Don't Panic Chapter 28: An Elvish Enterprise

Last Time: ... Harry’s immersion in his studies might have been a tad excessive, but he was satisfied that he’d gotten enough magic study in to carry him comfortably through their next round of adventuring. 

Now free of all rune related tasks and with his head firmly back in the real world, Harry turned his attention to wondering what Sirius had been up to during the few weeks. He had a vague recollection about a meeting to discuss a warehouse … maybe? 

Harry shrugged. He was sure Sirius knew what he was doing.

Either way, he was keen to get up to speed on Sirius’s projects. And if the gleam in Sirius’ eyes was anything to go by, he wouldn’t be bored.

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Chapter 28 – An Elvish Enterprise

Harry enjoyed the homey aroma of his English breakfast tea as he sat in the living room of their tent, listening with a fair amount of bemusement to the story that Sirius and Dobby were weaving.

He knew he had been out of touch for a while now, as he got way too engrossed in his research on the first men runes. But he truly hadn’t expected the other two to have managed quite so much in his absence.

He probably shouldn’t have been surprised though. Dobby was quite an industrious little elf.

And Sirius was … well, he was there too, he guessed.

“So … you’re saying we have a warehouse now?” he asked as he mulled over the development.

“Yep” Sirius said with a grin, making sure to pop the ‘P’ for emphasis, "A real prime bit of real estate at that, and I managed to get it for a song" He said looking smug.

Harry, raised an eyebrow, taking a slow sip of his tea,. "For a song, huh?” he mused, “hope it wasn’t your singing that got us a discount. Or maybe the discount was thrown in just to get you to stop the racket?" Harry chuckled at his own terrible joke.

"Please,” Sirius said, turning his nose up in a melodramatic swoon, “I’ll have you know I have an amazing voice!” he pointedly ignored the snorts from Harry and Dobby at that comment, “But no. In this case it was down to my pure negotiation mastery." 

Harry continued to enjoy his tea as Sirius launched into an animated retelling of how he had acquired the new warehouse and dock premises for their fledgling trade business, complete with dramatic hand gestures and self-congratulatory nods.

"You make it sound like some legendary conquest," Harry mused, though he was genuinely pleased with what Sirius and Dobby had accomplished. 

"But I won’t argue with results. Location is everything in business. Well done. A better start than I thought we’d make, to be honest." Harry raised his cup towards the two in congratulations for a deal well done. Though, mainly he was glad it was just one more thing he didn’t have to do himself before they moved on from White Harbour.

Dobby positively beamed at the praise, his large ears twitching with delight, while Sirius merely nodded with a self-satisfied grin. "What can I say? Some people are born with talent. I know the art of the deal better than any man."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Yes, because nothing says 'cunning businessman' like spending half your adult life in prison and the other half being a professional menace."

Sirius clutched his chest dramatically. "Ouch, right to the heart."

"Yea, yea, no need for the melodrama, you forget I’m the son of Lily Evans. I can see through your acting like a pane of glass.” Harry snorted at his godfather’s antics. It was the little moments of banter like this that made him perpetually glad he’d come here to find his godfather. 

Sirius let out his own snort at Harry’s response, before launching into a rather energetic retelling of their subsequent reconstruction project, detailing the various magical techniques they had used to speed up the process. 

When he got to the bit about using gillyweed to dredge the docks, Harry leaned forward, clearly impressed.

"Ingenious! Both of you," he said, setting his cup down. "That’s the work of years done in just a few weeks! Truly an achievement." Harry had to praise the two for the forethought, knowing that this not-so-little change to the harbour would be a great boon for their trade endeavours in the future. Particularly with all the plans he had for new and improved ships that would definitely need a deeper draught to dock. 

"Yeah" Sirius hummed in agreement, happy to receive Harry’s praise "seems this old dog can still learn a few new tricks when he needs to” 

“but …” Harry cut in with an inquisitive tone “... well, why didn’t you just summon the loose silt out of the dredging area first? … You know, instead of going down there and digging it up?” Harry wondered aloud, causing Sirius to choke on his latest sip of tea. 

“Uh,” Sirius lamented with a groan, “damn. Why didn’t we do that?”. It would probably have cut in half their time underwater. Let alone speeding the whole process up a bit.

“Oh, Dobby considered that,” the energetic house elf piped up happily, “but it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as much fun!”

Sirius’ eye twitched at that response. He and Dobby clearly had very different definitions of fun. He made a mental note to send Harry along the next time something like this needed doing. Particularly if Dobby was involved. 

“Right,” Harry chuckled slightly at Sirius’ poleaxed expression, “yes, that makes perfect sense Dobby. Glad you were on the job.” He complimented the helpful house elf, who puffed out his chest happily at the praise. No matter how much of it was just meant to poke a bit more at Sirius’ bruised ego.

“It really is an incredible achievement though,” Harry continued contemplatively, “Think about how long it would have taken the muggles to do something you managed in one afternoon. It really brings home just how much of an advantage we have over all the muggles here in Westeros.”

“…And I’m loving every moment of it!” Harry finished with a wicked grin. He let out a chuckle as Sirius raised an eyebrow in slight question. 

"What?” he shot back in response to Sirius’ questioning look. “I spent my childhood being forced to scrub floors without even a sponge. I think I deserve to revel in all the little shortcuts magic can give us. Not to mention how much good we can do with it for the people of Westeros … even if it does give us a bit of an unfair advantage in our little trade endeavours." Harry finished with a grin. 

Sirius nodded in agreement. "Fair point. It does make you appreciate magic more when you’ve gone without it. I learnt that lesson twice over.

“It just ... well it makes you think.” Harry pondered “this is really how magic should always have been used. Achieving grand feats for the good of everyone. And yet it took us coming to a whole new world to actually be able to do it.”

“I never understood the wizards of magical Britain.” He continued, after a short pause “They had all that magic at their finger-tips and still employed a squib to scrub the floors of Hogwarts. Then you get out of Hogwarts and the ministry won’t let you do anything worthwhile with magic anyway.” Harry was getting quite animated now.

He had been pondering this a lot recently as he worked on inventing new magics with the first men runes he discovered. Something that would never have been allowed by the stuffy British wizards, with all their restrictions that stifled magic. There was really only one thing he could conclude about the British magical world “… The whole lot of them were mad!”

“I mean, if two of us could dig a whole harbour with magic in order to bring in more grain for the North, then of course we should do it! It just seems so like the right thing to do.” He finished with a shrug.

“Right,” Sirius agreed, “I guess I didn’t really put much thought into it at the time, but you’re right. If we were back in wizarding Britain the ministry would have been all over us for messing around with the harbour. It really is liberating being able to do what we want with magic” Sirius had a wide grin now. 

“As long as we do it subtly of course.” Harry added. They’d been careful to keep their magic under wraps so far, and no-one was any the wiser.

The three of them stared off into the distance a bit as it seemed to hit them there really were no limits on what they could do with magic here in Westeros. This really was shaping up to be a great vacation. 

Harry shook himself from thought, "enough philosophy—we need to talk about your new employee."

"Our new employee," Sirius corrected, leaning back in his chair with a thoughtful expression. "And let me tell you, he’s an interesting one."

Harry waved him on, his curiosity now piqued.

"I have to warn you," Sirius continued, "the guy’s an uber minimalist. And I don’t mean in a fashionable way. You know, Lily used to talk about those modern muggle trends? The whole 'less is more' thing? Well, this man took that concept and ran with it straight into the next dimension."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "How bad are we talking?"

Sirius gestured wildly. "There was exactly one crumpled ball of parchment on the floor in his whole livingroom, and he insisted that the place was a mess."

“Well, some people are just sticklers for being tidy I suppose” Harry replied with a shrug, “I really don’t see why you’re up in arms by him having a piece of paper on the ground.”

“No, you don’t understand,” Sirius replied, waving his arms for emphasis, “the piece of paper was the ONLY thing in his living room! Hell, I even had to conjure a chair just to sit down.”

Harry blinked. "…Right. That sounds... umm, I don't know what to do with that information. Maybe I should just meet the guy. We all have our eccentricities I suppose."

Sirius shrugged. "I’ve arranged to meet him at the warehouse in two days' time. He’s a good man, though, despite his … oddities. He’s a well respected merchant if the word on the street is anything to go by, and he's clearly been taught the trade from a young age, so he’s got plenty of skill to go around. Though maybe not quite as much as myself.”" Sirius concluded with a self-satisfied grin, selecting a jam and cream scone as he leant back into his cushy armchair before continuing.

"Apparently he fell into the bad books with those Iron Bankers or something. That’s why his warehouse was a bit … crispy when I bought it off him. But that’s all to our gain. We got a prime headquarters for our Westerosi operations, and we gained a willing professional to run the lot while we continue our wandering."

That pleased Harry. He had wanted the elves involved, but putting one in charge of the business would have been a disaster. Without the necessary cultural context, they’d be lost in the complexities of Westerosi commerce. Hiring a local was always the best option—if you could find one you trusted.

"Sounds like we’ve got a third of the job sorted," Harry mused. "The other two-thirds being the arrangement of ships and deciding what to trade. Do we source it from our own stock and the Elven farms, or do we work with local producers?"

Sirius waved a hand. "All in due time, Harry. We’ve got the infrastructure. Now, we just need to make sure it actually turns a profit."

Dobby, who had been sipping his tea quietly, suddenly perked up. "Dobby has been keeping records! Dobby will make sure the business runs smoothly!"

Harry and Sirius exchanged a glance, both silently agreeing that Dobby’s definition of "smoothly" might need some oversight. 

"Uh, thanks Dobby, but maybe someone else can help with that. You'll be travelling with us anyway." Harry hoped that was enough to redirect Dobby's attention.

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As their afternoon tea wound down, the conversation turned to wardstones. Sirius and Dobby explained that they would need a new one for the warehouse. Though it wouldn’t be as powerful without a weirwood to anchor it, Harry agreed he could prepare one fairly quickly to meet their needs. Particularly now he had a much better handle on the how to make their existing rune schemes work with the local magic.

Sirius leaned back in his chair and stretched. "Alright, let's start with the obvious. Anti-fire wards and anti-theft wards. No point in building the best warehouse in Westeros if it burns down or gets robbed the moment we turn our backs."

Harry nodded, already jotting it down. "Standard stuff for any wizarding home. Those are easy enough."

Dobby perked up. "Master Harry, Dobby already prepared some dry rooms to store grain. Dobby thinks wards to keep out damp and rot is good, yes? Keep the grain fresh for longer."

Harry glanced up from his notes. "A climate control ward… and maybe some stasis based charms linked in. Hmm" he muttered, tapping his quill against the parchment. "Yes, that’s a solid idea, Dobby. It’ll keep the temperature steady and prevent any rot from entering our perishable goods. While we’re at it, we might as well extend the climate control ward to cover the entire warehouse, so we can mitigate the extreme cold of the North. We can weave in damp protection too, prevent mould, rot, and spoilage. Even if the more perishable goods are already kept in stasis."

Sirius nodded in agreement. "That should help preserve the goods. Less waste, fewer losses. I had been meaning to mention something like that, but it seems like you’ve already got a more comprehensive picture of what we need than I had originally envisioned." He was clearly enjoying this brainstorming session.

"Though, what about something to help us keep track of our stock?" Sirius suggested. "Muggle merchants have to do it all manually, but we could make it automatic."

Harry hummed in thought, chewing on the end of his quill. "If we could monitor stock levels remotely, we’d always know when to restock and could avoid delays." He scribbled down a few notes before adding, "We might even be able to tie it into our Marauder’s Map network. The map already tracks locations in real-time; adapting it to track inventory isn’t too far-fetched."

“Mirrors would be worth considering as well,” Harry added, “but for logistics management, written messages would be a better method to keep track of things.”

Sirius grinned. "That’s brilliant. A self-updating ledger would save us so much trouble."

"It’s worth experimenting with," Harry agreed. "We could enchant a set of notebooks that update automatically when stock levels change. That way, we’d always have the latest numbers on hand."

Sirius chuckled at Harry getting completely absorbed in the idea of a new experiment, exchanging an amused glance with Dobby before turning back to Harry. "That does remind me—we should check the map soon. Now that it’s working for White Harbor, we should see if there’s any suspicious activity in the area, and we should check-up on Winterfell. Just in case."

Harry blinked, momentarily lost in his own thoughts. "Huh?" Harry took a minute to process what Sirius had said, as one does when they’re in the zone, but snap out of it he did. "Oh. Yeah, yeah. Good idea." Harry nodded, "But first, let’s finish these wards. One task at a time and all that." He admonished, as though he wasn't the culprit in holding up the planning session. Sirius just smirked at Harry's typical nerdy behaviour and gestured for him to continue.

He tapped his quill against his parchment. "Anti-vermin wards. We don’t want pests running around in our goods. That’s standard."

"Dobby remembers a ward from Malfoy Manor," the elf chimed in. "It keeps Muggles away. Shouldn’t we add that?"

Harry assumed Dobby was referring to a muggle repelling ward, which would be a sensible addition to a wizarding home, but not so helpful here.

Sirius chimed in before Harry could respond. “I know of a few such wards Dobby” he professed with a smirk, “which one were you thinking of?”

“Oh there are many!” Dobby replied with enthusiasm. “There’s the nightmare ward, the insanity ward, the amputation ward” Harry choked on his tea, “and the reversal ward, Malfoy had them All!” Dobby continued not noticing Harry’s quiet choking and coughing fit. Dobby seemed proud of his knowledge of warding.

Harry wheezed for a moment, but just had to ask, “what was the reversal ward Dobby? It seems almost benign by comparison. I assume it just reversed their walking route?”

“And their skin!” Dobby added helpfully with a rapid nod. Harry really shouldn’t have taken another sip of tea.

Sirius shook his head, amused by Harry’s shock. He knew exactly the sort of wards Dobby was talking about. Most of the Black properties had the same ones back in the day, after all. Though he was just a tad worried about the sanity of their tiny pointy-eared friend. 

They all loved Dobby, but both he and Harry had previously noted that the elf’s prolonged stay with the Malfoys had made him a bit … eccentric was probably the politest way of putting it.

Better keep an eye on their friend before he gets some poor unsuspecting muggle into more trouble than they know what to do with. 

Then again, it’s not like Dobby spent much time away from them in the company of muggles anyway. Surely he couldn’t get up to too much mischief in those short stints he wasn’t with either of them. It would be fine. Probably.

Though best disabuse him of the use of those particular wards in this case. "No, Dobby,” Sirius replied to the helpful elf, “in answer to your original question, our clientele will be mostly Muggles. We want them to come in, not be repelled... or... ah, otherwise affected” he finished with a deadpan look.

“But—" he tapped his chin thoughtfully "—we could restrict access to the back offices. That’s where we’ll keep our financial records, ledgers, and anything valuable. Owen might not be able to handle muggle repelling wards naturally, but we can key him in. He'll never have to worry about theft, or even a nosy customs agent sniffing around our books"

By this point Harry had recovered, both from his shock and from his choking fit. He cleared his throat to make sure it was still working. He loved Dobby, he really did, but he sure as Merlin wasn’t letting him anywhere near his ward carving set.

Sirius on the other hand was a menace. He gave Sirius a baleful glare to communicate exactly that thought. Harry had no doubt in his mind that Sirius had orchestrated that bit of shock for his own amusement. Of course, being a Black, his family home probably had exactly the same wards. He knew exactly what Dobby would say.

Harry shook himself and got his head back in the game. 

"Good call Sirius, a little protection never harmed anyone,” he paused realising just how incorrect that statement was in frame of Dobby’s suggested protective wards, but decided to power on. “And I think we should add an anti-scrying ward too, just in case."

Sirius frowned. "Scrying? In Westeros?"

"We don’t know for sure," Harry admitted, "but the books we got from Winterfell did make a few interesting references to local clairvoyants called ‘Greenseers’, and we can’t rule out other magic users in Essos or beyond. We've already got those on our expanded trunks, but we should make it a habit on all our properties. It’s better to be safe than sorry. I’ll also whip-up some anti-scrying tokens for us. It’s one thing to ward, but we don’t want anyone spying on us personally either."

Sirius let out a low whistle. "Paranoid, much?" he joked "but fair. Moody would be proud" He smiled fondly

"It’s only paranoia if they aren’t actually watching," Harry shot back with a smirk.

After a few more suggestions and refinements, Harry began sketching out a comprehensive ward scheme, ensuring each protection layered seamlessly onto the wardstone. There were a lot of wards to cram into a small area, but since they didn’t need to extend far, he was confident he could get it done in relatively short order. 

He found himself enjoying the collaboration. He had spent so much time researching on his own that he hadn’t realized how much he missed bouncing ideas off someone else. It reminded him of late-night conversations with Hermione during the war, theorizing and experimenting as they sat huddled around a campfire.

That thought made his chest ache slightly. Shaking himself from the sudden melancholy Harry’s smile returned, if slightly dimmer, knowing that Hermione would have approved of their self-appointed task—using magic to build something practical, to improve the lives of ordinary people. It would have been right up her alley.

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Harry was having trouble with the power requirements of his latest ward scheme. It was far less complex than the one covering all of white harbour, but it had the distinct disadvantage of not having a weirwood to power it. This left him with a conundrum. Either he cut half the wards to make it more viable under the power of ambient magic. Or he finds a magical to power it. 

"This is impossible," Harry said, crumpling up his latest ward design in frustration. He looked up at Sirius. "I need a magical power source” he slumped in his chair. “Any one of us would do the job, but we wont be around. Even Dobby’s presence would do.”

“Harry, Harry, Harry” Sirius tutted, peeling an orange, “are you so deep in your books that you’ve forgotten the literal platoon of elves you rescued?”

“But the elves are unreachable Sirius!” Harry threw his hands up in exasperation. Sure we can communicate, but how would they even find us without a portkey.” This was a known failing of portkeys, the return trip could only be triggered by the witch or wizard whose magic triggered the outbound trip. 

Dobby looked at him strangely, "We come when you call, Harry Potter sir," he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"But it's well-known elves can't pop that far. They're usually limited to a much smaller radius than wizards," Harry countered, perplexed. "They do have to draw magic from their masters to survive after all."

Although house-elves could 'elf pop,' the distance they could cover was limited by the power they could draw upon.

"Dobby thinks Winky could make it!" Dobby insisted. “Winky is strongest elf, and Harry is magic. No problem.”

Harry decided to interpret that as some sort of comment on how outsized his well of power had become, as opposed to the more literal interpretation of Dobby thinking he was the embodiment of magic. He hadn’t discovered all the implications of the Deathly Hallows yet, but that seemed a bit much ... at least he hoped it did.

Harry looked at Sirius and they both shrugged, it was worth a try. “Maybe we should call Winky?” Harry pondered.

POP

“AAHH!” Harry jumped. A response that seemed justified given the sudden elvish face that leaned in practically nose to nose with his own. Harry had been sure they’d understood his instruction to ‘not’ pop right in his face, after Sirius had told them to do so as a joke. 

He sighed as he sat back down. He wasn’t sure if they didn’t understand that Sirius was joking, or even worse, that they did infact understand the joke and just wanted to mess with him.

“Harry Potter called?” came Winky’s distinct higher pitched voice from atop the table.

Harry took a breath and settled down. Taking note of the dripping soup ladle in Winky’s hand.

“Uh, yes Winky, it’s good to see you... I hope I’ve not interrupted something” Harry added

Winky just looked down at the soup ladle then back at Harry with a raised eyebrow as if to ask, what do you think?

Sirius coughed to break the awkwardness, "Sorry Winky. We were just trying to figure out how to enable travel between our two locations, since we couldn’t just send a return portkey for someone else to use”

“Yes, I’m sorry for interrupting. Uh, you won’t find it so easy to pop back, but I can give you a portkey. Can you find some elves willing to join us here when you’re back there?” Harry explained.

Winky looked passively at the three of them. Harry reflected that he liked Winky, but she could be damn judgemental at times. A bit of the crouch family attitude seemed to have rubbed off.

Harry scratched his head feeling embarrassed by the request though he wasn’t sure why. He clarified, “Winky, you’re the only one strong enough to make such a long trip, or at least, that’s what Dobby thinks” Dobby shrugged, not really helping Harry’s point.

“I wouldn’t want to injure any of the elves by calling them from so far away, and I can’t simply send a return portkey that they can use on their own.” Harry was now more confident in his point, “but if you trigger the portkey, you can bring them back with you.”

Harry hoped the elf now understood and wouldn’t whack him over the head with that soup ladle.

Winky seemed to be bemused now, which was at least an improvement on her initial judgemental looks. “Dobby, did you spike their dinner with a confundus draught again?” Winky asked.

Ah, Harry thought, there was the judgement.

Dobby seemed confused and just shook his head.

“And you’ve not fallen off your horse again?” she asked Harry.

“Not recently” he responded somewhat defensively.

“Why don’t you tell us what we missed Winky?” Sirius interrupted.

Winky just pointed at Harry “You go, you return” she stated. “You fetch elves or horses, or whatever you want. Easy.”

All three let their idiocy sink in. Why hadn’t they just portkeyed themselves up to the Thenn village? It was already an established part of Harry’s burgeoning portkey network, and going himself would overcome both the return portkey problem, and the issue of elves finding them. 

Though to be fair, simply calling Winky had worked well enough, it just seemed to slightly annoy the elf in question due to how unexpected the call was, and he couldn’t be sure it would work for the other elves.

Harry cleared his throat, ‘ehm’, “yes, next time I’ll take the simpler route” he conceded. To which Winky simply nodded with authority.

“Or just call in advance,” she added, pointing to the mirror hung from her belt. Harry figured that was a fair cop. He was used to the idea that elves were ready to respond at all times, but they were their own people. He knew even Winky was up for some good old-fashioned work, but she was also fair in calling out their rudeness at just calling her out of the blue.

At that Winky’s demeanour shifted back to her usual cheerful self. “Well it’s good to see you all in person, but I do have dinner preparations to deal with, shall we get going?” 

They all grunted in agreement.

Harry honestly found it kind of refreshing to be reminded of his own occasional fallibility. Though he knew Winky would call it stupidity. He smiled and whipped up a quick portkey for the four of them from a nearby silver platter.

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It didn’t take long to find some elves willing to work under Owen in running their new company headquarters.

Admittedly, most of the elves had wanted to settle down—only Dobby was adventurous enough to join their exploration of Westeros. But a good, solid job working for Harry was attractive enough to tempt a few of them into a new place.

Helpfully, he had not just one, but three enthusiastic volunteers in the form of a small family unit. Brill, Trix, and their young elflett, Trill, were eager to join the venture.

Brill and Trix had once worked for a workaholic wizard from the Ogden family, managing the import and export of Ogden's Firewhiskey. The new role suited their skills perfectly, and both elves were excited for more substantial work.

They had felt somewhat underutilized in the Thenn Village and Farm Trunk, where tasks were shared among all the adult elves. Thanks to the freedom elves now had in choosing their partners, the elf population was also rising rapidly, with ten new elfletts born in the months Harry had been away. They too would need work in time. 

Harry was surprised that the growing number of elves hadn't created a noticeable drain on his magical reserves. Hopefully this arrangement would remain sustainable; he'd hate to have to tell them to stop growing their population. 

After thanking Winky for her help, and triggered the return portkey, conveniently transporting from their farm trunk to their traveling trunk, across thousands of miles. Harry loved magic.

Wasting no time, Harry briefed Brill and Trix on their new roles, outlining their responsibilities in managing the warehouse and overseeing the trading business. They would officially work under Owen, but Harry trusted them to act on their own intuition as well. Owen would be told they were long time retainers of the Peverell Family. 

Alongside Owen, their duties would include inventory management, shipment coordination, and liaising with merchants and Lord Manderly for negotiations. Essentially, Owen, Brill and Trix would act as the Peverell and Black representatives in the Northern Kingdom, operating from the White Harbour warehouse.

Brill and Trix listened attentively, nodding in agreement and occasionally asking thoughtful questions. They obviously knew what they were doing. They likely knew this business even better than Harry.

Harry would have to prepare some amulets for the elves tonight, to hide their appearance. But thankfully it wouldn’t be too difficult to replicate the magic they’d layered on Dobby’s own amulet. Harry even had some thoughts on how to improve the tool now that he had a better grasp on local runes.

A small adjustment using first men runes would enable the amulet to draw much more magic from its surrounds. As a result, the amulet would be able to sustain a much greater variety of transformations. The elves would essentially be able to transform into whatever looks they liked, much like a metamorph, and sustain that transformation long term.

There wouldn’t be a need to set up specific pre-set transformations for each elf like they had for Dobby. “Thank Merlin for that” Harry muttered to himself in relief. He hadn’t been looking forward to setting up unique looks for all of his elves. This way, they could choose their own.

This also meant Harry could comfortably give Brill and Trix permission to call in additional elves to help if they ever needed.

And if Harry saw Sirius handing the elves what looked like magazine covers containing photos of some very good looking people, well Harry wasn’t going to say anything against it. The elves could choose their own looks after all. And Harry personally thought it would be quite a lark to have all his warehouses manned by what looked like a collection of supermodels. A bit of marauder level chaos here and there never hurt, he thought with a small mischievous smile.

Harry also granted the elves leave to build whatever comfortable accommodations they deemed fit in the yard behind the warehouse. Trix even suggested some simpler quarters for any additional warehouse staff or their future sailors on shore leave. Harry was completely onboard with that idea, but would leave it to Owen and the two elves to figure out. 

Thinking further on accommodations, he pulled out his ever-present notebook and jotted down a new idea—luxury hotels. So far, he had only seen rooms above taverns, which, while functional, lacked proper amenities. Any major port could benefit from proper temporary lodgings. He’d revisit the idea later, but it seemed like an obvious opportunity.

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With Brill and Trix now onboard and helping, the group turned their attention to the final touches on the warehouse and dock, preparing for the launch of their first operation. They needed to get a few of the more magical activities done before Owen rocked-up. It wouldn’t do to give away their secret.

Harry did make sure to key Owen and his daughter into the ward, asking Dobby to surreptitiously secure a drop of blood from each. This would allow them to bypass some of the passive effects on muggles, and access the back rooms.

While they worked, Harry tinkered with a minor expansion ward, attempting to make it functional. He could just fit the scheme in and was confident it would work now that he knew magical beings would be present in the area. Though elves required his magic to survive, they also produced some of their own, which dissipated into the environment and helped power wards.

He also hoped his newly designed First Men power-boost runes would strengthen and stabilize the expansion ward's effect. He intended to experiment with the enchantment on ships next, and success here would mark an excellent first step. 

The expansion ward would have a far less noticeable effect compared to his trunks or expanded pouches. Still, he was confident he could achieve at least a twenty percent increase in space while maintaining stability. Not that they would want much more than that anyway. Anything larger would raise eyebrows among the locals, regardless of the notice-me-not wards.

It had been nonstop work—rewarding, but exhausting. As he gazed at the newly completed warehouse, Harry came to a simple conclusion.

“I need a drink!” he declared.

Sirius clapped him on the back with a grin. “Now that’s the best idea you’ve had all week.”

Dobby, naturally, was already pouring the first round.

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From here on out, it would be up to Owen, Brill and Trix to get their trade empire up and running. Harry admitted it might be a little early to call his one warehouse a ‘trade empire’, but it just had a nice ring to it.

The timing was fortuitous—Harry had already noticed that storage space in the busy post-winter period was at a premium. Ships were forced to wait days to be unloaded, slowing down trade. Their warehouse was poised to become a vital hub.

Eventually their warehouse would be filled with goods of their own, but in the time it took to get the manufacturing and logistics up and running it would be wasteful to leave the warehouse under-utilised. So Owen would be generating some good cash simply selling the space for use by visiting merchants.

Harry intended to maintain premium pricing for most warehouse services, but he made an exception for foodstuffs, which he would ask Owen and the elves to set at a lower rate. The North had suffered enough; artificially inflating prices on essential goods would be both unethical and shortsighted. Not to mention, totally against the whole reason they were getting into the merchant game to begin with.

He instructed Brill and Trix to prioritize food storage at unusually low rates, ensuring that supplies moved northward quickly and efficiently.

At this stage, logistics was the priority. Production would come later.

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Chapter 29 Teaser:

Owen would be lying to himself if he didn’t accept the obvious. These two men were weird, yes, they were wealthy, yes, but more importantly, they were glaringly, obviously magical. 

That was mostly evident in the fact that his warehouse—his burnt shell of a warehouse—was now standing as though brand new. It was also evident in the fact that the warehouse was definitely bigger on the inside.

... and now, apparently, full of ancient sunken treasure chests which had clearly been recovered from the sea floor fairly recently. Yes, his new employers were definitely a bit different.

If they were trying to hide these facts, they would have done well not to hire the poor bugger who had owned the place for most of his working life.

Note: For those who read this teaser in the last chapter, my apologies, Owen’s first exposure to magic got nudged into the next chapter as I was drafting. It just made more sense to tie it in with some elf related shenanigans. You'll see ;-)