Gringotts
There it was. The staring. This was the third time under ten minutes. Then again, he should not have been surprised. This was not the first time anyone had stared at Harry before. His last two years at Hogwarts alone was proof enough of that. However, this was new. He was sure nothing had changed about him whatsoever since the last time he was at the bank unless one counted his lack of glasses and healthier look. Harry himself had been surprised when he realized he was seeing fine without his glasses the day he found out he was a merboy. And his reflection had startled him into staring at himself for a good minute or so when he no longer looked unhealthily skinny and short. He had looked, to his utmost joy, like any normal child. Just average in height and on the skinnier side, though the starved look to him (that nobody usually noticed) was gone. However, the changes would have been quite subtle to anyone else. He was confident that other than say Hermione or maybe Ron, nobody would realize how much he had changed except for his lack of glasses. Even then, he doubted his two friends would realize the magnitude of his change. He doubted either of them understood how bad living with the Dursleys was to comprehend the change in his overall physique and health. They probably would not realise Harry had been literally saved from having irreversible health issues due to magic's interference.
Harry cleared his throat when he heard the guard close the door after exiting. This was too much, honestly. Granted their staring made Harry feel a little less conscious of himself since they seemed to be fascinated with him in general rather than his scar like the Wizarding populace but it was still uncomfortable. It was especially unsettling since they had never looked twice at Harry before.
"Hello, Griphook. You must be the manager of my accounts I take it."
That startled the goblin from his staring. Until he registered what Harry said. The goblin's eyes narrowed as he paused once more to scrutinize Harry. Thankfully the moment lasted less than five seconds this time.
"I see you remember me, Mister Potter. Yes, I am your finance manager," Griphook sneered, "Now take a seat quickly and we will get down to business."
Harry sighed internally. He had the gut feeling this would be a long day.
Settling down immediately, Harry cut to the point. He had a good suspicion the goblins did not appreciate wasting time on pleasantries.
"I would like to know about my financial reports please, Manager Griphook."
Harry regretted saying the words almost immediately when he was subjected to another round of staring. Only this time, Griphook looked as if he was trying to decide if Harry was purposefully being dim or not.
Harry tried not to shift under the goblin's piercing gaze. He was confident he had not asked anything stupid. After all, he had the rights to know about his account. Yet the weight of the stare of his account manager was making him doubtful.
For the second time, Harry broke the silence.
"I'm sorry Griphook, but did I ask anything wrong?"
The goblin sneered – Harry was starting to believe that was just how goblins looked and that it was not an expression purposefully put on. There was no other explanation as to how a being could sneer so much in their lifetime. Then again the goblin populace seemed to be surrounded by prejudiced humans half the time from what he had observed during his last few encounters with goblins – before answering.
"Well yes, Mister Potter. Considering Gringotts has been sending your guardian your financial reports since your sixth birthday, I am perplexed as to why you have come here asking for them when you could simply ask your guardian or reopen the letters which should be in your possession."
Harry offered the goblin a blank stare.
"I assure you Griphook my muggle relatives have not received any bank statements. They are not even aware that I own a vault with a good amount of money in it." The money would have been long gone if the Dursleys knew about it, Harry thought.
Griphook tilted his head slightly. "A vault you say…" A glint appeared in the goblin's eyes. "Say, Heir Potter, what do you know about your financial status? And who was it that enlightened you about it?"
"I own a vault with a very huge amount of money stored in it," Harry stated his eyes narrowing slightly at the change in address. He felt as if he was missing some important context in the conversation if the beginning of the snarl forming on Griphook's face was any indication. "I learnt about it on my first ever trip to Diagon Alley with Rubeus Hagrid who took me to my vault to collect some money for my school supplies. It was on the day of my eleventh birthday."
Griphook snarled. "Well, that certainly explains a lot of things."
Harry was curious. "What's going on Griphook?"
Griphook merely offered a smile at Harry, a very sinister smile that seemed to promise a lot of pain to someone.
"Well Mister Potter, it seems a certain somebody has been neglecting duties when it comes to you. We'll have to fix that don't we?"
Harry internally sighed once more. He hated his gut feeling for being right sometimes.
"Let's clear your misconceptions first Mister Potter, before I enlighten you properly about your ancestors," Griphook grunted.
Harry sat up straighter, his attention focused completely upon the goblin. He loved hearing about his parents but no one had told him about his grandparents or the likes before.
"Contrary to what you believe, you do not own a single vault. The vault you have been using is merely the Trust Vault set up by your mother, Lady Potter, to cover all your educational costs until the age of twenty-five."
Harry frowned at this. "I thought education at Hogwarts ended when I was done with my NEWTs in my seventh year?"
"Yes, you may end your education there if you wish. However, if I recall correctly your mother had mentioned that you would be pursuing a Masters Degree or such after Hogwarts if she had any say in the matter when she had set up the vault. While the NEWTs combination you take may make you eligible for certain jobs, having a Master Degree in a particular subject or more can open up many other opportunities for you. In some cases, certain positions also require a Masters Degree as a prerequisite such as the Head Healer role in St Mungos which requires one to be Masters in both Healing and Potions."
Harry's mind swirled. No one had told him that. And the fact that his mother seemed to have expected him to pursue higher education startled him. He knew, logically, that his parents would have had expectations for him had they been alive like getting good grades and such. However, he had not given much thought about such things since he had been more concerned about blending in and such. Now, to be told upfront that his mother had wanted him to pursue higher education made him slightly guilty at his acts of holding back in school. Yes, he had his reasons, valid ones at that, but emotions had the nasty effects of not listening to the mind. He squashed down the guilt for now. He would ponder upon it when he was alone.
"Coming back to your vaults. Had you been properly educated about your heritage, you would have known that you will also have access to the main Potter Vault or Potter Family Vault as your ancestors called it when you claim your Lordship. The wealth you have in your Trust Vault is merely a small proportion that would not even create a dent in the amount of money in the main Potter Vault. The reason for this is that your family was a family that had very successful businessmen and businesswomen and were almost always investing their money in different kinds of trades. Your grandmother Dorea Black and your mother, in particular, were geniuses when it came to investing. Would have almost given us goblins a run for our gold if they tried," Griphook mentioned nonchalantly.
Harry was torn between feeling amazed at his realisation that he was rich and his amusement at the subtle compliment the surly goblin seemed to have given his mother and grandmother.
"Another thing you must be made aware of is the status of your House as an Ancient and Noble House. The Potter family is part of a group of families that all bear the similarity of being an old-line, lasting for more than a few couples of centuries, which is why it has been given the title of Ancient and Noble House not simply Noble House as many wizarding households are called. You were eligible to claim your Lordship since your eleventh birthday as you are the last living heir to an Ancient and Noble House. Claiming of lordship traditionally happens at the age of seventeen as a wizard gains legal emancipation then and they would be granted control of all their vaults by their Head of House. However, for an orphan heir, claiming is granted from the age of eleven as it would have granted partial emancipation. Truth be told, it is entirely the same as gaining full emancipation but just that the heir would still retain his/her magical guardian, though the role of the guardian would be significantly less influential in decision makings.
The reason heirs who are orphaned are given this ability was due to the fact that in the past, guardians of orphan heirs, who were often relatives and such, exploited their position of power to obtain wealth from the heirs' inheritances. Though there are more precautions to prevent that now, the law allowing orphan heirs to claim lordship early has not been removed. However, the heir may personally choose to not claim lordship until the traditional age of seventeen too. Your fellow student, Heir Longbottom is an example of that. He has the option of partial emancipation though he had chosen to remain dependent on his Grandmother's guidance until at a later age. In your case, Gringotts was under the same belief that you had chosen to claim your inheritance at a later age, not that you were left ignorant about it by your guardian."
The surly goblin seemed to sigh at Harry's blank stare, recognising it to be Harry's expression of complete and utter disbelief. Harry himself was not sure what to think. So many possibilities were opening up to him with all this newfound knowledge. Yet, he was puzzled about this guardian of his. He knew know Griphook was not referring to his muggle relatives. They did not have a lick of magic within them to be magical guardians. Griphook seemed to sense his line of thoughts.
"Your guardian Mister Potter is another matter we must discuss about. It seems you are also not aware of the fact that you have a magical guardian which is a requirement for all muggle-born and muggle-raised children to have especially since they do not have a magical relative to represent them. The role of the magical guardian is to look out and guide the magical child in the ways of the Magical World. For Hogwarts students, it often tends to be their Head of Houses that fill out those roles. For an heir like you, guidance would involve teaching you about your status and finances so that when you gained lordship you would be ready to handle them. Therefore you were required to have a guardian since birth. Upon your parents' deaths, the guardian you were assigned to or rather who assigned himself," Griphook sneered, "was Albus Dumbledore."
Harry stilled.
"Well that went downhill very fast" his inner voice murmured.
Harry stared at the cup of tea in front of him. Griphook had told him that his "pitiful mind lacked the mental stamina to continue without a break" and had promptly ordered refreshments to be brought for him to have. Then the goblin had gone on to deal with some paperwork as he ignored Harry's silent contemplations. Harry was touched. Despite the rude and mean attitude, it was obvious the goblin seemed to have at least some modicum of care about his well-being.
His thoughts drifted to his current circumstances.
Saying he was at a loss was an understatement. He had more than enough money to run off and live by himself. From his questions to the sarcastic goblin, he apparently had quite a few properties that nobody except the Potter family knew about. Even magical guardians could not know about certain properties as the knowledge was strictly kept among close family members alone. (So unless Dumbledore was his direct relative in any way, Harry was sure there would be at least one property he could find that the old wizard was unaware about.) According to the goblin, Harry would naturally know the information once he claimed the Lordship ring. The properties were also likely to have family wards and other such protections according to Griphook. The surly goblin had also hinted that Gringotts was capable of adding or strengthening wards with utmost confidentiality as long as they were paid. This covered any security issues Harry had about his plan. But what was currently nagging him was that the trip to Gringotts had revealed how alarmingly ignorant Harry was about many things about the wizarding world.
Which directed his thoughts to his magical guardian. Albus Dumbledore. Harry could not believe it. The man had always had the kind, grandfatherly aura despite his intimidating authority. And Harry would admit he had been respectful of the old Headmaster before his current knowledge. Even when he had been denied living elsewhere other than at the Dursleys, Harry had not felt any resentment or such towards the Headmaster, just a slight disappointment. After all, Dumbledore was not the first-ever adult in Harry's life to be willingly ignorant about his home life. He had a whole neighbourhood of such adults in Privet Drive and that was excluding his muggle school teachers. Even the Weasleys – bless their kind hearts for accepting him but – they too never accepted the truth about his home life when their own sons had rescued Harry and had ranted about the bars on his room. However, now he was more than annoyed with the old wizard.
Magical Guardian.
Guardian!
Honestly. He was the man's ward and the man did not even mention such things to him. His role made the fact that he brushed aside Harry's desire to live elsewhere from the Dursleys all the more frustrating. As far as Harry knew, he had not even bothered to investigate why Harry did not want to leave deeply and that was something Harry was not going to forget. Living with the Dursleys had made Harry quite resentful towards bullies and guardians who mistreated wards. The Headmaster, despite all his heroic deeds, was now in Harry's "Avoid-and-do-not-trust" list. He may have succeeded in being a hero but failed spectacularly at his job as a guardian. Sure there was some protection in living with his blood relatives but Harry was sure the man could have done more to at least try to make the Dursleys civil in their behaviour towards Harry if he had bothered to check on Harry that is.
Harry sighed.
His best decision was to claim his lordship and partial emancipation. It would leave Harry free from the Dursleys' guardianship and leave Dumbledore as merely an advisor for him. He, of course, could change the guardianship to another individual (Griphook had mentioned it) but the only adults Harry trusted even a bit were the Weasleys and though Harry liked them a lot, he was certain he could not live under the overbearing personality of Mrs Weasley. Harry could understand the need for her way of doing things though. He doubted that looking after seven kids was easy for Mrs Weasley, especially when the family had little finances. He could admire her firmness in that aspect. However, for someone like him who was used to his independence, Harry was sure having the Weasley matriarch as his guardian would be a recipe for disaster.
Harry sipped his tea. His immediate worries of shelter and security were mostly assured. While he still did not like Dumbledore having any sort of control in his life outside of his role as a Headmaster, Harry was not going to waste time wishing for alternatives. Now what he needed was to rectify his lack of knowledge regarding the magical world.
His gaze shifted to the goblin expertly ignoring him.
Griphook was currently his best option to gain knowledge. While he was uncomfortable with the idea of seeking help, his instinct was not against trusting the goblin so far and Harry was not one to doubt his instinct when it had saved him so far in life. Besides, he doubted the goblin would have any reason to object helping him out.
"It's worth a shot. You could also ask him advice when it comes to wizarding education come to think of it. He seems to be the most non-biased influence you've had so far," his inner voice advised.
Harry sighed internally for the third time as he realised how his simple trip had become way more complicated. At least things seemed to be heading for the better. And if they remained that way, he could start looking at the root of what triggered all this decision to move and hide – his merboy transformation.