6 Chapter 6
Dumbledore had grilled him about the future and what had happened. He was not surprised that Harry had allowed himself to be killed, but he was saddened when he found out what he had lost along the way, finally realising that Harry really wasn't a child. Of course he was acting differently. Had it been him, he'd have done everything in his power to avoid what had happened as well.
He was not happy when Harry had taken the Elder Wand and stashed it away, saying he intended to put it where nobody could ever find it again. He understood why Harry wanted to remove it from the world. It had already done enough damage. He'd never had the strength of character to do what the boy was planning, but after a little while, he felt relief and by the time they left, he had even tracked down his old wand.
Harry missed that day's classes and when the girls saw him trooping into the library for their study group, they were worried all over again. He assured them it was nothing serious and that he was just tired of being questioned by the headmaster. They allowed him to leave early, to go rest. Hopefully he'd feel better the next day.
The next morning, Harry had taken the time to sort his mind and he was in a playful mood again, seeing as another loose end had been resolved. He'd be able to put some of his past behind him. Finally.
The next week passed quickly for most of the students with the year-end tests taking place. The fifth and seventh-years were panicking as always. If they had only known that purebloods get priority placement and most of the muggleborn students and half-bloods would be doomed to middleclass citizens no matter how hard they worked, they might have stressed less. It was just how the system worked… for now.
Harry was already working on testing the spells and runes he needed to and was often asked where he disappeared off to. He wouldn't soon explain that he was often off in the Room of Requirement, since he still wanted to keep that secret. It was just too damn useful to share, and without anyone on his level of understanding, they'd just be sitting around anyway. He knew it was selfish, but reasoned that they hadn't discovered the room by that point in the previous timeline.
So far, he'd used the storage room to start producing devices he'd need. A speedometer was both an easy concept and a difficult application. He was finally able to figure it out though, by having it measure the distance from his current location. Said location would reset every time he made a course correction or accelerated. The magic then showed you the distance measured every second and give you a meter and kilometre per second indication on a display. Next to it, it showed you the 'per hour' rating as well, so that he could more easily quantify it. An overall distance was also shown and would work like an odometer. That one could be reset for individual trips, though.
He was still working on a control interface and working on his finer control. Every time he realised he needed more control, he'd add another function and train until he could wandlessly activate it. The idea that this could be as simple as riding a broom, was laughable, but, until he could figure out how to negate gravitational forces completely, he had to simultaneously increase gravity in the opposite direction as the acceleration, especially when accelerating at massive speeds. He'd need to fine-tune that before he decided to test the resultant vehicle out, but he was having fun with the theory so long.
The end of the year feast was soon upon them and the final meeting of the study group was held in an empty classroom the afternoon of the day before they were to leave, which Harry had arranged with McGonagall. She had even allowed him to go get some snacks and drinks from the muggle world. That trip only took half an hour, since Harry had apparated to Grimmauld Place and gone to the local grocer.
When everyone was there, Harry presented them all with a new device.
"What is this?" Padma asked looking at the flat piece of white plastic, once Harry had handed them out.
"Welcome to the future, my friends." Harry said with a smirk. "These are like your diaries, except it has a couple of different features." He took a whiteboard marker, which was stuck to the side with some Velcro, and popped the top. He wrote the word 'Hello' and it appeared on their boards with a small pinging sound. They all looked between him and the board with frowns. Then he moved his hand over the board, not touching it, and the board was erased.
"Awesome!" Hermione said. "It's like a pager!"
"Exactly." Harry said. He had seen the concept on movies a few times. "With this, we can send each other short messages and stay up to date with each other."
"What's a pager?" Susan asked.
"Muggle doctors and other people with jobs that require immediate contact carry small devices that can receive messages, to tell them about emergencies and stuff." Hermione explained. "They can then be contacted and get to the emergency, even if they were at home or unable to make a call." she finished. There were some frowns at the word 'call', so she added, "Like a Floo call?"
"So, we can use these to tell each other things?" Parvati asked. She wasn't getting it.
"Let me demonstrate." Harry said, as he left the room. "You stay here."
A couple of minutes later, they saw writing appear. 'Look outside the window.' They looked and saw Harry, sitting on a disc of some sort, just floating there and holding his whiteboard. Another message appeared. 'No matter where you are, you can quickly find something out.'
The message disappeared and new handwriting appeared. 'What are you sitting on?' Hermione's neat handwriting said and the others looked up to see her with her marker in hand. She realised asking a question would get the idea across.
'It's part of my project.' Harry's handwriting stated underneath hers. He was technically keeping himself aloft by his own power, but didn't want that out yet.
'We get it.' Daphne's handwriting stated. 'Come back.' she added.
The writing disappeared again and Harry's message responded, 'See you just now.'
When Harry returned, there was a cheer and Hermione hugged him impulsively. "This is amazing!" she enthused.
"It's like the diaries, only without space limitations, since we can use it over and over again." Pansy said. Harry had given one to each of the study group in the end, since mentioning messages that people got from their parents were difficult when they could communicate all throughout the day and not just in the evenings by sending owls and receiving post back in the mornings.
"If only we could choose who to speak with, rather than the entire group." Hermione said, thinking of how useful that would be, considering that she liked to talk to Harry about her mundane schoolwork.
"Funny you should mention that." Harry said. He took the board in hand and held it in front of his face and said, "Hermione Granger." The board flashed and Harry wrote 'Hi there!' on his. Only Hermione's board pinged this time, but her board was still blank. "Tap it with your wand. It will switch over to whatever message you haven't seen, yet."
Hermione did as instructed and the writing suddenly appeared.
"Study group." Harry then said to his board and it flashed again. 'Good?' he wrote and everyone's pinged again.
"This is a marvellous piece of magic!" Susan stated. "If only the Auror office had something like this. Imagine the response times if people could send messages for immediate assistance? Or if operatives had a way of communicating that couldn't be traced?"
"Yeah, muggles have all sorts of nifty toys." Harry said with a smile. "I basically just copied something they already have."
"But, this is so cool!" Neville interjected for the first time. The girls all nodded with excited looks on their faces. Neville was feeling quite connected to this group and was thinking it would be very cool indeed to be able to stay in contact with their friends from school over the long holiday.
"These markers are just normal white-board markers from a muggle store." Harry warned. "Don't use ink and quill on these and don't replace them with anything other than white-board markers, okay? You won't be able to erase the messages otherwise."
"Could we, maybe, use different colour markers?" Hermione asked, as she had an idea.
"I don't see why not." Harry said with a shrug. All of their markers were black, like his, right now.
"Good idea, Hermione." Padma said. "If we all had different colours, it would be easier to see who is writing what."
Neville suddenly looked crestfallen. "My gran will never let me go to a Muggle shop." he lamented.
"Will she let you visit friends?" Harry asked.
"I… I don't know, actually." Neville said. "I've never had friends."
"That was never going to last." Parvati stated. "You're way too nice, not to make friends." She insisted. The other girls and Harry all nodded.
"I'm sure she'd be overjoyed to find out you have friends." Padma added.
"You'll have to just come visit." Harry said. "We'll go to a shopping centre and watch a couple of movies and maybe play a couple of games at an arcade. I'm sure you'll love it."
"And what about the rest of us?" Pansy asked in a huff.
"I didn't think a pureblood Slytherin, such as yourself, would be interested in the entertainments of the muggle world." Harry said with a wink. "Of course, if you want to go slumming with us lowly muggle-lovers, I would never object to your lovely company, Pansy." he finished with a mock bow and a smirk.
"I am not just a pureblood, you know." Pansy said. "I'm also intelligent enough to look at things and see that there are some changes coming."
"Yes." Daphne added. "What's this I hear about a company called Marauders Inc., hiring all the werewolves in every country and buying parts of muggle companies?"
"Yeah." Harry said scratching at the back of his head. "Muggles have some awesome ways of making money. We're just investing in the future."
"I heard Lord Malfoy was annoyed when Marauders Incorporated made more money in a month than they did in the last four years." Pansy persisted. "It's got all sorts of people all stressed out that the werewolves are part of that."
"Fuck 'em." Harry said, easily. "The wolves are our employees and friends. We made them an offer they couldn't refuse and now we have a very successful import export business." Then Harry smiled. "The fact that they all ride Harley Davidsons and started a bike gang that's become notorious for how wide-spread and ruthless they are, is just a bonus."
"Harley? Bike gang?" One of the girls asked.
"It's a famous brand of motorcycle." Hermione explained. "Biker gangs are usually a rough crowd and people tend to avoid them if they can." She looked at Harry worriedly. "You're not encouraging them to be violent, are you?"
"Werewolves have enhanced senses and strength." Harry said. "That's where the reputation comes from. Biker gangs don't like people invading their turf, so when our people come through, there's sometimes problems with theft, vandalism or violence. Our people don't like that sort of thing, and protect their merchandise jealously. The fact that their deliveries are all shrunken and magically protected doesn't change a thing. They are all very proud of their jobs and take good care of their equipment."
"But what if they change?" Hermione asked, worried that they are sending infected werewolves out into the world.
"I can't tell you how, but our people are never a threat to anyone, for that, at least." Harry assured them. "It's why we approached the werewolves. We came up with a perfect way to keep werewolves safe."
"So, it's not some sort of army, ready to hunt down Purebloods and take out the ministry?" Daphne asked, having heard such a rumour.
"Why would we take out the purebloods or the ministry?" Harry scoffed. "If it wasn't for them classifying werewolves as dark creatures and forbidding them from finding decent employment, we'd never have so many recruits. Thanks to them, we're expanding globally and raking in profits. The purebloods basically handed us a resource that we're tapping for all its worth."
Apparently Sirius was making forays into the other countries, where intelligent creatures weren't given their fair rights, either. Harry suspected it had to do with Veela. Harry wanted them to specifically recruit Vampires. He thought that they would make the perfect couriers for night-time hauls. He could see it now: Werewolves switching places with vampires, once the sun set, and their business never standing still.
They'd still need to come up with a way to feed the vampires, but Harry had a couple ideas about that as well. That's why he intended to start a blood bank somewhere down the line. People donating blood would definitely draw the vampire crowd, he suspected. Harry really didn't know what jobs would be best for Veela, though. Maybe fashion or modelling?
"So, you're using the broken system to your advantage?" Hermione asked. It sounded like she was insulted.
"Just like the house-points, yes." Harry said proudly. "I can't change the rules or laws, Hermione, but if they are enforced by law, we can only use what we've been given to work with. The ministry is happy, because they don't have to work with 'dark and dangerous creatures' and we get a happy group of devoted and proud lycanthropes."
"They are proud?" Hermione asked. "But, it's a disease, right?"
"It's a magical ailment, I suppose." Harry allowed. "But when you can control the side-effects of a disease that gives you perks the rest of the time, you tend to enjoy the perks more."
"How do you control the side-effects?" Hermione pressed. She didn't think he'd answer her.
"Can you all keep this to yourselves?" Harry asked seriously. When they all nodded, Harry said, "Magical transport. They go to a secure location where the moon is not out or set and the sun has risen and never see a full moon."
"Is that legal?" Hermione asked. It sounded like the perfect solution, though.
"Not in the slightest." Harry said with a smirk. "But since the locations they go to are hidden magically, the Aurors can't find them and arrest them. We had to find special ways to hide the transport, but so far, we've managed."
The fact was that Harry had stolen the vanishing cabinet in his first week and Sirius and Remus had been busily reproducing the effects, after a break-in at Borgin and Burke's, since it worked a lot like the mirror magic, by connecting two places. The bikers all used shrunken boxes, which they would hide magically and then they would enter and close the box, appearing in an identical copy in a Fidelius protected location. The bikes could fit inside these boxes, obviously, since none of them would leave them behind.
"So, the werewolves that work for you never change?" Pansy asked, a thoughtful look on her face.
"Nope." Harry said proudly.
"So, they'll never make more werewolves?" Daphne asked, catching on.
"I suppose you're right." Harry said, not having thought of that. "We'll have to discuss that with the wolves. Perhaps we can find a safe way to transfer the illness to new people."
"But that's horrible!" Hermione objected, as those that knew about werewolves looked at Harry in confusion.
"Why?" Harry said. "They only ever experience the good part of it. I'm thinking of becoming one myself one day."
"You are thinking of willingly becoming a werewolf?" Parvati asked in shock.
"Of course!" Harry exclaimed. "Who wouldn't want to be stronger and faster, with reflexes to match, and be able to smell fear and other emotions?"
"Those do sound like useful things, Harry, but to allow yourself to be classified as a dark creature, willingly, would force you out of the magical world, wouldn't it?" Neville asked. He knew how werewolves were treated and why.
"I never intended to stay part of the magical world anyway." Harry said easily. "Do you have any idea how far behind magical culture is?" He turned to Padma, the Ravenclaw and asked her, "Padma, what is the value of Pi."
"Value of what? Pie?" Padma asked.
"How about this, then: How would you work out the surface area of a circle?" Harry tried.
"Why would I need that?" Padma asked back. Why would anyone need that?
"Pi equals 3.1415926535… and so on." Hermione interjected, having memorised pi to the tenth decimal. "You use it in the formula πr² to calculate surface area of a circle." she finished happily.
"Well done, Hermione!" Harry congratulated. "You've been studying ahead haven't you?"
Hermione blushed at the praise, but then defended herself, "Well, I'm only trying to catch up with you!"
"Why would we need to know such things, though?" Pansy asked.
"Math and science aren't even taught in Hogwarts." Harry said. "What you just heard was something that is universally true, even in the magical world. If I transfigured something to take a different shape, but don't want to have the transfiguration revert, I'd either end up with extra of the substance or need to add some, or make the structure smaller or hollow. Knowing how to work out the surface allows you to work out other things, like the volume, which you could then use to know exactly how things would turn out, before you even used magic."
"Surface times height." Hermione supplied the formula. "If the circle was the top of a cylinder."
"Exactly." Harry said with another smile at her. "The fact is, science and math affect things you never even knew about. If you increased the concentration of hydrogen and oxygen molecules in an area, why do you end up with condensation on the sides?" he held up a hand, when Hermione made to answer, stalling her. "What happens when you move faster than the speed of sound, or theoretically, what happens when you move faster than light?"
"Faster than light?" Neville asked. "You can't. Light in instantaneous."
"Almost three hundred thousand kilometres per second." Hermione supplied. "It just seems instant because it moves so fast. And it hasn't been proven yet, but supposedly you'd be travelling backwards in time if you could move faster than light."
"Where did you learn that?" Harry asked, intrigued.
Hermione blushed again. "Science fiction. I went to the library and looked into the facts after I read about it in a book."
"That's where I got it too, but I like the movies better." Harry chuckled. Then he turned back to their friends. "By understanding how the world works, you gain power over it, by being able to manipulate it better. It's because of science, that I'll be the first wizard in space."
"So you're going to leave the magical world?" Daphne asked. This worried her. Harry was so advanced, if he chose to quit school, he could easily spend the rest of his life outside the magical world and they would never see him again. She'd only just found him. She didn't want to lose her friend.
"I'm not planning on leaving tomorrow, Daphne." Harry said with a kind smile. "I'm just looking at the future. Who knows? Maybe I'll find something to do in the magical world to keep me here, but until then, I'm planning on enjoying exploring what I can do while I'm still here. I can't fly around a magical spacecraft in front of Muggles after all. There will always be a need to keep that secret."
There were a few sighs of relief, even from Neville, and Hermione suddenly spoke up. "So, when were you planning on taking Neville to a shopping centre? I, for one, want to see how a pureblood reacts to the modern world." She had a smile on her face, even as she hid her own worries. If Harry was leaving the magical world, chances were, she'd not want to stay. He was her best friend.
"Oh, I'm sure we can arrange it in a couple of weeks." Harry allowed. "I'll be building my spacecraft first thing, when I get home."
They started chatting and planning the outing, to which everyone invited themselves, except for the Patil twins. They would be back home with their parents and didn't know if they'd be allowed to join, just yet.
The next day, after the feast, where Ravenclaw did end up getting the House cup, breaking the Slytherin streak, they all convened back on the train. Ron didn't bother showing up this time, preferring to stick with the other boys from their dorm. They all chatted happily about their holiday plans and Harry divulged a slight bit about his plans for the ship. Specifically the design.
"A flying saucer?" Hermione asked incredulously. "But why?"
"Statute of secrecy, Hermione." Harry said. "If anyone wants to report a flying saucer, they'd be setting themselves up to become a laughing stock. We're actually hoping to see a couple of photos in the tabloids." Harry chuckled, then he got a thoughtful look. "Maybe I'll abduct Sirius in full view of people?"
"Why not just make it invisible?" Hermione offered.
"We don't know how magic will be affected in space, Hermione." Harry said. "If we don't take precautions, we could be arrested for putting the magical world in danger."
"I suppose that makes sense." Hermione relented. "I'm assuming you have other backup plans for the other functions as well?"
"We'll be taking every precaution." Harry confirmed.
"If I may?" Daphne asked, interrupting them. "I have a couple of questions."
"Shoot." Harry said.
"What's a flying saucer, and what is a tabloid?" Pansy asked for her.
"A flying saucer is linked to supposed alien spaceships that appear in the sky sometimes. People that see them call them unidentified flying objects, or UFOs for short." Harry supplied. "Newspapers that would report on such things are never really believed and they are called tabloids. If you read a tabloid, you'll find sasquatch sightings and mythical creatures appearing in them all the time, along with stories of alien abductions and being probed."
"Aliens?" Padma asked.
"There are people that believe that there are aliens, or extra-terrestrials, that come from other planets outside of our solar system." Hermione supplied this time. "The idea has fascinated people for thousands of years and UFO sightings go back as far as the ancient Egyptians."
"It was probably just magicals. Magic wasn't a secret back then." Daphne supplied. "Muggles will believe anything."
"I don't think so." Hermione said. "There were scrolls discovered from back then that described the appearance of fiery discs of light, hanging in the night sky."
"Hermione Granger." Harry said, with a look of interest. "Are you telling me you are a believer?"
"Well, nothing else makes sense!" Hermione defended herself. "It would be pretty arrogant to believe we're the only intelligent life in the universe, right? Especially considering the age of the universe!"
"Age of the universe?" Padma asked. Nobody could know that, right?
"13 billion years." Harry and Hermione confirmed, simultaneously. "Closer to 14 billion." Hermione added.
"How could you possibly know that?!" Pansy asked incredulously.
"Science." Harry and Hermione said together again. "The movement of stars and using what we know about the speed of light. Most of what we see in space is the Milky Way galaxy. There are galaxies further out." Harry finished.
"There are also stars that we see that has already burned out, but their light is still travelling to us, so we don't even know." Hermione added. "Apparently, we only see about a third of the night sky, when we look up, because the atmosphere affects the light as well as the gravity of the planet."
There was silence from the rest of the compartment then. Until Neville said, "I'm kind of excited to go into space with Harry one day."
"I know, right?" Harry said. "Maybe we'll meet some aliens?"
"I was more thinking about seeing what can be seen, when there's nothing interfering." Neville said.
"Since when are you going with him?" Hermione asked. The other girls also seemed interested.
"Since he asked." Harry shrugged.
"But I want to go too!" Hermione said.
"You'll have to ask your parents." Harry said, before turning to Neville. "You too. Sorry mate, but I'm not facing Lady Longbottom if I end up getting you killed. I also doubt my family will want me taking other children my age. Not without a lot more training."
"And they're fine with you going on your own?" Parvati asked.
"They couldn't stop me." Harry said with a smirk. "Actually, they'll probably insist on coming with. Except on the full moon, obviously. Once we've tested everything though, I'll probably end up dropping a house on the moon, so that I can go up there whenever I want."
"Your transport magic will go that far?" Fay asked. She had been taking things in as they spoke, but she wanted to know this. Perhaps she could go visit the moon one day? She wasn't as close to Harry as the other girls, but they included her in everything they did as a group anyway. Lavender Brown was also usually with them, even though it was more in an effort to maintain her friendship with Parvati.
"We'll find out." Harry said. "Probably before the end of second year."
"I can't believe I'm sitting in a compartment with a boy who casually mentions that he plans on owning property on the moon." Hermione said, shaking her head.
There was a bit of laughter at that, but mostly due to shock. Harry hadn't planned on saying as much as he had, but he trusted the people with him. "You can tell your parents about my plan to go to space, but the plans for the moon are a secret, so don't go telling people." he said anyway. He needed to make sure they knew to keep quiet about it, even if he talked openly about it in the group. Any moon-house they ended up building would be under Fidelius, anyway, along with a few other protections. Specifically from asteroids and the sun.
Harry didn't worry about people knowing about his plans for space in general, since he doubted they'd be able to copy what he had in place. It would take knowledge from the mundane world, and so far, he'd yet to meet a magical with the same plans or ideas as him.
The conversation wound down and they started talking about safer topics, like how Draco was such a different person these days. Hufflepuff had done him some good, it seemed. He still didn't have many friends, but he seemed to have made at least some and he was doing pretty well in class. Nothing spectacular, but definitely more mild than he used to be. Pansy had spent some time with him in the past, and apparently he looked up to his father, quite a bit. Harry wondered how Christmas had gone and what his father thought of him now.
It wasn't long before they reached the station again. Harry was planning on meeting all of the parents today, since they all had their children's diaries' counterparts. He was happy to see the Patil parents, both standing there waiting for their daughters. He allowed them to greet first and then approached.
"Good afternoon, Lord and Lady Patil. It is an honour to meet my friends' parents." Harry said.
"Mister Black." Lady Patil said, with a nod at the boy. She was smiling at him. "Surely, you haven't forgotten us meeting last time?"
"Of course not, Lady Patil." Harry said with a smirk. "How could I forget my friends' beautiful mother? I was just trying to be proper, since I have yet to meet Lord Patil."
Lady Patil smiled at him and Lord Patil seemed to take it in the right manner as he smiled as well. "You are not wrong to follow tradition, but I have to admit; my wife is unforgettably beautiful." he said, looking at his wife, before turning back to Harry. "It is good to meet you, Mister Black. You have brought much joy to my family with your gifts, and for that, I thank you."
"It was no hardship." Harry said. "My friends deserved no less. I would be a poor friend and gentlemen if I didn't offer this much, to see to their comfort and peace of mind."
"You are a good friend, Harry." Padma said easily, before turning to her father. "He is always very courteous and has helped us a lot in his time at school."
"I know." Lord Patil said. "Your messages home often speaks of his quick mind and how well he treats all his friends. I just wonder how such an intelligent young man didn't end up in Ravenclaw."
"I asked the hat to place me with the Gryffindors." Harry said easily. "Their common room is high up on the castle and I wanted to enjoy the view." Then he smiled conspiratorially and leaned closer, "I also heard, from my guardians, that they threw the best parties. How could I not want to go there, considering both my parents and guardians went there?"
"And you call Professor McGonagall, Aunty Min all the time." Parvati added with a knowing look.
"Sure." Harry allowed. "There is also the fact that I didn't want to disappoint her by going to another house."
"Are you related to Professor McGonagall?" Lady Patil asked.
"You could say that I'm her adopted nephew." Harry said with a soft smile. "She came to visit often when I was young, after I was rescued from my relatives."
"We'd heard about them." Lord Patil stated, with the humour leaving his face. "I was very satisfied to hear that they were still in prison for how they treated you."
"Aunt Petunia will probably be released in the next year or so." Harry allowed. "I suspect she has been a model prisoner, since she'd want to get back to her son. Uncle Vernon, on the other hand, has always had quite the temper. I doubt he's been able to stay out of trouble." As he said it, he rubbed at his one arm, the one that had been broken. He didn't really care about that anymore, since he hadn't needed to experience it twice and it happened more than twenty years ago from his perspective, but he knew he'd need to act it up a bit for the parents.
"Disgusting examples of humanity." Lady Patil said with some disgust on her face as she stepped closer and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I am glad that Lord Black was able to take you in. While he's an outrageous flirt, he seems to have taught you well, in being more respectable."
"That would be Uncle Remus." Harry said. "He's very soft-hearted and kind."
"Ah, yes." Lord Patil jumped on the opportunity to change the subject. "The COO of Marauders Incorporated. He has been the topic of much conversation these last few months."
"Yes, what's this we hear about an army of werewolves travelling the world and spreading the influence of Marauders Inc.?" Lady Patil asked.
"Uncle Remus is a werewolf, as you know." Harry said. "He was bitten as a boy and wanted to help the werewolves, since they are all spurned from the magical world. He remembers his own troubles and wanted to lessen their suffering."
"And in doing so, gained an army of loyal soldiers." a voice interrupted them. Harry saw Daphne and Pansy with four other adults, who had walked over to meet them. Harry recognised Lord Parkinson as the speaker, a loyal Death Eater, once Voldemort returned last time around.
"Lord Parkinson." Harry said respectfully.
"Lord Potter." The man nodded back.
"He doesn't like being called that, daddy." Pansy interrupted, a smile on her face as her father smiled down at her, when she called him daddy. "He prefers Mister Black, or Harry, for his friends."
"Your father was only following tradition." Harry said easily, before turning back to the rest and bowed slightly, "Harry Black, at your service."
"Mister Black." Came the communal response from the other purebloods. Harry saw only smiles from the wives and Lord Greengrass.
Lord Parkinson's face only showed emotion for his little girl, but that faded when he turned back to Harry. "As I was saying," he continued, "an army of werewolves?"
"I heard about that rumour, too." Harry said. "Uncle Remus didn't recruit them for anything other than the service they are rendering for the company."
"They do seem to be quite loyal though." Sirius's voice joined them as he walked up. He placed a hand on Harry's shoulder and said, "Hey there, pup. Sorry for being late. I got caught up with the Grangers, when they spotted me earlier. They send their greetings, by the way."
"They've left, already?" Harry asked, disappointed that they would leave without greeting him.
"Apparently they're taking Hermione to France this holiday and they didn't want to waste any time." Sirius said, before he looked up at the assembled parents. "Apologies for the late introduction. Sirius Black."
"Lord Black." The other parents said, nodding at him.
"As I was saying," Sirius continued, "The wolves are our couriers. Their enhanced strength and pack-minded personalities do make for the best security we could ask for. Remus did it for their well-being, but I wanted it, for their strengths. I would be a poor businessman if I didn't use every advantage I could find, after all."
"From what we hear, your business is doing quite well." Lord Greengrass stated. "You seem to have a Slytherin mind, even if you had the Gryffindor personality as a child."
"My family didn't really give me much of a choice." Sirius allowed.
"So you do consider the werewolves an army?" Lord Parkinson asked, with narrowed eyes.
"In their capacity as protectors of our goods perhaps." Sirius allowed. "They are never in one place long enough for us to see more than a couple of them at a time. If we wanted to bring them all in to form an army, we'd be losing business, and that can't be allowed to happen."
The parents seemed relieved at his statement. It seemed the purebloods really had believed the rumours. They could all understand money and power, and how they worked together though. If forming an army would cost them both, they couldn't see it happening. This had been Sirius's intent, of course, so he nodded at them in understanding.
"I heard you had plans to extend your reach to other countries soon." Lord Patil asked. "Any chance that those plans include India?"
"Of course!" Sirius said. "We intend to be an international entity, before the next school year starts."
"And your clients?" Lord Greengrass asked.
"Mostly muggles, really." Sirius said easily. "If you want to make money, you have to consider the size of your client base. There are more muggles in the world than magicals, after all."
"How do you hide the use of magic?" Lord Patil asked.
"Trade secret, I'm afraid." Sirius said with a smile.
"We've been hearing that a lot at school." Daphne giggled. "Harry tends to do things that he won't explain that both gain and lose house points. When we ask him how he does some of those things or knows things he shouldn't, he always says-"
"Trade secret." all the friends said together.
"It's better than invoking the law and saying its family magic all the time." Harry shrugged. "I'm not ready to receive so many requests for marriage contracts yet."
"With how well business is going, I have no doubt some parents are already starting to plan for that." Sirius said. "We'll need to discuss that at some point, Harry."
"But I'm eleven!" Harry complained. They had discussed this. They were actually using this opportunity to place the idea in all the parent's heads. "I don't need to marry for many years!"
"It's tradition for parents to handle such things." Sirius said. "But, as your guardian, rather than your father, I will take your opinion into consideration." he promised. "After all, I wouldn't want to pair you with someone you don't like. You do have to understand though, as my chosen heir, you'll need to consider what we've talked about before, as well."
The gathered parents had thoughtful looks on their faces at that. It seemed the idea had not slipped by them. They also knew what having multiple lordships meant, and why Sirius wouldn't be discussing that in the open, and only referenced it as something they had discussed in the past.
"Fine." Harry grumbled.
Sirius smirked at the boy and ruffled his hair, knowing he hated it, and looked up at the parents. "I'm sorry to cut this short, but we really need to leave. Much to get done this holiday." He turned back to Harry, "Say goodbye to your friends, Harry."
Harry took a moment to comb a couple of fingers through his hair, but then he turned to the Patil girls and greeted them like he normally did, with a kiss above their hands. Daphne surprised him, by pulling him into a hug and thanking him for looking out for them. Pansy, not to be outdone, followed her lead. The parents had obviously spoken to their daughters and knew the boy looked out for them at school, so allowed it.
Lord Parkinson's eyes only narrowed for a moment, though he seemed to be thinking of what Harry had prevented, since he nodded to himself as if making a decision. "Thank you, for what you did for Pansy." he said to Harry. "I appreciate your protecting her."
Harry's face darkened, "She's my friend. If I hadn't protected her and Daphne, I couldn't forgive myself." Harry had heard through Remus and Sirius that the offending boy had not survived jail. He'd not even made it to trial. He had apparently committed suicide, leaving a note and asking for forgiveness. They suspected one of the lords currently in their presence of having arranged it.
The Greengrass family also thanked Harry, with looks of gratitude. When Harry bid them farewell, they all nodded and waved and then Sirius led the way out of the station for them. Harry spotted Neville, speaking with his Grandmother and decided to go greet them as well. His familiarity with Neville seemed to impress his grandmother and Harry extracted a promise to stay in contact and mentioned a visit, so that the idea had time to settle with her.
And that was the end of the introductions. Soon Harry and Sirius arrived home and he ran off to the basement, where he would start production of his vessel. He didn't get a lot of time, though, since he was soon called for dinner. Since they had stayed in contact, there wasn't much to catch up on, except for informing his guardians about the plans to visit his friends.
The first couple of weeks went by quickly. Harry had needed to secure a few more sites on properties they had either purchased. Harry didn't like the idea of stealing even abandoned properties, but when abandoned and/or condemned buildings were used, he didn't really mind all that much. Considering they could use magic to demolish the sites and rebuild, or simply repair what was there, there wasn't much else for Harry to do, besides focus on his own project. He did convince Sirius to still pay for the properties though. Considering what demolition would cost normally, the properties were still quite cheap.
The hull of the ship had been easily built, with transfigured metal and mirrors acting as windows, which Sirius had purchased from a scrapyard. Using magic, they had restored the rusted metal to pristine condition. Transfiguring the craft, which looked like an oval, with a hatch that opened vertically down, making stairs to enter when it was open, was reasonably simple.
Harry had even created landing gear that could retract. The difficult part had been controlling it all with magic. Sure, he could magically do everything, but he wanted someone else to be able to do this by using the control systems he had built for it one day. Making the illusionary displays to show the outside of the ship was simple as well. This would allow them to see when things worked and didn't.
He had to create a compartment, where things could be placed and to be released, as well. His biggest problem was making a suit to exit the craft. Creating an internal hatch system that would allow someone to exit the craft without exposing it to the vacuum of space, would be done by transfiguring extra metal around the person. It really wouldn't be a one man mission, once in space, specifically because they still didn't know how magic would work in space.
Therefore he needed to make his first mission into space an exploratory one, where he could test things that he'd need to be able to do to complete the next part of his mission. What happens with low-powered spells? What kinds of spells are affected, if at all? What is the maximum speed he could reach in space?
All of these questions and more, went on a list. Harry decided to have a discussion with Hermione about it later, so that he could make use of her intellect. Chances were, she'd already have a list.
By the time he'd completed the spacecraft and solved most of the problems he had encountered, three weeks had passed. Hermione's help was invaluable, since she'd apparently actually had a list of things to check with him. The girl seemed frantic to ensure he didn't get himself killed. He resolved to do something nice for her in recompense. For now, though, he was prepping for the first flight into space.
There were a couple of people who had wanted to be there and had insisted on being contacted. The list included the entirety of the study group, a few of their parents, the Heads of House from Hogwarts, especially Flitwick and McGonagall, and Poppy Pomfrey, in case something went wrong. Hooch would be furious if he didn't invite her, too.
Normal flight had already been tested and Harry had had some fun flying his new UFO at night around Roswell and scaring the living shit out of some of the local believers. He had only become visible for a couple of minutes, lighting the ship up, so that it would look like what they expected, and flew around erratically, before making it look like he was going for a crash-landing and disappearing again.
They had yet to see the report in any of the tabloids, which was disappointing, but Sirius and Remus had had great fun from their seats as Harry moved them around while a monitoring spell showed them the illusionary reaction of the locals that were looking up at them gaping.
The day of the first space flight, the guests started to arrive. The first one there was Poppy, as she had decided to come the night before, not trusting Harry to keep his enthusiasm from making him launch early. McGonagall had shown up early the morning of the test, along with Flitwick and the other staff from Hogwarts, who had been invited, and the other guests started to trickle in around 9AM, since the test was supposed to start at 11AM, or 5AM Texas time, where Harry would be taking off, not that anyone but them knew it.
Severus Snape and Sirius Black ignored each other, entirely, but Remus was friendly enough to welcome him and thank him for the support he was giving Harry in school.
The next to arrive was Hermione and her parents, who had taken the day off, not wanting to miss the crazy stunt. Hermione was secretly very happy that they had decided to come, since, if Harry was successful, they'd be more inclined to allow her to join him on the day he went to the moon.
Next the Patil family showed up, with the Patil twins hugging Harry in greeting, having felt left out when Daphne and Pansy had done so at the train station. Lord and Lady Patil looked sceptical about Harry's chances for success, but wanted to show their support for the intelligent young man, since he was obviously important to their daughters. Said daughters completely believed he would succeed, though.
Next were Daphne and her mother. Both of them looked excited about the idea of space travel. Harry didn't really mind that the parents knew. Daphne must have gone on about it for a while, once they got home. Lord Greengrass sent his apologies for not being able to accompany them. He had other plans for the day. Pansy followed shortly after, accompanied by her mother. Her father was apparently busy with the same thing Lord Greengrass was.
Fay Dunbar came along with Lavender Brown and her mother. They had had a sleep-over since Fay's parents were busy with their day jobs.
Amelia Bones was the head of the DMLE and couldn't normally take time off, but she was interested in what Black and Lupin were up to with Marauders Inc., so she had made an exception and she and her niece were the next ones to arrive. The fact that she wanted to see the project the Black boy had been working on all year and the excitement Susan showed, had only made her more curious.
Neville was the last to arrive, with his eccentric grandmother. She didn't believe what Neville had told her, and was asking questions about why people would lie to the boy. When she was assured that the plan was, in fact, for Harry to take a flight into space, her eyes grew wide and she placed a hand on Neville's shoulder, as if to keep him away from the crazy people. They still convinced her to come with them, but she refused to leave Neville's side. He sent an apologetic look at Harry, who nodded to him in understanding.
Once everyone was gathered, they had them enter a 'sitting room', which was actually in a room that would transport them to location in Texas, where Harry's spacecraft was located. After everyone had tea and discussed what was about to happen, they exited the room through another door, which would only appear if the room was in the other location. That had been one of Remus's suggestions, which had worked out rather well.
"Where are we?" Amelia Bones asked, noting that it was suddenly dark outside. The humidity and the smell of the air had also changed.
"We're in location in Texas." Remus said. "There are reasons, including keeping this all secret. It's around 5AM here."
"You transported us across the pond, without telling us?" Madam Longbottom asked, incredulously.
"It was done this way to keep the method of our transport and the location of our testing site secret." Harry said. "We can take you back at any time and we assure you that it is safe here."
"But how?" Amelia demanded.
"Trade Secret, I'm afraid." Harry smirked.
"He means family magic, Aunt Amelia." Susan said, rolling her eyes at Harry's cocky smile. "He uses the same excuse every time. Personally I think they've been claiming any advancement they make as family magic, since we can't ask about that by Pureblood tradition. For all we know, we just walked through a magical portal and didn't know it."
The other guests were thoughtful after that and looked back at the room, which was attached to a reasonably small house. Her estimation might just be correct from what they could tell.
The guests followed Harry to the craft. Flitwick was bouncing in excitement after he scanned for all the magic in evidence on the ship and asked questions that nobody else would have thought or know to ask. Harry tried to be patient, but he wanted to avoid the sunrise, which wasn't too far off, so he ended up having to interrupt Flitwick mid question as he continued to ramble on about what he had learned.
They were soon shown to a control room, where two large images appeared. One of the inside of the craft and one showing the forward view. They watched as Harry walked into the rather spacious inside of the small ship and sat down on the 'captain's' seat, buckling up with the many straps. There really only was one seat with access to the flight controls and he was currently sitting in it. There were more seats arrayed around him, but they were just couches and things that they had stuck to the floor, so that they didn't fly about.
"Can you hear me?" Harry asked.
"Loud and clear, Harry." Remus said. He was now just a spectator, like the rest, but they'd try and stay in contact as long as they could. They still didn't know how the magic would be affected out in space, but they had backups in place for everything and he and Sirius had everything memorised, so that they could remind Harry should anything go wrong and he panicked.
"How are you talking to him?" Lady Patil asked. Amelia seemed interested as well. This would be a very useful tool to her people.
"Family Magic." Sirius said, making her nod and accept the statement without further question. Amelia was disappointed, but had expected it. It seemed the Black family had some interesting magic.
"We don't know how long we'll be able to stay in contact, when I get further away, but our current estimate states that you should stay in contact till at least 12 000 kilometres, minimum." Harry said. It was the diameter of the planet and they'd been able to do that before, no problem. "That's also the minimum distance we're planning for today, but I'm going to try and reach twice that, if we can keep communication up."
"How long do you think that will take?" Hermione asked.
"It depends on how the magic is affected in space." Harry said. "Worst case scenario, a couple of hours. Best case, we have no idea, but I'm hoping for twenty minutes. If my acceleration is affected by the lack of gravity in space, I should be able to go many times as fast out there as inside the atmosphere."
"Shouldn't it be the same, since you've got that anti-friction magic up to account for air movement?" Hooch asked. She had been asking questions about how the brooms worked after all.
"The friction magic only stops the air from touching the flyer, but the wards still create drag against the air, otherwise there'd be no upper limit to the speed that could be achieved, at all. The atmosphere ends about 100 kilometres above the planet, which should only take a couple of minutes to reach, but the gravity of the planet still adds drag to any movement and that goes further." Harry said. "Once I escape the planet's gravitational pull, I suspect it will affect how much I can and can't accelerate, as well."
They watched as he closed and sealed the hatch with magic, transfiguring it to be seamless. Then he re-enforced the structure around the hatch, since it was the weakest point on the ship. He needed to use his 'wand' to perform the actions, but he hadn't learned the words for the spells, since he practiced most magic wandlessly and non-verbally these days. He did mutter under his breath, knowing they couldn't hear that, and hoped it would do to hide his talents.
"Okay, I'm all ready to go." Harry said, as he lifted up slowly and the spectators saw the view of the front of the craft moving upward. They didn't notice the landing gear being retracted and Harry didn't mention it, either. Remus and Sirius knew he was doing that on purpose, but waited for him to give the all clear to acknowledge that he had done it.
"All systems are good to go and I'm taking off." Harry confirmed their thought and they both sighed, as it seemed Harry was keeping everything in mind. He should have also activated disillusionment by that time.
Harry sat back and started to focus on the controls as he increased forward gravity at the same time as acceleration, while monitoring the stress on the wards that would protect from the wind. The spectators couldn't see the speedometer, nor would it make sense to them, but Harry reported anyway. "Maximum speed achieved at Mach 6." he pronounced.
"Mach 6?" Hooch asked.
"Six times the speed of sound. That's over seven thousand kilometres per hour." Hermione said, as she watched nervously.
"That fast?" Snape exclaimed. The boy was insane! "What if the magic fails when he's too high up?"
"He's got an emergency portkey." Sirius said, suddenly not caring who he was speaking to. He was also nervous.
"Fun fact: the muggles achieve escape velocity at Mach 33 in their rockets." Harry said from his side.
"Over 40 000 kilometres per hour." Hermione supplied. She'd done the reading too, after all. "But they didn't have magic. Their ships need to build up speed while they are still in the atmosphere, since the rockets use explosions to propel them and to create lift. Harry's ship doesn't need ballistic propulsion, like they did, so he should be able to reach space without that."
"40 000?!" Padma asked in disbelief.
"Explosions?!" Parvati exclaimed at the same time.
"It's not something Muggles can do easily. It costs them millions upon millions to send only one rocket into space and there are whole fields of study required before you are even allowed near one of their rockets." Harry supplied.
They were mostly dumbfounded at the concepts, but as they watched the screen on the outside of Harry's ship grow darker and darker, the nerves started to mount and people started worrying.
"What's going on, Harry?" Neville asked. "Why is it getting so dark?"
"I'm leaving the atmosphere." Harry said. "Less atmosphere, less light being reflected by it. You should be seeing quite a few stars, right now."
It was true. As soon as Neville had said it, they started noticing the pin-pricks of light, which at first looked like some kind of static, not that he'd know what that was, but now they realised they were all stars.
A couple more minutes later, Harry announced, "Congratulations, people! You're the first to witness a wizard in space!"
There was a cheer from Sirius and Remus as they jumped up and hugged each other. "Well done, Harry!" they chorused.
"This is momentous!" Flitwick exclaimed. "Well done, Mister Black! You have aimed for the stars and are the first one to reach them!"
The other spectators were all looking in awe at the night sky displayed in crystal clear clarity, like they were looking through a window. Most of the adults had expected something to go wrong, but the boy had succeeded and now they were watching as he pioneered the way for wizarding kind. How could anyone achieve this, let alone an eleven-year old boy?
"Do you want to see something cool?" Harry asked, looking at the mirror that showed him in the ship.
"Yes!" Hermione exclaimed, thinking she knew what was coming.
Harry smirked at the mirror and slowed his progress until he was standing still. Then he switched to the reverse view, changing their display to it as well. "You're the first magical people ever to see this sight live."
There were more mouths hanging open, as Harry activated a separate forward view and started moving away from the planet, while he watched the planet move slowly away on the large display, while he flew his ship faster and faster. Soon they all flinched as the sun appeared from behind the planet and as they shielded their eyes, Harry activated his tinting function.
"Sorry about that." Harry said, as he and the spectators all tried to regain their sight. After a couple of moments they adjusted again and could see the image of the sun, slowly coming fully into view.
"Why is it white?" Neville asked.
"Our sun is white." Harry said. "It just looks yellow from Earth because of the atmosphere. Why do you think the moon looks white?"
"I don't know." Neville said. "I guess I never thought about it."
"Well, now you know." Harry said with a cocky smile. He checked his speedometer and started laughing.
"What's happening Harry?" Sirius asked.
"I'm going faster than anticipated and still accelerating." Harry said after he calmed himself. "I'm almost at Mach 90."
"That's more than-" Hermione started.
"I'm going at 107000 kilometres per hour." Harry interrupted her. "How's the feed?" he asked.
"We're still getting you loud and clear." Remus said. "How long until you reach the end of the test distance?"
"At current acceleration, a couple of minutes." Harry said.
"How long would it take you to reach the moon at your current speed?" Neville asked. Harry scowled at him. The guests weren't supposed to know that. Neville realised it and his eyes widened in realisation.
"A normal flight there should take about two hours if what we're seeing now is any indication and we take the time to slow down properly, before we reach the moon." Harry said anyway, after a moment. The cat was out of the bag. No use in trying to shove it back in. "You have to take into consideration the fact that the moon isn't all that close and for every second I accelerate, I need to decelerate before I can stop to land."
"So, if you can accelerate permanently, you'd have to start slowing down halfway there?" Padma asked.
"Exactly!" Harry said. "Well done, Padma!" he congratulated.
Padma blushed and her father smiled proudly at her, while her mother squeezed her shoulder in support.
"When are you planning your trip to the moon?" Hooch asked. She wanted to go there, now, and knowing what she did, she suspected he could take the trip already. She didn't realise it was supposed to be kept secret either.
"I've got a couple of things to finish, before we make that trip." Harry said.
"Like what?" Hermione asked.
"Well, right now the ship is reinforced with magic, so I should be safe, but we're still working on a form of long range sensor so that we can detect things like rocks and stuff." Harry said. "I wouldn't want to take any long voyages without the ability to avoid space debris. The problem is, it would be easier to create such a device in space, since on the planet there'd be so much to detect. I need to find the correct spells and a way to monitor what the spells detect, so that I can set it up before the flight to the moon."
"There are rocks in space?" Fay asked.
"What did you think shooting stars were?" Harry asked.
"Shooting stars." Fay answered.
"Asteroids are rocks and ice that form in the void of space and burn up on entering earth's gravitational pull." Hermione recited. "Stars are a whole other thing. They can't fall to the Earth. They are too far away. If an actual star somehow moved and made it to Earth, the Earth wouldn't exist anymore."
"But…" Fay objected.
"The sun is the star that our planet revolves around, Fay." Harry said. "Stars are immensely big. Our planet could be entirely swallowed up by a single flame from the sun, many times over. If the Earth ever got that close, though, we'd all already be dead. The stars you see in the night-sky are all millions of light-years away, which is why they seem so small."
There was silence as that titbit sank in. Some of the Purebloods suddenly felt very small. Where did these people get this information?
Pansy had no problem asking, "And you learned all this from muggles? How do they know?"
"Science and math, Pansy." Harry said as he finally stopped his craft at the distance they had planned. Twice the distance from Earth as its diameter. "They worked out the speed of light first and then they used the movement of the stars and telescopes that can see further than any other to determine the distances. The further away the stars, the older they could judge the universe, since that light had to travel that far."
He looked into the mirror, then. "It seems communication is still stable. I'm proceeding with the tests, though. Deactivating communication for the duration. See you in five minutes."
"Understood." Remus said. Then the section of wall that could see Harry died. They could still see the Earth on the other side, though.
"Where is Harry?" Madam Pomfrey asked in shock.
"This is part of the testing phase, Poppy." Remus said. "Harry needs to test magic in and around the ship, to ensure everything is working as it should."
"We had to disconnect, in case something causes interference, while he's working in the ship." Sirius added. "The external feed will likely also be disconnected once he starts testing outside, depending on what happens."
"How will we know he's okay, then?" Hermione's father asked.
"We don't." Sirius said with a sigh. "We knew this part was coming though, and considering the overall success otherwise, I'm thinking he knows what he's doing."
"If something goes wrong, he takes the portkey home." Remus said.
"Or he activates one of many other contingencies." Sirius added. "He'd likely only take the portkey if something went horribly wrong and he couldn't save the craft."
It was true. Harry would only take the Portkey if one of the many backup plans failed, but fortunately for him, he'd made the time to focus on every aspect of the flight. He jumped once, when he heard an impact on the side of the vehicle. It did no damage, that he could see from his side, though, and his tests confirmed that whatever it was had not opened him up to the vacuum of space, so he continued with his tests.
Soon the other monitor switched off as Harry started manipulating magic outside the craft. So far, it looked like magic was slightly more difficult to control in the vacuum, but it was still doable, with a bit more focus and concentration. He opened the hatch below the vehicle, where he had placed a few items that had magic and scanned them, after moving them in front of the 'window', to ensure everything was still as it should be. The items were contained in boxes, some of which were encased in bubble-head charms. He ran every test he had added and finally returned everything to the hatch, when he was certain of his findings. Then he started back as he reactivated both mirrors.
"All the tests came back as expected." Harry said as the people on the other side sighed in relief. "Casting magic in a vacuum seems to take more power, but it seems we'll be able to manage with what we made, for our future plans."
"You took longer than we expected." Remus said, having kept time.
"I was hit by an asteroid." Harry said. There were gasps. "Only a small one!" he explained quickly. "It didn't breach the protections and everything is still working fine. Relax, people."
"Don't scare us like that!" Sirius exclaimed.
"I don't have nine lives, no matter what people believe!" McGonagall exclaimed as well, as she clutched her chest.
"Sorry Aunty Min." Harry said, even as he smiled a bit. "I'm on my way back now." The smiles and relieved expressions at the mention of his pending return made him smile. "It's almost like you guys were worried. Don't any of you have faith in me?"
"I have faith in you, Harry." Hermione said. "But magic in space is untested… was untested until today. You, yourself, didn't even know what could or would happen."
"Fair enough." Harry allowed. "I'm going to be quiet for a bit now though. I need to concentrate on not burning up on re-entry."
There was instant silence at these words and everyone was watching the displays again as Harry first approached and then entered the atmosphere, having slowed down to a crawl, compared to how fast he had been going. It was an unfortunate necessity. Soon after landing, Harry was engulfed by Hermione. "You did it!" she exclaimed in his ear.
"I know, right?!" he exclaimed back as he lifted and spun her around. "This is so cool!"
"You surprised me, Mister Black." Hooch said. "Your control and knowledge indicates a dedication to flying and exploring the possibilities of magic I don't think I could ever match. That being said, I'm not going to be satisfied until I see what you did with my own eyes!"
There were a few nods, mostly from his friends and only a couple of the adults, but Flitwick looked like he was going to explode as he clenched his fists and yelled. "Five thousand points to Gryffindor!"
"Thank Merlin school isn't in session." McGonagall murmured to Pomona Sprout. "I don't want to imagine the damage to the school, should he decide to lose those points." Snape was nodding along, even as he looked at the craft with just a bit of wonder in his eyes. The potential of this boy, could change the wizarding world. For good or evil, it seemed, with the knowledge he had. He'd have to be kept under watch at all times, in case he ended up like either Voldemort or Dumbledore, both of whom he suspected would look like footnotes in history next to what this boy might still achieve.
"Very well done, young man." Lord Patil was saying. "You should be proud of this achievement. My daughters tell me that you have plans beyond just visiting space, but refuse to tell me what. Care to enlighten the rest of us?"
"I'm still considering the options, to be honest, but I have one or two things I intend to do, once we've had time to set up some things I'll need in the future." Harry admitted. "I'm not discussing my plans yet, though, since I want to have them properly formed before I attempt anything." Besides the moon-house, he was planning on working to find a cure for lycanthropic transformation. With access to the moon, he suspected they'd be getting closer to an answer soon.
"And what about Marauders Inc.?" Lady Patil asked. She knew her husband wanted to find out if Harry would be taking part in it.
"This is supposed to be a secret, so keep it to yourselves please?" Harry asked. He got nods all around. "I'm technically already part of Marauders Inc."
"Majority shareholder more like." Sirius scoffed.
"Harry is a silent partner." Remus said. "He donated a large sum to help us start operations. We've not yet used it all and none of the Black family fortune was touched."
"Never intended to anyway." Sirius said. "The majority of the Black family fortune was donated to muggle orphanages the world over, recently. Let the Black family's dark past pay for the brighter future of struggling muggles."
"So, Harry Black is the sole financial contributor to Marauders Inc.?" Lady Greengrass clarified.
"Basically." Sirius shrugged.
"Please keep this to yourselves, though?" Harry pleaded. "I don't want people turning all those rumours on me."
"Of course, Harry. We know how much you enjoy abusing a broken system." McGonagall said with a smile at him. She soon frowned at Remus though. "You didn't clear out his vault did you?"
"His vault has only grown, I assure you." Remus said. He wouldn't mention where the money came from, since Harry didn't want people to know he had profited from the books.
"Good." McGonagall sighed. She saw Flitwick off casting spells at the ship. "What are you up to Filius?"
Flitwick turned around and smiled nervously at the McGonagall, a rock of some kind in his hand. "Nothing?" he said/asked.
Harry had also noted him doing something and walked up to the Professor. As he approached, he saw a small dent in the side of the ship, where the asteroid had likely hit. When he reached the professor, he realised what was going on. "Keep it, Professor Flitwick. I'll soon have more than I can handle."
"What did he find?" Hermione asked, having followed.
"The asteroid that hit the ship was stuck in it the hull, it seems." Harry said. "The professor was trying to hide that he was fixing the hull, likely to stop people from worrying that it had breached that far."
"It breached?!" Hermione asked in shock.
"Only the first layer." Harry said as he inspected the bump. "The other three are unscratched."
"Four layers?" Flitwick asked. He didn't want people to deny him from going to space, so had decided to hide the fact that he was attempting to repair the hole.
"Didn't we tell you we have many backup plans?" Harry chuckled as he pointed at the hole, as his magic deactivated the protections, so that he could repair it, and then reactivated. The hull looked good as new. "See? I could have done that from the pilot's seat as well. It's good to know we'll need a better monitoring system though. Thanks for pointing it out. By the next trip, I'll need more eyes, to help monitor."
Flitwick looked like he was about to explode again. "How did you do that? Is it a rune function or some sort of transfiguration magic? Did you access a function from here, or did you cast a spell simply by pointing?"
"Trade secret." Harry said, smirking at the tiny professor.
"He likes to say that." Snape drawled. He had started suspecting wandless magic a while back, though he'd never admit it out loud, though it would make sense with what had been happening in his class at the beginning of the year, with the sabotage attempts. "I have my suspicions though."
They soon returned to Grimmauld Place, where they had a bit of a light snack. It wasn't really lunch time yet, but they had a bit of a discussion as they snacked and the adults were soon in deep discussion with Remus and Sirius, presumably about what they had been learning and what Marauders Inc. actually traded in, since they mostly worked in the muggle world.
The fact was that Marauders Inc. was a simple transport company. The muggles arranged transport to publicly known locations for their transport stations and requested transport between states and countries and their goods were transported. Nobody saw the trucks, because there were none. Instead the goods were placed in specifically runed cargo containers and shrunk. Then they were placed on the bikes, who could travel faster and more reliably between locations, bypassing truck weigh-in stations, saving time and money. The fact that they had competitive pricing and a whole fleet already, which just kept on expanding, meant that they could keep on growing their business.
They had soon needed to hire more magicals, and had reached out to recent muggleborn graduates from magical schools the world over, who were more than willing to change jobs, from minimum-wage jobs for undereducated people, in the muggle world, to delivery or packing jobs in the company. Sirius had even gotten some Veela to join. They were carers at the dormitories, where the wolves normally rested at night, full-moon or not. Since the Veela were up and active during the day, they could feed and care for the road-weary wolves and then they slept at night, while the dorms were empty.
All the jobs paid well, since Sirius and Remus weren't after the profit so much as helping more people, which was Harry's goal to begin with. The more money they made the better the wolves and their carers got paid, which in-turn encouraged them to work harder. Marauders Inc. took only a percentage from the top, and then paid the rest back to their employees. Said employees then invested it in the bikes and dormitories, upgrading them to have bars, swimming pools and even a bit of entertainment, like strippers and well-endowed bartenders.
Some of the Veela actually liked those jobs and nobody messed with the Veela, for fear of their natures when they transformed into harpy-like creatures that threw fireballs when angered. It worked out rather well, in the end. More Veela joined the dormitories, which soon turned into resorts, and the wolves and other employees took care of business, constructing their own command structure, with the owners at the top.
The parents weren't told about everything, of course, since the inner structure and processes were all considered trade secrets, to keep their people safe and happy. All they really learned was the scope of their influence and where they operated currently and were planning on expanding next. They explained the missing information as the only way to keep the wolves safe, which was a genuine concern, since the wolves were considered dark creatures and the Lords and Ladies of the wizarding world didn't like hearing about them being offered opportunities to enrich themselves.
The girls, Harry and Neville, had adjourned to the kitchen where they chatted about Harry's experience. Harry had forgotten to try zero-gravity and had kicked himself for the missed opportunity, until he remembered he could make a room, or part of one, runed to do the same, so he quickly led the group up to an empty room and set to work engraving the runes. With his experience with the magic, it took him only ten minutes and a bit of cheating to turn the entire room into a zero gravity experience.
The girls watched as Harry activated the functions and then started floating off of the ground, from where he had stood. "Cool." he said as he stopped himself with his hands on the ceiling. Neville made the mistake of walking into the room normally and shot up to the ceiling and connected hard, but since he weighed nothing, the impact didn't hurt at all.
Soon the ladies joined them, but a bit more slowly. Harry was having fun spinning around and moving between the walls with just a soft kick off from whatever surface was nearest. Some people inevitably connected, mid movement and Neville blushed furiously, when Lavender hadn't taken her position into account and had flashed him as she flew past him.
"Yeah, maybe we should have thought this through better." Harry said. "Zero-G really isn't the place for a sundress, Lavender."
Lavender looked down, from her perspective and instantly realised she had been flashing Neville. She quickly gathered her dress between her legs and Harry had to slowly increase gravity to allow everyone back to the ground. Both the pureblood Slytherins and Susan had worn dresses too, but had been keeping their movements slow and controlled. The Patil twins had worn some sort of tight, stretchy, long skirt, which didn't have that problem. Fay and Hermione wore pants.
When they were all back down, Neville apologised, like a gentleman, for not looking away in time, and Lavender forgave him easily, saying she should have been more careful. The fact was that she had been flashing the entire room at times and Harry had paid it no mind, but Neville wasn't used to such things and hadn't been able to ignore it.
Soon they exited the room and strangely people stumbled a bit, like the half-hour they had spent in zero gravity had affected their balance or something. Something to keep in mind, Harry thought. They soon returned to the kitchen and then started discussing the possibility of visiting again, so that they could go to the local shopping centre, as Harry had promised.
It was agreed that they'd need to coordinate things so that everyone could join. By the time everyone left, it was with excitement about both Harry's success and the next time they'd visit.
