Administrator 4

Levesque and Jackson arrived at the grand hall just as dinner appeared on the large, round table where the staff was seated. In addition to the staff, the Minister of Magic was there as this meeting was to include Hazel's findings from the cursory review of the books over the last couple days.

"I'm glad you're here, truly," the headmistress sincerely said. "We were all about to introduce ourselves. She started by stating her name and her new job and telling everyone how overwhelming it all was but that she knew with everyone's hard work they would get the school back up and running and being a school that Albus Dumbledore would be proud of. Annabeth threw in how humbled she was to have been named, and how she felt everyone there was just as qualified and more knowledgeable about the school than she. Her self-depreciation and humility worked somewhat and everyone was at least superficially friendly and open after that.

The dozen or so instructors and staff went around giving their names, positions and telling a bit about themselves if they felt like it. Several stated their hopes for improvements in their classrooms and material supplies for the year as well. When it was Jackson's turn he simply gave his name, that he was an American ICW agent on assignment to the UK and that he prospectively was the Dark Arts professor.

"You mean the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor don't you Mr. Jackson?" the Arithromancy professor asked with a smile.

"'Defense? Against?' Oh… well that changes everything," Jackson deadpanned to the shock of all, before cracking a brilliant grin that brought nervous laughter from the group.

"You'll have to forgive Percy, he has a dark sense of humor these days and sometimes very little filter," Hazel explained, assuring the group that he wasn't actually evil, just not very funny in the current environment.

"Sometimes?" Annabeth quipped which finally brought genuine laughter from the group. Even Percy chuckled at this, and since it was the first positive reaction to anything she had said from him in years, this warmed her heart and helped her relax from the stress she felt at even having him present for the meeting. All afternoon she had worried he would go off again as he had in front of Professor McGonagall and Mr. Hagrid. That worry seemed to be for naught as he was quite well behaved, even relaxed looking.

Annabeth prided herself on being able to read people and felt now it was clear her and 'Seaweed Brain,' as she sometimes called him in happier times, could work together harmoniously now that he was over the shock.

Hazel's intro was next, as well as the last, and after her name and that she was American ICW agent as well, told the group her skill set was that of a forensic accountant and financial manager.

"And why do we need either of those? I'm not sure the Headmistress understands that we are not an institution that requires business management like the yanks are so obsessed with, we are a British institution funded by quite a large gold endowment," the Astronomy professor said condescendingly.

Annabeth and the Minister of Magic were both about to explain why when Hazel saved them the trouble.

"Then why are you so broke?" She snapped at him.

"What do you mean?" Minister Shacklebolt asked.

"Exactly what I said. This school is broke. You don't have a large gold endowment; you had a large gold endowment. Two years ago when Professor Dumbledore was here, but since he passed away over the last year it has been drained. It's gone. Vanished."

The room stared at her in silence, gob smacked by this news.

"I've reviewed the books for the last three years over the last two days and my findings so far are very disappointing."

"Perhaps you don't realize that the school isn't supposed to make a profit," someone said.

"No, I understand that, let me put it this way. It's like the air and the sea. A 'for profit' institution wants to fly through the sky, always taking in more than it spends, soaring higher and higher; while a not for profit institution optimally wants to be a ship sailing on the surface of the ocean, neither in the sky or drowning. Neither making much, nor losing much."

"We're treading water then?" Annabeth asked hopefully.

"No, you're at the bottom of the ocean. The Titanic is on top of you, and the iceberg that sank it is on top of it, then there are 20,000 leagues of shark-infested sea, and then there is treading water. When I say you're broke, I mean there is a measly amount in your bank, Gringotts, if the last letter from them holds true, and your endowment's investment fund is wiped out. Folks, you've been robbed. You're broke. A review of the records shows it will take you about 9600 galleons to open the school, and another 10,000 to operate it, just at current levels with no new spending, until the Christmas break. Madame Hooch was interested in getting new brooms for her classes? We might be able to pull a few straws from the custodial cabinets. You're completely broke. Any talk of expansion right now is dead. You can't even open. You can't even pay anyone to make repairs and clear the rubble from your last war."

The room was silent for a moment, and then bedlam erupted.

Some doubted Hazel's findings, but she was ready for that and had prepared both before and after charts which she distributed copies of around the table. Others were asking if the new headmistress had made any expenditure or moved money around without authorization, a suggestion that was adamantly denied. Annabeth pointed out that she had never even visited either Gringotts Bank or Greengrass Investments, the organization that controlled the schools endowment investment funds.

"We must accept the fact that while Snape was headmaster, the dark lord's servants raided the school's assets. This was before Professor Chase arrived as you can see from Ms. Levesque's material, thank you for a thorough presentation madam. I know many of you have reservations as to our American friends, as you don't know them and they are new to us, but I welcome their insight, and so does the ministry. I know that as you get to know them, you will as well. We will not attack the people honest enough to tell us the truth," the Minister proclaimed before adding, "Is it possible to find the stolen funding, who stole it and recover it?" Shacklebolt asked.

"That is more Agent Jackson's area than mine." Hazel answered while staring down a few of the louder people that had doubted her.

"We will certainly try." Percy interjected, "I will be speaking with the London Station of ICW after we adjourn and get started on it. Ms. Levesque could we meet to flow chart all this so we can determine where to start?" Percy asked.

"Of course Agent Jackson, I will be pleased to meet with you all evening if you like." Hazel replied with a smile.

Annabeth was pleased to see her old friends working so well and professionally together, it gave her hope of reconstructing some sort of relationship with both. She had not expected Hazel's wrath earlier, but should have realized that since Hera took Percy to the Romans he was especially close to Hazel and her fiancé Frank Zhang. If her read was correct, and she had no reason to doubt it, this was beginning to look like a productive work group ICW had assembled.

The murmurs and quiet outrage continued around the table and nearly everyone stopped eating due to their now soured stomachs. They would only get sourer over the next few minutes as Hazel continued.

"Of course finding who stole it and where it went is only the first problem and one for the aurors and ICW law enforcement agents. Getting it back is another problem altogether, " Hazel told the group.

"Wouldn't the person it is found on have to give it back? I mean, it's stolen?" someone asked.

"Perhaps. That is more for the courts than for investigators but I doubt it will be that simple. The thing is, we may be able to figure out what happened to it, and yet still be unable to recover it, for several reasons, not the least of which is that if as we expect the Carrows stole it, then it was probably used to hire mercenaries for Voldemort. That money is probably gone forever, although if estates can be found of the dead ones and attached I'm sure the Ministry's legal department will try. If that is the case then the thieves probably didn't bother to cover their tracks very well as they figured to win the war and if they had, it wouldn't matter if the larceny was discovered," Jackson explained. "Finding the who and how will probably be simple enough. Where it is now and what we can do about it is something far more difficult."

"Do you think you will be able to recover enough to at least reopen the school until we can press the Wizengarten for funding?" someone asked.

"It's hard to say, as I and Agent Levesque said, I think discovering the thieves will be a quick process; recovering the funds not so much and perhaps impossible, and school opens September 1st? That is less than two weeks from now, not a lot of time. I am not optimistic of a large enough recovery in that short of time." Jackson replied.

"Then we are ruined. After ten centuries, Hogwarts will close." One of the professors said, nearly crying.

Annabeth knew the situation was bad just from what she could tell of the books before she sent them to Hazel, but did not realize the situation was that dire. It appeared her tenure as headmistress was destined to be short. Instead of being known as the one who saved Hogwarts, she would be remembered as the one who turned off the lights and locked the doors on her way out. There seemed to be little light in the room except, well, Percy seemed happy and relaxed and she couldn't put her finger on why. Perhaps an afternoon of rekindling his friendship with Hazel has reminded him of what he had with Annabeth back in the day. One could hope, although it seemed unlikely. Still, there was something. His meal was seafood, which was not surprising, but he was really wearing out those oysters, and then she noticed instead of his glass being refilled with his usual blue Kool-Aid or sports drink, it was filled with… Was that pineapple juice? It was! That was a trick Annabeth had learned from Cosmo that helped make more palatable certain fluids that occurred during climactic moments of oral affection. The oysters improved the volume while pineapple juice the flavor. This could only mean he was planning to come see her after the meeting broke up and try to convince her to return to those acts, which she would gladly do. She might balk a bit just to seem a little hard to get, but she would do it gladly for him. She missed her Percy so much.

After a long silence in the room, while most thought of financial ruin and Annabeth thought about blowjobs, Professor Flitwick broke the silence.

"It occurs to me there may be a perfectly reasonable explanation as to the endowment. I have an investment with Greengrass Enterprises and I spoke with Madame Greengrass about the loss of value in my funds there. It seems the company takes our gold, and uses it to invest in both the muggle and magical markets, then converts it back to gold when there has been sufficient profit to warrant it. She tells me that there has been a rather severe drop in the value of gold in the muggle world, which means that they have been unable to get as much muggle money for it, and thus my investment has fallen. This is normal market fluctuation and she expects the value to return shortly. I don't pretend to understand how it all works, but Madame Greengrass is quite skilled at muggle investing." Flitwick said.

Percy and Hazel just looked at each other, while Annabeth tried to read the silent conversation going on between them. Annabeth no more followed the markets than she did the Florida Amateur Hockey schedule, but could see the wheels turning between her accountant and her law enforcement agent, who she knew had spent the last three years assigned to New York Harbor and had worked several cases of magical abuse in the stock markets there. Hazel finally grinned, then turned to face Professor Flitwick.

"There is just one problem with that analysis Professor."

"What's that? It seems a reasonable explanation," the Minister asked.

"The muggle price of gold isn't down, it is setting record highs. If you bought an ounce of gold a few years ago it would have cost about four hundred dollars, which is a basic unit of money like your galleon. Today you could sell that ounce for almost two thousand dollars, so you would have earned about 400% return on investment. Gold most certainly is not down, petroleum is, and as that has fallen, investors have shifted to gold, driving its value to those record levels. We haven't seen this sort of inflation in the gold market since the post World War II economic era." Hazel explained.

"What… what are you saying?"

"I'm saying two things; first, she lied to you. Second,"

"Well there's where your problem is." Percy interrupted with a drawl.

"No, I've known her for years, I've taught her and her daughters, Daphne and Astoria, there must be some mistake," Flitwick said.

"If there is we will find out discreetly and move on." Percy replied to the professor.

"And if there isn't?" The Minister asked.

"We won't be discreet." Percy answered.

"Professor Chase, it appears we have a new schedule for tomorrow. We will need to be in London to deal with this. I confess I was hoping to introduce you to what I had hoped would be the pupils that brought the rest back," the minister stated.

"I was looking forward to that as well. For those that don't know, student enrollment isn't where it should be as parents are worried after the events of last year," Chase said.

"We were hoping to talk Harry as well as Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley to return to finish their seventh years so as to show the parents how safe Hogwarts is and to inspire the rest of the school to return. I guess we will need to put that off until we know if there is a school to return to," the minister concluded.

"Percy and myself can handle Gringotts and his fellow agents can handle Greengrass; you two should get the students back if you can," Hazel said, then added "You've only heard the stick part of my presentation, may I now give you the carrot?"

As none other than Jackson and Chase were familiar with that saying, all looked confused when Hazel spoke of carrots and sticks, but she continued on.

"Aside from my work with ICW, I have exactly two other clients. One is a greenhouse operation in Southern California and"

"Oh Meg? How is she doing?" Percy asked.

"Very well, she has her mother's green thumb, she is actually turning a profit selling little potted cacti to tourists and gift shops. The legalization of marijuana in California has been a godsend to her company and she keeps me pretty busy. My other client is a, well lets call it a charitable fund. For years its assets have continuously grown to the point where it must find an outlet for its resources. It was believed cursed for it to be released, however, my erhmmm, associate, Mr. De Angelo" she said as she looked at Annabeth who smiled, "has consulted with the owner of the trust and he has agreed to release the funds to Hogwarts. He has a great interest in its future success it would seem. There are two stipulations."

"Who is he?" Professor Hooch asked.

"I cannot say, he does not want his identity to be confirmed in any way." Hazel replied.

"What would the conditions be?" The minister asked.

"One, you will hire me as a full time CFO to run the finances of this institution so that I can oversee the contribution, at least until such a time as I think it is good and proper for someone else to take over, and two, you must give control of the investment trust to a three person committee consisting of myself, the headmaster, and you Minister. The same committee would govern expenditures beyond the normal budget, and with the school staff proposing it, will affirm the annual budget. This fund can only be used for Hogwarts. Any attempt to divert it for some other purpose, no matter how good and noble, will result in the immediate remove of all monies in the fund. Oh, and my salary cannot be paid by the trust so you're going to have to figure out a way to raise that yourself, however tuition should easily cover it."

"That's a lot of authority for one person to have," the Arithromancy professor said.

"No more than the previous headmasters held, less in fact since it would be managed by a committee instead of one person's whim." Hazel responded.

"About Greengrass, this assumes that there is theft, what if it is just a mistake or miscommunication?" Flitwick asked.

"She is either criminal or incompetent. Either way, she must go. That is not negotiable."

"How large is the contribution this person willing to make? Would it be enough to reopen the school on schedule in two weeks?"

"I can't give an exact amount as it must be weighed and assayed, but yes. Bear with me, I realize this isn't very lady like" Hazel said as she reached into her oversized purse and removed a small, pink bag with 'Hello Kitty" prints on it, then stood, stepped onto her chair, then onto the table itself, and walked to the center. Once there, she pushed the centerpiece out of the way with her foot and began emptying the bag. Gold nuggets, bullion and bars fell from the small bag, which had an undetectable extension charm on it. The gold fell and fell, making a thunderous racket, until there was a pile about two feet high and a yard and a half from side to side. It was still falling when Hazel turned the bag upright to stop the flow. She only did so as the table was beginning to groan from the weight. Once she was sure all had seen the measure of her fundraising ability, she used her power to lift the pile and return it to the bag, which impressed the group almost as much as the gold had.

"So, this one is about half empty and I have five more, of those three are gold, one is other precious metals and one is gemstones both cut and uncut. So no, I have no idea how much it is, but it is enough to last generations." Hazel said. It is difficult to stun a group of magicians who are used to seeing amazing things all day, but Hazel managed to do so.

The gold and she had been picking up since she was reborn could finally be disposed of so that she didn't have to carry it around all day, so it was a win-win for Hazel to bail out and endow the school. Of course, the school would never know where the money actually came from. She could have given it to New Rome but during her tenure there had gathered enough for it to be financially sound for hundreds of years and it simply did not need more. Since then Hazel had to gather it and carry it with her and even though it was practically weightless in the bags, it was still a bother

"I suggest we hire Madame Levesque immediately," someone said with murmured agreement all around.

"I've given my salary and housing requirements to the Headmistress already" Hazel said as Annabeth interrupted.

"And they are quite reasonable," the Chase said.

"But there is one other thing, I will only work here if Agent Jackson is hired as well."

"I thought Agent Jackson was already hired," the Minister said, his confusion showing.

"I haven't accepted, I will only do so if my sister Estelle decides to attend. If she does, then she stays with me as much as she wants to, no matter which of these house things she is made to join. That isn't negotiable."

"That isn't how the houses work, we have had parents or guardians teach while their wards were here, but the child stays with their house as part of the overall program of integrating them into magical culture and expanding their circle beyond their immediate family. It was one of the goals of the founders of the school and that is how we do things," McGonagall said.

"That is not how we do it for my sister," Percy replied as he stared coldly at the deputy headmistress.

"That's just not…"

"Percy, I will make the accommodation. Estelle is a delicate case and after all she has been through and seen she will need her brother's company and affection. I'm sure as she makes friends she will want to spend time both with you and her house. It will work well I think. Do you want me to talk to her and encourage her to attend?" Annabeth asked hopefully. Now that Percy was preparing himself for nocturnal entertainment she felt confident he would want her to reestablish her relationship with Estelle.

'Why is Hazel holding Percy's hand? Worried he might go ballistic again?' Annabeth thought as she noticed how close her two fellow demigods were. Her thoughts were cut off by Percy's answer.

"No. If it were up to me you wouldn't talk to her even if she does decide to attend, but that is her choice, not mine and certainly not yours. Now, if this meeting is over, Hazel and I have work to do." Jackson replied coldly.

"Uh, okay," Annabeth said, somewhat startled by Percy's tone with her. "May we meet back at the same time tomorrow to see where we stand?"

Annabeth didn't listen to every one agreeing as she was deep in thought and knew the staff was anxious to learn if the school was opening or if they needed to seek other employment.

'Holding his hand, making happy faces at each other, spent the afternoon together, came back happy, now they want to work more into the night? What does that mean? What does…. Oysters. Pineapple juice.' Annabeth thought as Jackson and Levesque rose, bid everyone good night and turned to leave, then it hit her.

'THAT GODS DAMN BITCH IS FUCKING MY PERCY! SHE'S FUCKING MY PERCY! GODS DAMNIT SO FUCKNG MUCH SHE'S FUCKING MY PERCY!'