CHAPTER 10: Safest Treasure
AN:
Chapter title from the quote "No thief, however skillful, can rob one of knowledge, and that is why knowledge is the best and safest treasure to acquire" by L. Frank Baum, The Lost Princess of Oz
"I feel like Dorothy," exclaimed Isaiah as they stepped into the brick entrance behind the Leaky Cauldron. "Please tell me you guys don't have flying monkeys." He looked at Severus from the corner of his eye.
"No, no flying monkeys. We do have hippogriffs, thestrals, dragons, and they all fly."
"I really need to read the rest of your books," replied Isaiah as they walked down the street. His eyes were roaming from building to building. He saw shops selling robes, telescopes and other strange silver instruments. Windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon. "It feels like stepping into the dark ages."
"We are very old fashioned in comparison to the muggle world. Magic can do so much that few feel that changes are needed."
"That makes sense but it's also stupid. What happens when the rest of the world develops technology that can see past whatever enchantments hide all this?" he waived his hand around. "You're screwed. Evolve or die. That's life."
"You're so morbid."
"I don't have a good reason not to be."
Severus nodded and didn't say anything else as they walked to the bank.
Gringott was a tall imposing multi-storied marble building partway down the alley. They walked up the white steps that lead to a set of burnished bronze doors. Goblin guards in scarlet and gold flanked the entrance. They stepped in and were led into a small hall with another set of doors but these were silver. Engraved on said doors was a warning in the form of a poem. Isaiah paused to read it then turned to Severus.
"Not that my Verse wou'd blemish all the Fair; But yet, if some be Bad, 'tis Wisdom to beware; And better shun the Bait, than struggle in the Snare. Thus have you shunn'd, and shun the married State, Trusting as little as you can to Fate. I love poems full of warnings. Are there others?"
"Not that I am aware of. What was that?"
"John Driden, To My Honor'd Kinsman"
"Quite apt."
"I'm a bleeding intellectual, I am."
"And then you say things like that."
They laughed and then waited in silence until they were called. Once they told the teller what was needed, they paid, got a receipt and were pointed towards a door on the other side of the grand floor. There they waited some more but this time, no one else was around. They waited in anticipatory and tense silence. Finally, after fifteen minutes, several short corridors, and another snappy goblin, a needle and a tiny vial was all that stood between Isaiah and his true identity. Severus had taken several steps back to give him privacy.
Isaiah took a deep breath, pricked his finger and placed three drops of blood into the small bottle. He corked it and shook it until the potion color changed from a watery blue to an emerald green that matched his eyes. He looked back at Severus who nodded. He turned back to the table and tipped the content of the vial unto the blank parchment that was pushed forward by the attending goblin. The paper quickly absorbed the liquid like a sponge. The parchment turned black and a beautiful white calligraphy script began to appear.
Isaiah's eyes hungrily took in the words. His voice did not match the tears running down his face as he addressed the goblin. "Sir, would you please tell me how I can get access to the accounts noted on this?" He turned the parchment towards the goblin but never let it go, his grip almost wrinkling it.
The Goblin read the name and vault numbers on the parchment and his eyes widened. His head snapped up to look at the young man in front of him. He stared for a bit too long to be polite even for goblins before he regained his composure. "Yes, Mr Potter. I'll send a message to your family's account manager. Please wait for him in the corridor."
"Potter?!"
Isaiah turned back towards Severus but his eyes were on the sheet. "This says I was born Harry James Potter on July 31st 1980 to James and Lily Potter nee Evans. It says that they died on Halloween 1981. I can't believe I'm actually seventeen. At least I know my name now." He looked up from the paper to see Severus' shocked face.
"Harry Potter?" his voice was strangled.
"Yes?" He was getting worried now. "Do you know the name? Did you know my parents?"
"I need a drink," he replied before fainting.
Isaiah took another shot of whiskey. "I think wizards are morons."
"Well, you're not wrong," replied Severus.
They were sharing a bottle of Bell's and getting thoroughly pissed. It had been a really long afternoon at the bank. After which required an impromptu stop at the neared off-license.
"I mean, they didn't even check to see if that was really me. We weren't even the same age. I guess it makes sense that an addict's baby would be smaller, but still. And how the fuck did anyone figure that a baby killed a big bad Dark Lord and then died from the exertion. What kind of nonsense is that? I mean, I'm not sure if my namesake was magical but he wasn't even there for the big kaboom, you know! Didn't they check him?"
"Albus and his goddamn prophecy!" Severus shouted as he slammed his glass down on the table.
"The what now?"
And so Severus did a bang up job explaining in slurred words all about Trelawny's fated words. His role in telling the Dark Lord. How Albus declared to the world what happened in Godric's Hollow. How the three Potters were legendary heroes. Harry Potter, the Boy Who Saved Us All. The Boy Who Vanquished the Dark Lord.
"Fucking hell. I'm dead in both worlds."
"I went to your funeral."
"Now look who's being morbid."
"Lily was my first friend."
"This just keeps getting better and better."
Isaiah was nursing a steaming cup of black coffee when Severus entered the kitchen the next morning.
"How are you not hugging a toilet bowl?"
"Potions."
"Of course. I guess there is one for everything."
"I can't believe you let me drink an entire bottle of whiskey."
"Not all of it. I had a couple shots. You got all maudlin and loose lipped. I learned a lot from you."
"I'm sorry about that."
"Why? It probably would have taken ages for me to get any of that out of you. So now I know you loved my mother, hated my father, were a Death Eater turned spy because some Oracle of Delphi shit went down about me and the bloke you worshiped. I'm not upset with you. We all have a past."
"That's quite a summary."
"Hey! Is that why you never take your shirt off unless we're in the dark. Show me your arm!"
"You never brought up my quirk before."
"I've been exposed to a lot of peculiar sexual preferences. Keeping your shirt on does not even make the top ten. At least you don't take your socks off last, that's a turn off."
Severus sighed deeply but rolled up his sleeve and showed him the Dark Mark. "Happy?" he snapped.
"Why is it so faded?" he grabbed his arm to look at it closer. "The books I skimmed through last night after you passed out say it was a black snake, not a grey outline."
"It was black when He was alive. It was the first sign that something happened when I woke up on November 1st to this."
"So he's dead? Really dead, not like some nefarious spirit wandering the world plotting revenge."
"Yes, there is no magic left in the mark. The outline is there as proof that we were all his, but it's basically a muggle tattoo now. Why do you ask?"
"I mean, I'm not dead and everyone thinks so. What's to say he's not also alive somewhere."
"His body was found. The Unspeakables confirmed his identity. They destroyed it. Better than bury it and provide a pilgrimage site to his loyal followers. His corpse could have been used for a lot of dark rituals so it was a good decision all round."
"But they didn't confirm the identity of the baby they found. I'm offended. I guess I get that, better to make sure your enemy is dead than your ally."
"What will you do now?" Severus grabbed some coffee and sat at the table.
"What do you mean?"
"You have a fortune in the bank. You can go to the Ministry and reclaim your identity."
"The money will help with school. But I have access to it without dealing with the Ministry. I can stop doing shit under the table. I don't know about becoming Harry Potter officially or publicly."
"Why not?"
"Everyone would lose their fucking minds. I don't need all that attention or pressure. Especially not with the life I've had. A whore does not make a great hero."
"I thought you didn't want to be Isaiah anymore."
"That was when I didn't have anything. Now, I think that I can be Isaiah. Let Harry Potter rest in peace with his family. I can honor both the Potters and the real Isaiah by living my own life, free, and hopefully happy and healthy."
"You have a godfather."
"Really?!"
"Sirius Black. I hate him too. He teaches at Hogwarts as well. He's basically your only magical family."
"I have a non-magical family?"
"Lily had an older sister. Horrible and jealous as a girl, I doubt she grew out of that."
"I don't know, Sev. It's not like I can go and make Harry Potter disappear again if I don't like how the world treats him after crawling out of a grave. What if they think I'm the second coming of Christ or some crap? Resurrected savior. Ugh."
"Sirius can tell you about your parents."
"You can tell me about my parents."
"I hated your father."
"So? Tell me about him and this godfather I seem to have."