So, I came up with this idea the other day, when my internet stopped working and was doing my head in. I just have to write it down, thats if I can get it right!
Disclaimer: I'd be rich and famous if i wrote Harry Potter!
Summary: Harry is 15 (nearly 16). He's just inherited the Potter family vault and Potter Manor! The secrets he finds are unexpected. Lily -his mother- is a pureblood, not a muggle-born, but adopted in to the Evans family. Includes Potter ancestors, soul-mates and the question...Who are Lily's biological parents?
Harry Potter was sat in his bedroom at the Dursleys house, mourning the loss of his Godfather that he didn't get much time with. The thought still running through his mind was 'It's all my fault, Voldemort and that stupid connection thing! I need to learn occlumency!'
Harry looked up and noticed an owl flying towards him. Wondering who was trying to contact him, he got up to fetch the letter.
-Dear Mr. Harry J. Potter,
We recently received information, that you had not been shown your inheritance. The Potters have a high security family vault, being the old pure-blood family that they are. We cannot give any other information in a letter. So, we hope to see you soon.
Griphook
Gringotts Wizarding Bank.-
Harry eventually decided to visit Gingotts that same day. He had nothing to do except mourn, (hopefully this would keep his mind off it), so this has given him an opportunity to get out of the house, hopefully without anybody knowing. He had his invisibility cloak anyway, if anything went wrong.
Harry walked down the stairs, trying to be as quiet as possible. The Dursleys were sat in the living room watching the television.
"OI! You, boy! Where are you going?" said Vernon Dursley.
"...um Well I need to work, to save money for school supplies" replied Harry, after a moment of heavy thinking.
"Oh, really? How do I know that your not about to complain about us to that insane Godfather of yours?"
Harry pulled his wand out of his pocket and pointed it at his Uncle. "Don't you dare mention Sirius again. Do you understand? He's dead! So, don't you dare talk about him!"
"Ah! Put that wand away boy! Just get out of my sight!"
Finally, Harry thought.
He signalled for the Knight Bus, by sticking his wand hand in the air. A large purple bus appeared...
"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. My name is Stan Shunpike and I will be your conductor this evening."
"To Diagon Alley please, the Leaky Cauldron" said Harry.
"Hey Ern, look who it is! It's Harry Potter. That will be eleven sickles please."
Harry handed him the silver and went to sit down. When they finally got there, Harry ran through the Leaky Cauldron and in to Diagon Alley. The sight still left him speechless, even after 5 years of coming to this place (well, Mrs Weasley went for him a few times).
He walked up to Gringotts and took notice of the inscription on the door -
"Enter, stranger, but take heed,
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn.
So if you seek beneath our floor,
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.''"
Harry entered Gringotts, and immediately spotted Griphook,-the goblin who took him to his vault on his first ever trip to his vault. Griphook also noticed Harry and motioned for Harry to follow him in to one of the side rooms.
" Good Morning , how are you today?"
"Fine Griphook! And yourself?"
"All's well here! So about your inheritance, should we get started?"
"Yeah, about that, I thought the vault I had now was my inheritance,"
"Oh, no! That is only your trust vault, used for school things...mostly!" answered Griphook.
"Oh, so what exactly is in the other vault?" asked Harry.
"More galleons and family heirlooms among other things!" replied Griphook.
"Woah!" said Harry.
"You've also inherited Potter Manor, the cottage in Godrics Hollow and a holiday home in Spain," said Griphook. "Would you like to see the other vault now?"
"Yeah, I'd like that!" replied Harry.
They took one of the carts, way further down that his trust vault. He still couldn't keep up with the directions as they were turning, but the speed didn't bother him, it was much rather like being on a muggle rollercoaster. Finally, they appeared in front of two huge doors, with what looked like loads of enchantments surrounding it.
"Only a true Potter, would be able to see the enchantments surrounding the vault. It's usually the same for other old pure-blood family vaults, with one a true descendant or heir being able to see the enchantments and actually be able to get in the vault in the first place." said Griphook.
"Yeah, I can see loads, it's strange because I've never seen anything like it. Who's vault is that over there?" asked Harry, pointing to another large vault.
"I'm afraid I can't give out that information." replied Griphook.
"I can see the enchantments surrounding it though, surely that must mean something?" asked Harry.
"I have no idea why you can see the enchantments of that vault, as far as I'm aware of, you are not related to that family, unless there are secrets to be unlocked..." said Griphook.
"So, how do we get in to this vault?" asked Harry, remembering why they were down there in the first place.
"You must place your hand anywhere on the door and I will unlock it with my finger,"
"Your finger? How does that work?" asked Harry confused, obviously not remembering the trip to the vault with the philosophers stone in with Hagrid in first year.
Griphook gave him a look "Goblin magic."
Oh, Harry thought. Stupid question, I should of known that.
They then proceeded with the opening of the vault. Once they had it open, Harry had to step back a bit. For there were huge piles of galleons, sickles and knuts, which were shining brightly because of the light reflecting off of them. There were old trunks filled with books from throughout the centuries, things you wouldn't find now in the library or shops in Diagon Alley. Old wardrobes, filled with robes caught his eye, as he didn't have any other clothes apart from the too big muggle ones, his school robes and dress robes.
As he looked over one of the trunks, he found a letter on top of it. It was addressed to him, so he pocketed it for him to read later. He found out the trunk he found the letter on, belonged to his mother Lily Potter nee Evans. It was filled with old Hogwarts books, notes, robes and journals, which he decided would be worth going through later.
His father James Potter's trunk, turned out to be the one right next to his mothers. It was also filled with old Hogwarts books, notes, robes, but instead of there being journals, there were notebooks filled to the brim with Quidditch techniques from when he was Captain of the Gryffindor team. He decided he would show them to the new Captain of the team that year.
Griphook started to speak then, pulling Harry back from the world of Quidditch. "Would Mr. Harry Potter like to see Potter Manor?"
"I'm allowed to go and see it?" asked Harry, thinking an order member was going to show up to take him back home.
"Of course, Potter Manor has higher security than Hogwarts herself."
"How do I get there?" asked Harry.
"There is a special floo network in the side room we were just in, which allows you to go there. I cannot go myself, seeing as I am not your guardian and I am working, so if we may go?" asked Griphook.
"Sure, let's go!" said Harry, anticipating the visit to Potter Manor.
Potter Manor was huge. Really huge. He flooed Potter Manor and came out in what looked like the entrance hall, or foyer. There was a huge staircase in the middle, leading up to one of the many floors. It was mostly decorated in reds and golds, to show that the family has always been in Gryffindor. There were portraits around, of each Potter family who had lived there throughout the centuries. The last one caught his eye though, it was a portrait of his father, James and his Grandparents, he had yet to learn there names. What should have been in the next portrait was himself, his father, and his mother, Lily. But they had not lived there as James and Lily were killed at Godrics hollow and Harry sent to the Dursleys. This made him think, if Potter Manor has more wards and security than Hogwarts, then why didn't his Parents hide out here.
Bringing him out of his thoughts was a small house-elf. "Master Harry, you've returned, we were wondering if we'd ever see you here again. I'm Flossie."
"Hello Flossie. When you say returned, do you mean I've been here before?" asked Harry.
"Oh yes sir, young Master used to visit his Grandparents all the time, before they died. Master James never returned after that, except to tell us he wasn't coming back for a while and that we didn't have to stay,"
"How did my Grandparents die? I don't know anything about them, not even their names." said Harry.
"Master Zachary and Mistress Elizabeth were some of the kindest people you could ever meet. I've been a house-elf here since Master Zac was born. One thing you should know, is that house-elves at Potter Manor have always been free, we have always been treated as part of the family."
"Hermione will be pleased at that then!" remarked Harry.
"Hermione?" asked Flossie.
"One of my best friends. Since our fourth year,she's been working on house-elf rights. She made a sort of club called the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare."
"What a nice young lass!" exclaimed Flossie. "Except, she will find that not many house-elves will agree to anything drastic, as they won't want to be free
"So what else can you tell me?"
"Hm, lets see. Well I met Miss Lizzie when she was 15 years old, when Master Zac brought her home for the holidays to meet his Parents, although they'd already met, just not as Zacs girlfriend. She was a nice girl, and she always has been. When you were 6 months old, they were out on mission for the aurors and were both badly injured, they saved many others and died from there injuries, but they can say they died for a noble reason."
Harry supposed that all Potters had that 'saving people' thing. He then realised what Flossie had said earlier. "I noticed you said 'we' earlier, are there more house-elves here?"
"Oh yes there are Master Harry. Some are working in the kitchen and the others cleaning the house." said Flossie.
"If you all are free, how come you still say Master and Mistress?" asked Harry.
"House-elves like to work, and be bound to families, thought we can we don't really like addressing people who live in the house we work at as anything else, so the Potters let us call them Master and Mistress." replied Flossie.
"How come all free house-elves ended up here?" wondered Harry.
"Potters never had a house-elf, as they were disgusted how other Pure-bloods treated them, and didn't want people to think that because they were pure-blood, they had a house-elf and treated it badly too and they didn't like the idea of slaves. During a time where more and more house-elves were being freed for no reason, except upsetting the house-elves, they thought it was funny. The Potters ended up taking the freed ones in until they found a new family to serve, most stayed with the Potters though," answered Flossie.
"Just how big is this manor?" asked Harry.
"4 floors high, 10 rooms on each floor, not including en suite bathrooms. Quidditch pitch out back, and a lot of garden space. All rooms have a spell which allows muggle items to be used, not even Hogwarts has that spell," replied Flossie.
"Wow! Seriously. So can you give me a tour?, I'll need one if I'm ever going to find my way around here," said Harry.
"Yes, Master Harry, follow me," said Flossie.
They visited every room in the manor, including the kitchen. Harry was then allowed to choose a room for himself, seeing as the one he had when he was a baby was quite small. He chose his fathers old room, from when he was growing up.
It had a four poster bed, with red hangings opposite the door at the back of the room. There was a desk already filled with parchment quills and ink. There was a walk-in wardrobe. There was a bookcase that filled up the space of a whole wall. There was also what you wouldn't expect in a pure-blood wizards bedroom: a TV, a CD player with radio, a video player, a lamp, and a really ancient computer. It was decorated in red and gold, white carpet and brown rugs, he noticed one of the rugs was not down properly and so went to have a look.
Under the rug -which was in the corner of the room-, was a trap door. Harry lifted it up and went down the stairs that were there. Once he got down, he found three sets of stairs, he chose the middle one and went up. He came out in to another bedroom. It was decorated in the same way as his fathers, except there were no muggle items. There were pictures of the marauders everywhere, but mostly of Sirius. This made him realise it was probably Sirius' old room when he ran away. He wanted to get out of there quickly, so he wouldn't get upset.
He didn't bother trying the other staircases, as he knew they would probably be the other marauders rooms. There was a staircase he didn't notice though, because it was under another trap door. He found it, only because he opened the wrong trap door. He decided to try this one.
This room, was obviously a girls room. It had all the things his father had, including the muggle things. It also had a vanity table, filled with make-up and perfumes. The pictures around the room, were mostly Lily and James, but there were also pictures of Lily and two other girls, one of which he could tell was Neville's mother, Alice Longbottom.
This room must have been his mothers. He sat on the bed and could smell a faint scent that he recognised from somewhere. His mothers scent.
Once back in his own room, he decided that since he still had a few hours before he had to go back and make dinner for the Dursleys, he would read the letter that his mother left him -
-Darling Harry,
Hope this was a good start! Please review and tell me what you thought! Any ideas and I would be grateful.
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