Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am not genius enough to have come u with such an amazing story. sob

"speech"

'thoughts'

"parseltongue"

A/N: Yes, my pretties, I'm finally updating! I should mention that no longer how long it takes to update, I have NO intention of abandoning this story. On that note, sorry it took so long to update, but one of my co-workers has been out due to surgery, so I have been working some insane hours.

A/N2: To those of you who are wondering about when Seth will meet Voldemort, it will probably take place in about 4 or 5 more chapters. Don't quote me on that, though, 'cause the story likes to mutate on me and take off in unexpected directions. Enjoy!

Chapter 17

A week later, after a debate at breakfast, Lucius, Draco, and Seth were getting ready to head to Diagon Alley to go shopping for the necessary school supplies. It had been decided that Seth would go with while under a glamour spell to hide his appearance so that he would have a chance to get at least a little more used to crowds without the risk of being found out as Harry Potter. His new persona was that of a French cousin of the Malfoys' that was getting his own school supplies while he was visiting his English cousins. They had given Seth the trademark white blond hair of the Malfoy family, lightened his eye color from the vivid green he normally had to a very pale green, changed the pupil of his eyes back to a human shape, and covered his scar and scales to appear as normal human skin. They left the rest of his body the same, as the snake characteristics that he had taken on from the transformation had changed his body and face enough that he would never be connected to one James Potter.

The three males were currently going over Seth's cover story. "Seth's name will be Auguste Malfoy," Lucius told the boys. "He is eleven years old as well and came to stay with his cousins for a few weeks before his first school year. If anyone tries to get any more information from either of you, ignore them, or somehow get my attention, as they will likely be either reporters or Light wizards. Any questions?"

Both Seth and Draco shook their heads in response.

"Very well," Lucius continued on as he made sure that his robes and hair were impeccable. "I shall floo first, then Seth, and finally Draco will come through. Do not forget, Seth, that you must add a French accent to your speech." With that, Lucius grabbed a handful of Floo powder and threw it into the fireplace. When he stepped in, he stated, "Diagon Alley."

Seth waited for several seconds after Lucius had been whisked off before repeating the process, with Draco following shortly after. Upon arriving at the Leaky Cauldron, Seth was relieved to find that it was early enough in the day that the place was not too overly busy yet. It was the hope of the Malfoys' that the crowd would start smaller and gradually build, giving Seth a chance to keep from being overwhelmed by the sheer number of people. It took him only a moment to spot Lucius and he quickly made his way over to join him while the two of them waited for Draco.

Once Draco had joined the the duo, Lucius turned and led the way out to the Diagon Alley exit of the Leaky Cauldron. In the entryway, he was sure to show Seth the exact bricks to touch and what order to touch them in. As the doorway opened and the Alley appeared, Seth had to struggle to keep the shock from showing on his face at the sight. While he had known intellectually that there would be a large group of humans here, there was a large difference between knowing such things and actually seeing them firsthand.

After giving Seth a moment's break to adjust a bit, Lucius strode into the Alley and headed toward Gringotts, the goblin run bank. As they entered the bank, Lucius looked around to find the goblin with the fewest people nearby. After spotting one that was in a fairly empty area, Lucius led the way to him. When they arrived, the goblin looked up with a sneer which quickly turned to a slightly more neutral expression when he noticed it was one of the bank's richest customers. The goblin then glanced at the two boys accompanying Lucius. His gaze sharpened and started to become extremely unfriendly when he seemed to notice something unusual about Seth. This made Seth rather uncomfortable, but before the goblin drew any attention, Lucius intervened.

"We need to speak with someone in private about a certain matter that I am sure you have noticed. Once we are out of the view of the general public, we shall reveal all of the details about the current issue that is troubling you." None of the small group had any doubts as to what Lucius was talking about.

"Very well," the goblin replied. "It had better be a satisfactory explanation." With that, the teller motioned another goblin to them. "Griphook, show these people to a private room. I will let Clawfist know that he is needed there." So saying, the goblin turned his attention to a short note to be sent to the goblin mentioned. The goblin that had joined them, Griphook, turned and headed in another direction, with the humans quickly falling into step behind him.

Griphook led the family to a room that had a couple of goblins standing guard on either side of the door. As they walked through, the Malfoys noticed that there was also a set of guards on the inside as well. Both Lucius and Seth caught the implications that while what was about to happen would be private, if the goblins did not like what they were about to hear, the guards would be used to detain them. Neither, however, was too worried about the implied threat, as they had every intention of being completely honest with the goblins now that they were out of the general public's eye. Lucius knew from experience that goblins were discrete in their dealings, so long as you were straightforward with them, and had assured both Seth and Draco that they would have nothing to fear. The little family sat at the table and waited for Clawfist to arrive. They did not have to wait long.

The door that they had entered through opened once again letting in a goblin that, while somewhat older than the previous two had been, was in no way feeble. The door was shut firmly behind him and he quickly made his was over to the table, taking one of the chairs that was obviously created for a goblin. The goblin turned his attention to the humans in the room. "I am Clawfist. Why did one of you come into our bank with a glamour on," Clawfist demanded of them.

Lucius, in an effort to appear unthreatening, put his hands on the table without his wand before answering. "The glamour is not there to try and fool you, as I realize that a goblin can see when someone is wearing one, rather it is to hide the identity of my companion from the humans outside. We wished to avoid the scene that would surely have occurred had they seen his true appearance. If they had figured out what his identity is on top of that, there would have been absolute chaos. With your permission, I will take out my wand to cancel the glamour."

Clawfist glanced in the direction of the guards before nodding abruptly. As Lucius reached for his wand, the goblins in the room grew tense. It did not take a genius to see that they were awaiting treachery. Lucius made sure that as he drew his wand, he avoided pointing it at any of the goblins, which most likely would have been seen as a threatening action. A wave of the wand, and the glamour that was hiding Seth's true appearance was removed. Out of the corner of his eye, Lucius watched with carefully hidden amusement as an expression of shock crossed the older goblin's face, though it was quickly hidden.

"Allow me true introducsse myssself. My name isss Ssseth, alssso known to thisss world asss Harry Potter. According to the Minissstry I am Lucssiusss' ward. I am alssso hisss mate."

Clawfist struggled to maintain his composure at the shocks that he had been dealt in those few short moments. His expression was flickering between shock and disgust, as Seth still appeared as a child due to having taken the de-aging potion earlier that day. Seth noticed the disgust and felt compelled to defend his mate.

"In addition to the ssspell, I have alssso taken a potion to de-age my physssical body. Though thisss isss my actual age, my physssical body isss that of a human of approxssimately twenty yearsss of age. My mental and emotional maturity levelsss are about the sssame asss well. There isss truly nothing untoward going on between my mate and myssself," he hastened to reassure the goblin. The disgust that had been showing on Clawfist's face faded somewhat, though he did seem to still be mildly disturbed.

"I am sure you can understand why we would not want most people to know just what Seth looks like, let alone who he is just yet. The general population among the humans would mob us in a heartbeat and we would never be able to get anywhere, let alone get our shopping done. As for our reason for being here, I believe that Seth should have inherited something from his parents, and I thought it prudent to bring him in to see you so that we could work out any details necessary to get him access to any vaults he may have, as well as where his keys are," Lucius stated.

This managed to bring Clawfist's attention back to the matter at hand. "Ah, yes, as to that. Seth has indeed inherited several vaults, as well as various properties if I recall correctly. As to his keys, we here at Gringotts suspect a certain Headmaster of having gotten his hands on them." Seeing the darkening expressions on all three of the faces before him, Clawfist hurried to reassure them. "No one has had any access to the vaults, though various people have tried to claim them often enough, including Dumbledore. Now, in this case, there are two things that we can do. We could simply summon the keys back into Gringotts' possession, which is the more common thing we do, or we can change the locks on the vault doors and give you the new keys, leaving the old ones where they are."

Seth knew immediately which option he wanted to choose. "I would like to change the locksss and get new keysss. I don't want the old bassstard to realizsse that he hasss lossst control over my fundsss. He will already be enough of a problem when he triesss to get control over me while I am at Hogwartsss. I do not need him to caussse a scssene over thisss asss well. On top of that, if he keepsss the keysss around, we can ussse them againssst him later." Lucius smirked at Seth to show his approval of this course of action.

"Very well, it will be done. Now, do you wish to go over your parents' will at this time?"

"No, I don't think ssso. We have much to do today, and I have a feeling that going over the willsss will take quite sssome time, which we do not have at the moment."

Clawfist nodded in agreement. "In that case, I will order the changes you have decided to make. It should take somewhere around one week to complete the work. In the mean time, I will pass on that you are allowed to have the glamour on in the bank until such time as you come out to the public as yourself. You may use this room to reapply the glamour before you go, as well. Will there be anything else today," he inquired.

Lucius replied, "Not at this time."

At that, Clawfist rose, nodded once in acknowledgement, and left as abruptly as he had arrived. As he was putting Seth's glamour back in place, Lucius mentioned something that they had all forgotten about. "Seth, your speech still has the lisp to it. It would be best if you were to try and minimize it as best you can when talking to anyone for the moment." Seth nodded in agreement, feeling somewhat foolish for not thinking of it himself.

After the glamour was back in place, the small family left the room and headed out of Gringotts to start the shopping part of the day.