Harry's mental wanderings fell back to reality as they entered the Magical Research Project... MRP? Merp. The Merp room. "Hey Susan, Hannah. Everyone ok with calling this the Merp room?"
Hanna paused. "Merp?"
"Magical Research Project. MRP, Merp."
She shrugged. "Sure, why not."
Padma leaned over. "Just a heads up, both of you should just avoid talking about food development today. I think storage and production are ok topics, but NOT creation of recipes at the moment."
Harry and Hermione exchanged a look. "Yeah... we have a cease fire at the moment. But I am sure that fine food design will arise again." Harry dodged a swat at his arm with a grin.
Susan was going through a book. "Any luck with that potion suspension spell? The really hard one?"
Harry settled into a seat near the head of the table with a sigh. "Yes and no. Wisdom helped me understand the process pretty well, but I hit some snags with it."
Hannah looked up from something she was working on in a box. "What kind of issues?"
He sighed. "Well, first of all I have never seen it cast before, so I lose the easiest way to learn it. Being able to see the magic lets me skip most of the work." Harry ran his hand through his hair. "Secondly, the master level one NEEDS to be wandless, wordless, and close to motionless. Apparently the spell requires darn near perfect amount of power. Too much and your target just... explodes basically. Too little and nothing."
Harry grinned. "On the plus side, I now know that Muffliato does a DARN good job. No one on my floor woke up at ALL last night."
He got a strange look from Padma. "How many explosions?"
The boy shrugged. "I stopped counting after thirty or so. Honestly, about twenty times after that I just started having fun causing explosions."
Padma narrowed her eyes. "I thought you were reading last night."
He nodded. "I spent most of it reading in my mind scape. I just didn't want to hurt anything casting an exploding spell in my own head. It is not like I could say any of this in the Great Hall you know."
She nodded and went back to her book. She looked again and leaned back. "Hey, let me ask something... I have been reading this book about makeup charms and spells and stuff." She ignored Terry's sniggerings. "There are a couple here that we might want to learn. Teeth cleaning, nail trimming, hair removal and such."
To Susan's surprise Harry seemed interested. He grinned. "I like the thought. I know that many people damage their teeth from pressing too hard with brushes and stuff, and I hate having to find clippers when I need a trim... Mark the pages and add it to the list."
The 'List' was a new idea. Basically they were collecting spells they thought were in three categories: Utilitarian, Game-breaking, and Fun. These daily routine charms fell nicely into the Utilitarian category... well some of them. Padma assumed Harry didn't need to know the specific spell to curl armpit hair or wax his inner ears. She found several of the spells just... silly.
Her thoughts were interrupted by an angry growl of all things. "THIS." Terry was almost shaking with anger. "ALL THIS TIME!"
Hannah poked him. "Everything green Terry?"
He frowned and turned the book toward her. "Look, there is a spell called PACK that PACKS. Like stuff into places. That means Mom could have made my room or helped me get ready in literally a single wand swish... and STILL made me reorganize my trunk by hand until she thought it was 'acceptable'."
He held his head in his hands, resting on the table. "Seriously, it is just called PACK. I... man."
Harry leaned over Hannah's shoulder. "Not just that, but it accepts the same sort of filter that the sorting spell does. In fact, it seems like another version of the sorting spell... it just moves things elsewhere instead of sorting in the same place."
The boy moved back and sat at the head of the table, pulling his wand and doodling in his hand. "I spent last night doing a lot of things, one of which was examining the sorting spell." He pointed at something the others obviously couldn't see. "So this square box shape part contains the criteria for 'I found a match' to win. Then this thread connects that to the actual searching rules in the ball shape."
Harry held his hand up and rotated his wand slightly. "The ball jumps from one object to the next, finding valid targets. Once found, the box part tests it using the threads hidden inside. If it is matched, the coil over here tags the object with some of the casters magic so they can pull the objects back to them. I think." He doodled again. "Now, this is the Pack spell. It is missing the ball of searching rules, so I think it picks up the desired order straight from your magic. That is also how it controls where to put the things it had controlled." Harry's eyes gleamed as he compared the two spells in the air. "Hmm... It seems the pack spell needs more power, since it doesn't define what to do as well. Looks like you can either define the outcome you want, or just throw power at it and magic will figure it out by trying everything till something works."
He looked up at the others. "I love this spell, Pack. Wonder if I can alter it to do something more generic."
Hannah looked up. "Like what?"
"Well, packing is just sorting items into a container. Cleaning is sorting items in the room, such as dust and dirt being sorted to the garbage and items being sorted to where they are most used. Or something like that... the Pack spell could be the ultimate cleaning took possibly." Harry grinned at the stunned faces he was surrounded by.
Hermione almost groaned. "Why doesn't EVERY adult use pack? That seems... SO USEFUL!"
Harry shrugged. "From what I can tell, magical people tend to rely heavily on the past, on their ancestors. The pack spell may have not existed back then. It also may not be common enough that everyone runs into it... and if it isn't required on the Hogwarts syllabus, then many students wouldn't bother finding out new things about magic."
Harry paused. "It may also be a sign of culture. Remember that we magicals will live longer than non-magicals, possibly for more than 200 years. Dumbledore was alive for over 100 years easily... He was here before movies, before... I mean, he was around before basketball was invented, before phones, before zippers, before bottle caps." He looked at the partially confused pure bloods before looking back at Hermione. "The Ministry of Magic is basically full of people who where here before Airplanes. They may not even KNOW how advanced non-magicals have become in the last five years ALONE..."
.
.
.
👓☕️Consider supporting me and enhance your reading experience with the ready-to-read PDFs I have on my Ko-fi.☕️👓
🎯https://ko-fi.com/cmrowling🎯