The time quest

Contracts

Holly had just come back home from her store, she was happy to see so many people eager to work, but at the same time, it broke her heart.

Stupid bigoted magical community.

Anyways, she now had a meeting with the board of St-Mungos to pitch her potion.

She would not be revealing the recipe, only making a contract with the hospital, to assure that her company would be the only provider of this new miracle cure.

She had money to make and she wouldn't let anyone else try to copy her recipe and charge less for it.

If there was anything Lucius Malfoy had ever taught her, it was that there was a contract for everything and that the easiest way to get rich was to create a product that would become necessary to the community and have sole ownership and monopoly over it.

She put on her richest-looking robes so that they wouldn't try to pay her less than she knew her cure was worth and apparated to the entrance of St-Mungo's.

The leaky cauldron was nearby and she felt a pang of guilt hit her when she remembered that she left Tom at that orphanage.

But she needed to cement her place in society or at least organize her new life before going back to get the little boy.

For some reason, she didn't think that  Kippy would react favourably to a child appearing out of nowhere, the elf would probably scold her and mutter about young wizards taking advantage of her mistress and try to give her the talk.

She shuddered at the thought.

And so, she walked in with her head held high and walked up the stairs straight to the front desk where a man looking way too much like her godfather stood up to meet her.

She forced a smile on her face even though she was internally losing her mind.

"Hello, you must be Lady Peverell, my name is Arcturus Black and I'm the head of the board of governors here at St-Mungo's.

Sirius's grandfather! No wonder they looked identical, his eyes alone nearly made her tear up, she missed him so much. But now was not the time for tears, now was the time for her to test her facade against the pureblood community.

She cleared her face of any sadness she may have felt and responded with a polite slime:

"Well met Lord Black, I do hope this meeting will prove beneficial to everyone." She said with a sincere voice that was contradicted only by the small smirk itching to burst from her lips. 

"Yes quite" He replied with an amiable tone

"If you would follow me,"

 He said, showing her to a conference room where all but one was wearing a bubble head charm. She quickly applied one to herself when she realized that the one not wearing had Dragon Pox which was highly contagious hence the charms. She expected they wanted her to prove the legitimacy of her product, a fair request in her opinion and so she walked over to the sickly looking patient and pulled out a small crystal vial of green liquid. she gestured for him to drink it, giving him an encouraging smile as he reached for it, uncorked it and drank it all. She then sent him a dazzling smile and went to sit down in front of what she assumed to be the board of governors that were forming a half-circle that was staring at her from every angle.

 Any normal person would have been intimidated by that kind of scrutiny, but once you've had dinner with Narcissa Malfoy scrutinizing your every movement everything else felt like a walk in the park. Shivering at the memory of the most stressful supper she'd ever had, she looked up to meet them all with her signature blinding smile. They began to negotiate a very hefty contract and everything seemed to be in order, Lucius would be proud.

The contract was about to be signed when Lord Black interrupted with a smirk

"We should wait until we have proof of it actually working should we not" and his fellow board members lessened their haste to get everything finalized.

"Well he seems quite alright to me Lord Black" she said with the most innocent smile she could muster. Everyone simultaneously whipped their heads the see a clearly blemish-free and much livelier patient who was running his hands over his body with what could only be described as complete and utter shock, so much so she was afraid he would faint, which he did the moment that thought entered her mind.

The board was looking at the patient in shock no one reacting fast enough to catch his fall which she ultimately did. 

Finally one of the board members, a rather tall man regained his sense

"We will keep him in overnight for observations, but if this truly works you may have just saved thousands Lady Peverell, the magical community is indebted to you"

"Oh, I just wanted to help" She found herself actually meaning her words and they came out in the most genuine tone she'd used all day.

"Whatever your motives are many people will be thankful, this disease was a life sentence, no one has ever survived it. You never know who has loved one that thaught thought were doomed to die."

By then Arcturus Black had recovered from his shock and turned to her as she was exiting the door.

"I'll send you the signed contract in the next few days Lady Peverell" He said his eyes were slightly wet as he addressed her and it made her wonder what could possibly be making him so emotional to let his pureblood mask down

"You can call me Holly if you'd like Lord Black"

" Thank you, Holly, you may call me Arcturus then" he replied with emotion strong in his voice.

She left the hospital and apparated home Kippy was waiting for her with the kettle on and she smiled affectionately at the elf who handed her a mug of tea. 

That night she went to bed happy that she had done some good in the world, her thoughts trailing back to the little boy in the orphanage.

'I'm coming for you Tom hold on tight'

*****************************

Back at the orphanage, Tom awoke from the best dream he had had in months Holly had come back for him! 

But as he looked around at his very dull grey surroundings his heart broke and he realized that no,

She hadn't come,

Because why would she want a freak like him?

A/N: Hey everyone I'm so sorry I didn't post last week I had midterms and was stressing my life out about them. In better news, we're finally going to get Tom soon! I'm honestly very excited for the chapters to come and I hope that you are enjoying the story so far. Thank you so much for reading it means the world.

All my love

Willow <3