The arrival of the family matriarch had led to a few minutes of utter chaos as Torby, me, and the tots rushed outside to check on Dis and Gond, Lys barreling past us before we were even halfway around the house, screaming her head off for her mom not to trash the thing she had spent months of subjective time constructing. We found the mom attacking the prostrate Gond, who was laying on the floor, not defending himself beyond trying to get up, whilst Dis went to town on him with a very large sledgehammer. The magical machine was none worse for wear, of course, it took a lot more than an irate dwarven wife wielding a sledgehammer to put a dent in enchanted orichalcum.
There was some more shouting and general chaos as Lys tried to wrestle the sledgehammer away from her mom while Dis tried to push her daughter off so she could protect her from the metal menace, that, would, not, stop, moving! Torby, being the caring father that he was, made no move to intercede and looked more like he would have appreciated a bucket of popcorn and a recliner, so he could enjoy the show. The two kids just cheered and laughed. I decided to take a page from the old man's book and hang back and see how this would turn out.
As such, we watched mother and daughter dance around the Forge while screaming incoherently at one another in an attempt to convince the other to let go of the big hammer. It was far more entertaining than it really should have been, but seeing two burly women crashing around, demolishing the place while trying to do... something? Was oddly compelling. As a passing thought, I noted that Lys' mother was a much of a redhead as her husband, and her two youngest children, but Lys was blond. It made me wonder if there was a story there. Probably not, Lys had more than a passing resemblance to her father, only with a more feminine slant.
Lys' mom won in the end, managing to wrestle the hammer away from her daughter's grip, only for Lys to get her wand out and transfigure it into a piece of cloth. Dis' expression was priceless, and her momentary distraction allowed Lys to explain what Gond was, and more importantly, what he wasn't. After that things calmed down, Dis oohed and aahed over Gond some before turning her attention to me. I didn't know what I had been expecting, but after seeing her fight with her daughter, and what I assumed to be her general temperament, something along the line of gruesome threat and possibly some manhandling was definitely on the list.
I did not expect her to hug me!
I definitely did not expect her to thank me for the help I'd given her daughter as well as returning to them their lost knowledge. She had said it with such sincerity that I actually got choked up. I could feel my face burning with what was probably one hell of a blush.
My heart wasn't ready!
I needed a distraction so I laid into Lys about the lack of indoor plumbing, which to my infinite relief was enough to get things moving in a direction I was far more comfortable with, away from me and tearfully sincere dwarf mothers that looked at me like was damn proud of me.
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The next few days pretty much consisting of the whole family (and me), exempting the little ones and the crup, working to install indoor plumbing in their house. Lys and Dis worked the forge, being supplied with copious amounts of copper by Torby. I have no idea where he got so much of it in such a short time, but he did. Lys meanwhile showed off what five years of Hogwarts schooling had taught her and by hammer and magic she first produced the main water storage thank we would need, and then, with her mother assisting, she started to churn out the needed piping.
It fell to the men, me, Torby and Gond, though I'd hesitate to call Gond a man, to get the stuff put into place. The water storage tank went up on the roof, carried there by Gond, where I enchanted it and the water condensers attached to it to increase both its efficiency as well as its durability. I also added a space expansion charm on it, which impressed Torby. It was a difficult charm after all. After that was done we moved into the house itself and started to lay down the needed piping that Lys and Dis provided. I enchanted them with the charms I'd discovered in school last year to achieve good pressure in the pipes.
The house came with three bathrooms, all three of which we pretty much ripped apart to the foundation to get all the piping in. As an added flavor I threw in a space expansion charm to give them some extra space. That led to me and Torby designing the magical world's first ever Jacuzzi bathtub after I mentioned that in passing while we worked. That also led to the creation of an overengineered shower with multiple showerheads and a new toilet with multiple... functions. Dis loved it.
The other two bathrooms got a similar treatment, just without the Jacuzzi and new shower. We did build another Jacuzzi on the second story deck though, and Torby was thinking about making another for the roof. After that, we turned our attention to the kitchen which also got a complete makeover. The washing stations now got running water, and me and Torby even put in a couple of those kitchen hoses that were common in more professional kitchens to aid in efficiency.
While we were there I broached the subject of refrigerators, and I was proven right to have assumed that there was cold storage in the cellar, but none the less me and Torby set about creating a fridge and a freezer for the kitchen, space expanded of course. They were basically just closets that had been charmed with cooling charms of varying intensity. I had a bit of fun designing something that would work as a lightbulb that would turn on when the door was open, and off when it wasn't. There wasn't really any need for it to do that, no need to save on power when you deal with magic after all, but it was a part of the whole refrigerator experience so I insisted on having it added.
We also pulled running water out into the forge of course.
Once that was done Lys produced another tank, this one was to be the hot water tank, which was stuck out of the way in the attic. I made sure to make the area around it fireproof just in case. There was no fire involved, but you never knew.
The whole renovation took no more than four days from start to finish, which was probably some kind of record considering there were only four people and a robot working on it. Only three in parts since Torby was gone in the mornings, off to talk with some of his contacts in the muggle world to secure me some identification papers and get them inserted into the right places. And after I produced a photo I was the proud owner of a brand new passport. No ID card though, apparently those weren't around at this time. I found that a bit odd, Dumbledore didn't seem surprised when I'd shown him my own. Though that might explain why he'd not immediately opened the case.
The more you know.
Torby also got into contact with his man in the states and arrange for me to stop over there on my trip through. We also talked about various other things, mostly ways to gather resources and making money. I made several suggestions based on my future knowledge, most of which were met with various levels of dubiousness from Torby. I did manage to talk him into investing a bit in a few places, or at least consider it.
I understand his cation, his resources weren't endless, and most of what he made had to, by necessity, go back into his business. But I think I'd managed to sell him on investing into Intel. That should give him a nice cashflow that he would be able to direct towards future investments.
I stayed with Lys and her family for a little over a week before I felt like it was time to move on. My next destination would be New York, where Torbys contact lived and ran one of his muggle repair shops. After that... well... I'd see where the road took me. Maybe I'd have a little adventure, who knows.