Dobby shouted, "You shall not harm Harry Potter!"

As Lucius Malfoy was flung across the hallway by the strange elf, Harry couldn't help but think what amazing creatures House Elves were. He would hate to be Dobby's enemy. For that matter, having Dobby help you was seemingly a risky business. But now that Dobby was free, perhaps his help could be of the variety that doesn't end you up in hospital...

"Wow Dobby - that was amazing! What are you going to do now? Do you want to work for me?"

"The Great Harry Potter Sir wants me to work for him?"

The diminuitive creature was bouncing with joy. Harry decided to rapidly push on with the conversation before Dobby actually exploded.

"Sure! I'm not sure how much I can afford to pay you though. But I figure that you could help make living with my relatives almost bearable."

"You woulds be willing to pay Dobby? Harry Potter truly is the Greatest Wizard Ever!"

"Haha - calm down! Tell you what, I'll try to visit the bank before going back to Little Whinging, and see how much I have. Then we can discuss how much I can pay you - how does that sound?"

Dobby seemed to be weeping tears of joy. "Harry Potter truly is the best" he managed to exclaim, before popping away.

And so it came to be that Harry Potter braved his uncle's wrath, and declared that he would be visiting Gringott's, and could make his own way back to Little Whinging if his trunk could be stashed in the back of Vernon's new BMW. There was much huffing and puffing about a wasted trip, but in the end Vernon acquiesced, with a parting comment to the effect that he was glad the "useless freak" couldn't mess up his new car.

The trip to the Leaky Cauldron, through Diagon Alley, and into Gringotts was nice and simple. It seemed that he had picked a quiet time, as there were two tellers available without a queue in sight.

"Hello - could I get a statement of how much money I have in my account please? The name's Harry Potter."

"Here you go", said the goblin, handing him a slip of paper.

Surprised at how quick and easy magic made things, Harry looked at the slip. It was quite simple in form, yet staggering in implication.

Harry Potter: Assets
Savings Account - G 114867 S 12 K 2
Investment Account - G 218497 9
Class 2 storage vault

Even without knowing the conversion rate to Sterling, he could tell that he was pretty wealthy.

"Umm - is there a financial adviser I could speak to please? Is that the sort of service a bank offers?"

"Of course - we provide that service free to holders of investment accounts. Let me see - you're in luck, there's an adviser with a slot open right now. Would that be suitable?"

"That would be great thanks! Where do I go?"

"Just take a seat, and Grabknot will be with you shortly."

Ten minutes later, Harry was seated in a richly appointed office. Dark wood panelling and comfortable high-backed chairs seemed to be the style.

"What can I do for you, Mr Potter?"

"Well, I came to the bank to find out how much I could afford to pay a house elf I would like to hire. It seems that I have rather more money than I thought I did, so I figured I'd get some advice on just how much there is, and how much it would buy me. How much is a galleon worth?"

"I understand that you have had a muggle upbringing? Well the exchange rate varies, but it currently stands at about £28 to the galleon. The average salary in the wizarding world is about G1000 per year, so you can see that you are quite a wealthy young man.

"Wow. Umm, how much would something like a house cost?"

"Well, that varies a lot of course. A basic plot of land can be had fairly cheaply, and construction costs relatively little. Of course land in a prime location, such as Diagon Alley, can be a bit more pricey. The most expensive thing tends to be the wards. The longer they have been established, the more powerful they are. So the most expensive properties are probably the old manor houses, with wards going back centuries. I'm afraid to say that the Potter manor house was destroyed about a year before you were born. As for prices, the bottom end would be around one to two thousand galleons. A good location in the alley might go for up to twenty or thirty thousand. An ancestral manor house hasn't been sold in a century, so I'm afraid I don't know."

"So if I was looking to buy a house, how would I go about it? You see my relatives are pretty awful people, and since I seem to have the money, I figure I could move out. I do all the work around the house anyway, so there would be no change there."

"Gringotts does handle property sales. What sort of thing are you looking for?"

"How about we see what's available in the twenty to thirty thousand galleon range? I seem to be able to afford it!"

"Let's see. Not a huge amount in that range. We have a couple of farms. There's a castle in need of repair. And a shop with apartments above here in Diagon Alley."

"Can you tell me more about the shop please?"

"How about we take the pensieve tour?"

In the end, things took both more and less time than Harry expected. On the one hand a simple query at the bank had turned in a five hour series of meetings. On the other hand, it took just four hours to become the proud owner of a sizeable abode in the heart of London. It was nice to be rich.

The next few days were hectic. First Harry had to return to Little Whinging to collect his trunk. There were the angry words to be exchanged with his ever-so-loving family when he announced his intention to stay with friends ("Hah - as if the freak has friends!" was Dudley's contribution to the discussion). Then there were wage negotiations with Dobby, in which Harry ended up negotiating the wages *up* from one knut to one galleon per month. Getting the building in a decent state took the rest of the week.

But the effort was worth it. Harry Potter was free! Free from the Dursleys, free from the dreadful dreariness of Little Whinging, and best of all, free to use magic within the wards of his wonderful new home.

This is going to be my first attempt at anything of any length. I've decided to ignore any qualms about how awful my writing is, and get on with telling the story I want to tell. My Harry will be fairly OoC, since I view canon!Harry as a bit of a moron, and want a hero I can respect.