Chapter Four
September
Friday September 1
Amelia met with Augusta Longbottom for lunch. As required, she had also sent owl notices to the other seven Board of School Governors members but the owls returned with the letters undelivered. Augusta acted as secretary and said, "Seven no shows. That's two meetings in a row. We can strike their names from the member list if we want."
"Amelia replied, "Noted. Done."
Augusta continued, "The first item of business is Fudge's complete lack of public support for the school. It's currently being staffed by the remaining instructors and being run on a daily basis by the trio of Flitwick, Sprout and Pomfrey. They're still in summer holiday mode."
Amelia asked, "How do the financial reports look?"
"Grim. Albus had quietly been dipping into the endowment fund for a decade or more to cover scholarships. The tattoo club had been sending their children for half price or less since 1980. Presumably he did it in order to keep his job. The seven seats that they'd held kept anyone outside their little group from looking at the reports too closely. The school is effectively bankrupt."
"Have the book letters been sent out yet?"
Augusta replied, "No. Lucius never sent that authorization letter to the school. No staff have been hired. Nothing."
Amelia asked, "Has anyone left?"
"Sybil left about the same time as the students. She was babbling about a transfigured stink bush and ran out the door carrying her crystal ball and dragging her trunk. So what are the options?"
Amelia replied, "Let's meet with the staff tomorrow My suggestion is to advise them to plan on a January opening with or without potions. Another option is to have them send the book list and a self-study program of some sort. Julie Abbott is tutoring Hannah and Susan. You should have Neville join them. I'll go visit the Wand Shop today and get an idea as to when the students could get wands. Meeting adjourned."
… - ...
A week after he'd been tasked to investigate, Filius concluded his work and was ready to make his report. After the runner closed the door, Ragnok said, "Good evening, Mr. Wick. What did you discover?"
"Most likely it was Fenrir Greyback's pack behind this. Had the vampires gone after the unicorns, the spiders wouldn't have caught anyone. That leaves the Weres as having the speed to catch the unicorns and largely evade the spiders. There was no full moon, so they must have made the raid while in human form. The motive is most likely what wandcrafter Potter speculated; a combination of denying wands for British witches and wizards and selling the hairs to other wandcrafters outside of Britain. I visited with Felix Badeaux in Marseille. A man traded two bundles of 150 full-length hairs for 40 wands. Similar sales took place in Munich, Oslo and Bucherest with apparently different people doing the selling. Sometimes they're legitimate sales. Potter made several trades of live unicorns in exchange for crafting wands for the seller's extended family. I arranged a similar trade for him with one of my former students. They were both pleased."
Ragnok observed, "Potter has been honorable to do business with. He's more skilled in negotiation than I would expect from a teenager." Ragnok asked, "What did you recover?"
"Nothing yet. Essentially the four wandcrafters made the same deals that Potter has – either direct trades or purchases. Certainly they can be burglarized or robbed but in the likely case that they were simply conducting business with someone other than Greyback, we would be escalating the core wars with the other branches."
Ragnok directed, "It wasn't our loss and Potter's elf friends will be excellent guardians of the six unicorns that he was given along with the others that he managed to acquire. We will stay out of the wizards affairs and eliminate Greyback if and only if the opportunity presents itself. His pack has become a nuisance."
… - …
Saturday September 2
Fudge slammed down the paper.
Floo Powder Shortage
Shelves are empty
They had limped along for several months, largely because the Floo Network had been functional. The wizards and witches are a widely distributed society. Many lived hundreds of miles from where they worked. Without access to easy transportation, their business ventures would quickly grind to a halt. The powder was imported and patented, so he felt that there was little that he could do about it.
The lobby in the ministry was full of angry people. Without Dolores to go out there and intimidate people, Fudge was on his heels.
… - …
Monday September 4
In the Minister's office, Reginald Cattermole wished he was anywhere but in Fudge's presence. Fudge raised his voice. "I don't care if you need to dispatch a team to Diagon Alley to repair some stupid wards. Get my washroom fixed now, today, before you do anything else! You don't expect a man of my position to use the general public toilets do you? Get it done or look for another position!"
… - ...
Two hard looking and graying women sat at the outermost table of Fortescue's Ice Cream Shoppe enjoying a towering chocolate fudge and strawberry sundae and looked idly about the goings on in the Alley. They both shivered as they felt the wards fall.
… - ...
At Gringotts, Ragnok pressed a rune on his desk. Soon his runner, Gumeye appeared.
"Tell the captain of the guard Stoneheart to deploy another squad of warriors at the entrance. The wizard wards for portkeys and apparitions have failed in the Alley."
Stone as he preferred to be called, led a squad onto the landing in front of the great double door entrance to Gringotts Bank. At age 160, Stone was an old and solid looking Goblin with graying hair but still a hard and flinty looking warrior. He pointed his head back and sniffed. Laughing, he turned to his squad, "I smell fear in the Alley from the humans. You are to deploy to the right and left of the entrance at the bottom of the stairs. Enforce order in our territory."
… - ...
The Patil's were in a good mood. After waiting in line all night, all four, the twins and their parents had just purchased wands from Harry Potter's Wand Shop.
"Mom, Dad, can we go for ice cream while you look for your owl?" asked Padma.
"Don't wonder off. Stay there, we'll be over soon," answered her father.
The two women eating the sundae nodded at each other as they watched the young twins walk to the noted ice cream shoppe. As soon as Padma and Parvati passed their table to go to the counter and order, they stood up, stuck their wands in the twins backs, stunned them, grabbed them, twisted and apparated away. It happened so fast that Florian Fortescue couldn't even yell a warning to the girls. He rushed to his floo to call the aurors.
… - ...
Once at the Lodge, Carol and Sarah cast at the same time to the twins, "Enervarate."
Padma and Parvati groaned as they woke up. They were each tied in a chair in an empty room and facing them were the two women from Fortescue's.
"What do you want with us?" asked Parvati.
"Well for starters your wands. Nice little instruments, these pencil types. Thank you. They work better than the ones we'd managed to acquire. Second, we're looking for new members for our little society. We are trying to improve our lot in life. You see the way magical society shuns us. They call us names like Beasts, and Creatures. We can't really control what we become once a month."
Padma's eyes widened. She finally noticed the scars and the hard, tired look to the two women. "Oh my sweet Merlin, they're Werewolves!"
"Smart girl you are. In five days, it's the full moon. We're going to give you a chance. An even chance to get away. You two are such pretty things. If you manage to escape before then, that's your good luck. If not, we'll make you both Weres. Then you can join our little family out here in the country side. Some young new blood will do. You'll find we don't have it so bad here."
Once outside of the hearing of the two girls, Carol opined, "You're a piece of work. You like playing with your food!"
Sarah just laughed. She'd finished two and a half years of a three year Masters arrangement before she'd been bitten. Slughorn immediately dropped her and kept all of the money that she'd paid him. The bitterness that she felt rarely left her conscious mind.
… - …
Back at the ministry.
"Director?"
"What do you have for me, Shack?"
"It looks like the Patil twins, a Padma and Parvati, both fifteen years old were brazenly abducted from the sidewalk seating area of Fortescue's Ice Cream Shoppe a few hours ago. It happened so fast that Florian couldn't even warn them. They just stood up, stunned them and apparated out."
"Did you say apparated?" asked Madam Bones."
"Yes, the Alley wards fell earlier today. The maintenance squad was too busy fixing Fudge's two toilets in his office to recharge the wardstones. I spoke to Cattermole and Fudge had threatened to fire him if he didn't put his whole crew on the job. I spoke to Fudge and I quote: It's water under the bridge. Nothing we can do now. They can go to the Alley when they're done with my office. Nice guy we work for... He's a real piece of... work."
Madame Bones just scowled in agreement and sat back.
Kingsley continued, "I found a witness. Mr. Jiggers was walking by and saw the whole thing. He swears that he'd previously seen one of the women who was involved. Her hood had slipped during the robbery of his shop. This had to have been a crime of opportunity. The two women were just eating their ice cream. They might have wanted the girls, or they may have been after their new wands. Time will tell."
Madam Bones sighed and thought: Kidnapping on top of muggings to get wands. Things just seemed to be getting worse. She asked, "Did the girls have any tracking charms or portkeys on them?"
"Unfortunately not."
… - …
Tuesday September 5
Wands Stolen - Teen Girls Abducted
Essex family robbed in Diagon Alley – Wards were down
Hermione had a very bad feeling when she read the article about Padma, her talkative sister Parvati and her parents. According to the newspaper, there may have been a witness. The story of Fudge's toilets painted him in the worst possible light.
… - …
Wednesday September 6
The headlines the next day didn't surprise many people
Fudge Out
No Confidence vote unanimous
Scrimgeour New Minister
Bones remains Director DMLE
Wednesday afternoon, Harry and Hermione were having a late lunch together at Fortescue's. Florean sat down with them for a minute to say hi. Hermione commented, "It's looks like you were busy yesterday at the Wizengamot."
"Fortescue replied, "It was Fudge's bad luck that the abduction happened a day before the meeting. If it were just a robbery, there's every chance that the girls will find their way back from where ever they were taken to. There was a call for any new business. Abbott called for a vote of No Confidence. Slughorn seconded and the vote was unanimous. Marchbanks nominated Bones but she said, not now. Ogden nominated Scrimgeour and Longbottom seconded. Someone mentioned that since he was coming in under a no confidence vote rather than a death, he couldn't name people for the open seats until he'd actually been elected."
Harry asked, "Why wouldn't Madam Bones want the job?
"I think she thought that she could replace Scrimgeour if he went to Minister more effectively than she could replace herself if she did. They get along well enough. It's probably an improvement."
… - ...
Thursday September 7
Newly appointed Minister Scrimgeour, Percy Weasley, Randi Bell and Amelia were sitting at a conference table. Rufus said, "Percy, show me the latest financial report that you have."
"This is as of July 31."
Beginning balance 272,000
Sales Tax 70,000
Estate 0
Expenses 225,000
Ending Balance 117,000
Scrimgeour observed, "I think it's fair to say that by the end of August, the balance was either near zero or overdrawn. How many employees were there at the end of August?"
He replied, "303. However 33 of them haven't been seen in over a month."
"In other words, they were Death Eaters. Don't mince words. Options?"
Percy said, "There's a 500,000G line of credit available. Director Debit used it and repaid it from time to time."
"Suggestions?"
Randi said, "Lay everyone off who isn't in this room, not an auror, or not Madam Marchbanks. Stop paying dead people. The drop in sales tax revenue is to be expected and isn't going to change in the next few months. August sales tax revenue was probably even less, as some of the shops have run out of things to sell."
Amelia added, "Percy, where was the estate money coming from and who was the outside operator? Find out, please. Randi, please find a roster of all the employees and the department where they were working."
Rufus said, "Percy, add the Azkaban admin and holding cell teams to the redundancy list. Keep the two people in Finance. We're only keeping 90 people total. The layoff is effective at midnight tonight."
When Percy and Randi left, Rufus added, "The payroll on the 15th should be about 70,000G and about half of that, paid twice a month thereafter. We have about four months to right the ship. I'll have Percy find a list of the businesses that paid sales tax in June and those who paid in August."
"Amelia replied, "I'll post the notice in the lobby later tonight and assign Proudfoot to watch the floo system."
… - ...
News of the happenings at Folgard's Currency Exchange had raced through the wizarding world of Britain at a pace that future social media outlets would term having gone viral. Lenny had been invited to demonstrate his shotgun for the shopkeepers at Diagon Alley several times in the month that followed. A handful of the Aurors also attended. Dan listened carefully; especially as Lenny described how the third of the assailants was described as having been wounded but walked away. Scrimgeour, who was there, pointed out, "There's anecdotal evidence that the bad guys du jour are a pack of Weres and with their remarkable regenerative ability that he'd be fine the next day." He added, "Too bad your people weren't using silver bullets. He'd have gone down and never got back up."
After Lenny's presentation, which included information on how to purchase a shotgun, Dan asked Rufus to elaborate. After hearing the effects of the silver, Dan pointed out, "I've reloaded shotgun shells since I was a teenager. I could make you some with silver shot."
Scrimgeour replied, "We'd be grateful for the help. I've nothing against Remus Lupin; he's a good man. He never causes any trouble and as far as I'd heard, was a damn fine instructor. I'm anti-bad guy."
They shook hands on it, unaware that they'd been observed.
… - …
Friday September 8
Carol Phillips sat in her booth with her back against the wall and her feet on the seat, nursing an ale and looking over the dining area of the White Wyvern pub located towards the far end of Knockturn Alley. She'd been watching Michelle Edgecombe for the last hour. Michelle had come into the pub in foul mood, sat at the bar and had a bowl of Shepard's pie and was on her third Pint. Soon she drained her pint and got up and made her unsteady way to the Lady's Room. As she passed by, Carol reached out and touched her arm.
"You look lonely at the bar. Can I buy you a pint?"
Michelle looked at her a long moment and nodded yes. "I'll be right back."
When she returned, she sat in the booth opposite Carol, found a fresh pint there and picked up her mug and took a long pull on it.
Wiping her mouth, she said: "Thanks for the pint. Have we met somewhere?"
"I don't think so. I'm Carol Phillips."
"Michelle Edgecombe. Why buy me a pint?"
"You just looked a bit down and like you could use some company."
"Yes, you could say that."
"Has something happened to you?"
"I used to work for the Ministry in the Floo office. Made a decent living. Got a good salary and then a little extra back in the war for shutting the system down now and then for unplanned maintenance, all for some fine upstanding citizens. Wink, wink, and a small bag of gold would be on my desk the next morning. Things were good. Then after the war, Fudge got elected Minister. I don't know how, the swine. I got passed over for some flunky that was kissing Fudge's arse. I made a little noise and Fudge gave me a little bag of coin every month. Then we lost all our wands and that money dried up. Fudge told me Lucius Malfoy used to give him money for me, called it hush money. A galleon is still gold, no matter what you call it. Then Malfoy disappeared with a bunch of other fine upstanding citizen friends of Fudge and bingo, no more coins."
"You said you used to work in the Ministry?"
"Right," she spat on the floor. That muggle loving scum Scrimgeour walked in and told us the ministry was broke and couldn't afford us. We were redundant. No severance, no notice, just pack up your personnel belongs and get out in thirty minutes. He had the nerve to post two Aurors in the room to make sure we didn't lift something. Better than half of the employees were walked out the door. I hope they all fall on their arses and die."
Even Carol thought that her view was excessive. Going for a bit of diplomacy, she observed, "I think you have been ill-treated. Abandoned when things got tough."
"Not much I can do about it though. I've only ever worked at the Ministry. I don't have much money left. I have to find something."
"I know how you feel. The Ministry and most of the public hates us. We are just misunderstood."
"Of course... Wait, what do you mean?"
"What if there was a way? Is that something you'd be interested in? How would you like to get back at them all - Scrimgeour, Fudge and the Ministry hacks who mistreated you?"
"Ya, who wouldn't. But how?"
"I can help you. I'm always looking for good people to add to our enterprise. You could join us. With the capability of our group, you'd be powerful too. It is exhilarating to be with us."
"But how? Who are you? No one does anything for nothing. What will you want in return?"
"If you join our group, you turn to us, then we protect our own, you'd be cared for, never want to leave. You'd have a home. Never want."
"What is it that you do?"
"We're a small operation, some do farming. We grow some food for ourselves, along with potion ingredients and we acquire things for resale. We think of it as opportunistic acquisition and sales. We have all the creature comforts one could want. Four farms in Cornwall, along with a mountain lodge. All the room to run, err hike to enjoy the great outdoors."
"What do I have to do?"
"Become a Were and join the best and biggest and most protected pack in Europe. You'd make a powerful Were, I can sense it. Come with me, the full moon is soon. You'd have a few days to think about it. Think of the power you will have, the strength. No one will be able to kick you around again. Join us." Fen had asked all of them invite educated people to join their cause in an effort to raise their perceived respectability. While Carol didn't have the same level of education as her friend Sarah, who was brilliant at potions, she believed herself to be a very decent judge of character and thought that Michelle could be a welcome addition to the pack. She'd probably end up in the lodge, rather than the farms. Fenrir would be delighted at that.
Michelle replied, "I'll need a few days to consider this. If I decide not to, will that be OK?"
"Sure."
"Let's go then."
… - ...
Saturday September 9
"The full moon rise is at 9:00 o'clock. You have a three-hour head start my little ones. It will be fun to run you down," huffed Sarah. She'd been the one to convince Fen to gift the twins, rather than simply let them go. Carol talked her into offering the twins three rather than two hours head start, estimating that they had an even chance of getting away.
"Where are we?"
"Better start moving, times a wasting," laughed the older Were.
Padma and Parvati started to walk away. They followed a lane, to the top of a hill and looked around. As far as they could see it was open rolling hills, fields, copses of woods with an occasional stream. There wasn't a road or building in sight.
"Oh my God, Padma, we're in the middle of nowhere. Which way to do we go?" They were frightened but the sense of urgency hadn't kicked in yet, They were wasting time.
"Let's keep the sun to our backs, that's west. We'll go east and we're bound to find something. We need to move now. Let's jog. We'll run 100 paces, then walk 100. Let's go. We don't know how soon they'll follow. I don't trust them."
A half hour later, Parvati panted, "I need to rest, Padma." They'd never exercised in their lives.
"No! we need to keep moving. There's a stream up ahead, we need to get there first."
When they reached the stream the two girls threw themselves onto the bank and drank deeply. Catching their breath, Padma pulled her sister up.
"We need to keep moving. Stay in the middle of the stream, let's go down stream for a piece then head east again. Maybe this will throw off their pursuit."
They continued their run/walk pace and covered a lot of ground. After two hours, they were winded, and it was getting dark. They stopped at the top of hill where they surveyed the landscape. In the distance, they saw a light flick on. It was hard to tell but it was at least a mile away.
"The moon is up. We need to pick it up and make it to that light. It's got to be a building. Maybe we can be safe there. Get help. Time to move, Parv."
The twins made a beeline for the light, covering ground as fast as they could move. Exhaustion was greatly slowing their pace as the moon rose. In the distance they heard the howls of the wolves getting closer and closer with alarming speed.
Parvati was crying as she fell to her knees. "Keep going Pads, save yourself, I can't catch my breath."
"No! We keep moving!" Padma grabbed her sister and dragged her to her feet. Holding her arm they continued to move toward the light in the distance.
… - ...
Sarah crested a hill leading a pack of four Were's. Her team had taken their Wolfsbane and had their wits about them. It was a good run to stretch out. They had covered a lot of ground fast. She stopped and sniffed the air. She could smell her prey was near and she let out a howl of delight! It wouldn't be long now. The prey had been cagey and taking the stream had delayed them but not for long. They could have stayed in it much longer and gotten away cleanly. Now they were getting closer.
… - ...
"Look Parv. It's a house. It's not far."
Both girls got their third wind. They stood a little straighter and moved a little faster. The light was just a few hundred yards away.
The howling was getting closer. They ran as hard as they could. Suddenly a large wolf was in front of them growling.
Padma pushed her sister to the side. "Go right I'll go left!"
Two wolves flanked them, growling pushing them back together.
A wolf leaped at them and Padma pushed her sister to the side and slammed a rock she had in her hand into the side of the wolf, who rolled to the side, howling in pain.
Sarah rose on her hind legs, howled and leapt on Padma and bit her arm. She shook her head once cutting into the skin and bounded off. Another Ware did the same to Parvati.
Sunup would be soon, and the pack circled the twins keeping them in place. The two girls sat and held each other. Padma, defiantly refused to cry.
… - ….
Sunday September 10
Later that day, back at the farmhouse Sarah sat the twins down.
Sarah said, "The reality is now you've been turned. You're both Weres. You should accept the fact and join us. The greater wizarding society will never accept you. You won't have it so bad here. We have a nice community. We take care of each other. Think on it. You can stay or go. Go back to your parents and see what happens. Here's my telephone number. If you decide to come back, you can call me at this number. One or both of you. I'll take you back now." A moment later, they were standing near the Leakey Cauldron.
… - ...
"You were bitten?"
"Yes father, both of us."
"You'll both have to go," sneered Amrit Patil. "I'll not abide creatures under my roof."
"How can you do this to your own daughters," yelled his wife, Pala Patil. "They are your flesh and blood."
Without emotion, he replied, "They're nothing but tainted females. Any chance of arranging a good marriage is gone."
Parvati was too stunned to say anything, and stood there, tears flowing down her face.
"You'd do that to us father, cast us into the street? Yesterday you loved us, today we are dead to you. Is that what you're saying?" shouted Padma.
"Yes."
"Husband, you cast them out, you are on your own."
"You leave and I'll go back to India and start over." You didn't give me a male Heir. The girls are useless to me now. You're as worthless as they are." With that he turned to leave.
"Father!" shouted Padma "Fair warning, If I ever see you again, I'll kill you."
They stared at each other a moment and then Amrit Patil turned to leave the house.
As he left, he threatened, "Be gone by 6:00 pm. If you're here, then I'll kill you all."
… - …
Monday September 11
Harry asked Professor Flitwick if he could help him for an hour. He explained, "I have a theory that a good percentage of the people buying wands aren't Brits. We don't open until nine. What I was hoping that you could do is to walk along the line until you get to Scrimgeour. He should be talking with the 200th person. Please count the number of people that you don't recognize."
"I'd be happy to." It only took ten minutes. He thought that Potter's idea was a good bit of basic research. While traveling to Britain to purchase a wand wasn't illegal, he recognized that Potter had a limited inventory of core material. Too many sales to foreigners would overrun their limited supplies. The results were concerning; 40 of the 200 people that he walked by hadn't attended Hogwarts.
Harry thanked him for his time, though Filius clearly thought that he'd gotten the better deal, having received a shop tour.
… - …
Tuesday September 12
Scrimgeour's first act as Minister didn't surprise anyone.
Layoff at Ministry
150 declared redundant
Sirius remarked, "It's probably only 120. There were thirty Death Eaters employed there. They must be nearly bankrupt with so few businesses open or actually selling anything. According to the article, they let everyone go who wasn't an Auror, Marchbanks, their personal administrators or in finance. They even laid off some of the Azkaban crew and reassigned Warden Speirs."
The mood was somber at the Weasley household. Arthur was among those who had been declared redundant. Worse yet, the impact of the loss of the unicorns hadn't been felt yet.
… - …
On Amelia's recommendation, a third of the day shift aurors were given the temporary duty of recharging household charms and wards to homes that used wards and charms (largely the old pureblood homes)
Both she and Scrimgeour hoped that it would buy them time and lower the anti-ministry sentiment. In reality, it was time consuming and the more senior aurors thought it to be demeaning.
… - …
Saturday September 16
Harry stopped over at Hagrid's as he promised that he would. The big man had been ready for hours. Harry greeted his friend, "Hiya Hagrid. Should we go?"
"I'm ready. Remind me when we get back; I got another bag o' interesting stuff for you."
"Thanks. Give me your arm; we'll go." Harry's portkey was set to go to the reserve. Taking Hagrid along didn't seem to tax it too much. Fifteen seconds later, they arrived. Bito and Charlie were waiting. Charlie walked over and smiled as he saw his old friend. Harry asked, "Where would you like your broomsticks?"
Bito replied, "In the office. Charlie, maybe you could show Mr. Hagrid a few of the buildings. I've got business with Mr. Potter for half an hour."
The office contained a collection of mismatched desks, chairs and file cabinets. Bito spoke perfect English, though Harry had a hard time placing the accent. They discussed delivery schedule. Bito confirmed the packaging details and commented, "You're the first person that we've done business with that was interested in the wings."
"Hopefully I'll find a use for them."
Bito remarked, "When you're doing your planning, keep the shrinkage in mind. I'd expect 20 percent after eight weeks in a dry box."
Harry replied, "Thanks. How much wing material is there usually?"
Bito held up a photo and replied, "A dragon wing is usually more of a rectangle as opposed to a big triangle. They'll average six feet wide at the body and four feet at the outside edge. They'll be 18-20 feet long at the age where we usually process them, depending upon the breed. So in terms of raw packaging. You'll get two 4x4 foot pieces and one 3x6 foot piece per wing. I'd expect seven to nine weeks in a dry box will give you the results you're looking for. Longer than that and the skin would get brittle."
Looking out the window he added, "Thank you for detailing your requirements. We don't like assuming what a client does or doesn't want. You should send Hagrid back here and show Charlie the broomsticks. They both look like they're about to burst. I'll show Hagrid the yearling dragons."
Harry brought out and opened the crate while Hagrid fast walked into the office. Harry searched the box for a few moments until he found the one that he was looking for and said, "Here Charlie. This one is yours." They looked like Nimbus 2000 racing brooms but there were differences. The broomsticks looked a little sturdier. The finish wasn't as glossy but looked highly scratch resistant. The twigs looked a bit thicker but the brooms were undeniably fast and agile.
Harry handed him the broomstick. Charlie gaped like a fish out of water. Along the edge of the handle under the finish were the words, For Charlie Weasley, Dragonmaster – Devlin Whitehorn. Charlie was speechless.
Harry said, "I suppose we should take them for a little fly and see if they'll work OK for you."
Still in shock, Charlie was muttering, "How? When?"
Harry said, "Let's go. You can show me around properly." As they rose he added, "They're supposed to be flame resistant. I hope we don't need to test that feature." The broomsticks were fast; easily faster than the 2000 that Harry first rode. They didn't have the agility to do Wronski Feints but they were... Wow. Harry said, "They ought to be serviceable for you."
Charlie just nodded.
They flew for twenty minutes. Charlie pointed out spots where the different dragons lived and nested. Off to their right, they could see a pair in flight. They were in a glide when the dragons spotted two sheep. The dragons dove and scooped up their meal.
When they flew back to the office, Bito and Hagrid were outside waiting. Both were glad for the experience. When they landed, Harry asked, "How did you like it?"
Charlie replied, "They're perfect. Please tell Mr. Whitehorn how much we appreciate them."
"I'll show him a memory cube. He'll like that."
"Thanks. Just thanks, Harry. I don't know what else to say."
Bito and Hagrid walked over. Bito asked, "Did they work OK?"
Charlie nodded and replied, "Perfect."
… - …
Essex Man murdered
Apparent house robbery gone bad.
As Emma and Hermione were out shopping, Dan was the only one who saw the paper. He didn't notice the article.
… - ...
After Harry and Hagrid returned, Harry asked, "Did you have fun?"
"It was great. Bito is an interesting wizard." Harry showed Hagrid the memory cube of the flight. Hagrid admitted, "They're beautiful creatures but it would be a hard life. I'm glad I went today. Thanks, Harry."
"No worries. I'm glad that you could come along. Thanks, Hagrid."
… - …
Monday September 18
When the first dragon arrived, Harry was glad that he'd taken the time upfront to be very specific with respect to the packaging and the disposition. As with a well-run fish market, within hours, the majority of the processed dragon was out the door. The goblins gladly paid a fair price for the meat. Other than the heart, the organs went to the potion masters of St. Mungo's along with a third of the blood. Ogden had stated that he'd happily purchase any and all that Harry could obtain. Fred Weasley was delighted to accept the dragon skull and broken scales while Neville happily accepted the scrap bone material and had offered to buy it. That was over and above the forty pounds of powdered wing bone that Harry had set aside for testing. The other parts in the various dry boxes were clearly identified along with the processing date. Harry wrote Do not upon until – date on the others with appropriate dates on each box. He decided to keep the dragon hide for the time being.
Hermione walked into the storeroom and looked at the items as Harry was putting them away. She mentioned, "We should talk with Remus about wolfsbane. There are two recipes. One is truly difficult, the other isn't much above an OWL level effort."
"What's the difference between them?" asked Harry, who was hoping that the answer could be described in two minutes or less.
"The easy one uses three times the dragon blood as the original formula. Charlie aside, dragon blood is almost unobtainable in apothecaries. You've got access to gallons of it. How much did he send?"
"A bit over six gallons. He told me that it would range from six to ten gallons depending on the size of the dragon. How much does the easy recipe call for?"
"About an ounce a dose; three altogether. I could walk over to Flourish and Blotts and pick up a book on it." Harry could see the hunger in her eye.
Harry handed her a bag of coins and suggested, "Please take Sharpeye and Blindeye with you. Enjoy the trip."
A minute later, Dan asked, "Where's Hermione going?"
"Bookstore."
"Over or under – one hour? Wait, who is going with her?"
"Sharpeye and Blindeye." Both were on their way to becoming lifetime students.
Dan changed the terms, "Over or under – two hours?"
Harry replied, "Over." He won the one galleon bet.
… - …
Much earlier in the morning, Molly Weasley took stock of their situation. She had five and a half pounds of floo powder. She carefully measured the powder into one ounce plastic bags and put them into a backpack. She took the floo to the Leaky Cauldron and went down the line. "Floo Powder for sale. 25 gallons a bag."
Everyone wanted one or two. No one complained. In no time at all, she'd sold the 80 bags that she'd brought. She was home in time to make breakfast with 2,000 galleons in her bag.
… - …
Not to be outdone, a sign appeared at Madam Malkin's.
Muggle wear for sale - suitable for grocery shopping
She and the smarter shopkeepers were taking advantage of the extra traffic in the alley from the people waiting in line to purchase wands.
… - …
Harry and the Grangers went to a nice Chinese restaurant for dinner for Hermione's birthday. She had her favorite, lemon chicken.
Emma asked, "How has your work been going, Dear?"
Hermione replied, "I miss the idea of not going to Professor McGonagall's class."
She asked, "What do you envision doing when you're 30?"
Hermione said, "I used to think about being a doctor. I suppose that I could be a magical healer."
Harry observed, "You've already met everyone at St. Mungo's. You should talk with them and ask how they got there, what they usually do, hours and days worked, how much they make and ask, if they couldn't be a healer, what else would they do and the like. Ask them if..."
She smiled at the acceptance of his suggestion.
Dan asked, "How about you, Harry?"
He replied, "Honestly, I thought wandmaking looked pretty cool when I met Ollivander. In hindsight, his shop was pretty creepy, especially all those gadgets that he used. He clearly couldn't see auras and was compensating. He had me try the better part of a hundred wands. To my knowledge, he used dragon heart, phoenix feather and unicorn hair as his primary core materials. I remember asking the guys in the dorm about their wands; they were always odd lengths like 11 ¾, or 10 5/8th. It seemed to be a lot of showmanship.
"To circle back to your question, I think a lot of people expected me to be some sort of dark wizard catcher, like an auror or a hit wizard. It didn't make a lot of sense. Between Dumbledore's everyone deserved 600 chances and Fudge playing Let's Make a Deal approach to law enforcement, it seems like the only people who actually ended up in prison were the complete sociopaths, or the unconnected. Fudge put Hagrid in prison without a trial when we were in second year just so he would look good. The wand shop sounds 100 times better to me. I expect a lot of jobs sound good until you see what people actually do and how they spend their week. What we have is really good."
Dan replied, "I agree. I haven't had a sore back since I came here to help out. Aside from the serious amount of money that there is to be made, one of the things that I enjoy the most about working at the Wand Shop is the opportunity for problem solving. Hermione, you saw several needs, then went out and invented a wand that wasn't in use. Harry, you don't let existing conventions restrict your thinking.
"Hermione, think of this; if you go far enough back, there weren't hospitals. There may have been people who knew and practiced healing on an individual basis. Somebody had the idea to band together, standardize treatments and become a clinic or a full blown hospital. It could have been this Mungo character, it could have been someone else. The same applies to schooling. In our case, it appears that the five of us invented or developed crafting of wands on an assembly line basis. That's a lifetime achievement; people just haven't recognized it yet. No, you didn't invent the idea of making a wand. No you didn't invent the idea of a factory. You two took the ideas and combined them.
"Happy Birthday, Sweetheart."
"Thanks Dad."
… - ...
Saturday September 23
At the Wand Shop, Student Day, as encouraged by Amelia had arrived.
Hermione had asked that they include the finishing seventh years in the student list. As a result, they saw some students who'd left school expecting to work at the ministry, or their parents' business. Most had been disappointed; there were no new hires at the ministry. Any of the family businesses that required wandwork were likely floundering financially.
There was far less optimism among the students who had just finished, except for the muggleborn, who were figuratively enjoying the warm waters of an excellent job market. That combined with the excellent exchange rates for those holding British Pounds, those working average nonmagical jobs were financially on par with a Senior Auror.
Several had managed to keep up academically with their high school friends over the summers and were attending university. Two had parents who worked in the auto repair business. The inclusion of their wands would set the businesses back to rights much faster.
Harry recognized some of the people who stopped in – Daphne and Astoria Greenness, as well as the members of the other quidditch teams. Hermione seemed to know far more of them including the runes and the arithmancy students. For the most part, they were all asking the same questions – when is school going to start?
No one seemed to know.
By noon, they agreed that they were done for the day. Harry asked Redeye, "How many did we sell?"
"190."
How many loan forms did you process?"
"180. I'll go make the deposit."
"Thank you, Redeye." He nodded back in return. The two had formed something of a friendship. Harry never specifically mentioned it but he didn't recall seeing either Ron or Ginny; though they could have come when he was on break.
… - …
The wandcrafters met in the breakroom. Emma had brought pizza for lunch. She asked, "What was the tally for the day?"
Harry replied, "190."
"How many students were enrolled last term?"
While Harry honestly had no idea, Hermione fired back, "395."
"How many had already received their wands?"
"About 15," estimated Hermione.
How many of the finishing students were here today?"
She replied, "I recognized 15."
Harry replied, "I'll let Amelia know know. I expect she'll be disappointed by the turnout."
… - …
She was. She'd expected that everyone would have gotten wands. Harry's observation about needing the parents back working first seemed to have held true. That afternoon at the meeting with the Professors, the meeting was less optimistic than hoped for. Due to owning an abundance of owls, the professors had sent out the original notices promoting student wand day.
Flitwick remarked, "It was exceptionally accommodating of the wandcrafters to agree to hold another student day on Saturday October 28 and to remind us that Gringotts is now offering 12 month wand loans. We should send out a second invitation this week."
Sprout added, "We'll include the book lists."
Flitwick suggested, "Rather than a starting date of January 5, why don't we have the students arrive Friday December 1? We can floo them home the afternoon of Friday the 22nd and ask that they come back on Tuesday the 26th."
Amelia said, "Perfect. What else?"
Sprout replied, "We checked the store rooms. There is quite a bit of canned and frozen food. Here's the list."
Amelia glanced at the list. Cases of peaches, vegetables, frozen meats and the like. One item caught her eye. 150 pounds of floo powder. Amelia pointed it out and asked, "Are you sure about this?"
Sprout replied, "We checked the storerooms. We have 150 pounds in the storeroom and another five in Healer Pomfrey's office. There likely is another five pounds in Dumbledore's office. There many be another five in Snape's or Minerva's office."
Amelia asked, "Could the ministry borrow most of that and replace it in the spring?"
Flitwick replied, "Certainly. What did you have in mind?"
She replied, "There are too many people who are out of floo powder who don't have the means of getting around and who live too far to get to their jobs or to get to London to do their business. I'll put a piece in the paper. If they're in need, they can call or owl the ministry, give the Aurors their floo address and Shacklebolt will send an auror with two ounces of floo powder out for them. This would be able to help over a thousand families."
"In the mean time, we contacted the floo powder company in Italy. They need 50 wands to get up and running. We got them in contact wirh Potter, who offered to trade them fifty wands for 5,000 pounds of floo powder. All I need is an international two-way portkey that can accommodate 50 people."
Flitwick excused himself and returned five minutes later. He asked, "What's their address?"
She looked it up and gave it to him.
He took a coil of metal strip out of his pocket, etched a few runes on it, tapped it, etched something else and handed it to her. He said, "This will take them to the front steps of Gringotts and back to their work place." He wrote the activation instructions on a half sheet of parchment in perfect Italian and said, "Here are the instructions. How much will Wandcrafter Potter be selling the powder for?"
"A galleon a pound with a one pound per person limit. The shops that normally sell it didn't want it. They view it as smash and grab bait until things settle down a bit. Potter should get it in a month. That and your help will go a long ways to getting people back on their feet. I just wish that Potter could sell twice as many wands as he's been."
Flitwick defended him by observing, "Garrick only sold 1,000 wands a year. I think they're operation is brilliant. I toured it recently. You should go see it for yourself."
Sprout summarized, "We'll send another set of owls with the booklists, notification of the second wand purchase opportunity and mention the loan availibility. You'll get articles put in the two newspapers. Call for Slippy and she'll deliver the floo powder. We'd best be going; we all have work to do."
… - …
Saturday September 30
Scheduling the Saturday groups became contentious. First, word got out that there were Saturday groups. Then came the suggestions of the groups – the rest of the healers, Hogsmeade residents, tradespeople, the Importers, the exporters. Everyone believed that they deserved to be next.
The so-called essential workers were quite a mixed bag. Apparently there were 600 import/export people. Apparently the alley merchants employed 800 people, though Harry couldn't recognize more than 200. The Wand Shop reacted by dropping the program.
… - …
A/Ns
Harry and crew are working a lot harder to have enough wand core and variety to get people working wands. Meanwhile the situation is grim in the other countries and getting worse. Wand core was always in short supply in Europe. In most cases the wandcrafters had small private stashes such as a pair of unicorns, or similar hidden away under concealing charms. Far too often, the knowledge of those locations died with them the night of the Wandout.
Story recommendation; Hippothestrowl's set of Walk Away tales.
Thanks for the inspiration, Mike.
… - ...
