And the New Home
“Well that’s just silly, he would have had a letter with him, the Library always has a letter for a Librarian, even if they don’t seem like letters, and he doesn’t have a letter. Ergo, not a Librarian. Ergo, I like that word, haven’t used it in a bit.”
“Or, he does have a letter, he just doesn’t know it yet.” Ezekiel said. “Hey mate, got any folded papers?”
“Uh, just the bookmark in my spellbook.” Harry said, fetching it from his satchel. “Grabbed it off my one workbench as I was heading out to deal with the ghost.”
“Unfold it maybe?”
“Okay?” Harry said, removing the paper, and looking at it as words started appearing on the now unfolded paper. “’You have been selected to interview for a prestigious position with the Metropolitan Library.’ Great, the magic door somehow took me to the States.”
“Well, that sorts that. Kid’s a Librarian.” Ezekiel said. “Now, I will be taking him under my wing, ‘cus I wanna get a look at his gadgets.”
“Actually, I think I should mentor him, seeing as he’s been dabbling in magic, which, out of the three of us, I have the most experience with.”
“Or we allow the still present Mr. Potter to choose who gets to mentor him.” Flynn said. “But first, we have to give the pitch.”
“What?”
“We-“ Flynn said, circling his index finger. “Are offering you a life of mystery and suffering, of isolation and adventure. Most of all, we’re offering an opportunity to make a difference. And to save the world every week, twice before Friday.”
“Eh, what the hell.” Harry replied. “Why not. I’m in. There’re some loose ends I’ll need to tie up though.”
“Yes, loose ends, loose ends. I presume family matters.”
“You could say it’s something like that.” Harry replied. “Letting my relatives know that I’m not gonna be ‘burdening’ them anymore, as well as getting my workshop moved here.”
“I call dibs on the kid’s workshop!”
“Okay, so Ezekiel’s helping me on the shop end.” Harry said. “Cassandra, you mind dealing with my family?”
“If you let me pick your brain for your theories about magic, then yes.”
“Pick away, milady.” Harry said, sweeping into a mock bow. “Now, off to my lab!”
—O—
Cassandra was, she had decided, not a fan of the Dursley family. They were far too… clinical in the way they manicured their perfect image. Something that she was uncomfortably familiar with.
“Now, who did you say you were again?” The mother of the house, Petunia asked as she came from the kitchen, holding a tea tray.
“I’m the Librarian.” Cassandra replied, stirring her tea before taking a sip. She had had better.
“Oh, why didn’t you say so?” Petunia asked. “Now, how can I help you?”
“Well, our branch is doing a… cultural exchange, and they wanted to choose a local to go with me to America.” Cassandra said. “We all decided that your Harry would be the best choice. Quite friendly, that one.”
“Hm, well he could do to dress himself more appropriately. I swear, he refuses to dress like someone of his intelligence should.” Petunia replied, stirring her own tea. “And how long would this exchange be?”
“Two years.” Cassandra replied, thoroughly disliking the barely concealed distaste she had for her nephew.
“I suppose I’ll allow that.” Petunia said, a touch of glee leaking through her voice. “Let me give you it in writing.”
—O—
“This is somehow less organized than my lab.” Ezekiel commented as he looked around the workshop. “Congrats mate. Didn’t think that was possible.”
“Wait, you have a lab as well? What’s your specialty? Also, it’s organized, you just don’t know how, so it looks unorganized.” Harry asked, moving to pack everything back up from where he had put it.
“Uh, don’t really have one.” Ezekiel replied, looking at a half-assembled box. “A specialty, anyway. My area in the Annex is mostly where I tinker with security measures, figure out faster ways through them, that sort of stuff.”
“Let’s, not!” Harry exclaimed as Ezekiel was about to poke the box. “Let’s not touch that. I don’t know what it would do to a human.”
“And what is it?”
“Prototype ghost trap.” Harry replied, carefully disarming it. “Figured I’d try and make one after rewatching Ghostbusters. So, you’re the Library’s Rogue? So what, Cassandra would be the Wizard and Jacob would be… what?”
“Basically. Stone… probably the team Fighter, with proficiency in History. Flynn’s an M.A.D multiclass, Jenkins is kind of our Artificer, sometimes a Paladin, really depends. Nicole and Baird, you haven’t met them yet, they’re basically both a Paladin and Fighter mutliclasses.”
“Huh. Not exactly a balanced party loadout.” Harry commented as he handed Ezekiel a box. “Artificer, Wizard multiclass on my end, if you’re wandering.”
The process went much the same way for a while, Harry packed up boxes, handed them to Ezekiel, and then went to the next one, making conversation about their taste in movies, music, and anything and everything else that came to mind.
“And now, the big boy.” Harry said, wheeling a set of wooden shelves alongside him.
“Which would be?”
“Well, it’s probably nowhere near as good as a secret Library dedicated to it, but this-“ Harry said, gently rapping his knuckles against the wood. “Is my artifact storage. Partially made of rowan, oak, and holly, it’s loaded up with every single protection spell I know.”
“Oh, Jenkins is gonna be mad.”
—O—
“Well, now that Jenkins is headed to catalogue the artifacts I had, I need to setup my new workshop.” Harry commented, grabbing a hold of the cart with all of the boxes from his old lab.
“And I will help you!” Cassandra called out as she scurried to his side.
“So… Petunia…” Cassandra said as they walked through the hallways.
“Yeah, ain’t she just a character.”
“You know, my parents were kind of similar.” Cassandra said. “They always wanted me to be the perfect daughter with the perfect grades, but I… just never measured up. And then my synesthesia wound up being a tumor and they just… gave up.”
“They sound like assholes, Cassie.” Harry said. “I can call you Cassie, right?”
“Sure thing! Better than Clevenger field.”
“Anyway, they sound like assholes. Let me guess, they were weird about relationships?”
“Yep. No dating allowed, otherwise my grades might not have been perfect.”
“Huh, different kind of weird than Petunia.”
“Oh? How was she weird about it?”
“She was so desperate for me to get a girlfriend, because God forbid her nephew likes men.”
“Ah. You know, I think if my parents knew what my girlfriend did, they would freak out.”
“Girlfriend eh? What’s her name?”
“Estrella. She runs a wellness retreat, but she can’t leave for longer than five days. The moissanite in the water is what stops her from combusting.”
“Oh, vampire girlfriend?”
“Uh-huh. You know, it’s kind of funny, but Estrella wasn’t the first woman to flirt with me. There was this Italian delegate on one of our cases, she gave me her number and called me beautiful, and I just became a pen pal.”
“Ah! The embarrassing case fumble!” Harry responded. “Ya know, something similar happened with me. There was a cursed painting in this one hotel, and I faked my way into being an employee but wound up on waiter duties for the attached restaurant. This one French guy, ‘bout a year older than me, asks me if I’ve been to France as I’m taking their order, I tell him no, he goes on about showing me the beauty of the French countryside. I bring their plates to them, he slips me his number. I eventually slipped off and dealt with the painting, but completely blanked on the flirting until, like, a week later!”
“So, what’s your specialty?” Cassandra asked. “You know, Ezekiel’s the best thief, I’m a math genius, Jake is art and history. What about you?”
“Uh, electrical engineering.” Harry replied as he started unpacking the boxes. “Specifically signal processing. Though, probably mixing magic and tech now that I think about it.”
“Oh, theory time!” Cassandra squealed. “So, what framework did you build up for magic and technological interactions?”
“Well, ya know how, in some places ambient magical energy builds up a load?”
“Ley lakes.”
“Huh, that’s what they’re called? I call ‘em Null Zones. Anyway, a load more, less supercharged, Null Zones started popping up after that freak weather event back in twenty fourteen.”
“Excalibur being put back in his stone, flooding the ley lines with wild magic.”
“Okay, glossing over Excalibur and, presumably, King Arthur being real. Low level Null Zones tend to make tech conk out, with high level Null Zones supercharging components in the circuitry to allow them to handle magic as a power source.”
“Interesting.” Cassandra said, taking notes on a pad of paper that had come from seemingly nowhere.
“So, Null Zones conk out tech. But they charge up certain materials into magical versions, ala the Null Quartz I mentioned when explaining my Sensor. Turns out, if you put pressure on the right places, you can get a magical charge that acts like electricity. I like to call it piezoturgy, with the charge being piezothaumic.”
“So, using the same principles as piezoelectricity being used for watches, you used the magically charged crystals to output a simulacrum of the same currents to get around the EMP effects of low charge ley lakes?”
“Uh, different terms than I use, but yeah, that sounds right. Say, you guys are all professional, what do you use to detect thaumic resonance?”
“Well, Jake and Ezekiel call it a magical spectrometer, but it isn’t a spectrometer. I don’t actually know how it works, but it sort of looks like a weird gun.”
“Huh. Magical spectroscopy… that could be fun to play around with.” Harry commented. “Okay, so my Null Zones are your ley lakes, you have a magical spectrometer where I have a Thaumic Resonance Sensor. You got an equivalent to my perception filter goggles?”
“Um, kind of? One of our first cases was to do with Wardenclyffe Falls, and we found a UFO-logist who had alien hunting goggles that showed magical auras and shades, which Mr. Jenkins modified. Slightly less impressive than making your own from scratch.”
“Eh, I just lucked out by finding the glass.” Harry replied, packing the last of the boxes in a drawer. “Now, you know anywhere good to eat nearby? ‘Cus moving alla that has me ravenous.”