Chapter 17: A Week of Intense Work
The Burrow
Ronald Bilius Weasley
July 8, 1989, Saturday
Even though he was holding a book about software and programming...
Ron had no intention of becoming a software programmer and writing software for electrical devices. But that didn't mean he couldn't make use of this mundane knowledge of software and programming.
Ron was going to use a magical rune system in his technology.
His plan was to use runes created with pure magic, not the carved runes. He would store runes in a closed environment and allow them to interact with each other as needed.
While creating runes with pure magic was an advanced technique, it wasn't very difficult. In Harry's second year at Hogwarts, Voldemort's spirit, whom he encountered in the Chamber of Secrets, had used this technique to write his own name in the air using Harry's wand.
So Ron had already mastered this technique.
The real problem was that the existing ancient runes didn't meet Ron's needs. While many ancient runes had different functions, few met the technological needs of modern times.
If hovering, burning, or freezing were involved, Ron could easily use those runes. Still, when it came to calculations, data storage, analysis, image creation, sound generation, and many other technological tasks, the ancient runes were insufficient.
Therefore, Ron needed new runes. Fortunately, the system provided basic crafting books containing information on Advanced Magical Runes.
Although this information didn't directly include runes, it did offer a method for creating new runes. However, since this information was basic, Ron couldn't create very powerful runes with it.
But Ron needed functional runes, not very powerful ones. So, this wasn't a problem.
And that was the main reason he wanted to read programming books. Instead of understanding this Muggle technology, he wanted to understand the underlying logic.
This way, he could create his own magical rune system. And it was something no one had ever achieved before.
Some famous crafting masters and alchemists had certainly created their own runes. Still, a comprehensive rune system that interacted with each other and produced different results was something no one had yet achieved.
Using Muggle terminology, Ron was creating his own programming language.
And the best part was that when Ron completed this rune system, those who wanted to copy his creations would be faced with a completely foreign language.
Ron was eagerly waiting to see that day.
Imagining that day, Ron opened the book in front of him and began to read. Before he even finished the first sentence, he was already in super-focus mode.
And Ron's following days were completely busy.
Aside from the limited time he spent on meals and playing with Ginny, he spent about 20 hours a day in the Library and Workshop.
But of course, this didn't mean all his time was focused on programming and software.
On the contrary, Ron only spent a small portion of his time on mundane technology. As soon as he understood the necessary patterns, he immediately used them to create new runes and experiment with them.
Meanwhile, he wasn't neglecting his magical training. Although he currently lacked the resources to learn new spells, he could still practice his existing spells to perfect them.
And these practices were returning to him as magic units. Therefore, he wasn't about to abandon them, especially wandless magic.
Although the Pathlighter wand doubled his spells' power, Ron always had to consider the worst-case scenario: being unable to access his wand.
Therefore, even when he wasn't duelling mannequins, his wandless magic was almost always active. Even when creating new runes, he used Wingardium Leviosa, a wandless spell, to levitate many objects around him.
But Ron's projects weren't limited to that. Sleeping 20 hours a day meant 2000 hours spent in the Library and Workshop.
And Ron continued at this intense pace for about a week, until Saturday morning, July 15th.
In one week, with approximately 136 hours of sleep, Ron managed to put in 13,600 hours of effort.
This was equivalent to 566 days of work, but that was for someone who worked 24 hours a day. For someone working 12 hours a day, it would be 1132 days, and for someone working 8 hours a day, it would be 1698 days.
In just one week, Ron dedicated to his projects the amount of time that someone working only 8 hours a day on weekdays would dedicate in 6.5 years. Moreover, this was the effort of someone with legendary-level talent and the Library/Workshop buff.
But this was the relative value of the effort Ron put in.
In reality, the time he had spent in the Library and Workshop was 566 days. But this had allowed Ron to complete two of the main projects and some side projects he was working on.
The first was the creation of new, original magical runes and the structure they would produce, which he had been working on intensively.
Frankly, Ron thought he wouldn't have been able to accomplish this even before graduating from Hogwarts if he didn't have the Library and the Workshop.
And the other project he completed was a device that would allow him to meet Harry Potter completely by "coincidence."
After all, he couldn't just suddenly appear at Harry's door.
Perhaps Harry, unfamiliar with the magical world, wouldn't find it strange, and Ron could easily come up with a simple excuse for being there, but it was highly likely to turn into a major problem later on.
When it was revealed in the future that Ron had met Harry two years before Hogwarts, many would pursue the matter.
But the one who would pose the most trouble and investigate the situation in detail was Dumbledore.
Ron didn't know if Dumbledore was a dark lord, as many theories suggested, or just an old wizard who had committed many wrongs.
To find out, he first needed to contact him.
But what he did know was that Dumbledore was obsessed with control and wouldn't give up until he learned every detail about Ron and Harry's meeting.
And Ron knew that if he couldn't offer a logical explanation, Dumbledore would never trust him. And Ron didn't want to confront Dumbledore if possible.
This would only make everything more difficult for him in the future. He shouldn't have confronted him until he became more powerful and influential than Dumbledore.
Also, if he couldn't offer a logical explanation, Harry might suspect him in the future, which could damage their friendship.
Therefore, Ron needed to find a seemingly logical reason for his meeting with Harry, and this device he had built would do the job.
Besides these two main projects, he also had other major projects that he was still working on and hadn't yet finished.
One of them was crafting a magical item that would prevent the death of Luna's mother, Pandora Lovegood.
At least, that's what Ron hoped.
He wanted to prevent Pandora's death, but he couldn't go to her and tell her she had to stop working on spell creation or she would die.
Pandora wouldn't abandon her profession and passion just because of his words. And even if a miracle made her believe it, Ron had no answer when asked how he knew that.
Unlike other multiverse worlds, in this world, he couldn't make excuses like "an old man appeared in my dream" or "I have a secret master."
In the Wizarding World, these would be interpreted as someone trying to possess his body or a dark lord contacting him.
Perhaps he could have claimed to be a seer, but that carried other risks. First, Ron would have to live with this lie and constantly pretend, and he didn't want that.
And besides, Gellert Grindelwald was also a seer, and his rise to become one of history's greatest dark lords was due to this power. He feared that if he used the excuse of being a seer, Dumbledore would constantly look at him with suspicion.
Therefore, Ron decided to solve this problem with his legendary-level talent. That was the power he truly possessed, and no one could dispute it.
So, he decided to make a magical item that would protect Pandora Lovegood when she would hurt herself during a spell creation experiment. And he could also use his item for himself and give it to his loved ones.
He felt more at ease knowing that he and his loved ones had a protective item of his own making.
Therefore, he planned to create a comprehensive item that would provide protection not only against injuries sustained during spell creation but also in many other situations.
However, such an item requires deep knowledge and careful consideration of many possibilities to create it. That's why Ron hadn't finished it yet.
At least he still had time, and he planned to perfect this magical item within that time.
But now he had more pressing priorities, like putting his first products up for sale and gaining some prestige.
If people started to think he was a genius, it meant his word and the items he created would be taken more seriously.
Then even Pandora Lovegood wouldn't turn down a protective magical item from him.
After much thought, Ron decided to sell his products openly under his own name.
For a while, he considered using someone else as an intermediary to avoid potential problems, but he eventually decided it wasn't necessary.
At the moment, Millicent Bagnold was still the Minister for Magic. And if Ron remembered correctly, Cornelius Fudge was to be elected Minister for Magic the following year.
However, in his first years after being elected, Cornelius Fudge would adopt an attitude of trying to curry favour with Dumbledore.
This meant that people like Lucius Malfoy hadn't yet taken control of the Ministry. And that wouldn't happen for the next few years. However, in the future, as Cornelius Fudge increased his influence within the Ministry, he would become involved in corruption and embezzlement.
And before this happened, Ron needed to make a name for himself in the wizarding world, build powerful networks, gain some allies, and reach a point where no one could easily touch his business empire.
But he couldn't do this by hiding behind others. He needed to establish his own reputation as quickly as possible.
Of course, no matter how strong a reputation he built and how powerful his networks were, rivalries in the business world were inevitable. But as long as they competed on equal terms, Ron feared no one.
Even if he failed, he would use the remaining ruins from a failure to lay the foundations for his next success.
But for all this to happen, he needed to have no obvious weaknesses. And Ron felt he needed professional help for this. After all, no one would like to see their painstakingly built business empire destroyed by a legal loophole.
Therefore, Ron first needed to do what every entrepreneur should do: find a solicitor. And if possible, someone who could also handle the Barrister job.
Ron needed legal advice not only for his company but also for the products he created. He had no knowledge of the Wizarding World's patents, copyrights, and IP rights, and he didn't want to be unable to sell his products or face penalties for it.
Or worse, because he didn't fill out a form, he didn't want others to use the ideas or names for the products he created without compensation.
In this one week, Ron had created three other games besides Hightower, a magical version of Jenga.
Ron aimed to launch three different games when he first entered the market. Therefore, in addition to Hightower (Jenga), he was going to release two more games.
One of these games was classic Wizarding Chess, but Ron had made it so the pieces could also transform into checkers pieces. This product was going to be a game combining chess and checkers, and Ron had named it Check & Checkers.
The other game was Bazinga, a magical version of Uno.
But the biggest feature of these games was that they contained Rune Cores, which worked with Ron's newly created Advanced Magical Rune Operating System.
Ron had named this magical computer he created Rune Core, and the operating system he created AMROS, an acronym for Advanced Magical Rune Operating System.
These simple games, equipped with Rune Cores, had reached a completely different level. They could be played even by a single person, and they could accomplish things that many wizards and witches couldn't even imagine today.
And with the unique mascot interface that Ron had created, he believed he was no longer offering a game or a toy, but a companion to the buyers.
And now he was ready to release them to the market.
But first, he had to overcome another hurdle. Ron needed to have a serious conversation with some members of his family.
End of Chapter 17.
[Author's Note: I've seen comments in the last few chapters saying there's been too much information and the story is progressing slowly, and I honestly agree.
But some preparation was necessary before embarking on Ron's adventures, and I felt it was important to show Ron's perspective on the products he'll create and the company he'll manage.
At least this way, I won't have to give detailed explanations of every single product he creates later, because you'll already know Ron's perspective.
Anyway. The story will now gradually start to move outside of the Burrow and progress more quickly.]