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: A Knight's Inheritance
Posted Date: December 26 2024
Tags: Family Totem Magic, Harry not going to Hogwarts, Knight Squire System
Possible Challenges: WBWL, Alive Potters, Avalon Academy, Technomancy, Alive / Good Potter Grandparents
Harry Potter could not believe this was actually happening as he stared at the crowd that was moving about in the alley that was hidden behind a wall of a pub that most would walk past without noticing. Just a couple of days ago, he was stuck heading to an abandoned lighthouse in the middle of a storm because of his uncle wanting to outrun the letters that had started coming to them a full month before his birthday, and then to be visited by the biggest man he had ever laid his eyes on which was last night. Now they were visiting a totally hidden world that would explain more about his parents.
"Come now, Harry. Best to keep up now." The voice of the big man in question prompted him to follow, not that hard given how much he towered over many of the denizens and how easily he parted the crowd with his size. At least with everyone distracted, he was not looked at like an animal in a circus attractions tour, and it also meant Harry was allowed some time to think on what he learnt.
Knowing that his parents were not drunks who died in a car crash, but instead people who had magic like him and were killed to protect him from a mad man, was a bit of shock if he was being honest. Knowing that he had powers that were the reason for the Dursleys' treatment towards him was one, but now that he had calmed down a little and had time to think about it, he was also a little bitter about the treatment and wary of the new world he was entering. His time growing up with the Dursleys made him a little wary, and it only grew when he found out about Dumbledore being the one who had left him there after Hagrid brought him to the man after his parents died.
And given how the letters were addressed to his first location as the cupboard under the staircase, that meant they had to know about his situation, and did absolutely nothing until he was called forth like some dog.
Harry kept his smile up though, not wanting the big man to ask about his mood just yet, but hoping to use this chance to get more information on this society he was entering.
They entered the white building that Hagrid had pointed out to be the bank run by goblins, creatures that were short and quite angry looking with nasty looking spears, and then to the atrium that had queues of people lining up to talk to the goblin tellers with a few counting what looked like coins of gold and silver with scales. Some of the customers were nice to them, while others were very rude to the goblins. Harry could not help feeling a little bit of pity for the tellers, it had to suck for them to work with those types of people and resolved to be polite to the one they would go to.
With that in mind, Harry followed Hagrid who looked about for an empty counter, finally finding one that had a red flag attached to it and one goblin using a quill to write out something in the books. The half-giant came up to him and cleared his throat, but the goblin merely glanced briefly at the two of them and motioned with his hand to get them to speak.
"Mister Potter wishes to make a withdrawal from his trust vault." Hagrid announced 'softly', which could be heard a fair bit. "Oh, and Mister Dumbledore asked me to hand this to you." Hagrid reached into one of his many pockets to take out a letter to give to the goblin who took it to peer at it over his glasses. "He said it was for Vault 463, and it is for you know what." Harry wondered what that was about but kept silent for the moment.
"You said Vault 463 and the trust vault for Harry Potter, correct?" Hagrid nodded at that query. The goblin shuffled the papers a bit more, looked at Harry, and then back at Hagrid.
"And does Mister Potter have his key?" The goblin asked with a tone that started some alarm bells in Harry's head.
"Oh right, I have it with me." Hagrid went to rummage into his pockets, but Harry looked at the half-giant with confusion and slight suspicion. This was the first time he had heard of this.
"Wait a minute, Hagrid. How is it you have the key to my vault? This is the first time I heard of this." Harry interrupted, which got the attention of the teller.
"Oh, Professor Dumbledore was hanging on to it for you until you were ready to come back to the Wizarding World." Hagrid answered while still searching for the key.
"Should I not be the one to hang on to it then, or at least the key to be returned to the bank when I was not around?" Harry was getting more suspicious about this.
"Professor Dumbledore is a good man, he will not want to leave this unattended so he took it shortly after your parent's deaths." Hagrid answered absentmindedly. Harry was getting a little irritated by this but got interrupted by the goblin teller.
"Halt." The goblin's voice carried a stern tone as the goblin looked at Hagrid with narrow eyes before turning to Harry with a steady glance which Harry managed to return without flinching. The goblin nodded after a while as though he approved of that before returning to Hagrid. "We have had recent attempts by others in the past to access the Potter Vaults. As the boy has rightfully pointed out, any and all vault keys should have been returned to Gringotts at the time of the primary keyholder's death, and retained until we have confirmation of a new user. We would need to authenticate the boy and validate the key."
"Now there is no need. I have his key right here." Hagrid argued while still trying to find said key, getting visibly more nervous at the moment that attracted the attention of the customers nearest to them.
"A ruse done by many others." The goblin flicked his finger, and silently another goblin appeared next to Harry who jumped from the sudden appearance. "BoneCracker, bring the boy to Barchoke and get this matter over with."
"Follow me." The second goblin ordered and turned to walk off. Harry made to follow when Hagrid placed a big hand on his shoulder that nearly sent him to the floor.
"Now wait a minute. You do not need to do that, Dumbledore said to just get his money and leave without consulting with a manager. Nothing else." Hagrid stated before letting out a whoop as he brought out a gold key. "See, I found his key now, so you do not need to do anything else." Harry did not need to be a mind-reader to know that the expression on the goblin teller's face was a bad one. Barely a few seconds after Hagrid spoke, a group of goblins appeared instantly with sharp halberts aimed at them.
"The fact that the man gave out that level of instructions is questionable, especially given his rather 'upfront' requests as of late." Harry could hear the disdain with the last couple of words. "You have a choice, half-giant. Hand over the vault key to BoneCracker, leave the boy to us, continue whatever other business you have here, and leave Gringotts on your own two legs. Otherwise, you can continue making a nuisance of yourself by interfering with Gringotts business, and leave this in a coffin at best, or be fed to the dragons." The goblin teller growled while the other customers in the lobby started to make some space to get away from the potential fight.
"Hagrid, I can just go with them. It is fine." Harry tried to assure the big man before he made too big of a scene. "Don't you have to do something else around here? You can get that done first." Hagrid looked conflicted but relented, probably helped by the halberd poking him at the side. He reluctantly handed the key over to the teller who examined it before handing it to BoneCracker who pocketed the key and motioned with a finger for Harry to follow him. Hagrid almost moved to do the same only for the security goblins to aim for his body, their faces clearly showing they meant business and would stab him in the process. The half-giant slumped and moved on to collect the other item. The rest of the customers moved on with their business, but their tongues would keep on retelling the story with much embellishments until the story would be overblown in some manner.
Unaware of this, Harry followed the goblin through the door that led to a corridor which branched off to others. He tried to keep track of the directions but quickly lost his way with how similar the layout looked and the speed of his guide making it hard to track. Finally they entered a corridor that screamed money with the white marble walls, tiled floors and doors of varying designs at the sides. Harry took glances at them as he went past the doors, noting the different plaques, coat of arms and occasional skulls mounted on them. If Harry dared to guess, those skulls were meant to show the status of the goblins in those rooms, likely managers or directors of the bank. Supposedly the bigger and scarier, the higher the status.
He really did not want to know how they were taken.
"In here." BoneCracker stopped before a door that had a gryphon gripping a sword as the coat of arms and knocked three times.
"Enter!" A deep voice called out from inside, to which the goblin opened the door and stepped inside before moving to let Harry in, giving him the chance to look at the decor inside. It was certainly made to intimidate first timers with the dark rock walls, not helped by the battle axe that adorned the wall where one goblin that looked a lot older than BoneCracker and dressed in a dark suit was seated behind a deep red mahogany desk that had several parchments on it. BoneCracker stepped forward to hand over the gold key and to talk to the goblin in their native language in a manner that sounded accusatory before the aged goblin nodded once.
"So, we have yet another child who claims to be Harry Potter." The aged goblin turned slowly to face Harry with narrowed eyes, once again making him feel the urge to blink and fidget. "What's so different about this one?"
"The half-giant from Hogwarts brought him here." BoneCracker answered the goblin.
"Is that so?" Barchoke hummed while maintaining his stare on the boy. "Do you know what is going on, boy?"
"Erm, I am supposed to be collecting some money to buy some of the magical items to go to Hogwarts? Sir?" Harry managed to get that out while maintaining his gaze on the goblin.
"So you claim. We shall see for ourselves." A knock on the door drew their attention to a third goblin who came in with a stone basin and a crude looking knife. With a quick glance at Harry, the goblin placed the items on the table, bowed at the old goblin before leaving the room.
"Do you know what this is?" A shake of the head prompted the goblin to continue. "This is a blood identity test. As you can imagine, when you have vaults of gold it is very tempting to waltz right in and claim that you are the owner of the vault. We at Gringotts do not like thieves, so this is a way of testing whether the person says they are who they are. And being someone of your supposed fame" The aged goblin raised an eyebrow, "you can imagine how many tried to pull the wool on us."
"I understand, sir." Harry nodded while using the motion to swallow discreetly. "So what should I do?"
"All you need to do is take this knife, make a small cut on your hand and put at least seven drops of your blood into the basin." BoneCracker joined the conversation at this point, taking up the knife and gesturing at the stone basin with it. "The basin will determine whether you are the real person. Better pray you are." The two goblins sprouted very scary smiles with teeth showing. "Otherwise you will be wishing that you did not try to rob us." Harry gulped as he looked at the knife before taking a deep breath and the knife from the goblin. Deciding to get it over with, Harry pricked his finger with the tip of the knife, a little amazed at how sharp it was and how quickly it cut him. Lifting his hand over the basin, Harry let the blood drip into the basin, stopping when the drop count exceeded seven quickly. The aged goblin waved a hand above the basin, making the contents glow brightly for a while before green symbols appeared around the rim.
"Congratulations, you are who you say you are." Barchoke waved another hand to vanish the contents, and Harry would try to ignore the tone and the attitude of the other goblin that suggested they were disappointed by the results. "At the very least, we finally meet face to face, young human." The aged goblin folded his hands together and looked Harry in the eye. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Barchoke, and aside from providing financial services to potential customers, I am also the current account manager for the Potter Family." That definitely got Harry's attention and he sat back straight as the goblins looked to him solemnly.
"We have much to discuss, Scion Potter. Like why is this the first time you have heard of us, and whether your true guardian knows of you?"
~ooOOoo~
Hagrid was fretting as he came back out into the open after getting out of that contraption that was the Gringotts coal cart. He had gotten the item that Dumbledore had told him to get from the vault, but he was now forced to wait for Harry who was taken by the goblins because they did not take his word. Dumbledore told him that he only needed to present the key to the goblin seated on the third counter from the entrance, help Harry get some money, and leave. It would be made obvious since the counter was not used that often and had the red label flag that Hagrid used for identification.
Unknowingly to Hagrid while he was mumbling aloud, the goblin currently chairing the counter was not the goblin that Dumbledore had intended for Hagrid to meet that morning. And having heard what the half-giant had said, the goblin penned a message to the guard to find the possible traitor for questioning. The guard nodded and quickly got another to take his place while he dealt with the issue.
It was roughly an hour after their entry that a goblin teller approached the half-giant, and unknowingly to him, several guards appeared through the crowd at different parts of the bank, all slowly converging in the same spot.
"Rubeus Hagrid." The teller stopped in front of the half giant to look up, the latter almost knocking him down while turning.
"Yes, sir?" Hagrid had to bend down on his knees to address him, and it was almost comical seeing a goblin that barely reached the half giant's shin talking to that person that still took up space while hunching.
"You have concluded your business here, haven't you?" The teller asked as a matter of fact.
"Yes, but I am supposed to bring Harry around the alley and back to his aunt." Hagrid 'softly' spoke, with some of the customers that were around hearing him and turning to see what was going on, a few of whom had been there earlier to see the confrontation and were now eagerly hoping for round two.
"Your business with Mister Potter has been concluded. His acquisition of his school supplies and his security are now Gringotts's business." The teller told Hagrid with a no-nonsense tone. "You can leave now."
"But Dumbledore told me to stick with Harry. He told me to go through his shopping and only get the necessary items without letting him wander about, and to get him back to his aunt no matter what." Hagrid protested.
"Are those your specific instructions?" Those with keen ears would note the tone of the goblin and wisely stood back a few more steps, especially when the guards were now more noticeable congregating to where the two were standing.
"Yes. Professor Dumbledore wants to make sure Harry is sent right back to his Aunt's home, no detours and no loitering at bookshops once he got only the books from the list, nothing else. Not even books on culture or spells can work at home. And not to let him know about mail wards and ask any questions in Gringotts at all." Hagrid answered while nodding. He did not notice how some of those near him frowned at the odd instructions he was given.
"I see." The goblin snapped his fingers and the guards made their appearance to surround them and pointed their spears at Hagrid. "Rubeus Hagrid, given the irregularities we have found around Mister Potter's vaults and based on the odd instructions you were given, we have a few questions that need answering. I will advise you to be truthful." The tone made it very clear that Hagrid did not want any trouble that was bad for his health, and that helped to get through Hagrid's brain that perhaps he should be careful. The customers watched the half-giant get frog-marched into the deeper parts of the bank by the guards before the tellers called them to do business or leave. Some stayed while others quickly left to tell their friends what had happened, the stories getting more details as the day passed.
By the time it reached the ears of Dumbledore a couple of hours later, the situation had gotten decidedly bad for him, and the boy who was meant to just be collecting his school books and equipment was out of his reach, and in the one place that he would not be able to touch him for a good while. And even the blood trackers he had on him were not working anymore.
And that was not adding in the headache of someone else being alerted to come to the bank on account of them apparently being a guardian to someone he should have taken in as a favour to Charlus Potter.