The Unseen Scribe
patreon
Lily's Journal - Chapter 11
🕑 Added 2023-10-28 14:28:17 +0000 UTCAN: Hey guys.
This chapter marks the point were we leave science facts and go straight into science fiction.
I'm not exactly happy with how this chapter turned out, I rewrote it a few times and still am not happy with it, but this one was the best one, so it is this one that I'm putting out.
We also see how much the RoR can help our group. Like I stated a few chapters ago, magic takes knowledge and willpower, belief shapes magic.
Anyway, hope you guys enjoy this one.
Chapter 11
"So, how is this room going to help us build an Iron Man suit?" Harry heard Lee ask, as he walked up and down the corridor in front of the RoR. It was the start of June, the school year was about to end, and a lot of things had happened since the Easter break.
Harry and Sirius had another meeting during the break, which was with Madam Bones. The meeting was both to finalize some of the paperwork needed for Sirius to officially take Harry's guardianship, as well as for her and Sirius to help Harry with setting up a business on the magical side. The new company, which the girls agreed to call Marauders Inc. in honour of Harry's dad and Sirius, was going to be divided with 40% going to Harry, as the main financial contributor, 5% going to Sirius, since he also contributed some gold, and the other 55% would be divided equally between the girls. It was a fair division, Harry might be putting in most of the gold, but their main product would be the mirrors, which were mostly designed by Padma and Penelope. The girls argued a bit about the name, but in the end they all agreed to honour Harry's dad and Sirius. They were the first developers of the communication mirrors, and even if the girls had the idea and developed the mirrors independently, the new version of the mirrors, the ones that would be going on sale, was using the enchantments developed by the marauders.
Business on the muggle side was also going well. The new company, Elemental Energies, was already incorporated, with a similar distribution of shares. 40% going to Harry, and 60% divided equally between the girls. They still wouldn't be able to sell the energy from their reactor, even if the energy sector was privatized, there was still a lot of government bureaucracy they had to deal with. Arthur Finch-Fletchley managed to set up a meeting with the Prime Minister during the summer, according to him it was difficult, and he had to give a few 'donations', but he managed to do it. Now, the only thing needed was for them to convince the Prime Minister to help a little with easing the bureaucracy. Harry was confident that they would be able to do it, any politician would kill to have a company providing electricity at around a third of the current prices, electricity that would be constant, almost impossible to have issues inside the power plants, and more importantly clean. No pollution was generated by their current generators, which was steam powered, so the only by product was water vapour, and the future generators would be even more efficient while keeping their zero emissions. It was a dream for any politician, so Harry was confident that they could get the Prime Minister to work with them.
Madam Bones said they might have some issues with the ICW, but that as long as they only use magic in the manufacturing process, and don't sell anything enchanted or otherwise magical in its own right, they won't get in trouble. Harry was having a lot of troubles thinking about which of their future products they would be able to sell, and which ones they wouldn't.
Things were also progressing a lot in Hogwarts.
Hermione was still focused on improving her own generator, it was getting more and more efficient by the day, still not enough to replace Sue's steam powered one, but their potential was a lot higher once they become fully functional, and her progress promised to be a lot faster during the summer. They would have proper teachers, properly educated scientists, hired by Elemental Energies, that would be able to both teach them a lot more about science than the books they have at the moment, and also would be able to work with their ideas a lot better than they can, that is, as long as they have magicals in the family and are able to know about magic. One thing that Hermione could definitely use some help with was integrating superconductors into her generator design. She was finally able to lower the temperature of her cooling runes to 105K, which was more than enough to use as cooling for superconductors, and her pressure boxes were also getting a lot better, but she still wasn't able to get the two of them to work together, nor miniaturize them enough to work them into her designs, even using Harry's new invention.
Harry stopped working on his Excimer laser for a time after the break, and started working on a diode laser, and it only took him three weeks to have some results, even if they were completely different from his research goal. He first bought a laser diode and took it apart to see how it worked, and then he tried to work out a way to build it with magic, and that was when things started to diverge from his goals. He realized that it was almost impossible to build a diode laser with magic, so he tried to build in a similar way to a ruby laser, which works completely different, so naturally he got something completely different out of his research. He used alchemical transmutation to create a crystal that would specifically transform magical input into a laser, it was his first piece of original transmutation and he was really happy with it, but the crystal ended up doing something completely different from what he wanted. The laser that Harry invented was nothing like any other they had ever read about, it worked by casting a lumos charm into the crystal, and it would then transform the light from the lumos into a laser. The laser ended up being a lot more powerful than a diode laser, so Harry and the girls mostly used it to help them carve runes now. Since the laser had magic in it, due to its origin being a lumos charm, it could be used to carve runes. It was also a lot faster and more precise than any human would ever be, so it ended up being a massive help to lower the workload from the massive amount of runes they usually needed to carve.
Harry also had some developments with his alchemical metallurgy. He was able to buy some rare metals using the Potter trust, and he used those metals in various different combinations, he still wasn't able to create his vibranium, but he felt that he was getting close. What he did managed to make was a new alloy made out of titanium, steel and a hint of magically infused silver. The alloy was basically a replacement for steel; it could do anything that steel could, only ten times better. It was always going to be more expensive than regular steel, and it was even more at the moment since he still hadn't been able to drive down the amount of wasted base materials, but it might end up being a good replacement for steel in the future, as long as they have the money to use it. They still hadn't named the new alloy, Harry's joking suggestion of Harrytanium was firmly denied by the girls.
Penelope completely dropped out of their research, focused on her NEWTs, but she has decided to drop her desire to work in the ministry, she is now focused on working on the research department of their company. She had some preliminary agreement from professor Flitwick, to accept her as an assistant professor, while she studied for her charms mastery under him, they only needed Dumbledore to allow a professor to take a mastery student, something Dumbledore had not done for decades, and something that Harry was able to help with.
Using the guilt that Dumbledore felt due to the whole Sirius situation, as well as Harry's time with the Dursleys, he was able to make Dumbledore accept Flitwick taking Penny as a student. Dumbledore tried to bargain for Harry to accept to stay a few days with the Dursleys during the summer, clearly showing that he gave up trying to do it through the Wizengamot, as he had been trying ever since Sirius was declared innocent. But neither Harry nor Sirius would ever accept that, so they were able to get an agreement from Dumbledore with only a minor concession from Harry and Sirius, Dumbledore would be allowed to cast a fidelius on their home. It was a minor thing, especially since Harry fought hard and Dumbledore would only cast the spell, he wouldn't be the secret keeper like he wanted to be. Harry was thinking of making Hermione their secret keeper, but he would have to talk with Sirius first.
Penelope was already making plans for her summer, since she now had a secure apprenticeship, and was part owner of a company that they all expected to make a large profit, she was able to plan her life a lot better. She had already decided that she would join Harry and Hermione in their lessons on science during the break, she was even thinking of getting a full muggle education once her mastery was completed. Next school year she would still be at Hogwarts, studying for her mastery while still able to help the rest of the group with their research. It was the best of both worlds, and she seemed really happy with it, even if she seemed to be going through some issues in her personal life. Percy was a little annoyed with her, he seemed to take it as a personal attack that she wouldn't be working in the ministry with him, it wasn't enough for them to break up, but their relationship was a little rocky at the moment.
Sue Li was still trying to improve her steam generators, but it was starting to have diminishing returns. She was putting in a lot of work for barely any results, and it was starting to annoy her. Both Harry and Hermione tried to get her to start another research, Hermione even offered for her to join in one Hermione's own generator idea, but she was adamant in drawing out the max out of her current generator design before she started on a new one.
Hannah had dived deep into her research on non magical transportation. She became fascinated with trains and cars, and her area of the workshop was now a mess of engines and other car and trains parts. Harry bought a couple of old engines for her to take apart, and Hannah was quickly able to make them more efficient using runes for cooling and strengthening some parts. She still wasn't able to reproduce them with magic, but she was focused on making it work. Her research caused a funny moment when Sirius came to Hogwarts to deliver the engines and just dropped the shrunken down engines, and then enlarged them in the middle of the great hall during breakfast on a Saturday morning, making Hannah jump from the hufflepuff table in joy. The purebloods looked completely lost, and the few half-bloods and muggleborns that knew what an engine was were still a little confused as to why Hannah looked so happy, not to mention the look on the professors face.
Padma was still focused on her magical tv project. She got some results, and was able to improve the runic array a lot, but the true difference was when she started using mirrors made out of magically infused materials. Using old style mirrors made out of glass coated by magical silver, and framed with magical woods or magically infused metals, she was finally able to make 40-inch mirrors and it kept the enchantments. It still wasn't a magical tv, the larger mirror still worked just like the smaller ones, connecting to a enchanted book, and the book making the connection between mirrors. To make a proper tv they would need to find a way to record both images and sounds, and then find a way to play it whenever they wanted. And Padma was once again helped by her twin sister, Parvati, who ended up properly joining in with the research group in the last week.
The answer to the recording issue, to the loud complains of Hermione, was once again found in divination. Parvati had told them about prophecy orbs, how prophecies are recorded to be later heard by others, it was perfect, the orbs could record both images and audio, they just needed to find out the enchantments in them, and then figure out a way to use those enchantments, the only problem was that the orbs were a closely guarded secret of the department of mysteries, finding out how to make them was almost impossible. But the RoR ended up providing for them once again, Padma was able to ask the room for a book on how to make prophecy orbs, and proved once again Harry's theories that magic was only limited by knowledge and willpower, she knew what she wanted and her willpower was strong enough, so the room, which was basically a magical whishbox, provided it for her. So Padma and Parvati were now working together on the tv project, and they already had a first prototype in the testing phase.
Parvati wasn't the only one to join their group. Luna had started to work on botany, since she still couldn't work with genetics, Harry and Hermione forbidding her from doing it until she had more knowledge, so Luna decided to bring Neville into the group to work with her on plants, and in their first project they were able to somehow crossbreed a Venus flytrap with a venomous tentacula to create a plant that not only was venomous and large enough to eat a human, but was also smart enough to lay traps for humans, just like a flytrap does for insects. It ended up with Harry and Hermione having to once again sit down with Luna and Neville and limit their research again, Neville was only given a warning, since it was his first time, but Luna was limited to only work under the supervision of Harry, Hermione or Penelope. The plant was put down after it almost ate Ron, making a trap for him using a broom.
Speaking of flying objects. Ginny, Ron and Megan Jones had also joined in with their group. Harry decided to take over the research on planes, since Hannah was focused on cars and trains, and he decided to invite Ron and Ginny to work on it with him. Ron finally agreed to join their group since 'flying is fun, not boring like your other muggle work', and he brought Megan with him, since they seemed to go everywhere together these days. Ginny joined in easily enough, she loved to fly almost as much as Harry did, so it was easy to convince her to work on flying machines, especially since they would start with experimenting on brooms, something they were all familiar with. They found some books on the RoR about the charms that are used on brooms, and even already made one prototype. Their broom was only slightly better than a Comet 260, but they were all happy with the results. Ron was still only focused on making brooms, but Ginny and Megan seemed to like talking with Harry about using the charms and runes on the brooms to make a plane.
It wasn't just their research that had advanced. Harry and Hermione had gone on their first date to Hogsmeade and they both had a nice time, their relationship was progressing nicely and Harry was happier than ever before. He was planning another date soon, the RoR could be anything he wanted, as long as he had enough imagination, it made for a perfect place for a date, and with Dobby providing the food from the Hogwarts kitchen, he was looking forward to the next date.
"Sure, Lee. You just have to picture it with as much detail as you can imagine." Harry was brought out of his musings when he heard Hermione respond Lee's earlier question.
"I don't know exactly how the suit was built, but I can imagine how it works." Lee said, in a thoughtful tone. He then walked up and down the corridor in front of the RoR until the door showed up.
Walking into the room Harry saw a red and gold Iron Man suit standing at the back of the room. It looked just like one of the suits from the comic books that Lee had showed him, but it also seemed off somehow. All three of them walked towards the suit, Harry and Hermione immediately starting to inspect it, everything seemed fine when looking at the metal of the suit, but the moment Harry took the helmet and looked inside it, he realized why the suit seemed off.
"It is just a suit of armour at the moment, Lee. There is none of the tech that is supposed to be inside it, I think you need to picture it in more detail." Hermione said, after Harry showed her the inside of the helmet.
Lee nodded his head and they walked outside of the room again. Harry was still a little sceptical about this whole thing, they were actually performing an experiment right now, they still didn't know if magic could create electronics like that. Sure, they knew the room could seemingly create new runes whenever needed, and Penelope had even pushed it towards its absolute limits, by making it create a whole new runic alphabet based on the runic array that the room created to isolate electronics from magical interference. But all of that was purely magical, they had never tried to use the room to create something electronic. Hermione theorized that it might be possible, and if it was, it would probably benefit their research a lot, just the thought of asking the room to create a working piece of tech straight out of science fiction was enough to drive Harry a little crazy, but he still thought that it was a long shot.
Lee walked up and down the corridor again, and the door once again showed itself after the third time, walking inside the room Harry immediately realized that something was different. The suit still looked the same, but the room now had silver lining covered in runes on the walls, the same as the workshop configuration they normally used, the room itself was now showing that it was prepared to use electricity inside it, which was a promising start. Inspecting the suit, Harry also immediately felt the difference. Even if the suit was the same as before, it felt heavier than the previous one. Picking up the helmet, Harry had the stop the smile that was forming on his face, the helmet felt heavier and looking inside it he saw the few markings on it, indicating what was needed to open the helmet to do maintenance on it.
Harry could almost feel the awed look forming on Hermione's face as she opened up the chest piece of the armour, and saw all the electronics inside it, as well as the reactor that powered it all up. It looked amazing to his eye, and Harry could see how interconnected everything was. Just by looking at it Harry could see that the reactor was a lot more efficient than anything they were currently building, even Hermione's lightning bolt reactors would pale in comparison, at least the current designs would. All the microchips also looked really advanced, and Harry realized that this was an area that they still didn't have much knowledge about, they needed someone specializing in computers, both hardware and software. Sure, Hermione had the idea to work on a magical computer, but she didn't seem likely to start that research for years still, and they would need someone doing it a lot faster than that. Harry decided to send another message to Sirius, that was another person that Arthur Finch-Fletchley needed to hire for the research department of their company.
"So, is it real? Does it work?" Lee asked, getting a little excited by the awed looks on both Harry's and Hermione's faces.
"It seems real enough, but we will only know if it works when we test it." Harry responded. "Want to do the honours?" He asked with a chuckle, knowing that Lee would jump at the chance.
"Harry, we don't know how it works. We need to take it apart first, learn how it works, and only then can we test it." Hermione said, her voice getting that tone she uses during their studies sections.
"First we need to know if it actually works, and isn't just a well made replica. Or else, we spend our time taking apart and studying something that doesn't even work properly." Harry countered her argument. He was using some pretty good logic, but he just wanted to turn it on and see it working.
"We don't know how safe this thing is, it could explode!" Hermione said with a little more heat in her voice.
"Hey, stop arguing. We don't want to break up gryffindor's golden couple." Lee said with a smile, making both Harry and Hermione blush. "Besides, I will be the one testing it, and I'm willing to take the risk, Hermione. So you two just stay away while I turn this thing on." He added, and Hermione seemed about to complain when he just turned around and started putting on the armour.
Harry dragged Hermione towards the other side of the room, and they waited right by the door while Lee put on the suit. Once he had the suit on, minus the helmet, that still had the visor open, he turned around and asked in a embarrassed tone.
"Guys, how do I turn this thing on?"
"I don't know." Hermione responded, and Harry almost laughed at the look on her face. It was a mix of incredulity that Lee was willing to use untested tech, and her usual annoyance at not knowing something, her pouting made her look even cuter than usual.
"Try to look for an on switch or something." Harry said, mostly to amuse himself since he was pretty sure that the suit didn't have an on and off switch. He laughed a little when Lee actually started looking for an on switch, Hermione even chuckled a little with him.
"Try closing down the visor. Maybe the suit has to be fully closed for it to turn on." Harry said after a couple of minutes, and the smile on Hermione's face showed that she had thought about that same thing a long time ago, but like Harry, she was enjoying playing a subtle prank on one of the prank masters of Hogwarts.
The moment that Lee closed down the visor the suit turned on, the reactor right at the centre of the chest piece lighting up as it started to power up the suit, the eyes also lighting up with the same yellowish glow. The suit looked even cooler when it was actually turned on, the glow from the reactor, and the light hum that the suit made, it all added to the aesthetics of a futuristic suit of armour.
"Guys, this thing is amazing. There is an HUD, and there seems to be 360 vision, with cameras placed everywhere on this thing. A part of the HUD is also showing how much power the reactor is putting out, and how long it can go on with the current rate of usage." Lee's voice came from the suit, his voice sounded both far away and also really close somehow.
"Now turn it off. We know it works, so now we can take it apart and find out how to actually build one." Hermione said, her voice sounding a little excited due to the possibilities of building things from actual science fiction.
"Why do you have to build one? We can just use this one, it works." Lee said.
"Because it only works inside the room. The room can make anything we need, but we can't use anything it makes outside of it, we tested, it all stops working." Hermione explained to Lee, and Harry could almost see the disappointed look on Lee's face, even with the helmet on.
"Ok. I will just test one more thing, and then I will turn it off." Lee said, and Harry saw him raise his hands.
"NO!" Harry screamed, interrupting Lee. "You will blow up the room if you do it, and probably kill us all." Harry added. He hated doing it since he also wanted to see a blast from the rupulsors, but it would probably blow up the wall, and he didn't know how the enchantments on the room would react to that.
"Alright; I will turn it off." Lee said in a disappointed tone, and then turned off the suit, opening the visor again.
"You will need to tell us exactly what you asked the room for, so we know how to ask it for the armour when we want to work on it on our workshop." Hermione said, walking towards Lee and helping him out of the armour. "Are you sure you don't want to help us with the reverse engineering?" She asked.
"No, I will leave it to you guys. Just remember to give me a suit when you guys figure out how to build one." Lee responded, a large smile on his face.
"I want to show you guys something before we go back to the common room." Harry said, while also helping Lee out of the suit. Once that was done, Harry guided Lee and Hermione outside of the room and watched as the door disappeared. He then started to walk up and down the corridor, trying to ask with as much details as possible, even if it probably wouldn't be enough. He grinned when the door showed up again, it even looked futuristic, even if what was inside was probably not a working model. Harry opened the door and walked inside, Lee and Hermione coming behind him, once inside he just turned around and said.
"Welcome, to a probably not working, Millennium Falcon. Just something to keep in mind for the next research project."
He really enjoyed the awed looks on Lee and Hermione's faces.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Potter, Granger. I heard you wanted to talk to me." Daphne Greengrass said, as she sat down on the chair in front of Harry and Hermione.
They were currently in a quiet corner of the library, a place that students often used when they wanted a quiet place to hold meetings. Harry and Hermione had decided that they wanted someone their age to help them with the politics and laws of magical society, Sirius was helping, but they preferred to also have someone their own age helping them, it made things easier both now and in the future. They asked Susan Bones first, but Susan said that she rather not do it, and directed them towards Greengrass, saying that the slytherin would be an even better choice than her.
"Two gryffindors and two slytherins walk into a library, that seems like the set up of a joke." Tracy Davis said, seating down on the chair next to Daphne's. Her presence didn't change much, at least not to Harry and Hermione, but it probably made Daphne feel more secure to have a friend with her, so neither Harry nor Hermione complained about the addition to their talks.
"The only slytherin we like to prank is Malfoy, you two have never done anything to us, so we are neutral towards you." Harry said, and he could see both girls relaxing a little.
"We actually wanted to talk to you, Daphne, because we want to offer you a job, one that will be extremely profitable to you." Hermione said, making Daphne raise an eyebrow.
Looking at her up close, Harry could see why so many of the boys thought that she was the most beautiful girl in their year. Harry would always pick Hermione above any other girl, but he could admit that Daphne was gorgeous, long golden blonde hair, ice blue eyes, high cheekbones and a small nose, Daphne was the epitome of aristocratic beauty, even if her... assets, weren't as well developed as someone like Lavender or Susan.
Her friend Tracy was also pretty cute, with her shoulder length brown hair, and her mischievous face. Tracy looked like the kind of girl that you could have fun being around, someone that was always up for a joke, or doing something spontaneous, a bit like a brown haired, slytherin version of Ginny.
"And what job is it?" Daphne asked, her voice a perfect flat tone, showing no emotions.
"We are going to start selling a few enchanted products in the summer, and we want someone to advise us in politics, law, and pureblood traditions. My godfather is helping us at the moment, but we would like to have someone our own age to advise us, and someone we trust told us you would be perfect for the job." Harry said, and again Daphne showed no response apart from raising her eyebrow.
"We are willing to offer you a small participation on the company, 2.5%, apart from a nice salary." Hermione added.
She then started the presentation that they had prepared before, showing Daphne and Tracy the mirrors, explaining what they did, and showing how they worked by calling Susan in her own mirror, having a quick conversation with her, and then calling Sirius in his mirror, to show that the mirrors could work no matter the distance, the more they showed the more Tracy seemed interested, and even Daphne was showing her own interest in the end, even if it was a lot more difficult to get a reactions from her than from her friend.
"I will have to talk to my father before I give you a response. Being seen in public with Potter could make my life difficult with my house mates, so I will give you an answer in a couple of days." Daphne said, again in a perfectly bland tone. But no matter how much she tried to hide it, Harry could see she had already accepted, she just wanted to make them wait for a few days to make it seem like she wasn't that interested.
"Of course, we can wait a couple of days for your answer." Harry responded, hiding a smile. The only good thing that his uncle had ever taught him was how to play this game.
"Good, then I will see you in a couple of days. Potter, Granger." Daphne said, inclining her head slightly towards then as she rose from her seat, and then the two slytherins left, leaving Harry and Hermione alone. Harry turned around and saw Hermione smiling at him, she definitely knew that this was a good meeting.
AN 2: Some major strides were done in this chapter, both in the research and in completing the group of main characters for this fic.
Next chapter we start the summer break, and things will be advancing fast.
I will see you guys in the next one.
