Adeline asked, "But, what about your education?"
Harry wryly smiled and replied, "Tutors. It's not as if I cannot afford them."
Neither teens saw the quick expression of worry pass over Daphne's face.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
Ted was sitting in his office when his private floo connection activated.
"Yes?" he immediately asked.
Recognised at the other end of the call as the head of the contracted warders for the Potter Cottage, Ted heard the man reply, "It's Barton. The Fidelius just went up."
Suddenly a slip of parchment was tossed through.
"That's the address," Barton immediately said. "You'll want to read that."
Remembering he had contracted the company for a job, he now realised he couldn't remember where or what the place was; only that he needed to let Amelia Bones know of it.
"Thank you," he replied. "I'll let Bones know, right away."
The face gave a nod and withdrew; and the flames immediately reverted to orange again.
Summoning the slip of parchment up from the hearth, Ted read the address and felt the information slip back into his conscious again. 'Ah!' he thought.
Rising from his chair, he walked out into the main office space of his offices and told his secretary, "I'm going to the Ministry. I should be back within the hour."
"Yes, sir," called the witch.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
"What the bloody hell do you mean he has the right to do this?" barked Bones. She was both stunned and appalled at what she was hearing.
Ted, who had just recently sat in the chair opposite her desk, smirked back. "Lord Potter has decided it is time to protect his assets and has had the Potter Cottage placed under a Fidelius while the property is being repaired and the ward scheme updated."
Bones spluttered, "But, the Ministry now owns the property!"
Ted slowly shook his head and replied, "No, it doesn't." And drew out the small folio of documents that showed that the Ministry never purchased the Potter Cottage from the Potter Holdings, as they should have done.
He then lobbed it onto Bones's desk for her to peruse.
Quickly flipping through the documentation, Bones discovered that Ted was correct. The Ministry did not purchase the property; indeed, it appeared they'd made a horrible mistake and effectively tried to steal it. She now felt a new headache coming on.
Placing her elbows on the desk and massaging her temples with the tips of her fingers, she didn't even realise she'd closed her eyes until she opened them again and sighed.
Looking back at wizarding Britain's new most powerful barrister, she asked, "And you're telling me this, why?"
Ted shrugged and replied, "Lord Potter did not want you to learn of this when some panicky Ministry flunky burst into your office and declared Potter Cottage had gone missing. He wanted you to be fully briefed on the truth of it, so you could then prepare yourself for when... not if... that flunky burst in.
"He's giving you the chance to get ahead of this and prepare your own Ministerial briefing, press release, whatever. That way the public won't go thinking you were caught 'flat-footed'."
"I can't press upon you how important it is for Lord Potter to return the Cottage back to us?" she almost begged.
Ted again shook his head and replied, "He cannot return to you that which you didn't have in the first place. While the Wizengamot ordered the Ministry to acquire the cottage, the Ministry didn't do that.
"However, if you persist in pushing the concept that the Ministry did take possession of the cottage, then you are automatically admitting the Ministry stole it; irrespective of how accidental that was. As such, you'll need to arrest all those who were involved in the theft.
"And, even then, as the rightful owner of the stolen property, Lord Potter has an ironclad claim to take the property back and deal with it as he wishes. Of course, the Ministry might then and now want to go ahead and purchase the property, after all. But, Lord Potter is under no obligation to sell it, let alone to the Ministry."
With another sigh, Bones leaned back in her chair and begged, "Do you and Lord Potter have a way for me... the Ministry... to come out of this not looking like an individual or collection of daft morons again?"
Ted openly grinned and handed her another sheet of parchment.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
After spending a little more time with the Greengrasses, the three teens - with Daphne accompanying them, this time - flooed through to the Davises.
In a scene similar to when they flooed from Bones Manor to Abbott's Ford, Daphne immediately sought out Tracey. And the two almost immediately started whispering to one another.
The subject was easy to determine, when Tracey developed an expression of shock and immediately stared at Harry. She did, however, also cast a glance at Hermione. Though, this time it wasn't such a surprise for the girl.
After meeting with the Davis adults, Heathcliff and Lydia, and speaking with them for a little while, Harry joined the other four teens and was given a short tour of the Davis Estate. Their lands were extensive.
While not a noble House, Davis was a rich Ancient House that truly deserved the noble title. The only reason they didn't get it was because the Davises bonded as frequently with muggleborns as the Potters; but, unlike the Potters, did it before attaining the noble title. Their denial of the noble title was more a smack-down because of that than anything else.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
After their visit with the Davises, while Harry and Hermione flooed back to the Granger residence, Neville flooed directly home.
Once the two teens walked in through the back door, Harry headed directly to the kitchen and, noticing Dobby had not made a start on dinner, happily made a start himself. Before long he was humming a tune he'd heard on the radio the previous night and was preparing a rack of lamb ribs. Today he was using a sugar-reduced plum conserve with an infusion of rosemary, firmly massaging the concoction into the ribs.
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