Rune stone path

The calm before...

The weeks after returning to Hogwarts passed in a sort of daze for Harry. Always dominating his thoughts were Voldemort and the uncertainty of when the attack would come. Snape could have been fed false information. The quiet infiltrations of the country that Amelia kept finding could be a diversion. The pattern from the past years could be broken. Voldemort could get spooked. His allies could get spooked. So many things could force the conflict before Harry's side was ready.

He quickly forced himself into a routine in order to avoid dwelling on the issues. They still weighed on him, but as long as he kept busy he could keep the stress to a minimum. No matter the horror show coming he did still have to pass his O.W.L.s after all. The one time he'd tried to get out of it Hermione and Daphne had both ganged up on him. Hermione was adamant about him not neglecting his studies – completely irregardless of the fact that he could likely pass his N.E.W.T.s for Ancient Runes in Third Year and that was really the only important class he needed for the life he planned after Hogwarts.

"Harry James Potter! No future husband of mine is going to drop out of school with one passing grade to his name! You march back into that library and start studying, right now!" she had yelled, her face crimson and hands clenched into fists.

"You may be content just running Potter Runes, Harry, but I plan to change our society," Daphne had piggybacked into the argument. "How is it going to look if I end up the Consort of a man who couldn't even finish his O.W.L.s?"

Harry had rolled his eyes, mumbled about domineering women ruling his life and trudged back to his revisions. He couldn't even say he disagreed with them. It had just been a nice fantasy avoiding the tests and all…at least for the few minutes that the idea had existed…

On the weekends Harry could almost always be found in the Defense Association's training sessions assisting Daphne and the rest with teaching the students advanced combat spells. Sirius, McGonagall and Flitwick were proving to be extremely welcome additions to those extra periods as their presence allowed for greater freedom with Harry's own activities during the sessions.

In contrast, his weekdays turned rather predictable. Harry'd go to class, finish the homework, revise for an hour, train for an hour, help Fred and George's assembly team to craft the more complex rune schemes for an hour, then spend any remaining time in developing potential new combat/defense runes. Unfortunately the R&D periods weren't proving very productive beyond streamlining the creation of already existing items.

Crumpling up yet another failed design, Harry scowled and shoved his papers away. "This is ridiculous! I'm having better luck advancing the Gold Digger than I am finishing up this thing!"

"The Gold Digger was the one that converts lead into gold right?" Hermione asked.

Harry nodded. "Yeah. Figure I've got like ten to fifteen years left of work to iron out the kinks; assuming I keep leaving it as a side project."

"Well let's hope you move it up the priority line at some point. We need to be ready for whenever the next generation starts looking at school. You have four women who all want children, Harry. That's going to get expensive and it'd be nice to have a backup to the store," Hermione said. She turned a page in her book and smiled before jotting down another note on her pad.

"Are you even listening or just appeasing my fragile male ego?"

Hermione shrugged. "Both. Probably more the latter. Did you know that Nifflers were where wizards got the idea for an expansion charm from? Magicals were interesting in replicating the holding ability of their pouch."

"That is very interesting, Hermione," Harry said snorting in amusement at her ability to multitask. "Mind if I borrow that book for a few minutes? I really need to look at something besides runes for a bit."