Chapter 35
“So, what’ve you brought us?” Sirius asked subtly eyeing off the new dwarf, who pushed his hood back and exposed his face.
“Cedric Diggory?” Remus asked, eyes wide.
“Diggory?!” Fred squawked.
“Who?” Colin asked.
“Professor Lupin.” Cedric nodded to the scarred dwarf. “Weasley. Gryffindors.” He nodded to Lavender and Colin. “Mrs Potter, Mr Potter. Sir.” The last was directed at Sirius.
“Am I a sir?” Sirius asked. “Why am I a sir?”
~~~
July 24th 2920
“I don’t want to be a sir.” Sirius whined.
“You’re only a sir, because Cedric doesn’t know your name.” Harry huffed.
“Oh… Okay.” Sirius was quite happy with that.
“This, is Cedric Diggory.” Harry said, laying a hand on Cedric’s shoulder. “Hufflepuff. Six months older than Fred, but in the same year. Seeker. Selected as the Hogwarts champion in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. AK’d by Wormtail.” He explained before gesturing to the other magicals. “Fred, you know. Remus, you know. Tonks is Remus’ wife and is holding their son Teddy. This pair are Lavender and Colin. Then there's my mum and dad. And lastly, this is Sirius Black.” Harry pointed to each person as he went.
“Ah. Third year, right?” Cedric asked.
“Third year.” Harry nodded. “Peter Pettigrew was an Animagus and hiding as Ron’s rat. Sirius saw them on the front page of the Prophet, when Fudge went to Azkaban and he decided that he wasn’t going to let the rat get me, so he escaped.”
“So, that’s what all the fuss was over?”
“Pretty much.” Sirius nodded. “Welcome to the weirdness that is the Willow’s Pond.” He added brightly.
“Oh, Merlin…” Cedric muttered.
“Harry?” Lavender frowned. “How come our Point-me’s never found Cedric?”
There were blank looks from Harry, Fred and Remus.
“I don’t know.” Harry answered. “I mean we asked for any former student of Hogwarts. It should have detected him.”
“Huh.” Cedric grunted. “I don’t really consider myself a Hogwarts student, not really.”
“Well, what are you, then?” Harry asked, curiously.
“I… I don’t know. I just… I learnt more from my Uncle than I did at school, probably why I was picked as champion. He was a hit-wizard trainer.”
“Okay, so we need to change the parameters, again.” Remus sighed.
“Yeah, I’d guess so.” Sirius agreed.
“What about other people?” Cedric asked.
“What other people?”
“Well…” The ‘Puff paused. “Harry mentioned Professor Snape and Headmaster Dumbledore, but what if there’s other people from England? Or from other countries?”
“Oh bugger…” Sirius muttered.
“We could extend the parameters to include anyone that knows where England is.” Remus offered, then he, too, paused. “Or perhaps, what England is, would be better.”
“That might work,” Cedric nodded, “but instead of doing just one Point-me, do them on a regular basis, maybe once a week?”
“No.” Harry objected. “Daily. We work up a schedule and each of us do a day. That way, we won’t miss someone that might arrive after today.”
The whole group blinked at that.
“You think people might still arrive?” James asked.
“I do.” Harry nodded. He looked at Fred and grimaced. “George thinks you’re dead. And I’m sorry, but I think he’s going to try and follow you. If he uses the Veil…? He might end up here. And Hermione? Anyone want to bet against her?”
Fred’s grimace matched Harry’s. “Yeah, neither of those are good, but I get it. Daily, it is, boss.”
“Boss?” Harry asked.
“Yeah, figured we’d make it official.” George said. “We wrote up a town charter and named you mayor.”
“But I don’t want to be mayor.” Harry argued.
“I know.” Fred grinned. “Which is why Sigi is going to handle the office side of things, at least for a while. He and Violet have decided that they’re not letting Colin ‘go off on some scatterbrained, dreadful adventure to build an entire village without some good, old-fashioned, hobbit common sense', or something like that.” He imitated a falsetto voice as he spoke about adventures. “Sigi’s informed his father that he means to move here, permanently, and become a resident of the village, instead of going to Tuckborough and working with Fortinbras, in the Thain's Office. Hildibrand isn’t too happy about it, he’s making Sigi go to Tuckborough and explain his reasoning to the Thain, if he gives his consent, then Hildibrand will support him. If the Thain says ‘no’, Sigi doesn’t mention it, again.”
“When’s that happening?” Harry asked, that niggling feeling about Gerontius, still annoying him.
“Probably in the next day or two.” Fred answered.
“Might want to have him speak to Squire and Hattie, then.” Harry said. “They have a wicker box-cart, it’s gotta be more comfortable than the little sulky and better than walking the whole way. Probably quicker, too. We’ve got plenty of ponies that can pull it. Or I can apparate to Bree and buy one for him. His choice.”
“Will do.” Fred nodded.
“Anything else I need to know, right now?” Harry asked. “Or can we get Cedric settled in?”
“We’re good.” James answered. “But I suggest you meet with Sigi to get a proper update on the last week’s progress.”
“That, I can do, dad.” Harry nodded. “Come on, Cedric. Let’s get your things into one of the attic rooms. You’ll have to share with either Fred or Colin for the moment, but we’ll look at somewhere more permanent for you, at our next town planning meeting.”
“Cedric can share with me, Harry.” Fred offered. “It’s not like I’m short on space in the attic.”
“Done.” Harry nodded. “Town meeting, tomorrow evening, right?”
“Yes, six o’clock.” James answered.
“I can wait until then.” Cedric agreed.
“Alright, walk me through where we’re up to, this week.” Harry told Sirius and Sigi. “What’s been done, what’s still in progress and how far along we are, in each area.”
“Give me a moment.” Sigi answered and started digging into the satchel thrown over his shoulder. His hand emerged with a slightly battered notebook. “Right, let me see.” He flipped through the pages until he came to the one that he wanted. “The… eighteenth of July. Here we are.” He read for a few moments before looking up at Harry. “We’ve laid out the roads, those going up through the smial blocks to the crop fields. As well as nine smaller roads, within the smial blocks. We’ve laid out forty-five blocks and we can probably slip in another half dozen, before we start to get a bit too shallow for a decent smial.” He showed Harry the map that had been created using the Map Maker’s Charm, which showed the streets and roads of the settlement, then waved to the area in front of them. “As you can see, we’ve cleared the roads and marked out each smial block. The blocks are marked out with white sand and painted pegs, laid after Fred and Colin cleared the grass on the boundaries. Miss Cordelia chose a location for her smial, number One Willow Lane and we’ve also allocated her a shop-smial down in the marketplace, number Four is her preference.”
“Excellent.” Harry nodded. “What about you and Violet?”
“We’ve picked number Four Cherry Tree Drive.” Sigi answered. “It’s on the edge of the Den’s back garden.”
“Nice.” Harry nodded.
“We’ve laid out markers for the edges of the Willow’s pond.” Sigi went on. “We have to nearly double the size of the pond, if we want the willow to be safely out of the reach of troublemakers.”
“Fair enough.” Harry nodded. “Do we know what spells we’re going to need to use, to keep people from swimming or boating to the island?” He asked Fred.
“Actually, we thought about that and came up with an idea.” Fred answered. “We’re thinking about making a tower-like rock formation, just something about eight or ten feet high, and putting the Willow on the top of it. If we make the sides sheer or almost sheer, even if someone gets over onto the island, they’re not likely to get up to the Willow.”
“And we'll add aversion charms, to the upper edges of the walls, too.” Lavender added as she joined them. “Colin and I went into Bree, yesterday, there’s mail from Snape and Dumbledore.”
“Oh, great, just what I need.” Harry sighed. “Dumbledore meddling.”
“Not likely.” Lavender grinned. “He doesn’t know you’re here.”
“Oh.” Harry lifted his head sharply. “He doesn’t, does he? He only knows about you and Fred. Oh, that’s great.” He nodded to himself. “What do they say?”
“No idea.” Lavender laughed. “We wanted to wait until you were home, to open them.”
“Home…” Harry whispered, causing Lavender to blink.
“We have a home…” The blonde girl was just as quiet when she added the comment.
Sigi gave them a few moments of silence, before he went on. “Sirius and I have laid out the foundations for the Den and a stable-cum-storage barn alongside it. We’ve got a few of the guest smials in, they’re just a bedroom, sitting room and bathroom, at this point. Although, we’d like to add two larger suites, one with two bedrooms and one with three.” He shrugged. “Hobbits have families and some like to bring their older tweens to markets. And Sirius suggested a couple of larger rooms, four or six beds to a room, with bathrooms, but no sitting room.”
“Like dormitory rooms?” Harry asked.
“For groups of friends or cousins, travelling together.” Sigi nodded.
“That’s fair.” Harry nodded. “Make sure there’s a few of those on the dwarf side, as well. Dwarves tend to travel in groups, sometimes family groups, sometimes trade groups. Anything from two to ten.”
“Right.” Sigi nodded and pulled the pencil from behind his ear and made a note on a slip of paper that he stuck in the front of the notebook.
“Next?” Harry asked.
“The marketplace is laid out.” Sigi screwed up his nose. “It’s an odd shape, we had to take advantage of the rise for the shop-smials, and that determined the northern edge of the market and the road determined the southern edge. Between the two of them, Remus and James levelled the ground below the shop-smials and laid out white pebbles along the boundaries between each site. We’ve got one-hundred-eighty-odd stall sites, fourteen shop-smials and twenty-six shop-sheds. Or we will have once we’re done. Plus, there’s room for maybe another ten shop-smials and we could possibly double the shop-sheds, if we needed to expand, later.”
“Okay…” Harry blinked. “That’s a little bit more than I expected.”
“Better to have room to expand and not do it, than not have room and a need to expand.” Sigi cautioned.
“True.” Harry agreed. “What about homes for us?”
“James and Lily have chosen their place.” Sigi pointed to it on the map, before turning and gesturing in the appropriate direction. “James found an old spring-head, with white clay and he’s set up his pottery and kiln, near it. There’s also enough space between it and the area that Lily’s claimed as her market garden area, for a cottage for them, and behind the pottery is a nice little field for their pony and a couple of out-buildings.”
“Cool.” Harry nodded. “Sounds like they’re sorted.”
“They are.” Sigi nodded. “So are Remus and Tonks. They’re a little further up the rise, there’s a small flat, big enough for a cottage and garden. Remus hasn’t decided where he’ll put his workshop yet, he’s been too busy laying out the village to get started on it, but I’d guess that he’ll put it down near the creek, probably beside Tonks’ brew house.” He pointed to the site on the map.
“Oh, and we thought that it would be handy to have a blacksmith’s forge, so we laid aside space for one at the northern edge of the livery-yards.” Fred added. “We were thinking about having a double forge, one side for a farrier and the other for a blacksmith. Which is really good, seeing as you brought us Cedric. There’s enough space for a cottage or two, to the north side, depending on where exactly we place the forges and how large we make them.”
“Oh, fabulous…” Harry grinned.
“We’ve also been thinking about the future of the village.” Sigi said. “Yes, we’ve pegged you as mayor, but that won’t always be the case. Someday, you’re going to want to retire, or hand over the job. And no, I don’t want it.” He stated, before Harry could offer.
“Bollocks.” Harry huffed.
“To that end, we decided that there should be a Mayor’s Office-cum-Town Hall.” Sigi said. “We can find you a scribe to hand the administration, while you’re off locksmithing. But we didn’t think you’d appreciate having an administrator wandering through your home.”
“Nope.” Harry shook his head.
“Yeah, didn’t think so.” Fred snickered.
“So, we added a Mayor’s Office, right behind the Willow’s Pond.” Sigi went on.
“Nice.” Harry nodded. “And where have you put me? To live?”
“Up on the rise, over there.” Lavender gestured to the north-west, then pointed to the site on the map. “Colin and I chose it, together. We figure that we’ll continue to live with you for a while, at least for the next few years. Neither of us is ready to be alone.”
“Same here.” Fred said. “I’ll stay with you for a while longer, but I also made sure to choose a plot for a cottage, for later. And I figure, keeping the industrial stuff in the same area is a good idea, so I’ve chosen a workshop location down near Tonks and Kestrel's.”
“There’s plenty of room for the ponies, even space for a small stable for the winter.” Lavender added.
“And what about the stallions?”
“We thought about to the north of the house and around to the west?” Lavender phrased it as a question. “But we weren’t sure, and didn’t want to put it on the map without clearing it with you.”
“Fair enough.” Harry nodded. “The house is fine, but I’ll want to check out the paddocks, see which ones are best for the mares and which for the studs, I don’t want them up against each other.”
“We figured that.” Lavender said.
“I think anything more, can wait until the meeting tomorrow.” Harry said. “I need some Teddy time.”
~~~
July 25th 2920
The entire morning was spent in enlarging the pond from a tiny little thing, about the size of the Dursleys’ house to a little over an acre. The square of road that it sat inside of, was approximately a two-acre chunk. Approximately... because the road itself sat inside the boundary of that two acres and there was the stream that entered and exited the pond, as well.
Instead of using a single large rock to house the Willow, liked they’d been thinking of, they piled up a large number of rocks, until the pile sat well above the waterline, then began to fill it in with soil and smaller rocks, then grass to hold it all in place, before adding more rocks to form the ‘tower’. Once the ‘tower’ was complete, more soil was introduced until there was enough for the Willow to root into. The Willow they chose was a female, which made it less aggressive, but was also the largest of the seedlings that Micah had found Harry.
In the last month, Lily and Harry has been plying the Willow with plant growth potions and magic, to encourage it to grow quicker. They wanted the tree stable and semi-mature before placing it on the island. They quickly found that the Willow was able to recognise the people that tended it and it responded to them in an amusing fashion. Both Harry and Lily found that the Willow would let one of its branches stroke their hair and pat their shoulders. With it being female and less aggressive, it didn’t attack the other magicals, but it did make it clear that they weren’t to get too close to it, by blocking their way with a larger branch.
Harry found a large boulder, by itself it was nearly the size of Hagrid’s hut, that he placed just below the Willow. He hollowed out a large portion of the rock, enough to stand in, and in the centre of the hollow, he left spire of rock to form a pedestal. A pedestal that would become home to the wardstone for the village.
The wardstone itself wasn’t ready yet, or rather the stone was, but the ward-runes hadn’t been transferred to it, yet. They needed a full moon for that and as the full moon wasn’t until the end of the month, permanent wards would just have to wait. In the meantime, they continued to use the temporary versions, that had to be reset every seven days. Thankfully, the end of the month and the full moon would arrive before the next reset was needed.
All of the magicals and hobbits turned up for the town meeting. They sat on bales of sweet hay inside the frame of what would be a massive two-hundred-foot-long barn. But as yet, it was only upright posts, while its partner was only a series of holes in the ground. All the residents had agreed, the barns needed to be completed before the winter. Once the warding was done, that would be the first task undertaken.
“And after the barns?” Sirius asked.
“Us dwarves can stay in the houses that we’ve been using, but they’re not well sized for hobbits.” Harry answered. “Smials will be next. Our newly recruited hobbits will choose the locations for their smials and provide a rough outline of what they want. Both Gorbadoc and Gerontius gave me a pile of floorplans for smials, of all different sizes and styles. And as we can combine styles, I’m sure we can find something they like. Lady Codelia? I understand that you’ve chosen a location for your smial, so with your agreement, we’ll work on yours, first. Then Sigi and Violet’s, followed by Anneg and Kestrel’s. After that? We’ll have a better understanding of how long it’ll take to build a smial and how much effort is needed, magically.” He looked around. “Is everyone alright with that?”
A series of ‘yes, Harry’s’ and other agreeable sounds were heard.
“Great.” Harry grinned. “Have we heard anything about the hobbits for the Tea Rooms or Dining Room?”
Sigi waved a hand to get Harry’s attention. “I spoke to Flambard and at first, he wasn’t interested, but when I mentioned the possibility of working with Fosco Baggins, that suddenly changed. I’ve sent Fosco a letter and he’s asked that I drop in on him, on my way to see the Thain.” He deliberately used his grandfather’s title as opposed to the more familiar family-orientated appellation. “He’s only in Frogmorton, so I’ve got to go past him.”
“And the ladies for the Tea Rooms?” Harry asked.
“Like Flmabard and Fosco are thinking about, Adalina and Bellarosa have decided to work together.” Sigi said. “Or rather, Adalina will staff the kitchen and Bellarosa will serve the customers. They been out and viewed the smial sites and the master map, they’ve decided on the two smaller smials on Garden Lane, numbers two and three. Both are over the stream and there’ll be a path from the end of the lane to the edge of the kitchen gardens. We’ve also altered the plans for the Den, so that the Tea Rooms are above the guest smials and look out over the gardens, both the courtyard garden and the Tea Room’s kitchen garden. The garden for the Dining room will be on the outside of the Den’s South-East wing, while the Tea Room’s will be off the North-East wing.”
“The Tea Room’s above the guest smials?” Harry asked. “How’s that work? The layout, I mean?”
Sirius waved his wand and conjured an illusion. “So, what we came up with is two rows of guest smials, with an access corridor between them. Once covered over and stabilised, this makes a rather wide area where we can add another long smial, but instead of a soil roof, it’ll be clad in timber that we’ll grow vines over. The kitchen will be at the far end and will only be a few steps above their main kitchen garden. This will leave the customer seating areas looking out over the courtyard garden or over the Dining Room’s kitchen garden and on down to the stream. Maybe a little wilderness area or a more formal garden? Landscaping is way down the track.”
“Agreed.” Harry said. “And both ladies have chosen smial sites? Mark the sites as taken, if they change their mind, we can address it then.”
“Fosco and Flambard? Based on Fosco’s wife’s condition, I’d suggest assigning him number Two Willow Lane, next door is Cordelia, over a little bridge across Pond Creek. And number Three Cherry Tree Drive for Flambard. That might change, but for now?”
“Acceptable.” Harry nodded. “What about Anneg and Kestrel?” He looked straight at the butcher and his candlemaker husband.
“For a smial?” Kestrel answered. “We chose number One Middle Lane. For me and my candles? I was thinking over near the Brew House and Remus’ paper workshop, exactly where? I’m not too worried, I only need a ten-by-twenty-foot space. Anneg needs a cold room and he and Sirius are thinking that a stone-lined underground space would be best. At present, they’re talking about underneath the South-West wing of the Den, below the ale house, further out towards the end of the building than the cellars.”
“Sirius? Anneg?” Harry asked.
“I think it’ll work well.” Anneg offered.
“And we’re looking at going lower than most of the cellars, not just further out.” Sirius added, nodding. “Not the biggest space, but as we’ll also be making an underground basement below it? Yes, I think it'll work out fine.”
Kestrel’s eyes widened quickly and he waved a hand. “Oh and I asked Sigi to find us an apiarist, we’ve bee hives that have been allowed to run rampant and unharvested for years. An apiarist would give us access to honey and me to wax.”
“I sent a letter to Bartleby Nettling, he’s worked alongside his father for the last five years, but the business isn’t really enough to support two families and definitely not enough to support three. And Bartleby’s younger brother is coming up to the age where he needs to think about a livelihood.” Sigi added.
“Bartleby’s married?” Cordelia asked. She was a matronly hobbitess with the rosy cheeks and wild hair typical to most hobbits.
“Oh, yes, he and Peony Bogmyrtle married back in mid-Rethe.” Sigi answered. “It was very low-key, just his and her immediate families and one or two friends.”
“Oh, yes, I remember, now. Peony moved in with his family, much to her mother’s disgust.” Cordelia nodded. “Thank you.”
“Not at all, Miss Cordelia.” Sigi replied. “Bartleby’s interested and is prepared to come up and at least stay for a week and see to harvesting the hives, but unless he decides to move here, he won’t split off any new hives. And don’t ask me what he means, it’s beyond me.” He shook his head. “He’ll be here on Monday and will stay for a week. He’s bringing his own equipment and will need somewhere to sleep and a clear area with access to the hives to draw off and bottle any honey.”
“Excellent. Talk to him and see what he’d need, to be interested in moving here, permanently.” Harry grinned.
“Will do.”
“Okay. Next is… Stonag and Lorenna?”
“We’d like number One Field Drive for a smial. For the Bakery? Stonag has been talking to Sirius and we’re thinking that his shop could mirror Anneg's, under the Dining Room’s kitchen, but his ovens would need to be outside or they'd cause problems for the kitchen. Maybe where the ground drops away towards the Pond...? And I prefer to work from home, especially with a baby on the way, I don’t like to be out too much.” Lorenna ran a hand over her gently swelling belly, soothing the baby within.
“Fair enough. Anything we can do to help, you just let us know.” Harry nodded. “Next?”
Jonah raised a hand.
“Yes, Jonah?”
“My siblings and me have viewed your map and we’ve walked the rises.” The crop famer replied. “We’d like to have number One Farmer’s Lane or if possible, a larger smial on Field Drive, opposite that lane, something large enough to do the four of us for a few years.” He paused. “I’ve walked the fields, too, they’re good and I can do a bit of ploughing ready for sowing late-season or winter crops, but unless we have a mill, we’ll have to transport grain to Newbury, Forest Edge or Whitfurrows, if we want flour.”
“Oh, great…” Harry muttered. “Yet another thing to add to the list…”
“It’s already on my list.” Sigi said. “Wilibald Miller has said, that if we provide the millstones, he’s prepared to put the rest of the mill together and be our miller.”
“Oh, fabulous…” Harry sighed in relief, before he frowned. “Does he know what he’s doing?”
“Oh, yes, he’s been the miller’s boy at his grandfather’s mill for nigh on twenty years.” Cordelia was the one to reply. “But just recently, there was a rift in the family. His grandfather fell ill and his uncle and cousin took over the mill, they frequently override Wilibald and reject his ideas. I’ve heard him mention Greenholm and Gamwich and the possibility of moving to one of them, but his uncle has made sure that he wouldn’t have the means to undertake the construction of a new mill.”
“All I know about mills is that they use millstones.” Harry shrugged. “I’ve no clue about anything more than that. But millstones? What sort of stone are they and do we have it on site? If we do, we can shape it using magic.”
“I’d like a small water wheel, too Harry.” Cedric spoke up. “To power hammers and bellows. So, I’m happy to provide the magical oomph for building the mill, if he’ll help me out with making a water wheel for the forges.”
“He’ll be here, on Highday, so you can talk to him, directly.” Sigi offered. “I’m sure that between the four of us, we can come up with something that will work for both of you.”
“Thanks.” Cedric nodded to Sigi and gave him a smile.
“Yeah, thanks, Sigi.” Harry grinned and then looked over at Lily and Remus. “How are we going on the ward-runes?”
“We’re ready, just waiting on the full moon.” Lily answered.
“Great.” Harry nodded. “So? I had a thought. How would everyone feel about staggering public works with private works?”
“In what way?” James asked.
“In the mornings, we all… all, meaning all the magicals… Work on the public buildings, like the stables here, or the Den, or the market-smials. Then in the afternoon, we work on personal stuff, our own houses, or shops, or workshops.”
“And what would we hobbits be doing?” Stonag asked.
“Much the same.” Harry answered. “If we’re working on the stables, I’d expect Squire to be here, making sure that we got things the way he wanted them. In the Den, I’d expect Stonag, Anneg, Adalina, Bellarosa, Flambard and Fosco to be present… and I was thinking that Laura might be interested in either being a carer for Fosco’s wife, Ruby, or working in the guest smials. But we can hash that out, later. Anywhere that a hobbit might be involved, ongoingly, I’d expect them to be involved in the construction, even if it’s only supervision or spectating to make sure we don’t make obvious mistakes.”
“Ah.” Stonag nodded. “That makes sense.”
“And in the afternoons?” Lily asked.
“In the afternoons, the magicals can work wherever they want.” Harry answered. “I might work on my house, or once that’s done, I might give an hour or two, over to building or finishing off things for someone else. Like Lady Adelaide, I shrunk her greenhouse before we left Tuckborough, and she might decide that she’d like it moved from where we initially placed it, in exchange for some seedlings for my garden. Or Fred might offer to move furniture for Squire and Hattie, who are expecting their first child this winter, in exchange for some baskets to store some of his smaller items in. A barter system.”
“And I assume that the same would apply to hobbits?” Adelaide asked.
“Oh, of course.” Harry nodded rapidly. “If anyone wants something that someone else makes or does, they can approach them and either pay for the item or service, or barter for it.”
“Much like we would have, outside of market days.” Adelaide nodded. “That makes sense.”
“How much time are we talking, Harry?” Sirius asked. “How many hours in the morning?”
“Maybe not just the morning.” Lavender suggested. “We have a lot to get done, as far as public buildings are concerned, perhaps we could say… six hours? Eight to two? Of community service, just until the public buildings are complete and our hobbit’s are in their smials. That way, whenever we get a new hobbit moving in , we can get their smials done really quickly.”
“But once the public buildings are complete, only the smials count towards community service?” James asked. “What about someone’ business site?”
“It would depend on the type of site.” Lavender said. “The mill, yes, everyone benefits from that. Let’s use Lady Isadora as an example? Her initial setup, yes. But say she wanted to switch shop-smials from number three to number nine? No, that’s up to her to barter with a magical for their services. A barn for Jonah to store grain in, yes. But painting the barn or laying anti-rodent wards? No.”
“Ah, yes, I see.” James nodded. “That sounds fair.” Many of the other residents made agreeing noises and those that didn’t, just nodded.
Harry nodded and stood up. “All in favour of Lavender’s suggestion of six hours of community service, per day, until all public buildings are complete and ongoing service of up to six hours, per day. Community service identified as... being a service to the community as a whole, to new residents consisting of initial establishment of smial and livelihood, landscaping of public grounds, maintenance and repair of public buildings. And other acts to be added by public acclaim.” He said formally.
There were a few blinks at the change in his attitude, but that passed exceptionally quickly, as one by one, hands rose in support. Harry was unsurprised to find that not one person, be they magical or hobbit, voted against it motion.
“Past by unanimous vote.” Harry let the formality fall and grinned. “We start in the morning… Except Sigi. You need to work out some personal stuff with the Thain and your family. Given you’ve been managing the entire place, while I was in Tuckborough, I’m going to say that you’ve got a leave of absence and will pick up your service, once you return? Fair?” He asked the whole group.
“Fair.” A few people replied.
“Does anyone have anything they want to raise?” Harry asked. “Or are we done for this meeting?” People looked around and while a few shrugged, most just shook their heads. “Alright. If that changes, come and see me or Sigi, whoever you prefer.” He grinned. “So, tomorrow morning? We’re working on the stables. That’s going to require most of the magicals and any hobbit that has some pony knowledge. As soon as the both stable frames are completely up, we’ll move on to the cladding, but that won’t require all the magicals at the same time, just one or two pairs. So, we’ll see about a team, or two, to start on the smials. And on that note… We’re done. Enjoy your evening and I’ll see you all in the morning.”
~~~