2. The New Butler of House Potter

Harry tightened his cloak as he snuck out using the secret passage to Hogsmeade. He had an appointment to keep in a few hours after all. After making sure that Mandrake restorative draught was being prepared, he had assembled a makeshift notebook using the parchments and enchanted them for his eyes only, a trick he had learned from Hermione during days of their Horcrux hunt.

He then went on to sketch out a schedule for everything he planned to do in the near future, all while thinking, how it was such a Hermione thing to do. The first thing on his schedule was to make sure Potter Holdings grew in both asset and influence and hence Harry got the idea of Potter Enterprises- a parent company that would either invent or invest in other businesses.

That brought up a question of staff to handle it seeing Harry was still a minor and would be rather busy in the coming years. And within seconds, Harry had the answer.

Rufus Lauferson was someone who had a great impact on Harry's life. Their first meeting was quite an unpleasant memory, seeing they had met each other in Malfoy's dungeons, where he had seen Luna, Olivander, Goblin Griphook and a few others already present. Rufus had refused to escape with Dobby and had been a great help in rescuing Hermione from Bellatrix and Snatchers, taking out Romulus- a strong werewolf and Scabior- the chief snatcher in the scruffle. He had also done much to prepare Harry for the confrontation against Voldemort and his followers, which to be honest was Harry's first proper training to prepare him for a combat situation. All the power, after all, would be quite useless if one didn't know how to use it.

From what Rufus had told him about himself, he had been his parent's senior by 2 years. He had joined the Hit Wizards just after Hogwarts and served for 5 years. After the war, he left for the muggle world seeing no career option because of his muggleborn lineage, which he hated. He cracked the exam for the British Armed Forces and was sent to service after training for a year. He had to retire after he took a nasty injury to his shoulder which disqualified him from the Armed Forces. He got magical help and got rid of his shoulder injury but couldn't rejoin the army, seeing it would be a breach of the Statute of Secrecy. He got into an accelerated course to get Masters in Business administration while he got treatment for his shoulder injury and even tried his hand at business. Unfortunately, it didn't pick up due to sheer nepotism in the Business scene of Britain. Aghast he tried to look for security jobs when he was recruited by a special division of SAS, which protected the Queen from threats- both muggle and magical. He served there for a term of 5 years before he was released as dictated in his employment contracts. Missing the magic, he had tried to establish himself back in Magical Britain where he worked many security assignments for a few years before the return of Voldemort. He had tried to contact the Queen when the situation had gone out of control after the death of Dumbledore but was captured by Death Eaters and thrown into Malfoy's dungeons, where he met the Golden trio.

Harry knew that it was around this time, that Rufus was trying to establish himself in magical Britain, so he would be quite amenable to take up the job of looking after the House of Potter and hopefully take over as Harry's magical guardian so that he was safely out of Dumbledore's influence outside Hogwarts. After all, it was a job that would pay rather well and Rufus was the kind of person who would be attracted to this job.

--X--

"Should have just asked Dobby for a lift," Harry grumbled as he picked himself off the floor after the floo spit him out as usual, "I thought I stopped having that problem by now."

Magical travel had indeed started to agree with him by the time he gained his magical maturity at seventeen. Unfortunately, it looked like the days of tumbling and stumbling were back. He shook his head and cleared the soot residue from his person with a wave of his wand, frowning as the wand resisted his magic once again. He suspected it had something to do with the Horcrux being gone from his scar. Thankfully, he could see Ollivander after his business with Rufus was concluded.

He went to Tom, the barkeep, and enquired about the presence of Mr. Lauferson to which the barkeep led him to the private room Rufus had booked and was waiting in. Thanking Tom, he knocked on the door and entered the room after receiving a gruff 'come in' in Rufus' familiar voice.

He locked the door and used a 'finite' to wave off the glamour from his face.

"Mr. Lauferson," Harry greeted.

"Mr. Potter," Rufus nodded back in greeting, "Heard you might have a job for me."

"Indeed," Harry nodded, "Let's take a seat first."

Rufus followed and sat down where he was before and Harry took a seat opposite to him.

"As you know from the letter, I am looking for a person to look after Potter Holdings, both assets and vaults. Other than that, I want to invest in and start new businesses, which is quite difficult with me being a minor and a student in boarding school. Other than that, with my fame, I might also need security out of Hogwarts which I know you are willing to offer your services for."

"You do know that I only offer security services. Being the manager of your 'entrepreneurial ideas' quite doesn't cut into my type of occupation," Rufus said incredulously.

"But from what I found about you after I looked a your ad from Daily Prophet, I know that you have a Masters in Business administration. Along with that and you being a muggleborn, you are the best person to do the job," Harry insisted.

Rufus raised an eyebrow, "I have to say that it's rather refreshing to be scouted and recruited for being a muggleborn rather than being prosecuted. Alright, you have my interest. Though I hope my salary will be rather large for the amount of work you are hiring me for."

Harry grinned, "Oh, you don't have to do it all alone. You can hear your own staff to help yourselves out with. The Potter funds while on hold, hadn't suffered much after all. And I am sure the same vaults could afford to pay you a rather fetching salary, Mr. Lauferson."

Rufus nodded, "All right. I liked the sales pitch, now would you mind providing more information on what I am supposed to do and some of your plans in 'investing in and creating businesses' as you said?"

"Not at all Mr. Lauferson," Harry grinned and started to share some of his ideas about business and was rather happy with the excited glint he saw in Rufus' eyes as he reacted to and improvised them.

--X--

An hour later, Rufus and Harry were seen entering Gringotts with Rufus looking unsure about something.

"Are you sure about this, Sir?" Rufus asked and Harry grimaced at the rather stuffy notation. Unfortunately, Rufus wasn't ready to call him anything else, something about being unprofessional.

"I am Rufus. You don't have to worry about taking care of me. I can do that myself. I just need you to sign the guardianship papers so that I can be out of Dumbledore's influence... well as much as I can," Harry replied finishing it with a grimace.

"If you are sure about it Sir," Rufus agreed with a deep breath. When he accepted the job, he didn't think he would be standing against not only one but two most influential wizards of Magical Europe. Not that he minded, mind you but it would have been better if his employer had informed him about it before he agreed to the job.

They both reached in front of a teller and Harry spoke, "I am here to meet Grimjaw."

"Do you have the key?" The teller asked, rather rudely.

Harry raised his eyebrow and offered the key to the teller. The goblin grunted and called another, a rather familiar, goblin to escort them to Grimjaw. While they were on the way to Grimjaw's office, Harry wondered if he could get away with taking the head off the traitorous goblin. He had trusted Griphook when they raided Gringotts to steal the Hufflepuff's cup only to be betrayed by him. Of course, the traitor had died from being buried under Lestrange's vault due to the activated Geminio curse.

Harry shook his head as if to shake off his thoughts as they reached the office. He could see the Potter crest embedded on the door of the office, and Harry had to again agree with himself that even without any creature, magical or muggle, for a mascot, the Potter crest still looked rather elegant with the shield, spears and the sword. The words 'Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat' meaning 'Fortune favours the Bold' were also engraved as the family motto. He had once assumed that Potters would have been rather Gryffindorish with such a family motto and had guessed that the family crest would be in the same colours as Gryffindor red and gold. So he was indeed shocked to find the primary colours of the crest to be black and silver. From the family book of Potters, he later understood that Black was the colour of the rebels and silver was the colour of traders, and the Potters were famous for being both. The only reddish colour could be found in the diamond-shaped gem situated at the end of the sword's handle, and it was blood red in colour representing the unsaid second motto- 'Blood before everything'.

"Come in," A gruff voice, predictably Grimjaw's, called them in.

Harry and Rufus went in, following Griphook, who was dismissed as soon as all of them introduced each other.

"I have to say Mr. Potter that I didn't expect you to be here so soon. The wizard responsible for you had an idea about you not needing anything more to burden you than you already have," Grimjaw grunted.

"Let's say that old man had got senile and leave it that, shall we?" Harry shook his head, "And he really isn't the one responsible for me, legally, is he?"

Grimjaw raised his eyebrow, quite an odd expression on Goblin's face, "I believe that this might be quite an interesting conversation. So, what can I do for you, Mr. Potter?"

"This, as you know from the prior introduction, is Rufus Lauferson. I hired him as manager of Potter Family estates and holdings just a few hours ago," Harry explained as he saw Grimjaw nodding towards Rufus accepting him as a colleague and Rufus returning the nod in the same manner, " He or any other wizard of his choice, if he hired them to do so, will also be my liaison to Gringotts. What I need for you to do currently is to procure the necessary documents to announce Mr. Lauferson here as my magical guardian. After that, you send the necessary documents to the ministry and then ignore them no matter what they say."

"It would be a pleasure to do so, Mr. Potter," Grimjaw grinned as he sent another goblin to bring in the necessary paperwork, "Anything else you want me to do, Mr. Potter."

"Hmm... Yes," Harry replied after thinking, "Prepare to transfer 50,000 Galleons to Mr. Lauferson's vault and then provide me with those chequebooks that you have introduced recently."

"S-Sir...", Rufus whispered in shock.

"I did say I will pay you a good salary, Rufus. That's two years in advance with a little bit of bonus. I hope you will do good for the House of Potter," Harry said with seriousness quite unusual for a 12...nearly 13-year-old.

"I-You will not regret it, sir!" Rufus spoke in a voice louder than usual, an expression of determination on his face.

Harry nodded at him and they began to work on paperwork for Rufus to be declared his magical guardian. Harry also remembered to tell Goblins about his mail ward and secured their services for 25 galleons a month to collect and organise any mail he got. After that, Harry asked for help through muggle banks and was quite pleased to find that Gringotts had a connection to a few private sector banks of the muggle world. Lastly, Harry gave Rufus partial clearance to access the Potter vaults as long as he had Harry's agreement via magical signature.

Harry and Rufus left Gringotts an hour later with happiness clear on their faces.

--X--

"I will be going to Ollivanders and then to Twilfits and Tattlings. I need some proper sort of robes and other things. If you have other things to do, you are free to go," Harry said to Rufus.

"No, I do not have anything to do. I will be with you until you return to Hogwarts," Rufus then added mischievously, "You do remember that you also hired me as your bodyguard, sir?"

Harry snorted, "You are most welcome Rufus."

They went to the Ollivander's wand shop and the old man as usual carried out his creepy routine.

"Mr. Lauferson, 13-inch Blackthorn with heart string of female Romanian Longhorn. I hope your wand is working alright," Before even giving him a chance to answer he shifted his focus onto Harry, "Ahh! Mr. Potter, 11-inch Holly with a core of Pheonix tail feather. A wand suited for a quester. Is it giving you problems, Mr. Potter?"

To Ollivander's surprise, Harry answered in affirmation and handed his wand to the wandmaker, "Umm... Yeah, Mr. Ollivander. There was an incident and since then the wand has been particularly resistant towards me. I was hoping you would help me with it."

Ollivander took the wand from his hand and began to inspect it. He shook it and then put it near his ears and a grimace crossed his face, "Hmm... Yes, I can see. The wand while not antagonistic to you, doesn't want to do anything with you. What was the incident if you don't mind telling me about it, Mr. Potter?"

Harry acted a bit awkward and then exhaled heavily, "Err...I survived being hit with a killing curse, second time and from the same person...er kinda from the same person."

The wand dropped from Ollivander's hand as he started Harry with wide eyes. Not that Rufus was any different and was watching his boss as if he had grown an extra head from his neck.

"Truly?" Ollivander questioned as he placed a bowl-like thing on the desk with shaking hands. Harry recognised it as a pensive, smaller than Dumbledore's but a pensive nonetheless, "Might I witness the events from your memories, young Potter?"

Harry knew what he was asking for but again acted confused, "Eh... How would you-"

This time it was Rufus who explained, "Sir, it is a pensive, an artefact used for memory viewing. If you agree to Master Ollivander's request then all you have to do is extract your memories... Uh... by thinking about it and pulling it out with your wand. Though memories are personal things, sir. If you don't want to share, you absolutely don't have to."

"Eh... I am alright with it. Would you mind-" Harry started.

"Uh... Of course, sir!" Rufus replied as he placed his wand on Harry's head. He pulled out a strand of memories from there and deposited it in Ollivander's pensive.

"I am alright. You can go on without me," Harry replied waving them off when Ollivander asked him to join them in pensive.

They both shrugged and put their fingers in the bowl and then stiffened. Harry nearly snickered knowing that they had indeed encountered the Basilisk in their memories.

They were pale-faced and stricken when they completed viewing the memory.

"W-What...B-But-" Both of them started stuttering and hiccuping, unable to complete a sentence. Harry shook his head and sighed. It was going to be a long time.

Finally, after half an hour, Ollivander and Rufus were satisfied with the answers and Ollivander started to fit Harry with another wand.

After a long time and being rejected by several Apple, Rowan, Holly, and Mahogany wands Ollivander was able to find a wand, which would have been Harry's real chosen wand if he never had the piece of Voldemort attached to his head. Ollivander had tried to fit him with several Phoenix feather wands thinking the reason why the Holly wand was not suited for him anymore was because after his 'second death', Harry had lost the spirit of Quester within him.

'I sure lost a spirit... but it wasn't of a Quester but a freaking Dark Lord,' Harry grumbled inside his mind.

As he held the beautifully crafted, 11-inch wand made of Walnut with a heartstring of Ukrainian Ironbelly for a core, he felt like he was lit on fire. It wasn't just soothing like when he or his horcrux bonded with Holly and Phoenix feather wand or like cold confidence bordering cockiness when he held the Elder wand after knowing he was its true master. They were both quite tame compared with how great he was feeling now. He felt like something had opened his mind to the magic around him. Like he could win any fight no matter how difficult it might be. He shook his head as he was broken out of trance only to see everything in the wand shop settle with a thump. Apparently, he had unconsciously made everything levitate when he bonded with the wand and channelled magic through it. He once again admired the unique build of the wand, a thicker handle with a raw design at the end of the handle continuing to a slightly curved but smooth body that ended in a pointed end. Rope-like small threads separated the handle from the body as if they were holding both parts together. Ollivander explained that there were magic storing runes on the rope, allowing performing selected spells to be more powerful by using the stored magic in those ropes, though it can't be controlled and the wand decided sentiently when the overpowered spells were needed.

"It is one of the finest of my creations," Ollivander boasted proudly. His expression then became intrigued, the same as when he told Harry about his wand's connection with Voldemort's, though there was less fear and more intrigue in his expression now, "Though it's curious."

Harry nearly groaned, "What is it, Mr. Ollivander?"

"It seems that you are indeed fated to have such interesting wands. The wand you hold, while doesn't have a brother wand like your last one had, but it does have a history. You see, while there are numerous heartstrings provided by a single dragon heart, only a few of them are strong enough to store and channel magic for a long amount of time. The Ukrainian Ironbelly that donated its heartstring to your wand, had only one. Though what's really interesting is that its mate, the female Ironbelly was similar and had also donated only one heartstring, and the wand that had the core has already been sold. 10 and 3/4 inches, Vinewood, I remember it quite well, a wand for intelligent and wise. Say, Mr. Potter, do you know a Miss Granger in your year?" Ollivander asked with excitement flowing through his eyes.

Harry's breath got caught and his cheeks reddened a bit, "Y-Yes, she i-is my B-Best friend."

Rufus cocked his eyebrow at the reaction of his boss.

"Bravo! I won't pry any further but a word of advice Mr. Potter. Take care and make sure to not let her go. This is not something which is common Mr. Potter. These types of things usually have a great influence on day-to-day life. Now, is there anything else I can do for you?" Ollivander asked.

"Uh... Yeah. I want two wand hostlers, dragonhide, please and a wand care kit," Harry ordered.

"That will be 20 galleons. Have a nice day, Mr. Potter," Ollivander said as he summoned the required items from the shop, "Use a droplet of blood to bind the wrist hostler with your magical signature. It will also make them more resistant to spells, especially summoning. It's not quite famous in the market, since it was designed by a muggleborn."

Harry's nose wrinkled at the mention of bigotry but he paid and left the shop, Rufus following behind.

As soon as he left the shop, Harry grinned looking at Rufus, "No trace on my second wand," and proceeded to use 'Geminio' to replicate the memory he had shown to Ollivander and Rufus. Crushing the real vial he let the memory return to himself, as Rufua had explained and then turned to his butler handing him the replicate memory.

"I assume you know about Rita Skeeter?" Harry asked nose contracting in disgust.

"Yeah, she was a classmate and a horrible one at that," Rufus answered with a grimace.

"Condolences. I want you to make sure it reaches to her a day or two after we board the Hogwarts express to home," Harry spoke confidently.

"Are you sure, sir? I didn't take you for someone who enjoyed his fame?" Rufus asked eyebrows arched.

"Correction, I don't like fame that I have from the day when I lost my parents and was celebrated instead of my parent's heroic sacrifice. This is something I did and am quite proud of it. And these type of fame comes in quite handy at the right time." Harry explained.

Rufus ponderd upon them, nodding in acceptance, "Ofcourse sir!"

It took an other hour in buying the robes and other clothes, though the real time taking thing was having them personalized to his own taste. Paying for it, he wished Rufus farewell before calling Dobby to take him back to the castle.

--X--