Gringotts - Part 3b- Harry
“I am glad I declined Fury’s job offer,” Tony said which made Ragnok grin. “You own parts of Stark Industries don’t you?” He asked with a deep sigh.
“I acquired 17% of your company in Lord Potter’s name as of this morning, if Lord Black would like to sign the papers,” He said and handed Sirius a bundle of No-Maj financial documents.
Sirius looked first toward Harry, then at Remus and finally at Tony, “I don’t have to sign if you don’t want me to.”
“Are you kidding me?” Tony asked. “First, my company is one of the most profitable in the world, I’ll be insulted if you didn’t think it was a wise investment. Secondly, I still own 51% with you at my side, living in my tower, I can teach you how to deal with the company, we can have board meetings over a pool game, and I don’t get to spend 2 hours a week with people older than my father who want me to invent shit to make them more money but refuse to spend any to make it happen.”
“You still have other people on your board,” Phil commented with an exasperated sigh.
“Yes, old people who understand nothing I say until I tell them how much they are going to make, plus we control 68% of the shares meaning the 10 board members only control 32% in total, that’s 3.2% each,” Tony explained.
“I am negotiating with two of them tomorrow to get more, the hope is to buy off your board to give you control over your company, Lord Potter’s orders. Though your math is somewhat wrong, only 8 board members remain as of this morning, and Gringotts owns 5.2% of Stark Industries, though we will not go over that amount, both to respect our contract, and because we are not allowed more than 5.5% of No-Majs companies, by the ICW laws,” Ragnok explained.
“I can understand that, with the way our world is now, and your finance genius, they made a law keeping you from basically buying off the No-Maj world,” Tony said.
“Exactly,” Ragnok said with a big grin, probably happy to find a human with such an understanding willing to talk to him as an equal. Remus wasn’t stupid, the ICW did it to oppress the Goblins, not to prevent them from buying off the muggles, it would have made the Goblins more powerful than the wizards without even causing a war, they couldn’t allow that to happen.
“But how do you deal with the humans who are unaware of magic?” Tony asked.
“Through humans, Majs and No-Majs working for us, in an investment company present around the world,” Ragnok told him. “We employ many humans.”
“You bought shares of the World Council too, didn’t you?” Phil asked suspiciously.
“Of course, we did, I needed to cover the basis to protect the Young Lord and the Young Lady, as per the contract signed between Lord Potter and myself in 18 years.”
“So, to get money, all people had to do is come and swear allegiance to Harry?” Natasha asked.
“They would also need to know this contract exists and as my office is under a permanent secrecy charm you can’t talk about anything you learn here to anyone not already in the known, and yes, Tony it covers recordings, if you were to talk about it in the tower and someone was to spy on your I.A. all they would hear would be white noise,” Ragnok informed them.
“You cast a secrecy ward on us? What does it do?” Phil asked, suspiciously.
“Exactly what it says, it protects secrets, if you were to try and talk about what you heard or learn today to someone not in this room at the moment, magic, yours, or ours, will prevent you from saying anything, I wouldn’t advise trying I was told it was very painful,” Ragnok told them.
“But why? You just said we were part of Harry’s group and you approved our transfers,” Clint asked.
“Because he worked with SHIELD before, he can’t trust us,” Phil said, nodding to Ragnok in understanding.
“Precisely, I was the account manager who had the pleasure of opening SHIELD’s account on Howard Stark’s request. He brought all the necessary papers and explained what the organization was, for what purpose it was founded. You spy for a living, Mr. Barton, and I know that as soon as you get back to work, in a few days, you will be questioned on what happened, and made to write a report, I am simply following the laws on Secrecy, but I am also protecting Lord Potter and his family,” Ragnok told them, and it was King Ragnok in front of them, not the friendly goblin who took care of them all morning. “My duty and that of the wizarding world is to the baby in the cot, on the 31st, he saved us from a bloody war that could have exterminated our entire world, the creatures, and the light wizards and witches would have been the first to go. I was made aware of the journal and the books you have, read it, you’ll know why we owe Lord Potter so much loyalty,” He said. “ You are right, being here, accepting the mission Doctor Strange gave you, entitled you to your vaults but make no mistakes, I will need more proof of your allegiance to allow the secrecy to be lifted, and no matter how much you came to care for the little ones in the past few days, it is not enough to overcome your loyalty to SHIELD.”
“Wow, I… Hum…” Clint mumbled before looking down at the table truly chastised, as were Phil and Natasha.
“The wards are in place to keep you from betraying your contract to SHIELD, you are allowed to tell Director Fury that you were placed under a Secrecy Ward, I assume he will be angry, but he knows there is nothing more you can do about it.”
“It is actually a good idea, I was already trying to think how he would take knowing a one-year-old own a big part of SHIELD, now I don’t have to,” Phil said, looking both happy and calculating.
“I really wouldn’t try going around the ward, it can kill you,” Remus informed him.
“I was trying to figure out how Harry gained the allegiance and protection of a civilization that has been at war with the wizards for centuries,” Phil told him.
“I am wondering about that too,” Remus admitted.
“He signed a contract,” Ragnok told them, grinning again, not that all those sharp teeth were reassuring anyone.
While everyone seemed to know it was more than that, no one was game to asking the Goblin King again, after all, he told them they would find the answers they were looking for if they read the books, which they had planned on starting today.
“Should we move on?” Ragnok asked and everyone nodded.
“Very well, Nicholas Flamel was made aware of the will he left with us in the future, it contained a letter explaining to either himself or the Wizengamot why he chose Harry as his heir and decided to countersign his will making Harry his official heir as of yesterday. In the event, of his, should I say untimely when talking about a 642 years old man?” Ragnok asked making everyone laugh, dispelling the tension left from their moment of questioning. “If the man manages to die before Harry is of age, Sirius, Remus, and Severus are to take over together. If I may, while being his father by blood, automatically makes Sirius responsible for all account and all decisions, you should always make them together unless it is an emergency, this to keep you from being influenced, but would also help Sirius with the amount of work required by the next bit of parchment.”
The three men nodded.