Once back in his office, Ted was going to write up a report for Sirius and thought better. He went to his floo and flooed home.
Sirius was even waiting for him. And it appeared he'd been pacing while he did.
"Well?" the Lord Black practically barked.
Ted smiled and replied, "It's confirmed. Little Miss Wilkins was, indeed, born Corina Cephei Malfoy on the tenth of August, 1982."
Practically relieved, Sirius quietly but firmly said, "Yes!"
"So," said Ted. "What do you now want to do about her?"
"I don't know; so, for now, nothing," replied Sirius. "She's happy, well-cared for, needs nothing and, above all else, is safe right where she is."
Ted gave a nod and asked, "Do you want me to keep the file on her in my Fidelius-charmed safe?"
Sirius gave a firm nod back and said, "If anything happens to Lucy and his brat of a son, the girl is the rightful Heir to take over the Malfoy fortune. I want you to make sure she gets it."
Ted nodded back and said, "I'll write up the relevant parchmentwork and have it placed in the file, ready for just such a contingency."
Back in his office, the legal intern he'd had writing up the press release entered his office and handed him the document.
Ted made on a few changes and handed it back. "Good job," he said. "As soon as you make those changes, get copies sent off to the Daily Prophet and WWN, would you?"
"Yes, Sir," replied the intern, before he walked out again.
The intern, one of the two law-apprentices and two of the four paralegals were new hires, brought in because of the increased workload, and were proving to be 'Merlin sent'. At this rate, this particular intern, at least, would be receiving a pay rise before too much longer.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
With the Granger adults now home and 'on holidays', with the legal and financial parchmentwork for the House of Potter up to date and most of his problems rectified or planned to be so soon, Harry was hoping to put his culinary skills to the test and let himself go in the kitchen. However, that was completely contrary to Dobby's own plans.
An hour before lunch Harry and Dobby were standing in the kitchen arguing over 'delegation of tasks' - and Dobby was, unsurprisingly, winning. However, that had more to do with every time Harry picked up a kitchen implement Dobby would banish it out of his hand again.
"Do-obs!" whined Harry. "Come oooonn! You know I love to cook. It relaxes me."
"Master Harry, Sir, likes to be flyings when he be bored," argued Dobby. "Master Harry should go flyings."
"I can't fly here!" he argued right back. "It's a muggle home!"
"Master Harry, Sir, can be visitings his friend, Mister Neville," said Dobby. "Mister Neville's home be wizarding home. Master Harry, Sir, can be flyings there."
That brought Harry up short.
Thinking about it, he muttered, "You know, that's not a half bad idea."
From behind him, Hermione spoke up, "We should also see if we can visit the other Hogwarts members of the Alliance. You did say that was something you were planning on doing, didn't you?"
As Harry sighed in defeat, Dobby smirked at him, but stood his ground.
"Alright," he said, turning to her. "I guess we can wait until after lunch to visit Neville. But, I'd best send an owl to the others, first. It would be impolite to just turn up, unannounced."
"And you should ask Neville if he'd like to join you," she added.
"Another good idea," he agreed.
"I know," she smiled. "How about you go give him a floo call to make sure it's alright for you to visit after lunch?"
Nodding, he smiled and walked up to her. Wrapping her in a cuddle he kissed her and said, "I'll go do that now."
However, before he left, he wheeled on Dobby and said, "This argument is not over, you horrible little gremlin! I will be occasionally cooking lunch and you'll be letting me."
With his betrothed blushing just a touch from the kiss he unexpectedly landed on her and not waiting for Dobby to retort, he headed out the back to the Doghouse to make that call.
As he hurried down the stairs to the lower ground floor, Hermione sighed and thought, 'Oh, that boy. Why does he, every time he kisses me, make me feel all gooshy inside?'
With Harry gone and clearing her head again, she looked to Dobby and firmly said, "You and me need to talk."
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
After sorting out everything he needed for his second visit to Bagman, Ted alerted his staff of where he was going and informing them he'd be back after lunch. Then he was out the door and on his way.
Again heading directly to Bagman's office, he knocked and walked right in, not even bothering to wait for the invitation to enter.
As soon as Bagman looked up in shock, he immediately went white in fear.
"M-Mister Tonks, Sir," he stammered. "W-what can I do for you, today?"
This time Ted walked right up to the desk and plonked himself into the chair put there for guests.
"Ludo," he smirked.
That put Bagman right on edge, right there.
Noticing his effect on the man, Ted smirked even more and said, "I've now had plenty of time to go over the contract for the Tri-Wiz. Imagine my surprise in discovering it is the intent of the organisers... you, Dumbledore, Maxime and Karkaroff now that Crouch has been locked up in Azkaban... to use hostages for the Second Task."
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