255 Aegis
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[Start of a new volume — Volume 8: Hogwarts Year 7.
Like last volume, we're starting right with the summer break. This summer break is going to be eventful. That's to say the least.]
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Chirp~ Chirp~ Chirp~
Quinn opened his eyes with the chirpings of birds flying into his ears. He laid on his side, staying still, watching the alarm clock tick its way to 6 O'clock. He raised his hand above the clock, and the moment, the second and minute-hand ticked to twelve, the clock rang, but even before the first complete ring, his magic silenced the alarm.
Quinn pushed himself up, sat on his knees, and slid off his bed with the same thought he had every morning after waking up — why did he set up an alarm if he woke up before it?
He walked to the window and stared out the lawns of the West manor glistening in their usual well-maintained lush green. Today was his first day back home after the school year ended, thus the first time he had slept in his home bed.
'My dorm bed is better,' he thought. 'I should have brought it with me. . . I wonder if the elves would have tried to take it back. . . maybe I'll try it next year.'
After changing into his workout clothes, Quinn went down to the property and completed his morning exercise routine, all the while wondering if he should pop by Eddie's house because it was sort of lonely doing his morning routine without him, but decided it against and finalized to send him a letter with only one sentence — Exercise Bros For Life. <3
He continued with his morning by taking a shower to wash away the sweat he had worked up and finally went down to the dining room to break the nighttime fast.
"Good morning," he said as he pulled out a chair to sit at the table.
George returned the greeting without looking up from his newspaper while Elliot took a moment to look up from his newspaper, greeting him with a bright smile. Ms. Rosey too greeted him while handing Quinn his own stack of preferred newspapers and magazines.
A glass of milk flew into the dining room, sitting itself on the table in front of Quinn while serving utensils placed more food on his plate than the other three. He picked up the glass and smiled a "Thank you, Polly" after tasting the honey in the milk.
"Lia didn't come?" Quinn asked as he dug into his food. "She's in the country, isn't she?"
"She is. She'll be here in the evening," said Ms. Rosey, mixing honey in her tea.
Quinn hummed while tasting the eggs and the pepper sprinkled on them just for him. He wondered what he should do for today; it was his first day back home, so lazing around at the manor and spending time with Ms. Rosey was the option on the forefront, but then there was the other option of going to the non-magical world and see what was new. He weighed the options in his mind and decided that it would be better to stay at home for the first few days before venturing outside.
"Grandfather, how's Aegis doing?"
Aegis, or the complete name Aegis Warding Solutions, was the newly formed subsidiary of the West business. It was formed last year with Quinn's book of home/building protection wards as its value proposition. The last time Quinn had heard of Aegis, it hadn't been doing so well — struggling against the market dominator Goblin Nation's wards which had been the sole option for centuries. While Quinn had confidence in his wards, he understood Goblin Nation's grip on the warding industry and that Aegis had a good chance of failing like its predecessors.
"We are losing money," said George, bluntly.
Which didn't bring any surprise to Quinn's face. With the market scenario, it would take a while for Aegis to even break even, much less turn up a profit, and Quinn knew that what he was interested in was if there had been any positive indication about the company's future.
"There has been a weak yet steady stream of customers. Those who can't afford goblin-made wards, attracted by our heavy discounts, they make the majority of our customer base." In the first year, Aegis had slashed its service prices to beyond the bone and were losing money on every warding, but that was the only way to gain a foothold in the market. "Then there are those who have decided to supplement their pre-existing wards with ours — but those are few in far between, primarily warding enthusiasts checking out the new product."
"Anyone I might recognize?" asked Quinn.
"Indeed, there's one. Amelia Bones added our wards to her home when she was upgrading the protection at home — a smart move considering now that she's almost the Minister."
Fudge had been voted out of his office as such, elections for the next Minister were close, and Amelia Bones was going to win without a shred of doubt — the elections were but a formality.
"Is that so," muttered Quinn. That was good news, terrific even. Someone like the Head of DMLE / soon-to-be Minister using their company's service was all the endorsement needed to get into the high-end market. "What about the thing I suggested before? Targetting parents of first-generation magicals," he asked.
"It's has been half a success. Some people loved having wards around their houses, while others turned our people away the moment they heard what they were selling — slammed their doors."
Quinn nodded with pursed lips. Not all first-generation magicals got along with their magical children; many grew distant from their families because of the different world they lived in. Not being able to relate and talk about common topics put cracks in relationships, and the non-magical parents blamed magic for it.
"I hope at least the parents with younger children are taking well," he asked.
"They are indeed. They show interest, then it takes a lot of explaining on our part to make them understand what the wards do and how they work," said George. "But, thanks to your scripts, manuals, and pamphlets, the process is much easier."
"Salesmen?" asked Quinn.
"For the non-magical side, all first-generation magicals."
"Excellent."
Of course, warding in non-magical societies came with its own set of limitations. To gain approval from the Ministries around the globe, where Aegis had been launched in the previous year, the company had to key in the country-wide detection ward-nets that enabled the working of the trace placed on the focuses used by underaged children. Thus, for safety reasons (International Statute of Magical Secrecy), first-generation children still couldn't use magic in their homes.
When the conversation ended, Elliot chimed in and asked, "Young master, what do you plan on doing this summer? Will you travel again this year?"
"Hmm. . . I do have plans some plans out of the country, but it'll be most a day or twos of work before I return home," said Quinn. "Other than that, I'm planning to stay at home."
"Where do you plan to visit?"
"Switzerland. I'm planning to take a trip to Basel, Switzerland."
George looked up from his paper with a questioning glint in his eyes. "Basel. . . may I ask the reason for the visit?"
Quinn glanced at the three adults and decided that this was as good a time as any. "If all three of you're free now, I'd like to show all of you something." He looked at George, "It's the reason for my visit to Switzerland."
The three adults looked at each other before nodding.
"Polly," Quinn called, and the West family house-elf popped into the room, standing beside Quinn's chair, looking up at him with her big, vivid eyes. "Would you please bring my briefcase down from my room; it's on the floor in my closet. Thank you."
Poppy popped away to return half a minute later with Quinn's trusty briefcase floating above her hand.
Quinn thanked Polly and placed the briefcase on the floor. With a wave of his hand, the briefcase expanded to a large-sized trunk, big enough to take up one-third of a single-person bed. The large briefcase opened up, and instead of standard insides with regular objects, the briefcase had stairs descending inside.
"Whenever all of you're ready," said Quinn, and the rest of them weren't ready — only after everyone had their breakfast did the four people step into Quinn's luggage.
"Now that I think of it. It's my first time stepping in here," Elliot said, following behind Quinn. "Same for me as well," said Ms. Rosey, stepping down with one hand on the railing. "This is my first time as well," added George completing the trio of first-time visitors.
Quinn, along with the group, walked through a series of corridors with rooms lining them. It would have been fine if it was only that, as it was what George, Elliot, and Ms. Rosey expected, but there were things that stood out to them.
Along the way, they came upon a few abnormal doors.
They saw a door with runes etched on every inch of the door panel and the frame. When passing by another door, they all felt a chilling cold assault their bodies. Another door on their path lightly rattled in its hinge constantly. They passed by another door, and unlike others which were brown, this one was an unnatural scarlet red color. Then there were two-door facing each other, both open wide, but they couldn't see anything inside other than pitch-black darkness.
When asked about the bizarre doors, Quinn answered with, "Ongoing experiments."
"We are here," Quinn said, standing in front of a regular door. He flicked up the light switch on the outside, opened the door, and motioned them to enter inside.
George, Elliot, and Ms. Rosey entered the door, and their eyes narrowed at the contents inside. Laying in front of them were room height mounds of gold coins, treasure chests, statues, open sacks of precious jewels and gems, and various things all made from gold — only, everything in the room was shrunk down, and that too aggressively.
George picked up a coin from the mound, and it was only as large as a tiny thumbtack. He stared at the shrunken down coin and then at the mounds — his mind did some rough calculations, and the result made him suck in a sharp breath.
He turned to his grandson with blown up eyes, "Quinn. . . where did you get all this gold? This. . . this is a lot of gold," he looked at the sacks of jewels, and once again, his mind added value.
It took them an extra beat, but Elliot and Ms. Rosey also came to stilling stop at the sheer enormous amount of wealth in gold and jewels. For any one of them, it was the first time seeing this much wealth in a place that was outside one of their numerous bank vaults.
"I went on an adventure inside Hogwarts," said Quinn, smiling. "The end of that adventure as a giant hall full of gold treasures, all for me to claim."
George narrowed his eyes at his grandson, "Do you mean one of those vaults that you told us about?"
Quinn nodded. He had told George about the vaults in the aftermath of the Sin vault and the other members in subsequent times. And while they were aware of the vaults' existence, they weren't privy to the contents of the vaults — the challenges, the rewards, the dangers he faced, and his injuries.
"So this is why you want to go to Basel," said Ms. Rosey.
Quinn nodded, "There's no use for all of this gold to lay here gathering dust. It'd be better to put all this wealth into my vaults there, and reap an interest and funnel it into investments. I'd also like to start making some investment of my own."
George instantly looked interested, "What do you have in mind?"
"I have some targets in the magical community, but mostly, I'd be investing in the non-magical world. For that, I'd need some help — if you could connect me with someone who could handle the investments in the non-magical world, that'd be helpful."
George sighed. He hoped that Quinn would make investments in the magical world as that was more up his alley. But he nodded, "I'll arrange someone that'd be able to take you through the investments."
Quinn smiled. He had a lot of money, and his wealth only grew with each passing day, but Quinn knew that to stay wealthy, it took effort and planning, and he had to remain wealthy so that he could spend the coming years of life researching magic. Even if he would never go hungry, with no clothes on his body, or without a roof over his head because of his body, but to pursue research, he would need capital, and these investments were going to fund those researches — no matter how extensive they became.
After they exited the briefcase, George asked, "What about the brothers you told me about? What was their name? Weasley twins, correct? What are their plans?"
"They just graduated, grandfather. It'd take them some time to set up their joke shop. Though their plans and preparations are solid enough that they'd be getting up and running soon."
"Do you think they will be profitable?"
Quinn nodded, "I'm a hundred percent sure that they'd be profitable. After all, I not only planned their business but also helped them with their product. Combine that with their competence, no chance their business is going to fail."
George placed his hand on Quinn's shoulder, looked him in the eye, and spoke while looking satisfied, "I am proud of you, son."
"Thank you?"
"So, I'm going to trust you and invest the same amount of the family money in the same areas that you do."
"Eh, really? I'm planning to invest a lot of money, though."
"No worries, I have a lot of it."
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Quinn West - MC - His "West" is coming up.
George West - Grandfather - Flexing at the end.
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