Harry Potter and the Dark Heir
By Lady Paradox
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and affiliates do not belong to me nor do I claim credit for them or claim any financial gain from this fan fiction.
AN: this chapter is dedicated to Voldy's pink teddy for being my first reviewer. Thank you so much for your support. Hopefully I'll get more reviews this time so I can gauge how I'm doing.
Chapter Two:
Knowing he needed money to do anything, Harry decisively climbed the white steps and opened the burnished bronze doors, entering the brightly lit marble entrance hall of Gringotts Wizarding Bank. Surveying the hall, he quickly selected a goblin teller and stepped up to the counter. The hundreds of other goblins looked on in disinterest as Harry was one of the few wizards in the bank.
"I'd like to access my vault." Harry said, wondering if his vault even existed in this place.
"Key please," the goblin said, eyeing Harry up and looking suspicious.
"The thing is, I seem to have misplaced my key," Harry said sheepishly.
"Follow me," said the goblin, leaving the counter and walking toward a door to the right of Harry.
Upon opening the door, Harry spied a small office. Inside the office were several file cabinets, a polished wooden desk and two chairs. After being ushered inside, the goblin gestured abruptly at Harry to take a seat, before going to a file cabinet and withdrawing something from its drawers. A moment later, the goblin was seated in the seat opposite of Harry, and giving Harry another gesture, this time, to stick his hand out. Apprehensive, Harry slowly put his hand palm up on the table and slid it toward the goblin.
The goblin took Harry's hand in one of his own small and tan hands and as he did, Harry caught a glint of metal in the goblin's other hand. Moving quickly, the goblin's second hand covered Harry's, dropping something into his palm. Before Harry could look what the foreign object was, the goblin muttered something under his breath and the object in Harry's hand grew nearly uncomfortably warm. Releasing Harry's hands as soon as the magic was completed, the goblin got up from the chair and opened the door, almost mockingly bowing for Harry to leave first.
"Wait… that's it?" said Harry incredulously as he saw that the object in his hand was the newly produced key to his vault.
"What?" the goblin said, "expecting me to spill a little of your blood?"
"Well, yes actually," Harry said, amazed at the efficiency of the task.
"If only." The goblin said, showing the first hint of amusement Harry had seen on his face the entire time. "Follow me Mr. Potter."
Surprised that the goblin was able to discern his identity, Harry barely noticed as he was led into a cart and started careening off into the dark caverns of the bank. After an always entertaining by fairly short ride, Harry found himself in front of his vault. Handing the key over to the goblin, he opened the vault, and Harry looked inside to see that it looked exactly the contents of the vault looked exactly the same as it did in first year. Moving towards the small fortune, Harry scooped some galleons and sickles into a bag that he found near the pile. When he was finished, he left the vault and headed towards the goblin who was patiently waiting by the cart. Turning around, he saw the door of the vault close as he climbed back into the cart.
"Will that be all Mr. Potter?" the goblin said.
"Umm… actually, I was wondering if there was some type of currency exchange between galleons and muggle pounds."
The goblin looked at him quizzically, "I've always wondered why you wizards never just transfigure the correct money."
"It's a bit dishonest I guess," said Harry a bit sheepishly, "muggle folks are trying to make a living and it'd be wrong to trick them. Also, muggle money is really complex sometimes."
"Right you are Mr. Potter," said the goblin appraisingly, "the exchange counter is in the entrance hall."
After a quick trip back up to the surface, the goblin led Harry to the counter, before turning to leave.
"Thank you, err..." Harry said, realizing that he'd rudely never asked the goblin's name.
"Ragnar," the goblin supplied, "Remember to be careful Mr. Potter, not all is as it seems in the world." He said cryptically before completely turning away and walking back to his desk.
Harry stared at the small figure for a few seconds before mentally shaking his head to clear his thoughts. That goblin was strangely friendly.
Ragnar looked up from his accounting work as a couple of ministry guards entered the building and proceeded to scan the entire hall, securing the building before gesturing to the outside that it was safe. He guessed that it was time for the Minister's weekly visit to his personal vault.
After a few moments, the Minister entered, flanked by his guards and the undercover guards who were already in the bank, thinking that they were being discreet. As soon as he entered, he was greeted by the manger of the bank, who took him into his office to discuss with his account manager and talk about any recent activity in the bank.
After nearly ten minutes, Ragnar saw the door of the office open and the manager step out. Looking around the bank, his eyes met with Ragnar's and he gestured for Ragnar to come forward.
Speaking in Gobbledegook, the manager filled Ragnar in on the events so that he would be unsurprised by the situation. Smirking slightly, Ragnar looked forward to the conversation that would follow. So the Minister had noticed the activity in the paperwork.
Entering the room, the manager closed the door behind them. Ragnar stepped forward and found himself face to face with the Minister. All too soon, he was giving his account of the events of the day, starting with the creation of a key for the Potter trust fund and ending with showing the customer to the exchange counter.
"How is it possible for an intruder to break into the vault?" said the minister, intensely staring at Ragnar, accusing him with his eyes.
"You know as well as I that only blood will produce the key," said Ragnar, staring back into the eyes of the Minister.
"That's impossible! There are no more Potters," said the Minister furiously.
Taking note of the darkening of hazel eyes in anger, Ragnar replied, "Blood never lies."
Angry, the minister stood to confront Ragnar and made to move toward him, but before he could, the manager of the bank stepped in front of him.
"Excuse me Minister, but do not make it necessary for me to escort you out of the bank. A goblin's loyalty is only to other goblins. Ragnar is not lying."
With that said, the Minister forced himself to sit back down, quietly reigning in his anger. After bit more discussion on the subject and Ragnar's rather vague description of the one who had accessed the vaults, he listened as the Minister ordered his men to put out an arrest warrant for the one described.
Finishing his quick and pointed orders, Ragnar watched the irate Minister of Magic, James Potter, be led out of the room and into a cart so that he could visit his personal vault and his son's trust fund.
Chuckling darkly to himself, Ragnar only thought of the boy with the green eyes.
As a couple of days past, Harry found himself renting a small room in muggle London. Finding the motel in a seedy part of town and handing the owner a bit of money, Harry was able to rent without showing his identification. Strewn about the tiny room's floor and bed were papers and books about dimension travel and its rumored travelers. The reason for Harry's concentrated research was that two days ago, Harry had taken the Underground to 4 Privet Drive.
In his newly purchased clean clothes, the Dursleys had been completely polite when he had knocked on the door. From their fake smiles, Harry knew at once that they did not recognize him and so he was left without an excuse for having knocked on the door. Looking around and thinking quickly, Harry pretended to be a young avid gardener who absolutely admired the Dursleys' clean cut and normal garden, especially the flowers. He proceeded to ask the Dursleys' if he could come back another time and take photographs. Hearing the praise, Petunia Dursley had immediately taken to Harry and invited him in for tea. Not seeing a chance to refuse, Harry mentally grimaced as he was led into the sitting room. After an awkward half hour or so, Harry had made his excuses and all but ran from the house.
After dealing with the Dursleys, Harry felt emotionally exhausted and only wanted to get back to his room quickly for a much needed sleep. Not thinking too deeply, Harry called the Knight Bus when he was a sufficient distance from Privet Drive. Upon boarding the bus, he was greeted by the sight of Stan Shunpike. He once again supplied the name Neville Longbottom and when the man also failed to recognize him, Harry knew that he was either in an alternate dimension or the entire population had been confunded or obliviated to his existence.
Harry had actually first been introduced to the concept of alternate dimension through muggle television, but at the time he had dismissed the thought as impossible. Later, on a lazy day by the lake with Hermione and Ron, he had jokingly brought it up once again, only to be taught the extensive research the wizarding world had put into finding alternate dimensions. When asked where she had obtained this knowledge, Hermione had only replied that it came from the book she had picked up for some "light reading."
Thus, Harry could not get the idea that he might be in an alternate dimension out of his head. Through his research, Harry was trying to see if there was any precedent in dimension travel or if an account of another traveler existed. Also, Harry knew he would have to find Sirius in this world and then figure out a way to get back home.
Taking a short break from the impossibly small text of another book, Harry pulled the DA's fake galleon out of his pocket, stroking it wistfully wishing Hermione and Ron were there to help him.
Looking around, Harry wondered if he should have risked going back into the wizarding world to obtain the books. On his first trip back into the world, he had noticed sketches and a description of a young man matching himself on wanted posters. Thinking that this had something to do with his escape from the ministry, Harry took great care to disguise himself when he entered the wizarding world. His quest for knowledge had led him to the ministry archives, the wizarding world's version of the public library. They had scanned his wand into a database in place of a library card. Even knowing that this could be used to trace him, Harry decided that the gains outweighed the risks.
After taking a sip from the glass of water by his side, Harry decided that his break was over, and picked up another book, setting aside the impossible one for another time. He glanced at the title, Opposing Powers. He had picked this one up on a whim, as it would not supply him with the information that he needed, yet the book had been a bestseller, supposedly explaining Voldemort's rise to power. Consciously, Harry knew that if he was indeed in another world, this world's Voldemort had nothing to do with him, but he assured himself that he was only trying to draw parallels between this world and his own to discern his world's Voldemort's future actions.
Cracking open the book, Harry started to read the prologue.
The past 30 years have been one of the darkest periods of time in wizarding history because of the appearance and rise of the Dark Lord Voldemort. Many of us remember a similar time decades ago, when Grindelwald rose in his quest for power. Grindelwald's appearance made the dark side too powerful. To right the scale, the light side saw the birth of a new hero, Albus Dumbledore. Similarly to that time, though Voldemort's reign of terror has lasted decades, the light has finally received its long awaited for hero, our own Minister of Magic, James Potter.
As he finished the short paragraph, the only sound in the room was the sound of the book hitting the floor as it slipped out of a stunned Harry's hands.
The stressed Minister of Magic stood up quickly from his seat and punched the ever growing hole in the wall of his office as he was met by another dead end in the current case.
The past few weeks, it had looked as though the war was looking up, for Death Eater activity had fallen and there had been a surge of applicants to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. He had also gotten a few more laws against dark activity and on lawful surveillance passed by the Wizengamot.
All good news was shattered when he had entered the bank and found that someone had broken into his son's trust fund. James stared at his bloody knuckles, promising himself the perpetrator would be thoroughly punished for his actions. A sound from the communicator on the desk surprised him out of his thoughts, and an Episkey later, he was answering the call.
"I told you not to disturb me." James said, knowing the only one who had a connection to the communicator was his Senior Undersecretary.
"I'm sorry Minister, but there is young man out here who says he has information on the ministry break in a few days ago. He told the front desk that he would only talk to you."
James weighed the situation in his mind. The last ministry break in had been puzzling to all the parties involved. There had been a large scale attack at the atrium after a couple Death Eaters had disabled the anti apparition wards. Yet only after a few tense minutes, the Death Eaters had done a full retreat. At the time, James had been grateful for the retreat, until he had learned that it had been a ploy to release the secret prisoners. These secret prisoners were suspected Death Eaters, though the Ministry had no evidence. Thus, the Ministry had to use the Unspeakables to take these people off the streets and "coerce" the evidence out of them. But the mystery was how the Death Eaters had escaped from the holding cells. The newly built cells had magic canceling wards woven into the foundation of them, and there were no Death Eaters that had gotten past the atrium.
Not only had his most high profile prisoner escape, an Auror had been discovered dead on the way to the holding cells. James himself tracked down what the man had been doing there, and it was only yesterday that he had found that the Auror had been transporting a trespasser in the Department of Mysteries. It was from the dead Auror's partner that James found that the description of the trespasser exactly matched the description of his vault's intruder. Knowing that, he knew he couldn't let the opportunity of new information pass him.
"Is he secure?" James said a bit warily, still knowing that it could be an assassin sent by the Dark Lord.
"He went through the preliminary checks at the entrance of the ministry and the second check before he got into the office."
"Alright," said James rubbing his forehead, "send him in".
"I'll have an Auror escort him in for extra protection."
The communicator light turned off and James sat in silence as he waited for the boy to arrive.
It took too long for the knock on the door to break the silence. James called for the person to enter and as the door slowly opened James caught sight of a small, skinny boy with messy jet black hair. Immediately, James drew the connection between this boy and the one he was looking for. He was about to tell the Auror to arrest the boy, but before he could, the boy looked up and his startling green eyes and all too familiar face met with James.
Wordlessly staring into the face that looked exactly like his at that age but with Lily's green eyes, James gestured for the Auror to leave, startled out of his stupor when the door closed abruptly.
The boy continued to stand nervously next to the door, alternating between looking down and up at James. He saw the boy shuffle his feet a bit, the same nervous habit Lily had when she was a teenager.
"Sit down please," said James, shaking the comparisons out of his head.
He watched as the boy cautiously walk towards the chair and sit uncomfortably into it.
"who…" started James, his mouth opening, but after uttering the first syllable, it refused to work. Swallowing dryly, James went to start again, but before he could, the boy started speaking.
"You may or may not know me, but my name is Harry Potter and you are my dad."