Disclaimer: I'm not JKR and I don't own Harry Potter, if I did Harry Potter would have come out a lot more like Harry Dresden.
A/N: And now I present the first chapter of Year Two. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, I'm really pleased with the reception this story has received so far.
Harry Potter and the Master of Time
Chapter 11: Goblins and Elves
It had only been a week but Harry was already having the best summer of his life. He and Hermione had spent the entire ride to the Granger house from King's Cross telling David and Jean about their year at Hogwarts, the only thing they didn't mention was that Harry had access to memories from his future. David and Jean had been concerned about how safe it would be for the kids to return to Hogwarts, but Harry told them that he and Hermione would be fine, because they had each other and their friends watching their backs, and Hermione convinced them, in true Hufflepuff style, that they couldn't just abandon their friends if Hogwarts really was as dangerous as it seemed from their experience that year. After that discussion it was significantly easier to tell Hermione's parents about the change in their relationship.
Harry and Hermione were currently walking hand-in-hand down Diagon Alley toward Gringotts accompanied by David. Harry had mentioned that he wanted to inquire at the bank about anything his parents had left behind and David had immediately volunteered to take Harry to meet with the Goblins. When they entered the bank Harry walked up to the nearest open counter, glanced at the name plate in front of the goblin and said "Greetings, Teller Crushfang, I hope you are having a profitable day. I would like to make an inquiry about the estates of the late James and Lily Potter."
The goblin, who's name was apparently Crushfang, looked up to see who had addressed him. He was shocked to see that the person who had addressed him so formally and respectfully was nothing more than a small boy. "May I ask your name? If you have a legitimate claim to access I will be more than willing to assist you." Crushfang said with a small smile.
"Of course, my name is Harry James Potter." Harry answered returning the smile, being sure to not show his teeth.
Crushfang was impressed, this boy was quite possibly the most famous wizard in Britain, and yet here he was without a touch of the arrogance that most wizards had when dealing with goblins. "Very well Mr. Potter, if you will follow me I will take you to see Senior Accountant Bloodclaw. He is in charge of estates for the more prominent families." Crushfang then led Harry, Hermione, and David through an ornately carved wooden door and down a long marble hallway. A good distance down the hallway they stopped at a door, Crushfang knocked on the door "Senior Accountant Bloodclaw, Harry Potter is here to inquire about his parents' estates."
"Send him in." a voice growled from behind the door. Crushfang opened the door and gestured for Harry and his party to enter. Inside of the room was a large ornate desk, which appeared to have been carved from a single block of solid granite, behind the desk sat a goblin, apparently Bloodclaw. The goblin looked Harry up and down before speaking "Mr. Potter, welcome. I am surprised it has taken you this long to come and have your parents wills read. I had assumed you would come last summer when you were shown to Diagon Alley."
Harry inclined his head slightly as a show of respect to the goblin "Good day to you Senior Accountant Bloodclaw. I was not aware at the time that my parents had left anything behind other than the money in my vault. The events of the last year have led me to believe otherwise, it would seem that those individuals whose duty it was to inform me have either neglected their duties, or have purposefully attempted to deceive me."
Bloodclaw dug through his desk before finding a small scroll "Very well Mr. Potter, I have here your parents' Last Will and Testament. It is mostly legal jargon that comes down to this, aside from a few charitable donations you have been left all of the assets of the House of Potter. Your liquid assets currently total 3,762,915 galleons. Here is an itemized list of the objects and materials currently stored in the Potter vault. Feel free to look through this at your leisure, if you have any questions let me know." he handed Harry a small stack of parchments.
Harry and Hermione began to look through the inventory of Harry's new vault. David would have helped, but as most of the things on the list were magical he agreed that he would be out of his depth. After a couple minutes of browsing Harry found something of interest "This sheet seems to be enchanted weapons and armor." He said showing Hermione the parchment in question "You know with the kind of stuff that happens at school some of this armor might come in handy." he added, only half joking.
"Actually Mr. Potter, if you want armor to protect yourself at school I would recommend something more practical. Dragon hide armor can be tailored to be skintight so that it can be worn under robes, unfortunately armor quality hide can be quite expensive to obtain in sufficient quantities." Bloodclaw offered. Normally a goblin would not offer unsolicited advice to a wizard, however Bloodclaw knew from the way that Crushfang had knocked on his door that young Mr. Potter had shown, and therefore deserved, respect. Most people were unaware that the Goblins of Gringotts Bank had an entire system of nonverbal cues and signals by which they informed each other how their customers had behaved, and therefore dictating how they should be treated. In most banks tellers were the lowest level employees, but in Gringotts they were specifically chosen from amongst other positions because they were considered to be good judges of character. The result of this was that from the moment a wizard stepped up to a counter in the lobby he was being judged and only those few who were courteous to the goblins were treated with anything other than disdain.
At Bloodclaw's comments Hermione flipped back through the parchments she had already looked at "Well according to this page here, the Potter vault contains large quantities of many different kinds of dragon hides, along with other magical textiles. I'm assuming that this notation is some type of quality grade. Senior Accountant Bloodclaw, what grade of dragon hide would you recommend for the type of armor you suggested?"
Bloodclaw was impressed by this young girl, she had a good head on her shoulders, while most witches and wizards would just ask for a price here she was examining the available resources to see if they could avoid wasting gold. "I should think anything above grade four should work perfectly."
"Look Harry, according to this you have close to one thousand square yards of grade five Hungarian Horntail hide in your vault."
"Well if we have that much we should definitely put it to good use. Senior Accountant Bloodclaw, if we provided the hide do you know where we could get it made into armor, and how much it would cost to get five suits made?" Harry asked, now that he was really thinking about it armor they could wear under their robes really did sound like a good idea, it might not defend against the basilisk he knew would be roaming the school the coming year, but giant snakes weren't their only worries.
"I happen to know the perfect place to get the work done, we commonly contract them to outfit our curse-breakers. As for price I wouldn't be surprised if you could convince them to do the job for a portion of the hide, grade five hide is rather hard to come by." Bloodclaw informed Harry, he then wrote down the name of a shop in Diagon Alley and handed it to Harry.
"Harry, are you sure that is a good idea? From what I've understood this dragon hide is quite valuable, surely there must be a better use for it?" David spoke up, while he liked the idea of Harry and Hermione being better protected he really didn't want to see Harry just throwing money around.
"Actually sir, grade five dragon hide can really only be used for armor, it is only expensive because of its relative rarity. In the quantities present in Mr. Potter's vault it would flood the market, completely destroying the value. If he wanted even a reasonable return on the hide it would probably take ten years to sell of just the Horntail hide." Bloodclaw assured them. The Potter account promised to be very profitable now that it was once again active, and Bloodclaw wanted to be certain that Harry would be as safe as possible to insure the account remained active for as long as possible.
Harry and Hermione went through the rest of the list, finding nothing else of immediate interest they said their good-byes to Bloodclaw before leaving the bank. Harry checked his watch, they still had plenty of time before they needed to return home so he asked if they could go to the store Bloodclaw had recommended. Harcorn's Armor and Leather Goods was a small shop tucked into the back of the alley, between an abandoned store that had apparently sold flying carpets and a magical antique store.
Samuel Harcorn looked up from his ledger when he heard the bell above the entrance chime. He examined the three people who had entered, probably want some dragon hide shoes he thought to himself. Samuel hated making shoes, but it was the biggest source of business he got so he never complained aloud. "Welcome to my store, how may I assist you today?" he asked, fixing a smile on his face.
Samuel was surprised when it was the young boy who answered him, not the tall man who accompanied him. "Your store was recommended to me by Gringotts, I understand that you specialize in making dragon hide armor. I have recently discovered that I am in possession of a large quantity of grade five Hungarian Horntail hide, and I would like to commission some armor."
After some back and forth between Harry and Samuel a deal was worked out, in exchange for twenty square yards of hide Samuel would produce five self-fitting, self-repairing armor shirts. The work would take approximately three weeks and then the shirts would be sent to Harry. Harry wrote out an access form for his vault, granting Samuel Harcorn access for the sole purpose of taking out the required amount of dragon hide. Having completed his business Harry left the shop followed by Hermione and David.
The next three weeks passed quickly and soon Harry's twelfth birthday arrived. Harry and Hermione had already finished all their homework for the holidays and were planning a trip to Diagon Alley to buy some books on advanced magic. They had not received any letters from their friends, Hermione had been hurt that no one had written until Harry explained his suspicions. They had received the dragon hide armor that Harry had ordered, each shirt was skin-tight with a high neck and ran to right above the elbows.
Harry and the Grangers had just returned from having a nice dinner to celebrate Harry's birthday when Harry finally spotted what he had been looking for all day. There, staring at him from the hedge that marked the boundary between the Granger house and their neighbors, was a pair of big green eyes. Hello Dobby, you crazy little bastard Harry thought before mentally pointing out the eyes to Hermione. Harry and Hermione had been experimenting with their new connection when they were bored and had gotten to the point where they could have a complete conversation, including gestures and other nonverbal cues, and had started to experiment with sending each other images using the connection.
Later Harry had gone up to his room, after kissing Hermione good-night, when he closed the door he looked at his bed and there, sitting on his bed, was Dobby the house-elf. "Um, Hi. Who are you?" Harry asked, already knowing the answer.
"I is Dobby, Great Harry Potter sir, Dobby the house-elf." Dobby replied jumping to his feet and bowing to Harry.
"Nice to meet you Dobby, have a seat." Harry said gesturing to the bed where Dobby had been sitting moments earlier, while sitting at the chair he used at his desk.
At Harry's words Dobby looked to be on the verge of tears "Dobby has never been asked to h-have a seat by a wizard- like an equal"
Harry knew that the current line of conversation would become very loud so he decided to get Dobby to come to the point of his visit "Look, I've had a long day, and I really just want to get to sleep. So, could you just tell me why you are here?"
"Dobby has come to protect Harry Potter, to warn him, even if he does have to shut his ears in the oven door for going behind his master's back... Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts." Dobby told Harry.
"I have to go back to Hogwarts, I need to continue my education. Not to mention all my friends are there." Harry responded trying to decide how best to get rid of Dobby without the little elf doing anything drastic.
"Friends who do not even write to Harry Potter?" Dobby asked.
"Ah, so you're the one who has been blocking my mail. Hm I thought it was Dumbledore. Speaking of which, whatever your concerns are I'm sure Dumbledore will keep me safe. After all, that man has an unhealthy obsession with my life, and my death would probably leave him quite put out."
"Dumbledore is a great wizard, but even he cannot protect Harry Potter from the danger he will be in if he returns to Hogwarts. Harry Potter must promise he will not return to Hogwarts." Dobby implored Harry.
"Dobby I can't do that, if I don't continue my education I will be in more danger. Voldemort is still out there, and for whatever reason he wants me dead. If I want to live my life for very long I'll need to learn as much magic as possible, and that means returning to Hogwarts. I will promise to be careful, I will do everything I can to make sure nothing happens to me, but I have to go back." Harry informed the elf.
"Very well Harry Potter, if you insist on going back Dobby will have to stop you." Dobby said.
"Dobby, I don't want to get you in trouble, but if you try anything to stop me from going back to Hogwarts, I will report you to the Ministry. Now give me my letters, please." Harry warned Dobby before the elf could decide on a course of action. Dobby just nodded before he disappeared leaving behind the letters he had kept from Harry.
The next morning Harry and Hermione had immediately sent off letters with Hedwig to everyone who had sent them a letter so they wouldn't be left wondering why they hadn't received a reply. They were glad they had the moment they read the most recent letter from the Twins, in their letter they said they would take their dad's flying car to come see why Harry and Hermione hadn't replied within a week. The first few letters from Susan were friendly and discussed nothing of importance, but a letter she had sent two weeks into the summer had them concerned. The letter said that Dumbledore had approached Susan about Harry and Hermione, and had tried to make suggestions that had disturbed Susan, she didn't go into details but she said they needed to talk about it in person. Her letters after that were written in an increasingly worried fashion as she received no reply to her letters. They had also received letters from most of their Hufflepuff year mates though they had mostly been friendly greetings and thanks for their assistance on exams.
Harry and Hermione spent most of August corresponding with Susan and the Twins. Susan informed Harry and Hermione of her progress with practicing her transformation, while the Twins had apparently started meditating in order to join Harry, Hermione, and Susan as animagi. Harry was getting better with his transformation, he could make black feathers appear all over his body with no effort and had begun to actually change the structure of some of his body parts. Hermione was able to grow fur with ease, and had even managed to grow a tail, though she was only able to hold it for a few moments before her body reverted to its natural shape. Harry and Hermione went to Diagon Alley two days after their Hogwarts letters arrived, along with their letter had been a short note from Professor Sprout congratulating them on being the top two students in their year. Hermione had been concerned that Lucius Malfoy would give the diary to someone other than Ginny, but Harry had assured her that the Twins would mention if Malfoy picked a fight with the Weasleys, and that the background reasons for choosing Ginny hadn't changed.
Harry and Hermione arrived at King's Cross an hour and a half before the train was due to arrive, Harry figured that Dobby wouldn't be able to keep them out of the station for very long if other students needed to get through. Apparently Dobby had come to the same conclusion, or if Harry was uncharacteristically optimistic, maybe he had given up on keeping Harry from going to Hogwarts. They had no problem getting onto the platform after saying good-bye to the Grangers. They boarded the train and changed into their robes, making sure to put on their new armor first, then sat down to wait for their friends to arrive. They didn't have to wait long, Susan arrived twenty minutes after they did.
"Hey Harry, Hermione. How have you two been." Susan asked a smile on her face.
"We've been great Susan. We got you something, Give me a second to get it out for you." Harry told her while digging through his trunk to get another of the armor shirts. "I made some inquiries at Gringotts, and it turned out that among other things I am the proud owner of vast quantities of armor quality dragon hide. Here we go. So I got a few armor shirts made out of it, after all I wasn't doing anything with it and it would be a waste to sell it. So here is yours." Harry handed the shirt to Susan, it seemed a bit large at first look.
"It is self-fitting and self-repairing, so they use a lot more material than necessary so that it has plenty of room to grow, and extra in case of damage that can't simply be spelled closed." Hermione explained "You should probably put it on now and get changed into your robes while there are plenty of empty compartments."
"I-I can't accept this... it must be worth a small fortune." Susan managed to stammer through her obvious amazement.
"Susan you are one of my best friends, and if last year is any indication, that may not be a very safe thing to be. I protect my friends as best I can. If it makes you feel better then think of it as being property of House Potter gifted to you for the duration of your friendship with the next Lord Potter." Harry told her with a sly smile.
Susan couldn't help but smile "You read the book I gave you for Christmas."
"Of course, and if it works to present a bribe as a gift..." Harry told her.
"Then there is no reason why you can't present a gift as a bribe." Susan finished "You will be a force to be reckoned with if you go into politics. Before I put this on I should tell you, when Dumbledore talked to me earlier in the summer... the things he said, they essentially came down to the idea that... that some of the old families would be unhappy if 'The Boy-Who-Lived' was with a muggleborn witch instead of a respectable pureblood witch, and that if I were to separate you two that I could be that witch."
Harry was only mildly shocked at the old man's attempts at manipulating his life "Don't worry Susan, I know you wouldn't do something like that."
"You would think Dumbledore would know better than to look for someone that devious and disloyal in Hufflepuff. We watch out for our own, we trust you Susan but you won't be the last person Dumbledore will try to use. At least now we know what to look out for." Hermione reassured the redheaded witch.
Susan nodded her thanks before exiting the compartment to get changed. When she got back they settled in and waited for the Twins to get there. Five minutes before the train was scheduled to depart the platform was assaulted by the redheaded horde of Weasleys. A couple of minutes later the Twins made their way into the compartment.
"Hell hello, and how are our favorite 'Puffs doing on this fine day?" the Twins asked in stereo.
"We're doing just fine." Susan answered.
"Here I got you something" Harry told them throwing them the last two dragon hide shirts
"Harry, we can't accept these, they must be worth more than everything else we own combined." George said while gazing at the shirt in his hand.
"Look, with the amount of trouble you two get us in I want to make sure nothing happens to you. I would be very upset if you two got killed pulling one of your hare-brained schemes, because then I wouldn't get to hex you into oblivion for getting us into whatever mess you created. So don't accept them for yourselves, accept them for me." Harry said, barely able to contain his laughter at the indignant looks on the Twins faces.
"Well if you're going to insist..." Fred said shrugging before he and George left the compartment to put on their new armor.
Fred and George returned a little later along with Lee Jordan. Lee fit right in with the group even though he didn't usually hang out with them during the year and soon all six of them were engaged in a very entertaining conversation. From snippets of what the Twins had to say about their trip to Diagon Alley Harry and Hermione mentally agreed that Ginny certainly had the diary. All too soon the train arrived at Hogsmead Station. When they exited the train and joined the throng of students waiting to board one of the carriages, Harry finally got an answer to a question he had been slightly curious about ever since he had gotten his future memories over a year ago, apparently a memory of seeing someone die was enough to be able to see thestrals, because he could see the great, reptilian horses pulling the carriages. Harry, Hermione, and Susan boarded a carriage and headed up to the castle to start their second year at Hogwarts.
A/N: And here we have the beginning of year two. This one will probably come out pretty fast because I'm on Spring Break next week. If anyone has a suggestion for animagus forms for the twins please leave a review.