Chapter 13

The next day, Rebecca Abbot's article was on the front page of the Daily Prophet.

The main headline.

‚The New Lord Black - Towering over Hogsmeade'

Even though the headline was thought-provoking, the article was informative and based on the facts.

The facts were even neutrally presented, which was rarity in the Daily Prophet.

The article first introduced him as the new Lord Black.

Then it told about the ancient law he used to inherit, discussed its inception, and the fact that the last time it had been used was more than three hundred years ago.

The article continued with a report about the wizard's tower he had erected in Hogsmeade and with the stuff he had revealed about the business he was planning.

It even mentioned the comparison to muggle inventions that had been made the day before yesterday, and introduced what a phone and a T.V. were.

This would probably lead to another controversy, but what was that muggle saying again, ‚any press is good press'.

The article ended with the mention of the job interviews in six days, and cited Draco directly concerning his statement about who was eligible to apply.

The crowning jewel of the whole article was of course the picture of Draco in front of his great tower.

Draco looked really handsome and noble in the picture, and his tower looked awe-inspiring.

Rebecca was in it too.

Unsurprisingly, Draco's parents were really surprised about the article.

His mother congratulated him on looking really handsome in the picture.

His mother had great taste.

His father had many questions and complaints about this article, and about Draco in general, but he only asked him how much of the Black inheritance he had already misspent on his Hogsmeade project.

When Draco told him the truth, that he had already spent 90 percent of the liquid Black assets, Lucius almost cried and was in no mood to continue interrogating Draco further.

After breakfast, Draco visited Gringotts to get a lot of silver and another batch of his bismuth order.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Then Draco apparated to Hogsmeade again and started working on the top floor of his tower.

In the whole granite floor, the top floor level didn't have any sectioning walls for this specific reason, Draco carved a giant rune circle, seven centimeters deep into the stone.

The rune circle's most outer layer even extended to the walls and even reached the ceiling.

In the center were the rune carvings the densest.

Directly above the center, Draco created a basin on a pedestal with a hole in the middle, reaching the granite floor.

Additionally, he made some stick-like openings in the pedestal, connected to the hole in the middle.

Then Draco started working the bismuth.

First he melted more than a hundred kilos with magical fire in the air above the basin, mixed it with a few drops of his blood and imbued it with his magic.

Then Draco let it flow into the basin.

Via the hole in the basin, the melted and enchanted bismuth flowed through the hole, filling the stick-like openings, and then it flowed into the giant rune circle in the granite floor.

When the melted bismuth reached the walls, the gravity obviously couldn't help him fill the rune carvings on them, so he had to guide and support the metal with his magic until even the carvings on the ceiling were filled.

Then he held the bismuth in place until it cooled down naturally.

The melting and subsequent cooling process of the bismuth let the metal turn into metal crystals.

Initially, bismuth crystals are silver.

The rainbow effect on the surface of the of Draco's giant crystal resulted from natural oxidation.

The magic made it shine even more, bathing the tower's top floor in colorful light.

The rainbow shine was just a little red-heavy, because Draco had integrated blood magic into the creation process.

When everything had finally cooled down completely, and Draco could stop holding everything in place with his magic, lunch time had long passed.

So, Draco postponed further work on the top floor to meet Vince and Greg in Malfoy Manor.

When Draco arrived home, he was pleasantly surprised to discover that Vince and Greg had started the training on their own without his input, and hadn't just gone back home or just waited uselessly, when Draco hadn't been there on time.

After a satisfying round of training, Draco sent his two friends home.

Snape would be visiting this evening, and Draco wanted to spare the two teenage boys from having to dine with their teacher and head of house, especially during summer vacation.

And his godfather had many excellent characteristics, but his people skills weren't one of them.

Severus Snape had liked the idea of having dinner with the Malfoys yesterday much more, when the news article about his godson hadn't been published yet, and he had still thought it would just be a simple dinner among friends.

Now, he was on an agenda.

As soon as Dumbledore had read the article, he had summoned Severus from his home in Spinner's End, and instructed him to investigate.

Even the wise old Dumbledore had never expected that the Black fortune would go to the Malfoys this way, having no knowledge of the old law, applying only the the Ancient and Most Ancient Houses.

Severus hadn't expected it either, especially since that hateful Sirius Black was on the loose again and he was the rightful heir.

His friend Lucius received and treated Severus with the same friendly politeness as always, but something felt off to Severus.

It was in Lucius' eyes.

Severus also noticed that Narcissa was acting a little weird this evening, she was much quieter than usual and kind of absent-minded.

Maybe Narcissa and Lucius were having a marital discord.

But the strangeness in Malfoy Manor didn't end with them, Draco was the strangest of them all.

It was as if his godson had matured over night.

Draco held himself with a calmness and a casual self-assurance, one could only admire.

It was a big difference to the Draco from a month ago, so full of doubt and empty arrogance (not that Snape had been much different at Draco's age).

Apparently, inheriting a fortune was good for mental development.