AN: Welcome to the start of my collection of short stories and one shots. Some of these ideas may or may not be used in future stories.
This scene occurs post DH but before the epilogue.
Harry waited patiently for the goblin to return. Sitting inside an account manager's office at Gringotts was quite disturbing, especially if you had three armed goblins watching you closely for any attempts to steal or look into files. So Harry amused himself by sitting on the chair and tapping his toes or tapping his fingers. It was his hopes that his motions would make the goblins as annoyed at him as he was with them. After all, he was not happy that he had only just now been notified that he had a family vault, just days after his eighteenth birthday and hours after he had paid a huge fine to Gringotts for his part in damaging the bank and stealing a dragon.
The door opened, and the goblin manager entered the office.
"Ah yes, Mr. Potter, I have confirmed this. It was quite a surprise to me until I realized that most of this was handled by the Head of the Potter Family for the next heir."
"Can we get on with this, please," Harry asked. "I know we both have other things we should be doing."
"Quite right, Mr. Potter," the goblin said, adjusting his glasses. "Please allow me to read the stipulations required for you to access your family vault. It is in the Potter Family Rules of Inheritance, and Gringotts only manages this part if there is no legal Head of the House of Potter. And no, a Regent does not count."
Harry nodded to indicate he understood. He had a feeling of dread settle into his stomach.
"In the event that a Potter who is not of age is the next Head of the Family and no Head of Family exists, the Potter shall, between his eighteenth and thirtieth birthdays, make an amount of gold that is no less than thrice the value of his personal vault. This value must be the highest amount contained in the vault between the seventeenth and eighteenth birthdays, or thirty thousand galleons, whichever is more."
The goblin stopped reading and looked up.
"Do you understand these terms, Mr. Potter?"
"I do," Harry said. "How much do I have to make?"
"Since your vault contained the sum of 58,000 galleons, you will have to have a vault sum of 174,000 galleons by no later than your thirtieth birthday, which is July 31st, 2010."
"But I don't have that much gold in the vault today," Harry said. "I paid the fines you demanded."
"That is not my problem, Mr. Potter," the goblin said. "We use the highest balance in your vault between your seventeenth and eighteenth birthdays as the benchmark. Therefore, you have to meet this requirement to gain access to the Potter Family Vault. We do not set the rules, and you must be eligible to fully inherit and access the vault before the rules can be changed."
'Can you tell me how much the vault contains? It may not be worth it."
"It is if you wish to keep the Potter name," the goblin said. "If you fail to reach this milestone, you will not only be denied entrance to the Potter Family Vault, but it will be confiscated since there is no legal heir of the vault. You are without child, and none of your children will be eligible to try until they are eighteen years of age.
"The Ministry will confiscate the vault if it is unclaimed after a thirty year period. Unfortunately, the last date the vault was claimed was on August 1st, 1980, the date that your grandfather died. Your father did not meet the requirements to claim the vault, hence the time has not stopped counting since your grandfather last claimed it.
"We at Gringotts support this policy because we gain thirty percent of the assets in any of our unclaimed vaults. I cannot provide you any deadline extensions, and you must fully meet the requirements to access the vault before it is not claimed.
Harry's eye began to twitch as he thought of this. His vault contained five thousand galleons, and he did not have the NEWTs. Working as an Auror would not allow him to make the kind of money he needed. Hell, even trying to get back together with Ginny wouldn't work that way, not that she liked him anymore that he was poor.
When she found out that he had been fined most of his vault, she had dumped him in favor of Neville Longbottom, who had inherited the Longbottom Estate since his parents had been killed during the Death Eater reign over Magical Britain.
"Thank you," Harry said, after a moment. "May I have a copy of the requirements?"
"Certainly," The goblin said. "But I must inform you that you cannot make gold off of anything that you did before you turned eighteen. This includes your defeat of the Dark Lord. Even if you write a book about your life, it would not count since it depends on what you did before you turned eighteen."
Harry's eyes twitched again. He couldn't sell interviews or books to make his gold. And he was in deep shit if he wanted to gain the items that Dumbledore had placed in the Potter Family Vault to ensure that Harry couldn't access them until he was much older. If Dumbledore were alive, Harry would have tossed old twinkle eyes off of the tallest tower at Hogwarts for that stupid move.
"In addition," the goblin said, reading another addendum from the rules. "You must gain five NEWTs before you can begin to earn the gold that counts toward your sum."
Harry resisted the urge to hex the goblin. After all, he was lucky that the goblins only fined him and didn't ban him from Gringotts.
A half hour later, Harry left Gringotts to determine what he had to do. He had to make money, and he had to gain his NEWTs legally. That meant that he had to attend Hogwarts and drain the last bit of gold from his vault to attend. He hadn't wanted to do that, but he had no choice.
As he walked down Diagon Alley, he thought about how Ron would cost his family a lot of gold and their jobs because of his greed. He had been warned to pay the fine with his reward money, but he had chosen not to, obviously thinking that Harry would pay it since he was his best friend. After all, they had gone into Gringotts at Harry's suggestion and for Harry's mission.
Harry shook his head as he entered the Leaky Cauldron. Ron was such an idiot to think that Harry would give up tens of thousands of galleons for a fine that Ron could have easily handled with his reward money. Instead, Ron had purchased lifetime tickets to the Chudley Cannons games, a Firebolt racing broom, and three separate chocolate frog card collections.
Ron had not paid his fine by the deadline, and he and all of his family members were persona non grata at Gringotts, meaning that Bill and Fleur both lost their jobs, and Ron was the one responsible for paying the fine. In addition, that also meant that the Weasley Vaults would be seized within thirty days to pay Ron's share of the fine.
Hermione, on the other hand, had paid her fine with the reward money for her Order of Merlin 1st Class. Harry's reward money had been donated to St. Mungos when Harry had thought he had quite a few galleons in his vault and would be able to access the Potter Family Vault since he was eighteen.
When Harry got to the Leaky Cauldron, he made a decision and picked up a pinch of floo powder from the bowl above the mantel. He threw it into the fireplace, seeing the familiar green flames. He stuck his head into the flames and spoke clearly.
"Hogwarts' Headmaster's Office. Minerva McGonagall."
"How can I help you, Mr. Potter?"
"Professor," Harry said, nervously. "I was wondering if the offer to attend Hogwarts next year is still open?"
After confirming his attendance at Hogwarts with Professor McGonagall, Harry ran into Ron.
"Hi Harry," Ron said. "Did you pay the fines yet?"
Harry's eyes twitched, and, this time, he didn't hold himself from hexing the redheaded twit. Harry soon understood why Voldemort had loved to curse his idiotic followers. It was therapeutic. For Harry.
AN: I had always wondered what it would be like if there was a minimum earning requirement to gain control of a family vault, as well as a time limit to reach the requirement. Why would a family not place limits or requirements to gain the vaults? After all, if the family was smart, they would want to know that the Head of the Family wouldn't squander the family fortune and would help the family stay financially sound.