Ch. 10
Tuesday 9 June 1998
The next morning Hermione woke up before Teddy. She went down to the study to start writing plans. By the time everyone had come down for breakfast, she had several notebooks—all with different plans. She had one notebook for each class she wanted changes to. Then she had another notebook for policy changes at Hogwarts. Finally, she had another for how much things would cost.
When she got to the table, she said, "I need to go into town this morning for more supplies. I'm not doing all this work on parchment, so I'm going to Quality this morning."
"Okay, use the card I gave you." Sirius replied.
"Want some company?" Harry asked.
"Sure. Why don't all four of us go so if we need more, we can send you and you'll know where it is?" Luna and the boys all agreed.
As they were all leaving the table, Hermione's phone rang. "Hello. . . . . okay, have him buy one and you bring it to me tonight and someone will fix it. It'll cost him 25 galleons. . . . Good. I'll see you tonight after 8."
"Who was that?" Luna asked.
"George. Lee wants a phone done for himself. I told him we'd do it for 25 G. Luna do you think you could do it?" Hermione answered.
"Sure." She smiled as she went into her room to change. Once everyone was ready, they met up in the entrance hall. However, there was an addition—Harry was carrying his godson.
Nev laughed, "I swear, you can't go anywhere without the kid."
"Nope. He's my buddy." Harry grinned at the boy. Hermione grabbed Harry and Luna, who had ahold of Neville, and apparated to Quality Office Supply.
"Luna, we need a printer so we can Rune it too." Hermione threw out.
"Sure, I'll go find one." She took Neville's hand and they left. Harry and she went to get things like staplers, binders, loose paper, in/out tray, file cabinets for the study and all sorts of other things. Halfway through, Harry went to get a trolley.
"Are you sure we need all this?" He asked Hermione as he set Teddy in the baby seat of the trolley.
"No. But it's better to have too much than too little." About half an hour later they were done and apparated back to the Madhouse. By lunchtime, Hermione had the study set up the way she wanted so that after lunch, the quartet went into the study to work the day away.
Except for Tuesday night when Luna did the Rune carving and Charming for Lee's phone, most of the days were spent working on this presentation. Wednesday morning, Luna and Hermione went to Flourish and Blott's and found new Muggle Studies and History texts for those two classes. They also found a book on Wizarding Culture and Etiquette that would be good for the first and second years.
By Friday afternoon, they had a working presentation wherein, they each talked about part of the plan. Even Hermione, who looked as bad as she did before their OWLs fifth year from lack of sleep, was surprisingly happy with the overall presentation.
During most of the early evenings, while they ate and took a break from the presentation, Luna and Hermione worked on the computers. On Friday evening, they left a computer in WWW with instructions not to play with it but to bring it Sunday.
Of course, after not working on the presentation until about eight o'clock, they would go back to work until about 11. Then, at least for Hermione, she'd be up at five.
When they got back from WWW on Friday evening, everyone decided to take a break. "Why don't we watch Return of the Jedi tonight?" Nev proposed.
"Sure." Harry pitched in. So they spent a relaxing evening watching movies and just having a good time
Saturday 13 June 1998
Saturday was a tense day for the teens. Everyone felt the stress of performing tonight. Each person was dealing with it in their own way. Harry was focusing on playing with and taking care of Teddy. Sirius had closed and warded the study so Hermione couldn't work on the project anymore. Consequently, Hermione was pacing the house or walking outdoors. Luna had taken to sunbathing or swimming. Neville was sitting by the pool reading a Herbology text.
On Friday night, which by all accounts is a particularly loud night in the Madhouse, Sirius had noticed that the volume had doubled. Realising it was nervous tension about the next day, he'd decided to ward the study because he knew Hermione would be in there editing unnecessarily unless stopped. He saw how tired she'd been this week and was so concerned he asked Harry to join him in the study before bed Friday.
Sitting next to the fireplace, he began, "Harry, I'm worried about Hermione. She hasn't been sleeping. She doesn't eat much and if she bites her bottom lip anymore, she'll bite through it." Harry laughed.
"Don't worry Padfoot. This is mild compared to the week before OWLs. She hasn't started yelling yet.It's when she does that that you've got to worry."
Padfoot looked worried. "Still. I want you to let her get as much sleep as possible. Don't bring little man into your room, that sort of thing. Just take care of her. Please."
"Don't worry about her. She'll be fine come Sunday. I've dealt with this behaviour before." Harry understood that Padfoot was actually more worried than he was saying, so when they stood, he gave the old dog a hug. "She'll be fine Pads."
"I hope." Sirius muttered as they went to bed.
Saturday morning at breakfast, Sirius did a surreptitious study of Hermione to see how she was. She actually looked like she felt better and had had a good night's rest.
Around mid-morning, Sirius found Hermione sitting in the kitchen with a mug of coffee.
"Hey hon." He greeted as he sat down next to her. "How're you doing this morning?"
Hermione looked up and smiled. "I'm okay Uncle Sirius. I'm just nervous. Someone warded the study and I can't work on the project anymore."
"You called me Uncle." He stated gobsmacked.
"It just slipped out. Sorry. It's how I refer to you in my head."
"I like it. I've never been an uncle." He beamed with pride. He took out his wand and held it to each shoulder as he intoned "I dub thee Niece Hermione-at least until you marry my godson." He took her hand and kissed it in the courtly manner of old.
She giggled. "You are such a nutter, Uncle Sirius."
Then Sirius said more seriously. "I love you, niece of mine."
She sat on his lap and hugged him Hermione-style. "I love you too nut." She then got off him and went outside to sit with Nev.
Around four-thirty, everyone went up to change into their dress robes. Nev and Harry didn't see the need for them but didn't dare tell Hermione that. At five o'clock, the floochime rang twice.
Hermione and Harry, along with his godson, met both Minerva and Gran in the sitting room. After all the greetings, Harry said, "Why don't we go into the drawing room, where we can set up easily?"
Everyone followed but Hermione who moved into the now unwarded study to get the posters they had put together. She then set them up in front of the fire where everyone, including Dobby, was now sitting.
Minerva stood up. "I understand you have been working non-stop since Tuesday to make this presentation. I have to say I'm already proud of all of you for your dedication to trying to improve Hogwarts. I will promise that if I find something in your presentation that I know won't work, I will tell you and we can come up with something else. I would like to work on this with you on this so that we can take it to the Board at the end of the month." She sat as Hermione stood.
"We, as students, feel there are problems with a few courses at Hogwarts. First is Muggle Studies. The text that I had for third year was a joke." She began as she turned the first board, which described all the problems and how to fix them. "First, the text being used was written in the 1920's. Muggle technology has moved so far that the Americans put a man on the moon nearly 30 years ago. We now have telephones in our pockets." She held up her cell phone. "This means we can talk to someone in America without feeling so dizzy we need to steady ourselves from the floo before we talk. We can also fly to New York in less time than it takes the Hogwarts Express to make its journey. The text needs to take these breakthroughs into account. Students also need to learn about muggle dress so they blend in better. One of the biggest problems most wizards have is that they dress so old fashioned that they seem odd to muggles. Wizards also need to be aware of cameras on the streets. They may apparate into an empty alley but be caught on film. This can lead to the Statute of Secrecy being breached. All of these things are not taught in the current class. We found an appropriate text at Flourish and Blott's. We also think a muggleborn or half-blood should teach the class, since they'll have more actual expertise in the field. Do you have any questions Professor?"
"Everything you say makes sense and I like the changes. However, most of the Governors are going to have a field day with a muggleborn teacher." She grimaced.
"Well, excuse me, but screw them. No pureblood has any experience in the muggle world and therefore is unable to teach it." Nev responded crossly. He got a 'look' from his Gran.
Harry stood up and turned to the History board. "Now, we all know Binns has to go. He can stay teaching but since he doesn't care if he has students, we should get an actual History teacher. One that will teach muggle as well as magical history. They can take first years and give then a general overview of both histories. Second year, they can talk of both histories in Britain. Third year, they talk about Europe. Fourth could be Asia. Fifth could be Africa with reviews for OWLs as well. Sixth could be the Americas and seventh could be Australia and a recap because they'll be facing NEWTs. We've found books for all years. Just get a teacher that knows both magical and muggle history; actual history, not just Goblin Rebellions."
"That is actually a well thought out plan, Mr. Potter." Minerva smiled at him.
Nev stood up and turned to the Wizarding Class board. "Now, what we are suggesting here is not a change but an addition. We need someone who can start with first and second years and teach Wizarding Culture and Etiquette as well as
Muggle Culture and Etiquette. This way, wherever you come from, you can get along in each society. Our whole aim is for understanding between purebloods and muggleborns so that it can't be used to divide us like it did with Voldemort. I suggest you get a muggleborn and pureblood to run this class. Or at least someone like Dora's mum, who has lived on both sides." He sat down and Luna got up.
She turned to the Points Given and Physical Activity board. "One problem we have had in the past is that points are not given out fairly. One teacher takes 50 points for breathing too loudly while another gives the same amount for being first to do a spell. This leads to a lot of resentment on the students' part." She said while McGonagall nodded. "The other thing we noticed is there is only one sport: Quidditch. We would like to introduce muggle sports such as football and swimming, maybe rugby and cricket as well. This would again get both muggleborns and half-bloods into more accessible sports and hopefully bring in purebloods as well."
"Swimming? There's no place for a pool." McGonagall said.
"Yes there is." Harry responded. "We can clean out the Chamber, put in a new access and put one down there, along with a muggle gym to help everyone keep in shape."
Hermione got up and turned to the board labeled Muggle Classes. "I don't know if you know, but I've been taking muggle courses during summer and winter hols to keep up with my muggle classes; in case I decide to go to uni. I think we should offer the core subjects like maths, science, and English so everyone has a choice to go to uni, whether muggleborn or pureblood. This year, we can offer it as correspondence courses until you can find muggleborns to teach this. You might even consider hiring muggles."
Both Minerva and Gran snorted at this. "The board will never approve a muggle for this. That'd break the Statute of Secrecy." Minerva stopped laughing finally.
"I'm sure some of the muggleborns' parents are teachers. Heck, my parents could teach science!" Hermione replied.
"Okay. I'll put some thought into that." Minerva said. "My question though is how to pay for all this."
"A lot of the basilisk money will pay for this." Harry replied firmly.
Minerva looked confused. "I understand that's your money, Harry."
"Yes. I'm giving some to the victims and the rest to Hogwarts to use for these changes. I'm insisting that the money be used to do things to promote wizard-muggle relations here, however." He answered.
Harry could see Minerva's eyes glisten as she said. "Thank you. We've needed some of these changes for generations. This will help tremendously."
"If we can get the board to agree." Augusta chuckled.
"Oh I'll make them agree." Minerva used her Professor voice as they all laughed; knowing that she'd taught a lot of the board members. They knew not to cross her.
Everyone then headed to dinner. As everyone was settling into their dinner, Minerva asked, "So Sirius, I understand the trials are done now, is that true?"
"Yep. Now it's on to filling all the seats this week. We have to come up with 'worthy' names to take these seats and everyone thinks they've got the definitive list." Sirius laughed.
"Who's on your list?" She returned.
"You." He gave her a smile as she dropped her fork and, for the first time in Sirius' life, she had absolutely nothing to say. "We're trying to nominate people who have done something worthy for the magical community and that aren't purebloods. You fit the bill. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have survived first year with all the rubbish my family was giving me. I know Remus thought very highly of you because you knew his issue and still treated him like a wizard, not a creature. We need the Wizengamot filled with people like you Minnie. You won't need to be there except for important votes but this is a good symbol that we're trying to promote—worthy people not just hereditary seats."
"Okay. I see where you're going with this. I'll serve if I'm elected." She smiled and then muttered, "Oh boy" as they ate dessert.
Sunday 14 June 1998
Sunday was a typical extended family afternoon and dinner. The major difference was that Angelina and Alicia, the twins' girlfriends, came up to Hermione and Luna before the Quidditch match. "Hermione?" Angelina asked.
"Yeah Angie?"
"We were wondering if you could Rune and Charm phones for us?"
Hermione smiled. "Sure. Buy them and bring them over tomorrow and I can do it tomorrow night. Would you be interested in a computer? We're working on those now."
"Yes if you get them working." Katie replied.
"They've already been at the twins' store since Friday night and they still work. We checked them before we came out here." Luna answered.
"How much will you charge for the phones?" Angie asked.
"25 G"
"That's great." Katie enthused. "I can't wait to have a computer work in my flat in the Alley."
"With the computer, you may want to pay for internet service but you may need to get someone in to hook it up, which would be problematic unless you live in the muggle world. The same is true for TV. I don't know if we can create a piggyback onto the signal to get internet and satellite tv yet like we did with the phones." Hermione informed the chasers.
"I don't need that right yet but we'll see." Katie said.
"You can always live with me in the muggle world Katie." Angie teased, as Katie was known for always enjoying the wizarding world.
"Thanks girls." Angie said as they left Hermione and Luna.
"You know Luna, once we get the computers and tellies working, we should set standard prices for these things. Maybe we can have Fred and George sell the items and package the "magicking" into the price. Different prices for different items depending on how hard they are to fix." Hermione proposed.
"Maybe we can get Harry and Nev to help us as well if the workload gets bad." Luna suggested.
Monday 15 June 1998
The next day was another lesson with Augusta. This time Harry, Hermione and Neville learned about etiquette when dealing with potential alliances, especially with the odd place the three youngsters held in society.
"Today, we are going to talk you through the alliances we have traditionally held, what Sirius and I have reformed and what you need to do to cement these alliances. First, the Black, Potter and Longbottom Alliance has been formed. We have also made tentative members of the Macmillan's, the Abbotts, the Bones' and Shacklebolt's.
There is a courtesy when addressing the Heads of House. Now, with the Bones' Head of House, you, as Madam Bones' social equal-that means that you trace your lineage back as far as Camelot-only nod and kiss the hand for you boys. Hermione, for now, you curtsey to everyone-when you marry Harry, you will nod to the Bones family. To anyone else in our Alliance, you shake their hand or kiss their cheek.
If, let's say Richard Fawley comes to greet you and Hermione Harry, he will nod to you and you in turn shake his hand. This is because you nod to your betters or equals in the social structure. Because he is below you in the order, you accept the nod by shaking his hand. If his wife is present, you kiss her hand. Hermione, once you marry, you accept a nod with putting your hand out for a kiss and you shake Lady Fawley's hand or kiss her cheek. Does that all make sense?
You have to remember that besides you Potters, the Bones' and Longbottoms are your only social equal."
"Wait Augusta. We Blacks are as well." Sirius grinned as Gran gave a start.
"I suppose yes. However, after having spent my entire adult life on the opposite side of the fence as your relatives, I guess I tend to forget the name Black when it comes to Light families." She smiled. "Guess I'll have to correct that." Everyone laughed. "Now, even though the Abbotts are socially lower than you, because you are in an alliance with them, you nod to teach other. In other words, an alliance makes you social equals." She looked at how fast Hermione was typing on her computer. "Are you getting everything Hermione?" She asked politely.
"Yes ma'am." Hermione responded as she finished typing.
"Now, that is only the greetings." She paused, then got her phone and dialed. "Xeno, could you send Luna over? I need to teach these boys to dance and Neville should learn with the person he's most likely to dance with." She listened. "Thank you, Xeno." She hung up.
"Gran!" Nev and Harry said together as Sirius laughed.
"What? You need to learn. I know my Neville knows how but I want him to practice with Luna. And I've heard of your abysmal attempts at dancing from Minnie, Harry. You need, no, require, this lesson."
Nev leaned to Harry. "We're not getting out of this mate. She's got that look on her face."
"Fine." Harry grumbled as he stuck his tongue out at his godfather. Sirius just grinned as they heard the floochime.
"Hello? Anyone here?" Luna asked.
"In the sitting room Luna." Nev yelled.
"Neville! Go greet Luna!" Gran hissed as Nev slunk out of the room. When Neville came back, he was with a giggling Luna.
"Daddy said something about dancing lessons?" She asked Augusta.
"Yes." Augusta smiled at her grandson's choice in girlfriend. She was good for the boy.
For the remaining time before lunch, they danced. With Augusta and Sirius leading the way, the young men learned how to ask a girl to dance, how to waltz, foxtrot and even tango.
Before they went into teaching the tango, Sirius commented, "Now Harry, this was your dad's favorite dance. He loved the fact that he got to hold Lily so close. Nev, your dad hated this dance because he seemed to trip every time they did it at first. However, Alice liked it so Lily worked with him through sixth year to get it right. At the end of year ball that year, he was able to perform it flawlessly." Sirius grinned at the flummoxed looks on the men's faces.
"Why did Lily teach Frank? I would have." Augusta asked.
"You're his mum. Never, ever ask your mum to teach you how to dance!" Neville shivered as Sirius roared and the others chuckled.
"Yup. He knew he could ask you Augusta but he trusted Lily to help with keeping it a secret. Besides, you weren't at school when he needed the help."
"Another person you never get help from is your head of house." Harry grinned ruefully.
After lunch, they discussed that it was better to get to know the children of the Allied families because that would lead to better working relationships later on. Then they discussed what they knew of each of the Allied families' children at school and how they could get to know them better at school this year.
"Now, the Alliance has come up with a list of several families to fill the vacant seats in Wizengamot." Augusta said as she summoned the notebook and pen Hermione had given her. "By the way Hermione, could you get a few more of these notebooks for me?" Augusta asked.
"Sure. Do you want to kit out your study with office supplies like I did at home?" she asked.
She thought for a moment, "Let me look and see what you've done on Sunday, then we'll see."
"Okay." She smiled. If she could get Augusta to accept muggle office supplies, it would make it easier to bring them to school.
"Now, here's the list we've come up with." She made a copy for each. "as you can see, we're going back to 32 hereditary seats, 20 Awardees, and 16 Department Heads. Lord Abbott found a list of the original 32 families on Wizengamot and we are planning on restoring some old families, as you see, and replacing the incarcerated families with either light or neutral families." She smiled. "You have homework this week. Don't whine. It's unbecoming of a Lord." She admonished as Harry and Neville groaned. "Tomorrow, while Sirius and I are in session, you two are to go to Wizengamot Office and familiarize yourself with the voting record of each original family. I'd suggest you make copies of each to take home because I want you to summarize in a few paragraphs what their voting tends to be, light or dark, when it changes and theorise as to why it changes. You can split the list if you want." She looked at the girls. "Don't let them talk you into doing this for them. You can help but they need to understand this, so they need to do the actual work."
Harry and Nev looked at each other as she was saying this and the look of terror on both their faces made Sirius laugh. "James, Frankie and I had the same assignment summer after sixth year. The exact same assignment." Then he looked at Augusta as though he just had a major realisation. "Did Gerald and Monty give us the same assignment on purpose?"
"Yes, they planned it. They thought you would have more fun doing it together." She smiled at the clueless young man.
He laughed. "Yeah, we had fun. Each of us took about ten families and shared."
"As we intended." She nodded. "If Frank and James had remained healthy, these boys would have done this a few years ago."
"But that means we each have sixteen, not ten." Harry whined.
"Yeah but there are only two of us." Nev said, lowering his voice. "Harry look at them. I swear they're plotting our doom. We better just up and do it." Neville was resigned to his fate. "When are these due?" he asked Gran.
"Two weeks."
Soon it was time for everyone but Augusta to go home. By three o'clock, everyone was ready to relax and they floo'd to the madhouse.
When they got home, Teddy was up so Harry took him to the game room with him and Neville. As soon as Dora saw Hermione and Luna, she said, "Those boxes are phones from Angie and Katie. They brought them over this morning. Said they'd come by tomorrow morning around 9 to get them."
"Great." Luna smiled as she went to get them. "Hermione, I'll do these while you work on the computers. I want to get those done so we can move on to the tv's."
"Why?" Dora asked as she followed them to the game room.
"Because I want to get a tv and VCR at home. I want to watch Star Wars again!" At that Hermione and Dora laughed.
"So it's really a selfish reason then." Hermione commented as she sat down on the divan with a computer.
"Uh-huh. I guess so." She said as she sat down and started working.
"So, what did you learn at Augusta's?" Dora asked as the girls snickered. "What?" she repeated, more intrigued now.
"We learned how to dance—or rather the boys did. I do have to say that although Harry started out clumsily, he got much better. It was even fun at the end." Hermione giggled. "Then they got homework from Gran."
"I thought grandparents were supposed to be fun, not give homework." Dora said, raising her voice so the boys could hear.
"You'd think, wouldn't you?" Harry replied with a sour look. He put down his cue and sat next to Teddy. "Don't worry, little man, I'll never give you homework." He gave the child a kiss as he got up.
"Don't promise things you can't deliver." Sirius chuckled. "Didn't you see the list of replacement seats? Lupin was one. Which means Ted will inherit it at 17. You'll be giving him the same assignment when he's your age."
Harry's jaw dropped. "Oh bugger." He groaned. "Can't my life be normal?" He whined.
Nev chuckled as he slapped Harry's back. "Remember, life isn't normal for our generation. We talked about this at Fortescue's." He took a shot then he grinned as Harry lined up his shot. It was funny that as long as they'd been playing pool, neither Harry nor Nev paid attention to who won. Really, it was the comradery that both young men enjoyed in the act of playing the game. "Our lives have been made up of how to clean up the mess other generations have left since the last Blood War. We don't get a break."
"I know, I know." Harry grumbled as he took his shot.
"There. The phones are done!" Luna exclaimed.
"Enough of all this maudlin talk." Hermione replied as she worked. "Yes. You have to fix mistakes that have been made. But you're alive to do it. Enjoy the life you have rather than wishing for a different one." She admonished.
"Why don't we apparate to Pizza Express in a little while for an early dinner?" Luna suggested.
"Sure" chorused the rest of the group. The girls then began transferring all the runes and charms that went into the phone to two computers. Once they were done, which didn't take very long, they took the computers to WWW.
"Hello, Hello" one of the twins greeted them at the door. "I see you have computers for us. How can we help?"
They set the computers down on the counter. "Well," Hermione began. "We've done the full set of runes and charms on these two computers."
"By our estimation, they should power themselves through the ambient magic around us." Luna continued.
"We would like to set them up here to keep running as long as they can. You can use them if you want but just leave them off in a corner and we will come here every day to check and see if they're working." Hermione added.
"Honestly, we don't anticipate any problems. However, if it does fritze out on you, please notate the time for us." Luna concluded as they finished setting up the laptop on the counter.
"Now." Hermione said with a much more serious look. "We originally thought that we might fix a few muggleborn friends electronics for free, then start charging for the privilege." She said in what Harry always called her prefect voice. "We are now thinking we are going to get this process patented at the ministry. We would like to expand on the number of people using these devices. We thought we might buy a few different phones, rune and charm them and set up a side display here in your store if you wanted. You would be in charge of selling the 'fixed' devices and we would share the profits."
"That sounds like an interesting offer. Sort of a store within a store." A twin said. Hermione couldn't tell which one she was talking to.
"Do you have a business plan?" The other one asked
"We would need a business plan and a contract with you to even think about it."
"Okay." Luna responded thoughtfully. "Maybe we can talk to Ted tomorrow. He might help us."
When Hermione and Luna had talked about this, they had just thought of a handshake deal, not anything formal, at least until they saw if there was a market for this. However, the logical part of Hermione's brain could see how this would be beneficial.
"Okay, we'll put one together this week and talk to you Sunday about it." Mione agreed as they left. Hermione's phone rang as they left the store. She picked up, noticing it was Harry. "Hey love, what's up?"
"Just wondering when you're getting home. It's half five and we thought we'd go eat." He replied. She looked around and saw people staring at her.
"Okay. Let me get a single book from Flourish's and we'll be home. I'll explain then."
"Okay. I'll see you in 3 hours then." Harry chuckled.
She sighed then chuckled. "I'll be home in 30. I promise." She hung up. She was stopped as she was about to walk in the store.
"Was that a mobile you were using Miss?" a man in his early 20's asked.
"Yes." She answered distractedly.
"How does it work here?"
At this point in the conversation, Luna realised that Hermione's mind was only on getting a book about business plans. After all, without talking about it, that's why they were here. She knew Hermione well enough to know her focus was elsewhere so she said, "Mione why don't you get the book and I'll talk to this bloke about the mobiles."
"Thanks Luna." She said as she wandered into the stacks. Luna pulled the young man to the side of the store and brought out her mobile.
"Hermione and I have been working on a sequence of Runes and Charms that will not only protect the electronics around magic but recharge the battery with the same magic. By the way, I'm Luna Lovegood. Are you interested in one?" She asked, thinking she might make their first sale that wasn't a friend.
"Yes. I am muggleborn and live in the muggle world because none of my electronic work in this world. I currently have a mobile but don't bring it here in case it breaks. They're bloody expensive. So you can really fix my mobile so it'll work?"
"Yes. Bring your mobile to WWW, leave your name and mobile there tomorrow and you may pick it up on Wednesday morning. It'll be 25G. Make sure it's off before you come into the Alley."
"Will you be able to do other devices?"
"Soon. Check in at WWW in the next few weeks. We'll be working with the proprietors of that store to sell our services." She turned around and saw Hermione waiting for her. "Thanks for your interest Patrick." She headed out with her bushy-haired friend.
"Sorry about leaving you to deal with that guy Luna. What'd he want?" Mione asked.
"I'll tell you when we get to pizza." She grinned as they apparated home. They picked everyone else up and went to Pizza Express.
As they sat down, Harry asked, "What took you so long?"
"Well, we got into a conversation with the twins about using their store to sell our 'magically enhanced equipment'." Mione smiled.
"They want a business plan from us." Luna expanded. "So we went to Flourish's to buy a book on how to build a business plan. While we were there, we got our first paying, non-family customer." She smiled. "He saw Mione on her mobile to you and asked how it worked. I told him and he's going to leave his tomorrow at WWW so I can fix it."
"Dora, it looks like we might need your friend at the Patents Office sooner than we thought. If we're going to form a business, we need to protect our service." Mione looked at Dora.
"Sure." She smiled; glad the girls were turning this into something tangible for themselves.
"You know who might be able to help us with the plan is my dad." Hermione said. "He deals with the business side of their practice."
They continued talking about their expectations for the business. When Hermione mentioned that she'd never really thought of her experiments leading to a business opportunity, Sirius laughed. "I knew the moment you told me about this plan and then got Luna involved, it'd go somewhere. That's why I invested."
As they were leaving the restaurant, Harry whispered into Mione's ear, "I am so proud of you my love." As he hugged her.
That evening, Hermione finally came out of the bathroom in the blue teddy she bought with Luna. Feeling bold, she slipped into bed with Harry and saw his eyes glaze over as she took him in her arms and kissed him like they had never kissed before. Her hands were moving all over him as his hands made their way under the flimsy excuse for clothing and to her breasts.
His hands found their way to her breasts as he pulled her teddy off. They spent quite a bit of time finding each other's pleasure centers.
Soon after, they laid sated next to each other and fell into a deep, satisfied sleep.
Tuesday 16 June 1998
The next morning, Harry woke slowly, enjoying the sensation of feeling Hermione's naked body curled up to him. He was about to kiss her awake to see if she felt like making love again when Teddy whimpered. Just his luck. Couldn't Teddy give him one day off?
He felt Mione move against him. She really shouldn't do that when he needed to get up. "Better get up love." She said sleepily as she kept moving along him, only making him harder with each move.
"Can't." He groaned. "I already am." Her eyes sparkled as they looked down.
"Damn, you are. Too bad Teddy needs you." She laughed as he twisted to get his boxers and glasses.
"Damn kid." He muttered as he walked into Sirius' room and got his godson. "Your timing stinks, little man. I was about to wake Aunt Mione to see if she wanted another round but nooooo, you had to wake up."
"Frustrated much." Sirius laughed at the look on Harry's face.
"Sorry. Didn't mean to wake you." Harry muttered as he was about to leave.
"Wait Harry." Sirius commanded and Harry stopped to look at his godfather. "Did you and Mione finally do what I'm thinking?"
"If you're asking if we made love, the answer is yes. Last night. Happy now you know all my secrets?" He grumbled.
"No but happy that you're happy kiddo." He slung his arm around Harry as he kissed Teddy. "Now go clean him up. You have to be at Gringotts in less than two hours."
HP
Later that morning, the four teens left for Gringotts. Sirius then left for Wizengamot. Although official sessions did not start until half one, if you wanted to talk business or negotiate anything, you had to be there by nine.
He had forgotten that the oldest families, like the Bones', Black's and Longbottom's had been given offices in the Wizengamot Offices. It had been a concession to the old families when the Ministry was formed. Only the oldest of the families got these offices to lord over all the other families.
As he sat down to figure out who he had meetings with today, Augusta strode in and sat down. "So, how did the boys deal with having that assignment to do?" She smiled.
"Fine. They were more concerned about their girlfriends starting up a business than anything else last night."
"What happened?" She asked as he told her about the encounter in the Alley.
HP
At Gringotts, the teens entered Ted Tonks' office after a bark of "Enter" from Trainee Swordback.
"Ah. I see all of you are here. I understand that you young ladies would like some help with a business proposal?" he smiled as everyone sat.
"Yes sir. You see, we have figured out how to Rune and Charm mobiles so they work around magic. All of our friends and family have them now. We are beginning to get people tangentially related to us to ask for these modifications but yesterday we got a request from a stranger that saw me using my phone in the Alley." Hermione explained in her formal voice. "We suggested to the Weasley twins that they sell the 'magically enhanced equipment' and we do the Rune and Charm work. They want us to bring them a business proposal. We don't know how to write one." Hermione said as quickly as possible.
"Okay. May I look at the book you have?" Ted asked. It was the book from Flourish and Blott's about how to write a proposal. He looked at the book quickly. "This is a good beginning. I want you to sit down and come up with your own proposal based on this book here while Neville and Harry work on their own project today. Tomorrow, I will look at it and we will go through it together to see where changes need to be made. On Wednesday, after those changes are made, we'll do it again until you have a coherent business plan. Yeah?"
"Great." Luna responded as she got up. "Mione, let's go get the computer so we can work on that."
"Good. We can see if they have the phone yet too." Hermione sighed in relief as they left the office. She had a plan and she always worked better with a plan than without.
"Now on to your task." Ted grinned at the young men, rubbing his hands together evilly. "Your task, for the next two and a half months, is to start your rehabilitation project. Using the resources you have, you are to make whatever property you choose profitable or serve the community in some way. We will be having weekly Tuesday morning meetings to discuss your project." He concluded. "I would take today to look at your properties and see which ones you want to use." He pointed to the tables with files of their properties on top. "I would also recommend you visit the property before you decide on it."
"You couldn't have given us an easier assignment?" Harry heard Nev mutter as the boys sat down at their usual tables.
"Of course not. It's Neville's Law." Harry looked at his Godbrother and grinned.
"Huh?" Nev looked confused.
"You're the one that said that our generation doesn't get to have a normal life because older generations have screwed us over. This just seems like another manifestation. We've been thrown in the deep end of our Inheritance because the older generation fucked up and we have to fix it!" Harry grunted as he looked at the first property, which was the land both their fathers bought in 1980. "Nev, how much property do you own on the plot next to ours?" He asked.
"Let me check." He turned some pages as the girls came in and sat down at a smaller desk near Ted's. "It's a total of 100 acres. Why? What's yours?"
"100 as well." He turned to Neville. "I've got an idea but I'm not sure it will work. What if we put our land together and started a farm/ Orphanage / school/ nursery for all the orphans that have been made from this war. We could call it the Lily and Alice Refuge LAR for short. What do you think?"
Nev sat there thinking for a few minutes. "Would it be just for wizarding kids? Or would we take in their non-magical siblings as well?"
"Why not both? It's not like the muggle kids wouldn't be used to magic and it would keep siblings together."
"Okay. Why a farm and nursery as well?"
Harry laughed. "Would you put your heart and soul into it if it wasn't Herbology related?"
They heard the snickers coming from the girls. Nev laughed. "Yeah. I do love my plants."
"I wonder—it looks like it's located between Manchester and Liverpool. I remember from primary school that there are a few dairy farms there. I wonder if we could have specifically a dairy farm." Harry suggested.
"You want to go take a look at the place? It looks like it's just land with no buildings so we'd have to build everything from scratch." Nev looked at Ted. "Ted, if we do this, we would need someone with experience running a dairy farm to help us in this early phase. Would you know where to find one that knows about magic?"
"I can find someone but are you sure you want to concentrate on the dairy farm aspect of the venture." Ted didn't want to dampen the enthusiasm they were expressing but thought it his job to keep them focused on what their goals were. "Maybe you should focus on getting the orphanage up and running before winter. I don't know how many orphans there are but shouldn't they be the main focus right now?"
"You're right. Do you know of any wizarding orphanages we could look at?" Harry asked
"Sure do." Ted smiled. "Andi does some Healer work for St. Mary's in Wales. I also know there's a Hufflepuff House in Scotland that Andi and I donate to. Should I let them know to expect you tomorrow?"
"Yeah. Just floocall me to let us know when." Harry said, then paused. "Mione, could you please magic a phone for Ted tonight?"
"Let me finish this." She held a finger out in a 'wait a minute' gesture as she kept typing for a few more seconds. Turning to Harry, she asked, "Now, what do you need?"
"Can you magic a phone for Ted this afternoon?"
"Okay. I'll go home and do it at lunch." She smiled. "I'll bring it back with this report by three, yeah?"
"That's great. Don't worry. I know how to use a phone." He laughed.
"Want to go pick up some brooms and we can fly around the property?" Harry asked, looking at Neville to gauge whether he was still afraid of flying.
"Sure." He replied confidently. Before they left, they kissed their girlfriends goodbye. If Harry's was a little more passionate than usual, Hermione wasn't complaining.
The young men bought new brooms and took the portkey in the folder to the property. "Nev, we can come down whenever you want." Harry stated as they got on their brooms. They went up about 15 meters and took a slow turn around the properties. The first thing Harry noticed was the terrain was very flat. It was also a very beautiful setting. He could see building his own retreat here when Mione and he got married. They saw a stream and small lake underneath a small copse of trees. He motioned Neville down to the lake.
When they got there, Nev seemed much happier to be back on terra firma. "I really don't like flying." He said.
"I know. I remember your first and I think your last flight." They both started laughing at the Rememberall Incident.
Nev just shook his head. "When you break your wrist the first time you do something, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. However, it did give Gryffindor a great new Seeker." Harry grinned.
"So, what do you think of the place? Do you think we can do it here?" Harry asked, wanting Nev's opinion to match his but not wanting to influence him.
"Yeah. I think we can." Nev grinned at Harry's relieved look. "And I think an orphanage named after our mums is a brilliant idea. Let's go back to Gringotts and get the girls for lunch." He said as he saw it was half eleven.