Chapter 19 – Did you hear?
"Harry, Oh! You have to see this, the Profit just came in, did we do that?" Daphne was all excited.
"We were all inside the building trying to survive, but it looks like quite the show from the outside.
"It looks like an American commercial fireworks display on the forth of July, you know the ones you see on the Telly." Susan said in dismay.
"It looks like all the action is coming from the building; it sure seemed the other way while I was ducking." Hermione huffed.
The photo was in wizard all moving color and ran for a couple of minutes before it started from the beginning again. "Is that who I think it is?" Tracy was about to get started when Susan interrupted. "Oh damn, you had better be sitting down when you start reading.
She was right! Women in the wizard world were not thought much of, as wives yes, but even they had a place. All of the fire works coming out of the building was all accredited to Lord Caradog Freichfras the new boy who lived, Dumbledore's replacement and the conqueror of the Dark Lord. Tracy was right if you looked real close to see somebody being hit by something and hurled backwards threw a large window, it sure looked like Voldemort.
/Scene Break/
"Ragnok I hate to bother you but I need a new name besides a new glamour charm, you have read the Dailey Profit I assume."
"That I have Harry and I have some news you may not like. Seems Dumbledore has run into a cash problem bribing his friends on the Wizengemot, special friends the Wesley's, the Board of Governors and his Order of the Phoenix. He has offered for sale the title of Lord Slytherin as a very respectable price."
"Tell him to throw in Lord Mordred's title and he has a deal." I was already to stuff all this up the noses of many of the Wizengemot and the magical community as a whole. "If he does see how much Minister Fudge wants for a full pardon for Harry James Potter also known as Harry James-Mordred-Slytherin-Gryffindore?"
"This will cost you around one and a half million galleons."
"Not a problem, but I want it in writing, the sale of the titles and the pardon. If I am lucky they will be too greedy to ask me for a secrecy agreement." I had a plan.
They were too greedy and since it was through Gringotts, they knew the Goblins would never volunteer such information.
/Scene Break/
"Rita I asked you to this meeting to make a deal with you, I will give you a story to start with, if you think it is worth your time you will sign this agreement with a magical oath. I then will give you all supporting documents. You try and double cross me and I will deny and once I explain you would be in deep trouble."
"You are going to tell me everything and after I agree and sign you give me all the supporting documents?"
"Yes, but what you are going to sign is that you will never print a word about me or my wife's that is not the truth, no lies, no made up stuff, just the truth is fine." I figured the hook was already set. It was!
"I am Lord Caradog Freichfras with a glamour charm, your hero of late. Let me show you who I really am." I dropped the glamour charm. "I am Harry NoName, or Harry James Potter also known as Lord Harry James-Mordred-Slytherin-Gryffindore. I had to buy back my titles from Albus Dumbledore and had to bribe the Minister Fudge for a pardon. So Rita is that enough to get you to sign?"
I thought she would break the quill she signed so fast. I handed her a packet of legal paperwork showing all the dealings and she was off. She wanted a quick background of my life and she was good at digging. The Dursley's didn't have a chance; she rode the whole saga of my life to start with. Not one quick article but a series as in a soap opera and by the time she got to removing my titles the audience was wringing their hankies. I think she was writing a book of my life on the side. Then the explosions at my having to buy back my titles, for the bribes to be made and how Fudge took bribes for the pardon.
/Scene Break/
In our finest Robes complements of Squeaky and did she did a job. They were of the finest materials, cut to perfection. Mine was with a large silver 'W' just left of the heart by the shoulder because I was over seventeen and with my titles and heir titles I was on the Wizengemot and a voting member. The house was packed and the players set to shred the new boy. Problem was the crowd was on the boy's side and trying to take back a pardon didn't work, so after much ado over nothing they decided to adjourn. It was good theatre. Only some parliamentary procedures stopped Fudge from being recalled.
We got back and I called Squeaky and told her she had done a super great job on the robes and I thanked her for her work. Minutes later Squeaky was gone and Largo was in my face telling me that I had raised Squeaky above her station. That was it I wanted all the elves in the master dinning room immediately.
"I am one unhappy master; you will not tell me what makes you happy. I see if I give you work you seem happy but you never say it's too much or too little. I just told an elf that she did a great job and now she may be in trouble and I have been told I have raised her above her station. I have no idea what orders I can give or what will make you unhappy, I want happy elves working for me, not smiling to make me happy but really happy elves. If I call and you are asleep I don't expect you to answerer, if you're with your children that need attention and I call I expect some other elf to answer, I think you have a family and a life the same as I do.
That's when I and my wives got a shock. Squeaky raised her hand and looked like she was going to be killed, "We do not have families, and Master has not told us we can have families or children." Some of the elves looked like she had just committed murder.
"Largo" I growled, "Do you mean I have to give orders to your people to have babies or families?
"Yes Master that is the custom"
"Largo you are the head elf here as I have been told, but I want, no I order all elves of this house to bring to Largo's attention any thing they want and that Largo will bring to me those things. Is that within your customs Largo?"
"Yes Master Harry."
"Good, now let me say this, if you like work then let me know, if it's too much work let me know, if you want babies the let me know, anything you want to let me know. Now since it is through custom that Largo tell me fine, But if he doesn't you may come to me for help, as I said I want happy elves. I do not want you to lose sleep, or not eat or anything that is normal for a normal elf. Now if I have broken any of your customs I apologize. When an elf does a good job I will say so, if I do not say so does not mean that you did a bad job, if I think you did a bad job I will tell you that was a bad job. Do I make myself clear?"
"Good, so let's get back to whatever you normally do and thank you very much for your service to me and my family." I did not realize what I had started, no, they did not ask everything from me, but some requested family, a couple requested children all of which I was happy to say yes too, boy did I step into a problem.
Largo really seemed to almost hurt himself as he explained a few things about the house elf work ethics. For some reason the internal drive of a house elf was work, any type of work. Work was life; work was future so they worked. I asked one time if I ordered two house elves to smear Dragon dung on the wall and the same two to remove it the next day would there be a problem. No was the answer, work was life, work was future and that's as far as I got to understanding house elves.
Again they did not explain and I was caught short because of it, a house elf usually had twelve babies and it didn't take nine months. Also after about a week the children were popping and doing work and wanting work.
"Ragnok I need an Island a large wild big island and I need it yesterday."
"What's the problem Harry?"
"I have created a monster, I have more house elves and less work so I must invent work!"
"Calm down, I have just the place, no one wants it as its remote, large and rugged."
"Sounds like that what I want, what's the problem?"
"It's going for two million Galleons and…"
"Sold, when can I take possession?"
"Give us a week and everything will be completed."
"Thanks Ragnok you're a life saver."
I should have let Ragnok finish his explanation but it turned out very well. There were actually one hundred or so island that made up the Seychelles, lush, profoundly tranquil, just east of Africa, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi. What I had bought was a group of small Islands off to one side. As usual if you do not exactly tell the house elves what you want you get something very unusual.
I was thinking that this was one island not a bunch and so when I explained that I wanted cultivated grass and trees (even if coconut trees). That I wanted the mountains modeled like those pictures in travel magazines where there is a pool with a water fall. Of course I wanted a secluded beach for me and my wives and a nice cottage. That I wanted the elves to feel free to build a house elf village somewhere on the island and I told Largo that if all this was a great paradise he should think of making it a tourist paradise with authentic natives running around doing dances while the elves did all the work in the background. What I was thinking about was if they ever got this done I could sell it off to some oil sheik in Dubai and move the elves to another island and do it all over again. I was mistaken as I was thinking small. I mean I started with sixty elves, even if twenty or so went to work on the island it would take them years to get it all done, right?
What I came to find out is that even if the island was a mile or five miles away from each other an order was an order but this took time. They just did some house elf magic and suddenly there was corral growing in-between the two islands. Now this usually took centuries to grow, oh no, not with elf magic. The sand was free to dredge from the sea and they planted real trees along with the coconut trees. Fresh water, no problem, they bought a water desalinization system from someone and they converted the salt waster into fresh water, 50 million gallons of ocean water into drinking water every day that took many elves working continually. They now had sea salt for sale not to mention all the waterfalls that were needed for all the reservoir storage of that water. Oh they only started; they started on the Masters Dream cottage in the secluded area of the island which was growing day by day. This was work and they were happy, the Masters word was law enjoy working but there was family and sleep and food when hungry. There was no better master that Master Harry. And the word was spread to the younger elves and there was the blessing of the Master, there were plenty of young elves learning the happiness of work and future. So while this island did not happen over night it was in progress.
/Scene Break/
"Harry we are happy you helped the Dragon's Breath rebuild and are a partner now but, what we were thinking was a nice stop at MacDonald's and a cinema. Hermione lead the girls in this decision.
"Sure if that's what you want, muggle it is." I was not going to argue when they wanted something this simple.
Ragnok was working on removing the wards on my older properties so we 'floed' to the Leakey Cauldron and entered London. At MacDonald's I was amazed at how the girls who ate vegetables at the expensive restaurants crammed down burgers and fries like they were broccoli spears.
For me the movie was a bust, the girls thought it was the funniest thing ever. As long as they were happy I was happy. Fleur was snuggled up to me so tight that you think I was going to escape. Always a good sign that. Then we approached the Leakey Cauldron and everyone's mood changed. Deatheaters only appeared in Diagon Alley not the London of the Leakey Cauldron. They started throwing curses all around the muggle side which caused us to back away. That must have been their intent as we suddenly had a whole bunch of Deatheaters at our back while the original Deatheaters focused on us from the front.
"Squeaky" I called and she appeared. "Take us home" and she did. That must have been fulfilling to the Deatheaters. That particular maneuver we had practiced with Squeaky.