Chapter 08 – Going Muggle
Pier 14, Docklands; London.
Harry parked across the street in the building's reserved parking. He and the sisters got out of the car and stretched out. They had picked up the car at the outskirts of London, rather than the flats. Mostly for Harry to relearn how to drive. They then braved the traffic to get all the way to the Docklands. Harry's driving had been a bit sporadic to begin with. Remus was the one who could actually drive not Harry. So he knew how to do it, but knowing and doing where sometimes two different things. Thanks to his excellent hand eye co-ordination and reaction time it hadn't taken him long to get the clutch bite point and set it in his mind. Once he had done that it wasn't too hard. Remembering to change car had been the second hardest thing. All things considered he should've got an automatic. Still, he had managed to navigate London and survive. That alone was an accomplishment.
Bella looked at the building in front of them and smiled slightly, "It's big..."
"Yep" Harry replied
"And very... Shiny" Cissy put in.
Harry laughed. The buildings in the Wizarding world were totally different from modern designs in the Muggle world. The massive Glass and steel looking flats were totally different from anything they sisters had ever seen.
Their memories were still integrating but they had picked up a lot. So there wasn't too much, 'What the hell is that' when they had been driving around. The London Arc had given them a pause though. A large building shaped like the arc it was very different to them. The large signs for advertising and all the cars. It had been an experience for them. They had memories of most of that. But this was the first time they had SEEN it.
"See the top floor" Harry said pointing.
They nodded at him.
"The bulbous bits on the corners..." Harry went on.
Another nod as a reply.
"They were going to be the real Penthouses, special large apartments. Two Floors each and a fair bit of space. Well. Now they are bedrooms." Harry said with a smirk. "I really had the development company over a barrel. But I was nice and helped with the costs to make the entire top floor in to our new place of abode." Harry said with a grin. "I'm not a real fan of places like Grimwald Place. I was thinking if I like it, I may stick to this place as my home. You're both welcome of course. See there are four corners. Well we have one each and one spare just in case. I was thinking about offering it to Tonks. But I'm still undecided on that."
"Why Tonks?" Cissy asked.
"She is a Black, and around our age." Harry supplied. Then shrugged, "Why not? Diagon alley is about 7 miles in that direction." He said pointing off to the west. "If she got a port key set up she could commute easily." Harry added.
Cissy and Bella looked at each other, not entirely sure they really wanted to have to share Harry. But the one thing you could say for Harry was that he was serious about looking after the Blacks. Which brought to mind, "Tonks isn't a Black. Andy was stuck off of the family tree." Cissy said.
Harry smirked, "I put her back" he said simply. "Which means that they are once again Blacks. Of course I haven't told her that yet. Wasn't sure she would actually want to be one or not." He laughed, "Either way, come on. The place is still being set up inside. All the finishing touches to the flats. The pent house is the only one that is actually finished. That means we're going to have to put up with some noise... But I was actually going to set up so low magic wards. Silencing and all that stuff. But that will be the extent of the magic. Unless I decide to stay and then I'll get the Floo hooked up. Oddly enough it's not a high magic thing. Besides I can put it in a room and ward the room with magic suppression..." he trailed off and laughed. "I've lost my audience haven't I?"
Bella did a fake yawn. While Cissy nodded her head.
"Right. Shall we go see the BM and get our stuff sorted out then" Harry said with a roll of his eyes.
They walked across the not so busy road together and entered the only active entrance. The rest of the site was marked off with danger signs and trespassing warnings.
A man was waiting for them and looked at them with a little annoyance. "Look; I'm sorry but the building is not yet open to the public. I am sure I can arrange..." he trailed off when Harry raised a hand with a smile. Harry then showed the man his license.
"Oh, Baron... I do apologise. You are..."
"Younger than you thought" Harry said with a smile. "It's not a problem I get it all the time... MR Winchester is it?"
"Yes Baron, please. Follow me. We just got the Elevator up and running this morning." Mr Winchester said.
"Should I be worried about that?" Harry wanted to know.
"No, not at all Baron."
"Mr Winchester, my title has it's uses but I think you can call me Harry" Harry said with a smile.
Mr Winchester smiled, "In that case, please call me Simon."
The two shook hands, "These are my companions and room mates, Sissy and Bella."
"A pleasure" Simon said with a charming smile. "If you'll follow me?"
They followed him to the modern lift and piled in. Bella and Cissy staying silent and just soaking it all in. Wizards, not really done the Elevator thing as yet. There was a room in the Ministry that acted like one, but this was the first real Elevator they had seen. Both watched the numbers tick by as they rose through the building.
"The Penthouse is the only complete abode in the building. We should be finished within the month. Already we have sold 90% of the units" Simon said to Harry.
"Excellent" Harry said, "The other 10%?"
"I suspect they will go quite quickly" Simon told him. "These really are excellent quarters with easy access to London central and the surrounding business districts." he said seriously. "The fact we have pre-sold so many is indicative of the demand for such locations."
Harry nodded, "Black Industries is happy to hear that Simon" Harry said with a smile. Cissy shot Harry a look. He had mentioned the Black Foundation before but not Black Industries.
"I'm glad that all the legal problems were sorted out so easily." Simon admitted. "Otherwise it could've been potentially disastrous for my firm."
Harry smiled, "It was an honest mistake. Such things do occasionally happen as I understand it."
"Yes, they do. Normally the building work falls fallow while a lengthy legal process takes place. I am very glad on my firms behalf that you are such a reasonable man."
"Well... Not that reasonable." Harry joked.
"The cost of the units on the top floor is small compared to the legal process we may very well have lost." Simon replied with a smile.
Harry noticed Cissy looking at him curiously. "P, J and S developments. Simon is one of the chairman I think. I was expecting the BM" Harry said with a smile. "It's nice to have such high level introductions"
Simon smiled, "Caught me out hey?" he said. "For someone your age, your are remarkably canny. You firm is also surprisingly... adept"
Harry laughed, "That they are Simon. When I inherited the businesses I have. I was very lucky to get some excellent advice and help." he looked meaningfully at the sisters. His meaning was clear. It had been the Goblins. One did not mess with a Goblin when it came to business. Normally one did not get so much help either. But that was just one of the many questions that Cissy had for Harry.
"Well Black Industries appears to be doing well Harry. We hope that we can work with you in future." Simon said, his eyes intent. Obviously the answer was important.
Harry nodded with a smile. "I think that very likely."
Simon smiled broadly. "I will be sure to pass that on." The Elevator pinged, indicating they had reached the last floor. "Here we are" Simon said as the double doors folded back away. He led them in and smiled. "We're quite proud of this. I think it will be perfect for you Harry. Via your firm we have contacted various suppliers for you and kitted you out." he said with a big grin. "Though if I had realised there would be some ladies with you. We may have cut back on the boy toys a bit" he said laughing and leading them into the enormous flat.
Harry laughed, "That's OK. They like gadgets too" he said. Hoping they would.
The decoration was ultra modern. Dark and light colours throughout. The main area. Due to the fact there were going to be four penthouse apartments and several smaller units in the inner area it was huge.
Cissy and Bella walked in and looked around with wonder on their faces. There were some water features around the place, giving it a cool feel and the furniture was of a similar style to the colored walls. The living Area in particular was wondrous. Lots of comfortable looking seating. Huge Plasma screen Television with an entertainment system any young man would drool over.
"There is a CD system, with MP3 and all that other stuff I can hardly keep up with" Simon said with a grin. "The team we set on this place have picked out some music for you. Modern stuff mostly with a selection of other items." he said. Then pointed off to the side, "DVD's basically the same thing a selection of this years releases, some of last years. The TV is Digital and has a full package subscription. Urh.. what else... Each bedroom has some mod cons as well. Smaller TV, and the personal living room you wanted in each has been set up with smaller, but similar equipment. The building has a couple of T3's direct to the Internet, so nice and fast even if everyone was watching streaming media. We're actually on the backbone direct line here. But don't tell anyone." Simon said with a wink.
Harry laughed. Then silently thanked god for Remus. The man was bloody good with computers and the most Muggle savvy wizard. Mostly because of his affliction, he was shunned from the Wizarding world and worked mostly in the Muggle one. He had found a talent for computers after a night school course and from there it was all history. Now Harry had that knowledge in his head and actually knew what the hell Simon was talking about. While he had been able to pass on a working knowledge to the sisters he couldn't pass on it all. So his knowledge eclipsed their own. Leaving them looking a little blank.
"So... great for looking at porn then" Harry said with a roguish smile.
Simon looked at him in shock, blinked and then laughed his head off.
He then led them on a tour, describing the building's facilities as he walked. It was a typically yuppie like living quarters. There was going to be a pool on the roof, covered of course, and some fitness training areas as well. He went on to explain the other usual fixtures and fittings. Each of the 'bedrooms' had two floors. The top floor had a large bedroom, and a shower/bathroom, the bottom had a large living area and small kitchenette. The kitchenette wasn't much more than somewhere to make coffee and wash up cups. As there was a much larger kitchen in the main area that was supposed to be used for meals. This was after all a single apartment in theory.
"Thanks Simon. It's amazing." Harry said with a big smile.
"The last thing is for me to give you these" Simon said, handing out some key cards and other paraphernalia, "And to let you know the tech geeks set up your PC for you. The pass thingy is on the bottom of the keyboard by all accounts. They said you would need to change that asap."
"Brilliant, thanks Simon and I can assure you I am very, very pleased" Harry said with a big grin.
Simon smiled, courting a relationship with the up and coming Black Industries was very much in his companies best interests. They had some of the most prime land in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Swindon, Cardiff, Portsmouth well the list was long. The fact that Harry here, or rather Baron Black, was the head of the company and was happy with them was very good.
Harry read that easily. So called Muggles had little protection on this thoughts. Which made dealing with them in business a little easier than normal. "I think, all things considered... Your firm was interested in Dock Road weren't they?" Harry said with an innocent smile.
"You're teasing me Baron" Simon said with a smile.
"I'll instruct my sharks to contact yours and we'll set up a contract for you to develop it." Harry said.
"Excellent" Simon said. "Thank you Baron Black, If there is nothing else I'll get back to my office and tell them the god news." he fished in his jacket pocket and handed Harry a business card. "If you need anything at all don't hesitate to call me"
"Thank you Simon." Harry said. Then saw the man to the lift, shaking him by the hand. Once the lift had whisked Simon away he turned back to Cissy and Bella. "What about this place hey?" he said arms wide and smiling like crazy.
"It's impressive. I know what some of this is from your cheat sheet you gave us... but not all of it." Cissy admitted.
"Nor do I. How cool is that. Is anyone else hot?" he asked adjusting his collar a bit.
"Yes" was the resounding answer. "Can we use a cooling charm?" Bella added.
"Urm... No! I'm not having my toys blown up thanks very much. No here, see this thing on the wall." he said walking to the wall. "There are a few around. Set the temperature you want, let's go cold... It's hot out there," Harry tapped on the Air Conditioning control, there was a low whirr. Then a few moments later blessed cool, almost cold air, spilled out of the nearest unit.
Bella turned her face up to it with a smile on her voice. "Oh it's like a Scottish wind on the moors." she said, then sniffed, "But no smell of heather"
Harry smirked, "Actually I can get these cartridge things... I can get you that smell if you want."
Bella blinked in shock, "You're kidding me?"
Harry shook his head, "Nope. I'm really not. Now I'm not 100% sure they'd have that exact smell but I'd be willing to bet I can get close to it."
"Amazing" Bella said turning her face back to the vents.
Cissy looked at Harry and leaned against a wall, "Okay explanation time." she said.
Harry looked at her, "The arrows, they make the temperature go up and down..."
"... Not the air thingy... Black Industries?"
"Oh, right okay... The Black Foundation does indeed own a LOT of land in the Muggle world. It was designed for expansion of the Wizarding Community at a later date. Well that's not happened and frankly nor is it likely to for a while. So I decided there was money to be made here. I, with the Goblins help, set up Black Industries. Now one of the things that company does is Land Ownership and Development. I won't bore you with the details, I've spent the last few weeks learning this crap and I wish I hadn't... Anyway, The Black foundation shifts land to Black Industries, and they either lease the land or sell off compartments of it. Dock Road is not a road. Out there right on the edge of London there is an area called Dock Road. Now why Simon is so chuffed is because it's a developing area. It's large enough for a small out of town village like place. Get all the posh office workers and business bods their out of London homes within spitting distance of London. That development alone is worth ... well" Harry smiled, "A lot"
"When did you set all this up?" Cissy asked, "It's not like you've been sat idle"
"No, but that paper work I've been working on has a lot to do with all this oh and my bloody Potions Homework but that's besides the point." Harry said with a smirk. "I've been in constant Floo and... other contact with Griplock of the Goblins. We've struck up a sort of partnership. They have a lot of Muggle money coming in and not a lot to do with it. We've struck a deal to work together to invest that. They move more into the Muggle world and I make a shit load of money for the family. They are also working to move some of the assets into liquid form. The Blacks are old money rich. Which means land mostly. That and items. I'm shifting some of the land and some of the Galleons to Pound. But that bit is temporary. IT takes a lot of money to start a company as large as Black Industries."
"Griplock as in Chairman of Gringotts Bank. Known only as Chairman to everyone outside of his family. That Griplock?" Cissy asked.
"If that were true you wouldn't know he was called Griplock." Harry said with a smile.
"No, I know that because Lucius spent a fortune finding it out. Then made the mistake of calling him by name. He thought he was showing willing or something, probably trying to put the Chairman in his place. Sometime later I found out he lost 5,000 Galleons to the Chairman who sued him for miss-use of a Goblin title." Cissy said.
Harry laughed, "Weird. He said, 'Very well Baron if you want to be called Harry I will. But you must call me Griplock'. His exact words."
Cissy shook her head, "The business you are generating must be immense."
"Yeah well land isn't the only thing that Black Industries is involved with."
"Such as..."
"I'll give you one for free. Find out the rest for yourself" Harry said with a teasing smile. "Parchment"
Cissy frowned, "Parchment?" she asked.
"Do you realise how much the Wizarding world goes through?" Harry said, then went on to answer his own question, "Millions of tonnes of the stuff. Local supply can't keep up with the demand, driving the price sky high. Well, Muggle techniques are a lot more efficient for making paper. Even high grade like Parchment. Well strictly speaking Parchment isn't paper. Still the flocks in the wizarding world are nearly depleted. You see, Parchment is a thin material made from calfskin, sheepskin or goatskin. Obviously we're talking a limited stock here. So... using herds in the real world I've brought and got people managing using modern husbandry techniques. Black Industries will probably be the main supplier for Parchment within the year, if not sooner. I happen to know, since we own the company, that one Wizarding supplier is about to go tits up. Or would've" Harry smiled.
"What do you mean?"
"You think Wizards will use Muggle Parchment, despite it's better quality and higher supply? Snobbish bastards exist in the magical world Cissy you know that. So the stuff will be shipped via our magical company. No one will realise where the parchment really comes from."
"Sneaky bastard" Cissy said with a tone of admiration.
"Uh huh, that one, I am VERY proud to admit was my idea. The property was Griplocks."
"You say we, our, most of the time." Bella said.
"It is ours. The Blacks. Did you notice Simon called me Baron?"
"Yes, but you are." Bella said.
"Yes, in the wizarding world nobility titles are handed out like chocolate frog cards. Not in the Muggle one. Well, you could buy a title not long ago but that got scuppered. No the Barony title for the Blacks is ALSO a Muggle title. Given out LONG ago. Usually I believe they aren't hereditary titles, but" Harry shrugged, "Whatever, it is I have no idea why. Apparently we got it for some shit up in Scotland. The Blacks have had a lot of dealings with Muggles over the centuries. More than most pure blood families. Which is my point with the whole Baron thing is that it shows that Blacks have ALWAYS had Muggle ties. Despite what you may believe."
"I find that hard to believe." Cissy admitted.
"Once, long ago. The Blacks were designated to deal with Muggles. You think all the food we eat is bred, made, or otherwise sourced from only Wizarding sources?" Harry said with a mocking tone.
"I hadn't thought of it to be honest" Cissy admitted.
Harry leaned on the wall, "I know, and in this case, thankfully most don't. The Black House was essentially brought into Ill Repute many, many years ago because of that. Only it's not because no one knows. We source from the Muggles via a complicated net of companies and contacts. It's nearly all run through US. That's a lot of cash flow. This has all been ticking along by itself for years now. We've been getting robbed blind, but still making enormous amounts of money in the process."
"I didn't think we were that well off. Comfortable for sure, but you're making it sound like we're astounding rich" Bella put in.
Harry grinned, "The Goblins made me aware of some interesting facts... I'm not dodging your question Bella. I'm getting to it I promise. The main reason this was brought to my attention was because of the Black Family Vault."
"Okay... Not sure I follow" Bella said.
"It's full. It's been expanded time and time again, now it's full" Harry said with a smile. "They use it like Fort Knox." Harry said with a laugh, "There is so much gold in that place that it's astounding. This is the main vault by the way. Not the smaller ones you may have seen. This is the biggie, the one that essentially belongs to all Blacks. I'm just the one in charge of it. So the Goblins and I have been talking of ways to resolve this issue. I mean if we gave away money we could crash the economy. I kid you not. We are RICH. As in the richest family in the United Kingdom. Not Wizarding UK, the entire thing. Obviously the form of our wealth is not currency in that respect, but if you take the wizarding figure and covert it. That's what we are. So yes we're comfortable" Harry grinned, "Because of the sheer blindness of Wizards in general. I could kill the Wizarding economy like that" he said and snapped his fingers loudly. "They just thought, oh we'll make this family worry about all that and left it at that. The community has grown, not a lot, but it has grown. Demand grew, so supply had to. It's been stagnant in recent years though. Which is, I think, when the head of family lost track. I'm fairly sure we're talking the last two generations have had no idea about what we do. Which is the second reason this was brought to my attention."
"Huh?" Bella said, as Cissy was looking utterly stunned, at least having some idea of what Harry was inferring.
"Well, over those last two generations we have indeed been robbed blind. Prices have gone up, some of the demand has grown past current supply abilities. Like Parchment. Or Food. Or Ink... Did you realise how much ink we go through? Anyway, I digress again. Oh, clothing robes and all that. Some is sourced internally. I mean Acromantular Silk, not available outside of Wizarding circles. But silk, wool, Cotton etc etc. We source it all. Because it's all fallen fallow stockpiles are virtually at nil and the river of incoming goods is trickling. When it needs to roar through like a white water rapid. That's not been happening. No new sources have been found, Muggle business have gone bust, or survived by robbing us blind. The Goblins thought that wasteful. They have heard my reputation and realised they had a golden opportunity here. I'm working with Griplock to stabilise the economy here. Which, yes, will make us a shit load of money in the process. But more importantly and this again is where Black Industries comes in. I'm going to set it up so it's a little more self sustaining." Harry laughed, "The Blacks are respected Pure Bloods, but not widely thought of as anything but good stock. People just don't realise we are the most powerful family in the Wizarding community in the UK. Also abroad a bit too."
"This is... staggering." Cissy said, Bella nodding her agreement.
"Well, I've told you all this crap for a reason." Harry said. "We, and I know you're older in your minds, but end of the day... We are the new generation. It's up to us to create the future, and we are best placed to do that than any family. Oh, just so you know the Malfoy's are in for a nasty shock soon. I'm sorry."
Cissy frowned, "How so?"
"They're one of the largest robbers of the blind variety. It's all through a complicated network of businesses and double blind accounts, but they control most of the Wizarding sources. We obviously have dealings with them a lot inn business. They've been under pricing us for a long time because no one has been aware enough to say... Fuck off you cheap skate, this or that is worth ten times as much."
Harry smiled, "Their cash flow is about to go south...Anyway as I was saying the future."
"Remember I told you there are more Muggleborn's in the school right now than ever. More than Purebloods?"
Cissy nodded and Bella did too, which told Harry that Cissy must've have told her for some reason.
"You think we're happy with the way things are? We will outnumber Pure Bloods when we graduate think on that."
Cissy looked at him seriously, "You're saying they will vote out Fudge."
"That's only for starters but yeah. More Muggle friendly people will get voted in to various positions in the government. Pure blood power will wane, Muggleborn will rise. Those that don't leave that is. More Muggleborn's will get positions in the Ministry and I suspect within 20 years at most we will have a Muggleborn Minister." he smiled wolfishly, "I intend to make sure of that fact."
"I thought you didn't like politics" Cissy said.
"I don't. Thanks for showing just how well you know the Pureblood way of doing things Cissy..." he trailed off meaningfully.
"Oh no" Cissy said holding up her hands and backing away, "No, No."
Harry smiled charmingly at her, "You really think blood matters?"
"Yes" Bella and Cissy asserted at the same time and firmly.
"Why" Harry said, leaning back on the wall. "You must realise you as you stand are a dying breed?"
Cissy frowned, he might be right.
"Pure blood births are down. Muggleborn's are up... Need I slam the point home?"
"But... We're more powerful" Bella said.
"Pure bloods have good power levels. I won't disagree. Ginny, one of the most powerful witches I've come across. You Bella, probably rank up there with her. Both Pure bloods. Sorry Cissy I have no idea of how powerful you are. But, power isn't that important. With good interbreeding it won't even sink much. Of course if Purebloods don't do that... Power levels may sink a bit. But I'd put Hermione against Ginny. Any time. And I trained them both remember, I know what they can do. Hermione would win for one simple fact."
"What?" Bella asked. Curious as to how a Mudblood would beat a Pure Blood.
"Knowledge. Without it Power is nothing. Now don't get me wrong Ginny, in a while would probably kick Hermione's arse. Because if you have both you are deadly. But right now, Ginny lacks the stores of Knowledge Hermione has. Hermione is of middling power levels. She's no slouch mind. Just ask Draco" He said with a sharkish smile.
"But blood will out." Bella said.
"Rhetoric bollocks. If that were true then Sirius wouldn't have turned against his family, or stayed against them. He would be a Death Eater."
Bella's mouth opened and shut a few times.
"Now there is much that a Pure blood has to offer, I'm sure the culture is fascinating. I don't think we should go all the way the other way. But this supremacy thing Pure Bloods seem to have going on... It's not true." Harry said. "You're not better than me because my mum was Muggleborn are you?" Harry asked.
Bella wanted to say yes, but couldn't. Nor could Cissy and that annoyed them both.
"I mean, you care about me right? I was brought up a Muggle. Do you think less of me because of that?" he went on to ask. "Don't just reply, think about it."
They remained quiet, mouths open from where he had caught their automatic denial. "We care" Cissy said with a glance at her sister. "We don't think we're better than you because of the Muggle thing."
"No" Bella said, "It's because we're female."
Harry looked at her with total shock on his face, then laughed aloud and heartily. "Well. I cannot deny the truth of THAT statement" Harry said. "Enough grandstanding. Go pick your rooms out" he said with a big grin. "Then we're going shopping."
There was a sudden scrabble as Cissy and Bella acted their physical age and made a run for the best rooms. Though they were not entirely sure what that would be just yet.
Harry smirked. He had already staked a claim to his one. But there were three others to choose from. There was a shriek of "Oi, cheating bastard" coming from off to the front of the building and Harry smirked again.
Apparently they had found his room first.