Chapter 5
Thraxnik spent the rest of the afternoon giving Harrie a crash course overview of the wizarding world. He told her of the war that had ended when her parents were murdered (not killed in a car crash). He told her of the major players in that war: Voldemort on one side and Dumbledore on the other. Harrie still only had a basic understanding, but at this point she didn't think either of them were in the right. Thraxnik told her that Harrie was famous, that every one in the wizarding world knew her name, for something that had happened when her parents died and she was a baby. Harrie hadn't liked the sound of that. Thraxnik mentioned books, newspapers, and even celebrations in her name.
Harrie wanted to be just Harrie. At the Dursleys, she had been called "girl" more than her own name. At Lowood, she had had to fend for herself. She had tried to make friends but most of them listened to the stories, real or made up, that Johnny and Sarah had told. They also disliked her because Mrs. Smith always let her pick first or sent her out on errands. Harrie had also known she was different and knew that if she changed her appearance or made odd things happen around her, it would make her situation worse. It was easier to avoid the others. Thraxnik also told her most witches and wizards attended Hogwarts after their eleventh birthday. She wanted a fresh start at Hogwarts, even if Dumbledore was the Headmaster. Luckily, she had almost a year before that would happen, and Harrie planned to be fully prepared.
The sun was close to setting and Harrie needed to return to Lowood. Thraxnik had a plan for this as well. He slid a piece of paper (this time it was a muggle piece of paper and not parchment), that had a permission grant for Harrie to attend a private school in London. Harrie would give this to Mrs. Smith and be able to come back to Gringotts, without raising any suspicion for the rest of the school year at least. It would actually look like she had been specially selected. For now, Harrie would come back to Gringotts tomorrow to meet with Thraxnik again.
As she made her way back to Lowood, Harrie's head was spinning with all of the information she had learned. Even the simple basic information was altering everything she thought she knew. Harrie was a witch. Harrie's parents were a wizard and a witch. She belonged in a completely different world. Every new piece of information brought with it more questions, and Harrie did not like not knowing things. She wanted to know why she was discarded at her very muggle aunt's and uncle's home as a baby. Harrie thought it was very clear they had never loved her, and she thought it unlikely that her parents would have wanted that for her. But she didn't really know if that was true, as much as she wished she did.
After dinner at Lowood, Harrie went to her room to think over all that Thraxnik had told her.
~~~~~
Harrie showed up at Gringotts very early the next morning, again wearing blonde hair and blue eyes. Mrs. Smith had read over the paper about Harrie's new "private school", congratulated Harrie and then moved on with her normal routine. Harrie was ecstatic that she would be able to keep going to Gringotts and learn more about her new world. Harrie waited in the short queue to speak with a teller. The teller wasn't Thraxnik this time, but he had told her what to do when she arrived.
"May your coffers overflow," Harrie greeted the teller. "I have a meeting with Thraxnik." The teller nodded and called out to another goblin waiting behind the counter.
"Follow me."
"Good morning, Thraxnik," Harrie said, as she entered the office she had met with Thraxnik in yesterday.
Thraxnik gave a sort of grunt that Harrie chose to interpret as a greeting. She climbed up into the seat across from his desk and started with what she thought was her most complicated question.
"What if I wanted to change my name?" Harrie asked. She had spent a lot of time thinking it over last night, and Harrie didn't want to be famous. She wanted to attend school, make new friends who liked her for who she was, and try to learn more about her parents.
"Well, it depends on what you are really asking. If you are asking if you can legally change your name from Harriet Potter to something else, then yes, we can file the paperwork with your Ministry and have all records updated with your new name."
Harrie frowned. "So even with my new name, every one would still know I was Harriet Potter." Which wasn't what Harrie wanted at all. She wanted her fresh start in a new world to actually be a fresh start. Thraxnik smirked as if he had almost expected her comment.
"Of course, there is another option." Thraxnik paused, as if to see if Harrie would interrupt. She didn't. Harrie had learned sometimes it was wise to be silent and wait. She hadn't done much of that yesterday, having been so excited with all the new information, asking Thraxnik question after question.
"We can also establish something of an alternate identity, something that would not be linked back to Harriet Potter," he said. "For a fee, we can make sure all of the necessary documentation is backdated and filed at your Ministry. Here at Gringotts, you would have access to both identities, but only your account manager, in this case, only I would know that you were both Harriet Potter and your alternate identity."
Harrie smiled sharply. Now that was more like it.
"Yes, I would like to go forward with setting up an alternate identity," she said confidently. As if Thraxnik had known she would say so, he pulled some parchment out of his desk and began to go over them one by one.
"First, we will need to decide your new name and new date of birth. A new date of birth is not required, but is generally something we recommend as it further separates the two identities." Harrie took the first form that he handed her, already thinking of her new name and date of birth.
"Second, as you are underage, we will need to establish a guardian in the magical world. If one is not chosen for you before you enter Hogwarts, those duties are generally taken on by your Head of House. This is normally what muggleborn wizards and witches do as their muggle parents are their primary guardians but would have little power in our world. This is what would have happened to Harriet Potter, as you were raised in the muggle world with no magical guardian selected. Now, because you are the heir and lady to multiple houses, you can instead establish your new identity as a descendant of that family. I would recommend that you select one of those families for your new identity and then we can establish who would be best to serve as your magical guardian."
He slid a thicker roll of parchment over his desk. Unrolling it, Harrie could see that it was more information on each of the families from her tests from yesterday. It didn't look to be very detailed, as Thraxnik had said yesterday, everything pertaining to specific family business (like family magic and inheritance requirements) would be in the vaults. But this information should be enough to choose one of them.
"There will be additional decisions you will need to make, but we will need these made first. As you are meant to be here for the duration of a school day, you may read those over here." Thraxnik waived at the second desk in the corner of the room. She nodded and made her way over to the desk and rolled out the parchment about the families. It seemed easiest to start with the family and go from there.
Harrie found herself drawn to the information on the Potter family, as it was all brand new information to her. Her parents James Fleamont Potter and Lillian Evelyn Potter nee Evans were directly above her name on the family tree. She ran her finger over their names and birthdays, memorizing the new information. She dug into the four families that were on her inheritance. Harrie quickly ruled out Slytherin as an option. As one of the houses at Hogwarts, any member of the Slytherin family would be just as famous as Harriet Potter was. She discovered the Potter family were the only remaining descendants of the Peverell family, and seemed to be too closely linked to her current identity. She was curious why they remained as separate inheritances if the Potters were essentially the Peverells, but Harrie would have to discover that answer later.
That left her with the Le Fay family. This one appealed to Harrie for multiple reasons. One, it was not connected to Potter at all according to the information here and there were lots of families still alive connected to the Le Fay line: Albertson, Faye, McGregor, Morgaine, and several others. Harrie was drawn to the Faye family in particular. Evelyn seemed to be a family name, and she would love to keep a connection to her mother. Harrie hadn't known until yesterday that her middle name was after her mother, and she liked it. Evelyn Faye. She said it a couple times over in her head and liked the sound of it. Harrie picked May 31 for her new birthday. Her father's birthday had been in May, and this felt like a way she could honor him as well, but wasn't his true birthday.
She walked back over to her seat in front of Thraxnik and waited silently until he acknowledged her. She didn't want to interrupt whatever he was doing. It had been very kind of him to let her use his office and she appreciated all of the help he had given her so far.
"Have you made your decision?"
"Yes," she handed the parchments to him.
"May your coffers overflow, Evelyn Faye," Thraxnik smirked.
Harriet Potter, now Evelyn Faye, smiled.