Harry Potter (Harry) [week 6 - prompt 3]
Title: Inheritances Author: purple_alicorn Rating: FR14 Warnings: AU after book five but with some elements taken from book 6, Word Count: 534 Author's Notes: Amalgamation of way too many clichés I’ve seen in Harry Potter – see how many you can count! Assumes that Harry turns 16 in the summer between 5th and 6th year.
The Owls starting flying in Harry’s window at 12.01am on his 16th Birthday. In addition to the usual Birthday greetings from his friends, there were a number of owls bearing official looking documents. The first seemed to be from the Ministry of Magic.
‘Dear Mr Potter. Congratulations on your 16th Birthday. As of today you are now legally an adult in the eyes of the Wizarding World. As such, you assume all the rights and responsibilities of an adult, which are detailed in the accompanying parchment.’ The letter continued on in this vein, but Harry skipped to the list. According to this, among other things, he was no longer bound by the Underage Magic Decree. He tested this out by enlarging his room and, when no owl appeared, accepted this as the truth.
The second and third were from Gringotts. The second stated ‘Dear Lord Potter. As you are now legally an adult, Gringotts can release your family vaults to you. Due to the high volume of vaults, a list has been attached for your perusal. As you are now our single largest investor, please contact us at your earliest convenience to discuss your banking future.’ He immediately thought of how he could use this money, becoming the owner of Grunnings was looking like a good idea. While most of the names were not familiar, some jumped out at him, namely Griffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin, along with a notation that this would give him control over the property known as Hogwarts.
When he opened the third it started ‘Dear Harry, if you are reading this, then our worst fears have come to pass and we are dead before you reached sixteen. We hope we went out fighting the good fight, not from something silly like falling down a flight of stairs We arranged for this to be sent via Gingotts to reach you on your majority as there are a number of things you should know.’ It was a letter from his parents!
As he read on, he discovered that Lily was in fact the adopted daughter of the Evans, and descended from a long line of squibs on her father’s side. In addition, her half-brother thought their mother was Snape of all people. They also mentioned that there magical humanoid creatures had intermarried into both lines, meaning that he could exhibit traits of Veela, Vampires, Werewolves, High Elves, among other species! Already he could feel his canines growing pointier along with the tips of his ears.
As he was digesting this information, an unfamiliar phoenix entered his room. Harry heard a voice speak in his head. It was the phoenix, who was named Hikari. Hikari had been looking for him as he was the reincarnation of Merlin himself, and, as soon as this information was imparted, sections of his memory unlocked themselves and he had all the wisdom of Merlin – including the knowledge of how to defeat Voldemort.
Unfortunately for Dumbledore, the letter telling Harry not to read the other letters and trust in Dumbledore’s guidance had been left for last. Harry had no intention of listening to him, and would forge his own path. This year would be the best ever!