A/N – Last chapter before timeskip and beginning of the Hogwarts.
Harry was following Sagittarius through a maze of hallways and other passages and was trying to keep track of their path as some of them were rather hard to follow.
"Here we are" Said Sagittarius after few minutes of walk when they stood at the doors with griffin engraved upon their surface. He poked the doors with his wand and they opened on their own. As Harry peered inside he could see quite a big room and above the fireplace standing at the opposite side of the room he could see a rampart snarling golden griffin on a red shield, with a 'Potter' written in gold letters underneath it. From what Harry could see it was supported by a lion and unicorn, if he was seeing it properly.
"What is that thing?" Asked Harry as he pointed his finger at that shield.
"What?" Asked Sagittarius until he followed Harry's finger and noticed that shield "Oh, that is an incal or a coat of arms of your family. The Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter. One of the oldest and the most influential families. Original not an English family as it came here from the continent."
"What?" Asked Harry, having troubles to believe that. "I'm a noble?"
"You can say that" Agreed Sagittarius and turned his attention back to the room in front of him. It was a quite large room, pained in quite pleasant red with a thin stripes of gold along the top and bottom of the walls. On the walls were hanging large banners with a Lion and with a capital letter 'G' stitched on them. There were several high arch windows in the room, providing plenty of light as well as a chandelier under the ceiling, on which were painted all of the constellations that were visible on night's sky. By the walls stood several pieces of furniture, including large four-poster bed in the corner of the room, along with nightstand and a lamp on it. There were two more sets of doors, one of the leading onto balcony and another into a bathroom.
"What do you think about this room?" Sagittarius asked as he looked at Harry. "Do you like it?"
"I love it!"
"Good" Nodded Sagittarius and looked at Harry "About how to move around this castle, there are secret passages all around it and finding them is a good way to learn how to find your way around it. There should be a map made by your father when he was learning how to move around this castle." He muttered several words in Latin and a large piece of parchment flew into his hand. "Here it is, open it and you will see layout of all of the corridors, rooms and some of the secret passages."
Harry took the map and when he opened it, his eyes widened as he couldn't imagine that it was so big as there were several sets of hallways and corridors, whole eight towers and whole lot of other buildings and huge gardens.
"We are here." Sagittarius pointed his wand at one of the towers in the castle. "Most important parts of the castle are here..."
o-0-o
"Those are rather interesting findings." Said Ragnok as he looked at the list of things from all of the Potter vaults. "Send last two paintings to Lord de Normandie, he will know how important they are and he will guess why we sent him them."
"As you wish, Your Grace" Nodded Silverclaw, new manager of Potter accounts and also one responsible for de Normandie ones. "Those ledgers are a mess, I started going through them and whoever was responsible for them created quite a lot of chaos."
"I know" Nodded Ragnok "You can do whatever you want to do to create some sort of order in them as Lord de Normandie said that he wants it to generate some sort of income. He didn't set any limits on what you can or cannot do."
"That will help a lot as some of those investments were good ten or so years ago and now are generating only loss." Silverclaw looked at the ledgers and his long finger stopped on one position. "What about their estate in Godric Hollow?"
"He didn't took any decisions as of yet." Said Ragnok "So I would assume he would like to get it back, no matter the costs of it."
"It will be a pricey enterprise." Said Silverclaw as he looked through various papers "It was estimated to be worth 10,000,000 galleons before it was destroyed and now it is worth maybe 5,000,000, but it is currently owned by the Ministry of Magic as a war memorial."
"Which is a problem as they won't give it up cheaply. I want you to gently inquire about the costs of getting it back, but also take an advantage of the disputed ownership and place our wards all around it to protect it from any harm and bar access to anybody, but ones allowed by us."
"I will get this done." Nodded Silverclaw "Wards maybe a million or something around that and negotiations should be swift." He shuffled through the papers, until he found another interesting one. "There is a large payment made from this, hundred thousands and I can't track it down as it leads to some odd vault." He said as he handed it to Ragnok.
"Interesting." Muttered old goblin king "This is a fake vault, at least it should be. I will give it to one of my people to check it and track it down."
"Thank you, Your Grace" Said Silverclaw "Those are all issues with a Potter vaults. May your coffers always be full."
"And may your investments brought fruits." Ragnok finished traditional Goblin farewell.
o-0-o
Albus returned to Hogwarts a little shocked by such swift rebuke from Amelia Bones when he tried to ask about Harry, she didn't know that the Harry was a key in a prophecy that was related to Voldemort and he needed to be groomed to be able to kill him or being killed in the process. Allowing him, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore to gain fame for killing second Dark Lord and surviving the encounter. She didn't know that and foiled most of his plans which made him a little annoyed by her and her behavior.
Now his only hope was talking with Sagittarius and knowing his temper, it could be rather dangerous talk as he was extremely protective of his family and he was a powerful wizard, not to mention that he had a lot of connections in various countries. As well as dozens of estates in all countries to which he could disappear and Supreme Mugwump wouldn't give him much as it was more of an honorary position than one that had a real power. Which meant that approaching him now would be a suicide as his wards showed that plainly enough by burning few of his trinkets.
Yet if Harry was brought up in a same way children of pure-blood families were and was taught the meaning of his house words, Semper Fidelis it would meant troubles as he would be too independent, too focused on his own goals and too hard to play in a way he wanted to play him. Not to mention that he would be surrounded by allies and friends that would support him. A lot of houses owned favors to de Normandie or Potter and they would try to repay them. He would need to work way more carefully to influence him and to drag him onto his side of the game, assuming it would be all possible.
It could be corrected, but he didn't like when someone was playing against him and this situation was so far masterfully played by Sagittarius who struck swiftly and before he could react everything was done and he could only watch the effects. From what he knew de Normandie were a light or mostly light family, but when dark arts were providing better effects they were willing to use it.
He picked up a quill and started penning up a letter to Sagittarius so he could speak with him, or at least to receive some sort of a message from him.
o-0-o
Harry sat on truly his own bed and enjoyed how soft it was, he couldn't believe that it was so soft. He was also contemplating the events of the day, which so far seemed like a dream. Really good dream, he hoped they were true, not a dream. Finally he felt like he belonged somewhere and felt safe and comfortable here, like he should live in such house from the beginning, yet he wasn't.
It also seemed that he had a family that cared for him and was able to explain those weird things that happened all around him and treated them as something completely normal to them. As if they were a daily occurrence for them, not a weird thing.
But the thing that he had the biggest problems to wrap his head around was the fact that he was a wizard, it was so mind-boggling that it was almost impossible to believe, yet after far longer moment of thought it made some sense for him. Especially considering what was happening earlier around him or what Sagittarius did when he appeared on the Privet Drive.
o-0-o
"Orion, did you see Reg?" Asked Sagittarius as he saw his older son writing an essay for Hogwarts.
"He was in his room." Replied Orion, not bothering to move his head from above his book.
"Can you fetch him for me?"
"Dad, let me finish my essay and there are elves here." Said Orion earning glare from Sagittarius and surrendered after few minutes. "Fine"
"Good boy" Chuckled Sagittarius and watched as Orion disappeared into the castle to get Regulus, wondering what was so important that he needed to fetch him. It was obvious that he was curious about it as he had Heir Apparent ring and felt Sagittarius changing the setting of wards. Question was how much he was able to guess as it didn't give too much of an information, why did he changed them in a way he changed them.
"So what is so important that you need me to drag him here?" Asked Orion as few minutes later he appeared with Regulus following him. "I know that you were playing with the wards of the castle."
"I was adding someone." Nodded Sagittarius "To be exact your second cousin."
"Second cousin?" Mused Orion "There aren't many second cousins of us, I think only about one. Lord Potter?"
"One and only" Nodded Sagittarius "I claimed his guardianship and regency as you both know that his parents are dead because of Voldemort and for last few years he was with the Muggles. Ones that are rather against wizards and he knows nothing or almost nothing about us and our culture."
"So like another Muggleborn student at Hogwarts." Said Orion "For first few days they don't know what is going on and so on."
"Yes" Sadly agreed Sagittarius "He is in the same position, but he is also supposed to be a Lord of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter."
o-0-o
Few days later Sagittarius entered the chamber of Wizengamot and looked around the room, it was a round chamber with a dome placed above the dais that was set in the middle of it. Dais was surrounded by the circles made out of seats. There were four such circles, the lowest tier of them was sculpted out of marble and inlaid with precious stones forming incal of the family owning the seat. Those were exactly twenty-four seats of the Most Ancient and Noble Houses, above them were seated Noble Houses, to be exact forty-eight of them, above which were seated seventy-two elected members of this body.
On a level that was slightly lowered into the ground were seated Chief Warlock and his aide or multiple if he needed more, Minister of Magic and heads of two of the most important departments, Magical Law Enforcement and Mysteries.
As Sagittarius walked to the seat occupied by the Lords of the Most Ancient and Noble House of de Normandie he politely nodded to other occupants of the room. Many of which were his friends and business associates as well as people that he met during various get together of wizarding world.
When he took his seat, Dowager Lady Longbottom turned and looked at him, she was a fearsome woman. "Lord de Normandie, good to see you. You seem to be in a good mood."
"I am" Nodded Sagittarius "This session will be interesting."
"What do you mean by that?"
"You will see." Simply replied Sagittarius and focused on the entrance into the chamber through which currently was walking in Chief Warlock Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, who looked a little sour. Like he just ate a giant lemon and had issues with swallowing the taste of it.
"My, my" Muttered Augusta Longbottom as she watched Dumbledore "For the first time in ages he seems to be a little sour or he finally saw a defeat."
"You can say that" Agreed Sagittarius
Lord Danvers who was sitting to his left looked at him. "What do you mean by that? There are those rumors flying about Lord Potter and change of who is his guardian."
"You will see" Sagittarius kept a straight face, not to betray a single thought or idea that he had in his mind. He also raised all of his Occlumency shields as he didn't want to let other people to pick a single thought from his mind.
For the next few minutes filled in ones that were yet missing and exactly at noon it was the time to begin Wizengamot Session of August 1988. Dumbledore rose from his seat and looked around the room, his patronizing smile on his lips. "Wizengamot Session of August 1988, in attendance full Wizengamot, Chief Warlock Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Wizengamot Scribe Dolores Jane Umbridge, Minister of Magic Cornelius Oswald Fudge."
When he finished saying those words, Wizengamot Scribe rose to her feet and looked around the room as most of people talked in hushed voices. She looked like a toad squeezed into pink robes, she cleared her throat and most of people stopped talking and focused on her.
When she was satisfied with how silent it was she spoke in her disgustingly sweet voice. "First order of business, house notices pertaining to the Wizengamot. Floor belongs to Lord de Normandie."
When Sagittarius heard those words he rose to his feet, his wand in hand. "I Sagittarius Castor de Normandie, claim guardianship and regency of Hadrian James Arcturus Orion Potter, Lord of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter." When he said those words, muttering broke across the hall as multiple people talked at once as such announcements were rare.
Dumbledore looked a little shocked at that announcement as he didn't expect to hear such things from Sagittarius. He gathered his thoughts and looked at Sagittarius who stood nearby. "Sagittarius what do you mean by that?" He asked after a moment.
"I mean what I mean. That I am the Regent for the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter until Lord Potter is of age."
"Harry guardianship was always a complicated case as his Muggle relatives are his guardians." Said Dumbledore a little sour.
"Chief Warlock" Said Amelia getting to her feet "They are not, as according to the will of late Lord Potter. Lord de Normandie is named Lord Potter guardian, so Muggle relatives don't matter for this case."
"Fine" Conceded Dumbledore "Guardianship and regency is so acknowledged as valid and binding."
Thank you, Chief Warlock." Coldly said Sagittarius "Those are all of my notices." With those words he sat at his seat and watched as other talked about what he did.
"So that is what you meant by this session being interesting." Augusta said as she turned and looked at Sagittarius.
"Yes" He nodded "I will need to quickly fill holes in his lacking education and cover things that member of the Most Ancient and Noble House needs to know."
"He was with Muggles what did you expect?" Asked Lord Danvers
"I guess it's true, yet he seems to be a bright child and he learns quite quickly." After that his attention was once again turned to the argument between few people about change of taxes. It seemed that it would be a boring session.
o-0-o
Harry looked at Sagittarius with some amusement as his cousin eyes were wide open, as if he couldn't believe what he just heard or saw.
"What?" Managed to stutter Sagittarius and shook his head "It seems that you are quite fluent with Latin, I don't know how, but you can speak it almost as well as I can." He was teaching Harry basics of Latin and he seemed to grasp them in a matter of hours, like it was his language and he didn't have any problems with it by now, that is after two weeks of learning it. It also made him suspect that he shouldn't have problems with other ones.
"So what now?" Asked Harry as he looked at Sagittarius. During his time that he spent inside of de Normandie castle Harry started eating properly and first signs of it were visible as his body was taking up mass. He also got completely new clothes as his aunt decided ones that he had were rags and he needed proper ones. His hairs seemed to be out of control in their grow for a moment and he was able to create a nice ponytail that kept them somewhat tamed.
"The Most Ancient and Noble Houses." Said Sagittarius in Latin getting a weird looking from Harry "I will speak in Latin as it is a language that allows me to easier explain several things to you. Mainly the concept of those houses, they are a set of twenty-four houses that were sworn by King Arthur as his wizards that were supposed to protect his kingdom. Some of them were from the Isles and some arrived from the continent during earlier times, your family Potter is such case as Peverell family arrived here in the middle of second century and in the sixth century there was only a one member of it, woman called Andromeda Peverell. She married Aries Potter and thus formed new family called Peverell-Potter and by the eighth century it was shortened to Potter."
"My own family, de Normandie came here later as it was with the first Norman King of England Wilhelm the Conqueror, whose surname was de Normandie. His second son was a wizard and received lands in Kent and later Gaunt family was stripped of their title and we got it." Sagittarius looked at Harry who looked at him fully focused.
"You probably wonder why the hell I'm telling you all of this" Said Sagittarius as he looked at his cousin who nodded. "I'm telling it all of this as you need to be aware of your past as in the future certain things will be expected from you."
He thought about what next he should tell Harry until it hit him. Rings. "Each house has two things that distinguish it from each other, no even three. Their unique color pattern of their clothes and robes, their coat of arms, rings, one for heir and one for the head of it." At those words Sagittarius took off his ring and placed it on the table between them.
It was made out of gold with a big ruby set in the middle of it, around the ruby were engravings that circled it and extended onto the band of the ring and formed a line along the middle of it. Ruby that was in the middle of the ring was carved with two lions with crowns over their heads in the middle of it. Those rings could be used to seal the letters as on those stones was carved the coat of arms of each house.
"Each family has two rings at all times, original ones were made by Merlin himself by through the ages some of them were lost and some destroyed. They are usually, but not always made out of gold and with a gem set in the middle of the band, but it is not always a case. In few days I will take you to Gringott, that is wizarding bank so you can claim your family ring."
Sagittarius looked at Harry who seemed to be puzzled a bit by those words. "I want you to have it as it will make life easier for you and it also grants powerful protection for one wearing it. Not to mention that it is a key to another thing."
o-0-o
Sirius Black was brought into the interrogation room by two aurors that flanked him and pointed their wands at him. It was mostly a security measure as he wasn't able to run away as Azkaban took quite a toll on his body and it was exhausted after so long of a stay in it. After few minutes he was joined by Amelia who took a seat opposing him. He was given veritaserum and after a moment his eyes became glassy as it started working.
"What's your name?" She asked, just to be sure, as it was required by the procedures.
"Sirius Orion Regulus Arcturus Black" Replied Sirius in monotonous voice.
"To which house in Hogwarts you belonged?"
"Gryffindor"
"So veritaserum is in effect." As she said those words she looked through her papers "What did you do on the night of October 31st of 1981?"
"I checked on Pettigrew at his hideout and later on Potters, where I found them dead."
"Are you a Death Eater?"
"No, I'm not."
"Did you support Lord Voldemort?"
"No, I'm not and I wasn't."
"Good" Nodded Amelia and gave Sirius antidote for the serum "You are innocent and we need to catch one criminal."
"Thank you, do you know what happened to Harry?"
"He is with de Normandie family."
When Sirius heard those words on his face appeared bright smile and into his eyes entered happiness. There were still daunting shades of his past, but they seemed to be lessen than they were earlier. "Good to know that, I thought he would be placed with Dursley's."
"He was for a while." Said Amelia "But Lord de Normandie appeared and straightened out quite a lot of things. Including making sure you are innocent and not in Azkaban."
"I will need to thank him for that." Said Sirius and looked at Amelia "Should I know about anything else?"
"No, I don't think you need." She shuffled papers that were laying in front of her, until she found one of them. "You are a free man and it looks like you are also a Heir of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black."
"Thank you." Said Sirius as he looked at her "If you excuse me, I have a godson to meet and house to manage."
"You can go" Said Amelia with a thin smile.
o-0-o
Sagittarius apparated with Harry inside of one of private apparition points of Gringott Bank, Harry was a little pale as he wasn't still used to this method of travel. It was still making him uncomfortable as he didn't like an idea of being squeezed through a small pipe.
Once Harry regained his bearings, he looked around and saw that they were in a room with walls covered by tapestries showing goblins at work and with floor made out of marble, in one of the walls were placed golden doors, with a column made out of gold on each side of them.
"Where are we?" Asked Harry as he looked around. It was obvious that whoever owned it was extremely rich and flaunting it wasn't above him.
"Gringott Bank, to be exact one of private apparition points." Explained Sagittarius "As I told you earlier, we are here to claim your family ring and couple other things."
Harry nodded and followed Sagittarius, who lead him through a maze of hallways and corridors until they got to double doors with a pair of guards in front of them. Those guards bowed and opened doors for them. Inside behind massive desk was the biggest goblin Harry ever saw, on his arms were bands forged from pure gold, around his neck chain forged from various metals.
"That is Goblin King Ragnok the Fourth, current Director of Gringott." Explained in hushed voice Sagittarius and Harry nodded at those words.
"Lord de Normandie, Lord Potter" Said in greeting Ragnok once they were seated across the desk, on which were laying couple of sheets of paper and small wooden box, normally used for jewelry. "I took a liberty and retrieved ring of Lord Potter."
"It's acceptable." Nodded Sagittarius and took the box and gave it to Harry.
When Harry opened the box his lips escaped weak "Wow" as the ring that was inside was truly beautiful, there were three different colors of gold used in it, each of them intertwining with others. There was normal yellow gold, as well as red and white gold. In the middle of the band was set a massive ruby with griffin carefully engraved upon the surface of it.
"It is yours, put it on the middle finger of your right hand and say words that I taught you."
Harry nodded and placed the ring on the middle finger of his right hand, when he did that his eyes glowed gold for a moment and than he said words that Sagittarius taught him almost two weeks ago. They were one of the very first thing he learned in Latin. "I, Hadrian James Arcturus Orion Potter, Lord of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter, swear to lead my house justly and fairly. I swear to protect allies of it by blood, by law, by magic. I swear to punish those breaking oaths by blood, by law, by magic. So have I sworn, so mote be it." As Harry was saying those words around him swirled his family magic.
"Well done, wear it at all times as it will protect you from various things." Congratulated him Sagittarius and Harry smiled at those words. He turned and looked at Ragnok "I think it would be a good idea for him to visit his family vault."
"Of course" Nodded Ragnok and snapped his fingers, moments later appeared small goblin that looked at Ragnok "Take Lord de Normandie and Lord Potter to Potter family vault."
"Follow me" Said goblin and without a further words walked towards one of doors. Sagittarius and Harry quickly followed him and moments later they were riding in one of carts used by Gringott to move to the vaults.
o-0-o
"Is it always that uncomfortable?" Asked Harry as they were in the cart, which was thrown in all possible directions at neck breaking speed. They were moving through a roughly carved tunnels as from the ceiling were hanging stalagmite and.
"Yes" Nodded Sagittarius, shouting so that Harry could hear him as wind was making talking almost impossible. "But it is worth the trouble."
After few minutes of wobbly ride they stopped in front of the doors made out of polished stone with another pair of Griffin on them. They walked forward towards them and Sagittarius motioned for Harry to press his hand against those doors, when he did that they opened on their own. Revealing the content of the vault behind, there were stacks of all kinds of coins, bars of gold, gems, artifacts, paintings and all kinds of things put without any sense or order.
"Wow" Gasped Harry when he saw the inside of the vault.
"Yes" Nodded Sagittarius "All of this one day will be yours. But today we are here for something else, not for the money but for the wand. If I remember correctly at the back wall there should be a long wooden box."
Harry nodded and after few minutes of roaming around the vault they found a long wooden box. It was covered in a thin layer of dust. Harry was going to open it, but Sagittarius held his hand to stop him from doing that.
Harry looked at him with questions visible in his eyes. "Before you open it I want you to know how you should choose a wand. Normally you go to a wandmaker to get a new one, but I'm pretty sure one of those will work for you as they are one of your ancestors. Move your hand over them until you feel something from one. When you do that, pick up a wand and do some moves with it."
Harry slowly opened the box and moved his hand over each and every wand that was inside, there were wands from all kinds of ages and periods. Some of them ancient and some of them quite young. One that almost immediately drew his attention was black one at the end of the line.
Picking up the wand he felt like through his body passed newfound power that he didn't have access earlier. He swinged it forward and from the tip of it erupted stream of sparks in red and gold. He also had an opportunity to read piece of parchment that was attached to it. Written on it was Ebony and phoenix feather, fifteen inches, wand of Aries Potter.
When Sagittarius saw the wand he loudly whistled as he didn't expect Harry to choose this exact wand, he knew it existed, yet he didn't expect him to choose it. "Very impressive choice, I must say. Wand of de facto founder of your family. Ebony and phoenix is an interesting combination of wood and core."
Harry looked at the wand curiously, taking a better look of it. He could see finely polished ebony wood with a handle carved out of some bone with wolf motives covering it and wolf head at the end of it. On the wood were visible two thin streaks of red that circled the entire wand. "It's beautiful."
"It is also a good wand that will serve you well." Added Sagittarius as he looked at Harry and at that wand as he had a feeling that this wolf head might have a meaning. "Let's go back home, I wanted to take you here so you could get your wand."
Harry nodded and followed Sagittarius out of the vault and Gringott and to de Normandie castle. It was time for him to start learning some magic.