DISCLAIMER:

CHAPTER 7:

The hotel he had been booked was better than Harry was used to, far suppressing anything even Hogwarts had to offer. His room, if it could even be called that, was a suite of three rooms; a large seating and kitchen area, a bedroom with a huge double bed and also a luxurious bathroom. The top of a large building in the center of London, the views over the city astounded him, and a small part of him couldn't help but think how jealous his aunt would be if she could see him now. A bit of a change from his cupboard, to say the least, and a lot more than their boring 4 bedroom in suburban Sussex had to offer.

He had planned, initially, to sleep as soon as he got somewhere safe; to catch up on the energy he had expended that day and rest so he could better contemplate the effects of the emancipation and what being a legal adult would mean. Those plans, however, were soon blown out the window, when shortly after he had settled down to the provided meal there was a tap at the window.

Rising slowly, his stomach groaning under the weight of so much rich food, he tiptoed cautiously over; while there was reasonably nothing to fear being on the top floor nothing was to be taken for granted given the power of magic and he didn't want to be caught so soon after finally escaping the clutches of his controllers. He had nothing to fear however, and his heart leapt in joy when he caught sight of his familiar, her ever recognizable white feathers glittering in the evening sun.

"Hedwig"

She cooed in response, then flew in through the hurriedly opened window before landing happily on his offered shoulder. Harry felt himself relax for the first time all day at her oh so familiar weight, and let out a large sigh. Things were clearly starting to look up; he was an adult, had money of his own, wasn't stuck with his abusive relations, and he had his owl by his side. The owl, he then noticed, which had several tightly wrapped letters attached to her leg. Untying them, he filled a glass bowl with water and gestured towards his unfinished dinner, before retiring to the couch and pulling the first of the letters open.

"Dear Harry,

Please don't beat yourself up over what happened in the Ministry, or what happened to Sirius. Non of it was your fault, you just did what you thought was best in the situation and handled it as well as you could. We were lucky that things weren't any worse, and it was only your quick thinking that made it like that so don't you dare try and blame yourself! It was a bit of a foolish idea, and we should have gone to teachers first rather than try and deal with it on our own, but we agreed to go with and that was our choice not anyone elses. Hopefully after the way things went you will learn that we can't always rely on our gut instincts to guide us through and adults should be trusted more though; because we can't risk having another situation like loosing Sirius again!

If it was anyones fault it was his though; he should have known better than to disobey what Dumbledore advised. Everyone knows how great Dumbledore is and how much he knows, so why couldn't Sirius just trust him and do what he said! No matter what I might think about things I know it's always best to follow older people who know best; they've got more experience and have a better idea of how things could turn out!

We're only young, how can we possibly understand things better than people who have lived over 100 years and seen so much! We're so lucky with the Order that we have so many people around us who have been through it all before and can teach us things about fighting, we really should use that resource as much as we can, and share anything we find out with the Order so they can help us more! Think how much easier everything we've done would have been if we had adult help, someone there to show us what to do or even do it for us instead! You have to admit a lot of our so called adventures have been caused by your hotheadedness and refusal to talk to people you should!"

Harry sighed, that was typical Hermione. It wasn't his fault, but they should trust better in adults and give them anything they asked for. Just ignore, naturally, the fact that in every occasion he had done his very best to contact an adult to help them and had always been refused, that the situations they had found themselves in had only happened because there was noone to show them a better way! The letter continued, however, and no matter how much her first words might have angered him Harry couldn't hep but read on. Almost afraid, he flipped over to the second page of parchment and flicked through what she had read.

"You asked questions about our homework, which I will of course happily answer, you know how much I love to study of course! I've completed all the set homework at least to some level, but there's still so much more I want to add to all my essays, the more reading I do the more I want to add into things and my only problem is going to be reducing everything down to the length we were asked for!

I'm just so glad most of our teachers don't mind if what I write is a bit longer and it is only Snape I have to worry about getting the correct length for. After all, the other teachers appreciate more information and the knowledge I show, and I'm not even sure Professor Binns reads our essays let alone grades them properly. I'm thinking about asking someone else to grade them for me next year, though I don't know if the older students would even be able to since they've had the same teacher; I might see if Prof McGonnigal can recommend someone in the Ministry I can send my work to so that I don't fall too far behind. I'm just so afraid that I'm not getting the grades I deserve, but hopefully our OWL results will show otherwise, we'll find out soon enough anyway since they are due any day now!

Of course I have extra books on all the subjects, I've just been waiting for either you or Ron to ask, though really Harry I would have thought better of you. Ron I'll accept as being a bit slow or not interested, but you should have had the common sense to look for more books yourself, after all its your world and your inheritance we're learning about, I'm new to it all and I want to know. I just can't imagine what it would be like to be born into all this, spend years hiding away from it and then not want to learn everything I could when I came back! Especially with your status, I would have thought you would need to know more. I know your accounts are probably being managed by you at the minute, and so is your business dealings, but surely you want to know how to manage things when you reach seventeen and can take over!

In answer to your question, it's not exactly easy for me to get to the Alley in the summer either, as mum and dad can't come with me due to the fame you've attracted to both me and Ron, and I can't get in without someone to escort me through the barrier. I order all my books by mail order, I find it helps to write to Flourish and Blotts and just drop a few names; having met Dumbledore personally on several occasions and being close friends with you really doesn't hurt to mention if I need something. Also, the fact I am always top of the year really doesn't go amiss.

The best advice I can offer you is to write to the book store, and anywhere else you can think of that might be able to sell you what you want, and see what they can do for you! I don't doubt you'll get everything you need, and some discounts too if you mention who you are. I hope you would use that to your advantage, Harry, because even though I know you don't like your fame having it and not using it seems to be a giant waste to me! After all, the power you hold just from what you did as a baby can get you pretty much anything you want, let alone taking in the stature and power that comes with your house! Sometimes I really worry that your social skills were limited by living with your aunt and uncle for so long."

More typical Hermione, assuming she knew best and telling him what he should and shouldn't do. How was it her business what he did with his name? And how dare she use his friendship to gain her things! Much as he adored his best friend he was forced to wonder exactly what type of friendship they had now, he had never noticed her using him in this way before but to see it written down it made perfect sense. After all, she might not push him openly about things but she was always willing to use things if she could, anything to gain an advantage at school! That realization would definatly define the tone of his next letter, if he even bothered to reply! Her next paragraph made that idea even less likely, as Harry read on to what she had written on yet another sheet of parchment.

"Harry!

I was mid way through writing this letter when Dumbledore got in contact and asked if I had heard anything from you. I did of course show him your letter, and then he told me that you'd ran away and left your aunts. What are you thinking? Why would you do something like that?! I know you don't like living there but Dumbledore obviously knows its best for you and throwing away the blood protection is nothing short of stupid! You had better get back there as soon as possible, I don't want to interupt my studying to go look for you but I will if I have to; you need to be there!

Write to be as SOON as you get this, I need to know where you are so someone can come and get you back safe!

Write to me, NOW!

Hermione."

How dare she, Harry fumed as he paced around his rooms. How dare she even consider sending him back there when she was the only person he had even partially confided in about the realities of his life! How dare she suggest he go back to those horrible people when she was the only person he knew who really had any idea just how harsh the muggle world could be! It wasn't like the Wizarding nation, where children were often rare and cared for if not loved, it was a whole different society where children weren't wanted a lot of the time and left for abuse! Even though she had never experienced it herself she should at least have heard enough about it to imagine the horrors he had been through! There would be no reply to her tonight, that was for sure; and non to the other post either, as he could tell instantly that it was from Dumbledore and Ron. Dumbledores would be telling him to get back to his aunts as fast as possible, and Ron's would be calling him a git and telling him to go back there, so there was no point even reading it yet!

Debating briefly whether or not to burn Dumbledores letter and destroy any tracking charms, he thought better. He was still using the wand he had purchased when he first went to Hogwarts and whatever tracing charms the ministry had placed on it would still be there, let alone whatever else Dumbledore had chosen to do! Instead he stroked Hedwig as he formed a plan in his mind... He would send her to Sirius's house at Grimmauld Place and get her to leave the letter there; the order wouldn't be using it since Sirius had passed out of respect, and it was somewhere he would likely have ran to! Sending Hedwig off again, he collapsed onto his bed and finally let sleep take him.

The next morning Harry dressed then ate a quick breakfast as he read through his letter from Ron. It was basically the same as he expected, lots of talk about Quidditch and how the Cannons were doing in the league (pathetic as always) and moaning about how bored Ron also was, stuck at home under his mothers watchful eye. She was being even more controlling and overly protective than normal, and Harry felt a brief flash of sympathy for his friend, before remembering just how much he would have loved something like that!

The next morning Harry dressed, ate a quick breakfast and made his way back to Diagon Alley under the cover of his invisibility cloak without even looking at his post. While his bedroom mirror had shown him that he was looking more and more like his mother he still didn't trust himself not to be recognized, and he didn't want to risk casting any glamour on himself just yet. One, he didn't know the magic involved and wouldn't want to do something too dangerous or irriversable, and two, he didn't trust his wand. First after Gringotts would be to replace it, that was for sure, but for now he had to go and deal with his bankers!

At least Goblin Bankers were easier to deal with, he mused to himself as he made his way through the Golden doors into the main foyer, and was instantly ushered down to Gripnooks offices again. Yes, Goblins had their own ways and their own attitudes to things, but they were a lot more likely to be straight forward than Humans were. They were scheming and always looking for ways to make easy money, but they never denied this or tried to be anything else. While a human would act your friend and get close to you before stabbing you in the back, the Goblin equivalent would stab you in the front and smile while they were doing it!

Arriving in the office, he yet again took the offered seat and waited paitently while his account manager organised some paper in front of him. There was no point rushing a Goblin, that was clear. They worked at their own speed, got things done the way they should be, and annoying them or rushing them just made things happen slower. Sure enough, after about five minutes of silence Gripnook spoke.

"We have a lot more to discuss today, and a lot of things that need to be organized before we can continue much further. Firstly, however, I think it is important we assess the transactions on your accounts since your parents deaths, and confirm officially that you had nothing to do with these changes."

Harry nodded in agreement. He was very interested to find out just what had happened to his accounts while he didn't know about them, anything else could be worked out afterwards but it was very important he knew who was doing what. How could he put plans into effect or know who to avoid if he didn't know exactly who had been doing things against him? Dumbledore was an obvious choice, but who else could have been involved was yet to be seen. After all, with a name as huge as his, and apparently a bank balance equally large, there was sure to be quite a lot of people who were after control of at least some of his funds. If he had known about his financial situation before he knew he would have taken a more active roll in his affairs and done everything he could to stop people doing what they could with what he had.

"Considering I didn't even know I had money other than the one account I had access to I can sign off on any other transactions as being against my wishes without any thought to the matter. However, I would like to know exactly what has been done and by who, if this is possible! I can't react fairly if I don't know what has been done or who is to blame!"

An evil smile was his first response.

"Of course, Mr Potter, we would expect nothing else of course."

Gripnook shifted through his papers again, before pulling out a large, thick paper pad and scanning it briefly.

"It appears your accounts have been used regularly since the death of your parents. The first transactions happened just days after the event, the same day as you were placed with your mothers family. On that day the equivilent of half a million British Pounds was removed from your central account and transferred into an account set up in the name of Mrs Petunia Dursley."

"My aunt."

There was a nod.

"At the same time access to your main account was also granted to Mr Vernon Dursley and Mrs Petunia Dursley, with a limit of the equivalent of 10,000 per month withdrawal. Since then the maximum amount has been withdrawn at every opportunity, bringing the grand total withdrawal from made by them to roughly 1650,000 over almost fourteen years."

"Thats a lot of money! They always told me I was a burden on them and taking out of their pockets!" Harry was furious and disgusted, and it showed in his voice.

"It isn't a small amount, but considering the size of your accounts the reductions there are not even noticable. I can understand why you would be angry, however there are more issues within your accounts which we need also discuss."

"Hmmm?"

"On top of the money going to Mr and Mrs Dursley, there have been regular outgoings of 2000 per month to a Mrs Molly Weasley since the month before you started Hogwarts. There has been one removal a year to the Pureblood Investment Fund, headed by Mr Malfoy, as well as to the Department of Mysteries in London. There has also been money donated regularly on your behalf to an organization known as the Order Of The Phoenix and to St Mungos hospital and Hogwarts school."

Harry growled at this, and Gripnook looked surprised. It was a strange reaction from any human, especially one who always seemed so composed and emotionless regarding most things. It was almost, he mused, as if the boy had no fight in him, as if his humanity had been largely stripped away.

"Stop it all! Every last penny of it!"

"If that is what you want."

"Of course I want it! It's my money, and someone has been stealing it from me. I want to know how these people even had any right to my money, what were they doing taking it from me?! I never agreed to give money to any of these people, not once! I don't mind my money going to a hospital but it should be my choice not anyone elses, and as for paying for the Pureblood Investment Fund I have no idea what that is but I am sure it is not something I would choose to give my money to! I might support the Order of the Phoenix in what they are trying to do but why should I have to pay for it?! Why should it be my money funding people like Mundungus Fletcher and whoever else Dumbledore has working for him to eat good meals and drink good wine at every meal, when they don't even let me know what they're doing! If I'm funding something surely I have the right to know what's going on, what my money is going on?"

"It can be looked into" But Harry interupted, and finally there was some emotion showing on the young man.

"As for the Weasleys, why are they even getting any of my money like this? If they needed it that bad they could have had it if they had just asked, I offered enough times and they know I would happily share everything I have with them. So why in Hells name are they taking money a backhanded way from me? Why didn't they just tell me about this, and let me decide. They're supposed to be my friends, my surrogate family outside of this! I want to know who authorised all these transactions and what I can do to them!"

"They were all authorized by your Magical Guardian."

"And who might that be?"

"It isn't listed, but I will have the information found for you before our meeting is finished." Gripnook gestured behind him and a young Goblin stepped out of the shaddows. Talking quickly in Gobledegook he sent the youth on his way, then turned back to Harry.

"I know you are angry, but there are other matters pertaining your accounts that also need to be discussed, not least your properties."

"I have properties?"

Gripnook scanned through his paperwork again briefly, nodding his head.

"At the time of your parents deaths your accounts contained the deeds to thirteen residential properties. Upon our assessment of your accounts we can confirm that this number is now reduced to just six."

"What happened to the others?" came the bitter question, whatever the answer was, it was clearly not going to be good.

"Out of the seven properties missing from your portfolio, our records show that six of them were sold, including the house that was due to be left to Mr Lupin. The property in Godrics Hollow where your parents died was gifted by your magical guardian to the Wizarding Nation. We can only assume that it is now used as some form of monument to what happened that night."

"And the ones that are left? I really need an option for a place to stay rather than in the Muggle World."

"The five properties you can currently claim are spread out across the world." Replied Gripnook, reading through his notes again.

"You have Potter Mansion on the south coast, in a Wizarding only area near Weymouth, your maternal Grandparents holiday house as mentioned in your parents Will, although on making that public you will loose the rights to this home, and also an appartment block in Central Leicester which is mainly rented, although the penthouse is left empty for your use. On top of that you have a villa in South Africa, a large house in Australia and a mansion in California. Previously the House of Potter also owned properties in Spain, Portugal, India, China, Brazil and also a property in Scotland."

"That's very spread out."

"Your family has businesses or interests in all of these areas. It is always financially viable to have a base near anywhere you have big operations."

"I guess so. By interests I assume you mean financial?"

"Of course!" there was a half smile at that comment, and a brief moment of understanding as both realized that the only mutual interest they had was in money and in punishing those who tried to take what wasn't theirs to take.

"The Potter House owns interests in many businesses across the world, though some are less profitable than others. You are however the soul owner of a crystal mine in India as well as several quarys, the most profitable and reachable within close proximity to your Weymouth house."

"These businesses bring in a lot of money?"

"Enough that your family have comfortably stayed within Gringotts most valued customers for the past six or seven generations."

That was enough to tell Harry, if not exact figures, then roughly how much these businesses must be bringing in. From what he had seen of the magical world there were a lot of very wealthy people, who generally flaunted that wealth and appeared to want for nothing. To know that he was one of them, and possibly one of the richest of the lot, came as a bit of a system shock to say the least. He knew he had money, that had become more and more clear the more he had spoken and communicated with Gripnook, but to know that he was still earning was more difficult to come to terms with. Stored money, yes, he could understand that being overlooked or kept aside to tell him when he came of age, but whole businesses bringing in large sums on a regular basis? That was something completely different and something he should have been informed of a long time ago!

"I assume with all these businesses I have employees?" He asked, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Even with magic these places can't all run themselves. I hope for their sakes that whoever has been messing with my accounts hasn't negatively impacted them. Mess with me, fine, but mess with people under my name and I won't have it! Money can be earned again, but a name is something you only have once!"

"Indeed, though you are right in your suggestion that they may have been negatively impacted." Gripnook checked his figures. "In the past fifteen years over half your employee's have been let go, and from what we can tell very few have been able to find other work. Of the ones that are left wages and benefits have been cut at every possible turn, and many are hoping and actively searching for new jobs if they haven't already left. As most of your employee's are Muggle there are very few who have any idea who you might be, and even less who have any chance of meeting those who have been controlling your accounts. Since taking control Mr Dumbledore has visited your Weymouth works only once, to inform the staff of your parents deaths and imminent cutbacks. Since then they have seen noone from head management, though you have several magical people placed high within the company who have passed on letters on a five yearly bases from yourself."

"I never wrote any letters to any companies. I didn't even know they existed and if I had have known I would have gone there in person! It's the least I can do for the people who are making me money!"

"I assumed as much. However, these letters have been arriving and have been being read to the staff, under the aim of boosting moral one would assume."

"An aim I would guess failed?"

"From what we can gather, although we haven't looked much into detail about each individual situation yet. Your accounts are large and our time has been short, we will of course inform you more as time progresses and we uncover more."

"Naturally." Harry paused and his eyes flicked briefly to his watch. "Would you mind if we wrapped up this meeting for now? I have a lot to think about, and if it is acceptable I would like to retire to one of my properties to get settled. Much as I appreciate the night in the muggle world and the expensive hotel you found for me to stay in, that much grandure isn't what I'm used to. Also, I feel it would be best if I emmerced myself in the Wizarding World as soon as possible rather than waiting any longer. Until recently I haven't felt I belonged, but now I do I don't want to let that go!"

"That would be more than acceptable! I will have one of your house elves called to escort you to a property of your choosing, and we can reconvene this meeting at a later date."

"If you're sure that won't be an inconvenience?"

"I believe not. I'll have one of your house elves meet you in the stone room off the great hall."

With a nod Gripnook gestured to another goblin who had been waiting in the wings; the same it appeared who had brought Harry down earlier that morning. Had it really been hours? It felt like a lot less.

Gripnook smiled at that, before standing and gesturing Harry to his feet. There was something about this boy, now his glamors had been removed and he was beginning to think for himself, which was making even he, one of the most experience goblins, wonder, and he wanted to take another look and see what his eye might have previously overlooked.

The young man in front of him was becoming quite impressive, there was no denying that. Far from the boy who had arrived under the guise of fake confidence several weeks ago, here was a man who truly did have the confidence the sought to portray. Standing tall and proud, there was a kindly if not slightly bemused on the slightly rounded, half smiling face. Unlike many of his type here was a man who didn't look down on the Goblins, as rather than shying away from the contact or looking back with disgust Harry simply accepted it, seemed to look upon Gripnook as his equal rather than as a creature beneath him. He held himself secure in his nature, yet at the same time portrayed someone easy to reach out for, his kind nature and loving heart shining through any guise he might have tried to put on. Quick to anger if it was deserved, capable of holding a grudge but loyal to the end were all impressions that popped out from what he saw. There was something else in there too, a ruthlessness which told that he would go to any ends to achieve his goals if they were something he truly believed in, but at the same time compassionate, thinking of others before his own gains every time. Respectful, Honorable and Real, those were the words Griphook would have used had he been asked, and he stored them away for later use. This man would make a fine leader if they were finally going to take down Dumbledore and all the corruption the man had caused over the years. Gringotts had been waiting for years untold for an excuse and a way to pin this man down legally and not face harsher Ministry restrictions, and here it appeared was there answer, shining out at them from non other than Dumbledores golden boy himself.

Well; another chapter down, another god knows how many to go! Spent quite a lot of time on this chapter, although lots of that was due to cutting out a huge section in the middle to go into the next chapter. The next chapter should be the last of the base building chapters though, and after that its just the story and wherever the characters choose to take it! I know it's taken quite a while to get this far, but hopefully it'll be worth it in the long run!

So now we know for sure that it was Dumbles behind a lot of Harrys problems, but this is only with the bank. Ooh he's going to be pissed when he realizes Harry is onto him. And Molly Weasley has been taking money from Harrys accounts has she? I doubt this will go down well. Will he mention it to Ron or just let it slide, or will he wait and have a huge kick off if/when he goes back to school? Harry has a place to stay, yay! I know in cannon Potter Mansion wasn't anywhere near the south coast, but if it's going to be a regularly used setting in my story I wanted to be able to talk about somewhere I know, it's also why I chose Leicester as my second location for Harry's properties. Some point in this story he's going to purchase another hideaway too, which will play a key part in the story, but that won't happen for quite a while yet I don't think!

Hope you all enjoyed this one, and please do read and review, it's always appreciated and inspires me to want to work harder and write longer chapters, even if I don't get as much time to write as I would like!

Love and Peace

Josie