Chapter 85: Lucky coincidence

Everyone turned towards the newcomer, only to find a regal man with short blond hair and piercing blue eyes, wearing an old-fashioned suit that only screamed 'noble' despite being a bit disheveled and the man warily clutching a wand in his hand, ready to defend himself at a moment's notice.

His demeanor was slightly like that of Malfoy and that made Tom a bit curious about the man's identity. Fortunately, he didn't need to wait long to get this information.

"Greengrass, what are you doing here?" Crouch almost growled, but his tone became a bit subdued as he didn't want to antagonize the man.

'Greengrass?' Tom thought and tilted his head a bit as he looked at the blonde man, wondering what someone like him was doing here.

The man noticed Tom giving him a measuring look and with a polite nod, he started introducing himself, "I am Alfred Greengrass, the head of the Greengrass family." He then turned towards Crouch and showed a frown, "As for what I am doing here... that's none of your business, Crouch. The fact I found you abusing your previous position as the head of the DMLE, however, is a different matter altogether."

If anything, that only made Crouch angrier, and yet, instead of bursting like a volcano as Tom expected him to, the man just scowled and turned around before stomping away in a huff while the three poor Aurors could only stay put and squirm under the piercing impassive gaze of Lord Greengrass.

Alfred looked at them and spoke only when he deemed them cowed enough. "I'd advise you to go and find Amelia Bones. She should be somewhere around."

Needless to say, the three Aurors also ran away almost instantly.

That told Tom that this 'Lord' Greengrass had a lot of pull in the government if he could send Crouch packing so effortlessly and even the three Aurors listened to his 'advice'.

And that begot the question...

"Would you mind telling me why exactly am I so blessed to have Lord Greengrass saving my ass?" Tom asked with a small grin, purposefully saying 'Lord' with sarcasm and being crass in an attempt to provoke the man's fragile noble sensibilities so he would underestimate his intellect, and maybe even be more sincere in his speech.

Alas, it clearly didn't work as Alfred just chuckled, not buying the facade Tom was trying to portray. He took out a bottle from his pocket... and Tom's jaw almost dropped at the freaking coincidence.

Even before Alfred explained, Tom had already put two and two together, guessing what most likely happened.

"I would like to ask you if there is a chance of buying more of these potions." Alfred politely asked.

Inwardly, Tom's lips stretched into a gleeful wide smile. Giving the sick girl a potion was a whimsical kindness on his part and he would have never thought the girl would be this guy's daughter.

He now remembered that Astoria Greengrass was supposed to have some kind of blood curse or something. Since her father was now standing in front of Tom, the potion must have helped her enough to warrant a visit.

'What do you know? Being kind does sometimes pay off!' Tom thought, feeling a bit incredulous at his luck.

"For your daughter, I assume." Tom nodded in understanding, which made Alfred's eyebrow twitch.

But he didn't react beyond that and only nodded, "Yes. I have looked far and wide for something that could cure her, finding nothing. These potions can at least suppress her disease so I would like to establish a trade."

Tipping his hand like this and showing how important this was to him was both a show of trust and also a show of how desperate the man was.

Tom doubted Alfred actually realized that but he was not interested in ripping him off.

After all, this man was clearly influential in his community and could prove quite useful if they established a good relationship.

"That's possible. I can provide them." Tom said, revealing that he had a supply of these potions.

For all Alfred knew, Tom could have just had one, bought from who-knows-where, and would not be able to provide more. On second thought, to ascertain this was most likely why he even approached them in the first place.

"Good. We can discuss the deal..."

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Tom and Alfred started setting up a future meeting while Natasha deemed the situation safe enough that she could excuse herself from these boring talks.

Instead, she approached the three kids that were still trying to comprehend how being almost arrested devolved into business talks.

She really couldn't blame them. Honestly, this abrupt switching of gears was a tad bit too fast even for her. She only knew how to make sure it wouldn't show on her face.

"Are you three fine?" Natasha asked as she approached the trio.

Admittedly, she didn't care overly much. Ron and Harry were unimportant to her and while she liked to tease Hermione, she didn't like the girl all that much. Living a few weeks under one roof, and barely seeing each other during that time, was not enough for Natasha to create any sort of liking for the girl.

Hermione was simply Tom's responsibility, in Natasha's mind, and that meant Natasha would always try to safeguard the girl's life but she didn't feel the need to be invested in her life nor did she want the girl to be invested in hers.

"Yes." Hermione said, sounding a bit conflicted instead of her usual confident self.

Natasha briefly wondered what that was about but then Ron dumbly nodded and Harry mumbled, "I am fine." as if he had it rehearsed.

The black-haired boy was still possessively clutching at his wand so Natasha decided to leave the boy alone to his devices and wand-holding.

She could see a traumatized kid when she saw one. It was like looking in the mirror of her past self for her. But she had no idea how to deal with normal kids, much less traumatized ones so to spare herself some awkwardness, she would not try to solve the kid's problems.

Natasha gave the three kids an unimpressed look when she heard their answers, "You really are very bad at lying. Your expressions are completely see-through." She snorted, making the kids slightly blush from embarrassment, and Hermione even stuttered as she tried to indignantly protest...

But Natasha only inwardly smirked as the kids' line of thoughts was successfully diverted from whatever grim thoughts they were having a second ago.

"Hermione." Natasha drawled in a strong and commandeering tone, causing the bushy-haired young witch to stop her indignation and look at Natasha with wide eyes, "Just tell me what is bothering you."

Because she could see the girl was bottling something in and knew Hermione enough to realize she would most likely burst by the time they arrived back at the Weasleys. Natasha would rather deal with the problem here and now by herself rather than Tom getting annoyed at the later date.

Hopefully, she could manage that. What could go wrong anyway, no?

"Did you really cripple people?" Hermione insecurely asked, fidgeting in her spot and both Ron and Harry instantly gained a lot of interest in the conversation when they heard her question.

'Ah... shit.' Natasha mentally deadpanned.

"We haven't killed anyone, Hermione." She tried to misdirect the girl with the truth, knowing this would cause the least amount of trouble but...

"I asked if you used spells to cripple someone." Hermione stubbornly repeated her question and Natasha could only inwardly groan.

'Just my luck for trying to make things easier for Tom, only to stumble upon a question of morality.' She complained to herself. It was obvious that Hermione was naive as heck and no matter how this debate would go, the damage was already done.

Natasha sighed and wryly smiled at the girl, "If the peaceful way was always the best one, there would be no conflicts in the world. Remember that, will you?" She threw some bullshit at the girl to occupy her mind for long enough for Tom to finish his talks and return back.

Natasha then turned her back to the trio and crossed her arms on her chest, watching Tom speak with Alfred. She really didn't want more morality-based questions from the kids and she also knew they would feel self-conscious about restarting the conversation with someone who gives the vibe of disinterest with her body language.

'Never again am I trying to do mental counseling for anyone.' Natasha inwardly grumbled.

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