EDIT: And here is the revised Chapter 31 thanks to HowInMadeHowie. Again, some small changes were made to improve the story.
Hope you like it and have fun reading.
The next day, Harry woke up with the feeling of sore muscles, something he was happy with as it showed that he got close to the limit that he could overcome. After he moved them a bit to get used once more to the soreness before he would go down to see if breakfast was ready. He then noticed something move on the edge of his field of vision and turned to the window, to see Fred and George doing some warmups in the garden and then climbing on their brooms, only to hover a few feet off the ground and then doing pull ups. Harry was glad that the discipline John tried to install in all the students stuck with some and told Callie to report this finding to Cortana. He then decided to join the twins, as with them outside it told him that Breakfast was not ready yet. He took his clothes and put them on, opening the door to the guestroom and climbed down the stairs.
Fred and George where in a good rhythm as Harry asked them if he could join them. Fred just nodded as he pulled himself up the broom again, mounting it to descend to the ground. He then showed Harry where their brooms were stored and then began once more, as Harry came up to them and also did some pull ups. What was a surprise for Fred and George was the speed in which Harry did those, almost catching up to them before Mrs. Weasley came out to call them down for breakfast. She wondered why Harry was not in the guest room, but when she looked out the window and saw her son's doing their training with Harry outside, she understood. George had told her that their teacher seemed to know Harry on a personal level, so Harry would have gone through all of this sooner than them. She just hoped that they would let him be a child as long he wanted to be.
During Breakfast, some letters arrived for Mr. Weasley, being work related and telling him that he was needed out in the countryside. He sighed and whished them a good day as he took his jacked from the wardrobe and left through the door. Mrs. Weasley was just a bit saddened by it, but Mr. Weasley needed to work so they could at least put something on the table for their children. At least they didn't have to pay any rent, as this house was in the Weasley family for generations. So, they could not be thrown out and had a roof above their head. She watched happily as all her children where at the table and filling their bellies with the breakfast she whipped up. Even Harry was wolfing down her cooking, showing her that he was grateful for their hospitality and him talking to their daughter to get her mind of her fear to not make any friends in school as she was the child of a poor family was making her happy. Of course, Mrs. Weasley knew that it was not guaranteed that Harry would fall in love with Ginny, but she hoped that whoever Ginny picked would treat her like Harry did right now.
When they had finished their breakfast Ron wanted to go outside to enjoy the weather, but Harry asked him once more when they should start their homework. Ron just waved his hand and told him that they still had some time to do that. Harry was getting angry with Ron for his laziness and just sat back down in the living room and grabbing a schoolbook.
Ron, was confused by Harry's behavior, just shrugged and walked out, grabbed a broom to fly a bit. Ginny meanwhile began to ask Harry for a bit of help to understand things before the school would begin so she could show the others that she cared for the education. She also heard how Snape was treating everyone who was not in Slytherin, something that Harry corrected her as Snape was getting better in treating all the students the same over the last year. What he did not know was, that it was thanks to Harry that Snape saw some flaws in his teachings and tried to correct them. Maybe in the next semester, Snape would get the hang of it.
While Harry tried his best to help Ginny to get over her anxiety, Hermione was also reading all the books they had bought the day before. Somehow, she was enamored by the looks of Lockhart, but for some reason his books read themselves like novels, not like schoolbooks. She would talk about it with Harry, maybe it was just her, but she doubted it. One of the story's reminded her of one of the songs from Dandelion's book, so she grabbed that one and compared the story about the werewolf. It was almost a carbon copy, so she ran down to find her parents and ask them if she could use the telephone. But Luke, projecting himself in her room as long her parents where not nearby, he told her that he could contact Doctor Halsey and get her to ask Geralt what really happened. Hermione did not think about that, but thankfully declined that offer as she thought her way was faster. Luke just shrugged his shoulders and deactivated the projector. Hermione was now down in the living room of her home and grabbed the phone, dialing the number she got from Yennefer. She knew that she would not get Harry on the phone right now, as he was with the Weasleys right know. As she heard the calling tone in the earpiece of the phone, she tried to imagine how they would answer the phone. Never in a million years she thought she would hear a harsh voice asking who was calling without introducing himself. But she remembered the voice, asking Jerome if Yen was nearby.
Jerome had picked up the phone just because he was standing next to it by coincidence. It was a reflex from him, being drilled into him when he was still on the battlefield. Every time he was near a radio, and it would beep, he would grab it and wanted some information. He was still adjusting to the civilian life he had to live now, as his superiors had ordered him to stay where the other Spartans where until further notice. Thanks to Doctor Halsey though he learned enough to blend in with the population of this world. Or at least with someone in the military.
Back to the call, he had asked who it was before he had thought about it. Luckily, it was the young girl Granger who asked for Yennefer, so he told her that he would tell her to call back as soon as possible as he had to look for her. He then placed the phone back in its place as he begun to walk in search of the black-haired sorceress.
Hermione placed the phone back and was now looking for her parents, as they might have a suggestion why those books are like action-story's. Her father, even as a retired soldier and now dentist was well read in all kinds of books, he even read some of her schoolbooks to understand what would be expected of her. Her mother studied literature for a while as she went to school but found it a bit boring to read about the old writers. But she still read as a hobby, so Hermione brought one of the books down to the kitchen where she thought her parents were.
Samuel was sitting by the table with the newspaper in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. Janet was standing by the sink and cleaned something in there as Hermione walked up to them. "Hi Mum, hi Dad. Can I ask you about your opinion on something? The books we brought yesterday do seem kind of strange for students to learn from it." She handed the book to her father, who placed the newspaper down and opened the book in the middle to read a few pages of it. As he flipped through the book, his eyebrows drew closer and one was moving up his forehead, almost showing the women in the household his confusion. He then gave his wife the book, with her face almost mirroring her husband. Hermione felt herself reassured that her feelings about those books were correct.
"And such a novelist should become your teacher? Somehow, I just hope that there will be no serious problems in the future when all the wizards behave like him. But after reading the other books about the history and the latest happenings involving Harry, I doubt that this Lockhart did anything that he has written about. But as far I know, all these deeds were done in the past so there is some truth in those stories. Maybe he just embellishes it for the sake to sound better for the reader, but I would suggest studying those things for yourself and ask another teacher if they could help you out if Professor Lockhart is not nearby." Samuel suggested, thinking that it would be the best if Hermione made her own decision as soon as possible.
Hermione nodded as the phone began to ring. She was there in a heartbeat, picking it up and answering it.
On the other end, Yennefer was almost laughing as she heard the voice of Hermione panting her greetings, showing her that Hermione had waited for the call.
"Hello Hermione, Jerome told me to call you back. What do you want to know?" Hermione then told her about her suspicion and even read the passage out loud for her that she found almost the carbon copy in the book from Dandelion. Yen listened until the end, trying to remember the incident.
"Ah yes, now I remember. It was in a swamp where Geralt fought some Foglets out of a necessity as he was searching for something else he was contracted to. Maybe this Lockhart heart about that and wanted to be his story. Well, whatever, Geralt was never really bothered by such things as long he got paid in the end, his clients could tell whatever they wanted about how those things happened. One time, a rich merchant's son claimed to have killed the monster Geralt had slain in his presence. A Witcher's goal is not to become famous, you know. It is to keep the peace between people and monsters who leave them alone." Yen explained to the curious little girl, giving her all the information, she could give her. But Yen was getting worried that such a man would teach all those young children defense if he could not even fight of a Foglet. Yes, if you would not know how to handle them, they could be dangerous, but if you just could cast some kind of shield or fire, they were pretty easy and that would be the least she expected from a wizard or sorcerer. She would have to talk with Triss, as she would be in Hogwarts for the foreseeable future and could protect all the students just in case.
Hermione thanked Yennefer for all the information that she could give her, whishing her a good day and hoped that they could visit them once more over Christmas, but this time with her parents as her father would like to see the old castle that she was talking about. She would send them a letter when they were back in school as there where some owls that would do the job nicely. As she walked back to the kitchen to talk a bit more with her parents, she remembered that they wanted to go to France the day after tomorrow. She would need to pack her things for the few weeks, so she decided to go to her room.
Somewhere else, a blond girl was walking through the halls of the mansion she lived in with her parents. She was playing with her sister until now, but she had still some homework to do. When she arrived by the door to her room, she placed her hand on the handle and opened the big oak door. In her room, the bed stood almost in the middle, while her desk stood by the window with a small candle burning in its holder to give some light for her work. In the other corner was a small perch for her owl, which was hunting right now. Daphne was walking over to her desk and sat down on her chair, grabbing a book about the subject she would work on. As she saw that it was History of Magic, to which they had to write an essay about, she remembered Harry and his smile at the end of the year. She was just a bit sad that they could not have met up in Diagon Alley, but her father ordered everything she needed for the next year, telling her that they would later go to Gringotts and that she would have to come with him. She did not know what that was about, but as the oldest child of the Greengrass Family it was her obligation to follow her father to an important meeting with the goblins, because in the best-case scenario, she would inherit all the responsibility's that her name was asking of her. She thought about writing to Harry if he could visit them, as she would like to introduce him to her parents the proper way as they only saw him sparingly. And if her feelings for him would grow stronger, she also had to get the blessing of her parents to pursuit a relationship with him, given that Hermione would be okey with that as Daphne saw how her feelings got past a simple crush as Hermione moved steadily closer to Harry. She then took a parchment out of a drawer and began to write to Hermione, deciding that it was time to come clean with the smart Gryffindor witch.
Nina was sitting on her perch and was happy to do some work soon, as the parents of her mistress finally allowed her to be the personal owl of Daphne, so she hopped from side to side on the perch. Daphne smiled on the eagerness of her owl, as she finished the letter for Hermione, giving her best wishes in the end and hoping that they could talk in school about this problem. Nina soon had the letter tied to her leg and spread her wings to deliver it as quickly as possible. When she flew out of the window, Daphne was watching her owl get smaller and smaller on the evening sky.
After she lost sight of Nina, she walked back to her desk and begun her homework when she heard a knocking on her door. She told the visitor to enter and was happy to see her mother coming in with some tea in her hand.
Helena walked over to the desk her daughter was sitting, placing the cup next to her work. She looked it over and pointed at some minor mistakes in the essay. Daphne was thankful and corrected it, but she was wondering why her mother came to her room. But before she could ask, she heard her father almost yell at someone in his office. She did not have to guess who he was yelling at, as she could guess that Mr. Malfoy wanted to know how he had decided about his proposal. When Daphne looked at her mother, she saw her flinch and was now guessing the worst.
"Get out of my House Malfoy, I had enough of your blatant disregard of my hospitality. Every time you turn up, you ask the same question's, ever thought about what your son feels about this? Maybe he does not want to marry any of my daughters, ever thought about that? Now I do not want to repeat myself, so leave right now or I will order one of the house elves to toss you out." David was livid and you could hear it from his tone. He was a proud man and valued his honor with high regard, but Lucius was stretching his patience to its breaking limits.
"Mr. Greengrass, I hope you know what that means? Believe me, I will act on this answer, and I will use all my connections until you decide otherwise, I just hope it will not be too late for you." Lucius was smiling evilly but left the office of the head of the Greengrass family. David sighed and placed his head in his hands, trying to calm himself down before he would talk to his wife, who would surely know already what this visit was about. He called a house elf that was in his care and told it to go to Gringotts and tell his account manager that he should do everything he can to secure some funds just in case his business would take a massive hit before he could get an arrangement with Harry Potter. The small elf bowed to his master and vanished in an instant, as the door to the office opened once more and all the women of his family entered.
David stood up and walked over to them to hug them, assuring them that this problem will soon be solved and that he would never give them to anyone against their will. It was this moment when they heard a popping in the office and the elf stood before them with two goblins. One of them was the Account manager of the vault for the Greengrass family, but the other was unknown to David, so he introduced himself with all the politeness he had left.
The other Goblin also introduced himself as Grankor, the account manager of the Potter family.
"As I understand Mr. Greengrass, we need to act quickly to save you as a good customer. I have the authority granted from Mr. Potter and his guardians to act in an emergency like this. At first, we wanted to wait until the appointment we made, but now I will inform Mr. Potter after we finalized everything about the details of this deal. I take it your family will be also present during our talks?" Grankor took out a folder with all the legal requirements and paperwork needed for this endeavor, but David asked him if he could wait just a few minutes so he could call his lawyer to be here too.
"Please Grankor, I do not mean any disrespect of you or the Goblin nation, but I just want to make sure that all of this is airtight in case Malfoy wants to throw a wrench between our legs." David walked over to the fireplace and threw a pinch of Floo powder into it, calling for his lawyer. Not much time afterwards, a man came through the fire, with a briefcase in on hand and correcting his tie.
"Theodore Tonks, lawyer of the Greengrass family, at your service Accountmanager Grankor. I am sorry that Mr. Potter cannot be present, but I guess from the tone of this call we do not have much time. I take it you have all the paperwork prepared?" Mr. Tonks was a man with a grand stature, his gray suit was tailored to fit him perfectly and showed his dedication to his work.
Grankor nodded, afterwards he reassured David that he understood him and did not take it as a disrespect to his person for him calling his lawyer to make it a legit business. Honestly, he would have been disappointed if he had not called Mr. Tonks right there to oversee the paperwork.
Helena, Daphne and Astoria sat down on some chairs next to David, to show him that whatever he did, he had their support. Mr. Tonks and Grankor did go over some details in the contract, reassuring each other that they would not try to pull the other over the table.
"Well, Grankor I must say I am satisfied with the conditions laid out. But as it is my understanding, this contract would only be legitimate if Mr. Potter or his guardians would also sign it. Until then, please accept if we would like to make some additional context to it. Is this agreeable?" Mr. Tonks looked over to his opposite in this matter, seeing him nod.
"Of course, Mr. Tonks, that was to be expected. Now to word the most important points in this contract, so the whole Greengrass family knows what is going on. In essence, to prevent any harm to your family, that includes the daughters as well of course, David Greengrass would sell more than half the shares of his company to the Potter Foundation, which was established by James Potter before his untimely demise. As his heir, Mr. Potter has taken over it together with his guardians, later in the Contract called The Wolfpack. Officially, until Mr. Potter becomes of Age, this name will be in every document about the Potter Foundation as the leading Party. Mr. David Greengrass will keep his position as CEO in his businesses and can run it like he had until now, the only change is that he has now to report monthly to me or Mr. Potter about all the finances. Failing that, Mr. Potter can decide to replace him, but doing that he would have to pay Mr. Greengrass a bonus for his work, so he has enough reserves to open another firm. But knowing Harry, he would never do something like that, he would just give you some time until you can give it to him on a later date. Now, this protection I mentioned earlier means that any harm to your family or close friends will be prosecuted by the Goblin nation and will be brought to the Wizengamot to a hearing and the punishment. As long you are under the protection of the Potter Foundation, every attack on you is like a declaration of war to the House Potter and believe me that would end in someone getting bankrupt for sure. If those conditions in your interest, please sign the contract after you had read everything with Mr. Tonks. If you need us, please feel free to send your elf once more to get us." Grankor stood up from his chair, signaling the other Goblin that it was time to go back to the bank. David thanked him for the spontaneous meeting and asked his elf to get them back to Gringotts, afterwards he turned to his Family and Mr. Tonks.
"Well, what do you think? I hoped we had more time, but Lucius is getting greedy, so I needed an out to secure our future. And if I sell more than half of the shares to my business to someone I trust, Lucius Malfoy can't get ahold of them and buy me out of the firm. Of course, that only means something if the business will still be good, as there is a possibility that Malfoy just badmouths us wherever he goes." David was looking at his wife and daughters, seeing them glad that he had thought about this. Daphne and Astoria were just happy that their father put their happiness before his own business needs. They ran up to him and hugged him one more time, before Helena told them that they should go to bed.
Ted was reading the contract once more thoroughly, looking for any kind of loophole that would put his client into a bad situation. As he did not find anything bad enough, he talked once more with David about the future. It seemed that after this contract would be signed, the Daily Prophet would find the story and will publish it, so Harry would have to come clean about his legacy that he will take as soon he is of age. David asked Ted if they could make it in secret, as he was sure that Harry wanted to wait a few years longer before he would tell anyone except his family and the goblins that he was the Heir of the houses Potter, Black and Gryffindor.
"I hope we can keep it a secret but knowing Malfoy it will come out sooner than we would wish. But I will offer my services to him and his family in case the Daily Prophet would begin to talk bad about them only because he would not give them any comment on that matter. Do you know how I can contact them?" Ted was ready to get more involved into that matter, after all the cousin of his wife was Harry's godfather.
A/N: hello to another chapter, hope you still have fun reading it. Until next time ;)