Chapter Fifteen - New Year's (Technology) Revolution
It got very cold in January, so Harry spent many of his days indoors with his niece and Godson, and his evenings snuggled up with Ginny in front of a warm fire. Ron and the Cannons continued their amazing year, still undefeated at the halfway point of the season with wins over the Tornados - a marathon five hour game - and an easy home game against the Catapults. It was sometimes hard to believe that they already had more wins than they'd had in the entire previous season, and that had been a decades long best record.
Neville and Luna were getting married on Valentine's Day, and Harry, as best man, was helping out his friends. He had Mrs. Weasley pick out one of the new houses in Chudley for them, and He and Ginny invited them to a party there where all their friends could join in for the surprise when they found out the house was for them.
The wedding was a huge affair. Neville's grandmother knew just about everybody, and it was also a bit of a 'coming out' for Neville's parents, who had been recovering, and slowly adjusting to their forever changed lives. Later in the evening, Harry was dancing with the most beautiful maid of honour he'd ever seen.
"Happy Valentine's Day," he whispered in her ear. Ginny smiled, and her eyes sparkled.
"I thought with everything that was going on you'd forgotten. Did you get me anything?" she teased, and Harry smiled mischievously.
"You're holding your present right now. See - I even put a bow on it," he said pointing to his tie. "You should probably wait until later to unwrap it, though," he added with a laugh. Ginny put her head on his shoulder and sighed.
"I suppose so. While it might be interesting to think about, we probably would regret it when the Daily Prophet had the front page picture and headline - 'Wizengamot Elder at Wedding Exposed!'" Harry leaned down and kissed Ginny to distract her while her real present attached itself around her wrist.
"Then if that's not an option," he said, taking her hand and lifting it so she could see the bracelet, "I guess you'll have to settle for this." Ginny was dazzled by the double row of diamonds that now shone brilliantly on her wrist. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulled him close, and kissed him.
"Don't make any plans for later Mr. Potter," she told him. "I definitely plan on unwrapping my other present - I just have to decide whether to tear the wrapping off, or take my time and do it slowly." Harry blushed slightly, but smiled encouragingly.
"I suppose the best man and maid of honour would be missed if they snuck out early," he said regretfully.
"It'll be worth the wait," she promised him.
Not long after that, Ginny had to go help Luna get ready to leave on their honeymoon, and by midnight, the happy newlyweds were having their last dances of the night. They went around thanking their guests for coming after that, and then, the parents and wedding party saw them off. Neville and Luna went to South America for their honeymoon, where they could explore the rain forests for rare plants and exotic magical creatures.
The new Marauders Institute building was completed in March, and production began on their new products. Luna started advertising the upcoming 3MP's and WWVN receivers on the WWN, in the Daily Prophet, and in every magazine in the Wizarding World. The institute was also selling WWVN cameras to the many new companies that were sprouting up to make everything from daily and weekly shows to movies, live broadcasting of sports, and advertising.
Wizarding bands were making music videos. Actors and writers were all jumping into this new medium and the chance to reach audiences all over the Wizarding World. Fleur and Luna had applied the 3MP advertising model to the WWVN, and businesses large and small all over the Wizarding World were pouring galleons into making WWVN and 3MP commercials.
The Chudley Cannons win streak came to an end in their second game of the season against the Harpies. Glynnis, their Seeker, won the game for the all-girl team, catching the snitch to give the Harpies a one hundred and eighty to one hundred and seventy point victory over the Cannons.
There was a big family gathering for Victoire's first birthday. Teddy was still not very impressed with the now toddling little girl who thought it was a fun game to throw everything from toys to food at the little boy.
"Girls are icky," he told Harry, who laughed and scooped him up in his arms for a hug.
"Give her a little time to grow up," he told the little guy. "They're really quite nice to have around." Teddy looked at him skeptically.
"You like Aunt Ginny, and Grandma Tonks, and Grandma Weasley," Harry reminded him. "They're all girls." Teddy nodded.
"Yeah, but they don't throw toys and food at me," he said, and Harry laughed and hugged him again.
"I'm pretty sure Victoire will grow out of that soon enough," he promised.
There was a meeting at Gringotts at the end of March. Harry was pleased to find out that both the 3MP and the WWVN's were ahead of schedule. They decided to have the 3MP's in stores for July third, and the WWVN receivers to start selling the last week of August to get in on the back to school rush, and then be out there for the start of the Professional Quidditch season.
Fleur explained to them how the WWVN advertising would work, with MI (Marauders Institute) receiving twenty percent of the advertising for all shows while the companies doing the shows would get eighty percent. Advertisers would be paying one knut for every ten WWVN viewers, and get a one minute video commercial. There would be one advertisement used to pay for each half hour. The more popular the show, the better everyone would do.
She also was able to announce that there were, so far, five new WWVN networks that would be ready to start the day the receivers went on sale, a far better start than anyone had expected. Griphook reviewed the comparatively more modest investments that were active. Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes had opened stores in New York, Paris, Mexico City, and Moscow. There would be ten more by the end of the year, and they were currently thirty percent above sales projections.
The Goblin venture was also showing results well beyond original expectations, and the other hundreds of investments continued to perform strongly. Molly reported that the housing project in Chudley had been completed. With all the new employees at MI, the houses were already completely sold. With the launch dates of the two new products moved up, revised projections for the year astounded all of them.
They needed to plan for reinvesting the income that would shortly be pouring in, and having continued new manufacturing for the MI workers once the initial start-up production was completed for the 3MP's and WWVN's. Harry suggested that they start producing a commercial version of Hermione's WiComm's in July, and put them on sale in time for Christmas - maybe November first to be after Halloween.
Fleur and Molly quickly agreed, both having become quill messaging experts. Fleur would work with Ginny and Hermione to get the planning started on that. Harry concluded the meeting by thanking them all for the amazing job they were doing, and suggested that they all start looking around for other new investments.
Harry and Ginny went to Hogwarts on Teddy's birthday to spend the morning with him, and give him his birthday present - a toy dragon that could fly and 'breathe fire'. They laughed as he ran around the room chasing, and being chased by his new favourite toy. Andromeda was less than impressed - especially after she heard the little dragon's very realistic and loud roar.
"Just wait until you have kids of your own," she told them. "It'll be payback time then." Harry and Ginny laughed and he gave her a warm hug.
"You can try doing that," he said, "but I didn't have toys growing up, so I'll probably have more fun playing with the kids toys than they will." Both of the girls laughed at that, knowing it was absolutely true.
The spring months went by very quickly. The Cannons finished the regular season with eighteen wins and just two losses, and in first place. They made it through the first two rounds of the playoffs, beating the Falcons and Catapults, but lost in the finals to the defending champion Tornados. Harry took Teddy to spend a few days with Charlie and Nathalie in Romania and visit the Dragon Reserve. He played with Victoire nearly every morning after the girls went off to work. There were Wizengamot sessions, date nights with Ginny, a memorable weekend on the island, and some time here and there for hanging out with friends.
Harry took Ginny to Diagon Alley on July third for the 3MP launch. There wasn't really any stores that had ever specialized in things like WWN radios before, and Luna made the 3MP's available to bookstores, apothecaries, stationary stores, and even stores that sold things like cauldrons and brooms. Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes would be selling them too, so it was there that Harry and Ginny went to see what would happen when the doors opened.
They had to sneak in the back door, because there were hundreds of teenage Witches and Wizards lined up to get in as soon as the store opened. When George and Marietta saw them, they were drafted into service. Fleur had made sure that George's stores got 'just a few' extra 3MP's more than most of the other stores, but they, and apparently every other store in Diagon Alley, were sold out by the end of the day, and there were teens that went home disappointed.
When the morning rush was over, George invited Harry and Ginny to go with him to the New York, and then the Los Angeles stores, where repeats of the sales frenzy they'd watched in London continued. Luna was a marketing marvel. She had nearly perfectly estimated the first day sell-out, and with Fleur's help, had overnight shipments arriving at stores all over the world to re-stock the now empty displays.
They had a celebration dinner and party at the Marauder's Institute for everyone who worked there and a few other guests. It was getting close to midnight when Harry and Ginny got home and went upstairs to get ready for bed. Ginny walked into the bedroom first, and saw the present sitting on her side of the bed. It was a small package, and she shook it gently. It made a definite jingling sound. Inside the box she found a set of keys attached to a funny looking key chain that had buttons on it. Harry had come up behind her and put his arms around her waist.
"I thought maybe we should learn to drive Muggle cars this summer," he told her. "If you look out the side window, you're chariot waits," he added, kissing her cheek. Ginny pulled out of his arms and ran over to the window to look outside. It was late, but there was a bright moon that lit up the shiny red convertible sports car that was parked next to the house.
She jumped back into Harry's arms, kissed him, and then ran down the stairs and outside so she could take a closer look at her new car. By the time Harry caught up with her, she was in the drivers seat, and he smiled at the look of excitement on her face. She was definitely her father's daughter.
"Can we go for a drive?" she asked him.
"I don't know how to drive either," he told her, getting into the passenger seat beside her. "Our driving lessons start tomorrow morning, though," he added with a smile.
Harry had made sure to learn a little bit about cars, though. He took the keys and put them in the ignition, and turned the key two clicks over, then turned on the customized 3MP that had installed into the car, and requested Ginny's favourite ballad. He put his arm around her, and leaned in for a sweet, soft kiss. When he opened his eyes again, he saw a teasing smile on Ginny's lips.
"Why Mr. Potter, whatever are you doing?" she asked him playfully.
"Well, Mrs. Potter," he answered, "we can't take the car for a drive until we learn how, so I thought tonight we'd try out something that young Muggle couples call 'parking'." She put her arms around his neck and pulled him close.
"You know me, always eager to learn," she told him, and Harry laughed as she leaned in and nibbled his neck. She then proceeded to earn an Outstanding grade from her teacher.
Teddy stayed with Harry and Ginny in August so that Andromeda could have some time to get away before school started up again. Ginny had to spend a lot of time at work with WWVN so close to going 'on the air'. She did make sure to be home every night in time for Teddy's bedtime story, and then Harry would have a hot bubble bath ready for her, followed by some quality snuggle time before they'd both drift off to sleep.
Luna continued her WWVN advertising blitz, adding 3MP advertising to her campaign throughout the summer. Harry thought that the first day selling the 3MP's had prepared him for what would happen with the WWVN's. He was wrong. Every family wanted one or more for the home. Every teen wanted one of the cool portable ones. Luna had put demonstration models in every store for the week leading up to the launch, each continually advertising the networks and shows that would be available.
Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, and other stores geared to the teens would be selling the portable models, while stores normally more often frequented by adult Wizards and Witches would sell the larger versions. By the end of that first day of sales, there was at least one WWVN receiver in millions of Wizarding family homes, and a new age in Wizarding media was launched.