Chapter Twenty-two

Snotnose

Monday January 15, 1996

Back at The Wand Shop;

As Winky had stated (elves do not predict) the orders started gushing in.

Sardania ordered 1,000 and asked about core materials

Greece ordered 5,000

France and Germany ordered 3,000 more

Romania ordered 2,000

Finland and Corsica placed orders for 3,500 each

Norway ordered 5,000

France and Germany each asked for another 2,000 more

The orders each came with their requested delivery schedules, incentives based on meeting deadlines and the like. Every order came with a letter describing how desperate their situation was. There simply wasn't enough core available until May to fill all of the orders. Harry looked at it and the only word that came to mind was Nightmare.

The problem was that there were literally a hundred different methods and strategies to rank and prioritize the order with their requested deliveries. They had previously committed to a very workable delivery schedule with Germany and France at 500 wands each on the first of the month. Harry was certain that Barchoke's prediction of rapidly escalating prices wasn't fiction.

After watching the teen stare at the order summary for too long, Dan observed, "You could have been making an extra hundred wands in the time you've been stewing over the strategies."

Emma suggested, "Perhaps rather than looking at Finland's order as one order of 3,500, you should look at it as 35 shoe boxes of 100 instead."

"I have a solution," said Dobby. "They need to be prepaying when they order, so they aren't ordering ten times and buying once. At the end of month, we decide how many to be shipping. You drop one coin in bowl for every 100 ordered. If we shipping 5,000, we draw 50 coins. If they order many, they have more chances to get some but everyone is having a chance. Customers all be saying they want theirs first. This is easiest for us – least yabby-dabby – Dobby and Winky do delivery."

"I could put off going to see Daryl," suggested Harry.

"No!" shouted Winky. "Harry Potter must be going in June. Winky is insisting. Harry Potter is collecting many strands from Big Ugly Scary spiders in May, then Harry Potter is going to Salem."

Hermione wondered what that was all about. Winky had never insisted on anything in her life.

… - …

Saturday January 13

The Estate Team looked through the list of estates that were available to disposition. Many such as Snape or Umbridge were categorized as Ordinary (less than 100,000G) The minor ones (100,000 – a million) included names such as; Avery, Nott, Carrows, Jugson, McNair, Mulcaber, Yaxley, Flint, Smith and Moody. The major ones included Rookwood, Crouch, Dumbledore and the big one – Parkinson.

When everyone had looked at the whiteboard with the names written, Sirius asked, "Are there any suggestions as to which we should be look at next?"

Anna immediately responded, "Umbridge. It was common belief that she was Fudge's bagman. If she took ten percent, it would have added up pretty quickly. She was too smart to leave an obvious paper trail. My guess is she had galleons stuffed in her mattress, in the walls and in the back garden. She's lived in her father's old house forever."

He replied, "OK. I'll make the arrangements this afternoon."

He continued, "I want to talk about something else. The Parkinson estate includes ten million in rental property; primarily four, six and eight unit buildings that are being rented largely to magicals. When we take that project on, if we put all of those buildings up for sale at once, the bottom will fall out of the market. On the other hand, if we buy it and sit on it, we won't have the gold available to buy more estates.

"My questions are; 1) How can we negotiate the estimated price down and 2) How can we systematically unload them for top money?"

Sally replied, "Let's assume that for the most part, he was renting to wizards and witches – half bloods or muggleborn. Let's assume that three quarters of them are in a position to qualify for a mortgage."

"Those are reasonable assumptions. Then what?"

"We get a couple of standard contracts made up. One would be to convert the units to condominiums, or co-op units. If three out of four could buy their unit, we might get enough cash back to either keep renting the other unit, or give the tenant six months to purchase the unit, or move. If we had all of the paperwork already drafted, we might be able to unload half of the properties in 90 days."

"That's a good idea."

Arthur asked, "Would it be possible to purchase the estate in three or four pieces?"

Demi added, "That should be easy enough to negotiate. For sake of discussion, do it in five million galleon chunks – the home estate first, then the first half of the rentals, then the other half. He could have chests of coins buried in his back yard; I expect half of the tenants paid in coin."

"Good idea, what else?"

Remus observed, "A few of the areas aren't doing as well – compared to the estimates. I think we should work both ends, the estimate and how we sell them. The high-end used furniture market is completely flooded in Britain. Given that the Great Wandout is worse in Europe than here, I think we could do better in the States."

Demi agreed, "I expect that you're right on all counts; silver sets are at or below their base metal price and every traditionalist has been trying to unload artwork, extra furniture and the like domestically. On the other hand, legally doing business in multiple countries is at the edge of our competencies. We'd either have to set up a company to do the export and find buyers in the States, or magically export them and sell them at dodgy second hand shops, or hang on to them for a while. The only easy part would be getting it there; you'd shrink it to doll house proportions and ask Layla to pop them over. Parkinson had thirty years to set up that infrastructure and in all likelihood had his tattoo club buddies cherry-pick the house while the bodies were still warm before the Gringotts estimate could even be made. Did the business make any money on the first two estates?"

Sirius admitted, "No."

She added, "So let's set up a meeting with Gringotts and the Minister and see if we can either get the estimates adjusted or get your discount raised, or both. Personally I believe that the discount is an easier objective since it doesn't wrinkle the Estimator's sense of fiduciary obligation. That said, it doesn't hurt to point out that the European market is completely flooded."

Sirius replied, "I'll see if I can set both up. Are you available this afternoon?"

"Yes."

… - …

By good fortune, all three were available to meet that afternoon. Demi took the lead, asking, "What percent discount was Parkinson getting?"

Snotnose replied, "Five percent."

"How long had he been doing it?"

"Thirty-five years."

"What percent discount was he originally offered?"

Snotnose admitted, "Twenty."

She persisted, "What is the rest of the history?"

"After Parkinson eliminated his competition, Bagnold lowered the discount to fifteen."

"Then what happened?"

"When the Dark Lord disappeared in 1981, she lowered it to five."

Sensing that she'd scored a point, Demi asked, "Was that for business reasons, or punitive?"

Snotnose admitted, "Punitive. That said, he was making gold on every deal. He did very well on household."

"Did it occur to you that they were emptying the house before your estimate was even made?" Demi had made her point, There was no gain to over-pursue it.

Snotnose declared, "That could never happen."

As her old department had frequently held the same suspicion, Amelia asked, "How are you so certain?"

"We have an anti-theft ward set up within twenty-four hours of getting the report." Neither of them publicly referenced the Book of Death as the source of the information.

Amelia asked, "What if the killers took five things before they left?"

"Snotnose admitted, "That would be a possibility."

Having won that round, Demi continued, "There's a serious glut in household; silver service, artwork, high-end furniture. We haven't come close to the estimates." She was careful to say the rather than your, to avoid antagonizing the highly skilled estimator.

Barchoke admitted, "I have witnessed that with my own eyes."

"Parkinson was selling much of that internationally," observed Snotnose as if it were an obvious solution. That was why he'd previously suggested using the NYC diamond markets rather than the local ones. The Great Wandout had created far too many sellers.

Sirius admitted, "I'll work on that. Due to my extended vacation at chez Azkaban, my international exposure has been rather limited." Snotnose was rude, not wrong.

Amelia didn't want this to fall apart, she inquired, "Sirius, what are you looking for?"

He replied, "Twenty percent for two and a half years, then fifteen."

She threw in a condition of her own. "No more poaching of more of my people."

"I keep Anna as long as she wishes."

"Agreed."

Snotnose hadn't directly lost face in his estimates. The discount was out of the beneficiaries' end, not his. He agreed to be more conservative in future household estimates due to Black's obvious inexperience.

Sirius, let the insult wash off. He commented, "We'll do the Umbridge estate next."

She asked, "What about Parkinson's?"

Having rehearsed his answer, he replied, "We'd like to tackle that in three stages."

Snotnose fired back, "So you're under-capitilized and are requiring a payment plan?"

The look from Barchoke told him that he'd gone too far.

Black was grateful that Demi had rehearsed the meeting with him earlier that morning. Again, Sirius ignored the slight and replied, "In so many words, yes. We're performing due diligence on the rental side of the estate and intend to work the home portion first. We are requesting the normal prepayment on the first third then the second and final payment six and twelve months later respectively."

She asked, "When would you be in a position to start?"

"Early March."

"Agreed." She gave Snotnose a look of finality and he kept silent.

… - …

After they parted, the team had agreed to meet over dinner. Sirius announced, "Demi and I met with the Gringotts team and the minister to review our progress and business relationship. After discussion, they agreed to better terms for us, so the business should be able to operate in the black without finding Easter Eggs buried in their back gardens every time.

"We'll start on the Umbridge property on Monday morning. I agreed that we'd start on the Parkinson estate in early March, which I take to mean March 10 unless something changes. If we have time in between, I'd like to purchase Snape's and Moody's estates. They should both go quickly."

… - …

After the others had left, Barchoke kept Snotnose behind. Barchoke asked, "Why did you give him the contract with the least favorable terms?"

"I didn't give it to him, Minister Bones did. She didn't know that there were different contracts over the years. I merely didn't say anything. He was the beneficiary in both estates with the impact that there was more in one of his pockets and less in the other. He needs to learn that anything can be negotiated and he'll never improve if the only negotiating that he's doing is pillow talk. He was right; he didn't learn anything sitting in a cell for thirteen years. The Potter boy is a far better negotiator than Black. Black has tremendous leverage over Minister Bones and he needs to learn when to use it. In contrast, Mrs. Greengrass is a delight to negotiate with."

Barchoke didn't reply; waiting for the unpleasant Senior Estimator to finish.

Snotnose admitted, "I will say this for Black – he's learning quickly and he's hired well. I expect that he'll make a fair bit of gold for us."

… - …

When they returned to St Ebb, Remus asked, "How did we do on the Malfoy property?"

"When the property sale closes, Andromeda and I will each receive 1.9 million."

"That's very good. Just think of the look on his face if he knew where the money went."

Sirius admitted, "That would be a hoot. Everyone on the team earned 9,000G."

"That's fantastic, Thank you."

"Like I said, everyone earned it. Torching Voldmort's favorite sofa is pretty high up on our all-time prank list; let alone roasting his pet basilisk."

"Harry told me he heard it screaming."

Sirius said, "I wouldn't want his nightmares," then pointed out, "Almost half of the Malfoy estate was his vault balance. By the nature of the contract we'll never make any coins with that. Demi on her best day couldn't sell 100 coins for 150. We lost gold on the property in Italy."

Remus observed, "True but this isn't the time to make money selling wizarding properties to wizards who don't have wands to be able to flush their toilets. Without Harry, I doubt that we'd have gotten ours yet either."

Sirius replied, "Obviously we didn't make any gold on the books. Hermione risked her life to get me out of the castle that night. If she wants every book on the planet, they're hers. I'll owe her for the rest of my life."

Lupin nodded. Perspective was an interesting thing. Sirius netted 1.9 million galleons from the death on an enemy and seemed unfazed. Until today, Remus had never had ten thousand galleons in his life. He felt like he was on top of the world. A thought came to the old werewolf. "Is Sally looking for the quickest sale, the highest sell price, or somewhere in between? Telling her to make the best deal could be any of these, depending on what someone wanted the most."

"I never provided direction. I've been pretty upfront with everyone regarding our finances. Let's get through a half dozen and count our chips before saying anything."

"Good idea."

"It will do."

"On a different subject, "Who gets the Parkinson estate?"

Sirius replied, "Pansy was the beneficiary. I don't know if she had a will. Based on how often she asks about it, I wonder if Amelia is in the mix?"

"Maybe. Perhaps she's just looking for the estate tax piece."

"We'll find out in a few weeks."

A while later, Remus observed, "I'm surprised that Harry didn't say more about the basilisk before we burned it."

Sirius admitted, "I'm glad Hermione shut that conversation down before it could have gotten started. Even if we'd put the barrels inside before we brought out the roosters to test that old wives tale, we'd have added risk to the operation. If it had died, fine. We might have made another million or two. We also might have woken it up. It easily could have a way out to allow it to hunt or whatever. Also, if it was awake, we might not have been able to safely burst the barrels and light the fire. There's calculated risk, there's taking a huge risk in an absolute emergency and there's waving your hand in the air and volunteering to take an insane risk. I'm OK with the first, Harry's been lucky with the second and I want nothing to do with the third. We've got it too good right now to try that one."

"Cheers."

… - …

Monday January 29

Back at Gringotts, Barchoke asked, "Was there anything new from the council?"

Ragnok replied, "More of the same; there was grumbling that a far larger percentage of the British wand wavers have received their sticks back than the rest of Europe."

Barchoke nodded.

"I responded by stating that their words were completely true; though it has only been a month since the first international order had been received. I announced that since then, five thousand had shipped internationally. I also pointed out that it was only in the last two weeks that anyone else had ordered anything. Lastly, I pointed out that the Wand Shop is a private business and is not obligated to ship to meet our whims.

"That led to the demand from the Eastern European offices that the method of manufacturing the wands that Potter's shop is producing be published. I informed that that it was part of our contract with them that the wands not be reverse-engineered.

"They pointed out that the magical forests in their countries had been largely destroyed from the last two wars. That is an inconvenient truth that they must either live with or practice atonement and attempt to fix. In short, aside from us, the few who invested in developing wandcrafters will probably never see their investments pay off."

Barchoke pointed out, "That is the nature of high-risk investments – many are losses, some break even and a few pay off handsomely. I have heard from Wandmaker Whitehorn in Salem. Dobby and Winky had completed their training and were licensed."

Ragnok remarked, "There are currently 30,420 human magicals in Britain of age to own a wand. If the addition of the elves brings them to fitting their 30,000 wands six months earlier, I'm pleased. Higher production will aid the rest of Europe and put coins in our pockets. As for the final 420, the issuance of those permits is still a year away."

… - ...

Back at the warehouse, Sirius asked, "What do we know about Miss Umbridge?

Anna knew the most. "She was the dictionary definition of a racist, a bigot, a mean and spiteful person who could hold a grudge for decades. As I understand, she was fiercely loyal to Fudge and she'd been working with/for him for almost five years. Prior to that she had Hopkirk's position in Underage Magic Tracking.

"She was one of the reasons that we were never able to go after Fudge. She was a perfect bagman and was very careful to not leave paper trails as she always dealt in cash. As such, if you're doing that you have to have some place to store it. Our guess is that her cut was ten percent – a fair number but not greedy."

She concluded, "So in terms of a search, we're looking for coins, a book and traps."

Sirius mentioned, "Layla, if you think Winky would be able to help us, we really could use her to help today."

Anna continued, "As far as we know, she always lived on the little farm where her father and grandfather lived. He dad worked at the ministry until his position as custodian became an inconvenience for her. Bluntly spoken, she arranged to have him fired. He died shortly after. You draw your own conclusions. The farm is on the northern edge of Hampshire. He raised some chickens and sheep and paid his taxes. How much was the estimate sheet?"

70,000G for the property

5,000 for personal property

5,000 for the vault

He added, "We paid only 500G for the estimate. I doubt that they put much time into it other than looking up the assessed value on the tax rolls. It occurred to me that she may have rented a flat some place, either in her or her father's name but I have no idea how to run down that possibility."

Anna said, "Let's search the farm first. My thought is that we're looking for 200,000G or so. If we find it, I'd call it paid."

Sally suggested, "If we find nothing, then it would make sense to widen the search."

Anna observed, "Long-term, the book might be worth as much as the coin. If it has enough detail, it might give Bones the tools and leverage to do a serious claw-back with Fudge."

Sirius concluded saying, "So in summary, we're looking for anything magical in the house that we would need to clean before selling the property. Arthur and Remus are looking for any tools or implements that could be sold. Most likely, the personal property will just be vanished. Then we're looking for anything in the barn. Finally, we're doing a search for interesting trees."

Anna asked, "Where's Demi?"

"She's working the contracts with Ted Tonks."

Anna said. "I'll take the pictures. Grab the portkey chain and we'll go."

… - ...

The farm was quite picturesque; with a hill, a stream, the field and several rows of fruit trees. The brick building seemed to be in good repair. The kitchen was bright and airy. That was offset by what Sirius considered to be the rows of hideous plates with ugly cats painted on them that she'd hung onto the walls.

Winky was in the kitchen for half a minute before she said, "There is book in the cereal box. Anna looked at it for a few minutes. Amelia's new accountant would have been envious at the clarity of the entries in the ledger.

6/23/95 10,000 pounds Malfoy cauldron bottoms – vote yes

Anna laughed and said, "This is perfect. When she finally got into Fudge's office, Amelia found a bundle of 9,000 pounds in an envelope that was marked cauldron bottoms."

Layla said, "There be no other traps or secrets in the house. Winky and Layla be outside looking at trees."

Remus and Arthur came to the same conclusion; the plates needed to go and aside from a handful of coffee grinders, there was nothing saleable in the home.

They walked out into the barn. Sirius was expecting that the elves would have discovered a pot of gold within seconds.

They didn't.

The others were trying to hurry him along but Arthur was like a pig in mud. The farmer had an assortment of plugs, batteries, cords and hand tools on a twenty foot long work bench. Arthur wanted to examine every one of them.

"Come on, Arthur," suggested Remus to no avail.

Arthur wanted to have his ten minutes of nostalgia. He picked up a hand drill that operated by turning a wheel that had gears. There were sets of various size drill bits and wrenches. There must have been a dozen screwdrivers of different sizes and lengths. He extended and retracted a Fisco 25 foot tape measure a dozen times. He walked around to the other end of the long workbench to look at a miter saw and accidentally backed into one of the large truck batteries that was sitting on the ground.

It tipped over.

It took him a moment to realize what he'd done. A vehicle battery that size should easily weigh 30 pounds. He picked it up to set it right. He doubted that it weighed much more than a pound. It was just an empty shell.

He called for Layla.

She came over, Looked around and saw nothing.

Arthur pressed. "Remus, Sirius. Can you come over here?" He moved the other batteries. They were...

Props.

He found one of the garden shovels, put his foot onto it and hit a sheet of lead an inch under the sandy ground. They dug more and eventually found the sliding door. There was a wooden mattress box under the lead. They'd previously joked that she'd probably kept her money under her mattress. Here was a mattress box full of bags of coins and a not-so-modest stack of bank notes!

They spent an hour pulling the bags out of the box and sending Layla back and forth to the the bank to deposit them, then digging holes every few feet on the dirt inside the barn. When it was empty, Arthur closed the sliding door and placed the batteries back on top of the lid. Neither Winky nor Layla could see the lead under the dirt.

After they were through in the barn, they walked the grounds a bit. There was a long row of apple trees along side a row of pear trees. They didn't find anything else interesting except a good size vinewood and two oak trees.

Sirius walked back into the farmhouse and looked around. There was plumbing, electrical outlets, four bedrooms, one bathroom, a decent size family room in addition to the large kitchen. Everything seemed to be in good repair. He asked Layla, "How much was the deposit?"

She squeaked, "850,000 galleons and 11,000 Pounds."

He originally had 64,000 in the place. After paying the ministry and for the estimate, his out of pocket came to 68,800. So far he had 850,000, plus the 11,000 pounds and would collect another 5,000 from her vault.

He asked, "Arthur, how much money have you got in your pocket?"

The man fished around, pulled everything out and replied, "12 galleons and 10 sickles."

Sirius replied, "I'll sell you this place for ten galleons."

"I could never; Molly..."

"Ten galleons and a handshake and it's yours. It has running water, a bathroom, four bedrooms, gas heat and working electricity throughout the house. There's even a telephone jack."

Telephone. Electricity. He'd said the magic words.

Ten galleons were exchanged and they shook on it. After tonight, he'd never set foot in Murial's house again.

Sirius split 10 percent of the 855,000 galleons, with the team, gave Arthur his 1,000 galleons and they called it a day. He was in the black for the three estates and everyone on the team had a home.

… - …

Friday February 2

Devlin Whitehorn called that afternoon. "Can I buy or trade for 2,000 feet?"

Harry replied, "I'm happy to help you out. It's yours; stop over when it's convenient."

"Thank you. I'll be right over."

When he arrived, Harry handed him four large spools and asked, "How are the other teams that have received their brooms so far liking them?"

Devlin replied, "It should be an interesting year for the lower-tier teams. The only advantage the teams with the larger fan bases have is that they received their brooms a few weeks earlier for testing and matching. The Puddlemere chasers liked the second model broom better than the first ones, so we settled on those for everyone. Now that that's settled, everyone will have their brooms within a week.. Thanks again. I need to run. I'll see you at a game."

Minutes after he left, Daryl called and asked for 1,000 feet. Harry asked Dobby to drop it off. Harry had built up a large chunk of goodwill that afternoon at the cost of enough critical material to make 3,000 wands

… - …

Monday February 5

Greta Macmillan was shown into Amelia's office. The two women looked at each other for a moment and Amelia said, "Give me the good news."

"Estate revenue came in at 454,000G between the Malfoy and Umbridge properties. Sales tax held even at 34,000. Expenses held at 70,000. Cash balance was 691,000G

"Finally, you asked me to check in at the Wand Shop. They made 6,350, sold 1,725 domestically and 4,000 internationally. They expect to sell 3675 domestically and 4,000 internationally in February."

"That was an excellent summary, Greta. Thank you."

… - ...

Tuesday February 6

As the February Wizengamot meeting passed the one hour mark, Amelia grew increasingly doubtful that Amos and Cedric were, in truth, cut from the same bolt of cloth. Employment was up, wand distribution was up, the ministry's shaky financial position was improving, yet Amos would find something to pick at. He'd never offered a viable solution – simply pointed out meaningless or unsolvable problems.

"What of the reports that some wands are going to France and Germany?"

Barchoke responded, "If you are unwilling to wait until the end of the month, I would encourage you to take your Purchase Permit card to Marseille and try it out. For your information, the wandcrafters have requested that the number of purchase permit cards issued be doubled for February. Apparently they took the Minister's request to heart, Mr. Diggory."

Not willing to allow Amos another opportunity to stand on his soapbox and complain about something else, Amelia asked, "Is there new business?"

Augusta replied, "Dobby put forth a bill clarifying their right to purchase property. The Goblins put forth a similar bill."

Diggory (as usual) stood in opposition and remarked, "That's absurd. It goes against the statute of secrecy."

Rockchucker responded, "There is no such limitation in the United States. The goblins haven't had one incident of a breach this century. Can the wizards make the same claim? Obviously not if the former ministry had an entire department set up to respond to breaches."

Fortescue stood, waited to be recognized and said, "I'm in favor of the idea. Everyone should be allowed to live wherever they want and can afford. If we're lucky, we might get a branch office in Hogsmeade or a new forest created. I don't see any downsides and neither group is asking for any funding."

Sneerwell said, "I move that the bills be brought to a vote."

Black (who hadn't given up the seat yet) added, "Second."

Augusta said, "On the matter of allowing elves the right to purchase and occupy real estate as they should choose – all in favor?"

"Opposed?"

"The Ayes have it, thirty-four to two. Motion passed." She waited a minute for the members to settle down and said, "On the matter of allowing goblins to purchase and occupy real estate as they should choose – all in favor?"

"Opposed?"

"The Ayes have it, thirty-three to three. Motion passed."

Ogden realized that a voting block of two didn't have the votes to pass anything. He would need to fix that.

… - …

Friday March 1

The Estate Business team meeting was productive, as usual. Harry had offered them the use of his breakroom as it had the most comfortable chairs.

After their team meeting, Remus was talking with Arthur and asked, "How are Ron and Ginny getting on in school this year?

As Hermione was walking to the refrigerator to get beverages for her and Harry, Arthur replied, "Ginny is doing well. Ron left school a week ago and is working in a restaurant. They call it a night club or something."

... - …

Sprout went to McGonagall's office and said, "Someone is here to see you."

Thinking it was a wayward third year, she replied, "Can't you take care of it?"

With less smile than usual, Pomona replied, "I believe that I could but it would be inappropriate."

"Show him in."

"Good morning, Professor."

She looked up and couldn't believe her eyes – the premier broom designer in the world. "How can I help you, Mr. Whitehorn?"

He replied, "Sign for these here and here."

"But I didn't order... We can't afford..."

"They are all paid for, Professor. I was told that the school was in need."

She looked out the door where a gathering of elves were carrying thirty brooms in cases marked Lightningbolt.

"Come in, come in."

He brought in one of the brooms and demonstrated the mode feature. "Tap your wand here and say, Change mode training. The brooms will go into training mode. There is also a sport mode that can be changed when the broomstick is not flying by tapping on the rune and stating, Change mode sport. Instructions are in the cases.

"In training mode, they have a maximum altitude of fifteen feet and a maximum speed of fifteen MPH. In sport mode, they have characteristics similar to a Nimbus 2000. They also come with two four-hour training sessions. I was thinking tomorrow, two hours each could be spent for teaching first half of the first-years how to safely fly and the second two hours with the other half of the class. Next Saturday, I'd like to do two one-hour follow-up lessons with the little ones, then spend some time with the quidditch teams. I'll be bringing some helpers for that. The sponsor also took to having a proper broom shed built. It should be done about now. Are there any questions?"

"Can they... Are they... Thank you, Mr. Whitehorn."

"Very good. Tomorrow morning at nine then."

… - …

Saturday March 2

Naturally, word got around and the entire school turned out to watch. Most of the students had never (knowingly) seen Devlin Whitehorn He wasn't a public figure.

He had the first half of the class – twenty students standing in a line next to him and cast a charm to block out the noise from the stands. He said, "Good morning. I hope to demonstrate how to safely learn how to fly this morning. This is how I call my broom, by holding my wand arm out and standing so your wand arm is closest to the broom."

When everyone had done that, he said, "Tell your broom to hover by saying, Up. Now climb onto your broom like this." He then mounted his broom and ever-so-slowly flew along the line by leaning forward just a bit. He told them, "Lean forward just a bit and you'll start flying."

They did. The leveling charms in training mode didn't allow any rocket-ship climbs or nose-dives. There would be no broken wrists on his watch. He said, "Fly along side of me and we'll go a few laps around the quidditch pitch." After successfully going around twice he then had them land and repeat the process. By the end of the second hour, they had each flown twice on their own and there had been no mishaps. The second class had similar results.

After finishing with the little ones, he called for the team captains to come forward and around. "Next Saturday after the little ones get their second lessons, the Harpies team will be out to demonstrate the sport capabilities of these brooms. After they're done, you'll get a chance to try them out. Any questions?"

"No sir. Thank you."

"Good, Now if you will, put these brooms on the racks in the new broom shed over there and close the door properly when you're done. Are we clear?"

"Yes sir."

… - …

Hedwig spent the afternoon terrorizing a bug that had come into the shop via one of Hagrid's bags of interesting stuff. Now that Harry was using his cell phone for normal communication and wasn't likely to be writing to Ron anytime soon, she hadn't carried a letter in nine months.

She flew to the door and made a small fuss. Emma heard her and let her out so she could fly back to Crawley for the night.

… - ...

The day after Mick's two associates went back to the ministry auror training program, Mick took stock of his situation. If he worked near-double shifts seven days a week for the next two months, he could cover the existing work which he expected to start winding down in about a month. He had no way of knowing how many of his clients would continue to use his service, even after they received their new wands. Some would; he guessed perhaps as many as a fourth.

He decided to call John Macmillan and see if he was interested in some sort of informal business relationship ranging between referrals and actual assisting the other in their work. They started with referrals.

In the last year he'd made eight times what he would have as an auror cadet. He'd learned a great deal about setting up ward stones. He'd also met some interesting people and for the most part, he'd had fun. It was a very good year.

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A/Ns

Thank you for reading. I appreciate the notes that people have left.

There are no broomstick shops open at this time.

It was a very good day to be AW. Ron will have to find a tutor or enroll in a wanded class by Sept 1.

Sometimes a bug is just a bug. An owl as smart as Hedwig would never allow an unwelcome visitor to sneak in disguised as a bug. Besides, Tanner Sprout smashed our least favorite reported in chapter eleven

Was Snotnose right about Black's negotiating skills?

Short OMAKE

"Good afternoon Minerva, what is the news?" asked Dumbledore's portrait.

"The newspaper reported that Harry found You-know-who's house and burned it down along with the basilisk that was guarding the home."

"I must speak with Harry right away. I fear he's going dark." She slammed the door on the broom closet, leaving the leader of the light in the unlit broom closet.

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