27/08/1990
Monday, 27th August
Dear Diary, today we went to the bank for my annual ritual. I’ve never written about this ritual before because, truthfully, it’s quite boring. Even when we’ve done it in other countries, there’s nothing much to describe since all the Gringotts branches are exactly the same (booooring).
But this time it’s important! It’s my last ritual! And not only that, but today I received my heir’s ring, and something surprising happened!
Let me explain, dear diary. First, I went through my purification ritual as always (bath in purified ice-cold water, change of robes, and then falling asleep in the ritual room, the usual). When I woke up, I was taken to a chamber where Dad, Julius, and two goblins were waiting for me. One was Stealbow, who I know because he dictates the necessary rituals, and the other goblin introduced herself as Threshbone. And guess what, diary? Threshbone is a female goblin!
It's quite an achievement for Threshbone to be the Prince family’s goblin. Not because female goblins can’t climb the ranks, but because there are very few female goblins, and even fewer, who choose to work instead of managing their homes. Threshbone is very ambitious and has worked hard to climb the ranks quickly.
It seems her cousin, Grimsmirk, was in charge of the Prince family with the previous Lord Prince. But when Dad accepted the terms of his grandfather’s will and brought me for the blood adoption, Grimsmirk had let some Aurors in before the will’s reading. If it hadn’t been for Lucy’s quick thinking, they could have sent Sev back to prison!
Threshbone accused her cousin of treason and even managed to verify that he was secretly negotiating with Dumbledore to give the old headmaster access to the Prince vaults! Outrageous!
Dad prevented Threshbone from telling us about her cousin’s sentence. According to him, goblin laws and especially their punishments are extremely bloody... (spoilsport).
Anyway, the point is that Threshbone decided to give Dad a full inheritance test, one that required seven drops of blood. And oh surprise! Dad isn’t just Lord Prince! He also has the right to claim the title of Lord Ravenclaw! And that’s not all! It’s a tiny amount, extremely tiny, but it seems Sev’s father wasn’t 100% Muggle! Sev is nearly 8% vampire! I told him he absolutely had to tell Lord Tepes in a letter, but Dad didn’t seem too happy about it.
By the way, Lord Tepes was one of the ones who wrote to me and gave me a birthday present (a real vampire fang!). Of course, I responded with some suspicion, not that I like him all that much, especially since he once wanted to eat Dad! But I find nothing odd in his correspondence and show all his letters to Sev anyway. The only thing I’ve discovered is that Lord Tepes seems to want to be friends with Dad, and to achieve this, he’s trying to befriend me first (as if I’m easier!). I’m making him suffer a bit because it’s fun, but I really think Dad needs more friends, so maybe I’ll give him a break…
We couldn’t fully trace which clan Dad’s vampire part descends from, but we narrowed it down to three possibilities: the Ventrue Clan from Rome, associated with aristocracy and opulence; the Toreador Clan from France and Spain, known for their connection with art and interaction with other races, especially Muggles; and the Assamite Clan from the Middle East, associated with assassins and alchemists but mainly known for their vampire blood purity.
Unfortunately, we also found blocks, compulsions, and a core leech, something Grimsmirk had somehow hidden (another charge from his cousin, who immediately informed her superiors). Thanks to Merlin, Dad managed to break most of that mess on his own, but he still needs a cleanse, especially because of the leech…
I decided to wait for Dad to finish his cleansing ritual so we could see the results of my test together. When he returned, I provided the seven drops of blood needed on the special parchment. My results were surprising too! Besides being the apparent heir of the Princes, I’m also first in line for the Slytherin heir by conquest and by blood right, having some blood from that line. I’m second in line for the Gryffindor line (Xavier is the apparent heir).
It seems I don’t meet the necessary requirements to be a significant heir of the Ravenclaw line, as I appear as a possible but last-case scenario… (I felt a bit offended).
Lastly, since we were there, Julius also took a blood test. He is second in line for both Prince and Slytherin succession but is the apparent heir of the Gaunts. This surprised Dad, but Julius explained that as Tom, his mother was a Gaunt. We were concerned because if Julius decides to accept the Gaunt heir title and then the Lord title as his right, Dumbledore would definitely notice, which is a complete NO.
Julius said he could simply not accept his title, but he looked quite sad about it, and neither Dad nor I thought it was fair. Luckily, Threshbone had a better solution: Julius would be presented as a descendant of a certain Ominis Gaunt, known for distancing himself from his family and moving to Rome where he formed his own family, adopting his husband’s surname, Francesco Bianchi, thus losing all communication and rights with his family in the British Isles. But with the extinction of the Gaunt family with Tom Riddle, that forgotten side of the family would be the next possible heirs.
Of course, that family exists, but according to Threshbone, as soon as Lord Voldemort or Tom Riddle was confirmed dead, the goblin in charge of the Gaunt family contacted them, and none wanted to take the title. This goblin declared the family "dormant," a term used when heirs exist somewhere but no one wants the title, leaving it in abeyance until someone claims it or it extinguishes or the blood dilutes too much. After that, this goblin decided to retire and rest.
Now that Julius appears as a possible heir and even the apparent Gaunt heir, but having been blood-adopted by the Prince family, the administration was now Threshbone's responsibility, along with the Ravenclaw and Slytherin lines. Personally, I think it’s too much work for one goblin, but Threshbone seemed very excited…
Part of Threshbone's solution is to pass Julius off as the child of a Squib from the Bianchi family, who came to live in England and married a Muggle. Her name was Elisa Bianchi, and I say was because she died 4 years ago. According to Threshbone’s findings (and don’t ask me how she found this out so quickly because I have no idea), she was pregnant the year Julius was supposed to be born if he had been born normally, but she gave birth to a stillborn baby in early December, her husband died two years later, and then she died 4 years ago.
Threshbone says she’s the only one with that record and took it from one of her desk drawers after quietly saying a password. But guess what!! When she gave us the documents, it appeared that Julius was the biological child of that family, and Elisa had given birth on November 20th! Julius’s birthday! Somehow the information had magically changed to make Julius’s story authentic!
Threshbone was stunned for a full 5 minutes, then looked up and said a long sentence in Gobbledegook. We somehow understood that she was thanking Lady Magic, and the room seemed to fill with soft music and a pleasant presence, but everything returned to normal too quickly to define if it really happened.
Anyway, thanks to that, Julius could accept the Gaunt heir title without any problem, each of us received our corresponding rings, and we could return home.
Dad seems a bit down, but when I asked him, he said that now that he is both Lord Prince and Lord Ravenclaw, he couldn’t avoid presenting himself to the Wizengamot and starting to be part of it, especially if they wanted to start dismantling Dumbledore’s power. According to Dad, he had authorized his votes to Lucy, making him the Prince Proxy, but he couldn’t do the same for Ravenclaw…
Poor Dad, I understand him, politics is really boring. Luckily, I have my Dragon, and I’m going to let him handle all my titles when the time comes.
See you!
Goodbye!