Harry Potter Squib Tales Chapter 76: I have the Power!

Chapter 76: I have the Power!

“I DID IT!”

“GAH!” I exclaimed, jerking in shock as Delilah screamed at me.

She had just barged into my apartment out of the blue ten days after our date on New Years Eve, causing me to throw the sandwich I’d been eating at her in reflex. She dodged, the meat and cheese sandwich nearly smacking her in the face.

“Whoa, watch where you’re throwing things! That spicy mustard could put a person’s eye out!”

“Sorry! Also! Volume!” I complained.

“Sorry, sorry!” Delilah apologized. “It’s just… I did it! I finally did it!”

“What did you do, exactly?” I asked. “You had a couple projects going on.”

I motioned for her to sit down at the table with me, and she did, smiling widely. “Project Tethys! I finally made a working prototype!”

At that, I sat up straighter. “You did?” I asked her intently. When she nodded, I grinned widely as well, matching her own expression.

Project Tethys was something Delilah had taken up herself to familiarize herself with magic, and experiment with how it could work. She had several projects, but this one, named after the Greek Titaness who’d been the mother of the river gods and the Oceanids, was one of the big ones.

Simply put, it was an attempt to create a form of hydro-electric energy generation using the Aquamenti spell.

The water created by the Aquamenti was not suitable for drinking and evaporated faster than non-conjured water, but it was useful for cleaning or putting out fires.

“I made a generator using water-creating runes and an electric motor, sorta like the kind used in dams,” Delilah said excitedly. “It took ages to figure out the right combination of runes and the proper materials to set it up with, but I made a prototype, and it worked! I was able to power my TV a few other appliances with the power it was creating!”

“Does it scale up?” I wondered. “How much magic does it require to produce a megawatt of electricity?”

“I have notes you can read,” she replied. “But for the first question: yes. It’s why it took so long. Making water spray out to move a turbine isn’t that hard, but the tricky part was figuring out the proper runic sequence for varying sizes and outputs.”

Delilah tapped her chin. “As for magic-to-watts… not sure. We need a way to accurately calculate how much magical energy is produced by a spell – or is required to cast one – before I have accurate numbers. But based on current observations… the generator I finagled together was able to produce one hundred watts a day. Give me time and materials, and I can make one that generates a megawatt’s worth of power over the course of a year right now.”

“Interesting,” I mused.

One hundred watts a day wasn’t bad for a prototype. That was more than enough for a TV, microwave, or a fridge. Maybe even a combination of two. And a single megawatt could power approximately five hundred houses – give or take a hundred – for around a year.

“We need to test this,” I declared.

“Obviously. That’s why I came to you,” Delilah said. “Not just to brag… but I need money and supplies to make anything.”

I nodded. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Make a new company to make the generators and then build them into the different buildings we own?” Delilah guessed.

“You know me so well,” I grinned.

“Of course I do,” she smirked back. “I already have a name: Camelot Energy. Like it?”

“It fits the naming scheme I like to use, so, yes,” I chuckled. “You’ll obviously be the lady running the company.”

“A CEO before I’ve even graduated… never thought I’d see the day,” Delilah sighed happily. “So. What else?”

“Paperwork,” I told her, and she groaned.

“Joy,” she grumbled.

“Don’t worry, I’ll arrange everything so you just have to go over it with a lawyer and sign on the dotted line. Your parents could probably help speed things along, too,” I said.

“If I ask for help, they’ll want to know how I plan to do this,” she pointed out.

“You think it’s time to tell them about magic?” I asked, and Delilah nodded.

“Yes. I’m worried about how they might react… but I also know father is greedy enough he’ll keep it a secret since it will give him a leg up on the competition,” she scoffed. I said nothing against her.

Mr. Hunt was an unpleasant man, but he was predictable, and Delilah was likely correct in that his greed would, for once, be an asset.

“When do you want to do this? Next month?” I suggested.

“Yeah, some time in February would work best,” Delilah agreed.

I nodded, and then leaned over and gave her a peck on the check. She blushed and I smirked.

“You’re incorrigible,” she grumbled, but she didn’t look like she minded.

“I think this calls for a celebration,” I declared. “What do you want to eat? I’m buying.”

She leaned over and whispered into my ear, and I blushed.

“Oh. I see… well, who am I to deny my lady?” I replied. She just took her shirt off and threw it onto the couch.

We didn’t leave the apartment at all that day.

111 ^^^ &&& ^^^ 111

“I have to admit, it’s very shiny,” I commented.

“That’s the gold talking,” Delilah replied.

“Right… I’ll admit, I didn’t think the Tethys Hydro-electric generator would use so much gold.”

“It doesn’t. Comparatively speaking, at least,” Delilah stated. “The runes need to be etched into or made of gold. That’s non-negotiable. They just won’t channel mana at the proper level otherwise. But the rest of the machine can be built using mundane materials.”

I nodded slowly, looking at the miniature proof-of-concept version my lovely lady had made. “Okay… but why did you make this one out of gold?”

Seriously, the whole thing would make a rapper drool with envy! Golden frame, mostly golden turbine, and gold plating and gilding to decorate the rest of it. The fact that it was the size of a desk chair meant that even though it wasn’t solid gold it was still worth more than an entire house!

‘If it wasn’t sitting on the concrete floor of a warehouse I’d be worried about the weight of the thing breaking the ground it’s lying on!’ I thought to myself. Gold was pretty… and pretty heavy.

“Because I wanted to,” Delilah replied, before nudging me. “Don’t tell me you’ve never wanted to make something out of a bunch of gold!”

“Fair enough,” I shrugged. “And I did give you access to the recycling center’s supply depot without telling you what you couldn’t use, so that’s on me.”

I folded my arms as I watched the Tethys conjure a jet of water to spin the turbines, generating a few dozen watts worth of power. The liquid itself rapidly evaporated, leaving the floor nice and dry. The runes themselves functioned by constantly drawing in magic from the surroundings.

It’d work better near a Ley line or some other locale with plenty of ambient mana, like my potion workshop or apartment complex due to all the wards. But like she’d promised, the Tethys could be scaled up to produce megawatts worth of power.

‘Assuming it’s built somewhere that it can syphon enough magical energy, of course,’ I mused silently.

Yet it worked. And that was what mattered. This relatively small version could power a house, and I already had plans to have the dwarves install larger versions in the buildings I owned. I would never have to pay a cent for electricity again!

“I know that look,” Delilah commented with a smirk. “You’re thinking about money again.”

“I am,” I confirmed. I then shot her a sultry look. “I’m also thinking about how sexy I find the fact you were able to build this.”

“Seems like you find saving money sexy,” she drawled. I laughed, and she giggled. “But no hanky-panky right now! We have things to do today and we can’t exactly do it if we get busy.”

“A shame, but you’re right,” I told her, tearing my eyes away from her to look back at the Tethys generator.

“It’s beautiful. Now let’s make more!”

“I have a list of materials we’ll need to do just that, as well as the permits we’ll need to fill out if we want to get these suckers installed,” Delilah informed me. I couldn’t help but grimace at the idea of more paperwork.

“Right,” I sighed. “Okay, let’s go and deal with this first.”

She nodded, and we departed the warehouse via Portkey back to my office.

I’d begun using Portkeys a lot more often these days. They were mostly safe, more so than Apparition, at least, and could be reused repeatedly. They also cut down on the chances of being trapped, tracked, or otherwise kidnapped.

And boy howdy did I need something like that. So far, nobody had tried to capture me since the start of the year, but it’d only been two weeks since the start of January, and it didn’t mean Sir Briar and others weren’t watching. Two break-in attempts at the recycling plant had been thwarted by the night guard, and some mad lad had tried breaking into a warehouse in the middle of the day. The wards had knocked him out, and he didn’t know who’d hired him, but it was worrying all the same.

‘Not to mention the wiretaps,’ I thought with a flicker of annoyance.

Someone had managed to bug my phone's landlines. I hadn’t even noticed! Only thanks to my secretary complaining about the recent phone bill did I notice that somebody was using more than their fair share and trying to sneakily steal information using the phones.

Clever. And not something I could easily deal with since I had no idea how wiretaps worked at all, or how to go about undoing them. For now, I’d left it alone, since it let me control the intel I let my eavesdroppers know. As long as they didn’t know that I knew, I was able to infiltrate and trick them.

But that was an issue for another day. Right now, Delilah and I had paperwork to go over and sign. We spent several hours cooped up with a stack of documents and files, hands cramping from signing and rubber stamping everything we had to in order to begin the process of setting up Camelot Energy.

Even with the bureaucracy sated, we weren’t going to be done for a while. And even when we did submit everything it would be months before anybody got around to us. Trying to set up an energy corporation, even one that would only be providing electricity for a select few businesses, was not simple.

“…and that’s it for now,” Delilah declared, nearly putting her pen down.

“For now,” I echoed with much less enthusiasm.

“Once I tell my parents about… everything… there will be more,” she agreed.

“Do you want me to be with you when you spill the beans?” I wondered.

“That’s sweet of you, but I think it’s best that this is a family thing,” Delilah replied softly. “I will bring a few magical items to help make them believe, but for now…”

“Right, I understand,” I said, feeling a little disappointed I couldn’t spend more time with her.

“There, there. Don’t be sad. I’ll see you soon, Ed,” Delilah promised, kissing me on the cheek.

“I’m looking forward to it,” I declared with what I hoped was a confident smirk, and she giggled before leaving the office.

Once I was alone, I felt tiredness sink down onto me, my shoulders slumping a bit. Paperwork was hard. It was boring. And while it had to be done, I really, really needed more time in my day.

‘Considering the way things with the Dementors went down, things might not go the same way the Time Turner as in canon,’ I thought, mind drifting to Hermione’s little trick for attending more classes than physically possible.

But there was no way for me to get my hands on Hermione’s Time Turner anyways,

‘I either need a time machine the Ministry doesn’t control… or I need more help,’ I thought. The former was unlikely. The latter would need a lot more than just one or two people to pick up the slack.

Knowing I wouldn’t get anything done by moping, I sighed before busying myself with my job, some more documents needing my signature. When that was done a couple hours later, I stretched, feeling like I’d earned a break.

“Inky? Can I get a snack?” I asked aloud.

“No, Master Eddy. You will spoil your appetite,” my House Elf scolded me as he popped into existence in front of my desk.

“Ah, come on, it’s… oh, wow, it’s already five twenty? Where did the time go?” I wondered in disbelief. “I thought time was supposed to fly when I was having fun, not doing drudge-work!”

Inky chuckled softly at my reaction, before tilting his head to the side. “Perhaps Inky can make Master Eddy’s frown turn upside with something else.”

I blinked at that, a bit bemused by hearing Inky use that phrase, but also curious about what he had in mind.

“Sure, go ahead, Inky,” I said, urging him to explain.

“Master Eddy, Inky cannot do everything,” the House Elf began. “And even with Dobby, it isn’t easy. Furthermore… Inky will not be around forever.”

I frowned at the reminder of my loyal friend’s age, yet he simply smiled back at me, albeit sadly.

“That is why Inky has prepared… alternatives,” the House Elf continued. He then snapped his fingers and four loud pops announced the arrival of four new House Elves. All of them were younger than Inky – although considering he had to be over a hundred years old at this point, that wasn’t saying much.

Even so, the oldest of the quartet was only half Inky’s age, at best. Though trying to tell a House Elf’s age – and gender, come to think of it – was tricky.

The other thing that caught my eye was that two were wearing pillow cases with Hogwarts’ livery, while the other two had black pillow cases as toga-like shirts. The eldest member was wearing one on the latter, and he bowed politely to me.

“Greetings, Master Eddy. I be Rainy, Inky’s fourth son,” the elf introduced. “I be here to take over Inky’s place when it is time.”

“What?” I uttered, shooting a confused look at Inky.

“When I die, my son will replace me,” Inky confirmed with a soft bob of his head.

“I… I see,” I muttered. “And the others?”

“I be Salty! Inky’s granddaughter!” one of the Hogwarts Elves said cheerfully, her voice higher pitched than the others.

“I be Windy,” her fellow Hogwarts elf introduced, bowing low.

“And I be Shoe,” the other black-clad House Elf said in greeting. “We alls being Inky’s grandchildren.”

I blinked at the odd name before nodding slowly as a realization hit me. “Inky… are all four of them here to work for me?”

“Yes,” Inky said. “They be good elveses.”

“Alright… I suppose my next question is ‘how?’” I inquired. At that, Inky gained a mischievous smirk.

“Inky knows the rules. Unattached elveses can choose their own family,” Inky told me. I knew that, though, and was still confused.

“Okay, but doesn’t the Ministry regulate who owns which House Elves?” I asked.

“Ministry can regulate… but the old laws still apply,” Inky said, snapping his fingers and causing a book to fall into my lap.

“I haven’t seen this book before,” I mused, running a finger over the golden filigree of the cover.

“Only the Head of House Hunch can summon the book,” Inky informed me, before snapping his fingers again and causing the book to open to a specific page.

“On the Rites and Honors of the Ownership of the Brownie Fair Folk?” I muttered, reading aloud the chapter title. My eyes widened as I realized what I was holding. “This… is this a copy of the Laws Immutable?”

When Inky nodded, I felt my grin stretch across my face and gain a feral quality. The Laws Immutable was the name of the book in which every single law, rule, and regulation within the Wizengamot was recorded! It was even enchanted to automatically update with every new addition or amendment!

This was something only the Ministry and the Noble Houses had access to. Copies owned by the former were kept under strict lock and key, rarely allowed to be looked at outside of for legal cases. The ones owned by nobles… well, they were also heavily guarded by the Purebloods.

These restrictions were another measure through which the bigots controlled the Wizengamot and magical society as a whole. Without knowledge of what your rights or the laws were, it was hard for the average citizen to fight back or demand justice.

Oh, the lawyers had some access, but since the firms tended to be run by Purebloods, who only allowed the minimum amount of information to trickle down to the lawyers. Lawyers who could pick and choose what cases they deemed ‘worthy of their time.’ Which meant Muggleborn had no chance of even getting their day in court if a Pureblood said so.

The inherent biases and faults in the system could be addressed later, though. For now, it was time to figure out what Inky wanted me to know.

Fully invested, I started to read the chapter. It took some time to parse the dense, old English legal jargon, but after half an hour I had enough information on what I needed to know.

Simply put, neither the Ministry nor Hogwarts legally owned the House Elves who lived and worked there. Instead, they were simply ‘held in trust,’ for a proper legal master to claim them. These unattached House Elves sustained themselves on the spare magic of the Ley Lines built near the two sites, and could choose their own masters whenever they wished. Additionally, if the elves were related to an elf already serving a master, then they didn’t even need to inform anybody!

While this sounded archaic and was worded in a way that made the House Elves – or Brownies as they were originally known – sound less like slaves and more like tools, it was clear to me that because the four House Elves were related to Inky, the Head House Elf of House Hunch, they could choose to work for me whenever they wanted and nobody had to sign any paperwork or tell the Ministry. Of course, once the contract was sealed such a bond could not be broken without the traditional gift of clothing, but that was covered in a different section of the book.

“How many other House Elves could I legally have?” I wondered aloud, mostly as an idle thought.

“There be no laws on numbers of House Elves a single family can have a bond with,” Inky said.

“Okay, that’s interesting,” I muttered, glancing down at the book in my lap, before dismissing the idea to look through it. There was no reason to do so right now. I trusted Inky. And if he said there were no hard limits, then I believed him.

“If I can have as many House Elves as I want… how many could I realistically hire? Like, right now?” I asked them. “I understand that House Elves tend to follow familial lines, so how many House Elves are related to Inky that I could potentially recruit?”

“Aside from us? Grandfather Inky has two sons, three daughters, eleven grandsons, seventeen granddaughters, twenty-nine great-grandsons, and forty-two great-granddaughters that are currently without masters and could join you right now,” Rainy helpfully informed me. I stared at him, before glancing over at Inky, who shuffled his feet, embarrassed.

“…Inky was very popular in his youth,” he murmured.

“Grandpa was a ‘player,’ in the modern parlance,” Shoe said, the other grandchildren grinning cheekily.

“Damn… and those are just the elves who don’t have a family to serve?” I inquired. When I received a round of nods, I chuckled. “Good job, Inky.”

Flushing with embarrassment, he mumbled “Yes, master,” under his breath. I snorted, before turning back to the others.

“I think, for now, it would be best to only have you four join me. Even if it’s legal, someone at the Ministry might notice two dozen elves suddenly leaving,” I commented.

“Yes, Rainy agrees,” the House Elf said.

“Of course, I plan on getting the rest,” I informed them. “I won’t leave you in the incompetent hands of the Ministry forever.”

That caused the black-clad House Elves to perk up. Apparently, working for the government was unappealing. How unsurprising.

“Now, has Inky told you about the… other stipulations for working with me?” I inquired.

At this, they nodded, but with noticeable hesitance.

“It not be right,” Salty mumbled.

“Paying people who work for me – as well as ensuring they wear something decent – is very much the right thing to do,” I sternly told them. “Even in backwards Magical Britain you can’t not pay your employees. Just because I provide you with magic to keep you alive does not mean I don’t have other obligations to you. If anything, I have even more! So that means you’ll earn a paycheck and like it!”

Again, they nodded, still hesitant, but with a glint of interest and hopefulness within their large, wide eyes.

“Ah, I almost forgot… what about Hogwarts?” I inquired. “Do I have to worry about Dumbledore wondering why I have two of the castle’s Elves with me?”

“No,” Salty assured me. “Hogwarts elveses are free to leave if they have a family. Some elveses even use Hogwarts as a place to find young masters or mistresses to serve!”

“I see,” I mused. “Okay, good to know, thank you.”

The House Elf blushed and wiggly happily at the praise.

My questions answered, I stood up, before pausing. “Inky… can I support more bonds?”

“Yes, Master Eddy,” Inky assured me. “Youses not be using magic with wand, so you have more to spare. Inky thinks you could support ten elveses all by yourself!”

‘Odd. Does that mean a bond with a wand is sort of like a House Elf bond? A limitation of some sort? Wonder how that works,’ I mused.

I didn’t know, but decided that such things could come later. Still, ten was a bit… let’s see what happened with five.

Without hesitation, I stuck my hand out, offering it to Rainy in order to seal the deal, so to speak. Inky’s son nodded, and took my hand. There was a buzz, and the air filled with magic for a moment as the House Elf’s soul became intwined with my own.

“It is done, Master Eddy,” my new companion announced with a bow. I nodded and repeated the process with the other elves, offering them my hand and shaking the other three elves’ outstretched limbs.

Gold sparks burned in our palms, and I felt a tingle as all of them bound themselves to me, but that wasn’t anything else that happened. No tiredness, at least, so there was no obvious sign of me being weaker due to multiple bonds.

“Well, that’s that, then, welcome to the family,” I said, giving the four new members of the team a winning smile I hoped would reassure them. Then, I looked over towards the oldest member of the group.

“Inky, show them what their uniforms will look like and provide the materials so they can sew them,” I instructed. “And afterwards, introduce them to Dobby and the different locations I own, then fill them in on what their duties will be.”

“Yes, Master Eddy,” Inky said with a bow before vanishing with the pop, the other four following him a second later.

“That was a surprise,” I muttered. “Heh, seems like Fate took heed of my pleas and now I have more help.”

There was a faint worry in the back of my brain that this was just the prelude to something else. Something bad. But that couldn’t be the case, could it? Life wasn’t a story, defined by the whims of a higher power… right?