Chapter 69 - PREPARATION

The past year was without much surprise and was a rare peaceful year for me and the children in general, all because I did not needlessly butt into stuff that did not require my interference.

Once I was back, the first place I went to was Gringotts.

I had to be sure of the movements made by Sirius under the influence of great Dumble's.

With the return of the possible Black family head, the war was about to officially begin and war always means bleeding money.

The one thing they did not understand yet was that my claim as the Black heir, which was under the right of succession did not mean that the succession was from Sirius.

After a brief conversation with the Black family account manager, I understood how it seemed that way in my first time. Apparently, my succession came from my grandmother and not Sirius. When I asked him about how Sirius could become the head of house Black once again, hypothetically speaking and he explained to me that though Sirius was still considered a Black he did not have any more rights of succession as stated by his own grandfather before passing away.

If and only if I, the legal heir, decided to never come and claim the Black heirship before I became a magical adult and Sirius was not facing his time in Azkaban, then by the proxy of being the only adult male Black alive he would be made the head by family magic.

I finally understood that apart from the resurrection of Voldi, my participation in the tri-wizard tournament my, the eventual emancipation and me gaining my magical maturity early had also helped Dumble's in helping secure the Black family head position for one of his pawns and support in the Wizengamot. Unknowingly I had helped both dark lords in their rise to power all in the same year.

By me already claiming the heirship of Black family, Sirius was just a normal member. The only reason I gave him access to the money and the Grimmauld place was so that I could keep Dumble's under the illusion that he still had a chance to take the head position and he helps me in competing in the Triwizard tournament next year.

The only reason that they were only aware of the one place under Black family was because Sirius was not at all interested in actually managing the Black family. The only thing he cared about was providing a safe place to be used by the order and having enough money to keep the various operations running. With the limited number of members in the order one place was enough for them and he did not think further.

From the Black family manager I came to know that in the time of a couple of days, Sirius had already taken the possession of Grimmauld place and withdrawn significant amount of galleons by depositing it into various accounts.

It confirmed the fact that Dumble's had begun to take action and Sirius was once again following him blindly.

I too transferred a significant sum into the account of money into Andromeda's and Ted's accounts. I could still not have a significant sum in my account because Dumble's always kept a close eye on my finances.

The up coming years were going to see a increased number of illegal transactions in the British magical community as a whole and I had no plans to sit idle and take advantage of this opportunity.

Once I finished my job at the bank, I called for Dobby and he took me to the estate where Buckbeak was currently kept.

Buckbeak seemed to be in good health and a chipper mood. Doby explained that the elves too were happy for having someone to take care instead of an empty mansion.

I then informed him that I would be purchasing a significant amount of rare plants, animals, potion recipes, tomes and magical objects in the coming year and that he should prepare each property to hold one type of things.

This will also mean preparing and hiring the neccessary staff and elves to take care of the stuff I will buying.

The results of our O.W.L's were out and as was expected both me and Hermione got an O in both theory and practical's.

A week after our results arrived, me, Hermione and her parents were on our way to attend the Quidditch world cup finals.

The story that we had come up with was that Hermione had become a huge fan of the sport while hanging out in the matches at Hogwarts and seeing that Britain was the one hosting this years finals, she had requested her parents for attending and they had agreed. Me being constantly around Hermione was also asked to tag along and seeing that it was the time for holidays I agreed.

I had to write a letter to Dumble's asking his permission and some money for my share of the ticket and the request was easily granted.

The seats were neither too good nor too bad and the experience itself was very memorable. As soon as the event was over, we headed back through a portkey that was already booked by us in advance. The reason we used was that Hermione's parents were muggles and they had to go to their jobs early next day.

I had no intention of getting up in the middle of the night and then find a exit to the place that was being burned by crazy Voldi followers.

It was the next day when we heard about what happened in the newspaper.

The dark mark was seen. Hermione was a bit shaken thinking about the possibility of her parents being in a area with these fiendish murderers. After a bit of soothing and ice-cream she finally calmed down.

We spent rest of the holidays studying, eating and enjoying our time.

The trip to Diagon alley this time was a longer one than our previous years.

This summer had seen us grow and we needed to get new supplies for everything from robes to shoes to jackets.

We also had to get our go to medical kit since we had officially passed our O.W.L's for healing and would be practicing hands on from this year onwards.

Both me and Hermione got ourselves wand holsters after I convinced her of the convenience that it provided us. While it was true about the convenience, my intent into buying one was the upcoming tri-wizarding tournament.

The trip ended after dinner in a muggle restaurant in downtown London and we went back home.