Chapter 121 - Buying Floo connections

Ted couldn't remember the last time he had entered the ministry.

After he had married Andromeda, they had both went into hiding in order to escape form the retaliation from the Black family.

Later at the end of the war when he heard the news that most of the members of the Black family were either dead or in Azkaban, he didn't knew if felt sad for Andromeda for losing her whole family like that or happy because his own family would now remain safe.

The only person from the black family now would be Narcissa Malfoy, Andromeda's younger sister. But Andromeda had ȧssured him that Narcissa was not the kind of person who would ever hurt a family member so after the war ended, they came out of hiding with their little daughter Nymphedora who had been born two years after their marriage.

He never even knew that Harry Potter was related to the Blacks through his grandmother, Dorea Black. But then again, most of the wizarding Pureblood families intermarry among each other in order to keep their blood 'pure' so such a news was not completely surprising to him.

He came out of the deathtrap that they call a lift and went to the office for registering the Floo Connections.

A bald middle aged man with a long nose and a dirty robe was currently slumped in a chair and looking over a bunch of parchments lying over his desk. So much for their pureblood dignity.

Ted knocked the door but the man either didn't hear him or outright ignored him and kept looking over at the parchments.

He knocked a few more times and on the sixth try, the man looked up at him with an annoyed glance and asked is a disrespecting manner "What do you want? Can't you see I'm busy working here."

"I want to register for Floo connection." Ted said without wasting his words.

He knew that talking with this inbred idiot will only serve to irritate him so he made sure to keep the conversation short and precise.

The man grimaced at his words, and for a moment, it looked like he would tell him to piss off but then the man controlled his expression and gestured him to come in.

Then he took out a new parchment along with a quill and started writing a few things on it before he asked "Name?"

"Ted Tonks"

"Location of the floo?"

"Diagon Alley. The new shop that's being opened this year." Ted replied.

The man nodded and noted it down on the parchment.

"The name of the Floo?"

"MG 1." Ted replied.

"1?"

"Yes. I need 7 more Floo connection. All numbered from 1-8."

"8 Floo connection?" the man asked while giving him a flabbergasted look. "What do you need so many Floo connections for?"

"Business reasons." Ted replied "It's not illegal or anything so don't worry about that." The irony of telling the man about his own job was not lost to him.

"Y… Yes.. Yeah. I know it's not illegal or anything. Of course I do. Who do you think I am? But registering so many connections will take time."

"How much time?" he asked.

"About 2-3 months" the man said and Ted frowned. But he already knew that this would happen and had prepared a contingency plan for it.

He took out a normal cloth bag filled with galleons and dangled it in front of the man. "And what if this bag filled with 200 galleons were to suddenly fall in your ŀȧp. Would you be able to shorten the time to 2 weeks then?"

The man gulped, as if the juggling of the galleons put him in some kind of trace as he nodded his head and a bit of droll dripped down to his chin before he realized what he was doing and slapped himself a few times before shaking his head.

Then he looked at Ted seriously and asked "You do know that bribing a Ministry official is illegal right?"

But while the man asked this question, his gaze kept going to the bag still dangling from Ted's right hand.

"Who said anything about bribery?" Ted asked cheerfully "This is just a small donation to upstanding people of our society like you who put so much effort and hard work to make sure that the ministry keeps running properly."

"Oh… In that case…" the man said cheerfully and went to the grab the bag filled with the golden coins when Ted pulled it bag and asked "The 8 Floo connections. They'll be registered in 2 weeks right?"

The man looked slightly confused for a moment before he smiled "Of course. Of course. For someone as considerate as you, I'll work day and night and make sure that the Floo connection is registered by the end of the 2nd week." He went went for the bag of coin once again and this time Ted let the disgusting man take it.

He cursed the whole system in his mind once again as before he apparated back to his home.

————

Mia looked at the Mall with an awed look.

The construction crew had worked hard day and night for the extra gold and the whole building had been completed five days ahead of the schedule.

And she had to admit that the real thing looked far better than the diagram that Harry had shown her and Steve.

And now that the construction crew had left, it was up to her and the men working under her to give it the finishing touches.

Like setting up the lightening system, the cooling charms, coloring the whole walls according to Harry's wishes, setting up the glasses like how it was shown in the blue print and all such things.

She was feeling a bit overwhelmed already but she also knew that she would get used to this pressure once the work started.

A lot was riding in the success of Harry's company and she wanted to help as much as she could.

As a magical race, it was not hard for them to scrounge up some food, water and shelter in order to survive.

What they lacked was self respect.

As a community that was oppressed and discriminated against by other people, it was the one thing that her people sorely lacked and dėsɨrėd.

Self Respect.

Equality.

Isn't that why so many of her people had fought alongside with that Dark Lord in the last war.

For the slightest bit of hope that he would treat them better than they were treated by the ministry.

With the hope that once they won the war, they would finally be treated as an equal by the other wizards and witches.

He had given them jobs, allowing them to do something with their lives instead of sitting inside their homes and wasting away.

He had treated them as an equal. Something that few wizards had ever done.

And now he had given her a job to do. And she would not fail him.

She of course, would never show much she truly respected him in case he gets a big head but now that he had given her a task, she would show her gratefulness with her actions.

With that, she started giving directions to the employees working under her and the work in the mall started once again.

Author's Note:- A small glimpse of how the ministry was being run by people who were less deserving of those posts.

Plus, the Werewolves' view of Harry.

That's all for right now, and if you like my work and have a bit of change to spare then please support me at- pat.reon.com.ankit1