Chapter 10: Inheriting a legacy
Sirius, watched as Harry pulled out the paintings of the teachers whose subjects he was taking. He had conjured a bunch of easels for the paintings, and Harry was placing one painting on each easel. Opening each book, he briefly introduced himself to the professors and explained his situation to them.
They quickly understood his predicament, and more than a few had some choice comments to make against Dumbledore and the deteriorating quality of Hogwart's education.
"Be that as it may," Laura Mendez, Harry's Potions professor finally interrupted, "All this discussion is getting us nowhere. I presume that the reason Harry wanted to speak to us was to chalk up his new schedule?"
"That's right Professor. I've got less than a month left before I return to Hogwarts. Once there, I can't let anyone know that I'm considering other educational opportunities. So any studying will have to be done at night."
The professors started muttering to themselves, trying to figure out how best to tackle the problem.
It was Valentino Marino the professor of Magical History and Culture who figured out a solution. The young thirty-something man, had a way with words. He could describe entire places and cultures so vividly that the listener could practically picture the scene in front of his eyes.
"You need to buy some energy crystals. They are a bit expensive, but if you can afford them then they're the solution to your problem.
Sirius and Harry both looked at each other confused. "Energy crystals?" Sirius asked, entering into the conversation.
"As the name suggests, they're crystals that store energy. Imagine siphoning off the bit of the energy required to fill a crystal, from a creature as large as a dragon. Taking less than a tenth of their energy fills nearly a hundred crystals. One crystal can give you enough energy to work straight through without sleep for a week." Marino explained.
"They sound like just what we need. But forcibly taking energy from creatures …," Harry trailed off uncertainly.
"Oh don't worry about that. The process doesn't cause them the least bit of discomfort. Besides they have to be willing participants in the ritual. Therefore only higher animal forms like dragons can be used. Their energy can't be taken against their will." Marino was quick to assure them.
"Okay, sounds good. Put it on the list Sirius," Harry said, smirking at Sirius.
Sirius gave him a half-hearted glare and then pretended to ignore him for the rest of the conversation.
The energy crystals would certainly help them surmount the problem of lack of time. They spent a few more minutes discussing other ways Harry could continue his preparations at Hogwarts.
Then the topic moved on to figuring out the schedule. Between the twelve of them (ten professors, Harry and Sirius), they managed to thrash out a working plan.
The day would start at half past five, with Sirius teaching Harry Occlumency for an hour. Then the two of them would hit the gym till half past seven, followed by swimming lessons for half an hour.
By eight-fifteen the two of them would get started on making breakfast. By the time they finished eating it would probably be nine, so anyone strolling into the kitchen would notice that Harry was done with breakfast, and wouldn't be joining them.
Each lesson was planned for an hour and a half – the lecture for an hour, and discussions with the professors to clear doubts or set reading assignments, for thirty minutes.
Considering that Harry's friends might choose to stop by Harry's room after their breakfast, it was decided that Harry would then do his Hogwarts homework in his decoy room. He would work on it for an hour after the first lesson ended at ten thirty. He would then have his second lesson till one.
After lunch, Sirius would spend an hour each giving Harry the training he required as a Family Heir, and second generation Marauder. They would then spend an hour in the training rooms, either practicing dueling, combat or sword-fighting (though the last one was not very necessary, Sirius figured it would help him build his stamina).
After his third lesson, Harry would take a break for half-an-hour, where he could do anything he wanted – reading, listening to music, catching up with his friends or fine-tuning his pranking skills.
Then it was time for his fourth and final lesson of the day. Once that was done, they would head down for dinner. After his second Occlumency lesson, Harry had to finish his assignments and read ahead for the next day's lessons.
Sirius had expected Harry to look overwhelmed when he realized the amount of hard work he was expected to put in. But Harry was actually looking eager to begin. He felt a twinge of pride at his godson's strong-minded determination.
They both looked up at the sound of tapping. Spotting the owl, Sirius hurried to the window and let it in. "Looks like your Gringott's reply is here," he said, unfastening the package from the owl.
Harry took the thick cover from him, pressed the security seal and quickly opened it. Finding rolls of parchments in it, he carefully took them out and placed them on the nearest table. Sirius sat down next to him, as Harry read through the cover letter.
"They've provided my complete account details, as well as a few forms that I need to sign."
"May I?" Sirius asked, not wanting to look at the account details unless Harry gave him permission to do so.
Harry nodded and pushed the parchments towards him. "Please. I have no idea where to begin."
They spent the next hour poring over the parchments. One set was filled with details of all the vaults in Harry's possession, as well as those he had a claim to. The Black Family vault was no surprise. But the others were.
"Why am I listed as a potential claimant to the Waldegrave fortune? And how did I inherit the Allington vault?" Harry asked.
"These two families have no direct heirs. You must be distantly related to both, and therefore have a right of claim when the head of the family dies." Sirius answered. "Why don't you find that wizarding genealogy book I mentioned."
Harry was back in less than two minutes, carrying a huge volume of Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genalogy in his hands. Sirius flipped open the book to the first page and wrote "Harry Potter." A list of families appeared below his words including Potter, Black and Waldegrave.
"Not Allington?" Sirius was puzzled. Nevertheless, he tapped his wand on the Waldegrave family.
The pages of the book began to turn until it reached the Waldegrave family tree. Harry and Sirius both bent their heads over the book trying to find the relation.
"There", Harry pointed after a few minutes.
"Related through your great-grandmother's side," observed Sirius.
"What about Allington?" asked Harry.
Sirius turned back to the Gringotts parchments and read through them closely. After a few minutes, he burst out laughing.
"Some crazy old bat bequeathed her fortune to you, right after the fall of Voldemort" said Sirius.
Harry made a face. "I don't want that! She's made Boy-who-lived her heir, not plain old Harry."
"Well, like it or not, your stuck with it", noted Sirius. "Since you had the strongest claim on the vault, the others have not bothered to contest it. Why is the name Allington so familiar?" Sirius wondered aloud.
A quick search on the Magi-Web revealed the answer. "Elizabeth Allington is the best known for bringing the Wizarding radio to Britain. She is the owner of Wizarding Wireless Network, Britain's only radio station."
"This is brilliant!" Sirius was ecstatic. "Harry, sign the forms claiming ownership, immediately."
"Hold on," Harry was more than a little surprised at his exuberance. "Why are you so excited about this?"
Sirius looked up at him and realized that the significance was completely lost to Harry. "Harry, you've seen for yourself how close-minded the wizarding folks here are about anything Muggle-related. They fail to understand how much their own lives would improve if they'd embraced Muggle technology.
Professor Marino interrupted. "This mindset didn't always exist. It was only after Grindelwald's defeat that the anti-Muggle sentiment began to creep in. His war coincided with the Muggle world war and a lot of wizards lost their lives in the conflict. Several countries in Europe decided to isolate themselves further from the Muggles, in a bid to protect themselves from their weapons."
Noticing that both Harry and Sirius were paying close attention to his words, he continued, "But as time went by, many of these countries began to realize the potential benefits of merging Muggle technology with magic. They saw the advances countries such as Japan made in this field, as they put behind the horror of the Muggle war."
Sirius spoke up, "That explains all the techno-magic devices I saw during my travels. But why is Britain lagging behind?"
"Purebloods," said Professor Marino. "The very idea of incorporating anything Muggle in their daily lives repulses them."
"Hang on," said Sirius, frowning. "The concept of purebloods still exists in several countries in Europe."
"Yes, but those countries don't have a man like Dumbledore ruling over them"
Silence followed that proclamation.
"Dumbledore is pro-Muggle," pointed out Harry.
"What makes you say that?" asked Professor Marino, with an air of genuine curiosity.
"He's fought against Voldemort! Everyone knows what his beliefs are."
Professor Marino was shaking his head. "He may not like the man or his methods, but that doesn't say anything about his beliefs."
Harry struggled to come up with a suitable reply. "Well, … he doesn't like Malfoy and he's the epitome of pureblood arrogance."
"Once again, that doesn't tell us anything about his beliefs," Sirius said, as he considered the Marino's words.
Frustrated, Harry blurted out, "He likes lemon drops!"
All the portraits burst out laughing, and a red-faced Harry looked like he wanted to sink into the ground and disappear.
"Anyway, what does Dumbledore have to do with the current situation?" asked Sirius, trying to draw the attention away from his embarrassed godson.
"He's completely isolated Britain from the rest of the Magical world. If witches and wizards here could see all the advances their counterparts in other countries have made, then they would be more accepting of Muggle technology," explained Marino.
"How has he isolated Britain?" Harry asked a bit timidly.
"He's passed several laws restricting travel in and out of Britain. The British magical community has no access to international news. There are limited avenues for magical folk to interact with Muggles, and hence the Grindelwald era mindset is still firmly in place. He has made no effort to include the latest curriculum in his school, and the Muggle studies syllabus is a joke." Marino paused to take a breath. "Need I go on?"
"No I think we get the picture" said Sirius. "Besides, we've gotten side-tracked. As I was saying, there was a time when British magical society was more accepting of technology. Allington introduced the WWN before the war against Grindelwald. It was instantly a huge hit. Witches and wizards thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment it provided, and once the war broke out, it was also used to communicate news and warnings to the public. Then the war was over, and slowly a change of attitude took place."
"Thanks to Dumbledore," muttered Harry. "He indirectly helped cement the purebloods position in society as the bastion of power and wealth. Any form of innovation or spirit of entrepreneurship quickly wilted in such an environment"
"Exactly!" Sirius said, surprised at Harry's perceptiveness. "But by then the WWN was an established part of the average wizarding family's life. Most of them now believe that the WWN is a wizarding concept and refuse to accept that it was actually a Muggle invention."
"So the reason for your excitement was…?" prompted Harry.
"Fudge and his minions are controlling the most widely distributed newspaper in magical Britain. They are using the paper to spread all sorts of wrong information and slander about you. But now you have control over the WWN! The most wide-spread media in wizarding Britain. More families get their news via the WWN than the Prophet. When the time is right, you can counter all those allegations made against you in the paper directly to every witch and wizard in the country. This is huge!" explained Sirius, doing a little happy dance in his excitement.
Harry gaped. Then he started laughing.
"That's brilliant! They won't know what hit them."
Still chortling, he headed towards the table and located the correct forms. He pulled out a quill and was about to sign the forms when Sirius stopped him.
"You need a blood quill for that."
As he searched through the Gringotts package for one, he heard Professor Marino explaining the concept of blood quills to Harry.
"If you had to personally gone to Gringotts, then you could have signed the forms using an ordinary quill. Merlin knows, the goblins have enough protections in place to ensure that you are who you say you are. But since they have sent the forms to you, you need to sign the forms using a blood quill for verification purposes."
Harry took the blood quill and signed the first form a bit apprehensively. He winced as the letters cut into his hand.
Sirius quickly got Kreacher to fetch a bottle of Murtlap Essence from the potions lab.
Once Harry had finished signing all the forms, Sirius murmured a healing spell to stitch the wound back together, and had Harry soak his hand in the potion to soothe the inflammation.
"Now you know why the use of blood quills for anything other than signing business contracts is illegal."
Harry nodded and rubbed his still sore hand. "Sirius, will the fact that I'm the new owner of the WWN become public knowledge?"
"No," replied Sirius. "In the wizarding world it is possible to keep your investments private. But you need to make sure that you and your business partners sign forms that explicitly state the level of confidentiality you expect."
Since teaching Harry how to manage his investments was one of the things Sirius had planned anyway, they ended up having an impromptu lesson.
Among the rolls of parchments that Gringotts had provided, there were copies of several letters of correspondence between Harry's grandfather Harold Potter and his Gringotts account manager.
Sirius instructed Harry to go through them carefully in order to gain an insight into his grandfather's investment strategy.
Once he was done, Sirius asked him, "What do you think are the parameters you need to look at before investing your money in a business?"
Harry considered the question and replied, "The owners have to have some kind of business plan for the future in place. There should be a need for the product or service that they are selling or at least something different about it."
"Very good," praised Sirius. "What else?"
"Uh…," Harry furrowed his brow in concentration. "I need to know who their competition is and what strategy they plan to use to tackle them."
"That's right. You also need to know what kind of customers they are targeting, how they plan to market their product, who their suppliers will be, and what laws and regulations affect the business. But the most important quality you need to look for is confidence. If the owners have confidence in their idea and ability, they will find a way to make their business a success."
Sirius noticed that Harry was deep in thought. It was only later that he would find out that his godson had already made his first investment!
They continued to examine the documents. When Harry found out the exact amount of money he had inherited, his eyes popped out. "All that time I was living in a cupboard, I could have bought every house in Surrey and still have had more to spare." Spotting Sirius' slightly guilty look, he gave him a half-smile, and said, "One day I'd like to drive by the Dursleys in a limousine, for all the neighbours to see."
Sirius laughed. "I'm sure that can be arranged."
As they continued to pore over the account details, Harry noticed something. "It looks like my grandfather was planning on starting some kind of shopping complex."
"What makes you say that?" asked Sirius curiously.
"Several of his letters mention a plan to establish franchise stores. He's mentioned starting stores for health and nutrition, general potions, furniture, books, jewellery, beauty salons, clothing, sports good, shops offering services for specialized object charming, … the list goes on. It sounds like the basic premise was to offer everything that Diagon Alley does in one mall. The one thing that I've noticed is that many of his letters mention tying up with international companies to offer these goods at lower prices."
"You're grandfather was a very smart businessman," observed Sirius. "It looks like he realized that there was money to be made in selling goods that the British wizarding population has never seen. Sometime in the future, you should see if you can build on his idea."
Harry nodded and glanced at the clock. "Think we should send the letter to Madam Bones now?"
"It's nearly time for dinner. So it's quite probable that she's alone in her office now. Use the official Potter Family seal that Gringotts sent you to seal the letter."
Harry did as he said. Sirius called Kreacher, and handed him Harry's letter to Amelia Bones. With a strict order not to reveal who his master was, he instructed him to hand over the letter to Amelia only when no one else was around.
As Kreacher left, Harry asked, "What's the story behind Kreacher?"
"When I first opened up this house, I found him half-mad, taking crazy orders from my mother's painting. A house-elf derives strength from his master. Since the Black Family had no Head for nearly thirteen years, I was surprised to find him alive." Sirius shook his head ruefully. 'Surprised' was an understatement. He remembered jumping a foot in the air when he had first spotted Kreacher.
"It seems he was drawing strength from the House itself. With all the uncontrolled dark magic in the house, it was no wonder that he was mentally unstable. It took me several cleaning and purifying rituals to get the house in usable condition. Once that was done, he was back to normal in a couple of days."
"He's a very good actor," said Harry, impressed. He had spotted the docile house-elf muttering obscenities at everyone in the house.
Sirius gave him a smug look. "To some extent, a house-elf's personality is also defined by the Master."
Harry gave him a disbelieving look. "That can't be true. Look at Dobby."
Sirius paused to work that one out. "He could be an anomaly. Or he might actually be unconsciously imitating his Master's desire to be free from Voldemort. It's quite possible that Lucius initially became a Death Eater thinking that he would be the one calling the shots. That plan certainly backfired. It's no wonder that he didn't bother looking for his master for all those years."
"That's stretching it," argued Harry.
Sirius shrugged.
Ten minutes later, Kreacher was back. "The letter is delivered, Master."
Sirius thanked Kreacher, and the house-elf bowed deeply before disapparating.
As Sirius and Harry sat in front of the communication parchment, waiting for Madam Bones' reply, Harry spoke up. "So the reason you've made everyone think that you and Kreacher don't get along is so that you don't appear to have any allies?"
"That's right. I needed the Order to think that I'm isolated in every way. Meanwhile, I used Kreacher's help behind their backs to get everything set up here. He's the most reliable way of delivering mails, since a house-elf can never betray the Lord of the Family. In any case I have forbidden him from speaking to anyone else about anything related to the two of us."
Just then the parchment glowed. Sirius and Harry both bent over it, watching as the words began to form on it.
'Tomorrow night. Nine o'clock. Use my private floo – Amelia Bones' office, DMLE, Level 2.'
As Molly's dulcet tones announced that it was time for dinner, Harry hastily scribbled his reply back, accepting the meeting. Then they both looked at each other nervously.
"Well," said Sirius. "Nothing to do now except wait."
Authors' note: Hey everyone, I'm sorry for the delay. I needed to work out a future chapter before I could post this since there was some information that was connected. Anyway, I'm posting two chapters at once in order to make it up to you all. Cheers!