29 Chapter 29: Queen
When Severus went to his bedroom he did not find Ethan or Sasaki.
He didn't linger long in his room and left a few moments later for dinner.
When he arrived in the main room Severus sat down again at the same table he had been at before.
After a while, Freyja and Gwen joined him at the table for dinner.
"How was your tour?" asked Severus to them after a while when he saw them sitting at the table.
"It was amazing Severus, did you know that this institute has 7 colleges and each college has its own dean and professors, it's crazy, Gwen also told me that SWI is attended by witches from all over the world," Freyja told energetically while Gwen next to her only smiled seeing her excitement.
"Well then, I'm glad you had a good time. I knew a little something about it, the Dean gave us all a brief introduction about the institution."
"Yeah well, this, I missed that explanation, I fell asleep on the boat heh," Freyja said sheepishly.
"Ah okay now I understand, well it's lucky that the exemplary student Gwen Stacy was able to give you the tour then," Severus said jokingly.
"Oh come on Prince, couldn't it be that you were left wanting another tour?" said Gwen with the same teasing tone.
Severus just denied amused and changed the subject, "We better go get our food, I don't know about you, but I'm hungry."
Gwen pouted feignedly but nodded as did Freyja and so the three of them went to get their dinner for today.
An interesting fact about SWI is that, unlike Hogwarts which has house elves making the food for the wizards, SWI hires squibs, for the most part, there are even some expert witches in the culinary area of magic who prepare dishes made from magical animals or plants.
SWI's menu is quite varied to satisfy the witches who come to study from all over the world, you have to eat both magical and muggle food from all over the world, something Severus admits is impressive.
It will be a small detail that is overlooked by most, but for those who are used to eating foods other than what they eat in the USA, it is a relief to at least have something to eat that is familiar to them.
Once, Severus, Gwen, and Freyja had chosen their dinner, they went back to sitting at their table.
Shortly after everyone sat down to dinner, the ceiling of the main hall was filled with owls of all kinds.
Severus even spotted some eagles and hawks among the owls.
Apparently, not everyone preferred owls as messengers.
The birds began to descend and leave each student their correspondence.
At the table where Severus' group was sitting landed two Owls and an Eagle.
"Bao!?" she was heard to say to Freyja who seemed surprised by the arrival of the small owl that she apparently recognized.
Severus and Gwen looked at Freyja.
"That's a beautiful beautiful owl Freyja, is it yours?" asked Gwen as she watched the little Owl hand Freyja the mail.
"This... no, no, Bao is my daddy's māotóuyīng" clarified Freyja.
"Māotóuyīng?" asked Severus in confusion.
"It's owl in Chinese and the name Bao means precious" explained Gwen surprising Freyja and Severus who looked at her confused.
"Wow, that's telling, I didn't know you knew Chinese" commented Severus.
"Well yes, my father is head Auror and has the responsibility of being able to communicate with wizards and witches all over the world, so he knows several languages or the basics at least most of them, he taught me from a young age several languages as he thought they would be useful to me in the future" explained Gwen seeing the doubts in Severus and Freyja.
Severus only nodded in understanding, his mother had also made him study many books on potions and ingredients since he was a child.
"That's amazing Gwen, I didn't know you understood Chinese," said a cheerful Freyja.
"Well, it's just the basics Freyja," said Gwen a bit flustered by her friend's enthusiasm, not that she could speak the language perfectly, she could only understand various things.
"Still it's great that you know the language of my country" insisted Freyja with a big smile.
"I'm glad you think so Freyja. So, Prince, that's your Owl?" asked Gwen seeing Severus' Owl and taking the opportunity to change the topic of conversation, she didn't like to talk about her much.
"It is, beautiful don't you think?" confirmed Severus as he stroked the half brown, white, and black mottled plumage his Owl had along with bold black stripes on its chest.
"It's very big," Freyja said as she compared Severus' Royal Owl to her father's which was small in comparison.
"I must say it looks good on you, a Royal Owl matches the surname Prince, all that's missing is a name like Queen or Princess and it would look perfect," Gwen said jokingly.
"Yeah, well actually she's called Queen," Severus said with some embarrassment, it now seemed obvious to him why Hermione had proposed that name for the Owl, after hearing Gwen say that, it was obvious.
"Pfff haha, sorry, sorry, that's a beautiful name, I wasn't expecting that at all" laughed Gwen having hit him.
"Merlin, I knew I shouldn't have listened to Hermione when naming her, I'm sure she went through the same logic as Gwen and found it perfect" sighed Severus as he understood why Hermione had proposed calling her Queen, he had been fine with the name and he didn't care much either, as long as she did a good job of delivering the mail on time he was satisfied.
"Hermione, is she a friend of yours Severus?" asked a confused Freyja but still very excited to meet Severus' friends.
"That Prince, tell us who this Hermione is," Gwen said jokingly but still very intrigued, from the tone of voice Severus had used she knew she was not his mother, so she could only be a friend, girlfriend, or relative, but Gwen knew from her mother that the Prince family had no other descendants besides Severus.
"Well, Hermione is my distant cousin, but it's complicated to explain, I didn't know her until a week ago" Severus explained not knowing what else to say.
Severus still didn't quite know if Hermione was from the future or if she was really his distant cousin and everything was really just a coincidence, meeting Gwen Stacy only generated more doubts for him because he knew there was no Spider-Man or Oscorp Industries.
"Wow, a week before coming to the program, that doesn't happen every day?" said Gwen quite surprised by the fact that Severus had a distant cousin, apparently her mother didn't know all the descendants of the Prince family, but that was normal in old families.
"That's very cool Severus, it's always nice to meet family, no matter if it's distant," Freyja said with a longing face.
She wasn't allowed to meet her relatives, so she only had her parents as relatives she knew.
"Yes, well, she comes from a squib family and apparently her ancestors are also squib and for that very reason they had to separate a long time ago from the Prince family, she as a witch told me her situation and well, since then I decided to make her part of the Prince's again."
"That explains a lot of things, it wouldn't be surprising that something like that happened, the old families of Europe were always quite closed in the past and even in the present" commented Gwen.
In the magical world of the USA, these things happened too but it was not as common as in Europe, the acceptance of squibs, muggles, and demi-humans was always greater by the MACUSA along with wizards and witches in general.
Freyja did not comment or ask about this.
She already knew from her father about such things, plus she had sought more answers about it by asking Severus during the trip her doubts, so she understood the bigger picture.
"Does that mean she's a Prince now too?" asked Gwen.
"Yes, I added her to the family tree, although for now, the British ministry is not aware of all this, in fact, they don't even know about me and I prefer that for a while it stays that way" replied Severus.
"I see, I suppose it has to do with the current conflict in Britain" nodded Gwen in understanding.
"Conflict in Britain, what happened?" asked a confused Freya.
It was understandable that she didn't know, since only wizards and witches who lived in Britain really know what was going on with Voldemort.
And only a few wizards and witches who have access to more information than ordinary wizards know about the new Dark Lord.
"I heard from my father that apparently a few years ago a dark wizard emerged who has a large following terrorizing the British magical community, but as far as I know, the British minister has the situation under control, right Prince?" Gwen explained in a small way so that Freyja would understand, although the truth was that her father knew that the situation was getting out of hand for the British ministry, but she would never say that.
'Yes, of course, it's something like that' Severus nodded.
'For now' Severus said in his mind, he knew it wouldn't be long before things took a drastic turn for the worse.
Britain's only current strong supporter was Dumbledore.
"A dark wizard, like the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald ?" asked Freyja.
"No, no, Gellert Grindelwald was the most fearsome and powerful dark wizard in the entire magical world, whereas others dark wizards are just imitations who seek to use the dark arts to cause harm to others" explained Gwen trying not to scare Freyja with this information.
"Oh, okay, I understand" Freyja nodded quietly to Severus and Gwen's relief.
"By the way Gwen, your eagle is also very beautiful, this is the first time I have met someone who prefers eagles over owls" commented Severus about the bald eagle who had left Gwen's correspondence and then left the room right away, unlike the Owls who used to stay in the room for a few moments.
"Mmmm in China eagles are not allowed to be used to send letters, they are said to be too hostile to do such things" added Freyja.
"Well, indeed, it's not easy to tame, but once you do it's an extremely faithful and protective animal," said Gwen.
"Is he yours?" asked Freyja excited as she used to be whenever she discovered something new.
"Mmmm, it's my father's, he as head Auror had to follow the customs of using a bald eagle to carry his mail and over time we all in the family became attached and thus decided to send a mail with it" explained Gwen as she grabbed The New York Ghost newspaper that the eagle had dropped for her.
"I see, representing the symbol of the USA, it's understandable. I didn't know there was such a custom in the American magical community," said Severus.
"Only a few choose to follow it, that's why it's not as well known, my father is, well, he's quite formal about such things and sticks to the customs a lot" Gwen explained before settling down to read the paper.
Freyja nodded and like Gwen began to read her correspondence.
Severus had several letters, but only one mattered to him at the moment and that was from Hermione.
......Letter from Hermione..........
Dear Severus,
I hope you don't mind me writing to you so soon.
I am writing to you because I have finished the summary you asked for of all the Prince family investments along with the total value of each.
I thought you would want to have it as soon as possible so I prepared it after you left.
I am leaving the separate file labeled "Liquid Cash and Investments."
{Severus could only deny being amused as he read that. It was typical of Hermione, in the short time they had been together he could already tell she was a nut for hard work, punctuality, etc, just like the Hermione Granger of canon}.
I also wanted to thank you for the "dreamless" potions you gave me before you left, though I'm confident I can sleep without the need to use them. Don't worry, if I find I can't deal with the nightmares I promise to use them right away.
Well that's all I had to write you, if you want and it's not too much trouble I would like you to tell me a little about the program and what it's like to be in SWI, it must be something impressive, I'm dying to know the institution.
However, I will understand if this is not something you want to talk about, or if you have a lot to do in the program and don't have time for such things. No need to write again if you don't want to.
Sincerely,
Hermione.
......Fin letter......
Severus just smiled and appreciated Hermione's gesture in sending him the summary so quickly, the sooner the better for him.
Quickly Severus wrote his reply and sent it off with the Owl.
After completing the letter in response to Hermione, he went on to read the "Liquid Cash and Investments" file that Hermione had set aside in the letter.
He opened the file and flipped through the summary of the Prince account information.
He discovered that the Prince family had approximately 1,751,000 galleons in liquid wealth.
He owned 27 properties:
Old Prince Manor in Ireland: Value 77,000 gal.
Prince Manor in Great Britain: Value 350,000 gal.
Manor in France: Value 107.000 gal.
Manor in the USA: Value 84.000 gallons
Manor in Australia: Value 76.000 gallons
Potion store in the Republic of Ireland: Value 17.000 gallons
Potion store in Australia: Value 11,000 gallons
Potions store in Spain: Value 14.000 gallons
Potions Store in Great Britain: Value 18,000 gallons
Potions Store in South Africa: Value 10,000 gallons
Potions Store Canada: Value 9,000 gallons
Potions Store Argentina: Value 7,000 gallons
Potion Store Brazil: Value: 15,000 gallons
Total of the 14 houses scattered throughout the magical world: Value 73,000
Also owned 51% of the shares of the Prince Potion Factory in the Republic of Ireland: Value 487,000 gallons (51% if sold).
9 % of Daily Prophet: Value 62,000 gallons
17% of Kwikspell Compan: Value 25,000 gallons
20% Queenbee's: Value 43,000 gallons
7% GalloLoans: Value 77,000 gallons
11% Cleansweep Broom Company: Value 85,000 gallons
15% Le Son Hotel: Value 7,000 gallons
32% La Soñada Hotel: Value 21,000 gallons
24% Leaky Cauldron: Value 40,000 gallons
13% of Borgin and Burkes: Value 36,000 gallons
'Wow that's more than I expected, but taking into consideration that most magical families have most of their fortunes invested to generate silver constantly it is understandable that the liquid wealth is several times greater than the gallons that the Princes had in the bank' thought Severus when he saw the vast amount of shares and properties that he had.
All right, now I just have to decide how to continue with the investments and how to use the money left in the bank' thought, Severus.
After finishing reviewing the file and thinking about some future investment plans, Severus decided to finish dinner.
After dinner, he spent some time talking with Gwen and Freyja until he decided to go back to his dorm to rest.
