Preface
The SecretsPosted originally on the Archive of Our Own at /works/3435245.
Rating:
Teen And Up Audiences
Archive Warning:
Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Category:
F/M, M/M
Fandom:
Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Relationship:
Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Severus Snape/Original Female Character(s)
Character:
Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, Severus Snape, Original Female Character(s), Original Male Character(s)
Additional Tags:
Family, Romance, Harry is Lord Potter, Harry Potter is the Heir to the House of Black, Good Malfoy Family (Harry Potter), Good Severus Snape, Good Voldemort (Harry Potter), Severus Snape Adopts Harry Potter, Inheritance, Creature Inheritance, Good Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley Bashing, Albus Dumbledore Bashing, Molly Weasley Bashing, Ginny Weasley Bashing, Creature Draco Malfoy, Mates, Veela Draco Malfoy
Stats:
Published: 2020-02-25 Updated: 2020-10-10 Chapters: 13/? Words: 31243
The Secrets
by twinia
Summary
There is a new teacher in Hogwarts, who could it be? What does Severus Snape have to do with it? What secrets will be discovered and what will this mean for Harry? Dumbledore bashing. Good dark side. During Harry's fifth year. Lord/ heir Harry. Adopted Harry. (slash later chapters) (started updating again since 2020)
You have a wife?
Chapter Notes
I will be rewriting all the chapters. The main storyline stays the same, so no worries.
Rewrite as of 2020. The original story was of 2015.
Nothing has changed :) I just changed the date.
I want to say: I don't own any of the characters except the one that I made up.
Chapter 1: The wife
.
Just like every year, during the summer, Severus Snape was walking towards the staff meeting. 'The big oaf is late again' he thought while sitting down next to Minerva McGonagall. 'I hope this meeting does not take forever'
"Now that we are all here we can start." Albus Dumbledore said standing up.
"We have a problem." said Albus Dumbledore, without twinkle in his eyes and with a sad tone. "After many complaints the past year the Ministry has decided to investigate the full staff. This has sadly let to me having to let Hagrid go from his position as teacher of Care of Magical Creatures. Since Hagrid never graduated from Hogwarts, he was deemed unqualified for teaching our students.
This means that I have been looking for a replacement. Sadly enough I have been unsuccessful. I was wondering if any of you know someone who is qualified and would be willing to teach this subject in the coming years?"
'Hagrid fired?' went through everyone's mind. Well, it is not like we were not expecting this. There had been so many complaints and never had so many students ended up in the hospital. Plus there were no students continuing in the subject for the NEWT's, which is very unusual.
On the question if they knew someone else to teach the course? The answer had to be no.
Suddenly Severus Snape spoke up "I might know of someone, however, I will need to confer with her first. There will of course be conditions before she will agree to come here."
"Do you have any idea what these conditions could be?" asked Albus.
"Well, she has two sons who will need to be transferred to Hogwarts. One of them will be first year, the other third year."
"Are you certain she is qualified?" asked Minerva McGonagall.
"Seeing as she is a high elf, and has studied magical creatures for half her life, yes"
"And how would you know her?" asked McGonagall.
"You all know her, she went to school here. Don't you remember Serena Moonlight?"
"You mean the silent girl from Ravenclaw? I thought she moved away after graduating?" asked Filius Flitwick.
"Yes, she did. She was always so good with plants. She could keep them so calm. A bit like Mr. Longbottom today." said Mdm. Sprout.
"Yes, such a sweet girl. Was she not a year above you Severus?" asked McGonagall.
"Yes, she was." answered Severus, seeing were this conversation was going.
"I did not realize you were still in contact with anyone from school. How do you still know her?" said Minerva.
"She is my wife." said Severus, inwardly smirking at the shocked looks he got from the other staff members.
As soon as they realized that no this was not a joke, chaos erupted.
"When did that happen?"
"Why do we not know anything about that?"
"Severus married? Impossible."
"Wait does that also mean he has two sons?"
"Silence!" exclaimed Albus with a bang of his wand.
This got everyone to quickly be quiet. Still looking at Severus, he asked: "Why did we not know you were married?"
"I wanted to keep them out of the war, but I do not think that will work any longer, seeing todays situation."
"What do you mean with that?" asked Albus.
Severus did not answer this time.
Realizing that he would not get the answer, Albus continued "Can you bring her here next week Thursday at 6pm? Then I will see if she can have the job." He was hoping that he could get the answer from her.
The day of the interview Albus was trying to figure out how to best get the answers he wanted. He was not used to people keeping him in the dark and definitely did not like it. But he did not have a lot of time to think about it because soon there was a knock on the door.
In walked a beautiful woman. She had long brown hair that fell to just beneath her shoulders, hazel brown eyes that could see into your soul, and a blood red robe draped around her. But what drew all the attention were the green wings that hung folded on her back.
'When did she get an inheritance?' went through his mind.
"Good evening, Miss. Moonlight." greeted Albus.
"It's Snape now, and thank you for giving me the chance for this job." greeted Serena back.
"The pleasure is all mine. May I offer you any tea or lemon drops? They are delicious."
"No thank you."
"So I heard you are married to professor Snape?"
"Yes"
"He also mentioned that he never told us about you because he wanted to keep you out of the war. So why are you making yourself known now?"
"I am not here today to answer personal questions."
"All private business of my professors concerns me" Albus said, getting angrier that no one was telling him what he wanted to know.
Seeing as Serena was not going to answer Albus and he really needed a replacement, he decided to get on with the interview. Maybe he could get more information when she was working in Hogwarts. As the saying goes: keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
"Do you have any proof of your qualifications for the subject?"
"Yes, here are all the relevant documents."
Looking through the documents. "All seems to be in order. Now I heard you have conditions?"
"Yes, I would want both of my sons transferred to Hogwarts. I would also want to have shared quarters with Severus."
"The shared quarters and your son who starts first year will be of no problem"
"Then what about my other son who is a third year?"
"He will have to be sorted with the first years and can follow classes with the third years, but if we see he is not up to their level he will have to be lowered a year. Both sons will have to stay in their dorms and will have curfew as everyone else. If this is all ok with you, you have the job."
"Thank you."
"You will be known as professor Moonlight, so people do not confuse you with professor Snape." Albus said with his twinkle.
"No problem, as long as the students are informed of our relationship beforehand. We would want to prevent students drawing wrong conclusions and rumors going around."
"See you on September first." dismissed Albus, twinkle now gone.
.
So that was the end. Hope you all like it! Please review so I know what you thought about it.
Next time Hogwarts starts and we are with Harry
This was done with the help of beta mousehounde; Belldandy and Alice
The announcements
I want to say: I don't own any of the characters except the one that I made up.
Nothing of book 5 has happened. No one knows yet, except the old members, about the existence of the Order of the Phoenix. Also, Umbridge is not the defense teacher, Albus got Remus to teach again.
Chapter 2: The announcements
.
The summer had finally come to an end. A perfect meeting had dragged his friends away, so currently Harry Potter was sitting alone in a compartment. Completely lost in thought he was thinking about this summer. It was one of the worst summers yet. When arriving at the Dursleys, Vernon had immediately put all his things away in his cupboard. He was also constantly plagued by nightmares. Waking up screaming at night after seeing Cedric get killed or Voldemort rising out of the cauldron. But those were not the worst. This worst were the ones about his parents and/or Cedric blaming him for their deaths. So as you can see it was not such a good summer. He was lucky enough to stay at the Weasleys for the final 2 weeks, which allowed him to finish his homework. Mrs. Weasley had already bought all he needed, saying going to Diagon Alley was not safe.
Just then Ron burst through the door, Hermione not far behind.
"How was the meeting?" asked Harry.
"Boring" answered Ron.
"So did they tell you who is going to be our new Defence teacher?" asked Harry.
"No." said Hermione. "I do not understand that they do not tell the prefects, we should know."
Ron was about to say something when the doors of their compartment slid open. It was Malfoy standing at the door. Surprisingly, Crabbe and Goyle were not behind him for a change.
"Still hanging out with the blood traitor are you Potter?" said Malfoy.
Getting a reaction out of Ron who became as red as his hair.
"Without your goons Malfoy?" said Harry, defending Ron.
"Did they finally realize how pathetic you are?" added Ron.
Not answering, Malfoy said: "Did you hear the news yet Potter? The big oaf finally got fired. The ministry did an investigation and it seems like he was never even allowed to teach to begin with."
"You heard that from your Death Eater father, did you not ferret? He's probably lying, after all, he is a slimy snake" said Ron angrily, his face still red.
"Do not speak to me and keep your mouth shut about things that do not concern you, blood traitor. And Potter, keep this up and you will not know what hit you when you leave Hogwarts. Your 'Boy Who Lived' fame won't last forever." said Malfoy.
"If you want me to be like you bigoted Purebloods, that's never going to happen. I am not like you." said Harry.
"Fine." said Malfoy, for one moment there Harry thought he saw hurt in the eyes of the Malfoy heir.
When Hermione and Ron started talking again, Harry quickly dismissed the thought. The rest of the train ride went without a hitch.
As usual, the Great Hall was nicely lit and people could see the stars through the roof. Harry and his friends quickly seated themselves at the Gryffindor table.
"Who do you think is that woman sitting next to Professor Snape? Have any of you seen Hagrid?" Hermoine asked after looking at the staff table.
"I have no idea. I don't see him anywhere, do you think maybe Malfoy was right and Hagrid was fired?" said Ron, also looking to the staff table.
Looking up Harry saw that indeed Hagrid was not sitting at the staff table. More surprising Snape was talking to the new person sitting next to him.
'Who is she?' Harry wondered.
But then the impossible happened. While he was talking Snape actually smiled! Snape had just smiled at someone.
"Guys, did I just see that right? Did Snape smile?" asked Harry uncertainly.
"It's Professor Snape and yes he just smiled." said Hermione amazed.
Harry was about to reply when Professor Dumbledore stood up.
"Welcome to a new year! Before I make any announcements the sorting ceremony will begin. This year we also have a transfer student who will be joining the third years." Professor Dumbledore said before sitting back down.
Professor McGonagall went to stand in the front and before she opened her scroll she said: "Please make him feel welcome."
Then she called out: "Snape, Ethan"
Walking forward was a boy looking almost like a copy of professor Snape, except the nose and eyes. He had silky black hair and brown eyes.
"Could that be Snape's son?" asked Harry.
"Who would want to share a bed with him? No, it is probably a cousin." said Ron.
"I don't think so, Ron. He does look an awful lot like Professor Snape." said Hermione.
"Slytherin." the hat called out. Resulting in the Slytherin table and the staff clapping politely.
"Well that was to be expected." said Hermione.
"Now the sorting of the first years." called professor McGonagall.
"Aly, Margaux."
"Hufflepuff."
"Boris, David."
"Gryffindor."
By now Harry had blocked out the sorting ceremony, until suddenly professor McGonagall called: "Snape, Ryan"
There was another boy walking forwards looking very nervous, he had brown hair and piercing black eyes. All his other features were the same as Snape except for the nose.
"There's another Snape? Does Snape have two children? I feel bad for them." said Ron.
"Ravenclaw." was then called out.
Harry saw Ryan take a quick glance in the direction of Professor Snape, like he was scared about what his father would think. Then to his big surprise, Snape smiled in the direction of his son and even looked proud.
Finally, the sorting ceremony ended and the food appeared on the table. Everyone immediately began to speculate about the two new people sitting on the staff table and who they were, but the topic that gained the most attention were the two Snapes who were just sorted.
"Are they really the sons of Snape?"
"Why are they only now going to Hogwarts?"
"Why has nobody ever heard of them before now?"
"How is it, living with Snape being your father?" and so on.
When dinner was finished and all plates and leftover food disappeared, Professor Dumbledore stood again.
"Now that you are all fed and watered I have a few announcements to make. I would like all of you to welcome back professor Remus Lupin. Due to a change in the law he has returned as Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. Also due to circumstances, we had to say goodbye to Hagrid as your professor of Care of Magical Creatures. No worries you will still see him around as the groundkeeper." said Professor Dumbledore in a very sad tone.
"Serena Moonlight will be replacing him as your Care of Magical Creatures professor. For the rest, the same rules will apply as last year. The forbidden forest stays forbidden and please look at the list put up by Mr. Filch with all forbidden items." said professor Dumbledore before sitting back down.
Seeing that Albus was not going to say more Minerva stood.
"I just want to say one more thing before you can all go off to your common rooms, to prevent speculation. Professor Moonlight and Professor Snape are married. For your convenience it was decided to call Professor Moonlight by her maiden name to prevent confusion." said Professor McGonagall.
After that, the sound in the Great Hall went up. It only quieted down when the prefects led their house towards their common rooms.
.
So that was the end of chapter 2. Hope you all like it!
Please review so I know what you thought about it.
I know from experience that people do not remember to review (I also was one of them), but it is really nice for the writer. Even if it is just to say "continue" or "was good"
Next time: lessons start.
This was done with the help of beta mousehounde; Belldandy and Alice
Chapter 3: first classes
I want to say: I don't own any of the characters except the one that I made up.
Sorry for the long wait, but college life was really busy these past weeks.
AU: Harry met Luna in the fourth year.
Chapter 3: first classes
.
The next morning during breakfast, Professor McGonagall was handing out everyone's timetables. When she came at where fourth and fifth years where sitting she stopped.
"As I understand everyone of you has dropped Care of Magical Creatures for this year. Since the school board has decided that this is mainly because of Hagrid, some new rules apply. Since there is a new teacher it was decided that it would be allowed to sign up even though the due date has passed. The ones that want to make use of this option will be given an order paper to be sent by owl for Flourish and Blotts so that they are able to order their book for the course." announced Professor McGonagall.
This made everyone think. They did like Care of Magical Creatures when it was not dangerous.
"Do we have to decide now?" asked one of the fourth years.
"No, all of you have until lunch to tell me if you want to take up the course this year seeing as it will be given on Tuesdays." answered Professor McGonagall, leaving.
Looking at the schedule, "We have potions, DADA and spells with Slytherin." whined Ron.
"At least we only have Snape on Fridays." said Harry.
"Stop whining and just go, classes are about to start." said Hermione.
All three of them stood up and went in the direction of their first class of the day, Charms.
By lunch, Harry was sure he wanted to try Care of Magical Creatures. After what happened last year in the tournament, he realized how important it was to have basic knowledge of magical creatures. He sadly enough only now realized that he made the wrong choices in third year. Divination was completely useless. Without Care of Magical Creatures, the only classes remaining were his core courses.
Finally decided he went to Professor McGonagall and asked to take the class. He was given his ordering form and was told that the first class was tomorrow morning.
"Are you sure you want to take the class?" asked Ron when Harry had walked back to his seat.
"Yeah, why not?" said Harry.
"But what if she is just as bad as Snape?" said Ron.
"I have heard from the third years, who had the class today, that she the opposite of Snape." said Hermione.
"I will see how it goes if it is nothing I can just drop it next year." said Harry standing to go to his next class.
"Why are you not taking the class?"
"As you know Ron, I decided to stick to Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. I wish I could also take it but it falls at the same time as another class and time turners are no longer allowed."
After classes, Harry decided to go to the lake to relax a bit. Hermione was with Ron in the library explaining some homework.
"Hey, Harry." said someone behind him.
Harry looked up and saw Luna with the oldest Snape boy coming his way.
"Do you mind if we sat down?" asked Luna.
"No, not at all." answered Harry. "So how have you been Luna? People still bothering you?"
"I'm fine. I even made a new friend. Harry, I want to introduce you to my friend Ethan Snape. Ethan this is Harry Potter." said Luna.
"It is nice to meet you." said Ethan, holding out his hand.
Taking it Harry said, "Nice to meet you too."
"So how is it living with professor Snape?" asked Harry, after a moment of silence.
"Why do people keep asking that?" said Ethan almost to himself. "He is like any other dad. I mean, he plays games with us, takes us flying, helps if we have any problems."
"So he does not makeup really stupid rules, is very strict and insults you when you do something wrong?" said Harry unbelieving that Snape could act like a normal person.
"NO!" exclaimed Ethan. "I really have no idea why everyone thinks that. I mean when we were younger and had nightmares we even crawled into dad's bed at night."
While he still did not believe it, Harry decided to drop the subject for now. For the rest of the afternoon, the three of them just talked about everything.
"Ethan, there you are." said a distinguished silky voice from behind them.
"Dad" Ethan said running towards Snape.
"So how has your day been so far? No trouble?" asked Snape.
"It was fun, I learned a lot. I was even able to turn my teapot into a tortoise by the end of class." said Ethan very exited.
"Dad these are my new friends." said Ethan dragging Snape over to where Luna and Harry were still seated.
"Mr. Potter, Miss Lovegood." greeted Snape.
"Good afternoon, professor." both of them greeted.
"Dad?" said Ethan looking unsure.
"Yes, Ethan." answered Snape in the nicest tone that they had ever heard.
"Why do people here think that you are so bad? I mean, they keep asking questions about how it is to live with you and when I tell them you are just like any other dad they don't believe it." said Ethan.
"I, I will explain it to you inside. Now come on your mum wants to see you." said Snape.
"OK, bye guys! See you tomorrow." said Ethan following his dad inside.
"Well that was interesting." said Harry standing up. "I will see you soon Luna, need to go drop my bags off before dinner."
"Bye Harry." said Luna. "Watch out for the nargels"
The next morning saw Harry walking alone towards his Care of Magical Creatures class, which as usual was held at the border of the forbidden forest.
Arriving he saw that only he and Dean had signed up from Gryffindor. Other than them there where 3 Ravenclaws, including Padma Patil, and 4 Hufflepuffs, three of them were Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones and Ernie Macmillan. From Slytherin only Daphne Greengrass, Blaise Zabine and Theodore Nott showed up.
"Now that we are all here we can start." announced Professor Moonlight.
"My name is Serena Moonlight-Snape you will address me with professor Moonlight, nothing else." she said glancing to everyone.
"Now there are a few rules you will have to follow. If you do not I will throw you out. Some of the animals we will study could be very dangerous if you take the wrong approach. You will be expected to have read the chapter in your book about the magical creature we will be studying before coming to the practical class. When doing this spend extra attention on the part pertaining what not to do around the magical creature. At the beginning of a practical class I will first make you aware of what you are going to do and how to do it. For the people who want to take this course next year you will have to get at least an E for your O.W.L's, but I would advice only people with an O to take the N.E.W.T's class. If you want to do something with Magical Creatures after graduating Hogwarts you will need an O on you N.E.W.T's." said Professor Moonlight.
"One more announcement before we start class. Normally in your fifth year, the third year of this class, there are no theoretical classes, but I have read what you have done these past two years and you are behind. Because of this you have the possibility to either learn this on your own or come to the extra review class once a week. In there you will see what you should have seen these past 2 years at a rapid speed. Sign up sheets are posted in your common rooms."
"Now for today you did not have to prepare anything, so listen carefully when I explain what to do and what not to do." said Professor Moonlight.
'I am surprised she is nothing like Snape. I wonder what we will see today.' thought Harry.
"You will learn about the golden unicorns the next 3 weeks." said Professor Moonlight.
"I thought they were extinct?" said Greengrass.
"Miss" "Greengrass"
"Miss Greengrass, it is not because people have not seen a certain creature for a long time, they are extinct. There are quite a lot of them, luckily for all of you one of them is a good friend of mine and has agreed to come today," said Professor Moonlight.
"But if they are considered extinct, why do we have to learn about them?" asked Dean.
"Mr." "Thomas"
"Mr Thomas the ministry adds creatures to the care of magical creature curriculum when a new species is discovered. It only rarely erases a species, this only happens when a certain magical creature has not been seen for at least 500 years. The reason herefore is that most rare magical creatures have gone into hiding because of poachers. That is why certain creatures are considered extinct. The only reason why all of you have seen a phoenix is that fawkes is heavily protected by Headmaster Dumbledore. Others of its kind are in hiding because the feathers and tears of a phoenix are worth lots of galleons." answered professor Moonlight.
"Now onto the lesson. Golden unicorns are slightly different than there cousins the white unicorn or the winged unicorn, not thought in this class. The white unicorn is the most commonly known unicorn as they can be found in lots of places around the world. As all of you should know the white unicorns are born gold in color. After 2 years they turn silver, which then turns into pure white. They stay like this for the rest of their lives. The golden unicorn is also born gold in color, but their color never changes. This is the reason why poachers, stupid enough to capture unicorns, wait until they are at least 2 years old, you can see the different in species then. While the freely given blood of a white unicorn can only be used in potions, the freely given blood of a golden unicorn, when drunk, can protect the drinker for 32h from all magic with bad intent."
"You mean dark magic?" asked one of the Ravenclaws.
"No. Did you not learn this in DADA? Magic itself is just that, magic. It is what you do with it that defines it as good or bad. This is the reason why even people with unicorn hair in their wand can perform dark magic, as long as it is not with a bad intention. If it is the wand will start to split. If continued to use for bad prepossess, it will break." Said Professor Moonlight.
Looking into the forest the professor whistled three times.
Nothing seemed to happen.
"What are we waiting for?" asked a Hufflepuff.
Right at that moment, there was a group of six golden unicorns coming out of the forest. Four of them were clearly adults, while the last 2 were smaller. Following Professor Moonlight the class walked towards the golden unicorns. Motioning to the class to stop, a few meters away from the group of unicorns, Professor Moonlight stepped forwards, stopping right next to the unicorns.
"This unicorn is the only female in the group. She is also the mother of the 2 little ones." Said Professor Moonlight pointing to the unicorn closes to the smaller ones.
"You can see that she is female because her horn is smaller than the horn of the male unicorns. The little ones are almost four years old; you can see that there horn starts to peak out. Until a unicorn reaches the age of seven the parents and male family members never leave them alone. Because unicorns life that long there are not many born. Until the age of seven, they are vulnerable to be captured. Now all of you can come closer and touch the older unicorns. Another big misunderstanding about unicorns is, that only young girls can touch them. This was seen as a common rule, when a few unicorns preferred the touch of the girls present. This happened because unicorns are attracted to the purest person present at a time, which in most cases are girls. One more rule before you can go near them is only touching the young ones if you have gotten permission. You get permission by bowing to the mother if she then touches your forehead with her horn you can go and touch them. If she does not, do not go near them." Said Professor Moonlight.
After the rules were put up all of us approached the golden unicorns. By the time the class finished only Harry, Susan, Hannah, one boy from Ravenclaw and Greengrass got to touch the small unicorns.
Before Harry made his way back towards the castle, Professor Moonlight stopped him.
"Mr. Potter I have heard that you and your friend, Miss. Lovegood, are friends with my son Ethan. Because of that my husband and I would like to invite you two to have dinner with us next week Saturday. Would you want to come?" asked Professor Moonlight.
'Have dinner with Snape??? That is going to be fun.'
"Um, sure?" answers Harry.
"Ok see you then next week, could you maybe extent the invitation towards miss. Lovegood?" said Professor Moonlight.
"Ok, no problem." Answered Harry before heading back towards the castle.
.
So that was the end of chapter 3. Hope you all like it!
Please review so I know what you thought about it.
I know from experience that people do not remember to review (I also was one of them), but it is really nice for the writer. Even if it is just to say "continue" or "was good"
Next time: Well I am not going to tell you, but here is where it will get interesting.
This was done with the help of beta mousehounde; Belldandy; cryfar and Alice
Chapter 4: Dinner
I want to say: I don't own any of the characters except the one that I made up.
Answers to reviews see at the end.
Chapter 4: Dinner
.
Time flew by and on Saturday evening Harry made his way from the Gryffindor common room towards the Snape quarters. As you could probably guess, they were in the dungeons.
He was glad that Luna and professor Moonlight would be there. That would probably ease some of the tension. Still, every time the words "dinner with Snape" went through his head, he wanted to run back to the Gryffindor common room.
Sooner then Harry wanted he was standing right before the door of the Snape quarters. Taking a deep, deep breath he knocked on the door. Before Harry could run, the door was opened and standing there was professor Snape.
"It seems you can be on time. Please come in."
"Uh, thank you for inviting me" said Harry awkwardly.
For a few moments, neither of them moved.
"Well don't just stand there, come in" signed professor Snape.
Rushing in Harry made his way towards the living room.
"Harry, you came!" shouted Ethan when he saw Harry coming in. Taking Harry's hand Ethan dragged him over to where he and his brother were apparently playing a game of Exploding Snap.
"Harry, I would like you to meet my brother Ryan. Ryan, this is a friend of mine Harry." introduced Ethan.
"Hey Harry, you want to join us?" Ryan said.
"Sure"
When Luna came in she joined in and they continued to play Exploding Snap for a while.
"Dinner is ready!" called Ethan's mother.
"We're coming!" Ethan called back.
Taking a seat at the table, Harry made sure to take the one furthest away from Snape, placing him in-between Luna and Ethan. During dinner they talked about random stuff between each other. In the meanwhile, Snape and Professor Moonlight talked between themselves.
"Ethan, Ryan, how do you like school so far?" asked professor Moonlight suddenly.
"It's going great, I like the classes and the material is not too hard." Said Ethan.
"Yeah, same for me I could even change a match into a needle on my second try." said Ryan proudly.
"So have you made a lot of friends already?" asked professor Moonlight.
"I made lots of new friends, the people in Slytherin are really nice and of course with Luna and Harry." said Ethan.
"Um, yeah some." mumbled Ryan, like he was not so sure.
And then it happened the most extraordinary thing that was going to happen in my life. I will probably never see this again. And nobody would believe it if I ever told anyone. Snape turned himself towards Ryan, who was sitting next to him and actually looked concerned.
"Ryan, look at me. Tell me the truth?" asked Snape really concerned.
"I am telling the truth I have friends." said Ryan in a tone that sounded like he wanted to convince himself.
"Ok if that's true who are they?" asked Snape.
"Well, uh, um, Luna and uh, um…" "Ryan how come you haven't made any friends? Are you concerned about something?" asked Snape, really concerned now.
"I uh,…" mumbled Ryan again looking at his feet. It was clear that Ryan wasn't going to answer the question.
"Miss Lovegood, do you maybe know why Ryan has no friends? I mean you are in the same house?" asked Snape and he really looked desperate to know the answer of what was wrong with his son.
'So that's how it feels to have a father' thought Harry.
"Well Sir" said Luna, almost afraid of answering the question, "some of the older students warned the new kids about you. Others have siblings who talked about you and well. Nobody wants to be friends with someone whose father is seen as evil."
Snape's face changed first to anger then sadness and eventually something that could be described as love.
"Ryan, come here" said Snape, taking Ryan into his arms and putting him on his lap hugging him closely.
"Why didn't you tell me about this?" asked Snape.
"I, I didn't want you to be mad at them or me. I know you wanted me in Slytherin."
"Ryan, I wouldn't be mad at you, not for this. Them that's something else, they shouldn't treat you like that because of who I am. And Ryan it's true that I would have preferred that you were in my house, but I wouldn't have cared if you were sorted in any of the other 3 houses. The hat decided that you belong in Ravenclaw and that just means you're my smart little boy and it's the same house as your mum." said Snape.
"Even if I was sorted in Gryffindor?" said Ryan smiling again.
You could see professor Snape struggling with answering that one, but he still said: "Even then, because I know you Ryan and I know who you are and your house is not going to change that."
The rest of the evening went smoothly. One hour before curfew the Snapes decided to send the kids back to their common rooms.
"We really enjoyed dinner professor Moonlight." said Luna.
"Your welcome and outside of class you can call me Serena, Miss Lovegood. The same for you Mr. Potter."
"Ok, then you can call me Luna." She said standing to leave together with Ryan. Ethan was already gone, after saying goodbye to his parents.
"Well thank you for dinner Serena, and you can also call me Harry. Goodnight professor Snape."
"I think it will also be appropriate for you to call me Severus, you to Luna" said Severus seeing the look his wife gave him.
"Ok" said Harry uncertain, still not really believing what he had seen earlier that evening.
"Harry, I know you mustn't fully comprehend what you saw this evening. But sometimes who we truly are, is not who people think we are. That must probably be too complicated for you to fully understand." said Severus closing the door.
After saying goodbye to everyone, Harry also walked back towards his common room. He couldn't stop thinking about what Snape, now Severus had said. He did understand. The Golden Boy everyone saw him as was not really who he was. He did not like having the pressure on him and people dying around him. Could it truly be that there were others who also wore a mask? Could it be people he knew? Could it be is friend and enemies? These were the questions that kept going around in his head while trying to fall asleep.
Time had flown by and it was 3 weeks until Christmas break. As always, Harry was staying at Hogwarts. This year though he was the only one. Ron was going home, because his brother Bill was returning home and Hermione was going on a holiday with her parents.
Walking down the hallway Harry remembered the dinners with the Snapes. There had been two more after the first one. In the beginning it was pretty awkward, but seeing as Professor Snape had not made any degrading comments it was not that bad. He also got to meet the youngest Snape boy, Ryan, who was shy. It took him and Luna talking to the Ravenclaws, for them to finally give him a chance. As a result, he now had some friends.
After these three dinners, he got to see a completely different side of professor Snape. He was actually really nice and you could see how much he loved his wife and kids. Harry once asked why professor Snape was so mean in class. As an answer, he got that potions were one of the most dangerous arts. One little mistake could heavily injure someone and even lead to death. Even though that explanation made sense, Harry got the feeling he was omitting something, definitely after what he said at the end of the first dinner.
Lost in thought he didn't see where he was going until he bumped into someone.
This is it for now, sorry for the long wait.
-Don't like it = don't read it
PS: you will get the reason why Snape is different from canon later in the story, now we are just taking away one assumption/lie at the time.
Lord?
I want to say: I don't own any of the characters except the one that I made up.
I am finally back. Sorry for the long wait, but my university work took to much time out of me. I have rewritten the past chapters (main story line stays the same).
Enjoy!
Chapter 5: Lord?
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"Watch were you are going" exclaimed Draco Malfoy. Studying full time for his OWLs and his heir training had taken a lot out of him. And now Potter could not look were he was walking. He almost caused all of his homework to fly around, imagine having to start all over again.
"Maybe you should watch it" Harry bit back. Of course, he had to have a run-in with Malfoy. He had managed to avoid Malfoy and his goons till now, or had they avoided him? Not that it mattered. Harry was glad that he could focus on school for once instead of on this pity rivalry.
"I see you still hang around blood traitors" spat Malfoy. He was pissed off with Potter prancing around like he owned the place. He might have a high status in the wizarding world but did not even bother doing the necessary work. It was a complete insult that he ignored all the traditions. Even worse he hangs around blood traitors and even had the audacity to defend their actions. His wardrobe also needs an update. It was highly offending that Potter did not were the correct robes and even the material used was substandard. But he probably did this so his friends did not feel left out.
"Stop calling them that!" replied Harry in anger. What was Malfoy's problem? Why did he feel the need to insult the Weasleys every time he mentioned them? Harry thought back on how nice Mrs. Weasley had been to take him in during the holiday. Even though they had little she always gave him presents and food. It was true that she often overwhelmed him and she wanted to control every aspect of his life, but it got him away from the Dursleys.
"I am calling them what they are, Potter. Maybe you should look it up if you don't understand." Malfoy sighed. Did Potter really not know that they had officially been declared blood traitors by the ministry after they were convicted a few generations ago? I mean everyone in the wizarding world knows what it means when someone is declared a blood traitor. He did have to acknowledge that the oldest Weasley siblings had distanced themselves from the disgrace that was brought on their families before. There were even rumors that the oldest Weasley was being courted by a veela. Maybe they are on the road to redemption.
"What the hell is your problem?" Harry exclaimed. He really wanted to know why Malfoy could not act normal. Why did he always feel the need to insult Harry's friends? Well to tell you the truth he had not heard any insult towards Hermione these past years, so that's that. Did no one realize that he is not the golden boy everyone thinks? He hated his fame and would give it all away if it would mean he got his parents back.
"My problem is that you seem not to care about our world at all. You didn't even bother to show up this summer. You might be a lord, but you are no better than us. Even Longbottom had the decency to show up." Malfoy told him off. Really Potter needs it spelled out why every pureblood is offended? And it's not just the Slytherins, all the purebloods from every house were shocked this summer when they noticed Potter did not take the time to show up. At the first meeting we all thought that maybe there was an issue, but after not showing up for the other four meetings everyone realized he was not going to come. It is really insulting that everyone else takes the time to come, but Potter does not even notify the ministry that he would not attend.
"What are you talking about?" Harry asked getting really confused. What the hell is Malfoy talking about? Me being a lord? He must probably have misspoken. And what was happing this summer, did Hogwarts provide extra classes to prepare students for their OWLs? He knew for certain that he did not receive any mail about something going on during the summer otherwise he would have gone. Did Malfoy just complement Neville for showing up? But that would mean that Neville was invited to these summer meetings. Maybe he can tell me what the hell Malfoy is talking about.
"Like you don't know" Malfoy stated before walking away, leaving a very confused Harry behind. Did Potter really think his innocent act would work? Everyone had gotten a personal invite by the Ministry so it was impossible that he did not know anything.
Walking into the dorm room Harry was happy to notice only Neville was there.
"Hey Neville, how is everything?" Harry said, starting a conversation.
"Good Harry, are you ok?" Neville replied looking up. But for the first time, he saw that Harry looked both confused and even a bit nervous. Like he was afraid to ask something, or maybe he was afraid of the answer?
"Yeah, just extremely confused. Malfoy mentioned something about me being a lord and something about not showing up this summer. Any idea what he is talking about?" Harry asked nervously. During his walk-up it went through Harry's thoughts that maybe Malfoy had made the whole thing up, just to confuse him more. But then again, thinking about the way Malfoy said it, it sounded too real. For one minute he thought about just asking Ron, but he could already imagine his reaction. He would probably go on a tirade about how awful Malfoy is and never get an answer. Plus Neville is a pureblood even though Harry often forgets this.
"Well, you are a lord. And this summer there were the heir classes. I honestly was surprised not to see you there." Neville told him sounding a bit unsure. Why would Harry ask him about this now? They had been in school for almost have the year and Harry never mentioned anything about it. But then the way he asked it almost sounded like he heard it for the first time. No, that is impossible. Every minor with a lord of heir title awaiting them was contacted by the Ministry concerning the summer meetings. Furthermore, his legal guardian should have informed him since he was 12 years old about his future. And just to be sure Gringotts has to inform every 13-year old, as they need to claim their heir rings.
"Heir classes? What's that?" Harry exclaimed, feeling more and more left out the loop. Harry did not know what was better Malfoy having lied about everything or him finding out that again he was kept in the dark.
"Well, they are … Wait you have no idea what I am talking about?" Neville exclaimed. Could Harry really have no idea what he was talking about? But, but, that was illegal. How could someone do this?
"Uhm, no…" Harry sighed, sitting down. He was feeling really depressed now. After almost 5 years in the wizarding world, he had hoped that he knew most general things. But here again, he was feeling like the small eleven year old that heard about magic for the first time.
"But that's impossible, your guardian should have informed you at 13 and you should have also received a letter from the Ministry." Neville exclaimed, getting more outraged as the conversation moved along.
"My guardians are muggles and I have never received any owls" Harry stated depressed. Well, this was excluding the owls he got from the Weasleys, Hermione, and Dumbledore. Oh, and he did receive a notification about underage magic once. Now thinking about it, Harry did wonder why he had never received any fan mail while growing up. He was after all the boy-who-lived and even though he hated it many people kissed the ground he walked on.
"No, no, I mean your magical guardian, muggles cannot sole guardians of wizards. For muggle-borns, their head of house is their temporary guardian. And what do you mean you have never received owls?" Neville asked surprised. How could Harry not know about all of this? Of course, Harry had a magical guardian. It would have been impossible to attend Hogwarts otherwise since they needed someone to contact in case something happened. Since muggles could not enter Hogwarts, this created the absolute need for a magical one.
"Magical guardian? I have never heard of one. Do you know who it is? And I have not received any owls besides some birthday presents from my friends." Harry exclaimed. How is it possible that no one ever told him who his guardian was? Could this mean that he did not have to go back to the Dursleys? He really hoped so. But while some hope started to rise in Harry the feeling of betrayal also increased. It was impossible that Neville is the only one that knew about it. Ron and Hermione definitely also knew about this and never mentioned it. Maybe they just thought he already knew? He did not know, what he did know is that he would get to the bottom of this and everyone that hid this from him would pay.
"No, I don't know. And you should have received monthly bank statements from Gringotts" Neville stated, this was getting more horrifying every minute. How could Harry not have received his Gringotts statements? He knew for a fact that the Potters owned quite a few shared in many companies. While the bank statements are sent to the guardian (magical person) of a minor, once someone turns 14 they receive copies of the bank statements. His grandmother said that this was done as preparation for the summer classes before 5th year. It would ensure that everyone already had an idea of their funds and how official documents looked like so they could do more work with the real documents instead of some made-up ones.
"I never received anything, I haven't been to Gringotts since my first year." Harry stated. Maybe he was left in the dark. He really felt stupid that apparently he had no clue about anything. Who would do this to him? He thought that a Hogwarts education prepared you for the real world. He sadly had to realize today that he knew almost nothing and if this did not change he was going to be completely lost. Maybe Malfoy was right and he did not know what would hit him when he left Hogwarts.
"This is really not normal Harry. If you have not been to the bank, how did you get money out for your school supplies?" Neville said trying to understand what was going on. He already dreaded the answer, he hoped it was not what he thought it was.
"No clue, the Weasleys bought my school stuff this year" Harry shrugged, what was wrong with that. The first three times they just gave him the money so he could buy his things. And because of security reasons they bought all his things this year. It's not like there is anything wrong with that is there?
"Are you telling me that you don't have your Gringotts key with you?" Neville exclaimed, outraged. This was insane. How could someone not have their own Gringotts key with them? The fact that Harry was acting like nothing was wrong only made it worse. Did no one tell him that everyone with your key and a written statement can access your vault? Did he know that people could have robbed him? Thinking about it more that was what probably was happing, someone was stealing his money.
"No I haven't seen it since my first year when Hagrid had it with him when we visited the bank" Harry stated, was it really that bad. He had never had possession of his key. The first time he saw it, Hagrid had shown it and immediately put it away again.
"Harry, this is not ok. No one but you should have your key. Look, I will owl my grandmother and ask her what to do. For now, don't talk about this to anyone until we figure out who is behind all of this and what is going on." Neville said. His grandmother would for sure know how to best handle this. This was a complete outrage, a pureblood not knowing anything. This also explained how Harry had acted in these last few years. While we were all thinking he was being disrespectful and did not care, the truth was he had no idea about anything.
"Is it really that bad?" Harry said sounding really sad.
"Harry we don't know what they have been doing with your key or if there are other things going on such as marriage contracts. Hiding someone's inheritance is one of the biggest crimes, besides line theft and blocking a mate bond." Neville stated reassuringly. They would get to the bottom of this.
"Oh, ok." Harry replied feeling overwhelmed. Today had been so overwhelming. He went from having a quite normal argument with Malfoy to discovering that everything he knew was a lie. Well no, it wasn't a lie, he was just never informed of anything. This was what he hated most, feeling left in the dark. It made him feel like he was back in his cupboard, not knowing anything, feeling completely powerless.
"Harry don't worry we will sort all of this out." Neville stated. Harry was actually very surprised how confident and strong Neville sounded. Normally it was him that had to give courage to Neville, but it looked like this time it was he who needed the support offered. Seeing Neville's owl fly away he just hoped that they would get their answers very soon.
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This is it for now, again sorry for the long wait.
Please leave a review if you are still interested in this story and about how you like the new chapter.
Finally!
I want to say: I don't own any of the characters except the one that I made up.
Thanks to everyone who is reading this story and everyone who has reviewed it.
Enjoy!
Chapter 6: Finally!
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The days awaiting the reply were very stressful for Harry. It had already been 2 days and he was getting more and more nervous as time went on. He had a hard time concentrating in class since his mind constantly wandered to what had happened. Even Ron and Hermione had noticed that something was up. While Harry noticed that Hermione was mainly just curious about what had taken his attention away, Ron was more persistent. He constantly kept asking Harry what was going on and was very offended when he saw Harry spending more time with Neville.
While awaiting the answer of his grandmother, Neville had taken it upon himself to introduce Harry to some basic 'pureblood' knowledge. One thing that had really surprised Harry was when Neville mentioned that most purebloods actually have some creature blood in them. This apparently results in many purebloods receiving a creature inheritance when they reach the age of 16. This would mean that everyone of their year, who has enough creature blood, would receive their inheritance this year. Neville told him that next semester many students would receive some extra days off around their birthday to accommodate this. Annoyingly Neville could not tell Harry if he would be receiving anything, as most families did not share this information with just anyone.
While there is of course a lot more information Harry needs to know about this, Neville said it could wait. Currently, there is other information that should take precedent. He finally got his explanation concerning what these summer heir meetings were all about. At the age of 14, each person with an inheritance is invited to Gringotts to do the so-called 'heir test'. This test will determine which houses someone is heir to and if there are any lordship positions available. While as a minor you are not yet qualified to be lord, you will still get the name. Officially they call them lord apparent. Since Neville's parents are not available he became lord apparent to the most Ancient and Noble house of Longbottom.
The next step happens when they reach the age of 15. They all are assigned a current lord or proxy to their house. In most cases this is a parent or grandparent. In case no one in the immediate family is available their magical guardian steps in. This also means that future lords have to have a lord as their magical guardian. During their training they are invited to observe the Wizengamot meetings whenever possible. More crucial are the 5 mandatory group sessions during the summer. These meetings will provide the standard knowledge about being a lord. More importantly this provides the perfect opportunity for youngsters to create business connections with each other away from the prejudices of Hogwarts. These meetings are also open to anyone who is to become lord of a British house, which means attendance of students not attending Hogwarts. These meetings are spread across a total of 3 years. While the 'classes' are separate, the interactions are not, allowing students to make acquaintances with 5 different age categories (including their own).
In other words, Harry now understood that he was at a huge disadvantage, by not being aware that these meetings were being held. Even worse Neville told him it was a great offense when you did not attend. This only made sorting everything out as fast as possible more important.
It was on the third day at breakfast that Neville finally received a reply. Shooting a quick glance to Harry, who was squeezed between Ron and Hermione, he told him with his eyes to meet him in the dorm room later that day.
"Finally" Harry exclaimed entering the dorm room "I was able to get away from Ron and Hermione as Hermione wanted to do some last minute revision before the holidays. What did your grandmother reply? Can she help?" Harry asked getting nervous and excited at the same time.
"Yeah, she replied. As I expected she is as outraged as I was. She told me to invite you over for the Christmas holidays so we can go to Gringotts and see what happened to your vaults. When we are there we also have the opportunity to do an heir test. Based on what we will find, we will need to see if we are obliged to inform the Ministry to get everything further sorted out." Neville replied.
He was happy that his grandmother would be able to help. She even mentioned that she was proud of him for handling this information so well and getting the appropriate help to deal with this. While his grandmother could be very strict, Neville would not want anyone else.
"That seems like a good idea. Do you think professor McGonagall is going to allow me to leave for the holidays on such short notice?" Harry asked getting worried that their plan would not be possible. He really wanted answers and currently Neville and his grandmother were the only ones that had them.
"She is not allowed to deny you. As long as you are staying with an adult during the holidays the school has no say over you. No worries, if she for some reason does deny your request I am sure my grandmother will take it up with the school board." Neville stated assured. There was no way that they could legally deny Harry to go spend the holidays at his place. One thing they knew for sure is that these holidays were going to get very interesting.
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This is it for now.
Please take the time to review, even if it is just a word.
Gringotts
I want to say: I don't own any of the characters except the one that I made up.
Please let me know what you think of where the story is going through reviews.
Enjoy!
Chapter 7: Gringotts
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Today was the second day of the holidays and Neville's grandmother decided that today they would be going to Gringotts. Just as Neville had said, professor McGonagall had not denied his late minute request to leave for the holidays. What did seem weird to Harry was that professor Dumbledore had called him to his office asking about where he would be spending his holidays. He even tried to convince Harry that he was not safe outside the walls of Hogwarts. While he had not been able to stop Harry from going, it made Harry wonder about what was going on.
Spending time at Neville's grandmother was very nice. While there were some rules in the house, in general, she left both him and Neville to their own devices. She did question him throughout when he arrived to figure out how much he knew about his lordships. When she figured out it was zero to none, she was so angry she had to leave the room to calm down. Even Neville was surprised, saying he had rarely seen his grandmother that angry.
Arriving at Diagon Alley, Harry, Neville, and Mdm. Longbottom quickly made their way towards Gringotts. Mdm. Longbottom had made an appointment ahead of time, so they were directly led to one of the meeting rooms.
"My name is Gornuk, what do you need of us today?" said the goblin entering the room after a few minutes.
"We would like to speak with the Potter account manager, have a full investigation in the Potter vault, and an heir test for mister Harry Potter here" Mdm. Longbottom replied clearly.
"Do you have your key mister Potter?"
"Uhm, no Sir. I was never given my key. The last time I saw it was when me and Hagrid visited the bank before my first year." Harry replied looking quite nervous.
"You mean to say that someone besides you has your key? Wait here for a moment, I will be getting the Potter account manager who will be able to verify who you are." Gornuk stated before leaving the room. Looking up at Mdm. Longbottom Harry could already see that she was getting worried.
"Ah mister Potter, I am glad you finally grace us with your presence. You are a hard person to track down. We have been trying to get in contact with you since your 14th birthday." Exclaimed the goblin entering the room. "My name is Ripclaw and I have been the Potters account manager since your grandfather. What seems to be the problem here?"
"Nice to meet you sir, my name is Harry" Harry replied nervously. "The problem is that I don't have my Gringotts key. And what do you mean trying to contact me? I have never received anything from Gringotts."
Looking up to Mdm. Longbottom, Ripclaw was getting angrier the longer Harry talked.
"That is why we are here, my grandson discovered that mister Potter is not aware of anything he should be aware of as the lord apparent of the House of Potter. And for some reason the owls from the Ministry for the summer heir classes also did not reach him." added Mdm. Longbottom.
"This is very concerning" stated Ripclaw looking very worried. "Let's start from the beginning and make our way through everything as much as we can today. I hope you have no other appointments today as this will take some time." Seeing no objections Ripclaw continued. "First of all mister Potter. Since you have no key on you, we will need to confirm who you are. Please place a drop of your blood on this paper."
Seeing only encouraging looks from Neville and his grandmother, Harry decided to trust them. Cutting his finger with the knife offered he placed one drop of blood on the paper. Without warning the name " Hadrian James Potter, son of James Fleamont Potter and Lily Rose Evans" suddenly appeared. Looking up he saw Ripclaw smiling.
"All seems to be in order. Since you currently don't have your keys and you don't know who has them we would propose you to make use of our key renewal service. This means that for a small fee all your previous Gringotts keys will no longer be valid and new keys will be created, if you would be agreeable." Without letting Harry answer, Mdm. Longbottom quickly replied "Yes, that would be preferred. Since mister Potter currently is not the owner of his keys, someone else has access to his vaults and that is unacceptable."
"That would be in order." Stated Ripclaw writing something down and sending it of. Not one minute later a new Gringotts key appeared on his desk. Handing it over to Harry he said "Here is your new key, it will give you access to your trust vault until you are old enough to receive access to your other vaults." "Wait I have more than one vault?" said Harry astonished. He was always very careful with how much money he spend so it would last him for some time after Hogwarts. Well to be honest he also never saw the point of spending lots of money when he had to return to the Dursleys who would have probably taken everything away or even destroyed it.
"Of course mister Potter, now based on what you have told me for some reason you have not been receiving our owls. We would propose to have an enchantment test done to see if someone or something is blocking your mail." Ripclaw proposed.
"If you think that is best?" Harry said, still not completely comfortable. "If you would follow the goblin here, he will bring you to our testing room. The test itself will take around 10 minutes. Once it is finished you will be escorted back here." Ripclaw explained pointing at the goblin who had just entered the room. Looking back at Neville Harry only saw encouragement and decided to go along with everything for now.
It was almost 15 minutes later when Harry finally entered the room again. The goblin escorting Harry inside quickly handed over some documents to Ripclaw before leaving. Seating himself between Mdm. Longbottom and Neville Harry did feel a lot lighter than before. It was almost like a pressure had been relieved of his shoulders and his magic also felt more alive than before.
Having gone through all the documents the goblin looked up. "Before we begin I would like to say that everything found on you has been removed. But, mister Potter I sadly have to inform you that multiple blocks and spells were found upon your person. There are a total of 13 compulsion spells, several loyalty potions, some light love potions, aversion spells, several mail diversion spells and also a block on parts your magic." Hearing Mdm. Longbottom and Neville gasp when Ripclaw was talking let Harry know that this was not good.
"A block on his magic? Compulsion charms?" Mdm. Longbottom almost shouted in anger. "Yes madam, we sadly enough do not know who has placed these charms on him, but we assure you that each one of them has been removed. I do have to tell you mister Potter, that it is ill advised to use your magic for the next three days. Your magic and body have to get used to functioning without these spells and potions in your system." Ripclaw stated, leaving no room for argument.
"Now to continue, while you were being seen to, I looked through your account records and as you probably know the monthly money transfer to your guardians is still going on, you have yearly taken money out of your vault for the past 8 years and again at the beginning of each school year." Ripclaw continued.
Harry was feeling overwhelmed. His relatives had received money for him? Uncle Vernon always said Harry had to work for his keep and now he hears they have actually received money? It would not surprise them if the money they received had been spent on Dudley. Did he say that money had been taken for the past 8 years? But he only discovered the wizarding world 5 years ago, so how could he have taken money out?
"Excuse me Ripclaw, but that must be wrong. I have only been aware of the wizarding world for the past 5 years. I know for a fact that I never entered my vault before that." Harry exclaimed getting angry.
"Don't tell me that this child has been stolen from as well!" stated Mdm. Longbottom outraged, who would dare steal from a minor?
"That is impossible," murmured Ripclaw, looking back down to the bank statements. "Yes, it states here that your magical guardian took out 10.000 gallons every year for the past 8 years."
"My magical guardian? I don't even know who my magical guardian is!" shouted Harry getting upset; he had never felt so powerless before. He calmed down when he felt a hand on his shoulder from Mdm. Longbottom telling him "calm down Harry, we will sort all of this out."
Seeing he could speak again Ripclaw stated "It is stated here that Albus Dumbledore is your magical guardian after the will reading of your parents."
"Wait for a second, there was never a will reading of Lily and James Potter. We all thought that there was no will," proclaimed Mdm. Longbottom.
"That is unusual," stated Ripclaw while going through the documents. "I have here the confirmation that shortly after the elder Potters past away Albus Dumbledore read the wills. But, for some reason, I cannot find any documents stating that the wills were publically read. Since it is almost impossible we would have misplaced it, it seems we need to conclude that it was really never read" Ripclaw stated in shock. How could no one have noticed this before?
"Before looking into this further I want Dumbledore removed as his magical guardian and a new one appointed. I am almost certain that Lily and James Potter didn't appoint Dumbledore as his guardian. But besides that, Dumbledore has shown himself unfit to be mister Potter's magical guardian since he is unaware of his status and he has been denied the appropriate education." stated Mdm. Longbottom taking charge in this mess. So many things were coming out that Harry had no idea anymore about what was going on. Looking at Neville it was clear that even he had no idea anymore what was happening.
"This day is getting longer and longer" muttered Ripclaw, before speaking up "Seeing the circumstances we are able to immediately remove Dumbledore as mister Potters guardian. We will need to file everything we found today with the ministry to make it official. This does leave open the question as of who would be mister Potter's new magical guardian. As you know Mdm. Longbottom, you are not able to become his magical guardian since you only operate as proxy. This only allows you to be the guardian over an heir/lord apparent who is your immediate relation." Ripclaw stated, pointing out their next problem.
"That is true" Mdm. Longbottom said thinking about a possible solution. If no one appropriate was assigned, they would need to go to the Ministry. The ministry would then be allowed to appoint anyone that they found would qualify.
"Won't Harry's parents have stated possible guardians in their will?" Neville suddenly said, thinking he might have found a solution.
"You are right, I cannot imagine that Lily and James would have not had several guardians listed in their will in case something happened." Mdm. Longbottom said looking over at Ripclaw to look in the will.
"With your permission mister Potter, we can do a preliminary hearing of the will. After this is all completed all receiving parties will then be invited for the official reading later this week" said Ripclaw looking expectantly at Harry.
"Uhm Ok" stated Harry
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This is it for now.
Please take the time to review, even if it is just a word.
POLL for later: Do you prefer male pregnancy (only for creatures) or do you prefer a surrogate. This means that the 'genetics and magic' of both males are combined. The first 4 months baby develops in a 'lab', after it is transferred in a surrogate for the final '5 months'. This is from both sides unanimous and thus is as no link between the two (not even paper trail). PS: the surrogate is a voluntary job and only allowed for 2 pregnancies.
Or do you not have a preference.
Will reading
I want to say: I don't own any of the characters except the one that I made up.
Please let me know what you think of where the story is going through reviews.
Here is a new chapter! Enjoy!
Chapter 8: Will reading
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Last time:
"You are right, I cannot imagine that Lily and James would have not had several guardians listed in their will in case something happened." Mdm. Longbottom said looking over at Ripclaw to look in the will.
"With your permission mister Potter we can do a preliminary hearing of the will. After this is all completed all receiving parties will then be invited for the official reading later this week" said Ripclaw looking expectantly at Harry.
"Uhm, ok" stated Harry
"To allow the will to be read, you need to place a drop of your blood on it mister Potter" stated Ripclaw handing Harry a thick piece of paper. Placing a drop of his blood on the will, it opened up and an image of James and Lily Potter was projected.
To whomever, it might concern this is the will of James Fleamont Potter and Lily Rose Evans-Potter
Being of sound mind and magic.
To Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, we give everything that is placed in vault number 1769, this is for being my best friends and brothers. Without you, my Hogwarts days would not have been as good as they were. Please take care of yourselves and take good care of our Harry.
To Alice and Frank Longbottom we give 10.000 galleons and our books on Herbology. You were amazing friends and I (Lily) had such a great time being pregnant at the same time as you Alice.
To Severus Snape, we give you vault number 1770. In it, you will find my potion diary as well. It will be more useful in your hands than in a vault. Thank you for introducing me to magic and being my first real friend. I have heard you have also found someone to share your life with and I hope you enjoy it fully.
I (James) would also like to apologize for everything we did to you in school. We were stupid kids who never realized the consequences of our actions.
To the Andromeda and Ted Tonks, we give 5.000 galleons. Thanks for being there for us. We were able to find great friends in you
To Amelia Bones, we give 5.000 galleons. Thank you for being my friend in Hogwarts and I hope your life is long and healthy. Take care of yourselves
To Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, we give 5.000 galleons. You both know what you meant to us.
To Peter Pettigrew, if for some reason we were killed by him, you are the only one to blame. You were our secret keeper. As such you will only receive our everlasting hate. See you in hell!
To Harry, We give everything else. You are our most precious thing in the world. Live your life like you want to, no matter what you do we will always be proud of you. And while you might be a prankster like your father, please also take some time to study. You need it to get where you want to go.
Now for guardians:
Sirius Black: godfather (together with Remus Lupin)
Alice and Frank Longbottom: godmother
Severus Snape
Andromeda Tonks
Amelia Bones
Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy
Under NO circumstances is Harry James Potter allowed too go to Petunia Evans now known as Petunia Dursley. They hate magic and have made this clear on several occasions. They are not a good environment for a magical child.
Under NO circumstances is Albus Dumbledore allowed guardianship over Harry James Potter. He is the school headmaster and would not be able to provide harry with what he needs.
So we say, so must it be.
Mischief managed.
After hearing the will Harry was in shock. He was never supposed to go to the Dursleys? He could have had a good home where he would have been loved? He really wanted to know who had placed him with the Dursleys.
"How come I was placed with the Dursleys and Dumbledore was my guardian when my parents clearly did not want that." Harry asked desperately for an answer.
"I have no idea Harry. But don't worry after everything is cleared up today we will be sending all of this to Ministry so they can start an investigation in everything that is going on" Mdm. Longbottom said reassuringly. It was illegal to ignore a parent's will. She is so glad now that she is still alive to give Neville the life he deserved. Just imagining someone ignoring Franks and Alice's will is a horrifying thought. And it turned out that Peter Pettigrew was the secret keeper and not Sirius Black? This would mean that an innocent man spend 14 years in Azkaban, the horror! She would make sure a trial was organized as soon as possible to clear this all up.
"At least we now know who would be next in line to become your magical guardian. We will suspend the meeting for half an hour while we get in contact with Severus Snape. I would advise you to grab some lunch as it is already past lunchtime" Ripclaw stated already writing a summons to Severus Snape.
When Harry, Neville, and Mdm. Longbottom arrived back at the meeting room Severus Snape was already there. He was in a deep conversation with Ripclaw. Harry was hoping Ripclaw was explaining everything, as he really did not want to go through it all again.
Looking up Severus Snape saw them entering. To be honest, when he had received the letter from Gringotts not even an hour ago he was surprised. He was called upon because of an issue with the magical guardian of Harry Potter? Deciding he could not ignore the letter he said goodbye to his wife and children before apparating to Diagon Alley. Once he arrived he received a small update on what had happened. Apparently Mdm. Longbottom had found out that Potter was not disrespectful but ignorant. No one had informed him of his legal duties. During the meeting, it was also discovered that Potter did not possess his Gringotts key, had several enchantments placed on him and that Dumbledore as legal guardian had been taking money. The funny thing is that Dumbledore was not even legally allowed to be his guardian, to begin with. If the will had been read, like it was supposed to, he would have been the one that would have raised Harry Potter.
"Now that we are all here we can continue. As I have informed Lord Prince-Snape of what has happened before, there is no need to repeat it. He has also reacted positively to potentially becoming your magical guardian mister Potter" stated Ripclaw when everyone was seated.
"Wait a minute do I not get any say in this. Not to be disrespectful, but why can I not stay with Neville?" Harry said sounding really confused. So much had happened in such a short time that he did not know what to do anymore.
"Look, mister Potter, Mdm. Longbottom is not qualified to have the guardianship over you. She is not a lord herself and has no direct relation to you. Mister Black is still a wanted criminal and even if cleared will need to undergo possible years of mental treatment before he even comes close to being cleared to gain guardianship over anyone. Mister Lupin is not allowed because of his status as werewolf and Mrs. and Mr. Longbottom are currently in St. Mungo's. Since Lord Prince-Snape is the next person in line in your parent's will, he receives preference. He is the current Lord Prince and as such has the ability and qualifications to guide you in your future duties as a lord yourself." Ripclaw interfered trying to explain to mister Potter that this was the best solution.
"And what about the Dursleys? Will I need to go back there?" Harry asked hoping this would give him a way to never go back.
"There will be a separate investigation in your home life at a later date. We at Gringotts have no authority concerning where children are placed. We only have some control over the magical guardian when this is a separate person." stated Ripclaw showing that the matter was closed. He really wanted to continue this as they still had quite some work to get through.
"Lord Prince-Snape are you willing to become the magical guardian of mister Potter till he reaches the age of maturity and to guide him in his future role. If so please sign the following papers." Ripclaw said handing over the papers to Lord Prince-Snape. After having read through all the files, he decided to sign it and handed them back.
"Now for the next part. As we discovered before there have been some payments that for some reason mister Potter is not aware of. We did some research and have figured out where the money is going. There is a total of 1.000 pounds placed in the account of the Dursleys each month. There is also a yearly withdrawal of 10.000 galleons by one Minster Dumbledore. Of these 1.500 galleons are deposited each in the vaults of Ginerva Weasley and Ronald Weasley. 4.000 galleons are deposited in the account of Molly Weasley and 3.000 galleons are going to the personal account of Albus Dumbledore. There has also been an irregular number of around 500 galleons withdrawn at the beginning of each school year." states Ripclaw. After he finished the whole room erupted.
It was unbelievable that people had been receiving money from the Potter accounts without any reason. Harry was wondering how he never noticed that they were never his friends. They were paid to be his friends. To be honest he was glad that Hermione was not part of this, at least that meant that some friends of him had been real. Thinking about it this might explain Ron's behavior last year during the Tournament. He did drop Harry from one day to another. But this, no he never thought this was possible.
Quickly glancing at Harry Severus Snape said "I want all transfers of money stopped as soon as possible. I also want a copy of all previous transfers, send to me so we can get every galleon back. Don't worry Harry, it might take some time but we will get everything back".
"It will be done as soon as possible. Gringotts apologies for any part we might have played in this. We will do a full inquiry into the Potter accounts and punish anyone found guilty." Said Ripclaw, with a bloodthirsty grin. "We will now continue with your heir test. This should have been done a year ago, but better late than never".
"It is quite simple, you need to place one drop of your blood on this paper and then tap it once with your wand," Ripclaw explained handing over the paper. Taking it Harry did what was asked. This time it took almost 5 minutes before something started to appear on the paper.
"Well, congratulations mister Potter. You have 3 houses that you can claim. You are the lord of both the House of Potter and the House of Peverell. You are also the heir to the House of Black through your godfather. You might also like to know that you will not be receiving a creature inheritance upon your 16th birthday." Ripclaw stated after reading the results. While reading out the form, 3 boxes appeared on his desk. "To claim all Houses you need to put on the rings found in the boxes." Quickly glancing around Harry picked up the boxes and put on the rings inside.
"Well, that would be all, for now, mister Potter. We will be sending your previous bank statements to your guardian as soon as possible and after that, they will be sent out monthly." Ripclaw said. Looking towards Severus Snape he asked, "would you also want us to send the heir copies to misted Potter?" Nodding his head Severus Snape replied, "that would be preferable, yes." After nodding his head and writing something down Ripclaw turned towards Harry. "Would you want us to charge all fees of today to the Potter vault?" After looking at Severus Snape, Harry nodded his head replying, "Yes good idea".
Seeing they were done Severus Snape said. "I would also like a card to be made for Mister Potter" turning to Harry he explained, "This card is tied to your specific magical signature. It allows you to pay in both the muggle and wizarding world without always having to come here to withdraw money". "Here is your card mister Potter," Ripclaw said handing Harry a black and gold card. "It was a pleasure doing business with you, May your gold increase" greeted Ripclaw before another goblin escorted them to the entrance hall.
Letting Harry and Neville say goodbye to each other, Mdm. Longbottom turned towards Severus "Harry was staying at our place normally during the holidays, but it will be better for him to spend the rest of the holidays with you. This will allow him to get used to your dynamics. If for some reason you need to be away for a moment Harry is always welcome to stay at our place. I will be sending his trunk over with a house-elf the moment I arrive home. Do you already have an idea about what you are going to do about his guardians?" Shaking his head he replied, "That would be fine. Concerning his guardians that will be up to the Ministry and I will also first need to discuss everything with my family"
Turning around Severus Snape approach Harry, "We are leaving now" he stated while turning around and walking towards the apparition point. "Please hold on to my arm and don't let go. I will be apparating us home" Harry did as he was told and with a "pop" they were both gone.
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This is it for now.
Please take the time to review, even if it is just a word.
Just to let you all know, everything that is mentioned in the original HP books (after 4th year), has not happened. This means that if I don't mention it, it does not exist.
Arriving at the Snape's
I want to say: I don't own any of the characters except the one that I made up.
Please let me know what you think of where the story is going through reviews.
Enjoy!
Chapter 9: Arriving at the Snape's
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With a 'pop' both Harry and professor Snape arrived at the outskirts of a huge manor. Without saying anything professor Snape started walking towards the entrance of the manor. With no other choice, Harry followed a few steps behind.
Tens of meters before the entrance professor Snape stopped and turned around, "normally I would have apparated inside the entrance hall, but since you are not keyed into the wards that is not possible. I need you to stand still for a few minutes to allow me to key you in," stated professor Snape.
Not waiting for an answer he started waving his wand around in what looked like a complicated pattern. While professor Snape was doing this Harry could feel something slightly pulling on his magic.
Harry knew it was done when professor Snape stopped and started walking again. "Now that you are keyed into the wards, you will be able to go straight to the manor without any problems." said professor Snape before entering the Manor. The entrance hall was huge; you could clearly see that people with quite some money lived in the house. Harry was not given much time to look around, as he was taken straight upstairs.
Opening one of the doors professor Snape explained "This will be your room for the remainder of your stay here. As you can see at the moment the room has not been decorated yet, Serena will probably take you shopping sometime during the next few weeks to get whatever you need. Through that door you will also find your own bathroom," said Professor Snape while pointing at the door on the left side of the room.
"Since it has been a busy and probably overwhelming day for you I will leave everything that will happen during the holidays for tomorrow. The only thing you need to be aware of now is that dinner will be served at 7 and breakfast at 8. In case you need any help you can call for Twinkle and she will assist you with anything you need.
Further Mdm. Longbottom told me she would deliver your trunk when she arrived home, so it should be here any minute. During your stay here you can also address my wife and me as Serena and Severus. Make yourself comfortable and I will see you in an hour for dinner." said Severus before leaving the room.
Being alone Harry thought about everything that had happened. While he was still quite confused about everything that had happened in the past hours, being here wasn't as bad till now. He had a very nice and big room, which was probably twice the size of his room in Privet Drive.
One hour later found Harry anxiously entering the dining room. While he did have several meals with the Snape family at Hogwarts this was a completely different situation. First of all, he didn't have other students or Luna by his side and secondly, he was now also living with the Snape's for the next three weeks.
Quickly taking the seat next to Ethan Harry noticed that he was the last one to arrive.
"Thank you for letting me stay here," he quietly said in the direction of Serena and Severus.
"It is no problem at all Harry, I hope you will have a great time here" Serena replied encouraging before dinner appeared on the table.
"So you will be staying with us for the Christmas holidays" stated Ethan very exited.
"Yeah, at least that's the plan," replied Harry.
"Yes!" Ethan exclaimed, "We can play Quidditch when we have free in the afternoon and then you can show me those great moves you have. You are after all the youngest seeker in a century"
Overhearing the conversation that what going on between Harry and Ethan, Severus decided to interrupt, "Ethan I am sorry, but Harry will probably not have time to teach you much Quidditch these holidays."
Seeing that Ethan was about to protest, Severus quickly gave him a look daring him to interrupt before continuing, "Harry will be spending most of his time learning about his new status and catching up with the classes he missed during the summer. He will need to learn a lot more than you will need to learn Ethan because Harry did not grow up in this world. That means that things that might seem obvious to you might be completely new for Harry."
Seeing the completely devastated look on both of his sons' faces, Severus added: "I am not saying he will have no free time, but it will be very scarce." Looking at Harry who probably wanted to go into a million different questions he said. "We will be going over what you will be doing in detail tomorrow." His tone saying the conversation was over.
And before Harry knew it was time to go to bed, too tired to care much about what tomorrow would bring.
The next day Harry woke up refreshed. He must have been very tired since for once he didn't have any nightmares, not that he was complaining. Making is way down to the dining room he greeted everyone before starting his breakfast.
"Boys, you know that this morning you should be working on your holiday homework. Like always after lunch, you will have time to enjoy yourself. Your mother and I will be talking with Harry this morning, so please don't disturb us except if there is an emergency." stated Severus before turning to look at Harry,
"Harry, when you are finished please follow us to my office and we will be explaining what will happen from now on."
Not even fifteen minutes later found Harry seated in front of the desk in Snape his office. On the other side, Serena and Severus were seated.
Taking a deep breath, Severus started, "so, as you know I have been made your magical guardian, that means that at least for the Christmas holidays you will be staying here. Before I will go into what will be happening during the holidays, I have found it appropriate to inform you of what is expected of you while in this house. All our children have the same rules, so it will be expected of you to also follow them." Started Severus.
"As you might have noticed in the mornings, we expect you to finish any homework you have been given and to study any material that is necessary for your classes. We will be checking your homework to see if it is satisfactory and if not, you will be doing it again. In the afternoons and when you are finished with all your homework, you are normally allowed to do what you like, as long as you behave. In your case, you will probably have very little free time since I will be using the afternoons to catch you up on everything you should know as an heir and lord in training."
"Now for the rules" Severus continued, "You are allowed to go anywhere in the house you want. When a door is locked that means you are not allowed to go inside by yourself. You are only allowed to be in there when we are with you. You are also not allowed to do anything that might put your life or the lives of others in danger. In case you have a problem with anything we expect you to tell us or another adult so they can take care of it. This means there will be no more stunts like you have been doing the last few years in Hogwarts, do you understand?" declared Severus, leaving no room for argument.
"Yes, sir" replied Harry. While he didn't like that his life was being controlled this was also the first time that someone seemed to care about what he was doing.
"You will also be expected to behave according to someone of your status, which means no more pity insults and stupid school rivalries. You will be respectful towards everyone, there will be no shouting and you will have to control your anger. I am also aware that your school grades in most of your classes are average at best. This will need to be improved, this is your OWL year and if you don't score well enough at the end of the year a lot of courses will no longer be available to you next year. If you have any trouble with any coursework you let us know and we will make sure it is no longer a problem."
"If any of these rules are broken this can result in privileges being taken away. If we see that your studies are not receiving enough of your attention you will be banned from playing Quidditch."
"What you can't do that," exclaimed Harry in anger, how dare he.
"Watch your tone, and we can and we will. If we do it or not is up to you, Quidditch is a privilege and not a right." Stated Severus clearly.
"Now, I will not be going into detail on what I will all be teaching you as you will find that out soon enough." Looking at Serena, Severus continued, "Serena will be going over all the social events during the holidays with you."
"As you might now there are two balls that you will be attending with us during the holidays." Seeing the worried look starting to appear on Harry's face Serena quickly added, "no worries, we will make sure you are fully prepared for them. The truth is that since you missed most balls during the summer you can't afford to not attend. And normally the Longbottoms also attend if that makes you feel more comfortable."
"There is the Greengrass' Yule ball and the Malfoy's New Year ball. You will be seeing the Malfoys as well for Christmas as we always spend it together. To make it easier on you, they will be coming here this year."
After hearing this the only thing Harry could think of is that he will be spending 2 full days with the Malfoys. While he has never met Malfoy's mother, he could only think she was the same as her family. He had been so lucky that he had been able to avoid Malfoy on those dinners in Hogwarts. Well, what was probably worse is that he would have to thank Malfoy. Without him, he would have never found out about what was going on. Oh, this is so frustrating!
Seeing Harry's inner debate Severus stated "I understand that you and Draco have your issues, but I will be expecting the utmost behavior from both of you. Draco will have also been made aware that your childish rivalry will not be tolerated."
"You and Severus will also be going to the ministry by the end of the week to look into your home situation and to see if your relatives are fit to keep custody over you." Said Serena. "If you have no more questions, you can go and start on your holiday homework. After lunch, Severus will start your first lessons."
I know it's a short chapter, but the next one is almost finished so I will be posting that very soon.
Please take the time to review, even if it is just a word.
-I decided since they only have 3 holidays (Christmas, Easter and then summer) that Christmas holidays last 3 weeks.
PS: I am not a native English speaker so let me know if I make very bad mistakes.
Inheritances
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
I want to say: I don't own any of the characters except the one that I made up.
Please let me know what you think of where the story is going through reviews.
Enjoy!
Chapter 10: Inheritances
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After the meeting, Harry made his way to his room to start making his homework. Normally he would be doing this at Hogwarts in the crowded Gryffindor common room. Some years he had been lucky that most of the students had left for the holidays, so he could concentrate. Other years he wasn't as lucky. While he did love Gryffindor and the connection it provided him with his parents, he often wondered if it was the right choice. Was the sorting hat may be correct that placing him in Slytherin would have been good for him? Looking at everything now, he would have probably known about his inheritance earlier being surrounded by pureblooded roommates that are heirs themselves.
Taking out his books, quills, ink, and parchment he decided to take a more Hermione like approach and make some kind of plan. Luckily for him, not each professor decided to give them homework this year. He had to write an essay for potions, charms, transfiguration, and DADA. Then he also needed to read and study some chapters for potions, transfiguration, herbology, and care of magical creatures. Under the pressure of Hermione, he had already finished his transfiguration homework and Neville had helped him already with his herbology readings as well. Looking at the time he decided to start with his DADA homework. He hoped he would have it finished by lunchtime.
After eating lunch Harry was guided to the home library by Severus. Entering he could imagine this room would be a dream for Hermione. The Prince library was as big, if not bigger than the library in Hogwarts, but it seemed like it had a bigger variety of subjects. Harry did see that the books on creatures, potions, and DADA were represented the most but that did not limit the collection the Snapes' had in other subjects.
Turning around Severus stated: "You are free to use most books in the library for your personal studies. But at the moment you are not yet allowed to touch any of the books in that section" stated Severus pointing at the last 6 shelves on the left side of the library. "There is an alarm spell placed on those books, so we will be notified if you try to take them."
Leading Harry to the right side of the library he pointed at a few shelves "These are the books that can be interesting and can help you with your heir studies. The books in this section cover politics, contracts, laws, history, and traditions. To give you an idea of where to start I have here a list of books that you are expected to have read by the end of the holidays. They are in order of what you are supposed to be reading first." Explained Severus handing Harry a parchment with a list of books. Looking down at the parchment Harry had trouble keeping his expression from going to desperate. The list was filled with books covering all kinds of subjects. Doing a quick count Harry saw that there was a total of 28 books he had to read.
"Today I will be going over the basic knowledge of what your status is and all the duties you will hold when you become a full Lord. We will also go through any basic questions you have today. Tomorrow Serena has volunteered to give you etiquette lessons so you have at least one more week to get used to it before you are attending the balls. The day after tomorrow we will start going over your account statements. You will also start to receive your account statements from Gringotts. I expect you to read them at breakfast and at certain points in time I will be asking you questions about what is happening. This means Harry that if you do not understand something you immediately ask me so that I can explain it to you."
While Harry was glad that he was finally starting to learn everything he needed to, he could not deny that he was not looking forward to the work. He had hoped that he would still have plenty of time to play Quidditch and so but that did not seem realistic. It was of course only logical seeing that he was behind almost 2 years on his peers, who started at the age of 14 and lived their whole lives in the wizarding world.
They both took a seat in two great chairs standing next to a small reading desk to start their lesson. "So, before I begin do you have any questions? Something you don't understand?" asked Severus, giving Harry the opportunity to out any of his nagging questions.
"What did Ripclaw mean yesterday when he called you Lord Prince-Snape? And why do you not use it." wondered Harry. He had never heard of the name Prince before and wondered why Severus did not use it.
"Well, the Prince name comes from my mother's side of the family. During my Hogwarts years and my potions mastery, I was known as Severus Snape and as such most of my potion mastery achievements are documented under that name. Since my grandfather did not have any other heirs when he died, and my father did not have a lordship, the Prince lordship was given to me. While I was allowed to change the name when I took the lordship, I never felt the need to. Since I don't carry the name Ethan and Ryan also don't carry it. When Ethan takes over as Lord Prince he will have the choice to either keep the name Snape or to change it to Prince." Severus explained.
"But what about Ryan, will he not inherit anything?" Harry asked, shocked.
"No Ryan is second in line and as such can only inherit the Prince lordship except if Ethan, and his children, fall away. It works like this. The oldest child gets the lordship from his father in case the father has one. If the father has multiple lordships it depends on how they are qualified. Taking you for example. The Peverell and the Potter Lordship have been merged at one point in history and you will also receive the Black lordship. In case that you have 2 male children, the oldest one will get the Potter Lordship, which includes the Peverell lordship, and the second child will receive the Black lordship."
"Ok, but what if I have more or less than two sons?" asked Harry trying to understand.
"In case you have 3 male children you as Lord will have the option to divide up the Peverell and Potter Lordship again and create two separate houses. The monetary details in case of a divide are already documented at Gringotts. In that case, the Peverell Lordship will be the most important one and go to your oldest. The Black will be the second most powerful and go to the second child and the Potter lordship will go to the third child. Of course, depending on how they have been managed over the years this order can change.
In case you only have one male child this child, just like you will inherit all three lordships. If for a period of 7 years lordships stay together the lord will then have the possibility to merge the lordships."
"You keep saying male children and sons, does that mean that females don't get anything?" asked Harry.
"Yes, females cannot inherit a lordship. They can hold the proxy seat until either the male heir is old enough or until a male heir is born. How much access the females get to the inheritance is based on the arrangements made by each individual house. For example Mdm. Longbottom holds the Longbottom proxy until her grandson is old enough. Mdm. Bones also holds the proxy seat till her niece Susan has a male son. But it is never sure because the lordship of her husband if he has one, will take preference. And the Bones lordship can only be transferred if the husband agrees that one of his children or his only child will receive the lordship."
"So females really are second to sons. I never thought that equality was so far to be sought." Exclaimed Harry, feeling quite disturbed by the treatment he thought women received in the wizarding world.
"You have to see it differently. When a female marries, she comes under the house of her husband. There are three reasons why women cannot inherit. The first is that you cannot split up most houses. For example, the Black lordship can only go to one person. While there are some trust vaults for the other members-only one can hold the lordship. In the case that females could also inherit you could get cases of the oldest, being female, and her husband having to deal with 2 lordships. Furthermore, they would also have to have two children to pass it on to. On the other hand, you could have her younger brother and his wife not having any lordships to pass on.
The second reason is that to create a child a part of parents' magic is used and provided for the child while it grows. This makes it very hard for most to produce more than three to four children. Most couples have to already stop after two. By spreading out the lordships it provides more chances of one lordship going to one child and as such preventing the merging of lordships.
The third reason is that they want to avoid the idea that a married couple has 2 lordships at the same time with 2 different people. This would bring opposing interests together and can create extra pressures on the marriage. It sometimes happens of course with male-couples, which is why in those cases it is advice to appoint one partner as a proxy to the others lordship."
"That does make sense. So everything is done so that cases like me, inheriting 3 lordships of which one is merged, does not happen often." Stated Harry.
"You have to understand that the seats in the Wizengamot correspond with all the different houses of wizarding Britain. If houses are absorbed in each other or just die out that means that there are fewer seats in total. This means that there are fewer votes. If houses are merged that means that one person holds more votes than the rest. People will try to do everything to keep their lordship alive."
"Wait but I am not related to Sirius," Harry said, suddenly realizing that fact. "How did I then receive the Black lordship?"
"Godfathers, like Sirius, did for the Black lordship, have the possibility to transfer their lordships to their godsons if they themselves don't produce an heir. The ritual that is done after a godfather is chosen, mixes some of the blood of the godfather with that of the godson. This allows a lordship to be transferred. This is a very extreme measure and is normally only done in case the godfather is unable to reproduce." Finished Severus, hoping the explanation had been sound.
"You said before that all the Wizengamot seats are decided based on the lordships. Does this mean that muggle-borns and some half-bloods are never able to be seated there?" asked Harry, no wonder a lot of people looked down on muggle-borns if they never had any say to begin with.
"First of all half-bloods can sometimes inherit lordships through their wizarding parent. Muggle-borns are sometimes descendent from squib lines and can as such revive or receive lordships. But besides the lordship seats, every ministry department head also has a seat in the Wizengamot. That means that in that way both females and males from any decent can be part of the process."
Looking at the time Severus decided to call it a day. "It is almost time for dinner, so we will stop here for today. Don't forget to start reading your books when you have time." Taking out a book from another shelf Severus handed it to Harry saying. "As a Lord, it is also necessary for you to learn occlumency, or mind arts. This is very hard, so I want you to read the entire book and start with meditating every night to try to clear your mind." Said Severus before leaving.
That night Harry went to bed after reading the first few chapters of his books and doing some meditation. The one thing he knew for sure is that clearing his mind was not his thing.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH" a scream went trough the house later that night.
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This is it for now.
Please take the time to review, even if it is just a word.
Chapter End Notes
Due to several requests, I have decided that the next chapters will be longer. This also means that it will take a longer time for me to update. Let me know what you think.
Etiquette and Ministry
I want to say: I don't own any of the characters except the one that I made up.
Please let me know what you think of where the story is going through reviews.
Enjoy!
Chapter 11: Etiquette and Ministry
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH" a scream went trough the house later that night.
Immediately shooting out of bed Severus made his way to the hallway. Running while following the screaming he was led to the room that Harry was sleeping in. Throwing open the door he could see that Harry was having an awful nightmare. Deciding that the only thing to do was to wake Harry up, Severus slowly made his way towards Harry's bed.
Severus' first decision was to not touch Harry, as that would most likely scare him, but to call out to him. After calling Harry's name multiple times and getting no result Severus had no other choice than to grab Harry to try and wake him up. Shaking Harry a few times did the trick and Harry woke up gasping for air.
Before Harry could try to run away or hide, Severus quickly grasped him. Holding him like you would hold a small child; he started rocking Harry back and forth saying comforting things at the same time. After the shock wore off being awoken, Harry started crying.
This was the first time someone had ever held him after a nightmare. In Hogwarts he usually had silence spells up so the others barely noticed that he was having nightmares. And at the Dursleys, he would have been locked up without food and extra chores if he dared to wake them up during the night. This was the safest and loved he had felt in a very long time.
When Harry finally calmed down, Severus spoke very softly "It's ok, everything will be ok. Do you feel a bit better now?" While Severus did not get a verbal answer he did feel Harry nodding his head.
"Ok, do you want to talk about it?"
"NO!", Harry said in a panic.
"Shhh, it's ok, you don't have to talk about it. Calm down"
When Harry calmed down once more Severus asked "It is still quite late, do you think you can fall asleep again? Do you maybe want a dreamless sleeping draught?" said Severus trying to keep Harry calm.
Harry looked up with terrified and sad eyes and murmured "a dreamless sleep, please"
"Ok, Harry I will be calling a house-elf so don't panic." Said Severus before calling "Twinkle"
"Yes master Snape"
"Please bring me one of the dreamless sleep potions"
A few seconds later Twinkle popped back in "Here master, anything else Twinkle can do?"
"No, that will be all"
Turning back to Harry, Severus handed him the potion saying, "Harry, you can take one gulp from this and it will help you fall back asleep"
Seeing Harry had done what he was told, Severus started to lay Harry back down so he could leave when he felt a hand reach out to him. Looking at Harry, Harry mumbled, "Please don't leave"
"Just try to get some sleep," Severus answered while conjuring a chair next to the bed and taking a seat. He would stay next to Harry until he fell asleep before going back to bed himself.
When Harry showed up for breakfast the next morning, he was glad that no one mentioned what had happened that night. He did not think that he would have lived it down if Severus of Serena mentioned his moment of weakness. Today instead of doing homework in the morning it was decided that he would immediately start his etiquette lessons with Serena. He had a lot to catch up to and she thought it would take the entire day.
"Harry, I will probably not have enough time today to teach you everything, so I expect you to improve and work on this in your own time. I understand that you have a lot of work, but your first appearance will be scrutinized since you already offended most people." Started Serena, going into lecture mode.
"We will begin today with the more practical skills and leave this afternoon for the rest. As you have already been informed you will be attending the Yule ball next week, which means you don't have that much time to hone your skills." She started leading Harry to the now empty dining room.
"The house-elves have set up the table to learn you the perfect table manners and what utensils to use for what dish."
They quite some time going over the table manners before continuing on to the proper personal interaction. He learned proper greetings for when Harry would be introduced to people and how he had to interact differently with his peers compared to the adults in the room. But even then, he was required to act differently depending on the station of each person. He quickly realized that the way Malfoy had acted in first year was actually normal and it was he who had not replied appropriately. Furthermore, when last year's Yule ball at Hogwarts was brought up Serena was horrified on how he had treated Parvati Patil.
"Are you telling me that you asked her to be your date and then ignored her!?" exclaimed Serena.
"It's not like I wanted to go to the ball in the first place we were forced to go and I had to ask someone," stated Harry trying to explain how he acted.
"Harry, there is nothing wrong in asking someone just because you have to. It happens quite often that people ask dates just because it is required. The problem is how you went about it and how you then treated her," started Serena, trying to get Harry to understand what he did wrong.
"The fact that you asked her last minute would have probably tipped her off on the fact that you were just asking to get a date. Not only that but you also asked a date for your friend which makes it quite obvious. But you should have told her that you had issues with dancing so you both could have worked on that. By not showing an effort you embarrassed yourself and her. And if that was not bad enough, you ignored her for the rest of that evening not even returning her to her dorm room like any gentleman. And if that wasn't enough you had to have a fight about another girl,"
"But she was just a friend" Harry interrupted her.
"It does not matter what her position in your life was. It was not like she was in any danger, so you should make a scene. And if you went to talk to her you should have taken Miss Patil with you, so she felt included."
"Ok, I get it," Harry stated, accepting he was wrong, "I will make sure it does not happen again."
"Make sure you do. But you will need to apologize to miss Patil."
"Wha…"
"I don't want to hear it," Serena said forcefully, "Harry, the Patils are a high up pureblood family. It is only your luck, that for some reason your treatment of her has not gotten around. You will write an apology letter by tonight and before you send it off you will show it to me."
"Fine, I will write it before dinner," stated Harry feeling reprimanded by Serena.
"Harry, I am not asking you to be best friends with her or to have a do-over. Once you have sent your apology and miss Patil has responded, there is nothing tying you to each other," explained Serena.
Unfortunately for Harry the discussion about the Yule ball also led to dance classes. Once Serena noticed that Harry was absolutely horrible at dancing she immediately tried to rectify this issue. Harry would not be able to go to a Yule ball without the bare minimum of dancing skills.
The rest of the day was spent learning many different skills that he would need to be presentable at the societal parties. Just before dinner, he went in search for Serena, wanting to get the apology letter done and over with.
"Serena, this is my letter," Harry said, handing over his letter.
After having read it over Serena said, "Everything seems in order. Now go send it off and then head straight to dinner."
Before heading to bed Harry was stopped by Severus, handing him a small potion bottle. "Harry, this is a dreamless sleep potion. Take it for tonight, but you cannot take this to much or you will get addicted to it."
"Thank you," said Harry before entering his room.
The next morning at breakfast Harry was happy to note that a letter had arrived for him.
Hey Harry,
How are you doing at the Snapes? I hope you are settling in well.
Let me know if at some time you would want to come over. It would be great to see you again, but I also understand if now is not a great time. You probably have a lot to learn and of course, you are getting used to your new living conditions.
I am also doing great. My grandmother even bought me my own greenhouse so now I can start growing my own plants. I have also met up with Luna yesterday and she is happy that you are doing ok. Maybe let her know how you are doing? I have a feeling she won't send an owl herself, she doesn't want to intrude.
I wanted to let you know that my grandmother and I have been invited to the Greengrass' party. I expect you to also be going, so we should meet up there. Do you already have an outfit?
In case you ever have any questions about the traditions or laws, just send me an owl. You should know I am always here if you need any help or need an outside perspective.
Have you already gone to the ministry? Harry, if they ask about the Dursleys, don't lie. I know you don't like to talk about it, but I know something happened there. In case you don't know child abuse is considered one of the worst crimes in the wizarding world. Just promise me you will be honest?
I have to go now, I need to go shopping for new dress robes for the ball. Hope to hear from you soon!
Neville.
After reading the letter Harry looked up, turning towards Severus.
"Neville mentioned our ministry visit. When will we be going?"
"It is planned for tomorrow, I want you to be on your best behavior," replied Severus, "We will first look into your guardian situation. Once that is handled we will have to check if no contracts have been made in your name that you need to honor."
"Contracts?"
"I will explain that at a later time if you want to know now, it is mentioned in one of the books you need to read. Since tomorrow will be a busy day, you have this afternoon free," said Severus before leaving breakfast.
After replying to Neville's letter Harry made his way to Ethan rooms. Entering the room, he saw both him and Ryan sitting together playing a game of Exploding-Snap.
"Hey Harry, you want to join us?" said Ethan looking up from the game.
"Sure, why not," said Harry taking a seat next to them.
"So, how have lessons been going with mom and dad? I will need to start learning politics as well next year and am so not looking forward to it," said Ethan.
"They are fine. And I am sure that you will have an easier time. Most of the time I am learning things both of you probably already know about. Plus I need to catch up an entire year in just a few weeks," said Harry.
"Is it true that you did not like dad?" said Ethan softly.
Looking at Ethan, Harry replied, "To be honest I never hated Severus. But from the moment I entered Hogwarts he hated my guts, would give me detentions whenever he could. But this past semester I think for the first time he is giving me a chance. Being here for Christmas, it is the first time I know how it feels to be part of a family and I am not sure if I will be able to go back to how things were before."
Feeling the sad mood that Harry was going to Ryan quickly tried to change the subject, "So what do you think Uncle Lucius will have bought me this year?" he questioned looking at Ethan.
"I have no clue, Ryan, after getting tickets for the Quidditch World Cup last year and season tickets for your favorite team I have no idea how he is going to top that." Said Ethan.
"Wait, Uncle Lucius? Don't tell me as in Lucius Malfoy?" stated Harry, just realizing what might have been said.
"Uhm, yeah. Uncle Lucius is Lucius Malfoy," said Ethan, looking like he didn't understand what was the problem.
"Don't tell me that the Malfoys are coming over for Christmas? Please don't tell me Draco Malfoy will be here," said Harry, already fearing the answer.
"Of course they will be here, my godfather, Aunt Narcissa, and Draco join us for Christmas each year," said Ethan.
"Godfather?"
"Yes, Dad is Draco's godfather and Uncle Lucius is mine. Dad always tells us that they are brothers in anything but blood." Said Ethan. "Why would them coming over be a problem?"
"Maybe you don't know, but me and Draco Malfoy hate each other. He can't go one minute without insulting me," said Harry. "I thought that maybe you didn't get along because I never saw him at the dinners we had with your parents"
"That's because Draco had dinner with us at a different time. Mom and dad don't like it when there are to many children over at the same time," explained Ethan, "and didn't dad tell you that you need to stop your rivalry?"
"Have you met Malfoy?" exclaimed Harry.
"Yeah, I have known him my whole life. I personally think that after you apologize and act like you are supposed to he will at least be civil with you. He told me about your rejection in first year, and Harry, that was extremely rude. No wonder he doesn't like you."
"I know I was rude, but I didn't know I was. He just reminded me of my cousin and I reacted."
"We understand that Harry, but you might try explaining that to Draco and see what happens. Who knows, maybe you will become the best of friends."
"Yeah right," mumbled Harry.
After finishing Exploding-Snap they spend the rest of the afternoon playing Quidditch in the garden. Tomorrow they would go to the Ministry who would decide who would gain guardianship over him. After spending almost a week with the Snapes Harry couldn't deny that he wished that maybe he could stay with them. The only thing he knows is that under no circumstances is he ever returning to the Dursleys.
That morning before going to the Ministry Harry was called into Severus' office. Harry had been nervous that entire morning and was not entirely sure what was going to happen. He knew that they would look into his home situation. He was mostly afraid that his life was going to be the big evening news in every witch and wizard's home.
"Thank you for coming Harry," said Severus after they both took a seat.
"Before we leave for the Ministry there were some things that I wanted to discuss with you. As you know, today the Ministry will look into your current guardians and they will then decide if they are unfit for you to stay with or if you need to go back."
"Sir, I don't want to go back," whispered Harry desperately. "I will go anywhere."
"I know, Harry. For what you have told me from your home situation, I would be extremely surprised if they send you back there. And believe me when I tell you that I will do anything to make sure that you do not end up there again," stated Severus.
"I believe you"
"Now, what I called you in here for is to decide what to do when your guardians are deemed unfit. Selena and I spoke lengthily about this and we also talked to the boys and if you would like it we would like to offer to adopt you if you like. The choice is completely up to you," said Severus, now directly looking into Harry's eyes.
"Wha… But, I mean why would you want to do that?" whispered Harry disbelievingly.
Standing up Severus moved across the room before standing right in front of Harry.
"Harry," Severus said, making Harry look up to him, "Over the past week we have gotten to know you, and each of us would love it if you also became part of our family."
"I don't want to be a burden," mumbled Harry under his breath.
"Harry, we want you, and you will never be a burden. Ethan and Ryan love hanging out with you when they can and Selena and I have come to love you."
"But, what about inheritances, I would be the oldest," stated Harry trailing off.
"Since you are too old to perform a blood adoption, neither yours or Ethan and Ryan's inheritances will change. But Harry, why are you trying to come up with reasons why we should not do this?" said Severus, seeing what Harry was trying to do, "We would love you to be part of this family and that is not going to change no matter what you say. But, it is still your choice if you accept our offer or not. If not, other arrangements can be made, don't worry, you will not be returning to the Dursleys if you say no."
Seeing that Harry had no idea how to respond Severus stated, "Harry, you don't have to make a decision right now. The Ministry first has to declare your guardians unfit and then Selena and I are your temporary guardians until the end of the holidays. You have then till summer to make a decision about what you would like to do. We just wanted to make sure that you knew the offer was there."
"Thank you for the offer, but I don't know"
"No worries, let's go to the Ministry, and then we can see how the Christmas holidays go."
"Sure"
Walking into the Ministry for the first time Harry was amazed at what he saw. Wizards and witches were walking around trying to get to where they needed to be. There were owls and paper airplanes flying around. In the middle, he could see this huge statue, which according to Hermione is The Fountain of Magical Brethren. Hermione mentioned in one of her arguments that "other creatures" were seen as less then wizards and witches. Apparently the Ministry sees the statue as unity of the wizarding world. Now seeing it, Harry was leaning more towards the opinion of Hermione.
"Wands please," stated the Ministry official, before they were allowed to enter.
Both Severus and Harry handed over their wands before getting it back less than a minute later.
"Wands please," was immediately called to the people standing after them in line.
After their wands were registered Severus led Harry to one of the elevators. The funny thing is that in the wizarding world the elevators don't only go up and down but also sideways and diagonally. The elevator ride didn't take that long as soon "Department of wizarding children" was called out and they exited into a nicely lit hallway.
At the end of the hallway, a lady was sitting doing a huge amount of paperwork with one of the magical quills. She was medium build with blue eyes and dirty blond hair that curled over her back. She was probably somewhere in her twenties and Harry assumed she was trying to work her way up by starting in the front office.
When they approached, she looked up, "name and purpose please."
"Severus Snape-Prince, here for an appointment with Mdm. Hawks."
Harry was happy that Severus had refrained from stating his name. The lady behind the desk was already scrutinizing him enough without her knowing he is Harry Potter.
"She is already waiting for you, down the hallway, second door to the left," she replied before going back to her work not giving them another glance.
Severus took hold of Harry's shoulder before guiding him to the appropriate room. They both received a quick "enter" after Severus knocked on the door once.
"Ah, you must be Lord Snape-Prince, please come in and take a seat." Mdm. Hawks said.
She was an aged lady probably somewhere in her seventies. Her hair was in a grey bun, quite similar to professor McGonagall. Actually she reminded Harry of professor McGonagall. She had the same strict expression, but also the softness in her eyes, which gave Harry a calm feeling.
With a tap of her wand, a file appeared in front of her, that she opened before looking into it.
"Mister Potter, we have received your file from Gringotts and let me be the first to apologize for what happened. The placing of orphaned children is the duty and the obligation of this department and sadly enough we failed you in that aspect," Mdm Hawks said.
After what had happened with Mr. Potter the Department started an investigation in every orphaned child that was placed in the last 30 years. They were working alongside Gringotts to make sure that they were not missing anyone. The reason here for was that until recently de Department did not even have a file for Mr. Potter. This meant that even if someone had done a regular check-up they wouldn't have found anything, as Mr. Potter had not existed. Besides the investigation in other orphaned wizards and witches, there was also a special investigation happening concerning Mr. Potter's case. The Department was desperately hoping that it was just an oversight that had happened in the highs of the war. Because the other option was either someone in the Department had hid Mr. Potter illegally or that they had been spelled to forget about his case. In that case, one had to wonder what other Departments had illegal activities going on. And even worse, that would mean that someone had been able to influence someone illegally and undetectable for more than 15 years. If that would come out the trust in the Ministry would completely disappear.
"Lord Snape-Prince has told us that there are reasons why your current guardians are unfit to care for you. As you understand we cannot just believe his word, which is why you are here today. I will be asking you several questions about your current living conditions and your guardians. All you need to do is answer truthfully, nothing more." Mdm. Hawks started explaining the procedure.
"I can do that," answered Harry, still unsure about telling his home situation to a random stranger.
Seeing the doubt in Harry, Severus inserted, "Am I right Mdm. Hawks that everything that will be stated here will be confidential and not be accessible to the general public?"
Seeing where Severus was going, Mdm. Hawks assured Harry, "Lord Snape-Prince is correct Mr. Potter. You don't have to fear anything becoming public. The worst that can happen is that they will know that your guardians were deemed unfit, the details of why are confidential. This is also the reason that we are in this office instead of in a courtroom. When the case concerns minors we always have the utmost privacy."
Looking back at her file Mdm. Hawks started her questioning, "Am I correct that you currently reside with a Mrs. and Mr. Dursley?"
"Yes, my aunt and uncle on my mother's side, but I am currently staying with Severus for Christmas," answered Harry.
"Yes, I read that here. You staying with Lord Snape-Prince is no issue as he is your magical guardian. Since we did not place you, we were wondering if you had any idea how you ended up at their home?"
"My aunt told me I was left on the doorstep and she found me with the milk bottles"
"Are you telling me that someone left a one-year-old on a doorstep?" exclaimed Mdm. Hawks. "This will be added to your file and we will be investigating who did this."
"Can you describe to me how a typical day would be when you were a child?"
"I would wake up, and make breakfast. After breakfast, I was given a list of chores to do for the day. I would also make lunch and dinner and then go back to sleep," said Harry.
"You mentioned that you had to make breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Can you tell me at what age this started? Was someone helping you?"
"No I did that by myself, and I have been doing it for as long as I remember. I can't really remember not doing it."
"So what would you eat on a normal day"
"Uhm, it would depend on if I was able to finish my chores or not."
"So if you did finish, what would your meal look like?"
"An old piece of bread, a glass of milk, and if I was lucky some leftovers in the fridge."
"You mentioned that you have chores, what would they generally be in a day?"
"Making food, mowing the lawn, gardening, painting the fence, cleaning the house"
"What happens if you did something they didn't like, or if you didn't finish your chores?"
"I was mainly put in my cupboard without food, but one-time Aunt Petunia hit me with a cooking pan."
"How often were you hit?"
"It only happened when they were really angry. They mostly locked me up inside my cupboard without food. They tried not touching me, my freakiness my be contagious."
"Freakiness? Is that something they called you often?"
"Yeah, I thought Freak was my name until I went to primary school."
"You mentioned a cupboard. Was this just used for punishments?"
"No, it was my bedroom until I was eleven. After I got my Hogwarts letter they moved me into my cousin's second bedroom."
"Did punishments change after you moved into the bedroom?"
"When I came home from Hogwarts they were afraid I was going to use magic on them so they left me alone. But halfway through they found out that I cannot use magic outside Hogwarts. After that my uncle put up bars in front of my window and locks on my door. My aunt would give me a soup can a day through the flap door and let me out to use the bathroom once a day."
"What about your cousin? Was it only your aunt and uncle who hit you or did your cousin participate?"
"He had this game called "Harry Hunting". He and his friends would chase me around the neighborhood and beat me up when they caught me"
"And what was your aunt's and or uncle's reaction to what your cousin did?"
"They would encourage it."
"Were there other areas in your life where you were treated differently from your cousin?"
"Well, he would get presents for holidays and birthdays. I also only got his cast downs, clothes, toys, They would also take him on holidays and leave me with Mrs. Figg."
The whole interview lasted several hours. Harry was asked lots of different questions regarding his home life. While they were talking Harry could see that both Severus and Mdm. Hawks were angry with some of the things he was telling them. He honestly did not see what was so bad, it could have been a lot worse. It wasn't like he was hit all the time or that he was touched in places he shouldn't be.
For the most time, the Dursleys rarely touched him. Yes, they took away food and he was locked inside his room a lot, but that was only for the summer months. While he definitely did not want to go back, he was not expecting such a severe reaction to what had happened to him.
Severus had told him that child abuse was almost non-existent in the wizarding world. Since having many children was often hard due to magic restraints children were very precious. As the parents share magic with the child during pregnancy, the more children the fewer magic available for the next children. That's why the oldest is preferably male, as they normally have the strongest magic and are the heir.
There are of course several cases of child abuse, but those were often in families were one of the parents were muggles. Not all muggles are bad of course, but many don't understand the magic and don't know how to deal with a child who has it. This often leads to cases of neglect and sometimes to severe abuse, where parents try to beat the magic out of them.
While Harry was speaking, Mdm. Hawks took multiple notes on what was being said. Sometimes she would react in a sadder tone and sometimes she would look angrier at what was being said. After a while, Harry did feel like he could trust her more and started going into more detail of what truly happened in the years he lived at the Dursleys.
At the end of the questioning, Harry was also asked if he was willing to give them some memories since it would build a stronger case.
"It is not that I do not believe you Mr. Potter it is just that if we have your memories we are not obliged to further investigate what happened. If you are not willing to provide them we will also need to talk to your current guardians before we make a final decision on your living situation. Both options are the same to me, so it is really up to you what you are comfortable with."
Looking at Mdm. Hawks and then at Severus, Harry decided "I will give you my memories if Severus is the one to extract them. I only trust him."
"Of course Mr. Potter, that is absolutely no problem," she said before conjuring some vials and handing them to Severus.
"After you put the memories in they will disappear and be automatically classified in your file. No one but you and your guardian will have access to them. Three judges will view your memories, today's questioning, and your file this afternoon. As you are a minor this will be anonymous, which means that any recognizable characteristics will be redacted. As such they will have no idea who's file they are judging. The latest tomorrow morning you will receive an owl with the final judgment," Mdm. Hawks explained.
Going through the Gringotts file on her desk, "If, as I believe, your current guardians are deemed unfit you will have till May to decide who you would prefer as your new guardian. This Department would prefer someone that was appointed by your parents' will, which is Lord Snape-Prince, Mdm. Tonks, Mdm. Bones or Lord Malfoy. As Lord Prince is already your magical guardian we would probably prefer that option.
But, while you are a minor you are 15 years old, which means that your opinion will also be taken into account. I would advise you to take your time to choose a new guardian. Your current guardians were muggles, so they had little to say in the wizarding world, but if your new guardian is a wizard or witch they will have a lot more power over your daily life."
"Thank you for the advice," replied Harry. The offer that Severus had made before they left for the Ministry was still playing in his head.
"If that is all, we will be taking our leave," said Severus.
"Yes, thank you for coming and I wish you all the best in life, Mr. Potter. Happy holidays," Mdm Hawks replied before both Harry and Severus stood up and left.
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Well, that was a lot, hope you like it!
Please take the time to review, even if it is just a word.
As I find that any story mentioning abuse, read possibly by children, should have this:
IMPORTANT: If anything that was mentioned in this chapter (what happened to Harry at the Dursleys) seems familiar to you, or any of this, even if just a little bit, is happening to you, do not fear to seek out help. Every country has special chat boxes or phone numbers for these issues, or you can just tell someone you trust, whatever you feel comfortable with. What I am describing is not normal behavior from adult to child and should never happen. And seeking help does not mean you will be taken away from your home, but they will be able to make the behavior stop.
Contracts and papers
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
I want to say: I don't own any of the characters except the one that I made up.
Please let me know what you think of where the story is going through reviews.
Sorry for the delay, but I have been working so I did not have as much time as before.
Enjoy!
Chapter 12: Contracts and papers
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It was three days later that found Harry going through a huge pile of paper. The previous day an owl had delivered his heir bank statements. He and Severus were planning on going through them in detail in an hour, but Severus had asked him to already go through them if he had some time. This would allow them to test his knowledge and focus on the areas he didn't understand.
While sitting there, Harry's mind easily wondered to what had happened in the past few days. The day after they arrived home from the Ministry, an owl had come carrying a letter with the Ministry seal. Opening the letter, it informed them that the Dursleys were deemed unfit. As a result, he would now be placed under the temporary guardianship of Severus and Serena until a decision was made concerning a permanent guardian.
This let Harry to wonder about the adoption proposal he had received from Severus and Serena. He loved staying at the Snape's and he got along quite well with both Ryan and Ethan. The difficult relationship between Severus and Harry had also almost completely disappeared. Severus had been a huge help on several different aspects. Harry had been receiving extra lessons to help him with potions. Who knew that he was doing the cutting, slicing, dicing, and so on wrong? Apparently, muggle raised students should have received an introductory book on wizarding basics, which should have explained this. It would have also mentioned some basic potions and the main interactions between herbs and potion ingredients. It was only after one hour of trying to teach Harry that Severus found out that Harry never received anything. This resulted in a mix of emotions, Severus was mad at Dumbledore for not providing this material to Harry, but also at himself for never realizing. Once Severus sat down with him to explain everything he should have known, his potion skills improved drastically. One thing was for sure; he would be able to get at least a decent score on his OWLs.
Severus had also been helping him with his nightmares. After the first time, he had been having them almost every night. While taking dreamless sleep potions helped, they were sadly enough addicting. The solution was a combination of occlumency and dreamless sleep potions. Meditating and clearing his mind before going to bed, really helped in keeping the nightmares away. Severus had also spelled Harry's room to notify him if Harry had one of his nightmares. Being woken up almost immediately and having someone there allowed Harry to fall back asleep.
Serena and Severus had also been a huge help in helping him get through the social minefield that is politics and etiquette. In just a few days' time, they had already pointed out so many things that he was doing wrong. He honestly did not realize that you could insult or offend people in so many different ways. It was truly a miracle that he had survived this far. But even with all the lessons and rules that were being drilled into his head, he was still quite worried about attending the balls. This was already his second chance, which meant he would not get another. Meeting the Malfoys for Christmas would be some kind of pre-test. While Harry still had to abide by most of the rules, it would be in an informal setting, which would provide him with a bit more leeway. He had been so relieved when Severus told him that no matter what he decided concerning the adoption, they would still continue to help him with any etiquette and rules he needed. At least that gave Harry one less thing to worry about.
Casting tempus, Harry reorganized his papers before standing up and going to Severus' office. After knocking, he entered and sat down, laying out his papers in front of him.
"Were you able to read through some of your bank statements?" asked Severus, while grabbing the original bank statements and laying them in front of him.
"Yes, I was able to get through the first few pages," replied Harry.
"Since we are limited in time, we will only be going through the Potter accounts today. Tomorrow you can test how much you understand, by going through the Black accounts by yourself. You should have enough knowledge after today to at least understand the majority of the information. I will be expecting a report tomorrow night of the Black accounts so I can review how much you understand and what areas we will need to go over again," said Severus.
Opening the folder named "Potter-Peverell", Severus started, "As you can see each bank statement will start with changes that have been made since the previous statement. The following documents will then be the unchanged parts. The unchanged parts are always divided in the same way, but for each account, the order might be different. This means that the same information will be found in both the Potter accounts and the Black accounts, but not necessarily in the same order.
You will find a section on vault statements. This is everything that can be found in each vault, this goes from the actual gold to items. These items can be almost anything, heirlooms, furniture, portraits, clothes, and so on.
There will be another section on properties, in Britain and abroad. For each property, it will also state what the current state of the property is. This includes how many house-elves, the state of the wards, magical creatures that can be found, the size and state of the property, and so on.
Another section will be on contracts. This includes personal and house contracts. This can go from alliances, both personal and the entire house, to marriage contracts. This is also the section were the wills will end up, in case one is written.
There is also a section on shares and investments. This will state the number of shares you have in a particular business and how much money you are either earning or losing based on that share. In case you sell or buy new shares, or if there is a big change in your earnings or losses this will be mentioned in the beginning of the bank statements under "changes"," explained Severus.
"I understand, so if I need to find the information I need to look in the correct section. Is there a specific order to the files in each section," Harry wondered.
"Yes, in most cases the sections are either ordered according to date, newest first. Otherwise, they are ordered value. This means the main vaults or properties first," replied Severus.
"As there were some issues with your vaults and the standing orders, we will go through those first and make our way through all the sections. Today is for you to learn how to be able to read the files and we can also see if there are any irregularities. After today you will be able to propose changes, such as investments, but you will need my approval before they will be applied. For the Black account, you are only the heir, so you cannot make any adjustments yet, you can only review the statements," continued Severus.
Opening the file they both skipped the new changes section, as this information will also be in the specific sections. It would not be productive to go over things twice in the short amount of time they have. Both opened the first section labeled "vault statements".
"As you can see, the top of this section mentions the standing orders that we canceled when we visited Gringotts," said Severus, starting to go over every withdraw and deposit of funds since the Potters were alive.
"As is customary, the main Potter vault has been closed since your parents died. The only vault that is accessible until you become lord is your trust vault," explained Severus further.
"It says here that the main Potter vault deposits a yearly fund of 25.000 galleons in my trust vault. Is that normal?" asked Harry surprised after seeing the enormous amount.
"For old pureblood families that is a normal amount of money to be deposited. It allows heirs to have monetary freedom and be able to learn how to handle money. Of course, as you can see this amount has increased over the years. In the first years of your life there is no need to provide you with this amount of money. And Harry, if you turn to the next page, you can see that this deposit barely makes a dent in the main Potter vault," explained Severus. Ethan and Ryan each also had a trust vault in their name with similar amounts being deposited into it. It was mainly used to buy presents or extras that they did not particularly need.
Opening the next section labeled "properties" Harry was shocked.
"This is all mine?" he asked perplexed.
Looking at the list there were at least 20 properties listed:
Peverell Castle
Peverell Manor
Potter Manor – destroyed
Godric's Hallow – destroyed
London Flat
Scotland cottage
Villa - France
Cottage – France
Apartment – New York
Manor – Ireland
Summerhouse – New Zealand
2 Manors – Germany
Castle – Germany
Townhouse - Germany
2 stores Diagon Alley – rented out
3 stores – Noir et Blanc Boulevard (France)
[…]
For each of the properties, a specific file is included that lists all the material and human assets on the properties. Some properties had 15 house-elves, while others had rare Abraxans. There were properties that were fully furnished and had a gigantic library, while others were in a state of decay.
"Yes, all these properties are yours," replied Severus, while looking over the files.
"While you are not able to permanently live in these places till you reach your majority, you can visit them or take a holiday there with parental permission," Severus continued.
"Does that mean I can take a holiday in one of these places this summer?" asked Harry excited. He had never been on holiday, let alone been outside the country.
"We shall see, it also depends on where you will be living by then," stated Severus, before going to taking out the next section.
"Harry this is currently one of the most important sections," says Severus drawing Harry's attention away from the properties, "this lists all your investments. It will be important that we look into this and where necessary sell the shares. Depending on the percentage of shares you have, you can also have a say in what the company does."
Opening the file Harry could see that the Potter's had been investing in a multitude of things over the years. Looking over the list he thought that the Quidditch related investments were probably done by his father in the short time he was the Potter Lord.
"Wait," exclaimed Harry, pointing towards one of the investments, "I own 35% of the Daily Prophet?"
Looking down at his own list, Severus stated, "It would seem so. Hmm, this would mean that you have some control over what is printed. If you can find someone who has at least 15% of the shares, you can control what they write."
Looking directly at Harry, Severus reminded him, "don't forget that as you are a minor you can sue them when they write damaging and untrue things about you."
Looking further at all the investments and shares Severus concluded, "everything seems to be in order an there are currently no shares that I would advice you to sell. If you want to look into it more, you can always do so of course."
Taking out the next file "This is quite an important file Harry as this concerns any and all contracts made by the Potter family. It is important for us to go through them one by one, so we know if you have any contractual obligations."
Opening the file Harry only saw a total of six different contracts. The first three were general house alliance contracts. Recalling his readings Harry recalled that this meant that the alliance was valid for every member of the Potter house. Looking at the three files Harry could see that a similar structure was used.
The first file was a contract between the House of Potter and the House of Longbottom. Looking at the contact itself there was little to worry about. It mainly talked about supporting each other in the Wizengamot, to protect each other's House members when necessary, and to never have an unfriendly attack towards the other. Furthermore, the contract promotes that the children of each House are raised together to further the alliance. Reading the details, it became clear to Harry that these alliances were both a protection measure and a friendship.
Looking at the other two files Harry found an alliance with the House of Bones and the House of Abbott. Both alliance contracts seemed similar to the one with the House of Longbottom, with some small changes.
Turning the page to the next file, Harry noticed it was a personal contract between James Potter and Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew. Since his father was no longer alive the contract had turned a light blue, but weirdly it had not gone dark like the other no longer valid contracts.
"Severus, is there a reason why this contract has turned light blue and not gone dark?" asked Harry looking up from his pile of papers.
Looking at the file Harry mentioned, Severus replied, "Since this is a four-way contract the contract between Lupin and Black and maybe even Pettigrew is still valid. It has turned blue to show that it is no longer valid for a member of the Potter House. When you find this contract in the Black files it will show as normal, but James' name will have turned light blue."
Reminding himself to look at this contract in the Black accounts, Harry looked at the next document and was happy to see it. It was the godfather contract between Sirius Black and himself. Reading it over Harry quickly noticed that it was quite standard. It mentioned that Sirius had to protect Harry at all costs, that in case something happened to his parents Sirius would take guardianship over him, and that in case Sirius did not provide a Black heir, Harry would take over the title and House. The contract also mentioned some specifics regarding Harry's education and the time he should spend with Sirius.
Turning to the last contract in the file Harry exclaimed shocked, "Marriage contract!?"
Looking up Severus was surprised by Harry's exclamation. "Harry, it is not abnormal for pure-blood families to have a marriage contract for their children, especially the heir."
"But, why? Do they not want their children to choose their own partner?"
"Harry," explained Severus in a calm tone "Marriage contracts are just there to protect the child. Normally each party can easily leave the contract when they do not longer find it beneficial. There is of course also always a clause in it that allows a party to leave in case his or her creature's mate is found. Having a marriage contract protects children from being entered into other unbeneficial marriage contracts. As you know it is impossible to have two marriage contracts. This means that if a child, more specifically the heir to a House, already has a marriage contract he or she can in no way be tricked into another one. This method is used by most old Houses to prevent children from being accidentally being entered into marriage contracts that are there to gain access to their fortune."
"I still want to break this contract immediately if this is about me," stated Harry stubbornly, looking back down to read through the contract.
Marriage contract
Harry James Potter and Ginevra Molly Weasley
Authorized by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore and Molly Gedrella Weasley
It continued on to list the year they needed to get married, the number of children they needed to have, the fact that while Ginny was allowed to have lovers on the side Harry was not allowed that luxury, the allowance that needed to be provided for Ginny, even were the Potter fortune was to go after he died, and of course the fact that the contract could never be broken.
Feeling Harry's magic reacting to his anger Severus quickly intervened, still recovering from his own shock of the absurd marriage contract, "Do not worry Harry they have made some unmistakable mistakes that will allow us to break this marriage contract quite easily."
Calming down a bit, Harry replied, "are you sure? It looks ironclad to me."
"First of all, they made the contract without using your full name which already makes it so that it is not bound by magic. This means that if you break it there will be no personal consequences for you. Besides that, Albus Dumbledore has been proven an unfit guardian and as such was declared illegal. This means that any contracts signed by him in your name, that have not yet been fulfilled, can be declared non and void by your new guardians within the first two years after becoming your guardians."
"Oh, and you are certain about this?" asked Harry still not fully believing it would be this easy. "Can we break the marriage contract right now?"
"Yes, that would be no problem," confirmed Severus after reading the marriage contract again to make sure he did not miss anything. "If you want, we can send a request off to the goblins immediately to break the marriage contract. After they have approved our request, they will inform the Ministry department to finalize everything and to make sure any other possible marriage contracts between you and Ginny are broken."
"Can we do that? I just want to make sure that there is no way I will be forced to marry her."
"This is the best way to do that," replied Severus while taking out a parchment and quill to start writing a notification to the goblins. After finishing he folded it up and looked at Harry. "I am not entirely sure, but there is a chance that the Weasleys will be notified that the marriage contract will be broken."
Harry hesitantly replied, "Ok, there will be a big chance they will soon find out that I am no longer living at the Dursleys. I still don't want to wait for them to make it an unbreakable contract or to trick me into one."
Having gotten the confirmation of Harry, Severus attached both his letter and a copy of the marriage contract to the leg of his owl and sends it off. Seeing the big and completely black owl flying to its destination Harry turned back to his bank statements.
"Well, I think that was everything important for today. I would advise you to read all the details in your bank statements to get a better idea of everything that is yours. If something is unclear feel free to come to ask me about it. You now also know enough information to go through the Black bank statements. As you are still just an heir there is very little you can change about them. Even so, I would advise you to at least look into the parts concerning active contracts and shares and investments."
"I will definitely do that," stated Harry, before standing up and gathering all the files that were spread across Severus' desk. "Thank you for helping me, I will see you at dinner?"
"Yes," replied Severus before taking out some work he still needed to complete. Seeing he was no longer needed, Harry left the room, closing the door behind him. Doing a quick tempus Harry saw that it had taken them 3 hours to go through all the bank statements. Since it would be dinner in an hour, Harry decided to go put everything away and go find Ethan and Ryan to pass the time before dinner.
Daily Prophet 23th of December
Dear readers,
I am sad to note that some terrible news has come to my attention. This reporter was looking through some case files and was surprised by one of the names she came across.
Harry Potter has recently had a guardianship case. Due to matters of privacy, the details of what exactly happened and was discovered in the meeting are not accessible to the public.
This reporter did discover that the guardians of Harry Potter were deemed unfit by the Ministry of Magic, Department of wizarding children. As all of you know guardians being deemed unfit is a rare occurrence and we can assume that some terrible discoveries were made for the Department to deem the guardians unfit.
Mister Potter is currently living with the Ministry assigned temporary guardians. Several reports say that Mister Potter was seen leaving the Hogwarts Express for the holidays with Mister Longbottom. Are the Longbottoms Mister Potter's temporary guardians?
As all of you remember on the night of the 31 st of October the Potters were attacked in their home in Godric's Hallow. In the events that happened both Lord James Potter and Lady Lily Potter passed away, leaving their only son and heir, Harry Potter, behind. In the following days, it was discovered that someone had entered the crime scene without permission taking away Harry Potter. A week later it was Albus Dumbledore that told the Ministry he had taken Harry Potter and hidden him away, much to the outcry of the general public.
Many different wizarding families tried to have a court case started to gain custody of young Mister Potter, but none succeeded. Albus Dumbledore also never disclosed the location of Mister Potter and many attempts to find him were not successful. The wizarding world did not see Mister Potter until he showed up for his first year at Hogwarts.
This reporter calls in question what power Albus Dumbledore has, having no familiar relation with Mister Potter, to decide his guardians?
Looking into the matter further, this reporter was able to discover with the help of the goblins that Albus Dumbledore has been declared the illegal guardian of Mister Potter. Asking further questions, it was discovered that Albus Dumbledore sealed the will of the late Lord and Lady Potter and declared himself (illegally) the magical guardian of Mister Potter.
Based on these facts this reporter wonders if other wartime orphans have suffered the same fate?
Or is Mister Potter the only victim of Albus Dumbledore? If so, what makes him the exception?
This reporter hopes that the Ministry will take action and investigates all the war orphans and what happed to them.
Rita Seekers
More information on the last wizarding war, p10.
More information on mishaps in the guardianship of Mister Potter, p14.
More information on the wrongdoings of Albus Dumbledore, p21.
Both the Weasleys and Dumbledore were at Grimmauld Place when the Daily Prophet was delivered at breakfast. The Weasley family, Hermione, and several Order members were staying at Grimmauld Place for the holidays. Let's just say that Sirius was not happy when he found out that Harry would not be joining them. When asked why, Dumbledore told him that Harry was invited, but had preferred to stay the holidays with the Longbottoms. While Sirius knew Harry was friends with the Longbottom heir, he did wonder why Harry had not sent him an owl himself.
Sirius had begun to question many things concerning Dumbledore in the past few months. Remus had told him that Dumbledore had never tried to get him a trial when the Ministry denied him one. Dumbledore had known they changed secret keepers at the last moment, as he was the one who performed the spell. Sirius doubted that a man as renowned as Albus Dumbledore was not able to get the heir of an old House a trial to prove his innocence. If Albus had shown the memory to the Ministry they would never have doubted it.
Another problem was that Dumbledore had not allowed Harry to stay at Grimmauld Place. Sirius had been asking Dumbledore since the start of the summer holidays to get Harry to Grimmauld Place but was constantly told it was not possible. According to Dumbledore Harry had to stay the majority of the summer at the Dursleys for his own protection. When Harry was then finally allowed to leave the Dursleys it was decided that Grimmauld Place was too dangerous with people constantly coming and going. As a result, Harry stayed the Weasleys, but Sirius was not allowed to visit due to safety precautions.
Being locked up in his ancestral home and having unwanted guests around constantly was getting on his last nerves. Mrs. Weasley was acting like she owned the place, ordering everyone around. The screeching of his mother and the grumbling of Kreacher, his house-elf, did nothing to improve his mood.
This morning he was sitting at breakfast, eating Mrs. Weasley's food that was by no means up to the standard he was used to as a child. But Sirius decided not to complain as an angry Mrs. Weasley would ruin his day and it was an improvement of the Azkaban dining. Hearing a ticking on the window Sirius stood up to pay the owl that had been delivering him the Daily Prophet every day. The Daily Prophet was his only connection to the outside world even if it sometimes slandered his godson. Seeing the front page, Sirius started reading while drinking the last of his coffee.
After reading the paper he was in complete shock, but it quickly turned into anger when he saw Dumbledore entering the dining room.
"How dare you! Please explain this to me!" shouted Sirius while throwing the Daily Prophet at Dumbledore. "Have you read this?"
"Sirius, my boy, it is probably the Daily Prophet writing rubbish again," said Dumbledore calmly while picking up the paper. While reading the first few paragraphs Dumbledore's expressions turned to shock then anger, before he was able to cover it up. While most Order members in attendance did not see anything, Sirius was another matter. Having focused on Dumbledore he saw the emotion change and wondered how much of the information in the paper was correct.
Sirius knew from looking it up as a child, a lot needed to happen before guardians were deemed unfit. While he hated living at home, his parents never did anything that would have enabled the Ministry to call them unfit.
"Tell me Dumbledore, where did you leave Harry?" demanded Sirius, looking like he would kill on the spot.
"Well, my boy. Due to his mother's sacrifice, I gave him to the only family he had left."
"You left him with muggles! Did you ever even check up on him?"
"Harry was perfectly safe, Sirius. He was with his family and I never had any doubts about his wellbeing."
"Is it true that the wills were never read? Why did you seal them?" exclaimed Sirius.
"You have to understand it was a dangerous and confusing time. I am sure it was just a small oversight." Said Dumbledore, completely dismissing what happened.
Seeing he would not get any answers, Sirius decided to leave but not before threatening Dumbledore, "If I find out you had anything to do with this, you can find yourself a new Headquarters and don't forget that I am a Black. We always get our revenge."
"Enter," called Severus when someone knocked on the door of his office.
"Hi dad, I was wondering if you have some time right now?" said Ethan upon entering the room.
"Sure, take a seat. What do you want to talk about?"
"Ryan and I were just wondering if we will be seeing grandfather during the holidays?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Well, we thought because Harry is here and his occlumency is not good enough grandfather won't be able to join us for Christmas Eve this year."
Sighing Severus said, "You are correct, your grandfather will not be joining us this year."
Seeing the defeated look on Ethan's face, he continued, "But your mother and I will be sending you off for a visit on Christmas day. We will of course need to find an excuse to tell Harry, but that is how it needs to be for now. We can't risk Dumbledore finding out."
"I understand dad, when will we be telling Harry?"
"Definitely by summer, but hopefully sooner. Now go, make sure your room is neat, as the Malfoys will be coming tomorrow for Christmas Eve.
.
Please take the time to review, even if it is just a word.
Chapter End Notes
Sorry for the delay, but I have been working so I did not have as much time as before.
I am not so sure what to do with Sirius and Remus. Anyone any ideas? Like how big of a role do you want them to play?
Christmas with the Malfoy's
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
I want to say: I don't own any of the characters except the one that I made up.
Please let me know what you think of where the story is going through reviews.
I know it has been some time, but life gets sometimes in the way. I will be continuing, but the time between updates can sometimes be long. Sorry about this!
But anyway, Enjoy!
Chapter 13: Christmas with the Malfoy's
The morning of the 24th of December found a very nervous Harry at the breakfast table. After reading the paper the day before, he was surprised that he had yet to receive any mail from the Order. He had suspected the Weasleys and Dumbledore to at least send him an owl asking where he was. On the other hand, maybe they suspected that Harry was staying with Neville for the holidays. One thing Harry was sure of, is that he would probably be called to Dumbledore's office when he arrived back at Hogwarts.
Besides worrying about Dumbledore and his followers, Harry was also nervous about meeting the Malfoys for the first time tonight. He had, after all, Malfoy to thank for his current situation. While he did not have a pleasant experience with both Draco Malfoy and Mr. Malfoy, he had never met Malfoy's mother. In his classes, he had learned that she was originally from the house of Black, more specifically a cousin of Sirius. He hoped she would be something similar.
The funny thing was that both Ethan and Ryan loved the Malfoys. They had known them their entire life. To make things worse Mr. Malfoy was Ethan's godfather. The stories they had told him over the past week drew an entirely different picture of the Malfoy family. Harry hoped he would make a good impression since, according to Ethan, Malfoy had a lot of influence over his other peers. In other words, if he could gain the acceptance of Malfoy, there was a big chance the other heirs, and through them, their parents might accept them.
Not only was he worried about making good impressions, but he was also nervous about the presents he had gotten everyone. To be honest, he barely knew them, and due to safety reasons, he was only allowed to owl order them. This would be the first time he would get presents on Christmas Eve, as usually the presents are delivered on Christmas Day at Hogwarts. Harry had already sent off his presents for his friends, or what was left of them, by an owl.
Seeing how nervous Harry was at the breakfast table, Serena decided to take his mind off things. "Harry, your dress robes for the next few days have been delivered this morning," Serena declared, making Harry jump out of his thoughts.
Seeing she had his full attention she continued, "The house-elves have already taken them and put them in your closet. Feel free to choose which one you will be wearing tonight; all three are appropriate."
"Ok, what time will they be coming tonight?" Harry wondered, already thinking about what he would be doing the rest of the day. He would probably spend some time going over the appropriate etiquette before hanging out the rest of the day with Ethan and Ryan.
Making sure she had everyone's attention Serena announced, "I expect all of you to be ready and in the receiving room by five-thirty, tonight." Seeing that all three boys had understood, both she and Severus stood up, leaving the boys behind at the breakfast table.
At a quarter past five, Harry stood ready in between Serena and Ethan in the receiving room. Harry was wearing an emerald green dress robes with gold trimmings. Green might be considered a Slytherin color, it was his favorite, and according to the tailor, it matched his eyes. On the right side of his chest were the emblems of both the Potter and Peverell House. According to tradition, the Black emblem was found on the left side of his chest as he was currently only the heir to the House.
Ethan was dressed in silver dress robes with a black trimming, which was the opposite of the dress robes that Severus was wearing for tonight. On his left chest side, Harry recognized the Prince emblem, showing that he was the Prince heir. The same emblem could be found on Severus' dress robes, but then on the right side.
Ryan had also chosen for deep blue dress robes, with silver trimming. The emblem that could be found on his left chest side surprisingly had a snake in the middle. Since Harry did not recognize it, he decided to look it up in his ancestry book when he had the time.
Harry was brought out of his thoughts when the floo activated. First stepping out was Draco Malfoy closely followed by his parents.
"Severus, Serena, so good to see you both. How have you been?" asked Mr. Malfoy happily, greeting both Severus and Serena.
"We are quite good," beamed both Severus and Serena after receiving a few hugs.
Looking around Mr. Malfoy and noticing both Ethan and Ryan, he laughed, "so how are my nephews?"
"We are great uncle Luc," before both gave him a happy hug. Having not seen their so-called uncle since the beginning of the school year, both could not stop talking. Mr. Malfoy was listening attentively while both boys told him about everything that had happened.
"Harry Potter," Draco drawled suddenly in front of Harry, shocking him out of his nervous thoughts. Without realizing it Draco had already greeted Severus, Serena, Ethan, and Ryan. Looking up he noticed both Lord and Lady Malfoy still talking to both Ethan and Ryan.
"Heir Malfoy," Harry said respectfully and quite nervously wringing his hand. If Serena had seen she would have given him a lecture about proper etiquette. Trying to make a good impression, Harry quickly remembered the sentences Serena had drilled into his head earlier today, "I wish to welcome you to our home".
"I see, living with uncle Sev has taught you something," stated Draco with a smirk on his face, before surprising Harry and offering his hand, "Hello, Heir Potter."
Taking the offered hand, Harry corrected with a small smile on his face, "Well technically it is Heir Potter-Black".
"Well, that does not surprise me knowing Lord Black is your godfather. According to my mother, he was almost more excited when you were born than the late Lord Potter." Draco agreed, easily. To outsiders, it would seem like both were having quite a nice conversation.
"And please call me Draco, after all, uncle Sev is my godfather." Turning his head slightly, taking a small peek at Severus standing on the other side of the hallway.
"Thank you, Mal..Draco. Please call me Harry. I hope we can start over again?" hesitated Harry, often looking at the flour. He was not quite sure how to handle this situation. Everything was going a lot better than he had anticipated. There had been no insults or fights, so Harry took this as a bonus.
"We shall see. I hope you have learned which wizarding families are better than others," Repeating the statement he made in their first year.
Giving a small laugh, Harry replied, "I can admit you were correct, but not all the Weasleys are bad. Some are still my friends. But if you mean the two youngest, then yes. After what they did to me they should be happy I am not sewing them yet," fumed Harry, the anger he was feeling bleeding through in his last words.
"Good to know you have come to your senses. Now, are you not supposed to direct me somewhere?" Trying to remind Harry of the proper protocol.
Not wanting to raise to the bait, Harry noticed that it was just him and Draco still standing in the receiving room. The others had probably already made their way to the informal sitting room. Turning around he quickly made his way there as well. Entering the sitting room everyone was already seated and looked up when they entered.
"There you two are, we were getting worried you two would have started arguing again," joked Severus.
"Heir Potter-Black," stated Lord Malfoy standing up and holding out his hand for Harry to take.
"Lord and Lady Malfoy," replied Harry, shaking Lord Malfoy's hand and kissing Lady Malfoy's as Serena had taught him.
"Feel free to call us Lucius or uncle Lucius and Narcissa or aunt Narcissa. You are considered family to Severus and you are family to Narcissa before through Lord Black," Lucius stated with a small smile before sitting back down.
After everyone took their seats and the refreshments were brought in, Lucius turned to Harry, "So, how are you adjusting to your new life, Harry?"
"I am really glad Draco mentioned me not being at the heir meetings this summer." This surprised Draco as he had not expected Harry to give him some of the credit.
"Without him mentioning it I would have never noticed something was wrong. I still cannot believe that they would do something like that. I trusted them and they stole from me, kept my inheritance away, and placed so many different spells and potions on me," glowered Harry, getting worked up, being reminded of what had happened.
"Severus mentioned the horrible things they had done to you. If you need help bringing them to justice, feel free to ask. Maybe Severus did not mention this, but I am also a qualified magical attorney."
Helping Harry bring down the Weasleys would be the trial of the century, thought Lucius. Well not counting if Harry was also willing to take on Dumbledore. No matter, Lucius had already decided to help Harry if he needed it.
They spend quite some time after that discussing what had happened to Harry, before moving on to some more political subjects, before dinner was called. After dinner the adults retreated to have a drink, leaving the children alone again in the sitting room. Harry was actually surprised by how well the evening was going. He discovered that the Malfoys were very enjoyable without their masks on. Narcissa was extremely doting and had, together with Serena, already roped him in for another shopping trip over the Easter holidays. Lucius on the other hand was more serious, but someone he felt he could count on. Lucius did have a very confident air around him, and now Harry knew where Draco must have learned it.
"So Draco, are you ready for your inheritance to come in this year?" wondered Ethan.
"Creature inheritance?" asked Harry, looking at Malfoy.
"I will most likely have a veela inheritance, as most Malfoy's across history have had that inheritance," explained Draco, before turning back to Ethan.
"I am a bit nervous about it. As you know veelas only have one mate to choose from. Even if it is someone that lies often closest to our tastes, you still never know."
"Who knows, maybe you do end up with Pansy," teased Harry. He could already imagine the new 'Mrs. Malfoy'. What Harry did not expect was the whole room to start laughing at him.
"Luckily Draco does not have to worry about that." causing Harry to turn to Ethan who had spoken. Turning his head Harry looked at Draco, waiting for an explanation.
Seeing that Harry really did not know, Draco decided to inform him, "Harry, I am gay. Which means most likely my mate will not be female.
Having not expected that answer, Harry mumbled out, "Oh, ok," a bit embarrassed and with a slight blush forming on his cheeks.
"Seriously Harry, how do you not know this? Most of the school does."
If Harry was really honest with himself, he never gave sexuality a real thought. Besides the Cho and the Triwizard ball last year he never had the time to think about these things. He was always so busy with Voldemort and all the trouble that seemed to find him. And now thinking about it, Harry was not sure if he liked girls that much. Even last year with Cho, it felt more like an obligation or an expectation of him than something he really wanted to do.
Feeling the uncomfortable silence that had fallen in the room, Draco decided it was time to change the subject. "So I heard that uncle Sev might adopt you?"
Making Harry come out of his thoughts.
"Yeah, I am still a bit surprised by the offer. Not sure what to decide yet."
"Well, with or without the adoption you are already our brother," exclaimed Ryan, while Ethan nodded along. Hearing this Harry had never felt so included before, not even at the Weasleys.
Before they knew it, the adults had returned to the sitting room to start opening presents.
"So who wants to go first?" said Severus amused already knowing the answer.
"Youngest first," ordered Ryan with a smile, already making his way to the mountain of presents. Taking out all presents with his name on he started ripping into them. Harry was very happy that Ryan loved the gift he had gotten him. He had ordered him a live-action Quidditch book. It worked like the muggle computer games, only this time you were in the game. This one specifically allowed Ryan to practice playing Quidditch without needing a broom.
Knowing Ethan was not a Quidditch fan, Harry had bought him a range of Zonko's products and some wizarding candy.
After Ethan, it was Harry's turn to receive his presents. He got a wand holster and new Quidditch gear from Ethan and Ryan. Narcissa and Lucius gave him beautiful wizarding robes and a book "Light, dark, or just magic?". Severus and Serena had given him a 2-month subscription to see his favorite Quidditch team play the whole summer.
But the best present was surprisingly from Draco. Harry did not really expect a huge present from him, so was not surprised to receive a small box. Opening it, Harry saw how amazing it was. It was the snitch used at the World Cup last year, signed by both seekers. Harry honestly could not believe Draco would give it to him as a present and not keep it himself. But not looking a gift horse in the face, Harry just thanked him.
Knowing his present was not as impressive as his own, Harry hoped Draco would still love it. Harry had gotten him a rare DADA book and a silver cauldron, knowing Draco wanted to get his Potion mastery besides his (later) Lord duties.
Harry had gotten Serena some jewelry from the Potter vaults and Severus a rare potion book he found in the Black vaults. The book was originally written in parseltongue, so Harry had taken the time to translate some of it. He had gotten as far as the content table and the first few potions, promising Severus he would translate the rest. Based on the content table Severus could tell Harry specifically which ones to translate first.
Narcissa received some expensive dresses and Harry had gotten Lucius some expensive Fire Whiskey.
Not long after the Malfoys decided to go home as it was already some time past midnight. Overall Harry was surprised the evening went better than expected. The Malfoys were not so bad ones they accepted you and Harry got to know them more. Harry never expected to say this but he was actually relieved that Draco would be at the Greengrass Christmas Ball tomorrow. Harry felt quite confident that Draco had accepted him, and at least would not create any trouble for him tomorrow. Saying Draco had his back, well Harry first had to see that before he believed it.
Saying his goodbyes, Harry went to sleep with a better feeling than expected.
Please take the time to review, even if it is just a word.
Chapter End Notes
I am looking for a beta-writer. Not to actually do spelling and so, but to help me with some decisions and dialogues. Sometimes I can get stuck (as I was here), as to how everything should go.
Anyone interested, let me know in the comments. (or contact me through PM on (twinia1))
Afterword
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