"Ooo! Listen to this one!" Sirius giggled before reading aloud an article from a magazine. "'Madam Bones was seen at the Rosewaterin the presence of Remus Lupin! Does the tight-laced Director of Magical Law Enforcement have a new paramour? And if so, does she like them wild and dangerous?'"
"Please stop," Remus begged, but that only caused his friend and roommate to laugh harder and read more from the latest issue of Witch Weekly, the premiere magazine for magical ladies.
Remus had thought nothing would happen after the meeting with the director. At least not for a few days, at least, as she looked into Sirius Black's trial, or lack of it. But it seemed some people had been snooping, and hadn't hesitated to gossip about it.
And thus his 'illicit rendezvous with a secret lover' had been plaster all over the gossip-filled rag during its next issue.
"At least no one will suspect what you two were actually talking about," I snickered, watching as Remus shot me a glare. I just grinned back, and he huffed before looking away.
"Why are you here?" he instead demanded of Sirius. The disguised felon just waved the magical magazine cheekily in response.
Remus and I had been in my office going over ways to integrate new werewolves into the team, as well as coming up with ways to work with the non-humans I wanted to bring onboard, when Sirius had barged in, magazine in hand. He'd then conjured a chair and begun teasing his old friend by reading aloud from the articles within.
"Well, now that you've had your 'fun,' you can go," Remus said, gesturing impatiently towards the door.
"I'm going somewhere with this, I swear!" Sirius claimed. "What we should do is buy up as much control of the newspapers as possible!"
"Besides the Daily Prophet, there's really only the Quibbler," I pointed out. "There are magazines such as Quidditch Monthlyand Witch Weekly, certainly, but unless you think we should start up our own newspaper – which actually isn't a bad idea – we don't have the capital necessary to purchase controlling shares."
"Nah, we don't need to do that," Sirius scoffed.
"And how exactly would you go about doing this plan of yours?" Remus wondered.
"Nine families own the Daily Prophet, with the Ministry of Magic owning ten percent as well," Sirius replied. "The Blacks are one of these nine families. When my name is cleared, I'll be able to claim another ten percent, and maybe even a third! I'd then own thirty percent of it!"
"How?" I asked enviously.
"The Lestranges owned ten percent. But they're all in Azkaban or dead," Sirius replied. "See, the Blacks used to control a full thirty percent. And that ten percent the Lestranges have was darling Bella's dowry. If their family died or something caused the dowry to be rescinded, however? Well, then it would default back to the House of Black. Aka, me."
"And let me guess, the other family the Blacks gave ten percent to was the Malfoys via Narcissa's dowry?" I inquired.
"Bingo," Sirius winked. "Won't be easy to get it back from Lucius' slimy fingers, but the shares technically still belong to House Black. They're just owned by Narcissa and held in trust. Lucy-boy just controls what happens with them and the money they make thanks to being her husband. Aren't archaic and patriarchal codes of law great?"
"I guess you could disown Narcissa, meaning the Black shares would revert back to your control, though you'd need a good excuse to do something like that," I mused thoughtfully.
"I have a few ideas," Sirius said with a dark smirk.
"And how does this lead to use getting our hands on Witch Weekly?" Remus asked, wishing for his friend to hurry up and get to the point.
"Right, well, fifty percent of Witch Weekly is owned by the Potters, thanks in part to Lily's clever money managing ideas," Sirius informed us, and I blinked. I hadn't known that!
"Witch Weeklyisn't just read in the UK, either," I muttered, seeing where he was going with this! "It's sold across the Americas and Europe as well. It has a much higher reader count than the Prophet, so if we wanted, we could use it to influence all kinds of people's opinions!"
We could use it to start making a difference in the wizarding world, which was usually so slow and resistant to change!
"Exactly what I was thinking," Sirius confirmed. "Harry probably won't be able to do much with it just yet, but when he turns seventeen, he'll have full control over the Potter assets."
"Clever," Remus muttered. "And even if Harry doesn't have much say in how the magazine is run, I'm sure a 'suggestion' or two from him would still be followed if only because he's the Boy-Who-Lived."
"He's normally pretty shy and hesitant regarding his fame, but I think he'd be fine if it's used to do some good in the world," I mused, and the other two nodded in agreement. "Well, I guess we're writing to Harry about that, then."
Another idea struck me. "And I think I'll start investing in the Quibbleras well," I said aloud. "I could probably get ten, maybe twenty percent since there aren't really any other investors queuing up. And I know the Lovegoods. They trust me."
'And then, between Sirius, Harry, and myself, we'd control a significant chunk of Wizarding Britain's media!' I thought to myself, seeing this as an absolutely good thing.
"Not a bad idea," Sirius agreed, and Remus nodded slowly. They could also see the benefits of this as well as I could.
I'd have to send an owl to Xeno and Pandora as soon as possible in order to get on top of this. I really think things were starting to go well for us!
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