Before the end of the week set by the Aurorate, I had time to visit an architect, a medium-sized construction company, and a landscaping company. The first architect was a retrograde, incapable of original solutions, but the second satisfied me completely.
After a joint conversation with a representative of the construction company I was assured that before the cold weather they will have time to do not a little, but only after visiting the construction site can talk about specific terms. I received a similar answer from the "landscapers".
Well, at the end of the agreed deadline, we all visited my lands together. After the inspection the builders assured me that the planned three-storey dwelling house, with the possibility of simultaneous residence of several families, a large stone cellar and communications, I will put by winter.
No special problems are expected in this house, because it is in a sense "typical", i.e. there are ready versions of drawings. Including autonomous systems of water and heat supply, sewerage.
I decided to organize the power supply also autonomously — from wind and solar energy. To this end, Lupin went to Finland to order high-quality systems, as well as special cables. As it turned out, it is possible to order a "print" on the winding of the wires, so for my needs will soon be made electric wires, on the winding of which are printed special hieroglyphics — lines of spells that protect against powerful magic.
The landscapers also assured me that they could do it right away, and my order didn't even need to be registered anywhere, because the artificial canal I had designed out of the river, as well as several small lakes with dams fed by the canal, posed no ecological danger to the river or the local flora/fauna. I was told that most of the work will be completed by winter, but the terraces for the gardens will need to be worked on.
The rocky ground and cliffs make for a lot of extra work. Anyway, the work boiled over and I sent a paper crane signal to a girl in the USA. Although I am limited in the size of the message, I was able to convey the place and the name of the person to be addressed. I don't think Master will be offended that I used him as a contact.
The arrival in my country took a few days, and on my return to London I was anxious to buy a small one-story cottage with an attic in a quiet neighborhood, and through Louis to hire a maid to live in the cottage. Gwyneth Travers, thirty years old, a weak witch with plain English looks.
After Hogwarts, the woman had been limping around, surviving on part-time jobs from a school friend, Louis Crowley. I liked the woman, and she liked my offer. A house in London, I thought, was a necessity for all sorts of occasions, and now, before the school year began, I needed a place to live.
It was another week before Lupin returned from Finland to organize a small business. At my request, Gwyneth, with the help of a gifted owl, had contacted people she knew and invited me for an interview. Four men and five women, all insecure in life, all willing to work.
To buy a dilapidated house in the neighborhoods of the magical part of London was unexpectedly cheap. In four days, through the efforts of nine wizards, the old wreck disappeared, and in its place was a two-story, solid building, with a sensible system of ventilation and water supply, for which I called in specialists.
When Lupin returned, I showed him my first magical shop — a potion room and laboratory called "Tears of Hippocrates". Why did you do that? I just wanted to. The income is promised to be small due to the lack of serious specialists in the staff and the breadth of cheap ingredients available to gain experienced staff, but still.
Remus Lupin turned out to be a smart and clever man, so after bringing him up to speed on current events and getting him to hire wizards to transport supplies for the construction site, I decided to head back to France. Oh, yes, I also attended the Lovegoods' dinner during those days.
I introduced Polumna to the Sunny Hermit Crab, and the girl was so fascinated by it that I never heard anything about the creepy animals from the canon. By the way, the mentioned crabs are quite interesting kind of magic fauna, especially that they eat various garden pests, such as snails, caterpillars and worms, and their soft glow and rainbows in the sunlight from the pyramidal shell destroy some microflora and various aphids.
But the Solar Hermit Crab itself is a very amusing creature, very friendly, though it is easy to care for only by those gifted with a good gift and a minimum of curses.