It was late evening by the time Harry and Draco apparated back to Golden Square.
"So how many of your new homes did we see?" Draco asked when they were both crashed out in the ground living room.
"Well, we went to Slytherin estate, the castle and manors of the full West Reaches estate, the Potter Mansion, Potter villas in Spain and Italy and the two mansions on the El Tureano estate in Florence and Milan." Harry counted them off on his fingers.
"So that just leaves the last villa from my father in Austria, the Island of Avalon and the island and colonies of Mith which are just off China."
Draco sank back down into the sofa.
"So enough for another fun-filled sightseeing day tomorrow."
Harry laughed.
"You know, you don't have to come with me, I could go and ask…well, someone else."
"I've got nothing better to do. Why did you pause, couldn't you ask Weasel or Granger, or Weaselette?"
"Hermione, would probably be fine with everything, Ginny, probably would as well but she still likes me and well, I don't quite like her type any more."
Draco raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
"Ron, well Ron won't take it very well. I'd be surprised if he didn't start calling me a Death Eater, especially now that I'm the Lord of Slytherin. No, won't be welcome around him anymore."
"As much as I don't like him, aren't you judging him a little too harshly?"
Harry laughed weakly.
"No. Come on, let's go back to Grimmauld place. It has better beds."
The next morning, there was a loud rap on the front door to no.12. Harry swung himself out of bed with a groan and looked at his watch.
"9 o'clock! Who wants to be up at 9 in the morning!" He quickly got dressed and started downstairs. He heard raised voices as soon as he stepped out of his room, 'Draco must have gone to answer the door.' He thought.
"How dare you presume to live in Sirius' house!" Harry heard Mrs Weasley yell.
"This house was left to Albus Dumbledore in Sirius' will and you would do well to respect that!"
Draco smirked and saying nothing he stepped aside for Harry. Harry looked out at the crowd of people would stood before him. Mrs Weasley stood with Ron and Hermione and the front of the group with Remus, Ginny and Mr Weasley standing behind looking slightly embarrassed at Mrs Weasleys actions. They all looked at Harry in shook before Mrs Weasley continued her tirade.
"Harry! What have you done to yourself! How could you let this person into Sirius' home?"
Harry looked down at her and said quietly,
"It would make more sense to continue this inside, to prevent you from making more of a scene than you have done already." Molly gasped at the insult and straightening she pushed past Harry into the house, the rest filed in after her. As Harry led them to the dining room where everyone could sit down to talk Molly looked at the painting of Serena Black on the wall and with a look of distaste and a flick of her wand the curtains were back in place covering it.
Once in the dining room, Harry and Draco made to sit down at the head of the table but once again Molly pushed past them and sat there herself. Draco made to say something but Harry quieted him with a stern look. Ron was the first to speak.
"Harry, what the hell is that Death Eater scum doing in here? How could you insult Sirius' memory by letting him inside!"
"How could I insult his memory? How about 'How could Dumbledore insult his memory by lying and not informing beneficiaries of the will to know what Sirius had wanted them to have?"
"What in Merlin's name are you talking about Harry? Don't talk about things you obviously don't understand." That was the last straw for Harry who stood up with his silver eyes blazing.
"How dare you talk to me as if I were a child!" he shouted at Mrs Weasley. "As if I were one of your own children? You are not responsible for me, you have no say over my actions and it is only by my courtesy that you are even inside this building. Sirius left this house to me in his will along with all of the Black family vaults." Remus made to correct him but Harry merely turned his gaze upon the werewolf and he sank back into his seat.
"So you knew, you knew the contents of the will and you still let him take my inheritance, you let him lie to me!"
"Harry, I only knew that Sirius had left me one of the family vaults. I had no idea about anything else; the solicitor only told me what directly concerned me and nothing else. I'm sorry Harry, if I had have known I would have told you." Harry's temper was momentarily abated but he turned back to face Ron.
"It is you, Ron who are talking about things you don't understand. You do not know Draco and you do not know who or what he is, so I would ask you to refrain from insulting my friends or I will ask you to leave." Ron looked at him shock but recovering he sneered at the two boys.
"He's got to you then, what is it, put you under the imperious or something? There's no way you'd treat us like this on your own."
Hermione glared at him.
"Ron! Just shut up. Why don't we just ask Harry what's going on? That might get you further."
Draco grinned and whispered inn Harry's ear,
"Wow, she actually has sense." Harry snorted and sat back down.
"Thank you Hermione. Well, two days ago on my seventeenth birthday I received two letters from Gringotts about my inheritance from my parents and Sirius' will and also about my inheritance from several of my ancestors. It turns out that I have come into possession of several homes,"
"Tad more than several." Draco muttered. Harry grinned at him.
"Yes, well, a few more than several. Also several vaults and estates around the world from Austria to Italy to Ireland, one of which happens to be this house. I have no idea why Dumbledore didn't inform me of my inheritance a year ago when Sirius died but he did. He has since been evicted along with the rest of the Order who were residing here. I assume that you were among the members of the Order who was asked to leave?"
"Yes we were, and you had no right!" Molly screeched with outrage. Harry looked at her coldly.
"On the contrary, I had every right. This is my house and only those who have my permission are allowed entry. For the moment, the only people that the house will let in without my say so every time are Draco and Professor Snape. Now, if you will excuse me, I have places to go. Incidentally, I have a title, you would do well to use it." The last comment was directed to them all before Draco opened the door for them to leave. He glanced into the hall and saw immediately the curtains over the portrait. A cold rage swept over him.
"Who put those curtains up?"
"I did, and a good thing too until it can be got rid of it permanently." Molly said with venom in her voice. Harry glared at her and striding over to it he tore the curtains down. Serena looked down at him.
"You have my thanks, my Prince." She said, inclining her head towards him, looking over at the Weasleys with disdain she asked,
"Is there a reason for the presence of these people in your house, my Lord?"
"No, they are leaving now, and if they don't want to be accused of trespassing then they will not return unless invited to by myself." He walked past them to the door, which swung open for him.
"Goodbye." Draco said helpfully and began to push them out of the door.
"Don't touch me you Death Eater!" Ron cried and Draco shoved him towards the exit. Harry quickly drew his wand and came to stand next to Draco.
"I will not tell you again Ron, don't insult my friends."
Ron looked at him helplessly.
"What happened to you Harry? Where's my friend?" Harry looked back at him coldly.
"He grew up Ron. You'd do well to do the same."
Ron seemed to give up. He threw one last glare at Draco and left the house. After they had all apparated away Harry sank to the floor. Draco knelt next to him in concern.
"I just didn't think I'd lose him as a friend that quickly. I thought there might have been a possibility that he'd stand by me."
"Harry, anyone who reacts like that without even waiting to here anything you have to say cannot be a true friend." Harry smiled weakly.
"I suppose, just hurts you know?"
"Yeah I know."
The weeks slowly went by and Harry tried to get used to his new position. Draco spent a large amount of what was left of the summer with Harry, as his father had officially disowned him from the Malfoy line. Not surprising seeing as Draco had refused the Dark Mark. For some odd reason this didn't go down well with Lucius, and so he had been thrown out of Malfoy Manor, cut off from his inheritance although he still had his trust fund that had been put aside for him when he was born. But all too soon for Harry and Draco the end of the summer rolled around and they both received their Hogwarts letters. About a week before September 1st Harry finally managed to drag Draco out of bed at a reasonable time to go to Diagon Alley.
As they walked from shop to shop Draco's muttering got more and more vocal.
"It's so early!" Harry sighed.
"No, it was early when we left the house. Now, it's almost half past eleven. That is not early, even by your standards Draco." Draco glared at him and continued muttering. Harry shook his despair and carried on shopping for the two of them.
After a while Harry suddenly thought of something.
"Draco, have you ever heard of anyone having two wands?"
Draco looked at him strangely.
"Why on earth do you ask?"
"Didn't I ever tell you about mine and Voldie's wands?"
"No. Am I meant to understand this?"
"Not really no. My wand has a phoenix feather as it's core but Voldemort's wand has a feather from the same bird. Which means that they react in a strange way to each other. So it would be really useful to have another wand. At least then I'm not disadvantaged when the final battle comes." Draco looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Well, I've never heard of it happening in recent years but it's probably worth going to see Olivander about it."
As soon as they stepped in Olivanders wand shop the man himself accosted them.
"Ah Mr Potter, to what do I owe this unexpected pleasure? You've not broken your wand I hope."
"No Sir, it's just that, well you know the circumstances surrounding mine and Voldemort's wands." The man visibly flinched at the Dark Lord's name.
"Yes, I am well aware of it."
"Well, it caused a problem when I came up against him and I was curious to know whether it would be possible to purchase a new wand?"
"Well, this is highly irregular for this day and age, but seeing the position you are in I'll do my best. Now most people do usually not need a second wand and even when it is needed, like now, it can be very difficult if not impossible to attain. You are well aware of the practise of gaining a wand in that it is the wand that chooses the wizard so to speak. You form a bond of sorts with your wand, which allows you to use it to channel your magic. Once you have bonded with a wand it is difficult to bond with another, you see the problem we have."
Harry nodded in agreement.
"There is also the point that many wands would not like to be owned by one who already has a wand. Strange as it sounds even for the Wizarding world it is so. Now, why don't you walk along the shelves and see what you can feel." As Harry wandered around Olivander explained to Draco.
"I sometimes have to do this with my most difficult customers,"
"That's Harry all right." Draco interrupted with a smirk.
"I heard that!" Harry yelled. He walked over to them carrying six boxes.
"I felt a pull of some sort when I went near these. But it was different with each one, and this one," he pulled a black box out of the pile, "I almost went past without noticing it."
Olivander looked at him in shock.
"This, this particular wand," he said slowly, whilst reverently taking it out of it's box, "was carved many years ago. It was carved by the very first master wand maker, who you may have possibly heard of." Ignoring their unspoken questions he carried on.
"It is a very powerful wand as it is made from the wood of the oldest known Oak tree and as you will know the Oak has the most magical properties of all the trees know to wizards and it also contains more than one core element. The maker decided to use two and it contains frozen unicorn blood encased with silver," at the boys shocked and horrified expressions he paused.
"Do not
worry Mr Potter, Mr Malfoy. The unicorn gave its blood willingly to
the maker as it was dying from a particularly vicious attack from a
dragon. The maker froze it and after encasing it in silver put it,
along with the second core which was a dragon heartstring. Rather
fittingly it came from the same dragon that had attacked the unicorn.
The purpose for the two cores was that maker of the wand wanted to
disguise its power. You can use whichever core you choose to for
spells performed with it, but the silver unicorn blood will enable
you to use the full strength of your magic. It is the wand that
chooses the wizard and often wizards are unable to access their full
magical strength due to character faults that the wand can almost
sense through the bond that you form with them. I have never had any
inkling from this wand and it has been in my families possession
since the maker died, but go ahead Mr Potter, you have always been
destined for great things."
Harry smiled thinly in remembrance
of his first meeting with the strange man and gently lifted the wand
out of its box. On first glance there was nothing special about it.
It was a polished dark brown colour and the handle was of the same
wood but bleached white. He held it and tried to feel the different
cores. Sure enough he could sense two slightly different feelings
coming from the wand. The dragon heartstring was the most prominent
and it was powerful enough in itself to be a single wand core. The
silver unicorn blood was harder to sense but when he eventually
pinned the feeling down he could tell it was a very powerful
substance. Opening his eyes he looked at Draco with a mischievous
look in his eyes.
"Wingardium leviosa!" Draco let out a cry as he was lifted up by Harry's new wand to bump against the ceiling of the shop.
"POTTER! PUT ME DOWN! NOW!"
Harry laughed at his friend and made Draco drift upside down. Olivander clapped as Harry made Draco float around the shop.
"Well, it looks as though you won't have any problems with it. Now, these other boxes, do you still want to look at them, or just buy that one?"
Harry picked each up in turn and without taking the wands out of the boxes attempted to sense anything. Of the five that were left he could no longer feel anything from three of them. The other two were so faint that he could barely feel it.
"I think I'll just stick with that one." He said, nodding to the first wand on the tabletop. "I don't think it wants me to have any more."
Olivander smiled at Harry's words.
"Well, that will be a total of twenty four galleons. Would you like a wand holster to carry it in?"
Harry looked up with a grin.
"What have you got?"
After a while the two boys finally decided what to buy. Harry had picked a regular holster in leather for his waist and a smaller dragon hide one for his arm that was charmed to hide itself to put his new wand in. Understandably, Harry didn't want knowledge of his new wand to get to Voldemort. Draco has chosen a simply holster like Harry's for his waist but in bleached white leather. After they had paid and left the shop Draco started his whining.
"Haven't you got anything better to do than to annoy me!" Harry snapped.
"Nope."