AN: Check the first chapter for disclaimers
This is the first part of the summer before 3rd year. This summer will most likely be divided into 2 chapters, might go to 3 even depending on the length. Also, with this chapter we come back to normal length chapter territory, averaging upto 6K words or less. Very author friendly :D
BTW we enter the six figure words club with this chapter. I fondly remember my prediction in the first chapter where I said that if this story hits 100,000 words, it would be a miracle. Well,
Hallelujah!
And the best part, we haven't even started IIIrd year yet.
(Furthermore, IIIrd year will mostly be spent on world and character building, before action resumes in the IVth. So expect a lot of personal scenes, tangential thoughts etc etc over the course of next 9-10 chapters.)
Enjoy!
Beta-ed by 1saaa. Thank you mate for making this readable.
P.S.: For those who didn't get it, the Lockhart scene was from Basic Instinct, it's the first scene of the movie and is quite famous actually.
For the last remaining days, Helen mostly spent her free time with Hermione and one he was done with his OWLs, Cedric. However, that didn't amount to much, as most of her time went to the preparation of A-levels which she had scheduled during the first week of her summer break. She did spend several moments with the rest of her friends occasionally, one such was quite significant.
*Flashback*
Helen, Padma and Colin were up early and training as usual. All throughout the session Padma had been giving Helen Nervous glances, but apart from a raised eyebrow, Helen didn't ask, judging that she would talk about whatever she wanted to talk about when she was ready. Colin had also been giving her glances, but that was due to her attire of skin tight shorts and a spaghetti crop top, which served as her nightwear and displayed a lot of skin.
Or maybe it was the sword, she wasn't sure. After training with a wooden dummy sword for the whole year, Helen had conjured a real blade for practice today just to get a feel of the real thing. However, Padma still didn't talk about anything out of ordinary all throughout the session, making her think it might be nothing.
However, her nervousness finally made some sense when they arrived in their oval. Unlike everyday, it wasn't empty or had the occasional early riser. Instead, all of their Ravenclaw second year dorm mates were present, still in their night clothes, but fresh and alert. They were also nervous, just like Padma.
Giving Padma a brief look, Helen turned to the group, "Good morning, everyone," she greeted them.
There was a murmur as they all returned her greeting, which was followed by a tense silence. After a few moments, Lisa bravely spoke up, "Why don't you take a seat Helen?" waving her hand towards the empty armchair at the head of the group.
Looking each one of them in the eye, Helen huffed and moved towards the chair, banishing the robe she was carrying in her arm to her room. Once she was settled and had crossed her legs, she asked, "So why am I facing an intervention?"
Slightly taken back, Lisa explained, "This is not an intervention, Helen. We wanted to talk to you about something. We had discussed it with Padma last night when you were out with Cedric and she informed us that this would be the ideal time to table the subject."
Helen considered her words for a few moments, wondering what this was about. She took a quick look in Lisa's mind to confirm that she did not have any hostile intentions, after assuring herself Helen withdrew.. She leaned back and waved her hand at Lisa, allowing her to continue.
"Ever since we promised last year to never betray your trust, you have been teaching and training us, making us better than the rest of the year. We didn't realize how far you had advanced our skills until a couple of days ago when Su and I were discussing electives with a few third years and during the discussion realized that we already knew almost all the syllabus of the next year in several subjects. We didn't let them know the extent of our knowledge, of course, but our appreciation for all your extra effort grew considerably. Yesterday, when we were discussing this, we came to realize you had also identified each of our interests and helped us progress even further in those fields."
She took a pause here and Terry took over, "It was at this point when we comprehended how much time and effort you were expending to elevate us, time and effort which you could have used for yourself and your own pursuits. It made us realize that following you had been extremely beneficial for us."
Here Lisa took over again, "So, an idea was put forward and we all agreed with it, but we wanted to be sure. So, we had a talk with Padma about it last night and she cleared whatever few doubts we had. So..."
Her persona changed from nervous to determined as she stood up and stepped in front of Helen.
"I'll be first" she spoke and pulled out her wand. Helen straightened up, knowing exactly what was coming correctly.
Lisa took one last deep breath and after pointing her wand at her heart, spoke clearly, "I, Lisa Turpin, pledge my life and magic, to follow and support, Helen Lilian Potter, in any way I can. I promise to hold all her secrets and to aid her in all her endeavors. I will hold this pledge until such time when I'm released from this oath by her and her alone."
Helen, unsurprised, stood up and formally replied, "I, Helen Lilian Potter, accept your oath, Lisa Turpin." There was a light glow around both their bodies indicating the acceptance of the oath. Once the light faded, Helen welcomed her to the fold with a tight hug.
Soon she was hugging Micheal who was the last to swear his oath. Everyone had tied themselves to Helen, becoming her first set of followers. Helen thought that most likely none of them would become a member of her inner circle but maybe a couple might surprise her in the future. Despite her eagerness to leave her mark on her new supporters, Helen refrained from giving them Raven tattoos right away. Though, there was a flower waiting to be etched, as Helen eyed Padma, who suddenly felt nervous again.
*End Flashback*
The results were declared and Helen had topped her year. Padma had also leapfrogged Hermione to clinch the spot of second best student, mostly because of all the extra training she had been getting from Helen. Hermione, Daphne and Lisa occupied the third, fourth and fifth spot, making an all-girl top five for the second time in a row, with Terry becoming the number one boy in their year at sixth.
They were also asked to fill in their elective preferences. As per Helen's advice, Ravenclaws took subjects only from Ancient Runes, Arithmancy and Magical Creatures. Only Terry and Lisa had opted for all three, apart from Helen herself. Helen had promised them lessons on the current Muggle world and its technologies, so she covered Muggle studies handily. On inquiring with her friends outside of Ravenclaw, Helen found that most had followed the same pattern. Though, both Hannah and Susan had opted for muggle studies with the former combining it with runes and the latter adding magical creatures as well, in addition to runes.
Over in Slytherin, Daphne had also opted for all three useful subjects, while Tracey had gone for muggle studies with runes. Blaise had taken the sensible combination of runes and Arithmancy. Hermione had initially opted for all five electives, but Helen had talked her down and now she was only taking the three useful ones as well.
Ravenclaw had done the double and won both the Quidditch and the House cup this year and the Great Hall was decked in Ravenclaw blue and bronze. On the train, Helen had flaunted a bit and had expanded a compartment so that all of her friends could comfortably fit inside. She had disappeared for a while and an hour later, when Cedric had dropped her off, her lips were slightly puffy, drawing wolf-whistles from the group. During the last hour of the journey, she did her best to give Hermione the same look and thoroughly succeeded in her task. Emma had been quite amused by the embarrassed state of her daughter and Daniel was quite confused due to his mixed emotions of amusement and sadness as he couldn't play the disapproving tough father act on Hermione's partner due to her being a girl.
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Petunia had picked Helen up from King's cross, as Vernon was occupied with work. They reached Lansdowne Road in Holland Park in half an hour and Helen went up to her room to get changed to relax in the Jacuzzi. She returned downstairs twenty minutes later wearing a lime green bikini with tie-up top and half pucker bottom, with a couple of books tucked under her arm, ignoring the three boys, probably Dudley's friends, gawking at her from the front door, as her cousin nudged them out of the house. Placing the books on a table next to the Jacuzzi, she entered in after turning on the jets and enjoyed the pulsating stream of water for a few moments.
Soon her aunt brought her some refreshments including a tall glass of mixed fruit juice, from which Helen took a sip and finally picked up a book to start studying. Due to the limitation in the number of subjects in A-Levels, Helen had to choose only five, the maximum allowed number. After much deliberation Helen had picked Art & Design, Business, Chemistry, Economics and Sociology as her subjects. She was also doing independent study in Mathematics and Psychology. She felt that these subjects would help her the most to establish herself in the muggle world and also give her an edge in the magical world over any potential opponents, when she reached her majority.
A week later Vernon drove Helen back from the exam center, where she had her last written exam, Business, culminating a very exhausting week for Helen. Unlike the magical subjects, where she had the advantage of having the memories of Tom Riddle's time at Hogwarts, Helen had to actually study and work hard for the mundane subjects. Though, that just made her success even more sweeter for her.
Studying and writing exams was not all that Helen had done over the last seven days. Her contacts and acquaintances had forwarded her portfolio to the right people and had recommended her glowingly. As a result during the weekend, she had multiple shoots for catalogs as well as an audition for a fashion show that was happening ten days later. The catalog shoots were somewhat of a necessity as Helen had no prior experience in modelling and they also helped establish her name in the right circles.
During her successful audition for the fashion show, Helen had identified a very reputable talent hunter, and more importantly a very successful modelling agency. Helen had immediately implanted the idea in the talent hunter's mind to praise Helen's form and beauty to her employers. It wasn't too against the talent hunter's beliefs either as she had thought Helen was stunning, and while her form could use some work, it wasn't bad. So, yesterday Helen had received a call for a meeting at the agency, which was tomorrow.
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Andrew sat bored, as another hopeful entered for the audition to get hired by the agency. She was just like the last three, the same starved figure, blue eyed, with a sharp face and a practiced mechanical form. He suppressed a sigh while maintaining a neutral face as he watched her do her poses and her walk. It was all mechanical with no life in it, a body just going through motions. While her face was pretty with blonde hair, blue eyes and high cheekbones, there was no 'Oomph' factor to her. She was just like the hundreds of others who auditioned here.
Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw his fellow judges also had the same opinion, based on their body forms and general cues as their faces were the same as his, neutral. Amanda, their clothing expert, was tapping her foot lightly under the table. Danielle, their trainer and instructor, had her eyes fixed on the gown the model was wearing, instead of her movements and gestures. Iker, their chief photographer, was not even watching the model, instead was focusing on the cameraman.
Once the model had left, they all let go off their poker faces and expressed their disappointment. Andrew, after rejecting the file, turned to the last folder. This one was a bit of a special case. Firstly, unlike the rest of the models, who had applied to the agency, this one came from the recommendation of one of their talent hunters. 'Diamond in the rough' was the praise she had given, saying that the girl didn't have much experience but had huge potential.
Secondly, the girl was young. She wasn't even fifteen! In fact she was here with her aunt, who was her guardian, to make the proceedings legal. But apparently she was an early bloomer, so it could work.
Thirdly, she was beautiful. Not just pretty, but absolutely stunning. Andrew could attest to that by looking at the photos in the folder. Her face was flawless with perfect skin, high cheekbones and a sharp jawline. She had an aristocratic nose and cupid's bow lips with perfect alignment and proportions. Her eyes were a unique vivid green, which were almost glowing, making him think that it might be the work of editing. Her hair was a confusing shade but he guessed calling it Mahogany would be fair.
He turned the close-up away and looked at her full body photograph, realizing what the talent hunter meant by early bloomer. She didn't look fourteen at all, more like sixteen going on seventeen. He glanced over her measurements before looking back at the photo. Her measurements weren't ideal, but they already had models who didn't have the 'ideal' figure, who were quite popular and famous and for a fourteen year old she already had an absolutely fabulous figure. Nevertheless, the girl would certainly grow more and it was likely she would end with a perfect hourglass body. And it wasn't that she didn't look good, quite the opposite in fact, she looked almost perfect. At 5'7", she was tall for her age and just within the ideal range for modelling height.
He looked at others, and they were also showing interest in the file. Deciding they were ready, Andrew told the manager to send her in.
As she walked in, there was only one word in his mind to describe her. Radiant.
The girl was simply radiant, as she assertively walked out to the ramp. It was evident that she didn't have much experience on the ramp, but the way she walked confidently upto the edge made her imperfect form unnoticeable. As she walked back, he glanced over to the others and saw they were also feeling giddiness at finding such a gem, except Danielle who was frowning at her form. But that was expected, as it was what she was there to judge.
As the girl completed her routine and went for the photo-shoot, Andrew already knew they were signing her. Iker even surprised them, when he stood up and took the camera to take pictures himself, guiding the girl through various poses.
Once the girl left, Andrew turned to the rest with an eager look on his face. Looking at the excited faces around her, Danielle said in her french accent, "You people are going to make me work 'ard, no?" Seeing the smiles all around she sighed and continued, "At least she 'ad ze confidence and ze charisma." (This is the first and the last time I'm writing French or any other accent, see AN below) It was a few moments later when Andrew realized that her eyes in the pictures were not photoshopped.
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Petunia and Helen returned home late that evening, after having negotiated and signed the contract. Helen had insisted on the stipulation of working only during the summer break and maybe during winter and Easter holidays, if the job was interesting. She had also refused to do any lingerie shoots or anything outrageously revealing, not because she was shy but rather because it wouldn't suit the image she was building for herself if she did. She had taken a significant pay cut due to the conditions, but that was alright, because she wasn't doing this for money anyways. She already had a couple of jobs lined up, one being the show she auditioned for and another a few weeks later in Paris.
On the next day, Helen enjoyed the sun for several hours while lying in the lawn. A few of the local boys, friends of Dudley, had tried to peep at her skimpily clad body, but her cousin, who was turning into a very strong young man, had chased them away, like the good loyal doggy he was. Later, when she was enjoying a soak in the Jacuzzi, Petunia informed her that Albus Dumbledore was there to meet her. Helen asked her to show him in. She was expecting him, of course, as by now the blood wards in Surrey would have fallen completely, finally informing him about something amiss. In fact, she had asked a few people back in Little Whinging to keep her informed about any strange people showing up at their previous house or at Mrs. Figg's.
A couple of days ago, a really old man with extremely long bread, completely grayed with age, and dressed in a robe of all things, was seen questioning the Millers, the new residents of 4, Privet Drive, and later Mrs Figg. Helen had taken care of her already, putting her under a completely undetectable compulsion to never go near 4, Privet drive, which wasn't that out of ordinary as it was several blocks away and on the completely opposite side of the shopping area. It also helped that Mrs Figg hadn't bothered to check on her much previously because the Dursley's were obviously taking good care of her. As a result, she was practically an unknown to her relatives and had never had to babysit Helen. So, it wasn't out of the ordinary that an old woman, who lived several blocks away, didn't know that the Dursley's had moved out after Mr Dursley had gotten a new job.
Helen was brought out of her musing when Dumbledore entered her backyard. He was surprisingly dressed normally, with a plain white button down shirt and a pair of navy blue trousers. Though, his hair and bread completely ruined the normal look.
Helen greeted him cordially, "Good evening, Headmaster. This is a surprise visit. May I inquire what brings you here?"
Helen stepped out of the Jacuzzi and wrapped a fluffy bathrobe around her. Dumbledore had respectfully turned away to look at the lawn while she covered herself.
He answered while still looking away "Good Evening to you as well, my dear. I was in the vicinity in Surrey a couple of days ago, so I thought I might visit you and your family. To my surprise, I found that you had moved away almost a year ago. I got slightly worried so I inquired around and found your new residence with much difficulty." Much difficulty was an understatement, he thought to himself.
He had tried looking into the minds of locals in Privet Drive to find where the family had gone, but couldn't find anything apart from London. He had then tried sending an owl but it had just gone to Gringotts, which meant that Helen maintained a mailbox with the Goblins. Clever of her, but inconvenient for him. He had thought of using Fawkes, but that might have caused a break in the statute of secrecy if she was out in public. So, he had spent the last two days looking for the Residence of one Vernon Dursley in the muggle world. It was only because he knew his name that he could find this house. Thankfully 'Vernon Dursley' was a very uncommon name otherwise it would have been far more difficult and tedious to find this place.
As he followed Helen to the patio, he continued, "I was just wondering about your whereabouts and why your family decided to move."
As they sat down and Dudley brought the refreshments, Helen answered his query, "Oh, Uncle Vernon got a new job opportunity. Since it was based in London, he sold the house in Surrey and we moved here."
"Ah, I see." Dumbledore replied as he took a sip of tea "That is well, however, it brings me to my problem. You see, around your home in Surrey, I had placed a ward to protect you from people who intended you any kind of harm. It only required your presence for a few weeks to recharge for a whole year. Now, since you haven't lived there for a year, the wards have fallen and you have no more protection. It would be a great burden off an old man's mind if you would let me put some wards around your new residence."
Helen pretended to think for a while before answering, "But Headmaster, I don't think any wards are required at all. You yourself said it was with much difficulty that you found this place and that was with the knowledge of my family. It would be almost impossible to find this place for anyone in the magical world without knowing my uncle's name. And no one knows that, not even my friends. Furthermore, I have a Gringotts mailbox, so all the mail addressed to me goes there and they check it for any and all kinds of spells. Only once they have cleared them, do they send the letters to me."
Actually, Dobby collected the letters and checked them before delivering them to her, but Dumbledore didn't need to know that or about Dobby for that matter.
After taking a sip of her juice, she continued, "Also, since the ministry isn't too far from here, it would be unwise to put up a ward here, as anyone could detect the magical presence of the ward while passing through the area. The way it is, this house is hidden in plain sight and putting a ward on it would be like lighting a 'lumos maxima' on top of it."
Dumbledore suppressed a sigh, once again dismaying the fact that Helen was a Ravenclaw instead of Gryffindor but conceded her point. She was right, finding this place was difficult for him and would be impossible for the Death Eaters, who were mostly Purebloods or Wizard-raised.
He left a few minutes later after making some small talk, not noticing the victorious smirk on Helen's face.
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Before killing Lockhart, Helen had made him register two companies. One was 'Spark Apparels', simply 'Spark' in short, with Himself and Helen as partners having 50% and 30% share respectively. The remaining 20% was owned by their Business partner Madam Malkin's. The agreement had a clause that in case of his demise, his share would go to Helen. So Helen was now the sole majority owner of the firm with 80% share, taking advantage of a loophole in the minority ownership laws which stated that a minor cannot start a firm as its majority owner. It said nothing about a minor inheriting the majority ownership.
The second company also had a similar clause. When it was formed, Global Wizarding Communications (GWC), had Lockhart as majority owner owning 60% share of the company while Helen owned 20%. 20% was owned by Howard Robinson, the main radio presenter of WWN. Now Helen owned 80% of the company.
Since both these firms were certainly going to make a lot of money in future, Helen wanted to have as large of a share as possible.
Speaking of firms, 'Spark Apparels' was launching its line of clothing today at Madam Malkin's. Malkin had restructured her shop, dividing it into two parts, with several expansion enchantments done to the place. Now, the left side of the shop was the first outlet of the 'Spark' clothing line, with its logo, having a lightning bolt shaped 'P' on the front.
They had been advertising heavily, in all major media outlets, since the beginning of the summer break. Almost every issue of the Daily Prophet had advertisements, displaying models in different articles of modern clothing for both genders. While Malkin had hired adult models, Helen and a few of her friends including Cedric, Susan, Daphne, Tracey and Hannah model for the adverts as well. Helen even had an entire advert to herself once, where she was lounging on a couch, wearing a beautiful navy blue floor length sweetheart neckline gown with silver embroidery work over her bosom and matching heels and a platinum and diamond choker. The other section of the page had shown the whole Weasley family waving after Mr Weasley won a ministry lottery and spent it all on a trip to Egypt.
Every issue of Witches Weekly and Teen Witches Weekly had multiple page catalogs printed in them, displaying the wide range of products that would be sold at the place, building hype and excitement amongst the female half of the population for the new fashion line. Helen had also roped in Howard Robinson to tell his audience that he was excited about the place, promoting it to an incredibly wide market.
Now, only a few hours away from the launch, Helen and Malkin were running around, making sure everything was ready. Malkin had not opened her other shop for the day and had directed her assistants to manage the new place. They had hired a couple of young women and a young man as attendants for the shop, which would be enough for a normal day, but today during the launch, they were expecting a huge crowd and thus extra help was necessary. Helen had called her friends as well to lighten the workload.
An hour before the launch, Helen started a round trip around the shop to cast a final eye on everything. She started from the front entrance as a customer would. They would enter the shop and step right into the perfume section, with smoothing and invigorating fragrances permeating the area. This section, like most of the shop, was mostly targeted for female customers, with only the left wall having men's products. Helen hadn't created any fragrances but the store still sold them. These were the same ones available anywhere else, of both magical and mundane variety. A half wall with an archway separated this area from the clothing section.
In the clothing section, there were separate space extension enchantments on each of the walls, leading to the men's section on the left and woman's section on the right. The men's section was smaller and had a simple setup, on entering the area, to the left one would find formal shirts, semi-formal shirts, T-shirts, singlets, and exercise tops. To the right were, formal trousers, semi-formal trousers and chinos, casual wear and jeans and exercise shorts and bottoms. In the center were formal suits, semi-formal blazers, tuxedos, long-coats and modern looking robes. On the far wall, was a door leading to changing rooms in the center, with accessories and undergarments to the left and footwear to the right of the door.
The women's section was about four times bigger than the men's and much more complex. It was firstly divided by occasion such as formals, semi-formals, party-wear, school uniforms inspired by Helen's style, casuals, nightwear, sportswear, swimwear and lingerie & undergarments. Then each section was further divided based on styles. So, for example, one could find skirts in multiple sections but each section had different styles. The collections and varieties were also much larger here than in the men's section. Two whole walls were dedicated to footwear of all kinds and one wall had all the accessories.
The woman's section also had a state-of-the-art mix and match area, where several full length mirrors were placed. To mix and match different articles of clothing, one simply had to select the said items from a touch menu on the mirror and once they found the combination they were looking for, the mirror would display the aisle and rack number where they could pick the items from. It was not a difficult enchantment, just tedious, as it involved feeding the mirrors the information of how an article looked, for every article of clothing in the shop. Helen had done those herself.
The shop had the standard anti-theft wards placed over it and the enchantments were protected by protective wards. The changing rooms had gender specific wards, allowing only the correct gender in. This meant that both men and women could explore the whole shop, but still had private warded areas to try and change without worrying about any peeping Tom or Tina. The billing counter was right beside the entrance.
Satisfied with her inspection, Helen went into the back of the shop, which had restrooms and an employee only area which included a storage area as well as basic amenities such as a small kitchenette, and a lounge to rest your feet as well as an office for the owners.
Everyone was gathered in the lounge as Madam Malkin was giving final instructions to everyone before sending them off to get ready. She then turned around and gave Helen an excited grin, asking "Are you ready? This will be huge!"
Helen returned her own excited grin, "As ready as I can be. Though I don't have much to do apart from greeting the customers." Cedric and her were going to greet the customers, acting as live models for their products right at the entrance, while one of Malkin's old assistants as well as one of the new employees would be manning the billing counter.
"Your job is the most important one. When they see the Girl-Who-Lived and her boyfriend dressed in our clothes, every customer will want to buy from here."
Helen nodded at the correctness of the statement and went to get changed. Today, every customer would meet the legendary girl-who-lived, they would remember a charming and kind girl. The Wizarding world's savior.
Later in the evening, after several hours of charming customers, Helen finally got the opportunity to get off her feet, when they closed the shop for the day. The business venture was a resounding success. Wizards and witches of all ages had come in throngs. Malkin had informed her they had to restock multiple times a day to meet the demand, thankfully they had good reserves, but soon they would have to resupply if demand continued to be this high. However, Malkin informed her that this was just the initial rush, and the number of customers would soon even out to a steady stream.
Helen relaxed on the couch, resting her head in Hermione's lap, listening halfheartedly to the number Malkin was quoting, while Cedric obediently rubbed her feet. Today, by every account, had been a resounding success, and wrapping it up with comfort from Cedric and Hermione was the icing on an already beautiful cake.
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Since it was only in the experimental stage and not available commercially, Helen had to seduce and confound a couple of university students to get her hands on the right material. Finally, she had what she wanted, a copper based thermocouple. Now she needed a place to modify it for her uses and run her experiments.
Luckily for her, the Potter Manor had recently been completely reconstructed and she finally had the time to visit the place. Since the weather was hot, Helen dressed in a pair of blue denim shorts and a plain white spaghetti tank top and slipped her feet in a pair of blue flip-flops. After getting breakfast, she summoned Dobby and had him pop her near the southwest coast of England.
Dobby popped her near the edge of the village called Congresbury, a few miles west of Bristol Airport. She could see the edge of the village from where she landed, but that was not her destination. Instead she turned west from the Bristol Road, A370, entering into the forest via a barely visible trail. Soon the sounds of civilization were left behind as all she could hear was the sound of leaves and branches moving in the breeze.
After walking on the twisting trail for a few miles, Helen encountered the first set of wards, which were muggle notice-me-not and repelling wards combined. Another two hundred yards in she encountered the second set of wards, which covered the whole property. These included untraceable wards, animal and insect repellents, as well as some other basic wards including Anti-apparition, anti-portkey, intent wards, and some rudimentary but strong defensive wards. From outside these wards, one could not see inside unless they were already keyed in. All they would see was the trail ending into thick forest.
Helen was keyed in and she could see the tall boundary wall surrounding the property and a huge set of black metallic gates right in front of her. She entered the wards and approached the gates, which opened inwards automatically without any sound, and entered the property. There was a gravel driveway that led straight to the manor situated in the center of the property. On either side of the driveway were Cypress trees evenly planted every few metres, giving the drive a very elegant look.
On the right side of the drive were huge lawns, which could also function as a Quidditch pitch after activating the charms that made the hoops pop out of the ground. On the left side was a combination of a small farm and greenhouse, which could be used to grow foodstock or useful magical plants. The drive ended in a circular gravel area, which had a round white marble fountain in the center. The area was bordered by a foot high evergreen hedges which had four openings, one for the driveway, one for the stone path leading to manor, and one each leading to greenhouse and lawns respectively.
The stone used in the pathway was light cream in color, which matched the impressive manor's walls. Helen had retained the original style of manor, which was French instead of Briton or Victorian. The manor had two floors above the ground and had a blue tiled slanting roof. The walls had multiple floor to ceiling windows with arched tops and they matched the french double doors in the front, which had huge stone pillars on either side of it.
Helen could also feel the final set of wards which covered only the manor and were currently dormant. They were a combination of powerful defensive and offensive wards which could withstand a significant onslaught and would only activate in case of an attack. Originally the manor only had the first two sets of wards, Helen had the goblins add the innermost one.
Instead of entering inside the manor, Helen went around the building to check out the first of her physical modifications in the place. On the backside of the manor, there was a decked patio which ran along the whole width of the manor. In the center were comfortable looking chairs surrounding a round coffee table. On either side along the walls were various benches looking out to the backyard, with individual coffee tables in front of them. The whole deck had a weather protection ward, so one could enjoy the view even in extreme cold or rain.
The deck ended with a couple of steps and a few yards further was a long swimming pool with blue tiles and white borders. The pool was the same length as an Olympic sized pool, but was only half as wide, perfect for her morning workouts. The weather protection wards extended till the farther edge of the pool. Making it possible to swim in it all year round.
Beyond the pool was a hot tub which could seat eight people at a time, twelve if they were comfortable with each other. The hot tub was done in white marble and had a few stairs on all sides for easy access. Helen had had another one installed in the basement of the manor, of the same model, to be enjoyed during bad weather as the weather protection wards didn't cover the hot tub.
Helen ignored the back entrance of the manor on the deck and completed her circuit around the building to enter from the front. She waved her hand to open the double doors and entered into the foyer. It followed the color scheme from the outside and was done in softer shades of blue and cream with walnut wood flooring and furniture. In the center was a small round table, on which rested a vase containing various blue colored flowers. On either side, a curved staircase was going up and straight ahead Helen could see the door leading to the backyard.
Helen didn't go upstairs as she was already aware of what was there. Upstairs were several bedrooms, an informal living room for family and friends, the second floor of the library connected to the first floor via a spiral staircase, and a study/office. Each bedroom had its own en-suite bathroom and a walk in wardrobe. The master bedroom was at the end of the hallway and had a huge bed which could easily have four people sleeping in it comfortably. It had posts on each corner from which hung sheer curtains in cream color which matched the rest of the room. The room had a sofa and a couple of armchairs and a settee at the foot of the bed. Everything was in soft cream, apart from the woodwork, which was dark brown of walnut wood and the far wall which was royal blue. There were a couple of doors on the far wall which led to the en-suite and the walk-in closet, both connected via another door.
Helen stepped beyond the staircases, and saw a couple of archways on either side, the one on the left led to the dining room while the right door led to the formal drawing room. Next to the archways, were a couple of doorways, with the left going into the kitchen and the right going into the library. The kitchen was also connected to the dining room through another door. Turning around Helen saw a couple of somewhat concealed doors under the stairways. One to the right of the house led to a washroom while the left one had a stairway behind it, leading to the basement. She walked forward and went downstairs to the basement.
The basement wasn't dark but was well lit with artificial lighting. The basement was divided into two sections by a hallway. On the right side were several rooms, a couple of storage rooms, another was an elf's quarter and of course there was the room containing the indoor hot tub. The left side was a huge open chamber, which was divided into different sections by half walls. There was a potions lab, an open study, another storage section, an enchantment and rune crafting station, an empty section for any random experiments Helen wanted to run and a warded space for practicing magic. At the end of the corridor there was Helen's personal collection of dark arts books and a cell that could be used to imprison and torture enemies. The last one was a personal touch of Helen's.
Helen moved to the rune crafting station, pulled out the thermocouple she had acquired and set to work.
XXXXX
Several hours later, Howard arrived in an elegant manor, brought there by an elf belonging to his new business partner. He directed him to a door on the left and he entered, finding himself in the kitchen. His partner was sitting on a stool next to the island while another elf served her a sandwich.
Helen waved him to take a seat beside her as she took a bite from the sandwich and he complied, wondering why the normally calm girl had suddenly brought him here. As the elf, who he realized was previously the personal elf of Lockhart, Tinny something, served him some tea and sandwiches, Helen pushed a small rectangular object towards him. His eyes widened as he recognized the object as a mirror and comprehension dawned to him about its significance.
Surprised, he asked, "Is that...? Have you done it?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Is it working?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Video too?"
A gleam entered her eyes as she picked up another mirror from beside her and spoke to it, "Call Howard Robinson."
The mirror in his hand started vibrating and glowing, showing the text 'Helen Potter calling' with red and green round lights below it. Guessing the green button would connect the call, he touched it with a shaky finger.
As soon as he touched it the screen changed to show Helen's face as she waved at him and spoke, "How are you doing today, Howard?". It was weird to hear her voice from two different angles because of her sitting right besides him, but he didn't care as he jumped up with a 'Whoop!'
He pulled the girl in his arms and whirled her around, both laughing in joy and excitement. "Genius, you are a genius! This will change the wizarding world forever!"
As he settled her down, his mind was already considering the possibilities. "We could do so many revolutionary things with this. We can have televisions, theatre telecasts, live news, live Quidditch matches, ohhh... the world cup, we can cover the world cup!" he said excitedly.
"Deep breaths, Howard. Deep breaths." When he calmed down a bit, Helen started laying out her plans.
Next day there was an uproar in the WWN headquarters, as Howard Robinson quit his job as the lead presenter. When asked about it, all he said was that he had an exciting new project lined up.
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Manor idea: pinterest com / pin / 319614904777389660/. Looks the same but bigger, wider.
Just so I'm clear, I'll not write accents, I'll just tell you that a person has a certain accent and might throw a few words in the language to hint at the accent, but I wouldn't write it. We are going to France in the next chapter and you'll see what I mean. I find writing accents a bit bogus.
Beta's note: You think writing accents is bad? Try reading them in every damn story!