Memory Lane

Chapter 7

I tell Ilse to book a meeting with Blaise on my calendar to review the financials of the park. I have to return Dolohov's books by the day after tomorrow and we need to map things out. Dolohov is, as expected, not a bookkeeper.

I have no desire to do his accounting for him, but I do need to sort through what revenue comes from where, and what costs the park the most money.

Things like this should be basic, but apparently not to Dolohov and the more I dive in, the less surprised I am that he's in trouble. He should have hired someone for this a year ago, at least. That'll be one of my first tasks.

I need to be careful because I can't begin shirking my own job. I need this salary in a critical way like never before.

I worked for my own entertainment and mental gratification until two weeks ago, to give myself pocket money to buy pretty girls drinks and an occasional dinner without needing to collect an 'allowance' from my father as a grown man.

Now I'm working to keep this bloody park afloat until I can turn it around.

I'm ignoring Snape's advice for the present. I don't know why I'm working so hard at this; I just know that I am and Malfoys do not fail at things. Especially not business things.

So it's a point of pride; that's all.

When Blaise arrives, I've got a wall going with columns for revenue and expenditures.

Primary revenue drivers are the highest-earning companions, and as Snape said, the most popular five bring in as much as the next forty. I can see how selling or killing the worthless ones makes sense. No one typically wants the older captives; they're not good for sex or manual housework. The younger ones catch a decent price and it's usually an easy choice to offload them rather than continue to house and feed them.

The companion-less fics do bring in a good bit of money but it could be better. Designing a new fic location costs initial design fees and occasional land expansions, but once created, it's nothing but profit.

Dolohov's teams have been working diligently to create a deep inventory of simulated companions, and I make a note to tell him to continue expanding those options.

He's doing almost no advertising and that's a missing piece. Those fics cost him nothing and are much more affordable for the average wizard. We could increase business there easily.

They have hardly any recurring revenue, another massive opportunity for new growth.

Along with my idea for selling duelling practise to Hogwarts, I've realised they'd also have to purchase the fic location to hold them in. Now that I know the fic location is real, Hogwarts would require their own space, and each year of Dark Arts classes would have a different skill level of practise.

We could charge for access to the simulated companions each month of the school year.

Quidditch is another possibility.

Having a fic for Quidditch practice - or several, one for each House team, perhaps - could take a lot of the scheduling the field for practise sessions out of the equation. Younger players could be brought up to speed more quickly. Teams could practise in horrible weather conditions to test themselves and improve.

Access to simulated opponent players could be similarly 'rented' throughout the Quidditch season.

Blaise and I are well occupied with this, working late, and I realise suddenly we're about to miss our next double-date with Daphne and Eloise at the pub.