Escape ↣ Harmione

Chapter Forty-Six

Chapter 46 - A Day Trip

Harry tossed the ring down on the desk and scowled at it. Everything he had learnt from making the first lot of jewellery for Helen and John had given him the apparently false idea, adapting it for magical people to use would be simple. It was not, he pulled his notes towards him like a condemned man his last meal. Unwilling, and somewhat angry. Noting down how his adaptation hadn't worked and what the results had been, and he read them all over again. Since he'd heard about the attack on Bill, he'd dragged his half idea to protect kids from hexing out into the light of day, determined to protect wizards from worse. Ideas and lofty aspirations had so far gotten him nowhere but grumpy and annoyed. It suddenly made sense why no one had invented them before now. No wizard would think to protect muggles and getting magic out through the shield while reflecting magic trying to come in through it, was proving to be difficult.

Especially when so far all he'd managed was to get the shield to absorb the magic on the inside and use it to strengthen the shield itself, further thwarting his intentions. It was good news in that he could now get the shields to absorb the magic hitting them to power it further. Combined with the recharge function Hermione had made meant these things, once active, were going to be pretty indestructible. If all you wanted to do was run away. While running away was a pretty good option, if you wanted to fight back, the rings were useless.

He wasn't going back until they had a plan that had a hope of succeeding and currently they didn't even have a plan. The shielding jewellery was going to be his contribution until then, potentially reducing casualties. But he couldn't get them working. He scowled harder.

Slumping back into his chair, his eyes strayed over the room settling on Hermione and Helen who were at the bench together.- Hermione was starting to brew, Helen was grinding something in a mortar with a pestle. His eyes flicked quickly over the ingredients laid out. Rockstar potion then. The potion was their go to pick me up potion. Invented by a former student at the school it was a pepper up and a mild healing potion all in one. It cured hangovers, tiredness, gave you a boost if you were magically exhausted, leaving you feeling well, like a rock star really, hence its name. Harry suspected that it was invented as a hangover cure primarily and adapted to cover other things. The recipe was handed out freely on campus as long as you agreed not to try to sell it commercially. Both he and Hermione had brewed it until it was nearly ingrained in their minds. It was cheap to make and easy to brew, non-addictive and really useful if you needed a pick me up after a late night's study. During exam time, the school handed it out to students freely when they were found slumped over their books cramming. It even worked on John and Helen who had tried it after over indulging on a night out they had gone on together, much to Harry and Hermione's amusement.

He heaved himself up, walking over to the bench they used, maybe if he helped out the distraction would give his brain chance to come up with something. Cudgelling it into a gooey mess had resulted in nothing useful so far.

He stood quietly next to Helen checking on the progress of the ingredient prep, then picking up a jar, shook out a couple of rat spleens and started dicing. It was work that needed concentration and focus but was repetitive for all that. His skills at ingredient prep had come on leaps and bounds since Hogwarts. It might be the new teacher they had, or it might be that he cooked more and the skills from each slopped over to the other. Either way, he thought, looking at the neatly diced flesh on his board, even the bat of the dungeon in a foul mood would have little room to complain.

"Seven, please," Hermione said calmly. He nodded in acknowledgement, a large batch then. Helen smiled at him as she continued the smooth motion grinding the moonstone to a gritty powder.

"Stuck?" she asked.

"Yeah," Harry agreed placing the neatly diced spleen into a bowl and starting on the next one. He concentrated on his work not wanting to spoil the spleens but answered. "I can't get past the shield. The way I made them they are solid, the magic on the outside can be absorbed and fed back into it to make it stronger which is useful, but any magic cast on the inside is doing the same thing. I need to make it so the magic can pass through somehow without damaging the integrity of the shield itself and I'm stuck."