When Merope arrived in Diagon Alley there weren't many people there. She looked at a clock in one of the shops; it read June 22nd 1900, 5:00pm.
I was in the Ministry for five hours, Merope thought, I really need to keep track of time.
Merope decided that before she went to her new home, is that she would go to Gringotts and withdraw some money, both Wizarding and Muggle, from her new vault as her aunt had asked the Ministry to put it Merope's name.
She entered Gringotts bank. The goblins were bustling around, getting ready to close for the night. There was a mural on one of the front doors; it read
Enter stranger but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed
For those who take but do not earn
Must pay most dearly in there turn
For, if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours
Thief, you have been warned beware
Of finding more than treasure there
I think you'd be mad to try and rob this place, Merope thought. She walked up to one of the desks. One the desk next to her, one the goblins was weighing aquamarines the size of coals. Merope felt her eyes widen at the mere sight of the gigantic gemstones.
"Is there something I can help you with?" said the voice in front of her.
Merope turned to face the owner of the voice. She gulped. The goblin that the voice belonged to looked rather intimidating.
"Um, actually yes, there is something you can help me with," Merope stuttered, "Miss Merope Gaunt wishes to make a withdrawal."
"Bit young you are," the goblin said, "but nevertheless we'll take you down to your vault before we close."
Merope was quickly taken by the hand that dragged her to a cart, which led her deep, underground to her late aunt's vault. She and the goblin got off the cart, which was in front a vault with the numbers 628 engraved above it. Before she got off the cart the goblin asked for the lamp, and she gave it to him. They were in front of the vault where the lock was, when the goblin handed her back the lamp and said,
"Key please,"
I handed him the key, and he unlocked the door to the vault. I stood there in awe at the mountains of gold, silver and bronze coins standing in the vault along with all the jewels her Aunt Mirabella had left for her when she would get married.
That's a lot of money and a lot of jewels, Merope thought.
"I'll withdraw 5,000 galleons, 100 sickles, 150 knuts, and 1,000 pound sterling," Merope asked the goblin politely, "pound sterling in a separate bag please."
The goblin politely obliged. He filled one bag with galleons, sickles and knuts, and the other with British pound sterling.
"Thank you," Merope said, and she put the money beneath her thin summer cloak.
Merope and the goblin went back up to the atrium of the bank; she thanked the goblins for their services and left the bank.
It was five-thirty. Merope went to "Home for Younglings" and found that the rooms were in alphabetical order and more than half of them were empty, she found her room, on the door was a plate that said Gaunt, Merope. She went inside the room. She gasped. The room was extremely big compared the room at her father's cottage. The room was obviously charmed to be bigger on the inside than it was on the outside.
The bags of money were placed on her desk; her very first desk. The shoulder bag she had brought on her journey, she dropped that next to the wardrobe, which was in the corner next to the chest of drawers. Merope used her brother's wand to open the wardrobe and magicked all her old dresses into the wardrobe. She unpacked the only nightgown she owned, and placed it on the bed. Merope then undid the fastenings of her cloak, and draped it on her desk chair.
Suddenly, she heard the faint sound of a bell ringing.
The bell must be for dinner, she thought.
She ran down to the dining hall and got there before the last chime. There were five tables, three of which were empty because the children who usually sat there, were at Hogwarts and would not be back until July 1st, the other two tables had about sixty children sitting at each of them.
Merope sat at the second table, which happened to be nearest to her, it consisted of children between the ages of 6 and 11. At the table, simple cutlery and crockery was laid in front of each child, but in the middle of the table there were huge plates and big shallow bowls that had yet to be filled with food, and large sparkling silver pitchers that were empty of any liquid.
Almost in an instant, foods filled the plates and bowls while different drinks filled the many silver pitchers.
"Wow," Merope gasped.
She had never seen so much food in one place her entire life.
There was French fries, chicken legs, French onion soup, mashed potatoes, spaghetti bolognaise, garlic bread, minestrone soup, satay beef, and Greek salad.
Merope had a bit of everything except the Greek salad. Everything was so delicious and she was so full, she thought she couldn't eat anything else, well that was until she saw this wonderful sight.
What was left of the main course melted away from the plates and was replaced by desserts: caramel fudge, apple pie, chocolate gateaux, treacle tart and many tubs of vanilla and chocolate ice-cream. She ate a bit of absolutely everything. When everyone was finished, the leftovers melted away leaving the crockery sparkling clean; as though they were never even used.
Merope went up to her room and sat on her bed. The walls of her room were bare except for a large blackboard hanging above her desk, she also had her very own bathroom which consisted of a toilet, basin, shower and bathtub. Merope washed her face, brushed her teeth, combed her hair then changed into her nightgown and went to bed. She had definitely had enough excitement and surprises for one day.
