Chapter 11

The villagers living in Hogsmeade were very surprised, when one late morning a great wizard's tower suddenly rose into the air at the edge of their village without any warning.

Some alarmed, some curious, they all came to take a look.

They gathered a stone throw away, watching and gossiping.

Cautious, they didn't immediately come closer.

From time to time, they could see Draco's figure riding his broomstick, flying in and out of the tower, levitating building materials behind him.

Around noon, Draco stopped his work.

He had already come far.

From the outside, the tower already looked finished, its skeleton was definitely complete.

Draco decided to continue the next day.

Levitating the rest of the unused building material into the tower, Draco cleaned up.

Afterwards he cast a simple security ward to alert him of trespassers.

Before Draco could disapparate home to lunch, the flock of villagers came up to him.

In the lead were two of the most prominent figures of Hogsmeade, the pub owners of the Three Broomstick and the Hog's Head, the beautiful Rosmerta and the older brother of Albus Dumbledore, Aberforth Dumbledore.

Knowing why they came, Draco addressed them first.

„Hello everyone. My name is Malfoy, Draco Malfoy. This tower is going to be the headquarters of my new business. So, please take care of me in the future, neighbors."

Even though Draco was perfectly polite and smiled charmingly, the villagers didn't seem taken with him at all.

Most of them frowned at him.

„What kind of monstrosity is this?"

Rosmerta complained and gestured to the great dark tower.

„Like I said, it's the headquarters of my new business. Looks impressive, right?"

Draco didn't lose his polite smile.

„Yes, very eye catching." Rosmerta scoffed sarcastically. „How can you just erect such a high building here? It's even towering above Hogwarts... It's probably not even permitted to build this high, and it definitely doesn't fit into our beautiful idyllic village at all. It would be best if you shortened this tower considerably, or just dismantle the whole thing again."

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„I'm sorry to hear that you think that, but the tower is here now to stay. There is nothing to be done about this. I own this land, and I can build whatever I want on it."

Draco explained calmly.

Rosmerta laughed darkly, „You arrogant Malfoys really think you can do whatever you want, just because you are rich. You really take after your father... Lucius must be so proud."

„That sounds like there is a story there... Do you have some conflict with my father?"

Draco's words made Rosmerta gnash her teeth and swallow her next words.

For a second, Draco wondered what had happened between Rosmerta and his father, but only for a second, then he deemed it unimportant.

„What business do you plan on doing?"

Aberforth spoke up.

„I'm going to sell mirrors. Mirrors you can use to talk with others face to face over long distances like putting your head into the Floo, only instead of a fire you have a mirror. The mirrors will also have other functions, for example, you can watch recorded plays and quidditch games and the like."

Draco tried to keep his explanation simple, since the current wizarding population was the archenemy of technology.

„Like a telephone and a T.V. combined?"

The wizard, who spoke up, was in his twenties and stood at the back of the crowd, wonderment in his voice.

„Yes, exactly like that, only even better."

Draco confirmed.

„You know what a phone and a T.V. is?"

Now the wizard was even more surprised.

Most of the other villagers hadn't even an inkling what the two were talking about, so they started questioning the wizard.

Draco used this distraction to summon Kreacher to look after the tower for the night.

Since the villagers were so against his tower, a simple alarm ward was maybe not enough.

Draco prevented Kreacher from voicing his disgust about the rabble gathering in front of his new Lord Black's new wizard tower, sending him inside with the order to ignore everyone as long as they left his tower alone.

The collective mood of the villagers had calmed down a little during their discussion with their fellow villager, who knew about no-maj technology.

Some were now even looking forward to Draco's first product release.

Some still wanted to complain to Draco about his tower, but Draco just brushed them off and told them to try their luck through the ministry.

Draco politely but firmly said goodbye and disapparated home.

The mood at home wasn't much better than in the Hogsmeade Village, his parents were both stewing in their own thoughts.

Draco was glad when Vince and Greg arrived for their training.

„Do you two have started on your summer homework yet?"

The echoed „no" was an unsurprising answer.

„Me neither. So, you two can stay longer today and we'll do them together."

Draco offered, planning to use his two friends as buffers between him and his parents during dinner.

„Really? I thought you didn't like doing homework with us. You said it made your head hurt."

Vince was the right, the young Draco had really said that... and worse.

Greg just grumbled about doing homework in general.

„Come on. We'll let the elves bring us a snack after every completed section. You will like the new recipes they learned lately."

Draco wasn't wrong.

Greg immediately fell in love with pizza and Vince couldn't stop eating mini-burgers every snack break.

Even though both dishes had existed for almost exactly one hundred years at this time, they both hadn't really reached Wizarding Britain yet.

Draco had learned to love both dishes in his last life, while he was hiding between the muggles after the destruction of the Wizarding World.

That's why he had taught the Malfoy house elves the day before, and now was a good opportunity to let the elves serve them.