I own nothing. Except every season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD. Harry Potter belongs to JKR, WB, Bloomsbury, Scholastic, Raincoast etc. Buffy belongs to Fox.
Here's to entering the 5000 words category for the story
Chapter 4 To Gringotts and a book shop
One week later Harry was prepared for his excursion to London. He had arranged for his Aunt to watch James for an entire day. All it had taken was the promise of repaying all the money the Dursleys had spent on the nanny while Harry was still in school. Harry had dyed and gelled his hair and put in his colored contacts. He also used makeup to cover his scar, glamours couldn't cover it but apparently Muggle makeup could. He didn't even recognize himself in the mirror.
Harry took care of James's needs before setting off that morning. Once again he left the house under his father's cloak. He traveled invisibly until he reached the local train station where he used a bathroom stall to become visible again.
The ride to London was uneventful. Harry used it to catch up on missed sleep. Not only was James inclined to play at night but Harry consistently had nightmares where Cedric, Sheila and Sirius took it in turns to blame him for their deaths. He was starting to feel some effects from sleep deprivation.
Worse yet, as time had passed his incidents of 'accidental magic' had gotten worse. It had gone from expanding bags, to opening the window to let Hedwig in from across the room, and once he even summoned James's bottle from downstairs before Harry was even completely awake. Accio was supposed to require intent with a wand, not wandless vague awareness of a crying baby.
When Harry reached London he took the subway to Charing Cross Road where he entered the pub that muggles couldn't see. For once no one recognized him. Not that there were many people there. Tom, as always, stood at the bar but instead of the usual crowd of merrily gossiping witches and wizards there were only a couple of groups, keeping to themselves, and quickly eating breakfast as their eyes darted nervously.
This was slightly unsettling to Harry. The war has begun, changes have started now that everyone realizes what danger they are in. Harry hurried through the pub to the courtyard behind and after tapping a certain brick entered the alley.
Things had changed since the time he had spent there when he was 13. Gone were the crowds and cheery displays. All the stores were papered with the Ministry's guide to personal safety and wanted posters of known Death Eaters. Harry was surprised that there was no poster of Sirius.Maybe they finally admitted he was innocent. Too late but at least he will be remembered accurately.
Harry had a list of things he wanted to do but figured that Gringotts was most important. That was why he came anyway. He hurried to the white pillared building. He immediately went to a service desk and asked the goblin there if he could meet with someone from the Wills and Inheritance department.
Harry was escorted to an office where a goblin asked, "What is your name?"
"Harry James Potter."
The goblin squinted at him and then waved a hand and looked startled. "You look like Mr. Potter but you have the wrong colour eyes and hair and you're not wearing a glamour. How'd you do that?"
"Muggle methods." Harry was surprised the goblin was asking him this.
"Muggles can do that? I had no idea. I am going to have to ask you to confirm your identity. Please place a drop of blood on this parchment." With that the goblin shoved a parchment and dagger across the desk to Harry.
Harry did as prompted and was surprised when the blood he had shed moved and flowed to form the words: 'Harry James Potter, son of James Potter and Lily (Evans) Potter.' The shine of blood on parchment reminded him horribly of last year and the lines upon lines of 'I must not tell lies' written in his blood. Harry hastily shoved the parchment across the table to the goblin, who looked at it and nodded.
"Thank you, Mr. Potter, I had to be sure you are who you claim to be. I am Gornuk. I suspect you are here about a Mr. Sirius Black's will." The goblin said this quite politely.
Eyes wide Harry responded, "No, I wasn't even aware he had a will or that he would leave me anything. I was actually planning to write my own will."
"Ah, yes. We can file a will for you but first you should probably hear Mr. Black's will. We have been waiting for you to come before opening it. Actually, by Goblin law a will cannot be read unless the chief beneficiary is present. This causes problems when the deceased has left the majority of his or her estate to someone unexpected. I cannot tell you how many times we have set up a will reading only to not be able to open the envelope because the primary inheritor is not present. Luckily, Mr. Black indicated verbally that you would need to be here to open the will."
"Er, I guess I will hear Sirius's will then handle my own." Harry really didn't want to hear this. He sure didn't want any of Sirius's stuff. He would much rather have Sirius back.
The Goblin pulled a relatively plain envelope out of the desk and had Harry touch it. At that touch the end opened.
The Goblin read: "I, Sirius Black, do hereby void all previous last will and testaments on this the 10th of May 1996. I leave the following:
To Andromeda Black Tonks: I leave 100 000 Galleons. You and your daughter are the only blood family I acknowledge.
To Remus Lupin, my brother in all but blood: I leave 100 000 Galleons. Do with it what you wish. Make sure you have enough left for a certain potion.
To Harry Potter: I leave everything else I own, investments, property and cash. I also leave you a letter that is inside the will envelope. I hope you use the money for something you enjoy.
This concludes my will. I left the Malfoys and Lestranges exactly what they deserve. Nothing. They will not be allowed to contest this will.
Signed Sirius O. Black"
Gornuk handed Harry a plain white envelope. This was too much for Harry at the moment so he just put the envelope in pocket intending to read it later. "He wrote investments, property and cash. Just how much did he have?"
"The Blacks were a wealthy and powerful family once. In recent generations the power has decreased but their wealth has not. The family has investments in many, many companies in the wizarding world. There are over 20 properties listed as belonging to them, now you, in the UK and Europe. The liquid funds in Mr. Blacks vault total over 2 million galleons. You are now a very wealthy man."
"Okay, er, could I transfer 100 000 galleons to a business named Weasley Wizarding Wheezes. They don't have to pay me back, but attach a note asking them to help their family as much as possible with the profits." Harry knew the Weasleys would never accept money from him but if Sirius's money could be used to make WWW more profitable the twins would be able to ease some of the financial burdens on the family. "Also, can you delay notice of the will being read for a while, I'm really not supposed to be here."
"I can legally wait one month before notifying the other beneficiaries," Gornuk informed Harry.
"That will be long enough. I was wondering if I could pay to have my investments monitored by Gringotts or another Goblin firm." Harry knew, from discussions at Headquarters last year, that the Goblins were going to be neutral in the war. They thought that this was a wizard squabble that they had no part in. While their help would have been appreciated, Harry couldn't blame them. As someone who had no choice but to be at the center of a war, he didn't begrudge any race the option of staying out of it. And having his money in the hands of a neutral party seemed like a good idea. If he won, there would be no harm done financially but if he lost then James would have the funds to go set up a life overseas.
"I can arrange for investment department to handle your businesses. They will assign you an investment councilor who will contact you to see what changes you would like to make." Harry agreed to this plan.
An earlier part of the conversation came back to him. "Wait, you said a will can't read until the main beneficiary is present. Was my parents' will ever read?"
Gornuk again opened the desk drawer and pulled out an envelope. "Apparently not. It seems that we were unable to get you here shortly after their deaths and by the time you did visit the bank, we had forgotten about it. I apologize for that. It does happen sometimes but most feel the delay is worth the guarantee of privacy regarding the contents. I can read this for you now if you want."
Harry touched the envelope, which opened. Gornuk said, "It simply states that if one of your parents died they left everything to the other one and if they both died everything would be left to you. Your guardianship was to be Sirius Black but if he was unavailable then it would fall to Remus Lupin. There is also a note stating that they knew of his medical condition and wanted him to have guardianship anyways. Since Mr. Black has passed on, your legal guardian will be Remus Lupin."
Gornuk handed Harry three vault keys, a stack of papers and said, "Here are the keys to the Potter family vault, the Black family vault and Sirius Black's personal vault, the papers list all Potter and Black investments and properties." Harry took them.
"What do I need to do to make my will?"
"I will give you a certain parchment and a spelled envelope. Once you have written your bequests place a drop of blood at the bottom of the parchment and place it in the envelope. Once I put the envelope in the drawer it will not reappear until you die. If you place blood on another will, this one will be voided and will not reappear on your death."
Harry did as he was told. He left sums of money to the Weasleys, and more to Ron and Hermione. He left everything else to James and named Molly and Arthur as guardians, with a list of ten other names for if they were unavailable. This was war and he had no idea who would survive and he wanted to make sure that no blood relative would raise James. The list was daunting including Bill Weasley, Remus Lupin, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, Professor McGonagall, Nymphadora Tonks, and finally the Weasley Twins. If none of these people survived James was to go to an orphanage in Australia. Under no circumstances was he to be left with his maternal grandparents or paternal great aunt and uncle.
Once the envelope had disappeared into the mysterious drawer Harry asked to go to his personal vault. He couldn't bring himself to use one of the new keys. It was just too soon. Harry then took half of the money he had out of the vault. Things were dangerous and he didn't know when he would be able to return to the alley. He also needed a lot of supplies for himself to train and for James. Harry once again experienced a bag that held more than it should just because he wanted it to. He then exchanged half the money he had taken for pounds. If he ever needed to hide, it would be easier to do it in the Muggle world and he needed to funds to do so.
After checking to make sure his disguise was still in place. Harry entered a now busier, but no less dreary Diagon Alley to do some shopping. His first stop was Flourish and Blott's. If Hermione could see me now. Oh, she'd be so proud. He needed an unbelievable number of books but headed for the section that he was most concerned with first: Law, specifically guardianship. He was mainly wondering if Remus was actually his guardian and about the people he had listed for custody of James if something happened to him.
After making sure no one was watching him, he pulled out a book on child custody and after flipping a few pages found the section that answered his second question.
'No child, under the age of eleven, will be in the care of any person that is not of age, that is to say seventeen or older, even if the person is the child's parent. Any child in the care of an underaged person will be taken into custody by the Ministry of Magic, who will decide who is the best guardian for said child.'
Oh, crap.
There it is. My twist. The whole thing that made me write this.
Sorry for the cliffhanger but it seemed a good place to stop.
Thanks for the reviews (there is no need to be pushy). I might post again before the weekend, but I make no promises.
Oh, I'm going to mention my inspirations:
The plot bunny attacked me while I was reading Secrets by potter8668. You can see some connection between these but not a lot.
Also there is Birthday Surprises by Lolly Phoenix, the Little Child to Lead Him by Blue RosesAtMidnight.
I am sure there are others influencing me but those are the best Harry is a dad at Hogwarts stories that I've read.
Anyway TTFN
Krc686 aka apothecaryintraining
P.S. first person to guess the logic of apothecaryintraining in a review gets a mention at the start of the next chapter
