The Mark of Stigma

Thanks to Tom, the wizarding world did not like marks that disfigured the body. Everyone knew Tom marked those that agreed to follow his path. All Death Eaters proudly wore that brand on their left forearms.

And now society had come to equate all body marking as a sign of evil intentions. At least the Death Eaters could hide their brands when they had to mingle with the gentle people. His children couldn't. Which made their choice of location just as bad as the choice of bearing a mark in the first place. As a fashion statement this one would never take off.

So really. It was understandable the school's children were making it very clear to his children that they didn't like the new fashion. Really. They should've known better, he thought. Popularity was one thing but Tom had made marking yourself a very unfashionable thing to do and not many of the Wizarding World would do so willingly these days.

Actually, it was something the Wizarding World had never really gotten into seeing as how such marks had often been used to indicate ownership. Human slavery was not such a bygone practice for the magical world as it was for the muggle one where people had short lives and even shorter memories. It was even still on the books as legal here in the wizarding world though nowadays the only slaves anyone owned were house-elves.

Harry knew the Headmaster was back from his trip to the bank now. He also knew the old man had gotten some money but not until the goblins had discovered exactly what he planned to do with it.

If it was going to someone, exactly who was receiving it and if Albus believed they knew where it had come from and what if anything Albus believed they would do with it after they got it. At least they knew what Albus told them he planned to use it for which was probably a lie as the old man wasn't likely to admit he would use it to bribe people.

The goblins would have led Albus all around the Bank making sure as many of their Rank and File saw him as possible so as to identify him for what he was. A thief stealing from one of their Holders. Harry also knew the Goblins would only let him have a percentage of the coin he came in for. A very small percentage. So he would be forced to return if he truly needed the whole amount.

Not to mention if he needed money on a monthly basis he would need to return to the Bank each and every first of the month. If he missed his deadline of arriving there on the first, he'd have many more steps to go through to explain why he missed it before he'd get to sit down with ToeScrape, who had been given the honor of annoying the thief while making sure all goblins could identify him on sight, to discuss his current monetary needs. And if he displeased the goblins enough, which given how upset with him they were was really easy to do right now, he'd find himself evicted without any coin at all.

Which would force him to make a second trip. This second trip would give them even more time to parade him around to different areas of the bank manned by different goblins exposing him even further to their people.

And given all Gringott banks were connected there was a good chance it wasn't only Wizarding England that he'd be paraded through. And they'd make that parade walk as uncomfortable for the old man as they possibly could. Harry felt no guilt or remorse for the old man though. He'd made his choices and those choices weren't in Harry's best interest. Those choices were to lie, cheat and steal from him while doing his level best to get Harry killed before he could grow up.

Harry had enough money he wasn't really worried about it right now and, thanks to his Aunt and Uncle, he wasn't worried about the items in the vaults that weren't money. The goblins wouldn't dare let him take those out.

Hell, they were so scared of his Aunt they weren't even letting Albus go near one of Harry's vaults. A goblin runner would bring the amount of coin to him when the goblins decided how much he could have for that visit. And not even Albus was brazen enough to argue with the goblins over vaults that didn't belong to him.

Still he rather thought he'd be receiving a message for another meeting sometime soon. After all, he had marked the two youngest Weasely's and the Granger chit with Behavior Modifiers. On their faces. Where they couldn't hide them and pretend they weren't actually there. Something he was well aware they would've done if the marks had formed anywhere else. It seemed Magic had agreed with him since the marks had formed in a place none of them could hide them.

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