The Secret Society Ch. 2.1 (Harry Potter)

Read Chapter 1.2

Harry followed the irritated Gryffindor with barely hidden glee. He was fighting to keep a shit-eating smile off his face every time Longbottom turned around to glare at him while attempting to speed up.

That wasn’t exactly successful since Longbottom was weighed down by the heavy trunk. Harry might scoff at his housemates deriding all things muggle, but he couldn’t help but question why Longbottom didn’t use his magic to help with the trunk. The fact that he was a pureblood made it even more baffling.

Unfortunately, when Longbottom climbed onto a horseless carriage, Harry lost his simple pleasure. As much as he wished to continue to tease the boy, Harry was never one to procrastinate. Especially with something that affected his bottom line.

Last year, a… bold Ravenclaw tried to test the effectiveness of one of his contracts. To Harry’s annoyance, it didn’t even have any semblance of subtlety. Apparently, the boy thought that Harry’s contracts were full of shite and went on to try and reveal it... to the entire Ravenclaw house.

To be honest, Harry wasn’t too concerned about having the agreement revealed since it involved a Tier I service. That generally involved harmless matters, the worst being a targeted dosage of a mild love potion that lasted one hour.

It just so happened that Goldstein, the Ravenclaw, asked Harry for that service. In fact, he asked for a love potion that was a little more serious. Being that Goldstein was a first-time client, Harry denied him and offered the Tier I alternative. The offer was taken, and an agreement was made.

It was a common practice for Harry to do the same to new clients so he could find out who deserved more of his trust. However, it also served another purpose.

It turned out to be an excellent referral system. Instead of Harry working to get more clients, his clients would do the work for him in return for access to higher Tier services.

When Harry inadvertently started this hustle to protect himself in his second year, every single client had to be brought in with his own hard work. Sure, it was silly little requests like doing someone’s homework or that one time Harry hid under his invisibility cloak to cast spells to make it look like his client knew wandless magic. But every single one involved Harry acting like a salesman to market himself.

Indeed, it was a simpler time. No contracts were needed, no dealings with recently risen Dark Lords, and certainly no requests of vengeance. Thank Merlin, it was no longer that simple. If it was, Harry might jump off the astronomy tower to escape the boredom.

Harry caught sight of the wizard he was looking for. He changed his direction and slipped through the crowd of students before flicking his wand to stop the carriage door from closing.

Without giving Goldstein a chance to react, Harry climbed onto the carriage and sealed the door behind him.

“Oh, Anthony! I didn’t expect to meet you here.”

Harry floated his trunk down to the side and sat across from the nervous Ravenclaw.

“P-Potter! W-What are you doing here? I-I want nothing to do with you!”

“Well, that’s a bit hurtful, isn’t it? It almost reminds me of how I felt when you broke the secrecy of our agreement.”

“D-Don’t come near me!”

Harry looked scornfully at the shaky hand trying to point a wand at him. “Try not to make things worse for yourself, Anthony. You have already experienced the consequences of your mistakes before. Trust me when I say that trying to harm me will be much worse.”

Harry nodded when Goldstein dropped his wand like it was burning his skin.

“So, let’s talk about why you did it.”

“W-What do you mean?” Anthony’s stutter only made him angry, which didn’t help.

“Come now, Anthony. You don’t expect me to believe that you suddenly got the urge to announce to your entire common room that you contracted me to potion Ms. Patel.”

“I-I was drunk!”

“Ah, yes. I heard that pumpkin juice is quite effective in inebriating us wizards.” Harry’s sarcasm could practically be felt.

“I don’t have an explanation, Potter! It was stupid, but there wasn’t some great plan against you!”

“It couldn’t have been Lisa,” Harry muttered while pretending that Anthony said nothing, “But who else could have known about you other than your referrer?”

“E-Enough!” Anthony rose from his seat, “I don’t have to sit here and hear you talk.”

Anthony pointed his wand at the sealed carriage door before a white light splashed against it. Harry crossed his arms and watched him try a few more times futilely before resorting to trying to physically force the door open.

“I suppose there’s no reason to keep guessing,” Harry commented before flicking his wand at Goldstein, “Not when I can find out for myself.”

Goldstein’s arms snapped to his sides before his legs straightened out in a perfect line. Harry didn’t want him to be knocked unconscious, so he gently floated Goldstein’s petrified body to the floor before standing over him.

“This will be quick, but I’m afraid you will feel a bit of pain due to my inexperience. I’m sure you understand.”

Harry pointed his wand directly at Goldstein’s forehead and looked into his terrified eyes. It almost made him wonder if he was going too far, but sometimes, having a successful business meant that Harry had to get his hands dirty.

“Legilimens.”

Harry frowned as he found expected resistance as he tried to force his way into detecting Goldstein’s thoughts. It wasn’t near enough to stop him, but plenty to reduce what Harry could see to flashes of memory.

“Tell me!” Harry barked, “Why did you really break the contract!”

Harry could catch glimpses of Padma Patel scribbling on parchment while Anthony watched her from across the room. The guilt the boy felt when he thought of using the love potion and the fear at the thought of the others using the same thing on her. The resolve to out Harry for the service he offered, even if it meant that Padma found out what Anthony wanted to do.

Harry gasped and stumbled back when he was finally kicked out of Goldstein’s mind by the rudimentary shields.

“That was the reason?” Harry asked in disbelief, “Because of guilt?”

Goldstein had veins protruding on his forehead from his effort to protect his mind. He glared at Harry with red eyes as his petrified state stopped him from responding.

“I was worried over nothing,” Harry sighed and took a seat, leaving Goldstein on the floor, “Anthony, Anthony, Anthony. What are you doing in Ravenclaw? You would be a right fit in Gryffindor.”

Harry stared at the petrified boy and wondered what to do now. His original plan was to forcefully form a new contract to maintain his silence, but that was an overreaction to a client’s buyer’s remorse.

Harry flicked his wand at Goldstein, freeing him from the curse. Harry tapped his chin as Goldstein scrambled to his feet and tried to shove himself into the corner of the carriage.

“You’re mad! What’s wrong with you!”

“Sorry about that, old chap. It wasn’t completely my fault, though. You were the one that tried to hold a town hall meeting to expose my business.”

“Fuck you, Potter!”

“I think I know how to get past this little misunderstanding,” Harry held out his hand, “Let’s agree to never talk about this and move on with our lives.”

Harry saw Goldstein look at him like he saw a dementor, and after what Harry had put him through, he didn’t exactly blame him.

“That’s another one of your blasted contracts! I’m not going to agree to any more of that nonsense!”

“Well, that’s unfortunate,” Harry took away his outstretched hand before raising it again, this time with his wand included, glowing a light green, “I guess that means you choose a memory charm.”

“Wait! Wait!” Anthony scuttled to get away from the line of sight of Harry’s wand, “The contract’s fine! I’ll do it!”

“Ah,” Harry lowered his wand, “You should have said so at the start. I’m glad we could come to an agreement.”

Harry clasped his hand around Goldstein’s with a smile. This surely didn’t count as forcing him since he did give him another option.

Read Chapter 2.2 here