Chapter 7

The new normal, days in the life of a ward

The next day Aries took him by portkey to an actual chateau in the south of France next to Aix-en-Provence. The place was huge and accordingly had a big staff of five house elves and ten witches and wizards all keeping it in order. They spent not just the rest of the day there but the night and the following day as well. Harry was left in the care of one of the staff's two children, a boy one year older named Victor and a girl three years younger, Emily. The boy knew a bit of English but the girl spoke only French. Still they managed to understand each other as the two showed Harry the beautiful gardens and then the stables which housed not only normal horses but Thestrals too, winged horse like creatures visible only to people who had seen death and the big winged Abraxan horses. It felt weird sleeping in the high ceiling bedroom in the castle that night but after a day of excitement the weird feeling of a new bed turn quickly into snores.

In the morning, after they ate breakfast with some of the staff, Aries and Emily's and Victor's father, Alexander, the castle's custodian, went outside to finish inspecting the estate. Harry was told to come along. As they were going towards the stables, he thought they would take a carriage. But instead found two house elves had prepared two of the winged horses with saddles, one of which was a double saddle.

'We'll ride those?' Harry asked astonished.

'Yes, haven't ridden one since three years ago near Canberra.' Added Aries

'You will be riding double with me, young master.' Said Alexander. Alexander helped Harry by levitating him to the front saddle of the first Abraxan, a beautiful blond almost golden coloured specimen while Aries mounted on the second horse, a black haired ill-tempered stallion. When Alexander was behind him the two animals started moving, picking up speed before he felt the wings hit his legs and they were up in the air. It wasn't as smooth as riding a broom, there was an up and down movement dictated by the wings but unlike the broom, Harry felt the power and magic the animal emanated, the play of muscles on the animal's neck and thighs made him wonder how much time one needed to train such a creature. The Black stallion flew alongside them for a while but then Aries spurred him faster and the two flew up ahead. The flight took a little over two hours and Alexander pointed out to Harry some landmarks from the estate and its boundaries. Harry found out then that Muggles didn't know about its existence nor could they come inside. It was a protection that enabled the huge horses to fly freely all around the gardens, a good thing too, since the beasts needed a lot of work out, unlike normal horses, who could be kept inside smaller paddocks for a longer period of time.

They ate lunch outside as a picnic with both Abraxan grazing a few meters away from them before they had to leave back to England. Harry didn't realize it until he said his good byes to Victor and the rest that he really didn't want to go, which was odd, because this was supposed to be his punishment for him sneaking out from the Weasleys' but it didn't feel like punishment, more like a vacation.

'Can we have Abraxan horses here?' asked Harry as they arrived home.

'There used to be some housed at Black Manor, but they were moved to France a few years back.'

'Why?'

'Arcturus Black was the one that took care of them, when he could no longer do it due to his declining health, he chose to send them to Alexander.'

'So we could get them back again?' Harry asked and then froze, since when was there a we? And surely he had no right to ask such a thing. 'Sorry.'

'No, it's a good idea. But unfortunately until my schedule clears up a bit or you grow up to take care of them, they will have to stay in France.'

'Me? Take care of them?'

'If you want them here.'

'I wouldn't know where to start.'

'Then perhaps you can ask Alexander to show you next time we go visit.'

'I'd like that.'

'Good, now, here is your homework for the rest of the afternoon.'

'Homework?'

'You didn't think your punishment was just riding Abraxan, did you? You will have to write two scrolls of parchment on the characteristics and differences between Abraxan, Thestrals and Unicorns. I expect it done three days from now, and you won't have much time tomorrow, as we will be visiting London and the ministry. Hop to it.'

'Where am I supposed to find information on these?' Harry asked

'You have a library here, use it.'

Use it, he said. The room was filled with books, where would he know which book helped and which didn't?


They arrived at the ministry via the Floo network. Aries had a few short meetings in the temporary office dedicated to Wizengamot members. It was a series of 17 Cubicle type rooms which were quite spacious on the inside that were booked on occasion by Lords or members who didn't hold a job inside the ministry, when they needed to discuss legislative or judiciary problems with other members or Ministry employees.

Harry had to sit through Aries talking with Minister Fudge about Ministry funds, a man from the Goblin Liaison office discussing how to best approach Goblins with regard to the frozen vaults of some indebted Wizards, Madame Umbridge pitching her law wanting to limit Forest rights to Centaurs and one or two more Lords dropping in to get Aries's opinion on an initiative or law from the IWC and how it may affect their financial dealings from the Mainland. It was not particularly fun, but Harry found himself listening intently how his guardian steered Fudge away from the idea of raising taxes on the salaries for more funds instead suggesting lessening the rules and regulations for foreign investors, making the country more appealing to the outsiders and getting new businesses as tax payers. Or how Mr. Dirk Creswell thanked Aries at the end for the Letter of recommendation to Steel-Grip, the head of Gringotts, notoriously known for refusing the Ministry's requests for an audience.

By noon and after the tedious Madam Umbridge Harry was glad the ministry appointments finally ended and they went out in London to grab lunch and returned home after stopping in Diagon Alley for a visit to Madame Malkin and the apothecary.


'Harry, this is the inventory from your Vault. It arrived while we were out.' Aries handed him an unopen envelope. The list itself was much longer than it looked from the outside and was split into monetary assets where the sum of 171'073 Galleons, 2'894 Sickles and 89 Knuts and an additional 57'000 pounds Muggle Money, artefacts, the list was 179 articles long and did not include jewellery, which was in itself another category with a list of 42 pieces ranging from rings to tiaras, knowledge, with a list of 347 book titles and investments with a total of 11 company names and the percentage owned in them.

Additionally an extra slip of paper detailed the remaining money in his trust vault: 13'007 Galleons, 643 Sickles and 21 Knuts. He had barely spent 1'000 Galleons in two years, almost.

He was rich. Which was great, and he already knew that, but he never knew just how rich he was until now. He could have a fairly easy life, if he lived moderately, he wouldn't need to work right after Hogwarts. But maybe he could do something better than just spend what his parents and grandparents built into a fortune. He looked from his list to where Aries was reading through some of his own correspondence. The man had built a great fortune, probably, Harry didn't know for certain, but it stood to reason, with what he had seen in the past few days. If he were to teach him how the system worked…

'Do you need anything, Harry?' Aries asked seeing the boy looking at him, lost in thought.

'Yes, I was thinking about the Vault and the investments and everything. I don't know really where to start.'

'Well, you usually start with what you know.' Aries put down his papers and extended a hand. 'May I?'

Harry gave him the Gringotts letter.

'Your monetary assets are easy to understand.'

'They are. Jewellery is also self-explanatory, and the books too. So that leaves the artefacts and the investments.'

'Artefacts are objects your family gathered through the centuries that have either magical value or sentimental value. Most have also monetary value but artefacts, especially magical ones are the last to be sold in case of a family's financial crisis. They are usually unique or very rare and tend to be related to family secrets.'

'Isn't it more the books?'

'They can be books also. But for example, and this is at a first glance, at least 30% of the books listed here are normal spell books that you can find reprinted and buy them at Florish and Botts. There are books of family spells but those are given to the next generation to study after they finish school.'

'Why not before?'

'Unique family spells are usually complex magic. Simple spells are too quickly discovered or rediscovered to be the focus of family spells. So, when you start learning family magic you have to be capable of understanding it.'

'So I shouldn't read those books until I am older.'

'I advise waiting until after your OWLs at the very least.'

'What about investments?'

'They usually make or lose you money.'

'They can lose money too?'

'Yes, quite easily if you're reckless. That is why you should never invest everything in one place and always have a sum saved up you can fall back on.'

'How much is a good sum to keep as a saving account?'

'That depends on your lifestyle and what you are willing to risk for an investment prospect. Looking at your vault I'd say you're pretty well off, but' he set the paper on the table in front of Harry. 'Tap the words monetary assets with your wand twice.' Harry did so and the Sums became more detailed, by year and month for the past twelve years.

'Wow.'

'Normally it goes back three years, but since you haven't had any updates before now, Silvermane included the whole period since you were born.' Aries explained. 'And see here, these six investments predate your birthday.' Aries pointed out six names on the list which were there at the beginning of 1980.

'Now, these three were done in march 1980, but didn't start giving back but one year later. They were new companies, usually they need some time before they generate profit.'

'So if I invest the money won't come back right away.' Harry summed up.

'When investing in new companies, no. Their product or service needs to gain recognition and sometimes your money, the investors' money is needed to buy premises, material for production and pay the people until the product can be sold or until money returns.'

'Is one year normal?'

'It is wise to think that for at least one year your investment won't bring you any money. But see here, this two that were bought in June, at the end of the year made your family quite a nice sum.'

'These would be existing companies.'

'Yes.'

'But why would their owners give them away if they are so profitable?'

'There are two reasons, well two main reasons. One would be that they are expanding, needing more capital or one of the owners decides to sell part or all his share of the company for personal reasons.'

'The amount in December, it's less than the investment.'

'Yes, what you get every year, sometimes monthly, but it's too much of a bother to send people money monthly, so normally it's twice a year, will be less than your original investment sum. Recovering your investment takes time. This one here, was recovered in three years and then two extra years brought you profit doubling your original funds.'

'But then it stopped.'

'The company was dissolved at the beginning of 1986.'

'That can happen?'

'Yes, and sometimes even before you recover your money.'

'It doesn't seem a reliable way of making money then.'

'Unless you know the market and how it fluctuates. But the Wizarding world economy is less complex as the Muggle one. And you're in luck, the Potter family is one of the few who have a Goblin taking care of its vault.'

'That makes a difference?'

'Oh yes, Goblins understand gold much better than we ever will.'

'Then why doesn't everyone have a Goblin…employee?' was that the right word? Harry didn't know, but looking at Aries's smile, it probably wasn't.

'Don't let the Goblins hear you calling them a Wizard's employee.'

'Sorry.'

'It's OK, you don't know. Goblins are very proud beings. Like other intelligent beings such as Centaurs, Merpeople, elves. They have their own culture, their own pride.'

'House elves too?'

'Of course, just because you've seen them serving us doesn't mean they don't have pride. Their pride comes from serving. Doing their job perfectly and without being seen is what they strive for.'

'It doesn't seem right though, for them to serve wizards like that.'

'You're probably thinking of mistreated elves. But maybe I should let Pan explain this.'

As if on cue, the elf came in with a tray of snacks and two hot chocolates.

'Go ahead, ask him.' Aries encouraged and the elf looked suspiciously from Aries to Harry.

'Er, Pan, why do you serve Wizards like you do?' The elf's ears twitched.

'Well young master, I only serve Lord Black the way I do. Normally an elf would act more like the elves at Black Manor.'

'But why would they?'

'A house elf's law is his or her master's will. We were born to serve.'

'But why, I mean, you have incredible magic, why serve wizards?' Harry pressed on. Would Pan be upset? Instead the elf grinned.

'To answer that, you must first understand how house elves came to be.' Pan began 'It was about 5000 years ago, maybe more, history can become fuzzy even for long lived creatures. Back then wizard communities didn't exist, not like they do today. Most wizard families kept to themselves and maybe they knew one other family with the gift, if any. Back then it was hard to find help that was not muggle and if you were a witch and you had 3 or 4 children, a muggle helper in your home could lead to delicate questions, even prosecution. It wasn't just the Middle Ages that wanted to burn witches at the stake. Anyway, we don't know who first invented it, but somewhere around that time a spell was created that allowed old witches and wizards to create helpers for their sons and daughters by dying before their time was up.'

'How did that help?'

'One, there was one less mouth to feed in the house. And you have to understand, these people were very old, mostly no longer capable of doing magic except in very small amounts. But their sacrifice created a servant that would forever be tied to that house because helping that family was the life force that sustained the servant.'

'Naturally, since then the servants evolved. They no longer are created by wizards, but rather create themselves. Still, the highest law remains the same, the serving and protection of wizards, because even if two elves can have babies, they still depend on the magic of a Wizarding family to sustain them.'

'Elves were created by wizards who loved their families. And those families in turn loved the elves because they were the living embodiment of their dearly departed.' Explained Aries 'The elves manifested that love through serving and they continue to do so, even if wizards forgot, even if wizards in abusing elves, in fact abuse their ancestors' sacrifice, the elves remember.'

'But that's just awful. Why would wizards forget?'

'Once the elves birthed other elves some families gave the smaller generations away to other wizarding families to care for. At some point, they stopped being altruistic and saw it as a means to make money, selling elves. From there, elves were viewed as property.'

'But that's not right.'

'It's not, but changing people's views is not easy, and many refuse to see beyond their own cultural beliefs. Humility and subservience are viewed as signs of weakness when in fact they are signs of love.'

'It's still not right.'

'You will find very few elves that think that way. They need a wizard family to be complete, even if the family is abusive, they don't mind, as long as they serve.'

'But Dobby.'

'There's always an odd one in the lot. If you're interested in improving the elves living conditions, I'm afraid you'll have to go through the ministry, imposing rules on wizards that would ensure they do not mistreat their servants. But that is something to discuss another time. We won't change the world today.'

Harry nodded. He was 12 years old. He saving house elves would have to wait until he actually grew up. 'What about the Goblins?'

'Ah, back to the Goblins. Well, they don't need us to defend themselves for starters. Goblins are very proud beings that believe in strength above all else. They are extremely clever and love to get the upper hand on anyone. So when dealing with the Goblins you need to know two things: don't cross them, if you make a commitment, keep it. They will too, their word is gold. But they like to twist words, so be very careful about the wording you and they use. Be very specific and try to close up as many loop holes that you can find. They rarely give away their secrets. Most that work for Gringotts, like Bill, have to make an unbreakable vow never to disclose any secrets they might discover while working for the bank. That is why they rarely work with wizards as managers of vaults.'

'So why are they managing my vault?'

'Well for one, your family has a decent amount of money, and more than that, I think they liked your father and his father before him. Something about them being just the right amount of clever bastards that they kept the Goblins on their toes. Or so Silvermane explained.'

'What if they don't like me?'

'I highly doubt that will happen. But if you want to make sure you keep the Goblins as your vault's managers, I can teach you more about their culture until you come of age.'

'So until then?'

'Until then, as I am your guardian, they will not even think of giving up being the managers of your vault. But I have to warn you, learning about their culture means learning their language.'

'But how can I learn if I am at Hogwarts all the time?'

'There are always your holidays, but to learn a language should be a continued effort. I will have to speak with your head of house to give you tutoring hours on Saturday mornings.'

'Tutoring hours?'

'Yes, Hogwarts curriculum is the essentials for a wizard. But some families have specific lessons they want their children to take. That is why on Saturday there are the so called tutoring hours, from 9 to 12, three hours of extra lessons asked for by the student's family.'

'I didn't know they had them.'

'They are not common knowledge for Muggle Born or Muggle Raised.'

'Why not?'

'Because these are lessons paid for the family and they usually relate to the family's heritage. I was thinking we should first see how your lessons during the summer holiday turn out and then we can discuss what will continue during the school year.'

'I guess.' Harry was thinking about Hermione and every other Muggle Born who couldn't take part in these sort of lessons. It seemed a bit unfair.

'Now I think it's time we got ready for bed. Tomorrow will be a busy day. You'll get a crash course in Etiquette and Pure Blood rules at a party before we head to the ministry in the evening.'

'But I wanted to finish my essay tomorrow…'

'You still can. Between lunch and the party.'


That was really hard to order. I had the chapter written down differently and decided to change last minute. I hope it's not too over the place.

Thank you for the nice reviews, I will try to post another chapter around the weekend, but I make no promises. Until then, let me know what you think and have a nice, cool rest of the week.