Chapter three:

It took a total of 9 seconds between Harry landing on the cobbled streets of Tensaw-Grove (the New York equivalent of Diagon Alley) before his wand was out and deflecting an object that had been launched in his direction. After ensuring no more missiles were heading his way, Harry took stock of the chaotic surroundings that he found himself in – Tensaw-Grove looked exactly like Diagon Alley, with a few noticeable differences; such as the store names, and what the stores sold. The lay out of the alley looked almost identical to what he was familiar with though, and it was just as packed and busy as Harry had seen Diagon Alley just before the students of Hogwarts were due to return to school. Looking to the side, where he had deflected the object, he noted that it was actually a heavy looking cauldron, which probably would have knocked him out if he hadn't stopped it.

Quickly glancing in the direction it had come from, he could see a witch looking furious and storming in his direction – even over the babble of the crowd, he could hear her furious shouting of how idiots were always getting in her way and interfering with her business. Quickly as he could, which helped with his small stature, Harry ducked out of sight of the woman and headed in the direction of Gringotts Bank. Looking down at the wand still clutched in his hand guiltily, he looked around nervously, expecting an owl to come out of nowhere and inform him that he had been expelled from Hogwarts for using magic outside of school – it would be just his luck that the Ministry would expel him for something like that, even if the laws of the country he was in permitted him to use magic.

The bank was the most logical stop – since he figured that if the muggles used different currency in different countries, it would only make sense that the magical counterparts would too.

The inside of Gringotts were also identic to what he was use to; perhaps that was something to do with the goblins? He had once heard Hermione say something about all the branches being the same, something to do with security. If something worked, don't try and fix it…Harry moved to stand in the shortest line, although the bank didn't seem very busy anyway, and waited patiently to be seen to after his fellow witches and wizards ahead of him. Despite the line being relatively short, it still took Harry a full twenty minutes to get to the desk, manned by a grumpy looking goblin.

"What do you want Wizard?" the goblin growled,

"I need to exchange my galleons for the American currency, if possible?" Harry asked, his voice quiet and unsure. The goblin blinked at him and raised an eyebrow, "I – er – wasn't informed I would be in America until yesterday, my relatives are non-magical, and dislike magic. We just moved to America, so all my money is in the British branch…"

The goblin sighed in a suffering tone, before shouting to another goblin in their own language. Harry was motioned to follow the second goblin, down several white marble, winding corridors. There was no way Harry would have remembered his way out, even after keeping track of the ninth turn they took. He thought that perhaps that was the point, in case you ever tried to rob the bank or did something to upset them. It took several minutes of hurried walking to reach a plane oak door, which the goblin pushed him through. Inside was a bunch of files, and a desk in the centre.

"Do you wish to convert just what you have with you, or transfer money from your vault in London?" the goblin asked, speaking for the first time they had been together. Harry frowned, unsure what to do. He wasn't even sure what the converting rate was, nor exactly how long he would be in America. His relatives were his legal guardians, so it wasn't like anyone from Britain could legally force him back there.

"What is the conversion rate?" Harry asked cautiously,

"Between pound and dollar? Or Galleon and Dragot?" the goblin drawled,

"Both?"

"The Dragot is worth 2 of the galleon at current conversion rates." The goblin stated professionally whilst handing him several documents, "So a Galleon is worth £4.93, or $7.35. A dragot would be worth £9.86, or $14.70." ]

It was a good thing he was good at maths, or his head would have been hurting by the time the explanations had finished. After hearing all this, he decided it would probably be best to transfer some money over from Britain; even if he were just here for the summer, it would mean less trips to the bank in the long-run and he would have money just in case the Dursley's ever decided to starve him again.

It was surprisingly quick for them to get hold of his records from Britain; something to do with an international agreement amongst the goblins, unless the wizards had refused to sign the contract as they had set it out, which was rare because most of them never bothered to read the small print. Most never even saw the contracts unless they were opening a new vault, which in itself was rare because most inherited vaults or had them opened under a school scholarship fund by the ministry when they were young. What did take longer was actually proving he was who he said he was – because his vaults had been seized, and locked, and the only person who could enter them had to have express permission from Albus Dumbledore. Harry demanded to know why they had been seized and was informed promptly that it had been done illegally; whichever goblin had helped would be punished, and evidence would be collected against Dumbledore. Dumbledore could have only done what he had, if he was legally Harry's magical guardian (which he wasn't, according to the records) or had written consent from his true guardians – the Dursley's – which wasn't in the file as it should have been.

Dumbledore hadn't removed any money from the vaults (he had a trust vault and a family vault) he had removed several items – books, jewellery, scrolls. Luckily everything placed in the Potter vault had been magically tagged, so it could be called back to the vault itself when and where needed, in case anything like this did happen. An added security that Gringotts offered, for a fee, not that it was usually needed.

It was exactly 7pm when Harry returned to his relatives house, his plan going without hitch as he appeared within his room and climbed out of his window with ease – running half-crouched to the front door, only straightening up when he got onto the steps, knocking lightly at the door, it was pulled open by a sneering Petunia.

"Where have you been?" She demanded as he was dragged over the threshold, and pushed into the hallway of the house.

"Just at the park," Harry lied easily – pointing down to the end of the street, in the direction of the river, where he knew there was a park. He had bought a map whilst in Tensaw-Grove. "I stayed out of sight of the locals,"

Harry was shot another glare as he was shoved towards his room, which he had go downstairs to – with the order not to leave his room unless they called for him, he re-entered his room and closed the door behind him; luckily he would hear anyone coming close to his room, the only other things on this floor were the garage, a utility room and the downstairs bathroom (shower and toilet and sink), and the stairs leading down to them squeaked with every step.

It took a little time to put together his bed since he was doing it alone, but as soon as it was up with the mattress on, he walked over to where he had dropped his shopping bag – rooting around for a second and pulling out a thick blanket that he had purchased, along with several pillows and a summer quilt and sheets. He hated sleeping without at least a two pillows under his head. And of course, a fitted sheet to go over the mattress. After some consideration, he had decided he would rather explain their presence than go without them – just a small white lie about how he had purchased them during the school year, and they wouldn't accuse him of stealing from them, it had worked last year when he had explained away the Weasley jumper he had received for Christmas.

That done, Harry dug through the rest of the purchase that he had made. A magical cooler, that kept food fresher for longer than a normal muggle fridge or even freezer would. Ok, perhaps it hadn't been an essential buy, but it was the same size as a book and as the shop owner had explained the charms ensured anything inside were kept in their right places without spilling, so it could be stored wherever as well as great for travelling. The cooler had been filled with everything from meats, bread, milk to chocolate and pumpkin juice; it also included those potion ingredients that needed to be stored at a certain temperature below room temperature, of course that section was sealed off by the rest. Included within the 'cooler' was a cupboard for those items that didn't need to be stored in the cold, like a cupboard attached, which contained crisps and the rest of his potion ingredients that he had purchased. And because it made sense, he had also placed a few new cauldrons, vials and stirrers within the cupboard area. He didn't even know why he had done that himself, but it seemed to make sense.

It was great for those days that his relatives didn't feed him, and he didn't want to risk using the portkey to get something. And because it shielded against outside magic, it would be taken with him in a bag,

The next item he strapped his right arm, a wand holster – invisible to those without magic. And finally the last item he had bought was a new backpack; the bag was actually of muggle design, with the added benefit of a few charms and protective spells woven into its fabric, which in itself was also made of dragon hide (which looked like a fake snake skin). It was multi-compartment, six in total. four of the compartments were normal size – it was the largest compartment that had the added expansion charms, just enough that he could probably bit the content of his school trunk without, with the added benefit that it would be too heavy.

Within the first compartment he placed his invisibility cloak, the box which contained the basilisk fang which had pierced his arm – Fawkes had appeared on the last day of school and dropped it in his lap – and his photo album. In the second he placed the new cooler/storage unit, and within the third the protected folder that contained all of his financial information. That took up the medium sized parts of the bag, within the expanded one he placed his school books – bound by leather strips, for his first and second year, along with his 'good' summer and winter cloaks from school, and a few sets of shirts/trousers that he wore for school, and his school dress shoes. With the remaining pocket right at the front of the bag, he placed his remaining money, both a few hundred dollars (muggle money) along with Dragot, Sprinkle and Hopple. The last two the equivalent of sickles and knuts.

It never occurred to Harry to consider why he was essentially packing a bag for a quick escape.

Chapter three for you!

- so a few things, whilst some ideas have been taken from the recent information about the american magic world - this story will not be completely sticking to them! The american govemnment will be septerated from those of the non-magic, but they do not prevent interaction with muggles, nor relatitionships as long as caution is taken.

- as long as a child has undertaken their first year of schooling, they are allowed to use their wand outside of school, but priviledges will be revoked if they purposely use magic in front of/on muggles.

Thanks for reading,

NSL! xx

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