Penny couldn't help but have a bounce in her step, as she gracefully headed towards the great hall, already thinking about her role in ntoring the future Lord. If she was successful in cultivating a friendship with the young Mr. Potter, it could only help her get ahead, despite the prejudiced nature of the Ministry of Magic.
Thinking back on the eting on the train at the start of the school year, and every other encounter she had had with him, it suddenly dawned on her that it wouldn't be easy.
After all, he was clearly intelligent and wasn't an individual to be intimidated by rank or position; that much was made clear by him ignoring Percy on the train, and every other first year attempting to give him the cold shoulder for refusing to help them.
She had often watched from a corner of the common room as the raven-haired first year played chess, and in less than a month he had gone from being butchered by his friend Padma, to being the one defeating Padma using his own complex and innovative traps.
In addition, she had seen him hanging around with a couple of Slytherins, which demonstrated that he wasn't soone who judged others by how they were labelled.
Then again, Ravenclaw generally had the best relationship with the Slytherin population of Hogwarts. He was also strangely more mature than most of his year mates she noted, probably more mature than so fifth years she knew too, who were still ssing about like first years, as she rembered Percy's twin brothers.
It probably explained his friendship with the Slytherin students; if they were ambitious or sharp they most likely had similar mindsets, since most of the snakes had an upbringing in politics. Otherwise she doubted he would hang around with them, it was clear that he wasn't interested in making friends just for friendship's sake.
All of which was very positive for her, she would just have to tread carefully.
Simply put, she doubted that simply walking up to him and telling him that she would be his tutor for the remainder of the year would result in an imdiate teacher/student relationship, a relationship where she would lead, and he would follow. He would test her by pushing her to prove her worth and value to him.
It suddenly dawned on her that it would be much harder than she originally thought; she would need to prepare and co up with so type of pitch.
After all, her head of house had warned her that it would be up to her, and a good Ravenclaw always had so type of plan. Rembering the fact that Harry would be a Lord so day, it was probably for the best that she at least tried to learn sothing of his family's recent history, so she wouldn't make an utter fool of herself, or screw herself over and ruin her chances by saying the wrong thing.
The problem was where to find such information; 'library,' she instantly concluded realizing that it would contain at least so biographical information on the family. Walking through the near empty corridors, she saw soone she was hoping to avoid, Percy.
Percy had always been nice to her throughout their years at school, or maybe indifferent to her until the start of the previous school year, but clearly sothing had changed last year and for whatever reasons he had taken it upon himself to 'court' her.
Naturally, it was very flattering, and was a welcod ego boost at the ti; after all, Percy was a respectable guy, if not a little stiff. But now she couldn't help but think back on everything she had learnt about magical Britain since the beginning of the year, whilst having images of Percy's mother, who seed rather pushy and demanding.
"Penny! Wait up!" he called, whilst hurrying over to her.
ntally groaning at her misfortune, whilst trying to decide what to do about him; despite everything she had learned about the sexist nature of the Ministry, and magical Britain as a whole, she didn't want to end their friendship before knowing where he really stood with his views.
She personally put it down to her Ravenclaw curiosity, and need for answers, after all he was nice to her, and had been a good friend. Nevertheless she couldn't help but think of his parents being pureblood, and how his mother Molly held a snobbish attitude towards her, like she wasn't good enough for her precious son. "Percy, how are you today?" she asked, only showing half interest in his presence, as the Gryffindor prefect straightened his robes.
"I am fine, thank you," answering with a smile, "Do you mind if I join you? Since I have a free period for the next hour and a bit," Percy offered in explanation.
Considering her answer before replying, if she allowed him to join her she wouldn't be able to research her target openly, and would be forced to make civilized conversation, but she could always discreetly pump Percy for information on the Potters.
Deciding to give him a hint that she wanted to be alone, "I doubt you would enjoy my company today Percy. I have a long assignnt just set by Professor Flitwick, and I need to focus on it, I'll just be a bore," she replied with a hint of coldness.
Percy just smiled, "That's no problem, I am sure I can help you. I've just handed in all my assignnts, after all, we prefects need to set an example to our year-mates." He replied pompously, instinctively thrusting out his chest to show his prefect badge, as she resisted rolling her eyes at Percy's self-aggrandizing speech.
"Very well then, Percy," was her clipped reply as she started walking away with purpose, as Percy lagged behind following her. 'He better not be looking at my ass,' feeling the boy's eyes lingering on her ass, but still feeling slightly flattered at the attention.
...
Midnight Gold
Harry was currently reading his way through the book his Head-of-House had given him. The book focused on how simple charms could be used for un-intended purposes, such as combat, while giving examples on how combining mundane charms could cause unexpected and sotis lethal results.
Basically the book was about how simple charms could be turned into combat capable spells for duelling and personal defence. The advantage of this was that clever usage of simple charms required less power, over so more energy expensive duelling styles.
Tactics like using an overpowered cooking charm on an individual would cause serious burns, muscle damage, as well as creating similar, but weaker effects to that of a blood boiling curse.
But these simple spells are easy to heal and counter, leaving no long-term damage, and are not illegal to use on another wizard. Another example given was using the water charm coupled with the freezing charm to turn ground to ice.
Simply put, the book encourages a devious mind in the cunning usage of overlooked, common spells for devastating effects. They would be especially dangerous when used with silent casting, where your foe wouldn't imdiately recognise the danger the spells presented. Furthermore, it enabled Harry to understand why their local charm's master was a highly regarded duelling champion, and respected even by traditional purebloods.
Harry really hoped in the years to co that Professor Flitwick would agree to teach him, even if the style was not as effective for him, because no matter how you look at it, simply being able to learn from a master duellist who relied on skill over direct power would help him develop his own abilities in duelling. Additionally, it would help prepare him for other duellists using similar styles. However his musing was ended when he heard a light tapping sound on his bedroom window.
Making his way over to window, he saw that there was a Gringotts' bank owl trying to get in. Opening the window, the owl quickly flew in and deposited its letter onto his bed before quickly disappearing out of the window.
Breaking the seal, he read the short ssage contained within.
The previously discussed and agreed upon investnts have been made. I also made a number of smaller deals similar to the ones undertaken during the sumr. They should prove profitable. I will discuss this further with you on your next scheduled visit to the bank.
May Your Gold Flow and Your Enemies Lie Defeated At Your Feet
Bloodmoon
Senior Account Manager
Smiling at the news as he considered Bloodmoon's ssage, he thought the goblin was doing his job well, very well. 'I might actually have to give him an extra reward for his good work,' considering how to keep the goblin happy and giving that extra effort for his accounts without his motivations becoming clear.
He had looked over the Potter investnt portfolio during the sumr holidays and was very interested in reopening the Potter Docklands which had been a major cash cow for his family before the last war, and the Death Eater attacks which had resulted in its destruction after several raids.
Along with the redevelopnt of the Potter's holdings surrounding the docklands, which could possibly be rented out to new businesses, frankly, it would give London's Diagon Alley so serious competition if redeveloped correctly...and all of it under his and his family's control. The possibilities were endless with a creative mind.
He was considering asking Bloodmoon about it as soon as the current businesses were sorted and fixed, to make preliminary moves to reopening the alley and docks again. He was pretty certain that businesses would return to the area if the right incentives were in place to entice them, such as low rent for a fixed period of ti or a percentage of their profits, and pri shop positions on the magical high street.
But first, he would discreetly buy up the old businesses, and any other real-estate in the area he could get a hold of, whilst the land value was still low, before anyone realized his plans for the redevelopnt of the area. After all, if anyone found out it would drive up the land value, decreasing the potential for profit.
Considering the money he'd be sinking into the place and the political obstacles he'd need to overco to make it a reality, he wanted to control as much of it as he could before he even started. If everything went well, he could possibly turn the area into a magical cultural center like it was before, whilst lining his pockets with gold.
He knew Bloodmoon would be supportive and more than willing to try; this project could very well triple the yearly revenue flowing into the Potter vaults, improving the goblin's own prominence and position within the bank.
Naturally, he would try to buy a good percentage of the surrounding real estate under the Peverell account to help prevent people from connecting the dots. However, he would have to be careful; he doubted that the other powerful families, who had business interests in Diagon Alley, would take kindly to seeing their profits decrease with the opening of another magical shopping alley.
It would take ti, but he was young and he was patient. He just needed to plan out his moves carefully and gather the right set of allies and supporters while taking advantage of every opportunity as it beca available.
Noticing the ti on the clock, it was ti for dinner and he was a growing boy, and growing boys need their food to grow big and strong. Plus, he had agreed to et Hagrid tonight as well, which he was looking forward to at the prospect of hearing so more stories about his parents and their days at Hogwarts.
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