Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
Cross-posted at AO3
Thank you for all the reviews, favs & alerts. It feels awesome. It is also starting to feel like a real responsibility (gulp).
This chapter did not turn out the way I intended. The promised plot bunny has hopped off to chapter seven.
Chapter 5: Goblins and ...
Severus Snape had the beginnings of a headache. A faint pinching at the temples that he knew would leave him the choice of a headache potion or firewhisky (but not both) when he finally got back to Hogwarts that evening. He hoped the rest of the day would be incident free, then hoped he hadn't jinxed both himself and Harry with the previous thought.
He had to admit that the Potter boy had behaved much better than he had expected. Unfortunately, given that was due to the poor treatment by his relatives and given the flashes of personality showing through that they hadn't managed to annihilate, there was always potential for problems and he could see Harry was tiring.
The visit to Gringotts was the part of the trip that he was least looking forward to. When he had left this morning, he had expected to find a boy who had grown up in luxury, who treated money as another toy, who would take the vaults with their collection of heirlooms and galleons, in his stride. A Potter who could not scrape together a few pounds of change for video games and went about dressed in his cousin's over-sized cast-offs would either be angry at the wealth he had been denied or unwilling to deal with it and a public meltdown was to be avoided at all costs.
For his part, Harry was feeling his feet starting to drag. The stares that had followed him since he had entered Diagon Alley hadn't abated and some of the whispers he was hearing behind his back were frankly terrifying. He looked up at the façade of Gringotts towering above him and insinuated his hand into the potions master's in search of support.
"Come, Mr. Potter. Two more tasks and you can rest." Snape is surprised by the boy's actions but will do nothing to damage the trust that he is being given.
Inside the bank, Severus subtly steers him towards the second shortest queue. "It doesn't always work," he murmurs, "but there's usually someone with a serious issue in the shortest queue."
The teller barely looks up as they stand before him. Harry is working very hard at not staring at the goblin but he's not sure how successful he is being. He's is not sure whether he should say something but the decidedly impatient professor behind him seems content to wait, so he holds his peace.
"How rare to see you twice in one day, Professor Snape. How may Gringotts assist you?"
"Mr. Potter needs to meet with his account manager." The reply is smooth and polite.
"And your business with the Potter accounts?" The goblin is not happy although Severus is struggling to remember any occasion when he might have given offence to this particular member of Gringotts' staff.
"I have paid for Mr. Potter's school supplies, I wish to present the receipts for re-imbursement."
Harry looks mortified. "I'm sorry, Professor, I didn't think …"
"Do not concern yourself, Mr. Potter. It seemed easier than throwing you in the deep end with wizarding currency, you have had enough to take in today." He turned back to the goblin. "He will also need enough galleons for his wand and spending money for his first year. There are other matters that I wish to address but perhaps that should be done in private?"
"Griphook, will you see if Skergold is available?" A smaller goblin scurries away into the bowels of the bank.
In less than a minute, he returns. "Manager Skergold will see you now. This way please."
They are led down marbled corridors to a highly-polished wooden office door. Severus wishes he did not need to insert himself into Potter's relationship with the goblins but given the state of Potter's home life he has no confidence in the state of his finances and even without his vow to protect Lily's son he would not be comfortable if he did not attempt to protect a student in such a situation.
They are seated. The account manager ignores Snape and addresses Harry. "Mr. Potter, it is good to see you. I am Skergold, I managed the Potter accounts for your parents and grandparents. How may I help you?"
Harry looks to the professor who shakes his head and indicates that he should speak to Skergold.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Skergold. My name is Harry. Professor Snape has taken me shopping today for all the things I need to go to Hogwarts. I need to pay him back for those things and I guess, I need to understand what my financial situation is. Can I afford to pay for all of the things I will need for Hogwarts? I'll need to be at school for at least five years, won't I?"
"Has your magical guardian not explained things to you?" Skergold is still looking askance at Snape but he is beginning to understand the wizard's insistence on being present.
Again, Harry looks at the professor. "I have a magical guardian? No-one in my family has magic. Professor Snape is the first magical person I have met."
Skergold is deep in thought. The Potter accounts are more or less dormant. The boy's magical guardian is not maintaining them properly and that is truly criminal as far as a goblin is concerned. Snape has always been honest in his dealings with the bank and more than one of the buyers who have bartered with him for rare potions ingredients have expressed pleasure that some wizards can think like goblins when they try.
"Hogwarts' Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, is your magical guardian, Mr. Potter. He is in charge of all matters pertaining to your wellbeing in the magical world." There is a meaningful glance in Snape's direction.
Well, the solution is in the dark wizard's hands if he had the wit to deploy it. He came in this morning with a very badly worded letter of permission from Dumbledore to collect an item from a vault. The letter has already been copied to all the junior goblins as an example of how not to do business. Would the professor use it to his advantage? Skergold sat back and crossed his arms and waited.
Severus Snape's mind was spinning. Dumbledore is the boy's guardian and the pattern of benign neglect is one that he has seen before from the Headmaster. It is less than five years since the Montgomery girl was nearly ruined by Dumbledore's lack of attention to her finances. Snape is sure that Albus takes on the role of magical guardian for orphans with honest intent but without the time to do the job properly, previous results have not been good. The same thing was not going to happen to the Potter boy on his watch.
The goblin is throwing him a hint. Finally, the penny drops and feeling embarrassed by his failure to find the proffered loophole faster, he addresses the goblin: "Manager Skergold, I attended the bank earlier today and presented a letter from Albus Dumbledore allowing me to act on his behalf. Would that permission still hold in the case of Mr. Potter?"
The shark-like grin he receives in return tells him he has hit on the right solution. "I believe it would cover this situation. However, you will need to appoint an independent financial manager in the long term."
Harry is looking between them. Aware of complex undercurrents but unsure where the conversation is going.
"Manager Skergold. As per Albus Dumbledore's letter, presented to the bank on the First of August 1991, I would like to appoint myself as financial manager to Mr. Harry Potter for a term not to exceed one calendar year and with the intention to appoint a successor to the position permanently with the approval of Gringotts Bank and Mr. Potter."
"That would be acceptable, Professor Snape, as long as Mr. Potter approves."
"What am I agreeing to and why?" Harry didn't mind the professor helping him but this seemed odd.
"Mr. Potter, Albus Dumbledore is a good, no great, wizard. However, he is one man and that man is not only the Headmaster of Hogwarts, he is the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards and Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. The calls on his time are unceasing. He is your magical guardian; it is a role he has fulfilled successfully for many students, and he will be the person you turn to in an emergency. However, he simply does not have the time to manage your finances on a day-to-day basis, so I have volunteered myself for that role."
"OK, then why do you need to appoint someone else? Why can't you just keep doing it?"
"That is complicated, Mr. Potter. Will you accept a simple answer for now and I will explain the rest later?"
Harry nods.
Severus winces and looks for the least complicated explanation he can offer. "In the end, as with many things in the wizarding world, it comes down to blood and money, Mr. Potter. Your vaults are so extensive in comparison to my own that I would never be free of the suspicion I was taking advantage of you. Also, while I am competent in most areas of wizarding finance, you need to learn estate management from someone who has one of their own – one of the old pureblood families."
"Did you have someone in mind to take over permanently?" That was Skergold.
"My first choice would be Madam Longbottom, failing that Madam Bones or the Abbots."
"Not the Weasleys?"
"No, Manager Skergold. Arthur is honest and has the ability but they," Severus struggled for the words. "Money alone does not make you happy. I have the greatest respect for the Weasleys in that they make a little go far and appear to have a happy family life. They would not refuse if asked but why hurt good people by shoving wealth not their own under their noses?"
"Mr. Potter, do I have your agreement then?"
"Yes, Manager Skergold. Thank you, Professor."
"Do you have any other business for today then?"
Snape withdrew a bundle of receipts from his pocket. "This is Mr. Potter's expenditure for the day. Please deduct the potions ingredients, they are on my account. He will need a Gringotts pouch and to visit his trust vault for spending money for the school year. He has the key. I need a copy of the last year's financial statements so that I can fulfil my role." Those were all essentials and he did not foresee the goblin objecting. His other requests were on shakier ground. "I would also like to visit the main Potter vault. I seek some mementos of his parents for Harry to take to school." He screwed up his eyes searching for a memory. "James Potter once spoke of goblin-forged knives in the possession of the Potter family, should I be able to locate them, I would like to negotiate an inheritance fee with smith's family and for Mr. Potter to take them with him."
Skergold was surprised by the last two items. The mementos made sense but knives, goblin-forged knives for an eleven-year-old? He requested clarification with a sharp gesture.
"Tell me, Skergold. Do you really believe the Dark Lord dead? Are all of his supporters dead? Do you not think Mr. Potter will need to know how to defend himself?"
Skergold looked at the wizard in front of him. What wizards often forgot was that Gringotts saw every transaction they made from the day they opened their first account or were added to the family vault. The goblins knew, better than the aurors, better than the wizengamot, better than Albus Dumbledore, who supported which side in the war because they knew where every knut came from and went to.
If the Gringotts' buyers respected Snape for his haggling abilities, the management respected the cunning and courage of a man that accepted galleons from Malfoy and the Dark Lord and spent them helping muggleborns escape the terror. Such a man's opinion on the matter of the death of the Dark Lord was not to be taken lightly.
"Until today, like everyone else, I hoped he was gone. Now I suspect he is not. I thank you for the information." Valuable information at that, Skergold would start hedging his and his clients long term interests as soon as Snape and Potter left the office. "Griphook."
The smaller goblin shot back through the door at the summons. "Please take Mr. Potter to his trust vault. He will need a Gringotts pouch, then show Professor Snape to the main Potter vault."
At the end of the corridor, they came to a short platform alongside which stood a number of carts. Snape eyed them with disfavour. "Come along, Mr. Potter. I have a feeling you will enjoy this."
Snape's suspicion was correct. Potter was hanging on for grim death but his face was split by a huge grin and he was just about managing to restrain a whoop of delight as the cart rocketed along the track descending deeper and deeper into the bank.
They stopped off at vault 687. "This is your trust vault, Potter. You will need about fifty galleons – the gold ones. The silver ones are sickles, the bronze are knuts. Grab a handful of each."
Harry stared at the piles of coins in his vault and gulped. It looked like Aladdin's cave from a book of fairy tales. He'd never seen anything like it in his life. Griphook thrust a small leather pouch at him impatiently. Harry scrambled the money together and climbed back in to the cart.
The cart descended deeper into Gringotts pulling up at a short platform with six round vault doors set into the wall on the left. "Vault 549." Griphook said.
"How does this one open, please, Griphook?" Snape is eyeing the door as if it might bite. There is an old crest above it. Not one he recognises. He stares at it intently, trying to memorise every scratch of the carving. The Potter family are a branch of something older. Interesting. "Mr. Potter's key and my magic, Professor."
Harry unlocks the door and Griphook confirms permission to open. The vault door creaks as it opens and a dull clang echoes back through the tunnels as it comes to rest against the wall.
Harry can't help but stare and the jumble of possessions stacked inside. There is furniture and paintings, exquisite robes in styles three hundred years out of date, stacks of books, open jewellery boxes spilling their contents all over a large dressing table. He cannot even begin to make sense of it.
"Stay there, Mr. Potter while I make sure everything is safe."
"But it's my vault, why wouldn't it be safe?"
"There was chaos at the end of the war, Harry. This has been retrieved and stacked up and preserved – it wouldn't surprise me to find the contents of the fridge in here somewhere under a stasis charm – but no-one had time to check things. While he is speaking, the Professor is casting a range of dark arts detection charms, cursed-artefact checks and poison detection spells. Everything is coming back clean.
"You can come in now. Don't touch anything without checking with me."
Truth be told, Snape is feeling overwhelmed himself. Spotting the photograph albums he had been looking for, he swiftly selects a dozen photographs of James, Lily, Remus and Peter, studiously ignoring any that contained Sirius Black. He copies them then casts his eye around for anything else that might be of interest to an eleven-year-old boy. He finds a Potter crest cloak pin that will be practical then calls Harry to him.
"These are Potter family wands. Just run your hand over them, see if any of them respond to you."
Harry does as requested but none of the wands react.
"Don't worry about it. Most people can only use their own wand, that is why most family vaults have a stack of them – families keep them but it is rare for them to choose a second owner."
Finally, he spots the daggers, half-hidden under an old cloak.
"Here they are, Harry, and fine goblin workmanship too." The blades are eight or nine inches long, one a stiletto, the other a serrated-tip broad blade in a cutaway leather sheath. Harry goes to draw the broader blade from its resting place but Snape stops him. "Never draw a knife unless you mean to draw blood. It's true for any blade but doubly so for goblin blades, they have their own magic and must be treated with respect."
"Griphook, who would I need to negotiate with for the inheritance fee on these, please?"
Griphook studies the daggers intently. "They are Blaktuth family daggers. I will set up a meeting for you."
"Thank you. Will there be any problem with Harry taking them today?"
"Not at all." Griphook is confident. After all, if Mr. Potter requires access to either of his vaults he must come to the bank and the matter of the daggers will be settled then.
"Come on Harry, we need to go. You still need to get your wand."
Harry unwillingly drags his attention away from a little gold ball with fluttering wings.
"It's a snitch, Harry. It's part of a quidditch set." Snape runs through some more diagnostic spells. "You can take it if you want."
Harry slips the little golden ball into his pocket, unable to explain why it appealed to him so.
As they board the cart for the ride back to the surface (and how does that work, Harry wonders), Snape turns to Griphook. "Please could you send me an inventory for vault 549?"
The goblin nods abruptly, closes the vault door forcefully and escorts them back to the main lobby of the bank.