As they walked through the house to the inside of the 'V', it was Neville's turn to remind Ginny to breath. For the young girl brought up in poverty at the Burrow the site before her was just breathtaking.
A freeform pool, complete with waterfall and large slide, was set into the most beautiful gardens ever seen. She would later discover that each bedroom had a pool or a sea view, though she could never quite decide which one she liked best.
They were just about to sit down at a table on the terrace when Narcissa portkeyed into the lobby.
She let out a low whistle before stating, "love the new office!" drawing laughter from everyone. They had a most enjoyable lunch before getting down to business.
Narcissa had received the slightest of nods when her eyes had questioned Neville's presence at the briefing, so knew it was safe to continue.
"OK, the expected backlash to Rose discarding her pureblood status just didn't materialise, for a very good reason. It's hard to organise a backlash when you can't find clean underwear, fresh robes or even food and drink."
Narcissa smiled at the blank expressions she was receiving from her audience.
"Quite simply, freeing the elves has had the most devastating effect on Britain's pureblood society. Most of them are used to being waited on hand and foot with no idea how to do the most basic of tasks. The new status symbol in magical Britain is not how much gold you have in your vault, but if your elves decided to stay with a contract. Dobby and Winky should be able to name their price for hiring elves. Where are they?"
Hermione just smiled and said, "honeymoon."
Narcissa couldn't help chuckling, "well they better enjoy their break while they can, and Gringotts has been inundated with requests for 'elvin assistance'. On a more serious note, some of the purebloods have lawyers poring over those contracts and laws with a fine toothcomb. Are you both sure they'll hold up?"
Hermione was giving her scary smile, "the goblins wrote those contracts for us, I would expect them to stand up to any level of scrutiny."
"Can we get the Prophet to list the new laws, especially on the foreigners clause?" asked Harry.
"What's the foreigners clause?" asked Ginny
"Any foreigner who owns elves has until 5am on New Years day to get them out the country, after that every elf in the country falls under the British legislation. I wonder how many of the purebloods have discovered that any elves they owned abroad are also free?" stated Narcissa.
An astonished Neville asked, "You mean their holiday homes are elf-less as well?"
Harry laughed, "We tied the law into their citizenship, a British citizen may not own elves. The law also decrees that no foreign national can bring elves into the country as slaves without them being set free, without the compensation enjoyed by the one-off payment received yesterday."
"The 5am was set to allow for New Year parties, after that every elf in Britain will be free. This has cost millions but, compared to the freedom of the elves, we think we got a bargain," said Hermione.
Neville and Ginny were finally realising the scale of the operation, this action would have repercussions on the scale of ridding the world of Riddle and his Death Eaters.
"Can I make a suggestion?" asked Narcissa. "Can we get the prophet to do an article on the new Hogwarts, especially the parents visitor centre? The thought of three days where your needs are looked after by elves will have the pureblood parents clamouring to get a place."
"Brilliant!" exclaimed Hermione, "we should also get Professor Zabini to make sure household charms, and magical appliances and cooking are part of her course."
This moved the meeting on to Hogwarts and the renovations; everyone could see the excitement in the faces of both Hogwarts pupils.
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