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Game of Thrones White Dragon Rising
Game of Thrones The Sun Dragon Descends
Jack Avery sat across from Sullivan, fingers drumming the tabletop at a rapid clip while his mind raced even faster. He was running the numbers, trying to decide if this deal was actually worth it.
Everything was unfolding exactly as Sullivan had planned. He wanted Avery completely lost in his own calculations, oblivious to everything else in the room.
While Avery was distracted, Sullivan quietly slipped a small alchemical device from his undetectable extension bag—a Space Stabilizer. It worked a lot like an Anti-Apparition Jinx, but it was simpler to activate: just flip it on and it locked down a five-meter radius. The downside was its tiny range, and it still couldn't stop house-elves from Apparating.
The moment Avery's attention drifted, Sullivan triggered the device. A wave of magic instantly sealed the area.
Avery's head snapped up, eyes wide with alarm and confusion. Sullivan answered with a thin, knowing smile. Avery yanked out his wand and tried to Apparate—nothing. He glanced desperately at the house-elf beside him.
The elf was sharp. Sensing danger, it reached for its master to whisk him away. Before it could, a second house-elf in a neat butler uniform appeared out of nowhere—Teemo. Instead of magic, Teemo simply slammed his head forward in a perfect headbutt that left Avery's elf reeling.
The whole scuffle took less than a second. When Avery saw both elves tangled up, he finally acted, raising his wand toward Sullivan. If he couldn't run, he would fight.
But Remus Lupin had spent years battling Death Eaters. He was ready. A single Stunning Spell slammed into Avery before the man could finish his incantation. Avery dropped like a sack of potatoes, eyes still open and furious as he glared up at Sullivan.
"Why?" he rasped.
Sullivan reached into his robe and pulled out a small bead—the very same one he'd recovered from his old house back in Britain.
He smiled coldly. "What's the matter, Mr. Jack Avery? Did you really think we could just forget how you and your Death Eater friends trashed my home more than a decade ago?"
"You—you knew?!" Avery's pupils shrank to pinpricks as ice flooded his veins.
"Oh, I knew," Sullivan said lightly. "I also knew you drank the cup of brain-eating worm eggs I left on my doorstep."
Avery's face went deathly pale.
"You and your friends thought you got every last egg out of you, didn't you?" Sullivan continued. "Too bad. A few of those eggs were specially refined by me. They don't hatch right away. They don't make a sound. They just sit there… waiting."
He grabbed Avery's hand, flicked his wand, and opened a tiny cut on the man's fingertip. Blood welled up.
"These little beauties stay dormant until they receive the right signal," Sullivan said, holding the bead close. "Like this one."
The moment the bead touched the blood, it flared with an eerie red glow. Magic surged into Avery's body, waking the three specially crafted eggs. They drank the power, hatched instantly, and burrowed straight toward his brain.
Normal brain-eating worms would have started devouring tissue. These ones didn't. Instead, each worm extended hundreds of delicate tendrils that wrapped around Avery's neural pathways without damaging them—threading themselves so deeply that even Dumbledore couldn't remove them without destroying the man's mind.
Avery felt something horribly wrong crawling inside his skull. "What… what did you do to me?" he gasped.
Sullivan released him and stepped back, still smiling. "Nothing much. I just tucked three little friends into that brain of yours. Behave, and they stay quiet. Misbehave…"
He fed a thread of magic into the bead.
Avery's scream tore through the room as white-hot agony exploded in his head—like a thousand needles stabbing straight into his skull. He thrashed for several long seconds before his eyes rolled back and he passed out cold.
Across the room, Teemo—now wearing his own casting ring—had already subdued Avery's house-elf. Master and servant lay side by side on the floor, both unconscious.
That afternoon, Rita Skeeter swept into the Flying Feather experience store with a bounce in her step. Tonight was launch night for Today's Headlines, and the very first front-page story was already written: Flying Feather Magic Phones and the Avery family had just formed a major strategic alliance.
Outside the store, Sullivan and Avery stood shoulder to shoulder for the cameras. Lupin and Teemo flanked Sullivan; Rad and Avery's house-elf stood beside their master. When Sullivan and Avery shook hands, Bob's phone clicked nonstop, capturing every angle.
Rita stepped forward, all professional charm. "Mr. Sullivan, can you tell us the details of this partnership between Flying Feather and the Avery family?"
Sullivan nodded smoothly. "Of course. Flying Feather will hand over twenty percent of our company shares plus two full production lines in exchange for forty-nine percent of the Avery family's owl-breeding operations and a few additional assets."
Rita's eyes widened theatrically. "Merlin's beard! So from today onward, Flying Feather and the Avery family are deeply intertwined?"
"Exactly," Sullivan confirmed. "We're now strategic partners at the highest level."
Rita turned to Avery. "Mr. Avery, do you truly believe trading forty-nine percent of your owl business for twenty percent of Flying Feather is a fair deal?"
"More than fair," Avery answered without missing a beat, his voice warm and confident. "Magic Phones are the future. Flying Feather's prospects are brilliant. I feel like I'm the one who got the better end of the bargain."
The two men spent the next few minutes praising each other lavishly for the cameras. What neither of them mentioned was the rest of the deal: in addition to the owl business, Avery had also quietly transferred the Avery family's seat on the Hogwarts Board of Governors.
As of today, Sullivan was now a real Hogwarts governor. He had no plans to announce it yet. For the time being, he would let Avery continue exercising those voting rights on his behalf. To the outside world, nothing had changed.
Everything looked exactly the same as before.