Part 9

advanced chapters:

patreon.com/FanFictionPremium

---

Headmaster's Office.

Dumbledore was thrashing around the office, not knowing what to think. The hall where the mirror had stood was trashed. The stone is gone. Quirrell was dead, and Voldemort had apparently gone to a distant land. And then there's this incomprehensible energy that wiped out all the auric imprints in the room and now it's impossible to find the participants in the battle. The Headmaster dismissed the thought, thinking it was Potter: the energy was too dark to be felt in the room, and it was possible that whoever was in there had punched the Lord, taken the stone, and left just as he had come. Questions, questions, and no answers. Of course, the stone that lay in the mirror was only a shard, the rest was in the rightful owner's possession, but Albus had lost his trump card.

The Headmaster's thoughts returned to Potter. The original plan - to bring him face to face with Voldemort - was not possible due to the absence of the main actors. Now the whole combination would have to be redone. But that's all right - there's still time.

The corridor outside the charms room.

The examinations were in full swing. The castle was full of pale pupils, from everywhere were heard exclamations *and what do we have? * how many passed? *♪ how much did you pass? ♪ * and so on.

Hermione stood quietly outside the transfiguration room. Her classmates were fidgeting and fidgeting at the door, but the girl was as calm as a sloth. Ron Weasley was frantically rereading his notes as if he really hoped it would help him. Seamus and Dean were playing tic-tac-toe.

- Granger Hermione," came from behind the door, and the girl walked in determinedly. She walked over to the free examiner where she was asked to turn a mouse into a glass. With a wave of her wand, Hermione mentally visualised the glass and recited the spell formula. Her work received surprised looks from the examiners. The glass was crystal, as it should be, but it was patterned with skulls and crossed daggers.

- Hmm, well, I'll give you an Excellent, Miss Granger, you may go. Hermione headed off to her next potions exam. On her way to the dungeons, she met Potter, who smiled welcomingly at her. Despite his certain insolence, the girl liked Mephistopheles, but she didn't know how to express her sympathy.

The potions exam consisted of brewing five potions under the supervision of Snape and the examiner. Hermione was diligently brewing 5 potions at once, while her opponents couldn't keep track of 3 cauldrons. Snape raised an eyebrow in surprise. Perhaps he should have taken a closer look at the girl, for such observation and multitasking deserved respect.

Meanwhile, Potter had passed almost all of his exams. The only hiccup was in History of Magic, where the examiners smelled a trick, as the boy described the events in great detail. They didn't know that Mephistopheles was directly related to some of them.

The Great Hall.

- Dear students, - the headmaster broadcast from the podium. - Another school year has come to an end. You have worked hard, absorbing knowledge and let's hope that at least something will remain in your heads, - grinned the old man in his beard.

- And now about the awards! First place in the faculty competition goes to Slytherin! 487 points. A round of applause for the winners," the Slytherin table cheered, and Mephistopheles waved the trophy, nearly hitting Draco's head.

- Second place went to Gryffindor with only 38 points behind," the Headmaster seemed to have taken a lesson or two from commentator Lee Jordan.

- Third place went to Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, with the same number of points, 299. - The tables buzzed, such an event was rare. Thus fuelling the students' joy more and more. The feast went on for almost 2 hours until everyone started to leave the living room to pack up their things.

- Harry, would you like to come and visit me over the holidays? - Hermione approached Potter, -We live in London, my parents would love to meet you.

- Of course, Hermie, I'll come, I just need to sort things out with the Dursleys, they won't just let me go.

- Harry, what about the stone? - Hermione whispered close to the boy's face.

- I'll keep it with me for now, it's safer. Don't worry, we're bound by oath, I'm not going to break our agreement. And you don't need him yet.

The children boarded the train, which took them further and further away from the school. Mephistopheles sat in the spacious compartment, reflecting on the journey. He hadn't seen anything serious for him. Only this Dark Lord managed to interest him a little, but the Prince would deal with him later. Right now he needed to solve the problem with money, with the guardians and with Draco. Mephistopheles didn't know exactly, but it was unlikely that the elder Malfoy wouldn't get the point.

The train arrived at the station. Harry stepped out onto the platform on the Muggle side and staggered over to Uncle Vernon's car.

- Uncle, hi, how are you? - Mephistopheles said cheerfully, climbing into the front seat.

- Don't be cheeky, lad," said Vernon, starting the engine.

- I have a business proposition for you, uncle," said Mephistopheles, shovelling gold out of his pocket. Vernon's eye twitched at the sight of the precious metal. Such wealth, and this brat has it.

- How much do you think you can get for it?

Vernon worked out the quantity.

- At least £50,000 if you sold it all at once, more if it went into private collections," Vernon said, certainly when Vernon talked about money, it was possible to have a normal conversation with him. - How much do you want out of it? - Dursle asked bluntly.

- 75%.

- It's a deal, lad," Vernon, who had cheered up a lot less, began to grumble and scolded only the drivers on the road the rest of the way.

- By the way, Uncle, my classmate invited me to stay with her, later, if you don't mind," Dursle said, waving his hand in a cheerful manner.

They drove up to the house. A couple of weeks in the summer seemed too boring for Mephistopheles. He did almost nothing, except for travelling to London to rent money and walk around the city. Here came a letter from Hermione, with an invitation. Mephistopheles was already beginning to die of boredom, even jokes about his cousin did not help.

The favourably disposed uncle, who had made a good sum of money, did not prevent Mephistopheles from doing anything, and kept his wife. Life went on as usual, and the Prince finally decided to leave. Having said goodbye to his guardians, the boy went out into the street and took a taxi and drove off in a direction he knew only to himself.

The Malfoy Mansion.

Draco sat in the armchair and kept quiet. As soon as he stepped over the threshold of the house, his father immediately jumped on him, demanding an explanation. Sure enough, an inscription had appeared on the family tapestry that the heir's life and freedom now belonged to someone other than a member of their family! An infuriated Lord Malfoy couldn't get enough information out of his son to determine the identities, but realised that they needed to be looked at. Yes, the Lord realised that Draco had two masters and they were not related. The blond Lord yelled at Draco for a couple of hours until he ran out of steam. He leaned back in his chair. What to do was unclear. If it were someone stupid, he would have demanded money or problem solving, but there was none of that. Therefore, Draco was on the hook for dangerous people, and as Malfoy had found out through questioning, they were school children, and no older than fifth year. Something had to be done, but what?

The Grainger family home.

Emma and John, Hermione's parents turned out to be peculiar people. John was a military brat, Emma owned a private clinic. Both were well off, and Hermione was generally well off. Her father enrolled his daughter in self-defence classes, which Hermione had been attending for 3 years. Mephistopheles was very surprised by this fact at the time. The fact that Hermione knew how to throw punches he had seen, but to do it like that? He was also amazed by the girl's room: it was strewn with books and science magazines, at the same time there was a punching bag in the middle of the room and a dartboard on the wall.

Mephistopheles had been a guest of the Grazers for a week now. Him and Hermione, John had been taking him hunting, and the girl's mother had been giving him a tour of her clinic. At times it seemed to the woman that there was a grown man in the boy's place, but the woman soon dismissed those thoughts.

The Grainger house, the basement.

Harry and Hermione were sitting in the basement of the house doing an experiment on the Philosopher's Stone. The mountain of gold that used to be iron filings attracted the girl's greedy eyes.

- Harry, how do we turn this into money? We're not going to go to a pawn shop with it, are we? - Hermione, of course, was excited at the prospect, but she wanted to see the end result.

- Let's go to the goblins," Mephistopheles said nonchalantly, trying to turn water into the elixir of life. - It seems to work a little harder.

- Nothing, we have plenty of time, let's go for a walk and visit the goblins, - suggested the girl and the Prince agreed. They collected the gold and headed into a diagon ally. Having successfully reached the bank, they hesitantly stopped in the hall, but Mephistopheles, as if shaking off, straightened his back and approached the nearest teller.

- Dear, can I exchange this, - he laid out the gold in front of the goblin, - for dollars? - The goblin looked at the gold for a while, as if doubting its authenticity, but then raked everything under the table and counted out $12,000 to the guys.

- Can I open a new account in your bank?

- You'd better talk to your attorney Mr Potter," Mephistopheles was not surprised to be recognised, "Hookwolf!

Another goblin walked over to them and looked at Harry. - 'Mr Potter, come into my office, we can discuss business there,' the goblin looked at Hermione questioningly, 'preferably in private.

- I trust Hermione, she can stay," Mephistopheles said and the goblin just shrugged. They walked to Hookwolf's office, which looked more like an antique warehouse than an office.

- So Mr Potter, I would like to discuss with you the financial situation of your family. The fact of the matter is that the money in your safes is lying dead weight, only spent on renting the safe and you as the only representative of the Potters can influence this.

- Don't you have to be a Lord or something to do that? - Clarified the Prince.

- No, but you can claim the title of Lord, if that's what you're interested in right now. You can control your own destiny. - At these words Mephistopheles tensed.

- What do you mean?

- That you are now essentially under the thumb of Headmaster Dumbledore. Goblins do not interfere in the affairs of wizards, unless it concerns finances, and the Headmaster took 3000 Galleons from your account every month.

- So if I accept the title...?

- You'd be financially independent, and the Headmaster would lose his legal authority over you.

- All right, so what do we do?

The goblin held out a red box. Inside was a ring, when he put it on, a wave went through the office and the whole bank was shaken to the ground. Some of the customers were distraught, but the goblins were sitting there with unperturbed faces, so everyone soon calmed down.

- Congratulations, Mr Potter, you are now officially Lord Potter. Even though it's not legally enshrined in the Ministry of Magic, you're safe now, at least the Headmaster can't legally harm you.

The children left the bank in silence. Mephistopheles was thinking about how to rebuild Potter's Manor, and whether it was worth it at all, and Hermione was pondering over the goblin's words and thinking about where to invest the money. The girl wasn't going to tell her parents about them, she was too independent. They went beyond the boundaries of the magical quarter and somehow suddenly found themselves in a back alley, a goblin was moving towards them. A classic middle-aged thug, who decided to make easy money and rob obviously poor kids. He finished his thoughts already in the morgue. Mephistopheles, annoyed at being caught unawares, simply ripped the hapless robber with his chains. Hermione didn't even flinch, only wrinkled her face in contempt.

Harry and Hermione spent the rest of the holidays travelling around London, exploring the dubious establishments of the shadowy world. Light Confundus and no one paying attention to their age. Mephistopheles did most of the sorcery since he didn't need a wand, but with Hermione there would be questions. Mephistopheles had intended to order another wand for Hermione, specially for dark deeds, but after thinking about it properly, he postponed the idea until next year. There was no hurry, and the holidays were coming to an end. The textbooks had been bought long ago, and the ingredients had been replenished. With a couple of days left until the end of the holidays, Mephistopheles said goodbye to Hermione and headed back home. The Dursleys weren't exactly overjoyed, but they didn't fight. Of course they wouldn't. The money earned from the sale of gold, which Mephistopheles sometimes sent to the Dursleys, was used to make repairs, buy a new car, and keep their uncle's mistress, which Petunia didn't need to know about.

- On the 1st of September, Vernon, taking Mephistopheles to the station, said a warm farewell to his nephew, giving him a couple of tips on investing money and on trusting all sorts of dubious personalities. Still, the fat man was a good man.

Mephistopheles, having seen the Malfoy family, activated Draco's collar out of pure hooliganism, and Draco grabbed his throat and wheezed. Lucius swivelled his head in all directions, but still couldn't see his son's master. Giggling, the Prince made his way to the carriage, where he sat down in a vacant compartment. He was soon joined by Hermione in the company of Ginny Weasley. Mephistopheles wanted to kick the redhead out, but changed his mind. It happened to him when a plan was brewing in his head, but the details were beyond his brain's reach. The train was on its way to school, the wheels were lulling, and adventure awaited the heroes.