Diagon Alley.
*Turpin House*July 20*
Professor Minerva McGonagall was a woman that liked everything to be organized, for an organized life was the sign of an organized mind, and she prided herself in the fact that the only woman as organized as herself was the regent Longbottom, a woman she was friends with ever since their own days at school.
They still met from time to time; it was quite nice to drink whiskey in the company of friends.
It was because she was so organized that she planned every day of her job and kept enough time for herself every day.
She didn't want to be like Albus, bless his soul but the man had only ten minutes of free time for every day he worked.
Every day of the summer she would visit a muggle-born's house, explained what the letter was and why it had arrived, took the family to Diagon Alley so they could buy the needed things for the upcoming year, left them with a small leaflet to explain how Hogwarts taught, took them to platform 9&¾ so they could find it on September first and then retired to her personal quarters for the rest of the day, where she would spend up to an hour sorting through the reply letters and the rest of the evening reading her transfiguration journals or the book she chose to entertain herself with between the bi-yearly issues.
Today she was to visit Lisa Turpin, a girl of the Little Whining area of Surey that if reports were to be believed had a head-strong personality and a good memory retention and wit.
An exemplar Ravenclaw if she were to believe someone else's word.
But she hadn't gotten as far as being the best transfiguration mistress in the British Isles by taking for granted what other people said, oh no, she had gotten to her position by questioning everything that she heard and experimenting to prove it.
So here she was, looking through the window in her cat form to see if she could get a good reading on what the family was like.
The cat animagus didn't see anyone in the living-room but on the dining room, if it could be called that.
They looked like a tight bunch, that would be good, nothing better for a muggle-born than supporting parents.
So she knocked on the door and waited for it to open.
"I'll get it" she heard a boy say inside the house.
Strange, she was sure that the reports listed only a brother that was a year old at best.
The door opened to reveal a boy that looked so much like the prankster James Potter had at eleven that she had to make an effort to hold in the gasp that threatened to leave her.
As it was though, she kept her strict exterior, "Is Miss Turpin home?" she asked.
The boy nodded at her, "You're the Hogwarts professor right?" McGonagall nodded slowly, "good, you can explain me how I'm going to keep my muggle education during my seven years there, I've been looking for a job that takes me to places"
McGonagall followed the boy silently, wondering how had the boy-who-lived met with a muggle-born.
The probabilities were so low!
"Excuse me Mr…?" she started.
"Potter" the boy said, "Harrison James Potter" the two came into the living room, "She's taking us somewhere"
"Harry" there was a slight warning tone in Mrs. Turpin voice, the same tone McGonagall used on her students. "What have I told you about guests?"
Harry recognized the tone, but he had built a small immunity to the lower levels of it over the years, "to get them to you or smash the door on their faces if you are not here" Harry smirked as she started to glare, "and to let them explain themselves."
"And what are you doing?" Harry saw Mr Turpin smirk.
"Well I brought her here, didn't I?" he replied smiling, "And she told me she came from Hogwarts already"
McGonagall cleared her throat, "Am I right to assume that Mr Potter already told you about magic?"
Harry and Lisa nodded, "Yeah, but he was a meany about it" Lisa said.
"I told you you were a witch"
"But you said it out of nowhere"
"After you summoned a book"
"Because you threw it"
"You were about to hit me with it"
"You were reading over my shoulder"
"It was the only copy"
"You could have made it less of an insult"
The transfiguration mistress asked for a seat at the table, making the two amused parents nod, "is this a normal occurrence?" McGonagall asked.
The Turpin's glanced at each other and nodded, "They have a discussion like this every week" started Mr Turpin.
"But they end up going into unrelated topics after the first minute" continued Mrs Turpin.
As if to prove her point they heard Harry say, "and I told you that monkeys think us amusing the same we think that of them"
The adult Turpins acted like there was nothing going on, "They end up playing some movie at the end"
"Mulan is better" they heard Harry again.
"NO, Aladdin is" Lisa replied.
"The story of a vagabond that tries to be rich to impress a lady"
"And Mulan is a fighting story"
"No it isn't, it is about overcoming the status quo"
"Prove it" Lisa challenged
"Alright" Harry moved to the armoire and selected one of the VHS before putting it on the player.
The two sat down on the couch as the movie began, letting the adults on relative silence.
"Right," George started again, "now that the two are quiet, what was your plan, Miss…?" he let it hang on the air.
"Professor McGonagall, please," the professor said, "And I was first planning on introducing you to magic"
"Yeah, Harry did us that favour a few years ago" Mr Turpin commented.
"After that," if McGonagall heard him she gave no sign, "I was to take you to Diagon Alley to buy the supplies your daughter will need"
"Oh I hope you don't mind Harry tagging along," Mrs Turpin said, "His relative would never do anything with magic"
"Surely they would take him to Diagon"
"They wouldn't," Harry called out, not taking his eyes off the TV, "the whale senior hates unnatural stuff and the horse hates mum," He was swatted by Lisa.
"Be quiet" she hissed.
"Right" Said Minerva McGogall.
*London*The leaky cauldron*Noon*
Harry used his illusionary magic, one of his worst field for magic, to cover himself as for the third time a wizard he knew nothing of tried to greet him enthusiastically after seeing his awesome scar.
He shouldn't hide it, but it was the only way to avoid a mob.
"This way please" professor McGonagall said as she led them through the dark pub and into the back of the local.
"This" the professor explained, "is the muggle entrance to Diagon Alley, so pay attention you two; this is what you have to do to open it" she pointed a stick to a brick on the wall.
"It's a wand, sweety" Lily said.
'It looks like stick, only the feel of it is different' he replied
She tapped three bricks, and smiled thinly as the bricks shifted and created and archway into the alley itself.
The Turpins gaped at the incredible view of the magical shops, the impressive number of wizards milling about, the blatant magical energy that permeated the air itself.
Harry just raised an eyebrow.
That's apathy for you
"Welcome," the professor said, "To Diagon Alley"
She led them through the cobblestone street towards an impressive and imposing marble, passing through shops that sold things they hadn't even know existed, like dragon meat and blood, flobberworms, bubbotuber's puss.
Harry made sure to make a stop at the Quality Quiditch Supplies on the way back.
"You can't take a broomstick until second year"
'You said it yourself, I'm my father's son' He smirked as he dodged the people on the streets, 'I'll find a way'
Lily sighed, "You will not sneak a broom into school"
'Who says I need to, I only need a second year friend'
"HOW ARE YOU GOING TO DO THAT"
Harry said nothing.
The marble building turned out to be the bank, with goblins guarding it and managing it, adding to the already high intimidation because of the poem on the front.
"You're going to have to separate from them; you need to go to the Potter accountant" Harry didn't argue, he was curious of the family fortune after all.
"Wait for me when you're finished, will you?" he told Lisa and her parents, who frowned but nodded in consent, "family business, sorry"
He walked to one of the tellers, a younger looking goblin when compared to the fossils on some other booths.
"I need to speak with manager Twistblade" Harry said, making the gobbling glance at him.
"And who," the goblin sneered, "wants to speak with him?"
The raven-haired kid let the illusion on his forehead drop and moved his hair away from the lightning scar, "Harrison James Potter"
The goblin looked at the scar closely and then at his face as a whole, looking for any sign that the wizard that had dared come into the bank with a glamour on was not wearing another.
Eventually, the goblin leaned back and pressed something on his desk, before looking back at Harry again.
"People on disguise are not welcome here" nevertheless, eventually an even younger-looking goblin came and told Harry to follow him before moving, not even bothering to check of the wizard was following.
The goblin led Harry through a maze of corridors and doors, only stopping on intersections to check if the way was the correct one, until eventually they stopped on a door that read 'Twistblade, Potter account Manager'
The goblin knocked on the door and waited for the go-ahead, to which he shoved Harry into the room and left.
"Be respectful, but forceful if needed" Harry sent a nod.
"Are you my account manager?" Harry asked an elderly goblin that sat behind an ornate desk on an ornate chair.
The goblin was a contrast to the highly decorated furniture, as it was wearing a plain suit with only a small medal on the chest, "That depends on if you are who you say you are" Twistblade replied in a raspy voice.
"I am Harrison James Potter, Son of Lillian and James Potter"
"Prove it" Twistblade said, "prove that you are Harrison Potter, call your ring to you"
That was unexpected.
According to his mother, every family had four kind of rings for the different kind of family members; the Lord ring for the current head of house, the Lady ring for the current Lady, the heir ring for the eldest male son, and the scion ring for the younger siblings and the first-born in case it was a daughter.
So all he had to do was call either a scion or an heir ring and hope for the best.
He hated having to hope instead of being sure of something.
Harry let out a breath and spoke the words that came to him, "Ring of the Potter House, come to me, the heir of the family, the next of the Heads and mark me as the proper choice."
A flash of light blinded them and Harry felt something on his right ring-finger, the heir ring had settled on his hand.
It was a sliver band, with a crest carved on it; two swords clashing over an ornate-looking piece of pottery.
So the Potters were both crafters and warriors, how nice to know that.
"Right," the goblin spoke after he finished looking at the ring, "now that you have proved your identity I will hand over a copy of your bank statements so you can go over them"
He handed Harry a large, leather-bound book after removing it from somewhere in the desk.
"Well that's not right" Lily said, confusion but happiness on her voice.
'Why is that mum?'
"Last time I checked, the fortune only went unto the fifty million galleons, fourteen million sickles and nine hundred thousand knuts"
'And that is bad because…?'
"It isn't but unless you have shares on some company, BIG shares, the best you could have would be a less than a hundred millions, not more"
Harry nodded, "Could you please tell me why I'm a billionaire when I'm sure that I was only in the millions?"
"That would be because of your guardian made sure that every profit by the selling of merchandise with the name Harry Potter or the tittle 'The-Boy-Who-Lived' would give you a twenty-per-cent" Twistblade replied, "with the average sell of ten pieces of merchandise per day over the last ten years, plus the one-per-cent interest rate that all the Potter vaults have and the investments on Florean Fortescue's Ice-cream, Florish and Blott's, the Three Broomsticks and Zonko's all add up to the value you have there.
"It is, however, not the full value of the Potter Estate, as the heirlooms and artefacts in the main vault are not stated, those articles however, include the Potter Library, transported here as soon as the wards on the Potter Manor house were breached, weapons collected through the ages, furniture salvaged from the Potter's cottage on Godrick's Hollow, painting from all previous Head of House and the wands from previous Potters'
"This adds up to a value of at least one-hundred-and-twenty-five per-cent of the value you see on the ledger for the entirety of the Potter Estate"
That was a lot of money, no way around it.
He was a billionaire with a lot of books and heirlooms.
Lisa would melt with jealousy.
"There is, however, a clause on the family ledger that states that the only money the heir and any scions of the family can only remove money from their trust vaults and that any heirloom taken from the main vault must be authorized by the Head of house."
'Bloody hell' that took away so much reading material.
"Let Twistblade finish sweety" Lily said, "and watch your language"
"The previous Head of house left a signed note stating that in the event of his death, the heir of the family could take a many-book with the condition that the grimoire and a copy of the Hogwarts rule-book are in it at every time and that a five-compartment trunk will be taken from the vault in which the shelve "
'Many-book?' he asked.
"One of the best creations ever" Lily sighed in contentment, "It is a library within a single book, the only thing you have to do is put the books you want in the shelve linked to the book you grabbed and you can chose what book to read in the index"
'And I say it again, Lisa will be so jealous'
*Alley*One hour later*
Lisa glared at Harry, HARD, and it was all because of the many-book on his pocket.
The emerald-eyed boy sighed, "you can borrow it at any time, you know"
The glaring got down a little, "promise" she held out her pinkie.
Harry rolled his eyes but intertwined his own pinkie with hers, "I swear it, you just have to ask"
She grinned at him and dragged him back to her parents.
The only stop now was Olivander's, though it would be great if they could stop at the pet shop, even if any animal HE bought would have to stay at the Turpin's during breaks.
He would have to make the Turpins' not to mention the things with his name on it.
Lisa was a friend, but could be unbearable at times.
I had to cut it there, unless you wanted me to make it 3K long.
This is oficially the last pre-Hogwarts chapter, next will be the train-ride and the sorting, hopefully.
I bought Bioshock infinte, best damn game ever.
The story-line is as messy as the Doctor's with the three changes through the tears and the multiverse-theory explonation, but the game-play...ah, the only time I've been as happy to play a game was when I bought Codename:Panzers.
And there was the future/Comstock house level, it tried my heart and hand when I passed through that thing with the louspeakers on its head and the creppy cut-off faces.
Now, my schedule of the month will be busy, with four weeks straight of exams, updates may take up to two weeks until summer vacation.
Goodbey all