Chapter 2

Thomas got up at eight in the morning the next day, while he would have prefered to stay in his bed for longer as he stayed up quite late the previous day, he still had to make sure that his three businesses were working as intended. So he went to his office after a slow breakfast with his wife while Harry was with his tutor in his room. Today's tutor was the potion's one and while he had respect for the man as he was skilled, he still could not trust him fully as he had an unhealthy admiration of Dumbledore.

Once in his office, Thomas began reading the reports of his alchemical factory which had the name Atelier Preacher. Its specialty lay in making the impossible possible, for example they were the only producer of the sound goo, this alchemical product would crystalize when a magical sound touched it during this operation the crystal would take the shape of the source of said sound. They were still able to produce more than what was bought but the margin was small, there was also no discrepancy in the numbers so Thomas smiled.

Atelier Preacher made more than three thousand Galleons, most of which would be used by the Atelier to buy back more ingredients, but it still left five hundred Galleons to pay his two employees and himself, his employees being paid a hundred Galleons each. It was a nice income and if the wizarding world continued to get back up he'd be set for generations.

His second business was a shop on the Diagon Alley, this shop was selling his Thaumic inventions, the finest example was the Thaumaturgic Goggles or Thaumic Goggles for short, they were goggles that could see the flow of magic and read wards and enchantments. It was quite the popular item as well, especially for the potion masters and ward weavers. The shop made around two hundred Galleons that month, so twenty to his shop keeper, fifty for him and the rest to buy more materials to make the items that need to be restocked.

It may seem mind boggling to the poorest wizards, but the art of Thaumaturgy is one that is insanely costly, as is the Alchemical science, when you see unicorn's blood willingly given or feather of a hippogryph shed during a domination fight… needless to say that it was quite the difficult endeavor to obtain them, and the worst part is that some Thaumic inventions need an area purified of all its contaminant to be made.

Finally his last business was a dragon reserve in Russia, he only needed to check that everything was running smoothly and that there was no discrepancy in the numbers as this one had a really skilled manager. His part in this business amounted to twenty Galleons as this reserve had a lot of employees and all of them needed and deserved a bonus for the danger encountered.

Next he got the report from Arcturus Black III on the Potter family business, it was for Harry's eye when he would be older so it was immediately put in the magical file for when Harry would be older.

When he looked by the window, he was glad to see that the sun was not yet at its zenith. He then checked the exact time on his pocket watch and saw that barely two hours had passed. He was thankful that he had the insight of not making more businesses, he afterall was but a single man. He then went back to the first floor and saw Harry on the couch reading a book that compared the different wizarding schools.

The first thought that went through Thomas' head was that his wife was perfect without the shadow of a doubt, then he went outside after indicating to Elyse that he would be going to the shed in the garden.

The garden was large, the immediate vicinity was fenced and that meant that more than two thousand square meters were in a ward, but his legal possession extended for more than ten acres. Most of which was rented to first generation wizards to make their houses, it made a small community of close to a hundred wizards. In the garden there was a greenhouse and a shed, the rest of the space was used for the childrens' playground.

He went straight to the shed, which was quite small from the outside. It was a simple wooden construct that was not bigger than the standard muggle shed. He entered and the massive space inside greeted him, it was a space of more than a hundred square meter. The center of the space had a massive globe shaped pearl that had a radius of ten meters, the pearl was a Thaumic construct that he was quite proud of. There were multiple doors that led to different rooms, the uses of said room specified right above the door.

The pearl itself was an alchemical wonder that had more runes on it than a teenager had pimples. It was made of crystalized Thestral cry, it was quite hard to obtain one this size as he had to find a pack of Thestral that were mourning. The creatures were quite kind to him when he used the sound goo as it physically illustrated their loss. Because it was an entire group that magically cried for that crystal it took a spherical shape to be more stable in the size it would reach.

Then he had to rune it, which was the worst thing ever. While that crystal was perfect to house wards and enchantment, it still is a crystal and thus is hard to work on. However, once he finished placing all the runes, he was more than satisfied with the result. Simply put the crystal is the keystone for all the wards and enchantment on the shed, the greenhouse and the house itself. The best part of this artifact is that there is still space to ward even more things.

Thomas had made this Thaumic artifact three years ago and he still admired his work, next he went to the Thaumic workshop, which was the first door on the left side wall when you enter. He started the machines that would make the items that were needed at his shop. Then he took all the time needed to fine tune everything until lunchtime.

During the afternoon, he was teaching Harry the art of Occlumency, he did so every afternoon of the week while letting the boy do whatever he wanted on the week-end. It was crucial for the boy to be able to protect his mind against mind potions and mind spells as he would soon become the new Lord Potter.

When his alarm rang to signal the end of production, at around four in the afternoon, he also ended the lesson to go and sent the production to his shop through a vanishing cabinet he bought when he got back to Scotland. He was not a Scotsman, but he still prefered to live there as Hogsmeade was less than ten hour of walking from his house, which meant he didn't have to apparate to go there.

When he got back in the house, Harry and Elyse were speaking, his entrance cut the discussion short and after one massive sigh his wife finally told him that Harry would go to Hogwarts like his parents, despite the risks. Thomas had already begun to prepare for that, so he wasn't disappointed, nor was he mad, he simply seemed tired. He seemed tired for the massive pain that would be the years to come.

"Harry. While I knew you would, one way or another, end up going to Hogwarts, I had hoped you wouldn't. Hogwarts is not as safe as they make it to be, not anymore at least, so you have to prepare for it. You more than anyone." said Thomas to his adoptive son.

"But… why ?" asked Harry

"Because of the scar on your forehead. You were marked by the dark lord and he dabbled in soul magic, so he probably is still alive somehow." answered Thomas

"So… I'm still a target for an insane wizard that may or may not be alive but is or was powerful enough to go toe to toe with Dumbledore ?"

"Essentially."

"Sweet…" said Harry while being sarcastic.

Elyse chuckled lightly while patting the head of the kid kindly, while we sent all of our children to Beauxbaton as the curriculum was still complete and there was no lack of wizard in France and Navarre as they didn't face Voldemort, we still knew that one day our family would have someone go to Hogwarts, either Harry that we adopted or a child of our children. So now that the chosen one had to go to the worst school of Great Britain, we knew that we had to up the standard to allow him to have a shot at defeating the dark lord.

I decided to go to my office to send letters to my friend who is a renowned ward weaver. We had to discuss if a ward could be used to prevent the birth of a natural curse or jinx. The letter was quite complete as it went in detail as to my conclusions on the most known Hogwarts curse. When I finished, a Laughing Owl was ready to transport the letter. This is the greatest achievement of my muggle family as they are breeding the last hundreds of that kind that are almost extinct and the Owls are all magical beings without any exceptions, so I have one of the rarest Owls as a messenger.

After Jester, the owl, went to deliver the letter a ministry owl came with a response for my requests, while everything went smoothly Dumbledore is still pushing against Ritual magic being taught at Hogwarts, which was quite predictable as he was the one to remove the elective in the first place. He was thus invited to the Ministry to plead his case to the board of governors. While he knew that all of the pure faction and most of the neutral were supportive of the idea, they could not show it if it was asked in a letter and as such he had to formally plead his case.

He rolled his eyes. Politics. He now had to free the day of the hearing, which wasn't hard. He gave a treat to the Owl and let it go before locking the day he had to go to the ministry to explain why Hogwarts needed to teach Ritual in his organizer. While he was doing that an Augurey flew in the room before leaving a letter on his desk.

The Augurey was a bird that often accompanied the Black house members, this one was the familiar of Arcturus. Many people believed the slander that Walburga and Orion threw at the face of the family, however the house of Black was the only house that believed that only the bearer of magical blood were good enough to be called a Black, meaning that first generation wizard were not shunned, only squibs that lost most of the magic in their blood and muggle that didn't have enough to begin with were not accepted.

Even then, the wedding between muggle and Black house member was accepted, the muggle simply was not allowed in the tree nor was he allowed to bear the name, however his child, who would most probably be magical, would be allowed the name and an entry to the tree. Moreover, they kept an eye on their squib as their line very well could have their magic rekindled.

Sadly, one crazy woman and one submissive man put their stainless reputation through so much mud that it would be a long time before they could correct it. Which is why Walburga and Orion were exiled to Grimmauld place, and also why Sirius was the heir of the house now that he stopped following Dumbledore like a loyal dog.

Blood purity is linked to the quality of your blood, more precisely how much of the original ritual magic is left in it. For example, the house of black had so many Metamorphmagi that it wasn't even funny. All noble wizard families did a ritual at their founding that permeates even now through their blood, if one needed evidence of that they simply had to look at the Greengrass that were cursed because of theirs or, like said earlier, the Blacks.

As such a mudblood is a wizard that does not have ritual blood yet, it is a wizard that barely got out of the mud, hence the term which wasn't coined as an insult until the twentieth century. Thankfully for his family, Thomas and Elyse did their ritual, which allows them to see through all enchantments and make Divination easier for them, this also means that they are pure-bloods as paradoxical as it sounds.

To come back to the letter, Arcturus Black was asking Thomas to send him Harry to begin the lord training of the young Potter, the reason given was that Arcturus was not that young and he feared that the enemies of House of Black would try something when his magic would begin to decline.

Thomas knew that was coming, he just didn't know it would be this soon. However it was perfect as Harry would still see his tutors and more importantly he would get the best lord training possible through Arcturus. The Potters had a lot of political and economical power and the only ones that could equal them at their heights were the Blacks and as their family allied one another during the generation of the grandparents of Harry, it was the best solution for him. Thomas did not waste a single second and gave an immediate answer to the letter.

It was time for the adopted Crow to fly for the first time.