Chapter 16

Sirius wanted to take me back home to stay with him but I still had unfinished business. I assured him that I would be fine and bade him farewell. I went back to the ESP company and told Able to up the security by several folds. "Right you are, Mr.Potter. I have asked my entire family on my wife's side to help us and they have accepted. Did not call my side of the family.... bunch of crooks and slicks." He added with an embarrassed look.

The next week I went to Gringotts for the auction of the Firebolts and was escorted to a hall that had a raised stage upfront, rows of seats for the guests, audiences and bidders. There were multiple balconies which overlooked the hall were the VIPs sat. There was a file placed next to my seat which contained the VIP list for today's auction.

I flipped through it and found more than a few names were new to me. The expected people to attend were The Malfoys, The Parkinsons, The Selwyns, The Rowles on one side. The Abbotts, The MacMillan, The Belbys and the McLaren on one side. Madam Bones stood out like a sore thumb. She watch for some time before exiting the hall. While Mrs.Zabini stood out in a whole other way. I could find men stealing glances at her, even when their wives were glaring at them from the side. Even some women weren't exempt from her charm. She noticed me looking at her and gave me a smile, which I reciprocated and dipped my head a bit in a short bow, before moving on to the next balcony.

The Italian Magical Mafioso families, The Japanese Nobles, Egyptian Nobles,The French Nobles, A Princess of Ghana- who was said to be one of the wealthiest persons, A few wealthy American merchants. Anyone who was an ardent fan of Quidditch, who would travel half the way around the world to get a chance at buying a limited edition version of the fastest broom in the world.

The other balconies were filled with families from other countries, while the groundfloor were filled with the poorer Noble families of the magical community.

The time was 11:00 AM, the auctioneer comes on to the stage, "Great Wizard's and Witches of the world. We have gathered here for the Auction of the Numbered 'Gold Series' of the FireBolt, featuring the brooms from '010' to '002'. Now, there are general rules here that are enforced...." He went on to present the rules and regulation to be followed before announcing, "And now I shall start the auction. May the odds be ever in your favor." He said bowing down.

The first Firebolt was placed, serial '010'. The auctioneer, spread his arms jovially and started the auction "The starting bid is at 100,000 Galleons. Please place your bids in an orderly fashion."

The war was on for the first broom and out of the blue the last and final bid, had gone to- "Sirius?" He came striding into my room after I asked the Goblin standing outside to let him in. "You bought the first one?" I asked. Sirius nodded, "Yes. With this I will have the first Double digit serialed broom. And the only double digit 'Gold Series' Firebolt. Which makes mine more valuable than the other ones.... well except yours, I guess. Pretty clever right? It was even more worth it to see that Death-Muncher Malfoy pull his hair out after I outbid him."

We watched the rest of the bid and enjoyed the groans and cries of agony and outraged that peppered the auction now and then. After almost two hours, the auction was over, and Sirius was right after all. The Serial '010' broom had sold for the second highest, for a whopping 370,000 Galleons. And he had won by outbidding Malfoy by just 10,000 Galleons. Which was not a lot, compared to the other bids and the final price.

The serial '009' was bought by the sinfully beautiful Mrs.Zabini for a price of 210,000 Galleons, much to Lucius Malfoys surprise and iritation. The Serial '008' and '007' were bought by a Japanese nobleman for 105,000 Galleons and 127,000 Galleons respectively. The serial '006' was bought by a person from Germany in the lower seating area for the price of 150,000 Galleons. The serial '005' was bought by Malfoy for a price of 200,000 Galleons, after a heated back and forth with someone from France.

The next three brooms to be sold were the most tense. The serial '004' was bought by a businessman from the USA- for the price of 269,000 Galleons. The Serial '003' was bought by an Italian Crime Syndicate/Familia for the price of 300,000 Galleons and the last serial: '002' was bought by the Ghanian Princess who had not bidded for any other broom the entire auction, silently waiting till the last broom was out. She had bought it for the price of 400,000 Galleons which was the highest bid of the entire auction.

010 - 370,000 Galleons

009 - 210,000 Galleons

008 - 105,000 Galleons

007 - 127,000 Galleons

006 - 160,000 Galleons

005 - 200,000 Galleons

004 - 269,000 Galleons

003 - 300,000 Galleons

002 - 400,000 Galleons

Grand Total: 2,141,000 Galleons

The greedy Goblins charged me 11% as auction fees from me. They had first asked for 13% and I was halfway through the door, before they had reduced it by 2%. And a set amount of 100 Galleons for standard seats and 1000 Galleons for VIP seats. So the Goblins probably made as much or more money than me! Those bastards! It's not like I'm racist, but come on dude! This is just too much!

The Gringotts Bank will get a sum of 235,510 Galleons from the total, more than the cost of some of the firebolts sold today. That leaves us with a total of 1,905,490 Galleons to split between Able and me. I would be recieveing 40% of it- which comes up to 762,196 Galleons while Able and the Ellerby family would jointly recieve a sum of 1,143,294 Galleons.

That is what SHOULD have happened. After the Auction, Able and his son ran to my room, with a flushed face and an embarrassed expression, "Mr.Potter! There you are! I am so sorry! I never realized! Who would have thought! Such an amount!" I had to calm him down to make sense of the situation, "Please Mr.Able. calm down and let's talk about it."

At first I was worried since they had rushed in and I feared for the worst- the money of the guests were stolen or something. Turns out that the amount The Spudmore and the Ellerby Family had recieved was too much money... a lot more money than they could handle. And it seems that them getting more money than me did not sit right, with them.

Able refused to accept anything less than an equal 50-50 split. "I understand that the Company was divided 40-51-9 amongst us and the profits would be divided so. But seeing the gold distributed fairly but unevenly, it stung me to think that you would recieve the amount, close to what you entrusted us with, an year ago. It seems..... lacking, to be blunt. Just take it, I will hear none of it." It was the first time he had raised his voice against me and so I relented, seeing that he wasn't going to back down. we split it 50-50 as he told.

Gringotts gets 235,510 (excluding the reservation of normal seats and VIP seats). And the rest is split between me and the two families combined get 1,905,490. And each party recieves 952,745 each. I looked at the amount and whistled at the amount of gold being transported to me vault.

I currently have more than a million Galleons and by the looks of it, this will not be the end. Gold will keep pouring in as the Firebolt gets sold like hot sweet bread from a bakery. After a talk with Mr. Able and his son I deposited 500,000 gold to them as they were also putting 500,000 Galleons from their side. So the total Gold for the next set of Firebolt Brooms production was set. But Able had indicated that the production will not take as much money as it had initially taken.

At first, they had to do so many experiment trial and error, wasted (not a waste in my opinion) much resources to see which wood would do best or which type of enchantment fit better with the wood and all the thing that they had to keep in mind. The cost of production would come down drastically to a mere 10% of what they had initially done, making it even more profitable and stable for us.