Chapter 110 - Value of Advertisements

Advertisements.

One of the few game changing things that the Wizarding Britain have still not understood.

Or used.

There is a reason why every large company in the muggle world hire Superstars from all over the globe to act as their ambassador or at least make an appearance in their advertisements.

There's a reason why each multi billion dollar company put millions or even billions of dollars in advertisement.

It's to make their name known among the masses.

To create a brand and let the people know that if the icons of their world are using their company's product then it must be good and you should use it too.

Of course, they never say such a thing directly.

But could always open your television and see a famous actress drinking some company's drink and acting like they've reached the highest state of bliss after drinking that 2$ drink.

Harry, as a person didn't really liked advertisements because they're just a subtle way of manipulating people in believing in other companies' products that they might never have used before.

But he never liked manipulations either but despite that, he was perfectly content with manipulating other people.

He was a hypocrite and he would admit that to anyone who asked.

And that was why he was back into America and infiltrating the headquarters of the Multi-Million Advertisement Agency named Ameritech in order to kidnap one of their brightest mind in the building.

Whose name was given to him by Steve Jobs.

Of course, he had learned his lesson from last time and so this time, he had used an aging potion and was wearing what looked like one of the most expensive suits in existence. Just so the man would take him seriously when he showed him his proposal.

If the man refused this once in a lifetime opportunity, then he'll be obliviated and then go about living his life like always and then Harry would give the opportunity to the next bloke in the list.

With such thoughts, he used the Shroud of Concealment in order to not deal with the guards and infiltrated the company.

—————

* Harry tasks another magical construction crew to create a mall for him in his island. He also applies a muggle repelling charm in the island.

Harry's end of the term exams would start within two weeks.

Not that he cared since he never planned on sitting in those exams.

Which was the exact time frame in which he wanted to launch his company to the magical world.

The problem in this was that.

1. The production of the Magical Phones had not even started yet.

2. The production of the Magicl Towers was no where in sight either.

3. He had no shop in Diagon Alley from where he could sell his products.

4. The advertisement campaign has not started either.

In essence, he had no product. And he had no Place to sell his non-existent products.

So yes, that was a pretty big problem in his eyes if you asked him.

But like all problems he had faced in his life, he found a solution for this problem as well.

Delegate.

Which means ȧssigning tasks that he had no time to do, to other people who had the time to complete those tasks.

So far, he had not been able to delegate anything to other people because everything that he made was in it's research stage.

But now that he had finished the research and the product was finally ready to be launched, it was time to fuċkɨnġ DELEGATE.

With that thought, he started calling Steve Jobs, Mia Blacktooth and Andromeda Tonks, all of whom had received a Magical Phone Lite which was now being called MP Lite.

The Lite version was the cheap one that was far easier to make than the MP Pro, which was the expensive version with all the extra features.

So he had made a few and gifted them to people who were involved in this project in advance.

And he started with Steve.

—————

"Miss Greengrass." The silky smooth voice of her head of house reached her ears and Daphne straightened her back a little.

"Professor Snape. How may I be of ȧssistance?" she asked. It was rare for Snape to ever call anyone to his office like this. Except for Draco who was supposed to extra lessons with his godfather every evening.

She waited for him to answer, but instead of replying to her, he instead levelled a blank gaze at her. He must have had a lot of practice with that gaze because it unnerved her quite a bit.

But just as she was starting to feel uncomfortable, he answered.

"Your performance in my class and the other classes is starting to slip Miss Greengrass. Is there any particular reason for that?"

Daphne froze.

Of all the reasons why Snape could have called him here, to think that he would call her here for this.

Well, she was fairly surprised that he noticed because she didn't think that Snape really cared about his house students all that much.

But perhaps there was a reason why he was the head of the house of Slytherin and perhaps there was a reason why Dumbledore trusted him so much.

Still, she remembered her father's lessons along with Harry's warning and ramped up the occlumency shields in her mind and lowered her gaze just a little so that she won't have to make eye contact with him.

"There is no particular reason Professor." She lied.

The truth about her vow to Harry would come out sooner or later once she fails all of her exams. But she would rather it came later than sooner.

She was in no hurry to deal with the aftermath of failing all her exams in her first year.

"Am I to really believe that you Miss Greengrass, perhaps that girl with the most talent in potions in your whole class, suddenly starts slipping up for no reason."

Wait what! What did he meant by the girl with the most talent in potions in the whole class?

She thought she had hidden her talent well.

Apparently that was really not the case here.

But then again, she did realize that fooling some as perceptive as Snape was far different than fooling her classmates.

But she couldn't give anything away to Snape. Not for now at least.

He'll just have to know the truth along with everyone else.

"I'm not sure what you mean Professor." She lied rather unconvicingly and Snape rubbed his nose both in irritation and exhaustion.

Then he gestured her to the chair and said "Have a seat Miss Greengrass."

She did and then the room descended into silence once again as Snape stared into the distance, as if trying to recollect some memory before he said.

"During the last war, there were a lot of students in Slytherin who were under a lot of pressure from their parents and other peers who wanted them to join the dark lord."

"During that time, those students had no where else to go. No one to ask for support. And so with no other path to choose, they did what everyone else around them did." And with those words, Snape pulled the sleeve of his left hand and the faded dark mark became clearly visible to her and her breath hitched.

"I was one of the few half bloods living in the Slytherin house at that time. I had no one who would support me. No one would care about me. No one who I could turn to. And I was under a lot of pressure by my peers who were all joining the dark lord after the graduation."

"And I succumbed to the temptation." Snape went silent after that and Daphne felt a bit sad for this man who had suffered such horrible fate.

"The reason I'm telling you this is that I want you to know that despite appearances, I do care about my students."

"That if you are facing some kind of problem in your life then you should not hesitate to tell me about it and I'll do my best to help no matter what." He said softly and for some reason, Daphne believed in his words.

He just sounded… so sincere. And the pain in his voice when he talked about his past could not have been faked.

If it was, then he was perhaps the greatest actor she had ever seen.

Still, she could either tell his a little bit of the truth and ȧssuage his worries or she could choose to remain silent and keep him worried for her.

Which would only serve for him to interfere more in her life.

So she took a deep breath and said "I'll fail all the exams in my first year."

Snape looked confused for a moment. She had a guess that whatever he had been thinking when she entered the room was not this.

"May I know the reason behind… such a decision?" he asked.

"I'm sorry professor." She said biting her lower lip "But that is a secret that I'm not willing to share."

"Still, if you must know, then know that the decision to fail is mine and mine alone. And I'll gladly bear all the repercussions that my decision would bring."

Snape remained silent for a long moment and gave her a blank stare, as if trying to read her mind before he sighed and looked away "I guess there no way you'll persuaded to change this… decision."

She shook her head and he gave her a nod.

"Then I hope that whatever or whoever you're gambling this on won't let you down." He said and she froze, wondering if he knew about her and Harry but then shook that thought out of her head.

It didn't matter if he knew or not as long as he didn't interfere with her life.

"If that is all professor." She asked and upon recieving his nod, she got up and went for the door.

When she reached the door, she stopped and turned to look at him once again "You'll keep my secret to yourself. Won't you professor?"

Snape didn't said anything but just here the bȧrėst of nods and she took it as an affirmative before leaving his office.

The whole talk had been rather unnerving to her but she was glad that she had someone she could rely in the future if she wanted to.

Or at least that what she hoped was the case.

He could always be lying to her in order to gain more information from her.

You could never really tell with the Slytherins.