Disclaimer:

I solemnly swear that the literature and works of the Harry Potter Verse belong to JK Rowling, Bloomberg and Warner Bros. The only thing I own are the one-shot ideas that popped into my head and whatever OCs I would create for them. This is a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life or fiction are purely coincidental. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...

Mischief Managed Damn It!

Title: Magic Born From Necessity 3 (Working Title)

Posted Date: December 15 2023

Inspiration: The Great Wandout Challenge, Unintended Consequences, The Core Wars

Tags: Harry needing therapy, Manipulative Dumbledore, Helpful Goblins, Harry becoming Rich 3000

Possible Challenges: See below

Possible Pairings: Harry x Hermione x Susan

Harry took a few minutes to gather his senses and thoughts as he looked around the graveyard he was in, noting the burning bonfire going on and to his distress, the sights and scents of burning bodies. Harry nearly wanted to hurl at the scent and swore that he would go vegan for at least a few weeks if not months before he would consider eating a slice of bacon.

Ugh, he was going to hurl just thinking that. Best to think of other matters.

Harry then recalled what happened before blacking out and lowered his head to control his breathing while letting a couple of tears flow out of his eyes. Now that he had some time to himself, he could properly process what had happened and what he had done to live for those extra few minutes.

Including the fact he had indirectly Killed the Death Eaters. Some of whom may be fathers to those in school with him.

Harry took a deep breath to control his building panic, forcing all the thoughts on what he had done to the back of his mind so that he could focus on what to do next. He recalled what his parents had talked about and decided to hide his tracks by getting rid of the evidence. Whatever that was.

He got up on his feet and moved about the graveyard, wincing from the bruises on his limbs and the odd tightening around one side of his face. He went to touch that side only to pull back his hand with a hiss, the skin feeling like he got sunburned. Trying to ignore the pain, Harry started to move around a little to gauge the situation, noting all the devastation around him. It was towards one of the smaller burning piles that Harry noticed that the items burning were actually wands and broken bits of broomsticks. Turning about the spot, Harry now saw the other piles were mostly that of wands and brooms, with the odd burning bodies. He did stop at what appeared to be a pile of burnt goo that made him want to hurl from the sight and scent. Using a branch next to him, Harry prodded it only to step back from the sight of bones and a roughly cut-off hand coming out of it, said hand having a missing finger.

He really had no idea what went on after he passed out, but he knew that he was going to need to get away from this place soon, but he still needed to get an idea of what to do.

Harry approached the nearest body to look at, and with a deep breath to control his nerves and almost gagging at the scent of burnt flesh, removed the mask from the body to see the face. It was partially burnt and covered in soot, but there were features that helped Harry identify who he was likely related to. "This is Flint's father, I guess." Harry muttered as he checked the mask only to blink at the name etched at the inner part of the mask. "You have got to be kidding me? Are these guys pre-school or something, having their names printed on it?" Harry shook his head but moved on to the next one, each time taking off the mask and wand from them while looking at their faces to try and identify them before looking at the names. The more he did this, the more he recognized their faces from the Daily Prophet, them being the rich and prominent people who were from high society and often standing next to Fudge. That also meant that the inept and possibly corrupt politician would never believe the pile of goo he had checked was the dark lord who had come back from the dead and in some manner connected to their deaths.

Oh no, based on the past two years, Harry was more likely to be on a one-way trip to Azkaban with a possible date with Dementors for dinner, with him as the main course.

"Right, what to do next?" Harry looked about before trying out an idea. "Accio plastic bags." He waited a while before spotting a few plastic bags coming his way. "Figures, litter bugs everywhere." He shook his head before waving his wand to empty their pockets to see what items there were before he tried to transfigure them into bushes or trees to blend with the surroundings, inwardly marvelling at the ease of his changes given how hard he would have to do this back in Hogwarts. For those he could not, Harry steeled himself to move them to the still burning piles and then gather the other wood pieces to rebuild the flames with an Incendio to get it back up. For Peter though, he set him to one side and made him a different plant to differentiate from the rest so that he could come back for him later to set Sirius free.

Harry then proceeded to move whatever smaller items he could grab into the wrecked cauldron before vanishing the lot, again wondering about the ease of the action. He then started to sort out whatever items he got out of them, taking care to shrink the masks to fit them into one bag. He should be destroying the masks but he got the feeling that he needed to get them out of the way first before doing so.

He paused in his routine to look at the pouches that he took off the bodies, using a burnt wand to poke one and getting the sounds of coins clinking. It was a little disrespectful, but they were planning to kill him and the money was not going to be used by them anytime soon, he may as well take the Galleons with him for emergencies.

Transfiguring one of the bigger torn pieces of robes into a bigger coin pouch, Harry proceeded to empty the contents of each pouch into his before throwing them into the fire to hide the evidence, while using one of the smaller pieces to act as another small pouch for the keys just so he could return them to the goblins. He did not want to consider the possibility of using the keys, he still recalled the hoo-hah that came from Quirrel's attempt to rob a vault. He was just wondering how he was going to leave the graveyard when he grabbed the last pouch, only to feel the now familiar and uncomfortable feeling of a poetkey activation and he got pulled into a whirlpool of colours with his mind on one thing.

He was not going to touch another portkey in the near future if he could help it!

~ooOOoo ~

The goblin guards of Gringotts stood alert outside its doors, their eyes looking outward for any signs of trouble and possible attackers wanting to attack the horde. They were normally quite strict as it was, after all they were a bank dealing with the fortunes of many people in Britain, but the alarms that went off in the bank along with what had happened in Diagon Alley prompted them to be extra vigilant for potential thieves wanting to make away with their ill-gotten gold. They had tripled the number of guards for the outside perimeter and tweaked the wards to redirect all incoming portkeys to be outside the bank to ensure no one tried to enter the bank through the reception room during this period.

Director Ragnok had also given the word to be on the lookout for certain individuals that he wished to meet along with their account managers, so the two guards watching out at the temporary apparition point merely raised an eyebrow when Harry Potter appeared from a Portkey delivery that had him smacking the ground hard on his back. It was perhaps a good thing that no one was around to see that since the wizards were more concerned with their stores.

Mentally in their heads, they gave the boy a six for the arrival. Could have been better on the landing.

"Ugh, I really hate Portkeys." The boy groaned as he tried to push himself off. One of the guards decided to speed up the process and came forward to check on the boy, before moving him into the bank while alerting one of the runners to get his account manager.

"Thank you for the help." Harry thanked the goblin who blinked before nodding his head in reply and moving on, clearly not used to getting thanks from wizards. Harry used the moment to try and calm down from what had happened.

"Mister Potter." the boy turned to find a different goblin next to him dressed quite sharply. "My name is Sharpclaw, and I have been expecting you for some time."

"You have, sir?" Harry got up from the chair. "Erm, sorry. I did not know that." Sharpclaw let out a grunt at that statement.

"Were you not informed about Gringotts wanting a meeting with you since your 11th birthday? You should have gotten letters from us." Harry blinked at that question.

"Sir, this is honestly the first time I have ever heard of Gringotts wanting to talk to me. I have not once received any mail from Gringotts, or anyone else outside of my friends and Hogwarts." Harry truthfully answered, lightly recoiling from the growling given out by the goblin.

"I am not angry at you, more the person who is supposedly your guardian." Sharpclaw assured the boy. "Best to come into my office to talk in private." Harry nodded and followed while making sure not to piss off the angry goblin. Once entered, Sharpclaw called for a tea-set to be prepared for the two and gestured Harry to take a sip, silently approving how paranoid the boy was to check his cup and to watch him first before he took the drink.

His question about how Harry came to Gringotts had the boy coming out in bits and pieces before the dam broke and he was having all the words tumbling out in an attempt to get the load off his shoulders. Sharpclaw had to raise a hand to stop him as he reached into a drawer in his desk to grab something. "Hold on, Mister Potter." He took out a crystal cube that had small lights dancing inside it. "This is a memory cube. Place this to your forehead while thinking of the memory, and it will be copied inside for us to project."

"Oh, that is neat." Harry looked at the cube with appreciative eyes. "So much better than sticking your head inside a bird bowl." Sharpclaw snorted at that.

"Where do you think the wizards thought of getting memories from? Their version came about when a drunk wizard was in the middle of depositing his memory into the earlier versions of the memory cube and ended up face first into an actual bird bowl that displayed the image because he cracked the cube and leaked it inside, hence the inspiration of pensieves." Harry let out a burst of laughter at that description, the first genuine laughter since his abduction at the graveyard.

"Oh, I wish that was talked about in Binn's class. That would have been more interesting than the usual rebellions." Harry still snickered as he did what he was told to get the memory into the cube while Sharpclaw asked for a runner to get someone. It was a couple of minutes later that Harry was done depositing the memory and ready to have it played when the door opened to usher a very big goblin.

"Mister Potter, allow me to introduce Director Ragnok of Britain's Gringotts Branch." Harry got up to bow a little clumsily, the adrenaline from his body now leaving him and making him a little unsteady. The goblin nodded before looking at Sharpclaw. "I have asked Mister Potter to grant us his memory over what had happened tonight."

"Very well." The rough voice of the director was enough to jolt Harry awake out of some instinctive desire to not offend this goblin. "Show it to us." Sharpclaw nodded and with a tap of the long fingernail, the crystal glowed brightly before projecting the images around them like something from Star Trek. Harry had to swallow the urge to say something from the TV series and just watched his old self going about the tasks and then fighting for his life in the graveyard.

The goblins did not say much, focusing on manipulating the cube to speed past the inconsequential parts of his memories. They gave their opinions regarding the fight, but it was the demise of the Death Eaters, the last two seconds where the spell was cast, and his actions when he was going around the bodies, that held their attention. Sharpclaw was just about to end it when Ragnok asked, "Do you still have those keys?"

Harry went to take out the pouches and placed them on the table while indicating which was which. "Figured since they won't need them, I should return them to you. Although I was not sure about the coin pouches." The goblins looked at each other and held a silent conversation consisting of eyebrow movements and tilts of the head. Finally the director gave a small nod before upending the pouch that held the keys. A wave of his hand had the keys lined up neatly before one glowed a crimson red.

Picking it up, Ragnok checked it against a list he apparently had in hand before addressing the boy.

"Mister Potter, would you allow us to have this key? In exchange, the British Branch is willing to offer you all the muggle currency in storage currently. We do not have much use for it so it should benefit you more." Harry could not help the open mouth at that statement, nor the stutter when asking dumbly.

"Erm, how much is that?" Sharpclaw looked up briefly to recall the amount.

"The last time it was recorded, based on current exchange rates, I believe the amount for British Pounds alone is currently 8.2 million." Harry almost fainted in his seat at hearing that amount. That was way too much for him!

But then, he also had the issue of getting the Galleons converted to Pounds since he could not leave the Dursleys that often, and if he was planning to leave the British Wizarding World at the least, he would need regular money for travelling and food.

With that in mind, Harry slowly held out his hand to shake. Sharpclaw took it and Harry said, "Deal." A soft glow emitted from their hands to signify a completed deal.

Ragnok nodded at that while he waved his hand again while referencing the parchment again. The set of keys rearranged themselves into three different sets with the bottom set of three glowing red. "What would you like to do with the other keys?"

Harry hummed in consideration before he replied, "Are these red ones belonging to those that are currently without an heir? We can split the contents with whatever goblin artefacts returned to you." Sharpclaw agreed to that arrangement and they shook on it again.

"Regarding the rest, why don't we reconvene in the morning? As per the deal, we shall place the Galleons into a separate vault that is strictly yours while we gather up the muggle currency. For now, we should get you sorted in the Leaky Cauldron for the night. I suspect with what is going on, the students may end up being sent home tomorrow or the day after. You can use the chance to contact someone via Floo that you are safe from any danger if it is available." Ragnok noted Harry flagging at this point now that the adrenaline was leaving his body and the events of the evening if not the whole year had caught up to him. The boy nodded tiredly at his words while swaying in his seat. "You may wish to call your elf friend to see you as well. We'll send one of the guards along with you to ensure that you get a room and are not bothered by anyone there. Although I doubt it at the moment with all that is going on."

Harry had to slap himself in the face before he could reply, "Thank you. That sounds like a good idea. I'll do that. Thank you both for your help." The two goblins nodded and after summoning a guard to get the boy to the Leaky Cauldron, they went to rewatch the memory again with Sharpclaw pulling out a spare parchment to write with. They'd put together a list of the dead Death Eaters and would compare it to the Book of Death held in one of the lower levels just to cover their bases.

"Decent instincts for one so young. The boy also has a good mind to check each face and mask." Sharpclaw mentioned as he wrote down the sixth name. "With the masks, it will be easier to deal with the vaults."

"He seems to be confirming who was involved in his kidnapping." Ragnok continued watching the memory. "Have you noticed the piles of wood around him?"

"They used to be the wands and broomsticks that went flying away from the wizards." Sharpclaw stated it as fact.

"If anyone asks, we will say that the dark wizard attempted to do a last gambit to attack Harry and to cripple the populace." Ragnok spoke in a commanding tone, and Sharpclaw acknowledged the claim. The boy had ended a war before it could start up, and managed to take out the major players in one swoop. They would make sure the boy, no young man, was safe from the stupidity of the wizards that, from the looks of the memory, may have lost their leash on him. Ragnok paused around the period Harry was gathering the items.

"Our young friend has missed out on a few though, and there is the matter of Peter Pettigrew." Ragnok noted. "If you are not too busy, head out to the graveyard and examine the area properly. The young wizard was unconscious for a while, so whatever he may have missed out could still be there. Examine the bodies properly and if needed, transfigure or vanish any items that could be used against him. For Pettigrew, use your discretion."

"I will be out in ten minutes." Sharpclaw was already packing by that point.

"Good hunting." Ragnok nodded before taking the memory crystal with him to consider what to do in the near future. Chief among them was how to protect the boy in the middle of it all.

~ooOOoo~

It would be twenty minutes after his discussion with the goblins that Harry was in the new accommodations for the night, exhausted from all that had happened. His guard was somewhere in the area, hidden from all and watching. Harry needed to thank him later for his troubles. For now though, his mind was trying to calm down from all that had happened.

When he walked out of the bank, he certainly did not expect to see the shops looking burnt from whatever fire had taken place. The air was thick with the scent of burnt wood, fabrics and whatever items were still burning that gave off a very arid smell. His goblin guard had explained to him about the Floo network having some sort of malfunction and supposedly blowing up spectacularly to set fire to the stores in question. Coming up to the Leaky Cauldron where the ground level was partially burnt with no furniture left certainly answered the question of whether Harry could Floo-call anyone.

After getting his room, Harry did some quick thinking and called for Dobby who was very happy to see him, much to the amusement of the guard watching the elf hug his leg enthusiastically. It took a while to calm him down and some quick talking, but Harry ended up bonding with Dobby with some heavy negotiations on wages and breaks. Then Harry put together a couple of letters for Madam Pomfrey and Hermione, the former to let her know what had happened to him based on the story he had discussed with the goblins briefly. The latter, he added more details but withheld the true story until he could meet with her face-to-face, knowing any letter from him was a source of information for the professors who had let him down so many times. Along with the letters, Harry asked Dobby if he could help collect all of his belongings out of Hogwarts with his trunk to be brought to him in the room. The house elf nodded and popped away to do his new duties, with his trunk appearing shortly with his broom and other smaller items that he did not see before, but a note from Dobby claimed that they were his belongings but taken by others, and there were several other items being transferred to his vault as they were too big.

Figures. Bastards still try to steal from him.

It was shortly after that when he was about to take a bath that he finally discovered Hermione's wand in his pocket, in perfect condition no less. And after that, Harry finally realised the difference about his own wand. He knew that his wand was supposed to be thin and made of holly with a phoenix feather for the core, but now his wand was thicker and appeared to be made from both holly and a different wood, with odd knobs that reminded Harry of Dumbledore's wand a little when the old man pulled it out a few times to try something, either to impress Harry or try something that he was thankful for runes to protect. The new wand felt both familiar yet alien to him, like there was the heat of the phoenix he had associated with Fawkes, and then there was the odd chill that was still comfortable. And then there was a symbol etched at the bottom of the wand handle, made up of a circle inside a triangle and a line bisecting the two.

And then there was a weird stone he found alongside Hermione's wand. It was a small stone that looked really ordinary if not for the symbol that was shared with the wand, and the odd whispers in his ear to call for someone from beyond. Harry shivered and just placed the stone back in his trunk tucked inside a sock and kept beneath the invisibility cloak.

Harry shook his head and forced himself up to go to the bathroom with his wand just in case someone tried to enter the room without his knowledge. He should get some sleep and get up early for Gringotts and whatever shops he needed to get supplies from. He had seen and read enough zombie related scenarios to know that resources were about to be a hot commodity in the near future.

Had he stayed a little longer and paid more attention, he would have noted the shadows around the trunk darkening and forming themselves into a rough figure of one wielding a cloak with a pair of glowing eyes looking at him beneath the hood before fading back to normal.