9 Money and Artefacts*

During one of his Finance lessons, Draco suddenly had a thought.

'I should start my own company in the Magical World.'

The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea.

Right now all of his money was provided by his parents. Even in the future, when he came of age, the lord of the family would still be his father, so the control of money would still be in his father's hands. Draco would take control of the family only when he married, had an heir and proved himself.

With a great chance of the Second Wizarding War becoming reality in not so distant future, Draco felt that having his own source of money would be for the best.

That day at dinner he negotiated with his parents.

"I want to start my own company. Will you allow it, father? Mother?" asked Draco when everyone was finished with the main course and were awaiting for desserts.

"You want your own company? What brought this on?" Lucius was a bit surprised. Recently he felt that his son was too quiet, always studying or reading in the drawing-room, so he didn't know whether he should feel relief or resignation at this unexpected request.

"I had this idea during my Finance lesson. I thought, what is the use of learning all of this and not having any practical experience," Draco explained patiently. When he saw his parents' unconvinced expressions, he added, "Anyway, our family has money, so you should sacrifice some for your son's education."

Narcissa and Lucius were both speechless at Draco's self-important reasoning.

After a moment of silence, Lucius asked, "You haven't told us, what kind of company you want to establish?"

"Oh, I actually thought about it a bit. I feel that the Magical world has very ineffective communication methods, with only few places selling paired Magical Communication Mirrors. So I want to make magical mirrors with which wizards and witches can call whoever they want just by saying their name. As long as another person also has a magic mirror, they can answer the call from their end."

Draco's idea was, of course, taken from the muggle cellphones concept. Draco thought that this method of communication would be well-received, because fire-place calling was a bit exhausting - wizards and witches had to stand on their knees and put their heads into fireplace if they wanted to communicate in real time without going to each others' homes. Even not mentioning the ache that they would get after standing for a long time on their knees in an uncomfortable position, after ending such call they would also have to thoroughly clean their face as it would be black from soot.

And owl post just takes too long. Owls also have to be fed and have a space designated for them to rest and recover in.

"The idea isn't bad," Narcissa finally commented. She felt happy that her son was so mature and she wouldn't have to worry so much about him in the future. As long as Draco could learn to handle difficult situations, life would be easier for him. And if there was something he couldn't handle, well... Narcissa would make sure that nothing stood in her son's way.

Her husband thoughtfully nodded. He also felt that it was a good thing for his son to be interested in family matters.

However, Draco wasn't finished. "I hope that if you let me proceed with this idea, all of the profit that my company will generate will be mine," he said.

At his parents' pointedly raised eyebrows he very reasonably reassured: "Of course, I will return your investment first."

Draco's heart was bleeding when he was saying those words.

---

After a few days of discussions with Lucius in the study-room, Draco was allowed to do as he wished. His father agreed to use his connections and find some enchanters and arithmancers, who would help to develop a prototype of the Magical Mirror. After the first prototype was done, Draco and Lucius would once again discuss, how much investment the company would need in the initial phases.

Since Lucius would inform him when the appropriate people were selected, Draco threw the worries about his not-yet-established company to the back of his mind - he wouldn't be of much help right now anyway.

With that issue taken care of, the blond boy turned his attention to the most recent letter from Susan Bones.

Bones' family was quite famous for their talent in combat - even though they were quite average wizards when their core capacity was measured, their inherent talent turned the tables around completely. Most members of the Bones family could use spells which required a lot of magical power at lower cost, though this applied only to Light magic.

And due to their talent, most members of the family were especially successful in combat professions, just like Susan's aunt Amelia Bones, who headed muggle world's equivalent of police and justice facilities. She rose to this position through the Auror department - the equivalent of muggle police in the magical world.

Susan's father also worked in a combat profession, though not in the Ministry. He had, as Draco understood it, a bodyguard company and was well-respected in this profession. In her letters, Susan often mentioned various people, places and events which her father was commissioned to guard. In her last letter, she described a magical community - Winterfield township - where a display of various magical artifacts, which were found from all over the world, was currently held. It seemed to be a very grand event and Draco wanted to see it.

He invited his usual group of friends, which consisted of Daphne, Theo, Susan and Hannah, and arranged with them to go to the event on its last day, as that was when a mysterious artifact, which was recently excavated from an Egyptian pyramid, would be revealed. There were some rumors that even a team of the best curse-breakers, goblins and dwarves couldn't find out what this artifact could do. So, even though they have reached the conclusion that it wasn't dangerous, they couldn't display this artifact for long as its effects were unknown.