The Gray's Secret: Scene 9 (Patreon)

Granger Cottage, Gairsay Island: Two days before the Wizengamot Weekend.

Deep beneath the ground, Clare Cooper ran her miss-matched eyes over the second nearly complete massive broomstick-shaped submarine in the wet docks of the Granger’s private mad scientist laboratory.

“Lowering the beam!” called out a newly recruited graduate wizard, as three of his fellows held their wands aloft, maneuvering a large length of solid wood that had to weigh several tonnes onto a third carefully laid out position on the laboratory floor.

The former prostitute surveyed the work site. Lord Slytherin now had nearly a dozen young wizards and witches working for him here. Each one of them getting a practical education that had long been denied her. At least until he’d taken her into his service.

Off to the side, a massive American flag hung over the first completed broom sub of the series – the series that was based off of the first prototype that even now was pulling up gold and treasure from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. That one had been completed for nearly two weeks now. They were just waiting for the demonstration round of MACUSA’s procurement process. Apparently it was going to be soon. Very soon.

Next to her, Madam Goose, Headmistress of Madam Goose’s Home for the Magically Gifted, watched the proceedings with a hawk-like expression. Unlike Clare, this was the headmistress’ first time visiting Gaisay Island.

“Right, strap it down!” called out one of the female witches Clare vaguely recognised as a sixth year at ‘the Boot’. Binding spells shot across the wooden beam, lashing it into place. One the other side of the workshop, some unknown muggle machine started whirring in the ‘no magic allowed’ zone.

“This seems like a productive enterprise,” Madam Goose eventually said in a tone of voice that suggested she was genuinely surprised to not find the place on fire on arrival.

“Lord Slytherin has big plans,” Clare replied, knowing this is what was expected of her. “He values your trust and wishes nothing but the best for those you send his way.”

Madam Goose pinned her with a look that stripped bullshit from the soul faster than a Killing Curse. “Please do not kiss my arse, so, Miss Cooper. I know full well Lord Slytherin is a man of responsibility. Your own entrance into my care is proof of that.”

Clare winced. “Yes, Madam Goose.”

“I was merely expressing my surprise that he has taken our students and so quickly turned their wands to crafts and spells for which we did not specifically train them.”

“Yes, Madam Goose,” Clare replied, tersely. It seemed a lot safer then, ‘Well, maybe if the ministry didn’t hamstring your school and force you to hand all your students a crappy, sub-par education designed to keep them as harmless as possible, maybe my lord wouldn’t have to have them trained them in such basic spells as are taught at Hogwarts in the second and third fucking year.’

Evidently something of her thoughts leaked through, because Madam Goose pinned her with her gimlet stare again.

She didn’t say anything though, so Clare quickly redirected the conversation. Or at least, she tried to.

“Have you put any more thought towards my lord’s proposal?” she asked, referencing the little project Lord Slytherin had given her at the Slytherin Manor Winter Solstice, dancing away in the middle of the packed ballroom wearing a ridiculously expensive dress and jewels, all in the arms of the man who every other single woman in that room had been staring at like he was a juicy, hunky, piece of meat, and quite a few of the married ones as well. Clare shook her head to clear it, returning her thoughts back to the present. Now was not the time to be daydreaming of her mysterious masked benefactor. “I know you had concerns.”

Madam Goose opened her mouth to reply when they were interrupted by Mrs Granger, wearing a white lab coat, glasses, and an expression that suggested she was having the time of her life and wasn’t about to let anyone else not know it.

Her rattling footsteps on the metal mesh mezzanine overlooking the workshop heralded her arrival and after a few quick pleasantries –She and Madam Goose had already been introduced when the Headmistress had first arrived—got down to why she’d decided to rush over.

“You’ll love this!” Mrs Granger enthused. “We’re about to drop the first set of micro runes!”

“Ah, yes,” Madam Goose said, slightly taken aback by the obviously trying not to get swept up in the muggle’s pace. “Some kind of advanced array system, no?”

“Something like that.”

“You know, I am amazed a muggle can handle this kind of project.”

Mrs Granger waved vaguely. “Yes, everyone says that. It’s not that dissimilar electronics schematics when you get right down to it.”

“Yes?”

“Oh, absolutely. Obviously, I’m useless at actually doing anything with the rune sets myself, but just thinking about how everything slots together? It’s really quite enjoyable.”

Clare stared straight ahead. She’d looked at a few rune books. Fun was not a word she’d have used to describe anything associated with anything to do with them.

Right then, the second nearly complete Broomsub began to glow.

“Ooooo, here we go!” Emma Granger said.

A small cheer went up from all the young wizards and witches working in the workshop below, who’d all stopped their own individual work to watch the light show.

Madam Goose watched with round eyes as the magical build-up on the massive artifact began to grow.

Clare chewed her lip as the first step of the Broomsub’s activation sequence began, a week-long process that would result in a fully functioning vessel of magical war.

It was a good thing for her lord’s enemies that MACUSA already had an option for at least five of these things. Slytherin probably wouldn’t have even the beginnings of a fleet of his own for well over a year. That’s if he didn’t get even more contracts from other nations, which she wouldn’t be surprised if he did. Clare didn’t know much about this kind of thing, but she thought she understood her lord at least a bit by now, and he wasn’t the kind of man to offer something for sale unless he thought he could get more from it than mere gold. Though the gold was still important. He’d said as much to her once in one of his little lectures. ‘Arms sales is as much about control and influence as it is money,’ he’d said, while the girl Daphne Greengrass sat nearby, studiously taking notes of everything he said. ‘Control the sales of arms, and your influence on those nations who buy from you goes up. Nations know this, so they’ll only buy if what you have to offer is truly going to increase their combat effectiveness in a way that’s strategically critical for them. That’s what the Broomsub is — a Trojan Horse of foreign policy influence’.

Back in the workshop, the light began to die down around the second Broomsub and another cheer went up.

Clare started to clap along with the two other women next to her.

Lord Slytherin had come into her life as a saviour, even if she hadn't believed it at the time. But sometimes, even now, she couldn’t help wonder if she’d climbed into bed with a powerful, uncontrollable demon.

Not literally, of course, she quickly amended in her head.

She bit her lip as her mind ruminated on the nature of powerful men.

At least, not yet.

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