I couldn't say that the conversation with Granger was easy, but it wasn't too difficult because I had rushed into my main goal and then had to smooth things out, but in the end, it was exactly what I had been interested in all along.
As I said, I had a few characters to settle on in this story, and at that point there were very few people I was even remotely interested in. Ron didn't disappoint me, but he wasn't exactly bright with any skills or talents, just a regular kid breezing through high school.
Left alone, he would be like a log floating down a river and finding his way to shore. On the other hand, I'm not interested in this guy, so I'm not going to invest time and effort in him. It's quite realistic to mold Potter into something more or less bearable, which, fortunately, I will have to do, not me, but his future spouses.
And yes, despite his attempts to move out, fight back, and so on, I've done my best to make sure that he won't have an easy life in the future, i.e. I've pushed this Gryffindor by all means to make the very decision for which he might dislike me so much later, but it'll be too late, hehehe. I feel like a universal evil! As they say, when you've done something bad, you feel good. I feel something like that.
Granger was the last of the trio, and she was the hardest to deal with, in the sense that every woman, no matter how old she is, has her own logic, a special logic that men don't understand, hence my difficulty in determining her value. Dragging everyone to me and warming the poor is for the Red Cross, and I know the value of work, so if a man is not willing to make an effort to improve his own future, why should I drag him forward by the scruff of his neck?
For example, the milking parlor I recently opened has already provided me with three dozen wizards and witches of average strength. These people struggled and survived in Knockturn Alley, and when they got a chance, they grabbed it with all their limbs and teeth.
It was noticeable that the people were afraid, but they took the risk, and then they worked, honestly and with full dedication, so that just in the past three weeks, after the second trial, my workers have already beautified one of the hills, laying the proper terraces where the gardens will be planted.
The wizards and witches had never done this before, but they tried, they learned, and now, despite the winter, the wild hill has been transformed into perfect terraces, reinforced with fused stone, paths, steps, etc., so that all that remains is to plant the trees. Isn't that an indicator?
People literally shoveled the magic down their throats and didn't complain. I appreciated that, and the people that Anthony keeps bringing in (my head of security and so on) work in their own line of work, and from the moment any newcomer arrives, they observe and study them.
Somehow, imperceptibly and naturally, I have formed my own security department, but there is an acute shortage of specialists for more complex magical work. For example, I can't trust anyone to install the complex of climate-control spells I want to use in the depths of my territory and near the lakes.
There is simply no one who can do it all, even if not immediately, but after not too much preparation. All those who are available are already too stiff, all available gifted people are ready to learn something, if only a small set of some charms, maybe spells, but only that. That's exactly why I need people like Hermione Granger, people who are interested in learning something new, in developing towards science, not a set of ready-made charms.
The girl lived up to my expectations when she presented the fruits of her labors in the Hogwarts library. She showed her diligence, her ability to think, to analyze information. So I decided to have this bright mind at my disposal. I didn't make any special effort to change the future, it was all about the girl herself, because she decided that she was worth something more, and I value determination as much as hard work.
So in the course of our negotiations with her, we settled on a variant: the girl brings me, as the head of the Hoshino family, a vassal oath (with various specifications described on paper), I take care of her in exchange for services (both current and future) (there is also a list of rights and obligations).
And in general it turned out to be something like an employment contract, but we are both satisfied with it. After the fifth year and exams, Hermione Granger will leave Hogwarts and continue her studies in Germany at my expense, and until then she will do work or errands if they do not interfere with the process of studying.
In general, there are a lot of details, but that is not the end of my plans for this curly-haired Gryffindor, for what I saw could not help but attract me, and if the girl did not object to this change in her future, then the rest will work out as it should.
There were rumors and gossip around Hogwarts that Granger had begun wearing a silver badge on her robes, depicting a sakura flower surrounded by a tiger and a dragon leaping after each other. The local gossip girls, bored with the news, tried their best to ask the curly-haired witch about the origin of the brooch. The girl remained silent, only saying that soon everyone would know everything, if they were still interested.
If desired, even such a statement can be made ridiculous enough to satisfy anyone's taste. But the news did not stop there, the British newspapers of the magical world wrote a lot about the trial and the ongoing quarrels within it. There was also the news of the marriage of Bartemius Crouch Sr. to a girl half his age.
This news even overtook the people's favorite pastime — making fun of politicians and washing their bones. Everyone suddenly remembered that the Crouches were an old pure-blooded family of the "holy twenty-eight," and that they had never been poor, but they did not like to show their income to the public.
The old maids and the prissy divorcées were immediately outraged, but the train had left, as they say, and the newlyweds had moved to the family estate, which was in a secret location, just in case. It seems that this harsh subject decided to continue the family personally rather than wait for the weather. He made the right choice, because I will not spare his son, and if I succeed, I will definitely send him to the altar — I had enough time to examine him in all "projections", and I had time to assess the level of his mental health and morality.
In general, British wizards had means of entertainment, I arranged new workplaces, including a bakery on the corner of Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley, which every morning gathers a huge pandemonium because of simply unbelievable aromas. And not a gram of potions or special charms, everything is natural, but the process is facilitated by magic. The bakery was opened by the Willow family, a husband and two children who graduated from Hogwarts last year.
Susan Willow, the matriarch of the family, is a cousin of my maid, Gwyneth Travers, who has mentioned both her relative and her talents several times, and who once asked the family for a loan to open the business.
I could find no reason to refuse, especially since the money required was not much, only seven hundred galleons. After some thought, I changed the original idea a bit, and now I have another family of servants, and above the bakery sign hangs the same cherry blossom, surrounded by a tiger and a dragon.
The income is not much, but it is there, and the fame of how I help people has already spread among the people. The first letters have gone out, but they are being filtered, scrutinized, pored over.
I don't want to make all of Britannia my servants, although the idea is not so bad. Besides, there will soon be a new bank in these lands, and it will already be involved in all these matters, and I will choose the most promising people, who will gather around my future clan and become the wall that always surrounds a solid castle.