HARRY POTTER :flash forward.

"If all this works... or, even most of it... we'll take it to Professors Flitwick and Babbling for use throughout the castle. I can see this used for the entrances of all four House common rooms, maybe the Headmaster's gargoyle, and every other apartment throughout the castle. Then we'll ask about moving on to doing the corridors, then the unused classrooms.

"Oh, and Luna really is brilliant. Most of this is her work. Hermione and I just added or tweaked it a little."

"But, how does it target just cast wanded magic directed at another, and not wanded magic that isn't so cast?" he asked.

"'Ill-intent' is one avenue the runes block; and another is that all curses and the like have the same arithmantic fundamental equation, so was an easy target for the runes to block," she explained

"We're ready!" Luna sing-songed. "And, remember: Don't banish the stone dust as you carve. We'll need it if we have to repair a section or rune and start again. We can banish it after we know it all works."

"Yes, Professor Lovegood," Harry sing-songed right back.

That earned him a giggle from the younger girl and a harrumph of, "Really, Harry!" from Hermione.

As their fastest carver, Hermione worked on the runes within the alcove while Harry and Daphne worked on the ones out in the passageway. She then switched out with Luna to take a break every now and then. Annoying Hermione but amusing Luna, Professor Whittaker kept offering his own advice and suggestions.

They had only just begun carving when Hermione called a halt.

"Why?" asked Luna.

"It's lunch time," she replied.

"Oh!" the younger girl said sadly.

"We'll come back to it straight after lunch, Luna," she offered.

"I'd like that," the girl said back.

Harry and Daphne collected the tools they were using and then banished the steps they'd conjured to reach high enough on the walls to have the runes be relatively out of sight, before putting them on the coffee table in their living room.

"This is going to take all afternoon," said Harry, as he walked with Daphne hand-in-hand while Hermione and Luna brought up the rear.

"Yes," replied Daphne. "But, once it's in place and working, we never have to worry about it again. Therefore, it's worth the effort."

"Have something else planned for this afternoon, Harry?" asked Hermione, cheekily.

Not falling for it, he replied, "Yes. I was thinking of going to see if I could find myself another wife. I don't know if I'm going to be happy with only two." "Why you..." Hermione began.

Suddenly, Harry felt the impact of a stinging hex right to the left butt cheek. "Yiii!" he exclaimed, practically leaping forward and into the air while his left hand came around to cup the affected area.

Luna's tinkling laugh rang out while Harry spun on the spot, rubbing his bum and cried, "Uncle! You win! I'm sorry!"

"Keep up with those sorts of jokes and you'll be sleeping on the couch," she firmly said.

Stepping forward and wrapping his arms around her he said, "You never have to fear that sort of thing really happening from me, love," he softly said. "I love you and Daphne both and I'm never going to look elsewhere, alright?" "I know," she sighed. "Just... don't even joke about it, okay?"

"Never again; I promise," he said before kissing her.

"I thought we were going to lunch?" asked Daphne.

"Yes, we are," he replied stepping away and, again, taking her hand.

The four continued to walk to the Great Hall with Harry vowing to himself to never make a joke of that sort of thing again.

After a quiet lunch, the four returned to the passageway and returned to working on engraving the runes.

After he'd finished the first one, and having Daphne check it to make sure it was good enough, he dropped down to the one low down near the floor.

After having seen a number of Ravenclaws come up the stairs and walk into the common room, he said to Daphne, "Have you seen how many Claws have walked by just down the passage and none have paid attention to what we're doing?"

"I put up a Notice-me-not charm across the whole passageway, Harry," she replied.

"Oh!" he exclaimed. "That was a good idea."

She just smirked back for a moment before returning to her work on her own low to the floor rune.

When the two were finished, they each checked the work of the other before going down the passageway to the other side of the alcove. There, they again conjured steps to reach up high on the walls, and began to carve.

They were finished about five minutes before the evening meal began. Then they just needed to wait until the control runes were done.

Having a look for himself, Harry could see Hermione and Luna were about two thirds of the way through. But, he couldn't work out why they were carving in the order they were.

"Why those ones in that order?" he asked.

"Doing it this way will allow us to bring up each of the various components of the wards in a select order," explained Luna. "Now that you have the boundary runes completed we can start to bring up the various fields."

Hermione stepped back from finishing the last rune she'd been working on, while Luna stepped forward and checked it.

"First, we're bringing up the listening and similar charms block ward," Hermione continued with the explanation. "Then will come the anti-Confundus charm ward. Next will be the anti-hex and curse ward. Then we'll bring the silencing part up. And, finally, the anti-Imperius ward. The last one is the one we're not so sure about, so we want to add it last. Besides, we're not, legally, allowed to use Imperius on ourselves. So, we're not actually allowed to test it. We'll have to get Ministerial approval to test that."

"When will we be ready to test?" he asked.

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For some other reason this novel will only be published 3 times a week

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