Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…

My beta has currently very little time, so this isn't beta'ed.

I wish a late Happy Thanksgiving for those who celebrated, a Happy First Advent for those who will celebrate and a Happy Day for the rest (no matter if you celebrate anything or not). This chapter is for the one who named me (just like every year). Best wishes, Ebenbild.

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POTTER CHILD

SEVENTH YEAR

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Harry knew that he should be concerned with something else right now. He was in the middle of walking to his death by Voldemort, after all. But… when the snitch opened and he suddenly had the Resurrection Stone in his hands, Harry had just one question.

"What the hell are the goblins talking about? World domination? Dad!"

His father cringed.

"That… honestly, son, that wasn't my fault," James Potter settled on saying.

Harry raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

Remus looked from father to son in confusion.

"World domination?" he asked. "What?"

"Metaphor," Sirius replied and rolled his eyes. "Voldemort and the whole circus, you know?"

Remus nodded slowly, still looking a bit confused.

His mother frowned at him. "Harry, dear," she said slowly. "Don't tell me you've been walking around in those rags the whole time?"

Harry stopped dead in his track and then looked down at the things he was wearing with a confused "Huh?"

His mother sighed. "You're as bad as your father, darling," she said with a sigh. "Complaining about all the money in your vault, but instead of going out and at least buying decent basics, you just continue to use what you always used – or you end up buying second hand."

Harry blushed.

While he certainly hadn't bought his clothes, he guessed that his mother was right and he should have thought about buying himself a decent wardrobe when he found out that he had the money to do so…

"Sorry, Mum," he apologized. "I should have thought about that."

"I guess I should have told him to buy something when I saw him in his third year," Remus said with a wince.

"You don't go out and buy yourself clothes as well," Sirius countered and pulled Remus a bit away while he started to admonished Remus for not taking care of himself.

Harry's mother nodded at Harry, acknowledging his apology while looking quite regally while she did so. That reminded Harry. "And Dad… Mum… can anybody of you tell me why the goblins call me 'young Prince' instead of my last name? They… didn't confuse me with someone else, did they?"

At that, his father blushed a fiery red.

"I… guess we own Hogwarts now, don't we?" he asked his wife rhetorically.

Lily hummed. "Well, theoretically, the previous heir of Slytherin is alive again," she pointed out. "But since he hasn't defeated our son and taken back what his first defeat took from him…" She hummed thoughtfully before she nodded decisively. "Yes, I fear we do, dearest."

Harry blinked.

"What does that have to do with anything?" he inquired.

"Old rule," his father immediately replied. "When the whole thing about us Potters being the royals of the magical world came up first with the goblins… well, let's just say that we forbid the goblins to call us anything but our name until Hogwarts was in our hands. Afterwards, we acquiesced that we really would be the princes of the wizarding world."

Harry stared at James.

"Wait! Are you telling me that the goblins see us as a royal family?" he asked incredulously.

"We own most of Britain," James pointed out with a wince. "And we've been steadily acquiring more of it with every year. Merlin! Even three generations back we would have been able to bring down the wizarding world if we just wanted to – just by saying 'no' and removing most of the funding of St. Mungo's, Hogwarts and the Ministry. Without us, several projects would have to be cut and the training for the Healers and Aurors as well as their protection would have to be done with old and barely functioning equipment. Not to mention that Hogwarts would have been closed for generations already without us Potters supporting it here and there."

Harry blinked.

"Huh," he said, before he cautiously asked. "So… the reason why the goblins call me 'Prince'…"

"Is because you are a prince," his mother told him lovingly.

"More or less," his father supplied with a grumble, clearly less happy about it than Harry's mother.

"Huh," Harry said. "And the whole… 'I ask the goblins about Hufflepuff's cup and they not only brought it to me but asked me if I wanted to take a look into Bellatrix's vault for anything else of interest to me…' thing?"

James scratched his head and then looked at his best friend who hurriedly turned away and whistled innocently.

"That you got the cup is easily explained," Lily said and eyed Sirius suspiciously who was looking at the night-sky, still whistling. "You're the owner of everything Hufflepuff. Since the cup belonged to Hufflepuff, it was yours. If you wanted it back then you had every right to ask for it – no matter in whose vault it actually was."

Harry nodded slowly and then looked at Sirius with a frown. Remus looked at his friends. He seemed to be quite lost with the whole conversation.

James meanwhile had narrowed his eyes at his best friend in suspicion.

"Sirius," he said slowly and Sirius gulped. "Tell me you didn't!"

Sirius gulped again.

James leaned forward towards his best friend.

"Sirius…"

"I… alright! I did it!" Sirius finally cried out. "I thought that a little bit more wouldn't hurt him, ok?"

"You ended up giving him the whole assets of the House of Black – and you say he got a LITTLE BIT MORE?!" James glared at Sirius.

Harry's godfather ducked his head.

"You never said that I wasn't allowed to give him the Black estate!" he justified himself,

Harry looked from one Marauder to the other.

"Black estate?" he asked confused. "I thought I just inherited the house?"

"That means you inherited the estate, Harry, darling," his mother explained to him fondly.

Harry paled. "How much money…?"

"Not that much!" Sirius quickly assured him.

"Just enough to buy half of Diagon Alley," James countered full of snark.

Harry gulped.

"Dia…Diagon Alley?" he stuttered.

"Half of it! Only half of it!" Sirius immediately corrected him.

Lily hummed thoughtfully.

"I'm sure that the goblins are currently investing in your estate nicely with that money," she said happily.

Harry looked at his mother, his face a bit pale. "I inherited the house a year ago," he said, his pale face looking first at his mother and then at his godfather, who was furiously whispering with Remus, to finally settle on his father.

James winced. "I guess the goblins went ahead and used it to buy most of Diagon Alley while the war was raging?" he offered up hesitatingly. "I mean… people would have had a hard time keeping open their shops with the war and the fear all around. They'd most likely burned through all the money they as a cushion and then some…"

"Or they will when the war ends," his mother added happily. "If you haven't managed to own most of Diagon Alley by now, you will when the war ends."

Harry looked at his father and then at his mother.

"What… what do I do with all those assets?" he asked a bit helplessly.

"Best thing you can do is marry a nice girl with a shrewd sense for business and hand over the whole mess to her," James suggested calmly. "I did the same thing when I handed it over to your mother and she did really well with it in the time it was under her control."

Harry gawked.

"So… the whole world domination thing?"

"Shhh!" both of his parents immediately admonished him. "We don't talk about that!"

Harry blinked.

"Oh," he said and tried to wrap his head around the fact that there were rules about his family goals that he hadn't known to follow.

"You didn't say anything to your friends, did you?" his father asked him with suspiciously narrowed eyes.

Harry shook his head. "No," he said. "I even went at night to Gringotts so that I could go alone when I asked the goblins for Hufflepuff's cup." Harry had actually gone alone because he had felt embarrassed by the idea he had about just walking up to the goblins and explaining himself.

But then… Harry most likely wouldn't have considered doing such a thing if it hadn't been for the whole fifth year experience and the odd behaviour of the goblins back then.

"Good… good then," his father said and nodded. Harry noticed full of interest that Sirius had pulled Remus away and was currently engaging him in a conversation.

Lily and James followed his gaze.

"Sirius is used to distract Remus when we need to talk family business," James said unconcerned. "Don't worry, I will fill Sirius in when we're back on the other side of the veil if he needs to know."

"Sirius knows then?" Harry asked.

"He was taken in by my father," James reminded him. "Sirius has been my brother ever since and so of course he knows. He has to further the family goals, after all."

Harry frowned.

"I thought you might not agree with the family goals the way you acted before?" he asked a bit confused.

His father winced. "If I agree or not doesn't mean anything," he told his son. "The family decided to go for it, so that's what we will do, no matter my personal feelings about it."

Harry frowned.

His father grinned at him – it looked more like a grimace.

"My father and grandfather said the same," James elaborated. "And I think my great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather did, too."

Harry blinked.

"So… we're trying for world domination – even if nobody actually wants it?" he asked incredulously.

Lily smiled at him. "Well, it's either us or people like Voldemort," she countered calmly. "But fact is that someone will always try. And, be honest, Harry, dear – do you want Voldemort be the one who might manage it?"

Harry emphatically shook his head.

"There you go, darling," Lily said.

"But does it have to be us instead?" Harry whined.

"Do you want that much money in your vault?" James countered immediately.

Harry's mind returned to the number he had seen on the parchment the goblin had handed him two years ago. He turned as white as a ghost.

"No."

"There you go, darling," Lily said calmly. "That's your answer."

Harry gulped and then nodded and took a deep breath.

"Well," he said shakily. "At least I'm about to die now. That should at least end the whole money-insanity."

James grinned. "That's the right attitude! Just my thoughts back then when I died!"

"James!" Lily immediately admonished her husband. "Don't encourage him to commit suicide!"

Then she turned to Harry sternly.

"Promise me young man that you won't go and give up your life if you have a chance to do it differently!"

Harry opened his mouth, but his mother didn't even let him start with his objection. "Promise me, Harry!"

"I promise, Mum," Harry gave in. It didn't matter, after all. He was a Horcrux. He would have to die for Voldemort to be able to die. "If there's any other way, I will stay alive."

"Good boy," his mother said and smiled at him.

"And if you don't, we have a place for you at our sides," James added happily. "And then we will all be free of the insanity that is our vault at Gringotts."

Harry nodded emphatically.

With that, Harry walked happily towards his dead… well, at least until…

"What in Merlin's name do you mean 'I'm alive'?" Harry stared Dumbledore with horror in his eyes. He was standing in the middle of an oddly clean and white King's Cross after Voldemort had used the killing curse on him.

Harry should be dead!

Harry had a right to be dead!

Not that Dumbledore seemed to think so. Instead, he babbled about the blood Voldemort took from Harry and how it bound Harry to life as long as Voldemort lived. Sadly, the only thing Harry heard was something else.

"So… I'm not dead?" he asked with desperation in his voice.

"No, you're not, Harry," Dumbledore answered and twinkled at him happily.

Harry wanted to strangle the old man in front of him with his own beard.

Harry had a RIGHT to be DEAD! So why did Dumbledore tell him the opposite?!

"So… I have to go back?" Harry asked, his eyes wide with terror.

In his mind, there was a parchment with so many ciphers on it that Harry couldn't even start to guess how to pronounce the number they were spelling out.

"That's up to you," Dumbledore said.

'World domination,' Harry's mind reminded him. 'Twenty to fifty years.'

'Young Prince,' his subconsciousness told him. 'The goblins see the Potters as a royal family.'

"I… I don't want to have a crown," Harry whimpered.

Dumbledore frowned.

"You can go on, if that's really what you want," he said, clearly not understanding Harry's objections. "If you decide you don't want to go back you could… let's say… board a train."

Harry really wanted to take that train.

But… his mother would kill him if he did that, the moment she got her hands on him.

And they would have eternity together…

Harry shuddered.

World domination – twenty to fifty years.

Young Prince – the Potters as a royal family.

Harry would end up with a crown… or his children would.

Harry gulped.

"Guess I'll have to look into some tutors after Voldemort," he decided aloud and then turned back from where he came from, ignoring Dumbledore's curious and slightly confused look following him.

This was family business – and the Potter's didn't talk about their goals with anybody but family.

Harry raised his head and marched back to life.

There was a dark lord to kill and a goal to achieve.

"And a wife to find and children to teach," Harry added thoughtfully after the whole mess with Voldemort was over and he was staring at the Elder Wand in his hands.

He contemplated giving it back to Dumbledore's grave.

He really didn't need to add a title like 'Master of Death' on top of everything. Harry reached for the stone in his pocket and then looked at the wand thoughtfully.

He pulled out his old wand and then mended it with the Elder Wand.

His friends looked at him and Harry wondered if they knew that he had lied to them when he told them that the stone had been lost.

He looked back at the wand.

He really didn't want it.

"I'm putting the Elder Wand back where it came from," he told the portrait of Dumbledore who was nodding happily at him.

"Are you sure?" Ron asked him.

"I think Harry's right," Hermione said.

And Harry pocketed the wand to officially put it to rest later on. And if he only put to rest a replica – who would know? After all, Harry's family was out for World Domination. Having something like being the Master of Death as an ace in the hole could only come in handy.

"Guess the next thing I have to find is a suitable girlfriend," Harry said to himself. "Someone shrewd enough to further the family goals."

And well… maybe he should go out and look at crowns and their designs to see what he liked or could live with… just in case he needed one in the future.

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THE END

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So… I finally managed to add the explanation to a few unclear points in the first chapter – at least I hope I did.

Over and out

Ebenbild