The owl post arrived at Potter Manor. Ginny’s lawyers had sent a list of conditions for the separation. Harry sent the demands on to his lawyers. He was not going to talk to any lawyer hired by Ginny. This was a healer-approved strategy. He had to enlist allies and move the stress off himself and onto them. That was what lawyers were paid to do.
“Where is mummy?” Lily demanded to know. “Why isn’t she here?”
Harry took his nine-year-old daughter, knelt down beside her and hugged her.
“Mummy has moved out. She seems to have decided that she wants to live somewhere else.” Harry wasn’t going to lie or sugar-coat anything.
Lily was far too clever to be fooled. She was blunt to the point of being brutal with her own opinions. Growing up with James and Al meant that she had to give as good as she got. The boys loved Lily, but they could also be cruel with their joking and teasing.
“Why? What’s wrong with us? What’s wrong with me? Doesn’t she like me?”
Harry’s heart was breaking again.
“No! Lily, darling! It’s not you. It’s all about me. I want to live here in the country and your mother wants to live in London.” Harry renewed his hug.
“That’s stupid! She knows that I love Nellie. I want to stay here forever.” Lily was steaming angry. Nellie was her pony. Lily rode Nellie every day, sunshine or rain. There was an indoor riding arena which was really a giant shed with sand and soil footing spread from wall to wall. It was perfect for riding practice when the rain was pouring down outside. Nellie lived in the adjoining stables. Lily would have her bedroom moved into the stall next to Nellie if Harry would allow it.
“Lily, I’m sorry but you might have to live with your mother on weekdays and then stay with me at the Manor on weekends.” Harry looked into Lily’s bright blue eyes. They held no love for her mother now.
“I can only see Nellie on Saturday and Sunday. That stinks!”
“Maybe we can get you back here on Friday afternoon, after school.”
“It still stinks!”
--ooOOoo--
There were many sources of information in the Wizarding World. Most of them were extremely unreliable. There was one source that could be relied on, The Gringotts Wizarding Bank. The reliability of Gringotts came from one fact, all authority inside the bank rested with goblins. There were wizard employees on the bank’s payroll, but they were always employed to work for the goblins, not the other way around. Harry had rebuilt his relationship with the bank after the war. The raid on the bank to steal Hufflepuff’s Cup had left a big black mark against Harry’s name.
The outcome of the war quickly removed that mark. If the goblins knew anything it was how to make friends with the winners in the continual wizarding wars. It looked like the end of the latest war was going to bring in an extended time of peace for Britain. Harry began to get an education on how to deal with the goblins. If he followed the lead of most wizards, he would not have made much progress. As he was raised in the mundane world he treated the goblins with polite manners, not the usual wizard’s arrogant sneers. The official attitude of the DMLE towards the goblins was that they were the obstructionist and un-cooperative friends of the Ministry’s enemies.
After the war, Harry started to get his official owl post from the Potter Account Manager. One month after the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry received an invitation to his first-ever meeting with his Account Manager. This was a matter of some concern for Harry. He asked Bill Weasley for a crash course on how to deal with his Gringotts Account Manager. Bill invited Harry to Shell Cottage where he and Fleur still lived. Harry had to be drilled on how not to offend his goblin bank representative. If he could establish a respectful connection, then the goblins could be helpful. If there was no respect, then the results could be expensive and frustrating for Harry.
The lessons started with a briefing from Bill. “Harry, I have made some discreet enquiries about your accounts. I always knew that your family was well off. It turns out that you are not well off, you are rich, I mean Black family rich. The Potters and the Blacks both have many times the wealth of the Malfoys.”
Harry didn’t understand. “I know that there was always gold in my vault. I was careful with it as it had to last until I could start to earn a wage.”
Bill smiled. “Harry, it is obvious that no one ever explained your situation to you. The vault that you took your galleons from is your Trust Vault. That was your spending money for each year while you were at school. Any money you took out would be replaced from your Family Vault each year. The Potter Family Vault has a thousand times the galleons in it that you saw in your Trust Vault. In turn, the Potter Family Vault is replenished each month from the Potter Business Vaults of which there are many.”
Harry was not responding.
Bill started again. “You do not have to earn a wage for the rest of your life. Any children you have will not have to earn a wage. Probably that will carry on forever. You are rich, Harry. Now, whatever the situation may appear to be, the goblins will be most anxious to keep you happy. It will cause a lot of trouble for them if you transfer your money out of Britain.”
Harry spoke at last. “Wha?”
Bill laughed. “Don’t freeze up Harry. The same goes for the Black Vaults, which are now merged with yours.”
Harry realized something. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“Who was your guardian?” Bill asked.
“My uncle and aunt, they didn’t know about this. If they did, they would have stolen the lot from me.” Harry grumped.
“Not your mundane guardians, your magical guardian.”
Harry was getting upset. “I don’t know! No one ever said anything about that to me!”
“Well, it was either your Gryffindor Head of House, Professor McGonagall, or the headmaster. Seeing as it is you that we are talking about the best bet would be Dumbledore. Your magical guardian is supposed to teach you about your money and family inheritances from when you turn eleven.” Bill was grim.
“Not a word! Nothing! Dumbledore might have mentioned that the Black vault was mine after Sirius died. I never got a hint about how big they all were. Why?” Harry paused. “No! Wait! The prophecy, that had to be it.”
Bill hummed. “Ah! The much-rumoured prophecy, about you I presume. Is it anything that you can tell me about?”
Harry was always reluctant to talk about these apparently supernatural happenings concerning him.
Harry paused; Bill could be trusted. “There was a prophecy about me. I’m guessing that was why Dumbledore hid me away until I came to Hogwarts. He never admitted anything until after Sirius died. He did say he was sorry about me being stuck at the Dursleys, but he didn’t have a better way to protect me. The prophecy implied that I was the one who had to face Riddle. Only one of us would survive”
Harry thought for a moment. “Yes! Dumbledore knew that I had to face Riddle since I was born. Well, he knew that it was someone. Riddle picked me. It could have been Neville Longbottom. The prophecy could have been forced to fit either of us.”
Harry paused for seconds more.
“I don’t like this. Snape accused Dumbledore of raising me like a pig for slaughter. What difference would it be if I knew about my inheritance? Did he think that I would get distracted? He wanted me to wait around until Riddle turned up and hit me with his best Killing Curse to kill the Horcrux that I was carrying around. He never wanted me to feel that I had my own resources and that I could take independent action on my own. I’m feeling sick.”
Bill kept a straight face. “Horcrux?”
Harry had let it slip out. “Er! Yes! A Horcrux, I was carrying one in the scar on my forehead. Riddle made six others. That was what we were hunting for and destroying while we were on the run. Dumbledore left it to me, Hermione, and Ron to do.”
Bill was calm and serious. “Horcruces are not unknown to Gringotts curse-breakers. We have dealt with them before. If he had let us know about them, we could have finished them all without a problem.”
Harry was getting angry. “Dumbledore could have let you destroy them. Why did he make me do it?”
Bill looked concerned. “Don’t be too negative, Harry. Dumbledore made a lot of mistakes. He never planned to die when he did. If he was guilty of anything, it was making all these secret plans and trying to run them on his own. If he let even a few of us in on what he was doing it could have been easier and not so many would have died. Let’s deal with your concerns for today. You must find out about Gringotts goblin etiquette.”
Harry was now feeling confused. He had a rush of conflicting thoughts. He was loyal to Dumbledore. The war in his mind carried on. Dumbledore used Harry, he kept secrets from him.
Harry had to park the mental conflict for now. Loyalty to Dumbledore always seemed to win in the end, even though he knew that Dumbledore used and manipulated him. That was weird.
Bill tutored Harry on how to work with the goblins and avoid any more black marks on his record.
Once the lesson was over Bill had one more thing to say.
“Harry, I want you to consider doing something else which would help you understand Wizarding society. In the Ministry Records Office, there is a roll of vassalages. A vassal in the Wizarding World is the same as a vassal in the medieval mundane world. You should find out about how vassalages are made and what they mean. That will explain a lot about Wizarding society. Look up the old names of who owns which vassalage. You will find names like Malfoy and Nott there. Look up Dumbledore as well, that is all I can say.”
Harry met with his Account Manager. The Potter and Black inheritances were explained to Harry. It would be years before Harry could accept that he was more than ‘well off’. He was very rich indeed. The piles of gold had grown considerably in all the years that no one had been spending them.
--ooOOoo--
As an auror, Harry often investigated old wizarding families who were Death Eaters or who supported Tom Riddle. Questioning under Veritaserum revealed that there were unbreakable loyalties between the greater and lesser families. Harry learned about vassalage. It was not something taught at Hogwarts. Muggleborn and muggle-raised students like Harry were at a constant disadvantage because they didn’t know about the ancient and medieval nature of wizarding society.
Vassalage usually started with debts. If a poorer wizard ran up debts which they couldn’t repay, then they could ask a wealthy wizard to take over the debt and take them as vassals to secure the debt. The vassal-owning wizard became a liege-lord under Wizarding law. This was the beginning of the lordly titles for many wizards. The Malfoys were never noble. They claimed their lordly title because they owned vassals.
Vassals received some protection. Their lord bought their debt and then either kept it or allowed the wizard to pay it off. The vassals could not be prosecuted or sued without their lord’s permission. The lord had to protect their vassal, usually by paying fines and fees for them, making the debt even greater. The lord could demand service from the vassal. This could be lifelong and extend to any children as well.
Harry investigated and found a list of names that he knew. Draco Malfoy could order Crabbe and Goyle around because the Malfoy family owned the vassalages over the Crabbe and Goyle families. The other name was enlightening. Dumbledore owned the vassalage over the Weasleys. This was why Bill was not able to tell Harry more. Bill was magically constrained from speaking about the way that he was bonded to the Dumbledores.
Harry almost missed one line in the Roll of Vassalages that explained a lot. Dumbledore also owned the vassalage over Severus Snape. The debt that Snape owed Dumbledore was not counted in galleons. Snape owed Dumbledore for saving him from a lifetime in Azkaban. Snape was compelled by the magic of the vassalage to obey Dumbledore.
He searched for his own name and found nothing. The Potters did not own vassals. The Blacks were also missing from the list. Sirius had released the last Black vassals as soon as he knew that he was the Black Head of House.
The Weasley vassalage was still active. The current Dumbledore Head of House was not Aberforth, Albus Dumbledore’s younger brother. The name listed was not known to Harry. It was months before Harry tracked down this person.
A month before he married Ginny, Harry travelled to Wales to meet the new Dumbledore Head of House.
“Hello Mister Potter, Gareth Jones is my name. Call me Gareth. What can I do for you?” Gareth Jones was a farmer. He was as different a person from Albus as it was possible to be. He was dressed in blue overalls and wore muddy Wellington boots. Two sheep dogs raced around him as he continued to move a small mob of sheep from one paddock to another.
“I want to talk to you about your connection to the Dumbledores.” Harry decided that coming straight to the point was the best way to deal with Gareth.
“Aha! Of course, you do! I’ve been expecting someone to catch up with me about that.” Gareth gave Harry a happy smile.
“The situation is this; House Dumbledore now consists of Aberforth, me and my sons and grandchildren. I am a second cousin once removed on my mother’s side to the Dumbledore brothers. Aberforth should have inherited the Head of House job from Albus, but he resigned the position as soon as he was told about it. He wants nothing to do with Albus or anything connected with him. I inherited a vault with a lot of gold in it, a house which I don’t need, and the Weasley vassalage.”
Gareth took a breath, “Can you tell me who is this Arthur Weasley and why do I own his vassalage?”
Harry plunged in. “Arthur Weasley is a Ministry employee who had the misfortune to inherit a massive debt from his father, who inherited it from his father and so on for generations. The Weasley debt was owned by the Dumbledores for many years before Albus was born. Arthur was a student at Hogwarts, so he came under the influence of Albus. Albus knew of the debt of course and when Arthur graduated, Albus made Arthur his vassal. I don’t know what the deal was, maybe Arthur wanted protection as the debt was increasing all the time and he didn’t object to serving Albus.”
Gareth frowned.
“Well! I have many objections to the whole business of vassalages. I want to get rid of it. I know that I can release the vassalage but that doesn’t deal with the debt. Is there any way that it can be forgiven or removed in some way?” Gareth asked.
“That is something that I want to talk about. I need you to promise me that you will not breathe a word about what I want to do to anyone. It is quite legal and will free the Weasleys, but I don’t want them to know that it was me who organized this,” Harry said. “The thing is, in a few weeks, I am going to marry Arthur Weasley’s daughter. The Weasleys are a bit sensitive about the whole debt question and don’t accept charity.”
“How conspiratorial! All right! I agree! What is it?”
“I have arranged with Gringotts to create a shelf company which is owned by a company registered in a Caribbean country which is not traceable to me. This shelf company will buy the debt from you. That will put a lot more gold in your vault, sorry about that, it can’t be helped.”
Gareth roared with laughter.
Harry continued, “You can then release the vassalage. I will then build up an investment fund which will pay the interest and debt repayments on behalf of Arthur Weasley. That will be disguised as a long-lost asset belonging to the Weasley family. The debt will be gradually paid off and Arthur will not know that it was me. The magical significance of the debt will be supported but it will not be recorded anywhere. It will be entirely within the family. I am simply hiding the charity from Arthur.”
Gareth shook his head. “It’s amazing the devious twists and turns that have to be made to get some people to accept help.”
Harry kept his thoughts to himself.
That’s me as well. Will this make me feel better about myself? Maybe, I don’t know.
--ooOOoo—
The grateful wizarding public had gifted Harry, Ron, and Hermione new houses for them to live in as a small reward for their victory over Voldemort. A heavily edited version of their story had been published by the Ministry. There was no direct mention of Horcruces, they had been referred to as “dark objects made by Voldemort and used in the war”. Harry put his gift house into a group of houses that he bought to accommodate victims of the war who had lost their own homes. He rebuilt 12 Grimmauld Place for Ginny and himself.
At about the time that Hugo Weasley was born Harry was invited to a special meeting with his account manager.
“Thank you for coming in to see me, Mister Potter, this isn’t about your funds or businesses. It has come to my attention that a friend of yours is in financial difficulty.”
Harry rolled his eyes. “Let me guess, it’s Ronald Weasley.”
“Correct! You obviously know all about his gambling habit.”
Harry huffed. “I do! I used to go to the Chudley Cannons Supporters Club with him. He would bet every knut he had each time we went there. The bookmakers loved him.”
“I am also aware that you have paid out some of his gambling debts.”
“Yes! He wouldn’t take any help from me, and I didn’t want to support his gambling habit. Sometimes a bookie would privately approach me when Ronald was in danger of getting into the wrong sort of debt. The sort that would have some of his body parts chopped off if he didn’t come up with the cash. I privately paid up as long as they disguised it as a bookkeeping error or some such thing.”
The goblin nodded. “That is what I thought. The problem now is that Ronald has done something very foolish.”
Harry groaned. “What now?”
“He has mortgaged his house to the bank. He claimed it was to buy a business. He is still a war hero, no goblin wanted to upset the wizards by calling him a liar. We guessed that he would use it all for gambling.”
Harry nodded. “What is the situation now? Why are you telling me this?”
“The money is all gone. Ronald Weasley’s vault is empty. He has missed his first mortgage payment. There is a short time extension given for him to make the payment. That is nearly over. If he doesn’t pay, well, the mortgage will be in default and the house will be taken.”
Harry sighed. “Let’s try this. I will use one of my shelf companies to buy the mortgage from the bank. I will make any mortgage payments that Ronald misses from one of my Wizarding War Reconstruction charity vaults. That should hide my involvement unless someone makes an in-depth investigation. I know that Ronald doesn’t look at his account statements and ignores any letters that Gringotts send him. If he smartens up and starts making the payments, well, that will be good. If he misses, then at least Hermione and the children won’t be evicted.”
The Account Manager started filling in the forms.
“Is the Ronald Weasley vault cash flow situation still as it was?” Harry asked.
“Yes, the monthly wage payment comes in as usual from Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. That arrives on the first Monday night of each month. Mrs Hermione Weasley is at the front door of the bank at opening time on Tuesday morning. She takes out exactly what she needs to pay for food and some little expenses for the children. Mr Ronald Weasley arrives sometime in the afternoon and takes out the rest. There are some small payments for Mrs Weasley’s work coming in. Mr Weasley arrives each afternoon to take it all.”
Harry shook his head and started signing the forms.
--ooOOoo—
The letters to James and Albus had been sent. They would have them in the morning. Any hope that a quick reconciliation would happen melted away in the heat of the demands from Ginny’s lawyers. She was going for the jugular.
She demanded a substantial living allowance, more than twice what she spent while living with Harry. Harry had to pay for an apartment in Knightsbridge, London. Knightsbridge was not a magical district, but it was extravagantly expensive. Lily and the boys would stay with Harry except for one Sunday a month when Ginny would take Lily to The Burrow to be seen by Molly. All the children would spend two weeks of the school holidays at The Burrow.
Lily was happier with that arrangement. She could ride Nellie nearly every day. She assured her father that she would not miss her mother. Lily barely got more than a single word from Ginny on any day for the last year.
James and Albus replied by the return post. They were not surprised. They had both overheard conversations between their mother and various friends and advisors which warned them that Ginny’s departure was imminent. They both felt that for the last year their mother was putting more distance between herself and them. Harry was the only one for whom she kept the happy wife act.
Harry resolved to do everything he could to keep his children close to him. He found out from Lily that the three of them had been talking about their mother and what she was planning. They all hoped that her plans did not include them. They wanted to stay with Harry.
Harry punished himself for once again being oblivious to the signals given out by those close to him.
379Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7qHTGGmCqo
