After leaving the Dursleys' house, we drove a black Jeep Grand Cherokee toward Ottery St Catchpole in Devon, where the Weasleys lived.
It took about two hours from Surrey, where the Dursleys were, and along the way Victorique stopped by a popular British fast-food chain originally from South Africa called Nando's. She ordered peri-peri chicken, a Portuguese-style grilled chicken, along with some chicken wraps.
We picked up the food at the drive-through, and as I nibbled on churros while chatting idly with Elaina inside the car, Victorique suddenly spoke up.
"Come to think of it, Harry, you're quite serious. You look like James, but when I talk to you like this, you remind me of Lily."
I almost choked on my churros, but still managed to ask back in a hoarse voice.
"V-Victorique, you knew my parents?!"
"To some extent. We were in different houses and different years, so we weren't especially close."
"…"
I could tell, even myself, that I had involuntarily sucked in a breath.
"Well, um, if you don't mind… could you tell me about my dad and mom?"
At my question, Victorique murmured, "Let me see," and began speaking in a nostalgic tone.
"Lily was one of old Sluggy's favorites. He was the Slytherin Head of House at the time, and also taught Potions. So whenever we met at the social club he hosted, the so-called Slug Club, we would sometimes chat."
She continued, "She was smart, serious, and had a strong sense of justice."
"When we met at the club, she was very polite at first, kind of like you are now, Harry."
There was something about the way she phrased that which caught my attention. It sounded as if she was implying that my father had been different.
Still, my curiosity about my dad won out.
"So, what was my father like?"
"James? He gave me a love letter on the third day after starting school."
"…And what did it say?"
"From the very first line: 'I like you, please marry me.'"
Dad at full throttle…
"And on top of that, Sirius confessed to me on the same day."
What suddenly came to mind was the image of Sirius I had seen last year, all neatly dressed up and flashing a sexy wink. Well, I suppose it would make a striking picture.
(I mean, is confessing your feelings something you do three days after starting school? Was that just how things were back then? Or is it just that I never hear about these things, and while I'm unaware, Seamus or Lavender or someone else has already dated and broken up with someone…?)
While I was sinking into baseless paranoia, Elaina either threw me a lifeline or drove the knife in deeper.
"…So, what did my mother say?"
"Hmm, if I remember right, she answered pretty straightforwardly: 'I'm happy you told me how you feel, but I want to focus on my studies until graduation, so I'm sorry I can't return those feelings.'"
That was a very mature response.
"Well, Sirius honestly shifted his interest to another girl the very next day. But James didn't give up and kept sending owl mail every day."
"Neither of them sounds like a decent man…"
"It hurts that I can't even argue with that…"
I etched it firmly into my heart that you really shouldn't ask about your parents' romantic history out of idle curiosity.
"But, after Lily finally snapped and yelled, 'You're being a nuisance!' at James, as you know, Harry, James devoted himself entirely to Lily. At least, I think so. I didn't actually see it."
"…I'm proud to be my mother's son."
Even as I said that, my feelings were a little complicated.
"But…"
After hearing all that, one small worry crept into my mind.
"Why did my mom decide to go out with my dad?"
I muttered in a pathetic voice, and Elaina, who had been listening beside me, shrugged.
"To be blunt, most girls don't seriously engage with boys they truly dislike. They won't blatantly ignore them, but they'll subtly avoid them and keep their distance."
She added, "At least, that's how it is as far as I know," but her words carried a strange sense of conviction.
◇◆◇
And with that, we finally arrived at the Weasleys' home, known as the Burrow.
After it got dark, we activated the "Transparency Booster" and turned invisible, then leapt through the sky in a single bound like a certain time-traveling DeLorean. At the Burrow, Ron's father was already waiting for us by the roadside.
"Hey, Victorique. Thanks for bringing Harry!"
"Arthur-senpai… what's that?"
Where my mother was looking, Arthur Weasley was holding a placard in both hands, the kind you see at airports, with "Welcome, Celestia & Potter Party" written on it.
"I heard that in the Muggle world, this is how people welcome guests."
"That's only for airplanes."
"More importantly, Victorique. May I take a look?"
Fidgeting with excitement, Mr. Weasley stared at the car we had arrived in. The Ford Anglia that Harry and the others had flown in two years ago was about forty years old, so seeing a relatively new Jeep left him utterly thrilled.
While my mother was filling Mr. Weasley's head with all sorts of stories, the red-haired siblings began gathering from the Burrow. Fred and George came over to me.
"Elaina! Doing well?"
"Did you grow a bit taller?"
"Or maybe you two just shrank."
When I replied, the twins grinned and we shook hands for the first time in a while. Right behind them were two redheads I didn't recognize.
"And they are?"
"Allow us to introduce them. The pride of the Weasley family, our great former Head Boy Bill, and our former Quidditch Captain, Charlie."
"Both former, though."
Charlie looked a lot like the twins, with a solid, muscular build. His well-trained body bore burn marks and scars here and there.
Bill, on the other hand, was a handsome guy with long hair, dressed in stylish casual clothes that wouldn't look out of place at a rock concert.
"Now then, welcome to our home."
Led along by the twins, I entered the Burrow, where Mrs. Weasley was already preparing tea.
Nearby, Percy Weasley, who had just started working at the Ministry of Magic, was passionately explaining cauldrons to Hermione.
"Some imported ones are slightly thin, you see, and the leakage rate exceeds three percent per year!"
"That could be a bit dangerous if you're handling potions."
"Exactly! But nowadays, most cauldrons in the British wizarding world are cheap foreign-made products. Unless we impose some kind of international regulation…"
"But if the Ministry enforced 'cauldron certification,' wouldn't that just become a breeding ground for vested interests?"
When Hermione made that very reasonable point, Percy frowned and shook his head vigorously, saying, "That's precisely the problem." Only then did he finally notice us.
"Ah, Harry, and Celestia."
"Harry, Elaina, it's been a while!"
"Long time no see."
We greeted each other like that, but I couldn't help feeling that Mrs. Weasley was keeping a slight distance from me.
She hugged me warmly, but her gaze seemed to keep flicking back and forth between me and the twins.
"Am I being treated with suspicion?"
"Mum's worried that we might be dating Elaina,"
"And both of us at the same time."
"Yes, yes. Jokes aside, what's the real reason?"
"Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes."
"Oh," I nodded.
"So the prank shop idea didn't go over well?"
I already knew the twins were planning to open a joke shop. Since two years ago, we had worked together selling Muggle adult magazines, and last year we sold anti-curse vests enchanted with the Shield Charm to the Ministry. In a way, we were business partners.
Thanks to that, they had raised a decent amount of startup capital, and the prank items themselves were developing smoothly, things like trick wands, trick sweets, and Ton-Tongue Toffees. But apparently, Mrs. Weasley wanted the twins to get stable jobs at the Ministry or somewhere similar.
"But seriously, do you think there's any job at the Ministry that actually suits us?"
"If it were me, I'd recommend Azkaban."
"Oh, come on. George and I aren't the type to end up in some backwater."
"That's right. We're going to be big someday."
"Fred, George, that's enough!"
Finally losing her patience, Mrs. Weasley glared fiercely at the twins, who were boasting with smug expressions like unsuccessful self-proclaimed musicians.
"Listen carefully. If you had gotten all Outstanding grades on your O.W.L. exams like Bill and Percy, and then said you wanted to start a business, I wouldn't oppose it at all!"
"But!" she continued, knitting her brows.
"Only three O.W.L.s! With such terrible results, talking about prank shops has no persuasive power whatsoever! It just sounds like an excuse to slack off on your studies!"
Well… that was a pretty solid argument. When I glanced back, even the twins looked a little awkward.
**
"But still…"
Just as the twins were about to argue back, four identical female voices suddenly rang out at once.
"Hello? Can you hear me?"
One was mine, two were the twins', and the last came from Percy's pocket.
"Penny?"
What Percy pulled out was a mirror in a card case, showing the face of his girlfriend, former Ravenclaw prefect Penelope Clearwater. When Fred, George, and I opened our mirrors as well, the reflection split like a kaleidoscope, showing all five of our faces.
This was the Omni-Mirror, a multi-faced mirror developed last summer by me, Penelope-senpai, and Gemma Farley, the seventh-year Slytherin prefect.
"Oh, everyone's together. Good. Will you be able to make it to the meeting later?"
"That depends on whether Percy finishes writing his love letter to Mr. Crouch."
"…What?"
Before Percy could respond, Fred teased him, and Penelope's usually gentle, cheerful voice dropped by a couple of tones.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Wait, Penny, it's a misunderstanding!"
Percy hurriedly tried to explain.
"Mr. Crouch is a respectable superior who always works efficiently and calmly, so I thought he'd appreciate it if I submitted my reports quickly. And, well, he's been quite busy lately…"
"Oh, really?"
"…."
The twins and I exchanged looks with expressions that clearly said, "No way." How does someone come up with that line in this situation?
Penelope listened intently, wearing a delicate, snowdrop-like smile, as Percy continued digging himself deeper.
"So, in the end, can you make it tonight?"
"Um, well…"
"He says he'll go. Right, Percy?"
Fred nudged him lightly with his foot while signaling "read the room." At last, the hesitant Percy managed to say, "Y-yeah… that's right."
"Then once you get here, we can talk properly, just the two of us."
At Penelope's gentle smile, Percy began to fluster. I leaned closer to Fred and whispered,
"Um, is Penelope the scary type when she gets angry?"
She usually seemed like someone who just smiled and listened to Percy's not-so-interesting political talk.
"According to Gemma, she's the type who can fire employees with a smile."
"Ah, like those people who don't even get angry if they're cheated on, but silently leave the house forever."
"Exactly."
"I can hear you, you know, both of you."
After we carefully explained once again that Percy wasn't cheating or anything of the sort, she finally replied with a slightly sulky, "Well, I figured it was something like that."
"Then come over once you're ready."
With that, the call ended, and the mirror's surface rippled as the five faces disappeared, returning it to a normal mirror.
* * *
When the call ended, Bill Weasley looked at Percy's mirror with great interest and said as he examined it closely.
"I'm impressed. So this is the much-talked-about invention you made, the 'Omni-Mirror.'"
At a glance, it looked like nothing more than a mirror kept inside a card case. It was simple, yet stylish in appearance.
In essence, it was a magical device developed from the traditional "two-way mirror," a paired set of mirrors that allowed two people to talk face-to-face by calling out each other's names. The limitation of one-on-one communication had been removed, and by registering users in advance, multiple people could now converse together. That improved version was the Omni-Mirror.
"As a product name, we actually call it the 'Palantír.' The one we're using now is the second-generation model, the Palantír 2W."
Incidentally, the second-generation model also incorporates some functions from Howler Mail and Omnioculars, making it possible to play back and save recorded video messages.
"Palantír… That sounds familiar somehow."
"Didn't Professor Binns mention it in History of Magic?" Percy said proudly to Ron, who had tilted his head in confusion. "It's said to be the ancestor of the two-way mirror that supported the ancient Roman Magical Senate."
Percy launched into an enthusiastic explanation.
"The great witches and wizards of ancient Rome used highly enchanted black crystals about thirty centimeters in diameter, known as the Seeing Stones, or Palantíri, to exchange information telepathically and transmit important images. In the East, there were four in operation: Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Trebizond. In the West, there were three: Rome, Trier, and Canterbury, making seven in total. Of those, only three still exist today: the Constantinople Stone held by the Byzantine Magical Senate, the Alexandria Stone held by the Egyptian Ministry of Magic, and the Trier Stone held by the German Ministry of Magic…"
It seemed some strange historical switch had flipped, as Percy rattled off trivia at remarkable speed.
The prototype had indeed been developed last summer by Penelope Clearwater, Gemma Farley, and me, but Percy had played a major role in bringing it to a practical stage.
As Penelope's boyfriend and Hogwarts' Head Boy, Percy made full use of his meticulous nature. For a device that demanded precision craftsmanship, he proved invaluable, repeatedly running careful tests during breaks from his N.E.W.T. preparation to ensure smooth, uninterrupted image transmission.
"When Penny asked me if I had any ideas for a good name, it clicked immediately. I remembered Professor Binns's lecture and thought, 'This is it.'"
Gemma had argued that something simple like "O-Mirror" would be more stylish, but in the end, Penelope supported the Palantír name, partly as thanks to Percy for helping with the development, and the decision was settled.
"Still, I always assumed Penny would eventually join the Ministry of Magic," Percy said with a weary shake of his head. "So I was surprised when she said she wanted to start a company with Gemma from Slytherin and Professor Lupin."
"What? Professor Lupin works there too?" Harry exclaimed, eyes wide.
"We did work together on the anti-curse vest last year, after all."
Encouraged by that success, Gemma suggested starting a business. She invited Penelope, who was her contemporary, and Professor Lupin, who had recently resigned. With funding from Bill at Gringotts and from my family's Celestaria Financial Group, they launched a startup upon graduation: General Magitics, or GM for short, specializing in the development, manufacture, and sale of magical tools like the anti-curse vest and the Omni-Mirror.
"For the record, our corporate philosophy is 'What's good for GM is good for the wizarding world.'"
"That's quite a bold claim," Bill remarked.
If it were a giant monopoly, it would sound arrogant, but coming from a startup, it somehow felt like a grand, forward-looking vision. Words really are funny like that.
"But I'm glad Professor Lupin found a place to work."
"If anything, we're the ones who should be grateful."
No matter how accomplished the two founders were as former Head Students, they were still graduates from ordinary families running a brand-new startup. Normally, hiring someone of Professor Lupin's caliber from the outset would be nearly impossible, but the interests of talented seniors in need of skilled personnel and a werewolf struggling to find employment aligned perfectly, giving the company an excellent start.
"Wait, then why didn't Professor Lupin become a co-owner?" Ron asked.
"Ron, Professor Lupin is a werewolf," Hermione replied pointedly.
When they consulted Bill at Gringotts about this, the answer was clear: being a student startup was already a disadvantage, and having a werewolf as a co-owner would make securing loans even harder.
Seeing Harry's expression darken slightly, Fred clapped him on the shoulder cheerfully.
"Oh, right. We hadn't told you yet, Harry, but George, Elaina, and I work there too."
"So you gave up on the joke shop?"
"Not a chance. This is all part of the preparation."
George passionately explained that gaining startup experience and learning management know-how at GM would definitely help when they eventually opened their joke shop.
"You've all thought this through more than I expected," Harry said.
"Exactly. Believe it or not, I'm already a proper working adult myself," I replied smugly.
Harry turned to me. "So what's your position, Elaina?"
"Honorary advisor."
"That's basically retirement."
"I also serve as honorary chairwoman."
"Even more unnecessary…"
While we were talking, Hermione seemed to have developed an interest in the Omni-Mirror as well.
"So it's sort of like a Muggle pager?"
"More or less. Since it's an extension of the traditional two-way mirror rather than a magically enhanced Muggle device, it doesn't violate the International Statute of Secrecy."
We had my mother, who was well-versed in magical law, handle the paperwork at a discounted family rate.
New technology always comes with risks, and regulating those risks is the job of government. Still, it's undeniable that the 1692 International Statute of Secrecy has become one of the greatest barriers to technological progress in the wizarding world.
Of course, from the regulators' perspective, loosening restrictions risks exposure to Muggles and a return to medieval witch hunts, so the debate is inevitable.
It's the classic balance between security and prosperity, how much to prioritize safety for a stable life versus technological advancement for a richer one.
Next, Bill asked another question.
"By the way, what does the '2W' in Palantír 2W stand for?"
"The '2' means second generation, and the 'W' refers to the communication method."
"Wizarding Wireless Network?"
Bill caught on quickly, as expected of someone working at Gringotts.
The Wizarding Wireless Network, used by two-way mirrors and the magical radio at the Weasleys' house, relies not on electricity but on spatial transfer magic, the same kind used in the Floo Network and Vanishing Cabinets.
"…Then that means…" Hermione said slowly, tilting her head. "Elaina, these mirrors use spatial transfer magic for video communication, right?"
"That's correct."
"So if someone used an Omni-Mirror to show a Quidditch match to another mirror, they could broadcast it live?"
There was a brief silence.
After about three seconds, Fred and George placed their sturdy hands on Hermione's shoulders, smiling with unmistakable pressure.
"Well, well… Now that you know, we can't just let you leave for free."
"Even you, Elaina?" Hermione cried in confusion.
She looked desperately to Harry and Ron for help, but both of them averted their eyes and coughed awkwardly, clearly choosing not to get involved.
"Hey, Charlie, what happened to Norbert?" Harry asked suddenly.
"Norbert? What are you talking about?"
"The Norwegian Ridgeback Hagrid had three years ago."
"Oh, Norberta! Turns out she wasn't male after all…"
"Hey! Both of you!"
Left utterly alone, Hermione was dragged toward the fireplace by the powerful twins, her protests unheard by the heartless redheaded boy and bespectacled boy.
"Alright, let's go."
"At this hour? Where?"
"Our company."
"Late-night overtime?"
"Just a bit of social studies fieldwork," I said. "Interested, Hermione?"
"Well… maybe just a little."
Despite being a Gryffindor, Hermione had a strong Ravenclaw-like researcher's curiosity. Just as I'd expected, her intellectual interest was piqued.
This was where she differed from Ron and Harry, who were only interested in using finished products, not how they were developed.
(If possible, I'd like to recruit Hermione into the development team too…)
We were actively gathering capable people, and an extra pair of hands was always welcome.
"Then, shall we go?"
Bill, coming along partly as an inspection, tossed Floo Powder into the fireplace. The flames instantly turned emerald green and roared upward.
"Mind your manners," Mrs. Weasley said firmly, lips pressed into a thin line as she looked at Fred and George.
"Don't worry," the twins replied with a shrug, loudly calling out their destination.
"Circle!"
Their figures vanished, and Hermione tilted her head.
"Elaina, what's 'Circle'?"
"It's basically a business park in Sherwood Royal Forest near Nottingham, leased out by the Celestaria Group."
"Why 'Circle'?"
"Because the building is round. Think of it like the Pentagon in the United States."
After Percy and Hermione went through, it was my turn. My mother waved with a smile.
"Have fun, Elaina."
"Yes!"
I stepped into the fireplace and shouted, "Circle!" My body spun violently as emerald flames engulfed me, and the Weasleys' living room vanished from sight.
(End of chapter)
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