29. Inheritance
A month had passed and Harry still had not been but that was good for the young wizard in question considering he didn't want to be found a sent back to his hated relatives. Dumbledore was getting more and more furious as nothing turned up. Sirius suspected that Dumbledore had found out Harry had disappeared from the Dursleys two years ago but he hadn't said anything most likely because he knew questions would be asked why a thirteen year old boy had run away from home.
The night before had been the thirtieth where Remus and Sirius had thrown a small party for Harry celebrating his last day of being fourteen and a child by law. Okay a party was a bit of a stretch considering there were only five people in attendance. Harry, Sirius, Remus, Arabella and shockingly Snape had turned up for Harry's so called party.
It had been four weeks ago when Remus had come to tell Harry and Sirius that Snape knew Harry had run away and knew the reasons why. Apparently Snape had read the mind of the Vernon Dursley and knew Harry had disappeared. Harry found out later the real reason Snape hadn't said anything was because he empathised with Harry having also come from a bad background.
/Flashback/
Harry and Sirius were currently snuggled up in the warm bed of the master bedroom. Sirius had come in late and Harry had immediately taken advantage of the Remus free room and pounced on the man. Sirius hadn't put up any struggle against Harry so they were perfectly happy to continue as they were going on.
That was until Remus walked in. Why he thought it was a good idea to walk in when it was obvious that Harry and Sirius were having sex Harry didn't know but what Harry did know was he was currently very annoyed at his surrogate father and made no pretence of these feelings. Remus ignored them.
'Get dressed,' Remus said sharply. 'We need to talk.'
Harry was instantly on guard at his friend's tone and shared an uneasy look with Sirius. Sirius looked just as worried as Harry. Harry was worried that Remus had another bout of protectiveness and conscious and was going to put his foot down on Harry and Sirius relationship or worse Dumbledore had found out where they were staying.
'You don't think he's going to ban us from sleeping together?' asked Harry.
'It's my house he can't tell me what to do,' Sirius replied, 'anyway he didn't comment on our state of undress.'
'Dumbledore?' asked Harry.
'I doubt it if he had we'd have someone knocking on the wards,' Sirius said grimly.
'You don't think Voldemort's finally made a move?' asked Harry.
Sirius shook his head, 'Voldemort may be a psychopath but he's not an idiot he wouldn't have revealed himself so soon when he's still recruiting and planning.'
'Then what?' asked Harry.
'I have no idea,' Sirius said.
Harry and Sirius hurried to find the first clothes they could find considering their previous clothes were littered around the house from where Harry had dragged Sirius to their bedroom. It ended up with Harry in a silver robe of Sirius from when he was twenty over him in all Harry didn't look too bad. Sirius, on the other hand, was in a combats of Harry's that Harry had acquired when living on the streets and a black suit jacket giving Harry a very nice view of Sirius' chest which was bound to be a source of distraction throughout what was supposed to be a very serious conversation if Remus' look was anything to go by.
The two of them walked in seeing the last person that they expected for Remus to bring home. Sirius' lip immediately curled up into a snarl when he saw the man in his living room – one of them anyway. Obviously Sirius wasn't very happy to have his schoolyard rival invading another living room.
'What are you doing in my house?' demanded Sirius.
'Trust me I take no pleasure in spending anymore time with you Black than it is doubtless you do,' sneered Snape.
'He knows,' sighed Remus.
'What?' demanded Harry.
'Professor Snape realised due to Voldemort's behaviour that Voldemort didn't have you,' Remus explained, 'so suspected that you had run away so went the Privet Drive to prove it. He used legimency on Vernon.'
'Legimency?' asked Harry confused.
'The art of interpreting navigating and interpreting the thoughts of another person,' Remus explained.
'Mind reading,' Harry said.
Snape sneered at thus, 'of course you would take a Muggle view of Legimency. The mind is not a thing to be opened and viewed at one's pleasure. The mind if a intricate, complex thing of many layers.'
Harry rolled his eyes at this. Severus Snape was smart and if you were Hermione it was brilliant but most children couldn't follow a word of what Snape would say. Harry felt Snape would be better suited to teaching those who chose Potioneering as a career instead of eleven year olds.
Still Harry wasn't stupid enough to say this considering that Severus Snape held his life in his hands. If Snape decided to tell Dumbledore where Harry was Harry would be dragged back kicking and screaming to the Dursleys no matter what he said. So Harry was very careful not to piss of Snape this time.
'So you saw everything?' asked Harry nervously.
'Everything,' agreed Snape.
'Including Uncle Vernon … when my Uncle … what happened … my twelfth birthday?' asked Harry finally getting what he was trying to say out.
Snape looked at Harry pityingly causing Harry to glower at his teacher. Harry hated being pitied more than anything else in the world which was another reason Harry hadn't informed his friends of his home life. It was also a reason that he preferred talking to Sirius about his childhood aside from the obvious of course.
'Yes,' agreed Snape. 'May I ask how much Dumbledore knows?'
'Every single fucking thing,' Harry snarled.
'How?' asked Snape.
'I told him,' Harry replied, 'twice.'
'Twice?' asked Snape.
'Once at the end of first year before Uncle Vernon did it. Then the next year after it happened,' Harry said bitterly, 'and all Dumbledore could say was no matter how terrible my home life was it was better than being unprotected. He doesn't realise I'd chose Voldemort over the Dursleys any day. At least Voldemort kills you when he gets bored!'
Harry realised he had shocked the three men into silence. True it wasn't any wonder he had considering Harry had effectively told them that he'd rather die than return to the Dursleys but Harry wasn't lying or over exaggerating one bit. Harry would take death over Vernon fucking Dursley any day of the week.
'You really think that?' whispered Remus.
'Yes,' Harry said sharply. 'But I still have to ask how did Snape know I was with you two even when he realised I had run away?'
Snape sneered, 'that was down to your dogfather-'
'Sirius isn't my father or anything close to it!' Harry interrupted.
Snape sneered at Sirius, 'see Black even your own godson has disowned you.'
Harry felt this was hitting far below the belt considering that Sirius had been disowned. Harry had always felt empathy with Sirius for his bad family relations even though he did agree that Harry had it far worse at least Walburga and Orion Black had never physically hurt Sirius but emotional damage could often be just as bad. He made it clear to Snape he had no idea what he was talking about.
'You have no idea what you're talking about!' Harry glared at the man. 'Just because your family never made you runaway didn't mean that everyone had that choice!'
'Anyway,' Remus said quickly. 'You were saying.'
'You and Black kept pushing the Order away from the idea of Potter running away but you didn't push anyone towards rescue plans. If you had really believed him to be in the Dark Lord's loving care the first thing you would have done was work to save him from the Dark Lord but you couldn't wait to be away quick enough. After discovering the truth of your childhood I realised that you would do all you could to protect Potter from Dumbledore, the Ministry, Voldemort and Potter's family that meant you would have to be in a heavily warded home that the Ministry hadn't gotten hold of. The only logical conclusion was that you were staying in one of the Black homes that the Ministry doesn't know about. I confronted Lupin who brought me here,' explained Snape.
'And I doubt if Professor Snape hasn't said anything yet he won't say anything to Dumbledore,' Remus added.
'He better not,' growled Sirius.
'Dumbledore won't know,' Snape said.
/End of Flashback/
And that had been that. Harry wouldn't call Snape a friend but he was an ally of sorts of their tiny resistance group. Certainly he was a source of information from Voldemort and another source from the things Dumbledore didn't tell Remus or Sirius or Arabella.
Neither Snape nor Arabella hid their feelings about Harry and Sirius' relationship. They hated it as much as Remus had when he had first found out but as they both knew where it had come from they didn't hold it against them although Snape would make comments about it whenever he came around. It was very annoying actually but harmless.
/Flashback/
Severus had just been to a Death Eater meeting and had informed Dumbledore on what had happened so had come to tell the terrible threesome what had happened. Severus hated interacting with the Marauders and son but what Dumbledore had done had shocked him to look at Potter without the Potter part clouding his judgement. Never mind it was the only way the vow he had made would be happy as Severus had vowed to protect Potter and Dumbledore had not protected Potter at all.
Severus walked into the living room and saw the last thing he had ever expected to see. It suddenly made so much sense why the boy had resented the reminder that Sirius Black was his godfather because clearly there were no paternal feelings in that area. Severus wondered what Potter would say if he was still alive.
Currently Harry Potter and Sirius Black were naked on the fine leather sofa. Severus could hear the moans as Black fucked the smaller dark haired male. Their clothes had been thrown all over the room in their haste to couple.
Severus decided that he was never going to sit on that sofa again unless he personally bleached it. Severus shuddered at the idea of what he had missed going on even when looking back the signs were obvious. Black would get in serious trouble should it be discovered that he had been buggering his under aged sexually abused godson.
'What the hell is going on here!?' Severus demanded.
Severus watched as the two partners suddenly twisted what must have been painfully considering the situation that they were in to look at Severus. Severus grimaced as he saw more than he wanted to see of either male's anatomy and also saw the scars that he had seen being made by the whale of a Muggle littering Potter's back and torso. It reminded him that with a past like Potter's this probably wasn't very helpful.
'What are you doing here, Snivellus?' demanded Black.
'I think the more appropriate question is what are you doing fucking your under aged-'Severus began.
'Only just,' inserted Potter.
'-godson,' sneered Snape, 'who you know to be sexually abused. What would James say?'
Severus knew he had hit a nerve when he saw the guilt flood the man's face. Severus couldn't help but smirk vindictively. Whatever Black had said about Severus at least Severus could honestly say that he wasn't a paedophile.
'What would Lupin say?' added Severus.
'He knows,' Potter glared at him.
'And he accepts it?' asked Severus not showing how shocked he was. 'Do you three have little threesomes?'
'Urgh, Remus, he's like a father to me,' grimaced Potter.
'And Black's your godfather,' Severus pointed out.
'Yeah, well I wasn't aware who Harry was when I met him,' Black said.
'I lived on the streets,' Potter said, 'how did you think I survived?'
'Prostitution,' Severus said surprised.
Of all the things he'd thought the Potter to have done to break the law prostitution wasn't one of them. Severus wasn't surprised to see the angry, defiant, embarrassed look come upon the young man's face. Clearly there was more to this than Severus had thought.
'No, well not exactly, they didn't really pay,' Potter was babbling. 'I just seduced men, got a space to spend the night and breakfast or sometimes lunch depending when we woke up the next day.'
Severus understood that the idea of prostitution ashamed Potter so he wouldn't sell himself but he would use his body to get what he needed and somehow had fallen into bed with his own godfather. That must have been awkward when Black had found out that he had been shagging his own godson even more so when Lupin found out. Severus would have liked to be there for that revelation.
It was probably a good thing that Potter's parents weren't around to see their son sleep with his godfather. True enough that if his parents had survived he wouldn't have run away to streets to survive what was a life consisting of very near prostitution and he would have known who Black was and thought of him as an Uncle (the good sort at least). As it was Potter had never known Black so seduced him for food and shelter.
'Did you know he wad under aged?' demanded Severus.
'No,' Harry said, 'het thought I was a Muggle student of Edinburgh.'
'Must have got quite a surprise when you ran into each other at Hogwarts,' Snape said snidely.
'Very,' agreed Sirius.
/End of Flashback/
Compared to Snape Arabella was a nightmare. After all she viewed Harry as the closest thing she had as a son. It meant that Arabella had made it quite clear that she hated Sirius and thought that he was taking advantage of Harry but because she knew it would hurt Harry she wouldn't tell anyone even if Sirius ever got his charges clear. That was certainly one weight off Harry's shoulder.
Last night had been brilliant but Harry as was usual for his birthday didn't want to get up. If it hadn't been for the need to claim his inheritance Harry probably wouldn't have been coerced out of bed by Sirius. Harry really hated his birthday thanks to Uncle Vernon.
Harry had gotten howlers and presents from all of his friends because of the fact that Dumbledore had declared that he had run away. After he had officially become and adult today he planned to turn up at Grimmauld Place and give them a piece of his mind. They didn't know why he had run away so who were they to judge.
'Come on let's get this over with,' Harry groaned.
'You really hate your birthday,' Remus said softly.
'Blame Vernon Dursley,' Harry retorted.
Remus seemed to not know what to say to this comment. It wasn't like there was anything he could say to make it better or not true. To Harry his birthday would always be a reminder of the worst day of his life.
'Harry, you and I are going to Apparate to Diagon Alley. You'll remain in your Cloak until we enter Gringotts,' Remus said.
'Yeah, the goblins won't take kindly to entering the bank invisible,' Sirius said.
'Have you made an appointment?' asked Remus.
'Yes with the Manager of my vaults and estate, Bullock,' Harry replied.
'Good, what time is your appointment?' asked Remus.
'Nine O'clock,' Harry replied.
'Then you two better head off,' Sirius said.
Harry gave Sirius one last kiss which would be their last kiss while Harry was still technically a minor. Remus looked more than a little uncomfortable and once again cleared his throat. Harry broke off the kiss.
'See you when I'm emancipated,' he grinned
Harry put on his cloak and the two of them walked outside to where the wards ended. Soon as they did that Remus grasped Harry's right arm and Apparated them to a cordoned off section in the far end of Diagon Alley which Harry knew to be the Apparation spot of both Diagon and Knockturn Alley. Harry always saw it as somewhat akin to a bus stop.
As they walked to Gringotts Harry couldn't help notice how people gave Remus a wide berth. It was something that made Harry frown knowing where it came from. Harry felt that it was hypocritical of a race of people had retreated to hiding because of persecution to then persecute another race.
At the door of Gringotts Harry through of his Invisibility Cloak much to the approval of the goblin porter at the door. Harry and Remus entered the building of Gringotts bank and Harry was pleased to see the way the goblins didn't seem to care less about Remus' werewolf status. It wasn't surprising really when one considered the fact that goblins too were not treated with respect.
Harry hoped to change the way wizards treated their non-human counterparts. Harry wasn't an idiot and knew it would be hard, if not impossible, to change the views but he could at least change the laws to make it a bit easier for non-humans. Harry would have to look at the laws for non-humans to see what needed to be changed.
'Harry Potter is here for an appointment with Manager Bullock,' Remus said.
The goblin tapped a finger on a piece of parchment before calling for another goblin to bring them up to Bullock's office. Harry was more than a little nervous but that wasn't surprising considering that Harry was hoping to be emancipated today. He hoped that everything would go to plan.
'Greetings, Heir Potter-Black, Mr Lupin, may the gold flow ever in your favour,' the goblin greeted.
Thanks to the training Harry had received Harry knew that this was the formal greeting that goblins gave to their clients. Harry also now knew the return greeting. Only a few months ago Harry wouldn't have known what to say or do if a goblin had greeted him like that.
He nodded respectively to the goblin, 'greetings, also, Bullock-vok, may your axe be sharp in battle.'
'Now down to business, Heir Potter-Black,' the goblin said. 'As it is your fifteenth birthday I am right in assuming that you wish to claim your inheritance and emancipate yourself.'
'Yes,' Harry agreed.
'Sign here,' the goblin said.
Harry read through the document of inheritance it seemed straight forward enough but he still passed it over to Remus to double check it for anything he had missed. Remus tapped it once with his wand to make sure there were no hidden secrets. Remus then smiled and nodded returning it to Harry.
Harry wrote his signature on the space provided not showing any pain as the blood quill cut into his hand. Harry knew blood quills were only used for official documents that needed to be verified that the person signing was the person who was there. To use it any other time or on someone who was under aged would give you six months in Azkaban for each infraction.
Harry watched as underneath Harry's signature proof of his identity started showing up. It sometimes amazed Harry for a society that sometimes seemed very medieval how advanced the magical world actually was when compared to the Muggle world. The Muggle world would never be able to prove an identity from one blood sample that had never been seen before.
Harry James Potter
Mother: Lily Elizabeth Potter nee Evans
Father: James Edward Potter
Magical Living Relatives: None
Magical Guardian: Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore (by law)
Date of Birth: 31st July 1980
Wizarding Houses: British Ambrose Dukedom (Head, Heir by blood and will), British Gryffindor Dukedom (Head, Heir by Blood and will), British Black Dukedom (Heir by will in absence of named blood relative), and British Potter Marquessate (Head, Heir by Blood and will)
'What does the in absence of named blood mean?' asked Harry.
'It means that you are heir unless Lord Black has a child,' the goblin explained.
Harry was handed three rings which were clearly his family rings showing his lordship. The first ring was silver with a red dragon made out of rubies. The second ring was gold with a red lion made of rubies. The final ring was smaller most likely due to the fact that it was of a lower rank it was silver with a golden Pegasus on the front of the ring.
'Would you like to open your parents wills?' asked Bullock.
'Yes,' Harry said without any doubt.
'Haven't they been read yet?' frowned Remus.
'No your magical guardian had them sealed after he read them,' Bullock said.
The wills were opened and Harry gaped at what he was seeing the feeling of anger rushing into him. He couldn't believe what Dumbledore had done this time. Harry should really stop feeling surprised at Dumbledore's manipulative nature.
