The right path

Five

After some time of discussing the situation, the aurors decided to take the boy to the ministry. There they would run some tests to see if he was indeed a Potter from the line he claimed. If everything was correct, auror Greengrass would stay at the ministry to sort out the most urgent paperwork, and do a report on the case of the deceased witch, while auror Smith took Harry to Hogwarts to sort out his admission.

It was almost 10 a.m. so they'd better hurry if they wanted Harry to be able to start classes normally. With this in mind they all departed via floo network directly to the ministry atrium. It was the first time Harry was there, he felt a little bit overwhelmed with his surroundings. There were so many things happening at once: people hurrying to get to different areas, owls flying everywhere, the constant arrival of people via floo, like himself, and the odd creature being guided towards what he thought was the department in charge of dealing with them. Everything was in constant movement.

The group wasn't going to linger there for Harry's curiosity to be satisfied, though, so they rapidly moved to stand in front of the registration area, where some guards checked Harry's wand and have him a visitor's pass. After that, they went directly to the auror department to sort things out. As expected, the tests confirmed the veracity of the Potter boy's previous declarations, so auror Smith was now in charge of Harry for the day. He hastily wrote a letter to Hogwarts to inform them of their imminent visit later that day, and sent it as soon as  he had access to an owl. But before they got to the old school, he would take the boy to Gringotts. They needed to find out if Hardwin's British vault was returned to the Potter main vault or if he had inherited it to his descendants. Of course, if the Potter boy had access to Hardwin's vault, they had no need to ask for the special funding the school had for people who couldn't afford the necessary materials for the year. He would need to have a legal guardian though, so if he had inherited the vault he could still not retrieve anything from it, until things were sorted out in school later that day. If everything went well and the school accepted the ministry's conditions, his legal guardian would be Headmaster Dippet at first, until he got sorted into his house, when his head of house would take the place of guardian. He could not be adopted or taken to the Potter main family because his legal paperwork and registry were still on the road (and he would be lucky if they finished by summer time because if it wasn't sorted out by then he would need to go to an orphanage, unfortunately, but chances were that his case would take much more time than only a year). So there was only this option for the boy to attend school, if they accepted the responsibility of taking the boy's guardianship.

Finally, auror Smith took Harry back to the atrium, where they were able to apparate from one of the four apparition points scattered in the hall. They landed in Diagon Alley, just in from of the giant snow white building that was Gringotts. Harry noticed that it was not as crooked as it is in the future, and it made him wonder what would happen if its decay continued to the point where it would just snap.

The bank was already filled with customers, but even then, there was way less people than what Harry saw in the future. Quick enough, they were called to state their business. A young looking goblin that introduced himself as Gognak was attending them that day.

"Good morning Gognak, we are here to do an inheritance test. There is some possibility that Mr. Harry Potter here inherited Mr. Hardwin Potter's vault." The auror said clarearly, pointing out what he needed without hesitation or small talk.

"Very well, follow me."

The lot of them walked down a dimly lit corridor, parallel to the one that would normally take you to the vault's transport system. Throughout the way, a lot for doors with different inscriptions were left behind, until they stopped in front of the one saying "Griphook, chief manager of the houses of: Abott, Potter, and Selwyn". Harry guessed they had to attend the problems directly with the goblin in charge of supervising the Potter vaults. He remembered Griphook from the future though, and he was in a cashier position. What could have possibly happened to grant him such a hard demotion?

They entered the room, had a small little chat with Griphook- who by the way looked centuries younger...well, not centuries but you get the idea- and had Harry cut his palm and let some blood flow into a parchment full of runes. After some minutes, a detailed family tree appeared, giving Harry access to the vault that, indeed, Hardwin had left behind for his heirs if they decided to return to Britain.

Half an hour later, Harry and auror Smith left the bank with the vault's key. Nobody could retire anything from the vault unless Harry was taking it out, but the underage wizard could not go in there alone, at least for now. He would get complete access to his vault at 15 and he would be able to invest his funds after he turned 17. Sooo many years from now, or so it seemed.

They were walking across Diagon Alley, Harry was looking around with great interest. Everything looked so different. To begin with, there were less people wandering around, and less shops too. Florean Fortescue's icecream shop was already there, but it seemed quite new. There were some kids purchasing raspberry sherbets, all of them very excited. Maybe the shop had just recently opened? The Prophet's printing main building was here though, he didn't remember if it was there still in the future.

Harry was really getting hungry by now, he hadn't eaten anything since the day before, and by then, he wasn't even in this time. But he could not ask the auror for lunch, right? It would be disrespectful. So he continued observing and taking all in, fascinated by the changes the alley would suffer throughout time. As fascinated as he was, he didn't notice the black hawk that descended next to him and gave auror Smith a letter. It was from Hogwarts, and apparently they were invited to discuss everything over lunch, so auror Smith took Harry to the Leaky Cauldron in order for them to floo to the headmaster's office.

And Harry was oh so very excited to be going back to his home, because yes, Hogwarts was his home. He would be able to attend as a normal person at last, not a celebrity as everybody treated him in the future. A normal student. He didn't know of course that he was completely wrong, as he could never be an ordinary wizard. He was, after all, just as powerful as the most powerful dark wizard the world has ever seen. But he didn't need to remember that yet...or maybe never, because said wizard was after all attending the same school. That would be interesting to watch.