Let's Do It Right This Time, Chapter 7: Aurelius Gaunt
The goblins politely left Harry alone as he cried. After all this time! If he had only spoken to the goblins the first time around, he wouldn't have had to figure things out in bits and pieces, wouldn't have been surprised and hurt when James had shown up on his doorstep.
At last, dry eyed, he pulled the will out and read it. The contents were simple: a 100 G stipend a month to Lupin ("and you can't give it back; I'm dead"), some personal things to Petunia, and her private vault to Harry, the rest going to James. Harry suspected that there had also been something for Snape, but that James had put his foot down. The only other things in the box that weren't personal letters was a note attached to the bottle of Felix Felicis:
I won this from Sluggy three years ago, and hid it from James. It keeps really well, so it still should be good. Don't use it in law or competitions- otherwise go wild.
At this point, Harry decided that he needed to claim his Houses and figure out his assets; he wanted just to grieve for his mother, but a lot of things depended on acting now, before Dumbledore figured out he wasn't at the Dursleys. He called Sculdig over.
"How do I claim my Head of House for any of my Houses?"
"If your inheritance paper says 'heir apparent', you just have to see if the House Ring accepts you. If it doesn't, you're not ready, but I hardly see that happening."
"Will it hurt me if it doesn't accept me?" asked Harry worriedly.
"Not unless you're a false claimant. Shall I send for the rings?"
"Yes please."
Sculdig called in a young goblin called Logjam and told him to get the rings while Harry squirmed impatiently. At last, Logjam came back with a box full of rings. Most Ancient and Most Noble House Merlin ( a sapphire and amethyst thunderbolt) Ancient and Noble House Slytherin (four intertwining emerald snakes) Most Ancient and Most Noble House Gaunt (a black dragon of obsidian) Ancient and Noble House Gryffindor (a golden lion with red eyes) Most Ancient and Most Noble House Peverall (the symbol of the Hallows) Noble House Grey (a single pearl) Noble House Angeles (a pair of silver wings) Noble House Boniface (a golden rose) Noble House Starvling (a silver starling) Noble House Reims (a golden weasel) and Ancient and Noble House Mordrake (a pair of dragons grappling).
Harry stared at the box. Then, slowly, he reached for the first ring...
An hour later, Sculdig was smiling at the dumbfounded wizard, and explaining the rules governing House Rings. "Only you can take off the rings, and they can be banished to, I suppose you could say, magical space until you need them. All you have to do then is simply think which one or ones that you want to see. The Ancient and Noble Houses allow you a seat on the Wizengamot; the Most Ancient and Most Noble Houses allow you 2. Thus you have 9 seats- quite the voting block! As you are the last available heir for Houses Merlin and Mordrake, you can file for emancipation. You will, of course, need to learn Wizarding politics; I can't profess to be able to help with that."
Harry had simply been trying to soak in all that Sculdig was telling him. Now he was finally realizing something else.
"Manager Sculdig?"
"Yes?"
"If I were to change my name, would it be magically binding in every way?"
"Yes," replied Sculdig.
"And would tracking charms meant for Harry Potter find me?"
"Only blood trackers, which are horribly inaccurate. So you want to change your name?"
Harry had often thought of changing his name just to spite James. Now he actually had a legitimate reason! "Can that be arranged?"
"Yes. I can also bury the paperwork so that the Wizarding world will not be able to find out." Sculdig's grin was positively feral. "You can use a muggle surname, as well as any one of the Wizarding names you have claim to. I suggest one of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Houses, perhaps Peverall."
"Hmm." Harry thought for a moment. He was definitely going to use the name Aurelius, because it was the one his mother had wanted, and probably Sirius as a middle name. And, what with what his mother had said in the letter, and with what Snape had done for him (despite being a total bastard about it) he might just pick Severus. "Gaunt." he said at length.
"Pardon?" Sculdig blinked.
"Aurelius Sirius Severus Gaunt," Harry told him.
Sculdig frowned. "Granted, Gaunt is a powerful name, but it's also Dark. May I ask why you would choose it?"
"To piss Voldemort off." Harry responded, grinning. "He thought he was heir to House Gaunt."
Sculdig gave a startled laugh. "You are truly a remarkable human." He sent Logjam for paperwork to confirm the name, and Griphook for a blood quill, and called up a handful of discrete goblin witnesses, and soon Harry was signing the documents, as the last heir of an Ancient and Noble House could sign contracts without his guardian after age seven, as the family magics would protect him or her from harm. Then the goblins put a copy in their archives, and sent another copy, this one sealed, to the ministry.
"Is there anything else, Aurelius?" Sculdig was almost teasing.
"Well, if I'm Aurelius Gaunt now, then Harry Potter has to disappear," said Aurelius with a devious smile. "And what better way to do that than for him to die? If we're lucky, we can implicate the Dursleys and kill two basilisks with one sword?"
Sculdig was almost wriggling in glee. "That can be arranged. If you do do that, however, you'll need a disguise."
"Honestly, me without my scar would be disguise enough. But you're right, anyone who knew my parents could probably recognize me. Hmm. What do you suggest?"
"I was rather hoping you would ask that." Sculdig rummaged in his desk drawer. "There will be a cost, I'm afraid, but even a muggleborn could afford it." After a moment, he pulled out a plain-looking muggle-made watch. "This is a glamourie watch- we normally use them when disguised as humans to work in muggle banks. It can be set to any appearance. Do you have any preference?"
"Yeah, I'd like to keep the green eyes, but I want my face completely different- I hate looking like a clone of James Potter. And can you make my hair longer, and wavy?"
"I'll have someone adapt the charm," Sculdig told him, scrawling a few notes on a bit of parchment and sending it and the watch off with Logjam. "What else?"
"Well, I kinda want to know what all I have in my vaults. Do you have a self-updating account book or something?"
"Indeed. I will help you go over it, if you like."
"That would be great!"
Sculdig pulled a musty old book out of his desk and muttered a few spells, changing the content to a list of all his vaults and what they contained. Aurelius was open-mouthed by the end. Countless out-of-print books, priceless artifacts, a 60 percent share in Hogwarts school, (courtesy of the founders), armor, weapons, potions and wandmaking supplies, 9 percent shares in Nimbus brooms, a dragon reserve (Aurelius was definitely going to give Hagrid a job there), more than ten properties, and liquid assets in the billions of galleons. Oh, and the freaking hippogriff farm!
After a few hours' discussion with Sculdig, Aurelius had decided on living in an unplottable tower known simply as Haven, which had been in the Mordrake family for centuries, as other properties (Merlin's castle in Transylvania, Slytherin manor, Gryffindor manor, two Gryffindor houses, an inn from the Peverall line, a tavern called the Green Dolphin, a pet shop, a villa in Spain, two restaurants, a potion supply store, and three more houses in various countries,) either needed to be cleared of possible Dark artifacts, were rather rundown, or were simply too big or otherwise unsuitable for living, and he was not going to visit Ravenhurst just yet.
After that, Aurelius decided he'd had enough. While Sculdig was helpful and fun to talk to, once you got used to him, Aurelius felt as if his head would explode if he discussed finances and business strategy any longer, and he still had to come back for the rest of the month to discuss alliances and possibly learn some goblin fighting and warding, if they would let him, as well as be healed and relieved of the blocks on his magic, and maybe get looked at by a cursebreaker.
So when Logjam at last came in with the doctored watch, Aurelius quickly picked it up and put it on, listening to Sculdig, who said that to activate it, he simply had to tap a rune etched into the back, and to deactivate it, just press in the knob.
It certainly worked. Aurelius glanced into the offered mirror and gasped; he looked rather disturbingly like a male Bellatrix Black, only sweeter-looking, with Lily's eyes and blond hair instead of black. Aurelius grinned. He was going to have so much fun with this!
"Hey, so you happen to have anything like a muggle credit card?" He asked Sculdig all of a sudden. "Like, so you don't have to go back to your vault every time you need more gold?"
"Of course. It's simply a pouch that takes the exact amount you need out of whichever vault you specify. It costs three G, but I assure you that you have enough. I can take it straight out of your vault if you want."
"Sure!"
So it was that in a little over then half an hour Aurelius Gaunt walked out of the bank, disguised, stripped of tracking charms, and carrying his new instant galleon pouch, all set up with an appointment with Murdock, and ready to shop and then settle into his new tower. Life, for the first time ever in both timelines, was turning out to be ok. Well, except for the fact that Sssasha was complaining incessantly about wanting a fresh mouse...