Ch 28 Legal and Financial Stuff

Friday morning Harry was in the Department of Law Enforcement talking to some of the Aurors, doing some 'managing by wandering around,' when he received a text message from Narcissa. We are going through Godiva's office, and have found letters from Jezebel to Lucius and Godiva.

Harry replied, Please save any potential evidence. We are swamped here, but I will try and make time to look at the letters as soon as possible.

Narcissa sat down at Godiva's desk and started to look through the letters. There was a cabinet with letters in roughly chronological order. It was apparent that if Godiva wanted a particular letter she was able to summon it, as some of the letters toward the top of the pile were older. Somehow Lucius had either inherited or procured a Crystal Ball, and that he and then Godiva had used it to talk to Jezebel. The plan to have Draco's child and Jezebel's great-grandchild marry, and have her raised in England, was hatched long before either of them were born.

Lucius seemed confident that he could teach both of them the joy of torturing and killing Muggles. Jezebel confirmed that she could teach them to behave in even more depraved ways. From what modest amount of information that the letters contained about the island, and what she knew from the little she had been told, Narcissa was sure that Jezebel was lying to Godiva about her intentions, and maybe lying to Lucius as well.

Her opinion of Lucius, that had been steadily going down, took another dive. There was one letter where Jezebel agreed to let Lucius take part in the sacrifices, since "he so enjoyed killing the innocent."

It was also apparent from the letters that Jezebel was very upset that neither Draco nor Astoria took the lead in teaching Draco and Cleo, and that they were not being taught to hate.

Narcissa ended up spending most of the day at Godiva's desk going through all the paperwork.

Friday afternoon December Thirtieth Albus and Cleo with their Elves, a couple of Auror guards, and Richard and Annabella Fagan, came through the Floo into the kitchen at twelve Grimmauld Place. Teddy, who had been back and forth, accompanied them, but then left for the New Burrow and his family.

"How was Resort Cleo?" Ginny wondered.

"Busy, and we didn't come close to finishing, but Cleo's parents can finish most of what needs to be done over there," Albus replied. "We are going to have to go back next summer, and sometime we are going to have to bring the Crystal Ball to Switzerland.

"Meanwhile we need a place for Richard and Annabella to stay, and we need to meet with uncle Bill to set up arrangements for Richard and Annabella to be paid."

"I've read the letter that Richard sent to me and set aside a couple of rooms at Potter's New Burrow," Ginny replied. "I've talked to Bill. You head over there, and I will text Bill and have him meet you over there."

A short time later Bill and Fleur, Albus and Cleo, Richard and Annabella met in the kitchen of Potter's New Burrow, and then proceeded to the living room where they sad down.

"You need a little capital, a modest pot of money to get started with," Bill told Richard and Annabella as they met. "You need clothes that reflect your position as professional people, not slaves or servants but assistants to Al and Cleo."

"I have been living on charity, the modest sums of money that some foundation has given me to let me go to Hogwarts," Richard told everyone. "I don't have much in the way of clothes. Albus and the others bought us summer weight clothes on Resort Cleo, and I have enough Hogwarts uniforms, but not much else."

"Except for Hogwarts uniforms and the summer clothes, all I have are old fashion witch's robes," Annabella added.

"Rose knows how to dress," Fleur observed. "I will find her and have her shop with you."

Fleur sent a Patronus to Rose, and a short time later she and Scorpius came through the Floo at the New Burrow and went next door to Potter's New Burrow.

"How are you, Rose?" Fleur asked when Rose and Scorpius walked into the living room.

"We've just spent a delightful week at Malfoy Manor," Rose replied, rolling her eyes, her posture giving lie to her words. "I'm glad to have an excuse to get out of the house."

"You didn't get out at all?" Fleur gasped.

"We set up our own accounts at Gringotts," Scorpius replied. "Apparently once married we receive a reasonably generous allowance. We then spent some money on clothes for Rose."

"Oh, where did you go?" Fleur wondered.

"Mother Minerva's," Rose laughed. "It was Scorpius's first visit, and I thought his eyes would pop out of his head. Most of what we purchased was rather practical, because I'm pregnant."

"But not all?" asked a smiling Fleur, sensing something.

"Well, Scorpius did buy me a nightgown, one made of magisilk."

"Molly has three of them!" Fleur laughed. "They don't cover much!"

"Mother Minerva says she doesn't think grandmother ever wears the knickers," Rose added, as she also laughed.

"That wouldn't surprise me," Fleur agreed, grinning. "My mother-in-law is a randy witch."

Cleo smiled. "I've examined grandmother and grandfather for soap, shampoo and perfume, and I can tell they do it often. More than often, I think. Aunt Ginny, I think, inherited that part of her personality from her mother.

"I'm more in favor of skin to skin, as often as I can, but I can understand that a nightgown like that would be attractive."

Fleur told the couple, "Annabella, you are going to have to purchase maternity wear as well. Make sure to take Richard with you."

"We are paying you enough that you should be able to afford a sexy nightgown," Albus added, smiling at the slightly embarrassed couple.

"I don't think Scorpius is going to mind another visit to Mother Minerva's," Rose joked.

Scorpius grinned an embarrassed grin.

Richard and Annabella smiled at each other, and after all the legal and financial work was finished left to go shopping with Rose and Scorpius.

Of course, Molly insisted that the returning people eat dinner at the New Burrow. Albus and Teddy talked to Arthur and Harry about the situation on Resort Cleo and received information on the situation with the captured Magi.

Ginny noticed that Cleo seemed to be exhausted and was not taking part in the conversation. So as dinner was ending, but the four wizards looked like they were going to move to the living room to continue their conversation, she asked Cleo, "Do you want to go back to Grimmauld Place with me?"

Cleo just nodded 'yes.'

Victoire notice Cleo's apparent exhaustion, and Ginny's offer. "Would it help if Minerva spent the night here?" she asked Ginny.

Ginny nodded 'yes,' so Victoire asked Minerva, "Would you like to spend the night here, Minerva."

"I can help take care of the babies!" she exclaimed.

Juana looked at Minerva and asked, "Play wif me?"

Minerva looked at Victoire, who replied, "Do you want to play with Juana? That would help us."

"I will!" Minerva exclaimed. "I'm a big girl and a big help!"

"You are!" Victoire exclaimed. Minerva just beamed with joy.

Ginny and Cleo left for Grimmauld Place.

"Come up with me to the Living Room," Ginny suggested. "It is quieter and more private than the Drawing Room."

Cleo followed Ginny up to the living room. Ginny sat on one end of an overstuffed piece of furniture and motioned for Cleo to sit on the other end.

"Tough week?" Ginny asked.

"Very," Cleo quietly replied, much more subdued than her usual boisterous self.

Ginny looked sympathetically at Cleo, but didn't pry, trying to give Cleo the chance to volunteer information.

"I didn't know it was that bad," Cleo finally sniffed, shaking her head, almost crying. "I knew what went on was bad, but I didn't realize it was that bad, that perverted."

Cleo looked at Ginny as the tears started. "We are supposed to make judgments on who can stay on the island, and take care of the children, and it is not fair to blame everyone for what they did, because everyone did just horrible things, but it is hard to even hear about them, and to examine people who feel so so guilty about it.

"Most of the wizards are real bastards, but not all. So too are many of the witches, but fewer of them. So we have about twenty-five witches and ten wizards on the island, supervised but taking care of the children, or doing other things. Most of the children, not all. Some, like Teddy's, are off the island, with other people. Some of the witches and a few of the wizards will just need some education, some reforming, and they may be free, but too many are really …"

Ginny raised her eyebrows and indicated that she was listening, waiting for Cleo to continue.

"I hate to think anyone is irredeemable. I've never met Mr. Lucius Malfoy, though. Mr. Draco is just, just doesn't know what to do. He is still trying to win the approval of his father, which he never will, I don't think. Even Astoria, I'm sure she has a reason for how she feels, but she will not ask for help. She even resents the healers telling her she has to maintain a healthy weight.

"There are two couples on the island who are going to be taking care of several of the children and wanted to be married. I examined them more than once, and asked for help, but in the end, I agreed and married first one couple, then the other. It was better than the alternative, and if they are living together as husband and wife they need to be able to have intercourse, and to have their union blessed.

"I made both couples promise to go to the mind healers every week for a year, and then to continue to go as long as the mind healers said it was necessary."

"No more promiscuity?" Ginny wondered out loud.

"Well, no, but it is more complicated than that," Cleo admitted. "Sex is so complicated, and I'm learning, but it is harder than I thought it would be.

"Albus and I put the two wands together every time we made love, every evening on the island, but then with prayers and my other wand and, Albus has another wand as part of an Auror Wallet he carries, so we used that, and with prayer and spells we tried to make sure that sex was only between married couples, and that no one would be forced to have a baby. I think it worked, but it meant that instead of just pleasing each other we had to be aware of how what we were doing was affecting other people.

"It wasn't bad, Mum Ginny, but it was work."

Ginny nodded, a smile on her face. Cleo was working on controlling the Fertility Goddess.

"I don't mind, I guess," Cleo continued. "It was just embarrassing. We had to ask every one of the couples what they felt like when they made love, every day, to make sure what Albus and I did, worked. It did, mostly, and it was better the last day than the first.

"I'm not wearing that Fertility Goddess costume in public," she told Ginny. "Maybe with a couple who might really need it, but not in front of a big group of people. It is too powerful, too dangerous, too mindless."

Ginny and Cleo talked for another half hour before Cleo left for bed.

Harry and Albus came through the Closet at Grimmauld Place about half an hour after Cleo had gone to bed. They spotted Ginny sitting in the living room, deep in thought.

"Cleo went to bed about half an hour ago," Ginny told them. "She was exhausted and really stressed. She explained about examining people, and also about working to control the Fertility Goddess."

"They were both hard on her, in different ways," Albus pondered. "You would expect that the evil on the island would affect her. She sees into people's souls, and for the people who relish in abuse their soul must be dark indeed. Occasionally we would examine someone, and I would have to comfort her, she was so upset."

"Take your time tomorrow morning," Ginny told her son. "I'm not working, and I can wait for you to get up any time you do."

"We do need that," Albus replied, as he went up to bed.

Albus had purchased Richard and Annabella magical/muggle mobiles shortly after they started working for him. Friday night he sent a text message to Richard saying, "Eat breakfast at Potter's New Burrow. Just go to the kitchen tonight or early tomorrow and call, 'Kitchen Elf,' and one will come. My brother James and his wife Erica may be there as well.

"Cleo and I will be over there about ten. I want us to finish up with anything urgent so we can have all of Sunday off."

Richard and Annabella walked into the kitchen of Potter's New Burrow Saturday morning to see an Elf making a traditional English Breakfast, and a gray-haired person conferring with James and Erica Potter.

"Hello, James, Erica," Richard said in introduction. "I'm Richard Fagan, my wife is Annabella, she was a Bulstrode, and we are working for Albus and Cleopatra. We are staying here for the time being."

"Welcome to breakfast," James grinned. "I would like to introduce Jake Paganelli, the new business manager for the Chudley Cannons. We are working on recruiting and salaries, so I would like you to promise not to tell anyone what we are talking about."

"I doubt if anyone will ask, nor if I will understand everything, but I will make sure to hear as little as I can, to understand even less, and not to share anything," Richard replied.

"Sounds like something that somebody working for Albus would say," James wryly observed, thinking about Richard's rather complex sentence.

"Were you with Albus and Cleo on that tropical island?" Erica wondered.

"Yes, working most of the time," she replied. "We did get a chance to swim in the ocean and lay on the beach."

"What do they wear on the beach there?" James asked, a crooked grin on his face.

"Bathing costumes," Annabella replied, hands on the hips. "Cleo and Al even set some standards for how much of your bottom had to be covered."

"Tops?" James pushed.

"Optional," Richard grinned.

Annabelle glared at Richard, and then grinned and blushed.

"I remember the first time my husband and I went to a topless beach in France," the gray-haired witch grinned. "When in France do as the French do, or don't wear what the French don't wear."

"Have you been here since your marriage?" Annabella asked, trying to change the subject, as the five sat down to breakfast.

"Erica knows how to cook and do laundry and all these household spells," James volunteered, smiling and looking a little amazed. "I never knew that."

"You never learned much of it either," Erica noted, shaking her head. "Including how to pick up after yourself." ,

"Mum never taught us," James replied. "She is a great mum when it comes to talking to us and loving us, but she's not very domestic. Dad's a better cook than she is."

"I guess when mum was playing for the Harpies my father and the Elves did most of the cooking and housework," Erica volunteered. "When she retired mum went full domestic. I mean she was in her late thirties when I was born, and she had four of us. She taught all of us how to cook and do laundry and clean with household spells."

Erica sighed. "Dad doesn't do much of anything now. His memory is bad enough that he is not working at St. Mungo's. It is like we are losing him one small slice at a time.

"What are you doing for Albus?"

"Albus and Cleopatra," Richard corrected, "or maybe I should say Cleopatra and Albus. Albus keeps reminding us that magic came from the female, and that the wand that Cleo took from her great-grandmother is the first wand of the Magi, and his is just the second. Just the second, like the Elder Wand is not that important!"

"So, are they going to be like real important, now that they have those wands?" James asked.

"Annabella knows the history better than I do," Richard replied. "But yes, those two plus Galadriel and Thorin are supposed to be rulers of some sort, except Albus says it is not quite time for, it has to do with the Crystal Ball on Resort Cleo, the island, and bringing it to Switzerland."

"So, you and they are going to end up in Switzerland, living there?" Erica asked.

"Probably, I think even before we graduate from Hogwarts," Richard confirmed. "Annabella is smart enough she could probably pass her N.E.W.T.s, now, but not growing up in a magical world I have had more problems. I'm reasonably good with Muggle technology and Muggle and magical interface issues. It is really strange sometimes. I modify a stock response on my laptop and print it out, and then attach it to an owl."

"Depending on your job, N.E.W.T.'s are not always that important," Erica observed. "I am almost sure that my brother Bill is going to leave Hogwarts to play for James next year, one year short of graduating."

"What is Lily going to do?" Annabella wondered. "Those two are really close."

"She turns sixteen next August," James grinned. "I can guess."

"James!" Erica gasped.

"I am not going to suggest anything," James responded. "I'm just not going to be surprised. It happens in this family. Look at Uncle George and Cousin Fred."

A little after ten Saturday morning Al and Cleo walked into the kitchen of Potter's New Burrow.

"Hello, James, Erica," Al said. "I understand you have meetings over here."

James introduced the Jake, the new business manager for the Cannons, and agreed. "We are going to be using the living room. The kitchen is not a very private place."

"Richard, Annabella, you need to come with us," Al told them. "We are meeting with some people from Switzerland in the living room of the New Burrow next door."

The two couples walked to the other house, and sat down in the comfortable living room of the New Burrow. The room looked very prosperous English, but on the sturdy side. Nothing looked too delicate to be a problem with small children running around.

"So, you are legally owner of the Swiss valley now, and the new rulers?" Richard Fagan asked Albus. "I understand that this is what the meeting is about."

"I'm afraid so," Albus replied. "Well, it is a whole lot more complicated than that, but when Cleo received, won, the wand and then we took possession of Resort Cleo and the Crystal Ball we fulfilled prophesies and became Crown Princess and Prince."

"When are you going to move to Switzerland?" Richard asked.

"I think Easter week," Albus replied. "You are going to meet Gerhard Richter, the Minister of Magic for Switzerland. He has been working for my parents, and will be working for, I guess is working for, Cleo and me now.

"Wizards have felt that they owned the whole valley, but the goblins own Gringotts, and the head Elves that work for the governing couple have part of the castle, and if the ruling wizards are honest, which they have not been, who owns what is a whole lot more complicated than them just owning everything."

"A whole lot more complicated," Richard acknowledged. "Just like your last sentence."

"Yes," Albus replied, smiling. "And we would like Annabella and you to move with us."

Richard looked at Annabella. "I like what we are doing," she replied. "Cleo really needs someone like me, too. She's not very good at reading and analyzing long legal documents."

Cleo made a face, showing her distaste for the 'long legal documents.'

"I think I'm rather good at telling you, Cleo, Albus, what some of the more technical documents mean."

"There are too many too wordy documents," Albus observed. "That is something I want to change."

Albus went over a large group of documents that he had been send, and then the four retired to the always busy kitchen of the New Burrow for a Molly Weasley lunch.

That afternoon Harry and Ginny met with Albus and Cleopatra to transfer ownership of the Swiss valley from 'The rulers to come under the regentship of Harry and Ginny Potter' to 'Princess Cleopatra and Prince Albus Preverell.'

Gerhard Richter was there, as were several Goblin Elves and Magi lawyers. Richard and Annabella were also there, Annabella with a magical file folder, one of several that Hermione had made for her.

When they were finished Gerhard told Albus and Cleopatra, "You need another couple to act as rulers in your place if you are killed, or otherwise unavailable. What they can do and under what circumstances is something you will be able to determine."

"Galadriel and I agree that whoever we choose has to know elfish, has to be one of the MELL couples," Albus responded. "One reason I want to go back to Hogwarts is to spend a little time with the MELL students. Galadriel and Thorin are not quite ready for Cleo and me to come, and for the four of us to take our thrones. Actually, although there are four thrones, the whole idea of kings and queens is something we are not very fond of, but … but it is way more complicated that most people know."

"Why do Albus and Cleopatra have to be living here at Hogwarts if they are not going to have time to be students?" Minerva asked Gerhard. He was meeting with her in her office at Hogwarts just before the students were scheduled to go back to Hogwarts.

"Because it is not time for them to move to Switzerland yet, and because they need to find another couple, one of the Magic and Elf Language Learners, to come with them," Gerhard told Minerva.

"I wasn't quite sure why we added that extra floor to the married professor's housing wing, but there is space for them there," Minerva admitted. "Plus, Richard and Annabella Fagan, I expect."

"Yes, the Fagans' as well, although they could live in a dormitory. I have rooms for two to six beings from Switzerland at Hogsmeade, depending on what is going on, but they can just come into Hogwarts and meet with Albus and Cleo when they need to," Gerhard added.

"The Elves have been having meeting after meeting," Minerva observed. "We have had groups of Elves here, and I am almost positive some of the ones here have been Goblin Elves. Some of our Elves have been traveling to other countries. I have asked then what is going on, but I do not get answers I can readily understand. Changing the languages?"

"What you do is determined by what you think, and what you can think is determined by your language," Gerhard replied. "Disobeying your owner has been impossible to think about in elfish, but that is changing. Recovering words to talk about right and wrong as something different that obeying has been difficult. I don't really understand all of it, but Albus does. To some degree most of the MELL students do; it is hard to underestimate how valuable they have been to the changes that are coming."

2022