Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 97: Title
"Morgan…Potter," she answered calmly.
"I didn't expect you to be married already, Mister Potter," Lady Blackthorn commented. "Also, I thought I would have heard about the famous Boy Who Lived having a wife."
"Have you been researching me? That was not part of the job," Harry pointed out.
The woman shrugged. "I like to know who I am dealing with. I meant no offense."
"You said in your letter that the job was complete. Did you decode the entire book?" Harry just wanted to get to the point.
"Of course." She walked up to her desk and sat down in her chair before unlocking one of the drawers.
She pulled two books and placed them on the table. One was the book Harry left her, the one they took from the secret base. The other one was supposedly the decoded version.
Harry glanced at the books, but before making any attempt to grab them, he pulled an enchanted bag from his pocket. "Four weeks of work. That would make four thousand galleons. Is that correct?"
"That would be correct, yes." She took the bag from Harry and examined its contents.
"Where did you get so much money?" Morgan threw him a suspicious glare. "I know you are not working."
"Oh, did I not tell you? I was given a few galleons as a reward for all those werewolves we dealt with," Harry said.
"You must have forgotten…wait a minute." Morgan crossed her arms. "I am the one who killed their leader. Where is my part?."
"Hey, you know what they say. What's yours is mine and all of that." Harry walked towards the desk and pointed at the books. "May I?"
Lady Blackthorn pushed them closer to him. "Go ahead. They are yours. I have to say…it does make for an interesting read. But it was fun to decode it. The Muggle who made this must have been a very clever one."
Harry stored the original book and opened the decoded one. Morgan approached him and looked over his shoulder as he turned the pages.
At first, he could see nothing important. Some lists took account of what was being produced in the factory, as well as the people working on it.
There were also inventory details of weapons and other devices being kept inside the base.
Since this was written by the one in charge, he must have been taking notes of everything that was happening in there.
As Harry continued to turn the pages, he was starting to lose hope about finding something that could be useful to him.
This was the last Argent Flame base they could find, and everyone who could know something was already dead.
If this book didn't manage to shed any light on the situation…that could be a serious problem.
"Wait. Look there." Morgan pointed at the end of the page.
A series of numbers were written at the bottom of the paper. "Those are coordinates."
"There are three sets," Harry noted.
"We will need to check them all then," Morgan said.
Harry nodded and stored the book. They had some work to do.
"Satisfied with my work?" Lady Blackthorn asked.
"Indeed. Good job, Lady Blackthorn," Harry said. "About the contents of this book…"
She raised her hand. "You can rest at ease. I take my clients' privacy very seriously. And besides…I don't want to get mixed up with any Muggle military stuff."
Harry nodded. There was no need to correct her assumption.
"But feel free to come back if you have anything else to decipher. If it's written with the same code, it will be much cheaper next time, since I already learned it."
Harry was about to respond, but Morgan moved first. "Say…Lady Blackthorn…"
"Yes, Madam Potter?" The blonde witch gave Morgan an inquisitive look.
"May I ask something personal?"
"Personal? Like what?" the Lady asked back.
"Well, I couldn't help but notice how empty this massive house is. Where are the other members of the Blackthorn house?"
"Morgan." Harry gave her a warning.
"It's okay," said Lady Blackthorn. "It's not exactly a secret, but…I am the last member of the house. Only my butler and I live here. We are all that's left."
"I'm sorry to hear that. For such an ancient wizard family to decline so much." Morgan sounded apologetic.
Harry was looking at her, not very sure how sincere she was being. After all, she was one of the reasons for this decline.
"Most of the house was killed in Britain by an evil witch. A few of my ancestors who managed to escape with a few belongings made it to Spain and settled down in this small village. I'm sure they were afraid that the witch would be looking for them. Then…ten years ago, an outbreak of dragon pox took out what remained of my family, leaving me as the only one left."
<><><><><><><><><><><>
Harry and Morgan stopped at the gates of the manor.
"Why did you have to ask her that?" Harry asked. "Now it would be awkward to visit again if we need another job."
"I needed to know. That's all." Morgan opened her bag and took out a large tome. It had a red leather cover and a symbol engraved on the front.
"Mmm?" Harry took notice of the symbol. It caught his attention because he had just seen the exact same one.
He turned his head around toward the Blackthorn manor, and there it was. The exact same symbol is placed above the main gate.
"Is that?..."
"A family grimoire. I took it as a souvenir a very long time ago. But only a member of the wizard house can open it and access its knowledge. I needed to know if she deserved to have it back."
Morgan carefully placed the book on the ground, right in front of the gate, so it could be easily seen.
"Perhaps this will give that woman the will to continue her family legacy," Morgan said. "Or perhaps not…that will be up to her."
"So that's what you had in mind." Harry smiled. "See? I knew that under all that hostility, there is a nice gir-"
"Shut up." Morgan glared at him. "And let's go already."
A.N: - Remember to comment, vote, and/or leave a review if you have the time. Those things help me a lot and I would really appreciate it.
You can support me on P@treon if you like and get 20 advanced chapters. You can also find character images to view for free in Collections/Merlin Images
-patreon.com/Kriogenix
For donations and commissions, go to ko-fi.com/kriogenix