I am BLOODY EXHAUSTED.
Being a Bengali, I have a compulsion to attend a certain festival that occurs around this time every year.
It's fun tho. The food is excellent (MWAH!) and I have a few friends I can meet.
But it is exhausting.
And time consuming
And I can't stay at home and type it out.
So, yeah. I am a bit late in my upload, but worry not!
This story will only be abandoned once it is over.
And I intend on giving it a proper conclusion.
P.S. I ran out of chapter titles
P.P.S. If you want to know more about the festival, search up Durga Puja on Google
So, without further ado, I present Chapter 4 of the story,
THE NAME'S POTTER… HARRY POTTER
CHAPTER 4
Grim Thoughts In Gringotts – Part 2
"Yes. He set up so-called 'Owl Redirection Wards' around Harry's house. Their main purpose is to block or turn away owl mail, or in general, mail carried by air. The Hogwarts mail he could intercept en-route, or he could manipulate the wards according to what he wanted. And since he is the receiver of all his account statements, it is deducible that he knows everything about Harry's vaults and money. It's impossible to resist such temptation." James elaborated.
"No. That's impossible. It can't happen. Our letters are specifically charmed to only open for the person it is addressed to, in this case, Mr Potter. Unless… unless that bastard found a way to break the charms! I want to KILL HIM!" Drakontooth said, pacing around the room. "How dare tha…"
"It doesn't matter now. Mr Potter is finally here, and you may start talking about the Potter accounts." Jarkill interrupted, waving his hand towards Harry.
"Of course. Mr Potter, your family has the, umm, eleventh largest vault in all of Gringotts. Preceding you are the vaults of Gringotts itself, the Queen of England, AKA the Monarchy, the Ministry of Magic, the Greengrass family, St. Mungo's, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Longbottom family, the Auror Reserves and some more. You have the fourth-largest family vault and the sixth-largest growing vault."
Harry was openly gaping. James playfully closed his mouth, and Harry fixed him with a burning glare. He just smirked amusedly.
"Of course, it isn't yours yet. You will need to properly accept your vault with your blood, and of course, for that, you must wait for emancipation, which is in…"
"Harry IS emancipated." James interrupted.
"What?" Both Drakontooth and Harry looked at James incredulously. Jarkill just seemed thoughtful.
"The Triwizard Tournament!" Jarkill realised. "It, the Goblet of Fire, uses Goblin magic. Your government forced you to fight in a competition for emancipated adults, and the fact that they used a goblin artifact, and that you really did compete, allowed Magic, the capital M Magic, enough reason to emancipate you! Both you and your government indirectly, unwillingly, AND unwittingly, gave you the clearance for emancipation by considering you as an adult."
"So, this means I can perform magic out of school?"
"That is correct."
Harry made to take out his wand, but James firmly gripped his arm. He looked up, and saw the goblins tensed up, glaring at him.
"Withdrawing your wand inside Gringotts, without the express and explicit permission of the goblin, or goblins, you're with is tantamount to a death sentence."
Harry's eyes widened in fear and realisation of what could have happened. He relaxed his arm away from his wand. This time, he decided to take the initiative, and he started apologising.
"Account Managers Jarkill and Drakontooth, I apologise vehemently for my ignorance of your rules and laws, and I beg for forgiveness."
The goblins relaxed, and Jarkill spoke to James, "The next time you bring him here, make sure he knows all the important rules of Gringotts. As for you Mr Potter, you may draw your wand to check out any non-dangerous spell. I would recommend Reparo or Wingardium Leviosa"
Harry drew his wand out slowly, and pointing it at a folder lying on the desk, he incanted, "Wingardium Leviosa!". The folder slowly floated up. Harry quickly set it down, and waited for that dreaded letter to come.
He waited a minute.
He waited two minutes.
He waited five minutes.
He waited ten minutes.
When James murmured, "It won't come," Harry relaxed and smiled widely.
"Thank you sirs, for this gift."
"It was more of a Ministerial accident, but we'll take the credit!" Drakontooth smirked. Harry just smiled gratefully.
"Now, on to business. Mr Potter, per a previous communication with Mr Verlan here, you have come to Gringotts to, one, take up your Lordship, two, get a medical checkup, three, get you affiliated officially with MI6 and Gringotts, and four, start your training and additional education." Jarkill said.
"Now, the Lordship part is mine. The rest is in the very incapable hands of Jark over here."
"Shut up Dragonbreath!"
Drakontooth just laughed loudly, and soon later, Jarkill joined in too. James just chuckled. Harry had a feeling that the goblins were very old friends.
After exhausting their laughter reserves, Drakontooth turned to Harry, and said, "Now, we need to get on with setting up your Lordship. First, you will need to give your thumbprints on these documents. Then we'll check your bloodlinesand ancestry andride to the vaults, where you must accept them. If the stone accepts you, well and good, but if it doesn't, your head is forfeit. Afterwards, we'll get you the Potter Family rings, which will get you your Lordship. Then we look at your parents' wills, according to which we'll start distribution of the items in the vaults."
While pressing his thumb into an inkpad, and then pressing it on the documents one by one, Harry jerked his head up.
"Wait, my parents had a will?" Harry asked, surprised.
"Of course they had! Didn't the Ministry ever inform you? Oh wait, you didn't get any owls ever."
"It's worse. The wills were sealed by the Wizengamot on the emergency orders of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, right after the Halloween events of 1981. We suspect that it was done to put Harry with the Dursleys, who I suspect were never supposed to be his guardians, and if they ever were, it would be as a last resort, that too with several hundred provisos and rules imposed upon them."
"WHAT!" Harry snarled, "I'll KILL that bastard!"
"Believe me, that option isn't too unlikable. But there is more. You've already had several revelations. We've found more. Dumbledore nominated himself, illegally, as your magical guardian, thereby legalising all the transactions he made from the Potter vaults."
"HE STOLE FROM ME?" Harry shouted.
"He did. But at least he didn't use it for personal gain. He funded the vigilante operation, the Order Of The Phoenix, which fought against Voldemort, using your money. Most likely, this time around, he will resurrect it again. If we have guessed right, they will come to take you to their headquarters quite soon. Next time you write a letter, try to make it as plaintive as possible. Ask them, beg them to let you know when you can come. Make it seem that the date would be something to look forward to. Your friends there could also help, you know, by begging Dumbledore to let you come here. Dumbledore isn't inherently a bad person. He's just a chess player, a bad one, and he forgets that here, the pieces can die."
"For four whole years, I looked up to that old coot as a grandfather, even as a saviour!" Harry grumbled.
"That was probably what he wanted you to believe. The only reason you are sent to the Dursleys every goddamned year is to weaken you. To make you vulnerable, meek, mild, and mouldable. To you, he will always seem like a saviour, since he actually was one." James told him sombrely.
"Anyway, Mr Potter, can we get on with the Lordship? I have other work too." Drakontooth cut in.
"Please, sir, call me Harry."
Drakontooth eyed him warily. Never had a person outside the Potter family treated him with such respect. And Harry was for all intents and purposes, not a Potter. By blood he was, but not by his upbringing.
Even Gringotts Wizard curse-breakers respected him out of fear, not due to actual respect for the goblin kind.
He decided to take a chance this time. He grunted back in response, and added, "Call me Drakontooth."
Harry smiled. It seemed that Professor Binns was actually teaching stuff meant for a dustbin. Contrary to whatever he said, hell, even contrary to whatever the books said, goblins weren't savage murdering creatures.
It then hit him how appalled Hermione would be to discover that her prized books weren't supposed to be so prized at all. Then again, he thought, Lockhart should've taught her that already.
He realised that the goblins underwent the same racism meted out to centaurs, werewolves and even muggle-borns. He was determined to break the mould and be as respectful as possible.
"Now Mr Potter, I shall be using this knife to lightly cut your palm," Drakontooth said, pulling a gleaming black-and-white dagger out of a scabbard at his side. Harry visibly and audibly gulped.
"Don't worry so much. It will only hurt for a moment or two. This knife is a special goblin blade, imbibed with healing magic, which will effectively heal the cut in a matter of seconds. Even then, I would advise you to hold on to something and close your eyes."
Harry gripped the chair tightly with one arm and both his feet. Closing his eyes, he tensed up and held his breath. Drakontooth slowly lowered the knife until it hovered right above his palm, and with a swift slice, he cut a thin red line. Harry hissed in pain, and opened his eyes to see droplets of blood on his palm. He marvelled at Drakontooth's skill. He had only just cut a few blood vessels superficially, and it was already healing. The goblins weren't a people to be underestimated or turned into the bad guys of ages long gone.
He concluded that the bigots of the Magical World were probably too proud, egoistic, and stupid to realise their mistake.
Meanwhile, Drakontooth took the knife, with some droplets of blood on it, and wiped it on a brown canvas sheet that Jarkill unrolled a few seconds ago.
The sheet briefly glowed, and a white patch appeared on it. Slowly, a name formed underneath it.
Harry James Potter.
The white patch coloured in some places, and a rough image of Harry's face could be seen on it.
"Mr… Harry, look into the patch, it needs to know your face."
Harry did as Drakontooth asked, and put his head over the patch. The crude image started sharpening, and it soon formed a much better likeness of his face.
"This sheet is magically linked to our records. Your blood gives us your ancestry, and shows close genetic relations, such as brothers and sisters and cousins. Wives or husbands marrying into a family will have to come here and give their blood to the sheet, allowing for their families to get connected to this lineage. See these lines coming out of your image? These will show how you're related to people. It will take a minute or two to properly form."
True to his word, the sheet started forming names and faces. Harry was pleased to see the names James Charlus Potter and Lily Evans-Potter on the sheet, directly connected to him. He looked for his grandparents and saw the names Dorea Black-Potter and Charlus Venellus Potter directly above his father's image.
To a child without any idea of his grandparents or most of his family, this sheet was like a godsend. A few tears escaped Harry's eyes. James got up from his seat, and placed a firm hand on his shoulder. Jarkill and Drakontooth looked morose and pitying, and the mood was yet again very sombre.
Harry sat up straight. Taking off his glasses, he wiped away the tears, and firmly said, "Drakontooth, please continue."
Drakontooth nodded. "This sheet will show your genealogy up to 30 generations, give or take. Before that, Gringotts didn't offer such a service. Of course, should you like to find out more about your family, you should check the Potter family archives, present in Potter Manor."
"I have a manor?"
"Yes, you do. You can accept it after you get your Lordship. So, let's get on with that."
"Of course."
"So, Mr Potter, I'll need some more blood for the family rings, and after that, some more for the vaults."
Harry gulped again. Even though he knew it didn't hurt much, he still didn't like it.
"Now, Harry, this box contains the Potter family rings," Jarkill said, taking out a box small enough to just fit a wallet. Harry suspected it had several Undetectable Expansion Charms.
With a look at James, he asked him wordlessly if he should take it. When James nodded, Harry looked at Jarkill and held out his hand at Drakontooth.
Drakontooth again repeated the procedure, and Harry's blood was again dripped on the box. The blood touched it and vapourised.
Alarmed, Harry looked at Drakontooth, and his fears were quelled ever so slightly by the expression on his face. It was akin to a grimace, but from what Harry had learnt about goblins, it meant excitement.
"Harry, the box's magic has accepted your blood. It now knows that you are of the Potter family. Now open it."
Harry opened the box. Inside, he saw three big rings. And big would be the wrong adjective. One of them was massive, the other huge, and the last was merely large. Where the crest should be, there was a blank white stone. Jarkill must have seen his curiosity, and he said, "The largest one is the Headship ring. It is given to the Head of the Potter family, who, in this case, is you. The middle one is for your spouse, whoever it may be, and the last is for your chosen heir. But don't put on yours yet. We have to first fix your life stone, and let you accept your vaults."
Drakontooth took the ivory mouthpiece and spoke into it, "Runner Goblin Borhall, bring up the Potter life stone to conference room 21, and then report to room 76."
"What is in room 76?" Harry asked.
"Memory removal chamber. Since MI6 requires this to be a secret, we can't risk important information escaping Gringotts. Now wait, and would you like any refreshments?"
Harry declined, but James accepted a cup of tea. In five minutes, right when James drained his cup, the goblin Borhall arrived, and gave the life stone to Jarkill in a wooden box, then scampered away.
"Now, Mr Potter, I'll need your blood again."
Harry again assumed his position and braced himself. Drakontooth repeated the process, and dripped the blood onto the stone.
The pieces the blood fell on started glowing a deep blue, almost indigo. But it reassembled itself immediately. Harry recalled the normal colour was a nice cerulean blue. He became worried, and his worry increased when he saw the faces of his companions.
"What happened?" James asked.
"We have no idea, it could be curse residue for all I know."
"Didn't Voldemort hit you with a few crucios Harry?"
"Yeah, he did. The imperius too as a matter of fact."
"Yes, that could be it. The magic is dark enough to show such effects."
"Don't worry Mr Potter, our healers will look into it. Now that the life stone is reassembled, you have become the owner of the Potter family and business vaults. Congratulations!" Jarkill said.
"Now, Harry, put on your ring." Drakontooth said.
Harry picked up his ring. It was still blank.
"Where's the emblem?"
"Every family has two crests. One is for the family as a whole, and another personal crest for every ring-wearer. The family crest is still intact, but your ring will only show your personal crest."
Harry slowly put the ring on his right index finger. It resized to fit him, and a wave of blue magic surrounded it. It was pure healing magic. The wave slowly crept through his body, healing several of the Dursley-caused scars.
As it went upwards, Harry felt a light itch in his scar. He wrote it off as a reaction to the magic, and didn't do anything.
Suddenly, he clutched his forehead and screamed in agony before falling out of his chair, unconscious.
.
.
.
Hallo my readers! How ya guys doin' ?
Finally finished with this chapter. Whoo does my wrist hurt.
Anyway, don't ever think I'll ditch this story.
I already finished writing chapter 5 in my notebook, and it is waiting to be typed out.
You guys can give me prompts, and I will try to write them sometime in the future.
Next year, you can expect a bit less uploads.
Why?
Cuz I'll be in grade 12 then, and I'll have to prepare for my JEE exam.
And must I say, 11th grade is pure hell
This, and making paper models, are the only reasons I'm sane right now
But am I sane? (Vsauce noises in the background)
So, Perseus, over and out!
P.S. Thanks to my good ol' friend Cap'n Jacket. You are an excellent friend.