The Core Wars

by old-crow

New problems arise on the evening of the third task. This tale is a Great Wandout Challenge story. Effectively it is as if Unexpected Consequences had been like playing a role play game at the novice level. The Core War tale has a far harder set of challenges. While not a sequel, this story assumes that you've read Unintended Consequences.

7. December

… - ...

Chapter Seven

December

Friday December 1

Harry called Daryl and asked if he could hopefully conduct the basilisk transaction at his classroom in Salem. Daryl replied, "Sure. When?"

"Tomorrow morning."

"Sure. I'll call Rick and invite him out. So there are no surprises, what items are you bringing?"

"The skull with the two major fangs and most of the teeth intact. It includes most of both eyes. One of the teeth broke off when it went through my arm. Also, there's all of the organs except the heart. There are three gallons of blood and two of the six gallons of venom available. I would consider an offer for up to 20 square feet of of basilisk hide that's in two separate pieces." He waited as Daryl wrote down the list and added, "To be fair, I have an existing offer from Gringotts but I think it would be easy to beat. I'm looking to sell those items except for the two pieces of hide as a single lot."

I'll call him and see you tomorrow at ten."

"Thanks Daryl. I appreciate it."

… - …

In Scotland, the Hogwarts opening feast was as notable for its absences as the new additions. Susan immediately noticed that there were no first years. Hannah thought that the Great Hall looked uncomfortably empty but didn't say anything. They were all glad to be back at school with their new wands. Susan said, "Look at the Slytherin table."

Hannah did and noted that their year was now represented only by Blaise, Tracy, Daphne and Millicent. She quietly commented, "There probably won't be many fights over the better chairs in their common room this year."

Madam Pomfrey stood and greeted them. "Good evening. As we'd mentioned in our letters, the schedule will be different. Yule break will be shortened considerably as will spring break. There will be more opportunities to visit Hogsmeade. There are two new professors this year. Potions Master Moonshine will begin the year with demonstrations of safety procedures, ingredient selection and storage. In collaboration with Professor Sprout, they will begin tomorrow morning at 10. You are all invited."

Flitwick got up and said, "Transfiguration Professor Clearwater and I will be giving demonstrations on some practical uses of charms and transfiguration tomorrow afternoon at 2. You are all invited."

Sprout stood up and said, "Your book lists were sent to you in mid-October. As we know that you were all responsible young adults and did your reading, the classes for the first few months will be heavily focused on hands-on practice. That said, let's eat."

… - …

At the Ravenclaw table, the students were also looking around. Padma was conspicuously absent along with her sister. Marietta asked, "Where's Loony?"

Speaking clearly, Eddie Carmichael replied, "Luna Lovegood started a staffing business for elves, Bright Moon. They opened in the building next to Potter. That was a brilliant move on her part. She'll do really well."

Naturally, that wasn't the response that Marietta was looking for. However, without her friend Cho to back her up, she felt lost and out of place and her snide comments fell flat.

… - …

At the Gryffindor table, Fred and George were scheming over their talking skulls project. Meanwhile, their younger brother was down at the end. He seemed completely lost. Dean asked, "Did you get through the charms and transfiguration books?"

Seamus replied, "I finished the charms book. Me ma helped be a bit on the disillusion charm. I've a bit left to go on transfiguration. How about you, Ron?"

He bragged, "I never touched them. I figured that the bookworm would help me with my homework. Where are they?"

Seamus asked, "Are you daft? They're at their wand shop."

"I figured that it belonged to that older guy who fitted mine. Who's going to play keeper?"

Seamus took a breath before replying, "Keeper of what? There are no broomsticks."

Ron retorted, "Sure there are. My brother Charlie sent me a picture of he and his mates on theirs. I figured that the school would have gotten new ones too."

Dean said, "You'd better buckle down and get your work done. You're already better than a month behind and no one's going to correct your homework that only has your name and one sentence on it and turn it into a passing grade this year. You've got a clean slate with the new potions and transfiguration professors now. Don't mess it up."

Ron wasn't a happy lad. He thought about what they'd said.

… - …

Saturday December 2

Harry rechecked his account balance. The transfer from Rick, the basilisk parts buyer had gone through. Dobby, Winky and four of their friends transported the massive box to Darryl's classroom. Two minutes later they all reappeared. Dobby said, "Daryl's friend, Rick was there. We gave him the big, ugly, snake parts."

In an odd way, Dan was slightly disappointed. He was very happy for Harry but being able to look at a real monster head had a certain ... attraction. 400,000G was a considerable amount of money but it would have looked interesting hung from the tall ceiling. Hermione was delighted to be rid of the pieces. She thought they smelled.

Dan asked, "What did you want the money for?"

"There is a tract of land available next to my lot in Gloucester. I wanted to buy it for Dobby and Winky."

"How much land is available?"

"320 acres. It's on the west side of my lot and goes to that little river."

Dan asked, "Do you have enough money to buy it?"

"I'm two million pounds short. Sirius will loan me the money. I hope to pay him back in three months."

"That's good of you. How far are you in the process?"

Harry replied, "We'll close on Saturday morning at nine."

"How many elves are you expecting to live there?"

"All of them. I expect maybe a thousand or two. They'll need to grow quite a few trees to accommodate everyone. They live in treehouses."

… - …

Ron had an idea. The conversation with Dean and Seamus had been eye opening and he'd spent most of the night thinking about it. After breakfast, he went to see Professor Flitwick and knocked on his office door. Flitwick answered, "Come in, Mr. Weasley. How can I help you?"

Ron took a deep breath and replied, "Professor, I've been wasting my time here as well as my parents' money. I've decided what I'd like to do but I don't know if it's possible."

Flitwick encouraged him, "Keep going."

"I'd like to get a job, making broomsticks. I'd need to know a lot about runes and charms."

"Keep going."

"Well, I'd like to drop some classes and take some others. I was thinking of dropping potions, transfiguration, astronomy, muggles and history of magic and I wanted to see if instead I could take third and fourth year runes and maybe fifth year too."

"What are you signed up for now?"

"Creatures, muggles, transfiguration, plants, potions, history, astronomy and charms."

Flitwick thought that the normally ambition-less teen actually had a good idea. An hour ago, he wouldn't have been surprised if Weasley would have dropped out over the summer and would be surprised if he returned in the following Autumn. He replied, "In addition to interviewing with one of the broomstick firms, I see several other gates that you'd have to get through to achieve your goal. The first is likely to be the hardest for you personally. I would recommend carefully writing a two page letter of apology to Wandcrafter Potter." Seeing that Ron hadn't complained, he continued. "When you get through with the third draft of it, "I'll be happy to look at it with you."

He continued. "The second would be to write to your father and ask to visit with him tomorrow afternoon. I expect that getting his permission will be the easiest of the three.

"The third would be to go see Professor Babbling and explain what you're interested in doing. What you're asking to do is not unprecedented but you'd have to be serious. Additionally, you'd do well to ask Hagrid to take you into the forest and learn about the different types of trees. Should you be hired at one of the broommaking firms, my guess is you'd initially be tasked to collect wood, branches and twigs. Come March, I'd suggest contacting the firm of your choice and asking about arranging an internship for the summer."

As expected, the teen asked, "What's Potter got to do with this?"

Flitwick replied, "Think about it overnight. Perhaps Professor Hagrid could help you find that answer. That said, this needs to be your letter, Mr. Weasley. Mr. Potter would know if it's not and you'll only have one chance. Have your conversations and show me your letter on Monday at 7 pm.

… - …

Monday December 4

Amelia invited Sirius to lunch. She was already seated at the table when he arrived, even though he was five minutes early. The ministry was effectively broke. In order to make the mid-January payroll, either her meeting would have to be successful, or she'd have to find someone to loan the ministry several hundred thousand galleons. As Gretta had put it, they'd about run out of altitude and air-speed.

After the initial greetings, he asked, "How can I help you?"

She replied, "I need someone to take over the estate disposition business that Parkinson used to do. It requires someone of means and a crew of five or six people." She continued on for a few minutes.

While he gave her an attentive look, his mind wasn't on her words. When she took a breath, he replied, "Minister, I'm going to have to say no, or at least not yet. Remus and I are doing meaningful work at Harry's Wand Shop and after being gone for so many years, I feel like I owe him the moon."

She was prepared to counter any of a dozen objections but not that one. She replied, "I can ask Tiberius Ogden. I hate asking someone who was no more than a step away from being a Death Eater."

He replied, "If it doesn't work out with them, I'll find a way to help you. I have to stick with my current path for a while. We're having fun, making good money and helping people – all at the same time. If it turns out that you need a loan, I'd be happy to help you out."

Believing that he wasn't a licensed wandcrafter, she asked, "What are you actually doing?"

"I'm scheduling what type of wands we're going to make on a given day and Remus is keeping track of the various inventories, so we have enough materials to make those specific wands. They need the help and having a meaningful job is very good for Remus."

She realized that she wasn't going to change his mind but she was grateful that he'd left the door open. She replied, "OK. Thanks for hearing me out, and thank you for the offer as well."

"Anytime."

She had another meeting to arrange.

… - …

At 7 pm Flitwick heard the knock on his door and invited the teen in. Practically bursting with excitement, Weasley said, "Here's my letter, Professor." Filius sat down and carefully read the letter.

Harry,

Please don't toss this away before reading it.

I want to apologize for so many things – things I've said, things I've done and things that I should have done. I've seen everything through my eyes – eyes that had a mum and dad and a handful of brothers to (attempt to) keep me in line. I never took the time to see things from your perspective. I should have.

From the time that we first met on the train, your perspective was way different than mine. I didn't have new clothes either but mine fit and hadn't been thrown away by a whale. You didn't have a handful of people propping you up. You had to grow up before I even thought about what the term meant.

I apologize.

Last year, I'd been seeing things from a spoiled 9 year-old's perspective. You'd gotten something that I'd thought that I'd wanted and I acted like a spoiled 7 year-old by throwing a wobbly that lasted six months. You were seeing the world from someone's perspective who seemed to be 30. Not only did I fail to see that ruddy tournament through your eyes, it never occurred to me that your perspective even existed. The gap was too large for me to even consider. The only reaction that I knew to do was lash out.

I apologize.

I shouldn't have said those horrible things to and about Hermione either. When I get my courage up a bit more, I'll write her an apology too.

I'm not asking you for anything. I just wanted to let you know that I realize that I was wrong. Maybe someday we can make it right between us. Thanks for reading this.

Ron

Flitwick handed the letter back to the teen. The penmanship was far better than what he usually turned in for class assignments but the words appeared to be his own and he'd certainly written it himself. He said, "This is good. Address it to Harry Potter, The Wand Shop and it will get to him. You would do well to follow-up with a similar letter to Wandcrafter Granger as soon as you are able. He's far more likely to forgive you if she does too. What did Professor Babbling say?"

"She told me that she thought that I was probably making the best decision of my life. She told me that I'd need to buy a rune carving kit and two bags of practice tiles. She also told me that I should buy these three books. She recommended taking third and fourth year runes this year then reading and practicing fifth year over the summer and taking my OWL before coming back next year. She told me if I pass the OWL exam and do well in my other classes, she'd let me take sixth and seventh year runes next year."

"Very encouraging. What did your father say?"

"He told me that it sounded like I'd found my calling and to go for it. He told me that I should try my hardest to make it work."

"Very good." He opened his closet and took out a box and three books. He opened the box for a moment, examined the contents, then closed it and handed it, along with the three books to the teen. He said, "These are the books that she referenced. This was my rune carving set when I was in school. There are plenty of blank tiles to get started with. You can purchase them inexpensively from Scrivenshaft's in Hogsmeade, or the shop two doors down from the Wand Shop in Diagon Alley. I'll make the arrangements with the other professors. Which days and times did Professor Babbling want you to attend?"

Ron handed him the paper that she'd written out. There were no time conflicts with his other remaining classes. Flitwick said, "Good. Start your new schedule tomorrow. You're taking fifth year charms, fifth year magical beings, fifth year herbology, third year runes and fourth year runes. You'd best get started on your reading. Don't let a week go by before writing to Wandcrafter Granger."

"I won't. Thank you, Professor. Thank you for everything."

"My pleasure, Mr. Weasley. Don't forget to send your letter."

"I'm on my way. Thanks again."

"I hope you are, Mr. Weasley. I hope you are."

… - ...

Tuesday December 5

Newly minted Minister, Amelia reflected on several conclusions after her meeting with Tiberius Ogden. He was a very good businessman who asked insightful questions. He could envision various outcomes and wrote a far easier to understand contract than the one that Basil Debit had put in place with Parkinson. Second, Ogden was a far better negotiator than she was, though in this case, she could easily rationalize that neither she nor the ministry as a whole were actually out any money. On top of that, she was certain that he would successfully relaunch the estate disposition business and put the ministry back on a solid financial footing.

The summarized deal was simple. The goblins would get 10 percent of the gross estimated valuation for continuing to provide warded, security lockdown service on an estate and provide a valuation estimate of the property. To do so, they would do a search for bank accounts, outstanding mortgages, loans and the like. Their valuation estimate was attainable when someone actually attempted to sell the property.

The ministry would get 10 percent of the gross estimated valuation. Like the goblin portion, it would be paid when Ogden purchased the estate.

The beneficiaries would receive 55 percent of the gross estimated value. It would be distributed by the goblins. Specific bequeathed items would be distributed per the terms of the Will if there were sufficient funds available to pay the estate tax and estimation fees.

If there were no living beneficiaries, the beneficiary portion of the estate would be divided equally between the ministry and the estate company.

If the estate disbursement company (Ogden) was able to sell the property for more than the estimated value, they would be entitled to the extra money. If they sold it for much less than the estimate, their selling costs would exceed their discounted purchase price and they would lose money on that estate. Either way, the ministry received their 10 percent.

On top of that, Potter's wand sales update at the Wizengamot meeting had been promising.

… - …

In light of the ministry layoff, it was easy for Ogden to assemble a team to operate the business.

Pius Thicknesse, Wilkie Twycross, Ludo Bagman, Amos' son Cedric, Borgin, Felsenthal, Toftland, Ogden's sister Lynn and her son Cormac signed up. Ogden had Lynn oversee the others. He thought there were enough people so after they had a bit of experience with the work, they could process two estates concurrently.

Ogden's thought when making the deal was that the Senior Estimator, Snotnose was sufficiently compensated to provide an estimate that wasn't overly aggressive. The goblins made money, the ministry made money, he made money and the beneficiaries would receive their inheritance. The discount easily covered his expenses and left some upside; especially with Voldemort's marked followers who were in the habit of keeping a large bag of coins buried in the back garden in the event that they needed to quickly get away.

He said, "I'll start by purchasing the Crabbe, Goyle and Liche properties first." They had been appraised at, 200,000, 200,000 and 600,000 galleons respectively." He wrote the bank draft and by the end of the day, the widows would receive their money along with the ministry and Gringotts.

Amelia asked the new Finance Director, Gretta Macmillan, "Is there anything else?"

She replied, "No. We're done here for the day. Good luck, Mr. Ogden." As he walked out the door, she wished that Sirius had accepted her offer for the estate disposition opportunity. At least he'd taken up his Wizengamot seat this morning. Equally importantly, she had the funds to cover payroll for next month.

… - …

Thursday December 7

At the Romanian Dragon Reserve, Bito, the Director waited until all of the crew at the reserve had finished their dinner. He stood up to speak. He was no motivational speaker; his hands were like iron from decades of real work. He ran the ranch on behalf of the ICW. The livestock in question just happened to be dragons. He liked to think that he was good at it; this was one of the very few reserves that actually made any money.

Bito stood and said, "Can I have your attention?" The Wranglers - they all were called wranglers regardless if they were the cook, licensed veterinarian, processor, or the actual wranglers stopped talking and looked his way.

"The wards at the Iceland reserve were breached yesterday. A group of twenty raiders came in. They shot all of the livestock, cut out the hearts and completely burned the carcasses. Apparently the Director at the reserve had been slow in returning the call from the British Wandmaker who supplied us with wands and broomsticks and they never were able to get their ward stones recharged."

There was stunned silence.

"The invaders had used some sort of sleeping gas on the crew to keep them from interfering. The crew wasn't hurt. There was nothing salvageable from the burned out carcasses."

Charlie asked, "Why didn't they contact Harry? I gave him their telephone number. I'm sure that he would have called."

Bito replied, "He did. Apparently they thought that they could get a better deal. They'd also been contacted by some guy from Cypress and were waiting to hear back from him. He's since disappeared."

One of the Wranglers asked, "Now what?"

Bito speculated, "The ICW will put it on their list to form a committee to discuss it. As you can imagine, it is a very long list these days. My guess is that next year, we'll either be asked to donate a female with a clutch of eggs, or several juveniles."

Charlie said, "I'll call Harry and see if he can help."

Bito nodded at the suggestion and replied, "If he could send them a handful of wands, we could donate a pair of broomsticks so they could at least get their wardstones recharged. It's not fair to ask him to send them forty wands and a whole set of broomsticks out of the goodness of his heart. Those bastards even smashed all of the eggs."

… - ...

Saturday December 9

As Harry was finishing fitting the last of the forty Wranglers from the Iceland reserve, Devlin Whitehorn came in carrying the four broomsticks that he'd stayed up most of the night making. Neither would accept a knut for their products.

Harry opened up 42 bottles of Orange Crush and they all had a toast together before the Iceland crew's portkey took them back to their reserve. They had a lot of work to do.

… - ...

Friday December 15

"Harry Potter Sir."

"Hi Dobby. What's up?"

"Elves are wanting to grow many more trees on Harry Potter's property."

Harry replied, "Plant as many as you went. Do you need help, or any money?"

"Elves would like to be paid for two days of working."

"OK. How many elves?"

"1,000."

"OK." He went to the office and got six bags of gold and handed them to Little D, then said, "Thanks for planting them. Isn't it too cold?"

"Not too cold. Elves will talk to the trees so they will be growing very quickly."

"OK. Thanks Dobby." Harry wasn't certain what the little guy was up to but he always had Harry's best interest at heart. As he went back to indenting blocks, Harry wondered exactly what very quickly meant.

… - ...

Sunday December 17

Ogden called his sister, Lynn to his office and asked, "How did the estates work out?"

"Better than I expected. After the taxes and fees were paid from their account, you paid 110,000 for the Crabbe package. The home sold for 100,000. There was 22,000 in his vault after the tax and fees. Their personal property sold for 5,000 and we found 20,000 buried in his tool shed. Borgin and Felsenthal sold the interesting items, Diggory cleaned up the property. Cormac found the coins in the tool shed and Toftland found a buyer for the property. Twycross and Thicknesse disabled the wards and traps. The crew was paid 15,000G. The total expenses were 125,000 the total income was 147,000. We made, 22,000G."

"How about for the Goyle property?"

"About the same. We made 23,000G"

"How about the Liche property?"

"We made 45,000G."

He remarked, "Very good. Here's your half. Which do you want to handle next?"

"What's the estimate on the Malfoy property?"

"6,200,000G. There should be plenty in the vault for taxes and the appraisal fee. Sirius Black will net 3,300,000. We should do better than a million after expenses."

"Good. Have everyone work on it and don't let them out of your sight, especially Borgin and Felsenthal. Those thieving bastards would rob us blind if we let them. Call me the day you go out there."

… - …

Monday December 18

Emma had stopped in at the Wand Shop for lunch and was watching the last people come in for the day. She felt a little light-headed and went to the breakroom. She sat on one of the recliners and had been there for a few minutes when Winky walked in. She asked, "What's wrong, Dr. Emma?"

"It must have been the lights. I kept looking at people and seeing colors. Harry glowed a bit..."

"Blue," said, Winky, finishing her sentence. "You are seeing magical persons' auras. That's a very special gift for witches or wizards; very special. Have one of Harry's orange fizzy drinks." She handed Emma a bottle. "Watching auras is taking energy. Drink."

She did and immediately felt better. Winky pulled at her hand and said, "Go look at Miss Hermione. What color do you see?"

"Brown."

"Good, good. Go look at Dr. Dan. What color do you see?"

"I don't see anything around him."

"He's not magical," she whispered. "Just handsome." She gave an elf giggle.

"He is," agreed Emma.

Winky took her hand and led her back to the break room, where they sat down together on one of the big recliners. She remarked, "Seeing auras is a very useful skill. Winky uses it to see what wand people will use."

Emma said, "You meant to say, I use it to see what wand people will use. Tell me how that works."

Winky replied, "I use it. You can use it too. I think you should be working at Wand Shop." She gave Emma a hug. She added, "You should practice looking at auras of other magical people. Next time you come to the Wand Shop, tell Wi..., tell me what colors you can see." She hugged Emma again.

… - ...

Tuesday December 19

Sirius went up to Harry and Lupin, who were in the break room and said, "I have good news."

Remus asked, "What's that?"

"Ogden just bought the Malfoy estate. Amelia talked him into running the estate business after I told her we were too busy."

Remus replied, "Keep going." Sirius loved to toss in a bit of drama into his conversations."

"The estate was estimated at 6.2 million. 10 percent went to the ministry, 10 percent went to Gringotts. 55 percent went to the beneficiary, me and I didn't have to do anything."

Harry did a bit of math and remarked, "So if everything sold as expected, Ogden would gross 1,550,000G, minus expenses. Not bad for him. As for you, congratulations! That's fantastic news for you."

Dan walked in and said, "Amelia is coming over Thursday at 10 to ask about getting some wands to some group from Italy."

Sirius remarked, "Remus and I have some business in St. Ebb that day; you're on your own with her."

Harry replied, "We get along well enough. Have a good night you two. Hermione and I are going out for dinner tonight."

Remus replied, "Have fun."

… - …

Tuesday December 26

The Ogden crew took on the Malfoy estate project with a bit of experience and inside knowledge; Borgin had been to the house once in the past. He at least knew of the secret room underneath the floor of the study. He also knew that the desk controlled a series of traps; though he had no idea how to disarm them.

Thus Ogden's sister Lynn, directed, "We're going to walk through the rooms now. Don't touch anything. Look for traps." Unsurprisingly, they didn't trip or discover any. Twycross and Thicknesse spent the afternoon examining the desk and thought they were ready.

Lynn asked, "What do you expect to happen if you're wrong?"

Thicknesse replied, "I believe that the manor would start on fire with a precast mass incendio."

"What's your confidence level"

"90 percent."

"Hold that thought for a minute, Did anyone see any traps upstairs?"

The rest of the crew replied, "No."

"So if there's a 100 percent chance of being able to empty the second floor safely, why hasn't that been done already?"

Burke and Felsenthal were in the library while Cormac and Cedric were boxing up items from the guest bedrooms. Cormac bristled at being told to stay clear of Draco's suite of rooms. He and Cedric were primarily used for doing the more common muggle tasks - taking the beds apart, boxing up the clothes, carrying the lamps down and the like.

Cedric was much more realistic in his assessment. Had the Wandout not taken place, he'd either be bored in transfiguration class, or working at the Leaky Cauldron, depending on what his father left him. Instead of working at some entry-level position at the ministry making 500G a month, he'd made 2,100G for the first month working for Lynn; more than his father had been making at the ministry.

…

Meanwhile, Bagman was desperately searching for the third task bet money, in the guise of boxing up items from Lucius' bedroom. Lynn stopped in with annoying frequency, almost as if she could read his mind. She and Toftland were boxing up Narcissa's room. Her portion of the Black Jewelry collection was in the bank vault but there was no shortage of expensive watches, tennis bracelets, ruby rings and the like. She put those in a bag that she constantly carried.

As the work day drew to a close, she gathered everyone together in the dining room. Twycross and Thicknesse reported that the desk trap had been disabled and the study was ready to be cleaned out.

Felsenthal remarked, "Be careful with the books. We sold him a cursed book to kill off any thieves."

Cormac stated, "Cedric and I cleared out all of the guest bedrooms. What's next?"

Lynn said, "The house elf moved all of the items that we'd placed in the front yard over to the warehouse. Tomorrow Toftland, Borgin and Felsenthal will clear the study. Thicknesse, Twycross and Bagman will completely clean out the basement. I'll finish in the dining room. Cedric and Cormac, you'll box up the china and silver service in the morning and pick through the pantry in the afternoon. When you're done, take the rest of the things outside.

"On Thursday, we'll finish with the outbuildings."

… - …

Wednesday December 27

Lynn walked into the study and asked, "What's that horrible screaming noise?"

Borgin replied, "He had a bloody Egyptian horcrux book trap in the shelf. Even we wouldn't have sold something that dark. We put five drops of basilisk venom in it. The thing should quiet down and crumble in another few minutes. If the venom wasn't so ridiculously expensive, I'd have poured an ounce on the bloody thing and shut it right up." After a few minutes, it crumbled to dust and silenced itself. He added, "There; it's taken care of. Cedric and Cormac can safely box up the rest of the books now."

Meanwhile. Twycross, Thicknesse and Bagman had cleaned the basement of everything including the badly decomposed bodies of two teenagers. It had been gruesome work but they'd signed on for it. The two were no strangers to causing deaths or serious accidents of children, They simply weren't used to having to dispose of the bodies.

… - …

At the end of the day, she gathered them together and said, "Good work today." The basement is presentable. The dining room and food prep area are cleaned out. Borgin, what's the status of the study?"

He replied, "The extra room is cleaned out. You made the deposit at Gringotts; Felsenthal and I will be able to sell the rest of the items. You've got the ledger books. Take good care of the red one. There's useful information in it. The lads did a fine job boxing up the books."

Bagman asked, "What's left?"

"In the morning, we'll search the out buildings. In the afternoon, we'll go through here one more time. Cedric and Cormac, you two can pick through Draco's rooms when we're done with everything else. The rest of you, check your pockets to make sure that nothing accidentally slipped into them. I'd hate to have to cut your willies off if I found anything. Thieving bastards, the lot of you."

… - …

Thursday December 28

The Ogden crew met outside Malfoy Manor at nine that morning. Lynn said, "There are three out buildings in the back. Look sharp; Malfoy probably hid some coins somewhere out back in case he had to dash on short notice."

They got to the first building. It was a tool shed about ten by ten feet with a single window and a door that wasn't locked. Thicknesse looked around and said, "Get this mess cleaned up. Bring the tools to the front where we can portkey them to the warehouse."

Cedric didn't complain. He got to his task. He transfigured a branch into a barrel and started packing up rakes, picks and shovels. The push grass mower looked ancient and unused. It took some effort to get it out the door. The sand floor seemed strangely loose. Remembering Lynn's words, he took one of the shovels out of the barrel and dug into the sand a bit. With absolutely no effort, it sunk into the ground where he heard a chink. He used the rake and cleared some of the sand away. After ten minutes, he found a grocery bag sized sack. With a lot of effort, he attempted to pull the large sack out of the hole. He had nearly completed his task when he heard a scream.

… - …

There's a truism in business that states that most people will perform in accordance to their compensation plan. In Cormac McLaggen's case, it was a true statement. The previous day, Lynn had told Cedric and him that as soon as the out buildings were taken care of, they could go to Draco's rooms and split whatever they found.

While Cedric would appreciate an extra pocketful of gold as much as the next person, he absolutely loathed the blond ferret. The idea of finding dirty pictures in the blond braggart's sock drawer or under his mattress didn't interest the true-to-the-bone Hufflepuff in the least. He was happy to perform his assigned task of cleaning out the tool shed.

In contrast, Cormac had always viewed Malfoy as something of a rival – In terms of possessions and social position at school. Draco had been on the quidditch team whereas Cormac had never been chosen. The blond ferret had a better broomstick and he'd had the eye of the pretty girl, Astoria Greengrass. The comparisons went on and on and usually Cormac felt that he'd been on the short end of the stick.

Thus McLaggen's self-perceived need to acquire and possess whatever Malfoy had was burning in him. Why his mother had suggested that he share that bounty with someone other than family was a mystery; perhaps an act of pity. In any event, Cormac had other plans besides looking in a guest house like some combination of a cat bugler or a handyman.

…

What Cormac didn't know was that the yellow house had been gifted to Lord Voldemort in 1972. The four bedroom, two story home was the perfect residence for a mass-murdering sociopath who envisioned himself as a charismatic, good looking young man. Perhaps he had been in 1946. Also residing in the house was his pet basilisk, Mr. Snake. Certainly it wasn't a princely name like Nagini but at least it was descriptive. Mr. Snake had his own entrance into the home that he grudgingly shared with his person. His routine was to go outside every week or two, find something interesting to eat, kill it, eat it, drink some water, pee/poop, go back inside and have a nap for a week or two.

Mr. Snake had been enjoying the same routine for the last 45 years since he'd been hatched. Occasionally he would converse with his human companion who would find places for him to live. He hadn't seen his human for many seasons but that didn't bother him in the least.

His human had used massively charged ward stones to keep the home at the same temperature, keep clean and dry. All things considered, it was a perfectly acceptable home for Mr. Snake. The fact that his human had stolen the magic from several of his followers that he'd been unhappy with to power the wards didn't matter to Mr. Snake.

Bang! Crash! Along came Cormac McLaggen, who barged into Mr. Snake's home with the finesse of Ogg the caveman looking to get lucky at a high society country club.

"There's nobody inside. Let's get this over with," declared Cormac, as if stating it would automatically make it so. Mr. Snake jerked awake at the unexpected vibration from multiple people tromping around in his home. He uncoiled himself from his sunny spot and slithered down the stairs to find (and kill) whoever had disturbed him. There was some idiot boy and two others standing in the doorway that his person used.

With remarkable speed, he fixed his gaze on the idiot boy who fell in the doorway along with the person next to him. The female screamed but since Mr. Snake didn't rely on his hearing (except to talk with his human) he didn't mind much as she fell dead. He slithered by the three, gathering speed as he went. He fixed his gaze on five others as he slid out the door to see who else may have intruded on his home and interrupted his nap. Not seeing anyone else at the moment, Mr. Snake slithered off to his favorite sunny spot in search of four legged prey. He would move the intruders later and close the human doorway to his home.

… - ...

Cedric forgot about the sack and ran towards the yellow house that was several hundred yards away. As he got closer, he noticed that all of the others were on the ground. He stopped and looked around a bit. He spotted a huge snake slithering off.

With the Hogwarts basilisk tale still fresh in his mind, he carefully made his way to the others where he confirmed that they weren't breathing. He concluded that they were dead and in several jumps, apparated to the ministry.

He asked Eric Munch the guard, "Where can I find Amelia Bones?"

Eric replied, "She went to the Wand Shop in Diagon Alley."

Cedric replied, "Thanks," and dashed to the apparition point. He reappeared between the back of Tom's place and the wall to Diagon alley. He tapped the bricks and dashed the length of the alley until he reached the Wand Shop.

Blackeye was standing guard and announced, "The Wand Shop is closed today."

Incorrectly using her old title, Cedric gasped, "I need to see Director Bones. There's an emergency."

Blackeye let him pass. He ran into the shop and shouted, "Madam Bones."

"In here."

Breathless, he wheezed, "There's a huge basilisk loose on the grounds of Malfoy manor." Pant pant. "It killed... I think it killed the whole team."

Harry handed him a bottle of water and asked, "How big is huge?"

"25 feet. I just saw it slither away."

Amelia asked, "Where was it?"

"By the yellow house behind the manor."

She said, "You should go home, Cedric, I'll gather the Aurors and go find it. Thank you for finding me. Go take Tom's floo and go home. Thank you for the update, Harry, I need to go now." A minute later, they both had left.

… - …

As Amelia left the Wand Shop, Redeye found Harry and asked, "Would you enjoy an adventure today?"

Proof positive that teenage brains are not yet fully developed; without so much as a thought, the teen replied, "Sure."

"Here's my plan..."

Ten minutes later, Harry was in Wiltshire via the adjustment that Redeye had made to his portkey watch. He was wearing his mirrored sunglasses along with his invisibility cloak and was carrying his broomstick. He kicked off and silently flew in a pattern at 100 feet. It took him just over ten minutes to see the snake near a yellow house along with some bodies on the ground. It was searching for food but apparently concluded that the bodies were too large. He tapped the six coins, dropped them near the 23 foot snake and flew a distance away.

Seconds later, the portkey targets activated and six sheep appeared. With a quickness that Harry never considered, it struck. One of the sheep was dead. The telephone pole thick snake opened its jaw to a size that Harry wouldn't have thought possible, as it effortlessly swallowed the sheep.

Immediately, prior to delivering them, Redeye had soaked the sheep's wool with Draught of Living Death. Whereas a normal dose for a person may have been one ounce, each of the sheep was wearing a half gallon of the most potent potion. Within a minute, the huge snake was completely still and as far as Harry could tell, its eyes were closed.

Harry waited another minute, then tapped and dropped the other target portkey coin that he'd kept in his shirt pocket. Redeye appeared, carrying a bag of supplies, several sharp looking knives and his mithril pole axe. Redeye asked, "Did the snake swallow the big sheep?"

"Exactly. It was scary quick. I thought I was done for when I dropped the coins. You were right, it never looked up."

"The dragon keepers teach us that. Please levitate its head." Harry did and Redeye placed a large black heavy duty plastic trash bag over its head and tied the drawstring tight.

… - …

A half-hour earlier...

Amelia dashed to her old office. She called, "Condition Red! All hands in the meeting room. Randi, contact all of the Aurors that you can and get them here immediately."

Immediately apparently meant that 15 minutes later, there were fifty. There hadn't been money to go out and purchase 100 cell phones / calling plans and, like land lines, floo calls weren't overly effective. They only worked if the person being contacted was at home. She told Michelle and Randi, "That's enough."

She addressed the group. "There's a basilisk reported to be loose on the Malfoy estate in Wiltshire."

Someone asked, "How reliable is the report?"

"Tiberius Ogden and his estate disposition team were there working. Cedric Diggory is on the team. He stated that he was at one of the other out buildings cleaning it, heard the scream and ran to the yellow house where the sound came from. He reported that he found the others dead and saw the basilisk slither off. I'd call that a reliable report."

"How big was it?"

"He estimated 25 feet."

Someone asked, "How do you kill a basilisk?"

There was an uncomfortable silence for a minute before she asked, "Does anyone have any ideas?"

Some 15 minutes later, the most viable ideas seemed to be;

1) Form into two groups and try killing it using a mass casting of the killing curse or

2) Burn it up, using a mass casting of Incendio

Moody limped up to her and quietly muttered, "Call a five minute break." She did.

He suggested, "Split the Aurors into two. Leave half of them here with Shackelbolt in case this goes bad. Slade's idea of the Flagrate curse is as good or bad as anything. It's safer than fiendfyre. The alternative is to call the Prime Minister and have them drop a bomb." She admitted that both ideas might work but had a reasonable likelihood of killing good people.

He added, "If it were summer, it would be easier to set the whole property on fire; the lunchroom crew could probably have managed that. If twenty-five people attempt to cast AKs at it from a safe distance, ten might manage to get a spell off. Two might manage to hit it. We could get lucky but I like the burning spell idea better."

Another 15 minutes later, they had the go team and the stay team sorted out, a portkey made and had briefed the go team of the layout of the estate. Fifteen minutes after that, they activated the portkey.

… - …

Back at the Malfoy Estate; five minutes after Redeye had arrived.

Though Redeye had sharpened the blade of his mithril axe, he was certain that the snake was too thick for him to behead in one stroke. He said, "After I hit it with the first blow, please use your severing charm to get through the muscle. The back of the snake is likely to spasm, so be careful. I'll hit it again and finish the task." Just as he predicted, the dead snake wiggled into a ball; tensing and untensing for a minute. Harry was glad that he'd severed as much as he had. Redeye gave a second mighty swing and the snake was now in two pieces. The goblin said, "Please levitate the two parts onto this plastic tarp. That blood is quite valuable. Then we can rest for a minute." The head part was easy to move. Lifting the body took quite a bit of effort but five minutes later, it was laid out in a straight line.

Redeye took two bottles or Orange Crush out of his bag, handed one to Harry and said "Well done, Wandcrafter Harry."

Harry thought that the effort was worthy of a title and replied, "Well done, Basilisk Slayer Redeye."

Redeye thought about it and remarked, "It is a good title. Thank you. Can you roll the tail section over, so the bottom is facing up?"

It took a while but Harry eventually accomplished the task. He asked, "Have you ever processed an animal before?"

Redeye replied, "All of the goblin nation are taught how to do so in our school. I freely admit that the snake that I worked on in school was much, much smaller than this one. Let us measure this first." He took out a string with makings on it and had Harry hold it at the tail end. He pulled it tight and got a number at the cut. Then they repeated the steps with the head. He said, "As you measure it, just over 23 feet." As Redeye began making the slice along the underbelly, Harry was collecting the blood by summoning it into the gallon bottles that Redeye had brought. Since the snake was fresh, the blood had far more viscosity than what Harry had received from the larger basilisk. Redeye asked, "Which pieces are useful to you?"

Harry replied, "The bone, the heart and some of the venom." He didn't think the list was too long and added, "If you want, I know a guy who would purchase any of the pieces that are of no use to you."

Redeye replied, "My people will feast on the meat tomorrow and the weapon masters will craft some interesting weapons with the fangs. The potion masters will be delighted with the other parts. Let us split the venom." He carefully opened one of the venom sacks and Harry summoned the venom into a bottle. They did the same with the other and made certain that the amounts were equal then stoppered the bottles closed. All together, there was more than a gallon. Harry didn't care to think about how much had been injected into the sheep.

They were removing the rib bones and placing them in a pile when they heard a crowd of people approaching. While they were still a distance away, Harry called out, "Hello."

Someone shouted back, "Ministry Aurors. You need to leave the area immediately. We've had a report of a basilisk in the area."

Harry replied, "I know. Minister Bones was in my wand shop when the report came in. We have it right here. Who is in charge?"

Amelia was walking up and said, "That would be me, Mr. Potter. I see that you and Redeye have it... Yuck." She clenched her teeth together to avoid getting sick.

Harry remarked, "This is the side of wandcrafting that we don't talk about when people come by for the ten minute tour."

One of the Aurors muttered something about Harry not having the authority to disturb the body when Amelia gave him a withering look.

Harry remarked, "I'm pretty certain that it came out of the yellow house over in that direction, with the group of dead people next to it. You might want to look over there. I'd be a bit careful about going through the place. Whoever hatched and grew this one certainly could have had a few more."

Amelia asked, "How did you manage to dispose of this one so quickly. I was fearing that I'd end up with a dozen dead Aurors, or worse."

Harry replied, "Redeye made a handful of portkey targets out of sickles. I used my portkey watch to get near here, put on my reflective sunglasses and cloak then silently flew around on my broomstick until I spotted it. I activated the targets and dropped the coins near the basilisk. While I was searching for the basilisk, Redeye had collected six sheep and soaked their wool with Draught of Living Death. The snake ate one of the sheep, fell asleep and here we are."

Redeye said, "I will continue here. Perhaps you want to show them where the house is. Maybe a few of the Aurors could collect the rest of the sheep before they wander too far."

Amelia looked at Harry, who was a bloody mess. She tried not to flinch when he walked up to her and said, "I'm a parselmouth. I could go by the door and call for any other snakes if you wish?"

By then Moody had limped up to him and remarked, "First rate work, Potter. You too, Redeye. That was an inspired bit of planning on your parts. How many sheep did you say were loose?"

"Five. The sixth got eaten."

He nodded and said, "You four, go round up the sheep and give them a good rinsing off, or you'll be sleeping until July."

Harry went up to Amelia and Moody and said, "There's a good chance that Riddle lived in that house. I don't know who else would be raising basilisks, let alone long enough to get one anywhere near that size. I'd bet my broomstick that the house is full of traps. Unless you really want to know if he wore boxers or briefs, I'd suggest summoning the bodies, then sealing and torching the house."

He added, "I'll go with you if you want but it could go really bad, very quickly."

Moody observed, "The lad's right. If there are a million galleons inside, they'll still be there when the fire's out. Did you recognize any of the bodies?"

"Bagman was the only one I saw who was face-up."

Moody said, "We have our work to do and you need to help Redeye finish your task. You did good today, Potter; damn fine work. We'll be on our way."

Amelia added, "Thank you again."

Harry went back to the snake, Redeye had cut up the meat into three foot slabs. Harry called for Dobby. Little D gave a gasp when he saw the remains of the snake, Harry asked, "Can you get a crate big enough for this and a box large enough for that pile? Also can some of your friends help Redeye get this back to the Wand Shop?"

"Dobby will make it so."

A minute later, Dobby and ten of his friends made quick work of the packaging. Redeye shook hands with Harry and said, "It was a good adventure. Thank you."

Harry replied, "It was an excellent adventure. You had an outstanding plan. Well done, Basilisk Slayer Redeye." Redeye nodded, collected his equipment and portkeyed away.

Not to be completely outdone, in a conspiratorial voice, Dobby, who had come back said, "Harry Potter should follow Dobby." Little D led him away from where the yellow house and where the Aurors were gathered to the guard house by the front gate and dug into the ground. They found a good size bag of galleons. Dobby said, "Cedric Diggory found the other bag in the tool shed but he left it there."

Harry suggested, "Put that one on his bed and the other one should go ..."

… - ...

Back at the yellow house, the Aurors had summoned the bodies and sealed the house. Amelia looked at the row – Tiberius Ogden, Lynn McLaggen, Cormac McLaggen, Samuel Borgin, Thomas Felsenthal, Pius Thicknesse, Wilkie Twycross and Ludo Bagman.

Moody remarked, "I'll find the Diggory lad and have Connie interview him properly."

She replied, "It can wait until tomorrow. Have the team fire the place and put it out properly when it's burned itself out. I'll talk with Shack and inform him that there were no Auror casualties. Thanks Moody."

"Good decision on your part; there was nothing in that house that was worth anyone dying over."

… - …

Harry was smart enough to take his portkey back to the Granger house and quietly sneak into the shower. He'd gotten the worst of the dried blood and ick off when Hermione walked and and demanded, "Where have you been?" She saw the blood red water at the bottom of the shower floor drain, gasped and asked, "Are you OK?"

"I'm quite fine and happy to see you."

Looking up, she smirked, "I see that."

He said, "Hand me my shirt and trousers please." He brought them into the shower to let the water soak them. The drain water was solid red.

Hermione asked, "What were you doing?"

"Redeye taught me how to properly process a large animal. I'll get this cleaned up. Please bring me some clean clothing. We'll need some help from Dan to get some dry boxes made."

Two hours later, they'd made the dry boxes and gotten everything put away properly. Harry marked the open dates on the boxes and said, "I'm famished. Let's go out for pizza."

… - …

Cedric had finally found Cho and told her what had happened. Obviously he'd just lost his job. She wasn't impressed, or overly sympathetic but being several months pregnant, he was willing to cut her some slack. They went back to his house. He went to their bedroom to change his clothes and saw the large bag of galleons with the note marked, For Cedric on their bed. Things would work out.

… - …

Back at Hogwarts, Flitwick and Sprout walked into his office to discuss how the could keep the school open when they were 50,000 galleons short for the year. As they reached his door, she bravely remarked, "We'll manage." Dozens of the students were attending on IOUs from their parents. It would be a true challenge to get through the year.

They walked in and Flitwick immediately could smell traces of the basilisk blood. He saw the grocery bag size sack of galleons, put two and two together to come to the proper conclusion, then answered, "You're right. I believe that our problem has been solved; at least for this year." He was all but certain that Potter had saved the school again.

… - …

Sunday December 31

Everyone associated with the wand business met for lunch that Sunday. Before they ate, Harry did his thank yous and passed out year-end bonuses to everyone. Sirius especially appreciated the smile on Remus' face when he opened his aluminum case. It was more money than he'd ever been paid and for once in his life, seemed to believe that he'd actually earned it. Self-esteem came very slowly to the Were.

After everyone had gotten a ways through their meal, Harry asked, "How can we get from selling 6,000 wands a month to 10,000 or 12,000?"

Sirius asked, "What would you like to sell?"

"4,000 dragon wands and 8,000 basilisk wands."

Sirius replied, "Let's simplify it a bit and discuss going with 10,000. You'd have 4,000 dragon wands and 6,000 basilisk wands to sell. You might need 15,000 people in line to get a match for those 10,000 wands."

Dan said, "We could tell them that we'll make a different assortment next month and to try again. Remember what Daryl told us, we're not obligated to find a wand for every person who comes to our door."

Hermione said, "But we have other wands that we could..." She stopped as she recognized the hard truth in her dad's words. They weren't Ollivander with 2,000 combinations already made.

Harry asked, "What else would we need?"

Sirius said, "At least five more glue tables; eight would be better. If you're really serious, like me, you'd set up some sort of second shift." Harry rolled his eyes and shook his head at the ease that his godfather could throw puns into a conversation.

Dobby said, "Dobby and Winky could work nights the days we're not selling wands. We could be gluing many more blocks."

"Winky thinks we should also be selling unicorn pencils or thestral wands to smaller people and to those who can't be using dragon or ugly snake wands. Too many people would being very mad if they wait in line a long time and get turned away." Hermione nodded in agreement.

"Winky is thinking that people who can't be using dragon or ugly snake wands could also use muskox wands. Dobby and Winky went to London zoo and talked with two muskox."

Sirius smiled at her odd choice of words and asked, "How many unicorns haven't been trimmed yet?"

Dobby replied, "Five."

Harry said, "So we could help about 1,000 of the people who we would otherwise turn away with each month. How much hippogriff core do we have left?"

Remus replied, "Enough for 1,500 wands."

Sirius said, "We'll make those two next and only use them when we need to. If we make 600-700 a day, four days a week, we'll meet your goal and still keep weekends free."

Harry asked, "How about on the selling side?"

Redeye said, "We can get extra guards the days that we're selling. We should have two guards, three loan form processors, one taking coin, a gatekeeper and a runner."

Harry asked, "What if we were only open for selling one day a week?"

Hermione replied, "It wouldn't be as convenient for people as what we have now."

Remus observed, "If there were only 200 people in line every day, I'd completely agree with you. No one wants to be 212th in line six times in a row before they finally get an early enough place in line. It's happened to some people. If we can sell 2,500 or so in a day, anyone who is actually in line in the alley by 5 am would be able to get a wand fitting that day. We might not have a wand that fits them perfectly but they'd have been in the shop."

Emma suggested, "We should replace the tables with counters that people stand at, like a bank teller. You'd save time compared to having them sit down and get up again to leave."

Dan remarked, "That's an excellent idea. We can always save the tables and use them later when we're only trying to fit a hundred a day."

"Winky could be teaching Emma more about how to be seeing Auras. They be different colors for different people – orange, blue, green, brown and black. If they be orange, they go to counter one. If they be blue they go to counter two, or be sent to Winky if they tricky customer. Winky will make chart with Aura colors and wand types. Mr. Dog and Mr. Wolf can be keeping counters full of wands."

Hermione asked, "Mum, can you see Auras?"

"Usually."

"Then you must be magical. Give this a wave." She handed her a beech pencil.

"Harry gave me an oak one. I like that one better but thank you."

"How?"

"Windsong removed some sort of block that was on me when she treated my other injuries. A few days later, I saw Harry's blue Aura for the first time. Winky noticed and asked me about it. I've been practicing ever since. Don't look so offended; you can't always be the first to notice something." Hermione stuck out her tongue in mock anger.

Harry asked, "What day should we be open to sell?"

Redeye said, "It would be easiest to get the extra guard help on Fridays." Nobody disagreed.

Sirius said, "So to summarize, "We'll offer up to three wand types each Friday – snake, dragon and either hippogriff or unicorn for the tricky customers. We'll be open from 5 to 5, or until we run out for the day, or we've sold 2,700 wands. To get there, Dobby and Winky will work four evenings a week plus Friday days. The rest of us will work Friday days plus our normal schedule. Emma will keep practicing reading Auras and will take over sorting for Winky as soon as she's ready. Harry will order new counters and glue tables."

Hermione said, "I could transfigure the glue tables. I've gotten a lot better at them." Everyone agreed. They were good.

"OK. Harry will order new counters. We'll start this on...?"

Harry said, "Friday January 12."

Dan quipped, "Sounds good. What could possibly go wrong?" They all gave him, the look, like his words were the kiss of death.

Remus thought, I guess we'll find out.

… - ...

A/Ns

While I enjoy writing the Dan character and his having a different influence on Harry, I missed Emma.

Story recommendation: The Ad by KBO. It has a very clever story concept.

Question – does anyone find it odd that Amelia keeps upsurping Shacklebolt?

Someone mentioned in the last story that I rarely write the Goblins using contractions. I find it to be a far easier speech pattern to write than Hagrid's or Fleur's butchered English.

… - …