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"Harry…on behalf of Grace, Nat and myself, I'd like to say one more thing…"
"What's that?"
"Welcome to the family!"
Chapter Eight: Strange Happenings
"Harry?" Natalie asked
"Hmmmm?" came the drowsy reply.
"What should we do today?"
"Don't know, what do you want to do?"
"I want to know more about you…"
"Huh?" Harry was wide-awake now, "what do you mean?" he asked cautiously.
"About YOU Harry! About your history, your past…you!" Natalie held her breath.
Harry went quiet, contemplating Natalie's last statement.
"Alright then, I was going to have to tell you anyway. How about we get up and ready, get something to eat, then I'll go and pick up one thing before we get started, aye?"
"Yea sounds great. What do you need to get?" Natalie said excitedly, over-joyed that Harry was willing to open up so much for her.
"Wait and see Nat…it's a surprise…" Harry got up and entered the bathroom, just managing to catch Natalie's last comment which left a huge grin on his face.
"I hate surprises…"
Two hours later, Natalie was sitting comfortably in the passenger's seat of Harry's car with the window open.
"Where are we going?" She asked again, hoping to catch Harry off guard so he'd answer.
"Not telling…anyway, we're here now."
"What? Where?" exclaimed Natalie, looking frantically out her window. Laughing, Harry pointed to a large 40 story building.
"What's that?" Natalie queried, as she and Harry got out of the car.
"It's like a bank, except for your valuables like jewelry or important things and whatever." Harry explained as he changed back to Evan.
"Whoa, I still can't get used to the whole wandless magic thing!"
Evan chortled. "Come on then," and with that he led Natalie into the building before them.
Upon reaching the 36th by way of an elevator, Evan went straight up to the solid steel doors before them. He pulled out a card and held it in front of a scanner. It beeped twice and the steel door slid open. Behind those doors was a reception desk with a solid, three inch thick, glass barrier. A man who looked to be in his mid-forties sat behind it looking extremely bored but perked up when he saw Evan and Natalie.
"Hi," said Evan when he got to the desk, "I'm Evan Black, here to empty my safe box, I won't need it anymore."
"Yeah sure," said the man checking on his computer. "Scan your card to the door on your left and once you've finished bring your key and card here, though, can you please leave your safe door open?"
"Okay, cheers!" Evan did as instructed and put his card up to be scanned once again. The door opened, Evan walked through then turned around. "Coming?" he asked his shell-shocked fiancé.
"Whoa…talk about your high-security!" Natalie said, shaking out of her dazed state. "Yeah…I'm coming."
Evan led Natalie through rows and rows of safe boxes until he stopped at number 711. Evan extracted a tiny key from his pocket and placed it in the lock. Opening the door, he pulled out a steel box about 30cm long and 20cm wide. Taking the box to the nearest table he opened it. Inside it was a magically shrunken trunk and several rolled up pieces of parchment.
"Your release papers!" Natalie gasped as she unrolled the parchments.
"Yea, they owl-post it a day or two after I left…along with a hundred thousand gallons compensation." replied Evan.
"What's in the trunk?"
"Tell you when we get home."
"Oh fine…" huffed Natalie.
After reaching Evan's apartment Evan changed back to Harry.
"So you going to tell me what's in the trunk?" asked a highly excited Natalie.
"Yea…about that…I don't actually know what's in it myself…" Harry admitted.
"What! What do you mean you don't know…it's your trunk!" Natalie said, slightly put out.
"All I know is that it's full of money, wizard's money though. There might be a few artifacts, swords, weaponry, whatever ancient wizarding families like to stick in their vaults. The entire Black family fortune and the Potter's as well…not to mention my sword…" Harry stated.
"Wait a minute! You had the collected family fortunes of the Black and Potter family….which from what I've read is a lot of money…why do you even work?" Natalie said, "and…what do you mean your sword?"
"Well to answer your first question…I work because I want to earn my own way in life, not living off other people's hard work. Anyway, I like my job. Now about the sword; technically it's not mine but Godric Gryffindor's…I somehow became his heir when the sorting hat deemed me worthy during the whole Chamber of Secrets fiasco…the hat was created to judge those worthy to carry the line of the founders once all the remaining blood heirs passed away. Slytherin's line died out with Voldemort. Gryffindor's heirs all died out in the 16th century I believe; so the bloody hat seemed to think that I'd make a good magical heir to Gryffindor" Harry grumbled.
Natalie's mouth was open in shock. Laughing, Harry waved his hand toward the trunk. With a white glow, Harry was able to return the trunk to its original size as well as unlocking it.
Natalie gasped audibly when Harry opened the trunk. The first and most noticeable item that resided in the trunk was the gleaming sword of Godric Gryffindor. Harry reached in and pulled it out; he held it in his hands almost as if he were wary of it.
"Is…is that the sword that…you…killed …Him with?"
"Yea…it is. Call Him Voldemort, he's dead…no harm can come from saying his name." Harry replied wisely.
"Oh…" Peering inside the trunk, all Natalie could see was disoriented piles of shrunken gold with several books scattered about, some weaponry, armor and a lot of other things she couldn't identify.
"Hmmm…." Harry mused, "maybe if I emptied all this stuff into a vault or something we could have a better look."
"Yeah, maybe we should ask Dad about it, I mean he works with the ministry in the Department of Foreign Affairs, he could get some information about what may have been in your vaults before, and it'll be easy for him because he used to be one of the best Aurors during the War." Natalie suggested.
"Really? Do you think that'll be okay with him…only if it's not too much trouble…"
"Of course it won't be…Dad'll do anything for family and you are family now!"
"Thanks Nat…that means a lot to me…"
"I know hun…I know…"
An hour later found Harry and Natalie sitting comfortably in Michael's and Grace's lounge.
"Thanks a lot Michael; this means a lot to me." Harry said gratefully. Harry and Natalie had explained the situation of Harry's trunk to Michael who had whole-heartedly agreed to get help from the historians and old Aurors from the ministry.
"No problem Harry, I've always wanted to see what was in an older wizarding family vault….it's always intrigued me." Michael replied.
"So Harry, what are you planning to do now?" Grace asked.
"I'm not sure actually…I've quit at the hospital now…because I've got enough to be retired and I want to just sit back and enjoy the rest of my life…it'll be a bit dull but oh well."
"Well in that case…I've got to go to England for a while and talk to their minister because they're asking for international aid against a new Dark Lord…I was wondering if you wanted to come along." Michael asked cautiously.
"Dad, no way…I mean...look at what they did to him! He….he….needs…" Natalie stuttered.
"…I need to face my past or I'll never get over it..." Harry finished for her, "sounds like a plan Michael…when do we leave?"
"That's the spirit Harry! We leave in a month; July 21st "
"Alright then…how are we getting there?" Harry asked.
"The Muggle way; we're flying."
"Why's that?"
"No idea actually…it'll be fun though. One of my colleagues is going to be coming with us, she's bringing her family too because she'll be stationed in England for a couple of months, working for our magical embassy."
"Ummmm…at the risk of sounded like an incompetent idiot…but why do you have to go to England anyway Dad?" Natalie questioned.
Michael sighed, "England has called for international assistance in another battle with another Dark Lord, it's no where near as major as the fight against You-Know-Who but they want to finish it as soon as possible before it gets out of hand. I have to go to assess the urgency of their request so that we know the number of troops that we may be sending out to help."
"Ohhh…who's this new Dark Lord?" Natalie asked.
"Don't know myself but the Ministry there are going to send out cars to pick us up; when we get to the Ministry they'll brief us on how much they know."
"Well then…looks like England can't keep themselves out of trouble…" Harry sighed, "Thanks for having us over but I need to go visit one of my old patients; Ashley today…we'll see you in a week guys."
"Alright then…see you then." Michael stood up with Harry and Natalie and followed them to the door.
"Bye Michael, bye Grace, thanks for having us over." Harry called back to them.
It was around 7pm that night but Harry and Natalie had one more visit to make.
"I'm still not happy with you agreeing to go back to England…" Natalie stated.
"I know Nat but this is something I have to do…I'm going to have to face my past…it's not like I'm going to see any of my old friends or anything and as far as their Ministry is concerned; I'm Evan Black, a very lucky muggle who married the most gorgeous witch in the world!" Harry said sweetly.
"Nice try…it'll take a lot more to make me happy about this…" Natalie replied, struggling against Harry's charm.
"Is that a smile I see future Mrs. Potter?" Harry said cheekily.
"Oh stop it you," Natalie said, playfully hitting Harry on the arm, "change back to Evan so we can go in and say hi."
Harry and Natalie were walking towards the front door of the Wilson's house about to see Ashley for the first time after her operation.
"Alright then," Harry changed back to Evan, glowing pure white again while the changes took place. After that he knocked on the solid wooden door twice.
There was a lot of noise coming from inside that raised some curiosity between Evan and Natalie but they had little time to think about as the door was suddenly open by Ashley herself.
"Evan! Natalie!" Ashley squealed in delight and quickly hugged them both.
"Hey Ashley, how are you?" Evan asked.
"I'm good…well don't just stand there, come in!" said the excited 14 year old.
Laughing, the two guests were ushered into the lounge which was currently occupied by Jade and Steve.
"Hello Evan, Natalie. It's nice to see you two again." Greeted Jade warmly.
"Nice to see you too Jade."
Evan and Natalie took seats opposite the two Wilson's while Ashley seated herself comfortably between them. They spent a long time just chatting away over glasses of wine (Ashley with a glass of Coke) and catching up with each other.
"Hey guess what Evan!" Ashley said.
"What's up?"
"We're going to England for a while!"
"What? Really?"
"Oh…I almost forgot to mention that," Jade said, "I got to go there for my work for a couple of months..."
"Wow…we're going there for a holiday too; we leave in just over a month," Natalie said.
"That's awesome!" Ashley said, "I have to go to a new school while we're there."
"What school is that?" Evan asked.
"Well…it's a private school…you won't have heard of it, it's really exclusive…" Ashley replied hesitantly.
"Come on…try me." Evan said mischievously.
Ashley replied after giving some thought to it for a while, thinking that it wouldn't hurt to tell Evan as she trusted him with her life. It's not like he was going to know anyway…
"It's called Hogwarts…"
Author's Notes: Wow…this is my longest chapter ever…probably because I'm sooooo happy with getting over 100 reviews! Hehe…I'm making up for the other short ones but unfortunately this will probably be the longest any of my chapters are because I wanted to put quite a bit into it. Hope you enjoyed the ending. I'm not certain when the next chapter will be up but it should be no longer than a month. Huge huge thanks to all my reviewers!
Fire-Pawz
