes. I channel through gauntlet, and boom." Trogg rolled his lower lip in a grin, his tusks flashing in the morning light.
"Well… if you rune them properly, you can use the teeth for the fine things and use the whole bracer to work the big magic."
"Why fine things?" Trogg sneered
"When you find a nut and want to open it, do you just smash it or do you crack the shell?"
Trogg pouted. "Smash."
"And the Ladies?" Harry waved at Trogg's quarters.
Trogg pouted deeper. "Crack."
"That's why fine Magic is good. I have seen Giants of Wand Magic fall to the easiest spell to cast. I personally held off a Great Wizard trying to kill me with a Curse that no cast Shield can stop. I used a disarming hex… Little Magics can do great harm when used the correct way."
Trogg lifted his head, his brow scrunched in thought.
"Now… pick out six teeth that will not touch the ground when you walk, but stick out when you go to punch." Harry placed the bowel before the massive tusked Gorilla.
Trogg took his time… placing six (three and three) aligning to go between his knuckles. Then, grinning, he sorted the other fourteen (seven and seven) so they would be along his outer side of his arms, giving him the equivalent of seven mini-blades along his forearm.
Harry looked at him. "You think the Master will allow that?"
Trogg preened like Sirius after a prank on Moony.
Harry snorted. "Bag them up. You have some work ahead of you. You can join me. Hermione just has testing of her unit."
Harry stood up as the Grunn started putting the tiles and teeth into a black silk drawstring bag.
"Dobby. We are heading to the Workshop. Tell Hermione when she gets here." Harry rubbed Dobby's head. "We will need a…" Harry glared at the Grunn, "Make it two bowls of nuts and two bottles of water and two of juice. If they don't have any juice… you can make some yourself." He cocked his head. "Save the pulp."
Dobby quivered in joy and popped away.
"Freaky."
Deciding to give the Guy who spoke like a simpleton, a pass, but Harry knew that he was smarter than his speech said, he ignored most of the meanings of the word. "Yeah, Dobby is a weird one… even among his kind."
''Still waters run Deep." He spoke to Tish.
SPRB
The walk to the Workshop was quiet.
The Master was waiting for them as they walked into the main chamber. "So… did you help him?"
"Yes…no… and I am sorry, but he took it further than I thought was possible… or allowed. First he needs to tongue and groove some of the tiles, bore holes, and thread mana conductive metal through them…l saw a way for him to up his game… and he took the idea… ran with it and jumped off the edge." He turned to the Grunn. "Show him a tooth. Remember that they are an unknown."
Trogg Sneered, but still carefully sat, and picked out a tooth, and held it out to the Master.
The small man picked it up. "Serpent…" his left eyebrow raised. "Big… this is a small gripper, so the snake can slowly swallow its prey…" he turned it over… "solid core and smell say that it was not a venom user… so it would catch and smoother its prey… but it is twice the size of an Anaconda…"
"Those non black feathers I gave you." Harry smiled at the man. "She was mummified in a tunnel not far from here. Hermione has a coin that can lead to the opening on this side… but it was a two day ride through the tunnel so I have no idea the distance. She might."
"Do you have more…?" He trailed off.
"Can't say. Won't say." It was not a happy response.
Smythe turned the tooth over in his fingers. "Need to see your layout."
"We are working in my room today. Hermione has yet to live fire her wand." Harry turned to the double room. Once he was inside he hund the harness where the Shaft could see the Room.
"Tish, under the bench or the forge. I don't think I am going to be smithing today. Of course if you want to go eat..." He took up the scratch all, and cast a wandless bluebell flame over his head, as he turned to scratch out the runes that Hermione had marked out for him.
:I'll just have Dobby get me a beef joint.: The kyree sounded smug.
Soon the air was filled with the sounds of scratching on bone, wood, and tooth.
SPRB
Hermione found the three a few hours later.
"How did it go?" Harry asked, not looking up as she crossed into the workroom.
"It was horrible." Hermione sniffled. "My Piercing hex blew a six inch hole in the target… the three behind it … and divotted the wall."
Harry set down the chisel and mallet, so he could hold his friend. "And how was your mana flow?"
She hit his chest. "I just said that I killed four people and you ask about my mana?"
"One, you said targets, not people. Two, while impressed with the damage, I am more concerned with how you felt… magic wise, then even if Ron was included in the four." He lifted her chin to look her in the eyes. "Now… your other function?"
Hermione buried her head into his chest.
[Flashback]
"Ah, Miss Granger. I wondered why you were not with… him, this morning." Hermione could hear the complexe emotions the man was feeling about Harry.
"Morning Master. I see that you are enjoying the joy of teaching Potter." She grinned.
"I don't know if I should dread his gift in the Art of my Craft, or…" the old man sneered.
"Teach him everything you can and declare that you are responsible for his greatness." Hermione grinned. "He doesn't like the spotlight, so he will just say that you taught him all he knows."
"Then there are the feathers he offered me, and the teeth for that brute…" the small man now seemed to loom over her. "He said something about a coin…"
She fished the coin from her pouch, "I was going to give this to the Headmistress, but she never stays long enough for me to call out to her. The cave is about four to six hours as the Owl flies and…" she shrugged.
"What brings you to the Craft hall?"
"I need to test my new wand in a safe way."
He showed her to the shooting gallery, or something that looked like one to her eye.
She drew her battle wand and pointed it at the first target and [Zulacto] and four targets exploded as the wall behind them showed a divot in the stone.
wand
"Not bad… you might need to fine tune your power and target skills, but that's not my department." The Small man looked at the weapon. "And it's other function?"
Hermione stepped to the left as she slammed a clip into the , drew the slide… and shot the first target… blowing the strawman's head off. She looked at the wand, the target, before switching to the peacemaker… the bullet hit the target dead centre, but barely rocked it, before she switched back and… punched through the first target and rocked the second. She was quick to empty the clip. The damage to the target was triple what she was expecting.
"Hmm. Your bullets are enhanced by the wand's energy. Again, work on power control and targeting."
Hermione frowned at the battle wand. "Harry helped me with the binding. He said that if I wanted, I could do some filigree on the stock…"
"Other than decorative detail…" the man sneered. "I won't, unless you want to punch through the back of the Wall."
"So… I am going to clean and seal it. I will need to write to my Father."
"He is in his room. He has the Orge with him."
[Flashback end]
Harry hummed and nodded. "I noticed that you had not finished the runes on the staff and Helms." He kissed her brow, "if I can get you to finish drawing them, I think I can get out of here tonight. I can offer you a foot rub?"
Hermione began to Purr. "Until we start classes."
"No deal. I already have you scheduled for nightly foot rubs if not full body massage… unless I am in the Infirmary." He began to Purr as well.
"Damn you. If you keep this up, I am so getting fucked by the end of the year." she hissed into his chest.
Harry froze, going quiet. "Well I am fucked."
Trogg grunted his laugh as two voices laughed in his head.
He left Hermione on the bench, as he adjusted the lathe to work stone, and fished out his Rubies. He rolled them both between his palms to get an idea of what he needed to do with them both.
He set the first stone in the device, started the flywheel as he summoned the first tool to hand and began to shape the stone.
Hermione smiled at his back as she turned to the staff and finished marking the runes that her logic dictated needed to be placed. Then she took the two Helms and rune-marked them as requested before switching to a red marker for a rune of imperviousness.
She then set it all aside before she settled on her big baby. "Dobby. I need my gun kit and wand kit." As Dobby delivered the two items, she stripped and cleaned the gun side. She then taped the groove and pistol areas, before she stained and sealed the wood, bringing out the under laying pattern. Because he had used a silver wire, the cherry stain really popped. She wiped the excess off, and using the hairdryer in a tin, dried it quickly.
The Ollivanders Sealing wax needed a couple passes of the dryer to soften enough to brush on the stained wood. Once she had it waxed, once again started scraping and then sanding the excess off.
She set the wood aside, and began to polish the pistol pieces to the same shine as the wire grip wrap.
A quick wipe down, and she was ready to reassemble her baby. As she did, she felt a feeling of contentment growing in her chest. The rumbling of her Purr covered the noise or rather the lack of it in the workshop.
"What that noise?" A large blunt finger poked her in the back.
She turned to see Trogg with his heavy brow scrunched. Hermione popped up her ears. "I was Purring. Finishing my … wand has filled me with a feeling of Accomplishment."
Trogg sat back on his haunches. "Kitty?"
Hermione smiled. "Being Harry's best friend has many great rewards… and many great falls. Thinking I was smarter than Fate and Magic… I made a plan… and didn't double check my potion ingredients. What I thought was a human hair was from her familiar…" she flexed her ears. "Then when he got a potion for his animal forms he made sure he had enough for me. But the process that we used let's the animal treats bleed through. We both Purr."
The Grunn grunted and stood to walk back to the bench.
Curiosity got the best of her, and she stepped up to his side. "I see you have the tiles laid out, grooved, and bored. Impressive. And you are using a bronze wire… but the pillars are too small for your hands. Okay, I'll do the fine work, but you owe me a favour."
"What is foot-rub?" Trogg grunted as he fell back.
" The social bonding of a male rubbing the tension and stress out of a female's feet can earn him some enhanced affection." Hermione drew her wand and used it to hold the pieces in place as she assembled it like a three dimensional puzzle. "The science of it has been studied and practiced by Healers and Royalty of Asia for centuries. There are places on the foot that when properly stimulated, ease pain and discomfort of various organs throughout the body."
"If Trogg give foot-rub, Lefa Let Trogg sleep?" The Grunn grunted.
"Or ride you raw." Hermione wiggled the first tooth into place on the back of the glove.
"Trogg think about it." He fell back.
SPRB
Harry, having shaped and polished the two rubies into almost perfectly matching spheres, returned to the Staff and finished the carving, leaving only the impervious rune untouched… you only need to learn that lesson once.
He used Holly to cut the wood on ends so that he would have a hollow cage just smaller than the stones.
He set the staff in the vice, set the two rubies similar to how he did the Eye… he pulled out the two feathers, teing their quill bases together with a length of Cave Toad Tongue tendon. He laid it out so that a feather tip pointed at one end of the staff.
He drew out the Blackthorn Shaft, and holding it a third of the way down, so that the Eye was over the Staff, he began the Bonding ritual.
Sensing that he was going to do something stupid, Tish grabbed Hermione's Vine wood wand and bolted out of the room. Hermione, in working mode, dropped the tiles on the workbench and ran after her… the wards of the room snapping up as Harry's Magic started to swirl around the room just as the two females were past the threshold.
Smythe came floating up the hall, his eyes open wide. He saw the two 'girls' outside and the heavy Ward barricade in place.
"What is he doing now?" He peered in.
: Binding the Staff… using the Blackthorn!:
"SHITE!"
The resulting 'explosion' shook the School.
The Headmistress appeared before the smoke cleared.
"What in the Bloody Hells was that!" She hissed.
"Our favourite student is trying out his first Focus… by bonding his Second…"
A pair of coughing figures were visible through the 'smoke'.
"Just let me get my breath." Potter huffed. "No, I don't need your snark." He hissed a word… and the 'smoke' vanished, leaving two white haired males blinking at each other.
"Harr. White." Trogg grunted, pointing to Harry's head.
"Trogg. White." Harry pointed at the Grunn's head. "Trogg wearing Gloves."
The Brute's hands were now covered in bone tiles… up to his elbows. The teeth alone his underarm were now each six inches long, and burning with a flame matching his eyes. The bone gloves moved on his arms like they were leather. "Trogg like. Come off?"
Harry stepped to his side. "You were soaking them…"
"Tuning Potion." Trogg grunted. "Made with Trogg Blood and Hair."
"So… they are bound to your magic." Harry grinned. "Pull your magic from your arms."
Trogg grunted as he closed his eyes and breathed. The gauntlets vanished.
"Good job big guy."
He turned to look at the Staff, as he tucked the Blackthorn Shaft into his pouch before he released the staff. The rubies were in solid wood cages, enclosed in seamless ironwood braces. The wood and ruby dust from the floor had infused and filled the other rune grooves as the impervious rune burned itself into the wood.
He cooed as he picked her up and walked her through the air. "Hello Beautiful."
"Well, the wards will hold for another five hours." Smythe grinned at the Boy. "Enjoy."
Picking up the Helms… Harry saw that the runes were also completed. "Shit. I can't do Tish's harness without her…" He looked at Trogg. "What does Lefa use?"
"Tusk Rings."
"And…"
"Chapa. Sister. Three years younger." Trogg grunted. "Stick with orb." He held his hand two and a half feet apart. "Was give Chapa." He pulled out a three by two by two inch lump of amber and a twisted length of root.
"Where are you getting this stuff?"
"Pocket of Robe." He tapped his shawl.
"Sweet." Harry took the root. "What is this?"
"Phaliyant."
"Japanese Ring Oak." Hermione huffed from the doorway, where she was in a chair with a book in her lap. " According to Which Wand, Oak is a Strong Wand wood, but demands Loyalty and doesn't Change Users easily. It's why Neville is struggling." She turned the page. "Being Japanese Ring Oak… they are even more demanding, but they return it three fold. The Amber. Is there anything in it?"
Harry held it to the light. "I think so." He waved his hand. [Revielio]
"It's pronounced 'revelare'."
"Good to know, but my way worked." Harry was peering at the lump. "There is something in this. [Projectus]"
"Don't go making up spells!" She closed her book to see a hologram of the lump of amber… staring as Harry stripped away layer by layer of the Amber. "You dumbass… you are becoming the next Lockhart!"
They were staring at an Avian eye… yellow with black veining and a pin-point pupil.
"Well, good news. There is magic in this eye. Which means that it will work as a Focus… but I don't like the taste of it. It is filled with a blind Loyalty and an eagerness to fight. I think we can clean out the Aggression and instill a sense of Protection… But she might have a fight on her hands… and she will have to earn its Loyalty herself."
"Do it."
Harry took the tap root and stripped of the bark and under bark. As it was twisted, he could not turn it. So He had Trogg sand it as smooth as an egg.
Harry shaped the amber in the lathe until it was an orb just under two inches in diameter. Then he had Trogg polish it with a rough cloth while he thought of Chapa and why he loved her.
"To finish and bind it to her, you are going to need her blood." Hermione held up the book, showing the text from another room.
Harry grinned. "Then He can give it to her tonight and I can guide her in the process of binding and bonding. Now I can shape the top if she wishes, or bind it with wire. I am going to offer her one of my feathers… when I take my Griffin shape, tug gently on the tips of my feathers. When one comes loose, I will return to my human form…"
Twenty minutes later Harry was rubbing his kidney region. "At Least it's no longer itching."
He ran his hand over the tap-root. "Sand it a bit more." He passed it to Trogg. "Think of her, as she stands at your back in the tasks and trials to come."
Once Trogg was humming as he sanded the the shaft of the focus in hand, Harry turned to his bench and started to lay out and measure the rabbit hides. He doubled the length of the straps he thought he would need. He then allowed his magic to guide him.
The harness was adjustable across her collar straps, shoulders, and both sides of her belly and along her keel. Then he used the rabbit fur strips to trim the edges of the metal plates.
When he looked at the plate, took some gold leaf and using the hairdryer that Hermione had left on the workbench, gilded the Crest plate. Then he brushed the gold off the raised ridges, and then used some wand wax and polish to make it shine.
The Wall over the door crashed, alerting everyone that it was gone.
Harry picked up the Kyree Helm and held it out for her to try it on… she entered the room to put it on and trailed a thread of her mana through it, and it settled and shrunk to fit perfectly. Harry stepped to stand over her as Hermione joined him and helped adjust the Harness to fit Tish, snug but not tight. Harry had used double D rings for the body strap adjustment.
Tish shook herself like she was trying to shed water. :Nice. No slippage.:
Harry packed up everything not part of the Work rooms setup, and stored it in the pouch.
"Ah, Master Smythe." Harry held out his hand, and the Staff jumped across the room to his palm. "We would like to test our new items… permission to step out of the wards and fire into and across the water."
"Wait for Ward and the Headmistress." He waved them away. "Get."
Harry smiled at the others in the room. "Let's go make it rain."
The two humans, a Kyree, and a white haired Grunn exited the Craft hall and approached the Gate.
Healer Ward and the Headmistress approached from where they were, but the four stood looking out the gateway at the storm raging outside the School.
"I hear that you want to step outside?" The amusement in Ward's voice made Harry smile.
"Yes Sir." He raised the Staff. "Considering that I shook the walls of the Workshop crafting this…"
"You shook the whole School, Mister Potter." The Headmistress was not as amused.
"So… Do you want me to test it inside your walls?"
"Let them out… but keep an eye on them." And she was gone.
Ward did his thing, and Harry, Trogg, and Tish stepped out.
"Get Snow Point Academy from the white stone and how far south we are… but why not Storm…" Hermione trailed off as she watched Tish channel a ball if compressed air into the Storm wall raging about the School. The ball punched through the wall of the storm… only to explode… clearing a space of three hundred feet.
"The Storm is our first physical line of defence. If I remember correctly, you were carried across the storm. By a flyer. Had you come the other way… you would have found the reef half way through. It's why the Headmistress was impressed with the Grunn. From just outside the Reef, he grabbed the wall wards, and catapulted the whole group to the pier. The Kyree and her group caught the wind to fly in like you did … and the Elves … I believed it is called surfing…"
Trogg stood upright, twisted to his right, cupping his hands too as he drew them toward his right hip. A ball of light appeared in his cupped palms, and with a hard thrust forward, he twisted his hands around… released a blue white ball twice the size of her head into the storm… and like Tish's blast, the ball exploded … lighting up the storm like Christmas Morning.
Harry stepped close, and demonstrated something small that their bodies hid.
Trogg sat or rather squatted on his heels, lifted his fist into the air, and three tongues of fire flared out like a triple nozzled flamethrower.
When the flames cut out, Harry slapped him on the shoulder with a whoop.
Then He took his place at the edge… Raised his staff into the air… and let out a roar…
A two foot beam cut across the sky, slicing into the storm… cutting away the curtain.
Harry started spinning the Staff and fireball after fireball flashed from the end pointing away from the school, to impact against the storm wall.
The Clap on the back from the Gunn almost threw Harry off the ledge… but Tish 'grabbed' and yanked him back. The double jerk caused Harry to drop the Staff.
Trogg reached down to pick it up, and could not move it. He shifted to use both hands… and was shocked enough to almost throw him off the other side.
Harry laughed as the Staff returned to his hand before he spun it and sent Trogg flying back at the Gateway.
Trogg reacted by grabbing the ambaint mana and slung Harry at the Gateway as well. Just before Harry smashed into the Wall of Air … With Trogg right behind him, Ward adjusted the Gate to allow them through… only for them to hit the flagstone courtyard and slid to the centre… where Trogg landed on Harry.
"Get him Off!" Harry gasped. "I'm trapped under his ass!"
Trogg grunted his laughter as he farted.
:Are all males like this?: Tish asked from Hermione's knee.
"More or less. It's part of their bonding process. If not this, they are wrestling or fighting. Wrestling, Trogg has about a forty stone weight advantage and can deadlift a ton. Now if they take it to magic…"
"Headmistress Adriana would rip their heads off. They are too powerful to be allowed free reign." Ward sneered. "They will need a minder at all times, and the Kyree doesn't count."
Harry, finally able to breathe clear air, stood up and Reached for the War-Staff and tucked it into the pouch on his back once it reached his hand.
"Do not pull that Staff out unless an Instructor has asked you to." Ward said from three feet away from the now white haired Wizard. "You are now a War-Wizard. You will be listed as such in the Morning. Legal will be wanting to talk to you when She arrives. Now get to the Mess hall, eat your fill and turn in."
"Sir." Hermione frowned at Harry. "Why did they turn white?"
"High or heavy magic or mana use bleaches hair. Whatever He did in the Workshop, caused great Magic to flood them both, and infused their Foci." Ward smirked. "They are pretty tapped out. If they don't eat and drink plenty of water, they are going to have a reaction headache in the morning."
: Get Moving.: Tish pushed against Harry's knee. : When I opened my Gift… I couldn't do anything but lay in the dark and cry. Move!:
SPRB
That night, Trogg offered the pieces of the scepter to Chupa. She smiled, nibbled his lower lip before strolling away slowly.
"Night Harr. Trogg work Late tonight." Trogg rolled onto all fours and started to follow.
Hermione smiled, "And you Mister, owe me a foot rub."
"Harry Work tonight. Work, Work, Work. Nothing but Work." Harry followed Hermione into the bedroom.
Verra turned to look at Kyra. "Isss therre a rreasson He wasss complaining?
Star chuckled. "He was not so much as complaining as bragging that he is able to take care of her needs, even after a long day doing… what?"
One of the mated Kyree huffed. :I heard that he was the cause of the shaking just before lunch." She flicked her tail. :We came for the Hunting Courses… and that Hussy finds its Dhorisha'ke'a'char!"
:It can't be a Hussy.: The male leaned into her and licked her ear. :Besides, What do we need with a neuter? We are going to become Hunters, like the Great Ones before the second Cataclysm.: He turned and strolled away.
Growling to herself, she followed.
"Neuter?" Soran asked.
Steel-lotus sighed. "Kyree have three genders. Male, Female and Neither. Tish is Neither, physically. But she has a female mind. She will never give birth herself, but she will be beside Harry for all of his children." She stood up. "I am almost finished with my Focus. I want to get an early start in the morning." she headed away.
Soran looked at Star. "Why did you not follow?"
"She is just going to bathe, then turn in." He pulled a length of chain out of his pocket. "I was hoping to ask Harry…"
Verra laughed and fell over.
TBC