After almost an hour of back-and-forth, Loren finally made it home to the little cottage he shared with Hermione, just before half past four. Inside, Hermione was holding a science magazine, but her attention wasn't on the page—her eyes were unfocused, clearly chasing a thought she couldn't catch.
One look and Loren knew: she'd climbed out of the magical rabbit hole only to dive headfirst into a scientific one. He stepped up, plucked the magazine from her hands, and tossed it into his personal storage. Startled, Hermione looked up at him; tears welled, and she threw her arms around him, clinging tight.
"I'm sorry, Hermione," Loren said at last. He'd cut the call from the magical notebook, then gotten carried away with the no-parachute drop—and forgotten to get back to her. All her day's worry melted into tears and soaked his shirt, and with it came a clarity he hadn't felt in a long time. He realized choosing Hermione—choosing to stay with her—had been one of the best decisions he'd ever made.
If she'd been at his side, or even within the small world, he wouldn't have jumped from high Earth orbit. He certainly wouldn't have dropped his shield at the last second and taken the ocean head-on. With Hermione nearby he kept his head; away from her, he drifted toward reckless stunts.
He'd never paid much mind to his second gift, "chaotic thought." He'd always felt clear-headed and figured the talent just offered some mental defenses, nothing more. Thinking it through now—even with his half-psionic constitution—left him cold. The talent did have a downside; Hermione's presence had been canceling it without him noticing.
Maybe the tears had vented the worst of it, because Loren felt unusually lucid. He reviewed what he'd done and could only wonder what he'd been thinking. He savored the cool calm, knowing it wouldn't last—like a man's brief "sage time." Other men had an easy switch; his took flirting with death.
Wanting to make the most of it, he gently took Hermione's hands and began tracing runes across her skin. With these, she could use the small world to reach him at any time and see his life-signs. The best part: he could ping her through the small world whenever needed. It would help anchor his reason and keep him from pulling another grand, stupid stunt.
Hermione blinked at the ticklish lines, bewildered, and then Loren led her into the small world. Last time had been a quick tour; this time she got a fuller picture. Say what you would about dragons being dim in the Harry Potter world—their bodies earned the name "dragon." After days of rest and steady food, the Ukrainian Ironbelly no longer looked half-dead. Wounds had closed, scales were coming back after the healing magic, and its frame had filled out. Loren only showed it to Hermione from a distance; they didn't go closer.
After a short circuit, they stopped at Shiraori's little house and started dinner. Loren had already eaten once, but as a half-psionic, another meal wouldn't hurt. He pulled a frozen bluefin tuna from storage and set to work. Hermione's mood had settled; she and Shiraori chatted about the plot of the series they were following. When the dishes came out, Hermione ate with quiet grace; Shiraori didn't bother to hide her hunger. Watching them, Loren felt, for a moment, like a family of three at the table.
Afterward, Hermione slipped into a tidy homemaker mode and cleared the leftovers with practiced ease while Loren, with Shiraori in his arms, watched from the side. When she finished, the two of them left the small world; Shiraori waved them off and dove back into her cozy shut-in routine.
Under the night sky, Loren and Hermione sat shoulder to shoulder on the lawn. "You're different today," Hermione said at last. "What brought on all that?"
"There are things you should know," Loren answered. "If you don't know what your man is about to do, we'll end up with days like this again."
He'd thought it through. Telling her part of the plan would calm her—and help her stop him if he went off the rails. So he laid it out: how he and the Weasley twins would scale their business across the wizarding world; how he'd stand up a magical network; how the magical notebook would help harvest and circulate knowledge, and so on.
"Then hand the Beauty Ring designs to me," Hermione said the moment he finished. "Give me the jewelry you bought—I can't wait." Loren froze a beat, then laughed and produced the haul from Oxford Street. Hugging the pile of gems, Hermione left beaming.
Loren shook his head, then turned back to expanding the magical notebook's features. He judged it by the standards of a past-life smartphone, but the current app set was still too thin. On hardware, the notebook matched or beat those phones; on software, it lagged.
For now he had three pillars. First was TwinChat—video and text, like the old WeChat and QQ, but not much else yet. No Moments, no friend spaces, no mini-games. Second was World Map, a mashup of a few modern mapping apps; it still needed user updates for live data. Third was Library: he aimed to digitize wizarding books—good for everyone, and good for accelerating his knowledge-gathering.
He worried about pushback from wizarding publishers—every trade in the magic world had a family behind it. He'd share profits with those families; all he wanted was the knowledge. He also wanted an e-commerce platform on the notebook, but for now it would be cash-on-delivery by owl—no network payments yet, so it was basically the same as before, just with a prettier storefront.
That was why he meant to court the Longbottom family. With enough benefit on the table, he believed they'd cheerlead for the magical notebook in the wizarding world—and open doors to other families to join the value network, speeding adoption.
And of course he wouldn't forget games. He could port a few simple ones—something like Plants vs. Zombies or Angry Birds—but he wouldn't lead with them. He had the tech and a whole magic world to build in; one day he'd make a real virtual world worthy of his tools.
//Check out my P@tre0n for 20 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[email protected]/Razeil0810