A/N Thanks for continuing to read my story. I still am not JKR and make no money on this.
Ch. 3
Susan, Amelia and Harry returned to the manor in the early hours of the morning. After dropping their suitcases at the door they trudged their way to their rooms and collapsed on the bed and fell asleep. Susan ended up sleeping for half of the day and when she finally made her way downstairs she found Amelia eating lunch. "Good morning sleepy head, or should I say good afternoon" Amelia quipped. "If you're hungry Puck can fix you a sandwich." Susan sat at the table with her aunt and a sandwich appeared on the plate in front of her along with a glass of apple juice.
"Where's Harry" she asked.
"He's in the library. He, unlike you got up at a decent hour and decided to get some of his homework out of the way." Susan stuck her tong out at her aunt as a response.
Seeing her aunt reading through the paper Susan asked, "So what did we miss while we were away?"
"The only major thing was that Hogwarts has a new Headmaster." Susan looked on with interest.
"Who did the find? Did they promote one of the current professors?"
"No they hired a professor from America. Augusta told me about him. She was quite excited. Apparently he has a few masters and has taught for thirty years at the Salem Institute. Augusta tells me that his long term goal is to try to curve the idea of blood superiority. He will have to start small and go slow but they are confident they will succeed. I think his first step will cracking down the bullying in the school and bringing the education level up."
"That sounds like a good plan. I suppose that I will go join Harry and work on my homework." Susan got up from the table and made her way to the library to find Harry. On her way she grabbed her books and went to find Harry in the library. When she walked in she found him sitting at the big oak desk in front of a large window looking out over the grounds.
"Hi Harry, mind if I join you?"
Harry looked up and smiled. "Sure Suzy, I'm working on Snape's potions essay and it is a doozy." Together, Harry and Susan worked through their homework getting the majority of it done that day. At dinner, Amelia told the kids that they had an early appointment with the goblins tomorrow and would need to have an early start.
The next morning Susan, Amelia and Harry approached a goblin at the front desk. Harry seemed to recognize the goblin because he smiled and waved. "Good morning Griphook."
The goblin looked up and gave a toothy grin. "Good morning Mr. Potter, what can Gringotts do for you today?"
"We have an appointment with Mr. Potter's account manager Sharpclaw." Amelia said.
"Of course, if you will follow me I will take you to his office." The three of them followed the goblin through a hall to an ornate door. After Griphook nocked and stuck his head in and spoke some in gobbledygook he bid them to enter and take a seat. Sharpclaw was an older looking goblin dressed in a modern double breasted business suit and sat behind a large oak desk. He greeted each of them as they entered.
"It is good to see you again Mr. Potter. The last time I saw you your parents had brought you in to key you to their vaults and set up your trust vault. Madam Bones, it is a pleasure to meet you. Your reputation among The Nation is in high standing." He extended his hand and Amelia shook it. "And you must be Miss Bones, it is a good to meet you also." Susan took the extended hand and gave it a shake. "Now down to business, I must admit, I was rather angry when you came in last year Mr. Potter and did not stop to see me. As you turned 11, we had much to discuss but as it turned out this in no way your fault and the guilty parties will be punished. Now the first order of business is to go over your parents will. They were sealed by Dumbledore and now that it has come out that he did this illegally we are able to unseal them and read them." Shaprclaw took out folded and sealed parchment. Breaking the seal he unfolded the parchment and began to read.
The Final Will and Testament for Lord James Charlus Potter and Lady Lily Anne Potter
Being of sound mind and body, we hereby declare that this is our last will and testament. To Sirius Black, we give him permanent access to Potter Manor and 100,000 Galleons. Please take good care of Harry. To Remus Lupin, we leave 100,000 Galleons and hope that he will also help raise Harry to be a wonderful man. To Peter Pettigrew if we died in our home in Godric's Hollow, it is because of you that we are dead we leave you thirty silver sickles. Peter was made our Secret Keeper as witnessed by Albus Dumbledore and Sirius Black. If for some reason Sirius is not able to fulfill his godfather duties here is the list of people in order who we want to look after Harry.
Sirius Black
Remus Lupin
Alice and Frank Longbottom
Amelia Bones
Minerva McGonagall
Poppy Pomfrey
Under no circumstances is Harry to be left with Petunia Dursley. She is a vindictive and spiteful woman who would treat Harry with disdain. A stipend for whoever raises Harry of 1000 Galleons a month will be set aside to assist in raising him. Everything else we leave to Harry. There are letters in the Potter family vault for him when he is older along with pensive memories of us. We love you honey and hope you are happy.
Signed: James Charlus Potter and Lily Anne Potter
Witnesses: Sirius Black, Albus Dumbledore, Sharpclaw
After the will reading all three humans sat in silence each contemplating different parts of the will. Susan was thinking about all the years that they missed growing up together and wondered who this Lupin was and why he never looked in on Harry or tried to be a part of his life. Susan looked over at Harry who was unsuccessfully trying to hold back tears. She reached over and took his hand and gave it a squeeze in support. When he looked over at her she reached over and enveloped him into a comforting hug. It was Amelia who broke the silence in the room.
"Sharpclaw, it said in the will that Peter Pettigrew was the Potters Secret Keeper. I and everyone else in the wizarding world were under the impression that Sirius Black was the secret keeper. He was found guilty of the murders and also the murders of 13 muggles. Now according to this will it seems he was falsely imprisoned for at least one of those charges."
"You are partially right Madam Bones. Sirius Black was imprisoned for the betrayal of the Potters and the murder of those muggles. But he was never given a trial as he is still recognized in Gringotts as Lord Black since he was never convicted of a crime. It seems that there was a cover up. According to the witness signatures on the will, Dumbledore was well aware of the switch yet he gave evidence to Crouch that Black was the secret keeper who then tossed him to the Dementors without a trial."
Amelia paled at the blatant miscarriage of justice. Susan had heard her auntie rant about the former head of the DMLE on a few occasions and knew that she did not like him in the least. "Auntie, can you do anything about that? If he is innocent, he needs to get out of that hell hole."
"Susan language" Amelia halfheartedly admonished. "But you are right, this will have to be handled very carefully. There are too many people in the ministry that are still powerful who would suffer a black eye when this comes out. Fudge was first on the scene when Black allegedly blew up the street and Crouch threw him to the Dementors and is still a powerful department head."
Harry had a dejected look as he stared at his shoes. Amelia noticed and gave him a hug. "Harry I said it would need to be handled carefully, not that it was impossible. We will get Sirius out and see this injustice put right. It just might take a little doing." Harry looked up into Amelia's eyes and saw the conviction in them. He smiled and nodded at her and then turned back to Sharpclaw.
"Shall we move on to other business then" Harry asked.
Sharpclaw smiled his toothy smile at the boy. "Of course Mr. Potter, here is a detailed account of all the vaults that you currently have access to or will have access to when you come of age. There is your trust vault that was set up to cover your school needs and other monetary needs until you come of age. It refills to 10,000 Galleons each year and Hogwarts fees are taken out automatically. You also have the main Potter vault that currently has roughly 250 million galleons, of that Gringotts invests about 100 million galleons in various businesses in both the magical and muggle world. There is also a vault with family heirlooms and other Potter belongings from their cottage in Godric's Hollow and also Potter Manor. You are able to access that vault now and remove anything that you want from that one. Over the years there have been numerous withdrawals from your trust vault. Once the irregularity of your upbringing was found out, Gringotts was able to track where that money went and most of it went into the Vaults of Albus Dumbledore under the guise of an organization called the Order of the Phoenix. It appears that it is manly an account Dumbledore uses to make payments to people who do his dirty work. When this was found out and Dumbledore's crimes were revealed, Gringotts seized his assets and we were able to pay back all the money he stole from you plus interest."
Sharpclaw handed Harry a rather large ledger book. "This details everything to do with the Potter Account along with a list of properties owned by the Potters. It is one of our largest and oldest accounts." Susan watched as Harry took the big book and flipped through it with a look of complete shock on his face clearly overwhelmed with everything he had learned.
Amelia also seemed to notice his bewildered look. "I think we will find some time this summer to go over everything and we can go through estate management." Amelia looked over at Susan, "You should learn this also Susan so you both will be having lessons on it."
Sharpclaw smiled at Amelia. "Excellent," he reached under his desk and brought out a book and handed it to Harry. "This book is all about estate management, economics and financial planning. It is a good starter for learning the basics."
Harry took the book. "Thank you again Sharpclaw. Do you think we can go down to the family heirloom vault and look around? I would at least like to get the memories and notes my parents left for me."
"Of course Harry." The four of them got up and headed to the carts. After a rather long ride that Susan quite enjoyed especially sitting next to Harry, they got out of the cart and approached a larger steel door. "Harry, you will have to put your hand on this metal plate in order to open the door. Only a Potter can open it."
Harry did as requested and the door opened. When Susan poked her head in she was amazed to see all the things stored in there. Old furniture, statues, jewelry boxes and rows of books were only some of the things that she could see. Harry walked up to a marble plinth that had an envelope sitting on it and a small case of vials that she assumed contained the memories that the will mentioned. As she was looking around the vault she thought she heard a muffled voice call out from the back of the vault. "Harry, do you hear that? I think I hear voices." Harry followed her to the back of the vault where they found a painting wrapped in a blanket. "Harry, I think this is a portrait of someone. The voice is coming from there." Excitedly the two kids unwrapped the portrait to reveal a portrait of two people, both in the mid 60's seated on ornate chairs in what looked like a grand library.
"Hello, and who might you be. You are too young to be James as he was the one who put us in here, and with those eyes, I would venture to guess that you would be Harry."
"Yes sir, I'm Harry and this is Susan. I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are. This is my first time down in this vault."
"What, has that rascal Black not taught you your family history? I will be having some words with him for this. I am your grandfather, Charlus Potter, and this lovely lady is my wife Dorea Potter nee Black."
The lady in the portrait smiled and waved at the two kids. "It is so good to see you again Harry. We figured when we hadn't seen Lily or James for a while that the worst had happened but did not expect it would be so long till we saw you again."
"Suzy, do you think Auntie will let me bring this painting home with us?" Susan could see the excitement in Harry's face at being able to talk to his family.
"I don't see why not but let's go ask her." Together they took the painting of Harry's grandparents and Amelia was more than happy to bring the portrait home with them and she promised that he could hang it in his room if he wanted. With the letters, memories and painting in hand, everyone climbed back into the cart and returned to the surface. After a quick farewell to Sharpclaw they returned to the Manor. Susan helped Harry hang up the portrait in his bedroom and the two kids spent the afternoon talking to Harry's grandparents. Harry told them about his life and how he came to live with Susan and Amelia. Susan told them about herself and her auntie. Charlus and Dorea told stories about James when he was a boy and a general overview of the Potter Family history.
Later that evening after dinner Susan walking back upstairs to go to bed when she looked into Harry's room to see him sitting on the edge of his bed and the unopened letter in his hands. She walked in and sat next to him.
"It's hard to read it isn't it. My parents left me a letter to open when I turned 11 and it was probably the hardest thing I ever had to read. Auntie sat with me and just held me as I cried."
"While talking to grandpa today, he mentioned that they knew Voldemort was after them and knew the reason why. He said that this letter would explain it. I'm not sure I want to know why they died or why that psycho is after me."
"If there was one thing I have learned from Auntie, it is that information is vital. With the right information, you are able to better prepare for whatever happens. She says that a lot of the worst operations in her department have failed because of a lack of information. I will stay right here and we can read it together if you want. Remember that you're not alone anymore Harry, both me and Auntie consider family. I know you don't have a lot of experience with what a good family is, but we stick together and tackle our problems together." Harry nodded not taking his eyes off the envelope. With a deep breath he tore open the top and unfolded the paper. As Harry started to read, Susan reached over and took his hand and read the letter with him.
Our Dearest Baby Boy,
We are so sorry that we are not there to see you grow up into the wonderful man we know you will be. Know that where ever we are, we are looking down on you and proud of you. We know that you will do great things one day. We remember your first bit of magic when you were about 12 months old. There was no accidental about it. Your mother had just finished backing a batch of chocolate chip cookies. She put them on the top of the fridge and you were just sitting in your high chair after eating your lunch. All of a sudden, the whole tin comes zooming off the fridge and stops right in front of you. Somehow, you managed to banish the lid and reach into the tin with both your hands and bring out a cookie in each hand. We were so excited and proud of you that we didn't even bother to take the cookie tin away. You just sat there munching the cookies as we floo called everybody and told them the news. We knew right then and there that you would be a powerful wizard one day. Now it's time for the hard part, the reason that we had to go into hiding and where taken from you at such an early age was because of a prophecy. A few months before you were born, someone made a prophecy about the fall of Voldemort and one of his spies overheard part of it and informed him of the danger. According to Dumbledore he only heard the first half indicating the child who would be born to fight him. For some reason, Dumbledore did not see fit to inform us of the exact wording of the Prophecy which neither of us were happy about. As the prophecy pertains to you, you can go in and hear it in the Hall of Prophecy in the Department of Mysteries. It is our hope that whatever it says has already been fulfilled and you no longer have to worry about it, but fate doesn't seem to care about what we hope. Whatever it says remember to not base your entire life on it. Live your life, find love, have fun, and always remember we love you.
Love,
Mum and Dad
Susan wrapped Harry in a hug as the letter fell to the floor. After Harry cried himself out for the loss of his parents he sat back on the edge of the bed still holding Susan's hand. Susan got up off the bed and pulled him to his feet. "Come on Harry, we need to go talk to Auntie about this." Together the two kids went to go find Amelia.