Chapter 18

The Yule ball was coming up and Harry's girls had insisted that Harry takes Luna, since she wasn't eligible to go otherwise. Neville had asked Hannah, who said yes instantly. The rest of the girls had gone to McGonagall to find out if they could take each other, or if Harry could take more than one date, but apparently it was frowned upon, since that would upset the numbers of the amount of people who would attend too much. In the end, the girls made it known that Harry already had a date and that they were available to ask. Harry suggested to Victor that he asks Hermione, and the rest of the girls all got dates, but they made Harry promise to dance with them all.

Harry's dance card was getting full, though, since the Beauxbatons girls all had a similar request, as well as Minerva and Poppy. He'd humour them all, since he knew it meant so much to them, but he started to point people to Neville after that. He enjoyed dancing much more than Harry, after all.

During McGonagall's dancing class, Neville helped her demonstrate. She had hoped Harry would assist, but realized he didn't want to draw any more attention to himself, so allowed it. Neville proved his worth quickly and many of the girls already had plans to ask him to dance.

When Christmas arrived, Sirius had arranged for all the families to gather, as was becoming tradition, and Harry picked them up early in the morning so that they could spend the day together on the moon, again.

The elves had been hard at work, and for the event, Harry had decided to relent and fixed the gravity inside the warded area, so that they could enjoy the celebration without having to worry that their drinks will spill every time they toasted, which had happened the previous year.

Sirius had even put down a plastic lawn, when he found them in a muggle store and the party was celebrated outdoors, with a small fireworks display, which Harry conjured as an illusion, since fireworks outside the boundary of the warded location would simply not work. Fire needed oxygen after all.

Harry's gift to the ladies, this time around, were some necklaces he'd transfigured from the clear corundum. Since it was clear, they should go with everything. Harry had made them all unique and as intricate as he could imagine, while looking through brochures of such items, for inspiration. The silver, in which the gems were contained, had a spell on it, to change colour as well, as an added feature, to suit the person wearing the item, so they could look like other coloured gems. Neville had gotten a manly ring, with a large dark red ruby set in a dark silver metal. Luna's gift was a pair of new radish earrings, made of the same dark ruby.

Harry received a bunch of gifts, mostly focussed on magical knowledge, which were not necessarily useful, but definitely interesting. Theories and ideas, magical laws and principles that applied to certain magics and even some stories and third party accounts of things that had happened in the past, which Harry might use to help him in the planning phases of one of his many projects.

Pansy had gotten him a ring, but warned that it was cursed. Apparently, once worn, it could never be taken off until a certain promise is fulfilled. It was apparently used in the old days as a promise to wed, and you'd wear it on your ring finger. Only once you married the person you promised to, would it be able to come off. It was still given sometimes, but never worn these days, as a symbol of the promise. The implication was clear. Her mother had likely suggested the ring. They were an old pureblood family with traditions, after all.

The party only lasted a couple of hours, but by the time they had to leave to get ready for the ball, all the adults were glad that they had had time to see their family. After the Yule ball there would still be two weeks holiday, and Harry had already promised to deliver a package for the prime minister that first week and to take a crew with him.

Once they arrived back at Hogwarts, the girls rushed off to get ready. They all went to the Gryffindor Girls dorm, so that they could help each other.

Harry's preparations were quick and easy. He'd decided on a single-breasted black tuxedo with a Chinese lapel. Screw traditional dress-robes. He wore robes all year long, after all. He even took pity on Ron and transfigured his robes into something more appropriate. All those frills and the colour simply didn't suit him. He was very grateful. Neville soon left, to go wait for Hannah by her dorm room, when he received a message from Hannah, saying she'd be ready in an hour. Apparently it was considered good manners to be early, rather than on time.

By the time the ladies came down, Harry was already waiting. They'd all arranged to meet their dates in, or just outside the Gryffindor common room. They all also looked fantastic, with their hair perfectly sculpted, minimalistic make-up and their dresses suitably outlining their salient features. They were all also wearing their new jewellery, which were coloured to suit their dresses.

A couple of boys were staring, as well, but when Harry looked around a couple of heads snapped up and away from their female attractions. He had realised that they looked beautiful before, but seeing them smiling at him in something other than what they had worn the last time around, just reminded him of how lucky he was.

Luna had decided to go get dressed with the others and she looked fantastic in a dark blue dress, which hugged her slender form and accentuated her budding feminine curves. She wore her new radish earrings which somehow worked with the way her hair was made up behind her head and a few soft curls falling on the sides of her face. The fact that she was wearing muggle sneakers, covered in blue bedazzling, just screamed 'Luna', and didn't detract from the ensemble at all.

"You all look bloody fantastic!" Harry exclaimed.

"You don't look bad, yourself." Luna said, smiling at him, with just a bit more focus in her eyes than normal.

They all smiled prettily at him and he took Luna's arm, as he waited for the girls and their dates to get together and pleasantries to be exchanged, both in and outside of the common room, before they trooped down to the Great Hall, where the ball was set to be held. The other guests entered and Harry greeted Fleur, who had found a decent fellow, after consulting his girls for opinions. Hermione's date, Victor, had been waiting for her outside with a few other boys, and they'd already greeted.

They were soon let in and they opened the festivities with a dance, which was joined by the other adults and finally the few students who could actually dance in this, more formal, style. After a few dances like that, it switched to a live rock-n-roll band. The classical music would be played again later, for those who liked that.

Harry ended up dancing with not just all of his girls and those from Beauxbatons, but several of the attending adults and quite a few older girls, one of which was so forward as to shift Harry's hand to rest on her behind, but he smiled at her and moved it back refusing the action to happen again, when she tried. That girl soon found herself cornered, with a few of his girls making certain she knew her place. Harry didn't see that girl again for the rest of the night.

The evening was quite the success, with no interruptions or strange happenings, besides that the headmaster tried to corner him again. Harry knew that a certain bug would not be in attendance, because he had told her not to be. He'd rather avoid her slipping in an article about Hagrid's origins, if at all possible. While he wasn't such a good friend, this time around, he still cared for the big man. He was happy for him, when he saw him dancing with Madam Maxime, too.

By the time Harry and Luna decided that the evening was over, there were still many people around, but Harry had been on his feet long enough and Luna had realised that he was just sticking around to be a good companion. When they told their friends, those that would be returning to Gryffindor tower decided they were done too, except for Hermione, who was actually enjoying Victor's company and who decided to stay for a while longer.

They greeted their other friends and soon made their way back up to the common room. Harry just wanted to sit down for a while, so he plopped down in front of the fire and sat back. Luna decided to stay with him, while the other girls went to go change. High-heals apparently became uncomfortable after a while. Luna was fine, though, considering her foot attire.

"Did you enjoy the ball?" Luna asked Harry, as he sat there, just enjoying being off his feet.

"I really did." Harry said. "Thank you for being my date, Luna. Did you enjoy yourself?"

"Oh, yes." Luna confirmed. "You were very attentive, even though you had to dance with so many people. I still had a wonderful evening. Thank you for taking me."

"It was a pleasure, Luna." Harry said. "And you do look splendid tonight."

"Parvati did my hair." Luna said. "She's good at that kind of stuff, especially now, with the tricks you taught us. I could never get my hair up like this."

"She had a good model to work on. It probably took very little effort to get you ready." Harry smiled at her.

Luna smiled at him and then looked back at the fire, as a comfortable silence fell over them. After a while, Luna broke the silence. "I really would like to go change, now." she said.

Harry looked up at her in question. "Am I forgetting something?" he asked.

"This was a date." Luna said. "You're supposed to walk me to the stairs and kiss me goodnight, if you enjoyed yourself."

Harry wanted to remind her that they were not in an American movie, but decided to go with it, if that was what she wanted. He'd not ruin her first date by disappointing her, now. "Of course." he said, as he got up and held a hand out for her to help her up. "How rude of me." he apologised.

He walked her to the stairs and she turned around, before asking again, "Did you enjoy the ball?"

Now Harry understood. She was trying to say goodnight, but she was probably shy and hoped he would initiate the kiss. "I really did. Thank you for being my date, Luna. I hope we can do it again, sometime." he said, before stepping forward, and hugging her softly, while going in for the kiss.

She tilted her head up and closed her eyes, as she had seen in all the romantic movies and they kissed softly, for a couple of seconds, before she broke the kiss and stepped back, with a smile. Her eyes were more focussed than he could ever remember. "I hope so too." she said. "Goodnight, Harry." Then she turned around and walked up the steps, to her dorm.

Harry smiled up at her, before turning and heading up to his room. He had no sooner entered the room, then his Comm rang. He had left his Comm in his room, to avoid being distracted. He hurried over and picked it up. It was Mister Filch. "Mister Filch, is there a problem?" he asked.

"Mister Black." Mister Filch said quickly. "There's been an abduction! One of the students is missing and we can't find her!"

"Who is it?" Harry asked with a growing sensation of dread.

"It's Ginny Weasley." Filch said. "There's a note, and it's addressed to you."

"Where are you?!" Harry asked, urgently.

"The note was left in the gardens." Filch said. "We're here now."

Harry didn't even respond. He ran over his bed and dived through the window, which opened for him as he approached. It was ten seconds later that Harry landed next to Filch, and a couple of assembled professors. Filch didn't even seem shocked. He handed the note over to Harry.

'You will release all the prisoners in Lupin Penitentiary, or your pretty little friend dies. You have until sunrise.'

It wasn't signed, obviously.

Harry shot back up into the sky, not speaking to anyone, and flew back to the Gryffindor common room, up the stairs to the girls' dorm and into Ginny's dorm, where Luna had just finished getting dressed, fortunately. "Aren't you…" Luna started.

"Sorry Luna. Ginny's been taken. Did she have her Comm with her?" he asked rapidly.

"She had a clutch. I think it was in there." Luna said, suddenly serious and adapting to the situation with a readiness that belied her normal dreamy behaviour. "Is she okay?" she asked as Harry tried to summon for her Comm with no response.

"She'd better be." Harry said darkly, before shooting out their window and flying for the ward-line of the school. The moment he passed it, he stopped and apparated to Grimmauld Place, where he kept the Index.

He went looking for her name and found it, before starting to try and follow it to her current location. Hopefully she still had it on her.

"Harry?" Remus said as he rushed into the room. "What's going on?!" he asked as he saw the furious look on Harry's face.

"They abducted Ginny." Harry said. "They want all the prisoners released, or she dies."

"Call J. Daniels." Harry heard Remus say. Harry had found it funny to find out Daniels' first name was actually Jack. Daniels didn't find it funny, though, so he used to be called Jay, before people started making the association anyway and he switched to Daniels. "Daniels, get the security wolves here now! Harry is about to go looking for a person that abducted a friend."… "I don't know. Find out when you get here."

Harry was finally able to connect to the device, but it had to be in a warded or hidden location, since he could not pick up where. He pulled up the image from the camera plate and sighed in relief. The Comm was out of the bag and he couldn't hear sounds of any kind of torture or crying in the background. Hopefully the girl was just knocked out.

He'd needed to connect the image to a plate he had on the bench where he kept the Index for these kinds of things, but fortunately he didn't need to worry about them seeing or hearing him. Magicals had never heard about hacking, after all. Even though what he had just done wasn't considered hacking, since he owned the system and every connection to a degree.

"I've got an image. It looks like a stone roof." Harry said, looking at the image.

"Hold on Harry." Remus said urgently, knowing Harry was about to blindly apparate or make a portkey, to where the image showed. "We don't know what kind of opposition you'll be met with. The wolves will be here in just a minute."

"A minute for these people to realise that they could have some 'fun' with her? I don't think so." Harry snarled. They both knew these people were very unlikely to release her, even if the demand was met.

Remus placed a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Harry, listen to me! Daniels and his team are trained for this kind of thing. Don't go making rash decisions. It could get her killed!"

That stopped Harry dead. He breathed hard for a few seconds, but then finally relented. "Fine." he said. He wasn't idle though. If he had a minute, he had a minute to think. What did he need? He needed a better view, but he couldn't be heard or seen and he couldn't manipulate the view remotely. What did he have? How could he get a better view?

Then an idea hit him. He quickly took a monitor plate and smashed it with his fist. He then took a thin shard and spelled it to be a recording disc connected to his giant high-quality recording diamond and started the recording. He then focussed on what he saw and cast a Portus on the shard, before flicking it and activating it. Hopefully the spin would see enough detail of the room.

The quickly thought-out plan worked, fortunately, and the spinning recording disc appeared right over the comm. The disc landed face-down on whatever surface it ended up on, but that hardly mattered. He had the recording, which he now stopped and rewound, before going through it in slow motion. It wasn't digital, though, so there were no flashes of moving pictures. It was in perfect quality and as the disc spun in the air, it got a thorough look at the room.

That's about when Daniels and his security pack showed up, fully kitted out in combat gear and ready to act at a moment's notice. "What do we have, sir?" Daniels asked.

"One hostage, as far as I can tell." Remus said, as Harry looked through the footage and found a split-second, where Ginny was visible, on the floor, through some bars. He didn't like seeing her passed out on stone. It reminded him of the chamber. The wolves looked at the image, from right behind Harry, who was manipulating the view. "Harry was able to come up with a way to see in, but it was only for a moment, so we don't know if you'll appear with hostiles in the room.

"You're first priority is the hostage." Remus continued. "Any hostiles you can take after that, is a bonus. Live captives are preferable. Get the hostage out first. Then, get the bastards and secure the location."

Harry quickly grabbed Daniels by the arm and shoved a piece of the table he had broken off and turned into a portkey, to a location on the far side of the dungeon, to make as little noise as possible on entry. "Send her back with this. It's two-way." he said. "You get this done, and you get to help me hunt and kill a thousand year-old Basilisk."

"Thank you, Mister Black." Daniels said, with a wicked grin. The wolves liked the hunt, even as humans. "I'll be keeping you to it." Then he turned to his men and had them all touch the portkey, before Harry activated it. They disappeared and Harry turned to the display of her Comm again and waited. He couldn't hear a thing. But in a couple of seconds, he saw the Comm move and for a split-second Daniels showed a thumb's up in the Comm, before it went dark, as he placed it in the bag.

Twenty seconds later, Ginny appeared with her clutch on her chest, along with the piece of table. Harry was on her in a second, casting diagnostics. It seemed they had left her unhurt and in-tact. Her dress didn't even have a mark on it.

"What are you going to do?" Remus asked.

"I'm thinking Severus can get the information from her and then we obliviate." Harry said, as he levitated the girl up after a sigh of relief. "She doesn't need to know this, and neither does anyone else. Let's keep this in-house."

"Hopefully there's not a panic going on at Hogwarts already." Remus said.

"Where's Sirius?" Harry asked.

"He had a bit too much to drink during and after the Christmas party and he's passed out in the backyard." Remus smirked.

"Isn't it cold?" Harry asked.

"Likely, since he's naked." Remus nodded.

"He deserves it." Harry said, catching on and glad he had not cursed the mutt with sobriety yet, but he had more important things to do. "I'm going now. Thank Daniels for me please, and let me know what he finds?"

"Will do." Remus promised, before quickly hugging Harry. "You did good, Harry. Really, really good."

"Thanks, Remus." Harry said. Then he grabbed onto Ginny and apparated out. Five minutes after Harry had taken the message from Filch and flew off, the people gathered were still arguing about what to do, when Harry appeared, with Ginny floating next to him.

"How did you get to her so fast?" Dumbledore asked, both shocked and relieved.

Harry ignored him and simply floated Snape and Madam Pomfrey who had recently joined the group, up and flew them to the infirmary with them. "Place her here." Madam Pomfrey instructed, pointing at a bed. She was really proud of the young man, but she was all business at the moment. Harry placed her down gently and grabbed Snape by the arm.

Severus didn't know what to think of the situation, but he was sincerely grateful that there was no bloodshed before this was resolved, that he knew of. He hoped the captors were dealing with the wolves and not the Aurors, though. Considering Harry's immediate response, however, he suspected he had retrieved her himself. His bleeding hand was also telling.

"Severus, I need you to read her mind, get any useful information from this evening and then obliviate the moment this situation occurred." Harry said, not realising he'd used the man's given name. "We can tell people her drink was spiked or something, but she doesn't need to carry this. As far as I'm aware, nothing did happen this evening, okay?"

"Mister Black." Severus said. "I assure you that the health and safety of the students come first, but I'm not allowed by law to do as you ask. If however, something like what you described happens to the girl, I'll have to assume you did it. Are we clear?"

"Crystal." Harry said. "I did it. Whatever." he said. Then he took a breath and said, "Thank you, Professor Snape. She won't know that she owes you, but I will."

"And me." Madam Pomfrey said. "But I agree with Harry. She doesn't need to carry that."

"Fine." Severus agreed, before he walked to the bed to do as requested.

Harry made to turn around and leave, but Poppy would have none of it. She grabbed the boy in a hug and held him tight. "You are that girl's hero, even if she'll never know that either. And you make me more proud than you know." she said as she squeezed him.

"Thank you Aunty Poppy." Harry said, as his tension suddenly started to leave him. When he let go, she saw he had a bleeding hand.

"Let me fix that up, real quick." Poppy insisted as she took his hand and inspected it. "You were careful, weren't you?" she asked, summoning a small fragment of glass from his fist and repairing the damage with a simple spell for small cuts.

"The wolves handled the extraction." Harry said. "I simply found the location and sent them along."

"Did Daniels lead?" she asked conversationally as she cleaned up the remaining blood with a bit of conjured water and a kerchief from her pocket.

"He is head of security." Harry nodded.

"Good." Poppy said. "There you go." she said as she finished with his hand after another diagnostic spell, just to be sure. "Go off to bed now. We can handle things from here."

Harry nodded and left, flying up to the tower again and to the girls' dorm, from where he had exited.

"Is she okay?" Luna asked instantly. To Harry it seemed like she hadn't moved at all. Like she hadn't moved from the spot, since Harry departed.

"She's back at Hogwarts." Harry said. "We're going to memory wipe her, so she won't remember this happening."

Luna nodded after a couple of seconds and then smiled at him. "You're a good friend to her." she said as she walked up to him and hugged his middle since he was floating, trying to avoid the wards that would detect him. "Come down here, so that I can kiss you, silly." she said, as she let go and looked up at him.

Harry obliged and went horizontal, so his face was before her. She grabbed onto his neck and kissed him deeply. When she finally broke the kiss, she was blushing, but smiling too. "What was that for?" Harry asked.

"Being who you are." Luna shrugged. "Ginny won't remember to thank you, so I thought I should."

Harry smiled at her for another second before waving goodbye and going out through the window again.

BTB-BTB

Snape came through for them and found the culprit. He merely confirmed what the wolves had already found, though. While Ginny was taken to the Minister of Magic's vacation home, it was done by none other than Senior Undersecretary Delores Umbridge. She had been hearing Fudge's complaints about how much power Marauders Inc. had been gathering and the article that shamed Dumbledore was gaining a lot of support for Harry Black and those in his camp.

Delores Umbridge, after being arrested publicly by the wolves, was heard screaming obscenities, calling them cursed dark creatures who was not allowed to touch someone of her station. That didn't save her. She was dragged away kicking and screaming. The Aurors had shown up, but the wolves were an organization supported by the crown, so they had no right to interfere.

Delores Umbridge was taken through the normal hearing. To ensure nobody could complain, Fudge had been invited publicly to attend the trial of his undersecretary and he was forced to go, to save face. The next day, the Daily Prophet released an article, where Fudge declared that he had no part in her plans to attack and capture, by means of an Imperius Curse, a pureblood girl, to free all the criminals in Lupin Penitentiary.

Delores had wormed her way into becoming the Minister's guest and had acted alone, unfortunately, so the corrupt politician stayed in power, but he lost a lot of credibility, so the man quickly decided to fly the Marauders Banner and thanked them for their diligent work in assisting to stop the misdeeds of his misguided undersecretary. To hear him say it, he informed them himself to do what was necessary. Delores was incarcerated for life imprisonment, for the unforgivable, taking a hostage and threatening her life in an attempt to free convicted criminals.

Sirius, knowing how to play the game, allowed the man his moment, keeping that card in his hand, for the right moment. Remus's wolves had heard a fair deal of Fudge's corruption, but he was careful to keep his nose clean, never really ever saying anything that may come back and bite him. His campaign contributions may have swayed a vote or opinion here and there, but never did he cast the first vote and his lackeys and supporters always knew which way the tide was meant to go, so that he could look like he was simply following said tide.

Ginny Weasley was none the wiser and continued life as normal, thinking she had had a wonderful time at the ball, even though she didn't remember the end all that well.

When Harry returned home the next day for the rest of the Christmas holiday, he was greeted by an enthusiastic pair of guardians. They celebrated his success with a sushi dinner, something Harry hadn't had in a while, but Remus's skills hadn't slipped in the slightest. In fact, it seemed they'd only improved. When Harry showed them his latest inventions, they were shocked to find out that his little gadget could, with a bit of training, increase their own wandless capabilities and extend their range even further. Harry didn't intend on using these items, but produced one for each of them.

The laser was still not something he wanted too many people to have, and until he could somehow change its effect, to not threaten people's sight, when used, he'd not be making any more. He was still worried about Hagrid slipping up, but had to concede that the man was always careful to protect his students and, while he may not be someone to trust with your secrets, he was a gentle soul, who would ensure the steps were followed to protect the children.

He soon fell back into his research on lasers and different kinds of gems to use for his laser. That's when he discovered something interesting. Blue Diamonds were said to be the only conductive gem in the world. The problem was, you needed a specific element to make those. An element named Boron, which was a chemical metal element, which only occurred in nature due to cosmic rays, which happened as a result of supernovas in distant stars.

This all sounded like something that came from a comic book, so Harry had done the research and found that it was actually factual. The largest producers/refiners of the element was based in Turkey, so Harry would either have to steal it, or, he could ask his good friend, the Prime Minister, to try and procure a sample for him.

The Prime Minister, having the pull he had, was able to procure the element, though Marauders Inc. had ended up paying for it. It wasn't cheap either. Harry would have to wait, before he could apply the theory, since the element would still take a while to acquire. In the meanwhile he was working on his new spacecraft.

Harry would be crafting parts of a new flying machine over the next week, since he wanted to try a few ideas and he had new materials to work with. The hull of the ship was covered in tungsten carbide, which Harry had purchased through the goblins, at expense, and further enhanced with runes and spells for both durability and reconstitution, should something ever be hard enough to break through the protections. The inside of the ship was constructed of steel, considering weight wasn't really an issue.

The ship itself, while shrunk down, was already big on the outside and looked like a rectangular two meter thick (at its widest end), four meter wide, fifteen meter long triangle, with no discernable windows, except for tiny pieces of reinforced diamond in strategic locations, which would be spelled to be used for an outside view. The hull was shaped around those diamonds, to give it as little contact with any debris as possible. Then they were all separately warded, with powerful wards. The size of the wards and the power in them, made those diamonds near impossible to get to.

The inside of the ship was obviously much bigger. Harry had actually built the thing ten times larger than what the outside appeared, before it had been shrunk, allowing the inside to be expanded much further, not that he'd expanded it yet. It already had enough space for anything he might need. It even had a couple of sleeping compartments. It would eventually have a kitchen, a game room and a workshop, but that was as far as he got in planning, considering his limited time. The ship wasn't operational yet, either. He'd need months to work out the finer details, considering he still needed to figure out the sensors.

BTB-BTB

The day of the delivery arrived and Harry went to a hangar in an abandoned military base, where he was told a hangar door would be left open for him to fly in. The Prime Minister would be meeting them there and Harry would need to call him to let them know he was in and close the door. When he landed he made the call.

"Mister Black." the Prime Minister of Great Britain answered. "You're right on time. Can I order the doors shut?"

"Yes, Mister Minister." Harry greeted. "You may."

It wasn't a minute later that Harry opened the hatch, when the door was closed. The gathered group of three, mostly-trained, astronauts looked on in shock as a fourteen-year old boy in what seemed to be a tuxedo walked down the steps of the disillusioned ship.

"Good day, Mister Black." John said, walking forward and shaking the boy's hand. "It is good to see you again."

"Minister." Harry greeted again. "Always a pleasure." He looked at the small group, who were looking at Harry with a bit of mistrust. "So these are the ones you chose for this first mission?"

"All well trained and in the know." John agreed. "Let me introduce you to the leader of this group, Doctor Sidney Hawk." he said walking to a middle-aged woman with blonde hair and a disgruntled look on her face. "Doctor Hawk, this is Harry Black. He's the boy I've been telling you about." John said.

"Good morning, Mister Black." the woman said, holding out her hand to Harry. "I hear you have the Prime Minister convinced you have space capabilities."

"I hear that, too." Harry said with a bit of a smile. She may not be convinced, but he'd make a believer of her yet.

"Now, now. Play nice, boys and girls." John chided mildly. "Harry has my trust, and I have certain information that proves his capabilities to me.

"Why are you wearing a tux?" the woman asked Harry. He didn't look more than a school boy.

"When I told my guardians what kind of protections I'd need after my initial flight and the tests of what magic was capable of in space, they decided that a space-suit should look good. They may have also misunderstood the concept of a suit." Harry explained. "This suit was the culmination of their efforts. Since it is charmed to fit me for a few years, I thought it would be a waste to get something new."

"And you've tested it?" the woman asked sceptically.

"I've walked on the moon in nothing but this." Harry said, as his face became serious. "I'd suggest you don't doubt my capabilities Doctor Hawk. I had planned on showing you around up there, if you were nice to me."

"Mister Minister." the woman said, turning to the man. "You cannot be serious about this! This boy couldn't know how to-" she started.

"Doctor Hawk!" Minister Major interrupted, a tone of command in his voice. "You will not insult Mister Black's capabilities in my presence, is that understood!? His company has been offering more support than any other country can claim their magical community provides. He is no mere teen, despite what he may look like." The man turned to Harry, then. "Mister Black. Despite what I just said, I would also request that you offer the good Doctor the benefit of the doubt, until you've proven yourself. She's likely to be your biggest asset going forward."

"Yes, sir." Harry said, hearing the same from the doctor.

"Good." John said. "Now, let's discuss this delivery."

After that it was all business. The Prime Minister had been informed of the size of the hold on the Saucer and they had taken that into consideration in the design. There were two parts that would need to be put together, which was why there was a mechanical engineer. They had brought their own space suits, as well, since they'd not be trusting something as questionable as magic in space.

Harry loaded the packages and closed the hold, before they discussed the specifics. The space-suits would need to be tested in the magical environment, but fortunately precautions had been taken. It wasn't an advanced design with microchips and computers. Mostly it was just a contained system with air and a tether.

It took them a couple of hours of prep, where the logistics were discussed. Harry was meant to just provide transport, but he could see a couple of places where he could help. He didn't say anything, though, since he didn't want to interrupt. John couldn't stay all day, either, and he needed to leave soon, but before he did, he handed Harry a parcel.

"This is the requested item." John said.

"Already?" Harry asked. ���I thought it would take weeks?"

"I sped things along." John said with a bit of a smile. "Knowing you, there's a need, and anything you need to expand and advance, is something I can prioritise."

"Thank you, sir." Harry said with a smile, as he looked at the precious sealed metallic container in his hands. "This will be very useful in one of my long term projects." he said.

"May I ask what you intend to use it for?" John asked.

Harry sighed, before stepping a bit away and beckoning the man to follow him. "It's an idea I had for a long range sensor. If I ever want to make it to different planets, I may need more speed, but that's already achievable. What I don't have is a sensor so that I don't collide with any objects in space. If the plan works out, this element will work well for one such sensor."

"How, though?" John persisted. The boy was planning to go to different planets!? If he succeeded, he was already the head of the most advanced space program on the planet!

"That's not something I wish to discuss until I've achieved success, sir." Harry said. "No offense, but while it is theoretical at this point, it would also constitute family magic and a precious discovery if it works."

John knew when not to push, so he nodded and said, "Of course. I'll be certain to keep that in mind and be on the lookout for more precious materials, should you ever need access to them."

"That would be appreciated, sir." Harry said. "Knowing where to find things when I need them, would be very useful to me." He would not mention that he had other means to get most of what he needed and an actual plan to be able to produce, if not procure, his own materials.

John left after that, thinking of how lucky he had been to meet the lad and befriend him. The things this boy could and would do, excited him. Every meeting with him just had more surprises and possibilities.

When they were finally ready to depart, Harry was tired of all the talking and led the way onto the still disillusioned ship. He went around and ensured everyone was buckled in, having to tell Doctor Hawk that she was going to have to take a seat with the rest, rather than observe him as he used the controls to pilot the ship. He was no idiot. He'd keep the actual operation of the ship to himself for the time being.

When everyone was buckled in, Harry extended his magic to push the button he'd been showed that would open the hangar door and they shot out of the hangar at full speed, feeling none of the g-forces.

"How is this possible?" Doctor Hawk asked, in shock as they angled upward and felt nothing change in the gravity of the ship.

"Magic." Harry said flatly.

"I know it's magic, Mister Black, but this isn't something I've ever experienced and my daughter never told me that there was magic to manipulate gravity and gravitational forces." Doctor Hawk said.

"That's because I invented the system based off of an Egyptian magic that would flip gravity in their crypts, to separate and confuse people who came looking for buried treasure." Harry informed her.

"You can modify magic?" One of the others asked. He was a tall, brunette with the look and feel of a soldier about him. None of them were magical, but they were all related to magical people and knew only what they had been told. "Isn't that something that takes years of training and experimentation?"

"Magicals don't learn the mundane sciences." Harry said, as the sky before them became darker. "I found that understanding the principles of science augmented my abilities with magic. I can do many things magicals thought impossible before."

"It explains the ship then." the same man said. "I hear you've been making magical items that performs the same functions as our technology, except better."

"That's the idea." Harry said. "Sorry, what's your name again?" he asked the man.

"Lieutenant David Thomson, Royal Marines, sir." the man said.

"So you're a fighter?" Harry asked. "Why were you chosen?" he asked.

"Because I'm in the know and I've been trained to think fast and react faster." Thomson said.

"David has been trained as an astronaut, but his chance slipped by when the US decided to give the position to one of their own a couple of years back." Doctor Hawk said.

"I bet you're glad you were given the opportunity, then." Harry said with a smile for the man.

"More than pleased, now that I see this proposition wasn't a hoax of some kind." Thomson said, as he watched the last light filter away as they left the atmosphere behind.

"How far are we up?" Doctor Hawk asked.

"We're not there yet." Harry said. "You said 36 000 kilometres, correct?"

"How far are we up now?" Doctor Hawk asked, after nodding.

"We're still accelerating." Harry said, instead of answering. "This trip should take around twenty minutes there."

"What?!" Doctor Hawk asked. She realised he wasn't answering her on purpose. "How fast can this thing go?"

"On my first test flight, I stopped accelerating at around Mach 90." Harry relented. "Max Mach 6, while exiting atmosphere, since there's strain on the wards that protect against friction."

The Doctor was no fool and knew at what height the atmosphere ended, so she had a rough idea of how far they had already gone. Knowing how long the trip would take, however, shocked her. The Prime Minister had been right to scold her. The boy was doing impossible things, by using mundane science and magic together.

Silence reigned for a while, until Thomson asked, "Any chance we can experience Zero-G?"

"Sure." Harry said as he pulled down on the slider that activated that feature. Suddenly there was no gravity. "Just do me a favour and don't unstrap, just yet." he added.

"Any particular reason?" Doctor Hawk asked.

"The seats have separate protections, which is a recent addition." Harry said. "Should we hit anything large enough to actually affect our speed, you won't be killed instantly, as long as you're in your seats."

"And the ship?" Doctor Hawk asked.

"The first time I went up, I was hit by an asteroid. Only the first layer of the hull was bent, but not breached." Harry informed her.

"How many layers do you have?" Doctor Hawk asked.

"Four." Harry said. "Main, secondary, internal backup and internal. All are magically toughened and self-repairing."

"That should take care of it." Doctor Hawk said. "What about the window? Toughened, layered, magically repairing?"

"Not a window." Harry said. "But I can't tell you more. It's family magic. I can tell you that the front of the ship is even more protected and if you look over there," he pointed over to the side and activated the monitors to show around the ship, "you'll see that there are views around the ship to show any potential problems, but this trip is a short one. We shouldn't need to monitor that."

"Sir?" the third and final member of the crew asked. As Harry recalled, she was a mechanical engineer.

"Doctor Pike, right?" Harry asked, trying to recall her name.

"Yes, sir." Doctor Pike confirmed. "Would you mind if I take a position there anyway?" she asked.

"If you want." Harry said as he transfigured the seat she was in loose from the steel frame of the floor and moved her over to the requested position switching her chair for the one that had been there and moving that chair to her previous position.

Doctor Samantha Pike was shocked by most of the revelations so far, but was more than happy to get a view from outside the ship and was finally able to see some of its construction. "Wait, are we on a flying saucer?" she asked incredulously.

Harry chuckled at that. "I designed the ship in such a way that should it ever be seen, that nobody would believe the person reporting it. It protects both myself and the secret of magic." he explained.

"So how long have these magical saucers been around?" Doctor Hawk asked.

"First of its kind I'm afraid." Harry said. "Built this baby just before I turned twelve, so more than two and a half years ago."

"So you're saying magicals aren't responsible for the UFO sightings around the world?" Lieutenant Thomson said.

"I honestly don't know." Harry said with a shrug. "There is a possibility, but I've not met a magical that's been going around pranking mundane people with those. I've also not found any signs of intelligent life out there."

"And very few signs of it on the planet." Doctor Hawk added, with a bit of a sardonic smile this time.

"People have different interests." Harry said. "They tend to excel at what they focus on. Just because people don't think like I do, doesn't mean I consider them stupid."

"That's not what I meant." Doctor Hawk said. "People are killing the planet and most people know it, but nobody does anything about it."

"I agree," Harry said, "but it would take very little effort to create a magical system to start countering the carbon dioxide in the air and start reducing the greenhouse effect."

"You can do that?!" Doctor Pike asked. "Why aren't you?!" she demanded.

���Who says it's not in the plans?" Harry countered. "I just need to work out a way to get awareness out that it's being done, while keeping the ICW from figuring out it's a magical solution. Wouldn't want to be arrested for trying to save the planet, after all."

"Why raise awareness?" Doctor Pike asked.

"To ensure that people don't continue as they have or start acting worse." Doctor Hawk said, with a calculating look. "You're not just some smart kid are you?"

"Nope." Harry said.

"Care to elaborate on that?" Doctor Hawk asked.

"Nope." Harry said again, still just focussing on the forward view and the odometer.

"Are you protecting secrets, or are you somehow already breaking laws that would get you arrested?" Doctor Hawk pressed.

"Trade secret." Harry said.

"What would it take for you to tell us?" Doctor Hawk asked, finally.

"Magically binding contracts." Harry said easily. He'd been working his way toward that for a while. Hermione had finally relented and told him her method, after making him promise not to abuse the power, and he'd made that promise easily.

"You can bind non-magicals by a magical contract?" Doctor Hawk asked. "Is that legal?"

"Nope." Harry said, again. They were getting tired of that word rather quickly. "Listen, we're all on this trip for a mission. How about we focus on that for a bit, yeah?" he offered.

The crew were not all happy about it, but nodded in acceptance and they soon arrived on the drop-off site. "We're here." Harry said, as he stopped the ship and started turning them. "Doctor Hawk, if you'd please join me and help me attain the correct speed? I believe you are the one in charge of trajectory and getting the satellite at the correct speed and in the right location."

Doctor Hawk undid her safety harnesses and experienced the Zero-G properly for the first time. Harry helped manoeuvre her around and showed her the odometer.

"How does it function?" she asked.

"Starting from point of origin, and taking into consideration the relative movement of the planet, it measures movement and tracks our path using intervals in time and shows total distance moved." Harry said. "So when it says that we are standing still, we should be in geo-synchronous orbit."

"So, you don't really need me, here?" she asked, looking at the speedometer and noting that it stated that they were at a stand-still.

"Would you have believed me if I just told you?" Harry asked with a smirk.

The doctor shook her head and said, "Smartass."

"You were the one that questioned my capabilities." Harry shrugged. "Okay, let's get this party started." He extended his power and opened the hatch removing the packets and levelled them in front of the ship. "Are you all ready to proceed? I can manoeuvre and control your movement out there."

"How are we staying in contact?" Thomson asked as he unbuckled.

Harry opened a pouch and pulled out three plates he'd charmed beforehand. "These are two way audio communicators, all paired with my Comm. Simply put them in your suit and I'll activate them once you are ready. They stick to anything you press them to." All of them took the plates and placed them next to their heads, inside their suits.

The process from there was reasonably simple. Not all of them would exit, of course, but all of them had jobs. The satellite was already mostly assembled, but would need a couple of connections set up and tested. Harry transfigured the airlock around them and kept contact as he opened the small hole to decompress. Everything went to plan and two hours later, Harry had brought the electrical engineer and the marine back onto the ship.

Once they were all seated again, Harry called the Prime Minister.

"Mister Black?" John asked. "Is there a problem?" he asked. Wasn't it too early to call?

"Job's done." Harry said with a smirk. "The team assures me that they tested the connection and it seems everything is in order."

"Well done, Captain Black." John said.

"Captain?" Harry asked.

"Well, you are the Captain of the ship." John said. "Getting you official documentation would be difficult, but I'm thinking that hardly matters to you, does it?"

"You'd be right." Harry said. "Do I have your permission to take the crew for a side-trip before returning, since we finished early?"

"Where were you thinking?" John asked.

"Remember where I went to test the problem with the werewolves?" Harry asked.

"Ah, right." John said, catching on. "Permission granted. Just tell the crew that I'll be expecting a report on the trip."

"Shouldn't be a problem." Harry said, seeing the leader of the crew indicating at him. "Doctor Hawk is indicating that she'd like to speak to you."

"Pass her along." John said. "Oh, and Harry? Thank you."

"No problem, sir." Harry said, before he floated the Comm to Doctor Hawk.

"Hello, sir. Do you mind telling me where he's taking us?" Doctor Hawk asked. There was silence as John explained his suspicions. "Really?" … "He's got what?!" she exclaimed, looking at Harry incredulously. "Yes, sir. I understand sir. Mum's the word."… "Goodbye, sir." she turned to Harry, then. "You're just full of surprises, aren't you?"

"Where are we going?" Lieutenant Thomson asked.

"Apparently, I'm supposed to keep that to myself until we arrive." Doctor Hawk said. "You won't be disappointed, though, if we're going where the Prime Minister suspects."

Harry said nothing, but smirked. Then he shot them towards Earth again, allowing some of the G-Forces through.

"This is more like what I expected!" Thomson said with a happy smile as he looked at the forward display.

"Any reason we didn't feel any of this before?" Doctor Hawk asked.

"Sensitive equipment require careful handling." Harry said. "It takes only a little finesse to cancel out any and all gravitational forces, but I prefer to feel like I'm accelerating, when I am."

"Where are we going?" Doctor Pike asked.

"Texas." Harry said. "First." he added, when he saw a frown from Doctor Hawk.

It took almost the same amount of time to go back to Earth, but Harry needed to slow them down before re-entry again. They soon arrived above the house. "Close your eyes, please? We're about to pass a magical barrier that will disorient you if you look and I don't like the smell of vomit."

Harry didn't wait for any response as he moved forward.

Lieutenant Thomson groaned, as they passed. "Didn't close your eyes, did you?" Harry asked, smirking at the man.

"Thought I could handle a bit of queasiness." Thomson said.

"Just don't puke. That suit of yours probably won't smell better for it." Harry warned.

"I can handle this much." Thomson assured him.

"Good." Harry said as they approached the garage.

"Are you parking us?" Doctor Hawk asked, as she saw their approach.

"No." Harry said, as he slowly flew them in and closed the garage door and opened it again.

When he reversed them out and turned around, Thomson exclaimed, "The moon?! Are we on the Moon?!"

"Yup." Harry said, as he went to park them on the usual spot. Once done, he undid his belt and walked to the door, opening it, before anyone could object. He'd turned the saucer strategically. None of them had seen the house. "Watch your step." he warned as he walked out, there were calls of alarm from the crew. All of them had shut their visors instantly, but they'd also noted that there was no decompression. Harry had walked into the house and started making tea, leaving the crew to decide what they wanted to do.

It took them a couple of minutes and Harry chuckled when he heard whoever was leading to stumble as the gravity changed again. He'd returned the gravity on the property around the house back to the normal lunar gravity, after all.

"Ouch." Doctor Hawk said.

"I warned you to watch your step." Harry said.

"You could have warned us about the house having different gravity, too." Doctor Hawk said. "Do you have any idea how much these suits weigh?"

"Actually, I do." Harry said as he picked her up with one hand.

"How did you do that?" Doctor Hawk asked in shock. The boy could not be that strong.

"Magic." Harry shrugged. "Come on in." he called as he turned around.

"Gravity is 1G in here, so be careful." she called as she started following him.

When they were all inside and sat down on the chairs Harry had transfigured for them, since the couches were a bit low for their clunky suits, he offered, "Tea or Coffee?" There was a service out already and they could serve themselves.

"I'm assuming we have breathable atmosphere?" Doctor Pike asked.

"Of course." Harry said. "Otherwise I'd have made the airlock to protect the ship."

The astronauts all took off their helms, but nobody answered to his offer of tea or coffee. "Why are we here, sir?" Thomson asked.

"To be able to say you've been to the moon and be the first astronauts to drink tea or coffee on the moon." Harry said. "Not the first non-magicals, unfortunately. My friends and their families tend to come here for Christmas, so my muggleborn friend's parents were the first to claim those."

"So, what do you think of your first space mission?" Harry asked, once everyone had served themselves.

"I'm impressed." Thomson said. "And grateful." he added. "I thought my chance was gone, but here we are, sitting in someone's private home, on the moon."

"If you told me yesterday, that I'd be here, I'd have called the looney bin on you." Doctor Pike said.

"You have bigger plans, though." Doctor Hawk stated. "I'd like to know what you're planning."

"I'd love to tell you." Harry said. "Seriously. You all seem capable, and Doctor Hawk, you seem very intelligent, but I need to protect my family, so I can't tell you things that you may one-day report on."

"And we have to report back to the Prime Minister." Doctor Hawk said, nodding. "Unless we can convince him to also sign some sort of magical contract, or he allows us to sign one, knowing we'd be limited in what we can tell him from there on out."

"That's the gist of it." Harry confirmed. "I can always just wait. One of my friends is really smart and just finished her high-school curriculum."

"How old is she?" Doctor Hawk asked.

"Fifteen." Harry said. Hermione's birthday is always just a couple of weeks after school starts for the year. "She's been studying in her spare time and intends to join me in my research into what's possible with magic, so I can wait for her, if need be."

"You are a conniving bugger, aren't you?" Doctor Pike said. "You mentioned the greenhouse effects on purpose, so that we can tell the PM that you have that in view."

"That way he'll have little to no choice but to allow your contracts." Doctor Hawk said, nodding at Doctor Pike, in acknowledgement.

"Doctor Hawk mentioned the planet's problems first, to be fair, and I have to protect my interests." Harry said noncommittally. "But I'm in no hurry. The planet has a couple of years left and I can always leave. My next ship will be way faster and I'd likely be able to survive on it for years, once it's properly kitted out."

"Next ship?" Thomson asked.

"Oh, yeah." Harry said with vigour. "Finished the hull and the first couple of sleeping compartments. I'm looking into other things it will need, but for now, I'm just working on a long-range sensor, to avoid collisions."

"How do you plan on doing that?" Doctor Pike asked, interested in what he had planned.

"That's also a trade secret and in development still." Harry said. "I've got a plan, though."

"Anything you can tell us about?" Thomson asked.

"Now that you mention it." Harry said reaching into a pocket and taking out a sleek metal tube, before he tossed it to the marine. "Lightsaber." he said, with a smirk.

"You're not funny." Thomson said, looking at the handle and spotting the button. When he pressed it, there were shouts of alarm as the red staff extended out of it.

"Relax people, it's just a force construct. When it's red, it doesn't cut." Harry assured them. "If he slid the top slider across to its other setting, and the blade turns purple, then you have to worry."

Thomson looked for and found the slider, but as his finger moved to it, Doctor Hawk said quickly, "Don't you dare! We're not here to play games."

Harry chuckled and conjured a target outside on the plastic lawn. "There's a target outside for you to play with, Thomson. Just, don't hurt yourself."

Thomson was out of the house like a shot and had forgotten about the reduced gravity and everyone could see him rolling to a stop a little ways past the dummy.

"Are you bribing us?" Doctor Hawk asked.

"That?" Harry asked pointing to the lightsaber, which was already being tested. "No. The lightsaber was a little side-project, between a Professor and myself. My latest project was a functional ruby laser." Harry pulled said device from his pocket and tossed it to the Mechanical Engineer. "Had to produce the ruby myself. That took a bit of doing, but I've got the proper quantities down."

"Don't switch that on." Doctor Hawk instructed.

"I can't." Doctor Pike said. "There's no buttons on this thing."

"It runs on magic." Harry confirmed. "Instead of a xenon-flash tube, I can make the light appear inside the ruby and melded the mirror directly to the ruby. Then I used a couple of other tricks and there you have a working ruby laser."

"Have you tested its throughput?" Doctor Pike asked.

"Don't have the tools for that." Harry apologised. "But with the magics, I'm thinking it could outperform any lasers you can find currently on the market."

"What else?" Doctor Hawk asked.

"There are a couple of other things, but they were mostly made for convenience, like the Comm." Harry admitted. "Why, isn't space travel, Lightsabers and lasers enough for you?"

"Just checking where your talents lay." Doctor Hawk said. Besides the spaceship and Lightsaber, it seemed he was just recreating modern conveniences. It all had potential though. "I'm thinking you could likely make many more advancements, if you had proper backing."

"I can make the advancements without." Harry said. "I'd like support, but really don't need it. Knowing people with knowledge that I lack, however, would be a commodity. Integrating magical and non-magical systems, like the Comm and the telephone system, would be very useful. My current advisor for mundane knowledge is a dentist."

"You're consulting a dentist for information on technology?" Doctor Pike asked.

"My friend's father." Harry said. "He's a bright fellow, but it's not his speciality." Harry looked out and saw Thomson sticking the pieces of the downed dummy with the point of the lightsaber and suddenly the parts assembled again, so that the man could start over.

"I'm assuming you have long-range plans if you're planning a long range sensor?" Doctor Hawk asked. Harry just smiled at her and refused to say anything. "Damn you, Black." she swore. "Of course we'll want to join, but we'll have to report our suspicions up until this point. Are you planning on going to other galaxies, or simply staying in our own?"

Harry continued to smile at her. Suddenly there was a whirl of activity outside and Harry looked up to see Sirius laying down on the glass with a lightsaber at his throat.

"Thomson!" Harry yelled as he shot up and ran out. "That's my godfather! He's allowed up here." He finished as the lightsaber retracted.

"Sorry, sir." Thomson said. "I wasn't expecting someone to appear right next to me."

"What the hell are you doing here Sirius?!" Harry demanded. "Lieutenant Thomson almost took your head off!"

"I… er… I come here sometimes to get away from the house." Sirius admitted.

"How the hell did you even get here!?" Harry demanded.

"Portkey?" Sirius said/asked.

"And how did you know that it would work?" Harry asked.

"I've been doing it for months." Sirius shrugged, once Harry stopped screaming at him. "I know I promised not to experiment, but it's a portkey, right?"

"Did you at least take precautions, in case the magic failed to go the distance?" Harry asked exasperatedly.

"Of course." Sirius said. "My current… oh, right. My other outfit was enchanted like your space suit. But I did wear it the first few times and I always have a return portkey in-case I got stuck." He added quickly.

"Damnit Sirius!" Harry said, punching his shoulder, not too softly either. "I warned you! We don't know what would happen if something unexpected happened mid transport. You can't simply do these things. We've not isolated the effect that solar winds have on the connection with the moon. If you die, what will I tell Remus?"

"I don't know. Tell him I was being stupid, I guess?" Sirius said, rubbing his sore shoulder.

"You know what?" Harry said, suddenly getting a sinister smile. "I'll let Remus handle you." Then Harry turned around and walked to the ship. "Come on people. We're leaving." And like that the astronauts, who had all gathered when Sirius appeared, started walking to the ship. "You too Sirius. You're not testing lady luck again today. She's a spiteful bitch and she'll definitely grab you by the berries."

Too soon, they were back in Texas. Harry opened the hatch and tossed Sirius out like a sack of potatoes and flew off.

"You're not too kind to your godfather." Doctor Hawk said.

"He should listen to me, when I give him warnings." Harry countered. Then he focussed on flying again. The sooner they got home, the quicker he could start working with the new element. Harry flew them into space and back in when he was above Britain. Before long they had landed inside the hangar again.

"Thank you for an informative and productive day, Captain Black." Doctor Hawk said. "I hope we get to see each other again soon."

"Thank you for your time." Harry returned. "I'm hoping this will be the start of a productive working relationship." Harry greeted the other two and took back his Lightsaber, when the marine tried to walk away with it, shaking his head in amusement. Perhaps the man would like to meet Charlie. It seemed to him that they might get along, simply based of their love for the weapon.

Harry then left, while the other three went to write up reports.

BTB-BTB

Harry soon arrived back home and went straight to his workshop. He'd already purchased the required ingredient.

He started as he had before. He made a diamond first. Despite what people may think, this wasn't a simple process. He couldn't just make a whole metric ton of the stuff as he wanted. He made a thin layer of diamond at a time, since the amounts of pressure and power needed to make diamond was immense. Then he'd make another layer, and so on, and so forth. Until he had enough to transfigure into one construct.

Considering his experience with the rubies, Harry used the same amount of the Boron as the Chromium he'd needed to make the rubies. It was little more than a trace amount, meaning he'd have enough Boron to make quite a few blue diamonds, if the process worked, which it did. He looked at the finished product and smiled. He could feel that this was different than the other gems he'd made.

He hurriedly made a new laser and went through the vanishing room to Texas. Once there, he donned his glasses and took aim at a target. Casting the light spell with very little power, he got a visible blue laser dot. Pulsing the light heated the boulder up on the contact point, which was expected. A prolonged beam actually made the contact point melt after a while, and he wasn't even using a lot of power.

"Awesome." Harry whispered. Now, all he needed was to see if magic would be transported via the beam. Keeping the laser pointer on the boulder, he focused a tendril of his power in front of the laser and channelled a banishing spell into the beam. The boulder didn't roll away as expected. Instead it splintered into many pieces as the contact point was banished while the rest of the boulder stayed behind.

Scientifically speaking, he'd just sent a bit of force, large enough to banish the waist high boulder rolling back for a few meters, into a pinpoint. So… he'd made a gun.

That was interesting. He cast a repair spell at the boulder normally and it reformed. Then he pointed the laser at the boulder again. A levitation charm seemed to work like normal, lifting the boulder at the contact point. It rolled first, till that point was pointing up, however and lifted up from there. It seemed that the laser-point became the focal point of the magic.

Having a wild idea, he stopped feeding light into the gem and focussed a spell directly into the gem. When the spell left the device this time, it looked like normal spell-fire. Very interesting. His theory of how wands worked, was holding water. Now, however he needed a different test. He needed to see how distances faired, which was the whole point of the item after all. How to test though…?

He ended up calling Daniels.

"Mister Black?" Daniels asked as his face appeared above the comm.

"Hey Daniels." Harry said. "Seriously, when are you going to start calling me by my name?"

"I am." Daniels smirked.

"Fine." Harry sighed. "Listen, do you by any chance have a pair of strong binoculars or a telescope for me?"

"I can get you either." Daniels said. "You're not planning on snooping are you?"

"It's for a test I'm running on a new tool." Harry said.

"Where are you?" Daniels said.

"Texas end of the vanishing room." Harry said.

"I'll be there shortly." Daniels said, before ending the call.

Daniels showed up with both items in hand and when Harry explained to him what he had been doing, Daniels left again and came back with a scope, which looked like it belonged mounted on a sniper rifle. It turned out that that's exactly where it did come from. He wouldn't tell Harry where he'd gotten it from, though, so Harry suspected it wasn't necessarily legal.

Daniels proceeded to mount the scope and then, having Harry add a bit of light to make the laser pointer appear, adjusted it till it was precisely on target at a hundred meters. "There you go, sir." He said as he handed it back to Harry. "Mind if I stay for the test?" he asked.

"Fine by me." Harry said. The farm was on a small hill, so they could see for quite a distance and Harry picked a piece of wall that was part of the fencing from one of the neighbouring farms. "Do you see the dot?" Harry asked as he steadied the laser magically.

"Not yet… oh, there it is. Got it, sir." Daniels said as he looked through the binoculars. "What are you expecting to happen?"

"If the theory works, my spell should reach the target instantly when I cast it, by moving in, on, or around the beam of light." Harry said.

"So, you made a railgun, sir?" Daniels asked.

"Watch and see." Harry said. "Technically this is going to be faster than a railgun is supposed to be." He quickly cast the banishing charm again and the stone fence crumbled in as the far side shot away, the instant the spell was loosed. "Yes!" Harry said. "Now, let's do something tricky." Then he cast a repair spell through the laser. The wall quickly fixed itself. It still happened instantly.

"That's impressive, sir, but scary as fuck, if you don't mind my saying so." Daniels said.

"I agree, which is why this is a tool I'll be using for good, rather than evil." Harry said. Though, knowing what he did now, he'd likely be upgrading Hagrid's laser-gun. If he didn't need the glasses, there'd be less chance of him hurting innocent bystanders when the time came.

"I thought you said this would be some sort of long-range sensor, sir?" Daniels asked.

"That's the idea, Daniels." Harry said. "Since magic can move through this at the speed of light, as long as I'm not, it will be able to send spells ahead of me, carried by the light. Fortunately the spell doesn't do more damage than the power I'm putting in, otherwise that fence and the property beyond it would have been destroyed by that simple spell."

"So, no extra power, just extra speed?" Daniels asked. "Why did the wall break apart, then?"

"The whole spell hit the wall on the tiny spot where the light shone." Harry said.

"So, like a gun, then?" Daniels confirmed.

"Smaller, but yes. That's the general concept." Harry agreed.

"That's even scarier, then." Daniels said. "In making a new tool, you've probably created the world's most precise and deadly weapon as well."

"Lasers have been around for a while." Harry said. "They just don't work as quick or as hard."

"Let's rather make sure this falls under family magic and hope your process never comes out." Daniels said. "If this became common knowledge, you'd never see an attack coming."

"Let's be glad that our enemies aren't the ones with this then, right?" Harry offered.

"That's a good point sir." Daniels agreed.

"I'll probably make you one, though." Harry mused. "A weapon, I mean. I like you with teeth."

"I'm fine with the Lightsaber, sir." Daniels declined. "Wolves aren't really long distance assassins."

"You can choose to fire stunners, you know." Harry pointed out.

"Still, I'd rather not be tempted." Daniels persisted.

"Fair enough." Harry said. He was actually impressed by the man's persistence.

BTB-BTB

Harry started working on another couple of projects after that, knowing he only had a week left, before school started again. The first thing he did was ask Bill to investigate how the ring Pansy had given him worked. He wanted to and could use that curse as a blessing, and he intended to do just that.

Then he started working on a gift for Hagrid. It would be a replacement for his Gun's Ruby heart, with a new feature or three.

BTB-BTB

By the time school started, Harry had a few gifts to hand out to his girls.

"What's this?" Parvati asked, looking at the small box in her hand.

"Before any of you open that, let me explain." Harry said quickly. "Remember that device I made near the end of the year, which allows for easier control over wandless magic?" He got nods all around. "Well, I decided to play with that idea. Inside those boxes, you'll find what is commonly referred to in the muggle world as a mood ring.

"What those do, is change colour according to your mood. I looked around and found a spell that can actually do the same, but it's just as unreliable as the muggle variety. Inside the stone on the ring, however, there's an EMF emitter, much like the one I made that time, they're just shrunken down and encased in the stone. The contact points to power the EMF emitter is under the stone and on the other side of your ring.

"All you should have to do, is learn the principle and then send power into the stone. Your magic will then circulate around the coil and exit on the bottom of the ring, back into you. The difference here is, I want you all to have these on you at all times, with no way for you to ever be disarmed, so… I had them cursed." Harry finished lamely.

"What do you mean cursed?" Pansy asked, suspecting she knew where this was going.

"It's like the ring you got me." Harry said, confirming her suspicion. "Except that the spell is set to whatever promise you make, instead of marriage. So if you say, for example, I promise to one day write my name backwards and sing the Hogwarts school song, all you'd have to do to remove the ring, is that." he finished. He'd considered using blue diamonds, but thought that that would make the ring too valuable. If people thought it was valuable, they'd cut the finger off to get the ring. Perhaps their wedding rings could be made that way?

"So, it's like a password, without which the ring cannot be removed?" Hermione said in understanding. "That's actually a very clever idea."

"Thanks for sounding shocked, Hermione. I love knowing that you feel that way about me." Harry joked.

"You know what I mean." Hermione said. "It's really well thought out and gives us an advantage to protect ourselves. Thank you, Harry!" she said as she opened the box and saw the plain looking stainless steel ring with a black stone on top.

The girls soon took out their rings and started discussing their passwords. "I'd suggest you keep your passwords secret, too." Harry suggested. "It's just better, in case one of us is ever compromised."

"Harry?" Luna asked. "Would this not also block spells like that other one did?"

"Low powered ones, yes, actually. While you're channelling it, at least." Harry added. "I found that stronger spells, like cutting and body binding spells can go through, if cast with enough power."

"That's still useful." Luna pointed out, before she got up and excused herself to go to the bathroom. When she came back, she had her ring on. Hermione was the first to catch on and left soon after Luna arrived, followed by the rest of the girls as they all wanted to set their passwords.

Neville had not received a ring and was feeling slightly left out, until Harry held out his hand. "Pass me your ring Neville." He said. "I can modify yours and cast the curse on it for you."

Neville smiled then and pulled off his ring. He really loved that ring. It was thick and heavy and made him feel manly and successful. He didn't really know why. It was actually something Harry had mentioned. He'd used a little suggestion to make Neville feel manlier when he wore it. The story Harry had spun was that knights of old and people of power often received rings like that as gifts for feats of strength and endurance. It was just a little confidence booster.

When Harry was done modifying the ring and silently cursing it, he had a little piece of ruby left and handed it to Neville. "That was what was ejected after I placed the EMF emitter in the ruby. I also added a reflective coating inside the ruby, so that people can't see the transmitter in there. I suggest you hold onto that and maybe someday, you can have it set in a gift for Hannah? Tell her it's from your ring and make it special that way?"

"That's a brilliant idea!" Neville enthused, before levitating his trunk down and placing the small ruby inside, along with other small knick-knacks he'd acquired over the years. Then he levitated it back up and went to the bathroom, to make his own promise.

"What about you, Harry?" Hermione asked, looking for a ring on his hand and finding none.

"I've got something else." Harry said, putting his right pointer finger on his left middle finger's base, where a ring slipped from invisibility. "This one uses a new trick I perfected over the holiday." he said. It was a simple stainless steel ring, with the Marauders Inc. icon. What nobody could see was the needlepoint-thin hole, right in the centre of the moon. Inside it, there was a mirrored chamber, with a small blue diamond.

"What's it do?" Pansy asked.

"I'll show you one day." Harry said.

Pansy didn't like that answer, so she got up and leaned over him. Then she whispered in a husky voice, "Can I try and persuade you?"

"Pansy!" Hermione objected, having heard.

"It's my job to know how to seduce my man." Pansy said easily, as she turned and sat down in his lap, throwing an arm over his shoulders. "And Harry is notoriously difficult to seduce, considering those pesky occlumency skills."

"Oh, I assure you Pansy, the only reason I'm not feeling you up right now, is because of those skills." Harry said honestly. Her arm around his neck had pressed her chest up against his and he could feel that she was pressing into him on purpose.

"That's great to know." Pansy whispered again. "I'd love to see your reaction without those protections in place one of these days."

"That's enough Pansy." Harry said. "I hear Neville approaching. Let's rather not scare him with your antics?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "Not that I don't appreciate having a beautiful girl in my lap."

She smiled at his words, but obediently got up and moved to her seat, before Neville came back, which happened a couple of seconds later. "Did I miss anything?" he asked.

"Actually, I was just about to show the girls a gift I made for Hagrid." Harry said. He stuck a hand into an expanded pocket, one he added specifically for this purpose and pulled out the large wand he had crafted for the man.

"That's beautiful!" most of the girls said. "How is that a wand?" Hermione asked, even as she looked at the beautiful wand.

"Hagrid is a large person, and I happen to know a thing or two about the man." Harry said. "This wand has a very special core and I've made this thing indestructible. Let them try to break it this time." The thing was 21 inches long and an inch thick at the handle, with the tinniest sliver of blue diamond as a core, which was left over after his laser was complete, which went all the way through and it was crafted from aluminium, runed for durability and coated in a thin layer of Bismuth, which was also spelled, for resistance against wear and tear. He didn't want it to lose its lustre after all.

"But how does it look like it's make from a rainbow?" Parvati asked.

"Bismuth!" Hermione exclaimed. "But that's metal!" she objected.

"What's Bismuth?" Neville asked.

"It's a rare-ish metal, which, when melted and cooled in a very specific way, or with magic as it turns out, has the effect you're seeing now." Harry said, indicating the strange rainbow effect. Then he handed the wand to Hermione. "Try and cast a spell?" he offered.

She braced herself for the weight, not knowing it was just a coating over aluminium. When she held it, she realised there was more to the large wand and conceded that Harry probably knew what he was doing, so she incanted a spell and the compartment suddenly had a bunch of birds in it, the bird conjuring spell working slightly better than anticipated.

"This is not a normal wand." Hermione said. "It casts almost too well, and handles like it's made of something much lighter than a solid metal."

"It's aluminium, coated in bismuth." Harry confirmed. "I used a new trick to make it. That process needs to stay a secret though, I'm afraid. It has to do with other projects and I can't give you the details."

"It's the core, isn't it?" Hermione asked.

"Obviously it's the core." Padma said. "Metal doesn't conduct magic properly."

"Actually, considering Harry's recent discovery, for which he made the rings, it's possible that the electromagnetic field interferes, especially, while conducting magic." Hermione suddenly realised. "The aluminium wasn't just for the weight was it? Aluminium doesn't make a good conductor of electricity, so it stands to reason that it might actually work better with magic."

"Not wrong." Harry said. "At least it doesn't interfere. The important part is the core, though, but like I said, I can't discuss it."

"Why would you show us this if you know it's going to drive me mad?" Hermione whined.

"Because I know it's going to drive most of you mad, and you like to tease me, so I thought turn-around was fair play." Harry said with a smirk.

"That's just mean." Padma said in a huff.

"Here's something for you to ponder." Harry offered. "What do you think Madam Maxime is going to think of Hagrid's new wand?"

There were suddenly looks of understanding. Madam Maxime loved all things beautiful and dangerous. Hagrid would now represent both. "You really are a sneaky bugger, you know that?" Neville said with a smile. "Rings people can't remove that keep your friends from being disarmed, items that give you advantages you only hint at and then setting up Hagrid with something that would impress his girlfriend."

"They aren't dating." Harry corrected. "Yet." he added with a smile. "But I just bet, when she sees this, Madam Maxime will want nothing more than to play with Hagrids wand."

"Eeeuw!" Most of the girls complained as Harry just smirked. Neville looked like he wanted to laugh, but kept himself in check.

They arrived at school in good spirits. Hermione had requested Harry's assistance with his illusions to make a small display of how electromagnets worked. The small two-dimensional rendering, with animated arrows and an expanding field, when the arrows' speed increased was enough to carry the principle over and everyone had successfully activated and used their personal magical aura-expanding rings.

The difference it made in their wandless magic was phenomenal. Hermione could finally cast without moving. Neville's telekinesis was strong enough to lift a person comfortably. All the girls suddenly found that their personal difficulties were easily overcome. Luna was the only exception. But then she'd always been the strange one of the lot. Things did come slightly easier for her now, with less concentration needed to cast wandlessly.

There was another welcoming feast, but it passed without incident. Afterward, Harry decided to go to Hagrid's hut, to fix his laser gun, so he walked with him back to his hut and sat down at a table, before broaching the subject.

"Okay Hagrid, hand me your laser." Harry said.

"I swear, I follow the steps!" Hagrid objected.

"I'm upgrading it, Hagrid, not taking it away." Harry said with a smile. "I found a new methodology to the process and just want to add some protections."

"Oh. Well tha's good then." Hagrid said, pulling out the large handgun and placing it softly on the table. Harry checked it and found the thing was spotless. Hagrid took good care of it.

"I'm glad to see you're taking such good care of it Hagrid." Harry said. "That tells me you can be trusted with it. You haven't been telling people about it have you?" Hagrid looked guilty at that. "You told the Headmaster, didn't you?"

"Well, he's Dumbledore inni?" Hagrid asked, like that answered everything.

Harry sighed. "As long as he doesn't cause problems or try and take it from you, I suppose it's fine."

"'e wouldn't do tha'." Hagrid objected. "'e's a great man, Dumbledore is."

"He's also manipulative and overbearing." Harry said, as he worked on the gun, replacing the head with the one he had brought. "He tries to do good, but he's not always right, like he thinks he is."

"Oh, I know you two don' see eye-to-eye, these days, but 'e's always been good to me." Hagrid said.

"If I told you that the Headmaster knew you were innocent of what you were accused, when you were expelled, and still did nothing, would you feel different?" Harry asked, fitting the last piece and ensuring the runes still lined up and functioned to channel magic.

"'e wouldn't do tha'." Hagrid said with a frown.

"Tell me that when I clear your name in a week or two and he doesn't rush to have you re-instated." Harry said. He was now scanning the weapon for anything that may be wrong. It seemed all was in order.

"And you plan on doing tha'?" Hagrid asked sceptically.

"Sure." Harry said. He placed the old head from the gun in his pocket and withdrew the new wand. "There you go Hagrid. The strongest wand I have ever made. All yours. Indestructible too, so they can't snap it, like last time. I call it the Prism Wand, for all the colours." The fact that it was technically the only wand he had ever made, wasn't mentioned.

Hagrid reached out with a frown and looked at the thing. "This is a wand?" he asked.

"Cast a spell." Harry instructed. "It doesn't have the trace, so go nuts. Just… point it away from me."

Hagrid looked at Harry questioningly and then pointed the wand at the fire. Wordlessly a ball of fire leapt from the tip and re-ignited the dying flames. "Bugger me!" he exclaimed. "It's really a wand!"

"Of course it is." Harry said. "When's the last time I lied to you, Hagrid?"

"You've never lied to me." Hagrid said, honestly, as far as he knew. Then he looked sad. "I'm not allowed a wand." he held the wand back to Harry.

"Keep it." Harry said. "Stick it under your bed if you want. When your name is cleared, you'll want a wand. Just tell people you got it from a friend after that, when the time comes."

Hagrid looked at the wand, then. A look of longing on his face. "I'll hold on to it for a couple of weeks, then." he finally allowed.

"How does it feel, though?" Harry asked. "I made it with you in mind. Is it long enough? I know it's light, but wands are supposed to be, you know?"

"It feels like a wand." Hagrid said with a shrug, still not knowing how he felt about it. Then a bit of curiosity crossed his face. "What's it made of?" he asked, finally.

"Can you keep this secret? Even from Dumbledore?" Harry asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't know that I want to." Hagrid said. "It's not illegal is it?"

"No, but supposedly, it's impossible." Harry whispered, with a conspiratorial look.

"Yeah?" Hagrid whispered too. "Okay, I'll keep quiet." he finally said.

"It's made from metal." Harry said.

"But it's so light!" Hagrid whispered hoarsely.

"It's a special metal." Harry said. "It's called aluminium. It's quite common in the muggle world."

"An' the core?" Hagrid asked.

"That's a secret I'll never tell." Harry said apologetically. "It's a trade secret." Hagrid sighed. "Be careful though. That wand will work for any wizard. If they find out how powerful it is, they'll fight you for it. I only added my protections to hide the processes involved, but that won't stop people from wanting it.

"It's no elder wand, I'll give you that, but it's still powerful." Harry continued. "It can take any amount of power you feed it, so the stronger you are, the stronger it is. I also coated it in a very special metal to give it that rainbow effect in the light. It's called bismuth." The fact was that bismuth didn't normally look like that, unless it was allowed to cool in a very specific way, but Harry had found that magic was able to do just the trick, with the way he understood the structure of the atoms. He just had to heat it up in sections to allow for the different colours to manifest more prominently.

"It sounds like you should have it." Hagrid said.

"I don't need it." Harry said. "I've got better tools." he said with a wink. Then he changed the subject. "Do you want to test out the laser? I'm sure you'll love it. I added a couple of features."

Hagrid was suddenly smiling again and quickly hid the wand, under his bed as Harry had suggested. "Wha' new features?" he asked as they walked outside.

"Try it and find out." Harry said, creating a new target for Hagrid.

Hagrid went through his steps and Harry didn't put on his glasses, waiting to see if the man realised. He was very glad that he did. "Harry, why aren't you putting on yer glasses?" he asked.

"It's not necessary anymore." Harry said. "This new model can do a little more than the last. The new one is just as deadly and works the same way, but when you release the power, a small part of that power overlaps the light of the impact point with an illusion of complete darkness. That way, no light escapes and hurts the eyes."

Hagrid nodded at that, aimed the laser-dot, and fired the weapon. The target, at the moment of impact, grew a tiny bubble of darkness, which faded as the laser died. The target was nevertheless burning merrily as it had before. "See?" Harry asked.

"So I don't need the glasses anymore?" Hagrid asked. Harry was glad to see the man looked saddened.

"You can still use them if you want." Harry said. "I gave them to you. I think they look good on you."

"Madam Maxime thinks so too." Hagrid said with a smile. "Says it makes me look mean."

"That they do." Harry said with a chuckle. "Now, on to the other features. You'll see a new glider at the top. It's currently on red, for deadly. The next one is orange for less deadly and the last one is green for safe."

Hagrid looked at the top and switched it down one setting to orange. "Wha's it do?" he asked.

"Try it and find out." Harry said. "This one is continuous, though, so you want to hold in the trigger, while you channel the magic."

Hagrid nodded and pointed the weapon. He pulled the trigger and started channelling his magic through the grip. A spout of continual flame shot out from the end of the weapon as a fire rune projected the power of Hagrid's magic. The sound as the fire shot out, sounded like a high-pitched wail. "Is that normal?" Hagrid asked with a huge smile on his face.

"You're more powerful than I thought, but yes." Harry said. "In the muggle world this effect is called a flame-thrower. If you want to warn creatures off, simply hold down the trigger and allow a little less magic through. It should scare off any wildlife, but be careful and practice that setting so you, once again, don't set the forest on fire."

Hagrid finally let up. "I feel like a dragon." he admitted as he looked at the gun. "That was fun, but I can see it will be dangerous, so I'll practice."

"Fortunately the last setting will help you." Harry said, indicating for Hagrid to switch it to the safe mode.

Hagrid switched it over and pointed the gun, channelling the same amount of power. This time a torrent of water shot out, not unlike a hose from a fire truck. Hagrid actually stumbled back for a moment. "Tha's a powerful water spell." Hagrid said.

"It's a summoning spell." Harry said. "It summons water from the ocean, so it's not for drinking, but it's a safe spell to use on boisterous students, if used carefully, or to push attackers away without killing them. You could also use it to put out fires."

"Tha' is useful." Hagrid admitted. "And likely the setting I'll be keeping it on, when I'm not playin' with fire." he added with a bit of a wink.

"On the bright side, you can forget all the steps, except for the first." Harry said.

"Check for people." Hagrid recited.

"Exactly." Harry said. "You still don't want people in the line of fire. Or to see you playing with a weapon in school."

"I'll not want to get you in trouble for giving me this." Hagrid agreed. "I'll be careful, promise."

"Good." Harry said. "Hold on to that wand, okay? You'll be needing it soon."

"I wasn't planning on throwing it away." Hagrid objected, indignantly. "Even if I never get to use it. It's still beau'iful. And it was a presen'." he added belatedly.

"Good." Harry said. "Okay, I'm off. Remember to practice with less power and how to control the settings, okay?"

Hagrid nodded vigorously and waved at Harry as he flew off.