After the tours
Fleur Delacour's POV
We had just finished the tours of the Hogwarts grounds, and a massive migraine was incoming. All due to one girl's incessant chattering. Miss Potter joined us halfway through our introduction to Hogwarts.
We then split into two groups: one led by Miss Collins and the other by Percival. Sarah and Adrian went with Jessica, as they were more familiar. Percival and Jessica played a game called 'Boulder, Parchment, Wands'. Percival lost spectacularly at that, and now we were stuck with the little girl.
All throughout the tours, she was asking stupid questions. Mama tells me that 'there are no stupid questions', but I am inclined to let her meet the girl and change her mind. I was very tempted to place a silencing charm on her and give us a few moments to ourselves before she talked the charm off.
It was a good thing that Madame McGonagall had come to collect her after we had finished our tour. Most of the students went back to the carriage, while a few went around and explored a little bit more. I followed Percival to the 'Room of Promise', as he calls it.
"Tell me why you could not have asked Mademoiselle Ward-Prowse for help? Isn't her family known for this?" I asked as I examined the blue gemstone. "It is literally her family name."
"She and her family specialise in wards. Their name is Ward-Prowse. This is a rune matrix. They're two different things," he replied.
"How are they different?"
"The main difference is that a rune matrix is designed with a specific goal in mind, while a ward scheme is designed to protect, enhance, or safeguard a location from anything that might enter," Percival said.
"Wards are more useful and efficient in large areas with general use in mind. While rune matrices are better for things like this, when something requires a very specific set of skills, rune matrices are the way to go."
"How is this any different from an arkstone?"
"Arkstones are volatile by nature but long lasting. They are huge, and the best quality can power a ward scheme for upwards of a millennia. However, they need to be mined and are extremely fragile. The fortified gemstones, however, are stable. They don't need separate ward schemes to keep the system stable. It can fit in the palm of your hands, and from our calculations, we estimate it can last for about two hundred years, powering a ward scheme. Luna is the only person who can make the fortified gemstone," Percy said. "Ooh, did I mention how stable they are?"
"Yes, you did. Multiple times," I said with my head in my hand. "Wait! That means Lovegood would have a complete monopoly over it."
"Greengrass has a monopoly on potion ingredients. Prince has a monopoly on the European potion trade. The Delacour family controls more than half of the French economy. Arkstone mining rights belong to a coalition of seven families. What's wrong with the Lovegood family having a monopoly on the gemstone?" Percy said.
"This is a cute book." I said as I read the journal with all our notes on experiments in the past few days.
"Anyways, Mother Lovegood said that the original gemstone could be reverse engineered within two decades after it reaches the market."
"Wow, nicknames. You must really like the Lovegood girl," I said offhand. "What about the fortified gemstone? How long would it take?"
"Luna insists that whenever I mention Pandora, I have to call her 'Mother Lovegood'. We calculate it would take around thirty-ish years."
"Are all these figures based on calculations?"
"Second half of the book, yeah," Percy said. "We extrapolated the data."
"Extrapolation is inherently unreliable. Why would you do that?"
"We believe we've underestimated some figures and overestimated others. So we hope the over and under estimates cancel out to give us a reasonable estimate," Percy said. "Anyway, it's hard to get good figures when everything breaks after each attempt. It gets really expensive, really fast."
"Can I have a look at it?" I asked. "How expensive are you talking about?"
"Here," Percy said as he lifted a few bits of the shell. "Caesium is expensive with how often it breaks. How does it look?"
"It's certainly... inspired?" I said as I looked at the jumble of multi-coloured wires. "Such disarray is unbecoming for a venture that could potentially change the way we use magic. We shall have to start anew, and zis time, with the Delacour touch."
"Have you trade marked that yet?" Percy said with a soft chuckle. "Inspired is the wight word. I have not touched them in case of an explosion. But with how many we've had, it wouldn't result in any further setbacks."
"A wise man once said, 'No great science should ever put lives in danger.' You should live by that," I said as he shrugged. "And no, I have not trade marked it. It already belongs to my grandmother. Tell me about it?"
"As you can see, the wires are tangled. We used..."
"Is this silver?" I abruptly asked as he nodded. "No wonder it breaks so often. You should have gone with Goblin Silver instead. It would reduce the dependence on a cooling system and would be more efficient."
"In an ideal scenario, we would love to use Goblin Silver, but that is outside our budget. Like way outside. Imagine our budget was the size of England; we would need a budget the size of Brazil to get the minimum of what we want. Like..."
"Enough; I get what you are trying to say. I would also suggest you move it out of Hogwarts. The wards are interfering."
"Professor Flitwick also suggested the same. He was worried about what it could do in the wrong hands."
"Who's the 'wrong hand' in Hogwarts? Isn't this one of the most secure places in Europe?"
"Dumbledore," he said as shock was clearly planted on my face. "In the right hands, it can be weaponized. Dumbledore was once a warmongering blood-supremacist. I can see where he's coming from. After all, 'Weapons can't be unmade, and they are always used'."
"Ambessa, The Warlord, not bad. I guess they've upgraded your history curriculum. But Dumbledore is harmless. He wouldn't do something like that."
"You wouldn't expect him to have a kill count higher than Grindelwald, but he does. You wouldn't expect him to be more zealous for blood-supremacy than Grindelwald, but he was. You don't know what to expect from him. It's better to be safe than sorry."
"Where are you going to move it to?"
"To one of my manors in the Siberian Peninsula: It's under Fidelius, so it should be safe. It's cold, so we could cut some corners if we needed to. The manor is away from people, so we can experiment to our hearts' content."
"Can I have a look at your cooling rune matrix?"
"Put your wand on the fourth last page, and say 'Arcane'."
I did as he said, and on the blank page, a detailed diagram of the matrix appeared. I analysed it for a few minutes while Percy put the shell together again.
"Who created this?"
"Purple eyes. Pricilla Rosier."
"I would suggest redeveloping it with the Nordic Runic Language instead of olde Germanic. It would be more defined and efficient."
"Olde Germanic would go colder and last longer."
"Norse would be easier to integrate," I said as I looked over to Sarah as she let her temper get the better of her. "I think we should go over there."
"Probably."
Present
Percival Ebonwood POV
"We have a few problems. First, we have used up all your allocated budget. We even started using up some of the available funds for other student's projects. Second, material. We need more Caesium, and Fleur recommends using Goblin Silver instead of silver."
"I have a few family contacts that could get you a decent amount of Goblins Silver. My family could get our hands on some Caesium quite easily," Fleur said.
"That's one problem resolved. Third, we have to rejig all of it. We came to the conclusion that it is an absolute mess and needs to be tidied up."
"It was sooo colourful and pretty. Do we have to?" Luna asked.
"Unfortunately, yes. We can definitely keep the colour, but it just needs to be tidied up."
"Okay. That's fine."
"Fourth, Pricilla, you'd have to redevelop your rune matrix. Fleur, if you'd mind?"
"No, not at all," Fleur said as she got off the table. "Although it works really well with Olde Germanic, the Nordic Rune Language would be easier to integrate and maintain. It would be quicker to set up; however, we would also lose some of the functionality. That wouldn't matter with the next point. Also, I will be helping you redevelop it, if you wouldn't mind?"
"I won't say no to help. The number of headaches I got from developing it tells me I probably can't do it by myself," Pricilla said.
"Fifth, location. We would have to move this away from Hogwarts as it is a safety hazard. I have an empty manor on the Siberian peninsula that we could use. Professor Flitwick has offered to link his Floo network to the manor and become our secret keeper."
"Why?" Luna asked.
"So nobody else knows where it is or what it does. The public will only find out when Luna is ready," I said as the group nodded at my point.
"So how are we going to solve those problems?" Jessica asked.
"Most of the problems could be solved with money, and that's why I'm willing to sponsor 200,000 galleons for this project with no strings attached," I said as the English girls had shock written on their faces. Gasps came out of their mouths, while Hermione and Luna's jaws dropped to the floor.
"I am also willing to sponsor an additional 200,000 galleons; however, mine does come with a string attached," Fleur said as the room turned towards her. "If you decide to release zis..." Fleur paused, letting the weight of her offer hang brazenly.
"Go on then."
"Whether as a research paper or a product available to the masses, I would like to be the main distributor. Across central Europe, if I 'aven't made myself clear."
"Ummm, okay. I think that's fine," Luna said.
"Also, I would like the production method of the fortified gemstone and for my name to appear second on any publications related to this."
"I think I speak for the rest of us," I said. "But that is a resounding no. It's tradition to have our head of house as our second."
"I think you don't have a say in this. This isn't your creation."
"No, Percy is right. And he does have a say," Luna said. "Professor Flitwick will be my second, while Percy and Pricilla will be my third. You and Hermione can have acknowledgements."
"That will not be enough to warrant such a large investment."
"You can also have the production method for the first generation of gemstones."
"Acceptable."
"What do I get?" Hermione asked.
"An acknowledgement and a guaranteed job prospect when you graduate."