Writer: Now our beautiful bushy haired bookworm will take it away.
Hermione looks up from her book and shoots said writer a death glare before returning to her book.
As the writer shivers, Harry elbows the author saying, "It's no shock you haven't created anything as good as Harry Potter if you are not smart enough to avoid disturbing Hermione while she is reading."
I do not own any part of the Harry Potter Universe as such I'm only slightly sorry I may not agree with much of what J.K. Rowling did but I doubt I could really have done better.
Harry Potter and the Endless Adventure's Beginning
Harry stared at the ceiling from the soft feather mattress that was his for the length of his stay at the Leaky Cauldron. He was having trouble falling asleep after everything that had happened to him this evening. Scratch that, he thought, it's past midnight now so yesterday evening.
It seemed like it had only been a few hours but really all of his problems had started building seven days ago. He had only been back at Private Drive for three weeks at that point but the unthinkable had happened. Uncle Vernon's sister, 'Aunt' Marge, had come over and was going to stay at #4 Privet Drive for a full week. He had been appalled, a full week of her presence and constantly having to deal with her comments about how inferior and worthless he was. The only benefit to having her around was that he at least got to eat a real dinner with the family every night as she liked to have him in her presence to make fun of at her wim.
He had considered himself lucky that only one of her dogs, Ripper, was present, though nothing about that dog being present for any length of time was a good thing. Between it and Fluffy Harry was surprised that he could even stand to be around Fang for any length of time.
Still he had managed to go six days with all the insults and the extra work that seemed to double daily to make the house spotless in Marge's wake. Six days of avoiding that demon dog that still seemed to see him as a chew toy from all those years ago when the dog had chased him up that tree. Admittedly he had not really dealt with them and instead had spent every waking moment he could as far away from the Dursley's as possible.
Then, yesterday night, he had been serving everyone dinner when it had happened. He had gotten mad, so extremely mad, at what that horrible woman had been saying about his mother. When Marge had surreptitiously snuck in the fact that she thought he should be drown at birth he had lost control. He had been so angry that his magic had gotten away from him, he had felt it spill out of him. Looking back he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that all it had done was cause her to expand and float away.
Then came the arguing and the fighting which, in all honesty, he could only remember as a blur. He remembered threatening his Uncle and then his Uncle grabbing his trunk from his hand, thankfully ignoring Hedwig in her cage, and throwing it out onto the lawn demanding that he 'take his unnaturalness elsewhere'. He had only been two blocks away when he had released Hedwig from her cage and sent her to Hogwarts after asking her to find him whenever he was settled. As Hedwig fly away he saw another owl start to appear in the sky making its way towards him. As his luck would have it when he drew his wand he performed what he would find out was the English signal for the stranded witch or wizard that caused the Knight Bus to appear. Hurrying as fast as he could he shoved what money he had and asked to be taken to the first place magical he could think of, Diagon Alley. He was hoping against hope that he would lose what he knew was the Ministry owl tailing him.
His master plan had not worked out like he hoped. He had only just managed to get a room at the Leaky Cauldron when the owl showed up again. Getting the room had been far easier then he had expected, and in retrospect he was going to look into why the landlord, Tom, stopped asking questions once Harry said that he was Muggle-raised. It was a troubling sign in his opinion.
He had taken the mail with him to his room for the time being, the room which cost him a whopping galleon a day. He only just managed to get his trunk down, owl cage on the desk, and start opening the letter addressed to him when there was a knock on the door.
Standing in the doorway had been a well dressed woman in a formal suit like dress thing wearing a monocle. He could tell from her expression, she was rather annoyed before she even said anything. What had followed was a five hour interrogation of what had caused him to use magic on a Muggle. She didn't seem to believe him when he said he had not meant to do so, but then again in every other situation were he had told an adult something they never believed him either.
Then, against his wishes, she had dragged out every little detail she could about his time at Privet Drive, and how he could possible hate his family enough for him magic to attack them when it got away from him for a moment. Near the end of the interrogation, having learned everything about his former life, from him living in a cupboard to him being left in a tree over night, she seemed much more receptive and sympathetic towards him. She did however state she would be doing a complete follow up investigation on everything to verify that he was telling the truth.
Then she had hesitated for a moment before proceeding to explain to Harry why, even though she was in charge of the wizard world's police force, she could not do anything to help him in his situation. As Muggle's they could not be tried in the magical world because all punishments for their crimes would involve magic, such as Azkaban. As the problem could be solved by leaving, like he had done, they could not claim the situation was a matter of life or death. The other option of turning it over to the Muggle police force would bring a inspection into his own life, and that would make it impossible for him to go to Hogwarts under the scrutiny. He had just nodded his head in understanding at what she had been saying. He was seeing it for what it was, another way that Muggleborns got the short end of the stick in the wizarding world.
At close to two in the morning, she had prepared to leave and addressed her last piece of business. He had been, and still was, distressed to find out he was being fined one hundred and fifty galleons for the required work of the Obliviators and Accidental Magical Reversal Squad. Not having that kind of money on him, Harry had filled out what was explained to him as a cheque to his Gringotts trust vault.
His final thoughts as he fell asleep was that if Hedwig was here when he woke up, he would write letters to Ron and Hermione hopefully one of them would be able to help him. If not he would have to make traveling to Gringotts to check on his account and get more money to pay for his extended stay at the Leaky Cauldron all the more urgent on his list of priorities.
HPatEA
Ginny smiled sadly to herself as she sat beneath an apple tree in the orchard outside her home. It was difficult for her to be here, her mother was being even more overprotective and overbearing than normal. Her father was being as loving as he had always been to her, but he seemed disappointed in her because of everything that had happened even if he had not mentioned it since the incident. All her older brother were all completely wrapped up in their own lives at the moment. Except for Ron, Ron in an obnoxious turn of events was being almost as overprotective as mum was even if he mostly left her alone. Every time she looked for him he was there off doing something but close enough and constantly looking at her as if to reassure himself she had not died. Luna was off on one of her father's crazy adventures so she couldn't even reconnect with her old friend, and worst of all, puberty was just starting to kick in. All of it together made her want to kick and scream and then hide in her room and cry. The simple fact was no one understood where she was coming from, or what had happened to her, and that made everything difficult for her.
She had been out here for a while, doing what she had been doing a lot the last few weeks; reading course books, watching the gnomes, and drawing. Really, she was doing anything she could think of to not think about what had happened forty nine days ago. She knew what everyone tried to tell her; it was not her fault that she was tricked, and that everything would eventually be the way it was. She, on the other hand, knew nothing would ever be the same, though she felt that declaration would be a little dramatic. She had let someone into the deepest depths of her mind; they had seen all of her secrets, every facet of her personality, they knew her better then she did herself at the moment. Then they had tried to kill her.
Madam Pomfrey had wanted her to open up and talk about everything that had happened to her just to get it off her chest. How could she talk about what had happened to her after what had happened. How could she trust someone with herself after what had happened.
Currently, as all of this was floating through her mind for the umpteenth time today like everyday since the chamber. Being left alone she was trying to sketch a rather lazy gnome. It had been laying down using one of the rocks in the stone wall as a pillow of sorts all day, as it lay there lit up by the evening sun. *POP*
"Merlin," she cursed, as the sound of apparition caused her to jerk her charcoal away from where she was drawing the gnomes head. She was confused as to who was arriving at the Burrow, dinner was in about an hour and her father wouldn't be home till then, she tossed the closed sketchbook and her charcoal into her bag. Getting up, she slowly made her way around the trees aiming towards the front of the Burrow, until that is she heard her mother talking to someone. It only took her a moment to place her favorite brother's voice, and she was off like a rocket. Neither her mother or her brother had time to even notice her before she had slammed into Bill's side and was hugging him with every fiber of her being.
Chuckling he reached down and swung her around to his front, pulling her completely off the ground. As he wrapped her in a fierce hug and he muttered in her ear, "And how has my little princess been?"
She couldn't help it. Her favorite brother was here holding her and he still considered her a princess. His ignorance of everything that had happened, it was the last straw so to speak and she broke down crying in his arms.
HPatEA
It was late as Bill sat on conjured lawn chair staring up at the stars. He had just finished listening to his father explain everything that had happened to his little sister at the end of her first school year, or at least explaining enough to make sense of the little bits of information he had gleaned as his baby sister cried herself to sleep on his shoulder.
It was in this contemplative state that his father then sprung a question, "I didn't mention it, earlier but the seven hundred galleons I won in the Daily Prophet drawing today. Your mother have been talking about visiting you in Egypt for a while and, were wondering if this summer would be a good idea or not?"
As the implications of what his father was planning hit home, Bill mentally cursed himself as he slowly answered his father, "Well… I don't know if this summer would be good. See I was called back, though it's nothing bad really. The goblins are planning a new site and I made their final list of potentials. I have an interview tomorrow to see if I am picked. So I might not be in Egypt, and well a new dig isn't allowed visitors."
He hated the defeated look that flashed across his father's face in the moment before his father's seemingly ever-present smile was back in place. "Well there are always other places the Weasley family can visit. It's a shame though that you might not be able to join us."
As he explained to his father that if he was not picked, then he would being going back to Egypt and they were welcome to join him there. He could only hope he got this new job, thought not just for himself but also so his little sister didn't have to have any new nightmares from what she might see at any of the sites he had been in, the Egyptian tombs were not for children to see.
HPatEA
When Harry woke up, Hedwig had not yet arrived at the inn; so quickly getting himself presentable, and eating a quick breakfast he had started making his way to Gringotts. Currently he stood outside Gringotts in Diagon Alley. Despite it being his third year in the magic world, he was always amazed at everything that he saw in the Alley. Just looking through the windows on the way to the back he had seen brooms (not beleiving any were as good as his Nimbus), interesting books, potion ingredients, talking paintings. He had even seen a turtle covered in rare gems surprisingly enough. Things everyone else in the alley seemed to just accept as normal, were still awe inspiring to him.
Now however, he mounted the steps to the ivory colored bank, knowing that he would have to withdraw the money he would need for the summer. He cautiously approached an open teller and waited for the goblin to address him. It was a few moments before the goblin finally looked up from the ledger he was writing in.
"What do you want boy?" the goblin demanded.
Feeling rather sheepish he bowed his head as he muttered, "I need to get into my vault sir. I have my key."
Though he couldn't see it the goblin was peering intently at his forehead. Drawing out the moment the goblin asked in a patronizing tone, "What's your name boy?"
"Harry Potter."
He looked back up at the goblin as it started talking in an authoritative voice, "Yes. Well then that changes things. You are to report to your account manager before you can access your vault as there is a problem with your Trust Vault at the moment."
Completely confused, Harry queried, "An account manager?"
Looking to the side the goblin barked, "Get over here Griphook! Take this one to accounting!"
The goblin that appeared to bring him to accounting looked nothing like the Griphook from his first sojourn into the wizarding world, so he kept quiet as he followed the goblin down a finely decorated hall passed a bunch of offices. They finally came to a stop in front of a office that displayed a small plaque with the name 'Ognak' on it.
The goblin he was following grunted as he pushed the door open.
Taking that as his cue, Harry walked inside and was astonished by the office. There was a simple desk, with a chair on either side. The far side was inhabited by an old goblin he assumed was Ognak. What astonished him though was the amazingly well preserved dragon head mounted on the wall behind the goblin, and the myriad of weapons mounted on most of the rest of the wall space. Looking around at all of the intriguing weapons and paying a lot of attention to the dark red dragon head with its seven inch fangs he jumped when the goblin behind the desk finally spoke.
"Well, boy? Do you have any idea why you had to be brought to this office?"
Shaking his head he stammered, "I… I didn't even know I had an account manager."
Ognak seemed to ignore his statement as the goblin continued, "The fine for the stunt you pulled yesterday was taken from your trust vault. Unfortunately, your trust vault only refills with six hundred Galleons each January first. With your Hogwarts tuition of five hundred Galleons due soon, you have put yourself in a sticky situation."
Harry had never been the brightest bulb, but even he could see were this was going, It felt like his heart was breaking; he would not get to go to Hogwarts this year it seemed.
Ognak studied him for a moment before speaking slowly, "If you were older you could fix this problem with your other vaults, boy. However, as it stands that is not an option for you."
He blinked before asking in a relief-filled voice, "I have other vaults?"
Ognak's facial expression changed while looking at him and it was a rather peculiar sight. It looked like a death glare mixed with a smirk to him but he listened as the old goblin talked anyway, "Yes boy your house vaults. The Potter Vault and the Black Vault." Seeing the clueless look that must have been plastered on his face Ognak continued, "The accounts you gain access to at seventeen when you take up your Lordships."
"What do you mean Lordships?" Harry squawked.
Now the aged goblin actually frowned at him, as though he had being appraised and was being found wanting, before continuing, "Of course, as the last Potter you would eventually claim Lordship of your House and all that entails. I can see being the Heir Apparent of House Black being a surprise given the members of the house, but it is very well documented. Now as you need money for this years tuition you will either have to take out a loan or attain a job. However at your age most any human job would require a signed affidavit from your legal guardians."
Feeling completely, lost Harry asked the first thing that came to his mind, "The Dursley's would probably think its great that I could no longer learn magic."
Ognak was still frowning but, he could not help but notice the older goblin had a look in his eye that looked like Hermione when she had a plan. The older goblin shuffled around a few papers before picking up one pile and leafing through it for a moment before stopping and reading intently.
When the goblin looked up he had what could almost pass as a smirk on his face, "Well mister Potter there seems to be two other ways that we could go about this. The first and easiest would be for you to apply to work as an assistant on one of our Curse Breaking teams for the summer. You will not be guaranteed a position but there is a chance. We at Gringotts do not put such stock by age as you humans do, and if the expedition leaders feel you have proven yourself you will be able to accompany them."
He perked up at that, he didn't really know what he would need to do but there was a possibility and before he could help himself a question bubbled out of him, "Were would I go for that?"
The goblin looked thoughtful for a second, "Well I do believe I might know of a particular expedition that you could apply to work for. However, you will need to move rather quickly for it. Down the hall there is an office labeled 'Winston Geoffre' you will have to wait in the line that is surely formed up there. The man inside will be running interviews for who will be going on a curse breaking expedition he is running in China this summer,. You will have to hand him this note and then answer any questions he has. If you were to get a job there, you would be a helper of sorts, taking notes for them and assisting in menial labor as needed. However, the money would be more than enough to pay your tuition."
Looking at the note, Harry only had time to say, "Thank you. Thank you so much," before making to run out the door in search of Mr. Geoffre.
Frowning at the papers for the plan he had made and the boy had ignored, Ognak dropped a piece of red twine on them. The piece of twine bundled them all together on it's own and knotted itself tightly. Putting the parcel to the side he rang a crystal on his desk to call his nephew to his office, he started planning how he was going to get that boy back into his office.
HPatEA
Axebreaker looked at his uncle Ognak, and knew his face shown every bit the confusion and annoyance that was on his mind. Taking a deep calming breath, he grunted, "Why do you want me to look after this brat if that idiot human is dumb enough to bring the child."
His uncle shook his head slightly in his normal patronizing manner before finally answering in his normal patronizing tone the old wind bag, " I showed you the reports that Flitwick had sent in on the child's exploits at that school. Sure, some are most likely exaggerated by that half-breed, but still the boy could prove to be useful. If nothing else he would then owe our clan. Think with that thing on your shoulders! He will be the head of both the Black and Potter families eventually and you know how many masterwork goblin artifacts must sit idle in those vaults and in those properties. What would happen to our clan if we were to return even one ancient treasure to the king?"
When his uncle had finished ranting he fired back with a vengeance at the absurdity of it all, "So for that you would endanger that first mission into the Orient? We will be the first group to ever plunge into one of the tombs in the Far East. The people have never allowed it, and if we mess up, it will be just like India all over again. We still are not allowed there. You know the purpose of our mission into the Orient is to see if we can find a way to enter into Shangri-La. No one has ever found that ancient bastion of magical power and returned in the last thirteen hundred years."
His uncle just gave him a condescending look and snarled, "Then you better keep the boy in line nephew."