Chapter 8
Severus kind of wanted to throw Petunia in front of a car. However, he couldn’t really do that considering Lily would castrate him if he harmed a hair on her sister’s head.
It was as annoying as it was baffling. Lately the two were inseparable. Ever since the elder Evans ended up with a life threatening fever, Petunia seemed to have a whole personality change. It was as if the fever fried a couple connections in her brain. She wasn’t as irritating as before but she had much more edges to her. She was sharper, more dangerous, much more intelligent than he had ever thought possible. He had lived his entire life as a wixen, learning from his mother what she thought was ideal for him to know and he had never even heard of some of the things Petunia Evans was sprouting lately.
It told him more than he realized about how controlled his learning had been whilst growing up.
It didn’t help that his best friend now looked at the elder girl like she hung the stars in the sky. Seeing it was becoming a tad unnerving. He wasn’t used to this different Petunia. The one who taught them more than scolded them. The girl with a smile that was mostly edges and teeth. It had so many hidden pages to it that Severus just wanted to shake the damned girl to find out what exactly it was she was planning.
“You require three new bank accounts?” The goblin was arguing with Petunia who looked just as bored as she was infuriated. Before the goblin could ask about the needed paperwork and the signatures, Petunia was whipping them out with a grin that seemed eerily similar to the one the goblin teller was giving her. It took Severus a whole inner argument to force his shiver down.
Lily didn’t even bother.
Well….. now he knew his best friend was not meant to be a Slytherin.
Although with how she has been trying to emulate her sister lately… Severus had his doubts.
“Madam Evans please make your way to the back. A member of our bank will be with you momentarily.” The goblin teller informs her. Severus blinks at the respectful bow Petunia gives him. She crossed a hand over her chest and bowed at a forty-five angle. It was akin to a soldier’s salute now that he was thinking about it. He wasn’t the only one who was shocked as the goblin teller seemed to internally gape at her, startled by her respect. He mimics the bow, his eyes seeming a tad softer and his grin becoming more ferocious.
“May the blood of your enemies flow in rivers Master goblin,” Petunia informs him, mimicking the manner of greeting she’d read up on in one of Lily’s introductory muggleborn books. Well the greeting wasn’t as bloodthirsty as that but it had the spirit she supposed.
The book introduced the notice of finances in the wizarding world, emphasizing the importance of monetary conversions and how best to save money. There was a tiny section in the back on the importance of goblin culture and how to earn the goblin nation’s respect.
The writer had been a renowned curse breaker according to her research, which was a job that required close interrelations with the goblin nation. Tertius Budge nee Xavier was a muggleborn wizard who grew to become one of the most renown curse-breakers in the world. He fell in love with a famous potioneer, Zymunt Budge. It had been amusing to her family seeing her with multiple books thrown across a table, cross-referencing like crazy. Lily had sat beside her, almost reverently learning whatever Petunia deemed important enough to explain her. The fact that all books she could find mentioning Tertius or Zymunt also mentioned their respective partner, put an emphasis on how intellectual a couple they actually were.
Petunia had come to Diagon alley today with a list of books by the two of them she wanted to try to find, if her finances allowed it.
Apparently sexuality in the wizarding world was fluid. Polyamorous relationships and relationships with the same sex were just as celebrated as any other relationship. It was something Vernon would have despised. He hated anything different. Raged about the gay couples they’d sometimes see on the news, calling them despicable names and insults. Oh the fact that Vernon wouldn’t even look twice at Petunia now was as freeing as it was damning. Petunia would do anything, give anything- even if that meant her freedom and her happiness- to get her son back. Even if that meant putting up with Vernon in marriage number two.
She simply did not care. No one was as important to her as Dudley was.
“And may your gold ever flow Miss Evans,” The goblin tells her, giving her a respectful nod. Goblins gave as good as they were given. And given that Tertius had become super popular with the goblins, it was obvious that goblins respected the confident and the curt. They despised meaningless pleasantries and flowery, slippery words that hung like sugar on one’s lips. Trying to manipulate a goblin would be a one way ticket to having a whole bloody axe imbedded in your skull. And Petunia very much liked her skull intact thank you very much.
They were taken into a room by one of the guards and Lily whirls on Petunia in confusion, “Do goblins usually greet one another like that? Mcgonagall didn’t do it,” She hisses, eyes darting around a tad cautious in an unfamiliar room.
Petunia eyes her and Severus’ wary looks and smiles, pleased. It was always good to be careful. At least she was learning her so called constant vigilance earlier than last time.
“One of the books we got had a section on goblin culture in it. It’s quite intriguing to be honest. Their customs are interesting to learn. I wanted to get more books on it.” She tells them truthfully causing thoughtful looks to appear on their faces.
“Which book was it?” Lily whispers, and Petunia scrunches her nose slightly. She didn’t really like the title of the book to be honest. The book itself was a summary of the major books in the wizarding world, simply going through a paraphrasing the important parts and dumping them into one place.
“It was the Yer a Wizard, Congratulations! Now what? book. I don’t recommend it though. There are references to the book it took all the information from. I’ll be buying that one, hopefully. We can read it together.” Petunia muses to the two of them.
“Oh… I must’ve skipped that part,” Lily seemed sheepish. “I’m so excited to learn all of the spells. I wish we could use magic in the summer.” There was a slight whine in her tone.
Petunia eyed her sister. It seemed she was simply overwhelmed with how much information she needed to know in time for school. Petunia actually thought the theory behind magic was very intriguing. Lily seemed more interested by actual spells she could perform as opposed to the understanding behind what made magic possible. In fact, Petunia was curious about the science behind magic. It wasn’t something that could simply just be there, especially since she wasn’t sure she believed in the religion that most wixen seemed to follow. They believed in an divine entity that blessed all wizards and witches with magic. At least that’s what people who practiced the olde ways believed in.
The information regarding this was very rare to find. Petunia had to scour all the books they had bought, a multitude of times to even find an inkling towards the topic. She’d thought the percentage of having all these wixen authors be atheists was very low. Petunia truly believed that an author placed bits of their consciousness into the things they wrote. So hence her searching for any mentions of wizarding religion. Safe to say- she didn’t find a lot.
She was contemplating simply walking up to the Snape household and just ask Severus’s parents for permission to access their library. The thought of actually doing that makes her want to hurl the contents of her stomach until she’s severely dehydrated and then dies.
Petunia’s thoughts are interrupted with the entry of the accountant. She stares unabashed at the weaponry this creature simply has adorned on him like decoration. The goblin had three daggers on his belt and all three were decorated in jewels that had Petunia internally screaming. She’d never seen better quality gems in both her bloody lives. And Petunia Dursley had spent the better part of her marriage in jewellery shops.
She needed one of those daggers like she needed breath to breathe.
“Welcome Madams Evans and Mister Snape. I was informed you were here to open new vaults in our esteemed bank.”
Petunia kind of wanted to laugh when both the kids whirl to her with matching panic in their eyes.
“Indeed Master goblin. I’d like to open three accounts, one for each of us, and discuss terms for investments.” She tells him and she couldn’t take her eyes off of the damned sword that the goblin was showing off. It was so decorated she’d have thought the thing was made gold if she didn’t know better. It was more for showing off wealth than battle prowess. However, Petunia was not stupid. She knew better than to deem a being, who collected weapons for fun, unthreatening. As far she knew, the goblin could be a fighting master.
Petunia felt much better about the knife in her purse now.
The goblin’s eyes gleam slightly, seeming intrigued. “Ah investments are very much welcome at Gringotts. We take pride in raising our clients net worth.” He says and then nods at Petunia slightly, “And you may refer to me as Master Uurlock,” He adds as an afterthought.
Uurlock looked very standard for a goblin. He was short and fair-skinned. It seemed as if it was more a lack of vitamin D as opposed to his natural skin tone. Petunia deemed him pale and sickly. An after effect of living in mines twenty-four seven she assumed. His eyes were dark and slanted, crinkled at the edges due to the bloodcurdling sneer on his face. His teeth were very much pointy and Petunia suddenly had a thought that ripping into someone’s throat wouldn’t be much of a challenge for these creatures.
“Much obliged,” Petunia muses and then places the papers on the table, “I assume everything is in order.” She tells him watching intently as he took the papers with a curious look, before flipping through them rapidly and barking out a hard laugh. He peered into her eyes knowingly and Petunia grinned, teeth and all. “Well?” She questions and his grin becomes unnerving.
“Everything is in order Ms. Evans. I’m assuming there will be no need for your parents to be informed of these transactions?” He seemed very much amused.
“You assume correctly,” She says sweetly, trying to ignore Lily digging her nails nervously into her forearm. Petunia very much wanted to punt Lily and Severus into space for showing so much anxiety in front of the accountant.
The goblin nods and proceeds to procure three brand new keys and plopping them onto his desk. “You’ll be making deposits into your new accounts I’m guessing. The minimum amount to make an account is three galleons…” He raises a brow and Petunia nods. She had around two hundred dollars to deposit giving her a good forty galleons.
“Of course. I will need to convert into wizarding currency, however. But before that I’d like to talk investments. What is your policy on client confidentiality?” She wonders, getting out a notebook and a pen. She found in her past life whenever she did this, it would make whoever she was conversing with nervous and twitchy. However, she had high expectations for Uurlock and knew her actions wouldn’t phase him- would it raise eyebrows? Sure. But unsettle him? She’d be very disappointed in Gringotts standard of employees.
To her delight, Uurlock simply grins even more, causing Lily‘s nails to dig deeper into her skin. Petunia was going to have bruises she just knew it.
Uurlock’s grin dims a bit, getting more serious. “Gringotts of course, under common law, owes a duty of confidentiality to its customers. It extends to all information that the bank has about the customer, including personal and financial information.” Uurlock tells them and Petunia hums, nodding. This was all known to her. However this was customary to all banks including muggle ones.
“What does confidentiality entail for the financial aspects?” Petunia asks and Uurlock proceeds to tell her.
”Of course the state of the account, including any loans or debts, the amount of the balance, any transactions and any securities you will place on your vault,” He muses and Petunia raises a brow.
”The names and companies I will want to invest in… Will you leak them or use them to increase others net worth?” She ponders and Uurlock blinks in disbelief, staring at her silently.
Five seconds pass in utter silence and Petunia raises her head to gaze at Uurlock intuitiovely, a slight smirk on her features. “Master Uurlock?” She muses and he straightens up.
“We do not disclose that information if you undertake the private banking course at Gringotts.” He says carefully, and Petunia could tell he was taking her much more seriously now. Severus had sucked in a breath at her question and was staring at her like she was a ghost.
”Commission rates?” She asks unflinching.
Uurlock meets her head on, seeming just as interested as he was entertained, “Seven percent,” He says simply.
“Is that standard or negotiable?” She asks instantly and the goblin looked like he wanted to snicker.
“No this offer is sadly not negotiable. I have a feeling it would have been a delight to bargain with you,”
Petunia smiles at his words. She was known to be overly viscous when looking to save money. Especially since she was used to working with a merger allowance when she was a child. Her habits carried on into adulthood and she’d saved herself a bunch of money this way.
”Would private banking be something you are interested in?” Uurlock asks and Petunia takes a second to mull the idea over in her head. A seven percent commission rate wasn’t too bad in her opinion for the security blanket that it offered. Her private and personal details would be safe and she wouldn’t have to worry too much about leaks.
“Is there a contract we can look over together?” She says slowly and he blinks again before his grin widens. It seemed he was expecting a couple of naive kids he could maybe scam something out of and instead he received one of the most careful customers he had ever seen.
“A secretary contract can be drawn up. They are only provided to those who ask. They can be refined to both parties’ comfort,” Uurlock says, flourishing a piece of parchment from god knows where. Petunia did not miss the specific wording he had used and with Lily blinking up at the goblin, startled. It seemed in the wizarding world, things were only provided to you if you knew about them and specifically asked for it. This emphasized the need for knowledge. One was forced into learning as much as they could to take advantage of this. As such, muggleborns were at a significant disadvantage.
Lily and Severus seemed to realize it at the same time and Petunia watches them straighten up, eyes narrowing on the goblin. Both of their gazes lasered in on the conversation and Petunia could tell they were paying much more attention than they had been previously.
Good.
They were learning.
“I would very much like that Master Uurlock. I would like a copy for myself to read through, however.” She tells him and doesn’t even blink when he snaps and another copy of the contract was in front of her on the table. She could tell both Lily and Severus were reading over her shoulder, trying to gain some insight into what was going on.
It was a normal confidentiality agreement to her surprise, not even mentioning anything about magic, which was a tad strange in her opinion. She still read through it though. The parchment read out a mutual non-disclosure agreement which wasn’t as air-tight as she would have preferred to be honest.
“I don’t want you discussing any of our private information with other magical creatures,” She states calmly, placing the contract back on the table, eyeing Uurlock with a pursed mouth. “Other goblins for example…. The contract states neither party may disclose information about its operations to any other human,” She states and the raises a brow. “I am not trying to be disrespectful but goblins are not human.” Petunia stares and is a bit annoyed at the delighted gleam on his face. She wanted to punch him.
She wouldn’t of course.
The urge was still there.
It felt like one huge test that Petunia was passing with flying numbers.
Petunia did not agree to take said test. She didn’t like anyone forcing her into taking one.
“Wonderful wonderful!” Uurlock cackles wickedly and then begins to make adjustments on his own contract. She could see the changes being made on her own in real time. It was a fair contract to be frank. Neither one of them could talk about any secrets discussed on the premise of Gringots to anyone including other magical creatures and other wixen. Petunia made sure to state that informing other muggles and squibs was completely off the table too. Any financial, personal and business secrets would be kept safe. And as Uurlock was asking for seven percent only now, the contract itself lasted for a year. Which was fine seeing as Uurlock might want to discuss terms for a raise in the future, which she would be bargaining the bloody hell out of. And even if the contract ended, secrets mentioned would not be able to be leaked.
Petunia mentioned involving secrecy towards muggle law enforcement, the ministry and goblin executives as well, which made Uurlock pause. “That can be arranged. However my vows as a goblin prevent me from lying if the King himself asks me a direct question.”
She blinked. The goblin nation operated based on a monarchy. That was intriguing.
“That is fine. We aren’t important enough for the goblin king to care about anyway,” She muses and then watches as Uurlock nods and finishes off the contract. Two other copies were made for Lily and Severus and the three of them watch as Uurlock slashes his palm with his dagger and signs the contract in his blood.
“Isn’t blood magic banned?” Lily blurts out as if she couldn’t contain herself any longer. She looked to Severus who was staring wide eyed at the blood.
Uurlock looked amused, wrapping his hand with a cloth and tying it. “Secrecy contracts are perfectly legal I assure you. And tying each other with blood is much simpler and safer than other methods. Would you like our souls to be tied?” He grinned menacingly and Petunia rolls her eyes, guessing that soul magic was probably something much more illegal considering Severus’s gasp.
”Bringing up highly illegal and dangerous magicks to distract them isn’t very subtle,” Petunia drawls, amused and she flicks out her own knife before the goblin had a chance to offer one of his own. Uurlock’s delight -if possible- grows even more.
She signs quickly and Lily and Severus, after a bit of encouragement, do the same.
“Now that we will all be keeping each other’s secrets at the cost of loosing our tongues-” She raises a brow at Uurlock unimpressed with the secret, small fine print that she’d read in the contract, “-I’d like to request three inheritance tests for the three of us. The one that costs three sickles each please.” She plops down the assisting brochure parchment she’d received during her last visit here.
Uurlock nods and begins to gather the materials necessary.
“Uh-“ Lily tugs on her sleeve, “Why are we getting an inheritance test?” She hisses and Petunia hums.
“I want to see if mum and I are squibs or not. The test I asked for isn’t as in depth as the other ones they offer but it is the best value one in my opinion. It goes back to the three most recent magical ancestors, which for us would be helpful-“ She points to herself and Lily, “-and it also offers a look into the type of magic you both have, any magical talents, what fields of magic suit you best and glances into the type of core you have,” She hands the brochure to Severus who was reading through it with an almost frantic fervour.
“Here we are…” Uurlock comes back with three pieces of a much courser type of parchment. “Drink the potion and place three drops of blood on it,” He muses and the three of them move to do just that.
Petunia glances over at the blood red words that start to appear on the paper. It was an eerie cursive that would have had Petunia screaming witchcraft at the top of her lungs had she been in her previous life. She simply clenches her jaw in this one.
Petunia Evans. Parents: Howard Colin Evans (muggle), Rose Riane Evans neè Selwyn changed to Rose Riane Evans neè Siame (squib).
What the bloody fuck?
Since when was her mother’s last name Selwyn? It wasn’t that hard to imagine considering her mother grew up alone with no extended or close family. Petunia had always guessed that Lily’s magic had somehow come from their mother’s side.
By the loud, panicked yanking Lily was doing to Petunia’s poor clothes, her sister was just as freaked out. Their mum had spent ages looking into her heritage trying to find any information on her family. And here Petunia and Lily had a whole paper documenting her family tree. Her magical family tree.
”Give me a second,” She muses to Lily, grabbing the girls hand in an attempt to be comforting. She didn’t really think it was working.
Species: Squib
Vaults available: Vault 777.
That was expected at least. It was the vault she had just received. There was beat before more words started to appear.
Magical core: Dark- inaccessible.
Magical Abilities: Magic Sight, Wielder of Blood Runicks.
She blinked at the last bit. That was unexpected. She knew someone had put a damned blood rune on her hand but she didn’t expect to be able to wield a magical ability. Her sight was useful but it wasn’t a very offensive ability. It didn’t really matter much, considering she had no clue how to use the bloody things without causing an earthquake or blowing herself up.
Magic is inclined towards runic offensive, runic displacement and arithmetic magical fields of study.
This was an interesting document. She’d been right to request to have this done. Apparently her mother was the squib daughter of Michael and Mercedes Selwyn. From what she could deduce, considering the two of them weren’t dead like they’d had her mother believe- Michael and Mercedes Selwyn were probably both pureblood and both very discriminatory. Enough to toss out a traumatized child to an orphanage to save face.
Petunia kind of hated her grandparents.
She remembered the words Remus Lupin had muttered in passing about blood runes and she struggles not to pale dramatically.
She would become some sort of breeding machine if her mother’s extended family found out about her.
Her head whips to Lily’s parchment reading over her head discretely. Her own inheritance test was very similar to her own only Lily had a grey core and no magical abilities to speak of. Her magic was very much in tune to defensive and offensive magicks as well as charms. It would be nice if Lily figured out a way to combine the two. Smarter if she could. Lily also had two vaults that belonged to her.
Petunia was thinking that the Selwyns were very much filthy rich to have a designated vault assigned to any of the people in their family. She had a feeling that if Lily opened that vault, the Selwyns would have her on their radar. And that was much too dangerous for her to do right now.
“Why do I have two vaults?” Lily asks in a hiss. Her eyes were darting every which way in a sort of nervous tick.
“I’m assuming it has something to do with the Selwyn family,” Petunia murmurs out gesturing for Lily to hand the test over to Uurlock. She didn’t see anything incriminating. It was probably just her own cursed luck to end up with magical abilities.
Uurlock seemed to be very surprised. His eyes were glazed slightly, a curious look on his face. “You are related to the Selwyns?” He ponders, reading over the piece of paper that was gripped in his hands. His eyes darted sideways, the contents of the test being reflected in his dark eyes. “It’s curious how a squib escaped from the clutches of the Selwyn family. They are known for killing anything that could cause an embarrassment to them, including any squibs.” He informs them, a solemn tone in his voice.
“That means Lily is put in danger if she decides to declare her relation to them… correct?” Severus muses, his jaw tight with worry for his friend. Petunia was reminded just how protective he was -and still is- over her younger sister.
Uurlock is silent for a second, but that told her all she had to know.
“Would you recommend waiting until her majority before declaring her relation?” Petunia questions and Uurlock hums, deep in thought.
“Ms. Evans is declared here as the heiress of the Selwyn estates which is very surprising considering the main Selwyn line was thought to be lost a long time ago. It seems Rose Evans neé Selwyn was a daughter that escaped death from the Selwyn Lord at the time. Rose Selwyn is very much thought to be dead in the wizarding world.” Uurlock explains soundly.
It was a shocking revelation. Deep down Petunia knew Lily’s magic had to have come from somewhere, but she never expected there to be a whole bloody family alive. A family who was very discriminatory and apparently had murderous tendencies. Murderous tendencies that would be aimed at her sister.
“So yes I would recommend waiting until Ms. Evans here is powerful enough to survive a heirship duel.” He says, seeming much more intrigued than Petunia would have assumed he would be. Perhaps the Selwyn family was more powerful and wealthier than Petunia thought. She’d have to have a look at the genealogy book she purchased.
“I believe that would be a good idea as well.”