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Harry Potter and the Cracked Reservoir
Chapter 14: Visiting Gringotts
By Musings of Apathy
Chapter 14: Visiting Gringotts
Thank you to my Beta’s Donalddeutsch, Cateagle and Sparky40sw.
True to his instructions, Harry entered Gringotts Wizarding Bank within an hour of his being declared an adult. He was in no hurry, but, as he hadn’t been able to go there reliably in the past couple of years, he didn’t want to put the request off without good reason and this time made the most sense as Harry already had protection in tow.
Harry walked up to an open teller goblin and waited for the goblin to look up.
"How may I help you?" the Goblin asked after he put his quill down and closed the ledger.
"My name is Harry Potter and I believe that I am expected," Harry stated.
"By whom?" asked the goblin.
"Oh…um…I really don’t know," Harry admitted, scratching his head, "Would it help that it is about a will?"
"Yes, sir," the goblin said, snapping his fingers, "A goblin will escort you momentarily."
Just then a small figure came from behind the counter.
Harry turned and recognized this goblin, at least.
"Hello, Griphook," he said.
"Hello, Mister Potter," Griphook said formally, "If you will follow me."
"Mister Potter," the executive goblin said after seating his clients, "We are here to execute the remainder of your parent’s will. Like many wills of the older families it has been given to us at Gringotts to see to their wishes. Wills such as these are kept with us to prevent the tampering and machinations of those who would see this as an opportunity."
Harry was sitting next to Ginny in the office of the branch manager of Gringotts Wizard Bank. Out of respect for his privacy, his escort had stopped outside the office to wait for the conclusion of business.
Harry thought about what the goblin had said about the machinations of others and had to agree. Harry was on better terms with his Headmaster, yet Harry could still recognize the strings that the senior man pulled every day to shape the world into what he saw as a better place. Dumbledore obviously found that the best way to shape the world in the long run was to be the educator of the leaders of tomorrow, his own brand of immortality.
The goblin continued, "As you have just been declared an adult by the wizarding government, the Last Wishes of Lily and James Potter have taken full effect and will now be executed." He looked at Harry over his half glasses to judge the young man before him. "The will is simple in that you are the only recipient to yet receive your inheritance. All others have received their distributions when the execution of the will was started fifteen years ago."
The information was slow to sink in. He squeezed Ginny’s hand for comfort. It helped simply that she was there in support.
Once again, after the pause, the goblin continued, "According to the will, you are to receive the contents of your family vault to do with as you please. The total of this inheritance comes to…" he paused to look through a ledger book to the right of his desk, "…yes, here, one-hundred twelve million, three hundred four thousand, four-hundred fifty-six galleons, twelve sickles and ten knuts."
Harry and Ginny were shocked at this amount. That would be a swimming pool full of galleons, with enough left over for an interesting kinetic sculpture of a golden coin waterfall.
What? At this moment coherent thought wasn’t possible for Harry. Random thought or no thought at all in his stunned silence was all Harry could muster.
Ginny squeezed his hand.
"Harry, you know that I don’t love you for your money, but…Damn…wow!" she exclaimed, "You could buy Ron the Chudley Cannons and still afford the rest of the league with the left over pocket change. Be careful who finds out about your wealth, Harry, I want you all to myself. You could marry half of the wizarding world if they heard of that."
Harry grinned at her.
"At least it’s only half," he smiled. "Gives me some hope for the rest."
"It would be all of them if the wizarding laws allowed same sex unions," Ginny answered sweetly.
Harry’s face scrunched up in an ‘ewww’ before he spoke. "I guess that we’ll have to keep this quiet then."
"I am afraid that that may be a problem," said the goblin, "We are required by an old law to report the various inheritances and bequests that we oversee to the Ministry of Magic. I am afraid to say that the press will eventually learn of this."
"Oh."
"Harry," said Ginny softly, "We’ll deal with them together when it’s necessary."
The goblin excused himself for something. Really, the goblins were more versed in their customer’s needs than humans thought, and his customers needed privacy at that moment.
"Together?" Harry asked, his face incredulous.
"Together," said Ginny confidently.
Harry now wore a bright smile.
"I like that idea…together."
Ginny looked at him, suddenly a little hurt.
"You sound like you weren’t sure that I’d be there with you," she said in a soft voice.
"Well, this morning, after what you heard, I was afraid that, well, you wouldn’t want me because, I’m kinda…sorta, damaged goods." Harry took a deep breath. "I thought that you’d realize just how screwed up I am and not want to be with me in the long run."
Ginny was shocked. How could Harry think that she wouldn’t want to be with him because he’d had a hard life?
"Harry," she said, taking his face in her hands to look him in the eye, "I will always be with you, no matter how good or bad life is or was."
"But, I thought," Harry stammered, "with you wanting kids and me…I don’t know that I know how to be a good dad. I don’t want kids to be hurt by me not being a good dad."
"Don’t you see, Harry? That’s the most important thing to being a good parent, wanting to be a good parent. If that’s the foremost thing on your mind when you make all of your decisions, then you’ll make the best decisions for your family. Besides, if we choose to become parents, we’ll be going down that road together."
"Oh," Harry said, mulling what she said over in his mind, "You’re right, I guess. I do want to be a dad. More than anything, really. I don’t have any careers in mind, the only goal I’ve had, if I survived school, was to have a family and give them the childhood that I never had."
"And you will, Harry," Ginny tried to convince him.
Harry had a sudden flash of insight, causing his next question, "Ginny, in all seriousness, you’ve had a lot thrust on you today. How are you coping with it? I only learned about having more money when I already had more than enough for a lifetime; you had to learn about the Dursleys for the first time. How are you?"
Ginny’s face softened into one of love and understanding.
"Harry, I love you and will always love you, but, yes, today had a lot in it. A lot for me to contemplate, but don’t think that I’ll conclude that you’re anything but worthy of my love and respect."
"Oh, thank you," Harry blinked. "If you need to talk to Hermione or your mother about it, I give you permission. You won’t be breaking my trust."
She threw her arms around his neck. "Oh, Harry, thank you," she said, "Maybe there is hope for your understanding women, yet."
"It’s just taken me five years," Harry smiled just inches from Ginny’s face, "to get one bit of understanding…that women need to talk to each other."
"Oh?" she said with a mock glare, "And how did you manage this…understanding?"
"Thank ’Mione," Harry said. "For years she has assumed that I was her girlfriend and, like her, needed to talk about everything in my life in detail. She’s a great friend, but guys don’t share their complete feelings. I never told Ron of my feelings for you and he never told me of his feelings for Hermione; that’s the way it’s supposed to be between guys. With Hermione, I shared more of my life than with Ron, but still not my feelings. But because of that, I knew that you would want to talk about it with other women."
"Oh."
Harry and Ginny left the bank for home after their talk. They arrived in the early afternoon and thanked Tonks and Kingsley profusely for ‘putting up with’ them for the day. Their minders said it was no problem before they disappeared with a crack. Harry and Ginny went their separate ways to spend time with their respective genders.
While both conversations had a similar goal of passing information about the events of the day between friends, they were severely different in actual content.
"So, mate, what did they want with you?" Ron asked.
"Just the basics," Harry claimed as he shifted his broom from one shoulder to the other. "You know; what happened to me before Hogwarts? What happened since? Plus Veritaserum for authenticity."
"Ewwww. You agreed to take that?" Ron winced. "They did tell you that they couldn’t force you, didn’t they?" Ron asked as they carried their brooms over their shoulders up the grassy slope.
"Sure they did, but what did I have to hide? They said that the hearing was private from the press," said Harry nonchalantly.
"Better you than me, mate," Ron stated. "So…what was the result of the hearing?"
"Huh?"
"Why’d they have a hearing?" Ron asked again. "What did they do?"
"Oh, yeah," Harry said, stalling while rubbing the back of his head shyly, "don’t get jealous, but they declared me an adult."
"Oh," Ron said, a little bewildered. "What does that do?"
"It is just like I turned seventeen," Harry said.
"Oh, so no permit needed for your magic use?" Ron asked.
"Guess not."
"Ooh, and you can learn to apparate," Ron was getting excited.
"I guess so," Harry admitted.
"Cool."
"Yeah," Harry said nonchalantly. "I also learned about my adult inheritance that my parents left for me. Turns out that the vault that I had been using was just the tip of the iceberg."
"Huh? Tip of the ice-a-what?" Ron stopped his walk up the hill.
"Tip of the iceberg," Harry repeated. "Surely wizards used ships once upon a time? Icebergs are huge mountains of ice in northern ocean water. Only about ten percent sticks out of the water so if you see a little, there’s a lot beneath it."
"Oh, I get it," Ron said. "I just haven’t heard that one before."
"O-Kay."
Their talk ended perfectly with them reaching the orchard / Quidditch pitch and their distraction with the wind whipping through their hair.
"Hey Ginny. Kick the boys out?" asked Hermione from the couch where she was reading.
"Yeah," Ginny said. "Just suggested Quidditch."
"So, how did it go today?" Hermione asked as she put her book aside.
"The end was good," Ginny hedged.
"But…" she said, putting her book down.
"Oh, Hermione," she said, as her emotions took over. "Why did Harry’s life have to be so bad? He’s gone through so much. It’s a wonder that he can love anybody."
"How so?"
"Hermione? How much of Harry’s life before magic do you know about?" Ginny asked.
"Well, I know about October First, 1981," Hermione claimed, "as you know."
Ginny cut her off, not meaning any malice, "Not the Boy-Who-Lived stuff. What do you know about Harry’s life?"
"Oh…I know that his relatives aren’t nice to him," Hermione told her. "I know that he lived in a cupboard of some sort until he got his letter. I know that his cousin likes to pick on him."
"Anything else of the highlights?" Ginny asked.
Hermione scrunched her face up, trying to think of any other general points.
"No. He doesn’t like to talk about it," she said with a sad heart.
"Well, he did today," Ginny told her with significance.
Hermione shot him a curious look.
"He agreed to go under Veritaserum," Ginny said, "and when they asked if I should leave, he squeezed my hand and said no. He was letting me give him the strength for what they had in store."
Hermione smiled at the thought that her friend finally had someone that he trusted enough to draw strength from. She just didn’t realize that he’d been drawing strength from her and Ron for years just from their support.
"He took it and didn’t fight it," Ginny continued. "They, of course, had a healer to tell them if he had beat it, but he didn’t fight it at all. I think that the potion allowed him to let it all out without feeling weak. It must numb the mind, because he didn’t seem to fully realize what he was saying. He only seemed to feel better after he got it out."
"That’s good, Ginny," Hermione gave her an honest smile. "I hope your knowing his story will help your relationship with him."
"I hope so too," Ginny said. "But what happened to him is awful. His relatives, they…they…called him so many names. Worthless. Freak. They told him that he should have just died with his parents. He has heard it so many times that I think he values his life less than he values anyone else’s. He would risk his own life for a stranger without thinking."
"And that is part of what makes him such a great human being and person," Hermione answered her.
"Yes, but it’s the why that infuriates me," Ginny said, the rage building, "He grew up in the cupboard under the stairs. He would be locked in there for days at a time if he were to do anything wrong. But…But…" she said with tears bubbling up in her eyes, "what he supposedly did wrong is stuff like imagining, playing, tracking dirt inside. He would get punished for burning the eggs when he cooked the breakfast for his relatives, which he had to do every day. He was their cook, maid, gardener and all around slave. Only Dobby may have been treated worse; but I’m not sure. He was stomped down in the hopes that the ‘magic could be beaten out of him’. He was not allowed to be curious. Hermione," she said, tears freely flowing, "they would punish him for asking a question, any question."
"WHAT?" exclaimed an enraged Hermione, "But how was he to learn if not by asking questions? How was he to build his mind if he were punished for thinking."
"That’s it, they didn’t want him to learn. They didn’t want an educated nephew. Hermione," she said, preparing for her next big hit on Hermione’s sensibilities, "They locked him in the cupboard several times without food for getting a higher grade on an assignment than his cousin and once for a whole week for a better report card."
"Those bloody bastards!" screamed Hermione, clearly steaming, "Okay, Ginny. Now tell me everything that was said so that I may plan precisely for my seventeenth birthday."
Ginny had never heard Hermione curse before, but she shared Hermione sentiment.
"I claim full rights as a concerned party to be part of your…coming of age festivities," declared Ginny, formally.