[A Unique Heritage Chapter 1]
{Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, nor do I own Twilight, so please do not sue me!}
XXX
"Vernon, I can't stand it any more!"
Vernon looked up from his large arm chair to look at his wife, though his face was red and veiny, he didn't say anything. He had been reading the morning news and had been enjoying himself, but his wife just had to mention it in his house.
It had been living with them for nearly six months and it was driving them all insane. The Dursleys valued normality more than anything. They made the average amount of money each year, they had an average size family, and they kept there home and plain and average as they possibly could.
"What has it done this time" spoke Vernon with anger and loathing his his voice.
Now many people would not suspect Vernon Dursley to be a man who accepted the fact that although his wife's family was the epitome of everything he hated, he accepted that it was not her fault and did not blame her for it.
It was a very mature notion, though it was to bad that he already had a bad mentality to begin with or else he would have just accepted his nephew for whatever he may be and just learned to accept him for who and what he was. If he had, then things may have turned out different.
On the night that their son had been born, Petunia Dursley had found a baby on their front lawn that looked to be a couple of weeks old. In the crib had a letter explaining that Petunia's sister Lily had died and that she was to take care of her freakish offspring.
At first they had argued about sending him back to wherever he came from or just dropping him off at a local orphanage, but they feared what would happen should they do anything like that. They freaks could come back and try and harm them or their newborn son, so they had agreed to take him in, but they had placed him in a cupboard to live.
At first everything was fine, but after two weeks the small newborn child looked to be four years old, and now after a solid month the kid now looked like he was seven years old. They had unanimously decided to lock the boy away in his cupboard so that no one would ever find their dirty secret.
"He ripped the door off of the wall like it was nothing and then went and used the restroom upstairs before going back into his room!" Petunia had been trying to rationalize what she had seen and had come to the conclusion that the door must have bee nailed into some rotting wood. There was no other explanation as to why a child would be able to rip a door that was screwed into a support beam with industrial bolts.
"HE WHAT!" Vernon had shouted so loud that Petunia had to place her hands over her ears. The boney horse faced woman was soon pushed out of the way by her large husband as he marched from the living room and into the hallway where the boy slept.
She was fearful of what her husband would do, but she wouldn't stop him. It wasn't proper for a woman to try and restrain her man, even if she never could even if she wanted to. She also didn't like the boy, and didn't feel anything was wrong when he was punished for doing something freakish.
Vernon marched all the way down the hallway until he got to the open spot where the door had been and began to yell at the top of his longs at his two month old nephew who looked like a very healthy seven year old boy, regardless of how little Petunia fed him.
Vernon kept shouting, and she could catch some clips here and there from the boy, but Vernon's loud shouts overpowered the boy's own and drowned out whatever it was that he was saying. Petunia did note that Vernon's face was getting redder and redder, the vein on his neck was getting thicker and thicker, it was also pulsing faster and faster, to the point that Vernon's face was turning a shade of purple.
He reached down and pulled off his belt as quickly as he could. He was holding it over his head in a threatening manner while shouting so much that spit was flying out of his mouth. After a moment it seemed he had given up shouting and walked into the room to give the boy a thrashing that he would never forget.
The next thing Petunia saw would haunt her for the rest of her life. Vernon's oversized body rocketed out of the room, breaking through the wall of the boy's room that he had been rocketed through and then through the adjacent wall like a cannon ball.
Petunia was shocked beyond words, but soon she began to scream. She ran over to the room that Vernon had been thrown into and started to scream even more. Laying on the floor was Vernon, but his eyes were glazed over, his neck was obviously broken, and there was bruising on both sides of his neck that looked like the hands of a small child's.
She instantly ran over to the phone and dialed the number for the police. It was hard to get them to understand the urgency of what was happening because it was hard to believe that a seven year old boy would be capable of killing a fully grown man with his bare hands, but eventually they decided to send of a patrol car just to make sure.
She quickly hung up the phone and ran through the house as quickly as she could. She ran over the hardwood flooring that Vernon had put in to show up the neighbors and then up the flight of steps with the nice rug over it. She eventually got to Dudley's room and scooped her baby into her arms and ran outside hoping that the boy wouldn't try anything in broad daylight.
XXX
Harry had never liked his relatives. He remembered everything that ever happened to him with perfect recollection, and so even when he was in his mother's womb he was able to remember everything he had heard, after his ability to hear had formed that is.
Due to his perfect memory, his unique heritage, and the voices of the people who were around his mother, including his mother, Harry had learned quickly. It wasn't that he could read and write when he was inside of his mother, far from it in fact, but he remembered what had happened while he was in there.
It was why he knew his parents were dead, it was why he knew why they were dead, who had killed them, what he was, what his parents were, and so much more, including magic. He had been basically spying on all those within his earshot while inside his mother, not that he really cared.
At first when he had been dropped off by the ridiculously large man, watched by the strange cat woman, and held by the strange old man, he had expected some of the people who had been close to his parents to come pick him up. They never came.
It was strange to him really. They had seemed so excited by their voices and emotions to meet him, but after he had been born and that snake like creature had killed his parents it seemed like they had all just disappeared. It felt like they had abandoned him, though if there was a reason, like them being killed by the snake man to, then he would be able to understand.
His aunt and uncle hated him. He had not truly known what that was, or what it had felt like, until he had come to live with them. He could feel their contempt for him coming off in waves, though there was also a healthy amount of fear there as well.
Although Harry had only lived with the Dursleys for a month, he had quickly learned that he was much different from what they called Normal People. He hadn't taken their word for it, he could already tell using his unique ability to sense the emotional state of people that they would lie to him, but he had noticed his cousin who was supposedly the same age as he was.
At first they were the same size and weight, but by each day Harry grew and grew, both physically and mentally, while his cousin didn't seem to change at all. It had been strange to him. He felt that the growth rate of his cousin was entirely ineffective. Why weight so long to grow up? What was the point of pooping and peeing yourself for years on end when you could wash and cloth yourself in just a few weeks?
These questions had plagued Harry's mind, though time and solitude seemed to be two things he had in gross. His aunt and uncle had locked him in his room, only letting him leave it to relieve himself once a day. At first this was a problem, but he eventually after a few days learned to hold it.
Of course after the first week he had stopped holding it learning that he could just open the door and go whenever he wanted. His aunt and uncle never heard him going too and fro the restroom anyways. That was until today when he had found metal locks on the outside of his doors.
He understood what doors and locks were and what they were for, but they were far to weak to stop him. It was odd, Harry still had no idea why he was so much different than his aunt and uncle, but when dealing with them these differences had been a life saver.
He simply reached out and grabbed hold of the wooden door. His fingers had easily mashed into the solid wood like butter. When he had a firm hold on the door he had used some of his strength to push the door forward. At first the metal locks had tried to stand up to his strength, but they easily snapped under his great strength.
He tossed the door across the hallway not caring where the door landed and walked over to the restroom. After he relieved himself he heard his aunt and uncle start to shout something about him. He had just shrugged his shoulders and walked back into his room.
Soon his uncle had filled up the door hole where the door used to be. His large imposing figure as red as a firecracker was always a nasty sight to behold. He started to demand what had happened to the door, and didn't like what Harry had to say about it.
"I had to go to the restroom" spoke Harry like it was the simplest thing in the world. "There were locks on the door so I had to break them. Sorry about that, but I didn't see any reason for there to be locks on my door anyways."
Uncle Vernon's face had went from firecracker red to blueberry blue in just a few seconds. "The reason the door had locks on it was to keep freaks like you inside so that good honest hard working people like me and my family didn't have to worry about catching your freakish disease!"
Naruto's head tilted to the side and he put down some of the toys had had been able to find that were gifts for Dudley when he got older, but Naruto had taken them to entertain himself. His uncle didn't need to know anyways.
"Oh, sorry uncle" spoke Harry like he had forgotten to take out the trash. "I didn't know that was the reason." There was an awkward pause for a second. "I guess the door is there for my protection as well? I mean if your worried about catching whatever I have, then I should be terrified to catch whatever makes peoples face look like a giant blueberry."
"YOU LITTLE BASTARD" Shouted Uncle Vernon. "I WILL TEACH YOU TO INSULT YOUR BETTERS!" He took off his belt and had a fire in his eyes that was creepy. "I AM GOING TO GIVE YOU A THRASHING YOU WILL NEVER FORGET BOY!"
Harry saw his uncle coming at him in slow motion like a fat hog charging its next meal. When his uncle's hand descended Harry caught it with ease. His uncle had a scared look in his eyes, but it only lasted for a second as Harry quickly let him go and grabbed him by the neck and snapped it.
Vernon's large body began to descend towards Harry like a large blanket does a king sized be. Harry pulled his hand back and shoved the palm of his hand into Vernon's torso sending him flying through the wall of his small room, and then through the wall across the hallway.
Harry understood the concept of death. He had since the day he had been born. He had watched his mother die after all. He also knew that people came looking when someone died, and he instinctively knew that he didn't want to be around when they did.
He quickly grabbed everything that had any form of value to him and threw it into a blanket. He quickly wrapped it up and slung it over his shoulder. Luckily his uncle had left a large hole in the wall so getting his blanket sack through it was easy.
With a quick glance around Harry turned around and ran as fast as he could to get away from his aunt's house.
XXX
Albus Dumbledore was rubbing his temples getting ready for the shit storm that was about to go down. He had lost the Boy-Who-Lived a month after he had been in his supposed custody. This was the worst thing that could possibly happen.
He had owls flying in from the Goblin Bank, Gringots. He had letters flying in from the Ministry of Magic. He had letters, and Howlers, flying in from nearly every single witch or wizard in Magical Britain who were beyond pissed at this latest mistake.
His Squib-Spy had fire-called him during the early morning telling him that police officers and fire fighters were swarming the Dursley's house. She had also told him that the wife woman, Petunia, was in the lawn holding her newborn baby shouting like a raven lunatic.
Dumbledore had instantly apparated to the sidewalk adjacent to the Dursley's house. He quickly used a disillusionment charm to make himself invisible to the naked eye and walked over to the scene. He saw Petunia, but he didn't see Vernon or Harry, which worried him greatly.
He walked into the house and what he saw shocked him. From one wall to the next was a giant hole the size of a human bowling ball. It came from a small cupboard and exited out into a dinning room that had the dead body of Vernon Dursley laying in the center.
After examining the scene, and dissecting Petunia's mad jittery talk, he had come to the conclusion that Harry had used powerful accidental magic. Why a newborn would use such, or need such powerful defensive or possibly offensive magic was beyond him.
He had planned on keeping it all a secret. If anyone found out it could ruin him, or at least hurt his image. He quickly cast a few memory charms here and there to make it seem like a odd home invasion from some other muggles, erased her memories of Harry, and hightailed it out of there.
When he got back to his office he had been determined to call a Order of the Phoenix meeting and discuss ways to locate and obtain Harry once more. That was until he saw the thick letter sitting on his desk with a large wax seal from the Head of the Gringots Bank.
Leave it to the Goblins to know things in way no witch or wizard would ever understand. They knew that Harry was no longer in the hands of his relatives, that he was missing, and that this failure on his part meant that neither he nor his aunt and his now deceased uncle could claim his guardianship.
They recalled everything of the House of Potter. They took everything from the Invisibility Cloak he had been studying, to the Pensieve he had come to rely upon, to all of the money he had taken out, for himself and for the Dursleys.
That alone set him back years for his plans to combat the forces of darkness. He no longer had a vast mountain of wealth he could suckle from, nor the unique and powerful artifacts that he had been borrowing for the Greater Good.
And of course they just had to send a letter to the idiotic Minister of Magic who couldn't tell his foot from his nose without Lucius Malfoy there to point it out for him. And of course that moron would use this to his advantage to put his face in the newspaper to look like he was doing something right.
Now he was in the hot seat, and he would have to rectify his image while having others look for Harry for him. It wasn't ideal, but it was something that he could do nothing about.
XXX
"Geeze, this day just can't get any worse" spoke Dumbledore as he leaned back in his desk and suckled on one of the lemon drops he had on display. They were tart and sour, but for old people it needs to be strong like that for them to actually taste it.
"KNOCK... KNOCK... KNOCK... KNOCK"
Dumbledore looked up with a sigh, but flicked his wand and allowed the door to open revealing five mean looking Goblins. They were dressed in their finest clothing, as to represent their bank, with one of them carrying a scroll under his arm.
They walked towards Dumbledore's desk with strong steps and a constant stride. Behind them were Professor McGonagal and Professor Snape who seemed confused as to why official members of the Goblin's Bank were here with such serious looks.
"Professor, these are representatives from the Gringots Bank" spoke McGonagal. She looked confused, but her thin lips were still as drawn back as they had always been. Her stern face giving away almost nothing. "They say they have official business with you."
Dumbledore sighed but nodded his head. He already knew why they were here. They were here to basically reposes the things that should be his, though in actuality were property of the Potter Family. He had thought about making fakes and keeping the real ones, but Goblins would be able to spot fakes a mile away and in the end he would only be digging his gave even deeper.
"Yes, Professor they claim that they are here to pick some lost property up" spoke Snape in his usual draw-sneer combo. "I found it strange, but they had an official notice so I helped show them the way."
"Thank you Professors, but as you can see I am capable of handling these things on my on at the moment" spoke Professor Dumbledore not wanting two of his most trusted underlings to see or hear about what the Goblins were about to say or do.
As if to spite him the Head Goblin started to speak. "Enough of this Wizards-Witch nonsense" spoke the leader with a sneer that put even Snape's to shame. "We are here to take back the things that were borrowed by a Mr. Albus Dumbledore, who has borrowed several artifacts from the past two Lords of House Potter."
Albus sighed a bit thanking Merlin that the Goblins had not told Snape of McGonagal the reason why they were taking back such precious artifacts.
"You will also need to sign these" spoke the Head Goblin as he placed some papers on Dumbledore's desk, though his nose only reached up to the tabletop.
"And what are these" asked Dumbledore as he put on his half moon spectacle glasses to help him read the fine print.
"These are papers stating that you are incapable of taking care of one Harrison James Potter, future Head of the Potter Family, Order of Merlin First Class, and the newest member of the Famous Witches and Wizards Chocolate Frog Cards" spoke the Goblin making sure he got all of the titles correct.
Albus, McGonagal, and Snape's eyes enlarged to comical proportions as they heard, or read, what was in black and white, or was said out loud. There reasons for their shock were all different though.
Albus was shocked beyond belief because these little demented creatures were trying to take the boy who he was going to mold into the perfect light wizard away from him. That was just something that he could not allow.
McGonagal's eyes widened to crazy proportions because of the fact that the little boy that not even a month ago she had told Albus he shouldn't leave with the Dursley's was now missing. She was both shocked and angry beyond words.
Snape's eyes had done what Albus' and McGonagal's had done because of all the Titles Harry had been given. He hated with the purest hatred imaginable the fact that James Potter's son already had all this fame and glory, and he wasn't even a year old. It burned him so much, and he could just hear James' laughter ringing in his ears.
After regaining his cool Dumbledore looked down at the Head Goblin and cleared his throat. "I do not believe I am aware of why I would need to renounce my claim as guardian of young Mr. Potter" spoke Dumbledore as he pushed the paperwork back towards the goblin who had made himself comfortable in the adjacent chair.
"Paragraph B, Subsection ten, in the Book of Law and Nobility, it states that should the guardian of an Heir to a Noble, Ancient, or a combination of the two, prove unworthy or incompetent, then he shall lose his right as guardian of said child or legal consequences will befall him for endangering such a families line."
Albus wanted to bite his own tongue off after hearing that. He remembered that law very clearly. It had been just another artifact of the supremacist government that had been founded in the British Isles after the invasion of the Roman Empire, though it had failed.
The gods didn't even know how much Dumbledore hated that law at the moment.
"Please sign these Mr. Dumbledore" spoke the Goblin as he slid the paperwork back towards Dumbledore with a sick grin on his face, "Or we will be forced to take legal action against you for the endangerment the Ancient and Noble House of Potter."
Dumbledore picked up his Phoenix quill and quickly scribbled his name against the papers with a quick flourish of the hand. Even if he was unhappy, he couldn't show any immaturity or else it would affect his image.
"Thank you Mr. Dumbledore" spoke the Goblin with a grin on his face. He snapped his fingers and the other three Goblins got to work getting the things they were repossessing. "It is always a pleasure doing business with you."
Dumbledore bit back his retort and watched with sad eyes as the Goblins took the Pensieve that was standing on the side of the wall, and the invisibility cloak that he had folded up and sitting on his desk. He was confused when two of the Goblins walked past him and started to take books from his personal collection.
"Might I ask what you are doing" spoke Dumbledore with a hint of anger in his voice.
"We were told to take everything that was property of the Ancient and Noble House of Potter with us" spoke one of the Goblins who already had three rare, irreplaceable books in his grubby little claws. "According to our records all of these books were borrowed from the Potter Library during the time of Alphred Potter."
Dumbledore's heart literally stopped for a second after hearing that. Even he had forgotten he had borrowed those books, after all he wasn't planning on giving them back, and had just begun to claim them as his own after Alphred and his Wife had died of Dragon Pox.
"What you may not remembered Mr. Dumbledore is that Mr. Potter's wife had put in a clause to contract that stated after two years of you borrowing these books interest would begin to build up on them." The Goblin was grinning like the evil little creature that it was at this point.
"According to our calculations, you have had these books since nineteen fifty eight, and it is currently nineteen eighty one, so using basic math we come to a reasonable twenty three year loan on one Pensieve, ten ancient and irreplaceable tomes gathered from around the world, and of course one wand that was loaned to you, though that particular deal is stated to last till the day you die, give the wand away, or are killed." The Goblin took out what looked like a muggle calculator and started to punch into some numbers. With a grin it wrote the number that popped up onto a sheet of paper and then passed it to Dumbledore, whose nearly passed out from seeing such a large number.
"As you can see Mr. Dumbledore your debt to the House of Potter is quite substantial, and from looking from your bank statements you could pay for these debts, but you would be left penny less" spoke the Goblin. Its long fingers were fiddling with a shiny gold galleon.
Albus, McGonagal, and Snape were all left speechless. It seemed like the Potter Family had hustled the Leader of Light even beyond the grave. They couldn't believe that Albus Dumbledore was going to be broke after today.
"Of course we are aware that you would probably like to keep the money in your vault you have made after your discovery of the twelve uses of dragon blood" spoke the goblin. "So we figure we will take a few objects of great importance or knowledge from you as compensation, and if the future Head of the Potter Family does not like this deal then we will return what we take and just take the galleons that are owed."
Now the little Goblins were just taking any old book they could get their hands on off of his book rack and storing it into a bag that he knew had a expansion charm placed on it because there was no way that they could hold that many books.
After the Goblins had basically cleaned him out of everything of worth the bowed a bit and then left like kings.
Albus was shocked beyond words.
Snape looked like he just crapped a cow.
McGonagal looked like she had just bit into a sour lemon.
XXX
"I am sorry Dumbledore, but there is really nothing that I can do about the Goblins" spoke Andromeda Black as she sat back exasperated by the constant onslaught of Professor Dumbledore and his apparent law problems.
"I was the most trusted person the Potters had, I am one of the most respected members of the magical community, and I have been hailed as a genius that only comes around once in a thousand years, so tell me why is it that you cannot get custody of Harry Potter to me?" Dumbledore had been having a bad week, and it seemed his lawyer didn't have any better news for him either.
"Because you lost the boy, because it was you who suppressed the Potter's will, because the magical population's opinion is fickle, because the law is the law, and because you signed the contract that states that you will pay interest on what you borrowed after two years!" Andromeda Black rubbed her temples. She had been trying to drill these facts into Dumbledore's head for the past few hours but he seemed resistant to listen to her.
"Look Professor, you suppressed the Potter Family's will, that isn't something people forget. They see it as an attempt for you to control an Ancient and Noble House. Then there is the fact that the boy was obviously kidnapped, even though you assured the world that nobody would be able to get him. That hurt your reputation in many more ways than one. Finally, by law, you cannot become Potter's guardian again, in fact you cannot become any Potter's guardian again. No scratch that, you cannot become the guardian or any child of an Ancient, Noble, or Ancient and Noble House because of this incident." Andromeda paused to catch her breath.
"Harry is the only person to ever survive the Killing Curse, he is the defeater of possibly the darkest wizard in history, he is the youngest person to be awarded a Order of Merlin Award, let alone a First Class one, and finally he did all of this when he was only a day old. To most people, he is the second coming of Merlin, and because of this large reverence to the boy the fact that you lost him is a major blow to your own mighty reputation."
Dumbledore sat back and rubbed his eyes. It seemed that fate was not on his side at the moment, but he was sure he could turn this all around. He had at least twelve years before the boy would be in Hogwarts, supposing he lived from being abducted, so he should be found by that time, so when he comes to Hogwarts Dumbledore would be ready for him.
"Thank you for your valuable time Mr. Black" spoke Dumbledore as he shook Andromeda's hand.
"Your welcome Professor" spoke Andromeda with a sigh. Before Dumbledore could get out of her office though she remembered something and figured she should tell him. "I have been hired by the Goblins to oversee any and all usage of the name Harry Potter, as well as his image. It is ok for people to write stories, so long as it doesn't hurt the reputation of Mr. Potter, or the House of Potter, so long as royalties are paid to the House of Potter."
Dumbledore didn't say anything, but after everything that had happened, and would happen, he knew that the Potter Family Bank Account would have more zeros on it then a calculator could produce, and with that much money he would be able to fund the light indefinitely.
'I will have you Harry' thought Dumbledore as he left Andromeda's office.