"The next morning, Harry was sitting in the living room and wishing that it was Sunday. Since Monday, he had spent almost all his time working, and today was not looking to be any easier. He had a meeting scheduled with Lord Greengrass to discuss legal matters concerning his debtors. He also wanted to work on preparing a contract to buy land for Hogwarts Farm. It was going to be a long day. After finishing his breakfast, he left for Diagon Alley. He needed to speak to Barchoke to find out if anyone had offered to pay their debts. He entered Gringotts, and he was lucky as the bank was almost empty, so he didn't have to stay in line at the teller.
"Good morning, teller. I would like to speak with my account manager," Harry greeted him.
The goblin looked at him and sent a message to Barchoke. A minute later, Harry was escorted to his office.
"Greetings, Barchoke."
"Welcome, Lord Potter. What brings you here today?"
"I came to find out if any of the debtors had paid their debts, or at least asked for a meeting."
"Sadly, no one has. They all seem to think that you will forgive them their debts."
"So they are soon to get a nice awakening. I am meeting with Greengrass to prepare for a legal battle with them."
"Greengrass is a good choice. Not many lawyers will want to defend them against him. Here is a full list of your debtors and how much they owe you. I also attached to the file their company's estimated value, so you will know how much to ask from them."
"Thank you, Barchoke. I appreciate your efforts."
"You are welcome, Harry. Is there something else I can do for you?"
"Yes, you can. Please transfer one million galleons from the main Potter vault to the Hogwarts one."
"Can I ask why?" the goblin asked, surprised.
"Me and Lady Bones had started to implement changes in Hogwarts, some of them very pricey. We decided to take only one million from the Hogwarts vault for those changes. And I offered to pay for any costs exceeding that budget."
"Very generous of you."
"Hogwarts was the first place I felt close to. I want it to thrive so any kid like me could find there what they are looking for."
"Alright, Harry. It will be done today," Barchoke replied.
"Then I am not taking any more of your time. Goodbye, Barchoke."
"Goodbye, Harry," the goblin replied, and Harry left Gringotts. He went to the post office to send a letter to his broker. After that, he started walking towards the Greengrass company's office. The walk was not long, as it was located next to WWW, so soon enough Harry was inside their office.
"Good morning, Lord Potter. Lord Greengrass is awaiting you in his office. I would escort you there," said a secretary. She wasted no time in small talk, and Harry was glad about it. She entered Cyrus' office, and after announcing him, she allowed him inside.
"Harry, good to see you. Please sit down," Cyrus greeted him, offering a handshake.
"Good to see you as well, Cyrus," Harry replied and sat down.
"How are you feeling after yesterday?" the older man asked.
"Tired but happy with how the meeting went down."
"You have a right to feel that way. You and Miss Bones had led the meeting like experienced businessmen. And your ideas, while some of them were a bit controversial, can bring benefits to the school."
"I am glad you understand that."
"I do. But before we start our business, I have a big favor to ask. Or even two."
"How can I help you?" Harry replied, intrigued.
"As you surely know, I have no son, so Daphne is my heir, and she will be head of the Greengrass family in the future. As she is an adult now, I would like to start introducing her to the family business. So if you agree, Daphne will be working with both of us. Your case is the most complex one my company will work on, so she will be able to learn a lot."
"I don't see a problem with that."
"Thank you very much. I owe you a big debt for that. If you don't mind, I will Floo call her, so she can join us. It will not take long as she is prepared for that."
"Go ahead. I will prepare my documents," Harry replied and started to prepare the files. Meanwhile, Cyrus messaged his daughter, and after only a minute, she was there.
"Good morning, Harry. Thank you very much for allowing me to work with you. It means a lot to me," she greeted him.
"Good morning, Daphne. You are welcome. As you know, I am hoping for a very long cooperation between us, so helping you implement yourself into your family business is in my interest as well," he replied.
"Alright Harry, what do you want to start with?"
"As I told you before, the owners of all the companies I have a part in have not paid my percentage of the profits for the last 18 years. I informed them that I expect the debts to be repaid, but no one has decided to do so. They are under the impression that I will forgive that debt for some unknown reason. So, I need to take them to court."
"Alright. I understand that you have a list of your debtors and how much they owe you?"
"I do. My account manager even added the information about the company's estimated value."
"Nice of him, it will help us later. Daphne, please create two copies of this list, we will need them. Now, an important question: how do you want to do this?"
"I think we should start by sending them information that your company will be my legal representative in this case and that they have only one more chance to handle this matter outside of court. If they will react, good, it will save us work. If not, we will go after them."
"Glad to hear that you want to try to settle this outside of court. It is a much faster and more elegant way. Daphne, if you have the copies ready, please take a parchment and try to write a formal letter to Eusebio Yaxley, stating that we are representing Lord Potter, and we are starting legal proceedings against him. Take your time and let me know when you are ready. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask them."
"Alright, if the letters will not help, then I want you to file a lawsuit. I think that few of them will try to contact me straight after receiving the letter, but most of them will disregard me and will try to fight that."
"That's true. What options will you give them if they decide to settle with you?"
"Three options. The first one is obvious, they can pay the debt in full, in cash. Then I am dropping everything against them. Option two: I can take part of the company as a settlement. How big a part will be decided based on how much they owe me and how big the company is. Again, if we agree on that, then I declare the debt as fully paid. Option three, we can discuss a payment plan. They can pay me in installments. If we agree on that, then we will still be ready to file against them, as long as their debt will not be paid fully."
"A very sensible plan. One more question, do you want them to pay interest? You can ask for that in court and will probably get it," Cyrus asked.
"It depends on them. The more they drag that matter, the more they will pay. If they decide to settle now, I will forgive the interest. Every step after that will be costing them more money."
"May I ask you a question, Harry?" asked Daphne.
"Of course."
"How did you change so much in the last few weeks? When we were both in Hogwarts, you were the perfect Gryffindor golden boy. And now that I am working with you, I see that you would do great in both Slytherin and Ravenclaw."
"Good question. You see, my scar was a connection between me and Voldemort. He caused me pain frequently through that link. So, a combination of that and my focus on the fight with him had caused my Slytherin side to hide. Now that he is gone, I can focus better and be more myself. And I know you may be surprised that I have a Slytherin side, but I will tell you a secret. I was an inch close to ending up in Slytherin."
"What? Why then did you end up in Gryffindor?"
"I met Malfoy on the train. After this meeting, I knew that if I ended up in the same house as him, then I would kill this inbred cretin."
"I have another reason for hating that moron," said Daphne, "having you in Slytherin would make my time there far more interesting." She went back to her task and continued working.
"Alright, for now, I have everything I need to work on your debtors. What else can we do for you?" Cyrus asked.
"I need you to draft a contract between me and a man who will send me a parcel of land in Hogsmeade," Harry replied.
"Very well. I will need some information about him first - his name, birth date, and address. Then I will need exact information from the Ministry about the parcel you want to buy. Do you have that?" Cyrus asked.
"I do," Harry replied and handed over a parchment with the requested information.
"You have no idea how much I appreciate clients who are as prepared as you. You are saving us a lot of time," Cyrus said contentedly.
"I'm done, Father," Daphne announced as she handed him the finished parchment.
Cyrus read the document a few times before looking at her and smiling. "Pretty good job, Daphne. The only thing I would change is the phrase 'or you will be sued.' It's too straightforward. Change that to 'otherwise we will be forced to submit a file against you in court.' When you're done, copy the document as you will need it in the future."
"Yes, Father," Daphne said as she began correcting her work.
"Harry, have you set up a date to sign the papers with the seller?" Cyrus asked.
"Not yet. I didn't know how much time you would need," Harry replied.
"In that case, we will take care of that and let you know when we arrange the date," Cyrus said.
Daphne had finished her work and turned to her father. "If you're done, you have two more tasks. First, draft a letter to the seller of the land asking when he is available to sign the documents. Then, take a file from the shelf and analyze our past contracts. Write down everything that you think is necessary for this contract to be valid."
Daphne nodded and got to work. "Alright Harry, is there anything else?"
"Not at this moment," Harry replied.
"In that case, I want to ask you a few questions about something you said yesterday," Cyrus said.
"Go ahead," Harry replied.
"Realistically, what are the ways that Muggles can find out about us? And how much potential danger will we be in if they do?" Cyrus asked.
"The biggest threat I see is from Muggle inventions called surveillance cameras and computers," Harry replied.
"What do they do?" Cyrus asked.
"To put it simply, they are the Muggle equivalent of a wizard standing in Diagon Alley and watching everything that happens. Surveillance cameras are like wizards, and computers are like a Pensieve. They record everything that happens and store it in their memory," Harry explained.
"Is there a way to modify or delete the memory?" Cyrus asked, looking pale.
"Deleting the memory would be extremely difficult. The computer that stores the memories is separate from the camera, so finding it is a task in itself. And even if we found it, anyone who checked it would start investigating why the memory is missing. As for modifying the memory, it's impossible. Maybe some Muggles who are specialists in that matter have been able to do it, but there is no wizard capable of this task," Harry said.
"Dear Merlin, we have a very serious problem. Is there a way to create a list of where the cameras are?" Cyrus asked.
"There's no point in that. There are already thousands of them, and new ones are installed daily. We need to assume that they are everywhere," Harry said.
"This matter must be brought to the attention of the Wizengamot," Cyrus said.
"I know, and I plan to do that. I think we need to alert the International Confederation of Wizards (ICW) as well," Harry replied.
"We do need to. But are there any other ways for them to find us?" Cyrus asked.
"I can think of two. The first one is thermal imaging cameras. They work on a different principle than normal cameras. They don't record anything, but they show what temperature is at the point where the camera is turned. If a wizard under an invisibility cloak were to stand there, the camera could reveal his figure as a human body is warmer than the air," Harry explained.
"Alright, it's not that bad. We can avoid being invisible around Muggles. And the other way?" Cyrus asked.
"The other way is through spy satellites. They are gigantic cameras that can take photos. The problem with them is that they are in orbit around Earth," Harry said.
"What do you mean by that?" Cyrus asked.
"Muggles have a way to leave the Earth temporarily. They also have a way to put items outside of Earth's atmosphere, and they are flying around the planet," Harry explained.
"You're kidding me," Cyrus said in disbelief.
"I'm not. Muggles even landed on the moon in 1969," Harry said.
"Forgive my language, but we are fucked," Cyrus said.
"We are," Harry agreed.
They talked a bit more about this issue and then Harry left their office, agreeing that Cyrus would send him a letter when they were ready to proceed with the tasks. They said their goodbyes, and Harry left the office.