Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the quotes from the books.
The Broken Serpent.
Chapter 1- the Great Escape
Number 4, Privet Drive, Surrey, London, Great Britain
Monday the 3d of August 1988
1:00 AM
In one of the cookie cut houses in the very boring and normal neighbourhood of Privet Drive grew one little girl. She was a beautiful child of 8 years old with long scarlet hair that always seemed to not be able to decide whether it was wavy or curly. She was really short for her age and really skinny, but that was only the result of growing up the way she did. Though from all her features one stood out the most her luminous emerald green eyes, that seemed to always be able to see what others couldn't, and the strange lightning bold scar that was in her forehead, which she had taken to cover with her bangs. Her name was Aurora Belladonna Potter.
Although once an innocent child the treatment of her relatives resulted to her growing up much earlier than others of her age. After the age of five she stopped trying to get her uncle and aunt to love her and started trying to find ways to advance herself so she could one day escape from them, their harsh words and beatings. She was very advanced for her age, though not of her own doing. As she had no friends since her cousin scared them away, the only person that was ever kind to her was the sweet old librarian Mrs. Jones, who after realising that she was not a crazy delinquent, started giving her books to take home to read.
As a result, the library became her haven.
Aurora was currently in her cupboard under the stairs, the place where her aunt had put her after she was deemed old enough to walk and was reading for the 3d time the diary she had found in the attic in a small stuck of books when she was forced to clean it three days prior. Normally she wouldn't have cared about it but it had her mother's name on it and so the love starved girl had jumped the chance to learn more about her real family- the Dursleys' didn't count as her family but as her prison guards. Her relatives had told her that her parents died in a car crush and that they were good for nothing drunks but they lied all the time so she had learned to take everything they said with a grain of salt.
But right now, as she was reading what was apparently her mother's experience as an eleven-year-old who learned about magic and then went to her first year in a school that apparently taught witchcraft she wasn't sure if her mother was all there in the head. On one hand it would explain the weird things that seemed to happen when she was in distress, like colouring her teacher's hair blue when she was angry and appearing on the roof of the school out of thin air when her cousin and his gang were chasing her or the fact that she seemed to be able to feel other people's emotions and intentions or the most blatant of them all the fact that she could change the colour of her eyes and hair. But on the other hand, magic couldn't be real or could it she thought? It would explain all these things and her relative's dislike of her if they knew she was magic. There was one way to find out the truth, by going to London and finding out if Diagon Alley was actually real.
Aurora woke up the next morning at five am and got dressed in one of the jeans and shirts that fit her that wasn't her cousin's. She had bought them herself with the money she got from pit pocketing. She didn't really like doing it but she learned from a young age that she had to do everything she could to survive. She packed all the meager belongings she had in her tattered backpack and used her hairpins to open the locked door of her cupboard. It was one of the skills she had to learn in order to get enough to eat through raiding the fridge during the night. She went to the kitchen and packed her bag with some apples and two bottles of water; no matter what even if she didn't find Diagon Alley she wouldn't come back. Better a street kid or in an orphanage than a living servant. She looked around and found the flower pot where her aunt hoarded money for Dudley's weekly allowance. Inside she found 200 pounds so she would be good for a while. She opened the door and said goodbye to the place of her living hell for one last time then she turned around and didn't look back.
Charing Cross Road, London, England, Great Britain
8:00 AM
After two bus changes and a lot of wandering later she finally found the tiny grubby looking pub that was the Leaky Cauldron. Giddy with excitement and with the realisation that magic was actually real Aurora changed her hair to a light blond and her eyes to baby blue and walked in.
The inside wasn't really better than the outside but the wonderful feeling that she now recognised as magic was everywhere. It nearly took her breath away. She went in front of the bar where the owner seemed to be, a bald, tall man with a toothless smile that somehow seemed to radiate warmth.
'Excuse me', she said 'can you take me into Diagon Alley?'
'Of course, young lady' he answered peering at Aurora 'but where are your parents aren't you a little young to be here on your own?'
'They said they'll meet me there, they have a few errands to run' she said schooling her face to an innocent and truthful mask.
'Right this way then' he said and led her to a brick wall where he pressed some bricks three times that opened the wall.
Aurora let out a gasp at her first look of the magical shopping district. If she thought the Leaky Cauldron was full of the feel of magic then in the Alley she could practically breathe it. As she walked through it she looked at the shops and was mesmerized. It was like walking in an era of the past. The shops were housed in old buildings and All the people around her wore clothes that seemed to go back a century and it was clear that she stuck out from the crowd- again. The sun shone brightly on the windows of the shops' Cauldrons - All Sizes - Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver - Self-Stirring - Collapsible, said a sign hanging over one of them, another shelled robes and another potions.
After a while of walking and admiring she stood in front of a snowy white building made of marble that towered over the other little shops. It was Gringotts, that according to her mother's diary was ran by goblins. Standing beside its burnished bronze door, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold were goblins that were a head shorter than her and had swarthy, clever faces and pointed beards. They bowed as she walked in and she bowed back without noticing their startled faces, more concerned with observing her surroundings.
After taking notice of the warning on the wall she went to a teller, that was ran by a goblin with silver glasses.
'Good morning' she said 'would there be a way to see if my parents have left me an account?' she asked. The Dursleys lied about everything, so there was a big chance that her parents actually had money, only not in the mundane world.
'Name' he asked in a bored voice.
'Aurora Potter'.
That seemed to have picked his interest as he looked her up and down and, then he snorted 'Another one then. Let's see if you are actually who you say you are this time, 'he said perplexing her, 'Griphook' he barked to a younger goblin take this lady to the inheritance office'.
Griphook didn't wait for her, he just started walking, so she rushed to catch up with him. After many turns in the tunnel like system they finally arrived in front of the inheritance office. He knocked the door and after a moment a loud Enter was heard.
'Another one claiming to be the Potter heiress, Griphook said after the older goblin behind the desk asked him and then he left.
Wait Potter heiress she thought, was she some kind of nobility?
The goblin told her to sit and then took out a piece of parchment, a bowl with some weird designs and a blue liquid inside of it and a knife from his cupboard. After dipping the knife in the bowl for minute he said much to shock,
'Cut your finger and let three drops of blood to fall on the parchment', after realizing he wasn't kidding she did as said and watched, fascinated as letters started to appear on the parchment.
'Well it appears you are who you said you are Miss Potter' he said while handing her the parchment. She read it and re-read and then properly gaped at what she saw:
Aurora Belladonna Potter
Father: James Charlus Potter
Mother: Lilly Marie Potter nee Evans
Godfather: Sirius Orion Black
Godmother: Alice Fay Longbottom nee Aston
Titles:
Heiress to the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter
Heiress to the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black
Heiress to the Most Ancient and Honourable House of Peverell
Heiress to the Most Ancient and Honourable House of Slytherin
Heiress to the Most Ancient and Honourable House of Gryffindor
Status: Half Blood
'Could you explain it' she asked still shocked, ' I understand the Potter one but all the others…'
'Wait a minute Miss Potter I'll lead you to your account manager and he'll explain' .
After another long walk through the tunnels she was led to a bronze door. After knocking she walked in an office full of beautiful weapons on the walls that she was sure could kill someone very effectively and met another old goblin who introduced himself as Bloodtooth and who has been managing the Potter accounts for the last thirty years. After giving him the parchment with her titles she asked once gain for an explanation.
'Well Miss Potter your owning the House of Potter is obvious. You being the heiress of Gryffindor and Peverell is because the last of the Gryffindors was a girl who married in the Peverell line and likewise the last of the Peverells married into the Potter line. For the House of Black it seems your godfather has left you as his heiress, something that is possible only because you have Black blood inside your veins from your grandmother and through the magical ritual that made Sirius Black your godfather.. As for the Slytherin line it would appear your mother was from a line of squids who were direct descendants of Salazar Slytherin', he explained.
'How come I was not sent to live with one of my godparents then?', she asked one of the things that interested her the most and she could actually understand, if she had godparents then why was she left to the horrid Dursleys?
'Your godmother and her husband were attacked in the last war by Bellatrix Lestrange and her husband with some other Death Eaters and are therefore, in the mental wing of St. Mungo's. As for your godfather he was sent to Azkaban twelve years ago for betraying your parents to You-Know-Who and killing thirteen muggles', he explained.
'Wait! You-Know-Who? Death Eaters? Who are they?'
'You mean you don't know?', he asked now perplexed and worried. After she shook her head he started explaining about Voldemort, her parent's real cause of death and her becoming famous for something she didn't remembered doing'.
After the long explanation she was left reeling for some time from what she learned. She was famous and her parents weren't drunks. Then some things started not adding up so she asked 'If I am all famous and stuff then why was I left to my muggle aunt and uncle without anyone looking for me?'
'It seems that everyone that was in your parents will was somehow compromised and that one Albus Dumbledore decided that he could find you a suitable home on his own and also deemed himself as your magical guardian'.
She didn't like what she heard. From what she understood Albus Dumbledore was the headmaster of a school so what was he doing putting her in homes without permission and without checking on her to see if she was alright?
'Ok then. Is there a way for me to become emancipated and could give me the details of my accounts please?' she asked she didn't like that this Albus Dumbledore had control over her life so she had to try to get free.
'Well as you are the last of your line you can claim the last of the line clause when you are eleven and gain the lordships of your house, but you won't be able to sit on your seats in the Wizengamot before you are sixteen, but you can set proxies. As for your accounts I have been investing and managing them as was ordered by the last Lord Potter, before he died. Your network is worth approximately 700,000,000 galleons and this is without the Black fortune which is worth around 500, 000,00 galleons. In total you have about 1 billion galleons. One of the richest clients of our bank' He explained to her with a bloodthirsty grin and she was pretty sure she almost fainted. She was bloody rich and was made to live as a servant and was always called a burden by her so-called family.
'Could give me the copy of ledgers of my accounts along with the Black ones and a list of all the estates I have?' she asked.
Silently he gave her two large ledgers and a parchment with a list of houses:
Potter Manor (unplottable, somewhere in Wales)
Godric's Hallow Cottage (destroyed-national monument)
Potter Cabin (Sicily, Italy)
Black Manor (unplottable, somewhere in Ireland)
Grimmauld Place (Borough of Islington, London, England)
Black Island (somewhere in the Caribbean)
Black Chateau (Bordeaux, France)
Gryffindor Castle (somewhere in Scotland)
Slytherin Castle (somewhere in Ireland)
For once again she was shocked and she was ready to ask how to get there before Bloodtooth beat her to it 'This is a portkey for your Potter estates. Just say the name and you'll get there', he said while giving her a pendant with a golden ruby on it.
'Thank you. Could I visit my vaults now please?'
'Yes, I'll lead you there. You'll only be able to visit your trust vault until you are eleven though' he said as he led her to a car on a railway car. After a long thrilling ride, they made it to her vault which he opened with a key while he explained 'As you didn't seem to know about your inheritance I doubt you knew about your keys so with a small ritual I recollected them from wherever they were. Gringotts can't have one of its best clients being robbed. It's bad for publicity'.
Then the door of the vault opened and she only saw gold. She went inside and after taking the pouch that Bloodtooth gave her she filled it with coins. Before she left she found in the corner two diaries and a letter on top of it with her name on it. They were from her parents. She didn't read them though as she didn't think she had the composure for that yet. After all those ground shaking revelations she got out of the bank around two in the afternoon, dead tired. So, after eating a small lunch and buying some clothes she took her pendant and whispered Potter Manor and then she was gone.
A/N:I decided to edit a bit and correct some grammar mistakes. Soon there will be a new update too.
Hope you enjoyed.