Hadrian continued stroking Asmodeus even as he entered Master Larlig's offece and the Goblin told him to sit down.
"Now that the main problem has been taken care of, we can finally address the other matter on hand. What did you mean when you said that you hadn't received any letters from Gringrotts, Heir Potter?" Master Larlig started to say, a frown permanently etched on his face.
"I meant exactly that, Master Larlig. In my four years of knowing about the Wizarding World, I've never received a single letter from this Bank." the green-eyed teen said with an honest tone. He really didn't know what the Goblin had been talking about, and that worried him more than anything else.
Larlig's frown deepened after that sentence. "Heir Potter, Gringrotts has been sending you letters since after the night Lord and Lady Potter died at the hands of the Dark Lord. We never received a reply, not from you nor from your Magical Guardian, and the letters were never returned to us. We always assumed that they were simply being ignored."
The teen's expression darkened at hearing those words and Asmodeus, who up to this point had been laying on Harry's shoulders with his eyes closed, suddenly pulled himself up and hissed loudly, ready to defend his young master from any imminent threat. "What... does that mean, exactly?" Hadrian growled lowly, trying to keep his Magic under control. He could feel it pushing, like an entity trapped under his skin that was trying to get out.
The Goblin looked at the boy, quietly impressed by the sheer amount of power that he could feel coming from him. Before the Cleanse, Larlig had known Hadrian was a powerful being but he couldn't have imagined how powerful the boy really would become.
"It means that you will have to learn a lot more than you expected." the teen didn't seem all that fazed by this, and Larlig knew that he was waiting for him to continue, "We will have to review every transaction made from your accounts since the death of Lord and Lady Potter to this day, assuming that you had no idea of any of this." he finished calmly, even if his eyes betrayed the anger that he was feeling.
The teen took a deep breath and put his hand on his friend's head, stroking slightly with his fingers to try and calm down the both of them. Asmodeus, seeing that Harry was in no danger, returned to his previous position, "You should calm down hatchling. It's not good for you to become this angry."
Hadrian smiled lightly at hearing his companion, "I know, beautiful, but it's hard not to get angry after you discover you've been lied to most of your life." he said, a sad tone in his voice.
The snake nodded his head before closing his eyes again and basking in the attention Harry was giving him.
The teen moved his eyes on the Goblin, who had been watching the scene without speaking. "I would like a full review of my accounts, please. I can assure you that I knew nothing of this and that all that happened was done without my consent, Master Larlig." he said softly, trying to keep his voice level. The Goblin nodded his head before retrieving a piece of parchment from his desk drawer.
"This states that you had no idea of what was happening and you allow the Goblins to review you accounts fully. You can decide if you want to ask for compensation from the people who stole from you, sue them or let them be subjected to Goblin law, which will get them executed on the counts of theft. I will need you to sign this at the bottom of the page, Heir Potter." he slid the piece of paper closer to the teen and let him read it by himself. He than put a blood red quill next to the parchment, "This, Heir Potter, is a Blood Quill. It will draw blood from your hand and use it as ink. You need to use this to sign the paper once you've read it." Larlig finished, sitting back and waiting tor the young Lord to read.
When Hadrian was done reading he took the Blood Quill and signed where Master Larlig had told him to. Handing back the piece of parchment, the teen looked at the Goblin behind the wooden desk, a determined look etched in his features. "I would like everyone involved to be subjected to Goblin law." he said strongly.
Larlig let a toothy grin spread on his lips, "It will be my pleasure to see that done, Heir Potter." he replied swiftly.
~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~
After Hadrian got out of Gringrotts, he decided to take a walk around London, not caring about the stares and whispers that followed him and his friend, who was, once again, resting on his shoulders.
He had never really walked around London so seeing it was like being there for the first time. He was surprised to see so many people around: children, adults and elderly. It was a chaotic but beautiful city and Harry was actually glad that he had decided not to return to the Leacky Cauldron as soon as he had finished at Gringrotts.
It was fun for a couple of hours: walking in between people, seeing couples out for a date, watching children run around together and hearing them laugh and call each other. The atmosphere was happy despite the grey sky above them but, at some point, it became too much for Hadrian.
"How about we get out of here and find somewhere a bit more quiet?" the teen asked in a quiet whisper. He had already discovered that Asmodeus could understand English, so he didn't see the point in getting stared at more by talking in Parseltongue. Looking at the snake for a second, he saw him nod his head and, scratching his companion's back, the boy decided to head to St. James Park. He remembered that, when he was younger, his aunt and... Petunia and Vernon had taken Dudley there and the child had complained about it being boring. He assumed it would be his definition of 'quiet'.
Getting to the park was fairly easy once he stopped to ask for directions. The couple he stopped tried not to look to scared of Asmodeus who, feeling his friend approach new people, lifted his head from Harry's shoulder and started tasting the air. The snake preened under the attention of the couple's son who, at some point, asked the teen if he could pet his snake. Asmodeus looked happy to be receiving more attention, even muttering a small "This hatchling smells sweet, Harry." that made the teen laugh under his breath.
Harry walked down the path in St. James Park for a while, marveling at the beauty of the place. He could almost feel how nature had prospered, feel the trees breathing and the birds chirping. He soon found himself sitting on a bench near the lake, his eyes closed to really appreciate the calm atmosphere of the place. He took a deep breath, enjoying the sun on his face and the smell of grass.
After some time, he felt Asmodeus move and raise his head. "What, beautiful? Did you hear something?" the boy asked his companion, not even bothering to open his eyes.
"I smell something, hatchling. It smells sweet, just like the child from before did." Asmodeus replied, sounding intrigued. Hadrian chuckled at his friend's curiosity, finally opening his eyes and turning towards him, starting to stroke his head. "Maybe we could go see where it comes from. What do you think?" seeing his companion nod, the green-eyed boy stood up, asking Asmodeus to direct him in the right direction.
Walking deeper inside the park, not following the park, he came across what looked like a big tent. He could hear music coming from the inside and now he could smell candy and popcorn. He only knew those smells because he could remember Dudley eating a lot of those once when the Dursleys took him to the circus. He was curious to see if that big tent was a circus as well.
He approached the colorful tent and, finding the place where the plastic overlapped, took a peak inside.
There were clothing and objects littered around on the floor, which consisted in a red plastic sheet. It seemed he was in a sort of backstage area, so the boy continued on, looking around to see if someone was there. There was a curtain ahead of him and he was almost certain that that led to the stage area of the circus. The music was loud now and Hadrian could hear voices coming from behind the curtain as well.
When he looked behind it he saw what looked like 15 people talking and exercising. He could see they were doing different things. Someone was hanging from a loop on the ceiling; a couple was dancing to a music only they could hear; a girl, probably not much older than him, was laying on something he couldn't really describe, spinning pieces of cloth on both hands and feet; a man was apparently practicing how to fall.
He was intrigued by what he saw, so much so that, if he hadn't felt Asmodeus move and heard him hiss a threatening "Who is that?!" he wouldn't have been able to spin around fast enough to see that a tall man was entering the curtain from the same crack he had come through.
His hand immediately went to Asmodeus' head, trying to reassure himself and calm his companion. The boy didn't move when the man entered, but he tensed up when he raised his head, looking at him with a confused frown on his face. "And who might you be?"
<~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~>
Hello, my beautiful darklings, how are you today? Doing alright? I know you waited a long time for this chapter and I really hope you like this as much as I do❤️ So, I wanted to suggest something, a way to interact if you will. I'm quickly approaching 50k total reads (and I want to tank you all for it, really. I never imagined achieving something like this!) on my story here on Wattpad and I thought: what if we did something a little special? So, if you want to know anything about me, ask away! I'll write a separate chapter on both Wattpad and AO3 replying to your questions🤗I know it's not much but it's the best I can offer, soI hope many of you comment so that I can answer your question. Thank you again for reading, until next time❤️
Kisses - Miss Macabre🖤