Hello, everyone! Here's the newest chapter for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord" story. Enjoy!

* Review response:
Hanzo of the Salamander, Evci, thank you for your reviews!
Highvalour, well, maybe not two minutes, but not more than an hour, definitely.

* Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"
"wraith speech"
'human thoughts'
"spells / parseltongue"

This chapter was not beta-read. Yet.
* Potter vault contents were fixed *

chapter 13: Shopping and estate management

Being lazy, when allowed freedom, Harry had postponed his visit to the Gringotts bank – he needed to see the state of Potter house's finances – till he would go there to get money for his shopping for his second year at Hogwarts. So, the green-eyed wizard spent the next week either in his room at the Leaky Cauldron or at the Fortescue ice-cream parlor, reading his books on medicine.

When the week the enchanter asked for to do his job passed, the young Griffindor visited his workshop again, testing the results of man's work himself. Being satisfied with what was done, Harry paid the man for his work, and even promised to stop by his shop if he ever needed to lay enchantments on anything else.

Late in the evening of July twenty ninth, Harry sent Neville a letter where he wished his friend a Happy Birthday. Attached to the letter, there was a small package that contained the enchanted fountain pen the young wizard got for his friend – it even was in the colors of house Longbottom's coat of arms – and an instruction of how to use and maintain the said pen. Harry hoped that his friend would like his gift, especially since it was both looked good and was useful.

Neville loved the gift the green-eyed wizard got him. Or at least that was what he wrote in the letter he wished Harry Happy Birthday in – the two boys were born within twenty eight hours, actually. And considering now neatly the letter looked and the fact that it was written in the exact same ink Harry used to test the enchantments on the pen, the young Potter was sure that his friend wasn't just nice to him. The two rather old tomes on medical herbal mixes Neville sent as his gift to him could attest to that too...

On August the fourth the letter from Hogwarts with a list of books required for his second year at Hogwarts arrived. And seeing seven books written by Gilderoy Lockhart on the list made Harry a little apprehensive of who will be teaching DADA in the coming year... He really didn't like fangirls, and the new professor made an impression of being one. Oh well...

Since the letter arrived late in the afternoon, the young wizard decided to do the shopping tomorrow, when all of the shops would be open. And finally have a meeting with the house Potter estate manager.

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Bright and early in the morning Harry entered the white marble building of the Gringotts bank. Since it was still early, there weren't many customers there, so finding a free teller wasn't hard at all.

"Good morning, master teller." After his second visit to Gringotts – the one on the day he was introduced into the wizarding world – the green-eyed wizard decided that most magicals were stupid in showing no respect to those, who managed their money... The goblin teller showed no reaction to being addressed to for about twenty seconds, as he continued to measure some gems. Finally, the teller decided that he had made Harry wait for long enough.

"What do you want, wizard?" The goblin asked with a sneer, showing his teeth to the human. The said green-eyed wizard tried not to look intimidated by that.

"I wish to meet with the manager of Potter account at his earliest convenience." The last words Harry said in such tone, that they couldn't be interpreted in any other way than 'right now'. The goblin teller looked at the young wizard in front of him: the nerve of those wizards!

"Even if you are indeed the Harry Potter, you are too young to be bothering master Goldsaw, wizard." The goblin sneered in response. "Unless you have any other business with Gringotts, leave." So Potter's estate manager's name was Goldsaw, huh?

"As I'm the scion of the Noble house Potter, and the last living member of the said house, I'm allowed to oversee the state of my house's estate thence I turn eleven." This was a written rule of Gringotts. Well, it was written in a much more gaudy language, but the idea was this... The goblin teller made a face like he swallowed a lemon, but had to grant Harry his request.

"Very well. Master Goldsaw will see you if he is not busy." The teller summoned a younger goblin and told him something in a quick gobbledegook. The younger goblin nodded and disappeared behind one of the large doors that were there behind counters. A couple of minutes later, the assistant goblin returned and made a report in gobbledegook to the teller, who nodded, before turning to Harry and addressing him. "It appears that you are lucky, wizard. Goldsaw will see you. If you can prove that you are indeed Harry Potter, of course." With that the teller handed a parchment and a deep-red, almost black, quill to Harry. Understanding what was required of him, the young wizard wrote his name on the parchment, wincing slightly as the blood quill 'wrote' exact copy of his 'signature' on the back of his hand... At least that healed just moments after. "Very well, Mr. Potter. Rustknife would guide you to master Goldsaw." The teller said, as he examined the signature.

"Follow me." The assistant goblin said, before he started walking towards one of the doors out of the bank's lobby. Harry did as said, and followed him... They walked through the corridors that made up a maze not unlike the one, formed by the tunnels underneath the bank leading to the vaults. Finally, they arrived to a massive door of dark wood that had a golden nameplate for 'Goldsaw', along with the list of his titles. The assistant goblin lead Harry into the Goldsaw's office: a large room, that had two levels – lower level had a sofa and a small table, and was for customers, while the higher level held estate manager's massive table of dark wood and was dimly lit, making the goblin look more intimidating than he, a retired warrior, looked otherwise.

"It was more than a decade since a Potter visited me." Goldsaw said, once Harry was sitting on the sofa in front of him. "From what I'm told, you wish to see the state of your house's finances." The young wizard just nodded: while this goblin didn't behave like he was a dirt on the ground, Goldsaw was still very intimidating. The goblin handed him quite a thick ledger with a Potter crest on it. "Read it. If you have questions – ask me. But try not to be too wearisome, as I'm very busy right now." Nodding again, Harry opened the ledger and started reading.

First and foremost, there was information on his trust vault: it was to activate on his tenth birthday, and would deactivate when he became an adult – normally that would happen on his successfully passing his OLWs as he was the last member of a Noble house, but there were ways of becoming an adult earlier. Though, none of those looked good: he didn't want to be tried in front of the full Wizengamot, for example... His trust vault was set to contain two thousands galleons and to refill itself once a year on July thirty first. He was allowed to take any amount of money from his trust vault, but even if it became empty, it wouldn't refill till next August.

The Potter family vault, on the other hand, was currently inaccessible to him in terms of money and other objects, like a small library, contained there. The vault contained impressive three and a half hundreds thousands galleons – well, a little more than that, as there was a lot of sickles and knuts there too – several dozens of jewels that were worth another hundred thousands galleons combined, a collection of old and rare books, some of which were priceless, and some other things from old times.

After the information about 'his' vaults, the ledger contained data on Potter family's properties. First there was a manor – located under powerful wards somewhere in Wales – but it was all but ruined after the fire in nineteen eight three. Then there was a cottage at the Godric's Hollow, which was both destroyed and turned into a national monument: He-who-must-not-be-named was defeated there, after all... There also were a penthouse near the center of London and a summer house not far away from Brighton, but both were under stasis that could be remover only either by his legal guardian – Dumbledore the suspicious – or by himself, when he would reach majority. It appeared that it would be still several years before he will be able to move out of the number four Privet Drive.

Finally, the ledger had the information about shares of stocks in various wizarding business Potter family owned. Unfortunately, there wasn't much of interest to Harry, though, he noticed that the most of the shares of stocks were either in firms that worked with potions' ingredients, or with charms and enchantments. Also, there was some a share of stock in General Electrics, but that seemed to be the only muggle business house Potter was investing into... All in all, the stocks house Potter owned were worth roughly thirty five thousands galleons.

Done with the current state of his estate, the green-eyed wizard looked into what it was in the past: the ledger contained such information too... It looked like his grandfather, Charles Potter, was quite a good businessman, as he managed to have the main vault contain almost a million of galleons in gold – and another quarter in jewels. But that was in sixties to middle seventies. After that the war with Voldemort started, and new lord Potter, Harry's father James, was financing the Light side, which, in the end, brought the house to its current state.

"Master Goldsaw,.." Harry addressed to his estate manager the same way the teller did – hopefully the goblin in front of him wouldn't find it rude. "...Thank you for providing me with this information about the state of my house's estate." With that he handed the ledger back to the goblin. "Being the last member of a Noble house, and being older than eleven, I would like to make a few suggestions about the investment politics of the house Potter. Of course, since I'm still a minor, you, as my estate manager, are the one who decides whether following those suggestions is profitable or not, but I'd be thankful if you at least listen to what I have to say." Goldsaw looked at the young man in front of him.

"Very well. I will listen to your suggestions Mr. Potter, but, as you said, it's up to me to decide, should those changes be made or not." The goblin said, while mentally preparing himself for requests like buying Zonko or something like that.

"Since my uncle is a businessman, I'm forced to listen to the business news quite often and, as such, I have an idea of what's going on around the globe. First and foremost, I'd like you to triple the share of stock of General Electrics Potter house owns. Next, I'd like you to buy shares of stocks in Microsoft and Apple companies, each in the muggle equivalent of five thousands galleons: both companies are muggle and analytics say that both are really unlike to face anything but increase of their value for the time being." Harry said. Judging by the expression on Goldsaw's face, this was not what the goblin expected him to say... It actually took him a couple of second to recover his normal expression of 'being better than you'.

"I see..." Goldsaw said slowly. "I will ask the analytic team of Gringotts to look into the companies you named. If their results agree with yours, I will follow your suggestions for the investments." Harry nodded. "Is there anything else Gringotts can do for you today, Mr. Potter?"

"Yes, though, I think I shouldn't bother you with me getting some galleons out of my trust vault." The green-eyed wizard said, and he got ready to head back to bank's main lobby.

"No, no, Mr. Potter, there is no reason for you to face the queues again." With that the Potter estate manager activated some rune on his table and moments later a young goblin entered the office. "Sharptooth will guide you to your vault."

"Thank you." The young wizard replied, and followed the young goblin out of Goldsaw's office...

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Harry had to agree with Hagrid there: those carts were evil. But then again, they were one of the few ways goblins could have their payback with the arrogant wizards that insulted them... Checking that the money bag with almost all of those two thousands galleons he was allowed to spend during the year was still with him, Harry headed out of the bank: he had a shopping to do.

First and foremost, he needed to restock his potion ingredients – Snape, er... professor Snape made it clear that he would pass Harry with acceptable only if Harry's potions were nearly perfect. And perfection needed a lot of practice... As such, the green-eyed wizard was burning through his stock of potion ingredients at an alarming rate... Plus he needed a new set of vials.

Once he was done with the apothecary and other minor shops he needed to visit, the young wizard headed to Flourish and Blotts to buy himself the books he will need his year. But once he got closer to the bookstore, he saw that there was a lot of people there, trice or even more than there normally were in the shop, and they were mostly housewives and teenage girls. And the most disturbing thing was that they all behaved like fangirls in front of their idol.

As Harry came closer to the bookstore, his suspicion was proven correct: those were fangirls... And the reason they were there was explained by a big sign near the entrance to the shop that said about Gilderoy Lockhart held book signing today. Sighing, the young Griffindor decided to postpone his visit to this particular shop: he had no desire to go jostle through such crowds in order to get his books. So he headed back to the Leaky Cauldron to put his things there. But when he was passing by the shop's entrance, the crowd of fangirls suddenly started moving, as if they tried to avoid something.

Moments later Harry saw exactly what they were trying to avoid: a red-haired man in late forties, presumably the father of his (Harry's) classmate Ron Weasley, was brawling against aristocratic blonde man who could be no one but Lucius Malfoy... Scanning the crowds, Harry soon saw Draconica walking towards the queue to the counter with the books in her hands. She saw him too, and nodded to him in greeting. The green-eyed wizard nodded back and was about to continue on his way to the Leaky Cauldron, when his eyes caught Mr. Malfoy – who by now stopped fighting with Mr. Weasley – looking intently at the cauldron with books that a red-haired girl, young ms. Wealey, had. Something just felt fishy about the whole thing, but since it was none of his business, Harry ignored it and walked away...

After leaving the things he had bought in the morning in his room at the Leaky Cauldron, and having a quick lunch there, Harry returned into the alley. He was there to but himself a new – and decent – broom. No, Harry was sure that Oliver would allow him to use his broom this year too, but the green-eyed wizard felt bad about forcing his captain to use an old and outclassed broom that his (Harry's) Cleansweep four was.

Since the Nimbus company released the new model this summer, the previous one – the Nimbus 2000 – was now sold with rather big discounts, which allowed one to buy a more than decent sport broom at the cost of little more the one thousand and four hundreds galleons. And Harry was going to buy himself one of those 'old' Nimbuses.

That only left the young Griffindor with the problem of what he should do with his Cleansweep. On one hand, his rational and materialistic side wanted to keep it and use it as a spare broomstick, in case something would happen to his Nimbus. On the other, knowing the state of Hogwarts' brooms, the softer side the young Potter possessed wanted him to gift his old broom to the school. In the end, after some thinking, Harry decided to try to sell his Cleansweep to Hogwarts at half the price it would have on the second-hand market...

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The next day, the young wizard made another tour into the Diagon Alley, this time heading straight to the Flourish and Blotts. After picking all of the books he would need at school this year – he was lucky that there were Lockhart's books left after what was happening there yesterday – the green-eyed wizard started browsing the shop for books on magical medicine.

Unlike the muggle bookstores, though, he couldn't find any books on anatomy or physiology or psychiatry or, well, anything like that there... It seemed that in the magical world medicine was more like sets of spells and potions that were discovered to help in certain cases, than a real science. Still, knowing those spells and potions would be nothing, but helpful, so the young Potter bought himself books on basic healing charms and on medical potions.

Even if the shopkeeper was surprised by Harry's choice of his reading material, he didn't show it, and sold the books without any questions as to why the 'Boy-who-lived' wanted to study medicine or something like that. And it suited Harry just fine...

Later that day, in the afternoon, Harry flipped through Lockhart's books, hoping to see how exactly they would be useful for the DADA class. The answer, unfortunately, was this: this books were pathetically useless, unless you wanted a novel written by a narcissist author. They were a waste of money – and no a small amount of gold at that – and the teacher, who chose them, wasn't like to be any better than professor Quirrell was. If anything, the new teacher would be even more useless than a constantly stuttering man, who made it look like he was afraid of his own shadow, was. Oh well, Hogwarts had a great library and there definitely were normal second year DADA textbooks to study the subject form...

That's all, folks!
There will be no updates till July 18th - I will be at the army camp without access to PC or internet.

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