8

hapter 8: Claiming Lordships

Back in Time

Chapter 8: Claiming Lordships

Harry was just about to exit through the doors of the Manor when a familiar voice called out to him.

"Harry, where are you going?" Orion said from the stairs.

Harry smiled, "I'm going to Gringotts. I've got to claim my Lordship, and sort through my estate, you know,"

"Oh," Orion said, "And you're leaving without saying goodbye?"

"I mean, it's not really goodbye," Harry smirked, though his stomach was fluttering at the wide eyed look that Orion was giving him, "I'll be back in a few hours so your father can help me go over things, and give me a lesson on the Wizengamot. I've also already told your parents where I'm going. I couldn't find you, though, and Lucretia is out working on some of the final bits for the wedding with Ignatius. But if it means that much to you, now that I know where you are, goodbye. I shall see you shortly," Harry said.

"See you shortly," Orion said, with a nod and a smile that sent shivers through Harry's spine.

The good kind.

Harry nodded back at him and turned to leave, making his way to the edge of the wards so that he could apparate to Diagon Alley. A small smile not leaving his face.

…

Harry walked up to the closest free teller, trying to exude confidence that he certainly wasn't feeling. Why was he so nervous?

Perhaps him coming back in time and therefore not actually being a person from this time had something to do with it. Merlin, this could go wrong in so many ways.

"Yes?" the goblin said, raising a bushy grey eyebrow at him.

"Hello, sir, I am here to claim my Lordship," Harry said, trying to sound strong, certain.

"Name?"

"Heir Hadrian Peverell, sir,"

This time both eyebrows were raised.

"Come with me, Heir Peverell," the goblin said before turning off his lamp and disappearing behind the tall desk, only to reappear a moment later in front of him, waving for Harry to follow him.

Harry followed him down many long corridors and into a large elevator with white granite tiles as the flooring and almost white golden walls. Then they are travelling down into the depths of Gringotts, and although Harry doesn't know quite how far down they go he can assume it is a fair amount given how long they are in the elevator for.

The golden elevator door opens to a long, grand hallway. At the end of which were a large set of mahogany doors detailed with golden strands that looked like vines, leaves and little flowers.

He was led up to the marvellous, yet overwhelming door. His stomach fluttered nervously. It fluttered even more as the goblin that was leading him to the large doors knocked loudly on them, the sound almost reverbrating through the space behind them, and shortly afterwards the doors were opened by a warrior goblin, in full armour, a spear that seemed to be thrumming with magic in his hand as he glared at the two of them.

"What brings you here, Gladrock?" the warrior goblin growled, "And with a client?"

"Sorry, sir, for the intrusion, but this is Heir Peverell and he is here to claim his Lordship," Gladrock said, sounding strong, and yet Harry could sense some nervousness in him.

"Let them in," a deeper voice from the room beyond boomed and the warrior stepped aside.

Gladrock led Harry into the vast room that was rather similar to the hallway, although there were golden vines like the ones on the doors decorating the walls. There was a mahogany desk in front of the doors, with a black wingback chair behind it, in which sat another goblin. The one who spoke, Harry assumed based on the fact that he was looking at them, and there were only him, and another warrior goblin, who stood next to the desk, in the room. The goblin in the chair was dressed more finely than he had seen any other goblin dressed, and he had a small, golden crown that looked like more vines, on his head.

Of course, the realisation that this goblin was some kind of royalty only served to make Harry more nervous. Gladrock bowed at the goblin behind the desk and Harry did too at the hinting of Ignotus in his mind.

"Heir Peverell," the goblin behind the desk said, cordially, "There hasn't been one of you in a while. At least, not in this country. I am King Ragnok of the British Gringotts clan. It is a pleasure to meet you,"

"The pleasure is all mine, Your Highness," Harry said, "May your gold grow and your enemies fall at your feet,"

The King's lips twitched up, "I return your sentiments to you. Now then, I do believe we should get down to business. Gladrock, thank you for bringing Heir Peverell to me, you may resume your position,"

Gladrock bowed his head and left the room quietly as the King gestured for Harry to sit in one of the wingback chairs in front of the desk. Harry nodded and sat in the chair, which was very comfortable if he did say so himself.

"So, I am assuming that you are rather confused about myself handling your case instead of one of the usual account managers," King Ragnok smirked.

"Just a tad, yes," Harry said, smiling slightly.

"The Peverell family has been friends with the goblin nation since the three brothers who made the family famous in the first place. Not that they weren't a well respected family before those three, they certainly were. They were rich, pureblood, ancient and noble, even back then. As such, the King or Queen of the Gringotts clan in the country the current Heir, Lord or Lady are residing in is typically the person handling everything. Your accounts and such moved to your vaults in our Bank when you arrived in the country Heir Peverell, and I have been overseeing them since. I knew it was only a matter of time before you, yourself arrived," the King said.

"Ah, yes, well, I would have arrived sooner, however a friend of mine tried to kill me so I have since been recovering, with the aid of the Black family," Harry said.

"I am sorry to hear that, Heir Peverell. I hope you are feeling better, physically. Would you like to punish your friend?" the King said, almost too gleefully.

"I do believe his friend has been taken care of, King Ragnok," Death said as he appeared in the chair next to Harry, causing Harry to jump and King Ragnok to smirk at the spectre.

"Ah, Death, I had wondered when you would be making your appearance this time," King Ragnok.

"I had been wondering, too," Death said, and Harry thought he could hear a smirk in his voice.

King Ragnok chuckled, "The friend has been taken care of?"

"Indeed he has. No need for you to get your claws on him this time. However there are plenty of others we need to sort out, so I shall let you have them. Or, some of them. I can't let you have all the fun," Death said, "Now are you going to let my boy claim his inheritance?"

"Your boy?" King Ragnok smirked, "You haven't called anyone your boy since Ignotus, as far as I'm aware,"

"No, Ignotus was my man, and he still is by the way. No, Harry here is our boy, mine and Ignotus' boy," Death said, shrugging his robed shoulders.

Harry was watching their conversation in mild confusion, but also amusement. He was rather touched that Death called him 'my boy' though. He had never been called that in a good way before.

"And what about all the other Peverells?" King Ragnok said.

"Well, they just weren't as good as my two favourite ones," Death sounded a lot like he was pouting.

"Well then, I shall be expecting great things from you, Heir Peverell, since Death is so very fond of you," King Ragnok said, looking at Harry with dark eyes that seemed to be looking for anything good in him.

"And so you should be," Ignotus said as he appeared standing next to Harry, "Our boy is going to make our world a vastly better place," he added, smiling at Harry with nothing but love and care in his ghostly eyes.

"Er, well, I'm certainly going to try," Harry said nervously.

"Then I look forward to working with you, Heir Peverell. Since I have confirmation from Death that you are, in fact, the Heir, I shall give you an inheritance test to see whether or not you are able to claim any more inheritances. Then we shall go forward with your claiming of your titles, and begin to go through everything else," King Ragnok said, opening up one of the drawers of his desk and pulling out a potion in a crystal vial, a sheet of parchment and an athame.

Harry thought he could feel amusement coming from Death and he looked at the spectre nervously, feeling like he had done… something, maybe?

Harry followed the directions he was told, used the athame to cut his finger and let seven drops of blood fall into the potion. He let Death gently grab his hand and heal the cut, the spectre cooing as he did so, and then he stoppered the potion again, shaking it for one minute, before pouring it onto the parchment.

And he watched, in shock, as the words formed magically on the page.

Hadrian Ignotus Peverell

D.O.B. 31/07/1928

Mother: Ignotus Jamie Peverell

Father: Evan Julian Peverell nee Bones

Bearer

Inheritance

Heir to the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Peverell

Heir to the Most Ancient and Most Honourable House of Merlin

There were many other words appearing under those ones but he stopped reading, shocked at what he was seeing. Merlin, really? He turned to stare at Death, who was staring at him, too, though Harry still couldn't see his face. He could feel the amusement rolling off the figure, though.

"Well, all seems in order," King Ragnok said as he read the parchment, though he seemed to be a tad shocked also, "Glodrog, could you go to the vaults and get the rings for us please?"

One of the warrior goblins nodded and left the room quietly.

Things seemed to pass in a haze once the warrior had returned to the office. He put on the rings, loving the feeling of warm, familial magics coursing through him, keeping him safe from whatever there were protections on them for. He signed some paperwork.

Apparently he was now the Guardian of the Potter, Bones and Gaunt families. Which he knew would come in handy, but he was in too much of a daze to really fully pay attention to much of anything.

He was then handed two files, both of which were rather thick, though both lightweight, and they booked an appointment for a week from then to go over everything in more detail, once he had had the chance to look everything over.

And then he was being escorted back through the Bank, Death and Ignotus having disappeared.

Only to reappear when he made it to the edge of the Black Manor wards, and he turned to look at them with shocked, questioning eyes as they grinned at him. Well, he could only see Ignotus' grin, but he could feel Death's, and the spectre's amusement was still going strong.

"Merlin, really?" Harry asked, exasperated, "Of all the things you could have done, you had to make me the Heir of Merlin, too,"

"Well, you're the Lord of the House of Merlin now, actually," Death said, an obvious smirk in his tone.

"Whatever," Harry rolled his eyes, "May I ask why? Do I want to know why?"

"Well, Harry dear, I was bored and my good friend Merlin said it was okay. He likes you, you see, and thought that you would make a wonderful Heir for him. You will meet him one day, I promise. But yeah, so he found you worthy of being his Heir, so I made you his Heir. And now things are going to be a lot easier for you in terms of lessening the amount of power that Dumbledore has. Really, I just wanted to get you off to a good start on your quest. And Merlin did, too. But also, I was bored and thought it would be fun to see your reaction to such an enormous honour," Death said, almost as if he was a small, excited child.

"You were bored and thought you would just shove that responsibility onto me, too?" Harry summarised.

"I mean, partially, yeah," Death nodded, "Doing the same thing all the time is so boring. I just wanted to have some fun, switch things up a little," he whined.

"Right," Harry sighed, "And how exactly is this going to help me?"

"Well, first of all, the Merlin ring contains far more protections than the Peverell one. So do the Heir rings, so when you have your kiddies they will be safer, too. Secondly, you are now the owner of Excalibur. You know, the really awesome sword that Merlin created for King Arthur. And that is just cool. And thirdly, Merlin created the Wizengamot, which means that he has a very special seat especially for his descendants, which makes the Lord of the House of Merlin automatically the Chief Warlock, no matter how many seats the parties have. Which means that Dumbledore is not Chief Warlock, and will never be Chief Warlock, from this moment on, no matter what he does. There hasn't been a Lord of the House of Merlin in many a century because Merlin hasn't found anyone worthy of the title. But you are worthy, which means people on all sides are going to respect you, and you have the power to make the changes needed to keep things peaceful. And you have more power than Dumbledore now, so… yeah, I think that will come in rather handy," Death said cheerfully.

"So… You just piled a shit load of responsibility on me, just like that, without asking me?" Harry said.

"Well, yeah, but you did come back here intending on saving the world, and I didn't want you to have to stress too much over it. I think you've had too much stress over the years. And especially when you're pregnant stress just isn't all that good for you or your baby. So, I figured I would make things easier for you, pave the way as it were. You have snatched power away from Dumbledore without even trying to, and you are protected from nearly everything he could do to you in retaliation. You have the power needed to make the proper changes, without the stress of trying to get that power. You're welcome," Death said, bowing to Harry.

"Okay, but, erm, exactly how much stress does the position of Chief Warlock come with?" Harry said sceptically.

"That depends wholly on how much stress you, yourself add to it. Dumbledore does nothing really except sit there and watch people argue whilst trying to foist his opinions on others, and then proceeds to not do any paperwork or anything really. Just like he did at Hogwarts. So he is completely stress free. But, should you do the job properly, and keep things calm and collected in the sessions, mostly anyway, and do the paperwork, then not too much. As I said, you have to be found worthy by Merlin himself for you to even have his seat, and the fact that you are Lord Peverell also will really make people respect you, and work well. Many of them will probably be lining up to do things for you, to try and become friends, allies. To help you. You will be able to make the differences you want to make, and you will be able to get people to listen to you based on your titles alone. You are as protected as you can be. And you have lessened Dumbledore's power simply by existing here and claiming your Lordships. Things are different now already, and they will continue to change. They will continue to get better. And you, and your family will be safe. I have just tried to protect you, in my own way, and to make things easier for you so that you can do what you actually want to do, and be yourself," Death said honestly.

"Okay," Harry said, "Thank you,"

"No problem. And remember, Ignotus and I are always here to help you. So are the Black family,"

"Always," Ignotus said softly, smiling at Harry.

Harry smiled back, "Always,"

"We should probably get going," Death said, gesturing to himself and Ignotus, "But if you need anything just give us a shout and we'll come running, Lord Merlin-Peverell," he bowed.

"Okay," Harry said, shaking his head with a small smile, "Thanks,"

Then they were gone and Harry was staring at the Manor, breathing shakily as he prepared himself to go inside and show Arcturus the files, to go through his estates and have a lesson on the Wizengamot that he was going to be leading.

Merlin, why was he so nervous?

Hiya, how are you all?

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Feel free to let me know what you think about the revelations, but also how you think things are going to go now that Harry has some protection in this time, and now that he has stolen some power from Dumbledore. Or if there is anything that you would like to see, even if it is just something small, then I would love to hear it if you would like to share it. 

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