Harry Potter and the Heart of Power
Chapter 3
-Harry-
"So Harry?" Anastasia asked him as they sat down for breakfast in the cauldron, a private room having been provided from Tom for their meal "How's the progress on your new newspaper coming along?". It had been two weeks since he had opened his store, lightning strike electronics, and after interviewing Natalie he had decided to hire her as his lead reporter before turning to Ragnok to find ways to hire a few other journalists for the paper along with some photographers and editors before setting up a muggle printing press with his alterations as they ran more efficiently than the old wizarding presses.
"So far it's been good," he admitted as he prepared his plate from the variety of dishes Tom had provided "Ragnok got in contact with a few muggleborns that had tried to get work at the Daily Prophet only to be rejected for their blood status. They were thrilled at the idea of working for 'The Daily Storm'. We've actually managed to get the full staff together to begin printing as well as a temporary facility rented by the bank so our first issue is going to be released tomorrow morning. Natalie said she wanted to surprise me with the first article though.".
"yes she discussed it with me," Anastasia said as she grinned at him, taking a bite of a breakfast cake while her eyes danced merrily "I was more than happy to give an interview for the article as was Ragnok and a few others who've interacted with you while you ran the store.".
"But you'll tell me, right Ana?" he asked with a wide grin, using the shortened version of her name he had gotten into the habit of saying.
"Nope," Anastasia said cheerfully, giggling at his pout "this surprise is going to be too much fun for me to ruin. It is good to hear about the Paper though, and I heard the Casino is going to be finished soon as well.".
"The building is actually completely finished," he admitted "we're just working on getting the rest of the slot machines and other gambling devices checked and enchanted to prevent cheating as well as working on hiring the staff for the place. It took a huge chunk of my fortune to get everything and set up the money backing for the business as I wanted to avoid taking a loan, honorary family or not those interest rates are brutal.".
"How on earth did you manage to get the entire building built so quickly?" Anastasia asked in shock as he sipped his drink "You've only been doing the construction for five days!".
"House elves," he said with a shrug "I found several house elf vendors that were going out of business and had ended up abusing and starving their house elves for it. So I bought them up rather cheaply before having Ragnok allow them to recover in the time compression chamber as well as teach them architecture before having them work on the construction for the building. Those little buggers are loyal to a fault to both myself and the bank for us feeding them and helping them recover as well at the possibilities of not only getting to 'clean for their new masters' but build things they can clean up later.".
"That's actually pretty ingenious," Anastasia admitted with a pleased nod "but I'm surprised at how you're handling the whole 'house elf' situation. Most muggleborn and muggle raised people can't stand the thought of house elves, cry slavery, and a few actually try to free them all. I heard a rumor that the Hogwarts teachers have a betting pool with each new class about which one is most likely to try.".
"Some are treated like slaves I treat mine like employees," he said with a shrug "it's all business. They need food, water, health care, a place to live, and a master to tie their magic too while I need loyal employees to help with things like construction, cleaning, and other jobs. Added to that I built them a small house elf apartment complex in the lower floors of the casino they were thrilled. When I told them about the upper floors having both rooms that can be rented by guests for both short and long stays they were thrilled at the idea of more cleaning.".
"And this also saves you money as they work for room and board rather than galleons while not eating much and working almost constantly," Anastasia said as she picked apart the details of his plan "you continue to impress me Harry. Makes me wish you were a few years older or me a few years younger." She finished with a joking wink at him that, despite his attempts otherwise, caused him to blush.
Deciding to fight fire with fire he retaliated "Well you're only twenty eight while thanks to my time in the chamber I'm fourteen, added to the fact that as a powerful witch and wizard we can live for a couple centuries without much problem I don't see the situation being that problematic.".
Her embarrassed blush and stammering at his calm statement was too much to bare as he laughed happily before reaching across to lay a hand on her shoulder "Relax Ana I was joking," he explained as he gave her a reassuring grin "I know you were just teasing and felt that handling fire with fire was appropriate.".
Instead of being calmed by his statement Anastasia Malfoy gained a dangerous gleam in her eyes that immediately put him on edge "Are you saying that I am not good enough to court Harry?" she asked in a sweet tone that screamed danger as he saw her fingers twitch towards the knife laid out next to her.
"No, no, no!" he exclaimed frantically, pulling back his hand both to get it away from the knife and to wave frantically as if the movement would calm her "You're beautiful Ana, a vision of loveliness that any man would dream of having the chance to be with. I just figured that you wouldn't be interested in courting me…" as he trailed off he looked down in embarrassment "That…and I don't know how to 'court' girls as you put it, I don't even really know how to deal with them that much.".
Anastasia blinked at him in surprise before giving him a wicked grin that chilled him to the bone "Then I'll just have to work on teaching you how to court women in your last two weeks before you go to Hogwarts then, won't I Harry?" she asked cheerfully as he paled, "After all, you did hire me to train you in how to handle life in pureblood circles and this is a large part of it.".
"You're going to enjoy this…aren't you?" he asked miserably, already imagining the harsh punishments she might deal out when he made a mistake.
"Of course Harry," she said with a soft laugh as they resumed eating "and I'm sure you will as well.".
After that, no matter how much he tried to press the matter, she refused to explain what she meant with her statement.
-Next Morning-
Walking down the street, arm linked with Anastasia, he looked around as he saw nearly everyone in the alley reading 'The Daily Storm', the goblins having told every one of their customers about the day the first issue would be available and even selling the copies to their customers until they could send in the order forms for subscriptions. "It looks like the paper's doing pretty well," he said happily as he made his way towards the Casino to handle the final interviews of the staff "I'm looking forward to reading this article Natalie wrote.".
"I'm sure you'll love it," Anastasia said with a small smile "but how do you think that the 'The Daily Prophet' is going to handle the 'The Daily Storm'?".
"They'll probably panic when people cancel their subscriptions to get the Storm instead," he said shrugging lightly "after that they'll probably begin printing up bigger and more outlandish stories with each issue to as more and more people switch to the Storm until they panic and try to either threaten our paper themselves, try to get our paper shut down through the Wizenagamot, or both.".
"What makes you so sure that people will stop reading the Prophet in favor of your paper?" Ana asked in confusion as she looked at him.
"Simple," he said with a confident grin as he laughed softly "'The Daily Storm', like all businesses created by 'Lighting Strike Enterprises' was started and is owned by Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived which, due to the fact that he not only starts Hogwarts this year but has these new businesses his popularity is at an all time high which will attract readers with droves.".
"And by the time the thrill has worn off, if it ever does, the Daily Prophet will probably be out of business or too far gone to save which will give you control over that portion of the Media," Ana said with an impressed tone in her voice "I shall say it again, simply ingenious.".
Nodding happily he opened the door of the Casino for Ana as they walked inside, seeing the group of men and women who were assembled for their interviews before handling them one at a time, only taking a break for lunch as they worked their way through the long list of people.
By the time they finished with the interviews he was exhausted, having hired ten different bartenders, fifty show girls and singers for floor shows and entertainment, another twenty people to work the desks and security offices, and another sixty dealers for the different card tables. The rest of the roles, mechanic, janitorial, cook, waiter, and similar positions were handled by house elves and goblins.
"Oh that was exhausting," he groaned, stretching and relishing the pops his spine made as he got out of his chair "but I'm glad it's finally over. Now I can get the chance to read Natalie's article.".
"Here you go Harry," Ana said as she passed him the paper "I'm sure you'll enjoy it.".
Opening the paper he read in bold words:
Peverell and Potter: the future of the Wizarding World
By Natalie Blackpool
Lord Peverell, the representative and Ally of House Potter and its current Lord Harry James Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, is considered by many to be the future of the wizarding world. He was first seen by the world during the unveiling of 'Lightning Strike Electronics', a business owned by the company 'Lighting Strike Enterprises' which was founded and run by the Lords Potter and Peverell with the help of Anastasia Malfoy, their Private Attorney, as well as Director Ragnok, chief of the Goblins and their personal financial advisor.
Many people at the unveiling thought it more important to question why the Lord Potter was not there but I instead chose to observe Lord Peverell, the man selected to represent Lord Potter's interests and was awed at the man that I saw.
Lord Peverell worked at the store himself as the cashier, ringing up the purchases of adult and child alike throughout the day of the business' opening and while many Lords would have kept a cold, cool façade and reserve throughout doing such work, if they did so at all, Lord Peverell went through the day with a smile on his lips and laughter in his eyes as he answered questions and did whatever he could to help his customers. The most telling sign of Lord Peverell's character was when he rang up a little girl, the youngest daughter of the Diggory family, and devoted his time while doing so to make the little girl smile and feel more comfortable.
Every child that Lord Peverell helped he did so with a genuine kindness in his eyes and heart as he worked. I managed to find several of these children and their parents and received nothing but glowing praise about the young Lord, the Lord of House Diggory even informed me of his intentions to have 'Lighting Strike Electronics' install security cameras throughout the Lord's ancestral manor after hearing about how drastically these items improved the security of Gringotts vaults.
Lord Diggory was only the first but certainly not the last I heard such words from as several other families, including the Longbottom's, the Morag's, the Greengrass's, and the Davis' are all planning on doing similar purchases from the business.
And while this may show how such a revolutionary Lord and Head of House could be seen as the Future of the Wizarding world I'm sure many of you are wondering how it would show Lord Potter as the same. Well the answer is quite simple really, if Lord Peverell represents Lord Potter then the Boy-Who-Lived must be just as great of a man if not a greater one. I'm happy to be one of the first to work for the two young Lords that I have no doubt, will take our world by Storm.
Along with the article Natalie had inserted several pictures of him interacting with the small children from the shop as well as shaking hands with other Lords and important figures. "Well this was unexpected," he said in surprise after reading the article, vaguely noticing other articles that talked about 'rumors' of future businesses of 'Lightning Strike Enterprises' "and I didn't realize she was taking any pictures.".
"We wanted to surprise you," Ana admitted as she sat down next to him "but the publicity from this will be a great influence for the company.".
"Yes it will Ana," he said with a smile as he offered the beautiful Malfoy his arm "and I intend to use every advantage I can get to do as Natalie said and take this world by Storm.
AN: Alright, I want some suggestions here from the readers about how to handle the pairing. I can:
Have Anastasia give him his lessons on how to court a woman and eventually one night they end up having a little too much to drink and wind up sleeping with each other which will lead into them being the pairing.
Have Anastasia give him his lessons on how to court a woman and eventually one night they end up having a little too much to drink and wind up sleeping with each other which will lead into them being the pairing temporarily before they break it off and Harry ends up in the final pairing.
Have Anastasia give him his lessons on how to court a woman and eventually one night they end up having a little too much to drink and wind up sleeping with each other which will lead into them becoming his eventual 'concubine' of his house so she can give a proper heir to the Malfoy family (You all know Lucius and Draco aren't making it out of this fic).
Have Anastasia take up a kind of honorary big sister role in Harry's life and she is highly protective of him when it comes to who he dates and tries to 'interview' every girl he goes out with.
State not only which option you want but why please in the review and thanks for reading.