"I was going to say be the voice of reason, I can always spank your furry arse too," he threatened. Sirius just laughed.
"Actually we are using a stag, a grim, and a wolf as our marketing symbol," Sirius admitted. "Tall dark and fluffy over there would scar people away." Before Harry could protest, Sirius tossed something into Harry's lap.
"Congratulations. Kalina loved it. Now she's on about opening a home products division along with entertainment and pranking. You're giving me even more work!"
"Don't blame me!" Harry protested. "Mooney gave me the assignment." Sirius merely gave a mocking wave as he left the room the same way he'd entered.
"What is it?" Hermione asked curiously. Harry grinned at her as he handed the small object to her. It appeared to be a thin metal cylinder with a three inch diameter and a metal mesh covering both ends.
"It's your fault too," he said as she examined the tube. "You know how you're always complaining that the Hair Drying Charms work too fast so it makes your hair all frizzy? Remus told me to come up with a product using the same type of techniques they used on the mirrors. So, I made a hair dryer for you."
Hermione looked shocked and touched a small rune on the side of the device. A soft warm breeze suddenly came out of one end but it was almost completely silent since no electric motor was used. She pressed the small rune above it and the air flow increased. Another rune saw the air flow get warmer.
"It's really just a warming charm coupled with a controlled Zephyr Charm using a mildly transfigured soda can as a shell. Since the warming charm isn't activated until just before the air leaves the tube, the metal doesn't heat up much even after running for a while. I tried plastic but it wouldn't hold the rune magic," Harry admitted. "It was my proof of concept piece."
"That's brilliant!" Hermione gushed. "It's so simple! Why hasn't anyone done this before?"
"Too simple," Ernie answered with a grin. "Muggle-born try to charm their technology to work on magic which fails and Purebloods simply won't admit Muggles might actually have something worth copying. Look at the dishwasher your mum showed me last week. Magicals either have a house-elf or they charm their brushes to wash the dishes for them. Same with the ice cases. Muggles have those refrigerators and we have ice cases that are simply wooden boxes lined with tin that has a cooling charm in place. But we've had those for centuries. Since 'we' thought of it first, our solution must be better. Most enchanters just recreate things we've already had but maybe with some improvements, like Harry's Firebolt. Looking at Muggle solutions and then recreating them from scratch just never occurred to anyone." Ernie grinned now at Harry.
"Maybe only the insane would've thought of it."
Harry laughed as Hermione huffed and glared at her boyfriend. Harry could see she was actually impressed with Ernie's comments. The Hufflepuff had a firm grasp of reality and knew enough of mundane culture to look at the one he'd grown up in. While not as book smart as Hermione, Ernie wanted to attend university after leaving Hogwarts and take a degree in Anthropology. Harry had to look up just what that was but thought his friend would be rather brilliant at it.
"Hmmm," Harry hummed in consideration. "That might be a good point, Ernie. Think what we would create with Luna's input!" The look of fear on Ernie and Hermione's faces was rivalled by the glee on Sirius's.
Hermione had finished her study of the hair dryer and announced the rune work to be 'adequate' and suggested he present it to Professor Babbling as extra credit towards the coming OWLS. Once she was done, Ernie asked the question that had been on his mind since they had arrived.
"So Harry, what is Sirius doing to you?"
Harry made a groaning noise and said, "Training. Getting me ready to face Greyback."
"What kind of training?" Hermione asked. "Wand magic is out since you have to meet under the full moon."
Harry shrugged. "I guess you'd call it martial arts. Padfoot calls it 'Black-Fu'. I've never really seen really karate or whatever except the bollocks you see on the telly so I don't know what to compare it with. Most of it is for dodging spells, anticipating where they are going; that sort of thing. The rest is what to do if you lose your wand and the enemy is in close. Quick and dirty ways to take someone out. Go for the soft tissue, joints. Using the elbows and knees; some throws. My cousin Dudley is on his school's boxing team. The mildest of Black-Fu would get me tossed out of every match.
"I don't know how it's going to help with Greyback but I reckon Sirius needed to do something. He's been a nervous wreck," Harry confided. "He said he would have probably taught me anyway. His grandfather taught him, his brother Regulus, and his cousin Bellatrix."
Ernie went pale at the mention of the witch's name. "Bellatrix was almost as feared as V-voldemort. My dad told me once that you knew Voldemort would kill you and you might escape Bellatrix but were likely to be missing limbs or vital organs when you did. Never heard of Regulus."
"According to Sirius, his brother was killed by Riddle six months before he killed my parents. He'd only left Hogwarts the previous June but was close to the Inner Circle. No one knows what, if anything, he did to make Riddle kill him."
"So, do you think it will help you?" Ernie asked returning to the original topic.
"Maybe," came the answer. "Greyback isn't like fighting a human. Wolves do have the same instincts to go for the soft tissue. As for the rest, I guess we'll just have to see."
.....
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