Author's note:
I also really want to thank everyone that has favorites or signed up for alerts... It really warms me knowing you like this story so far! Any reviews about the story, or things you would like to see happen would be MUCH appreciated. As I said earlier I may be writing this story, but you are reading it, therefore I want to be able to take your suggestions and ideas into consideration.
Also, some trials will be similar only because I could not think of a good trial for Ravenclaw that seemed original, and I wanted the Potter line to be a meeting between Harry and his father.
DISCLAIMER: JKR OWNS HP, not I! I wish I owned Harry potter, wouldn't have to worry about money anytime soon :D
The next morning Harry Potter-Black awoke, he felt different. He could tell he could exude a... presence... now. He quickly recovered and remembered the night before. He remembered the gifts the Black Family had given him, the gifts of societal behavior, etiquette, and knowledge. He had also received the gifts of grace, confidence, and poise. Lastly, but in his opinion an odd one, he had been given the instinctual knowledge on how to use his cunning and ambition to profit his goals. When Harry had heard that last night, he had been slightly concerned. He had wondered if this meant he would be evil and Slytherin. His brain quickly proved otherwise. The cunning and ambition was good, it was what goals one supported that made them evil, Harry had decided.
He soon remembered he had 7 trials yet to take. 'This is going to be a long day!' Harry thought to himself.
He headed downstairs and grabbed a quick bite to eat, it was only 6 am so no one was around. Soon after he finished however Aunt Petunia came down. "Freak, what are your plans today?" Then she got a good length at his shoulder length, curly hair. She promptly pointed it out, "What did you do to your hair?"
Hairy ignored her second question and only focused on the first, "Same thing I did yesterday, though tonight we need to talk. You, Uncle Vernon, Dudley, and myself."
Aunt Petunia grew annoyed, "Who are you to tell us what we need to do freak."
"I can tell you Aunt Petunia, you will love what I will offer you," Harry said, "however I have an urgent appointment to make and can not wait for you to make up your mind. Good Day." Harry said as he strode out of the the kitchen, gathered the paperwork, and grabbed his portkey to Gringotts and activated it. Harry soon found himself in the bank atrium, it was only 8am now.
Harry walked up to the counter, "Harry Potter-Black to see Fragnook and Ragnok, please." The goblin looked up and glanced at his ring finger with a start.
"Yes, Sir, Lord Black." The Goblin replied as he scurried off of his chair and escorted Harry to Fragnook office. Fragnook opened the door as Harry was invited in, shortly after Ragnok joined them.
Fragnook spoke up, "Lord Black, due to your unique heritage, I will not be handling your remaining trials. I am not the manager on the Potter accounts, and therefore I can not accompany you to the trials that any Potter family heritage leaves you."
Harry smiled, "That is fine Fragnook, but I must ask how come my mother was pureblood but no one knows, how is she descended from these families?"
Ragnok spoke up as he led the way to the same chamber as before, "Lord Black, the thing you must realize is that not all of the families are directly descended through her or your father. In many ways you may be as far as a distant cousin to one of the grandchildren of one of the founders of these families. All this means is that you are the only surviving member of the family, or the closest that has claimed these lordships in the last 100-1000 years. The only one your mother can claim to be direct descendents of the Draven's and The Simmons's, her blood grandmother and grandfather on her blood fathers side. Your father can claim direct claim to both the Potter and Ravenclaw lines.
"However in all of these families, you are the closest living, or in some cases only living person to the families. In many of these cases, many of these families have not been claimed in over 100 years or more. This may be because they were unaware of any chance for lordship so denied the cost of the tests, or may have been populated by squibs in the past." Ragnok finished his lengthy explanation soon after arriving at the door. Ragnok opened the gateway and repeated the instructions Fragnook had given the day before, "Step through this door, and touch the book on the pedestal, call out the family in which you are taking your trial for and it will begin, you may begin with any family you wish. Only one small difference, you will not be allowed to leave the room until you complete all 7 heirships."
Harry Stepped into the room using some of his new found confidence, approached the book and decided to do this in the order that they had been revealed to him, excepting the potter line to go last.
He placed his hand on the tome and loudly spoke, "GRYFINDOR!"
Suddenly a red and crimson light erupted from the tome, transforming the room into a vast open plain with a stream flowing as far as the eye can see. A ghostly figure of the famous Godric Gryfindor appeared to Harry. "My son, I have finally have a claimed heir after 980 years. This is news, however my trial awaits you. For this you must prove you are determined to pass my test. You must swim up this river until I say otherwise." At that Harry got out of his robes and cloak, and in his muggle shorts began paddling up the stream. The sun never seemed to move and this kept going for what seemed like hours to Harry. Finally Gryfindor reappeared and watched for another 30 minutes, the sun finally beginning to move across the plains. "Stop!" Gryfindor said.
"You have passed your trial my son. The point was to determine your honesty and determination. As you could not tell if I was there, you may have been tempted to stop, and then lie about it. You did neither. As my gifts to you my heir, I gift you with the knowledge on swordsmanship and physical combat and training. However you must encourage and train these talents. You have the knowledge, and must train your body to accept the skills. Goodbye my heir." Gryfindor finished as the plain, the water, and Godric Gryfindor all dissipated leaving his clothes and the pedestal remaining. Harry was surprised to find he could figure out a lot of hand-to-hand and swordsmanship in his mind without thinking and that he was completely dry. He quickly replaced his trainers, his dress robes, and his cloak and returned to the podium, he took the ring and placed it also on his right finger, and his cloak on. They seemed to mold into his Black Family rings and cloak. He quickly touched his ring and said "Gryfindor." The Ring quickly grew to carry the Gryfindor coat-of-arms, and the cloak changed from black with silver trimmings , to a gold with crimson edging, it carried the Gryfindor crest on the back instead of the Black family crest.
Harry then strode to the podium again, and cried out "RAVENCLAW!" as he touched the tome. This time a blue and silver light surrounded him and he spoke with Rowena Ravenclaw. She asked him many questions about his intelligence and she then decided. "My child, you shall have my intelligence. You will find that you can quickly read and digest most knowledge. I will also grant you the art which I designed, this art is the art of apparition. You will have the knowledge and the ability to do so perfectly. Go in peace my child."
As the vision again cleared, Harry repeated the ring and cloak business. ((I'm not gonna describe this every time, as a hint I will describe the rings and cloak as Harry uses them.))
The Houses of Draven and Simmons continued in the same vein as the House of Black, awarding Harry with the knowledge of wards and wandless magic respectively. While these skills would still need training, Harry knew of many wards no longer in existence and knew the concepts and he had the abilities to perform both wandless magic and wards.
After this Harry continued the process, only shouting out "HUFFLEPUUFF!" This time the room let bands of yellow and black magic surround Harry. He was soon transported to a courtroom with the prestigious Helga Hufflepuff presiding. "My Heir, you shall be given a trial by your friends and family, both present and past in this realm. This trial will determine whether you are loyal to them."
Over the next hour and a half, many of his friends and family testified to his loyalty, the moist poignant for him was Sirius' testimony. Sirius explained to the Hufflepuff matriarch that Harry had been loyal enough to go alone to save him from visions he had.
After this Helga Hufflepuff rose, "Lord Harry James Gryfindor Ravenclaw Draven Simmons Potter-Black, you have won my approval and my love. I hereby deem you my heir and the rightful Lord Hufflepuff. As my gifts to you I give you the instinctual knowledge of the art of healing and the spells thereof. I will also give you a small amount of knowledge, once you leave this place and finish your trials, like all who take their family trials, the magic of the Lordship shall flow and bind itself to your magical core, however you will have to bear the weight of eight families, four being the most powerful of all families. This will wear you out and you will be immobile for many hours, afterwords you will be one of the most powerful wizards alive, though you will still need to train your magics and continue to learn from the gifts you have been given today." Then the Hufflepuff matriarch hugged Harry and vanished. The cloak and ring pattern again was repeated before Harry felt the need to be formal once again.
He approached the tome laying on the pedestal, and spoke clearly with all of the courage and nobility he could muster as he laid his hand on the tome, "I, Harry James Gryfindor Ravenclaw Draven Simmons Hufflepuff Potter-Black, formally declare that I seek to be confirmed as the rightful heir to the Lord of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Merlin." Suddenly a silver and white intertwined light came from the tome, and Harry was transported to a clearing surrounded by crumbling walls of a castle, in this clearing a single stone stood out with a wooden staff stuck in the stone. A white bearded and haired man appeared next to Harry.
The man began speaking, "Only my heir shall be able to pull my staff out of this stone. Only my heir will earn my magic."
Harry stood straight and tall, and walked to the stone, he placed his hand on the middle of the staff and without any effort at all withdrew the staff from the stone.
"Congratulations my heir, you have earned the right to carry my name and my staff. As my gifts to you my heir, I give you the gift of Metamorphmagi and the gift of my knowledge, look within my vault and you shall find many holdings that are hidden under a eternal Fidelius charm with me as the secret keeper. You will only gain the knowledge through the book of my secrets contained in my vault on how to access each of these properties, you will also gain the knowledge on how to cast this charm so that only through your written works can your secrets be discovered. In my various properties you will find many tomes of the knowledge I have to give you." Merlin finished speaking and soon the magic again changed the room back.
Harry again repeated the process of assimilating the ring and cloak of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Merlin.
Harry paused and reflected on the events thus far. So far he had gained the instinctual use of societal etiquette, his cunning and ambition, healing and the spells that go along with it, Metamorphmagus, and apparition along with a natural grace and elegance. In addition many more abilities and the knowledge on how they work where given to him and only waited on him training them to be usable.
Now he had only one trial left, that of the Potter line.
Harry stepped up to the tome and formally spoke, "I, Harry James Potter, the son of Lilly and James Potter hereby claim the right of firstborn heir to honor my father and my mother."
Soon a mixture of black, green, and red magic surrounded Harry and he was in a open field, next to him walked his father. "Dad?" Harry asked.
"Yes, Harry."
"Why are you here? In all of the other trials only old old relatives have appeared."
"This is partially because this is our families way of doing this, also because your other heritages have never been claimed. Your mother never felt ready to claim her heritages, and I had no time to do so."
"Okay, so what do I have to do dad?" Harry asked.
"Nothing, prongslet. You have done enough, I come here to tell you that your mother and I are so proud of you, and to give you your gifts. Your mother sends her love as her gift. Our ancestors give you the gift of Animagus learning, you only have to reveal your forms and you will instinctively know how to transform and the knowledge thereof. I give you the gift and knowledge of Occlumency and Legilimency, though you must use it.
"I must go now, my son. I love you."
"I love you too Dad!" Harry said as he hugged the rapidly vanishing form of his father.
Soon the room again reverted to the normal pedestal, although the tome was now no longer there. Atop the pedestal sat the Potter Family cloak and ring. Harry finished the process and called the Black family ring and cloak to the surface. 'No need to have Dumbledore notified I was wearing any other crests. I don't want that meddling old coot any more clout on me.'
As Harry headed towards the exit of the room, magic appeared in various shades of black, silver, white, red, yellow, gold, blue, and green filling the room. Harry could feel the room heavy with magic, he watched as it intertwined itself into thins strands and approached his body, he could feel a pain beginning slowly and building rapidly as the magic began to enter his body and weave into and onto his magical core. As he felt his magic grow, Harry passed out from the pain and the massive magical influx.
Please don't shoot me, I only left a cliffie because I wanted to get this up faster to you. Please R&R.
I have found a beta reader and we have decided that due to my odd schedule we will post as follows...
-My beta will read the last chapter and help with any ideas I need.
-I will post the next chapter once written in it's rough draft phase.
-My Beta will help polish it.
-I will replace the chapter with the polished version once completed.
Please note: None of the plot points will change, this is only so that you get the events first, and I can post as I write the only changes will be slight grammar or spelling changes..
Next up: Harry finds out how much he is worth, does some shopping and begins to plan his rush from the Dursley residence.