Before the Return

Once the others go to bed I decide to stay up. I dismantle my new 'toys' from the villain squad. Then I pull out my rune engraving kit. I apply a Fehu rune to the hammers. This will activate the runes and charms that I will etch into the individual bullets. I'm thinking I am going to etch on the bottom of each casing like a circuit board and when the hammer hits the circuit will become complete thus activating the runes and charms.

First I etch a Thurisaz rune into the .50 BMG This should allow the bullet to pass through wards and barriers. Secondary Thurisaz Rune to give great boost into penetration. Let's add a timer onto a banishment attachment so the bullet should effectively remove itself from existence after ten seconds. An Ansuz Rune while be the so called center of my circuit. Once hit by the hammer it should start up the rest of the network.

You know, now that I compare the two side by side. Spells are normally in some derivation of Latin but our Ancient Runes are Nordic Runes. That seems quite curious to me. Note to self try spells in different languages to see if it effects the spell in anyway, try Old Norse first.

For now that should do but I may add different effects later on. If I can get this to work I may customize one for Deathstroke. He is after all the one most attached to fire arms, his sister prefers up close and personal.

Now for the Barrett M90 itself. A silencing charm to the barrel obviously. As for the scope. I can experiment with that right now... 27! 27 damn redos,repairs, and breaks and I finally, FINALLY, got the effect I wanted! Who knew it was so hard to connect a Kenaz Rune to allow one to see through solid objects.

Beretta M9 I think I will make it with the same enchantments as the Rifle, well other than the scope. Let's add a waterproof charm too just to see if this will allow me to use it in Black Lake. Would be interesting to use 'Gun Kata' under water.

As for the dart gun. I mean it is air propelled so there isn't much I can do. Still a silencing charm to get rid of the fwoosh sound. I'll dip the tips of the darts in various venoms, note to self color code the darts.

Til day break Alex was in his private training room testing out his new toys. They would break, he would repair them. The runes wouldn't work so he erased and re-etched them differently. He would test the penetration and destructive abilities of the bullets on thick steel plates, wooden post, and stacks of break walls, he had to use Transfiguration for most of the obstacles. The bullets, after a few different re-etchings, managed to penetrate through the various obstacles like butter.

As for magic testing he had Jazz set up some wards, shields and barriers using magic. He could get the bullet to shatter some minor and medium wards but not the more powerful ones, it's odd how magically powerful a house elf is. I mean they can do things, that normally would require a powerful wizard to do, easily. They can even pass straight through wards and change their magical signature.

Back on topic. It just wasn't the effect I wanted. I wanted the bullet to go through the wards without breaking the ward entirely. Just creating a small hole. If the ward shatters it would alert people and that is not what I want to happen. Sadly the sun is rising, I'll continue this later. I got a promise from Jazz not to tell anyone about my experiments before packing away my toys.

Later that day Ragnok showed up "Oh Hello Ragnok, Thank you for the gift. But I was unaware you were stopping by today"

"You are welcome Alex, I thank you for my gift as well." You know goblins are very loyal and pleasant when they are your friends. It makes it surprising that most wizards treat them like servants and earn the goblins ire. I mean they control the money, contracts, and are dominating the market in curse breakers. Why the hell would any sane person want to get the goblins pissed at them? "As for my being here I have an appointment with your mother."

"Ah is this about the recent acquisitions?"

The goblin nods and gives a toothy smile "Yes, your mother is quite talented in business." Oh yes the goblins love my mother. She brings in much profit and isn't afraid to 'attack' her opponents swiftly and deadly to devour them all.

"Well then perhaps I can join in on these talks. Harry is enjoying his new games at the moment." So I began to walk with Ragnok.

"Our King enjoyed the gift you sent him. It isn't often a goblin, even the king, receives a gift from a non-goblin. I believe the last gift he received from a human was in 1986."

"I don't see why he doesn't receive gifts more often. I mean your king is extraordinarily handsome. Plus he sings wonderfully." I experienced his singing at my 'coronation' into the Goblin Nation. "Ah if you could send word that I enjoyed my gift as well. It is nice to be able to re-watch your own dreams"

We enter into my mothers meeting room. This is where she conducts all business while at home when meeting with people, obviously, I mean it is called a meeting room. "Ah Ragnok it is a pleasure to see you" My mother says looking up from her papers laid out on the table.

"It is a pleasure to be invited into your home as well" Yea goblins would never be this courteous unless they liked you. Just more proof they like my mother.

"Please, have a seat, Alex you might as well sit down too since this is about your business." What my mother means is, even though she is working on magical things, most magicals, meaning those of authority, would accept having a squib running any business in their world. So she does it all in my name. Though of course I do my share of the work as well, she just handles the parts I can't do while at Hogwarts.

Both myself and Ragnok take a seat on my mothers left and right respectively. Mother flips through some papers. "First off we now own 30% shares in the Firebolt corporation. Their new, and first ever, product is estimated to be done in fifteen months due to our injection of funds. I think this new broom model has great potential in being the best for at least 5 years, if we do not release a new broom first."

Myself and Ragnok nod. I started buying shares and injecting funds into Firbolt Corporation during the Summer because I saw the potential of the broom they were trying to make.

"Also Alex, you are now the Majority Stock Holder and CEO of Toys of Raijin Company & Research Facility" Her smile reminded me of a viper, happy after eating a meal. From what I know of my mother she, most likely, had goblins discretely buy shares. While at the same time, due to her being the one to supply the muggle tech, she got a few shares. That couple with my ideas and research I do in private that I send adds onto the shares. I also believe she brought these up several times, discreetly, to drop hints. Slowly working the others over to think that Toys of Raijin would fail without me and my mothers support until finally they called for a change in the ownership. That couple with us now owning more than half the shares meant no one could attempt to hold us back from acquiring the company. My mother is a vicious business woman.

"Wonderful. I would like to rename the shops to Envy's Toy Box. Also we can begin selling extra fine nib pens, journals, and notebooks. Let's also add books. I have had a few people interested in the comics I sometimes read at Hogwarts and my friend Blaise loves Sherlock Holmes books" Even though his favorite character is Moriarty "Though the shop in Japan will sell manga of course. I wonder if we can get the pictures to move" I glance over to Ragnok

"It should be doable. Like the moving pictures wizards make, though modified as I am sure you don't want the characters leaving their panels or acting out of character for said page."

"Yes. It would be odd for someone to read a comic and have the character go 'off script'"

"I will get our research team to work on that" says my mother "Next we are in talks with the makers of Wizard Collectible Cards to making a book with the details of the Wizards and Witches on the cards."

"That sounds useful"

"Also it appears that wizards don't know what fiction is" I roll my eyes in exasperation at the wizards. I mean they believed a book that said an 8 year old Harry Potter saved a village from ogres.

"I know that already mother"

"Yes I know you think that due to the books on your brother but I am talking about something different. These Tales of Gildroy Lockhart." She sounds disgusted just saying the name "Wizards trolling have no common sense. Any muggle would know how fake those books are. It says he fought Ghouls but in another book it says he fought a group of Yeti's on the exact same day on the other side of Europe."

I place my face in my hand as I release a long sigh at the stupidity of wizards. "Now," My mother continues "I do believe some of these happened. Like the battle itself is pretty convincing so I believe it is true but I have doubts this Lockhart person did them as he spends half the story bragging about himself."

"You are bringing this up to me because you want us to make sure that the Magicals know that some of the books we will be selling aren't true stories?" My mother nods "Alright. I mean it would be bad if they start thinking that going through a Wardrobe will lead them to another world with trees that grow gold and a Lion God."

We spend the next two hours discussing more plans and ideal businesses we could invest in. Such as a clothing shop. A lot of their clothes revolve around robes so we are thinking about making a shop that sells Victorian outfits. Ragnok, after seeing some of the outfit designs, also says Magicals would be more willing to wear those than any muggle attire made in the last century.

I managed to meet up with my muggle gang and talk about things with them. Marcus is very interested in having a charmed gun. Ashley says I need to make something for her as well. Ashton seems to want an item called Foe Glass, he heard about them from Victor. Maybe I should get Ashley and Marcus a Winchester rifle to go with their namesakes. It would be funny seeing their expressions.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end, as we finally hit the day we have to get on that train once more. Still we get to see our friends again so it isn't like it is a bad thing. I gotta say I do miss my four snakes. I even miss that book worm. Now we could have seen Teddy during the break but mom wanted us to stay home for Harry's first Christmas with us. Which is lucky because if I knew where Teddy lived his Great Uncle Algie wouldn't be up and kicking for much longer, that is one of the reasons I charmed my rifle.

Harry and I hug my mother tightly as we say our goodbyes and head towards the Platform. Ah leaving our comfy, heated, home for a cold, stone, castle in Scotland. Oh joy!