Chapter 2: A Meeting with Gringotts

Harry stared at the goblin, not comprehending the words spoken to him. First Lord? What in the name of magic was a First Lord? Harry opened his mouth to ask but he was waylaid by the voice of Firedome.

"First Lord Potter, I am immensely pleased that you have come forward at this time, there are several irregularities in your account that I would like to address with you. If you would please follow me into the other room," here the goblin gestured toward the open doors.

Harry followed the regal figure into the room. A large mahogany desk dominated one end of the long room, framed on either side by towering floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. Thick hide bound books were assembled neatly on the shelves, several more book were laid open on the desk their pages yellowed and cracked with age. The walls and floor were the same gold flecked white marble that made up the antechamber. Here though, the walls were decorated with crests, a few of which Harry recognized as belonging to the Black and Malfoy houses. One crest, larger than all the others, hung directly above a fireplace that took up the majority of the left side of the room. It was a brown and gold griffin standing on its back legs, wings slightly spread, facing a blue and silver dragon, also on its back legs. Between them stretched a banner with the words, virtus quod vires, written in stylized calligraphy.

"Courage and strength," murmured Firedome from behind the desk, his eyes also on the crest. With a small, almost imperceptible shake of his head, the goblin turned his attention back to Harry. "First Lord Potter, please be seated," the goblin motioned with his hand toward one of the two large plush chairs situated in front of the desk.

Harry carefully took a seat, a little apprehensive about what the goblin might tell him.

"Tea?" Without waiting for an answer Firedome pulled a small cord attached to the wall near his desk. Within seconds the door had opened and a goblin much smaller then Firedome had entered. Dressed in plain black robes with the Gringotts crest over the left breast, the goblin carried a silver tray with a plate of pastries and a Dresden china tea set with two cups. This was set down gently on the desk between Harry and Firedome and the goblin left without a word.

A few minutes were taken while Firedome served tea for Harry then took a cup for himself, drinking only after Harry had first taken a sip from his cup. With a soft satisfied sigh Firedome pulled one of the larger books toward him, a truly mammoth tome bound in rich blue hide with silver fastening, and looked at Harry, "First Lord Potter..,"

"Harry, please call me Harry," requested Harry before the goblin could continue.

"As you wish, Harry, and you may of course call me Firedome." Once Harry had nodded his head to the assertion, Firedome continued. "Harry, I'm not sure how much you know about your family and your heritage but you are a very important person in the world. Let me first explain my position here at Gringotts. I am the Head of Special Accounts and as such, in charge of all major accounts here at Gringotts. I personally handle the accounts of every member of the Wizengamot as well as most of the department heads in the ministry. Your account, however, is by far the largest and most extraordinary account under my purview."

Here Harry had to interrupt, "It's the largest? I know there is a lot of money in my vault, but there are surely people in the wizarding world with more galleons then that."

Firedome looked Harry straight in the eyes and spoke in a solemn voice, "your vault? Harry, that particular vault is for spending money, where you can draw money from for small things you might want growing up or while in school. Larger expenditures, like monthly payments made for your provision and care and school tuition are taken from one of your large family vaults."

"Wait," Harry nearly shouted, "Monthly payments? Care? What payments?"

Here Firedome paused in is dialog, and looked at Harry in shock. After a glance down at the pages of the book in front of him the goblin spoke this some reservation, "First Lord..Harry, I'm speaking of the payments made each month into the account of one Vernon Dursley, I understand that he is your uncle."

Now Harry was the one in shock, "Money was given to Uncle Vernon? For my care?"

"Yes," said Firedome, "a lump sum of £100,000 was deposited into the account at Lloyds TSB Bank in Surrey, England the night you were given into the care of your relatives. As soon as we received the paper stating they had taken full charge of your care, I sent through the payment myself."

"Wait," once again Harry was in shock and couldn't keep silent. "They signed papers agreeing to take me into the house? They always acted like I was a burden to them, a useless waste of space that did nothing but eat their food and good for nothing but the chores I could do for them."

A flood of anger filled Firedome at this admission, though only a spark of it showed in his eyes. Goblins are very protective of their offspring, mainly because they are so rare in goblin society. While goblins are very long lived, in comparison to humans, thirty or forty years might pass between children. And with the decimation of the society by so many wars and rebellions, the rarity and value of offspring had increased immensely in the last several hundred years. "Yes Harry, both your Aunt and Uncle signed a consent form before taking you into their home. By signing this consent they swore to provide and care for you in a way befitting your status in our world. This would mean providing you with the best education, nutrition, and entertainment."

Harry was fuming by now. All his life spent wearing Dudley's cast-offs and sleeping in a cupboard and he should have been living like Draco Malfoy, having the very best of everything. More than every Harry felt the weight of his relatives hatred for him.

"Additionally," continued Firedome, oblivious to Harry's thoughts, "a further stipend of £10,000 was deposited once a month with another larger sum of £200,000 given once you started at Hogwarts. The assumption was that you would require some private tutoring and supplementary reading for you to be knowledgeable enough to assume your role in society once you reach your majority."

Harry raised his head from the back of the chair where he had laid it after the shock of the betrayal had worn off. He realized with a sudden flash of clarity where the money had come from that paid for all of Dudley's toys and the lavish vacations the Dursleys went on that Harry was forbidden from. It had all been his money, he bought those things! And yet, he had a belt taken to him if he so much as breathed on any of Dudley's things. The injustice and unfairness of the situation poured through Harry. The tea set still on the desk before him began to vibrate rabidly with the force of his anger; a strong breeze ruffled the pages of the books laid on the desk.

Firedome raised himself from behind the desk and stepped around it to stand by Harry. He took Harry's hand in his and instead of trying to talk to him and calm him down the goblin merely stroked the back of Harry's hand with his thumbs. Harry focused on that sensation, the slightly rougher texture of goblin skin and the calluses one acquires from any kind of physical labor against the soft unblemished skin at the back of his hand. This distraction, slight as it might have been, was enough to break Harry's anger and allow him to take some deep breaths.

Once Harry had calmed down, Firedome stroked his hand for a few minutes longer before letting go and returning to his seat behind the desk. There he poured Harry a new cup of tea and gently pushed it in his direction.

Harry took the cup shakily, having to use both hands to avoid sending it into his lap. A few silent seconds passed while Harry sipped his tea and Firedome pretended industry with his books to give the young man a little time to college himself and his thoughts. Once Harry had calmed considerable, the warmth of the tea taking the last of the shock from his fingertips, he set the cup back onto the tray and looked at Firedome. He was tired of pretending there wasn't a problem with his relatives, tired of protecting them from the wizarding world when all they had done was lie and steal from him.

"All my life I was bullied and beaten. My cousin Dudley would chase me around the neighborhood, and if he could catch me he would beat me up. 'Harry hunting' he called it, and my Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon only encouraged him. Petunia," Harry made the decision in that instant to never call either of his relatives Aunt or Uncle again, "would slap me across the face for things Dudley did but I was blamed for. Things like tracking mud across a floor I had just cleaned. More than once she has hit me with a hot pan from the stove." Here Harry turned his head and pointed out a scar almost lost in his hair behind his left ear.

"Vernon though, he loved to beat me. If he was having a bad day, or he got reprimanded for turning up at work drunk, which happened quite frequently, he would take it out on me. I wear a glamour regularly to prevent my friends from seeing the scars across my back. I was never allowed to go on any family vacations, vacations I know realize I paid for. I was left with an old lady down the street, Mrs. Figg who, it turns out, is a squib sent to watch over me by Dumbledore. I wasn't allowed to eat sometimes; they would lock me in the cupboard under the stairs, which for the first ten years I was with them was my bedroom, for days."

Firedome waited a heartbeat until he knew Harry was done talking, "Harry there are several legal actions that can be taken against your relations. Most notably, cases for child neglect and abuse can be filed. This would ensure they were punished for their treatment of you." Here he paused and waited for a reaction from Harry.

While Harry knew that such a course of action would no doubt be highly public, with Harry the boy-who-lived being the abused and neglected one, it might also show people that Harry would no longer take abuse from anyone. So Harry nodded his head at Firedome to show his assent with that course of action.

After quickly making a notation in another book lying open on the desk, the goblin looked back at Harry. "Since that situation has been cleared up, I would like to discuss another topic with you. This topic is your inheritance, both from your parents and your godfather Sirius Black."

Harry felt a strong pang of sadness in his chest and a stinging behind his eyes. In the last few days he had come to accept that he wasn't responsible for Sirius' death. He had, after all, exhausted every action he could, he had checked at Grimmauld Place and spoken to a trusted adult, no matter that Snape was antagonistic, he was still trustworthy. There were several people that were more responsible then Harry for Sirius' death, mainly Voldemort, Bellatrix, and even Dumbledore.

"As the last remaining Potter it is to you that all the titles, money, land, and responsibilities fall. As the primary beneficiary of Lord Black's last will and testament, you also gain titles, money, land, and responsibilities from him. There may also be things we don't yet know about and will need to conduct an inheritance ritual to see if you are the beneficiary of any other estates."

There was one question that had always bugged Harry and he thought now would be the time to ask, "Why doe-did Sirius have access to his vault? I thought the vaults of convicted criminals were sealed or frozen or something?"

"There you are correct; vaults of convicted criminals are frozen at the request of the ministry on the appearance of their trial record. As Lord Black was never given a trial his records could not be passed over to Gringotts. His vault was never frozen."

Harry took this as just another example of the failures and injustice committed by the ministry.

"Now," said Firedome, "I have here a list of properties and assets belonging to the Potter family." Here he passed over a sheaf of papers to Harry, who picked them up and began to look through them.

"All of this is mine?"

"Yes First Lord Potter, as the last heir to the potter line, everything belongs to you."

Harry gazed stunned at the long list of properties, heirlooms, shares, and liquid cash that belonged to him. "I own shares in the Daily Prophet? Potter Castle? Wait, I own 4 Privet Drive?" Harry could barely stand the astonishment that came with knowing he owned the house his horrible relatives were living in.

"Yes, the house was given to your mother upon the death of her parents," commented Firedome after consulting the book in front of him. "Upon your Aunt's marriage your mother let her sister and brother-in-law reside there until Vernon attained stable employment."

A flicker of dark enjoyment came into Harry then, as he thought of the look on Vernons face when Harry kicked the whole family out of the house. Instead of demanding repayment for the money never spent on him, Harry would instead sell number 4 and force his relatives to leave their perfect home which would never have existed in the first place without the generosity of Harry's own parents. Harry told these thoughts to Firedome, stipulating that he, Harry, wanted to be the one to tell the Dursleys. Firedome agreed to start the proceedings necessary to vacate and sell the property.

"Next order of business is your godfathers will." Here the goblin took a sealed letter out of his desk and handed it over to Harry.

Harry Potter was written on the front of the yellow parchment in spidery black handwriting. With a hard swallow Harry turned it over and ran his thumb under the wax seal, embossed with the Black crest. He pulled out the letter and began to read:

Dear Harry,

If you are reading this then I am no longer with you. I hope I went out with a spectacular bang or fighting to protect those I love. And I do love you Prongslet, I want you to know that no matter how I died, it is in no way your fault. It was just my time to go. I am happy to be with James again.

Now, finished with all the sappy stuff, let's move onto what I left you, which is just about everything. I have left some money to Remus, make sure he keeps it, and to the Weasleys. After a few more small bequeaths to charitable organizations, I leave everything; land, shares, heirlooms, and money to you. Don't spend it all in one place, or do, as long as you have fun with it. With all this comes the title Lord of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black. I know you already have enough titles but this will open doors for you in ways the Potter name might not.

Also, as my last act as your godfather I have filed papers to have you emancipated in the event of my death. That means, as of right now, you are legally and formally considered an adult with the ability to use magic outside of school and apparate.

Harry, I don't know if you realize it, but you are a very important person in the world. With becoming an adult you are now able to realize your potential and claim your place in society. But before you decide to deal with all your responsibilities, have some fun, go a little wild.

All my lover,

Sirius

Harry carefully folded the letter and placed it back in the envelope, blinking tears from his eyes. He felt the last of the guilt lift from his chest, it had just been Sirius' time to go, and it hasn't been Harry's fault at all.

Firedome gave Harry a moment to compose himself before continuing, "With this new title you may present yourself as either Harry Potter or Harry Black, however, your formal title is First Lord Harry Potter-Black of the Most Ancient and Noble Houses and Potter and Black. After we conduct the inheritance ritual we will determine if more titles are to be added. You are also one of, if not the, most wealthy persons in the wizarding world."

Harry thought the title was quite a mouthful and decided to stick with one of the shorter versions whenever he could. He was floored, however, at the news that he was considered the wealthiest person in the whole wizarding world.

"Before we move to the ritual there are a few more things we need to discuss. Due to your inheritance from your godfather, and your resulting emancipation, an audit was conducted on your accounts and there are several irregularities."

"Irregularities besides the payments made to the Dursleys that I didn't know about?"

"Yes, from your reaction to that news, and your lack of knowledge on that subject, I feel it prudent to go over all withdrawals from your accounts since your parents died." Firedome slid another sheaf of papers across the polished surface toward Harry. "As you can see, significant amounts of money were subtracted from your account prior to your arrival at Hogwarts. We here at Gringotts assumed the money was being taken out for your care and upbringing. However, from your reaction earlier, I gather this is not so."

Harry looked dumbfounded at the list, over the last 14 years since his parents died millions of galleons had been withdrawn that he had never seen. "If it didn't go to me, where did all the money go? And who took it?"

"At this time, the answer to those questions is mostly unknown, but an investigation will be started to attend to the matter."

A wave of anger and relief warred within Harry, he was angry that someone had been stealing from him, from his family! And yet he was relieved that the goblins would be investigating the theft. Harry knew now harshly goblins took thievery, and that no matter who the person or people where, they would not get away with it anymore. Harry looked back down at the papers he held and his anger began to rise once more. Most of the transactions were marked as having been instigated by an unknown party; however, a few had names next to them, such as the Dursleys and Hogwarts for tuition. Harry recognized two more names and it were these names that really made his blood boil. They were the names of Ronald and Ginevra Weasley.

"Ron and Ginny? They took money from me? How? Why? When?"

"Yes, some of the money taken by the unknown party was then transferred into accounts under the names of Ronald and Ginevra Weasley. We are unsure what the payments were for but they started the summer before you started Hogwarts. We at Gringotts have yet to determine whether the other members of the Weasley family are involved but we will now as soon as the investigation is completed."

Harry had never felt so betrayed in his life. Ron and Ginny, his friends, had been stealing from him. If they had ever asked for money he would have gladly given it to them, they didn't need to steal. His emotions were in turmoil, wind began to pick up again, turning the pages of the sheaf he held, the china began to rattle once more, ringing an a clear frightening way. Once again Firedome walked around the desk and came to stand by Harry. Taking his hand in his, Firedome repeated the actions of earlier until Harry had calmed down.

Returning to his seat, Firedome asked softly, "Is it common for you to have episodes like that? When your emotions effect objects around you?"

The young man was at first surprised by the question, but after thinking for a minute he responded, "Yes, I think they are fairly common. I blew up my aunt once when I was angry. That was a few years ago and since then I have rattled dishes and such. Doesn't everyone?"

Firedome shook his head gently, "No, it is rather unusual for someone your age to have bouts of accidental magic. In fact it is so unusual; I would like to have a healer check you for magical or mental blocks. It could be that your magic isn't able to grow and expand as much as it needs to, resulting in it lashing out when you get particularly emotional."

At Harry's consent, Firedome pulled the cord once again and requested a healer from the small goblin that stepped into the room. Not five minutes later a middle aged witch entered the room.

"First Lord Potter-Black, may I present Healer Janna Winterfrost, primary healer at Saint Mungo's Hospital."

Harry rose from his seat and greeted the woman, "Healer Winterfrost, it is an honor to meet you," Harry gave the woman a slight bow as he took her hand, "I hope you will be able to help me in this matter."

The woman, standing about three inches taller than Harry himself, something that made him cringe mentally, gave the impression of being made out of snow. She was very pale in every way. Her hair was so blonde as to be almost silver, her skin luminous in its pallor. She had amazing green eyes though, as green as the summer grasses of Ireland. She was dressed all in white, typical for a healer, with a band of silvery blue around the hem denoting her status as primary healer.

"It is a pleasure to be of assistance, First Lord," responded Winterfrost in a slightly gravelly voice. The voice was so in contrast with her appearance that Harry found himself smiling hugely at her. "Now what can I do for Gringotts and the First Lord today?"

Firedome had stood up when the healer entered and now motioned that she and Harry should be seated. Both men waited will the Healer had taken her seat before sitting themselves.

"I have asked for your presence," started the goblin, "because it is my belief that First Lord Potter-Black.."

"Please," Harry interrupted, "both of you just call me Harry; I don't even know what this First Lord business is about anyway."

The Healer looked shocked by this declaration but Firedome merely nodded his head and continued. "As I was saying, it is my belief that several magical or mental blocks have been placed upon Harry. These create problems when he comes under the grip of some strong emotion."

Winterfrost nodded her head and, standing, motioned for Harry to do the same. As he did so, the Healer pulled her wand from her sleeve.

"I will need to do several scans of your person and magical core to determine if this is true, and the strength of the bonds." With this the woman began to wave her want in a complicated combination of flicks, twists, and turns. She recited a lengthy spell in Latin and stood for a minute studying the results.

Harry assumed that the spell had worked, though he couldn't see anything and had only felt a small shiver run up his spine, because what little color had been in the Healers face drained away.

Firedome came around the desk and grabbed the Healers arm to steady her when she wavered. After a few seconds the woman blinked and turned amazed eyes upon Harry.

"How is it you can do magic at all? How is it you are still alive?"

These words frightened Harry more then he cared to admit. It was the tone more than the words that sent goose bumps racing down his body. The Healer sounded equal parts horrified and incredulous. She repeated her test once more only to shake her head when she received the same result. Shaking off Firedomes hand Winterfrost resumed her seat and motioned that the others should do the same. The goblin did so only after pulling the bell and requesting a fresh service of tea for the three of them.

Once the tea had arrived and everyone had a few minutes to savor theirs, Harry turned to the Healer, "What did you find? I assume by your reaction that there are blocks, what did you mean, I shouldn't be alive or doing magic?"

The Healer took one last gulp of her tea before replacing her cup and saucer on the tray. "Yes, there are blocks, very strong ones in fact. So strong and so numerous are these blocks that you should either be a squib or in brain dead."

Harry reared back in his seat at this pronouncement. Brain dead?

The Healer continued, "A block is typically placed on a child when that child displays strong magic at a very early age. This is not unusual, and is normally removed slowly as the child grows and develops. Blocks can also be placed on children that display unusual abilities, such as metamorphamagus abilities, this prevents the parents from losing the child should the child change his or her appearance. These are all traditional and widely used magical blocks. The ones I found on your, however, are anything but."

"You have blocks, Harry, that I have never seen placed on a person as old as yourself, unless that person was mentally unstable. Despite what might be written in the Daily Prophet, I do not believe that you are mentally unstable. You have the traditional childhood magical block; my scan indicates that this block was placed before you were a year old, probably by your parents. I can only assume everyone thought it had been removed prior to your arrival at Hogwarts. The second block I found was one that inhibited a natural metamorphamagi talent. This one was placed about eight years ago, do you remember it happening?"

Harry was startled at the news that he was a metamorphamagus. Then he remember the time his aunt had cut his hair only to have it grow back overnight. Petunia had been so upset the next morning Harry had been locked in his cupboard for three days. He remembered the incident as well as a few more, like trying to squeeze through a fence to escape Dudley, wishing he were skinnier, and sliding through without the slightest hitch. What he didn't remember, however, was anyone placing a block on him. In fact, as far as he remembered he had never seen any magic since coming to his relatives before Hagrid had told him about Hogwarts. He told the other as much and watched the Healer nod her head as if confirming a theory. Firedome just made another notation in the book at his elbow.

"I thought was much. There are several blocks on you that I classify as mental blocks. These prevent you from remembering certain things; they are often used in place of the Obliviate charm on children as they have no harmful side effects. Children that have been abused or seen murders and other violent crimes often have such blocks placed on them. You have several of these; the combined effect would prevent you from remembering several large pieces of your past. Unfortunately, another side effect of having so many, is that your ability to learn and remember things would be greatly impeded, as would your ability to perform certain mental exercises."

"Exercises such as Occlumency?" asked Harry in a low voice.

The Healer looked startled by his knowledge of the mind art but answered the question, "Why yes, it would be impossible for someone with so many blocks to occlude their mind, in fact, such an attempt would only open the mind further."

Harry was furious now, who ever had placed these blocks on him had prevented him from learning the skill necessary to keep Voldemort out of his mind, which would have saved Sirius' life.

Healer Winterfrost was speaking again, "All of these blocks are very powerful. Normally a block works the same way a muggle dam does, holding back the majority of the water in a reservoir but letting a little trickle out through tunnels. In your case, the 'water' or magic as it is, has been blocked so much as to only allow for a trickle to get through."

A smile had come to Harry's face at the muggle metaphor; he remembered reading about dams during his primary school education.

"In most people," continued Winterfrost, "this trickle would only be enough to sustain their lives, turning them into a squib. It is a testament to your strength that you are able to do spell and are even considered to be quite a powerful wizard."

Harry blushed slightly at the compliment. "What about the mental blocks?"

"Those as equally powerful. Normally you would have the sensation that something was wrong or had happened to you," remarked the woman, "but the strength behind the block and number of them..." here she faltered.

"You should not be able to function at all," finished Firedome for her.

Harry felt that familiar shiver go through his body, this person, whoever they were, could have destroyed him.

Everyone sat in silence for a few minutes thinking about what a near miss that had been. Finally Harry spoke up, "well can they be removed?"

"Yes," said the Healer, "but because of the number and strength, it will need to be done over a period of a month. We don't want to take everything off so quickly as to damage your mind or magical core."

Harry looked over at Firedome and nodded his head to the reason. "All right, I'm not going back to the Dursleys so I guess I have plenty of free time this summer. Where would you recommend we do this?" Harry had turned back to face the Healer for his last question.

Firedome was the one who answered it though, "There is a settlement in Russia I would recommend, far enough from here as to avoid any danger from Voldemort and his followers. It is a human and goblin settlement."

Winterfrost nodded her head, "I am familiar with the compound. I will meet you there as soon as I can wrap up some business here." With that the Healer stood and walked quietly out of the room.

Alone once again with Firedome, Harry took some time to just breathe. He had been delivered many great shocks over the last few hours and he needed a minute to collect himself.

While Harry sat in silence, Firedome had rung the bell and was talking quietly near the door with another goblin, presumably making arrangements for Harry to go to this place in Russia. Once the goblin had left Firedome reseated himself behind his desk and began making notations in his book.

"Harry," murmured the cultured voice of the goblin, "I have ordered some dinner to be brought in. It is best that we commence with the inheritance ritual as soon as we have replenished ourselves." Just as he finished the statement a line of goblins entered, all wearing the same livery that Harry had noticed earlier. One removed the tea tray from earlier and another replaced it with a much larger silver tray, this one weighed down with an array of dishes all hidden by silver dome covers. A third goblin whisked away the covers to reveal a mouth watering assortment of food. The goblins lefts as quietly as they had entered.

A good half hour passed while Harry and Firedome ate; neither talking but feeling comfortable in the silence. Harry polished off a filet mignon grill with red wine, garlic, and balsamic vinegar, he worked steadily through a pile of fresh spring greens with a light cream dressing, and savored immensely the warm bread that was perfectly crisp on the outside. The chocolate soufflé was amazing and melted in his mouth.

Once they had finished Firedome called to have the tray removed. As soon as the door was closed the goblin walked to the fireplace the opened a hidden panel. From the dark recess he removed a wooden box about the size of a loaf of bread. Closing the panel he carried the box to the desk and, instead of returning behind the desk, Firedome seated himself beside Harry with the box on his knee.

"We don't perform this ritual often, mainly because there isn't a lot of call for it. Most families know their own lineage well enough to not need the service." Firedome opened the box and removed a wickedly sharp looking dagger and a thick roll of a strange red parchment. These he placed in front of Harry and set the now empty box off to the side.

"The ritual itself is ludicrously simple; a few drops of your blood on this parchment and a list will appear of those families you have inherited from." With a motion from Firedome, Harry held out his hand over the parchment that had been partially unrolled on the desk. A quick motion and a few drops of blood began to pool in the palm of his hand. Firedome took a hard grip on Harry's wrist and tilted the hand until the blood slid down and dropped slowly onto the paper. There was a small spark of light with every drop that hit the paper. Writing in a swirly script began to appear in black ink. First one name, then another, and another, until after twenty minutes fifteen names were assembled on the paper.

Harry had starred with growing amazement at each name that had appeared. By the last name he was nearly in shock, "Why so many names?"

"You must realize Harry, that the last hundred years have been particularly hard on wizarding England, with the rise and fall of Grindelwald and the rise, fall, and return of Voldemort, many families have been wiped out, and many of those families had wills leaving everything they had to even the most tenuously connected relation. After the first rise of Voldemort many families left everything to 'whoever defeated the Dark Lord' which turned out to be you. Now," here Firedome took up the list and ran his eyes over it, "the first two names on this list are to be expected, Potter and Black, and the next twelve names are all small families that have disappeared as I have previously talked about. One name however, is most interesting. I don't know if anyone has inherited this name in the last few thousand years. It is the name of Vindexly, and while not holding much legal status in the modern world, it is a name that will take you far in most of the more revered circles. It also grants you the title of Lord Vindexly."

Firedome refused to say more on the subject and insisted on getting Harry ready to travel to Russia. Night had fallen outside the bank and they both knew Harry's disappearance wouldn't go unnoticed for long. The goblin rang the bell one last time and requested a few things in a tone too low for Harry to make out specific words beyond, 'please', 'First Lord', and 'bring'. In a matter of minutes the attendant goblin had returned with a large cloth bundle which Firedome took.

Unfolding the bundle, a shimmery cloak was exposed. "This is a Lateo Cloak; it works similarly to an invisibility cloak. The wearer can be seen but the viewer will be unable to recount specific details of their appearance. A useful thing when one wants to go unseen but without the worry of bumping into things. The cloak will also change into any form of appropriate outerwear. It will remain a cloak in the wizarding world, but in the muggle world it might resemble a coat or blazer. In different social settings it will change too, depending on the call for formality."

The next thing held up was a small bag of an indeterminate brown. "This is a mokeskin pouch. It can hold anything you wish to place in it and will never get heavier then it is now. It has been magically linked to Gringotts so that you may send and receive mail and other packages while you are in Russia. you only need to tap your wand against the bag and say 'outgoing' and the name of the thing you are sending, and 'incoming' to receive something. The bag will vibrate slightly when there is something for you. If you wish to simply place things into the bag, just place them inside and say 'storage' say it again to retrieve things."

Harry took the bag and starred at it, wouldn't Hermione love to have one of these, all the books she can carry with none of the weight.

Finally Firedome handed Harry a wallet and a red British passport. "The wallet contains a Gringotts card that will work equally in either wizarding or muggle society. Inside the billfold are a couple hundred pounds in small notes. I have also provided several blank Gringotts bank drafts for if the establishment doesn't accept the card. The passport currently looks like a British one but is charmed to resemble the one used by any country you might be leaving. So when you leave Russia, the passport with resemble in every way the Russian passport."

Harry opened the wallet and took out the black Gringotts card; there was a silver set of scales placed behind the large gold Gringotts G. He replaced the card and stuffed the dark leather wallet into the back pocket of his jeans.

Firedome held out a golden pocket watch to Harry, "this is your portkey to Russia, it will activate in another few minutes. Hang onto it, it's very special."

Harry took the watch and looked over at the goblin, "There is still one question I have; you keep calling me First Lord, what does that mean? Healer Winterfrost seemed shocked that I didn't already know."

Firedome sighed and looked at the young man. "There is a rather long history behind that title; I will try to break it down for you. In our world, the wizarding world, long ago, there was a council of twenty families, by strength of magic and personality these families led the whole the of the wizarding world. Since the creation of this council, thousands of years have gone by. All but six of the families have died out. These families still rule the wizarding world today."

"And I'm one of these six?" Harry had a hard time imagining that his family had lasted that long when so many others had died or could be that powerful as to rule the wizarding world.

"Yes, you Harry are the First Lord of the six families."

"What does that mean?"

Firedome looked at his pocket watch and back at Harry, "It means you are the leader of the families, you rule the council."

And with those parting words, Harry was swept away.