Hidden power

"Yes yes laugh it up at my failings , I'll remember this when one of you screws up next time." Nick said with a huff at his friends teasing. "Oh no whatever shall we do?" Tracy asked dramatically with a teasing smile. "Moving on I'll show you all the much more interesting parts of the manor which can all be found upstairs." Nick said changing the subject. "Oh are you going to show us your torture chamber or maybe a slave room?" Tracy joked. Nick decided to mess with her and smiled "Oh good you already know about those so I can just skip them it seems , that saves time." he said acting like he was serious.-

"Wait! I was just joking please tell me you don't actually have rooms like that!?" Tracy exclaimed in horror which most of the others shared as well. "Of course not , I repurposed those rooms already." Nick said with a chuckle. "Why did you have them to begin with!?" Hermione asked mortified at the idea. "I'm not the one who built this place and a thousand years ago that was perfectly normal." Nick said with a shrug.-

The group calmed down with that explanation but definitely thought less of Rowena Ravenclaw then they did before. I todays age those sort of things were heavily frowned upon as barbaric and crude despite being very common a thousand years ago like Nick had said. He had an idea of this shift in opinion but didn't care since she was dead and couldn't defend herself or the practices of that long ago time. Anyways Nick led the group upstairs and went towards to right wing immediately which made the twins grin to themselves. "This room is where I keep most of my more mundane materials for crafting and at the moment-" he paused as he pushed open the door.-

"Where my assistant Lucas spends most of his time." Nick said with a smirk. Lucas waved from his iron seat "These the rest of your guests boss?" he asked curiously. Nick nodded and made the same introduction as he had with the twins. "Whatever he is paying I'll triple it!" Florian said eagerly but Lucas scoffed. "I very much doubt it but sure let me list off the benefits I get , all the dragon blood or money I could want , the prestige and respect of working for house Ravenclaw , the chance to learn his full crafting knowledge and the ability to cast spells again." Lucas said disdainfully and everyone's jaws simultaneously dropped.-

They all turned to look at Nick but he was grinning widely "What? I believe in treating my employees well." he said casually but it was clear to all of them that he was taking great joy out of flipping their world upside down. Florian in particular looked dreadful as he was feeling a mix of shame and anger at what just happened in addition to shock at what he learned.-

Shame because despite being a guest in Nicks home his greed made him lose reason and try to poach his hosts employee in front of them. He was angry though as he realized that he had made a fool of himself for no reason at all since there was no way he could match the conditions Nick provided Lucas much less triple them. All of this was trumped by the shock of learning that Nick had solved the one thing that made vampirism a huge downgrade in most wizards opinion , the inability to cast spells normally.-

This was earth shaking news but if it got out but Nick clearly didn't care which probably meant he wasn't afraid of the sort of attention this would bring him if it got out. 'Just how much has he hidden from the world!?' Florian thought with a chill once he realized the whole world seemed to have misunderstood where Nick stood in the world. Florian was the head of the grey faction of the wizengamot and had been a political figure for decades now so he understood the horror of hidden power better than any normal wizard.-

A good example of hidden power was none other than Dumbledore who despite being hailed as the greatest white wizard alive had an unknown upper limit of power both politically and in magic. Unlike the old wizard though Nick was far less public a figure and thus Florian had no clue the sort of things he was capable of. If Nick knew that he was being compared to Dumbledore he would likely have a funny look as he had been ignoring the similarities this entire time. He knew of them but was subconsciously separating them as if no comparison could be made.