Harry Potter The Surprise

Hermione had something she needed to mention too. "I said to the girls they could help design our robes, I hope you don't mind? We thought our badge should be the PI symbol, with the words 'Potter Institute' on it. Apart from that, you've now heard all our ideas."

A smiling Pomona thanked them both. "You've certainly given me enough to be getting on with. When I first arrived here, I couldn't believe how blue the sky was. I think something like that would make a good base colour for our robes, certainly not black, and I want final approval of your design."

A cheeky 'yes, Headmistress' from both teens in sync left everyone chuckling. "Remus showed us the sample pictures of buildings designed for this country. From the look of your drawing, I would say we picked the same architect - Francesca Rossi. It's our job now to sit down with her and make this a school it will be a joy to both teach and learn in."

"Oh you will love working with her. She's a squib who attended muggle university and is now making a name for herself on both sides of the magical divide. You'll find magical Italy is a lot more progressive than Britain."

The enthusiasm in Remus' comments saw a large grin appear on Sirius' face. "Why Moony, if I didn't know you better I would say. You were smitten."

Rather than being embarrassed, Remus just grinned at his best friend. "Just wait until you meet Francesca, you'll be smitten too."

This led to all of them gently chiding Remus to get the lady here as quickly as possible.

.....

A floo call from a sobbing Pansy had Draco shouting for his father. He quickly explained the situation to Lucius, having deciphered what was happening between Pansy's loud sobs.

"Pansy said her father returned from Gringotts and ordered that they immediately pack. It seems the Parkinsons are leaving the country - today if possible."

Sensing a possible ally here, Lucius asked the distraught witch to fetch her father. Pansy was very reluctant, since her father had forbade her contacting anyone, but Lucius saying he might be able to help them stay in Britain was more than enough incentive for the girl to face the possible wrath of her father.

Edmund Parkinson was a wizard who liked his luxuries, and partook of them often. Rich food and regular fine alcohol consumption had seen Edmund sporting a ruddy complexion for as long as Lucius had known the wizard, he didn't think it was the floo system that was turning that same complexion ashen.

"Lucius, I am rather busy and don't really have time to be sociable at the moment. Could we get straight to the point.?"

Keeping his emotions screwed down tight, Lucius waded right into the deep end. "I'm guessing that you visited your vaults to find them empty, except for a letter from our master?"

This revelation had Edmund immediately on guard. "How could you possibly know this?"

Sure of himself now, Lucius laid it out for the wizard. "Edmund, the same thing happened to me. I was ready to run when Draco pointed out that Harry Potter had warned him of the possibility of the Malfoys losing all their gold. I was ready to dismiss this as taunts between teens when I remembered something, Potter is a parselmouth - just like our master. Hearing the same thing happened to you adds credence to the theory that Potter was somehow behind this."

Edmund's temper exploded through the floo. "I'll gut the little bastard, and then sit back and watch as he slowly dies."

"Not before we get our gold back, and our hands on the Potter gold too."

Edmund then had another thought. "Lucius, do you think he's done this to more wizards than us? Should we contact some of the others?"

This was something that hadn't occurred to Lucius, he couldn't hide his smile at that thought though. "If Potter has done this to the others, then their gold would also swell our vaults when we catch the brat. We'll be the ones taking the chance, and spending gold finding out where to get our hands on Potter. Let them run."

While greedily agreeing with the idea of taking even more gold for his own vault, Edmund wanted clarification on that last bit. "What do you mean?"

"Draco tells me the best way to get to Potter is through his mudblood. My contacts at the Ministry are currently sifting through the records to get me the little bitch's address. I didn't want to take Draco with me on this mission but we both know you need a backup in these situations. Her parents are muggles so you and I should be able to handle this easily. Getting our hands on the mudblood will see Potter doing whatever we want. I could even have Severus brew some control potions for the little bastard. We need him alive to sign over all that gold to us. After that, we can decide whether to kill him, or keep the little shit alive as a gift for our master - should he return."

Edmund now wanted in, and Lucius was able to squeeze some gold out of the man - to help toward paying his contact at the Ministry. Of course that gold would never see Lucius' contact, unless of course their plan worked. Otherwise, Edmund had just made a contribution to the Malfoy escape fund. It was decided they would act as soon as the information came through. There wasn't really any time to do any planning, other than torture the parent to get the mudblood's co-operation. Then she would receive the same treatment until Potter did what they told him to.

While Edmund thought all their problems had just been solved, Lucius would still have Narcissa continue with their preparations to run. It was a proven Malfoy tactic, a tactic that was responsible for the Malfoy's timely relocation to Britain a few generations ago. Lucius hoped his branch of the family wouldn't have to flee Britain with their tail between their legs.

....

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