Disinherited Chapter 8
After all the excitement of Sirius Blacks trial and release in the first half of Harrys first year at St Georges academy, the second half of the first school year went much more smoothly than the first half. Harry was careful to not write anything that might make waves. He excelled in pretty much all of his classes. He loved the History and the Ancient Runes classes. Neville was a whiz at Herbology and they both grew to become more familiar with Potions as well. Harry liked maths so Arithmancy was not terribly hard for him either.
At the end of the school year, Harry had some tests. Kids aged 8 do not exactly get 3 hour exams, but they did get tests. Towards the end of the school year, Neville wrote to his grandmother asking to be allowed to stay with his friend again for the summer just like he had for Christmas. But this time his gran said NO. Neville was to come home for the summer holidays. The boys were extremely disappointed. They promised to keep in touch by OWL.
While Neville did have access to his magic, he could not do much with it since he was not yet allowed to have a wand. So the summer came and the boys split up and went to their respective homes. Harry spent a few hours each week with Sirius at the lawyers office, and got to know his godfather. Harry was not terribly impressed. While sometimes Sirius was morose and withdrawn. Other times he spoke of his years at Hogwarts when he was part of a pranking group called the Marauders and just how much fun they had. It seemed to Harry that his godfather wanted to remain a teenage boy in his mind, because that had been his happiest time. It took a while, but eventually Sirius was forced by the lawyer to get some help by talking to a mind healer twice a week.
Harry spent the rest of his summer becoming concerned about Neville. The boy had sent very few letters to Harry. And the ones he did send were of the one line versions that said, I am fine, Doing well. Having fun in my greenhouses. Harry got the impression that Neville was left alone and pretty much a prisoner. He was never allowed off the property to see his friend Harry, nor was he allowed to write lots of letters.
At the end of Summer, Harry was hopeful that Neville would return to St Georges. Fortunately the boy did show up, and it didn't take him long to shake off the effects of the rather lonely summer he had endured. Soon Harry and Neville were back into the routine of classes and sports.
Now that the wizarding and culture classes were done, that last spot on the Friday timetable was replaced with Astronomy. Fortunately the school had a planetarium so that they did not have to stay up late to watch the skies. The boys didn't need to use telescopes. but instead they used their eyes. The planetarium showed the night sky for that day, and indeed they could also go back and show all the previous astronomical events as well. Thus Harry learned about supernovas, black holes, comets, asteroids, the constellations, the zodiac, the planets, the cosmos, the stories of the American Moon landings and the boys were quite interested in following the new Space Shuttle program as well.
One thing the Astronomy class did was to spend 13 weeks watching the award winning TV series COSMOS by the well known mundane Astronomer Carl Sagan. The series had first aired in 1980, so even now some 9 years later, it was not too much out of date. There was a ton of interesting stories relating to the History of Astronomy and History of other subjects in the series as well. Harry loved that series. He loved the book based on the TV series as well.
The second year at St Georges passed very quietly and smoothly. Neville did not talk much about his home life, but Harry got the impression that his gran was not at all happy at having a squib for an heir. Neville was not permitted to stay with Harry for the Yule holidays nor for the following summer. At the end of the 2nd year. Neville told Harry that he would not be surprised if he was eventually disinherited and possibly dumped into a mundane orphanage. Harry swore that this would not happen, and began speaking to his grandparents and to Sirius about this eventuality.
While Sirius had eventually toned down his stories about his Hogwarts days, he still had not found anything to do to take up his interest. He had plenty of money and therefore had no need to work at a job, but he did not have a challenge or a reason to live for. He had also discovered that he was sterile. Most likely due to the inbreeding within his family, since his parents were actually both second cousins to each other. The Dementors certainly had not helped either.
Harry broached the subject one day.
"Sirius?" he asked on one of Sirius' visits to the lawyers office. "Do you have an heir?"
"Yes, Harry, it's you." Sirius replied
"Why is it me? Is that only because I am your godson?"
"Ye-es. Why are you asking?"
"I have reason to believe that one of my friends is about to be disinherited because his family think he is a squib, and I was wondering if perhaps you might adopt him and make him your heir. He does have his magic. It's just a little slow in manifesting itself. He is also a Pureblood by your own family standards. In fact his great grandmother was a Black as well, if that helps. "
Sirius perked up. "Don't you want to be my heir, Harry?"
"I am already the heir of two families. Potters and Selwyns. I don't really want or need a third. That will just force me to have to take on three wives when I get older. If you accept Neville, he can change his whole name to one that fits Black traditions, and it will give both him and you a new start and maybe a new family. You need a family to live for, Sirius, You are just wasting away here with nothing to do. Please talk about this with your mind healer on your next visit, OK?"
Sirius nodded.
Two weeks later when Harry and Sirius met up again, Sirius was bouncing around on his toes.
"Harry, you are brilliant. That was a great idea. I went to visit the Longbottoms and you're right. The attitude of both the grandmother and the head of house towards Neville is not good. I managed to spend about 20 minutes with young Neville and I asked him if he would perhaps like a new family.
His face lit up and he asked, 'You mean with Harry?'
I told him, 'No, I mean with me. Would you be open to me adopting you as my heir?' "
Neville was shocked. Someone finally wanted him. He had nodded frantically and thrown his arms around Sirius and cried. "Yes please." he sobbed.
Sirius explained to Neville that they needed to keep this quiet until such time as Neville was disinherited. Neville agreed.
One of the things Sirius had explained to Harry was that he had several cousins who were all girls. Thus on their marriages, none of their children had the name of Black. One of these children was being raised by his pureblood parents to expect to be named as the Black heir after Sirius, simply because they assumed they were the closest relatives to Sirius. Unfortunately the father of this family was a known Death Eater despite having denied it after the last wizarding war, (the one that had killed Harrys parents and put both of Nevilles parents into the long term ward at St Mungos) by claiming that he was under the Imperious curse. The one thing Sirius did not want, was for the Black fortune and wealth to be used to fund the terrorists like Voldemort and his death eaters. This death eater had a son who was the same age as Harry and Neville and he was a very arrogant child.
The third year of school also went quietly. At the end of the summer before going back to St Georges, Neville had been told by his grandmother that if he received a letter from Hogwarts on or before his 11th birthday, then he would be attending Hogwarts school. If he refused to do so, then he would be disinherited from the Longbottom name, and "your parents would be so disappointed in their son."
She went to proclaim that Hogwarts was the best school of its kind in the world, and Neville would attend to make his family proud. The grandmother tried to use guilt. But Neville had long since thought of his parents as dead since no-one was even trying to help them improve or get better. Neville was much more settled now that he was no longer had to be worried about what his grandmother might do to him. There was a plan in place if he was disinherited. In some ways, Neville did hope that he would be disinherited, because Sirius would be a much better father than any parent his grandmother had tried to be.
At school, in the third year, the boys were making many different potions.
Harry was learning how to use runes to run small machines such as radios, CD and cassette players with magic instead of electricity. These were popular mundane electronic devices that played music.
Neville was learning about breeding programs between magical and mundane plants in order to produce stronger plants with higher yields of potions ingredients.
Then it happened. Just before the end of their third school year, both Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter received their letters from Hogwarts. The boys discussed what to do, with Harrys grandparents as well as Sirius.
The biggest question was, would Henry go as Harry Potter or as Henry Selwyn?
"I would much rather go as Henry Selwyn. In disguise. I really don't want all the attention on me since the name Harry Potter is very famous." Harry stated emphatically.
Neville agreed. While the Longbottom name was also well known, it was not so famous. But if the fates decreed that Neville was to have a new name, he would prefer to go to Hogwarts as a Black instead.
So both boys chose to reject their Hogwarts letters under the names of Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom, and they waited to see what would happen.
They had not even had time to send their replies when the next shock was announced.
The announcement was in the Daily Prophet, with all the other announcements on the inside back page.
"It is with regret that since my grandson Neville Longbottom is a confirmed squib, he has been disinherited from the Longbottom family. My new heir will now be Scion Draco Malfoy, the son of Lucius Malfoy. Draco is a 4th cousin to my former heir through the Black family. So mote it be." Signed Augusta Longbottom.
While Neville had been expecting this announcement for several months, the fact that it did actually happen was somewhat devastating and he spent a few hours crying. On the other hand things were not that bad, as he had already found a replacement family. The replies to Hogwarts were put on hold.
One week after the announcement in the paper, Sirius and Neville headed to Gringotts to conduct a blood adoption ceremony. Harry and his grandfather Ivor Selwyn did the same thing. The fact that the name of Harry Potter still received a letter from Hogwarts meant that being a legal adoption was not sufficient to recognize Harry's new name. It had to be accepted by magic as well, and the only way to do that was through a blood adoption.
So on June 30, 1991, Harry Potter formally became Henry Iago Selwyn, and Neville Longbottom formally became Archer Kio Black. These names showed up on the Hogwarts books and soon they too received their Letters of Invitation from Hogwarts.
Harry did not change all that much. He kept his mothers eyes, since they were also his grandmothers eyes. His dark hair did become slightly less messy, but he had gotten into the habit of dying his hair dark brown, (using muggle dyes so that they could not be cancelled by any spell) as well as wearing brown contact lenses in order to merge into the background.
Neville on the other hand went through quite a lot of change. His whole body slimmed down, and he grew a few inches taller. His sandy blond hair went dark brown and grew down to his shoulder blades. His eyes changed from blue to match Sirius' grey eyes. By the time he had stopped changing, he was looking much more like a Black.
The Hogwarts letters under the old names were sent back with rejections on them. The letters under the new names were sent back with acceptances. Minerva McGonagall never made the connection between 2 old names rejecting their invitations and 2 new names accepting theirs. Wizards and Witches are well known for not being able to think in any kind of logical manner.
HIPSHIPSHIPSHIPSHIPSHIPS
Professor McGonagall was unhappy. She had received 2 rejection letters from two Scions of old pureblood families. Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom had both rejected their letters of invitation. Well Neville's rejection was not terribly surprising, considering the fact that he had been disinherited from his family as a squib. But he must have some magic or he would not have received any invitation. The rejection from Harry Potter was of more concern, The headmaster would not be happy about this.
Minerva McGonagall headed to the headmasters office. Walking in the door, she found Professor Dumbledore sitting at his desk, sucking on one of those awful lemon drop candies of his and staring off into space. He roused himself when his deputy entered the office.
"Yes Minerva? What seems to be the problem today?"
Minerva was not looking forward to this at all.
"Harry Potter has declined his invitation to attend Hogwarts." She spoke in a matter of fact tone.
"I'm sorry. Did you say Harry Potter declined?" Dumbledore asked.
Minerva nodded and held out the letter.
Dumbledore snatched the letter from her hand and scanned it. There were just two words written in the space provided. No Thanks.
Dumbledore got angry again. This would not do at all. Potter had to come to Hogwarts. The greater good depended on Harry being here at Hogwarts.
Dumbledore grabbed some floo powder and flooed away to the home of Arabella Figgs who lived at number 10 Privet Drive. She had a lot of cats, or half kneazles. He stormed out of the fireplace of the Arabella Figg's home, flung open the front door and disappeared down the street to Number 4 Privet Drive.
First he tested the blood wards he had placed. They were missing. He vaguely wondered what had happened, but was too angry to do anything about that right now. Going up to the front door, he banged on said door. He did not see the neighbours coming out of their houses at all the banging and noise. They began taking photos of the old man with long white hair and a long white beard and wearing garish blue robes with orange stars and planets on them.
The front door opened and the old man began pushing his way inside.
"Petunia, where is Harry-?" he stopped, The lady who had opened the door was not Petunia Dursley.
"You are not Petunia Dursley? Where is Petunia Dursley?" he demanded.
The lady looked the old man up and down. "She told me about you. She said that if an old man with long white hair and a long white beard and loud robes, should ever come knocking on the door, I was to tell you that Harry Potter is dead. That's all she said. The Dursleys moved out of here 4 years ago. I don't know where they are and I don't care to know where they are. I've been here for the last 4 years. I have passed her message on and now I demand that you leave my house now or I will call the police."
"No. He cannot be dead. How did he die? When did he die?"
"I do not know anything else except for that message. Harry Potter is dead. That is all I know! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE NOW!"
Dumbledore found himself pushed back out of the door and the front door was slammed and locked behind him. He was in shock! It never occurred to him to ask how could Harry Potter have declined his Hogwarts letter if he were dead?
Dumbledore was so dumbfounded he stood on that doorstep in full view of Mundanes for some 5 minutes before he roused himself and disapparated back to Hogwarts. Yes readers, he disappeared right in front of mundanes and their recording devices.
When he got back to his office, Dumbledore was depressed. The next time Minerva went in to see him, all Dumbledore could says was . "He's dead. He's dead."
"Who's dead?" asked Minerva.
"Harry Potter is dead." Dumbledore moaned.
Minerva frowned. "That can't be right. He just declined his invitation a few hours ago. How can he decline an invitation if he is dead? Who says he is dead anyway?"
"The lady living at Number 4 Privet drive."
Minerva frowned again. "So Petunia Dursley told you that Harry Potter was dead?" She needed clarification. He was not making any sense.
Dumbledore shook his head. "No. The lady who lives there now. She said that Petunia Dursley moved away 4 years ago and she moved in. She also said that Mrs Dursley told her that if a man fitting my description ever showed up, she was to tell me that Harry Potter is dead."
Minerva put her head back and laughed. "And you believed her? That's a relief. Albus, you have to stop being so gullible. We know Harry Potter is not dead, because today he sent us back his answer in which he declined our invitation. We also know that the Dursleys have moved. Where are they now, do you know? Did you test the wards?"
Dumbledore perked up. Trust his deputy to have an answer.
"There were no wards. None at all. So what do we do now? Harry Potter must attend this school!" he vowed.
"For now, I think we should make a statement that Harry is being homeschooled privately since he has declined our invitation. That is really all we can say. And since we have no idea where he is, there is not much else we can do." Minerva McGonagall replied. She was used to thinking up ways of getting Albus Dumbledore out of trouble.
Except that Professor McGonagall had no idea of the trouble that was yet to come.
The photos and videos began appearing in the Muggle TV stations and in the newspapers the next day. It wasn't long before the ICW received word of Dumbledores blatant breach of the Statute of Secrecy act. Dumbledore was called to the ICW headquarters and after some questioning, he was effectively removed as the Supreme Mugwump and ejected as the British representative to the ICW. The Wizengamot soon received a request for a new British representative as Albus Dumbldore was no longer a suitable candidate.
Noone on the Wizengamot wanted to take up that position, so Sirius Black volunteered. Just to be the British representative mind you, not the Supreme Mugwump. Sirius Black was quickly elected and then forgotten about as the Wizengamot went about its daily business.
Albus Dumbledore was furious that he had been so stupid as to apparate in front of all the neighbours. And lose the Supreme Mugwump position over his stupidity.
The news eventually came out in the Daily Prophet that Harry Potter, the boy who lived, the Chosen One, the Saviour, was missing. He was not dead, but he was no longer with the relatives that should have been raising him. No-one knew where he was. But Dumbledore was searching. Dumbledore also said that Mr Potter had declined the invitation to attend Hogwarts, and that was all the information he had. The Daily Prophet then delicately suggested that maybe the Boy who lived was really dead. Dumbledore immediately denied this. Some squibs and mundane borns did try and ascertain if there was a death certificate in the mundane records, but since they were not closely blood related to the boy, they were unable to request his death record.
All the fuss about Harry Potter being missing, allowed Henry Selwyn and Archer Black to get used to their new permanent names and for Henry to be re-introduced back into the wizarding world. Henry had to get used to calling his guardians Mum and Dad instead of Gran and Grandpa. Archer had to get used to his new name and to calling his new father Dad, especially since he had never really had a dad before in his life.
Once the end of year exams for the 3rd year were completed, Henry and Neville both explained to David Hitchens, the principal of St Georges academy, that they would be taking a year or two off to attend Hogwarts, just to see what it was like and what all the fuss was about.
"Please save us a place if we ever need to come back." they asked. The Principal promised to do so.
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Neville worried that his grandmother might wonder where he had gone, but those feelings disappeared a few days later, when the Daily Prophet wrote a front page article on Draco Malfoy's becoming the new Longbottom heir. When asked what had happened to Neville, Algie Longbottom, the head of house explained that Neville was disinherited for being a squib, and thus a new heir had to be chosen. Neville stopped worrying after this.
As for Draco Malfoy-Longbottom, as he was now calling himself, he delighted in calling Neville No-Name a squib. "That boy is a squib, which means he will never be the heir. I would have preferred that he be ejected from our world, but he was not. I just hope I never come across Neville No-name for the rest of my life. He was a very boring person. The only thing he ever liked to do is to potter about in his glass houses and grow a few plants." The sneer was quite obvious on Draco's face as he spoke to the reporter. "I am now the heir for the Longbottom family. And that's the way it's going to stay. I also hope to become the Black heir in the future as Lord Sirius Black currently has no children, and therefore no heir. Since I am the closest Black male to his line, it is my right to be claimed as his heir."
HIPSHIPSHIPSHIPSHIPSHIPSHIPS
The Selwyn and Black families decided that the summer was a good time to get away from London. So Henry went looking amongst the Potter properties at Gringotts and found a castle in North Wales that no-one seemed to know anything about. It would be fairly easy to be re-introduced to the Wizarding world through the magical district in Swansea, rather than in London.
The group, 3 adults and 2 children portkeyed onto the property and found themselves standing on a grassy lawn in front of a large somewhat imposing building, that did vaguely resemble a castle. There was at least one tower alongside a large 2 storey building, with 2 single story wings spreading out, one on each side.
After looking around, they all walked up to the door. Harry placed his hand on the door and felt his palm being pricked. The door then click open and they all entered.
They found themselves in a large open foyer, There was no grand staircase.
Seconds later 4 house elves popped into existence.
"Who are you?" The elf in front demanded.
"My name is Henry Iago Selwyn, but I was born Harry James Potter. I am the son of James Charlus Potter and Lily Rose Evans, aka Lily Rose Selwyn, and the grandson of Charlus Fleamont Potter and Dorea Euphemia Black."
The elves all smiled and bowed.
"My name is Woody. I am the head house elf. These are Ally who does the kitchen and cooking, Libby who cleans the castle and Jaxon who works the outside." The head elf replied.
"How long has it been since anyone with magic lived here?" Sirius asked.
"Master Henry died in 1980, sir. Now we only have their portraits to speak to."
"Who was Master Henry?" Harry asked.
"That would be Charlus' father Henry Potter. Your great grandfather." Selwyn replied as the elves had no idea how the young master Henry and the older master Henry were related.
Harry introduced his family.
"Woody, These are Ivor and Rose Evans, or Selwyn as they now prefer to be called. They are Lily's parents and pureblood Squibs. My biological grandparents and my adopted parents. Lily was known as a mundane-born, except that she was really a pureblood but she didn't know that. This is my godfather Sirius Black and his adopted son Archer Black, formerly known as Neville Longbottom. Neville was disowned and disinherited for supposedly being a squib. We have come to spend a few weeks just to relax before Neville and I go off to Hogwarts."
There was an awkward silence, and then Harry spoke again.
"What needs to be done first to make this castle liveable?"
"Wards first and then perhaps some food and then maybe the portraits." replied Sirius. "You need to control who gets in and out, and if you chat with the portraits you may learn a lot more wizarding history and family genealogy.
Harry nodded. "Woody, could you please rustle up some lunch for all of us and perhaps after lunch we could have a tour and choose our bedrooms? I'll deal with the wards now and then chat to the portraits after the tour."
The elves nodded and popped away.
Harry was led to the office where he was shown the ward book. Inside were many names, most of which were crossed out. The most recent names not crossed out included Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, James, Potter, Lily Potter, Charlus Potter, Dorea Potter, Henry Potter, Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore, Peter Pettigrew and Severus Snape. Henry drew a solid black line through the last 3 names on the list as well as both his grandparents and parents. He then added the names of Archer Black, Henry Iago Selwyn, Ivor Selwyn, Rose Selwyn. Replacing the wards book in the drawer where he found it, Henry joined the others in the kitchen for an informal lunch.
After lunch they were all given the tour.
Downstairs were the Great Hall, the main staircase was around a corner and hidden behind a wall. Doorways on each side of the great Hall led off to the kitchen, the formal dining room, the music room, meeting room, office, drawing room and one bathroom.
Upstairs in the second floor were 4 bedrooms, each with a bathroom attached. But each bedroom was rather large, and had room for sofas, chairs, wardrobes, desks and bookshelves.
The tower had stairs that led up to what used to be an old signal lookout, More recently it had been a bell tower, Now there was nothing.
"Could be useful for star gazing" Henry muttered.
"This tower is now dubbed the Astronomy Tower." replied Sirius in a formal tone. Henry and Archer looked at him with questioning faces.
"There is a tower at Hogwarts called the Astronomy Tower. You will learn astronomy in that tower."
The two side wings turned out to be guest apartments, each with 2 bedrooms, a bathroom and a sitting room. Very few of any of the rooms had any furniture.
"Most of the furniture would probably be in the Potter Family Vault at Gringotts." Sirius explained.
So a quick trip was made to Gringotts to appropriate some more furniture, such as beds and a few chairs. A little shopping to purchase new mattresses and sheets as well, and soon the rooms were furnished and ready for occupation.
Over the next few weeks of the summer holidays, The Blacks and Selwyns settled into their new home, and made trips around northern Wales, as well as some shopping trips to Liverpool, and sports trips to Holyhead on Anglesea Island to watch the renowned Holyhead Harpies all girls team playing professional Quidditch on their home field. Longer trips to the magical district in Swansea for school supplies were also made.
"We have to buy telescopes for Astronomy classes?" Henry complained "Why don't they use Planetariums? Everyone else does!"
Sirius gave a bark of laughter.
"Hogwarts staff are going to claim that they are the best school of magic in the world. Now that you boys have been attending a magical school for 3 years, you are going to see just how bad Hogwarts really is. Why the headmaster, Professor Dumbledore has allowed the standards to drop so far, I don't know." Sirius was shaking his head.
"And why are you boys even attending this second rate school? Your parents will, said that they didn't want you attending Hogwarts if Dumbledore was still the headmaster. That is why we sent you to St Georges academy." Mr Selwyn whined but in a joking manner.
The boys looked at each other. Henry explained. "Because Dumbledore clearly wants us there. He did send letters. But we want to do it our way! I would kind of like to "stick it" to the old goat for all the interference and damage he has caused to my family." Henry continued."We want to also shake things up. Not be whom they expect us to be. If this does not work out, we can always go back to St Georges. Mr Hitchens has promised to keep our places."
On 31st August 1991, the whole family made sure that trunks were packed, and the castle was vacated as they all moved back to the Evans home in Potter Bar. The next day would be D-Day (Departure Day) as they were finally off to Hogwarts.
A/N - I have finally gotten this story to the point where Harry and Neville (my last mention of the old names) will start Hogwarts! This is a good place to take a small break while going on hiatus for a few weeks. My muse gave me a new storyline last week, and I really want to do this, so I figured I can write up this new story as my NaNoWriMo story during November. This new fic will be another HP Fan Fic with a different storyline, but still has an Independent Harry. I hope this new fic will eventually be posted here (on FFN), if it ends up coming together the way I have planned. I have a ton of ideas for HIPS while the boys are at Hogwarts. But I need to put them together in a cohesive manner so that the whole story is readable. I promise that I will continue with HIPS after November!