MTLNOVEL Chapter 86: "Discussion in the Stands"
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"Discussion in the Stands"
"Stephen, who do you think will win?" Harry asked excitedly as we climbed the stairs, which trembled with so many people talking around us.
Luckily, thanks to magic, we were not in any danger.
"Ireland, but Bulgaria will catch the Golden Snitch," I said calmly.
"We're betting on that," the twins said with a smile.
"Remember to use the metal detector I gave you when you go to collect your winnings," I said with a smile.
"You worry too much. Our dad knows Ludo from work," the two twins replied foolishly.
"If you get scammed, it's not my fault. I warned you," I said as I continued on my way.
While we were chatting, a repulsive voice sounded.
"Weasley? What are you doing here? This is a seat for the tournament sponsors... Or did you win the lottery, Weasley?" It was Lucius Malfoy with his son, who had been insulting Ron as soon as he saw him.
I've always been struck by how Malfoy always targets Ron and Harry. It's pretty eerie to be so obsessive about two kids.
While I thought of funny things, Lucius addressed his son Draco and said:
"Draco, what is this? Why are you talking to... this?" He showed his disdain blatantly, giving a look as if he were staring at trash.
"They were invited by me, Mr. Malfoy. But it's stranger to see your family here. After all, since I took control of my family's Black stores again, I thought you wouldn't have money to be playing around anymore. Or maybe you came to beg for alms in the wealthy boxes," Sirius said, defending the Weasley family while speaking with a calm smile.
"Sirius Black. It seems your stay in Azkaban did you good. You used to be just a stray dog, and now you've become the heir to an ancient house," Lucius said, looking at Sirius with contempt and restrained anger.
"I wouldn't mind helping you go with your fellow Death Eaters. Maybe it will help you become a better person too," Sirius replied calmly, showing no trace of anger.
Malfoy was more than furious about Sirius' release. After all, while he was imprisoned, part of the Black family's business and lands were being controlled by the Malfoys since Narcissa, his wife, was Sirius' sister.
But after Sirius was released and exonerated, he returned to reclaim everything that was rightfully his. Malfoy opposed all of this, claiming that the profits he made managing the business were far superior to anything Sirius Black had done, as he had abandoned his house years ago.
He even tried to take him to court, but a sudden business alliance with the Flamel family and Magitech scared the entire English market, causing Malfoy to run with his tail between his legs.
This also caused several waves, where many pure-blood families lost a lot of money and control over the monopoly they had held.
Everyone now refers to this business alliance as "the alliance of the three giants." What they don't know is that two parts of this alliance belong to the same house—after all, Magitech was created by Stephen under another name, so Stephen couldn't wait to see the faces of those pseudo-nobles.
Magitech now controls international magical technological advancements. The Flamel family, owning many alchemical patents, has now preferred to delve into investments in several fields, especially magical medicine. And the Black family ventured into potions, and thanks to a few ancient recipes from their family and others that Harry found in his vault, they quickly took a large portion of the market.
Sirius wanted to give a large portion of the shares to Harry as an apology for all the years he failed as a godfather. But Harry rejected it after a long argument with Sirius, who tried to give him part of the company. Harry got tired and showed that he had shares in the Flamel and Magitech companies. After all, he was now part of the Flamel family like everyone else who had the same. So Sirius gave up, but he would surely find a way to make up for lost time.
He obviously gave a percentage to the recipes Harry found, and in that, he didn't want to budge, after all, they belong to the Potter family.
Meanwhile, with the Magitech company, I might have gotten a little carried away and monopolized much of the international market, and now I'm flooded with work.
So I had to convince all the Flamel siblings to help manage it, after all, they make money with the company's existence, so they should do something.
Harry quickly declined because he wants to be an Auror. Meanwhile, Wanda is not at all reliable, so I threw her out of the conversation while she complained. And Loki said he would only work if he were the president of the company, so we gave him a beating. Then Tony and Natasha will help me. Of course, we hired some really good people.
For example, Andromeda and Ted Tonks, Sirius' sister and brother-in-law, whom he reunited with after a long time.
The funniest part was when Tony found out the name I used to start the company: Tony Stark. And he kept complaining about identity theft and all that, but he calmed down when I told him I used Steve's name for the Eldritch magic books.
Back to Sirius, who even regained his seat in the Wizengamot by kicking Malfoy out, who had been using it as if it belonged to him.
It is clear that it is a pure-blood family, but the Malfoy family is relatively new compared to the Black family and even the Potter family, so they needed a lot of money to regain a seat for their family.
"And by the way, Malfoy, as you can see, I'm better than ever," Sirius said, showing himself surrounded by friends with happiness. The way he spoke to Malfoy, without showing contempt or any trace of annoyance, was because he now knew how to fight, not just with his wand, but also with politics.
When he returned, he was dragged into the Black castle by his grandfather, Arcturus Black, who had retired long ago. He trained him in the art of politics and business management.
Arcturus Black was supposed to have died by 1991, but honestly, it's no surprise, considering some elderly people who should have died long ago but are still in contact with my grandparents. Obviously, it's our existence that changed that.
Arcturus Black also had Harry go through something called pure-blood rehabilitation by the Ministry of Magic, through which we discovered that the Evans family, Harry's mother's family, has magical roots. And with a little help from me, it was highlighted that Harry's blood was considered purer than many other families.
According to the elder Arcturus, that would help with the Ministry's attempt to control Harry. And although he had two powerful families protecting him, technically, only the Black family was considered of English purity. After all, the Flamel family had its roots in France.
By the way, Wanda also wanted to take the test and forced us all to do it, causing the ineffable official to kneel before us and say that we were the gods of magic incarnate. Luckily, they have a silence contract.
Now, Harry, considered a pure-blood, had the hidden benefits of being one. Something that the Weasley family counts on, even if they were considered traitors. After all, even if they want to deny it, the Weasley family is a pure-blood family, and that helped a lot in preventing many families that wanted to destroy them from doing so. For example, the Malfoys, who had a deep hatred for them. They would have done it a long time ago, or at least made Arthur's life miserable by taking away any job he could get.
And when they found out that the Weasleys used to associate with the Black and Flamel families, the pure-bloods went crazy with jealousy and hatred.
Obviously, they didn't show it in front of us because they feared we would attack their economy and they would lose everything, like others who couldn't keep quiet.
Seeing that he was at a disadvantage, Malfoy simply made an annoying sound and took his son away to get away from us.
"You're already acting like a pure-blood," I mocked as Sirius made a disgusted gesture.
"It's true, Sirius, you seem like a different person," Harry said, joining in while laughing.
"Try staying yourself when you have the old man drilling your head every day. Maybe they brainwashed me," Sirius said, complaining. "I feel like it's not the same anymore."
"Maybe you already had a problem with your brain from the start," Natasha said, casually walking past Sirius with a smile as she searched for her seat.
"You..." Sirius said, half-furious, but when Natasha turned around, he swallowed his words. "Cough. Let's sit down before more annoying flies show up," he said, turning to look at us as if nothing had happened.
Everyone, seeing that, held back their laughter, except for the twins, who started mocking Sirius.
Later, Fudge arrived with the Irish Minister, while Malfoy quickly approached with a sycophantic smile.
It seemed like he still wanted to cling to the minister. After all, when the Malfoy family had all its power, they supported him to settle his dirty dealings with the Ministry.
But now that Fudge realized that Malfoy was no longer as useful as before, especially since he had some sort of bad relationship with Sirius Black, he began to distance himself. After all, he didn't want one of the oldest families to be against him. Though Sirius had already been against him for a long time, he learned to hide it well thanks to his grandfather's training.
Although Sirius doesn't like under-the-table dealings, he knew that if he wanted to have power in the English magical world, he had to endure it. So, he accepted Fudge's approach, as it was very helpful in reclaiming the power of the Black family.
Above all, Fudge was delighted because now he had a connection with one of the three parts that form the alliance that basically controls most of the English market.
So, he welcomed Black and introduced him to the Irish Minister.
Something worth mentioning is that Fudge seemed to not understand the Irish Minister, so Sirius, who knew Irish, helped a little, earning the appreciation of both Fudge and the Irish Minister, and the deep hatred of Malfoy, who simply went to sit not too far away, glaring at our side.
After speaking with the ministers for a while, Sirius returned to sit with us, wearing a proud and somewhat smug smile.
"It seems like speaking another language makes you feel quite important, doesn't it?" Natasha said, speaking in perfect Irish.
"Although I think the word 'perfection' is not one I would use to describe your Irish. You defended yourself," I said, also speaking in perfect Irish.
"Hey, don't bother the guy who made an effort to learn another language. Even if he did it a little wrong," Tony said, joining in the collective teasing while speaking Irish.
"What are you all talking about? Why are we all speaking Irish? I prefer Russian or German," Wanda said, arriving half out of breath because she had run to buy some snacks. Of course, she spoke in fluent Irish.
"Alright, alright, I get it, everyone speaks Irish better than me," said Sirius, annoyed by our collective bullying.
"I can speak seven languages," Wanda said, still not understanding what was going on. "Eight, if you count one that doesn't exist in this world."
"I can speak ten languages," Natasha said with a smile.
"Oh, I thought I knew more, but I only speak six languages," Tony said, seeming to compete.
"I can speak ten mortal languages. And one that could drive a normal person insane. Looks like you're less than me," Loki said, boasting to Tony. Meanwhile, the rest of us just let him be, after all, we were used to it.
"Twenty-seven languages. But I can understand all of them with just one listen," I said, as everyone was surprised for a second, but then they realized who I was and said annoying words.
"Show-off," Tony said.
"Conceited," Natasha said.
"Egotistical," added Harry, taking the chance to tease.
"Vain mortal," Loki said.
"Pathological narcissist and bald," Wanda added, laughing.
After listening to my dear siblings, I had to start a death battle for my ego, which caused Amelia and several Aurors to intervene to stop us before we started using magic and ended up destroying the entire stadium.
While the twins shouted about opening bets, Molly Weasley stopped them.
And so, at last, the show we came to see began.
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