"I don't have a firm one. I could imagine getting underway as soon as a few weeks from now but most likely I'll find the problem more complicated than that."

"Most things are. I hope you will keep us informed. Now, in the shorter term . . ." and they can work out an agreement for Cam to turn gemstones and precious metals into an eye-popping but not nation-destroying number of galleons. At least one goblin artisan must have signed a massive confidentiality agreement, because there are requests for things like gemstones with metal ingots included in the center.

Ooh, fun. Cam is happy to fill these orders.

He won't get to meet the artisans but they will doubtless be very pleased too. Deputy Ambassador Rangvald almost smiles before showing Cam back to the cart station.

Right outside Gringott's a woman with shiny blond hair and very fancy glasses strides up to him and smiles toothily. "Hello. Are you Campbell Swan?"

"That's what it says on some of my correspondence."

"I'm Rita Skeeter, reporter for the Daily Prophet, and I'd be very interested in interviewing you. Would you like to come back to the Leaky Cauldron with me and answer a few questions?"

"Oh, no thank you, I recommend sending the questions by owl," he says. Being interviewed is a skill and he doesn't have it.

"I will certainly do so. But be aware that I have deadlines, and if I don't hear back quickly I may have to write my story without your input."

"Feel free to include your schedule with the owl."

"Of course. What's got you so busy you can't talk to me today? Or are you simply unwilling to let the public know what you've been doing?"

"Feel free to include those questions with your owl." He cannot exactly run away. Is there room to take off.

He can, although people will absolutely stare and point. Also if he gets much above the tops of the highest buildings, there will be an odd effect where further upward movement does not bring him any further from the ground.

Well, he doesn't need to get high, he just needs to not be having a conversation with this reporter any more. He flaps his way to the Floo fireplace's home and Floos back to Hogwarts.

The following afternoon he gets an owl with a bunch of questions. Where did he come from? Is he a part-human? Did he really kill a basilisk? How? Is it true that nobody knew there was a basilisk in the castle before he showed up? What are his plans? What was he doing at Gringott's? Why did he go to Pettigrew's trial? What is his favourite colour?

Meanwhile, he's conjured the lady's prior art and, also, looked up local laws on libel.

The lady must also have looked up the local laws on libel, because she's really good at technically true statements and hiding behind "a source told me that". She generally goes for whatever the magical 90s would say instead of "clickbait"--sometimes praising the subjects of her articles and sometimes doing hatchet jobs, but always sensation and drama and dark hinting at scandals where she can't find a real one.

Wow. Well, if he doesn't tell her anything she'll probably get something wrong and maybe then he can sue her. He gives her owl a treat and no reply. (He considers supplying his favorite color, but decides that probably just turns into 'commented on nothing more substantive than his favorite color'.)

The owl leaves, content.

In the time since the mess with the basilisk and the diary, Cam has become enough of a fixture that people have mostly stopped pointing and whispering around him. A couple days after the owl, the pointing and whispering is back full force.

All right, what did she say.

In among various more innocuous things: he defeated a basilisk, which nobody in the school had thought was there until he told them and which just happened to come straight to his location shortly thereafter. Said basilisk was accused of petrifying people, which there is no record of basilisks ever doing. He hasn't denied rumors of his nonhuman ancestry, and no information could be obtained about his parents or other relatives. He can fly with his wings, which would require an extremely complicated and frequently-maintained transfiguration for a wizard to accomplish, but has shown no signs of transfiguration prowess and claims to be doing a different kind of magic. Every current professor he has interacted with was seen looking unusually tired afterwards, and none of them have questioned his desire to stay at a school full of children despite not being either an employee or a student.

Meanwhile at Hogwarts, Ginny Weasley is hiding in her dorm room, a sixth-year Hufflepuff and all his possessions have been turned lime green, and Fred and George have detention.

Well, that's not technically libel, congratulations Ms. Skeeter.

Cam cannot physically enter Ginny's dorm room even if he wanted to figure out what was wrong with her that way, and he does not have any way to help with the greenness situation. He owls for Hogsmeade real estate listings, though; he might not wind up buying any but he could now certainly afford it and it's a nice flying commute if he wants library access.

The Hogsmeade real estate market is mostly done over word of mouth to people's friend's cousin's Hogwarts yearmate, but he can find a couple of adorable little cottages that the owners are willing to sell to a stranger. (Hogsmeade properties come in only two forms: adorable little cottage, and space above a store.)

Is there, like, a field. He doesn't specifically have anything against a cottage but he'd sooner start with a field.

Yup, he can get a couple acres on the far end of town much more easily than anything that requires someone moving out. He can even have his pick of "trees" or "not trees".

He picks not trees! Easier to add them later.

He purchases the couple acres at the far end of town and puts up a copy of his house. And a nice low maintenance garden.