13 Queen Hedwig

[[ Merry Christmas everyone! This is my biggest chapter yet with a word count of 6.3 k words. Consider this my Christmas preset to you all. ]]

Under my tender guidance, Grimmauld Place was undergoing rapid changes. It had been two weeks since I came here, and I could state with pride that I managed to partially restore this dump to its former glory. The dour atmosphere was gone and it was decorated now with class. I buried the mounted house elf heads and moved most of the portraits to storage. The new wallpapers were bright and captivating and the dark objects were also quarantined. I remembered back to all that happened during these two weeks.

After Dumbledore dropped me here and left, Walburga's painting had started screeching at me.

"Mudbloods, filth! Begone from-" alas those would be the last words the portrait of Walburga Black ever spoke. I had no intention to play nice with this damned portrait and therefore, summoned Hirudo and slashed at the air.

Several overpowered cutting curses, empowered with Hirudo's cursed attribute flew at the portrait. Within the blink of an eye, the portrait was shredded and all that was left were deep gashes on the wall. The last few curses were lacking a bit on power though. I suppose the blade needed more blood to replenish its power.

I then turned towards Kreacher, who was looking at me with newfound fear in his eyes.

"Kreacher. I command you to keep my secrets at all costs and never reveal them to anyone until I give you explicit permission. Am I clear?"

He hesitated for a long time, but he could not resist, "Yes master," he croaked with a lot of reluctance. I did not like doing this, but until Kreacher became trustworthy, I needed to ensure that he did not spill my secrets to Bellatrix and Narcissa.

"Good, now tell me about the mission Master Regulus gave you," he looked at me in astonishment, and then began to wail and recite his tale. At the end, I asked where the locket was, and he said that he still had it. Fantastic, looks like Mundungus did not get to it yet. I remember that he nicked stuff after Sirius's death and then continued raiding this place after every order meeting. I would need to deal with him soon.

"I know how to destroy it Kreacher. But first, do we have any spare wands lying around?" he nodded enthusiastically.

Kreacher then took me to the basement, and pointed towards a wall. I raised an eyebrow and he fidgeted nervously.

"Only the master of the house is permitted," he croaked. I did not remember anything like this being in canon. Nor did I remember this from the memories I got.

"What is behind this wall?"

"The treasury and the ward room, master."

A treasury? But Sirius had already given me an insane amount of money from his vault. I sent out a few detection charms at the wall and also used the eye based revelio to observe the wall. There were a lot of charms layered on the wall, and I realized that there was an identification charm placed on it.

"Blood or magic?" I muttered.

"Blood master," Kreacher said. Well, why think too much when you know the answer.

I looked at the wall and saw that there was a black family coat of arms engraved on it. I pricked my finger and pressed it on the engraving. Subsequently, the drop of blood got sucked into the wall and the portion of the wall with the sigil swung inwards.

I stepped into the hallway, wand out and a spell at my lips. From experience, I knew that this house was teeming with dark creatures and artefacts, who knew what was lurking here.

There were two doors in front of me. I looked back and saw that Kreacher was standing outside.

"Can you come inside if I called for you?" he nodded and then I motioned him to come. The moment Kreacher stepped in, the walls glowed for a moment and then returned to their original state. I looked around skeptically and walked towards the two doors which were on the either side of the hallway. The corridor ended near the doors and there was nothing else to look over here.

Both the doors had metal plaques denoting their designation. I felt it prudent to inspect the wards before I set foot into the treasury and got cursed. I asked Kreacher if there was any risk in going inside the ward room and he said that since I was the master, it shouldn't be an issue. He was still reluctant to serve me, but I could see that the last order of Regulus was weighing down on him and he would do anything to finish it.

I let out a whistle as I entered the ward room. It was unlike anything I had seen in either lives. The walls, floor and the ceiling were engraved with runes and at the center of the room was a plinth, made of an exquisite crystalline material. The plinth was glowing a deep violet, and the runes in the room pulsed with the same color.

Atop the plinth was a heavy book with a pitch black binding. The moment I went near it, it sprung open to the latest page. There was a pitch black quill on the page, and there were a list of names written on it. Beside each name were the dates when they claimed ownership and the date they died. There was also a circular, blood red mark, which was the same color as the names written.

Arcturus Black, Orion Black, Walburga Black. These were the last three names on the book. I wondered why Sirius was not included here. I asked Kreacher, who was standing outside the room, saying that no other magical being should be inside while claiming ownership. He said that Sirius hated everything about this house and did not want to claim full control despite being the master, just like I was right now. And I knew for a fact that the order placed a lot of faith on Dumbledore's Fidelius.

That won't fly with me. This was my place now. There was no way that I was going to just rely on a Fidelius which did not have a trustworthy person as a secret keeper. I picked up the quill and noticed that there was a tiny needle right above the nib.

I immediately understood what needed to be done. I pricked my finger once more and dropped a drop of blood in the empty line right below the other marks. I dipped the quill on the drop and wrote my name. The date of claim automatically appeared next to my name and the plinth immediately started pulsing brightly. The wards started resonating with the plinth and the book started glowing with a similar light.

My name and the drop of blood on the paper shone brightly as a massive influx of magic started invading me. I could feel that it was not harmful and let it in. There was a force that settled on the precipice of my mind. I probed into it and found that it was the information that was being transmitted to me from the book. I let it all in and gasped at the sheer amount of information that was dumped on my brain.

I now knew each and every single protection that was on the house. I also knew the current occupants and their positions. I could control the spells laced on each and every single room, and also gained access to the treasury and the grimoire inside it. I let out a toothy grin and straightened myself. Sirius had done me another massive favor by giving me ownership to this place. The ward work was exquisite and I hated to think that it was all wasted away like this. I immediately pulled on my magic and commanded the house to activate some of the protections that were dormant.

Right now, only the unplottable charm and the intent based wards were active. Within minutes, various protections came to life. I could feel the Fidelius charm on the house, but I had no control over it yet because it was not anchored to the stone like the other protections. And since Sirius gave his permission for it, it was accepted by the house as a non-threatening ward. I really needed to learn runes and enchantment soon.

I could feel the boggart and the pixies littered around the upper floors. I could even feel a lot of dark artifacts, and the darkest of them all was the horcrux. It felt like a presence, but at the same time, it felt incomplete, unlike a living creature. Voldemort had masked it well. If I didn't know that it was a horcrux, I would have just thought that it was an artefact imbued with a person's magic, something like the portraits, just more sinister.

The protections sprung to life and I could feel the boggart and the other minor unwelcome entities being forcibly expelled out of the residence. Could have done this last year instead of manually waging war against the house under the leadership of Molly Weasley.

Sirius was right though, his family was a paranoid bunch. I looked at the anti thievery wards and chuckled, thinking about what would happen to old dung the moment he tried to exit this house with a nicked heirloom. He already stole from me and it comes to an end now. What's mine is mine and mine… Did I just channel Larfleeze now? God help me. Sirius's room was intact, so Snape had not come snooping. And since I was living here now, as opposed to before, he wouldn't get a chance to do so. I remember how he tore apart the room and found the letter from my mother. He then tore just the part that said 'Lots of love, Lily' and ran off with it. Creep. I did not know how to deal with him yet, given that I could possibly use him for information that I was sure he was keeping from Dumbles. Because of his impeccable occlumency, he needed a subtle approach which I would need to think about. Right now I did not want to deal with the guy.

As I exited the ward room, Kreacher bowed in front of me, without hesitation this time. I then opened the door of the treasury and froze in place at the sight in front of me.

It was a humongous room stacked with trunk upon trunk of what I knew to be money. From what I understood from the wards, each trunk was laced with lethal spells and the whole room was full of deadly traps. In fact, Kreacher was right in that only the master was permitted into this hallway. Anyone else who tried to come here would meet a gristly end.

I opened a few of the trunks and saw that they were filled to the brim with galleons and sometimes, plain gold ingots. Some were filled with jewels and gemstones while others had family heirlooms. I asked Kreacher why this was not inside a vault, and he told me that the Blacks did not trust anyone and that they kept a portion of their wealth with themselves in case the goblins decided to revolt.

The protections for this room alone was good enough and I could not question their logic. I then moved towards the shelf with the wands and started picking them up one by one. There were not many wands here and I hoped that I could find one that matched me. I didn't want to perform certain spells on my official wand just in case it was put under scrutiny. None of these wands seemed to let go of their severed bonds and find a new master. Understandable, of course. There was a reason most witches and wizards were buried with their wands. The ones that were kept here were those whose masters' bodies were not found, those who were disowned and were thrown out without their wands and those who died in wizarding prisons. After a long time, I finally found a wand that connected to me.

To my astonishment, the connection was even greater than my Holly wand. It made sense thought. I had not noticed it due to my increased magic and the ease of learning, but there ought to be some amount of disconnect since I was technically not the same person whom the wand chose initially. But I would still use it as my main publically for now due to it being my registered wand. Not to mention the Priori Incantatem advantage against Riddle. I knew that it was illegal to carry multiple wands on a person due to stupid ministry regulations, so I had to hide the wand well. I suppose I should spend some time in figuring out how Hirudo's tattoo works, and place my wand inside something similar.

The wand belonged to Belvina Burke, née Black, Phineas Nigellus Black's daughter. The folded paper under the wand said that it was her second wand, after the first one broke. And unlike most other wands here, it was kept in storage because she was incredibly fond of it and wanted a worthy person to wield it after she died. Apparently she felt that it was too elegant a wand, to be buried.

I agreed wholeheartedly with her. It was twelve inches, aspen with a White River Monster spine core. The wand was shaped like a sai, with two tiny side guards and a pointy end. The handle of the wand was carved with an intricate pattern. The shaft itself was sleek and had engravings of fishes swimming in a pattern around the wand. The white and fine grained texture of the wood meshed well with the design. She purchased it from the wandmaker Thiago Quintana during her travels in America. It stated that Quintana had a flair for making sleek and intricate designs with his trademark single spine from the White River Monster from Arkansas. The only difference in his wands were the wood and the designs themselves.

Aspen wood wands were highly suited for martial magic and were often sought out by duelists. The secretive dueling club, The Silver Spears only admitted those with these wands. The White River Monster core was said to produce spells of force and elegance. Together, these components made for a potent wand. I cast a patronus and noticed the increased ease with which the magic flowed through the wand. I then pocketed the wand and walked out of the treasury. I would come later to peruse the grimoire. Right now, there were things to be done.

After Dobby's pleas, I hired Winky as well and tasked the three elves to clean this house. I asked him if there were other elves that I could recruit, but apparently elves try to find employment immediately after getting freed and most of them go to Hogwarts if they couldn't find jobs. Winky was kind of an outcast there because of all the drinking, so she was willing to come to me. If I needed more, I would need to purchase some from Knockturn. But apparently the market was not that free flowing because of the war and the ministry was placing restrictions on people without permits. I asked him to keep an ear on things just in case.

The first thing was to get rid of the mess I made in the main hallway. After that, Dobby and Winky went out to clear various rooms while I accompanied Kreacher to an open field quite a ways away from the city. I placed several protective charms around the place with the Aspen wand. I then ordered Kreacher to mask the magical signature just in case. He then placed the locket on the ground and stood a few steps behind me.

It was time to test my theories about the entrance to the chamber. I summoned a snake using my third path and commanded it to open the locket. As the snake was doing that, I switched to fourth path at once and pointed my wand at the locket. I couldn't harm the diadem because I did not have basilisk venom and I did not know fiendfyre. The same applies even now. But I did use the second path while I was possessing the death eater, and I learnt something which, under the scrutiny of the second path revealed a lot more than what the death eater knew.

The killing curse severed the soul of a living being and even though the horcrux was not technically living, it was housing a soul. The curse would blast inanimate objects while it did not leave a mark on living beings; except me of course. I got the scar the first time due to the activation of the protection and the second time due to the conflict between the shared blood and the blood protections. This object, on the other hand had no such protections. It just had the standard resistance of a horcrux along with compulsion charms and agitation charms.

As the smoke began to take shape above the locket, I paid it no heed and shot the killing curse on the locket. With the power backed by the fourth path and the mastery gained due to my previous usage of the second path, the spell tore apart the locket and sprayed its chunks all around the place. The screaming shard of Voldemort scattered and dissipated as I let out a breath of relief. I would need to master fiendfyre for combat soon, but I had a surefire way of dealing with a horcrux now.

I then summoned all the broken pieces and left the place, in case someone came to investigate. Once back home, I cleansed the pieces with the boost that the fourth path provided. After that, I mended the locket together and made a copy. I gave the copy to Kreacher and instructed him to keep it out of Dumbledore's sight. I then placed the original inside my trunk, along with the clandestine gear.

Now, Dumbledore would guide me through the ring. I could potentially find the diadem and tell him about it or just take care of it myself and not tell him anything. He would soon die anyway, why waste his time with this while he could be actually training me. I could try to preserve the enchantments on the diadem, but my second path does what the diadem does anyway. I would need to scan it and see if it was worth it or not.

My OWL results arrived next day and they were the same as canon. I would need to think about how to proceed with regards to my education. It was not like I needed to attend classes to learn. The best teacher in the world was lodged in my right eye after all. But it would be better to learn the stuff that Dumbledore knew. The battle in the ministry proved beyond a doubt that he was a skilled magician. Skilled beyond all the posers running around this place. To learn from him, along with the assistance of the second path would make me stronger.

Once I got my OWLs, I went to Gringotts and collected the grimoire along with the muggle credit card. I placed the grimoire inside the treasury and then went to the muggle world to undergo the final fitting for my suits.

After that, I got into a routine. There were a couple of training rooms on the upper floors, which I put to judicious use. I transformed one of them into a muggle gym, with purchases made with Dobby's help. I barred access to everyone to the upper floors and the order could only use the dining room, the drawing room, and a few quarters in the first floor.

The chaperone assigned to me was Tonks, which was a great thing. She was out most of the day due to her job and the order duties. We interacted only during dinner and that too was not awkward because she was relatively young and we already had a good rapport. Thankfully, I did not have a nutjob like Moody in the house or blundering fools like Dedalus Diggle roaming about. They only came for meetings and left after that. The aftermath of the first meeting, in particular was very memorable.

The week after I moved in, I was in my room, leafing through my grimoire, as the wards alerted to me that a trap had been sprung in the dining room. I smiled and walked downstairs to see that half of the order was on their way out while the others were still inside the dining room. On the doorway of the dining room was a chained Mundungus Fletcher, who was squirming against the bindings. Dumbledore was looking at me with a twinkle in his eyes while Snape was scowling as usual. Presumably remembering my late father and godfather.

"Can you explain what happened my boy?"

"What happened is that this piece of shit was stealing from this place," none of them seemed to be shocked. This was expected behavior it seems. Which just pissed me off because they were not keeping their pets under leash.

I looked at Mundungus and scowled, "Kreacher told me that you already nicked some stuff. Do you have no shame, stealing from someone who has not even been dead for a full month?" I held up my hand as he was trying to say something, "I want what you stole back. You have one day," I said as I summoned back what he nicked now and then clicked my fingers. The wards forcibly ejected him out of the house as he was screaming in terror.

"Keep your pawns under control or I will let some of the rather unsavory wards do their thing," I told him as I walked towards the staircase.

"Does your arrogance knows no bounds Potter? Do not presume that you hold any semblance of control over here," barked his favorite attack dog.

Fuck subtlety, his voice was grating in my ears. I will show him control. Without responding, I just snapped my fingers again as Snape was thrown out of the house. I loved these wards. I suppose he will vehemently deny that he squealed like a little girl when he flew out. Hmm, I think the memory of this event would sell very well. I would need to contact the Weasley twins. Meanwhile, everyone was looking at me with a shocked expression. Moony in particular, who was supposed to be moving to the werewolf packs was on the verge of breaking down in peals of laughter.

"With all due respect, I did give a warning." I deadpanned. Dumbledore sighed and rubbed his temples with his good hand.

"I will speak to Severus my boy. Please… refrain from such outbursts. We have much more important things to be doing."

I just shrugged and walked back to my room. I could hear Molly Weasley shouting something at Dumbledore. Since that was not my problem, I beat a hasty retreat and silenced my room.

In these two weeks, I also wrote to Susan and we decided to postpone the training for these two weeks because she was also buys getting things in order while her aunt was still recovering. We decided that we will train next month, and once August was over, we would continue the training in Hogwarts. I made a list of the people I wanted for my faction and planned on including them in these sessions.

Thankfully, Ron and Hermione had not disturbed me much and had left me alone like I wanted. They visited me a couple of times using the floo and when Ron found out that I was studying and training a lot, he wanted none of it. Ginny had accompanied them, but I completely ignored her and just kept doing what I was doing. She also stopped coming after a while. Hermione was intrigued by the Library and I gave her access to it, making sure that she did not touch any of the cursed books. She spent most of her days here reading before leaving in the evenings. All in all, the two weeks were well spent.

Right now, it was a day before my birthday and I had just taken delivery of the bespoke suits. One of my plans had finally come to fruition and my account manager told me that we were ready to proceed. This plan was a result of my lack of information. The summoned animals were in danger of being noticed by Nagini and they also dissipated when I ran out of magic. For short term spying, they were great, but for long term, I needed a better information network, and that is what this plan was all about.

Tonks was at her job and the portrait of Phineas could not spy on me as I left an illusion of myself holed up in the Library. I still hadn't interacted with him, but I knew that he would be helping Dumbledore keeping an eye on me.

I donned a pinstriped suit and took the floo to the Leaky Cauldron after lacing myself with an illusion. My Holly wand was strapped to the holster on my right arm while the Aspen wand was strapped to my left shin. I studied Hirudo's tattoo, and I could understand a bit. But I needed more knowledge about runes and enchanting in order to make it work for the wand. For now, I just hid the second wand under a strong illusion and went on my way.

I was half an hour early for my meeting and I knew where to spend the time at. I saw my targets and removed the illusion for a second and reapplied it.

"Harry!"

"You absolute legend, look what we made from that memory you mailed us!" I grinned as I entered the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Once again, canon had underplayed how amazing this store was. Especially with the dour atmosphere that had settled around Diagon, this store was a beacon of happiness. If I had to introduce someone to magic, I would take them to this shop first. In a way, I was self-promoting, but the twins had truly done a marvelous job.

There were various trinkets and joke items lined up on the cupboards while many kids were trying out the products on display. I followed the twins to a shelf where a line of new toys were on display. I burst out laughing when I saw what their latest product was.

The shelf was lined with bat figurines with Snape's head. Fred picked up one of them and held it in front of me.

"Ten points from Gryffindor!" it squeaked as it began to fly around us. I couldn't control myself as I started laughing yet again.

"Silence dunderheads!" A crowd had formed around us and everyone was laughing their guts out.

"And now for the masterstroke," said Fred as he snapped his fingers. The toy immediately released a shrill shriek as it was magically flung to the wall.

"We used the memory as an inspiration and kept the finger snap as a trigger," announced a grinning George. He then leaned towards me and said, "We added what the muggles called an easter egg as well. Pick one up and say Marauders greet Snivellus."

I did just that and the greasy hair caught on fire as the toy started flailing around, howling obscenities and deducting points from Gryffindor.

"Brilliant! How goes the other one?" I asked and they lead me to the back office.

"We are still developing it, the ministry order for the shielded accessories is taking most of our time," said Fred.

"If we knew that you had such ideas, we would have added your name to the store as well instead of just considering you as the silent partner. The new marauders! Has a nice ring to it," said George.

I chuckled and shook my head, "I'm happy with being the silent partner." They contacted me last week and tried to pay me back for my help, but I said that I would rather be their partner and offered them more money to keep up with their work. The profit from the business and the sheer versatility of their products was worth every penny I invest on them. I had also given them a list of ideas for prank items based on the muggle world. They were working on magical variants for those.

"So, what brings you here, and how did you escape your minders?"

"Gringotts business. And well, nobody was home so, technically I did not disobey them or anything," I smirked.

"This didn't seem like a transfiguration, the disguise just appeared. How did you do it Harry?" I believe they were already thinking of products that could incorporate this.

"Illusions. I will later send you some material about it," I had picked up a few books from the Black library which were about illusion magic. It was not as potent as the first path of mine, but as I read it with the second path, as was the norm for books now, the second path allowed me to think of ways where I could combine illusion spells with the first path and move towards the next stage of the illusions. I still needed to improve the potency of the path itself through practice, nonetheless.

We then chatted for a while and then I picked up some Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder and Decoy Detonators. I had already learned about incorporating the shields on the clothes from them, so I would have to later enchant my suits. We then went over some emergency procedures and I gave them a couple of portkeys in case they needed a hasty retreat. We were gearing up for an owl order delivery model which would take off once the war picked up and we had no other option but to shut down the location. It was still a ways away, but preparation never hurt.

When the time for the meeting came, I bid them adieu, reapplied my illusions and walked towards Gringotts. Once inside, I ensured that the illusion was not projected to the goblins.

"Your request did take a bit of time, but we succeeded in purchasing both the offices," my account manager said as I entered his office.

I grinned and handed him a paper authorizing his commission, "Double the commission, for my privacy," I stated bluntly.

"As you requested, the documents were expedited. Unless someone digs into it, they will not even notice it. You will need to have a discussion with the senior employees though. But even then, the business is such that it respects privacy. There are contracts that bind the employees and you as the owner as well, so it's not like this approach would matter much."

"Still couldn't go with the pseudonym huh?"

"The wizarding population is too small for fake papers to work effectively. You would have to do with the contracts with the employees. Now, they are all gathered at the branch office at Carkitt Market."

"Even the employees from the headquarters at Hogsmeade?" He nodded. I then finished signing all the documents and got up.

"Thanks a lot, Gornuk," I discreetly handed him the portkey I had prepared and then left the building. I knew that Gornuk would flee once Voldemort took over the ministry. He would then die at the hands of the snatcher team led by Greyback. I could not outright tell him about the future. But I made a tentative business deal with him which ensured that he had a place to go if he went on the run.

Initially, it was hard for me to breach the topic. To my good fortune, he was interested in the verity of the statements that the Daily Prophet had been spewing. I did not explicitly state that I was the chosen one, but I implied that there was a grain of truth to the rumors. He was a smart fellow, he knew what would happen if Voldemort rose to power and he already had plans in place. But what I offered him was sanctuary. And now that he knew that I had an important role to play in the war, he shoved neutrality the middle finger and started helping me with my plans subtly. In addition to this, since I moved my vault to the highest security clearance, the goblins had obfuscated all records relating to their employees which handled my account. External sources like the Ministry could not use the treaty to snoop into my affairs. The lack of this protection in canon was mostly what set him on the run.

Carkitt Market was a side street connected to Diagon via Horizont Alley. I used the intersection of Horizont Alley and slipped into Carkitt Market. Horizont Alley connected Diagon, Knockturn and Carkitt. I wondered why these areas were not included in the books and were added to the lore later on. As I was about to enter my destination, Hedwig swooped on from the rooftops and landed on my shoulder. She was under an illusion, just like me.

"Right on time girl," she sent a blast of affection through our connection and nipped my ears as she prepared herself for what was ahead. I could feel the determination rolling off of her in waves. I confirmed with the teller that only the employees were present as I undid the illusion on me. I asked him to gather everyone in a meeting room and asked him where the area for our non-human employees was.

Once I got the information, I walked towards the designated room.

"I know you will do it girl. Make me proud," I said as I entered the room. Hundreds of eyes turned towards me the moment I stepped foot inside.

"They're all yours," I smirked as Hedwig took off my shoulder with a loud screech. I left the room and closed the door behind me. I had no doubts that by the end of my meeting, Hedwig would take control over all the owls here.

I had purchased both the branch office in Carkitt Market and the Headquarters of the Owl Postal Service in Hogsmeade. The contracts established during the conception of this organization ensured that I would not violate the privacy of the clients. It extended to the employees too. But the contracts did not touch the owls in any way. And that was my loophole. By the end of the day, I would visit the Hogsmeade office as well and unleash Hedwig on the owls there.

Due to our new bond and her newfound strength, Hedwig was the strongest owl there was. When I was devising a plan for gathering information, she was the one who inspired me towards this idea as she snatched the Daily Prophet from the post owl and gave it to me. I could not use the third path to connect with these owls because they were not my summons, but Hedwig could talk to them and send me whatever information was necessary. Many post owls were prideful, but I understood that if Hedwig manages to set up a hierarchy, their pride will be aligned towards the new goals of their community. She would ensure that.

Nobody looked twice towards post owls and everyone allowed them inside their homes. The daily prophet and many other businesses had contracts with this postal service for their day to day business. And since most shopkeepers switched to the owl order system, the owls would just pervade through every household. I had placed an order to the Owl Emporium for several owls which I would not use for delivery at all and would be purely used for the purpose of spying. I had taken the blueprints for the Extendable Ears from the twins and was working on a long distance wireless model. If the owls managed to plant them in strategic locations, I would know everything the Death Eaters would be planning. That one was still a ways away, but for now, I would use the information gathered from the owls.

The meeting was just a normal one where I informed them that I just took over the business because I saw the potential for the growing business during these tough times and that I would not interfere in their operations. They were glad to know that I was not messing with their smooth system and that I would be installing better protections on the offices.

At the end of the day, when I crashed onto my bed, I smiled in happiness that one facet of my plan was finished smoothly. Hedwig was now the leader of all the owls belonging to the Owl Postal Service. The Hogsmeade owls already knew her since she often flew around the area when I was in Hogwarts, so it was easier for her to establish dominion over that office. She proudly projected memories where certain owls had challenged her, but she had managed to prevail and bring them all to heel.

She nipped my ear and flew off, presumably to carry someone's birthday gift to me. Despite the long time it took to establish my ownership over the business, the plan was executed smoothly. Hedwig was the best familiar I could ask for.

Alas, if I knew what would happen soon, I would have cursed the bureaucracy and wished that this system was in place some time ago.