CHAPTER 21

PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE!

Disclaimer – Harry Potter belongs solely to J.K. Rowling and I am unfortunately not earning anything from it.

June, 2006

It was a Monday morning and Harry had just returned from Flamel estate to Privet Drive. Although he was gone for just two days, he had spent more than two weeks with Aunt Elle. The experience he had at the estate was surreal. He had assumed that he would learn great spells, rituals and obscure magic. He was hoping that he would train to become the greatest wand-wielder this planet had ever seen. But…..No! It was no way near what he had imagined. In fact the whole time he spent with Aunt Elle, he did not touch his wand.

Surprisingly though, he felt he had progressed way more than he could ever have imagined. Perenelle stressed on him doing meditation at least four hours a day while he stayed in her home. Being a Professional sportsman, Harry felt restless for the first few days but eventually after a week, he became used to it. Apart from that, he got involved in discussions about magic, it's origin and how it had changed as a whole with the passing of centuries. He found it so natural and easy to talk to her. It made him giddy that he was able to spend time with someone whom he could trust. After a long time, he was able to act like a teenager without a care about what was happening in the real world.

They spent time walking around the huge estate and interacting with different species of Magical or Mundane creatures in the property. Harry always intently observed how Elle interacted with them. She was always open, unafraid yet respectful. She taught him how to approach dangerous creatures like hippogriffs or griffins and take care of those who got hurt.

A lot of things surprised him when it came to the woman who was regarded as one of the best Charms mistresses to ever walk on earth. He found out quite painfully, how talented she was in wielding a sword. Harry had admittedly been bragging about his skills in handling a blade. She asked him to show her and he went full in trying to show off his skills he had learned in the past four years. He shouldn't have. Perenelle had mentioned that once she was quite interested in swords and had learned professionally. In fact, she was a champion swordswoman and had defeated the best of sword masters around the world. Only when she got bored did she drop the hobby and moved on to something else. Obviously, this instance led to a daily session of humiliation where the teenager was thoroughly beaten each day. He felt ashamed in the beginning when he was not able to last even a full minute, but later took it as an opportunity to get better. This also ensured that Harry got to do some physical activity otherwise his coach would murder him in his sleep. Due to a professionally fixed regimen of food and exercise, Harry had grown healthily. He was one of the tallest students in his year with muscles to show on his frame

What was even more surprising and a little bit funny was Aunt Elle's obsession with muggle music. She was a fan of Jazz and Pop music and attended the concerts regularly. Unfortunately the extensive wards on property did not allow her to play any electronic instruments.

Now that he was back in the real world, Harry resumed his routine. Martial arts in the morning (he dropped sword practice as he was getting enough from Aunt Elle), helping goblins and the construction crew throughout the day and finally sleeping in Aunt Petunia's house. That is how he spent the whole week. He had got to know a lot more about his mother from Aunt Elle, so he started reading all sorts of books and journals she had left for him. Till now he had read the potions and charms textbooks she owned. He had also read her journal which had allowed him to read about her first two years in Hogwarts. If he didn't know that she would eventually marry his Dad, Harry would never have guessed there would be anything other than contempt and enmity between them. She loathed him with passion and considered him 'vilest being on earth' in her own words. He had not touched the one detailing all the stuff she was working on. So, he picked up the book even though he would not understand much of what she was doing. If not the process, the least he could understand was her ideas or goals.

He found various useful knick-knacks she had created using charms or potions and even some runes. Nothing big, yet small useful items which would make a repetitive or time-consuming task easier and faster. There were a lot of unfinished spells or trinkets that she was still working on. There were a few potions and runic combinations as well. What surprised Harry was the last two ideas she was working on. The research behind them had taken up almost half the notebook. When he read what she wanted to accomplish, he was even surprised. If she could finish even a single invention, it would have the potential to change how the wizarding world works. Cure for Lycanthropy and using magic as energy source for electrical appliances were afterall two of the most controversial topics amongst all the academicians and researchers in the world. He couldn't make much of the research after the first two pages so he shut it and kept it in a backpack. He decided to lend it to Aunt Elle as she would be able to understand all that his mother was working on better and appreciate it even more.

He received another letter from Ted which gave him a huge surprise. Apparently the four million galleons that his father had transferred in his mom's account were finally traced. Lily had used the money to finance the higher education of two witches and three wizards all of whom were muggleborns. Apparently, she had created a lab where all these people were working while doing their graduation in muggle universities. When the funds dried up, all of them shifted to other countries. All of them had individually and collectively written letters to him even though he was a five year old kid back then but like other fan mail, they had gone into the fan vault. Ted said he would arrange the meeting sometime in next week as they all of them wanted to meet him.

His first stay at Flamel Estate had been without Lord Flamel as he had gone abroad for some research. This time around, he was present. Harry still spent most of his time with Aunt Elle while all the time spent with Nicholas was spent learning about Potions from scratch. Every day he would select two ingredients and teach Harry about all its properties and potions it was used in. This was just a section of the session though. For the whole stay of around twenty days, the only thing Harry learned was how to stir properly or prepare ingredients. Harry was one of the better potioneers in his class and was well read when it came to textbooks or the random tips his mother had written in her textbook. Learning from Nicholas though was on a totally different level. He had also advanced a lot when it came to meditation. It was bound to happen as Aunt Elle had made sure that he spent at least four hours each day meditating. Now it took him just a minute to reach the trance-like state she wanted him to achieve although it was still not enough as she wanted him to make it a part of him which he could attain at a moment's notice.

Initially Harry had not taken meditation seriously but when Elle explained about its advantages and necessity whether it be in mind arts or magic sensitivity or any other rare art, Harry grew serious. Here he was getting a chance to learn what could possibly be an extinct line of magic, he wouldn't take it for granted.

Another monumental thing happened during his stay when Perenelle was reading his mother's notes and research. Harry and Nicholas were lounging near a small pool reading some random thing when the lady of the house exclaimed,

"SHE DID IT!"

Both of them were understandably startled and looked at her. When prompted, she continued,

"While Lily was training to be a Charms Mistress under me, she took up two projects which are considered amongst the most controversial blocks magic users have had for a long time, Cure to Lycanthropy and using electrical appliances without any disturbance from the magic around it."

"I know about it. I read her notes as well but couldn't make much of it. I mean don't we have a branch called Technomancy? I thought they did what mom wanted to achieve." Harry asked, feeling confused.

"What the Technomancers in Japan and the United States are trying to achieve is very deceiving and not what you call a permanent solution. Firstly, the appliances become useless as soon as you try and operate them in magic-enriched zones. So it might work alright in say a wizard's home with minimal wards and almost negligible magic use but as soon as you bring them in areas like Diagon Alley or Hogwarts or Ministry of Magic, the circuit fries. Secondly, due to electricity not being able to coexist with magic, you become too reliant on batteries for each appliance making it too costly as well as cumbersome." Perenelle scoffed.

"Alright. So what did mom try to do?"

"Lily was very disappointed with the way our community was lagging behind the mundanes since the revolution and discovery of electricity and everything that came after it. She wanted to bring a change in the way our society works. So, we had a lot of discussions and were thinking of a different approach. What the Technomancers have basically done is create a ward around the circuit to stop it from becoming affected by magic around it. What we were attempting was actually replacing electricity altogether and replacing it with magic. We were hoping to use magic itself as an energy source on which different appliances can run. This will ensure no requirement of batteries and thus no reliance on muggles for supplies or anything else. It is not the first time that someone tried to do that but till now no one has succeeded. But it seems Lily figured it out and that too almost thirteen years ago." Perenelle finished proudly.

"So what did she achieve?"

"She was able to figure out how we are going to use magic as an energy source as well as how to transmit it. This will be considered as one of the biggest inventions of this century."

"Wow! She must be really smart."

Harry looked impressed and went back to reading. He had always heard how smart his mother was. So he was not surprised that she was able to figure it out. Now he could also understand why she had invested in a lab and education if those five muggleborns. They must have been assisting her in the on the other hand was looking at him with her mouth open while Nicholas was looking at both of them and grinning madly. After a minute of silence Harry looked up and after seeing their reactions, asked confusedly,

"What? Am I missing something?"

"Are you a fool? We need to get the invention patented by ICW to make sure no one could steal it. If developed and marketed properly, you could potentially be the owner of one of the largest corporations of the world." Perenelle said with excitement.

"Hmmmm, alright. We will work on all this maybe in the next 5 years or so. I already have too much on my plate. I don't have the time to do it and if it has as much potential as you are predicting, I will have to study things like finance, business management etc. Can't mess up with something this big right?" Harry said while mulling over it seriously. He was happy that he didn't have to worry about the financial freedom of House Potter now. Obviously the things he needed to do were changing rapidly and so he had started to take things in stride and not plan too much into the future. Not wanting to discuss any further, he went back to his own room after that thinking about all the twists and turns his life was taking.

As he seriously thought about the things he would have to learn, he felt a bit overwhelmed. As he looked back at his life, he missed the lack of responsibility and freedom he felt when he didn't know about magic. Somehow he believed that it would have been so much better if he did not have so many responsibilities. He was obviously not ashamed, in fact he was proud of all the accomplishments of his family members but since he was the only remaining member of the family, it all came down to him. If he had some adult family members, it would have been so much easier. He would have only focused on exploring whatever took hias interest rather than plan things as per requirements of his family business or legacy left behind.

He obviously had a choice to not care about all that. He could definitely make his own choices, pursue things that interested him and act like a regular teenager. But then he remembered the feeling he had when he first saw the demolished Potter Manor or when he heard the detailed history of the Potters in the past century from Tonks'. Although not a pleasant one, decisions had already been made with regards to his life. Whether it was fate or something else, he had to somehow walk a path that was decided for him. What he could focus on though was to enjoy and explore things he wanted on the way, things that interested him and were yet completely useless. It took a little longer to fall asleep but eventually he did.

Next morning during breakfast, it was a relatively quiet table. Harry did not feel like talking much and Perenelle stayed silent as well. Nicholas on normal days was browsing through newspapers from all over the world, keeping abreast of all the news, but today he looked a bit shifty giving sideways glances to his wife every now and then. Not much changed when it came to his routine. He did his meditation, studied about ingredients from Nicholas and walked around the property interacting with creatures who had by now gotten used to his presence. He was especially fond of a Gryffin couple who had made the property their home. They were very calm and silent. It took him the most time amongst all to let him touch them. As mentioned in the books, they were mighty, regal and proud. The male griffin was a little standoffish and didn't interact with him much but the female griffin was very affectionate and indulged him as he studied her body form or her wings.

In the evening, Harry came back to his room and got dressed for sword practice with Aunt Elle. He enjoyed the sessions as they were always competitive and he was learning new moves each day. As he made his way to the sparring ring that was in the middle of the small forst, he found to his surprise Perenelle still dressed in casuals sitting on a wooden bench at the side of the ring deep in thought. Harry tentatively made his way towards her. As he reached her, she motioned him to sit besides her.

"I am sorry if I seemed too excited yesterday. I know you have been commendable in the way you are handling things. Nicholas and I have lived for so long that our way of looking at people has become a bit skewed. We value deeds more than human life. Albus is also starting to look at people around him the same way. While our approach is helpful for the community as a whole, it is sometimes prone to disregarding an individual's will." Perenelle said.

"I don't think you have treated me like that. I have felt as if I am part of your family in such a short time. You have made me feel so welcome that sometimes I forget that you are not my Aunt my blood. The affection, care and acceptance you have shown to me does not reflect what you said about an individual's will. Here I am learning things I couldn't have in decades. I am benefiting from you but what is important is the fact that I want to spend time with you which is why I am learning all that rather than the other way around. Similarly, when it comes to me, you wanted to spend time with me rather than teaching me things for some future plans, which is fine." Harry said, feeling that Perenelle was being too hard on herself.

"Thank you for the kind words Harry. It is moments like this that remind me how much your mother's son you are and yet completely different. You might not know this but Nicholas and I had not interacted much with anyone for almost fifty years before we decided to come back yearning for some sort of social interaction. That is when I met a young, talented and pure-heated witch who wanted to make life better for the whole Magical world. Lily was a refreshing change and spending those few months with her and being in touch with her for those couple of years was one of the best times I had in a long time. So once I learned that she was able to solve one of the mysteries we had spent so much time discussing, I felt very proud. I literally want to scream from top of the mountain since I believe that the world should know what that girl achieved in such a short span of time." Perenelle said with glistening eyes yet still smiling.

"I totally agree with you that the world should acknowledge what mom achieved but the only issue is that I am not yet capable enough to handle the aftermath of the revelation. I mean, if what you say is true, this will bring a revolution throughout the magical world, and thus will need people who are experienced to handle various challenges that will definitely come. I already have Quidditch and Potter Manor on my plate. Add to that the ports I am building to bring back the businesses my family owned, I have no time and energy. All this is happening while I am attending school where I am going beyond what a regular student does. Professor McGonagall and Flitwick will be pushing me even harder this year. I might end up taking OWLs by next year. I can attempt to go public with this invention only once I finish Hogwarts. I am not ready to push this responsibility on a third person because it is way more personal to me. At this point I miss someone from my family who could take care of all this stuff. Someone whom I could trust with what mom envisioned while she was researching." Harry said putting whatever he had thought last night in front of Perenelee. Nothing more needed to be said after that.

Next morning at breakfast Perenelle cleared her throat trying to catch the attention of both the males who were concentrating on their food.

"I would like to make an announcement. This is going to impact both of you and therefore I feel you should be the first one to know. I have decided to become more involved in public life. I will be taking charge of introducing Lily's idea and ushering the age of development for the Magical world as a whole. I have given a lot of thought and I feel it is much needed. If things go as I have planned, this invention of Lily might turn out to be even more impressive than Philosopher's stone. All I need now is Harry's permission to pursue this idea." She finished while looking at Nicholas and Harry who were both looking shocked, gaping at her with an open mouth. It took a minute but soon Harry replied,

"I would love to have you as the one who can handle it. I mean you are the best person to do so. Mom got this idea from you and you can mould it the way you and mom envisioned it. Please feel free to do whatever you feel necessary. I could in fact talk to lawyers to sort out the share in the company for both of us."

"That is not at all needed. I wish to do it just for the sake of betterment of the Magical world. It is high time we did that and that would be the only share I need and accept. Not trying to be arrogant but you do know that we own the Philosopher's stone. Endless gold ensures we get whatever we need and honestly, we don't need that much now. And what would I do after acquiring wealth? We don't have relatives to whom we could pass it. Hopefully you will better utilize it for a cause which will be worth it." Perenelle replied.

"But how will you handle navigating among people one again Elle. You hate it more than me. You were the one who opposed my idea of coming back in public life before you met Lily. Now you willingly want to get into it. You obviously know how much you will have suffer the 'most idiotic race on this planet' as you are so used to saying. I am not even going into the security issues that we have to consider as soon as we step out of our wards." Nicholas frowned thinking about it.

"Oh don't you try and talk me down from my idea Nicholas. I think almost six centuries is a long enough time for me to realise that. Obviously, I will not be going out as Lady Flamel but rather a different identity to make sure no one targets me. It has been a long time since I have interacted so much with people and it would be a change that I might welcome. I am going to do it and it's final." Perenelle said ending any and all protests Nicholas was about to make.

By the end of the two week stay, Harry was introduced to the basics of Occlumency now that he was getting used to meditation. He was astounded by how much the mind atrs could help him in all the other fields of magic, and wanted to master it as quickly as possible. To his chagrin he found that it was one of those arts that could only be mastered by being tenacious and patient.

Next week in time-dilution passed trying to come up with a strategy for the business as a whole. Perenelle and Harry had decided to hire a group of individuals, specifically those who had exposure to the muggle world and come up with a couple of appliances or items which could be used as an introduction. Harry was pushing for screens in Quidditch stadiums which could help spectators see things more closely. Later, they could manufacture tapes and sell them in the market. This would in turn increase the sales of televisions which would be the second item on their list. He assured Perenelle that he would talk to the administration of the Puddlemere united and being the majority shareholder, he could push them to use it for a couple of matches in the next season. He hoped that once spectators get used to it, it would spread all over British league followed by European league and later the whole world. Obviously other games apart from Quidditch might follow them as well. Perenelle was enthusiastic about the idea and was focusing on getting the idea patented and making sure the marketing, delivery and sales operations run smoothly.

Both of them came up with a list of families with whom they would be conducting business within the country as well as all over the globe. Harry had plans to include Bones, Longbottom, Patils, Greengrass and Tonks as a major benefactor of the business. All of this was obviously after the idea was accepted by the public but the confidence with which Perenelle assured him of its success, Harry was quite positive.

Once the second weekend at Flamel estate was over, Harry returned to the Dursleys home and wrote a quick letter to his solicitor for a quick meeting. Perenelle had come up with a new identity for herself as both Nicholas and Perenelle had made sure to have multiple such identities in case they needed to blend in the population if any one with ill intent tried to track them. Harry wanted to meet the people his mother sponsored and see what they had been working on for almost six years. Maybe, they had something that could help them in setting up the new business model. That is how he found himself and Perenelle making way towards the lab that his mother had set up on the outskirts of London. Perenelle had changed her appearance by changing her eye color, hair color and face structure. Now she looked like a twenty-five year old witch dressed in a regular muggle business suit.

Harry saw Ted and Andromeda standing near the entrance of the building that looked like a warehouse. Harry introduced Perenelle as Miss Jennifer Wright, an upcoming business woman in the United States. He also made sure to impress upon them that he trusted her decisions and in fact his parents knew her really well and trusted her and so would he although her involvement in their plans would only be revealed later in the day. Andromeda looked a bit concerned but thankfully they decided not to make a fuss. Ted led them inside the warehouse and they entered the meeting room that was setup for discussions, or at least that's what Harry assumed. As they entered, they found two witches and three wizards waiting for them dressed in muggle clothes. This was followed by a round of introductions among all present. Harry was greeted very enthusiastically by all five of them. One of the witches, Monica Johnson even hugged him with tears in her eyes. Not knowing how to react, Harry gave a small smile and finally took his seat.

"Alright, now that everyone has been introduced, let's come to the agenda of the meeting. Being the representative of Heir Potter, I would like to welcome you all and thank you for your presence here on such a short notice. We all appreciate it." Ted started the meeting.

"Now although we have already shared this with you, i would still like to tell you what led us to this meeting. We were going through Mr Potter's finances when we found a payment done by Lily and when we tracked it, we got to know about this lab and all of you. So, we all would like to know what it was all about if you would like to share that is." Ted said while looking at the others in the room.

It seemed Monica was the spokesperson for them all as she stood up and walked near where the white board was and started speaking,

"All five of us met Lily while she was in Hogwarts. We all were her juniors while she was in her sixth year. She was a sort of an idol for all other muggleborns at that time since war was in full flow and even halfbloods were being targeted. And there she was standing toe-to-toe with all others despite the differences in blood purity. She was the best magical user in the whole school and every student knew it. It acted as quite a deterrent whenever Purebloods in all houses spouted things like how purebloods were more powerful yet we all knew that was not true. At that time almost all the major houses in the Wizengamot had heirs relatives studying in the school yet the most powerful and talented magical user was a muggleborn. All the blood purists hated it but could do nothing because she was a favourite of most of the teachers like Flitwick, McGonagall and Slughorn. Also she was a prefect and had a temper a mile wide with skill and power to back up the threats. In addition to that, no one wanted to become a target of James Potter and his group of friends or Snape, one of the best students of DADA and potions. Also, the pureblood families in the Light and Grey faction used to love her as she herself was quite knowledgeable about the traditions followed by the Magical world and adhered to them as much as she could."

"It was quite a common occurrence where she would be defending muggleborn or halfblood students in the corridors from blood purists for one reason or other. Vice versa as well. I still remember how she saved two purebloods who were first years from a group of muggleborns in their fifth year who were bullying them. All of them had to go to Hospital Wing once she was done with them. We ourselves had started to travel in groups setting aside house boundaries. Obviously there was no muggleborn in Slytherin. All five of us at one point of time were saved from bullying or getting cursed by Lily. She always made sure to ask about our well being and any problems we might be facing. When she got into her seventh year, Lily and Avery had a big argument about blood purity right in the middle of Great Hall. It was an epic scene as she destroyed all the points that Avery put forward by well thought examples and data she had collected over the years. She made a mockery of all the things those blood purists or people all over the Magical world assumed were true. Based on past scores of OWLs or NEWTs, she showed how muggleborns had way better scores in both theory and practical as compared to any other. It was all going well until Avey started putting numbers about the ministry in front of everyone. How, since the inception of the Ministry of Magic, there has only a single muggleborn Head of Department and not a single Minister. Not a single shop or bar owner was muggle born. Muggleborn were almost thirty percent when it came to the total intake in Hogwarts yet after passing out only ten percent stayed in magical Britain. Only five percent of Ministry employees were muggleborn."

"Once this reality was put in front of her like that, she became pensive and looked at Professors who were watching the argument. No one was able to refute the statements made by her. It was a disappointed Lily who left the Great Hall. Clearly she had never realised that the situation was that bad. A month later she called a meeting of all the muggleborns in the school who were above third year. The room we all had gathered in was protected by Potter and Black who stood as guards at the door. What followed was a genuine discussion amongst us all. Majority of the people had already decided to leave the wizarding world once they passed out. A few were thinking of going to some other country where there was a bit less partiality by the system. A few were going for some posts in the ministry like Auror or Healer. This left around ten of us who had no idea what we were going to do with our future. She took us ten aside asking us about what our favourite subjects were and what we wanted to do with our lives. After a couple more discussions, she assured us that she will find a better option for us and to study diligently. That she would take care of us once we stepped out of Hogwarts. Out of the ten of us, only five survived as we lost them to attacks in their homes or attack on Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley."

"Five of us studied as hard as we could and passed the NEWTs with flying colors. By now, Lily had become one of the youngest Charms mistresses. I still remember how she attended our graduation day and the next day invited us to her home. There she revealed to us her work that she had been doing for some time. How she was working on using magic as an energy source that can later be used to run muggle appliances. All of us were understandably shocked and did not take it too seriously until she said that she had set up a lab for us to work in with top wards. We were to be provided monthly compensation for the same. A year later, when she got too busy to work on it, she asked us to pursue whatever we wanted to do. Knowing there wasn't much we could do in this country, we decided to pursue graduation at Oxford which she agreed to finance. Her only request was that once she was able figure out how to get it working, we would consider joining her work. We all readily agreed and went to study. Then we heard the news of her demise and your victory over You-Know-Who. All of us hoped that this might bring change in the way the Ministry treated us but were again disappointed. So we all went to pursue our passions in different countries. We are working in countries like the United States and Japan trying to integrate technology and magic as much as we can. Obviously, what Lily wanted to achieve was way beyond what is being done right now, but we are getting nicely paid and are able to do work we are interested in. We tried sending you letters hoping to get in touch with your guardian in case we were needed. We owe so much to your mother and thus when we received a letter from Mr Tonks here, we took the first portkey here." Monica finished.

It was a riveting tale that captured the attention of everyone in the room. The level of discrimination happening against those who were not purebloods was a revelation to Harry. He was aware that things were not fair in the society but this much discimination was still a shock.

"Thank you so much for describing your association with late Mrs Potter so beautifully and concisely. I can honestly say that we all appreciate your honesty and willingness to do so. Now I think we should go back to business. I guess we should let Harry ask anything he wishes to know." Ted said.

Harry was still a bit caught up about the things shared regarding his mom. He felt he knew her a little more after he got to know how much impact she had on so many lives and how dedicated she was in trying to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to do better in their lives without any selfish reason. Once called, he shook himself from the daze and looked around. He cleared his throat and said,

"Thank you so much Miss Monica for sharing all this with us. Frankly I have always felt lucky to be the son of my mom and dad but after listening to your story, I feel even more blessed. As far as your work in this lab is concerned, I think it would be better if Jennifer here could take things forward. Please know that she was an associate in my mother's research as well and would be easily able to follow whatever you were doing here as compared to any of us present here."

What followed was a tour of the lab where they were shown various appliances and trials being done on them. He was trying to follow the conversation between Jennifer (Aunt Elle) and the researchers but admittedly could only understand the basics. Once the whole tour was finished, they all moved back to the meeting room. This time, Jennifer took the stage as she looked at the notebook in which she had written some notes.

"I think we should get settled and start. First I would like to introduce myself to all of you. I am Jennifer Wright and I am from the United States. I met Lily at a seminar in France and we instantly hit it off. Since then we made sure to exchange letters as frequently as we could. I was homeschooled by my parents who were into business. After that I did my graduation and post graduation in Boston university in Business Administration. Lily and I had a dream of making sure that once she was able to achieve her goal of successfully integrating magic and technology together, we would together spread it to all parts of the world. Before I reveal anything about my presence here, I would like to summariser what you all have achieved here. I think it is clear what Lily wanted you to do. She knew that while muggle are quite advanced due to their technology, they are also quite restricted due to the same reason. Same thing could not be said for us. Even though we haven't figured out how to make it work, we already know that once we achieve that, a lot of those restrictions won't be applicable to us. While she was finding the idea, what she wanted you guys to do was remove these restrictions. From what I can see, you guys have done a major chunk of work."

Robert, one of the researchers, spoke up once she finished, "Not that we have any problem in meeting Harry and all, but is there any motive behind today's meeting?"

"I think it's better if Harry explains further." With that 'Jennifer' sat down while trying to hide her smile. Harry huffed at her for again putting him in the spotlight. He then took a deep breath and stood up and said,

"I have gathered all of you here for a big surprise which we feel might end up changing the life of everyone in this room. I am happy to announce that my mom was able to figure out a way to finally integrate magic and technology."

Harry's announcement was met with gasps of astonishment as well as silence from all. Although it only stayed that way for a few moments because after that all the researchers were screaming and hugging each other. Once everyone finally calmed down, Harry told them about how he found the solution in one of Lily's journals.

"So my motive of inviting you here was to ask you if you would like to come back and resume the work you started almost fifteen years ago?" Harry aske, although he could sort of guess their response after the enthusiasm they showed when he announced the surprise.

"Hell yeah we are coming back. We always dreamt how our lives would have been had lily been successful. Now we will be able to to change that dream into reality." Robert replied with a huge smile.

"That is great. So, now that you all have agreed, Jennifer and I have come up with a couple of ideas to launch our products with a bang. As we saw in your experiments, you were trying to come up with a television for the Magical population. As a start, we want you to imbibe the process my mom has come up with and try and make screens to transmit Quidditch matches in the stadium. I will ask Ted to come up with a negotiation strategy and convince Puddlemere United to be the first team and stadium to use these. I want the screens to be huge and display games just like football or cricket is done in the muggle world. If it is received well, we will start on proper television screens for homes and sell those Quidditch match recordings which could be played any time they want. So for now, huge screens and recording devices are what we are looking at in the immediate future. The first match will be played in two months." Harry said with excitement exuding from his voice. Once he was done, the researchers left the room with jennifer. She would explain what Lily had figured out. This meant Harry was left with Ted and Andromeda.

"Ok so this was pretty big. Even bigger than the contents of the Fan vault. If this goes as I think it would, we are looking at the beginning of a multi-billion global business venture. What do you want us to do, Harry?" Ted said.

Harry and Perenelle had already had a discussion before the meeting regarding what needed to be done. Within a week time, she would be able to have the patent fast tracked in the International Confederation of Wizards to make sure no one would be able to steal their invention. She also assured him that she would be able to get a license and permit to trade and sell their products in all the member countries of ICW. The fee they had to pay for that was a bit on the expensive side but it assured that no local governments could interfere in their work. Another advantage was that they would be able to make use of the property owned by the ICW and thus would be bound by laws set up by them only and not by the local laws. This would give them more leeway and it would be like a sovereign land. Although procuring rights like this was close to impossible for any aspiring businessman, the clout of Flamels would ensure that there is no problem in acquiring the same. Obviously the direct involvement of the immortal couple would not be disclosed and would only be used wherever necessary.

Perenelle had warned him that once they were successful, local Purebloods or other businessmen would try to hurt their business at any and all costs. This might include changes of laws as well as any other illegal means. Since she was so well travelled and knew a lot about other societies all over the world, she was able to give him a rough idea of what kind of problems they could face. On an average, the world dealt with a Dark Lord every half a century in one or the other part of the world and thus they had to consider all the loopholes as well as aspects to save thero capital as well as their duty employees. Harry was thankful that he had such a veteran to take care of all these issues as he was sure he would definitely have missed them had he tried to do it all by himself.

Harry explained all this to Ted and Andromeda although he would never forget their expressions when he revealed the true identity of Jennifer. Andromeda in particular went into a full panic mode, not able to believe who she just shared the room with. Once she had finished fan-girling over Perenelle, they came back to the topic of discussion. Harry wanted them to come up with oaths or all those involved and a contract for all five researchers offering them two percent shares in the company. He also wanted Ted to clear all the requirements the researchers might have including appliances and materials. Ted and Andromeda had decided that Ted would be taking care of this vertical while Andromeda would be responsible for the Ports that would be coming up in the next year or so. Harry himself had volunteered to take care of Potter manor once Andromeda finalised the interior decorators. He would request Albus to let him travel to the site every fortnight to review the work as well as clear out any complications.

The next two weeks turned out to be full of setting up all the requirements and things needed from everyone. Even his weekend in Flamel estate that offered fourteen days was full of preparations. They did have a distinct advantage when Nicholas was able to further refine the potion Lily had used to imbibe even more magical power thus making the whole magical circuit thirty percent smaller. In fact Nichilas expressed his wish to at least visit the lab once which Harry was ecstatic about. He knew that any suggestions put forward by the alchemist would be valuable. And so amongst all this chaos Harry almost forgot that it was his birthday.

Harry had fallen asleep after returning from the Manor site. It had been a hectic day as finally the debris had been cleared. The Next stage in the project was foundation and it would be one of the most time consuming things. He was hoping that it would be finished by the end of August. He was still asleep even though it was dinner time. A knock at his door broke his sleep. He assumed it was Aunt Petunia and went to open the door to find himself being hugged tightly. This finally woke him up from the deep sleep he was enjoying moments ago. He soon realised it was Penelope hugging him. He was very surprised and hugged her back. He looked behind Penny and saw Justin waving at waved back as Penny finally let him go.

"What are you doing here?"

"I am here to kidnap you duffer. You will be staying with us for the rest of the summer." Penny said.

"Huh?" Harry mumbled.

"You forgot we are supposed to leave for our trip?" Penny said with irritation while packing his stuff with a flick of her wand.

"Weren't we supposed to go like two days later?" Harry said.

"Oh we were but then it's your birthday tomorrow and we have planned a lot of things. So I thought why shouldn't we pick you today. Justin agreed and we somehow convinced mom too. So, freshen up and change your clothes. I am waiting downstairs and making sure Justin doesn't do much damage to your relatives." Penelope left as Harry changed and put stuff that was lying on the table inside the trunk. Once finished, he tapped his wand and put the shrunk trunk in his pocket while Hedwig took a flight into the sky.

He walked down the stairs to find Uncle Vernon sitting in a corner frowning at the uninvited guests while Petunia was talking to Penelope about the various paintings and crockery she had bought from decorated her home with. Surprisingly Dudley was in the middle of a discussion with Justin and listening intently as he explained about the drills and diet regimen he suggested to those involved in wrestling. It seems Dudley had become interested in boxing. Harry bid farewell to uncle Vernon as motioned to the Clearwater siblings that he was ready to leave. A hug from Aunt Petunia and a handshake from Dudley later found Harry exiting the house. As he looked back, he saw Aunt Petunia waving at him from the kitchen window. He hoped that this was the last time he had to spend his summers here. Within a few moments, all three magic users disappeared in whirl of wind, leaving behind no trace of any unusual activity.

Author's Note - Please review after reading. It will help a lot in improving the story. Hope you liked the chapter!