That made me think about my own parents, and I clenched my fists at that thought of my father. Having a Squib in the family was disgraceful, and I'd shown absolutely no magical talent at all. I bet my rat of a father would have had the legal paperwork to disown me done up the day after my Hogwarts letter failed to arrive. But then he'd gotten drunk and decided that murder was preferable to dishonor and I'd offed him in retaliation. Which meant that technically, I was in fact still the head of House Hunch, assuming my mother hadn't submitted the paperwork to disown me herself. Did she even know? Did she care?
I shook my head to banish the dark thoughts and resisted the urge to sink my emotions behind my Occlumency shields. The old bastard was dead, and I didn't want to be the head of House Hunch in the first place. Everything else was in the past and didn't matter anymore.
And right now, this was not about me, but Delilah, Dobby, and House Malfoy. So, I watched as Delilah took off a shoe and carefully removed a sock, then handed it over to the wide-eyed House Eye.
When Dobby's trembling fingers closed around the article of clothing, I half expected some sort of light show. Some sparks, maybe. But no, there was no obvious sign that the bond had been broken.
The only proof that it'd worked was the tears which had been dancing in Dobby's eyes until now were finally shed, dripping down his long nose onto the floor.
"Dobby is free…" he whispered to himself in disbelief. Then, louder, and more confidently, "Dobby is free!"
"You're free!" Harry cheered with him, bouncing up from the couch and running over to the House Elf before hugging him. Dobby hugged the young wizard back, only to freeze for a moment when he realized who it was. But a squeeze from Harry convinced Dobby to return the embrace.
"You okay, Delly?" I asked in a low voice to Delilah.
"I cannot imagine what that poor thing has endured and suffered up until now," she replied in a quite mutter.
"Did you feel anything… weird?" I pressed, and she shook her head.
"No. There wasn't anything like that," she muttered. "Should there have been?"
"I dunno," I admitted. "But I think this is the best outcome, regardless."
"Yes. I think so, too," she agreed. She then leaned over and gave me a peck on the cheek. I smiled at that, feeling good about what we had done today.
After returning from the vacation in France, I'd had to spend the next week scrambling to finish some last-minute details. The few pieces of paperwork left to do had been finalized while I'd been gone, and I had other things to take care of.
But it was all worth it, and in the end, I'd accomplished my goal. And now I was showing off my success to somebody very close to me.
"So, what do you think?" I asked, looking over to the side and trying to conceal my nervousness as stood in front of my store with my mother.
It was a two-story building that I'd bought near downtown London. It'd been expensive, but worth it. After all, it was about to become my first store. Already the upside-down Omega cauldron logo was hanging above the door, and the name was printed bold as brass on the side of the building. Inside, through the frosted glass display windows, posters and signs were hung, and the shelves were full of product. Eventually, my goods were going to be sold through my investors' channels in supermarkets and pharmacies, not just here, once I had gotten the industrial potion manufacturing processes down, but for now, I was content with what I'd accomplished.
Cauldron Remedies was now open for business!
"Is this what you spent the money I gave you on?" she asked curiously, and there was a great deal of surprise, but also pride, in her voice as she looked it over.
"Yes," I replied, smoothly lying. Technically I bet it all on a wild chance that my future knowledge was accurate and then cashed it in when I won big time, but she didn't need to know that.
Instead, I gazed up at the place I'd bought, admiring it. The building itself had been a former bakery, so there was plenty of space to put the items necessary for brewing the potions, like the automatic mixers and stirrers as well as the vats and containers. And there was plenty of room to showcase items as well, though shelf space and the area for customers would be slightly limited. I already had plans to continue selling goods via mail-in fliers, like I'd done before, only more professionally.
This was just one of two places I had purchased, however. While this would be the 'face' of my operations and where I'd sell and make a few of the products, I had also bought a warehouse near the outskirts of the city to turn into a potions factory. There, I could have Inky and any other overtly magical stuff safely out of the public's eye.
'I still have to get Charlie to put up wards around both sites,' I thought to myself. The eldest Weasley might be a Cursebreaker by trade, but you couldn't exactly tear down wards without knowing about them first. And I didn't mind paying a family friend, especially when they did excellent work.
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