"Tonks," Sirius said as he looked at his cousin. "Could I ask you to wait outside? I need to tell Madam Bones something that I don't think she would like you to overhear."
Tonks looked questioningly at her boss who nodded. "Starting to feel like I did when I was a teenager. Always getting sent to my room," The metamorphmagus muttered.
"Were you that bad?" Harry smirked.
That caused Tonks to give a small smile. "Not like you're going to find out."
"When she was a kid...this is before she went to Hogwarts and I went to Azkaban..." Sirius started.
"Don't you dare tell them about that," Tonks said to her cousin.
"About what?" Sirius asked with a wry grin.
"You know...when I went to that muggle concert and...wait how would you know about that?" Tonks suddenly asked. "That was after you went to Azkaban!"
"I didn't," Sirius smirked at how easy it had been to fool his cousin. "But now I've got something I'm going to have to find out about."
"Let's just say an eleven year old metamorphmagus has no trouble passing for an eighteen year old muggle," Tonks winked and left the room.
"I might have to recheck her file," Amelia remarked with a grin. "Now Sirius, what did you have to tell us?"
Sirius drew his chair closer to Amelia's desk before he explained. "Look, in," He glance at his watch which had a small calendar on it, "five days, the Goblins are going to owe Harry a bit of money."
"Sirius!" Harry said. "That's...that's not something we should discuss. Besides, it's not going to be that much. Just something for our honeymoon."
"Ah...yes well," Sirius smirked. "It...it might be a bit more than that."
"What?" Hermione said. "But...Miranda said..."
"The Goblins did it to themselves in this case," Sirius replied then held up his hand. "Really...I swear."
"What's going on?" Amelia asked. "What does this Goddess have to do with the Goblins owing you money?"
Harry glanced and Hermione and she nodded. He quickly explained about the gemstones Miranda had insisted they use as a bet for their honeymoon money.
"She said it was a payback for what they did in the future, and money for a nice honeymoon."
"How much was this bet?" Amelia asked.
"The stones were valued at two hundred thousand galleons...each," Sirius replied.
"Two hundred THOUSAND?" Hermione exclaimed.
"Flawless, egg-sized sapphires," Sirius replied. "I think if I had got them independently appraised, they would have been worth more, but since it didn't matter that much..."
"But...but..." Hermione took a deep breath and finally regained her composure. "At thirty to one, that...that's six million galleons. That's insane!"
"This Miranda basically is helping you rip off the Goblins? For six million galleons?"
"It will be a very nice Honeymoon," Miranda chuckled. "Especially after what Sirius did."
"Wait...Miranda just said you did something else," Harry said.
"Well yeah...after you mentioned the streaker...well...uh I went back to double my bet like I said I was going to do," Sirius explained.
"So..you made it two thousand and that was what...sixty to one?" Hermione asked.
"Sixty-six to be exact, but you see that's when the Goblins tried to rip me off," Sirius grinned. "Remember what I said when we were at Gringotts?"
"Something about you being gullible and you let them rip you off," Hermione replied.
"Do you know what the difference between doubling your bet and a double bet is?" Sirius asked.
"No..." Harry said.
"And the Goblins didn't think I knew what it was either," Sirius smirked. "Hence why they think I'm gullible. Now a double bet is multiple bet or, basically the winnings of one bet are automatically used in the next. So if either event is a loss, you lose your entire stakes."
"You didn't?" Hermione said as her eyes widened.
"No...they did," Sirius replied with a shrug. "They saw what looked like two incredibly large bets on two incredibly long odds and as I said, tried to rip me off. I just let them."
"What?" Harry asked still a bit confused.
"Don't you see," Hermione explained. "That six million galleons we are going to win in the first bet is going to be rolled into that second streaker bet."
"Actually since the streaker will happen first, it will be reverse of that. The bet will go against the streaker and then the winner, but it will be same total at the end."
"Are you telling me," Amelia asked and her wand did a quick movement and a very large number appeared in the air. "That the Goblins are going to owe the Potters three hundred and ninety-six million galleons?"
"No, not at all," Sirius shrugged as his grin got wider. He hesitated as everyone was staring at him before continuing, "Since I didn't divide up the gemstones in the original bets, it's actually closer to eight hundred million."
"EIGHT HUNDRED MILLION?!" Hermione exclaimed. "We have to stop it...cancel it. I mean we can't do this. It could destroy the Goblins or at least Gringotts."
"Do you think the Goblins will let you take that bet back?" Sirius asked. "They think they have swindled me out an enormous amount of money. Even if I went back on my hands and knees and begged, they'd only sneer at me. Look, I had never planned on keeping the additional money. I was just annoyed that they tried to rip me off. I was planning on maybe raising a stink about it at the Prophet and get the Goblins to publicly apologize for trying to trick me. I figured it would be a good way to sort of get back at them for what they did to you in the future, but if you need something to pressure the Goblins with..."
Amelia had her first true smile in a long time. "If you two don't mind," She was looking at the Potters, "I think eight hundred million galleons would be a very large stick in negotiating with them."
"Well half of it should be Neville's and Luna's," Hermione said as she swallowed hard as she tried to wrap her mind around exactly what this meant. "But...I'm sure...I mean they never expected something like this either."
"We'll ask them. Now you need to hurry if you're going to be in the Minister's office on time," Amelia said. "I want Tonks to escort you though."
"We'd like that," Harry replied.
"See if you can find out exactly what she did at that concert," Sirius smirked with a wink.
"What about the Pensieve?" Hermione asked. "Should we stop back here before leaving?"
"How about I run it back and put it in your room Harry," Sirius suggested, "while you're having your chat with Skeeter. I'll meet you back in the Minister's office when I finish."
....
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