Where did the money come from?

[ghinghapuss]

No: HPFGUIDX 90539

mrsbrooksathome wrote:
><snip> Where did the money come from?  I know Lily and James 
>supposedly left it for him... But where did they get it?  And has 
>anyone ever mentioned what they did for a living?  I know they were 
>in the OOTP, but as I understand it, that is not exactly a paying 
>career? Ideas?

Mandy here:  
Well the fortune had to have been inherited or donated as James and 
Lily only had a couple of years after leaving school before they 
died, yet they were still able to leave their son a vast fortune.  
So, unless Gringotts has an unbelievable savings plan, it must have 
come from somewhere else and I can think of 3 possible sources:  The 
Potters, The Evanses or some other wealthy source.

The first thought is it comes from James, because it is generally 
assumed that money comes from the male partner.  It is convenient, 
certainly, to believe the Potters were wealthy as we not met any of 
them, yet, and we have met Lily's sister Petunia, who doesn't seem 
particularly wealthy, but that doesn't necessarily mean her parents 
weren't.  

I have always had the impression that James was from a rich family.  
I don't know why, except that it does seem appropriate, that because 
he and Sirius were best of friends they were of the same ilk.  
Meaning that they were both from rich, pureblooded wizarding 
families.  In fact I have always assumed that all four of the 
maurders were wealthy purebloods.  But of course this is all 
conjecture. With the exception of Sirius; I have no canon to support 
this idea.  

But it is also interesting, if the money came from Lily's family.  
We know Petunia is not especially wealthy, but we don't know 
anything about their parents.  Perhaps Lily's and Petunia's parents 
were the wealthy ones and left the bulk of their fortune to their 
beloved daughter, the one who was the witch they were so excited to 
give birth to.  It would add fuel to Petunia's hatred and possible 
jealousy of her sister.  Or perhaps Lily received an inheritance 
from a wizarding relative, an aunt or cousin who ignored Petunia.  
Or, better still, Petunia refused to accept money from a magical 
source, and then saw Lily and her husband spend it all on fighting a 
guerrilla war, that resulted in their death.

The only other source I can come up right now is some kind of fund 
that was set up by DD or the Order, that the WW world could donate 
to.   Benefiting baby Harry Potter as he grows up, as a thank you 
for ridding the world of `He Who Must Not Be Named'. But that seems 
boring somehow.

As for a job, well if James and Lily were wealthy enough they 
wouldn't just need one, and that would enable them both to devote 
all their time to working with the Order.  K

Keep in mind that in the two or so years James and Lily were out of 
school, before they were killed, they actively fought a war, were 
constantly living with the threat of capture, torture and death by 
LV and his Death Eaters, got married and had a baby.  They kept 
themselves pretty busy that would have let hardly any room a starter 
job, let alone a career. 

Just some thoughts.

Cheers Mandy