Tehee! More that one surprise in store for Courtney!
Halloween Surprises
Courtney thought over everything she had read in her letters from Harry. She now knew all the happenings of Harry's first four years of schooling.
And she couldn't understand it. She couldn't understand how they had believed him a traitor-when he had done so much for them, shown them time after time who he was and what he stood for.
Why!? She wanted to yell at Professor Granger, the headmaster, Professor Black, Mr. Weasley…everyone! She was finally understanding why Harry Potter had left. She was angry now and she also understood why Harry had been hesitant to share his story with her for fear of what it would mean. Why?!
That was the question she wanted answered. But even as she wanted to shout the question and demand answers she knew that Harry himself had asked the same question probably millions of times and he had never gotten an answer.
He still had not written to her detailing his fifth year and his subsequent arrest, trial and incarceration, though he had written a short note to her responding to her last letter.
Dear CourtneyThank you for telling me about your accidental revelation about our correspondence. I admire your honesty. Do not worry, I am not angry with you about it. To answer your questions; no, I had no idea about the Order of Merlin, Merlin's Staff nomination or the Wizengamot membership. Frankly, I don't care either, but thank you for sharing your research with me.
If at all possible please do not reveal our friendship to anyone else, although I will understand if I make it a bit difficult with my long letters. Not to mention how hard it would be if someone found out you had my old invisibility cloak. I expect in the next few days it will be even harder to conceal this, but I trust you to talk to the right people. As long as they leave me alone, I will be fine.
I will write again soon,
Harry Potter
She had puzzled a little bit over the implication that something was going to happen to make secrecy even harder? What was he going to do? Show up? She snorted at the thought. She had never met him face to face, but she did know him well enough to know how impossible that was.
She tucked the letter back into the folder where she kept all her Harry Potter related things. She needed to get to potions.
The combined class of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw was filled with excited murmurs, everyone was having trouble concentrating, especially since it was the last period of the day and the next day was the Halloween celebration. Snape's rather dramatic overbearing entrance put a halt to the talking but not to the restlessness of the pupils.
Snape ignored their restlessness and immediately set them to making their simple thought-clarifying potion.
Courtney and Angela worked together to complete it as best they could, however, neither of them were hot shots at potions. To their dread it had turned gray and was rapidly getting darker while it was supposed to be light pink. Snape glided over and sneered at their potion, "Ten points from Gryffindor" was all he said before he hurried over to Charlie Longbottom and started berating him as the cauldron melted, "Foolish boy! You are as bad as your father was at potions! You are supposed to be a Ravenclaw, like your mother!"
From Harry's letters Courtney had gotten a good idea of what Neville Longbottom was like, she smiled to herself remembering some of the escapades she had read about. She especially liked how they had cursed Draco Malfoy after Harry's fourth year. There was a fifth year Slytherin named Tiberius Malfoy, whom she guessed was Draco's son; more than once she had seen him bullying first years-even from his own house-and was lucky she herself had managed to avoid his harassment. Shaking herself and turning her mind back to the potions dungeon, she and Angela talked about their plans for the next day as they cleaned up and packed their supplies.
Snape was busy assigning Longbottom a detention for his melted cauldron as the rest of the class filed out.
Angela and Courtney (along with an assortment of other Weasleys) spent the rest of the afternoon flying on the quidditch pitch under Professor Finch-Fletchley's supervision. Courtney was not all that good and never went very high, but she had fun. She knew she was not Quidditch material, but she wouldn't mind getting a broom of her own just for some joy riding. Maybe she would ask for one for her birthday from her parents.
At the thought of her parents she sighed. She missed her father a lot. It was almost as if he had dropped out of her life completely. Sometimes, though she had not told anyone, she would cry after reading a letter from Harry. She wished her father would speak to her. Her mother had told her that her father was now just ignoring the fact that she was a witch, rather than vocalizing protest. That wasn't much of a comfort though to the eleven-year-old.
When Professor Finch-Fletchley blew her whistle calling her in Courtney's mood was considerably more sour than it had been before at her contemplations over her father.
~~**~~
The next morning all her depressive thoughts seemed to fly out the window was the sun rose, heralding a perfectly clear sky. The weather was cold, but the autumn colors made up for it. Excited students milled around the entrance hall waiting for the word allowing them to go.
Eventually Professor Black addressed them all saying, "Please check out with your head of house. All students below third year, you are expected back here by six o'clock, all other students be back by eight o'clock. When you return check in with your head of house. There will be teachers in the village as well to keep an eye on things. The Halloween banquet will take place at 8:30 with some live entertainment. Have fun."
With that all the students crowded around their respective heads of house clamoring to be checked off the list and get to Hogsmeade. When Angela and Courtney finally made it through the queue to Professor McGonagall and out the main entrance they took off at a sprint and raced to Hogsmeade.
Angela, being the more athletic one, won the race and insisted that Courtney buy her a butterbeer. So they entered the Three Broomsticks, Courtney bought two butterbeers and they sat down at a table. The drink was a new experience for Courtney and she rather liked it, especially with how cold it was outside. They were soon joined by Caleb Weasley, Jonathan and Jared Weasley-identical twins in their third year, and Patricia Finch-Fletchley, a second year. Courtney felt a little out of place with all the Weasleys, but she had fun anyway. Half-way through listening to Jared's tail of a joke they had played their first year, Caleb interrupted, exclaiming, "Dad!"
All of them looked around to see a red-headed man grinning down at them.
"Uncle Fred!" chorused Jared, Jonathan, Patricia and Angela.
"Hello all, hello, hello."
"Dad, this is Courtney Barnes, the friend I wrote you about."
"I see. Good to meet you Miss Barnes. I met your mother two days ago. My wife took her to Diagon Alley and she spent the day there with her and my daughter Amanda."
Courtney raised her eyebrows in surprise.
"Why are you here?" Caleb asked curiously, "I thought you were in Diagon Alley today and Amanda was supposed to be here today. She promised me she would bring the MP3s she had converted." Since Muggle technology did not work in or around Hogwarts Fred and George had devised a spell years before to copy muggle music into a magical Audiosphere that could be activated by a wand tap. Caleb loved his mother's muggle music, and was dying to have some of his pureblood friends listen to it.
"I know, when she found out about the shift change she gave them to me. I've got them back at the shop. Stop over and I'll give them to you. Meanwhile, I'd like to speak to Courtney."
Courtney was startled, and it seemed the other occupants of the table were too. Slightly confused, Courtney slid her chair out and followed Fred Weasley out of the Three Broomsticks.
They entered a store bearing the name Weasley Wizard Wheezes and proceeded to an office off the back room where Fred closed the door and indicated for her to sit down. Wondering what in the world was going on she politely accepted an offered glass of water. A second later the door re-opened and a man identical to Fred Weasley walked in.
"Courtney, this is my brother George. He is also the father of Jonathan and Jared. I'd like to get right down to business so we don't take up too much of your time," Fred explained as George sat down.
"Okay," Courtney said in a confused tone.
Fred sat back, "Two days ago I received a very…startling letter. It asked us to tell you this today, in private."
"Tell me what?" Courtney asked even more bewildered. George reached over and picked up a piece of parchment form the desk and handed it to her.
Effective October 29, 2021, Courtney Barnes holds one-third ownership of Weasley Wizard Wheezes Inc. She is entitled to one-third of it's earnings and an unlimited supply of all products, as well as all other owner privileges. She has a say in all decisions affecting the future of the company.
Signed,
Fred Weasley
George WeasleyStaring at the document in shock, Courtney said, rather inarticulately, "What does…? Why did you…? How…?"
In response Fred handed her another sheet of paper, written in a familiar hand.
"Harry Potter has given me everything he owns in the company?" she exclaimed.
Fred and George nodded solemnly. Courtney stared in silence at the parchment that had just made her a very wealthy eleven-year-old. She had a very good idea of how successful WWW was from Caleb and Jared (Jonathan was a Ravenclaw and so she did not know him as well).
George cleared his throat to catch her attention. When she looked up, he was holding a piece of paper. "All you need to do is sign this to make your partnership official in the eyes of the law." She took the document and quickly looked it over. There were certain legal restrictions on it because she was still a minor, but other than that everything looked right to her. She looked apprehensively at the twins, "Are you sure about this?" she squeaked out.
They both nodded and Fred presented her with a quill. She signed the document.
"About the restrictions because of your age, the lawyer had to put them in there because you are a minor agreeing to this without parental consent. The clause says that this contract can be annulled by your parents if they so choose until you reach the age of 17. However, even if your parents do decide to do that, we will still consult you before we make any major decision. If you want to remain a silent partner until you graduate, you may, or you can immediately get involved in the business affairs." George explained.
Courtney, with a dazed expression said, "I think I will stay a silent partner for the moment."
Fred and George nodded, expecting this response. They had her sign a statement to that effect, which she could revoke at any time. Then they handed her an envelope.
"That," Fred said, "contains your bank key and account information for the Gringotts account containing one-third earnings from the business. That account, unlike our own, was put into savings so it has also been sitting untouched for sixteen years collecting interest."
Courtney took the envelope, feeling the key slide around in it.
"Do you have any questions?" George asked.
Courtney, finally realizing this is what Harry had meant in his last letter about how it would soon become much harder to conceal their correspondence, asked, "Who else knows?"
"The lawyer we had handle it of course, but he is bound by lawyer-client confidentiality, Hermione, Sirius and Albus." Fred said blushing, "I apologize, I was so stunned when I received the letter, I didn't know what to do and so I consulted Albus. Hermione and Sirius happened to be in his office at the time. The three of them have promised not to tell anyone else. Sirius told us that Harry had been in contact with you, when it became apparent that an explanation was needed. He hopes you aren't too upset with him. The only thing is, as our company is within the public domain it must become a matter of public record. I doubt anyone is going to look at the company information anytime soon, since most already know everything they want to. However, whenever we contract for a new site they receive all company information. We also have to inform our overseas investors of a change in ownership. It is likely that it will get leaked to the press in one way or another. As you are a silent partner right now, your signature is not required on any of our contracts, but you won't be safe in that for long. I suggest you talk to Professor Dumbledore about having your mail screened. We will try to keep the attention away from you, but we won't be perfect."
Courtney nodded. Fred gave her a soft smile and stuck out his hand, "Good to have you in the company. I admit it is a little strange to have an eleven-year-old owning part of the company, but I think it will work out."
Courtney shook his hand as well as George's and then stood and followed them out the door.
"Would you like one of us to talk to your parents about this? Or would you like to write them?" George asked as they walked through the back room towards the main store.
Courtney froze mid-stride. How would her parents react? She couldn't imagine her mother reacting very well to the idea. She didn't imagine any parent reacting well to the knowledge that their child had just been given one-third of a business from a complete stranger. She shuddered to think how her father would react. Would he forbid it?
"I…I'll write to them and tell them. Mr. Weasley," she addressed Fred, "You say you met my mother? Can I tell her to contact you with any questions?" Fred nodded and George said, "Please, call us Fred and George."
Courtney nodded as they resumed walking. They were almost to the door when it opened revealing Angela, Jonathan, Jared, Caleb and Patricia, as well as Monica, Monica's older sister Jennifer, and Justina (Patricia's older sister), which comprised all of the Weasley family currently attending Hogwarts. All eight of them bursting with questions.
~~**~~
Courtney managed to avoid the Weasley's questions though she wasn't quite sure how. She vaguely remembered Fred, seeing her discomfort, making up some excuse as to why they had needed to talk to her. When Angelina, Caleb and Patricia (the rest were third year and above and could stay until 8 o'clock) got back to the castle, they started bombarding her with questions again.
"I know Uncle Fred was not telling us everything. Why did he really want to talk to you?" Angela said.
Courtney sighed, "It was a business transaction."
"Right, my uncles do business with eleven-year-olds," Angela said drily. Courtney pondered in silence. The information would eventually come out anyway and she knew her friends would be angry if they found out from reading the Daily Prophet rather than from her. So she told them, "Harry Potter gave me his one-third ownership of Weasley Wizard Wheezes."
All three of the started laughing.
~~**~~
It had taken the interference of Professor Granger to end the shouting match that had broken out in the room where they had been talking. Angela and Caleb had been very angry at Courtney because they thought she had not been telling the truth. Patricia, more level-headed than her cousins, had been trying to get them to calm down so she could ask for proof. When Professor Granger found them (and assigned all except Patricia detentions) she was as angry as Angela had ever seen her.
"What is the meaning of this?" she hissed.
Angela, Caleb and Courtney looked sheepish. Hermione looked to her daughter, "Angela?"
Shifting her feet nervously, "She wouldn't tell us what was going on," she mumbled.
Hermione raised her eyebrow at Courtney, "I did tell her, she said I was lying."
"Why would The-Bloody-Man-Who-Disappeared Harry Potter give you his one-third ownership of WWW?"Angela said in frustration.
"Angela! Watch your mouth!" Hermione said, wondering at the acerbic tone in her daughter's voice. It almost sounded as though she hated Harry Potter.
"Sorry Mum," Angela said, blushing.
"Fighting is not tolerated at Hogwarts. Patricia, ten points to Gryffindor for keeping a level-head. Angela, why would you get in an argument over something as trivial as this?"
"We're supposed to be friends and she's lying!" Angela insisted loudly.
"I am not lying," Courtney said through clenched teeth as Caleb snorted.
"You will not start this again," Hermione commanded, "Angela, Caleb, and Patricia, Courtney decided to trust you with a secret and you accused her of lying. She is not lying to you, Fred came to Hogwarts two days ago with a letter from Harry Potter instructing that his share of the company be given to Courtney. I don't know why, nor does Courtney, but it is true."
The three cousins were staring, mouths wide open, at Professor Granger.
Choosing not to notice the stares, she continued, "Caleb you will serve your detention with Professor Black, Angela with Filch and Courtney, with Professor Snape. Tomorrow night, 8 sharp." Then she left the room.
Angela and Caleb, after offering awkward apologies, excused themselves. Patricia stayed a moment longer just looking at Courtney then she too left.
Courtney sighed, that was not the reaction she had been expecting or wanting and she was glad it was over with, if still a little bit peeved at Angela and Caleb. She was stuck in detention with Snape.
~~**~~
After the feast, Angela, still embarrassed about the fight, excused herself and went to bed early. Courtney and Caleb reached a silent truce as they played Chess in front of the fireplace.
At quarter 'til eleven an owl tapped on the glass of the common room window and a sixth year opened it. The owl flew in and dropped the letter on Courtney's lap before leaving again.
Confused, because the letter looked to be neither from her mother nor from Harry, she opened the envelope and pulled out a computer print out.
Dear Courtney,
I know I have been awful to you these past few months. I am sorry. There is no justification for my actions, though I have reasons. I will not go into those reasons here, but I ask you to please be patient with an old man who is trying to change his ways. I am trying to accept this new aspect of your life and I hate that I have let myself become separated from you.
Please forgive me Courtney, please be patient with me. It may take some more time before I am comfortable with your new powers and what that brings into your life and consequently into mine.
I want you to know that I love you Courtney. No matter what, I will always love you. It may not seem so when I have been so awful, but I do.
Please be patient with me,
Love forever,
DaddyA/N
Well, I was going to do review responses, but it seems FFN is once again acting up. GRRR! Oh well, hope you liked this chapter. Next chapter? "Detentions and Discoveries."
Stay tuned!