บท 39: Progress Report
The family all meet to eat breakfast, and the house-elves give us a progress report on the recipe and cooking techniques.
"Sammy, please give us a progress report on the task we gave you all," said Aurelius.
"About 50% of all house elves have learned the skills you requested and have been going in shifts to find recipes and watch techniques as the young master requested," said the house elf with pride.
"Sammy, how many house-elves work and live in Hogwarts?" I asked the house-elf, who looked fuller like a healthy, active child than a malnourished, stranded islander.
"A hundred, young master," said the house elf.
"To you and the other house-elves, good job, and keep up the good work," I told them.
The elf's ears perked up at the praise.
"So, what cuisine have you learned from?" I asked him.
"All the house elves perceived the collection as going to 11 different cuisines through the young master's wish for us to use the Pensieve that you have placed the memories in," said Sammy.
"Please describe them," I requested Sammy.
"We went to a place that used some green stuff that looked like a very thin sheet of parchment, then used some white grain that was steamed and mixed with some sugar and vinegar, and then used various raw fresh vegetables and thinly sliced fish.
"The next restaurant made the eyes water from the strong scents, and the cuisine was incredibly spicy but rather interesting. It was like soup but thicker. They stew much of the ingredients in the soup and serve with a side of the same white grain, but it is far drier and looks longer than the grain of the fish place.
"We also went to places that made worm-like dishes using flour that used stock from bones, and it was surprisingly very fatty and flavourful. Then they put the boiled wormy things into the soup and put on many ingredients cooked in different ways on top of the dish. The house elves have been working on that a lot.
"There was also this dough dish place that made many shapes. Some looked like crescent moons and wormy things and were placed into a thick sauce. Some were baked or were just boiled and then put into the sauce.
"There was also this restaurant that used that same white grain and turned it into a container with a filling made of meats and small vegetables and then steamed them. Some used weird items like bird's feet as a dish, and something called a thousand-year-old egg. Sammy doesn't know how the egg is a thousand years old. It looked new when Sammy saw the memory from start to finish in just a few days.
"We also went to a place where food was often tossed in sweet or salty sauce and used large fires in very large bowl pans.
"Another served a dish in a cooking skillet, and these medium-sized circles were used like folded pieces of bread to eat many different ingredients. It was very messy. The people ate it with their hands and bit into one side, and it pushed the contents out on the other.
"That was all on the meals. We also went to dessert places.
"One place makes very creamy ice cream and sometimes puts it on bubbly drinks.
"Another was a place that used that same white grain but was very mean to it by slamming a wooden mallet. For some reason, it was like they were playing a game of one man slapping the thing with water while the other man was trying to hit the man's hand while it was on the glob made from the white grain. The man with the mallet never won. The final product was this very chewy thing that sometimes they'd put some filling.
"One place made pastries by frying them and then putting filling inside them or glazing them with some sauce that dried very quickly.
"Another place made things that looked like a cake, but it was weird. They poured the mixture onto a destroyed biscuit mixture of butter and salt and then placed the thick cream into the same pan and stuck it into a fridge instead of the oven. It was tasty, though. Very sweet." Said the house elf, giving me its report.
"How many have been recorded properly after and have been mastered?" I asked, holding my composure and using my occlumency. 'Sushi, curry, ramen, Italian, Chinese, could be Chinese or Japanese, Hispanic, ice cream and malts, mochi or rice cakes, donuts, and creamy cheesecake. Wait a minute; I told them to go to three different price-ranged places, which means they've already gone to thirty-three places! It's only been a few days,' I thought while the elf gave its report.
"About 10% of each cuisine type, from commoner to the wealthy versions, have been learned and mastered. One teaches and then hands it to the next to teach." Said Sammy.
I turned to the ladies.
"Okay, for lunchtime, what do you ladies want?" asked Aurelius.
"Sushi sounds delightful," said my mother Ann.
"I was thinking Hispanic," said my mother Martha.
"I'd like stir fry," said our guardian.
"I'll have sushi as well. Feel free to give us whatever the house elves have mastered."
"Yes, sir. Sammy will let other house elves know to prepare the food for lunch," said Sammy before popping away.
"I wonder where they got the money to buy all these ingredients. They typically aren't paid by wages but by magic," said my mother, Ann.
"Hogwarts has a treasury that the house elves can use to buy ingredients, but it's budgeted for the year of Hogwarts, so we're digging into those right now. I'll need to put some money of our own back into the treasury so that they can properly buy the food for when the year starts in the fall." I said.
"That sounds expensive since they're cooking a lot of stuff. They're naturally very gifted in things like cooking, but even to test it out, they might be digging in quite a bit. Ingredients can cost around 10-30 galleons for the larger stuff like goats or boars. They are testing this stuff out to the mastery level of an expert. The cost could easily go into the millions, Aurelius," Nagini said in surprise.
I just shrugged my shoulders. "Meh, it's a long-time investment. Hogwarts will rightfully be mine, and that includes the house-elves services. Besides, with improvements in Hogwarts investments from individuals and businesses who seek quality workers, it will increase, allowing for it to compensate for the money lost now. But I find that it's worth it regardless. After all, a few million galleons to have personal master chefs at your beck and call is a luxury I can get behind," I said with a chuckle.
"Well, I won't complain; it's not like you couldn't fund it like it's pocket change, really," my mother Martha said. She then blinked multiple times, unsure if she really said that.
"Aurelius, my perception of money has become rather warped, but at the same time, I understand that it's a matter of proportionality rather than the raw amount. For us, it would be 3000% of our annual income, while for you, it's less than .00000000000000001% of your coffers. So, for you, it really could be considered pocket change. No, it's even more insignificant; a speck of dust in your pocket," she said with a self-deprecating chuckle.
"We've been making excellent time; so far, we've made two sets of accessories in the two days we've been here at Hogwarts. We'll be finished within the week at the rate we've been going. What will we do with the remaining time?" asked Nagini.
"Drills. We will be practising using these things to at least a proficiency of 90%. You will be training for every situation. Ambushes, war zones, hostage situations, assassination attempts, super-fast long-range attacks that exceed the range of detection, impersonation, and anything that could do you harm," I said with all seriousness.
"These are rather steep requirements considering we have roughly ten days before we have to go to the Galegold manor to pick up whatever was hidden from the goblins. Since you just need our freely given blood in bottles to key it to us, we can spend time working on it. Just let me know when you'll need me. I will be practising getting used to the speed dilation nausea when working against multiple targets in the defence room. I just need to say how many enemies and what intensity level, right?" she asked, just to be sure.
"Yeah, just remember to say stop or freeze when you want the simulation to end. If left alone for 10 minutes, all the attackers will return to the wall. You've already refilled bottles of blood and taken blood replenishment potions, but you are still healing, so take it easy. Also, this won't be just our time at Hogwarts. This will continue for the entire time you are free during this summer. Once the cat's out of the bag after this summer, once the noble families are notified despite the fact that any harm to us means their deaths, I wouldn't allow our defence to be just contracts. Also, I'm thinking of adding a defensive aspect that will function as a barrier for the status ring. Unfortunately, it will be purely made of magic but thin, so it's pretty much undetectable. It will be fuelled purely by ambient mana rather than mana stored in the accessories, so it's arguably more effective than most of the accessories." I said.
"What's the point if it's thin? It won't stop most things, and we have our shields already," said a confused Martha.
"It's to protect against minor wounds inflicted by someone who had unknowingly had something put on their person without our knowledge, someone trusted. Something as small as a needle attached to a shirt using an incredibly lethal poison would only paralyse us or make us mildly sick with the effects of the bracelet of status. Being that vulnerable unknowingly is a risk I'm not willing to take," I said.
"Wasn't one of our concerns was them being undefended in close proximity like during intimate moments? So if the person is activity harmed? There should be a strong shield only if?" Asked Nagini
"Yeah, but that doesn't account for more subtle attacks." I said in protest.
"The accessory is already designed to detect poison, isn't it?" said an equally confused Ann.
"The paranoia seems to be getting to you, Aurelius. You've already covered just about everything that is to be covered, and the issues that could be harmful would be so minor that you can live and learn with only minor injuries that could be healed," said Nagini.
"You've done well, Aurelius, relax. Just focus on the next task along the line of all your future tasks," said my mother, Ann.
I took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. I repeated the process a few more times. The nerves remained but weren't as pronounced.
"All right, I'm ready," said Aurelius.
"Okay, what is the next step along your timeline, and what needs to be done for this month?" said Martha calmly.
"Create and test the accessories for this week and training in using them. The order will be the bracelet of escape, and the next will be the ring of status; two weeks later, I will receive the first briefcase, and a new one will follow every five days until July 4. We will go to the Galegold ancestral manor by the twelfth day to identify four to six items hidden within the manor that could antagonise the goblin nation. We will open the shops, sell the products I've made at Hogwarts, and implement the factory methods Silvia created. I will visit the girls to give them their gifts. And adjust accordingly should anything new come up," I said aloud, calming myself down.
"Good. Now, please answer my questions calmly: why are you certain there are four to six items? What products? And what did Silvia do?" asked Martha.
"From what I recall, Mother said it'd be better that some items were not known to the goblin. While some can mean any number of things exceeding one among the common folk, however, when it comes to merchants and especially nobles, they are incredibly precise with their wording. Numerically, the word some translates to four, five, or six," I said, giving my reasoning.
"As for my products, I've made long-lasting moving soap that changes once held, accessories with varying enchantments that are more simplistic and harmless, the new vision potion that Harry Potter has unknowingly endorsed, and some simpler things that are fun but potentially harmful, like a toy dragon that spits fire. As for Silvia, she made the first mass factory magically automated system," I said, successfully calmed down.
My mothers just stared at me incredulously, and I had an increasing sense of dread as I saw my mothers starting to show signs of anger.
"Why did you make a bloody dragon toy that actually spits fire?" said an annoyed Ann.
"And where in the bloody hell in your letters did you write that you made a new potion that fixes eyesight?!" said an annoyed Martha, who tackled me to the floor and shook me violently.
"Child abuse, and why aren't the damn mirrors working?!" I said while being swung.
"You can't fight the love of a mother! And don't you recall you made it so it wouldn't harm those you deemed as non-targets or friendlies?" said my mother, reminding me while still shaking me.
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