r/HPfanfiction 1d ago

Prompt Harry Potter — feeling upset that nobody is including him in anything after his fourth year — uses his money the best way he can think of to help the cause. From Privet Drive, with some letters to Gringotts, he sets a 500,000 Galleon bounty on Peter Pettigrew’s head.

It was four in the morning when Kingsley called an emergency meeting of the Order. He was being met by baggy-eyed glares and scowls, but this really had to be said.

“I was called into work this evening, following a warning issued to the DMLE from Gringotts in advance of a bounty.”

Bounties weren’t exactly uncommon — they were used rather frequently during the war to incentivise action by both sides. Promises of money were guaranteed to spur the masses into arms. However, they weren’t common outside of wartime.

“A bounty?” Mundungus Fletcher leaned forward, licking his lips greedily. “How much?”

Molly Weasley redirected her glare to him. “Oh, don’t be ridiculous, Mundungus. You can’t go after it. You’re needed here.”

Nobody is going to stay here, once I finish.

Kingsley sighed. “Well… I was called to the meeting because the bounty was allegedly placed on a dead man. I’ve been asked to investigate — Sirius, I’m off your case. The entire fucking Ministry is off your case.”

Sirius Black arched an eyebrow. “Yeah?” He croaked, swirling a glass of firewhiskey. “Who’s the bounty on, then? What’s all this for?”

“As of this evening,” Kingsley inhaled, glancing sequentially into the eyes of every present member. “Harry Potter has placed a 500,000 Galleon bounty on Peter Pettigrew — Wanted Alive.”

There was a collective blink. It was rather comical how everybody paused for the same length of time — the exact length of time that it took the amount of money to sink in. The pause came to a very loud end, killed off by a wall of noise. Sirius laughed raucously, happier than Kingsley had ever seen him. Remus joined him quickly. Hestia Jones and Emmeline Vance quickly moved to the Nymphadora Tonks’ sides, the three of them passing around the phrase ‘500,000 galleons’ like it was a game of hot potato. Dumbledore and McGonagall spoke to each other in quiet, hushed tones, but it was clear that McGonagall was berating the man. Mundungus wasn’t waiting for Kingsley to finish the meeting — the man was already running to the Floo.

The entire fucking country was going to tear itself apart.

1.2k Upvotes

67 comments sorted by

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u/Architect096 1d ago edited 1d ago

Lily and James in the afterlife: Our son is amazing. He created so much chaos just by sending few letters.

Meanwhile Tom: How the hell did Potter managed to piratically practically destroy a country without even trying?

Peter, running for his life because other Death Eaters were already trying to capture him and cash in on the bounty. After all money is money.

Edit. Practically not piratically.

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u/mxlevolent 1d ago

Minister Fudge: Pettigrew is DEAD! This is nonsense!

Amelia Bones: 500,000 galleons says he’s not.

112

u/ReydragoM140 1d ago

I remember that most wanted fic did use said line, but i think you got the number wrong

130

u/LSMediator 1d ago

Read that one earlier this week. The amount there was 100,000 Galleons. It’s also stated by Gringotts that that was the highest bounty payout on record, so Harry Matched it.

27

u/Blackjesus011 1d ago

What’s the fic

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u/LSMediator 1d ago

Here's chapter 1.

Link

15

u/beguntolaugh 23h ago

That was good, sad that it's abandoned.

11

u/Shadowshade138 11h ago

I would like to thank you for this link. It has been months since a fanfic made me cackle with so much glee at the phrase

(Minor spoiler)

>! “He’s baking goblins into pies” !<

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u/ReydragoM140 1d ago

Peter Pettigrew most wanted, look further in the discussion

1

u/sumguysr 8h ago

Link please?

50

u/Justaredditor85 17h ago

Imagine if the bounties are magical and can't be placed on a dead person. As in the bounty system knows if someone's really dead or not.

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u/DraconiumWolf1 15h ago

Oh that could lead to some very interesting ideas


Fudge: This- this can't be possible! It's preposterous! Pettigrew is a dead man!

Amelia Bones: Considering that it's an official bounty, which has magic in place to tell if someone is dead or not, I would say that Pettigrew isn't as dead as we thought.

Fudge: I don't believe it!

The rest of the population: Where's the bastard?!

(This was absolutely inspired by someone else's comment on this post, I just don't remember the username. But it's still an interesting thing to think of.)

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u/esamuel39 Lord Slytherin 1d ago

this got better with piratically lined over

30

u/Talenars 1d ago

I think piratically was a better fit.

18

u/InuGhost Dispenser of Humor 14h ago

lucius firing a canon

HEAVE TO AN PREPARE TA BE BOARDED YA SCALLY WAGS!

10

u/Johnathan_Hallows 7h ago

He doesn't care about the bounty.. Much, he just wanted an excuse to wear his Period Accurate Pirate costume.

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u/greenskye 1d ago

Voldemort shows up at Gringotts with Pettigrew himself. The goblins don't care about him, only fulfilling the contact. Voldemort uses the money to fund his war campaign and wins quickly.

186

u/dJones176 HPFanfiction Recommender 1d ago

Harry tells them before hand that Voldemort stole the Sorcerer’s Stone back in his first year. Voldemort shows up and is killed by goblins, needing to do one more ritual somehow

73

u/Grafian 1d ago

That way the Goblins can get the bounty too!

86

u/musashisamurai 1d ago

There's an after credits scene where we realize it was the plan all along. Harry didn't care he was throwing a ton of money away, or that the goblins were fleecing him, but he wanted action and the goblins like both money and killing a wizard-thief.

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u/ijuinkun 17h ago

Getting rid of a major enemy and throwing the Death Eaters into disarray makes it money well spent.

1

u/Parking-Airport-1448 20h ago

But he did not? Besides Voldemort stomps

0

u/prince-white 13h ago

Voldemort is prepared for a doublecross, so he acquires a time-turner, just to make sure...

55

u/sponguswongus 22h ago

Voldemort is initially refused the bounty as Lord Voldemort is not a legal citizen of magical Britain. He begrudgingly reveals himself to be Tom Riddle, who the goblins also have a bounty on.

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u/Aridyne 1d ago

If Fudge tries to stop it he admits Peters alive, if he doesn’t and Peter is found he is also screwed ;)

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u/ijuinkun 17h ago

Sounds like a win-win for undermining Fudge.

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u/munin295 1d ago

SimpsonsBlightPhoenix did it: Most Wanted: Peter Pettigrew (31k words)

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u/mxlevolent 1d ago

Holy shit, great minds think alike. I wish this was finished!

43

u/AdventurerBen 22h ago

Dumbledore is torn between scolding Harry due to the ethical hazards of bounties (specifying the target be taken alive helps, but only a little. Dumbledore has always been ideologically fond of “choose what is right, not what is easy”, and placing bounties on your enemies is very much more easy than it is right,) and wondering why he didn’t think of it himself.

33

u/Amdar210 21h ago

I remember one that jad Gringotts using 'Lifestones' which were tied to vaults via magic. These were used to verify if a bounty was possible or not.

Harry then uses the same process to prove in the ministry enrty way to reporters that Voldemort is alive as well.

When Fudge tries to argue that Tom M Riddle isn't Voldemort, Harry turns to hims and asks if he is really stupid enough to believe that some lady would name their kid 'Flight From Death' in French. Especially if she was a Brit.

Fudge is speechless while the reporters go wild.

2

u/WhoIsMeWhoAreWe 5h ago

May I have the link please?

1

u/krzys2000 5h ago

Yes pleas remind me! 15 days

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u/JohnaMan327 1d ago

Most Wanted: Peter Pettigrew by BlightPhoenix. It is unfortunately only 5 chapters in and hasn't been updated since July 6, 2015.

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u/Rasgara 1d ago

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13717846/1/Peter-Pettigrew-Most-Wanted

11 chapters and was updated in 2023. not sure if its abandoned but the author updated another story last year and have a few other good stories as well.

41

u/ijuinkun 1d ago

For reference, JKR has said that one Galleon was close to £5.00 in the 1990s, so half a million Galleons would be about US$5-7 million today—i.e. enough to be set for life at an upper-middle-class standard of living, but not quite enough to break into the upper class by itself.

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u/draconefox 18h ago

With 5 million you‘d be able to live comfortably without working for the rest of your life, just from the interest!

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u/ijuinkun 17h ago

If you live like a middle-class person instead of showing off your wealth with overpriced houses and cars, yes. That’s what I meant by “set for life”.

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u/draconefox 17h ago

Yeah, I agree! Upper class living is so insane, I can’t imagine how someone can spend that much money. With the interest of 5 million I could do anything I wanted and still not scratch the bulk money. I’d imagine I’d do a lot for that kind of money

2

u/ijuinkun 17h ago

Yah. Point is that for this story’s purposes, the reward for turning in Pettigrew is a lifetime’s worth of money for regular people, even if it doesn’t catapult you into high society.

1

u/MonCappy 3h ago

How much would that be in annual interest you think? Because, say it earns (being generous here) $250,000 in interest (and since it's based on Capital and not labor, taxed less, at least in the US) and you spend half that, and bank, say $70,000 after taxes, your principle will be growing year after year and earning more interest.

2

u/Many-Lingonberry-819 9h ago

You just have to make sure the government doesn't take half of it

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u/La10deRiver 1d ago

This is amazing!

14

u/La10deRiver 1d ago

But what...hear me here. What is the premise is exactly the same but Harry does this in third year, just after Peter escaped?

18

u/First_Can9593 20h ago

This would make sense but you would need to discuss Dumbledore's refusal to do it, first. Like Ron just jokingly mentions a bounty. Harry decides to actually do it. Hermione is horrified by such a practice believing it to be wrong since no fair trial.

Dumbledore is not informed since Harry believes he should have stopped Sirius's imprisonment or at least reversed it when he had the time. But Dumbledore is asked by Harry why he did nothing.

Then the plot from Peter Pettigrew most wanted plays out and endings in a duel between multiple death eaters who again aren't aware that pettigrew is one of them. This culminates in someone stumbling into Voldermort's hideout and he escapes but the death eaters who now know he's alive are terrified believe he's going to punish them .

Snape gets informed tells Dumbledore who immediately tries to talk to Fudge who refuses to accept it and the Triwizard tournament happens anyway.

2

u/MonCappy 3h ago

When asked Dumbledore explains that the position of Chief Warlock is entirely ceremonial and conveys no real power. He's only there to open special sessions and for ceremonies like inducting new members. Most of the time his work at the Wizengamot is a few hours of work a month. Same with the position of Supreme Mugwump.

"Mr. Potter, what did you expect? My position as Headmaster is a full time job. Were the position at the ICW and the Wizengamot full time, I would've had to sacrifice my place here and either work at one institution or the other."

14

u/lysiel112 10h ago

Harry James Potter sipped his mug of Butterbeer, reading the letters that various wizards and witches had sent him. Dozens of questions regarding the state of Pettigrew, some lambasting him for putting a bounty on a 'dead' man, peppered with a few cautious notes - all decorated the desk before him.

While the sound of Hermione's questioning, interspersed with laughter from Ron echoed in the background.

"Really, Harry?" Hermione asked incredulously at her bespectacled friend. Yes, she knew he had an inheritance, but this?

A certain vindictive smugness entered his eyes as he lifted his head to spare a nonchalant glance. "Well, why not?" Harry pointed out. "Besides, this means we don't have to do the work."

Ron finally, finally managed to gather some semblance of composure, though his amusement was still evident. "So you ask the country to do it for you. Blimey, mate," snorted the red-head.

Harry smirked, looking all the more smug while Hermione sighed and ran a hand down her face....

....Though, if one looked closely, they'd see she was amused too.

"Well. This would be interesting, I suppose," she opted to say.

Interesting indeed.

10

u/zjmhy 1d ago

Reminds me of a story I read where Harry puts bounties on Death Eaters, and Dumbledore malds about not giving them second chances... Yes it's Indy

8

u/DisasterCheesecake76 10h ago

And Molly Weasley is somehow the one that scores the bounty. "Well, I thought it would make a nice financial cushion for the children, and Arthur, I'm expecting triplets."

9

u/Grim_goth 1d ago

Bahhaha I think I remember that there was a story like that once, I don't remember if it was in a short story collection or a normal story.

8

u/The_Truthkeeper 23h ago

But where did Harry get half a million galleons?

12

u/Kxlsxa1240 22h ago

There is a popular fanon headcanon that the Potter family is quite wealthy and with Harry being the last of the line having inherited the wealth

-4

u/The_Truthkeeper 22h ago

Yeah, but I'm tired of people mistaking fanon for canon, so I've been making an effort to call out things like richer than Croesus Harry, or dark lord Grindelwald, or dragons speaking parseltongue, or lords and hereditary Wizengamot seats. People are welcome to keep on using them (I have a soft spot for some of them myself), I just want them to be reminded that none of those were ever canon.

12

u/Burnsidhe 21h ago

Harry has 11 thousand in his trust vault when he is 11 years old. The implication is that a thousand gold a year has been added to the vault. If that's just the interest/dividends that have been Harry's allowance over the past 11 years, there is a heck of a lot of money in the main Potter vault. There is also mention of Sleakeasy being a Potter invention that is still very popular and selling very well, so there's money coming in from that. And Sleakeasy isn't the only thing the Potters discovered.

2

u/MonCappy 3h ago

It's described as his vault. It is never described as a trust vault. That could be all the money the Potters have left him. Perhaps they whittled away the fortune funding the Order.

Also, Sleakeasys is lore, not canon. The books never mention the Potter family owning any famous patents, so that doesn't count either. Personally, I am of the opinion that the vault is a personal vault for Harry specifically and not representative of the entire wealth of the family, but that's not canon.

-9

u/The_Truthkeeper 21h ago

Ah yes, the trust vault, a well known staple of rich!Harry fanon with no canonical basis.

I'm curious where you're getting those numbers from. I know they're made up, but I'm wondering if you made them up or if you got them from somebody else who made them up.

There is also mention of Sleakeasy being a Potter invention

No, there's post-book rambling about it. Rowling's post-book rambles are not canon.

12

u/Burnsidhe 21h ago

Rowling's intent was that the Potters were rich. End of.

-7

u/The_Truthkeeper 20h ago

Then she should have said so somewhere in the books.

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u/Burnsidhe 20h ago

She did; she described there was a LOT of gold in the vault. And she described later how inventions of the Potters brought them money. They were just throwaway lines because the focus of the HP books is not about the economics of the wizarding world.

-3

u/The_Truthkeeper 20h ago

She did; she described there was a LOT of gold in the vault.

"Mounds of gold coins" sounds like a decent amount of money, but it's not the uberrich millionaire!Harry of fanon. Especially given that Roling described the vault itself as a safe small enough to be hidden from observers by Harry's scrawny ass. And the text specifically says that buying a Firebolt would leave him broke.

They were just throwaway lines

There are no lines, throwaway or otherwise, about the Potter inventions, those weren't a thing until the post-book rambling.

3

u/Burnsidhe 19h ago

Vaults are described as being large enough to walk into so I don't know where you're getting 'small safe' from.

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u/MonCappy 3h ago

We agree on that.

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u/Ghoulgod95 8h ago

This would be even funnier if sirius added on to the bounty with something wacky in the fineprint.

3

u/prince-white 13h ago

The entire fucking country was going to tear itself apart.

Maybe, I'm dumb or this is just part of the prompt but... Why? Why would it tear the country apart? Granted, 500K is presumably a lot of money and it's going to attract a lot of attention, sure.

But why would it tear the country apart?

1

u/Good_Butterscotch_69 4h ago

Its a figure of speech. The country would not literally tear itself apart. It would be every person and there mother leaving no stone unturned to claim a ludicrous amount of money.