Chapter 5
Amelia Gets a Shock

Friday, 1st November, 1:59 p.m
In Gringotts

Both Director Bones and Unspeakable Twenty-Two had put the fear of God into Harry and Hermione, about either of the first-years drawing his/her wand in Gringotts. With this warning spoken, the foursome had entered the Gringotts lobby.

Few customers were in the lobby at this time of day, so Harry (along with the three others he had arrived with) had moved to the front of the queue after only a few minutes.

This was when Harry's latest "adventure" began.

"Key, please," the teller said in a bored tone.

"Erm, I don't have it," said Harry. He was blushing. "But I have a vault here. My trust vault. Number 687. I'm Harry Potter."

"If you've misplaced your key," the teller said, sounding scornful as well as bored, "the cost of a replacement key is twenty galleons, after you take a blood test to confirm your identity."

Director Bones asked, "Where is your key, Harry?"

Harry shrugged. "Dumbledore has it, I suppose. Hagrid had the key to my vault when he took me shopping three months ago, and he said he got the key from the headmaster. Hagrid didn't give me the key at the end of the day, so I suppose he gave it back to Dumbledore."

Director Bones started to say something in reply—

—but the conversation was interrupted by the teller: "Are you magicals going to chatter, or is the young wizard going to give me two drops of his blood so he can conduct bank business?"

Half a minute later, Harry had bled on a parchment, the blood droplets had disappeared, and these words had appeared on the parchment in blood-red writing: "Harry James Potter, born 31 July 1980. IT IS URGENT THAT HARRY JAMES POTTER SPEAK WITH THE POTTER ACCOUNT MANAGER, BRONZEDAGGER."

When Harry read this, he said, "Not a problem, Mr Teller, because I came here today to talk to Mr Bronzedagger."

Two minutes later

When Harry and the three others first faced Bronzedagger in his office, the first thing that happened was an exchange of "Oi, wizard, why haven't you answered your Gringotts letters?"/"What Gringotts letters?"

Bronzedagger discovered an owl-mail-redirect ward on Harry; all Harry's mail was delivered to somewhere in Hogwarts. Director Bones, after getting permission, drew her wand, cast a DMLE spell, and agreed with Bronzedagger's findings.

Director Bones suggested, and Bronzedagger agreed, that Harry's mail-redirection ward not be cancelled, but be redirected again. Now owl-mail would go to a goblin post box where, for a fair fee, every piece of mail that was received would be stripped of harmful spells before being delivered to Harry.

Bronzedagger waved his left hand, Harry felt his stomach tingle, and his owl-mail was redirected anew.

Director Bones was annoyed by the mail-redirect ward that had been on Harry's mail previously. "Harry, Susan drew you a birthday card every year from your sixth birthday through your ninth. When she never got a reply from any of the owl-letters she sent, she stopped sending them. The whiskered idiot hurt Susan's feelings!"

Mr Potter, declaring that he was "eleven years and three months old"—meaning, he was old enough to make this request—then asked to read his parents' wills.

Bronzedagger's response alarmed Amelia—

A moment of panic flitted across Bronzedagger's face—the goblin's change of expression was only for a moment, but Amelia had been trained to notice such things.

Then Bronzedagger said, "I'm afraid this isn't possible. You'll need to wait till you're seventeen to read their wills, or when you've your magical guardian's written permission."

Miss Granger asked, seemingly innocently, "Who is Harry's magical guardian?"

Bronzedagger replied pompously, "The powerful and admired wizard Albus Dumbledore."

Amelia said, "Account Manager Bronzedagger, you're misinformed about the law. Mr Potter is the last of his line, as is my niece Susan. This gives them legal rights at age eleven that aren't up to others to refuse."

Bronzedagger snarled, "Ministry law doesn't apply here, witch, only Gringotts law applies here. Are you well read in Gringotts law?"

"So you are telling this orphan, who is from an Ancient and Noble family and is the last of his line, that he must wait till he is as old as seventeen to read his own parents' wills?"

"Yes I am, witch. Deal with it."

Amelia looked at the Unspeakable in the room. "Unspeakable Twenty-Two, please walk out of here and find me a goblin who supervises account managers. And if the only goblin who meets this test is Director Ragnok, so be it."

Five minutes later

When Unspeakable Twenty-Two, along with three more goblins, walked into Bronzedagger's office, Harry felt nervous—mainly because the three newcomer-goblins all were wearing armour. Two of the goblins were each carrying a heavy steel axe; the third goblin, to whom the axe-carrying goblins deferred, was wearing a white cape with strange writing on it.

"Vlif-neelno'ok Ragnok," Bronzedagger said, bowing. He looked more nervous than Harry felt, which Harry found puzzling.

The goblin who was wearing the white cape said to Director Bones, "Tell me why you've requested I come here. Know that it will go bad for you if you've wasted my time."

Director Bones gestured towards Harry. "This is Harry Potter, who has come in to read his parents' wills. The copies of his parents' wills that are on file at the Ministry have been ordered sealed by the Chief Warlock—Albus Dumbledore. Bronzedagger here has told Mr Potter that he may not read the Gringotts copies of his parents' wills until he is seventeen or until he has the written permission of his magical guardian—who, according to the Wizengamot, is Albus Dumbledore. Mr Potter and I both doubt that Albus Dumbledore is the person whom the wills have set as Mr Potter's guardian."

Director Ragnok—the goblin in the white cape—waved a hand, and Bronzedagger's head glowed for a second. Then Director Ragnok asked questions in goblin-speech, which Bronzedagger answered in the same language. With every answer that Bronzedagger spoke, he looked more and more frightened—yet he answered every question he was asked.

"He's under a truth spell," Hermione murmured.

Director Ragnok waved his hand, and Bronzedagger slumped back in his chair, unconscious. Ragnok turned and spoke goblin-language orders to the two axe-carrying goblins. One goblin saluted, then ran out of the room; the other goblin saluted, then levitated Bronzedagger out the door.

Five minutes later, a former Senior Teller, Axefrenzy, was sitting in Bronzedagger's chair, learning on the job how to be the Potter account manager.

It took Axefrenzy only two minutes, in an office he never had entered until minutes earlier, to find Harry's parents' wills.

When Harry read aloud in the wills, the section about "Guardianship," the two human adults in the room acted shocked—

• Both James and Lily had the same first choice for guardian: someone named Sirius Black, "Harry's sworn godfather."

• If Sirius Black could not serve as guardian for some reason, both wills listed the same second choice: someone named Alice Longbottom, "Harry's sworn godmother."

• The third choice for Harry's guardian in each of the wills, if Alice Longbottom could not serve as guardian for some reason? Amelia Bones.

• Harry was never ever to be given to Lily's sister Petunia and Petunia's husband Vernon. Quoting Lily Potter's will: "My sister and her husband hate magic and will be cruel to Harry."

• Albus Dumbledore was not mentioned anywhere in either will, except as a witness.

Director Bones and Unspeakable Twenty-Two tried to explain the current situation to the firsties, but Harry found the adults' explanations to be confusing. Sirius Black did not have guardianship of Harry because Black now was in prison for murdering Harry's parents, amongst other misdeeds—yet Sirius Black was Harry's sworn godfather, so such a vile act of treachery should have killed him on the spot, back in 1981. Alice Longbottom and her husband Frank had been attacked by Death Eaters and put under "a cruel spell," according to Director Bones; somehow the cruel spell had made the Longbottoms go some kind of mad. Nowadays the Longbottoms were in Saint Mungo's (and had been there since 1981).

Axefrenzy asked another goblin to consult with him about how to respond to what the wills said—since it was Axefrenzy's first day on the job, after all.

Whilst the two goblins talked, there was a lull in activity.

Meaning, Amelia had time to feel shame.

Sirius, her Sirius, was innocent! (Or at least, innocent of betraying James and Lily Potter.) Amelia should have found evidence to prove Sirius's innocence, she should have attended his trial, she should have visited him in prison—but she had done none of these things.

Well, playtime was over now. Amelia would do her utmost to clear Sirius's name and to get him free.

Amelia recalled Sirius's adoring gaze, and his tender kisses. Amelia also remembered Sirius's mischievous smile, his bedroom eyes, his special touches, and the filthy, dirty things he could say when the two of them were alone. Amelia smiled a secret smile.

What Axefrenzy and the other goblin decided, after they had conferred, was that until the Wizengamot set a new magical guardian for Harry, Dumbledore would remain Harry's guardian outside Gringotts; but within Gringotts, the bank would recognise Amelia Bones as Harry's guardian. What this meant was that Dumbledore no longer could access Harry's trust vault, and the old wizard no longer could sign anything that obligated Harry's trust vault, without Amelia Bones's signature also present.

The current key to Harry's trust vault, the key which was in Dumbledore's possession, was hereby cancelled. Axefrenzy made a new key to vault 687—for no charge—and gave this key to Harry.

As Axefrenzy handed over the key to Harry, the goblin said, "If you let someone else possess your vault key, whatever then happens in your vault is not considered theft."

Harry nodded solemnly.

Director Bones used her new authority as Harry's within-Gringotts magical guardian to order a complete audit of Harry's trust vault, going back to 31st October 1981.

Unspeakable Twenty-Two laughed. "Dumbledore will go spare when he finds out today's doings. How dare anyone question his judgement!"

Director Bones asked for a certified copy of each will, to take with her to her DMLE office. She declared she intended to investigate her one-time boyfriend being thrown in prison.

Unspeakable Twenty-Two choked. "You'd mentioned a friend of James Potter whom you used to date—he was Sirius Black? You dated Sirius Black?"

"I did, yes. And if he's innocent, I shall get him out of prison, believe it!"

Harry thought the name Sirius Black sounded familiar, but Harry could not recall a face, or anything else about the man.

One second later

Amelia tapped her chin with her fingertip and asked, "Mr Potter, how many times have you accessed your trust vault?"

The boy answered, "Just once, on my birthday, 31st July." He grinned at Miss Granger. "I was allowed to fill a bag with gold coins, without needing to ask anyone's permission. It was brilliant."

Amelia nodded, then asked Axefrenzy, "So when I look at the account ledger, I should see no withdrawals in the almost ten years between 31st October 1981 and 31st July of this year, right?"

"Exactly," Axefrenzy replied. It took him only thirty seconds to find the account ledger and to turn it to the page showing 1981 transactions.

Seeing what was written there, Amelia scowled.

Axefrenzy muttered, "Whi'irksiv ikkaz pruebsordop kwelchfe'elsop!"

The reason for Amelia's scowl and Axefrenzy's profanity?

According to the ledger, every 31st July beginning in 1981, the trust vault had been topped off to increase the balance from whatever it was, up to fifty thousand galleons. (The source of the coinage? Vault 14, the Potter family vault.) So far, no surprises.

But beginning 30th July 1982, up to 30th July 1991, the ledger had the same notation, again and again: "30th July [year]: G49 999 withdrawn from vault by key-holder Albus P Dumbledore."

Amelia, trying to stay calm, told Mr Potter what the ledger was saying: "Every year on your birthday, coins were taken from the Potter family vault and put in your trust vault—whatever coins were needed to make the trust vault's balance be fifty thousand galleons. But every year including this year, Albus Dumbledore came to this vault the day before this refilling, and took all but one galleon out of the vault."

"Is this even legal?" Mr Potter asked. Both children's faces looked angry.

Amelia answered, "It's legal, yes—until either the vault-holder or the vault-holder's new guardian complains."

Amelia spun to look at Axefrenzy and snarled, "Remember how I told you a few minutes ago, I want vault 687 audited all the way back to 31st October 1981? Make the audit thorough. Make it hurt. Every coin that did not leave the vault for a good reason, I want brought back. Dripping with blood, if this is what it takes."

Axefrenzy grinned, showing many sharp teeth.

In Axefrenzy's office, Harry became Heir Potter, which involved swearing a magical oath, then putting on the Potter Heir ring—a ring which shrank to fit.

"I love magic," grinning Harry said. Hermione hugged him.

Then Madam Bones coached Harry how to declare Hermione to be a protectée of House Potter. The Potter house crest—which was round, white and had a stylised P in the centre—promptly appeared on the right sleeve of Hermione's Gryffindor robes.

Harry then asked Axefrenzy for permission to call for Greyclay, the head Potter house-elf. Once Greyclay popped into the room, Harry asked him, "Greyclay, is there any necklace or bracelet in any Potter vault that protects the woman who wears it from mind-magics? If so, please fetch it."

"Yes, there are two, Heir Potter," Greyclay replied. He popped away, then returned seconds later with a necklace in each hand. One necklace was cherry-red, whilst the other necklace was wet-clay grey (one of the two House Potter colours).

Harry asked Hermione, "Which one do you want?"

Hermione chose the grey necklace, and Harry helped her put it on. Greyclay popped away, taking the red necklace back to wherever he had found it.

Hermione blinked. "The necklace just did something to my mind. I no longer believe that Headmaster Dumbledore should be believed and should be obeyed without question."

Madam Bones scowled.

Before the foursome were escorted to a goblin healer, Axefrenzy asked Harry, "When would you like to schedule the public reading of your parents' wills?"

Harry replied, "Today is Friday. How about a week from tomorrow, Saturday the 9th of November?"

Axefrenzy nodded. "Sounds good."

In Gringotts Hospital

The goblin healers performed a ritual to remove the horcrux from Harry's scar and to drive the soul-piece into a live pig. This was the good news.

The bad news? During the ritual, the pain was awful—worse for Harry than either time that Vernon had broken Harry's arm. Now Harry resolved to not scream in front of the other humans and the goblins—but he could not stop himself from whimpering. More bad news: The cost for the horcrux-removal was twenty thousand galleons—when Harry's new wand had cost him only seven galleons.

The goblin healers refused to let either Madam Bones or Unspeakable Twenty-Two watch the ritual by which the healers removed the horcrux from Harry's forehead-scar and sent the horcrux into the pig.

However, the goblin healers did permit the two adult magicals to witness the ritual in which the horcrux was removed from the pig and was trapped inside a goblin memory-recording crystal. This second ritual, by the way, made a young, healthy pig die of old age, and the ritual cost Harry "only" five thousand galleons.

After the excitement with Harry getting himself de-horcruxed, he did something boring: He let the goblin healers give him a medical exam.

Whilst a goblin healer's floating quill was writing on parchment (and writing, and writing...) Harry asked Madam Bones, "Did Susan mention to you about Hogwarts's third-floor corridor on the right-hand side? Which everyone should avoid 'who does not wish to die a very painful death'?"

"No, Susan has not mentioned any such thing," Madam Bones said, frowning. "Who said this? Who said there is a deadly place at Hogwarts?"

"The headmaster, during the Opening Feast."

"Maybe he was joking," Madam Bones said. But her tone of voice told Harry she did not believe this.

Harry said, "I can tell you that behind a simple locked door is a room with a three-headed dog in it. A huge three-headed dog."

Hermione said, "The Cerberus was standing on a trapdoor. We didn't stay to discover what the trapdoor led to."

Madam Bones snarled, "Is Dumbledore barking mad?"

The goblin healers diagnosed Harry as having broken arm-bones that had not healed properly, besides an improperly healed fractured skull. Sometime in the future, so Harry was told, when he had thirty-six hours free, he should return to Gringotts Hospital to get these injured bones vanished and regrown.

Healer Spurtblood said this last part so casually. Harry and Hermione looked at each other in amazement.

And oh by the way, Harry had three bindings on his magical core. The first binding had the magical signature of James Potter, had been laid down in 1981 and should have been removed on Harry's eleventh birthday. Harry's other two core-bindings, which had been laid down in 1981 and 1986, had the magical signature of Albus Dumbledore.

Healer Spurtblood recommended that during the thirty-six hours that Harry was getting bones vanished and regrown, he also get the three bindings on his magical core removed, in reverse order.

Harry also had been diagnosed with nutritional deficiencies. Healer Spurtblood gave Harry potions to fix those deficiencies. Healer Spurtblood told Harry to expect to grow taller. Harry grinned, hearing this.

Amelia Bones, who was Harry's within-Gringotts guardian, asked Healer Spurtblood for a complete report of all of Harry's injuries and nutritional deficiencies. Once Amelia Bones the within-Gringotts guardian was handed this list, she handed it to Amelia Bones, Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

As the four people were walking out of Gringotts

Unspeakable Twenty-Two said "Mr Potter? Look there." He/she pointed.

On the top step of the front entrance to Gringotts was a tall pole. Atop that pole, Bronzedagger's neatly severed head was mounted. By now, the head was drawing flies.

Madam Bones had told Harry that he could use his Heir Potter ring to charge things to his trust vault. Now Harry asked Madam Bones and Unspeakable Twenty-Two, "Do we have time to go to Flourish and Blotts for a bit?"

Madam Bones cast Tempus. "The time is 4:41. Yes, we have time, if the shopping is quick."

Harry turned to Hermione and said, "Let me make you an offer: Pick out any book they sell, and I'll pay for it."

Hermione squealed, hugged Harry, then rushed into the store.

Harry figured that Hermione would buy a book about Charms, Potions or Transfiguration. Instead, Harry paid for a book titled Dark Wizard with a Bright Smile.

Harry said, "Erm, Hermione? That looks like a romance novel."

Hermione blushed. "It is, but Lavender says it's fun to read."

Madam Bones sighed. "Miss Granger, if there is anything in the story you don't understand, ask a seventh-year witch before you ask your mother. Trust me on this."

Minutes later, 5:01 p.m
In Hogwarts's Great Hall

Harry and Hermione had walked out of the Great Hall about 12:30 in the afternoon, in the company of two Unspeakables. Now the two firsties walked into the Great Hall just as dinner food was appearing on the five tables, whilst escorted by one Unspeakable and by Madam Bones.

When Harry and Hermione walked in, Hermione had the white Potter crest showing on her robes' right sleeve, Harry was wearing the Potter Heir ring, and Hermione was carrying her new romance novel. At least one student in the Great Hall noticed at least one of these things, so several hundred students started discussing the two returning firsties. The Great Hall quickly was getting louder.

"Good evening, Amelia," Dumbledore called out jovially from his golden throne. "Would you care to join us professors for dinner, or would you prefer to dine with Miss Bones?"

Madam Bones replied coldly, loudly enough for everyone to hear: "My presence here is as the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Tell me, headmaster, if a student would go to the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side, is he or she truly in danger of 'a very painful death'? From a three-headed giant dog, and perhaps from other dangers?"