Protection: The Sword and the Shield

The ballad of Neville

...... Quality Quiditch Supply, Diagon Alley, London

Vasant Patil was a merchant emigrant to the British Magical world. His family's fortune was made in the manufacture of magical carpets. He was the second son of his father's third wife so while his life would be comfortable applying his family magic toward the endeavor, the work did not appeal to his personal ambition. He had three wives and 7 children but it was his last wife whom he loved the most. She was actually the same age as his eldest son but that made no difference to him. They married and he was blessed with twin daughters.

This blessing is what encouraged him to pursue his ambition. Other than his newborns, all his children were grown and his wives were satisfied with the life that the extended Patil Dynasty offered them. His relationship with his first two wives more resembled the one he had with his sisters than what one would imagine a wife would be.

He was not bothered as they had given him strong sons and he had given them a prosperous life. So he took his third wife and their two daughters and moved to England. His family were "purebloods" as the English magicals called it so he was not a victim of any discrimination as such but he was a new business in a world that had an established culture. He was not much surprised that after 3 years of a bustling business, the English outlawed the sale and import of magic carpets.

The wealthy had all bought multiples from him and so were comfortable banning further sale but didn't want to deny themselves the convenience. Expecting this turn of events from his early dealings acquiring a business license, he had actually brought the defective carpets from his family to resale to the English.

For the following 4 years after the ban, he did good business in the maintenance market. Unfortunately he had overplayed his hand and by the end of 7 years, while he had amassed a good amount of gold, the bottom fell out of the magic carpet industry. For the clients he held in regard he made sure to go and make a final repair that would bring the carpets up to the standard of his family name.

He was no fool however and had invested heavily in the broom industry. The thing about trends is that when they eventually wither their ends up being a surge in what is considered tried and true. While broom riding had only been for sports like racing and Quiditch, the death of the flying carpet made for a rush on flying brooms.

He had approached the Nimbus Company about an exclusive contract for their touring brooms and they had gladly sold it to him as at the time no one cared about that market. But by the time his daughters had reached ten he was a well-respected business man that owned Quality Quiditch Supply in Diagon Alley. His touring broom business was still the larger segment of his business but that was only done by owl order.

Over the years Vasant had learned much about the English Magical culture. It made sense to him as the Indian Magical culture was very similarly, still living in age that was more compatible with magic. He could live quite easily in the modern muggle world but had no desire to.

The modern world did not need magic, it had used technology to fill the gap and magic while interesting did not really fit in a world of automobiles, cellphones and airplanes. For magical Europe the ideal age seemed to be the early renaissance. They had grown culturally from that point of course but that was the cultural core.

As such English society was very feudal in nature but instead of land being the symbol of power and wealth, it was magical power and knowledge. Unfortunately, he was completely locked out from that. His family had not been in contact with English Magic for long enough to amass much power and the knowledge of his family was banned. He was allowed, of course, to be a distributor but none of the enchanting families that ran broom companies would ever share secrets with him. Not with each other and definitely not with a foreigner.