And so, Harry started instructing the headmaster on his system. He ensured to give a proper lecture, with a lectern and students' desk he'd conjured right in the headmaster's office, without so much as a look, nor a move. His wand wasn't in his hand at the time either. That would always be a bit of fun he'd hold over the old man's head. While he had access to the possibilities the interface presented, he wouldn't suddenly be able to think like Harry, and copy his every achievement. He'd have to work on application of this, himself.
What followed was basically an accounting of how Harry started building the system by accident. Then he started showing the man how to see his interface and giving a bit of a run-down on how to create icons, with functions. He had learned from previous instruction, though, and had the headmaster create a piece of paper, in the system, and then a pencil and eraser. These concepts were the best starting point so that the man could get used to visualization and creation, inside the system.
Next, he showed how he shared a connection to the hat, at the hat's request. A central communication system was dead useful and since the headmaster could keep the hat from his private thoughts, he now at least had a way of passing messages along to Harry and Poppy in secret through that medium. Harry didn't want the headmaster sending him messages directly, however.
Harry then went through visualising and programming the representation of the man's magical reserves. The idea was for Dumbledore to start off on using the system with that already available, so that he could connect any functions that might use power directly to that using a tether. The hope, there, was to make the system realise that there needed to be a connection for anything to work right from the start. Just creating the visual representation took a whole session, though, because the man had never considered it that way. It turned out being old and experienced was working against him now. Still, once they succeeded Harry was gobsmacked at the amount of power the old man had.
"Holy shit!" Harry had exclaimed. "You've got more magic than half the students put together!"
"Language." Dumbledore had reprimanded, again. Harry seemed to love swearing in front of him, now that he was playing the role of instructor.
"Bite me." Harry said, smirking back.
"Bathsheda is a bad influence on you." Dumbledore grumbled.
"I think she's a wonderful influence." the hat said. "Harry's more expressive, thanks to her. A bit of bad language is not an issue, in my opinion. Especially when he does it with that smirk, while he's looking for a response from you. That's tremendous progress in coming out of his shell."
"I don't get why you guys keep saying I'm withdrawn." Harry said. "I've been the same, from my perspective, all along."
"It's not just your words and facial expressions." the hat said. "It's your attitude in general. Things you do subconsciously, like flinching at loud noises and constantly trying to be aware of your entire environment, like you're looking to spot danger, before it could even appear. That gives us a general idea of how you were raised, or, more accurately, not raised. By doing what the headmaster is complaining about, you're actually actively provoking negative attention, which means that you are becoming happier, less defensive. All of your family were hoping for a more normal, well-rounded life for you, and we all like seeing you happier."
Harry's smile faded a little at that. He'd not known that they'd seen that. It was true, too. It was why he'd started trying to classify emotions. Why he wanted to classify people and understand them. If he knew what they were feeling, who they were, it would be easier to be prepared, when they acted differently. It also made sense to him, that he didn't know that he was telling people these things, through his actions. His attention had always been outward, in that regard. He also suspected he lacked certain life experience to be able to identify subconscious and physical reactions he had to situations.
"If this is what it sounds like, when you are becoming a happier boy, Harry, I can accept a few bad words, too." Dumbledore decided, seeing that the boy was becoming contemplative. "Please do try and refrain from doing it in front of the other students, however. They would not understand it, the way we do." Dumbledore decided to get back on topic, then. "And the reason my reserves are so vast, is in part due to age, and in part due to the fact that I once had to stand up to a dark lord or two and their forces. Constant use and strain on a magical reserve will lead to it increasing in size. You will likely note that your reserves are constantly growing during your time at Hogwarts, but after school, that growth will slow, as you stop practicing magic constantly, pushing your limits and trying new things."
Harry frowned, even as he nodded. Chances that he would ever stop using magic, was small, however. The system would likely continue to take power. While he learned, his occlumency system put at least a little drain on his reserves, too, even if that wasn't a lot. Any new memories he got were sorted, and he'd never stop making new memories. This was giving him an idea, though.
"So what you're saying is that by constantly using magic and then replenishing it, your body learns to store and handle more?" he asked.
"Well, yes." Dumbledore said. He did not understand the smile that grew on Harry's face.
"Ha!" the hat laughed. "That's a great idea, Harry! If it works, you could potentially start training your own reserves and building them up."
"What?" Dumbledore asked, looking at the hat.
"Gryff is in my head, quite often, through his interface." Harry said. "He likes commenting on my ideas and pointing out flaws in them. That's why I usually allow him in, without question. I do kick him out, when I'm working on something fun, or personal."
"And you had an idea about how to increase your magical reserves, using the system?" Dumbledore asked.
"I'll start on that later." Harry said. "For now, you don't have enough of a grasp of this magic for the smallest of active effects. Let's get back to your instruction. Now that you have a representation of your reserves, you can start forming feeds and powering whatever system you end up using often. The next step, after feeds, is volume control, and automatic power-adjustment, or limiters. Not having that, was what was draining my reserves, back in first year."
The instruction continued over the course of a whole month, and in that time, Harry learned a bit from the man, as well. He learned about Sirius Black, and a few of the details that few people knew about, like the fact that the man was an Animagus. He also learned what the headmaster knew about Tom Marvolo Riddle Jr, as the man used the system to show him the memories, something he'd wanted to learn from Harry, anyway. Such a feature would be very useful to the old man. No need to pull out his pensieve to show people things, and you could control what you decided to show.
Harry also started learning about alchemy, and enchantment, something the old man had quite a bit of pride in, because he'd forged his own path in enchantment, and invented, if not claimed, his own methods. It turned out that people didn't always claim magic, because some kinds of magic would be simple to reinvent with just a bit of effort, without knowing it already existed. This had Harry excited, because he finally saw a way to implement a proper, self-contained flight system, using the information he already had about broom enchantment.
Alchemy seemed to be a combination of directed magic, and potions. The results of such a potion, could be greatly enhanced, and in some cases, one could make potions that were before impossible. Harry and the headmaster didn't stop at the basics, either. They worked together, in creating an alchemy system, which they would end up sharing. There was a lot of untapped potential in alchemy, and Harry had an idea or two about things he'd like to try. Something like an automated potions brewing system would be dead useful to him, if he could get it to work inside the interface. It would be even more useful if it could be done in perceived time…
III-III
Ginny Weasley had come through her ordeal, none-the-wiser, thanks to the headmaster using memory magic to fill in her blank memories. This was condoned by Madam Pomphrey, too, as memory charms were sometimes used on patients, for their own peace-of-mind. You didn't need to carry memories of having been in tremendous pain, or being disfigured, if it could potentially cause mental issues, later on.
The basilisk's corpse was stored in an antechamber to the headmaster's office. He had no issue with Harry learning from the creature, but he preferred to be around, when he did so, to keep an eye. He'd not object to learning what Harry learned, either.
The rest of the school year promised to be rather subdued, due to this fact. Well, almost.
III-III
Dumbledore was sitting in his office, late one night, updating his system, with paperwork, which he'd found he could physically insert into his interface, which was already starting to make things simpler for him, when Harry sent him a message, through the hat, on the system, and Dumbledore smiled as he opened it.
'I'm downstairs. Tell the gargoyle to move, please?' the message read.
Dumbledore smiled again, as he made the gargoyle move for Harry. He didn't really want the boy up this late but wouldn't mind a break and maybe a cup of tea with him, and the Christmas hols were going to start the next day, so he wasn't upset at all. Maybe he had an idea he wanted to discuss, for one of their shared projects? As an afterthought, he made it so that it would move for him, anytime he showed up. He liked the boy coming to visit. The only time the gargoyle would not move for him, was when he was not there, or when he was busy with something important.
When Harry showed up, his smile quickly vanished. "Harry?" he asked. Harry was not smiling and looked upset. "What's going on?" he asked.
Harry walked to his desk and pulled a small form from his pocket, which he dropped unceremoniously on the headmaster's desk. "Peter Pettigrew." was all he said.
Dumbledore's eyes widened at that. "Where did you find him!?" he asked.
"He's better known as Scabbers, Ron Weasley's pet rat." Harry said. "He's been sleeping in our dorm, ever since first year! Why the hell didn't the wards stop him?!"
Dumbledore frowned at that, but he already had his wand out, and levitated the unconscious rat up, conjured a cage, and placed him in it. Then he went about casting an imperturbable spell on the cage. "I do not know." Dumbledore admitted. "How did you find him?"
"I was working with Harry on his map and wanted to show him how Hogwarts kept track of where the students were." the hat said.
"The whole map populated with names and indicators for people." Harry said. "And can you guess what I saw in my own dorm?" he asked, sarcastically.
"A supposedly dead, unmarked Death Eater." Dumbledore said, nodding in understanding. "Why didn't you call for help?" he asked. Sure, he was glad they had the man, because he finally had the evidence that he'd need to free Sirius, and Harry was a capable young man, but he'd have rather been involved, or had someone older involved.
"I didn't want to have another Ginny situation happen." Harry said. "Tom suspected something was up, because something was happening that didn't make sense. My leaving in the middle of the night, could have done the same."
"He had me in his head." the hat added. "We discussed what he did first. He handled it perfectly and was completely safe. You should be proud of him. He managed to capture the man without resistance."
Dumbledore sighed out, in relief. At least he had some form of backup, and the hat would have been able to inform him, if something went wrong. "Very well done, my boy." he said. "I would request being informed of such situations, in the future, but for now, I'm just glad that we finally have what we need to clear your godfather's name."
Harry nodded. "Any chance he'll confess, when you wake him up?" he asked, as he looked at the rat.
"Chances of that are small to nil." Dumbledore admitted.
"Veritaserum?" Harry asked.
"It's illegal for the DMLE to force someone to drink veritaserum." Dumbledore said.
"Is it illegal, if they don't know how it was introduced to his system?" Harry asked.
Dumbledore smiled at that. "Well, no, but how would we explain it?" he asked.
Harry sighed. "Well, what if I told you I already gave him some?" he asked.
"Did you?" he asked.
"No. I don't have access to such restricted substances." Harry admitted. "But, if Professor Snape has some, and you give it to Pettigrew, I wouldn't mind being an alibi for you. You'd need to punish me for stealing it from the potions professor's stores, though. That's the only way I can see for you to get away with it."
Dumbledore shook his head as he smiled. "I don't think we'll have to be that direct." he said. "We'll just say that a school owl dropped the rat off, with an anonymous letter. No need to bring any attention to you, or Professor Snape, that way."
"Clever." Harry said, nodding.
"Well, I'm not old and experienced for nothing." Dumbledore said, smiling.
"More like manipulative." the hat gave his opinion.
Dumbledore didn't refute that, but his smile did drop a bit at realising it was not untrue. "Very well." he said. "I believe I can handle this from here. Best that you get back to bed, Harry. The train leaves in the morning and you'll want to greet your friends before they go."
"I don't think you're evil, just so you know." Harry said. "A little tight-lipped about things maybe, but not dark."
"He should be sharing what he knows with someone, rather than carrying everything on his own." the hat said, anyway.
"Maybe he can share with you?" Harry suggested.
"Not this holiday." the hat refuted. "I'm sticking with you. No chance am I missing your first proper Christmas with Poppy and Beth."
"I would prefer to have you here." Dumbledore said.
"To do what?" the hat asked. "Sit here? Be useless?"
"So that you can tell me if Harry is in need of assistance?" the headmaster said.
"He'll be in the castle." the hat said. "Poppy can't leave so they're all staying. We'll just be in her quarters. I'll be taking the liberty of expanding it for them so that it can be a home rather than the rather standard suite that's afforded professors here."
"You can do that?" Dumbledore asked.
The hat didn't respond, but looked rather smug, in his silence.
"I'll leave it to you, then." Harry said. "Do us all a favour, though, and someone…" Harry trailed off as Hedwig flew into the headmaster's office, right to the cage, and landed on it.
"Hoot. Hoot-hoot." she hooted. 'I watch. Chick sleep.'
"Ha!" the hat laughed, again. "She doesn't trust you to keep an eye!"
"How did she know to come?" Harry asked.
"She's been watching, through my eyes." the hat said, smirking. "Didn't think you were the only one that could do that, did you?"
Harry frowned, before a smirk grew on his face. "She made you do it, didn't she?" he asked.
"N-no." the hat actually stammered, as the owl instantly glared at him. Hedwig had intimated that she could always get Harry a nicer, newer hat. What had never been said, and had been left as a threat, was why he'd need a new one. While the hat didn't think the threat was too serious, he wouldn't discount the idea that Hedwig could, and was likely smart enough to know, that she could drop him outside the range of the interface, which would cut him off from talking to Harry, or using his power to come back. That bird was so damn protective, she'd kill, or die for Harry.
"She threatened you, didn't she?" Harry asked.
"No, she didn't." the hat said, still eying the scowling bird. "She asked nicely, and I wanted to do it."
'I'll tell you later.' the hat added, in his head, in an actual whisper.
Harry just chuckled, as he turned. "Well, I'm off to bed. Have a good night, everyone, and Hedwig, please don't threaten my familiar? He's useful."
"Hoot." the owl hooted. 'Maybe.'
"Familiar?" Dumbledore asked. Then he remembered that he'd heard the hat say that Hedwig considered him Harry's familiar, like Harry was hers. "Oh, right. Well, thank you, Hedwig. I appreciate the help."
Hedwig just nodded at the headmaster, before she settled in, and started staring at Fawkes, who was also sitting there, looking at her.
"Are they…" Dumbledore asked, not knowing how to finish that sentence. To him it seemed like the two birds were either glaring at each other, intrigued, or communicating.
As Harry left, just chuckling, he quickly accessed his spell-system, and pulled up a stunner, quickly connected it, and sent it directly to Hedwig. He made sure to send an audio file, which he quickly spoke aloud, out of earshot, telling her that it was a stunning spell. He knew she'd understand to use it if the rat somehow tried to escape. After all, the rat would not expect it of her. Nobody would. He hoped she didn't need it.
III-III
Fortunately, it turned out that Hedwig was not needed. The headmaster had played his game, and arranged for the rat to be dosed, shortly before knocking him out, and using the Floo to go directly through to the DMLE, just as soon as Madam Bones could arrange it. He'd not even done it with the rat noticing. He'd woken up, as a human, with a confundus making him pliable, realised he was really thirsty, drank a conveniently placed glass of water, before sighing and losing consciousness again. Then Dumbledore had forced him back into his Animagus form and did the rest.
III-III
Harry was in the middle of dinner, that same evening, when Sirius Black arrived at the gates Hogwarts. Fortunately, Dumbledore had known to expect it, and had been waiting. He'd been there, when the man was finally released, after all. He'd ensured to let Sirius know, right at the outset, that he was working on getting him his freedom.
So when the man arrived, Dumbledore led him to the hall and brought him in. All of the students knew that Sirius Black was supposedly a Death Eater, but didn't know what he looked like. The staff had been informed, earlier that day, when Dumbledore informed them of the situation.
Now, as Sirius was led into the school, the first person to meet him was Professor McGonagall.
"What took you!?" she demanded, even as she stepped closer and hugged the shocked man.
"Um." he said.
"I heard everything." she said, as she stepped back, and looked at him sternly. "I suspect you could have avoided much of these issues, had you gone to care for Harry, instead of leaving him to seek vengeance. I thought I'd raised you better than that, young man."
"I…" Sirius tried, still not knowing what to say.
"Be better." she interrupted him. "You have a young man who is in dire need of a good male role-model. I'm afraid he's not had many opportunities, so far, and if I hear that you've not been on your best behaviour, I'll be upset. You don't want to see what happens then." she threatened.
"That's enough, Minerva." Dumbledore said. He could see the emotion on the woman's normally stern face. There was more there. She was quite emotional, just then, even if it was hard to see. "He's already been punished enough, for his actions, don't you think?" he asked.
McGonagall just sniffed, lifted her chin, and turned going back to the shared large table, which was standard for the smaller group of students and teachers that stayed over the holiday.
Sirius's mind had fallen into the same pattern he'd been in, for many years. He needed to get to Harry, so he looked up and around, for the boy, who he knew should be there.
"Boo." he heard from behind him. He'd not expected someone to sneak up behind him, and spun around, only to receive a stream of water in his face, from some sort of colourful, plastic handheld item, held by a boy who was unmistakably Harry Potter. He didn't know what a water-gun was, but he realised it was a joke, when the boy smirked at him, as he let up. "You're late. Dinner's almost over. I'd thought you'd be here the moment you could."
"Um." Sirius said. He'd had thoughts of showing up and introducing himself and maybe work his way into a friendship with the boy first. When the boy produced another colourful water… thing, and tossed it to him, before smirking and running off, he grinned. This was even better. "I'm going to get you for that!" he called, as the boy quickly ran from the hall, with him following.
"That boy." Poppy said to Beth. "He was worried that things would be awkward, so he used runes to make a copy of that toy he saw the other kids play with over the holiday."
"Well, he's a smart kid, but he struggles with the emotional things too." Beth said, shrugging. "Probably just thought this would be easier. Start by playing a game."
"I do hope that they get a moment to talk, at some point, too." Poppy sighed.
III-III
Harry had found a nicely defensible position, where there was a large pillar, and a railing, which he could jump, and had ducked behind it, while Sirius found the other location that Harry had scouted out, beforehand. He stuck his head out and was almost the recipient of a face full of water, but he ducked away fast enough. "That was close." he said. "Your reflexes must have suffered during your little holiday."
Sirius was smirking, still. "Not much of a choice, really." he said, as he ducked from a retaliating shot. "Got myself stuck in the slammer."
"I'd heard." Harry said. "I hope they stick ol' Peter in your cell."
Sirius took a moment to try and sneak around the pillar, as they continued the game and talked. He was shocked when the boy had apparently expected him, and got him, again, just before he ducked away again and disappeared behind another pillar. "Nice one." he said, as he wiped his face. "And I think it would be justice, but you know…" he trailed off, as he finally got a hit in. "Ha!" he laughed.
"You're sneaky! I didn't even hear you!" Harry said. "And yeah, I suppose they'd be better off putting him in something with smaller bars or something."
"Nah." Sirius said. "They've got tools to supress Animagus abilities, if they know you've got them. It's one of the reasons we kept them quiet." He tried going for Harry again, but this time, a bucket-load of water fell on him, as he tripped a ward. "Oh, you sneaky bugger!" he sputtered. "You set traps!"
"Well, if you know you're facing a prankster, you plan to prank." Harry said. "Did you think you'd end up in jail, or something?"
"No, the enemy had spies everywhere." Sirius said. "Any advantage is one we took advantage of, back then." He had heard where Harry was, but now, he had his wand out, too. He found another ward and avoided it. It was a basic trip-ward, which was pretty standard, and could be cast by a first year, with a bit of skill, which explained how Harry had been able to us it. "The headmaster didn't tell me that you were a prankster." he said, as he avoided the trap, and went to get Harry again, only to frown when the boy wasn't there, as he tripped another ward, and got drenched again.
"He couldn't tell you what he didn't know." Harry said, from behind him, and he sprayed the man again, laughing and running to avoid the water, again.
And so, it went. For the next ten minutes, they ducked and laughed and talked and played. It was the simplest way Harry could consider an introduction. The magic in the water-guns wouldn't work longer than that, but it was enough for them to chat for a bit, and by the end of it, the exonerated prisoner was out of breath. He'd not had plenty of opportunities for exercise in prison, after all, and he wasn't what anyone would call fit. He did look better than he had when they took him from Azkaban, though.
They were still smiling and discussing the game when they walked into the great hall, both of them completely soaked. Sirius had no issue setting traps too and had gotten Harry pretty good by the end there. He didn't know that Harry had allowed those tricks to work, though. It would have taken all the fun out of the game if Harry had gone all out.
They were reprimanded, of course, for walking around wet, and Sirius dried them both with a few spells, before they sat down to enjoy dinner. Well, Harry enjoyed his desert, while Sirius enjoyed his first proper meal in years.
That evening, he went with Harry and Poppy to their altered living space. Poppy had put some effort into some standard and magical decorations, for the holiday, and they sat and chatted, the three of them, about Harry's life. They didn't go into the system, or the interface. Neither Harry nor Poppy, thought that the man was in the right frame of mind yet, to be allowed something like the system.
Fortunately, he had no idea, so he was just grateful to Poppy, for stepping in, and basically adopting Harry. When Harry was sent off to bed, they stayed up to chat. Poppy had some things that she wanted to discuss with him, and he'd likely have many questions. By the next day, it had been decided that Sirius should sort out his living arrangements first. Find some stability and then, maybe, Poppy would allow Harry to visit him. She'd still likely accompany him, but Sirius seemed to understand that. He just wanted to be allowed to visit, maybe play a bit and get to know him, and tell Harry about his parents.
When Harry awoke, the next morning, Sirius was gone, but Poppy assured him that he'd be back. Christmas was only in a few days, and Sirius couldn't just decide to live at Hogwarts. He was an adult, and not a teacher, after all. Fortunately, Harry had something he wanted to do. He'd had an idea, during their water-fight, the previous evening. Elements. He wanted to see what he could do with the elements.
So, Harry started focussing on a new project.
III-III
It turned out that there were the four base elements of fire, water, earth and air. There were also less known elements, or at least, less defined elements, like form, power, spirit and life. Form would fall under the subjects like transfiguration, or abilities like metamorphmagi. Power was rather simple, though. Magic itself, lightning(electricity), light and, to a lesser degree, vibrations, or sound. Spirit would likely lend itself to things like horcruxes, so Harry decided to skip that one, entirely, for the moment. Lastly life, which included things like blood and sacrifice, was similarly skipped.
These less defined elements were capable of abuse, quite easily, so Harry put them at the end of his list. Mastering the base elements would likely take some time, anyway. Harry decided to start on air and water, considering he had a plan for both of those. Before he started on these elements, he created icons for them, under a new folder, which was hidden, again. He planned on surprising people with these two. It wasn't so much just to keep it from people.
He started working on water, first, considering he'd very recently played with a few elements of water. The water-guns were rather simple to reproduce. A simple low-powered Aguamenti would have done the same thing, but he'd wanted to do it with runes, and it had turned out to be rather simple to build that one in, with a trigger.
Similarly, his fridge-freezer runes, which he'd sort of come up with himself, were based in elements of water, which included cold. It was strange to Harry that cold wasn't an element of fire, considering heat, and the absence thereof, should be connected, but had needed to accept it, since this wasn't science; it was magic. As part of the basic instruction that was given to them for school, those sorts of elements were rather simple. The control mechanism for controlling the temperature exactly, had been the hard part, which had scored him such a great mark from Beth. She'd even said she couldn't do a better job, herself.
Of course, Harry had taken it one step further, and created a feed to himself, which fed the low-powered system automatically, every now and then, from his core orb, when the power was about to run out. Using the core orb just made sense. Things that were not essential, shouldn't ever be given power automatically from his own reserves.
Now he was playing with manipulating those elements directly. A bit of his half-built arithmancy-system was thrown in, on occasion, to form and play with those elements, but Harry specifically wanted to teach his magic how to use those elements directly, without any other system involved. Fortunately, he already knew how to teach his magic things like that.
Three days later, he'd even succeeded to a degree. When Christmas morning came, Poppy walked into the common area of their little flat, and found Beth sitting there, watching as a perpetual gentle snowfall landed on their Christmas tree.
"Oh, that's a nice touch." Poppy said, smiling. "I think Harry will like that."
"I know he does." Beth said. "I didn't do that. I think he's been playing with the elements. There's only a rune to banish water and snow at the base. There's no spell, no field, no enchantment that I can pick up on. It's just snowing, in that one spot. I tried dispelling it, but there's nothing to dispel." She'd said all that with a bit of wonder, and maybe worry on her face. "Poppy, what we're looking at should not be impossible."
Harry walked into the room, just then, yawning. "It's technically enchanted into the location." he said, stretching. "I just set the tree as the anchor and gave it a bit of power. Once it starts getting warmer, again, it will drain that power, and it will stop snowing. Pretty self-sufficient, until then, and technically helps keep the flat a bit warmer, due to the way it works."
"Cold is the absence of energy." Beth said, as she frowned. "You've been playing with energies?"
"That's just an element of water, with a bit of air thrown in, to create perfect snow-crystals." Harry said. "That's what I was working on. I was trying to create perfect snow, with identical crystals. Unfortunately, I don't think it's possible to manipulate snow to that degree. Water seems to have issues with being controlled down to the molecular level. I read somewhere that each snowflake is always unique. Apparently, a lot of factors influence how the water turns into snow, including temperature, humidity, air-pressure, presence of other elements, and even sound."
Poppy decided to hug and greet Harry first, before she asked her question. "Why play with snow?" she asked.
"Just something I'm working on." Harry said, shrugging. "It's just a bit of work I'm putting into training my magic to be more versatile. Nothing you have to worry about. I've already researched the dangers, so don't worry."
"There are dangers?" Beth asked.
"Not with what I'm doing, no." Harry said.
Beth sighed. "You're not telling us, are you?" she asked, slightly defeated.
"If you must know, I can tell you, but then you'll be ruining the surprise, so it really depends on if you can trust me, until I'm ready to show you." he said.
Poppy decided, on the spot, that she would not push. "Fair enough." she said. "I'll start on breakfast. We can open presents after that. And don't think that I've missed that we suddenly have more than was there, yesterday, young man."
Harry grinned at the woman. He'd obviously added a few, but he'd kept them a secret, because he liked surprising people.
He even had one for Sirius, if he showed up, which Harry suspected he would.
Breakfast, as prepared by Poppy Pomphrey, tended to be healthy, and nutritious. She seldom made greasy food, but for Christmas, it seemed she put away the title of healer, and prepared waffles. It was even a family recipe. The food was greatly enjoyed, and pretty soon, they were sitting around the Christmas tree.
"Shall we begin?" Beth asked, eyeing the presents. She'd already spotted two with her name. She was excited, because she knew Harry had gotten her something.
"Just a moment." Harry said, as he looked to the window. It took a couple of seconds, before Hedwig flew in. "Morning, Hedwig. I saved you a bit of bacon." he offered.
"Hoot." the owl hooted. 'Thanks.' It was morning, so for her, it was time for sleep, but she was always excited about bacon.
The hat followed the bird. "Sorry about being late." the hat said, as it flew over the pile of presents, and a few parcels fell from inside it. It then came to a stop on the armrest of a couch. "Had a bit of an issue with the gifts. Ended up needing to make space." it admitted.
"You can store things inside yourself?" Harry asked, not having known that.
"I have my mysteries, too, you know." the hat said, smugly.
"Are we waiting for anyone else?" Poppy asked, smiling.
"That's everyone I wanted here." Harry said. "I'm guessing Sirius will be around later."
"He told me he'd be around by lunch." Poppy said. "Apparently he's in the process of securing a place to rent, and it's difficult to do things like that, at this time of the year." Personally, she just thought the man would have been out drinking, considering it was his first Christmas in many years, and he likely missed his friends. He'd confided in her that he was looking for Remus Lupin, one of their best friends, when he was still in school.
"Makes sense, I suppose." Harry said, nodding. Then he smiled, and the two women saw something they seldom saw. Childlike excitement.
"I think it's time." Beth said, as she went to fetch her presents, handing one to Harry, one to Poppy, one to the hat, and the last one to Hedwig.
"Hoot?" the owl hooted. It had actually sounded like a question.
"Get your familiar to open it for you." Beth said, not needing to know what the owl had asked.
Hedwig looked at Harry and lifted her head. There was no hoot, but Harry still got a translation. 'Well?' it asked. It seemed the owl would expect immediate compliance.
Harry chuckled but decided to help her first. He went to open her present for her first, tearing the wrapping paper. What was revealed, was a small box, with a familiar orb. Harry smiled. He knew what Beth had done. "Congratulations, Hedwig, Beth has gifted you with a core orb. We'll be able to set you up with your own magical reserves, with this."
"Beth!" Poppy exclaimed. "You can't give her that!"
"Do you have any doubt that Harry would have done so himself at some point?" Beth asked, not even reacting. "Better that I do it right, rather than have him experiment. I know for a fact that that bird has spells that she uses through a feed from Harry. This way she can store her own and Harry can disconnect the feed."
"Hoot. Hoot-hoot." the owl hooted, as she took the orb in a talon, and held it. 'Thank you. I will keep.' Then, shocking all of them, the bird reached forward, and the orb disappeared, seemingly into her interface.
"How the hell does she know how to do that!?" Beth exclaimed.
"Hoot-hoot." the owl responded, looking imperiously at the woman. 'I learn from chick.'
"She learned by watching Harry." the hat translated. "She didn't say it, but she feels that you should have expected that much."
The owl then stuck her talon forward, and pulled out a red and gold feather, from her interface. "Hoot-hoot. Hoot-hoot." she said. 'Shiny feather, from phoenix. Gift for friend.'
"It's apparently for you, Beth." the hat said. "It sounds like she got it from Fawkes."
"Hoot. Hoot-hoot." the owl responded.
"Correction, she took it from him, without asking." the hat said. "I think there's a story there."
"Hoot." the owl said, glaring at the hat.
"Owl secret." the hat said. "I don't think we should ask."
"Does Hedwig scare anyone else?" Beth asked, as she took the offered feather.
"Not me." Harry said, shrugging. "I think she's brilliant."
The owl puffed her chest out proudly, before she flapped over to Harry's shoulder, and started trying to fix his hair, something she did to show affection.
Harry had decided to open his own gift. As he opened it, he found a square of light metal. Aluminium. On it, there were quite a few runes. "It's…" he started, as he started translating the runes, slowly.
"You can store interface programs in there." Beth said. "Finally figured it out. I was overcomplicating things with my earlier attempts. It doesn't need a store for magic. We power the programs ourselves, after all, with our own minds. All it needed was a form of memory, and that's what that tablet does. If you ever decided to share, or sell partial functionality, you'd need something like that. People would need to buy the tablets, and then you can just copy what you want onto it."
Harry was shocked. This could be very useful to him. He smiled at the woman, got up and went to hug her. "Thanks Beth!" he said, excitedly.
"I knew you'd need something like that, at some point." Beth said, as she smiled, too, hugging him back.
"It's brilliant." Harry said, as he let go. "Thank you." he added, again.
Beth smiled but shrugged. "We're family, right? That's what family does."
Harry wanted to give his presents too, but decided to help the hat, and went to him.
"No need." the hat said, as he lifted up and floated forward, the package vanishing into his own interface. "Didn't think of this before. Hedwig had the right idea." He quickly unwrapped the gift in his interface and smiled, as the wrapping paper fell out of his interface. He'd gotten an orb, too. It was even already in his interface, so all he'd need to do, was create a visual representation of its reserves. "Thank you, Beth. This will be more useful than you know."
"Made him an orb, too." Beth explained. "Now he can float around and cast spells, without needing Harry."
Harry smirked and popped his gift to the hat over to his interface.
"More books?" the hat asked, hopefully, as he started unwrapping his mental gift.
"Better." Harry said.
The hat had finished opening the gift, and his 'face' showed shock. "This is… your application of levitation, but not for propelling myself. This is…"
"Proper telekinesis charm as it should be. Consider it your new hands." Harry said, smiling. "Now that you've got a core, you won't even need me around, to be able to use it. You can go visit the library and read anything you want."
"Oh my." Poppy said, as she smiled, but in exasperation. First, Harry had allowed the hat to read and be connected to people, then he'd allowed him to move. Then Beth had given him his own power-source, and now, the hat could influence the world around it, like any other person.
"This is fantastic!" the hat exclaimed, as it flew up, and spun, before it went to sit on Harry's other shoulder, in as close as it could get to a hug. "Thanks, m' boy." he said. "You have just increased my quality of life, tremendously."
"You're welcome Gryff." Harry said, smiling at the hat. "And hey, if you do it right, this might allow you more speed, when you fly. You'll just have to be able to work both magics at once. And do remember to keep an eye on your reserves. You wouldn't want to be left stranded, mid-flight."
The hat seemed to understand that, but quickly went to retake his position.
Harry went to the pile and pulled out his gifts to the others.
Beth didn't wait to unwrap hers. What she pulled out, was another plate of aluminium. It was the same size as hers, because it was a standard size, but the runes were completely different. "Give me a bit." she said, before Harry could tell her what it did. She loved figuring it out herself, and Harry had no doubt that she would.
Poppy had intended on waiting before opening hers, but she found that she couldn't. She started unwrapping hers, too. What she got, was different. "What is this?" she asked, as she pulled up the board of see-through glass. She inspected it and found nothing on it. No runes that she could see, either.
"It's a new item." Harry said. "You'll need to tether it to yourself, at some point, but for now, it's tethered to me. All you need to do, is focus on what you want to exclude, like I can with my models, and it will allow you to look at people, without the need of a whole model, and see only what you want to."
Poppy frowned, and looked through the glass at Harry, seeing only bones sitting there, and waving at her. "Oh, Harry! This is wonderful!" she exclaimed, as she put the glass down, and went to hug Harry. "How did you figure it out? I thought it wasn't possible to do this, without the system?" She'd be able to create models of people, like Harry did, much more easily with this. She suspected that that was the point, too.
"Well, like I said, it's tethered to me, so it is technically part of the system, but because I can do this, so can the board." Harry said. "Basically, it means that we could produce items, connected to one person, like maybe, a chief of staff, or a head of a hospital, and then those under that person would have access to all the skills that that person possesses, to a degree."
Poppy hugged Harry again, as she realised what this meant. They might be able to one day completely protect Harry's secret, and only sell the effects that they wanted people to have.
"It's another interface." Beth said, in shock. "You've made a way to connect it, like a secondary stationary display."
"You keep on whining about not having enough space on yours, and usually needing more space for your experiments, so I thought this would work nicely to help you with that." Harry said, smiling at her. He didn't understand it, personally, because he just shrunk and enlarged things as needed, but it seemed that the woman had a method that she preferred. He realised that seeing the size of runes was sometimes necessary, too, so it at least made sense to him, to a degree.
"You're right." Beth said, as she quickly went to hug Harry as well. "Thanks, man. I'm going to enjoy playing with this."
"Hey, coupled with one of yours, I think this would make for a very nice, self-contained system." Harry said, indicating his gift from her. "Put some things on one of yours, connect that to one of mine, and you'd basically have a magical computer that only you can see and use."
Beth's eyes widened. "That's… a very good point." she said.
"Bugger's just invented magical computers, and he's just wondering what Poppy and I got him." the hat chuckled.
"Hey!" Harry objected. "Aren't you supposed to keep my personal thoughts private?"
"I wasn't reading your mind, Harry." the hat said, smugly. "I just know you well."
Harry grumbled, but his eyes did flick to the gifts that were left.
Poppy smiled and went to fetch her own. She'd only gotten Harry and Beth something, though. "Sorry." she said to the hat and the owl. "I didn't know what to get either of you."
Harry was quickly opening his package. He was unsurprised to find a book. 'The Practical Joker's Handbook.' "Really?" he asked, smirking at Poppy.
"I read through it, first." Poppy said. "It has a few ideas I think you'll like, and one of the founding tenants in that book, is clean fun, that everyone can enjoy. I know you are responsible, so I won't ask you to be careful. I just hope you have fun with it."
Harry smiled at the woman. "Thank you." he said.
"I know it's not much, but I want you to have fun, too." Poppy said. "As your guardian, it's my job to ensure you have a well-rounded childhood. I knew Beth would give you something to do with runes, that I wouldn't necessarily understand, and likely connected to the interface, so I decided to go in the other direction."
"It's perfect, Auntie Poppy." Harry said, hugging her, again.
Beth got a shrunken bottle of magical absinthe, apparently the strongest stuff that was commercially available. Poppy knew the woman liked to indulge and had a high tolerance. She smiled at the woman, nodded, and placed the bottle away.
"Open mine." the hat said, then, as he used his new capabilities, currently still connected to Harry as a power-source (until he could figure out his own tether to the core), and levitated his gifts to their recipients, one at a time.
Harry didn't hesitate to open his gift. Inside, he found what looked like a patch, in the form of a shield, with a Griffon and a Beaver on it. "What's this?" he asked.
"It's something I thought you'd appreciate." the hat said. "Took a bit of power to make, but it was reasonably simple, in the interface. It's basically just a combination of the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff family crests. What it does, is a bit of a well-kept secret. It will make navigating the castle a little easier, by making the moving staircases align for you, every time."
"It can do that?" Poppy asked. "I thought it was random?"
"Well, it is, unless someone has one of these." the hat said, smugly. "The founders used to give what was then just the older students, and what's called prefects today, those sorts of items. The idea was that students would travel together. It encouraged a bit of responsibility, and kept the younger students escorted, by having those older students keep track of the younger ones. It also ensured that students were on time for classes, in a time when things were less formal, like they are today. Back then it was more like an apprenticeship program, where many students of different ages, would go to study with masters at the same time, and allowed smarter pupils to finish their educations at their own pace."
"Sounds like it would be chaos." Poppy said, frowning.
"Well, there were fewer students back then." the hat allowed. "The castle also housed a few families, back then, militia, and workers for the farms. What are classrooms now, were bedrooms, storage, potions labs and all manner of research places. Some students even stayed here, after their studies, and continued studying and trying new things. Back then, such experimentation was encouraged, because the laws of magic weren't set in stone, as people tend to believe it is today."
"Militia?" Harry asked.
"It was in a time, when raiders and bandits would raid towns, for resources." the hat said. "The castle was a defensible position, and muggles even settled nearby, where they'd fall under the protection of the lords and ladies of Hogwarts castle. Magic wasn't a secret back then, as you might recall. What's Hogsmeade, now, used to house many muggles. It only became an all-magical village, after the statute was put in effect."
"It's all covered in History of Magic." Poppy noted.
"I didn't study that much further than what's necessary, every year." Harry admitted. "I'd think that there'd be mention of most of this in Hogwarts, a history, though."
"I didn't write that book." the hat said. "There's a lot of facts about the castle in there, but it doesn't cover everything. Much before the statute was lost, by people, and I've never been approached, about what I remember."
"Maybe you should take over from Binns?" Harry asked. "He's knowledgeable enough for the subject, but I swear he tries to bore his students to death just so he'd not be alone in being a ghost. He also loves droning on about goblin rebellions. Seriously, the information clearly points to wizards being in the wrong, trying to screw the goblins out of all their rights. Why shouldn't they fight? I'd be irritable too, if I had to basically serve another sentient species when I'm the one that works the hardest to build and support a functional economy."
"Let's not go into politics today?" Poppy asked, sighing. Harry liked to get into those subjects recently. It was like he latched onto any juicy subject and then couldn't let go until he got right down to the marrow.
After that, things settled down, as much as they could, with Harry and Beth inevitably starting to talk about the applications of their gifts to the other. To be fair, they all had questions and needed to discuss things. The hat had already gotten a visual representation of the reserve sorted for his core and was happily flying around while he helped anyone do anything, just because he could. He felt wonderfully useful suddenly.
Poppy had found that Harry had even added a mirror function to the glass tablet he'd given her, and she could inspect her own body, with relative ease. She could basically see any part of any structure of her body, in perfect clarity, and that was before she realised that she could shove the device into her interface, too.
Beth and Harry were happily chatting about how they'd used the runes to make them perform their functions. It wasn't as simple as just copying the script, after all. There was an order, and formula to each type of script. Neither of them doubted that the other would be copying their gift, but they didn't need to even discuss that, because it was expected.
Harry had already copied parts of his targeting and spell-systems into the gift from Beth, and it had even worked. Well, when connected to his orb, at least. He planned on making an orb of his own, one day soon. Then he'd be able to experiment with multiple, or swap out, and let one charge naturally, while the other was in use.
By lunch, those who were staying at the castle, were in the Great Hall again, with Sirius showing up and handed Harry a package. Harry felt a little bad, because he'd not planned on a gift for the man, in return. Fortunately, Sirius understood, and made sure Harry knew he didn't expect anything in return. It wasn't much of a gift, he'd claimed. Harry had opened the package at Sirius's insistence, and found a book on common enchantments, that were used around magical homes. Things like brushes and things that cleaned automatically. It was almost like the one Harry had gotten Hermione, but this one focussed on enchantment and permanent functions, where hers had been about spells. He'd heard that Harry was a bright boy, and he'd winked, as he told Harry that he'd actually used some of the enchantments for pranks, during his school days. Apparently, some of the things in the book, were actually quite useful for multiple situations.
Harry thanked him, and shook his hand, not feeling ready for more, and the man seemed to feel the same. It was still awkward.
Lunch was a large affair, and Harry may have indulged a bit much. To the point that he needed a nap, afterward. A nap that took him all the way to dinner-time. He wasn't hungry just then, though, but fortunately, they were having something light. Poppy still liked healthy foods, and a few cold cuts of meat on a sandwich and a fresh salad was just the thing for her. Harry promised to eat it later, as he went to his favourite seat, and delved into his new research.
The hat was still around, floating through the rooms, and actually doing a bit of manual cleaning, just because he could. He'd already figured out how he'd be charging the core. He'd simply orient his interface down, and unload the orb under himself, so that it could charge, disconnected from an interface. When it was charged, he'd take it back in. Simple.
Beth had retreated back to her own place, already, because she had a few things she wanted to try out, with her new capabilities. Harry envied her for that. He couldn't stay up through the night and simply work on new things, when he wanted. He did tend to act asleep and work on things on his interface, but he also knew Poppy could likely cast a spell and know he wasn't sleeping. A simple look through her new toy and she'd be able to see his heart and pick up from the heart-rate that he was not asleep. He doubted she did, but that didn't mean she couldn't.
At least, after she went to bed, he could stop all pretence and put some effort into his work.
He was playing around with the element of air, now. He'd needed a bit of that for the snow, to give it a gentle breeze, so that the snow didn't just come straight down. It really was very little, though. As he'd played with it, he'd found that he enjoyed playing with air. It felt… free. That was the only thing Harry could describe it as. Water was less so. Water felt like it wanted to go its own way. It needed a stream. It wanted to collect with other water and form up, before making its way down.
Air didn't have restrictions like that. It wanted to touch things, move and just be everywhere. There was still a bit of that feeling of flowing with more air, but it wasn't as rigid. It didn't need more, because all air touched other air. It could change direction easily, with minimal effort, and felt almost giddy at being directed, wanting to comply.
For that reason, Harry had decided that his next project would be something more. He wanted to master this element, but he also wanted to use it. Playing with air was simply just too fun.
III-III
Boxing day was more of the same when it came to food, really. Harry found that he quite liked eating cold cuts of meat on thick cuts of bread with some kind of sauce to tie it together. For breakfast he'd eaten juicy gammon on thick fresh white bread, with lots of butter and just a dash of mayonnaise. He'd nearly overstuffed himself again when he realised how delicious that was. Fortunately Poppy had kept an eye and stopped him. Then, she decided they should go for a morning stroll, to settle their stomachs.
"So, what were you up to all of last night?" Poppy asked.
"Besides sleeping?" Harry asked, innocently.
"I know you didn't go to sleep until late." Poppy said. "You slept too much after lunch, so you were probably up until three in the morning."
Harry's eyebrows rose. That was exactly right. Not for the first time, he realised that the woman was a very good healer. She knew the human body and its natural cycles. Then again, there was also the likelihood that she's used magic to confirm it. She didn't offer him an answer, though, and he smirked. "Yeah, that's just about right. I was playing with manipulating the flow of air. Set up a bit of a directional detection and suggested flow, concept. Haven't had a chance to test it thoroughly, though. Didn't want to play with it too much, last night."
"So, you've started studying the base elements, then?" Poppy asked.
Harry nodded, a little disappointed that she'd figured it out. "Yeah." he said.
"I didn't mean to spoil your surprise, Harry." Poppy said, knowing him well enough to know why he'd showed disappointment, just then. "It is good to know, though. I'd prefer you have me there, before you go to things like earth and fire, anyway. Both of those elements are powerful and could drain you quickly. Air is supposed to be the easiest, followed by water, if memory serves. The last true Elementalist that lived, was a few hundred years ago, but supposedly he could pull up volcanoes and summon hurricanes and natural disasters. He was classed a dark lord, too, even though he just defended his homeland from attackers. The power of the elements are thought of as too powerful to play around with, normally."
"Well, I'm not planning on doing that." Harry said, simply. "I was just thinking of teaching the system how to control and manipulate those elements in my immediate surroundings." He stopped there and opened the interface. He directed the system to feel the flow of air around them, and created a model of still-standing air, right in front of himself. He kept it very still, to the point where the air was almost fighting him, for freedom. The box of still-standing air was something only he could see, but he stepped forward, onto it, and stood there, seemingly on nothing. "Figured this much out, at least." he said, smiling.
"Standing on air?" Poppy asked, frowning. "How?"
"Magic stops the air from moving, where I want. I don't weigh enough to make that air move with my feet, so I'm standing on that air." Harry said, simply.
"Cost?" Poppy asked, as she pulled her wand, and inspected the solid air that she couldn't see.
"Very low upkeep actually." Harry said. "I could easily stand here, all day, and my power wouldn't suffer. My plan is to incorporate this into another project."
"Hmm." Poppy hummed, as she considered it. "You do realise that you could easily kill people with this, right?" she asked. "Solidify the air around a person's body, and they'd not be able to breathe, or move."
"I… hadn't thought of that." Harry admitted. "I suppose, logically, I could also target the air in a person's lungs this way. I wouldn't, obviously, but I see what you're saying. Still, this could be useful to you, too."
"Oh?" Poppy asked.
"If a person has a collapsed lung, you could use this to inflate it." Harry said. "Force air in there, or out of the chest cavity, to restore normal lung functionality, or dislodge something that's stuck in there. I suspect it could also help in cases like a punctured lung, to stall bleeding by not allowing the air to move to stop blood from entering the lung, too."
Poppy nodded, as she considered it. "Well, they do say that any power can be abused. It just depends on the intent of the caster." she allowed. "Do me a favour, though? If you ever need to defend yourself and you end up using this, don't keep people from breathing for long enough to cause brain damage? I can fix almost anything, but I can't undo physical brain damage."
"Noted." Harry said, as he directed the box upwards. As had happened before, however, the moment the air moved, he fell through it. It wasn't high though. "That's a problem I'm currently working on."
"What?" Poppy asked.
"I wanted to make the air move up, with me on it, but the moment the air is allowed to move, I fall through it." he admitted.
"It sounds like that would make sense." Poppy said.
"It does." Harry allowed. "I'm still going to figure it out. I'm currently thinking compressed air, to counter the pressure that my own weight adds to the construct. Even though it's the same air inside the construct currently, when it can move, it compresses to the sides, and I can feel it pressing on me, as I fall through it. Thus, it makes logical sense that if it's compressed already, there would be less chance of me falling through."
"Start with inanimate objects first." Poppy said. "I don't like the sound of you falling through compressed air. It sounds dangerous."
"If my findings are correct, it is." Harry said. "Pressure on the blood-vessels and the air inside the body, could make it very difficult for the blood to move, or could affect the air in your blood. I wasn't thinking of playing with this, that recklessly."
"Good." Poppy said, nodding, as she continued to walk. "Any chance you could use this to stop a frigid wind, or to blow away snow?" she asked, indicating to the path they were on, which was covered in a thin layer of newly fallen snow.
Harry nodded and directed the air around them to flow forward and down. This had the effect of having a strong wind blow over them, which was pretty damn cold. "Hold on." Harry said, as he stopped it, and thought of a better method. Pretty soon, he'd made a new model, which curved the air around them, and did the same thing. Now as they walked, the snow on the ground was being broken up and blown away in clumps and a fine dusting of free-floating snow which blew away from them. "There." he said, smugly, as the path cleared ahead of them.
"Cost?" Poppy asked, even as she smiled, and walked forward on the clear path.
"Hmm." Harry hummed as he looked at the throughput. "About a tenth of a percent per minute?" he offered.
"So, projected, about three percent, for the half-hour this walk will take?" Poppy asked.
"Likely." Harry said, nodding. "Pretty low cost, for a bit of a strong breeze, really."
"Might be useful in the summer." Poppy said, smiling at him.
"I'd need less power for a personal breeze, like that." Harry said. "This is a strong breeze, which could be noisy going over a person's face, and may be a bit much for a classroom. I'll likely be combining a rune scheme with a light breeze, to make a bit of a personal air-conditioner function, connected to an interface-tablet."
Poppy nodded, thinking that something like that might be useful, during the winter. Frankly, the castle could get pretty damn cold in the winter. If they could have some sort of system like this to regulate temperatures in the castle come summer or winter, that would be grand. She decided to voice that opinion. "Any chance you could do that for classrooms, without needing you there?" she asked.
"Beth could likely do that with normal runes." Harry scoffed. "I'd be surprised if she's not already made something like this. She knows the runes I used for my fridge/freezer, after all."
Poppy frowned at that. If she could do that, why didn't she?
"Chances are, the problem with such a system would be that it would take magic out of the air, and there may be issues with that, in a place where the students rely on ambient magic to refill their stores." Harry shared his thoughts, without her needing to ask.
Poppy's face cleared, and she nodded. "Well, that does make sense." she allowed.
"Maybe she could do something with her core-orb, though." Harry said. "Set up a way for the staff to power the functionality of runes, through simply putting charge in a rune-made air-conditioner. I think even I could make something like that, with reasonable ease."
"If you find a moment, please keep me in mind for that." Poppy requested. "I'd like to keep the infirmary at a proper room temperature and comfort charms aren't always the right option, especially for sick children who shouldn't have magic cast directly on them."
"Can do." Harry said, smiling. "If you want, I can start on that, once we're back at the castle. I could make a test unit for the apartment, even. I don't think the Christmas tree's snow would last very long, once I do that, but now that Christmas is over, I think I'd like warmer better than dressing heavily."
"I think I agree." Poppy said. "Are you still working on a horcrux detection system?" she asked, then. She'd never forgotten, and she doubted Harry had, either.
"Actually, I think I'm done with that." Harry admitted. "It wasn't all that difficult, really. Your aura-view spell ended up not helping as I'd hoped unfortunately, but I was able to detect the links. I'd just need to be within a certain distance of one and I'll be able to pick up on it, now."
"That's great news!" Poppy exclaimed suddenly. She really wanted that thing out of her boy. "Do you know how far?" she asked.
"I can cover about the distance of the castle." Harry said. "That's how I know there's three of them within range, at this moment."