The Slytherin Prince

³⁴| The Beetle {Part 1}

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The Slytherin Prince

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"Thoughts"

Letter

"~Parseltongue~"

":Deathtongue:"

~~~ Harry's POV ~~~

~~~ August 6, 1990 ~~~

We made our way out of the prison complex, and strode down the hill to the guardhouse, outside which a few Dementors floated, guarding the gates to Azkaban.

As we passed through the gates, I looked at the personification of Death floating around, ": Thank you Dementors of Azkaban, for letting us pass through your halls and showing us the way:" I said to it, in a mixture of growls and screeches.

The Dementor dipped its head in a nod of acknowledgement and farewell. I gave it a nod in return and strode after the others who had stopped to watch me.

We made our way over to the guard station so that Aunt Amelia could portkey us out. After an uncomfortable journey back to Aunt Amelia's office at the Ministry of Magic, Nana and I made our way back to Atrium once more as Aunt Amelia and Uncle Lucius separated from our little group to attend to other matters.

Once the crowd of people parted, as the sea did for Moses, as we walked to the nearest fireplace. After a pinch of Floo powder and a lot of spinning, we stepped out of the private fireplace inside Griphook's office.

"Well met Griphook, my friend. Have you met my Grandmother?", I asked cordially.

Getting the gist that I was familiar with this Goblin my grandmother offered Griphook the formal Goblin greetings. After the formal introductions were over, as he hadn't officially met her despite having visited the Black Castle.

"Now back to business my devious friend, how are the investments going? Have you bought shares in the muggle world? What about the properties of Surrey and the shares from the daily prophet?" I asked in rapid-fire.

"Calm down Hadrian!", he said chuckling. Nana narrowed her eyes, as hardly anyone ever sees Goblins behave freely.

"The purchase of shares in the muggle world is currently being processed. Most of your requests have been fulfilled and the details on the purchases will be ready soon, I will send them to you as soon as they are finished. Well on the matter of buying out Little Whinging, the occupants are being a bit...difficult, shall I say", he said sarcastically. "Once they all agree to move into the apartments we purchased in the city, we can start transforming the sub-urban area into a complete magical town. Salazar's Pit will be here sooner than you think, Harry".

I smiled at him. I started looking over the other updates and documents while Giphook explained my other investments and projects to Nana. "Griphook, what is the update on the Daily Prophet?" I asked, remembering my other reason to come to Gringotts today, especially after my amazing re-entrance into the public eye of the Wizarding world today.

"And that is the other good news, you are the official owner of The Daily Prophet. You have fifty-five per cent shares of the paper. After a lot of struggling and underhanded dealings, we bought out most of the Ministry stocks", then he grinned maliciously. "Of course, the Ministry still thinks that they have the majority shares as we made them believe that only small parts were bought by different private investors when it was all us. Now the Ministry controls only thirty per cent shares" he said deviously.

I laughed, delighted at him showing the wickedness and cunning the Goblin race is famous for. "Excellent news Griphook, spectacularly done. The Minister will have never seen it coming, and now he won't have the reach of the Prophet to spread his propaganda. Now he will actually have to start working. This will make him fumble around and desperately in need of 'guidance'. That's where dear Uncle Lucy will graciously offer his 'assistance'", I said winking at Nana. She smiled at me and nodded in Griphook's direction.

"And, you will be compensated heavily for your troubles and good work, of course," I said, chuckling. "Thank you, Hadrian. It will be most welcome" he replied and started collecting the documents. I also requested from Griphook other documents that I would be needing later.

"I am going to have to cut this meeting short, my friend. There are other time-sensitive matters that I need to attend to immediately. Tell Ragnok I said Hi! I will be taking my leave now, May your Gold ever flow and your enemies flee before you warrior Griphook", I greeted formally, bowing my head. Griphook smiled and bowed in return, "And May your Vaults overflow with Gold and your enemies fall at your feet" he said smiling with a knowing glint in his eyes. "Oh they will, I will make them," I said casually, without looking back, as I strolled out of the Potter office.

As we strolled down down the winding corridor housing all the family vault managers' offices, I asked Nana if she could contact Uncle Lucy and Aunt Amelia now and ask them to come to the Leaky Cauldron. "Nana, also ask Aunt Amelia to send an official letter to Rita Skeeter and ask her to be at the private room in the pub in exactly one hour," I said, thinking deeply as I walked out of the Marble building.

She looked at me curiously as she cast simple notice-me-not charms around the both of us. I walked along the winding street of Diagon Alley, as I explained to her what I had been doing and what I wanted to do with Rita Skeeter now that I had the Daily Prophet under my thumb. I also explained to her in-depth about my life before the letter from Ragnok and everything that I discovered and learned about my life, ancestry and the world that was hidden from me by the scheming of Dumbledore.

As we entered the run-down pub, Nana booked a private room for us to talk in and wait for the rest of us. Soon Nana raised her Ebony wand and shot a bright Patronus to deliver the said messages. The beautiful Python slithered off to deliver its message as instructed and soon we were sitting down in one of the private rooms of the pub. I explained to Nana some of my long-term goals and what I hoped to achieve in the political arena of the British Wizarding World.

Soon enough as the time flew by Aunt Amelia and Uncle Lucius walked into the room and took a seat around the table and made some idle chitchat with us as we waited for Ms Skeeter to arrive.

I asked Nana to put up some basic wards and privacy spells to keep out unwanted people from poking around. As we were talking I felt the change in magical signature change, as though someone else had entered the room. I looked around and felt energy radiating from the corner of the room. From one specific beetle that had not been there.

I grinned, "Come out, come out, Rita darling" I called out, smirking.

A/N - To all those who are caught up and waiting for the next chapters, please re-read the story as I have re-written a lot of things and corrected a lot of mistakes that slipped through my editing and confused the hell out of y'all! Thank you for your support and love!!!