Chapter 13 - Christmas Meetings
It was now Christmas eve and Harry had returned home from Hogwarts. The elves had greeted him happily upon his return. They had decorated his home in lively colours for Christmas. A Christmas tree was placed in the foyer which glittered with magical fairies and stars
Harry had returned home as he had some important matters to discuss with Grapplescrew regarding his business. He would have preferred to celebrate Christmas at Hogwarts with the Weasley's, as they were the only Gryffindor's staying but the meeting at Gringotts was a vital one as he had some requests to make of Grapplescrew.
McGonagall had been baffled when he hadn't signed up to stay for christmas and had tried to convince him otherwise. She was sorely disappointed when he had refused.
His appointment was next day, early in the morning. He had already seen his Potions lab and apothecary in passing when he had been in Diagon alley earlier in the day. He would have stayed home but he had to buy presents for Neville and Hermione, as they were the only two people with whom he interacted on regular basis. He had bought a Remembrall for Neville and an annual subscription of Daily Prophet for Hermione so that she would know more about the world she was in. He would have bought a present for Grapplescrew but he knew that goblins did not celebrate Christmas and the goblin would not appreciate it.
There was a large line of people waiting in front of MudPotions Apothecary on account of it being a full moon this week. The new Wolfsbane was cheap enough for werewolves to afford it and they had also reduced the ill effects of transformation making the werewolves look healthy.
Watching families buying presents together, had left a bitter taste in his mouth. He was reminded of times, that he had spent christmas with his friends and families.
Not wanting to be alone reminiscing over his past, Harry could think of only one place he could go.
"Windy,"
"Yes Master Harry,"
"Bring some clothes that I wore under influence of ageing potion. And also bring ageing potion from the lab," the elf disappeared with a pop.
"Bload," he called his other house elf.
"Master called," he appeared with louder pop than Windy.
"Bake me a large chocolate cake please, and also pack it. I would be going out for a few hours."
"Yes Master."
He took a cab to the nearest market before going to the orphanage. He had decided to visit Mary and other kids with whom he had spent the summer lived. He asked the driver to stop in the way where he bought presents for them. He bought a jacket and toys for Mary. He decided to get gift vouchers from the clothing store for other kids.
The kids and staff were ecstatic to see him and he had a great time there. He helped the kids to decorate the christmas tree and had dinner with them. They all ate the chocolate cake he had brought them in dessert. He was thanked profusely by everyone for his gifts. He left after dinner promising Mary that he would visit again soon.
He decided to sleep in early when he got back home, so that he would be ready for his meeting early tomorrow morning.
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Harry woke up early in the morning and went down, to have something to eat before going to Gringotts. He saw a few gifts lying beneath the christmas trees for him.
He had received a Potions book from Hermione, a book on wizarding culture from Neville and his invisibility cloak from Dumbledore. He also received gift from Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom accompanied by an invitation to dinner on boxing day. They had sent him regal looking dress robes of Green colour.
Gringotts was nearly empty the next morning when he entered. He had been immediately escorted to Grapplescrew's office on his arrival.
Graaplescrew was already waiting for him there. As soon as he had taken a seat after offering greetings to the goblin, he was handed a file containing the details of his company.
"Mr Potter, I am pleased to say that we are raking in galleons now. We have been expanding outside britain now to increase our customer base. We have set up ten new apothecaries around the world. We have apothecaries in Britain, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy and USA. We are working towards opening apothecaries in more countries right now."
Grapplescrew was looking quite smug from what Harry could perceive. Reading emotions of a goblin was difficult so he wasn't too sure about it. He read the file carefully before making any comment.
"Why haven't we given our franchise to existing apothecaries?" Harry asked, as he could see that cost of setting up new ones was expensive on the continent.
"What do you mean Mr. Potter?" the goblin had a quizzical look on his face.
"I mean that we could give right to existing apothecaries around the world to sell our potions. They will use our name and will receive a fixed profit from it. Thus, we will control the price at which we sell our products around the world without investing in our own apothecaries. We will expand our business very quickly like this and get a greater profit without spending money on setting up new apothecaries."
Harry could see a gleam in the goblins eyes upon hearing this. If Grapplescrew would have been a human, he would be sure the gleam was of greed but you never know with goblins. They will be looking happy to you for a second and before you knew it, some heads will be rolling down on the ground.
"Mr. Potter, that is a great idea. We will reduce our expenditure while increasing our profits in less time without bothering with the ministries of those countries. We won't have additional paperworks and business to maintain this way. This will solve a host of problems we have faced previously."
"Yeah, work towards finding appropriate partners for this, don't select anyone with past history of criminal activity. And how are we going to increase production of New Wolfsbane to meet with demands? From what I am aware of there are many more werewolves in South America, Asia and Africa than in Europe. We will have to produce many times more from what we are capable of at this time."
"I had a few meetings with our Potioneers but we have found no solutions. We don't have simply enough brewers to match up to demand. Demand for that potion has increased exponentially around the world. We are still not meeting the demand from the European countries. As this potion is used every month, demand is almost constant."
"Why don't we set up breweries in other countries? We could set up a whole new branch of MudPotions in America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. We will gain local brewers from the places we set up. And I think local branch of Gringotts would be able to provide us security."
"I can find some goblins trustworthy enough to manage our foreign breweries. But it would take a large chunk out of our profits to do that. It is far more easier to set up and maintain an apothecary than a brewery." the goblin said.
"Set up meetings with the goblins you trust. And tell them to set it up like we did here. Or rather hire someone to manage the brewery here and you should work towards setting up new ones. Once it starts functioning then set up another. Our profits would increase tenfold in this manner. Maintain a clear chain of command with you as the head. We will get new brewers in those countries and demand most stringent oaths of confidentiality before hiring anyone. I don't want the secret of our potions leaking to anyone."
"All our employees sign a contract before being hired Mr. Potter. I think that we could do that in a few months, but you would have to come out in the public as the owner soon Mr. Potter. Another year and the business would be large enough that all the ministries would want to know the owner. They are not going to leave such a lucrative business in goblin hands. There already have been many enquiries about the owner both from Ministries of different countries and ICW. Gringotts has been able to deny their requests so far but they would need to be informed of you soon." Grapplescrew said.
"No, not until I pass my NEWT'S. Can you set me up to take my OWL'S at the ministry in summer?"
"We could do that but it would be far more easier to set it up with ICW," goblin replied frowning.
"I want to write my OWL'S here and my NEWTS at ICW. Thus in a year and half time I would be out of Hogwarts. Then I would be more than happy to release my name as the owner of MudPotions."
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Severus Snape had been testing Harry Potter for his apprenticeship for the last four months at the behest of Headmaster Dumbledore. It was easy to see that Harry was the best student that he had taught here at Hogwarts.
He would never accept the son of James Potter as his apprentice but Dumbledore had been adamant that they had to keep an eye on him. It had been hard for him to look in his eyes and be reminded of his long lost love.
"Chocolate Clusters," he gave the password to Dumbledore's office to the gargoyle and climbed the stairs.
"Come in, Severus."
He entered the office and sat down in front of him. Looking around he could see the old headmasters dozing in their portraits, rare books lining the shelf, Fawkes the headmaster's phoenix looking as regal as ever, and a multitude of magical artifacts.
"So, what have you decided about Harry, Severus?" headmaster asked him.
"I have not decided to accept him, not because he lacks in his ability to be an apprentice, but because I doubt my own ability to properly teach him headmaster. There are too many emotions tied to him headmaster as you already know."
"Is this your final decision Severus?"
"Yes, it is,"
"Can I not prevail upon you to think about this further?"
"No sir, It is better for both of us that I refuse," he put in succinctly.
"If it is your final decision then I don't think that talking about it further would help. Now what do you have learn about the whereabouts of Quirrell?"
"He is nowhere to be found Headmaster, I found his blood in the dungeons near the forbidden forest with signs of troll in the vicinity as I have informed you previously. But other than that there isn't any sign of him." he replied.
"As I have found signs of Voldemort's soul returning to his hiding place, it is safe to assume that Quirrell is dead. From what you said, it could be ascertained that Quirrell brought a troll in school, lost control of it somehow and died in the ensuing fight." Dumbledore said leaning back in his chair.
"Yes, it seems to be that way." he answered thinking how weak Dark Lord had to be to lose control of a troll.
"I have cancelled bringing the mirror at Hogwarts and have decided to return the stone to Nicholas. I think we can open the third floor corridor to students after Christmas." Dumbledore said while smiling with his eyes twinkling and popping his favourite lemon drop in his mouth.
"If that is all, I would be leaving Headmaster," Snape said.
"I know that you would refuse my offer of Lemon drops so I won't bother to offer any Severus, you could leave, unless you have something else to tell me."
"No Headmaster," saying that he made his way out of there.
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Harry had spent the rest of the day shopping in Diagon alley. He visited various places, buying some advance runes books which he found in a used book shop.
He ended up at Leaky Cauldron for a bite to eat as he was feeling somewhat hungry. He ordered some sandwiches and juice. Kingsley was sitting on the table adjacent to him with someone he didn't recognised.
"It's not due to potion. The werewolves have benefited greatly from it but some werewolves who turn bad can now find themselves in control of their transformation, thus they can now plan to attack someone more easily," he heard Kingsley say in his usual gravelly voice.
"Can you not limit the sale of this potion?" he heard Kingsley's companion ask.
"We have had talk with the goblin who manages the company. He says that his potion can only be bought from Diagon Alley here in Britain and from their apothecary in Ireland. And they only sell one batch to one person so it is easy for us to track. We have auror guards patrol both places to identify known criminals coming in to buy the potion, but you know Madam Umbridge, how bias she is towards what she call half creatures. She is riling up the Minister to act."
"Should we go, it's already getting late." His companion said. Kingsley soon left with her.
Harry was in a dilemma as to what to do with this new information. He could not refuse to sell to someone if they are not known criminals. Deciding that it was aurors duty to stop criminals and he could not do anything without alienating werewolves further. And he would face Umbridge when the time comes. Having decided that he went to back to eating his sandwich.
He could hear Mundungus selling some contraband in the far corner of the bar, and Tom the barman discussing a Quidditch match with a customer at the bar. Finishing his sandwich he decided to go back to home.
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26th December 1991
Harry decided to take the floo from Leaky Cauldron rather than taking the Knight bus. He decided to change his clothes in the pub as it would have been too weird wearing dress robes in Muggle London.
Bload had handed him a tin of cookies to give as gift to Mrs. Longbottom. He had appreciated the elf's thinking as he would have been totally lost if he had to select a gift to take.
He had changed into his new green dress robes gifted generously by Longbottom's. Throwing some floo powder in the fireplace, he stepped into the fire. After spinning for a few minutes he landed with a thud on the floor in Longbottom manor.
"Are you alright Harry," Neville asked helping him stand up.
"Yeah," Harry nodded while dusting the ashes of his robes.
"Come on, we have been waiting for you. Hermione came with her family an hour ago," he said leading him into the living room.
The manor looked old by design but all the walls looked freshly painted. The house was decorated beautifully. Walls were adorned with paintings and a few portraits.
"My mother selected the paintings this year. She said the manor looked too bare without them," Neville said noticing where Harry's attention was.
"She has a great taste," Harry said to Neville, who beamed with pride.
They entered the living room, which had a large christmas tree, which was so much decorated that green of trees was hidden. The tree was in a circle made by frozen statues of dolphins and mermaids.
Harry saw Grangers sitting there with Longbottom family.
"Harry, how are you?" Mrs. Longbottom said while coming towards him.
Before he had a chance to reply she enveloped him in a hug. Harry was too surprised by it that he dropped the tin of cookies he had brought with him.
"I am fine, Ma'am," he said. Taking the box of cookies from Neville who had picked it up, he handed them to her.
"You didn't need to bring anything dear, and please don't call me ma'am, call me Alice."
After meeting with the Granger's, Frank as he was told to call Mr. Longbottom and Neville's grandmother, Neville took him to show his greenhouse to him.
He and Hermione were shown the ancient Longbottom manor by Neville. He was quiet most of the time leaving Neville to answer the unending questions asked by Hermione who had visited a wizarding house for the first time.
Alice had paid more attention to him, making sure that he ate his fill and asking him many questions about school. Hermione would answer their questions before he could told them that he was the best in their year with pride, by which he was surprised. Neville took great pleasure in telling them how he had pranked Quirrell and received detention with McGonagall for better part of the year with a smile etched on his face.
Frank and Alice laughed out loud listening about his few pranks saying that he must have got it from his father.
Frank also told them about a few of his father's prank that he remembered from their school time. He shied away from mentioning Sirius and Remus but Harry let it slide.
He left them after receiving an open invitation to visit any time he wanted. He spent the rest of his holidays at home, binge watching a few t.v. shows. Soon it was time to go back to Hogwarts.