16

Chapter 16

"It's supposed to be a semi colon, not a colon."

"I'll shove this up your entire colon if you don't bugger off!"

Harry paused, blinking, as he listened to Hermione and Draco arguing. Behind him, Blaise and the Twins muffled their laughter in their hands, though Dean didn't bother, chuckling as he walking boldly up to the table.

"Careful, you'll have Pince breathing fire at you if you don't keep it down," he commented, dropping his bag on the table and earning himself a dirty look from Draco as the blond scrambled to grab the piles of parchment out from under the Gryffindor's belongings.

"Well, we wouldn't have a problem if she would just focus on her own work and leave me to mine!"

"Oh please, I'm merely trying to be efficient. I can tolerate your haphazard approach to filing, but I absolutely refuse to submit subpar quality because you're too lazy to check your work!"

"Listen, this project is not some school assignment. We have time to go over it and make it grammatically perfect later. Right now we're just compiling raw data!"

"You're impossible! It doesn't matter if it's raw data or not, if you compile it properly now, it'll save time later! You're just making more work for us both!"

"Listen, we don't even know everything that will need to go into these booklets, half of this data is likely irrelevant! I'm not going to waste time on stuff that's probably not going to be used anyway!"

Hermione puffed up, even her bushy mane of hair bristling around her head like a static cloud.

Harry decided to step in before the two began brawling over the table. Though if he was being honest, a part of him kind of wanted to let them, so he could run a betting pool.

"Alright you two, settle down. Hermione, focus on your own work. Draco, stop goading her."

Settling himself at the head of the table, he pulled his homework planner from his bag, checking what needed to be done. He was pleased to see that aside from putting the finishing touches on a Herbology assignment, he only needed to do a little revision, and then he could leave his group and go pay a quick visit to Severus. The older man was coming along nicely, as were the twins. Cedric still needed some work, but he was getting there.

He shook his head, setting up his Herbology assignment and paraphernalia.

"Draco, Hermione," he mused, drawing their attention. "Have either of you asked the older Ravenclaws for their notes? It might also be worth asking the teachers for recommended reading lists for the entire years' work. It should give you a better framework for your research."

He couldn't be bothered fighting down the grin at the despairing groans from the reluctant research partners.

"Hey Harry," Dean asked quietly once everyone had settled to their own work, "Ron and Seamus have been plotting in the dorms again. They've been following you around when they can get away with it, and they said that they're sure you had something to do with Finkley's disappearance."

Harry noticed his Twins stiffening slightly, obviously listening in.

"Do they have any proof?" He asked calmly, correcting a line of his assignment.

Dean shook his head, chewing his lip. "Not that I've heard about."

"Then it doesn't matter what they think they know. If they can't prove it, and didn't see anything personally, then they can speculate all they wish."

Dean blinked in surprise, and he noticed the others at the table had stopped their work, focusing on their leader intently.

"What about your reputation?" Hermione asked worriedly. "If they start spouting this rubbish, there are some people who will believe them, and it could cause all sorts of problems for you. I mean, we know you'd never do anything like that, but if enough people started believing it, it could affect your business plans. I mean, these booklets Draco and I are working on, it could all be wasted if your reputation takes a hit."

Harry smiled at her gratefully, pleased with the show of support.

"Not to worry," he reassured her. "My reputation can handle a few sceptics and gossipmongers. And if they cross the point of defamation or slander, my father's lawyer will handle it."

The group glanced almost as one to the Twins, worried for their reaction, but were surprised to see the two redheads nodding along in agreement.

"We'll try to warn them," Fred began.

"But they probably won't listen," George ended.

"If it gets too bad, we'll tell Mum," they ended together.

Cedric chose that moment to approach the table, flustered.

"Sorry I'm late," he muttered quietly as he pulled up a chair next to Neville. "I heard some Ravenclaws talking rubbish about Harry and had to set them straight. Apparently they overheard the youngest Weasley and his friend talking about how you must have done something to Finkley." He shook his head, scowling slightly. "You'd think that they'd know better than to believe gossip, but what can you do."

"Thanks," Harry said, letting his eyes go a little glassy. "It means a lot that you'd be willing to defend me like that."

Cedric looked at the younger boy, and his lips twitched into a crooked grin. He was well aware the little shit was playing the group, he was Slytherin after all, but he thought there was a degee of genuine feeling buried beneath all the manipulation. Nodding his head in acknowledgement, he turned to Neville, engaging him in a conversation about his current Herbology assignment.

"Harry?" Hermione asked tentatively.

"Hmm?" The boy hummed, mostly focused on his assignment.

"Are you ok?" She bit her lip, eyeing him in concern. "Did you want to go write to your father?"

Pausing, Harry considered her thoughtfully before shaking his head.

"No, thanks. I'll write to him later, when I've had some time to think about it."

He watched as a couple of Hufflepuffs he didn't know well scuttled past their table, eyeing him nervously. He sighed.

'I do hope the twins aren't overly attached to ickle Ronnikins,' he thought.

"So what do you plan to do?" Alex asked.

Harry had called together his entire group, introducing Severus and Draco, as their newest members. He'd considered bringing the Twins, but decided that the topic was likely to put too much pressure on them just yet. His Twins were still a bit tender on the subject of their recently deceased classmate.

Harry shrugged.

"Honestly, I'm open to suggestions. I don't see it's much of a problem right now, but if it snowballs to the point where people start writing to their parents, then parents will start writing to Dumbledore or the Board of Governors, or worse, the papers. There's no proof of my involvement of course, but they don't need proof to slander me and damage my reputation."

The group fell silent, thinking through their options.

"What about a PR campaign?" Draco suggested tentatively.

Harry looked at him, waiting for him to explain.

"My father runs them periodically. He says that it makes greasing the wheels in business a lot easier if people are thinking about his charity donations rather than his time under the Imperious."

"Its not a bad idea," Marcel offered. "It may seem a little contrived if you ran one now, but the idea of waving something shiny has merit."

"You're thinking the biography?" Shot asked, sipping on a nightmarish sugar concoction, even as she peered over the rim at the Healer.

"Biography?" Harry asked, frowning slightly. "What biography?"

Shot waved a hand, pausing to swallow more of the sludge in her glass.

"Something we put together as a contingency if we needed to distract the public at some point. It's basically an edited version of your history. We actually have several versions, depending on what image you want to portray? Personally, I'd go for the poor little abused orphan angle, it'll gain you sympathy, and help flush out people who think they can manipulate you because of it. Best part is, it's completely accurate, without giving away anything overly personal! Well, at least I don't think it does..."

"When did you put this together?" Harry asked, amused.

"I've been working on it for a while, but honestly, I'll need to sit down with you and get more details of whatever you're comfortable sharing. We've mocked up the bones of it, but let's face it, it's not like most of your history is documented."

"True enough," Harry agreed. "Alright, we'll sit down next week and go over it. How long will it take to get it properly hyped and published?"

"Truthfully, I only have a vague idea," Shot shrugged. "A proper advertising campaign to drive up interest and presales could take a couple of months normally, but it's you, so… Maybe a month? And the biggest challenge with the publishing is going to be making sure there are enough copies. Though, you can drive up sales even more through orders if you're forced to do a second printing run. It's up to you, depending on how long you want to drive the frenzy."

Snape's thin lips twitched slightly, and Harry turned to the Professor.

"Something to add, Severus?" He asked.

Snape looked at the young boy that sat so confidently at the head of the meeting table.

"If you choose to pursue this, you should be prepared for another meeting with Dumbledore. He will do his best to paint it in a negative light, and will almost certainly encourage the Professors to put you back in what he sees as your place, lest your ego get too big."

Harry nodded.

"Noted. If he pulls me in for a meeting I'll refuse unless you're with me as my Head of House. Is it likely he'll request a meeting with my father?"

"It's possible, but not likely," Severus shook his head. "He'll more likely try to convince you that your father is taking advantage of you."

"Your father's hardly ever here though," Draco frowned. "I can't imagine he'll be pleased to have his business interrupted to deal with the Headmaster's hissy fit, especially since he'd never do anything that you weren't comfortable with. And didn't Father just help get him instated on the Hogwarts Board of Governors after the Broom Incident getting hushed up? He could stir up trouble for Dumbledore if the Headmaster pushes things too far."

Harry smiled, even as the rest of the Hounds chuckled quietly.

"That's true enough, but I doubt he'll care about being interrupted. He doesn't care about much of anything, actually."

Draco frowned, irritated that he was obviously missing something.

Taking pity on the boy, Harry leaned back in his chair and smiled deviously.

"My father doesn't exist."

The blond raised an eyebrow, his confusion only growing.

"But, I've met him? Father does business with him regularly?"

Shaking his head, Harry explained.

"I created the alias of John Smith to conduct legal transactions such as buying property, when I was eight. Seven? Somewhere around there. Anyway, when I was nine I got tired of all the slinking around I was forced to do, so I had 'John Smith' adopt me."

Draco boggled, his mouth hanging open unattractively. Even Snape was eyeing Harry with visible surprise.

"You what? So, you basically adopted yourself, just for convenience?"

Harry nodded, resting his elbow on the armrest and his chin on his fist.

"And then what, you hired someone to be 'Smith' at official functions?" Draco looked to be on the edge of hysterics, much to Harry's amusement.

"Don't be absurd," Harry murmured, thanking Jinky with the little elf popped in with a range of finger food for the group and a tumbler of Scotch for the dark haired boy. "I needed to be able to sign legally binding documents. No, hiring someone would never do; I had the Goblins make me a golem."

Snape choked slightly on his own Scotch, hastily patting his lips dry with a napkin.

Draco seemed to have given up on being shocked, and moved straight into resignation.

"I should have known," he stated. "Let me guess, when he's not doing business, you stuff him in a cupboard?"

"Well, yes, actually," Harry agreed. "But he rarely ends up there; my various businesses and projects don't exactly run themselves, and there's a lot of paperwork and meetings involved."

"Speaking of your projects," Marcel interjected, bringing their meeting back on track, "did you read the latest report on your Harringay Warehouses? I was thinking we could use the empty one to…"

Several days later Harry was sitting in his new office, chatting with the Bloody Baron and Deidre and enjoying a rare moment of quiet. He was rather pleased with his efforts recently. All of his projects and businesses were on track, profit was up, Shot was making decent inroads on her research of the night he was orphaned, and his Ghosts and Nestlings were excelling beyond his expectations. He was sure that something was about to happen, probably something exhausting, but he wasn't going to ruin his afternoon off by borrowing trouble before it arrived.

"That Zabini boy is doing well," Deirdre commented. "I've been watching him. He's quite charming when he wants to be."

The Bloody Baron nodded.

"Given his mother's predilections, that's hardly surprising."

Harry hummed in agreement. He'd actually been very pleased with Blaise's work so far. The boy excelled in charming people into giving him all sorts of favours and information, and he was adding to Vahan's network quite effectively. He'd also taken his mission to protect Connor to heart, striking up a close friendship with the younger boy and getting to know him as best as possible. Harry monitored it all of course, which Connor was aware of, but he had no areas of concern at this point. Connor needed someone other than Harry that he could rely on, and since Blaise was to be his protector and aid, it made sense.

"What are you going to do about that Weasley boy?" the Baron asked suddenly.

Harry raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"You'll need to be more specific."

Deidre and Baron chuckled slightly.

"The youngest one. I've noticed he's been trying to follow you around lately, plus he's been rather vocal in pointing the finger at you over that Finkley boy getting himself killed in the forest. He seems determined to convince anyone who'll listen that it's your fault, somehow."

Shrugging, Harry leaned back in his seat and rested his head on his palm.

"I've noticed. So far I'm just letting him follow for a while before slipping off, and Severus is already gleefully taking points from him and giving him detentions whenever possible. Finnigan has been trying as well, but he's even worse at it than Weasley. I figure that they'll get bored eventually. If it gets inconvenient then I'll deal with it then. No, it's Nott that's the larger irritation right now. He's good at following people unobserved, and his proximity to me in the dorms makes it easier for him to keep tabs on my coming and going. He's an annoying little twat, honestly."

The Baron's lips twitched in amusement, but he didn't bother denying it. Nott was an annoying little twat. Not even the Fat Friar liked him.

Harry shrugged, twirling a quill even as he rocked in the chair he'd had Jinky bring in, since the one the Baron had used was a nightmare on the tailbone.

"I don't know. Maybe I can dump him in the forest or something somehow. See how long it takes him to get out, if he can."

The Baron and Deirdre giggled at that. They may not know if he was serious or not, but it was an amusing picture nonetheless.

Closing his eyes and resting his head back on his chair, Harry sighed, relaxing. He really did love this chair.

"What do you think about the female Slytherins?" Harry asked, cracking one eye open to look at his ghostly companion. "I haven't really cultivated any of them yet, I've been leaving it to Blaise, but I'm unsure if any of them are worth working with personally."

There was a knock on the door before the Baron could answer, and Deirdre ducked out to see who it was.

"It's the Weasley Twins, and they've brought the Diggory boy?" She said, returning a moment later.

Harry nodded to the Baron, letting him know that he'd catch up with him later, before giving permission for Deirdre to let his guests in.

Watching the three older boys shuffling in, he felt a moment of pride at how neatly he'd managed to obtain the red headed devils. They really were amazingly versatile. Cedric had a lot of potential, but Harry wasn't sure exactly where he would end up in Vahan's organisation. Probably recruitment, given his friendly nature and good looks. It might be worth pairing him up with Blaise in the future; have the budding Casanova teach the Hufflepuff how to make the most of his attributes.

"What can I do for you?" He asked, dropping his quill on the desk and giving the boys his full attention.

George straightened, dropping into a sloppy military rest position, something he'd likely picked up from Jinky at some point.

"Cedric here mentioned something we thought you should be aware of." He reported, before turning his gaze to the handsome brunet.

Cedric shuffled slightly at being under such intense scrutiny, before visibly drawing on his courage.

"Um, there's a couple of things? Firstly, Hagrid's been acting odd. I think he's hiding something in his hut? I know you're friends with him, so I thought you might want to know. You know, in case you didn't already."

Harry arched an eyebrow in interest. He'd had no idea, he hadn't been down to see Hagrid for a while.

"I didn't know, thank you. I'll check on him and make sure he's not doing something that'll get him into trouble. You said there were a couple of things?"

"Oh, um," Cedric rubbed the back of his head nervously. He felt strange reporting to the younger boy, but at the same time it seemed right. Harry was known to be a miracle worker of sorts, and would go to extreme lengths to help the people who came to him; even further for the ones he considered as one of his. Sucking in a deep breath, he braced himself. "It's kind of personal, so I'd appreciate it if it stayed between us?"

Harry nodded in agreement, waiting patiently for Cedric to get to the point.

"It's, ah, my mother. She's sick, and the Healers at St Mungo's don't think she's going to pull through. My dad, he works hard, but we aren't wealthy or well-connected enough to look for a private healer, or anywhere out of the UK. The twins suggested talking to you. They said that you might know someone who could help?" He looked at Harry, his face betraying his desperate hope.

Harry took a moment to think, not removing his gaze from the pleading boy in front of his desk.

"I might be able to help, but there's no guarantees. You do understand that, right?"

Cedric nodded quickly, tears starting to pool in his eyes.

"I can speak to a Healer I know. He works privately, so he should have time to assess her and see if there is anything he can do to help. But I need to know, if the only solution falls into the more frowned up side of the scale, are you willing to go through with the treatment? And will you protect the Healer's identity?"

Cedric paused, swallowing heavily. He wasn't stupid, he knew that Harry was more than he seemed, and it was impossible to pull off the sorts of things he did and get access to the kinds of information he had without some more dubious contacts. But was he willing to delve into potentially Dark Magic to save his mother? He knew the answer already, but took the time to mull it over carefully before speaking. This wasn't the type of decision to make when emotional.

"Yes," he finally stated firmly, looking into Harry's bright green eyes. Let the dice fall where they would, he'd made his choice. "Though if at all possible I'd like to refrain from any sacrificial magic. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if she knew that her life came at the cost of someone else's."

Harry smiled slightly, nodding in agreement.

"Reasonable."

Harry dismissed the twins with a glance and approving smile, then directed Cedric to the chair that had previously been ignored.

He picked up his quill, scribbling a small note on a piece of parchment before summoning Jinky and quietly directing him to take it to the Haunt. The black clad elf nodded and disappeared with a soft pop, leaving Harry to turn back to Cedric.

"Now, about payment."

Cedric winced, paling slightly.

"My family isn't wealthy, but maybe we can work out some sort of arrangement?" He offered weakly.

Harry shook his head.

"Don't be ridiculous, I'm not talking about money. The Healers fees and any costs for medication will be taken care of. No, I'd like to talk to you about your plans for the future."