The invitation for a budgetary committee meeting came later than Hermione had expected, but she was relieved when it finally came.
.
Dear Miss Granger,
For our committee meeting, I invite you to the Lestrange Household at 5pm on Monday evening.
For your first visit, please come to the front door to allow the wards to recognize you. Afterward, for subsequent meetings, you will be able to use the Floo.
Yours,
Phaedra Lestrange
.
Hermione showed the note to Snape between classes, and though he rolled his eyes, he nodded.
"Don't wear your school robes for this," he advised her, eyes sharp. "You may be the Youth Representative, but these are adult games you are trying to play."
Hermione hurried and changed after Arithmancy into one of her more adult robes in a pretty purple color before reporting to Snape's office, who looked her over and gave her a nod.
"We will need to Apparate to the door as she bid," he warned her. "Have you ever Side-Along Apparated before?"
Hermione considered.
"I don't remember," she admitted. "But I'm sure I'll be fine."
Snape raised an eyebrow. "We will see."
Snape had no intentions of walking them outside in the cold to the border of the grounds and past the dementor line, apparently – instead, he called out "the Leaky Cauldron" into the Floo in his private office, pushing her through ahead of him. Hermione stumbled out into a very familiar room as Snape followed behind her, and moments later he had firmly taken her shoulder, and suddenly Hermione was being all twisted up and shoved through a pipe.
When they emerged on the other side, Hermione was heaving, but her air and earth elementals were helping her stomach settle quickly, her magic calming her down.
"Is it always like that?" Hermione asked weakly. "Apparition, I mean?"
Snape's eyes gleamed. "You get used to it."
Hermione sighed and looked around. The sun was setting, given the time of year, but there was enough light left for her to get a glimpse of the Lestrange Manor.
And what a manor it was.
The entire house was enormous – with wings upon wings upon wings. The brick looked to glow slightly orange from the torches lit up all over the walls. There were topiary bushes in the form of different magical creatures lining the walkway, and Hermione found herself trying to identify them as Snape led Hermione up the path to the door, where he took hold of a gleaming golden ring and knocked firmly, a banging echoing out from the other side of the door.
The had to wait nary a minute before Phaedra Lestrange appeared at the door, opening it and giving them both a smile that rather reminded Hermione like that of a snake.
"Hermione! So glad you could make it," she said. "And Severus! What a pleasant surprise."
Snape inclined his head. "Phaedra."
She ushered them into the entranceway, closing the door behind them.
"So good of you to come. Royce sent word that he couldn't make it, but Melker and I have set up in the sitting room," she said, gesturing with her arm. "It's right this way."
"Thanks." Hermione stepped forward and went towards the indicated room, only to have Snape suddenly lunged for her.
"No! Wait—"
Hermione stopped short, turning back to look at Snape. Snape was staring at her with wide eyes, and while Phaedra's eyes were narrowed and glittering, a curl of a smile at the corner of her lips.
"Umm," she said. "What?"
Snape gave Phaedra a sharp look.
"Madame Lestrange will need to add us to the warding scheme before allowing us entryway into her home," he said curtly. "Some old manors have… nasty repercussions for those who would not be welcome."
"Of course," Phaedra said sweetly. "I'm terribly sorry – how could I have forgotten? Just a moment."
She withdrew her wand, tracing a sigil in the air with a sparkling royal blue path trailing from its tip, leaving a glittering path hanging in the air. Snape's eyes were sharp on Phaedra as she did, and Hermione took the chance to glance upward.
She had already passed through the cased opening into the next room when she had stopped – past the point where wards should have theoretically triggered.
What did that mean…?
Apparently done adding Severus to the warding scheme, Phaedra came over to Hermione, repeating the gesture. Her wand trailed violet sparkles as it went, but Hermione didn't recognize the sigil she was making.
"There," she said, satisfied. "Now, if you would follow me…"
Phaedra swept through to the next room, leading them around to a large sitting room. The room had already been decorated for the holidays, with boughs of pine, holly, and ivy decorating the doorways and rooms. There was a large decorated tree off to the side of the room, draped with garlands of red berries, and there were small lit candles burning on it as well.
The main table where Melker Travers was already sitting had a tasteful sort of holiday centerpiece on it – a log of wood that looked snowy, with bits of holly scattered on it. There were a few long candles embedded into the log, all of them lit, and it provided a warm, glowing ambience. There was even a little sun-shaped dish with holiday nuts and berries in it nearby, and Hermione was happy to pop a couple in her mouth.
"Granger," Melker Travers said, nodding to her. "Glad you could make it. Snape." His eyes narrowed as Snape followed her into the room.
"Travers," Snape said shortly.
Travers looked at Snape for a long moment, before deciding it was fine.
"If you have to be chaperoned, better Snape than someone else," he declared, and Phaedra tittered, laughing.
"Oh, Severus here is fine," she declared. "Now! How shall we begin?"
Melker fussed with a folder he had brought with him. "I have the proposed legislation here…"
Hermione took a back seat as the document was read aloud. As the three of them looked over the legislation, Phaedra and Melker beginning to discuss it, Hermione mostly listened as they proposed different ideas, trying to get a feel for things.
It was clear that Lestrange and Travers were most concerned with the Sacred 28 getting money while making sure that the other Sacred 28 families wouldn't fuss that they weren't getting a fair share. Direct trade was ruled out as a possibility as a result – if the goblins only wanted parchment and quills, only the families that dealt in such things would be able to profit as a result, which was clearly unacceptable.
It did not escape Hermione's notice that neither the Lestranges nor the Travers were in the stationery business.
They eventually decided that the best way to manage it all would be to have a small, chosen group of representatives manage and oversee the trade with the goblins. They would facilitate trade with the goblin representatives, determine exchanges, and contact specific families as appropriate, depending on the goblins' needs. The collective earnings from the trade would be distributed among all the Sacred 28.
Hermione wondered at the ability of prejudiced purebloods to be polite to goblins, and how well this could possibly go. She suspected that though the purebloods might be willing to put up with a lot in the name of gold, there was likely to be a limit somewhere – and the goblins would have their own limit as well.
When it came time to writing up their idea, Hermione joined in on the discussion.
"We need to stipulate what the money will be used for ahead of time," she pointed out. "The other representatives aren't going to let this pass if we just leave in a vague 'the committee will manage it'. We need to lay out specifics and goals to be accomplished this year, and if we do that, then they'll be more likely to let us expand it next year."
Travers raised an eyebrow. "Goals? Like what?"
"Like silver wards," Hermione said determinedly. "Listen…"
Hermione laid out her idea, Phaedra and Melker listening in. They would put in the document that they would trade goods for pure silver from the goblins. The silver would be to help finance and used in the creation of new silver wards for boundary lines. It would be allotted to families with the highest population of tenants first, then down in a stepping scale to the family with the fewest, in order to protect the most people the fastest.
"We'll include a 20% administrative fee on everything," Hermione suggested, and she caught the look Phaedra and Melker exchanged – this would be the part where they got the most money. "That way, each family will have funds sitting aside for doing other things necessary, such as hiring a professional warder to come and set up the warding systems and the like."
Phaedra wrinkled her nose. "That's not a lot."
"35%," Melker proposed.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Fine."
She continued with setting out specific goals; after silver warding schemes had been successfully set up around tenant lands, trade for the goblins would continue, with each family being given a proportional portion of the proceeds according to population. This money would be used for increasing grain allotments as available – with a 35% administrative fee taken out first from each family, of course.
Hermione was satisfied with the ending result. If the goblins traded, and the committee gave the Lestrange family 100 galleons, that was still 65 galleons going towards increased grain allotments for the hedgewitches. It was lower than it should be, really, but she was realistic enough to know that the Sacred 28 did not care very much for actually taking care of their tenants, just being seen taking care of their tenants.
"We'll put in a section about self-determination," Hermione said, the idea crystalizing suddenly. "If the majority of a tenancy opts to receive their allotment of silver directly, they are responsible for the installation of the warding scheme themselves, and any other costs accrued."
Travers scoffed. "They won't even know what that means."
"We'll just add it as another option, then, to be discussed with the landlord?" Hermione suggested, shrugging. "A landlord might be too busy with other important things to go around digging in the dirt laying out warding schemes, and hiring somebody trustworthy takes time. If it's to protect the tenants, why not have them do it?"
Phaedra's eyes gleamed. "I like it."
Hermione suspected she would. It let the purebloods get away with more and have to do less.
Now that a plan was drawn out, it would need to be put into formal language to go into the bill. Phaedra suggested they all meet again in a few days' time – but after dinner, this time.
"It shouldn't take too long, merely another evening or two," she said. She looked to Severus. "That won't be too much of an imposition on your time, would it, Severus?"
Snape's eyes glittered. "Not at all."
Hermione bid Phaedra and Melker good-bye with a polite curtsy while Snape fussed with the Floo, tracing some sort of sigil before the fireplace before he was willing to let Hermione call out 'Hogwarts!' and step into the flames.
It was after dinner when they arrived, and Hermione was hungry. She pulled the Time-Turner out from her robes as soon as they reemerged in Snape's office, and she beckoned him closer.
"This will be awkward for just a moment," she said, looping the chain over his head. "Bear with me."
She spun the little device three times, and the office blurred around them and stilled. She pulled it off of him and tucked it away again down her robes.
"It's now just after five," she told him, grinning. "We can still get dinner, and you'll have your whole evening to yourself. Just make sure you're not in your office when the previous-us leaves. Oh! And I have your gold."
She fished in her pockets for her bag while Snape was looking at her, silent.
"Miss Granger," he said finally. "I have a question."
"Yes?" Hermione said distractedly. She was mentally doing math, counting out galleons. Time and a half at eight galleons per normal hour was twelve galleons an hour, and they'd been gone for three hours…
"How did you get through the pureblood ward into the sitting room at Lestrange Manor?"
Hermione stopped and looked up at Snape.
"How did I do what?" she asked.
Snape's eyes glittered at her, reflections of the torches flickering in their darkness.
"There is a ward set on the Lestrange Manor," he said. "It detects those not of pure blood and stops them from entering, often with very painful consequences."
Hermione's eyes went wide, and she swallowed. "I… didn't know that."
"And yet, you…" Snape said softly, his eyes on hers, intense. "You, a girl with muggle parents, were able to enter without so much as a flicker…"
Hermione bit her lip.
Realistically, she had her suspicions as to why. She'd discussed them with Tom over the summer, the other implications of the coven vow they all had made – I offer my blood with the cut of this knife; may my blood be yours for the rest of my life.
And even though Snape knew she had a coven, she found herself not quite wanting to give up that specific bit of information to him just yet.
"I'm New Blood?" she offered, looking up at her teacher. "So my blood is the purest of the pure?"
Snape scoffed audibly, and Hermione winced but gave him a smile.
"I mean, surely it's just good I didn't get flayed alive, right?" she said. "And she added us to the wards, so we should be fine next time too, right?"
"Correct." Snape looked at her. "This will cause gossip, you know."
"What, that I went through a pureblood ward?" Hermione asked. "They all know I'm New Blood. They should be over it by now, shouldn't they?"
Snape's eyes glittered.
"Hearing and seeing are two very different paths to believing a thing, one much shorter than the other," he told her. "But we shall see."