"Ah... tradition." Richard nodded. His face was still, but there was a certain sadness in his eyes. "Traditionalists. We had them at IE. 'But we've always done it this way,' or 'We've never done that before.' I suppose it was rude of me to call them 'sticks-in-the-mud', but they used to make me half crazy. Father and I finally started buying them out. My youngest brother continued in that tradition, youngest ever senior partner now, younger than even I was."
"Take a look at the back of my phone." Rich set it on the table where Cassi could easily see it. "There's the name of the Korean manufacturer. They make those by the millions... millions, for the rest of the world. In fine print down at the bottom, it says, 'Modified for International Exports by', and there's the name of a Swiss wizarding firm. You'll recognize them from your time, and hundreds of years before that. You mention discovering new spells. I was a broom racer. Let's say I come up with an idea for a modification for one of the flight spells. I can get it to my friend and fellow racer Chernikov in Kiev in seconds for his opinion, and we can thrash out the new charm together without either of us leaving home. If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to do a little simple magic to help make my point."
He sighed. "Are there traditions I think really matter? Yes, of course. The way we keep our word once we've given it. The way we treat those less fortunate. The way we honor our family and the lengths we would go to in order to preserve it. Honesty and truth. Traditions like that. Traditions that were largely forgotten, not that long ago for me, and led us into a Second Wizarding War much worse for our world than the one from your time, with Grindelwald, what we called the First Wizarding War in my time."
"You are and adventurous and intelligent young woman, not a bad hand with a wand. I analyzed your wards when I went through them on my way in; I recognized your touch on the wizarding space expansions you've done to the house, the overall decor. A few months ago, if you were to have walked into my office with job like this on your resume, I'd have had you out running a remodeling crew the next day. Within a year, you'd be a junior partner, working with my galleons, buying and remodeling properties to sell or lease. In five years, you'd be building or buying your own as a Senior Partner with the firm, or out on your own, competing with us if we hadn't made you a good enough offer to buy in. But... would the Cassiopeia Black sitting here in this room with me have done that? Or would she not, because it wouldn't be the traditional thing to do? A new House of Black, or the old one?"