Chapter 8
For Harry and Tom, the rest of the evening consisted going over the appointment and nutrition plan. Tom wanted Harry to be as involved as possible and suggested a challenge to find Harry's new favorite foods. They designed a voting card for each meal, breakfast, lunch, dinner, as well as the snacks. For each meal, Harry would get to rate the food and whether or not it should be included in a rotating meal plan. All meals, of course, would be within the guidelines of the nutritional plan.
Harry wanted to put the ice cream they had at Fortescue's at number 1 for his favorite snacks but Tom carefully broke the news that ice cream was rather an occasional treat than a regular snack and Harry could concede to that. In turn, Tom conceded to have another category, which would be for sweets and desserts.
Other than diving into the meal plan, they talked a bit about their plans for the next day. First thing in the morning, they would have to head to St. Mungo's for Harry's IV treatment. Healer Burke had let them know that the bloodwork did not show anything unusual, so it would just be the IV treatment tomorrow. Afterwards, they would head to Gringotts and meet Lucretia as well as Kingsley and junior auror McCormack. Lucretia had informed Tom that they would run a full inheritance test on Harry and he could only imagine what that would bring to light. Most importantly though, he had promised Harry to check up on Salomon tomorrow. Tom offered Harry to read some in his care guide for snakes and talked Harry through some of the finer points made in the care guide. He still felt a bit uncomfortable at the thought of housing a king cobra but maybe seeing Harry interacting with the snake more would help.
After Harry fell asleep around 8 p.m., Tom went downstairs and helped out at the bar. He talked to Helga and asked her if she was available to work more hours in the upcoming weeks and if she could help out tomorrow as well. Helga agreed to be in tomorrow as well and to work as much as he needed to in the upcoming weeks. With both Yule and Christmas so close, she wanted to save some extra money for presents and Tom was quite happy that it worked out for both of them.
He didn't know how long Harry would stay with him. So far, he really liked having the little boy live with him and they got along great. Should it be more long term, he would definitely either need to hire another barmaid or get a second house elf to help out either with the pub or with Harry.
While Tom and Harry went about their evening, Lucretia returned to the ministry after their ice cream date. She walked straight to Kingsley's office and the auror was still in, even though it was past 5 p.m.
"You having a lot to do still, Kingsley?" Lucretia asked as she knocked on his doorframe to let him know she was here.
"Oh yes. Your secretary was nice enough to sent over the files from the archives on Severus. We have been reviewing them and so far, everything in the files seems incomplete."
"What do you mean incomplete?" Lucretia was confused, the archives would never file incomplete documentation on purpose.
"Well, a lot of the trial documentation is redacted but not completely sealed like with the Potter and Pettigrew files. Also, the background check that was conducted by the ministry for his post at Hogwarts came back without any entries and was just waved through. It did not list his trial at all. It should have said that he was exonerated but it's not even there. I have gone ahead and sent out an invitation for a formal interview. I don't think there's another way to assess suitability. I have asked him to come in on Saturday. Can you arrange to be present that day or would you like me to handle the interview?"
"That's interesting. Can we see who requested the redactions or who sealed the files for the Potters and Pettigrew? And I will probably need to do overtime anyway. Saturday should be fine. Just let me know if he agrees and what time I should be here."
"Ok, will do. Luke is looking into that but without the sealed files, there's nothing to go on yet. Now tell me though, how bad was it at St. Mungo's?"
"Well, some good news and some very, very bad news. The good news first, I guess. Healer Burke could not detect any physical abuse during his check up. No broken bones or bruises. And I guess it is good news that most of Harry's ailments should be treatable."
"Should?" The senior auror asked aprehensively.
"Yes. Healer Burke has detected some damage to Harry's core and what could be the beginnings of an obscurus forming-," at that, Kingsley interrupted her, shocked at the prognosis revealed.
"What?! An obscurus hasn't been seen in Britain in almost 100 years! And obscurus means death!"
"Kingsley, calm yourself. Yes, the prognosis isn't good. Healer Burke has gone ahead and contacted Newt Scamander. He is the only known wizard of our time who has ever studied and interacted with obscuri and lived to write research papers about it. We are hoping that he will examine Harry and be able to help him. The obscurus hasn't formed yet but Harry's core is atrophied and some necrosis has set in, is what Healer Burke said. We will closely monitor it. The healer is optimistic, since Harry is now away from the abusive influence. They will work on a treatment plan and we will examine his core very closely and regularly."
Kingsley calmed down a bit, though still concerned. He couldn't belief that the muggles were able to cause so much damage in just three short years on Harry. Lucretia went ahead and told him about the other diagnostic findings from the hospital and informed Kingsley of the treatment plans. She promised to copy the medical write up as soon as healer Burke completed it.
Both senior ministry officials went on to talk about the next day before Lucretia went back to her department and filed her notes from that day. She also had quite a bit of paperwork from her employees to catch up on. As the head of the department, she had to review her employee's work regularly as well as sign off on measures her employees proposed to protect children or help families.
The next morning, she met Harry and Tom at St. Mungo's bright and early for Harry's second treatment. They went up to the children's ward and signed in. They were assignes the same cot as yesterday and didn't have to wait long until healer Burke appeared at their cubicle.
"Good morning! How is everyone? Harry, how are you feeling after yesterday?" Healer Burke was quite the cheery morning person and only Harry was really awake enough to answer.
"I'm good. Tom said we'll do the same thing as yesterday," the young boy said and already held out his arm. The healer laughed.
"That's right. You are a wonderful patient, Harry. If only every child I treated was as well behaved as you. We can do the IV in the same arm today, we just have to wait on a nurse to get the medicine for you and then we'll get started. I have someone who wants to meet you today as well, Harry. He wants to do another check up on you, like I did yesterday with the wand. It won't hurt and he will do it at the same time as your IV is running. He should be here in just a couple of minutes," healer Burke explained. He looked over at Lucretia and Tom and explained that he had managed to contact Mr. Scamander yesterday and he had agreed right away to take a look at Harry's scan.
"Oh Merlin, that is such good news. Thank you so much!" Lucretia was quite happy for Harry.
"You know, Harry, Newt Scamander wrote your favorite Book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. You had some questions, maybe he can answer them later, when he's all done with your exam," Tom whispered at Harry and the boy's eyes turned huge. He loved that book and he had asked Tom many questions already that the barkeeper couldn't really answer. But now he got to meet the person who wrote the book. His thoughts were racing, trying to think of the questions he wanted to ask first.
A nurses arrived at their cubicle and set up Harry's IV, the boy cooperating fully. Shortly after, the curtains opened again and an old man stepped up at the cot. To Harry, he looked like a grandpa with short, white hair and quite a few wrinkles. The man was quite slim and a bit gangly, wearing a shirt and sweater vest. His face was quite nice, Harry thought and when he held out his hand to Harry, his hand was warm and soft.
"Hello, you must be Harry. I'm Newt Scamander and I was asked to take a look at your magical core today. How are you, Harry?"
This, this was Harry's idol of the past few days and Harry turned quite shy and averted his eyes. Too shy to reply, Tom offered up a response in Harry's stead.
"Oh, Harry is quite well. He only discovered magic 3 days ago, but your book was the first book he opened and he has been fascinated since. It's a great honor to meet you, Mr. Scamander." Tom's explanation seemed to fluster the old man.
"Oh thank you, Harry. That is a great honor to know you cherish my book. Is there a beast in particular that you like? Or one that you don't like?" Newt tried to get Harry to talk and it seemed like questions about the book could warm Harry up a bit.
"I like the dragons and the snakes. I don't like spiders. The picture spiders are mean and always scare me," he complained to Mr. Scamander, who was perplexed by that explanation. Again, Tom jumped in to further explain.
"The book we have was republished last year. The illustrations move and the acromantulas move quite fast across the pages and jump at the reader. It gave us quite a scare the first time we saw it."
"Oh, I see. Well, let me tell you, they do it in real life, too and that is quite scary as well." Newt winked at Harry and the boy's eyes turned huge. Before he could ask any more questions though, Newt pulled up a chair to sit next to the cot and started explaining his examination.
"Harry, as healer Burke might have told you, we found something in your magical core yesterday that he asked me to check out. I will have to take some special scans of your magical core and examine them. I was told by healer Burke that you are a very brave boy. My examination won't hurt you, ok? Is it ok if I get started?" To this, Harry nodded and Newt pulled out his wand and started the scan of Harry's core. His scan worked differently than the scan yesterday and he had a small visualization sphere hover over Harry's body. Everyone in the room looked at the sphere expectantly.
"Since everyone can see what I am doing, I'm just gonna go ahead and explain what we are looking at. The glowing round shape, Harry, is your magical center. The blue color indicates how much power you have. Since you are a child at only 4 years of age, the color is quite light and more skyblue. It will develop with age. I was called in because healer Burke's scan indicated that your core might be sick. I was told that you had a very tough time with your aunt, which might have caused your magical center to become sick," Newt moved his wand around and seemed to focus on different parts of Harry's magical core, "here you can see that the edges of your core are completely white with no color at all. And all around your core, there is a black circle. Right now, you can barely see the circle. Let me take a quick picture of this." Newt proceeded to use a spell that replicated the picture in the sphere onto a piece of parchment.
"So, what does that mean, Mr. Scamander?" Tom asked anxiously, he had instinctively taken Harry's hand during the examination.
"Well, this is just the initial exam. I will have to run Harry through some more tests and of course, we will have to continue to monitor his core closely. As far as I know, you will be here every day for the next week. I would like to use the appointments to run some of the tests, also we will need to set up some more in depth appointments. I would like to visit Harry at home and obseve him there as well. We caught the core atrophy very, very early. I would describe the obscurus as a pre-stage. But I would like to keep it that way and maybe even recover Harry's entire core. I wish I could give you a concrete treatment plan right of the bat but this is a first for all of us, I think." At this, all adults nodded their heads. Yes, Harry really was one of a kind. But both Lucretia and Tom were somewhat calmed to know that there was no obscurus yet and that they had time to hopefully treat Harry to prevent one from forming.
"Well then. I will be by tomorrow at the same time and will have a schedule written up, ok? Harry, it was so nice to meet you and I am looking forwaard to getting to know you. Maybe we'll have time tomorrow to talk more about your favorite beast, ok?" Harry nodded excitedly and waved Mr. Scamander goodbye. He quite liked him, he decided.
Harry had felt how tense both Tom and Lucretia were during his exam but he was just excited that he would get to spend more time with Mr. Scamander now. Harry promised himself to be prepared for tomorrow and have some questions ready for Mr. Scamander.
Just as Newt left, healer Burke and the nurse returned and disconnected Harry from the IV. Mr. Burke handed Lucretia a think envelope before he let them go on their way. Harry hopped off the cot and took Tom's hand.
"Ice cream now?" He tugged at Tom's hand and the man started laughing.
"I don't think so, Mister. You remember our talk about occasional treat? We have some places to go still today. We need to get to the bank and then you promised Salomon to visit him. And we need to pick up your glasses. Mabe we should do that first, we still have some time untill we have to be at the bank."
As they talked, they walked downstairs to the lobby and towards the floo. Lucretia walked behind them and just observed the two. To her, they really looked like father and son and she couldn't be happier that Tom had agreed on the emergency placement to become Harry's foster parent.
They all flooed back to the Leaky Cauldron and went through the back into Diagon Alley. On their way to the bank, they stopped by the optician. The had ordered Harry's glasses yesterday and were assured the glasses would be ready today. The fitting of the glasses was quite quick and Harry was amazed to see clearly for the first time in years. His vision had been quite blurred and he was never able to see things clearly that were farther away than his arm's length. He adjusted quickly to the glasses and spend the entire walk up to the bank just pointing out things he found interesting.
Once they got to the bank, Tom reminded Harry that the goblins that owned the bank were very grave creatures, similar in size and appearance to house elves and that he shouldn't be surprised. He offered Harry the reassurance that both Lucretia and Kingsley would mainly be the ones talking and if he needed to, Harry would be able to go back to the Leaky and wouldn't have to be bored during the meeting. Harry nodded and followed the adults inside.
In the entrance hall, Kingsley and Luke McCormack were already waiting for them. Both smiled warmly at the child and Tom and offered a warm welcome.
"We have already announced our presence. The Potter account manager will come and get us shortly," Kingsley explained. Just as they settled in, a small creature appeared next to them. Harry mustered the being and decided that Tom was right. There was a certain similarity to Dippy.
"Party for Potter, follow me." Without waiting for the response, the creature turned around and let them to a large office down the hall from the lobby. The goblin sat down behind the large desk and gestured for everyone to sit down on the provided chairs in front of his desk.
"Auror Shacklebolt, the Wizengamot order, if you please." The creature held out his hand towards the auror, who quickly complied and handed over a rolled up scroll of parchment. The goblin opened the scroll and read through the contents.
"Very well. My name is Griphook, I have been the Potter account manager for the past 75 years. Auror Shacklebolt, in your own words, state your business," Griphook directed a grave look at the senior auror.
"Yes, of course. Mr. Harry Potter, who is present today, was reintroduced to the wizarding world 3 days ago. He showed the first signs of accidental magic and his guardians at the time felt themselves unable to take care of him any longer. Since then, Mr. Potter has been placed in emergency foster care with Mr. Hammond, who is also present. We need to re-open both Lily Potter's as well as James Potter's will to understand their last wishes on suitable guardians for Harry. We also need to do a full inheritance test for Mr. Potter."
"I see. I have the wills right here. But I suggest doing the inheritance test first. Afterwards, opening the wills might be best with just the adults present." The adults agreed and Tom called for Dippy. He would take Harry back to the Leaky afterwards and put him down for a nap, giving the adults ample time to talk about the results.
As explained previously with his family tree, Harry was again asked to donate a few drops of blood. Instead of with the wand though, his finger was pricked with a goblin-made dagger. As soon as the necessary blood was on the parchment, Lucretia healed Harry's finger. Afterwards, Dippy took Harry back to the Leaky. Tom had been invited to stay back with the ministry officials. Both Lucretia and Kingsley felt it necessary for him to be able to explain to Harry what they found out.
All adults expectantly looked at the giblin, who picked up the parchment. The goblin first read over the parchment himself, before reading the results out loud:
"Name: Harry James Potter
Date of Birth: 31st July 1980
Father: James Fleamont Potter (deceased)
Mother: Lily Potter, nee Evans (deceased)
Heirships: Noble and Ancient House of Potter, Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, Noble and Most Ancient House of Peverell
Contender of Heirship: Noble and Most Ancient House of Gaunt (by blood and ability), Noble and Most Ancient House of Slytherin (by blood and ability)"
"What does Contender of Heirship mean?" Lucretia asked. They had all expected Potter, although Peverell and Black were a bit unexpected, a look at Harry's family tree had told them it was going to be a possibility.
"It appears that somewhere in Harry's lineage, the houses of Slytherin and Gaunt were present. Whoever Harry's ancestor was, was not an official member of either house. Harry is one of at least two possible heirs and he possesses both the blood relation and necessary abilities to claim a heirship. For both houses, parseltongue is a necessary ability. Right now, the heirship is held by someone else. Harry could claim the heirship should the current heir pass or he can successfully prove that the current heir is unsuitable." Griphook explained.
"Do we know who the current heir is?" Kingsley asked, curious who that person could be.
"Yes, we do. Gringotts is not at liberty to say. Harry himself could request this informaion, otherwise only a change in heirship would allow us to inform Harry. We suggest waiting until Harry is of age to even think about claiming the heirship of both houses." The Wizengamot order did not compell Griphook and Gringotts to disclose information about other houses, so the goblin kept the information to himself.
"Mr. Potter will be able to claim the heirships to the other three houses after he turns 11 years old and has received his Hogwarts letter of acceptance or an acceptance letter to another acceptable wizarding school. Until then, his magical guardian will honor his inheritance under goblin guidance. So far, his magical guardian has been Albus Dumbledore. Mr. Dumbledore comes in once per quarter and approves financial investments. For his service, Mr. Dumbledore is paid a sum of 500 Galleons per month from the Potter family vault. Mr. Dumbledore only oversees the Potter investments, since Lord Arcturus Black is still alive and head of house." Griphook further explained and looked at four blank faces.
Lucretia seemed to be the first to be able to voice her thoughts, "Has Mr. Dumbledore been able to present the bank with proof of magical guardianship over Harry Potter? I would like to inform you that as of 3 days ago, the magical guardianship of Harry Potter was placed with the department of child welfare. Mr. Dumbledore will no longer be allowed to make decisions on Harry's behalf and I would like all payments to cease immediately, please."
"Very well, it is noted. You will have to present proof of magical guardianship of course. Mr. Dumbledore presented us with proof of his guardianship on his first visit. He presented a new will for Mrs. Lily Potter. Although she had only updated her will two weeks prior, the will was examined by our cursebreakers and authenticated. Since you have a Wizengamot order, we will be able to hand over both versions."
"Ok, let's have a look at both wills as well as James Potter's will. Our first priority for today was to find out whether or not the Potters had guardians in place to raise Harry in case of their early demise." Kingsley offered, more than eager to find out what in Merlin's name was going on. McCormack was furiously taking notes of everything Griphook had revealed to them.
"Gladly. Starting with Mr. James Potter's will. His will was last updated on 17th October, 1981. It reads as follows."