Gringots
.
Lily followed closely behind me as we moved along Magnolia road. I talked to her in a low voice so only she could understand me.
"We are in the country called the United Kingdom, in the British Isles. The town we are in is called Little Whinging. We are going to the capital, London. There is an important magical district hidden there. To go there, we are going to call a large magical vehicle called the knight bus. Its appearance is loud and startling, and I'm warning you, travelling in it is uncomfortable. Right now I'm looking for a good place to summon it. While the bus is hidden by magic, I'd rather reduce the chances of being noticed."
Lily nodded, looking left and right at the passing vehicles and the surroundings. Soon enough, I found a good spot in a adjacent street to call it. Mrs Figg was in charge of keeping an eye on me for Dumbledore. I wanted to make sure she wasn't following me, and didn't see me call the knight bus. I held Lily by the hand, took my wand out of the inventory with the other, and summoned the bus. It appeared in a flashy bang, and I felt Lily I looked at her, I saw the "what the heck is that puprple monstruosity" look slipping past her stoic facade, and smothered grin.
I paid the 11 sickles for the trip to the Leaky Cauldron, and took a seat at the back in a corner with Lily. Even thought I had planned to take the knight bus with Lily, I didn't prepare anything to make the trip more comfortable, like pillows and portable seatbelts. I braced myself and held Lily by the hip
"Yikes!"
... And we were gone. Lily couldn't help but yelp at the sudden acceleration, and latched onto me by reflex. Her eyes were wide open, she held me tightly until we reached our destination. The trip lasted less than 10 minutes, but that was too much for her. Her ears, tail and wings, were out. I almost panicked right there, freezing for a second. I hastly warped my arms around her, gathering her wings at the same time to hide them between her body and the backrest of the seat.
"Lily" I harshly whispered in her ears. "Your wings are out! So are your ears and tail! Hide them!" I adressed Stan as he turned toward us. "Sorry, she needs a moment to recover, first time with magical travel."
"Ah! I know what you mean" he responded while nodding like a sage. "We all get used to it later."
Lily shivered when she heard that, but still hid back her succubus features.
"I'm sorry about that" she whispered.
This time, the emotion was audible in her voice. She was disappointed and ashamed, and I felt bad for her. So I pated her head with one hand while holding her by the shoulder with my other arm.
"It's ok. As I said, everyone is surprised the first time."
Once the bus was gone, I looked around, then took out my invisibility cloak and hid the both of us under it. Back when I was at Hogwart, I obviously took the time to inspect that cloak. It was supposed to be one of the Deathly Hallows after all. Dumbledore was seemingly able to see or detect Harry when he was under the invisibility cloak, and since I didn't trust him, I suspected that he had placed some kind of tracking charm on it. Surprisingly, there was nothing. After checking it more thoroughly, I could only deduct that it was made using something with a strong link to death.
In Kamidori, there were several 'elemental' affinities: physical, fire, water, earth, wind, light, dark and omni. You would think that something with such a strong link to death would be dark. It wasn't, and wasn't that shocking for me. Its affinity was omni, or neutral in other terms. Somehow, I felt that it was right, that death should be neutral. I was very curious about what kind of material was used to make it. The cloack was magic resistant, it hid from sight, and its magical signature blended with the background. However the last one wasn't perfect. A powerful enough detection device or spell could reveal it, or something with a strong enough affinity for death.
From what I could infer, upgrading it would be impossible without taking it appart first. No additional enchantments would take hold on it. I would have loved to add some sound and smell concealing charms, and another to make its surface temperature blend with the surrounding just like its magical aura. Making it blend with the magic of detection spells would take the cake. However, I know that giving something too many functions makes it less efficient in each of its functions. Or that there is only so many things you can put together before the whole collapse.
Anyway, the reason why we were hidding was that I didn't want anyone to know that I visited the alley a mere day after returning from school. I also wanted to explain a few more things to Lily before entering the magical world.
"Are you feeling better now?" I whispered.
"Yes" she replied in the same tone.
"Good. We are going to enter the magical world. Know that the only intelligent race in the non-magical world is humans (Not entirely true, I know, but I didn't want to go into details). Magicals call non-magical humans, muggles. Sometimes, a muggle couple will give birth to a witch or wizard. These children are called muggleborns. Witches and wizards who have both magical parents and grandparents are called purebloods. Those with only 1 pureblood parent or 2 muggleborn parents are called half-bloods. Those with 1 non-human parent or grandparent are negatively called half-breed. So, there are racist problems about blood purity and non-humans. You follow so far?"
"Yes."
Thus, I gave her a 15 minutes summary about the war with Voldemort, his defeat, my life with the Dursleys, my return to the magical world, Hogwart, and the main events of the past 2 years. Her stoic facade crumbled several times during my tale, letting her feeling show. Shock and disbelief, sympathy for my hardships, anger at those who wronged me, appreciation for my achievments. And a deadpan stare for my stupid moments.
"... So, with everything that has happened, I decided that I just can't rely on the adults. It's my life, I decided to do things my own way. I'm not going to let those who want to either control me or harm me have their way. I have to build my power until it reaches the point where they can't do anything to me without seriously harming themselves" I firmly declared, but a small part of me couldn't help but think I would have looked more impressive if I wasn't a 13yo midget.
"Whoa, master. You have certainly gotten ambitious. I guess I cannot let you do something like that on your own" she said while looking away from.
'Ooh! A little tsun reaction. Since she is a 'clone unit', I guess it's normal she got traits from the original.' "Thank you. You're a good girl."
Aaand I saw her cheeks darken. I was going to have a lot of fun with her. With that done, I gave her instructions on how to enter Diagon Alley, and let her out from under the cloak. I followed her closely, with my hand touching her. We passed through the pub without problems, there wasn't a lot of customers at his time. Lily still attracted a lot of attention because of her dress. I showed too much for the traditional magicals. Once in the alley, I directed her toward a second hand shop where the Weasleys got some of their shopping done. I had her buy 2 travel cloaks with hoods. And a robe to cover her current dress. I was an idiot for not thinking about that before coming. She put on the newly bought clothes before leaving.
Once outside, I directed her toward Fortescue store, and left her for to go in a secluded corner where I stored the hallow and I put my own cloak on. I caugh up to her soon enough and we went to Gringots. I had warned her about the goblins being gruffs and unfriendly in general. When we entered the bank, I saw a few goblins guards looking at her longer than other people. I didn't know how perceptive goblins were in general, but it was clear that some of them were better than the others. Or their wards, or some other magical items, warned them. We waited in line, and our turn came quickly enough.
"I want to meet my account manager" I said while presenting my key.
"Wait for a moment" the goblin replied while inspecting the key, then did something on his desk. "Slipknot will see you" he said a moment later. "Follow Darmok" he finished while gesturing toward a younger goblin nearby.
I almost snorted when I heard the name of my account manager. I managed to contain my reaction to a twitch of my lips. We followed the young goblin to an office door. After knocking and waiting for an answer, he opened the door and left without a word. We got in and sat down in front of the desk, facing the goblin. I removed my hood, and Lily followed my move.
"Greetings master Slipknot."
"Mr Potter" he replied with a small nod. "I didn't expect to see you anytime soon. What is the reason of your visit?"
"There are several things I require. First, I want to know the content of my vault, and if my family had any other vaults I wasn't told about, or if I had inherited any other vaults." If the Potter family really was wealthy and old, they should have had many valuable items accumulated throught the centuries. I didn't believe they would all be lost one way or another. "Second, I want to know if my parents left a copy of their will with Gringots. Third, I want to know if my family owned any businesses, or any other properties or lands aside from the house in Godric's Hollow. And fourth, we will talk about a possible profitable business."
It turned out that all the remaining money of my family was gathered in my vault. 61 213 galleons to be exact. With an exchange rate of 7.5 pounds per galleons, that meant 459 097 pounds. All other businesses were lost or sold during the war. The various valuable items belonging to my family had been gathered in another, smaller vault that I could only access once I became of age. They had a copy of my parents will, but since it was sealed they couldn't show it to me until I became an adult, or it got unsealed. Gringots may be sovereign soil, but their treaty with the british ministry of magic meant that the later had a say in certain matters. I hoped being forced into the Tri-wizard Tournament would really grant me emancipation.
I took advantage of the time when Slipknot told me about my family businesses to ask if the british wizards had a peerage system of some sort, and if the Potter family was part of it. There wasn't a legal peerage system, but it was possible for a family to earn a honorary social title if they accumulated enough wealth, power and prestige over time. These honorary titles were: Noble, Elder and Noble, Ancient and Noble. Legaly, they didn't have any privileges or duties compared to ordinary citizens, but they were influencials. Not much different from mundane society with rich families, except magical families tended to have longer histories.
The house of Potter was Ancient and Noble. I didn't know before because people didn't mention these things in everyday talks. Back to my assets, I got money from patents submitted under the Potter family by my ancestors, and from a magical farm selling potions ingredients. The land where Potter manor used to stand still belongs to me. The manor was destroyed during the war, between James Potter fifth and sixth year at Hogwart. The Potter cottage at Godric's Hollow was a secondary house of the Potter Family, and while it still belonged to me, it was left in a state of disrepair since that night. That annoyed me, but I could deal with it later.
There weren't any active or inactive contracts made on my behalf by my family, or someone else since their death, aside from the one with Hogwart for my attendance. No surprise marriage contracts, which I alwyas thought were stupid when they were magically binding and unbreakable in fanfictions. But also no contracts about the use of my name and image in the Harry Potter children books. Wether or not I would be able to take legal actions against them can be determined later.
"Now that the questions about your assets have been answered, I'd like to hear about your 'profitable' business proposition" Slipknot said, visibly more attentive, his goblin greed showing. Greedy buggers.
