Chapter Text

POTTER CHILD

Fifth Year

Harry starred a bit helplessly at the account information in his hands.

"Uh…," he said a bit lost. "Can we… can we maybe invest it… somehow?"

"Of course, sir," the goblin in front of him agreed immediately. "I assume you want the usual investment?"

"Er…," Harry said, feeling even more lost. "Yes?"

The goblin nodded.

"I will look through our folders immediately. I am sure, I will find something that will conform with your and your family's goals."

"Er…," Harry said, hiding his frown. "Sure."

He hadn't even known that his family had goals when it came to investing, but he guessed that he could at least listen to the possibilities before refusing the ideas or agreeing to them.

Again, his gaze was drawn to the parchment.

That damn parchment that contained a number with more zeros than Harry had ever seen in his entire life.

Merlin! He wasn't even sure if he knew how pronounce the number he was seeing on the parchment in his hands.

This had to be a mistake!

Yet, when he had said as much, the goblin had denied it and told Harry that the number on his parchment was entirely correct up to the last coin.

So now, Harry stood there, absolutely at loss what to do.

"But…," his treacherous mind whispered. "I only gave the Weasley twins the money… I understand they wanted to repay me, but there's no way… no way at all that this number can be correct! It's only been a few months! This can't be right! This -"

"Here we are," his panicky thoughts were interrupted by the returning goblin. "The most interesting investments for your family, young Prince."

"Er…," Harry said, about to correct the goblin on his last name - maybe this was the actual problem? - but before he could, the goblin continued.

"Here we have the possibility to invest into Beauxbatons in exchange for owning a part of the school," the goblin said, turning the file towards Harry so that he could take a look as well. "The school has taken damage thanks to a very nasty storm this year and their budget is quite depleted thanks to their involvement in last school year's Triwizard Tournament."

"Oh," Harry said and pulled the ledger closer. "I guess they need the help, don't they?"

"Very much so," the goblin in front of him agreed, showing a very nasty smile. "It's the perfect opportunity, young Prince."

Harry frowned a bit at that.

The perfect opportunity?

The perfect opportunity for what?!

Before he could ask that and a few dozen other questions, the goblin continued as if Harry's words had already confirmed what he expected.

"So, we're going to draw up the contract. Fifteen percent as a starting line?"

Harry's frown deepened.

"As a starting line?! Fifteen percent? Wh-"

"Ah, of course, I guess you are right, young Prince. It would be far too less for a starting line. How about we use it as a finishing line?" the goblin immediately corrected himself, obviously thinking in ways that Harry couldn't even fathom to understand.

"Fifteen percent?" Harry repeated instead.

"Twenty then," the goblin corrected. "I should have guessed that you would be driving as hard of a bargain as your father. He was brilliant when it came to it. I should have guessed that you would be as well considering that your mother was nearly as strong-minded as your esteemed father."

"Alright," Harry said, while wondering what in Merlin's name was happening right now. He had slipped away from the Dursley's today and had only come to Gringotts to see how much money his parents had left him and if it would be possible to live off it in case he was thrown out of Hogwarts.

This had been a desperate measure after the Dementor attack three days ago and his threatened expulsion, instead, he had found himself in some kind of parallel-universe - or that's what he'd say if he had to guess - where the goblins handed him a parchment with the wrong numbers on it while talking in code.

The goblin in front of Harry signed something on the first page of the file.

"Twenty percent of the school in exchange for your help, then," he said as if Harry had agreed with his suggestion. "We will make it happen immediately, young Prince. Anything else you will wish to invest in?"

Harry stared at the goblin, then at the file that contained the numbers wished for and then the parchment in his hands.

"I… somehow get the feeling I could found three more projects of that magnitude and still have enough to live without ever having to work for the rest of my life," Harry said, feeling a bit thrown when he actually understood how big the number on his parchment actually was.

"Of course," the goblin in front of him said. "Three more projects. Four projects all in all - a quite reasonable investment for your first, young Prince."

With that, the goblin pulled out four more files.

"This would be Mahoukoto, the wizarding school in Japan," he said, pointing at the first file. "They need to update their muggle repelling system and need monetary help for this project."

Then he pointed at the next file.

"This is the file for St. Agnes-Krankenhaus zu Herzlieb," he continued. "It's the major magical hospital in Germany. They need a bigger budget for the new ward for curses and the creation of their counters they want to install."

Then he pointed at the next one.

"The building of a magical holiday resort in Hawaii," he said. "Not your usual spiel, but it would give you an in to Hawaii where you don't own anything, currently."

Then he pointed at the last one.

"The building of a new prison for the Ministry in Australia," he said. "It's not the most glorious project but it would broaden your standing in the country."

Harry stared at the files, wondering a bit idly why he'd need to broaden his standing anywhere - and especially in a country so far away like Australia…

"Er…," he said, not too sure what to say to his choices, before settling on a hopefully neutral question. "What about Hogwarts?"

"Ah!" the goblin said as if he had expected the question to come for quite a while. "Don't worry about it. It's finally been taken care off."

"Huh?" Harry asked confused. "How?"

"With your defeat of the final Heir of Slytherin as a baby you finally succeeded in your family's goal there," the goblin explained patiently. "We goblins have to say, this was an ingenious move of your mother. We shouldn't have doubted her: she has always had the ruthlessness of the Potters inside her."

"So… Slytherin?" Harry asked a bit hesitatingly, not too sure what to think about it.

"After a thousand years of planning and acting finally part of the Potter family," the goblin assured him. "Just like Ravenclaw which you bought and Hufflepuff which you integrated by marriage as well as Gryffindor where you did the same."

Harry gawked.

"Oh," he said, his eyes nearly bugging out in disbelieve. "Alright?"

"So, young Prince," the goblin continued. "Which projects do you want to finance?"

Harry stared at the folders.

A school?

Well, he always thought that education was important so he guessed that helping a school might be a good idea.

The hospital?

Considering how often Harry ended up in the medical wing, he guessed that planning for his future outside of Hogwarts would be a good idea as well…

But… a holiday resort? A prison?!

"Er… what about other investments in Great Britain?" he finally asked, not too sure what to think about the fact that the goblin had only shown him international investments.

"Don't worry about them," the goblin said. "In three years' time your lease agreement with the Ministry for the Ministry will run out. After that, you will be back to fully owning the building like the agreement dedicates and they will have to renegotiate again if they want to continue using it. Since they don't have a building as secure and as big and central as the one that's currently housing the Ministry, we should be able to raise their lease by at least five percent."

"Five percent?" Harry gawked.

"Ten then," the goblin immediately agreed as if that had been Harry's actual objection.

Harry gulped.

"Parts of Knockturn Alley might need a do-over within the next ten to fifteen years, but out of the ninety-eight percent of the Knockturn Alley buildings you own, most are in good condition, so you won't have to spare a lot of money to get them up to date when you finally buy the rest of the buildings and restore them. The missing two percent of the buildings there might be available for buying within the next three to five years. Some might be hovels, but I'd recommend to buy them anyway just for the ground they're placed on."

Harry nodded like a puppet on strings. The goblin returned the nod. "I will keep an eye on and tell you immediately," he said. "Hogsmeade and Godric's Hollow are mostly owned by you already and Diagon Alley is currently at a comfortable eighty-six percent. As soon as the war is over, we will invest there and ensure that we might reach the same percentage as Knockturn Alley if you wish."

Harry opened and closed his mouth, feeling as if his mind was shutting down.

"St. Mungo's is still in your family's possession like it has been for the last three hundred years. Its lease has been dutifully paid for the last fourteen years and we continued to invest the money just like your father decided," the goblin added. "And I told you about Hogwarts already."

"Yes," Harry replied, his mind desperately trying to keep up with the insane information intake he had just now.

"So, young Prince, which of the projects do you want to take on?" the goblin said while gesturing at the files in front of him.

Harry stared at them blankly, his mind simply not computing anymore.

"Young Prince?" the goblin asked after one moment of silence too many.

"Not the prison," Harry's mouth said without any input of his information-challenged brain.

"Ah," the goblin said. "A good choice. Do you wish for the same deal like the one you proposed for Beauxbatons with the school Mahoukoto, then?"

Harry hummed, not actually agreeing but more in the desperate hope that it would end this insane day faster.

The goblin nodded.

"What about St. Agnes-Krankenhaus zu Herzlieb? Do you propose a different deal?" he asked. "They're building a new ward, after all. We could go for owning the whole ward – which would give us at least thirty to thirty-five percent of the shares for the hospital."

"Thirty-five percent," Harry said without input from his brain.

"A good choice," the goblin said and noted something down. "Since you're only starting in Hawaii, would you like us to try and get you full control of the holiday resort?"

"Full control," Harry's mouth repeated, his brain fighting with this new kind of disbelief spreading inside him.

"Very well, then," the goblin said. "Full control. Give me a moment, young Prince and I will draw up the paperwork for your investments. I will let you know the moment we have the final agreements - but don't you worry, it shouldn't take more than a day or two. We will send you the final paperwork immediately by owl."

"Sure," Harry's mouth agreed.

Harry himself wasn't sure if his brain would ever be able to get over the shock he had received right now.

Three minutes later, the goblin returned and handed Harry the paperwork.

Harry read through it and while everything in the paperwork sounded more than fantastical, it also sounded absolutely legal.

For a moment, Harry contemplated that the whole thing could be an evil joke from the goblins to ensure that Harry ended up in ruins - but since he couldn't even begin to fathom what he could have done for the goblins to pull a joke like that on him, Harry signed, at the end.

The goblin took back the paperwork, looked it through and then nodded in satisfaction.

"Good," he said. "This should double your interest. Like it is, it should only take seven years instead of fourteen until you'd reach the same amount of monetary cushion you had today. Adding to it that you smartly invested in the new and upcoming joke shop, you should be able to leave enough money so that at least your children if not you should finally succeed in your family's plans."

Harry blinked.

"They should?" He asked, suddenly wondering if he shouldn't have asked about the usual way of investigating of his family and about the plans, they seemed to have had which Harry had never known about.

"Oh, definitively," the goblin replied. "In three years' time, you should meet the first part of your goals here in Britain, after that, if you're lucky, you might be able to reach the rest of your goals in about twenty to fifty years. If you don't, at least your own children should finally be able to achieve what you haven't."

Harry frowned.

He had the feeling that his brain was about to be turned into mush.

"Twenty to fifty years?" He repeated while wondering what kind of plans his family had that the timing was so imprecise.

"Well, young Prince," the goblin said as if it was obvious. "Considering that political climate and other factors are playing into your plan of absolute world-domination, I think you should be quite happy to hear that your goal is in such a near future."

Harry opened his mouth.

World-domination.

He blinked.

Young Prince.

World-domination.

He stared.

Young Prince.

WORLD-DOMINATION.

He closed his mouth.

"Oh, alright," he said - but for the first time ever, he wondered if Lord Voldemort didn't have a far more believable and sinister reason why he had chosen and tried to kill the Potters.

World-domination.

Twenty to fifty years.

Idly, Harry wondered if those words alone didn't change Voldemort's and his own positions. Didn't those words mean that Harry was the danger and Voldemort the saviour?!

For a moment, Harry wanted to take everything back that he had said to the goblin. He wanted to tell the goblin that there was no way in hell that he would rule the damn world…

And then his gaze fell on the number on the parchment in his hands.

To hell with world-domination.

He would NOT continue to live with that much money in his vault!

He would go crazy if he would have continued to look at that amount of money!

"Guess I will have to ensure that my children know something about politics," he thought idly while saying his goodbyes and leaving Gringotts. "I wonder what else is needed to know if you're the ruler of the whole magical world?"

Then another idle thought hit him.

"At least, it's only the magical world," he thought. "It could be worse."

And if it ever got - well, at least, it wouldn't be Harry's problem at that point of time anymore…

Chapter Text

POTTER CHILD

Seventh Year

Harry knew that he should be concerned with something else right now. He was in the middle of walking to his death by Voldemort, after all. But… when the snitch opened and he suddenly had the Resurrection Stone in his hands, Harry had just one question.

"What the hell are the goblins talking about? World domination? Dad!"

His father cringed.

"That… honestly, son, that wasn't my fault," James Potter settled on saying.

Harry raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

Remus looked from father to son in confusion.

"World domination?" he asked. "What?"

"Metaphor," Sirius replied and rolled his eyes. "Voldemort and the whole circus, you know?"

Remus nodded slowly, still looking a bit confused.

His mother frowned at him. "Harry, dear," she said slowly. "Don't tell me you've been walking around in those rags the whole time?"

Harry stopped dead in his track and then looked down at the things he was wearing with a confused "Huh?"

His mother sighed. "You're as bad as your father, darling," she said with a sigh. "Complaining about all the money in your vault, but instead of going out and at least buying decent basics, you just continue to use what you always used – or you end up buying second hand."

Harry blushed.

While he certainly hadn't bought his clothes, he guessed that his mother was right and he should have thought about buying himself a decent wardrobe when he found out that he had the money to do so…

"Sorry, Mum," he apologized. "I should have thought about that."

"I guess I should have told him to buy something when I saw him in his third year," Remus said with a wince.

"You don't go out and buy yourself clothes as well," Sirius countered and pulled Remus a bit away while he started to admonished Remus for not taking care of himself.

Harry's mother nodded at Harry, acknowledging his apology while looking quite regally while she did so. That reminded Harry. "And Dad… Mum… can anybody of you tell me why the goblins call me 'young Prince' instead of my last name? They… didn't confuse me with someone else, did they?"

At that, his father blushed a fiery red.

"I… guess we own Hogwarts now, don't we?" he asked his wife rhetorically.

Lily hummed. "Well, theoretically, the previous heir of Slytherin is alive again," she pointed out. "But since he hasn't defeated our son and taken back what his first defeat took from him…" She hummed thoughtfully before she nodded decisively. "Yes, I fear we do, dearest."

Harry blinked.

"What does that have to do with anything?" he inquired.

"Old rule," his father immediately replied. "When the whole thing about us Potters being the royals of the magical world came up first with the goblins… well, let's just say that we forbid the goblins to call us anything but our name until Hogwarts was in our hands. Afterwards, we acquiesced that we really would be the princes of the wizarding world."

Harry stared at James.

"Wait! Are you telling me that the goblins see us as a royal family?" he asked incredulously.

"We own most of Britain," James pointed out with a wince. "And we've been steadily acquiring more of it with every year. Merlin! Even three generations back we would have been able to bring down the wizarding world if we just wanted to – just by saying 'no' and removing most of the funding of St. Mungo's, Hogwarts and the Ministry. Without us, several projects would have to be cut and the training for the Healers and Aurors as well as their protection would have to be done with old and barely functioning equipment. Not to mention that Hogwarts would have been closed for generations already without us Potters supporting it here and there."

Harry blinked.

"Huh," he said, before he cautiously asked. "So… the reason why the goblins call me 'Prince'…"

"Is because you are a prince," his mother told him lovingly.

"More or less," his father supplied with a grumble, clearly less happy about it than Harry's mother.

"Huh," Harry said. "And the whole… 'I ask the goblins about Hufflepuff's cup and they not only brought it to me but asked me if I wanted to take a look into Bellatrix's vault for anything else of interest to me…' thing?"

James scratched his head and then looked at his best friend who hurriedly turned away and whistled innocently.

"That you got the cup is easily explained," Lily said and eyed Sirius suspiciously who was looking at the night-sky, still whistling. "You're the owner of everything Hufflepuff. Since the cup belonged to Hufflepuff, it was yours. If you wanted it back then you had every right to ask for it – no matter in whose vault it actually was."

Harry nodded slowly and then looked at Sirius with a frown. Remus looked at his friends. He seemed to be quite lost with the whole conversation.

James meanwhile had narrowed his eyes at his best friend in suspicion.

"Sirius," he said slowly and Sirius gulped. "Tell me you didn't!"

Sirius gulped again.

James leaned forward towards his best friend.

"Sirius…"

"I… alright! I did it!" Sirius finally cried out. "I thought that a little bit more wouldn't hurt him, ok?"

"You ended up giving him the whole assets of the House of Black – and you say he got a LITTLE BIT MORE?!" James glared at Sirius.

Harry's godfather ducked his head.

"You never said that I wasn't allowed to give him the Black estate!" he justified himself,

Harry looked from one Marauder to the other.

"Black estate?" he asked confused. "I thought I just inherited the house?"

"That means you inherited the estate, Harry, darling," his mother explained to him fondly.

Harry paled. "How much money…?"

"Not that much!" Sirius quickly assured him.

"Just enough to buy half of Diagon Alley," James countered full of snark.

Harry gulped.

"Dia…Diagon Alley?" he stuttered.

"Half of it! Only half of it!" Sirius immediately corrected him.

Lily hummed thoughtfully.

"I'm sure that the goblins are currently investing in your estate nicely with that money," she said happily.

Harry looked at his mother, his face a bit pale. "I inherited the house a year ago," he said, his pale face looking first at his mother and then at his godfather, who was furiously whispering with Remus, to finally settle on his father.

James winced. "I guess the goblins went ahead and used it to buy most of Diagon Alley while the war was raging?" he offered up hesitatingly. "I mean… people would have had a hard time keeping open their shops with the war and the fear all around. They'd most likely burned through all the money they as a cushion and then some…"

"Or they will when the war ends," his mother added happily. "If you haven't managed to own most of Diagon Alley by now, you will when the war ends."

Harry looked at his father and then at his mother.

"What… what do I do with all those assets?" he asked a bit helplessly.

"Best thing you can do is marry a nice girl with a shrewd sense for business and hand over the whole mess to her," James suggested calmly. "I did the same thing when I handed it over to your mother and she did really well with it in the time it was under her control."

Harry gawked.

"So… the whole world domination thing?"

"Shhh!" both of his parents immediately admonished him. "We don't talk about that!"

Harry blinked.

"Oh," he said and tried to wrap his head around the fact that there were rules about his family goals that he hadn't known to follow.

"You didn't say anything to your friends, did you?" his father asked him with suspiciously narrowed eyes.

Harry shook his head. "No," he said. "I even went at night to Gringotts so that I could go alone when I asked the goblins for Hufflepuff's cup." Harry had actually gone alone because he had felt embarrassed by the idea he had about just walking up to the goblins and explaining himself.

But then… Harry most likely wouldn't have considered doing such a thing if it hadn't been for the whole fifth year experience and the odd behaviour of the goblins back then.

"Good… good then," his father said and nodded. Harry noticed full of interest that Sirius had pulled Remus away and was currently engaging him in a conversation.

Lily and James followed his gaze.

"Sirius is used to distracting Remus when we need to talk family business," James said unconcerned. "Don't worry, I will fill Sirius in when we're back on the other side of the veil if he needs to know."

"Sirius knows then?" Harry asked.

"He was taken in by my father," James reminded him. "Sirius has been my brother ever since and so of course he knows. He has to further the family goals, after all."

Harry frowned.

"I thought you might not agree with the family goals the way you acted before?" he asked a bit confused.

His father winced. "If I agree or not doesn't mean anything," he told his son. "The family decided to go for it, so that's what we will do, no matter my personal feelings about it."

Harry frowned.

His father grinned at him – it looked more like a grimace.

"My father and grandfather said the same," James elaborated. "And I think my great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather did, too."

Harry blinked.

"So… we're trying for world domination – even if nobody actually wants it?" he asked incredulously.

Lily smiled at him. "Well, it's either us or people like Voldemort," she countered calmly. "But fact is that someone will always try. And, be honest, Harry, dear – do you want Voldemort be the one who might manage it?"

Harry emphatically shook his head.

"There you go, darling," Lily said.

"But does it have to be us instead?" Harry whined.

"Do you want that much money in your vault?" James countered immediately.

Harry's mind returned to the number he had seen on the parchment the goblin had handed him two years ago. He turned as white as a ghost.

"No."

"There you go, darling," Lily said calmly. "That's your answer."

Harry gulped and then nodded and took a deep breath.

"Well," he said shakily. "At least I'm about to die now. That should at least end the whole money-insanity."

James grinned. "That's the right attitude! Just my thoughts back then when I died!"

"James!" Lily immediately admonished her husband. "Don't encourage him to commit suicide!"

Then she turned to Harry sternly.

"Promise me young man that you won't go and give up your life if you have a chance to do it differently!"

Harry opened his mouth, but his mother didn't even let him start with his objection. "Promise me, Harry!"

"I promise, Mum," Harry gave in. It didn't matter, after all. He was a Horcrux. He would have to die for Voldemort to be able to die. "If there's any other way, I will stay alive."

"Good boy," his mother said and smiled at him.

"And if you don't, we have a place for you at our sides," James added happily. "And then we will all be free of the insanity that is our vault at Gringotts."

Harry nodded emphatically.

With that, Harry walked happily towards his dead… well, at least until…

"What in Merlin's name do you mean 'I'm alive'?" Harry stared Dumbledore with horror in his eyes. He was standing in the middle of an oddly clean and white King's Cross after Voldemort had used the killing curse on him.

Harry should be dead!

Harry had a right to be dead!

Not that Dumbledore seemed to think so. Instead, he babbled about the blood Voldemort took from Harry and how it bound Harry to life as long as Voldemort lived. Sadly, the only thing Harry heard was something else.

"So… I'm not dead?" he asked with desperation in his voice.

"No, you're not, Harry," Dumbledore answered and twinkled at him happily.

Harry wanted to strangle the old man in front of him with his own beard.

Harry had a RIGHT to be DEAD! So why did Dumbledore tell him the opposite?!

"So… I have to go back?" Harry asked, his eyes wide with terror.

In his mind, there was a parchment with so many ciphers on it that Harry couldn't even start to guess how to pronounce the number they were spelling out.

"That's up to you," Dumbledore said.

'World domination,' Harry's mind reminded him. 'Twenty to fifty years.'

'Young Prince,' his subconsciousness told him. 'The goblins see the Potters as a royal family.'

"I… I don't want to have a crown," Harry whimpered.

Dumbledore frowned.

"You can go on, if that's really what you want," he said, clearly not understanding Harry's objections. "If you decide you don't want to go back you could… let's say… board a train."

Harry really wanted to take that train.

But… his mother would kill him if he did that, the moment she got her hands on him.

And they would have eternity together…

Harry shuddered.

World domination – twenty to fifty years.

Young Prince – the Potters as a royal family.

Harry would end up with a crown… or his children would.

Harry gulped.

"Guess I'll have to look into some tutors after Voldemort," he decided aloud and then turned back from where he came from, ignoring Dumbledore's curious and slightly confused look following him.

This was family business – and the Potter's didn't talk about their goals with anybody but family.

Harry raised his head and marched back to life.

There was a dark lord to kill and a goal to achieve.

"And a wife to find and children to teach," Harry added thoughtfully after the whole mess with Voldemort was over and he was staring at the Elder Wand in his hands.

He contemplated giving it back to Dumbledore's grave.

He really didn't need to add a title like 'Master of Death' on top of everything. Harry reached for the stone in his pocket and then looked at the wand thoughtfully.

He pulled out his old wand and then mended it with the Elder Wand.

His friends looked at him and Harry wondered if they knew that he had lied to them when he told them that the stone had been lost.

He looked back at the wand.

He really didn't want it.

"I'm putting the Elder Wand back where it came from," he told the portrait of Dumbledore who was nodding happily at him.

"Are you sure?" Ron asked him.

"I think Harry's right," Hermione said.

And Harry pocketed the wand to officially put it to rest later on. And if he only put to rest a replica – who would know? After all, Harry's family was out for World Domination. Having something like being the Master of Death as an ace in the hole could only come in handy.

"Guess the next thing I have to find is a suitable girlfriend," Harry said to himself. "Someone shrewd enough to further the family goals."

And well… maybe he should go out and look at crowns and their designs to see what he liked or could live with… just in case he needed one in the future.

THE END