Chapter 1
Disclaimer: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…
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POTTER CHILD
FIFTH YEAR
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Harry starred a bit helplessly at the account information in his hands.
"Uh…," he said a bit lost. "Can we… can we maybe invest it… somehow?"
"Of course, sir," the goblin in front of him agreed immediately. "I assume you want the usual investment?"
"Er…," Harry said, feeling even more lost. "Yes?"
The goblin nodded.
"I will look through our folders immediately. I am sure, I will find something that will conform with your and your family's goals."
"Er…," Harry said, hiding his frown. "Sure."
He hadn't even known that his family had goals when it came to investing, but he guessed that he could at least listen to the possibilities before refusing the ideas or agreeing to them.
Again, his gaze was drawn to the parchment.
That damn parchment that contained a number with more zeros than Harry had ever seen in his entire life.
Merlin! He wasn't even sure if he knew how pronounce the number he was seeing on the parchment in his hands.
This had to be a mistake!
Yet, when he had said as much, the goblin had denied it and told Harry that the number on his parchment was entirely correct up to the last coin.
So now, Harry stood there, absolutely at loss what to do.
"But…," his treacherous mind whispered. "I only gave the Weasley twins the money… I understand they wanted to repay me, but there's no way… no way at all that this number can be correct! It's only been a few months! This can't be right! This -"
"Here we are," his panicky thoughts were interrupted by the returning goblin. "The most interesting investments for your family, young Prince."
"Er…," Harry said, about to correct the goblin on his last name - maybe this was the actual problem? - but before he could, the goblin continued.
"Here we have the possibility to invest into Beauxbatons in exchange for owning a part of the school," the goblin said, turning the file towards Harry so that he could take a look as well. "The school has taken damage thanks to a very nasty storm this year and their budget is quite depleted thanks to their involvement in last school year's Triwizard Tournament."
"Oh," Harry said and pulled the ledger closer. "I guess they need the help, don't they?"
"Very much so," the goblin in front of him agreed, showing a very nasty smile. "It's the perfect opportunity, young Prince."
Harry frowned a bit at that.
The perfect opportunity?
The perfect opportunity for what?!
Before he could ask that and a few dozen other questions, the goblin continued as if Harry's words had already confirmed what he expected.
"So, we're going to draw up the contract. Fifteen percent as a starting line?"
Harry's frown deepened.
"As a starting line?! Fifteen percent? Wh-"
"Ah, of course, I guess you are right, young Prince. It would be far too less for a starting line. How about we use it as a finishing line?" the goblin immediately corrected himself, obviously thinking in ways that Harry couldn't even fathom to understand.
"Fifteen percent?" Harry repeated instead.
"Twenty then," the goblin corrected. "I should have guessed that you would be driving as hard of a bargain as your father. He was brilliant when it came to it. I should have guessed that you would be as well considering that your mother was nearly as strong-minded as your esteemed father."
"Alright," Harry said, while wondering what in Merlin's name was happening right now. He had slipped away from the Dursley's today and had only come to Gringotts to see how much money his parents had left him and if it would be possible to live off it in case he was thrown out of Hogwarts.
This had been a desperate measure after the Dementor attack three days ago and his threatened expulsion, instead, he had found himself in some kind of parallel-universe - or that's what he'd say if he had to guess - where the goblins handed him a parchment with the wrong numbers on it while talking in code.
The goblin in front of Harry signed something on the first page of the file.
"Twenty percent of the school in exchange for your help, then," he said as if Harry had agreed with his suggestion. "We will make it happen immediately, young Prince. Anything else you will wish to invest in?"
Harry stared at the goblin, then at the file that contained the numbers wished for and then the parchment in his hands.
"I… somehow get the feeling I could found three more projects of that magnitude and still have enough to live without ever having to work for the rest of my life," Harry said, feeling a bit thrown when he actually understood how big the number on his parchment actually was.
"Of course," the goblin in front of him said. "Three more projects. Four projects all in all - a quite reasonable investment for your first, young Prince."
With that, the goblin pulled out four more files.
"This would be Mahoukoto, the wizarding school in Japan," he said, pointing at the first file. "They need to update their muggle repelling system and need monetary help for this project."
Then he pointed at the next file.
"This is the file for St. Agnes-Krankenhaus zu Herzlieb," he continued. "It's the major magical hospital in Germany. They need a bigger budget for the new ward for curses and the creation of their counters they want to install."
Then he pointed at the next one.
"The building of a magical holiday resort in Hawaii," he said. "Not your usual spiel, but it would give you an in to Hawaii where you don't own anything, currently."
Then he pointed at the last one.
"The building of a new prison for the Ministry in Australia," he said. "It's not the most glorious project but it would broaden your standing in the country."
Harry stared at the files, wondering a bit idly why he'd need to broaden his standing anywhere - and especially in a country so far away like Australia…
"Er…," he said, not too sure what to say to his choices, before settling on a hopefully neutral question. "What about Hogwarts?"
"Ah!" the goblin said as if he had expected the question to come for quite a while. "Don't worry about it. It's finally been taken care off."
"Huh?" Harry asked confused. "How?"
"With your defeat of the final Heir of Slytherin as a baby you finally succeeded in your family's goal there," the goblin explained patiently. "We goblins have to say, this was an ingenious move of your mother. We shouldn't have doubted her: she has always had the ruthlessness of the Potters inside her."
"So… Slytherin?" Harry asked a bit hesitatingly, not too sure what to think about it.
"After a thousand years of planning and acting finally part of the Potter family," the goblin assured him. "Just like Ravenclaw which you bought and Hufflepuff which you integrated by marriage as well as Gryffindor where you did the same."
Harry gawked.
"Oh," he said, his eyes nearly bugging out in disbelieve. "Alright?"
"So, young Prince," the goblin continued. "Which projects do you want to finance?"
Harry stared at the folders.
A school?
Well, he always thought that education was important so he guessed that helping a school might be a good idea.
The hospital?
Considering how often Harry ended up in the medical wing, he guessed that planning for his future outside of Hogwarts would be a good idea as well…
But… a holiday resort? A prison?!
"Er… what about other investments in Great Britain?" he finally asked, not too sure what to think about the fact that the goblin had only shown him international investments.
"Don't worry about them," the goblin said. "In three years' time your lease agreement with the Ministry for the Ministry will run out. After that, you will be back to fully owning the building like the agreement dedicates and they will have to renegotiate again if they want to continue using it. Since they don't have a building as secure and as big and central as the one that's currently housing the Ministry, we should be able to raise their lease by at least five percent."
"Five percent?" Harry gawked.
"Ten then," the goblin immediately agreed as if that had been Harry's actual objection.
Harry gulped.
"Parts of Knockturn Alley might need a do-over within the next ten to fifteen years, but out of the ninety-eight percent of the Knockturn Alley buildings you own, most are in good condition, so you won't have to spare a lot of money to get them up to date when you finally buy the rest of the buildings and restore them. The missing two percent of the buildings there might be available for buying within the next three to five years. Some might be hovels, but I'd recommend to buy them anyway just for the ground they're placed on."
Harry nodded like a puppet on strings. The goblin returned the nod. "I will keep an eye on and tell you immediately," he said. "Hogsmeade and Godric's Hollow are mostly owned by you already and Diagon Alley is currently at a comfortable eighty-six percent. As soon as the war is over, we will invest there and ensure that we might reach the same percentage as Knockturn Alley if you wish."
Harry opened and closed his mouth, feeling as if his mind was shutting down.
"St. Mungo's is still in your family's possession like it has been for the last three hundred years. Its lease has been dutifully paid for the last fourteen years and we continued to invest the money just like your father decided," the goblin added. "And I told you about Hogwarts already."
"Yes," Harry replied, his mind desperately trying to keep up with the insane information intake he had just now.
"So, young Prince, which of the projects do you want to take on?" the goblin said while gesturing at the files in front of him.
Harry stared at them blankly, his mind simply not computing anymore.
"Young Prince?" the goblin asked after one moment of silence too many.
"Not the prison," Harry's mouth said without any input of his information-challenged brain.
"Ah," the goblin said. "A good choice. Do you wish for the same deal like the one you proposed for Beauxbatons with the school Mahoukoto, then?"
Harry hummed, not actually agreeing but more in the desperate hope that it would end this insane day faster.
The goblin nodded.
"What about St. Agnes-Krankenhaus zu Herzlieb? Do you propose a different deal?" he asked. "They're building a new ward, after all. We could go for owning the whole ward – which would give us at least thirty to thirty-five percent of the shares for the hospital."
"Thirty-five percent," Harry said without input from his brain.
"A good choice," the goblin said and noted something down. "Since you're only starting in Hawaii, would you like us to try and get you full control of the holiday resort?"
"Full control," Harry's mouth repeated, his brain fighting with this new kind of disbelief spreading inside him.
"Very well, then," the goblin said. "Full control. Give me a moment, young Prince and I will draw up the paperwork for your investments. I will let you know the moment we have the final agreements - but don't you worry, it shouldn't take more than a day or two. We will send you the final paperwork immediately by owl."
"Sure," Harry's mouth agreed.
Harry himself wasn't sure if his brain would ever be able to get over the shock he had received right now.
Three minutes later, the goblin returned and handed Harry the paperwork.
Harry read through it and while everything in the paperwork sounded more than fantastical, it also sounded absolutely legal.
For a moment, Harry contemplated that the whole thing could be an evil joke from the goblins to ensure that Harry ended up in ruins - but since he couldn't even begin to fathom what he could have done for the goblins to pull a joke like that on him, Harry signed, at the end.
The goblin took back the paperwork, looked it through and then nodded in satisfaction.
"Good," he said. "This should double your interest. Like it is, it should only take seven years instead of fourteen until you'd reach the same amount of monetary cushion you had today. Adding to it that you smartly invested in the new and upcoming joke shop, you should be able to leave enough money so that at least your children if not you should finally succeed in your family's plans."
Harry blinked.
"They should?" He asked, suddenly wondering if he shouldn't have asked about the usual way of investigating of his family and about the plans, they seemed to have had which Harry had never known about.
"Ohm, definitively," the goblin replied. "In three years' time, you should meet the first part of your goals here in Britain, after that, if you're lucky, you might be able to reach the rest of your goals in about twenty to fifty years. If you don't, at least your own children should finally be able to achieve what you haven't."
Harry frowned.
He had the feeling that his brain was about to be turned into mush.
"Twenty to fifty years?" He repeated while wondering what kind of plans his family had that the timing was so imprecise.
"Well, young Prince," the goblin said as if it was obvious. "Considering that political climate and other factors are playing into your plan of absolute world-domination, I think you should be quite happy to hear that your goal is in such a near future."
Harry opened his mouth.
World-domination.
He blinked.
Young Prince.
World-domination.
He stared.
Young Prince.
WORLD-DOMINATION.
He closed his mouth.
"Oh, alright," he said - but for the first time ever, he wondered if Lord Voldemort didn't have a far more believable and sinister reason why he had chosen and tried to kill the Potters.
World-domination.
Twenty to fifty years.
Idly, Harry wondered if those words alone didn't change Voldemort's and his own positions. Didn't those words mean that Harry was the danger and Voldemort the saviour?!
For a moment, Harry wanted to take everything back that he had said to the goblin. He wanted to tell the goblin that there was no way in hell that he would rule the damn world…
And then his gaze fell on the number on the parchment in his hands.
To hell with world-domination.
He would NOT continue to live with that much money in his vault!
He would go crazy if he would have continued to look at that amount of money!
"Guess I will have to ensure that my children know something about politics," he thought idly while saying his goodbyes and leaving Gringotts. "I wonder what else is needed to know if you're the ruler of the whole magical world?"
Then another idle thought hit him.
"At least, it's only the magical world," he thought. "It could be worse."
And if it ever got - well, at least, it wouldn't be Harry's problem at that point of time anymore…
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Well, I hope you liked it - even if I have no idea how my mind could wander off into that kind of a story… :sweatdrop: xD
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