Harry Potter and the Artificer Legacy Chapter 6 (Patreon)

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Hey friends and fans! Kairomaru is bringing you another chapter of Harry Potter and the Artificer Legacy! Harry gets to meet Sirius! An offer is made and Harry starts to learn both basic Alchemy and Devanagari Runes! What will these new Magical Aspects bring to his Enchanting? 

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Chapter 6 – Sirius, Offer, Learning

“Are you ready to go, Mr. Potter?” Flitwick inquired as he stood in front of the Floo in his personal quarters. As Harry’s Head of House, Flitwick would be escorting Harry to St. Mungos for his visit with Sirius.

“Yes, Professor.” Harry nodded as he stepped into the green flames. “St. Mungos!” He called out and was suddenly whisked through the Floo Network. When the spinning finally stopped Harry was sent stumbling out of the fireplace in the St. Mungos reception area. He ended up almost flat on his face before he felt someone grab his arm to steady him. The only problem with this was that the other person just so happened to be rather uncoordinated themselves and ended up getting pulled down along with Harry.

“Oof!” Tonks cried out as she fell on top of Harry in a tangle of limbs.

“Tonks?! What are you doing here?” Harry questioned before realizing their position and flushing red. “Can you get off me?”

“I believe that would be best, Ms. Tonks.” Flitwick piped up having come through the Floo after Harry.

“Sorry about that, Harrikins!” Tonks grinned with a wink as she got up and helped Harry to his feet. “Thanks for the gift, I really like them!” She gushed as she motioned to the scarf that she had around her neck.

“No problem Tonks, I’m glad you like them.” Harry smiled back before offering his own thanks for her gift. “You didn’t have to spend so much on my gift, you know?”

“Better to spend it on you rather than some random thing for myself.” Tonks waved off before taking his wrist and pulling him over to the reception desk. “Let’s get you signed in so you can see Sirius!”

“Wait? Why are you visiting Sirius?” Harry questioned.

“Oh right, I never told you, Sirius is my second cousin. My mom and Sirius are first cousins.” Tonks replied as they stopped by the reception desk and Harry was given a visitor’s pass. Flitwick followed behind the duo and would wait outside of the room during Harry’s visit. “Nervous?” Tonks asked seeing the look on Harry’s face.

“A bit, I’ve never met the man when I had the ability to remember so this is basically our first meeting.” Harry explained getting an understanding nod from Tonks.

“Don’t worry, Harry, Sirius adored you from the moment you were born! He’s been practically bouncing since he received confirmation that you were coming to see him.” Tonks reassured her friend. Harry smiled slightly at Tonks’ encouragement.

“Thanks Tonks, well let’s go see my Godfather.” Harry put on a grin though Tonks could tell he was nervous still.

“I brought Harry!” Tonks announced as she and Harry entered Sirius’ hospital room. Harry saw the slim man with the trimmed beard and long dark hair sitting in the hospital bed. He was surrounded by other people Harry didn’t know, a haggard looking man in older looking robes, a witch that bore a resemblance to Sirius himself, and finally another man that looked fairly plain with brown hair and a smile on his face. Though that smile was definitely the same one Tonks often wore, so this man was probably her father, Ted.

“Harry!” Sirius called happily as he threw his arms open wide. “Come give your Dogfather a hug!”

“Dogfather?” Harry questioned as Tonks laughed and gently pushed Harry forward.

“Ignore his terminology he never made it past Third Year maturity wise.” The woman whom Harry was convinced was Tonks’ mother, Andromeda, jibed at Sirius.

“Oi! I’m a man of culture and refinement, I’ll have you know!” Sirius sniped back making all three adults laugh at the statement. “Hey! You’re supposed to back me up at least Moony!”

“Sorry Padfoot can’t help but laugh at a joke like that.” ‘Moony’ chuckled getting Sirius to snort before laughing as well.

“Nice to meet you, Sirius.” Harry smiled with the tension from earlier lifting away at the laughter in the room. He was quickly pulled into a warm hug by Sirius which he gently returned.

“Sorry it took me so long to wake up Harry, but I dragged the rat back for you.” Sirius whispered quietly as he hugged his godson.

“It wasn’t too bad, Sirius, you did what you needed to do; I’m sure my parents were happy about that.” Harry whispered back strengthening his hug slightly before the two released each other.

“Thank you Harry, that means a lot.” Sirius smiled getting Harry to smile in return. “So tell me how you’ve been, Harry, the last time I saw you was when you were one.” With that Harry began to explain his life to Sirius, plus his visitors, until he got to his time starting at Hogwarts.

“Wait, you’re in Ravenclaw?” Sirius questioned getting a nod from Harry. “Nerd!”

“Oi!” Harry called out getting a burst of laughter from everyone in the room.

“I know, right?!” Tonks laughed as she pulled Harry into a hug. “But he’s my nerd! He makes me nice things!” She laughed as she held up one end of her Enchanted Scarf. Harry’s red face only prompted further laughter from the adults in the room. Harry was surprised that Sirius hadn’t asked about his Scouter and mentioned it.

“I’ve been reading back issues of the Prophet that St. Mungos keeps around. So as soon as I saw your name I read the article about your item. You want to scan me? I might not be in tip-top shape but I bet I still score higher than Remus here!” Sirius chuckled getting an amused roll of the eyes from Remus.

“Always so competitive.” Remus huffed getting an agreeing nod from Andromeda.

“Sure, just a second.” Harry smiled as he pulled his Scouter from his pocket. “Does everyone want one?” He asked the room getting a nod or shrug from the others. With that Harry started with Sirius who was looking like an eager child.

“You have ‘2714’ mana right now Sirius. I don’t know how much you had beforehand so I can’t tell you if its’ shrunk from your stay here or not.” Harry informed getting a nod from Sirius.

“Remus has ‘6428’ mana.” Harry stated after scanning the other man. Remus smiled gently before Sirius spoke up.

“What? I have less than Moony! No way!” Sirius called out jokingly getting another eye roll from Remus as the man shook his head.

“Mrs. Tonks has ‘6558’ mana.” Harry announced getting a nod from the woman and a grin.

“Mr. Tonks has ‘6306’ mana.” Harry said which got Ted a nudge from Andromeda while Sirius joked about who was in control of the marriage.

“Tonks currently has ‘4908’ mana, you’ve gone up again.” Harry commented getting a satisfied nod from Tonks.

“Looks like Nymphadora is going to catch up to you soon Andy!” Sirius chortled only to get an enraged Tonks with red hair and eyes yelling at him.

“Don’t call me that!” Tonks growled at Sirius who only held his hands up in defense while chuckling.

“Nymphadora? So that’s what the N in your initials stands for.” Harry realized since Tonks refused to tell Harry her first name and he’d only managed to find out it started with an N.

“Don’t you start using that name, mister!” Tonks threatened with her right index finger pointed at Harry. He nodded quickly knowing that Tonks wouldn’t hesitate to hit him with her Wandless Stinging Hex.

“Oh Nymphadora is a perfectly nice name. I don’t know why you dislike it so much.” Andromeda sighed while Ted rubbed her back.

“You don’t have to live with it!” Tonks grumbled as she pouted and played with the end of her Enchanted Scarf.

“I think it’s pretty.” Harry shrugged getting a smile from Andromeda while Tonks looked at him in shock and a dusting of pink overtook her cheeks.

“You hush, Harry!” Tonks demanded as she let a weak Stinging Hex leave her finger and hit his leg.

“Oi!” Harry whined as he rubbed the weak feeling on his leg. It went away fast enough but it was still annoying. It was only afterwards that the two realized that the room had gone completely silent.

“Nymphadora…honey…did you just use Wandless Magic?” Andromeda breathed out as she looked at her daughter. All the adults were staring at her in shock while she turned to Harry with a look of such remorse and apology on her face that it almost hurt Harry to see it.

“It’s all right, Tonks, they’re your family. You can tell them.” Harry reassured her making all the adults look at him.

“Harry can use Wandless Magic and he taught me and Penny how.” Tonks admitted getting stunned looks from the adults. After a moment Andromeda let out a muffled squeal of delight as she enveloped her daughter in a hug.

“My baby is so strong!” Andromeda praised as she held her daughter close and ran a hand through her daughter’s ever changing hair. Ted beamed at his daughter while Remus and Sirius gave impressed congratulations.

“So Harry, are you going to let all of us in on your secret?” Sirius teased getting Harry to realize that his plans to make his Wandless Magic a Potter Family Secret might be much harder than he initially thought.

“No! This was Harry’s discovery and he wants to keep it a Family Secret! Don’t pester him!” Tonks practically growled at Sirius causing the man to once again raise his hands in defense. Especially since he now knew that she could hex him without a wand.

“Family Secret? A Potter Family Secret?” Andromeda questioned as she looked over at Harry who nodded shyly.

“Exactly, so please don’t ask me to teach you, I made a promise I wouldn’t.” Tonks stated getting understanding nods form her parents.

“My little girl is getting betrothed! I’m so happy for you honey!” Andromeda smiled brightly as she pulled her daughter into a hug.

“What?!” Harry shouted startled.

“Mum!” Tonks cried out embarrassed as her hair rapidly shifted through colors.

“Good on you, Harry, Nymphadora is a great girl!” Sirius cheered while Remus looked back and forth between Harry and Tonks. Ted looked a little lost among everyone else.

“Can someone explain what’s going on to me?” Harry asked confused getting a nod of agreement from Ted.

“You don’t know?” Andromeda questioned still holding Tonks in a hug. When Harry shook his head Andromeda started to explain. “When an unwed Wizard or Witch offers a Family Secret to another Witch or Wizard it is considered the first part of starting a betrothal. A Family Secret offered is stating intent to bring the other person into your Family.”

“Mum! Harry didn’t mean it like that! He agreed to teach me and Penny to get familiar with teaching it, so that when he has children he’d know where to start.” Tonks explained while Harry’s face was as red as it had ever been from embarrassment.

“Oh, so he offered to teach you both? Nymphadora multiple marriages, while still legal, have fallen out of use in the last several generations. But if you three have it worked out I’m still happy for you.” Andromeda smiled getting Tonks to sigh as her mother clearly wasn’t listening.

“Mum, seriously, it’s not like that.” Tonks stated dully finally making Andromeda calm down a bit.

“Oh? That’s too bad, are you sure? You’d have to wait a few years for Harry to reach Majority so he can get married of course; but I think you two would be good for each other.” Andromeda stated as she released her daughter from the hug.

“She did offer marriage to me and Penny.” Harry chuckled getting all the adults eyes to widen, especially Ted’s. “But it’s not right for her to chain herself to me when she has five years to find someone better for her.”

“Hey, I think it’s a good idea! You’re the one being stubborn about it, mister!” Tonks retorted getting Harry to blush again. “Besides, Penny is totally on board even if she won’t admit it yet!”

“Tonks you can’t just decide for her.” Harry replied with his hands raised in a placating gesture.

“I’m not; she’s being stubborn about it just like you!” Tonks pouted. “The three of us could make it work, we like each other well enough. Besides you want a good sized family anyway.”

“Well…I mean…that’s true…but…” Harry stammered out beyond embarrassed. Especially after seeing Sirius and Remus barely holding back full on laughter at his predicament.

“I’ll want a couple after a few years too, you know.” Tonks admitted getting Harry to nearly go light headed from the heat of his face alone. Andromeda’s eyes practically lit up at the thought of grandchildren while Ted’s entire face paled considerably.

“Harry, my godson…” Sirius stated in a stiff tone making Harry and Tonks both look towards the normally jovial man. “I approve of this union!” The prankster laughed as he gave Harry a thumbs up while bursting into raucous laughter along with Remus.

“Sirius!” Harry choked out sending both Remus and Sirius even deeper into their laughing fits.

“My daughter is getting betrothed!” Andromeda exclaimed again while pulling Tonks back into a hug.

“Mum! He hasn’t agreed to anything!” Tonks argued as she was squeezed by her mother.

“My little girl…” Ted mumbled out having a hard time processing how fast his daughter seemed to be growing up in her final year at Hogwarts. He wasn’t ready for his baby girl to be an adult!

“I need a minute.” Harry stated softly as he leaned back in his chair and tried not to pass out from emotional overload. Sirius and Remus were in fully belly laughter at this point, neither of them had laughed this hard in years. Over an hour later Harry was happily chatting with Sirius, Remus, Andromeda and Ted. Tonks was being her usual playful self again and Harry couldn’t remember a time he’d felt more a part of a family than right now.

“So, Harry, since I’m your legal guardian in the Magical World I was wondering if you’d want to live with me once I’m cleared to live on my own?” Sirius offered getting Harry to smile brightly. He’d been waiting a decade for his Godfather to wake up and offer him a home. The Dursleys had done everything that was normal and proper, but the emotional distance had been clearly obvious. To be part of a family that wanted him and all that included was one of the few things he truly desired in the world.

“If you want me too, I’d like that very much, Sirius.” Harry agreed getting a beaming smile from Sirius.

“Great! We’ll have a great time!” Sirius cheered getting Remus to shake his head fondly. It was good to have his friend back.

“Sirius will be staying with us until he’s recovered.” Andromeda stated getting a nod of thanks from Sirius. “We’ll have to look at what properties are available until the summer. You most certainly are not staying at Grimmauld Place. That horrible old building isn’t fit for habitation anymore.”

“Works for me.” Sirius nodded, he had no love for the place after all.

“Mr. Potter, I hate to interrupt but we should be going soon.” Flitwick announced as he stuck his head into the room.

“Yes Professor.” Harry replied as he sighed. With heartfelt goodbyes Harry separated from the group only for Tonks to pull him back by the shoulder and plant a kiss on his cheek in front of everyone.

“Make sure you consider the betrothal, Harrikins!” Tonks grinned and winked at him. Harry’s face went straight back to dark red as Sirius and Remus chortled and Andromeda’s eyes shone with hope.

“Ok…” Harry mumbled back as he made his way out the door and quickly started following Professor Flitwick.

“He said he’ll consider it!” Andromeda cheered so loudly Harry heard her down the hall. Harry didn’t think he could handle much more embarrassment today!

“Should I be congratulating you, Mr. Potter?” Flitwick asked amused.

“Professor…” Harry groaned getting chuckles from the Charms Master. It was a short time later that the two arrived back to the castle, Harry once again falling almost flat on his face.

“What a day.” Harry sighed as he flopped down into his bed in Ravenclaw Tower. He’d met Sirius and now he had a family to go home to in the summer; a family that wanted him, Magic and all. He couldn’t help but smile at this fact as he picked up Hermione’s gift to him and cracked it open. A bit of relaxing reading would do him some good for the rest of the day. Now to see what other Enchanters had gotten famous for making. With that Harry spent the rest of the day reading through ‘Famous Enchanted Objects from around the World’. He came across an entry about a Magical Swordsmith from Japan who had made a couple of Magic Swords in the past. This entry seemed to be from a historical record rather than an interview like some of the other entries.

“Hmm, Magic Swords, huh?” Harry mused thoughtfully, as he read over the entry and learned about this Magical Swordsmith and his famous blades. One known as Akukoroga and the other Kazakiriryuga, apparently both had been made from the fangs of Magical Creatures. Some kind of Yokai for the Akukoroga and a Dragon native to Japan for the Kazakiriryuga. “Interesting, this is Creature Craft as Enchanters call it, making an Enchanted Object out of the hair, scales, fangs, claws, horns and other such things of Magical Creatures. I wonder if I could learn that?” Speaking of Magical Swords the most famous one in Britain was of course, Excalibur, maybe he should check the Library and see what the Magical World knew about that particular sword? Well that would be for tomorrow for now he’d get to a stopping point and get some sleep.

The next day Harry plundered the Library for any books regarding Excalibur or other Legendary Magical Items. Sadly even the Magical World didn’t seem to know very much about Excalibur. It was known that it was forged in England around the time that King Arthur was around and that it had many Magical Abilities. Other than that however, no one seemed to be able to agree on much else about the sword. There weren’t even any guesses about who had forged it in the first place. The other Magical Swords he’d read about were usually better explained but some were still mysteries just like Excalibur. The Sword of Gryffindor was mentioned and it was supposedly forged by Goblins at Godric Gryffindor’s request. The main ability was that the sword would take in any substance or ability that made it stronger. That was fascinating but something struck Harry as odd about the history of the sword.

“Goblins hate Wizards and Witches. Why would they forge a sword for Gryffindor?” Harry wondered as he finished the section on Gryffindor’s Sword by finding out the weapon had disappeared after Godric’s death and no one had seen it since. Harry may not know the most about goblins but he was fairly sure that they wouldn’t create something for any Wizard that was as powerful as the stories claimed. “Something doesn’t seem right about this story.” He mused as he closed the book and moved onto the next one.

After lunch Harry had retreated to his work shop with both books he’d received about Enchanting. He’d keep the ‘Beginners Alchemy for Enchanters’ inside his workshop until he could order the basic ingredients with which to practice the art. Padma’s gift he’d start studying now and whenever he had some extra time. Devanagari would be a long process to learn but if he went at it a bit at a time he’d eventually be able to use it for his Enchanting just like Elder and Younger Futhark. In the mean time he’d spend the remainder of his free time during the break to work more on his Rune Safe’s array. He’d practice a little with learning to play the flute Hagrid had made him too.

-Three Days Later-

Three days. Three bloody days! Why couldn’t he figure out how to make the mana absorption sequence integrate with his multi-layered security array? He didn’t want to remove any of the security sequences in the array when he’d finally gotten them to work together successfully! That accomplishment in and of itself had taken him the better part of a month. No way was he going to undo all of that work now! But he’d basically been bashing his head against a brick wall trying to figure this out. He’d rewritten the mana absorption sequence over a dozen times. Tweaking how fast it absorbed or how much it could absorb all at once. He’d even gone through the entirety of the security array and looked for any sections that would prevent an absorption sequence from working. He’d found nothing of the sort in the array. He’d tried integrating the absorption sequence into the security array half a dozen different ways; but the Runes needed to create the absorption sequence would interfere with the security array’s Runes if he added them in at certain points so he was limited in where he could add the sequence. There had to be something he was missing! Theoretically this should be able to work, so why wasn’t it? A rumbling from Harry’s stomach alerted him that he hadn’t eaten since breakfast. With a sigh he set down the papers and parchments he’d been testing sequences out on and left his workshop to get some lunch.

“Oh yeah, my order.” Harry remembered as he saw a large Owl Order owl sitting at the head of the Ravenclaw Table. As soon as Harry got close the owl hooted at him and he approached it to relieve it of his package. After taking the package from the owl the bird left the Great Hall quickly. Harry kept his package next to himself while he ate and took it with him back to his workshop when he finished his lunch. Smiling giddily as he opened the package and removed everything inside of it, Harry couldn’t help be pleased. After all, this Alchemist Starter Kit, as it was called in the Owl Order Catalogue had cost him six Galleons. But it truly did come with everything a beginner needed to start practicing the art. Base metals ground down into powder, a set of metal sheets on which basic alchemic transmutation circles had been perfectly etched, and a dozen other ingredients like reagents, catalysts, and stabilizers made from magical plants or ground up dragon bones.

As it turned out the reason that Alchemy was difficult to learn was because it required knowledge of multiple fields. Some Geology, some Herbology, Magical Theory, and even some knowledge about which parts of Magical Creatures were the most reactive. Harry already had some knowledge about stones from Primary school, his Herbology wasn’t great but he didn’t get below Exceeds Expectations on his work. Magical Theory he was rather ahead in and a good amount of book reading, plus some questions for Hagrid, should see his knowledge of Magical Creatures and their uses increase sufficiently. After reading through the first several chapters of his beginners alchemy book Harry felt confident that he could make the most basic alchemical compound he was interested in. Simply called ‘Circuit Base’ it was a compound that could channel mana through it and keep whatever effect the mana was producing while it travelled.

“Alright, let’s follow the directions, step one is to melt copper in a vessel.” Harry stated to himself as he got his blacksmithing tools ready and got a fire going. With some time the copper melted and Harry proceeded to the second step. “Mix in five units of powdered dragon bone and six units of Ugi Grass stabilizer to the molten copper.” Measuring out the appropriate amounts of both materials with the provided scoops was easy enough and using a steel rod to stir them into the molten copper only took a few minutes. “The final step is to pour magic into the mixture until it glows. After the glow subsides it will be ready to use. The warning says that it will solidify if allowed to cool. That’s obvious though.” Harry added mana to the mixture continuously until it glowed like the sun was reflecting off of it. He quickly went to grab a few planks of wood and his Alchemic Rune Kit while he waited for the glow to subside.

Harry etched two simple runic sequences onto each end of the first piece of wood. Then he carved a line from each of them that met in the middle of the plank. If his ‘Circuit Base’ was made correctly it would spread the effect of each sequence to the middle of the plank and the two effects would both occur where the lines met. Noticing the glow had faded away Harry dipped the tip of a tool called an ‘Alchemic Pen’ into the ‘Circuit Base’ liquid and felt it pull the mixture into the compartment inside. With a steady hand Harry filled each Rune of both sequences with the circuit base and then filled in both lines. Setting the pen aside Harry placed a small metal bowl in the middle of the plank. Then he activated both runic sequences and watched the metal bowl eagerly hoping his first attempt worked. Seeing the bowl slowly fill with water made Harry grin, he outright cheered when that water started steaming and then boiling a moment later.

“Success! Both the ‘Water Gathering’ sequence and the ‘Heating’ sequence effects were applied to the bowl! Deactivating both sequences Harry pulled on one of his blacksmithing gloves and removed the hot metal bowl of water off the wood plank. He dumped the water out into the sink in the bathroom before returning and grabbing another plank of wood. This time he etched two sequences that couldn’t be put together without their individual Runes interfering with each other. After filling both sequences with circuit base he filled the two lines he’d carved all over the top of the plank between the two sequences. “Here goes nothing.” Harry remarked as he held his hand over the wood plank and conjured fire. When the plank didn’t burn Harry smiled. “The ‘Fire Protection’ sequence is working.” He grinned. Next Harry pulled out his wand, this next spell he hadn’t gotten to work wandlessly yet. “Infrigoreum.” He intoned and watched closely to see if the spell took effect. Not seeing anything change Harry stowed his wand away and touched the plank. “Not even cold. The ‘Freeze Proof’ sequence is also working!” The eleven year old couldn’t contain himself and jumped around his workshop laughing and cheering at his success. It was only the first steps of Alchemy but they worked! He could use Alchemy for his Enchanting now! This opened up an innumerable amount of paths for his future as an Enchanter! The Title of Artificer wasn’t just a pipe dream now, he could actually achieve it!

“This could be just what I need to finish my Rune Safe! If I use circuit base to connect the mana absorption sequence to the security array they should link up and apply their effects together.” Harry surmised as he continued to think on his current project. “I need to make sure they can link up through a circuit when etched into metal. I’ll need more metal so another trip to ‘reclaim’ some from an abandoned classroom is required. If this works my Rune Safe will be more secure than any trunk on the market!”

The next day Harry had ‘acquired’ enough metal to begin his tests. Pounding out ten flat metal bars in the smithy took the rest of the day but he’d be ready to experiment first thing in the morning! Harry had a hard time getting to sleep that night from sheer excitement. Waking up the next morning he ate breakfast quickly before heading to his workshop to start his experiments.

“Failure! Bloody hell!” Harry groused as his sixth metal bar failed to hold all the properties of his combined security and absorption array. This was his sixth attempt at connecting the absorption sequence into the array with circuit base lines. He still had a few more tries left but he was starting to think he was missing something else. “Alright, let’s try this again.” Harry breathed out as he tried to calm down. The seventh try wasn’t any more successful than his first six. Neither was the eighth attempt or the ninth. Tossing his newest failure into the pile of failures Harry sighed as he made his next and final attempt before he’d have to get more metal and forge it into shape.

“Failed again! Why? What am I missing?” Harry demanded to no one as he roughly tossed his tenth failed bar into the pile and stewed on his lack of progress. Why wouldn’t the metal hold his connected array? There was nothing wrong with how the sequences were placed and the circuit base lines were connecting the array together properly. What was he missing, there had to be some reason he wasn’t seeing. But what could it possibly be? Pacing back and forth through his workshop for several minutes yielded no answers as Harry continued to mull over his dilemma, there had to be something wrong with his method. Staring over at his piled of failures lying haphazardly on the stone floor he noticed that a few of the bars had fallen into a rhombus shape together.

“Wait a minute…could it be?” Harry pondered as he moved over to the pile and rearranged the failures into squares on the floor. Seeing two squares of four metal bars each sparked his thought process. He noticed that the circuit lines from the individual bars touched where the bars met. The effect would spread correctly if they were a single piece, or at least connected properly together. Like a singular item! “That’s it. That’s it! It’s the form!” Harry exclaimed to the empty classroom as he grinned and quickly left the room to ‘acquire’ more metal.

It was the morning after his epiphany and Harry had scrounged up all the metal he could find last night. He’d hit every single abandoned classroom on the sixth floor and taken every bit of metal he could find. It was almost all iron but that suited Harry’s purposes just fine. He’d made sure to take extra food from breakfast this morning so that he wouldn’t have to stop his work to go to lunch. It was time to get to work! Harry spent the rest of the day heating the iron pieces in the forge, pounding the hot iron pieces together into single sheets. His mana was imbued into the iron with every strike of the hammer. He had sweat more on this day than any other day in his life. Near what would be dinner time Harry was finished with the first part of his creation. Cooling after being dumped in the slack tub and then levitated back out was an iron box with one side missing and another slab of iron with a handle on the left side of it and on the upper and lower corners of the right side were two bits of metal protruding from the ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ of the slab. This would be the door for the iron box. 

“That took a while.” Harry smiled to himself. His Safe’s form was complete at least. It wasn’t very big at the moment only being forty five centimeters tall, wide, and deep. But it would hold a nice amount of money and once he worked in his array it would be as unbreakable and secure as he could make it. “Let’s wash up, I definitely need dinner.” He chuckled as he headed into the bathroom that was in the smithy. A quick shower and Harry deemed himself clean enough to head down to the Great Hall for dinner. He ate more than normal but with how much physical exertion he’d done today, not to mention the amount of mana he’d expended, he felt he’d earned it.

The next morning Harry grinned happily at his two parts and marveled at how imbuing his mana into the iron had helped him shape it into his desired form so quickly. A normal blacksmith would have taken several days to get the Safe’s body finished as they slowly forged the iron walls and then forged them together into a box. His mana had made the iron shape to his will faster and come out as he’d wanted it. That would probably explain the deep sleep he’d experienced last night. He hadn’t checked his mana since the demonstration in the Great Hall but he was fairly certain he’d probably used somewhere close to eighty percent of his mana yesterday.

“Just have to set the door into the Safe and then we’ll get to the Rune work.” Harry nodded to himself as he pulled out his wand. It irked him something fierce that he still had so many spells he couldn’t do wandlessly. But he’d been so preoccupied with his Rune Safe lately that he’d put off some of his Wandless Magic practice trying to get the Safe made. “Reducio.” He intoned pointing his wand at the iron door. The metal shrank slightly and Harry picked it up. Fitting the hinge points into the holes he’d made in the box was easy enough. Now he just had to restore the door to its proper size and it should fit perfectly. A Wandless ‘Finite’ saw the door clicking into place with a thud as it returned to its normal size. Testing the door and seeing how it opened and closed, making sure it fit into the grooves of the safe and closed securely was a success as well. Now came the process of etching the Runic Array and then filling it with ‘Circuit Base’ to connect it to the entirety of the safe. Many would wonder why the Safe didn’t have a physical lock but Harry could only grin. Once the Rune work was done the whole safe would ‘BE’ the lock. One of the security sequences would only allow the door to be opened by the first person to charge the array. Harry was going to be that first person and so the Safe would never open for anyone else.

-Two Days Later-

“Finally done.” Harry smiled as he looked over his finished work one last time. All the Runes were precisely etched and in perfect shape. The ‘Circuits’ made from ‘Circuit Base’ were connecting the array together properly. The Safe was ready to be charged with mana for the first time. Etching the array in three dimensions had been challenging to say the least. Having to make sure each circuit line was unbroken as it moved over the edges and corners of the safe had required intense focus. But it had all been worth it; the circuits were solid and covered the entirety of the inside of the safe. They would impart all aspects of his Security Array to the entirety of the Rune Safe, including the circuit connected Absorption Sequence. With a grin Harry placed his hand on the center of the array on the inside of the safe. He’d centered the array on the back wall so he’d be able to work from that point outward and end on the back of the door. Feeling his mana being taken in by the array and watching as the Runes began to glow was amazing for Harry. Watching as the circuits glowed as his mana travelled through them was satisfying and eventually the entire inside of the safe was glowing faintly with his mana.

“Oh, so that’s what that feels like.” Harry mumbled as he felt the ‘Permanent Locking’ sequence attune itself to his mana. It suddenly felt like the whole safe was a part of him for a few seconds before the feeling faded away. Harry continued to charge the Rune Safe’s array until he felt a noticeable drop in his mana. Cutting off the flow and pulling his hand back, Harry watched on as the array slowly dimmed until the glow wasn’t really noticeable anymore. “Now we wait.” Harry muttered as he closed the Rune Safe’s door feeling the array activate and secure the safe. If everything was working properly then when he came back the next morning with Tonks and Penny to show them the completed Rune Safe it should still be working perfectly as it absorbed mana from the air. In a place as overflowing with magic as Hogwarts the Safe would probably just get stronger as it absorbed more and more mana. He’d purposefully added in the ‘Strengthening’ sequence to the array so that excess mana would be used to make the Safe and its effects stronger. Eventually the Safe would ‘bleed off’ any mana that exceeded the materials’ ability to store mana and leave it ‘fully charged’ for lack of any better term. “I can’t wait to show this to Penny and Tonks!”

The next morning the students that had left for Yule Break returned. Harry enthusiastically greeted his friends and was hugged by Penny before both were pulled into a group hug by Tonks. Harry could only smile and laugh as he reunited with his two closest friends. Penny had thanked him profusely for his gift to her and Harry had to admit that seeing both Penny and Tonks wearing what he made for them caused a feeling of warm joy to blossom in his chest.

“So what’s this new item you’re so eager to show us?” Penny questioned with a smile as Harry was practically dragging her and Tonks towards his workshop. They’d barely had time to put their things away because Harry was so eager.

“It’s the one I was having such trouble with for so long! I finally figured it out!” Harry enthused getting a smile from the Prefect while Tonks chuckled.

“We’re coming Harry, you don’t need to drag us around.” Tonks laughed as Harry continued to urge them forward. Once the group arrived to the workshop Harry proudly presented his Rune Safe to his closest friends.

“You made a safe? Why?” Penny asked curiously as she and Tonks looked the iron box over.

“I don’t trust the Goblins, to be honest. I’ve only had a single meeting with my Account Overseer and he tried to make off with more than twenty percent of what remains of my Family’s money. So since the Goblins seem in the market of extorting their vault holders I decided to keep my money under my own protection.” Harry explained getting nods from both girls. Both had been raised in the Magical World, though Penny had a good bit of exposure to the Non-magical World as well because of her various Muggle relatives. Neither could truthfully state that a Witch or Wizard could ever truly trust a Goblin.

“Can we open it?” Tonks asked wanting to see the inside.

“Give it a try.” Harry grinned trying not to laugh. Tonks tried to open the safe only for it to remain closed.

“Oh, ha ha, very funny mister!” Tonks pouted as Harry couldn’t stifle his chuckles. “So how does it unlock?”

“It doesn’t.” Harry smirked getting baffled looks from both girls.

“But if it doesn’t unlock then how are you going to use it?” Penny questioned while Tonks nodded along confused.

“I’ll just open the door and put what I want inside of course.” Harry smiled as he walked over and easily pulled open the door. The looks of curiosity had Harry chuckling again. “I’m the only one in the world that can open this door. The ‘Permanent Lock’ sequence that’s part of the Rune Array is attuned to my mana now. It won’t open for anyone else.”

“That’s actually really cool.” Tonks nodded impressed.

“Harry this is amazing! You’ve made something truly impressive.” Penny congratulated making Harry blush slightly at the praise while also puffing up just a bit. Both girls looked inside the now open safe and noticed the large sprawling series of lines covering the inside and the small runes etched into the back. Neither girl could make heads or tails of the lines so Harry explained it to them when they’d asked.

“I’m so glad you’re using my gift!” Penny exclaimed happily as she gave Harry another hug.

“It’s thanks to your gift that I was able to take this next step in my Enchanting, Penny. I should be thanking you!” Harry replied as he returned the hug.

“Hey what about mine?” Tonks pouted dramatically making Harry roll his eyes fondly.

“Your gift was invaluable to this success as well. Do you want a…” Harry started only for Tonks to practically rush him and pull him into a hug. “Hug?” He finished as the breath was being squeezed out of him.

“Tonks, I think he needs air.” Penny spoke up after a few moments. Harry’s face was getting very red after all. Tonks grinned as she released him and chuckled as Harry drew in a long deep breath.

“Oh yeah, Penny, we need to talk about the betrothal!” Tonks smiled brightly.

“Betrothal? What betrothal?” Penny asked confused.

“Tonks!” Harry yelled his face now red for an entirely different reason.

-End Chapter-

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There it is! Sirius the Dogfather is back bitches! Hide your pretty women! Harry has a new home to return to for the breaks and summers! He was finally able to finish his Rune Safe as well! Where will our budding Artificer’s study and curiosity take him next? Keep reading to find out!

Until I get your reviews, later!