A/N - I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's characters. I only play in the universe. Any ideas that other authors that recognize some of their ideas, I apologize, I have read so many stories that I can't remember where I get some of them. Send me a PM and I will try to give you the credit that you deserve. I appreciate constructive criticism but will ignore any flames you send me. If you don't like the story then don't read it.
Chapter 3
The following week, Harry and Hermione finished working on their mundane high school education. At that point, they were at a High school second year level, getting ready to go into their third year level. They had already done most of the work and were simply reading it over and getting ready to mail it to the home school program that they were dealing with.
Hermione asked, "Why doesn't Hogwarts have any of this? All the mundane born students can't possibly hope to leave the normal world forever and stay strictly in the magical world. It's just not rational or practical. There are so many other opportunities in the normal world as opposed to the magical one."
Harry shrugged, "Well, in other countries, they teach both a magical education as well as a mundane one. Here in Britain, the magical world doesn't think highly of the mundane world, so they slowly work to take the mundane borns and slowly separate them from the normal world. By not teaching anything but magical studies in their schools, it helps that process along without them realizing it. Most British magicals think that there is nothing that mundanes do that magic can't do better, they don't see the need for culture, philosophy or literature that is written for just the sake of writing it. They don't know really any of Shakespeare's work. They don't know art, their view on paintings is that if it doesn't talk or not a person, then there's no real point and therefore has no use in life."
Hermione just shook her head at the British magical world and it's incessant need to isolate itself from the much bigger world outside. They stopped talking about it because it would just irritate her even more. They finished going through their work and sent it all off to be looked over. They then decided to go over their Hogwarts summer work and see if they could add any more information that they learned in the States.
That evening, the adult Grangers got home and they sat down to dinner.
Dan said, "Okay, we will head to Diagon Alley to get your school things tomorrow. We have the other doctor taking our shift so we'll be able to spend the day at home. We'll go a little after breakfast."
Harry and Hermione agreed and they finished their dinner and went back to reading their Manybooks. Hermione was almost done with Rowena's personal journal she devoted to the study of Arithmancy and Harry was almost done with reading Merlin's personal journal he devoted to studying magical theory. They spent the rest of the night sitting on the couch with Hermione resting her head on his shoulder, both reading their books in silence.
In the morning they woke and had breakfast before they all got in the car and drove to London. They walked into the Leaky Cauldron at about 10:15am and made their way to the alley. Harry said hello to Tom but couldn't talk because the tiny pub was bustling with activity. They continued on their way. When they entered the alley they made their way up to Gringotts. Once inside, they went up to a closed station and spoke to the teller sitting there. He immediately led them to Ragnok's office.
Ragnok nodded to them as the entered and bowed, "What can I do for you today?"
Harry said, "We would like to get some money from our vaults as well as visit them to get a few things."
Ragnok nodded and signaled for a cart driver. Soon enough they were walking into their vaults. Harry walked into each of his vaults and changed some of the books on the Manybook Shelf out for new ones. After he did that, Hermione did the same for each of her vaults. They both put enough books on their shelves to have enough books to read until Christmas, when they would visit again. After they were done they made their way back out the alley. They made their rounds, Madam Malkins, the apothecary, the stationary shop, in case Dumbles decided to try and make a rule about using normal paper, pens and pencils. They also went to Eylops for owl treats and even in Quidditch supplies to buy Hermione and Harry broomstick care kit for Harry's broom and the broom Hermione bought in the States and to the trunk shop to get Hermione a new trunk that has the charms professionally done and not by Harry, who learned a lot the previous summer, but thought she should buy one that was made by a professional for continual use. After they had all that done, they made their way to Flourish and Blotts to get their books.
When they got there, they saw a large poster along the upper windows that stated there would be a book signing by Gilderoy Lockhart. Harry internally groaned but they entered the bookshop, there was a line all the way to the door and they saw that most of the people in line were witches. Harry got a sinking feeling in his stomach and couldn't understand why. Then they looked up at the front and saw a man standing on a slightly raised platform, he had forget-me-not blue robes on and seemed to have a permanent smile on his face. He stood their, posing for pictures being taken by various witches and then Harry and Hermione heard an annoying voice coming from not far ahead of them. They looked at saw a photographer pushing past him claiming to be from the Daily Prophet.
Ron complained loudly and Lockhart looked up at him, he stared for a moment and then shouted, "It can't be, Christopher Potter?"
As he made his way over to Chris, Harry tried to hide his face, he knew most of Britain gave him his own bloody title, "The Lost Potter".
It didn't work, just as Lockhart was turning to take Chris up to the stage, he saw Harry and immediately made a beeline for him as well, "And Harry Potter? Wonderful, come with me boys."
He dragged Harry up to the stage, along with Chris, Harry noticed the adult Potters, along with Black and his fiance, the Longbottoms and Lupin. They all stared at him with smiles, as if they were happy to see him.
Lockhart shoved Harry to his left side and Chris to his right, then shoved a stack of books in each of their hands, "This is a surprise, when the young Potters walked in today, they had no idea that I would be gifting them with a complete set of my completed works, free of charge!"
At once the photographer snapped a picture and Lockhart leaned close, "Smile boys, together, we three are sure to make the front page."
Harry had had enough, he took Lockhart's hand, that was resting on his shoulders, and wrapped his hand around Lockhart's thumb and pulled back. Lockhart winced and let out a tiny moan of pain.
Harry said, loud enough for the audience to hear, "Your first mistake was putting your hands on me. I don't know you, nor do I care to. If I did, I would make a point to spend time to get to know you. Second, I am not a Potter, I have been and will remain for the rest of my life, Harry Daniels."
He still had Lockhart's thumb in his hand and continued to put pressure on it, to Lockhart, the grown man was near tears, it felt like the bone was ready to break!
Harry turned to the photographer, "And you, don't you dare take my picture without my permission. I have the right to stay out of the press and I plan to take it." the photographer gulped and nodded vigorously, he had heard what Harry had done the previous year to Skeeter.
Harry turned back to Lockhart, "Did you learn your lesson not to go up to little boys and grab them?"
Lockhart, in to much pain to realize how Harry had asked the question, nodded and Harry let him go.
He said, "Thank you. Now, since I don't want any free things a strange older man is handing out for free," he walks up to Ginny, "here you go. Have these on me. Now I need to pay an outrageous amount of money on school books that I will never read again after this year so excuse me." Ginny smiled and thanked him, ignoring her mothers gasp and disapproving looks.
He walked back to Hermione, who was standing there giggling at the dumbfounded looks on the other people's faces.
Harry smirked at her, "I think I taught him a very good lesson today, don't you agree?"
Hermione smiled and nodded, still laughing to much to say anything. Harry ignored the looks that he was getting from the women in the shop and simply got the books he needed and then went up to the register. When he was done, he went to wait by the front with the adult Grangers, who were talking with Arthur Weasley, while he waited for Hermione to peruse through a few sections that she thought might have something interesting.
He noticed Chris, Neville and Ron off to the side talking, studiously ignoring him, then he noticed Ginny, the youngest Weasley, and the twins standing a little more ways off. He walked over to them to talk.
"Hey Gred Forge. How's your summer been? Hey Ginny, how are you?"
The twins smiled brightly at him, "Hello Harry."
"We've been good,"
"How has"
"your summer been?"
"Yes, any,"
"new things to"
"show us?"
Harry smiled, "Nah, I spent a few weeks in Japan but they didn't have anything new. I did learn a new game from my friends there though, but I don't think Dumbledore will let us play it at school."
Ginny smiled at him, "Hey Harry. Thanks for the books. I heard about last year, Ron was more for the 'Your a bloody prat' stance but the twins had nice things to say. So how do you play this game?"
Harry laughed, "Ah, he just being pissy because he upset Hermione and I had to teach him not to. It was a painful lesson but he seems to have learned it, but then again, you can forget a lot of things you learn in school over the summer. I may have to teach him again." they laughed, "The game is basically you create a shield that reflects a spell sent at it and then cast a spell but condense it into a ball. Then you just banish it towards each other and use the shields to direct it towards the other players. It really improves your reflexes."
They just nodded, they would need to see it to understand. Hermione came up and seemed to know what they were talking about, but before she could, an unpleasant voice stopped not just their conversation, but the 3 stooges conversation as well.
"Bet you loved that Potter, Daniels, that was probably just a show to get more attention. How pathetic!"
Harry yawned, "Really Malfoy, you've had all summer and that's the best you could come up with?"
Hermione smirked, but Malfoy's face went pink, "Watch it Daniels! I'd like to see where you've spent your summer?"
Harry smiled, "Well, that's easy. I spent a month going from Japan to China and India, then down to the Bahamas to visit friends. Then I spent two weeks in America and France with Hermione and her family. It was fun, we even got the Mages there to teach us a few new tricks."
Malfoy's face went redder, "Spending time with filthy muggles and mudbloods! Pathetic, didn't have any family to see?" he sneered.
Harry shrugged, "Yeah, that's what I was doing the first month, visiting friends and family. But what did I tell you about using that word?"
Everyone saw Malfoy's face pale slightly but he just sneered. Before he could say anything more, Arthur and the Grangers came over. Arthur saw the confrontation and tried to get all the kids to got outside while Molly got the books signed and payed for, but was stopped. Lucius Malfoy came walking up. As he did, Harry sensed something foul, he couldn't figure out what though.
"Well, well, Arthur, how have you been?" he sneered.
Mr. Weasley stiffened, "Lucius." he said curtly.
Malfoy Sr. said, "I do hope the Ministry is giving you more time. I don't see how you'll be able to pay for all this." he picked up a book out of Ginny's cauldron and showed the frayed and torn pages, then slipped it back in the cauldron.
"Consorting with muggles? And I thought you could stoop no less. You're a disgrace to wizards." he sneered at the Grangers who were just looking on impassively, they knew Harry would sort it out, whatever it was.
Mr. Weasley responded, "We have a very big difference about what disgraces wizards Malfoy."
Harry had had enough, "Lucius, just go away. We don't need to listen to any of the crap that comes out of your mouth. I was having a very pleasant day until now."
The Weasleys gaped at his gall, but didn't say anything. The Potters, Longbottoms, Black and his fiance and Lupin made their way over to the confrontation, having heard Harry's comment.
Lucius sneered, "You need to learn your place boy. Although it doesn't surprise me, you've been spending to much time with these filthy muggles." the looked at the Grangers with disgust.
Harry again yawned, "Really? You're as bad as your pigheaded son. You can't even insult someone right."
The Potters tried to intervene but Malfoy Sr. cut them off, "You watch yourself boy, or your precious muggles might meet with an accident."
Harry smirked and exploded into action. His hand shot forward and snatched Malfoy's cane out of his hands. He twirled it around and used it to pull Malfoy's foot out from under him. Lucius landed with a thud. Harry stood over him and pinned him to the floor with the cane.
"Well, I have your wand? Doesn't that make you the same as a 'filthy muggle'? And I did it without an ounce of magic and it was taught to me by a squib. I suggest that you don't talk about things that you have no idea about. It just makes you sound like an idiot." he ignored the stunned looks he was getting from people in the shop who had turned to look at the fight.
Lucius snarled, "Let me up you insolent brat! Do you have any idea who I am?"
Harry shrugged, "Yeah, Lucius Malfoy, pigheaded ex-death eater who bribed his way out of prison. It doesn't matter to me. You just threatened the protectorates of the Ancient and Noble house of Daniels. As head of that family, I am completely within my rights to protect them. I would suggest that you leave now, otherwise I might have to tell the aurors about a certain room under a certain drawing room in someone's manor." he finished smirking.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw James Potter and Sirius Black glance at each other and nod to each other.
Lucius paled but said, "I have no idea what your talking about. Where did you hear something like that?"
Harry smiled, "I know lots of things about you. I also know a bit about some illicit looking finances that you have." without looking, his leg snapped out and hit Draco, who was sneaking up on him, in the stomach at the same time, channeling the same spell he used last Christmas into Draco, "Go away Draco, the grown ups are talking." Draco collapsed to the ground holding his stomach.
He turns back to Lucius, "I would advise that you don't ever try to attack any of my friends. It wouldn't end well for you."
Lucius scoffs and says, "What can a little whelp like you do?"
Harry thought about it, then smiled, he decided he would throw the Potters a bone, "Well, lets just say that I am forced to deal with Director Ragnok for ALL of my financial requests. He is the only goblin that can touch my accounts. And, as you know from personal experience, gold can buy A LOT of things."
At this declaration, Lucius paled considerably, all around them the people watching the confrontation widened their eyes. The Potters and their friends gasped.
Harry smirked, "Do we have an understanding?"
Lucius couldn't nod fast enough.
Harry smiled brightly, "Good! Glad we understand each other now." he dropped the cane next to Lucius' head and turned to Hermione and the Grangers, who were all smirking, "Well, that was exciting! Let's go, I think I want to go see that new movie that came out last week. We can go to dinner and see the movie, my treat."
With that, he took Hermione's hand and they headed for the door, ignoring the looks they were getting. Just as they got out the door, Lily and James Potter came out and said, "Harry!"
Harry sighed, turning to the Grangers, "Go on, I'll meet you at the car." they nodded and continued on, Hermione looking back at him in concern. Harry gave her a head nod, saying he would be alright.
He then turned to the Potter parents and sighed, "What?" he wasn't in the mood to play nice right now.
Lily said, "How was your summer?"
Harry shrugged, "Good. I got to see my friends and family again, it was nice."
Their faces reflected the sadness at the "family" comment, but James pressed on, "We were wondering if you would like to stay with us for the rest of summer."
Harry concentrated on not rolling his eyes, "No thanks. I'm staying with the Grangers. Besides, I wouldn't want to intrude on any of your family business."
Lily's eyes teared up slightly, James said, "You wouldn't Harry. We just want to get to know our son again. We know we were horrible to you, but we want to try and make it up to you."
Harry stared at them unblinking, until they fidgeted and averted their eyes, under his intense gaze, "I am not your son. He is the one in the bookstore. I told you, your other son died in 1986. Hell even before then and like I told Lockhart, if I want to get to know someone, I'll seek them out and make the effort, I don't want to make the effort with the Potter family. They have brought me nothing but pain and a lost childhood. I'm glad that you recognize that what you did to me was wrong, it gives me hope that if you have anymore kids, you wont do it to them, but it's to late for me. I don't want to be a Potter and I don't want to get to know any Potters, at least for the foreseeable future. Maybe something will happen later on, a few years from now, but as of right now, I don't want to." seeing Lily cry, he sighed, "Look, I'm sorry that this is hard to hear, but I tried to be nice. All last year I was pleasant and easy going, until you decided to gang up on me and Snape tried to rape my mind. But that didn't seem to work, after what happened with Lucius, I'm not in the mood to make the effort to be pleasant. So have a nice summer and I will see you at Hogwarts Professor Potter."
With that he turned away and started making his way to the Leaky Cauldron, before he got 20 feet away, the door to Flourish and Blotts opened and Chris Potter came out. Upon seeing his mother crying and Harry walking away, his temper flared.
"Daniels! What did you do to my mother?"
Harry just continued walking, ignoring the question. When he did this, Chris glared at his back and took his wand out and cast a curse at his back. Harry flipped around and a shield snapped into place before anyone could blink. Harry sent the same spell he used last Christmas back at him without anyone noticing.
He sneered, "Cursing someone in the back? I would say how Slytherin of you, but that would be an insult to the other Slytherins."
James and Lily were gaping at Chris, he had cursed someone in the back! As Harry finished talking, Chris' shoes grew wheels on the bottom of them and Chris lost his balance and fell.
Harry smirked, "You really should get that looked at. Your shoes are probably cursed, you should think about getting new ones. That could be dangerous if it were to happen on a stair case."
With that, he turned and made his way back to the mundane world.
Lily looked livid, "How could you curse him in the back like that? That is not how your father and I raised you!"
Chris scowled, "But he hurt you! I wasn't going to let him get away with that!"
James said, "No, he didn't do anything. But you did. You're grounded for the remainder of the week. No magic, no flying, no floo calls no anything. Cursing someone when their back is turned is a coward's act."
Chris scowled the whole way back to the Leaky Cauldron and on his way up to his room in Potter manor. Lily and James made their way to the kitchen and sat down at the table.
Lily said, "How does he have one of those accounts?
James shrugged, "I don't know." then had a thought and paled, "Actually, I do. Albus didn't want me to take the title of Lord Gryffindor for some reason. He told me that it would paint a target on all of our backs if it were revealed, not many outside the family knew that we were."
Lily's eyes widened, "Do you think he somehow found out about Lord Gryffindor?"
James nodded, "It's the only thing that makes sense. We need to tell Albus."
They went to the fire place and flooed to the Headmaster's office.
Dumbledore saw the and smiled, "Ah, James, Lily, it's nice to see you. How has your summer been?"
James said, "We're fine, but we thought you should know. We ran into Harry and the Grangers in Diagon Alley earlier. There was an altercation between him and Lucius Malfoy."
Dumbledore nodded, "Is he alright? I don't think Lucius would risk doing anything to him in public. Does he wish to come here to keep the Ms. Granger and her family safe?"
Lily shook her head no, "No, he's fine, if anything it's Lucius that got hurt. He threatened the Grangers and Harry beat him down in the middle of Flourish and Blotts. He advised him against threatening any of his friends and family. When Lucius claimed that he couldn't do anything, Harry told him that there was plenty he could do. He said that he has to go directly to the Director of Gringotts to deal with his finances. That Ragnok is the only goblin that can touch his accounts."
Albus paled, "Do you think he was serious?"
James nodded, "Yes. You know how the founders lines work. The head of house goes to the oldest son, no matter their status. I think he somehow found out about our relation to Gryffindor and and is now the head, he could do that because I didn't take the headship when I took over the Potter family."
Dumbledore was sweating bullets inside, If he is Lord Gryffindor then he has far more power than I thought. That family wealth should be used for the greater good. Now it's even more important that I get control of him. The test last year didn't show anything. He didn't take the bait like Chris did so I don't know who the real boy of prophesy is.
He said, "Maybe we should allow this to leak to the press."
Lily immediately said, "NO! If it was unsafe for James to take the headship when he was an adult then it's even more unsafe for Harry."
Albus reasoned, "But if we let it leak, then it might put pressure on him to look to us for guidance. Even if we don't, by revealing what he did today, there will be families wanting control of him all over Europe when the news breaks. It's better if we get to him first."
Lily was unsure, she wanted Harry back but if they did this, they would be putting him in danger.
James spoke up, "I think that we should do it. Before you say anything, I don't want him in danger either, but this will show him that he still needs a family to help him deal with this. The people he counts as family do not live in Britain so he would be forced to come to us to help, he hasn't been back to Britain since he left so we would be the logical people to choose."
Lily sighed and nodded, but couldn't get rid of the feeling that what they were doing was wrong.
X0X0X0X0X0
"Why did you do THAT!"
Harry and the Grangers decided not to go out to dinner and a movie in favor of just going back to the house and relax after the confrontation in Flourish and Blotts. At the moment, they were all sitting at the table with dinner. The Grangers were watching Harry and Hermione argue about Harry revealing a bit of his finances.
Harry smirked, "Calm down Hermione. I did it because I know that they will think that they know what vault I have because my dad didn't take possession of it before me. Dumbledore didn't want him to. Now that I let them know a little they wont mess with me as much."
Hermione thought for a minute, "What if they leak the family name to the press? You'll be drowning in owls before the day is out!"
Harry smirked, "I took care of that already. I sent a letter to the Prophet explaining that I will not accept any marriage agreements and any other agreements that other families can offer me. I told them, I simply don't care for Britain and it's bigoted ways and that I will be spending the least amount of time that I can in the British magical community. Also, I had any and all letters not dealing with select people and Hogwarts rerouted to Gringotts. Ragnok is having someone sort through the mail. They know what to throw out and what I may be interested in."
Hermione sighed, "Well, do you at least know how they will take that and how they will respond?"
Harry shrugged, "Well, you already know that I don't care about what other people think. The Ministry can't change any laws relating to those vaults because they pre-date the ministry and they can't touch the other 3 accounts because I already took control of them. The only thing they can do is make it so that I can't claim any other families and still live outside of Britain. I am a citizen in nearly every country in the ICW so they can't arrest me on trumped up charges or keep me here against my will unless they are willing to risk an international incident. Trust me, I knew that I would be revealing a bit more about myself this year and I thought it out. It wasn't just something I decided to do on a whim. Plus it isn't even about the money in the vault. Not even James Potter knew about the wealth that was in it. Only my grandfather did. He just thinks that I have a lot of political power, which I do, and prestige that go along with being the head of that house. They don't even know that I have some control over Hogwarts, well, more than some, I also have access to Slytherin's vault and family. With us together, we can, technically, control the school."
Hermione looked abashed and apologized, Harry smiled and kissed her saying, "Don't worry about it, I know you were just looking out for me. Though you did bring up a good point."
Hermione looked confused, "Which was?"
Harry smiled, "They will probably leak it to try and get leverage on me and try to use the pressure, that is sure to come with the leak, to get me to come to them for help. I mean I don't have any family in Britain, well, I'm starting to think of you guys as family," the Grangers smiled at him, "but no magical family. They are the logical choice I would make to get help, if I cared for them in the least or even remotely liked them." then he thought of something and turned to the adult Grangers, "I need to come with you to the surgery tomorrow. I need to set up an intent based, modified Shadow Fidelius ward around it."
At their blank looks, he explained, "It will make it so that anyone that means you or the building harm, will not be able to find it. It's already on the house and built into your watches. But they can still attack the building if they know your there. I don't think that Malfoy is stupid enough to attack you after he threatened you in public and knowing what I could do to him, but he was stupid enough to join Voldemort, so it's better to be safe, then sorry." they nodded and then went to bed. Hermione and Harry stayed up a bit more to read a bit.
The following morning, both kids went with the adult Grangers to the surgery and placed the wards, then shadow walked back home. When they got home, they read the previous day's entire incident in the Prophet. It described how Malfoy Sr. insulted Arthur Weasley, then proceeded to insult and threaten the protectorates of an Ancient and Noble family. It depicted Harry as just a head of house defending those under his protection. The story after that was about Harry being the head of a family with one of the first ten vaults and that it was suspected that he was the head of House Gryffindor. After was Harry's letter, word for word;
To The Daily Prophet
I revealed that I am the head of one of the families that owns one of the first ten vaults in Gringotts. This is true. One of my vaults is one of the first ten. However, before any families decide to start sending offers of advice and other gestures, I must say that I will refuse them all. I will accept no marriage contracts from anyone either. I don't plan on staying in Britain long enough to care. I dislike Britain and since 1986, I have been back very rarely. Twice to be exact. The first time was in 1988 and I was just checking on my accounts with Director Ragnok. I may have ventured out into Diagon alley once or twice to look for any books that seemed interesting, but for the most part, I stayed in mundane (muggle) Britain. I prefer it to magical Britain because it has more entertainment for me. I found myself bored very quickly with Magical Britain and decided to stay on the mundane (muggle) side for as long as I could. The second time, I spent some time touring around and looking for obscure books on Runes with a friend. After a few days, I spent the remaining time with a friend in St. Ottery Catchpole but rarely going into magical Britain, opting instead to spend my time looking for books in the mundane (muggle) world, I hadn't read many out of Britain and wanted to see what was new. Even during the summer in between school years, I am out of the country, usually in Japan or China. I prefer other countries to Britain because in other countries, Magicals are much more understanding of difference in views and are much more in tune with the mundane (muggle) world. There are just to many bigots in Magical Britain for me to want to spend any extended amount of time in it. After I spend a month out of the country, I spend the rest of my summer at a friends house in mundane Britain. So, to reiterate, I will not accept any marriage contracts or advice about politics or finances. I appreciate it from those who were going to help just to be kind, but don't appreciate those that would try to take advantage of me. I will always make my own choices and not let anyone tell me otherwise. I really couldn't care less what others think of me. For those that may be offended by this, I apologize, it was no insult to you or your beliefs and traditions, it is just how I feel. I would not have survived long if I hadn't learned to fend for myself and not allow what others thought of me to effect my actions.
Lord Harry Jackson Daniels
Lord of House Daniels, Gryffindor and others
Hermione was left gaping at the obvious insult to the British magical world, but couldn't fault him for doing it. This way, anyone who was going to try and take advantage will be put off by his attitude concerning Britain.
She asked, "How are you going to do the duties that you have in the Wizengamot?"
Harry smirked, "Well, I asked Miku for a favor and she said yes. She will come to Britain for Wizengamot meetings, when she can't, I'll send a letter to Augusta Longbottom and ask her to do so in my stead. I am wondering what I should do about my other families."
Hermione thought, "Why can't you just ask Ragnok to appoint a goblin for you?"
Harry nodded, "I honestly didn't think of that. I think I will."
He sent off a letter to Ragnok later that day and got a reply the following morning.
Ragnok said;
Mr. Daniels
Regarding your request. To have a Goblin present in the Wizengamot chambers has never been done, but it also is not stated that it cannot be done. If you give written permission to the goblin representative, then you should have no problem with it. However, I feel I should warn you, if you appoint a goblin representative it will severely limit those allies that you will have and be able to get later on. I suggest that in the note you write to the Wizengamot that the Goblin will read, you point out that you are paying very well for our services, then it will go a long way to get you allies. The families on the Wizengamot respect money and by saying that you are paying us to do this, it will show them that you know what you are doing and that you will not allow anyone to control you. You will be sending letters to the representative to give your views on the subjects and have him vote accordingly.
The price for a representative will be per Wizengamot meeting, it is G75 each meeting and an additional G50 for meetings that go on for more than a day. I have already told you that there isn't a precedent for this, therefore the price is based upon the price of a Goblin Solicitor spending a day in court for someone. As your financial advisor, I am telling you now, you will make this up in a day worth of interest in your Gryffindor account alone. Also, it might also interest you to know that we will also be able to represent your other families within the Wizengamot anonymously.
All you would need to do is write a letter for each representative and state that because of House Gryffindor using this method, the heads of the other families wish to do the same to remain anonymous. Ms. Granger can as well. As your financial advisor, you both are well within your interest of your respective accounts to afford to do this.
Waiting for your response,
Director Ragnok, War Chief of the Goblin Race
They talked about the offer and decided to go for it. They sent off two separate letters to Ragnok, telling him that they would like a goblin to represent each of their families that have seats on the Wizengamot. For Harry, it was; the Emrys seat, Gryffindor seat, Slytherin seat, Peverell seat, Dracumis seat and the Daniels seat, the Daniels and Gryffindor seats will have the same goblin representative, just being payed double. For Hermione, it was the LeFay seat, Ravenclaw seat, Hufflepuff seat, the Shadow seat and the Trisfoum seat. Many families would be very upset that the proxies for these families that they had, were going to be taken away. Many others will be shocked that there are so many of the first ten vaults open.
They spent the rest of the break just reading and practicing the things they learned in America. They heard from Ragnok that there was shock at the news that he had appointed a Goblin as his representative within the Wizengamot. Many people had never thought about it and there were some families that wished the same services when they couldn't make it to the meetings. Others were outraged that he would not give the position to another wizard or witch. Harry didn't care. He and Hermione would send the official letters to the Wizengamot, letting them know about their other families after school had started to throw off any suspicion.
By the time September 1st came around, they had the art of telepathy mastered. They also had used it with each other so much that they could recognize each other's minds in an instant and could talk to each other mentally as easily as if they spoke aloud. They also spent a great deal of time going over the rules of the Wizengamot and the current issues that were going on in Britain. They had sent letters to later be sent from Gringotts, to the Wizengamot, detailing that they, as the heads of the families, wanted to remain anonymous and therefore, would be paying the goblins to represent them during Wizengamot business. They never identified themselves and wrote a letter per family, for misdirection. Harry only identified himself as the Head of House Gryffindor and Daniels, the other families, he wrote the letter as if reading about what Harry had done, in the paper and decided to do the same. Hermione did the same and they both pointed out that they are doing this so that no one can find out who they are, goblins were immune to Legilimency and Veritaserum and they were paying the goblins a fair bit of money to represent their wishes and that any and all mail would need to be sent to Gringotts to be later sent to them.
The morning of September 1st came bright and early. Harry and Hermione were already up by the time Dan and Emma got up. The two kids were in the kitchen making breakfast for everyone. Hermione was still not as good in the kitchen as Harry, but she was already better than both her parents. They had breakfast and then left the house at around 9 o'clock.
They arrived to find King's Cross Station busy as ever. They didn't need to stop to get a cart, the kids had already shrunk their trunks and Harry let Hedwig fly to Hogwarts so she wasn't stuck in a cage for the long ride to Hogsmeade. They made their way onto the hidden platform and then stayed with Hermione's parents for a little bit, they had made good time and so were relatively early, it was only 10:00, they had another hour before the train left. Harry put up a notice-me-not charm around their area so people wouldn't see him and come over to try and talk about the whole business with House Gryffindor.
At about 10:30 they said goodbye and headed for the train to find a compartment. When they did, they got their books out of their day packs and sat down to read, again with Hermione's head on Harry's shoulder. About ten minutes after they settled down, the compartment door opened and a small blond girl with slightly bulging eyes, stepped in. She saw Harry and smiled brightly and rushed over and hugged him.
"Hello Harry!"
Harry chuckled, "Hello Luna, Hermione, this is Luna Lovegood. She'll be a first year this year. Luna, this is my Hermione Granger, my best friend."
Hermione flushed at the possessive nature that Harry used with her and smiled at the other girl, though with a twinge of jealousy.
"Hello Luna, it's nice to meet you. So how long have you known each other?"
Harry smiled and Luna moved to sit across from them, "I met her in 1990. I was here to look at my finances with Ragnok and was exploring St. Ottery Catchpole, I have a stretch of land near there, and I came across Luna and her mother, Selene."
Luna smiled slightly, "He saved my mum. She was doing an experiment with a new spell when it went wrong and the magical backlash nearly brought the old farm, where she practices her spell creation, down around us. I was playing in the corner and the next thing I know, there was a loud noise and an explosion. My mum was on the ground, all of a sudden, Harry came running into the barn and helped get my mum to St. Mungo's, after he healed the most serious injuries. After that, my mum and daddy talked him into staying for the rest of the summer. I haven't seen you in a while Harry, how have you been? And thank you for all those books."
Harry smiled sheepishly, "Yeah, sorry about that Luna. I've been good. I traveled around a lot after I left Britain, just came back for the beginning of my first year, I'm glad you liked them. How are your parents doing?"
Luna looked off to the side for a few moments, then turned back to him and said in her dreamy voice, "They are fine. Mum wanted me to tell you that you should write more and that she is proud of the way you handled the Prophet the other week."
At Hermione's questioning glance Harry explained, "Luna has Mage Sight, unlike most, she can't turn it off so she is sometimes distracted. She has an advanced form and sometimes it comes out, it lets her see the earth's magic, unlike how normal mage sight works. Normal Mage Sight lets you see the magic surrounding a magicals' body, or aura and enchanted items. After you use it for years, it develops more and allows you to see all forms of magic, both the kind we use and the natural magic that was around before it."
Hermione nodded her understanding, "That must be interesting, what do you see?"
Luna looked at her for a moment, "I see that your magic and Harry's reaching out towards each other and when you're close to each other, it intermingles and dances with each other. When you walk together, your combined magic leaves footsteps on the ground, like footsteps on a beach."
Hermione blushed and looked away from Harry but Harry just smiled and hugged Hermione closer, "She's my best friend and more Luna. Just like your my sister." he kissed Hermione on the cheek.
Luna smiled brightly at him and Hermione realized that Luna would never like Harry more than that. She smiled and decided to befriend the girl as well. They spent the rest of the time talking while they waited for the train to get a move on. At about two minutes before the train got a move on, Harry saw a sea of red hair enter the platform, he rolled his eyes at the tardiness of the Weasley family, but noticed that he hadn't see the Potters or their friends at all, nor the Longbottoms. He shrugged it off and focused on the conversation between Hermione and Luna on the basics of animation charms. He smiled, he was happy that he had sent Luna books over the months, to give her something to read, she had always been smarter than most gave her credit for. He was brought out of his thoughts as the train started moving.
A few minutes later, their compartment door opened again, admitting Ginny, "Can I sit with you guys? The twins went off to find Lee Jordan and I can't find Ron, Chris or Neville anywhere."
Harry smiled, "Sure Ginny, I don't know if you had a chance to meet at Flourish and Blotts, but this is Hermione Granger," he hugged her tightly again, "and I'm sure that you know Luna."
Ginny smiled and sat down next to Luna, "Hello Hermione, it's nice to meet you. Hey Luna, sorry I wasn't around last summer, I think my mum wanted to try and put a whole year of spending time with me into a few months. How was your guys' summer?"
Luna smiled, "Mine was fine. I went with my parents to Scandinavia."
Harry smiled, "I spent the first month in Japan, China, India and the Bahamas visiting with friends and family I hadn't seen last year, though, mostly China. Then I spent the rest of my time with Hermione and her family. We went to America for a week and to France for another. The rest of the time we spent at her house. It was great."
Hermione blushed, "Yeah, it was. We got to learn from a few of the American Mages that Harry knew and the whole time we were in France we spent down at the beach and Harry had a supply of Gillyweed so we spent most of the time underwater."
Ginny smiled, "That sounds like it would have been fun. I got to spend my summer with my mum fussing over my leaving and with Percy being a pompous arse. Ron and the boy wonder spent most of their time with Neville at Potter Manor. The only people that weren't annoying were the twins. They had nothing but good things to say about you Harry. It seems as though you out pranked them last year and they plan to get back on top this year. Something about being better than the shadows?"
Harry and Hermione laughed and they continued to talk about their summer activities and different things. Ginny told them that the Longbottoms and Potters were busy so Chris and Neville came with them to the station. Eventually they went back to their reading and continued their journey in silence. After a while, the trolley lady came by and Harry bought snacks for all of them and they ate while talking a bit more.
Ginny excitedly said, "Can you believe that Lockhart is going to be our Professor?"
Harry and Hermione both groaned, "You're not serious are you?"
Ginny nodded, "Yes, he said so later, after you left Flourish and Blotts. Why did you treat him like that anyway Harry?"
Harry sighed, "Because Ginny, he is a fraud. He didn't do anything in his books. I mean half of his books are dedicated to teaching you how to keep looking 'pretty' while you're fighting for your life. How is that even possible?"
Ginny argued, "But then why would everyone believe him?"
Hermione said, "Because those things really did happen, it's just that Lockhart didn't do them and they didn't happen like they did in the books. We think that Lockhart travels around and tracks down witches and wizards that really did do those things and finds out everything they did and then uses a memory charm on them. I didn't believe it either until Harry gave examples from each book, then I looked at the timeline for each book. He had to be in multiple places at the same time for some of his books to be true."
Ginny asked, "Like what examples?"
Harry shrugged, "Well, can a vampire survive on nothing but lettuce? Can a normal man fight a transformed werewolf barehanded and win? Is it possible to trap a ghoul with a tea strainer?"
Ginny shook her head no for each question and Harry said, "Well, according to his books, he has done all of that."
Ginny's face grew red, "You mean that my family had to buy those books when he didn't do anything in them?"
Harry nodded, "Yeah, we are going to try and get a refund on them from the school after a month or so. Saying that we aren't learning anything so we find that being forced to buy the books was a waste of our money and we would like a refund. We don't know if the school will allow it, but it never hurts to try, besides, it worked for me last year when Snape was destroying my potions when they were perfectly good. I went to McGonagall and explained that they were good and that I shouldn't have to pay for more ingredients when Snape destroyed them because he is a petty child in a greasy bat's body."
Ginny giggled at that and they continued talking, Harry and Hermione telling the two younger girls about their first year.
Eventually they reached Hogsmeade Station and had to part ways. They still hadn't seen the three stooges, but didn't really care. When they got off the train, Ginny and Luna went towards Hagrid and Harry and Hermione went to the thestral pulled carriages. As they made their way up to the castle, they felt a pressence enter their mind.
Do not worry my young heirs. It is Hogwarts, because you both recognize that you are my heirs, I may finally speak to you.
Harry and Hermione looked at each other and smirked.
Harry - Well, this is different. While we're talking, can Dumbles or the bat enter our minds or use telepathy, not that I think they know it, to listen to our conversations?"
Hogwarts - No, young heir, they can not hear anything that is discussed this way.
Hermione - Well, what if the headmaster orders you to tell him what is discussed?
Hogwarts - No my young heiress. I am loyal only to you and my students. Because you both are my only heirs, the heirs of the Founders by blood and magic, you may command me as you will. However, if an order goes against the safety of my students, I may refuse.
Harry - Okay, understandable. But what exactly can you do? What does this mean?
Hogwarts - It means that if you need anything, simply contact me this way and we can converse like we are now. I can give you total control of the wards and you both are completely protected within my walls. Any others you wish me to protect more so than my other students will be so protected.
Harry - Okay, well, that list is two long, Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood. But we don't want control of the wards right now. Also, can you report on the headmaster to us?
Hogwarts - Yes I can, if you so wish. Also, the portraits know that you are to be obeyed as well. They will not report anything to the headmaster that you tell them not to.
Hermione - Can you take away a teacher's ability to take points? And stop another teacher for taking points for said teacher?
Hogwarts - I can.
Hermione - Great, we will probably have you do that to Snape sooner rather than later.
Hogwarts - It will be my pleasure.
With that, Hogwarts receded form their heads and they were left in silence as they made their way up to the castle. The sorting went as it did the previous year, Luna was sorted into Ravenclaw with Harry and Hermione, but Ginny was sorted into Gryffindor with her bothers. They saw the slight look of disappointment on her face when she looked over at them but they smiled at her, reassuring her that they would still spend time with her.
Part way through the feast Harry noticed a slight disturbance at the staff table, Snape, McGonagall and Dumbledore stood and left the Great Hall. Hogwarts informed them that Chris and Ron had flown a car straight into the Whomping Willow. They had to fight very hard to not snort into their drinks or smirk when they heard that. Harry did notice that Luna was staring at them more.
He whispered, "What is it Luna?"
She said, "It's just that your magic is reaching out to each other and to the castle. It's strange. When you guys are close enough, you magic intermingles with each other, then reaches out to the castle and the castle's magic is reaching at you and Hermione as well."
Harry and Hermione glanced at each other and shrugged, Harry turned back to Luna and said, "Don't worry Luna, after I look at your mind defenses, I will be able to tell you some of what is going on. We just don't want Dumbles and Snape to look into your mind and get it from you."
Luna nodded and continued to eat her pudding. The feast continued as usual from there, Harry and Hermione let Luna be taken with the other first years to be shown to the common room. They went up a bit later and sat down on the couch by the fire in the common room and pulled out their books to read some before going to sleep, both were happy to be back but also disappointed that they would have nothing to do in their classes.
A/N - I know this one was long but it sort of just flowed and I couldn't figure out where to cut it off, so I just went with it. Hope to have the next one up soon (as in by the end of the weekend) but I may need to put a hold on it in favor of some studying.