SUNDAY AUGUST 29, 1993

Harry sighed in frustration. He had been working for two days on the levitation spell, but every method he used had drawbacks. Creating a vacuum worked, but it was unstable and would disperse anything that wasn't a solid mass and caused some fragile and hollow objects to explode. He had tried hooking the magic like a fishing line, but that pulled and tore and had to be at the exact center of mass or else the object would topple over. He had tried several methods of creating platforms, all of which had unacceptable downsides.

He decided to take a break. He yawned, stretched, and then left his room, trudging down the stairs. It was probably time for lunch anyway. He tripped over his feet as he neared the bottom, tumbling out of the stairwell and landing on a vaguely familiar blonde girl.

"Uh, sorry about that," Harry said.

"It's alright. Everyone suffers from wrackspurt infestations every now and then," the girl replied, "You're Harry Potter."

"Uh, yeah. And you are?"

"That is a deeply philosophical question," the girl replied, "who really knows anyone these days. Until you do, you can just call me Luna, Luna Lovegood. So, are you going to ask me on a date or just lay on top of me all day?"

"Oh, sorry!" Harry exclaimed as he pulled himself up and offered his hand and helped Luna up. He stood there awkwardly as she stood next to him, not letting go of his hand. "Umm, am I going to get my hand back?"

"Only when our date is over, silly. You're supposed to hold hands when on a date."

"Date?" Harry squeaked.

"Oh, sorry. I might have misinterpreted your response. We really need to chase away those wrackspurts. Should we lay back down then?"

"Why don't we get some lunch. Then, I suppose it would be good to do some school shopping."

"Well, daddy did leave me here to do my shopping, and it is very traditional. Though, I expected something more unusual from you Harry. Perhaps some dirigible plums would help you accept that you're not normal and never will be."

Harry was struck dumb by this comment. "What are dirigible plums? Or, for that matter, wrackspurts?"

"These are dirigible plums," Luna replied, pointing to her earrings which looked an awful lot more like radishes than any sort of fruit, let alone plums. "And wrackspurts are invisible creatures that fly around and make your brain go all fuzzy."

"Oh..." Harry had the distinct impression that wrackspurts did not exist and that Luna was in fact wearing radishes as earrings. "Shall we grab a table then?"

"I guess, but I fail to see what that will accomplish." Luna said walked over to a table and grabbed its side. "Do you think it will run away if we don't?"

"No, I just meant that we should find a place to sit and order food."

"Well, you might have just said that in the first place. You should say what you mean; The world is a much simpler place that way."

"I suppose you're right, but sometimes the world just isn't simple." Harry and Luna sat down, Luna taking a second to inform the table that it was not to move until they were finished.

"That's usually what people say when they make things more complicated than they need to be."

"Well, consider this then. You know the levitation spell we learn in first year, right?" Harry said, "How do you suppose it works without damaging or toppling the object being levitated?"

"Well, you do a swish and a flick with your wand and say 'wingardium leviosa' while concentrating on the item you want to levitate and then your magic takes care of the rest."

"But what does the magic do? I've been reading a book about wandless magic and was trying to copy a simple spell, but it didn't work. No matter what I tried, nothing worked anywhere near as well as the spell we learned in first year."

"I've never learned about wandless magic. The Ministry of magic doesn't like when people use it, so not many people know much about it."

Harry gave Luna a quick summary of what he had learned from the book. She thought for about half a second before pointing at a salt shaker that began flying through the air, moving where her finger was pointing without tilting or breaking or any apparent effort on Luna's part.

"How are you doing that?" Harry asked.

"It's not that difficult. You told me that magic is energy. It cannot be created or destroyer, only transferred or converted. So I just equalized the forces on the object and then had them balance out in a way that the object would move to where I was pointing. As long as the force is evenly distributed, the object doesn't tip."

Harry watched in amazement as she easily lowered the salt shaker. "I've been trying to do that for two days and you got it in seconds."

"Just because everyone calls me Loony doesn't mean I'm not smart. I am a Ravenclaw for a reason," Luna said dreamily. "You were probably over complicating things and trying to hold it up with something else rather than just making it move."

Harry blushed in embarrassment.

"You need to keep an open mind about things," Luna stated, "Or who can know what you'll miss just because you didn't think about it being possible."

"You're right. I've learned some interesting things from these books, like the fact that Merlin was a woman."

Luna seemed to think for a moment. "That makes sense."

"Her name was really Meryl-Lynn M. Brokus, but she did everything under a glamor because, back then, no one would take her seriously as a woman."

"Maybe I can write an article for Daddy's magazine about that. My dad is the editor of the Quibbler."

"I've never heard of it," Harry admitted.

"It's not very popular, but it is the only news source that isn't censored by the Ministry. It's our duty to get the truth out there."

"What can I get for you two?" Tom the bartender asked, approaching their table.

"I'll have the lunch special," Harry ordered.

"The same," Luna said.

"I'll have it to you in a few minutes."

The two sat in silence until their food came, watching the people pass through the portal into Diagon Alley. Harry glanced at her every once in a while, feeling a little awkward.

"I really wanted to thank you for what you did at the end of last term," Luna refocused her gaze on him, her dreamy airs fading for a moment.

"It was only a big snake. I just wish that I had had more time to plan. I might not have had to kill it if I could have talked to it away from that memory of Voldemort."

"And you saved Ginny. Before My mom died, she was my only friend. I'm happy that she's still alive."

"I didn't really see you around the castle last year. Who do you hang out with now?" Harry asked.

"Well, I spend most of my time talking to the portraits. It's almost like having friends..."

The statement made Harry lose his appetite and he dropped his fork. After he had revealed his parseltongue abilities, most of the school had avoided him, thinking that he was the heir of Slytherin. At least Hermione and Ron had not abandoned him. He had been so self absorbed about that incident that he had not thought that someone could have it worse than him. "Well, if you ever feel the need to talk to someone, you can come to me. There are a lot of people who think they know me, then lambast me for supposedly turning into the next dark lord. I'd like to have another real friend."

"Another? I didn't know you had real friends." Luna said.

"What about Hermione and Ron?"

"They are being paid by the headmaster to keep you from getting any friends. Every time you associate with someone that hasn't been approved of, they tell them that Harry Potter would appreciate if they kept their distance and hex them if they refuse."

"That can't be true," Harry said, "They wouldn't do something like that!"

"Ron was the one who started the Dark Lord Potter rumor. He told Justin that you were gunning for him next a few days before he was petrified. And, he's always complaining about how you get everything handed to you on a silver platter and how you don't deserve your money and fame."

"He knows that I hate my fame, and that I'd give up all the gold in the world if it meant I could have a family like he does. He wouldn't go around saying things like that, even if he was a jealous git. How could you possibly find out he's doing these things?"

"It's amazing what people will say when it's only Looney Lovegood around to overhear. You should follow him under your invisibility cloak one day. You'll see what he's really like."

"What about Hermione?"

"Ever wonder how the Headmaster always knows what's going on? Hermione has weekly meetings with him for extra credit. She knows that a muggleborn has no prospects in wizarding society unless they are really exceptional. I suspect that she has another way of contacting him as well."

"So she is spying on me as an extra-credit assignment?"

"That would be an acceptable way to describe it," Luna acknowledged.

"I just can't believe it until I see it," Harry sighed. Unfortunately it was all too easy to believe.

"You could just grab your invisibility cloak and follow them. They just arrived."

Harry dropped low in his seat and peaked around. Sure enough, Ginny had just popped out of the floo and stopped next to Ron and their mother. "Can you stall them for a moment?" He asked.

Luna nodded and Harry ducked through the crowd and scrambled up the stairs. A few moments later, he was coming back down, hidden from view. Luna was standing next to Ginny and blathering on about something called a blibbering humdinger. Ginny was grimacing at the seemingly nonsensical information. When he approached, Luna abruptly switched topics. It was almost as if she could see him. Only Dumbledore had ever seen through the cloak, and Harry suspected that was because the headmaster had some sort of tracking charm on it.

"You must have been real happy last term. You always talked about how you'd one day marry Harry Potter, and then you got the chance to be saved by him." Ginny blushed vividly. "What do you like about him? Or is it just the love potions your mother has been giving you?"

"They're not love potions. Besides, Dumbledore is arranging a marriage contract, So I have to be ready. There really isn't a better match for him. We'll no longer be poor, and our children will be pure bloods, restoring the honor to the Ancient and Noble House of Potter."

Harry bit his lip to hold back a gasp. Any inclination he may have had to date Ginerva Weasley was immediately mulched and the ground salted.

"Well, I think he's rather brave, the way he went after you when Dumbledore was too afraid to try. I think I'm going to get him a gift to thank him for saving the school. Do you think he'd like My Virginity?"

"You'll stay away from Harry if you know what's good for you!" Ron interjected.

"Really? I thought it was a great album, if a little controversial. Did you know that they based that album off the magical Kama Sutra? I find that it keeps nargles away even better than kissing."

"Just stay away from Harry. He's got no time for you Looney," Ron said harshly.

"You can't keep him away from everyone," Luna said, "He'll find out what you've been doing, and he'll make new friends."

"He's so thick, he'd never figure it out on his own. The mudblood figured out everything for him. She found the trapdoor. She found the basilisk. What did he do? Exactly what I told him too. He's too gullible to figure it out."

Harry had heard enough. "No I think I've figured out quite enough. I suppose the pureblood inbreeding really does make it around. I'd swear you were more Malfoy than Weasley."

"Harry?" Ron looked around with a stunned expression on his face. "Harry, where are you mate?" It was like his personality had completely turned around.

"Invisibility cloak, 'mate'," Harry sneered, though the effect was somewhat lost by his lack of visibility. "You'd think such a smart pure blood would have figured that out. Now, if you'll excuse me," Harry tossed the edge of his invisibility cloak over Luna, Hiding her from view. "I think I am going to finish my date with Luna, and maybe I'll learn what it's like to have a real friend." He wrapped an arm around Luna and began to lead her away.

"You should be thanking me you ungrateful sod! We rescued you from your relatives. We gave you Christmas presents. You have everything you ever wanted."

Harry ignored the ranting.

"You know," said Luna, "Ginny wasn't the only witch with a crush on you. There were a few wizards as well..."

Harry shuddered. He really hoped that all of Malfoy's attentions were not an immature boy's attempts at flirting.

"I'll make you a deal," Harry said, "If you tell me how you saw through my invisibility cloak, then I'll start taking this date seriously. Though, I hope afterward, no matter what the outcome of the date, that we can be friends."

"Why wait?" Luna asked, causing Harry to break out into laughter.

"You're absolutely right, Luna. So, Do you need to stop at the bank? I do. I spent my whole trust fund on the Merlin books."

"No, Daddy gave me some money for my school supplies, but I can go with you if you want. Your fake friends will probably not want to wait around looking for us if we spend some time down there. We'll be there for a while."

Harry blushed, wondering what she could possibly mean. He soon found out though when he entered the bank and approached a familiar looking goblin.

"Hello, Griphook," Harry greeted, "Nice to see you again."

The goblin looked at him strangely. "Mr. Potter, you remember me by name. You are very unusual for a wizard."

"It's not hard since I've only been here twice. This may be my last visit though, since I spent all but a hundred galleons a few weeks ago."

"Is that so?" Griphook asked, "And how, did you spend the galleons that were added to you trust vault before the weekly allotment was transferred this morning?"

"Weekly allotment?" Harry asked.

"Yes, your allowance from your main vault. I believe..." Griphook was cut off.

"What main vault?"

"Have you never read your quarterly financial statements?" Griphook muttered about lazy wizards.

"What quarterly financial statements?"

"Have you received any correspondence from Gringotts?" Griphook asked, becoming suspicious.

"No... I haven't received anything. I have only been here the two times. I picked up some gold from the money I inherited, and that was it."

"Follow me then. I am going to bring you to the manager of the bank, Ragnok, the king of the goblins. Treat him with respect and we'll soon find out what the cause of these irregularities are." He stopped at a nearby desk and filled out a form that vanished after he was finished.

Harry and Luna followed Griphook up into the upper levels of the bank. At the top floor was an elevator that soon dropped them deep into the crust of the earth, stopping at a waiting room. Another goblin sat at a large marble and granite desk that was accented with gem-encrusted molding of precious metals. The walls were rough stone with veins of gold, supported by pillars of crystal. Around the border of the room were chairs of gold that looked almost like they had been poured into their shapes. They were topped with red velvet which, while looking hard and flat, actually felt soft and molded itself to the sitter. There was one man already in a chair, a small tea tray beside him.

"Ragnok is a busy man. That man has been waiting two days to meet him. Though, I am sure that for a preferred customer like yourself, it will take much less time."

"Is this really so important that we need to talk to the bank manager?" Harry asked.

"Mr. Potter, banking improprieties are the greatest crime in the goblin criminal code. At the very least the one responsible must pay back any losses including any profits that could have been expected from the money. If there is more than one responsible party, each additional party must pay that amount, and the excess goes towards the goblin government less ten percent which goes to the victim. If it was deliberate theft... Well, you've read the inscription at the entrance." The goblin bared his teeth in a menacing semblance of a smile.

"Well, hopefully, it's just a mistake and no harm was done," Harry said.

"That is unlikely. By your own admission, you did not know that your trust vault had a replenishment plan, which means that whoever failed to notify you has prevented you from utilizing your funds to their maximum benefit. If nothing else, a large amount of profit can be claimed, assuming no monies are missing. Fortunately, you family vault is sealed until you come of age, so there should be no irregularities with it unless a goblin was knowingly involved."

"What if I don't want the person responsible punished?"

"This is not the human justice system. Your whims are of no consequence. If a person defrauds one of our clients, they have defrauded the Goblin Nation. There is no mercy for enemies of the Goblin Nation."

"Did you ever figure out how Quirrel broke into vault seven-one-three?"

Griphook raised an eyebrow. "We never found out who attempted to rob the vault, let alone how they managed to bypass the safeguards. We have made improvements to our security since then. Who is this Quirrel."

"Dumbledore never told you?" Harry asked in surprise, "Quirinus Quirrell was my first year defense teacher. He used to be the muggle studies teacher before he went on a sabbatical to Albania and got himself possessed by the spirit of Tom Riddle, or Voldemort as he likes to call himself. He wanted to get the philosopher's stone to restore himself to a real body."

"In a spirit form?" Griphook began to mumble to himself for a minute. "If you'll excuse me, I need to fill out some paperwork."

"When you told me we'd be here for a long time, you weren't talking about time spent in my vault, were you..." Harry sighed.

"We can do that too if you want, but I don't think you will try anything like that until halloween. Too bad it will be interrupted. Wrackspurts breed much more easily in wizarding society. They rarely feed too much on muggles."

"How do you do that, Luna? Are you some sort of psychic?"

"Harry, you're smarter than that."

"What do you mean?"

"Psychic phenomena are merely bouts of accidental magic by children or those magical people that were missed by the detectors. Though, that may just be what the ministry wants us to think. Maybe it's just a conspiracy to keep the numbers of muggleborns at controllable levels, or just those that refused their school invitations."

Harry was stunned into silence which persisted for several seconds.

"I am a seer and an aura-reader. It's why everyone thinks of me a Looney Lovegood. They don't realize that they're the ones that are blind. It's a hereditary gift, like your parseltongue."

"Hereditary... Dumbledore said I got my parseltongue from Voldemort," Harry said.

"Voldemort is your real father? I never would have guessed..."

"No, he said that when Voldemort attacked me he accidentally transferred some of his power into me."

"Is that so?" Griphook said, returning to the conversation, "We were planning a full spectrum of heredity tests to ensure that all possible issues are discovered. I hope for your sake that that you are wrong and the power is indeed hereditary. If my suspicions are accurate and your headmaster is correct, then you are in more danger than you could possibly realize."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"It does not bear discussion right now. It will wait until the appropriate time. Now, come, Ragnok is ready for you."

Harry and Luna followed Ragnok into the office through a doorway that just seemed to fade out of the stone walls next to the goblin at the desk. Inside was a cylindrical room with a domed ceiling. The room was decorated with the finest examples of goblin weapons and armor the goblin nation could produce. Straight ahead of him was a stairway that lead down into a depression in the floor. The sides of this depression had benches carved out of them with comfortable looking seats. At the far end was a goblin sitting on a throne. Beside him was a small chair that Griphook quickly claimed. In front of the goblin king was a large desk with two carved wooden chairs facing it opposite him. Griphook motioned for them to take the seats.

"You're Harry James Potter, Son of Lily Evans and James Potter?" The goblin king asked, idly stroking an axe that was on a rack attached to the side of his throne.

"Umm, yes sir," Harry said nervously. He didn't know how he was supposed to address the goblin leader.

"Well let's get started then. My time is precious, so I don't want you wasting it." He placed a sheet of parchment on the desk. "Place your hand on the parchment."

Harry nervously reached forward.

"Don't flinch," Luna warned.

"Why would I – Ahh!" Harry screamed and pulled his hand away after Ragnok stabbed a knife through it.

"I love doing that," Ragnok chuckled.

Harry, noticing he wasn't in pain, checked his hand and found it to be uninjured.

"Enchanted blood metal," the goblin explained, "Cuts blood and nothing else. Place it in the heart to cause an immediate heart attack, anywhere else and there's more than enough time to pull it out before any damage is done. It's a lot more merciful than those blood quills that are needed to sign contracts. For this, we only needed a little blood"

Harry watched in amazement as the blood began to drip along the paper, eventually forming words in varying scripts.

"Whenever a new family opens a vault, they must provide a blood signature. This parchment is enchanted to compare your blood to the blood we've collected from them. The ones that remain in blood are the vaults you have immediate access to – or will once you are seventeen. The darker reds are vaults that you may be eligible to claim. The brown are vaults that are already claimed by valid heirs, but you are in the line of succession. The black are signatures that we maintain for genealogical purposes and have no assets." With a wave of his hand, the names rearranged into a stack. "The ones at the bottom are the ones you are the most closely related to."

Harry was both amused and somewhat disgusted by some of the names that appeared near the bottom. Potter was in blood red and Evans was in black. Further up, he found Black in an almost brown rust colour, Longbottom in brown, Weasley in brown, and Malfoy in brown. Soon after came an almost who's who of pureblood society. "Inbred pricks," Harry muttered, causing the goblins to chuckle. Upon reaching the oldest names, he found a few that were familiar, Peverell in red, Slytherin in rust red, and Griffindor in brown. "How do I claim the unclaimed vaults? I bet it would really piss Voldemort off if I claimed the Slytherin vault."

"And last year you were complaining about people claiming you were the heir of Slytherin," Luna pointed out.

"Well, there's no sixty foot basilisk petrifying people now is there?"

"What happened with the basilisk?" Griphook asked in sudden interest.

"It's probably rotting in the chamber of secrets since I'm the only one who can open the door. Wasn't going to be moving much once I shoved Griffindor's sword into its brain."

"Under wizarding law, you have the right to the corpse of any monster you slay. There are many ingredients that are worth a fortune such as the hide and venom."
"I may have the right to do what I want with it, but I don't know what to do with it," Harry replied.

"For a small percentage of the profits, the goblins can arrange everything for you," Griphook said, almost drooling at the prospective profits.

"For five percent, he gets a vial of venom, and two sets of the highest-quality basilisk hide armor that can be made of it and the rest goes into his vault," Luna interjected, "And, he does not have to do any more than open the door."

"Do you concur with your intended's offer?" Ragnok asked.

"Intended?" Harry was rapidly becoming confused.

"Not until next Christmas," Luna assured him, confusing him even more.

"Whatever, she seems to know better than me about almost everything, so I'll agree with what she said."

"Good, we'll have the contract drawn up before this meeting is finished," Ragnok said, "As for your question about claiming the vaults, we will use your list of names to see if anyone is a possible closer match. If not, we will include it in your next statement." Ragnok shuffled through the papers on the desk. "Tell me, exactly what banking transactions you have performed or had performed on your behalf."

"I picked up a handful of coins on the first of August in nineteen-ninety-one. I did the same thing the next summer. Then, few days ago, a shopkeeper had me authorize a draft for about nine-thousand galleons. That was everything."

"And you're not aware of any other transactions?"

"No, that is all of them."

"And you have not authorized five-hundred galleons a week to be removed, nor for the vault to be emptied on the thirtieth of July for the past twelve years."

"No, why would I do that?"

"I doubt you did. You'd have no reason to. We will investigate this and find out who has been stealing your money. For now, we will increase the security of your vault to require fresh blood and your magical signature for entry. For now, this is the statement for all the vaults that the Goblin Nation is managing on your behalf."

"That's a big number," Harry said, stopping to count the zeroes, "At five pounds to the galleon, thats..."

"Seventy-two million in liquid assets, plus heirlooms estimated at another thirty to fifty million. Businesses you own a share in add approximately forty-thousand on a weekly basis though you don't have controlling interests in any of them."

Harry stared with his jaw dropping in awe. "I... I'm rich?"

The goblin leader raised an eyebrow. "You didn't think that just any account holder would receive my personal attention did you?" He chuckled. "The man out there has assets in the five figure range. If you include land holdings, the Potter fortune is in the mid-eight-figure range. He was told which department he could go to to get his issues resolved, but he insists that he speak to me and has refused to merely send a registered letter." Ragnok sighed wearily. "Wizards can be self-absorbed idiots most of the time."

Harry thought back to the sheep mentality that the students at Hogwarts expressed at every article of the daily prophet. "I can't say I disagree with that statement," Harry added. "Now, keeping in mind that I have basically no knowledge of the wizarding world and Gringotts Bank, is there anything else I should be aware of or familiarize myself with?"

"Are you aware of your family's legal representatives? You should probably get in touch with them and have them help you." At Harry's confused look, Ragnok shuffled through the papers. "Ahh, here it is. A Mr. Ted Tonks signed as the legal representative. You should be able to contact him by owl."

"Umm, would it be possible to get goblin healers to give Harry a physical and heal anything they find? He seems to have been in a confrontation with some sort of animal and received some bites on his arms."

Harry quickly pulled down his sleeves and flushed, both in embarrassment at having his injuries noticed and in fury at the way Aunt Marge set her dog on him. Harry was surprised that the dog had not been put down yet with the way it had been trained to attack him, it must have attacked someone else by now.

"There will be a fee, of course, and most wizards prefer their own kind of healers," Ragnok said, "And it is not a service we normally offer."

"I think Harry would benefit from having a neutral party examining him. Who knows, they may even get the artificial wrackspurt that is stuck in him." Her expression lost its airy quality for a moment as she suddenly seemed to focus as she spoke before drifting off again.

"Very well," Ragnok agreed, "Now, back to our original business. Did you want to attempt claims on all available titles and assets?"

"Is there any reason I shouldn't?" Harry asked.

"There is a fee of a two-hundred galleons to cover the lineage trace to discover and contact any other possible heirs and test them for eligibility. That is for each claimable set of assets, not once for all of them. If another has a greater claim, they may take possession of everything in the vault at no charge and if they close the vault, your line will need to inherit through theirs, putting you even further from acquiring the wealth."

"Do them all then. It's not like the money is an issue anymore," Harry replied.

"Very well. It shall be done. Now I believe you have some information about the break in that occurred two years ago."

Harry told the goblins about his first year and the philosopher's stone. At a few points Ragnok growled and bared his teeth.

"Thank you for the information. He is lucky that he is dead."

"He's not, at least the spirit that was possessing him is not." This led to Harry explaining his second year to the goblins.

"Albus Dumbledore has earned himself some special priority service at Gringotts at the very least. Tom Riddle's disembodiment rather than death will not effect your claims to Slytherin though. He needs to respond to the owl post if he wants to challenge you, and that means that he must show up here and survive goblin justice."

Harry shuddered. Thieves were not treated well in goblin justice if they survived. "Thank you for everything, sir."

"Thank you for using Gringotts bank. Griphook, show the Potter lordling to our medical facilities."

Harry was taken back out to the elevator which stopped at a different subterranean level. He followed through a short hallway until he reached a room full of injured, many gruesomely, goblins.

"Sit," Griphook ordered, "I will get you a number." Griphook returned momentarily and they waited. This wait was much longer than the wait to see Ragnok. It gave Luna plenty of time to explain something called the Rotfang Conspiracy. Harry didn't really see the connection between gum disease and overthrowing the ministry of magic. He suspected that detail may have been superfluous and the dark magic was the key ingredient to the supposed conspiracy. He didn't argue though. Perhaps this was just another one of those things that could only be seen by aura reading seers.

Eventually their number was called, at least Griphook said it was their number; Harry couldn't understand Gobbledegook. Harry almost felt like he was impeding emergency care as a goblin calmly walked in carrying his own severed arm, but this was how the goblin nation was run.

"You are lucky. We don't have many healers that speak English, let alone know enough about human anatomy to diagnose a human. We always keep at least one on staff to service our own employees, so it is not unheard of. You will be seeing Healer Fangcutter. Be forewarned, those of us that choose to study humans tend to be a bit odd."

Odd was not the term Harry would have used. Healer Fangcutter turned out to be the very picture of a mad scientist. His workspace was decorated with various blades, saws, and drills that he could not think of any medical use for other than torture. The healer himself was wearing a torn lab coat. The torn bottom hem of the coat was dark with dried blood. Fangcutter lived up to his name well, his teeth were filed to razor sharp points that would put any vampire to shame. Embedded into his left eye socket was an eye loupe which seemed to twitch and focus on its own.

"Hmm, what have we here?" Fangcutter asked, ignoring Harry completely. He grabbed Luna's head, twisting it back and forth and examining it. His loupe hung whirring in front of Luna's own owlish eye, but she just stared back contentedly. "A little spacy, but that doesn't matter for my experiments. She'll do nicely as payment."

"She's not here for payment. I'm paying with gold from my vault!" Harry exclaimed. Nothing like having the girl eviscerated to ruin a first date.

"Pity..." Fangcutter sighed, "I've never dissected one of her kind before."

Harry shivered.

"Harry needs a complete checkup," Luna pointed out, calming the tension that had built up.

"Anything in particular you want checked?"

"He did get hit by a killing curse," Luna explained sagely, as if this would be news to the goblin.

"Ahh, you're that Harry. You may be an even better specimen than the girl."

"Maybe we should just have gone to a human healer," Harry suggested.

"Nonsense. I'm the best there is." Fangcutter grabbed his arm and forced him onto a small wooden stool. "Let's start from the top shall we?" The goblin's hand began to glow and he placed it on Harry's head over his scar. "Hmm, this is interesting. Seems to be some sort of soul-leech." Before Harry could blink, he suddenly found himself restrained. The stool had been transfigured into some type of operating table. Fangcutter grabbed a large cleaver with a jagged blade and slammed it into Harry's skull just above his eyebrows, cutting all the way through until the blade struck the table.

"I'm still alive?" Harry said in surprise. If not for the searing pain in his skull, Harry would have thought that the healer had missed.

"I call this blade Bone Saw. Only cut bones and cuts them clean if you strike with confidence." The healer pulled at Harry's hair than used a smaller blade to cut away the skin until the entire top of Harry's skull popped right off. Fangcutter held the partial skull in front of Harry's face so that he could see the scar on his own forehead. He grabbed a hook shaped dagger next. "This one is Soul Ripper," Fangcutter said gleefully as he jammed it into Harry's forehead, right through the lightning shaped scar. A piercing scream rent the air and a black tar-like substance spilled out onto Harry's chest. "Horcruxes are nasty pieces of magic. Tearing your soul in half by murdering an innocent in cold blood then attaching it to an object, forming an anchor that stops your spirit from passing on. Not a pleasant existence at all. And this one was sucking out your magic as well."

The top of Harry's head was unceremoniously plopped back on. The healer hummed happily as flashes of pain marked the welding of his skull in place and closing of the wound around his head. Harry had to bite his lip to keep from screaming out in pain. The fact that he didn't scream seemed to slightly depress Fangcutter.

"That should hold it for now, but you'll need to drink some Skelegrow before you go to bed to finish it off. You'll have a nice scar as well Nothing as visible as your little lightning bolt, but a little crossed halo if anyone really looks for it. Your eyes are showing deterioration from malnutrition, this should help and you'll need some nutrient potions and restoration potions. You'll probably want to take the nutrient potions last, they are not as vile tasting as the others." The goblin hummed happily as he continued his examination, working his way down. "You've broken your neck twice. It's surprising you are still alive, let alone walking. A little bruising I might be able to ignore, but with this I'll need to send a report to child services."

"Which will only help if Dumbledore doesn't obliviate them like he has every other time," Harry said. "How did I remember that? He obliviated me too!" Harry growled in anger.

"The soul fragment was probably mentally inhibiting you," Fangcutter guessed, "Heart and lungs are actually in good condition for a wizard. You must get regular exercise."

"I'm on the quidditch team, and at home I spend my time trying to stay away from Dudley and his friends when I am not being forced to work like a slave or having the magic beat out of me."

The goblin giggled. "How interesting."

Harry was really beginning to dislike this goblin. Griphook was standing to the side and taking notes.

"Your magical core has been bound," the goblin mentioned in surprise, "It's surprising you're still alive. Wizards usually only bind the cores of children who have especially violent accidental magic, and they always remove it by six years because the rapid expansion of the magical core will eventually cause the core to split, rendering you a squib, or explode rendering you dead. The leech must have been absorbing your magic fast enough that it never reached the point of splitting or bursting, instead just increasing your magical capacity and regeneration since it was like you were constantly using low level magic and working your core. I have never heard of anyone surviving this."

Harry felt suddenly like his heart had exploded. His entire body ached with pressure and he could barely breathe. The many magical blades began to fly off the walls and circle overhead. With a wave of the Goblin's arm, Harry found himself unconscious.

"All finished Mr. Potter," Fangcutter said, "You should be careful when using your magic for a while. You'll find that you'll be overdoing things until you get used to your new power level. It turns out that you had a second binding on your magical core, one that was added recently. Someone really wanted to weaken you." The goblin healer handed him a wooden box. "This contains your potion regimen. The cost will come out of your vault, of course. Check it at every meal and before you go to sleep. You may return the box on the thirty-first if you want to get the deposit returned. If you keep it, you will not need to purchase another if I prescribe any other potions. I recommend stunning yourself on evenings when you receive a dose of Skelegrow to help you sleep, though I am sure you already know that."

Harry did know, thanks to his defense teacher vanishing the bones in his arm. He had needed Skelegrow to regrow his bones then and had barely slept a wink.

"I also took the liberty of performing a few experiments while you were out. I hope they turn out as I anticipated. If not, then of course I will waive my fee for your next visit."

"What experiments?" Harry asked nervously.

"Well, now, that would ruin the experiment wouldn't it. You'll just have to figure it out before your appointment next year. Naturally, none of the changes I made will work until your body is healthy and has time to adapt."

Griphook led the two teens back to the lobby. When they got outside, Harry stopped and turned back to Griphook. He was about to explain that he had intended to go to his vault to pick up some gold, but Griphook had beaten him to his request. "You need not visit just to withdraw gold." Griphook handed Harry a leather sack. "This bag responds to your magical signature and will remove a few galleons at a time as long as you have it open. It is keyed to you. Anyone else attempting to use it will find themselves transported into your vault where they will stay until you release them or the decennial cleanup occurs. The bag will inform you if someone has tried to use it since you last did. You need to return every year to renew the charms on the bag though."

Harry accepted the bag, then looked at the setting sun. "It looks like our shopping will have to wait. Care to join me for dinner?"

Harry yawned. "Shouldn't you be heading home?" Harry asked Luna who was looking tired herself. "I am about ready to kip for the night."

"Oh, no, my father told me to stay here until I finished my shopping." Luna began to remove her clothes.

Harry whipped around to face the wall. "Luna! What are you doing?"

"Getting ready for bed. Can't very well sleep in my clothes now can I."

"But... Did you want me to get another room or something?" He was blushing as he heard what he was pretty sure was the sound of a bra being removed.

"No, this is fine. One day you will have seen me nude many times, I don't see why we should start being all self conscious about it now. Besides, we both know that neither of us is ready to do anything more than cuddle yet so it doesn't make a difference how or where we sleep."

Harry had to disagree. It made a very big difference, not that he had a chance to mention it as Luna deftly pulled down both his pants and boxers.

"Nice bum," Luna commented, "Arms up!" Harry was too shocked to do anything but comply. "Besides, if you stun yourself with your current power and control, you may not wake up for a year." When the naked Harry finally got the wherewithal to open his mouth again, he was once again preempted by a very naked Luna. "Bottoms up!" The first potion was dumped into his mouth without even a by your leave. He sputtered for a moment before the second and third quickly followed, ending with a wandless stunner that wiped all objections from his mind as he fell into the bed.