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Idly he attempted to do some currency conversions. He had a rough idea what the exchange rate was between US dollars and British pounds. And then he needed to convert that figure into galleons.
Four hundred and fifty thousand galleons was a lot less than he expected, a figure that was only a small portion of the money that Sirius had left him.
He knew that he was going to be in North America for a while - easily a year or three, if not longer. And the idea of having the option of running his own little business to occupy himself when he wasn't off exploring the continent appealed.
The fact that he could add space expansion charms to the place, not to mention any other sort of magic that he wanted to was also a bonus. A small smile lit his face as he thought about making sure that there was a small library and a room especially for Hermione to come visit - she was definitely the one person from home that he missed the most.
"I'll take it," Harry said suddenly.
"What?" a startled Amelia replied.
"I'll take it," Harry repeated.
"You will?" Amelia asked.
"Yep, now where do I sign?" he asked.
ooo00ooo
Really, Harry knew that he shouldn't be there. Sure, he'd basically bought the place, but it'd be weeks before the deal settled. But he simply couldn't help himself - he had to look through it again, this time at his own pace. And if he happened to do a bit of cleaning or a couple of reparos, well, what harm could it do.
Even with as dirty as he knew the windows were, he refrained from lighting his wand after apperating into the main downstairs area - it'd be just his luck if a stray bit of light seeped through and caught the attention of the wrong people.
Instead, he waited until he was in the big kitchen before casting the lumos charm.
The kitchen was just as he remembered it: enormous and in serious need of a massive overhaul. It was also perfectly designed and placed for a small restaurant or perhaps a pub of sorts.
The fact that there was a walk-in fridge/freezer plus a cellar definitely supported the idea.
Not seeing much that he hadn't already seen here, Harry descended into the cellar. This was a room that he hadn't looked at properly at all.
Holding his wand high, he stepped down and quickly grabbed at the banister of the stairs to keep from slipping over.
Directing his wand downwards, he quickly identified the problem: a layer of black slime coated the stone floor.
"Scourgify," Harry intoned, swinging his wand backwards and forwards in front of him.
He had to repeat the cleaning charm another half dozen times just to get a somewhat decent area to move around in.
And even then, the floor wasn't completely clean. Harry suspected that it'd need another dozen cleaning spells or more likely a high-powered blaster to get rid of the slime.
The slimy floor, though, wasn't the only thing about the cellar that needed a good cleaning. One entire side of the room was filled with old rotting cupboards and boxes.
What they held was anyone's guess and not something that Harry had any desire to experience right then.
The glint of reflected light rebounded from a different corner and Harry cautiously edged closer to find that a wooden wine rack had been built into and across the back wall.
The gleam had come from one of the few remaining bottles that still sat there. Whether they had anything fit to drink in them was a question for another day when it was safer to cross the length of the room.
Deciding that he'd seen enough, Harry turned to go when an idea occurred to him. Turning back, he pointed his wand at the trap doors that led to the outside alley.
With a small smile and a thought of a bushy-haired, buck-toothed witch in mind, he cast a spell he'd first learnt back in his third year.
"Impervious!"
That, he hoped, would stop any more water from getting into the cellar, at least until he could have the doors replaced with new watertight ones.
Harry quickly retreated back up the stairs, through the kitchen and into the main area. He was just about to ascend to the first floor when a click, loud in the silence of the bare room, sounded from the front door.
Whipping out his wand, Harry retreated to the shadows behind the counter. The fact that the door unlocked all by itself in the dead of night told him that someone was using magic to break in.
"Ministry aurors! Put your wand down! We're coming in!" a deep gruff voice announced.
While Harry did in fact lower his wand, he refused to put it down. Nor did he come out from his hiding place.
He'd spent far too many years in a war to ignore his instincts, despite the fact that the war had finished so many years ago. He was sure that somewhere old Mad-Eye was looking down on him and smiling his grisly smile.
As the front door opened, Harry's eyes narrowed. He watched as a pair of large men came in, quickly separating to either side of the doorway.
Then, as one closed the door behind them, the other flicked a ball of light out and up that lit up the room like Harry had never seen it before.
He winced slightly but refused to look away. Instead, he focussed on the two men and the uniforms that they were wearing.
For it could only be uniforms. Each wore a long, floor-length trench coat that could easily double as a robe in the magical world. A gold shield of some description hung on their left breast.
Their clothes underneath were all black and, if Harry had to guess, he'd say that they were made of dragon skin. At least, the pants and tunic definitely looked identical to the ones that he had been given by Charlie Weasley when he'd visited the Romanian Dragon Preserve all those years ago.
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