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HP413- Magical Tech
🕑 Added 2025-04-21 00:24:17 +0000 UTCThey met Harry near the Great Hall stairs, where he was waiting with Daphne, already fully dressed, stretching like she wasn’t the reason half the castle wanted to strangle someone.
“Rise and shine,” Harry said as the others trickled in.
“Die in a cauldron,” Pansy muttered, tying her hair up.
Astoria, somehow wide awake, grinned and bounced on her heels. “Morning exercise! I made a checklist.”
Daphne gave her a sideways look. “No one asked you to be cheerful.”
“I came prepared.”
Hermione arrived next, hair frizzing from sleep. “You’re lucky I didn’t test a freezing charm on this.”
“I locked it against offensive spells,” Harry said.
“Of course you did.”
When everyone finally gathered outside, they started walking toward the lake, most of them half-awake, some still muttering threats about the wake-up call.
“Jog first,” Harry said, cutting across the field. “Stretch after. Otherwise someone’s going to pull something.”
“You say that like it’s not your fault,” Pansy muttered.
“You say that like I care,” Harry answered.
The grass was wet underfoot, dew clinging to their shoes. It was too early for students to be outside, which meant they had the place to themselves. The lake stretched ahead, calm, barely a ripple.
They picked up pace slowly—more of a light jog than a run. Neville looked like he might fall asleep mid-stride. Fred and George took it as a challenge and started weaving through the group.
Tracey pretended to trip one of them. Almost succeeded.
Hermione jogged next to Harry. “How did you do it anyway? You didn’t ask for cards. How can you change them?”
Harry pulled out his card and flipped it in his hand. “You already know the main function. The Protean Charm lets us send messages by shifting the card’s structure. When you change yours, it pings the others. Mine’s the central piece, though. Main card controls the rest.”
Hermione nodded, still jogging beside him. “Right, and the runes…”
“That’s the easy part,” Harry said. “What makes it useful is Intentus Revelio. Skips the usual transfiguration or carving. We don’t need to etch letters with a wand—we just push intent, and it writes itself. But that’s not all. That function is also the back door.”
She blinked. “Back door?”
Harry held the card up. “Anything I carve into mine shows up on yours. So, if I etch runes into this—actual magical ones—they copy over. Normally, they’d just be decorative. But I made it so they’re active.”
“Of course you did,” Hermione muttered, more impressed than annoyed.
Harry shrugged. “I’m genius like that.”
They ignored the self-praise. Fred and George looked entirely too interested, their matching grins sharpening like knives.
“That is bloody brilliant,” Fred said.
“Think of the pranks,” George added, eyes practically glowing.
They were already mentally drafting a blueprint for disaster.
Harry cut in, “Yeah, no. Like I said—it’s not that simple. I can turn cards into explosives, sure, but getting the magic to activate through them? That’s the tricky part. Rune activation through card medium’s unstable unless you anchor it with something solid.”
“Solid like what?” Fred asked.
“Time-based enchantment. Or blood.” Harry said it like he was talking about pumpkin juice.
George made a face. “Alright, that went dark fast.”
Tracey jogged up next to him “You two get any ideas, I’m keeping all my card activity locked down.”
Astoria piped up from the side, “Too late. If they want to prank you, they won’t need your permission.”
“Remind me why we let them in?” Tracey asked.
“Because they are entertaining,” Daphne answered without turning to them, focusing on her jog. “And possibly armed.”
The twins nodded in perfect sync.
“We prefer the term ‘inventive,’” George said.
“Unpredictable works too,” Fred added.
Susan walked past, card in hand, tapping its edge. “So, what else can you make these do?”
Harry pocketed his card. “So far, message and calls. I copied Muggle tech. They also invented video conferences, but it’s still pretty basic. I haven’t seen it myself, just read about it. I might make something like that later.”
Ginny blinked. “What’s a video?”
The confusion was instant. Everyone except Hermione and the Slytherin trio—Draco, Theo, and Blaise—looked lost.
Draco immediately puffed up. “Ah, video. I know that.”
Tracey rolled her eyes. “You took Muggle Studies once, don’t act like you invented it.”
“I passed top of my class.”
“You and five other purebloods who thought television was witchcraft,” Blaise muttered.
Theo added, “We watched one about animal behavior. Half the class thought the cat on screen would crawl out and attack.”
“Because you screamed,” Draco shot back.
“That cat had dead eyes,” Theo said simply.
Susan tilted her head. “So, video is that Muggle box in Harry's house?”
Hermione sighed. “No. Television is different. It plays pre-recorded shows. Videos are... kind of like that, but they’re stored separately—on tapes. You play them back whenever you want.”
“Still a box,” Susan said.
Tracey made a face. “Sounds cursed.”
“It’s not cursed,” Hermione muttered.
“Debatable,” Pansy said. “Anything that shows moving people inside a box is probably trying to eat your soul.”
“That’s mirrors,” Luna added helpfully. “You have to ask them nicely.”
Fred raised a hand. "Static-y and noisy. Dad said it ran on electricity.”
George nodded. “He tried to plug it in. Blew up Harry's toaster.”
Harry laughed. “Anyway, video is pre-recorded moving pictures that you can watch again and again. But the real trick is in something called live television—lets people see and hear the news.”
Tracey blinked. “Like the Floo, but with more steps?”
“Exactly,” Harry answered. “If I can make the cards do it both ways, we’ll be able to speak and see each other, no need for mirrors or fireplaces.”
Fred immediately looked interested. “So, like a two-way mirror but without the soot and face full of ash?”
“Right,” Harry deadpanned. “Cleaner. Also, portable. You wouldn’t have to be near a fireplace.”
George whistled. “Bet Mum would love that. Could shout at us without waiting for us to come home.”
“You say that like it’s a good thing,” Ginny muttered.
“You’re missing the point,” Hermione said. “If he pulls it off, that’s a leap in communication magic. Even international calls—instant.”
Pansy raised an eyebrow. “You planning to turn our cards into tiny moving picture screens?”
“More or less,” Harry said. “The magic’s there. Muggle tech proves it works, and if I layer the enchantments right, we won’t even need extra runes beyond the current grid. Just a trigger sequence and basic receiver charm.”
Neville gave him a tired look. “I only understood half of that.”
“You’ll get it when we test it,” Harry said.
“Will it show faces or full body?” Daphne asked, arms folded.
“Faces. Full image, real-time. You’d see the other person as they talk. No need to guess tone or wait for a reply.”
“That’s mad,” Astoria said, eyes wide. “You could spy on people.”
Harry shook his head as they came to a stop by the lake after a full lap around it. The grass was damp, shoes sticking slightly with every step. He raised his hand casually and waved out at the water.
“Hey, Krak.”
The surface shifted. A thick, slick tentacle rose and gave a lazy wave back before sinking again. The Giant Squid settled just under the waterline, its massive eye watching them like it was half-expecting them to do something crazy again.
Harry turned to Astoria. “Anyway—back to the cards. That’s why we’ve got failsafes. You can’t just shout through someone’s card whenever you feel like it.”
“But you can,” Astoria said, tilting her head.
“I built them. Overrides are mine,” Harry said. “The rest of you? You need both sides to agree. You want to call someone, you use Intentus Revelio and focus on their name. Your card sends a request. The other side has to answer. If they don’t, nothing happens.”
Ginny smirked. “So, no surprise wake-up calls?”
“Only from me,” he said.
“Figures,” Tracey muttered.
Harry waved toward the group. “Try it.”
Hermione was first. She held her card with both hands, murmured “Harry Potter,” and a faint shimmer ran through the surface of her card.
A moment later, Harry’s own card buzzed lightly in his pocket. He pulled it out and showed her. “See? Incoming request.”
“Can you ignore it?” she asked.
Harry let it flicker, then tapped the edge. Her card glowed briefly, and she smiled.
“Clean link,” she said. “Simple trigger, no verbal feedback required.”
“Exactly,” Harry said. “You want to talk, both sides agree. No passive eavesdropping, no ambient surveillance. And before anyone asks—yes, I could patch that in. But no, I’m not going to.”
“You say that now,” Blaise said, stretching his arms behind his head.
“I say that until one of you gets paranoid enough to start hexing your cards,” Harry replied. “Then it is a hassle for all of us.”
Neville was still staring at his card like he was trying to decode it. “What if I accidentally call someone?”
“You are hopeless,” Susan said, grabbing her card and holding it up. “Hannah Abbott.”
Her card buzzed then Hannah’s glowed. She grinned and gave Susan a thumbs up.
“Works,” she said. “Now if only it served tea.”
Luna held her card upside-down and said something under her breath. A second later, Ginny’s card blinked, and she blinked with it.
“Did she just...?” Ginny asked.
“Obviously,” Harry said.
“She didn’t even say my name.”
“I didn’t have to,” Luna said. “The card knows.”
“That’s terrifying,” Pansy muttered.
“Efficient,” Luna corrected.
Daphne was the last to test it. She flicked her card and said, “Tracey Davis.”
Tracey’s card lit up. She rolled her eyes and waved her hand. “Fine, it works."
Harry started warming up, rolling his shoulders back and stretching his arms. Others followed without needing to be told. The grass made soft squeaks under their shoes.
“As Luna showed, you don't have to say names out loud,” Harry said, moving through a basic warm-up set. “Intentus Revelio does what it says. It's about intent. Push your focus through the card, think of the person, and it'll do the rest.”
He twisted at the waist and gestured toward Neville. “And Neville’s not wrong to worry. I’ve been blocking his outgoing calls to Fleur since last night.”
Neville paused mid-stretch, blinking. “Wait, what?”
Harry shrugged. “You sleep with your card in your hand. It tried to connect three times around midnight.”
“That’s... deeply concerning,” Hermione said, eyeing Neville.
Neville looked horrified. “That’s not what it sounds like.”
Ginny leaned against the wall, smirking. “Sure, mate. We believe you.”
“Unfortunate phrasing,” Blaise added from back of the group.
Fred, who’d been balancing on one leg like a stork for no apparent reason, pointed. “So what you’re saying is—if we all focus really hard, we can call Neville’s love life?”
“Or what’s left of it,” George muttered.
“I hate everyone,” Neville said, clearly reconsidering his friendships.
Rest chuckled, knowing exactly what had happened. Neville probably passed out mid-message with the card in his hand, and somewhere in his dreams, he'd reached out to Fleur. Three times. The poor bloke looked like he wanted the floor to swallow him.
Harry shook his head, amused. “Just don’t sleep with your cards, alright? That goes for everyone. Intentus Revelio doesn’t care if you’re awake or not.”
That earned a couple of awkward coughs. His eyes slid toward Tracey and Susan, who both suddenly found the floor very interesting.
Tracey cleared her throat. “Right, noted.”
Susan muttered something about testing the enchantments. Neither of them looked at Harry.
“Yeah,” Harry said, dry. “Pretty sure I got midnight calls from both of you last night.”
Hannah snorted. “Now that’s suspicious.”
Tracey gave her a flat look. “Dreams don’t count.”
“Sure they don’t,” Daphne said. “Let’s all pretend you weren’t whispering his name in your sleep.”
“Definitely wasn’t. And even if I did, it was a dream, so legally inadmissible.” Susan muttered.
“Relax,” Harry said, lifting a hand. “Wasn’t anything dramatic. Just a buzz and your names. Could’ve been worse.”
“Could’ve been Ginny,” Tracey shot back.
Ginny, tying her shoelaces, didn’t even blink. “You wish I dreamed about you.”
Astoria tilted her head. “Wait, if I fall asleep with my card thinking about chocolate frogs—”
“You’ll end up sending me candy cravings,” Harry said. “So don’t.”
Neville, still red, raised his hand halfway. “So we’re just pretending none of this happened?”
“Yes,” multiple voices replied at once.
Fred leaned against the stone wall, stretching his arms behind his head. “This card system’s already chaos.”
George nodded. “We approve.”
Harry pointed at them. “You're banned from modifying yours.”
“Unfair,” Fred said.
“Correct,” Harry replied.
