Ch16. Wizarding Britain in chaos 2

It was an early evening and Dumbledore was sitting in his office, sucking Lemon Drops laced with calming draught. He didn't take these from the bowl on his table though. Instead, he had them stashed in the first drawer in the table. After all, the bowl was enchanted to give him, and only him, a slight zap if he ever forgot himself and tried to take a Lemon Drop from there. It wouldn't do, to take them from there. They were laced in loyalty, truth compulsion, and calming potion, after all. Oh, he didn't mind being even more loyal to himself. Not at all. What he minded though was the truth compulsion!

'Ah, how long has it been, since I last told the whole truth!' Dumbledore thought oddly satisfied with himself, pride swelling in his chest at that feat. 'And yet, everybody follows this grandpa! Ho-ho-ho-ho!'

It might be helpful to mention, the calming draught shouldn't be taken in big amounts nor regularly for it can cause mental problems. But our resident Chief Warlock was never one to read warning statements on the cover, now, was he?

"Harry Potter will soon start at Hogwarts and my plan can finally begin, right Fawkes?" Dumbledore mused, his expression then soured as he gave a sad sigh. "I just hope young Harry forgives me. After all, it's all for my Greater Good!" He started to laugh as he mirthfully stroked his beard.

The fabled leader of light looked at the trinkets monitoring the Potter boy and hummed in satisfaction. Oddly enough, since Hagrid's visit, the health monitoring charm is showing improvements, he must admit, he was never really interested in this particular trinket. He often overlooked it. He is Chief Warlock, the Headmaster of Hogwarts and Supreme Mugwump! He has no time to monitor the health of a pawn he plans to eventually dispose of! Dumbledore just guessed Dursleys were afraid and started to treat the boy better. He was glad the boy would come to Hogwarts soon. It wouldn't do for him to experience being treated well by Dursleys. Not at all. Maybe a hate-inducing permanent ward? Hmm, a thought for later, perhaps?

He then shifted his gaze to the right, watching the Blood Ward monitoring trinket, happily noting it is working as it should. While these wards will surely cripple young Harry's magic because of the overexposure to them, they were necessary to ensure he will survive the treatment at Dursleys in one piece. His only grievance was he couldn't install a feature alerting him when young Harry leaves the house.

His gaze shifted further right and he frowned. There was a trinket to monitor the whereabouts of young Harry. The trinket showed Harry is in London. Dumbledore mused if perhaps Dursleys decided to make a trip there but quickly dismissed his worries. After all, what could an eleven years old boy do to foil his plans? The sheer thought was ridiculous at best! And even then, the Dursleys would never let a freak roam by himself in fear he will 'summon demons'!

Dumbledore suspected his calm and peaceful mood was partly due to the calming draught but decided to just lean back into his comfortable chair and pop another Lemon Drop into his mouth.

"All is going well indeed. Now if only Tom wasn't such an unruly child." He idly commented. "Alas, after his defeat at my hands, my authority would be undeniable and I would be finally able to set my plans in motion. Even those filthy dark families will have to listen to my orders! Ho-ho-ho."

Fawkes the phoenix thrilled chirpingly in reply, happily resenting Dumbledore from his very core. Fawkes was but a small birdie when the bony old bearded bastard found him. He remembers it well, that he does! The big bad bearded wizard towered over his new small pitiful but gorgeous self… a tear almost slipped from his eye as he reminisced, making him quickly swipe it from his eyes with his wing.

From there it was a rollercoaster. He can't be manipulated by compulsions, he definitely can't! He is a proud phoenix, that he is! No wanky lanky snarky lying old deranged man can play with his mind! But… even then, he is bound to the man with a dark ritual, that he is…

Unless someone destroys the amulet in the lowermost hidden drawer that was used as a medium to bind him, he will never be free! A pity he can't just burn the entire office down.

Fawkes tried to hold his tears in, not wanting to give even one more phoenix tear to the goat-preferring human. He will never understand what is so good about those wooly creatures that the human who enslaved him prefer on them over him. Fawkes suspected it had to do something with the human's past lover. Grinde-, or something.

Nevertheless, even the ugly overgrown bat that spends much of his time inside his captor's nest nowadays is better than them! Fawkes never liked the ugly stinking bat. Not because he is rotten to the core and childish. No. Phoenixes despite the rumors give a crow's shit about the goodness of the heart when choosing who to bond with. He hated him for trying to act cool in front of him! What is with those billowing robes! He will never be as glorious as Fawkes when he ruffled his feathers! Stupid imitator!

As Fawkes yet again lost himself in complaints aimed at humans, Gringotts owl entered the office carrying a letter for the Head of House Dumbledore, condescendingly hooting at Fawkes, making him return a scoffing screech, before flying away with style.

Albus took the letter with childish excitement, expecting yet another increase in his fortune. After all, he won't be able to enjoy immortal life without enough money. And while Philosopher stone can give him however much gold he wants, it wouldn't do to make Flammels doubt him after they trusted him with its destroyal! No matter if he is called the strongest wizard in the world, Nicholas Flammel was alive for centuries and it showed every time he manhandled Dumbledore during their duels.

No, he didn't need the gold-shitting feature of the stone. Not at all.

He had the perfect golden goose. So many orphans, most of them from considerably wealthy families, had an undue accident right after they reached the majority. They, of course, were very grateful to Dumbledore and decided to offer their wealth to the Light Side in their will. What a good children, Albus thought mirthfully.

That string of thinking led him again to young Harry…

Potters. One of his most profitable ventures. He was just regretful he had to leave a few thousands of galleons for Harry. The boy will certainly splurge them!

With another sad sigh, Dumbledore opened the letter and started to read.

---

Head of the Minor House Dumbledore,

We, Gringotts, in accordance with Ravemore post-rebellion treaty where the responsibility of overseeing the repayment of any and all debts between the noble houses was bestowed upon us, dutifully inform you that the Most Ancient And Noble House Black called the debts due. The Minor House Dumbledore owes to House Black a monetary debt of 47 126 521 galleons 12 sickles 8 knuts, accumulated over 400 years.

Lord Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, titles omitted, be informed, this amount doesn't include your personal, to date unpaid debt of 2 415 221 galleons of initial 5 000 000 galleons borrowed to pursue the studies of Alchemy. As your personal debt towards House Black contained yearly interests and fine for neglect of delivering payment on time, in the last eighty years the debt existed, it rose to 45 846 255 galleons 58 sickles 45 knuts mostly due to the fines of neglect from your side and the fact the debt was not frozen due to any legal reason.

Blacks might have forgotten but we at Gringotts do not forget Lord Dumbledore.

Due to the fact you are the Head of the House, these two debts were merged. The final amount owed: 92 972 776 galleons 70 sickles 53 knuts.

That being said, due to the lasting neglect of these debts from your side, we at Gringotts, in accordance with the authority granted us by the treaty, must regretfully inform you, the debts were partly settled from Dumbledore Family Vault and your personal Vault and these Vaults now contain only some of the items deposited there. Make sure you pay the fees for these Vaults in time, otherwise even these remaining items will be confiscated by Goblin Nation.

The remaining debt of the Minor House Dumbledore is 30 146 818 galleons 11 sickles 88 knuts.

True to the wishes of Lord Black, you have three months to repay your debts or Gringotts will move to ensure justice.

Signed Sharpfang, account manager of the Most Ancient And Noble House Black.

---

Dumbledore gaped at the letter. It took him five read-throughs to finally understand he is not dreaming. A debt of over thirty million!

Moreover, Lord Black is back!? How! He was sure he killed or incapacitated all of the important Blacks!

It took him a while to calm himself and think about the situation. There was no other way than to pay his debts. No matter if he is the most powerful wizard since Merlin himself, he is still just one man. Bloodthirsty goblins on his back and a reputation as someone who doesn't pay his debts would ruin even him! He is not yet ready to face entire races! Much less a race like goblins.

Albus only imagined, how must the Minister of Magic curse at the leeway and loopholes of the post-rebellion treaty! Albus was raging too! And he was under the influence of the calming draught! The Blacks clearly used these loopholes to hide behind the might of goblin race and their legal responsibilities in order to get their debts repaid in full without any protests possible from their debtors! Albus would even praise them for such a marvelous move if he was not one of the affected!

As for the newly emerged Lord Black… Albus realized it's most likely just the last vain attempt at glory by Arcturus Black from his deathbed. He cursed the old man for complicating everything and himself for not using faster-acting poison!

Thirty million galleons!

If only he was not so sure of himself in his youth that Blacks don't care about his debt anymore, he thought glumly.

Alas, nothing could be changed about it. At least the Potter fortunes he has safely stashed in a hidden location will almost completely mitigate the debt. Albus sighed at the prospects of losing the galleons he so painstakingly worked for. Especially since it was so hard to get James's unconditional trust. The boy was Potter, after all. He wouldn't sign over his fortune if he didn't trust Dumbledore completely. A few compulsion charms early and on helped immensely, though. As did giving Lily some nudge via the liquid love in James's direction. Oh, Albus knew the boy drools all over himself every time he sees her. Albus had no claims against this particular relationship. If getting Lily Evans into Potter's bed could make his hold over the boy stronger... After all, Lily was a muggle-born who admired him! Yes, these were good times. Hell, he managed to get the trust of the entire gang! A bully Potter, an easily leashed werewolf, a cowardly rat with the subtlety of dragon, and even runaway worthless Black!

Ah, Sirius... That reminded Albus of his current situation.

'Years of manipulations just went down the drain.' Dumbledore thought angrily. 'Damn you to hell, Arcturus!'

This little setback will reduce his personal wealth almost to zero. Hell, he will have to borrow some gold to pay it all off! He would have to rebuild his wealth. Bribes can't be paid by air, after all. What to do, what to do…

Taking another Lemon Drop, Albus Dumbledore, the Leader of Light, plotted what dark spells to use in order to politely 'borrow' some money from more gullible, he means, light-natured families.

He was not amused. Not at all. He needed money, a lot of it actually. It was all for the Greater Good! Albus smiled ruefully at being so close to his childhood dream but gritted his teeth when he realized this effectively delayed his final plans by years!

'Just a few more years, two decades at most!' He chanted in his head, trying to calm his temper, lest he goes on a rampage and slaughters every Black alive!

'Uuuu, need a Lemon Drop! Another Lemon Drop!'

Fawkes gleefully observed the situation from his perch, dark gleam flashing through his eyes, enjoying his captor's hardship. He knew well Albus's biggest and darkest desire. And let him screech you, his fabulous flaming self would freeze over before he would let him reach it!

…

That day, all over Wizarding Britain, chaos erupted.

After all, Blacks were a very old and very ruthless family. They were famed for it. But pilling up debts over the last millennium without anyone noticing and then calling it all due at once, and then expecting to be repaid in three months? That was a new low even for them! Typical Black insanity!

Tears flooded many noble houses that day the same way as gold flooded Black Vaults three months later. Blacks officially became the wealthiest wizarding family and they did so legally! Something unexpected for them. There was nothing the Noble Houses or even the Ministry could use to refuse to pay! The goblins made sure of it! In the end, with heavy hearts, they paid, they were not ready for another goblin rebellion nor were they ready for enraged Blacks.

The sudden action was such a shock, the people even forgot to ask about one important little tidbit. The identity of Lord Black, the man who single-handedly ruined the economy of Wizarding Britain for years to come while bankrupting several noble houses and businesses, unexpectedly remained a mystery, still veiled in the shadows.