"They can only have two seats if they're the lord of two houses, very rarely does that happen. Those purebloods always make sure that they have an heir to pass their seat to and, failing that, there's always a lesser male heir to take the seat, though if the heir is also the only child to another pureblood family, they could then claim two seats when their father passes his lordship onto his son."
"Doesn't Dumbledore have his own seat? Isn't he the Chief Warlock or something, why would he need my seat too?" "Who says he needs it?" The old man grunted. "Could be he just doesn't want you in it."
"But why?" Harry said with a considering frown.
"I say ask the goblins, they'll sort you out, but only if you ask for their help; vile beasts that they are, they won't do anything for anyone unless they beg like a common muggle, but they're still very shrewd and they're always willing to help for a price."
Harry scowled at hearing the man calling the goblins vile beasts, but he said nothing. This man had helped him and Harry knew all too well the views that some people in the magical world held of what they considered as 'lesser beings.' It disgusted him, but just this once, he held his tongue.
"Thank you for the advice." Harry said as he handed the last few Galleons in his money pouch to the old man. "And for the toast and coffee too, but you've given me a lot to think about and I really need to see the goblins now, for more than what I bargained for, it seems."
"You tell them that you want to claim your lordship early, they won't do squat all if you don't turn around and tell them what to do and then, once you're done there, you get yourself to Flourish and Blotts and get yourself books on lordships to help you."
Harry nodded his understanding and he waved away the few silver Sickles that the man tried to hand him as he left. He really did have a lot to think about and now that he had a real agenda for being here today, he strode purposefully towards the bank, for more than just the quick withdrawal from his vault that he'd been planning on earlier that morning. He'd only wanted to do a bit of shopping and get some retail therapy done, why did these things always happen to him? He was sitting in an office; it was quite bare really, but he was here to 'validate his claim' whatever the hell that meant. Maybe he should have gone to Flourish and Blotts first, but then he wasn't the fastest of readers and he only had today to do this. He had no doubts that the end of month rush for school supplies would leave him very little time to do much other than to actually get just his school supplies. It would be too busy and too hectic to do anything else and with the Weasleys watching over him like a hawk and Ron always trailing after him too, this would likely be his only chance to get this sort of thing done.
He'd done as the man in the small café had told him to do. He'd told the goblins why he was there and what he wanted, as politely and respectfully as he could manage. Just because he had to tell them that he wanted something done didn't mean he had to do it rudely or disrespectfully, especially as he had very high respect for the goblins in general. His leg was bouncing nervously as he waited and he couldn't seem to help thinking that he'd made a mistake. What if the old man had been wrong or was just playing him for a fool? What if he wasn't a lord at all? After all, he'd never heard of anyone in the wizarding world being a lord. Surely if all purebloods were lords then Malfoy would have at least tried to rub his nose in it?
Before he could really work himself up, the door opened and he jumped as a particularly gruesome-looking goblin waddled in and slammed the door shut again before climbing onto the chair behind the desk.
"You wish to claim your lordship early, I hear. What makes you think that you deserve it early?" The goblin demanded of him.
Harry blinked and rubbed his sweaty palms on his ripped and worn, far too big, baggy jeans. "I…I don't know. I didn't know anything about it an hour ago." Harry explained nervously.
The goblin reared back and blinked at him in shock.
"You weren't told?" He demanded angrily.
Harry shook his head. "A stranger told me that I should come here and claim my lordship, but before then I had no idea about it or that I should even be a lord."
Snarling, the goblin snapped his fingers harshly and loudly, making Harry flinch. Nothing happened to him, but a large pile of parchment appeared on the desk and the goblin completely ignored Harry in favour of reading through the stack in front of him.
Bewildered, nervous, and not entirely sure he should have mentioned anything, Harry sat restlessly opposite the goblin and his leg started bouncing again, but he also started getting angry; that small build-up of cold fury he'd been getting every now and then, ever since Sirius had died a few weeks before. He'd only felt this cold rage a few times before then and all of those times had happened during the last year and had been to do with Voldemort. He tried to calm himself, getting angry at the goblins would yield nothing, except perhaps getting him thrown out of the bank. Wouldn't that be a lovely spectacle for the people on the street? Not to mention that the office building for the Daily Prophet newspaper was just around the corner.
He breathed as evenly and deeply as he could, trying to dispel the rage that he felt growing inside of him, his knee jumping more vigorously as he bounced it harder against the floor.
"Your guardian is one, Albus Dumbledore. Is this information correct?" The goblin asked him suddenly, startling Harry. "I…yes…I don't know." Harry bumbled. "The stranger told me that Dumbledore was my guardian because he was my father's proxy or something, but I wasn't told that before either, I thought he was just my Headmaster. I don't know what a magical guardian or a proxy is."
The goblin bared his teeth and stood up and left the office. Harry wasn't sure what he was supposed to do, so he just sat where he had been left, bouncing his foot against the floor. He couldn't believe this was happening; he'd only come here for a quick withdrawal, but one short meeting with a complete stranger over breakfast had him here for other reasons and now he was stuck, floundering, unsure of anything and everything that was happening around him, despite these happenings being about himself.
The door slammed open once more and the goblin came back into the room and sat back behind his desk, snatching up more parchment and reading angrily, flipping pages over to read those underneath it.
"What's happening?" Harry asked quietly, even though he wanted to shout, scream and rage, demanding answers from the goblin in front of him.