The door to the courtroom swung open when Arthur pushed on it and the all of them walked into the room as calmly as they could, thought the trio keeping some part of them touching each other at all times made things a bit awkward.
"Ah," said Fudge looking disappointed for a second when he saw Arthur, Harry, Ginny and Hermione walk in. "Arthur, I see you got the letter that the time of the hearing was changed."
"Yes," he said with some effort to keep his voice civil. "But may I ask that the notices be sent with a bit more time to ensure attendance, after all it would be a shame for a person to unjustly miss their opportunity to present their case just because the notice was too late to allow them to attend." While he was speaking the Grangers and Molly had taken seats around the outside, Dan never taking his eyes off Malfoy or taking his hand off the butt of his gun hidden in his inside jacket pocket.
"Yes, well," said fudge looking a bit flustered. "You're here and Harry is here so we can start.
"We are here to determine the placement of Harry James Potter, as his previous guardians have been shown to be hostile to his presence and his life would be in jeopardy if he should stay. There are two parties who have put forward their requests for the custody of Mr Potter. Mr Arthur Weasley, a ministry employee and Lord Lucius Malfoy, a well respected member of the community." Fudge looked at the two parties.
"Now we will listen to the cases put forward by each party, Mr Weasley, you first."
"Yes sir," Arthur said standing and gathering himself.
"My family and I have placed our application to gain guardianship of Harry as we believe that in our house he will be able to grow up in a magical family that contains the love and affection that all children, especially Harry need to grow into prominent people in our society. My family leads a busy and diverse lifestyle with all our children performing in various activities and encouraged to get ahead in life on their own merit. We have two children very close to Harry's age with whom he will be able to support and be supported by during his childhood, one of whom he has already formed a close attachment with. He has spent some time in our household and has settled in well and has expressed his wishes that he not be removed."
"And yet," Fudge interrupted. "In this environment he has already needed to be taken to the hospital I believe it is, two separate times? I believe that sheds some doubt on the safety of the household."
"Those cases were..." Arthur began before he was interrupted again.
"I also have my doubts as to your ability to raise another child," Fudge continued. "Having looked at the financial information you have provided to the ministry you would be unable to provide for another child without dipping into Mr Potters own funds is that not correct?"
"Yes but Mr Potters parents have..." he began again before being cut off yet again.
"So you admit that you would need to take from him to keep him," the minister said with a slightly vindictive smile. "I think that about wraps up the arguments from the Weasley family, over to you mister Malfoy."
Ignoring the protests from the Weasleys, Lucius Malfoy stood.
"Minister I believe that my family and I would be able to teach Mr Potter the proper ways of our society as is befitting his station and status in our world. Such things have been sadly lacking in his experience to date as he has lived with those deplorable muggles and I believe that my family would be able to provide a proper environment for him to become a proper member of our society." The last remark was accompanied by a scathing look at Dan and Jane. "I would also like to point out that with the resources of the Malfoy family I would be able to care for him without removing funds from him and I too have a son his own age with whom he can socialise."
"I trust that your estate has not had to have children admitted to hospital on a regular basis?" Fudge asked.
"No, the last instance was a case of dragon pox several years ago which was treated very quickly."
"Very well then," the minister said with a smirk. "It is my opinion that the child himself, given his past and the conditions he was given with the Weasley would not be reliable in his wishes as they may have been influenced by the other circumstances and so I must therefore give..."
"CORNELIUS FUDGE!" a voice bellowed across the room as the door slammed open and Amelia Bones strode in looking furious. "What exactly do you think you are doing?"
"I am presiding over this case director and..." Fudge began blustering before he was interrupted by Amelia.
"You have no authority to preside over any child welfare case whatsoever Cornelius and you know it!" she snapped angrily. "You also have no authority to change the particulars of the hearing. I noticed that you specifically altered the time of this hearing to an hour earlier than specified and informed Mr Malfoy here yesterday while Mr Weasley was informed not ten minutes before the time that it was changed to! Now get out of this court immediately and I will be looking into why you took this upon yourself and who aided you to change the particulars of this hearing!"
With a furious look on his face fudge stood, snatched up his bowler hat and marched out the door.
"Now that he is out from under our feet we can start this over shall we?" she asked as she took her place.
The next half hour was filled with both sides making their points again and being questioned by Amelia, with her asking both parties questions about the points they raised, such as the provisions left by Harry's parents to give a sum of money to ensure Harry was taken care of adequately and the conditions in each of the households. Finally it came the time for Harry to give his view on where he wanted to go.
Dan had never taken his eyes off Malfoy throughout the whole trial, watching him from out of the corner of his eyes, making himself appear like he was completely distant from the proceedings in front of him. He watched with alarm and drew his gun as he saw Malfoy take his wand from the cane that he carried with him and aim under the tables at Harry, mutter something and Harry start suddenly. Both Ginny and Hermione looked at him with surprise as his expression went slightly vacant and Dan aimed and fired several times. His gun boomed loudly in the enclosed space, striking Malfoy in the arm, shoulder and the middle of his chest, flinging him out of his chair and onto the floor. As soon as he hit the floor Harry started and the vacant expression faded, leaving him looking confused.
The sound of the gunfire echoed as all the witches and wizards present jumped at the loud sounds and on seeing Malfoy on the ground Amelia instantly disarmed and bound Dan.
"Aurors and medics!" she shouted into a broach that she wore on her robes. "What in Merlins name are you thinking?" she shouted at him.
"I saw him mutter something and point his wand at Harry under the table," he said glaring at Malfoy from his bound position in his seat.
Amelia proceeded to summon Malfoy's wand and perform the priori incantatem spell on it while placing the tips of the two wands together. Her expression turned to fury when she saw the arithmetic representation of the Imperius curse hover above the point the two wands met and with a wave of her wand she released the binding on Dan.
"Thank you," he said rubbing his wrists where the ropes she had conjured had cut into him slightly.
"No need to thank me," she said as a pair of Aurors burst in followed by a healer. "Give him whatever treatment you need to keep him alive for now," she said pointing at Lucius. "Take his wand as evidence of the use of the Imperius curse. If he is able to be questioned tell me, I want to question him here and now, aurors bring some Veritaserum!" and immediately an auror rushed out.
"What is Veritaserum?" Jane asked Arthur.
"A truth potion," he said. "It's the most powerful in existence, there is no antidote and no way to resist it; you tell the truth whether you want to or not. It's only really used in criminal questioning for severe curses like this."
"That curse is bad?" Dan asked sharply. "Why? What does it do?"
"It's one of three curses called the unforgivables," Arthur replied. "They are so called because the use of one on a fellow human being gets an automatic life sentence." Both the Grangers gasped at this. "Yes they are that bad, though this is possibly the most tame of them. The imperius curse is the control curse; a person hit by it is incapable of any action that the person casting the spell doesn't want, total control. He would have been capable of killing Ginny and Hermione if he had been ordered to and he would not have been able to stop himself, though I doubt that was the instructions he was given."
"Is there any way to stop it?" Jane asked fearfully.
"Some strong willed people are able to fight it, or even throw it off completely, but there is no counter curse, there's only a potion and that is very difficult to make. Usually the only way someone could be proven to have done something while under the imperius curse is to give them Veritaserum and ask; there are no other signs."
While Arthur explained all this, the healer rushed over to Malfoy who had by now passed out with blood loss and with several waves of her wand she located the injuries. It took her three minutes before his wounds were healed and blood replenishing potions were administered and she stood up as the auror who had left returned with a small phial of clear liquid. "He is ready for questioning."
The two aurors dragged him to the centre of the room and conjured a chair, to which he was bound, his head tilted back and three drops were poured down his throat while Amelia set up a dicta quill and parchment to record the interrogation. The auror pointed his wand at his chest and muttered "Renervate!" bringing him back to full consciousness, though with a blank expression.
"Your name?" Amelia asked beginning the interrogation.
"Lucius Malfoy," he replied emotionlessly.
"Your date of birth?"
"Tenth of February."
"Did you cast the Imperius curse on Harry Potter?"
"Yes."
"Why did you do it?"
"So I could gain custody of him."
"Why did you want that so badly?"
"I wanted him so I could give him to the Dark Lord when he returns, then he would not be as displeased with me for turning away after he was defeated."
Amelia looked elated; she had wanted to pour this down his throat for years and now had grounds to ask for a confession to death eater activity.
"Are you Death Eater?" she asked.
"Yes."
"How did you escape prosecution?" Amelia asked seeing an opportunity.
"I bribed Cornelius Fudge and other members to have the charges dropped and the explanation that I'd been under the imperius put to the public."
"Who were those others?"
"Jameson, Peters, Malignin, Terrys, Greengrass."
"Do you know of any others who did the same?"
"Crabbe, Goyle, Nott, Mcnair..." he went on listing more than a dozen names of people who had claimed that.
"Do you know of any other death eaters who have escaped justice?" Amelia asked.
"Severus Snape, Igor Karkaroff, Peter Pettigrew," he said.
"Pettigrew?" she gasped. "He was a hero! What makes you say that!"
"He gave the Potters location to the Dark lord, he had the mark."
"What about Sirius black? What about all those muggles?"
"He was a decoy, trying to make us go for him rather than the real secret keeper, Peter. Peter used a blasting curse on the street killing the muggles, cut off his own finger and escaped by turning into a rat."
"He is an animagus?" Amelia asked. She was in a state of almost shock and was asking questions reflexively. She had expected only to here that he wanted to get Potter under his control and now had uncovered corruption at many levels from the DMLE to the minister's office, Death eaters, a hero who was actually a traitor and an innocent man who had been entombed in Azkaban for six years!
"Yes a rat."
"Do you know where he is now?"
"I told him that the Weasleys would be a good place to go as a pet and a spy, he has been passing information on the light and Dumbledore ever since."
"WHAT!" Molly and Arthur cried. "That's got to be scabbers; he's always been missing a toe on his foot!"
"You have a rat that matches the descriptions?" she asked them sharply.
"Yes, he's been in our family for years," Arthur said weakly. "We never dreamed he would be an animagus."
"Send teams to collect them," she said sharply to one of the Aurors. "Be warned that these are very dangerous individuals; bring them in dead or alive. Arthur I presume that you should be able to bring in Pettigrew?"
"That should be easy," he said. "Stunner and an unbreakable charm on his cage should do it; with surprise he doesn't have a chance."
"Good, I think we can leave the questioning there for now," she said faintly. "As for the hearing the Weasleys will receive custody of Harry Potter as it is obvious Malfoy is unsuitable."
"YES!" all three kids cried and tightened their hold on each other drawing themselves into a three-way hug causing all the adults to smile at their antics.
"I think that we should all go home," Molly said. "I think that is quite enough excitement for today."
"Wait molly," Arthur said. "I need to take out Pettigrew before we go back remember."
"Of course," she said. With that they left the room and headed back to the atrium which was full of Aurors gathering around portkeys and apparition points for their missions. "We should go to Diagon alley and get an ice-cream from Fortescues."
"Good idea," he replied. "I'll come get you once I've got him out."
"Come on you guys," Ginny said. "I wanna show Harry and Hermione Diagon alley for real."
After a few minutes filling in forms and getting signatures they were all set and Arthur and Molly were officially Harry's guardians and they all flooed to their destinations, Harry Ginny and Hermione tumbling out of the fireplace at the Leaky Cauldron as usual before they set off to Diagon alley. Dan and Emma were awestruck by the bustle of magical people and the shear magic of the place. The entire place looked like an old English market place or high street, cobles as the paving, wooden signs hanging from the store fronts, wooden and stone building several stories high with what are clearly flats above the stores. Then there was the contents of those stores; cauldrons of all kinds were stacked outside a store with prices listed in the tags, a magical toy store with flying figurines and animated soft toys, animated banners hung from a store for quidditch with players racing back and forth across the fabric throwing the ball between them, wands stacked outside a wand store with the name of Olivanders in gold above the door. Finally at the end was what they thought of as a stereotypical old English bank; white stone with a solid look to it yet graceful somehow.
"Wow," Harry said.
"It's different seeing it for yourself isn't it," Hermione said looking around with equal awe.
"This is incredible," Jane said trying to see everything at once.
"Here we go," Molly said steering everyone to the tables outside the ice-cream parlour. Both Grangers took seats so they could keep observing the Alley, while the trio concentrated on the different flavours that they could get.
"You know I can't wait till the senses stage kicks in," Hermione said.
"Why do you say that?" Dan asked.
"We can share tastes," she said. "That way we can taste all the good stuff three times over." This was greeted with large amounts of laughter from the parents and chuckles from the kids.
Eventually they had placed their orders and received their ice-creams, Harry, Hermione and Ginny getting a triple choc and peanut butter ripple to share and each of the adults chose a simple spearmint flavour while they talked. After ten minutes a silver light shot down from the sky and formed into a weasel that stood on its hind legs and spoke with Arthur's voice.
"The rat's in custody, but there are curses at the house. Do not return. Kids are safe, I'll come to you."
"What did he mean that there are curses at the house?" Jane asked.
"He probably had some cursed objects that he could use if he was captured," Molly said looking worried. "They might need to be removed by curse breakers and we can't have the kids there when that happens. Some of the stories I've heard from Bill about the work Gringots does in Egypt..."
"He works for Gringots?"Dan asked.
"Yes, he finished school last year and this is the end of his first year on the job," Molly said. "He's going to be a curse breaker, but he's just in training at the moment, doing the smaller stuff."
"What about your other kids? What are they planning on doing?" Jane asked curious.
"They're all in school or going to be," she replied. "Charlie has just finished his sixth year and is planning on going to work with dragons."
"Dragons!" Dan gasped. "Real fire breathing dragons?"
"Yes," she said looking anxious. "I wish he would go into the ministry with his dad but he won't. It's Percy who wants to go into the ministry and we don't know what the others want, they aren't really at the age where they are thinking about their careers."
"Ginny always wanted to grow up to be Harry's wife," Hermione put in with a giggle as everyone else except Harry and Ginny cracked up.
"Shut up!" Ginny cried out with her hands over her face which was doing an amazing job of mimicking the colour of her hair. "Do you want me to tell them that you wanted to own the largest library on earth with the complete first editions of Shakespeare?"
Hermione spluttered as a fresh round of laughs went around the table before Molly spoke up.
"Well most of the ancient wizarding houses have private libraries; I definitely know the Potters have one."
"They do?" both Harry and Hermione gasped.
"Yes," she smiled. "I remember at your parents wedding I wandered in there at one time and it was at least the size of Hogwarts library, if not larger."
"Yes when I find where it is you can go in," Harry said as Hermione started to pull out her puppy-dog eyes on him. "But if you are in there for more than a day we'll send in the search parties."
"And one of us will be with you at all times," Molly added in quickly. "Not all the books in those libraries are fit for children to read."
"In what way," Jane asked sharply.
"Well on the lower end there are usually books that are..." she paused looking embarrassed. "Adult centred." She saw the understanding dawn on their faces. "But at the other end there are probably books on some of the darkest and most evil magics in existence. I remember in the library at Hogwarts..." she shuddered.
"What did you find? Why were you looking?" Jane asked worried.
"It was for NEWT Defence; it was horrible, some of it was even low level necromancy." She shuddered again.
"Necromancy?" Dan asked in a slightly disgusted whisper.
"Death magic," she said looking nauseous. "It told you how to make inferi, reanimated corpses. The punishment for any sort of death magic is to be sent through the veil. That law has been in existence since the foundation of wizarding law and it has never changed or even been proposed to be changed."
"So it told you how to make zombies?" Jane squeaked. "Why in the name of god was that in a school full of children!"
"It was in the restricted section," Molly reassured her. "You need a signed note from a teacher to get a book from there, if you try to take one it will start screaming when you open it and only students doing advanced defence, charms transfiguration or potions ever get permission to go in there and even then those books are scrutinised heavily."
"So they won't be able to stumble across them while at school?" Dan asked relaxing a bit.
"Yes it's one of the reasons the librarian is so protective of the books, there is some nasty stuff in there and she doesn't want them to fall into the wrong hands."
"Well now we're really freaked out how about we get some money and do some shopping?" Hermione asked innocently. Everyone agreed and after paying for and finishing their ice-creams they set off towards Gringots. Harry's presence caused quite a bit of a stir as they walked down the street, with dozens of witches and wizards coming forward to shake his hand and thank him for finishing of Voldemort. By the time they got to Gringots there were three reporters, six camera guys and a crowd at least ninety strong following them asking for autographs. A few even offered marriage contracts.
"Wow," Jane said, looking back at the crowd that had stopped outside the doors of the bank. "When you said he's very famous I thought that we would just have to deal with a few autographs and girls getting crushes. I heard three people offering themselves or their daughter's hands in marriage out there and half a dozen more were offering themselves full stop, he's almost seven for god's sake! That and there were three reporters there within a minute!"
"The last war was as bad as it could get," Molly said sadly. "Everyone was terrified that they wouldn't live through the day and it was a realistic fear. Then Harry came along and stopped it all; you know who was gone and the death eaters fell apart. Everyone was euphoric and everyone out there can remember the war."
"I suppose," Dan said as they stepped up to a counter.
"We would like to visit Mr Potters vault thank you," Molly said.
"Mr Potters vault?" he asked looking at her sternly.
"Yes we recently became Harry's guardians and Harry learned of the magical world as well so we would like to visit and probably take a look at the finances," she said.
"Do you have proof of your claim?" the goblin asked.
"Here," she said handing over the copies of the guardianship forms. The goblin placed a trio of small crystals at several points on the document and they all glowed gold after a second. "That seems to be in order, do you have his key?"
"No we haven't, Harry never received a key," Molly explained.
"We will need several drops of blood then to authorise the creation of new keys and removal of the old ones," he said gesturing to Harry who held out his hand. A quick prick on his finger and a few drops on a plate and two keys appeared. Then the plate started flashing gold and the goblin stared at it in shock. He summoned a messenger goblin and spoke with him urgently and sent him away before turning back to look at the three kids in surprise and a fair amount of respect.
"Is something wrong?" Harry asked confused.
"Not at all sir," the goblin replied. "We just need to speak with you regarding you bond." All of them started in surprise and looked at him in shock.
"How did you know?" Jane asked.
"We detected it in his blood," he said calmly. "And may I ask if you have an interest in the parties involved?"
"Yes, Hermione is our daughter," Dan said.
"That is all in order then," he said. As he spoke another goblin walked up.
"Ah, Mr Potter, Mrs Weasley," he said. "I am Ragnok, director of Gringots, if would you follow me we can talk in a private location."
On the way Molly explained to the Grangers exactly why this was a significant event, "Ragnok is not only the director of Gringots, but he is the head of the European goblin nation, an independent magical nation that has strong ties with the various wizarding governments that they do business with. I have never even seen him before much less spoken to him in person."
They were led into a spacious room with a coat of arms on the door; three phoenixes with their wings outstretched forming a triangle over a shield and crossed wands. At the bottom was a scroll with the words Optimus Fortis Quod Putus Eternus
"What does the motto mean?" Hermione wondered out loud.
"It means noble, brave and pure forever," Dan said.
"You speak Latin Mr...?" Ragnok asked
"Granger," Dan replied. "Daniel granger sir. I learnt a fair bit of Latin at school and at medical school."
"Ah, you are non-magical then?" he asked.
"Yes," Dan replied.
"Yes of course, it certainly looks like the Potter curse is still in effect," he said grinning.
"What curse?" asked Harry nervously.
"I have seen five generations of Potters come through these doors Mr Potter," Ragnok said amused. "And have been the account manager for the past three. Each of them had the same pattern with their partners, with a single exception. They all found their life mates early on in life, they were almost all muggle born, brilliant, red haired and with a large temper. It seems you have the best of both worlds in your bond mates."
"Really?" Harry asked.
"Yes really and it is your bond that we are here to discuss, or more specifically, what it means for your finances here in Gringots."
"And what is that?" Molly asked.
"Essentially it is considered a sign of maturity in the goblin world to form such a bond, though this wouldn't usually qualify you for adult status or rights until you are at least fourteen years of age. In this scenario however you can become head of you house at eleven as you are the last of a Most Noble and Most Ancient house; if you chose a magical advisor. This gives you the rights and responsibilities of an adult, though these can be revoked by your advisor if he or she decides that you are not ready or able to hold those responsibilities. At the moment you have four vaults; the trust vault that was set up when you were born, the Potter family vault, and two others that we are trying to ascertain the status, contents and associated information about.
"The Potter trust vault contains 70,000 galleons, 28,954 sickles and 14,787 knuts. It is topped up to 100,000 galleons every three months."
"If that is the case then why is it at 70,000?" Molly asked.
"There was a 10,000 galleon withdrawal at the beginning of this month and the two months previously by Mr Potter's former guardian, with five hundred galleons being converted to muggle currency and paid to one Vernon Dursley for Harry's care." he said. "Were you not aware of this?"
"No," Molly said looking livid. "Are you saying that fat lump was being paid five hundred galleons a month to "take care" of Harry?"
"That is correct," he said cautiously, as he saw the kids looking furious.
"Is there any way we can get that back?" Jane asked, similarly angry to Molly and the kids. "There was no care provided and those creatures," she spat. "Are currently being charged with the attempted murder of Harry."
At this Ragnok's eyes widened and he bared his teeth in a snarl.
"And who was this guardian who made these withdrawals," Molly asked. "The Dursleys were the only guardians that Harry should have had and they most definitely did not have any contact with the magical world."
Ragnok barked an order in gobbledegook and an attendant rushed in. After another snarled command he rushed out again.
"How much is five hundred galleons in muggle money?" Dan asked.
"At today's exchange rate, 12,325 pounds," Ragnok said.
"That's outrageous!" Jane raved. "They get paid more than most professionals to supposedly take care of Harry and they treat him like dirt! They could have not worked a day in their lives and lived very well on that!"
"I assure you that we will take any and all measures necessary to recover the amounts," Ragnok said. "The Potters are one of our oldest clients and were among our first customers and the last of those lines who were the original customers. We will find who has been authorising these withdrawals and take action."
At that moment the goblin who had been sent earlier rushed back in with a heavy file in his hands which he gave to Ragnok and then left. Ragnok then spent five minutes flicking though the files and the scowl on his face grew more and more pronounced with each passing second. Eventually he set the file down and looked up at them.
"It appears that the money was taken by one Albus Dumbledore, placed in several dummy vaults and eventually placed in the vault belonging to the organisation known as the Order of the Phoenix."
Stunned silence greeted this revelation, but there were more to follow. "He also seems to have sealed the Potter will using his post as Chief warlock and placed Mr Potter in the care of people who were never supposed to have custody of him. He was a witness to the will and so knew exactly what the will contained, yet he had it sealed, himself proclaimed as his financial guardian in the stead of the Dursleys and Mr Potter raised in ignorance of his status, the existence of the will and his family vaults. He left specific instructions never to tell you of these things until you came of age, the only reason that I am able to tell you of them is that he has violated your parents wishes and fraudulently proclaimed himself your guardian."
The temperature in the room started to rise rapidly and the air crackled with magic as all three kids shook with fury that someone who they thought was a great man suddenly turned out to be stealing from Harry, placed Harry with people who made his life hell and tried to kill him while paying them to do so and tried to keep what was his from him. Molly quickly drew her wand and began casting calming spells as fast as she could while Jane and Dan tried to soothe the children, speaking words of comfort in their ears and holding them tight. After five minutes Molly was tired but the kids were back under control. It was then that they noticed the armed guards who were pushed to the edges of the room by the magic the kids had given off.
"You do know Mrs Weasley that it is a crime against the goblin nation to draw a wand in the presence of the leader of the goblin nation?" Ragnok asked pointedly looking angry.
"My apologies," she said weakly, as she put away her wand. "I thought that it would be the lesser of two evils. We do not want those two losing control of their magic anywhere near a populated area, least of all here."
"And why is that may I ask?" he growled at her.
"The last time they passed the blast off as a meteorite impact to the muggle newspapers," Jane said. Ragnok's jaw dropped open.
"They did that?" he whispered
"Yes, they lost control and blew a crater forty yards across when they were magically exhausted," Dan said. "They have had several days rest and recuperation since then and they were even more angry this time. If she hadn't they would have torn the entire building apart by accident."
"V-Very well," he said. "In that case then all is forgiven and thank you for your timely intervention. Guards you are dismissed."
"Please you three, control yourselves," Jane chided gently. "You can badly hurt people if you don't get a grip on your tempers."
"It's so hard," Ginny hissed. "The things Harry has to go through..." she trailed off in a snarl.
"It's monstrous," growled Hermione taking up where Ginny left off. "He finds out his relatives were not only abusing him but they were being paid to do it and the man who put him with them not only was stealing form him but he was the one using Harry's money to pay for his abuse! It's just so..." she too trailed off unable to find words in her rather large for her age vocabulary.
"When you feel yourselves getting angry just remember to think about something that makes you happy," Dan said. "Like try to feel each other and only each other."
Eventually the excitement died down and they got back to business. "Are we able to reclaim the money taken by Dumbledore?" Molly asked.
"Yes we will be able to as they were taken by fraud, in addition there will be heavy penalties to Dumbledore himself for theft and ignoring the will. Those will be split between yourself and the bank. At the moment should we move onto the family vault?"
"Yes thank you," Molly said.
"very well; at the moment the Potter family vault contains 698,789,321 galleons, 389,433 sickles and 365,487 Knuts in liquid assets, various tapestries, armour, weapons both magical and muggle, jewels and other artefacts to the value of some 248,260,000 galleons as well as many other treasures that are metaphorically as well as literally priceless. The estate contains assets in both the muggle and magical worlds to the value of some 976,234,000 galleons with notable companies that you have a significant stake in listed below.
Quality quidditch supplies, 35%
Magadeth Food and beverage suppliers, 49%
Floo suppliers network, 76%
Nimbus Broom Co, 67%
Firebolt Broom Co, 15%
Microsoft Co (Muggle) 10%
BMW (Muggle) 24%
Boeing (Muggle) 9%
BHP Billiton (Muggle) 18%
Puddlemere United Quidditch team 100%
Nestle, (Muggle) 10%
WMC (Muggle) 20%
Lockheed Martin, (muggle) 26%
"The estate has grown considerably over the past six years thanks to some aggressive trading, with holdings increasing by 75% and profits increasing by a similar amount in excess of the input. In total the wealth of the estate has grown considerably since the downfall of the dark lord and is looking at many more years. You also own a total of seventeen manors across the world, nine being in the British isles, two in France, two in the USA, one in Germany and Russia, one in Australia, one in Sweden and two in Greece. In addition you own several farms and a large number of houses and other areas of land including several mines for magical ores and material."
Stunned silence met these proclamations.
"How did the Potters get so much?" Jane breathed shocked, being the first to recover the ability to speak.
"Gringots has been in operation for a lot longer than most people believe," Ragnok explained. "While we have only been in England since the Tenth century, around the foundation of Hogwarts we are actually a branch of the main bank which is in Rome, Italy. The bank as a whole has existed since before the rise of the roman empire, even as far back as the Egyptian golden era. The Potters were a wealthy family when we first opened the bank in Europe in 1785 BC and they have had more than three thousand years to accrue wealth. Potters always seem to come out on top regardless of their competition, as has been seen by their longevity and their family motto was actually given to them by the old magical council, back when the Roman Empire was in its prime and has remained true since before records started and has continued to this day."
"So this is the result of thousands of years of work?" Molly said looking at the numbers in the ledgers on Ragnok's desk. She found it hard to comprehend that much wealth.
"Yes and a large portion of it is in physical property, or businesses that are unlikely to go out of business. The Potters are without doubt the world's richest family. The reason it has been kept out of the lists was the Potters desire for privacy and their diversity; roughly half of the business wealth is split across the two worlds.
"The effect the bond has is that both Miss Granger and Miss Weasley have the same rights to the property as Mr Potter, in other words full access to the trust vault and once Harry turns eleven full accesses to the Potter accounts and estate. Should Mr Potter claim his inheritance he will also gain the title of Lord Potter, with Miss Weasley and Miss Granger becoming the Ladies Potter."
"They count as married?" Molly gasped along with Jane.
"Not at the moment, though they will be once Harry reaches the age of eleven. They will be married by magic and so there will be no arguing by anyone that can affect this and I highly doubt that they will have any regrets or would it make any difference."
"He's right mummy," Ginny said. "By that time we will be one. The bond will be complete and we will be the same person in every way, it wouldn't change anything for us." Harry and Hermione nodded.
"Alright baby girl," Molly said.
"The other thing is that we have received the information on the two vaults that were mentioned before. They are the Gryffindor and Slytherin Vaults. It appears that Mr Potter is the heir of Gryffindor and the magical heir of Slytherin."
"How is he magical heir of Slytherin though?" Molly choked out.
"I believe it was granted when he defeated the dark lord as a child as he was the true heir of Slytherin, something made the heirs magic abandon him though and it passed to his vanquisher. The question is what could make it desert him? It would have to be a great crime against magic to do that."
"Would the creation of a horcrux do that?" Dan asked. Ragnok did a double take.
"It certainly would, but what makes you ask that and how do you know of such a thing?" he asked looking alarmed.
"We discovered that Harry was a horcrux until recently," Molly said with a sniff as she remembered the removal ritual and the look on the kid's faces when they heard what was essentially a death sentence placed on them. "It was removed when we found it as it was destroying the bond with Ginny and it was because of that that Hermione was bonded too."
"Then that is our answer," Ragnok said grimly. "Do you have any idea how many he made?"
"I talked with some of the people from the ministry while we were waiting for Harry and Ginny to wake up," Molly said. "They said it would take at least four but probably more than that for a soul to fracture on its own."
"It is well known that Gringots is one of the safest places in the British Isles," Ragnok said. "I will investigate known death eater vaults to determine if he has placed one here. Such abominations will not be allowed to exist."
"What does being the heirs of the founders do?" Molly asked.
"They gain access to the founders vaults which now only contain some rare or unique artefacts and very little else. The other thing is each heir has a 25% stake in the Hogwarts education trust. Thus Harry has a 50% share. The other heirs can be found with a blood test, though only females can be the heirs to those lines as they are matriarchal."
"How about we test Hermione?" Jane asked with a smile. "It would be nice to see if we have magical people in our ancestry."
"We can do that test now," Ragnok said looking amused at the look on Hermione's face; eager and her eyes fixed on the parchment that he had taken out. "Just a drop of blood on the parchment will do. Muggles will be in black, squibs will be in blue, magical will be in green, any matriarchal lines you are the heir to will be in gold, any patriarchal lines that you can bear an heir for are in silver. Any questions?" there were none and so Hermione pricked her finger and dripped a drop of blood on the parchment. It swirled for a few seconds before becoming a liquid gold and forming the rune of their bond with each of their names in it. Then off Hermione's name the lines started to form; Jane and Dan in blue, their parents in black and up several generations before finally coming across another blue on her father's side with the name of Graceman. That then went up the page in green, stopping when it reached thirty generations. On her mother's side it went eight generations before finally coming across a squib by the name of Gellane, before continuing up the tree until it changed names, which glowed gold; Ravenclaw. Everyone gasped.
"Well Miss," Ragnok said. "This is a day for the founders to show themselves, this confirms that you are the heir of Ravenclaw and you have the rights to her vault and artefacts. On your eleventh birthday you will also gain the title of Lady Ravenclaw, as will your bond mates."
"I hope I don't gain the title Lady Ravenclaw," Harry quipped with a shy grin. Much to his delight everyone burst out laughing.
"I don't know Harry you would make a wonderful Lady," Jane said with a smile.
"Well why don't we do the same with Ginny?" Molly asked looking amused. "See if that rumour of us descended from one of the founders is true."
Again a drop of blood coiled into the trinity rune of their bond before sending the green shoots out to Molly and Arthur's names and up through the ages. In this tree there was a lot of green with several blues or blacks as parents along the line before finally the name Weasley turned to Hufflepuff. Again there were stares. "Well it seems that Miss Weasley will become Lady Hufflepuff and I can assure you Mr Potter that you will not be Lady Hufflepuff as well," Ragnok smirked at him.
"Wait that means that these three literally own Hogwarts," Dan said.
"Yes they will be in charge of the wards collectively," Ragnok replied. "Additional information can be received in the vaults or from Hogwarts itself as the building has an inbuilt sentience that activates for the founders heirs."
"Thank you for your information and time Director," Jane said. "Is there anything else we need to know? Or is there a blood test we can take that proves that I'm third in line to the throne and Harry has to marry a rosebush?" she quipped cheekily.
"Actually," Ragnok said with a straight face taking a separate ledger out of the drawers in his desk.
"You're not serious!" she gasped in shock as the kids looked alarmed. That is until he began to laugh.
"Ah the look on your faces was worth all the gold in Gringots," Ragnok chortled. "I must say that you are welcome to discuss your accounts with me at any time. It was a pleasure to do business with you all, I can't remember the last time I enjoyed dealing with a family. You are a breath of fresh air in this world all of you."
"Thank you Director," the kids said in tandem before they were all led from the room by another goblin.
The director sat at his desk looking through the Potter accounts as he reviewed the meeting in his mind. What stood out from the nuances of the other families that he had to deal with was that the others all treated him like he was beneath them or at best something to be tolerated. The witch, muggles and kids he had just dealt with accepted him as an equal and even made a few jokes with him. They didn't even think about blaming Gringots for the thefts that were being perpetrated, they simply looked at Dumbledore. The goblins had known about the shifty nature of the Dumbledore's since they first arrived in England in the fourteen hundreds; all of them were looking to further the light but they really only ever saw the big picture and regarded rules as something to keep people in check and away from the dark. They were never really dark wizards themselves, rather grey, they do good work but they really didn't have many scruples about killing innocents to get that good work done. Goblins had always looked to the Potters as defenders of the light and with good reason, they themselves had been part of the magical council that created that motto and it was a closely guarded secret that there was much more to those words than meets the eye