C O Potter

by Twixt1999

"I agree with both of you," Ced told them. "But another question is, how did a terrorist organisation get into Hogwarts?" With many original characters, this story picks up where H J Potter leaves off. This starts during the Christmas holidays of Cedric Potter's third year.

36. Year Four Chapter 36

C O Potter

Year Four

Chapter 36

.

.

The new brooms gave the teens the freedom to go exploring around their island home. Ced had asked Leo if he could bring the house in the bottle and his and Cici's brooms. With disillusionment charms on themselves, the five of them went to explore passing cruise ships, freighters, and tanker ships. They could also explore the different cities and towns around the island. As much as they wanted to land on the cruise ships, they were always so busy on the decks that they couldn't find a safe place to land, where they wouldn't get caught.

They spent their mornings teaching Rose and Angel three lessons per class period on each subject. This would give them time to lay in the sun in the afternoons, and go for a walk and a swim in the late evenings. The days were getting longer, so they had more and more time to swim in the cove. On one of the trips to Venice, Ced purchased a large barn owl named Ignazio and used him to carry Roses' and Angel's school work to their Head of House. For one of their potions lessons, Cici had them brew a new batch of sunblock potion, another time she had them brew blood replenishing potion, and for a third lesson, she had them brew Vitamix potion. All three useful potions.

On one night, the threesome went into the house in the bottle for a twenty-four-month span of house time. The purpose of spending so much time in the bottle was for Cici to practice against the simulations in the bottle. She was more than capable of holding her own against overwhelming odds, but she seemed to have lost her aggressive nature, and this was something that worried Ced. On one of the mornings working with Toll, Ced asked him to make the simulation extra difficult, so Toll made it twenty on one, or sixty against three, it was going to be a mixed simulation, hand-to-hand, duelling, and with their swords. They had to clear three floors, starting with hand-to-hand.

The three of them walked into a modern hotel lobby when the violence spilt out of the hotel bar. The combatants looked just like their terrorist had, they quickly subdued Vic and took her into the elevator. This wasn't part of the plan. Ced was currently engaging six opponents, with Cici engaging only two. Ced kicked one guy in the knee and busted his knee, a kick to the head, and he was out of the match. Ced took a blow to his ribs but was able to turn enough to keep them from cracking. A roundhouse kick to the head dropped another opponent. Cici was still fighting the same two opponents, while Ced was taking down another two. A blow to the back of his knees dropped him to his knees and placed him in a vulnerable position. Cici watched her mate go down, and took a blow to her jaw, whatever clicked, clicked. She used the momentum to spin around, and roundhouse kick the simulation on the side of the head knocking him out of the game. Ced twisted on the floor sweeping the legs out from under two more opponents, grabbing the hair on their heads, he slammed their heads into the floor knocking them unconscious. Cici's newfound ferocity helped her engage six opponents at a time. With vicious kicks in private places, she was able to drop two more opponents into submissive positions. With a final kick to some guy's face, they had cleared the first level.

"It's good to have you back." Ced panted.

"Let's go find Vic. She shouldn't get to take a nap while we do all the work." She said between heavy breaths.

"I heard that!"

"Good! Where are you?" Cici asked her.

"I don't know. In a dark closet, somewhere."

"Can't you blast your way out?" Ced asked her.

"I tried that, it is magically shielded somehow."

As the two teens moved for the stairwell, they ejected their wands and charmed their clothes to act as shields. The stairway opened into a large gymnasium. As soon as they opened the door, an alarm went off announcing their presence to the whole world it seemed. With a combination of shield spells and conjured walls, they moved their way across the floor of the gymnasium.

"Nothing like being stuck out in the open!" Cici chided her husband.

"Thank you, Mi Amor, it's nice to have you back!"

With her first clear shot on the new level, Cici hit the bad guy with a triple pack of spells.

"Well, that's one down and an army to go!" she teased Ced.

Ced had a clean shot and hit the guy with a twin pack of spells dropping him to the ground.

"That's two, and we still have an army to go!"

Cici stood up and blasted through a conjured wall with another triple pack of spells, but she got hit with another spell that her clothes absorbed.

"That's three."

And they kept moving for the doors across the gym. Blocking and casting as they went. As they got to the door and went to back through the door. Cici took a wicked cutting spell across her chest cutting her deeply. She hexed the guy that cut her and rubbed her free hand over the cut, healing herself.

"That wanker cut me across my tits!" she yelled as the guy dropped.

"And they're such beautiful tits too!"

"Can we finish cleaning up here? Please?"

"Don't get your undies in a twist!" and she hexed another guy.

Ced took out the last two of the bad guys so they could move on. As they progressed down the hall towards another stairwell, they retracted they wands and enlarged their swords.

"Wait a minute, I hear you walking!"

They turned around and started tapping on doors.

"That's me!"

Ced and Cici tried a variety of spells before finding the right combination to open the sealed room. With hugs and kisses, Vic was freed to join her mates in battle, the three of them together as nature had intended.

Stepping out of the stairwell they walked into a large room of office cubicles.

"Wonderful." Ced thought.

"We're going to have to split up," Cici said.

"I'll go down this side of offices and cubicles," Ced told them quietly.

"I'll take the centre," Cici informed them.

"I guess that leaves me with the other set of offices and cubicles." Vic joked.

Ced and Vic got bogged down fighting multiple bad guys while Cici worked her way quickly through the centre of the office. She had just finished killing the last of the bad guys when a big guy walked through the double doors. Toll had reached into her memories and pulled the nightmare out of her mind and made it real. Here it stood in front of her, gentle face and all. Cici bared her teeth and snarled. He raised his sword to block the blow, but the superior quality of Cici's sword broke the inferior quality sword that her nightmare possessed. The follow through on her swing cut his upper arm to the bone, rendering it useless. Her opponent tried using magic on her, but she was able to use her sword as a wand and block his clumsy spell. Another swing across his chest sliced him deeply. He looked down to see his wound. Cici's sword came back up to complete a figure eight slicing him in the opposite direction across his torso forming an 'X.' "'X' marks the spot," she thought to herself, and she plunged her sword into his chest, "reducto" she said softly. She used her free hand to cast protego to keep the blood splatter from getting all over her, and her nightmare ended right there in front of her.

As soon as Cici beat her nightmare, Ced and Vic defeated their opponents. As they walked up to their bond-mate Vic cleaned and returned her sword to its scabbard. She ejected her wand and banished Cici's shirt and bra.

"Hey now!" Cici complained in good humour.

Vic started to heal her earlier wound correctly so that it wouldn't scar. As she finished treating her wound correctly, she told her, "Like I said earlier, you've got nice tits, and a scar will keep us from getting more jobs from McMillian."

"Well, since you put it that way," Cici told her with so much sarcasm that she would have been in jeopardy of being accused of overacting.

"Oh, shut up and give me a hug, Dark One."

"The simulations not over!" Ced told his wives as he looked around.

"It's not?" Cici looked confused.

"No, it's not. The training scenario hasn't returned us to the room yet." Vic looked around for the threat.

Cici covered herself magically as they moved out into the hallway to seek out the last of the bad guys. Vic pulled her sword back out and enlarged it. They walked with Ced up front and his wives on either side of him. They came to another large room of cubicles to clear. Ced went up the centre of the cubicles, while Cici and Vic went up the sides. It was too simple, too easy, the ease of it was making Ced jumpy. As the three of them reached the end of the cubicles, Cici entered one glass office to fight her opponent, Vic entered the one opposite of hers. Out of the office at the end of the aisle stepped Ced's opponent, easily two metres tall and over a hundred kilos of muscle, swinging a long-broadsword similar to Ced's. Cici and Vic easily defeated their opponents but found themselves sealed in a glass prison, to watch their mate fight a massive and strong opponent. Ced's opponent had longer arms on him, so he had a longer reach than Ced, longer legs on him, so he could close the distances quicker, and much larger muscles on him, the guy's arms were bigger than Ced's thighs. His opponent was swinging his sword with a practised ease. Ced assumed a defensive stance and let the guy bring the fight to him. It was crushing blow after crushing blow like a hammer drives a nail into a piece of wood. Ced backed down the row of cubicles that he had just cleared, Ced blocked each of the powerful blows to his sword, a lesser sword would have failed by now, and that is what Ced thought that his opponent was looking for. Finally, after Ced didn't know how many blows to his sword and his arms, he was able to get inside the man's personal space and he sliced him across the torso deep. As he stepped through the slice, Ced was putting his back and his leg muscles into cutting his opponent in half. As Ced was twisting, he caught his groin on the corner of one of the cubicle desks. As he fell, the sword of Potter sliced through the man's intestines and his liver also. Ced fell one way, and his opponent dropped the other way. Ced held onto his sword as if his life depended on it, his free hand cupping his family jewels. In the glass prisons, all Cici and Vic could see above the cubicle walls was Ced fall and not get up. The two crazed women backed up and started to fire hex after hex and curse after curse at the glass walls of their prison, the curses got darker and darker as they tried to get to their fallen spouse. When the opponent died the simulation ended, and they rushed to Ced's side wondering why he didn't just get up. As they looked down at him, they could see that he was cupping himself and they figured out that he had injured himself. They didn't know how, but they figured out where he had hurt himself. Cici knelt down as Vic pulled his hand away so Cici could cast a numbing spell on Ced's privates. As the spell took effect, they could see him relax and the colour returning to his face. Eventually, Ced stretched out and was able to get to his feet. He walked gently over to the seats in the training room and carefully sat down for the post-training debrief.

"All in all, it went very well," Toll started, "Cici found her ferocity again, and that's good, that's what this one was about. Vic did an excellent job once she was freed, and I think that Ced has learned to be a little more aware of his surroundings. It looks like the corner of that desk did a job on you mate." Toll told him with a grimace.

Ced just nodded.

"It was good to see all of you again! Don't be gone so long next time!" Toll told them as he left the room with a smile.

Ced and his wives headed for their bedroom to get a shower and relax the rest of the day. As Ced got undress for their shower, the girls checked him out, and they could see that he was severely bruised, and his equipment was getting darker by the minute.

"Ade?" Cici called out.

"Yes, Cecilia?"

"Could you get me a vial of anti-bruising potion please?"

"If it's for Ced, Althea says that it will take at least four. Two a day for the next two days."

"That will be fine Ade, thank you," Cici told her.

"I'm glad that we have a week left in here," Ced told his wives. "I don't know how I would explain this to Rose and Angel." He said.

.

It was the end of May when the five students walked through the gates of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and towards the front doors of their school. With their trunks shrunken and in their pockets, the five of them climbed on their brooms and zoomed to the front doors of the school. It was lunchtime, so they carried their brooms into the Great Hall to sit with their friends and family. The two girls squealed with delight at seeing their return. Ced, Vic, and Cici gave hugs and kisses to Daphne as they passed her at the table. Fred and George saw the bright red brooms, and they gushed over them for the rest of lunch, which is precisely what Vic had intended to have happened. Julia and Amber were amazed at how dark Rose had gotten and really surprised at how dark Angel had become. As the boys drooled over the new brooms, and as the girls got caught up on the latest happenings at the school, Ced walked up to the head table to talk quickly with Professor McGonagall. He had a huge smile on his face as he walked up to her, it was good to be back home.

"Good afternoon Professor," Ced told her happily.

"Good afternoon Mr Potter. Is Miss Ramos doing better?"

"Yes, mam she is. My sister and I were very worried about her for a long time. Having friends that cared helped a lot also."

"I'm glad to hear that. I am also glad that you were able to help Miss Bones and Miss Weasley stay caught up on their school work too."

"Thank you again for letting them miss so much school. They were very helpful in keeping Cici's spirits up and in helping her recover from such a traumatic event."

"I am glad to hear that. Please resume your class schedule starting after lunch."

"Thank you, Professor." He told her just before he returned to the Gryffindor table.

By the time he got back to the table, the whole Quidditch team was there looking at the exotic brooms. All three girls were like, 'Silly boys, exotic brooms are for girls!'

Their first class after lunch was D.A.D.A. with Uncle Draco. It was Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, and the 'Claws had become less than pleasant to their friends in their absence. Ced and the girls joined Fred, George, and Amber, after making a trip to their room, in the hallway outside of the classroom. The 'Claws had already started the taunting when they got there. Fred and George weren't backing down to the bullying, and the bullies didn't see Ced and the girls coming because they had their backs to them.

"Hey Fred, Hey George, making new friends I see." Said Ced, unsmilingly.

"Warrensley here was just saying that he wanted to challenge me to a duel, he says that he could beat me with both hands tied behind his back," Fred told his friend.

"I didn't say that!" the fourth-year student in need of dental work said.

"Oh, so now you're calling me a liar?" Fred said in mock surprise.

"That's not what I said!" the bully was now trying to back out of what was going to be inevitable.

"Making new friends Potter?" Professor Greengrass said in faux disgust. He had been watching Warrensley for the last few weeks.

"Good morning Professor! Warrensley wanted to challenge Fred to a duel. I just thought that I would ask you if they could settle their differences here or out behind the school." Ced pushed the challenge forward.

"That sounds good, we didn't really have much to cover today." Draco was saying as he unlocked the door to his classroom. As he walked in, he was flicking his wand this way and that.

As the students entered the classroom, there was a regulation duelling platform, and all of the desks had been rearranged down the sides of the platform.

"Gentlemen, this duel will be for your wands. Warrensley, you're on this side." Professor Greengrass told the Ravenclaw student as he pointed to his right.

Hesitantly he walked up the steps to the top of the duelling platform and stood where the professor told him to.

"Now, who's your second?" the professor asked him.

"Jackson." The nervous student told the professor.

"Bones, take this side." The professor said emotionlessly.

Fred walked up the stairs confidently and stood where he was told.

"And who is going to be your second?" Draco asked him. He wanted to see if it would be Weasley or Ced.

"George, would you be my second?"

"Sure mate!" and George took the duelling platform eagerly.

Professor Greengrass went through the rules of duelling, had them bow to each other, did the countdown, and waited to see if Warrensley would cheat. Professor Greengrass didn't even have the final number out of his mouth when Warrensley was casting the first hex. He jumped off the duelling platform to stay out of the way.

Fred was ready for the coward to cheat, he already had his shield going up silently as the hex was just being cast. He just stood there blocking the hexes and jinxes that were being thrown in his direction. A lot of them he would just sidestep and let them hit the wall behind him. Sometimes he would conjure a thin wall of concrete to absorb the curse being thrown his way. He watched and waited for his opponent to burn himself out magically.

Ced was watching from the front row of desks, he had checked his watch when the match first started. He wanted to see how long Warrensley would last. He was glad that Fred wasn't showing his full abilities, he hadn't conjured any decoys of himself yet, and it didn't look like he would need to either.

"What's wrong, Warrensley? I thought you were going to kick my arse!" Fred started taunting the bully.

It served its purpose, the simple taunt, Warrensley cast some more jinxes quicker.

"I thought that you could beat me with both of your hands tied behind your back!" Fred taunted him again.

This time it was worth about three more hexes before Warrensley was spent magically.

"Stupefy/expelliarmus," Fred said in a normal voice. He held his free hand out, and the captive wand flew into it like the obedient servant that it was. He thrust it into the air in victory, a huge smile plastered on his face.

"Give him back his wand!" Jackson said just before he cast his first curse at Fred

Fred sidestepped the curse and hit him back with another twin pack of spells. Jackson's feeble shield was effortlessly overcome by the strength of Fred's stupefy/expelliarmus hex. And he collected his second wand of the afternoon. He held both wands in the air, daring anyone else to challenge him to the spoils of his victory.

"Miss Potter, Miss Ramos, would you please levitate Jackson and Warrensley to the Hospital Wing for me?" Professor Greengrass asked blandly.

"Yes, Professor!" they said in unison. Springing to their feet and giving Fred a big hug as they headed for the platform.

After the two duelists were off the platform, Professor Greengrass banished the platform and returned his classroom back to normal. "Now, if you will please open your books to page 348." The class is going to be so dull for the next couple of days, Draco thought to himself.

Ced stood up and congratulated Fred on his victories. Then the three of them quickly took their seats as Professor Greengrass glanced at them. Julia gave him a quick kiss on the lips, George and Amber used the opportunity to exchange kisses also.

"Why is Julia in class with us?" Ced thought to his wives.

"Oh, they changed her classes for her protection. She was attacked again, in-between classes, and George, Fred, and Amber rescued her from some Slytherins." Cici told him.

"Oh, okay. Well, I'm glad that they're able to defend themselves!" He thought back.

"They thought she was alone, so three of them attacked her in the hallway, on the way to potions," Vic told him more of the story. "She held the three of them off for about five minutes down by the dungeons."

"That's good! I think that we should start pushing hers and Amber's magical cores harder, get them to build up quicker." Ced thought to his wives.

"I agree."

"Look how far Rose and Angel have come."

"Let's ask and see what they think of training after dinner also. That way they have all night to rest. We can push them hard for an hour or two, that still gives them time to do their homework, snog with their boyfriends, and then get some sleep." Ced was planning out his friend's lives for them.

"Well, I for one, am glad to see that you gave them time to snog! You, old romantic you!" Cici teased him.

Ced heard the girls start talking to Madam Pomfrey. After they had placed the two stunned boys on some beds. The Matron rennervated them both and ran a basic diagnostic spell over them, after learning what had happened. She told Jackson that she was going to keep him in the Hospital Wing overnight. She told Warrensley she was going to keep in there until it was time for him to go home on the train, and she was going to send an owl to his parents suggesting that he remain on bed rest until the start of July. She told him that he had severely depleted his magical core and that he was a fool for having done so.

While she had both of the girls with her, she guided them over to another couple of beds, and conjured some curtains for them, then she cast some privacy charms so they would have some privacy. With the girls seated on the beds facing each other, Madam Pomfrey talked with them about their time away from school as she checked on their physical and emotional wellbeing. She was still amazed at how large their magical cores were. She was very glad that Cici had suffered no permanent damage from the attack. She was about to offer both of the girls the birth control potion when she ran a higher level diagnostic spell over them and was also surprised that both of the girls were still virgins.

"Okay! Off you go! Back to class." She told them brightly as she banished the privacy curtains and with them the privacy charms.

"Bye! Madam Pomfrey!" the two girls said together gleefully.

.

Finally, the last day of school was here, Ced had made sure that they were the last to leave the castle. He had other plans for getting home than the train. He had been talking to Cici and Vic about flying home on their brooms. Everyone in their group could cast a disillusionment charm on themselves, they had all learned how to shrink their trunks so they could carry them in their pockets, all he needed was for everyone to agree to jump out of their carriages outside of the gates to the school.

Just as they were getting in the last two carriages, Ced asked the group, "What do you think about flying home instead of taking the train?"

"How much trouble are we going to get in?" Angel asked.

"I don't know, but why do we have to take the train?" he asked.

"I think that the train is for students that can't apparate," Vic said. "Notice how we don't see any seventh-years on the train?" She was ready to get back on her broom.

"How are we going to do this?" Fred asked. He was all for it, he was tired of being a sitting target on the train.

Fred and George had bought their girls new brooms for Christmas, and this would be a great chance to get some long distance riding in.

"We get on the carriages, and when they go through the gates, we jump off." Cici was ready, she was tired of the train too.

Fred looked at Julia, "Hey, I'm going to blame you!" she told him, then she started rubbing herself up against him, "You're my master after all, and I have to do whatever you tell me." The suggestiveness of her tone was unmistakable, the other girls just started to giggle at her antics. He might be her 'Master', but she was running that relationship.

"Let's do it!" the troublemaker in Amber was coming out now.

Even Rose was looking forward to riding her new broom home. And the way she figured it, it would take less than half the time to get to Bones' Tower than to ride the train all the way to London. She personally had had her broom up over 450kph, and the train she guessed could go maybe 100kph, at best.

The nine of them got in the last two carriages, and as soon as they waved goodbye to Hagrid, they waited for their chance to escape the ordinary for the extraordinary. Ced, Vic, Cici, and Rose were in the lead carriage, and as soon as they cleared the gates, they jumped out of the slow-moving carriages. The other five friends followed suit, they all had their trunks out, enlarged them, got their brooms out of the trunks and enlarged those too. They shrunk their trunks back down and slipped them into their pockets. The group waited for the train whistle to blow loudly, signalling that it was time for the stragglers to get on the train so they could leave. A few minutes later and the train whistle blew a couple more times as they heard the old steam engine starting to huff and puff as it slowly accelerated away from the train station.

With mischievous grins on their faces, the lot of them mounted their brooms and took off for the skies. Rose was the first to flatten herself on her broom and leave the others in her wake. Two more red blurs were chasing after her.

"WOW! Look at them go!" George yelled, envious of his sister and her new broom.

"Well, if we don't hurry up, then the train is going to beat us home!" Ced told the group, laughter filling his voice. He was happy for his mate and her new broom. He admitted that he had problems with her splurging initially like she did, but seeing how happy she was, riding her new broom, he was over it quickly. He and Cici both had big smiles on their faces, they could feel the joy that Vic was experiencing through their link.

The other six of them all speed up, the first three had at least a two-minute head start on them, and they knew that they would never catch them now. Not even Ced and Fred with their Firebolts could catch them now.

Vic was flattened out on her broom giving chase to one of her best friends. She could see Angel laid out flat on her broom also as they raced through the sky with their eyes squinted against the wind. Whenever Rose would change course a little, the other two would follow her lead. For thirty minutes, she stayed tucked in tight against her broom, her robes flapping and snapping, the hem of her robes shredding in the air as it flowed over her body and out behind her. She knew that she was going to need new robes once this flight was over, she and her two friends would all need new robes. Then she watched as Rose slowed down gently, at these speeds you didn't do anything suddenly, that was suicidal, and they may be out having fun, but they weren't going to do anything stupid that could kill them. Eventually, the other two girls caught up with her as she hovered in the air.

"What's wrong?" Vic asked.

"I just realised, I don't know where I live!" she laughed at them. How daft could she be? She had no clue as to where she lived! She had always either used the flue, or she would side-along with one of her parents if they went anywhere, or on special occasions, she would use a house elf. But to know exactly where in England she lived? Now that was a good question. She started flying again, nice and slow so the others could catch up to her.

"Let's head for Potter Mansion," Vic told her as she took the lead. Vic knew where the Potter Mansion was. To apparate, you needed to know the surrounding area, you needed landmarks to coordinate and pinpoint where it was that you would reappear. How could you go someplace that you didn't know where it was? She let her spouses know that they had changed course and were now heading for the Potter Mansion.

With the new destination in mind, Ced and Cici both flattened out on their brooms and were racing away. The other four followed them, close on their heels. Cici fell in behind Ced and began to draft him so she could go as fast as he could. The others seeing what she had done joined in and found that the ride was more comfortable because of the lack of wind in their faces. Fred was bringing up the rear and realised that he had never flown this fast, as he could hear his robes snapping and flapping behind him. Ced kept his changes in direction slow and smooth so all of the others could follow him easily. About fifteen minutes later, the six of them blew past the three girls like a bullet train.

The three girls on their exotic brooms fell in behind Vic using the same technique as Ced. As fast as the Firebolt was, the International Standard Quidditch broom was no match for the Italian exotics that caught up to them quickly. Eventually, Vic led the girls in front of Ced, and Ced closed in behind Angel. With Vic leading the train of brooms, they were all able to fly faster than they had been able to do so individually. Finally, Vic cast a disillusionment charm over the whole lot of them as they raced through more populated areas towards the Potter Mansion. As they crossed less populated regions, Vic started checking for her landmarks to find her home. An hour and a half after leaving school they were landing in the back garden next to the confidence course. There was yelling and screaming, fist pumps into the air as the excitement of what they had just done ran through the group of them. It was now the start of the summer holidays!

As the group of them walked into the mansion, the happy threesome was greeted by Charles.

"Welcome home Lord and Ladies Potter" he greeted them with a bow. "Your father wishes to speak to all of you in the main study."

"Thank you, Charles," Ced replied for all of them. "We'll see all of you later!" he told his friends.

There was a little trepidation as they walked to the main study of the mansion. Each of them carrying their brooms still.

"Hi, dad! How are you?" Ced greeted him happily.

"You're home early." Harry started somberly. "Why didn't you take the train?"

"A couple of reasons really, but honestly? We feel like sitting ducks in our train compartment, always wondering who is going to come by and say what. Or try to do something stupid. Every ride home has always had a least one fight since Cici, and I bonded."

"Plus, I wanted to ride my broom," Vic told him.

"So, let me see your broom." He said as he held out his hand to her.

Vic handed him her broom, a little fearfully.

"He's not going to break it," Ced thought to her.

"Oh, this is nice! A Paginlioni Huayra, the god of wind. I like the colour! Cleansweep needs to introduce a line of exotic brooms. How does it handle?"

"It corners like it's on rails." She told him smiling goofily.

"How fast does it go?"

"I've had it over 450kph! Maybe faster when I was chasing Rose this morning."

"Oh? What kind of broom does Rose have?"

"I bought her and Angel a pair of Ferrargini 812s."

"Ooo, nice brooms too. Why didn't you get one?"

"The salesman thought that he had three of them in red and we made a deal, I saved 50,000 galleons, and he didn't have the third red one, so he offered me the Paginlioni for the same price as I negotiated."

"That was nice of you. Now, the next time the three of you want to do something like this, please let me know. Oh, and Vic, you have a board meeting on Tuesday at 10:00."

"Yes, sir."

"Yes, sir."

"Yes sir, thank you, Harry."

"Sirius, myself, and Os will be going with you to the meeting."

"Thank you!"

"Now go start enjoying your summer holidays! Oh! McMillian wants to meet all of you on Wednesday at 9:00. I think that he's going to want you to join the S.A.S. guys starting on Thursday."

"Okay, we're going to head upstairs and put our stuff away. Then I don't know what we're going to do, relax I guess." He told his dad.

"Well, all of you beat the train by almost five hours. That's pretty good. If you want, we can go run the confidence course before lunch."

"That's a thought, if we take our time, that could kill an hour, then that would be just before lunch." Ced looked at his wives. They shrugged their shoulders, it was better than doing nothing.

"Okay, I'll be done here in an hour," Harry told them.

As they left, Hermione was walking through the front doors of the house. "You're home early!" she said happily.

"Yeah, we kind of cheated and flew our brooms home instead of riding the train," Cici told her.

"Oh! Is that your new broom Vic?"

"Yes! Do you want to see it?" she asked hopefully.

"Sure!" she answered brightly, holding her hand out for the broom.

Vic handed over her broom to her mother-in-law.

"Oh, this is pretty! Italian made huh? I love the colour! I wonder if I could get some nail polish in this colour."

"Ooo! I like that idea! When do you want to go shopping?" Vic asked her.

"After lunch?"

Now both girls were getting excited.

"I need to get my hair trimmed!" Cici said. "Ced does too, look at him! He's getting a wild man hairdo working there."

"Let's get a mani-pedi too. My nails are getting atrocious." Vic told them.

"Okay! I need to get mine done again too!"

With all of the gleeful talking coming from the foyer of the house, Harry exited the study to find his wife talking animatedly with her two daughters-in-law. The sight brought a smile to his face as they stood there talking about going and getting their nails and hair done that afternoon.

After a bit, the three teens headed upstairs to put their things away and get ready to run the confidence course.

.

As they were walking out to the confidence course, Hermione was talking to Cici about how remarkably well she was doing. Cici explained that Vic had helped her lock the bad memories away, but they were still affecting her performance. Cici told her that Ced had talked about asking Shaw and Winkelmann to help her get her confidence back. After Vic bought her broom, Ced had asked Leo to bring their brooms and the house back to the beach house. They had spent two years in the house and that on one of the training missions, Toll had reached into her mind and pulled out her nightmare for her to confront it and kill it for good, which she did.

"And ever since that time, I have been enjoying life to its fullest!" Cici yelled in elation. "In fact, I bet that I can beat Ced through this confidence course!"

"Oh, you're on!" Ced accepted the challenge.

With Harry at the top of the tower, Hermione would tend the ropes at the bottom of the tower, she yelled go! And Cici hit Ced with the jiggly-legs jinx just as he was about to start climbing the cargo net.

"Oh, you're a cheater!" He yelled at her, hardly able to stand up and not daring to take a step. "You cheat as bad as your mum!" he yelled.

"I'm not that bad!" she looked down at him still standing on the ground with his legs wobbling all over the place. A smile came to her and Vic's faces as they looked down at him.

He tried to take a step towards the cargo net, but by that time the girls had already gone over the top and were getting strapped into their harnesses. Ced wobbled over to help his mum tend the ropes. She looked down at his wobbly legs and started to laugh, she couldn't help it, it was funny, seeing him walk like a toddler taking its first steps, arms stretched out to the sides for balance, each step planned for and executed precisely. He felt the tug on the rope as one of his wives started to rappel down the face of the tower. Both girls took one long fast slide to get to the bottom of the tower. Their 'A' type personalities taking effect now. Hermione and Ced both helped them out of their harnesses, and they were off to the next obstacle. About thirty minutes later they crossed the finish line together, side-by-side. Ced pulled them into a three-way hug, and they shared a three-way kiss.

With his arms wrapped around their torsos, holding them tightly, Ced and his wives headed up the stairs to their shower, talking and teasing animatedly as they went. His parents were walking arms wrapped around each other too.

Living up to their promise of not making any more work for their house elves than they needed to, stripping their clothes off as they walked, the three teens put their sweaty clothes in the laundry hamper with a wave of their hands just before they stepped into the large shower. Their shower was long and loving, but not exceptionally long, there was still plenty of rubbing, touching, and kissing to meet their physical and emotional needs, but they also made it downstairs at the same time as Harry and Hermione, for lunch.

.

Cici's hair was past her waist, and Vic's hair was below her shoulder blades. Both girls wanted to cut a few centimetres off their hair, Hermione had decided to get her hair trimmed of the dead ends also. With the four of them sitting in the stylists' chairs, they put Ced on one end and Hermione between Vic and Cici so they could talk some more. As the girls chatted away, the young stylist that was helping Ced started to pay a little too much attention to Ced, she started massaging his tight muscular shoulders a little too lovingly. Ced's discomfort was steadily increasing until it tore Vic and Cici away from their discussion with their mother-in-law.

"Excuse me!" Vic said loudly in the direction of Ced's stylist.

She didn't hear her, she was so engrossed in taking care of this gorgeous young man.

"Excuse us!" Cici said a little more insistently.

By this time, Hermione was watching this scene, in the play called life with some interest. She had never experienced this with Harry.

Cici's and Vic's stylist were now watching their coworker intently as she was rubbing up against her client, and short of jumping out of the chair and making a scene, her client was trapped.

"Ced, just jump out of the chair before we hex her," Vic thought to him sadly.

"Stop!" Ced said loudly as he got out of the chair quickly. Drawing unwanted attention to himself and the stylist who was 'taking care of him.'

"Is something wrong?" she asked innocently, her eyes wide at what her client had just done.

"Yes, you don't need to be rubbing against me to give me a scalp massage before you cut my hair." He tried to say as politely as possible.

"But your muscles are so tight!" and so big and so strong, with those big broad shoulders, she thought.

By this time the shop owner was paying attention to what was happening and had started walking to the scene of the commotion.

"May I help you sir?" she asked.

"Yes, I just want to get my haircut. I want it cut short, I don't need it shampooed because I just washed it less than an hour ago. All I want is to get my haircut." Ced told the old witch, gesturing with his hands.

By this time, all of the stylists were watching what was happening, there was no sounds of the snipping of scissors, no idle chatter between people. Yes, he was a good-looking young man, but not good enough to lose your job over.

The old witch sized the situation up, "Here I'll finish cutting your hair. You, go and watch the front desk while I finish this." She told the young witch. Fifteen minutes later Ced was sitting in a chair waiting for his wives and his mum.

It was a few moments later when the women were moving across the salon to get their mani-pedis, and Ced walked over there with them. As he sat there in the chair, he had looked through the last four issues of Witch Weekly, he saw that his Aunt Daphne had made the cover of one of them, and his Uncles Fred and George had made another.

"I'm going to go to the bookstore." He said flatly.

"No, you're not," Cici said sternly.

"No, you're staying where we can keep an eye on you," Vic told him.

"You really can't take him, anywhere can you?" Hermione said with a little laugh.

"No."

"We can't!" the two younger witches said.

Ced tossed the magazines back on the table and waited. He got bored again and picked up another old magazine. When he looked up from it, he noticed that all three women had chosen to go with the same red colour as Vic's broom. When the polish had dried, they were free to go pay for their services. At the front counter, the old witch apologised again for the behaviour of her young stylist.

Ced graciously accepted her apology and told her that it was water under the bridge.

At home, the girls told Ced to go find something to do. They were going to change for dinner tonight.

"Go play a game of wizard's chess or something!" Cici told him.

Ced went to find his dad, he saw him in the main study looking over more papers.

"Hey, dad! What are you doing?"

"Just going over some company reports. Here, let me show you." And Harry showed him what he was looking at, how to tell if a company was doing better or worse than the last report, he taught him how to know if this was a trend or if it was just a onetime thing. Ced and Harry got so engrossed in what they were looking at and comparing different companies that both of their heads snapped up.

When the guys weren't sitting in the living room playing a game of chess the girls called to them telepathically.

Both of them rushed out to see their wives.

Hermione was wearing a knee-length white dress that hugged her curves with a scoop neckline, she was wearing a large sapphire double row necklace with earrings to match and red heels.

Cici was wearing a knee-length blue dress with a plunging neckline that was hugging all of her ample curves, a large diamond multi-row necklace that dropped down into her cleavage with earrings and bracelets to match and white heels.

Vic was wearing all red, a red knee-length sparkling dress with a plunging neckline, a ruby necklace that dropped between her breasts, three strand ruby earrings that hung low and red heels to match, with a matching ankle bracelet.

All three beautiful women stood out against the polished marble staircase, and all three women were wearing lipstick to match the red nail polish. Their husbands met them at the bottom of the stairs to walk them to the ballroom, there was still a couple of hours before dinner.

"Did I ever tell you what the passphrase was when your mum and I lived in the married quarters?" Harry asked Ced as he twirled Mione around in a circle.

"No, what was it?"

"Waltzing Angel. Because of your mum. I love to dance with your mum, it means that I get to hold her close and not worry about anyone else. She's the reason that I learned to dance." Harry told him as he started to lead her out onto the dance floor.

With a wave of Hermione's hand, the old phonograph sprung to life and began to play a beautiful melodic waltz. Harry was in a different land as he started dancing with her, he only had eyes for her.

Ced held out his hand to his wives, and Cici pushed Vic forwards to have the first dance. It was Friday, and she would have Ced to herself tonight, and she was more than willing to share their husband until after dinner. As Vic took his hand, Ced pulled her in close, and they began to move around the dance floor in graceful and flowing whirls and twirls, dips and spins. When the music ended, Vic and Cici exchanged places. Vic put another waltz on the phonograph, and the two couples continued to dance. Hermione sat the third dance out as Harry took Cici into his arms, and Ced took Vic into his. Then Hermione joined her son as Vic danced with her dad. It was in this way that everyone was dancing and happy until dinner was ready to be served.

.

Saturday morning found everybody together for their morning workout. Ced explained to his father that they had started working on expanding Amber and Julia's magical core, they had excellent skills but lacked the staying power for an extended fight. That was their preferred fighting style, let their opponent wear themselves out magically, and then finish the fight. Harry agreed that building their magical core was important, so after their morning run, he had Amber and Julia dual against Ced for twenty minutes. Ced pressed the fight making them fight both magically and physically. Amber thought that she had landed a good hex on Ced only to watch as it was absorbed by his clothing.

"How do you do that!" she said in exasperation.

"How do I do what?" Ced asked confused as to what she was asking.

"How do you block the spell? I watched it hit you, and it had no effect on you!"

"OH! I charmed my clothes to be a shield. It's kind of like a shield of last resort."

"How can we do that?"

"It's not hard, it's more complicated than it is hard." He told her.

"Will you teach us?"

"Sure, but we need to finish this duel, first." He told her.

They needed to push the two girls as far as they could without overdoing it, so two or three times a day they would push them until they would get tired, then they had all night to rest to do it all over again the next day.

After breakfast, they went out and ran the confidence course.

"You only have until Tuesday to get as fast as you can! Because on Wednesday, McMillian wants us all to meet in his office!" Harry pushed them. "Oh, speaking of offices, Mask wants your sister to start work with her on Monday!" he told Ced and the girls.

"Wow! That's great!" Ced responded joyfully.

"Yeah, so your mum and I are going to go with her on her first day."

"That's amazing! She must be the youngest worker ever!" Cici said.

"So, what's she going to be doing?" Vic asked.

"Mask said that they will have her do different things but that she will be like a curse breaker. You know the Unspeakables, all hush-hush."

"She's good at that," Vic said, speaking from experience.

Charles popped in, "My Lords, my Ladies, Auror Tonks is here for you." He said with a bow.

"Thank you, Charles. We'll be in in a moment." Harry told his Head Elf.

Looking and seeing that his friends were only about halfway through the obstacle course, Ced told the others that he would go and watch them while the others went inside to speak with Tonks. Cici and Vic both gave him a sweet kiss on the lips before they joined Harry and Hermione on the walk inside the house.

Ced encouraged his friends to push harder where it was safe because a blown-out ankle was the last thing they needed to deal with when going to do a job for McMillian.

Inside of the house, Harry, Hermione, Cici, and Vic joined Tonks in the sitting room.

"Sorry to drop by unannounced." She started. Etiquette dictated that she says it.

"That's fine, what's going on? Aren't you supposed to be off today?" Harry asked her.

"Yes, and no. I was closing some cases at work, and I wanted to bring the girls their money for the work they did for us." She handed Vic and Cici a deposit slip for 10,000 galleons each, into Gringotts' Bank. "Then I also have the money that you earned from the brothel." She got up again and handed each of them a bag full of galleons. "Amazingly enough, you both earned the exact same amount, another 20,500 galleons, each. It's a small amount considering what happened to you, and I'm glad that you're doing okay." Tonks thanked them and apologised for Cici getting hurt.

"We've interrogated both of the suspects, and on the one that Vic caught, we were able to rescue three girls and learn the whereabouts of fifteen more graves. He turned out to be a copycat killer. On the one that attacked you, we used veritaserum, and we learned where he had buried close to a hundred different girls of all ages. He buried so many girls that he forgot where he buried all of them so we won't know. But we did manage to rescue another five girls that we, with the help of your mum/Hermione, brought back to health. The mind healers at Saint Mungo's are working with them to help them deal with their ordeal. They're working with the parents also. It's silly you know," she let out a little chuckle, "But some of the girls ran away simply because their parents told them to clean their rooms and make their beds." Tonks shook her head in a 'what is this world coming to' way. "None of the girls were abused in any way!"

"So, did they both get the veil?" Cici asked in a grave tone.

"Yes, about two weeks after they were captured."

Somewhere in all of this Ced joined his wives. The others just stood silently at the doors to the sitting room eavesdropping on the conversation. They hadn't heard the whole story, they only knew that Cici had been attacked. They didn't know that it was by a serial killer that had already killed so many people that he couldn't remember them all.

"It's a good thing that Ced didn't kill the guy for attacking you if he had, then we would never have found where he hid the other girls. You two did a good thing in helping us, Thank you." She told them sincerely.

"Thank you." They said in unity.

A loud, high-pitched squeal came from the other room followed by a soft thump.

"Wotcher Tonks!" the voice boomed in their heads.

"Wotcher Cathaoir!" Tonks said brightly and enthusiastically.

"Wotcher Tonks!" Daphne said exuberantly.

"Wotcher Kitten!" replied Tonks equally. "Hey! Congratulations on getting that summer job!"

Harry and Hermione were waving their hands and shaking their heads "No."

"Oops, sorry!"

"What summer job?" Kitten asked excitedly.

"Mask has asked if you would be willing to work with her over the summer. You would be doing a bunch of different things, but you would be breaking curses with her." Hermione told her daughter.

"Really!" she squealed with excitement. "Do I get to wear the robes of the Unspeakables too?"

"I don't know honey," Hermione told her gently. And truthfully, she didn't know.

"When do I start? Oh! I have to tell Willow that she can't spend the summer with me now. She can spend it with Solaria, they'll have lots of fun together!"

"You start on Monday at 8:00 in the morning. I don't know if Mask is going to make you work all week or not." Harry told her.

"Wow! Maybe I'll see you at work! But for now, I need to go." Tonks told the group.

Everybody said their goodbyes and Tonks flooed out of the house.

On Monday, while Harry and Hermione took Daphne to work for her first day, the teens ran the obstacle course twice, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. They had gotten their time down below forty minutes for all six of them to cross the finish line.

On Tuesday, Vic had her board meeting for Cleansweep Brooms. She strode into the meeting with Harry, Sirius, and Uncle Oswald. Dressed in Magical Business attire, she looked the part of a young executive. Since there wasn't any stock for the company like there would have been for a muggle business, she owned the whole business when the three men gave her their portions of the business. She walked into the boardroom and sat at the head of the table. She looked around the table at all of the ancient men that had been running the company, she had also been briefed on all of the different aspects and areas of the company. As the last member of the board walked into the room fifteen minutes late, she brought the meeting to order just as she had been taught.

"Good morning, now that we are all finally here," she looked at the old man that walked in late. "I would like to introduce myself. My name is Victoria Potter, and I am the new owner and Chief Executive Officer of Cleansweep Brooms and all of its subsidiaries. If you will please stand up, introduce yourselves to me, and tell me what it is that you do here. We will begin with this gentleman on my right and continue around the table. Please begin." She told him as she sat back down.

As they went around the table she sat there and took notes on each one of them when they had finished, she thanked them.

"Now, whose idea was it to come out with the Nimbus Mach 1 and the Firebolt Afterburner?" she asked, and she got a deer in the headlights look as none of the old men answered her.

"We, do still own Nimbus and Firebolt brooms, don't we?" she looked around the table and then over her shoulder at her dad and uncles. They nodded. She got no response from any of the old men.

She stood up and started walking around the table, "Could someone please tell me how many of the Nimbus Mach 1s' or the Firebolt Afterburners that we've sold?" she was running her fingers across the tops of the chairs as she walked slowly around the table.

As she reached the head of the table again, she looked down at her notes, then she looked directly at the Head of Sales. "So, according to my notes, you're the Head of Sales, and you can't tell me how many brooms we've sold in the last year?"

The ancient wizard wouldn't look at her, and he wouldn't answer her.

Looking at her notes again, she looked at the Head of Marketing. "Could you please tell me how much has been spent on marketing of the Mach 1 and the Afterburner brooms?"

He looked away from her, he refused to speak to her or even acknowledge her existence.

Again, she looked at her notes and then she looked at the Chief Financial Officer of the company. "Could you please tell me how many galleons has been spent on the Mach 1 and Afterburner brooms?"

He also wouldn't look at her or speak to her, he even went as far as to turn his nose up slightly.

"Is anybody in this room going to speak to me? Or even acknowledge that I exist?" she asked gently.

They all looked away from her. Was it pride? The good ole boy's club? Guilt? The fact that she was the only woman in the room? An outsider?

"Well let me tell you how much I have spent on the company in the last three months. I have spent 30,000 galleons on a forensic accounting firm to come in and investigate this company and all of you! As of this morning, ALL of your vaults have been seized, all of your homes have been searched, and ALL of you are going to face trial for embezzlement because all of you received money from your schemes." What she had told them was fact, backed up by numbers, their numbers, from different sets of books that they kept over the years. They had gambled on the Heads of the Ancient houses being too busy with their other interests to notice a small company like theirs, and it had paid off until today.

Vic walked to the doors of the boardroom and opened them to let the Aurors in. One by one all of the members of the board were arrested and taken away. If any of the former board members cared to look, all of their assistants were standing there also ready to take their places. As the last of the old men left the room, the assistants began to file in. Vic summoned all of the paperwork on the table to herself and stacked it neatly at the head of the table. When the last man took his seat, she walked over and closed the doors.

"Let me introduce myself," she said as she walked back to the head of the table. "My name is Victoria Potter, I am the new Owner and Chief Executive Officer of Cleansweep Brooms and all of its subsidiaries. If you will be so kind as to introduce yourselves to me and tell me about what it is that you do for the company. We will begin with this gentleman her on my right."

Again, they went around the table, and she took notes on all of them. This time, however, she cut to the part where she had spent 30,000 galleons and then she had five more men arrested for embezzlement. Their assistants were standing outside the doors ready to take their places.

Then she dealt with corporate espionage and five more men were arrested, three of them from the group that had just entered the room. Their assistants were standing outside the doors ready to take their places.

Once again, introductions were made, and the meeting was finally moving forward.

"The corruption in this company astounds me! This is your bread and butter! Everybody wants a pay raise, I understand that, but when upper management is stealing all of the money, there is no money for pay raises. So, I am going to institute a profit sharing program. Everybody from the lowest employee to the highest executive will share in our quarterly profits if the business does not make a profit, then there will be no bonuses. I will work it out with my advisers as to how much each person will receive." She told them. As she looked at her dad and her uncles they smiled and nodded at her.

As they were getting close to lunch, Vic sent a piece of paper around the table for them to write their name and what they wanted for lunch, on. She then called for her executive assistant and gave the piece of paper to her for her to take care of getting them lunch.

As the meeting moved forward, she told them. "I want to cancel the Mach 1 and Afterburner program. Recall all of the brooms, which shouldn't be too hard considering we haven't sold any of them. Make up an excuse if you have to, say that it's a safety recall for instability in excess of mach1 if you have to. Just get all of the brooms back. There's a lesson to be learned here, and we need to learn from it. Next, I would like it if someone would start doing a little market research and see what kind of market there is for an exotic type of broom. We need to cover our market! From the cheapest broom to the high-end brooms. Comet Brooms have made significant inroads into our market share. We need to focus on our best sellers and give our consumers the best value for their galleons!" when she had mentioned exotic and high-end brooms there were mixed emotions around the table. She had expected that there would be, just not this divisive. When they stopped for lunch to be served, Vic had Lucy bring her, her broom. Vic levitated her broom to the centre of the board table for all of them to stare at, and there were plenty of 'oohs' and 'ahs' about the broom, as they ate their lunch, and carried on with the meeting.

"So, why did you buy this broom instead of one of ours?" the head of sales asked her.

"Two reasons, the first of which is, I was sexually molested when I tried to buy one of our brooms." This revelation sent gasps of astonishment around the room, and one individual who couldn't control his thoughts, thought to himself, 'I'd like to molest you!'

Vic's head snapped around, and she stared right at the middle-aged man. "You're fired!" she told him as she pointed him out.

There were looks of astonishment flying around the room at the sudden dismissal of the new Head of Department.

"When my own board members would like to sexually molest me, I have a problem with that." She told the group of middle-aged men, coldly.

She summoned her executive assistant and had her go and get the next person in line for the job. "No, better yet. Bring me a woman for the job, I'm killing the good ole boy's club here and now. It dies today!"

Fifteen minutes later a younger woman entered the room timidly. She had been passed over for promotions to lesser qualified men, and now here she was sitting in the boardroom with a young girl sitting at the head of the table. Also, there was a really gorgeous broom floating in the middle of the table. She loved the colour.

Vic waited for her to get seated, "Hi, my name is Victoria Potter," she said for the umpteenth time that day. "Please introduce yourself to us and where you work."

The young woman in her twenties introduced herself and what it was that she did for the company.

"Congratulations, you are now the head of your department. If you need help, ask any of these gentlemen, and I am sure that they would be more than happy to help you. If not, send me an owl, and I will make sure that you get the help that you need to get the job done. I am committed to your success." She told her firmly so that the others in the room knew that they were now playing on Vic's team, no more going off on your own and trying to sink someone else

Vic's head snapped around again when she heard 'Yeah, you need to be committed.'

"You're fired too," she told the man that had the stray thought. "Patricia! She called out." When she opened the door to the room, "Bring me another woman to replace the gentleman that is leaving us."

"Yes, mam." And she waited for the man to leave before she closed the door.

Shortly, another young woman in her twenties entered the room quietly, found the empty seat and took it.

"Hello, … " Vic went through the introduction again. Learned the young woman's name and what she had been doing at the company since she was hired.

"Excellent," Vic started as she stood up. "Now, I am going to require you to take two different oaths of loyalty…"

And she was interrupted by another middle-aged man when he got up and started yelling, and he pulled his wand out to hex Vic. Before Sirius or Os could get their wands out, Harry had his in his hand, but Vic was blocking his shot, he was fast, Vic would give him that, but she was faster. Just as his hex was leaving his wand, Vic had her wand in her hand, she was moving sideways, and casting a triple pack of spells at the attacker. The man's hex missed her, but Harry had a shield up to protect himself, Vic's curses hit true, reducto/stupefy/expelliarmus, as he was flying backwards through the air, his wand was flying to Vic's outstretched hand.

"My wand! I won it through the rite of combat! Do I have any other traitors in my company!" she demanded harshly. "If I do, you had best leave now! Because the next step will cost you your magic! Patricia!" she yelled again.

"Yes, mam!" the haggard looking middle-aged woman answered.

"I am going to need another female replacement for what's-his-name over here, and the Aurors also." She told her assistant kindly.

"This is Lord Gryffindor, my dad, he will be administering the Oaths of Loyalty," Vic told the stunned board members.

When Harry was on about the third or fourth new board member, the newest member of the board came walking into the boardroom. The stunned body of the latest unemployed board member was still laying on the carpeted floor. Vic walked up to her and introduced herself, learned her name and that she was in her early thirties with two children. She had been working for the company for ten years and had stopped moving up in management five years ago as she got passed over by underqualified men. Many of whom had gone to work for Comet Brooms.

After the last board member had taken the oaths of loyalty, Vic asked to be given a tour of the facility. She asked questions about where they sourced the different materials for the brooms and was shocked to learn that they only had one supplier for each part of the brooms.

"Do all of the other broom manufactures in the world get their twigs from the same place?"

"No, but that's how we've always done it."

"So, if they wanted to raise their prices, then we would be stuck paying those inflated prices, or if they didn't want to sell to us, then we would go out of business." It was a statement, not a question.

"Yes."

"Where do the French, the Italians, the Germans, or the Chinese get their twigs from?"

"I don't know."

"Find out! If we are going to compete on a global scale, then we can't be stuck with just one supplier! Get purchasing on that today."

"Yes, Mam!"

"Where's research and development?"

"Who?"

"New product development?"

"We don't have that department."

"Then who is in charge of introducing new brooms?"

"That was Wallace, I think you fired him."

"So, there was only one guy that thought up new brooms?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"That's how we've always done it."

He stepped away from her as he felt the magic building in anger.

Vic closed her eyes and re-centred herself, "Is there an engineering department?"

"I think that you fired all of them too."

"Then who is the replacement person?"

"That would be me, mam." And a young woman stepped through the group of people.

Vic looked at her.

"Jamieson," she said, "Jessica Jamieson."

"Well, Jessica, it looks like you are now the new Head of Engineering, and Research and Development. How much experience do you have in any of those departments?"

"I've been working with engineering for about four years."

"Have any of your ideas been implemented on a broom?"

"No, and yes. The no is that I was told that it wasn't a good idea, and yes when one of the men would steal my idea and the boss would then like it."

"What did you think of my broom that was in the boardroom?"

"It's beautiful! It's so sleek and sexy!"

"Do you think that Cleansweep can build a broom like that?"

"YES! We could build a broom like that. That's what the Mach 1 and the Afterburner were supposed to be. But that wanker stole my idea and sold it to the boss over one too many glasses of Firewhisky."

"Good. How many people do you need to build a good R&D/Engineering department?"

"Three, four more." She said hesitantly.

"Hire the best that you can, pay them what they're worth. Don't just hire anybody, hire the best."

"Yes, Mam!"

"Where's my Head of Marketing?"

"Here, Mam." And a younger man stepped forward.

"What did you think about my broom?"

"It's beautiful!"

"Do you think that we have the ability to build one?"

"YES!"

"How many of them do you honestly think that we could sell in a year? Honestly, don't lie to me, either."

"Well, it's going to depend upon the price for sure, and how much we hype it up." He was thinking out loud

"Well, that broom upstairs sells for 100,000 galleons."

His mouth fell open in shock. As Vic looked around, she saw everybody's mouths hanging open. Not a good sign.

"How many brooms like that do you think they sell in a year?"

"A hundred."

"You're right they sell just about a hundred of them. Why do you think they do that?"

"To keep the price up."

"You're correct again. But how about exclusivity? Is that the first Paginlioni you have ever seen?"

"Yes."

"So, do you think that there's a market for Firebolt to build an exotic, exclusive, sexy broom like that?"

"Yes."

"Good, I want you to find out if we could sell a hundred of them, two hundred of them, or even a thousand of them. And I want you to start thinking up names and see what people think of those names. Just like the muggles have Jaguar, Lotus, and Aston Martin cars, we need to have an exotic broom division too."

"Okay!' he said getting excited for once in his job.

"We're not going to neglect the brooms that put the food on our plates! Like I said in the boardroom, we need to work on giving our customers the best value for their galleon! Our customers need to know that when they buy a Cleansweep broom, they are getting the best broom for their money! We need to be selling brooms to kids for their first broom at Christmas. When they think of a broom, they need to think of Cleansweep Brooms!"

That last part brought shouts and cheers. People clapped in enthusiasm.

"We need to offer entry-level brooms for the budget conscious buyers, and we need to offer brooms for families, we need to offer brooms for young professionals! We need to have a broom for every price range! We also need to make sure that when a business needs to buy brooms for their employees, they think of us first!"

More cheering and more clapping.

"I am going to want weekly updates, and I am going to want them by 10:00am Monday mornings. If you are having problems, ask someone for help. If someone refuses to help you, I want to know about that immediately! You have my permission to hire people as needed. I do not want to see bloated departments! If you hire somebody, it needs to be an equal opportunity hiring, if I even suspect that you hired somebody because they're your friend from school, we will have words. Hire the best person for the job. I will be checking up on all of you. I would much rather reward you for success than discipline you for catastrophic failure. Are we going to make mistakes? Yes, but we need to learn from our mistakes and move on."

She took the opportunity to answer questions from her new Board of Directors. She assured them that they would all be getting the old Directors salaries. There were a lot of smiling faces at that announcement.

"If you have any further questions, write them down and give them to my assistant. She will make sure that I get them and I will get back to you on them. It's getting late, and I have other appointments that have been put off, thank you for your time."

She answered a couple of more questions and then she referred the rest to her assistant. With Harry, Sirius, and Os following her she made it back to the boardroom to collect her broom before apparating home.

Inside the study, with a couple of butterbeers, they went over everything that had happened that day.

"I didn't realise how deep the corruption went inside that company," Os said between sips of his beer.

"It's amazing that it was still running!" Sirius agreed.

"Well, it looks like it was money well spent. If the new board can get the company turned around, we should be profitable by the end of the third quarter." Vic said.

"When I started looking into things, the numbers just weren't adding up. That's when I suggested that Vic hire that accounting firm and the investigators, to look into how their trade secrets were getting out." Harry told them.

"I liked the idea of having the women as part of the board. The ole good ole boy's club was getting tiring really quick. They would resist giving me the information that I was asking for." Os told the group.

"I couldn't believe the nerve of that wanker pulling his wand on me! Did the Aurors pick him up? I forgot to look." Vic said.

"I think so, I didn't see him when I walked in there with you," Sirius said. "I'll make sure to charge him with attacking a member of an Ancient House."

"How much money will you recover from the seizure of their vaults and the money recovered from their homes?"

"The accounting firm thinks that we can recover two thirds to three-quarters of what they took, we might get back even more if we sell their houses and all of their belongings," Vic told them. She sat down her empty bottle. "I'm going to head upstairs and get changed for dinner in a little bit. I'll see you later."

The guys raised their beers to her, and she went upstairs to seek some badly needed physical contact with her mates. In their room, she found them relaxing in the oversized tub, she went back to use the restroom, strip out of her clothes, and then joined them in the tub. Cici moved off of Ced's lap to let Vic sit there, then she sat in Vic's lap, so she was sandwiched between them getting as much physical contact as possible.

"How was your day?" Ced asked her.

"Long." And she opened her mind to her husband and wife entirely so they could see her memories of the day.

.

.

.

A/N:

Revised 03.10.2018

And again 01.04.2019

And again 03.29.2019