Chapter 27 – I'm your girlfriend stupid
It was a shame that Dumbledork had not allowed us to advance a grade or two but so was life. Hermione was more mature as all girls are supposed to be and it didn't matter that she was a year older than me. I had been around a lot of the girls at Hogwarts and most were air heads or chasing the famous Neville Longbottom, he was now being refered to as "The Deadly Twin". That was his new title and he had girls hanging all over him. Ron was trying to monopolize on that and get the leftovers. Me? I think I am happy to be a nobody. Hermione and I get along fine and she is a girl, a very smart girl.
We are now on the Hogwarts express heading to school. Daphne and Tracy are back in with Hermione and me and here comes Draco and his thugs. "Hay Granger…" I cut him off before he could get his mantra going.
"Which one of us do you want to kick your ass stupid?"
"Either mudblood will do…" Draco and his thugs got four stunners and if I am not mistaken a couple of those nasty charms like itching or boils spells. He is not complaining there on the floor so we just close the door and let the Perfects handle it.
"You know Harry that we are lucky." Hermione said.
"How's that Hermione"
"Well if Ron wasn't so busy kissing Neville's back side I wonder if he would be in here being our friend" Hermione giggles.
"Are you trying to make me ill, Ron our friend, Oh? You mean Jean?"
"Yes, without Jean changing things, it's a nasty thought but a jealous ass kisser would zero on the boy who lived, what do you think?"
"Sickening but I think you might be right, why don't we change the subject and talk about something nice like death and pestilence?" I suggested.
"Or we could cry over Gryffindor not winning a game of Quittage since we got here."
/Scene Break/
That evening we got to meet the little red-haired girl, Ginny Weasley. She had eyes only for Neville and Neville was too blind to see, just like me with Hermione. That got fixed fairly quickly. That evening in the common room I was sitting reading an advanced book on spells when Morag McDougal plops herself next to me and says "So Harry when are you going to take me to Hogsmeade Village?" I of course being a man of the world replied, "Huh?" I then got a surprise.
"Move along honey he is taken." That comes out of Hermione's mouth further leaving me in a state of confusion. She is supposed to be my sister.
"Your trunk now she growled in my ear." That left me with no doubt that she means now.
"Err…" was all I got out when I got to my trunk.
"Listen buster after all the work I put in to making you a desirable hunk I am not letting some floozy move in on my territory." Hermione was being a bit bossy.
"Err; are you saying you want to be my girlfriend?" I asked hoping that I was not misreading this.
"Well of course I want to be your girlfriend and…"
"Ok" I said and she gets all flustered. "I don't know much about what my responsibilities are but I'm sure you can show me the ropes." I said with a grin. I really hadn't thought about it with any of the girls they all seemed scary. Hermione was close but just there, so I just never considered a relationship. Besides a relationship between us would have to be hidden from the school as they thought her my sister. She had brought it up and I saw no drawbacks. I did love Hermione but it was not like I was going to jump in bed with her and ravish her. I'm only going on thirteen. If what I have is the right kind of love it will work out that way. My thoughts were interrupted when she apparently got unflustered and she leaps on me and plants the biggest smooch on my lips, kind of really nice.
/Scene break/
When the message on the wall was about the Chamber of secrets being opened and that the enemies of the heir to beware, the first question was heir of what or who. "The Heir of Slytherin of course." Hermione replied.
"While you may want to check your books but isn't Harry Potter the Heir of Slytherin?" I asked.
"What are you talking about?" Hermione huffed.
"Well Riddle was the last of the Marvolo line, so when I off'ed Voldemort I became the Heir of Slytherin by conquest." I said as I stuck my tongue out.
"What have you been doing Harry Moonlighting as the Dark Lord; you are supposed to keep me happy, not run around in masks and tight pants."
"Not at all, I have been kidnapping girls and hiding them out in some dusty old chamber for later snogging." Hermione tried to bit my tongue this time when I stuck it out. The crazy conversation ended in a crazy snogging session in a remote classroom.
The word finally got out to the board of governors and they brought in the Ministry and nothing got done. Apparently even Dumbledore was stumped. So they hauled off Hagrid the game keeper as he had been accused before of opening the chamber of secrets. Now is when the rumors started as they were sending all the students home in protected groups. The rumor was that everyone was being sent home so the Ministry could take credit for curing the problem when a sixty foot basilisk came charging out of a bathroom. Whether it was luck or the poor snake was just trying to get out of this nut house; no one was hurt as it escaped through the front door. Although with half the students sent home the rumor was that they were all eaten by the Basilisk. They did find a dead red-head girl in the chamber with a raving psycho who they ended up killing. We just finished packing and went home.
/Scene Break/
France brought us some problems with the law and me a super argument with Hermione.
"What do you mean you bought us some elves?" Hermione screeched."
"This is Dippy and this is Mipsy. I thought Mipsy could help you and Dippy could help me." That brought a lecture of elf rights and slavery. That didn't end until I said if she wasn't happy with Mipsy I would give her to Hermione's parents. She wasn't happy with that until Emma stated that this would be fantastic. Hermione changed her mind and I had to buy Emma an elf also. I will never understand girls.
I needed an elf that could deliver the gold to a Gringotts branch and get the currency to the appropriate muggle bank. I had quite a few accounts open now in a number of countries. It's not that I didn't trust Gringotts but if not them there was the Ministry, both entities were gold crazy. Therefore if either could figure a legal or sneaky way of getting a vault confiscated it was them. Jean never said anything about what happened after getting on the train for Hogwarts but she left the feeling that the Ministry got put in with Dumbledore in the trust category and I was not sure about Gringotts.
/Scene Break/
Our time in France was ruined in the last week. As we were all sitting at a typical café outside watching all the people doing all the normal things when along come five thugs. The problem was this was muggle France and the thugs were using wands and magic. Well it wasn't our business that they were destroying the clothing shop across the street but they were also throwing curses our way also. So when we tried to leave or hide a curse just missed Dan so we were involved.
"Tip over the table and get behind it I yelled at Dan and Emma. Those tables were small but metal so it provided some protection. Hermione and I went to work. I put up a shield and Hermione laid a couple of her deluxe curses at the five. One went down screaming which brought the attention of the others. When my shield collapsed from two strong 'Reducto' spells, Hermione put up a shield and I laid into them with a ribbon curse the tutor was teaching. To practice a curse on a dummy is not quite the same as a human. I hit one and he was sliced open. Blood was everywhere and he went down with only a loud moan. I think that caused all of us to pause what we were doing. However that was all; there suddenly appeared about twenty magical that looked like French Aurors so we put our hand up in the universal surrender position. They had cut down the rest of the thugs. We then spent a couple of hours being interviewed where we found out some information also.
Jean Delacour was the head of the French law enforcement and had led the twenty Aurors into the street and helped us stay alive. That he knew Dumbledore and was not a fan of his second chance policy. "You have no problems here for killing those killers. Unlike your headmaster who won't kill even the worst of the scum. That's one reason the French laugh at you English. He is setting up a tournament in a year where the contestants are children and will most definitely be killed, yet he will not kill your Deatheaters.
"What Tournament is that?" Hermione asked.
"The TriWizard Tournament, it has not been held in ages due to the death toll. I believe the last one held killed all the contestants and some of the spectators. If I was in charge it would never be held or at least France would not participate.
/Scene Break/
Sybil Patricia Trelawney had decided to grace the Great Hall during this break and sup with the rest of the remaining Professors. Not many of the professors attending the dinner or were overly impressed with the sherry smelling seer. She was a joke in most of the school whether she knew it or not. She seemed to be picking at her dinner but had pulled in a large bowl of pudding towards herself at the end of the meal. She suddenly went stiff and a strange voice emanated from the normal squeaky Sybil.
"There is an imitation muggle and a savior among us. His is the path to defeat the dark lord or let us all perish. There is an imitation muggle and a savior among us." At which time she passed out and went face first into the pudding.
They mostly paid no attention to her but Dumbledore did levitate her face out of the pudding. He had a worried look on his face.
/Scene Break/
Back on the Hogwarts express to start a new year all of our friends are crammed into the compartment. Each of us has been getting a bit bigger, by next year I or Hermione will have to learn an expansion charm for the compartment. A couple of hours into the ride the train comes to a complete halt and the lighting goes wonky. All we knew was there were Aurors running down the compartment way towards the rear of the train.
"Does it seem to you that this school is jinxed? Hermione asked.
"It does seem to develope problems each year, I am glad I am not involved in any of them." I answered.
The rumors coming down the train were that Ron and Neville had been attacked by Dementors but had driven them off by the time the Aurors got there. A more realistic version was told when we got to the Great Hall about an escaped convict named Sirius Black and that the Dementors were here to protect us all and that Neville had passed out from shock. The passed out part was given by Draco as he was harassing Ron and Neville in the Great Hall.
School was just fantastic, Snape was extracting points from me and Gryffindor, Draco was a pain and Ron and Neville were having girl problems. Ron was after Susan Bones most likely because she had a large chest. Lavender Brown was attempting to keep her chest in Neville's face while Neville was eyeing Hannah Abbott. Mandy Brocklehurst had taken a shine to Ron. She could have had giant blood in her veins and if Ron didn't watch out he was going to be thrown over her shoulder and cave woman'd away. Well this parley turned hilarious a couple of weeks later. It seems Hannah has eyes for Susan which we think the feelings are mutual. Ron opened his big mouth and said his usual crass thing and Susan halls off and breaks his nose. Hannah runs over and consoles Susan. Mandy runs over to the downed Ron and offers her commiseration. Ron looked like he wanted to get up and run but since Mandy was basically sitting on him he was pinned to the floor. Lavender tried to appear distraught over all this and took the liberty of groping Neville who did run away.
/Scene Break/
It was the big game between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. I had to show up like the rest of Gryffindor but we had no thoughts of winning, we just hoped that it wasn't a slaughter. It was well on its way of being a slaughter when a couple of Dementors showed up on the field. They were two very strange staggering onto the field Dementors. Dumbledore of course was up to the task and sent a spell at the Dementors, a silvery white goat. Well this started a chain of events that happened almost all at once. The goat must have scared both Ron and Neville as they both fell off their brooms. Ron broke a leg and an arm but I was able to levitated Neville to a soft landing. The snitch was caught by Diggory making the score 300 to 40 while the goat scared the Dementors who fell apart showing Draco standing on Crabs shoulders. I got a summons to the Headmasters office.
I arrive and besides the Headmaster there is Snape sneering at me.
"Ah, Mr. Granger, please have a seat, lemon drop?"
I was not about to trust him or anything so I just shook my head.
"That was a nice piece of magic you performed today and with so much power, quite a feat." Dumbledore was twinkling away but Snape was trying to sneak into my mind.
"Headmaster is it your policy to bring students into your office so they can be mind raped by Snape?"
"That's Professor Snape Harry!" retorted the Headmaster.
"No its call my Head of House and the Aurors over Greasy there! I gave no permission for him to enter my mind!"
"Now I think you have over reacted to something that I'm sure…" I turned and left his office over the shouts from Snape and headed directly to McGonagall's office. After explaining what happened I demanded the Aurors and she called an Auror to take my report. Both of us didn't think a muggle was going to stand a chance but I wanted the complaint on file. An Auror came and grudgingly took the report and left. I thanked Professor McGonagall and left to inform Hermione.
/School Break/
When we landed at De Gaulle airport and were going to head to the YellowVan Shuttle service to Paris but we got diverted to a room by airport security. Jean Delecour entered the room. "Ah the Grangers, I must apologize for all this but there have been some complications. I would like to offer room at my house while I explain what has transpired."
"If it is the same to you we would like to get to the villa that we rented and unpack, you are more than welcome to come along and explain there." Dan replied.
"Ah, Well, You see that is part of the problem, the villa has been burnt to the ground."
"Dan I think we best take Mr. Delacour's offer as this will probably be magical problems." I suggested.
"Yes Harry you are correct and please all of you, call me Jean." There was a limo waiting along with a police escort on motorcycles and in vans. I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up, something was definitely not right.
We arrived at a magical Mansion, a very large Mansion on about a gazillion of acres of land. As we arrived you could see a large vineyard off in the distant. We entered the house and were lead to a living room or a meeting room, either way it was reeking of wealth and history.
"Please have a seat and just tell the elf what you wish to drink, dinner will be shortly and you are all invited to stay here for dinner and the rest of your vacation. Before you say anything let me tell you what has been going on. I am sure you will not be happy but alas there is not much that you can do. From the beginning then! The five killers that you encountered on your last trip were trying to kill or better put assassinate the person visiting in the shop. You or we got a very high ranking mafia boss in all that, and that of course is a magical mafia boss. So they want you dead and that is why we think they attacked the villa and when they found no one burnt it down.
"Well you could have let us know before we got here!" Emma huffed.
"There again I am sorry, but we did notify the Ministry in England last week when we realized what was going on but it appears they are not overly worried over muggles. I of course ensured that our counter part was informed to watch for your arrival via muggle conveyance. He did and you are now here and are welcome to stay here for your entire vacation, we would enjoy the company. However, anyplace you may wish to venture will require a heavy escort."
"They are that powerful in France?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, unfortunately, oh, here let me introduce you to my wife Apoline and my daughters Fleur and Gabrielle. They had just entered the room.
/Scene Break/
While the vacation was basically enjoyable it was a royal pain going to Paris to shop and the females all had to shop. I was able to slip away to Gringotts for some questions.
"Master Teller, I am in need of some financial and business information. Is there someone here who can help me in these matters?"
"Name?"
"Yes part of the problem, let's try Harry Potter." I was hoping I was not in a financial quagmire and they say there is never too much money.
"Of course, please follow me." The Goblin was being too nice for being a Goblin.
"Ah Mr. Potter welcome to Gringotts." This was said by an elderly Goblin in a very ostentatious office. "I am SharpKnife and I must ask if you have the time for us to do some business besides answering your questions."
"Yes I have the time, Ah, is that Mr. SharpKnife or another honorific?"
"For you just SharpKnife, please have a seat. We are awaiting a very special person who wishes to meet with you. So Mr. Potter what questions do you have?"
"Just call me Harry and I have just a few questions so thank you for your time. As you probably know I am known in the Muggle world as Harry Jimmy Granger but here in Gringotts I am known as Harry James Potter. Now in order to hide that I am a Potter I have enrolled in Hogwarts as Harry Granger. My first worry is in making a will or must I make two will's and how to keep it all secret."
"Maybe I can help with that." stated a new Goblin who just entered the office. He was regally dressed and SharpKnife rose and bowed, I followed suit. It was never an insult to be polite.
"Bank Manager Ragnok it is an honor that you visit this insignificant branch." SharpKnife said.
"Please everyone take a seat. I am here to assist Harry James Potter." Ragnok stated.
"Please its just Harry whether it's in the magical or muggle world, I have no airs I just want to be me." I replied.
"Very good, and you may refer to me as Ragnok. Now time is money so you wish to make a will?"
"Yes, I wish to leave everything to Hermione Granger or her parents if we both end up being unlucky." I sincerely hoped that all this was just paper work and would never transpire. "I have the problem of having two names and two types of banking under two different laws." I had long converted muggle accounts under the Granger name to the Gryffindore name. The Goblins could do things like that even if the Harry Granger name was not real in the English Governmental system.
"Let me put your mind at rest Harry that is why I am here in a way. On your fourteenth birthday which is next month you will be required to appear here so that I may oversee your attainment of a lordship. The will or appropriate paperwork will apply to you as at that time you will be Lord Harry James Potter in name, magic and in fact. While the muggles will refer to you as a Granger we at Gringotts and magic herself will always know you as Lord Potter, there is no other interpretation. Now as to the date of your arrival here in July and can we obtain some of that gold that you seem to be able to get in great amounts on a regular basis."
"I believe that an arrangement can be reached, I also have an area that you may wish to attend to with gold payments of course."
"Harry we at Gringotts rarely turn down work for gold so I assume this is profitable for the Goblin nation?" Ragnok asked.
"SharpKnife was kind enough to insure that a Horicrux was removed from me, which will allow me to survive in the end. So I know that you can eliminated Horcruxes here is a list of them that you may be able to obtain and of course I want destroyed. Jean had left a list before she disappeared. I expect them to be guarded with all kinds of lethal spells and curses. I would like you to proceed with all due care and proper expenses."
It was a very amicable discussion and some signed paperwork. The Goblins wished a significant deposit of gold every quarter. They not only bought the gold but converted the Galleons to muggle paper money, at a stiff exchange rate. I agreed and decided to research or better yet let Hermione research the best metal to invest in when gold became worthless. I could only dump so much in the in the magical world before prices fell like a stone in a lake.
/Scene Break/
Jean Delecour brought over some Aurors to keep me busy and in his spare time we did some skeet shooting on his estate. With the warm weather and a large swimming pool we did not overly miss the ocean. One of the Aurors was a grouchy old man who found my offence weak and my defense pathetic. He did teach me a spell that I will never forget as it took me weeks to master. It was not a disillusionment charm but a real invisibility charm. It had to be used before a fight as it took some time to put it on but once on you were invisible until you used the 'Finite Incantatem" spell or 'Finite' for short. I thought of sneaking up on Hermione and giving her a scare but thought better of it, I had enough people that wanted me dead and she knew where I lived.
"You really piss me off Harry, just how much are you worth? I have always known you had money but now you tell me about Gringotts accounts and muggle accounts and how you hid how much?"
"Err, I really don't know, millions at least." I was not ready for a Hermione attack on honesty.
"Well how much do you have in the Butterfield Bank?" Hermione huffed.
"Last I looked four million pounds sterling."
"How much is in the Royal bank of England?" Hermione growled.
"I think about ten million pounds." I knew I was in great trouble with these kept secrets.
"So do you have any other bank accounts that I don't know about?" Hermione appeared to be not happy with this news.
"Ah, I think, err, about ten more but I have to look that up as I've lost count, Dippy would know."
She suddenly just stopped, as in frozen, and that scared me. She suddenly smiled and I knew I was in trouble. She stomped over to me and suddenly I had a full Hermione snogging me to death embrace. When she allowed me to come up for air she stated, "Now that's something to research over." She then left for the library. I was still a bit confused, from demanding, to huffing to snogging to research, only Hermione!
She kept the Goblins busy as they made money as she invested, bought and just tried to buy half the world. Hermione was the smart one and I was the one with nothing to start with so if she was happy, I was happy. She was a whirl wind of happy making investment and purchases.
My becoming Lord Harry James Potter was not much of a deal other than the effects of putting on the Potter ring. I guess magic did recognize me as a Potter. Hermione was impressed with her ring also, but was more impressed with my now available vaults. Gold was disappearing at a rate that depressed the Goblins. They could not find much fault as the gold seemed to be replaced by silver and other precious metals. The paper muggle money was in stocks, bonds and deeds from around the world that was filling the muggle safety deposit vaults.
"Err Hermione? What's with all the purchases?"
"If gold gets depressed the other metals may follow but owning a coal mine in America can't disappear. There is a mountain of diamonds in Russia and in South Africa but if they are released they will be worth less than gold but the hundred square mile of active farm land in Australia is still there." I just nodded and kept my mouth shut.
/Scene Break/
It was back to September 1st and the Hogwarts express. We now had semi adults in size trying to fit into a compartment not meant for that size. Hermione swished and flicked and the compartment doubled in size. Well she was the expert in everything except offensive spells as that was my forte. The whole crew joined us for the trip to Hogwarts. As the minority I kept to myself as the gossip was running at full tilt. The door slid open and Neville Longbottom stood there by himself. Everyone turned to him and he finally said, "Mr. Granger might I have a word?"
"Sure no problems Mr. Longbottom, here or in private?"
"Here is fine I guess."
"Well step in and have a seat and tell us your tale." I was quite curious what he would say.
After the door closed he began, "Mr. Granger you have gotten the attention of the entire school and yet you are always in the back ground. I have many problems that you would not be interested in but then some may be of interest to you."
"Please just call me Harry, and say your piece at your own pace." I said as the silence in the compartment was noticeable.
"I have been given a title of 'The Deadly Twin' I have been given all kinds of accolades of doing things that I have not done. There is however a change of direction of the powers that run everything and your name is coming up very often. Now I could care less, you can have all the glory but I thought you ought to know, they are interested in you and that means trouble for you, I thought you ought to know."
"I thank you…" I said as the door slid open and Ron the mouth attempted to enter.
"Longbottom what are you doing with these losers…" he mouthed as I said…"Ladies?" that sent numerous spells at the red-head. He never even got to touch his wand as several nasty spells hit him.