A quick thank you to Isame Kuroda for the idea to incorporate Souken into the story. You will see him more later on as the story progresses. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Bleach. I'm just letting you all see inside my crazy mind to see what the two look like fused together.
Image Disclaimer: Image by FrAgMenT from deviantART
3 - Bars and Vaults
1rd August 1991
In the end, it wasn't till the Thursday almost two weeks later that Isshin could take Ichigo and Tatsuki over to London, Kisuke deciding to tag along with them. Mrs Arisawa had offered to look after Yuzu and Karin while they went so it was just the four of them. After a few hours by car, they were finally in London and were walking towards the Leaky Cauldron. Isshin watched the two kids with a smile, both of them barely holding in their excitement. He wished that he could have taken Ichigo to Diagon Alley before but it was always more impressive the first time when you went to get your supplies for Hogwarts. His father had done the same with him and it had made the moment even more memorable. Kisuke nudged him as they got nearer.
"It's been a while since we were last here," said Kisuke joyfully. "The last time I saw this place was at the end of the war. It's was a dump then. I wonder if they managed to restore this place to its formal glory."
"I doubt they can repair it all," said Isshin. "Remember what father did. Sure, Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley can be repaired but what about that third Alley where Voldemort made his base? I can't even remember what it is called anymore and I doubt anyone does. After all, they would likely have forgotten it by now since there isn't even a change to rebuild it. Father doesn't mess around when he's that mad. Even the ash that was left has probably already scattered."
"They would have swept it under the rug. The Minister is in the pocket of the death eaters. Pay him some money, ensure he stays Minister, and he will do whatever they want. He's dancing in the palm of their hands so you can guarantee that they would make sure that it was all forgotten. Why leave a reminded of the place where you suffered your greatest defeat, despite its rich pureblood history."
Isshin gave a quick shake of his head in sadness. "Such a pity. It may be for the better though. It was always extremely prejudiced about who was allowed in. The downside is that we no longer have an idea where they are hiding."
Kisuke turned to Isshin in surprise. "You're talking about…"
"Yeah."
"I guess that is a point," muttered Kisuke quietly. They haven't shown themselves in ten years just like us. Who knows what they have been up to. Do wonder if Soken is still around? He was an interesting guy."
"I just hope that Ryuken is dead."
"Your best friend?"
"What," exclaimed Isshin. "Who said something stupid like that?"
Kisuke just chuckled at his brothers antics. "Come on, you two were always together, each watching each other's back despite your differences. How was he not your best friend?"
"I can deny it all I want," Isshin said with a pout.
"Hey," called Ichigo from ahead of them. "Is this really it?" The two adults could practically here the disbelief in his voice. They followed his gaze to the small grubby-looking pub ahead of them, a small sign outside it saying "The Leaky Cauldron".
"Yep," Isshin said, a child like excitement lacing his voice. "Aren't you happy I finally brought you here?"
"I fell kind of let down," Ichigo commented bluntly.
"Same," said Tatsuki. "I expected something more…"
"Impressive," offered Ichigo.
"Yeah."
"Now now," said Kisuke. "Let's not judge a book by its cover. Follow me." Leading them over, he opened the door and led the kids in, the three of them ignoring the man who had face palmed the pavement at Ichigo's words.
Tom looked around the bar from his counter as he poured another drink, sliding it along to the customer. "Back to another day," he thought as he absently worked on the orders. It had only yesterday since Harry Potter had walked into his pub. Harry Potter. The Boy Who Lived. The saviour of the Wizarding world from You Know Who. After ten years, he finally reappeared, and in his pub no less. To say he was ecstatic was putting it lightly. Even after twenty four hours, he still couldn't believe it. He had half expected to wake up the following morning and discover it had all been a dream. It had really helped business that day since everyone wanted a glimpse of the Boy Who Lived. And then there was that incident down in Diagon Alley. He doubted anything would be as much of a surprise as yesterday.
He was proved wrong a few seconds later. An old man walked past him with a young boy, obliviously starting Hogwarts, greeting him as he passed. Tom felt his heart stop as he heard the words.
"Hello little Thomas."
He spun round just in time to see the back door close, his mouth hanging open. There was only one person who called him that. He had met the man when he was a child, helping around the bar. He had just collected his order when the man asked for his name. He had told him and the man had automatically taken to calling him little Thomas. He even continued later on in life, even when Tom was now an adult. One thought was going through his head at this time.
"He's back?"
Looking around the pub, he noticed no one else seemed to have noticed. "To be expected," Tom thought as he turned to one of the empty glasses nearby and began to wash it. "That man always was hard to notice when he wanted to be. A quick charm and most people would find their eyes focusing on anyone but him." He finished one glass and picked up enough. If he thought that that this was enough of a surprise for the day, he was going to be in for another.
"Hello Tom," said Kisuke as he led the kids over. "You're still running this place? I thought it got demolished during the war, though I suppose it was fixed looking around. Must have had a problem with muggles coming in for a drink until the charms went back up though. Did you get any health inspectors coming round?"
Tom's gaze was frozen on Kisuke, his brain processing who was in front of him. "Kisuke…" he finally blurted out, the glass slipping from his hand.
In a flash, Kisuke drew his wand and had pointed it straight at the falling glass, halting its momentum. A quick flick later and the glass had returned to Tom's hands, the person in question still in shock from seeing the appearance of the missing man.
"Yep," he finally said as he snapped out of his trance like state. "No doubt about it. It's you. Always were quick at drawing. If anything, you've gotten faster."
"Even a reclusive like myself needs to keep up their wandmanship. I can't let myself go rusty after all."
"Sorry about all that. I've already had one surprise today. Another was quite a shock for me. I thought nothing could top yesterday but it seems I was wrong." Looking down, he noticed the two kids by Kisuke. "I didn't know you had children."
"Oh, they're not mine," explained Kisuke. "Ichigo here is Isshin's son and Tatsuki is his friend."
At the mention of Isshin's name, Tom visibly cringed. The orange haired boy looked up at the barkeeper annoyed.
"Let me guess," Ichigo started saying. "Dad has a bad reputation around here."
"I wouldn't say bad," Tom answered hesitantly. He wasn't sure what the best way to say, "Hey kid, you're dad is the laughing stock of a third of all wizards" was.
Tatsuki sighed before turning to Ichigo. "Do you think I'm going to get caught up in his reputation if I'm seen with him?"
"What about me?" Ichigo said scowling.
"It's too late for you. Better I save myself now before I'm dragged down too."
"I'm not that bad," said Isshin, finally catching up with the three. He seemed oblivious to the fact that everyone had looked away from him the moment he entered. "Why are we waiting back here anyway? We haven't even gotten to the best part yet."
"My fault," Tom said as he opened the back door for them. "Enjoy Diagon Alley. Word of warning though. How long did you leave for Gringotts?"
"About an hour maximum," said Isshin confused. "Why?"
"You don't know? But it was all over the Daily Prophet."
"Sorry. We don't get that."
Tom seemed to look at them with pity at that moment. "Wait till you get to Gringotts. You'll see what's going on down there."
"Right…" said a hesitant Isshin as the door closed. Tom turned his back to the door and walked over to the bar again. What a day it had turned out to be. And for those two boys to be starting Hogwarts at the same time, it looked like Harry Potter wasn't the only one who had returned.
"What was that about?" Ichigo asked as the door shut.
"Forget that," said Tatsuki angrily. "He led us to where he keeps the trash." She looked about ready to punch someone, the others taking a step away from her cautiously.
"I suppose we tortured you two enough," Kisuke said as he turned to Isshin. "Shall I do the honours?"
"Be my guest."
Ichigo and Tatsuki watched doubtfully as Kisuke tapped a sequence of bricks with his wand. With a final tap, Kisuke stood back and… nothing happened.
"Well," said Ichigo scowling. "What's meant to happen?"
"Hold on a second," protested Kisuke weakly. "Let me try again." And he did so, again and again and again. It was five minutes later that Tom opened the door again to find Kisuke clutching his stomach and an annoyed tomboy being held back by an orange haired kid.
"I think I forgot to mention that the password changed when we rebuilt that wall."
"You don't think," Kisuke said in pain.
"Here." With a quick few taps, the wall did nothing for a second before it suddenly started disassembling itself and a few seconds later, a brick archway stood before them, revealing a packed street in front of them.
"Well then," said Kisuke, trying to regain some of his lost dignity. "Shall we go?" No reply was heard and he found out why when he turned around. Ichigo and Tatsuki were frozen in place, both staring at the street ahead of them that had suddenly appeared. "Damn," he muttered as he handed Isshin a few coins.
"Told you," Isshin responded smugly. "They're taking it better than how I acted the first time I saw it. Father couldn't show his face in Diagon Alley for weeks afterwards."
"Come on then," said Kisuke, dragging the two forward through the archway. "We have places to go and things to buy. First stop is Gringotts. You need your gold after all."
Isshin gave a quick wave to Tom as the archway closed before running up to them and keeping pace with Kisuke. They walked through the streets in silence, letting Ichigo and Tatsuki take in everything. The two of them were turning their heads every second, taking in shop after shop. Isshin even decided to point out some as they passed them.
"That there is the apothecary," he said, gesturing at one shop. "All your potion ingredients can be found and bought there, which you can later get once we've been to Gringotts. Now over there," This time he pointed towards a shop filled with owls. "That is Eeylops Owl Emporium. Sell many different types of owls. I would definitely recommend getting one instead of a toad or a cat. Much more useful. They're the primary mail system here after all. Write the letter, give it to the owl, and they just fly off with it straight to the recipient. Amazing how they do it."
"Here we are," Kisuke said, alerting the three. Ahead of them stood a tall white building, dwarfing all of the others around it. "Gringotts. The Wizards' bank. It is said to be one of the safest places in the world except for places like Hogwarts. Of course, it's to be expected with goblins guarding…"
Kisuke's voice drew off as they all stared at the bronze doors. Ichigo and Tatsuki just stared at the goblins guarding the door, impressed with the sight of it. Isshin and Kisuke though were having other thoughts. There was normally just one or two goblins at the entrance. And they normally didn't wear armour geared for battle either.
"So this is what Tom meant," said Isshin warily. "What do you think happened here?"
"Let's find out."
The four quickly walked up the small stairs by the entrance, passing the goblins and entering through the doors. They failed to spot the goblins shifting away slightly from the three males as they passed before shifting back to their posts as the door closed. Inside the room they had entered, a second set of doors stood in front of them. Unlike the bronze doors of before, these seemed to be made of pure silver, words engraved upon them:
Enter, stranger, but take head
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn,
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.
"They sound dangerous," Ichigo commented after reading the words.
"They are," explained Kisuke. "Gringotts is run by goblins. No Ministry interference. That's what makes it so dangerous and brilliant. No Witch or Wizard can influence the economy for their own personal gain but at the same time, we leave our gold in the hands of those who have no true allegiance to us. Those who would sooner take our gold and run than help us willingly. They respect some Wizards though. Just as long as they share their bank's motto."
"The bank's motto?" Tatsuki questioned.
"Fortius Quo Fidelius" answered Isshin. "Strength through loyalty."
"Ah."
Leading the group through the silver doors, they entered a marble hall, hundreds of goblins everywhere. Some were at counters, weighing coins and examining gems. Others were leading people through one of the endless amounts of doors around them, goblins in full armour watching them carefully as they passed. The sight that made them all annoyed though was the massive line that stood before them. Even with all the tellers available, there was just too many people.
"I see what that guy meant," Ichigo muttered to Tatsuki. "This is just ridiculous."
Isshin just shook his head slowly. "Damn. What do we do now? We don't have time for this."
"You there," called a voice from the side. They all turned to see a goblin at one of the counters calling over to them.
"Us?" Kisuke called back.
"Of course you lot," said the goblin, currently looking rather inpatient. "Hurry up before I change my mind."
Not wasting this change, the four quickly moved past the protesting Witches and Wizards before coming to a stop in front of the goblin's counter.
"You got the key," the goblin said quickly, not wanting to waste any time it seemed.
"Yeah," said Isshin as he slowly took a key out of his pocket. No sooner had he got it out had a hand stretched out a grabbed it from him, called out for a goblin to escort them.
"Will there be any other business before you go down?" asked the goblin.
"Yeah. Tatsuki. You've got the money your mum gave you right?"
"Yeah," said Tatsuki, taking out a purse. It disappeared immediately from her hands just like the key did, the goblin already grabbing the money from the purse and replacing it with the appropriate amount of Wizarding money.
"Thank you for visiting Gringotts today," the goblin said as he handed back the purse, the phrase sounding far too forced. "Gornuk will show you to your vault. Have a nice day."
They didn't even have time to thank the goblin as Gornuk quickly dragged them along through one of the doors, heading down into what seemed to be caverns. The marble was gone, replaced with stone, while torches hung from the wall, lighting the path. After a few minutes of travelling through tunnels, and another few searching for the lost Isshin, they arrived at a miniature type railway station. As Gornuk approached, a cart descended down from above, locking onto the tracks as it hit them. Gornuk climbed into the cart and gestured impatiently for the others to do so.
The moment they were all in, Gornuk pulled a leave and the cart went flying down the tracks. Left, right, up, down. The cart was following all kinds of paths. Ichigo could swear that at one point the cart flung them upside down, but it was going too fast to know if what he felt was actually true. A few more turns and the cart was flying through a large cavern, water below and what looked like a dragon in the distance. All around them, he could see stalagmites and stalactites, growing from the cavern's floor and ceiling.
A few minutes later, the cart began to slow down and pulled up at the edge of a long corridor. Gornuk got out and walked off, the others hurrying to follow the goblin. Drawing the key, Gornuk walked over to a vault and inserted it. A swift turn and small indent appeared in the door, Gornuk stepping away from it. Isshin walked forward to it and looked into his coat. Tatsuki and Ichigo watched from behind as he did something, unable to see past the coat he was wearing.
A click was heard and Isshin let his coat fall back in place, whatever he had taken out of there hidden now. The door slowly opened to reveal piles of gold, silver, and bronze. Isshin walked into the vault to gather some money while Kisuke explained how the economy worked with the coins.
"The gold ones are Galleons," Kisuke began. "The silver ones are Sickles and the bronze ones are Knuts. Now seventeen Sickles are the equivalent of one Galleon and twenty nine Knuts are worth one Sickle. Understand?"
The two nodded their heads as Isshin left the vault, a small item also present in his hands that he tucked away into his pockets.
"All done?" Kisuke asked.
"Yeah. Let's go."
And there we go. Chapter 3 is done. Diagon Alley seems to have become much bigger than I intended. I ended up splitting it in half slightly so you will see Ollivanders next chapter. It should be out maybe Monday or Tuesday. The chapter after that won't be out till Friday at the latest then so it may end up being Tuesday.
If you have any comments you want to say or questions you want answered, leave a review and I will do my best to answer them, as long as they don't ruin plot points too much.
Anyway, till the next time. I've been Takei. Thanks for reading.
