I Know Your Secret

Conquering the World is no Secret

Hope smirked as she sat at a bench at the bar of the Hogshead Pub while Alberforth Dumbledore stared at her in suspicion as she had already criticised his bar as a shithole and asked why he didn't give a shit about cleaning, and even gave him the owl post address of some cleaning girls to add extra insult to his bar. It was the last weekend of term and the last Hogsmead weekend, so she ventured out and seemingly wanted to piss off Alberforth more than she pissed off his older brother.

"Take my offer Dumbledore. It's pretty generous, and will probably piss your big brother off more than I already have. In fact, it will probably make what I've done to him so far look like chumps change!"

The old, dirty looking man behind the bar snorted. "Pissing Albus off seems like more than enough payment, but I'm not my brother. I'm greedy."

"Your brothers greedy too," she retorted coolly smirking. "It's just his greed isn't monetary!" she replied thoughtfully. "How about I give you a thousand galleon bonus under the table for... being such a great guy and leaving ASAP, which means by tomorrow!"

"You've gotten yourself a deal Miss. Potter," he agreed readily as he signed the contract after she filled in the gaps. "When my nutcase of a brother finds out about this he is so going to be pissed. I would love front row seats."

"Unfortunately I can piss him off, but not work miracles," she replied with a shrug. "Well, if you'll excuse me Mr. Dumbledore..." she paused for a moment as she looked around. "Could you throw everybody out? They're really creepy and I wouldn't want to have to feed them to a dragon now..." she trailed off as she spoke loud enough that they all seemed to just get up and flee out of the doors in a small stampede. "Oh, well never mind. It seems they're no longer thirsty Mr. Dumbledore."

"No... you just scared them away," he replied bluntly. "Didn't much care for all those loser's anyway. Not one of them knew my name, or that I'm Albus' brother! If they did they wouldn't have come here. Though, I only ever reported to my brother anything I heard containing the students safety, I don't think he ever cared. I was more proactive, protecting the kids like I wish I could have protected Ari..." he trailed off tight lipped.

Hope didn't press him on the matter of who he couldn't protect (filing it away for another day) as she was there as a Fairytale business woman and not a coldblooded reporter, or even a curious fun-loving girl. She just gave him a nod and quickly left him to his own devices as she wouldn't want to spend too much time with him when she had other, better things to be getting on with.

It was a few days later that Sirius had taken Hope from school for a day out. Though, she asked for the day he was annoyed with some of the non-things to do while with your godfather things she made him sit through. He had been bored and didn't have a clue while at Gringotts. He had been annoyed when he heard that Hope had bought out several places in Knockturn Alley, and several places in Shrewdly Alley, well he was only annoyed at the first one. He likes Shrewdly Alley. She apparently wanted to buy out the whole of Knockturn and Sirius decided he didn't want to remember that she had been quite clear that force wasn't something she would find out about.

Though, he supposed his family did worse so he was placated as Hope bought him some lunch and a drink at the Leaky Cauldron and he hungrily scoffed the food down. Though far from the best place to eat, after a boring morning he was famished.

"Is everything to your likings?" the bar owner Tom was quick to ask while he was collecting their plates, and though Sirius had to grimace as Tom wasn't asking him, but Hope and he looked terrified of her, and knowing even a small bit that he did, Sirius couldn't blame him, especially if the Frontier reviewed his pub badly; he would be ruined.