Chapter 13: (Edited)

[HPU, The Leaky Cauldron]

[Rohan POV]

It was a rare stillness in the always busy Leaky Cauldron. Only a few people were currently in here as it was just past lunchtime. I sat at a table in the corner, quietly sipping my butterbeer.

"Tom, a glass of butterbeer for miss Olivia here, It's on me," I said. After a minute, he served a cold glass of Butterbeer.

I looked at Olivia and said, "well, miss Olivia. What do you want to talk about?"

She took a big sigh and then started to speak while holding the glass, " I am a muggle-born, you see. When I got my acceptance letter to Hogwarts, I was thrilled.

My time at Hogwarts was also very peaceful. I had a lot of friends and I was also good at magic, so I didn't face too many problems with regard to studying magic ." She had a soft smile on her face, reminiscing about the past while looking at the swirling glass in her hand. *THUD* she put down the glass and looked at me; her eyes were glossy and the smile was gone.

She continued "It all changed however when I was in my 5th year. You see, the dark lord 'You-know-who' was just started to make a name for himself when I enrolled in Hogwarts, but I was just too naive and not much concerned about him. After all the teachers and the newspapers reassured us that everything was under control by the ministry. One day, my parents came to visit me in Hogsmeade, but on that day some death eaters also attacked, specifically targeting those who were wearing muggle clothes. It was a massacre. Many muggle students and people died that day. My parents included. I was able to survive because I was still at Hogwarts.

From then on, until the start of the 80s; the dark lord's power and influence quickly grew. The attacks started to become bigger and bolder and too big to ignore. His group started to kill and torture half-bloods or muggle-born wizards in the open, and burn down whole villages. After he was defeated, I graduated and I found myself completely alone. I had outstanding n.w.r.t scores, so I joined the Ministry of Magic where I worked for 10 years.

After all my years of service, I could not get a decent promotion to become even a mid-level employee; I was still at the bottom. Students who were my juniors or who were worse than me in school were getting employed at the top while I was crawling at the bottom. That's when I found out that only purebloods got high positions in the ministry. It was an open secret. If you are a half-blood of a normal wizard or you are a muggle-born wizard, you will have no chance of getting any high positions. The only way to get that was by marrying a pureblood. Many muggle-borns had to marry a pureblood before they could get a promotion. But I didn't give up. I wanted to stand on my own feet.

One day, there was a man from a pureblood family that asked me for marriage, but when I refused, he pulled some strings and made my life difficult. I was demoted. But I didn't yield. Soon I left the job. Since then, I started working at the Apothecary here in Diagon Alley.

But even here, the stores are owned and run by purebloods and they don't give high-paying jobs to muggle-born wizards. Now, most unemployed wizards here are muggle-borns or half-bloods."

Nothing she said surprised me. I knew most of it, but seeing someone saying it from experience just hits differently. I was pissed at the ministry. Suddenly I realized something 'Is this the reason Hermione was able to become a Minister at the end of the story? because she was married to Ron and not because of her talents? FUCK! The ending was worse than I thought. Let's hope not.'

when I came back to my senses, I interrupted her, " wait, why don't you all make a union or something? you know, there must be a lot more muggle-borns who are facing similar problems as you. Why don't you all make your own faction? "

"Well, it is not the outside world, if you make such a group here, then you may get targeted, lose your job, and even worse, be falsely accused of a crime and sent to Azkaban. Similar unions were made in the past by squibs but it ended very badly. Believe me, this is only the surface, The corruption runs much deeper.

When I was demoted, I was sent to the records room where my job was to manage old documents and records all day. It was a tedious job, and while I was there, I started digging for information on You know who. I soon found out that the dark lord's attacks were much more serious than what was initially informed to the public.

There were many more lives that were lost, but it was all covered up by the ministry just to make it seem as if it was not as bad as it was, just to keep their faces. I also found many suspicious documents. I have reasons to believe that the people at the very top were also in with the dark lord and for years, actively helped him keep a low profile and gain power. After the death of the dark lord, when they were finally caught, they pleaded that they were mind-controlled so their criminal charges were removed. I could also find that there were a lot of suspicious donations made to the ministry at that time. So the answer was obvious. "

Olivia gritted her teeth and took a deep breath to calm down, then chugged down the glass of butterbeer and continued.*ahem* "Anyways, this does not concern you much. One day Tom came to me with your order. It was not a that difficult job so I accepted it. After that, I had some problems for which I had to leave the wizarding world for a while. In my travels, I realized that I was much better off in the muggle world than here.

Look, I don't know what you do with them, nor do I want to know. When I saw you today, I knew I had to meet you.

My only request is that you hire me again for any new potion you need. I can help you make any potion you want. I will only charge the price of the ingredients. In return, I only ask that you pay me in cash and give me a place to stay for a month. By the way, just so you know, I don't practice dark arts and will not make any dark potions.

"Why are you so desperate? There must be other safer jobs. There is a high chance of you getting caught if you do this and I will not be safe either. Why risk it?" I asked as It was strictly forbidden to sell anything magical to the muggles. This was my main concern.

"Remember the guy I told you about? Well, he visited me in the shop and I was fired from my job today. If he keeps at it, I will not be able to find a decent job anywhere in the wizarding world. My only options left are to move to a different country or work in the outside world. Now, I don't want to leave my home, and finding a job in the outside world will take time because of my lack of a muggle education. So you are my only option now. If you can at least give me some work, I will be able to stay afloat for a few months. I will look for a job till then.

And as for safety, don't worry, you are not a part of the wizarding world, so it will be very hard for them to find you, and even if they did, you fall under the gray area as you are not part of the magical world. At most, they will just erase your memories and leave you. Believe me, I worked in the Ministry for years. I know how they operate."

I was just going to tell her about the new potions I needed and be done with it, but then I thought for a moment,' it looks like she is in trouble and desperate, but I don't know if I should help her or not. If the ministry finds out about this, I will be in trouble. On the other hand, I do need a potion master who could make me potions that I was not able to buy.

While thinking I had an idea! I looked at her. I had a big smile on my face. It somehow made her more nervous. I slowly asked "say, how many people do you know who have similar problems as you? I mean those that are overqualified for the low-paying jobs they are doing? "

Olivia thought for a second and answered unsurely, "I don't know, more than I can think of i guess?"

When she said that, I knew my plan at least had some potential. I was reminded of Facebook. You see, Mark was just an average coder, but he had an idea and a crude website. He just hired people more talented than him to make the website and the rest is history. I also wanted to do the same.

I was already learning Sorcery, but I had no hope that I could ever master magic because of my body. My best bets were on Potions, Alchemy, and Ruins, as seen in many fanfics. But the real kicker was that I was not a genius who could master them in no time and use them as I wish. My only hope of achieving that was with the Ai on my Phone.

From what I read about it. It had a lot of potentials. But there was a problem, as I needed to first train it with proper datasets first. Those datasets would have wasted a lot of time to make. But just now I had an idea of employing the witches and wizards from this world for that. I can pay them to research and break down the information on magic I needed and they get to live in the outside world. It's a win-win.

I looked at Olivia and said with a smile, "I do have some work for you regarding potions but I would also like to talk to you about something else"

"what is it?" She was happy about a new order but was curious about what I wanted to tell her.

" I was thinking of opening a business both in the normal and the wizarding world and what you said gave me an idea. For starters, I have some work that needs to be done. The workers can live in the outside world if they want. I am not sure about the minor details of the job now but I will be by tomorrow. let's meet then."

"really? That is great news. thank you so much! " She seemed very happy.

" I will finalize my plans by tonight. We will meet tomorrow evening. Till then, I want you to find five more people for starters. Remember what I need are people who are good at different fields of magic that can do research. The work will not be too difficult. I cannot tell you much about it now, you can meet me in my hotel tomorrow " I slipped her a note with the time and address. "we will discuss it tomorrow" I then paid for the drinks, and left quickly.

===

I was now in my hotel room thinking about the business plan. Luckily, I had read a lot of books about it on my Aunt's bookshelf when I was young. I had done my research in this area beforehand as I always wanted to make my own company even before I knew I was in the HP world. But that's all redundant now. I had to make new plans.

For the whole night, I brainstormed many ideas. It was very challenging as I could not do something that would affect the story continuity too much, at least not yet.

I didn't have one world but two different worlds so I had to make two different companies. Three if i counted the wizarding world. So It would be impossible for me to oversee everything.

I soon found a solution. I would have to find someone to manage the companies for me because of my frequent travels. After a while, I decided to make a software company in the MCU with plans for beating the iPhone to the market.

On the HP world. It was different. After what I saw in the wizarding world. And how they treated the muggle world, I decided on doing something very bold. Something only I could do. I decided on advancing the technology of this world. And how exactly will I do it? simple. I will employ the wizards and witches of this world and study their magic with the tech from the marvel world and try to replicate it with technology in this world. This was a very far-fetched idea but it had potential. I just had to become the Tony Stark of this world.

As for now, I decided to make a fake front business for the ministry to see and do the main work secretly. I knew the ministry would never allow a group of muggle-born wizards to come together and research with magic freely. After all, knowledge was equal to power in the wizarding world. It was the centuries of secret magical knowledge that gave the purebloods an edge over the new wizards. So it would be best to first gather strength secretly. By the time they find out, it will be too late.

To make my plans a reality, I needed a lot of money and galleons. I had to gather them somehow. The initial Capital will be a huge problem. Well, I will have to find a way. I lied down on the bed with arms crossed behind my head looking at the ceiling. I smiled and said out loud "it is time to fix this world for the better"