Fleur’s Surprise

Lord Potter

Harry didn't like side-along apparition, of that he was sure the moment they reached London. The feeling of being squeezed through a tiny tube, the rotation and the disorientation were worse than traveling by portkey, which he had experienced a few months previously. But it was quick.

They landed in a small apartment in London before eleven. It was well furnished with antique furniture and heavy rugs but it also had a large TV screen and other electronic stuff.

"My father visits London at least once a month. He prefers living here than staying at a hotel or at the embassy," Fleur explained. "He also likes to stay current with muggle news. Besides, it's just a two-minutes walk to the Leaky Cauldron."

Fleur set her allure to low as a way to distract others, so that nobody would notice her two younger companions. Harry appreciated her initiative, knowing how people used to stare at his scar.

It was the first time Harry could see the inner offices of the bank. As soon as he stated "I'm here to take control of my possessions," the goblin bowed, saying, "Of course, Lord Potter," and escorted the three into an elegant office at the back.

"Lord Ragnok, this is Lord Potter and his Ladies, coming to claim control of his belongings," they were announced.

A seemingly older goblin, dressed with richly decorated garments, was sitting there. He stood up to shake Harry's hand. "I was wondering when you would come," he said in a way of greeting. "I'm Ragnok, the general manager of this bank. May I ask who your escorts are, Lord Potter?"

"Please call me Harry. The young lady closer to my heart is Miss Hermione Granger, whom I intend to marry as soon as she comes of age. The other lady is my dear friend Miss Fleur Delacour, who has suggested this visit."

Ragnok motioned for them to sit down. "How can I be of service to you, Harry?"

"First of all, I'd like to make sure if I'm really emancipated. Then I'd like to read my parents' will, visit my vaults and learn about all my properties." Both ladies had made sure he knew what to ask for.

He then hesitated a bit before adding. "If it's not too much of a trouble, I'd also like to be checked by a healer you trust. After all that happened at Hogwarts, I'm not sure I can trust any of the staff."

Ragnok smiled at Harry reassuringly. "We have our own healers and they can heal humans just as well, no problem there. I can take you to your vaults and your account manager has all the information about your other possessions as well. I don't know anything about a will, though. If they ever wrote one, Gringotts was never made aware of it. I suggest you start with your family vault, though. You may be able to find their will there, if they had one ready, but not yet formal. You may also take your family rings and give your fiancée her engagement ring, if you want to."

Ragnok led Harry to the cart, where another goblin took over. The girls had to wait in the office, as the vaults of old families were known to have some nasty wards disallowing any non-family from accessing them.

The Potter main vault was one of the oldest and almost as large as the Great Hall of Hogwarts. Harry could only get a rough impression of its contents, consisting of a large library, a section dedicated to various weapons, where he could see ancient shields, armors and swords amongst others, and a separate section with chests containing jewelery. The first and most ornate chest had several small boxes on it, along with a few parchments. The rest of the vault was mainly filled with high piles of gold galleons and a few of knuts and sickles.

Harry went to the jewelery boxes and the parchments. The velvet covered boxes were set on a parchment, identifying them as the Lord and Lady Potter signet rings, the Potter engagement rings and the wedding bands. His goblin escort advised Harry to take the boxes containing the Lord's ring and the engagement ring, but not put the rings on until assured of his position.

Harry then checked the rolled parchments. One was addressed "To our beloved son, Harry", as written on the spine. He just took it, unsure if he could read it without Hermione's support. He then opened one of the others, which was unmarked. It was a will. He rolled it back and took all the parchments with him.

He soon left the vault, taking a bit of money with him as well.

Back at the office, he showed Ragnok his finds. "You can put on your Lord's ring with no problem," Ragnok advised him. "You would have not been able to remove it from the vault if you didn't have the right to wear it. Yet putting it on may affect you in unpredictable ways. I suggest you wait after the healers check you. You can give the engagement ring immediately, if you wish, as there's no special precaution needed with it."

Harry opened the box and presented the exquisite ring within. He knelt in front of Hermione. "Will you give me the honor of accepting this ring as a token of love, symbolizing the promise of getting married that we have made to each other?"

Hermione was just too happy to reply. She grabbed him and hugged him tightly, kissing every point of his face that she could reach.

"I believe this is a 'yes'," the goblin commented dryly.

"You bet!" she said, taking her first look at the ring.

Hermione almost lost her breath once she saw the ring properly. It was ancient, of that she was sure, and besides sporting three very large stones which seemed to be diamonds it was also showing some delicate carvings which looked very decorative. Only on second glance she recognized them for what they were – powerful protection runes.

Harry took the ring and put it on her finger. The ring flashed once and then a circle of light appeared around Hermione, scanning her from head to toe, stopping a few times and changing color momentarily. Harry also felt some minor releases of magic which rattled a few objects but caused no harm. "What is this?" he asked.

"It's just the ring doing its stuff, scanning for any malicious charms cast upon your fiancée and removing them," Ragnok explained. "Now, as it seems like she has been subjected to several charms, I believe you were subjected to many more. It would be safer for you and for us if you put your ring on in a special room which can absorb any magic released in the process and protect the rest of the building from its effects."

Three goblin healers were first summoned to the office. They scanned Harry, using several tools unknown to wizardkind and then consulted among themselves before the eldest among them presented their results:

"It looks like young Lord Potter has been subjected to severe malnutrition since his early childhood. This prevented his body from reaching its full potential growth and also weakened his magical core. In addition, we've found some bones which had been broken and had never mended properly. This seems to also come of abuse and neglect, Some recent injuries seem to be well treated, though. As for the magical side, we've found several bindings on his magic and quite a few tracking and detection charms, all bearing the unmistakeable signs of being cast by the same powerful wizard."

"Do you know who it is?" Harry asked.

They looked at each other, not sure if they should answer.

"Lord Potter should know the answer," Ragnok said in a commanding tone.

"It is Dumbledore," the head healer replied. "We've also found a very dark entity residing in your scar, burdening your magic even further. We think this should be dealt with first."

"I believe his House ring can deal with most of these. I suggest we let him put the Potter ring on in the safe room and then see what more needs to be done," Ragnok suggested.

He directed Harry to another room which seemed to be heavily lined with metal. "Close the door behind you, put the ring on and wait until it finishes its stuff," Ragnok ordered.

Hermione could see the flash of light even through the closed door, for it was so bright. The door then rattled quite a few times. As the door was made of several layers of metal, a few inches thick, this made her worry quite a bit. She then heard a scream that could freeze one's blood. Concerned for her friend, she tried to open the door and rush in, but the door seemed to be forcefully held in place.

It took almost half an hour until the door was opened and Harry stepped outside, to be engulfed in Hermione's hug once again.

"What happened in there?" she asked anxiously.

"I'm not sure. There was a tremendous flash of light when I put the ring on and it blinded me for awhile. When I could see again, I saw the circle of light rising slowly, at about my abdomen, flashing various colors. As it advanced I started feeling more powerful. It then reached my head and stopped over my scar. It felt like there was a fight there, and it hurt badly. Then some black smoke escaped from my scar, screaming like the memory of Voldemort when I destroyed his diary and then my scar stopped hurting."

"How do you feel now?" she asked, still worried.

"I'm fine, really. I feel better than I remember ever feeling," Harry said reassuringly.

"But your scar is bleeding," she noted.

The goblin healers approached, repeating their tests and sealing the scar as well. A few minutes later they had a new diagnostic:

"All binds are now removed, as well as all the other charms cast on Lord Potter. There's no trace of the dark entity which was previously trying to control his magic. We still need to address the problems created by the malnutrition, though, and some old injuries."

"How long will that take?" Hermione asked.

"That depends. If he stays here, we can fix him completely within three days. If that is not advised, than he can take some potions that will help restore his body nicely over a period of two or three months. It is still advisable for him to see one of us every two weeks, at least."

"Can you visit him at Hogwarts? I'm not sure we can leave so often," Hermione asked.

Ragnok answered. "As you may have already noticed, Harry is addressed here as Lord Potter, which practically answers his first question: he is emancipated and recognized as an adult. The moment he was forced into the Triwizard tournament, his status changed in our records, as it did in the ministry's records. As a legal adult and a Lord of an ancient house, he is entitled to leave Hogwarts at will to address his other obligations and the school has no say in this. He should only inform his head of house about this and catch up with any lessons he may miss."

"So, you say he can come here whenever it pleases him?"

"Precisely. I'll also provide a multiple-use two-way portkey for him to be able to come and go as he pleases."

"We shall have the potions ready for Lord Potter before he leaves", the healers promised. Ragnok led the youngsters back to his office. The three parchments there were three identical copies of Harry's parents' last will and Harry was anxious to hear it before doing anything else.

Ragnok read it out loud for all to hear. He skipped over the preambles needed by the law directly to the will proper. "We hereby inform whoever reads the will that we had prepared it at the end of October 1981 and sent it to our vault. We authorized our good friend Sirius Black to come here after Halloween in order to take two copies of it and deposit one with the ministry and another with Gringotts, keeping the third in our vault.

Just for the record: our secret keeper is Peter Pettigrew, while Sirius only pretends to be, so that Peter will escape attention. If we are dead as a result of our secret revealed, then Peter is to blame and NOT Sirius.

With that out of the way, we leave everything we own to our son Harry. This includes our hideout house in Godric Hollow, the Potter Manor, which is unplottable, and the town-house in London, where we actually conceived him. Our Gringotts account manager, Kwickill, can present the most current information about the rest of our holdings.

In case we die before Harry comes of age, we assign Lord Sirius Black as his guardian. If he can't take it upon himself then we assign Alice Longbottom, Amelia Bones, and Minerva McGonagall as guardians, in that order. In no case should Harry be handed to the Dursley family. Although Petunia Dursley is Lilly's sister, she cannot be trusted with any child, least of all with Harry.

As the scion of Potter, Harry is to be emancipated at his eleventh birthday or at the reading of this will, whichever comes last."

Ragnok lifted his head. "The rest is just legal stuff..."

Harry sat silently, contemplating his fate. Had Sirius not been erroneously accused, Harry could have grown up with a loving parent and know his heritage. He would not have had to cope with the Dursleys and suffer their abuse, their prejudice and their stupidity. He fought his tears. It wouldn't do for Lord Potter to weep in public.

It took him some time to gain his composure. Hermione's hand holding his and Fleur's resting reassuringly on his shoulder helped as well.

"Can you forward this will to the ministry and start the judicial process to clear Lord Black of the unjust accusations?" he asked.

"We shall, but another copy should be sent to his attorney," Ragnok told him.

"OK, do it, please." Harry thought some more. "Are there any obligations or rights going with my new position? I should know of any obligation, as I know of none."

"Your account manager should know the details. I can only tell you that as a Lord you may request private lodging at school, and you are free to handle your businesses whenever you feel like it, disregarding limitations normally set on students." With that settled, Ragnok led them to Kwickill's office.

"There's only one obligation you should be aware of, and I believe you already are, judging by the presence of Miss Delacour," Kwickill told him. "As for the rest – you need to assign your representatives to the wizengamot and..."

"How many seats do I have in the wizengamot?" Harry didn't think he even had one, but the goblin was talking about more.

"Well, let's see. You have the Potter seat, of course, and then the Peverell – two of them, and the Gryffindor, which counts as two. If you do our inheritance test we may come up with more."

"Well, thank you, but not now. Can you recommend anybody to appoint to my seats?"

"According to our latest treaties, the goblins are not to interfere with wizard politics. I can only recommend a solicitor who would be happy to help you. He's been working with the Potters for many years, taking care mainly of their financial interests, but he's very knowledgeable in the political aspects as well." Kwickill wrote a name on a piece of parchment and gave it to Harry.

"Now, have you seen the latest statement we've sent you?"

Harry frowned. He had never seen any bank statement before. "I've never received any statement from you."

"That's odd... We've been sending you monthly statements since... well, since that Halloween. We didn't expect you to read them while still a small child, but certainly since going to Hogwarts... Maybe your guardian got them?"

"I don't know who my guardian is. Certainly not the Dursleys!"

"Of course not, but if there's nobody else, than it must be the Headmaster. Why would he not forward these to you?"

Harry was becoming determined. "Well, as for now, I trust nobody at school. I'm now emancipated and everything should be sent directly to me."

"Of course, Lord Potter. I'll also start an inquiry to find why you were kept in the dark, not informed of your assets and your position. I'll also check that no unwarranted transactions were made in your account. If I find something amiss I may have to justify my name..." Harry shuddered at the implications.