23 Chapter 22

Harry was soon off. Setting things up took only about ten minutes. He quickly picked up a few ward stones he had already charmed with a Fidelius (he usually had a few sets set up beforehand, since they take quite a bit of power) and returned to Hogwarts. He had everything set up, just in time, as he received a message that the students were all gathered and waiting.

When Dumbledore received a message back, his smile grew and he spoke up. "Seventh-years, please follow me. We have a bit of a surprise for you, in celebration of finishing your final exams." he said, leading the way to the main doors. When they exited, it was to the sight of Harry's saucer, door open and waiting, with Harry just inside the hatch.

"Come on in." Harry said. "We've got everything sorted out and set up." he said as he turned and disappeared into the ship.

When everyone was aboard, Harry took them to the new Fidelius-hidden garage, next to the broom-shed, which was linked with the new one next to the one on their Texas property. The process was very similar to the one he'd used for the other students, except for the fact that there was no long trip involved. If they had time, Harry would take them on a quick spin around Scotland.

Harry had taken the opportunity to have Dobby grab some snacks and something to drink, and to set everything up for the students, before they could even exit the ship. Dobby did his job so well, it looked like the celebration had been set up beforehand.

"Welcome to the Moon House." Harry said as he opened the door and invited everyone to follow him out.

Dumbledore took the role of Master of Ceremonies and made an impromptu speech about the possibilities of magic and not giving up hope, if it seemed your dreams were dashed, since there were always other options, if you decide to look a bit further.

The message was clear. Harry had been mentioning the way the magical world tended to favour purebloods over anyone else. Marauders Inc. had been very openly hiring any people who wished to join, since they could always use more magical help. The resorts were expanding, the influence of muggle technology growing, and the amount of capital flowing through the company was staggering. It was just increasing more and more, every year as well. Harry wasn't certain, but he suspected he was probably the richest kid in Europe at this point. He never really cared for money, though, since he preferred to make things instead of buying them. Maybe a nice private island, though…

There was champagne on the tables and everyone toasted to the possibilities of the future, since they were all of age. There were a few who still preferred sparking grape-juice, though, which was also provided. Harry had been able to get Remus to throw together a large batch of Sushi, on the fly, as well. The muggleborn students were the first to try that, and pretty soon everyone was asking where it came from, but Harry simply said it was a Trade Secret. He'd rather not have Remus inundated with requests, after all. The snacks were not enough to fill anyone up and they were reminded that there was a feast still coming.

By the time they left, the soon to be ex-students were all talking about the experience. Dumbledore did request that they don't spread word, but Harry didn't care. With the foreign dignitaries having seen it the previous day, and the amount of people who knew about his space capabilities, he didn't imagine this would stay a secret for much longer anyway. Harry didn't see them trying to emulate him either, when he finally told the magical world that he used muggle concepts to achieve the feat.

By the time the magical world figured out what he was doing, he'd already be way more advanced, especially with his scientific department starting up. He'd already been in contact with them again. The Carbon Isolation and Transportation Array, or CITA, was almost ready for application, with the first tests running smoothly, except for a few hiccups. They would likely be able to apply the technology to do things like siphon water out of the air on Mars as well, not to mention the usefulness of such an invention in third-world countries.

Before they could go that far, though, they'd need to be allowed to do so, and the magical world was far from ready, for them to start doing something like that.

BTB-BTB

The Leaving Feast was the usual affair, but Harry noted that Gryffindor still won the house-cup. No doubt Dumbledore had countered his point deduction on purpose, to avoid the ire of his Aunty Min. He understood that at least and celebrated internally at the fact that Dumbledore had basically proven his point that the points system meant very little.

People said their farewells, but as there were no long, sad farewells. Most of the student body had Comms at this point and nobody would need to miss their friends, when they could simply call them and see them face to face.

Harry then went back home, to go fetch the Prometheus. It would be her inaugural flight.

The large, even when it was shrunk down, ship had a much larger display and the seats had been made from the boardroom chairs he had Dobby steal. They had been modified, of course, but they were still just as comfortable. The captain's seat sat upon a dais in the rear, with a seat for each of his girls by his sides. They all had access to smaller displays, projected on glass, which they could manoeuvre thanks to mechanical arms. Said displays were connected to every form of recording and communication he had built to date, including his Comm recording crystal system.

There were a few other functions, like an actual control system for a co-pilot at a close-by position. Harry suspected Bill would be taking that seat, when he was shown the ship for the first time. Then there were another couple of features, like the laser-based long range sensor array, with multiple strafing movable lasers mounted next to the monitoring diamonds, and an actual designated one for a blue diamond laser, set up with multiple light and banishment runes and a designated gunner's post. Harry had that one hidden and under a lock-down system, which he controlled. He'd also be able to manipulate that manually with his wandless magic, which was the idea.

The feature he was going to need this ship for, however, were four blue diamond lasers with rune-based levitation and suspension added. His very own tractor beams. If push comes to shove, he'd be able to add disillusionment magic through the beams manually, as well, which he'd need to do as he transported the ship. He'd likely need to keep powering the runes up on occasion, since he'd not yet figured out how to store so large a charge of power in the runes. The suspension function was fortunately a different feature that would use less power, since it functioned on keeping something in place, rather than exerting power like a constant levitation or repelling force.

When Harry arrived back at Hogwarts, he had allowed the disillusionment to fade away, to allow them to see his latest invention. The ship was not an oval as they had expected. It was flat on the bottom, with the front making an almost sharp point and went up at a thirty degree angle until it came to an abrupt end, with a flat rear, where the large door to ship was located.

They looked up at the four meter wide, two meter high, at its highest point, and fifteen meter long ship as it came to a stop and hovered, before it started expanding as the shrinking magic was allowed to end. It was rune-based, for various reasons, including, but not limited to, the ability to shrink and un-shrink it using the control system on-board the ship. The only problem with this, was that Harry had to keep the project in a large Fidelius-hidden location on their Texas plot.

When it was done expanding, they were looking at a construct ten times the original size. The ship was huge. Twenty meters high, forty meters wide and hundred and fifty meters long, in fact. Then Harry slowly set her down. This ship could hover, using the functionality of the four tractor beams to suspend the ship at the correct height. A large door opened in the back and Harry walked out with a huge smile on his face, as a ramp extended out to go to the ground.

"What do you think?" he asked the people who were going with him.

His friends, along with a few professors, including Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, Pomfrey, Babbling, Hagrid and Snape, stared at the giant ship, hovering before them, seemingly completely unassisted.

"When you said this one was bigger, you really meant it didn't you?" Hermione asked, as she walked around the back, to look into the ship, and seeing the Saucer standing in the docking bay, for which the large door was easily big enough, when it was in its normal size. She couldn't see much further, since the docking bay was meant to be sealed and recompressed, before someone could enter the ship proper. She did note that the dock had enough space for four of the Saucer-sized ships, inside the bay. "How big is this thing on the inside?!" she exclaimed.

"It's big." Harry said proudly.

"But how can you do that?" Hermione persisted as the other people also looked inside at her shock. "The shrinking and growing magics should not be compatible!"

"What you don't seem to realise, is that there's more kinds of magic than what you're thinking involved." Harry said. He turned to Hagrid then. "You got the Abraxan?" Hagrid was still staring at the huge ship in what looked like awe. "Hagrid? Do you have the Abraxan?" he asked more loudly.

This time Hagrid finally responded. "Wha'? Oh, o'course 'arry. I'll just go fetch 'em."

"Harry, how long have you been building this?" Dumbledore asked.

"A while." Harry said evasively. He'd been planning it for more than a year and only started working on it since the previous school year ended, but he didn't need to let them know that he'd not needed a lot of time to build the hull. That was the easy part.

"How is it maintaining its levitation? What are those lights? What kind of metal is that? Where are the windows? What kind of magics are involved? Where-" Professor Flitwick started firing off.

"Whoa, hold on, Filius. You know I'm not giving you all the information, so you can stop asking." Harry chuckled. He'd only now tried using the man's first name. It wasn't as awkward as every time he forced himself to say 'Albus', for example.

"But… Ah!" Filius exclaimed in frustration. He was almost as bad as Hermione. He needed to know! "You're going to tell me how you did this, Harry, even if I have to swear an unbreakable vow!"

"Let's hold off on that for a bit, okay?" Harry chuckled again.

"This is very impressive." Professor Babbling said. "I'd also like to know how you achieved this. Could I persuade you to tell me when you tell Filius?"

"Like I said, let's get this over with, first. Maybe once we're at the resort?" he offered. The people going with them had been invited to spend a couple of nights, after all.

"Well, it's not like I can force you, is it?" Flitwick said. He sounded almost upset.

Hagrid soon arrived with the Abraxan. "Where do you want 'em, 'arry?" he asked.

"Just take them into the bay and to the left. I need a place to park the coach." Harry said as he focussed on his ring and allowed the pinprick of light to travel to where he could see the coach. He'd taken the time to add the feature he had been thinking of to the ring, and it could now swivel in a near 180° circle. He focused a Point Me spell through it and had it land and stay on the coach. Then he focussed both a banishment under the coach and a levitation charm on it. It was really heavy, but it slowly rose and started moving towards them, as Harry angled the banishment charm slightly.

Harry allowed it to speed up, taking into consideration the time he'd need to slow it down, and then led it onto the bay, next to the massive winged horses. With Hagrid standing by them, they were mostly calm as they watched the coach slowly settle onto the rubber-covered floor. He'd decided it was a good idea as a safety precaution, to cover the entire floor with it.

"There we go." Harry said, as he transfigured the coach into position, by having the wall reach out and latch onto it, locking it in place. "And that's it for the coach. Everyone on board." he instructed, to the still gaping people. The coach wasn't just huge, it had needed seven Abraxan to pull it. They were capable of lifting tons, much like a Phoenix, and Harry's girls had seen the inside. It was by no means a small feat. Harry had lifted the equivalent of a reasonably sized house. "What?" Harry asked, feigning ignorance. It was a trick of using leverage, really. Knowing physics was useful, after all.

"'arry, I couldn't move tha' when it was on wheels." Hagrid said. His admitting it made the impression only stronger.

"It's a simple principle of leverage. Less force over time, applied in a certain way, achieves the same thing." Harry said. "If you really wanted, you could move Hogwarts using the principle, not that I've considered doing that." he admitted, before starting to close the door, which slid down from the top. "If you're coming, get inside." he finally said as he started walking to the door on the other side of the docking bay.

"Did he get stronger?" Madam Pomfrey asked McGonagall, as they hurriedly trooped on board.

Hermione heard her. "I think he just used another mundane principle from the muggle world, Madam Pomfrey." she said. "I don't know how he applied it, but I know of the principle. As laws of physics go, it's rather simple too."

When the door was closed, with a rather loud metal-on-metal clang, and a loud click, Harry opened the other door. "This door can't be opened until the other one is closed." he said.

"Airlock?" Hermione asked, knowing what this room looked like.

"Exactly." Harry said as he waited for everyone to follow, before closing the door to the docking bay and picking up a display disc, handing it to Hagrid, as it became active and showed the bay. He could keep an eye on the Abraxan that way. "When I go into space with the Prometheus, The Saucer will be my primary drop-ship. I'd like to leave the Prometheus as the safe return site. If anything goes wrong, I can take a portkey back to safety."

Hermione nodded. It made sense. Harry had told his girls about his plans for the holiday. "I'm glad you're taking that into consideration." she said.

"What is he talking about?" Flitwick asked.

Hermione actually looked caught between a smirk and some form of grimace. She wasn't going to give Harry's secrets away and finally understood what it felt like to know something that someone else desperately wanted to know. "Sorry Professor. I can't tell you." she finally said.

"What are you planning, Harry?" Dumbledore asked as he walked along the long, dimly-lit corridor with Harry and the rest of the group. "And really, just how long is this ship on the inside?!" he asked, incredulously.

"Long enough." Harry said mysteriously, as he clicked his fingers and the low illumination switched from the normal night-time setting, to day-time. He had made those functions specifically for if he took the ship on a long trip.

Everyone froze as their eyes adjusted and then they finally saw the interior for what it was. The inside was a bit bigger than the outside currently was, but Harry had expanded it in such a way that it looked longer and wider, rather than higher. The expansion had turned the triangular shape on the inside and formed it into a long rectangular passageway with many doors.

"The expansion left me with more space than I could need, and I can still expand it a lot more, and I can still shrink items." Harry smirked. "The rooms on the sides here are to store stock for long voyages. Food and necessities, manure and seeds, building materials and so forth. The basics to start a settlement."

"Were you planning on moving to a different planet?" Dumbledore asked in realisation.

"Not in the slightest." Harry denied. "I do intend to visit, and maybe plant a few plants after preparing a proper location for such things."

"Visit where?" Dumbledore tried again.

"Exactly." Harry said, seeing Flitwick fuming again.

"Harry, when you said that you can expand it more, how much bigger did you mean?" Hermione asked.

"Expanding can normally go as far as ten times the original capacity, right?" Harry asked. She nodded. "This ship is a rectangular triangle, of 20X40X150 meters. The math is simple from there."

"That's 120 000 square meters!" she exclaimed. "And you can just shape that space anyway you want?" she asked.

"Kind of, I could take it that far, but don't need the space yet." Harry said. "For now, what I have on board is enough to start my project and to set up a way back home. The biggest reason for my using the space expansion, was to change the inner shape and add a little bit of packing space."

"You never answered my question." Dumbledore reminded him.

"The length of the ship is quite long, considering I modified the spell, to incorporate the height of the hull into the length." Harry said pointing up. "The person who created the space expansion charm didn't take into consideration the third dimension. Instead of six floors, it's six times longer, so technically I can increase the space horizontally, while shrinking the space vertically.

"The current hallway is about 500 meters, but I put in transportation stations." he answered Dumbledore's question. "Over here." He led them to what looked like an elevator. The door opened automatically and everyone got into the large room. When the door closed, Harry pointed to what looked like a blueprint of the ship, with coloured rooms. He pressed around the middle of the ship and it lit up for a moment, before the doors opened again.

"This is the mess hall." Harry said, walking out. "It's basically a common room, with a kitchen over there, a silenced mini-cinema over there, a couple of pool tables and a few other activities, with some comfortable couches and basically anything I could think to pass the time in reasonable comfort. There's even a bar area over there, for Sirius. I just know he's going to insist."

"This is incredible work, Harry!" Daphne said. "Is the whole ship like this?"

"I did put a bit of extra work into this area, since I wanted people to want to spend time here." Harry admitted.

"I can see myself enjoying this room." Padma said, looking over to a large bookcase, with books and a few library tablets. The other girls were also nodding as they looked at the various games and attractions in the room. Two walls were showing a view of the outside of the ship and they realised they could see quite far, so the viewing discs must be high up on the ship's side.

"I haven't played a game of pool in quite a while." Madam Pomfrey said. When Harry looked at her with a raised eyebrow, she narrowed her eyes at him. "Didn't think I had a life besides being a healer?" she asked dangerously.

"No, you just never tell me all that much about your personal life." Harry said easily. "Maybe you can teach me to play sometime?" he asked.

"You put tables in and don't know the game?" Snape asked, with a bit of a smirk.

"Just because I don't know how, doesn't mean I don't want to learn." Harry countered. "I want to have fun too. I'm not all work, either."

Snape shrugged and continued to follow as Harry took them through the large comfortably set up room and continued the tour. "This is the dormitory section. There are a few modestly set up rooms with bedrooms and facilities for taking care of your needs." he said as he opened one of the many doors on the side of the hallway.

A light came on with a snap of his finger and he showed them the inside. There was a double-bed with two nightstands and a small vanity with cupboards arranged along one wall. There was also a small en-suite attached to the side. It was simplistic, but would be quiet and private. It was a place meant for rest and taking care of your needs, but not much else. Harry was still planning on putting televisions in every room. It wasn't necessary, but he also realised people needed their alone time.

Harry finally took them to the bridge, which he was quite proud of. It looked like a futuristic spacecraft should. There were displays along the sides and a large curved display in the front, showing the front of the ship, from about midway up the slant of the craft's front. "This is the bridge. This is where all the controls for the ship is. Everything from navigation and scanner array, to monitoring and weapons systems." Harry said, knowing what the last statement would do.

"Weapons?" McGonagall asked. "Why would you need weapons? Do you expect to be attacked in space?"

"It's more for destroying approaching asteroids and possibly other things." Harry said. "Who knows, we may even find hostile life out there."

"You cannot be serious." Snape asked, incredulously. "You're watching too many movies."

"I'm just saying." Harry said. "Life existed on one planet. With how much space is out there, do you really think there's not even the smallest chance for it to happen again? I'd have to be pretty arrogant to believe Earth could be the only planet with life, let alone intelligent life."

"The chances are still very small, Harry." Hermione reminded him.

"I know, and that wasn't the only reason for the weapons system." Harry admitted. "There's also the possibility of some country deciding to attack me if they discover me. Some missiles can be shot into space and carry a payload that would destroy entire cities. I can't be too careful, especially if I have people with me." He turned to McGonagall then. "Don't worry. The weapons systems are not available to anyone but me and I'm the only one that knows how to use them at this point. There won't be any accidents with them."

McGonagall seemed to accept this. "Good." she said.

Harry showed his girls to their seats and the others all grabbed their own, with Flitwick and Babbling taking the seats right in front of Harry's seat, for the best view.

"Okay there, Hagrid?" Harry asked. The half-giant had not been on one of Harry's ships before.

"I'll help him." Dumbledore said, as he unbuckled and went to help the big man, modifying his seat to be larger and more durable, not knowing what to expect with the g-forces. He'd be sorely disappointed.

Before long they were ready to depart and Harry triggered the ship's shrinking function. "The ship has been shrunken. The main purpose of this feature is to have a smaller surface and thus less friction and a smaller chance of collisions in space."

"And the shape?" Luna asked interestedly. She'd been happily observing everything on the ship with mild interest.

"There actually are a few reasons." Harry said. "The most important of which, was for stronger wards. Flat surfaces are easier to ward more precisely and powerfully. Then there's also the angle of thirty degrees. With a few principles from muggle science and structural reinforcement, along with tungsten carbide plating, the front of the ship can withstand way more friction. Hundreds and potentially thousands of times more than The Saucer, especially in space."

"How fast can this ship go?" Hermione asked slightly worried.

"I have no idea." Harry said. "The ship was charmed with some new capabilities of mine. I haven't tested it in space at all and on my way here, I reached Mach 30 with almost no friction, even in the atmosphere. At that speed though, the shape of the ship was starting to affect its lift, though, so I stopped there."

"Harry, that's ten kilometres per second. Please don't do that with me on board?" Hermione pleaded.

"Don't worry Hermione. I don't intend to make you uncomfortable." Harry assured her. "Plus, the Durmstrang ship would likely not survive moving at that speed." he joked mildly.

"How are you going to take the ship?" McGonagall asked. Harry looked over to her and noticed Flitwick studiously looking away. He had just been speaking to McGonagall.

"Oh, you sneaky bugger!" Harry exclaimed. "Using my Aunt to ask your questions is not playing fair."

Flitwick dropped all pretence and smirked at Harry. "I'll have my answers one way or another." he said defiantly.

Harry just chuckled and lifted the ship up. "You'll note that you don't feel any movement. The Prometheus's inertial dampening has been hard set to always counter gravitational forces. Since we can't always know if something will hit, or when an accident might happen, I took the time to create a device that finally adjusts the g-forces automatically, up to a certain amount of acceleration or deceleration." He said as they floated over to the ship. To prove his point, he put on a burst of speed, till they were right above the ship and stopped them dead.

"That would have been impossible before, but the new device works on a gravity manipulation excluded section of the ship, where a system with instruments of different sensitivity all react and affect the rest of the ship's gravitational countering." Harry said, even as he pulled up a display of the bottom of the ship on the forward display and manipulated the four tractor beams to different parts of the Durmstrang ship and activated their function.

The guests all watched as what looked pretty accurately like four tractor beams attached to the ship below them. When the Durmstrang ship easily lifted up with them as they ascended, not allowing it to move an inch and basically standing still from their perspective, the people looked around at Harry again, questions on most of their faces. Hermione just shook her head with a bemused smile. Of course Harry would design those at some point.

"You'll have to remember that the ship below us is not designed to be lifted up like this, which is why the means by which it is being lifted functions not only like levitation, but also includes structural integrity support and an inclusion field, while applying suspension across the entire structure of the targeted vessel." Harry continued as he made the forward display show forward again and pulled up a smaller display to the side to show the ship below them, to keep track.

"We'll be able to go slightly faster with that in place, but we'll still be flying over places where muggles might see. Fortunately it's evening and standard disillusionment should cover us more than adequately." Harry finished, as they all watched the ship below them shimmer slightly, but not vanish.

"I can still see it." Dumbledore said.

"All of us can." Snape said.

"It's how I cast it." Harry said. "From the bottom it's disillusioned. I still want to see it, for my peace of mind."

"Is that another modified spell?" Hermione asked. How did Harry always have something new?

"Actually, I think I have the answer to this one." Dumbledore asked.

"Go for it." Harry allowed as he started accelerating them until he started feeling strain on the structural support of the Durmstrang ship. They were still going at a decent clip, though it would likely take an hour to fly there at this pace.

"Some spells, like stealth and certain forms of tracking, enable the caster to include others in what they cast, or exclude certain people from knowing, depending on the will of the caster." Dumbledore said. "I could, for example, cast a certain tracking spell and, if I told someone what to look for they'd be able to pick up on the magic. Similarly, the disillusionment charm can be cast to work in one direction, allowing you and your allies to see each other, while blocking someone you are observing from seeing you."

"That makes sense." Hermione said with some relief. At least Harry wasn't suddenly making up spells as he went, though sometimes she suspected that that was exactly what he was doing, especially since wandless magic was so pliable. "Thank you for explaining Professor Dumbledore."

"It is a pleasure, Miss Granger." Dumbledore said. "I recently realised that I've not really been teaching anyone for quite a few years. It's good to know I've not lost the knack, if Hagrid's progress is anything to go by."

"Thank you, Professor." Hagrid thanked him again. "I've been practicin', bu' I'm still strugglin' with some of the smaller things."

"You should speak to Hermione about that." Luna said. "She showed Ginny and I how to visualise to gain finer control. She's a really good teacher." she added.

"I couldn't possibly be as good a teacher as Professor Dumbledore." Hermione said quickly, not wanting to step on any toes.

"I don���t know." Harry said. "I have to agree with Luna. You've always been a good teacher and Professor Dumbledore hasn't taught me much over the years, but I learn from you all the time." he said with a smirk.

"Harry!" Hermione objected. "That's rude!"

"No, no." Dumbledore said with a calming hand-gesture. "I trust Harry's judgement. If he says Hagrid can learn from you, please do help him when you find the time. He has much to learn and much time to make up for."

"And a certain headmistress to impress." Harry said smiling at his big friend.

"Oh, he doesn't need to impress her." Dumbledore countered. "The moment she saw the Prism Wand, she was already impressed."

"I'm betting the strength of his magic probably helped." Harry said as he shifted the controls away, after locking their course. He'd monitored the suspension magic long enough to feel sure of its safety and focussed on the long distance detection array. It was a bit of an art to let his senses connect with and display an illusion of what he was picking up with the many small lasers attached to the front of the ship, all focussed forward and moving rapidly up and down. He'd be working on having them work more efficiently in the future, but until then, this was good enough.

"Hagrid does have some strong magic." Dumbledore allowed as he watched Harry closely, wondering what he was doing, but also wanting to gauge his reaction to the next words. "But I suspect the Prism Wand and the Problem Solver you gave him helped a bit."

"Problem Solver?" Harry asked in confusion, even as he continued to focus on what he was sensing, allowing the lasers to focus forward on the ground they were flying over and allowing his magic to start producing an illusion of the terrain it picked up, in a three dimensional rendering in front of him, with an illusion of the Prometheus and the larger ship flying below it.

"The, um… water-gun, you gave him?" Dumbledore tried, not wanting to say anything he wasn't supposed to.

"Oh, right." Harry said in realisation, even as he kept most of his concentration on the image forming in front of him. "That makes a certain amount of sense." he allowed. "Though I suspect the, Problem Solver, would likely impress her less, since that was a gift from me. What Hagrid can do with an actual wand, considering how quickly he charges the Problem Solver, however, will likely impress her more."

"And the Wand?" Dumbledore tried.

"I knew she'd find it interesting, which is why I put some effort into making it look special for Hagrid, but if he couldn't use it, that would likely still not work." Harry said. "In the end it was still up to him to do the actual work."

"You're never telling me what's in that wand are you?" Dumbledore sighed as he watched the illusionary landscape appear and fly by underneath the flying ships.

"Nope." Harry said.

"What are you doing, Harry?" Hermione asked, her curiosity not being able to be suppressed any longer.

"This is the long distance sensor array at work." Harry said. "Right now, it needs me as a medium, to produce, with my illusion magic, a visual representation of what the sensor is reading. I don't have an idea on how to create the effect without my being part of the system, yet."

"So this is what is actually going on around us?" Hermione asked. "It works then? How far can it range out?"

"So far I've been able to sense the surface of the moon from Earth." Harry shrugged. "It uses some standard detection magic that's usually used to detect the structure and layout of buildings. I'm using that capability to map the structure of the land ahead of us. The spell gives the caster an image of what the detection spell picks up, running over the surface of said structure for a bit, depending on how much magic is used. I'm currently using twenty of those spells simultaneously, using the sensor array, which makes the magical cost much lower, since I only need to feed it a trickle of magic and the accumulated data is more easily collated into a general shape in my head. Less detailed, but also more spread out. That's essential for what I plan on using it for."

Hermione was suitably impressed, but it was Pansy who responded this time. "This is no small feat is it?" she asked. "This is something completely new, to be able to send magic to the moon, or be able to send so many spells and call the magical cost only a trickle. Is this dangerous? Could it be abused?"

"That's a very astute observation." Harry said. "And yes, there is a chance for misuse of this knowledge, which is why it's considered a family magic item, much like the production of the Philosopher's Stone is a Flamel family magic item. The same as the gifts I gave you girls and Neville is also considered a family magic item. It's all protected and only Hermione really understands the concept well enough to reproduce it."

"Just how many family magic items and discoveries have you made?" Dumbledore asked. He quickly raised his hand and said, "No specifics. I just want a number, if you're willing to share it."

Harry sighed, before he ran a quick summary in his head. Rune-based flight, which he had to modify for his needs, wind-shielding wards, gravity manipulation for inertial dampening, the EMF emitter, blue diamond lasers, the multiple uses of blue diamond and the lasers they produce, ruby lasers, his wandless magic method, illusion magic, family magic curse and Unbreakable Vow removal, the magical charging block for the wolves, mirror magic, link-based magic, diamond recordings, magical speakers, illusion based video feedback, the new marauders map, the new vanishing cabinet applications, molecular manipulation of crystal structures and the other possible applications of that, the Comm and all the things that went into that, the spells that protect a person in a vacuum, the planned new family curse, the process they are creating to clean up the atmosphere and then, finally, all the other family magics that had been gathered, though Harry considered that one thing, as it was something he intended to look into but hadn't really used yet. The lightsaber was a collaboration and not really unique to only him, though he could count the effects he had mastered, he supposed.

"I'm standing at about twenty-five unique things, rounded down, considering the other applications that many of the new fields of discovery are leading to." Harry said.

"And you discovered all these things in your time at Hogwarts?" Dumbledore asked, after his eyes had almost popped out of his head at hearing this.

"About half of them." Harry said. "Though, to be fair, most of them come from my personal research and extra studies, beyond the scope of things taught at Hogwarts."

This left most of the people shocked at the discovery that the boy had already achieved more than they had in their entire lives. Harry's friends were all beaming proudly at him, though.

"You're still not an Animagus." McGonagall finally broke the silence, petulantly.

"It's still on my list, okay?" Harry said with a sigh. "I can't help that I've not discovered what, if any, kind of animal I'll become. Maybe I'll just invent something new? A different kind of self-transfiguration. Maybe I'll become the first ever magical that can turn into any animal, have you thought of that?"

"Merlin save us all." Snape drawled.

Harry smiled at that. "See, even Professor Snape gets it. I can do anything I set my mind to, so there." he finished, sticking his tongue out at his Aunty Min.

"It was not meant as encouragement." Snape said. "If your power becomes any more unrivalled, you might as well declare yourself the king of the world and move on to other planets to conquer."

"The prior isn't really on my list, but the latter definitely is." Harry said, smiling happily.

"Becoming the king of the world will likely have too much paperwork." Parvati said with a bit of humour. "Harry dislikes paperwork. That is why he lets Professor Dumbledore pretend he runs the school."

"Oh?" Dumbledore asked, smiling at the girl.

"Of course." Susan added. "Harry rarely has the time for his girlfriends, these days. We couldn't let him take on so much more. He's already planning on saving the whole planet, for goodness sakes."

"Susan, that's supposed to stay in the family." Harry admonished lightly, with a wink at her.

"Oh, what are they going to do? Stop you?" Susan scoffed. "The people here would rather let you continue as you are than spreading the word that you've already come up with a method to fix the mess the planet is currently facing."

"To be fair, it's just one of quite a few things, and I can't do much without getting the ICW on my back for potentially exposing the secret of magic." Harry allowed. "And until there is enough backing for Marauders Inc. internationally, I can't force anyone's hands."

"We wouldn't want the world's magical governments to all send their hit wizards after you for being who you are." Pansy added. "You're likely already going to have your hands full with all your fans and the purebloods out for your blood. As your betrothed, it is my duty to dissuade you from doing such a reckless thing as trying to help the ignorant people, who would use any excuse to see you fall."

"Betrothed?" Professor Snape asked. He'd not heard of any formal engagements.

"Five of my girlfriends' parents and guardians have formalised it with my godfather. For more I'll need to acquire new titles first." Harry said.

"Six." Luna interrupted. "Mummy and Daddy informed me last month, shortly before Sirius bought a partnership in the paper. I've officially joined your Harem."

"What?!" Harry exclaimed as he lost concentration on the illusion and it unravelled. Sirius was going to have some explaining to do.

"You really shouldn't be upset with Sirius." Luna said. "He didn't get you any more titles without your knowledge, as he promised. Instead, he got them for himself and Remus and they bequeathed a couple to your girls, after abolishing the family names and assigning the new noble titles onto our future titles as your wives. I'll be Lady Lovegood, first of the Noble House of Lovegood."

"He can do that?" Harry asked as he tried to get enough focus into the array and creating the illusion again. He didn't need to see it to know what he was sensing, but working the magic was useful, to get to know it better. If he was going to create a system for it, he'd need to understand it better than anyone else alive.

"Actually, it is a very old and mostly disused law, but I suspect it's still valid and within the law, though I have to wonder at which families he abolished." Dumbledore said in thought. With all the purebloods in the Lupin Penitentiary, he had no doubt that there would be quite a few without families or much to lose. Most likely Sirius offered them freedom if they won in a dual, though the magic of such duals would require no cheating, or it would have a backlash. When had Sirius Black become strong enough to acquire so many titles, fairly? And how did the Lovegood girl know. "How do you know about this?" he gave voice to his thought.

Luna just smiled at him, giving nothing away.

"You can give up trying to get a straight answer from her." Harry chuckled, feeling relieved for some reason that the girl was still the same as she'd always been. "My lovely Lady Lovegood is a font of mysterious knowledge and intrigue."

"I like that." Luna said, smiling at Harry. "You can call me that."

"I intend to." Harry said, smiling at her. Then he turned to the Patil twins. "Did you know about this?" he asked, wondering what they would be called, since there would already be a Lord Patil.

They shook their heads. "We assumed we'd be ladies Potter, Black or Peverell, if it turns out that was a line that was still acknowledged." Padma said.

"It is likely that you are also Lord Slytherin, or Gaunt, due to defeating the last of that line." Dumbledore said.

"Slytherin?!" Pansy exclaimed. For the first time ever, she wished she was not an heiress, so she could claim that title.

"It is very possible." Dumbledore said.

"It's not." Harry said. "I'm no Parseltongue."

"Not all skills are inherited, Harry." Dumbledore said, with a knowing smile. "You may need to earn it, by claiming the title."

"No thanks." Harry said instantly. "I'd rather abolish that line if it turns out to be true. There's no way I'd want to be known as the Heir of Slytherin. I'd rather stay Harry Black, strange, but funny. If I was a Slytherin, I'd be strange and 'Run for your lives!' I'd never get half as much done, either."

The conversation continued on that trend, the people speculating on the consequences of what titles would mean to which ladies, and before they knew it they were approaching Durmstrang. It was, thankfully, a clear evening, even though there was quite a layer of snow on the ground. It was always cold this far up north, no matter what time of year.

Dumbledore had the forethought to call ahead and when they arrived, he sent a message to say that they were there. Harry saw a line of light spells being ejected and hovering in an arrow, pointing to a large dock, where some people were already waiting to secure the ship. They were looking out on the water for signs of the ship, wearing thick, warm-looking coats. Harry allowed the ship he was bringing along to become visible and laughed when one of the people actually slipped and fell over as he spotted the ship, coming in for a landing.

He did not allow the Prometheus to become visible, but suspended it at the dock and changed the disillusionment for an invisibility spell, remembering at the last moment to add a shield from the weather, to not give its location away, by having snow or rain fall on it. They would not be staying long, but intended to at least show their faces. Hagrid decided to stay with the Abraxan.

When the large door of the Prometheus materialised and opened, there was another shocked exclamation, followed by a shouted reprimand from the quickly approaching Karkaroff. Harry had invited the man to the safe abode of the Resort, along with Victor, and they'd both accepted, but they needed to wait their school year out. Both Beauxbatons and Durmstrang would only close in another week.

"Mister Black." Karkaroff greeted as he made his way to them, watching as the door behind them disappeared after closing. He only barely noticed the Saucer standing inside the door and to the right.

"Headmaster Karkaroff." Harry greeted. "Sorry for scaring your people." he said.

"They are not used to the impossible." Karkaroff grinned. "Much like I am not used to it, though you have a talent for shock and awe."

"We've had him for four years and he's yet to stop shocking us…" Dumbledore said. "Good evening Igor." he added belatedly. That started a round of greetings, before they were invited in for something to drink.

Harry only wanted to stop and greet, but decided to stay for a cup of tea. They were quickly led inside, considering the hour and the bitter cold. Harry decided to make tokens with wind-shielding wards, when their warming charms did little in the face of the strong, frigid wind.

When they were inside, a large group, including most of the students that had gone to Hogwarts, greeted them, clapping hands and cheering. Apparently they had been on the lookout for something strange and had seen the aerial arrival of their ship.

As Karkaroff led them off to a private chamber, having invited Victor to follow, he said, "I thought you would have taken the flying device from before. I did not expect you to have something more impressive."

"It's one of my latest projects, designed for bigger hauls and larger distances." Harry confided. "I'd appreciate it if you kept that to yourself, though. You should tell the children that you don't know the specifics, or that you were sworn to secrecy."

"Of course." Karkaroff said. He was not used to students giving him suggestions, or orders, but knew the boy was no mere boy, with the way he often addressed Dumbledore as an equal. "The students of Durmstrang understand the need for discretion."

They sat down for tea and Harry arranged a pickup for the both of them. He handed them emergency portkeys on the sly, though, saying that he suspected his enemies would likely try anything to get to him, and his friendship with Victor could threaten him or his family. That was about all he could do for them, though, until they were at the resort.

When they left again, it was to a larger group of cheering students. Apparently word had spread about the return of the ship and all the students wanted to see what few of the others had, even if there was only a small chance of seeing the invisible mode of transport. Karkaroff had needed to order the students stay inside, though, causing a grumble to pass through them at the missed opportunity.

Karkaroff chuckled at their obvious disappointment, showing the milder side of the man for the first time, since they had met him. He was a good headmaster, it seemed. The students may have grumbled, but not one had objected.

Harry let the man lead them back to the ship, but this time he employed a notice-me-not charm, one of the first charms he ever mastered, to keep people from focussing on the large entrance of the ship.

They were soon on their way to Beauxbatons. This trip went much faster, since Harry didn't need to take into consideration the large, delicate (by his standards) ship they were hauling. About 5 minutes later, he 'landed' the ship next to the beautiful palace. Madam Maxime and an entourage of students all wondered why they didn't see the ship they were expecting. They did notice the coach floating from seemingly nowhere followed by the Abraxan, Monsieur Hagrid and then, finally Harry, his friends and the Professors.

"'arry!" Fleur exclaimed happily as she ran up to him, foregoing her normal control and hugged Harry tightly, even as he laughed at her exuberance and spun her around, lifting her easily, even without needing to use his magic to help support her.

"Hello, Fleur." Harry said. "Is there a reason you're so happy to see me?" he asked.

"Am I not allowed to be 'appy to see my boyfriend?" she asked, before she pulled away and kissed him soundly.

When the kiss broke, Harry smiled at her and said, "Of course you are, much as I am happy to see you. It's just that we saw each other just yesterday."

"She was likely staking her claim." Snape said, having noted there were a few jealous looks among the French students.

"Everyone knows." Madam Maxime said, bemusedly. Fleur had been excited to hear that Harry would be visiting. "Though, Miss Delacour was likely excited by seeing the Coach levitated from, wherever it is you came from." she added.

Hagrid wisely didn't say anything to this. He knew that the ship was still supposed to stay a secret. "Good evening, Madam Maxime." he said, instead.

"Monsieur 'agrid, it is good to see you again." Madam Maxime said with a smile just for him. "Will you be staying?" she asked, hopefully.

"I wasn' planning on it…" Hagrid said, with a bit of a blush. Secretly, he'd been hoping to spend a bit of time with the Headmistress.

"I have no doubt that the elves wouldn't mind tending to your duties for a while, Hagrid." Dumbledore said. "If you want to spend a bit of time here, you're more than welcome."

"I wouldn't want to impose." Hagrid said.

"It is no imposition." Madam Maxime said. "Come, let me show you to where ze Abraxan are kept." she beckoned to him and they soon left the rest of the group.

"Well, I suspect that's that." Harry said. "We've had a busy day and I still need to get the rest of my guests back to the resort."

"Can't you stay for a bit?" Fleur asked, disappointedly.

"I know you're still busy with your exams, Fleur." Harry reprimanded. "I'll come fetch you when they are over. When I do, I'll have a surprise for you, okay?"

"Surprise?" Fleur asked.

"Yes, a surprise." Harry confirmed, sticking a hand into a pocket and removing a button. "In the meanwhile, keep this on you. It's an emergency portkey. Activation phrase is 'sécurité'." It was the French word for safety. He'd checked it up beforehand.

"Sank you 'arry." Fleur said. She still looked sad that the visit was so short.

Harry hugged her again and whispered in her ear, "You spent last night in my bed, don't be upset. You know the other girls will want some private time as well."

"Of course." Fleur said softly, in understanding. "I weel 'ave to be patient for a while longer." She broke the hug and said, aloud, "Send my greetings on to mama, papa and Gabrielle."

"They will be coming with me to pick you up." Harry confirmed. He knew full well that she had been in contact with them constantly since she got her Comm, but could pass a personal greeting on. She likely wanted to give her family some time to get to know him, anyway.

They left soon thereafter, but only after greeting Hagrid one more time, saying that they'd pick him up at the end of the last school week for Beauxbatons.

Harry then led the group back onto the ship. When they were seated again, Harry shrunk the ship and made them visible for the people still standing there. It would give them a false impression of the size of the ship, but that was necessary. To them it still looked large and… strange, which was perfect.

That's when he shot off at a truly inspired clip. It was dark out, but with the lights of the tractor beams on the bottom of the ship (which he had lit up on purpose), they could track the movement of the Prometheus for a couple of seconds, before it vanished, even in the clear sky.

"How did you work it out?" Hermione asked.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Inertial dampening." Hermione said.

"Oh, right. Turns out I was overthinking it." Harry said. "I didn't need a system that adjusts by some sort of understanding or be able to react to things intelligently. I only needed to use the inertia. It can apply its own counter-balance by weight and inertia, adjusting gravity instantly as it affects the system, like a weight on a string. You move forward, and it moves back from resting position. The distance it moves indicates the force applied, so I just needed to use a similar concept to apply the counter gravity, like I would have, except, infinitely more accurately."

"What did you end up using?" Hermione asked.

"The concept was simple, but application took a while longer." Harry said. Once they were on course, he started creating his illusion of the information he was receiving and started producing another illusion on the side. It was very simple, since he needed to concentrate on the very demanding long-range sensor and the construct he was making.

The illusion looked like a see through bubble, with a golf ball at the centre. "When the outer ball, which moves like the ship does, moves forward, the centre ball needs to move along to keep up." Harry made the outer ball move, but the inner ball stood still. "The inner ball, in this example, is manipulated by the same inertia as what the rest of the ship experiences, except that its gravity should remain zero, while the system applies normal 1G of gravity for the rest of the ship.

"When the outer ball moves, it instantly affects gravity to put the inner ball back in the centre." Harry said as the outer ball moved and the inner one moved back to the centre slowly. "What force is applied to put it back in its normal position, is applied to the rest of the ship, meaning whenever we turn and the ball would normally go to the side…"

"It applies gravity sideways to put the ball back, but also applies the same gravity to the rest of the ship, which affects how we experience gravity." Hermione said, nodding along. That made sense, but, "Isn't the ball going to be affected by the air inside the bigger ball, creating friction at higher acceleration?"

"Very astute observation." Harry nodded. "How would you fix that, even though the amount of acceleration would have to be truly phenomenal to be affected by the friction?"

"A vacuum?" Dumbledore surprised Harry by asking.

"You've been doing a bit of reading." Harry said with a nod of approval. "Yes, without air inside the system, there is no interference." he said as he allowed the secondary illusion to fade and focussed primarily on the long range sensor, adjusting their path as he discovered an aeroplane about to intersect their flight path. "Look there." he pointed to the display, before they could even see it, but Hermione had seen the image and noted they were on a collision course, until Harry aimed them down, to fly underneath.

Everyone looked out the window and a couple of seconds later, they flew underneath the large passenger aircraft.

"That was an aeroplane." Dumbledore said interestedly. He had also noted the image displayed in Harry's illusion. "Well done, Harry." he congratulated. "I would say that is a very good demonstration of the efficacy of the sensor."

"I still need to work out how to make it detect smaller debris, and test it at a distance. The smaller an object, the more chance of it slipping through the sensor array." Harry said.

"Refraction." Hermione said instantly. "It works on… Oh, right. I'm not supposed to talk about that, am I?" she asked.

"That's brilliant!" Harry exclaimed anyway. "Why didn't I think of that?" he asked himself. He'd have to test what would be viable refraction ratio, but this was a very good solution to the issue. "Hermione, I'm going to kiss you when we land. Hard."

Hermione blushed crimson, as everyone on the bridge, besides Snape, smiled at her.

"What are you talking about!?" Flitwick exclaimed again. Harry made to answer but Flitwick glared at him. "If you say 'Trade Secret', I'll be forced to award Gryffindor so many house points that they will win every year!"

"Go ahead." Harry challenged. "Albus recently let slip that I can award and deduct points." He turned to Dumbledore then. "How is it that Gryffindor still won?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Dumbledore said, turning away from the boy.

"Albus?" McGonagall asked dangerously.

"He deducted five thousand points from Gryffindor the moment he found out!" Dumbledore defended himself. "I simply put them back. If you want to be angry, be angry at him. You still won fair and square."

McGonagall's eye twitched, but Harry wasn't certain it was anger, or if she was trying to contain her humour at Dumbledore acting like a schoolboy, having been caught in the act of breaking the rules. When she finally let her humour show, the rest of the passengers laughed at his expense.

"We'll be landing soon." Harry said then. It really was a relatively short distance between Beauxbatons and Nice. If Fleur knew where the resort was, she could very well apparate to them, when school ended.

When they arrived, Harry had a few people to situate, before he could, finally, make his way to his room. It wasn't ten minutes later, that there was another knock on his door. "Who is it?" Harry called. He'd only just sat down, with a cup of tea, before he intended to turn in for the evening.

"It's Filius." Flitwick called.

Harry sighed. "And Bathsheda." Professor Babbling said.

Harry shut his eyes, before he unlocked the door wandlessly and opened it, turning around to look as the Professors walked in. "Couldn't wait till tomorrow?" he asked, as he fixed them a cup of tea as well. "I was getting ready for bed." Harry said.

"Too bad." Filius said. "I want answers."

Harry sighed again and produced two contracts. "Read and sign these." Harry instructed. "They are magically binding and any information we discuss, that is new to you, is then protected by its magic, to protect me and my interests, and those of Marauders Inc. You'll note that it applies to anything that you write down, or anyone that might overhear you, and your intent to keep the secret, as well."

Harry didn't get a lot of sleep that night and he was woken up early the next morning, to more knocking on his door. It was times like this that he wished he was an adult, so that he could say he had a hangover and point people away, like Sirius often did.

Fortunately it was his girls at the door, that morning. Harry quickly got dressed and went down to breakfast with them.

With all the families in attendance, it would be quite a large group for breakfast in the mornings, but Harry was surprised to see the entire Weasley clan had also joined, sans Charlie. Bill had apparently decided to bring his family to the resort, since many people knew he worked for Marauders Inc. Mr Weasley would still be going to work in the mornings, with Bill taking him through one of the vanishing rooms to one set up in an alternate location in London.

All the families sat in their respective groups, but still close by, so that everyone could easily chat. Harry didn't know where to start, so when he was waved over to the table where Sirius sat with Remus, he sighed in relief. He didn't want to play favourites, by going to one of his girls' families first.

"How you doing, pup?" Sirius asked. "You never even came to greet me, when you arrived."

"You knew I was here." Harry said. "You also know where my room is. Where were you?" he asked.

"Penthouse." Sirius said with a smirk.

"And you expected me to come to you?" Harry asked.

"It's nothing you haven't seen before." Sirius scoffed. "And it's not like they would stop you."

"That's not the point and you know it." Remus interjected. "Good morning, Harry."

"Morning, Remus." Harry smiled at the wolf.

"So, what's on your schedule for this holiday?" Sirius asked.

"There are a couple of things." Harry said. "For now, I'm working on that thing for the wolves first, and then I'm going to be taking the Prometheus to its temporary home."

"Parking it by the house?" Remus asked, thinking of the Moon House.

"I'm thinking I'd like it in close orbit." Harry corrected. "I want it inside the magnetosphere of the planet, to be able to safely travel there and communicate from it. The scientists need a new lab, where we can keep our developments secret."

"Have they resolved the issue with the computers?" Remus asked.

"Pike thinks she and Hawk resolved the issue, but we'll need to test." Harry said. "We really need a magical on staff with them, so they don't need me to go power their runes all the time."

"All you had to do was ask." Remus said. "We've got more than enough magicals on staff."

"No, we need someone there permanently, who has access to my techniques and information." Harry corrected. "They will need to work very closely with things that only I know everything about."

"We can always use contracts and give someone access?" Sirius asked.

"I'll have to think about it." Harry said. "There are not many people I'd trust with all my secrets, but maybe we can have Filius and Bathsheda work with them this holiday. They at least know my secrets. It wouldn't be permanent, but it will allow them to experiment and work on things that can be used."

"How did your meeting go, last night?" Remus asked in interest. It didn't surprise Harry the man knew about his late night visitors.

"Better than expected." Harry smiled. "It's going to be difficult to keep the man away, now that he's aware of what's going on with my plans. He'd like nothing better than to use the concepts that I told him about, but the contract won't let him use the information, without my say so."

"Maybe Filius can help you with the wolves?" Dumbledore asked as he walked up with his own plate and a cup of coffee trailing behind him. "Mind if I sit here?" he asked, politely.

"Albus? I thought you went home?" Harry asked, as he nodded, allowing the man to sit down. Sirius merely tolerated the man. He wasn't really all that angry at him anymore, but it was the principle of the matter, at this point.

"Well, I've not had a holiday in a few years and there is nothing pressing going on that isn't being handled." Albus said with a smile. "In fact, I suspect that staying close-by is likely the easiest way to be kept abreast of the goings on with the escaped prisoners." He turned to Remus. "What is the current word? Any new arrests or captures?"

"A few." Remus allowed. "We still don't know who orchestrated the breakout, or where the Dementors went."

"It would probably be best to assume that they are with whoever arranged the breakout." Albus said. "I can't imagine that they'd not have attacked anyone attempting to free the prisoners otherwise."

"We don't work on assumption." Remus countered. "It is entirely likely that they decided to simply leave, with how few Aurors were standing guard. The Dementors were never really all that easy to control and the Ministry deciding to cut funding of the Aurors didn't help matters. I'm told there were three Aurors on duty, when the break-out occurred. All three of them were found, having received the Kiss."

"I didn't hear about that." Albus said worriedly. The minister must be covering himself again and controlling what information got out. "This is worrying."

"The wolves can't be everywhere, but we are training more recruits, and as soon as Harry has figured out the proper process, we'll be making more." Remus said.

"You intend on making more wolves?" Dumbledore asked.

"Of course." Harry said. "You've seen how good they are. If we can control the side-effects, while keeping knowledge of their infection contained, we'll be in charge of the most effective military force known to mankind."

Albus didn't seem convinced, but dropped the subject. "I hear you've been able to secure the Aurors that were forced to leave the force." he tried, rather. "Can I assume that you have them all working on recapturing the prisoners?"

"Not all." Remus corrected. "If they were unwilling to go through the interview process under Veritaserum, we didn't hire them."

"You interview new people under Veritaserum?" Dumbledore asked.

"No, but we tell them we do." Sirius said. "If they refuse and leave, when they hear that, we take them into custody and actually give them Veritaserum. Those that stay to be interviewed, are given the benefit of the doubt and hired on the spot."

"We only want the best, and we tend to only get the best, using this system." Remus nodded.

"How very un-Gryffindor of you." Dumbledore said, with a bit of a smile. "Do you always dose people, simply because they refuse to take Veritaserum?"

"Not all." Remus corrected. "We have some wolves present, during the start of the interviews. Depending on their reaction, we take things further. We're not monsters. We are simply protecting the pack."

"If the reaction is fear, rather than concern, the wolves can smell it." Sirius agreed. "Fear is a good indicator of guilt."

"The wolves are a supernatural task-force, with a spotless record, at this point." Harry said, after finishing his plate of food. "If we allow anyone in that might damage that record, it will look bad for us. You know how fickle public opinion can be."

Dumbledore was impressed at the forethought that went into the plan. They'd taken everything into consideration and then went further, to ensure public safety. No wonder the PM and the Crown had backed them so completely. "Well done, boys." he finally said. "I can't think of anything you didn't take into consideration. No doubt the wolves of Marauders Inc. will go far, under the current leadership."

"Daniels is in charge of most of it." Remus said. "He's my second in command, in the upper structure of the pack."

"Daniels was military, before he was bitten." Harry said. "He knows how to lead."

"Speaking of which," Sirius said, "he was wondering when you'd have that military training operation up, for the new recruits."

"I've honestly not worked on it for a while." Harry said. "I'll get on it soon, though. I'm thinking the Wolf issue takes precedent currently, along with the escaped convicts. Then the trip and the issue of staying in contact. Then the other projects."

"You've got a busy schedule." Dumbledore noted.

"You have no idea." Harry said. "I'll likely be starting on two of those projects today, but I need to spend some time with my girls first. I have to make sure that they know they are a priority as well."

"You're wise to remember that." Dumbledore said, smiling at him. "When you are as busy as I've been in my life, personal relationships can become a little difficult to maintain."

Harry just nodded at that, as he finished his cup of tea and stood up. "If you'll excuse me?" he asked.

"By all means." Dumbledore said. "We wouldn't want to keep you."

"I think he was asking us." Sirius said dryly.

"I know." Dumbledore said, smirking at the man.

"That's going to take some getting used to." Sirius said. Dumbledore was never one to treat others as equals. Not in recent memory, anyway. Sirius wondered if it had something to do with Harry taking so many things on and freeing the man from whatever magic was affecting him. They'd not been able to figure out who, or what was affecting him, but the old man seemed much more open and less overbearing since.

Harry took the time to greet his friends and their parents, stating that he intended to spend some time at the resort, maybe catching a movie, before getting to business. As expected, all the friends decided to go with him. Unexpectedly, all of the parents decided to join them, as well. Harry wondered how the pureblood magicals would react to the movie, Jumanji, since he'd not seen it himself, but the previews were at least interesting.

A few hours later, the crowd of people, including some of the professors, exited the cinema with the purebloods thinking that they might stay for another movie. It was interesting what Muggles thought of magic. Xenophilius Lovegood intended to watch the same movie again, for all the strange animals and plants. Harry and his friends had really enjoyed the family movie. Before long, though, he had to leave to go work and start on his projects for the holiday.

He was not surprised when his friends asked if they could see what he was working on. With Harry already planning on taking the professors, his guardians and Bill, he really couldn't deny them as well, so he agreed, but he wouldn't be able to take all the parents as well, since some of the things he was up to, either required contracts or needed to be kept in the family.

His friends also needed to get permission from their parents, so he let them go ask, while he spoke to Doctor Hawk, to explain who all were coming. She grumbled about not bringing school kids to a scientific research facility, but finally agreed, knowing she really couldn't deny him, though Harry suspected her next report to the PM would make for some interesting reading.

When everyone was ready (even Neville got permission from his grandmother), they all gathered in the lobby and Harry apparated the whole group onto the bridge of the ship, which was suspended invisibly over the resort. Even Dumbledore decided to tag along, and Harry allowed it.

The current location of the Hangar was a secret location, so they had to stay in the recreation room for the time being, with the 'windows' blacked out. Fortunately it wasn't a long trip, and a minute later, they arrived. Harry left Remus and Sirius to look around the room for the first time, with the guests who had been in Prometheus before and when he came back to lead them out, Sirius grabbed Harry in a great big hug.

"You even remembered to put in a bar!" he exclaimed. "That's why you're my favourite godson!"

"I'm your only godson, and only because my parents were stupid enough to name you my godfather." Harry retorted.

"Doesn't change the fact that you're my favourite." Sirius insisted.

"Whatever." Harry said. "You'll need to stock it yourself, and if you intend to get drunk around here, you'll have to remember, there's no stepping outside for some fresh air."

"I'm thinking it would be best to hit him with that charm again, before you go on any long trips." Remus suggested.

"Hey!" Sirius complained. "I've still got months to go, before I can enjoy a drink again. Don't go joking about that!" Harry had finally gotten around to acting on his threat, shortly after Christmas. Sirius had woken up one morning, feeling better than he had any right to after a particularly hard night of drinking, only to discover, that same night, that besides the fact that he couldn't get drunk, all the alcohol he tried to drink tasted like badly brewed tea.

"What charm?" Dumbledore asked in interest.

"Egyptian sobriety charm." Harry said. "Same one as I cast on you. It was Sirius's punishment for modifying my ward over the goblet to change all the names that my ward changed, back to what it was. I added something else for his, though. As a reminder."

"Apparently the charm was designed shortly after the Egyptians invented beer. They were trying to make some sort of drinkable bread, so that they could drink that while fasting and it accidentally fermented." Remus said, trying to get off the subject of the tournament. "Instead of just going through fasting the normal way, they invented the spell, so that they could continue fasting on the resultant drink."

"Wizards are a strange people, sometimes." Harry lamented. "Come on. You have some people to meet." he said, leading them to the transport room, which he used to bypass most of the ship, so that they could exit by the hatch.

Doctor Hawk was busy reading over a Runes text, when her Comm pinged. It could only be one of a few people at this time of day, and she was expecting Harry, along with some of his professors and a gaggle of girlfriends to visit their temporary lab. They had two experiments to complete, before the promised move to the new permanent location could be allowed and both those experiments were awaiting the burgeoning magical scientist.

She checked her Comm and confirmed that it was Harry, before standing up and pressing the button to open the hangar door. It was standard protocol, now that everyone aware of their little operation had the Comms. When the door opened, it was to allow a large group of people in. Doctor Hawk wasn't necessarily happy about playing host to so many people, but would at least meet the Granger girl. Harry always spoke of her as a prodigy, and she hoped to see for herself if it was mere infatuation, or if the boy was being objective.

Thomson and Pike were in her lab, working on getting the second experiment ready for when/if the first one worked.

The assembled group consisted of Harry and his guardians (Remus Lupin and Sirius Black), his girlfriends (Hermione Granger, Susan Bones, Daphne Greengrass, Luna Lovegood, Pansy Parkinson and Padma and Parvati Patil), his friend (Neville Longbottom), a healer (Poppy Pomfrey), his co-head of R&D (Bill Weasley), whom she had wanted to meet for a while now, and finally a few of his professors (Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, Bathsheda Babbling, Filius Flitwick and Severus Snape).

Harry made the introductions and saw the group to where Lieutenant Thomson and Doctor Pike were working on some sort of large tank, connected with pipes, valves and belts. Harry knew what it was supposed to do, since he had helped make it, so he also knew that he needed to finish the first test.

After introductions, he and Doctor Hawk saw them to another section of the building, where her station was located.

"So what we have here is, hopefully, a way to eliminate the effect of EMF generated by magicals and in the presence of an abundance of magic on technological devices." Doctor Hawk said.

"Would this be your first test?" Hermione asked.

"We have tested a few other techniques and found one that would likely work, but application is not ideal, since the initial tests showed that casting the required spell might still cause problems in the casting itself." Doctor Hawk said. Harry's magical charging block shield, which he used to block the werewolf transformation seemed to function quite well in blocking magical input after all.

"And you're using runes, now?" Professor Babbling asked as she inspected the workstation, looking at the rune diagrams, which seemed far too complicated. She'd need some time to figure out what they did and it seemed like they worked on excluding something by allowing only certain things to enter the designated area.

"Runes work on formulae that we can work with, without needing Harry here to power them all the time." Doctor Hawk agreed. "The long and the short of it is that we're trying to insulate the machines from magic, using magic."

"How are we testing today?" Harry asked, looking at the table. There was a box with a few lights on it that were shining. Harry suspected that the runes he could see on the sides were supposed to take the ambient magic and use it, by making it protect from magic itself.

"Just send a low-powered spell toward the box." Doctor Hawk said.

Harry was about to send a bit of magic to it, when a spell sailed toward the box. It looked like a tickling charm. Hermione hadn't lifted a finger, but the spell had definitely come from her. "Well done, Hermione." Harry congratulated. That was very quick. She seemed to be getting used to the EMF emitter in her ring.

"Thank you, Harry." Hermione said, beaming at him.

"You can cast magic by intent, like Harry?" Dumbledore asked.

"Trade secret." Hermione said.

"Not you, too?" Dumbledore whined.

"Everything that happens here today is Trade Secret. This is both Marauders business, and, as I understand it, likely a state secret." Bill said. He'd also like to know how Hermione had done that, since he didn't know everything that Harry did, but knew there were quite a few secrets not even Sirius and Remus knew about, though they knew more than most.

"Sorry, Albus." Harry said, as Doctor Hawk inspected the device. A few of the lights had gone off, but one had actually come on. "Much like the Statute of Secrecy, these secrets are in place to protect people, both mundane and magical." He turned to the woman, then. "And?" he asked.

"It seems some of the functions worked." Doctor Hawk confirmed. "Another idea I had seems to have paid off as well. I'll tell you later."

Harry smiled, realising it was likely something she didn't want to share with the current Supreme Mugwump of the ICW. "I understand completely. Is this enough to test the second device?" Harry asked, then.

"The second device has less that can break." Doctor Hawk confirmed. "It's a mostly thermodynamic reaction, with no sensitive parts. Powering the runes should have no detrimental effects."

"That's all I needed to hear." Harry said, smiling in anticipation. "Shall we?" he asked the doctor.

"I know it will work." she denied. "I have something else to work on. Go ahead."

Harry shrugged and led his guests back to the other lab. These tests were just quick ones. He still had some things he needed to get done, but he'd show off a bit and then take his people back to the resort.

"Doctor Hawk said that we're good for the initial test of the device." Harry announced as they walked into the other lab again.

"Awesome!" Thomson cheered. "I can't wait to see if this works out." he said.

"Over here." Doctor Pike instructed. "Let's test it first. We don't want the oil to get too warm." she said, as she indicated to a simple rune cluster, engraved in a plate of steel, which was connected to a low-tech thermostat.

Harry ran his fingers over the rune cluster as indicated. He felt the magic leave him and the plate started to heat up the moment he was done.

"The runes heat the plate to a certain degree, likely around 100 degrees Celsius?" Babbling said as she looked at the plate.

"Exactly." Pike said. "Warm enough to slowly bring water to a boil, at normal air pressure at sea level."

"What does sea-level have to do with boiling water?" Neville asked.

"The less pressure on a substance, the lower its boiling point." Hermione said, instantly. "That's why special protections are required in space, otherwise your blood would boil and you'd die almost instantly. The higher you go, the less pressure."

Neville lost some colour at that. "I didn't know that." he admitted.

"Why do you think we tested things before the moon mission?" Harry asked. "And why there are so many things to take into consideration before anything new is tried?"

"I just thought you were very careful." Neville said.

"Well, I am, but only because I know that many things can go wrong if I try new things without knowing everything I can beforehand." Harry said. "How's the temp? Staying stable?" he asked Doctor Pike.

"So far." Pike said, watching as the thermostat stopped at the correct temperature.

"Your runes aren't efficient." Babbling said. "You are using too much power and losing some to magical overload."

"What?" Pike asked.

"Your runes are set to use the power given to increase heat and then blocks the temperature from rising over a certain temperature." Babbling said. "The problem is, your block is also taking power. More power than the heat generating part of the rune script. I'd suggest rewriting the runes to only generate the correct temperature. That will save power and allow the runes to stay active longer with the power in the buffer, here." she said pointing at the buffer part of the script.

"But we wanted the rune to heat to the correct temperature quickly." Pike countered. "We also need the block to act quickly, so that the metal cools and doesn't affect the rest of the project any more from the moment we shut it down." She pointed at another part. "See here? This is how we want the metal affected."

Babbling looked at it for a moment, before nodding. "I can see what you were trying for, but your process is flawed. Let me show you." she said, walking over to a desk and starting a diagram.

"I'm thinking this will take a while." Harry said, smirking at the two, who were currently going over the options and possibilities. He'd love to stand there and take part, but he had guests to see to. "Let's go look at one of my other projects." he said, leading them off again.

"The muggles are doing work with runes?" Snape asked, once they were out of earshot. "That's illegal, you know."

"They all have family in the magical world." Harry countered. "I say, if they are allowed to know about magic, without having their memories wiped, they can learn about application all they like."

"Professor Snape is right, Harry." Dumbledore warned. "If the wrong people learned of this, your friends will be in danger of having their memories removed." Harry would likely be sent to Azkaban, for not only knowing, but also introducing them to the practice.

"Not after today, they won't." Harry challenged.

"What do you mean?" Dumbledore asked.

"You'll find out." Harry said. He showed them to a large bin, which stood in a corner. It was very deep and wide, and they had to climb up a flight of stairs to a pedestal, to be able to see in. What they saw inside was the large expanded space of the bin and what seemed like a fine rain of dark flakes that fell constantly from just beneath the rim of the bin.

"What's that?" Hermione asked.

"Diatomic carbon." Harry replied. "From the Carbon Isolation and Transportation Array. It's only the prototype. We'll need many around the world to have an actual effect on the C0² problem."

"You've already made one?" Hermione asked.

"This is what you're filtering out of the air?" Dumbledore asked, looking at the black flakes still raining down into the giant container.

"Kind of." Harry allowed. He lifted a hand and a two-dimensional image of a human appeared with blue vapour to represent oxygen around it. "When a human being breathes, he takes in oxygen." The little representation opened its mouth and the lungs expanded as some of the vapour flew in. "The oxygen goes into your blood through the lungs and combines with carbon, during the normal functions of the body. When you expel the oxygen again, it's combined with carbon, making carbon-dioxide."

The image breathed out and the vapour was red now, mixing with the blue and hanging in the air. Then the image of the person vanished and the blue and red seemed to expand until a visual representation of the molecules appeared, with letters on them to show what they were. On the left the blue molecule had an 'O' and on the right there were two blue 'O' molecules connected to a larger red 'C' molecule.

"This is what we're left with." Harry said. "Two oxygen molecules connected with one carbon. What the CITA does, is 'capture' both, but only keeps the carbon, by combining two carbon molecules and transporting them here." The image changed to show what he was explaining. "The carbon needs to be combined, to not simply oxidise again. This way, we're cleaning up the air a bit. The problem is, humans breathing isn't the only source. All living beings do it, and then there's anything that runs on petrol and industrial influences and many more things."

"How efficient is this?" Hermione asked. "Could you give me an estimate, based on the amount of trees your device represents?"

Harry thought about it. "On average, a tree produces about 260 pounds of oxygen a year, so about… a couple million trees, I suppose." he theorised.

"Is that a significant amount of change?" Dumbledore asked.

"We'd need to capture and eliminate about 200 gigatons of carbon, to fix the last twenty years of damage the human race has done to the planet." Harry said. "That's two hundred trillion tons, for those of you who don't know. This container can carry about 125 000 tons of carbon, so we'll have to fill it around 1.6 million times, to fix the damage the humans have done to the atmosphere in that timeframe.

"In the time that it takes the array to do that, there would be more damage done than reversed, since people aren't really doing anything to stop the pollution. I'd need to produce a thousand of these arrays to make a proper impact, but that's only a short term plan." Harry finished.

"What do trees have to do with this?" Snape asked.

"Trees make breathable air." Hermione said. "They are what cleans up the carbon-dioxide, normally, but humans are doing more damage to the air than all the trees on the planet can keep up with." She turned to Harry, then. "What's the long term solution?" she asked.

"We'd need to be allowed to produce and place these around the world." Harry said. "Thousands of them. Then we'd need to figure out what to do with the carbon, since we can't simply transport it away."

"Can't you make oil from this?" Hermione asked, a thoughtful look on her face.

"And what, sell it?" Harry asked. "That would be counter-productive, don't you think?" he asked.

"I understand what you're saying, Harry, but have you considered the actual effect here?" Hermione asked.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"If you are able to make oil, by using these devices to take the required ingredients from the air, and maybe introducing a few more things, you could make oil a renewable resource, meaning a balance could be gained." Hermione said. "Then, you use the money you're making to produce more devices. The long term effect will then become a gradual decrease in carbon-dioxide, along with a few other things, like reducing fuel costs, wars fought for sources of crude-oil and so many other things."

Harry had a thoughtful look on his face then. He'd not been considering that. He'd been thinking of creating a way to produce diamonds, which would at least compress the carbon and taking it out of the air. Her plan was both sustainable and profitable. The effect of such a project could potentially change the world in a shorter time-frame than he had thought.

"That's, BRILLIANT!" he finally exclaimed as he grabbed Hermione in a hug and kissed her deeply, making her blush, since they still had all the adults around them.

"Harry?" Bill tried. "You do realise that you're talking about millions of man-hours in both production and application. There aren't enough magicals around to take on a project that large."

Harry finally broke the kiss and smiled at the girl, who was blushing heavily still, but smiled shyly back at Harry. "We won't need to have many magicals." he denied. "We'd simply need to secure our process, once we've figured it out, and set up production plants, where normal people can work. The only problem with the plan, is the Statute of Secrecy."

"And the oil-Barons, who will likely take out contracts to have the person in charge of this plan put to death." Remus said, with a frown. "I can't allow you to do this without proper protections in place.��

Harry nodded at that. "Of course." he said easily. "This will all take years to plan and to figure out the steps."

"The ICW will also not allow you to make such a large change in the muggle world." Sirius said. He'd been rather quiet, just looking at what Harry had been up to in his own time. Things were going on that he had no idea about. "And what does all this mean for your plans this holiday?"

"Nothing." Harry said. "We're still going for a trip. I suspect Doctor Hawk will like what happens next." he said with a smile. "Let's go see what's happening with Professor Babbling and Doctor Pike." He led them back to that part of the hangar.

It turns out that, for the purposes of the test, the runes they had in place were good enough. They'd be changing the runes, but after Professor Babbling had some time with the Engineer, she was smiling from ear-to-ear. Harry had no doubt that she'd be in near constant communication with the Doctor, from now on. He'd been hoping that they'd kick it off.

The device, which Harry revealed to be a Sterling Engine, a device which uses heat and a vacuum to create constant motion, was already chugging away, connected to some sort of machine which now produced a steady, strong electrical current. This would be a necessity, once the scientists left the mundane world to start working in a mostly magical environment. Speaking of which…

Harry called the people together. "Okay, so now that we have the concept down, I'm going to take you to the new labs, so that you can plan for what you want there."

"Did you build another house on the moon, or something?" Doctor Hawk asked.

"Something." Harry answered. "Come on. You're going to love this."