Harry lowered the letter, mind spinning.
The first thing he figured, was that the fact Mr. Greengrass had completely forgone the code names in a letter that had been openly sitting on Axeclaw's desk and signed his full legal name to it meant he was dead serious about confidentially not being a worry with the goblins. Which was good, they could finally speak plainly.
And since he had spoken plainly, he was a little lightheaded to realize the trial might happen soon.
Like before Easter kind of soon.
He wanted to breathe a sigh of relief that it'd be over soon, except he couldn't since his stomach and lungs were tied up in knots in anxiety over making sure this actually worked. It was coming down to the wire now, and he couldn't mess it up in the 11th hour.
"Mr. Potter?" Axeclaw saw he was finished reading and got impatient.
"All of this has to stay absolute secret. Sounds like Mr. Greengrass already said that."
"Of course." The goblin narrowed his gaze cooly, not amused he'd implied he'd ever repeat a client's business apparently. "He's the one who delivered that letter and expressed as much. Your account and confidentiality is my highest priority even if others also comment."
"Thank you," Harry just nodded once since there was no use in not being polite, but getting right to it. "I'm working Sebatian Greengrass to get Sirius Black a trial. He said in this letter he already gave you everything I'd need to claim seats in the Wizengamont which I'll use to make sure he's sentenced fairly. The blood test I did said he is magically my godfather, which means while he'd imprisoned I at least get three seats then, right? Can you find out if I'm owed any others?"
Axeclaw wasted no time, opening a drawer to his left and fetching a thick stack of folders, plopping it between them.
"I was warned you might ask such a thing, and I have already gathered that information." He announced. Right, Mr. Greengrass had sent the letter saying he needed to get to Gringotts several weeks ago, Axeclaw had probably been sitting on this development for a while. No wonder he was impatient.
"You have already fully inherited the Potter seat as of the moment of your parents' death, as well as the Monroe's when you inherited their line as of last year. I also confirmed that the moment Sirius Black entered Azkaban property eleven years ago you became the Black family's official proxy since it is confirmed he is your legal and magical godfather and he was unmarried. There is no further action required to use those seats other than being present in the Wizengamont court while a vote is being cast."
"So at least three… but going by that file there's more." Harry couldn't take his eyes off of it, and the goblin just bore his very pointed teeth as he pushed the pile closer to him. He took it but the writing was dense when he opened it and knew it would take him quite a while to actually read it all—neither of them wanted to sit here through that though so thankfully Axeclaw just continued.
"By right of succession—or extinction in some cases—you also have the right to claim the seats for the Bryne, Sullivan, Kennedy, Lynch, Ryan, Gallagher, Fleamont, Prewett, Gaunt, Roberts, Slytherin, and Perevell." He announced.
Harry stared…
Then counted mentally and had to do a double take.
"Really? That many…?"
"The first six families all funneled into what became of the Monroe bloodline, which whittled down over time until their eventual extinction. There were more families present in the lineage of course, however only those were ever recognized or given seats in the Wizengamont. None but the Monroe seat has actually been used for a vote in 127 years, however they are still valid if reactivated. By you, specifically, as the only person to inherit anything from that line—blood, magic, or otherwise."
"So there's no one with any blood left from those families? Me inheriting their magic is all that's left of them?" Harry frowned.
"Yes." The goblin was ruthless with it. "Unless there was an illegitimate child out there that was a squib, who only had muggles in the line since, there is no one. The fact you do not need to undergo any further ritual or blood acceptance means that merely by inheriting the Monroe magical line, you have also inherited all that is left of them in this world. There is no blood out there in anyone left living: you carry their magic and since that is all that is left, there is no need to contest or claim anything away from someone else. It is merely yours for the taking."
For some reason he felt indescribably sad about that… how even if he inherited their magic there was still no physical proof of all those family lines anywhere. It made him sad but also somehow glad he'd accepted their name on a whim last year… at least this way he could still keep their legacy alive somehow.
He straightened up again, determined. "So even not going anything, I get nine seats? Which means for the rest there is something I have to do?"
Axeclaw jabbed a boney claw at the papers he was holding. "That details the legality and magical traces of your claims, and unlike the Monroe line which is completely uncontested, the others are much more muddled. You have a claim to the second six, but you are not the only one. Slytherin and Gaunt are unseated and uncontested, meaning no one actually has claimed them even if perhaps they had the right to, and therefore it would be no issue for you to take them yourself. Fleamont and Roberts were women who married into the Potter line and thus ended the carrying on of their names, however neither the actual bloodline nor their respective seats disappeared. Going back up their family trees, those branches married into other still-active families who also have the right to claim the Fleamont or Roberts seats as cousins of various degrees. You, however, are a direct descendant of those women who last carried the full bloodline, and so your right to claim them will trump that of anyone else. Peverell is likewise being used but you as the descendant have a stronger claim to it. You are not the direct descendant for the Prewett line, however no one has claimed it or used it to vote since the Grindelwald's war, so you do have claim to it until someone else of more proper lineage wishes to take it from you instead."
"Wait," Harry realized the implication of all this, wincing harshly. "By claim them… you mean a blood ritual, don't you?"
"I do," Axeclaw pretty much just shrugged, clearly not seeing the problem.
Harry groaned and put his head down on the table over the papers… shit. Not again… not twice again…
"What about the other four?" He sighed, stomach already twisting in dread.
"They are all claimed, however once again you are a direct descendant and, should you choose the claim them, would be able to take the seats by force." He confirmed… also tacking on: "By blood ritual, as I said."
"Oh great."
"Also-"
"There's more?!" He snapped his head up in alarm.
The goblin gave him an acidic look for interfering, but just unearthed yet another file to put pointedly in front of him. "Mr. Greengrass provided some more context that I investigated as well, and found that you not only have right to seats by inheritance, but by conquest as well."
"Conquest?"
"'He who slays the beast, owns the beast'. That is one of the most ancient magical rights of ownership, but it also applies to the conquest and vengeance of magical bloodlines." He explained curtly. "You had the right to take the Monroe name as you avenged their bloodline by killing the one who finalized their complete extinction. I have found that you also have the right to take the bloodlines of nine other families—eight from conquests of the Potter line, and one from the Monroe line—which seems to be a blood oath actually, but functionally it acts the same."
"Okay so when you say conquest of that line…?"
Axeclaw literally just shrugged again.
"The details are lost to history; I am not even sure how Mr. Greengrass unearthed such a thing. All I know is that magically it is true that at one point in the past, nine families swore allegiance or complete surrender to either the Potter or Monroe families. As you inherited their names, those oaths have been made to you now, and the descendants of those families must obey. Functionally, it means if you command them, they must obey or else risk losing their magic."
Harry stared…
"… is that… normal for pureblood lines?"
"No." Axeclaw did not hesitate to confirm, folding his hands on the desk in front of him. "I know of only one other instance, and it is between one family who 'conquered' one other. Until now that was the only known instance that Gringotts is aware of at least, and to my knowledge it happened within this century. The Potter line is much older however, so my assumption is that a long lineage of warriors defeating past enemies gave way to time, and then eventually the families forgot they were ever once conquered enemies and victors as time went on."
And yet somehow Sebatian Greengrass had known about this. Trust a Slytherin to be able to dig into one's ancestry and use what they found as a weapon.
Harry couldn't even be suspicious of him for it either… all this talk of 'blood oaths' and family conquests made him hyper aware of how pale Daphne had gotten when he'd offered a 'blanket debt' for the Potter family. While this was also great news for him and for Sirius' outlook, it was also not lost to him that Mr. Greengrass would benefit a lot more from being owed a debt by an insanely powerful and well-positioned Harry Potter with more seats on the Wizengamont than anyone else, rather than the Harry Potter who had no idea he had such a leg up in the political world without doing anything.
Particularly because he would never consider actually 'taking' half these seats under normal circumstances—the benefits in no way outweighed the horror that was a goblin blood ritual after all.
However… if it meant being sure Sirius would get out of Azkaban, that he could give Remus his Padfoot back, that he could get a godfather and get away from the fucking Dursleys then…
Well, blood rituals it was.
Having this much power when it came time to run for Minister would only help anyway, despite how much this was about to suck."What families are they?" He wanted to know.
"Doyle made the blood oath to Monroe. Lines conquered by the Potter line are Boot, Dawlish, Davies, Edgecombe, Hornby, Littletree, Oggspire, and Sullivan." He rattled off quickly, Harry desperately trying to absorb that and figure out if he knew anyone with those names.
He wasn't exactly that well versed in blood status to recognize things instantaneously like he knew a Slytherin might, but he knew families were important and therefore had paid as close attention as he could… and didn't recognize some but others he kind of did. Terry Boot was definitely a Ravenclaw in his year, Marietta Edgecombe he was pretty sure was a Ravenclaw in Lu's year… he didn't immediately recognize the others but names like Fawley, Littletree, and Davies rang all sorts of bells so he probably knew or knew of someone at Hogwarts with those names.
It hit him after a moment that there was absolutely an upper year Slytherin with the name Hornby though… that would be interesting...
Before he got too into plotting though, he pulled back at the thought of if he even should be openly using something like this. 'Conquered bloodlines' seemed… rather oppressive and counter-intuitive to the whole 'Boy Who Lived' thing that Dumbledore had created for him, and whether he liked that reputation or not it did help deflect from his less-than-honest activities sometimes. Particularly with people of power… and particularly if, ultimately, he wanted to be Minister someday then having a light-tinted, celebrity reputation would be useful. And if he came right out of the gate with not only 12 Wizengamont seats the organic way, but also forcing nine other living families to vote with him then he would start to look a little too dark-lord-y in some eyes.
Particularly Dumbledore's, who given how many seats he had obviously knew the importance of political power despite being a school headmaster. If he suddenly found out that Harry had more political weight in the Wizengamont, there was a real chance he'd got from 'pawn' to 'threat' in no time flat.
And he wanted away from Dumbledore, he was not sure he was ready to just openly fight against him. In fact he knew he was not ready for that, not while he was still in school and the man held the power to just expel him for any stupid reason he thought of. For quaffle's sake, they'd pinned all the blame of the last monster running loose in Hogwarts on Hagrid despite him being these days pretty much acknowledged as innocent—it would not take much for them to pin the current monster running loose on another student and expel them to call it all good. Doubly so as he was the only parselmouth in the student body with the threat of the Chamber of Secrets nonsense going around. If Dumbledore found out that Harry was gathering political power as a twelve-year-old, he might not want to risk waiting to see what a grown-up Harry Potter would do in the Wizengamont and the excuse to expel him was right there.
Besides… the Potters were Gryffindors, and despite him not having much connection to them, something about all of this conquering business felt insanely Gryffindor to him. Being full-on 'conquerors', more so than any other pureblood line around them, clearly getting into fights and winning only to… do absolutely nothing with it? None of those lines married in or had existing relationships with the Potter family so far as he was aware, so it felt to him as if his ancestors had gone around getting into extremely violent fights that required one side to completely submit in their defeat, but then everyone just kind of… moved on from it, with nothing to show and no hard feelings afterwards.
Which was so Gryffindor that Harry felt a little exasperated despite being one himself.
Still, his shining example of what a Gryffindor should be like was Neville… and it didn't take half a thought to recognize that if Neville were given this power over other families who'd never done him wrong or even crossed his path before, then he would absolutely not use it. He'd do as the Potter ancestors had and just bury it and forget it eventually, since it wasn't important anymore and it didn't feel 'right' to laud over another family tree you didn't even know personally at this point.
Given the Potters were pureblood though, there was a chance a lot of Slytherin families never forgot even if Harry's own ancestors had. And Sebastian Greengrass already knew Harry was not like the Potters before him… he would be tempted by this kind of power.
And he was, let's be clear about that.
However… the temptation was not greater than his logic, at least not in this moment. Mr. Greengrass might've actually overplayed his hand a bit by letting slip that Harry only needed ten seats to be sure of their success… and with only the inherited seats he would have 12, which would be exactly enough to negate anything Dumbledore did. It would be up to their allies then to vote appropriately, and that would be on the Greengrass family to get right—it's what Harry was going into debt for, after all.
It was a gamble on Sebastian's part to give the exact number, clearly he'd been thinking he'd need to push Harry to try and get more. He hadn't let it slip if he suspected how many seats the Potter or Monroe line had, though if he did know… well, Harry shook that off, knowing that getting into the tail-spin of what a grown Slytherin might know versus what they were just lying about knowing or not knowing would only give him a headache.
Ultimately, there was no need for him to command anyone. He'd do his part by getting the 12 seats he was owed and Sebastian would have to do the rest.
He lifted his head from his thoughts. "I don't need to do anything to command these families, right? It's just if I do order them someday they'd have to do it?"
"I believe for a wizard, to command someone you would need to have a wand in-hand and be intending for them to obey with certainty. A request in a less-serious conversation holds no weight, you must have the intention of ridding them of their magic should they disobey you." Axeclaw clarified helpfully, which was a relief.
So he could sit on this knowledge perhaps forever, and it would never accidentally come up. Like if he called to Terry to pass him the ball in a football game and he didn't, he wouldn't accidentally be ending a magical line, which was a relief.
"And so far as actually using these seats to vote… is it public? Do I have to announce what seats I'm using when it's time to vote?"
The goblin tisked, clearly less interested in the details of how wizarding government worked but he did, unfortunately, know. "No, when a vote is being called only members present with their respective seats may vote: if you are absent, your seat remains dormant for the vote. The vote itself is almost instantaneous, it is called and everyone present must hold in their mind their intention, and thus the result will be calculated and tallied in the official register. It is public on the register what seat voted what, so if you wish to vote 'yes' then the Potter seat will be marked as a 'yes'… but so will the Black and Monroe, and any other seats you take on. While it's obvious you voted for the Potter seat, it is not published that you specifically are the one who voted for them. For example if you voted today then the Bryne seat will also for the first time in over a century cast a vote, but there will be nothing directly acknowledging that you are the one who voted for them."
"It'd pretty obvious though, at least to other purebloods… I publicly inherited the Monroe name and I assume anyone could look back and see that Bryne was a feeder family into that bloodline."
"Most likely. If they do not have Monroe blood and you do not give them permission to view your blood test, there is no way through Gringotts to determine such a thing, but a few fanatical wizards have been known to keep public records dating centuries back."
Meaning some blood fanatics would absolutely know despite there being no living blood descendant of the Monroe line to interrogate or test to confirm.
But then it hit him.
"Wait… so if I cast a vote, then there's a Slytherin seat that will cast a vote in—what I'm assuming is— the first time in hundreds of years?"
"Yes." Axeclaw just nodded, completely contradicting that absolute panic Harry went through for a moment.
"Is there anyway to not vote with a seat? Like use eleven and leave that one alone for now?"
Axeclaw just gave him an annoyed look. "No. By doing the blood test you've been acknowledged the inheritor of that bloodline, and therefore automatically that seat. Any vote you case, all seats are cast with you."
Harry ducked his head and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Shit.
That was going to cause a LOT of problems, he was sure. Much less the fact that every pureblood in existence would do a doubletake and probably freak out about it, but the fact that the Slytherin family seat would vote for Sirius Black's innocence was so not a good look. Sirius might get free but there'd be a lot of death eaters out there who suddenly start doubting if he was one of them or not since their old boss was supposedly the last Slytherin… and a lot of light families would also be clutching their pearls at a 'freed death eater' since he had the backing of the family with the darkest reputation of them all. Everyone was already pre-disposed to think he was a traitorous death eater after all, given that's why he was in Azkaban right now… this would so not help.
…luckily though, all of that would happen after the sentencing. They had to reach the point in the trial that they were voting on if Sirius was innocent or not, and if the vote ended up being for his innocence, even if people looked down and realized there was a troublesome vote in there then it would already be too late.
It would cause a huge mess afterwards but… one step at a time, get Sirius free first and then Harry would try and figure out how to handle that.
Wait a second… he said Slytherin and Gaunt were uncontested.
Harry lifted his head once more, a chill going over his shoulders.
"Back up a second… if the Slytherin seat was just uncontested, that means it isn't taken but… there are other descendants out there that might've had a right to it?"
The goblin just narrowed his eyes. "So it would seem. Before you ask, there is no way to determine who may also have the claim if they are not present to be tested themselves: I merely know the seat was uncontested when I checked it for your right to inherit it. Truly the only way to confirm such a thing is through a blood test, which you already have back to the ancestor in question."
And it was a straight line down to my mother from Liliana… there wasn't enough of the family tree elsewhere to know who else might be in the distant branches.
"No, but like… it wouldn't say that for dead people, right? Only living people would have a claim." Harry felt numb to even ask the question as he knew it was stupid but… he had to check.
"Correct." Axeclaw confirmed in a tone that said he was aware both of how stupid a thing it was to ask, but also aware of why his client wanted to ask it anyway. Just because he had enough grace to at least politely answer that, didn't mean he had patience beyond it though. "Can I assume you intend to inherit these seats then? All nine, on top of the three you already have?"
Harry was thankful to stop his paranoid thoughts from taking over, even at the expense of the dread he was reminded of from these rituals. Learning from last time, he at least remembered to ask questions this time.
"Is it nine separate rituals?"
"Three. One to inherit the Roberts and Fleamont lines; one for Prewett, Gaunt, and Slytherin; and one for Peverell. They are different only because of the reasons I explained earlier, but if the seat status is the same then one ritual will suffice."
"And how long will they take in total?"
"Approximately four hours."
"How much blood will they all require again?"
"At least five times what you currently have, but blood replenishing spells are quite effective."
"Do I get to draw the blood or do you do it?"
"It will vary depending on the ritual."
"They're going to hurt a lot, aren't they?"
"No more than inheriting the Monroe name, I shouldn't imagine."
"Are there potions or some solution to cure me of the effects of the rituals immediately after they're done?" He demanded and Axeclaw just blinked his beady eyes once as if he hadn't expected that question in amongst the barrage.
"I do believe so. For—"
"For a fee, yes," Harry huffed, ignoring the glare he got. "Then yes I'd like to claim the seats and would also like the potions as well. While we're on the topic, can I offer you and Gringotts as a whole a bit of advice in exchange for a discount? Or at least keeping the original fee?"
He got eyed sharply at the word 'discount' but the goblin just pointedly put his fingers together and sat back in his seat stiffly.
"It depends on the advice." He countered.
"Once given, I can't take the knowledge back and I'd like to get an agreement that prices won't change for me because of it."
Axeclaw seemed to mull that over for a second, before nodding once.
"…very well."
He lifted the quill resting on his desk to pen something briefly on a piece of parchment, spinning it around for Harry to see a brief sentence of their exchange.
"Prices may change for any other reason, but they will not change in response to the knowledge you are about to share." Axeclaw communicated verbally as well, as Harry read it.
He looked it over carefully but it really was a simple agreement, so he just nodded—the goblin immediately snatching it up and with a snap of his fingers from the now-empty hand that used to hold the parchment, came a soft ripple in the air Harry almost missed if he hadn't been looking right at his gnarled grip.
While it'd just been a simple sentence on paper in an exchange less than a minute long, Harry immediately got the impression that the deal was very much binding now.
So he got down to holding his end of the bargain up:
"About your blood rituals… you should really tell people up front that there's a potion to cure the aftereffects. Also, you could increase the price of them by a factor of ten and people would still buy them—particularly purebloods. Humans are much weaker than goblins in that it really sucks for us and if we can pay to make it go away there are a ton who'd take you up on that."
Axeclaw seemed to sit back in his chair a little more as if considering those words doubtfully.
"You say that since these will require blood rituals… you would like the potions at the standard rate."
"What you charge anyone else is none of my business."
"Very well. An interesting bit of knowledge, Mr. Potter." The goblin dismissed. Not a 'thanks' or a 'I'll do it', but good enough. "There is more involved in setting up these rituals as it will need to be done through the Ministry as well, so it will take me about a week to arrange everything. I can have the potions prepared during that time as well."
Harry did the math and counted the days they had left until Christmas, biting his lip a moment.
"I don't want to do it on or the day after Christmas, but any time after that and before the new year I can make time to come in." He agreed.
"Understood. We will plan for the 27th then." He promptly moved on without sparing much more ceremony for the large topic they were closing. "Onto other business, I trust you received my letter about your vault status."
"I did, thank you," Harry closed the folder he was holding to put it in his bag, assuming this was his copy when he wasn't stopped. He pulled out a list he had ready for this moment though. "I'd like to keep the mail wards as-is, but if we can add this list of people to those allowed to contact me directly."
The goblin took it and nodded once. "And on the topic of the Eileen Prince Foundation?"
"About that… maybe I'm just not understanding the reports correctly or something, but what is the fund even for if Hogwarts is supposed to be open to all magical students?" He had gone over the paperwork the best he could but it was still very technical and full of financial-language he only half knew at this point. Draco was a great resource for general terms but the specifics of things for the foundation were lost on him.
"Education at Hogwarts is not free, however that is the story that is spun since the Ministry supplements most of the tuition cost for students. In centuries past it was sufficient to cover the entire tuition, but over time the cost of Hogwarts has increased while the Ministry stipend has not. This disconnect means that yes, there is a cost for each student that needs to be covered in some way."
Harry frowned at how he phrased that, his pre-existing suspicion of Albus Dumbledore kicking in.
"So to be sure I understand from that report you sent, it costs about 5889 galleons for one student to go to Hogwarts, but the Ministry pays 5681…?"
"Which means that there is 208 galleons per student to be paid, yes. Rounding for galleons." Axeclaw confirmed, Harry hating the way he'd phrased that again.
"And to support the foundation for this coming year? Muggleborns only."
"Actually I have received a notification on your trust vault that the tuition is going up once again for the coming year, to 213 galleons rounded up. Gringotts does not have access to the list of potential muggleborns but assumptions can be made about previous population sizes to assume it will need anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 galleons to fund for the next school year."
Harry was an exceptionally rich child but he was at least financially literate enough at this point to know, generally, that the average wizard's yearly salary was pretty much around 4,000 galleons.
Therefore: what the quaffle!?
How expensive was Hogwarts!? If most of their stuff is magically done, why do they need this much money? If they had all this lying around, they could easily afford to hire a new History professor instead of making the dead guy keep doing it.
He crossed his arms as he sat back to think that over, unable to shake the suspicion either.
No, the real question is why the increase, and why doesn't the Ministry match it if they always used to.
The answer to the second part was probably Albus Dumbledore.
He'd just learned the headmaster with his Wizengamont seats and allies had held a monopoly on votes for the past forty years, so things happening (or not happening) in recent years was pretty obviously him. Well, obvious if you knew how many seats he had, that was, since if it was technically anonymous there was a good chance only dedicated Slytherins actually did know how much power an individual had (which suddenly put the emphasis on bloodlines way much more context if knowing who was related to who could literally tell you how much power someone had in today's government). Harry was planning on deflecting and hiding his own true seat count as much as he could after all, as the less people could predict or pin things on him the better, so it'd only make so much sense Dumbledore probably ended up on the same strategy at some point in the past. Secretly obtain seats somehow, not tell anyone, then when the vote went one way you could pretend to act however you wanted about it since your 'one vote' couldn't have been the deciding factor after all… you were part of the crown, not it's guiding hand.
It was also much easier to then deflect away from votes that didn't happen if you had a secret majority. If the Hogwarts tuition kept going up every year or so by a couple galleons here and there, it might not seem like a very important topic to bring to a full vote in Wizengamont with other things like criminal cases and taxes and other big important government things happening. It'd get skipped for a couple years, prices would continue to go up… then if ever someone does have an idea to bring the vote around to expand the Hogwarts budget, it gets voted down. Dumbledore as Headmaster could probably give some bullshit excuse about why he voted against it with his 'one' vote, like saying that it was handled or that it wasn't that important right now. No one else was probably fighting that hard to give more taxpayer money to Hogwarts if they could use it elsewhere, especially if Dumbledore was saying it was under control—and since the vote had gone to the 'majority' no one cared to think very hard about it and just moved on.
Which meant over time the amount that each student needed to pay was just growing, and growing, and growing. The fund Lily Potter had originally created was for about a thousand galleons to cover all muggleborns and even their out-of-pocket school supplies (which should average around 150 galleons per person itself) and that used to cover every single incoming muggleborn. That 7000 galleons in the will should've lasted Hogwarts ten years going by the prices at the time she'd died.
By the report Axeclaw had given him, that fund had dried up before Harry himself had turned four. A mere two-and-a-half years after her death technically, and the money was gone. Going by the odd amount, and mentally calculating how much a young muggleborn witch was probably making working part-time during a war in the scant four years she had after graduating Hogwarts and her death… Harry had a sinking, burning suspicion that that money had been his mother's entire life's savings in the wizarding world.
The 'Potter' family as in his father's bloodline had a significant amount of money that the will could've just said 'fund it forever'. But it wasn't James Potter's foundation, it was something Mr. Malfoy explicitly said Lily Potter had started in honor of a friend. It was a foundation that was only given to muggleborns specifically, and given she was a muggleborn who'd married into a pureblood line… Harry could read between the lines.
Yet it was gone years ago, because Dumbledore was up to something. He was putting one hand in each pie by being the one to increase tuition, yet also being the one preventing the Ministry from matching it, very purposefully putting it onto the shoulders of the students themselves to pay up—when the Ministry would pay for it according to their own charter.
As corrupt as it was, it was also… boring?
It just seemed so beneath Albus Dumbledore to stoop to embezzling of all the things. There had to be a better way in the already-corrupt wizarding world than something so cartoonishly, stereotypically evil. Normal evil somehow, like a pedestrian criminal. He was a royal bastard but the headmaster wasn't pedestrian with his plots by any means—his cleverness and intricately crafted schemes were what made him such a bastard and this felt a little too direct and ordinary for him.
What made no sense on any planet was how the actual bludger no Slytherin family hadn't used this to bury the man by now. Sebastian Greengrass knew he had the secret majority in Wizengamont, so surely pretty much every pureblood snake out there did too, right?
But then the obvious plot hole in this assumption hit him.
"Axeclaw, how do purebloods afford this tuition?"
"Excuse me?" He lifted a brow at the sudden request.
"Not to be blunt, but the Weasley family definitely cannot afford to send five kids to Hogwarts if they can't afford new textbooks every year. And they don't qualify for this scholarship, so how do purebloods do it? People like the Malfoys are one thing, but if the price keeps going up one would think someone like say the Greengrass family or the like would be out to strike a deal instead of paying full price."
The goblin just folded his hands in front of him with a wicked grin.
"You are correct—most purebloods have arrangements with Hogwarts to cover their tuition in… other ways. Most of those methods are not financial in nature, although what it is per family is between them and the school."
That's why the clause for this fund is NOT to be pureblood: because purebloods aren't paying it. That's why Mom was so blatant about the condition… because it IS unfair and she was trying to fix the balance.
Even if Lily Evans had not known about Dumbledore's active ploy here, she was still a muggleborn of average muggle family wealth and aware that there were fees and financial struggles associated with going to a magical school out of nowhere. Marrying James Potter or even earlier she probably found out quick that purebloods and those with family wealth and prior connection to the wizarding world got out of those fees, so it was just the muggleborns suffering. She probably just recognized it as something unfair about the wizarding world (since there were so many other issues it probably blended right in) and sought to balance the power dynamic a little by funding the muggleborn fees so that no one was even paying this tuition anymore. Pretty much only her before… and now her son if he chose to continue the legacy.
It was all a farce though, because Dumbledore wasn't lying to the Ministry when he said 'it was under control', because he did not need the money for the school. Of course it was under control, he was artificially upping the tuition cost to create a fake sense of importance over Hogwarts' education, but the Ministry already paid him enough to run the school in the first place.
Now that Harry thought about it, Dumbledore probably could give a shit about the actual money he was embezzling. He was probably way more interested in getting whatever deals the pureblood families had done to get out of the fees, and all he wanted to do by this is create those situations in which even the most Slytherin of the Slytherins had to deal with him. Create situations where he could benevolently waive the tuition as a favor here and there to garner goodwill and respect… a sense of gratitude and 'I owe you one' from people who bought into it. Harry wouldn't be shocked if no one actually ended up paying the tuition naturally, or if Dumbledore waived it for pretty much everyone— which is how he earned so much good faith to almost everyone before they even got to Hogwarts.
On the other hand he also wouldn't be shocked if there were quite a few people lining Dumbledore's pockets directly. How he operated almost entirely off of the parents of muggleborns who had no idea they weren't funding their child's education. It did make him a little sick to realize just how many purebloods and half-bloods were, on the most part, outright taking advantage of their ignorance too.
And suddenly he got a horrifying thought.
"Wait, I'm paying tuition, right!?"
Axeclaw scoffed. "Yes. You would not have seen it on your statements as James Potter made a large donation to Hogwarts upon your birth that more than covered tuition for all your remaining years. The previous arrangement the Potter family had was withdrawn when Charles and Dorea Potter passed and left James Potter as the heir of the family. He officially canceled the deal himself, so far as I'm aware."
"And out of curiosity, what was the deal?"
"That the Potter family would provide suitable Defense Against the Dark Arts professors so long as Hogwarts had need of them."
Harry could only stare at that.
You've got to be kidding me. Dad broke a deal and Hogwarts was NEVER able to freaking fix it? Also, what kind of twisted shit is this, that the Potter kids never had to pay tuition so long as one of them or a friend was always employed? Free tuition for a whole family in exchange for a job?
That math sucked.
It also reeked of nepotism, and it ticked him off.
Especially because if the Potters, a supposed light family, had this kind of deal until Harry assumed Lily Evans got involved, there was no saying what some of the pureblood, darker Slytherin families had done. And Dumbledore liked to claim he was so benevolent; Harry wasn't sure what the general public would think if this were common knowledge.
Or maybe it was common knowledge and no one cared since they profited off those who were ignorant.
That pissed him off even more.
Axeclaw noticed his rising blood pressure and tapped the desk pointedly. "Do you intend to reactive the foundation? If so which accounts would you like to draw from?" He brought it back to the original question.
He wanted to say no—so badly he did, because it was essentially directly paying Dumbledore for his stupid scheme. He'd taken his mother's money and now wanted to continue to take his family's money since he didn't really consider most of it 'his' in an odd way.
Actually…
He sat up as he got an idea.
"I still have well over half a million galleons on the royalties of those books people wrote about me, right?"
"You do." Axeclaw nodded. "The renegotiation of the royalty fee was quite successful, so profit has been maintained even if sales are lower in recent years."
"Use that money for the Foundation—also increase the offer to cover all the required school supplies as well. Still only to full muggleborns."
"Of course," Axeclaw took note on the parchment waiting in front of him smoothly.
"A requirement though," He corrected, mischief flaring sharply. "Is that the Foundation will only cover materials bought in Contrair Alley. And however you get in contact with the new muggleborns their first year, I want to provide each of them some basic starting materials—I'll provide a full list later. When will you know who they are?"
"The list should be published officially in the Ministry by next June. In most cases Hogwarts will have known about them already since the day they were born, but they do not need to officially declare the incoming class until Hogwarts submits the headcount needed for Ministry subsidization."
"I'll have you the list by this May then to source all the right materials." He declared, already mentally reciting what he needed to put into a letter to Bethany. He wanted all the books Draco had helped point him towards as a standard package, like Latin for Dummies and A Brief Hogwarts History that Bethany herself wrote as a much-condensed and more helpful version of Hogwarts, A History.
People had made money off of him without his permission so he was going to use that to follow his mother's footsteps in evening the playing field for some people. If Diagon took a financial hit by losing about a third of their expected back-to-school sales, all the better for his sense of pettiness.
He'd already had Axeclaw invest in several Contrair shops after all, so boosting their economy would hopefully only be a good thing for everyone involved. The old money purebloods in Diagon didn't need a single knut more, so far as he was concerned.
"I'll see it done then."
"One more question, about business in general," He thankfully remembered one of the main reasons he'd come outside of the other very alarming topics discussed thus far. "I heard there was a tea tasting this Easter and am interested in how it all works so I might attend. Not to buy or trade anything yet but I want to learn to someday do exactly that." He announced, and clearly the goblin liked the idea by how far his eyebrows raised.
"Anything I can do to assist, please let me know."
That's the politest he's ever been. There must be a LOT of money in tastings then.
"First thing's first, I've already gotten questions about restarting the 'Potter business', but I'm not sure what it was my family did." He confessed—clearly Axeclaw was thrilled with this topic though as he sat up and pressed his hands flat against the desk top cleanly.
"The past two generations of Potters did not pursue the trade so it has long-since been dormant. You would not have seen any documentation for it in your Gringotts statements or the reports I provided since all deals and previously established connections have since expired. The 'Potter business' does not currently exist, but perhaps the reputation it once had is still alluring to some." He preambled curtly before getting to the point. "The trade was potion ingredients. Rare ones. It originated in the 12th century with a Linfred of Stinchcombe who was an avid potioneer that established the initial Potter family wealth with the potions he invented. In future generations occasionally there are descendants that also create potions or products that multiply the family wealth, which was then passed down to what it is today. Even outside of those generations that hold an inventor, the Potter family was historically avid in the potion ingredient trade, specializing in certain ingredients that are extraordinarily rare to obtain. Not just expensive, but merely too rare to even put a price on."
No wonder the grey heirs were salivating over the idea. It was something not even their wealth or connections could give them—they had to have a connection to me specifically, Harry Potter, with access to the Potter family trade to get these ingredients it sounded like. Which would be GREAT if not for the fact I have no idea how it was my ancestors got them in the first place.
"Let's just say I'm interested," He admitted bluntly, ignoring the frankly creepy grin he got in return at the news. "I don't suppose you have any idea how my ancestors got those ingredients in the first place?"
The goblin lost his grin immediately. "I do not. If you do not have the information then perhaps it is stored in the Potter vault."
"Which I don't have access to until I'm 17." He concluded, meaning his grand plans of getting into business was going to have to be put on hold for a little bit. He wasn't too mad about it as he wasn't sure he wanted to take all that on at this age anyway—he'd just been talked into learning more muggle subjects than just Chemistry, and after going over the lesson plans with Remus and learning what it'd really take to get his GCSEs and maybe an A-level if it came to that, he thought maybe he should just focus on that for now.
"I'm still interested but I have enough going on right now then, I'll revisit this later after I attend a couple tastings." He decided.
"Very well," the goblin curbed his enthusiasm but seemed satisfied by the promise of 'someday'.
I was about to say five years would probably fly by, but at the rate I'm going maybe I won't even live to be 17… let's not tell Axeclaw that, I'd hate to burst his bubble. I've never seen him this happy.
"Is that all, Mr. Potter?"
"One last thing: I want to visit the Monroe vault."
000
To his joy, he found Remus in Bethany's Books, peacefully minding his own business.
It shouldn't be such a relief to find a grown man paging through a book curiously, perfectly alone in a public shop, but suffice to say Harry was in fact very relieved.
"Moony!" He greeted happily, thankful to be done with his once-loved hobby of shopping.
The werewolf looked up, smiling automatically. "Harry… did you get everything you needed?"
"Yep!" he confirmed, patting his bottomless bag securely at his side. "That should be everything—now it's just a matter of wrapping all of that." He half complained… wrapping was much less interesting than the actual obtaining of the gift unfortunately.
"Well we have plenty of time to get to it, and I might know a spell or two that'll make it go quick," Remus winked and Harry perked up at the reminder that magic had the ability to make the most tedious tasks much easier. He wanted to know that spell even if he couldn't use it outside of Hogwarts just yet as it seemed like one of those real handy ones.
"Yay!" He cheered, but then couldn't stop himself from asking. "Did you like Contrair so far?"
"I did, actually." Remus smiled down at him, gold eyes glinting saying he knew exactly what Harry was asking. "I haven't run into anyone just yet, but then again I haven't gone very far either. I mostly was just here reading… this place has an interesting collection for sure."
"Did you meet Bethany?" He asked, leaning through an aisle and seeing the woman in question curled up behind he till—where she'd put a large comfy armchair and was actively nose-deep in a book herself right now.
"I did not… you're familiar?" Moony tilted his head—attempting to look around too but Harry stopped him with just his head around the aisle to see where she was, but still kind of hide away from her.
"I mean kind of… she's super chatty. Really nice but a lot like Hermione that if you catch her in a conversation on a topic she's fixated on she won't stop until you break it off by physically walking away. She's really knowledgeable and taught me a lot about Latin the first time I was here and buying beginner Latin books, but it also took forty minutes to leave. I do suggest meeting her as she's really helpful but ah… maybe not today."
"You want to go home," Remus called him out, amused, and Harry pouted.
"Please?"
"Of course. I'll put this back then," He chuckled, returning the book he was holding to it's shelf. "No other stops then?"
"Nothing for Christmas, no… although, I have to go back to Gringotts two days after Christmas if you don't mind," He admitted. Moony put his book back and turned, looking surprised.
"Is everything alright?"
"Yeah, just all that financial stuff… Draco's been teaching me about it and Axeclaw, the Potter account manager, needs my approval on a ton of stuff to keep things okay." He kind of skirted around any solid truths, knowing he didn't really want to share the details but also not being able to completely lie to Remus either. "Since my parents died suddenly there were things left open that have gotten troublesome in the years since. Did you know my mom started a charity?"
He kind of blurted it out, half thinking Remus would already know about it… but by how sharply he turned and the alarm on his face, apparently he had in fact not known.
"She did?" He blinked.
"Yeah! But uh, since no one has been attending to it, it's kind of a mess right now. With what Draco taught me about financial stuff I want to get it going again as soon as I can. It's a scholarship fund for muggleborns who can't pay the Hogwarts' tuition and the list of next year's students is decided this June so I want to do it before I go back to school if possible! Most of it is things I need to sign in person unfortunately."
He danced around the real truths… getting so deep into 'technically not a lie' that even he knew he was full of bullshit but… he couldn't help it. He was pretty much outright lying and manipulating his unofficial godfather, what with the financial troubles reminder, the callback to his parents, playing on a Gryffindor's dedication to their friends… he might be a werewolf but he was also a weak-spined lion, and would never be able to properly argue against this argument.
He could tell the exact second his ploy worked and talk of supporting financially struggling muggleborns melted the werewolf's heart—and therefore his suspicions.
If Harry felt guilty he just shoved it down, telling himself he'd make up for it by giving him Sirius back.
Moony seemed to need a moment to collect himself before a smile made an almost pointed appearance on his face.
"I think it's admirable you're trying to follow in her footsteps. We'll have to come back after Christmas then." He agreed, and Harry smiled his best carefree smile and tried to not let it show how much the dread at the blood rituals ate at his stomach.
"It's getting late, so we should go yeah?" He changed the subject back to their plans, eagerly bouncing next to the man to cling to his arm as if he could apparate them back right then and there. As much as he liked shopping and Contrair in particular… he just wanted to go home right now. The idea that they didn't have to leave again until the holiday finally arrived and even afterwards filled him with a type of excitement he'd never really had before.
Moony chuckled, before putting a calming hand on his head to settle his bouncing.
"We should be going, yes, however—I had one more idea for today, if you were interested."
His tone was warm and sounded even a little excited, and Harry picked up on it immediately, getting on board fast.
"Like what?"