Chapter 21 - Sirius
On Sunday, Harry and Hermione spent the day getting to know Dan and Emma as they waited for Sirius to arrive. At 11 that morning, Sirius turned up alone at the Granger abode.
"You must be Sirius Black. Welcome to our home, Mr. Black. I am Emma Granger." Emma said, greeting Sirius warmly as she invited the wizard into their home.
Sirius quickly took Emma's hand and said, "It is a true pleasure to meet such a beautiful woman," before kissing the back of her hand. Emma drew her hand away and gestured to the bemused man standing just behind her.
"This is my husband, Dr. Daniel Granger." Sirius shook Dan's hand ruefully. "Nice to meet you too. Please call me Sirius."
"A pleasure. Please call me Dan and you may call my wife Emma. That is, if you promise not to hit on her again."
"She is such a beautiful woman, so I'm not sure I can keep that promise. But I will try to keep it a minimum."
"I guess that will have to do for now. Why don't you follow me to the lounge? Harry and Hermione are waiting for us." Dan lead Sirius and Emma to the lounge and the two youngsters stood up to greet him.
"Nice to see you again, Mr. Black."
"Lovely to see you again, Miss Granger."
"Good to see you again, Sirius. Thank you for coming to visit us." Harry smiled.
"No problem, I am your godfather after all. By the way, thank you for getting me out of that wretched prison."
"No problem. You did not deserve to be there, unlike a few others I could name. Have you had a chance to look over the material we gave you?"
"Yes. I was shocked and appalled by the information you provided me. Professor Dumbledore was someone my friends and I always respected and trusted completely. To find out everything we thought we knew about him was a lie was unbelievably upsetting."
"Now you can see why I wanted to change my magical guardianship as soon as possible and and Hermione's as well. If Dumbledore wasn't such a bad guy, none of this would be necessary at all."
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Why don't I get to know you two before we commit ourselves to a set course of action. We would definitely lose if I was to apply for your magical guardianship right off."
"I wouldn't be too sure about that. Lucius Malfoy has agreed to help us in that regard."
"What are you doing dealing with that Death Eater?" Sirius yelled, outraged.
"Don't worry we are not really friends with any Death Eaters. We only dealt with him to assist us in changing our magical guardianship in exchange for us keeping our mouth shut about some of his... activities."
"You two are entirely too young to deal with a predator like Lucy Malfoy."
"We had help from some magical adults and my parents looked over the contract." Hermione added, attempting to placate the visibly angry Sirius.
"So you are not Death Eater supporters?"
"We can honestly say that we are definitely not Death Eater supporters and will never be. Do you want me to sign a magical contract to prove that?" Harry asked.
"Besides, I am a Muggleborn. Do you honestly believe that I would ever support the Death Eaters?" Hermione added.
"Dealing with Lucius Malfoy is a very strange thing for anyone on the side of the Light," Sirius remarked.
"We are only using him and we're a bit more grey than dark or light."
"You know it can be incredibly dangerous to play around with the Dark Arts, Harry."
"I swear to you, we are not using the Dark Arts. We do read about them so we know how to counter it when necessary, but we don't actually practice it. When we say grey, I mean our actions are grey in some respects."
Sirius frowned. "In what ways are you actions grey?"
"When the Ministry fails to punish the guilty, we've been administering our own brand of justice."
"So you two are vigilantes?"
"Sometimes. We were just so pissed off that justice wasn't happening that we have personally taken a few steps to ensure that justice is carried out. By the way, that's how you ended up being freed."
"I guess I can't complain as I benefited from your activities."
"Do you want to get involved?"
"Depends on a number of things. Like exactly what are you trying to achieve."
"We are trying to get equality for all magical beings, including house elves, centaurs, goblins, etc. as we work towards taking down Dumbledore."
"When you put it like that there is no way you could keep me out. So what have you done and what are you planning to do?"
"We created a marriage contract between ourselves to counter any attempt by Dumbledore to set us up with people of his choosing."
"Aren't you a bit young to be thinking of those things? And what happens if you become attracted to someone else?" Sirius asked, concerned for his godson.
"We need to take action early to short-circuit any moves that Dumbledore might be planning to make. If we do become attracted to someone else in the future, then we simply nullify the contract. But it does require a full, clean medical scan for the contract to be voided."
"That is smart."
"Hermione is the smartest girl in school, which is how we outsmarted Lucius." Harry said proudly as an embarrassed Hermione blushed.
"It's a good thing we have you on our side. I'll be thatEmma is no slouch in the brains department either as Hermione had to inherit from someone." Sirius said, flirting with Emma again. Dan was a bit upset but could tell that Sirius was only teasing and that Emma wasn't remotely interested.
"Moving on, we've hired Rita Skeeter to dig up any dirt on Dumbledore that she can find and to protect Harry's image. She's done a remarkable so far." Hermione added, a bit uncomfortable with the flirting between Sirius and her mother.
"I still say you're dealing with some uncomfortably dark people. First Lucius Malfoy and now Rita."
"We have to deal with such people if we want to achieve our goals. Working out what makes them tick then offering what they want in exchange for what we want has worked out well so far. The alliances are uneasy, however, especially with Lucius."
"Why don't I take over your dealings with these people?" Sirius offered.
"Not right now. Maybe when once you're full recovered."
"Is their anything I can do right now to help?" Sirius said, clearly frustrated at this point.
"Would you mind getting involved in magical politics on our behalf?" Harry asked.
"I prefer going back to prison to doing that."
"You could give us access to the Black library."
"That I can do. In exchange, you tell me how you managed to sneak out of Hogwarts."
"We will tell you if you are willing to sign a contract to tell no one what you learn from us."
"Deal. I will even throw in the Black family manor."
"Why don't you want it?"
"I hate that place and this way it will be used for something good instead of sitting empty and gathering dust."
"How about the items stored inside it?"
"You can use the money from selling it to fund the cause. But I should warn you that there are plenty of dark and cursed things that will need sorting through."
"Don't you worry about that, we know someone who can take care of it. Do you have any house elves living in the house?"
"Just Kreacher." Sirius exclaimed as he realised he did have a house elf. "You can have him too, he never liked me at all. He considers me a blood traitor. On second thought, you might be better off selling or trading the house elf as I doubt he will like you two much better."
"We will take him and try to retrain him." Hermione said.
"Best of luck with that. You'll need it."
Since Sirius really wanted to know their secrets as soon as possible, they took the time to negotiate a contract between the three of them. Hermione explained the embedded curse and why they had found it necessary. In fairly short order, the contract was signed and Sirius was taken to visit the vanishing cabinets."
"This is the secret of how we come and go from Hogwarts." Harry said, gesturing to the ornate cabinet.
"What is it?" Sirius asked, confused.
"It's a magical vanishing cabinet that we've connected to one at Hogwarts."
"How does it work?"
"It punches a hole into the fabric of reality to create a wormhole between this cabinet and its mate at Hogwarts," Hermione explained.
"It sounds more Muggle than magical?" Sirius admitted.
"No, really, it is magically operated. Muggle science has come pretty close to achieving something similar, but not yet." Hermione assured him.
"It can get past the wards surrounding Hogwarts? You managed all this along with all the information on Dumbledore too?"
"The information is very sensitive. We will tell you later when we get to know you better."
"Okay." Sirius said, unhappy that he was not being told but understanding where they were coming from all the same.
"We just learnt how to duplicate it."
"It can get past any wards, no matter how complex? What exactly is the range of that thing?" Sirius said with a gleam in his eyes.
"No, you can't use it for pranking. It is way too expensive and the parts are exceedingly rare." Hermione warned him.
"How did you know what I was thinking?"
"Your reputation precedes you."
"Damn. What else have you heard about little old me? How good looking I am? How many girls were interested in me?"
"That you were a prankster who almost managed to kill Professor Snape." Hermione frowned slightly.
"That was an accident. Anyway, Snivellius deserved it."
"I wish that you did kill him back then," Harry admitted.
"Why? What the hell has he done now?"
"He is a Death Eater who happens to be our very biased Potions teacher and the Head of Slytherin too."
"Was he one of those Death Eaters that Dumbledore helped to keep out of prison by giving some lame excuse?"
"He claimed to have changed and turned to the light side. Even though he is blatantly biased against anyone who does not believe in pureblood supremacy."
"No one is stopping him?" Sirius asked.
"No. Professor McGonagall was convinced by Dumbledore that Snape is a changed man and is now working as a spy amongst the Death Eater ranks. Meanwhile, Dumbledore keeps using his political clout to keep him at Hogwarts and out of jail. He would have been given a life sentence for all of the murders, rapes and tortures he is known to be involved in. Instead he is torturing every non-Slytherin student he has."
"I am surprised he isn't dead already with you two vigilantes on his case."
"We already have a special punishment arranged for him. Don't you worry about that."
"Dare I ask who else is on your list?"
"It is better if you don't know."
"Please tell me Lucy Malfoy is somewhere on that list."
"Yes. So you can sign any agreement you like with him as long as it does not guarantee safety for him or his family."
"Would it not be better to have him around to deal with the political dirty work?"
"It would if we share the same beliefs. Obviously, we don't."
"So who are you going to use to represent your interests on the political side of things?"
"Have you ever heard of the Outcast Organisation?"
"No. Is it new?"
"It has been around for years but the organisation is better known in the US and Asia where it promotes the interests of disadvantaged magical people like Muggleborns and werewolves."
"How are you going to get them access to the wizarding Britain political scene? It is quite different from most other countries."
"That is why we hired Rita, to help us slowly change the opinions of the wizarding public. If we can get the people to support a change, then the Organisation will be right there to represent it."
"That won't be enough. You're going to need to buy the Daily Prophet, else the editors will stop at nothing to crush any non-pureblood sanctioned movement. Plus the ministry is extremely corrupt. You'll need to have deeper pockets than the wealthiest of the purebloods that have generations in order to buy out the politicians."
"Sirius, by the way, what happened to the Potter money. I know my family was extremely old and wealthy." Harry asked.
"I am not your current magical guardian, so I have no idea."
"What if Dumbledore spent it?"
"If he did, there's nothing that you can do. It is Dumbledore's right as your magical guardian to take care of things on your behalf. For him not to protect your interests is wrong but perfectly legal."
"How about your family?"
"All of the Black money was given to Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange. So all that was left was businesses, jewels and the Black Manor that she was not permitted to sell or give away. Their was a bit of money from dividends accumulated while I was incarnated but not much compared to what the others have."
"So most of the money, Lucius has been playing with was originally yours."
"Yes. And there's absolutely nothing I can do to get it back."
"So we need to compete against purebloods that have mountain of gold."
"Yes."
"Is the galleon fixed against all Muggle currencies?"
"No. It is based on the gold price since a significant proportion of the galleon is pure gold."
"Is that the same in every country?"
"Yes. The goblins are in charge of converting it to and from all Muggle currencies. They given a percentage of the fees they charge to whichever country makes the exchange. The British Ministry is known for charging a truly exorbitant amount for the exchange."
"If only the Philosopher's stone at Hogwarts was real. Then we would have no problems." Harry muttered.
"What is a fake Philosopher's Stone doing at Hogwarts?" Sirius wondered aloud.
"It is being used as a lure and it was also meant to be a test for me. But I think that Dumbledore is re-evaluating his plans now that he knows I don't trust him as far as I can throw him."
"Maybe you should steal it and sell it as though it really is the real thing. That would solve all your money problems rather neatly." Sirius said in jest.
"I think that we should start buying gold mining companies to work on reducing the price of gold. Especially if the mining techniques that Hermione's been developing pan out. That should have a significant impact on the pureblood element."
"Buying mining companies is going to take loads of money. Do you think you have enough?"
"We have more than enough from selling Basilisk parts and our various other ventures."
"What other ventures?"
"We are using the vanishing cabinets to supply Hogwarts with specialty items that students need urgently or can't buy via owls. The vanishing cabinets will soon be used to import and export things. Then there is the potion business we are starting up."
"I can help with the potions and import/export businesses. As the pureblood head of the Black family, I can put the business under my protection. This will reduce the taxes on the businesses and allow you access to certain markets like St. Mungos."
"Does being a Head of House have similar advantages?"
"Yes. I can't remember what they are at the moment, though. Anyway, Harry, when you reach 17, you will become the Head of Potter house and will be entitled to the same privileges."
"That's another thing that's so wrong with this society, the heavy importance on blood status and family influence." Hermione said angrily
"Does that mean you don't want my help?" Sirius asked.
"No, we definitely need the help with the potion business. But I think it might be better if we don't do it for the import/export business. We're not sure yet whether we want to keep it completely above board."
"Are you two running a potion business by yourselves?" Sirius asked.
"No, we're in partnership with someone who runs it on our behalf."
"What do you two put into this partnership?"
"Money among other things. Why don't you meet some of the people who work with us?"
"Okay. Any pretty girls?"
"Some. But please keep your hands to yourselves or else I won't introduce you to them."
"Okay. I promise to behave."
Hermione rounded everybody up in the lounge room.
"This is Alice. She is our administrator and librarian."
Alice inclined her head. Sirius did the same.
"This is Ashley, our Potions mistress."
"This is Dobby, our house elf."
"This is Doug, our resident curse-breaker and negotiator."
"And finally, here's Emily. She's the researcher who managed to recreate our vanishing cabinets."
"Everyone. This is Sirius Black, Harry's godfather."
After the introductions, lunch was served by Dobby to a group of hungry and very appreciative diners. The conversations during lunch and immediately after were kept very light with reminisces of the Marauders' best pranking activities. Sirius left that day in a very good mood after finally spending some quality time with his young godson.
Chapter 22
The custody hearing was decidedly anticlimatic. Sirius was there for support and readily gave his approval to the Grangers' application to adopt Harry. It was over pretty quickly since the Dursleys had no objections and Dumbledore was busy dealing with problems of his own. At that very moment, the headmaster was being questioned by Amelia Bones at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, which she had agreed to do as a personal favour to Harry. She was more than happy to do it since the book Harry gave her was chock-full of ammunition she could use to pursue several offenders that had managed to evade justice over the years.
Smooth would hardly describe the coverage that Doug provided for Harry's absence that day. Doug was flirting with everyone including their female professors and he completely disregarded Hermione's every attempt to stop him. An eleven-year-old Harry batting his eyes and flirting with stern Professor McGonagall was a truly priceless sight. Doug was constantly flattering McGonagall and flirtatiously asking her out, much to her loudly expressed displeasure. It certainly didn't improve matters that Doug's antics had the students giggling wildly throughout the class. At the end, Doug had succeeded in winning Harry a month's worth of detentions for his outrageous behavior.
It wasn't all fun and games for Doug, however. Harry happened to have a double Potions class that day which Doug was forced to attend. Snape immediately proceeded to rip into "Harry" the instant he entered the classroom. Since Doug could not hypnotise Snape, he was forced to endure the professor at full boil. After the class had mercifully concluded, Doug really felt sorry for Harry since he had to endure a hateful and vindictive Snape on a regular basis. Doug had only been misbehaving to get even with Harry for his punishment in the Chamber of Secrets and so he made up his mind to be on his best behavior for the rest of the day.
When classes were over and Harry was busy swapping places with Doug again, Hermione was approached by their concerned Ravenclaw classmates.
"Hermione, is something wrong with Harry? He's been acting really strange all day and flirting with Professor McGonagall was definitely not the smartest thing to do."
"Sorry about that. Harry's godfather sent him some chocolates laced with a lust potion as a prank. I was finally able to get him the antidote, so he's perfectly fine now."
"By the way, speaking of strange behavior, we've all been noticing that you and Harry are always out late and you get up really late too. And it's downright impossible for anyone to get you to wake up. Can you explain that?" Su Li asked, trying to catch Hermione out. Hermione didn't much appreciate being blindsided and her brain was working feverishly to devise a believable excuse.
"We use an empty classroom to do a special meditation routine that allows to get by with much less sleep than normal." It was true in a sense.
"Can you teach us how to do it?" asked an excited Lisa Turpin.
"Yeah, that would be a huge help when we're studying for exams," Kevin Entwhistle added.
"Sorry, but when we were taught this technique our teacher made us swear never to share his secrets with anyone else. I can teach you something similar, but not that specific method," Hermione told them.
"Your teacher will never know if you teach us. We would never tell a soul," Mandy pleaded. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.
"My teacher would know just by looking at me. He can read anyone's body language like a book."
"What would reading someone's body language have to do with anything?" Michael Corner asked.
"Reading body language is almost like reading someone's mind. Muggles developed these techniques to make up for their lack of access to magical techniques like veritaserum and Legilimency." Hermione replied.
"What is Legilimency?" Isobel asked.
"It is the magical ability to literally read someone's mind. And it's illegal to use without permission, except in pretty extreme circumstances," Su Li supplied.
"How do you know so much? You are a Muggleborn student for Merlin's sake." Terry Boot asked in a condescending way.
"Would you like to rephrase that question?" Hermione said, eyes narrowed with implicit threat.
Terry Boot cowered back in fear. He had been learning a great deal from her on the rare occasions that he had earned the right to participate in one of Hermione's group study sessions and he did not want to find himself excluded.
"I'm sorry, please forgive me," Terry whined pathetically.
"In response to your first question, Harry and I study constantly and our meditation techniques help us retain that knowledge."
"The fact that you don't need much sleep also helps." Su Li commented.
"You are going to teach us these techniques?" Anthony Goldstein asked.
"Yes, if you are willing to agree to a few terms," Hermione told him.
"What terms?" Mandy wanted to know.
"The first term is simple. You don't tell any of our professors-including Professor Dumbledore-and you don't tell any of the other students about these techniques or that you'll be learning them from us."
"Why can't we tell?" Mandy asked, not pleased to be deprived of good gossip material.
"Professor Dumbledore has banned the teaching of these skills because he wants to be able to access student minds at his whim."
"Albus Dumbledore is not like that, he's the leader of the Light!"
"Self-proclaimed leader of the Light. Haven't you read the articles about him in the Daily Prophet?"
"Yes, but they must be all lies. Rita Skeeter is hardly the most reliable source," Padma sniffed.
"All of it is real. I have seen the evidence firsthand."
"No phoenix would ever associate with an evil or dark person," Stephen Cornfoot countered.
"Fawkes has been bound to Dumbledore with some pretty nasty charms. Harry and I found the charms ourselves and we've been working on finding a way to free him. The charms Dumbledore are extremely old and rare, so we've been having a hard time working out a way to counter them," Hermione told them.
"Why don't you ask Professor Flitwick? He is the Charms professor after all."
"He wasn't able to detect the charms. If he had, he would've removed them already."
"So how can you detect something that our professor can't?"
"Harry's mother was a charms prodigy. Lily Potter managed to create several advanced charms and passed her talent on to Harry."
"Why can't you show Professor Flitwick the charm so he can help you to remove it?"
"The charm is a Potter family secret now. Harry already considers me his family, which is why I was able to learn the charm."
"Does that mean that you two are a serious couple?" Padma asked.
"We are still too young for that kind of thing."
"How about when you're older?" Mandy wondered.
"We don't know yet. It is too early to tell." Hermione said, obviously uncomfortable with this line of questioning, which greatly amused her classmates.
"Getting back to the terms for these lessons. You won't tell anyone about what Harry or I are up to, you don't follow us around and you don't try to find out either."
"Are you doing something illegal?" Terry asked.
"We just like our privacy. The third term is that you don't disturb our sleep."
Everyone was fine with that one.
"Fourth term is that the agreement will be enforced by a cursed contract that will have some unpleasant consequences for anyone who tries to break it."
"Isn't that a bit harsh?" Padma asked, her dark eyes wide.
"If you don't like the terms then you're welcome to leave. These terms are non-negotiable."
No one moved.
"I will hold two sessions a day. One with the study group and another one will be an evening session in the Ravenclaw boys' dorms."
"Why there?"
"The Ravenclaw common room is way too public and the boys can't access the girls' dorms. Any other questions?"
"Does it take very long to learn?"
"Yes. But it is totally worth it. The younger you are, the easier it is for you to pick up."
"Any other questions?" Silence. "Good. I'll see you all in the boys' dorms right after dinner and I'll have the contracts ready for you to sign."
Everyone left the room except for Mandy and her friends.
"How can I help you?" Hermione asked.
"Do you remember when we helped you escape the two Griffindork idiots? You and Harry agreed that we could borrow Harry's invisibility coat sometime in the future?"
"Yes. Do you need to borrow it for something?"
The girls all turned red and whispered among themselves for a few seconds.
"Yes."
"Okay. When will you need it?"
"Tonight."
"After our Occlumency session, Harry will give you the cloak along with a coin that will let you if someone is coming. Just don't get caught, alright?"
"We won't," they chorused.
As soon as the girls left. Hermione placed Protean charms on a couple of coins that she would use along with the Marauders' Map to warn them if they were in danger of being discovered. She then left for dinner so she could inform Harry about what had happened at school while he had been busy. Hermione was also curious to hear how the adoption hearing had gone.
In the Great Hall, Hermione turned to Harry as soon as they sat down.
"So how did it go?"
"It went great. The Dursleys had no objections and actually endorsed the proceedings. Dumbledore didn't show up to muck things up and Sirius was on hand to give his approval too."
"How did he know what time the hearing would be held?"
"He's been spending a lot time at your house flirting with all the girls. Sirius has been there every evening getting to know your parents and enjoying Dobby's cooking."
"Should we be worried about Sirius finding out too much about our operation?" Hermione worried.
"No, the girls all know to chuck him out when they need to keep something confidential. We need to trust our employees and the contracts we had them sign should protect us. How did things go with Doug pretending to be me?"
"Not well. He hit on every girl in school up to and including Millicent Bulstrode. She showed quite a bit of interest in you, by the way."
"I am totally going to murder Doug the next time I see him," Harry growled.
"Hang on, it gets even worse. He hit on Professor McGonagall all throughout Transfiguration so you have a whole month of detentions with her. And Snape gave you a month of detentions too, just for being you."
"I should've just pretended to be sick."
"I told everyone that Sirius gave you a lust potion. So I have agreed to teach everyone Occlumency."
"I'll go see Professor McGonagall right after dinner and use the lust potion excuse."
"I doubt that'll get you out of detention, she doesn't like either of us anyway."
"I can always try."
"Good luck with that."
Harry went to Professor McGonagall's office immediately after dinner to try to get out of the detentions Doug had so thoughtfully earned for him.
"Mr. Potter, already here for your detentions, I see," Professor McGonagall greeted him with a scowl upon his arrival.
"I'm really sorry about my behavior in class, Professor. I just found out that my godfather, Sirius Black, managed to dose me with a lust potions. It was his idea of a great joke."
"I'm afraid that's not an acceptable excuse. If you were acting out of the ordinary, your friends should have taken you to the infirmary at once."
"They know I don't like the infirmary."
"That's too bad, Mr. Potter."
"Can I at least carry out my detentions with another professor? Frankly, I find my memories of today's class to be more than a little disturbing."
"That's something we can both agree on," Professor McGonagall acknowledged.
"Perhaps Professor Flitwick would be willing?"
"No." Professor McGonagall thought for a minute. "How about Professor Snape?"
"How about Professor Sprout?"
"No. It's either me or Professor Snape."
"Professor Snape." Harry agreed, defeated.
"Do you truly dislike me so much that you prefer to spend your detentions with Professor Snape?"
"Yes. Can I go, my memories of this morning are making me feel rather ill, Harry told her.
"Please leave, I really don't want you getting sick in my office." Professor McGonagall said.
Harry left Professor McGonagall's office and proceeded to the Potions classroom. As soon as Harry arrived, he used the hypnotic trigger that he had implanted in Snape's mind to make the Potions master teach him more of his advanced potions and mental techniques.
That weekend, Harry promptly confronted Doug.
"Why the hell did you go out of your way to get me two months of detentions?"
"I was just getting even for you leaving me alone in the Chamber of Secrets with a Basilisk that happens to get serious enjoyment out of terrorizing me."
"That is no excuse. This is your first warning, Doug. If you do not get your act together, you will be fired."
"I'm sorry, Harry."
"From now on you are on probation and you just lost any bonuses that you would've received."
"What right have you to make such decisions?" Doug said, red-faced with outrage.
The werewolf stopped in his tracks when Dan informed him, "He is your manager for all intents and purposes and he reports to us. That is the chain of command in this operation. If you don't like it, you're welcome to quit. But just remember the contract we have. At any rate, I wholeheartedly agree with Harry. You've become entirely too lazy and greedy even though we've been very generous with you. This cannot continue. If you do not start working harder and putting our interests ahead of your own, you'll be out of a job with a big loan to pay off. So do you swear to behave from now on?"
Realizing that he was in a very weak position, Doug decided to accept the situation for now.
"I promise to do better." Doug agreed defeatedly.
"Make sure that you do. Now do you have something to say to Harry?"
"I am sorry." Doug said, his voice barely a whisper.
Hermione could see how badly Doug felt and decided to take pity on him by changing the subject. "Why don't we get our meeting underway so that Harry and I can go Christmas shopping?"
"Yes, lets." Emma had realized what Hermione was doing and quickly agreed.
"Is Sirius here?" Harry asked as they walked together to the lounge that doubled as their conference room.
"Not this time. Sirius had a meeting with Tonks today. But he's been hanging around here a lot and trying to chat up Ashley, Alice and Emily."
"Is he disturbing their work or finding out about anything we don't want him to know just yet?"
"No. Ashley tosses him out of her tent as soon as he turns up. Alice talks with him when she is doing the paperwork in the sorting tent but when she is copying books or researching, she also kicks him out. Emily either stays in her tent, which Sirius knows is off limits, or she hides out in the cabinetmaker's workshop to avoid him. But Doug and Sirius get along great."
"What has Doug being doing besides doing his best to destroy my reputation?" Harry asked.
"He's been working with Alice on the renovation plans for our new place, including finding us period furniture or making copies of books for the Outcast library." Emma replied.
"Who is taking care of our business with the Weasley twins?"
"Alice has been handling that. She is very responsible and we no longer trust Doug to do it."
"Can I borrow Alice and Emily?" Hermione asked.
"Why dear? They have a lot of important tasks they need to accomplish. Emily is building more of our much-needed vanishing cabinet replicas and Alice is busy with a lot of other important things."
"I need some help with my research into mining techniques. Most of the methodology has already been developed. I just need to develop a better detection charm. I believe we can manaage it if we modify the ward detection spell to identify minerals."
"Isn't dangerous experimenting in this area? Mining isn't exactly the safest of tasks," Emma said, visibly concerned for her daughter."You should leave it for the adults to handle, dear."
"Really, it's alright. Once we finish researching then we can experiment in the Room of Requirement, which is kind of like the holodeck suite in Star Trek. There are loads of safety measures built in to protect someone from hurting themselves. That's why the Room of Requirement is ever so useful."
"Why don't you use Doug instead? That way, if there's anything dangerous that needs to be done, he can take care of it. It will also allow you to keep a close eye on him for us. Plus he is the most knowledgeable of us when it comes to ward detection."
"Okay."
"You can also use Ashley. I'm planning on to using my detentions with Snape to make him to personally teach Ashley all of the modified and advanced potions he knows. This will free up the time Hermione uses to research the potion requests that she isn't already familiar with." Harry supplied.
"I will check with her later about that," Hermione said, clearly unconvinced.
"So how far a long are we on buying a gold mining company?"
"We've put some feelers out there already but it is going to cost lots of money."
"We can use the new house you bought and the investments we made as collateral for a loan to purchase the mining company. The majority of the miners will be from the magical world, so your costs won't need to be reported in the non-magical world. So the non-magical world would think you made loads of profit while you convert the unreported galleons we made into hard currency."
"Since you put it that way, I'll make time to speak to our bank manager on Monday to start organising a loan. Nothing will happen for at least another month as everything slows down considerably during the holiday season."
"Focus your search in gold mining companies in the state of Nevada in the US or the western end of Australia. They're the top gold-producing regions, if my memory is correct." Harry informed them.
"Thecompanies you're talking about would cost us several million to purchase and we only have close to a million pounds legally recognised to play with."
"Why don't you put the hundred and fifty thousand pounds that we have sitting here doing nothing into the bank so that we can invest it? Claiming it is another part of the inheritance. Around half of that would go as taxes but we have about two months before that will be due. You're going to sell all of your holdings in Microsoft and Nike?" Harry asked.
"Yes, they're on the market at the moment with a strike price of US $2.60 for Microsoft and US $9 for Nike. Once the sale is complete, we should net around two hundred thousand pounds of profit. Not bad for just three and a half months of investing."
"Have you got your broker looking for Microsoft short contracts with a spot price of US $2.65 and a strike price of US $2.25 due in July?"
"Yes." Dan said
"You remember this is a derivative contract, which means you only have to maintain the margin which means that the amount you can invest is greatly multiplied."
"Yes, our broker worked it all out for us to maximise the return if the contract is in the money."
"So we should get around two million pounds by July."
"Yes. actually quite a bit more if what you're saying is true."
"How about the high end items we wanted to auction off that come from the raids or the Room of Lost Things?"
"One auction will be held on Monday and another smaller one will be held in either January or February."
"Why two auctions?"
"Some of the paintings and other items still need to be authenticated. And any stolen property has to be returned and we're trying to arrange barters instead of sales for certain things."
"So you can furnish the new house?"
"Yes. It is perfectly legal as long as no one makes a claim on a lost item for insurance purposes."
"The auction houses are allowing you to do this?"
"We are paying them extra for the auctions we hold, plus an additional handling fee for the exchanges."
"Do you have an estimate of how much you should get for these auctions?"
"There is a lot of interest already, but the current estimates range from two hundred thousand pounds and up. And that is just for the first auction. The second auction will include paintings that could well be lost masterpieces which have been hidden in the magical world for years. So they're not even willing to speculate on those prices, especially as some will be given back to holocaust survivors and other owners of the stolen items."
"Maybe we could ask Sirius to purchase Muggle items he finds in the magical community, especially the pureblood families. It will help him feel more included and will give him something as he recovers from his stay in Azkaban."
"We can ask about it tomorrow; he's going to be coming over to spend some time with you."
"Before we head off shopping, have the authorities taken an interest in you since you've been selling so many rare things?"
"No, the Outcast supporter happened to be a well-known collector. Her house was filled to the brim with assorted junk so the discovery of a cache of valuables wasn't a total surprise. She recently passed away, so the police can hardly ask her about it, can they?"
"To be on the safe side, I think the both of you should make a number of substantial donations to charities you believe in. It will reduce your taxes, raise your public profile and give you political capital that will come in handy later on," Harry suggested.
"That's a really good idea. Why didn't I think of that?" Emma said.
"Can you imagine the Daniel and Emma Granger Scholarship trust fund or the Hermy Granger Scholarship trust fund?" Dan teasingly suggested, knowing full well how much Hermione hated nicknames.
"I was thinking you should include a few environmental groups in the US and Australia. So when we do finally purchase a mining company, they can attest to how environmentally friendly our techniques are since we'll be using magic to substantially lower the environmental impace."
"You should include a number of smaller donations instead of just a few big donations, that will earn you even more political capital." Hermione added.
Harry thought for a moment. "You know, you really should put off announcing these donations until after you have completed the renovations. You don't need the bureaucrats getting the bright idea of dragging out the renovation process to wangle even more money from you guys."
"Okay. Enough. I am getting a headache." Dan said, rubbing his head for effect.
"So can we go shopping now?" Hermione asked hopefully.
"Alright," Dan agreed, even though he wasn't looking forward to playing cab driver and carrying mule for their shopping expedition.
"Lead the way." Harry said, which lightened Dan's mood when he realized that at least he would have Harry for company.
Chapter 23 Christmas
Hermione had decided to stay at Hogwarts to keep Harry company during the Christmas and New Year holidays. Harry was staying to keep Dumbledore ignorant of the adoption process being conducted by the Grangers. Once the muggle adoption process had been completed then Harry would inform the school including Dumbledore in the change in guardianship. Until then Dumbledore could intervene with the muggle authorities which could cause all sorts of headaches they did not need.
As their were so few people around Harry and Hermione had to attend all the meals at Hogwarts to avoid making Dumbledore and the other professors suspicious. At every meal, Harry and Hermione would tested their food and tableware for potions. Dumbledore get upset everytime they did this but could say a thing. The detentions with Professor Snape continued during this period as Harry wanted them out of the way. A side benefit of the detentions was that Ashley had two extra hands to deal with the additional orders that came from being endorsed by Head of the Black family.
The additional orders and the lessons from Snape meant that Ashley was unable to help Hermione with her research and development. Instead Hermione was left with Doug who was now quiet placate since Harry had told him off. Since Doug was not his usual cocky self, Hermione was able to achieve a lot without interruption. On Christmas eve, she was ready to go to the Room of Requirement to start testing her mining techniques.
At the same time Emily and the cabinet maker had just finished another Vanishing Cabinet. This set of cabinets was going to connect a French warehouse owned by the Outcast Organisation to the Grangers' current home. This home was going to be turned into a hub for import and export and placed under a Fidelius Charm to protected it. As soon as the Grangers' new home was fully renovated.
On Christmas Eve, all the employees were gathered together for lunch including the Acrumuntula hunting party with Dobby preparing the food for this meal. Sirius was spending time with the Tonks who was one of the few remaining family members he liked. While Harry and Hermione were stuck at school so was also absent from the gathering. It was an enjoyable meal with everyone getting to know one another and enjoying the delicious food. As they were finishing their meal, Dan stood up and spoke.
"Thank you everyone for a great year. We could not have achieved what we achieve without your effort. I hope that next year is even better I as get to know you all better. As a token of our appreciation of the work you all put in here are a few gifts from us to you. Dobby can you please give out the presents and bonuses."
Dobby appeared with presents and bags of money. Emily received a trunk as she was receiving the most money as a bonus as she was the longest employee. Doug got a gold and diamond money clip with a dollar sign on it with no bonus. When he saw the others receiving more expensive presents and a Christmas bonus as well. He got extremely pissed off. That combined with the alcohol he consumed with his lunch resulted in he saying.
"Where is my Christmas bonus? I have worked longer than everyone else here besides Emily and what do I get a lousy money clip while Alice gets a magical camera with various lens attachments worth ten times my gift. This is so unfair. I..."
Before he could say something else he might regret. Alice had stunned him. He fell forward into a cup of fire whiskey, unconscious. Some of the hunters moved his body to the lounge before tying him up so he can not get into more trouble in his drunken state.
Dan and Emma Grangers receive reusable emergency portkeys from Harry and Hermione. Magical and non-magical wine from almost everyone else. Harry received framed photos of his parents from various people. His classmates got him sweets or books which was the same as what he got them. Hermione got Harry a framed photo of Sirius, Dan, Emma and herself. Harry was disappointed that Hagrid did not get him anything for Christmas even though part of him expected it. Dumbledore gave Harry some chocolates and sweets that he passed to the twins to give to their brother. Hermione also got the same chocolates as Harry which she also passed to Ron just in case Dumbledore put potions in the chocolates or sweets that they could not detect. Harry got Hermione a dummy with interchangeable faces so that she could take out her frustration on the doll rather than him. The rest of the presents she got was books including from her parents.
On the 27th of December, Harry and Hermione went to the Grangers place to spend some time with Sirius and Hermione's parents. They were quiet shocked to see the Outcast Leader sitting in the lounge room chatting with Sirius like old friends. As soon as Sirius saw Harry and Hermione, he got up and hugged them.
"Merry Christmas, Harry , Hermione!"
"Merry Christmas yourself Sirius." Hermione replied in greeting.
"Merry Christmas, Padfoot." Harry said.
"It is good to see you both. Since you were getting involved with the Outcast organisation I thought I should get to know the people running the show."
"I don't see any broken glass or furniture. So I assume you two are getting along." Harry said.
"It was easy for us to find common ground. Their evasion techniques was like our pranking in school. I laughed myself silly when he told me about that time they submitted 10,000 forms just so that they could slip 5 questionable applications to a particular ministry official. The ministry official got RSI from approving all those forms and left them alone ever since. Every time that official sees the Outcast member he runs the other way."
"How about the cause?" Hermione asked.
"I can agree with their cause and I believe we can work together." Sirius said.
"Definitely." the Outcast Leader added.
"Speaking about getting acquainted. How did your meeting with the Tonks go?" Harry asked.
"Well. They never believed I was guilty and did try to help me get a trial without success. The paperwork they provided me again proves to me that Dumbledore was a two faced bastard. So it was a lovely reunion for me. In fact I have moved in with them. Since Andy is a healer so she is looking after me to ensure I make a full recovery."
"That is great. You should introduce us during the Summer holidays." Harry suggested.
"Okay I will."
"How is your recovery going?"
"Quiet well especially since I started buying up non-magical things from magical people like Dan and Emma suggested. As it keeps me busy and gives me a purpose."
"Any success?"
"Some, I have a few leads and have begun talks with the ministry to dispose of things confiscated by the department of Misuse of Muggle Artefacts. But it is early days yet."
"That sounds great. Speaking of selling. How did the auction go?"
"I will tell you more later but it went quite well." Dan stated.
"How is the new school going?" Hermione asked since she could tell that Dan did not want the Outcast leader/Sirius to know how much money they made or ask where the things they sold came from.
"All four main buildings have been completed. We are now adding the special requirements for different subjects to the classrooms within those buildings. Classrooms for the first and second year students have been completed since they are at the bottom level and there are only few special requirements for these classrooms unlike the NEWT or the R&D rooms. The second level for third, fourth and fifth years is half way to completion. Third level is for Sixth and Seventh years is a third of the way to completion so is the fourth level used for apprentices. We had to keep work on three of the buildings at the same level as we don't want the different schools to complain about bias. All three main buildings housing the various schools are very constant in their designs.
We have are started using the new school for first and second year classes with no problems so far. Your suggestion to setup a private floo network between the schools has worked a treat. The additional funds you people have being giving us has met that we can keep the old schools open as well as build the new school. The biggest problem we have are the fights amongst the professors whenever a new shipment of books from you arrive. Especially among competing professors. It is quite entertaining watching prim and proper scholars get into fist cuffs over books."
"Do you have a librarian cataloguing the new arrivals?"
"Yes, but he is working flat out trying to keep the peace rather then just cataloguing the new arrivals."
"Why don't you create a schedule where Professors take turns being the first person to select which book they wish to borrow first from a particular shipment? Failure to return the book by the due date will ban them from the schedule until they return the book."
"We tried that but their was fights over the order of the schedule."
"While don't you give me an alphabetical list of the Professors and I will randomly workout a schedule from that. This way, you can say that the sponsor for the library created the schedule and any changes will upset me."
"That might work as you will be unbiased and they will be fearful of upsetting the sponsor who could pull their research funding if they get too out of line."
"Does that mean you name something after me?" Hermione said innocently.
"Since you are all providing the lion share of the funding of this new school we had already decided to call the new school the Granger Institute. If that is all right with you?"
"That is most definitely fine." Dan said quickly.
"In fact we feel honoured that you would do so."
"Do you want to name the buildings?"
"Can you name the new library, Hermione's Sanctuary in her honour." Harry suggested resulting in Hermione moving over to hug him.
"That is fine. You need to name the 4 main new buildings at the new school, the sport fields, the dorms we have not built yet and all the R&D buildings. Let's start with the Library building which also holds the administrative staff and our main infirmary. It was also the first building to be completed. What do you want this building to be called?"
"Why don't you tell us about the other buildings first?"
"One building will deal mainly with vampires, the next building will deal with werewolves and the final building will house everyone else."
"Why don't we name it after James, Lily, Dan and Emma?" Sirius suggests.
"No. We should name after the Marauders." Hermione replies which makes Harry and Sirius both smile.
"She is right. The school is named after us and the library after Hermione. It is only fair the main buildings represent something for Harry rather then us." Emma said in support.
"But we replace Wormtail with Lily." Sirius suggested.
"Can we replace Lupin as well?" Harry asks.
"No. I can understand why you don't trust him but he is not really a bad person just lead astray by an evil man masquerading as a good man. Now he is too set in his ways to change. I will approach him again and try to get him to see reason but not until I am fully recovered from my stay in prison." Sirius says.
"I can concede that he was lead astray."
"We should do it for the person who he was not what he has become." Hermione said.
"Okay so what should the buildings be called their first names, nicknames or last names?" Harry asked.
"Last names and you decide on the allocate, Harry." Emma said which everyone agreed with.
"Evans for the Library building, Potter for the Vampires, Lupin for the werewolves and Black for the miscellaneous."
"I see no problems with that." The Outcast leader said as he finished writing down Harry's suggestions.
"When will the school be completed?" Harry asked.
"Around June according to the builders but you know how unreliable they are in terms of timetables."
"Is that everything including the Dorms?"
"Yes. Where are you going with this?"
"We don't want a repeat of Tom Riddle better known as Voldemort. So I was thinking students from abusive backgrounds or orphans be given the opportunity to live at the school all year round."
"Staffing could be a problem. Since we will need to hire more staff to look after those children during holiday periods."
"The new school will have a lot of apprentices. Even more now with the additional funding we are providing so have a rotation system where they take turns looking after these kids."
"I think that is workable but it is going cost a lot money going forward to maintain such a scheme."
"Why don't you build a farm on the school grounds? These children who live at the school all year round can take turns caring for the animals or tending the crops for pocket money and to teach them responsibility. The farm can provide food and potion ingredients for the school once it has been established. It could also provide a source of income and successful herbology experiments could be adopted at the farm to give the school a competitive advantage. To help you get started I will steal some cuttings from the plants are Hogwarts and get our hunters to collect some of the rarer plants from the Forbidden Forest."
"I can see fights coming up from our Herbology professors over those plants. We don't have the space or the facilities to do so."
"Can't you buy the neighbouring properties?"
"Yes but it all comes down to money."
"How much would you need?"
"Around 200 thousand galleons to start with to buy the land, build the facilities we need and to buy breeding stock and seeds."
"Harry, we need to talk it through before we rushing in on a new venture." Dan said concerned that Harry was doing another of his spur of the moment things which he was renowned for.
"Why don't you put some figures together for Alice and we will go from there?" Hermione said as she too wanted to talk to Harry about it.
"I should have the figures tomorrow as we did look into that at one point but found it was too expensive."
"Part of the cost of the venture can be covered by the R&D expense for the Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology Departments." Harry said
"We don't have Care of Magical Creatures as a subject but if we get this farm up and running then we can offer it."
"What subjects do you offer?"
"The major subjects only Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, American History, DADA and Herbology with Runes and Arthimary now being offered to all students instead of just one school due to the Amalgamation."
"How about Salem what do they offer?"
"All that plus muggle studies, introduction to magical society and Care of Magical Creatures."
"Does any schools have Astronomy, Divination or magical law?"
"There are specialised colleges for those subjects plus Magical Arts such as Paintings, Native American magic and a whole host of others."
"How about non-magical subjects such as Chemistry, Physics, Maths, English etc?"
"No magic schools offer those subjects."
"You should do so that muggleborn and half-bloods can still go to non-magical universities if they don't like it in the magical world. It will attract a lot of non-magical raised students and their parents if these options were available. Another benefit would be that it would encourage the combination of science and magic."
"New students is no longer a problem. Your research grants have enabled us to steal Professors with Masters in Runes and Arthimany. This forced the closure of at least two schools. The students from those schools will be joining the Grangers Institue after the festive holidays which is going double our total student population."
"Why was the schools forced to close?" Harry asked concerned that their actions had some unexpected negatives consequences.
"We had one Runes professor and one Arthimany professor across all three of schools. The amalgamation of the three schools met that they did not have enough time to teach all the students. So they roped in the Professors from the specialised schools to help cope with the workload. As the schools no longer had the Professors to teach their speciality. They decided to close rather than try to compete against us for replacement professors."
"So you did not deliberately force these schools to close. They did voluntarily."
"As soon as we came along with all the additional resources at our disposal. They realised the writing was on the wall. So they shut up shop and added what little resources they had to our so that their students would be accepted into our new school."
"How is the Research going?" Harry asked.
"We have 15 articles being reviewed at the moment which has a major impact in their respective fields that is compared to 5 published articles in the previous 2 years which was ignored as being unimportant."
"How did so many articles get written in such a short time?" Hermione asked.
"Most of the professors are working ridiculous hours trying to out do the Professors from the other schools. That is why there are fights over the books coming in as they want the best topics. The vampires have 7 articles in review with another 6 articles in the late stages of being written. Werewolves are not far behind with the miscellaneous in the rear but that will change once the professors we recently acquired start working."
"How many new professors did you get?"
"We hired 5 new Runes and Arthimany professors. A lot of professors from other schools are interested in joining the Granger Institute including some Salem Institute teachers who are considered the best in America. They are attracted to the research funding you guys are offering."
"Why don't you try to accept Professors for all the subjects you don't have so that you can offer a wide range of subjects? Letting students have that many options will encourage enrolments which increases your chances of finding truly talented students."
"I can see your point and with the old school buildings we can use those until we build the additional rooms we need to cope with the expanded school."
"You should also look for Squibs to teach the non-magical subjects. That reminds me. What happens to Squibs?" Hermione asked.
"They can not teach them in our schools as we don't offer non-magical subjects. We help them get non-magical scholarships but that is the extent of our reach in the non-magical world."
"Maybe you should try to reach out to these students you helped either as a network in the non-magical world or to offer them positions as teachers in the new non-magical subjects."
"We have tried to reach out to these students before but most of them want nothing to do with the magical world. After the way they have been treated I can not blame them. Maybe by having this teaching offer on the table plus the possibility of research into combining the magical and non-magical world would lead to greater success."
"Speaking of new areas. You should get professors to teach Occlumency as soon as possible. I don't know why the subject is not compulsory for all students as it helps students retain knowledge and would reduce the number of fights as it helps students manage their emotions better. We have taught Alice, Doug and our Hogwarts classmates the basics and it seems to help. In fact if you can not find teachers then Alice or Doug could teach basics."
"Aurors are all taught that skill as part of their training. So teachers should not be a problem." Sirius added.
"Why don't I go and start working on these suggestions? I especially like your suggestions about Occlumency." The Outcast Leader got up and was about to leave when Harry asked.
"Before you go do you know whether our cabinet arrived in the US yet?"
"It arrived in our warehouse last week why?"
"It can transport things magically between the US and UK without the authorities from either countries knowing about it. So we want to create a joint venture so that we can sell things to and from US and the Outcast Organisation can get a small cut of the profits."
"That sounds great. What sort of cut are we talking about and when do you want to start?"
Dan spoke up and said "5 percent of the profits and we want to start right away if you have a legally registered company in both the muggle and magical world we could use."
"That should not be a problem, I can send you the paperwork tomorrow for your lawyers to look over."
"The company has to be registered to do share and derivative trading?" Harry asked.
"We have a number of shell companies that we can use and I am sure one of them is registered for share trading."
"Sirius, do want to get involved?"
"Why don't you talk about that among yourselves while I get everything under way." The Outcast Leader said as he got up to leave.
As soon as the Outcast leader had left. Dan said to Harry.
"Harry. What were you thinking, creating a farm at the new school?"
"It will provide future funding for the school allowing it to protect orphans and abused students. Start up costs are no problem as we can now sell Basilisk parts in the US without helping our enemies."
"It takes lots of planning to start a new venture like this and you are giving Alice a lot of extra work checking the figures that the Outcast Organisation provides just as we begin a massive renovation project."
"Why don't you hire a management team in the US to deal with all the paperwork? It is probably worth the expense as they can usually work out companies structures that minimise tax. Normally you could hire an accounting firm to do all for us but since we will be dealing with both the magical and non-magical world, I don't think that is possible." Hermione suggested.
"That is a good idea. Especially since we made almost half a million pounds from the recent auction which was double what we expected. The other auction is expected to net much more with two hundred registered bidders already and the auction is still 2 months away."
"Why was their such a big difference between what was expected and what was raised?"
"It seems that there was a number of pieces that the Auction house had identified as unnamed makers were in fact they were from renowned artists which drove the prices for these pieces sky high."
"Maybe you should use a different auction house if they made such fundamental mistakes." Harry suggested.
"It was not their fault. We were rushing them to auction off all this stuff so they focused on what they thought were the big ticket items and the smaller items got over looked. When you get ten pounds extra for a hundred small items it adds up."
"That sounds reasonable."
"If you have a lot of spare cash, you should consider buying newspapers, magazines and wireless stations as that is one best ways to initiate change." Sirius suggested.
"We already brought 15% of the main magical newspaper in the US and will buy more in time. As a matter of fact we should transfer the ownership of the shares to this new company. That way we will separate our magical income from our non-magical income. It will simplify our paperwork as the new company can deal with all the magical bureaucracy."
"You know that media companies rarely give dividends in the magical world. It is all about political power to money making."
"In the non-magical world, a lot of money is made by the media companies and a person can become very rich from buying media companies look at Murdoch and the Packers."
"Well the magical world is different. Are you going to use this company to buy more media companies?" Sirius asks.
"We are on the look out but we were planning to delay for a few months as we identified a few opportunities we wish to exploit." Dan stated matter of factly.
"If you going to do that then I want to get involved as well. Especially since I will not have to do the paperwork."
"Do you want to help us buy media outlets in the UK and US?"
"I could do that but you should also be looking at Europe as that has a great influence in the UK through the ICW which Dumbledore is currently controlling. If you can remove Dumbledore from the ICW then UK would be forced to change."
"Since we know nothing about this area of politics. Why don't you look into that for us and we can work something out from there?"
"If you are going in that direction then I would not mind putting some of my money into the project as well."
"You can talk about privately as we need to be back at school before Dumbledore misses our company." Harry said as he and Hermione got up to leave.