Sirius walked into the Blackmoor Park manager’s office. He slumped down into the visitor’s chair.
“Wotcher, Maurice!”
“Sirius! How are you today?”
“I’m fine. I mean that I’m fine too. I’ve been thinking, and no smart cracks about that!”
Maurice Marsden smiled and nodded.
“My mother tried to educate me about the duties of the Black of Black. I spent years trying to forget about that. She hated me for it. What I have realised is this. I don’t have the same problem with being a Black now that I had then.”
Maurice leaned back in his chair. “Is that so? When did this start?”
“Recently! I suppose it was a few weeks after I started taking that mind-bender’s potion.”
Maurice nodded, “What do you want to do about being the Black of Black.”
“I’ve been thinking about my mail. I know I get mail. I think I should look at it.”
Maurice smiled, “I have tried to give you your mail.”
Sirius frowned, “Yes! I know! I put it in the fire as soon as you turned away.”
“Do you think you have the patience to read some today?”
Sirius shrugged, “I think that I might. I’m also a bit curious about why people are writing to me.”
Maurice stood and went to a shelf loaded with trays of parchments. “Here is the mail for this week. I have sorted them into groups. The first is from people who know that you are out of Azkaban but haven’t accepted that you have been cleared of all charges against you. Some of them are nasty. I don’t think that you need to see them.”
Maurice pointed to the next pile. “These are from people who know that you have been cleared. There are apologies from former Black allies and requests to renew the old alliances. You might want to leave that for later.”
Sirius rolled his eyes. “The old Black family allies are not the people I want to hear from.”
Maurice moved to another shelf and pile of mail. “These are from the Ministry. I have responded to them on your behalf. Mostly, they are veiled requests for bribes. That is the influence that Fudge and his cronies have on the Ministry. I told them you are still convalescing and can’t respond to their invitations.”
The next pile of parchments was overflowing from the trays. “These are from Gringotts. You must look at them and respond to them. I will let you read them. You must make an effort to understand what they are about.”
Sirius took the Gringotts mail to his study. It was nearly the first time that he had been in the room. The Blackmoor Park staff and house elves tried to make Sirius’s study as comfortable as possible. Still, he was not interested in spending any time there until now.
Sirius opened the first parchment.
To: Lord Sirius Orion Black, Earl of Blackmoor,
Blackmoor Park,
Yorkshire.
From: Brodgrin, Black Account Manager
Gringotts,
London.
My Lord,
Please respond to this request at your first convenience.
Gringotts has the honour of managing the Black Property Trust. This trust contains two thousand four hundred and twenty-eight properties. These properties are owned by you. Gringotts oversees the maintenance of the trust properties. All trust properties are rented and leased.
During your incarceration, some tenants continued to pay the agreed payments of their rental and lease agreements. However, many tenants have neglected to make the legally required payments.
This leaves Gringotts in a difficult situation.
The tenants who are now in arrears are all wizards. By Ministry law, Gringotts goblins cannot enforce any demands to make the legally required payments. The wizard owning the property must give permission to collect those payments. This means these defaulting tenants can use Black properties rent-free unless you authorise Gringotts to collect those payments.
During your illegal and unjust imprisonment, the defaulting tenants had free use of your property. They knew that Gringotts could not collect the rent unless you could sign the rent collection orders.
Please sign each collection order form I sent you and return them all to me. The money will be taken from the defaulter’s vaults. If insufficient funds exist, the defaulter’s property or assets will be seized until the debt is paid.
The claim forms I sent to you have the details of each property and tenant. If you do not wish to have the money reclaimed from a tenant, then leave the form unsigned. However, I urge you to enforce your rights in these matters. I think you will find that the defaulting tenants do not deserve mercy.
Make them pay!
Brodgrin
Black Account Manager
283Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjTg2g0z1gB
Sirius looked through the rest of the parchments. The defaulters were mainly old Black family allies. They had been stealing from Sirius and were now trying to claim alliances with him.
Sirius signed each form until he got to one with a long list of rented and leased properties. The tenant who had not been paying his rent was Lucius Malfoy. Sirius was stunned. Lucius did not own Malfoy Manor. He rented it and many other properties from the Black Property Trust and had not paid the rent since Sirius was put in Azkaban. Sirius signed the forms and bundled all the forms together. He called a house elf and sent the bundle to Brodgrin. A quick addition of the rent owed came to more than five million galleons from Lucius Malfoy alone.
Sirius leaned back in his chair, “Now! If every day was like this, I could get used to being the Black of Black.”
-ooOOoo-
Days later, Cyrus Greengrass received a message from Lucius Malfoy. Cyrus had offered to buy a piece of land that the Malfoys still owned. Cyrus also put in a bid for a house elf from Malfoy Manor.
Lucius had ignored the offer until now. He was suddenly very interested in selling the land and the house elf. The sale was rapidly completed, and Dobby joined the Greengrass elves. Harry had a visitor in his Slytherin dormitory room that night.
“Master Harry Potter, Sir!”
Harry recovered from the surprise. “Dobby, what are you doing here?”
“Dobby has a letter from Lord Greengrass for you, Master Harry Potter Sir.”
Dobby handed Harry a folded parchment with the Greengrass seal on it.
Harry noticed the new aura around Dobby. He also seemed significantly taller than the last time Harry saw him. Then, it struck Harry. Dobby was wearing the dark green uniform belonging to the Greengrass elves.
“Dobby! You are now a Greengrass elf.”
Dobby rapidly nodded his head. “Dobby was sold to new Master Lord Greengrass. Dobby is so happy. Lord Greengrass told me to come to you and stay here at Hogiwarts.”
“That’s wonderful news, Dobby. Can you call me just Harry from now on?”
“Oh yes! Master Just Harry! I can call you by any name you like.”
Harry blinked. “Um! Can you not say ‘Master’?”
“Oh! No!” Dobby was horrified. “Master is always ‘Master’. Dobby cannot say Dobby’s master’s name without saying ‘Master’”
Harry shrugged, “I suppose I can get used to it.”
Dobby bounced on the spot. “What can Dobby be doing for Master Just Harry?”
“You’re doing this deliberately,” Harry said.
“Oh! Yes, Master! Dobby is making his master’s name proper and fitting for him. You will always be Master Just Harry.”
Harry stared at Dobby. The elf stared back as if daring Harry to make him change Harry’s elf name again.
“Let’s leave it at that,” Harry mumbled.
Dobby nodded his head.
“Dobby! Can you ask the Hogwarts elves if you can search the Come and Go room for something?”
Dobby bounced on the spot again. “Oh! Yes! Dobby can be doing that. Dobby’s old master always had Dobby searching for things old master lost at Hogiwarts.”
Harry decided to make his move. A book that Hermione had found in the library was on Harry’s desk. He opened the book to a bookmarked page. The picture on the page was an artist’s imagining of Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem.
“I need to find this diadem. I know it was lost and put in the Come and Go Room many years ago. It could be anywhere in the room. Do you think you can find it?”
Dobby nodded. “Yes, Master Just Harry, I know Mistress Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem. I can find it.”
“Just a minute, Dobby! You know what this is! Is that right?”
“Oh! Yes! That is Dobby’s old Mistress Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem. It has been lost for many years. Dobby will find it if it is in the Come and Go Room.”
Harry stared at Dobby. “Are you saying that you once served Rowena Ravenclaw, a founder of Hogwarts?”
Dobby nodded his head.
“How old are you, Dobby?”
“Dobby must not answer. House elves do not tell how old they are being.”
Harry thought for a moment. The realisation that he knew nothing about house elves grew in his mind.
“Thanks, Dobby, you can go now.”
-ooOOoo-
Two Hufflepuff prefects entered Professor Sprout’s office.
“Hello, dears! Please sit! Tell me what’s happening!” Pomona Sprout tried to build friendly connections with all her house members.
The boy began, “Professor, it’s the DADA professor. There is a problem.”
Darkness descended on the mood in the office.
“Professor Lockhart, what has he done?”
The girl answered, “We think he has been hypnotising students.”
“WHAT! How do you know that?”
The boy and girl exchanged glances. The boy answered, “Susan Bones has been asking the senior students if they have met with Professor Lockhart. Specifically, if they have met him on their own, and they can’t remember details of what was said and done.”
Professor Sprout frowned, “Why? What does that mean?”
The girl said, “Susan collected answers from four girls from years six and seven. They met with Professor Lockhart in his office to ask questions about incidents in his books. They said they remember being satisfied with his answers but couldn’t remember what he said when they tried to write their thoughts in an essay.”
Professor Sprout frowned, “They forgot what he said, is that all?”
The boy said, “Susan has collected similar stories from Hermione Granger and Sue Li. Girls from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw have had the same experiences.”
“That’s too much to be a coincidence.” The professor said.
The girl said, “That’s what we thought. What can we do?”
“Do you have the names of those students?”
The girl handed a note to Professor Sprout. “These are the ones who are willing to be named. We asked the Slytherin prefects, but they said that all Slytherins have been warned by Professor Snape to stay away from Professor Lockhart.”
Professor Sprout looked surprised, “I haven’t heard that.”
“They said that it was a Slytherin matter. No one outside Slytherin is to hear about it.”
Professor Sprout shrugged, “Of course, that is the Slytherin way. So why did they tell you?”
The girl said, “They said that we could pass that information on if there was anything we could do to help get rid of Lockhart.”
Professor Sprout paused. “That is extraordinary. Usually, Professor Snape doesn’t let anyone know what happens inside Slytherin.”
Then she looked at the students. “I will ask Madam Pomfrey to call in those students on the list. She must perform random checks on students. She will use the opportunity to collect memories from each of those students. She will then send them to the DMLE if she sees anything suspicious. I will keep the other professors informed.”
“What about the headmaster?” the boy asked.
Professor Sprout smiled, “Let me worry about him. Try not to say anything more about this to anyone.”
-ooOOoo-
A week later, a squad of aurors arrived at Hogwarts. They ignored the Headmaster as he demanded that they leave the castle. Dumbledore floo-called Amelia Bones, who kept the Headmaster busy as the aurors arrested Lockhart.
At the trial before the Wizengamot, it was revealed that Gilderoy Lockhart had obliviated three students who had not accepted his explanations about errors in his books. The three obliviated students could resist Lockhart’s attempts to hypnotise them, and he was forced to take more robust measures to protect his reputation. Gilderoy had five years in Azkaban to contemplate the folly of accepting a teaching position at Hogwarts.
Molly Weasley was profoundly heartbroken after reading about the extent of Lockhart’s deception in all his books. Lockhart was questioned while under veritaserum, and his deceptions were fully revealed. It was explained in The Daily Prophet how Lockhart had stolen his stories from the real adventurers, who he then obliviated.
-ooOOoo-
Sirius entered the Black account manager’s waiting room. He settled in for a long wait.
The doors opened, and a uniformed goblin invited Sirius to Account Manager Brodgrin’s office.
Sirius was surprised. It only took two minutes. Trouble must be brewing for someone. He hoped it wasn’t him.
Brodgrin was there, waiting for him.
“Lord Black! It’s a pleasure to welcome you. May I congratulate you on gaining your freedom and your remarkable recovery.”
Sirius relaxed. It didn’t seem to be bad news for him. “Thank you, Account Manager.”
Brodgrin cut Sirius off as he was about to make the usual polite goblin greeting.
“Don’t worry about my family or my gold. I have more than enough of both. What we need to do today is to repeat what we achieved with the back rent you were owed. This time, it is the overdue loans made from the Black accounts. Some go back to when your father first took over the House of Black. He financed some very dubious schemes which he was too embarrassed to admit failed. The backers of those schemes kept his money and refused to give it back. Your father refused to force his allies to pay. He seemed to think he would be dishonoured if he plundered his relations' and friends' vaults.”
Sirius smiled, “Account Manager Brodgrin, you see before you a Lord of the House of Black who has no honour whatsoever. I presume that I have a stack of forms to sign.”
Brodgrin pushed a stack across the desk to Sirius.
“Wonderful! Let’s get started.”
-ooOOoo-
The following week slowly passed. The days were gloomy and rain-soaked. Early morning Quidditch practice was a very wet time.
At breakfast, after a freezing and cheerless practice session, mail owls arrived for Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe. They opened the letters from their respective fathers. Pansy finished hers and went to the Slytherin bookends. She patted each one on the shoulder and beckoned them to the Great Hall doors. They stopped outside and had an intense conference. They quickly reached the same conclusion.
Draco looked around after reading his letter. Pansy, Greg and Vincent were gone. Draco stood and hurried out of the hall. He found them outside the doors.
“What are you doing? I don’t like you going off on your own.”
Pansy smiled sweetly. “You’re going to have to get used to it, Draco,”
“What! What do you mean?”
Pansy smiled prettily, “I have just received a fascinating letter from my father. He has broken the betrothal contract for us. You and I are no longer an item. Apparently, your father has failed to pay some outstanding business debts to my father. Your father, Draco, is broke! Penniless! Skint! Henceforth, we are finished!”
Pansy waved the hulking boys forward.
Gregory Goyle spoke first, “Draco, my father is no longer employed by your father. My dad has ordered me to work for another family, not the Malfoys. I am now working for the Parkinsons. Pansy’s father has paid my father properly, so I am no longer yours to order around.”
Vincent Crabbe joined in, “It’s the same for me, Draco. My family now serve the Parkinsons. Your father owes my father thousands, which will never be paid. It’s over, Draco.”
“Time for classes; get your things, boys.”
“Yes, Pansy!” “Sure, Pansy!”
Draco was left standing in the Entrance Hall. Students were flooding out from breakfast and walked around the still figure of Draco Malfoy. Draco’s world was falling around him.
-ooOOoo-
While Draco was being introduced to a new and unpleasant version of reality, Harry was reading the latest news from Greengrass Manor.
From: Cyrus Greengrass,
Greengrass Manor
To: Harry J. Potter,
Slytherin House,
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Thursday, November 5, 1992
Dear Harry,
Beware of Draco Malfoy.
Certain events have taken place, possibly making him unstable and dangerous.
Some background information will explain what is happening.
Lucius Malfoy made some difficult discoveries when he inherited the House of Malfoy.
The biggest one was that his father had made poor investments, leaving Lucius with the head of house title, a manor house, and nothing in the vault. Lucius’ father, Abraxas, was a criminal like Lucius. However, Abraxas made a string of deals with gangs from Eastern Europe. Abraxas was cheated by cheating thieves who were better at cheating and thieving than he was.
Lucius was desperate to maintain the image that he had cultivated. He wanted to be the polished and accomplished dark wizard who took what he wanted, and nobody dared to resist him.
It was all bluff.
Lucius sold most of the Malfoy family’s land and assets and spent the money on maintaining the appearance of wealth.
Lucius sold Malfoy Manor to the Black head-of-house when he married Narcissa Black. At the time, the head of the House of Black was Sirius’ father. Lucius has rented the manor from the Black estate ever since.
When Sirius was locked up in Azkaban, Lucius did a very silly thing. He stopped paying the rent on Malfoy Manor and other properties he had rented from the Black estate. He could get away with this as wizarding law prevents Gringotts from collecting unpaid rent. The wizard who owns the property must sign the order to collect the rent. Sirius couldn’t do this while he was in Azkaban. Sirius also refused to sign anything once he was released. Now, it seems, Sirius has started behaving. He has signed the rent collection orders, and the Malfoy vaults have taken a big hit.
Lucius pays extravagant bribes to Fudge and other Ministry heavyweights to keep them away from his criminal activities. He relies on terrorising less powerful wizards who have had their money and livelihood taken by Lucius’ schemes.
I have managed to avoid his traps over the years. As you know, I have been collecting information on Lucius for many years. I finally discovered what I wanted to find while we were at Malfoy Manor.
Lucius gave me a hint of where he was getting his cash. He was borrowing from some of the criminal moneylenders who ruined his father all those years ago. You are right; Lucius was and is foolish. I am guessing that Lucius was trying to swindle them the way they swindled his father. I contacted those moneylenders and bought the Malfoy debt from them. It cost a lot of galleons, but it was worth it.
I converted that debt into a Gringotts bank loan and called in the debt.
The goblins were delighted.
They have emptied the Malfoy vaults into Sirius’ and my vaults. They claim nearly every galleon still coming into the Malfoy vaults to repay the outstanding debt.
The fees owing to Gringotts for these transactions are enormous. The goblins were even more delighted. It always pays to keep them as allies if you can.
What does this mean for you?
The Goyle and Crabbe boys were loyal to Draco because Lucius employed their fathers to do his dirty work. The boys were bound by their father’s contractual obligations to Lucius. Lucius can’t pay them. The contracts have now been transferred to a new owner, the Parkinson family.
Pansy Parkinson was betrothed to Draco. That marriage contract has been broken because Lucius has not paid the vast debts that he owes to the Parkinson businesses. The Parkinsons know how broke Lucius is.
Draco is now on his own.
Draco has inherited the most prominent aspects of the Malfoy character. He is weak and cowardly, but he can also be dangerous. Snape knows about the Malfoy money problems, and the Black account managers at Gringotts are ready to evict the Malfoys from Malfoy Manor.
Be prepared for confrontations with a disappointed and angry Draco Malfoy.
Yours sincerely
Cyrus Greengrass
283Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz4JeCTjcYk
