Chapter Thirteen
Monster Fixation
Saturday August 26
At nine am, the party consisting of seventy-five muscular looking goblins, accompanied by Harry, Hermione, Colin, Quibbler reporter Cheryl Whitehart, Amelia, Barchoke, Ragnok and six guards arrived at the front door of the castle.
Even though Minerva had received Amelia's directive to accommodate Potter and his friends, the note said nothing about a large group. She was about to say, I had no idea and This will never do when she noticed Bones and Ragnok accompanied by guards with sharp looking swords. She quickly though better of it and said, "Welcome to Hogwarts."
Harry led them to the second floor girls bathroom and had briefly said, "Hi'" to Myrtle when she saw the goblins and dived back into her toilet. In the meanwhile, Amelia tossed a box of wooden matches onto the floor and transfigured them into dozens of serviceable chairs.
The engineering goblin, Corker quickly found the runes to change the slide into stone steps and activated it. Next he activated the lights rune. Finally, he activated the hand rails. As they descended, Corker flicked his finger every ten steps or so and the steps became spotless.
When they reached the bottom, Corker again cleaned the area as Harry led them passed the shed snakeskin to the spot where Lockhart caused the cave-in. Corker said, "We will have this area repaired in fifteen minutes. Go tell the female reporter and the boy to accompany you back here."
Harry did what he was told. On their way back down he said, "Thank you for coming on such short notice, Ms. Whitehart. It should be an interesting morning." They reached the bottom and began walking down the corridor, which even in the light, looked creepy. Colin flinched when they reached the huge shed snakeskin. The plucky teen summoned his courage and took a picture.
Soon they reached the engineering party who had repaired the ceiling and were waiting at the circular portal. Harry hissed open and the heavy metal door swung to the side.
Ragnok, Amelia and Hermione had followed a minute behind Harry and were just in time to see the portal open. The six guards had stayed in the Hogwarts hallway along with Professor McGonagall.
After the portal had swung open, they noticed an acrid odor which soon dissipated when Corker activated the ventilation rune. A minute later, he activated the lighting rune and they all followed. They walked another minute and Corker announced, "There it is." One glimpse of the carcass and Barchoke knew that he was going to be paying on yet another lost bet. It was awesome!
Corker and the others quickly looked around and concluded that aside from the massive drainage pipes, there was no other way out and that they were going to have to carry the massive snake back up the stairs. One of the goblins ran back up the stairs and advised the guard supervisor that they were going to need the extra help that was waiting outside the castle gates. A few minutes later, another group came in. These fifty goblins were even larger and stronger than the first group of seventy-five. They quickly descended down the long stairway.
In the meanwhile, Colin had taken a roll of pictures and reloaded his camera. One of the guards handed Harry his sword which Harry reluctantly raised next to the giant head of the snake for yet another photo. When Colin was done, Ragnok declared, "Our part here is done," and he shepherded Amelia,Cheryl and Colin back up the stairway. Harry and Hermione followed behind them.
While they were waiting up in the hallway, Amelia banished the extra chairs. After ten minutes they heard what sounded like a goblin version of the Chain Gang song and Harry heard what sounded like a command to put yer backs into it, lads but he wisely said nothing. Professor McGonagall and one of the other guards were holding the two doors to the bathroom open when she saw it. A monster size head emerged from the pipe. As the maw cleared the edge of the pipe, the mouth fell open, revealing fangs the size of long-swords!
Feeling light-headed, she sat down on one of the remaining chairs. It took ten minutes to get the basilisk out of the pipe and into the hallway. Collin took another few photos with Whitehart standing next to the enormous corpse. Harry took one of Colin and Ms. Whitehart together by the snake's head.
Half of the goblins lined up on each side of the snake. On the supervisor's command they picked it up and carried it on their shoulders. They exited the castle via the great oaken doors where the rest of the teaching staff was standing in shock at the size of the creature that had once been freely roaming the hallways. At the supervisor's command, the strong guys set the snake down while Hagrid looked on.
As Amelia was mentally developing new ways to amuse herself with Dumbledore and one of the guard's poleaxes, Ragnok thanked each of the load-bearers while the supervisor placed a portkey on the basilisk. The load bearers departed a moment later. Meanwhile Minerva kept muttering, "I had no idea, I had no idea."
The engineering crew left next, carrying the shed snakeskin. Harry didn't offer any details to Whitehart other than to say that he had killed the snake while trying to save a first-year who had been abducted.
As they were leaving, Harry gave McGonagall Dan's four generics, saying, "One of the other students made these and offered to give them to you." Still in shock, she nodded in appreciation.
Finally Ragnok said, "It's time to depart." A moment later, they all were gone.
When they apparated home in time for dinner, Dan asked, "How was your date?"
… - ...
As they were finishing lunch, Redeye walked in and said, "There is a delivery for you in back. Harry opened the garage door and there was a large stack of plain white, unmarked liquor boxes. "Harry said, "I'll stack them in the store room." Dobby and Winky brought them in as fast as he could stack them. Many hands made for easy work.
When he had finished, Hermione looked at it and remarked, "A hundred cases - That's more than mum usually orders at a time."
Harry replied, "We've got plenty of room in the storeroom. Maybe it was on sale, or something."
Hermione smiled. "I'll shellac this batch if you glue another set."
"OK. I'll ask Winky to make another batch of sandpaper."
… - …
A week into his new venture, Mick Paulson called his two friends and former classmates first-year trainees Conner Fawcett and Staci Bradley to join his fledgling business.
Needless to say, Amelia wasn't thrilled but rationalized that she'd most likely get them back in six months with an improved skillset and in the spirit of protect and serve have improved the lives of some eighty households. She told them, "I want your word that you'll be back in six months."
"We will, Minister."
"OK. Good luck and I expect to see you on the first of March."
Her concern was that the trickle of departures could turn into a flood. There was only one real solution – demonstrate good faith in order to convince Ragnok to speed up the distribution of the wands.
… -...
Monday August 28
Arthur was sitting having a cup of tea when the Quibbler arrived. Looking at the front page made him start to sweat with dread.
"Molly! You need to see this article in the Quibbler."
"What is it, Arthur?" asked Molly as she sat down.
Harry Potter opens Slytherin's fabled Chamber of Secrets!
Goblin recovery team removes Giant 62 foot Basilisk from Hogwarts!
By Cheryl Whitehart
Yesterday Harry Potter led the leaders of the Goblin and Wizard Governments with a recovery team of 125 workers into Hogwarts and the famed Chamber of Secrets. About thirty minutes after descending a stairway through a sink in a second floor lavatory, the most horrifying sight emerged from the opening as the head with its shredded yellow eyes and arm-length fangs slowly made its way out of the wall. It took almost ten minutes of great effort by the team to move it completely out of the access. After a brief rest, the crew continued on its way down the grand staircase and out the main doors to the edge of the ward lines where they were whisked away by portkey.
One of the students who had been petrified by the Beast, Colin Creevy, accompanied us to the chamber and took a number of professional quality photos, which appear on the back page of this publication.
When the Beast passed out of the lavatory, the Headmistress McGonagall almost fainted, sat down and was heard muttering over and over "I didn't know, I didn't know." Minister Bones was heard talking a blue streak and was clearly overheard saying, "If old Dumblebum was still alive I'd throw him in a cell and forget he was there!"
Harry Potter declined to be interviewed and did not answer any questions. A teacher however agreed to answer questions if I did not publish their name. It seems that Harry slayed the Beast as a 12-year-old second year with the legendary Gryffindor Sword. He had descended into the chamber with then Defense Professor Gilderoy Lockhart and his best friend at the time Ron Weasley to save a student who had been taken hostage. Lockhart tried to obliviate the students but his spell backfired which caused a cave in and put Lockhart into St. Mungo's with mind damage. It is unclear what actually happened in the Chamber but Harry emerged from it injured, covered in blood and gore and bringing his teacher, his friend and the unnamed hostage to the hospital ward.
This is another example of the truth about Harry Potter's exploits being more fantastic than the rumors that have been bandied about the last four years. On top of the fantastic stories about him killing a possessed defense professor in his first year, this Beast in second, driving off 100 Dementors in third year and winning the Tri-Wizard against older students a few months ago this begs the question, What the Hell was going on at Hogwarts under the nose of the so called leader of the light, Albus Dumbledore?
Arthur turned to the back page and moaned. Molly started to cry. "I had no idea of what Harry really did for Ginny. And Dumbledore downplayed it, that senile old fool."
"Harry may not be happy with you three but he did us another huge favor, keeping her name out of the paper."
… - …
Meanwhile at the Granger house, "Good morning Harry, you're up early."
"Good morning Dan," answered Harry as he poured himself a larger than normal cup of coffee and grabbed a piece of toast and folded it around two slices of bacon. 'Where's Emma?"
"She already left for the shop with Hermione."
"Thanks, what's that music you're playing? Is that the new Quibbler?"
"It's the Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever. That's Night Fever playing now."
"It's a catchy tune," remarked Harry.
"Harry….. I don't know if I want the answer, but did you really kill this snake?" asked Dan as held up the back page with the photos of him with the dead basilisk and a sword.
"Yes, but I don't really want to talk about it, Dan. I almost died, my friends almost died. It's nothing but horrible memories."
"Harry, first I heard about a Troll, then about you fighting a Dragon and now the giant snake that kills with its eyes! Do you have a monster fixation?"
"Nope, Just staying alive, Dan," smirked Harry.
Hoping to lighten the subject, he asked, "So how do you feel about dogs, Harry?"
"They can be dangerous. Well technically I've only met a few. My relatives' had a pit bull named Ripper who tried to bite my legs off when I was seven. That hurt Then a Cerebus..."
"What, a three-headed dog?"
"Yes, first year, and a boar hound that was about chest high. Oh, I almost forgot, my godfather could turn into a Grimm, another very large black dog."
Dan dropped the fork he was holding and put both of his hands over his face and rubbed his hair back from his forehead. "I'm sorry I asked. Why can't you be more interested in chasing Hermione around for a snog than monsters?"
Harry was about to reply, The magical world isn't all fairies, leprechauns and unicorns, but thought better of it. He didn't think saying, I'll work on that, would turn out any better. He went with, "Thanks for the talk. Have a good day."
...-...
Amelia's temporary duty assistant, Hit Witch Michelle Wood poked her head in the door and said, "Minister, Barnabas Cuffe, your one o'clock appointment is here."
"Give me one minute then please show him in. Give him ten minutes."
She was certain that he'd attempt to bribe her or threaten her in that amount of time. She grabbed Anna Daily, brought her in and disillusioned her, seated in the far corner of the office.
The last thing she did before he entered was to put the folded copy of the most recent Quibbler (the snake edition) on the far edge of her desk, as it would be out of his reach.
"Mr. Cuffe, please have a seat," she pointed to a seat where he'd never see Anna. She asked, "How can the ministry help you today?"
He declared, "My employees all need wands to do their jobs."
She opened a purposely empty drawer and replied, "So does almost every witch and wizard in Britain. I simply don't have a drawer full to pass put like party favors."
He said, "All the shops in Diagon alley got wands this week."
She replied, "I believe that is true. However, your new building is located well outside London, not in the alley."
"That lunatic, Lovegood must have one. He's been putting out his fish-wrap for the last two weeks."
"I spoke with him. By chance, his daughter is something of a friend with one of the wandcrafters who had a very limited quantity of giftable wands not covered by the Gringotts production contract. As such, he received one. It was perfectly legal."
Cuffe was frustrated. He was out of logical arguments. It was time to pull out the proverbial checkbook.
"How much would it cost me to get my twenty-five employees and me wands on Monday?"
In a completely neutral voice, she asked, "What are you suggesting?" She was giving him every opportunity to avoid being arrested in the next five minutes.
"I'll make a 50,000 galleon donation to your election fund. You wander into the wand shop and walk out with a box of twenty-six wands."
Anna removed the disillusionment charm and handcuffed Cuffe. Amelia said, "Bribery may have been an everyday occurrence with Umbridge and Fudge. On my watch, it's worth six months."
Cuffe threatened, "Malfoy will hear about this."
She smiled and replied, "Enjoy your stay, Mr. Cuffe."
… - …
As Barnabas was being walked to the Iron Bar Inn, Emma was breezing through the second year material at the wand shop break room. They had decided that Hermione would provide a brief introduction to the charm and Harry would help with the hands-on portion.
He'd found a box of table-tennis balls down the basement and had brought them along to use in demonstrations. He suggested, "This one isn't so much about wand movements as pointing to the object in question and envisioning what you have in mind. What I'd like you to do is to grow this ping-pong ball to about the size of a tennis ball. Focus, point, say it."
He nodded at her encouragingly.
"Engorgio."
"Finite. Good. Try it again,"
"Engorgio." It was closer to a softball then a tennis ball.
"Finite. Good. Envision the size that you want. Try it again."
"Engorgio."
"Perfect. Was that tiring?"
She admitted, "A bit."
"Your charm repertoire is growing a bit faster than your stamina. The trick is to try one more time when you feel a bit tired. That will build up your magical core a bit. Then have a snack or a soda. Then try it again a few times and call it a day."
... - ...
In Salem, Daryl put the phone back into his pocket after talking with Harry regarding the remarkable news about Emma having had her magic bound as a toddler and reacquiring it two weeks ago. In theory, he was very willing to try a bit of distance learning. He tried to discard the notion that the teens had made two thousand wands. In fact, they'd made the same dozen wands two thousand times. There was a difference. Yes, they selected the wood, indented the canals, selected the core, glued, set up the vise, shaped, sanded, and applied shellac two thousand times but they hadn't worked with any real variety. Then again, Emma wouldn't be either and the need was great. He satisfied himself that he would ask to see a memory of her making a wand that they hadn't and have Winky bring it over for inspection along with samples of the casein glue and wandmaker's shellac.
… - …
"Hello Mr. Podmore, I'm Conner Fawcett and this is Staci Bradley. Mick Paulson got your Owl and sent us to help you out. Take us around and let us know what you need done."
Sturgis replied, "Well, just about everything has failed. First thing you need to restore is water to all the sinks and the Loo. I need a shower, sink, toilet. Then the kitchen sink, waste removal, lights, re-implement the space expansion charms in the basement and attic. Fix the stove and the cooler box. I'm desperate. I still haven't got a wand permit yet. I inquired with Gringotts and they say I'm on the list, but it will be at least six months before it's my turn. How long will this take?"
"Only about half a day," replied Conner.
"Oh, I almost forgot. Can you cast notice-me-not and muggle repelling wards on the house too? I've a nosy and pesky muggle neighbor who won't leave me alone."
"We'll set you to rights, Mr. Podmore."
"Thank Merlin." It was the best 25G that he ever spent.
… - ...
Tuesday August 29
Amelia just finished spending four hours examining the depositions and other evidence. She was convinced that their Book of Life and Book of Death were the two greatest pieces of charm work that she'd ever seen. She was beyond grateful that she'd been able to see them, let alone freely leaf through them for fifteen minutes. She was certain that it would have been like having her closest nonmagical counterpart in MI6 being given a comprehensive tour of the KGB and finding their own group lacking.
She said, "So to summarize this nightmare, Abraxas Malfoy hatched this scheme in 1950. He recruited his school friend, Pius Thicknesse. Thicknesse initially recruited Dolores Umbridge, who was working in the Improper use of Magic office to identify young muggleborns. She had the perfect mindset for it but her net was ineffective."
Ragnok nodded in agreement, encouraging her to continue.
"Malfoy eventually recruited Griphook. At the time, Griphook was assigned as the book attendant watching the Book of Magical Births, Thicknesse was working as an examiner at the Wizards Examination Authority division and was unhappy that muggleborns were consistently scoring in the top half of the students.
"Malfoy had learned of the Book of Magical Births from One-ear, his account manager at the time. Abraxas suggested that Thicknesse transfer Umbridge to Magical Catastrophes working under Fudge as she was completely unsuited to actually doing any dirty work and Fudge was seen as an up-and-comer who was easily swayed by a few coins."
Ragnok agreed, "I concur. As Abraxas and One-ear have both joined their ancestors, we can't know if One-ear brought up the book out of greed, to be malicious, or as a casual remark."
Amelia agreed, "Right."
She continued, "Michelle Edgecombe took over from Umbridge in 1978. Like Twycross, she was just in it for the gold. Twycross was successful at quietly performing bindings and arranging the occasional accident for twenty-five years, then Abraxas came down with Dragon Pox and succumbed a year later. Young Lucius upped the ante, changed the terms and wanted to switch from binding to murdering the children. Thicknesse saw this as an opportunity to make a lot more gold and changed the fee from a thousand galleons to five-thousand per child. Twycross didn't envision himself as a contract killer and quietly retired.
"On Malfoy's recommendation, Thicknesse recruited Walden Macnair, the executioner working in Control of Magical Creatures to perform the wetwork. He simply swapped his ax for a wand and arranged a continuous stream of gas explosions."
She thought for a moment and added, "In the mean time, the money was too much for Lucius to hide from Narcissa, so he talked Ogden into funding a portion – we're guessing half."
Ragnok replied, "That is our belief but proving the exact percentage isn't possible as much of his liquor business is handled in coin rather than bank-drafts. We know Thicknesse raised his fee but Malfoy's withdrawals corresponding to the murders lead us to conclude that he collected half from Ogden then paid Thicknesse. Thicknesse never stated that he was directly paid by Ogden and only mentioned his name once and only referenced the distiller indirectly."
Amelia replied, "So the short of it is, I could put Twycross and Thicknesse on trial and best-case have a fifty percent chance of conviction as too many of the voting members view money trails as flimsy evidence. My chances of getting a conviction with Ogden are no better than ten percent for the same reason and a bit of hearsay won't get me anywhere against a sitting Wizengamot member. I don't even have enough probable cause to have Connie Hammer depose him."
Ragnok observed, "That is the way of your justice system."
"What are you going to do with Griphook?"
The Director replied, "Confiscate all of his gold and feed him to the dragons. He accepted twenty percent of the fee, as did Edgecombe and Thicknesse. Macnair was paid forty percent as did Twycross when he was doing the work. What would you have me do with Edgecombe, Twycross and Thicknesse?"
"Join Griphook for dinner. Edgecombe's daughter can keep her mother's vault. She's nearly seventeen."
"What of the others?"
"Are there Wills on file?"
"No. Apparently they believed that they would live forever."
"Reduce their vault balances by half and keep it. When their estates are probated, the ministry will collect part of the remainder, as will the Nation and the estate dispositioner. Can you identify the living victims current addresses and develop paperwork to donate the Twycross and Thicknese estates to a shell charity that will disburse the proceeds to the victims?"
"It will require some effort but it will be done. And the other half?"
"Disburse it as you see fit. Your people did all of the work uncovering these crimes. Righting the path of wizarding society had been an expensive task and many of the bills have not yet all been presented or paid."
"And Ogden?"
She asked, "Can you find his hidden warehouse?"
"Given a little time, yes."
She observed, "Old buildings catch fire every week."
"Yes they do. On a different subject, Harry Potter requested that I give you this."
"Thank you. For everything. I've just one other question. Who did the captures and interrogations?"
"Minister, you have your unspeakables, we have ours. Enjoy your new watch."
… - ...
Wednesday August 30
Harry looked down the list of salvaged monster parts that Barchoke had handed him.
295 square feet of hide
120 square feet of shed skin
Eyes
Heart
Spleen
20 gallons blood
Skull
Primary upper fangs
Primary lower fangs
Ordinary teeth
Rib bone
Edible meat
6 quarts of venom
Barchoke said, "Master Whitehorn's opinion was that the heart, blood, shed skin and rib bone would make suitable wand core, though they may be price prohibitive for most purchasers. His offer was one million galleons for the eyes and another million for one half of the heart, half of the blood, the spleen and four ounces of the venom. He would process and age the heart on your behalf.
"Additionally, the Nation has offered to purchase the skull and primary upper fangs for one million Galleons.
"You had previously told me that you wanted eight vests crafted and material set aside for an extra one. The 295 square feet is enough for 34 vests. Minister Bones has offered to purchase the other 25 but has requested three-year terms of payment. My belief is that it's a fair price and if you had no immediate need for the gold, it is an offer that you should accept.
"Additionally Master Whitehorn recommended that you have the venom packed in sealed glass potions-grade bottles no larger than four ounces, with two of the quarts packaged in one ounce sealed glass bottles. It was his opinion that if properly sealed, the venom would have a shelf life of fifty years. It was his opinion that potion masters represented the group of buyers for the venom with the highest potential, though as a group the European buyers would be in a better position to bid in two to three years.
"Would you like me to conclude the sales?"
Harry replied, "Yes please. I'd like to store the other items in my family vault except for twenty pounds of rib bone which I'd like delivered to the shop. May I keep the summary sheets?"
"Of course. Please sign here, here and there."
"Who are the vests for? Our Tailors will need to have them come in to be sized."
"Hermione, Dan, Emma, Amelia, Daryl, Ragnok yourself and me, with one extra."
"That's very generous of you. Thank you."
He added, "If I may, before you get some idea of giving away your newfound wealth; even after acquiring it, you are still comparatively poor relative to your grandfather."
Harry asked, "If he had an estate worth more than five million galleons, what happened to it? The account summary that you originally gave me was less than a million and Emma told me that was mostly from excellent investments from my mum."
"Simply spoken, after your Grandfather died, Dumbledore went to your father many times, asking him to fund his skirmishes against the Dark One and his political allies. Dumbledore wasn't without means; he simply preferred to fund his schemes with other peoples' money."
"I can't say that I'm surprised."
Barchoke admitted, "I didn't think that you would be."
...-...
Daily Prophet Editor Arrested!
By Cheryl Whitehart
Yesterday Barnabas Cuffe was arrested and is being held for trial at a later date according to unnamed Ministry sources.
Ms. Bones, Minister for Magic, claims he was arrested for trying to bribe her, the Minister for Magic in front of witnesses.
Cuffe was overheard to say as he was led off in cuffs "You should have announced you changed the way of doing business here and would no longer accept Campaign bribes, err contributions!"
Minister Bones issued a statement that indeed that business as usual as occurred under the Fudge Administration is no more. Bribery of a public official is a crime and will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."
Barchoke asked, "Do you think this will help change their practices?"
Ragnok pondered for a moment. "Not at first, let's hope she snares a few more of the fools and removes them from positions that can hold our efforts back, before they acquire any degree of subtlety."
… - …
Thursday August 31
Susan and Amelia looked at the Quibbler together while having breakfast.
Assault Shift Reported
DMLE head Kingsley Shacklebolt urged witches and wizards living in or traveling through nonmagical areas to dress more like nonmagicals. He was quoted saying, "On average there have been fifteen confrontations between magicals and nonmagicals each month. Historically witches and wizards have either instigated and come out on top of these confrontations, or apparated away. Since the Great Wandout, that trend has completely reversed." Shacklebolt added, "Your best defense is to blend in."
"That sounds like good advice," remarked Susan.
Amelia asked, "Why do you think so?"
Susan replied, "Two words – vulture hats."
… - …
Dean Thomas had been having ice cream with Colin and his brother Dennis the afternoon after the basilisk been moved. Colin had just developed and printed his color photos and was waiting to meet Mr. Lovegood. Xeno had paid him a hundred galleons for the rights to print four of them and would pay him an additional ten galleons anytime they were reprinted – either by the Quibbler or other publication.
Dean had listened carefully as Colin relayed the story that Harry had eventually told to the younger teen. He'd had the makings of an excellent idea. He drew his images in colored pencil depicting Harry's fight with the enormous snake along with Riddle and an unidentifiable person down in the chamber. He'd decided on 16 x 20 for the size.
One depicted Harry standing on a sheer rock face about fifteen feet off the floor of the cave holding his sword out in desperation as the basilisk searched for him.
Another was probably ten seconds later. Harry was thrusting the sword into the top of the snake's enormous wide open mouth. If you looked carefully, you could see that one of the smaller teeth was sticking through Harry's outstretched forearm.
Dean had carefully placed the drawings into his portfolio. He'd followed Colin's advice to send an owl to Barchoke at Gringotts. A few hours later, he received a reply asking him to come this morning at ten. Here he was, in the Silver conference room.
Barchoke had been in Ragnok's office when Harry had shown them the memory of the fight to the death with the ancient snake. Except for the increased lighting, the artist's renditions were amazingly accurate depictions of the event. Barchoke asked, "How do you know Mr. Potter?"
With a surprising amount of confidence, the teen replied, "We're dorm mates, sir."
"How did you learn of his actions?"
"Harry told Colin. Colin told me."
Barchoke asked, "Who are the other two people in the drawings?"
"The guy is some sort of spirit. His name was Tom Riddle."
"And the other?"
"She's one of our classmates. She was eleven at the time."
"Her name?"
"We know who she is. Harry never announced who she was."
"How much are you asking for the drawings?"
"Colin told me that you would make a fair offer."
"Gringotts will offer you a thousand galleons for the drawing and full rights."
"I accept."
He returned a minute later with six sacks of coins. "You have six drawings. We wish to purchase all six."
"Yes sir. Thank you."
"If I may suggest, your friend Colin is an excellent negotiator. You would do well to practice with him sometime. You displayed honor in not mentioning Miss Weasley's name. I have seen the memory that Mr. Potter provided. Aside from the fact that it was much darker, these are accurate renditions. He is unquestionably the bravest human that I've met."
"Yes sir."
Given the extent that Colin's photos would be published, reprinted and the rest eventually sold and published, both lads, as well as Xeno, did very well for themselves that week. Dean's mother was shocked when he handed her the moneybags and told her about the sale. It was more than she made in a year.
… - ...
Friday September 1
Neville and Luna went to platform 9 3/4 early. They were surprised to see that Colin and Dennis Creevey had arrived before them. What was surprising is that they were both wearing muggle exercise outfits in Gryffindor red. They asked if they could sit together and she immediately replied, "We'd love to have your company. Daddy mentioned that he'd seen you both in the alley a few times and it looked like business was very good. That was quite a clever idea. The photos were wonderful. He's had to reprint that issue four times now."
Neville asked, "So you two had a good summer?"
Dennis replied, "It was the best. Our dad got done working about eight in the mornings and he helped us bring our carts into the alley. It was great."
"Good." Neville reminded them, "Keep in mind that it wasn't so great for a lot of the students this summer. Better get your robes on." The wards and charms in use at Longbottom Manor would have failed a week ago had it not been for the wardstones and their house elf. Neville was able to help recharge them when he received his wand from Harry.
Luna said, "Don't worry. The year will be better than most." When they sat down again, she snuggled into her betrothed and observed, "It's just as interesting to See who isn't here as who is."
Neville knew that Harry and Hermione would be at their business but Luna was right; he hadn't spotted Malfoy, Nott, Parkinson, Crabbe, Goyle or a few of the Ravenclaws. Actually, the train wasn't even half full. Then again it didn't make much sense for someone living in Glasgow to arrange travel south to London only to take another long train ride north, just to end up two hundred miles north of Glasgow in Hogsmeade.
As the train was starting to move, Ron banged the door open and demanded, "Anyone seen Potter recently?"
Neville replied, "Yes."
"Where is he?"
"I'm not sure. You should check around." Luna gave her betrothed an amused look.
When the cart lady came, Colin bought enough for the four of them to share. Neville had been one of the few in the house who hadn't picked on him mercilessly. The fifth-year knew the feeling far too well and didn't like it either. Like Emma, he had no time for bullies.
… - …
Amelia wasn't surprised that the unemployment percentage of the segment of the wizarding population that actually worked in wizarding world had risen to more than 3/4th. The percentage would have been slightly higher had the Diagon Alley shops not received their new wands two weeks ago. Even within the ministry itself, just two of the seventeen former divisions - Aurors and Transportation were fully operational. As of today, both divisions were being funded via loans and IOUs until Administration was called back.
In short, the half of the economy that had been idled was either going to burn through their savings, find other work, starve, or turn to crime. Ragnok was obviously hoping that they attempted to find work within the nonmagical world, throw away their isolationist focus and in the long term, recognize the goblin and elf societies as having worth of their own.
… - …
While Amelia was reading her reports, Minerva was fretting about the reality that today had been the first day of school where she hadn't had a roomful of first years. If she were honest with herself she'd admit that she was in a funk. Hearing the news that the wandcrafters wouldn't be out to the school until late October just drove her deeper. She wanted Albus back, she wanted the wands back, she wanted her classes back. Severus... maybe not so much.
… - …
The sorting started later than usual. Several of the first years had taken the floo rather than the train and had to be collected.
From Ginny Weasley's perspective, just being here was a hundred steps ahead of that awful tent and then great aunt Murial's home that they'd endured over the summer. Her dad and Percy had yet to find work. She hoped that would be resolved by Yule.
Demzela Robins, who was sitting next to her remarked, "Professor Anderson looks good enough to eat. I hope his classes are as good."
Romilda commented, "A living person teaching history; that should be an improvement."
"Professor McGonagall didn't sound too excited with the sorting," observed Colin.
"Maybe she's just nervous," replied Ginny. "She's got a new job, new bosses, a load of new staff and all of these new classes. That's a lot of changes. She probably had the no magic in the hallway speech memorized and now she can't even use it."
At the far end of the table were the sour pusses – they hadn't enjoyed the classes very much last term, or put in any real effort. That said, somehow they were certain that these would be even worse.
In the middle were Fred and George Weasley. Their goal was really quite simple – nick a sufficient supply of potions ingredients to make plenty of all of their joke items. Once they were made, find a couple of first years to test them on and sell the rest.
Ron, who for some reason envisioned himself as the next starting keeper for the Chudley Canons – even though he'd had never played organized quidditch in his life had but one question on his mind – what about quidditch?
As if she'd heard him, McGonagall stated, "I'm sorry to announce that there will be no flying lessons, or organized quidditch this term. Prefects, please lead the first years to the dormitories."
… - …
Saturday September 2
Neville carefully studied his schedule. There were four ninety-minute periods a day – two before lunch and two after.
On Mondays he had double runes in the morning and magical history in the afternoons.
Tuesdays he had care of magical creatures all morning and English all afternoon.
Wednesdays he had the morning off and defense all afternoon.
Thursday he had herbology all morning and maths all afternoon.
Fridays he had herbology and defense in the morning and science in the afternoons.
Second semester he would have 4.5 hours each of transfiguration, charms defense and potions. History would change focus from magical to nonmagical and they would drop english, science and maths. It wasn't a perfect schedule but as a work-in-progress, he thought that the staff had done a fantastic job.
… - …
A/Ns
Short OMAKE – Dumbledore meets Inverness South High School
"Good afternoon, Minerva – what date is it?"
"September 1."
"Who's teaching potions?"
"No one."
"Most unfortunate. Transfiguration?"
"No one."
"What about defense?"
"They're playing something called dodge ball." She closed the door on the broom closet."
… - …
What would you expect the student reaction to the new classes to be?
Tom wrote the Staying Alive scene. It made me laugh.
Vashon Island is fantastic.
Thanks for reading.
