Has there been a plot used where the Potters weren't that pure? Where the whole of the fortune is Harry's vault?

 

Well, I would say that any story that doesn't involve family vaults presumes that the one vault is all there is.

As for the Potters being not that pure, we're told in canon that the Potters were purebloods...not much you can do about that really, especially as pureblood is more a point of view than an actual real status.

For example, the Blacks just blast off the family tree any impureities that are connected to them, but that doesn't mean that the impurity is gone, just that they are ignoring it. So a family could be in actual fact just as pure as the Black family, but not be called purebloods, simply because the wizarding community doesn't judge them as such.

 

Err... yeah they've always been "well off" but that may just be what was in Harry's vault. Not necessarily a trust fund baby with massive amounts in other family vaults, but James was able to simply live off his wealth according to canon. He didn't need a job to pay for day by day stuff.

As for the Potters, I know both of James parents were magical, and a little ways back a Potter married a Black, but there's nothing saying that they are pureblood. Or at least not since the marriage to a Black. Could be every Potter male before James' parents married only muggles, not even muggleborns. Hasn't been stated or contradicted yet.

 

In interviews JK has said that James Potter was a pureblood.

EDIT: Scrap that, a quick look around the HP lexicon tells me that's a complete lie...but we are told that both of James' parents are magical so it's highly likely that they're pureblood.

 

I was thinkinng that a lot of the things he was told were lies. He only seemed rich because he had the gold all piled up ready for him for years, while other people have to work for it. As soon as it runs out he will be worthless, while the Weasleys or whoever will work for it and carry on making a steady income.

Also, I was thinking of getting him to work in diagon alley or knockturn alley. I'm sure I've seen this before somewhere but it seems like it would work for my story.

 

Do it however you want for a fanfiction.

But according to canon, the Malfoys and the Potters have been shown as rich. The Weasleys as poor. Every other family or person you can make an argument for them being deep in debt or richer than everyone else in the world combined. No evidence really either way, other than the Blacks have a house in London (call it 'rich' if you like), and Remus wears old used clothing (most people take that to mean 'poor' since he complains about being unable to find work).

If James had no job nor plan for one, according to JKR (to the best of my knowledge), then it wouldn't be so little a fortune that it'd barely cover Harry's school costs. Now that's not to say they've not been stolen from, or something hasn't happened, but if you are starting from JKR's comments and canon, then you need to probably address that change from canon.

And the only reason people have added on to Harry's "vault" was to make him even richer (when we don't really know how rich he was from the start, they just want to be able to swim in galleons like Uncle Scrooge McDuck). I'm pretty sure in canon it was 'impressive' especially compared to the Weasley's vault (could be confusing fanon here), and don't forget that's one boy's money versus at least a family of nine.

 

I think there are a few ways to go to minimize Harry's wealth.

First, you can downplay the money he saw in his vault. IIRC, the only time we saw it was in PS/SS, so we only have the POV of an 11 year old that never owned anything in his life. So what he sees as "dazzling mounds of gold" really might not be more than 10-20 thousand galleons (ten thousand pieces of gold would make a pretty freaking big pile).

The comparison to the Weasley's vault certainly doesn't prove that Harry had a ton of money--a lot of families (especially large, poorish families) have little to no money in their savings accounts.

I think there are a couple of ways to deal with James being (apparently) part of the idle rich.

First off there are estate taxes. Maybe the wizarding world has some kind of highly confiscatory inheritance taxes based on the idea that every wizard should make his own way in the world. Admittedly, this is difficult to square with the (apparent) Malfoy dynasty, but maybe it takes a hotshot lawyer to set up the appropriate tax dodges.

The lawyer point ties in to method two: James doing something stupid with his will. The scenario here is that he turned 18, his parents told him that he needed to have a will, and he said "leave it all to charity after paying for my funeral and giving 10,000G to each of my children--I'll raise them to be able to take care of themselves". This is a little tough to square with the whole "valiant fighter in the front line against Voldemort" thing, but I think it can be done. Also, poor estate planning would explain Harry going to the Dursleys (instead of, e.g., Sirius)--instead of evil!Dumbledore, maybe it was just stupid wizarding child custody laws that didn't get overridden because James never updated his will after marriage (busy with the Voldie-fighting and whatnot).

 

On second thought, here's how I would do it:
- Hogwarts requires that students file wills valid in the magical world when they turn 17.
- Lily Evans, being the idealist that she was, provided that all of her property would go to charity.
- James Potter used the standard Potter family will, which provides that on his death a trust will be set up to pay for his children's expenses growing up; the remainder of his property goes to his wife (if she's dead, his children; if no living children, somebody else...).
- After marriage, the Potters never made the time to update their wills.

After the Potters die, it is determined that James died first. Accordingly, the bulk of his property went to Lily, and then to charity.

 

Or... if you like, you can just change that piece of canon rather than trying to come up with a convoluted way to explain it. Convoluted way means people try and shoot holes in your reasoning. Changing history is every author's prerogative and one of those "given" facts rather than attempts at stretching parts of canon in questionable ways.

Because every student is required to write a will when they turn 17? That just seems like they're admitting: "Yes well, attending school means you're very likely to die and very soon. You know, the law and all." I mean theoretically, at 17, you're not in possession of much as your parents are still alive and you're still a minor.

And then of course a "standard Potter family will" would make sure to take care of all the Potters moreso than any spouse, i.e. Potter by marriage not birth. And of course knowingly going into hiding from a Dark Wizard after your prophecized vanquishing son, it seems more likely that they would have updated their wills if they had them than for there simply not having made the time, etc...

Taxes or James 'stupid' parts in his will seem even more of a stretch. He wasn't working, he'd had most everything given to him in life. I find it hard to believe he'd insist his children do differently when he could provide for them the way his parents provided for him.

Just make the rotten little orphan poor. You don't have to explain yourself unless the canon-thumpers demand to ask why.

 

Well, the guy's asking for some sort of plausible not-rich!Harry background story, so I'm trying to help him out here. Sure, he can always just handwave it away, but that carries a cost as well.

When you go from muggle school to Hogwarts you're basically entering a completely new legal world--it's not totally crazy that they help you get all of your paperwork in order in this new world at some point. Filling out a will is probably pushing it, though.

It could be the best story is just that James pissed away the family wealth. Maybe the Potters were rich, but not crazy rich, so James was only able to live the life of the idle wealthy for a few years. Then just as he was going to buckle down and start a career, Voldemort came a-calling.

He probably shouldn't go into a ton of detail, but I think it is helpful for the author have some idea in his head of how we reach the world of his fanfic given the facts that we know about the canon universe.

 

Maybe James brought his entire wealth from unsafe, half-bred run Gringotts, to his "fool-proof" cottage... and had it all blown up along with Voldemort

...Or taken away by some Auror...

... Or, say spirited away by Fudge, the head of magical disasters, who was naturally the first one called on the scene after Hagrid left... which later helped him with his campaing for the Minister of Magic... Revenge, anyone?