The Truth
It was the summer of fifth year and Harry Potter was in an incredibly bad mood and like every 15 year old, he took it out on the people around him. It didn’t help that he was already mad at Hermione and Ron, along with virtually everyone else in Grimmauld place.
He had gotten into a row a few moments ago when he went down for breakfast and Ron tried to act like everything was all right. He tried to play along for a few, or at least until Mrs.Weasley brought out breakfast and gained Ron complete devoted attention.
But, Ron decided that he was going to be touchy today and would not stop slinging his arm around Harry. Normally he would have been fine, a bit tense but with his nerves so high with the hearing today and his anger at everyone and everything, he was not fine. He asked Ron to stop touching him, but he just looked at Harry weird.
Long story short, Ron put his foot in his mouth and Harry blew up on him. Words along with fist were thrown carelessly and unforgivingly. Harry had to be pulled away by Sirius and Remus, both of which he was also unhappy with. The Twins pulled Ron away. Sirius and Remus took him, more like dragged, into the drawing room and tried to get him to calm down. He had shrugged Remus’s hand off of his arm, where it rested like a hot iron, burning into his skin.
He stormed out of the room, glaring as he left, his fury apparent. He just wanted to get this day over with but he had about 4 hours before they had to leave to go to the Ministry and he had no idea what he could do to take his mind off of everything.
Sitting on his bed he knew that if he was left alone with his thoughts any longer it would not end up well. Standing up he walked to the door and checked to see if anyone was there, finding it clear he went out and walked aimlessly around Grimmauld place. As he walked he opened a few doors to see what was inside of them.
They all seemed useless to him except for one at the end of a dark hall on the thor floor. This room looked like an office. One of high quality too, extremely dusty but other than that it was extremely fancy. Something he imagined Malfoy to have.
There were bookshelves lining the walls, along with a few portraits and trinkets. Strolling over to a bookshelf, Harry dragged his finger along the spines of the books as he looked along the shelves. A few books looked interesting and a few he turned his nose up at. Dark magic and books that sounded like they were for snobbish politicians.
Grabbing a random book, making sure it wasn’t dark, he flipped through the pages, it turned out to be about Goblins and decided that it wouldn’t be a horrible read. Harry looked around to find somewhere to sit. Seeing that there was only one chair, placed behind a large mahogany desk, wiping the dust off before he sat, he hunkered down for what he thought was going to be an interesting read.
The first two chapters proved to be incredibly boring. The first about the origin of the goblins and the second was basically just what Professor Bins would teach. The third chapter was marginally better, but only by a bit as it was about goblin customs in battle.
The fourth chapter though, was the most interesting. It was about something he had never heard of before in the magical world.
Inheritance.
Sure he knew about muggle inheritance where you were gifted something in a will, but apparently in the magical world there were many different types of inheritances. Magical inheritance, money inheritance, property inheritance and house inheritance.
Money and property were pretty straight forward, People were given money and property in wills and retribution. House was also straight forward, except Harry had no idea what it meant until he found a list of the sacred 28 and their seats in power. Along with a magically updating list of the heads of such houses including pictures of these heads. The book also stated that the goblins had tests for each inheritance, house being the most used for.
Magical inheritance though was a bit trickier. It was about something called “Family Magics”. Something that Harry had no idea what was. He debated going downstairs to ask Sirius what it was, but ultimately decided he would skim a few of the books to see what it was. About 6 books in he finally hit the jackpot.
The book said that family magic was something unique for every family, most people categorize it as light, neutral or dark but in the book it said how those were only technical terms and there were many different types of magic, and light and dark was just a social construct.
It also mentioned how only people in the family would know what type of magic it was or people who were sworn to secrecy by the family. For the older families it noted that sometimes the magic seemed to have a mind of its own and casted its judgment upon others.
The inheritance of family magic was only through family and blood relatives and was never passed on through a will. The higher in familial rank the stronger the family magic flowed through a person.
Before Harry could read anymore his stomach growled at him to sate his hunger. Sighing, Harry put the books back and made his way downstairs to get a snack. When he got to the second story he bumped into Ron.
“Mate, where have you been? Mum sent me to look for you, lunch is ready?” Ron asked.
“Just looking around the place.” Harry said as they made their way to the second floor dining room. The house had a weird construction so the main dining room was on the second floor instead of the house and the drawing room and a sitting room were on the first.
The rest of the walk to the dining room was silent but as soon as Harry and Ron entered the room the chaos of the Weasley family and the marauders in the same room became apparent. Sitting down across from Remus, Harry was quickly handed a huge plate from Mrs.Weasley. A plate so big he knew he wasn’t going to be able to keep it down later.
Harry smiled at Mrs.Weasley but it looked more like a grimace to everyone else that actually looked at him. “Thank you, Mrs. Weasley.”
“Oh, you're welcome dear, but how many times am I going to have to tell you to call me Molly.” She chided.
Grinning, Harry said “A lot.”
Laughing Molly Weasley continued to make plates for everyone and Harry turned to talk to Remus and Sirius.
“Hey, Pup, now I am sure you're nervous for the hearing today, but don’t worry about it. You’ll be fine. You’ll just be having a sit down with Amelia Bones, wonderful women, that one. Of course she is also terrifying. A force to be reckoned with during the war.” Sirius spoke, a grin spreading on his face and throwing multiple winks out.
“While Sirius is right, it’s okay to be nervous Harry. Everyone would be even if they did nothing wrong. It’s just human nature. Madam Bones is a fair woman and won’t be swayed by what everyone else is saying unless it is proven to be true.” Remus said, gently smiling.
“Bones?” Harry prodded. “The same Bones from the sacred 28?”
“Yep, and one of the better houses too.” Sirius said confidently,” A lot better than my family, at least.”
“What's the sacred 28?” Hermione asked from beside Remus.
Remus and Sirius shared knowing looks and Remus seemed to hesitate before explaining that they were the 28 oldest families in Britain. Of course Hermione didn’t just leave it at that, so Harry just started eating half-listening to what was being said. Most of which he already knew so he just turned his attention to what other people were saying.
Lunch continued like that for about half an hour, with Harry struggling to finish his plate but toughing it out because he knew if he didn’t finish it, Mrs.Weasley would just try to force it and more on him. Not wanting to puke up more than he already would, he just choked it all down and planned to sneak off later to a bathroom to puke it all up.
After lunch was over Harry was dragged by the twins over to the drawing room to play some games, like exploding snap. Eventually he sat down and started to play magical poker with Sirius and Bill Weasley.
Sirius had to teach him of course cause he had no clue how to p[lay it, but that was fine. Magical poker turned out to be like regular poker but the cards changed every three minutes and made it hard to keep up with your plays and caused some bad hands.
The first half hour was fine but it started to get exhausting putting up a front and keeping the food down. It seemed that Bill had noticed something was off because he kept glancing at Harry oddly. At first he thought it was to try to figure out his tells but the looks got increasingly worried.
“You ok, Harry?” Bill asked quietly, as if he was scared someone would overhear.
Panicking for a moment, Harry smiled and said, “I’m fine, Why?”
“You just look like you're gonna be sick.”
“Just a bit queasy because of the hearing.”
“Speaking of the hearing, what time is it?” Sirius asked. Arthur looked down at his watch, one that he tinkered with in his shed of muggle items most likely and jumped.
“Ah, Harry, you best be getting ready. We are scheduled to leave about three hours before the hearing. You have half an hour to get ready, son.” Arthur said.
Internally cheering, Harry got up and walked normally till he got to the end of the hall and couldn’t take it anymore. He ran up to the third floor where his and Ron's bedroom had a bathroom across from it. Running to the toilet, he puked up what he had eaten previously.
After a minute he wiped his mouth with his ragged sleeve and grimaced. It was disgusting. He couldn’t even keep down a little bit of food. He felt like his own body was telling him he couldn’t have food, that he didn’t deserve it.
Getting up he washed his hands and washed his mouth out. Picking up his toothbrush, he brushed his teeth to get rid of the taste and grimaced the whole time. Sighing he went across the hall to change into the suit he got from the second hand store with Mrs. Weasley.
He had to ask someone to help with his hair. This ends up being Bill. Bill took him up to his bathroom where he had a bunch of hair stuff, Harry guessed that was why his hair looked so good.
“How come you have so much hair product and stuff.” He asked.
Bill smiled and said” When I first started to grow out my hair, I didn’t take care of it. I let it get away from me, didn’t wash it right and didn’t brush it either. Got a bunch of knots. Mum cut all of our hair and almost took my head off when she found the state it was in. Yelled at me for hours, and said if I wanted to have long hair I had to take care of it.”
He sniggered and said, ”Let's just say the fear of God was placed in me once again at that moment.”
Harry smiled and laughed. Looking down at the sink, he wondered what it would be like to grow out his hair. If he would have someone would yell at him to take care of it.
“All done.” Bill said and Harry looked up to find his hair a mop of curls. While his hair had never been particularly straight it was never this curly. It looked good, but it would most likely look better if his hair was longer.
“Just a bit of product and you look like a new person.” Bill exclaimed with a smile. Grinning, Harry twisted so he could hug Bill and kept muttering thank you over and over. Bill just smiled and patted his arms as Harry withdrew.
“No problem. Now get going kid.”
Harry ran out of the bathroom and went back to the drawing room to show off his hair to Sirius and Remus. Grinning he went up to Sirius and was practically jumping up and down and he told Sirius about his hair.
“I think I’ll grow it out, if it looks this good short, then it would look awesome longer. Maybe to my shoulders or a bit shorter, but longer nonetheless.” Harry rambled.
“If it makes you happy, pup. Then whatever you want, You might have to get some product and you will definitely need some Sleeky’s potions. Your grandad Fleamont Potter created it, ya know. Great man, he was.” Sirius said with a wolfish grin.
“Looking striking, Harry!” Mr. Weasley said as he entered the drawing room.” Are you ready to head to the ministry?”
Mood dampening slightly, Harry nodded his agreement. After giving Sirius and Mrs.Weasley a hug he and Mr.Weasley headed out to the ministry.
Harry was silent the whole time, but that was perfectly fine with Arthur as he rambled about his muggle contraptions.
It took about 15 minutes to get to the ministry and Harry watched in confusion as Mr.Weasley got into a bright red phone booth. Looking around, he shrugged and got into the booth with Mr.Weasley.
He jumped when a voice asked for their name and why they were at the ministry.
“Arthur Weasley and Harry Potter, attending a hearing.” Mr.Weasley stated.
Two badges popped out and Mr.Weasley grabbed them both, handing Harry his badge and placing it on his breast pocket.
Harry startled when the phone booth started moving like an elevator and looked around in wonder when the doors opened to reveal the bustling life of the ministry of magic.
When they approached the wand checking station, Harry tensed. He didn’t want to just let some stranger touch his wand. He doesn’t even let his friends touch it. Still he relented and passed his wand over, glad that it was given back quickly and he and Mr.Weasley started walking.
Harry guessed that they were making their way to Amelia Bones’ office but as he had never been in the ministry he wouldn’t know. As they were walking down a hall that was only slightly busy.
Arthur Weasley turned and made his way to the back of an office and said,” We’ll stay in my office until your hearing and then we will make our way up to Madam Bones’ office.”
Mr.Weasley sat down but quickly shot up when a man ran in and said Harry's hearing had been moved.
“What!?! Polkiers, what are you talking about?”
“They moved his hearing to court number 13 and in only a few minutes.”
Eyes widening Mr.Weasley ran around his desk, beckoned Harry to follow him and they raced to the hearing.
When they arrived they were both out of breath and barely made it in time but Harry was still let in by the Aurors guarding the door. Making his way into the room, Harry hesitated and barely held back his gasp when he realized that it was the same room where they tried Karknoff.
“Mr.Potter, you are late.” A man he recognised as Minister Fudge said. “Sit down. He motioned for a chair in the middle of the room, one that was covered with chains and was placed where everybody could stare daughtingly at it.
Swallowing, Harry made his way to the chair and sat down. For a moment he worried that the chains would clasp around his arms and legs.
Looking up Harry realized that he was surrounded by almost all of the heads of the sacred 28. He didn’t think this was just any hearing anymore.
“Disciplinary hearing of the 12th of August, to offenses committed by Harry James Potter resident at Number 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging. Interrogators, Cornelius Oswald Fudge minister.-” Minister Fudge was interrupted by Headmaster Dumbledore making a grand entrance.
“Witness for defense, Albus Percival Wolfric Brian Dumbledore.”
The minister stuttered out a question to Dumbledore about his message and Dumbledore sassed his way to his answer.
“Charges?”
“The charges of the accused are as follows, that he did willingly and with full awareness of the illegality of his actions, produce a patronus charm in the presence of a muggle. Do you deny producing such patronus?” Fudge asked.
“No, I-” Fudge interrupted Harry.
“You were aware that you were forbidden to use magic outside of school while under the age of seventeen?” Fudge asked.
“ Yes, I was, but-”
“Ladies and Wizards of the Wizengamot-”
“I was only doing it because of the dementors!” Harry exclaimed. There was a muttering and whispers from the Wizengamot when they heard ‘dementors’.
“Dementors?” Questioned a woman from the top seating. Harry recognised her from the book, but couldn’t place the name.
“That's quite clever, muggles can’t see dementors, can they boy? Highly convenient. ” Fudge said.
“I’m not lying! There were two of them and if I hadn’t-” Harry said.
“Enough, I’m sorry to interrupt what I'm sure would have been a very well rehearsed story. But since you can prejudice no witnesses of the adventure-”
“Pardon me Minister, but as it happens we can” Dumbledore said.
“Go ahead. Bring in this witness.” Minister Fudge thought that Dumbledore was bluffing, he was going to be proven wrong in a matter of seconds though. Dumbledore walked to the door and brought back someone Harry wouldn’t have believed unless she was right in front of his eyes.
Harry was directed to sit on the sidelines and they told her to sit in the chair Harry had just vacated.
“Madam, might I have your name?” Fudge asked.
“Alberta Minevera Figg, Sir.”
“Can you describe the attack? What did they look like?” A woman asked.
“Well… One of them was very large and the other rather skinny.”
“Not the boys.The dementors.” Fudge said. Harry flinched, he knew exactly who she was calling skinny but he still didn’t like his weight to be commented on.
“All right, All right, well big, clothed. Then everything went cold, as though all the happiness had gone from the world.”
“Yeah, dementors don't just wander into a muggle suburb and happen across a wizard. The odds are astronomical. I don’t think anyone would believe that dementors were ever there.” Fudge said.
Dumbledore walked closer to the podium and started speaking.
“By coincidence Minister-” Dumbledore was interrupted by someone clearing their throat in the most annoying way possible. Harry looked over and saw a woman, if she could be called that, but she looked like her face had been merged with a toad. And her fashion choices. Dear Merlin who ever thought creating a pink that shade should be cursed to the deepest parts of hell.
“I’m sure I must have misunderstood you, Professor.” Dumbledore looked around like he was saying this bitch. He hadn’t even said four words!!!” Dementors are afterall under the control of the ministry of magic, it’s so silly of me but it sounded for a moment as though you were suggesting that the ministry had ordered the attack on this boy.”
“That would be disturbing indeed madam undersecretary which is why I’m sure the Ministry will romantic up a full scale inquiry into the reason two dementors were very far from Azkaban and why they mounted an attack without the authorization. Of course there is someone who might be behind the attack.”
Dumbledore moved closer to the podium of which Fudge sat upon.
“Cornelius, I employ you to see reason. The evidence the Dark Lord has returned is incontrovertible.
“He’s not back!”Cornelius whispered angrily. Dumbledore blinked many times and sighed, thinking about how stupid this man was.
“In the matter of Harry Potter, the law clearly states that magic may be used in front of muggles in life-threatening situations.”
“Laws can be changed if necessary, Dumbledore.”
“Clearly it has become practice to hold a full criminal trial to deal with a simple matter of underage magic.”
“All in favor of conviction?” A woman asked. Slowly a few people started to raise their hands.
“Those in favor of clearing the accused of all charges?” Everyone else raised their hands making it clear that Harry was not having his wand snapped today.
“Cleared of all charges.” Minister Fudge declared.Ⓒ
Harry grinned and jumped up from where he was sitting and tried to catch up to professor dumbledore. He called out but Dumbledore just ignored him. Frowning Harry slowed down and instead turned to meet back up with Mr.Weasley.
Mr.Weasley hugged him tight and Harry couldn’t even be bothered to flinch at it, he was so relieved that the hearing went well.
“Congratulations Harry!” Mr.Weasley said, beaming.
“Thank you.” Harry said, face equally as bright.
They started to walk through the ministry so they could get back to Grimmauld. Harry started thinking about the books he read at grimmauld that morning and wondered if there was any chance that he had any inheritance. He didn’t think that someone like him could have an inheritance, but Voldemort was the heir of Slytherin and that counted as an inheritance so maybe he did.
“Hey, Mr.Weasley?”
“Yes, Harry?”
“Is it possible that we could go to gringotts.”
“Hmm, we do have quite a bit of time, we were supposed to have to wait three hours, so sure. Would it be okay with you if I ran to pick something up while you're in the bank? Molls asked me to pick up some potion ingredients?” Mr. Weasley asked.
“Yeah, that would be fine.”
Happy, Harry almost skipped his way to the ministry entrance. They summoned the Knights Bus to take them to diagon.
“Now it should take me about 20 minutes to get everything, if you aren’t done by then, I will be at fortesques.”
“Okay and thank you Mr. Weasley.” Harry smiled. They walked together till they reached the potions shop and said their farewells. Harry walked up to the Gringotts pearly steps and stopped. Looking up at its towering form he felt as if he was staring a dragon down. Taking a deep breath he steeled his nerves and promptly tripped over the first step.
“FUCK!” he yelled. He sat up and rubbed his nose and forehead when a hand came out of nowhere almost scaring him half to death. Taking it he looked down at himself and brushed off his pants while saying”Thanks, god that was embarrassing.Who even does that.”
Harry looked up and froze at the sight of someone he was sure he was very familiar with.
Pansy Parkinson
“Oh, um. Thanks for helping me up. Could we just forget this ever happened.” Harry said as he rubbed the back of his head, laughing slightly.
Parkinson just smirked and with a humorous glint in her eyes said,”Not a chance, Potter.” She laughed slightly as she walked away and heard him groan.
Turning back to the bank he actually walked up the stairs this time, while he was laughing.
Making his way into the bank he made his way to a teller with the shortest line, so he wouldn’t have time to think about backing out.
“Name” The teller's voice was the deepest Harry had ever heard. Even rougher than when Vernon has a sore throat.
“Harry Potter”
The teller looked up with a slight snear. It reminded Harry of professor Snape. He wondered if Snape had any goblin blood.
”What can Gringotts help Mr.Potter with today?”
“I would like to take an inheritance test, please.” The goblin gained a glint in its eyes that gave Harry the chills.
“Yes, yes. We can help you with that. For a price of course.” Right Goblins and their gold, an obsession so ingrained within them, Harry would be surprised if their blood was made out of gold.
“How much would that be?” Harry asked.
“12 galeons Mr. Potter.``Grabbing his coin pouch from his pocket, Harry silently placed 12 galeons on the creature's desk.
The teller pressed a button and suddenly a bang went off and everyone in the bank jumped a mile. Everything was quiet for a moment, until a goblin sauntered out and towards the teller Harry was standing at. The Goblin stopped right in front of Harry and his eyes widened as the goblin grinned and laughed at his reaction.
It was as if a thousand nails were being scratched on a chalkboard all at only slightly different times.
“Follow me Mr. Potter.” The goblin said and stalked off to the two large doors he had entered from. Hesitating Harry was slow to follow but as soon as the goblin stopped to glare at him, he was walking as fast as he could to catch up.
They walked along a hall with many giant doors with crests of what seemed great value and murals painted upon the walls of battles creating a splash of color like the splash of blood spilt on the battlefield. They walked for a while until they came upon a door with a symbol like so many others, but also completely different.
The other doors had symbols that looked like a coat of arms but this door had one of simplicity. It still resembled a coat of arms but it was only a triangle with a line and circle. Compared to the mighty beasts he had seen upon the other doors this one could be considered plain.
The goblin knocked and a gravelly voice told us to enter. The goblin Harry was with opened the door and he waited for him to enter but apparently that was not the plan. That became painfully obvious once we stood there for a few minutes just staring at each other.
Swallowing, Harry entered the room to find a goblin that looked to be hundreds of years old, sitting behind a desk that reminded Harry of the one in Grimmauld.
“ Well, well. Mr. Potter. I expected to see you much sooner.” The goblin said with a bloodthirsty smirk. Harry walked closer to the desk and the goblin motioned for him to take a seat in one of the well worn leather chairs.
“Sorry, but why would you expect that?” Harry asked and the goblin blinked at him like he was stupid, before he asked.
“Well didn’t your guardians tell you about what you would need to do once you reached age 13?”
“Ummm, considering my family is all muggles, I doubt they would even know what you are talking about, let alone tell me.”
Growling the Goblin slammed his hand, claw?, against his desk, causing Harry to jump and almost bolt. The goblin obviously noticed the reaction and stopped but he had a glint in his eye, (Goblin pulled a Hua Cheng) that said that he had enjoyed Harry’s reaction.
“I have been informed that you have requested an inheritance test.”
“Yes”
“Well, why don’t we get started shall we.” The goblin grinned and pulled out 4 pieces of paper.
“What would you rather do first, House, Magic, Property or money?” The goblin asked.
Thinking Harry was reminded of the reason he had anger issues. Privet Drive. Everything was so perfect and normal that it was rage inducing and he couldn’t do anything about that rage because if he had, Uncle Vernon would have killed him. He really didn’t want to stay there anymore.
“Property please.”
The goblin grinned again, but this time with a glint in his eyes that made Harry feel better than all the others, it was still terrifying but better than the others.
The goblin pulled out a bunch more papers and handed them to Harry.
“These are all the properties that have been bequeathed to you by people. Most from people who only did it due to you being their Savior. But these,” he said, pulling out a few papers” are from family friends or relatives.”
Looking at each of the properties from strangers would have taken forever so he stuck to the ones from people who knew his parents.
There were three properties, one called the Potter Armoire, labeled to have been passed down by Charelus and Dorea Potter, it was located in France so it was out of the question to live out the rest of his school years, maybe for traveling after school but other than that not something he would see.
The next was a cottage located in Wales, from a Bathilda Bagshot. It was noted that she was still alive so he couldn’t do anything with the cottage as of yet. Also out of the question.
The next was a flat in south London, given by Mary McDonald. It also said she was alive but that she had changed the name on the lease to his and hadn’t lived in it for quite some time.
Perfect
“Now Money. Much like property, I will give you a file you can look through later. Let's not keep you here for too long, right.” The goblin said with a grin. He handed over the file and then placed an odd piece of paper in front of Harry with a decorative dagger, and instructed him to place seven drops on the paper.
After doing so Harry watched in amazement as the blood seeped into the paper and turned into words.
It looked to be a list of houses, along with all his information and looking at the sections, including his name,parents,godparents and house he inherited. Looking at the information a bit closer, Harry was shocked to find that most of the information that he thought he knew turned out to be wrong. The two most shocking were his name and his mothers.
His name read: Caelum Regulus Black-Potter.
He could have never guessed that he would have Black blood in his veins and at first he thought it was like something he had come across while looking for what houses were, something called a blood adoption.
But his mothers name changed that thought immediately.
Mother: Bellatrix Druella Black-Potter nee Black
That was definitely not Lily Potter.