Lily's Journal - Chapter 21

AN: Hey guys.

Sorry for the really late update.

There is currently a Dengue epidemic going on here in Brasil, and I thought I was safe since most of the cases have been far to the south of where I live, but I still caught it anyway.

Spent most of this week in bed, from Sunday all the way to Friday morning, and I still have a killer headache right now, but at least the fever only lasted for two days.

I managed to write this during the week in my better moments, so maybe there are a few more errors than usual.

Anyway, I'm taking my meds and going back to bed.

Hope you guys enjoy this one.

Chapter 21

"What are we doing?" Hermione asked, making Harry laugh a little.

"You'll find out soon enough, love." Harry answered, and then laughed again at Hermione pouting at him, trying a final time to guilt him into telling her what he had planned.

It was her own fault, she was the one that asked him to plan the date without her input. So, if she didn't want to help, she also wouldn't learn what they would be doing before the time. She could probably guess if she wanted to, after all, Luna would also join them.

It was a little weird planning a date for three, but after their two dates, she had decided she was ready to try a date with all three of them. Harry still couldn't understand why Hermione wanted to add other girls into their relationship, but it seemed to make her really happy whenever she talked about it so he was willing to try it for her.

He could admit in his own mind that he was looking forward to which girl Hermione would set her sights on next. His girlfriend was beautiful, and he loved her more than anyone in the world, but he also could admit that some of their friends were really cute. Luna had an ethereal beauty to her, her dirt blonde hair had started to change in the last few months, and instead of the usual way that blonde hair changed, becoming darker, hers was actually becoming lighter, a golden blonde with a hint of silver that coupled with her silvery eyes made Harry's first opinion about her looks even more apparent.

She was really looking like a real life, younger version of Galadriel.

But Luna wasn't the only one of their friends that was that beautiful. Sue and Tracy had that girl next door cuteness, Padma and Parvati were 'hot birds' like Seamus said once in the dorm, and both Lavender and Susan were the most… well developed girls in their year.

And then there was Daphne.

Daphne was considered by most to be the most beautiful girl in their year. Harry didn't agree, Hermione was the most beautiful girl in the school. But, he could admit that Daphne was a close second.

And he wasn't even counting Fleur, who would be coming to Hogwarts for the tournament, or Nym and Penny since they were both far older than them, and Penny was dating Percy.

The date Harry had prepared for the three of them should be pretty fun. He asked Hagrid for help, and the big guy was more than happy to help him, even if he kept laughing and saying how Harry's dad would be jealous of him.

When Harry talked to them in the mirror, his dad actually cried in joy. He didn't even know that portraits could cry. His mum, on the other hand, just smiled at him and said he should make sure Hermione was fine with everything he did, and that both girls had a nice time.

The date he planed was a visit to the forest, and Hagrid's help was gathering the unicorns and a few other of the more peaceful creatures found there. He was sure Luna would love it, and Hermione really liked the time they went to the zoo during the summer, so he was hoping she would enjoy it as well.

"How's your research going?" Harry asked, just to make small talk until they reach the great doors in the first floor.

"We think we found something!" Hermione answered a little excitedly. "The room continues to be of no help, and we don't think we can find out the runes used in its construction by trial and error. But, Penelope reached out to Bill and he said that some of his coworkers in Egypt once told him about something similar to the room, it was found in one of the oldest pyramids there. And he also told her that he and his team found a part of the ritual used to imbue magic in script." She added, making Harry whistle a little.

"Those are some major findings." Harry said, thinking about how important those two things could be.

Despite the usual way that he and the rest of his friends worked, jumping from project to project almost every other day, he didn't help much with this one, Hermione and Penny were doing the bulk of the work on this one. But even still, he knew a little about it, and how difficult it was to find even a starting point in trying to replicate the RoR. It would be worth the effort, the room was amazingly helpful and having the ability to make a copy of the room anywhere would be a major help, but the project was quickly proving to be the most difficult they ever worked on, more difficult than Harry's vibranium, or the mostly abandoned superconductor project.

"Are you two going to invite Bill to work on this project?" Harry asked. It would make sense, Bill seemed to have a lot of information that would be helpful.

"Not really." Hermione answered. "Penelope asked him if he wanted to help us, but he said he was busy in Egypt. Something about cataloguing a major find in Alexandria. But he did say that the goblins might be willing to sell what they have on the rituals, but that he also thinks it will be expensive." She explained, making Harry nod his head a little.

"According to Padfoot and Moony, the goblins have been acting weird lately, a little more aggressive than normal. Remus thought it could be just to us, since apparently they have issues with our business not using Gringotts' services, but Sirius asked around and they are being aggressive to everyone." Harry explained, earning a look of interest from Hermione.

"Does anyone know why they are doing it?" She asked.

"Not really." Harry answered. "Sirius thinks it's just an increase in the normal racism the goblins have, probably because some pureblood pissed them off. I couldn't really understand much because he was laughing his arse off at the time, but he said that Crouch was thrown out of the bank just a few weeks before school started." He explained, shaking his head a little.

Sirius really hated Crouch.

"Maybe that's why professor Flitwick has been so tired all the time this year. He must be involved in calming down the goblins." Hermione said, mostly to herself.

"Maybe." Harry said in agreement, but then the time he spent with Sirius and his dad's portrait made itself known. "Or maybe he found a woman, and 'little Flitwick' is now getting some work. Although, he is already little, so maybe it should be littlest Flitwick." He added in a teasing tone, earning an incredulous look from Hermione.

"Harry!" Hermione chided, blushing a little and giving him a punch on the arm.

"What?" Harry asked in a fake innocent tone. He then smirked and said. "I know he's old, but maybe goblins and humans are different and his little guy still works. Dumbledore's sure doesn't."

"Harry, stop being crass!" Hermione chided again, this time taking her wand and pointing it at Harry, a stinging hex quickly leaving it. But Harry saw the movement and managed to dodge it.

"You'll never take me alive!" Harry said, giving his girlfriend a flirty smile and then running away.

Hermione laughed and then started running after him, still throwing stinging hexes his way.

They moved through the castle quickly, laughing and having a lot of fun with their little game. Harry had to actually shield himself when they reached the stairs, Hermione had almost as good aim as he did, and she would hit him constantly in such a restrictive space. He could still dodge in the corridors, but the Hogwarts stairs should be taken seriously, so he had to move in a predictable way.

By the time they reached the great doors, Hermione had hit him twice, one in the leg and one in the shoulder.

Harry gave a smile to Luna, who was waiting for them near the doors, then turned around and quickly cast the reflective shield Nym had taught him, the shield that was used to bat away pretty much every spell apart from the unforgivables.

They had a little mock duel in the entry hall, Hermione still throwing stinging hexes at him, and Harry dodging or using his wand and reflective shield to bat away the hexes while he walked closer to her. Hermione did manage to hit him once again in the leg, but soon after Harry reached her.

Wrapping his arms around a laughing Hermione, Harry gave her a deep kiss, their tongues dancing in her mouth until the broke the kiss and Harry saw the happiness in Hermione's face.

"I love you, Hermione." Harry whispered in her ear.

"I love you too, Harry." Hermione responded, also whispering in his ear.

"That seemed like fun." They were distracted from each other when they heard the cheerful tone of one Luna Lovegood.

"It was, Luna." Harry said, as he and Hermione broke their embrace to look at her.

Now that Harry was paying a bit more attention to Luna, he realized that she was looking amazing. She ditched her usual butterbeer corks and had on some proper jewellery this time, matching sapphire necklace and earrings. Her golden blonde hair was falling down in soft waves and her silver eyes were shining with happiness. She was wearing nice robes of a light green, but her lack of shoes made Harry frown a little.

"Luna, did your shoes disappear again?" Harry asked, wondering if he needed to have another 'talk' with a few Ravenclaws.

"No, Harry. The wrackspurts tried to make Marietta Edgecombe take my shoes this morning, but Iggy dealt with them." Luna answered, while Iggy's head appeared from under her hair at hearing his name.

"Luna, a quick question. The wrackspurts fly around someone's head, right?" Harry asked.

"Yes!" Luna responded cheerfully.

"And how did Iggy deal with them?" He asked again.

"He burnt them." Luna answered.

Harry exchanged a brief look with Hermione, and realized that they both were trying really hard to hold in their laughter. The image of Edgecombe running around the Ravenclaw common room with burnt hair was just too funny.

"Good job, little guy." Harry said, petting Iggy on the head and earning a puff of smoke from the fire breathing Iguana.

"Now it's time for my kiss!" Luna said and then jumped Harry, her mouth quickly crashing into his.

It took a few seconds for Harry's surprise to go away, but when it did, he did return the kiss. Luna's lips were even softer than Hermione's, and, while Harry could tell she was inexperienced, she made up for it with enthusiasm and the sheer happiness she was radiating.

"Luna, you can't just kiss Harry out of nowhere like that. At least not yet, we are in public and this is our first date." Hermione said in her bossy tone when Harry and Luna broke their kiss.

Harry looked around and saw that the few students that were awake in a Saturday morning and on their way to the great hall for breakfast, were now paying full attention to the three of them.

"You said that Harry was going to treat us girls the same, he kissed you, so he had to kiss me as well." Luna said simply, and Harry couldn't argue with that logic, even if he knew it wasn't exactly the moment for it.

"Don't worry, I'll kiss you as well." Luna added, and then walked towards Hermione.

"Luna, Wai-"

Hermione was interrupted as Luna's lips crashed into hers, and the Ravenclaw kissed her with the same enthusiasm she did Harry.

Well, I guess this answers one of my questions. Harry thought.

Ever since he and Hermione had their first talk, Harry wondered what he would feel seeing other girls kissing his girlfriend. He was afraid that he wouldn't like it, and then he would have to put a stop to Hermione's plans, and he was afraid of disappointing his girlfriend because Hermione really wanted to add other girls to their relationship.

Harry's fears were quickly forgotten, because the only thing going through his mind as he watched Hermione and Luna kiss was that he wanted to kiss both of them at the same time. He didn't even know if it was possible, but he wanted to try it.

"Luna!" Hermione said as the two girls broke their kiss, she then sighed and added. "I don't even care anymore, the damage is done. Let's just get out of here and we can deal with the problems later."

"Where to, Harry?" Hermione asked, turning to look at Him, and Harry saw that, as much as she was complaining, Hermione liked her kiss with Luna.

"Hagrid first. He helped me with setting things up." Harry responded, giving Hermione a teasing grin and making her blush even more. She knew he saw how much she enjoyed that kiss.

"Then lead the way!" Luna said happily.

With a beautiful girl in each arm, Harry walked out of the castle. Ignoring the whispering from the few students that saw the scene they made in the entrance hall.

They made small talk as they walked towards Hagrid's place, and they quickly reached it, Harry saw Hagrid already waiting for them with Fang by his side.

"Hey Hagrid!" Harry said, giving the giant man a nod and a grateful smile. Hagrid was a major help in setting this up.

"Hello, Harry, Hermione, Luna." Hagrid responded in his booming voice, giving them a smile. The big guy was always happy to see them.

"Is the thing ready?" Harry asked, not really giving anything away. Which made Hermione scowl at him again.

"Really Harry, you can tell us now." Hermione said in a pleading tone. Harry knew his girlfriend, and she hated not knowing something.

"Well… I asked Hagrid to gather a few animals for us. I thought it would be nice to spend a few hours with baby unicorns and other animals." Harry said, and was immediately glomped by Luna.

"Thank you! Thank You! Thank you!" Luna said with pure happiness in her tone, and then she gave Harry a kiss that almost took his breath away.

"That sounds amazing, Harry." Hermione said once Luna let go of him, a little more subdued but Harry could see she was just as happy.

"So, Hagrid, what do you have for us?" Harry asked, trying to move things forward.

"You asked for cute animals, Harry, so I have a few unicorns, thestrals, pygmy puffs, crups and kneazles." Hagrid answered, and Harry sighed in relief.

Sure, he had asked Hagrid for help because Hagrid knew more about magical animals than anyone else in the castle, but he was still a little afraid of what Hagrid would understand as 'cute'. He still remembered his first year, and how Hagrid thought that a baby dragon was cute, or the 'misunderstood' acromantulas.

But it seemed Hagrid understood what he wanted. He didn't know what a thestral was, but all the other creatures were the ones Harry wanted for this, unicorns, cute puppies and kittens, and adorable furballs.

"Thanks, Hagrid." Harry said, earning a nod and what he thought was supposed to be a subtle wink, but Hagrid couldn't be subtle to save his life so the girls still saw it.

The four of them made their way to the clearing in the forest that Hagrid used for his lessons. Once there, Harry saw the large number of creatures waiting for them. There were baby unicorns and adult ones, a bunch of crup pups, a few adult kneazles with a few kittens, and a bunch of pink furballs rolling around the floor. He looked around, trying to see an animal he didn't recognize, but he couldn't find any.

That is, until a skeleton- bat horse walked into the clearing, closely followed by a few others as they went towards a few buckets filled with meat.

"Hagrid, what that hell is that?" Harry asked, trying to control his voice.

"Those are the thestrals, Harry. They are beautiful!" Luna was the one that responded, and then she walked straight towards the horses, petting the crups and unicorns along the way as all the creatures opened a path for her.

"Don't worry, Harry, thestrals might look intimidating, and they have a bad reputation because they can only be seen by those who's seen death, but they are quite peaceful and like to cuddle." Hagrid said, making Harry and Hermione trade exasperated looks.

"If you say so, Hagrid." Hermione said, earning a smile from the big guy.

Harry wondered how that worked, only seen by those who have seen death. He couldn't guess how it work for those that couldn't see it, but he could certainly guess why all three of them could see the horses. Both he and Luna had more than one option to chose from, either the death of their mum's, or the few deaths they saw in the chaos of the world cup, which was probably Hermione's reason.

"I'll let you three be on with your date. I'll be over there with old Firenze if you need anything." Hagrid said, pointing towards the tree line on the other side the clearing, where Harry could see the same centaur that he met back in first year.

"Sure, Hagrid, we'll call if we need anything." Harry assured him.

Thankfully the centaur was far enough that he and Hagrid would give Harry and the girls enough privacy. Sure, he knew when he planed the date that Hagrid would need to be around, they couldn't be left alone in the forest. But he still wanted to have as much privacy with the girls as possible.

"Have fun!" Hagrid said, and then started walking towards the centaur.

Harry took Hermione's hand and the two of them just watched the animals for a few moments, as well as Luna playing some kind of fetch game with the thestrals, throwing pieces of meat towards them.

He laughed a little when he saw Iggy resting on the horn of a unicorn, little smoke rings could be seen, almost like a chimney.

"You know, Harry, this was a really good idea." Hermione said, still holding his hand.

"I thought it would. I knew Luna would love it, and I know how much you love that menace you call a cat." Harry said teasingly.

Crookshanks was the spawn of the devil, and no one would convince him otherwise.

"Harry, he isn't that bad!" Hermione whined. "Beside, this is a date between the three of us, not just us two. So, let's spend some time with our girl." She added, changing the subject and dragging Harry as she started to walk towards Luna.

The three of them spent a couple of hours playing with the animals and talking about all sorts of things. Harry learned a few new things about Luna, like the fact that she was an artist, her house was decorated with a few of her paintings and sculptures. She even admitted to painting a fresco of them in her bedroom during the summer. Because she didn't know if they would still want to be friends with her in the future, and she wanted to always remember the time she had friends.

That made both Harry and Hermione hug and then kiss her enough to take her breath away. Then they both told Luna in no uncertain terms that she was their girlfriend, and even if the relationship didn't work, she would always be their friend.

Harry then decided to distract Luna, telling all the embarrassing baby stories he knew of Hermione, the ones Emma, Hermione's mum, was more than happy to tell him during the summer. Like how Hermione used to hate showers and would run around the house naked with a book in her hands whenever it was time for her to take a bath.

Hermione retaliated with the stories she heard from the portraits, like the one time Harry almost killed the cat with his toy broom.

Once Luna was distracted and laughing again, they continued their normal conversation, and Harry even learned something new about Hermione. She told them about her constant visits to the theatre. Her mum did a bit of acting when she was younger, and ever since Hermione was six years old, the two of them made going to the theatre once a week their bonding time.

By the time the date was getting to an end, the conversation had moved to gossiping about their friends.

"Even Padma and Parvati said the same thing, and they barely know Remus." Harry said, continuing their conversation about Moony.

The werewolf has been acting weird for a while now. Sirius was obviously the first one to note something was wrong, and both Andromeda and Ted also caught on quickly, but now everyone could see Remus was acting weird, and it wasn't the full moon. The guys was disappearing out of nowhere, there was even a full weekend that no one could contact him, not even with the mirrors. And when he returned, he just said that he was taking some time to relax.

"Do you think he found a crumple-horned snorkack and is keeping it hidden?" Luna asked excitedly, and Harry had to laugh at her enthusiasm. Even Iggy let out a puff of smoke.

"No, Luna, I don't think so." Harry said softly. He knew Hermione could get a little irritated with Luna's creatures, but he never had a problem with it.

"Sirius thinks that he is having an affair with a married woman. He once joked about it and he said that Moony's reaction to the joke all but confirmed it to be true." He explained, earning a giggle from Luna and a soft punch in the arm from Hermione.

"Honestly, Harry, you and Sirius gossip more than old ladies." Hermione teased.

"I'm learning about it because someone has to keep Parvati, Lavender and Tracy in check. We have to keep an eye on the rumours going around in school or those three will spread all sorts of things about us." He said in mock seriousness, and then laughed right after.

"True, those three are awful." Hermione conceded his point, even if she was also laughing a little.

They knew the girls would never spread rumours about them, but it was still fun to joke about their obsession with gossiping. Or, as Tracy called it, 'gathering information'. As she liked to say, Slytherins don't gossip.

"In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Moony's situation is part of the Hogwarts rumour mill right now. Parvati did comment about how weird he was acting that last time she met him in Liverpool." Harry commented.

"You Know, I'm still surprised at how you managed to get the headmaster to allow our group to leave the castle during the weekends. He doesn't do that to anyone." Hermione said in a curious tone. She didn't know how that happened, and Harry knew how his girlfriend hated not knowing something.

"Well… now that I'm living with Sirius, He talked to me about giving an interview about what happened while I was living with my relatives. So, I, an impressionable young boy, was about to do what my loving godfather wanted, but Dumbledore didn't want that, and he was willing to make a lot of concessions to stop it from happening." Harry said innocently, earning a scandalized look from Hermione, and making Luna break down in laughter.

"HARRY JAMES POTTER!" Hermione screamed at him. "Are you blackmailing the headmaster?" She asked with her tone a little more controlled.

"Blackmail is such a strong word, Hermione." Harry stated. "I'm just encouraging the headmaster to help us." He added innocently.

"Can you encourage the headmaster to serve more chocolate?" Luna asked, making Hermione give her an incredulous look.

"Sure, Luna, I'll see what I can do." Harry promised.

"No!" Hermione said, pointing her finger at Harry. "And you," She said, turning and pointing at Luna. "Don't encourage him!"

"Hermione, I can assure you that Luna has never encouraged me. Sirius was quite clear about it, to encourage someone you need leverage, and Luna doesn't have any over me." Harry said teasingly.

He would pay for it later, but making fun of his girlfriend was too good to pass up.

"You know that's not the encourage I was talking about, you prat." Hermione said, glaring at him.

"Why don't we go back to the castle? We still have to see Sue's projects today." Harry said quickly. It seemed Hermione was starting to get seriously angry, so he definitely needed to defuse the situation.

"That's right, we're going to be late." Hermione said, jumping up from the ground where they were seated and then running towards the path back to the castle.

Harry exchanged an amused look with Luna, and then chuckled.

That was the Hermione he knew and loved. The girl that set fire to a professor in first year, that brewed an illegal potion and then used it to infiltrate a rival dorm and spy on someone. Harry knew that as much of a good girl Hermione pretended to be, rules, guidelines, morals and even actual laws, were just polite suggestions in the pursue of knowledge, or when she thought she was right.

Still, even if Hermione is mad at me right now. It seems the date was a success. Harry thought, as he looked back at the smiling Luna, the two of them joining Hermione on the way back to the castle.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"So, Sue, what do you have for us?" Harry asked, as he, Hermione, Luna, Daphne and Penelope looked around at Sue's workshop.

The workshop was in one of the many abandoned rooms in the castle, converted to use because they needed more room to work on. The RoR was the best, but there was only one of it, and these days it was constantly busy with Hermione and Penelope trying to find out how it worked, so all of them were using alternative rooms.

Sue had taken one of the first rooms they had experimented on, way back in the last school year. The walls of the room were covered in the runes that allowed electronics to work in magically rich places, while the many benches and tables inside it were covered with electronics and pieces of circuit boards. Harry could see a few modifications on the boards, but he had no idea what he was looking at. That was one area that he hadn't learned much about.

Hermione wasn't even scowling at him anymore, the potential to learn something new clouding her mind to what she learned earlier.

In the time between the end of their date and now, Harry had made a quick call to the mirror at grimmauld, the one that stayed in front of his parents' portraits, and talked to his dad. So now he was following his dad's advice of 'making it someone else's problem'. He asked Daph to talk to Hermione, his Slytherin friend liked blackmai- encouraging people as well, so she would be able to tell Hermione why it wasn't such a bad thing sometimes.

There was also the fact that apparently Daphne was next in line to get a date with Hermione, so they needed to talk anyway.

"I made a few changes to some electronics, and I thought that they might be good enough to sell." Sue said timidly, bringing Harry's attention back to her. She looked a little nervous, which Harry still couldn't understand why.

"Sue, calm down, there is no reason for you to be that nervous. You're amongst friends, everyone here cares about you. We are the ones that should be nervous, because unlike you, we don't have a marketable product already making money for us like your generators, we only have research." Harry said in a soft tone, remembering Sue how important she was to the group, and earning a soft smile from the Chinese girl.

"I don't have much today, just a couple of things." Sue said, turning around a grabbing what looked to be a cell phone. And while her back was turned to the group, Harry received a thumbs up from Penny and Daph, and a quick kiss from Hermione, even if she was still a little mad at him. Luna just pressed the hand she was holding a little bit in support.

It seemed all the girls were happy for Harry cheering Sue up.

"This is one of our prototypes for the smartphones." Sue said when she turned around, showing them the small rectangular object in her hand. "These are still quite basic compared to the ones we want to sell, or at least that is what Catherine told me. Her team is still working on software, and most of it is coming out already obsolete because the hardware is constantly improving." She added.

It wasn't a surprise to Harry, their fabricator was far superior to any other, so it was expected that it would take some time for things to catch up. As far as Harry knew, the engineers were working on dozens of projects at the same time, trying to make use of the improved semiconductors they were producing in house. The only product they had even close to a release version was a 65nm processor. He didn't know exactly how good it was, but Catherine said it was almost five times better than anything available in the market.

"Anyway, I was able to connect a sort of bypass in the hardware, and I think that this bypass could be used to connect the display into our mirror network." Sue concluded, and Harry could feel the excitement coming from Hermione.

"That's amazing, Sue. Connecting the two networks would be a major achievement." Hermione said, making Harry, Penny and Daphne nod in agreement.

"I agree, but from the way you said it, I guess this thing isn't exactly working as you wanted it to?" Harry asked, earning a nod from Sue.

"Yes, I can't find the problem from the magical side, and I know there is a problem. And I think there is also some problem in the hardware, and that is something that I don't even know how to detect, much less solve. The theory is sound, but the practice is not working out." Sue said with a shrug.

"Don't worry about it, even the theory alone is already good enough. We can work on that later if needed to." Penny said, giving Sue a proud smile. Penelope was almost a mom for the younger Ravenclaws when she was still a student, and that didn't stop just because she graduated.

"Well, my other project is actually working, so, let me show you all what it is." Sue said, and then guided them towards a sound system.

"Muffling charms, please." Sue said.

"Muffliato!"

Harry was quite happy to cast the best muffling charm he knew. This one was taught to him by his mum, and while learning from a portrait was weird, he was quite happy to have that experience. Learning magic from their mum was something that every kid that had magical parents shared, and Harry was happy to say he had experienced it in his life.

After they cast muffling charms all over the room, and on themselves, Sue turned the sound on and then turned up the volume, making Harry immediately realize why she asked for muffling charms, the sound was almost overwhelming even with the charms.

"So, what do you guys think?" Sue asked turning the volume down.

"Loud." Luna said simply, making everyone laugh.

"I agree. Loud is the only thing I can think about right now." Daphne added, earning an embarrassed smile from Sue.

"Sorry about that, but I needed to show you guys what it was all about." Sue apologized. "This thing is the size of a conventional home sound system, but it has the same output volume of a professional one used in shows, and it can be scaled up. The best of all, I'm sure we could sell it in the muggle market because it technically doesn't actually work with magic." She explained, making Harry do a double take.

"What do you mean it doesn't work with magic?" He asked, not knowing how it was possible.

"This is a perfectly normal sound system you can buy at any store. There is only one addition to it, and it isn't on the inside, nor does it change the function of the object. So, according to the law, it doesn't break the statute." Sue explained, and then pointed towards the loudspeakers. "Here, take a look at this."

Harry took a closer look and saw something he hadn't seen before. The mesh that he thought was just for protection of the loudspeakers, was actually imprinted with an intricate runic array so intertwined that he thought it was just a pattern at first. In fact, he imagined that if a person didn't actually know runes, they wouldn't realize what those were.

"This is amazing! How did you do that?" Hermione asked with wonder in her voice.

"Harry's lasers." Sue said simply.

Harry knew that almost everyone was using his lasers in their research. From the scientists using it back in their research facility, to the girls using it carve runes quicker in their own projects, to Luna using them to play with animals and Neville somehow using them for his killer plants. But he never thought they could be used this way.

"Well, Sue, congratulation. I think you just made another marketable product for us." Harry said, giving the short girl a hug and receiving a bright smile back.

He definitely needed to pick up the pace or else he would be the only one that wouldn't have anything out for sale by the end of the year.

I guess I should finally start working on that project. Harry thought.

AN 2: There you have it guys.

A nice date between Harry, Hermione and Luna.

And a quick presentation by Sue Li.

I wonder what Harry's secret project is. Maybe you guys will find out in the next chapter.

I will see you guys in the next one.