Harry nodded his understanding, he was sure that Hermione would be thrilled if he started taking more interest in his studies and he was sure that the moment he told her about his lordships and the Wizengamot, then she would know more about it than him within a week and she would be willing to help him.
"Okay."
"Can you handle such a workload?" "What does being on the Wizengamot actually entail?"
"You will need to give your vote to laws and proclamations that you feel should or shouldn't be passed; you will need to pass judgement on criminals brought before the Wizengamot based on the reports we are given and the trials we witness and we discuss matters brought before the Wizengamot by members of the public, among other things."
"So it's all of our own opinions?" Harry asked a bit relieved.
"There are certain politics to be observed as well." Lucius told him. "For example, Bellatrix Lestrange is a daughter of House Black. Lord Orion Black, when he was living, couldn't go against Lord Xerxes Lestrange without damaging Bellatrix's union to one of Lord Lestrange's grandsons." "So, it's all political rubbish to do with marriage and stuff?" Harry pulled a face of distaste.
Lucius smiled. "My wife is a daughter of House Black as well; you are the new Lord Black."
"I won't be deferring to anyone." Harry said stubbornly. "If you don't like your wife now, after all these years, and with Draco too, then that's your problem and I couldn't give a fuck about Bellatrix having a happy union, she can go and die for all I care."
Lucius actually chuckled and nodded to Nagnok. "Let us wrap this up, Nagnok, and then I can take Mister Potter to buy the books that he will need."
"I have all of the legal documents here, fully written out."
"When did you do that?" Harry asked in amazement. "When you first asked to claim your lordship earlier this morning." Nagnok replied as if Harry were particularly stupid.
"Now now, Mister Potter is quite ignorant of all of these proceedings, we need to be patient with him."
The goblin nodded and snapped his fingers and a stack of parchment appeared before him.
"You just need to sign here."
Lucius' hand intercepted his as he went to pick up a very familiar black quill with an abnormally sharp point.
"Never sign anything without reading it first, you stupid boy." Lucius chastised him. "What if you didn't like the terms? What if the other party have verbally agreed to do something that isn't in the formal document? What if you are signing away everything you own on the trust you hold for someone that you've known for all of five minutes? Read everything before you sign it, even from someone you trust and have known for sixty years, even if it's your own wife or child. You always read everything before you sign it."
Harry swallowed and nodded, feeling very foolish, but he picked up the first page from the large stack of parchment and he started reading it slowly and carefully. He had never been a fast reader.
It took him an hour before he finally finished the last page and he felt very self-conscious and embarrassed that he'd kept Lucius Malfoy and a Gringotts goblin waiting quietly for a whole hour while he read through everything while trying his hardest to understand it. It was all gibberish to him and he was too embarrassed to say anything.
"Did you understand half of what you've just read?" Lucius asked him knowingly. Harry felt honest was the best policy here and he shook his head, feeling even more humiliated, but he saw no point in lying. He hadn't understood a lot of what he had read on those pages. Lucius hummed and Harry only just noticed then that as he had put a page down, Lucius had picked it up to read it himself.
"This is all in order, nothing I didn't expect." He said. "You're free to sign if you're willing to accept the full lordship for both the Potter and the Black houses and responsibility for both house vaults, all trust vaults attached to them and responsibility for all patrons connected to your houses."
"Will…will you find me a book that helps me understand the things that I didn't know? Just in case I need to do something like this again in the future." Harry forced himself to ask, feeling sick with himself just for asking something of this person, but Malfoy had offered him no aggression or violence, he was just sitting there, helping him. It galled him.
"Of course, I will." Lucius agreed amiably.
Harry picked up the quill and scowled at it, his hand clenching around it tightly.
"This quill will be unlike anything that you have ever used before." Lucius told him. "It is used for signing official documents only and it will draw blood from you as you write. As you've likely figured out, blood is very important to magic, so naturally, all legal, binding, magical contracts are signed in blood."
"I have used a quill like this before, it was last year." Harry said grumpily.
"I fail to understand how." Nagnok said. "Only Gringotts and the Heads of each department at the Ministry of Magic are allowed to even have one of them. There is only a handful of them in use at any one time. The loss of one is punishable by a hefty fine and even suspension and loss of position at the Ministry of Magic. One has not been lost in several decades, nor has one of these quills been given to Hogwarts School. They are heavily regulated and all of them are tracked regularly to make sure that they are where they're supposed to be and with the person that they're supposed to be with."
"What did you sign with one of these quills? Was it for Dumbledore?" Lucius asked him frantically.