Ch84. Situation in the Wizarding Britain

It was only Narcissa and Dora that came on the trip with Hadrian. They were currently in Egypt, in the biggest library of its magical community. It was almost funny how much knowledge was made public and how much of it would be considered 'dark' back in England.

The real dark arts were, of course, tightly locked somewhere else but the library was still almost as big as the one in Hogwarts.

Dora and Hadrian sat behind a table in the Library when Narcissa finally showed up after half-hour of coursing through the shelves.

"I finally found it." She smiled.

"Oh? Will you two finally tell me why we are here?" Dora giddily asked.

"'We'," Narcissa gestured to herself and Hadrian, "are here to devise a ritual and enjoy each other now that we have two whole months of time." She gave Dora a slight glare. "After all, I didn't spend most of the day with my husband in a Boarding School like a certain someone."

Dora looked sheepish at that. She knew her aunt was not pissed. That, she made obvious yesterday night. No, Aunt Narcissa was disappointed and sad. She wanted her alone time with Hadrian and this was looking up to be such but then Dora butted in and decided to tag along and…

Well, she didn't know about the intentions of her aunt until after they were already in the hotel in Egypt!

Now even Dora felt slightly ashamed for doing it. Cockblocking your own aunt?

She lowered her head with a slight flush and her eyes landed on the Alchemy book she was reading and the feeling of shame quickly evaporated. After all, if she didn't tag along, she would never discover something as interesting as this!

She gave Narcissa a defiant stare, making her chuckle as she sat next to Hadrian and put the book in-between them as Hadrian's hand reached for the back of Narcissa's head and pulled her into a deep appreciative kiss. Dora saw Narcissa's tongue quickly enter Hadrian's mouth and she couldn't help but pout but then the book on the table in front of them got her attention.

"What is it?" Dora quickly forgot their staring contest as curiosity gripped her, she leaned closer and read the title. As Narcissa and Hadrian heard her, they separated and Narcissa cuddled into his shoulder.

'The Study of Core and Sacrificial Rituals to strengthen it.'

Dora blinked as her mouth opened, her eyes trailing from Narcissa to Hadrian and back. She didn't know what to say to that...

"Nope, we are not gonna sacrifice anyone." Hadrian told her with bemusement apparent on his face as he saw her speechless expression. "But the references for Magic Core are very scarce so we need to make do."

"I see." Dora eventually stated. "In that case check 'Alchemical Pill Effects' and 'Magical Ingredients and their properties'. I remember there being something on Magic Cores... well, never really cared so dunno if it will be useful." Dora shrugged.

Hadrian smiled and kissed her cheek. "Thank you."

Dora flushed bright red and grumbled as she concentrated on her book.

The following two weeks were spent in the library, going from book to book, looking for reference after reference. Narcissa was carving runes as if possessed, new variety after new variety that would be a good component for the ritual as she checked, double-checked, and triple-checked the arithmancy and if it all clicked together.

Dora found her new hobby. Or obsession, according to Hadrian. Her dream was being potion mistress but Snape basically took it and tore that to shreds with his seven years of potion torture and unfairness. Yes, Dora was not a prodigy at potions but she loved them nevertheless.

But right now, Dora found out what she was a prodigy at. The alchemy. In a week she understood something others needed at least two years to comprehend and quite honestly it was so much fun! She only lacked practice as the ingredients in Egypt were hard to get. Especially for foreigners.

Hadrian was happy to spend gold on Dora's alchemy experiments. He saw how excited she was about it and it warmed his heart. Especially when he saw her silly smile after her experiment exploded in her face, messing up her hair and covering her face in black smudge. Since then, he would provide any and all monetary support for a right to take photos...

He also showered Narcissa with heaps of attention every night. He knew she utterly adored runes but even then... The woman was doing her damnedest for him and his little project so that was the least he could do for her. Make her relax and enjoy this trip.

He also hit the books and tried to help but really, he only had the idea and Narcissa latched onto it. His time was spent looking for ingredients in the market and studying more Transfiguration. He didn't really plan to attempt making this ritual this soon. It was all Narcissa's doing. Secretly, Hadrian suspected she only wanted to drag him out of the country so they would be alone...

He was kinda glad though. There were a lot of things to do in Africa. Checking wandless magic, druidic tribes, libraries, new food...

Both Dora and Narcissa enjoyed shopping a bit too much so Hadrian had to suffer through it too! Poor him! He had no idea how many sets of clothes he tried on that day or how many restaurants they sampled!

But their two weeks in Egypt were coming to an end and their flight to Tanzania was already booked.

They came to Egypt via portkey and when Hadrian told Narcissa they would travel by muggle-means... She looked like a little girl in a candy store. It was so adorable Hadrian gave her some head pats which earned him being dragged into the bed, Dora earnestly following behind them while giggling.

Since Hadrian asked Narcissa to invest some money in muggle companies, she started to pay more attention to that side of the world. And while she was no Arthur Weasley, she was interested in the technological advance of muggles. But unlike him, she didn't let it be known to the public. She was a perfect pureblood, after all. A Malfoy… heh, Hadrian was astonished her 'cover' still worked and nobody suspected anything else than a buthurt wife of Malfoy trying to rebel by fucking Lord Black.

By now, everyone knew that the 'Lady Malfoy' was with her birth family and that she was in a relationship with Lord Black. A mistress… It was disturbing for the public. She became a slut, whore, and much more vivid names in secret but as someone with the favor of Lord Black, nobody called her that to her face.

Funnily enough, Lucius blamed Dumbledore for the spreading of the rumours when it was actually Narcissa herself to do so. Hadrian just gaped at how her plans just click in the place. She tarnished her reputation… no Lord would EVER think it was her own doing. Due to the rumors Malfoy was now opposing every step of Dumbledore and Dumbledore had no idea why. The domino effect started and these two respective leaders of their factions dragged others into it. Light and Dark families were at each other's political throats while she lent money, favors, debts… House Black was again beginning to gather some debtors while deals with the Grey faction were becoming a common thing for Narcissa.

In the muggle world, her company was well known in the financial sphere as one of the richest as they owned stakes in companies worldwide. It was only the magical world that her advance somewhat halted.

Lucius Malfoy and his butt-buddies were definitely no pushovers once they decided to act. They were steadily pushing and clashing against Narcissa's companies. Lucius even managed to salvage his remaining businesses and reap profits. On paper, his situation looked good. But in reality, he was seething for losing so much money to Narcissa. But he now had Dumbledore to fend off and no time to scheme against her. But neither did Narcissa focus on him.

It was the same with other Death Eaters. Hadrian nor Narcissa focused on them. It was one thing to hurt them economically and completely different to exterminate them. These people were the best shield and target for Dumbledore.

House Black was keeping their cards close to their chest. And while Bellatrix was itchy for some good ol' fashioned battle and Narcissa wanted her revenge... they listened to play the long game. It was obvious. Neither could face Dumbledore or Voldemort yet. Revealing themselves would be silly. They were the third side in the shadows and it was good that way.

Even when they almost bankrupted Wizarding Britain, it didn't make them a target as they flooded it with the gold they received and people started to get it slowly back. The catch was that this gold now bought Narcissa almost ten percent of businesses of Wizarding Britain, forty percent of Wizarding France, twenty-five of Wizarding Germany... and so it went. She was slowly starting to take over the Wizarding communities through money and Hadrian could only laugh awkwardly.

When he asked her why she didn't invest more in Britain... her answer was simple.

The Ministry.

The current laws were, for the lack of a better word, completely ridiculous. Sure, they could be exploited and they WERE being exploited by Narcissa so with ten percent she actually received enough profit as if she owned thirty... and with her investing the money mostly overseas...

She was basically slowly making Wizarding Britain lose its gold. Simple as that.