Dodging Prison and Stealing Witches

Chapter 52: BONUS - This is the House that Floating-Interest Built

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text
Within the Slytherin girl's second year dormitory, next to Hermione's bed, inside Hermione's trunk, five girls sat in a circle of chairs, pointedly not meeting each other's gaze.

"I just want to make one thing absolutely clear," Daphne said in a careful voice, having chosen the ceiling as her staring partner. "We are all responsible young witches — educated, and well-trained in the mind arts."

"Yes, Daphne," Luna, Hermione, Ginny, and Alexandra all responded.

"We are not irresponsible children with the self-control of a niffler."

"No, Daphne," the girls chorused.

"When we make decisions, they are measured. They are well thought out. They are calculated. We have all been taught about the importance of family finances and how to balance an account book."

"Well, actually—Ow!" Alexandra shoved Ginny's elbow back out from her ribs and scowled at the girl's frantic eyebrow wiggling.

"So when a time-sensitive opportunity presents itself, we carefully weigh up the pros and cons," Daphne continued, completely ignoring the interruption.

"Yes, to do anything less would be an insult to everything our lord has done for us," Hermione nervously spoke up. "And for what it's worth, I have got a list of all my pros right here—"

"Yes, thank you, Hermione, but we—"

A huge parchment unrolled itself from Hermione's hands, hit her feet, and continued to unroll itself along the floor.

"—will only even consider these things if Harry's meeting with Ragnok goes well."

"Of course," Hermione squeaked. "Obviously Harry has the final say."

Daphne nodded. "He has much more experience than us."

"I really hope he likes my Sssss idea," Luna said with a smile, hissing the penultimate word.

"Luna, you are not going to ask Harry about your Sssss idea."

Luna pouted. "Why not?"

"Because such extravagance is unbecoming of a lady of a noble house, because such things are highly inappropriate, and because... because...." Daphne looked into Luna's curious, friendly eyes and gave up. "I just want to make one thing absolutely clear."

"Yes, Daphne?" the girls asked.

"We are all responsible young witches — educated, and well-trained in the mind arts, and we are not irresponsible children with the self-control of a niffler."

"Yes, Daphne. No, Daphne."

"And we are only going to trouble Harry with our extremely well thought out and entirely reasonable ideas, if, and only if, his meeting with Ragnok goes beyond and above expectations."

"Yes, Daphne."

There was a knocking on the trunk lid.

— DP & SW: NRiCaD —

On the outside, Harry carefully opened the lid of Hermione's trunk, climbed in, and cancelled the disillusionment that had allowed him to sneak into the girls' dormitories. They were all there. All eyes on him.

"Excellent news," he said. "Ragnok has had our initial artefacts valued in the upper range of our estimates, for both the muggle and the wizarding worlds. He also believes that the legal problems we might experience from selling in the muggle world can be handled. Even better, he's agreed to extend us additional credit based on your memories of the haul. All in all, everything went massively beyond and above expectations."