Chapter Thirty-four

Pikes

Friday July 25, 1997

Dan and Emma were finishing their breakfast, when a man who they recognized as wearing a French Auror uniform walked up to Emma. He held out an envelope and said, "This is for you, Dr. Granger."

She held out her hand to take the envelope. When she touched it, they disappeared.

… - …

As the portkey activated, Winky's head snapped up. She shouted to Dobby, "You find Harry and Hermione. Send them to Wand Shop. Now!"

… - …

Twenty seconds later, Harry and Hermione, wearing only rapidly fading smiles, found themselves on the floor of the breakroom of the wand shop. Hermione asked, "What the hell was up with Dobby?"

"Dunno. Let's go get dressed. There are some spare clothes in the storeroom."

Seconds later, their vests and luggage appeared on the floor. Harry saw Dobby out of the corner of his eye as Little D disappeared.

… - …

Emma and the man wearing the French Auror uniform appeared in a hotel room containing two other people, one of whom she recognized as Cormac McLaggen. He said, "There will be no getting away, muggle. Your portkey won't work here..."

Two things happened at once.

Emma activated her portkey watch that Ragnok had personally set for her and disappeared.

Before a frown could appear on McLaggen's face, Winky and twenty elves silently appeared. The pistols and the Auror's wand were vanished before they even registered that the elves had appeared. The last thing that McLaggen and the others remembered was being sliced into ¾ inch blocks.

… - …

Back at the bank, six men who were in line suddenly drew their S.A.C.M 1935A pistols and shot the four Marseille Guards who were in the lobby. As they dashed into the conference room, Redeye's ax took off the left arm of the shooter. He fired wildly, hitting the four London guards in the chest before dropping his empty pistol. As the guards were knocked over, the other robbers grabbed up the 400 remaining wands and they apparated to the hotel hallway.

As they left, other guards were streaming into the lobby and conference room. Three of the four lobby guards were dead. The Eye brothers had been wearing their armor. The .32 caliber French Long bullets hadn't penetrated the dragonhide vests, but the London guards had all hit their heads hard on the floor when they'd been shot. "Get them to the healers," shouted the squad leader. He looked around the room and saw that all of the wands had been stolen. He was enraged.

… - …

The 5 ¾ robbers (one was missing an arm) dashed into the Hotel Suite where their co-conspirators would be, dropping their bags of wands onto the table as they walked in. They entered the Suite, turned the corner into the other room, expecting to get help from their co-conspirators, only to see the ¾ inch pieces of their bodies.

Panicked by the sight, they all attempted to apparate away; only to forget that the suite had been warded. They were all badly splinched.

Tick Tock and Tuk Tuk, the elves who had been there hidden, waiting, vanished most of the pieces and cleaned up the mess. They worked with a vengeance against the people who had tried to abduct Emma, the unofficial Grandma of 320 elflings. They had finished cleaning before the splinched robbers had bled out. They picked up the bags with the wands and brought them back to the Wand Shop. The heads were brought to the London bank lobby.

… - …

Winky found Dan, who had decided to run to the bank. She said, "You should be using your portkey to go to the Wand Shop. I'll collect Emma and your things from the hotel and bring them back."

A few minutes later, when Dan was reuniting with his family, the Eye brothers, who had been treated and released, returned to the wand shop. They would have the honor to put the nine pikes with new heads into the ground.

… - …

Four hours later;

Connie and Anna were catching up at Fortescue's when the saw the pikes being raised. The only one they recognized was McLaggen. Connie walked over and asked,"What happened?"

"The wandcrafters were robbed while selling wands in Marseille. Wandcrafter Emma was abducted. Eight people were shot, three were killed. 400 wands were taken. Wandcrafter Emma escaped. The abductors were found and killed. The murderers killed themselves attempting to apparate through a warded hotel suite. The wounded were treated and released. The stolen wands were recovered."

Connie thought about Redeye's words for a moment and digested them. She replied, "Good. Are the four of you OK?"

Redeye replied, "It is dangerous work, Senior Investigator Hammer. We are paid well. The dragonhide vests that Wandcrafter Harry bought us worked. The pain from having been shot will be gone in three days. My brothers and I are glad to be assigned here."

… - …

Monday July 28

Ragnok and the lead security goblins watched the memory cubes from Emma and Redeye for what must have been the fifth time. The Cyprus raid on the Wand Shop had been a crude attempt in comparison to the most recent attempt. He noted the effectiveness of the body armor vests that Harry had purchased for his guards.

He was pleased with the effectiveness of Emma's portkey. He was pleased that she had kept so calm in the face of unexpected peril. Part of him wished that she'd stayed one more minute so he could have witnessed the now legendary slicing of the abductors onto 3/4 inch block size lumps.

The elves hadn't rejoiced or celebrated their victory; rather they demonstrated absolute love for the witch who they viewed as being grandmother to all of the elves. McLaggen's plan could have worked. It could have resulted in many more deaths than it had. Instead, fortune and preparedness had been with the elves.

McLaggen had good intelligence – remarkably so. Someone could have been observant from their last trip; knowing that they would be staying at a local hotel, then verifying which one. The hotel records on McLaggen's rented room would be telling with respect to when he had originally made his reservation. If it had been before the cards had been mailed, it would have required inside information.

Perhaps it was time to act on Sharpjaw's observation that the three of them had a set of circular beneficiary wills. He doubted that there would be any negative repercussions if McLaggen's mother and Ogden suddenly encountered a fatal outcome. Taking forty million galleons out of the hands of those who were actively working against their efforts never seemed like a bad idea.

… - …

Saturday August 2

At Gringotts, Harry asked Barchoke, "How can I get access to examine the wands used in the attack?"

Barchoke cautioned him, "You're coming close to placing blame on an object. The wisest thing to do is to let it go. For the sake of discussion, the wands came from Germany. Whether they were ones that you made, or ones that Wandmaker Otto Krebs made really doesn't matter. Gold changed hands.

"We'll never know what those in the hotel were thinking; clearly they were led by McLaggen. What his intentions for Wandmaker Emma were can only be speculated. He may have offered to exchange her for 10,000 wands. Robbery appears to be the clear motive. She could have been kidnapped for a ten million galleon ransom. They probably were expecting far less security than what Dr. K encountered.

"Had the Eye brothers not been wearing the armor that you purchased for them, they almost certainly would have been killed. McLaggen was uninformed regarding the elves' ability to find Emma and strike back in force.

"The lesson to be learned is to consider safety and security outside the conference room. The range of your portkey watches is extreme. In the time that it takes you to walk to the lobby and be escorted into my office, you could be half way around the world."

Barchoke added, "The trick in business is not to make the same mistake three times. Doubtless, they found out that you were coming to the city and kept an eye out at local hotels. You would be safer staying fifty miles away; safest traveling to and from your own homes. There is too much money at stake to be mixing business with sightseeing. You can always visit another time."

Frustrated, Harry was ready to push back and state that he could always hire additional security but wisely thought better of it. Though it annoyed him to hear it, his Account Manager was right.

… - …

Lynn McLaggen heard that her son's head was posted on a pike. She didn't denounce his stupidity or complete lack of judgment.

She vowed revenge.

The question was – who was her anger pointed at?

… - ...

Sunday August 17

The trip to Poland was the first one that they didn't all make together. Emma stayed behind; ostensibly to make additional wands. In reality, it was just too soon after the abduction for her to feel comfortable in a hotel again. No one held it against her; she worked long hours at the shop.

The others carried on. Over seven days of selling, they sold out the 16,000 wands that they'd brought.

As they were packing up, Harry came to the conclusion that they would need to ration the remaining wands and limit sales to 8-10,000 wands per trip. He was making a large wager that either the Quivet (muskox hair) would be a wand core that was compatible with a large percentage of users, or another solution would turn up soon.

… - …

Friday August 29

Cindy had come to realize that Physical Therapist Tim Streeter's prediction was correct. As recently as yesterday, they had planned with opening with 152 students. This morning, she received new two inquiries, Given that there were 48 boarding and day school first years at Hogwarts, it was clear that not enough marketing had been done directed at the young magicals.

The Lily Potter Primary School for Special Children had the potential of being a nonmagical school with 25 percent magical children rather than the other way around. As agreed to with Minister Bones, she had held the spots open until the August 15 registration deadline, placing 80 students on a waiting list. On August 16, after consulting with Amelia, she approved each of the applications. Her only other strategy would be to send some first day photos to Cheryl Whitehart and schedule several tours of the new school.

Cindy hired a second Physical Therapist. Like 2/3 of the staff, she was a nonmagical.

Amelia had requested that Connie Hammer and the Investigator team office in the primary school. It was inevitable that some child would have a bout of (more or less) accidental magic and she wanted a lighter touch response than one of Scrimgeour's teams was likely to provide. Kingsley understood and suggested that a fourth person be added. Amelia had agreed and Connie put up an internal posting for another Investigator Trainee. Bob and Alyx were still working full time on the bound person project and probably would for another year.

They were as ready as they could be.

… - ...

Monday September 1 1997

First day at Primary school;

The first day of school at a new school was a special time. As the parents walked their child in and introduced themselves, Alyx took their picture together as well as an individual one of the child. There was Mrs. Scott and her children, Danny (fifth) with a badly broken leg and a beaming little girl, Ericka (second) She was one of several dozen parents who had enrolled siblings who would be attending at the same time.

As it turned out, the magical children tended to be at the front of the line, while the parents with injured children tended to hang back. In the course of an hour, all of the children were individually greeted. Roberta, Tim and Cassie, the other PT held short conversations and collected instructions from the parents.

The magical students all had magical teachers, who quietly but clearly reminded each magical child that magic was not to be discussed or used in the school. They were all told that if they had an accident to tell their teacher or Ms. Cindy or Ms. Alyx as soon as possible. Several impossibly large capacity backpacks were collected and would be given back at the end of the day with a note to bring the ordinary ones which had been provided to each child. One student had brought a wand to class. Fortunately Cindy had spotted it and it went home with the insufficiently embarrassed parent.

The remaining students were sorted as best as they could be with respect to the number of injured children between the two teachers for each grade. The nonmagical classes tended to have an extra student or two each.

One classroom at a time, the teachers took their students for a quick tour of the school, pointing out the lavatories, library, physical therapy rooms and the lunch room. That would be enough to start with.

Inside the classrooms, the teacher introduced themselves and did their best to use fun ways to get to know the children a bit.

Soon it was lunch time. The children had their choice of a hamburger, cheeseburger and chips, or fish and chips. There would be salads or other choices most days but there was no pumpkin juice. Before or after lunch, there was physical education.

The injured students met with the Physical Therapists and Roberta, the Healer/Nurse.

By the end of the day, every student had received a name badge with their picture on the front. There was a color coded bar indicating the form (grade) that the student was in. On the back was their teacher's name and room number along with the school address and telephone number. There was also an owl or an eagle on the front of their badge.

The teachers were delighted to be there and it appeared as if the students were as well.

A few parents were politely reminded that wearing wizard robes while picking up their children was a poor choice. As Amelia was standing off the the side watching, there were no arguments. Cindy did a quick check in with each of the staff. There were no issues to report. It had been a very good day.

… - …

When she was eleven, Susan Bones started Hogwarts hoping to follow in her great aunt's footsteps and become an Auror at the Ministry of Magic. For several generations, it was the family profession.

As the magical society evolved due to the Great Wandout, a primary school that magical kids could safely go to and be with nonmagical kids had formed and was just opening. Susan wanted to be a part of it. Since the school would be operating in the open, there were education standards and the like which needed to be followed.

Susan wanted to work there as a teacher. As such, her education path had taken a sharp right to get there over the summer. Defense Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration were dropped like a rock in favor of college preparatory classes, like English Literature and Mathematics. In recognition of her interest in teaching, a Student Teaching opportunity had been arranged for her.

… - …

Ron Weasley had always been bored with academics. He had dropped out of Hogwarts the previous winter, searched for and found an entry level job in the kitchen at a night club in London. Initially hired as a dishwasher, he took an interest in the work, proved himself to be reliable and adept in the environment. After three months, he was promoted to Chef's Assistant. The work was hard and demanding. In the right environment, he became a sponge for knowledge. He learned how to inspect and grade fruits and vegetables when they were received and how to inspect meats and seafood that came in. He learned where and how to store them, how to rotate the stock and how to take them out in preparation for being prepared or cooked and served.

While Ron was gaining a legitimate foothold in the restaurant business, the clock was ticking on his ability to keep his wand. He either needed to have passed at least one OWL exam, or actively be taking a related class. Since Hogwarts Head Anne Chambers had offered a part-time day school option, Ron was enrolled as a part time student, retaking fifth year charms. He hoped to pass the class and successfully pass the OWL exam. As he worked from 3-11pm and the class was offered from 10:30-noon, he was able to do both. With Ernie's sponsorship, he purchased a stainless steel portkey watch that had Hogwarts, home and his place of work among the six settings. As the class didn't begin until 10:30, he was able to get enough sleep, have breakfast, attend the class, go to work to get something to eat and begin his shift. On Saturday mornings, he practiced his charms and did his homework. Class was twice a week and he didn't feel overtaxed. It was a good arrangement.

… - …

Hannah Abbott never wanted to be a dark wizard catcher. She always wanted to work with charms or be a primary school teacher like the ones that she and Susan had when they were younger. She also wanted to be with her life-long friend. When the opportunity came up to work at and eventually teach at the Lily Potter Primary School for Special Children, Hannah knew that she had found her dream workplace. Her plan was to finish Hogwarts, find some sort of position at the school while they were attending college and teach there.

… - …

Hermione Granger always wanted to be a physician. By the time that she was ten, she had a complete set of fully illustrated anatomy texts and was fairly adept at suturing fruit.

Magic happened; at least temporarily derailing those plans. Harry Potter entered her life, or saved her life. She entered his life and helped him survive his numerous adventures at Hogwarts. They were together. A business fell into their laps. It came with a three year contract. They fell in love. Along the way they made tens of million galleons.

Being able to wield magic, Emma had convinced her daughter that being a healer would prove a better choice than giving 32 checkups each day.

Healer Pomfrey was exceptionally accommodating to her hectic schedule. Essentially she gave up her Sunday mornings to accommodate Hermione and Emma. That said, Emma and Hermione had begun their third semester of healing - The Study and Treatment of Organs the day before.

… - …

Daphne Greengrass felt that she'd earned a Masters degree in the school of hard knocks in the last few years. She had been well on the life path of becoming a trophy wife to an arrogant, arseface prat (self-confident, good looking ,well-to-do heir to a small fortune) who was finding his way within the political arena. Like the rest of the tattoo club and most of their families, he disappeared during the last week of June 1995.

She had been doing well at school throughout the fourth year. From an arms-length vantage point, she saw her father's import business suddenly evaporate. Within hours, there were no magical plants available to import, as most of them required wands to harvest or process. A thirty year-old business withered and failed in a week because her father had never bothered to read the business book, Who Moved My Cheese? and was unable to adapt to changing conditions.

During the last fifteen months she learned many lessons. She learned that her father's philosophy of spending nearly everything that he'd made and having a disdain for savings accounts had some serious and in his case, fatal flaws. She learned that being dependent upon a spouse for subsistence was a highly risky venture.

She learned much from her mother. Anything could be negotiated. She learned that material items had a perceived value. The actual value of an item was what a willing buyer would pay a willing seller – not more, not less.

She learned that the hours spent rehearsing negotiations with her mother in advance of their trips to New York City had been hours well-invested. Earlier on, she learned that pressuring Draco into giving/lending her sister the lesser pieces of the Malfoy jewelry (stolen during the raids that Lucius had been on, not Narcissa's portion of the Black pieces) early in 1994 had been a good thing. After the Wandout, she quietly resold them for her sister and Astoria loaned her the half million galleons for two weeks after their father died. She learned that polyjuice potion and reliable sets of false identification were exceptionally useful items.

She learned that Barclays was far more reliable to do business with than Gringotts. She learned that having the cash to purchase quality high-value items such as diamonds or gold that her younger school friends had stolen from their suddenly vanished parents at fire sale prices and resold in the London markets made the summer of 1995 an excellent summer.

She learned that her friend Tracy was absolutely reliable, would keep secrets, could reliably brew polyjuice potion and once she'd received her wand, could perform an obliviation spell on those younger classmates, and could create a passable portkey.

She learned that serious money could be made in currency conversion. She learned the true value of form fitting clothing and that in some cases, an extra button done or undone could be worth 20 percent in those same currency conversions.

The summer of 1995 and the year of 1996 had been very educational and quite lucrative for the two teens. Then the Great Wandout had ended in Britain. The cheese had moved again and brought new opportunities for the weekends. The two youngest self-made millionaires currently residing at Hogwarts had made radical shifts in their class schedules. Tracy was taking potions, charms, English 3, science 3 and math 3. Daphne was taking charms, enchanting 2, healing 2, English, math and business. They'd also signed up for driving lessons.

Their next interest was learning about real estate and passive income generators such as real estate rentals. It would be a very good year.

… - ...

Ernie Macmillan was well on his way to learning his father's trade. He was taking charms, enchanting 2, transfiguration, science 3 (physics) and business. All were courses that he could see uses for.

Additionally he was reading the manuals and texts for the trades; specifically electrical and plumbing. His dad had a three and a half year backlog for his jobs. Ernie had wanted to go to Hogwarts as a day student and work on the weekends and some evenings. His dad pointed out that all of the seventeen year-old witches would be at Hogwarts that winter and the jobs would still be there in June.

His mum had had pointed out that there were some good paying jobs at the ministry with solid administrative skills. She also recommended that he stay in school. He listened and here he was.

… - ...

Monday September 1 was supposed to have been the first day of seventh year for forty students. Four dropped out of school to pursue business opportunities. One student was transferred out after first year. Five perished along the way. Five had become millionaires. Only thirty were on a path to receive diplomas. That's just the way that the cards came up.

… - …

Back at the Wand Shop, Emma walked into the break room where she watched Winky, who was apparently sleeping while holding hands with little Oaken and Hollyden. After a few minutes the two elflings purred in delight. Seeing Winky apparently awaken, Emma asked, "Will there be a school in Elf Land?"

Winky replied, "When you think of schools, you think of buildings; we envision mentors. I was teaching my children your language when you walked in five minutes ago. Next week, they will be able to speak English properly."

Emma asked, "How is that possible?"

"Elves can hear other elves if elves want them to. Like when you were telling me that elves didn't need anyone's permission to have babies, all 2,000 elves in Britain heard that. All elves are learning every day."

Emma replied, "That's remarkable. Can all elves see magic?"

"No. True elves all can. Winky and my sister can. Dobby can't but he has the excellent ability to cut and measure exact sizes; far better than I can."

Emma observed, "I think it's better that way when different people are gifted at different things."

Winky agreed, "Me too."

… - …

Wednesday September 3 (1997)

Cindy looked at the twenty-five Introduction to Charms students who had selected the classroom that she worked. There were more students in this September class than they'd had last January. She noticed that the students were a few years older. There was a fairly large change in life experience between 18 and 21. These students were more likely to have siblings in Hogwarts than candidates for the primary school.

Cindy felt more confident about her ability to teach this class. She had continued hew own studies over the very busy summer and intended to do so in the future. She was far more confident with student questions. There were far fewer instances of, I'm not certain, I'll find you an answer and far more instances of, Good question, this is what you need... She no longer worried that her own knowledge was a mere three chapters ahead of the class. Beyond that, she had twenty years of teaching experience to fall back on.

… - …

Hannah and Susan had a very similar experience. They could maintain eye contact and state, "We're in our second semester of student teaching." They had tweaked their lesson plans since January and had delivered the class before.

Unquestionably, the two teens felt like they belonged in the front of the classroom.

… - …

Friday September 5

Arthur Weasley may have thought that his home schooled children had gotten off to a good educational start but the test scores didn't reflect it. The beginning of the year test scores between the home school children and the children who had attended formal schooling illustrated a gap that was apparent and measurable. With only two students as exceptions, by the incoming third form, the gap was noticeable and widened year to year to the point the the incoming sixth form students were nearly a year behind their formal school classmates. While the gap could be expected in history/civics, the core subjects of math, science, reading comprehension and grammar were only slightly better.

After the article was published in the Quibbler, there was a bit of grumbling in the form of two letters sent to Augusta of the school board about the inherent unfairness of tests that the students weren't allowed to study for. Emma shook her head in amazement at the complaints; they were tests designed to establish a baseline knowledge level.

That said, there were positive outcomes. Four magical students were newly enrolled in the two days following the newspaper piece.

Amelia wasn't surprised by the news, nor especially disappointed that it had come out. Julie Abbott had helped her get Susie and Hannah enrolled in primary school and had helped countless times when she'd been working cases at the ministry over the years.

On the flip side, several people tore the paper up after reading the piece; believing that it was a deliberate attempt to make the traditionalists look bad and undermine their way of life.

… - ...

Tuesday September 16

Dobby intentionally misplaced the last page of the Quibbler that morning, Thus Hermione never saw the announcement that Harry had placed.

Hermione Granger's Birthday is this Friday

Hermione's birthday is this Friday. If she has helped you in this last year, please send her a note or card wishing her a happy birthday and tell her how your life was changed by getting a new wand.

… - …

Friday September 19

Harry made all of Hermione's favorites for her birthday breakfast including a baked egg dish with sausage that she liked. As a special treat, they had mimosas and toasted her day before going to their respective places of work.

At ten, Sharpeye announced, "There is some mail for you, Wandmaker Granger. Where would you like it?"

She replied, "I'll take it." A minute later Blindeye, Dryeye and Redeye walked in, carrying full boxes of cards and sealed parchments!

The clever teen was speechless, so Emma said, "Perhaps the breakroom table would be best. Hermione recalled the many birthdays where the only cards received were from her mum and dad and Grandpa Ben.

Harry casually asked, "How many are there?"

Sharpeye replied, "1,100 so far."

As Hermione sat down at the table, eyes dazzling, Emma handed her two and suggested, "Why don't you look at a few and see what they say?"

Miss Granger,

The wand that you made for me helped save a little girl's life last week.

Thank you and Happy Birthday,

Amanda Crabtree

Healer

Emma handed her another.

Hermione,

Thanks to your (and Harry's) efforts, Dad was able to go back to his work. The baton wand that you made is fantastic. Happy Birthday.

Ernie Macmillan

She opened another.

Miss Granger,

Your work allowed us to restart the floo system, allowing people to easily move from location to location. Happy Birthday.

Stella Wind

Floo Supervisor

She opened another.

Miss Granger,

60 – 100 people a day are able to enjoy my ice cream due to the wand that you gave me. Thank you.

Your friend,

Florien Fortescue

She opened another.

Miss Granger,

I should have thanked you properly at the time. You were my favorite student. I've been rude to Mr. Potter in the mistaken belief that he took you away. You are where you need to be, helping people every day. Thank you for giving the gift of magic back to thousands of Britain's witches and wizards. Happy Birthday.

Minerva McGonagall

Miss Granger,

Thanks to your efforts, my home was warm last winter. I can't thank you enough.

Sturgis Podmore

Harry walked behind her and hugged the now sobbing teen, as the guards all remembered that they had something to do outside. Harry made her a cup of tea while Emma went back to sanding. Dobby and Winky had wisely decided that they needed to inventory the wand blocks and avoided the drama entirely.

Over the next few days, she opened all of the cards and notes. It was irrefutable evidence that she'd helped peoples' lives significantly.

… - …

As they were having dinner that evening, it was a lively conversation until Dan asked, "What are your dreams for the next year?"

She replied, "I want to do well in Healing year 2 this year, then take Healing year 3 next year"

Emma watched carefully as Harry got quiet. She had seen his announcement in the paper and had literally been amazed and delighted at the response. She found it inspirational and knew that at some level, he did too. She pointed out, "Dan and I have had our practice for over twenty years and we're lucky to get one note a quarter. You had 1,100 by ten and half as many again by the time we left. You must be doing something that's very right."

She felt as if she'd averted an argument – one that probably needed to happen sometime soon. She simply didn't wish to see it.

… - ...

Monday September 22

Otto Krebs, the wandcrafter from Munich was a tall, fit man. He was two decades older than Harry. When the Wand Shop all but stopped sending wands and began fitting them in different countries in volume, Otto resumed looking for core materials in earnest. After six months of futile search, he gave up and attempted to contact Potter without success. Finally, he left a letter for him in care of the London branch of Gringotts. After verifying that it wasn't a portkey or cursed, the guards delivered it to him

Herr Potter,

I would like to purchase wand core for 1,000 – 10,000 wands.

Please send pricing information and specifics. Please call me if you prefer.

Otto Krebs

Licensed Wandcrafter

Munich

… - ...

Thus Hagrid's Wand Hairs LTD was created. It was a three way co-operative business venture between Hagrid, Harry and the elves that initially sold unicorn hair, thesteral hair and hippogriff hair. Otto was his first customer. Harry wouldn't accept any money for those products but happily accepted the occasional bag of interesting stuff that Hagrid would collect either in Elf Land or some of the lessor traveled parts of the Forbidden Forest, where he and Harry would always be welcome.

Harry paid Barchoke to handle the paperwork to set up the business, show Emma and him how to file the sales tax reporting and payments and the like. The only restriction that Harry wanted in the sales contracts was for Otto to limit his sales to Germany. Krebs gladly agreed to the terms.

They priced the cores at 100G each (plus sales tax) When the vault deposit of 103,000G was received, Dobby delivered the ten bundles of 16 inch unicorn hair. Per George's request, the WWW shop happily accepted the short pieces.

Hagrid had never had 5,000G all at once in his life, let along 50,000. He gave much of it away to people in need - five or ten galleons at a time. He had meaningful work to do and was convinced that he had the best job in the world.

… - …

Saturday September 27

Devlin Whitehorn had been expecting the call since the day that he'd read about Chambers burning down part of the forbidden forest. He'd searched the paper for any follow-on articles but hadn't seen any. As such, he fully expected to join the ranks of broomstick business that had been shut down due to a lack of core.

What he hadn't expected was to be a part of a brainstorming session. The white board in the break room was full of inventory counts and ideas – good or other. After accepting a bottle of Orange Crush and being handed a whiteboard marker, Harry asked him, "What did broomsticks wholesale and retail for prior to the Wandout?"

Devlin replied, "Entry level broomsticks like the Comet 260 retailed for 60G, I expect they wholesaled between 35 and 40 galleons. Since I see the question on your board, they're made from braided kneezle hair. The Nimbus 2000 that I remember seeing you fly on at Hogwarts games used a single unicorn tail hair. As the hairs varied in length between 28 and 36 inches, the broomsticks weren't all identical. The one that you flew on may have been one of the faster ones. They retailed for 500G. I expect they wholesaled between 300 and 360 galleons; probably on the higher end when they first came out. The Firebolt that you flew probably sold for 5,000G. I originally wholesaled them for 4,500 and dropped the price to 3,100 galleons before the Wandout. They were originally made from Ashwinder bone, though the basilisk rib that you gave me produces a better ride. The new Lightningbolts are made from the acromantula strand that you gave me. I sold them to the teams for 500G each. To my knowledge, there are no retail broomstick stores in operation right now. Did I answer your question?"

"I think so. Thank you. Where did the Nimbus folks get their tail hair from?"

"As I understood it, they had a small herd of unicorns – perhaps as many as eight or ten of them. As I understood, it, they were found slaughtered immediately after the Wandout. To my knowledge they weren't able to replace them."

Harry asked, "Has anyone used dragon bone?"

Whitehorn replied, "There's too much variability."

"When you say too much variability, are you talking about the same bone, such as a Chinese fireball rib bone, or from any bone with any variety?"

Devlin admitted, "Probably the latter. In the last five decades, Britain hasn't had a dedicated, primary source of dragon parts."

Harry asked, "Have you ever tried properly dried, ground hollow wing bones?"

"No. I've never even heard of them. What do you mean properly dried?"

Harry explained, "There are special drying boxes used for processing dragon hearts. My idea is to use the same thing with dragon wing bone. I'm guessing there's be fifty pounds per wing."

Devlin asked, "Why the interest in wing bone?"

Harry replied, "I've had serious luck making snake bone wands. The two components seem pretty close to each other. Also it would could be a great use for something that, to my knowledge, currently isn't being utilized."

Devlin asked, "What did you have in mind?"

"Using a proper dry box for a few months."

The Master Broom crafter asked, "Where are you going with this?"

"There were 5,200 Acromentula in the forest. Chambers lit a fire that killed 5,178 of them."

"The piece in the Quibbler stated that they were all killed."

"We quietly moved 22 of them. We'll get a good supply of strand again someday but it might be a year or two. Most of them are juveniles. If wing bone powder could be used in brooms, it would be huge. We get about 500 wand cores from a dragon heart, two and a half years after it goes into a dry box." They're not long enough to go into a broomstick or a staff. If you used four ounces of powdered bone in a broom you'd get core for about 200 broomsticks from a dragon. From something that's traditionally been used for fertilizer. That would raise the value of a dragon and wouldn't take to years to see the payoff."

Devlin remarked, "That all makes good sense for individual brooms. We've got a shot at selling the Lightningbolt to all of the teams in Europe based on the selling point of absolute uniformity."

Harry was expecting this. He asked, "How much strand would you need, in what time frame?"

"To answer your questions, five to fifty thousand feet over two years." He was expecting to get tossed out of the room at that point and was floored when Harry replied, "I'll do my best to find a way to make that work. Would you object if I offered the wing powder to the folks at Nimbus?"

"Not a bit. As I mentioned, they were using unicorn hair and with so many having been killed by desperate wandmakers, no one reputable business would willingly want to be adding to that chaos. I would be happy to make a few for you when you get your first batch."

"Hagrid has some and is selling unicorn hair for 100G for a 16 inch wand size piece. That's what I was thinking of asking."

Devlin replied, "They might get by with two ounces. Bring me some; I'll make a pair of each. We can try them out before calling anyone."

"Let's start with four ounces."

"If they raised their price to 600G, they could make his prices work, or at least keep their doors open."

Harry acknowledged, "It doesn't do wizarding society any good for us to maintain vaults full of unused core." Without question, he was betting on the twenty juvenile spiders being able to produce in the spring.

Devlin replied, "If you don't mind my asking, what are you doing to safeguard your business assets?"

It was a reasonable question. Harry replied, "The last guys who tried to steal our stuff ended up with their heads on pikes."

"That's hard to argue with but to my knowledge, there are no laws against stealing a unicorn; let alone a spider."

"I'll bring that up to those who are watching them. Back to the strand, what delivery schedule are you looking for in the next six months?"

Devlin replied, "I'm not certain, I wanted to see what was available before I made any sales calls. About 1,000 feet per country for team brooms; so about 3,000 feet every other month starting in November."

They shook on it.

… - ...

Wednesday September 31, 1997

Emma asked, "What's wrong?"

Harry replied, "We're racing towards a cliff. We had 125,000 feet of strand the night of the fire. Right or wrong, we decided to help Devlin. The Comet broom maker uses braided kneezle hair for their core. They're fine but their brooms aren't very good. The Nimbus folks were using three foot strands of unicorn hair but somebody slaughtered the herd that they were keeping and stole the bodies. We're burning through 15,000 feet a month or more, depending on where we go. As of this morning we had 70,000 feet.

"On the positive side, Longclaw and Mischa have been providing us 2,000 feet a month and probably will for another month. We've been invited to sell at Salem, Chicago, New Orleans, Tuscon and Seattle. In Europe, we need to go back to Naples, Stockholm, Prague, Vienna and Amsterdam. We've been invited to go to Geveva, Poland, Ontario, and Zurich. That's 250,000 at a minimum.

"Otto, the wandmaker from Germany wants to buy more wands or core – anything we'd care to sell. The short of it is, we can sell all that we make but we'll be out of strand in late January."

Emma asked, "What about other core materials?"

Harry replied, "We haven't done anything with the muskox hair yet. I wouldn't mind if Hagrid sold it to Otto if it wasn't as acceptable as strand. It's not long enough to be used in brooms unless there was a way to braid or fuse it together. Devlin is going to build some wing bone brooms to try out."

Hermione suggested, "We could see if compatibility goes up if we use a three or even a five-strand braid. The cost to us doesn't really change."

"That's more than worth a try. Charlie has been putting us off. They're doing what they can to restock the other reserves. If they keep it up too long, they'll run out of cash. Even so, 500 cores here or there won't be the solution. When we get the first one, we'll want to dry the wing bones as well as the heart. We have open orders for the other parts for the first dozen we're offered. The Bright Moon elves will be available to help us."

She gently asked, "Is that something that could be done at Hogwarts? I suggest that rather than the forest, as it would be inside and it might be useful for some of the students. I really don't want to dissect a dragon in the storeroom. That said, do you have a few dry boxes, or appropriate containers on hand in case a few should arrive in the next few weeks?"

"No, I'll order some two dozen As for Hogwarts, it's an idea. My first preference would be to ask the elf council. They could do the work in under an hour. My very first preference would be to tell Charlie exactly what we want, have him package it up and ask the elves to pick up the boxes. I'm expecting 10 – 15,000 pounds of meat. I'll ask Barchoke how they would want that cut up and delivered."

Emma asked, "What about the things that Hagrid's been collecting, or what Devlin had sent?"

Winky spoke up. "There is unicorn hair to make 6,000 wands in the store room. The thesterals haven't been trimmed in almost two years. Neither have the hippogriffs. Hagrid has found no magical honey in Elf Land. Elves don't want big bees in Elf Land."

Emma summarized, "Between that and what Devlin gave you, there's plenty of material to start the custom wand shop. You should call Charlie Weasley and ask how much processing they normally do and what's available."

Harry nodded and replied, "Thank you both." They'd provided suggestions; just not the answers that he'd been looking for. Adding a two liter bottle of vodka into a car's fuel tank when you're low on gas might get you ten miles farther down the road but it's not a real solution. He hadn't regretted committing to help Devlin, but the timing certainly could have been better. Deep down, he felt that the muskox hair would need to be in a dozen different woods to get a fit for 20 out of 25 people. He truly wanted to avoid a three minute fitting if he could.

Put plainly, using strand had seriously spoiled him with respect to fitting wands. He briefly considered buying back Black Island from Tonks to raise spiders but put the idea out of his head. He had no way of feeding them in such a remote location. He wanted 50 producing spiders and didn't know if the elves would allow it.

He decided to limit sales at the field trips to 8,000 wands per trip. If they ended up going on holiday for a week or three in February, he was fine with that too. Too much hinged on the young spiders and the dried wing bones working.

… - …

Friday October 2

Bito, the dragon reserve manager found Charlie and said, "The guy from London wants to talk with you. We can't afford to put it off any longer. I owe everyone money at this point. We have those two older Welsh Greens; they've mated with a third of the reserve. They're too big to trade."

Charlie countered, "How about if we process one? Iceland might take him for a Shortsnout."

Bito countered, "How about if we process two and we stop eating ramen noodles twice a day? Call him and see what he's willing to pay for."

Charlie called. After a few minutes, Harry asked, "You mentioned processing options; what are the options?"

Charlie replied, "An entire range. On one end, a dead dragon is portkeyed to your back garden. Moving up a step, the dragon is skinned and cut up. The fresh hide, meat and organs are boxed up and shipped."

Silence. Harry wanted a lot less work than what he'd described so far and knew that this was a price negotiable area.

"Moving up a step, everything is done. The blood is filtered and bottled, parts are dry boxed as requested, hide tanned, the organs are completely dissected and packaged as requested."

After a minute, Harry replied, "I'll try the last option this time. How much is that?"

Charlie hesitated and replied, "13,300G."

After a half minute, Harry decided to accept his price, this time. He replied, "I can go that high this time. In addition to everything that you mentioned, I also need the wing bones in dry boxes. They can be cut into any length that's easy for you. Aside from that, the price is fair."

"Are you sure?"

"Certainly." Recognizing that cash could be a real problem for them, Harry offered, "How about if I put a down a deposit for the first five and you'll work out a fair price each time? We can settle up after each is delivered."

Charlie gushed, "Thanks, Harry. That would buy us a bit more time."

"It's not a problem. I'll ask Dobby to deliver the coins and packaging specifics in an hour. OK?"

Harry had taken Hermione's advice and had previously contacted Professor Moonshine at Hogwarts, her father, Gringotts, an apothecary, St. Mungo's, Neville and two of the shops in the alleys for the hide. He'd received orders from each.

Dobby happily delivered the coins and the Wand Shop was on its way to becoming dragon peddlers.

… - …

Wednesday October 7

As the Introduction to Charms classes were ready to start, Flitwick said, "I'll take your class for the night. Please take the chance to observe Susan and Hannah. See if they need a bit of coaching. New instructors have a tendency to include too much."

"Thanks, Professor."

As the classroom doors were open and the hallway was comparatively dark, it was easy to stand outside the doorway and observe. Hannah was practicing the summoning charm using the same ping pong balls idea that Harry had originally used with her. She had added orange plastic buckets to the occasion.

"Accio ping pong balls." Using her wand, she demonstrated the finesse to arc the flight of the ball and get it to land into the bucket with a plop. She said, "Depending upon how much force you apply, you can summon them slowly or quicker, You always want to use your wand at the end so you don't get smacked in the head. Use a little flick of your wrist, like so. Try it."

Cindy watched. The results were... uneven. One student (the Hermione of the class) grasped the original concept as well as the handful of nuances all at once. On the other side, several were clearly getting frustrated. She stepped into the classroom and mouthed, Call a break.

Hannah announced, "Let's take a ten minute break. Be sure to grab a few biscuits and a beverage." With a slight wave of her finger, Cindy directed Hannah to come outside for a minute.

When they were away from the students, Cindy observed, That was a great idea with the buckets. I didn't know you could speed or slow the summon like that. Yours is faster than when I do it."

"Thanks. I've been practicing that one for three years."

Cindy replied, "Exactly. Your class has been practicing for three minutes. Your students will always achieve better overall comprehension when you show them one concept at a time. When you go back in, break your demonstration up into several parts. They only have to do the first one on their OWL exam."

Hannah realized that she'd been given equal parts of friendly advice and work direction. Cindy gave her an encouraging smile and sent her back into the classroom. Hannah gathered the class back together and said, "Let's break this down into individual steps. The most important one is calling the ball to come to you and getting it to move. Hold your wand, think about what you want to have happen and say, Accio ping pong ball." Recalling that it was a very light object, she let it hit her on the head and the class laughed along with her. "Think about what you want to have happen and call it to you. Go ahead and try."

She saw Cindy smile and nod at her as she quietly left the room to go observe Susan.

Susan's presentation was similar, though not to the level that Hannah had taken it. She had a wonderful soft approach what was wonderful in a primary teacher but was a difficult trait to coach into people. At the end of the evening after the students had gone, Cindy offered them an Orange Crush and a few snacks. As they walked into the classrooms. She said, "You two are so good at charms. You make it look so easy. Hannah, you're far better at this than I'll ever be. Where did you get the orange stripped buckets?"

"I conjured them."

"That's so neat. Susan, how much is 2 plus 2?

"4."

How about 2 and 2 and 2?"

"6."

How much is 2 times 2?"

"4."

How about 2 times 3?"

Hannah, How much is 2 times 6,249?"

Hanna thought for a few moments and replied, 12,498."

"Which would you show little ones in class?"

"2 times 2."

"Exactly. Envision Harry showing Emma Granger, who had only found out that she could wield magic a few weeks earlier, how to summon. He had the inspired idea to use ping pong balls. He asked Dobby to bring them from home because he didn't know how to conjure objects. He set them on the other side of their breakroom ten feet away. He explained what he wanted to do and reminded Emma that magic was largely about intent. He summoned one by having it roll on the floor to him. He had Emma try it. What happened?"

Susan replied, "I'm not sure."

"It barely rolled towards her. Hannah, What did he do?"

"Had her try it again?"

Cindy replied, "Loads of times but first he celebrated her success." After a few moments she asked, "How many sessions did Professor Flitwick talk about summoning when you two were learning it in your fifth year?"

Susan admitted, "Two sessions."

Cindy replied, "I can imagine. It's a tricky charm. You always want to imagine Harry and Emma. Show patience, don't skip steps and celebrate every little success. Having the ball gracefully arc into the bucket will get you an O on your OWL. Having it roll towards you will get you an A and pass the exam. Teach the A. Celebrate the A. At the end of the night, tell them, "As you practice this charm you can add this and that but don't go beyond that. Read Emma's notes and envision the success of the first steps.

"You both will make great teachers. Don't lose sight of the first time that you tried a charm and it worked." She winked and added, "Teach as Harry, not Hermione." After a little laugh, she added, "Good job ladies. Thanks for letting me visit tonight. We all learned something and the students did too. Look at the section for next week and imagine Harry teaching Emma. See you next week."

After they left, Flitwick removed the disillusion charm, convinced that he'd made the best choice having Headmistress Cindy observe and coach the two teens. They reacted well and were building a solid rapport together, exactly as he had hoped.

… - …

Friday October 31

Redeye found Harry and said, "Your packages have arrived," He handed Harry the packing list. It read;

Dragon Meat – 10,000 pounds

Ground Bones – 900 pounds

Claw – 32 pounds

Tanned hide - 350 feet

Blood 12 gallons

Wing bone sections – 100 pounds Dry Boxed as specified

Heart – Dry Boxed as specified

Eyes - 2

Liver -1

Heart – 1

GI tract – 1

Skull – processed

Broken scales – 25 pounds

Ten minutes later the Bright Moon Elves had made their deliveries. Gringotts received all of the meat this time at a fair price. Neville happily accepted the 900 pounds of ground bone as a gift. Moonshine gratefully ordered 3/4th of the blood, while St. Mungo's happily purchased the rest. The alley shops bought the hide, except for the portion that Harry had allotted to make replacement vests for the Eye brothers. The apothecary was delighted to purchase the claws. The liver went to St. Mungo's. Professor Moonshine personally purchased the eyes and other organs. Last but not least, Harry gifted Fred and George the skull with teeth intact and the bag of broken scales. The portions that Harry had sold so far nearly covered his costs.

The wing bones and heart would cure in the dry boxes for two months and years respectively. Emma clearly marked each of the boxes with an OK to open on date.

… - ...

Saturday, November 1

That afternoon, Harry received a call from Hagrid, asking if he could come to the elf forest. Harry asked, "It's not on fire or anything, is it?"

"No, I just wanted to talk with you."

"Me too. I'll be right over." He arrived outside his friend's home. Hagrid was outside. Harry greeted him and asked, "What's up?"

Hagrid replied, "It's the unicorns; all 35 of the females are pregnant. But one of the males, the one that was injured from the fire. Well, he died today."

Harry replied, "That's good and bad. What do we need to do?"

"Well, the tail hairs should be trimmed off and well, usually the spiders, see..."

"I understand. Are the spiders hibernating by now?"

"No. The elves warded the area to not get colder than about 60F. They told Dobby that they wanted to stay out this winter."

"Let's go to work." Harry carefully cut the hairs with the mitheral sheers that Dobby had brought him. Then they porkeyed into the spider land where they quickly saw Longclaw and his mate Mischa. They both greeted Hagrid and him. Hagrid was carrying the body of the 200 pound unicorn and set it down in the grass. The twenty juveniles, approached the body of the unicorn.

Mischa said, "It's good that you brought it here, Our sons will be ready to make strand for you in the spring. Come. We have spun some webs for you since you were last here."

Dobby appeared carrying the box of empty reels. With remarkable speed, he collected the long stretches of webbing that they had made. He took the box with the five large reels that were now full and left.

Harry said, "Thank you both. You have been very helpful. What else do you need?"

Longclaw replied, "We are happy here, Harry Potter and Hagrid. It is good to still be warm when the trees lose their leaves."

Hagrid replied, "We'll be on our way then." They portkeyed back to the front of his home."

Harry asked, "When will the new unicorns be born?"

Hagrid replied, "Mid April. There's never been more than two or three of 'em pregnant a year before. They must really like it here."

"That's good. How about you?"

"I love it here. I want to thank you again."

"Cheers, Hagrid."

… - …

Bob and Alyx's search efforts had paid off in ways not originally expected. A dozen of those who were in the second Introduction to Charms class ended up having younger siblings of age to attend the primary school.

Since they were, in fact from all over Britain, it was easiest to have the magical students portkey in and use a cover address passably close to the school if they needed to mention to the other students where they lived.

… - …

Wednesday November 5

After class had ended and the students left, Flitwick called Cindy, Hannah and Susan together. He mentioned, "We have 150 people who have registered for class in January."

Hannah asked, "How could they find so many?"

Susan replied, "The two aurors who are finding them have learned how to look properly. This is the new normal."

Cindy spoke up. "Minister Bones found two primary school teachers in the first class. There was one in the January class and another this time. My suggestion is that we invite them to teach the class that starts in January. Are there rooms available?"

Flitwick thought about it. He was hesitant to ask the three to take on another night. Adding additional instructors was the safer plan. The options seemed to be to add the classes on a different evening, increasing the class size or to find additional rooms. He liked the space that they were currently using.

He asked Cindy, "Are these people who you would contact for your school?

She replied, "Three of them are working at the school now. The one from my current class will start next September. Hopefully we'll find another in the January classes.

He said, "My thinking is if the space is available, it would be best to run all of the sessions on one evening."

Hannah suggested, "Have you asked the elves?"

Nobby appeared and asked, "How may I help you, Professor?"

Flitwick asked, "Would it be possible to have two or three more classrooms here in January?"

Nobby replied, "Yes. We can do that. It is easy to reshape the classroom spaces."

Flitwick replied, "Perfect. Thank you."

After Nobby left, Susan asked, "Who are the other instructors?"

Cindy replied, "Paul Noreen, Sandy Smith and Nancy Jansen. They're very personable teachers. I'll ask them tomorrow."

Susan asked, "What about asking more students?"

He replied, "Who did you have in mind?"

"Dean Thomas."

He replied, "We'll ask the three teachers as well as Dean. It would be very useful to have a spare or lower the class size a bit."

Cindy asked, "Did you hear back from London Metro University?"

Hannah replied, "We did. Thank you so much for the letter of recommendation. We've been accepted. The accelerated plan will fit perfectly. We'll start Monday July 6. There's no summer holiday but we'll be done with our course work in just over two years and be ready for student teaching."

Cindy gave the teens a hug, smiled and replied, "I hope you'll both come to Lily Potter for your student teaching. There's a fair amount of turnover in primary schools and I'm all but sure there will be spots waiting for you."

Flitwick asked, "Have you spoken with the Instructor who is in the current class?"

"You mean Craig Roper. Yes. He's teaching sixth form. I'll invite him to interview next week."

"That's a good idea. If you want, I'll take your class for the evening. Have a good evening, everyone."

"Thanks. You too."

Cindy kept Hannah and Susan back after Flitwick left. She said, "I want you both to do well at London Metro. If Wednesday evenings work for you next September, it would be brilliant. If it doesn't, there would still be a place for both of you at Lily Potter. I'd rather hire you both as teachers than bring you both in as assistants and drag out getting your degrees."

Hannah nodded in agreement while Susan replied, "Thanks. We'll make it work."

… - ...

December 31 at the Abbotts

The New Years Eve party at the Abbotts was fun this year. Hannah and Susan were having fun telling about their Wednesday evening teaching assistant experiences.

At a convenient break point Amelia pulled Harry aside and asked, "Would you walk with me for a few minutes?"

"Happily."

She said, "In retrospect, I regret not including your view in the Hogwarts Head search."

Harry replied, "It's just as well; I'm not very impressed with academics."

"How so?"

"I envision that accumulating multiple degrees is spending all day with like-minded people. I believe in actions and results. Honestly, I believe that any of the candidates that you seriously considered would have done away with the house system. It was completely toxic. I expect that they would have added more or less the same electives. What else can we talk about?"

"Who do you want as Minister in five years?"

Harry thought for a moment and replied, "Someone who doesn't see themselves as a career politician; definitely not Scrimgeour, or Diggory. I think Michelle Wood or Sally Daily, or Demi Greengrass would be effective if you could get either of them. My turn; why the hesitation in having Susan teach at the primary school?"

"Deep down, I do support her. I'd like her to meet a young wizard and have several children along the way."

"What if she prefers someone else's company?"

"You mean Hannah?"

"I don't mean anyone. It's not my story to tell. Your turn."

"How do you envision Hogwarts in five years?"

"Pretty much as it is today but with a different Headmaster."

Somewhat surprised, she asked, "Why would you say that?"

"I think that counts as two questions but I'd be surprised if she wasn't run out of Britain or worse. Dumbledore had assassination attempts about every year that I was there. I could be completely wrong – she might win the Witch Weekly Most Charming Smile contest. My turn. What role do you see the 900 people playing?"

"It's probably 600-700 people who can actually be found and will choose to take the Introduction to Charms class and earn their wand rights. My hope is that they change the wizarding world somehow. Maybe they'll invent a wizarding television channel or something similar. We need more startup businesses; ideally with someone making or selling something that isn't widely available now."

She asked, "Where do you see yourself in five years?"

"I'm involved in several businesses; both have to do with wand core. One side looks at bits and pieces and searches for material that can be used for wand or equally likely, broom core materiel. That's a joint venture with the elves. They've been quite busy.

"The other is providing wands or better wands to people who can afford them. We may be done helping North America by then, or the program may have stalled. It all comes down to core material. My turn. Should I demand a seat on the goblin council?"

"If you were the type who enjoyed politics, I'd say yes. They are over represented on our Wizengamot; though to date it's been beneficial. What do you think?"

"Harry replied, "I have two thoughts on the matter. Compared to goblins, normal humans only live about as long as corgis. The other is the old saying, taken from a financial perspective, Don't put all of your eggs in one basket. People go in and out of favor with them, as the two of us have seen. In favor is a wonderful place to be. Out of favor – not so much. Your turn."

"What are the elves up to?"

"As Emma would say, nothing nefarious. They're earning the money that they can and using it to acquire a block of land southwest of Christchurch. Whether it turns out to be the size of the centaur forest by Hogwarts remains to be seen. Beyond that, they're doing what everyone does; having babies and the like."

"What was wrong with the Hogwarts forest?"

"It wasn't theirs. Apparently that makes a huge difference to their babies. I'm thinking of selling my family land in Gloucester and buying some by theirs. Eventually, they'll need assistance from the Queen."

"How so?"

"They've managed to stay under the radar and have had their land rezoned as agriculture. If they continue to expand, it will come down to tax revenue."

"Should I alert the Prime Minister?"

"Yes. It's predictable and no one likes surprises. My turn. The Estate business has generated a good amount of tax revenue for the ministry. What's being done with it?"

"Very little so far. What did you have in mind?"

"You mentioned that you hope that the unbound people start business, presumably to generate sales tax revenue. Most start-up businesses need a good start-up loan or a forgivable grant. Keep in mind that more than 3/4th of startups don't make it to their fifth year. If your long-term goal was increased sales tax revenue, it would probably be little more than a break-even venture unless a few of them were truly successful. You could offer proof-of-concept loans. If it worked and they needed additional financing, there are other outlets." She could tell that his words were backed by some experience.

She asked, "I think I know the answer but might you have access to a unicorn?"

He replied, "Keep going."

"St. Mungo's is in desperate need of some freely given unicorn blood."

Harry replied, I've had some firsthand experience with the substance. I saw the wraith of Voldemort drinking some that he'd killed a unicorn to get when I was eleven. That wasn't freely given. Who and how much are they looking for?"

"You are a remarkable wizard, Harry. I'm told that they administer it by the drop, so maybe an ounce. Amanda Crabtree would be a contact. I'm certain that she'd feel the same about phoenix tears."

He replied, "I know a bit about them too. I'll call Fawkes and ask. Do you have a vial?"

She was about to say, You're kidding, then recalled that he wasn't Sirius. She replied, "Yes, Thank you."

A moment later there was a heartening phoenix song and a flash. Harry stroked the bird that had just landed on his shoulder. Harry looked into his eye and explained what he wanted. He reached out to take the vial and Fawkes filled it half full. Harry thanked him and summoned a fish from the surf. The magnificent bird took the fish from Harry's hand, gave a shake and three feathers floated into his hand. Harry thought thanks and in a flash, it disappeared.

He said, "I'll see if I can find some of the other tomorrow and bring it over to Healer Crabtree."

"Thank you."

… - ...

Hannah was watching after the initial flash caught her eye and said, "What that hell...?"

Emma replied, "He does that sort of stuff. Go with it."

… - …

A/Ns

Short OMAKE

Sirius had a satisfied look on his face. "This is your last portrait frame, Albus. You have two minutes to change my mind."

"My boy, surely you see that forgiveness is the proper path."

"One minute thirty seconds."

"I know many things that others aren't ready to hear. It's for the greater good."

"One minute."

"I wielded the Death Stick for thirty years... I know the secrets of the seventh floor."

"Thirty seconds."

He put on a reel to reel tape recorder that played music and started with the words, "It's a small world after all."

"You have nowhere else to go, Professor. I'll be back in six hours."

(Thanks to Red Phoenix Dragon for the idea. By the way, he has a new story – The Unwanted Ticket. It's quite clever)

… - ...