Chapter 100: Hogsmeade Surprise (1/2)

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The link is also in the synopsis.

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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

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After his talk with Harry, Quinn went back to study the butchered-up Braid Wiggle. He was wearing a fresh pair of white cloth gloves and used his magic to separate the guts, but then stopped even before his fresh gloves were stained with blood or bodily fluids.

He once again cast the tender green pyramid-shaped short-term preservation field before taking a seat. He thought about the conversation.

”That was unexpected,” sighed Quinn.

Quinn still thought that the A.I.D. had developed into a place where students would bring their problems more than they brought to the professors. But he never would think that Harry Potter would come to him, given his close connection to the professors.

Remus Lupin, Rubeus Hagrid, and Albus Dumbledore were part of the Order of Phoenix in the First Wizarding War, and Harry had grown up with plenty of contact with the above members. Lily Potter, his own mother, was a professor and another viable option. Even though Minerva McGonagall wasn't part of the Order of Phoenix, she was Gryffindor's Head of House and had good relations with Harry's parents.

Ivy's case was different from Harry's, and her interactions with Quinn had started with purely academic purposes. But because of several series of events, their interactions had increased beyond that point. If those events hadn't taken place, Quinn imagined that his interactions with Ivy would have been limited to the annual purchase of study notes.

”I wonder how he will proceed with the knowledge he has now,” wondered Quinn as he tapped his finger on the tabletop.

Quinn had read Harry's thoughts when he was exiting the room, and in those thoughts, he had seen impulses of confronting his mother, but from where Quinn was reading, they weren't strong enough for Harry to react on.

”He would definitely share the new information with his sister. That one is inevitable. The first thought in his mind was to share that information with her,” murmured Quinn as he continued to tap on the table. ”At least he has no intention of telling her the source of information. Let's just hope he does his due diligence before talking to anyone about it.”

”I'm really looking forward to seeing how this entire thing turns out,” smiled Quinn. He then thought about asking some people some sleeper-favors inside Gryffindor.

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- (Scene Break) -..

Quinn took a deep breath in Hogsmeade. ”The air's free of something and with that...” Quinn took another deep breath with a smile on his face.

”... What?” uttered Eddie, a confused furrow in his brow.

”Ignore him,” said Marcus, eying Quinn, who had a confident expression on his face. ”He started intending to say something cool and wise sounding but very quickly realized that he doesn't have anything fitting to say.” Marcus sharply pointed at Quinn and continued, ”Look at him. Always plastering that confident look on his face, expecting us to buy it, which is complete bullcrap.”

Quinn clicked his tongue as he gave Marcus a side look, ”You're getting too smart for your own good.”

”Nope, we are spending too much time with you,” Marcus shook his head as he responded.

Quinn queried a brow as he said, ”So you're saying that my presence is making you smarter. Huh, never thought it like that. That is good to hear.” A soft yet wide smile made its way to Quinn's face as if he was feeling fulfilled after doing a good deed.

”No! That isn't what I mean-,” rebuked Marcus but stopped and sighed, shaking his head, ”You know what, leave it.” Marcus narrowed his eyes at Quinn and complained, ”You know how annoying it is when you lead the conversations that way. Don't do that.”

Eddie chuckled at the side as the three amigos moved across the streets of Hogsmeade.

”What are we going to do today?” asked Marcus as he and Eddie followed Quinn.

”I have got to pick something from Scrivenshaft's. Then we'll have fun,” answered Quinn as he led the group towards the West family-owned business.

He had gotten a MagiFax message from home in which it said that there was a package for him at the shop and that he should pick it up today. When he wrote back for more details, all he got back was that it was a surprise.

'They could've just shrunk it and sent it to me via an owl,' thought Quinn, and that made him wonder what was it about the package that it couldn't be sent directly to him.

Eddie and Marcus looked at each other and shrugged. They knew that Quinn's family owned the Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop in Hogsmeade. Quinn never talked about his family, so they didn't know much about it. Both of them knew that Quinn's family was loaded, but neither of them knew about the true extent of Quinn's family wealth.

Quinn, Eddie, and Marcus entered the door as the door chime above the door rang to announce their entry. There were a substantial number of customers inside the store, which were mostly students browsing through school supplies.

”Good morning, Gary,” greeted Quinn as he walked towards the counter.

At once, he saw something different in the shop manager of Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop.

Whenever Quinn saw the lanky man he would dress casually and, most of the time, he would have a work apron on and would've ink stains all over his fingers and clothes, uncombed clothes, and overall, no personal grooming. But today, Gary was wearing a pressed checkered shirt and a new set of pants with no ink stain on any part of his body. He also had very neatly combed his hair, clean shaved, and had cleaned up quite well.

”... Gary, you look great. What's up,” asked Quinn, smiling at the man he met whenever he came out to Hogsmeade.

”Good morning, Mr. West,” greeted Gary nervously, trying to do a proper greeting, fumbling as he tried.

'Okay, something is wrong,' thought Quinn as Gary didn't call him, 'Mr. West.' Quinn had asked Gary to call him by his first name, so the sudden name change was suspicious.

”... Gary, you are acting weird. What is wrong? Tell me, and I'll solve it,” said Quinn, trying to reassure his acquaintance. Also, he was part of the family business, so if Gary had a problem, Quinn would try to make it disappear.

”Nothing is wrong with me. The package is waiting for you in the back room,” replied Gary stiffly, clearly looking nervous and anxious.

”... I see,” said Quinn and glanced at the door that led to the backroom. He turned to look at Eddie and Marcus and said, ”... You guys wait. I will be back.”

He glanced at Gary as he walked to the back door, and he could see that sweat was beading on Gary's forehead.

Just behind the door was the staircase that went up to the second floor. Quinn climbed the steps; with each step, the stair beneath him would creak because of his weight.

There was a single corridor on the second floor, and on that corridor were three rooms: two on the sides and one straight ahead. The two rooms at the sides of the corridor were storage rooms filled with shop merchandise and raw materials.

Quinn stared at the white door straight ahead. He had been into the room before. And that was why Gary hadn't specified the room and had just said the backroom. It was the door to the same room in which Quinn had told his secrets to his grandfather, George West.

Quinn opened the door and entered the room. He already knew what was waiting for him inside.

In the room, which had been completely fixed from the last time Quinn's magic had gone ham on it, sat a woman in front of a table, looking over some books. She had been peacefully reading and looked up from the books, which looked like ledges.

”Oh, you're here. Good morning, Quinn,” greeted the woman when she looked at Quinn.

”What the hell, Lia. You could've just told me you were coming. For a second, I thought I was going to get jumped and get kidnapped,” sighed Quinn as he closed the door and walked towards.

The woman, Lia West, Quinn's sister, smiled as she got up from her chair, walked towards Quinn, and hugged him.

”It is called a surprise, dummy,” said Lia as she broke the hug. ”Aren't you surprised?” There was a mischievous look in her eyes and a playful smile on her face.

”Of course, I am surprised! If I didn't peek into Gary's mind, I would've bombarded this room with spells,” said exasperatedly Quinn. He had used a light Legilimency probe on the shop manager's mind and extracted Lia's face and name in the few seconds Quinn maintained the probe. He sighed as he then asked, ”What did you do to Gary? He was all jittery and stiff in his shoes. I haven't seen him dressed properly before this.”

”Hmm? I didn't do anything to him. I just asked him to bring me the shop account books. I thought I would audit them as I pass the time while waiting for you. And for his clothes, I am not sure how he usually dresses; this is my first time visiting this particular shop,” answered Lia as she and Quinn sat down.

”I see; he was getting audited. That is why he addressed me by our family name,” sighed Quinn and reached for a biscuit from a platter on the side of the table.

”I didn't say anything to him. And his accounts are all fine. I can't see any discrepancies, and the shop is pulling good profits. He shouldn't be nervous if he knows that his shop is working properly,” talked Lia as she studied her brother.

”Anyone would be nervous if the owner popped one day and asked for the ledger,” said Quinn as he cleaned his hands with magic. ”So why are you here?”

”Isn't that obvious, dumb baby brother of mine? I'm here to see you. I was in the country, and I was talking to grandfather one day when he mentioned you had —what is it called, oh, yeah— Hogsmeade weekend, so I decided to visit.”

Quinn sighed once more before another smile made its way to his face. He was happy to see Lia while at school.

”How have you been?” he asked while observing Lia. As he was studying Healing, Quinn's eyes automatically looked for signs about her health. He didn't use magic, but he could tell that she was healthy.

”I'm great. I went to Peru for a week with my friends,” started Lia, telling Quinn about her vacation.

”Oh, did you? How was it?” asked Quinn. He was interested because he hadn't been to Peru while traveling.

”It's a beautiful country. We had lots of fun. I brought you some souvenirs. They are at home.”

”Bought a company in Thailand,” informed Lia with a proud smile on her face.

”Wait, did we have holdings in Thailand?”

”No, we didn't. This is the first one, and I took care of all of it. Grandfather handed me the project. It will be my biggest project to date. I have already submitted a ten-year development plan for Thailand.”

”Congratulations!” cheered Quinn, happy for a clearly prominent occasion for Lia's career.

”Thanks! What else I did, hmm,” thought Lia with a finger on her chin before her eyes sparkled and she spoke with a brag in her tone, ”I entered a flying-horse tourney in Greece and won the entire event.”

”Seriously! Woah, that is awesome! Did you get a trophy?” asked Quinn, clearly impressed by this event.

”I did. It's at home.”

”What else did you do?”

”Oh, this one is my favorite. Listen to this. I found an old Oakshift 79 broomstick, but not any Oakshift 79, no, it was Jocunda Sykes's Oakshift 79 that she used for the first-ever flight across the Atlantic.”

Jocunda Sykes was a woman who was famous for flying across the Atlantic Ocean - the first magical to do so. The broomstick that she used for the historical event would be absolutely priceless.

”No way! How did you manage that? Where is it? Is it also at home?” exclaimed Quinn.

”At home, no. I sold it,” smiled Lia.

”Huh?” blinked Quinn, confused by the sudden reversal. ”Why would you do that?! That thing is really priceless.”

”I found two bottles of Dagueneau Seibel,” Lia said as a very wide smirk made its way towards her face.

”... no, you didn't,” said Quinn with a face full of disbelief. ”From 1905? Are they from 1905?”

”Yes, the 1905 Dagueneau Seibel,” nodded Lia smugly. ”And I found two of those. I traded the broom for two of those bottles. The guy I traded was a big broom collector, and he didn't even blink when I put down the offer.” She raised her hand and showed two fingers. ”TWO! I found two. Haha!”

Dagueneau Seibel was a type of magical wine enjoyed by people who liked to indulge in wine. And Dagueneau Seibel, 1905 was an edition of Dagueneau Seibel, coveted by wine collectors. An edition that, with time, had become increasingly difficult to procure. Dagueneau Seibel, 1905, had become a collector and wine lover's dream.

But the reason Quinn and Lia were so animated about this wine was that their grandfather, George West, loved this wine. George only ever had a tasting pour of said wine; a tasting pour was half a regular serving. And after that single pour, George West had proclaimed that Dagueneau Seibel, 1905, was the best wine he ever had.

After that day, George tried to buy a bottle of Dagueneau Seibel, 1905, but was unsuccessful in acquiring a bottle because it had become increasingly rare, and no collector was willing to part from their bottles.

Another reason that this wine held a special place in George's heart was because the wine was as old as him. George West was born in 1905, and so was Dagueneau Seibel, 1905.