ORDER ONLY
Nov. 30th, 2014 08:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_pansyI've been thinking about possible ways I can help with food this winter. Seven hundred odd extra mouths to feed is quite a lot, after all.
The problem is that either I need to buy a tonne of food and account for where it's gone, or I'd need to funnel funds to a second party to do it, and would have to come up with a decent reason why they would be buying a tonne of food so it wouldn't strike anyone as overly suspicious. And it'd have to be someone I'd trust, which narrows the list.
One possibility is that I could start a new side-business that works with food, like a restaurant or owl order business, and have it just massively fail. I could sink a lot of money into product, and only manage to sell a little, claim the rest spoiled or was wasted, and have everyone assume it was a frivolous risk made by someone who can afford it and who can keep failing at it on a lark, so it can continue to limp along even though I'd be spending far more than I'd be making. I could even have a few shipments of product 'rot' at the docks due to a delay, and have to re-order everything (that'd be where you'd come in, Stebs -- let me know if that sort of thing would be something you could help with. I might need general help with transport too, as I'll be doing some of it remotely. I can even put you on payroll).
The simplest option is to just have Hitty buy up a load of food using a lot of different stores, and cover her tracks so no individual store realises. House elves pick up food all the time, and for holiday parties and such it's not unheard of for them to handle quite a large order, and there's enough of them popping in and out that shop owners don't look too closely. I figure I could do a combination of having Hitty buy up while I'm home for hols, and start the business during hols so we could have a supply after.
There's always the fake charity route, too, of course, but I'm getting sort of stuck at how I'd get a proper excuse for buying food and then accounting for where it's gone to if anyone looks at it for more than a few seconds. And I've no idea how much scrutiny either venture would be under, either.
The problem is that either I need to buy a tonne of food and account for where it's gone, or I'd need to funnel funds to a second party to do it, and would have to come up with a decent reason why they would be buying a tonne of food so it wouldn't strike anyone as overly suspicious. And it'd have to be someone I'd trust, which narrows the list.
One possibility is that I could start a new side-business that works with food, like a restaurant or owl order business, and have it just massively fail. I could sink a lot of money into product, and only manage to sell a little, claim the rest spoiled or was wasted, and have everyone assume it was a frivolous risk made by someone who can afford it and who can keep failing at it on a lark, so it can continue to limp along even though I'd be spending far more than I'd be making. I could even have a few shipments of product 'rot' at the docks due to a delay, and have to re-order everything (that'd be where you'd come in, Stebs -- let me know if that sort of thing would be something you could help with. I might need general help with transport too, as I'll be doing some of it remotely. I can even put you on payroll).
The simplest option is to just have Hitty buy up a load of food using a lot of different stores, and cover her tracks so no individual store realises. House elves pick up food all the time, and for holiday parties and such it's not unheard of for them to handle quite a large order, and there's enough of them popping in and out that shop owners don't look too closely. I figure I could do a combination of having Hitty buy up while I'm home for hols, and start the business during hols so we could have a supply after.
There's always the fake charity route, too, of course, but I'm getting sort of stuck at how I'd get a proper excuse for buying food and then accounting for where it's gone to if anyone looks at it for more than a few seconds. And I've no idea how much scrutiny either venture would be under, either.
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Date: 2014-12-01 03:56 pm (UTC)The risk is gossip -- and there's quite a bit more making it into the papers than was the case before Lucius Malfoy went to Azkaban. You never quite know what's going to happen once a reporter gets hold of some tidbit, and 'young Pureblood makes utter fool of herself' is always a tempting story. That ought to be manageable, though. They know they've gone too far when someone threatens to curse them, you know? (Reporters, I mean.)
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Date: 2014-12-01 05:01 pm (UTC)I'll see if I can't get in Mr Baddock's sphere more closely so he can stay on top of things like that. I'll make some gestures over the holidays.
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Date: 2014-12-01 05:12 pm (UTC)If you involve yourself too closely with him, he may end up paying quite a bit more attention to the finances of this project than you'd really want.
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Date: 2014-12-01 07:54 pm (UTC)I might have to do as Sirius says, go off on my own about it, and just blame it on a lack of guidance and oversight from Lucius when it crumbles. I was rather stubborn about Whizbangs, after all.
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Date: 2014-12-01 05:01 pm (UTC)Oh, you know. You could start a distillery or a brewery. Or both, plus a winery. Buy up a whole lot of grain and fruit (oh, and potatoes! people make vodka out of potatoes) and then don't get the facility built in time, oops.
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Date: 2014-12-01 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-01 07:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-01 08:27 pm (UTC)What do you lot think about bringing in Jack Sloper or Ken Towler? I know Sloper's recently left school, but I don't know where he ended up getting work. He was a regular at the galleon meetings, and I remember he was really helpful with the Teddy problem in particular. And Towler's got his older brother in things already, too.
I don't know if we'd have to bring whoever it is fully in, but it could be a good precurser to the Order proper, perhaps.
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Date: 2014-12-01 10:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-01 05:19 pm (UTC)As for gossip, you can always claim that you don't know what happened, but you're certain it wouldn't have happened if you'd had your mentor Lucius Malfoy there to advise you.
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Date: 2014-12-01 07:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-02 04:29 am (UTC)First, however, I suppose someone needs to caution you not to embark on projects that could capsize your preparation for NEWTs, as those exams are an important step if you wish to place yourself in a working situation likely to be of strategic use to the Order. You may need to balance immediate goals against longer term ones.
That said, I might be able to help you develop your ideas for a business enterprise that would appear legitimate while funnelling support to the Order. Pomona and I might help, I should say. This is very much the sort of business we've been doing for years, purchasing needed supplies for the school and cultivating sources of materials and funds for the Order under cover of that open business.
Perhaps we could find a quiet moment here of an evening, or failing that--sometimes it's impossible to speak safely in this hospital wing--we could meet once the holidays have begun. At Grimmauld Place, perhaps.
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Date: 2014-12-02 05:13 am (UTC)While we're at it, we might talk about funneling some funds your way, too, as I'm sure you'd make good use of it, and no-one pays any mind to how I spend my profits from Whiz. Or really any of it, now that Lucius isn't looking over my shoulder.
And yes, I'll mind my NEWTs.