DISCLAIMER! This Harry Potter story was written for fun. All rights belong to the wonderful lady (JK Rowling) who gave the world Harry Potter to read and enjoy. This story is just a castle built in the clouds for some enjoyment of readers.

The Triwizard Tournament brings loneliness and isolation for an angry and disillusioned Harry Potter. When the financially astute goblins use a loophole to help a Vault-holder Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived begins to break free of Magical Britain.

~~~***~~~ CHANGE SCENE

Ironstream and Boulders

Ironriver took the young wizard to an office door that read – Ironstream-Vault Manager. Underneath the goblin's name and title were the names Potter, Peverell, Fleamont, and Slytherin.

Knocking on the door, Ironriver walked in without waiting for a call from within, speaking in some other language but motioning Harry to follow him inside. Behind an unassuming desk, sat a goblin who was much older than Ironriver.

"Cousin, I bring your Vault-holder Harry James Potter, to meet with you this afternoon. The emancipation papers and the terrible environment around Hogwarts led the young wizard to grab the opportunity to speak with you with both hands."

"Are you indeed Harry James Potter?" asked the goblin seated behind the desk.

Not backing down at this point, Harry replied, "I am Harry James Potter. Can I know your name?"

The goblin smiled without revealing his fangs and answered, "Ironstream. My name is Ironstream, and I have been Vault-manager for the Potter family since before your grandfather Fleamont was a gleam in his father's eye."

Harry bowed his head. "Then I'm glad to meet you. My life is shite and I hope you can help me."

"Gringotts can only deal with gold and upholding the laws that Magical Britain uses to manage inheritances, wills, and business."

Waving his clawed hand, Ironstream made several chairs appear – they were both human and goblin sized so Ironriver sat in one and motioned the young wizard to sit in one properly sized for humans.

"How did you come to be here today?"

"It's a Hogsmeade weekend. I walked about the town for a time until Susan Bones approached me about meeting her aunt, a witch named Amelia Bones in the Three Broomsticks."

"Director Bones wanted to speak to you?" asked Ironstream. "May I ask about what?"

Harry shrugged and explained, "I'm not sure what she wanted to talk about – once I stumbled through a pureblood introduction, she doubted every word I uttered about not having any lessons or knowledge of magical society. She informed me that my magical guardian, Albus-many-names Dumbledore informed her I was rebellious and rejected magical norms. She stated that I had been given a ring and allowed to visit vaults on my tenth birthday."

Harry continued, "When I refuted her statement, she almost called me 'muddy' and declared she would seek something about 'continuance' with Longbottom or McMillian."

"How did you respond to that comment?"

Harry grinned, "I remembered Neville told me to always reply 'I am certain you know best,' when dealing with adult wizards and witches in a social setting. At least, until I was grown."

Ironstream turned to his cousin, and in English stated, "I acknowledge a debt, Ironriver. You have served our clan well today and I shall gift you with a boulder for nafflings and I shall support your next move for advancement."

"Thank you, cousin. The boulder is sufficient payment until such time as Sowsbreath makes his next mistake and the Black Family vaults are in danger once again."

With that comment, Ironriver left the office and Ironstream summoned refreshments for his vault-holder. Ironstream instructed the young wizard, "Help yourself."

While he fixed a cup, Harry asked, "What are nafflings?"

"Our children are called nafflings. If you are truly interested, I shall loan you a book about our culture and history."

"Please," Harry replied as he enjoyed the biscuits and sandwiches of a full English tea. "Won't you join me?"

"Goblins do not consume liquids or solids such as humans do. They would not poison me but would reappear later in the same form they entered my digestive track."

Scowling, Harry said, "You told me that on purpose to make this less pleasant!"

"I did indeed, Heir Potter," Ironstream explained. "I am taking the measure of you. From everything I have read and heard…and now seen, you must have been raised completely muggle."

"I was…Dumbledore forces me to return to my muggle relatives every summer holiday where I am beaten, starved, and worked like a house elf."

"With the emancipation of the tournament, you can decide where you spend your summers from now on," Ironstream said. "And since you mentioned, working like a house elf, I can see a bond to one house elf attached to your magical core. I thought all the Potter elves died or been bound to Hogwarts by your magical guardian."

"Elf? That must be Dobby," Harry said and smiled when the excitable elf appeared just a moment later.

"Mr Harry Potters calls for Dobby? Hows can I help youse, Mr Harry Potters?" asked the elf, hopping from one foot to the other in his excitement to be talking with the great Harry Potter.

"Hi, Dobby. I came to Gringotts to talk with my vault manager, and he said he saw a connection between us.

Dobby wilted just a bit, but Harry stood to kneel and place an arm around the elf's shoulder and assured the elf, "There's nothing wrong, but I don't understand."

Now the elf explained, "When the great Mr Harry Potters frees Dobby from Evil White Hair Nasty Master with masterful trick, Dobby has to bond with great wizard. I not tells nobody so I can stay at Hoggiewarts and look after Mr Harry Potter."

Dobby added, "Much work for Dobby and other elves at Hoggiewarts this year too! Dobby and friends busy making stupid students not see you, make the greasy git who gets shorter every day lose his wand."

"Thanks for the help, Dobby," Harry said. "You and the elves keep him off balance."

Grinning once he was back on the floor, the elf asked, "Did youse notice that Greasy Git can't get his hems to stay short? Dobby learned from Lady Hogwarts to cancels his charms and makes him trip-trip-trip on stairs and steps. It be fun for Dobby."

The goblin cleared his throat and said, "I recognize you elf! You were the primary elf for Lucius Malfoy! How in the name of the first boulder has Malfoy managed his estate without you?"

"Dobby be thinking Missy Cissy Malfoy use stinging hexes on Evil White Hair Nasty wizard every day. She must train new elf to manage farms, business elves, and move round-round and around with Gringotts vaults."

Harry offered Dobby a biscuit, but the elf explained that like goblins, house elves ate different foods from wizards. Ironstream frowned as the gaps in Heir Potter's education multiplied.

Ironstream made an interesting suggestion, "Dobby Potter Elf, do you have access to Professor McGonagall's office?"

"Dobby does."

Turning to Harry, Ironstream said, "Heir Potter, I recommend that you make a copy of the Certificate of Emancipation and include a note to your Head of House that as an adult you choose to be absent from the school until 7PM Sunday."

"Why do I want to be absent?"

"There are many things I need from you this weekend. To escape Dumbledore's clutches after this weekend might prove difficult though he would be breaking the law if he confined you to the castle."

Dobby said, "Mr Lemony-Whiskers chooses laws as he needs them."

The note was written, and Dobby taught Harry how to use magic to make a permanent duplicate of an object. Dobby explained, "We's can't do with food or gold, but cans make wood for fires, waters to drink, and parchments."

"Take these things and put them on Professor Minerva McGonagall's desk, Dobby," Harry instructed. "Then come back to me here in Gringotts."

While Dobby was gone, Ironstream revealed the state of the Potter vaults. The goblin was unhappy and explained, "The entire time that the Whiskered Wizard has been your guardian, he hasn't paid any attention to your accounts, despite monthly statements and letters from me asking for a meeting, demanding a meeting, and finally threatening to cut off his vaults if he won't meet with me.

The goblin sighed, "The goblins in charge of the Hogwarts vaults and the Dumbledore vaults ignore me when I ask for their help. Consequently, your investments and rents have grown stagnant. Only the investment vault of Lady Lily Potter has grown during this time because she made me the boulder with decision making authority."

The boy listened to the goblin, read some impossibly large numbers with names of businesses he recognized in Magical Britain and in Mundane Britain.

"Now, to make any changes, you must accept the ring to be Lord Potter. Once you are lord, you can spend money, authorise me to make more money, increase rents for businesses – you own all the best shops in Diagon Alley."

"What do you mean?"

"The buildings for all the robe makers, apothecaries, bookstore, lawyer's offices – it was your great-grandmother, Dorea Black who brought the deeds for these buildings as her dowry when she married Charlus Black almost 100 years ago."

"And what's happened in the last dozen years?"

"The renters have not honoured the scheduled rent increases, and the proprietors owe at least 300 galleons a piece."

"Three hundred? That's a lot of gold, isn't it?"

"It is. But they are counting on your ignorance to get away with the theft."

"My ignorance?"

"And your magical guardian's negligence."

Sighing again, Harry asked, "What do you suggest?"

"Authorise me to hire a lawyer to approach each business owner with an invoice listing the amount due in 30 days. Anyone who agrees to pay and who does pay, will be allowed to continue their lease. Anyone to agrees to pay but then attempts to wiggle out of the debt will find themselves locked out of their business on the thirty-first day, arrested by the bank and the money seized from their accounts or estate."

"And the ones who refuse to pay from the get-go?"

"With your authorization, Gringotts will arrest them and run them through our justice system. If they have the gold or enough goods and property to pay the debt, we'll seize it and keep them in our jail cells for a week."

"That'll make a lasting impression on Magical Britain," Harry observed. "Will the Daily Prophet make me out to be a villain?"

"No," Ironstream replied. "All merchants in Diagon Alley know our laws and demands for honesty with money. This is typical behaviour for magical business owners. The smart ones have saved the past due rent increases for the arrival of this day and will pay the invoice. The stupid ones need to be culled from the marketplace."

"What else do we need to do?"

"Do you wish to pay your aunt and uncle for the house room and care they have given you for the last fourteen years?"

"What?" demanded Harry as there was suddenly some wind in the office as the young wizard grew furious. "Pay them? For abusing me? Starving me?"

"They were supposed to receive a stipend each month and a representative from Gringotts – a human – would have visited each month on schedule with additional unannounced visits during the month to ensure the quality of your care."

"No! No! That's…Why didn't you do this? They would have treated me better…"

"Gringotts applied with your magical guardian regularly, Mr Potter. He always denied our requests as unnecessary. He assured us that your family loved you."

"Don't give them a sickle," Harry said. "I visit someday and repay their kindness, but until then, I don't want them to hear a word about the change in my circumstances."

"And the squib living off your accounts?"

"Who?"

"A woman named Figg…Arabella Figg lives in a house rented by your money, and she receives a stipend from your accounts as well."

"Stop it! Throw the cat lady and her smelly cats on the street tomorrow!" Harry demanded.