Sirius entered the gloomy room, with its blackened ceiling on which the Black family tree was painted, and saw that all the members of the executive board were already there. They were all staring at him as if they were facing a two-headed wherewolf, with a mix of dread, stupefaction and anger. He supposed that the astonished stares were due to his youthful appearance, as the only photograph of him that had been published since he'd taken the elixir was the group photo of their wedding they had sent to the press, and it had been taken from afar, with all the guests around him and Hermione. As to their anger and fear, they were easy to understand : all of a sudden, he'd raised from the dead and announced that he would lead the company. And as its statutes stated expressly that the position of CEO was due to the heir of the senior branch of the Black family and major shareholder, there was no way they could go against it.
He took his time to study them as well as he walked toward the table. He recognised Druella Black, her uncle Cycnus's widow, - the old dragon hadn't changed a bit- and glanced quickly at her so very different twin sister Lavinia, as thin and discreet as Druella was large and loud . Near the two witches was Herbert Crabbe, a distant relative on his mother's side he remembered having seen at his parents' house, ranting with them about the decadence of the times. He vaguely recognised some others among the older ones, who had probably crossed his path one day or another in his youth, but he would have been unable to tell who they were if he'd not studied the executive board's facebook before. Among them was Marcus Malfoy, one of Lucius' cousins, a man in his sixties who was enthroned in the CEO chair at the top of the table.
The faces of the few people around his age – or at least the age he had before he took the elixir- were more familiar to him. Here was Ludovicus Lestrange, Bellatrix's young brother-in-law, whom his mother always used as an exemple of a perfectly behaved pure-blood boy. Here was Malvina Macmillan who was a sixth year in Hogwarth when he was a forth – she had kissed him at the Yule Ball -. Here was Hector Bulstrode, with whom he'd been in detention for fighting. The reason of the fight ? If he remembered well, he had noisily made fun of the pompous style and pureblood supremacists ideas of one of Hector's articles in the Serpentard Gazette, in front of a crowd of laughing students. The guy hadn't taken it very well. He was now glaring at him, as they all did. And he was perfectly aware that he was staring back defiantly.
As could be expected, it was old Druella who found her tongue first.
"Well", she exclaimed with that shrilling, sour voice of hers, "I couldn't believe the rumours saying that Dumbledore had left you the last vial of Nicolas Flamel's elixir. Even after having seen the photo of that ridiculous marriage of yours, I couldn't believe it ! If proof was still needed that the man had become as mad as a Sorting Hatter, this would be enough, on top of having let such a secret die with Flamel ! And now, will you dare claim the direction of the company looking like a boy of twenty ?"
"Twenty-two, exactly, my dear Druella", Sirius replied smoothly. "And yes, from now on, I'm the one running the company, as is my right according to its statutes. By the way Marcus, I think you're in my chair. Would you mind to return it to me now ?"
Marcus, who with his white receding hair, pale eyes and pointed face looked eerily like an older version of Lucius, cast him a poisonous look but slowly rose from his seat. The man had been cautious enough not to become too obviously involved with Voldemort, but he knew that it had been a close call. He was not going to openly challenge Sirius' rights, especially not in the actual context. But Sirius knew he'd only bide his time and wait for a good opportunity to strike. Like most of the others around that table.
He flung himself casually in the chair, moving it away from the table and crossing his legs, like an ill-mannered kid. His part in the plan was to rile them up as much as he could, and to lead them to underestimate him in the same time. It was the best way to make them abandon some part of their usual cautiousness and to loosen their tongues. The rest would be in Hermione's capable hands.
"So, let's start to work, shall we ?" he said flippantly. "I've asked our first clerk – Ragnok, is it ?- to give me all the available documents concerning our recent commercial and freight operations. He was as thorough as could be expected from a Goblin, and I have noticed several strange details in these documents. First," Sirius started, raising his thumb, "the amount of gold that our mines are supposed to produce exceeds by far the storage capacity of the local deposits. Just a look at the plans makes it obvious. Which can only means that my friends at the Auror office are right and that there is one of several other undeclared sites. "Second", Sirius continued, raising the index, "we have in London three werehouse obviously designed to receive living merchandise, but with no account about what theses goods are. House elves would be my educated guess. And last, but not least", he added, extending a third finger, "Ragnok opened at my request a magically locked drawer, and I found in it a list of several muggle train and bus schedules. And by a strange coincidence, these are the lines where some accidents happened on the course of the last two years – unexplained explosions, mostly-. Maybe I'm far too suspicious, but I immediately imagined that the cause might have been by some incautious smuggling of illegal magical artefacts. Would you mind giving me some explanations on these three rather disturbing matters ?"
Only a lasting, heavy silence followed his little speech. Then Marcus Malfoy, staring at him with his inscrutable, pale eyes, replied icily : "Here you are, barging in here after years of absence, years spent in jail to boot, which is hardly a good place to learn how to run a company ! And all what you have to say in your first speech as our supposed CEO is a bunch of absurd accusations, worthy of Mad Eyes's paranoid brain. I can't understand a word of what you've just said. If you find any evidence of some illegal activities, then go ahead, report them to your Auror friends. But you won't. And in the meantime, let responsible, experienced people like us do their job, and go give interviews to journalists and fans, or party with friends your age. Your new age, I mean".
Sirius smiled insolently. "I didn't expect any other kind of answer from you", he said. "So I'll have to figure out what you're up to on my own. But I will, don't doubt that".
And with a mocking salute, he walked out of the room. Now, it was up to Hermione. Hoping, with more than a twinge of fear, that she would be able to operate undetected, he came back home to wait for her to return.