Fate's Request: A Harry Potter FanFiction

With Harry far in the lead thanks to his machinations, David put his focus into other endeavours without worrying about him at all.

His first task was to scout out the Chamber of Secrets for it was where he would build his base of sorts to continue tinkering with potions and the sort while at Hogwarts, and also to, more importantly, work on his wand-work.

"Let's go, Fitz," David said to his phoenix after he'd finished tying the laces to a new protective pair of boots Mel had gotten him recently.

With a pre flap of his wings, Fitz leapt into the air and landed on David's shoulder and flamed them away in an instant, bypassing all the various wards Hogwarts and the Chamber had with incredible ease.

As they soon appeared in the dark and musky Chamber, David noticed they'd had a hanger-on for their little trip, one by the name of Nala.

She looked around in curiously and a little distaste after unlatching herself form David's leg, leaving David to wonder just how she managed that without him noticing. Maybe he'd have to tone down the protections he'd layered into his trousers a little, he thought to himself.

David and Fitz both watched Nala with interest as she cautiously walked around in their vicinity.

It was during her third 'lap' of the duo that she suddenly rose on her hackles and hissed in fear and anger.

"Seems she doesn't like it much here Fitz, can you take her back?" David asked of his companion.

Understanding his request, Fitz let out what was the phoenix equivalent to a sigh and glided down and landed on top of the cat and in a burst of blue flame, disappeared.

Not bothering to wait for Fitz, David ignored the urge to look at the statue of Salazar Slytherin and started to carefully walk, inspecting the large, empty space of the chamber with his wand in hand.

He didn't mind Fitz any attention as he returned, focusing entirely on whether any traps or creatures were lying around that he had mayhap missed in his earlier, rushed inspections of the Chamber.

There was certainly a dreary air to everything and a certain smell that left David casting the Bubble-Head Charm to counter its effects, filtering the musky air to pristine oxygen.

David concluded, that apart from the statue of Salazar, which probably housed the Basilisk's home there wasn't anything special in the Chamber of Secrets.

And so, with a proper outline of the Chamber made David chose the furthest distance from what remained of the Basilisk corpse, grasped his wand tightly and called upon a mass of magic and began transfiguring the Stalagmite on the floor and the Stalactite on the roof into sturdy cuboids that would be used to build the walls and ceiling of his personal training room.

David would be using quite some dangerous spells in his new room, for it would have to be able to handle up to 2 years of constant wear and tear from him and as such, the process of transfiguring stone from one shape to another was made far more strenuous with his added requirements.

The majority of the materials that made up the rock formations were sandstone. And while sandstone was a decent building material, he needed something far stronger to accomplish his goals.

Each stone also had to be transfigured into granite, which made the already draining process even more so. It was also exasperated by the fact that David had never done 'construction' of this level before, but he was learning and making the process more streamlined.

A few hours of skilful and tiring wand work later, and David was quite drained and decided to come back to building the room another day. No need to rush, after all, he had months until the school year ended.

---

The anger Snape had towards David during their Potions lessons had eased up quite a bit, there was still a sneer from Snape whenever David caught his eye or entered too close to his person. But there were no more probing Legillimency attacks or snide remarks to David and his Potions partner, Sue's relief.

So of course, it would be during a Potions lesson that a Third Year bumbled their way in, saying David was wanted by his Head of House.

"Get your things and leave, Cross," Snape ordered in great annoyance after being told of Flitwick's urgent request of David.

Sighing internally, David quickly collected his things, gave Sue a quick update on what she would have to do with the potion they were working on and left the Potion's Master's dungeon in haste.

Behind David, Snape sitting on his desk, wrote, 'FAIL' under his name regarding today's potion with imm.a.t.u.r.e glee.

---

"Ah, David, come in, come in," Professor Flitwick said outside of his office.

"Hello Professor," David greeted politely, for which Flitwick smiled cheerily.

As David entered, he was greeted by Cyrus Greengrass sitting in the couch provided in his Head of House's office.

Nodding, Cyrus stood up and moved to shake David's hand, "David, good to see you."

"You too Cyrus," David answered back, glad to see him and get news on their efforts in regaining Aquila's journal, along with gold. Lots of gold.

"I'll leave you two to it," Professor Flitwick said quickly, closing the door behind himself as the office was left for the two to discuss their case.

It was after some benign small talk that David and Cyrus eventually got down to business.

"Well, I've been in contact with the Minister of Magic and after much back and forth with the man, which I can assure you David was quite the exercise in patience thanks to the constant presence of his Undersecretary," Cyrus began.

"Undersecretary?" David asked, a little curious about what Cyrus thought of the woman.

"A horrid woman, David, horrid. Be thankful you've never had the disp.l.e.a.s.u.r.e of meeting her and hope you never have to," he answered with a long sigh.

"Continuing, after the back and forth, we've, again, tentatively, agreed to an initial lump sum of five million Galleons, with an additional five hundred thousand Galleons a year, for the next forty years," Cyrus began, giving David a quick rundown of just how much money he would be gaining.

David's brow rose at the sum Cyrus gave him, while it wasn't all of what he was technically 'owed', it was still far more than he was expecting.

Continuing, he added, "The various physical items the Ministry collected from your vault will, upon your agreeing to the contract with the ministry, begin being moved into your vault as soon as all the paperwork is filed."

"I see," added David, showing no emotion regarding the deal Cyrus had managed to hash out before he was interrupted by Cyrus.

"There's more David," he said with a wry smile, "After much discussion, the Minister had agreed to give your 'family' considerable tax breaks based on income for, well, life."

Now that information was a little shocking, "Truly? Tax breaks?" David asked.

"Yes… it took some convincing, but seeing as the Ministry has taken so much, well… it was the least they could do, David," he said with a shrug of his shoulders, not gloating that he'd probably strong-armed Fudge into agreeing.

"Is there anything else?" David asked, knowing not to draw attention to the Journal in a potentially unsafe environment.

Shaking his head, Cyrus answered, "No, those are all the major points, David. I have a folder here with the full contract in writing, which I'll leave for you to read over. I've gone to the effort in adding my own notes in certain parts of the contract that you should pay extra attention to," thinking for a moment as he fished out the thick folder, he added, "Though from what Daphne and Professor Flitwick tell me, you'll probably not be needing my help with hashing out the details of the contact.

Taking the folder from Cyrus, David ignored the final comment, and gave the man a very serious look and nod, which he received in return, silent agreement that they both understood they would soon be uncovering the secrets to their respective families Malediction soon.

"Well, I better get going, David. I'll be by tomorrow at lunch, here in this office again to accept either your decline of the terms or your acceptance and the signing of the papers. Would you prefer Professor Flitwick to be a witness if you do decide to sign, or someone else?" he asked, getting up from the couch with nimbleness.

Nodding, David answered, "Professor Flitwick would be heavily preferred, again, thank you, Cyrus," David finished.

Following which, they both went their separate ways, Cyrus, home and David to his dorm room to safely store the s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e contract and to allow Mel time to read it over as he continued with his classes.

"Mel!" David called out loud as he placed the folder containing his future on his desk.

Popping into existence, she asked, "What can I do for you Master?"

Nodding towards the desk, David answered, "The contract with the Ministry regarding my vaults are over there, have a read through while I go back to my classes. I'll have read after dinner and we can discuss it then."

Eyes growing in surprise, she nodded and went over so said desk to being reading immediately.

---

David joined Hermione for dinner that evening, partly because he wanted her company and also to tell her that the deal with the Ministry was almost complete.

"So, you'll sign and then they'll start giving everything back?" she asked in a whisper she hid behind a sip of water.

Whispering back, he answered, "Not sure, Mel's reading the contract right now and then I'll have look over it and talk it out with her. As long as they have no surprises in store, I'll probably sign."

"Oh… well, do you want me to have a read through? Maybe before breakfast in the Library?" she asked in hope. Wanting to do whatever little she could to help.

Smiling, David nodded which caused Hermione to beam in response.

---

David was feeling quite excited as he made his way back to his room but clamped down on his emotions the best he could and remained stoic as he bid his friends good night and turned in for an 'early' one.

David returned to an empty room, with Mel having left a while ago most likely after reading the contract through multiple times.

Taking off his clothes, David slipped into something more comfortable and made his way over to his desk to begin reading the contract which Cyrus had provided.

It was about an hour later after his third read-through of the contract that David was satisfied that the Ministry hadn't slipped anything nefarious in.

The only 'negative' stipulations were that David signs a waiver, saying that he would never again seek reparations from the Ministry regarding this and allow the Ministry to hold off a single year of payment, up to a maximum of seven times. They would be forced to begin payments again the very next year but would allow them some freedom if the budget got too tight following unforeseen circ.u.mstances.

Worst comes to worst, it would take forty-seven years to get his full sum of galleons rather than forty.

"Mel," David called, closing the folder shut.

"Master," she said appearing in a pop and bowing slightly.

"You've read the contract? Any issues?" David asked, turning to her.

"None that I see Master," she answered, finding no issues with the contract Cyrus had hashed out.

"Not even the deferment of payment option?" he asked, wanting her opinion.

"I think it's a reasonable request, that they be able to defer payment for a year in the case of an emergency Master," she answered.

"Me too," David said, standing up suddenly.

Looking at her, he continued, "I'll be meeting with Cyrus to sign the paperwork at lunch tomorrow. I don't know how long it will take by he mentioned it that the items they took from the vault would slowly start appearing after the paperwork is pushed through."

"I see, that is a question I had. They did mention that the initial sum would be deposited at the end of the school year and the tax break would come into effect once you turn seventeen, but they did not mention the items. I suggest we request that is in writing…" she finished.

"Hmm, I agree. I'll also see what Cyrus thinks, but I don't foresee any issues as such," David added.

"Very well then Master, will that be all?" she asked with a smile, "I have the Thief's Downfall to get back to."

"No that will be all Mel, how is it going? I've been wanting to help, but I'm too far behind…" he asked.

"Slow going Master, the Goblin's were quite thorough in their hiding of its secrets… I suspect we may need another sample…" she finished with guilt.

Sighing, David nodded, "Very well… put in the order for some time during the holidays. We've got a quick trip to make once the semester is out, so make sure it isn't right as the school year ends."

Nodding, Mel popped away and David prepared to get some sleep with the help of a sleeping draught.

---

"Have you seen this part, David?" About the deferment of payment?" she asked while biting into a scone.

Hermione had been too eager in reading the contract and wanted more time with it, so they skipped breakfast in the Great Hall and moved to an empty classroom with Mel providing food.

"Yes, Hermione," David answered as he spread smashed avocado to his toast.

Hermione didn't reply, merely nodding and quickly returned to the contact, determined to go over every bit of it before lessons began.

With a sigh, David sipped on his coffee, letting Hermione do her thing.

---

David was greeted by a Ministry employee, Cyrus Greengrass and Professor Flitwick as he made his way into the office.

They quickly introduced themselves and David asked for the contract to make sure it mentioned that the Ministry begins moving the items over once the paperwork was processed.

"Just so everything is in writing," David said with a smile to the Ministry employee, which he now knew was named Harris and was a lawyer that had permission to make small adjustments to the contract.

The man hearing David's request had nothing to do with the galleons, but rather the various items and trinkets the Ministry had taken and then never touched, he was all too eager to agree.

Cyrus smiled slightly at David's request and David caught it with the corner of his eye.

He assumed it was Cyrus' little test for David, to see if he was diligent enough in his perusal of the contract. Probably to make sure himself of David's intelligence.

David didn't mind, it was benign. In fact, it was a relief that he'd intentionally left it out rather than accidentally.

After everything was triple checked, and Professor Flitwick acting as witness, David signed all the required paperwork, all helpfully pointed out to him by Mr Harris.

He was rushed out of the room once that was done by his Head of House, saying David had to make sure to get a little something for lunch, as he still had about ten minutes before lessons would begin.

More than willing to, David quickly made his way to the Great Hall with great hope the journals held the answers to his fate.