Sirius and Charlus stood shoulder to shoulder as they walked into Gringotts, both projecting the image of the powerful warlocks they happened to be. They had timed their visit so that there weren't the crowds of witches and wizards queuing to see a teller, so they only had to wait in line for a few minutes.
"We are here to discuss banking irregularities with Gleamshard," Charlus told the teller once it was his turn. If there was any way to get goblins to take you seriously it was to mention banking irregularities. That meant a loss of gold. It could be the bank or a customer, but someone was going to lose gold, and while the fines for a customer defrauding the bank were steep, the Ministry of Magic made sure that the compensation to the vault holders was just as severe when the bank was at fault. Apparently both sides thought that potentially bankrupting the other was a good way to keep people honest.
The teller looked annoyed, but he got up off his chair and went to speak with Gleamshard, the bank manager that handled the Potter accounts. Charlus had expected there to be loss and stagnation in the accounts, which was to be expected when there was such a long gap between the account holder dying and the next taking over, but what caught his eye was that some income he expected to see was missing. That needed clearing up now, he wasn't going to stand by while his family was defrauded of money. Especially as the money was rightfully Harry's.
After a wait that was probably longer than it needed to be (and as such an insult from the goblin), the teller returned with a bank runner. Bank runners were basically Gringotts's entry level positions, glorified errand boys, and this one was tasked to show them the way to Gleamshard's office (and presumably make sure they didn't poke their noses into something that was not their business). The runner led them through a maze of corridors that had to be internally confusing with the number of twists and turns. Charlus remembered the first time he had been led to a manager's office; he had admitted to himself that if he was inclined to grab something and run he wasn't sure he could find the way out.
Soon the goblin was knocking on a door and after an exchange in the goblins' own language, Charlus and Sirius were let into the office of a goblin that obviously had at least some human heritage a few generations back. They were directed to sit. "So, teller Coppertooth tells me you want to discuss some irregularities. Please tell me what you have found and I will do my best to clear it up."
Goblins worked best when you treated their time with respect so Charlus jumped right in. "There isn't any sign of money going into the account where there should be. I can't walk through Diagon Alley without seeing some product or other with my grandson's name, title, or even his likeness on them. Yet I find no evidence of any royalties paid, either to his personal account or to any account owned by the Potter family. Now, I don't know who, but someone has been stealing from my grandson and I want to know who it is, I want their vaults emptied, and I want their heads on spikes." Charlus told the bank manager in a perfectly calm voice.
The three of them spent the next three hours going over accounts and ledgers, but they couldn't find any sign of money being paid for the rights to use Harry's names or likeness. Eventually Gleamshard came to a conclusion. "Warlock Potter, Warlock Black, you are right that Heir Potter is being cheated. It is definitely law that they are required to obtain permission before profiting off someone's name and likeness, and such permission nearly always requires financial recompense. However, while the Bank can charge payments that people are legally required to pay, unless there is an agreement to pay royalties for the use of Heir Potter's name and image or an arbitration ruling from the Wizengamot, there is nothing Gringotts can do. What I can do is give you this." He slid a business card across the table to them. "That is a law firm that is good at dealing with financial irregularities. I recommend you make an appointment and go see them."
Charlus picked up the business card and read it
Gripsack - Anne Twist
Specialising in financial law
Floo - golden tongue
Charlus raised an eyebrow at Gleamshard and passed the card over to Sirius, who burst out laughing a few moments later.
"They truly are good at their jobs. A lot of people refuse to use them as the one partner is a goblin and the other a muggleborn, so they have to be good to remain competitive. But I haven't heard of a client ever being unsatisfied with them. If they don't think you have a case, they will tell you up front, and Miss Twist has brought in an idea from the muggle world. 'No win, no fee.' I recommend you give them a try."
Charlus and Sirius agreed that they would do just that, and after a polite exchange were shown out of the office and down to the lobby. Once there, the two made their way out of the bank and to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch. They had expected the meeting at the bank to go long, they ended up missing lunch so it was quicker and easier to get a couple of steaks from the pub than it was to go home.
"So uncle, what do you think we should do now?" Sirius asked as he put two pints of hobgoblin ale down on the table the two were sharing.
"Legal council is the next step. Pity, I was hoping to avoid that. But if I have to change Harry from The Boy-Who-Lived to The Boy-Who-Sued-Everyone-That-Robbed-Him, then that's exactly what I'll do. It's one thing to mention him in history books or a news article, but they have an entire collection of twelve The Adventures of Harry Potter books, posters, and toys for kids. I saw three shops with a notice in their window saying that they were Harry Potter's favourite store to buy something. They fucking took James and Lily's house. It's like they systematically tried to strip every last knut from him that they could, while deluding themselves that he was growing up as some pampered Prince." Charlus wasn't shouting but it was clear he was angry.
Sirius was just as pissed off but said, "Thirteen." At Charlus's questioning look, he clarified. "Flourish and Blotts had a poster advertising that the new Harry Potter Adventures book will be released on October the 24th. Exactly one week before Halloween. Just enough time for all the mummies and daddies to rush out and buy them to give to their kids on Halloween."
The two of them didn't enjoy their dinner at all, their mood ruining it for them despite the steaks being cooked perfectly. They spent the time focusing on the parchment work they got from the bank, putting it in order to present to the solicitor. Sirius even went out into muggle London and found an instant Polaroid camera and took photos of the books, posters, toys, endorsement signs, and the advertisement for the upcoming Adventures of Harry Potter book. The instant photos were added to the pile of evidence.
After dinner, they Floo'ed back to Potter Manor just to turn right back around and Floo call Gripsack and Anne Twist. Technically they could have Floo called from the Leaky, but it was too easy for someone random to overhear your private conversation, and more importantly it was difficult to be seen as a respectable member of society if you went around pointing your ass into a pub full of strangers. Floo fireplaces were generally wide enough for two people to stand in together, so Sirius and Charlus both stuck their heads into the green flames and said "Golden tongue."
"Welcome to Gripsack - Anne Twist financial solicitors, what can I do to help you today?" A young well-dressed witch who looked like she had only been out of Hogwarts for at most three years asked.
"We were hoping to make an appointment to speak with someone regarding my godson's name and likeness being used without his or his guardian's consent, and he is receiving no consideration for its use." Sirius spoke first, putting on his most charming smile at the sight of the attractive witch.
"If you are interested I have a slot open right now if you want to come through, or I can make an appointment for you sometime next week." She answered, completely ignoring Sirius's attempt at flirting.
"We'll take the appointment now, thank you," Charlus said, and the two of them awkwardly got up and stepped through the open connection. They cleaned themselves off with a flick of their wands, removing the soot from the fire, and they were quickly shown into the office of the two legal professionals. For the second time that day, Sirius and Charlus went over the financial statements and the evidence they had, this time with people they thought could actually help them.
"And what exactly are you hoping to get from all this?" Madam Twist asked.
"We want them to stop using Harry's name and image, and we want to sue for as much of the gold they made off him as you can. They were stealing from what they believed to be an orphan, so I don't care if you put them in the poor house. I'll make an exception for any worthwhile charities that used him to raise money for good causes, and genuine history books, but that's it. And I want you to go after the Wizengamot. They took Harry's parents' house. Yes it is a ruin, but they still need to pay for it. Again, they stole from an orphan; make them pay."
Both Gripsack and Madam Twist smiled widely at that. "Excellent, we think we can help you. However, there is the matter of our fee," Madam Twist said as her partner nodded.
"The Potter family is more than able to pay," Charlus said without even pausing.
"Oh, no doubt about that. But given your motivation is punitive, you might want to consider our no win no fee option. Instead of a fixed fee, we would take a fixed percentage of the winnings or settlement. It will cost a little bit more than if you pay upfront, but it would make us well motivated to squeeze them for every last Knut we can. After all, if we are paid a percentage, the more you win the more we get paid." Gripsack explained.
Charlus thought about it. What was more important to him, getting as much as he could for Harry or sending a message to the wizarding world that Harry Potter was protected? Phrasing it like that in his head made up his mind for him. Harry was the next Warlock Potter and possibly the next Warlock Black, he would never want for gold for the rest of his life. It was more important to send a message. "What percentage are you thinking?"
"Standard is 20%." Madam Twist said.
"Done," Charlus agreed. "Go drain their bank vaults dry. And if they start selling assets to pay - buildings for example, offer them ten sickles on the galleon." He grinned at the two, feeling particularly vindictive.
-ϟϟϟ-
Harry joined every member of the Quidditch Liberation Team in the headmaster's office, where Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Sprout and Flitwick were all waiting for them. A copy of Quidditch Weeklywas on the headmaster's desk, along with what had to be hundreds, possibly even over a thousand letters.
"I hope you all realise the position you have put me in," Dumbledore said as he looked at them all over the top of his half moon glasses, giving them all his 'I'm so disappointed in you' look.
Cedric just shrugged. "With all due respect sir, if the public knowing the truth about what you are doing leaves you in a bad position, maybe that's a sign you should reconsider your actions."
"Who are you to question the decisions of your professors?" Snape snapped at Diggory, not as venomously as he shouted at Harry whenever he had an opportunity, but still harsh.
Chang didn't look happy at Cedric being talked to like that and she stepped forward "And who are you to risk mine and others chances at our Quidditch careers just so one student can try and show off? I once heard a muggleborn say something about the Tao of Spock. When I asked him what it meant, he said, 'The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one.' Quidditch is an important part of wizarding culture, it's the stress relief from daily life for a lot of people and the economy around it supports a lot of jobs. Hobbling us for a year so that one student has the opportunity to win eternal glory and a thousand galleons isn't only wrong, it borders on the absurd."
"Well, Miss Chang, it would seem that the governors agree with you. Or at least, the governors don't want to go against the public will as demonstrated by all the letters they and I have received. So we will be reinstating Quidditch, but with some provisos. All of the organisation is on you. The staff will be too busy to aid you in any way. The Quidditch pitch will be out of commission from mid May, it will be off limits to students as it is needed for preparations for the Triwizard Tournament. You will also need to invite both Beauxbatons and Durmstrang to field a team each and participate. No Quidditch can be held on the day of a Triwizard event, and no Triwizard champion is permitted to be on a Quidditch team. We can not risk a Quidditch injury preventing their participation in the tournament," Dumbledore told them, and the Quidditch Liberation Team cheered.
They all returned to the classroom that they had adopted and began to go over what they needed to do. That's when they started to realise just how much harder this was going to be with two extra teams. With four teams and each team having to play three matches, that meant six matches. With two more teams and assuming each team would still play every other team, that meant fifteen games. Fifteen games to fit in around the tournament, which seemed almost impossible with the Quidditch pitch booked for two months solid to get it ready for the final task.
Then Harry had a brain wave. "Guys, why do we have to use the Hogwarts stadium?"
"Because that's where the hoops and the stands are Potter, I know it's hard but try to keep up," Malfoy sneered at him.
Harry rolled his eyes at Malfoy before pretending that the Slytherin hadn't said anything. "This is now an internal event, right? I know we can't do this for all the games, but why don't we see if we can borrow a professional stadium for the last few games. We could even invite the public to those games and maybe split the take fifty-fifty with the team. That should cover the stadium's costs, and our half can go to a charity with the winning team picking the charity."
That had a few of them stunned. Dumbledore had obviously grown the Quidditch tournament to try and bury them under the workload, to get them to quit and put the blame on them or to punish them under the workload. That the solution was to lean into the increased size, complexity, and notoriety to make their little Quidditch league a bigger affair than before was the ultimate "Gryffindors charge forward" strategy and it would release some of the pressure of the time constraints. After all, Dumbledore only said the pitch was off-limits, not that the Quidditch had to be over before they started work on the pitch. With that decided, there was a lot to do. Letters to write, invitations to send to the two other teams, scouts, and Quidditch Weekly at least.
That night at dinner, the four Hogwarts Quidditch captains (the unofficial ones having been made official by their Heads of House an hour before) did something that no one in the school could remember having happened before. They stood together in front of the hall full of Students, with Cedric the one who was nominated to talk as the Hufflepuffs generally had less friction with the other houses.
"We, the Quidditch captains of Hogwarts, have an announcement to make. After negotiations with the professors, Quidditch will return to Hogwarts this year." There was a massive cheer that went around the Great Hall at that, and after a solid thirty seconds of noise Cedric had to quiet them down. "Now, due to the Triwizard tournament there are going to be a few changes. First, we will not be competing for the House Cup. This is because we are inviting both Beauxbatons and Durmstrang to field a team as well, and they cannot participate as such in the Cup.
"Their participation will mean more games that we will have to cram into a shorter time, as we cannot interfere with the tournament. To facilitate this, we are making a slight rule change to the game. Matches will have a time limit this year of eight hours. Most matches are shorter than this anyway, but if the time runs out then the score at the time will stand as the final score. This is to allow us to guarantee that we can play two games in one weekend. Now, we will be holding our tryouts for our teams next weekend. Hufflepuff will be Saturday from ten am to one pm, followed by Slytherin from two till five. Sunday will be Gryffindor first with Ravenclaw after that, same times as before. Time is limited, so serious applications only please."
The students were really excited at the announcement, and the more Diggory spoke the more excited they got. There was a little murmuring over the time limit on the game, but they had to admit that for over 90% of games the rule change wouldn't affect the game at all, and a time limit (while unheard of in official games) was fairly common in pick-up games. But the fact that (as some of the students who were quick with mental math were telling their friends) there would be fifteen games with six teams each playing every other team was enough to quash any annoyance over the time limit.
When Alicia sat down at the Gryffindor table, it was like she was a hero. A few people in the house came rushing up to put their names forward to try out. Harry was both happy and a little betrayed to learn he would have to try out again for his own spot. He had never had to do that under Wood, but at the same time he knew it was the right thing for the team. You don't want to risk missing the new talent because you are stuck on old favourites. Harry wasn't exactly worried though. He was an amazing flyer, a natural in the air, and he had the best broom available. The position was as good as his. And it wasn't like he was the only returning player trying out, the only person whose spot was guaranteed was Alicia's as the captain. In fact, Professor McGonagall had made her captain on the understanding that she wasn't allowed to enter her name into the tournament. Honestly, Harry was sure she would rather play Quidditch, he knew he would.
After dinner, Harry went with Hermione to post the letters everyone had written earlier. He had written the one to Quidditch Weekly telling them what had happened and inviting them to cover the games. Hermione had written to the Beauxbatons headmistress because she could speak and write passable French, while Malfoy had written to the Durmstrang headmaster claiming he was an old friend of Draco's father. Everyone else had been assigned letters pretty much at random amongst the letters of gratitude to the governors and invitations to Quidditch scouts. Harry and Hermione were given the task of sending them all off. They felt a little sorry for the owl who was delivering the letter to Durmstrang as that was a particularly long trip, but when he had asked for a volunteer one of the school owls had done so without any hesitation. They did, however, make sure to shrink the letter down so that the owl could still hunt during their trip without the letter getting in the way.
-ϟϟϟ—
The next week went by normally, except in Potions where Gryffindors were suddenly having fewer trips to the Hospital Wing now that most of the House had started using the safety charms in class. A few older students had even taken to casting the Bubble-Head Charm on the younger Gryffindor students and the Shield charm on their cauldrons. Whether it was because of less accidents, blocked sabotage, or just the noxious fumes not being breathed in (or most likely a combination of all three), but whatever the cause the lower numbers of Hospital Wing admissions had been noticed, first by Madam Pomfrey, then Professor McGonagal,l and finally the students in other houses. Some Ravenclaws and a few Hufflepuffs had even approached their Gryffindor friends and asked to be taught the charms as well. The best part about that, at least if you asked Harry or Ron, was how much it was obviously pissing off Snape. Even Hermione admitted taking a little vindictive delight at just how much doing things properly was getting to getting to the oil slick masquerading as an adequate teacher.
On Friday morning at breakfast, Ron was nervously yacking Harry and Hermione's ears off about trying out for the Gryffindor Keeper position. They were released when Ron was interrupted by the morning mail and Harry spotted his snowy owl swooping in with a letter. After thanking Hedwig with the obligatory slice of bacon, he opened up the letter to see it was from his grandfather.
Harry.
Hope you're doing well in your studies. After looking into some records I noticed that you weren't being paid for stuff you were supposed to be paid for, like the Adventures of Harry Potter books that use your name and likeness.
Because of this and some other things notable by their absence, I hired solicitors 'Gripsack - Anne Twist', who are also looking into shops who have been advertising that you endorse them. Most stores have folded as soon as they receive a letter from our solicitors and have taken down the signs and sent letters of apology to you through the solicitors. (You'll get the letters eventually, but they are with the solicitors for now as evidence).
One store owner however has claimed that he has your blessing to claim your endorsement, Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlour. If they do have permission, can you please send a letter to 'Solicitor Anne Twist' and confirm that for their records. Also, be aware that I have given them permission to contact you directly if they have any more questions. Please do your best to answer them as promptly as you can.
Love from
Grandfather Charlus.
P.S. It's customary for students at Hogwarts to write home once a week. Hint, hint. - Sirius
Harry felt a little guilty after reading Sirius's postscript. Until this year, he hadn't had any family to really write home to, so his lack of communication was probably down to that. But that didn't change the fact that he had a family now, and it was his place to write to them. More importantly right now, though, was that he needed to write to the solicitor's office. Florean Fortescue did indeed have Harry's permission to say that Harry endorsed him, it was Harry's thank you after all the ice cream and homework help he had given out before Harry's 3rd year. But it was the only time he had been asked about endorsing a shop, and the only time he gave permission.
Harry showed the letter to Ron and Hermione. Hermione was incensed that Harry wasn't receiving any compensation for the books. "Harry, don't you realise how bad that is? Those books are wizarding Britain's equivalent of best sellers. They may be trash books with little to no plot or character development, but I never complained about them because of two reasons. They are aimed at kids, so their simplicity is to be expected, but I also assumed that you were being paid for them. They are using you to sell that trash and it pisses me off."
Harry put his arm around Hermione and pulled her closer to himself trying to help her calm down. While Harry was doing this, Ron picked up the letter. While he didn't care too much about the books or shops claiming to be where Harry Potter bought his wand polish, he did however notice the name of the solicitors, and he burst out laughing. It was only when he started saying the name and making it sound like "grip sack and twist" did Harry and Hermione realize it, and the two of them started laughing along as well.