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Title: Franklin and the Wireless

Contributors:  dm_fugitive

Edited by: Carla Lute

Posted: 2006-01-12

Game Date:  September 4^th

Disclaimer: No one at Levicorpus owns Harry Potter, the world or its characters.  We just like to play in J.K. Rowling’s world.

 

 

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With all the craziness of the past few days, Draco had not had any room in his mind for chemistry.  He had not been to the shed since the day after Lacy had given him the wireless.  He still didn't feel like playing with chemicals, but he had left the wireless in the shed and wanted it back.

The door was open as he approached, and he could hear signs of movement inside.  Draco put his hand on one end of his pocketed wand and stepped inside.  "Who's there?"

There was a man bent over Draco's wireless.  He looked up sharply and gave Draco a nervous smile.  Draco recognized him as the man he thought was Cho's uncle.  "Hi," he said.  His hair was short and spiky, and Draco thought he looked to be in his mid to late twenties.  "I'm Franklin.  You must be Draco Malfoy.  I'm really pleased to meet you.  I heard all about how you got the other Death Eaters into Hogwarts.  I thought it was really brilliant."

Draco eased his hand off his wand.  "What are you doing in here?"

"I didn't mean to disturb your space," Franklin said apologetically.  "I was just returning this."  He indicated the wireless.  "I came by the other day because I wanted to meet you, and I didn't realize you had a lab in here.  It's chemistry right.  I know some of the others kind of turn their nose up at what they call Muggle science, but it's not like Muggle's invented chemicals any more than they invented radio waves."

Draco frowned uncertainly.  "You said you were returning my wireless.  Am I to understand you took it somewhere?"

Draco had a feeling if Franklin was not so brown he might have seen him blush.  "Uh, yes, sorry about that.  I realize I should have asked.  It's just that I've read about the theory behind them, but I've never really got to play with one.  And I was thinking about how they had multiple channels, and it gave me this idea and I got sort of carried away.  Just realized this morning I shouldn't have held onto it so long."

Draco picked up his wireless and looked it over to see what Franklin's playing had done it.  "You didn't enchant it, did you?"

"Oh, no," Franklin said quickly.  "I just used it for inspiration."  He tapped Draco's shoulder in an eager gesture.  "Do you want to see what I've done?  I bet a mind like yours could appreciate it."

Draco just wanted to curl up with his wireless and another Shakesperean comedy, since Blaise had told him Ginny was going to recover.  But he knew he needed to keep his list of enemies as short as possible, so he decided to humor Franklin.  "Sure, lead on."

Franklin practically skipped around the table, and Draco followed him back into the house and down into the underground tunnels.  They stopped inside a little room that seemed to serve as a workshop, though Draco spotted a small grey cot tucked against one of the walls.  Franklin sat down at a table which held a Wizard's Wireless and a smattering of odd tools.

"The Dark Lord said it was brilliant," Franklin said with a smile.  "I think he's gonna let me work on more stuff like this, rather than take me on raids.  I'm not a big conflict person."

Draco settled for looking slightly baffled.  "What is it?"

Franklin seemed to remember that he had not explained.  "Sorry.  It's basically just a typical Wizard's Wireless, but I noticed how your Muggle radio had multiple channels and it got me thinking that I might be able to adjust a Wizard's Wireless to work on a seperate frequency from the WWN.  So I modified this one and created a transmitter."

"A what?"

"Something to broadcast the signal.  It picks up the sounds around it and projects them, just like the Magic Mikes over at WWN only less conspicuous.  Listen," he said and turned the knob on the wireless.  "This controls the volume, and this knob determines the pick up radius.  It can go up to twenty feet, but you get a lot of static that way, so I've been keeping it at about five to ten."  Draco heard the faint sounds of footsteps and breathing, what might have been a door creaking.

"Where is this transmitter?"

Franklin shrugged.  "I transfigured it into a watch.  I know Wormtail sent it to one of the boys in Potter's dorm, but I'm not sure which one."

A voice came out of the wireless.  "Ginny, are you awake and in the mood for a visitor?"

"That's Longbottom!" Draco gasped.

Franklin looked impressed.  "Of course!  You'd know the voices better than I would!  I've just been playing with the settings and making sure it's working properly.  Here."  He adjusted the knobs and watched Draco eagerly.

"If the visitor is you, sure," came Ginny's voice, and Draco felt a sharp pang.

"Do you know her?" Franklin asked.

"Not very well," Draco said with a shrug.

"I'm sorry I didn't think to bring you anything, but my gran always says that you should never visit someone at a hospital empty handed, so here."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Ginny replied.  "Thank you, they're perfect! I was just feeling in the mood for chocolate frogs."  Draco stared transfixed at the wireless.  The sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach growing as he listened to the conversation.

"This is brilliant," he told Franklin, when the Neville left to get Ginny food.  "Who else knows about it?"

"Just you and you-kno...the Dark Lord," Franklin said, glowing at the compliment.  "Though I think he's gonna enlist some of the others now that I've worked the bugs out.  I can't listen to it 24 hours....well, not infinitely.  But it would help me a lot if you'd stay a while and help me figure out who all the voices belong to.  It'll make it easier to make notes."

Draco nodded and agreed to keep an eye, or ear, on the wireless for a while.