Rowling still owns everything, I'm just a piker. So far this is the longest chapter for this story, enjoy.
Chapter 5: A Shadow Falls
*************************Lucius' Liar*****************************
July 8, 2012
6:15 am
Flickering candles lit the darkness as a host of hooded figures edged into the room. Lucius Malfoy stood at one end of the room, Ginny, still disguised as Pansy stood with him as did Rabastan Lestrange, Xavier Hamilton and a few other Death Eaters. Crabbe and Goyle, the younger pair, stood against the wall next to the door. They jumped as the doors boomed closed.
The five figures that had arrived stood in the middle of the room, not speaking, not talking. Lucius nodded as Narcissa came into the room from a side door, he took her hand as she ascended the small dais he was seated on and sat next to him "Come before me."
"Lucius," one of the hooded figures dropped his hood. Cornelius Fudge stood, his indenity revealed, bouncing back on forth on the balls of his feet, "when will my restoration be..."
"Silence fool" Malfoy snapped as he turned, icy gray eyes becoming a sullen red as he glared down at the former Minister of Magic. "It was your incompetence that let Dumbledore gain as much influence as he did. You lost your place, through your own incompetence. If you had just followed the plan as it was presented to you...if you had had your lackeys in place to actually snap Potter's wand immediately..."
"But sire, Dumbledore was there almost immediately and I did put Umbridge into place..." Fudge objected weakly, as he slowly backed away from the Dark Lord's throne.
The sullen eyes glowed brighter, "Umbridge was a fool; she treated Potter and his companions as children, when it was obvious. They. Were. Not. Leave me, Fudge, I will inform you when the time is right for your bid. Dawlish." A short, wiry haired man dropped his hood and knelt before Malfoy. "What of Potter's operations?"
"Sire, Potter still thinks that his group is unknown. It was obvious, however once I examined the flow of funding in the Auror divisions, that a large amount of galleons were being funneled to a black group. Simple tagging of some of the standard Ministry supplies allowed us to trail them to Hogwarts, from there it is obvious that Potter is involved in, and probably leading the group. We also possibly know of three other, 'special groups.' Arrangements are underway to strike these immediately after our primary plan executes. They, along with the few remaining members of Dumbledore's accursed Order would be our primary opposition."
"Very well Dawlish...do not fail me." Dawlish bowed and left. Lucius turned to a dark corner of the room. "Are your brethren ready?" A tall, hooded figure separated from the shadows. The figure strode silently over the stone floor, light seemed to not escape its presence but rather seemed to be absorbed into its robes. It gestured broadly with a scaly hand.
"You do not command us, human..." The voice was ghostly and dark. Chills went up the spines of the Death Eaters nearest to the dark one. They edged away from it, their hands creeping towards their wands as they did so.
"But I do." Lucius laughed recklessly as he withdrew a red, glowing orb from his robes. "You are bound to it..."
"AHHHH" A snarl echoed in the room, but the dark figure bowed to Malfoy nonetheless, "we will do as you wish, for now. As will our brethren. You will honor our bargain...your master ignored us, to his detriment. If we had been with his forces when he met his end, as he promised..."
"Yes, yes, Tom Riddle was a fool, I will not make that mistake." Malfoy stood and waved at the door, "We will strike soon, and when they throw out their own leaders in fear..."
***************************#12 Grimmauld Place**************************
7:23 am
A beam of morning sunshine pierced the morning fog hanging over greater London and spilled through the glass of the window to the master bedroom of Grimmauld Place. Its radiance glinted off the feathers of a snowy white owl, who buried her head under her wing to escape. The light continued on to illuminate a mess of black hair sticking out from under a pile of blankets. The mass of hair groaned and rolled over, still under the red and gold blanket.
The door to the room creaked open slowly and Hermione eased in. She was still dressed in her pajamas, her hair pulled back into a pair of braids on each side of her head. Her left hand cradled a cup of coco as she crossed the room and looked out the window, watching the muggles as they began their day. She turned back to gaze fondly over the top of her mug at the sleeping mound still under the blankets, "Harry, love you need to get up." A low, grunting sound answered her, and she rolled her eyes. She took another sip, "OK." She announced loudly, "Get 'em."
Twin, dark-haired blurs blazed a path from the hallway to the bed. Hermione wasn't quite sure where they had jumped from, but almost faster than she could follow; Horatio was jumping on Harry's back with Emilia tugging on his hair. "Get up daddy..." she giggled at Harry's moan, "you promised to go to Diggy Alley today."
"Did I Mione?" Harry asked softly from somewhere under the covers. His hand appeared, holding onto the crimson coverlet.
Hermione laughed quietly, "afraid so, love." Harry just grunted and pulled a pillow over his head. Both of his girls giggled at him, and he groaned again.
"Come on daddy...Dad." The twins chorused, and succeeded in pulling the cover from their father. Harry started to get up, but somehow caught his foot in the covers, and rolled onto the floor next to the bed with a loud thump. Hermione held her hand over her mouth to keep the twins from seeing her laugh at Harry's predicament. On the floor next to the bed, Harry sat up and blinked owlishly, Hermione took pity on him and sent his glasses over to him with a flick of her fingers.
Harry's restored vision caught Hermione trying not to laugh, he crooked an eyebrow at her and she lost it. Suddenly doubled over with laughter, she sank onto the window seat, holding her side.
"Fine let me get dressed." Harry said, still on the floor, trying to gather whatever shreds of dignity left him.
*****************************Ministry of Magic***************************
"Oi Ron, what's up?" A familiar voice came over to Ron as he stepped out of the lift. Turning, Ron saw the tall features of an old friend coming down the aisle of the Division of Magical Sports.
"Oliver, mate, what are you doing here?" Ron shouted across the room, to the annoyance of several old wizards who were making notations on some sort of board. Ron hurried down the aisle and took Wood's hand, almost knocking aside a house elf that was carefully balancing a stack of papers. The elf walked off in a huff.
Oliver gave Ron a slight grin as he shrugged, "oh, ya know. Since England isn't going to make it to the cup this year, the Ministry is offering me the chance to commentate." He looked speculatively at Ron, "now next year, if you could get Harry to play, and yourself of course, and maybe Hermione and Ginny we could put together such an English team. I saw your seventh year match against Slytherin...blimey Ron. Of course you would have to beat me for a spot..."
"Of course," Ron agreed. Actually, probably unknown to Oliver, Ron had been approached about playing for England in this years cup season, along with Harry and the rest, and if it hadn't been for Lucius Malfoy, they might have, though Hermione claimed that she wasn't about to do it...she had said that about riding a broom to begin with, of course, and then later playing for Gryffindor as well. Harry could have gotten her to do it. Ron thought smugly as he nodded to whatever Oliver was saying at the time.
Ron finally shrugged, "actually Oliver, I'm here to pick up the tickets for the cup, Harry and Hermione and Luna and I are taking the kids, dad arraigned tickets for us."
"Good for you mate, you lot will be in the top box with me then, I'm announcing." Oliver replied with an odd mix of amusement and disappointment. "See ya later." Oliver gave a final wave, and headed off down the aisle.
After heading to the office to pick up their tickets, Ron headed down the lift, however instead of heading towards the main atrium and the exit he came into, with a quick, surreptitious movement, Ron stepped into a side hallway, through a door warded authorized personnel only.
He walked down a dark, corridor of old stained stones, lit only occasionally by small torches. At the end of the hall, a black, unmarked door stood. Ron opened it and walked in. The room was unlit, and as the door closed behind him, Ron suddenly couldn't see anything at all.
"Well lad, what do you have for us?" A familiar voice came from a dark corner of the room. Ron turned to the sound, and a single, blue glowing orb hung at head height. A click echoed in the room, and suddenly Remus Lupin and Tonks appeared, even though she was technically Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin these days. Remus was sitting behind an old scarred desk, his boots propped up on the top. Tonks was sitting on the edge of the desk, an interested look on her face.
Mad-Eye clumped over to the others and leaned against the wall. Ron nodded to him, "After we picked up Pansy, we questioned her but she didn't have much in the way of actual new information." Ron shrugged, "I mean there was one of the normal, vague threats against the Quidditch World Cup, but we get those all the time. Not much else. Hermione is still researching into just how Lucius is controlling the X'Sheen and the Dementors, we know Voldemort had some sort of deal with the Dementors at least, but that doesn't seem to be the case now. Intelligence reports seem to indicate more of a subservient role." He looked to Lupin; " we transferred Pansy to Ministry custody last night."
Lupin nodded, "yeah we got her, I signed off on the report from the duty Auror," he handed a folder of parchments to Tonks. She passed it to Ron; it was jet black in color, with Top Secret written in blood red diagonally across it. He opened it to find several files; the one on top seemed to be a complicated potion formula. Ron glanced up quickly at Lupin. Ron wasn't the best in the world at Potions, he had finally passed his NEWT with an O, but that was more because his two best friends and his fiancée at the time had almost sat on him until he studied. But despite that, he recognized this potion, it was the same modification of the animagus potion that Hermione had developed in sixth year, and had given Remus the ability to control his lycanthropy and had uncouple him from the moon. In effect making him an animagus with a werewolf alternate form.
"What's this..." Ron muttered, confused.
Lupin was pale as he responded softly, "As you know, after Hermione developed the potion...for my condition, we hid the notes. There were three copies in existence, her original notes which were and still are in the Potter family vault in Gringott's, a copy hidden in the Department of Mysteries, and a third copy that until his death was entrusted to Severus Snape. After he died an inventory of his effects did not find them, however as the Death Eaters that stormed Hogwarts trashed his quarters most thoroughly, we assumed that they were destroyed when they burnt the room. We now have reason to believe that that may not be the case."
Tonks nodded and turned from her husband, "we classified the notes, as while her potion does allow one to lessen the effect of werewolfism," she gave Remus a small smile, "there were concerns that some would use this knowledge to build armies of werewolves, as it also gives them the ability to transform at will. So it was decided by Hermione and Dumbledore to classify it for now. Ministry employees that are afflicted are offered the treatment and are given a secrecy and binding geas, that keeps them from sharing the secret, and keeps them from using the alternate form like Remus here." She shrugged.
"So what, the reports that we have heard are true?" Ron exclaimed incredulously, he's building an army of these..." Ron turned and shook his ruefully, "Luna was right." He looked back at the trio of Aurors, "we have been carrying silver loads for a while, just in case, and Ginny and Draco ran into a pack last year, but..." Ron shook his head once more and sighed, "I'll let them know."
***********************Diagon Alley***************************
The sight of the entire Potter family on the streets of Diagon Alley was, to put it mildly, an remarkable one. Even now, six years after the defeat of Voldemort, it would not be unusual for Harry and Hermione to mobbed as they appeared in the alley. It was even worse in a way when the kids were with them, as people totally unknown to any of them would gush on how cute they were. So in response Harry and Hermione tended to stay away from Diagon Alley and do their shopping in Hogsmeade, where the atmosphere was much more relaxed. And even beyond that, while many in the partially rebuilt Diagon Alley knew the Hogwarts trio had saved them from Voldemort, many of the residents of Hogsmeade had witnessed them doing so from their front porches so to speak. As a result in Hogsmeade they were respected enough to be mostly treated like everyone else.
But even at four, the Potter twins had already discovered that no one made as good a sundae as Florean Fortescue.
Florean had seen them coming, and had a table, two small sundaes and a large one for the parents to split already waiting for them as they approached. And like he had done in the summer before Harry's third year, he had insisted they were on the house. He did ask that the kids come by more often as he left the sundaes and headed off to attend to some Hogwarts students who were obviously in the Alley to do some shopping.
Fortunately in the wake of Voldemort's defeat, several new laws were passed, that while confirming the freedom of the press, the presence of the kids legally prevented the wizarding pavaratzi from annoying them. Harry or Hermione would be perfectly within their right to challenge any miscreants who disobeyed that edict to a duel.
Even the Daily Prophet's reporters weren't that stupid.
Thankfully today, there weren't too many people about. A few young kids stopped by the sundae shop to talk to them, several of whom had the Potters in school, or who had siblings who did or had.
A small smile lit Harry's face as he looked across the table to see Horatio with probably more chocolate ice cream on his face and bib apron than in his mouth. Thanks Mione. He whispered as his eyes cut to hers. She just smiled and held his hand for an instant.
An hour later, despite Hermione's half-heated protests, the four of them were out behind Quality Quidditch Supplies. Hermione was glaring at Harry as they watched the twins trying out a pair of training brooms. The small brooms were even, as Horry had so helpfully pointed out, "just like mum and daddy's" with the mini-Firebolt logo proudly inscribed on the handle. Harry turned to shrug, "what?" glancing away from Em, for a second. Hermione gave up pretending and flashed a grin, just as they both heard a wail, and their hearts leapt.
Harry didn't quite apparate the several yards to Emilia's side as he dropped to his knees beside his daughter. Horatio showed up an instant later with his mother in tow. Harry picked up Em, and brushed a curly lock from her eyes. H e muttered a healing charm on her skinned knee under his breath as he kissed her on the forehead. "Ok now Em?"
Emilia nodded, and quickly whipped the tears from her eyes as he set her down next to the toy broom. Without even a look back, she hopped back on it and started racing around the special paddock in the back of the store built just for this purpose. "Yep Harry she's yours alright." Hermione confirmed with a sagely tone.
****************Lair of Lucius Malfoy, current Dark Lord************
July 10, 2012
"Come in Pansy" Lucius said softly from within a dark room. With a hesitant sigh, Ginny walked in. She was shaking a touch, as Pansy would be in the same situation, but it was not all an act. Walking the length of the long room, she stopped and knelt before Malfoy hoping all the while he could not hear her heart beating.
"You wanted to see me, Sire?" Ginny asked; her face turned to the polished wood floor. Unlike his former master, Lucius tended to relish in the finer trappings, as was seen in his current surroundings. His current lodgings were impressive. Ginny did not know where she was, but it seemed that she was somewhere in England still. The castle that they were in was moderately sized, nowhere near the size of Hogwarts, but not insubstantial either. If she had to guess, it probably was a quarter the size of that ancient edifice. It certainly was unplotable, she had been unable to scry her position on a map and she was already in the castle. The revelations of just the other day had almost shattered her, the sight of the X'Sheen under the control of Malfoy, and the sight of Dawlish and Fudge bowing to him had nearly cost her, her cover right then.
She was out of communication with SG1, as soon as she had arrived, all of her possessions were taken, even her wand, and there was not an owl in sight. Her wand was returned, eventually, but nothing else. And she desperately wanted to communicate. The man who had ordered the eternal sleep of her fiancé, who had probably killed Hermione's parents himself, and whose' other sins were too innumerable to name, was only ten feet in front of her. Her wand hand itched as she imagined for an instant a jet of searing green light shooting out of her wand and killing the bastard. Its not the yet the right time...if I can just hold out a little longer and learn the rest of their plans and get my communication gear back...
"Yes" Lucius replied, drawing the word out. He smiled as he stood and walked over to her, "I believe that you can be of great assistance...Ginny" She gasped and desperately drew her wand, "STUPEFY" the jet of red light impaled Malfoy in the chest. He laughed harshly. With a wave of his hand the wand shot across the room to the waiting hand of...Dawlish.
"Thank you Dawlish," Malfoy chortled. "IMPERIO" the spell hit Ginny and she staggered. Her eyes went dull as she looked at Malfoy. He smiled and extended a small pocket mirror. "I think that it's time you notified your superiors of your status my dear."
*********************The Burrow****************************
July 14, 2012
Molly Weasley smiled at a wisp of air as her adoptive daughter vanished. Behind her, Emilia and Horatio were in a flat out sprint towards a large playhouse that Harry and Ron had magic'ed into existence last summer. Another CRACK echoed off the trees and Ron appeared, his daughter clutching one hand, with Elliot clutching the other. "Grandma" she screamed and ran full tilt at her, knocking her staggering as she hugged her around the legs. Elliot was much more circumspect, he let go of Ron's hand almost shyly and crossed to Molly as Harriet let go and followed the youngest Potters.
"Thanks for taking them mum." Ron said with a small smile, his eyes tracking his daughter as she trekked towards the back yard. Molly gave Elliot a hug and he wandered off after the rest of the youngest generation. Her eyes grew dark as she turned back to Ron.
"Ronald Bilius, where the Bloody Hell is Ginny?" Molly growled softly, her hands on her hips.
"I can't tell you mum." Ron shrugged, and in a desperate effort to forestall her questions, disapparated. Molly glared at the spot he vanished and with a huff, started walking towards the back yard and the kids. At the large playhouse, which truly showed off Ron and Harry's lack of building skills, Harriet, Emilia and Horatio were sitting closely, talking softly. They were obviously plotting something. Elliot, however, was standing to himself a little ways off. He had never been an outgoing child, his father's near-death state had scarred his mother, and it had rubbed off. Ginny loved her child, but he was just as often in the company of Ron and Luna or Harry and Hermione, or his grandparents as he was in his mother's, even when she wasn't on assignment.
"Why don't you join them Elliot?" Molly softly inquired as she came up to her grandson. She smiled encouragingly at him, but he shook his head and crossed his arms.
"I want my mummy." Elliot pouted, "I want to go home." The five year old pronounced petulantly. His ginger hair fell over his eyes as he looked at the ground in front of him. Molly heart sunk as she looked at him, he looked a great deal like his father, especially as Neville had looked when he first started Hogwarts.
"She has to work, Hun" Molly replied, kneeling to look him in the eyes.
"I don't care." Elliot snapped, "She should be with me. Em and Horry's parents are with them all the time!" Molly carefully did not cry at the truth in his words. Harry and Hermione and Ron and Luna, were in truth much better at this than her youngest daughter. Ginny loved her son, Molly was as sure of that as she was that the sun would rise in the east, but she also knew that every time Ginny looked at him, she was reminded of the man who might as well be dead. Elliot started sobbing softly as Molly pulled him into her arms.
"Your mum will be home as soon as she can Elliot, she has go to put bad people away." Molly whispered.
"Like the ones that took daddy away?" He asked in his childish voice.
Tears in her eyes, Molly nodded, "Yeah hun, like those people."
It was all she could do to keep the tears from flowing freely as she watched the five-year-old step back and wipe his eyes. Her heart skipped as he nodded like someone several times his age and she instantly knew what the sorting hat's decision would be in six years. "Ok, I'll wait for her." Elliot said softly and turned to go join his younger cousins.
*********************Secret Ministry Facility, Northern Scotland*************
"Ok Gred and Forge," Harry said mildly as he appeared silently next to a large aircraft hanger. "What am I doing here?" He had been working on the coursework for next year's students in his DADA office at Hogwarts when an ostrich had walked through his door, a sealed envelope in its beak. Even though the Hogwarts positions were cover assignments for his team, he and the rest of the group that doubled as Professors, took the responsibilities seriously. He really needed to get his syllabus and book assignments to Minerva McGonagall soon.
Harry looked around the seemingly abandoned airbase; it had been secretly deeded to the Ministry after the cutbacks following the end of the muggle "Cold War." Vast runways sat empty, towers abandoned, barracks dusty and full of cobwebs. Fred and George waved him into the hanger, smiling all the while.
As he entered the cavernous building, he saw that it was empty for the most part, except for a large, tarp-covered mound to one side. Next to a large workbench, large, glowing orbs lit the scene. The bench was greasy and covered with Muggle tools and several silver gadgets, which were spinning and whirring in seemingly random patterns. Fred and George's enchanted computer was set up on the bench, talking softly to a coveralled figure that was turned away from them. Harry's lips split in an unconscious grin as he glanced at Hermione's back; she turned at feeling his presence, returned the gesture and turned back to what she was working on. He followed the twins over to Hermione and the tarp-covered mound. Hermione walked over to him as Fred and George leaned on the workbench. "Well Harry we were thinking the other day." Began Fred.
"Well, to be honest it was about a year or two ago." Admitted George. "And we happened to look at the newest Firebolt as we were walking past Quality Quidditch Supplies."
"And, of course we had to check it out." Fred put in. He shrugged, "we started to look it over, but then we started to wonder, why it only did three hundred...I mean the muggles can do so much better. So we bought a couple and started to experiment." He waved his wand at the tarp; it vanished to reveal...a long, sleek black shape.
It resembled a streamlined fuselage to a muggle fighter aircraft with short, stubby wings. The craft had no visible exhausts or any sort of rudder. The bubble canopy was faired into the fuselage, and a pair of reclined seats was visible in tandem under it. Harry walked up to the craft, and ran an appreciative hand along its nose. "Harry "Leo" Potter" was inscribed in gold lettering under the canopy next to the front of the two seats,. Art on the nose showed a beautiful, dark-red haired witch with a steely glint in her emerald eyes, her wand held aloft and lit with the beginnings of a spell. Under the artwork, which was as realistic as only wizarding paintings could be, was the name, "Lily."
He glanced over at Hermione, she gave him a quick hug, "they asked me to help...seems that they found out that there were two problems with their initial idea." She walked to the rear of the craft, Harry and the twins following as her voice slipped into a lecturing tone. "As you know, modern brooms are limited by two factors. The first, of course, is sheer power. The second is that, honestly a broom with a rider is not the most aerodynamically viable shape. Magic can do a great deal, but even we have to obey physics, more or less." Harry nodded absently, as she indicated a pair of streamlined nacelles tucked into the fuselage under the stubby wings. "For the first we mounted a pair of broom cores in these pods, one on each side." She gave him a slightly embarrassed look, "I um, sorta...boosted the power from each; they started out as Firebolt Mark V cores...these put out around twenty times the power of those." Behind Hermione, Fred mouthed silently, "a bit more actually," and grinned.
Harry raised an eyebrow, "Yeah," Hermione said, "I know, slightly excessive." But Harry didn't look as if he thought it excessive; on the contrary he looked like a third year on his first trip to Honeydukes. She bit her lip as she walked to the front. "We, um modeled the rest after the fuselage of an American F-16, some friends I know knew where a wrecked one was."
"How fast?" was all Harry could manage to squeak out. He ran a finger over a small port on the nose that looked a lot like a large wand poking out, interrupting the smooth skin of the craft.
"We actually don't know." Admitted Fred and George together, Fred flicked a wand, and a midnight blue jumpsuit similar to the one Hermione had on and a pair of helmets appeared on the workbench. "Want to find out?" Harry absently caught the helmet Hermione tossed him. Curious, he looked down at it. The midnight blue helm looked a great deal like a pilot's helmet from Star Wars, he noted amusedly. A stylized Phoenix was emblazoned on the right side, with a rampant Gryffindor Lion on the other. A small union jack was on the front above the visor, with Potter stenciled across it. He watched as the cockpit levered itself open and a small ladder floated over from the side.
Harry climbed the ladder to sit in the front seat; it was a mark of his shock, that he only distantly noticed Hermione dropping into the rear seat. "How do I?" He motioned towards the controls. A small joystick sat to one side, a throttle to the other, both studded with buttons. He waved his hand over the cockpit, and as it passed the craft came to life. Lights lit, and screens filled with numbers and complicated formulas. A screen set into the front of the cockpit, lit with a fiery graphics, just like wand lettering. Hermione stood in her seat and leaned over the back of Harry's chair, causing Fred and George to wander off quickly. Nice view Love.
Shut up Hermione replied, though she was laughing as she tugged her zipper all the way up to her throat. Harry bit off a chuckle, but stopped abruptly as her "Professor Granger" tone whispered in his ear. He forced himself to concentrate as thoughts that had very little to do with flying flickered behind his eyes, or at least flying in the conventional sense. She kissed his ear, and stretched out, pointing at the front of the cockpit.
"We had to replicate a lot of what there would be in muggle craft with magic. The screen in front shows magical energy sources, including magical creatures, on the current setting, and on this alternate setting," she flipped a switch on the throttle under his left hand, their rings clinking together as their hands touched, "it sort of acts like a radar...sort of. It actually doesn't work as well as the muggle version. That should be fixed when I get a moment. I should be able to get my technology protection charms to work on all the electronics. But I ran out of time."
"It's ok, Mione." Harry assured her. His eyes were twinkling, as he flipped his left hand over and grabbed hers for an instant.
"Anyway." She finished after a brief pause, "it's mostly like a broom, just like a broom handle push forward to go down, back to pull up. The main difference is the other stick on your left controls the speed. Or," She hesitated, "it should work by thinking at it." He turned and looked at her, "at least for you and me." She indicated the buttons, "there's weapons too. Just be glad that we have a really big budget." She looked slightly guilty at that last comment, Harry grinned further. "Lets just say that each of the missile analogs costs about five times what a Firebolt costs." Not surprising really, since we used Firebolts to make them.
"Lets go then" Harry muttered. Hermione dropped back into her seat, and pulled on her helmet over tightly braided hair. The straps in the seat closed over her chest and lap as he canopy closed and locked. "How do we get it off the ground?"
"It's like a broom Harry." Hermione replied.
Harry rolled his eyes as he touched the stick, "UP." The craft floated up, hovering about five feet above the cracked concrete of the tarmac. "Push the throttle forward huh?" He asked as he gently turned the ship towards the open doors. Hermione nodded, suddenly not really thinking this was really a good idea. With a breath, Harry rammed the throttle forward. A blurry afterimage remained behind, as the fighter shot out of the hanger, and with a quick pull on the stick, shot straight up.
"Harry..." Hermione grunted against the sudden feeling that she weighed about six times what she normally did, "the b..button under your left pinky, in..Invisibility booster." He pushed it, and outside of the canopy Harry could see the nose vanish. Unlike the time he and Ron had used an invisibility booster in the Weasley's flying car, he could still see himself and the inside of the cockpit. He rolled the craft level and backed off on the throttle, glancing out, he saw they were speeding over the North Sea. He looked in the rear view mirror, and saw Hermione looking back at him. With a laugh, he snap rolled the ship, spinning the craft across the sky. "Do you like your birthday present?" She bit the corner of her lip nervously as she asked. "I know I'm a few days early."
"Have I told you I love you today?" Harry said in lieu of a reply. He glanced down at the ground going by in a blur.
"I think you just did baby." She replied. Behind him, she flicked something, and a flaming red crosshair flickered to life on the canopy in front of him. "Want to know what else it does?"
"Can't wait."
A couple of hours later, a flicker of movement stopped over the tarmac. A breath later, a black shape faded back into view and settled to the ground. Fred and George ran up as the canopy rose, and Harry stood up. Leaning over the back of his seat, he helped Hermione to her feet, before the pair of them vaulted over the side of the ship, not bothering to wait for the ladder that was following behind the twins. "Nice." Harry said to the twins. They beamed.
"Glad you liked it." Fred said, "especially since Weasley Enterprises is releasing a civilian version this fall in the States. We can't get approval here, since the Ministry seems to think it's an enchanted Muggle artifact, like Dad's old car. They don't want to listen that we built the thing from scratch. Bloody bureaucrats."
"And especially since you and Hermione own the patents on about half the charms." George grinned. "I guess your Gringott's account might grow some more." Harry looked rather indifferent at that, as did Hermione, really. The money was a way of keeping score in a game neither really cared about playing. It was a tool that they had learned to use, but that's all it really was, a tool.
Together, the pair of them donated, many thousands of Galleons to charity each year, especially to the charities they had created after Voldemort died. Though to be fair, Fred and George were almost as generous with their newfound wealth. "We do have one other thing to show you." He flicked his wand at a tall, steel crate that Harry had not noticed earlier. Jets of steam erupted from the seams as the front opened slowly. As the steam cleared, Harry walked forward to find what looked like a suit of coal black plate armor; only much seeker than the thousands of suits lining the corridors of Hogwarts, like a cross between a muggle space suit and one of the medieval suits.
"We got the idea from your duel with Voldemort." Fred said softly, apologetically. Harry raised an eyebrow, "As you know, the X'Sheen are faster, stronger than humans and fire their curses wandlessly."
"Yeah."
"Well, we had Hermione look into the arithmancy on their spells." George explained. He motioned to Hermione; she stepped forward and ran a hand along the crate.
"As you know Harry, the Kedavra curse, while it cannot be blocked by conventional magical spells." She didn't mention Harry's and her own experience at defeating that spell, nor did she need to. "It can be blocked by solid objects, though it does act as a maxima grade Reductor on those solid objects." Harry looked thoughtful; he had seen that effect many, too many times. In the missed curses in the Chamber, in the fighting at Hogsmeade and other places and of the times Dumbledore, Hermione and him had used solid objects to block that particular curse when all else failed. "For any spell below the level of an unforgivable, the suit absorbs and channels the energy of the spell and stores it to power the suit and its own weapons. For a Kedavra equivalent from an individual X'Sheen, it will take one, maybe two of the hits. I still don't think it will totally defeat one from a wand though. It might mediate the effects, I don't know honestly. The math isn't clear."
Fred stepped up and flicked his wand at the suit. Slowly, it pulled itself out of the crate and walked, slowly, jerkily over to Harry. It stopped, facing Harry. "Its much more nimble when there is actually someone inside. He waved at Hermione.
"We used a similar enchantment to those used on the sorting hat, to allow it to interface with the wearer's own body. Without a person thinking at it, it's pretty stupid. But with one in it..." She wore an odd, half smirk, a look Harry had first seen second year, when she amply demonstrated that she was smarter than anyone else when she brewed polyjuice in a rundown girls toilet with stolen supplies. "It also increases the wearer's speed by a factor of five and strength by a factor of ten. There are ports on the wrist to mount the user's wand...and the destruction duo," She glanced over at the twins, they looked just a bare touch guilty, "have a few more weapons, both muggle and wizarding they are playing with to stick on it." She raised an eyebrow at them.
"Harry." Fred muttered.
"Yes..." he replied, with an air of one who really didn't want to know, but still had an overpowering urge to ask anyway.
"We umm...shot up the pitch at Godric's Hollow...by accident testing it." George admitted. "The minigun looked so cool on that muggle telley show."
Harry rolled his head around his neck, popping it loudly. He glanced at Hermione; she shrugged. So that's why we've not gone to the Hollow for the last month, I knew the excuse was pretty slim...
They claimed they were going to have it fixed by this weekend. I promised not to turn them into mice and let Hedwig and Crooks after them. They owe you three new hoops still.
Harry sighed, a long, suffering sigh. At least they're on our side...I think. He felt Hermione agree with him. "Fix my pitch boys." Harry growled, then a small, little boy grin blossomed on his face, "and I want at least ten suits ready to go by next month. We've been needing a way to stand up to the bastards."
A/N: Someone asked if weapons to fight the X'Sheen were being researched. I guess the answer was yes. I got the idea for the training broom thing from watching my niece do the same thing with her bike. Next Chapter, we finally learn just what that last scene meant in chapter 43 of Lions.