Leaks

A day has passed since the second test ended and Soisen was terribly upset as he looked at the newspaper in his hands, not even the students of his House had ever seen him with this kind of expression.

The reason for his state? Rita Skeeter, the renowned reporter for The Prophet.

Due to her spectacular performance, she had been gaining quite a bit of recognition and fame, something Rita no doubt picked up on and thought it was a good idea to investigate her past to dig up some juicy dirt.

She went public that both of her mothers were squibs.

There was a lot of garbage and unsubstantiated statements mixed in, but what had struck a chord with her was that detail.

She didn't even write a letter, but called a house elf directly and told her what Nagini should do. Once she was marked with tracking magic and everyone knew that Rita was an unregistered animagus and understood that it was by using her scarab form that she managed to get everyone else's secrets, the number of people who were going to charge at her would not be few.

And when the storm would pass, the moment she thought she was safe and got away with it once again, Nagini would send someone to forcibly inject her with a potion that would irreversibly turn her, a gossiping witch, into a squib incapable of using a simple Lumos.

Her research into the potion to cure the squib condition yielded many results and during one of her experiments, she accidentally distilled a potion that had quite the opposite effect. Naturally, he kept this discovery to himself or the consequences would be dire.

Although perhaps it would be more accurate to call it poison because of its effects.

But it wouldn't end there, once Rita resigned herself to her squib status, if at all, she would be mysteriously kidnapped, paralyzed and thrown into the darkest and seediest places of Knockturn Alley, where even full blown morphs dared not go unless in a group.

Soisen folded the newspaper and tossed it aside, thinking Rita was lucky to only receive this little lesson in humility.

Who knows what she would have done if she were a vengeful person, right?

On another order of business, some Aurors from the Ministry of Magic came to question him about why they blew up some shells, demanding an explanation and compensation for the damage they caused, but when Soisen asked them where they got them from when he had a monopoly and didn't sell any to the Ministry, they were blocked by their own incompententent play and had to go back in silence.

Soisen glared at them. Even if he hadn't set the den den mushi to explode by entering their magically linked serial number into the golden den den mushi in his possession, they wouldn't have managed to get anything no matter how much they wanted to, because all the ones he took out to do business with were sterilized by a very specific curse from his family's records that he took out of his vault and it was impossible for them to be recovered and multiplied.

If it wasn't for the huge order of gloves, hats and other protective clothing paid for by the Ministry of Magic early last year to equip their Aurors, he would have sued them and made such a fuss that the other Ministries of the world would make them a laughing stock.

He was under no obligation to stay in Britain and could move all his products and business overseas if he wished, which at this point would cause a small crack in the local magical economy. What's more, next year it will claim ownership of Hogwarts Castle and could close the only school of magic if it wanted to.

So it's best that the Ministry doesn't touch his nose too much.

...A few days later...

-Soisen, do you have any Veela ancestors? -Fleur asked when they met in the hallway as she took Gabrielle for a walk.

-I can assure you that is not the case - from what she had learned of her family tree, the Veelas did not meet the minimum standards for a Galegold to have children with them. They simply didn't measure up.

-But you also emit charm like we do! -Gabrielle said with wide-eyed surprise, "It's different, though, I'm sure.

-I do? -Soisen was puzzled for a moment, until he remembered that one of the three characteristics of his superior animagus form was charm. It's just that he thought the way it would affect him was by enhancing his appearance a bit and nothing more.

Perhaps it had begun to emerge as a result of the changes in his body due to the age he was in?

-Indeed, you do," Fleur confirmed to him as she carefully felt around him using her magical senses, "But it's strange, at Beauxbatons you didn't have anything like that and it seems you only recently started to emit a bit unconsciously," Fleur considered that whatever it was, it was also no doubt the reason why Soisen was immune to his Veela charm.

Soisen listened to her and was more certain about her theory about the changes due to the arrival of adolescence.

-Can you give me some advice on how to contain it? -The crux of the matter was that the charm could cause him a lot of headaches if he was unable to control it and continually released it around him.

She was afraid of unknowingly putting a target on her back for the next Hogwarts Valentine's Day, just thinking about it gave her a shiver.

-I'm not quite sure, -Fleur was well aware of her concerns, but she only had experience handling the charm of a Veela and Soisen used a completely different kind of charm.

Comparatively, if she was a skilled warrior using a spear, she was asking him to teach her how to use a sword. They were both weapons, but they were wielded differently.

-Well, nothing to lose by trying," Soisen said, "I'll treat you to some brownies in exchange.

-Brownies! -Gabriella's eyes widened with joy, because the ones she tasted after the Black Lake ordeal were the best she had ever eaten, but she was embarrassed to look for Soisen and ask for more. She turned to her big sister and gave her best puppy dog eyes as if her life depended on it.

-Okay," Fleur was amused by her little sister's reaction, "But we need someone else," she held up a finger as a condition for teaching.

-You mean a teacher? I can call...

-Non, we need Silvia to be with you during practice," said Fleur explaining with a smile, "Charm is much easier to control when you have important people close to you, as it helps you to be more aware of your actions, and we need someone reliable to give her honest opinion of your progress. Your girlfriend is perfect for the job.

-I... understand -somehow, Fleur's bringing things up this way gave him some embarrassment, though he doesn't understand why- In that case, I'll tell her when I see her and later I'll find you and show you a quiet place to practice.