Chapter Eighteen
I Like Mine Hot
Saturday October 28
After getting a, Yes I'm sure. Thanks but No Thanks one last time from Harry, the two went to the Tonks home. After a high level summary of his intent to dissolve the Black Family Lordship in the near future, Sirius asked, "What do you think?"
Andromeda asked, "What specifically do you wish from us?"
Sirius replied, "To start with, there's a Wizengamot seat. Harry is already in line for one. I'd like you to agree to take it. I have no agendas and won't look over your shoulder. It would be your seat."
She replied, "I'll agree to that. As you mentioned, you'll need to wait a while and get some of the estates dispositioned first. What else?"
"The Black Estate currently consists of way too much outrageous jewelry, Black Island and an unresolved insurance claim on the London townhouse. I'll need the proceeds from the jewelry sales to provide working capital for the estate business. I'd like to give the proceeds from the townhouse to you when it gets settled. I was hoping that we could keep the island in the family. I'd like to gift it to Nym with the understanding that Harry or I might be able to use it from time to time."
She replied, "I don't want to give Nymphadora a property that she could never sell if she wanted to. How about three weeks a year for you and two weeks a year for Harry for the next five years? After that, she owns it unencumbered. At that point, if she chooses to sell it, so be it. If you want to spend a week there, you'd have to say pretty please."
Both Harry and Sirius nodded in agreement.
He continued, "My plan is to dissolve the legacy family by April 1."
She replied, "Hopefully you'll have had a good start in the Estate business by then. You should check which families have Will clauses that send money to the Head of the Family and disposition them first."
Ted asked, "How can I help you?"
"I need a friendly face that I can trust to review the agreements with Amelia and Gringotts."
"I'd be happy to assist."
… - ...
Sunday October 29
So it was that Sirius found himself in the Black family vault in the official company of Curse Breaker Bill Weasley and Senior Estimator Snotnose.
Bill went through the racks, carefully inspecting each piece and placing them on one of three sheets on a table marked, clean, questionable and cursed. There was every sort of piece there from diamonds the size of your thumb, large rubies, bracelets and tierras on the high side. On the ordinary side were dozens of diamond rings the size that a young man might give to a girl.
Meanwhile, Snotnose was examining the pieces, writing down an amount and more importantly, writing down names, addresses and telephone numbers of jewelers to offer them to. Sirius noticed that many of them were in New York City or Antwerp.
At one end of the vault was a bookshelf. After having Bill verify that the volumes weren't cursed, or in more than one instance, after having removed one, Sirius wrote one word on the lot – Hermione.
There was a rack of long swords, cutlasses and other fearsome weapons on one end. None were ornamental. Snotnose wrote several names on a few of the pieces and stated, "These have historical interest, in addition to their considerable value as weapons. You could loan them to these museums, or sell them to these collectors. This is your family history here. For a modest fee, they would explain it to you, or you could simply sell it for a few bags of gold. I'm an estimator, not your history professor. Come Weasley. We've spent enough of our time here this morning."
On the way out, Bill pointed out, "Dad's pretty good at recognizing if items were charmed, cursed, illegal, or poisoned." He also suggested, "Copy down the names and contact information," pointing out that Snotnose was not above using disappearing ink in cases like this where he was tasked to deal with customers directly. Sirius thanked him and quickly took his advice.
… - …
Dan and Harry were having lunch. Emma and Hermione were out shopping. Dan stated, "I was talking with a patient the other day. I mentioned that one of my other patients was making custom drum sticks. He'd been talking about refining your process to engineer out some of the labor.
"In Daryl's class, we started with with a ¾ inch (6/8) block. If your typical rod style is 3/8th you're sanding off about 75 percent of the block. His suggestion was to start with a thinner block. I had to adjust the dimensions when describing it, as drumsticks are thicker.
"If you started with a ½ inch block, you'd eliminate almost half of the sanding and maybe cut a couple of minutes out of your process. Taking it a step further, if instead of a ½ inch (8/16) you tried a 7/16th inch, you'd pretty much just have to round off the corners. Dobby could always make different size blocks – 3/4th when you're making a batch of batons and smaller ones when you're doing drumsticks or rods.
Harry thought about it. No one would object to a bit less sanding. He observed, "The only downside I can see is if there is a little knot in the wood, we'd have to toss that block but we're not exactly paying for the trees."
"Right. You're paying for the strand, via the sheep but aside from the glue and shellac, your real cost is in labor. If your current labor time is ten minutes and you got it down to eight, you could either make a few more every day or have a longer lunch. Hermione could probably make another glue table, or you could buy a few more."
Harry replied, "We'll try the half inch block Monday. Emma would appreciate a bit less sanding. Maybe it would result in an extra hundred a month. Thanks for the suggestion."
"Harry, dads care just as much about their kids as moms; they just show it differently."
… - ...
Monday October 30
Amelia welcomed Sirius back to her office and was unsurprised to see him accompanied by Ted Tonks.
She said, "Getting back to your earlier request, Connie and Anna were more successful going through Conrad Parkinson's records than I would have expected. They were quite detailed. For what it's worth, it may be a good business practice to adapt. The bad news is that he sold a large minority – over a fourth of the personal property to other members of the Tom Riddle tattoo club. It's reasonable to believe that many of the items that they purchased wouldn't have been offered to legitimate second-hand shops."
Ted looked about to say something that she wanted to avert and she said, "With that in mind, I'll revise to contract the Parkinson used to specifically exclude valuing items that are either cursed or illegal. My advice would be to get one of the high-temperature incinerators and not hesitate to dispose of any dodgy item. I will rely on your honor to dispose of them. As you acquire experience with the dispositions, you could consider weighing the cost of removing a curse on an item with an expected sale price. In short, if you were a qualified cursebreaker, there would be gold to be made, albeit with the associated risk. But it would never pay to routinely uncurse ordinary items. If you safely have the curse removed and sell some at a profit, that's your good fortune."
Ted said, "I believe it would be inappropriate to ask for any mention of exclusivity. That said, we would like to disposition the Lestrange then the Malfoy estates first. As Lord Black, Sirius has standing in them. Since each one is likely to be a crime scene of some sort, we request that one of the aurors be involved in the walk-throughs – each of which could take several days."
It was not an unreasonable request. Amelia hoped that no bodies would be discovered. She asked, "Did you have someone in mind?" half expecting that Ted would ask for his daughter.
Sirius replied, "Miss Daily seems to have a good eye for detail."
While Amilia hoped that they wouldn't poach a great investigator, she had made the offer and replied, "That's acceptable. Please call her and give her a week's notice each time."
Ted replied, "That would be more than fair. Thank you."
Amelia added, "Sirius, no one wants you to succeed at this more than I do."
He replied, "Thank you. On another matter, Arthur Weasley's name was mentioned to me as someone who would have a good eye for what items might be charmed or cursed. I wanted to ask if you had plans to rehire him before contacting him?"
She admitted, "I have no plans to call him back, through no shortcoming of his own. I appreciate your asking."
"Very good. Thank you."
Ted asked, "One more thing; could we get a list of the estates with no known beneficiaries? They're dispositioned differently."
Amelia replied, "I'll get you that. I had a meeting about that very subject the other day."
Sirius replied. "Thank you."
… - ...
Tuesday October 31
Susan Florman, Ministry Forms Administrator (furloughed) was surprised to have been included in the November 1 callback and was more than delighted to have received a yellow Wand Purchase Permit card for October 31. Florman, a dour woman who would stand out as being dour in a roomful of dour people, was first in line for the day. Having arrived at 7:30; she knew full well that the shop wouldn't open until 9:00. Looking behind her, she saw George Smith from DMLE supply. A few more people back, Basil Debit stood patiently waiting for the shop to open and give him a slice of returning to normalcy.
One of the guards had an especially nasty looking pole ax that had several notches carved into the bottom of the handle. Florman really didn't want to know what/who they represented. The heads on the pikes hadn't been taken down all that long ago. That guard had a neatly typed list of the names of the people who were scheduled to purchase their wands today. Susan appreciated the precision and the effort that went into accuracy.
At exactly one minute before nine, the guard, with the apt name of Sharpeye asked to see her yellow Wand Purchase Permit card. He compared the spelling of the name on the card with his list to verify that it was her card referenced on the list. Satisfied that they were a match, he handed it back to her and said, "You may proceed. Next," He took Smith's card, and compared it, found it satisfactory and said, "Enter." A few minutes later, Florman and Smith again possessed working wands and walked out of the front door.
Basil was next in line when Sharpeye asked for his card. He looked at it for a moment and said, "There is a mismatch on the spelling of your name. Go to the Bronze room in the lobby and get a corrected card. You can come back to the front of the line." Sharpeye handed him his card back. There was an o where there should have been an e in his last name that he hadn't noticed before. Sharpeye said, "It happens. The typist only has three fingers on his left hand. It will only take a few minutes."
Debit was very familiar with the different conference rooms, though he usually conducted his business in the Silver Room, which was appointed better. When he walked into the conference room the door automatically closed behind him. He never noticed that the being sitting at the desk was holding his breath nor the colorless gas blowing out of the vent that he was standing under. Within seconds, Debit dropped to the floor and a face that he would recognize reappeared on the half-wizard who'd just cast an air cleansing charm. Four of the load bearers easily carried the man to the same cell that last was occupied by Michelle Edgecombe.
Given that Amelia had already seen scores of signed disbursement sheets and deposit tickets, it appeared that Debit hadn't changed his methods in over a decade. The total was estimated at 375,000 galleons – about the total of Debit's salary for the same length of time.
The hooded interrogator began. "Good morning, Mr. Debit. The completeness of your answers will determine the circumstances of your leaving this afternoon. Are you willing to answer our questions?"
"Yes."
"Good. These will help you recall details and aid in your answers. Please swallow them."
Surprisingly, he did with no objection.
"How long have you been collecting half of the estate proceeds for yourself?"
Of all the things Debit could have been questioned about, this was the one area he feared least. He replied, "Ten years."
"How much did you steal in that period of time?"
"Nothing."
Totally familiar with the need to precisely ask the questions, Flitwick asked, "How much extra did you collect during that time period?"
"376,200 Galleons."
"Why the discrepancy between your two answers?"
"I wrote it into my signed employment contract. Fudge signed it without objection."
Hammer had previously pulled all of the employee files in Finance, so it only took a few seconds to confirm that it was near the bottom on page six. Amelia couldn't tell if there was an old notice-me-not charm on that page and asked the runner to have the interrogator ask the question.
"After you remarked that section of your contract on page six, was a notice-me-not charm applied?"
"Though he was fighting it, Debit admitted, "Yes."
"Who cast the charm?"
After a few seconds, he answered, "I did."
… - …
Rockchucker, who was standing behind the glass with Amelia asked her. "What would you have us do? He was seen walking in."
"I'll fire him today. I don't want him talking about this."
"As you wish. You don't need to fire him, he'll resign this afternoon. Enjoy your day."
After she left, Rockchucker handed the runner a vial of a clear potion and said, "Ask him to administer the potion to Mr. Debit. Have him sign this document, hand him his corrected card and tell him to go to the head of the line to get his wand."
A minute later, Debit was again at the head of the wand line, where he purchased his wand as expected. Witnesses saw him go in and leave the Wand Shop with his new wand.
The dementia potion was an especially nasty invention. Once consumed, the victim immediately forgot the last hour. Within a day, he no longer remembered buying his wand. Within three days, he didn't remember having worked at the Ministry for the last ten years. By the end of a week, he'd forgotten his own name. He died a few days later having forgotten to breathe.
… - …
Wednesday November 1
When they were in the break room together, Emma asked, "How was your date last night?
Hermione replied, "Very nice. We visited with Hagrid for a bit and went to a magical restaurant. We picked the city that we wanted to visit and there was a magic window that we could see and we received our food from that restaurant!
"That sounds great. We'll have to go with sometime. What city did you choose?"
"Palarmo."
"Tell me about it..."
… - ...
While Hermione and Emma were sharing a bit of girl-talk, Amelia was visiting with Ragnok. Amelia asked, "Where do you get your finance people?"
Ragnok replied, "We develop them. We give them 12 years of math and then university Accounting classes – they take the British exams, the same as nonmagicals."
"How long do the children of the Nation go to school?"
"Twenty-five years on average, though not all at once. Gumeye, who you met, had gone to our primary school for ten years. Then he worked his first job for a year, then went to school again for another year, then he was the night Book of Death attendant for a year, He will go for another year then return to work for a new assignment. As a race, we live a comparatively long time and don't believe that it is practical to go to school for ten years and learn nothing new for several hundred.
"That was the point of my goal that the wizarding school teach children to live in the 21st century. Thirty thousand people all can't be working at the ministry any more than all of my people trying to work as tellers. Non-magical children start organized school by age five and typically go into their early twenties. Twelve to sixteen years is very common. Professor McGonagall's eventual replacement should be someone with fresh ideas. In your case, I'm not recommending seven, or twelve, or sixteen years of insular education. That will not bring about any new ideas.
"To continue with your original question regarding finding a finance manager, you can import another one, grow one, find a relative of a witch or wizard, or hire one of ours. My recommendation would be to go to the recently finished newborns or students and ask if they have a parent or sibling who is a Chartered Accountant. There would be fewer quarrels doing that than borrowing or renting one of the Account Managers."
"Thank you. That's good advice."
… - …
Thursday November 2
Back at Gringotts, Barchoke smirked at Ragnok's joke and replied, "Speaking of selling on the continent; Harry came to me yesterday. He's been trading letters with a friend that works in the Romanian Dragon reserve. A Charlie Weasley; he's a brother to the curse breaker Bill that we employee and the twins I'm talking to about a joke shop in the ally."
Ragnok asked, "What does he want to do?"
"He has an offer from Charlie for his reserve in Romania and the reserve on the Isle of Mann. Trade them 48 wands and they will give him exclusive rights to dragon parts for the next twenty-five years. Skin, blood, hearts, meat and bone. They are completely locked down now with blood wards but fear without wands, their protections will fall and the dragons will be slaughtered. They don't want a repeat of what happened in Iceland and Crete, where all of the reserve's dragons were illegally poached."
"Hmm. That is a good idea. Harry should be commended for his initiative. He's thinking long-term. Our chefs would greatly enjoy receiving the meat at a good price. Have the curse breaker Weasley put a team together to go with you and Harry, let him do the deal. Set the prices for the items. Have him do the entire purchase and we'll broker the items that he has no use for.
"No. Better yet, go with him and over-negotiate the deal. Give Harry a copy of it, encourage him to read it after he gets back and let him conclude on his own that they won't thrive with the terms. Potter can go back and relax the terms a bit and be seen as their hero. They may even contact the other reserves and recommend doing business with Potter. Ward the reserve to the best of our ability. We need to protect our future assets."
… - ...
Winky was explaining their inventory to Harry.
48,000 feet of ugly spider strand
1,500 unicorn tail hairs
1,000 thesteral tail hairs
1,500 hippogriff tail hairs
"You can make two wands from each tail hairs piece. No use for extra short pieces. Maybe jokie shop could use them."
… - ...
Bill Weasley was surprised to receive the notice to report to Barchoke's office today at ten. In the decade that he'd worked for the Nation, he'd learned that the visits to the executive offices most frequently revolved around hiring, firing, or secret projects. He usually received his assignments from either the Head Cursebreaker, or occasionally Snotnose – always someone in operations.
After he was escorted to Barchoke's door (one didn't walk down the executive corridor without an escort) announced and led inside. Barchoke's look at him felt like he was being judged, The executive said, "I have a short assignment for you, Cursebreaker Weasley. Your brother, Charlie has made a request for assistance from the Wandcrafter. You will make arrangements for a visit. Counting yourself, there will be eleven people. The trip will either last one or two days. The Wandcrafter's safety is paramount. From the time we activate the portkey, his safety is your responsibility.
"Once the Wandcrafter is inside the wards of the reserve, your secondary assignment is to evaluate the wards of the reserve. Should there be any deficiencies, you will either immediately arrange for a follow-on visit with enough staff to ensure that they can withstand any reasonable assault, or upgrade them while you are there. Two of the master warders will be going with us and for this assignment, will be taking direction from you.
"The Wandcrafter will be fitting wands for the staff within the reserve. I will be finalizing a contract with the Reserve Director. Should the Wandcrafter finish his task in one day, you will escort him back to the Citidal, return and continue on with your duties at the reserve. Should he find it beneficial to stay the night, you will return the next day."
"I understand. When would you like to leave?"
"Tomorrow morning at nine will be acceptable. Either call your brother, or take a portkey out today to make the arrangements. Make it happen."
… - ...
Friday November 3
Dan asked, "Where's Harry?"
Hermione replied, "He's going to visit Charlie. He's the one who raises dragons."
Dan was silent. He was thinking, Shih Tzu puppies, Shih Tzu puppies, I'm going to buy him a Shih Tzu puppy.
… - ...
It turned out to be comparatively easy to find a finance person. John Macmillan's wife, Greta easily met the qualifications. Amelia was tempted to respond with, I fed him to the dragons for dishonesty, when she'd asked what happened to the previous occupant of the job. Instead, she replied, "He didn't return after being called back."
Greta asked, "What are your priorities for the position?"
"First, I need a reasonably accurate set of October financial reports."
"Second, verify our bank balances. I'd like to see the reconciled bank statements. Should the ministry appear to be financially solvent, I'd like you to pay off the line of credit that I've been using since the end of June.
"Third, as part of the financials, I'd like to see the summary sheets from the Estate Income when they start operating again.
"On a very close fourth, I'd like you to personally verify that everyone who received a paycheck on October 15 was actually employed, alive, has a valid contract and was getting paid the authorized amount.
"That should be quite enough to start off with. You're hired."
… - …
Arthur looked at the Quibbler with regret.
Elphias Doge Asphyxiated
Elphias Doge was found deceased in his home yesterday, reported Senior Investigator Connie Hammer. Hammer stated that a propane cooking grill designed for outdoor use only was found running in his home. Mr Doge was 106.
Arthur commented, "He shouldn't have been using a cooking grill to heat his home."
Molly grumbled. "At least he had a home to heat." Arthur chose not to respond. She missed the other article in the new business openings section.
… - …
Saturday November 4
Harry, Layla (Winky's sister) and Dobby arrived at 8:30 and were escorted to the Silver Room. Barchoke hadn't wanted three wandcrafters leaving the country at once, so he'd borrowed Layla to look at the magic. Harry wanted Little D with him, just-in-case. Soon they were joined by Bill and the two warders, then Barchoke and his four guards. Barchoke silently verified that Harry was wearing his vest and portkey watch in case they were needed. Dobby and Layla could also leave in an instant. They each held onto the senior guard's pole ax handle and an instant later they were gone.
… - ...
They were met by Bito, the Director of the reserve and Charlie. Bito was of medium height but looked to be 250 pounds of solid muscle. Charlie was a bit taller, maybe 5'9 and 200 pounds; again of solid muscle.
After a few quick greetings Charlie said, "I'd be happy to show you around for a bit but there's a fair bit of walking involved."
Harry went to one of his boxes, took out two miniature broomsticks, tapped each and replied, "Maybe it would be easier to fly?"
Charlie gasped, "Where did you get those?"
"A guy made them for me. Shall we?"
Needless to say, there had been no broomsticks in the reserve for months. Prior to that they were the standard mode of transportation. As they took to the air, Charlie explained their operation.
"We're effectively raising livestock here. You start on the back end, meaning that when you decide to sell a dragon, you're only going to get so much for it. For easy math, take 10,000 galleons, which is about what we can get.
"Every day a rancher has a dragon/cow/sheep/puppy or whatever you're raising, it costs them money - food, medicine, pay the wranglers, taxes on the land, repairs to the building, or the cost of processing (deconstructing) the animal. We could keep a dragon for thirty years and have spent 60,000G taking care of it but we can still only sell it for 10,000. As it turns out, dragons mature and start breeding at a very young age compared to their lifespan."
Harry nodded. Charlie's words made sense.
Charlie continued, "Most of the dragons begin wanting to mate when they're three years old. Most of them get processed when they're five. In the past, we've traded juveniles with the other reserves for genetic diversity. That's going to be harder now. Obviously the other constraint is that on a 50,000 acre ranch, you can't keep a thousand dragons – more like fifty. Even then, you occasionally have to feed them sheep, which run..."
"About 20G each, give or take." Harry fudged a bit and said, "Hagrid does about the same with some of his interesting creatures that he keeps."
Off in the distance, Harry could see two dragons gliding through the air. He had no desire for another up-close visit.
Charlie nodded at the memory of the man who had been his inspiration and asked, "How did you get into the wandcrafting business?"
"Being stubborn and being in the right place at the right time. The short of it is that they hooked me and Hermione up with a Master Wandcrafter. We worked on a formula to craft wands that were likely to work well with most people. We cut and split wood, glue in the core, shape, sand and apply finish. We kind of have the same issue you do; it doesn't make sense to design a wand that will cost more than I can sell it for.
"As for the fitting, when we get back to camp, I usually bring people in one at a time, find out what they were using and try something close. Shall we get started?"
… - …
Meanwhile, Barchoke was negotiating pricing and forecasted deliveries. The reserve manager was clearly outmatched. Harry received not only a delivery monopoly and also favorable costs of acquisition for 25 years. Barchoke estimated that when the wand business normalized in five years that Potter might make as much brokering deals for components as he would in the wand business. He expected that they would call Harry back within three months for some adjustments. In the mean while, he'd have a discussion with him, reminding him about the value of adjusting recently signed deals so they became mutually beneficial.
By the time they'd had their evening meal. Harry had fitted everyone with a wand and had gifted Charlie with the six broomsticks that he'd brought. Harry declined the night flight tour to see the dragons with their perfect night vision. Devlin's strand brooms were good but Harry had no illusion that he could out-fly a dragon in flight when one would invariably charge after him.
As the group gathered to return to London, Charlie said, "Thanks Harry. This will keep us in business."
Harry shook his hand and replied, "Stay safe, Charlie. Try those brooms out before getting into sprint races with the dragons. They're decent brooms but they're not firebolts. Call me if you need anything." He handed Charlie one of the cards that Daryl had made up for him with Harry Potter and his cell number.
… - …
Mick Paulson of Mick's Charm was meeting with his two associates, Conner Fawcett and Staci Bradley. It had been just over two months since the three had launched their charm repair business. Each was working twelve hours a day six days a week and a half day on Sunday. They each had made nearly 5,000G in October and so far none of their clients had dropped off due to getting their own wands.
Staci pointed out that by January, they should expect to see some sort of droppoff, Conner wasn't so certain. He said, "I think a lot of them folk don't really mind the bill. Some are lonely, some are old enough where it looks like some of the charms would do them in."
Staci pointed out, "We promised to return to the Ministry on March 1."
Mick asked, "Why'd you agree to that? Mine's open ended."
Staci replied, "You probably caught her off guard. She was insistent when we talked with her."
… - …
Saturday November 4
The sun was just rising on Cobham; a small, well-to-do area in Surrey county, southwest of London. It had interesting streets with colorful, upscale shops and well maintained homes with neatly trimmed hedges.
The residents generally had good jobs with major companies. More than a few took the tubes into London during the day. In the early morning, no one paid any attention to the short statured man walking down the street by an old three story brick building with no windows in the first two floors, occasionally snapping a photograph and carrying a shopping bag with the logo of a neighborhood shop. It hadn't occurred to anyone that the shops hadn't yet opened for the day.
A bus went by and if they were paying attention, they might have noticed that when it has passed, the man was also gone.
… - …
The first team Devlin Whitehorn delivered the prototype broomsticks to was Puddlemere United. Their coach, John Thomas, asked the players to fly around a bit to get used to them.
Their initial reaction was that the brooms were very comparable to the Nimbus 2000s that they had been using before switching to Firebolts last December.
There were sixteen teams in the British league. Of the thirty thousand witches and wizards in Britain who were eligible to own a wand, ten thousand were interested enough to follow the team standings in season and be conversant about the sport. Total league attendance on any given week averaged 5,000.
Attendance was not evenly distributed throughout the league. Whereas the Puddlemere or Harpies games tended to average 1,500 fans in the stands, the other teams averaged 300, with the exception of the Chudley Cannons, who after being in the bottom two positions since 1972, barely averaged a hundred family and friends to their side of a match.
After the team had flown laps for a while, they went into their chaser/keeper drills by playing a game of 21. The basic rules were that the three chasers would fly their various formations and try and score against the keeper. If they scored a goal, they received a point. If the keeper made a save, they received a point. As the game was played without another team disrupting the shots, the chasers were heavily favored.
With the brooms being equal, the new keeper, Oliver Wood was holding his own with the scores 2-1, 2-2, 3-2, 4-2, 4-3, 4-4, 4-6, 5-6 and so on. The final scores were typically 21-12 in favor of the chasers. Today's drill finished, 21-18. Coach Thomas was impressed. Walsh the owner, had a thoughtful look on her face.
In the meanwhile, the beaters were trying different bats and the seeker soon realized that the snitch that they were currently using could easily outfly the brooms. Adjustments would have to be made.
… - …
Harry and Hermione arrived at the Three Broomsticks early that Saturday. They asked Madam Rosmerta for a private room with beverages and lunch for six. They also asked if she could direct the four students (Susan and Hannah along with Luna and Neville) upstairs. Harry felt like he'd just seen everyone and Hermione was about to see most of the people that she wanted to. Both clearly felt that they had moved on from Hogwarts.
Hannah and Susan arrived first. They still sported remnants of their summer tans. Harry hadn't given it much thought at the time but their hair looked sleeker than the day they received their wands and both looked very tidy, He decided that for fit teenage girls, a tiny bit of wandwork could be a very useful thing.
"Hi Hermione, hi Harry, Good to see you both."
Hermione replied, "Hi Hannah, hi Susan, I've missed you both." The girls hugged as Harry smiled at the sight. "How are you both getting on this term?"
"We both like the new classes, especially history without Binns."
"I bet."
"We're waiting for the wanded classes to start spring term. We're starting to worry about our OWLs."
She replied, "We took them in September. They really weren't that hard. You have 24 charms in fifth year and if you work on one or two of them a weekend you'll have a good idea about them before class starts. There were only a dozen charms that we had to demonstrate for the exam. Are there OWLs for the new classes, or end of semester exams?"
Luna and Neville walked in. Neville replied, "Just end of term exams this year."
Harry greeted his friends and added, "So all you have to do is pass the classes with a decent score. How's herbology?"
Neville admitted, "Pretty easy. I have most of the plants that we're covering in class at my greenhouse at home and have been taking care of them for a year or more."
Susan asked, "Which OWLs did you take?"
Hermione replied, "Charms, transfiguration and DADA. It was enough. You can always pay a few galleons and take others, or pay a bit extra and do a re-take. It's a shame that the professors never mention it."
Hannah replied, "Professor Sprout has been telling us that for years." The unspoken message was apparently Professor McGonagall had never said a word.
"Luna, please show us your ring." She happily complied with Hermione's request.
"That's beautiful. Tell us all about Bright Moon..."
"We have over three hundred elves signed up so far. Some are working where they were and quite a few stay at the office in Diagon alley because they left their old home and don't want to go back."
Hermione asked, "What do you do for them?"
"I handle the initial inquiry, do the introductions and scheduling. We bill in advance, so there aren't any collection problems. Mr. Shackelbolt helped us one time when the client became abusive to one of the elves, Sing-sing. Word about that got around pretty quickly and we haven't had any problems since."
It was a very fun afternoon.
… - …
After the quidditch drills, Devlin was asked to say a few words to Ms. Whitehart, who had been told about the event from Kathryn Walsh, the team owner.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Devlin Whitehorn, Managing Director of the Nimbus Broom company. Prior to today he has never held a press conference. Devlin Whitehorn."
"Good afternoon," he said, doing the best to hide the annoyance from his voice. This was supposed to be a working session, not Walsh's PR moment.
"Broomsticks share some of the same characteristics as the wands that we're coming to re-enjoy in the last few months. There are also some real differences. The Wand Shop is currently crafting what could be termed as generic wands in that the selected components and the crafting methods used are specifically designed to work very well for the vast majority of users. Once the wand bonds with the user, many people are enjoying better results than they experienced with their old wands.
"The characteristics of broomsticks are crafted into the broomstick itself. Top speed, acceleration, the ability to stop and agility are all designed and built in. In addition to proprietary runesets, most of these characteristics are crafted into the back side of the broom – twig length construction method, the tightness of the weave all work together to develop a blend of performance and safety. The front end affords shaping opportunities which affects the steering and agility.
"Previously, the league took much of its direction from the Ministry and had little input as to the equipment specifications. Simply spoken, there was no uniformity between teams, leading to far too many situations where the team with the best equipment generally won the match. This year, the owners have taken the inspired initiative to achieve parity in equipment."
"Additionally there will be equipment matching. In layman's terms, all sixteen teams will be using identical broomsticks, bludgers, bats, quaffles and snitches. It is our expectation that this change will vastly level the playing field."
"At this time, I'll take a few questions."
Whitehart asked, "What changes were made to the other pieces of equipment?"
"The two primary changes made were to match the speed of the snitches and the beater bats with the new brooms. We're still fine tuning that. It wouldn't do to have the snitch fly twice as fast as the broomsticks – the games would never end, or the other way around. Through skill and good planning, a seeker should just able to catch the snitches.
"The same holds true with the beater bats, where the hardness of the bat ultimately determines the bludger's top speed. If the bludgers are too fast, too many career ending injuries occur. If the bludger can't be hit hard enough to generate any velocity, they lose their function in the game."
She asked, "Mr. Whitehorn, wouldn't your efforts be better served making wands for people?"
"Wands and broomsticks are both a part of our heritage. That said, they are separate crafts. Our tools and focus are different. I'm not a licensed wandcrafter any more than the owners of the Wand Shop are licensed broomstick crafters. There's time for one more question."
Whitehart asked, "Will you eventually resume making the Firebolt series?"
"Yes but it may take another year." Satisfied with the prototype broom design, Whitehorn returned to his shop to begin making a batch for all of the teams.
… - …
As Devlin was answering questions, Amelia decided it was time to recall the Wizengamot.
"Michelle,I need a list of Wizengamot members. Start with the June list."
A minute later the hitwitch/bodyguard/administrator came back and said, "I found this. It needs some work."
"It's fine. I'll take it as is."
Ten minutes later it looked like this;
Dead - Death Eaters
Malfoy, Nott, Flint, Parkinson, Macnair, Avery, Lestrange, Carrow, Gibbon, Jugson, Mulciber, Rowle, Selwin, Yaxley, Wilkes, Rookwood = 16
Dead – Other
Twycross, Dumbledore, Ollivander, Burke, Crouch, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor = 9
Vacant – Heir in place
Potter, Smith, Greengrass, Bones = 4
Active - Held as Regent
Longbottom = 1
Active
Ogden, Croaker, Fortescue, Lovegood, Dodderidge, Gamp, Wood, Abbott, Black, Slughorn, Diggory, Flourish, Crabtree, Cuffe, Oddpick, Singer, Macmillan, Doge, Podmore = 19
MoM
Bones = 1
Since then, she'd offered 14 seats to the Account Managers and two to the elves.
= 16
If she kept with tradition and left the founder seats vacant, she had five more to assign. Cuffe's seat would remain unoccupied.
She handed Randi the marked-up list and said, "Send to the active categories and the sixteen new people."
Randi looked at it and remarked, "Mr. Doge died yesterday. I'll redo the list and get the notices sent."
Six to assign.
… - ...
Sunday November 5
Wick's task had recently grown more complicated. After reviewing the photographs that he'd taken, he noticed that the lights in the building were on. He'd found where the water main shutoff was and was operating under the assumption that the local ordinance would have required that the building was equipped with a sprinkler system in the event of a fire.
The four cars in the parking lot weren't actually used. The employees simply moved them from one end of the lot to the other each day to give the impression that the building was occupied and the vehicles were being driven each day.
When the employees were beginning the bottling process, they would open one of the barrels and dump the aged whiskey into a containment trough where the filtering and occasionally blending would take place. Many distilleries would add water to the alcohol to dilute it from 90 percent (180 proof) that it was when originally distilled before beginning the the aging process to the 40-50 percent (80-100 proof) that it would be when sold to consumers.
In contrast, Ogden barreled and aged his at 180 proof. On the plus side, his warehouse only had to be half as large. On the downside, the undiluted alcohol was highly flammable. The final step in his process was adding the dragon blood to the whiskey in the trough and doing a last filtering to remove any bits of charcoal from the aging barrels.
Flitwick's original assignment was to torch the building and destroy all the contents at the same time. If there was no concern about loss of life, he could simply take his flying carpet for a ride, break open a few windows, cast several reductos and a fiendfyre, then be a mile away before anyone even smelled smoke. That would have been comparatively simple.
Doing the same without any loss of life was far trickier. He didn't know how many people worked there, or if it was the same for every shift. He assumed, but didn't know that the charms on the building would have worn down, that they hadn't employed any of the charm renewal services and most of all, that they weren't armed.
He hesitated to cast fiendfyre for two reasons. It was not impossible that the ministry trackers were back tracking dangerous spells again and a decent investigator could tell that it had been cast. He could cast homenum revelio and verify that the upper floor was empty, break open a few barrels and hope for the best.
His biggest variable were the elves. In the best case, they might actually help him. In the worst case, they could easily capture him.
Again, no plan survives first contact. At 2 am, he floated up the the end window and vanished the glass. Hoping to improve his odds, he vanished all of the glass in all of the windows along one side of the three story brick building. To his amazement, the inside of the building was completely open with five rows of double-sided racks. He estimated that any given row held fifty barrels per level. The sturdy racks held four levels
He positioned himself half way down the far row and silently cast the hole piercing charm, percuttio on fifteen barrels on either side of the row towards the bottom of the barrels. As he hoped, gravity worked and within a minute he observed that the outsides of at least sixty of the barrels were soaked from the thumb size holes.
He estimated that the inside of the building would be fully engulfed within three minutes. Since he didn't want to fly out of the window on the side of the building where the main door was, he floated to one of the windows on the far side of the building and vanished the glass. He floated just outside the window.
In the spirit of fairness, he cast three incendios, which ignited the soaked barrels and a reducto hex at the base of the second row. It caused a crash as dozens of barrels fell down with a mighty thunk. It was more than enough noise to wake any of the employees who may have been sleeping inside but was unlikely to have been heard outside the building.
He silently floated away into the darkness. He had another job to do.
… - …
Monday November 6
Harry came into the shop early. Stepping into the shop he smelled the faint odor of smoke. Walking into the break room, he didn't see anything unusual. When he got to the storage room, he saw Dobby and Winky dancing a jig and laughing.
"What's going on, Dobby?"
The two elves were startled. Winky squeaked, "Gotta go!" and popped away.
"Dobby!"
"Yes sir, the Mr. Great Harry Potter Sir?"
"Care to explain why you smell of wood smoke and you're covered in soot?"
"Bad trip through the floo?"
"Want to try again and also explain why the we have those ten very large wooden barrels sitting against the wall?"
Dobby stood there shifting from foot to foot and stroking the end of one ear. Finally he said, "Mr. Harry Potter Sir, Dobby went shopping and got you alcohol to make the shellacs. There is enough barrels here to make wands for ten years."
"Shopping huh?" Harry walked over to inspect the barrels. Peering closely, he could see an Odgen Distillery burn stamped into the casks.
"Huh, shopping, try again Dobbs, where did you get these?"
"Dobby and Winky heard thru the Elf grapevine, big warehouse on fire. We's go and rescue the barrels from fire with help from other elves. Dobby hears bad man Tiberius Ogden paid people to be killing Emma and Miss Hermione when she was very small. He are very bad, beating house elves who worked for him. All elves are hating him."
Feeling much better about it and being careful not to ask why Ogden's business was on fire, Harry commented, "You know Dobby, these should be in plastic tanks so the alcohol doesn't turn into whiskey. It would cut down the smell also."
Dobby was back two minutes later with twenty plastic fifty-gallon drums. Harry started to laugh. Dobby visibly relaxed and smiled.
"Dobby you did well. Thank you. What ever you do, don't tell Emma where you got this. Tell her you bought it on sale with your own money."
Dobby smirked. "If she's asking, I'll tell her I bought it at a fire sale." They quickly filled and sealed the plastic drums and had just finished vanishing the wooden barrels and casting an air freshening charm when they heard Hermione in the break room. Dobby popped away.
… - …
Apparently Ogden wasn't hearing Kingsley's response to his complaint. "Mr Ogden, the address that you gave me is not in in the registry of magical buildings."
"Of course not; it was my secret warehouse. What part of secret isn't getting through?"
Ignoring the taunt, Shack asked, "Was anyone killed?"
"No."
"Was anyone hurt?"
"No."
Kingsley explained, "Then it's a matter of jurisdiction. It's the jurisdiction of the Cobham fire department or the Surrey county fire investigator. Was the building destroyed?"
Ogden replied, "It was full of 1,600 one-hundred gallon barrels of 180 proof whiskey. The asphalt parking lot burned up too. Even the bleeding cars burned up. There's nothing standing. It all fell in."
"What did the police say?"
"They asked me if I had a permit to store flammables in a bleeding area that was zoned for retail. The thieven bastards tell me I'm facing five-hundred thousand pound fine. I couldn't hardly tell em I was storing magical whiskey, could I?"
Shack admitted, "No, I suppose not. However, the fact remains, as no one was hurt, or killed and the building wasn't registered, I simply don't have jurisdiction. I enjoy your product and am sorry that this happened."
… - ...
Three Broomsticks Rented Function Room;
Minerva McGonagall stood up. She looked at Barchoke and the four Goblin Guards, all decked out in armor and with wicked looking weapons. She saw him nod and she sighed.
"Well, you are all here. Thank you for coming at such short notice. The portkeys that brought you here will take you home also. You are here because your children have all been a problem. I'll not mince about with words. They have been, in plain language, a colossal pain in the arse. I am, for the lot of them, feeling that they are a total scunner."
A number of people stood to argue.
"Silence." shouted the Headmistress. "I di na give ya leave to talk. After discussing this situation with the teachers, the goblins and the Minister of Magic, it was decided that your sons and daughters have been too disruptive in school, they have shown a disdain for the wonderful gift that has been given to us by the Goblin Nation. It pains me to do this, but I am conditionally suspending the lot of them until January. I have the full support of the Minister of Magic and the head of the Goblin Nation."
The parents sat in stunned silence.
"Their actions spit in the face of what we are trying to do and to the Goblin Nation, that is sacrificing a great deal to help us all to thrive in a new world. Their insulting actions, both directly and indirectly to the Goblins, teachers and staff on site moved them down on the list to get their and your wands. This is a wakeup call. For them to come back to school and to get a wand, they will have to work for the Goblins in the Goblin kitchens until the end of the year.
"As part of this, they will attend special non-wanded and one magical theory classes at a different location. This is a one time and no strikes offer. If they don't attend and behave, they will not be able to attend school. That will make it very much harder to pass qualifications or to receive and keep a wand. As it is, they and you have fallen to the end of the wand list. There is no appeal; they must participate, work hard, keep their mouth shut and next January your children can receive their wand and return to Hogwarts. If they don't cooperate, then they will be permanently expelled, and you are on your own. If you choose to take their offer, your child will need to present themselves at Gringotts at 6:00am this Sunday and be ready to work hard.
"Most of you are so called pure bloods, a distinction that no longer matters and your conceit put you in a position that you are ill-equipped to survive in the present circumstances. The choice is yours. The packets we gave each of you explain everything. Go home with your children, explain the cold facts of life to them and think about it for the next few days. You all have a decision to make that will affect the rest of your lives. You can live with magic or without. The choice is yours."
… - …
Earlier that morning, Fred hurried around the store. "Fang Frisbees, check. Biting Boomerangs, check. Our fireworks section is limited, we really need more."
On the next aisle and on the other side of the shelf George called out, "Got the Nosebleed Nougats and the Puking Pastilles. Twenty other novelties were arranged on the other shelves along with some non-magical novelty items that they bought to fill the shelves. "Too bad the Pygmy Puffs won't be ready for another week. I think we're as ready as we can be. Lee?"
"Ready!" their usually silent partner in pranks called. "We need to open, there are people by the door already."
… - …
While Minerva was giving it to the parents, Harry had purposefully arranged to have twice the usual number of fittings today so the alley would be full. At five minutes to nine, Harry, Hermione and Emma joined the Account Managers and Guards who had lined up on the steps of the bank to watch the event. Barchoke announced, "It has started, I can hear it."
At the far end of the alley, the unmistakable sound of a Wurlitzer circus organ piped out the circus song.
Soon they could see twenty dachshund size firework dragons leading the parade followed by two hundred brightly clothed elves juggling and tossing out small candies. Behind them, every child who had been in the alley (as well as their parents) walked along, enjoying the spectacle.
When they reached the new store, the dragons gave a final bow and disappeared without a sound. The elves marched into the joke shop where it appeared that they were piling into a clown car. On the other side of the door, they promptly popped into the work area of the Wand Shop, dispersed and went on their way. They were delighted with the outfits that Emma had bought for them.
"Good show and all of that," said Fred as he pulled down on his sort of shimmering vest as he walked towards the front door. He and George stood in front of their doors as the spectacle neared. "This is it, brother mine."
"The big one."
"The one we've waited years for."
"Welcome to Weasleys Wild Wizbangs - jokes and fun for every occasion."
"Yes, come in," George called out in his own shimmering vest as they parted to either side of the door to let people in. "We have something for everyone, or maybe two somethings like there are two of us."
The little kids entered in a blind rush with adults, mostly mothers, following and giving the twins a confused look as if they were seeing double.
"Joke toys over here!" Lee called out and a few boys who looked to be about nine or ten hurried over.
As the squeals of delight rang around the room, one twin casually remarked, "I think it's going to work out. I appreciate Dad coming in for a couple of hours last night to help stock the shelves."
"True. I think we need more something at the front door. We were rushed, so it's a little boring at the moment."
"More cowbell, can't have too much cowbell. Maybe on an animated stuffed dragon for fun."
"Have to be careful not to frighten the young ones though."
"Too true." Still looking over the store and the kids scurrying to see what else was in the store, he said, "I hate to say it but it hurts that Mum wouldn't come help, nor would Percy the prat. Ron's a bit of a pillock, as he said he didn't care."
"There's hope for Ginny as she volunteered even if Dad wouldn't pull her out of school for a few hours."
"But she's always liked us so - Hey!" He called out suddenly, "Don't put that in-" He shook his head before he commented quietly, "I hope that didn't hurt."
"Naw, don't you remember I tested that and I'll reverse it, unless he likes having blue skin and yellow hair that sticks up."
A Fanged Frisbee suddenly came flying toward the door. Whipping his wand out the remaining twin caught it with a Summoning Charm and sent it back to the thrower, who yelped when he caught it, causing the part-owner to smile. "You can't trick a trickster," he murmured with satisfaction. The ring of the cash register and then an overly loud flushing sound also gave him the satisfaction to fondly sigh, "Our first sale."
Hmm, they needed more potty humor products. Perhaps Harry would have an idea or two he'd like to contribute. Yeah, they could do this, thought George as he walked towards a cute little girl to show her how to use the squirting flower she was looking at.
… - …
A/Ns
It was a long chapter. I wanted to present a lot of elements at one time. Thanks for hanging in there.
KBO graciously wrote the WWW grand opening. Thank you very much, good sir. I do appreciate it.
The actual name of the circus song is Entry of the Gladiators.
Tom wrote the Quidditch interview and the McG rant. He was on a roll. I think she popped a bolt.
Will Cormack and crew stick it out or dash?
… - ...
OMAKE The Arthur Weasley Job Interview
Sirius said, "Thanks for meeting with me, Arthur; I won't keep you long. I'm putting together a team to purchase estates from the ministry and resell them; hopefully at a profit. There's a backlog of over a hundred, so there will be plenty of work. From what Minister Bones has told me, your old department probably won't be reinstated after she's finished reorganizing.
"Your son, Bill told me that you have a pretty good eye for recognizing items that have been enchanted, charmed, transfigured, or cursed. Those are skills that we could use.
"I can pay either a monthly salary of 1,000G a month, or a share of the profits from each job, which I estimate will average 5,000G per person, per estate. When we get going, I expect to complete one to three estates a month. Are you interested?"
"Yes."
"Would you prefer the guaranteed salary or the monthly share?"
"The salary."
"er... Are you sure?"
"Absolutely."
Sirius asked, "Are there any questions?"
Arthur asked, "Might you also have a spot for my son, Percy?"
"Does he have any skills?"
"Arselicking and complete anal retentiveness." No one ever accused Arthur of shading the truth.
"er... Does he have any work experience?" asked Sirius.
"He worshiped the ground Barty Crouch stood on." Sirius slowly breathed out as deeply as he could, remembering that Crouch was one of the people who'd signed papers to place him in Azkaban.
"Does he know anything about animals?" Sirius felt a headache coming on.
"He kept a pet rat, Scabbers for eight years before he gave it to Ron."
Sirius counted to ten, then ten again to calm down, then ten one last time to be sure and replied. "No. I don't think he'd be a good fit for the team."
"OK. When do I start?"
"Monday."
… - ...
