They kept the group small when they met Arthur's student at the indoor shooting range an hour later. It was just Arthur himself, the three Lestranges, Gellert and Blaise, Romeo and his wife, Juda, and Gori.
The later two came along because Gellert wanted input from various types of magical practitioners, as he hoped that elf and goblin magic could add more elements to whatever shields they would build against these guns.
The guns ranged in size from longer than Bella's arm to as small as her hand. They were all equally deadly, only they performed the task in different...sizes. The bullets always blew holes into someone, but the holes got bigger as the guns did. The small guns made small holes, but if the hole was put into the heart or into the brain, a person was just as dead. The gun that disturbed Bellatrix the most, Arthur's student referred to as a machine gun. It shot many of the bullets in rapid succession, even nearly at the same time, whereas the others only shot one at a time. These machine guns could kill far more people in a short amount of time.
To Bellatrix's relief, Grindelwald didn't seem more concerned about this machine gun than any of the others.
"A shield to protect from one bullet will work just as well against a barrage of them," he commented calmly when she expressed alarm over the rapid fire abilities of the troubling machine gun. After studying the various guns firing for several hours, Gellert formed his plan of defense. This plan involved weaving motion sensor type shields into clothes. The shield would be able to move to a degree.
So if it was placed on a robe, and it sensed a bullet moving toward the wearer's head rather than the chest, the shield would have the flexibility to shift its coverage to defend the area. It would sense the bullet coming, by being programmed to detect a projectile flying at rapid speed. It would then deflect it, thus protecting whoever wore the enchanted garment. Though the concept sounded simple enough, Bellatrix hoped it wouldn't be as hard to make as she feared. Many things sounded simple, but when one actually attempted to apply the concept to practical magic, it often became more complicated.
They were all gathered at Arthur's again, having parted ways from his student after several hours of studying various types of gun fire at the shooting range. "So how do you plan to make bullet proof clothes," Bellatrix asked Gellert.
Gellert and Blaise were enchanters, but she had her doubts that they could go up against Muggle guns with a shield they wove into clothes. They were brilliant wizards, but...she supposed it was just that Muggles had won before...and before that...and before!
She did not trust guns, and to be certain the bullet proof shields Gellert had in mind would work, they'd have to try them out against a bullet. Of course the clothes could be on a statue, she reminded herself. It was then that she realized she wasn't thinking as well as she normally did because the guns had made her panic a bit. She was feeling just a little anxiety at the thought of the damage the Muggle weapons could cause from scarring to a dash of death. Especially the stupid, overly loud, hideously ugly machine gun.
"Blaise and I will work with elves and goblins. It'll happen far faster with all three forms of magic involved, and the results will be harder to unravel if anyone powerful of any race happens to try." Gellert replied.
Oh great, Bella hadn't considered anyone attempting to unravel their bullet proofing!
Gellert smiled. "Yes, it will be great indeed. They won't be able to harm us yet we will know they tried. Then we can identify them and take them down."
Bella nodded. Now that sounded good.
"We'll need to get to work on it at once, then test the results before we make more," Gellert went on. "Romeo is in charge of everything while Blaise and I focus entirely on this project with Gori and Juda to assist us."
"I don't enchant things," Gori exclaimed, frowning at Gellert. "Go to Graven, or one of the Gringotts metalsmiths."
"I can do that," Gellert said.
"Then there is this one defensive ward we put up at the bank that may work nicely if tied in with other measures," Gori mused and Gellert grinned.
"Thought you'd have an idea," he said, not bothering to hide his satisfaction. Turning to Juda the blonde added, "Are you also planning to try talking yourself out of being helpful now?"
Juda blinked. "No."
Gellert smiled. "Good. Did you have any ideas on how you would stop bullets when we were watching them fire at the range? Fire is such an odd term, but that's what the little Muggle man said, so I will use it," Gellert grumbled dubiously.
The little Muggle man was Arthur's student, and the fact he was so small made his enthusiastic, near obsession, with weapons even more charming. Any Muggles that thought him to be an easy target would live just long enough to regret the hell out of that assumption. Bellatrix found this amusing.
Juda frowned, considering for several seconds before replying to Gellert's question. "Juda was thinking more about transfiguring the bullets into soft cotton balls that do no harm, but this would be likely too difficult to weave into a garment."
Blaise gave a slow lazy grin. "I take that as a challenge."
Now that a course of action was decided upon, Gellert thanked Arthur for his help, and everyone began Apparating away to their own homes or to begin working on the first test versions of bulletproof robes. Soon only the three Lestranges and Arthur were left sitting in the middle of his front room.
"Personally, I'm glad your student fell for the line about us working on some movie about guns," Rabastan said and Arthur nodded.
"I never knew I was such a convincing liar," he said with an uncomfortable chuckle.
"Likely you didn't have to be," Rod assured. "The excitement of the thing probably spoke for itself, as your student seemed quite interested in the concept."
Arthur grinned, nodding. "That's true."
"So when am I seeing your magical faces again," Arthur asked. He sounded almost suspicious, causing Bella and Rod to frown in mutual affront.
"You should always want to see us," Rod said.
"That's right," Bella agreed darkly. "It isn't as if we don't provide all the bloody excitement in your life."
Of course many people would not be pleased if the Lestranges showed up on their doorstep, but Arthur was supposed to like them! He was Arthur, after all.
"Sure, but if I'm in the middle of an evening in pajamas, a bit of notice would be good. And what if that Grindelwald fellow sends a goblin next time instead of you? I'd just like a bit of warning or something. Isn't that at all possible?"
"While that's an entirely reasonable request, I'm afraid we have no fucking idea how to do that between wizards and Muggles," Rabastan explained. "We don't have those annoying weird phone things, and you can't get our letters or howlers, and you can't communicate through the fire or an enchanted mirror without magic. So you see, the advanced warning is fucked unless Grindelwald and his man can come up with a magic two way mirror that doesn't require magic to activate."
"So I may not see you for weeks or you could pop in tomorrow while I'm dropping a load in the bathroom if Grindelwald needs something," Arthur asked flatly and Rabastan snickered.
"Seriously sorry, Bro, but we don't know any other way to work it."
"The faster you're living in London with us, the faster you'll have privacy, because then we'll always know where one another is," Rodolphus pointed out.
"Great," Arthur growled. "I'll be looking into the logistics of that in my free time. I need to sort out how to get my car there and what sort of registration it will need as well as what I'll need to do to set up my school in London." He sighed. "I'll really miss my students," he said slowly.
Rod smirked. "You'll have us, though, and who could ask for more than that! We're the Lestranges, bitch!"
Bellatrix cackled in delight at Rod's antics, finally relaxing for what felt like the first time in days.
Arthur rolled his eyes. "Yeah," he muttered. "There's that."