A/N I love the reviews, especially the ones that correct me. As I am going to go through all the chapters to fix them and reupload them over my X-mas break (I'm a sub), I really appreciate your help. I'm hoping to upload next Sunday but I'm trying to rewrite a scene I don't like in the next chapter. Hopefully I'll make my schedule!
A/N This is the fixed version!
A/N I fixed Lavender in this chapter. Nothing else has changed.
Ch. 13
Tuesday 23 June 1998
Tuesday morning, the young men woke up earlier than usual. They met downstairs in the kitchen. "Hey Nev. You ready for our meeting with Ted and Venus today?" Harry asked.
"Yeah. Did you ever write the things we wanted to discuss with them down?"
"Yeah. Sunday night. Let's make sure we bring my computer, yeah?" He smiled, thinking of the changes this technology could make in their lives. "You know, we've got some amazing girlfriends, right?"
"Yeah but what specifically are you talking about?" Nev smiled.
"They're smarter than anyone else in the world, they're beautiful, care about everyone and for some unknown reason love the two of us. There's nothing special about us, so why us? How'd we get so lucky?" Harry asked.
"I have absolutely no idea but I don't plan on wasting it." Nev replied seriously. Harry cracked an egg and looked up at his best mate.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'm gonna ask Luna to marry me before we go back to school." The look of determination on Nev's face would have scared him if he didn't know the man.
Harry chuckled as he went back to preparing breakfast. "I'm gonna ask Mione too."
Nev laughed. "Great minds and all that."
Dobby popped in then. "Harry Potter Sir, Master Teddy is awake. I cans take over here while you get him."
"Oh no!" Harry groaned as he put the pan down. "Better get the little man or he'll have a fit." He muttered as he walked away.
"Dobby?" Nev asked.
"Yes Master Neville."
"Why does your English sound better than it did when Sirius first hired you?" Dobby became tense. "There's nothing wrong. I was just wondering."
"Well, if Is going to be Harry Potter Sir's elf, it would be bad if I didn't speak properly." He answered.
"So who's teaching you?"
"Mitzy." He said fearfully. "Please don't hurt her."
"Our Mitzy? At Longbottom Estate?"
"Yes Master Neville. Is asked her to and she agreed to give me lessons on Mondays when you're there."
"That's great Dobby. Good for you." Nev smiled at the little guy's initiative.
"You aren't angry Master Neville? You wonts hurt her?" Dobby was wringing his hands.
"Dobby, please look at me." Dobby looked at Nev with a worried expression. Nev looked into his eyes. "We never hurt our house elves. We would never do that. In fact, I'm glad she's helping you. You and Mitzy are both very good house elves."
At that Dobby jumped on his leg saying "Thank you, thank you, thank you."
Harry and Teddy walked in with the rest of the family to eat breakfast. For Nev it was an interesting concept to think of these people as family. Besides his Gran, he'd never really felt like he had an actual family. Sure, he had his Uncle Algie and relatives like that, but family, no. These odd people were his family, he thought as he sat down to eat with them.
HP
After breakfast, the young men and women left the Madhouse for Diagon Alley. When they got to WWW, the men helped their girlfriends get their cart ready with all the equipment they had magicked last night. When they were done, they gave the girls kisses and left for Gringotts.
"Wow." Harry whispered under his breath. "Do you realise Nev that we have dropped off our girlfriends at their own business and are about to consult on our own and we're not even 18 yet?"
Nev just shook his head. "I know. Weird isn't it?" he asked "I wonder when they're going to need or want to expand. I mean, they have a lot of stock now and are going to need more room than that little cart they have. I saw the shop across from WWW is for rent, maybe we should bring it up to them soon."
"Yeah. We should probably wait until they bring it up. Mione has this need to control things. If she doesn't see the need for it, she won't even think of it. I just hope she's learned not to run herself into the ground like she did third year."
"Yeah, that was bad." Nev snickered as they walked into Gringotts and to Ted's office.
They knocked and Trainee Swordback came to the door. "Good morning Trainee Swordback. May you always see where deals can be made." Harry said as he bowed.
"May your ventures always be profitable, Harry."
"May your gold always grow Trainee Swordback." Nev greeted.
"May your life be long and profitable, Neville."
Ted came out from around his desk. "So boys. I understand you have hired a Head for your orphanage, yeah?" He questioned.
"You know we have." Harry rolled his eyes. They had discussed this at dinner on Sunday.
Ted laughed. "And I called her yesterday to make sure she was coming today."
Just as he finished saying that, a knock was heard at the door. Trainee Swordback brought Venus back in and all five of them sat at a table to go over their ideas.
"Nev and I have done some talking over the weekend and think our next step is to find architects to work with." Harry started.
"That makes sense." Ted agreed. "I can talk to some of my contacts here at Gringotts and find a few to interview if you want?"
"That sounds great." Nev enthused. "Maybe we can use the mock drawings we made on Friday to get us started."
"How many orphans are you planning to taking in at a time?" Venus asked.
"I don't know. How many does Hufflepuff House have?" Harry returned.
"We have space for 20 children of each group." Venus answered.
"Is that too many or can you see taking more?" Nev wanted to know.
"Well, that is all we can physically handle. I'm just wondering how many you want to house because we can adjust the size of the place to fit if we want."
"We don't want to house them. Any orphanage can do that. We want this to be their home." Harry sighed. "Look, each time I left Hogwarts every June, I felt as though I was leaving home for just a place to sleep. I don't want that for these kids. I want them to look forward to coming back. I want them to bond with the staff because they feel loved. If that means we limit it to eighty kids, great. That just means we're going to need to build more of these places. However, if you think we can take more and still have staff to children ratios low, then let's do that."
All during this speech, Nev saw Venus calculating whether they could take more. "I think we should aim to home at most 160 and see how that goes."
"That means we need to house 40 kids per tower. Plus, one flat in each tower should have an adult." Nev reminded. "Forty kids per tower with 2 kids sharing each room. That's twenty rooms if we have 40 kids—to make them big enough and have their own bathroom, we should probably limit them to 4 rooms a floor. Each room would be 450 square feet with bath so that'd be 1800 square feet per floor. Of course, then there is the adult flat at the top that should be at least 1000 square feet. So that's 5 floors each 1800 square feet plus one with 1000 square feet flat."
"That's bigger than some muggle homes." Ted said. "I think you might be thinking too large boys. You also need dining space, office space, a game room and classrooms—all in one building."
"However," Venus looked encouraging. "Let's start there and see how much it would cost to do it."
Harry looked at her seriously. "Are we being overly ambitious?"
"No, I don't believe so. However, nothing has been done on this scale before that I am aware of. Hufflepuff House is the largest one I've seen and you're talking much larger than that. I told Auntie what you were planning at dinner Sunday. She warned me to keep you in check because otherwise you would try to and I quote house the world." She answered laughed at the looks of horror on their faces. "What? Did you think I'd not talk to Aunt Minnie about this?" She shook her head as the young men just sat there shocked.
"It's not that you shouldn't talk to your Aunt about your job. It's that Harry and I have trouble with the fact that you are related to the Lioness of Gryffindor. You may not be aware but to a first year student, she's scary." Nev sighed.
She shook her head. Her Aunt had a reputation at Hogwarts but, maybe because she was her Aunt, Venus never saw that scary Lioness. Of course, she was a Hufflepuff herself! "Let's look at the designs again and firm them up. Then maybe you can take me out to the property to look it over and see where we'd want to situate it."
"Good idea." Harry agreed as he got his computer out and they started building their virtual orphanage. They placed the four towers and orientated both the bedrooms and common rooms in their correct places. They played with the entrances to the towers being on the ground floor and using stairways and corridors for getting to the classrooms.
"We really need to make this simpler than getting around at Hogwarts because some of these kids will be really little and not be able to handle a complex system of hallways and corridors." Nev said.
They just kept throwing out ideas and had a fairly good map of what they wanted the place to look like after two hours. When Neville, Venus and Harry were satisfied that they could take their draft to an architect, they decided to go to the property.
When they got there and Venus realised they would take an overview on brooms, she was nervous. "Harry, I'll ride with you because I've heard of Neville's exploits on a broom." Both men laughed. "But, remember, I've heard of your exploits too so no dangerous stunt while I'm on board!" she sounded like the Professor, so he just had to tease.
"Okay. I'll wait until we're done to give you a real ride." He grinned cheekily at her as she scowled. Then he sighed. "Fine. No stunts. Happy?" He asked grouchily.
"Very much." She replied as they set out and found where they wanted to put the main road and the actual home.
HP
They arrived back at WWW around noon as the women were closing down for lunch. "Hi Mione." Harry said as he gave her a kiss.
"Hi love." She kissed him back as she finished up with a customer. As he put his arms around her from behind, someone asked "Are you two going out?"
Harry looked around and saw Parvati Patil in the shop. He smiled as Mione rested on him. "Hey Parvati. Yes, we are."
"That's so interesting." She smiled back. "When did that happen?"
"After the battle." Mione replied as she closed up the cart. The quartet then walked to the back room to eat the lunch Dobby must have brought. There was a table with four places set and a steaming lunch. "Thank Merlin for Dobby." Mione muttered as she sat down.
"Yeah. That little guy knows exactly what we need, when we need it." Harry smiled as all four started to eat. "So, how did this morning go?" he asked both women.
"Well, I can say that I truly hate selling things." Mione complained. "You have to explain everything multiple times. Quite frankly, we need more space than the little cart. I noticed this morning that people coming to our cart were impeding traffic in the store. I'm thinking we get a license and move it out onto the Alley itself. It's not fair to Fred and George."
"And we need more workers." Luna added. "And more room. The cart just isn't big enough."
Harry and Nev looked at each other, both thinking of their conversation this morning. "What would you girls think of moving the shop to right across the alley?" Harry asked.
Luna and Hermione looked at each other curiously. "We've been talking in the break times we've had about just handing our idea off to a store manager and having them run it. Then each time we figure out how to magic an item, we can teach it to the staff and they can do it."
"Or we could have a front store staff that just sells these gadgets and a back staff that just converts them." Mione paused, biting her lip. "Or we could cross train them to do both jobs and when they're not selling, they're converting. But we'd need a manager that has already had experience running a store."
Harry went to the floor and brought back Fred. "What can I do for you?" Fred asked.
"I was wondering if you'd run into anyone who has experience managing a store and would want to run a shop for us?" Harry asked.
"Are you thinking about expanding?" He returned.
"Do you think it's too soon?" Luna asked.
"Merlin no. I think you'd be crazy not to expand. You can only sell so much from that tiny cart. We gave you that because we thought you'd outgrow it soon and it would force you to either become businesswomen or throw in the towel. Honestly, I bet you'd expand as soon as you saw how busy you'd be. George thought you'd throw in the towel. Lee, Angelina, Percy, Audrey, and Fleur were with me. Ron and Bill were with George. I win!"
Everyone laughed at that as Mione rolled her eyes and muttered "Honestly, you bet on everything!"
"Yes, we do!" Fred grinned. "As to a manager, I would actually suggest Angelina. She's spent the last two years taking business classes at a muggle college while she tries out for Quidditch teams. She's always talked about going into stocks strading, I think it's called, if this Quidditch thing doesn't work. She might be able to run the store for you."
Hermione laughed. "It's called stock trading, Fred. Maybe we could talk to the rental office today and see how much it'd cost to rent and take a look at it and talk to Angie tonight."
"Would you like our new employee Brian to watch the cart for you this afternoon?" Fred asked. At the look of relief on their faces, he laughed. "You guys are not really salespeople. It's been really fun watching you flounder but, since you won me the bet, I'll front you Brian for the rest of the week. Just keep it stocked, yeah?"
Hermione got up and gave him a hug. "Thank you, Fred. I love the research but hate the selling."
As they finished lunch, Harry and Nev headed to the ministry for the first meeting of the Awards Committee that Nev headed while their loves went to the Diagon Alley Rental Office with Fred to look into the shop across the alley.
By the time the young men got to the conference room Sirius has booked for them, it was half one. Sirius was there to greet them. "Hey boys. How'd it go today?" he asked as they sat at the round table.
"Well, we took Venus out to the site and decided where it would go. We also finished up our mock-
up for the architect." Harry said.
"Then we had lunch with the girls and they decided they were going to look into renting the place across the alley and hiring a staff. Angelina may be coming to dinner tonight to 'interview' for a store manager position." Nev finished.
Sirius' eyes widened as they kept talking. "Sounds like a busy day." He shook his head. "I thought I would stay for the first part of this meeting, maybe the first 10 minutes, to make sure they don't eat you both."
"We wouldn't eat them." Charles Abbott said. "Gnaw on them but not eat them." He laughed as he came in.
"Just remember. My godson killed Voldemort and Nev killed Voldemort's familiar." Sirius grinned as Charles went a little green.
The members of the Awards Committee were: Silas Greengrass, Aldrich Ollivander, Terry Boot, Tonks, Hestia Jones, Bill Weasley, Ernest Macmillan, Henry Slughorn, Nev, Harry, and Charles Abbott.
"Welcome everyone. My name is Neville Longbottom. I fought at the Battle at the Ministry in 1996 and the Battle of Hogwarts. I'd like us all to go around and introduce ourselves in case everyone has not met. Starting to my right. Just say your name and what you did during the war."
"My name's Bill Weasley. I worked at Gringotts and fought at the Battle of Hogwarts." And thus, introductions began.
It finally ended with "I'm Harry Potter and I fought at the Battle at the Ministry and the Battle of Hogwarts." He said quietly, looking at his hands on the table.
Everyone started chuckling at the absurdity of the statement. Eventually, Harry looked up and everyone was looking back at him. "What?" he asked.
"Does he really not understand what he did?" Ollivander asked.
"Yes." Bill laughed softly. "He doesn't get what he did for all of us. But it's no use explaining it. I've tried."
"Look." Harry said, letting a little edge into his voice. "I did what was right. I got rid of the bloody bastard. End of story."
"Yes. Well. Thank you, son." Charles said.
"Okay." Nev began. "I understand that there are three classes of Order of Merlin's. I suggest we add a fourth class or a different name for the award for anyone who was wounded in both wars be awarded at least third class. Does anyone disagree?"
"I don't disagree with the concept but what do we call it?" Dora asked.
Everyone threw out names and they were each debated. Eventually, around 5.00, they agreed on Dragon Heart. They also decided on a Horntail Dragon on a red background.
"Okay, we've come up with the design. I'll have an artist friend do a mock-up for next week and we can name who gets one. Is there a master list of those wounded we could use?" Nev asked.
"I know there is for the First war and I think the Ministry is putting one together for this war." Charles said.
"Okay, I'll get copies of those for us next week." Nev stood up. "Thank you all for your service on this committee. See you next week." And the meeting broke up.
The boys walked to the floo in silence and floo'd home as soon as possible.
HP
Harry did a 'Point me Teddy' and found him in the drawing room with Andi. Nev sat down and groaned. Harry picked Teddy out of the swing and sat down next to Nev.
Andi smiled. "You two look exhausted." She finally said.
"We had our first Awards Meeting today." Nev sighed.
"I know. That's why I'm here babysitting Teddy."
"Well, you try to get 10 stubborn people to agree on anything. Not possible."
"That fun, huh?" she chuckled. "So what'd you decide?"
"We decided on a new award 'the Dragon Heart' for anyone wounded or killed in either war." Harry submitted. "It was a bloody nightmare. They kept looking to me to make these decisions." He was starting to get angry and didn't want it to effect his godson, so calmed himself. "I killed the bastard but they want my opinion on everything." He looked at his little man. "I needed to come home and hold you little man." He smiled at Teddy and his godson grinned back. "I love you Teddy."
"And he loves you too Harry." Dora said from behind him. Teddy grinned, squealed and reached up to Dora. "Thank you." She whispered as she took her son.
Soon, the rest of the family arrived and Andi went home. The residents of the Madhouse sat talking about inane things until Angelina and Fred arrived.
"Hi Angelina. Good to see you. Come to the drawing room." Sirius invited.
Hermione got up. "So glad you two could make it."
"Thanks." Angelina looked confused." Why am I here?"
Hermione glared at Fred. "You were supposed to tell her."
"Decided this would be more fun." He grinned at the men as Angie hit him on the back of his head.
"Dinner is served." Dobby announced formally as everyone went to the kitchen and sat down.
"Well, Angie." Mione dove in. "You know we've been selling our electronics at WWW, right?" Angie nodded. "Okay, here's the thing. Luna and I are not salespeople, businesspeople or anything like that." Harry snorted as did Nev. They glared at their boyfriends. "Anyway, we know we need to expand. The little cart we have isn't working; we need more space. But we don't want to run it. Fred said that you were interested in running a business and that you had taken classes in business at a muggle college." She took a breath and took Harry's hand under the table. "Would you be willing to run MIT with the understanding that you get a 10 percent share in the company at the end of the first year we make a profit?"
Ang looked at Fred. "What do you think? You're the business mogul, do you think this will succeed?"
"I do, love. I think you'll be getting in on a revolution, once everything is done. Think about it." He said. "How much has having a mobile helped us keep in touch? We talk every night now. Soon you won't have to floocall anyone. And the computers are amazing for businesses. My advice is do it."
Ang looked at her bosses. "How much say do I have in hiring and firing?"
"Well, at first, we'd like to do it together because we have to make sure they can convert the phones but once we're off at school, we'll talk when needed." Luna looked at the notes under her drink."
"Okay. I'll do it. Have you found a shop yet?" Ang grinned.
At that, the girls and Fred burst out laughing. "Yeah. It's the shop across from WWW and, thanks to Fred's wheeling and dealing, we got an amazing price and it comes with an apartment upstairs if you want it." Hermione offered.
The rest of the evening was talking details. They spent time showing Angie how to convert the mobiles. Talked about Brian staying and running the cart while everyone opened the shop. Fred offered to help them set up and hire personnel. They came up with a store logo, which was a stylized version of the initials being carried by a white snowy owl in flight, in honor of Hedwig. They proceeded to come up with fliers and print them up. The men were going to put them up along Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade in the morning.
After dinner, they moved to the drawing room as Fred agreed to introduce the three girls around to all the important shop owners tomorrow. He'd also agreed to mentor Ang on bookkeeping, keeping track of stock, managing and hiring staff and 'all the other shite you need to know as you start a shop' as Fred put it.
It was a load off the girls' shoulders to have someone else do what Mione and Luna thought of as drudgery work. They could run the business. The previous two days were proof that they could keep the cart stocked, take care of the business end and sell to customers. However, they liked to invent, take things apart and fix them. Basically, they liked the higher-order problem solving of their work. This worked for everyone perfectly.
Around nine o'clock, right as Fred and Ang were leaving, Professor McGonagall floocalled. They invited her in for tea and the family sat down in the drawing room.
She looked at Harry bottle feeding Teddy and smiled softly at them. "Don't worry Harry. I won't take him from you."
Everyone laughed as Dora commented, "I don't think Teddy would let you anyway Minerva."
"Too true." She sighed. "There are a few things I'd like to talk to you about tonight. First, after I talked to you today Sirius, I sent messages to the Board suggesting we meet here Friday night at 6. We'll have our usual meeting in your study, relax with dinner, then you give your presentation. The reasons we should do it this way are two-fold. First, it gives us more time to prepare. Second, no one feels stressed to leave because they have to get up in the morning. Is this acceptable?" Everyone nodded. "There are a certain number of things on your list that I, as Headmistress, have a say in. First, I have hired a new Potions teacher and a new DADA teacher. Second, I'm hiring a half-blood with a degree in Muggle History from Princeton and a Mastery in History of Magic to teach both to our students. Third, I revamped the points system and my deputy, Professor Flitwick already knows this is to apply across the board. One of his new jobs is going to be looking at the points given or taken each day and see whether they're reasonable and in line with the new rules. If not, measures will be taken to fix that."
Luna grinned. "Professor Flitwick is Deputy Headmaster?" Minerva nodded. "Brilliant. He's great!"
"You're just saying that cause he's your Head." Nev nudged her as she stuck her tongue out.
"Children." Minerva used her Professor voice and they stopped immediately as did Sirius and Dora, who looked up guiltily. She just laughed at the fact that she could still cow students she hadn't had for 20 years.
"Headmistress?" Hermione asked. "We'll go through the presentation tomorrow. Could you come for dinner tomorrow night so we can go over changes?"
"Of course, Hermione." She smiled at her favorite student. Then she looked at the young men. "I hear you hired my niece to help you build an orphanage, is that true?"
"Yes." Harry answered. "And can you pleeease stop telling her stories about us?"
"When you have one normal year, I will."
"That means never, kiddo." Sirius laughed. Harry just rolled his eyes. Soon enough, Minerva left and Harry put Teddy to bed.
When the quartet went to bed that night, everyone was satisfied, or ecstatic, about what had occurred that evening.
Wednesday 24 June 1998
The next day, Nev met Teddy and his godfather downstairs while Harry was cooking breakfast. "Hey you two." Nev greeted as he kissed Teddy on the head.
"Hey mate. I understand that we are supposed to be at Wizengamot today to witness the swearing in of the new members." Nev nodded as Harry reached in his back pocket and got his small notebook out. "Look at the third sheet. There's a list of things I think we should get done today. Why don't you go through it and add anything you think we need to do?"
"Sure." Nev took the notebook and looked at it. "That's not a bad day. . . We may even get to help the girls with converting some appliances before we go to Wizengamot. So, we're going to hand out fliers this morning. We may have to play on your celebrity to get our fliers in the door." He warned his celebrity shy friend.
"We could use yours. You are well-known as well."
"Yeah. I don't have my name plastered in books of famous wizards. That's you mate." He grinned at his brother.
"Don't remind me." Harry groaned. Their conversation petered out as everyone came down for breakfast.
"So, you girls are going to go out with Fred to look at the store and buy shelving today?" Sirius asked.
"Yeah. But this morning we're going to the Floo Office to register our address and get hooked up." Mione said.
"Everyone here besides little man has to be in dress robes and at Wizengamot at three o'clock, yeah?" Padfoot said seriously.
"Yeah, we know." Dora groaned. "That means someone gets to take care of Teddy while I take a shower." She brightened at that.
"Don't worry. We'll be home for lunch." Harry responded. Then he had an idea. "Nev, I don't think we have to use my celebrity." He grinned mischievously. "Dora, how'd you like this morning off? We can take Teddy on the few errands we have to run today."
"Sure! Let me go get his things." Dora ran upstairs and came back with his nappy bag.
"I've got the fliers." Nev held up the folder with the fliers.
"Hogsmeade first, yeah?" Harry asked as he situated Ted in the carrier. At Nev's nod, they disapparated.
Hermione looked at Sirius. "Uncle Sirius, are you coming back for lunch?"
"Yeah. I've got a meeting this morning to firm up the wording for your oaths. Merlin, I can't wait until we go back to monthly meetings in July." He rolled his eyes. "Politicians are so difficult to deal with. I know certain laws have to be repealed and some need updating but we haven't been able to do anything really because we don't have enough bodies. We've been going through and making sure that all the Heads of Departments are the right people for the job but we can't get any legislation passed until after today." He sighed.
"Well, we'll see you for lunch then." Hermione smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek as she and Luna disapparated.
When they got to the Floo Office, Luna got in line and Hermione sat down. After registering their address as MIT, they floo'd to WWW to have Fred help them with setting up. However, they first stocked the cart. Fred then took them all around the Alley to meet the owners of other shops.
HP
When the boys apparated to outside the Three Broomsticks, Nev finally asked, "So how are you not going to use your celebrity?"
Harry just looked at his godson. "Simple. I'm going to use Teddy. Watch and learn." He smirked at his godbrother as they walked in
"Hi boys." Rosmerta said as she peered at Teddy. "And who is this cutie?" she asked as Harry took him out of the carrier.
"This is my godson, Teddy Lupin." Harry smiled down at the baby.
"You mean Remus' kid?" she asked, shocked.
"Yup. Remus didn't make it but Dora did, so we're raising Teddy. Sirius, Hermione, Dora and I."
"Well, that's good. He'll need you in his life, especially to balance out Sirius." Rosmerta laughed. "You'll need to balance out his wilder tendencies. He and the rest of those hooligans had a habit to turning Minerva more grey every year."
Nev and Harry laughed at that. "We were wondering if we could put up some fliers for Hermione and Luna's new shop in your window?" Harry asked.
"Of course." She agreed.
When they went through all of High Street and put fliers in all the shops, Nev was convinced. "Babies make it much easier to get help. And you didn't have to pull the boy who lived crap at all."
"You even got it to work when you took him in." Harry reminded him. "Apparently, people like to see men with babies and they soften up." He finished as they went to The Hog's Head and checked on Abe. They reminded him about Wizengamot that afternoon. All they got was a grumbled. "Fine. I'll be there."
"Right then." Nev sighed. "Let's go to the Alley."
HP
They apparated right outside MIT. "Should we go into the store first or distribute the fliers?" Nev asked as he was bowled over by a blonde missile.
"I missed you." Luna squealed as Harry was given the same treatment by a taller brunette.
"Harry, you should see what we've done with the place. We've set up all sorts of tables to display our items. We've actually enlarged both the front space and back so we have more than enough room so people don't feel crammed. We've actually got a workspace in back that we can experiment in and a space to store excess items." She took a deep breath as she had run out of air and grabbed his hand. "Well, just come here." She pulled him inside.
Inside, two walls were neon red and gold and two were neon blue and bronze. "You had Fred paint it didn't you?" He grinned.
"He chose the colors. We couldn't decide, so he said go for bold." Luna replied as she was hugging Nev.
All of the tables were dressed in either one of those color schemes. Each table had stools around it so people could sit and play with the items. In the middle of the shop was a higher counter that had all four colors on it. It also had a cash register. It was obviously the check out stand. In the corners were tellies and VCR's.
"Come into the back." Luna invited as she led the way. She opened the door to a big room. "This will be our break room. We are thinking of putting some games and a few couches and a telly in here. Now come this way." She took a door on the left side of the room. There were four work stations with benches and shelving. To Harry, it looked kind of like a muggle woodworking shop.
"This is really neat." He commented. "Are you going to hire someone just to convert stuff?"
"Yeah. Angie and we have decided to have 2 full time people doing conversions and a customer service staff. Soon, we'll cross train everyone but at the start we need someone dedicated to building up stock." Mione replied.
Luna looked at her watch. "Hermione it's 10.15. We have our first interview in 15 minutes." She started hauling Nev to the front of the store.
"But we haven't even gotten all the fliers out!" He protested.
"Yes but Fred talked to some people that want a job. He set up the interviews." Luna answered as she pushed Nev out. "You guys need to go."
"Will we see you at lunch?" Harry enquired.
"Yes love." Mione reached up and kissed him. "I love you. And thank you for believing in us." She whispered.
"I love you too. And I'll always believe in you. You're the smartest witch I know." He put another kiss on her forehead as the men left.
"Bloody hell. That store's going to be brilliant. I mean, they already have interviews lined up. This is great." Nev enthused.
"Yeah. Let's get these fliers out so they can get more and open on Monday." Harry answered. They spent the next hour going to all the big stores to put fliers up.
When they got to Quality Quidditch Supplies, Harry just stood looking in the window. Nev took one look and said, "I'll be right back. You won't leave the store if you go in." He took Teddy out of Harry's hands and went inside all the while shaking his head at his Quidditch mad brother. He was back in 5 minutes. Harry was still gawking at the new Firebolt II.
"They said that Firebolt just came out this week." Nev offered as he dragged Harry away.
"Did they say how much it was?"
"200 G. For a broom. It's silly."
"Sorry to sound like Ron but it's a Firebolt II. If I hadn't just bought a new Firebolt, I would so buy that." Nev laughed.
They finished up with the distribution around 11 and decided that, since they were in the Alley, they'd go start the account for the orphanage. They had decided that the Longbottoms and Potters would each put one million galleons into the fund. So, they went to see Trainee Swordback to set it up.
They were home by 12.
HP
They apparated home and saw a load of bags in the entrance hall. It looked like Dora had been out buying new items to convert. She came into the entrance hall as they were getting oriented.
"Hey, there's my boy." Dora cooed as she took Teddy. They all went into the drawing room. "How'd he do today?"
"He was great. He stayed up most of the time in Hogsmeade but fell asleep in the Alley for about half an hour as we did our stuff. I bet he sleeps most of the time we're gone today. He just ate and I changed his nappy. He should be content for a while." Harry reported to the new mum.
"Thank you for taking such good care of him." Dora responded.
"He's my godson. Of course I'll take care of him." Harry looked confused.
"It's not that I don't think you do, it's that I worry when he's not with me." Dora explained.
"Hello, Hello, Hello." Came Sirius' fake jovial voice from the hall.
"In here Pads." Harry projected his voice.
Pads flopped down on a chair. "I hate politicians." He groaned.
"So do I. That's why you hold my proxy." Harry laughed at the look on his face.
"Is anyone home?" They heard from the hall.
"In here Mione." Harry answered as she came in and sat next to him. "Did you hire anyone?"
"Yup three of the four had passed their NEWTS with Exceeds or Outstanding in Runes and Charms. Two of them want to be the people converting the equipment and the other wants to start on the floor." She smiled at her boyfriend.
"We hired all three." Luna concluded.
"That's great. We got the Alley and Hogsmeade plastered with those fliers so you should be getting enquiries soon." Nev added. "When do they start?"
"Tomorrow." Hermione was still smiling. "We're also thinking about opening Saturday rather than Monday."
"Will you have enough people and stock?" Sirius asked.
"We think so with Fred and George's help."
Dobby popped in. "Lunch is served." He intoned formally as they got up for lunch.
"You know, I really enjoy these lunches." Nev asserted.
"Yes. Me too." Sirius answered. "It's the break in the day of hassles and insanity that I need when dealing with idiot politicians."
"It's nice to know that we all eat together as much as possible." Dora commented.
"And I like the work of cooking all the meals." Dobby added. They laughed. "I can't wait to have more babies to care for." He looked directly at both couples as they blushed and Sirius and Dora laughed.
Trying to change the subject, Harry asked, "Nev, I was wondering if you could take me to see your mum today before Wizengamot?"
"Sure." His godbrother's eyes lit up. "I know she'd love to see you."
After lunch, Sirius went back to the Ministry, the young men got dressed into their formal robes so they didn't have to come home from hospital to change and the women started reviewing the plans for Hogwarts while Dora and Dobby converted electronics.
HP
When the men got to hospital, they went directly to The Janus Thicke Ward. The nurse came over to greet them.
"Hello. May I help you?" she asked.
"I'm Neville Longbottom, Frank and Alice's son. This is Alice's godson-"
The woman gasped. "Harry Potter." She suddenly got very nervous. "My name is MediWitch Johnson. I just started here. I'm so sorry I didn't recognise you both."
"That's okay." Harry sighed at the doe eyes the woman was making at him. He really hated his celebrity. "I'd just like to see my god-mum please."
"Of course, this way." The MediWitch answered as she showed them to the Longbottoms' room.
Alice looked up as they entered. She smiled at Neville and handed him a gum wrapper.
"Hi mum. Hi dad. I brought a friend to see you. This is Harry Potter." He introduced bringing Harry forth.
"Hi Alice." He said softly as he sat next to her bed. "I'm James and Lily's kid. You're my Godmum. I thought you'd want to know Voldemort's dead for good. Bellatrix is too." And he started filling her in on his life. She seemed to know he was talking to her and that they were important to each other. She also seemed to enjoy the tail of his adventures.
The longer Harry spent with her though; the more he realised what he could have had if not for Bellatrix and the angrier he got. Alice seemed to have a peaceful look on her face, as though she was genuinely a nice person under normal circumstances. The more he talked and held her hand, the more he wished he'd never lived with the Dursleys.
After an hour or so, the boys left. "I don't know how you do it Nev. I had a hard time watching the vacant stare that came over her. I can't imagine how you feel."
HP
After their visit, the men floo'd to the Ministry's Atrium. They met up with their girlfriends and went down to Wizengamot Hall. They split up, going to their own seats.
At 3.00, Wizengamot came to order. They had all the new members standing on the floor with their wands out. Kingsley then read the Oath of Office "I, name inserted, solemnly swear to uphold the laws of Wizengamot. I affirm that I will protect and defend those that are under Wizengamot jurisdiction to the best of my abilities. I will not be a member of a terrorist organization as long as I am a member of this body. I take this vow of my own volition as I take up my seat. So mote it be." Everyone repeated each line as he said it. Each member was engulfed in some color of light, depending on their family magic, at the conclusion of the oath.
After everyone had taken their vow and was seated, Chief Witch Marchbanks stood. "Those of us who have been in this body since the war ended, realise we need to change how things are done. We waited to have all the members available, to have a majority, so we could commission a few Committees to make a few changes." The bailiff started handing out parchment to every member. "On your parchment, there are a list of committees. Tap your wand to the committee you would like to join. You may serve on a maximum of three committees. If you are holding a Proxy for a House, you may still only serve on three. Please choose carefully as each committee has very specific goals. We will take a 10 minute recess to let you decide." She banged her gavel and the talking began.
As Sirius was holding Proxy for not only Harry but Hermione as well, they sat closely, looking at the list. "Uncle Sirius, could you put your name down for the committee looking into rewriting Creature laws?" Hermione asked.
"I knew you'd want me there." Sirius smiled down at her.
"Could you be on the committee looking into corruption at the Head of Department level?" Harry asked. "We really need to make sure everyone is clean."
"Sure." Sirius agreed.
"What about this one?" Hermione asked, pointing to Committee to Rewrite Hiring Guidelines. "Will that deal with merit-based hiring instead of blood-status hiring?"
"I believe so." Sirius said as he put the tip of his wand below the title.
Chief Witch Marchbanks thumped her gavel again. "Please come to order." She stated as everyone quieted down. "Now that you have all chosen, each committee will have five people. The list will be out on Friday of who is on what committee and when they will present their findings. Every committee will present their findings and proposed changes before the end of summer so we may vote on them. It will be up to the members of the committee to determine when they meet. We will only be having our regular monthly meetings in July and August unless a committee needs to present findings." She looked at her watch. "Meeting adjourned." She whacked her gavel again.