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Harry followed the irritated Gryffindor with barely hidden glee. He was fighting to keep a shit-eating smile off his face every time Longbottom turned around to glare at him while attempting to speed up.
That wasn't exactly successful since Longbottom was weighed down by the heavy trunk. Harry might scoff at his housemates deriding all things muggle, but he couldn't help but question why Longbottom didn't use his magic to help with the trunk. The fact that he was a pureblood made it even more baffling.
Unfortunately, when Longbottom climbed onto a horseless carriage, Harry lost his simple pleasure. As much as he wished to continue to tease the boy, Harry was never one to procrastinate. Especially with something that affected his bottom line.
Last year, a… bold Ravenclaw tried to test the effectiveness of one of his contracts. To Harry's annoyance, it didn't even have any semblance of subtlety. Apparently, the boy thought that Harry's contracts were full of shite and went on to try and reveal it... to the entire Ravenclaw house.
To be honest, Harry wasn't too concerned about having the agreement revealed since it involved a Tier I service. That generally involved harmless matters, the worst being a targeted dosage of a mild love potion that lasted one hour.
It just so happened that Goldstein, the Ravenclaw, asked Harry for that service. In fact, he asked for a love potion that was a little more serious. Being that Goldstein was a first-time client, Harry denied him and offered the Tier I alternative. The offer was taken, and an agreement was made.
It was a common practice for Harry to do the same to new clients so he could find out who deserved more of his trust. However, it also served another purpose.
It turned out to be an excellent referral system. Instead of Harry working to get more clients, his clients would do the work for him in return for access to higher Tier services.
When Harry inadvertently started this hustle to protect himself in his second year, every single client had to be brought in with his own hard work. Sure, it was silly little requests like doing someone's homework or that one time Harry hid under his invisibility cloak to cast spells to make it look like his client knew wandless magic. But every single one involved Harry acting like a salesman to market himself.
Indeed, it was a simpler time. No contracts were needed, no dealings with recently risen Dark Lords, and certainly no requests of vengeance. Thank Merlin, it was no longer that simple. If it was, Harry might jump off the astronomy tower to escape the boredom.
Harry caught sight of the wizard he was looking for. He changed his direction and slipped through the crowd of students before flicking his want to stop the carriage door from closing.
Without giving Goldstein a chance to react, Harry climbed onto the carriage and sealed the door behind him.
"Oh, Anthony! I didn't expect to meet you here."
Harry floated his trunk down to the side and sat across from the nervous Ravenclaw.
"P-Potter! W-What are you doing here? I-I want nothing to do with you!"
"Well, that's a bit hurtful, isn't it? It almost reminds me of how I felt when you broke the secrecy of our agreement."
"D-Don't come near me!"
Harry looked scornfully at the shaky hand trying to point a wand at him. "Try not to make things worse for yourself, Anthony. You have already experienced the consequences of your mistakes before. Trust me when I say that trying to harm me will be much worse."
Harry nodded when Goldstein dropped his wand like it was burning his skin.
"So, let's talk about why you did it."
"W-What do you mean?" Anthony's stutter only made him angry, which didn't help.
"Come now, Anthony. You don't expect me to believe that you suddenly got the urge to announce to your entire common room that you contracted me to potion Ms. Patel."
"I-I was drunk!"
"Ah, yes. I heard that pumpkin juice is quite effective in inebriating us wizards." Harry's sarcasm could practically be felt.
"I don't have an explanation, Potter! It was stupid, but there wasn't some great plan against you!"
"It couldn't have been Lisa," Harry muttered while pretending that Anthony said nothing, "But who else could have known about you other than the one who told you about me?"
"E-Enough!" Anthony rose from his seat, "I don't have to sit here and hear you talk."
Anthony pointed his wand at the sealed carriage door before a white light splashed against it. Harry crossed his arms and watched him try a few more times futilely before resorting to trying to physically force the door open.
"I suppose there's no reason to keep guessing," Harry commented before flicking his wand at Goldstein, "Not when I can find out for myself."
Goldstein's arms snapped to his sides before his legs straightened out in a perfect line. Harry didn't want him to be knocked unconscious, so he gently floated Goldstein's petrified body to the floor before standing over him.
"This will be quick, but I'm afraid you will feel a bit of pain due to my inexperience. I'm sure you understand."
Harry pointed his wand directly at Goldstein's forehead and looked into his terrified eyes. It almost made him wonder if he was going too far, but sometimes, having a successful business meant that Harry had to get his hands dirty.
"Legilimens."
Harry frowned as he found expected resistance as he tried to force his way into detecting Goldstein's thoughts. It wasn't near enough to stop him, but plenty to reduce what Harry could see to flashes of memory.
"Tell me!" Harry said sharply, "Why did you really break the contract!"
Harry could catch glimpses of Padma Patel scribbling on parchment while Anthony watched her from across the room. The guilt the boy felt when he thought of using the love potion and the fear at the thought of the others using the same thing on her. The resolve to out Harry for the service he offered, even if it meant that Padma found out what Anthony wanted to do.
Harry gasped and stumbled back when he was finally kicked out of Goldstein's mind by the rudimentary shields.
"That was the reason?" Harry asked in disbelief, "Because of guilt?"
Goldstein had veins protruding on his forehead from his effort to protect his mind. He glared at Harry with red eyes as his petrified state stopped him from responding.
"I was worried over nothing," Harry sighed and took a seat, leaving Goldstein on the floor, "Anthony, Anthony, Anthony. What are you doing in Ravenclaw? You would be a right fit in Gryffindor."
Harry stared at the petrified boy and wondered what to do now. His original plan was to forcefully form a new contract to maintain his silence, but that was an overreaction to a client's buyer's remorse.
Harry flicked his wand at Goldstein, freeing him from the curse. Harry tapped his chin as Goldstein scrambled to his feet and tried to shove himself into the corner of the carriage.
"You're mad! What's wrong with you!"
"Sorry about that, old chap. It wasn't completely my fault, though. You were the one that tried to hold a town hall meeting to expose my business."
"Fuck you, Potter!"
"I think I know how to get past this little misunderstanding," Harry held out his hand, "Let's agree to never talk about this and move on with our lives."
Harry saw Goldstein look at him like he saw a dementor, and after what Harry had put him through, he didn't exactly blame him.
"That's another one of your blasted contracts! I'm not going to agree to any more of that nonsense!"
"Well, that's unfortunate," Harry took away his outstretched hand before raising it again, this time with his wand included, glowing a light green, "I guess that means you choose a memory charm."
"Wait! Wait!" Anthony scuttled to get away from the line of sight of Harry's wand, "The contract's fine! I'll do it!"
"Ah," Harry lowered his wand, "You should have said so at the start. I'm glad we could come to an agreement."
Harry clasped his hand around Goldstein's with a smile. This surely didn't count as forcing him since he did give him another option.
Harry felt some fatigue after he felt the new contract take place.
One of the significant downsides of the 'Pactmaker's Grasp' happened to be the strain it put on the one creating the contract. Harry thought of himself as a reasonably powerful wizard. Still, he had found through experience that if he made more than two contracts within a span of a day, there was a decent chance he would be occupying a bed in the hospital wing.
There was hope that the number would increase as Harry grew older, but there had been no change so far.
However, that was a minor tradeoff, in Harry's opinion, since the spell was remarkably similar to the Unbreakable Vow. While the Vow needed a witness and a focus to form a binding contract, all the Grasp required was a simple handshake.
That was a gross understatement of what was involved with the Grasp, but that was how it seemed to the ones signing Harry's contracts. All they had to do was shake his hand, and the terms miraculously appeared in their mind. After they accepted, either mentally or verbally, it was enforced by their magic.
That was because all the work was done on Harry's side. The Pactmaker's Grasp needed the caster to be competent with legilimency and have enough skill to cast the spell wandlessly. That was without mentioning the magical power required to form a contract successfully.
When Harry bought the spell in his third year, the most complex contract he could create was with a single clause. It was generally the payment for the service rendered. As Harry became more competent with the spell, he could add more clauses to the contract, which was a godsend since he started to sell information that could be detrimental to his health by his fourth year.
No matter how confident Harry was in his skills, if he were to get ganged up by multiple older students, it would end in his tragedy. These days, the secrecy clause was a staple in any agreement Harry would do, no matter which Tier the service belonged to.
The contract would require the signer to keep the details of their dealings confidential, even under the threat of magical interrogation or other forms of magical influence. The only exception was when Harry modified the clause to allow for referrals.
"Try not to break this one, Anthony. The punishment this time won't be those minor skin rashes you had to deal with."
"MINOR?" Anthony exploded in rage, "I-I couldn't wear any clothes for a week! And every time I thought about going to Madame Pomfrey, it got even worse!"
"Well, obviously," Harry said with a roll of his eyes, "If you went to the hospital, there was a small chance it could be linked back to me. And yes, Anthony, I would call that minor. The next level of punishment would have been far more debilitating."
Harry saw that Goldstein looked as if he wanted to possibly murder him. He didn't want to pay that any mind, but having someone this angry was never good for business.
"I feel there's some sort of misunderstanding between us, Anthony. I'd like to fix that."
Harry wasn't phased by the murderous glare that was on him. If Goldstein had any ideas about him, he would be writhing on the floor in pain.
"I saw in your memories that you were concerned about Ms. Patel."
"Leave her out of this," Anthony growled as he clenched his fist.
"You're telling me that?" Harry raised his eyebrows, "Did you forget that you were the one that wanted to use the love potion on her?"
"That was a mistake. I shouldn't have done that," Anthony defended himself, "But you were the one that agreed! If you were going to do it for me, how many others have you dosed?"
"Really?" Harry scoffed, "All this anger because of a love potion you can buy in prank shops? Stop pretending that I was going to use Amortentia."
Harry left out that Amortentia was a possible request for clients with access to Tier III services. After all, as long as Harry was willing, everything had a price.
"As a wizard that strives to satisfy my clients, how about we reach a new agreement? Your idea of using a love potion on Ms. Patel was foolish from the start. If you want to get her attention, I can help make that happen."
Harry could see that Goldstein was tempted, greatly. From what Lisa Turpin told him, Padma Patel was utterly oblivious to anything other than her studies. Goldstein's attempts to get her attention always fell flat on its face.
Harry felt the carriage slow and pointed his wand at the door to unseal it. "Think about it, Anthony. I can help you get the girl, for a price, of course. And this time, it'll be completely natural without silly things like potions."
When the carriage came to a stop, Harry left Goldstein behind without waiting for an answer. It would be seen as pushy if Harry said any more on the subject. Even worse, he was afraid Goldstein might actually agree. Having already created two contracts for the day, Harry would have had to delay his own proposition, which would have been a massive embarrassment.
Harry smiled at a couple of Hufflepuffs as he passed them, noting the girl next to them. It looked like Emma Thompson was searching out new targets. With her attachment to choosing purebloods, there were only so many available in Ravenclaw, so it would have happened eventually.
Harry looked away from the poor bastards and continued to the castle while smiling at the occasional student that greeted him. It was tiring, having to act so friendly to people Harry couldn't care less about. Even if getting sorted into Slytherin was a mistake for his social relationships, it was a boon for Harry when he wanted to relax.
There was no need to act overly friendly to his housemates. Slytherin was a house that would ruthlessly destroy anyone that was 'nice' with its internal competition. Harry has had to fight like a cornered animal since his first year, and after the things he had done to protect himself, only a fool would believe that he was 'friendly.'
If not for Snape harshly enforcing the rule of the internal competition restricted to the same year, Harry wasn't sure he would still be in Hogwarts. He could see from the start that the older years hated him for who his parents were and would have loved to take a shot at him if possible.
In Harry's opinion, they were sore losers with pathetic family members. If they weren't, they wouldn't have been slain by his parents when they went on a killing spree against the Death Eaters at the war's end.
Sometimes Harry imagined what his life would have been like if the Lestranges hadn't ambushed them. He imagined that he would be in Gryffindor with how often he was told that Lily and James Potter were the embodiments of that house.
However, that was obviously a hypothetical scenario. Not much use in thinking of what-ifs.
"Supremacy." Even as the word left Harry's lips, his eyes were rolling at the ridiculous passwords chosen to get into the Slytherin common room. It was so blatantly pro-pureblood that Harry wondered why people claimed Dumbledore was a muggle-lover.
Surely, as the headmaster, he must know the inner goings of each house. Everything the Slytherin House did served as a promotion of the most extreme of pureblood culture. If Harry didn't have the power to protect himself, there was no doubt that he would have fallen in line with the pureblood views to save his own skin.
Any expression on Harry's face dropped off the second he stepped into the crowded common room. He didn't stop to greet any of the acquaintances he could see and continued to his assigned room. As a self-imposed rule, Harry always secured his room for the year before doing anything else.
He walked to the boy's wing and paused in front of his door. Theodore Nott was his neighbor. It looked like Harry had to sleep with silencing charms this year.
When he arrived at Hogwarts, Harry was filled with quite a bit of self-pity for how he had grown up. Having come across Nott's room in one of the rare times the boy had forgotten to put up silencing charms, Harry quickly came to realize that he was blessed.
The Dursleys might have been unloving and somewhat overbearing at times. Still, they gave him food to eat and a roof over his head without any physical abuse. Nott hadn't been so lucky.
The things the boy screamed out in his sleep made Harry wonder if the Dursleys were the most loving family in existence.
With a shake of his head, Harry opened the door to his room and stepped inside.
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