Chapter 1
In which Harriet decided that Wizards are non sensical, and her husband is an imbecile.
The elderly goblin waiting in the room raised a bushy eyebrow as the portkey deposited Harriet and her aunt in the office.
"Good afternoon, Master Goblin" Harriet greeted. " Griphook arranged for me to be brought here. This is my aunt, Aunt Petunia, who is my guardian, and will be present because I'm still a minor."
The Goblin's lips curled in a parody of a smile, showing his sharp teeth. "yes, Heiress Potter. My name is Gnarlfist and I'm the Account Manager of the Most Ancient and Noble Houses of Potter, Peverell, and Gryffindor Accounts, under the tenure of Lord Charlus Potter, your Grandfather. It's been twelve years since the death of Lord Charlus and Lady Dorea, and while your father succeeded him as the next Lord Potter, he went into hiding right after, so we've never had the chance to account for business, and as such, the main vaults has laid dormant. Lord James and Lady Lily only sent their Will through house elf service. The Will itself was sealed by Mr. Dumbledore through Wizengamot, but we at Gringotts was considered a sovereign country, and have our own laws, one of which, is that the last Heir or Heiress of a family may claim but not enter the main vaults of their family upon their first contact with Gringotts, in this case eleven years old, as it is the age of entering a school. We thought that you will be sufficiently able to think for yourself in management of your family's investment and portfolio. Or you can ask your guardian to do so for you, of course." he nodded to Aunt Petunia.
"oh no, Harriet is more financially aware than me or my husband. She did our family's accounting, the company my husband owned and his sister's kennel, even suggesting sound investment and budgeting solutions for us" Aunt Petunia gushed, "I'm just a house wife. I wouldn't know where to start."
The Goblin smiled terrifyingly as he rubbed his hands in glee. "indeed? Marvelous. It will be much easier to go through the next part then."
Harriet looked at Aunt Petunia, then at her account manager, then sighed. At the end of the hour, she had compiled a neat portofolio with the addition of some investment and release of others. The Goblin is very happy with his profit and kept puffing his chest in glee.
"now, would you like to continue? I need to call the Interim Account Manager for the House of Gaunt Account for this, or we can break for an early lunch first."
Harriet looked at her aunt. "what do you think? I'm okay with a late lunch if you are"
Aunt Petunia nodded. "we can have that fish and chips that you liked later."
So Harriet turned to the Goblin and said "Let's get this over with."
Gnarlfist tapped the parchment in front of him and waited as he served refreshments. Another elderly goblin arrived later with a long stream of boxes trailing after him.
"Greetings, Lady Slytherin. I am Longclaw, the Interim Account manager for The House of Gaunt and The Most Ancient and Noble House of Slytherin Account. The last Account Manager, Ironclaw, passed away in 1700s, but The House of Gaunt had never appointed a new account manager, nor come to manage their accounts. Ironclaw was my ancestor, so I was appointed the Interim Account Manager until you formalized the position." Harriet bowed.
"so, after you accessed the trust vault for the first time yesterday, Gnarlfist alerted the Director that a betrothal contract that have been active since 1981 had changed your status to Lady Slytherin upon your marriage by magic, hence my appointment. It was…well, to put it bluntly, Lord Slytherin, Thomas Marvolo Riddle Jr or also known as Lord Voldemort, violated the Betrothal Contract point eleven as drawn between Lord Marvolo Gaunt and Lord Harold Potter in 1926."
"1926?!" Harriet interrupted and looked a bit faint.
"well, Mr. Riddle was born in December 1926."
"I'm married to a man 54 years older than me?!"
the goblin loked at her in sympathy and coughed. " it is pursuant to a Line Protection Agreement between Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin, that when the Houses were both down to a person each, they will be married to revive the vine, so to speak"
"Revive the…isn't he like 65, right now? And how would it work with him being dead? I have to produce heirs for his family line too, now?"
Longclaw grimaced. "well, he's not dead, for one, or the family line would be listed as extinct. I don't know where he is, but as he attacked you with the intent to kill, the bond protected you and shifted so that he couldn't approach you with the intent to harm or to kill."
"ookay…so what does that mean?"
"shortly, you're in charge of his vaults, that he had never visited, so that it had fallen into backlogs and unprofitable condition, what with the previous Lord Gaunt's mismanagement and the debt Lord Slytherin incurred during the first war. There is also the Slytherin Vault's financial that was still active until now, but haven't been managed since Lord Morpheus Gaunt, the Great-Great-Great Great-Great –Great-Great grandfather of Mr. Riddle last stepped into the bank. Also, since the bond shifted to a marriage bond, you are required to consummate your marriage at the latest on the day of your coming-of-age day, that is on your seventeenth birthday, and conceive the first heir in the first twelve months after consummation"
"hang on a second. Backlogs I can deal with, but debts? Does he expect me to pay for his debts through my vaults?" Harriet deliberately tune out the last part as this Voldemort fellow sounds worse and worse in her opinion.
"Not quite. Since Lord Slytherin has never visited us before, he didn't know about his vaults here. Since his graduation from Hogwarts, he lived without contact with Gringotts and has since incurred debts upon debts by verbal Magical Agreement. Had he visited, the debts could be easily sorted out by the Slytherin vaults, provided that he is willing to sort around 200 years of backlogs."
"and you expected me to sort it?! No, absolutely not! He's an adult, he can do it himself!" Harriet said, slightly hysterical. "doesn't he have a…secretary or something? You said he was called Lord Voldemort, so retainer…staffs?"
Longclaw shared a look with Gnarlfist. "well, there's nothing more solid than a verbal Magical Agreement, I suppose, but the Death Eaters can be considered his vassals, or retainer, as you say."
"and is there someone that can be trusted to handle this? I don't really think I should be responsible of the vaults of someone who tried to kill me but ended up married to. I could spend the whole vault doing, I don't know, bought wardrobes and supercars from all over the world? Or gamble it all in one sitting? Or…ohh, I know, why don't we invest the money to build a Magical Zoo and Seaworld, then have these retainers to work there…seemed like a good investment."
The two goblins sighed. They were reminded that despite her shocking maturity, Harriet Potter was still an eleven years old witch.
"there's Lord Lucius Malfoy of Wiltshire, who was married to your cousin Narcissa Black, he was the Dark Lord's…right hand man, I should say, and he wriggled out of Azkaban by claiming imperius." Longclaw hummed as he read through some parchment. "Should we summon him?"
the young heiress gave him a sharp look and sat down primly. Gnarlfist coughed and handed her a letter. "it's from Lord Harold Potter, to whomever unfortunate enough to be caught in this contract" it said that, even in the envelope, Harriet thought dryly.
"well, I suppose I can read this while we wait. Stress the importance, as I'll be departing to Hogwarts tomorrow." She opened the envelope as the goblins went away for either a privacy or protection from the irate witch. Aunt Petunia calmly poured them more tea to tide them over until they finished with the meeting.
"Dear Grand Daughter," she read aloud
"I supposed that I should begin with how sorry I am that you should be the chosen one to deal with those inept Gaunts. Their history of inbreeding had left them just slightly coherent enough to get by, but unfortunately not for estate management. I sincerely hoped that my descendant didn't fall to the same trap, or I'd just kill myself now and let the line extinct. But I digress, I assume that you'd be some descendant of Charlus, who was just born yesterday. Am I ever so glad that he was born a boy, and therefore unable to carry the contract's tenets. I do believe that I will stop at him and not risk a daughter. I'm sorry dear, but you didn't know Marvolo Gaunt as I am, so you'll just have to understand my reluctance of being related to him while I'm still alive.
Anyways, the Line Protection Agreements was carried between Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor, after an attack killed his wife and sons, leaving only two daughters. The first married into the Pendragon family and became the Queen to protect her family, while the younger married into Peverell family. Now I'm sure that you already knew that we had Peverell blood ourselves, but worry not, it's some seven, eight hundred years before me, and the line of Cadmus Peverell, where the Gaunts descended from, have a habit of intermarrying cousins, and then siblings, which was why no one had the ability to straightened up their vaults and left it into mismanagement. The gold was there alright, as the second daughter was the sole inheritor of Salazar Slytherin, but it doesn't gather profit or investment, just collecting dust and interest.
Of course it would be that way if you left it to a girl only twelve years old and married her off without teaching her anything. Yes, they married young and generations later, it was all squibs and wizards and witches with little to no magic to write home about. One might argue that if the girls were allowed to grew their magic a bit before being forced to bear a child. Oh well, it was something that happened since thousands of years ago. I do hope that this Tom Marvolo Jr will be decent enough to wait until you finished Hogwarts, at least.
Now, I was really surprised that his mother managed to break out from the tradition of marrying siblings, but I did some diggings, and found that Mala, Marvolo's wife and sister, actually cheated on him with some muggle. So you could say that Mala managed to save the line by introducing new gene to the Gaunt's blood. I knew that you're apprehensive, my dear, but rest assured that if this Tom is magical, he had a pent up power from about ten generations. So he's a strong wizard and will bear you strong children. It was also fortunate that both Mala's lover and Tom's father were handsome fellows, or you could have ended up with some unfortunate looking husband.
Now, onto the vaults, unfortunately, you may have to be the one to straightened it up because I really don't think Marvolo would live long enough to teach Tom, and Morfin is just not going to be able to think for himself. Estate management is very important, you know, and if you find yourself unable to, just don't squander it for frivolous things. Your husband might, considering his inept ancestors, but you must not. You need to think beyond you. You need to leave a legacy to your descendants that did not consist of dust, bigotry, and shortsighted inbreeding.
Hope this finds you well,
Your Grandfather Harold"
Harriet looked at her Aunt helplessly. "it's not enough that I married some…distinguished gentleman, he's inept and inbred too?"
Aunt Petunia patted her shoulder sympathetically. "well, you just have to make the most of it."
Harriet nodded in determination.
So, Constructive Criticism always appreciated.