The Temptation of Time Chapter 13: A few Surprises, a harry potter fanfic

Author's note:

Once again, I find myself asking for forgiveness. Of course, I'm sure I don't deserve it, but I hope you can forgive me anyway. I have found, to my ever lasting chagrin, that I have misplaced my muse. After the last book, it seemed kind of ... well, pointless! Then I read a lot of fanfic and found my new favorite type! I have fallen in love with the Re-do stories. Especially the ones where Harry's mind is sent back to his younger body! So expect that to be the next one. Tee-hee.

Okay. On with the show. As a peace offering, I give you my longest chapter yet! Huzzah! Over Pages! I'll finish this story if it kills me… and eventually, we'll go shopping (though it doesn't look like it will happen this time)!

Oh, by the way… objects in mirrors are closer than they appear. Also, I do not own Harry Potter… but I wouldn't mind owning Remus. Or maybe Sirius! I do so love doggies!

Chapter 13 – A Few Surprises

Remus and Hemione made their way back to the wand weighing station to retrieve Remus's wand. Because Hermione had a price on her head, and because there would, no doubt, be more Death Eaters in the Alley than at the Ministry or in Muggle London, she decided that a disguise was in order. She pulled Remus into a secluded alcove so that no one would notice the change in her appearance.

A few simple 'beauty' charms later and Hermione looked completely different. Instead of bushy ginger-colored hair, she now had sleek, waist length black curls which she promptly pulled back into a high pony-tail with a hair tie she found in the pocket of her jeans. The next charm changed her eye color from her original chocolate brown to a clear blue the color of a cloudless summer sky. A quick makeup charm to accent her eyes and smooth her complexion and she was ready.

If Remus hadn't watched her do the charms, he would have never recognized her. As it was, he felt a pang in the vicinity of his chest and a slight shiver of recognition when she changed her eyes. Naturally, he only acknowledged it enough to wonder if he was coming down with something before dismissing the feeling as nothing more than indigestion.

Belatedly thinking that he might be recognized as well, he decided to change his appearance too. A simple hair charm later and he had dark brown hair instead of his normal sandy color. That and a glamour to make his clothing look less ragged (but no less comfortable) and he too was ready to face the Alley.

"Alright, here's what we'll do," He looked around the Ministry's Atrium to make sure no one was watching them. "Since we need to head to Gringotts first, we'll use the apparation point just outside."

Hermione, also glancing around the Atrium nodded quickly and was gone with a small crack! Remus quickly followed her, reappearing right next to her next to Gringotts. As soon as he regained his equilibrium, Remus offered his arm once again to Hermione and escorted her into the Wizard's Bank.

The lines here were a bit longer than they had been anywhere else, but eventually, the pair stood before a cross looking Goblin.

"Yes?"

A little taken aback by the Goblin's apparent lack of civility, Hermione said, "I want to open an account."

"Name?"

"Um... Hermione Granger."

The Goblin opened his massive ledger and started flipping through the pages. Abruptly, his eyes widened and he stuttered, "M-miss G-granger! M-my ap-pologies! I d-didn't real-lize!" The formerly surly Goblin shook himself out of his shock and hopped down from his chair after putting a closed sign on his desk, motioning to them that they should follow him.

This shocked both Remus and Hermione because there were still about five people in line behind them. After looking to Remus and seeing him nod his head in encouragingly, she turned to follow the Goblin with Remus hot on her heels.

They were lead to a richly appointed office and were shocked once again when the, now bowing and scraping, Goblin wrung his hands nervously and said, "An account manager should be with you momentarily. I'm terribly sorry about the wait. Can I get anything for you while you wait? Tea, perhaps? Lunch? Anything at all."

Hermione, not knowing why this Goblin was suddenly acting like an over-eager house elf, simply shook her head, saying, "No, thank you. We're fine."

The Goblin bowed his way out of the office, leaving two very confused people to wait for the Manager.

They looked around the well appointed office, taking in the large windows surrounded by yards of heavy, scarlet colored, velvet drapes, mahogany paneling and bookshelves filled with leather bound books written in Gobbledygook. Hermione couldn't help but admire the thick oriental rug that practically begged her to walk barefoot on it.

In the middle of the office stood a large mahogany desk with an expensive looking quill set and a desk blotter adorning it. Behind the desk, a comfortable looking leather office chair waited for its occupant and before it, two comfortable leather chairs currently occupied by Hermione and Remus.

After a moment the silence was hesitantly broken by Hermione. "Um... was it just me, or was he a bit..." she trailed off, not knowing exactly how to put it.

"Eager?" Remus supplied, smiling. "Yes, he was rather. If I didn't know you were Muggle-born, I would accuse you of being from a very old Pure-blood family!" He laughed at the confused look on her face. "This is the way they normally treat me when I come in. Not that that's very often, mind."

No sooner had Remus finished his sentence, than a well dressed Goblin opened the double mahogany doors, apologizing profusely.

"I'm terribly sorry for keeping you waiting, Miss Granger! I'm afraid I was with another client. I hope you will forgive my tardiness."

"It's alright, really," she rushed to assure him. "You didn't know we would be here today. I hadn't realized that opening an account would cause you so much trouble."

It was the Goblin's turn to look confused, but he just shook it off and said, "My name is Metallaugh. I am your account manager."

Remus spoke for the first time since Metallaugh arrived. "Honorable Metallaugh, Hermione does not have an account yet. That is why we are here."

"Oh, but she does, Mr. Lupin!" The Manager looked back and forth between the two for a moment before saying, "You mean, you didn't know?"

"Er... Know what?" Hermione said.

Metallaugh turned shrewd eyes towards her. "Strange." He rubbed his chin for a moment before seeming to come to a decision. "Well, since you don't know, we'll have to verify some things before I can discuss it with you freely." He pulled several things out of one of the desk drawers, including, a rather wicked looking dagger, a roll of parchment and a black box.

"First, I will need a bit of your blood." He handed the dagger to her and set the parchment in front of her. "Once you cut your hand, allow at least five drops of blood to fall onto the parchment. It is enchanted to reveal your full lineage."

Hermione steeled her nerves as best she could, then, before she could lose her courage, she sliced the palm of her hand. She hissed through her teeth when the pain caught up with her. Thinking she may have cut too deep, because her blood seemed to flow quite quickly, she let the required drops fall to the parchment and reached for her wand.

Before she could get to it, though, Remus took her hand in his.

"Allow me."

He held her hand palm up with one hand and covered her wound with the other. A blue glow seemed to come from his hand and after a moment, he released her hand, as good as new.

Hermione smiled at him, ignoring the slight tingling left from the healing charm, and turned her attention to the parchment. The blood that had been dripped onto the parchment spread out into lines like the Marauder's map. Instead of a map, however, when all was said and done, there was Hermione's complete family tree.

"Excellent." said Metallaugh. "Now, Miss Granger, this is you." He pointed to her name at the very bottom of the parchment. "Obviously, you are the last of your line. For some reason, your family has always had one child per generation." He smiled a bit. "It does make our job easier, but it makes for a rather small family."

Seeing her nod, he continued, "If we follow your line, you will see some markings by certain names. The x's mean that the individual was a Squib. The most recent Squib in your family was your great, great, great, great Grandmother."

Hermione looked and, sure enough, there was an x next to Constance Sheppard. She looked up at Metallaugh and asked, "What do the double x's mean?"

"Ah, yes. Well, as you know, most Squibs live out their lives as Muggles, simply because it is easier for them to live in a world where they are not expected to be able to use magic. As a result, Squibs tend to marry Muggles." He thought for a moment. "Well, it could also be that most Witches and Wizards don't like marrying Squibs. Afraid their children would be non magical as well, I suppose. At any rate, double x's indicate Muggles." He shrugged.

"So, Grandmother Constance married a Muggle?"

The Goblin studied the parchment for a moment. "Yes, it would seem as if that were the case." He pointed to the names above Constance Sheppard. "Now, if you will notice, her parents were both magical and, in that time, the Sheppard family was exceptionally prominent in society." He peered at Hermione over his glasses. "That is to say, they were quite well off."

Hermione's eyes widened in surprise. "This is all very interesting, Master Metallaugh, and I am glad to know my family's history, but what does it have to do with me?"

Before Metallaugh could answer, Remus, having studied the family tree, gave the Goblin a shrewd look. "Your telling us that Hermione is the sole heiress of the Sheppard family, aren't you?"

"What? But surely there's nothing left? I mean, that was over two hundred years ago! Surely..."

Metallaugh again peered over his glasses at her. "I see you don't know much about the Goblin laws of inheritance." He rolled up the parchment and set it aside.

"When a magical family's heir is a Squib, when the parents die, instead of the heir inheriting the estate, it is, instead held in trust until such a time as the family produces a magical heir. In this instance, you. Most families provide a small trust fund to keep them from being destitute, but it normally isn't very much. Now that you have reached your majority, you are free to claim your rightful inheritance."

Hermione's feelings of right and wrong began to rear their ugly heads. Remus could see from the look in her eyes that she was gearing up for one of her infamous tirades. He realized that he would have to step in before she alienated the Goblins as she had the House Elves.

"Master Metallaugh, perhaps you could tell us the reasoning behind the inheritance laws."

"Of course, Mister Lupin." Metallaugh had obviously read Hermione's indignant posture as well. "As you are, no doubt, aware, we Goblins are quite fierce about protecting the riches entrusted to us. Each family, no matter how prestigious, will eventually produce a Squib. It is inevitable." He leaned forward and lowered his voice a bit, "Especially with all the Pure-blood inbreeding."

Hermione privately agreed with his assessment.

"Now," continued Metallaugh, "many Pure-blood families were in the habit of 'taking care' of their Squib progeny, if you take my meaning, so that they could not inherit their noble estate. At the time, the Goblin Nation was not sure if this was for economic reasons or if they just did it out of spite." He cleared his throat and seemed to project his feelings to them that it was the latter.

"We eventually noticed that some of the old families were dying out because they refused to suffer a Squib child to live. We decided that we should act to protect our future investors and therefore our own investments. After all, when a family completely dies out, the Ministry takes over their vaults and removes everything to high security vaults beneath the Ministry of Magic."

He sneered, "Seems they do not trust Goblins with their ill gotten gains."

Hermione again felt a stab of annoyance at the Ministry. Someday, she felt that they would end up shooting themselves in the foot, so to speak.

"I can understand how that would make things difficult for you, but what does that have to do with your protecting the 'riches entrusted to you'?"

"Ah! Well, you see, as I said, if the family dies out, the Ministry will remove their assets, but if there is still a living relative, they have no choice but to leave it in our care." Seeing the confusion still evident in her expression, he sighed.

"If we were to allow non-magical people, Squibs in this case, to inherit, the Pure-bloods against such a thing would continue to remove their non-magical progeny. However, if we were to impose a 'law' that said they could not inherit and that their estate would be held in trust until the next magical descendant appears..." he trailed off, seeing the beginnings of comprehension light her features.

"Then the Pure-bloods would stop killing off their children, making it possible for you to continue to hold on to their assets, thereby making it harder for the Ministry to seize them!" Hermione beamed. "So really, you are helping the magical community while still helping yourselves... Brilliant."

"Thank you. Our vault holders are, of course, given the opportunity to release their vaults to their non-magical relations. Though few actually take that opportunity."

"So really, it's not a Law per-say... more of a guide line to keep the stupidity of Wizards from ruining the economy."

"Exactly, Miss Granger. Or should I say, Lady Stoneleigh?"

Remus gave a sharp gasp. "Stoneleigh?" He turned shocked eyes towards his companion. "She's the Heiress of Stoneleigh?!"

"Remus? What's wrong?" When she got no response from the normally resilient Werewolf, Hermione looked worriedly at Metallaugh. "I don't understand. What's Stoneleigh?" Seeing that Remus was having trouble wrapping his mind around the revelation of her Heritage, she turned to Metallaugh for answers.

"Nothing is wrong with it, My Lady. The Stoneleigh line has a proud and illustrious heritage. As a matter of fact..." He pulled her family tree back out of the black box and unrolled it. He ran his long gnarled finger down the page until he found what he was looking for.

"Ah! Here it is." He turned the page around, pointing at one of her ancestors near the top of the page. "You, my dear, are a direct descendant of Roland Ravenclaw, first Lord of Stoneleigh." Seeing her confusion, he clarified. "Roland was Rowena Ravenclaw's twin brother. Because he was male, and at the time, it was a patriarchal society, he inherited most of his family's holdings.

"You don't hear much about him, I believe there are only a couple of history books that mention him, mostly in passing, but I believe he was the original Ward Caster for Hogwarts. I understand that some mention of him is made in Hogwarts; A History."

Hermione nodded absently, she had, after all, nearly memorized that book. She was in such shock that she almost missed his next words. "Naturally, since Lady Ravenclaw's daughter did not produce any heirs, as she passed at a young age, her estate went to her uncle's child. I believe there are quite a few treasures from Lady Ravenclaw herself in your vaults."

"My v-... wait! Vaults? You mean there's more than one?"

"Oh, my yes. As I said, the Stoneleigh line was especially prestigious. Naturally, since there has not been a magical descendant in over two hundred years, I personally don't know how many you have, but we can find out right now, if you like."

Hermione nodded numbly and allowed him to lead her through the process of retrieving her vault keys.

"Simply place your hand on the top of this box, inside the silver circle and repeat after me. Once the keys appear, only you can remove them from this box. Are you ready?"

Hermione nodded and they began.

"I..."

"Hermione Jane Granger, Lady of Stoneleigh..."

"do hereby acknowledge and accept my rightful heritage..."

"and summon all vault keys to my hand."

A brilliant white light filled the office, forcing Hermione and Remus to shield their eyes. When they could properly see once more, Metallaugh opened the black box, revealing six ornate golden keys of various sizes, and motioned for Hermione to remove them.

"Excellent, My Lady! Now, let me see." The Goblin took out a scroll and perused it for a moment before he picked up the largest key. "This would be your Family Vault. Mostly keepsakes such as wands of deceased family members, furniture that does not go with the current decorative fashion, art pieces, jewelry and books that are too valuable to be kept in the home are kept in there."

Hermione's eyes lit up at the mention of the possibility of rare books. Now that she knew her Heritage, she could see where her eagerness to learn came from. Metallaugh picked up the next key, a rather old looking one with an ornate S on the bow (the part you hold onto), made of what appeared to be brass.

"This one is not one of our vault keys, but we do manage this asset as well. You will find that this is actually a Portkey that will take you to the front gates of Stoneleigh Manor. Naturally, it will not take you onto the grounds itself as, I believe, there are wards protecting against Portkeys and Apparation. However, once you have keyed yourself into the Manor's protections, you and anyone you bring with you can Apparate directly into the Entrance Hall. To use the Portkey, simply hold it in your hand and say 'Take me Home'."

Metallaugh picked up the next key, this one was gold and had the same look to it as the other Gringotts key. "Again, another vault key. I believe that this one and…" he picked out another key that looked similar, "this one, and…" again he picked out a similar key, "this one all contain some form of liquid asset, meaning money and unset jewels." He paused to let her absorb his words. "Normally, a family will only have one 'liquid assets' vault. Of course, it has been over two hundred years and with fluctuating interest rates and investments made by your account managers, over the years on your behalf it would seem that it has grown tremendously. I believe you are now the third wealthiest person in Britain, behind only your friends, Misters Potter and Lupin."

The Goblin must have interpreted the look on her face as pure shock, and rightly so! Hermione was, quite simply, floored. Never in all her dreams had she even imagined that this could happen.

'Just think! All these years of Malfoy rubbing his wealth in our faces! HA!'

"And last, but by no means least," Metallaugh picked up the final key with the Goblin equivalent of reverence. This key looked to be the same age as the Stoneleigh Portkey. Instead of an S, this key had an ornate R on the bow and instead of brass, this key was made of bronze. "This is the most remarkable of them all, if you don't mind my saying so. This is Lady Ravenclaw's personal key to Hogwarts."

Hermione gasped and stared at the piece of history that she had just inherited. She had read about the four keys to Hogwarts, of course. Each of them would open any door in the castle, no matter how it was locked. Hogwarts; A History had told how each founder had a secret place. The keys were thought to be able to open these places as long as you knew they were there.

"Metallaugh," she breathed, "does that scroll tell you what Ravenclaw's key does?"

The Manager gave a deep gravelly laugh. "Indeed it does, My Lady. That key will, as you are no doubt aware, open any door in Hogwarts Castle and it will allow you access to Lady Ravenclaw's personal library."

"Oh!" Hermione could barely contain her excitement. "Does it say where her library is?"

"I am sorry, My Lady. It doesn't say any thing about a location."

Hermione's face fell. How was she supposed to get into it if she didn't know where it was?

Metallaugh put the keys back into the black box and handed it to Hermione saying, "These are yours now." He began tidying up the desk and putting things away. "I am assuming that you no longer wish to open an account, so is there anything else I can assist you with today?"

"Well, now that you mention it, I would like to cash this check." She pulled out the check her mother sent to her. She couldn't believe it was only yesterday that she thought one million pounds was a lot of money!

"Very well, how would you like it? All galleons, all pounds or half and half?"

"Oh, well, won't all those galleons get awfully heavy?"

"No, My Lady. All of our money pouches are charmed to be bottomless and feather light. If you like, because you will be carrying around quite a bit of money, we could charm it to be theft proof as well. That way, only your had will be able to take money out, though anyone can put money in."

Hermione agreed to the extra charm. She couldn't imagine what she would spend 200,000 galleons on, so she only took 10,000 and deposited the rest.

With her new money bag in her purse along with the shrunken black box, she was ready to take on Diagon Alley!

My goodness! Nine pages and 3,552 words (not including Author's notes)! I hope this makes up for the really, really, really long absence. I'm hoping to crank out the shopping trip in the next chapter (finally, right?).

Any suggestions on what she should get? Let me know when you review!

Thanks for sticking with me!

AF Marauder