Categories > Books > Harry Potter > a battle of subtlety and manipulation
a battle of subtlety and manipulation
2 reviewsHarry, the summer before fourth year, finds out he is the heir of five different families and ends up becoming contracted to someone he never would have imagined eve being friends with. Find out ho...
2Original
Test results
Letter
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
A battle of subtlety and manipulation
Chapter one
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
----Harry----
“What are we doing here again?” Harry asked Bill Weasley as the Gringotts curse breaker led him to the Wizard Bank early one morning.
“The Goblins believe they have found a possible connection between you and an, until now, thought to be extinct magical family so they want to verify.” Bill said calmly as they passed a pair of bowing goblins and entered the bank.
After about five minutes they reached an office that read ‘Inheritance office’ and opened it to find three ancient looking goblins behind the desk. “Ah Lord Potter welcome, you may go Curse Breaker Weasley, I will send Mr. Potter to you when we are finished.” the tallest and most authoritative looking of the goblins said neutrally as Bill left, “I am Director Ragnok and here with me are Stoneaxe from Extinct Vaults and Bloodfang from Inheritance. Are you prepared for today’s test?”.
“I cannot answer that as I do not know what the test will entail.” Harry said cautiously as Bill had spent the past three days warning him about the underhandedness of the goblins and he didn’t want to make a bad impression.
Bloodfang raised an eyebrow at him, “Muggle raised?” he asked and Harry nodded feeling stupid. “The test is fairly simple,” Bloodfang continued as if nothing had happened “you will make a cut on your palm and fill up this goblet and the blood will drain away and will be used as ink on this parchment to say which houses you are heir to.” he finished while placing the aforementioned items on the desk.
Nodding in understanding Harry grabbed the offered dagger and made the cut on his palm and put his cut over the goblet and let it fill up and, once the needed amount of blood had been reached, his cut healed instantly. After a moment the blood drained from the goblet and words appeared on the parchment, when it was done Ragnok picked it up before his eyes widened almost comically before he handed it to the two other goblins who had similar reactions before they handed it to him and he read:
Name: Harry James Potter
Heir to: Potter family (blood), Peverell family (blood), Emrys family (blood), Gryffindor family (magic), and Slytherin family (conquest).
Magical core rating: Average 14 year old: 78. Average Adult: 93. Merlin Emrys: 777. Yours: naturally 250, enhanced from basilisk venom and phoenix tears to 500, blocked to 95.
Animagus form: Black Panther.
Magical abilities: Parsletongue “What does this mean for me exactly?” he asked the still somewhat shell-shocked goblins.
Shaking himself Ragnok said “Well Lord Potter it is different for each of the families. The Potter family Lordship provides some property and access to your family vault but not much else. The Gryffindor and Slytherin families give you two of the now three votes for the Hogwarts School board and any artifacts belonging to the two founders but nothing else beside their vaults. The Peverell and Emrys families are two of the three most powerful families in our nation’s history and those three families in fact set up our government. Along with their vaults and properties you will gain their seats on the Wizenagamot, they are two of the three great council seats that, if there is a majority vote, can veto any motion that the Wizenagamot puts forth along with their normal vote but they, along with the third family of Le Fay, haven’t been seen for the past eight hundred years.”.
“Okay so I have a large as hell magical core that is mostly blocked, more political power than anyone else could possibly dream of, and control of Hogwarts.” Harry said before continuing almost hysterically, “Am I dreaming, is a talking dragon going to come out of nowhere and declare themselves my familiar. Will I be declared king of the magical world. I am losing it, this cannot be possible.” he started raving at the end until Bloodfang slapped him across the face. After a moment the shock wore off and he said, “Thank you Bloodfang I needed that.” which got a nod from the goblin, “I would like to keep my new status as low profile as possible.”.
“Not a problem Lord Potter,” Bloodfang said, “you will need to claim the Head of House rings but they are enchanted to only be visible should you wish it. When you place them on they will inform you if there are any marriage contracts that could affect you and will break the block slowly over the next couple of days.”.
“Marriage contracts?!” he exclaimed as five ring boxes appeared in a flash of light, “What do you mean marriage contracts?!”.
“Relax Lord Potter they are very rare and only the most die-hard of purebloods even use them anymore.” Stoneaxe said clearly amused at his reactions. Nervously he placed the first ring, the Potter one, on the ring finger of his right hand and there was a white flash of light. “That white flash of light Lord Potter meant that there were no Marriage contracts for the Potter family.” Stoneaxe said assuredly making Harry calm greatly as he slipped the rest of the rings on. One by one he put the rings on and with each one a diamond appeared in the gold border around the Potter family main seal and each one flashed white until he slipped on the Peverell ring which flashed blue. Before he could ask Stoneaxe said “That Lord Potter means that the Peverell family does indeed have a Marriage contract but it is not viable, either the family is extinct, they have no daughters, or all of their daughters are already married.” Which made him slightly nervous but still relatively calm.
“Wait a minute,” he said when a thought occurred to me, “you only referred to me as Lord Potter but there are five families. Is there a reason for this?”.
“Well technically your name is Lord Harry James Potter-Peverell-Gryffindor-Slytherin-Emrys but most people when there is more than one hyphenated name just say their birth family unless they are in a situation where a different name would suit their needs better.” Ragnok said assuaging his curiosity.
They called Bill back in and sent him on his way telling him that they would send a special Gringotts falcon, they considered owls to wizardly, if they thought he needed to know something.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
----One Week Later----
----Quiditch World Cup----
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Harry was running with Hermione and the rest of the underage Weasleys away from the Death Eaters as they pillaged and ransacked the campground bringing up the rear, just before he could reach the trail however a curse shot above his shoulder and caused several branches to fall down and block his path. Spinning around he saw three of the Death Eaters surrounding him as he was sealed off by flames and debris making him scowl as he drew his wand.
The three men quickly shouted the words “Avada kedavera!” and he rolled forward making the three curses fly over his head as he snapped off a stupefy, a spell that he had read about and tried after the dementor incident last year, as he went into his roll and another as he rose before sending the stunning spell at the third member who hadn’t moved since he fired his curse.
After a few minutes a large glowing skull appeared in the sky followed by a second five minutes later which quickly vanished. Soon enough the Weasleys, Hermione, and several other ministry members walked out of the forest vanishing the debris and stopped when they saw him. “Harry what happened?” Mr. Weasley demanded running forward to make sure he was alright.
“I’m fine Mr. Weasley.” Harry said as the other Ministry members walked up, “those three Death Eaters blocked of my path before sending three curses called ‘avada kedavera’ at me. I rolled under them throwing off a stupefy as I entered the roll and another as I came up before sending out a third at the last of them. They didn’t seem too intelligent as they didn’t move from their positions at all.”.
“I highly doubt you could beat three Death Eaters boy so tell me who really bested them.” an arrogant man who looked somewhat like a banker snarled at him.
“I did beat them you pretentious arsehole.” he growled out.
“Would you be willing to let us test your wand?” a portly but amicable looking man asked nervously.
“Yes I would Mr…” he replied and was replied with “Diggory, Amos Diggory.” before his wand was tested and then handed back to him.
“Fine so the little brat got lucky and beat them. Now let’s find out who they are.” the banker looking man grumbled before removed the masks of the first two men. “Lords Crabbe and Goyle.” he muttered before waving his wand, “And no sign of the imperius curse.”. He then turned to the final man and removed his mask gasping in the process, “Lord Malfoy,” he quickly waved his wand “also no sign of the Imperius curse.”.
While he did this Amos Diggory tested the three wands and confirmed they used the avada kedavera. “And automatic life sentence in Azkaban.” he muttered before he conjured chains around them and turned to the others. “As a department head of the Ministry of Magic it is within my rights and authorities to send them to Azkaban for use of one of the Unforgivables against another human being. They will be tested with Veritaserum upon their arrival to be sure.” before he turned an item into a portkey and vanished with the three men.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
----The Burrow----
----Next Day----
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Harry was sitting in his room at the burrow thinking about what had happened the day before when a falcon bearing the Gringotts seal flew in threw the window. Opening the letter he read:
Greetings Lord Potter-Peverell-Gryffindor-Slytherin-Emrys,
The marriage contract for the Peverell family has become active so you are needed to come to Gringotts at nine o’clock tomorrow morning to discuss what it entails and meat the recipient.
Sincerely,
Director Ragnok
upon finishing this he groaned and flopped back on the bed, “Great,” me muttered “just great.”.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
----9:00 A.M. next day----
----Ragnok’s office----
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
“What caused the contract to activate Director” Harry asked once he sat down.
“Well Lord Potter a daughter of the family you had the contract with became divorced yesterday and so your contract activated. And please just call me Ragnok.” Ragnok said somewhat sympathetically to his situation.
“Then please call me Harry Ragnok so what does the contract entail?” he asked.
Unfurling a scroll Ragnok read, “Well you will have to provide an heir if there is no other one available that will have the contracted family’s name; you will have to pay a bride price of ten thousand galleons, but seeing as she is the last free member of the family you will have control of its monies until your heir for the family comes of age; and you must never be convicted of a life sentence or the contract is nullified and your will become divorced.”.
Raising an eyebrow Harry replied, “Well those all make sense but you haven’t told me who I’m contracted to yet.”.
Ragnok suddenly got nervous, “Well you see the thing is…” but didn’t get any farther as the door opened and Narcissa Malfoy walked in, her eye’s widening in surprise when she saw him, “you’re contracted to Narcissa Black.” he finished just as Harry passed out from shock.
Letter
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
A battle of subtlety and manipulation
Chapter one
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
----Harry----
“What are we doing here again?” Harry asked Bill Weasley as the Gringotts curse breaker led him to the Wizard Bank early one morning.
“The Goblins believe they have found a possible connection between you and an, until now, thought to be extinct magical family so they want to verify.” Bill said calmly as they passed a pair of bowing goblins and entered the bank.
After about five minutes they reached an office that read ‘Inheritance office’ and opened it to find three ancient looking goblins behind the desk. “Ah Lord Potter welcome, you may go Curse Breaker Weasley, I will send Mr. Potter to you when we are finished.” the tallest and most authoritative looking of the goblins said neutrally as Bill left, “I am Director Ragnok and here with me are Stoneaxe from Extinct Vaults and Bloodfang from Inheritance. Are you prepared for today’s test?”.
“I cannot answer that as I do not know what the test will entail.” Harry said cautiously as Bill had spent the past three days warning him about the underhandedness of the goblins and he didn’t want to make a bad impression.
Bloodfang raised an eyebrow at him, “Muggle raised?” he asked and Harry nodded feeling stupid. “The test is fairly simple,” Bloodfang continued as if nothing had happened “you will make a cut on your palm and fill up this goblet and the blood will drain away and will be used as ink on this parchment to say which houses you are heir to.” he finished while placing the aforementioned items on the desk.
Nodding in understanding Harry grabbed the offered dagger and made the cut on his palm and put his cut over the goblet and let it fill up and, once the needed amount of blood had been reached, his cut healed instantly. After a moment the blood drained from the goblet and words appeared on the parchment, when it was done Ragnok picked it up before his eyes widened almost comically before he handed it to the two other goblins who had similar reactions before they handed it to him and he read:
Name: Harry James Potter
Heir to: Potter family (blood), Peverell family (blood), Emrys family (blood), Gryffindor family (magic), and Slytherin family (conquest).
Magical core rating: Average 14 year old: 78. Average Adult: 93. Merlin Emrys: 777. Yours: naturally 250, enhanced from basilisk venom and phoenix tears to 500, blocked to 95.
Animagus form: Black Panther.
Magical abilities: Parsletongue “What does this mean for me exactly?” he asked the still somewhat shell-shocked goblins.
Shaking himself Ragnok said “Well Lord Potter it is different for each of the families. The Potter family Lordship provides some property and access to your family vault but not much else. The Gryffindor and Slytherin families give you two of the now three votes for the Hogwarts School board and any artifacts belonging to the two founders but nothing else beside their vaults. The Peverell and Emrys families are two of the three most powerful families in our nation’s history and those three families in fact set up our government. Along with their vaults and properties you will gain their seats on the Wizenagamot, they are two of the three great council seats that, if there is a majority vote, can veto any motion that the Wizenagamot puts forth along with their normal vote but they, along with the third family of Le Fay, haven’t been seen for the past eight hundred years.”.
“Okay so I have a large as hell magical core that is mostly blocked, more political power than anyone else could possibly dream of, and control of Hogwarts.” Harry said before continuing almost hysterically, “Am I dreaming, is a talking dragon going to come out of nowhere and declare themselves my familiar. Will I be declared king of the magical world. I am losing it, this cannot be possible.” he started raving at the end until Bloodfang slapped him across the face. After a moment the shock wore off and he said, “Thank you Bloodfang I needed that.” which got a nod from the goblin, “I would like to keep my new status as low profile as possible.”.
“Not a problem Lord Potter,” Bloodfang said, “you will need to claim the Head of House rings but they are enchanted to only be visible should you wish it. When you place them on they will inform you if there are any marriage contracts that could affect you and will break the block slowly over the next couple of days.”.
“Marriage contracts?!” he exclaimed as five ring boxes appeared in a flash of light, “What do you mean marriage contracts?!”.
“Relax Lord Potter they are very rare and only the most die-hard of purebloods even use them anymore.” Stoneaxe said clearly amused at his reactions. Nervously he placed the first ring, the Potter one, on the ring finger of his right hand and there was a white flash of light. “That white flash of light Lord Potter meant that there were no Marriage contracts for the Potter family.” Stoneaxe said assuredly making Harry calm greatly as he slipped the rest of the rings on. One by one he put the rings on and with each one a diamond appeared in the gold border around the Potter family main seal and each one flashed white until he slipped on the Peverell ring which flashed blue. Before he could ask Stoneaxe said “That Lord Potter means that the Peverell family does indeed have a Marriage contract but it is not viable, either the family is extinct, they have no daughters, or all of their daughters are already married.” Which made him slightly nervous but still relatively calm.
“Wait a minute,” he said when a thought occurred to me, “you only referred to me as Lord Potter but there are five families. Is there a reason for this?”.
“Well technically your name is Lord Harry James Potter-Peverell-Gryffindor-Slytherin-Emrys but most people when there is more than one hyphenated name just say their birth family unless they are in a situation where a different name would suit their needs better.” Ragnok said assuaging his curiosity.
They called Bill back in and sent him on his way telling him that they would send a special Gringotts falcon, they considered owls to wizardly, if they thought he needed to know something.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
----One Week Later----
----Quiditch World Cup----
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Harry was running with Hermione and the rest of the underage Weasleys away from the Death Eaters as they pillaged and ransacked the campground bringing up the rear, just before he could reach the trail however a curse shot above his shoulder and caused several branches to fall down and block his path. Spinning around he saw three of the Death Eaters surrounding him as he was sealed off by flames and debris making him scowl as he drew his wand.
The three men quickly shouted the words “Avada kedavera!” and he rolled forward making the three curses fly over his head as he snapped off a stupefy, a spell that he had read about and tried after the dementor incident last year, as he went into his roll and another as he rose before sending the stunning spell at the third member who hadn’t moved since he fired his curse.
After a few minutes a large glowing skull appeared in the sky followed by a second five minutes later which quickly vanished. Soon enough the Weasleys, Hermione, and several other ministry members walked out of the forest vanishing the debris and stopped when they saw him. “Harry what happened?” Mr. Weasley demanded running forward to make sure he was alright.
“I’m fine Mr. Weasley.” Harry said as the other Ministry members walked up, “those three Death Eaters blocked of my path before sending three curses called ‘avada kedavera’ at me. I rolled under them throwing off a stupefy as I entered the roll and another as I came up before sending out a third at the last of them. They didn’t seem too intelligent as they didn’t move from their positions at all.”.
“I highly doubt you could beat three Death Eaters boy so tell me who really bested them.” an arrogant man who looked somewhat like a banker snarled at him.
“I did beat them you pretentious arsehole.” he growled out.
“Would you be willing to let us test your wand?” a portly but amicable looking man asked nervously.
“Yes I would Mr…” he replied and was replied with “Diggory, Amos Diggory.” before his wand was tested and then handed back to him.
“Fine so the little brat got lucky and beat them. Now let’s find out who they are.” the banker looking man grumbled before removed the masks of the first two men. “Lords Crabbe and Goyle.” he muttered before waving his wand, “And no sign of the imperius curse.”. He then turned to the final man and removed his mask gasping in the process, “Lord Malfoy,” he quickly waved his wand “also no sign of the Imperius curse.”.
While he did this Amos Diggory tested the three wands and confirmed they used the avada kedavera. “And automatic life sentence in Azkaban.” he muttered before he conjured chains around them and turned to the others. “As a department head of the Ministry of Magic it is within my rights and authorities to send them to Azkaban for use of one of the Unforgivables against another human being. They will be tested with Veritaserum upon their arrival to be sure.” before he turned an item into a portkey and vanished with the three men.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
----The Burrow----
----Next Day----
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Harry was sitting in his room at the burrow thinking about what had happened the day before when a falcon bearing the Gringotts seal flew in threw the window. Opening the letter he read:
Greetings Lord Potter-Peverell-Gryffindor-Slytherin-Emrys,
The marriage contract for the Peverell family has become active so you are needed to come to Gringotts at nine o’clock tomorrow morning to discuss what it entails and meat the recipient.
Sincerely,
Director Ragnok
upon finishing this he groaned and flopped back on the bed, “Great,” me muttered “just great.”.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
----9:00 A.M. next day----
----Ragnok’s office----
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
“What caused the contract to activate Director” Harry asked once he sat down.
“Well Lord Potter a daughter of the family you had the contract with became divorced yesterday and so your contract activated. And please just call me Ragnok.” Ragnok said somewhat sympathetically to his situation.
“Then please call me Harry Ragnok so what does the contract entail?” he asked.
Unfurling a scroll Ragnok read, “Well you will have to provide an heir if there is no other one available that will have the contracted family’s name; you will have to pay a bride price of ten thousand galleons, but seeing as she is the last free member of the family you will have control of its monies until your heir for the family comes of age; and you must never be convicted of a life sentence or the contract is nullified and your will become divorced.”.
Raising an eyebrow Harry replied, “Well those all make sense but you haven’t told me who I’m contracted to yet.”.
Ragnok suddenly got nervous, “Well you see the thing is…” but didn’t get any farther as the door opened and Narcissa Malfoy walked in, her eye’s widening in surprise when she saw him, “you’re contracted to Narcissa Black.” he finished just as Harry passed out from shock.
Sign up to rate and review this story