Chapter 31
The next week and a half was busy in the Granger household. Harry was going through the investigation that Madam Bones conducted following the discovery of the massive miscarriage of justice that was Sirius' imprisonment. He wanted to research and remove the curse that he found on the deadly hallows but he knew he needed to have this investigation done before the start of the new school year so that the next stage of their plan could be executed.
Meanwhile, Hermione and her parents were planning their trip to US (when they were not attending some charity event). Harry was not included in the holiday as he was staying with Sirius and the Tonks during this period. The main reason for Harry to stay behind was to spend quality time with Sirius. The other reason was that Harry wanted the Grangers to have some time together without him intruding even though the Grangers said he was part of their family and that he should attend. A distant third reason was so that Harry would be around to deal with any problems that should arise.
After a discussion with one of their financial advisors, it was decided that they would visit their US base of operations at the beginning of their trip. Then they could do all the sightseeing before ending the trip with a visit of the new Granger Institute. By doing it this way, it made the expenses they incurred on the trip tax deductible in the muggle world.
On the day that the Grangers were leaving for America, Harry came down the stairs all packed to go to the Tonks' home where Sirius was staying. Emma was cooking, Dan was reading the newspaper while Hermione was trying to work out which books she wanted to bring with her.
"Good Morning, Harry." Emma said greeting him with a hug.
"Good Morning, Emma." Harry had started calling her Emma since he was uncomfortable with using the terms Mum and Dad.
"Hi Harry." Dan said without looking up from the newspaper.
"Good Morning Dan." Harry replied.
"Good Morning." Hermione said.
"Good Morning to you too." Harry said.
"Have you packed everything?" Emma asked.
"Yes." Harry replied.
"Did you bring enough socks?"
"If I forget anything, I can always come back here."
"Okay. Are you sure you don't want to go with us to America? It is still not too late…" Emma asked.
"I am positive. I want to spend time with Sirius."
"Don't get into too much trouble." Hermione said.
"I will try but you know how much of a prankster Sirius is. It will be an uphill battle." Harry replied. They then had their last breakfast together before the Grangers headed out for America.
"I wish I can see you off that the airport." Harry said as the Grangers prepare to leave.
"You know it is not safe for you to go out in public with Dumbledore still out to get you."
"Then why did I have to attend those charity events?"
"At least at those events hardly anyone knew you were coming besides the guest list is set and any strange people appearing would be noticed immediately unlike the airport." Hermione explained.
"Enjoy your trip, Emma, Dan and Hermione. I will see you when you come back." Harry said.
Hermione, Dan and Emma arrived at their hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada where they rested for a day before taking a day trip to Carson City. They decided to locate their base of operations in Carson City because it was much cheaper than Las Vegas but still big enough to support their growing operation. It was also close to their gold mining operations which simplified communication between HQ and the mines. When they arrived at the HQ, Dan was expecting two discrete office buildings maybe three stories high in down town Carson City. One building was for the magical parts of their operation and the other building was for the non-magical parts.
What they saw when they arrived was two good size office building with one of the buildings at least ten stories in the middle of Carson City's CBD. Dan, Emma and Hermione were shocked when they arrived. Grant Rosenberg, their General Manager/CEO, greeted them as they entered the non-magical building. Grant was a squib who had a MBA from Harvard. He took a pay cut when he accepted this role, but the idea of combining the Magic and non-magical worlds appealed to him. He also believed that he would make more in the future with this role than he would by taking a higher paying job now.
"How many stories is this building?" Dan asked in shock as he looked up the non-magical office building. He remembered approving the rental agreement for these new offices but he never thought it was this big.
"This building is 12 stories while the other one is 8 stories." Grant replied.
"Why are they so big?" Hermione asked.
"The first 8 stories of this building are filled with administration staff, lawyers, accountants, managers ..." Grant said in explanation before Hermione interrupted him by asking.
"Do we have that many accountants, lawyer and office staff?"
"The lawyers and accountants are saving us more in taxes than it costs us to employ them. We need the administration staff to deal with the bureaucratic paperwork that the various levels of government and different government departments require."
"All this is for our non-magical operation?" Hermione asked in disbelief.
"Yes. The magical operation takes the top 4 floors of this building and entire other building."
"Why did you not use the smaller building for the non-magical operation and use this building solely for magical operations?" Emma asked.
"The other building is not equipped for non-magical infra-structure like phones, electricity, etc." Grant explained. The Grangers understood and accepted this explanation. Grant continued the description of the layout of the operation.
"That building currently houses the magical bank we recently opened. It was lucky that we got so much office space because the entire building is dedicated to the bank. The rest of the magical operations are located in the top four floors of this building."
"Why does the bank take up so much space?"
"The bank is so popular that we are using two floors of the building to store 10% of the deposits we receive so that we can allow our customers to make withdrawals if necessary."
"How much did we receive in deposits so far?" Dan asked.
"300 million dollars..." Grant replied. The combination of the size of the amount being deposited plus the fatigue from their trip caused the Grangers to faint. Grant was forced to call security and some employees to help him move them to his office.
The next thing Hermione and parents knew they were lying on conjured couches in a plush office. As they sat up a secretary handed them a drink which they accepted gratefully.
"Where are we?" Emma asked as she looked around.
"We are in my office on the eighth floor. Mrs Granger." Grant replied.
"Are we in the magical or non-magical building?" Emma asked.
"The non-magical building even though the top four floors of this building are magical."
"So this is not the top floor of the building?" Hermione asked.
"No. It is not. This is where the magical and non-magical operations meet. The people who work on this floor are either Squibs or muggle-born. So be warned that using magic below this floor is not recommended as it damages our electronic equipment and do not take electronics above this floor." Grant explained.
"What about the lifts?" Hermione asked.
"The lifts work up to this floor but don't work above this floor."
"How do you get to the floors above?"
"There are a number of different options. The one I usually use is to a take the lift to this floor before walking the fire escape stairs up to the higher floors. But most people who know about magic use the floo or apparation points on the upper floors."
"What is stopping our non-magical employees who know nothing about magic from doing the same?"
"We have a muggle repelling wards on the doors leading to the magical areas and we have a strict company policy in regards to magical people going into non-magical area. Failure to comply with the policy will lead to immediate dismissal." This response from Grant satisfied Hermione.
"What were we talking about before we fainted?" Dan asked.
"I mentioned that that we have 300 million dollars on deposit."
"How long have we been accepting deposits?" Dan asked.
"Two weeks."
"How did we raise so much in so little time?" Hermione asked.
"Most of our employees have known about this new venture for over a month. You know how fast gossip travels. So on the first day we opened, people who were eligible to make deposits had borrowed as much as they could from other financial institutions in order to deposit the funds with us. The difference between the cost of the loan and our return on investment is pure profit for them. Our employees know how well we are doing so they considered it a minimal risk investment." Grant explained.
"I believe we have to limit the amount of deposits we are accepting until we are more established."
"Already ahead of you there, after the first couple of days we realised what was happening so we have imposed a limit on how much we are willing to accept in deposits. This limit will be reviewed in 6 months' time but at the moment even if every eligible person deposits the maximum amount, the most we get is an extra 200 million dollars." Dan got a little smug look from Emma who had wanted Grant over another candidate. The way this problem was handled justified Emma's faith in Grant. Dan decided to move the conservation along before Emma started saying. I told you so. Hermione had other ideas however.
"Why don't we allow remove the limits for deposits in galleons but inform them that the return will be paid out in galleons?"
"That would just encourage people to convert their non-magical money into galleons before depositing it with us?" Grant replies.
"Not if we inform them that we expect the gold price to fall once we reach full production in our gold mines." Hermione replied which made Grant think before saying.
"If we buy more mines and increase production, the price of gold will fall. Since galleons are made from a set amount of gold plus a variety of alloys to make up the rest of the coin. The fall in the gold price would reduce the value of the galleon so that it would not be worth their while to convert their money to galleons before converting it back once the investment matures."
"One of the aims of this venture is to force the goblins to negotiate with us. If we make more business for them that is not likely to happen. That why we try to pay with non-magical currency as much as possible."
"I noticed that but I never knew why. Now that I know I will examine our operation and try to help you achieve that objective. " Grant replied.
"By the way, you do not happen to invest the full amount we received in deposits into Nike." Dan asked.
"Of course not, if we invested that entire amount into one share it would cause a number of problems. The first problem is that we would be classified as having a significant shareholding which would limit our ability to off load or acquire stock in the future. Plus with the massive injection of interest in that one stock it could cause a run on the share resulting in an inflated bubble. I have limited the amount we invested in Nike to 50 million dollars which was what you projected as the maximum we would receive from depositors."
"How did you get it so wrong, dad?" Hermione asked as she thought what a big difference 300 million was to the projected 50 million.
"We did not know it was going to be that popular or that people we going to borrow money in order to deposit that money with us." Dan explained. "The 50 million dollars were based on the number of members there are in the Outcast organisation plus our employees investing only a proportion of their savings with us."
"The figures were sound. We just did not anticipate the borrowing by our employees." Grant added.
"So what have you done with the rest of the money?" Dan asked.
"Since most of the deposits are in non-magical currency, we were put it into a normal bank account for now. The galleons are sitting in one of the mining shafts but I was thinking that we could buy a smelting plant so that we can convert the gold into bars without the questions why they are in coins. I had our finance team look for suitable target companies for us to acquire." Grant said as he handed over three folders. "These three companies are the most viable options for us at the moment. We are currently doing due diligence on all three companies but due to the small size of these companies, that should be completed this week."
Hermione, Dan and Emma looked over the folders before handing it back to Grant. Dan was first to speak.
"This looks great. Proceed with the purchase of which ever company you think is best." Emma and Hermione nodded their heads with agreement.
"I have also looked at acquiring more gold mines since the initial results from our gold mining operations are extremely positive." Grant said.
"What do you mean positive?" Hermione asked.
"The cost of extraction at the moment is $150 per ounce which is around $70 cheaper than our competitors plus we are able to extract the gold with less impact on the environment due to our technique." Grant replied.
"Does that include the cost of training?" Hermione asked.
"It does. If you exclude cost of training it is closer to $100 per ounce and once our people are comfortable with the mining technique we expect the cost to fall to $75 per ounce. We can trounce our competitors which is why I want to expand our operation." Grant explained.
"You seem to know what you are doing in this regards so we will leave it up to you." Emma said.
"You should also consider investing the money that is currently sitting in the bank into either a company called Microsoft or Berkshire Hathaway." Hermione suggested. Then added,
"How is the operation structured? Is the bank the same corporation as the gold mines?"
"The Bank is part of the magical operation while the gold mines are part of the non-magical company. The organisation is broken into magical and non-magical. The magical operation consists of a holding company that own shares in the banking operation, the potion business, media, basilisk parts, import/export business and a lot of others. While the non-magical operation consists of the holding company that own shares in the gold mining operation. Investing is done through the holding company." Grant says as he pulls out an organisational flowchart to illustrate the correlation between operations.
"Can we payout the interest on the deposits using the cash flow from our other businesses?" Hermione asked. Grant begins taking out a cash flow forecasts plus profitability analysis. After calculating a few things from the two documents he responds.
"We can do it quite comfortably. The import/export operations alone generate enough cash to pay the interest at the moment. If we do take your suggestion on board to remove the limits on the magical deposits then I doubt that would still be the case."
"If you invest 65% of the money we receive in the stocks we told you then we should have no problems achieving the necessary returns to repay the depositors plus the interest we promise them."
"When you say 65% is that the total amount we receive from depositors or excluding the amount we keep in reserve in case of withdrawals?"
"How much do you hold in reserve?"
"Around 10 percent of the total deposits we received. Half in galleons the rest in hard currency."
"Reduce the reserve to 5 percent of total deposits. With the additional cash we should look to acquiring a solar cell manufacturing company. Have you seen the power generation system that Harry developed?"
"I have not seen the design but I have heard about it. If the information I am getting is accurate then it could revolutionise the power industry."
"I was thinking that we should look into mass producing the system for commercial use? Buying a solar cell manufacturing company will ease our entry into that market." Hermione said.
"I will do that." Grant replied as he wrote something into his diary.
"We should also investigate the acquisition of British based magical companies that we can relocate to more tolerate countries like Australia, Japan and the US. That way when people start realising that the new law encourages them to immigrate out of magical Britain. We would have jobs ready for them." Emma added.
"Should we work on encouraging people to leave Britain?" Grant asked.
"No. Leave that to the Outcast Organisation. Our media ownership is not strong enough to get involved at the moment."
The rest of the day was spent meeting the senior staff that worked for them (some of the staff tried to suck up to the Grangers because they knew the Grangers had final say as the biggest shareholders). That was the extent of the work that the Grangers did for the first part of the trip.
Chapter 32
After spending couple of weeks sightseeing across America using a combination of magical and non-magical means, they made their way to Colorado before heading home. The reason why they were in Colorado was visit the New Grangers Institute. Day after they arrived in Colorado, the leader of the British Outcast movement met them at their hotel before taking them via portkey to the new school.
They arrived at the New Grangers Institute on one of the school's quidditch pitches. A man on a flying carpet approached them as soon as they arrived. The British Outcast leader walked towards the man as soon as he packed away the flying carpet.
"It is good to see you." The British Outcast Leader said to the man.
"It is good to see you too." the other guy replied as they shook hands.
"Where are my manners? This is Miles Vorkosigan, he is the public face of the Outcast movement in the US. He has kindly offered to show you around today." The British Outcast Leader said before turning to Miles and saying.
"These are the Grangers. Daniel, Emma and Hermione." He then whispered. "Be nice since they provide most of our funding. If you piss them off their will be a lot people coming after your hind beginning with me."
"Nice to meet you." Dan said first followed by Emma and Hermione. Miles returned the greetings warmly. Miles then turn them around. The Grangers were shocked by the size of the school. It was like a mini city with 5 massive buildings dominating the skyline.
"Welcome to the Grangers Magical Institute. It was officially opened in January 1992 with the invaluable assistance of the Doctors Daniel and Emma Granger." Miles said in a joking manner. You could tell it was part of the usual spiel they gave to guests and new students.
"The building in front of us is the Evan's building which houses our library as known as Hermione's Sanctuary. Behind that is the Maruaders Building where all the Dorms are located. The small building on the right is the Potter Building where the Vampires hold there classes and on the left is the Lupin Building for the werewolves. At the back is the Black building where the rest of the school attend classes. You can't see from here but beyond the Black building is the faculty buildings, the farm and a few things I want to show you later." Mile said as the headed towards to the Evans Building.
Above the entrance of the Evans Building was a the Outcast Movement Crest plus the new school's motto, Excellentia per mutuus Veneratio (Excellence through mutual respect). They walked passed some lifts and stairwells to enter the library. The library was enormous with book shelves more than 10 feet high.
"This library is the biggest draw card to the school. It boast the largest collection of magical books in the country. At the rate we are going this could become the premier magical library in the world since we are adding a shelf of books to the collection everyday.
The bottom two floors are filled to the brim with books. Third level is well on the way to becoming like the lower floors. Only Fourth floor has remained empty but I doubt that will be the case for much longer. Fifth floor which is also the top has a sizable collection of books but since it is restricted access not even I know how full that level is. One of the librarians has chuck me out several times when I tried to have a peek at what was there. You have any idea how much extra space we will need to house the full collection of books you will be sending us?" Miles asked.
Hermione started thinking of the collection of books they had or are going to get. There was the Hogwarts main library, the collection from the Ravenclaw common room, Dumbledore's private stash, what they recovered from the raids, Room of lost things, brought or traded, the Black family library. Copies of not all of these books were going to be given to this school but quiet a bit of it was. It was filling up two full tents, part of a new one and two rooms in the cellar of the New Grangers new home.
"I will recommend that you more than double the current size since we have a lot more books to add to your current collection. Plus we are adding more books to our own collection every day." Hermione commented.
"I think you might have underestimated the size of the building they will need. We already have enough books to fill this library at least three times over. The tents we are currently storing the books in are overflowing and it does not have the space between books that this library has. Besides we plan to add non-magical books to both collections soon." Emma added.
"Our professors will be delighted to hear there are a lot more books to come." Miles said sarcastically.
"Is the fights over new books still continuing?" Dan asked.
"It is as bad as ever. Things has escalated to the point where professors argument over suppose thief of new books. What makes it worse is that the arguments are occurring right in front of students." Miles replied.
"What have you tried to stopped the fights?"
"Everything we can think of. We tried banned them from receiving new books but professors were getting their apprentices to argue with competing professors to stop them from getting new books. Extra grants for collaborations between professors from different schools. It did not work since the professors know they will make a lot more money in the future if they publish original works now." Miles said in frustration. "This school is suppose to all about collaboration and our professors are making a mockery of it."
"I thought the we own the majority of the patents that come from their work?' Hermione asked.
"We do but if they are known for publishing a lot good work then their pay will be higher when they leave." Miles responded. This made all the Grangers stop to think of a solution.
"Okay. So you have two problems." Emma stated. "The first problem is fights over books and the second problem is the lack of collaboration between professors."
"I think the easiest solution for the first problem is if we make one of the librarians a direct employee. We can teach the librarian how to copy the books in the greatest in demand. The research grants given to different departments will pay a high price for these extra copies." Hermione suggested.
"Why did we not do this soon?" Miles said. "It would have saved a lot aggravation."
"We don't want the secret of the copying spell to be generally known. This spell can copy any thing including copy protected books that why it will be the responsibility of the librarian to ensure they don't reveal of the copying spell." Hermione said.
"I can understand why you will be so reluctant for it to be generally known." Miles conceded.
"In regards to your other problem make it a condition of the R&D grants and access to the library resources that they spend a minimum amount of time doing a collaborative work with another professor." Hermione suggested.
"If we were not so focused on keeping the peace we would have thought of that solution." Miles said.
"By the way what happened to the articles that were being reviewed?" Harry asked.
"About of the third of the articles that were written got rejected. The rest got published and was generally well received. Since then we are publishing about 5 articles a week in various professional journals with another article rejected for various reasons. Our most successful week involved the publication of 10 articles but in that same week two articles were rejected because they were too close to articles previously submitted. It resulted in the biggest and funniest brawl I have ever seen.
Uptight professors throwing punches at other uptight professors. Hair pulling and name calling was also going on but the highlight of the brawl was two old and respected professors originally from different campuses slapping each other in face. It was like watching everything happen in slow motion as the two long bearded professors took turns slapping each other. Taking breaks after each slap to recover before doing it again." Miles said as he got lost in the funny memory. Hermione started laughing when she imagined Dumbledore slapping himself.
"Has any of these articles lead to anything useful?" Emma asked.
"Quiet a bit actually. Our most important contribution was when our warding department was able improve the system the US Ministry of Magic uses to detect accidental magic. As a result our after hours classes are completely full. Our herbology professors were able to create more high yielding magical plants and re-establish some plants that were considered extinct. Those are the most commercially successful discoveries that we have made so far. " Miles said as he scratched his chin.
"Speaking of the US Ministry of Magic. How is Outcast Movement's relationship with the ministry at the moment?"
"We have a great relationship with the Ministry. The fact that we own a large chunk of the America's most popular magical newspaper might have something to do with it. It could also be the fact we are quickly becoming the US Magical Community's largest employer and is in control of one of America's premier education centres."
"What about opposition within the administration? Their must be people within the administration that disagree with your views." Emma asked.
"We are either digging up enough dirt on them to get sent them to prison or we are destroying their livelihoods so they don't have time to cause trouble. Most of the vocal opposition to our cause have gone due to our methods with the remaining few voices fighting tooth and nail to be heard in growing support for our cause."
"What is the international perception of our cause?" Hermione asked.
"It depends on the regions. We have a strong presence in most of Asia especially in Australia, Japan and Singapore. The Chinese are very secretive so we can not be sure what is happening there. India, Pakistan and that region is very class orientated. Some countries like France, Belgian, Denmark, etc have similar beliefs but do not allow foreigners to play an active role in their political processes. While the Eastern European countries are very backwards and do not like progressive ideas. Africa and South America is too chaotic. While the Middle East will follow the money, so if our magical economy grows into the biggest globally then they will start following us. I think the same could be said for Africa and South America."
"What are doing to spread our message?"
"We are active in Asia Pacific and there is not much we can do to spread our message further in that region. I am hoping to organise master classes where professors from schools in the region can come here to discuss developments we have made. This will promote good will with this region and help our cause. At the moment this is not possible with the competitiveness our professors feel for each other. It is too dangerous in South America and Africa since it is very volatile. We are passing on information that we get for Mr Black to progress in that area."
"A couple of questions. Are you trying to buy the media outlets in Asia? Why don't you try to hire security personnel from those regions? If the regions are so volatile then their should be good soldiers that we can hire and the cursed contracts will ensure that they are loyal to us. This could be lead to the stabilisation of those regions."
"In regards to the first question. It is not worth our while to own media in regions where we have a positive presence already. That would just be a waste of money. In relation to your second question we are not really familiar with those regions and the information we are getting is patchy at best. So we would not know how to go about it? Anyway that is more like something our joint venture should look into."
"You should have members from those regions. Send them with a security team to hire security guards and mine workers. Once you hire a few they can help you reach out to others."
"I will pass on your suggestion to Grant. While don't we continue with the tour." They left the Evans Building and toured the rest of the school. The Grangers were impressed by size and the facilities of the school.
"What do you think?" Grant said after showing them the magical farm.
"It is a very impressive school." Dan said.
"You have done a wonderful job." Emma added.
"Absolutely amazing." Hermione said finally.
"I am trying to impress you. We know that you are planning to move to America with Harry. I am hoping that you will attend this school since having the Boy Who Lived here will attract a lot more top quality students especially from Europe. It would also give us a major boost in credibility within the global magical community."
"We will have to think about it." Emma replied.
"Okay that is all I ask. On with the tour."
"I thought the tour has finished." Dan commented.
"The tour of the school has finished but not the rest of the property."
"The rest of the property?" Dan asked.
"Why don't we all sit on the flying carpet so that we are more comfortable?" Miles said as they got on the flying carpet. Once the flying carpet started moving. Miles continued by saying.
"We originally had 25 hectares but after your generous offer to fund a magical farm we started looking into acquiring more land. When we started buying land from our neighbours money started coming from our cut of your ventures. This allowed us to buy even more land."
"Why do you need so much land?" Emma asked.
"We are planning to build the first completely magical community in the US near our school. This idea came about after realising how many people would work or study at our new school. These people will need services to support them and what better way than to own the land that these services will be provided from. That way we get income from rent and we have a greater say in what services are available to students. Why don't I show where the town is going to be located?" Miles said as he turned slightly to the right and increase the speed of the magic carpet. They soon reached the location of the future town. Quiet a few buildings had already been completed with a more being constructed. There were four distinct zones.
"How big is the property in total?"
"About 400 hectares in total. But we are trying to buy more especially one neighbour who sits on the intersection of Ley Lines which will make our entire area a lot more magical."
"How does having ley lines make an area more magical?" Hermione asked.
"We create a ward over the entire area such as a muggle repelling ward that is centred on once we tap the ley lines using ward stones."
Chapter 33
As soon as the Grangers arrived back from their holiday, it was back to work for everyone. Sirius and Hermione were negotiating with both the pureblood supremacist fraction and the Malfoys at the same time. Harry was attending the gold mining training that Doug and Emily were conducting in the Chamber of Secrets.
They were training the second batch of gold miners using the magical techniques. Doug would lead the training while Emily acted as an observer and helped with the questions when Doug did not know the answer. During the training classes the Basilisk was allowed to hunt wild acromantulas in the forbidden forest as a reward for being so accommodating. Everyone was happy with the arrangement, especially the Basilisk. It was not only allowed to get some fresh air and as a bonus, its lair was enlarged by the gold mining classes. The students were happy since they would get a cut of any valuables they recovered by these classes. Doug was happy since he did not have to deal with the Basilisk and he was the centre of attention during lessons. Emily was happy because she did not have to train the miners herself.
A few days before term started, Hermione surprised Harry hugging him during one of the gold mining lessons.
"What the hell?" Harry said in surprise.
"Hello Harry." Hermione said.
"What's got you so happy?" Harry asked.
"Sirius and I got the agreements with the pureblood fraction and the Malfoys that we wanted." Hermione said cheerfully. Harry was not happy though since the agreements put Sirius in a lot of danger.
"Why don't we go back to your place so that I can get the details?" Harry suggested. As soon as they arrived at the Granger's new home, they were met by security guards before being allowed in.
"What is with all the extra security?' Harry asked.
"The agreements make it very dangerous for Sirius at the moment. Until we get rid of Draco, Sirius will be under constant threat and that is the reason for all the security around Sirius." Hermione said as they looked for Sirius, Dan and Emma.
"So what were the terms of the agreements?" Harry asked as soon as everyone was gathered.
"Basically the pureblood fraction will protect us politically in return for me passing my Black house votes to Malfoy or his successor. The Malfoys have agreed to combine our wealth and power in the next generation if I make Draco, my heir." Sirius explained. Hermione then whispers to Harry.
"Did you make sure that Lucius gave Ginny the Horcrux?"
"Yes." Harry replies uncertainly.
"Then you have nothing to worry about since I have added some conditions to the Malfoy agreement where if Lucius is any way responsible for Draco's death, he will go insane." Harry smiles in response to Hermione's comment.
"Don't worry about my safety, Harry. I will see you off to Hogwarts before I head to Europe to stay for a while." Sirius said.
"Just be careful." Harry said as he hugged Sirius.
"Don't worry. I will have lots of security guards protecting me and my house elves as well. You don't want to cross Dippy. She is worse than Lily after James and I got drunk."
"Did you find out about house elves trading among purebloods?" Hermione asked.
"House elves in Britain are employed via two methods. The first method involves having a house elf; they can introduce you to unbound house elf. The second method, which is only available to well-connected purebloods, is to purchase a house elf from special communities." Sirius explained.
"Do you know more about these communities?" Hermione asked.
"No. I only found about the communities recently. That is how Lucius Malfoy got his newest house elf, Moppy."
"Do you think you can find out more about these house elves communities?" Hermione asked.
"I severely doubt it. I will be heading for Europe soon and I will not be dealing with the people that would know these things."
"Damn!" Hermione said in frustration surprising everyone.
"It is alright, I know how much you want to help the house elves. We will find out about it, but it will just take time. That's all." Emma said reassuringly. Harry whispers in Hermione ear as he hugs her.
"We can ask Moppy after we kill off Draco." That seemed to satisfy Hermione.
"By the way, what is happening with the crusade to free the wrongly convicted prisoners of Azkaban?" Hermione asked after she recovered.
"We have been able get most of the prisoners who no one cares about released. We expect some opposition to the release of the remaining cases. I have organised trials for them right around the time you go back to Hogwarts, just like you asked. Do you mind telling me why you want then?" Sirius asked.
"It is better you don't know. Ever heard of plausible deniability? Just make sure you get the magical newspaper after we get to Hogwarts." Hermione said.
"Okay." Sirius said after getting the hint.
The next day when Hermione and Harry were alone, Hermione asked Harry.
"How is the planning for the destruction of Azkaban going?"
"I was successful in creating the magical bomb that creates a plasma explosion. According to the tests in the Room of Requirement, the explosion should be hot enough to destroy the Dementors." Harry replied.
"Have you checked the prison personnel to make sure we don't kill any innocents?"
"I have looked in the background of all the prison personnel; most of them are death eaters or death eater supporters. I have already arranged a little issue for the single prison guard that I consider an innocent man. He will be very sick that day so he will not be able to go to work"
"Could you have used another method to keep him away from the prison?"
"I thought about it, but no other options would work. Any other method and he will look suspicious. This way he suffers a few days but he is considered totally blameless."
"Okay. Moving on..." Hermione said finally. They continued their discussion of plans to destroy Azkaban. They continued to fine-tune the plans up until the day before they left for Hogwarts
Finally the day arrived, Harry and Hermione got up early to prepare for the Azkaban bombing. They each wore an invisible cloak and put disillusionment charms on themselves to be extra careful. Once they had their bombs plus all their other equipment, they created the portkey to Fletcher.
Once they arrived, Mundungus Fletcher screamed. "What the hell?" After hearing Harry's usual awkward landing, he quickly stunned Fletcher using Voldemort's wand. They quickly left the cell and began working together placing bombs at strategically important locations. They were sure to avoid security guards, Dementors and prisoners. Hermione set the bombs while Harry acted as the lookout and stunned anyone who got too suspicious. During the entire mission, Harry was using Voldemort's wand so that the only magical signature left behind was Voldemort's.
Once the bombs were all set, Harry and Hermione flew off on a broomstick that Harry had carried. They wanted to set off the explosion from a distance and watch their handy work. They used their watches to make sure they set off the explosion just after the Hogwarts express had left Kings Cross Station. The explosion was specular as the entire structure was instantly engulfed in a huge fireball before everything when up in flames. Harry and Hermione could see a few Dementors flee but they were too far away to catch them. After flying over the remains of the prison a few times to make sure nothing survived, they took their portkey to Kings Cross Station. They then used the time tuners to go back in time so they could pick up their things from Hermione's parents and say their farewells to everyone.
On the train, Harry and Hermione were warmly greeted by their friends.
"I have got to thank you for the great results I got in the final exams. When my sister received our end of year grades via owl, my parents were quite happy with my marks. I know this has a lot to do with your study group, Hermione. The huge difference in the marks between my sister and I only prove that in my opinion." Padma said.
"I heard that the gap between study group members and the rest of the year was massive. There was talk of cheating but the materials you gave out during the study group sessions proved that we were just more prepared." Stephen added.
"I asked my cousin and he believes that due to those lessons we are getting from you we are now equivalent to someone halfway through second year." Isobel said.
"I really think it is due to the mind arts training you gave us. I passed on all the study materials I got from you to my sister and she did not do anywhere as well as we did." Padma suggested.
"That could be because she was too busy gossiping to look over the materials you gave her." Mandy suggested.
"That is sadly true." Padma replied. At that moment, Neville stepped into the cabin.
"What do you want Neville?" Hermione asked coldly.
"Have you seen Ron?" Neville asked nervously.
"No." Hermione responded.
"Lost your owner?" Mandy asked sarcastically. Seeing how pathetic Neville looked, Padma decided to take pity on Neville.
"Stop it, Mandy." Padma said before turning to Neville and saying. "I saw his brothers earlier, so he should be on the train. Have you tried asking his brothers?"
"The twins are too busy dealing with their customers. Percy is helping me look because he cannot actually remember seeing Ron or Ginny on the train." Neville replied.
"Good Luck in your search." Padma said. Neville left, seeing that he was not going to get any help from the occupants of the cabin.
Just before he left, Mandy asked. "How did you do last year in your exams?" This brightened Neville up.
"I was top in Gryffindor for our year." Neville said proudly.
"That is not saying much since Gryffindors are not known for their brains." Mandy whispered to Lisa.
"Do you know how well you did in relation to the rest of the year?" Padma asked.
"I heard from the Headmaster that your study group topped everyone. Malfoy and I did better than the rest of the year but nowhere near you. The two of you are miles ahead of us." Neville replied.
"When did you talk to the Headmaster?" Isobel asked. This question made Neville nervous and quickly said.
"I got to find Ron. See you later."
Hermione whispered to Harry. "Did you do something to Ron or Ginny?"
"No. I decided against it." Harry replied.
"I will not be angry if you did…"
"Like I said, I did nothing to them."
"Okay." Hermione said satisfied that Harry had nothing to do with Ron or Ginny's disappearance.
A little later, Draco and his thugs came into Harry's cabin while Hermione was off visiting some members of her study group.
"Hello, Potter."
"Hi, Malfoy."
"It is Sir to you. Have you not heard about the agreement your magical guardian made with my father?"
"Yes." Harry said.
"Do you know what it means?" Draco said all smug.
"Yes. Do you?"
"Of course, it means that I am your superior in the Black family since I am your magical guardian's heir. That means that you have to listen to me."
"Sorry to burst your bubble but you are wrong. I am not a member of the Black Family; Hermione and I are only under the protection of the family. Therefore, we don't have to listen to you but you have to protect us."
"You are wrong." Draco said angrily.
"If I am right then your father will lose his magic and his life, do you really want to risk that?" Harry said.
"I will check with my dad but if you are wrong I will get you for this." Draco said threateningly.
"Why don't you run off to Daddy now?" Harry said as he tried not laugh at the expression on Draco's face.
"I will work out some way to get you for that, even if what you said is true." Draco said angrily as he left.
Thankfully the rest of the train ride was uneventful. When Harry arrived at Hogwarts, Snape was already waiting for him. "Potter, you are to see the Headmaster as soon as the opening feast is over." Snape said happily, knowing that Harry was going to be punished by Dumbledore.
"Okay. Tell Dumbledore I want Professor Flitwick to be there as well." Harry said.
"You will show me respect, Potter." Snape hissed angrily. "I am not your messenger." Harry then clicked his fingers and Snape went into a hypnotic trance.
"You will do what I say and leave me alone as much as possible." Harry stated in the low tone that is used to give hypnotic suggestions.
"Yes, Sir." Snape responded. Harry then clicked his fingers and Snape walked away unsure why he was doing so.
At the sorting ceremony, Harry and Hermione along with everyone else became concerned when Ginny's name was called and she did not appear. Harry and Hermione then started looking around the hall for Ron.
"What do you think happened?" Harry asked Hermione.
"I don't know." Hermione responded.
"What are we going to do if Ginny does not come? All of our plans for this year centres on Ginny being here."
"I know but let us give them until tomorrow morning to arrive before changing any of our plans."
"Okay." Harry said unconvinced.
Half way through the opening feast, Ginny and Ron arrived. They were dragged by Filch towards the teachers table. They had ashamed looks on their faces as they were told off by McGonagall, Snape and Dumbledore.
"I wonder what happened?" Harry said to Hermione.
"We will soon find out. At least now we don't have to change our plans." Hermione replied.
"I feel relieved that they are here now." Harry said.
"You and me both." Hermione said as she started eating again.
At the end of the Feast, Dumbledore stood and said.
"Before you all go off to bed. There is an extra student we need to sort due to problems with the portal at King Cross station. Miss Weasley could please come forth and put on the sorting hat."
Ginny who had been sitting with her brothers at the Gryffindor table got up and walked towards the front. She made quite a few glances at Harry as she walked up to the Sorting Hat. When she put it on, it took a long time for the hat to decide what house to put her in. It seem like Ginny was arguing with the hat until Ginny gave in.
"Gryffindor!" The hat yelled at last.
"Do you think Ginny tried to go into our house to be close to you?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah, thankfully the hat put her into Gryffindor instead." Harry replied.
"I wonder if Colin asked the Hat to put him into Ravenclaw as well." Hermione asked in wonder.
"We could always ask him a little later when he knows us better." Harry suggested.
"What are we going to do to protect Luna from the bullies in our house?" Hermione said.
"I know you will think of something." Harry said.
"We can deal with it later. You need to head off to the Headmasters office now. Do you know what you are going to do?" Hermione said
"I have a cunning plan." Harry said while imitating Baldrick from Blackadder.
"Get out of here." Hermione said as she tried not to laugh.
Harry went to the Headmaster's office and found Professor McGonagall waiting for him.
"What are you doing here and where is Professor Flitwick, my head of house?" Harry asked.
"I am the Deputy Headmaster. I will be looking after your interests in this meeting with the headmaster."
"I don't trust you to hold my drink, let alone look after my interests in a meeting with the Headmaster." Harry said angrily.
"That will be hundred points off Ravenclaw and detention with me for a month for disrespecting me." Professor McGonagall said angrily.
"I will not see the headmaster until Professor Flitwick is here." Harry said. Seeing that this was going nowhere, McGonagall went to fetch Professor Flitwick so that they could all go into the Headmaster's office together.
"Thank you for coming. Professor Flitwick you can leave now since you are not needed." Dumbledore said as soon as they arrived.
"I want Professor Flitwick to stay in order to protect my rights." Harry argued. Dumbledore was not happy with that development.
"Fine, let's begin. Last term, you left without permission from a meeting I had with you." Dumbledore said.
"That was only after you tried to impose illegal conditions on my summer holidays." Harry said.
"I was only looking after your best interests. Sirius Black is a very dangerous individual that deals with known death eaters."
"So what, I know all about those deals. Stop bad mouthing my magical guardian and godfather." Harry said angrily. Seeing how this line of argument was not getting anyway Dumbledore seemed to change his tack.
"You still disobey me and show a lack of respect towards me. Therefore, you will be spending detention with either Professor Snape or Professor McGonagall every night for the rest of term." Dumbledore stated.
"I don't think so. If you try to this I will leave this school with my magical guardian's approval." Harry said as he pulled out a Hogwarts withdrawal form completed by Sirius. He passed a copy to Dumbledore, Flitwick and McGonagall. Seeing that the form had been correctly completed, Dumbledore changed tack again.
"Don't be so hasty. Why don't we discuss it? What it would take for you to remain at the school?" Dumbledore said since he needs Harry at Hogwarts where he can at least monitor him.
"I want nothing to do with you but Hermione has made some friends, which why I am willing to stay but on some conditions. These conditions are not negotiable and they apply both to me and Hermione."
"Okay what are those conditions?" Dumbledore asked even though he did not like the direction the conservation seemed to be taking.
"The first condition is that Hermione and I will have nothing to do with you. You don't talk to us nor give us punishments. In fact, Professor Flitwick is the only teacher allowed to give us to punishments since there are quite a few staff here that I don't trust." Harry said as he looked at McGonagall.
"There is no way I can agree to those conditions. How are we supposed to keep you in line when you do something wrong?" An outraged Dumbledore stated.
"What we consider wrong and what you consider wrong are two different things. Just look at what happened during the summer." Harry said indicating that he knew about the kidnapping attempt. Dumbledore sat back down in defeat.
"Fine." He said.
"You cannot be going along with this madness!" Professor McGonagall said indignation.
"I need him here for the Greater Good." Dumbledore said to try to calm his deputy.
"I will not stand for this." McGonagall said emphatically. Flitwick decided to try to help pacify McGonagall.
"If you believe that Mr Potter or Miss Granger did something wrong then you can tell me and I can punish them. The other professors can do the same."
"That sounds reasonable." Dumbledore said.
"But I will only serve my detentions with Professor Flitwick." Harry added since he did not want to give Snape or McGonagall a chance to bait him into getting more punishment. Professor McGonagall could see she was not going to win the argument. She knew that Harry must have something major on Dumbledore for him to back down so quickly. So she gave in by saying.
"Okay. Do whatever you want. Don't blame me when something happens."
Harry and Professor Flitwick took this as a cue to leave.
Chapter 34
Harry woke up late and found Hermione waiting in the Ravenclaw common room.
"Good Morning, Hermione," Harry said.
"Good Morning, Harry," Hermione said with a tired look on her face.
"What is the matter?" Harry asked with concern.
"It has been a long night that is all," Hermione replied.
"While you were in your meeting with Dumbledore, I was releasing some of the dark creatures we collected into Lockhart's office and quarters. Then I warded Luna's belongings so that if anyone tries to steal her things, they will start losing their memory beginning with their homework and progressively getting worse from there," Hermione explained.
"Was the ward for Luna hard to establish?" Harry asked.
"No. Actually what took most of my time was putting up wards on Lockhart's doors. The wards will make sure that no one would be willing to help him get rid of the dark creatures and will keep the creatures inside," a very tired Hermione said with a yawn.
"You could have waited to do those things until later," Harry said.
"Why wait when I could get it out of the way now," Hermione explained.
"If you waited a day or two, then you wouldn't be so tired today."
"But I would be stuck thinking about it all day and would not have been able to concentrate. Besides, if I waited then you would have wanted to help, and we both know you are going to be under a lot of scrutiny."
Harry decided to change subjects since he could see there was a snowball's chance in hell of her backing down, and he did not feel like arguing.
"My meeting with the Headmaster went extremely well. After I threatened to leave, Dumbledore agreed to leave us alone and allow Flitwick to have final say on all our punishments."
"That's great," Hermione said with a lack of enthusiasm.
"Why don't we go down for breakfast? You look like death warmed over," Harry said.
Hermione was so tired that she just responded with a nod.
As soon as they were seated in the Great Hall, Harry and Hermione were bombarded with gossip about Ron and Ginny's arrival at Hogwarts.
"I don't know how someone could be so stupid to think that it was a good idea to fly to school using a car, for Merlin's sake." Mandy was saying to Isobel when Harry and Hermione arrived.
"Well, two people were stupid enough to try such a stunt. It was not just Ron but his sister as well since she was with him in the car," Lisa stated.
"I am surprised that they were not expelled for that stunt," Isobel added.
"Dumbledore is tight with the Weasley family; he would not allow that to happen even though they both deserved it. Just look at Percy: he is such a weak and uptight bastard. The only reason why he got the Prefect badge was because of his family's relationship with Dumbledore," Mandy said.
"Not all Weasleys are bad; we are good friends with the twins," Hermione said in defence of the twins.
"Oh, good morning Harry and Hermione. Sorry, I did not see you there," Mandy said. Everyone then exchanged greetings.
"What were we talking about?"
"The Weasleys and you are right when you say that the twins are alright. Especially, since they started that business of theirs rather than annoy everyone with their pranks. But the rest of the family is horrible," Mandy said.
"Do you know the rest of the family?" Harry asked.
"No. But judging by the ones that are currently here, I would not want to," Mandy said.
"I wonder what punishment the parents are going to get for allowing their children to fly a car all the way from London to Hogwarts," Lisa asked.
"Probably a massive fine and maybe even a prison sentence. Especially since the car breaches the new Muggle Protection Act that their father helped write," Mandy said.
"Well at least it won't be Azkaban since it has been destroyed," Padma chimed in.
"What happened?" Hermione asked, pretending to be surprised.
"Yesterday around the time our train left Kings Cross station, there was a massive explosion at the prison that destroyed everything. Anything that survived the initial blast was burnt in the subsequent fire. It was so bad that they don't know if any prisoners escaped. It was just ash everywhere," Mandy said.
"What happened to the dementors?" Hermione asked.
"No one knows. The dementors that were at the prison at the time of the explosion have not been seen and are not responding to orders. It appears only the dementors that were at the Ministry at the time of the explosion are following commands at the moment," Mandy replied.
"Aren't dementors supposedly indestructible?" Su asked.
"That is why it is so puzzling. If they were destroyed then the Ministry wants to know how, but if they were not destroyed, then why aren't they responding?" Mandy asked.
"How do you know all this?" Hermione asked with interest.
"It is a secret; just say I have my sources," Mandy said secretively.
"You probably heard from one of the girls you gossip with," Lisa stated, bursting the image Mandy was trying to create of someone in the know. "Was it from Susan who received a letter from her aunt last night? No. I know who it was. It was Cho's friend Marietta who was flooed by her mother at the Ministry this morning."
"Why would Marietta's mum floo her?" Hermione asked as she did not like Cho or Marietta. She hated Cho because of her treatment of Harry, and Marietta, since she snitched on them to Umbridge.
"Probably swapping gossip since her mother is in such a very weak position at the Ministry. She is desperately looking for information that could either be used to blackmail someone powerful enough to secure her position or an opportunity to move to a more secure position. If Marietta had some interesting news then she is more likely to hear something relevant in return," Mandy said matter-of-factly.
"That is a very cynical view of things," Hermione said.
"It is being realistic; darling, that's how the Ministry works," Mandy said to Hermione in a condescending way.
"Then why would anyone be willing to be friends with her?" Hermione asked.
"Protection: if you are her enemy, she could destroy your reputation through gossip."
"Are you her friend?" Harry asked.
"Yes, I am too scared of her not to be," Mandy said.
"What is her attitude to me and Harry?" Hermione asked.
"She is scared of both of you because of your study group, and no one wants to go against the boy who lived. You would be crazy to try to do anything to Harry," Mandy said.
"Speaking of friends, where is Luna?" Harry asked.
"Why would you want to know? She is a weirdo," Mandy replied.
"I like her. She is different and she only makes all those outrageous comments to protect herself." Harry said with passion, hoping to ensure his friends did not pick on Luna.
"Do you want to be her boyfriend, Harry?" Lisa asked.
Hermione stepped in to end Harry's embarrassment.
"I like her as well. Anyone who picks on her is out of our study group," Hermione said threateningly. This shut up everyone up.
Once the conversation started back up on less controversial subjects, Harry turned to Hermione and whispered,
"Thank you for the diversion."
"I was protecting myself as well; remember we are betrothed," Hermione whispered back.
"Maybe you should start wearing a betrothal ring," Harry suggested.
"That is actually a good idea. I might start receiving some marriage contracts if our betrothal is not well known. Don't get any ideas of taking advantage of the situation. We are using it for our mutual protection," Hermione replied.
"Don't you like me?" Harry asked while giving Hermione the puppy dog look.
"I do like you but we agreed that we will not try dating until we are older. This time we will see if we were really meant to be together without the outside influences that were the Weasels." Hermione was getting angry every time she thought of Ron.
"I can cover you during classes. Why don't you go back to bed?" Harry asked.
"That is sweet but it is not necessary; I will be fine once the coffee kicks in," Hermione said as she kissed Harry on the cheek. The kiss was both for the suggestion and to show that she did care for him and wanted a proper courting.
Hermione stayed close to Harry for the rest of the day, but when Professor Flitwick asked Hermione to stay after class, Harry took the opportunity to slip away and do something he had been dying to do all day.
"Dobby," Harry called.
"Yes Master Potter, Sir," Dobby replied as he popped in.
"Can you organise a rotation of house-elves with cameras to follow Professor Lockhart around? Then, can you report back to me once a day when Hermione is not around what funny things happened to him or embarrassing things he has done. If possible, can they also take pictures of these accidents?"
"Yes. Master Potter."
"Can you please make sure that the house-elves are not seen by the Professor?" Harry said. Dobby huffed and was slightly offended that Harry would suggest that House-elves could not be discrete.
"House-elves are renowned for being unseen," Dobby said proudly.
"That is great, thank you Dobby. Remember that all the house-elves must get enough rest that is why I want a rotation system of house-elves," Harry said.
"Yes, Master," Dobby said as he popped away. After a short wait, Hermione left her discussion with Professor Flitwick.
"What did Professor Flitwick want?" Harry asked.
"He suspects that my family had something to do with the new school that is making waves in the magical world."
"Do you think any of the other Professors share his suspicions?"
"No, but could you imagine if Snape knew. He probably believes that all the funding we provided should have gone to him. If he ever finds out, he will make our life unbearable."
"I will put a post-hypnotic suggestion that Hermione Granger and the Granger Institute are unrelated to each other."
"At the moment, both of us are at risk since the person making the biggest waves is Ashley and she supposedly works for Sirius Black, our magical guardian."
"That is going to be bad… He already hates Sirius, and by association, us. Every time Snivellious reads his professional journals, he will be reminded that his nemesis was funding his biggest rival while he is stuck teaching kids," Harry said, while cringing at the things Snape would try to do.
"It is gets a lot worse. Ashley has become the star of the potion community, replacing Snape who held the position for over a decade. Now the potion community is calling him a has-been who never lived up to his potential. To add insult to injury, Ashley has not only published things that he discovered but a lot stuff that he did not even know about since it was based on research he never had access to or did not know about like tomes from Dumbledore's private library."
"We have double potions tomorrow, too. I think I am going to be sick tomorrow."
"Don't you dare! If you leave me to deal with Snape alone, I will never speak to you again," Hermione said angrily.
Harry began to laugh at Hermione's angry face.
"Don't you remember? Snape cannot do anything to us without approval from Professor Flitwick," he said.
Hermione then punched Harry in the shoulder and said, "You got me worried for nothing."
"What was the rest of the staff's reaction to the wave of innovation and discoveries being made in the New World?" Harry said to get back on a safe topic.
"According to Flitwick, most of the staff reacted positively to the developments and were very interested in the advancements made in their fields. But that is not saying much since staff discussions are less open now that there is a split in the staff."
"Did you ask about the new healer who replaced Poppy?"
"No I did not ask. By the way, how did you know Poppy was replaced? I was going to surprise you the next time you wake up in the infirmary to an unfamiliar face."
"I was there when Dumbledore approached Andy in order to try to get her to fill the position. She slammed the door on his face and banned him from flooing her. It was hilarious. I will provide you a memory of it sometime," Harry said, chuckling at the memory.
"Did Dumbledore know you were there?" Hermione asked with concern.
"No. When I was staying at the Tonks, I would always put on a disguise as soon as the wards around the Tonks place went off," Harry said.
"Dumbledore's glasses can see through disguises you know."
"I always used the Elder Wand because his glasses can't see through it, and it is untraceable by the Ministry."
This response satisfied Hermione because all she said was, "Okay."
"Let's go to our next class or we'll be late," Harry said. This got Hermione moving like nothing else.
After Hermione's study group session, Harry turned to Hermione and asked, "Are you going to bed now?"
"No. I thought I would work on the curse we found on the Hallows."
"That can wait; you're dead on your feet. You should go to bed."
"I am alert now and I know how frustrated you were that you could not work out what the curse was or how to remove it."
"It sucks that I don't understand enough Arithmancy to figure it out on my own."
"Don't worry about it. I enjoy the challenge. Anyway the Arithmancy is so complex I have sent off letters to the professors at the Granger Institute in order to understand the aspects of the curse. By the way, what are you doing tonight?"
"Thought I will fly a bit before putting booby traps in the passageway between Myrtle's bathroom and the Chamber of Secrets."
"Are you going to join the Quidditch team this year, Harry?"
"No. I enjoy flying but I believe that Quidditch is too divisive and too time consuming."
"Are you setting up the booby traps all by yourself?"
"Sirius is going to help me. I told him about the Chamber of Secrets and how I was going to booby trap the passageway between the school and the chamber to prevent Voldemort from accessing it. He demanded to be involved. Pranking the Dark Lord was something he wanted to do for a long time and he would not take no for an answer. It is so important to him that he will to come out hiding to be involved."
"What is going to happen to the Basilisk once you booby trap his exit?"
"He does not mind since we have greatly expanded his lair with our mining classes plus we are planning to move the Acromantula colony into his lair. That way the Basilisk will have access to food whenever he wants, and we get access to the various Acromantula by-products we want."
"That sounds great. How long is it going to take for you to set up all the booby traps?"
"It will take a while; the network of magical and non-magical traps we want to set up is very elaborate because Sirius was involved in much of the design. We will probably work on it once a week. Sirius will let me know via the mirror he gave me when he is available."
"That reminds me has Sirius confronted Remus yet?"
"I don't think so."
"Damn. I guess it can wait until Sirius is no longer at risk."
"Why are you upset?"
"I wanted Remus to write down instructions on how to recreate the mirrors. That way our company can keep in contact with one another."
"Do you trust him to do it?"
"No. I think he will try to screw us over but this way we can use this to prove to Sirius that we gave him another chance which he did not take."
At that moment someone walked past their door. Harry and Hermione quickly clammed up as they did not want their conversation overheard. Deciding that this was not a good time to continue their discussion, Hermione turn to Harry and suggested, "Why don't you go fly? We can talk later."
"Okay," Harry said as he walked off.