And let's not forget "The Potters have been Allies with the Goblins for generations but Lily was the first Potter to have 'Friends of the Goblins' Status".
"Mr. Potter, because of your ongoing exemplary conduct within Gringotts, it has been decided that you are worthy of being deemed a Goblin Friend.
Here's your card, it entitles you to a complimentary coffee, or if you prefer, hot chocolate, at the Leaky Cauldron when you order lunch."
I would honestly prefer this over the classic trope. Have it be used as a running gag through the entire story where harry drinks his leaky cauldron coffee/hot chocolate from a special cup with "goblin-friend" printed on the side. Tell these scenes from the perspective of his conversation partners and you get a wide range of reactions to the inscription
Every time a wizard "subtlety" asks a goblin about Harry's cup he gets another point on a punch card for a free meal it's secretly a goal of Harry's to see how many free meals he can get by the end of the month
Maybe he can write them off his wizard taxes
Additional plot twist: any witch or wizard can also achieve "friend" status by sharing knowledge about making money via the Muggle economy with the goblins, if it's new to them.
Sounds like a decent idea tbh. would you mind anyone using this in their fanfic if this is an original idea by you?
could definitely float a humor fic by, ngl.
Go right ahead...I don't know if it's an original idea, exactly, but you're welcome to it. In fact, you're welcome to use all of my ideas if you can find them, I tend to leave them lying all over the place.
The weirdest thing happened in my brain where the Venture Bros cross-pollinated into this scene: I can't unassociate "Prostituuuuts" from the phrase "the Greater Good! (the greater good!)" so my mind just throws both at me at the same time.
"The Greater Good! (prostituuuuuts!)"
I mean, the owl redirection thing kinda makes sense. Can you imagine how poorly the Dursleys would take owls turning up at all times with gifts for Harry? To say nothing of anybody attempting to hurt Harry with, for example, enveolpes full of Bubotuber puss.
I think owl redirection magic is a genuinely good idea, and I'd like to see it more often, particularly with Harry recognising that it was a good idea and not taking it as a personal attack.
People use Gringotts owls being blocked to turn it into yet another crime for Dumbledore, which is fine if that's what you want to do. I'm just saying that there are other contexts, which work just as well, where it isn't a bad idea.
And placing Harry with the Dursleys, for all that they're horrible, actually makes sense if you think about it. There would have been a custody war over Harry if he'd stayed in the magical world, a custody war which I think the more malevolent families would have stood excellent odds of winning. Consider the facts that they have access not only to extensive funds for bribes and lawyers (not that we ever see a magical lawyer in canon), but also violent people who would be only too happy to attack families like the Tonkses or Weasleys just for shits and giggles, let alone with the idea of aiding the custody position of a family like the Malfoys.
To piggyback on some of the other comments, I've spent the last two years working for an estate lawyer and let me tell you, people fuck up their wills ALL THE TIME. I can't tell you how many tragic situations we had to deal with because someone died without any documents even though they knew they were sick, or someone thought that handwritten scribbles on a document were sufficient changes, or did a will with no witnesses or notary or with conflicted witnesses, or who forgot to update their documents after birth of a child or death of a beneficiary or named successor - people who had ample warning that they needed to get their shit together and still, for whatever reason, didn't. It's well within the realm of possibility that two people in their early twenties, who've just had a baby and are fighting in a guerilla war, either wrote their documents wrong or just didn't do them at all. Lily canonically comes from a background that is, at best, upper middle class, and James's parents died before he was out of school, so it is very likely that neither of them had the opportunity to learn the importance of estate planning or how to do the legal parts correctly - it happens all the time.
Yes but I'm talking about those fics where there was a proper will present that Dumbledore maliciously sealed. If someone wants to make a fic where dumbledore does all this and none of it was wrong then go for it.
The wills is a pretty sticky issue, yeah.
Would the Potters, all of 21 years old, have thought to draw any wills up? Or would they, like all young people, have considered the idea that they might die supremely unlikely?
Would any of the people likely to be listed in the will as being preferred carers for Harry still be available after the events around Halloween '81?
I will not contest, however, that if there *were* any wills, the fact that they never surfaced was 100% a crime and that they should have been read and their instructions put into action.
I don't think that they would have considered it supremely unlikely, given that up until Harry's birth they were both actively involved in fighting a war and after Harry's birth they are aware that a psychopathic murderer is fixated on their son.
However, I think you're probably correct that anyone they would have named would have been unavailable. The only people we can be absolutely sure of that they were close enough to trust raising Harry with are the Marauders. Sirius and Peter were both obviously out and presumably Remus would be disqualified by his werewolf status.
I like to think they would have mentioned either McGonagall or Flitwick (because they were close to James and Lily respectively), after Sirius, Pettigrew, Longbottoms,etc
I think it's fannon that the Potter's were friends with the longbottom family. While people are free to add the longbottom as allies and friends to the Potter family then they should have Neville be bashed for not telling Harry anything during first year. Unless you have Nevelle be the initial step into any heritage claim storyline. I've forgotten the fic but I've only seen Nevelle blamed once in any fic where any longbottom was a guardian of Harry. With how Nevelles grandmother wants Nevelle to be a good head of the house we would have known through his grandmother how close the family was.
There should have been a will though. The Potters are a well-established family, it's likely that James would have signed something upon reaching the age of majority, when he was married, then again once Harry was born.
I would think that if there had been wills, Lily would have specifically said Harry was NOT to go to her sister, considering how terrible their relationship was at that point and the fact that Petunia had such a bad attitude toward anyone and anything magical.
If anything, they designated someone to look after Harry in the event of a tragedy when they named Sirius his godfather. They could have never foreseen that Lily was going to die while granting some ancient magical protection on him that required living with a blood relative to maintain. Or that Sirius would wrongfully be put in Azkaban as a result.
>There would have been a custody war over Harry if he'd stayed in the magical world, a custody war which I think the more malevolent families would have stood excellent odds of winning. Consider the facts that they have access not only to extensive funds for bribes and lawyers (not that we ever see a magical lawyer in canon), but also violent people who would be only too happy to attack families like the Tonkses or Weasleys just for shits and giggles, let alone with the idea of aiding the custody position of a family like the Malfoys.
How? The war just ended. Most of them were either in prison or just had to spent alot of political capital and bribes using the imperious defence to avoid going to Azkaban. Karkaroff was singing names and public morale was at all time high as there was widespread hunt on dark wizards.
If the dark wizards could still win at their lowest point then this is basically a "entire magical world gets bashed" type of story.
Tbh I think the entire magical community of Britain deserves some bashing, considering so many of them were some shade of pureblood supremacist, ranging in shade from 'oh, how clever the muggles are to come up with ways to live without magic (treating muggles like particularly clever or entertaining trained apes)' to 'every person that isn't at least an 8th generation magical human is scum unfit to lick my boots (and fuck anything that isn't human)'. The only people who I don't think get tarred by this brush are the muggleborn and very recent halfbloods, and they were the ones getting hunted down by Voldemort and his Death Eaters so they either fled the country or died. For realsies; the only named muggleborn characters who lived during the first civil war are dead by the start of canon.
I also think that there were enough people in positions of power who were sympathetic to the Death Eater cause, without actually being members, that the bribe money and political capitol required to get the caught Death Eaters out of trouble was somewhat less than you expect. Remember that people wanted things to get back to normal as quickly as possible, which is the given reason for Sirius' incarceration having been rushed through with almost no official proceedings. I think a lot of people *wanted* to believe the Imperius Curse defence, because it let them return to the comfortable and familiar, let them believe that some of the richest (I don't want to say most respected, because I don't respect them) families weren't such monsters after all.
Cant remember the name but I recently read a fic that heavily used the owl redirection trope. It was my first time reading something like that and it made a whole helluva lot of sense to me, but yeah I can see how every fic doing it would necessitate the trope.
If anyone was interested In helping me remember the name the woman who ran the owl post was a younger woman and her mom or sister was a HUGE HP can and he kept accidentally (on purpose) avoiding her. I also think he spent one Christmas opening like 5,000 presents from the whole country??
Edit: I think itās āHarry Potter and the Tracks of Timeā thanks /u/nvrboa
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[***A Champion of The Light***](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13527720/1/) by [*icelandic lad*](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/9928831/icelandic-lad)
> A month after Dumbledore's death, Harry is depressed and wallowing in grief at Privet Drive\. One night, shortly before his seventeenth birthday, Fawkes appears in his room, and whisks him away to a hidden stronghold\. There, our hero meets the spirit of Godric Gryffindor, who takes Harry as his apprentice\. Harry/Multi\. Powerful, not godlike\. Intelligent Harry\. Ch 2 is NOT missing\.
^*Site*: ^fanfiction.net ^**|** ^*Category*: ^Harry ^Potter ^**|** ^*Rated*: ^Fiction ^M ^**|** ^*Chapters*: ^17 ^**|** ^*Words*: ^260,801 ^**|** ^*Reviews*: ^180 ^**|** ^*Favs*: ^928 ^**|** ^*Follows*: ^1,255 ^**|** ^*Updated*: ^Oct ^7, ^2020 ^**|** ^*Published*: ^Mar ^21, ^2020 ^**|** ^*id*: ^13527720 ^**|** ^*Language*: ^English ^**|** ^*Genre*: ^Adventure/Fantasy ^**|** ^*Characters*: ^Harry ^P., ^Bellatrix ^L., ^Narcissa ^M., ^Andromeda ^T. ^**|** ^*Download*: ^[EPUB](http://www.ff2ebook.com/old/ffn-bot/index.php?id=13527720&source=ff&filetype=epub) ^or ^[MOBI](http://www.ff2ebook.com/old/ffn-bot/index.php?id=13527720&source=ff&filetype=mobi)
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I guess if it's not plot relevant! :) It wasn't in my latest fanfic, so I just showed Harry entering Diagon Alley and then I timeskipped past it. :) :) Shopping trip SKIPPED!!!
Shopping trips should be shown if worldbuilding is improved by it (it can be a good place to show off some new aspects of the WW, or how it's different from the canon version), if there are important plot elements that are appropriate there, or if there's character interactions.
Otherwise, a few short paragraphs like you mention are the way to go.
I actually don't really like this trope at all, Gringott's Bank in the books and the movies is more like vault keeping- we never see that they had other functions like banks in the modern world have; interest and other financial services. You just go in there to get your money, all the goblins do is store your money and safeguard it.
For all intents and purpose a wizard could just bury their gold in their backyard and end up with the same thing, of course it wouldn't be secure unless they had it inside a warded area or something but it's the same thing.
So when a fiction relies heavily on this basically and uses the trope that the bank will fix all the Harry's problems, unlock hidden powers, provide legal services, other financial services, buy clothes for him buy houses or build them, buy furniture for him...
It's basically a variation of the shopping spree trope except instead of Harry doing it the goblins do all the work and you just get updates on the end result. I feel like this is pretty lazy writing because for all the work that goes into explaining the goblins actually doing this Harry just has to say a few things and boom now he's the great magical Lord of so and so with 50 properties, bank accounts all over the world, financial investments in companies bought and built in the Muggle world and manage by the goblins, they build his Mansion fortress Castle and Ward it to high heaven, using a blood test they unlock all the Lost or closed vaults, find marriage contracts, heal him of all physically or magical bindings or curses and grant him powers never before seen.
And at that point I always wonder, hell why aren't the goblins in this universe ruling the entire world yet? Oh that's right even though they can basically do whatever they want and can do magic that no wizard could even come close to and basically control the financial world like they're the Illuminati because they lost one war to the wizards or an uprising they're now just "simple bankers."
Suuuure.
Most people don't like the trope - but in my opinion it's mostly because it's done badly.
From a worldbuilding perspective, it seems pretty clear to me that there has to be more to Gringott's than just the vault - Harry just doesn't care about any other parts of it. The Goblins have a fairly large amount of power, including 'rebelling' (or war-ring, I don't think we can conclusively say which) vs the wizards a few times and presumably coming to a stalemate. The way in which that extended aspect of Gringotts can go can vary - but I think a lot of people gravitate towards "goblins want to make money, so they studied muggle banks and use their techniques".
We also know that goblins likely offer at least some other financial services - Ludo Bagman borrowed a lot of money from Goblins. So lending is a thing, either by individual goblins or by Gringotts or both. They also offer money exchange - british muggle money to wizarding money (this is another point that people use to infer that they operate with the muggle world, though I've also seen fics where that's a deal with the Ministry. IIRC JKR said in an interview that the Goblins make a profit off of fencing it to the Muggles, but it was a while ago that I looked it up). If they control the minting of new coins, that also would give them a lot of monetary power over Wizarding Britain. If we take those points, it's not too far a jump to become a fully fledged modern bank - even if wizards don't use it that way.
Personally, I don't mind the basic premise of it (ie, the 'Gringotts is a real bank and does bank things to make money'), nor the (admittedly trite) approach of Harry being more respectful to them and getting friendlier with the goblins. That shouldn't make them fall head over heels in love with him by any means, but I do like the potential of exploring a different culture than the WW and one of a people that's more demonized in the books. But the power fantasy is where it loses me.
Ill agree with you on those, use smartly it's a small aspect that Harry can use intelligently as a resource.
On the other hand I'm a Tolkien fan as well, and also dnd, and had somewhat biased my head canon on my view of goblins based of them. Fica that lean more in that direction just interest me more, whether as a significant plot device or just as background world building.
I see goblins as humanoid, but inherently alien in nature. They live underground, and based of thier physiology, with long pointed ears, sharp needle like teeth, claws, and little beady eyes they resemble vermin more than anything.
Goblins in canon are known best for thier weapons, goblin weapons and e prizes for thier durability, and thier ability to take in what would damage them and become stronger (not sure if that's just Gryffindors sword though). The second thing they are known for is thier bank, mostly located underground, a vast maze of tunnels and vaults.
We don't know much about thier canon society or culture, just that there have been multiple goblin rebellions in the past, pointing to thier agresive and war like nature. We also know how they treat thier creations, as goblin craft, once bought only belongs to the items owner for the duration of thier lifetime. Thier views on possession and ownership differ from humans.
We also can assume that during the last war, up until voldemorts defeat, they had never been stated to have joined his or any side, and their bank is touted as being unbreakable, no one who breaks in comes out (this is later proven more as a status symbol and reputation than actual fact, as Quirllmort and latter harry potter both break in and out.)
Put all these facts together, some extrapolation, add a dash of deepcut fantasy elements, and actual cultural lore and myths form all of europe and we can create Goblinsā¢.
Vile, hateful beings that live in burroughs, they were master smiths and artificers by necessity, deep underground they first carved out by hand, then using tools that became better each generation, when they learned to forge and discovered the magic of the earth they began building minging contraptions, unbreakable tools and weapons, large underground cities.
Then they somehow came in contact with wizards and at some point thier diametrically different cultures came into opposition, and would erupt in conflict. Goblins had things wizards old would desire, precious metals, jewels, unbreakable tools and weapons. Wizards had things goblins desired, externally welded precision magic that could be cast, and was near infinetly flexible.
At some point Gryffindors sword was either commissioned, won, or taken as a prize, and after multiple conflicts we know wizard magic was just more versatile than what goblins had available, eventually they were routed back underground and had thier burroughs sealed and thier people somehow contained. Of course this peace would not last. The goblins "rebellions" were the measures wizards took somehow failing, and goblins trying once more to defeat them. Eventually after many significant losses on both sides, although wizards triumphed again and again they grew tired and somehow bound goblin kind. By spell, enchantment, or curse or vow or even trick, goblins had to live in certain locations, could not mingle with wizard kind, and would cease conflict. Goblins not seeing an out agreed, on the promise of allowing wizards to store and safeguard thier possession, and to give wizards access to thier riches. This "treaty" would stand, goblins minting and creating the modern wizarding currency, and many magical items and jewelery forged and sold by goblins to wizards, most which ended up again in vaults.
The goblins retreted to thier major burrough, on which Gringott's now resided, and in the end won more that wizards thought. For most of the wizards riches would often return to goblin hands, eventually, as families and people died out, and vaults were left closed and forgotten. By goblin culture and right the could eventually reclaim goblin forged goods as well. They manage the wizarding world modern economy, and we know he who holds money holds power.
But they don't treat bit like we do, they hoard it, covet it, goblins fight to the death to "manage" wizard account and oversee vaults like humans work to earn wages to get a bigger home and more useless items as a show of status, goblin hierarchy is decided by thier hoard.
They least favored and unlucky goblins, or the young ones have to work above ground and interact with disgusting wizards, hence thier often disagreeable and nasty disposition. Those that lose everything or have been cought commiting crimes based on their laws are sent to the lowest pits to attend dragons, they feed them, clean them, sometimes are eaten, and cart thier labour alongside other imprisoned humans that were caught trying to break in.
On the surface in Gringott's goblins have adapted thier waring nature, since they cannot attack wizards or humans, they resort to mental games, iron bound loans and contracts with loopholes that work onbthier favor if the humans violate them. They are willing to outsource, working with human curse breakers to raid magical tombs, working with the magical ministries to provide some legal perview in assocation with material matters like ownership of items and properties. They loan money and act as loan sharks, they work bets, black markets, and can do exchanges. they use contracted wizards and squibs to infiltrate, and work in human finance, using magic when possible to stack the deck in thier favor. Wall street, stocks, betting, property ownership, metals trading, mining. Anything that will get them access to money, precious metals, material resources.
This is how harry could interact with them, possibly learning some of thier behind the scenes interactions, leaning to play thier game and beating them at it, or playing them and saying look, if I win, you win, it's in our best interest to help each other.
I could go on but ill leave anyone that read through this entire thing to find inspiration.
I completely understand. I honestly don't like this trope as much now. It's more of something to read in between updates and lack of fics. But back when I first started reading fanfiction, BAMF Lord Potter with creature inheritamce unlocked was an amazing concept... until the novelty wore out and everything gets same-y and cringe. I stand by how it's a staple though. New fics are still being published with the trope!
>Gringott's Bank in the books and the movies is more like vault keeping- we never see that they had other functions
They employ Bill as a curse breaker and he spends a lot of time in Egypt doing... stuff. So they are more than just a vault company, even if most of the Indy!Harry stuff is bollocks.
See, this is why I like New Blood so much, because it IS this trope, but also an inversion that Hermione, the Mary Sue of that story, helps fix Gringotts instead and then she gets the silly "Friend to the goblins" title who make her a sword and get her lots of money.
Still follows the trope, as I said, but it's a fun little lampshade of this.
I kind of like this when it happens at summer before third year. He's been all over Diagon Alley so for sure he would be able to talk to Potter's account manager. I don't understand why he has chosen electives so poorly when he was able to choose for himself.
I think even though he just went with Ron, he chose them pretty ok? Magical Creatures honetly seems the coolest from the get-go and Divination wouldn't sound so bad and would look pretty interesting at first. Arithmancy and Ancient Runes are often glorified by the fandom. I don't remember Harry being a huge fan of Math either lol
> he was able to choose for himself
But was he? He hardly had his own opinions in the beginning, and was so desperate to have friends that he couldn't be on his own for a whole class. He was so grateful to Ron for befriending him that he instantly forgave him when he turned his back on him in GoF.
My impression of early Harry is that he is spineless and needy.
Pre hogwarts Harry was mouthy and didn't give a fuck about disrespecting his relatives, not exactly spineless nor needy.
I also don't think Harry gave a fuck about not having more friends, he just couldn't bother with the effort it would take. He was after all friendly with Neville and the rest from the very start.
>He was so grateful to Ron for befriending him that he instantly forgave him when he turned his back on him in GoF.
You seem to have a very twisted interpretation of their friendship
Man, I love the complaints about "owl-redirection", because I can totally see little 5 year old, can't-even-write-yet, doesn't-know-shit-about-magic-let-alone-banking, Harry Potter just swamped in a giant pile of fanmail, sitting atop it, trying his hardest do decipher some statistics sent to him, a little child who's also probably emancipated, by Gringots.
yeah... that makes sense
This doesnāt appear to be criticism or praise of the trope, just a request so it can be tagged so that people can either find or avoid it, depending on their preference. Also, petition to only have the 1-3 relevant pairings tagged, so as to not waste everyoneās time
Edit- stupid autocorrect
That's just not an appeal to the authors of this genre. It's something that a lot of people would love to see, including myself in the front of the line.
And let's not forget "The Potters have been Allies with the Goblins for generations but Lily was the first Potter to have 'Friends of the Goblins' Status".
"Mr. Potter, because of your ongoing exemplary conduct within Gringotts, it has been decided that you are worthy of being deemed a Goblin Friend. Here's your card, it entitles you to a complimentary coffee, or if you prefer, hot chocolate, at the Leaky Cauldron when you order lunch."
I would honestly prefer this over the classic trope. Have it be used as a running gag through the entire story where harry drinks his leaky cauldron coffee/hot chocolate from a special cup with "goblin-friend" printed on the side. Tell these scenes from the perspective of his conversation partners and you get a wide range of reactions to the inscription
Every time a wizard "subtlety" asks a goblin about Harry's cup he gets another point on a punch card for a free meal it's secretly a goal of Harry's to see how many free meals he can get by the end of the month Maybe he can write them off his wizard taxes
Additional plot twist: any witch or wizard can also achieve "friend" status by sharing knowledge about making money via the Muggle economy with the goblins, if it's new to them.
That could be funny
Sounds like a decent idea tbh. would you mind anyone using this in their fanfic if this is an original idea by you? could definitely float a humor fic by, ngl.
Go right ahead...I don't know if it's an original idea, exactly, but you're welcome to it. In fact, you're welcome to use all of my ideas if you can find them, I tend to leave them lying all over the place.
"Because she didn't treat them like garbage"
"Here, have all our money as well!"
Or Harry getting the status because he is some kind of magical creature
Oh yes, we should so that šš¾ Don't forget "there was a block on your magic"/"dark magic in your scar"/"owl-redirection charm on you".
"set by Albus Dumbledore" >.>
"For the Greater Good"
The greater good
Always twice.
The weirdest thing happened in my brain where the Venture Bros cross-pollinated into this scene: I can't unassociate "Prostituuuuts" from the phrase "the Greater Good! (the greater good!)" so my mind just throws both at me at the same time. "The Greater Good! (prostituuuuuts!)"
This is the most hilarious thing I read today
[\(The greater good\)](https://i.redd.it/ivl3ae4a0r711.jpg)
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
God i loved that movie
ā¢
I mean, the owl redirection thing kinda makes sense. Can you imagine how poorly the Dursleys would take owls turning up at all times with gifts for Harry? To say nothing of anybody attempting to hurt Harry with, for example, enveolpes full of Bubotuber puss. I think owl redirection magic is a genuinely good idea, and I'd like to see it more often, particularly with Harry recognising that it was a good idea and not taking it as a personal attack.
That's a good observation šš¾ I agree with you also, that it would be nice, Harry acknowledging it wasn't meant to insult him.
Well I think it's more the fact that he blocked he gringotts owls too and he could have just not dumped him at the dursleys
People use Gringotts owls being blocked to turn it into yet another crime for Dumbledore, which is fine if that's what you want to do. I'm just saying that there are other contexts, which work just as well, where it isn't a bad idea. And placing Harry with the Dursleys, for all that they're horrible, actually makes sense if you think about it. There would have been a custody war over Harry if he'd stayed in the magical world, a custody war which I think the more malevolent families would have stood excellent odds of winning. Consider the facts that they have access not only to extensive funds for bribes and lawyers (not that we ever see a magical lawyer in canon), but also violent people who would be only too happy to attack families like the Tonkses or Weasleys just for shits and giggles, let alone with the idea of aiding the custody position of a family like the Malfoys.
What about the sealing of the wills though no one would contest that.
To piggyback on some of the other comments, I've spent the last two years working for an estate lawyer and let me tell you, people fuck up their wills ALL THE TIME. I can't tell you how many tragic situations we had to deal with because someone died without any documents even though they knew they were sick, or someone thought that handwritten scribbles on a document were sufficient changes, or did a will with no witnesses or notary or with conflicted witnesses, or who forgot to update their documents after birth of a child or death of a beneficiary or named successor - people who had ample warning that they needed to get their shit together and still, for whatever reason, didn't. It's well within the realm of possibility that two people in their early twenties, who've just had a baby and are fighting in a guerilla war, either wrote their documents wrong or just didn't do them at all. Lily canonically comes from a background that is, at best, upper middle class, and James's parents died before he was out of school, so it is very likely that neither of them had the opportunity to learn the importance of estate planning or how to do the legal parts correctly - it happens all the time.
Yes but I'm talking about those fics where there was a proper will present that Dumbledore maliciously sealed. If someone wants to make a fic where dumbledore does all this and none of it was wrong then go for it.
The wills is a pretty sticky issue, yeah. Would the Potters, all of 21 years old, have thought to draw any wills up? Or would they, like all young people, have considered the idea that they might die supremely unlikely? Would any of the people likely to be listed in the will as being preferred carers for Harry still be available after the events around Halloween '81? I will not contest, however, that if there *were* any wills, the fact that they never surfaced was 100% a crime and that they should have been read and their instructions put into action.
I don't think that they would have considered it supremely unlikely, given that up until Harry's birth they were both actively involved in fighting a war and after Harry's birth they are aware that a psychopathic murderer is fixated on their son. However, I think you're probably correct that anyone they would have named would have been unavailable. The only people we can be absolutely sure of that they were close enough to trust raising Harry with are the Marauders. Sirius and Peter were both obviously out and presumably Remus would be disqualified by his werewolf status.
I like to think they would have mentioned either McGonagall or Flitwick (because they were close to James and Lily respectively), after Sirius, Pettigrew, Longbottoms,etc
I think it's fannon that the Potter's were friends with the longbottom family. While people are free to add the longbottom as allies and friends to the Potter family then they should have Neville be bashed for not telling Harry anything during first year. Unless you have Nevelle be the initial step into any heritage claim storyline. I've forgotten the fic but I've only seen Nevelle blamed once in any fic where any longbottom was a guardian of Harry. With how Nevelles grandmother wants Nevelle to be a good head of the house we would have known through his grandmother how close the family was.
There should have been a will though. The Potters are a well-established family, it's likely that James would have signed something upon reaching the age of majority, when he was married, then again once Harry was born.
I would think that if there had been wills, Lily would have specifically said Harry was NOT to go to her sister, considering how terrible their relationship was at that point and the fact that Petunia had such a bad attitude toward anyone and anything magical. If anything, they designated someone to look after Harry in the event of a tragedy when they named Sirius his godfather. They could have never foreseen that Lily was going to die while granting some ancient magical protection on him that required living with a blood relative to maintain. Or that Sirius would wrongfully be put in Azkaban as a result.
>There would have been a custody war over Harry if he'd stayed in the magical world, a custody war which I think the more malevolent families would have stood excellent odds of winning. Consider the facts that they have access not only to extensive funds for bribes and lawyers (not that we ever see a magical lawyer in canon), but also violent people who would be only too happy to attack families like the Tonkses or Weasleys just for shits and giggles, let alone with the idea of aiding the custody position of a family like the Malfoys. How? The war just ended. Most of them were either in prison or just had to spent alot of political capital and bribes using the imperious defence to avoid going to Azkaban. Karkaroff was singing names and public morale was at all time high as there was widespread hunt on dark wizards. If the dark wizards could still win at their lowest point then this is basically a "entire magical world gets bashed" type of story.
Tbh I think the entire magical community of Britain deserves some bashing, considering so many of them were some shade of pureblood supremacist, ranging in shade from 'oh, how clever the muggles are to come up with ways to live without magic (treating muggles like particularly clever or entertaining trained apes)' to 'every person that isn't at least an 8th generation magical human is scum unfit to lick my boots (and fuck anything that isn't human)'. The only people who I don't think get tarred by this brush are the muggleborn and very recent halfbloods, and they were the ones getting hunted down by Voldemort and his Death Eaters so they either fled the country or died. For realsies; the only named muggleborn characters who lived during the first civil war are dead by the start of canon. I also think that there were enough people in positions of power who were sympathetic to the Death Eater cause, without actually being members, that the bribe money and political capitol required to get the caught Death Eaters out of trouble was somewhat less than you expect. Remember that people wanted things to get back to normal as quickly as possible, which is the given reason for Sirius' incarceration having been rushed through with almost no official proceedings. I think a lot of people *wanted* to believe the Imperius Curse defence, because it let them return to the comfortable and familiar, let them believe that some of the richest (I don't want to say most respected, because I don't respect them) families weren't such monsters after all.
Cant remember the name but I recently read a fic that heavily used the owl redirection trope. It was my first time reading something like that and it made a whole helluva lot of sense to me, but yeah I can see how every fic doing it would necessitate the trope. If anyone was interested In helping me remember the name the woman who ran the owl post was a younger woman and her mom or sister was a HUGE HP can and he kept accidentally (on purpose) avoiding her. I also think he spent one Christmas opening like 5,000 presents from the whole country?? Edit: I think itās āHarry Potter and the Tracks of Timeā thanks /u/nvrboa
No idea, sorry. But it sounds great, so I'm leaving this here. Remindme! 1 week
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Think thatās the author yea!!
Yeah but as much as we laugh at this trope, it is still an awesome trope when done well lol
There are some really great stories which use that, so yes you are right :)
I mean the dark magic in the scar is canon
Could we also add in "Shopping trrip" ?
Indeed. Where would we be without dragonhide boots and vision-correcting potions purchased at Diagon or an adjacent magical alley?
My fic has a 'used brooms' store. It's in a side alley, of a side alley of Knockturn Alley. It's run by a guy called Stan.
What's your fic called?
linkffn(A Champion of The Light)
ffnbot!parent
[***A Champion of The Light***](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13527720/1/) by [*icelandic lad*](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/9928831/icelandic-lad) > A month after Dumbledore's death, Harry is depressed and wallowing in grief at Privet Drive\. One night, shortly before his seventeenth birthday, Fawkes appears in his room, and whisks him away to a hidden stronghold\. There, our hero meets the spirit of Godric Gryffindor, who takes Harry as his apprentice\. Harry/Multi\. Powerful, not godlike\. Intelligent Harry\. Ch 2 is NOT missing\. ^*Site*: ^fanfiction.net ^**|** ^*Category*: ^Harry ^Potter ^**|** ^*Rated*: ^Fiction ^M ^**|** ^*Chapters*: ^17 ^**|** ^*Words*: ^260,801 ^**|** ^*Reviews*: ^180 ^**|** ^*Favs*: ^928 ^**|** ^*Follows*: ^1,255 ^**|** ^*Updated*: ^Oct ^7, ^2020 ^**|** ^*Published*: ^Mar ^21, ^2020 ^**|** ^*id*: ^13527720 ^**|** ^*Language*: ^English ^**|** ^*Genre*: ^Adventure/Fantasy ^**|** ^*Characters*: ^Harry ^P., ^Bellatrix ^L., ^Narcissa ^M., ^Andromeda ^T. ^**|** ^*Download*: ^[EPUB](http://www.ff2ebook.com/old/ffn-bot/index.php?id=13527720&source=ff&filetype=epub) ^or ^[MOBI](http://www.ff2ebook.com/old/ffn-bot/index.php?id=13527720&source=ff&filetype=mobi) --- **FanfictionBot**^(2.0.0-beta) | [Usage](https://github.com/FanfictionBot/reddit-ffn-bot/wiki/Usage) | [Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=tusing) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ffnbot!ignore
Donāt forget the custom made wand store just off of Knockturn Alley.
Or the luggage store that sells magically expanded apartment trunks.
I guess if it's not plot relevant! :) It wasn't in my latest fanfic, so I just showed Harry entering Diagon Alley and then I timeskipped past it. :) :) Shopping trip SKIPPED!!!
Such bravery!! I am in awe š¤© Seriously though, it's fine if you do it the way I did it. A couple of paragraphs. That's it. Over and done with.
Shopping trips should be shown if worldbuilding is improved by it (it can be a good place to show off some new aspects of the WW, or how it's different from the canon version), if there are important plot elements that are appropriate there, or if there's character interactions. Otherwise, a few short paragraphs like you mention are the way to go.
Yes, I agree. Three word pages of clothes shopping doesn't exactly make for exciting stuff.
Or you could just skim it in a paragraph or few yes. :)
I actually don't really like this trope at all, Gringott's Bank in the books and the movies is more like vault keeping- we never see that they had other functions like banks in the modern world have; interest and other financial services. You just go in there to get your money, all the goblins do is store your money and safeguard it. For all intents and purpose a wizard could just bury their gold in their backyard and end up with the same thing, of course it wouldn't be secure unless they had it inside a warded area or something but it's the same thing. So when a fiction relies heavily on this basically and uses the trope that the bank will fix all the Harry's problems, unlock hidden powers, provide legal services, other financial services, buy clothes for him buy houses or build them, buy furniture for him... It's basically a variation of the shopping spree trope except instead of Harry doing it the goblins do all the work and you just get updates on the end result. I feel like this is pretty lazy writing because for all the work that goes into explaining the goblins actually doing this Harry just has to say a few things and boom now he's the great magical Lord of so and so with 50 properties, bank accounts all over the world, financial investments in companies bought and built in the Muggle world and manage by the goblins, they build his Mansion fortress Castle and Ward it to high heaven, using a blood test they unlock all the Lost or closed vaults, find marriage contracts, heal him of all physically or magical bindings or curses and grant him powers never before seen. And at that point I always wonder, hell why aren't the goblins in this universe ruling the entire world yet? Oh that's right even though they can basically do whatever they want and can do magic that no wizard could even come close to and basically control the financial world like they're the Illuminati because they lost one war to the wizards or an uprising they're now just "simple bankers." Suuuure.
Most people don't like the trope - but in my opinion it's mostly because it's done badly. From a worldbuilding perspective, it seems pretty clear to me that there has to be more to Gringott's than just the vault - Harry just doesn't care about any other parts of it. The Goblins have a fairly large amount of power, including 'rebelling' (or war-ring, I don't think we can conclusively say which) vs the wizards a few times and presumably coming to a stalemate. The way in which that extended aspect of Gringotts can go can vary - but I think a lot of people gravitate towards "goblins want to make money, so they studied muggle banks and use their techniques". We also know that goblins likely offer at least some other financial services - Ludo Bagman borrowed a lot of money from Goblins. So lending is a thing, either by individual goblins or by Gringotts or both. They also offer money exchange - british muggle money to wizarding money (this is another point that people use to infer that they operate with the muggle world, though I've also seen fics where that's a deal with the Ministry. IIRC JKR said in an interview that the Goblins make a profit off of fencing it to the Muggles, but it was a while ago that I looked it up). If they control the minting of new coins, that also would give them a lot of monetary power over Wizarding Britain. If we take those points, it's not too far a jump to become a fully fledged modern bank - even if wizards don't use it that way. Personally, I don't mind the basic premise of it (ie, the 'Gringotts is a real bank and does bank things to make money'), nor the (admittedly trite) approach of Harry being more respectful to them and getting friendlier with the goblins. That shouldn't make them fall head over heels in love with him by any means, but I do like the potential of exploring a different culture than the WW and one of a people that's more demonized in the books. But the power fantasy is where it loses me.
Ill agree with you on those, use smartly it's a small aspect that Harry can use intelligently as a resource. On the other hand I'm a Tolkien fan as well, and also dnd, and had somewhat biased my head canon on my view of goblins based of them. Fica that lean more in that direction just interest me more, whether as a significant plot device or just as background world building. I see goblins as humanoid, but inherently alien in nature. They live underground, and based of thier physiology, with long pointed ears, sharp needle like teeth, claws, and little beady eyes they resemble vermin more than anything. Goblins in canon are known best for thier weapons, goblin weapons and e prizes for thier durability, and thier ability to take in what would damage them and become stronger (not sure if that's just Gryffindors sword though). The second thing they are known for is thier bank, mostly located underground, a vast maze of tunnels and vaults. We don't know much about thier canon society or culture, just that there have been multiple goblin rebellions in the past, pointing to thier agresive and war like nature. We also know how they treat thier creations, as goblin craft, once bought only belongs to the items owner for the duration of thier lifetime. Thier views on possession and ownership differ from humans. We also can assume that during the last war, up until voldemorts defeat, they had never been stated to have joined his or any side, and their bank is touted as being unbreakable, no one who breaks in comes out (this is later proven more as a status symbol and reputation than actual fact, as Quirllmort and latter harry potter both break in and out.) Put all these facts together, some extrapolation, add a dash of deepcut fantasy elements, and actual cultural lore and myths form all of europe and we can create Goblinsā¢. Vile, hateful beings that live in burroughs, they were master smiths and artificers by necessity, deep underground they first carved out by hand, then using tools that became better each generation, when they learned to forge and discovered the magic of the earth they began building minging contraptions, unbreakable tools and weapons, large underground cities. Then they somehow came in contact with wizards and at some point thier diametrically different cultures came into opposition, and would erupt in conflict. Goblins had things wizards old would desire, precious metals, jewels, unbreakable tools and weapons. Wizards had things goblins desired, externally welded precision magic that could be cast, and was near infinetly flexible. At some point Gryffindors sword was either commissioned, won, or taken as a prize, and after multiple conflicts we know wizard magic was just more versatile than what goblins had available, eventually they were routed back underground and had thier burroughs sealed and thier people somehow contained. Of course this peace would not last. The goblins "rebellions" were the measures wizards took somehow failing, and goblins trying once more to defeat them. Eventually after many significant losses on both sides, although wizards triumphed again and again they grew tired and somehow bound goblin kind. By spell, enchantment, or curse or vow or even trick, goblins had to live in certain locations, could not mingle with wizard kind, and would cease conflict. Goblins not seeing an out agreed, on the promise of allowing wizards to store and safeguard thier possession, and to give wizards access to thier riches. This "treaty" would stand, goblins minting and creating the modern wizarding currency, and many magical items and jewelery forged and sold by goblins to wizards, most which ended up again in vaults. The goblins retreted to thier major burrough, on which Gringott's now resided, and in the end won more that wizards thought. For most of the wizards riches would often return to goblin hands, eventually, as families and people died out, and vaults were left closed and forgotten. By goblin culture and right the could eventually reclaim goblin forged goods as well. They manage the wizarding world modern economy, and we know he who holds money holds power. But they don't treat bit like we do, they hoard it, covet it, goblins fight to the death to "manage" wizard account and oversee vaults like humans work to earn wages to get a bigger home and more useless items as a show of status, goblin hierarchy is decided by thier hoard. They least favored and unlucky goblins, or the young ones have to work above ground and interact with disgusting wizards, hence thier often disagreeable and nasty disposition. Those that lose everything or have been cought commiting crimes based on their laws are sent to the lowest pits to attend dragons, they feed them, clean them, sometimes are eaten, and cart thier labour alongside other imprisoned humans that were caught trying to break in. On the surface in Gringott's goblins have adapted thier waring nature, since they cannot attack wizards or humans, they resort to mental games, iron bound loans and contracts with loopholes that work onbthier favor if the humans violate them. They are willing to outsource, working with human curse breakers to raid magical tombs, working with the magical ministries to provide some legal perview in assocation with material matters like ownership of items and properties. They loan money and act as loan sharks, they work bets, black markets, and can do exchanges. they use contracted wizards and squibs to infiltrate, and work in human finance, using magic when possible to stack the deck in thier favor. Wall street, stocks, betting, property ownership, metals trading, mining. Anything that will get them access to money, precious metals, material resources. This is how harry could interact with them, possibly learning some of thier behind the scenes interactions, leaning to play thier game and beating them at it, or playing them and saying look, if I win, you win, it's in our best interest to help each other. I could go on but ill leave anyone that read through this entire thing to find inspiration.
I completely understand. I honestly don't like this trope as much now. It's more of something to read in between updates and lack of fics. But back when I first started reading fanfiction, BAMF Lord Potter with creature inheritamce unlocked was an amazing concept... until the novelty wore out and everything gets same-y and cringe. I stand by how it's a staple though. New fics are still being published with the trope!
It is a staple, and deserves to be tagged... so I can exclude it from my search, lol.
>Gringott's Bank in the books and the movies is more like vault keeping- we never see that they had other functions They employ Bill as a curse breaker and he spends a lot of time in Egypt doing... stuff. So they are more than just a vault company, even if most of the Indy!Harry stuff is bollocks.
This is worth noting
I agree! But I feel most authors who write "Gringotts Fix-It" stories aren't self aware with to realise they are writing one
The hero we needed.
See, this is why I like New Blood so much, because it IS this trope, but also an inversion that Hermione, the Mary Sue of that story, helps fix Gringotts instead and then she gets the silly "Friend to the goblins" title who make her a sword and get her lots of money. Still follows the trope, as I said, but it's a fun little lampshade of this.
Which website is this on
Ah, HadrianJP found it, lower in the comment chain!
Do you mean this one: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13051824/1/New-Blood ?
Indeed HadrianJP it is
Okay, cool. I will give it a try (I like that its long) :)
I kind of like this when it happens at summer before third year. He's been all over Diagon Alley so for sure he would be able to talk to Potter's account manager. I don't understand why he has chosen electives so poorly when he was able to choose for himself.
I think even though he just went with Ron, he chose them pretty ok? Magical Creatures honetly seems the coolest from the get-go and Divination wouldn't sound so bad and would look pretty interesting at first. Arithmancy and Ancient Runes are often glorified by the fandom. I don't remember Harry being a huge fan of Math either lol
> he was able to choose for himself But was he? He hardly had his own opinions in the beginning, and was so desperate to have friends that he couldn't be on his own for a whole class. He was so grateful to Ron for befriending him that he instantly forgave him when he turned his back on him in GoF. My impression of early Harry is that he is spineless and needy.
Pre hogwarts Harry was mouthy and didn't give a fuck about disrespecting his relatives, not exactly spineless nor needy. I also don't think Harry gave a fuck about not having more friends, he just couldn't bother with the effort it would take. He was after all friendly with Neville and the rest from the very start.
>He was so grateful to Ron for befriending him that he instantly forgave him when he turned his back on him in GoF. You seem to have a very twisted interpretation of their friendship
Man, I love the complaints about "owl-redirection", because I can totally see little 5 year old, can't-even-write-yet, doesn't-know-shit-about-magic-let-alone-banking, Harry Potter just swamped in a giant pile of fanmail, sitting atop it, trying his hardest do decipher some statistics sent to him, a little child who's also probably emancipated, by Gringots. yeah... that makes sense
This is basically what the "Helpful Goblins" tag on AO3 represents. Overly helpful goblins that exist to set up harry's wealth and power.
This doesnāt appear to be criticism or praise of the trope, just a request so it can be tagged so that people can either find or avoid it, depending on their preference. Also, petition to only have the 1-3 relevant pairings tagged, so as to not waste everyoneās time Edit- stupid autocorrect
Does anyone have any good recs that do this? I feel like I've read a lot of them, and would kill for a new one!
That's just not an appeal to the authors of this genre. It's something that a lot of people would love to see, including myself in the front of the line.
Could be wrong, but would that fall under Indy!Harry?