Harry potter and the art of deception

PART 9

As the week went on his detentions gradually grew more painful. Due to the blood quill Harry had started being even more defiant. It was stupid he knew but it was the only control he had. His friends had all told him to keep his head down, but he knew if he did Umbridge would win.

Somehow he had managed to keep his secret from his friends, well kind of. Luna had said something about the Wrack spurts and gobbles in his brain. Apparently, they told Luna that Harry was experiencing a dark time. He had silently chuckled and told Luna he had been through a lot and maybe that was what they were telling her. Nobody said anything and Luna seemed to accept his explanation. So, yeah he thought he had done a good job. That was until he entered Gringotts. It was the first Hogsmeade visit of the year and surprisingly he hadn't got detention. Hermione and Ron went to the village with Harry, but Harry quickly told them he needed to go to Gringotts to discuss something personal. They offered to go with him, but Harry politely declined, saying it was to do with his parents. The pair were shocked but agreed to leave him to it.

When he got to Gringotts he found Ginny, she had her hood up to cover her face. He grinned at her and walked over to the desk.
"Excuse me, I was wondering if Mr Gripshade is available?" Harry asked politely. The goblin in front of him looked up and Harry did a double-take. It was the same Goblin that he met in his first year.
"Oh, You're Griphook!" he said. Griphook looked at Harry surprised, nobody had ever remembered his name before.
"I am indeed, I must say Mr Potter it is a surprise you remember my face let alone my name" Griphook admitted. Harry frowned
"I will admit that sometimes I can be very negligent of names. You however where the first Goblin I had ever met, and I would be amiss not to mention very rude to forget such an occasion." He could feel Ginny grinning at him under her cloak. It seemed that the lessons Sirius were paying off. Griphook looked behind Harry and a small smile graced his face
"Is Miss Weasley accompanying you in your meeting?" Harry tried to school his face into a neutral expression but failed. He choked out a yes and together the pair followed Griphook into the back of the bank. They passed the tellers and the entrance to the vaults and walked down a narrow winding corridor. Harry was shocked, he never realised how big Gringotts was. When he told Ginny, she chuckled
"Harry Gringotts is first and foremost a bank. Where do you think people go to have meetings about their accounts? The front desk?" Harry frowned, slightly embarrassed. He supposed she had a point, even muggle banks had meeting rooms.

After ten minuets they reached a door. Griphook knocked thrice and waited for an answer. When a voice called out Griphook opened the door.
"Mister Potter and his associate are here to see you sir!" Gripshade grinned. He welcomed in the pair and thanked Griphook who left.
"Now Mister Potter I must first ask if you are okay with Miss Weasley learning intimate details about your family tree. We can of course make an unbreakable vow that the information will not leave this room if you wish?" Harry looked between the goblin and Ginny. He didn't know what an unbreakable Vow was, but it sounded severe. The teen took a deep breath
"I don't think that will me necessary. I trust Ginny with my life Sir Gripshade" the goblin grinned and pushed his glasses further up his face.
"Well if that's the case, I think we best get to it" the goblin then clapped his hands together like he was getting ready to gamble. He wandered over to the oak drawers next to his desk and pulled out a file.
"Now Mister Potter I will admit when that when looking into both your finances and family history I was quite shocked. I am not sure if you were aware that whilst the Potters where wealthy they weren't from what we call 'old money'" Harry nodded whilst Ginny gasped.
"What do you mean sir? The potters were one of the oldest wizarding families alive weren't they?" she asked. Harry stared at her, perplexed. Gripshade merely sat down.
"I am afraid not Miss Weasley. You see since the Potters are the wealthiest family lines in England they aren't old like say the Malfoys. The Malfoys have been around since Merlin himself. The Potters only became prominent in 1706. This is when Mister Potters relative invented the self-cleaning Broom. This put the Potters on the map so to speak. The Evans family however are older than even Merlin himself." Harry chocked, his other was muggleborns. When he said so Gripshade smiled sadly
"Yes your mother thought she was muggle born but she is actually descended from a long line of squibs. In fact, the Evans family were friends with the Founders Four. Shortly after the completion of Hogwarts however the Evans line dropped off the face of Wizarding history. Well I should say they changed their names. Mister Potter before they were Evans they were Peverell's, I assume you know the story of the Hallows?" Harry shook his head. Ginny then launched into an explanation about the deathly hallows and the Peverell brothers. How the first one was greedy and combative and was claimed by death in the end. How the second brother wished for love so much it killed him and the third hid from death till he was ready to greet him like an old friend. It was an old wives tale she said whilst Harry stared at her blankly.

It took everything in Harry to not laugh. Of course, everything he was ever taught about his family was wrong, nothing in his life was ever true was it.
"So I'm related to the Peverell and my mum wasn't actually Muggle born?" he asked. Gripshade nodded
"We also delved into the matter of Albus Dumbledore. It turns out that he was indeed siphoning money from your trust account. It seemed to be going into the Hogwarts Vault." Harry's shoulders dropped. He had really hoped Sirius was wrong about that, he didn't want his headmaster to be a thief.
"Now there are a number of things we can do Mister Potter. We can order an arrest via the Ministry and when that undoubtedly falls through we can order a Goblin arrest. This means that we go to the board of Gringotts and order an arrest under act 47 of the Goblin treaty act. He would then be taken into custody. He would not be sent to Azkaban, rather he will be sent to the Goblin mining camps in Peru. That is what we do with our prisoner. The other option is that we shut of his access, claiming that we need your signature in person as a safety procedure." Harry heaved a deep sigh; this is not what he wanted to do today. Sluggishly he chose the second option. He didn't like Dumbledore, but he didn't want the headmaster being treated as forced labour.

As Harry got up to leave Gripshade stopped him. He placed down a piece of paper and began to explain that they had found a dark presence in Harry. That his body was being shared with another. It was called a Horcrux, at this Ginny looked like she was going to be sick. She stared at harry, her face void of colour.
"Please tell me you haven't been hearing voices Harry" suddenly harry was thrust back into second year when Hermione told him even the wizarding world frowned upon hearing voices. He also remembered that was the year Ginny was taken and she too had been hearing voices. He wanted to deny it, but he couldn't.
"Not voices per say... more like flashes. I got them a lot in summer. It was like I could see Voldemort, but I was looking through someone else's eyes. I never said anything because it was starting to go away... well until detention started." Ginny's eyes shone with questions; questions Harry didn't want to answer. He didn't have to as Gripshade spoke to him, his voice soft. Like he was talking to a baby.
"Mister Potter... what is happening is wrong. We are cruel by Wizarding standards but even we wouldn't have a child write in their own blood." He then waved his hand over Harry's and his scar became visible. Ginny grabbed his hand.
"No, we need to tell Sirius" she breathed. Harry sighed, bringing his hand to his chest.
"I've got this Gin.."
"Harry you don't understand it. Blood magic is banned for a reason, once you have someone's blood you can become them. It is the strongest kind of magic and the weakest, if she has enough blood she can bypass even Gringotts security and be you." Harry looked down, ashamed.
"What do you want me to do?"
"Well stop being so stubborn for one. I want you to tell Sirius and then we can discuss what to do. Then once Sirius knows everything we can find away to get rid of Umbitch and the piece of soul in you" she left little room for argument and Harry reluctantly agreed.

The pair bade goodbye to Gripshade and made their way up to Hogwarts, the plan may have to be sprung into action sooner than thought.