11 11. Opening day

14 July 1991

Everything was going smoothly. The opening of the Mall and the launch of the product was tomorrow. The Daily Prophet had also started circulating around the world. The first month was free for all. There was no proper way of knowing how many wizards there were in the world but Alexander estimated that the number must be around 30 million(Including non-human intelligent species).

He sat in his lavish office on the top floor. The office was huge with 4 private rooms to sleep in and all. He sat in front of his desk and behind him was the wide floor to ceiling glass. The view was amazing as the Galaxy tower was the tallest building around.

"Boss, all the security measures have been tested and everything is working fine. The people from the Department of Magical Transportation will have circulating shifts at the international exit gate. I have also opened a homeless owl shelter as you asked for." Remus Lupin reported.

Remus was a werewolf, and that status left him close to no work opportunities. Wizards and witches were top class racist cunts, they scrutinized all non-human species. Hell, they even hate muggles. Good thing that all the racist purebloods were rich and they would surely buy Uniphone. Then it was just a matter of time before they started chatting with each other about how sexy that snake boy Voldemort was. Unknown to them they will soon be cleansed off their sins.

"Thank you, Remus. Be sure to keep an eye on the ministry people too. I don't trust them one bit. One more thing, take this..." Alexander slid forward a piece of paper on his desk.

Remus confusingly picked it up and read it.

"It's a new potion I created. It should be easy for you to make it. You will only need to drink it once every 3 months and you will never have to worry about turning into a werewolf ever again and even if you did, you would not lose your sanity" Alexander cleared his confusion.

Hearing that, Remus excitedly clenched the paper in his hands. His eyes going watery.

"Thank you, Boss. I'll never forget this debt," he said with a firm will.

"Haha... It's not a debt, son. Consider it your first bonus"

Remus left his office with a wide smile. Nobody could understand his pain of all these years. He wasn't born a werewolf. When he was 4, he was bitten by the werewolf, Fenrir Greyback. Since then, everyone ignored him, loathed him. Everyone except his best friends at Hogwarts.

...

Alexander was finalizing some stuff for tomorrow's big launch. He wanted to make a deal with Gringotts for online transactions but he decided to wait till the project was launched. He knew that those greedy goblins would surely understand the future prospects of the device.

Although the Mall was not open, people could still see the huge video panels on the tall 30 story building. It was playing the 3 advertisements. The same thing was happening all around the world. People felt mesmerized by the ad and the product description. This kind of technology had not even arrived in the muggle world so not just purebloods but also muggle-borns were interested in it..

...

15 July 1991

It was morning, 9 A.M. The big day had arrived. The Mall had already opened its gates. People swarmed into the Mall. Their first stop was the Universe Industries shop.

Alexander had expected the crowd so he had already produced 300,000 units. He had found many homeless elves in Knockturn alley and hired them for the job. They were loyal and hard-working. They were paid a normal salary for 8 hours, 6 days a week shift. They wanted to work 24 hours but he somehow managed to convince them.

Buying a Uni T.V. was easy, you just had to pay and take it home but buying the Uniphone required an ID and fingerprints. These things were informed to people via newspaper advertisements. He had expected people to create a fuss about it but thankfully nothing of that sort happened.

It was still mid-July and the Hogwarts term starts on September 1st so there weren't many muggle parents. He was happy that he opened the Mall at this time, otherwise it would have gotten overcrowded.

All in all, the first day went well. Out of 300,000 Uniphones. 100,000 were sold, out of which 30,000 were bought by international visitors. He expected the number of sales to go up as he knew that most people only bought it out of curiosity for now. When they realize the usefulness of it, they will buy it for their other family members too.

On the other hand, he surprisingly saw the UNI T.Vs going out of stock. 300,000 out of 300,000 of them got sold. Seeing this, he decided to create a T.V shows/movie production company. Not only that, but he would also buy broadcasting rights of movies and shows from the Muggle world, movies like Terminator and Star Wars. He wouldn't show normal muggle movies and shows for now though. Most of the ones that will be shown will have some magical/technological stuff in it.

His company will also produce many things. With the help of magic, creating special effects would be a child's play but still, creating movies like avengers would still need modern CGI and that would be left for the future.

...

The next day, he woke up in his bedroom in the burrow. He still liked to live in the Weasley house as it brought him warmth. He washed up and went downstairs for breakfast. The Uni T.V. was already on, showing the news. He had brought a 52-inch one for the dining hall.

Rita was currently on the screen, reading today's news. She really looked pretty on T.V. The reason behind this was that he had hired a professional makeup artist muggle couple. Their kid went to Hogwarts so they already knew about the magical world and also because the pay was good, they quickly accepted the jobs. People like them were working in every department of Universe Industries.

[T.V sound]

"Heading towards the biggest news. The launch of the Uniphone and Uni T.V. was welcomed by an overwhelming crowd of buyers. Not just the universe industries but other shops in the Mall also received many customers. We interviewed many buyers and asked them about their hands-on experience with the device."

Random stranger- I love this device, it's easy to understand and also very useful. I am allergic to feathers so I never liked owls but now with this, I'll be able to not just text but also talk face to face with others. This is a revolutionary product and I thank Mr. Universe for bringing this discovery to us.

After 2 more random interviews.

"Well, it seems that Mr. Universe truly made life easier for us people. We hope that Mr. Universe will bring us many more discoveries like these..."

On our next report, A Swedish Short-Snout dragon wreaked havoc in a village in Sweden, luckily no one lost their lives and Dragonologists were able to secure it after 6 hours of hard work..." [T.V sound ends]

He changed the channel to the Animetoon channel. It was showing Dragon ball Z at that time.

"Quite an opening you had at Galaxy tower, Sir" Arthur exclaimed.

"Yes, it was overwhelming. I am happy that the magical community accepted it. By the way, I got some gifts for you," Alexander said and took out 9 Uniphones.

"These are for you all," he said.

"What, how can we accept this, this is too much, sir," Molly said.

"Kids, what am I to you?" Alexander suddenly asked the children.

Percy, Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny were surprised by the sudden question but they answered in unison.

"GRANDPAAAA," they loudly screamed.

"Haha... See, do you not consider me your family?" Alexander said with a sad expression. If he was at Hogwarts, he would have given himself 10 points for his acting.

Molly suddenly fell into a dilemma. She did consider him a part of the family but still, the gifts were not cheap.

"Oh, come on, Molly, I have more money than I can spend and I am growing old, so let me enjoy spending some money." He said and handed a box to her.

"Kids, choose one for yourselves. Arthur, this is for you and these two are for Bill and Charlie, send these to them by owl. One more thing, these Uniphones have 2 years free services so you don't need to pay a subscription fee." he informed. He was sure that by the end of 2 years he'd be able to uplift the family conditions enough that they will be able to afford these services easily.

After eating his breakfast, he went to his office to start the new day. He also noted that many families had arrived with their kids to buy supplies for school. Most of them went straight to the Mall. Good thing that all the shops in Diagon Alley had a shop in the Mall as well, otherwise he would have been blamed for hogging their customers