We are so close to the second goal back on P@treon, let's try to reach it. TWO more subscribers and we will be getting a DOUBLE CHAPTER WEEK with six chapters being released. So let's end this month with a bang and a great Halloween and try to get those two more pat/ reons.
Plus I got even better news, VOLUME 1 is complete, Hogwarts school year has begun, you can see all the chapters on P@treon right now!
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"So is he not going to join us?" Harry asked as they sat around an empty spot with a hot steaming tea in hand. Livia was polite enough to bring them up some drinks, but there were no snacks to be had since this place was down to the bare minimum.
The three of them stood off from the lead scientist who was too busy with his experiment to even notice us.
"No, do not even try," the witch said with a shake of her head, "you can never get my father's attention when he is like that."
"Wait," Hary said as he held out his hand, "you are saying that he is your father?" he asked as he looked between the both of them.
Livia was a woman with keen purple eyes, long flowing black hair, clear creamy skin, thin lips, high cheekbones, a straight nose, and sharp arched eyebrows. She also stood much taller than her father at 5 foot 11 inches, with long legs, a slender figure, a voluptuous button, and an ample bosom.
Her father, on the other hand, did have the same purple eyes as her but they were gleaming with inner madness, his hair was white like snow itself and a bird's nest, his skin was lined with age and a much paler shade. He had a long pointed nose, a round face, average height, and a scrawny figure.
"I know right," Sirius joked, "they look nothing alike."
"Yes, Frankie Newman is my father," the woman sighed as if she got asked this plenty of times. "I am Livia Newman. If you are wondering, I take after my mother."
"Well," Harry said as he drew his attention to something else namely the mad scientist turn up the voltage on that disturbing creature. "I really do not know how I should feel like with two of my researchers experimenting on a living creature. It is living right?" Harry asked the small group at large. The thing was moving around like a living being, but it was so horrific he wasn't sure if it counted as a living being.
"Experimentation on Elder Brain is Ministry approved, so there will be no legal issues, sir," the woman briskly responded as she pulled up her glasses.
"So you are telling me that the Ministry actually approves of that kind of stuff," Harry inquired as he couldn't believe what his ears just heard.
"Don't feel bad for it," Sirius amended as he patted him on the back. "The Illithids are an evil and sadistic race, they would have done the same and much, much more worse to any wizard that they could get their hands on."
Giving him a look that clearly said, 'Is that suppose to make me feel better?' Harry glanced at the creature once more and turned away. Out of sight, out of mind, that is his motto for now.
Still, he could help but ask, "What is an Elder Brain? Are they like part of this evil Illithids race? How come I never seen them before?"
"Well sir," the witch said as respectfully as can, "the elder brain final stage of an Illithids life cycle. If you are wondering the Illithids are better known as Mind Flayers."
"Wait," Harry said as he recalled hearing that from somewhere, then snapping his finger in an aha moment, Harry exclaimed. "Isn't that from Dungeons and Dragons, you know those octopus face creatures."
"What's this Dungeons and Dragons things?" Sirius asked as he perched up to attention, "is it a book you found in my family's library?"
"No," Harry said as he thought of how best to explain to two practitioners who knew nothing about the muggle world what a role-playing tabletop game. Deciding it would be best to simplify things into only two words, Harry replied, "it's a muggle game."
"Aww," Sirius said as comprehension finally dawned on him, "Well as you will soon find out most muggle fairy tales or make-believe stuff are quite true and alive in this world."
"Yes," Miss Livia agreed, "that is indeed true."
"So how come I never heard about" Harry followed through with. He did not think of himself an expert when it came to magical beasts and beings, but at the very least he did think that he knew the basics.
"That is because they live in the World Below," Sirius answered, "and they really do not come up to the surface much."
"Wow ho ho ho," Harry said as he held out his hand to stop him right there, "are you telling me that there is a civilization right below our feet?"
"Yes," this time it was Livia who answered his question and she also had the decency to finally drop the sir. That so made him feel much older than he was. "There are countless civilizations in the World Below, some that we did not even document and others we only heard whispers about. The World Below is a vast place that stretches all the Earth's core and a myriad of races and different tribes call it home."
"So the Hollow Earth theory is true?" Harry whispered to himself.
Sirius must have heard him because he asked, "what is this Hollow Earth you speak about?"
"Well," Harry began with, "it is a theory that people have that says that the earth is hollow, however, everyone thinks it is a fantasy since the Earth would collapse in on itself if it were."
"Muggle," Sirius said with a shake of his head, "don't they know that magic itself keeps the Earth stable and breathing with life."
Looking at his godfather incredulous, Harry did not want to burst his little bubble. Of course, regular people would not know that, for started they do not even believe in magic.
"I hope that this conversation has been enlightening to you sir, but we must move on to more serious matter."
"Come on," Harry said, "did you seriously go back to calling me, sir?"
"It a form of respect," the woman answered, "you are after all the one funding all our research and experimentation, plus you have given us this state of the art tower to use."
"Yes, I appreciate that," Harry said, he really did cherish that a stern but sexy woman like her kept on calling him sir, but it wasn't him really. "however you can just call me Harry. It is what my friends do."
"Your friends," the witch repeated.
"Oh, sorry," Harry as he quickly apologized for the oversight, "I presume too much."
"No it is alright," the female researcher said as a hint of emotion leaked out of her tone. "I just don't have that many friends."
"Well, you can count me as one from now," Harry reiterated with a nod.
"Wait," Sirius butted in, "I thought we had a connection, Livia?"
Turning to face the older wizard, her looks said it all, "Let's be honest with each other, you have been pursuing for over a decade and I am still not interested. Some girls might love your fun-loving playboy vibes, but I am looking for something more serious in a man."
"Dang," Harry whispered, as he had a wide grin on his lips. This was too fun to watch.
"Come on, Livia, I moved on from that," Sirius said as he held out his hands in surrender. "I am not that kind of guy anymore."
"Good," the woman said as waved everything off, but seep down he could see she did not believe in that. "Now," she said as she turned her attention back on Harry, "What brings you here, si-... Harry."
"I guess you could say I came here to check on things," Harry answered with a shrug as he ran his fingers along the desk they stood beside and came away with a lot of dust. "Plus, I guess I was also curious about what goes on in here."
"Well I can't say you came at a good time," Livia replied as she looked around the room with only her and her father.
"We saw," Harry said with a sigh, "nobody is here in this tower except for you two."
"Yes," the woman nodded her head. "Long story short funds started to dry up and people started to scatter to the wind."
"What did I tell you," Harry scuffed as he elbowed his godfather, "a very loyal bunch indeed."
"Indeed," Sirius agreed.
"Well nevertheless," Harry said, "I appreciate that you and your father decided to stay." Pausing Harry turned to look at her with a bit suspicious boiling up to the surface, "I do not want to presume much, but why did you stay?"
"It is a long tale," Livia answered as she silently closed her eyes for a moment, "but let's just say that my father and I owed your grandfather a great debt."
"Mhm," Harry said, but added nothing to it. This would indeed be an interesting tale for another time.
"So," Harry said, "my main question is— could we rebuild?"
"Yes," Livia replied with a quick nod of her head, "with enough funds we can bring this place to where it used to be. But for now, I would start small, hire some apprentices to help around, and carry out some small research."
"All right that can be done right away. I will speak to my account manager and have him write some checks" Harry said with an incline of his head. "So is there anything that you and your father are working on right now," Harry switched up too.
"No not at the moment," the wich replied with a shake of her head, "We are only studying this Elder Brain, and if we find anything of note we might follow up on it and see what we find."
"Good, good," Hary said, "there is something I wanted to task you with, if that is all right?" he inquired as he clutched the item inside his pocket.
"You may, that is after all within your right as our benefactor."
"Excellent," Harry exclaimed as he brought out whatever he had in his pocket. Bringing the item with the light, the researcher came closer as she adjusted her glasses and peered closely at the object.
"What is?" Livia asked as she turned to look at him.
"Well, this is a 2-way mirror that my family invented a long time ago. It connects two of these mirrors together and allows you to communicate over large distances."
"Didn't I give you that?" Sirius asked as he pulled out his own 2-way mirror.
"Yep, it is the exact same one," Harry answered.
"What would you like me to do exactly?" Livia wondered out loud as she picked up the magical mirror and turned it around in her hands. "Is there something wrong with it?" she asked as she gave it back to him once she was done studying it.
"No," Harry replied with a shake of his head. "I just want you to modernize the whole of magical communications."
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"Could you please repeat that?" instead of Livia probing him for an answer, it was Sirius who raised the question he was expecting. All the magical scientist did was stare at him with an unknowing expression on her face.
"You heard me," Harry said as he spun the magical mirror in his hand. "I want to change up the way we communicate, totally."
"Pup," Sirius said very slowly, "are you sure you haven't gone bananas?"
"No, I am perfectly sane," Harry replied calmly. "It just that genuineness might blind you," Harry then joked."
For the first time not laughing at his joke, Sirius stayed silent. It was Livia who spoke up and asked, "Would you care to explain yourself."
"Sure," Harry said with a shrug, taking a deep breath Harry felt like he was in a meeting before a board of directors. "So as you know we wizards and witches comminate through owl. That is our main form of spreading, controlling, and sharing information in the wizarding world."
"Yes, we all knew that, now can you speed this along," Sirius asked impatiently.
"Hey," Harry said as he looked offended at that very question. "This is all part of the showmanship, now be a good audience member before you are booed out."
Grumbling, Sirius was still polite enough to say nothing more and Harry carried on, "Now where was I, oh, yes, owls. Tell me this how long does it take for you to get a message through a post owl?"
"If it is a good owl it would take a few hours to get to anywhere in Great Britain," the witch supplied.
"Now what would outside of Magical Great Britain?" Harry asked.
"Now that is a lot more harder to answer," Sirius mused. "If we are talking about just Northwestern Europe it would be days, all of Europe as a whole might take weeks for anything new to reach. For the world at large, mmm, that would be months I presume."
"So tell me," Harry said as he snapped his fingers at them, "is our way of communication very effective?"
"This is a system that has been in place for hundreds if not thousands upon thousands of years, pup. We have been using owls before the advent of the Romans, before the rise of Camelot, even before the fall of our once great civilization, Atlantis."
"I am not asking for a speech about how the way things are. I am simply asking is this system of owls effective?"
"No," Livia suddenly answered with a bit of firmness in her tone.
"Good," Harry said, "Now what if I told you that was a much more superior way of communication. That it takes virtually no effort at all and it is instantaneous, just like that," he said with a snap of his finger.
"I would say that is pure imagination," Sirius retorted as he furrowed his eyes.
"Well your answer is right there," Harry said as he pointed to the magical mirror in his hands.
"How? This will only allow you to communicate through two magically connected mirrors?" Sirius posed.
"Did you ever see one of those muggle telephones?" Harry returned a question with his own question.
"Again with those muggle stuff," Sirius said under his breath in a grumble.
"Yes," Livia answered, "it that muggle thingy that uses that muggle spark."
"It called electricity," Harry clarified as he really did not know what to make about how clueless wizarding folk were about the muggle world. "And yes, those muggle thingy is called a telephone."
"What does it have to do with anything?" Sirus wondered out loud.
"Everything," Harry answered, "this is what my whole idea is based on from."
"Carry on," the witch said as she crossed her hands together.
"What you might not know is the regular people have already mastered the way of instant communication thanks to this invention. This muggle thingy is what allows them to talk to each other from vast distances, carry news to the far reaches of the world just like that, and connect everyone."
"I knew that the muggles used that telephony to talk to each other, but it is impossible to believe pup that it is lightning quick," his godfather uttered as he crossed his hands and had a look that clearly said he was not buying it.
"Did you not hear me?" Harry asked with a chuckle, as he broke it down to the most based parts for them to understand. "they use lightning. Of course, it would be lightning quick as you put it."
"Really?" Sirius mused out loud as he looked like he was finally turned around. "I... That's... how come Lily never told me that?"
"I guess you would have to experience it yourself," Harry said with a shrug.
"So are you saying you want to use this muggle magic spark to replicate this tele-phone."
"No," Harry said as he shook his head while he felt like sighing. This would have been so much easier if the two of them knew a lick of the muggle world. Plus he did not know how the magic in the mirror and technology from the phone would react to themself.
"Come on where is your pride as a witch? Are you telling me you can not do better than a muggle?" Harry asked as he really emphasized the last word. "You can not even use the magic you have? The thing you were born with?"
"I..." the older woman stuttered as she clearly did not expect this sort of sally.
"Are you a magical scientist or some daddy's girl that is at his beck and call?"
"NO!" she shouted with a vehemence he did not expect, but Harry did not let it take him away from his passionate, rousing speech.
"Well then, what's wrong? You have the idea, you have a bases to create the new magic item, and you will be getting a butt load of gold from me. Can you do it or not?"
"There is so much that..."
Sighing in disappointment, Harry picked up the mirror and started to walk to the man mad. "I guess I will just have to speak to the man in charge. It was too much of me to think that an assistant would be able to handle this task."
"Give me that," the witch growled like a cat whose tail got stepped on. Before he could even hand over the mirror, she stalked up to him and took it out of his hands without a word.
Smiling and giving himself a high five for a job well done, Harry's victory was cut short as the sexy scientist turned to them with that cold expression back on her face. "Leave, I have a lot to do."
Harry was about to argue that this was his own fricking wizarding tower, but he knew when there would be shit to had if you mess with someone on a warpath. Taking his small victory for that, Harry slinked out of the room and them out of the space with Sirius close behind.
Well, the good news what that he was getting his magical telephone made, so take that as you would.