Sunday, December 11, 1994

The Quidditch Stadium, outside the Champion's Tent

15:17 PM

Percival Ebonwood's POV

"Did you see the table? You're with Kaito," I said as we walked out of the tent.

"Yes. We did look at the same thing, so I would guess I saw that too," Fleur said while looking at me as if I were an idiot.

"Guess you're right," I said as I looked over to her.

She was in a state of deep concentration. I know that look. Fleur will either say something so intellectually simulating or something so stupid, that it would make a primate. If it was the latter, like the previous two times that have happened, I get to slap her bubble butt.

"What's on your mind?" I say, looking over at her, hoping she says something stupid.

"Why can I not say 'here I'm' instead of 'here I am'?" Fleur asked, turning to face me.

I wound my arm back and followed through. Fleur let out a small shriek before glaring at me.

"What was that for?" she asked as she rubbed her arse.

"I know your English has improved to the point where I can make out your accent, but holy shit, did you not pay attention to my grammar lessons?" I asked as she shook her head.

"I was focused on other things," she replied.

"Like what?"

"Your eyes. Your lips," she said seductively. "And your cute butt."

"I don't have a cute butt."

"And I don't have a bubble butt," she said. "Anyway, tell me why I'm wrong."

"My butt is manly..."

"No. Not about your butt. Tell me why I'm wrong about the 'I'm' thing."

"Oh, that," I said in realisation. "The phrase 'here I'm' is incorrect because it violates the standard word order and contraction rules of English grammar. In English, when using contractions, the subject and the verb must remain in their proper order. The correct form is 'here I am,' where 'I' is the subject and 'am' is the verb. Contractions combine a pronoun with a verb, such as 'I am' becoming 'I'm.' However, this contraction does not work when the word order places the verb after the subject, as in 'here I am.' In this structure, the subject comes before the verb, and they should not be contracted. Thus, 'here I'm' is grammatically incorrect, and the correct phrase is 'here I am.'"

"I'm going to pretend that I understood what you said, and I hope we never discuss this again," Fleur said as we left the tent area and started walking on the path to the school.

Waiting on the path was Fleur's newest friend, whom she had introduced to me, and who happens to be my partner for the next task: Athaliah Stankov. She was waving at Fleur, motioning for us to come over, and we did. Fleur handed me her egg, and then both girls ran to each other and hugged, while after she gave me a curt nod.

"Well done on your task. You did really well," Fleur said as she let go.

"And you did even better. You got first place after all," Athaliah said as she turned to me. "You did good."

"Why are you here? I thought we were going to meet later at my dormitory?" Fleur asked.

"Actually, I'm not here for you. I'm here for him. You two are always together, so I thought I'd catch you two together," Athaliah said. "come on. Let's go!"

"Go where?" I asked.

"To solve the clue, what else?"

"All I'm doing today is celebrating, and I'm not touching the egg again until half-term," I said.

"We need to get a head start. When else is a better time than when everybody else is celebrating," Athaliah said. "We can celebrate at another time."

"You know what, Take the egg," I said as I handed her an egg. "You can have a crack at it. Pun intended. As soon as the winter holidays start, we'll organise a meeting in our prep room."

"We have to do it together. We are a team," Athaliah said.

"Yeah, but, I don't want to think about the Tri-Wizard Tournament for at least a week. The first task took a lot out of me," I said.

"Okay. Fleur, do you want to come with me?" Athaliah asked.

"No, but thank you for asking. I have to attend the Beauxbatons after-party," Fleur said. "But I'll see you later tonight. Nobody cancelled, have they?"

"No, we're all still game. I guess I'll see you later. Bye then," Athaliah said as she left us alone.

Once she got far enough away, Fleur and I looked at each other. We were confused by her antics.

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"I reckon it's because her team came last, and she doesn't want that to repeat," I said as we started walking again.

"She didn't come last," Fleur corrected.

"Potter's team doesn't count. She did come last," I corrected.

"She should be celebrating instead of worrying. We have plenty of time to figure it out," Fleur said. "Are Ravenclaw planning a party for you?"

"Yes, and Luna is planning it, so it should be quite fun," I said. "And you have an after party followed by a night out, I'm guessing?"

"Girl's night. Can you believe this is going to be my first sleepover in ages? I don't have to worry about girls stabbing me while I sleep because their boyfriends glanced at me or anything like that. I'm sooo excited," Fleur said excitedly.

"Have fun."

"I know I will."

Sunday, December 18, 1994

Stregobor's Office

12:19 PM

Percival Ebonwood's POV

"Tea?" Stregobor offered as I entered.

"No, thank you. I just had breakfast," I replied, setting up my equipment.

"You barge in, use my limited resources, and refuse my tea?" Stregobor muttered.

"What do you have to offer?"

"Black tea, ginger tea, ginseng tea, green tea, lychee tea, white tea, and jasmine tea," he listed.

"Could I have a Yorkshire tea with three sugars and evaporated milk, please?" I asked.

"Are you okay? Do you have something wrong with you?" he asked.

"I have quite the sweet tooth," I said.

"Of all the teas I have on offer, you go for Yorkshire fucking tea," Stregobor said as he turned on the kettle.

I kept on tinkering as Stregobor made us a cup of tea. I had the schematics of the ritual knife on my left, with the gemstone on the right, and a notebook with Luna's recent research ventures to the right of that. Using my wand to fine tune the final bits of my latest project, I was almost finished and able to start the next phase soon. Hence my being here.

Stregobor placed my tea down, and he stood behind me, observing. I put down my wand and picked up my sweet beverage. I slurped a few sips while Stregobor looked at me with disgust.

"First, you say you want Yorkshire tea instead of the assortment I have, and then slurp your tea. Did your mother never teach you the art of tea?" Stregobor asked.

"She was dead before we had the chance," I replied.

"I do often forget information like that, don't I?" Stregobor said it rhetorically. "Tell me about them."

"Why should I?"

"Whatever this project is, I'll do it out of the goodness of my heart," Stregobor said.

"You don't have a heart," I retorted with a scoff.

"Then, from the bottom of this gaping hole, where my heart should be. And I'll reduce my asking price," Stregobor scoffed.

"My father died before I got to know him, but he was a good father. My mother kept us together before she also fell in and passed," I said as I got back to fine tuning the artefact in front of me.

"I sense resentment. Towards your mother?" he asked.

"More towards the doctor, healer, in magical terms. They misdiagnosed her, and when they discovered their mistake, my mother had a choice to make. There was this experimental treatment that could save her, but she would be paralysed and bedridden for the rest of her life. That or seeing daybreak for the last time," I said.

"But you do feel resentment towards your mother? No?"

"How could she leave me? If I had the choice, I would rather she be sick and frail with a chance to live than suffer a peaceful death."

"A sentiment I, too, share. To take a risk and suffer the pain is often not what a human would do. In my earlier researching days, I faced a conundrum similar to this: to let it live and let us progress or to let it die and remain where we were."

"What did you pick?" I asked.

"The most logical outcome for the betterments. The mutation must survive," he said flatly. "Tell me about your gadget then, boy."

"Do you know what a particle accelerator is?" I asked. Stregobor shook his head. "Do you know what sub-atomic particles are?"

"I have heard of them in passing, but I have no understanding of them. I do not keep up with muggle science that often. I have fallen behind by my standards," Stregobor said.

"Imagine you have a really big, powerful slingshot. Do you even know what a slingshot is?" I asked.

"Of course, I know what a slingshot is. I'm not a fucking caveman," Stregobor sneered.

"Instead of rocks or marbles, you're using tiny, tiny objects called particles, which are so small you can't see them with your eyes. Now, this slingshot doesn't just throw these particles a short distance—it can launch them incredibly fast, almost as fast as the speed of light! A particle accelerator is like that super powerful slingshot. It's a big machine that speeds up tiny particles, making them go faster and faster until they're moving extremely quickly. Once these particles are zooming around at top speed, the accelerator can make them crash into each other. Why do we do this? That's not important for this."

"I think I have heard of a similar concept. A half-blood did something similar to this. What was his name? Ernie Laure? No, Ernest Leonhardt? I'm pretty sure it was Ernest or something. Do you know?" He asked as I shook my head. "Ernest called his device the cyclotron."

"Ernest Lawrence! Yeah, I do know him. He built the first particle accelerator," I said.

"But aren't particle accelerators meant to be huge? Like bigger than a keep huge? Your thing is tiny," Stregobor said as he looked towards my gadget. "Is that a particle accelerator?"

"Something very similar."

"How is it so small? Is that not just a fountain pen?" he asked.

"It's not. I worked with a team of Chinese physicists. They were trying to miniaturise a particle accelerator. I joined as an angel investor. Using a bit of divination, I help speed up the discovery process by about 20-ish years," I said as Stregobor looked semi-impressed. "We ended up creating a nano photonic particle accelerator that uses lasers to accelerate particles. Using that and the schematics, I created this: a laser rune engraver. The second of its kind."

"What about the muggles?" Stregobor asked.

"Erased their memories and destroyed all evidence of our progress. However, I did leave some clues on how to advance. It is the wrong path, but it should lead them to where we are today," I said.

"Why did you create this?" he asked.

I picked up Luna's notebook and handed it to Stregobor. He flicked through it, surprise painted on his face.

"This is very similar to my research into three-dimensional runes, just more precise and with more data points for reference. How did you come about this?" he asked.

"I gave Luna the previous version of this. The new tip, thanks to these schematics, would allow us to create more precise and deeper runes. They will contain more information than the previous generation," I said.

"However, this notebook only contains detailed information on one rune language," Stregobor stated.

"Luna is working on a second, and Fleur and I are planning to help her. We should be able to cover the four languages needed before the May half-term," I said.

"How did you manage to get Miss Lovegood to research this?"

"The original research does also requires this. Two birds, one stone," I replied.

"What would you like me to do?" he asked.

"Test it."

"On humans?" he asked.

"Rats first, then primates, and finally humans. Make sure it works," I said. "How much would it cost?"

"The schematic of this laser rune engraver," Stregobor said.

"It requires a gemstone to power itself. You can have ownership of the gemstone till the end of the academic year," I replied.

"That is acceptable. The iterative nature of this task will be time consuming. Your other project will have to be put on hold. Will that be okay?"

"Have you found a breakthrough recently?"

"No. I have, unfortunately, reached a plateau."

"Then it is okay," I said as I stood up.