The mirror-phone on Leo’s workshop bench came to life. Harry Potter’s voice called out, “Pick up Leo, give me a few minutes please.”
“Yes Harry, fire away.”
“Leo, we have a situation which needs your particular talents. Urgently.”
“I’m free right now Harry, do you want to come here?”
“I’ll be there at 10. I will bring one guest. Let’s make it a main reception room event.”
“OK, I’ll get the troops started on it.”
The blue Bentley delivered Harry and Dr Anastasia Zaitseva to 15 Purbeck Square. In the main reception room, Anastasia admired the portraits of the Pimlico and Black ancestors.
“They look like they could talk, they certainly have some sort of life of their own.”
“Don’t test them too much, they are magical. The portraits have the memories and essential life force of their subjects. They are charmed to stay still when a muggle is in the room. If we were all magical, they would have no trouble joining in the conversation.”
Tea was served by John, Leo arrived after changing into his morning meeting outfit.
“Dr Zaitseva, this is The Viscount Pimlico etc, etc. Don’t call him anything but Leo, he won’t answer to it.”
“How do you do Doctor. Harry hasn’t told me anything about what we will be doing, apart from the fact that you are connected with Imperial College, you’re a muggle, and you’ve been accidently introduced to the wizarding world.”
“The short version of the story is that somehow, no one seems to know how, a doorway has been set up between my office at Imperial College and the Ministry of Magic. I am about to lose my office because my project has finished. I can’t remove the doorway. Harry’s people can’t remove it. The secrecy of the wizarding world is at risk. In the short term I need another project to allow me to keep my office until a fix is found. To do this I need someone with a lot of money, someone like you, to sponsor a project for me.”
‘‘Think no more of it. Do you have a project proposal here?” A folder was handed over. Leo took it to the entry hall. Minutes later he returned to the reception room.
“Done! Kenworthy will submit it for me today, with the hurry up charms needed to get it approved. Your office is yours as long as you need it. There is one thing, the solicitors want me to be involved with this project from now on, invitations to the important meetings and so on.”
That was Harry’s cue; “I was hoping you would get involved. Anastasia, I have some others I would like to get in to help. Besides me, and the Department of Mysteries people, we should have Ron and Hermione Weasley. I have worked with them before and they have always been useful.”
Anastasia found her voice again, “Thank-you for doing this, Leo. I have no idea how much it will cost; the initial estimate was 3 million pounds.”
“Oh, it won’t cost me that much, tax advantages, rebates, you name it. The lawyers and accountants will have their fun with it. Roger mentioned that I should set up a permanent bursary and post-graduate research sponsorship fund to do this every year.”
Tea was served again, “Mary makes a good chocolate cake.” Harry took his second piece. “If I had to do this through the Ministry there would be months of meetings and curly questions to answer to get approval. Leo is a good sort of brother to have.”
The office was still the same, the door was still there. Anastasia relaxed for the first time in months. The project final submission was sent off. At last she could go back to her flat and enjoy an evening meal with her son Peter. As she went out the door she ran into the head of her department, Professor O’Connell. “Anastasia, I’m glad I caught you. We have had an interesting communication from a Viscount Pimlico. He is going to sponsor your next project, wholly sponsor that is, with a donation for new equipment as well. You have three years of funding, as much supercomputer time as you want, and two staff as well. Did you know about this?”
“I met him through a mutual acquaintance. He mentioned setting up a fund to grant a sponsorship like this each year. He seemed to be quite an ordinary sort of person apart from the millions in cash that is.”
193Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCJRqiTRUv6
