Harry hesitated. He wanted to go to his Redoubt in Twilight but he was supposed to stay in the school.
He saw the Headmaster and ran forward. "Professor!"
Dumbledore turned and smiled. "Yes, mr. Potter?"
"I wanted to go to my redoubt. I'll be back in a couple hours."
"I believe that will be fine. Do be careful. Also, I noticed you've been monetizing some assets. Would you perhaps have any asterwort? N.E.W.T.s potions require it and the crops last year were quite bad: we could very much do with a pound of whole stems. Fair market value, of course."
"I'll check as soon as I arrive."
Harry ducked into the restroom off the school entrance and upon finding it empty, stepped into a shadow then stepped out into the bedroom of his redoubt.
He shivered. The Black Lands-what the Darklings called the nether between Earth and the pocket dimension his redoubt existed in-had chilled him to the bone.
Wrapping himself in the heavy black robes with the Potter crest upon them, he sent the first Lightling he saw to search out the asterwort stems then went to the kitchens. He had learned they always kept hot chocolate, a hearty mammoth stew-he was reticent about tasting that but all his ancestors raved about it, and fruit and meat pies ready for their Master. And they could prepare anything else he wanted.
In the kitchens he sat down at the table and was served almost as enthusiastically as Sinister was when she brought Harry a snack.
He stared at the bowl of stew then gave in and tried it and immediately began shoveling it into his mouth. It was the most delicious thing he had ever tasted.
€ §¥
Harry was poking around the storage area when he heard a harmonic roar. "The guardian returns," a Lightling informed him. "He feeds once a month when there's a Wielder and fasts for the arrival of the next Wielder when a Master falls."
Harry nodded. He was the eleventh. And his grandfather had been the only Wielder to die of natural causes. Then harry corrected himself. Murder and death on the battlefield was essentually natural causes too.
"What's this section?" Harry asked, noticing a door that blended into the walls.
"The sewage treatment room."
Harry made a face and went the opposite way. Even with magic, turning waste into manure was dirty business as evidenced by Herbology.
Harry found the jewelry section of storage and poked around until he found his ancestor's crown. He held it out to the Lightling. "Any magic on this?"
"None Master. Everything has been cleansed of harmful magic."
Harry put it on and looked in the gold mirror. "Nice." He put it back then turned back and put a sticky note on it from the pad he kept in his pocket. "Are there any matching items to this? I might lend it to the Danes to put on display. In fact, put everything that was looted at the same time together with notes about the items."
The Lightlings jumped into action to look for anything from the time while Harry found the first Potter's circlet from before his disownment and tried it on. He liked the simple gold band's filigree work and the tableau designed into it, Thor battling Jörmungandr.
"Is Thor real?" he asked hopefully.
The nearest Lightling shook his head. "At least, not as a god. The whole pantheon exists but were mortals exalted as gods."
Harry pouted. "Okay, i'm gonna get out of your way. Is it safe outside now?"
"The green zones on the map. The red zones are the hunting preserves and the blue are the living potion component preserves. Your mounts are in the stables on ground floor and the sixtieth floor."
"Mounts?"
"Your horses, dragon, gryphons, a shadow manticore your great-great-grandfather crafted and is a fine mount, and many other animals bred for riding to war or pleasure."
Harry blinked but decided to skip out looking at the animals. He didn't know enough about them yet nor how to ride a horse.
On the wall next to the exit, a large map showed him the safe zone around the tower extended nearly five miles in all directions save the north where a large red zone looked like a pizza slice.
As he walked, he made a note in the homework planner Hermione had given him-since they all had the same classes AND assignments the spiral binder was redundant as they studied together-to ask Sirius for riding lessons.
He found himself following a deer path where the actual deer walked up to him and nuzzled him, looking for treats. Harry sent a Darkling to get milk-fused sugar lumps from the Lightlings, something he had heard Hermione mention giving her uncle's horses.
They were a hit with the deer.
After an hour's wandering he found himself atop a hillock overlooking what he thought was the red zone inside the safe zone. Inside the area were a dozen medium sized creatures that he eventually recognized as springboks-his uncle hoarded gold coins and had dozens of krugerrands.
Harry smirked a little evilly and sent two Darklings on a mission. Their job was to steal the krugerrands and plant one in Dudley's room and another in his locker at school. The rest would go to charities.
€ §¥
The Keeper wrote down this event and smiled himself, happy the Master was finally using them properly. He sent the Darklings off with a few extra orders, including stealing and hiding cocaine packaged for sale in the boy's room and locker at school too.
€ §¥
Harry returned to the dorm just as Hermione was packing up her books. She had spent three hours studying with her roommates and was about to follow them up to go to sleep.
As Harry said hello, he felt something butt his leg then he was going down, waving his arms, trying to steady himself.
He failed and sighed dejectedly as Hermione giggled. Crookshanks had tried to rub on Harry as the boy crossed the room. Even only half-grown, the kitten was massive, partially due to some weird genetic issue Hermione had learned. Kneazle toms had the size regulation gene while female cats had their gene. Crookshanks had a kneazle dam and a siberian forest/persian hybrid tom so he had no size regulating gene and Sirius had teased Hermione she'd likely end up with a Kneazle she could ride.
"Where were you?" Hermione asked as she helped him up.
"Meeting with the Headmaster then just exploring the castle," he lied.
"Find anything new?"
"Yeah, I found a new secret passage from just outside the old phren-something classroom to the village. It comes out in Prison Cave." A number of stalagmites and stalactites gave the mouth of the cave a toothed or barred appearance depending on the viewer.
She nodded, intrigued enough not to chastise him for leaving school then said goodnight.
He watched her go then headed up to his own dorm, trying to remember the word for cave exploring. It always sounded so naughty to him.
彡
Remus shook the hands of the many experts they had brought together for the first editorial meeting of the Encyclopedia Arkana-the name change had resulted due to Encyclopedia Magicka being a trademarked character in a book series about a boy wizard that solved minor crimes due to his magical knowledge base.
"Good morning," Remus said when they were all settled.
He pulled a sheet off a board, revealing the goals for EA: a comprehensive series of books that detailed every branch of magic though only the history of and counters and warning signs for certain branches like necromancy initially.
"As you can see in this goal listing, we have a lot of work before us. I doubt we'll see our first editions done before the decade is out. And because advances happen, we'll be setting a cut-off date. Today. Anything new after today's date five years from now will be filed for the next edition." They all nodded their heads at that while one witch raised her arm. "Yes?"
"What about self-updating versions?"
"Edition three, scheduled for twenty years from now will introduce self-updating editions. For a significant outlay of funds of course. You're all costing Harry a fortune after all." They all laughed.
Another witch asked "What about correcting erroneous information? Like say the day after the cutoff we learn that scourgify has been causing kneazles to spontaneously combust?"
"If scourgify causes them to combust then it isn't spontaneous," a wizard interrupted with a mocking tone.
Remus let off a piercing whistle to stop the bickering before it could begin. "Next edition but we can do some case-by-case bases. When all material is collated for each book, that editorial group will meet and discuss the new information that is superseding the book's."
The group continued on until Remus was done then they left with their notes to meet with their groups. With 107 editors for 96 branches of magic research groups—with an average of 7 researches in a group—there wasn't enough room in the auditorium for them all.
Remus left the auditorium of the old castle and made his way past classrooms turned into research labs, each one filled with every book possible in that room's specialty then stopped at the library. His favorite room. They had torn out the flooring of the keep and put in new wood floors, a total of 23 levels with small glass cubicles for researchers to use to deaden outside noise in a c-shape around open air tables for group work and comfy lounge chairs for entertainment reading. The 24th level was Harry's private library where the Allbrary had been moved and was being expanded with more books and cases.
The library wasn't in use though since the researchers were in their own labs reading and making their copious notes. This library would one day be open to the public-or at least those who owned a minimum number of the EA books. The encyclopedias would reference the books within.
He continued on to the administrative section for the Aditors—Sirius's portmanteau of administrative and editors for them which had annoyingly caught on—and walked into his own office, smiling slightly at the young werewolf witch he had hired as his assistant—Kira—and the other werewolf—Teri, an older squib werewolf famous in the muggle world for her vampire hunter novels. She was doing the research amongst the packs for the EA.
"Alpha," Kira said.
"I understand that," Teri replied. "I'm trying to develop a new term for this story. Alpha is passé. I want a term that denotes leader and wolf but not so overused."
"Use teeth?" Remus suggested. "Canine, incisor, molar: that gives you three ranks for the pack. Most only have three as it is.
"Anyway. How goes the werewolf research?"
"Well enough. I was speaking with Mr. Black. He said you wrote a short book about your childhood as a werewolf?"
"I did but when i tried to get it published a new law got it suppressed. I don't even know if there are any copies left. I destroyed most of the drafts in my anger."
"Mr. Black is dealing with that," Kira said. "He said the Ministry bends over backwards for him and Harry and not making use of it is foolish."
Remus rolled his eyes then continued on into his office.
He was just sitting down when Kira brought in his morning pepper-up latte, bending over much farther than needed, showing off her vividly purple lingerie in case he hadn't noticed it through her slightly transparent blouse. Sirius had told her that Remus fancied her and that he liked women in purple. Kira's wardrobe had made an instant hue shift towards it and her black locks had received violet highlights that day.
He watched her leave, admiring the way her skirt hugged her backside and the peek of bare thigh he had gotten from the long slit of her skirt showing her frilly and colorful stocking tops.
He groaned as soon as the door closed and adjusted himself so he wasn't in pain.
I love muggle clothing, he mused to himself. Especially peep toe stilettos.
彡
Harry blinked as he opened the dorm room door and found a veritable candy and card store's worth of product in front of it.
Dean came to a stop behind harry. "What's wrong?"
Harry stepped aside to let his roommates see. Seamus started laughing. "Bet they're all for you, too."
The boy-who-lived groaned. "Let's stack them inside, i'll ask Sirius to send Sinister to come check them over." Sirius had drummed it into his head to check everything before eating it.
They shoveled the items inside as Harry used his mirror to contact a very tired looking Sirius.
"I'll send her right over. Time is it?"
"Seven thirty," Dean replied.
Sirius groaned and tucked the mirror under his pillow. The boys heard a muffled "go 'way."
It was just as bad at breakfast. A number of boys received Valentine's gifts over breakfast, most of the youngest students getting something from their mothers or other female relatives but a few got gifts from other students. Harry got mail from hundreds of people, the majority not students at Hogwarts.
He was a scarlet faced child all through breakfast though occasionally laughing at his dorm mates' jokes at his expense. Especially Ron's jokes about all of them likely from his sister, Ginny.
€ §¥
Minerva put down her correspondence—the best so far being her yearly birthday/Valentine's card from her sister and nephews with its box of her favorite Japanese candies—and realized her most famous student was being inundated with what looked to be at least a gross of cards and gifts.
"Was mr. Potter not placed under a mail redirect charm, Albus?"
"He was. It must have worn off quite recently. That should have all gone to Remus to be sor—ahh, my changing the target likeLy weakened it." With Remus his regent the House-elves of Hogwarts no longer needed to help protect Harry from mail attacks. "I shall recharm him this evening. Or perhaps Filius?"
"I do need to speak to him tonight." He gestured a Gryffindor prefect forward—one prefect always sat at the head of their house table to be easily called upon during meals—then was sent to deliver the message.
"How goes their satchel project?" Minerva asked.
"The prototypes are all done but there were issues with half. The group is studying the issue and learning how to fix it. I expect them to be finished before school ends. Hopefully mine will be done before the Internationals. I love my duelist's satchel but it's no longer as prestigious as it once was. Now any professional duelist can buy one, not just winners." His Duelist Satchel was part of the purse for the '64 Invitationals though his also had the coveted triwand after his Triple Century score at the '64 Internationals, only the fourth in the past two hundred years. Even more impressive since Flitwick was part goblin and most judges were from the continent where casual goblin-bigotry was the norm and worse so in the sixties.
Albus watched the students for a bit longer then went back to his crossword puzzle. "A six letter word for discrimination?"
"Racism?" Snape asked as he sat down.
"Ahh, that makes nineteen down fatalism then. Lots of -isms in this one."
€ §¥
Hermione hesitated. Her mother had sent a tin of ginger nuts and some tangram candy—each piece of the hard and soft mixed candies were shaped so people could attempt the tangrams on the package before eating—to give to Harry for Valentine's Day but he had been laughing at all the people who had sent him gifts.
She sucked up her courage after a few minutes. They were friends and the card on them said Grangers, not just Hermione.
Classes were over and the older students were off with their significant others in various areas of the castles trying to find privacy, leaving a handful of first and second years in the common room doing homework or playing games.
She took the tin out of her bag and set it down at Harry's elbow. "For you, from my parents and I."
He blushed a little as he thanked her then took out a small red box with a gold ribbon tied around it. "Remus picked these out for me to give to all my female friends. So basically you, your mum, and my cousin Tonks. And probably her mum too.
"I hope you like it."
She undid the bow then opened the package, revealing a scarlet cashmere scarf with a phoenix and dragon pattern in gold.
Her eyes went wide. While she wasn't into fashion she recognized pashmina from her dad buying her mum the same thing for her birthday and the current premium on the item due to demand outstripping the supply.
She hugged him tightly then blushing a bit herself tried it on.
彡
Ron and Harry watched Snape stalk past, trying to hide his injured leg but his wince gave him away.
"Bastard," Ron muttered. They had gotten detention just for being on the same staircase as the Professor.
As they stepped off, Harry realized they were near the forbidden corridor. He made a hand gesture that the Darklings had taught him as Ron commented on it being the "die horribly corridor."
€ §¥
Darklings immediately began prowling around the corridor as they heard their Master say "C'mon, let's go to the kitchens and get a snack."
Finally they got the door pulled up enough to connect the shadow of the corridor with the shadows in the room and slipped inside. They died quickly. And horribly.
€ §¥
Annoyed by their lack of return, Harry decided to visit Hagrid again and see if he and Hermione could get any more info about the door.
The last two tea visits had resulted in learning that the stone had to do with Flamel and the best way to joint a side of beef. Hermione had been disgusted but Harry's years of forced kitchenwork had given him great appreciation of Hagrid's deft knife work and on complimenting him on it, they'd been invited back on the weekend before Easter Break for a steak dinner. Then on seeing Hermione's face, suggested he'd have the house-elves do up a nice salad and he'd dig up some good roasting potatoes.
Then Snape had come up in the conversation and Hagrid admitted he disliked the professor even if the Headmaster trusted him.
Both Sirius and Remus didn't trust Snape either and even though Dumbledore did, Harry's minions watched the professor.
€ §¥
Snape came to a stop and surveyed his classroom, once again feeling as if he was being observed.
"Accio invisibility cloak!" He snapped out, expecting to have the Potter spawn revealed. But there was nothing save a feeling of silent laughter at his expense.
€ §¥
The Keeper added this new intelligence of Snape's paranoia to his Master's Tome via his own, then began watching the small infrared lightbulb in his room swing on its length of wire.
The Keeper found the Muggles' newfound technological achievements fascinating and was ecstatic the Master had grown up in the world, leading to new and more efficient weapons for his Darklings to wield. While they were inaccurate as could be, with a thousand Darklings firing as many Darkness derived Sten guns, anything would fall before them.
He hoped his Master would send them against enemies soon but it had been eight years before they went to war the last time an eleven year old Potter Wielded the Darkness.
The Keeper shifted back to Twilight and headed towards the hunting grounds with the mogwais on it. They were great sport once they had been fed after midnight in China—between 4 PM London time—and dawn in Shiangxiau.
€ §¥
Harry curled up in bed and took out the book the Headmaster had lent him.
He was still having troubles understanding it but he had been trying out various ideas and thought he was close to creating a magical coating that would allow his shadow armor and weapons to exist in the daylight. His next goal would be to understand 'hammer space' as Remus had explained it though that was a viable project to work on with Hermione post satchels.
Harry looked at his list of spells. Three left to try. He cast all three on shadow crafted cubes then set them out where light would hit them in the afternoon.
He closed his curtains and snuggled down into his bed. Even with the stove pumping out heat and permanent heating charms on his duvet, it was a very cold February, even for Scotland.
€ §¥
The next morning at breakfast the three Chasers for Gryffindor grabbed Harry as soon as he got near enough and each gave him a squeeze, thanking him for their red and gold scarves.
Harry nodded as he realized they were wearing them, long House colored scarves but not as nice as the one remus had picked out for Hermione.
"Ooh, a pashmina," Angelina said upon noticing Hermione's new scarf. She was dragged down to gossip with the Chasers. She looked to Harry for some sort of help but he just sat down and started filling his plate. Leaving a man behind was quite viable in this situation, he decided.
€ §¥
Neville watched Harry complete the charm work on the redone bags and cast the checking spell. All were done correctly this time.
"That's all the prototypes then," he said as Harry took a long drink of juice.
"Yeah. Gonna start the house bags next." He was escaping all the attention Valentine's day had caused, especially after he distributed the candy from strangers. Sinister had dropped off thank you cards for him to fill out for the gifts from other students and the people he knew and the businesses that had sent cards. "Did you finish writing the letters and address cards?" As clumsy as Neville could be his calligraphy put Hermione's to shame.
"Gave them to Hermione to check over one last time. Should we start packaging them?"
"You can, I'm gonna take a nap."
Neville nodded and pulled the stack of unfolded boxes to him. He placed a satchel on top of one, added the box filler—some candies wrapped in tissue paper so they went flying when people pulled it out and a couple different flyers for the new company—then tapped the box. It began to fold itself around the satchel and filler, leaving the roof of the circular shaped box open.
Harry was sleeping peacefully when Hermione pushed the dorm room door open and walked in, followed by Ron.
She dropped the letters and address cards down then settled on one of the floor cushions Sirius had sent Harry and asked, "Want some help?"
Neville nodded and the three went to work—Hermione, Neville, and Ron—as Harry slept, whimpering occasionally.
"Is he okay?" Hermione whispered.
They both nodded and Ron whispered back, "He has nightmares on occasion. He takes a dreamless potion on Sunday nights but the nurse said anymore often than that and he'd die."
€ §¥
Harry could feel the heart he was pressed against beating rapidly. He could hear the fright in the woman's voice. The voice was indistinguishable.
He whimpered softly as she placed him in his crib and said something with an angry tone before biting her thumb and drawing a rune on his crib, closing a ritual she began creating the day she learned she was with child. It would be activated with her own murder.
The sounds of fighting was downstairs then silence.
He heard the woman begin to cry and reached out for her.
The door disintegrated and the room was quite suddenly very cold.
The words between the two were indistinct then the woman fell to the floor as a flash of green happened.
Then more indistinguishable talking as Harry felt something wrap around himself. Magic and fate and potential met and built a nexus around the child.
A second flash of green light and Harry screamed in pain as something hit him and was rebounded away by the nexus though something was pulled in before it was ejected again, lesser than when it came in.
Harry snapped awake. That was a new one, he thought, then heard Hermione's soft voice saying "Night. We can finish boxing them up tomorrow."
The other boys said goodnight as Harry stared at his canopy, trying to hold the image of his mother in his mind.
She was beautiful, but he knew that from the photos.
Harry sighed and turned over, hugging his extra pillow.
The Keeper and seven Darklings appeared at the foot of his bed. "Master?"
"Go 'way," he muttered.
The Keeper remained. "If you have need, just summon us," he reminded the boy then disappeared himself.
He fell asleep and began to dream again, this time of how to bend and subjugate the will of those who opposed his views.
He Awoke the next morning, depressed. The dream tutoring had been full of his family's failures. How the Potters had started a war between the Japanese Yakuza and the White Lotus Society, a Chinese Triad. The new bride of his ancestor had been murdered and he had implemented the bloodiest war that didn't use muggle weapons. Because of a Potter's machinations, nearly half a million Chinese died as the Yakuza rained fire on their manufactured enemies. And Harry's ancestor still failed. The witch responsible wasn't found until she tried to kill his ancestor's next wife, injuring her so they had only the one son.
He got dressed slowly then headed down to breakfast, using the twins as a form of screen to hide from the other students.
"What's wrong?" one of the twins asked.
Harry shrugged. "Depressing dream."
"Want a cheering charm or a languid lozenge?"
He shook his head then remembered something. He pulled a wad of parchment out of his pocket and handed it over. "Here. The charms you were looking for. Sirius sent them for you."
They nodded and pored over them as the rest of Harry's friends arrived.
"Your mum's ginger nuts are so good. Though not as nutty as these gingers," he said and got smacked in the back of the head by one of the laughing twins.
"Mr. Potter," Professor McGonagall said as she walked towards them. "Your godfather will be here in approximately one hour for your appointments today. He expects you to return before curfew tonight."
Harry nodded and Ron asked, "Where are you going?"
"St. Mungo's, some meetings with a lawyer to sign some business paperwork-which you'll all need to have your parents look at and sign, then a family dinner with Sirius, aunty Andi, Tonks, Ted, and Remus. And then one more meeting with another lawyer about all those Harry Potter Adventure books. Someone's making money off my name. Very much a crime."
Hermione nodded. "And it's not like it's a knockoff of you, you're directly named and the only difference is they got the scar shape wrong."
Ron nodded. "Ginny's got 'em all. I have the one where you—err, he—fights a gorgon with gorgonzola sauce. When i was little it was my favorite book."
Harry rolled his eyes. "I'll sign it for you. Might make it pretty valuable eventually if Sirius has his way."
€ §¥
Harry returned to his dorm room just minutes before curfew for first years. Neville was already asleep so he tried to be as quiet as he could as he got ready for bed.
Carving the runes for protection into the headboard took longer than normal but soon he had his tome open and was looking at the advice section of his great-grandfather's journal.
€ §¥
To my descendants, may you Wield well the Darkness.
My greatest advice to you may well be on enemies. It may be that you need to kill to protect what you hold, be it land, love, or your labours. But to truly destroy an enemy, you need to do more than kill them. You need to destroy them. Their name. Their influence. Their pride.
To do this is both simple and complex.
An example. In my fifth year of Wielding the Darkness, my beautiful bride was nearly killed by a pair of duelists. She lost her foot due to their foolishness in dueling in a public setting.
Their names, forgotten by the next generation-i write this thirty years later after celebrating my youngest's graduation from Hogwarts-allowed them to influence the Ministry to call their Duel justified and bystanders injured to be ignored in their grievances for recompense.
And so i began my campaign. Darklings inhabited their homes, whispering dark deeds as they slept. The homes were subtly rearranged. Potions subtly tampered with.
Paranoia began to set in.
These slight mental tortures allowed me to twist the market and purchase controlling shares in their interests.
By the time my first born began school four years later, i had reduced their fortunes and therefore their influences to the point that the Minister dropped them from the rolls.
Within a year their children were pulled from Hogwarts to be home tutored due to finance troubles.
Two years later, as my son and I discussed his elective classes with his mother and her sisters, I had purchased their lands at a pittance.
By the closing of a decade after that duel, I had fired them both from their own companies.
One took his own life in disgrace. The other lived in Knockturn Alley, performing base acts for knuts.
He was found dead, stabbed by his custom.
€ §¥
Harry closed his tome. The account had gone on longer, detailing his ancestor's exact operation but Harry understood what it meant. He took out the quill and began making notes about his uncle. Destroying him would be good practice, he decided.
Finally, his eyes burning and his yawns painful, he slipped the Tome under his pillows and shimmied around on his silk sheets until he was comfortable.
He smiled softly. When Sirius had had silk sheets put on his bed he had expected them to be uncomfortable. Instead it was amazing how fast they got to body warmth and retained heat. He hugged the spare pillow then had an idea.
"Keeper?" Harry whispered.
"Yes, Master?"
"Remind me to add a pouch to spare pillow that will hide the fact I keep my Tome in it."
"Of course, Master."
He disappeared to Twilight and showed the Scribe Harry's plan in regards to the uncle. The two spent the next eight hours plotting.
彡
Harry sat down next to one of the twins and slipped the two a note.
With that done, he looked at his meal. Sushi again. He awkwardly picked up the chopsticks—sirius had fallen in love with sushi over the Hols and they had had gone to Japan for dinner and supper three days in a row. Harry had been shocked at the international floo cost for primetime travel but Sirius had insisted, reminding him that once he arranged for an apartment there, Harry could just shadowstep them there—and began eating, glad the house-elves were so generous with the ginger.
€ §¥
Done with their meal and mildly grossed out by Harry's dinner, Fred and George headed to their new laboratory, a third floor classroom near the forbidden corridor.
They poured over Harry's next prank idea, an airborne viral glamour. He had included notes with a sidebar saying Padfoot and Moony had developed them for an older prank.
The suggested results of the glamour were to turn robes pink, hair blonde and slicked back, hairy palms, forced to walk on the toes, and speak in a falsetto, calling everyone girlfriend at both ends of the sentence.
"It's a real shame he isn't in our year," Fred said as Lee walked in. "He'd be so much for useful than this lump," he teased Lee, gesturing at him.
Lee rolled his eyes and took the parchment to see what they were planning.
"Did you two find out what a satchel will cost me?" He asked, trying not to giggle at the mental image of the Malfoy snot the note brought up.
"A lot but he said that he'd like to make a deal with your parents. Your mum owns the White Elephant?" A curio shop in Diagon Alley. Lee nodded. "And your dad's family owns a jewelry store in London and part of de Diamant's?" A jewelry store in Diagon Alley.
"The City of London but yeah."
George waved off the distinction. "He said that he has some items he wants to sell and for a smaller commission than normal, he'll make you and your family a deal on the satchels, customized as you like."
"I'll write mum and dad right now!" All the students had seen the prototype bags being used by the four and the students in the library had watched with great amusement as Hermione removed a table's worth of books to find the one she wanted to return then they had seen Harry turn his into a Hammock on a surprisingly warm January day.
"Did he say what he has to sell?"
They shrugged. "But knowing his family, lots of silver items, maybe dragonhide stuff?" The Potters were known for two things historically: silver mines and dragon preserves.
Lee nodded and sat down to write the letter as the twins began looking over their charms and potion notes to figure out how to do what Harry planned to do. Whoever finished first won a point towards percentage of ownership of the store the twins planned to open. So far it was 51-49 the twins' favor.
"So does Harry's family own some giant manor or something?" Lee asked as he wrote.
"They own some place in Godric's Hollow that's a tourist attraction now and the family seat is in dunstaffnage. It's a great honking castle," Fred said. "Dad took us to see it when we were eight along with Bill. The wards on it is what made Bill so interested in becoming a curse breaker."
"It's a tourist attraction too?"
"They never lived there, I guess," George said. "Harry probably doesn't know either though i know Sirius was getting him the Potter journals to learn about his family."
彡
Nymphadora Tonks closed the gift from Harry, a beautiful pashmina in her house colors. While she wasn't much of s scarf wearer, this was her favorite gift after getting Sirius back. She had loved Sunday Brunch with him when she was little and while he was too busy to reinstitute the 'date,' he had promised it would start again soon.
Tonks looked at the photo on the mirror of her and Harry, currently Harry was whispering something in the ear of photo-her and she was giggling silently.
She put the scarf around the neck of the phrenology bust she had liberated from Hogwarts to keep her necklaces and fedora on then turned to check her clothes for the next day. Since she had a day off from training and the Dwarves were playing the 100 Club, she had gotten a ticket.
She made sure her lacy black knickers and sheer red sports bra were in place then placed a brand new pair of black fishnet stockings, a red six strap waist cincher, an artfully torn Nirvana shirt—a new band she had heard on bootlegs, her wrist strap with its disillusioned wand holster, a chainsaw chain necklace, and a gift from Sirius, his old 'brass knuckle' rings, a set of eleven rings that when she threw a punch, bonded together and increased her fist's momentum by fifty percent and their own mass by eleven hundred percent.
She poked through her skirts until she decided on a grey plaid skirt that she had to use a notice-me-not charm on to stop pervs from trying to look up.
She smirked a bit at a memory of Harry seeing her in it after a fall and the first year turning a brilliant red. She had decided teasing him was going to be a lot of fun after Sirius pointed out he needed help with socialization after seeing his godson freeze up. She got a clothing fund and the fun of teasing him too.
With her clothes ready for the next day she undressed and mused about what it was like being considered a 'Proper Black' now that Sirius controlled the family again. The biggest aspect was she had a living allowance now, enough that she could afford a nice flat in Diagon Alley with it alone and she had looked a bit, deciding to store the money away for now. She mused about saving up to put a down payment on a store with flats above it.
And with Sirius back some of the other trainees that had looked down on her as a half-blood had changed their tune. Her uncle was, after all, the third most decorated Auror ever. Mad-Eye Moody was the second while James Potter, with his posthumous decorations, was the most decorated Auror ever—including a secret posthumous knighthood.
But really, she decided, the best was Sirius back. Her mother had seemed to become more herself than she had been in years.
彡
A weary pack of werewolves were let out of their cages. Even with the wolfsbane the group still ached from the transformation reforming their muscles and each greedily drank down the pain potions the nurse held on a tray.
She blushed a little as she spoke. "Uh, i noticed some of the commotion during the night. Does anyone need a morning after potion?" Sh wasn't sure how breeding worked for werewolves since she hadn't read anything about it in the literature they supplied for the job.
There was laughter then a woman's voice. "That was actually a dominance thing not a mating thing. Someone was trying to prove they're a top dog. They failed and got—violated."
Remus was bright red and fairly fled. In the heat of the moment he made Jerrid Morrissey his bitch-literally.
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Sirius heard his and Remus's secretaries laughing and poked his head out. "What's so funny? Is it about Remus? Tell me it's blackmail worthy!"
They shook their heads but Sirius recognized the twinkle in his secretary's eyes and began wheedling it out of them.
"And then Remus caught him by the neck and raped him instead," Kira admitted. "Normally dominance fights leave me bored but i had to take a cold shower after," she whispered the last to Sarah-Michelle.
Sirius looked like he had been given the ancient secrets of Loki, his personal deity.
彡
The Keeper watched his Master raise both guns and fire. He had become proficient with both hands firing separately. Now it was time for him to learn how to target two people with the handicap of stereoscopic vision. Harry had figured out a workaround. A supersensory charm at the end of his guns that linked to his glasses and he had a small window of his weapon's point-of-view.
His two targets kept moving but eventually he stopped firing. Two Darklings stepped forward. "Eighty rounds on left."
"One hundred and nine."
The two Darklings went to see how many he actually hit of the targets as Harry turned to look in the mirror. The armor had taken on a new appearance. It originally had been barbed and yellow and grey but it had shifted to olive drab and black with a featureless face mask. He had a more military like camouflage now with low profile—but much more effective than regular bullet- or stab-proof—armor that his Darklings had tested out for him. Five thousand rounds and nineteen broken swords had shown that their would be bruising and possible fractures if shot or stabbed but no penetrative trauma.
He studied himself in the mirror then shifted the design of the mask, adding a single bloodshot, angry, glowing olive green eye and a bolted on eyepatch on the other side and studied it in the mirror. He blinked himself when it blinked. It was horrifying looking and he turned to his Darklings who looking suitably disturbed. "So it's frightening looking?"
"Quite, Master. Your enemies will be horrified and disgusted."
Harry grinned happily at that and the eye seemed to pulse with malice.
"Excellent." He shifted his armor off and stretched tiredly.
"Sixty-seven hits on this side," said the Darkling on his left.
"Eighty four percent," said the Keeper. "Very good."
"Ninety six on this one, Master," the other Darkling said.
"Eighty eight percent. Even better. Your enemies will fall before you," the Keeper said happily.
"Let's see how the new weapon does," Harry said and summoned it. A boxy affair called the P90, Harry thought it ugly but it had been an intriguing design. He slipped his custom magazine out of his pocket and placed it in the gun, slapping it down then yanked the charging handle.
A new training dummy was brought from Twilight and set up by Darklings then Harry opened fire.
Flashes of violet fire exploded out of the front in a biohazard symbol as the bullets riddled the dummy, tearing it apart. This weapon utilized High Explosive Armor Piercing round followed by three hollow points then two Black Phosphorous rounds before cycling back to the HEAP round.
He stopped firing and smiled. The smell of explosives, burning straw, and the sound of sand turned to glass by the BP tinkling as it hit the ground filled the room.
He tried to scourgify and banish it all but eventually he gave up. The Headmaster knew he used this old classroom and he had told Harry he would have House-elves clean it up and catalogue damages for Sirius to recompense the school.
Harry left the room and heard "Stop."
He turned to see Professor Sprout. "Mr. Potter, what were you doing?"
"The Headmaster said I could practice my family spells here since I'm supposed to not show them around except in emergencies."
She nodded. Her only family spells were in fertilizer production and they were only a little better than the common spells. "Speaking of family, thank you for the deal to the school on the asterwort. If I had enough toclafane blend dragon fertilizer I could begin growing it here but more than a pound a year is impossible to attain."
"I can check the family stores but I don't remember seeing that on the lists of stuff."
"Only the Danes have toclafanes, they'll only thrive in the Nerys caverns there."
"Oh, you're in luck then, I'm in negotiations with the monarchy there. They're trying to sue for the return of their crown jewels but MY ancestor was the rightful heir. The current monarchy is from a cadet line. I was going to lend them the jewels to put on display but they're being so rude."
"Many royals are, they're used to getting their own way. I'm sure your regent and godfather will broker a good deal. And if you can make a deal for toclafane spores, wonderful."
She patted his shoulder and walked off, forgetting about checking the room, humming at the potential prospect of toclafane infused dragon dung. Five spores per pound of dragon meat fed to another dragon would create six ounces of toclafane infused dung which when mixed into fifty pounds of sterile dirt led to the richest, most pungent and, pound for pound when compared to gold, the most expensive fertilizer available.
Back in the dorm, Harry asked Neville about the fertilizer snd the boy excitedly filled him in. "I'll give up my satchel for even a half-pound!"
"I can't promise anythng but if I can get a hold of some, I'll try to allot you some but you gotta grow some stuff for me to repay it?"
Nevile nodded rapidly as Ron suggested, "Want me to send Charlie a letter about the best dragons to use?"
"Sure."
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Charlie was a lot surprised to see a letter from Ron and was a little disappointed at how he seemed to be asking for homework help then read farther and his eyes went wide. He grabbed a quill and wrote:
Ickle Ronnie,
The best choice of dragon to feed the spores to are Peruvian Vipertooths but they're a vector for dragon pox. The next best choice are Hebridean Blacks of which the Danes use in their spore farming process. I'm glad to see you have a kind of job. If your friend is starting businesses and the like, perhaps he should negotiate to start his own preserve in Denmark, it'll make it easier for him to negotiate spore access since outside the country they have issues of dying before ingested. I know the Potters were dragonologists of old and he probably has a fair bit of info about running them. If he's interested, i finish my apprenticeship in two years and would love to work as journeyman for him. Following are a list of dragonologists he might wish to interview for starting and running a preserve.
He wrote a dozen names then sighed the letter and sent it back with the waiting owl.
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Remus stood and greeted the attache and ambassador from the Danish Embassy. "Tea? Coffee?"
"Tea please. One lump with milk first, no stirring," the ambassador told the waiter as the attache shook her head. "My country will accept paragraphs one through eight but nine is impossible. Those jewels belong to our country."
"You, of course, know they don't. My employer is the DIRECT descendant of the king. He can trace his family back, first born son to first born son back to the Royal Shift." The academic term for the cadet line taking the throne. "The crown jewels are his by right of inheritance, right of law, and right of conquest. The current line has no right to them. I am now forced to release this."
He handed over a note and the attache took it then handed it to the ambassador. The man opened it and his face went pale.
I, Harry Potter, do hereby vow to destroy the crown jewels and cut/destroy all gems within, should the Danish government be unwilling to accept my generous proposal of one galleon a day for leasing each gram of the crown jewels, in total 6,606 rounded down along with a 7,777,777 g indemnity.
Reply expected within six days.
The Ambassador stood and said he would have the reply within the allotted time. Remus nodded and stood as they left the muggle Russian tea room.
He left a few minutes later after settling up then headed to the Grangers's dental practice. He and Mrs. Granger were playing in a cribbage tournament at the Women's Auxiliary Club, the club for wives of the members of Blade's.
When he arrived the Gentleman working the front desk smiled. "Good afternoon Mr. Lupin. Mrs. Granger is on the terrace playing canasta with the Andrew triplets."
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Harry picked up the International the owl deposited in front of him and smiled. The muggle Danes were announcing the long term lease of the original crown jewels while the magical side had a bit more information but he wasn't mentioned.
Hermione took the paper when he was done and frowned. "They don't mention where they got them?"
She knew Harry had had them.
He shrugged. "Maybe the holder doesn't want people bugging him about them?"
"That does make sense," Neville said, sitting down. "Saw Hagrid a minute ago, wanted me to remind us that he needs to know barbecue sauce preferences."
"Should i just tell him Worcestershire?" Hermione asked. "I've seen him eat chocolate covered ghost peppers and mum said those are insanely strong."
Harry nodded. "Or just salt and pepper. Should be fun no matter what."
Ron arrived and started filling his plate.
More mail began to arrive and a dozen scrolls carried by a black owl with glowing green eyes were dropped in front of Harry. Sirius's owl.
He opened the first scroll. The review from Teen Witch Weekly with a current photo request. It was running in two days but they had some questions.
Hermione leaned forward as he held it for her to read. "Ooh, a really good first review," she told the rest of the group as Harry handed it over to her and started reading the next one. She passed the review to Ron and Neville to read once she finished.
Hermione made space and took out quill and parchment to write a reply back with the proper spellings of names and their titles. Both Ron and Neville got the title of Vice President and Procurer while Harry was President and Lead Charmer and Hermione was Vice President of Research. She decided that was enough information.
As she answered the rest of the questions, she decided they needed a press release and took all the questions—most were just the same query from each reviewer but the man from the Quibbler did ask where they got the Snorkack hair used in the stitching—then finished the first draft just in time for Harry to yank it from her and put a fork in her hand. She blushed but ate her breakfast quickly.
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Tonks was groaning in pain, idly debating murdering all the Auror trainers when someone dropped a box next to her. "Package came for you trainee."
She opened her eyes and saw the box was the same as the one she sent to Harry with the shirt from the concert and some snack stuff. Did he not like it, she wondered.
She opened it and a handful of candies sprung out then tissue paper flew up and formed into a phoenix before bursting into flame and disappearing revealing a letter and a satchel in her house colors, a soft almost buttery feeling canary yellow leather with black stitching and her name embroidered in black underneath a large ornately embroidered HP.
Happy early birthday, she read. This is the first completed satchel in Hufflepuff colors that has the full Auror mode including the stealth tent. It also has a bicycle, hammock, and stealth pockets for more mundane objects like a handgun, mace, or knives or swords. (If you need a gun, Uncle Remus can help you with that.)
Thanks for the shirt! Sirius got some of their CDs for me and he thinks I'll like their music. During Spring hols Sirius is taking us to some place called Black's Island. Are you coming too?
There was more information about how to activate the functions of the satchel and she willed her thumb's skin to open then she ran her thumb over the buckles. The iron sucked in the blood and now it was attuned to her.
She shifted her stuff over from her old school satchel then transferred over her pins from her old one to the new satchel, using magic glue to affix them since the charms on the bag wouldn't let her pierce it with the buttons' pins to hold them on.
Yawning, she headed to her next class, wondering why she ever wanted to be an auror. And how Harry knew Remus could get guns—then she remembered he was the leader of a shadow pack of werewolves that were in motorcycle gangs. They probably ran guns or something like that.
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When she finished her classes for the day and got home, she looked around her room then smiled and activated the tent mode.
She looked inside it and found a large studio apartment with one wall filled with capering badgers only interrupted by a large mirror and five empty picture frames and the other walls bookshelves waiting to be filled, one bookcase wall interrupted by a king sized murphy bed, two end tables, and a door to a loo.
Tonks spent the rest of the afternoon transferring all the things she carried on a regular or irregular basis into the tent as well as transferring all her books then blinked. There was a book already in the case near the leather easy chair. She opened it and found it was an allbrary book linked to the ministry's auror library with a bookmark in it offering her access to the Potter library to if she thought she needed it.
Yawning, she stepped out of the tent and touched the runes to change it back to a bag and it jumped to her shoulder.
Tonks poked through the bag, thinking about the items she had put in the tent and easily had them come to hand.
She smiled then left her place, apparating to Diagon Alley and heading for the exit to Muggle London. She wanted a burger from McDonald's.
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The queen of Denmark wanted to scream but nodded her assent. The damnable Potter child was correct. She was a descendant of a cadet line while he was a direct descendant of the deposed king—deposed by the child's ancestor. and the fact he was famous in that shadow world meant she couldn't use the jægerkorpset or her own court wizard.
The blasted court wizard had laughed at her the moment she suggested it then said "Dumbledore is protecting him. He'd burn me to the ground if I went against the child then come find you for ordering it. There are three feared wizards in this world. Voldemort who is dead. Dumbledore who opposed him. And Harry Potter who killed Voldemort. At fifteen months old!"
She had dismissed him then sulked privately. Ever since she had found out the magic world was real as a twelve year old she wished she had been born a witch but now she wished they didn't exist.
She understood a little better why most nations weren't as intertwined as hers was.
The worst was not Potter's threat to destroy the crown jewelry. The worst was his unspoken threat: I am the rightful monarch!
彡
Harry stuck the cube in the sunlight and waited. Nothing happened. The spell that created an ultraviolet reflective layer had stopped the sunlight from affecting his cube made of the Darkness. The cube of shadows swirled about and he smiled for a moment.
He sighed. It was just a start. The next move required learning arithmancy, tearing apart the spell and recreating it with a runic array so he could summon Dark Items with the runes already active in them.
He decided to wait until the actual time to learn it in third year and instead planned to just use the spell on the various Darkness tools he crafted before hiding them in his satchel or about his person.
He dropped the cube and cast the counter to shatter the coating. The Darkness disappated and he left the balcony off the classroom.
"Ah, mr. Potter, how goes your selfstudy?" the Headmaster asked as he and Professor Sinistra saw him.
"Good. I figured out the spell I was trying to learn. Here's your book back," he said, digging through his prototype satchel. He was still on the Ravenclaw satchels for final charming.
He handed it back and Professor Sinistra looked at it curiously. "Oh, I think my mother has an autographed copy of that."
"Mr. Potter has a first edition but it didn't have the equations and spells the seventh edition has. I worked on it with the author, my copy has handwritten notes to correct it to seventh. Run along mr. Potter, go have some fun. Not everything about Hogwarts must be about education. The rest of Gryffindor entreated Hagrid to build a bonfire and have been making S'mores and roasting sausages."
Harry grinned and dashed off, leaving the two adults chuckling.
He found Ron and Neville near the fire with sausages on long sticks and went to grab his own supplies.
As he walked back, Hermione left her dorm mates and walked over to Harry.
"Where've you been?"
"Finishing my selfstudy." He had told them that Sirius had set him to studying some of the Potter secrets.
She looked like she wanted to pout but instead roasted his sausage for him as he made S'mores for both of them. The twins handed them both bottles of Butterbeer and Lee walked over to join the small group. "Dad said you have some of the finest antique jewelry he's ever seen. He said he wants to contact Sotheby to sell it by auction."
"Cool," Harry said. He was selling off the lone pieces. Stuff that didn't belong to sets. The rest of the stuff, about 80%, was staying at the Redoubt.
Hermione hesitated then asked, "why are you selling stuff off?"
"To fund some charities," Harry told her. "And all that stuff was just pointlessly sitting around. Let someone who'll love it buy it and enjoy it."
She took the S'more he handed her and nodded as she took a bite, hissing as the chocolate scalded her tongue.
"Your comment about ghost peppers gave me an idea," he told her after eating half his sausage. He took a drink of butterbeer then gestured Ron and Neville over. "What do you need to grow hot peppers?"
"Just like chilies? Just regular dirt and fertilizer. I could use dragon dung from a Hungarian Horntail and it would probably make them hotter."
"Next year before christmas, a charity event. Whoever can eat the most chocolate covered ghost peppers will win a free satchel. Entry will be like two galleons."
Hermione's eyes went wide as Ron and Neville laughed.
"Well?" Harry asked.
The boys thought it was brilliant while Hermione was thoughtful. "We'll need lots of milk and stuff on hand to counteract the capsaicin. That's the chemical that causes the heat. And permission from parents since it's dangerous. I'll ask Madam Pomfrey, you ask the Headmaster okay?"
The boys nodded as she wrote down the information so she could make the permission slips later.
Later at dinner, Harry approached the staff table and asked.
"What charity?" Professor McGonagall asked.
"St. Mungo's. Or maybe we'll create our own?"
"I shall think on it. What of secondary prizes? Perhaps gift certificates for Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade?" The Headmaster asked.
Harry nodded. "That sounds good."
"I shall run it past the board of governors at tonight's meeting. They will have a number of guidelines for it I am sure."
彡
Sirius left his office and poked his head into Remus's. "What's a ghost pepper?"
"Hottest pepper in the world. Over a million scoville. The hot sauce we used last night at that restaurant is about two thousand."
"Harry's trying to put together a charity event for next Christmas. Eat as many ghost peppers as you can. Winner gets a satchel."
"Buy-in?"
"Two galleons, maybe more. I thought we could hold the same contest in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. For a little more. They are adults after all."
Remus nodded. "I'll file the event requests once Har— well, Hermione—" they both knew who was the planner in that group of friends "—has it all planned out." He pulled out a file from his desk.
"So, i got an overture from the IWC last night about Harry's satchels. They want to order eight gross of satchels at eighteen g seven s a pop. Think we could fill the order in time?"
Sirius shrugged. "That's like twelve hundred something?"
"Less than that," Remus corrected then said the correct amount.
"I could maybe charm two or three a day," Sirius decided. "Same for you?" Remus nodded. "So that's six a day, that's two hundred days just us. With Harry's help in the summer we could do nine or ten fairly easily. We'd have to hire someone. When do they want them?"
"They want a signed, numbered sequence by august eight of next year. One through one hundred. The rest in batches every week for two months."
"Send Harry a copy of it, let him and the kids look it over. Did you tell him the Danish Decision?"
Remus snickered. Whenever Sirius said that it sounded like he was talking about pastries.
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Harry dropped down on the ground next to Hermione. "They're paying by the gram to lease the jewelry."
"You're charging them?" She asked, shocked.
"They said they were gonna sue me to get them back then said they had special forces to take them. Remus reminded them my godfather is mentally unhinged and I'm the golden child to Britain."
Hermione snorted at that. "So you decided to charge them."
"A galleon a gram a day. In total there's over six thousand grams. I'm donating most of that to various charities. And one thousand pounds in the queen's name to an antimonarchy group in Denmark each month."
That made Hermione laugh again.
"Anyway, take a look at this. Can we do it?"
She read the proposal. "Hmm, it doesn't require you to be the charmer so with my help, Sirius's, Remus's, maybe the Tonkses's, we could probably get them all done over the summers. Or we could hire people, go business full on sooner than you thought."
"I think keep it tight for now. I have ideas that would be ruined by me having a nine to five. Though maybe we could just have Remus hire people to do it all?"
She nodded and took out some parchment to do some figures on. "With them rotating, i figure we'll be able to do fifteen to twenty a day, sometimes more if they're all helping out the same day. In total, a work week would clear a twelfth of the order but my parents have plans, Sirius has plans for you, so we couldn't charm them each day. The sewing and potions work can be farmed out. They want the bicycle and tent version?"
He nodded. "Sirius already contacted some guy named Harry Quinn for the bikes and he's got bid in on a lot of like seven thousand surplus army tents."
Hermione took out her book and did the math. They each earned two g five s per sold satchel.
She dropped her quill. She could potentially make over three hundred thousand pounds. Books. University!
Harry blinked as Hermione got a disturbingly joyful look on her face as she tuned him out.
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"Harry says yes," Sirius said, walking into Remus's office, holding his mirror.
"About the satchels?"
"Yes," said Harry's muffled voice. "The twins will help too. And we can hire people for the potions and sewing part."
彡
Mrs. Granger slapped her husband's hand away but smiled, grabbing it and shifting it down her thigh. "Rub."
"A-dub-dub?" he suggested.
She laughed. "Go run it."
She watched him go then turned back to finishing her letter to Hermione.
Fifteen minutes later she resisted the fleeting urge to inform their daughter how her going to a boarding school had helped her parents' sex lives, signed it, then went to join her husband in their very large bathtub.
She giggled as she slid in and he asked, "What's so funny?"
"I just remembered the first time Hermione decided to give Huggy a bath in here. She filled the thing to the brim to bathe her six ounce stuffed bear."
He laughed. Back then it had been a terrifying event. She had dunked her bear in the tub, leaning over it precariously. Instantly the bear's stuffing began to absorb water and pulled her in and under.
The bear's manufacturer had been horrified. The filling used was from a different side of their factory, for use in agricultural uses. They had paid for the Grangers's home and the clinic then threw more money at them to pay off mrs. Granger's schooling loans.
"I found Huggy last night," mrs. Granger said. "He was in her box of stuff from her time at Nanna Norris's." An Early Years academy that mr. Granger's parents had paid for until the bear incident.
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Hermione opened the package from her parents then immediately closed it upon seeing Huggy inside. Embarrassed, she said it was a book she lost over the Christmas Hols and left the great hall instead of waiting for the judging.
It was down to Harry's chinese wrap and a sixth year Slytherin's open face salmon melt with the cheese having been crisped by a bluebell flame that Hermione had learned almost immediately after the Slytherin demonstrated it for her.
When Harry went up to the common room afterwards, tucking his winnings into his robe, he found Hermione blushing redly, sitting at a table with all the other first year p, a seventh year, and two second year girls having a tea party with their now animated stuffed animals.
He hit the floor, this time laughing as Hermione's face went deeper red.
His accidental roll to the right narrowly avoided her hex.
彡
Albus studied the requests of the governors. Lucius Malfoy and his bloc of governors had tried to get the fee for each participant to go to the board to be used at their discretion. Albus had countered with the fact that Sirius Black—"A suspected Death Eater who had been proved to not be one unlike many," Albus had stated, causing Malfoy's bloc to become angry—had already told the donations coordinator at the hospital about it.
There was a knock at the door. "Come."
Harry and his friends entered the office. "Lemon sherbets?"
Neville and Ron took took some while Harry and Hermione shook their heads.
"The Governors have agreed to your plan." He handed over the parchment. "A healer and two nurses from St. Mungo's will be in attendance. Three teachers and seven parents will act as chaperones for the event. Students will have to have permission slips from their parents. The House-elves of Hogwarts will prepare the chilies in an offsite kitchen with representatives from each group overseeing—i volunteer my family home for their use." The children nodded. "Two Aurors will be in attendance. And a Ministry representative for the wizengamot will attend. I suggest you contact the current Chief Warlock as he is rather fond of candy himself."
They all looked perplexed then realized he meant himself and laughed as he nodded quickly at Hermione's request he act as the Wizengamot's representative.
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Harry nudged one of the twins. "Can you lift me up without dropping me?"
"Eh, probably not. Perce!"
Percy spun around to face behind him and walked back to see what his brothers wanted.
"Yes? If you have detention again..."
"We don't. Harry needs to lift up in the air. So he's like Hagrid high?"
Harry nodded and Percy looked suspicious. Harry was quick to placate him. "The Headmaster knows I'm doing this." He showed him the permission slip to address the students at dinner.
"Oh, okay then."
Harry stood off to the side and Percy lifted him up as the twins let off piercing whistles and fireworks that illuminated him from behind with ghostly purple flames.
"Mr. Potter!" Professor McGonagall snapped.
"The Headmaster gave me permission," he assured her, holding up the slip. She summoned it to her hand then nodded after reading it.
The students were all watching the interaction until she nodded then they looked at Harry expectantly.
"Next year, before Christmas break, we will have a challenge here at hogwarts. For a small fee, you get the chance to eat as many chocolate covered ghost peppers you can. The one who can eat the most wins number one of seven limited edition Auror grade satchel. I've made a deal with Nimbus and these seven satchels will have a Nimbus two triple x, a finalized prototype of next year's 2001 model." Everyone cheered at that. "As well as the broom it will have the normal tent, the hammock, a specialized library and a specialized muggle interaction kit." The bike and other special bits they were still deciding. "And more.
"All participants will receive a half galleon's worth of candy from Honeyduke's and the second and third placers will receive standard PPP satchels, donated by mr. Honeyduke himself. ALL proceeds from this event will be donated to St. Mungo's. Staff will be on hand to counteract any potions and charms for cheating.
"And for those who won't be returning next year, don't worry. My godfather will be running the same contests in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade on the same day.
There was more cheering though a few from Slytherin looked angry. Harry figured it was about the muggle interaction kit. He used the shadows in the room to tie Malfoy's laces together with his bookends laces.
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