Dumbledore suppressed a flash of alarm as quickly as it had come and laughed the questions aside pushing the paper forward a little bit more. He sent another compulsion spell at Harry not understanding why the first one hadn't worked. for good measure he also sent a mild confundus spell at him. The boy was just too quick on the uptake and had caught his unintentional slip-up. That could come back to bite him if the boy remembered what he'd said today later on.
"It doesn't matter right now, Harry, my Boy. Once you're older, I'll sit down with you and go over your financial responsibilities and how the financial world works. Just suffice it to say having your accounts frozen like this will really put me behind schedule in paying your obligations. The taxes are to the Ministry and they love to apply late charges and fees whenever they can. But I'm more than capable of tending to your responsibilities for you. After all, it's not like you can do it yourself. Nor should you have to. You have your hands full with your classes and studies here. And from what I saw of your grades you really need to be putting all your effort into them right now. Not worrying about money. All you need to do is sign this parchment letting me handle it. I'll teach you how to handle your Holdings when you're older and more capable of understanding."
"But my Uncle says…"
"Harry, I don't care what your Uncle says. He wants his stipend check and, in order for him to get it, you need to sign this paper. Otherwise, I'm sure you'll know all about it when you go home at Christmas time. Your Uncle doesn't strike me as a person who takes his disappointments lightly." Which told Harry the old man wasn't aware his relatives no longer called Privet Drive their home.
Nor did he miss the implied threat in that statement. They both knew Harry never went home until June when school dismissed for the summer. Not that the threat carried any real teeth to it since he knew his Uncle wasn't expecting any such check at all and wouldn't be angrily waiting for Harry at Christmastime. Still Harry didn't want to be sent home then. He'd have a hard time faking being injured when he returned if he was.
Nor, given the leaks in his accounts when he and his Aunt and Uncle had sat in the kitchen of Privet Drive going over them, did he have any doubts in his mind that if Dumbledore once again gained access to his accounts Harry would never see adulthood. Because there was no way Dumbledore would ever want to explain to Harry what he'd spent Harry's childhood using his inheritance for. The old man was an old hand at making problems like Harry would become disappear for good.
For that matter, even if he didn't sign the paperwork, there was no way he was going to see adulthood. If he did sign, then Dumbledore would have to one day account for his thievery and there was no way he'd do that. If he didn't sign, then Dumbledore would have no way to pay his fellow thieves and ran the risk of being exposed for what he was when they spoke out against him. Even if he tried to make them disappear before they could speak out, he'd be running a risk that wasn't wise for someone like him to run. But one thing for sure, him not paying those people their bribe money would mean all those people would turn on him. That meant Dumbledore could possibly get hurt depending on what he was using Harry's money to pay them for. Bully boys don't really like it when their money source dries up. And they have a very nasty habit of turning the skills that made them worth paying on the source of that money well. Usually because they'd also built up a lot of grievances of their own against their so-called benefactor in the time they'd work for him. Which was all the more reason to believe, his life could be numbered in weeks or maybe months if he was lucky.
And in this regard, not one adult he knew was trustworthy. Not that he had ever had a reason to find an adult trustworthy. He hadn't. Well, maybe Steve the neighbor. But even there, he'd only trust Steve so far. After all, he really didn't know why Steve had singled him out to aid as he had. He definitely had no one here amongst the witches and wizards. Most of them were trying to get him killed and those who weren't, only wanted to take advantage of him and use him to their own benefit. Well, a few weren't but they also weren't in a position to help him against the Old Man.
Murmuring almost too quietly to be heard he said, "I see. So that's how you want to play this year. Very well, Old Man. You lose." Dumbledore didn't hear him well enough to understand what he said but the Sorting Hat was siting on a shelf nearby and was close enough to hear every word. It kept it's brim shut however, as it'd do Harry no good to have Dumbledore know what he'd said. But if the Hat had been made with eyes, they'd have been wide open. Finally a victim had found out what kind of a man the current Headmaster truly was and was refusing to be any such thing.
Using the code he had worked out with the goblins, Harry signed the paper knowing it'd buy him time to find a solution to the dilemma. He needed to be here long enough to sit his Owls. After that he could easily disappear and no one would be able to stop him. But Owls were at the end of the school year. So he had to find a way to survive until then. Right under the Old Man's nose. The code he'd used would tell the goblins to keep the old man ignorant for as long as they could and make him work for every single coin they gave him. Not just this month. But every month for as long as they could. It also told them to make the Old Man return to the Bank each month for the coins he claimed to need and to gradually shorten the time between visits if they could. Harry wanted the Old Man out of the Castle as much as possible this year. He'd be safer that way as none of the teachers would act against him without the old man's approval. Dumbledore didn't like it when people messed with his chosen victims without his permission.
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