Ch. 97 Preparation

My talk with Sirius being over with and what I could do at the moment finished, I headed back to the castle and prepared for my departure.

Christmas is always a good time in my house, I also get a good amount of time alone with Victoria, which is a big plus nowadays.

As usual my friends and I all went together to the train, we kept getting a lot of attention along the way. Christian is the wild teen, sports star, dueler, with bestial appeal to a good amount of girls in castle as his muscles developed and his face is maturing from cheeky kid to strong man. James is calm and collected now, a far cry from the nervous and scared disposition that he had during 1st & 2nd year, but he has been developing a much fitter body with my training and his smithing, giving of a mature and reassuring aura to people, as his gentle looks make many almost swoon. Victoria is turning into quite the bombshell and that's not just cause she's my girl, with her thick robes unable to hid her very mature body, long slender legs, flawless skin, enchanting eyes and prideful aura, a true combination of beauty and deadliness, the Queen of Snakes. While I walk ahead with confidence, my long ethereal silver hair in a loose ponytail, a body made for combat, handsome face and burning red eyes, with my own aura finding its balance between the warrior, scholar and ruler.

All of us are the peaks of our interests. Charms, Transmutation, DADA, Potions, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. And we constantly push further to improve ourselves.

We take our time during the trip to monitor students and make sure no one was going too crazy, which is easy since even if we are glorified, we still spend a lot of time around others. This makes us more approachable individually, resulting in respect not just idolization.

It was peaceful since Harry wasn't here to somehow cause an accident with his mere presence, so we got to Kings Cross in a leisurely manner. No Dementor attacks this time.

My two guy friends separated from Tory and I, saying there goodbyes and well wishes. I meet up with Susan and head out to find Amelia waiting for us, showing a relieved and happy face. I did feel a bit ignored during the reunion though because aunty and Tory started to chat excitedly with one another, but I was also happy they got along. They are both strong and proud women, so it's nice they aren't clashing.

We got home and unpacked quickly. Susan wanted to go see her favorites plants and Tory was making herself at home in my room, browsing through my notebooks. While I had to do work.

Aunt Amelia said she would pass the Lordship unto me on my 17th birthday. I was more than ready with my abilities and track record. She never wanted to have the title, since to her it was always her brothers. She is now just giving it back to its rightful owner.

And that rightful owner was at a desk, doing paperwork.

But what I've read has been a bit surprising honestly.

Breaking Grounds is branching out to Africa apparently. I am actually in favor of this move, simply because I want the people there to pool their knowledge together and show me new and exciting potions. With so many cultures and traditions passed down throughout the continent, and making the shop near Uagadou to catch more eyes, it should bring in many interesting things. Although we will be very different than what they are used to, I hope they can start an exchange of ideas.

Natural Cultivation has expended the aquatic farms by having more Merpeople join in the project. This has sparked interesting results as the place is becoming one of the true colonies in the world, with the jobs and trade to support it properly. Our interactions with Centaurs have also gone swimmingly, with a dozen or so of our Herbologists actually becoming friends with the tribe working with us. Two allied tribes have also agreed to join the project, furthering the creation of a true Centaur home. We've also finished negotiations and agreed on which creature species would be introduced. We have the creatures which will help pollinate plants, maintain healthy life and death cycles, the proper predators, river fish, insects and prey. That was an extensive bit of planing involved and it is finally moving forward.

Fortress Protection is becoming a true home for Heroes in Bulgaria. We sent more men and women from our standard forces and Shadow forces, joined with new trainees to gain experience and help them grow quicker in true combat, resulting in overwhelming local support. In maybe two years, we predict that the branch office will be completely self-sufficient and that it would no longer require constant assistance or supervision. It's been damn impressive to hear that we are legitimately helping the magical government stabilise the country.

Sherry Holmes informs me that we now have ears in the Ministers office itself, and in a few prominent noble homes. I don't know how she got the second one, but she is really taking to her role. I've also been using her to get all the dirt Malfoy has on so many people, giving a very thick dossier of strings i can pull, adding my own pieces even he doesn't know about. We've also been making proper connections through our agents, and good old fashion bribery is useful as well. We've also identified a list of Voldemort supporters in the last war, pureblood supremacists, and easily influenced individuals, waiting for the proper time to use it. And the best part is that none of this is connected to me, or even Miss Holmes.

The Herald is the most read newspaper in Britain now, and we've decided to start opening offices in other countries such as France, Egypt and Bulgaria. It will take much longer to develop, but with my other businesses present as well, it will help them along a bit. My own paper has actually requested an interview with me as well, which kind of made me laugh. They were so respectful too, trying to coax me into agreeing. Which I did, because it's actually something I've been waiting for. And they've finally opened up a new radio channel for people to listen to, with it including muggle music, news report, interesting gossip and fun prize giveaways.

Like I told Sirius, the Muggle Toy Box will be releasing it's new camera, and the Radio they managed to get working, adding some more merchandise, but that's about it there.

My Vaccine has currently gained its benchmark as well. My extended version as allowed for a year and a half without any transformations or issues amongst all of its first recipients. 18 full months of protection with a single injection. Even if I'm the maker, I couldn't help but smile at the report. We are now testing second round of injections to see if results worsen or if any side effects crop up.

The underground scene of the wizarding world is where the most changes have been happening. My orders have made many conflicts break out. The disappearances, murders, framing and arrests have made the entire thing unstable. The major players are trying to regain their control over what was happening, but one of them disappeared and the others are suspecting each other and engaging in their own conflicts. Meanwhile Elaine has been wracking up achievements with her squad and has become The hit wizard known in households, apparently some interesting books about her have been written. But these are like the ones of Harry killing a horde of trolls at the age of five or whatever, so fictional.

Geri though has proven herself my hidden blade. No one knows she exists. No one knows she is on the prowl. And no one has noticed the disappearance of Mulciber Snr, Yaxley, or Jugson yet. Three loyal little death eaters disappearing in the night, with dozens of others joining them as a result. She has informed me that Macnair is currently awaiting a job from the Ministry so he's usually there, making it too risky to outright kill him for now, Selwyn is too small time right now to be able to find him in the chaos, and the Carrows will be last because they're always together, mostly fucking each other. By default making the Avery father and son next, since the old man is near is death anyway and the son is on the move a lot, giving us many chances.

All of this was brilliant news to me. With the free reins and support I provide to my partners, they help build the foundations for their own goals, further developing what we built together. I now have a self-sustaining and expanding network of information, supplies, muscle and influence. While at the same time continuously making money, helping the situation of multiple magical being races and improving the situation of many people in the process.

And I decided to use my web of influence to prepare myself in my fucking with Lucius.

I got the dirt on everyone in the disposal of dangerous creature panel deep in my pockets, wrestling control from Lucius without him knowing. And with that, I made them agree that Buckbeak was my property and they had no right to be involved hence the trial there was cancelled. The I used a few strings in the department in charge of notifying Lucius of this to conveniently lose his letter of notification. And got Wizengamot to schedule a trial against the Lord Malfoy for defamation, wrongful seizure of property, false accusations, bribery and blackmail. And I made sure he doesn't know by keeping the members of the trial to people who hate the man, done by bribing his usual allies to just not be there since it is 'only a case about a Hippogriff and beneath them to care'.

So to recap: cancelled his attempt to kill Buckbeak without him knowing, set up a trial against him without him knowing, stacked the bench in my favor like he usually does and removed his allies.

'It's so adorable that he thinks he's the only one who can play this game. He doesn't even know there's another player too. I'll need to get an early exam to make the trial date, but I can't wait for the summer.' I thought to myself as my devils smile was so prominent you could almost see the tail and horns on my shadow.

-Somewhere in a sexless married couples bedroom, a man suddenly woke up in sweats due to a sudden nightmare.

"Lucius? Are you alright?" Asked a groggy woman with mostly black hair except for a streak of gray.

"Yes I'm fine Narcissa. Simply a bad feeling." He answered dismissively, before trying to go back to sleep.

He would toss and turn that entire night.

-back to Aedan, also in a somewhat sexless relation. (But they really want to fix that.)

I also sent a new set of orders for Geri and her team to prepare for the capture of Peter Pettigrew. It would pause her work after the Avery's, but this was important for things to be controlled.

Finally done with my work, I turned off all the lights and went to relax with Tory for a while.

'I did good today, so I think I deserve to have my sexy girlfriend in my arms while we relax on my bed.' I thought with a happy smile and hummed.