3:02 PM

The bell signaling the end of Potions brought about some relief for Casey. The students had been working on Wit Sharpening Solution though that had led to a battle of wits with the freckle faced Juni Zamperia about Undetectable Poisons after Casey suggested increased Wit may better such difficult craft such as that. Given that it was Potions, Casey thought of the old joke of her skin being stained from the splatter associated with a brew involving squid ink. Or something. There was a certain art to the insult and Casey never paid mind to the execution of it.

Still, while not as horrible as some of the teachers new and old to the castle, Zamperia had been annoying throughout the whole affair. First on the ingredients that rendered a poison Undetectable and then on the means of how to detect an Undetectable Poison. Technically there were methods to suggest the presence of Undetectable Poisons but you could never be sure until someone started coughing bile or dropped dead. It was her reasoning that was wrong.

So Casey still wanted to cast one last verbal shot as the class dispersed in the dungeon hallways.

"I don't think you're seeing the point," Casey said, buckling his briefcase. "If anybody wanted to poison someone making it Undetectable is the smartest thing to do in spite of the effort involved. Covert actions like poisonings are not going to be announced ahead of time or made obvious with a distinctive feature."

“Ugh, whatever Casey. Are we seriously going on about this?” Juni said irritably, “If you can check for undetectable poisons, then they really aren’t undetectable.” She put her textbook back into her bookbag and made sure all of her items were in place. “You can figure it out if you know what to look for. And, people tend to know if they have enemies, or if their enemies are going to be around. They’d know to be careful. Unless they’re complete idiots.” She shrugged and threw her bag over her shoulder. Despite the fact that the two had a tendency to bicker every time they got together, Juni had a strange respect for Casey. She appreciated that he challenged her thoughts, but she also hated just how absolutely stubborn and unreasonable he could be.

Her lips curled up into a slight, cocky smirk.  “What are you doing after class?” She asked, knowing that all fourth years had a nice break after potions on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Although she and Casey had a tendency to argue, she still enjoyed being around him (for the most part.) She was friendly towards most people, though she never got particularly close to any one person. The Ravenclaw had no intention of ever being close friends with Casey, but she viewed him as a worthy Potions partner. She wanted to know a little more about him, besides what one could assume from simple interactions.

"Oh yes, because everyone is going to take the time to test with Golpalott's[1] full spectrum of common antidotes, toss in a bezoar, cast revealing spells and strain through a magical sieve just to see if there is a part of the potion that is 'unresponsive,' sounds like a very economical plan," Casey scoffed. "Even if I could afford it."

He couldn't flak her thoughts on being careful. You would have to be an idiot to willingly take unassuming food and drink. Zamperia was only thinking at the first level of deception, however. The really covert methods to administer poison would catch anyone off guard.

Her question brought a raised eyebrow from Casey. Zamperia had gone from argumentative to cordial in less than a second. "I have spells to practice." Also Occlumency work, stoking the fires to get his damn Invisibility Cloak already and putting the finishing touches on 'Operation: 50 Spades of Grey.' The trick would be getting the gardening tools to turn on the castle caretaker without him realizing what was happening.

1.

link

“That’s a rubbish excuse. We all have to practice spells.” She replied, though she couldn’t help but bring up one last point for their previous argument. She was ready to drop it, but she was absolutely sure that she was right, and Casey was wrong. There was no doubt about it in her mind. One little comment stuck out that just rang in Juni’s head, and she couldn’t shake it. It was so subtle, “Even if you could afford it?” She tilted her head to the side curiously. “What, is your family ridiculously rich or something?”  For some reason, Juni was under the impression that Casey’s family had been middle class—rich enough to make sure their son was dressed nicely, but not so rich that they had an excess amount of money.

"I'm sorry," used as a figure of speech and not as an apology, "I'm not referring to the stuff Cadmon, Sandusky and Storm are having us do in class. I'm already practicing NEWT level spells. And it's not an excuse, what am I making an excuse for anyways?" What did girls like Zamperia do in their spare time? Brush their hair? Play connect-the-freckle? Ravenclaws probably sat around their tower reading.

Her question brought him slight amusement. It was amazing when he met people who didn't know. It was almost refreshing because most people who knew the O'Doherty's would hate him for it because they hated the adult members of the clan. "Richest magical family in Ireland, in the top five of greater Europe."

While he didn't gold plate all of his possessions Casey did own the best of everything. Top of the line quill and ink, a collection of pristine racing brooms even if he could only ride one safely, an extensive galaxy paperweight that helped solve half of his Astronomy homework when Trishna wasn't being a pest with muggle theories.

"Surprised, are you?"

Neither one of her parents had ever been rich. Her entire life, she’d been in a middle class home. Both of her parents were very charitable, and though they did save some money for emergencies and to help pay for Juni’s schooling, they did not spend more than they had to on luxuries. Her clothes were usually bought secondhand,  and just about anything was bought on sale or used. If they ever had an excess amount of money, she and her mother would look for an organization that needed funding, and they would donate it. As Juni got older and outgrew her clothes, those clothes would also be donated.

Naturally, the idea of somebody being ‘rich’ was a little bit confusing to Juni. It always had been, since she could not wrap her mind around the idea of good people being rich, and still having large amounts of money and expensive items.

“I’m not surprised, I just don’t assume people are rich.” Juni shrugged, “What does your family do with that money anyway?” 

"Collect it. Spend it. Loan it out and get more back from interest." That was the simplest declaration of the O'Doherty enterprise. "The family wealth was secured centuries ago from a deal with leprechauns. Grandfather likes to joke that's why leprechauns only pass out fake gold these days." Although it really was a stupid joke.

Casey used to be more showy of his riches during his early years at school, attempts to impress other Slytherins and the easily enthralled. Those ventures where largely unsuccessful at forging connections so Casey mostly thought of his resources for how they could fuel his ambitions. He knew other people lived poorly or cheaply but these distractions to his goals he often ignored.

“Collect it? What’s the point in collecting it?” Juni raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest in a rather judgmental fashion. “I mean, your family is rich. Think about all the good they could do with that money!” She could think of several organization that could use funding, and St. Mungos would have been a great start. Even funding for students who could not afford tuition or books and other supplies would be helpful-- there were so many things that people could do with money. There was so much good, and collecting money did not benefit anybody.

“Does your family donate it at all?” Juni asked, “I’m sure St. Mungos could use the funding.” She really did not understand why rich people felt the need to collect money.

Oh joyous, Zamperia was going to be one of those kinds of people.

"For all the good the money could do?" Casey said sardonically. "Pass me a bucket for my bleeding heart!"

Occasionally, as grandfather had said, you had the kinds of people who wanted money with no stipulations. Charity. While the 'noble' causes solicited all all manner of families the O'Doherty one never did anything unless there was something in it for them. "Oh, and do you know what the organizations that require donations do? They spend it off and ask for more. Again and again. Why would you continually hand off money for something when they can't even secure another means of income?"

Juni’s eyes narrowed. He spoke as if charities weren’t always looking for other sources of incomes. It was not unheard of for many programs to be cut due to lack of funding, and donations certainly helped keep those programs alive. And in some good places, like hospitals—it helped save people’s lives. “Do you even know what charities do? How hard they have to work to acquire funding that they use to give back to their community?” She put her hands on her hips and leaned to one side in a sassy manner. “Are you really that ignorant?”

Casey rolled his eyes. Zamperia had a very common speech. "I'm not ignorant I'm enlightened to the practicality of money. It has two functions, to be collected and to be spent. Money is collected to those that have performed an economic service and then spent to purchase goods and services."

It was such a simple ruling for the O'Doherty enterprises it was a wonder Uncle Torna constantly forgot it. Hell, it was simpler than goblin views of business. The species may have an altered view of financial transactions but there were simple to understand once you understood them.

That reminded him of his efforts with the coin summoning. He still needed the influence of a wand but since last spring he had gotten his summoning nonverbal and so fast the eye could not see it move. Casey kept his wand arm blocked from her view with his angled body. Up his sleeve his wand made the tiniest of twirls as he focused. The etchings, the imperfection on the head, the serial number of the goblin he had memorized...

Casey snapped his fingers, his open hand where Zamperia could see. The gold Galleon appeared in his fingers with a glimmer. "So say I spent this coin on a charity. What do I get out of it?" A pause. "That's right, nothing."

She looked at Casey incredulously.  Really, what nerve! “My father’s family is rich.” She said simply and  put her hands on her hips and gave Casey a stubborn and disapproving look—and that look only got darker when he summoned the coin. “Was that supposed to impress me? The fact that you can summon a coin to show off how rich you are?” She let out a bitter laugh, “My father is well off, he makes a large amount of money with the line of work he’s in, and on top of that—his family is also wealthy.” She leaned onto one foot and tapped her fingers against her hips irritably.

“My father donates money to many difficult causes—to magical hospitals, and mostly to magical schools. This helps out our society so that students who cannot afford books or other supplies will still be able to get an education and make something out of themselves.” Juni shook her head. "As of now, he is focusing primarily on Hogwarts and St. Mungos, which certainly helps people on a very local level." Really, she could not believe how arrogant and selfish that Casey could be. Being around her father and his family often made Juni forget how greedy many rich people could be, and how much they valued having money for the sake of having money.

“He doesn’t get any sort of monetary profit back, but the community as a whole benefits from it. He’s not suffering financially because he’s donating money. In fact, he’s moving to London and buying a house—does that sound like somebody who suffers because he donates money? No.” Juni then crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back, inviting Casey to respond. 

Why was it always the girls in Ravenclaw that argued with him? Be it Torret or Zamperia, it was like they had an agenda to prove how much smarter or better they were than him, when they couldn't match him in wand power.

"It was for effect. If I wanted to impress you I would have done something different." Although Casey was bitter that there wasn't even the tiniest bit of surprise on her face.

"Oh, so you're rich too?" he sneered. "Good for you, then, we'll let you continue to take care of the problem. Do you even know any of these students that need the loaner materials?"

There was a definite pattern to how she was describing her father. Casey was always quick to judge the male heads of families because is own father was such an annoying disappointment to both of the generations above and below him. "Your father sounds nice. Almost too nice. As if he's trying to make up for something by giving all his money away."

She raised her eyebrows. There were several students, though she’d only “Mairead is definitely a student who needs the support, and not everybody is like us; not everybody has parents who can afford supplies for school. In fact, not everybody even has parents.” Juni could not believe Casey’s nerve. He was so infuriating at times, and although she generally respected him, he had a way of irritating her to the core. Where was his sense of community? He didn’t seem to have the same drive that Juni did, the drive to contribute to society in a positive manner. It was something that had been ingrained in her personality from a very young age-- if she had two different parents, it would have been highly unlikely that she would have thought twice about charity.

“My dad is nice..” Juni gave Casey a suspicious look, “Not too nice. It’s part of his culture to help his community. It’s part of who he is. My dad does not have anything to make up for.”  Perhaps some of his former work had left him feeling guilty at times, but Juni had never been one to view her father as a vulnerable, weak person who was haunted by his past. “It sounds like you might be trying to make up for something. Not him.”

The drifters, of course, were the first mentioned. "I think she generally manages well for herself, considering how she adapts," this being the only comment he had on the fiery Gryffindor because she was so unusual. At least the fish-student had figured out how to read and write before she came to Hogwarts.

Part of Casey was still not convinced on how 'noble' this goal made her father. Even if the label of 'community support' was slapped on it there could be many shadier reasons as to why he was circulating his money that way. Casey had at least three different plausible enterprises he could run by the time he was of age. Or maybe at least when he achieved his OWLs.

"What in blazes would I be needing to make up for? I'm not throwing money around willy-nilly!" That was spoken almost too quickly, because there was one thought of guilt that needed to be thought about elsewhere.

---

Because he did feel guilty about one thing. His mother and her mistreatment. Whether it made him a better person or not, he had recognized that she was the source, the motivation to make his plans worthwhile, even if she did...

---

With the pendulum swing of his briefcase, Casey increased the momentum of his pace to step ahead of Zamperia.