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 102: The Merchants
"Wake up already!"
Harry's eyes snapped open when he felt himself falling.
"Ouch!" His face hit the floor of his living room. "What the…" For a second, he thought he had fallen from the couch while taking a nap, but then he saw Morgan standing over him. The amusement in her eyes was all he needed to know. "Why?..."
"Because you looked too peaceful while sleeping, and it was pissing me off," Morgan responded.
"You are a cruel witch…" Harry rubbed his nose.
"Am I the cruel one? You had me working on your project while you were taking a nap!" She slammed a piece of paper on his coffee table.
"What is this?" He picked it up and took a closer look. It was a familiar list of ingredients. "Oh…" He realized these were some of the materials he had requested Morgan to locate for him.
He was planning on using them to locate the other fragments of Excalibur.
"Did you find them all?"
"I did not. That's what I came to talk about. We have a small issue. My main provider for alchemy ingredients is currently unavailable," Morgan said.
"How so?"
"Death Eaters, apparently," Morgan responded. "The letter didn't go into too much detail. But I have known Lady Greengrass for many years already. That woman doesn't get scared easily. Those bastards must have done something really bad to that family."
"Why would Death Eaters attack a family of ingredient merchants?" Harry wondered what this Dark Lord was trying to accomplish with this. His actions made no sense.
"The Greengrass have always remained neutral due to the nature of their business," Morgan explained.
"Okay, so… can't you get the ingredients from someone else?" Harry asked.
Morgan raised an eyebrow. "I thought you would care more about this. The Dark Lord is also your business. That madman is after your life."
"And what do you want me to do? No one can tell me where he is hiding."
"Maybe instead of waiting for someone to tell you, why not go out and find him yourself?" Morgan pointed at the door. "You can start by visiting the Greengrass House. I bet you will find some clues."
"That seems like a long shot… I doubt he went there in person," Harry said. "Why not admit that you just want to help a friend?"
"Lady Greengrass is not a friend, but a good business associate. And those are hard to come by. If you don't want to go help, then I will do it by myself," Morgan said.
"And what about my ingredients?" Harry asked.
Morgan responded with a grin.
"Uh…" Harry sighed. "Fine. Let's go see this woman." If he refused to help Morgan with her issue, she would not agree again to procure the things he needed for his experiments.
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The manor of the Greengrass family looked a lot smaller and humbler than what you would expect from such an old wizard house.
This was because most of the property was being used as farm fields to grow many of the magical materials that the family sells.
"They have many more properties," Morgan explained as they walked toward the gate. "But these fields have some of the rarest and most dangerous plants, like the Venomous Tentacula, a carnivorous giant plant capable of eating humans."
"Sounds lovely," Harry responded as he looked around. He found visible signs of a recent attack on the house and the surrounding area.
Part of the ceiling on the right wing of the manor had a large hole, and many windows were still broken.
He also failed to sense any magical defenses on their way there, meaning that the wards were likely broken apart. They would need some time to recover their magic, and during that period of time, the family would be completely defenseless in the case of another attack.
"Why would they stay here?" Harry wondered out loud. "Surely they have a safer place to hide."
Morgan glanced at him. "Didn't you hear what I just said? The plants they are growing here are their most valuable ones. They can't just leave and abandon all their work."
"Oh… I see." Harry could relate to that. "That's very admirable."
The main door of the manor opened up, and someone walked outside. "By Merlin, Madam Yafel! Is that you?"
The one who just spoke was a beautiful middle-aged woman with long blonde hair and a pair of light blue eyes. She was looking at Morgan with an expression of shock and happiness.
"After receiving your letter, I had no choice but to come check on you and the business," Morgan responded. She clearly cared for this woman but would not admit it.
Lady Greengrass reached the gates and unlocked them for them. "I just wanted to keep you informed. I didn't expect you to… come all the way." Her eyes moved to Harry. "Could this be Mister Potter?"
"Nice to meet you, Lady Greengrass. I am indeed Harry Potter."
"Oh my! If I knew I was going to be receiving such distinguished guests, I would have hurried up with the repairs." She sighed. "There was too much destruction inside the manor that we still haven't gotten around to fixing the roof of the east wing. And the windows…"
"It's fine, Lady Greengrass. We just wanted to speak with you for a few minutes," Morgan told her while trying to sound reasonable.
"Is this about the materials you requested? I'm very sorry, but at the moment, I don't think we can accommodate any—"
"No, it's not about that," Morgan interrupted her. "We wanted to speak about what happened to your family. You see… we are also looking for the people responsible."
Lady Greengrass took a step back. Her blue eyes became filled with dread. "Y-you…"
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