Freak of Nature

I don't own Harry Potter, nor do I make any money off of this work, period.

AN: Well, glad people liked the last two updates. They were slow in coming I know, but again in my defense, I am absolutely swamped at work and at home in the few hours of rest I do have. "Honey-do" lists are not my friend! Thanks again for the reviews and the detailed comments, I really appreciate it and many of them have helped define my thinking on parts to be written into the story.

AN2: I agree that Nundu Harry is a lot of fun to write. I've not been able to really write a real fierce all out fight scene with him as a Nundu yet due to the fact that he hasn't really had to fight in order to kill his enemies. Everything till this point has been the equivalent of "put in blender, press the button for frappe" when it comes to the Nundu fighting. That's the mixed blessing of using such a dangerous creature for an animal aspect. There is a reason why the Nundu carries a XXXXX classification with the Ministry of Magic and rates as more dangerous than Dragons who can be stunned by as few as 10 wizards; even with 100 trained hit-wizards it's not a sure thing with a single normal Nundu.

AN3: To the reviewer who made a comment about ebony being a wood, I hope you read the last chapter to see why I had to list ebony as also a magical ore; needed it for the armor of the Blackrock Clan. See, I really do have a purpose for this stuff; I really do try to stick to the details and factual bits as best I can. Thanks for all the reviews and comments though, I appreciate it when people call facts to light or bring up things that can inspire me to come up with something new!

[parsel]

/creepy crawly critters/

{Primal Beast Language}

Chapter 10: Getting Down to Business

"Honey, I liked the Harry Potter movies, too, but that doesn't mean I ran out and got a Dark Mark tattooed onto my left forearm like you did."
— Jim Butcher (Blood Lite)

The banking rules controlling accounts at Gringotts were a weird amalgamation of loopholes, treaties, laws, and traditions of both the Goblin and Wizarding races. Through the subjugation of the Goblins by the wizards, and their magically binding treaties, the wizards had built a substantive level of control over the Goblin's banking mechanisms that allowed them to feel secure in keeping their money with the goblins. Note that the emphasis in that last sentence should be on the word "feel" placed before secure, thus denoting that the actual security of the wizarding funds was not as real as the "feeling" that the wizards held that they were superior to, and in control of, the goblins that safeguarded their funds. The reality was something entirely different. Though many muggles, wizards, and witches hold that the "Golden Rule" is to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," the goblin version of the "Golden Rule" was definitely "He who has the Gold, makes the Rule." Thus it was that the Goblin rule of "Devouring" played an underlying, but ultimately controlling, aspect in goblin led banking. The rule of Devouring would play right into Harry's ultimate goals as prior to Harry and Ragnok sitting down in Ragnok's office Harry had enjoyed a nice lunch of raw goblin; also known as the entire Blackrock Goblin Clan.

Ragnok's office was decidedly the opposite of that of the former Gutwrot's office, and it didn't take long before the Goblin and Harry were seated at his new account manager's desk.

"Well Mr. Potter, It appears that there have been a few accounting errors made in your account, errors in Gutwrot's favor I might add." Ragnok stated as he perused Harry's account books.

"Please, call me Harry, and what's the damage to the account and where did it go?" Harry asked as he fidgeted to beg comfortable in the antique looking office chair seated in front of Ragnok's desk.

"Well, it appears that he was stealing from you, but in the end you come out ahead, that is after you Devoured Gutwrot, his holdings, and that of his Clan." Ragnok said, looking up from his book with a toothy smile.

Smiling back, Harry replied, "Nice how it worked out that way, so what else do I need to do? Besides looking at the Will of my parents, which I never saw, what else would you suggest I do?" Harry said with a raised eyebrow, continuing quickly, "After all, I know that you, as my new account manager, know better than to treat me with anything other than integrity and respect." That finished, Harry graced Ragnok with a sharp toothed smile of his own.

Paling for a second before focusing back on the account book, Ragnok stated, "Of course Mr. Potter, um, I mean Harry! As your account manager I would suggest that we first look at your parents' Will, and then we run a hereditary test, and then see what we have to work with; if that suits you?" The last said while facing Harry; it didn't suit Ragnok to piss off Harry in any way.

"Sounds like a plan, let's begin." Harry stated, sprawling back in his chair as a rag-doll cat would seem to, almost deceptively boneless in his appearance of relaxation.

Ragnok proceeded, explaining the process surrounding wizarding inheritance as he pressed a button on his desk and the Potter Will appeared. "Hmm, let's see here, the details state that this Will was originally sealed by Albus Dumbledore…"

"Growl" Harry ground his teeth together and clenched his fists as his eyes seemed to flash green. No longer relaxed in his chair, he sat forward.

"Oh, um, moving on then." Ragnok continued quickly, "You receive everything, yada yada, age of majority to gain access if everything goes well. Hmm, this is interesting, 'Harry in no way should be housed with my sister Petunia Dursley or her slovenly Husband Vernon on pain of our curse.'" Ragnok stated, looking up to find Harry imbedding his nails/claws two inches into the arm rests of his chair.

"I already know that part, as well as that I was supposed to live with my godfather Sirius, keep moving before I have to kill something." Harry growled, his pupils lengthening into slits.

"Absolutely!" Ragnok almost squeaked, "Everything looks to be good as we recognize your magical emancipation, you just need to sign this form here and it will be logged with the Ministry of Magic as you being an adult. Any wand you get will automatically have its tracking removed and your votes that are being voted by Albus Dumbledore will be returned, as well as allowing you to recoup any moneys or property that may have been removed from your vaults by your guardian." Ragnok said the last with words with a gleam in his eyes.

Smiling through his anger Harry replied, "Good, though in the future it may be best for everybody if you don't use HIS name in my presence again."

Nodding, Ragnok turned around a sheaf of papers for Harry to sign to finalize the inheritance, adding Harry's signature to the contract with a blood-quill the paper flashed, rolled itself up in the middle of the air, and then popped away on its way to the ministry.

*Ding!* A cheery little bell rang as an engraved box appeared, the Potter crest residing on top of the box in a gold and ruby inlay. Ragnok pushed the box towards Harry, where Harry opened it. Inside was the Head of House ring, a simple ancient gold ring with the Potter crest on top, also emblazoned with blood rubies. Next to it resided two smaller rings, one dainty in its qualities and the other a smaller version of the Head of House ring. Taking out the Head of House ring, Harry looked up at Ragnok in silent question.

"The Head of House ring and Lordship of the Potters is yours, the thin banded ring is that of your chosen mate or lady, and ring that is a miniature of yours is for your Heir; which should have been given to you at the age of eight by Alb… um, I mean you-know-who."

The statement caused Harry to chuckle darkly under his breath for a second before he slid the ring onto his finger; which warmed for a second, then constricted to fit his finger, flashed invisible, and then visible again. Turning towards Ragnok he raised a single eyebrow.

"The rings are invisible to all those who you don't wish to see the ring. Its selective magic that all of the old house rings have." Ragnok explained, "Now let's do the hereditary tests." The goblin stated as he dug through his desk for a gold roll of parchment and pulled a gold and blessed silver ornate dagger from a drawer. "Give me your hand" Ragnok stated.

Taking Harry's hand, Ragnok made a slight slit on Harry's hand and let the blood drip onto the parchment, which immediate started to glow and show burning red letters upon its surface.

Harry's hand quickly healed itself and he looked at Ragnok in surprise. "That's it? That's all the hereditary test takes?" He asked.

"What? You expected some incredibly ornate ritual room with potions, glowing runes and family crests flashing to life on the walls, or perhaps being forced under some magical solution until you almost pass out? Well if you really want to do that you can, but we really only do that for the naïve wizards who we like to prank or add extra charges to. This method doesn't cost either of us a thing as we can blank the parchment and reuse it for somebody else." Ragnok explained with a toothy smile. To which Harry also smiled back his Cheshire Cat smile. "Well, let's see what we have here." The goblin continued as he read through the sheet.

"Potters, yes… hmmm, Gryffindor from your father, Peverell should be helpful, Black Heir of Scorpius Black… oh, what's this from Sirius Black, that's going to be good." Ragnok said with an evil smile as he continued to read the list of relations.

"Excuse me, care to share? What's good about Sirus?" Harry asked, interrupting Ragnok's reading.

"Well, as you may or may not know, Sirius Black is locked in Azkahban Prison and has been unable to vote his seats or manage his finances for the past ten years. The Malfoy family has been voting his seats in abstention as 'Lord' Lucius Malfoy was able to convince Minister Fudge that his son Draco was the Heir to the Black family and that the Head of the House of Black was incapable of managing his concerns, thus the Heir should take over. Interestingly enough that is the same rule Lucius used to take control of his house from his father when he poisoned his father into paralysis, thus also dodging the rule against slayer's inheriting due to their performing murder." Ragnok explained, "But what Lucius doesn't realize is that both Sirius of the Main line of the Blacks and Scorpius Black of the secondary branch have made you their Heir's to the Black power and fortune, thus reuniting the family into one Heir with full status to all rights and privileges of the House. Basically you are a superior Heir to all current Heirs to the seat because you are an Heir to the mainline and the cadet branch. In fact, if Scorpius wouldn't have died as young as he did, he would have been the Head of the House and you the automatic Heir."

Harry looked at Ragnok with a bit of confusion, "I'm confused, so I'm the Heir of Sirius who is still alive and Scorpius who is dead but not the Head of House, so what?"

"Well," Ragnok said with an evil smile "it is rather complicated but I will attempt to explain it. Lord Malfoy has opened the door for you to be the Head of the Black household as you effectively hold all of the forms of power of the house. First, with Lord Malfoy taking the reins of House Black 's voting power on assumption of Draco being the Heir, you gain that power. You usurp that power as you are the true Heir on your own basis, and you reunite the responsibilities and riches of the splinter line of Scorpius Black back to the main trunk as you are Heirs to both the cadet and main branch. Finally, and more recently, you Devoured Gutwrot and now have full control over the Black fortunes and vaults which normally an Heir doesn't receive until they reach adulthood and inherit the full powers of the House due to the death of the previous Head of House. Thus, you now have the full powers and privileges of the Most Ancient House of Black, and I wouldn't be surprised if Magic didn't recognize you as the Lord of the House even with Sirus still alive." Ragnok said with a dark chuckle.

Stunned for a second, Harry blinked, and then blinked again before a smile crept onto his face for a second. He then paused in thought and turned towards Ragnok, "What does this do to Sirius if anything?"

"Well, he will never be the Head of the House of Black as it is impossible for the Heir to abdicate his spot to the former Head of the House, but it isn't like he is able to use his powers at the moment, so as with all things, Might rules out." Ragnok explained, and with that he pressed a button on his desk.

*Ding!* The Most Ancient House of Black box popped up. Made of Magical Ebony the box had the signet of the house engraved into the lid and the motto emblazoned across the top, "Toujours Pur" written across the bottom. Pushing the box across the table towards Harry, Harry opened it.

Inside was only the Head of House ring and the Heir ring, no ring for the lady of the household. Quirking an eyebrow at Ragnok, the only explanation forthcoming was, "It's a Paternal family, the women don't really have any power and can't assume any of the powers. The purebloods keep the women primarily for breeding, to manage the Manor houses and the children, or to be traded for political alliances." Ragnok explained.

Harry nodded in grim understanding and pulled out of the Black Head of House ring. Putting it on, it seemed to vibrate for a second, grow hot, and then cold, and then it settled down and sized to his finger at it flashed invisible, visible, and then meshed with the Potter Ring to show both crests on the same ring.

*Ding, Ding* The Gryffindor and Peverell rings came next and were quickly merged with the other crests on Harry's ring.

"Excellent, Harry, congratulations on being the richest Wizard in the United Kingdom, if not the world."
Ragnok stated, not realizing that Harry didn't really care about riches for riches sake. "Now just a few more things, it appears here on the inheritance chart that you have defeated, devoured, and destroyed one Tomas Riddle, who still exists but is unable to manage the accounts of the House of Gaunt and the House of Slytherin. According to this sheet, you even destroyed part of his soul which is usually exceedingly hard to do. By right of Devourment, you may attempt to seize the assets and rights of the vanquished house. What is your decision? It isn't without risk as the Magic of the House itself may attempt to kill you?"

Thinking for a second, Harry asked, "Who is this Tom Riddle that I supposedly defeated and Devoured? I don't remember eating any wizards recently?"

"You probably know him by his self stylized name," Ragnok answered, "Voldemort."

"Ah, in that case, screw him, lets bleed him dry. Sure, what do I have to do to take control of his assets and powers?" Harry asked as Ragnok's statement seemed to explain everything.

"Follow me, we have to head down to the Slytherin Vault." With that, Ragnok and Harry exited Ragnok's office and proceeded through backrooms to a mine cart station.

Exiting out of the office complex and into the caverns, Harry saw a cart sitting on a track that disappeared into tunnels in either direction; he could see spurs of the track that seemed to disappear into holes in the tunnel walls. Following Ragnok up to the cart Harry saw that another goblin was already sitting in the driver's seat.

"Harry, this is my spawn, Griphook." Ragnok stated, to which Harry acknowledged Griphook with a slight nod of his head. "Griphook, take us to the Slytherin vault, high security section." Ragnok continued.

Shooting off at incredible speeds, making high speed switches of tracks that seemed to impossibly defy the laws of physics and inertia, even at one point leaving the tracks to shoot through the air to connect to another set of tracks, Griphook expertly guided the cart through the twists and turns of the caverns that would have left any creature other than a Goblin hopelessly lost.

Harry had a large smile plastered across his face by the time they got to the lowest levels of Gringotts and the Slytherin vault; the sensation had been similar to when he and Mutwa had gone flying in his mindscape. Getting out of the cart Harry steeled himself and asked what to do next as he gazed upon the silver and emerald studded vault door; the emeralds seeming to form green veiny snakes that twisted and interlocked all over the door. The handle of the door was a silver cobra with its hood flared and the key hole seemed to be hidden in the back of its fanged mouth; the base of the Cobra's tale seemed to be hinged at the door and was obviously the lever that opened the massive vault door. Two open mouthed serpents buttressed the top of the vault door, looking out over the entryway to the vault.

"Walk towards the handle and open it with the force of your will. You have the right to it by the rules of Nature and Magic, but watch out for it to possibly fight you." Ragnok explained.

Nodding in understanding, Harry glided up to the door, looked up at the massive vault door and put his hand on the vault handle and attempted to pull it towards him and open.

At Harry's touch, the Vault door came alive. The emerald snakes slithered in, over and around each other as their ornately carved mouths all shouted out together [INTRUDER!] At this, the "handle" squirmed in Harry's grasp and the cobra in his hand spit venom at Harry, before quickly latching its fangs onto his arm and attempted to inject venom into Harry. At the same time a magical discharge shot out of the two openmouthed serpents to the right and left of the doorway, attempting to electrocute harry with a burst of magically formed lightning.

Quick as a wink, Harry dodged his head to the side, missing the stream of venom, and his body was immediately covered in what looked like scale armor that stopped the serpent handle's fangs from penetrating Harry's skin. Thousands of minute scales covered his body, as if the skincells had enlarged and turned Harry into some sort of human serpent. His elemental skills made fast work of the magical lighting that tried to flood his system, forcing the lightning away from him and back into the door, making the thousands of little snakes to squirm and fidget as if they were being electrocuted.

"[Let go and open up. You don't want me to bite you back.]" Harry stated as his pupils lengthened into slits and his fangs slid out of his mouth; effectively changing Harry to look like some sort of human serpent crossbreed. His tongue flicked out and he tasted the air, he could tell that the venom that was dripping out of the cobra's fangs, onto his armored skin and then onto the floor, couldn't really hurt him in his armored serpentine state but would have been deadly for any other being.

The door answered with thousands of little snake voices as it continued to wriggle and squirm with animated snakes, [Who are you that you can speak the true tongue? Why should we grant you access to our family vault?]

Harry answered, "[Because I am your new master! I was challenged by your scion and then defeated, and devoured him, and I am commanding you to OPEN UP!]" Harry ended his statement with an angry Hisss.

[No!] the thousand voices said in answer, [You can't make us!]

Growling, Harry yanked on the handle with his tremendous strength, tearing the latching mechanism, hinge, and cobra shaped handle from the door; throwing the now useless handle behind him as the magic that animated it ceased as the handle lost contact with the vault's door. Where the latch had been joined to the door now showed a ragged hole in the metal and the latching mechanism in the door that seemed to whirl and click like some giant clockwork puzzle of magical gears, flywheels, and spinning doodads.

Cocking his head to the side, Harry gave into his frustration and rammed his fist through the hole in the door, where he unclenched and then clenched his now clawed hand around some of the clockwork mechanisms and tore them out and onto the floor at his feet. This had an immediate effect on the slithering serpents on the door and buttresses of the door as they gave a dying shriek [AAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!] and then ceased their movements or discharge of lightning.

The little emerald snakes stopped moving, and the now magically dead vault door popped open as if a magnetic seal had been broken. Digging his claws into the crack of the open door, Harry pulled the door fully open and out of his way before entering the vault.

"Hmm, that wasn't too hard." Harry thought to himself, totally ignoring the fact that the defenses would have probably destroyed any other being besides him. As he looked around the freshly opened vault, magical torches flared to life, all of them shaped like serpents of course.

"What is it with Slytherin and snakes? I mean, come on, I can talk to snakes too and you don't see me wearing snake skin or carrying a cane with a snakes head on it." He said as he laughed, talking to no person in particular and totally forgetting the fact that he in fact did look like he was wearing snake skin at the moment; what with all of his scaled armor covering his exposed face and hands.

In the middle of the vault, on a green snake shaped pedestal, was the box where the family ring should be. The vault held chests of jewels, a few shelves of books, some armor and weapons and piles of galleons heaped against all the walls and spanning to the ceilings. Not really strapped for cash, as he had slightly less than 40 million galleons in his purse after the purchase of his clothes, he approached the pedestal and the Slytherin family ring box.

Upon opening the simple polished pine box with the Slytherin crest on the top, he was surprised to find that the box was empty. Turning towards Ragnok who stood in the doorway to the vault Harry asked, "What gives? The ring isn't here?"

Ragnok entered the vault and walked up towards the box, stating, "Hmmm, that's interesting, the ring should automatically return to the vault upon the death or destruction of the former Head of the House. The only other reason would be if the former Head had taken the ring off and stored it with enchantments to protect the ring, but that is easily solved." Ragnok stated as he touched the box and pushed a bit of his Goblin magic into it.

Suddenly with a "Pop!" the ring appeared in the box; a plain grayish black stone, as if from a stream bed, was mounted on a gold band and the rock was engraved with a simple "S". "There, that should have destroyed any of the protective spells on the ring and you can safely wear it." Stated Ragnok as he stepped back from the box and let Harry approach it.

Harry reached into the box and towards the ring, only to stop when the hairs on the back of his hand stood on end and his instincts caused him to flinch back quickly.

"That ring is not natural!" Harry spat, "I can feel several things about it, both old spiritual magic like what I was taught in Africa as well as something new and very evil, something that feels very familiar." Stalking around the pedestal as if the ring was Harry's prey, Ragnok quickly shuffled back so he would be out of Harry's way.

Harry circled the ring several times, only to swing back to prowl around it in the other direction, as if he was a hunting cat playing with his "food." The ring bothered him as he used his Occlumency skills to sort through his memories to try and figure out where he recognized this magical signature.

It came to him an instant later, the spirit of Voldemort! That was where he had felt this feeling before. Part of what Mutwa had done in sending the spirit to have a reckoning with GoGo had been to take it out of Harry's head and separate it from Harry's being. In that moment between Mutwa pulling it out of his head and casting the evil spirit fragment away, Harry had felt the taste or sense of malevolence of the spirit, even while distracted by the agonizing pain of Mutwa's ritual.

Stopping, Harry stared at the ring with anger, there was no way that he was going to put that ring on with Voldemort's spirit inside of it; he'd already gotten rid of the spirit one time and he would be damned if he was going to let Tom taint him again with his unnaturalness. The problem was that he didn't have Mutwa's ability to commune with GoGo enough to send the spirit on, so he would have to fall back on the memories provided by Scorpius's Black.

"You might want to step back for this Ragnok, I don't know exactly what is going to happen when I deal with this horcrux." Harry stated.

At the mention that the ring was a horcrux Ragnok's eyes got very large, and he took several more steps back from Harry and the pedestal.

The Black family had extensive knowledge of the Dark Arts; in fact, the library in the Black mansion was probably the preeminent library of the Dark Arts in Europe. Most, if not all, of this knowledge had been known by Scorpius Black and thus was now known by Harry Potter. In that knowledge was the know-how on how to both create and destroy these darkest of dark artifacts.

"Hmmm, fiendfyre would be too messy and ruin the ring." Harry said out loud as he stroked his chin in thought for a second before he realized what he was doing. "Oh, should have thought of that." He stated as he stroked his jaw line. With that, a fang extended from his face and dripped venom into his upturned hand.

"Hope this works, as it usually takes Basilisk venom. Here goes nothing." Harry said, as he turned his hand holding the small puddle of venom over, spilling the venom onto the stone of the Slytherin family ring.

As the venom trickled off of his fingers it fell on the stone and seemed to run down the etching of the "S" before seeming to be absorbed by the stone, only for nothing more to happen.

Taking a step back, Harry turned to Ragnok and said, "Bugger! I was hoping that would wo…" Only to be interrupted by a death scream as a black esper seemed to drift up out of the stone.

"AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!" The portion of Tom Riddle's spirit drifted up like black smoke, screaming for a brief second, before it seemed to drift away as if blown apart by ethereal winds.

"Score!" Harry said as he looked back at the ring in the case. Poking it a couple of times to make sure it wouldn't bite him or do something else strange or evil, Harry removed the ring from the box and examined it. The stone didn't look any worse for wear, and it looked like the venom had removed any tarnish or detris that had been stuck to the ring as the gold and the stone seemed to shine as if new and freshly polished.

"Nice, not only can my venom kill people, animals, and horcrux, but it makes a nice jewelry polish as well." Harry joked as he put the ring on his finger.

Rather than merging and fully disappearing as all of the other rings did, this time the stone of the Slytherin ring seemed to become the focus or base stone embedded in the gold and became a part of the Lordship ring. In addition, the ring seemed to increase in girth and weight to add the Slytherin family crest. The most interesting part of Harry's Head of House ring's transformation seemed to be a weird green glowing circle that was added to the center of the shield on the Peverell's family crest, only for the circle to go black and the light to stop glowing; leaving the Peverell family crest slightly changed.

"Hmm, that was interesting, oh well, what now Ragnok?" Harry asked with a shrug as he dropped his hand to his side; his armored skin, slit pupils and fangs all disappearing as the threat to Harry passed with his conquering the Slytherin family magic.

"Well Harry, that was a bit more excitement then I expected, and you seemed to have ruined the magic placed on this vault. What shall we do with the wealth here?" Ragnok questioned.

"Oh yeah, I might have ruined the door a little bit." Harry said, "Well I figure it wouldn't hurt to add all of my vaults together into one family vault, seeing as how all of the families are combined with me. I guess put them into the strongest and most protected of the Vaults and we will go from there."

With that, Ragnok clapped his hands and the sound of Carts pulling up on the tracks outside the vault could be heard. A second later, goblins with pushcarts and shovels started entering the Slytherin vaults and piling up the treasures for shipment to the other vaults.

"Right then, after that bit of excitement we should just go back to my office for the final bit of dealing with the other accounts that you took management of when you Devoured Gutwrot and took over the accounts he managed." Ragnok said, leading the way back to the carts.

"What do you know about the Malfoy family?" Ragnok asked as Harry and he exited the former Slytherin vault.

AN: Good place to stop. Don't worry, I've already written the next chapter and will release it tomorrow. Until then you will just have to suffer. WA HA HA HA HA HA ha ha.. ha.. ha.. Oh, um, excuse me. That slips out every now and then; irritates the wife also. Anyway, the next chapter will have some action, but will mostly be just a lot of evil fun. Until then!

AN2: Please, leave a review with your thoughts to help inspire me! Thanks!