Hey everyone. Sorry for the late chapter.

Life has been a bitch lately and work got on top of me, along with looking for another job because I hate the one I have right now.

There was also an unexpected death in the family that took a lot of my attention and we realised that a lot of my mum's family is going to be dying now, with them all being in the late 80's, plus my dad's parents are old and my mum's mum being very ill at the moment...

Things are pretty hectic.

I'll try to get chapters out faster. I've put The Art of Belonging and Centaur in Symphonia on hiatus for a while since they are getting a lot less attention from you all so I'll finish those later. I was also viciously attacked by an idea I had from a while ago that I had to write out to get it out of my head... it ended up twelve chapters and it's not done yet but I hit a road block so I can shove it aside and focus on the three I have going on at the moment. (But seriously, 12 chapters in three days? That's impressive.)

Good news, my laptop is repaired so no problems on that end.

Extra thanks to foxchick1for reminding me to write.

Harry looked up at the ceiling as the owls arrived with the post. It was now Sunday morning. He'd managed to make his way through his first week of classes, barely. He collected his newspapers and tilted his head at a letter from Gringotts.

Lord Irving,

We are writing to you in regards to several abnormalities we have noticed in your accounts during a thorough search and inventory following the results of an investigation to certain allegations. We ask that you come in at your earliest convenience.

Lord Ragnarock, Gringotts Bank.

Harry hummed and put the letter in his pocket. He walked up to the head table and stepped up in front of the headmistress.

McGonagall looked up at him. "How can I help you, Mister Irving?"

Harry bowed his head slightly. "I just received a summons from Gringotts. It seems important. May I have permission to leave the school for today? I don't know how long it will take but I will return as soon as I can."

McGonagall sat forward slightly. "I cannot let you leave the campus alone..." she looked around the staff table. "Aurora, you are free today right?"

She nodded. "Yes, I would be happy to escort Mister Irving." She stood up. "Shall we?" Harry nodded and waited for her to walk around the table before they left. He could hear everyone whispering about it, although... whisper might be a relative term. In the two weeks since school began he was still the topic of everyone's conversations. Though from most of the girls he got the impression it wasn't going to change any time soon.

Harry glanced up at Professor Sinistra. She looked tired. He could understand why, their breakfast was probably her dinner, having been up till one in the morning teaching and then grading if she didn't go to bed right after class like the students did... "Professor, am I dragging you away from your bed?"

Sinistra looked down at him. "Not really. I'll go to bed in a few hours. I prefer to be available in the mornings so students can find me if they need me."

Harry nodded. "Right. That is good, than."

Sinistra smiled slightly. "Thank you, for your concern, though, Mr Irving."

Harry inclined his head towards her and they travelled in comfortable silence all the way to the edge of the castle grounds. Sinistra turned to him, "So, Mr Irving. Do you have any preferred way of travel?"

Harry thought for a moment. He'd travelled by floo before but he'd never experienced other methods of travel. He told his professor as much.

She smirked. "Apparition would be easiest."

Harry nodded. "Alright. I don't know how though."

Professor Sinistra nodded. "I know. I can side-along you."

Harry nodded and took the offered arm. The world seemed to vanish in a swirl of colours and an intense pressure seemed to press in on every side of him. It felt kind of like being squeezed through a tight tube. It ended as abruptly as it began and Harry took a deep breath, looking around. They were standing in a bit of alleyway beside the Leakey Cauldron.

Professor Sinistra looked them both over briefly before nodding. "Shall we?"

Harry nodded and led the way towards the bank. At the doors he nodded to the guards who bowed at his entrance. A goblin approached them as soon as they were inside.

"Lord Irving, I have been sent to lead you down to Lord Ragnarock's office."

Harry nodded. "Of course. Lead on." They travelled down several hallways and deeper into the bank than Harry had been before, minus his trip to the goblin city.

Eventually they came to a huge set of double doors and their guide turned around. "Only Lord Irving from here."

Harry and Professor Sinistra shared a look before the teacher nodded. Harry stepped into the room and cast a glance around. It was heavily decorated with gold, silver, platinum and a whole load if precious gems adorning various different vases, statues and other random ornaments and decorations. The desk was absolutely huge and had a collection of ornaments arranged at the sides. In the centre there was a pile of paperwork and scrolls. The goblin behind the desk was one Harry recognised vaguely before he remembered.

"Lord Ragnarock?" Harry half questioned, half greeted with a bow. This goblin was the one he'd seen dealing with the minister, Lord Malfoy and those reporters the day Gringotts had been broken into.

"Lord Irving." Ragnarock sat back in his chair and gestured for Harry to sit. "I see the stories of you are true. You hold as much respect for goblins as you do for your own people."

Harry smirked. "Irving vow number 134: Compassion Benefits all Men." Ragnarock narrowed his eyes slightly so Harry elaborated. "It basically means that everyone would be better off with a little love and understanding. I think that being different species isn't as much a barrier as people believe it to be."

Ragnarock smirked and nodded slowly. "You are more than I had believed."

Harry tilted his head in confusion for a moment.

Ragnarock shook his head. "The reason you were called in today was to discuss our findings in some investigations."

"Investigations?" Harry tilted his head in the other direction.

"Indeed. When you read your parents' wills we discovered a number of things that should have been done a long time ago, as well as a number of things that had been erased from the memories of those involved. We have since then updated our security and taken measures to ensure this doesn't happen again."

Harry leant forwards. "What do you mean?"

"Memories were tampered with and your parents' wills were claimed to be sealed. They weren't. The people in the wills departments had had their memories tampered with so they believed that the potter's will had already been read and those who had access to the will were led to believe it was sealed. It would seem Hookfang had even had all memories of the will itself removed, otherwise he would not have let this injustice happen. There have been other cases where wills have been sealed. They have all been read now and the correct assets are being transferred to where they need to go."

Harry nodded. "That's good. It's not right people should be denied their families last wishes."

Ragnarock nodded. "Indeed, though a lot of them were ones sealed in the last ten years. If someone has no living family then when they die the ministry takes everything. And by living family, they mean magical family. If someone has a squib child and die, the child gets nothing. The laws are worded quiet sneakily so it's perfectly legal. In several cases people who had lost all of their family in the war made a will leaving everything they had, to you."

"M-me?" Harry leant backwards in his chair. "Why?"

"You are the one who defeated the dark lord that killed their families. They didn't want to leave everything they had to the corrupt ministry that allowed a dark lord to rise in the first place. Now, when we uncovered those wills we traced the money that had been taken and found it and all the items and properties in the hands of several pureblood families, all influential in the ministry and all accused death eaters. Everything has been recovered and added to your own vaults. The houses have been re-warded and everything in them now belongs to you."

Harry nodded. "Right." He shook his head slowly. "So... I'm richer now than I was before?"

"Yes."

Harry leant backwards in his chair and bit his lip slightly, trying to wrap his mind around it. He shook his head slowly, vowing to leave it for another time.

Ragnarock looked over the papers on his desk briefly. "In order to ensure no one's wills are sealed again we have created a department within the bank for the storage of wills and inheritance. Everyone who works there is sworn to secrecy about their job to prevent memory tampering and the department itself is under heavy charms so it cannot be found. Whenever anyone makes a will the original is sent to that department, they are given a copy, and a copy is sent to the ministry as well as one stored in their main vault. A few of our wealthier clients, or those we believe may be cheated after their death have been asked to come in and re-write their wills, to be certain everything is in order."

Harry nodded. That all made sense though he didn't quite know why he was being told all of this.

"There was one property left to you, and its contents, that I wished to discuss with you." He slid over a file.

Harry opened it up and looked at the name of the property on the first page. "Rosemary cottage?"

"The owner of this estate wrote out his will, leaving everything to you the day after you defeated the Dark Lord. The next day he was found dead and his will nowhere to be found. The ministry claimed all of his wealth and all of it fell into the hands of Lucius Malfoy within hours. He gifted this cottage to the Greengrass family just before his trial. They had gone into hiding a few months previous when their house had been destroyed. They have lived in this house ever since. Their older daughter, Daphne, is in your year at Hogwarts. The younger sister is two years younger."

Harry sat back. "So, if I take this house... they'll have nowhere to go?"

Ragnarock nodded. "Indeed. In addition, when Mister Malfoy gave them the house, the house was all he gave them. It had been completely stripped down. They had to buy everything. Plaster and paint for the walls, the carpets, even patches of floor had been ripped up that needed repair. This family has built this house from the bare frame into a family home."

Harry nodded. "It's not fair to take their family home from them and I don't need any more properties so I won't really miss one cottage."

Ragnarock nodded. "Indeed. Now, you have two choices. Either you take the property and charge them rent, obviously significantly less than they are paying now as they are being dramatically overcharged by Mister Malfoy, or you can sign the property straight over to them."

Harry was about to answer when he stopped and looked the files over again as a stray thought caught in his mind. He remembered an incident where one of Vernon's colleagues had accidentally overcharged a customer and the company had to refund the difference. "If I take it and charge them rent... would I be able to back pay them the difference in rent from when they started paying, citing that they were overcharged and the bank wishes to compensate them for the difference?"

Ragnarock froze for a moment before he blinked slowly. "Indeed we can."

Harry nodded. "I could even sign the house over to them afterwards so they won't have to pay me any rent at all."

Ragnarock leant backwards in his chair. "You are a curious individual... not only are you turning away the chance to earn money from their rent, you are willing to lower it, pay the difference for the last ten years and then sign over the property completely, cutting off one good source of income."

Harry nodded and shrugged one shoulder. "Well, I don't need the money. And I don't want to just live off of what's in there so I will probably get a job after leaving school and earn more money anyway." Plus there were his investments and the fact that he was going to live for a long time. Money was not an issue.

Ragnarock nodded. "A good philosophy. That is one of the reasons the Potter Family is so rich. They believed in hard work and earning your own way in life. It's one of the reasons you have so many vaults with the Potter name. Each person was given their own vault as a child, much like your own vault 713. As they got older the money going into the vault stopped and they had to earn their own way until they were older and their parents let them have access to the family vault. The money in there has just kept rising because no one ever uses it."

Harry nodded slowly. It was a good way of living, never spending more than you can earn even if you have the backup funds to support heavy spending. And it made sure the family always had something to fall back on should they ever need it. He felt a slight warmth fill his chest at hearing more about his heritage. He really didn't know enough about his parents and their lives, other than what he was reading in their diaries every evening.

Ragnarock nodded decisively once before looking the papers over. "Now, we checked over your accounts and all transactions made since your grandparents took ill. At the time no one thought anything of it since they were quite old, however, looking back on it we see that your grandfather had been in perfect health, aside from a physical injury to the leg that prevented him from continuing his career as an Auror. Your grandmother had been showing signs of a weak immune system similar to Muggles and squibs her age, but her magic should have prevented it. That they both fell ill was suspicious in itself.

"We chose to investigate it and found a number of people being paid small sums of money from the accounts. It seemed nothing at first but added up it is a rather alarming total. We followed the money until we hit a dead end where it had been withdrawn from the accounts in cash. By that point the number of accounts the money was in had halved, indicating a smaller number of people, using multiple vaults and accounts. We dug around for a bit more and found the money had been used to purchase things like jewellery or other expensive things. These items have all been reclaimed and have been added to the vault the money had been taken from as we believe the money was taken illegally."

Harry nodded slowly, looking over the sheets the manager slid over to him.

"After discovering this we looked at several other vaults, whose owners died in suspicious circumstances or had mysteriously fallen ill. We found similar things happening with those vaults and were able to find several people responsible for these thefts. Their accounts have been emptied and distributed amongst their victims and they have been told that if they come into the bank again we will mount their heads on a pike outside the doors."

Harry's eyebrows shot up. "Isn't that a little... extreme?"

Ragnarock shook his head. "It is part of our agreement with the ministry. If we find anyone trying to steal from us we are allowed to put their head on a pike outside the doors as a warning."

Harry nodded slowly. He was a little more uneasy now that he knew that, though he would never have to worry about it himself as he had no intention of stealing from the bank. "Okay..."

Ragnarock nodded decisively again. "To prevent this from happening again any money transferred unexpectedly from one persons account to another will have a waiting period on it and we will be keeping track, silently, to make sure other payments like this do not happen again. Things like wages, loans or debt repayments won't be affected by the waiting period."

Harry nodded. That was good, but again... why was he being told all of this?

"Now, in terms of loans we have put a cap on the interest rates people are allowed to charge others and have adjusted all of the outstanding loans in our accounts accordingly. We cannot make back payments to these as we only just brought the cap in and any back payments made are the decision of the one who owns the loan. The cap itself is ten percent of the money borrowed if it is under G25,000, 15 percent if it is between G25,000 and G50,000, and 25 percent if it is over G50,000. No interest is to be paid for loans under G5,000."

Harry nodded, wondering if he owed anyone money. He couldn't remember reading anything about loans in his account audits. The meeting carried on for a while with Ragnarock going over everything they found out and the measures the bank has taken to correct the mistakes and put measures in place to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Harry smiled sadly for a moment. This is what the Ministry should have done after Grindelwald was defeated. The laws of the Wizarding world left a lot to be desired from what he read in the books over the summer and various conversations with his friends and year mates. Especially when Hermione gets into debates with purebloods about things.

Sweet Martel, when she heard about house elves!

It caused a school-wide debate on slavery, servants, house elves and things like that. The purebloods were appalled when the Muggleborns admitted that Muggles used to keep other Muggles as slaves just because they had a different skin colour. In the end the teachers gave up trying to get the students to leave the great hall at lunch and spent the afternoon splitting the students into several different groups and having an organised debate between everyone on the subject. They'd even gotten some of the house elves to come up from the kitchens so they could have their say in the matter.

If the ministry had looked at themselves and changed what needed changing then Voldemort might not have come to power.

Eventually Ragnarock finished with the results of the investigations and drew up the paperwork for the changes in Harry's accounts, such as Rosemary Cottage and the changes in the number of vaults each person could have. The vault restriction was created when some people were claiming to have less money than that had due to most of their money being in a vault under a different name. Harry had sorted all his things into the vaults, money and jewellery in one, antiques and furniture in a second and books and paperwork in the third. Any goblin made items in his vaults he agreed to give back to the goblin nation. He decided to leave vault 713 as it was for now. He wasn't ready to merge that one just yet, since his parents had left that vault for him.

Just when he thought he had finished Ragnarock picked up a pile of letters tied off with string. "We have received a large number of letters addressed to Harry Potter. Many of them are people who have asked if they could adopt you, a few have asked for marriage to their daughters, a number of them were cursed letters that have been disposed of and the senders fined for attempting to store dangerous items within the bank. These ones are more personal. They are from friends of your parents and grandparents. Some of them contain pictures of them."

Harry took the stack off him and looked down at them. Here was yet more proof that his parents had once actually existed. Pictures of them during their lives... he swallowed hard and put them in his bag. "Thank you."

Ragnarock nodded and picked up another stack, this one much shorter. "These letters were all sent to you by Sirius Black. He was named your godfather and was your father's best man at your parents' wedding. The first few are asking if you want to go and live with him along with updates on his healing while the rest are simply updates and asking if you would want to meet with him or exchange letters. He sends them daily."

Harry accepted these letters too and looked them over. To be completely honest he hadn't put much thought into the man. He'd been mentioned in both his parents wills as someone to look after him if they died and his father wrote about him all the time in his diary. They had been best friends. He didn't know the man and hadn't really put much thought into him.

"This box is tied into your mail vault. If there are any letters addressed to you that we can forward to you, we will place them in a box in your vault and they will appear in yours."

Harry put Sirius' letters into his bag and looked at the box Ragnarock had placed on the desk. It looked kind of like a bread box. He accepted it gratefully and placed it in his bag, thankful for the expansion charms in it.

"Now, unfortunately you will need to answer the marriage proposals personally and we think you should also answer the ones about adopting you, though that is up to you. Thankfully no one can force you to marry them and adoption is off the table now that you are emancipated, but it is still polite to reply."

Harry nodded. "Yes. Of course. If you can have those ones forwarded I will reply to them all."

Ragnarock nodded. "Or course. And, our last order of business is in regards to Hookfang. As he was one of those affected by memory charms we wished to know if you wanted to keep him as your account manager or change to a different manager?"

Harry tipped his head slightly. "I'm fine with Hookfang. I trust him."

Ragnarock regarded him silently for several moments before nodding. "Very well then, he shall be informed of your decision. This concludes our business for today. Thank you for your time, Lord Irving."

Harry stood and bowed to the goblin. "Always a pleasure, Lord Ragnarock." He turned and left the room, shutting the door behind him. Professor Sinistra stood up from the chair she was sitting on and smiled at him. Harry wondered in a goblin had brought it or if she'd conjured it. The fact that she left it there seemed to mean that someone had brought it for her.

"Mister Irving. Finished?"

"Yes. We can go back to school now." He smiled at her and led the way out of the bank. Having a good memory he didn't need anyone to lead the way since he remembered how they got there. They left the bank no problem, however there was a group of people waiting outside, some of them had cameras. Harry turned to his teacher who scowled at the group as marched forwards.

"If you could all excuse us, Mister Irving has to get back to school. I'm sure you people don't want to disrupt his education." She made shooing motions and the crowd took a step back but surged forwards when Harry tried to walk forwards.

"Lord Irving, is it true that a Hogwarts apprentice is keyed into Hogwarts wards?"

"Is it true you've been learning magic from Merlin's ghost?"

"How long have you been Merlin's apprentice?"

"Where have you been studying before Hogwarts?"

"Why go to Hogwarts when you have such a high standard of education?"

"Do you have any idea where Harry Potter could be?"

"How do you feel about what happened with Dumbledore?"

"Will you be an Auror after you finish school?"

Harry's head zipped around from one person to the next, ears screaming in pain as everyone shouted to get his attention. He took several steps back and turned in shock as the two guards at the bank doors rushed forwards, pikes pointed towards the crowd. They screamed and staggered back but the goblins stopped just in front of Harry.

He sighed in relief at the silence that followed. "If you would all be kind enough not to shout? I have very sensitive hearing."

Xeno stepped forward. "Harry."

"Xeno. Good to see you again."

"How's Luna doing?"

Harry smiled gently at him. It was good to see family so concerned for each other. "She's doing well. She's settled into Ravenclaw nicely and has made a few friends. She joins in with the morning run that most of the school does every day. She's found the first week of classes easy enough and none of the teachers have anything bad to say about her." He glanced at Professor Sinistra who nodded.

"Yes, Luna is a lovely girl, very attentive despite my class being at midnight."

Xeno smiled. "That's good to hear. I was worried she wouldn't make any friends, the youngest Weasley certainly hasn't been quiet about her opinions."

Harry shook his head. "Luna is different. Different doesn't mean bad, but some people just don't like different. I do, and so do a lot of people in the school. During our school wide debate a couple of days ago she gave some very controversial opinions and was one of the few who spoke frankly and clearly about her opinion. She was able to sway a lot of people over to her side."

Professor Sinistra nodded. "Yes, Luna is a free spirit who simply speaks her mind. A lot of the students admire her for that trait."

Another reporter stepped forwards. "School wide debate? What's that?"

Harry turned to him. "Well, my friend Hermione found out about house elves a couple of days ago. Immediately she cried slavery. She's very opinionated and passionate about her beliefs. It sparked a debate that lasted most of our last morning lesson and then during lunch it ended up with the entire hall disgussing it and the teachers had to separate us all into groups depending on our view so we could all debate for a while. We ended up skipping our afternoon classes."

Sinistra nodded. "Yes. If had been something trivial like quidditch or the cutest guy in Witch Weekly of something like that we wouldn't have allowed it but this was an interesting and controversial topic which opened the minds of a lot of students. I had no idea that at one time Muggles took other Muggles as slaves. It is what gave rise to the Muggleborn hatred of the use of house elves. They see it as the same as taking another human and forcing them to do the same. What happened with Harry Potter only exaggerated the issue. As a whole, the students now agree on how house elves should be treated and things like that."

The reporter nodded slowly. "Have any changes been made in Hogwarts due to the students' debate?"

Sinistra nodded again. "Yes, the students have all agreed to be responsible for their own belongings in the dorm rooms and so the elves will not clean up in there, except for changing the bedding. They will only collect clothes to be cleaned from the laundry hampers now installed in each dorm's bathroom. Any clothes left on the floor, will stay there. They will still clean the common room but the dorms are the student's responsibility."

Harry nodded. "Students can also call the elves during free periods for study snacks, but the elves are the ones who decide on what and if to serve. It will always be something healthy, like chopped fruit and finger sandwiches but if it's close to meal time they are allowed to refuse and they are forbidden from brining food into the library."

"The elves are happier with this, actually." Sinistra added. "Since without having to clean the dorm room all the time they can focus on other duties. Have you seen how many rooms in the school are full of dust and cobwebs? They want to clean them all and the headmistress has given them permission to turn them into social spaces."

Harry nodded to another reporter who had stepped forward. He ended up answering all of their questions, refusing to sign autographs and eventually making his way back to the apparition point. They finally made it back to the school and Harry sighed and leant against a tree. "Are reporters always that bad?"

Sinistra shook her head. "No. Having a goblin guard on either side helped calm them down. Normally it's a forest of hands waving, lights flashing and people taking everything you say out of context."

Harry sighed and stood up straight. "I hope that doesn't happen again."

"It will. Your famous, Mister Irving."

Harry groaned. Thankful once again that the public had no idea he was Harry Potter. Hopefully no one who knew would say anything. He glanced up at the castle as they walked up and saw Professor Quirrel standing at the staffroom window with his enchanted umbrella. A shudder ran up his spine and he turned to face the castle doors.

That man...

He had a bad feeling about him, but only time would tell what.