The Unseen Scribe
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Lily's Journal - Chapter 10
🕑 Added 2023-10-23 15:40:30 +0000 UTCAN: Hey guys.
In this chapter we see a meeting in which some important things are set up.
As well as the first meeting with a certain metamorphmagus.
Hope you guys enjoy this one.
Chapter 10
Harry walked into the building feeling a little bit nervous.
A few days had passed since Hermione agreed to go on a date with him, and he spent every single day since with a large, permanent smile on his face. Sirius said he looked a little like his dad had looked when his mum agreed to go on a date with him, which Harry took as a compliment, instead of the teasing that Sirius expected. His parents had given their life for him, they loved him with all of their being, and if what the few things that Sirius had told him were true, then they also loved each other just as much. Harry hoped he and Hermione could grow to be just like that.
They spent two days staying in the Granger home, and Hermione's dad didn't have the time to give Harry the 'dad talk' as Sirius put it. Which Harry was thankful for. He definitely didn't want to have that kind of talk before he and Hermione even had their first date.
After they left the Granger home, Sirius brought him to his house, which he called grim old place, and it certainly looked the part from the front, but the inside of the house was totally different from the dilapidated outside. Walls in soft, warm colours, a nice hardwood floor, the place had a nice, homely feeling to it. Sirius said that it was a lot worse before the renovations he had ordered, that the place was truly grim, with dark colours and elf heads mounted on the walls, apparently his family home was nightmare inducing during his childhood, and he didn't want Harry to have those same nightmares. Harry also finally learned his little play on words, the house was on 12 Grimmauld Place, and Harry snorted a little once he finally heard the address, causing Sirius to laugh.
The day after they reached their home, Sirius pulled Harry towards the library and they spent hours talking about everything Harry needed to know and Dumbledore hadn't told him. Sirius told him more about his family tree, continuing their conversation from that day in the Granger house. He also told Harry more about his future duties as a head of house, even if Harry was the only living member of his family, he still needed to know those things. Ancient laws that were still in use to this day, and applied mostly to old magical families, like the law on family magics, which was a bit like copyright law, in which no other magical could use spells or craft potions claimed by a Potter as family magic, at least for a period of 200 years after the death of the original inventor. Harry thought that the time was a little long, but when one takes into account the extended lifespan of magicals it made sense.
There were also things like family protection. Which was the process of declaring that someone was under the protection of his family, and as head of the family he would be able to declare blood feuds and challenge to honour duels anyone that attacked someone under the protection of his family.
Blood feuds were also a difficult thing to understand for someone raised in non magical society. Blood feuds were basically legalized war between two families, and the government couldn't intervene in a blood feud. Other families could intervene, but they also positioned themselves as participants in the blood feud. Sirius had told stories about how magical Britain spent almost 50 years in a constant state of war once, all because of a massive blood feud between Harry's own family and the Gaunts. The feud started due to the Gaunts claiming to be descendents of the Peverells, and trying to claim the Peverell seat in the Wizengamot, which is a legacy seat from the Wizards' Council, and the Potters, as the only recognized decedents of the Peverells, didn't accept that. The feud lasted a long time, killed hundreds of people and ended up involving a lot of other families, even the Blacks ended up involved, in one of the only few times that Black and Potter allied with each other.
But the largest point of talk was the Wizengamot, and Harry's duties in it when he comes of age. His family has a seat in the government, and Harry is expected to attend the meetings and represent his family, or at least nominate his future wife as a proxy until his heir is of age. The Potter seat had two votes, due to the Peverell legacy seat, but they weren't the only seats to have more than one vote. The aforementioned Gaunts also had two votes, due to them also controlling the legacy Slytherin seat. A few other families also had two votes, with the Blacks being one of those families. But the Gaunt seat has been empty for decades now, even if the stone above the seat is still lit, showing that the family line hasn't gone extinct, and the Black seat was apparently being held in proxy by Malfoy ever since Sirius' grandfather died, but Sirius was able to get Malfoy kicked out of the seat as soon as he was declared free.
Sirius explained a lot about how the seats worked, how there was an enchanted stone on top of every seat that showed if the family line still existed, and if the person seating on the seat was allowed to be there by either the head of house, or was a legal guardian of the underage heir, something that caused the Potter seat to be empty since Harry's dad died, no matter how many times Dumbledore tried to claim proxy, as he claimed guardianship over Harry. Supposedly it caused a massive issue and Dumbledore almost lost his position on the government body when Augusta Longbottom, Neville's grandma, had said that the stone not recognizing Dumbledore meant that he had illegally seized guardianship of Harry. Dumbledore was somehow able to get his guardianship recognized, but still wasn't able to take the Potter seat, or install someone as proxy.
Harry was starting to realize how much the headmaster was involved with his life, and he didn't like it. The old man even tried to stop Sirius from taking guardianship over Harry. First he tried to use the old decision of the Wizengamot to say that he was the legal guardian now, and that Sirius had lost guardianship; when that didn't work, he tried to work the angle of Sirius being too mentally unstable due to his years of Azkaban, which also didn't work, since Sirius volunteered to treatment under mind healers and reports were sent weekly to the aurors about his mental health. Sirius sounded really angry whenever he talked about Dumbledore, even saying that the headmaster could have freed him from Azkaban but didn't want to. Harry didn't believe much of it, sure the headmaster had a lot of power, but Harry didn't believe that he was evil, and only someone truly evil would leave a man that he knew was innocent, in jail. That was until Sirius dropped the last bomb on him. The headmaster have been trying to get Sirius to allow Harry to keep living with his relatives, saying it was the safest place that Harry could be, a place that he could be happy. And that was when Harry lost any respect he still had for the headmaster, the man was trying to put Harry in that hell again, right after he had escaped, Harry almost begged Sirius to not accept, but his godfather saw things coming, and before Harry could even start talking Sirius was already saying that Harry would never return to the Dursleys, or else he would end up in Azkaban again, and this time for a crime that he actually committed. Harry was really happy when he heard that.
Sirius also gave Harry a different kind of talk. Giving him ideas about what to do on a date, now that Harry had a girlfriend, how to talk to her, how he should treat other girls, and how he should always pay attention to her. According to Sirius, even if they were already best friends, and Harry already spent most of his time with Hermione, being her boyfriend meant that Harry should spend even more time with her. Harry knew that his relationship with Hermione would change now that they were dating, but I few of the things Sirius talked about seemed like they wouldn't work. Hermione wasn't the type of girl that liked flowers and pink chocolates, maybe on Valentine 's Day, but in day to day, Harry thought that Hermione would prefer a good educational book, or long walks near the lake, while they talked about their projects. So Harry decided to take some of Sirius' advice, but not all of it, and only implement them in his own way, he definitely wasn't going to sneak out of class and carve her name on the quidditch pitch like Sirius suggested, that sounded like something that Lavender might like; Hermione would probably yell at him for ditching class and then for vandalizing the school.
What Harry really liked was when Sirius talked about all the things he said about how he 'helped prongs date his flower'. It seemed like his dad had style, and some of the things Sirius said sounded like good things to plan for Hermione. Like getting her a meeting with a famous author as a gift for her birthday, Harry's dad did something similar for his mum her first birthday after they started dating, apparently getting her a meeting with Batilda Bagshot, who ended up being one of their neighbours later in life, when his mum and dad married and moved in together. Sirius even said the old woman was the first person to see Harry after he had left the hospital that he was born.
Talking about his parents always left both Harry and Sirius really emotional. They both had a lot of things bottled up, and they talked about visiting the cemetery, but decided to do it in the summer. Harry had never before visited his parents' graves, and he wanted to do it. To look at their graves and say how he was happy now, that things were finally looking up in his life, he had his godfather, a new girlfriend that he hoped would be their daughter-in-law one day, and that he was doing some amazing work that his mum would be proud. He wanted to say it all, but he still wasn't ready, maybe in the summer he would.
Harry shook his head to drive away the thoughts and looked around the nice office. It looked exactly like what one would expect an office that dealt with old money would be like, expensive looking furniture and all. The moment Harry and Sirius walked in a young woman rose from her seat behind a large desk and made her way towards them. She was wearing a nice grey business suit, her blond hair done up in a professional way, she looked a bit like a young, non magical version of professor McGonagall.
"Mr. Black, Mr. Potter, the manager is ready to see you at your convenience." The young woman said, getting closer to Harry and Sirius and bowing of all things.
"What is your name Ms...?" Harry asked, and the woman gave him a soft smile.
"Julia Rosier, Mr. Potter. It is an honour to meet you." The woman responded, and Harry felt Sirius stiffen.
"Rosier. Are you related to..." Sirius started to ask, but the woman responded before he could even complete his question.
"My grandfather is a squib. So yes, I am related to him, but I have never met the man, and he would probably kill me if we do meet." Julia responded.
Harry was a little confused about that interaction, until Sirius turned towards him and said. "Rosier is a death eater." Harry was a little surprised, but he didn't let this fact change his opinion of the woman in front of him. Sirius had shown him how much everyone is related to each other in the magical society, so having a few death eaters in the family is normal; Harry himself is distantly related to several of them.
"I should alert you that we had a change of manager two years ago. Mr. Sitwell, our previous manager passed away, and since we weren't able to contact Mr. Potter, no matter how much we tried, Mr. Evans hired a new manager." Julia said, with a sad, embarrassed smile.
"And who allowed him to hire a manager for the fund?" Sirius said in a hard tone. His normally easy going persona completely fading away, giving place to the son of house Black that he tried so hard not to be.
"It's in the contract we all sign to work here, Mr. Black. It we the head of house or heir are incapacitated or we are unable to achieve contact with them, then the closest family member working on the office can hire a new manager." Julia responded, and Sirius relaxed a little. But Harry only heard family member.
"I have family working here?" Harry asked, in a hopeful tone. He didn't know he had more family on the non magical side of Britain, he always thought it was just the Dursleys.
"Distant family like in the magical side. I remember him, Mark Evans, I think he's an accountant."Sirius said, and Julia nodded. "He shares a great-grandfather with your mother; Lily hired him to work here after she married your father." Sirius added.
"Well, as much as I would like to spend some time here, talking with a lovely young lady." Sirius said, winking at Julia while she blushed. "We should go see this new manager." He added.
Julia nodded and went back to her table, pressing a button on it, while Sirius guided Harry towards a door that had 'Manager' written in golden letters. They only had to wait for a few seconds before a middle aged man in a nice suit opened the door and invited them inside.
The office was well decorated, in a way that showed wealth without being gaudy, nice paintings, bookshelves filled with old looking books, a large mahogany desk with comfortable looking chairs, and behind the desk was, what Harry learned recently, the Potter crest. The man invited them to seat, and Harry and Sirius took their seat at the front of the table, the man walking behind it and seating in his chair.
"Mr. Potter, I am Arthur Finch-Fletchley, manager of the Potter trust. It is an honour to finally meet my boss." The man said, giving Harry an inviting smile.
"Finch-Fletchley, Are you related to Justin?" Harry asked, remembering his hufflepuff year mate that was one of the main people to accuse him of being the heir of slytherin last year.
"Yes, I am his father. It was one of the reasons why I was hired to manage the Potter trust, and of course, my experience. My family has been working on finance for over a hundred and fifty years." Arthur responded a little more seriously. "And I hope my son has apologized for his comments last year. When he returned home I pointed to him all the flaws in his judgment and how he was acting with his emotions instead of looking at the facts." He added after a few seconds.
"He hasn't." Harry said curtly.
"Ah... my apologies." Arthur said, looking a little embarrassed. "I will send him a letter reminding him of his manners Mr. Potter. His mother and I didn't raise him like that." He added.
"I hope this doesn't interfere with our working relationship, but I would understand if you prefer to wait until my son apologises to give me an answer." Arthur said after a few seconds of an uncomfortable silence.
"That will depend on your performance till date, Mr. Finch-Fletchley." Sirius said, interjecting himself in the conversation and moving it forward.
"Of course, Mr. Black. As the godfather and legal guardian of Mr. Potter you have some say in the trust, but many decisions are only allowed to be made by Mr. Potter himself, with contracts signed with blood quills to show he is not being coerced. And some other decisions are only available to him once he comes of age." Arthur said, in a tone of warning.
"I understand, my family has a similar arrangement." Sirius replied in his usual easygoing tone. "Now, we would like to know how the trust performed since the death of James and Lily. We would also like to know how much of the funds Harry can use at the moment, as well as if the family office can help with setting up a company." Sirius said in a more serious tone.
"I will be happy to explain everything you want to know." Arthur responded, giving them a smile and then starting to respond Sirius' questions.
Arthur started explaining how the fund performed in since the time of the death of Harry's parents, how, many of the investments that Harry's mother made had performed well above the average market, and the moves made during his time as manager, all of it made the fund grow a massive amount, to a current total of around £800,000,000. Harry almost jumped out of his seat when he heard that amount.
He then went on to explain what could and couldn't be done with the fund. As the primary heir, Harry would normally have access to around 10% of the fund, but due to being the last living member of his house, the amount was raised to 25%, until he came of age, when he would be able to access the full amount. Arthur showed how all of it was listed in an old looking piece of parchment signed by a Potter that Harry didn't know; Arthur said that was the document that established the directives of the trust and dictated how it should be operated, including limiting the amount he currently had access to.
Arthur then explained how the family office already was a registered company, one operating on the financial sector. He then asked why Harry wanted to open up a company, and when Harry explained that he and his friends had done some research and found out how to manufacture some products using magic the man got a glint in his eyes and then started babbling about all that Harry would need to make his idea a reality. It would take some work to set up a company, but they could set up a subsidiary to the already existing Potter Inc. the company that the family office was registered as. That new subsidiary could then operate in other markets, manufactory, services, they could set up the new company to do anything Harry wanted, and Harry's shares in the new company would be owned by the parent company Potter Inc.
When Harry explained that he wanted a company on the energy sector, how his group had developed a generator using runes and other magics, the man almost started jumping on his seat in excitement, even if Sue's generator was the only one currently out of the testing phase, and only half as powerful as a conventional coal powered generator. Apparently the UK energy sector was just recently privatized in 1990, and it was still a good time to 'get in the game' as Arthur said; especially with a generator that doesn't need fossil fuels and requires almost no maintenance.
The man got even more excited when Harry said they were working on more efficient power generation using lightning runes, the current design uses four runes producing lightning bolts at a consistent pace, and Hermione was finally able to measure the energy produced at exactly 1.10 gigawatts per bolt of lightning just the day before they left Hogwarts for the break. It was an interesting find, more so in the scientific sense, the fact that every single rune produced the same amount of energy per bolt of lightning without a single joule of difference was an interesting scientific case to study, how was magic so consistent in creating what is basically plasma, and they all knew enough about physics to know that plasma is a highly volatile state of matter. But Arthur wasn't interested in the scientific problems, he only seemed excited about the potential profits that such a consistent source of electricity could bring in.
By the end of the meeting Sirius and Harry had left Arthur with a list of things to do. They left most of the things needed for the new company, provisionally named Elemental Energies, to Arthur, he knew better than both of them what was needed for a company to be able to operate. The only thing that Harry interfered with the company was that it needed a research department, and that they should preferably hire scientists that were 'in the know' about magic, Harry also said that the contracts for the scientists should state that they are required to do some teaching. It was an idea that Harry and Hermione talked about at her house, as much as they were advancing on their own, they were not even close to properly educated scientists, and if they could get instructors for the summer they could learn a lot more than they were learning from the books. Sirius also said that Arthur should try to set up a meeting with the Prime Minister, and that the meeting should be outside of the Prime Minister's office, since they didn't want any portraits snooping around. He later explained to Harry that there was a magical portrait in the Prime Minister's office, which was used whenever the Minister of Magic needed to talk with the muggle Minister.
By the time they left his office, Arthur's desk was filled notes about the many things the man would have to work on in the near future, but the large smile on his face said that he was happy to have such a large workload.
Harry asked Sirius to look around the office a bit more, and try to find that Mark Evans guy, even if he was only distantly related to his mother, Harry still wanted to know him. Sirius asked secretary, Julia, outside of Arthur's office, and she pointed them towards the accounting department, were Mark's office was located, and the two of them made their way there.
While they walked there Harry realized how big a family office was, there must be around two dozen people employed there, just to manage his family's fortune, maybe more than that. It was something that was almost impossible for him to think about a few months ago, the amount of money that the Potter trust had, and the amount of people employed to manage it would be simply unbelievable to the Harry of a few months ago. That Harry still thought that his vault in Gringotts was all the money he had.
They reached the accounting department they were pointed towards Mark's office by a woman working there, reaching the office door, Sirius knocked a few times and shortly after the door opened to show a man around Sirius' age, standing there in a nice suit. The man had flaming red hair, similar to Harry's mother, at least judging by the pictures that Harry had of her, and he also had the same emerald green eyes, it was the first time that Harry had seen eyes similar to his own, his aunt Petunia didn't had different eyes.
"Hey boss." the man said, smirking a little. "I only saw you as a baby, when Lily brought you here once, but those Evans eyes are unmistakable. It is nice to see you again Harry." He added.
"You're Mark Evans, right?" Harry asked, and the man nodded in response. "I heard we are related, and I wanted to meet you, maybe hear some stories about my mother." Harry said in a hopeful tone, making Mark laugh in response.
"Sure, I'm always happy to talk about my favourite cousin growing up, God knows Petunia wasn't; haven't seen her since she started dating that land whale she now calls a husband. Walk on inside, and I will tell you some stories about your mother, I'm sure my boss won't mind me taking a few minutes off." Mark responded, chuckling a little at the end.
Harry and Sirius walked inside his office, Sirius greeting Mark and talking about the old days. Apparently they knew each other; Mark had even helped Sirius buy his bike about a year before Harry was born. The two of them shared a passion for the things, and they even talked about Sirius buying a new one.
They spent around an hour with Mark, and Harry heard a lot of stories about his mother, as well as learning a lot about that side of his family. Mark told a few stories about Harry's mum when she was a child, he even knew Snape, and was another person to tell Harry how close Snape and his mum used to be. Mark also said a lot about Harry's grandparents, Gerald and Elizabeth Evans. Gerald was a factory worker, and Elizabeth was a seamstress, they lived in Cokeworth and both died in an accident about a month after Harry was born. He even talked about Harry's great-grandparents, Gerald Sr. and his wife Jasmine, which was the reason for the Evans naming of girls; her name was so unusual at the time that Gerald Sr. decided to name his daughters with flower names, and it stuck to this day.
By the time they left the office and returned to Grimmauld Place, Harry had learned a lot about his mother and their family, something that Sirius wasn't able to help him with, and something that he desperately wanted to know. It was nice knowing about his dad's side of the family, but he would always feel incomplete if he didn't know anything about his mum's side. Learning about how his mum once broke her tooth and had a bout of accidental magic to fix it, which was how Mark learned about Lily being 'different' for the first time, even if he wouldn't learn that it was magic until a few years later; or how she once floated down from a tree that she had climbed. Those little bits of information were a true treasure to someone who had never met his parents, and Harry would always be thankful to Mark for providing it.
When they reached home, Harry immediately went to his bedroom and picked up his mum's journal again, he had read that journal over a dozen times by now, but he always kept coming back for more.
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Harry laughed as he saw, who he was now referring to as She-who-must-not-be-named Tonks, use her metamorphic powers to pretend to be Snape with pink hair, even Hermione, who was sitting alongside him, their arms interlocked and holding each other's hand, was laughing a little. Harry could see how much it annoyed the girl to be called she-who-must-not-be-named, but she refused to be called by her first name, Nym or even Dora, and Harry refused to call her by her last name. So, female Voldemort it was.
The girl in front of him wasn't actually a girl, it would be more fair to say she was a young woman, already graduated Hogwarts and soon to graduate from auror academy. But Nym was really immature, even Hermione lectured her about it earlier, and when a teenager lecture you about being immature, you immediately lose some adult points, even if that teenager was Hermione. It was hard to say what Nym looked like, since she was always changing her looks, but she seemed to prefer pink hair, yellow eyes, a heart shaped face and decently sized... assets, he definitely wasn't looking at it, not in front of his girlfriend, he knew better than that, even if Hermione's eyes seemed to wander there sometimes. He guessed that was one of those things of girls being jealous of more developed ones, even if he couldn't recognize the look on Hermione's face, he just knew it wasn't jealousy.
He looked to the other side of the room where the adults were talking, Sirius, his cousin Andromeda and her husband Ted, as well as Hermione's parents. They had a nice dinner earlier, and now they were getting to know each other a little. Hermione's parents were ecstatic about the chance to actually see Hermione do magic, which she could do since this was a magical household; and she and Harry spent about an hour before the dinner started entertaining the older Grangers with all that they knew, they even did a little duelling tournament. Hermione was good, and knew a lot more spells than Harry did, but even with a lower selection of spells to choose from, Harry was a demon with a wand, and easily won his duel with Hermione, he even held his own against Nym, only losing after a few minutes of a hard fight. The tournament was won by Andromeda, as she easily dispatched Sirius, who was still rusty due to his stay in Azkaban, or at least, that was his excuse. Andromeda said she would still win against Sirius, even if he was in top shape.
"Can you really look like anyone you want?" Harry heard Hermione ask and returned his attention to the girls near him.
"Sure, little miss perfect. Why? You have some requests?" Nym responded.
Hermione just nodded her head and started saying many different names that Harry didn't recognize, he did recognize some of the faces as Nym started to change her looks to match whoever Hermione was asking, some of them were actresses and some Harry recognized as singers, the only name Harry recognized was professor Sinistra. Harry really hoped that Hermione grew out of this whole jealousy thing, she kept looking at the... assets of anyone Nym turned into. Hermione was the most beautiful girl in to world to him, he really didn't care if she wasn't ass developed as the older girls, she would grow into it, just as he hoped that he would grow as well. He knew Hermione would be a beautiful woman, and he wanted to be worthy of her in the looks department.
"You really lucked out with this one, wonder boy." Nym said, after Hermione still looked at her assets as she turned back into herself. He looked to the side and saw Hermione blushing a little, he didn't understand why she was blushing, Harry really was lucky to have a girlfriend as amazing as she was.
"Sure did, She-who-must-not-be-named, Hermione is amazing." Harry responded, without even thinking about it.
"You have to stop calling me that, I told you to call me Tonks." Nym complained.
"No, I will only stop if you allow me to call you Nym, or Dora." Harry said, trying to hide his humour.
"No, just call me Tonks." Nym said, her tone a little threatening, which did nothing to Harry.
"Female Voldemort it is." Harry said with a smirk, making Hermione laugh a little. Hearing a laugh from the adult side of the room, Harry looked there to see Andromeda looking at them.
"It was bound to happen someday, dear. I still don't know why you hate your name so much, Nymphadora is a perfectly good name." Andromeda said, smirking a little.
"Not helping, mum." Nym said in an annoyed tone, making the entire room laugh.
They stayed a couple more hours talking and getting to know each other, both the Grangers and the Tonks would be staying for the night, so they were able to talk until late into the night. By the time Harry had gone to bed, after giving Hermione a kiss, and receiving a nasty look from her father, Harry had a smile on his face, the night was quite nice, and he met a few other distant relative that were really fun to be around. He was really starting to like his new home.
AN 2: She-who-must-not-be-named is here, and she is here to stay.
Next chapter we go back to hogwarts to the end of third year.
I will see you guys in the next one.
Comments
Aeden Emrys
"...Elemental Energies..." sounds like a fine name! And pht! "She-who-must-not-be-named"!!! HaHaHa!!! Perfect name choice!
