Chapter 61

Chad did not put too much thought into where he was going to be spending his Christmas holidays, other than what was needed to deal with the whole Sirius Black fiasco and dodging Dumbledore. But after his talk with Reeves, it seems a trip to Australia was now also on the cards.

The main goal he wanted to complete over the two weeks he was free from surveillance, was to test out Ravenclaw's Diadem and settle any problems he couldn't deal with while stuck at Hogwarts. But to do that, he needed test subjects, and luckily, some protesters in Australia had just volunteered.

This would save some poor unsuspecting thugs from being kidnapped off the streets to never be seen again. Not that they would really be missed as they lived a lifestyle that didn't have a whole lot of social ties willing to go to the police and report them missing.

Any friends or family would either think they were off doing something illegal and afraid of accidentally incriminating them, or going to ground to hide from the law. If they did actually ever report their disappearance, it wasn't like the house-elf kidnappers left any evidence that would trace back to Chad.

After leaving Reeves' office, Chad had Boppy teleport him over to the Godric's Hollow base which had become his main headquarters. Since he now had multiple underground vaults all over the place to stash his loot, this base held only the best of the best. Stolen wizard loot was never kept there.

Magical items taken from wizards and witches were scanned for any tracking spells before being stored in separate loot dumpsites. If there were three months of no activity, they were then moved to another dumpsite and left for another three months to make sure it wasn't just being monitored to catch the perpetrators.

Only then were they taken to permanent storage vaults or converted into gold. This safety measure had been set up so if a wizard was ever smart enough to track down something that was stolen, it would not expose Chad's main base or see him lose all of his loot. Plus, it was a way to test out how enterprising a wizard could be when it came to finding things.

The books and movies never really showed a wizard easily tracking an object unless they had a link to it. The Horcruxes, for example, could have been found easily once you had one of them if that was the case. Then again, Dumbledore didn't really want them to kill off Tom too quickly as that would have ruined his plans.

Chad still wasn't convinced that Dumbledore had actually died in canon as the withering curse did not outright kill the old man and had been contained in his arm with magic and potions for months. He could have easily cut off his arm that held all of the poison. Not to mention that it was his loyal lackey Snape that did the deed with Draco as a witness.

There were simply too many things left unexplained for Chad to take any risks by storing everything in one place and relying on wizard stupidity. But even if someone did eventually track down a dumpsite or Godric's Hollow base, they better hope they had back up!

All of his bases, temporary or permanent, were being monitored by his many elf minions. A magical race that could teleport at will and was entirely devoted to him pretty much made Chad unstoppable. He couldn't work out why any previous Dark Lord didn't take advantage of them even if they couldn't use magic against wizards. Well, other than wizards being extremely racist.

Godric's Hollow had been massively upgraded over the years, as any material ordered as a cover for the magically repaired houses he rented out was used in outfitting the base. The previous house-elf community was also forcefully upgraded, and mini elf-sized hotel rooms were built into the underground base for any elf stationed there.

Most elves now permanently resided in Australia when not on an operation as that was where all the house-elf children were raised. The original one thousand, six hundred and seventy house-elves that served him fanatically had now risen to over two thousand with the population boost thanks to him sanctioning unrestricted relationships and breeding.

Boppy had also informed him that another batch of house-elf children were ready to be bonded on his next trip to Australia. It seemed the earlier they were bonded, the healthier house-elf children were since being unbonded for extended periods eventually killed the magically symbiotic creatures.

Once Chad had finished inspecting the glittering hoard of treasure stored at Godric's Hollow, Boppy had informed him why there were mostly stacks of gold bars than piles of cash or golden Galleons lying around. And it was not because it all got spent on his many costly entrepreneurial ventures, though that certainly played a part.

It was mainly because there was a limit on how much muggle currency could be exchanged to the goblins, even if it was spread out over the many magical communities worldwide. Crystal had started buying up any gold on the muggle market to trade for Galleons instead.

Gamps law meant gold was still expensive in the magical world, as only Flamel had the ability to disregard it and permanently create gold. Leprechauns were the only other beings that could do so, but theirs reverted back to its original form after a few hours.

Not that it was common knowledge for wizards and witches, as canon had Ludo Bagman tricking many by paying off his gambling debts with it. Goblins, however, considered it highly prohibited and had ways of telling the difference.

Since Crystal had ended up sinking any spare cash into gold, there was less and less of it stored in loot sites. Since large amounts of money were troublesome to launder and deposit into banks, she ended up investing heavily into gold.

Galleons were not really a priority for Chad or Crystal since the only real expense they had in the wizarding world was buying elves and their equipment. Unfortunately, there was simply no one else willing to sell their house-elves. Even the Ministry's Office for House-Elf Relocation had been closed down from having no elves to relocate.

Pretty much all of Chad's stolen money had been invested into buying his many muggle businesses and property or used for cash payouts to new talent when signing contracts for his media company. Visionary Media Incorporated was Chad's parent company that managed his music labels, television and radio programs, movies, books and news networks.

Since it was still only 1991, there was simply to many avenues for his other world knowledge to be exploited through his media companies. Signing musical and acting talents before they caught a break, writing bestselling books or screenplays from his Occlumency enhanced memory.

Plagiarism had made Chad incredibly wealthy, and the profits were clean for him to use on anything he needed, free from an investigation by the taxman. Thank Merlin for magical quills that could automatically write the stories out from his thoughts, Auto-Answer Quills just needed to be tweaked to write a script instead of designated answers.

All in all, things were going well. As long as nothing illegal was ever traced back to Chad in the magical world, magic pretty much solved all of his problems in the muggle one. This was why wizards and witches probably became so lazy and stupid every generation.

If everything could be resolved with magic, why work hard to achieve anything? As long as the status quo was not upset, why change it? This worked fine until a Dark Lord came along and upset the balance, and quite frankly, Chad was amazed it had lasted this long!

When he met Crystal for breakfast the next day, she only reaffirmed his stranglehold on worldwide entertainment and that he needed to 'recruit' more people to manage it. The internet was also just starting to take off and Chad had ordered his minions to be the pioneers into the new digital age.

Luckily, thanks to the great work of Tooky the enslaving elf, Chad had a pool of muggle-born wizards to recruit from that could manage most of his muggle enterprises. Not only could they obliviate or charm anyone causing problems, but they could also revolutionalise movies. Even modern CGI was dogsh*t compared to magic, let alone special effects in the nineties!

Hell, since Chad had been stuck in Hogwarts and didn't want to risk getting caught leaving, he even had his magical minions pay a visit to one of the biggest names in music. The man was literally on his death bed and would pass away on the 24 November if Chad didn't order his 'recruiters' to intervene.

With nothing to lose, Freddie Mercury had signed a lifetime contract under Chad's music label on the provision that he was healed. Unfortunately, his minions couldn't cure the terminally sick man of AIDS, but the complications resulting from it had been solved with off the shelf healing potions. And Freddie was just one of the big names poached with future knowledge!

Of course, since the MACUSA were rather strict in policing the use of magic in America, Chad had not based any of his businesses there. All of the actors, bands or other talents he recruited there had been relocated to England. But things were starting to get complicated.

"The paparazzi are becoming unbearable, and our celebrities are complaining of harassment. Not to mention that the filming locations we set up are constantly being swarmed by rabid fans." Crystal informed her boss.

"What about security? Isn't that why we started up the prison release program? Reeves didn't mention anything last night when I talked to him."

"No, that has brought us a lot of positive public relations, and there have been no problems with those recruited, but there simply isn't enough of them to stop everyone with a camera. The lie detector test your wizards put them through rules out most applicants, and those that pass are spread too thin." Crystal clarified.

Chad was quiet as he thought of a solution. If it was this bad now, imagine what it would be like when everyone had a camera phone! By concentrating so many celebrities around London, he had created a mini Hollywood and all the drama that came with it, though it had boosted the popularity of his Alfheim Hotel chain.

If only there was an isolated place that could prohibit outsiders from bothering his cash cows...

"Crystal, float the idea to them about Western Australia becoming the next Hollywood, yet free from all paparazzi and crazy fans. They can film, record and work free from all interference, then return back to England or the USA for a vacation. They can sate their need for attention then, without it interfering with their performance."

"You mean to use your Kingdom as a safe haven for celebrities?" She asked in disbelief.

The whole reason her magical child boss had bought the land in the first place was to relocate his magical animals there for secrecy, surely he didn't mean for the celebs to be introduced to magic?

Seeing Crystals shock, Chad clearly saw what she was thinking by her facial expression and couldn't help but laugh.

"No, silly, that territory is for magicals only. Why else would our special effects created by magic still be kept a secret? Well, other than to blatantly rub it in the face of our competitors! No, the Australian government is posturing for war, and it will be the perfect excuse to claim some more land!" Chad told his loyal minion, the shock on her face making him laugh once again.

Crystal was starting to see more than the tip of the iceberg of her adopted child's ambitions, and it worried her a little. Luckily, she quickly accepted it thanks to her absolute love and dependence on him, she had raised him after all.

Crystal had personally seen the cruel underbelly of society and was well-read on world history. Just because the Western World like to preach about love and peace or how morally superior they were, didn't mean they still didn't start wars for profit. Hell, there were several going on all over the world right now, and nobody even cared!

'Well, at least I won't be a victim this time.' Crystal thought to herself as she hugged her little dictator, smushing his adorable face into her well-developed bosom. 'Being royalty also sounds quite nice!'