Lily's Journal - Chapter 22

AN: Hey guys.

It still counts as a week, right?

This chapter was really hard to write. I had it ready on Friday, but when I was giving it a final read before posting it, I realized that I wasn’t really happy with it.

So, I wrote it all again from the start.

I finished it just now, and I’m posting it without even reading it, so there might be a few more errors than usual.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoy this one.

Chapter 22

“Harry, I still think you’re conducting tests too soon. This has the chance to be truly dangerous.” Catherine said through the mirror connection.

“And that’s why I called. You’re our computer science and robotics specialist, if anyone can pick up any problems in time for me to solve, it will be you.” Harry said, waiving away her concerns.

“Harry, what you’re trying to create is the magical equivalent of a nano swarm. I don’t think anyone can be a specialist in that, and I’m one hundred percent sure that the world isn’t ready for you to unleash a grey goo on it.” Catherine responded in a tired tone, and Harry continued to ignore her.

“It will be fine. I already did three tests and nothing went wrong.” Harry waved away her concerns. “Sure, this one will be a bit more dangerous, but that’s why I called you.”

He looked at the mirror when he heard something breaking through the connection, and saw that Catherine had broken the pencil she was holding. Letting out a frustrated sound, the Irish scientist looked at Harry almost as if in mourning. She then grabbed the mirror and Harry saw her moving through her lab towards the computer.

“You know what, since you’re so determined to kill us all, and I’m not actually able to stop you right now, I’ll just call my parents. I should have enough time before the swarm descends from Scotland.” Catherine said, making Harry chuckle a little.

“So, the work on the OS and it’s features is going well?” Harry asked, knowing that IP telephony was something that Catherine had been really looking forward to putting into their upcoming computers.

“Yes. The OS we built is a thing of beauty, and my team was able to put a lot of features into it. The fact that the hardware to the software is built in house really helps.” Catherine said. “Not that anyone will be able to use it, since you’re planning on destroying the world today.” She added, making Harry chuckle again.

Their fabricator had really jumpstarted the expansion of the company into the consumer electronics market. What started as just making better processors for sale, ended up becoming a whole new division. Motherboards, PSUs, all the hardware needed for a PC was now being produced by their company, as well as many other consumer electronics like TVs and sound systems.

They were hoping for a Christmas release, and there were already commercials being played on both radio and TV.

Harry even had an amusing encounter with Dean in his dorm room. Apparently Dean had briefly mentioned Harry to his parents a couple of times, and his dad somehow remembered about it when he went looking into Terracorp to see what the new company was all about. He asked Dean if the company was selling magic, and Dean ended up almost panicking, thinking that they were breaking the statute of secrecy.

The quick rise of the company in the energy sector, as well as it’s rebranding and expansion into other markets had made nationwide news, and even gathered some international attention. Harry was now even more famous and he hated it, but he also knew it was inevitable. It was a lot more difficult to hide involvement in a business in non-magical society, so they didn’t even try.

Harry was once again thankful for making that deal with the government, because without their help, the company would never be able to expand as they did, nor would they have an easy way to explain why a bunch of teenagers were coming up with such revolutionary technology.

Madam Bones worked closely with the prime minister’s office when the news started to have an interest in the company, and now Hogwarts was kind of known by the wider world.

The news stations were clamouring for a visit to the Highlands Institute, a really old, extremely exclusive private school for gifted youngsters, but the school was really protective of their student’s privacy.

Harry still laughed whenever he remembered the look on Hermione’s face when she first heard about this.

The news was being their usual sensationalist selves, and their group was being hailed as a generation of geniuses. With comparisons being made to the likes of Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing and even Sir Issac Newton.

They also seemed to really like the fact that the group was multi-national. With particular attention to the team of scientists they built, and in their own group, to Sue Li and the Patil twins.

Everyone was really surprised about the amount of attention the company was gathering, but they couldn’t deny it was a good thing. It would boost sales once they were ready to release their products.

“Animated iron dust, test four.” Harry said, and the dicta quill he had floating nearby started taking notes.

He also noted the fact that Catherine put her call on pause and started paying attention to the mirror again.

He pointed his wand at the iron dust in front of him and cast an animation charm, the dust immediately rising from the ground and starting to make the wave motion he had in mind.

The dust was made up of almost microscopic bits of iron, even smaller than the usual iron powder used in the production of magnetic alloys. And the entire pile that was now floating high above the ground was close to half a ton in weight.

“Animation charm working as expected, no visible difference from the previous tests.” Harry said to the dicta quill taking notes.

“Finite incantatem!” Harry cast the counter spell, and immediately had to step back and cover his face as the iron dust settled on the floor with a loud thump.

“So, everything working fine?” Catherine asked through the mirror connection.

“For now. This was only to ensure the dust is still stable, the real test comes now.” Harry responded.

He then pointed his wand towards the table on the corner of his lab, and cast a levitation charm on a cauldron of potion that almost seemed to glow on it’s on. The potion was Harry’s first successful work on alchemical potions. He usually worked with transmutations, but he couldn’t find a way to use transmutation and still have the effects he wanted, so he used the far more common and easier to make, alchemical potion.

The potion had the effect of, when used on something, make a duplicated copy of it last for months. The potion was a staple of alchemy, being one of the easiest alchemical potions to make, as well as being one of the most used. Normally it was used by curse breakers and others that dealt with ancient artifacts, they could use the potion to make a copy of said artifacts and then study them a little more easily, even breaking the copy without issues.

It was perfect for what Harry wanted.

“Applying potion.” Harry said, and he heard the dicta quill note it down.

“I really hate this secrecy law of yours. I can think of a dozen different ways this potion could be used in research, but we are the only lab with access to magic and even we don’t have as much as we want.” Catherine said with a sigh, making Harry nod his head in agreement.

“We both know it is only a matter of time until some arrogant pureblood uses magic in front of a camera, and then the statute will be irreversibly broken. It might not happen soon, but it will happen within our lifetime.” Harry responded, still concentrating on spreading the potion evenly on the mound of iron dust.

“It will be a nice day to see the magicals losing their minds learning about all the wonders of technology that the ‘primitive’ muggles have made.” Catherine said.

“We’re not that bad!” Harry defended his fellow wizards and witches.

“Hermione told me about how your muggle class still thinks we ride around in carriages and use flintlock muskets. The average magical thinks us non-magicals are cavemen, and you know I’m right.” Catherine argued, making Harry nod a little.

She had a point.

“You’re right. But, everything we are doing will introduce a lot of muggle concepts to magical society. The mirror TVs are selling almost as soon as we make them, the communication ones are way more advanced than even the best cell phone on the market right now. That is, until that smartphone your team is working on is ready. By the time the statute is broken, I actually think we won’t have too much issues with magicals not understanding technology.” Harry said, explaining a something he had been thinking on for a while. “I actually think we will have a lot more issues with scientists having mental breakdowns when they see all the ways magic breaks the laws of physics.” He added, making Catherine snort a little.

“I know a few of those. I’m pretty sure some would rather believe in alien tech than magic when they see what a portkey does in space.” Catherine said, laughing a little at the end. “And there are some that will just refuse to believe in magic at all.” She added, making Harry nod.

“To be fair, magic can be somewhat explained in scientific terms. We know for a fact that magic causes magnetic interferences, and we still can’t explain that weird radiation we pick up sometimes, we don’t even have a name for it yet.” Harry said, remembering all the weird little details they are picking up as they expand their experiments with magic. “By the way, who’s working on the radiation project?” He asked.

“Right now, it is a joint project between or physics and astrophysics departments. One of two projects they are working on, with the other being the metallic hydrogen one.” Catherine responded, making Harry frown a little.

“Shouldn’t the metallic hydrogen project be with the engineering crew?” Harry asked, not really understanding why it wasn’t. “I’m pretty sure we have everything needed to make it. Maybe not stable, but still stable enough for research, if not use.” He added.

The project was passed over to the scientists as their first major project once all the magic needed was done. Harry and the girls wanted them to familiarize themselves with the magics they would be using on a regular basis, and that project had a bit of everything.

“Well, the theoretical crew said it wasn’t ready yet. They wanted to study a bit more of the theory behind it before starting physical trials.” Catherine answered.

“There’s nothing to study, we already figured out the math before we passed on the project. Heat won’t be an issue, and, according to Hermione’s calculations, the current version of the pressure array has a maximum of around three and a half to four million bars, which is more than enough. We never pushed it that far, so I would understand if they wanted to test it, but there is no more theory to be done.” Harry said a little annoyed.

Their rate of progress had slowed down immensely since they hired the scientists. They always wanted to do more theoretical work before testing things, which annoyed the entire original group.

Sure, Harry could understand, and they were right. They couldn’t really trust a bunch of teenagers with only a rudimentary understanding of what they were doing, the same teenagers that constantly disregarded the proper scientific process. But they also didn’t understand magic, and they never took it into account. Unless you were using dark magic, it was extremely unlikely for catastrophic failures to happen. Sure, you could blow some stuff up, and you could end up displacing an arm or a leg, apparition was a good example, but real catastrophic failures were impossible.

They had a perfect example of that when they were working on those gravity flipping glyphs from the Egyptian tombs. Harry, Hermione and Penelope worked on it just a few days before the start of school, and the astrophysicists all said that the gravitational anomaly they somehow made should have created a black hole, but the vibranium box they were working on just disappeared with an extremely loud apparition crack.

They still haven’t found the box, and they are pretty sure it isn’t on Earth anymore, but they don’t actually know how it happened.

“You know, you complain about Neville and Luna with their killer plants and nightmarish animals, but sometimes you’re just as bad as them.” Catherine pointed out, and Harry shook his head in amusement.

“I know, I know, dangerous experiments need careful preparation. It’s still annoying.” Harry answered, earning a laugh from Catherine. “I’m done with this, let’s continue the experiment.” He added, making Catherine nod, her face becoming a little more serious.

“Application of potion completed.” Harry spoke to the dicta quill. He then went as far away from the mount of dust as possible and cast the animation charm again.

“Animation working as intended.” He said, watching the dust flow through the air in a wave motion again, and focusing on his control of the spell. The unknown variable of this experiment was the next step.

“Applying duplication charm.” He said, casting the duplication charm and immediately feeling something wrong with it. The charm seemed to be a little stronger than usual.

“Duplication stronger than expected, but still within acceptable range.” He said, watching as the iron dust duplicated quickly, filling a lot more room than he intended.

“Instructing animated dust to gather in a simple shape.” He said, and when he tried, he found out that he couldn’t do it.

The dust seemed to almost fight him for control. Wanting to continue duplicating instead of stopping and gathering in the square shape he wanted. He started to get really worried when the rate of duplication seemed to pick up, almost getting out of control.

“Ending experiment.” Harry said, trying to cast the general counter charm, but this time it didn’t work.

“Harry, what is happening?” Harry heard Catherine panicking voice coming from the mirror call, but he didn’t have time to respond her.

The amount of dust on the room was growing quickly, almost taking over an entire side of it. And it was still resisting all his attempts to stop it. The dust almost seemed to grow a shape of an animal, an animal that Harry couldn’t recognize except to say it was quadrupedal. But it looked angry.

“Evanesco!” Harry stopped trying to control the dust and just casted the vanishing charm, putting all his power into it, and it somehow worked, but not entirely. It vanished a large portion of the dust, the amount left was smaller than the amount he had before the duplications. But they were still multiplying.

“Finite incantatem!” Harry cast the general counter charm, sighed in relief seeing it work this time around. The remaining dust settling down with a loud thump in the ground.

“Dust fought back against counter charm. Dust showed similar properties to fiendfyre, possible interaction of potion with charms. Look for advice from more experienced spell researcher.” Harry said to the dicta quill.

He didn’t really know what fiendfyre was like, but he had read about it, and the dust did show similar properties to the dark curse. He would need to ask Moony, or maybe professor Vector, for the arithmancy of the curse. Harry was sure the two charms might have some things in common with the curse, and the alchemical properties of the potion might have interacted negatively with the charms.

“You know, I was just joking about you releasing the grey goo, you weren’t supposed to actually do it.” Catherine said in a fearful tone.

“I’m just happy I was able to stop it.” Harry said, barely containing the happiness in his tone.

That was a close one.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

The breakfasts in Hogwarts were always nice, but this one tasted even better to Harry.

After what happened the last night, just being alive was something to be happy about. He might have downplayed it a little at the time, but he was honestly terrified. Controlling that dust was the most difficult thing he had ever done, and he almost had to go to the hospital wing due to the headache he felt a few minutes after. The mental strain of what he did taking its toll on his body.

The experiment still gave him a lot of data, even if it wasn’t exactly successful. The dust seemed to be working perfectly fine before he tried to shape it, so the issue started there. Now he just needed to figure out why it happened.

Their breakfasts had changed since the start of the school year. Last year, even after they started to spend more time together with their friends from other houses, they still mostly stayed in their own house tables.

Ever since the start of this school year, they just stopped caring about it. They still respected some of the rules, like keeping their pda to a minimum. Hermione, who sat on his right, was usually happy with just a peck on the lips, but ever since that date on the woods, Luna, who sat on his left, always wanted a nice snog. And Hermione got a bit competitive about it, so now she also wanted a nice snog.

It was nice to be him sometimes.

But, while they did respect some rules, others they completely ignored. Luna wasn’t the only Ravenclaw on their table. Padma and Sue Li were also there. Prety much all of their friends now spent their breakfast on the Gryffindor table, the only ones that didn’t were Penny, who was on the big table with the professors, and Daphne and Tracy, who gave the excuse of Slytherin politics. Spending too much time in public with him could be bad for their image in their house.

Malfoy wasn’t the only Slytherin that didn’t like Harry.

Harry was sure that wouldn’t last long. Tracy was missing on all the gossiping that Parvati, Lavender and Hannah were doing, and she would soon want to join in. Daphne would be a lot more difficult to change her mind, but she was also Hermione’s next target.

Harry looked at his first girlfriend and shook his head in amusement. Hermione was really into the whole ‘adding other girls to their relationship’ thing, and surprisingly, some of their friends seemed to be almost as eager as Hermione was. Padma had certainly started to look at them differently in the last weeks.

Harry wasn’t an idiot. He knew Hermione was basically using him as bait for the girls she liked, but he certainly wasn’t going to complain about it. She wasn’t going for anyone he didn’t know, all of the girls she wanted were their friends, and Harry liked spending time with all of them.

He loved Hermione, and he wanted her to be happy. He didn’t really love any of their friends, but he was sure he could grow fond of them with time. It wouldn’t be as fast as with Hermione, Harry didn’t have the history he had with Hermione with any of them, but he was already growing fond of Luna.

Luna was really fun to be around, and she annoyed Hermione a little, which was always fun. She was also kind and surprisingly insightful, knowing thing she really shouldn’t know and making connections between wildly different things that somehow worked together.

“So, how was your experiment yesterday?” Hermione asked him, taking Harry out of his musings.

“Eventful.” Harry answered simply, making Hermione narrow her eyes a little.

“What do you mean, eventful?” She asked again.

“Let’s just say we should be glad the castle is still standing.” Harry responded, and Hermione let out a sigh.

“Harry, we all said you were rushing it. How close were you to losing control?” She asked.

“Close.” Harry said simply. “And you shouldn't talk about rushing things, miss ‘environmental impact can be solved later’.” He added, making Hermione blush.

Hermione wanted to work on a particular project during the holidays, something about a large-scale freezing. Harry didn’t really understand the particulars of it, he never even read Hermione’s notes beyond the fact that she planned to use massive amounts of chlorofluorocarbons.

He had to stage a Luna style intervention, gathering pretty much everyone so they could tell Hermione she was going too far. And then Hermione said that since they are already planning on doing something about air pollution, they really shouldn’t worry about the ozone layer.

That was when Harry learned that his girlfriend could be a bit of a mad scientist sometimes.

“That was different.” Hermione complained.

“How?” Harry asked pointedly. “They were both potential extinction level threats.”

“I didn’t actually started experiments.” Hermione said petulantly, and Harry had to admit, she had a point. His experiment was a closer call.

“Fair enough.” Harry said, smiling a little, and earning a smile back.

“Here comes our daily visit.” Neville said from further down the table, where he was flirti- talking with Hannah.

Harry looked at what where he was pointing and groaned a little.

Bloody Malfoy.

“A loony and a mudblood. And I thought you couldn’t stoop any lower, scarhead.” Malfoy said, approaching the Gryffindor table. His two pet trolls and Pansy with him.

“And they are both gorgeous, Malfoy. Can you say the same about your girlfriend?” Harry responded, making Malfoy stutter, as Pansy flushed in anger.

“He doesn’t have a girlfriend, Harry.” Lavender said from her seat, getting involved in the altercation.

“I’m his girlfriend, Brown.” Pansy said, still flushed in anger.

“We heard about your betrothal contract, Parkinson. Your family is getting paid a monthly stipend.” Lavender said.

“A girlfriend doesn’t get paid, other kinds of women do.” Parvati added with a grin.

Pansy screamed in anger and reached for her wand, but she soon found herself with almost every wand from the girls pointed at her.

“Just try.” Susan said, her tone almost eager.

Harry knew Susan could wipe the floor with Pansy, she was almost as good in combat magic as Harry himself.

“You really should take care of those wrackspurts.” Luna added, completely unbothered by the whole altercation. Still eating her pudding.

“Shut up, loony.” Malfoy said, and immediately fell on his arse when Iggy came out of Luna’s hair and hissed at him, spitting a bit of fire just for good measure.

“I love that Iguana.” Harry heard Ron mutter, and snickered a little. He also loved Iggy.

“Is there a problem here?” Professor Vector said, approaching from behind the Slytherins.

“Patil called me a whore, professor.” Pansy said, and professor Vector gave Parvati a pointed look, waiting for an answer.

“It’s not true, professor, I was talking to Lavender.” Parvati defended herself. “Lavender said something about a betrothal contract she heard about, and how the family of the girl is getting money from it even now, before the marriage. And I just said that a girlfriend doesn’t need to get paid.” She added.

“Parvati is telling the true, professor.” Lavender immediately defended her best friend, and she was quickly joined by most girls from the Gryffindor table, and even a few from the Hufflepuff table withing hearing distance.

Harry could see that professor Vector wasn’t buying it. She knew exactly what Parvati was insinuating with that comment, but, since Parvati never explicitly said it, she couldn’t agree with Pansy.

“Five points from everyone with their wands out.” Professor Vector said, and Harry winced a little.

It was a harsh punishment since most of the wands out were from the Gryffindors. Around a dozen girls, with a Padma and Sue from Ravenclaw, and Susan, Hannah and Megan from Hufflepuff.

“Now, everyone back to their seats.” The professor said in a commanding tone, the same one she used in her classroom, and the Slytherins quickly scampered away.

“I hope there won’t be any more problems here today.” She said, her eyes going up and down their group, and looking at the twin Weasleys for good measure. And when no one said anything, she started to make her way back to the professors table.

“Professor.” Harry said, thinking now was as good a time as any to ask for her help.

“Yes, mister Potter?” She asked.

“I’m having problems in a personal project of mine, and I believe those problems are from an arithmancy nature.” He explained, earning a look of interest from the professor. “I was hoping you could answer a few questions sometime?” He asked.

“Certainly, mister Potter.” The professor responded. “You can visit my office after classes are done today.” She added.

“Thank you, professor.” Harry thanked her, earning himself a smile from the arithmancy professor, as she nodded her head and walked away.

“I can’t believe you said that, Parv.” Padma said, when the professor was far enough to not hear them anymore.

“I don’t know what you mean, sister.” Parvati answered innocently.

Harry looked at his friends, and saw that everyone was holding back laughter, but when Neville broke, everyone went with him. Laughing as quietly as they could so as to not draw attention again.

Harry stopped laughing when an owl landed in front of him. It was a rather large barn owl, with a letter tied to her leg.

“Hey, who are you from?” Harry asked, scratching the head to the owl with his left hand, while his right worked on freeing the letter.

Once free of her burden, the owl grabbed a piece of bacon from the plater nearby and quickly took off.

“Who’s it from?” Hermione asked, looking at the letter in Harry’s hand.

“I don’t know. There isn’t a name.” Harry answered, looking at the blank piece of parchment in his hands. He decided to open the letter right there. If whoever sent it wanted Harry to read in privacy, they should have said something.

Mister Poter

We heard about your indication to the title of grand sorcerer due to your discovery, and we thought to write about our astonishment with your achievement.

Harry had to briefly stop reading the letter in confusion, but it was quickly cleared up when her remembered the flight test. He had honestly forgotten that professor McGonagall said she would do this, and he was surprised to hear she was already working on it.

When we met you in that ball, we instantly knew you could achieve much in the noble art of alchemy. But we never believed you had already achieved so much.

Harry remembered the ball. That weird couple that gave him some cryptic advice about alchemy. The advice did pay off, so maybe they knew what they were talking about, but Harry hadn’t really thought about them since then. It was a surprise to receive a letter from them.

We would like to be the first to congratulate you on your well-deserved title, which we are sure is only a matter of time until it is given to you.

We also would like to give you a bit more advice.

I’m sure you’ve learned the interactions of arithmancy with alchemy. Ingredients used in powerful magical numbers make for some of the most powerful alchemical creations.

But it isn’t only the ingredients that can be affected by arithmancy. The alchemical process itself can also be affected by it. We have learned in our many decades practicing the art, that the most powerful transmutations and alchemical potions are made when ingredients are used in seven groups of seven.

We once created a far more powerful, alchemical version of a healing potion using seven dittany leaves, as well as six other ingredients all in groups of seven.

By now you should have learned of the interesting connection between ritualistic magic and alchemy. And also that ingredients need to have some connection to the end product you want.

Don’t be afraid to use rare ingredients when needed. We once, a long, long time ago, learned about the uses of phoenix tears as an alchemical ingredient. And we learned it from a dark magic ritual used to regenerate limbs and expand one’s lifespan.

You shouldn’t be afraid of researching dark magic. As long as it stays as research and you never use it, you can still learn a lot from it.

You never know when an innocent ingredient used in dark magic, can also be used in your greatest achievement.

We hope to see you again someday so we can trade notes.

Respectfully.

Newton and Paracela.

Harry folded the letter and gave it to Hermione to read, deep in thought.

He remembered the weird couple at the ball, and even back then they told him about using magical numbers for separating the ingredients in a transmutation. He didn’t really understand why they were remembering him of it again.

Sure, it was an important bit of information, and one of the best pieces of advice he had ever received, but it wasn’t like he would forget it. He used it for a lot of his alchemy these days.

Although, he could have forgotten it since his transmutation is so advanced these days that he doesn’t really need anything but air as a base ingredient. Ever since he and the scientists discovered the process of emulating stellar nucleosynthesis, he has only been using that. It is way easier and more efficient than any other kind of transmutation.

The information about the similarities between alchemy and ritual magic wasn’t anything new to him. Alchemy and ritualistic magic were a bit like accidental magic and the RoR, in which they don’t really need spells or any kind of structured basis. They were pure magic manifesting the caster’s willpower into the world, and the best examples of their mantra that belief shapes magic.

But the information about phoenix tears was quite good. Harry could already imagine a bunch of different ways it could be used.

Limb regeneration was both easy and extremely difficult with magic. If your limb was severed by anything non magical, or indirect magic, a few potions could be enough to regenerate said limb.

But if any direct magic was used, it became almost impossible to do it. A simple cutting charm could be enough to stop the regular potions from working. And if dark magic was used, it would be completely impossible. Moody was a good example of that.

But an alchemical potion could bypass the dark magic used. As long as it was made with this in mind, it would be all but certain to work.

“What do you think they want giving you all this information?” Hermione asked, once she finished reading the letter.

“I don’t know. But I have a bunch of new ideas now.” Harry answered, already planning on exploring more about alchemical potions.

AN 2: There we have it guys.

Harry being a bit reckless in his experiments.

And a letter from our ‘mysterious’ couple, giving him a lot of interesting information.

Next chapter should be the arrival of the other schools for the tournament, and the reencounter of Harry, Hermione and Fleur.

I will see you guys in the next one.