"This is a bank?" Kassel asked. To some it would be seem like he was merely curious. Harry, however, could tell Kassel was struggling to control his excitement.
"Yes, Mr. Potter." Snape said as they entered the building. "It is run by goblins." He gestured to a creature.
"Goblins. How interesting." Harry said. Kassel nodded his agreement.
The three walked up to an open teller. Harry and Kassel stood slightly behind Snape to allow him to do the talking. "Good afternoon, sir. We are here to see about Mr. Harry and Mr. Kassel Potter's vaults." Snape said smoothly, handing the keys over to the goblin.
The goblin looked down at the keys and then at the twins. "Potter, you say?" The goblin asked. At their nod, the goblin continued. "There is a matter with which we must address regarding the two of you. It is urgent."
Kassel looked at Harry who glanced at him and nodded. "What is this matter that you speak of, sir?" Harry asked.
"We would like to address the situation as soon as possible." Kassel added.
The goblin looked between the two as they spoke. "The situation is a private one. If you could follow me then you can speak with a representative of your accounts in a meeting room." The goblin stepped down from his place and gestured for them to follow him as he walked down a series of hallways. "Right in here." He said coming to a stop in front of the door. "Your account representative will be here shortly."
Harry and Kassel nodded in unison as they walked into the room. "Thank you, sir." They said together as they took a seat in two empty seats beside each other on one side of a rectangular table. The goblin nodded to them before leaving.
"I wonder what this could be about." Snape drawled, taking a seat in a chair near the table. Harry and Kassel merely nodded their agreement, and the three waited in silence until the Potter account representative arrived.
"Mr. Potters." A goblin said as he entered the room. "My name is Ragnok, and I am the account manager for the Potter vaults."
"It's a pleasure to meet you Ragnok." Kassel nodded toward him slightly.
"I am Harry, and this is Kassel." Harry finished. "What, may I ask, is this urgent matter that we must address?"
"It seems, Mr. Potter, that someone has been making withdrawals from your family vault as your magical guardian. It is illegal to make withdrawals from a charge's accounts without permission from said charge, especially if the charge is a minor. If did have permission from both of you then it is of no consequence, and we can move onto our next piece of business." Ragnok answered.
Harry and Kassel looked at each other for a moment before turning back to face Ragnok. "What is a magical guardian, Ragnok?" Kassel asked.
Ragnok's eyes widened. "You don't know what a magical guardian is?"
"No." Harry answered. "And we certainly didn't give him permission to take things from our family vault."
Ragnok's eyes narrowed at that. "If you didn't give him permission then we will be able to get back everything he took from you. As you are a minor, you have two options. You can either have a magical guardian, in which case we will need to review your parents' will, so we can pick from their list of guardians, or you can both get emancipated."
"They are only 11. How would they get emancipated?" Snape drawled. He sat quietly in his seat as they spoke, and he was very intrigued by Dumbledore's activities. It seemed that Dumbledore believed that the boys would be pushovers. Oh, how wrong he was, Snape thought.
"We goblins don't have the ridiculous notion that age defines maturity, so we offer this option to those who we believe can handle the responsibilities that come with it." Ragnok answered. "The ministry has no say in the matter. If they do not like the way goblins do things then they can handle their own money and everything else we do for witches and wizards." Snape nodded at his answer.
"That seems reasonable. Harry, Kassel, do you know what you want to do?" Snape asked.
The twins, who had been speaking softly to one another, turned and nodded. "We want to get emancipated, but we would still like to see our parents' will." Kassel said.
"Of course." Ragnok nodded. "First, however, we must do a blood test for each of you, and do the Lordship ritual." He said as he took out a dagger and two pieces of parchment.
"Lordship ritual?" Harry asked him.
"Yes." Ragnok answered. "It's when one claims the Lordship of his house. As you are twins, the blood test will tell us who is older. Once we find out who is older, the oldest will claim the Lordship of the most ancient and noble house of Potter. The Lord of the house has control over everything: the family vaults, properties, and even family members of the house. The Lord will be apart of the wizengamot, a branch of the government that creates and passes laws as well as voting on cases that the Department of Magical Law Enforcement deems necessary."
Harry nodded. "Well then let's begin the blood test." He said with a small smile.
"Just take the dagger and cut your palm. Let your blood fall onto the paper, and once enough blood has fallen onto the parchment, your cut will heal." Ragnok explained as he handed the dagger to Harry and Kassel each as well as a piece of parchment.
They both cut into their palms and squeezed their hands into fists over the parchment, so the blood fell onto it. After a few seconds, the cuts on their palms healed, and a bright light filled the room.