Hermiones choice 9

I still don't own the rights to Harry Potter or his world.

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Monday mornings mail delivery saw a large regal looking owl entering the Great Hall during breakfast carrying a large package. Draco Malfoy recognised his mother's owl circling the hall and started boasting.

"Oh! Mother must miss me so much she sent another care package. I wasn't expecting another for…" He trailed off as the bird headed towards the Gryffindor table.

The owl landed in front of Harry Potter who looked confused. When Harry didn't take the parcel, the bird screeched "HOO!"

Talking to the bird he said, "I'm sorry. I think you have the wrong person, I don't get mail."

"Hoo!" the bird replied, staring Harry in the face, looking offended.

"Okay, sorry!" Harry said hastily. He looked at the parcel and saw his name written in a neat feminine hand. Untying it quickly he handed the owl a slice of bacon from his plate. "Thank you."

The bird gulped down the bacon, rubbed its head against Harry's hand in gratitude and then flew across the hall to deliver a note to Draco.

Draco scowled as he snatched the note from the owl and all but threw the bird off the table. It took off with a loud screech and flew away, clearly upset. Opening the letter, he read

'Dear Draco,

I received a letter from Heir Fitzroy telling me of your refusal to follow his instructions and punishment for your erroneous behaviour toward Heir Harry Potter. I have offered him a care parcel, similar to the ones I send you, as restitution and a written apology for your actions, but this is the only time I will be interfering in this manner. I hope that you will improve your behaviour, and this will not be repeated. Whatever further social sanctions imposed on you at school are yours to deal with. Remember your place, my dragon, and do not overstep yourself.

With love, Mother.'

Draco silently crumpled the letter in his pocket and stalked out of the room.

Meanwhile most of the hall watched as Harry cautiously opened the parcel, some even coming over curiously to see what he had received. On the top he saw a letter addressed to him.

'Dear Heir Potter,

It has been brought to my attention that my son, Draco, has behaved in an insulting and offensive manner toward you and has yet to apologise and repent for this. As his mother I am offering this package as a form of compensation for my son's actions and I apologise for the hurt and insult he caused. At my earliest convenience I will try to correct his behaviour. If you find that this package is insufficient, please contact me for further negotiation. Wishing you all the best for your education,

Yours truly, Narcissa Malfoy.'

Harry folded the letter and opened the box. He was amazed at the selection of high-quality sweets, new quills and the luxurious writing materials it contained.

Neville looked over at the box and said "This is the restitution I told you about. The Malfoy's must be worried that you will take this further to offer this much."

Harry nodded and asked, "Should I send a thank you note or something to Malfoy's mum?"

"That would be appropriate." Blaise Fitzroy said, making the Gryffindor's jump. They hadn't noticed him approach. He grinned and continued "I am glad to see that, even with being raised in the Muggle world, you have good manners. Just say, thank you for the package, that you feel it is appropriate in this instance and that you hope that it will not be needed again. Good luck Potter." He finished as he turned away.

Harry, Neville and Hermione grinned as they explored the contents of the box.

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Ron Weasley had had the worst week of his young life.

First, he was being forced to study like he never knew he could. He never had to read or write like this at home! And the teachers were constantly telling him to give them so much written stuff.

Next, he was constantly harassed by his older brother Percy. 'Have you done your essay, read this, write out that, why aren't you practicing your charms?'. It was enough to drive him nuts.

Finally, he was constantly being sniped at by his housemates every time he tried to enjoy his meals. So what if he had three or four platefuls, if he beat others to the last piece of meat on a platter or if he was the first to arrive and last to leave. It's their problem that they were too slow. And if they didn't like how he ate, well, there are plenty of other places to sit. He is a hungry, growing boy! It didn't matter how the food got into him as long as it gets to his stomach.

Ron wondered if it would really be worse at Aunt Muriel's.

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That Saturday Harry was happy to be meeting with Daggerclaw again in Professor Flitwick's office.

Daggerclaw began "At our last meeting the heritage test we started had not completed. It finished late on Sunday night and I have the results here. Your mother was descended from two prominent magical families."

"Then why did she think she was Muggleborn?" Harry asked curiously.

"Sometimes the magic seems to die out in a family. Sometimes by all descendants dying, other times by having children that do not have magic of their own that leave the magical world and no-one knows what happens to them, or their lines, after that. It appears that this is what has happened to your mother."

"You are entitled to the following lines, titles and vaults through your mother; Evans, her birth family, Hufflepuff, through a cadet branch. You have the greatest claim to the family, although there are a few others that may try if you don't accept the Lordship, and Pereveral. Through your father you are entitled to the Potter estate and lordship and you are a secondary heir of the Gryffindor family."

"Who is the first Heir?"

"A classmate of yours, Neville Longbottom. You both have the same claim through family lines, but as he is a day older, Neville is the one to gain the title."

"Good. I'm glad that he is getting something good." Harry said smiling.

"These estates will be held in trust for you until you turn seventeen, the wizarding age of majority. You will be given lists of your assets, but you will not be able to do anything with them without your guardian's permission.

"Is there anything else that I can help you with today?"

"I have been thinking. My aunt and uncle said that they were never given anything for raising me. They always told me that and I had to earn my keep if I wanted to be fed and clothed by them."

Daggerclaw struggled to keep a neutral face as he spoke.

"Harry, I want you to make a few lists for me. First, I want you to write down what your jobs were around the house and yard, how often you did them and how long it would take you to do each task and at what age you started doing them. Next, I want you to write down what your average meals were and how often you got to eat them. Next is what toys and books they gave you and whether they were new or second hand. Same for clothes and shoes and so on."

"Alright. But what will that do?"

"This will give me an idea about how much they have spent on you compared to how much your labour is worth and then we will work out the difference that is owed."

"Oh, ok. That sounds fair."

After Harry wrote down what he could remember he handed the lists to the goblin.

As Daggerclaw read the list his face was getting darker the more he read.

Harry spoke quietly. "You don't think I did enough to earn my keep, do you?"

"Harry, I am not angry at you. But I will explain my anger. This list of tasks that you performed regularly is more than most ADULTS would do in a week! And you say here that you were expected to do most of them daily? Comparing the tasks versus what you received in the way of food, clothes and toys you MORE than earnt your room and board. I had not mentioned it yet, but I found that the Dursley family have been receiving a monthly allowance for your care that was quite generous. There should have been enough to provide for you with money left to put in the bank for you! This was the discrepancy that you noticed in your trust account. You should have had no reason to feel that you needed to do any more than their own son."

"But Dudley doesn't do any chores. He just makes more cleaning for me to do." Harry sighed.

"That makes this even worse. Before I was thinking that without the allowance you would still be owed money, even looking at this with junior wages. But now! Gringotts will be going after the Dursleys for your money to be returned to you with interest. And hopefully, we will get you compensated for your excessive manual labour."

"Al…Alright. What do you think you will do?"

Daggerclaw gave Harry a smile that did not bode well for the Dursleys.

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On a gloomy November morning Petunia Dursley gathered the mail and placed it next to her husband's breakfast plate. Aside from the usual bills and circulars there was a large, high quality envelope that had both of their attention.

Vernon opened the letter and read aloud.

"Mr Vernon and Mrs Petunia Dursley,

We at Barclays have recently performed an audit on the accounts of our client, Mr H. Potter.

To date we have not received any receipts pertaining to the usage of the yearly Two-thousand-Five-hundred-pound Child Maintenance Allowance that you have been receiving since December of 1981.

Please provide said receipts by the end of the calendar month at our London office for processing.

Yours sincerely,

Mr D. Claw."

They looked at each other and grimaced, knowing that they had no evidence of what they spent. Most of the money they had gotten had been spent on their son or luxuries for themselves. While they had never exactly starved the boy, they had never allowed him to eat very much and extras like snacks were non-existent, they were exclusively for their darling Dudley. And Dudley's old clothes and toys were good enough for the little freak so there were no extra costs there.

What were they going to do?

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