CHAPTER TWO

GRINGOTTS

Breakfast the next morning was a hurried affair. Odila and Harry were both anxious to get to Gringotts when it opened at eight and therefore neither was very hungry. Remus met them at the Leaky Cauldron and inspected Harry's disguise.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say he was definitely not Harry. He just doesn't look like him," Remus commented, "Now if Dumbledore is there, and Harry has his hood down, he couldn't even recognize him."

They had kept Harry's purple and spiked hair as well as initiating his contacts, that had an added bonus of color change. Harry's eyes were now a pure blue. His robes fit him perfectly and when he pulled his hood up, you couldn't even see his face. They also covered up his scar and added a notice me not charm to it.

They arrived at Gringotts as the doors were opening. Harry spotted Griphook and walked over to him, "Excuse me, Griphook, but do you happen to know where the reading of wills takes place inside the bank?"

"Of course, sir. Which will reading?"

"Sirius Black's, Griphook," Remus stated.

"That's a closed reading, I will need to identify each of you, follow me."

Griphook led them to a private waiting area, and asked them all a few personal questions, that only they would know the answers too. He also took a blood sample from Odila, to verify her claim to the Black family line.

"Daffodil Anne Black, why did Sirius place you with your grandmother at the beginning of October 1981?"

"It's Odila. My mother had a threat to her life, and my dad is git when it comes to young children."

"Okay, you passed. It reads here that and I quote, 'She will correct you on her name and I'm a git.' You answered correctly. You may go thru that door, please."

Griphook turned to Harry, "What are the Marauders? What are their names? And who are they really? Who was the traitor?"

"The marauders are a group of students, in Gryffindor, about 30 years ago at Hogwarts. They played pranks and got too many detentions to count. Their names are Moony, Padfoot, Prongs and Wormtail. They really are Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, James Potter, and Peter Pettigrew. And Pettigrew is the murderous bloody little traitor."

"Wow, twice in a row, you guys are pretty good. You may enter that door now, please."

When Harry joined Odila, they sat and chatted about a few things, like how she knew Fred and George and how they might want to start up the Marauders again. It wasn't long before Moony joined them.

About ten minutes later, Nymphadora Tonks walked thru the door, mumbling about answering dorky questions and having her blood tested. A few minutes later, Arthur Weasley walked in, the door disappearing as soon as he entered.

Another door appeared near the head of the table, and in walked Ragnock, the head goblin at Gringotts.

"Thank you for being so early," Ragnock began, "You are all aware of the circumstances of this meeting?"

He received five nods. No one had a doubt as to why they were there.

"This meeting was supposed to take place at two this afternoon, may I ask as to why we are all in attendance slightly before nine?"

Odila nodded and spoke, "It was my idea, sir. There are some who would stop this meeting from taking place with Harry here, and we thought it best to come before they could make an appearance."

"Thank you for that explanation. You were quite right in assuming someone would come and attempt to take Harry's place, I just stopped one Albus Dumbledore from attending this meeting."

Arthur Weasley looked a bit shocked; Tonks, a little queasy; none of the others were in the least affected by this turn of events.

"Since all required parties are here, let us proceed with the reading of the last will and testament of Sirius Black," Ragnock said as he sat in his chair, opened a drawer and pulled out a stack of parchments. Ragnock looked around once more before he began to read,

"I, Sirius Black, being of sound mind, do, on this day of the 23 of March, in the year 1996, record my final thoughts and wishes to be read after my death, hopefully I go out fighting and not some inane way like having my insane house-elf torture me to death. (Although it would relive the boredom.)

I would first like to make it known that my godson, Harry James Potter, should be legally emancipated in both the Wizard and Muggle world. He is a smart kid, and has faced more than any one person ought to before their sixteenth birthday. If he has any problems he should talk to Remus, Tonks, the Weasleys, and as a last resort, my daughter. Harry, I know this will come as a shock to you, believe me, it was worse for me. If my daughter has done her job, which I doubt, you will have received a letter from your mother telling you of Odila's existence and the circumstances of her birth. Harry, I know that you and she will be good friends. She has a lot of memories about the marauder extended family, let her share those with you, they might answer a few of those questions running about your brain. If she can't answer them, Remus should be able to. And if you can manage to stump him, tough luck and a mighty good job, not even your mum ever stumped him.

Now I would like to settle the major dispute about the Black family fortune. Tonks, even though you and Odila are both blood relatives, I've decided not to give you a bigger share then anyone else. Harry and Remus are family by marauder law, and if I don't share with them I will have a very upset Lily on my hands, and Odila you know what that's like. Arthur is family, by virtue of his caring about Harry, and letting him be part of the Weasley clan. Therefore I bequeath an equal share of the Black family fortune to Nymphadora Tonks, Remus J. Lupin, Arthur Weasley, D. Anne Black, and Harry James Potter. To my best recollection that should be about 300,000,000 galleons apiece.

To Nymphadora, I also leave half of the Black family female jewels. The other half I leave to Odila. I have researched the entire collection and have earmarked each piece for who is intended.

Also to Nymphadora, I leave the family property in Aberdeen, Scotland, near the Deveron River, consisting of 47 acres. I understand the castle is in disrepair, but I sure you can fix and update it a little with some of that money. That also contains about 60 house-elves.

To Remus J. Lupin, I leave Grimmauld Place, and two choices, either kick the order out and rebuild, or find a nice lady who doesn't mind your problem, adopt a few kids and take care of the cubs. Anyway make sure you demolish the stupid wall and get rid of that annoying elf. I also ask that Tonks part with a couple of the Scottish elves and get you some proper help.

Odila, I only want to say this once, never be ashamed of your first name, it was your mother's favorite flower and it always brought a smile to her face. To you, I leave the Daffodil estate in northern Ireland, it consists of 35 acres and 13 of those are filled with exotic flowers and most especially daffodils that are magical. The gardens are in complete bloom from the middle of March to November of every year. If you know of a herbology expert, don't let him find it, unless you trust him, completely. They've been clamoring to get their hands on those plants for almost three centuries. This estate was a gift to our family in the year 1803 to help with the arranged marriage of our great-uncle to the Weasley family.

To my beloved godson, Harry, I leave the male family jewels and weapons. To Remus, Odila, and Harry I give the entire collection of the Black Family Library. Please be willing to share the knowledge of these books with those whom you trust.

To Arthur Weasley, I give some instructions as to how to best put his new inheritance to work. Please do not let your darling wife object to this gift. I knew that if I didn't give your family something for caring about Harry, he would just give all of his inheritance to your family. He is a very generous kid and feels that you and your family are his own. Now on to the instructions: (I'm putting these in the will and not a personal letter so that I have witnesses. They're job is to see that most of these are followed without to much complaint.)

1. Take that lovely wife of yours on a second honeymoon. Don't worry about Ron and Ginny, Remus, Odila, and Harry will be more then happy to have them visit with them.

2. Remodel that home of yours. We can't have the Malfoys always complaining about that ran down house of yours, now can we. You have enough money to make it into some thing that can stand up to the pureblood ridicule.

3. Make sure Ron and Ginny have new school things for once. It might inspire Ron to actually study.

4. Put aside 1,000,000 galleons for Ginny's dowery.

5. Just have some fun, buy some of the muggle junk you like so much, but keep some in savings for a rainy day. You never know when you might have to bribe a minister to get someone you love out of trouble.

Now, Remus, Tonks, Harry, and Odila make sure Arthur does some of this if not all of it. He's a great guy and deserves a lot of happiness in his life.

Well, I'm sorry folks, that I'm dead and I have nothing else to give any of you. Please know that I love each of you and wish you the best in life. Don't any of you die anytime soon.

Sirius Black"

As Ragnock read Sirius' will, he handed out letters or stacks of parchments to the concerned parties. There were the emancipation papers, deeds, lists of jewels, books, and weapons, and most important personal letters to each attendee.

"Now, please sign these papers, accepting your inheritances from Mr. Black, and Ms. Tonks and Mr. Weasley you are free to go at your leisure. As soon as your signatures are affixed to those pieces of parchment, all of your inheritance will be transferred to your individual vaults. Mr. Potter, I need to converse with you concerning the Potter family estate, now that you are considered a legal-aged wizard. You may invite either Mr. Lupin or Ms. Black or both to be here with you as your father left no strict instructions as to who to leave out and both Mr. Lupin and Ms. Black happen to be small beneficiaries to the Potter family estate."

Arthur and Tonks signed and quickly left to take care of other business at Gringotts. Harry looked at both Remus and Odila, imploring them to stay, so that he might have some support if something happened that he didn't understand. Both of them nodded back at him, as they were interested to see what James and Lily would have written. The will having not been read before.

Ragnock pulled another snack of parchments from his drawer. "Now, as this will wasn't read in November of 1981, I will summerize it so that we will not be here for another four hours. Mr. Potter, you must understand that not only will you receive what your father left, you will also receive those deeds and vaults that were left without heirs due to the rise of Voldemort. The total of those vaults and deeds is about 10,000,000,000 galleons and about 40 estates in Europe, 5 in North America, and 3 small islands in the Atlantic, all of the estates in North America and the islands are unplottable and need a special portkey to reach."

"James Potter left Mr. Lupin a vault containing 2,000,000 galleons which in the past fifteen years has increased significantly. Here is the key to the vault, if you would be so kind as to condense your two vaults into one, that would be appreciated. Here is a letter from Mr. And Mrs. Potter for you, Mr. Lupin."

"The Potters also left a vault containing 150,000 galleons for Ms. Black. Hoping she would use it for her schooling if needed. Here is the key as well as a letter."

"Mr. Potter, your parents left you not only your school trust fund, of which only about 1/3 has been used to date, but also the Potter family vaults, there are three of them. One is strictly money, the others have jewels, furniture, paintings, and family heirlooms. It is suggested that you take stock and view those two vaults sometime soon. You were also left the estate at Godric's Hollow, so that you may live there with your family, as your parents intended to move to the Potter ancestral estate in southern Scotland. Here are the keys to the vaults and the deeds to all of your properties. I understand that there is a law office known as From Quidditch to Death and Beyond that will be happy to inform you of the conditions and give you the portkeys to your properties."

"I will leave you now. You may stay and converse for a few minutes but I ask that you leave before 3:oo as we have another meeting starting then," with that Ragnock took his leave. Leaving three very shocked people behind.

Harry was very confused by the past hour. In a little over an hour he had been given a very nice gift from Sirius as well as finding out about his parents and family, and had become, if he liquidated his assets, a billionaire at least 10 times. 'And I want to be an auror. Boy, am I stupid, I should go into business with Dung,' Harry thought to himself, and started laughing uncontrollably.

"I'd sure like to know what's so funny, Harry, but can we move this out of here?" asked Remus.

"Sure thing, Moony. I tell you on the way down to explore my family vault."

"Which one?" Odila asked.

"One of the ones of family heirlooms. I want to know more about my family."

They exited the meeting room and went back to the lobby talking and laughing, Harry telling them about his idea for working with Dung. Remus was laughing so hard, he almost didn't see Albus Dumbledore standing next to the entryway to the lobby.

"I didn't know Sirius' will would have taken this long to sort out, Remus," Dumbledore said calmly.

"It didn't. We decided to stay and chat for a while after Tonks and Arthur left. It's been along time since the three of us had a chance to talk."

"The three of you? I wasn't aware that you knew Ms. Tingley, when did you get acquainted?"

"Oh, I met her about 45 minutes after she was born," Remus stated as it casually as one would comment on the weather.

"You knew her mother, then?"

"Of course, her mother and I were close. She was also very close with Sirius and James."

"Oh, headmaster?" Odila queried.

"Yes, Ms. Tingley, I understand your returning this fall?"

"Quite, but I like to inform you that I no longer go by my adoptive family name."

"Oh. Pray tell, what name will you be going by, then?"

"That of my father's, Black."

"Black?" Dumbledore was shocked to say the least.

"Yes, Black. My father was Sirius Black. He and I got along quite well. And it was only the fact that he was wrongfully imprisoned at the time of my entrance into Hogwarts, that I went by my muggle family's name," Odila explained as she and Harry walked past the stunned headmaster with Remus following, "Oh, I do hope Professor Snape has something incredibly difficult to teach his seventh year NEWT class, or I will be spending the time inventing my own potions."

"Griphook, cart please," Harry called, as he spotted his favorite goblin.

"Harry, a moment if you please?" Dumbledore started.

"I'm sorry, headmaster, but I have urgent business to attend to and if it's not to much to ask, can we talk when I return to school in September?"

"I'd like to talk to you now, Harry. I have things we need to discuss."

"Concerning what, sir?'

"Among other things, Sirius' will and your continuing Occulmency with Professor Snape."

"Sirius didn't ask for you to be at the reading of his will, and I see no reason to discuss it with you. I will continue extra lessons with Snape, if at the beginning of the school year you find my Occulmency lacking in any way, sir. But other than that I see no reason to bog down the holidays with lessons from a man who hates me, simply because of something my father did as a teenager," Harry told him, "Now, if you don't mind I'm going to my vault," and with that Harry left a very stunned Headmaster in the lobby of Gringotts, as he and his companions descended in a wild ride to the Potter-Evans vault.