Chapter 7
Harry wanted to leave Hogwarts. This wasn’t a new thought, he had been thinking about it for years. Like any other student, he complained about classes and classmates, threatening to drop out at the smallest inconvenience. But there was something different about the way he said it this time.
Now, he had nothing to stop him from leaving, nothing making him want to stay. He had no friends, no boyfriend, nothing. It would be so easy for him to leave; no one would notice his absence before it was too late. On the other hand, if he packed up and left, it might just worsen life. He had no place to go and the public hated him because of all the rumors being spread through the daily profit.
If he left, he would need to do so in secret, in a way that would take days. If he was lucky it would take weeks for anyone to notice he was missing. He needed a head start and a plan if he had any chance of finally getting out.
He wouldn’t stay in Scotland; he had never been anywhere besides Hogwarts, so it wasn’t a logical choice. Maybe he could go to America and start a new life, get a new name, and a new story. A place where he wasn’t expected to be the savior or the golden boy. But just as much as he wanted to start over somewhere new, he knew it would never work.
Even if he went somewhere new where no one knew who he was, he would still be ruined, broken beyond repair. His problems wouldn’t magically be fixed, and neither would his flaws. It was too late for him to be saved, so why should he bother trying?
He would go back to London. First, he could go to Gringotts so he could withdraw enough money to get him by, and then he could start looking for a place to stay. Only after he found somewhere safe would he worry about what to do next.
The real question was when he should leave. It was late November, meaning he only had about a week till it was time for Christmas break. It would make more sense for him to leave with the rest of the school and then just not return. Then he wouldn’t need to find his way back to London, and it would draw less suspicion.
Sure, he had never gone “home” during the break, but it’s not like anyone would notice this change. He just needed to make it through the next week, and he would finally be free, never needing to return to this blasted castle that had only brought him pain.
He wanted someone, anyone, to notice he was gone before he even left. It was a crazy thought, he had spent so much time trying not to be noticed or stick out. He hid away from prying eyes, running from anyone who had the chance to know him.
Maybe it was because he knew no one would, no one ever noticed, and it hurt. No one had ever taken the time to know him. Maybe that’s why none of his relationships had worked out, it was always one-sided. He selfishly wanted to be on the other side of it, the one who took up the space. He wanted someone to cry to or, at the very least, listen before leaving.
He should have listened to the Dursleys when they said not to go to Hogwarts.
___
The week went by slower than he had hoped, but he expected no less. Having nothing better to do, he decided to do everything he had one loved one last time. If he was never coming back he wanted to make sure he had no regrets, it would be shit in the moment but maybe he would be able to look back at it fondly.
He went to all of his classes consistently for the first time in months. They were no different than they had been the rest of the year; he sat alone while being glared at and cursed when the professor turned their back. His potion got sabotaged before he could finish it, and his coursework was “misplaced” before it was graded from more classes than one. He continued to avoid the Slytherins, who still hadn’t given up their weird obsession with him.
The only positive was that Snape never called him to his office or gave him detention for their altercation. He never mentioned Harry’s disappearing act, nor did any of the other staff, so he assumed Snape kept it to himself. As shocking as it was, at least Snape was good for something.
He went to the great hall for the last time. He hadn’t even made it through the desert before he was walking out. It was unbelievingly awkward to sit alone at the end of a table while the rest of the occupants sat as far away as possible.
It was weirdly hard to pack up his belongings for the last time. It’s not like he had many. He brought nothing with him from the Dursleys when he left, so all he had was his school stuff. It was over in a matter of minutes; maybe that was the hardest part. Knowing that nothing had changed from when he was eleven and now. He still had nothing that was mastered and left no impact on the places he went.
He made sure to be one of the first people on the train so that he was guaranteed a compartment to himself. He had no one to sit with and it was better if no one saw which he took up. He just wanted to leave with the least amount of altercations possible.
The ride had been going fine until about halfway through. That’s when all hell broke loose- well for him, at least. He could have sworn he locked the compartment door, he knew he had. His spell must have worn off, he was still getting the hang of wandless magic and how much power to put into each spell.
He was staring blindly out the window when his door burst open. He didn’t need to look to know who it was, really; there was only one person who consistently burst into his life at the most inconvenient times: Draco Malfoy.
He had tried far too many ways to get rid of Malfoy, none of them working, so he decided he would try something new. Annoy him into leaving.
He turned around with a big grin on his face, “Hey Malfoy, what’s going on!”
That got him to stop in his tracks, “Hey Potter, what’s got you so…….exited”.
Harry tried to sound as cheery as he possible could as he said, “I’ve got soooo much to tell you come in! Good thing you found me, I was about to walk around to look for you.”
There, that would scare Malfoy off, it would certainly scare him away. Hell, he would have run the second Malfoy smiled at him, let alone acted genuinely happy to see him.
Yet, all Malfoy did was walk forward, closing the compartment door as he flopped gracelessly into the opposite seat.
He could have walked away or laughed in Malfoy’s face, saying how he was clearly joking, but it’s not like he had someone to talk to every day. So he could just talk at Malfoy until he left, which he was bound to do sooner or later. No one ever listened to him, he was used to it by now so why would Malfoy be any different?
So he talked and talked and talked. More than he had in maybe his whole life, he didn’t have any point he wanted to make or topics he wanted to cover so he just said everything and everything that came to mind. He only stopped when his throat started to burn, dry from the overuse after not speaking for far too long.
Malfoy hadn’t left, Harry expected to look over and find him asleep, bored by his mindless antics, yet no. He was watching Harry with a small smile, like he was content to just listen to him talk. It was weird.
He didn’t know what to do, so he just let the silence stretch on. It wasn’t awkward, but it should have been. With anyone else, it would have certainly which somehow made it worse. So what did he do? Like everything else in his life, he ran.
How could he possibly find himself becoming even a little bit comfortable with Malfoy? Besides, this was the last time he would be seeing him, so there was no use. No use in what he didn’t know; all he knew was there wasn’t any hope.
When the train finally arrived at Kings Cross, Harry
waited until the train was nearly cleared out along with the platform. The last thing he needed was to walk into a large crowd of people, all of whom hated him. He quickly rushed out of the train and immediately started on his way to Gringotts. Luckily for him, it was only about an hour's walk to Diagon Ally.
He had his invisibility cloak, which allowed him to travel without being noticed, so he made it to the bank without issue. He didn’t know how the process of withdrawing money from any bank worked, so he went to Griphook, who he knew to be his family’s account manager.
To go to his vault, he needed his vault key for identification. The last he had heard about it Molly Weasley received it from Hagrid. Somehow, it never made its way back to him even though the owner of the key or their gardien were legally required to be in its possession which neither of them were.
Instead, Griphook took him to his office and gave him a dagger to prick his finger with to prove it was him and not someone under polyjuice. Griphook then sat him down, this is when Harry knew he was in for a long conversation that wouldn't exactly be a pleasant experience.
The blood test proved not only identification but also any familial heir or lordships the person possessed. This wouldn’t be a problem for Harry, he would have thought, but no, it revealed not only that he was the Potter heir, which he had already known. But he was also able to claim lordship if he chose to since there were no other Potters left beside him.
He also suggested running a further identification test that every witch or wizard typically took once they received their Hogwarts acceptance letter. Hadgrid had never taken Harry to get the test even though they went to Gringotts during their trip. Weird.
Harry agreed to the test since what did he have to lose? It's not like it would show anything he didn’t currently know. But boy, was he wrong. The report reads as follows:
Name: Harry James Potter
Age: 16 (emancipated, Tri-wizard Tournament)
Paternal: James Fleamont Potter (deceased)
Maternal: Lily Jade Evans (deceased)
Godfather: Sirius Orion Black (incapacitated)
Godmother: Alice Longbottom (incapacitated)
Magical Gauridian: Albus Dumbledore (inactive since emancipation)
Heirships:
The Most Noble House of Potter- From parentage
The Most Noble House of Black- Named heir by the last lord
The Most Noble House of Slytherin- By conquest
Lordships:
Lord Most Noble House of Potter- Last of the line
Lord Most Noble House of Black- The rest of the line is unable to claim lordship
Lord Most Noble House of Slytherin- Next in line
Contracts:
Marriage contract to one Ginevra Weasley (illegal, not filed)
Harry didn’t know what to say. Dumbledore had to have been aware of his lordships, yet he had never told him. If he was right in his assumption, he had gone as for to have tried to prevent Harry from finding out any of it.
Griphook looked at him shapely and said, “Mr. Potter, as you now are aware you are heir Potter, and since you have no remaining family members, you can claim lordship if you wish to do so. You are also the current Black heir and are also eligible for lordship due to the fact the previous heirs who have status over you have been unable to do so for a set number of years. If you are not aware the Blacks are an incredibly influential family and hold a lot of power throughout the wizarding world. Lastly, you are one of two Slytherin heirs and are eligible for the Slytherin lordship. You won this by conquest which I'm sure you can figure out whom the conquest was of, but I am not at liberty to discuss it. Out of all of your heirships, this is by far the most influential and has a great deal of influence throughout our world. If you wish, I can retrieve the lordship rings, and you will become a lord three times over, if the magic accepts you, that is.”
Harry hadn't even known he had one lordship before today, let alone three. There had never before been a witch or wizard with over two lordships, which makes Harry one of the most influential wizards in the world, not just in Britain. What was he supposed to do with that information?
He quickly agreed to these lordships, that is if the magic accepted him. Griphook returned with the rings, and it quickly set in that there was a good chance that the rings wouldn’t accept him. He hoped at least the Potter ring would accept him, but maybe he was too broken for even the magic to choose him.
“Now, Mr. Potter, I am going to give you the rings one by one. You are to put the Potter ring on your right ring finger, then the Slytherin ring on your ring finger on your left hand. Then, finally the Black ring on your left middle finger. Keep in mind that rings from lighter families tend to agree more with other rings from lighter families, and the same goes for darker magics. This is why the Slytherin and Black rings go on your left hand, and the Potter ring goes on your right in hopes the magic doesn't just accept you, but also each other.”
Okay, that didn’t sound too complicated; maybe he could do this after all. He slowly grabbed the gold ring with a large ruby with the Potter crest carved into it and slid it onto his right hand.
He gasped as he felt a rush of warmth envelope him. It felt like hope, but most of all, it gave him a sense of home. He immediately knew it accepted him, and relief rushed through him. It made him feel something he hadn't felt in a while, even if it was only for a brief second: genuine happiness. It was gone as quickly as it came, but it was there for a second, and that had to mean something, right?
After that, he felt slightly less nervous about the rings not accepting him, even if the other two didn’t his family ring had. The next ring he put on was the Slythein ring, which he slid onto his left ring finger.
He felt a cold chill wash over him as he heard the echo of “power” and “strength” around him. He only realized after the fact that it was in Parseltongue. He felt a shiver roll over him, and like the other ring, he knew it accepted him. This ring had a silver band with an emerald in the middle and the Slytherin crest carved into it.
The last ring was the Black family, the one Harry thought had the least chance of accepting him. Sirius might have named him heir, but he wasn’t a Black. Not wanting to delay the inevitable, he took a deep breath and placed the ring on his finger.
He heard generations of Black lord's voices in his
head, the rush of power as well as anger he had never felt to this severity bubble up inside of him. Just like that, it was over, and the Black magic accepted him. This ring had a silver band and black onyx with the Black family crest in the middle.
It was over as quickly as it started, a process that felt like it took hours when in reality, it took two minutes.
He was now Lord Potter Black Slytherin. Of course, no one could know, but it was still nice. Besides, it’s not like he would go by that title anyways; he wasn’t some pretentious stuck-up git.
Griphook put the ring cases out of sight and said, “Okay, Lord Potter Black Slytherin, or do you wish I refer to you as something else?
“Could you just call me Harry or Mr. Potter Griphook?”
“Of course, Mr. Potter, whatever you wish. Due to your newly acquired lordships, you have a large number of vaults as well as a variety of homes you now own. Only one of these homes is currently occupied, and this is by Albus Dumbledore, who resides in the Black townhome in London. It is currently used as a meeting place for what is referred to as the Order of the Phoenix.”
Dumbledore had already taken so much from him that he didn’t care about the house, but it was the principle of the matter. “Griphook, now that I own Grimauld Place, what would happen if I wanted to move in? Is it possible to kick out Dumbledore and the rest of the order?”
Griphook suddenly smiled at him and said, “Well, if that’s what you wish, they would be apparated out and unable to see the house or re-enter it unless you gave them direct permission. Or if they have never had any ill intentions towards you.”
This was the best revenge Harry could currently get on Dumbledore and he'll be damned if he was not going to do exactly that. It's not like anyone in the order or Hogwarts would be able to get in anyway, it was seeming more and more like they wished him dead by the day. He wasn't going to let any of them in by choice, either.
This was the perfect place for him to live since it was untraceable and unplotable, and no one could see it from the outside either. No one would be able to contact him or find him, it was the best place possible.
“Okay Griphook, what do I need to do for them to be kicked out?”
“All you have to do, Mr. Potter, is cut your finger and place it on this document, and they will immediately be forced out.”
Harry cut his finger with the knife Griphook gave him and placed it on the document as instructed. He felt the air around him buzz, and the deal was set; he finally had a place to go that was all his own. A place he could call home.
Griphook led him out of the office while saying, “I don't think we have anything left to discuss today, but we can set up a meeting if you have questions.
Or if you want to look into previous investments or want to go through your vaults.”
“Of course, Griphook, thank you for everything.”
“It was my pleasure, Mr. Potter.”
With that, he walked out of Gringotts and started the long trek to Grimmauld Place.