Chapter 12

The next day, Draco continued building his tower.

Rooms had to be sectioned, and ward stones had to be placed.

Magic made the work engaging and speedy.

He was done with that even sooner than he had thought.

Draco even had time to link all the ward stones and set up the elaborate and self-created ward scheme, he had designed for the bunkers he had built in his first life.

The ward-scheme only had to be adjusted and expanded for the tower.

Tethering everything to two a big ward stones, one he hid inside the bunker, the other in the second basement, Draco made sure that the ward was only completely activated for the bunker and the basement floors.

The whole ward scheme was a mix of rune magic, divination magic, light magic, blood magic and dark magic, and Draco specifically only activated the rune magic and divination magic wards for the ground floor and up, because he didn't want the first foolish trespasser to die straight away, or worse.

That would only bring him trouble.

When he was finally done with the ward, it was almost lunch time.

Since he had only worked inside the tower for the last hours, Draco hadn't noticed that people had gathered near his tower again.

When the crowd saw Draco coming out of his tower, they approached him.

There were some new faces mixed between the villagers, he had encountered yesterday.

Three people caught his eyes the most.

A pretty girl in her early twenties with curly light brown hair, wearing glasses that made her look a little older and gave her a smart and sexy librarian vibe.

In tow she had an unassuming wizard, around her age, holding a camera.

Not far from the two of them, was the last new face that had caught Draco's interest.

This one was already older and reminded him of one of those faceless ministry clerks Draco had seen so much of lately.

When they reached him, the older wizard addressed Draco first.

„Good day, Lord Black. My name is Pucey, Anton Pucey, I'm from the regulatory office from the ministry. I'm afraid we have received some complaints about you. I'm sure it's nothing but we are obligated to check, I hope you understand."

Anton made sure to be extra polite to the young lord.

The other people listening in started to whisper among themselves, when Anton addressed him as Lord Black.

The girl, Draco had noticed earlier, seemed to be the most excited about it.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

„Good day, Mr. Pucey. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Draco shook Anton's hand.

„The pleasure is all mine, Lord Black..."

Anton's smile appeared a little uncomfortable and it seemed he really wasn't very thrilled to bring up the complaints to Draco.

„Please, tell me what kind of complaints you received."

„We received some complaints about your tower, especially its height. But since it's your own property, there is no regulation against it, as long as the spire is sufficiently warded against the muggles' bird-shaped flying ships they call ‚airpalm' or something like that. Hogmeade is warded to be obscured to muggles' eyes, as you know, because of your land purchase, the village's ward has even been expanded, but not as high as your tower, so you will have to take care of this yourself or you will get a fine and the ministry will be forced to shorten your tower."

So, Anton didn't come to give Draco a fine, he even advised Draco how to avoid one.

Being a wealthy Lord definitely brought many benefits.

Draco thanked Anton and assured him that the ward had already been taken care of.

Anton didn't seem interested in verifying and took Draco by his word, instead the ministry employee continued with something else.

„We also received a tip, saying that you disapparated without a license. What can you tell me about this, Lord Black?"

The villager, who had reported that, had been really smart, actually managing to land a hit on Draco, even if they couldn't do anything about the tower and it didn't hurt Draco at all.

Straightforwardly, Draco admitted to the offense.

He couldn't be bothered to lie about this and just asked about paying the fine directly.

Anton seemed to feel really bad about fining him, and offered to arrange a test for Draco in the Apparition Test Centre, an office on the sixth level of the British Ministry of Magic in the Department of Magical Transportation, not far from Anton's own office, so that Draco could get his apparition license early.

Draco thanked him again and they hashed out the details.

Soon after, Anton said good bye and disapparated back to the ministry.

Before Draco could disapparate too, not caring about another fine at all, the girl stopped him.

„Hello, my name is Abbot, Rebecca Abbot. I'm a junior reporter with the Daily Prophet. And I would like to ask you a few questions, if you wouldn't mind."

Rebecca batted her eye-lids at him prettily.

She also didn't forget to introduce her companion.

„This is my colleague Mark Turpin, by the way, photographer for the Daily Prophet."

Free publicity for his new business, count Draco in.

„What do you want to know, Miss Abbot? Or is it Misses?"

Draco asked, smiling charmingly.

„It is Miss." Rebecca's smile stayed professional. „I heard the man from the ministry address you as Lord Black earlier..."

So, Draco told her about his new title first.

Afterwards she directly asked about his tower, and then about the business Draco was planning on opening there.

When Draco was done promoting the mirrors he would create and sell, he asked Rebecca to include in her article that he would be organizing job interviews for Black Malfoy Unlimited exactly one week from now.

Draco mentioned that he needed a lot of different staff, like enchanters, rune carvers, sales managers and clerks, bookkeepers and security personal.

„...Also, I prioritize competence. I don't care if the applicant is a pureblood, a first-generation wizard, a squip, a werewolf, a veela, a centaur, a goblin, a vampire, or a house elf. Only the best get hired by Black Malfoy Unlimited, no matter who they are."

The new and young Lord Black had surprised Rebecca a lot this day, but nothing was more surprising than his last statement.

Now that Draco had mentioned everything he wanted to appear in the article, he lost interest in continuing the interview.

Using lunch as a polite excuse, Draco ended the interview.

Rebecca still wanted more, but she complied and declared the interview finished.

But she still asked him for some pictures.

So, Draco let the photographer shoot some pictures of the two of them with his wizard tower in the background.

Rebecca thanked Draco profusely, before he disapparated.

Unexpectedly, this had turned out to be a much greater story than she would have thought.

This would definitely become her biggest article yet.

Maybe she could even get the article mentioned on the front page, it would be her first.

During lunch, back home in Malfoy Manor, Lucius informed Draco that he had invited Draco's godfather for dinner the next day.

Apart from that, Lucius didn't exchange a single word with Draco, either treating him like air or staring at him much too intensely.

So the atmosphere during the meal was as tense as the ones before.