'Even their mountain is gone now?' Harry thought with pity. How long had these Dwarves been stuck, holed up wherever they could find space, barely keeping themselves afloat as the ages passed.
"I'm sorry to hear that, Erdunn." Harry offered his sympathies. "I don't suppose there is much I can do to help though."
"That's alright, lad. We Dwarves will endure. We're a hardy people, one day we'll get back what was taken from us." Drad replied as he clenched his fist. "Don't suppose it'll help much, but if you happen to find the 'Sword of Gryffindor' in your years here, send it to my father 'King' Drasurd Erdunn if you could."
"What would you want the 'Sword of Gryffindor' for?" Harry questioned.
"You don't really believe that Goblins forged such a powerful weapon for a Wizard, do you?" Drad asked and Harry remembered questioning that very fact when he'd been reading up on Magical Swords. "That sword was forged by Dwarven Smiths; my ancestors at that. Only a direct descendant of Gryffindor or a descendant of Erdunn can truly claim that sword and reveal its true power."
"I'll keep my eye out for it then." Harry agreed as he now had much more to think about. "Thank you for speaking with me, Erdunn."
"It was good to meet a Wizard that's willing to listen." Drad replied as he turned and headed off. Harry was left with his thoughts and the revelation that a chunk of Magical History had basically been covered up by guilty Wizards in the past.
"At least I'm not the only one that doesn't trust the Goblins." Harry mumbled to himself quietly as he made his way into the Great Hall.
"Happy Valentine's Day, Harry." Penny smiled at him as she handed him a few choice bars of various Honeydukes' Chocolate.
"Happy Valentine's Day, Penny." Harry smiled back as he handed her an assortment of Honeydukes' Finest, some of the most expensive chocolates that Honeydukes produced. He'd sent a similar gift to Tonks last night with Hedwig. As if thinking about her summoned the snowy owl, Hedwig swooped down to him with an envelope attached to her leg. "Hey girl, did Tonks send you back?" He asked his owl while removing the letter. Hedwig gave him an affectionate nibble while also taking some food for herself from his plate. With a 'Prek' the snowy owl flew off to the Owlery to rest.
Harry opened the envelope and read the letter. Tonks thanked him for the chocolates and said her Valentine's Gift was in the envelope. Curious, Harry pulled out what remained in the envelope and smiled when he saw the Magical Photograph of Tonks smiling at him. The Tonks in the photo then stepped backwards a few steps and revealed that she was wearing a VERY skimpy bikini. Harry felt his cheeks heating up as he watched 'photo Tonks' increase the size of her breasts or give herself a ridiculously curvy body that was the 'perfect' hourglass shape. She even turned around and showed him her ass in multiple sizes!
"Harry, are you okay? Your face is rather red." Penny asked in concern. "What did Tonks send you?"
"Nothing!" Harry exclaimed as he quickly stuffed the picture into the inner pocket of his robes. Penny raised an eyebrow at his reaction before sighing.
"She sent you something naughty, didn't she?" Penny asked with a shake of her head.
"No?" Harry replied, though he didn't sound convincing even to himself. Penny rolled her eyes before ruffling his hair a bit.
"Don't let her corrupt you completely, Harry." Penny advised with a small smile.
"Ok." Harry agreed and they both started on their lunch.
-Last Week of February-
"Carefully…slowly…almost there." Harry mumbled to himself as he filled in the last of the Magic Circuits with his Oulm Circuit material. Even with his Alchemic Pen it was a pain in the ass to fill in the Circuits on a round surface! But after multiple failed attempts at it, Harry finally finished his new Item prototype. "Just let it cool and finish solidifying then we can test out Auror Baton prototype number one." Harry had copied the idea of the Policeman's Baton from the Non-Magical World and applied his new Runic Array to a Sylvuan baton with Oulm Circuits. If the baton operated the same way as the prototype knife, then Harry would give the first one to Tonks and make a few more if the Auror Department was interested.
"Now I just need to test it out." Harry mused on how to do that without using himself as the Guinea Pig. Penny would be upset with him if he tested out his Items on himself again. "Maybe I should take a page out of the Weasley Twin's handbook and pay some people to be test subjects." With a chuckle Harry pulled a piece of blank parchment over and set about writing out his proposal. He'd have Penny take a look at it and help revise it when she came by. For now he'd continue looking over the Communication Mirror notes he'd gotten from Remus. He'd been puzzling over them in his free time lately, but he still couldn't figure out what made the successful pair work. Remus was indeed a meticulous note keeper; Harry had read through the Marauder's attempt to use the same Charms and Enchantments that worked on the successful pair on others. The others were all failures though, each and every time. It was truly baffling as to why.
-First Week of March-
"Harry, you're sure you know what you're doing?" Penny questioned in concern.
"It's not really any different from a knife, just bigger and double edged." Harry tried to reassure Penny as he held his first successfully forged sword prototype. He had yet to actually etch the Runic Array into it, but his success with the Vitris Auri and Sylvuan knife had spurned him to move forward with the next step to his Artifact Sword. He'd worked out a new addition to his Runic Array as well. The 'Enhance' Sequence was fairly common as a boosting sequence to increase either potency or range of a Magical Effect. The best part was that unlike the 'Transfer' Sequence the 'Enhance' Sequence was much more mutable. It had only taken Harry three attempts to rewrite it so that it would integrate into his Array.
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