"This is so fucking annoying!" Ginny shouted into the empty hallway of Grimmmauld place not really intending to inform anyone: it was mainly for herself. "Stupid management. Stupid board." She then muttered as she kicked off her shoes in the rough direction of the shoe rack.
She stomped her way towards the kitchen, down the stairs and into the pantry, she knew what she wanted and she knew how to get it. It was times like this that she'd never been more glad that, together with Harry, she'd found the entrance to the wine cellar. And on top of that she'd never been happier that the Black family wine cellar contained not just too much wine to drink in several lifetimes but also a vast amounts of spirits. Firewhiskey being the majority part of the collection and it was very lucky that firewhiskey also happened on being Ginny's favourite. A double win for all in the end.
She grabbed a bottle near the front. It was probably a newer bottle; it was true that the spirit got better with age but Ginny didn't care at this point. This wasn't the end of day drink cuddled up with Harry next to the fire; this was a mid-afternoon piss up her mother would thoroughly disapprove of.
Going back into the kitchen, slamming doors behind her, Ginny settled at one of the chairs and summoned a tumbler to her.
She wasn't going to drink from the bottle. She wasn't that pissed off. Not yet anyway.
She'd finished pouring her first measure when Harry made his way into the kitchen. Dressed in an ACDC shirt and dark jeans with his hair looking like he'd just got out of bed he looked like an unemployed youth her Aunt Muriel had always complained about. And the couple of days old stubble decorating his chin certainly wouldn't have helped.
"Hey Gin, tough day?" He said as he crossed the room picking up a tumbler for himself from the shelf before sitting opposite her.
"The managements being annoying again." Ginny said between sip only taking the time to slide Harry the bottle before raising her glass once more to her lips.
"What are they doing now?" Harry asked as he poured himself a far smaller measure than the one Ginny had poured for herself.
"They won't let us train!" she said slamming her glass down on the table. "They keep dragging us off to do photoshoots and interviews and all sorts of rubbish that won't change the fact that we've lost the first eight games of this year!"
"Well surely they know that the team won't win unless they let you guys train together?"
"I don't think they care!" Ginny exclaimed, her drink now forgotten as she waved her hands around in the air in frustration. "They keep saying that we need to do all this bullshit to raise more money for the club. They're saying that if we don't pose for this stupid calendar tomorrow, we could all loose our jobs!" Ginny appeared to have remembered her drink at this point and downed what had been left.
"What calendar?" Harry asked. He didn't know why another photoshoot would tip Ginny over the edge like this.
"It's like they don't realize that the real money in the game goes to the winning team. And to win the league you have to win games. It's ridiculous." Ginny ranted ignoring Harry's question. "But they insist that the clubs on the brink of bankruptcy and that if we don't go to all these club member's socials and this stupid fucking, piece of shit calendar shoot we'll be laid off because the club won't be able to pay our salaries!"
"What calendar, Gin?" She'd mentioned it more than any other
"I don't want to pose for the calendar, Harry." Ginny quietly over the top of her now empty glass. Ginny sometimes became a bit more introspective when she was a little bit tipsy. Especially if something was weighing on her mind. "But I don't want to lose my job. I don't want to lose the Harpies."
"Why don't you want to pose for the calendar, Gin, isn't it like every other photo shoot you've done for the club?" Ginny was hiding her face against her arms while they rested on the table now but Harry could still see the shake of her head. "If the team is just having a couple of money issues then I could always donate some old Black gold to help lighten the load off of you players. Just imagine the look on old Walburga's face! Sirius would love it!" He'd meant it as a joke but it wasn't sounding like a bad idea now he'd said it aloud.
Ginny looked up from where she'd been resting her head. "That won't work by tomorrow, Harry." She said pouring herself another measure of firewhiskey. Without pausing for thought or doubt she knocked back her second glass in one go before slamming the tumbler back down on the table. "It's a naked calendar, Harry. They're forcing all the players, from the first team to the reserves, to pose for this stupid calendar under the threat of losing their jobs. Even if it is about money, which I don't think it is, I just think that the club is run by a group of old perverts who get a kick out of making people submit to their wills and desires."
Harry saw red.
No one should be able to exert that kind of influence over anyone. No one should be able to exert that kind of influence over Ginny, his Ginny. His wonderful, powerful Ginny who these bastards had driven to drink in the early afternoon with their perverted desires and twisted morals.
Harry of before the war would have flipped. Apperating to Holyhead and cursing the entire management till they regretted being born. But Harry from now? Harry who'd live and fought through conflict and spent a year as part of the beating heart of the Auror Office knew better. Cursing people doesn't get anything done outside of a battlefield. No he'd have to try other methods to make this messed up situation better for Ginny.
"Hey, Gin, Kingsley asked me to meet him in about five minutes. I don't have to go, if you don't want me to. I can stay here with you?" He didn't have a meeting with Kingsley, just the beginnings of a plan to sort everything out but Ginny didn't need to know that now, she'd only argue with him about it and while he was fairly certain that she'd agree with him once she'd taken time to think it over he couldn't wait that long: time was of the essence.
"No, I'll be okay. Go help Kingsley run the world." She said with a sad smile.
"I could floo your mum, or Hermione? Just to keep you company if you want?" He wasn't sure about leaving her on her own with the bottle of firewhiskey so close at hand.
"Go, Harry." She fixed him with a stare and he knew she'd be alright.
With her blessing, Harry turned and made his way to the front door. Once outside, stood on the top step where magic hid him from anyone on the street before him, he disapperated.
He reappeared in Diagon Ally just outside the grand entrance of Gringotts. Taking a moment Harry looked up at the magnificent building, a reminder that the Goblins could do anything wizard kind could do, though they'd surely argue that there's was better. Stopping that thought before the other people in the ally recognised him, Harry quickly made his way into the bank. Thankfully most of the wizarding community were working at this time so Harry didn't have to waste potentially necessary time waiting in a que to get the chance to speak to one of the tellers.
"I'd like to see my account manager." He stated clearly. He'd learn since the breaking in incident that Goblins didn't appreciate those who minced their words and wasted time, a sentiment that Harry agreed with. It was always better to be blunt and to the point when dealing with business.
"Name?" The goblin asked, not looking up. They never did. Though no one accused Gringotts on mastering customer service.
He took a quick look of the room before saying "Potter," quietly. He didn't need a picture of him at the bank in the paper tomorrow.
The goblin looked up now, suddenly having found something more interesting than the account books they'd been studying.
"I'll arrange it at once, Mr Potter. If you'd like to take a seat someone will come to collect you as soon as possible."
Harry smiled in thanks before turning to do as the goblin had suggested.
Harry cleared his mind while he waited. It wouldn't do to be distracted while in a potentially life changing business meeting. He could risk stray thoughts of what he was going to cook for Ginny later that day, or how the auror office was cooping now that he'd left, or whether this was a hair brained scheme that was born from his need to keep those closest to him happy despite any personal cost.
But none of that mattered right now. What mattered now was making sure this meeting went well so that he could make Ginny happy again.
Soon, maybe five though definitely no more than ten minutes later, a new goblin approached Harry.
"Mr Potter?" the goblin asked and, upon seeing Harry's nod, continued, "Please follow me to your account manager's office."
The goblin didn't wait for Harry to say or signal that he would follow the bank worker, just bustling across the banks lobby in a hurry. Goblins almost always were in Harry's experience.
Harry followed the unnamed goblin through a couple of undesignable corridors before it stopped in front of a large imposing black door.
"This is your account manager's office." The goblin said before leaving in the same hurried stride that had taken them to the door.
Harry studied the door for a second. A habit from his year with the aurors. Small details could potentially tell an investigator much about their subject. In this case, the way this goblin maintained the outside of his working space told Harry that he took pride in his work. The door though old had a fresh coat of paint on it. Within the last six months, definitely since Harry had last been forced to speak to his account manager to sort out the whole break in fiasco. The only flaw on the door was the plaque. The name 'Black' once carved there with great love and attention was scuffed, scratched and, quite frankly, dirty. This could be interpreted that the particular goblin working this account didn't really think much of their client. This, Harry knew, was mainly because of the break in but was also influenced by the people who'd held the Black accounts in the past being bigoted knobs.
Harry knocked on the door and the door quickly opened by itself. Walking through the now open door, Harry inclined his head as way of a respectful greeting. The goblin behind the desk returned the gesture and Harry took the seat in front of the desk.
"What's the meaning of this meeting you've asked for, Mr Potter?" The goblin asked.
"I want to buy a quidditch team, Grabnag." Harry told him.
"Any particular preference to which one, Mr Potter."
"The Holyhead Harpies, please."
The goblin looked up to meet Harry's eyes, his own being narrowed and giving nothing of his thoughts away. "Are you aware that the Holyhead Harpies are not owned by just one owner, Mr Potter?" Harry shook his head. "Then you should know that the Holyhead Harpies are owned by its shareholders with a board of directors made up of the shareholders that own the most shares."
Harry nodded, he'd understood so far. "Is there a way I can own it by myself?" He didn't want any of the old perverts on the current board having any control over Ginny.
Grabnag smirked and Harry didn't know if he'd like the answer.
"Of course there is, Mr Potter, though you'll want to stick to legal channels so that narrows it down to two serious options." Harry was almost completely sure that Grabnag looked down on him for wanting to do business within the law. "The first of which is that you buy all the shares from all of the board members and become the only person with enough influence over the club to make decisions making you the owner by default. This would be very difficult to do as you'd have to enter talks with all current board members and would more than likely cost you your entire fortune in the process. Or, you could just buy the majority of shares of the club and decide that you're taking the company private, making you the sole owner of the club. This would be slightly easier and less expensive as you'd have to do less negotiating as you're trying to get less shares and once the company's gone private it's yours in its entirety."
Harry thought it over, the second option was clearly better though one thing was bugging him. "What happened to the people's shares I don't buy when the club goes private?"
"They lose them." Grabnag said bluntly. "Of course you could offer to buy them out at a reduced rate so that they don't lose everything of course but that would be a waste of gold."
Harry was shocked. How could he possibly be so harsh, to take away what these people had paid for with no notice and no recompense. How could he even be considering this!
They were perverts! A voice screamed from the back of his head. They were threatening Ginny's job for the sake of a stupid calendar!
Harry was decided.
"I want you to do the second option." Harry told Grabnag.
The goblin smiled widen and Harry couldn't help but have a sinking feeling about this.
"Good." Grabnag said. "I'll have the Harpies file pulled so we can start planning out a strategy to buy out enough shares. When do you want to have control of the club?"
Harry smiled sheepishly, his hands suddenly sweaty in his lap. "Tomorrow morning." He half asked, half told the goblin.
Grabnag sighed, "Well at least it'll be an interesting challenge."
Within the next minute another goblin arrived with what Harry assumed to be the Holyhead Harpies file. Grabnag laid it out on the desk and began to study the records. Harry tried to have a look but it was all written in gobbledegope and he didn't understand a word.
After a couple minutes of mutterings and page flipping Grabnag looked up. "Well I have some good news. The Harpies stock value has been falling recently so this will make it cheaper for you to buy shares and you get a couple of spooked investors trying to sell before it falls further and they potentially loose more money." Harry nodded along, the Harpies recent string of loses must mean that people are valuing the team less than they had before. "From the looks of this file there's already a couple of shareholders that are trying to sell all their holdings in the Harpies right now at market value. With your permission I'll buy these as soon as possible. I'd recommend doing this as they won't require any further negotiation than handing over the gold and they'll be the cheapest ones you buy today."
"Do it, Grabnag. I give you full permission to use the Black vault to buy the majority share of the Holyhead Harpies." Harry said knowing that now that was said he wouldn't need to sit in the office and 'okay' every transaction Grabnag does.
"Assuming I'm successful in your overnight buyout of the Harpies I'll need you here in the morning to sign the papers to make it official that the company is going private."
Harry nodded. "Please keep me updated about your progress and weather you think that'll you'll get it done."
The goblin nodded slightly, his head already buried in the account book while one hand scratched out a note of something onto a piece of parchment.
Harry could only hope everything went well now and that he could find his way back out of the bank.
Harry wasn't there when Ginny woke up the next morning. No instead of her nice warm boyfriend she woke up to a cold bed and a note saying that Andromeda needed Harry to look after Teddy this morning as she'd come down with an illness.
Though she'd smiled slightly at the thought of Harry spending time with his godson it was quickly followed by a wince. After Harry had gotten back from his meeting with Kingsley the two of them had hit the bottle hard. Harry didn't normally encouraged drinking as heavily as they had on nights before she had to work but he'd seemed a bit distracted all night long. She couldn't remember whether he'd told her what was bothering him so she'd have to find out later. She then found a bottle of hangover cure potion behind the note and she thanked the gods that Harry took care of her even when he wasn't here in person. Though she noticed that there was about half gone already so Harry must have been feeling a rough this morning too
For some reason this made her feel a little bit better.
Swigging the remainder of the potion she got up and threw on some clothes. Not really paying attention to what she was putting on as she'd only get redressed by the styling at this stupid calendar shoot that she was doing this morning.
On her way to the floo, Ginny made two slices of toast and covered them both in her mother's homemade blackberry jam. She ate the first as she skimmed through the sport section of the Daily Prophet. There was something about the Harpies in there but she didn't read it. She didn't want to read the latest version of the 'women can't play quidditch' argument that the more… traditional columnists subscribed to. No instead she read about Portree's new signing from the continent.
Her toast done, Ginny entered the floo readying herself for a day of flouncing and posing.
Emerging from the floo at the Harpies stadium, Ginny made her way through to the press office. This was where they had met the photographers and so far that morning Ginny had no reason to suspect that anything was any different than before.
Second piece of toast in one hand as the other rubbed the sleep from her eye, she'd made it to the press office.
"Down at the pitch today miss Weasley." Someone from the office called out, Ginny didn't see who.
Ginny mumbled a thank you as she span around on her heal and made her way to the pitch.
She found Gwenog at the end of the tunnel to the pitch with almost all of the other players. Ginny quickly slotted herself into the group. Catching up on the gossip about which one of the inters was brave enough to ask one of the players out on a date this week as well as trying to find out why the photoshoot was happening on the pitch today instead of in a studio. Some of the girls seemed to think there'd been a shakeup at the top of the club overnight and that that was the reason they were on the pitch.
Gwenog was smirking slightly, she definitely knew what had happened and apparently wasn't going to share it any time soon.
"Gin Gin!"
Ginny spun round just in time for a purple haired two, but nearly three, year old missile to slam in to her knees.
"Teddy?" Ginny said as she squatted down to pick up her boyfriend's godson. "How did you get here?"
Of course she knew it must have been something to do with Harry but asking Teddy almost always made the little tyke explain what was happening in the cutest way.
"Harry, said we was going to surprise you!" He said as she balanced him on her hip, he was really getting too big for this.
"Are you my surprise, Teddy?" She asked. Honestly she didn't know what Harry had done, both Harry and Teddy could get in really trouble if management if this wasn't all above board.
"Nope." The toddler popped to 'p'. He looked very smug.
"Are you going to tell me?"
The boy shook his head as he buried it into her side. His hair was slowly turning red: a dead giveaway that he was excited.
"Please tell me Teddy." Ginny pleaded with the child. "We can have ice cream later if you tell me."
Teddy very quickly pulled himself away from her, mouth open, ready to spill the beans.
"Don't tell her Ted! Stay strong!" It was Harry.
He was surrounded by some of the senior staff but it didn't look like they were trying to escort him out of there so maybe they weren't going to get into trouble.
"Why are you here Harry?" I asked him.
"Well as I'm looking after the world's biggest Harpy fan for the day I thought I'd bring him along to meet the team." Teddy turned his hair green, even managing some gold highlights causing a couple of the girls to coo and giggle. "Anyway, I hear you girls have a photoshoot today." He said, addressing the entire squad. This caused a groan and Teddy to blow a raspberry. Andi didn't normally want him doing that but this once Ginny thought it was appropriate. Harry simply smiled and Ginny couldn't help but think that he knew something the team didn't. "Well I don't think Teddy wants to see a photoshoot so I think you should go and train. Got a couple of big matches coming up and I'd hate it if you weren't ready."
Ginny was confused.
"But Mr Potter that's not your decision. This photoshoot was booked by the club's board. No one can overrule it." One of Ginny's teammates explained.
Harry smiled in that lopsided fashion that made Ginny's knees weak. "Well then, it's a good thing there's been a change in club leadership."
"What!" seemed to be the general consensus.
"Whose taken over Harry?" Ginny asked.
"I have."
The room was silent.
Harry looked awkward, like he hadn't expected this kind of reaction. "Well girls, I've got a couple of things I want to say before I let you go."
Still silent.
"Firstly, I want this club to win. That's my main and most important goal. This is a quidditch team and your meant to be the best. I want to help you become this and will throw all of the company behind you." A most of the girls were nodding, they clearly liked Harry's line of thinking. "Secondly, I'm going to cut down on the amount of promotions you have to do. If our fans are here for the pictures, interviews or calendars," Harry looked directly at Ginny for a second, "then they're not proper fans. I want our fans to support us because they think that we're the best and that we'll win." That almost all the team behind Harry but Ginny knew that there'd still be some with their misgivings. "Thirdly, most of you probably know that I'm dating Ginny." Nods and 'yes's all round. "Well I'd like to squash any potential rumours of favouritism by saying to you that I will have no say in selection as I will be leaving it up to your coach, Gwenog."
All the girls were clearly on Harry's side now and Ginny couldn't help but grin. A grin she tried to hide by tucking her face into Teddy's neck.
She was not successful.
"Well if that's all, I better let you girls get training so you can start winning!" Harry said. He was met by more than a couple of 'woop's and 'yeah's as the team rushed onto the pitch. Ginny stayed behind.
Putting Teddy on the floor so he could follow the team out on to the pitch she walked over to Harry. "You didn't do this for me, did you?"
Harry smiled slightly. "Of course I did this for you. I will forever and always do whatever I can to make you happy. Even if it means spending vast amounts of gold that I inherited from people who would have hated me and my existence." Harry joked. "But seriously, I love you and I hate to see you unhappy. The Harpies management was causing you to be unhappy so I did all I could to make you feel better."
Ginny pulled Harry into a tight hug, face pushed up against his upper chest. "I love you, Harry." She mumbled into his shirt.
"Love you too, Gin." Harry whispered back. "Now go practice. I want to get my money back from this team so I need you to win. And I want my girlfriend to be in the starting team so you need to be the best!" Ginny smiled up at him before pushing herself onto her toes to share a quick kiss with him. "Go get 'em, Gin." Harry said, and with a light slap on the bum, Ginny was off.
New story idea that's been knocking around my head for a while, let me know if you like it