The Order of Merlin

// THIS IS AN OLD CHAPTER. THE NEW CHAPTERS ARE IN VOLUME 2. YOU CAN READ THESE CHAPTERS IF YOU WANT SOME INSIGHT ON WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN LATER BUT SOME EVENTS CAN BE DIFFERENT BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW CHAPTERS.

Two days after receiving my gifts, a letter arrived, a big ceremony was going to take place to give me the medal of the Order of Merlin third class for the creation of the magiphone and the indispensable place it now occupied in the wizarding world.

It would take place this Saturday, one day before the Hogwarts Express brought back the students who returned home for the holidays.

I have not enough time to prepare myself, I have to write a speech, remember the names of most of the important employees of the ministry, revise my dance steps for the big party which will be held immediately after. In short, no time to be lazy.

When the day of the ceremony arrives, I put on my new wizard costume I bought from Twilfitt and Tatting's, it is Dumbledore who Apparates us to my house. We go up the steps leading to the porch and I open the door with my keys. My parents are waiting for us in the living room.

"Ho Sean, what have you done to your hair! And your eyes!" My mom is on the verge of a panic attack when she sees me come into the house.

"Hi Mom, I just wanted to change my look? Looks good on me, right?"

"But you had such beautiful golden hair. Okay, everything is fine, we really need to get going."

"Hello Albus." My aunt finally reminds my mom that we have a guest.

"Amelia how are you dear? I was planning to go with Sean today if you don't mind. It's not every day that one of my students receives Merlin's order." Dumbledore is all smiles when he speaks to my aunt and seeing that no one seems to want to attack him in the room I take it he didn't tell them about the latest incident with the Dementors.

"Why not, you are a Commander of the Order of Merlin, that will look good on the next article in the Daily Prophet." My dad is right, but I don't know who will be highlighted the most in the article, me or Dumbledore.

We Apparate in front of Fudge's mansion, he is the one who will preside over the party in my honor as well as the presentation of my new title. Many guests are already present, almost all the members of the Order of Merlin are there as well as the Lords of the noble families.

As we go through the door to arrive in the entrance hall, many people come to congratulate me, shake my hand or even flatter my parents in the hope of scraping crumbs from the enormous amount of money our businesses achieve this year. We are already in the third generation of magiphone and my mother has started to discreetly increase the prices of this device, which has become essential in the daily life of wizards. Originally the price was only 5 Galleons for everyone to own one, but now it has just climbed to 10 Galleons, I think in two generations when I would start working on the touchscreen for these, I could increase the price to 50 Galleons or even more without shocking anyone.

But what few people know is that the profits from this invention were almost entirely used to buy other businesses around the world, including some of the major suppliers of raw materials for wizards, magical creature farms and logging operations, greenhouses of magical plants… Five percent of the world's production of magical materials belongs to the Bones family, which is enough to make people envious.

There is a small reception while waiting for the start of the award ceremony during which the servants go from guest to guest to offer them cups of champagne. The funny thing is, they didn't have anything planned for the younger guests in the room. Several of my friends are also here and I'm guessing they are bored to death. The Potters are present as well as the Weasleys who wear patched costumes in several places, Neville and his grandmother, Blaise and his mother, .... I don't really have time to go and say hello, my parents hold me close to them so that I continue to shake hands and make conversation with all the dignitaries.

Dumbledore also stayed with us, from time to time putting his hand on my shoulder when some of his friends introduced themselves. What's wrong with him?

We hear the tolling of a bell and all the guests approach a platform installed at the back of the room. Fudge is standing in front of a desk.

"My dear friends, I am delighted to see you gathered on this day for an extraordinary occasion, it is rare to see someone decorated with the Order of Merlin and even more rare to see someone so young receiving this honor, and yet his invention forever change the face of our world, I'm sure you all have one of it in your pocket. " The room laughed out of politeness. "I ask you to make a triumph for our new member of the Order of Merlin, third class, Sean Nathanos Bartolomue Bones! "the crowd moves away leaving me a passage to go on the stage, Fudge leaves me his place in front of the lectern.

"Thanks to all of you for the great honor you do me today. When I think back it all started from a simple project to replace our owls, they are slow, they are filthy, they sometimes get lost. I'm not the first to have wanted to change the situation, a good example of this will improve things are the memos which are still used today for official documents. I see my invention as the last creation of this will and I am proud to be the heir to this line of wizards who wanted to change things, thank you. " I step aside to the applause of the crowd. They may well applaud; it took me two days to find this speech modest but not too much either.

"This is a beautiful speech; I now have the honor to present you the medal which accompanies your new title." A servant comes forward carrying the medal on a small red cushion, he grabs it and hangs it on my waistcoat. "However, another gift awaits you today Sean. Mr. Percival Stilfrog, here present, is the proud owner of the Chocolate Frog Factory as well as the publisher of the famous wizards and witches' cards. And to celebrate the incredible ascension of the youngest member the Order of Merlin has ever recruited. He offers you a limited edition of your own wizard card plus ten other regular copies that you can gift to your friends! "

I see Neville, Ron and Harry drooling with envy, I think I know who's going to run into me as soon as I get off that platform. In the meantime, the journalists take pictures of Fudge and me next to each other, some asking us to pose or shake hands in order to have a better image.

Once the awards ceremony was over, all that was left was the ball given in my honor and since I was the star of the evening, it was up to me to open the ball with my more or less imposed date out of respect for her family, Daphne.

We agreed at the start of the second year to show our disagreement with the arranged marriage and to show ourselves cold and distant during this kind of event. Well, I was more eager to show our reluctance than her. That's why we danced without ever smiling or touching each other, it gave the audience a somewhat strange result.

When the twelve strokes of midnight sounded my parents decided it was time to go home, Susan and I will have to go back to Hogwarts tomorrow after all.