Frozen Assets

He ate his dinner as calmly as he could trying his best to conceal his rage over this turn of events. It'd taken him some time at the bank to discover the paper he had forced the brat to sign for him, while entitling him to withdraw some funds, didn't restore his position or unfreeze the accounts. Somehow the goblins were claiming the paper only allowed him to authorize payments that needed to be paid each month according to the terms of the wills involved in the vast inheritance.

Any arrangements he had made since the deaths of Lily and James Potter and the incarceration of Sirius Black weren't covered in those papers the brat had signed for him because they weren't covered by any previously written documents from the Potter adults that the goblins had seen.

Nor did Albus had oversight of the Black Estates as that oversight was being handled by a committee appointed by the late Lord Sirius Black. And he couldn't just have the brat sign any other papers to restore his access until the audit was concluded. Said parchment wouldn't be honored because Potter wasn't either his parents, Sirius Black or an adult.

What made it worse was he couldn't produce James and Lily's wills, as the goblins had suggested to him, since he had them locked down when the couple had died to enable him to wrest control over their child and his vaults away from their guardian of choice. Which he knew wasn't him.

Not even now that Sirius Black was dead. Next in line after Sirius had been Alice Longbottom. Which meant Augusta would now be the lawful guardian of Potter and overseer of the accounts coming to the brat if she knew what Lily and James wills had said.

And against her he couldn't even try to convince the Wizengamot of possible mishandling of the Estate since she was above reproach in that regard. So no, he couldn't just go get the will out of lockdown and produce it to restore his access. It'd never work.

And since the parchment the brat had signed specified payment of debts and employment specifically mentioned in the wills only, it didn't actually authorize the release of a single coin into Albus' hands. Something the goblin he'd had to deal with had been only too happy to point out each time he requested coin for an expense he said was tied to the Estate.

The little bugger insisted the bank handle all Estate payments themselves instead of giving Albus the money and leaving him to do the actual transactions himself. So he couldn't even choose not to pay the stated obligations and pocket the coins instead while running up a mountain of debt for the brat to face when he came of age.

The goblins were forcing him to honor his position as caretaker of the Brat's inheritance whether he wished to do so or not. So for the first time in over ten years bills involving the Potter Estate were being paid.

And furthermore the parchment was only good for the payment of those monthly bills if he came in person each month and went through them with the goblin manager of the Estate.

In other words he had to go once a month to Gringott's just to pay the Potter Estate bills. If he failed to show, the goblins could, and most likely would, have him rejected as Potter's magical guardian. Who would be named in his stead was unknown but Albus couldn't afford to find out either because whomever it would be would be sure to contact Potter and fill him in on everything Albus had been concealing from him all these years. And then Potter would never listen to him and follow his direction. Not that he really did now, he thought grimly.

Little brat always tried to refuse to play his role in the events Albus engineered. His patsies always had to work hard to get the brat where he wanted him.

Nor would any debts incurred and accredited to the Estate outside the terms of the involved wills be covered until such a time as the accounts were unfrozen. What really irked him though was the goblins had said the accounts were to remain frozen until the little brat came of age. That's if he understood the little beasts correctly. Potter had said they told him they'd only be frozen for a couple of weeks. But they'd told Albus differently.

Even Potter's death wouldn't free up the accounts since he did have living kin. And that really galled the elderly man. Not Potter kin, to be sure. But that Dursley spawn was his cousin through their mothers and so if he should produce a magical offspring, said child could inherit the vast holdings the brat would leave behind. All of Potter's inheritance would go into lockdown if he should die before producing his own heir and there was nothing Albus could do about it as the Dursley boy was of his bloodline.

Maybe he should look into having that boy killed off before he could reproduce? That would end locking down the vaults should the Potter Brat die without issue. He did know where the brat was after all. And he was only a muggle so who was to notice? Muggles died all the time. What was one more? He could even go do it himself the next time the dark magic calling was too strong to resist.

Still that wouldn't solve the immediate problem of getting into the vaults Potter controlled. Since the Potter Will had been buried by him and never disclosed to the public or executed and the Pettigrew Will hadn't held any outstanding and ongoing debts as Peter had taken care of all of that before turning the Estate over to Potter, that meant only debts incurred through the execution of the Black and Lupin Wills could be covered. And neither of them covered payments to people Albus had hired or needed to bribe to keep things going his way.

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