Chapter 38

Earlier that morning]

Harry sat at the Greengrass breakfast table. Papers were strewn across the surface. Daphne sat opposite him, financial report in one hand, jam spread toast in the other. The two adult Greengrasses had already eaten. Astoria was still asleep.

Daphne finished swallowing. "So, a single underline is a calculation, and a double underline is the final amount?"

"Yep."

"And the exchange rate between 'pounds' and galleons is fifty-to-one?"

"Yep." Harry knew pureblood heirs didn't usually start learning business until their teens, but Daphne was always a fast learner.

His betrothed whistled. "That is a big number above that final double underline."

"Traditionally, it's called the bottom line. And yes, I got lucky. Three months ago one of the national distributors got caught short, and agreed to buy the rest of the goods I'd stockpiled to last while we were at Hogwarts."

"I can't believe anyone's business is so big that they'd buy that much all at once."

"In the muggle world, £1,200,000 isn't that much."

Daphne shook her head in wonder. "And so far this year you've netted £1,523,424, for a total balance of…." She dropped the income statement and picked up the four-year balance sheet. "£2,482,761."

"Yeah, but we can't expect those kind of numbers moving forward. That deal was a one-off. Without it, we bring in about £450,000 every six months, plus a bit extra from customer growth."

Daphne was still inspecting the balance sheet. "I see business wasn't that good for the first two years, 1988 and 1989."

"Oh no. Business was great. It's just that I had some rather large expenses. You may recall them. Daphne."

Daphne blushed. "Y-You said yourself, that paying that much was the only way Lord Slughorn wouldn't—"

Harry laughed. "Relax Daph. I know. And I wouldn't take it back for anything."

Daphne blushed a different kind of blush.

"And you must admit," he continued, "having the highest bride price in history did a lot for both our reputations."

She nodded. "It did. When it was leaked to the Prophet, no one would talk to me about anything else for months."

He chuckled.

"Don't you think there's a risk someone at Hogwarts will figure out that you're Lord Slytherin? Since I'm betrothed to him, and we're always going to be together?"

"It's a risk. One we'll have to work with. Hopefully by the time anyone finds out, we'll be well positioned."

Daphne set the balance sheet down and reached over to another pile of papers. "And this"—she gently waved the new papers in her hand—"is the next step in that positioning?"

"Yep. Slytherin Manor. We've been holding the Gray together for the last three years, and even persuaded some back, but we need to push our influence. With Slytherin Manor, the three manors of the Light, Dark, and Gray, will become four. A critical mindshare shift towards the Gray, and a perfect base of operations for us. A place we can be daring without the fear of damaging the Greengrass influence."

"How much are you thinking about putting into this?"

"We've £2.5 million at the moment. I've been playing with the numbers for a while, and I think we can have our twenty-five thousand square-foot mansion—which is what's needed for the project to be worthwhile—for £6.6 million. Although I still need to check some numbers with the goblins."

Daphne's eyes widened. "132,000 galleons. But we can't afford it. We only have fifty-thousand galleons."

He smiled. "Of course we can. We have a profitable business and we're building a house with the money. Those two things, taken together, should be more than enough collateral for a loan."

"You're going to borrow money? From the goblins?" She looked worried.

"Yep."

"Is that a good idea? Only, I've heard stories of axe wielding debt collectors, and defaulters being fed to dragons."

"Those are legitimate concerns. So we'll do everything in our power to make sure we don't default. We can't afford to wait five years, and I trust our goblin friends to keep certain details confidential." He took a sip of orange juice before continuing. "The payments for a ten-year, £4.6 million mortgage would amount to £600,000 a year at today's interest rates. I dropped in on my three main customers six weeks ago, and got them to agree to larger purchases at fixed times through-out the year in exchange for a better deal."

Daphne watched him, expectantly. "Meaning?"

"Meaning we'll keep back £500,000 as safety in the vault, and before we head off to Hogwarts, we'll have another £612,000. That'll keep us afloat for almost two years, even if everything went to hell."

"How secure are these businesses of yours?"

He sighed. "Honestly? Not as secure as I'd like. I'm the sole runner for three regional suppliers. Everyone else is happy with their suppliers, and isn't interested, unless they're desperate. Those three customers make up fifty percent, twenty-five percent, and twenty-five percent of my total ongoing business. That's never a good thing. Ideally I'd have at least five customers, each having only twenty percent.

"And how secure do you think those customers are?"

He grinned. "Individually? Not too bad — so long as they don't get shot or caught. Curtis loves me. His business has doubled over the last three years on my supply. Riversmith isn't growing all that fast, but he's solid, and Kovac is expanding like crazy. Still small, but give him a few years and he might start to close in on Curtis."

Daphne regarded him. Her look was calculating. "It's not enough."

"Mmm?"

"I know you. You wouldn't make a massive play like this unless you had multiple fallbacks. Your smuggling business is only one, and you just admitted it wasn't as secure as you'd like."

"Ah, Daph. You do know me. Yes. I have another plan for making obscene amounts of money, and paying off the mansion before we hit third year."

She smiled sweetly at him. "And will I know this plan?"

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