Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything, not making money off of it, etc.

Chapter 4: Dealings With Dursleys II

To say that the letter left Harry something to think about would be an understatement, and he didn't even have in-depth knowledge yet. Daring a glace into the box, he groaned at the sheer amount of material. But the letter had answered his questions and now he wanted to look at all these sheets the Goblin had added to the box. The first thing he pulled out was the list of his properties. The paper the list was on was lovely, it had a nice crest on it. The crest was a deep royal purple and onyx with silver lining. It was the typical shield pattern, divided in four. The upper left hand box was colored in the purple, as well as the one diagonal to it, next to and below it were the onyx colored boxes. The entire shield was outlined in a thick silver and in the center was a giant silver Swedish Short-Snout wrapped around a magnificent castle. In the top boxes were a silver Phoenix carrying a scroll labeled knowledge on the left and a pod of whales on the left around the word 'love', also in silver. In the bottom boxes were a silver griffin standing atop 'courage' and to it's left a proud lion and it's trait of 'leadership'. Next to the Potter crest was a nice header proclaiming the parchment was an official document pertaining to the Potter Estate.

English Properties:
Godrics Hollow, Potter Castle, Bragleton Manor, Denton Manor, Evans House, Merlins Hut, 57 Diagon Alley, 21886 Knockturn Alley, 1313 Main St, 15 Maplewood Ln

Spanish Properties:
Villa de Aqua, Castillian House

French Properties:
Lily Vinyard, Benchward Vinyard, 76 Bleu, 1013 Vine St.

Guardian Isle

These properties that are underlined are under the guardianship of the Potter Family until the respective lines produce a magical heir, in which they can be reverted back to the management of that family.

Harry's eyebrows lifted as he browsed all the properties. True, five of those properties he was only the guardian of, but still, the amount of properties were numerous. It would take a week to properly check out each property, which he didn't have. Maybe once he got in contact with the Potter House Elves, he'd be able to ask them to give him an overview of the state of the properties. They would also know which one would be best for him to move into once he was emancipated. 'That reminds me...' his thoughts turned to Dobby and he called the house elf to his room.

"Master Harry," the elf bounced, "What can Dobby be doing for you?"

"Hello Dobby, Its good to see you again. I was wondering if you knew one of the Potter House Elves, I would like to talk to them soon, I think after our trip this weekend."

The elf grinned and nodded his head, "Yes, Dobby knows the Potter Elves, if Harry Potter Sir wants me to, I'll tell them to meet you here on Monday."

Harry smiled, "Thank you Dobby, that would be brilliant."

The house elf blushed at being thanked and then stammered, "Well, if Master Harry Sir wants nothing else, Dobby has to be getting back to Hogwarts, Peeves got paint all over the Trophy Room"

Harry sent the elf off and went back to his explorations of the Gringott's box, pulling out another sheet of parchment, this time the Black Crest was on the other side of the Potter Crest with the header proclaiming the document an official accounting of the Potter and Black businesses.

The Potter Businesses

Zonko's Joke Shop - 25 ownership
Flourish & Blotts - 5 ownership
Auntie's Antiques - 75 ownership
Windcastor Cauldrons - 7 ownership
Nimbus Inc - 49 ownership
Tibbles Tea Co. - 20 ownership
Weasley's Wizard Wheezes - 40 ownership
Quidditch Emporium - 10 ownership
Mystery Co. - 10 ownership

Harry stopped after Mystery Co, wondering what it could sell. He smiled, 'I'd say, it's quite the Mystery' and then groaned at the lame joke he made. The list went on to list at least two dozen more companies which he had vague remembrances of. They were mostly companies that produced wares and not actual stores he had bought things from. When he got to the next page, he was startled to realize that he one read the Potter businesses, and there were another two pages, presumably all Black. Harry gaped as he started going down that list.

The Black Businesses

Dervish & Bangs - 20 ownership
Ollivanders - 10 ownership
Comet Co - 43 ownership
Mystery Co. - 10 ownership
Blackwaters - 45 ownership
Gringotts Home Security - 10 ownership

Harry paused, he had never heard that Goblin's provided home security. He would have to look into that, maybe he could get a Goblin bodyguard or something, maybe then Dumbledore would stop having the Order around the house. 'Honestly, I'd trust the Goblins to protect me better than the Order. After all, they protect the world's treasures everyday.' Keeping the thought in mind for later, Harry resumed looking at the list, noting a few companies such as Tillyguard Apothecary and something called 'Ink Inc'. Harry thought the name to be cleaver, if not a little annoying. After he scanned the list, he put it aside.

The sudden weight of managing not only one estate but two finally sunk in and the thought scared him. He had three pages worth of companies, a lot of which he had a significant ownership of. What if he did something wrong. He dearly hope he wouldn't and brought himself to the Estate Management Program guides and skimmed them over.

Before he knew it, the time had flown by and he heard his Aunt's shrill voice penetrate his readings. He put the papers down and headed downstairs. The rest of the family was already in the kitchen. Harry gave them a nod of acknowledgment. He blocked out his Uncle as he ate, though he didn't really taste the food. All his thoughts were on the coming conversations. Every now and then, he'd catch a few words his Uncle said, it sounded mostly like he was complaining about work. Harry mentally smirked, sounds like they were giving the managers a bit of a paycut and were forcing Vernon to use his unused Vacation time, which amounted to him being at home until Mid July. Not wanting to have to deal with Vernon 24/7 for the next month and a half, Harry did some tweaking to his plans and before he knew it, his relatives were starring at him.

"Well boy, talk already," his Aunt spat. Harry figured it was as good as time as any and stood up, staring down his Uncle.

"I'll be leaving on Friday and will be back by Monday night. If other wizards come by, you will tell them that I'm in my room studying and don't want to be disturbed."

Vernon growled at Harry while a battle ensued in his head. On one hand, he wouldn't have to deal with the 'freak' for three days of his forced vacation. On the other hand, the boy was using a commanding tone with him and he didn't like it one bit. His Uncle, not one who has mastered the art of hiding his emotions, had the battle played out on his face, much to Harry's entertainment. Vernon was on the edge of blowing his gasket at Harry when Petunia spoke up.

"Why should we let a freak like you run around? You'd probably end up killing people," she spat. Her mind was also working through Harry's words. It was obvious to her that Harry was hiding something from those other freaks. Her years of being a gossip monger encouraged her to find out more. It was her dearest hope that whatever it was would end up killing the boy, getting him out of her perfect house.

"You'll let me go because I've won a contest and if the other wizards find out I'm leaving, they won't let me go to the awards ceremony. And if I don't go the awards ceremony -" Harry started explaining, speaking slowly and clearly when he was cut off.

"I bet you used your freakish abnormalities to win over honest working decent folk. In fact, that's why you shouldn't even go," huffed Vernon, earning himself a glare from Harry. This only caused him to anger even more, a vein starting to pulse in his neck.

"As I was about to say, I've won a prize for winning the contest. A vacation to Majorca and a thousand pounds. If I don't show up, the prize will be passed on."

Dudley, showing a rare moment of intellect, however misplaced, decided to make his presence in the conversation. "What would you do with our money you freak? I thought you had your kind had their own money," he sneered as his parents nodded their agreement. Harry mentally rolled his eyes, 'trust a business man to forget that people often exchange money. I wonder if it's actually vacation time or if they're preparing to lay him off.'

Turning back to the Dursleys, "Well, I was planning on giving you guys the vacation, as I have to ... collaborate ... with you to get away for four days, so I have no need for it. Since you were always saying how much of a burden I was. Ah well, if you don't really want me to go, I'm sure somebody else will enjoy their time there, all expenses paid...," he said, letting his voice drift.

Vernon and Petunia looked at each other. While they would love to see the boy knocked down a peg or twenty, but they would be fools if they passed up the opportunity for an all expense paid vacation. Plus they wouldn't have to worry about that freak.

"Fine boy, we'll play your little game, but we want everything, the vacation and the money," Vernon stated magnanimously. He felt he had proposed the best deal. Either the boy left and they got everything, or the boy stayed and was miserable. Unknown to him, this is exactly what Harry wanted to maneuver his Uncle into doing. However, he wouldn't put it past them for catching on to his plot, after all, they were greedy, but not stupid when it came to their nephew. If he showed he was too eager, they would get too suspicious.

Harry glared at them, "I'll give you the vacation and 900 pounds, but I need the other 100 for the taxi and the hotel for the awards ceremony."

"100 pounds! Outrageous! You'll only get 50 pounds, that should be enough for any slum worthy of your kind," spat Petunia who was already mentally cataloguing what she would have to do over the weekend to prepare for the vacation and what they would do with the 1,000 pounds, which she was already thinking of as theirs. This caused Harry to emit an annoyed growl as he clenched his teeth and spat back at them, "Fine" and added under his breath, "I'll just be glad to be rid of you for awhile."

With the meeting over, Harry went up to his room, leaving his relatives to plot, plan, and gloat over their seeming victory over Harry. Once he was in his room, he allowed himself a grin. 'If there were was thing that could be said about a Dursley would be that they always settle for greed.' he thought. He then sighed and pulled out a piece of parchment. Unlike the Dursleys, he didn't have time to gloat over his true victory. He had only planned on giving them enough money to take a small vacation, but with Vernon on a forced vacation, he doubt they would have the money to stay away the entire time. While he was out, he would have to remember to buy a round-trip vacation package to Majorca now. Harry then took out a quill and a bottle of ink. There were more pressing matters to deal with.

Harry dipped the quill in the ink and started to compose a quick letter to Hagrid outlining his owl patient's symptoms and asking for any advice or help the friendly half giant could impart to him. He only hoped that Hagrid would be able to help him and that whatever had hurt the Gringotts' owl would not harm Hedwig. Sealing the envelope, he walked over to the two owls. Hedwig was watching their patient as he rested on her perch. At Harry petting her head, she turned to him and he spoke to her, "Hey girl, how's our favorite patient doing?"

At her droll hoot, Harry surmised that he wasn't any better than he was before.

"In that case, could you deliver this to Hagrid? He should be able to help us..." Harry started to explain, stroking her feathers. At her commanding hoots, which Harry imagined Mrs. Weasley would sound like if she were an owl, Harry allowed himself a chuckle. From the side, he also noted the patient seemed to have an amused look at his nurse's mothering behavior. Hedwig nipped Harry's finger at his chuckle and glared at him. Though he was laughing on the inside, Harry threw his hands in the air, "I surrender, Madam Hedwig. Honestly, you're worse than Madam Pomphrey. I think I've been spending too much time in the Hospital Wing if she's been rubbing off on you." Harry noticed that Hedwig was still glaring at him and before she could nip him again, he adopted a more serious tone, "Don't worry girl, I'll make sure he's comfortable while you're gone. Feel free to nip Hagrid if he takes too long in responding."

Seemingly satisfied with her owner, Hedwig put out her foot. Harry, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, quickly tied the letter to her leg and watched as she gently butted her head against the other owl before taking off. This only made Harry even more certain that Hedwig had a bit more than motherly feelings towards their friendly neighborhood Gringotts' owl. He looked at his patient and adopted a serious tone, "I hope you'll be providing me with lots and lots of grandchildren, I'm sure Mrs. Weasley would love some great grandchildren as well." This earned him a glare from his patient this time before the patient turned towards the water bowl and took another sip before he went back to sleep.

Harry smiled and went back to his bed. He decided he would leave the rest of the Estate surprises for the next day and picked up the brochure on the Gringotts' Privacy Policy. The information was interesting and he found out that not even his guardian could get a full account of the vaults without his express permission. However, he also found out that anybody who had a key would be able to access information about the contents of the vault if the key was freely given. To say that it unnerved him that the Weasleys could have obtained his information without his knowledge kind of worried him. 'Not that the Weasleys would actually do that, but it's the principal of the idea.'

Finishing the Privacy Policy brochure, Harry glanced over the titles of a few advertisement brochures that managed to be 'slipped' into the box. Some of them were amusing. The idea of having an moat installed in front of his trust vault amused him. Though, nothing could beat the portable Goblin advisor. It was the latest in the Goblin advisor products. It looked just like the action figures Harry saw at the World Cup, but they were in the form of your account manager and it was connected to Gringotts and would give you up to date advice... for the low low price of 10,000 galleons a month.

The only advertisement brochure that he was actually interested in was for the Gringott's bank card. It was the only thing that seemed worth the price. For an initial start-up fee of 500 galleons, and then 50 galleons per year, you could have the wizarding equivalent to a debit card. While the start-up fee seemed steep, reading through the information, it seemed necessary, the charms were very complicated from the sound of it, and they had to be individually tailored to the user. Harry was impressed at the level of security as well, the card was not only tied to his touch, but also to his magical signature and blood. Nobody would be able to fool the card into thinking that the imposter was it's owner. Plus it worked in both the magical and muggle worlds. The only difference was that there was no machinery required in the wizarding world. Just swipe the card over the top of the bill and the second the money finished transferring, the parchment would stamp itself paid.

Harry decided to sign up for the program on Friday. It would help him a lot over his visit to not have to keep going to his vault to get money if he ran out. Plus he didn't have any experience with the pound-to-galleon exchange rate, and the muggle side would take care of that problem. He didn't want to be caught in Muggle London without enough money when he went to buy clothing. As it was, he only had a small stash of muggle money he traded Hermione for over the years when she ran out of Wizarding Money during Hogsmeade trips.

Between his readings and taking care of his patient, the time flew by and before he knew it, it was time for bed. With a glance out the window, Harry changed into his pajamas and laid down on his bed. He was a bit apprehensive of falling asleep. In the end he rationalized that Hedwig would undoubtably wake him when she returned and he allowed sleep to overtake him.

A few hundred miles away, a snowy white owl descended on the rather large hut located half a mile away from the most prestigious magical school in the country. Pecking at the window, the owl grew frustrated at the sleeping half giant within. Now, this owl was smarter than a lot of owls care to be and when the half giant didn't wake up, she decided to take sterner measures. She flew down to the ground and started to try picking up stones. Once she was able to pick up a stone of a good size, she flew up and dived towards the window, releasing the rock so that it crashed through the window, waking up the giant known as Hagrid.

With a surprised roar, Hagrid looked around clutching his umbrella when he noticed Hedwig fly through the broken window. Before he could get in a word edge wise, the owl pecked him and dangled the letter in front of him.

"Calm down 'Edwig! 'Ere, I'll get the Letteh," said Hagrid as he detached the window. He glanced over the contents and the reasoning why his friend's owl was acting most unusually became clear. Hagrid went over to a cabinet and took out a vial of a burn potion for owls and put it in a box with some bandages and then quickly wrote some instructions for Harry.

Hedwig stood watching the half giant impatiently. Twenty minutes later, Hagrid tied the package to Hedwig and she flew off, in her opinion, after too long of a wait.

Back in the hut, Hagrid chuckled, he had seen this type of behavior in owls all too often. It seemed that Harry's owl liked whoever their patient owl was. He picked up his umbrella discreetly and repaired his window. Nobody would ever know as the half giant went back to bed.

Two hours later, Hedwig saw the familiar landscape of Surrey and she started on her decent to number 4 Privet Dr. When she noticed her owner sleeping, she pecked him on the hand. After Harry woke up, he opened the package and carefully administered the potion to their patient and bandaged his wings. Satisfied with her owner's work, Hedwig settled herself next to the patient and soon afterwards, everybody was asleep again.

Story Notes:

Business List - Sorry I didn't include a fully detailed list. I'm afraid my creativity at making up business names isn't that good. Some of the businesses have their side story that will come into play sometime in the story, but a lot of them are just there to explain why the Potters are so rich - they're good investors.

Time line - Yeah, a lot happened during this set of 24 hours, don't worry, not every day will be this in-depth. After his trip, the Time line should speed up more, After all, it wouldn't do to have ½ the story be during the summer when the main point of the story resides at Hogwarts!

Harry's attitude - Yeah, he's still angry with Dumbledore, but he's matured a bit and refuses to let Dumbledore get him down. After all, it never worked with his 'family'. Besides, who wouldn't be in better spirits if their favorite owl was so obviously crushing on another owl?

Foreign Properties - Sorry, I don't know any language beyond English and so I wasn't quite sure what to call the streets.

Other Characters - The next few chapters will be Harry-centric. It won't be until the time line Monday until you see what's been going on with everybody else. It's currently Wednesday on the time line.

Next Chapter: The Great Escape
+After all this talk about Gringotts, Harry finally steps foot in the building.
+Harry accidently introduces Dobby to the wonderful world of cheesy escape music of the Mission Impossible variety