Chapter 7

Sirius sighed contentedly, stepping out from under the shower, steam billowing. Taking a moment to appreciate his younger self in the full-body mirror. He stood at an impressive 6'3, with a somewhat muscular build. He had always leaned towards a bulky frame and his beater training only consolidated that.

It was not the first time he took a moment to appreciate and reassert the fact that he was truly back to health now. After Azkaban he unconsciously avoided looking at himself, not wanting to look at his gaunt frame and sickly appearance. That face with dead eyes, pale skin, sunken cheeks, and thin matted hair still haunted his dreams.

He moved his wand minutely, simultaneously drying himself off and applying a switching spell on his clothes, instantly putting them on. Magic really was somewhat like a muscle, in really simplistic terms, though it took longer to grow or atrophy. Thanks to his self-imposed training regimen, he felt like he was getting better with each passing day. His control got to a point where he was able to cast most charms and curses in his arsenal with nary a thought. Though he felt like more powerful spells would require greater concentration and some wand movements for a while still, Sirius was still making steady progress.

Occlumency really was a cheat. With his body and mind fully recharged after around four hours of sleep, he saw no issue with spending an average of six hours a day on self-improvement. With his boosted memory retention and learning speed he was steadily expanding his already robust spell arsenal by the day.

In the last three weeks, he fell into a comfortable routine. After getting up he usually spent some time reading and sipping coffee outside, while waiting for the others to join him. After breakfast, he would play with Harry and Nymphie for a while, before locking himself in a dueling room or his office, sometimes even until dinner, if he had nothing scheduled for the day. After leaving the kids with Andi he would go deal with business-related matters, sometimes visiting Amelia or the Longbottoms instead.

He made sure to train till exhaustion every session. For that purpose, he utilized a nifty ward he actually found in the Potter library - one that increased gravity in a specified area. It was a situational piece of magic, one that required a lot of energy and concentration to set up, its cost rising exponentially with the power of the ward. It suited Sirius' needs perfectly, as it allowed him to train physically while working his magic.

His training under its influence proved very fruitful. Despite already being at his all-time high, when it came to both power and endurance, he was constantly pushed to his limits. After training his dueling skills under the ward, particularly dodging, he found his speed and agility rising rapidly.

Working himself to the bone, he decided to indulge quite a bit on sustenance. He enjoyed meats of various magical creatures daily, while also splurging on other rare ingredients and magical supplements. The dragon meats in particular cost him a pretty penny. Lately, he had become somewhat of a connoisseur, he could easily tell the difference between various breeds and even the age of the dragon the meat came from and had his house-elves research and try different methods of preparing them.

He did not feel guilty about spending that amount of money on himself though. It was a drop in the bucket, where the Black fortune was concerned. He was certain that the investments he made lately would make him one of the richest men on earth in a couple of decades.

Using his knowledge of the future he invested in some magical companies he knew would do well in the future, like the Nimbus broom company, which had actually just been looking for early investors. Through being overly generous - at least in their eyes - he managed to secure nearly 70 percent of shares.

That was only a small part of his plans though. He invested heavily in muggle tech companies that he knew would experience massive growth in value - Apple, Microsoft, Intel, and many others. It was this that he believed would bring him the greatest financial gains.

He had done this himself, under his new muggle identity, after withdrawing money from Gringotts. He did not want the goblins to look into the companies and buy up following his example or grow suspicious of his sudden interest in the muggle world. The fact that they took a significant cut did not help to change his mind either. Being overly greedy seemed to be deeply rooted in goblin culture. They rarely respected wizards and only cared for profit. He was sure they would not be in any way grateful to him if they were to also benefit from this, so he did not feel the need to do them any favors.

It might have been a moot point, goblins were always reluctant to dip their fingers in the muggle world, as they were very heavily regulated there. They enjoyed quite a bit of freedom in the magical world, but the ICW had been quite adamant on that point, as it always has when it came to the Statute of Secrecy. After twelve years in Azkaban though Sirius firmly believed that 'better safe than sorry' were the words to live by.

Beyond that, he made an agreement with the goblins to contact as many house-elves as they could and send them his way. The Blacks owned huge swaths of land, mainly on British soil. A couple of centuries back the Blacks lent some money to the ministry in its early days when the budding government was in a tight spot. Large amounts of open land were offered as recompense. The only parts that were really utilized were used to build housing, which Sirius considered a huge waste.

House-elves were basically a huge free workforce. It was technically slavery, but since the elves themselves had no problems with it, Sirius had no moral compunctions about hiring as many of them as he could. The least he could do was make sure they were happy and had as much freedom as they could potentially get anywhere else. He offered one particular right that he felt was really significant. He permitted them to take mates and have children at their own discretion, within reason of course. He did not think he could support thousands upon thousands of elves, despite the very low amount of energy the bond itself took. It was a big change, since most families with house-elves bred them like animals, forbidding any type of sexual interaction unless they needed another elf.

Right now he was a proud number of 48 house elves, not including 11 Potter elves. That number was slowly but steadily climbing. The main purpose he had for them was working the land. Mostly plantations of magical plants and herbs, though some particularly nice forested areas would be used as a sort of safe haven for magical creatures. They would be offered a territory and food there for a small price of any parts they lose over time as well as their bodies after death.

The last thing he did was repurpose a couple of his family's properties - a well-warded island in the Caribbean being the largest. He offered all werewolves a place where - they would be offered food and board there as well as some basic magical instruction. If they wanted to earn some money they would have an opportunity to work on potions under some experienced potion-makers. It was a simple thing but Sirius felt that it had the potential to do a lot of good for those people. Just a stable place to stay and a way to live in something approaching a society would mean the world to them. Those from Europe would no doubt be particularly desperate, as werewolves have always been discriminated against here. All those properties were set up in countries like the USA and Australia which did not put any particular regulations on werewolves outside of the night of the full moon.

Just like that Sirius spent all the money that he gained by breaking the Bella's and Narcissa's marriage contracts and then some. Before all those businesses were set up he estimated he would have spent around half the liquid assets in the main vault. He was quite satisfied with his actions though and he felt everything would fall into place soon enough.

One of the memorable events lately was undoubtedly his visit to Grimmauld Place. Its only resident was unsurprisingly Kreatcher - Walburga was nowhere to be found and the elf swore to be unaware of her whereabouts. Sirius put her out of his mind though after he cut off her access to the vaults and other properties. As far as he was concerned she was somebody else's problem now and he wouldn't waste another moment thinking about the hag.

Kreatcher, at long last, started treating Sirius with a lot more respect, presumably because he was Lord Black now and actually acted the part. Though it was only after Sirius channeled his best 'noble scion' persona and called Kreatcher out on his attitude that it really began to sink in. After that, it did not take long for Kreatcher to get his act together, but Sirius still placed a number of commands on him. He would not place his trust in the hands of an unstable and demented old house-elf nor underestimate it ever again.

END