Managing Bonaparte's property in Belgium sounded impressive, but in reality, aside from the castle and its attached estate he had bought from Archduke Charles, he had no other assets in Belgium. It was far less than the assets Eugene managed for him in Italy.
Under the relevant provisions of the new Civil Code, rented houses had to be furnished. The glass in the windows, broken floor tiles indoors, doors, windows, hinges, and so on also had to be repaired—more or less the sort of work Filch did.
The rent of 500,000 Francs was originally meant to cover those expenses, but now it had all been given to Brown. Where was she supposed to find the money to pay the workers and buy materials?
Naturally, important people did not concern themselves with such details. They had greater matters to decide. Didn't the Ministry of Magic have an Office for House-elf Rights? For a moment, she thought she was the head of that office. On the first day back after the Christmas holiday, messages requesting house-elves to clean various departments, or reporting places that needed repairs, would come flying to her, leaving her frantic over cleaning houses.
What would Albus think if he saw her like this?
What had the Goblins said when she and Severus had gone to Gringotts before? If someone asked you to sign something, their advice was not to sign any documents. Yet just now, she had signed those papers without even reading them.
"How can you be like this?" she said in deep regret. She felt as though she had just made a fool of herself in public. This tiny scene had actually frightened her.
Now that all the guests had left, she picked up those documents and read them again.
First, one had to distinguish between