448 The hidden knowledge archives

That was the crux of the issue , the true reason why fudge and Bagman were here and they knew it. This wasn't the sort of case where they can hand over some sort of small thing and rake in the profits for themselves , Nick was far too smart to accept something like that. He hadn't made some new potion that could be copied with enough effort but a genuine sport which can't be replicated without him willingly giving up it's secrets or years maybe even decades of money draining experimentation. Fudge and Bagman both grimaced when Nick posed this question as it directly poked them where it hurt , the wallet.-

"I may be able to get you a first class order of Merlin and an exemption from the laws you are breaking on that island of yours." Fudge said with a frown but Nick was not moved at all. "I want a week of unrestricted access in the archives and ten percent of all profits from the blitzball games in the future for as long as I live on top of that." He said calmly. "What archives?" Fudge asked with a frown as that was the only part he wasn't expecting.-

The profits he had expected to be demanded and he was even pleasantly surprised at how low the amount Nick wanted was but he had no clue what archives Nick was referring too. "The archives of knowledge belonging to the department of mysteries of course. I'm surprised you weren't aware of it since I was even able to find records of them in the school library." Nick said with a mocking smile. A nifty little fact about the department of mysteries was that as time went on they started to slowly hide certain locations and activities from the rest of the ministry.-

The lost archive , the archive of knowledge , the testing facilities and even the training grounds were all deeply hidden from everyone not a part of them in the ministry. Fudge was turning red from rage as he realized what Nick was all but pointing out , he was not aware of everything in the ministry that he was in charge of. Bagman seemed oblivious to this and chose to try to negotiate Nick down from his price. "Ten percent of everything is far too much! What about two percent annually?" he said like he was being generous.-

"Five percent of everything for as long as I live and a month unrestricted access to the archive." Nick countered calmly. 'He halved his profits but quadrupled his time in the archives , something seems off about this!' Fudge thought with narrowed eyes but he was too much of a fool to understand Nicks motives. He didn't care about the profits at all , no what Nick wanted was access to the vast collection of knowledge that the department of mysteries was hoarding. The department of mysteries had been collecting ancient tomes and research since the founding of the ministry so very long ago and likely had information that if released could push the whole wizarding world forward by centuries.-

The biggest problem was not fudge agreeing however but the department trying to play tricks by denying Nick access to the true archives but giving him a small carefully picked selection. They could also choose to try and directly kill him but they would be in for a rude awakening if they did. "Three percent annually is the best we can offer." Bagman said as if he was really struggling to say that. Nick scoffed at the mans shameless act as he knew for sure that the annual profits compared to those from everything would be drastically different and not in a good way.-

Not to mention that the british ministry will likely be taking at least twenty percent of all profit from the sport. As it's creator Nick would be expected to get a tidy sum of profit off everything as well. Bagman was basically trying to filch what by all rights was a very fair amount of profit from Nick. "Four percent of everything and two months unrestricted access to the archives , final offer." Nick said firmly since he had already grown tired of dealing with them.-

Bagman looked unhappy with this price but looked at Fudge since technically he had the final say in this matter. "Fine we , the ministry can accept these terms." Fudge said clearly unhappy with how this entire conversation went. He looked even worse however when he saw Nick take out a sheet of parchment from seemingly thin air that had dense writing on it already. Nick tapped the piece of paper and a few words on it changed before he handed it over. "Feel free to read the contract over to make sure the details are correct before you sign it." he said with a smile.