Once I was back in my room I found the nearest chair to collapse in. Man, that had been a roller-coaster, both physically and mentally. It had been exhilarating though, the flying. I'd loved it when it had just been inside, but to do it outside! To fly to the edge of space and look down at the Earth below and into the infinity beyond, that had been… magic. It would be fun to do it again now that the cat was out of the bag. I'd have to periodically remind people of what I'd done and to confirm the truth to those that hadn't seen it in person. It would be a bit of a pain for a while until the image in their mind had solidified properly, then I could relax.
I was curious how long it would take for one of the teachers or The Big D to show up or call for me. I suppose it would depend on how curious they'd be about the sonic booms I produced and if anyone took a trip to the hospital wing.
As it turns out I'd just managed to get out of my flight suit when there as a very vigorous pounding on the door- And by vigorous, I meant that I could see the damn door vibrating like a tuning fork from halfway across the room.
"Well, that was fast. Wish the police was that fast when I needed to get rid of the idiot alcoholic of the week back home - I'M COMING! Don't break the damn door!" I hollered as I walked over. "And behind door number one is…!"
I opened the door. Nothing there. I looked down.
"...small person I'm vaguely familiar with..." I finished lamely.
That got me glared at by the short stocky girl that was very clearly not a teacher. Her name was Lys, I knew that because she had the distinction of being the only Half-Dwarf I'd ever met, or heard about for that matter. I'd seen her in my Metalworking class and I knew she'd been taking Blacksmithing since she got to Hogwarts a year after me, which was unusual since they usually only took in second years and up generally, but entirely expected as she was half-dwarf. She probably crapped steel or something. I had considered approaching her previously due to my own failings when it came to working in her preferred medium. But she wasn't exactly friendly from what I'd seen of her. Even her housemates seemed to steer clear of her, which was odd considering she was a Hufflepuff. I didn't know the reason for it, it might have been a dwarf thing, they were almost always a surly bunch in the stories I'd read about them, which probably wasn't a smart thing to rely on for information, but I'd not gotten around to read up on dwarves yet.
"Well?" she demanded roughly. It was the first time I'd heard her speak, ever. Her voice was smooth and clear, I'd expected it to be scratchier for some reason, but it was almost... cute. I divined that she'd likely take it in a bad way if I commented on that.
"Well, what?" I asked in response, leaning on the door and looking down at her.
Lys looked impatient, which amused me. "Are you gonna invite me in or just stand there with your jaw swinging like a broken door?
I closed my mouth on reflex. Had I been gaping at her? Well, so much for a first impression I guess. "Maybe I would if I knew what you wanted, additionally, you might want to try introducing yourself before starting making demands, Just a thought, you know."
Lys looked grumpy, though that seemed to be her default expression. I had seen it transition occasionally into anger and frustration and maybe a general dislike, but generally she looked grumpy. "Lys. Business." She grunted.
Charming...
I frowned. I didn't do much business as a rule, but I did sell potions to J. Pippin's Potions, the local store down in Hogsmeade for a tidy little profit. Mostly for deniability reasons. I was quite well off thanks to the Room of Requirement. I suppose she might have heard about that. "So what potion do you want?"
Lys snorted in that way girls do when boys are bing stupid in their presence. "I don't want your swill; I'm here to talk about that flyin' suit you showed off outside just now."
I hesitated for a moment before coming to a decision and stepping aside to let her in. Lys didn't hesitate but stomped right past me. She did that really well, stomping that is, very firm and determined. I can respect the stomp. Lys stomped over to one of the chairs that littered my work areas and sat down in a very determined manner and stared me straight in the eyes. The chair creaked alarmingly for a moment. Seems Lys is a rather... solid little girl. "That was some fancy spellwork on those clothes." She stated matter-of-factly. "Didn't think anyone in this school had wits enough to manage something like that." She tated, getting right to the point.
I raised an eyebrow. "Enchanted clothes? That's your going theory?" I hedged, admitting nothing.
Lys snorted again. "Don't patronize me." She snapped angrily. "I ain't dead from the neck up. I know that creating a charm to allow you to fly isn't possible, the only way you could have done it is if you enchanted that suit." She said and threw a thumb over her shoulder towards where the suit was resting. "I might not be as good at it as you, but I know enough of the theory to know you can't just slap a broom charm on some clothes and go, which means you know your business." She stated firmly.
I pursed my lips in thought. She wasn't wrong about some of those things. Voldemort had figured out how to do it, but for the rest, she was right. You obviously couldn't just slap broom charms onto some piece of clothes and call it a day. Normal clothes weren't made to be put under that sort of stress since they would essentially be dragging you through the air. Even if they were charmed for toughness, which would add to the enchantment load and thus the complexity, it would still break down because cloth was cloth and even enchanted it wasn't the most durable of materials. Leather was better, but not enough.
"Besides." Lys continued. "I got close enough while you were showing off to get a good look at the suit. It's obvious that you have a harness sown into it. The jacket covers up most of it, but not around the crotch where the stitching is really obvious."
I smiled a bit and considered cracking a dick joke. Nah. "I'm not saying you're right, but hypothetically, if that was true, what do you want?"
"I want you to teach me." She stated bluntly. "And I want to know how you did it." She added as an afterthought.
I snorted. "And I'm just supposed to just give something like that up, for what, out of the goodness of my heart?" I sneered.
She glared at me, and for a moment I was afraid she might come at me. But then she grunted and nodded towards my storage area. "Your metalworking is crap, and you can't wield a smith's hammer to save your life, even after four years' worth of wasted effort." She told me bluntly. "Obviously you need it for something, so I propose a trade."
I watched her intently. I had to admit that it was a tempting offer. It would solve a lot of the problems I'd been having. But, could I trust her? That was the question. Fortunately, I could answer that one easily. With a gesture I caused a small box to fly off one of the shelves and come to rest floating serenely about chest high by my side. I supressed a smug smile as I noted her suprise at my casual use of wandless magic. Yeah thats right, not just a one trick pony. I made another gesture and the box snapped open and a single small bottle filled with a clear liquid bobs out and drifts over to float in front of Lys, who gave the bottle a suspicious look and made no move to take it. "Are you willing to go three drops?"
Lys eyes flickered to the bottle then back to me incredulously. "You have Veritaserum!? Where did you get that?!"
"I made it," I told her simply.
Lys snorted. "Horseshit, that's a NEWT potion!"
"And I could have taken my NEWT's last year along with my OWL's if it was allowed. Not that I'm stupid enough to actually do it." I'd be out on my ass if I did. Not a good idea at this time. "It's really not that important right now. What is important is for me to know if I can trust you." I told her frankly. "And anyway, how is this any different from making a flight suit. I'd say it's a fair shade easier, just a matter of following instructions. Hardly a challenge."
Lys peered at the bottle again hesitantly. "What are you gonna ask?"
I shrugged. "The obvious. Are you gonna screw me over, tell anyone else what I show you? That sort of thing."
The half-dwarf still looked uncertain. "You have the antidote?" At her question, I floated a second vial out of the box to dangle beside the first. Aha glared and grunted softly. "Give it here. You get three questions, and then I'm drinking the antidote."
I thought that over quickly. "Acceptable, for now. Now say ah!"
I quickly administered three drops of truth serum and waited a moment for it to kick in.
"Are you going to tell anyone what we will be doing here?" I asked to start out.
"No."
"Are you planning to fuck me over once you get what you want?"
"No."
"What is your goal?"
"To save my people…" she jerked and then downed the antidote. She coughed and then glared at me. "Bastard!" she croaked out.
I raised an eyebrow. "Save your people. The dwarves?"
"We aren't talking about this!" Lys growled.
"Oh I think we are, see our goals are what defines us, and it's what makes us do what we do. It's the big red button that makes things go boom when it's pressed. And if you think you're saving someone then there isn't anything you wouldn't do to achieve that goal, right? Which means you'd screw me over if it was them or I, right?" I told her pointedly. "So if you want me to trust you then I have to understand where you stand, where your levers are so I'll know when someone is pulling 'em to my detriment. If you can't do that then..." I left that hanging.
Lys glared at me and jumped to her feet. "I'll see myself out then." She hissed angrily.
I rolled my eyes. "Oh don't be so damn dramatic. I didn't say I wouldn't help you. Of course, that's provided that you tell me what's going on."
Lys hunched her shoulders and I saw her clench and unclench her hands. Tension and frustration were almost literally written all over her body.
"Sit down and tell me a story," I ordered before taking a seat making myself comfortable.
Lys hesitated only for a moment before stomping back to the chair she'd vacated and sat back down. She was silent for a few moments, gathering her thought no doubt. "What do you know about dwarves'?" She started.
"Nothing really, unless you count fiction. I haven't gotten around to reading about the history of the various races yet outside of the Centaurs." I told her. "It's on the list for later this year."
Lys snorted. "You ever read Lord of the Rings?"
I frowned, that seemed a bit random. "Passing familiar."
Lys nodded. "That's how dwarves used to be, used to live, before The Harrowing."
"Are you telling me that Tolkien's books are factually true?" I asked incredulously.
"No, I'm saying that he's a bloody squib that used my peoples' history as a basis for his books."
"Oh... Right. So whats the Harrowing?" Wasn't that the name of a movie or something?
"It's what the Dwarves called the attack on Dwarven holdings by a coalition of Wizards and Goblins that were after the riches and knowledge we held. You won't find it in any wizarding history book, but the The Harrowing is what laid the foundation for the wizarding economy of today." Lys told me soberly.
"When was this?" I asked quietly.
Lys shrugged. "Five hundred years and change."
Right around the same time that the goblins started their little bank. Well, well, well, isn't that just interesting. Not immediately useful, but an interesting little bit of information. "You mind going through it for me?
She shrugged again before starting in. Not a pretty tale as it happens. Not that dwarfs have ever been given a fair shake, even in fiction, as far as I know. Here they'd gotten rogered good and proper, for a variety of reasons. Primarily though it was because they'd never been all that spread out as a people, or all that populous. According to Lys, and history in general, the dwarven people have sprung up somewhere in the Scandes, the mountain range that separates a large part of Norway and Sweden and for most of their history, they remained there in their great mountain stronghold Nidavellir. Though there had been large enclaves of dwarves in Britain and Germany as well for a time.
Much like in fiction and folklore they were renowned for their mastery of various crafts, particularly those relating to metal and stone. In this universe, they were also famed for their mastery of enchanting, which had only been beaten by Merlin in known history. Unsurprisingly the things they created were greatly sought after for this reason and the dwarves grew rich and prosperous from the selling of such artifacts as much as they did from they riches they dug up from the depths of the earth.
That wealth and their lack of numbers would prove to be the downfall of the dwarves as a unified society and culture. The goblins, their ancient enemy, had long coveted the riches and great mountain homes of the dwarves, as well as their knowledge of the arts. They'd never been able to breach the dwarves defenses since the dwarves had spent centuries pounding magic into the very stones of their homes, making them all but impervious to conventional Goblin assault.
That is until wizards got involved.
And the reason for wizard involvment.
Greed.
Greed... it's a wonderful thing.
It brings people you never thought would ever sit down in the same room without killing one another, together. It was really simple, really. The plan was rather simple, the wizard would supply the magic and the goblins would bring the numbers. It would be a coordinated attack across several countries where dwarves had a presence. All the big places with deep vaults would be hit simultaneously so to not let the dwarves raise their defenses and barricade themselves thus making it so much harder to root them out and get at their wealth. They would split the loot evenly and everyone would go home happy, besides the dwarves of course. But who cared about those greedy fuckers, right?
The dwarves had been caught completely unawares. It had been a slaughter.
The survivors had fled far and wide, leaving their old homes to be settled by goblins and their wealth and knowledge divvied up. Much had been lost as a lot of the knowledge had not been written down but passed from master to apprentice orally, all of it had been lost in the sacking as they had settled ancient scores in an orgy of death and destruction, not knowing that they were destroying the very thing they desired. The goblins had only been able to recover scraps, lesser techniques, put to paper for beginners to use to get a start. They had tried to torture what dwarven masters had survived for their secrets. But hate and spite can be a powerful motivator, and the old masters died under the tender ministrations of their enemies without giving up a single thing.
Not that life was peace and rainbows for the attackers. Flush with gold and new shiny trinkets, and deprived of the secrets of the dwarves due to their own stupidity, the goblins got a bit too big for their breeches and decided that another war was just what the doctor ordered. The knowledge of the dwarves might be lost to them, but the power of the wizards was still there and now they were armed with magic weapons and armor. They would not get a better chance. Hah! They lost that one, as they had all others, but it had been the bloodiest and longest Goblin Rebellion to this day. Oddly enough, it did lay the foundations for Gringotts however. I chalked it up to wizard stupidity and left it at that.
A thoroughly despicable part of history.
No mention of it in any history books. At least not in Europe. And dwarves, well, they were painted as greedy, selfish, gold loving thieves that had extorted the gold from good honest wizards thereafter.
The dwarves had not been able to recover their former numbers and wealth to this day. They now lived on the outskirts of the magical world, subsiding on what scraps wizards cared to throw their way. They were a dying race, slowly fading away. It didn't sit right with me. I liked dwarves. They might be big grumps, but that was part of their charm. I think the world be poorer for them fading away due to the greed and stupidity of the wizarding world.
I wonder if that was the cause for the US not having a Gringotts branch.
"Well, that's horrifying," I commented idly. "I wish I was surprised, but this level of shortsightedness is pretty standard for this community."
"I'm surprised you didn't try to deny it." The half-dwarf muttered.
"I'd say it was because I was a muggleborn, but even they are rather well indoctrinated by this point," I told her drily before changing the subject. "What I'm not seeing here is how learning enchanting with me is going to lead to saving your people, or why they would even listen to you in the first place."
"They will listen because I'm Lys Hreidmarsdottir, last in the line to the throne of Nidavellir, and I have magic as wizards do. That has to count for something!" She growled.
I sighed. That was a bit naïve. I highly doubted it would be that easy. Then again, they were dwarves so there might be a cultural thing I was missing. But since much of their culture seemed to have gone by the wayside… well, I was skeptical. Still, I found myself wanting to help."It might, if you use it right, and if you're a good actor."
"Actor?" she asked in confusion.
"People aren't inspired by reality, they are inspired by stories and legends. If you are going to lead your people you need to be bigger than they are, or at least appear to be." I told her frankly. "It's something like what I did today, only bigger."
She looked at me intently. "And you can help me with that?"
I laughed. "Heavens no, I don't know the first thing about leading a people, and I don't want to. I can maybe give you some pointers on how to get started. How well you can pull it off, that's entirely up to you." I told her bluntly. "I'll point out that most of what you will do will be self-study, I have my own things to work on, yeah?"
Lys was quiet for a few moments, mulling that over in her head before speaking again. "I see, so you will help me then?"
I inclined my head. "For the moment. Well have to hash out what I want out of you of course, but we can do that later once I have made some preparations."
Lys mearly grunted and crossed her arms across her chest. "So when do we begin?"
"No time like the present, what do you want to know?" I asked her genially.
"All the things you did today, how did you do that?" She asked me without hesitation.
"Well, that's actually not as impressive as it looked. That suit, pretty standard broom charm on that one. I know, it shouldn't work, no article of clothing would be able to stand up to such forces. And you can't just slap the enchants on another piece of clothing because then you'd have two, possibly four, different brooms. You'll be lucky if all that happens is that you end up buck naked somewhere."
Lys actually cracked a smile at that. So she did have a sense of humor. That was alway a good sign.
"Fortunately, for every problem, there is a solution. You already noticed the harness, nicely spotted by the way. That was step number one. Step number two was this." I told her and held up a small wooden disk about the size of an average coin. "Tell me, have you heard of the Protean Charm?"
Lys shook her head negatively.
"No? That's okay. It's not all that famous, strangely enough. It works by tying several similar objects together and make them act as if they are the same object. Bloody amazing really. Anyway, I have these little disks that are sewn into the harness, and into the belt and the soles of my boots and bracers that I wear under my flight jacket. This has the result of spreading out the effect as well as circumventing the problem of enchanting several objects with the same charms."
"What you did out there was far faster than any broom I've ever seen," Lys said accusingly.
"Not really. All brooms could go that fast if it was enchanted properly. But they don't lay a full-strength charm into it because there is no earthly way any wizard would be able to hold on to the damn thing at those speeds, not without some way of dealing with the G-Forces." I explained to my guess.
Lys just looked at me confusedly. "G-Forces?"
"Weight per unit mass," I told her with a smile before explaining. "You know when the Express gets going and you are pushed back into your seat? That's an example of G-Force. The faster you go the harder you are pressed back. When you get up to really high speeds it can turn your insides to pudding, bones and all. It's not very nice." I told her with a wide slasher smile.
Lys nodded slowly, looking a bit green around the gills. "But you figured out how to deal with these... G-Forces?"
"Indeedeliio! And I only needed a slightly modified Cushioning Charm." I told her proudly.
"Cushioning Charm?"
I nodded enthusiastically. "Like all of the other charms on a standard broom, and I'll come back to them later, believe me, the Cushioning Charm is a charm with deeply hidden depths. The damn thing can stop someone at terminal velocity dead!" I told her excitedly. "Have you any idea what that means!? It means that the charm somehow cancels out inertia because if it didn't then the sudden stop itself would still have all your major organs exploding out of your ass like the world's worst diarrhea!" I exclaimed in glee, to Lys look of disgust. "I had to tweak it a bit of course. It wasn't meant to work like that, but it was a fairly easy mod."
Lys looked at me in disgust. I smiled back at her.
"Funny enough, it actually took less effort to enchant with the modified Cushioning Charm worked into the wheel because I didn't have to balance the power of the propulsion charm by fudging so it was weak enough to work with the braking charm like they normally have to do," I noted absently.
Lys nodded slowly. "Oh, right. So what about the rest? The wind and the fire, and the glowy bits..."
I shrugged. "Smoke and mirrors mostly. Its various illusions and creative charms work."
"That giant gust of wind didn't feel like an illusion." Lys protested.
I chuckled. "The benefits of having trained to cast wandlessly."
"And thats another thing, you can actually cast wandlessly." She said, almost accusingly, as if I'd done something I wasn't supose to. "I thought only the strongest wizards could do that!"
I snorted in disgust. "Then all the wizards down in Africa are really freaking strong."
"That giant fireball you shot off felt pretty damn strong to me!" Lys told me harshly.
"Wandless magic is no stronger than if you use a wand, I mean, how could it be? Its still the same magic after all." I lectured her.
"But…"
"But!" I interrupted. "There are some advantages to it, just as there are some advantages to using a wand. One of those advantages is that you don't just have one channel to push your magic trough, you can project it out from any part of your body you damn well want to." I told her and to demonstrate I made the tip of my nose glow softly. "It also means that if you have trained correctly you can fire off two spells nearly at the same time," I told her and then waved my hand to conjure a simple candle.
"A normal candle right?" I said and snapped my fingers causing it to light. Lys gave me an impatient look to which I smiled and pointed the candle and cast a spell out loud for her benefit.
"Engorgio!" As the spell hit the thin finger flame of the candle flame immediately expanded with a roar into something that would be more fitting coming out of a flamethrower, an intense blaze almost six feet long and two feet wide. Lys jerked back in shock and likely from the blistering heat.
Using the Engorgement Charm on fire wasn't something that ever happened in the books, at least to my knowledge. It had happened in the movies though when Harry cast it in the tent during the hunt for Piddles little soul jars. The implications, and usefulness, of that, was, of course, obvious to anyone with two brain cells to rub together. So not long after I'd gotten to this world I'd done some research and had found no mention of anyone ever trying to cast that particular charm on fire before, or on water or the air for that matter. Understandable I suppose, why would one cast an Engorgement Charm on air? Or fire? Lots of air around anyway and fire had a nasty tendency to grow when you didn't want it to. Most wizards were more concerned with making it smaller or harmless altogether.
I'd tested enlarging charm out on a variety of spells since then but had only had successes with such charms that generated or in some way related to mundane forms of energy. I'd been somewhat leery about testing it too much; I didn't want to accidentally cook myself with microwaves or some nastier form of radiation. I rather liked living. I'd probebly make a go at it at some point in the future when I had some better ways of shielding myself from harm, a lot better.
I gave Lys another smile.
"Welcome to Drew's school of creative magic use. You'll hate me before we are done." I promised brightly.