Standard Disclaimer: Still don't own anything of the Harry Potter empire. Crap. Just playing in JRR's sandbox (thankfully, there are no cats in the vicinity).

Timeframe: Hogwarts immediately after the Battle, with some slight time alterations of events during the battle. AU afterwards.

Warning: The aftermath of a battle is never pretty. Some nasty language, and character bashing.

Chapter 13: Dower Properties

Summer 2030

Triffle entered his master's study, and announced, exactly as he had been told to, "The Head of House Black urgently requests and audience with the Head of House Potter, so that you can maybe explain what the hell he is supposed to do with this latest pile of crap you dumped on him when you abdicated in his favour!" Having delivered his message as instructed, Harry Potter's majordomo elf broke out in laughter, being familiar with the frequent interchanges between his boss and the youngish Teddy Lupin.

Smiling, the elder wizard asked, "Is Ted here already, or do we need to give him the go ahead. Can you please provide some refreshments?"

The elf said, "He's here" and stood out of the way as Harry's godson loped into the room on wolf's legs. Harry chortled at the metamorphmagus's antics as Teddy often tried to surprise him by arriving in various shapes or forms. One of Harry's memories was of Ted arriving through the floo transfigured as his own mother and falling flat on his face, as Harry had often done himself.

As Teddy reverted to a more human form, Harry asked, "Okay Ted, What's up?" Never one to drag out the suspense, given the implied pile of do-do Ted's request had indicated.

Accepting a drink from Triffle, Ted began by saying, "It all started a couple of days ago, when I got word that Narcissa Malfoy had died."

Harry asked, "Are you gong to organize a party to go dance on her grave or something? I told her years ago that I just didn't care, so it would be a bit hypocritical for me to attend such a celebration. However, I will supply some refreshments if you like."

Lupin smiled at his godfather. "Nope, nothing so simple. I did say it started then. I tried to get things in motion to wrap up any matters, selling the property or adding it back into the Black family estates as it had been a dower gift. I have her two elves, who seem to be dying, and would like to rejoin the Black family staff, but apparently can't for some reason. Then as of yesterday, I have stated to be haunted by her ghost."

Harry looked puzzled. "Her ghost? Has she, the ghost, said anything about why she is still stuck here?"

Ted nodded sadly. "She keeps mumbling that she had been a good girl and did what her Daddy told her she had to do. She did what Lucious and the dark Lord ordered her to do. She was an obedient girl, so why was she still stuck on this plane of existence. She just wants it all to end. She keeps crying that you made her life hell and seems to want her to be punished in her afterlife too. Harry, I don't understand it, and I don't know why I can't help the two elves and get rid of the house either. I'm stuck."

Harry nodded. "I see your problem. I think we will need to call in some help. I think Luna is the best one to explain ghosts to us, and I think getting your grandparents in, as your grandmother would have a better idea of her sister's character and what might be her sticking point, and your grandpa might have some ideas of legal implications. I also think we need to check with your account manager from Gringotts if there was something in her marriage contract which put some constraints on her property."

"Triffle, can you see I my wife can come meet with us when the others are available, and send invitations to Andy and Ted Tonks, and Ted's account manager. Ted, I think his name was Chokehand? Oh, also can you see if Elf Chief Niffle might be available as well as he may have some insight about the elfs' problem?"

Ted shook his head. "No, Silverclaw is now the accounts manager for House Black. He is Chokehand's grandson."

While waiting for responses to meet, Luna joined Harry and Teddy for a visit, while Ted appraised her of the problems. She snickered and said, "Everyday, it is more and more obvious, you two were not raised in a wizarding household who discussed the unfairness of things. To me, it is obvious what at least part of the problem is – Narcissa gave birth of at least one child who was most likely a squib. A squib who was banished from the family. I suspect that her dowery specified that her property would go to her descendants, with no clarification that they be considered legitimate to wizarding society. Draco is dead, thankfully, but apparently there is another descendant. Somewhere."

"Don't you remember when the idiots in the Wizengamot tried to pass that Marriage Law disaster? The official reason was that the wizarding society had been depleted by the wars, but they also wanted half-bloods and first-gens to breed with pure-bloods because of the pure-blood families producing so many squibs. They tried to supress that angle, but it got out anyway, given the obvious 'choices of compatible spouses' they came up with."

Harry chuckled, "I remember when the Prophet came out with the headlines 'Wizengamot makes Line Theft official Ministry policy!', and the best 'Purebloods making too many squibs'. That really showed them some of the consequences that they had wanted to ignore."

Lune grinned, "I enjoyed Daddy's headline in the Quibbler 'Next generation, Purebloods will cease to exist!'. Then there was the Midnight Sun's headline 'Purebloods can't even fuck themselves without help from Mudbloods'. That really shook things up, and the marriage law proposal was withdrawn just after that."

"Remember, a lot of the pureblood families got rid' of their squib offspring to orphanages or sometimes even by killing them. That was all hushed up of course. The fact that there are inheritance problems with Narcissa's dower properties tells me that there are some squibs somewhere."

Harry looked at his wife with a surprised expression. "You read the Sun?"

Luna smiled back. "I find the advertisements amusing. 'Use Longerwood cream to enhance your wizard's wand', and my favourite 'Use Liftercream to look more stunning in your dress robes. You can be udderly fascinating'. with the disclaimer 'Overuse may cause loss of balance to the front'. Then there is the page 3 Sunshine Witch pictures and some of the articles. It is amazing how ludicrous they are and what people will believe, although after reading the Prophet, I guess I shouldn't' be too surprised at that."

At this juncture, Andromeda and Ted Tonks had arrived and had caught Luna's last statements. Elf Chief Niffle came into the room with them.

Andy remarked "I remember Cissy got married to Lucius Malfoy when she was 16, and it happened very quickly, which tells me she was likely pregnant at the time. That would have been in 1971 or 2, and Draco wasn't born until 1980. And remember how protective she was about Draco, even getting Severus Snape to swear an unbreakable oath to protect him. I would think that she would have had time to have several children before Draco."

Harry nodded. "That makes sense. If Narcissa was pregnant and not married, she would have been disowned from the family. That would mean that Lucious would have lost any attempt to get hold of the Black family fortune, and with Old Voldy pushing him, he would have agreed to anything for that access. I would love to see what kind of conditions the marriage contract had. Apparently, he couldn't get his hands on the dower properties."

Ted Tonks smiled. "I just may have a suggestion on that. As Teddy is now the Head of House Black, he can request all pertinent documents relating to House matters from their Gringotts account manager, Silverclaw."

Harry asked, "Wouldn't there be something listed in the Book of Magical Births at Hogwarts? It is supposed to show all kids born to magical families so that Hogwarts can send them their letters."

Niffle spoke up. "Permit me to interrupt your discussions. Mr. Potter and Mr. Lupin, you asked me here. What is the issue you did want me to address?"

Teddy looked at the senior elf. "Sir, thank you for coming. One of my house has died, and the two house elves bound to her or her property, for some reason, cannot be 'reassigned'. From this and other facts, we suspect that there are undiscovered heirs somewhere. However, the two elves have been living with a witch of very low power and since she died, their health has been deteriorating. We are concerning for them, that they may not have the strength to live before we are able to locate any heirs."

Niffle scowled. "The House of Black has never before been concerned with the health of their elves. You are telling me that this longstanding disregard for others is now longer in effect and is no longer House policy?"

Teddy nodded. "It is so, honoured sir."

The old elf smiled. "That is good to hear. There is a practice which has sadly been neglected by many wizarding families. Where there is a problem finding the true heir for the elves to serve, either by inability to locate the heir, or a dispute between possible heirs (which happens all to frequently), the Head of the House can declare that any elves affected by these events can be granted sanctuary in the home of the Head of the Family. If no proper heir is located within a period of five years, or the heir, once located, refuses the service of the affected elves, their allegiance will revert irrevocably to the Head."

Teddy nodded. "Thank you, sir, for your knowledge, wisdom and advice." Raising his wand, he declared "I grant sanctuary to those elves who previously served Narcissa Malfoy of the House of Black, until such time as her valid heir or heirs can be found, and this sanctuary is to continue or be amended as Chief Elf Niffle has stated." As his wand glowed, two elves, who looked be in very poor health, appeared and taking Teddy's hands, began to look better.

The four other humans looked surprised, and Harry smiled, saying "Well done Teddy. And thank you for your assistance, Chief Elf Niffle."

The old elf smiled and nodded, and disappeared.

Luna looked at her husband and said, "You mentioned the Book of Births. Shall we see if Headmaster Flitwick is available currently, when he would be available otherwise?"

Harry nodded. "Good idea." Going over to the floo, Harry through in some powder and called, "Professor Flitwick please."

A moment later, Filius Flitwick's face appeared in the fireplace. Looking around the room, he smiled and said, "Aah. Mr. Potter, Miss Lovegood or should I say Mrs. Potter, Mr. Lupin, and Mr. and Mrs. Tonks. Fortunately, you caught me at a good time. It has been a long time since I saw you all. Too long, in fact. How can I be of assistance, as I gather you have a question or two for me?"

Teddy Lupin nodded. "Professor, or I guess I should say Headmaster, I have come up with a problem concerning a member of my House. It appears that there is a person, or perhaps persons, who are in line to inherit property, but we have no record of them. Luna, here, suggests that they might be squibs who were never acknowledged by their birth family. We were wondering in the Hogwarts Book of Magical Births would have any record of them."

Flitwick nodded. "I see your problem. Just a moment and I will check the book. What family do you suspect of this and during what timeframe?"

Teddy smiled and responded. "Thank you, Headmaster. The family is, or was, Malfoy, for the years 1971 to 1979."

Flitwick nodded. "Ah! The Malfoys. Just give me a moment." His head disappeared, and a couple of minutes later reappeared. "Sorry to disappoint you, but there are no entries for the Malfoy family in those years. I also checked for other years, and there are no signs in the Book for any of the people we know are squibs. I even checked for Mr. Filch. Nothing. I asked the portraits of some of my predecessors, and got very little besides some of the Headmasters from a couple centuries ago wondering why I would even be interested in squibs who in their opinions were a contamination of pureblood families. Bigotted gits!"

Luna spoke up. "Headmaster, how does the Book determine who is worthy to be included? We know that wizards and witches vary in their magical power, and the witch we are curious about was known to be quite weak, as was her son."

The Headmaster smiled. "You mean Narcisa and Draco Malfoy. Yes, they were at the low end of the power scale. But they were definitely in the Book. Given your questions, I checked for them too."

"I honestly don't know how the book decides who to include and what criteria are used. The staff occasionally brings up the same question during some of our more social gatherings, but the only notes we have about when and how the Book was created are written in Old Norse runes from about the 8th century, and appear to be transcriptions of someone reading from a much older manuscript in a somewhat obscure dialect we haven't been able to identify."

Luna thought for a moment. "Have you considered checking with the Patel family? Padma had some old religious documents written in old Sanskrit that she said was put down three thousand years ago. Some Indian scholars might know of some other languages from the subcontinent, and spoken languages do evolve over time. Perhaps the Norse scribe was unfamiliar with the written languages from India or that area of the world."

The short wizard smiled. "An interesting hypothesis, Ms. Lovegood, which I will be sure to check out. It has been a longstanding academic problem, and if we ever lost the Book, we would be in deep trouble."

"However, more to the point of your issue, I would suggest you check with your account manager at Gringotts, and see about getting an appointment with the Master of Inheritances. He is responsible for the goblins' records of births and deaths, for the purposes of adjudicating tricky inheritance issues which cannot be dealt with through people's wills. You will find that my goblin brethren do not care for or about the arrogance and bigotry of the wizarding society as to who is worthy of being included in the lineage of a family - to the goblins, if they were born to the family, they will be listed with the family as a member of the family. I will be consulting him myself to compare our book with his records in light of our records of magical power levels of known persons, and see if I can correlate those to approximate or estimate the threshold level of power needed for inclusion in the book. It may be as simple as having enough power to activate a wand."

Harry stated, "I remember in first year, Neville Longbottom was considered a squib, but he had been in the book and was enrolled at Hogwarts. It turned out that his grandmother was forcing him to use his father's old wand. A wand that was horribly mismatched to him. He turned out to be a pretty powerful wizard once that problem got solved."

Of a sudden, Flitwick's eyes widened. "Hang on a mo'. We don't need to wait to check the goblins' book. A few years back, some of my Ravenclaws were looking for a research project for extra points, so I gave then one on simple statistics. You see, most magicals think that magical power is a binary function – either you have magic or you don't. The truth is that power levels are a continuum."

"One of the tasks I set was to develop histograms of the magical power levels of all of the Hogwarts students in first year, in fifth year before the OWL exams when their magical cores should be more-or-less matured, and before the NEWT exams. The idea was to show that the magical power level increased until their magical cores were developed, but mostly any differences were due to what they had learned. I had them use the records for all students over the last one hundred years with most of the names redacted – I included a number of notable wizards and witches including Harry, Hermione Granger, Tom Riddle, Dumbledore and some other headmasters, and myself among others. All of the graphs showed the same distribution shape, which is what I wanted them to see in that the range of abilities was relatively constant. I got a lot of pushback from the Powers-That-Be when it became quite apparent that most Purebloods were on the lower end of the scale."

"One thing I remarked on to the students, but didn't see the significance of until now, was that none of the graphs had any data in the lowest end of the graphs. None whatsoever. Now I see that below a certain power level, Hogwarts had never had any students at all. One moment."

Calling out to a house-elf, the Headmaster called out "Tiffy, can you please bring me the green file hidden in the bottom drawer of my filing cabinet behind the notice-me-not charm?" A few seconds later, the elf appeared and handed a file to the professor. Flipping open the file, he looked at the charts and nodded. "Yes, of course. In the hundred years before I set this task, Hogwarts had absolutely no students with a magical power rating below twelve."

Luna, who had pursued a wider education that Hogwarts provided, asked "What was the median score?"

Flitwick smiled at his former house-member. "The median score on all the graphs was one hundred."

Ted Tonks scowled. "So there are people who have about one-eight the power of the 'average' wizard are walking around completely ignored by magical society because they are so-called squibs. If they managed to get a wand in a foreign country without a ministry monitoring charm on it, and only used it in a magical area where it wouldn't be noticed, they could get away with it. Depending of course on whether a wand would even work for them. I wonder if Ollivander only makes wands which require a higher inherent power rating so they don't burn out with use by a more powerful witch or wizard, which would be more likely to be encountered going to Hogwarts."

Luna frowned. "But how could this be determined as soon as a child is born? I thought this kind of distinction was only certain if and when the child exhibited some accidental magic. Maybe it was the language of some people who lived in a harsh desert climate, where existence was more precarious and the needs of survival made things like that more critical."

Flitwick nodded. "A valid point, Mrs. Potter. One other thing that the students found in their research was that the initial testing of magical power, in their first year, showed the rating in a very pale colour, almost invisible. When they were tested later, the colours were more solid, and at the NEWT level, the image of the rating was bright and very solid. Perhaps it is like other parts of the body like the gonads, which are present at birth but don't develop until puberty. Where in the body does the core actually reside? Yet another question to answer."

"Whatever magic resides in the Book, it must be more powerful and subtle than us mortals. I am afraid I must go now, but if I find something, I will certainly get back to you." With that, the Headmaster's face disappeared from the fireplace.

A few days later, Harry, Teddy, Luna and the Tonks were sitting in a conference room at Gringotts with Silverclaw (the Black account manager) and Bloodax (who was the Potter's account manager).

Bloodax, as the senior goblin, asked, "Why are we gathered here, with the account managers for two separate account. You should consult on or the other of us, so you do not waste our valuable time."

Ted Tonks, as the senior human and a solicitor and hence the one most skolled in legal arguments, spoke. "Honoured goblins, the problem we bring to you today has ramifications on both the House Black and the House Malfoy, and we are accompanied by the Heads of these two houses. As you both know, three years ago Harry Potter, the Head of House Black by right of inheritance from his godfather, abdicated in favour of his own godson, Edward Lupin."

Bloodax stared at Harry. "Only a stupid human would give up such a rich and powerful house. Why did you commit such folly?"

Unintimidated, Harry responded to the goblin he had worked with for a number of years. "Senior Account Manager Bloodax, as you well know, by right of Conquest, I am the Head of over a dozen other houses as well. The House of Black deserves undivided attention, and my attention was sorely divided. My godson, Teddy, is at the same level of connectedness to the heredity of the Blacks as I am myself and is well prepared to the tasks. In addition, Teddy is the grandson and Andromeda Tonks, who Walburga Black tried to disinherit, and is himself the son of a werewolf. These facts alone should embarrass and outrage the pure-blood bigots of the house, and I am sure that if you pass the family crypt, you would hear a loud whirling sound of several ancestors spinning in their graves."

Silverclaw smiled, as his colleague smirked. "In itself, a very worthy cause, and well reasoned. Let us move on to the issue at hand, so that we do not waste valuable time."

Nodding, Harry continued. "Recently, Narcissa Black Malfoy died, intestate. She was born into the House Black, but married into the Malfoys on which I am the Head. As her dowry, she was given a house, an endowment, and two house-elves. As she was of very low magical power levels in her prime, once she died, the house-elves were in dire straits but Teddy was able to grant them sanctuary and their health is improving. This however, left two strange puzzles. Her husband, Lucius Malfoy, was a primary member of the late unlamented Lord Voldemort's inner circle, and as such had essentially robbed Narcissa's endowment of its income. He was unable, for reasons we do not understand, unable to seize the house and the principle of the endowment. We wish to clear up this question."

"Further, as Manager Bloodax knows, the property and the endowment's principle cannot be disposed of, nor reclaimed into the House Black and residual property. My wife Luna suggests that there must be codicils in her marriage contract, preventing Lucius from claiming the properties, and entailing them to persons unknown to us. Luna concluded that there must be an unknown heir. We wish to look at the marriage agreement between Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy to see what conditions were put in place at that time."

"The Malfoys, and with many other pure-blood Houses, were long suspected of ridding themselves of offspring over very low magical power, referred to as squibs. These children were apparently abandoned, or even killed. We do know that Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy had only one acknowledged child, Draco Malfoy, who was killed with his father at the Battle of Hogwarts. It is strongly suspected that Narcissa was pregnant when she married Lucius in 1971, but Draco was not born until 1980 and there were no acknowledged children after that time. As a prime function of the wife in many pure-blood families was to provide heirs for the family, this is also odd."

"We asked for help from Gringotts through the offices of both accounts managers to examine the Gringotts book of family line to determine if there were previous unacknowledged children of Lucius and Narcissa. We know that Gringotts books keep track of all births to magical families, so that family inheritances can be adjudicated, and descendants who of higher magical power than their ancestors can reclaim their rightful family names and properties."

Bloodax nodded. "Well explained, Harry Potter. We can help answer your questions, and in addition, if there are unknown heirs, we can help track them down and arrange a meeting. I should warn you that if there is such an heir, they may have very little use for the magical world, if they even know about it." He then wrote out two notes and placed them in his outbox. Tapping them with a claw, the parchments disappeared. A moment later, a thin file folder with a small number of sheets of parchment, landed in his in-tray along with a thicker collection of parchment. A knock on the door admitted a very elderly goblin carrying a large book.

Looking first at the top sheet from the file folder, Bloodax looked to Teddy Lupin and stated "I have here documents that consist of private House Black information. I will need your explicit permission in order to share these with the others in the room. As Head of House Malfoy, Mr. Potter would be allowed to see this," holding up the thicker pile, "but the others would not. I will also require permission from Harry Potter to share this information as well."

With this, he handed (clawed?) a copy of the thicker group of parchment to Silverclaw as the Malfoy manager.

Teddy nodded his head to the goblin. "I understand from its presence in your hands and the request, it is significant to our matters in hand. You have my permission, sir." Harry also nodded to the goblins.

Looking through the thicker collection, the goblins began with a slight smile, follower by a wider smile and finally, outright laughter. The humans were puzzled by this reaction to what appeared to be a rather serious matter.

Still chortling, Bloodax looked at Harry and Teddy, and said, "Once we have concluded our business, I will then request permission to show this contract to the Director of Gringotts. I am sure he has not had such a good laugh for several decades." Turing to Silverclaw, he said in his own language, "{He's going to love this}"

Turning to Ted Tonks, Bloodax asked, "Mr. Tonks. You are a solicitor. What is the most important rule on contracts?"

Getting the drift, Ted answered, "Always read the small print, and the terms and conditions, the most important part of which are the liability clauses."

Smiling, the goblin nodded. "Exactly! It is frightening obvious, at least to a goblin who has trained in contracts and negotiations, that Lucius Malfoy was so desperate for the Black family fortunes that he was willing to sign anything. From this document, it would appear that he was under a lot of pressure from his Master, the self-proclaimed Lort Voldemort, to get his hands on the Black money. This contract basically makes that goal practically unattainable."

Teddy Lupin responded. "Honourable Account Manager Bloodax, I have to admit that I am not as skilled as others here in the matter of contracts. Would you please explain your comments?"

The goblin smiled. "Head of House Black Mr. Lupin, ignorance is not a shame, and is curable. As is evident by Lucious Malfoy's signature on this contract, stupidity mixed with arrogance can be a lifelong and sometimes fatal problem."

"Anyway, the preamble is fairly standard 'I Arcturus Black Head of House Black, and I, Abraxas Malfoy, Head of House Malfoy, agree to the marriage of Narcissa Carina Black and Lucius Malfoy of our two houses. The marriage ceremony will take place within two weeks of their signing this contract. Her responsibility from that date is to provide heirs for the House of Malfoy. The House Black will provide a dowry for Narcissa Black.' It then goes on with an unusual statement 'He knocked her up, and so he will marry her; otherwise, there will be a blood-feud between the two houses.' It then goes on to the terms and conditions, for ten pages. It is obvious that neither Abraxas nor Lucius read through these terms, so we suspect they were prepared by the Black family's solicitor. It becomes painfully obvious that Arcturus Black didn't trust Lucius as far as an infant could toss this building into a strong headwind."

"For example, clause 23 states 'Lucius Malfoy is known to be under pressure from his true Master, the self-proclaimed Dark Lord Voldemort, who is desperately hungry for the Black family money'. Clause 37 states 'Lucius Malfoy has demanded a dowry of 15 million galleons, which is patently ridiculous and further demonstrates that he is a fool unaware of the property forms for Ancient Houses. The dowry for Narissa will be 500 thousand galleons in a trust fund, and the dowry house on the Cornwall coast, plus the services of two house-elves of the House Black. These items are to provide for lifetime security of Narcissa Black, soon to be Malfoy, and will remain the legal property of House Black during her lifetime. Lucius Malfoy, and his true Master, are not allowed to touch the principle of the dowry fund nor ownership of the house, although Narcissa may at her discretion allow Lucious access to the income from the fund'. Clause 95 states 'If Narcissa dies without issue or due to actions by members of House Malfoy, the funds, house and house-elves will be returned to House Black completely'. Clause 203 states 'Upon her death, the dowry properties will passed on, either singularly or pro-rated depending on the number of applicable heirs, only to offspring of her body. Any additional offspring of Lucius Malfoy are to have no claim to these properties'."

"Also, and a very important one, Clause 782 states 'Any attempt by a member of House Malfoy to harm any on in the line of succession of House Black will immediately exclude that person from any right to inherit any of the properties of House Black. Anyone assisting in attempting or counselling such harm will be likewise disinherited'. There is a self-updating gloss on this page of the contract stating 'May 30, 1993, LM attacked HP, godson of Sirius Orion Black, Heir of Arcturus Black (in spite of efforts by Walburga Black). LM disinherited from any claim on House Black'."

"As you can see, for all his hunger for the Black family fortunes, this contract cuts him out from any such ability. The Blacks didn't trust him in the slightest. Any goblin who would sign such a document would be disowned by his family and the entire goblin nation.

"Now the other document. Mr. Potter, Silverclaw will be able to supply you with an original copy, should you wish on for yourself, as it affects the House Malfoy directly. It is a detailed record of Narcissa Malfoys pregnancies, which we keep for determining difficult inheritances. It records that in August of 1972, a son was born. This son showed very low potential magical power and Narcissa was ordered by Lucious to abandon the child – it is our understanding that the child was given to an orphanage, and not killed as Lucius and his Master may have wanted. This was followed by a number of miscarriages at intervals between 4 and 7 months, until late 1977, at which time the Healers advised Lucius that another miscarriage would kill her, and which would preclude his having any access to the Black fortune. He was told that she would need at least two years of recovery before getting pregnant again. In 1979, she became pregnant again, and Draco Malfoy was born the next year. There is no record of any further pregnancies, and after recovery, she was seen in public as the Lady of Malfoy Manner."

"Therefore, according to these records, somewhere out there is the unknown squib heir. I assume that you all wish us to help find him."

The group were escorted into Bloodax's office, where there were the two account managers, two goblin guards in full polished armour, and a human in a military uniform bearing rows and rows of medal ribbons. The human looked slightly older than Harry, and had white-blond hair, which was a bit of a give-away as to his identity (and the reason for the recently called meeting).

Bloodax and Silverclaw stood and gestured, with what the Potter-Black group took to be a goblin's form of salute, while the two armed guards stood to attention and formally presented their battle-axes. Bloodax spoke in a rather formal way, "Harry Potter, Head of House Malfoy, and Edward Lupin, Head of House Black, I present your lost heir, Colonel Baggins of the 145th Reconnaissance Battalion." All the goblins bowed to the soldier, who saluted them in turn.

The account managers sat down, the guards shouldered their axes, moved to the door, bowed to the group again and left.

The soldier smiled and laughed. He approached Harry and Teddy, and said "Now that the protocol has been satisfied, I'm Bil. Mr. Potter, I have heard of your exploits. Mr. Lupin, my condolences on the death of your parents in battle. I am honoured to meet you both, and to be honest, extremely surprised. In my business, being surprised is usually very unwelcome."

Harry smiled as he shook his head. "Your full name is Bilbo Baggins?"

The soldier nodded. "Not originally. It was Willliam Baggins. The orphanage where I grew up was full of Tolkien fanatics. I was always running off to little adventures, so Bilbo was the version that stuck. We laughed about it, but there it was."

Teddy scowled. "But how did you hear about us? With the Statute of Secrecy, anything about the magical world was not supposed to get out into the muggle world."

Bil smiled. "A good point. However, you have to remember that the military life involves a lot of secrets that you very quickly learn not to share. Also, the various branches of the forces, and of the secret services, have a lot of magical people in them. Some squibs or near squibs like me, who were rejected by the magical world. Also, a lot of full wizards and witches who weren't of the wizarding aristocracy and found that after graduation from 'The Castle', there really were very few opportunities for us with any real chance of advancement when others with less ability but more arrogance and patronage got ahead. In the non-magical world, they were badly handicapped because they had no muggle education beyond primary school. The military had a history to taking people with little training and giving them opportunities that even the muggle world would have found hard to offer."

"I knew nothing of the magical world, until I was in the field in the infantry, in places you probably wouldn't be able to pronounce even if I was allowed to tell you where they were. I guess what limited magic I have is along the lines of clairvoyance, so I suppose you could call me a low-grade seer. Anyway, I had a knack for locating booby traps and anti-personnel mines before they went off, and getting a feeling for an impending ambush. In hostile country, my troop got to be known for having a much lower injury rate than others, and I came to the attention of some higher-ups who introduced me to the magical side of life."

"With my non-magical background and education, but limited magic, I was better at administration and spotting talent than my more-powerful comrades, and so I rose up the ranks. They tried to get me transferred to the SAS, but guys will much more power than I had still didn't necessarily come home after a mission, so I preferred to stay regular army, which my wife and kids also liked better." Looking around the office, he said "I had heard of Gringotts, and it always sounded like some mystical place like Xanadu or Shangri-La, but nothing real. I never thought I would ever be here in person. Okay, you've now heard about me. As we used to say in the barracks, let's screw the idle palaver and get down to business. I presume you are about to tell me why I am here."

Harry nodded. HE began "To make it simple, which it is not, you are the sole heir to a substantial bit of assets and property. Teddy and I are here because your inheritance falls under the jurisdiction of the House he is head of, and the ones I am in charge of."

Bil shook his head. "How can that be? I am not affiliated by any magical families."

Bloodax smiled. "That's where you are wrong, although through no fault of your own. Your birth parents were of the wizarding aristocracy, and it was politically and socially intolerable to have a non-magical child. The tests done at birth were rather crude, and only showed power levels above or below a certain threshold. You tested below, and so you were cast out and abandoned by their family. However, under your mother's marriage contract, her dowry property could only be passed to a child of her own body. Her husband and son were killed in the so-called blood war, and it was found that the properties could not be redirected. That meant that there was an undiscovered and unacknowledged child of hers. That was, and is you."

Bil grimaced. "So I inherit, even thought they cast me out of the family? Even if magical society says I don't exist."

Bloodax nodded. "Magical inheritance apparently recognized the rules of the marriage contract, which obviously predated your birth. Therefore, you inherit."

Harry added, "We have been working hard for the last thirty-odd years to change things, but it is slow work. Given the longer lifespans of some of the old stick-in-the-muds, it's been an uphill climb."

Bil nodded. "So I get this stuff, whether I want it or not?"

Bloodax shook his head. "Not necessarily. It is yours to dispose of as you see fit. What you do with it is up to you and you alone."

Bill smiled. "Well, my wife might have something to say about it as well. I can see, from the way you talk about the upper echelons of magical society, you would like me to accept it. I get the feeling that, if nothing else, it would really piss off the powers-that-be. Yes?"

The group smiled. "Well yes, there is that benefit."

The soldier nodded and smiled. "That puts a different light on things. You see, magical society has screwed me and mine over for my entire life. You could even say, from the moment of my birth."

"There was one time when the Ministry of Morons sent a group of obliviators to our camp in the field, threatening to obliviate the entire company, even though we all showed them our 'Magic-aware' card. They claimed we were risking the statute of secrecy, because so-called muggles might accidently see us – we took precautions about that kind of thing. They then insisted that they would go out on our patrol will us, so they could obliviate any muggles we encountered who might see us do magic. They didn't return from the patrol, in part because they insisted on wearing their bright red auror robes, instead of camouflage. The brass quickly ruled out any mention of 'friendly fire', which if you don't know the term means you were killed by your own side, accidently or not. We have a saying 'friendly fire isn't'."

"Several times, at least until you offed that Voldemort guy and his henchmen, the Ministry went to the upper brass insisting that because we were magical, they had to be in authority and control of us, in spite of the fact that we were the ones they had kicked out of their society! They did not receive a warm reception."

"You say the property is mine, to do with as I please? The ministry has no say in the matter at all? Hmmm, that changes things a bit."

"How much land is part of the property? An you said there was a monetary portion as well"

Bloodax took another look at the dowry documents. "By your measurements, about 700 hectares, give or take. Also be your measurements at the current Bank-of-England exchange rates, about eight million pounds."

The colonel smiled. "So, about three square miles, give or take. That should be enough for a training ground. Hmm."

"How about this? I accept the bequest. I lease the land to the Ministry of Defence, for a nominal amount, as a training facility including a number of small arms ranges and un-armed combat training facilities for the special forces of various flavours. The manor house, I turn into a convalescent home for my injured comrades. All to be run by myself or other squibs or muggle military people. From what I understand, you goblins manage a very good return on investments, so I propose leaving the bulk of the funds as an endowment for the home, with the interest providing for the upkeep with any excess expenditures provided by the military. As a colonel, I think I have the authority to swing this kind of a deal with the brass hats."

"I don't know how it will work with the house-elves that come with the property, but I understand that they are excellent domestic workers who know how to keep out of sight when around non-magical people. If that doesn't work out, I can donate them back to the House of Black, however that would need to be handled. I would like to maintain relationship with Gringotts, as they seem to have been handling this matter honourably. Thank you."

"My family are all magic-aware and have clearance to visit me at any base where I might be stationed, except on field manoeuvres of course, but I can maintain a suite in the manor so that the ownership in maintained. Mr. and Mrs. Potter, Mr. Lupin-Black, MR. and Mrs. Tonks, Account Managers Bloodax and Silverclaw, you will all be welcome to visit the property whenever I am 'in residence', as will any of your fellow warriors who took down most the bastards and who continue to clean up the mess that is the Ministry."

"That should piss off the old idiots. I can't rewrite history, but I can make life more embarrassing for those who like to think they are in charge. And if they don't like it, the site will be well protected by armed soldiers trained and authorised ordered to shoot intruders."