Chapter Eight

A Place to Call Home

Monday August 14, 1995

Sharpeye, the real estate agent was happy to work with them. He was an exceptional listener. After hearing each of them out, he looked through his business listings. He said, "There are three viable business opportunities that you might like. One is in Salem. The owner is retiring and wants to sell the business, as well as the facility. There are 2,400 active clients.

"The other two are north of Springfield, in the western part of the state. There is an owner who wishes to retire in Chesterfield, which is 15 miles west of Amherst. He has 2,500 active clients."

Emma asked, "Are there any areas not served by a dentist?"

Sharpeye, looked through his book and replied, "There is the town of Goshen. The town and surrounding area is 2,800 people."

She said, "They all sound like they would be worth looking at. Do you have financial reports on the two practices?"

"Here they are."

Harry asked, "Are there tracts of land available near them?"

Sharpeye replied, "There is a 128 acre tract with a home on it near Goshen. The largest one near Chesterfield is 56 acres with a larger home on it. The home with the largest acreage available near Salem is an eight bedroom home with six acres."

Hermione said, "We should go get Dad and look at them tomorrow."

Sharptooth said, "I'll set up the appointments. Will you be driving between them, or using your portkeys?"

Hermione replied, "Portkeys. The order doesn't matter. We'd like the first to be at 9 am with one hour between appointments."

"I'll arrange them. Please stop here at 8:30 am. What else can I provide?"

Harry replied, "You've been very helpful, Sharptooth. Thank you."

… - …

Fifteen minutes later, they were at the Granger home in Crawley. After the teens had gone upstairs, Emma and Dan talked quietly. At a summary level, she explained the business opportunities. Dan observed, "The Salem business is likely to have the most expensive building. I'm surprised there was only one house with a five acre lot near Salem."

She replied, "He didn't say there was only the one. We could ask to see others if we like the Salem business the best."

"How would they invite other students over to watch the game on Saturdays if they're 100 miles away? I enjoyed driving to work as much as the next person but a 100 mile commute sounds brutal."

"True. We'd have to see how practical using those portkeys would be. The other students probably have them too."

He said, "We could work in Salem and buy a tiny flat like we used to have and stay with the kids on weekends."

"We could. We've taken care of manicured gardens. Living in the middle of nowhere, within easy driving distance to work, sounds like an adventure. We could be open four days a week and go for walks; maybe even say hello to a real elf before breakfast."

Dan asked, "Why does he want such a large house?"

She replied, "Obviously they intend to fill it up. Maybe they're thinking that they'll have some of their friends pop over for the weekend, or that they'll also transfer to Salem. I'm guessing that they'll invite us to live there. Can they afford it?"

He replied, "They're both millionaires; whether 5 or 50 times over probably doesn't matter much at this stage of their lives. Speaking of, why does Hermione want to go into a profession where she's going to spend a bunch of years studying, then a bunch more where she's working long hours, nights and weekends? Crafting magic rings or flying carpets sounds like a lot more fun."

While she didn't disagree with his point, she replied, "Let's see what the agent has to say tomorrow."

… - …

Tuesday August 15

Dan marveled at magical travel. When Harry said, "Hold on," a part of him felt like Captain Kirk beaming down to some planet. They had lunch in England, read the newspapers, beamed to Salem, cleared M-Customs, beamed to the Gringotts branch and were waiting for Sharptooth.

Sharptooth greeted them then took them to a small conference room. He said, "This is a map of Massachusetts. It's 190 miles east-west and 55 miles north-south; roughly the size of Wales. The city of Salem is on the east coast, just north of the city of Boston. The other large city in Massachusetts is Springfield; about 125 miles west of the coast.

"Based on our initial conversation, I took the liberty of finding a third residential property that is much closer to Salem. It an eight bedroom home on five acres about five miles west of the Salem Institute. The other property near Salem sold last night after you left."

Emma asked, "Where to first?"

Sharpeye handed Harry a typed sheet with the times and portkey coordinates listed. He handed Emma a second sheet with the contacts for the businesses and the Salem property and said, "There will be no one there at the other properties. The houses are unlocked for the day." He handed Emma a similar sheet that also included the asking price. He told her, "Say nothing other than Thank you to the contact. I'll answer any questions and handle the negotiations."

The first appointment was the Salem dental business. As agreed, Harry and Hermione stopped in for a snack at the coffee shop across the street. He asked, "Why don't they just find a spot, put out a sign and start their own business? Is equipment hard to get?"

Hermione replied, "They're really buying a set of existing patients. An active patient is someone who has been in for an appointment within the last twelve months – customers who are used to going to that building. Mum told me that usually the hygienists would stay on. The idea is that on day one, there would be patients coming in the door."

Fifty minutes later, Harry saw her mum and dad walk out. As they walked to the apparation point where they wouldn't be noticed, Harry asked, "How was it?"

Emma said, "It had a cheery waiting room. There were televisions and a gas fireplace. The receptionist reminded me of Amy from our office. She had a friendly smile. The business office person explained their billing procedure. They deal with various insurance companies rather than the National Health Service. She told me that they have the person pay the patient portion of the bill after the service has been performed to avoid having a large receivable. The rates were a fair bit higher than what the NHS offers. We'd have to study their financials more to see how profitable the business would be to a new buyer."

Harry asked, "Where to next?"

"Emma said, "The house with 5.5 acres."

He set the coordinates, had everyone hold on and said, "Activate Salem house."

They walked down the long driveway and the representative greeted them. As planned, Hermione said, "We'll wait outside, Mum." They looked around. The entire lot was manicured grass with some trees. 5.5 acres may sound like a lot but Harry could clearly see the fence lines. There was a pool and a tennis court in the back. She asked, "What do you think?"

He replied, "Dobby would hate it and we'd never get away with keeping a unicorn or three." Fifteen minutes later, they were invited in. After five minutes, Harry said, "Mum, I'm going to wait outside.

A bit later, the other three left, thanking the agent.

Harry asked, "What did you think?"

Dan replied, "It was stiff. It reminded me of the board room at the club."

"Emma?"

She broke out laughing. "I've never seen such a pretentious house in my life. "It screamed, I'm important. How were the grounds?"

"Cut just the same as a golf course. No thanks."

Hermione wasn't surprised. She said, "I didn't like it either. Who owned it?"

Dan replied, "Some politician."

Harry asked, "Who's next?"

Emma replied, "Mr. O'Riley."

Again, the teens stayed outside and enjoyed the sun. The building was a newer brick with good windows and a new sidewalk in front. The sign read, Chesterfield Dental. Some people walked by. Most of them greeted the teens as they walked by. There was a fourplex movie theater across the street along with several restaurants and shops.

… - …

Inside, Emma was examining the patient list. There were 2,200 in the active list and another 900 who had been there the year before. Dan was looking at the equipment. It was older and he'd want to replace at least half of it. What struck him was the sense of community. The different people in the waiting room knew each other and were visiting. The conversation was ordinary – the movie that was playing and the latest baseball team loss.

After they walked out, Harry took them to the apparation point and they left for the next destination. He said, "Activate Chesterfield house."

When they arrived, Emma said, "There's a 56 acre lot with this home. It's a six bedroom house. It originally was built as eight but the prior owner made several of them into permanent offices. We'll look inside. Here's a map of the property."

Dan mentioned, "For sake of comparison, many 18 hole golf courses are built on 60-80 acre sites." The analogy didn't do Harry any good; other than tote Vernon's bag when he was eight he'd never played a game of golf.

While Dan and Emma were checking on the inside, Harry and Hermione were walking around outside. After a few minutes, Hermione gasped and pointed. There were two unicorns nibbling on some fruit growing on a tree. Harry whispered, "Dobby, Winky, can you come to me?"

Ten seconds later they appeared. Harry asked, "Can you go talk with the two and ask them to come by the back of the house?"

… - …

Inside, Emma and Dan liked what they saw. The floor was sanded and varnished solid oak plank. The country kitchen looked homey and overlooked two small hills. Beyond the hill, the area was lightly forested and flat. The woodwork was in excellent condition and the electrical outlets looked new. The previous owner hand built a spacious one level family room off of the kitchen. In total, there were two full bathrooms, one ¾ bath with a large walk-in shower and a half bath off of the family room. There was a gas fireplace in the family room and a stone fireplace in the original family room on the first floor.

She glanced outside and couldn't believe her eyes. She called, "Dan, look at this."

A moment later he looked out in the direction where she was pointing. Their daughter was standing between two elves and two unicorn! She was scratching one of the unicorn under the chin. Emma exclaimed, "My Lord, they're beautiful. Are those two elves?"

Dan replied, "I expect so. I take it he's not going to buy the place that we looked at in Salem?"

"Probably not, but that shouldn't solely dictate where we live and work. Let's wait and see what they say about it."

… - …

The third business meeting was with the Goshen town council. They'd lost their dentist four years ago.

It was informational and didn't last long.

… - …

The third property was best described as a large fixer-upper that sat on 120 acres of hilly land. While they were certain that other trees could be planted, many of the areas had a lot of fir trees; not what Dobby and Winkey had mentioned.

After five minutes Hermione said, "This one is also nice but I liked the other one much better.

… - …

That evening, they'd decided to stay at the Salem Inn. It was time to discuss what they wanted to do. Harry suggested, "You two go first."

Dan pointed out, "The Salem practice would be the easiest to buy and probably the easiest to sell. There are two real issues with it – transportation and the asking price."

Harry mentioned, "Sharptooth could probably negotiate a bit better price for you."

Emma said, "I liked the Chesterfield practice better. People looked like they knew each other. I think we could get to know some of the people and fit in. The Salem one would just be an endless series of mouths."

Hermione asked, "What's good about Chesterfield?"

Dan said, "The asking price was much more in line with what I'd expected. We could drive to work. It felt like a community."

"What's not so good?"

"We'd end up replacing a lot of the equipment. The new digital x-ray machines are so much easier to use. It's not ridiculously expensive and there's a spare exam room, so we could work around the installer."

She asked, "What about the third one. You weren't there very long."

Emma replied, "It would be a great opportunity for a father-son combination. They offered to provide a building in exchange for a 15-year commitment." She added, "We could just buy a building, but building a practice from scratch still feels like a long-term commitment. The reality is, the two of you might be here two years; you might decide to go back to England, or you may do any of a thousand different things." She changed the subject. "Let's talk about properties. Did everyone like the Chesterfield property the best?"

Harry said, "I did. I hope that we can all live there together. There's enough room. Money shouldn't be an issue. If it is, we can talk about it."

Emma took the plunge. "Hermione will still have her own bedroom. If she chooses to use it, that's her business. We're not ready to be grand parents until you've both completed your schooling. Dan and I will pay for the groceries and pay the utilities. There are two two-car garages. We'll need one of them. We'll sell our current cars and buy new ones here; it's too hard to get them through customs and the steering wheels are on the wrong side for these streets."

Harry looked at Hermione, who nodded and replied, "Deal. We have an appointment with Sharptooth at nine am."

… - …

The day after they signed their purchase agreements, Harry and the Grangers were back in England. Dan and Emma were busy making backups and copies of their business records.

Meanwhile, Harry had his own arrangements to make with the Tonks family. Ted said, "There are a few things we should discuss before you leave for school. The Potter Trust will be the registered owner of your property in Chesterfield. You're listed as having dual citizenship, as are the Grangers. In their case, they'll be able to work and will pay payroll taxes on their earnings. Unless you're planning on going monster hunting in the States, you'll have no taxable income there; at least at first.

"The Salem Branch of Gringotts set up regular checking accounts for both you and Hermione. The each have $250,000 starting balances. They'll do vault transfers if needed, but as your tuition is paid and the Grangers are paying the utilities; your only recurring expenses should be house insurance and property taxes. You should have enough money with that unless you decide to purchase an additional piece of property. Call me if you do. Try and pay cash for your everyday expenses. As much as you can, try to stay out of the newspapers." Harry asked a few questions, and Ted continued with the next topics.

"Sooner or later, the ministry will investigate the missing Death Eaters. Eventually Gringotts will issue Death Certificates. They're stalling to put distance between their disappearances and the estimated certificate date. There is nothing to tie their disappearance back to either you or Hermione. At some point, their Wizengamot seats are going to be declared vacant. My question is, as your Steward, do you have anyone in mind to nominate, or sponsor if they're still under 17 at the time of the nomination?"

Harry suggested, "Bill Weasley, Poppy Pomfrey, or Professor Flitwick if it occurs this year. Katie Bell, Dean Thomas, or Colin Creevey if it takes a year or two. It's really a question of purpose. Is the intent of the Wizengamot to represent and govern the ministry of magic, or just the ministry of witches and wizards? There are plenty of other highly sentient beings out there – elves, goblins and weres are a fantastic start.

"Ted. We have 65 million people in Britain. There are some 300 million in the States. For easy math, they're five times our population.

"Yet Salem is ten times the size of Hogwarts and it's one of four schools of magic in the States. My point is, as a society, we're always looking backwards, desperately clinging to the past, and seemingly obsessed with killing each other off. The rest of the world is looking towards the future and embracing it. Britain needs to stop producing Dark Lords and, in my opinion, it starts with Hogwarts. The school should be an institution of learning, not a temple of bigotry. Dumbledore proclaimed himself to be the second coming of Merlin, yet you could count his actual achievements on one hand and have enough fingers raised to make rude gestures. From what I've heard, he cut more classes and dumbed-down the curriculum to the point that no one outside Britain accepts a Hogwarts OWL or NEWT without a retest.

"Emma hit the issue on the head the other day. We magicals can do utterly amazing things with our God given abilities. No one in the Wizengamot or the ICW would disagree with that statement. So here comes the kick to the groin; what have we done to improve the world?

"A thousand years ago, Britain apparently invented structured, mass magical instruction. Have we transfigured clean water for anyone? Hermione told me that Pettigrew had been given a fully functional, lifelike hand when she saw him. Riddle must have made it for him in the few minutes that I was gone. Why can't St Mungo's make them for anyone who needs one? Why does Moody have to limp around wearing a tree trunk?"

Ted replied, "Excellent questions. I'll throw some of it back to you. You and Hermione have the passion of youth, the vision and the resources to do what you want. You're not billionaires either in galleons, or dollars, but neither of you should ever have to worry about where your dinner is coming from. I'll work on pushing the pile in the Wizengamot. My advice to the two of you is to go around it. Get a few masters degrees and change the world for the better.

"Harry, you told me your Ollivander story about Riddle's and your wands doing great things. Great in his context meant large or significant. Go for it. Your first career was Archer. You did great things. Your second career likely will be Enchanter. Do some great things with it. I'll have Barchoke invest your money so you'll have a resource, rather than a constraint. Live a big life, son."

Harry thought about his words for a minute, nodded and replied, "I have a big house. There's room for you two to come visit – Nym too, if she doesn't scare the local lads too much."

They shook on it.

… - ...

Later that afternoon, Emma and Andromeda were visiting in the kitchen while Harry and Hermione were in the other room reading. Andromeda was giving another of her impromptu history lessons.

"Riddle came into power in the early 70s. He waged his battle on three fronts – through terror, politically and financially. He targeted people who owned businesses and were against him. Look at the Potters; Harry's great grandfather invented sleekeasy hair potion. Instead of the business producing good paying jobs for what should have been a tree full of aunts, uncles and cousins, it's now a company being run by the Bullstrodes. The others had been targeted and killed off. Companies that were owned by people who supported him were left alone."

She continued, "The ministry became the premier employer with some 300 positions. Almost without exception, those who supported him, or at least weren't against him had better career paths. Those who didn't, such as the Aurors, found their department shrunk and diminished over time.

"Thirty of the forty-fifty Death Eaters who were put down that night were employed by the ministry. There are another hundred there who are like minded and another hundred who at least stayed out of his way. It would be political martyrdom, but someone should just fire everyone and build it up from scratch."

Emma replied, "The non-magicals call that sort of thing zero-based budgeting, except they don't actually fire everyone first. So you're saying that someone needs to go out and develop an industry that offers good or excellent paying jobs for those who aren't entrenched into the legacy dogma. That sounds like a great idea."

… - …

While Emma and Andromeda were catching up. Harry and Hermione checked the back issues of the Daily Prophet from the last month. There was no mention of the missing Death Eaters. In a hushed voice, Hermione asked Harry, "What do you make of it?"

Harry replied, "Somebody's spouse must be looking for them. Apparently they're doing it quietly. They couldn't hardly go up to Susan's aunt and and state, My husband and 40 or so of his mask buddies were hanging out with Voldemort. They went out for a walk for some 8 weeks and got lost. Have you seen them?"

"Harry, I'm serious."

"Keep your voice down. I get that. No one's looking for us. No one in the government is looking for anyone. Even if they do, we'll be in a different country; out of sight, out of mind. We've talked about this before; they're not looking for us."

They held each other for what seemed like hours.

…

Out in the kitchen, Emma heard whimpering. She was going to get up, go out, and say something to the teens. Andromeda held her back, whispering, "They need to learn to live with it. We can't just pat them on the head and tell them, Everything will be all right. They'll work it out."

She added, "They can talk with Healer Maysong every week if they want to and maybe they should be encouraged to, but they're going to have to learn to live with it. The ministry clearly isn't putting any effort in searching for what they believe are a living people. Gringotts didn't issue any death certificates for the people who answered his call that night. They're all far too busy enjoying the temporary shift in power until the Wizengamot gets sorted out. Scrimgeour might not be the smoothest minister that we've had, but he seems focused on actually doing the job."

Andromeda continued, "The new environment will be just the ticket for them – a new school, new friends and better weather. Hermione will find atonement in learning healing. Harry will become a great enchanter; he never considers what can't be done. They'll be together; you'll see."

Emma asked, "What about you?"

"I'll give them some space for a while. Harry gets along with Ted well enough."

Emma didn't disagree. She hugged her friend.

… - ...

Friday August 25

A month earlier, John Dawlish's wife, Karen, had filed a missing person's report; or at least a part of one. Connie and Anna checked into it. Now, the little bit of news Connie Hammer had to offer her wasn't comforting. Auror Dawlish had been a part of Minister Fudge's security detail until Fudge's death at the World Cup.

As Scrimgeour hadn't used a security detail, Dawlish wasn't doing that work. He'd told Shacklebolt that he was on long-term temporary duty for the Minister. To his discredit, Shack hadn't checked on him and Dawlish kept getting paid until Greta Macmillan did a 100% verification that the employees on payroll were coming in on a regular basis.

As such, Connie replied to Karen's request that her husband had been misleading her for nearly a year and no one knew his current whereabouts. Connie promised, "We'll contact you when we receive any credible reports about your husband."

The reality was that the reformed Death Eaters had been blamed for the tent torchings and subsequent deaths at the World Cup. No one in the DMLE was interested in searching for what amounted to a blight on their society simply because they hadn't checked in with their spouses lately.

… - ...

Back in Crawley, Harry and the Grangers sat down to discuss the move. Emma asked, "What, if anything, would you like moved to your house? We can easily put things in storage if we need to, or donate them."

Harry asked, "Dobby, Winky, can you come here please?" He explained the situation and asked how they could help.

Dobby replied, "We could be moving anything that you want moved. Humans have many things; elves make trades and keep memories."

Dan asked, "Could you just as easily bring something to the Goodwill donation drop off, or a second hand shop at Chesterfield?"

Winky replied, "Yes. They could be put into a Wizard trunk and taken out."

Hermione asked, When do you close on the house?"

"Tomorrow; the same day that your mum and dad close on their Chesterfield business."

When do you close on this house?"

Emma answered, "The end of August.

Dan asked, "Can Emma and I use one of the offices?"

"Certainly. Go ahead and pick any of the bedrooms too."

She said, "We'll sell the televisions, lamps and the like to the second hand shops and get new ones when we move so we don't have to work around electrical conversion. Where are you both going to study?"

Hermione said, "I was going to use the library room. Harry?"

"Mostly outside when I can; especially for the practical work. You should go to Hogwarts and take a photo of your favorite study table and chair. We should be able to transfigure one just like it. As for books, if you want to bring them all, we can. If you want to sell them or donate them, you'd have twice as much space to fill up. Salem has several nice bookshops on campus."

Emma summarized, "So we have three bedrooms of furniture, an office, Dan's tool room, the kitchen, less the small appliances. For some reason, I never liked the dining room set. That can go to the Goodwill. We'll sort through our clothing and donate what we can. Do we pack up the clothing that we want moved?"

Winky declared, "Winky will be packing everything that you want moved."

Harry asked, "Dobby, how may of your friends would like to go with us?"

Little D replied, "Bad people had 34 elves. Dobby has not asked them yet, as Winky and Dobby have not talked with Harry Potter Sir. Dobby will ask how many would like to go and find Harry Potter tomorrow. Dobby and elves would be needing some money for trees."

He handed them a sizeable bag of gold coins and said, "Let me know what else you need."

Dobby said, "Some of the bad people kept unicorns. Elves can not be carrying unicorns. Harry Potter Sir could be bringing them with Gringotts portkey watch."

Hermione asked, "What about Crookshanks and Hedwig?"

Dobby said, "Wizards not be using owls for delivery in new country. They both say that they want to go with you."

Emma said, "We'll need to organize our clothes."

Dan remarked, "The best way to organize stuff is to get rid of most of it."

(A/N Smuggling of magical animals may be illegal. Don't try this at home)

… - …

By the time Dan and Emma closed on their old home, there were 20 rescued elves and six unicorns living in Chesterfield. Dobby, Winky and the other elves were making plans to transplant and grow hundreds of trees that they would live in along with fruit trees that the unicorns requested.

The move itself was completed in a half day. Elf delivery service was unmatched anywhere in the world.

… - ...

Harry didn't crow about it, but he truly liked having a home that was his, purchased with money that he'd felt that he'd earned. Having Hermione, Dan, Emma, Dobby, Winky, their friends and a dozen unicorns there just made it better.

… - …

That night, while he was sitting in their new study, Dan found the quote that he'd once heard. There was a heave in his stomach.

"There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter."

– Ernest Hemingway

A/Ns

We considered keeping Harry and Hermione at Hogwarts. We passed on the idea because they couldn't stay in the same room and there were too many unpleasant reminders in the castle. As Ted pointed out when he first talked with them, out of sight, out of mind.

That said, they still have strong ties and will be back in an increasingly regular basis as the story progresses.

Thanks for reading.

… - ...