upside down | harper

[addilyn elara slater]

who's to say what's impossible?

well they forget
this world keeps spinning

March 19, 2026
@harper

Addy scoped the room. Students were still walking in groups, almost afraid to separate and speak to any number of the adults in the room. There were faces she vaguely recognized, she had spotted Claire earlier but didn’t see where she had gone to, and her brother was talking to a few students. There was a strange feeling in her chest, she had told Cheese to speak to Grey, and she’d written her brother about it as well because of interest in working for the paper. But she hadn’t seen her friend since the weekend where they had ruined all that hard work toward the new normal over the past couple of months. Well, actually, Addy was actively avoiding him again despite how she had told herself she wouldn’t.

All there were present had charmed name tags on their chests with their name and occupation and other details such as that, and Addy looked around for the department that she was particularly interested in. And then her eyes stopped, the name badge read “Artifacts and Development Department” and the name “HARPER WEASLEY”. Addy waited a moment to see if anyone else would approach her first, but then she took a deep breath and walked over with her head held up high to introduce herself. ”Hello, my name is Addy.” She introduced herself with a smile and a hand stuck out. She felt as though she recognized her, plus she was a Weasley—and you wouldn’t find someone at Hogwarts who hadn’t heard of or befriended at least one. Though Addy supposed, she counted Lily as a friend. ”You work for the Magical Artifacts Development office?”

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It was hard to recall if there had been a job fair like this set up during her seventh year, though at the same time Harper had been so intent on working at the Ministry and metal charming that it probably wouldn’t have mattered if there had been one to attend. In this case, it was absolutely fascinating to see a whole group of students on the verge of graduating coming into the Ministry to check out potential career choices. She had spotted her dad from a distance early on in the morning, giving him a wave from across the floor as he set up with the magizoologists and dragonologists. According to his letters as of late, there was an extreme interest in magical creatures from a lot of students because he had managed to show them a baby dragon during some sort of field trip they went on a few months back. Other than her father, there were other family members here and there as well, namely James with the Hit Department, which had a huge table. That made sense considering there was so much to talk about when it came to law enforcement. Especially these days.

Her own department had a small table, which sort of made sense but also didn’t at the same time. Magical Artifacts was easily the most important department within the government currently, and definitely the busiest. They could barely pump out enough charmed tech in time before things were being shipped off to those that requested them. She supposed that most of that had to do with the voracious consumption of media that was currently rocketing throughout the magical world. It made a drastic jump from nothing to an actual substantial amount of content. Aside from the ability to suddenly have internet in previously blocked off areas, the addition of magical social media (calling it that was being nice, since it was still very much in its infant stage still) and even a dating app from Blishwick was insane.

The table was at was currently just herself and a row of laptops and phones. She felt like she was in a muggle phone store, presenting the goods that she was trying to sell off. The only difference here was that she had them set up for demonstrations if anyone was interested in seeing how to charming process was done. At some point a coworker was going to arrive to help her, because the crowds of students were starting to pour in. Harper secretly hoped it was Scorpius and not one of the old fuddy-duddies that worked in the department. Malfoy knew how to communicate with students in the same manner that she could. The rest of their coworkers? Not so much.

She had been playing around with one of the phones on the table when she saw someone walk up, immediately plastering a smile on her face. The girl introduced herself as Addy, and Harper shook her hand. “Harper. And yup! We’re the ones that have been working on these lovelies for the last year or so,” she waved her hand over the table. “Lately we’ve been testing the efficacy of muggle tech with specific charms and transfigurations. I’m sure you’ve seen how well that’s gone with getting phones and computers into Hogwarts,” Harper explained, giving the briefest breakdown of her job as she was able to. “Do you have any specific questions, or are you perusing?”

addilyn elara slater ● 574 ● 10th Man Down by Nightwish

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[addilyn elara slater]

who's to say what's impossible?

well they forget
this world keeps spinning

March 19, 2026
@harper

She was a few years older than Addy, a Weasley with the signature red hair, and she knew that Harper would hardly be the last Weasley she ever met or spoke to today. The table was covered with various pieces of tech, and Addy was curious about each and every one of them. This realm of magic was cutting edge. It was new and exciting, plus something that would benefit the magical world in Addy’s eyes. But she was also eager to learn how it worked. ”Oh, well I’ve always been interested in how things work. I managed to disassemble my phone, but I noticed that when I got to a certain point, I wasn’t able to continue.” There were electronics like muggles used, and Addy had read about from the Muggle Studies section in the Library and from asking the late Professor. Her theory was that charms were in place that acted like magnets and created a field for electronics to function within a high magical area. Otherwise, the interference would simply stop the device from working or fry it all together.

She didn’t want to ramble, however. ”What kind of charms do you use to help with the magical interference?” Addy was eager, but she tried to remain calm. It wasn’t often she had a chance to speak to someone who was in this field. Brigh was looking for adventure in her future, while Cheese remained attached to his camera. ”Were you always interested in things like this?” She asked Harper. Addy always felt that most of her classmates were interested in Quidditch, Auror training, Hit-Wizard training, or anything that might give them a bit of glory or appear ‘cool’ to their peers. But in Addy’s mind, that wasn’t the only way to achieve that. Technology might have been new, but it had thoroughly begun to infiltrate their world. Unfortunately, this meant that Hogwarts hardly had an extensive book collection on this as they did other topics.

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Disassembling a phone wasn’t inherently a difficult thing to do, though there were plenty of safety measures that had been implemented by her department to keep muggles from digging too deep if one of theirs was lost and picked up by the wrong person. Most of the changes came in the form of transfigurations of the inner workings, in a way that helped the department keep things streamlined. The same could be said about the laptops that they were now putting out for public consumption. “That’s impressive,” Harper praised. “We try to make them hard to crack, that way people won’t go and make them without our overview. Mostly to protect the statute.” She didn’t fully agree on keeping these things off the black market, and if she were to be realistic about it, there were probably knock-offs and homemade ones on the street. All it took was for an employee to slip up and give out how to modify some of the charms, and that was pretty much it.

The question that followed was one Harper had been trained to try and avoid, but also give enough information that the department could still get new employees. “Well…it’s sort of a secret. But I can tell you that it’s a combination of transfigurations of specific parts, and charms that allow them to sort of piggy-back off of magic in the denser areas, like here or Hogwarts. The laptops have transfigured wi-fi antennas, and both have a number of concealment charms that have been cast over them, which allow them to seem normal to muggles.” The specific charms she thought were the coolest were the ones that allowed applications developed by magic folk to be accessible because of the magical signals they were boosting off of. It was a similar function to how their radios worked. Different frequencies within ‘magic streams’ that were only reachable through the technology they charmed. The actual technical terms were sometimes mind-numbing when getting into the finer details, but it worked nonetheless.

“Sort of! I grew up watching my grandfather trying to figure out how muggles did everything, so that got me interested as well,” Harper explained. Though she really had only ever been interested in the more mechanical side of things, like the motorcycle that still sat in The Burrow’s shed. One day she would fix that one up too. “But before this department started up, I worked as a metal charmer. They’re in a similar enough realm, in my opinion.” She found working on phones and laptops all day way more mentally stimulating than charming boxes of spoons ever did, though.

addilyn elara slater ● 437 ● When Did I Lose It All by Pale Waves

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[addilyn elara slater]

who's to say what's impossible?

well they forget
this world keeps spinning

March 19, 2026
@harper

Her mother had never understood Addy’s slight obsession with taking things apart and figuring out how they worked. It could be something like a phone or the way she practiced chess strategies, or Quidditch plays. Everything could be broken down and learned. It made sense that Magical Theory was her best subject. Harper’s explanation made sense, nobody should really be tinkering with the internals of these devices, but Addy wanted to know. ”That makes sense.” The charms she hadn’t been able to get past must not be something taught at the school, or she hadn’t found the right book to point her in the right direction. She noted it as a post-graduation summer activity she could look into.

Addy hadn’t expected a full answer on how exactly these devices were made in terms of modifying existing muggle technology. A small part of her hoped she could get some insight before applying to work in this department. It was still exciting to hear about. No doubt if Brigh was standing next to her and not pestering that Cursebreaker, she would have rolled her eyes and yawned out of boredom. ”So you need NEWTs in Transfiguration and Charms at least, right?” Maybe Potions? Magical Theory was definitely up there, but she wanted the NEWT as a personal challenge.

Harper’s answer reminded her of her own sister. Claire had obtained a few muggle items when they were younger, much to their mother’s dismay, and even Addy had found them when she was older. But the interest had always been there, and it was something she’d never forgotten despite Claire’s life now. But, with a name like Weasley, Addy knew well enough that Harper’s grandfather was not muggle-born. Which fascinated her even more as to why he was interested in muggle things. ”I bet you get a lot of questions from him.” And then a thought came into her mind. ”Is the department very big? I know learning how to use these things isn’t straightforward…not really. I know a few people that won't go near a phone.” It was a natural response to the frustration, she figured.

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The requirements for magic tech testing and development were sort of murky still. Whoever the incoming interns happened to be, they would technically be the first to be assessed by grades and NEWTs. At least according to her boss. Harper figured she could clue Addy in a bit on that though, considering it seemed like she was actually interested in the career. Not everyone found pulling apart phones and computers stimulating enough in this world. Muggles though? Absolutely. “For now, yes. They’re still trying to figure out what requirements are actually needed, but considering that’s what we end up using the most in day to day operations, that’s what they’re going with right now.” Anything else was easy enough to learn on the job, and the actual application of the charms and transfigurations wasn’t nearly as difficult as she was making it sound. Once she got through a couple dozen phones during her first week, it became unbelievably easy to do. The research and development portion of the job required a little bit more thought process, but that’s why they were a team.

“He likes turning his phone on and off more than anything else,” Harper laughed. “It took him twenty years to learn what a rubber ducky’s function was, but had no problem charming a car to fly and turn invisible. So this sort of thing absolutely fascinates him.” Every trip to The Burrow since she started her job had been a deep dive into the inner workings of the phone, so much so that her grandmother finally charmed him into silence over the dinner table one time. That got the message through, at least until dessert started and the charm wore off.

As for the size of the department, that was an excellent questions. “So the Artifacts and Development department is fairly big. Other branches in it deal with improper use of magic and misuse of muggle artifacts, you know, the fairly normal, mundane things. But my specific office deals only in magic tech. And there are not a lot of us right now.” It was still a new enough thing that the Ministry hadn’t provided a large enough budget to cover dozens of employees. That meant that almost every phone or laptop that was owned by a witch or wizard had either passed under her or Scorpius. Speaking of him…“Do you know Scorpius Malfoy? I think he just graduated last year, but he’s one of my coworkers too. Other than him there are maybe ten others?” There were more people that were interested in popping in and helping with little things than there were actual employees within the office.

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[addilyn elara slater]

who's to say what's impossible?

well they forget
this world keeps spinning

March 19, 2026
@harper

Her previous discussions with Claire and Grey had been encouraging in terms of Addy forging her own path. It gave her anxiety and pause, but their approval was the next best thing to her parent's approval. Whether her mother would agree was entirely different, but so far, she hadn’t gotten angry letters or a howler as a response. Against all the expectations and pressure, Addy didn’t want to be stuck in how she perceived Claire to be but not on the outskirts as Grey. Was some middle ground even possible? Brigh would tell her to live her life and be her own person, but then she heard her mother’s voice in her ear.

There was also the intrigue and excitement about entering a newer department of the Ministry. It was less established—maybe that would give Addy a better advantage at making a name for herself there. She nodded when Harper answered, not that Addy was particularly worried about her NEWTs. She had been on track to apply for Auror training or even Cursebreaking, so Charms and Transfiguration were not a problem. When Harper spoke of her grandfather, Addy couldn’t help but grin. There was that warmth in her eyes. The Weasleys were obviously a well-known family, and Addy knew the Potters from school, and she wondered if their lives were easier than her own despite the famous name.

”A car? Really? Does it still fly?” Her curiosity was getting the better of her, but it was not common to see wizards with a car, let alone a flying one. Plus the creativity to charm it. Fascinating. She doubted that charming cars to fly would be the main part of her job at the Ministry, but maybe something to try one day on her own. It seemed the focus was ensuring that wizards and witches didn’t get themselves in trouble with the new technology. ”Yes, he was a couple years ahead of me but I didn’t know him very well.” Addy admitted. Scorpius had always been a bit shy, and Addy mainly focused on her studies and Quidditch.

Suddenly Addy turned her head as she heard her name called, and through the crowd, she spotted a red-head jumping up and down to catch her attention. Brigh. She must have gotten done talking to the Cursebreakers. ”Erm—I have to go. It was nice speaking to you, Harper. Hopefully, we get to work together.” Addy said with a grin as she backed away.

[ end addy ]

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“Errr…that’s up for debate still, actually,” Harper stated carefully. She’d grown up on the story of how her uncles, Harry and Ron, stole the car and took it to Hogwarts their second year because they somehow missed the train. The part that was up in the air still was that they crashed it into the Whomping Willow, and then it took off into the forest on its own. They swore they saw it again later that year, but she hadn’t heard any rumors of the supposed self-functioning, invisibility wielding car ever showing up again. So it remained as a Weasley family legend. Flown or driven by most of the family at one point or another, until it met its supposed demise to the wrath of the killer tree Hogwarts thought was smart to keep on the grounds. “I’ve never personally seen it, but all my older family members say it worked like a charm.” Haha. Very punny.

Harper was pleased to hear that Addy at least knew who Scorpius was. Though who didn’t? She often times forgot the power that names held, and like Weasley, Malfoy had just as much weight to it. He was stupendous at his job though, and she couldn’t knock him for that. Before Harper could add anything about the tiny team the department had her and Scorpius on, Addy informed her that she had to be on her way, a girl off in the distance bouncing around clearly being the person she had to see next. “Absolutely! And if you have any questions before then, just ask one of my cousins for my number or something. I don’t mind.” Unless it was Lily. Because she was positive that one still didn’t have a phone. That was for the best for a whole number of reasons. Chuckling to herself at the thought of her younger cousin having a cellphone and unleashing a wave of texts 24/7, Harper had to cut her daydream off as the next interested student made eye contact with her and started heading her way.

[THE END]

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