Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Chapter 6 – Diagon Alley

Harry arrived in Diagon Alley at 6am on August 22 and walked swiftly into Gringott's. He walked up to the nearest goblin. "I'm Harry Potter, I'd like to be taken to my….Mr. Griphook? When did you start working at the counter?"

The goblin looked up at Harry with an expression of disbelief. "Mr. Potter, I began working at the counter several months ago. And it's just Griphook. How can I help you today?"

"Oh, um…sorry. I was just surprised to see someone I know working at the counter. I need to go to my vault to make a withdrawal."

"Will this be a withdrawal for school expenses?"

"Yes." Harry replied, before adding "Why?"

"Well the purpose of the withdrawal would determine which vault you need to go to, wouldn't it?" He said before flipping through the ledger on his desk, obviously not expecting an answer.

Harry spoke up nonetheless, "What do you mean by that, Griphook?" Again the goblin looked startled at the use of his name. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No." Griphook replied curtly. "Your account has been flagged, Mr. Potter. Please have a seat in the lobby." and he disappeared behind the counter.

A very confused Harry Potter sat down in the bank's waiting area. About ten minutes later, Griphook entered with another, much older goblin. Although it was hard to tell, the second goblin looked like he had just woken up

"Mr. Potter, this is Ragnok."

"Nice to meet you, Ragnok. I'm Harry Potter." he replied, extending his hand.

"I know who you are Mr. Potter," Ragnok replied without taking the proffered hand. The three stood in uncomfortable silence for a few moments. "Please follow me to my office." Ragnok continued as he turned and walked towards one of the doors.

Harry started to follow before noticing that Griphook was walking back towards the counters. "Won't Griphook be joining us?"

"No" Ragnok said as he kept walking.

Harry stopped. "I'm not comfortable following someone I just met to a private office."

"And why is that?"

"I thought you said you knew who I was?" Harry responded, immediately regretting his cheekiness.

Ragnok laughed. "Griphook! Please join Mr. Potter and myself in my offices."

With that, the three of them continued through one of the doors. As they walked down another hallway, Ragnok said something to Griphook in what Harry assumed was Gobbledegook and both goblins laughed, making Harry very uncomfortable.

"What's so funny?" he asked, assuming they were making fun of him.

"Ragnok was just commenting that you are the first wizard he has ever met that was more comfortable with two goblins than one."

Eventually, they reached a door that led to a moderate-sized office connected to a conference room. Ragnok ushered Harry into the conference room and motioned for him to take a seat.

Harry was just taking a seat when Ragnok swiftly moved behind him and had a knife to his throat before he could think of taking any action. "Mr. Potter, one goblin or two, when you are within these walls, you are at our mercy. Had I wanted to do anything…unpleasant, Griphook would not stop me." Ragnok said.

Without moving, Harry responded "I just wanted a witness for when a Gringott's goblin assaulted me with a rubber chicken."

Looking to his hand, Ragnok noticed that he was, in fact, holding a rubber chicken to the boy's throat. Both goblin's laughed uproariously. "Mr. Potter, you truly are something special. Shall we get down to business?"

"Yes please. I still don't know why I'm here. I just came to make a withdrawal."

"I placed a flag on your account to be notified the next time you came in to the bank, though I admit I did not expect you to make any transactions at such an early hour" Ragnok began. "Your financial situation has changed significantly since your last visit to our establishment, Mr. Potter."

"I don't understand." Harry interrupted. "I haven't done anything since the last time I made a withdrawal, how could my financial situation change?"

"You are correct that the vault set aside for your needs while attending Hogwarts has been untouched over the last several years. The Potter Vault has been undisturbed for sometime longer than that" Ragnok said as he shuffled through some papers, finally saying "fifteen years, eleven months to be exact. Your personal vault was similarly dormant until May, when deposits began arriving from Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. Last week, a deposit was made to your personal account from Hogwarts. It was that deposit that made me take a closer look at your finances, Mr. Potter. It is not often that schools make deposits in students' accounts. Usually it is withdrawals for tuition."

"Oh, that must be my first month's pay. I'll be teaching at Hogwarts this year." Harry responded, still reeling from the information that he had three vaults and that he was receiving deposits from Fred and George.

"I see. Then there is the matter of the Black Vault, which was only recently placed under your name."

"Wait, the Black Vault?" Harry said in disbelief.

"Yes Mr. Potter. Sirius Black left instructions that upon his death or incapacitation, his possessions would pass to you." Ragnok answered. "Which brings us to this meeting. Between all of your vaults, you have become one of our more…prestigious clients, and I felt that it was time that your finances received the personal service we offer to such customers."

"Such as?"

"A goblin will be assigned as your personal account manager. You can conduct all transactions through him. He will provide you with monthly statements of activity in your vaults. Also, I assume that Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes is a business you hold an interest in. Your account manager will provide bookkeeping and auditing services to ensure that your investment is secure."

"Would you be the manager, Ragnok?"

"No Mr. Potter, your account will be a full-time job. I will assign another goblin to that position."

"What about Griphook?" who looked startled at the mention of his name.

"Griphook is a clerk, Mr. Potter. I can provide you with an experienced account manager."

"If it's all the same, I'd prefer that Griphook have the job." Harry responded, not realizing he had just thrust Griphook to the very elite ranks of goblin society.

"Very well. I will work out some details with Griphook. Would you mind returning on the twenty-fourth to finalize the arrangements?"

"That sounds great. But I still need to make a withdrawal today." Ragnok pulled a small bag of coins from underneath the table and placed it in front of Harry. "That should cover your needs until the twenty-fourth. Griphook, please see Mr. Potter out." And Ragnok disappeared out the door of the office.

Harry and Griphook walked back through the corridor to the lobby in silence. When they reached the main doors to the bank, Griphook turned to Harry and said, "You won't regret this, Mr. Potter."

"I'm sure I won't. And call me Harry." He responded before proceeding out the doors.

Harry had a few hours before his friends were scheduled to meet him at Florean Fortescue's ice cream shop so he wandered the streets doing a bit of window-shopping. A few of the shops had started to open and more people began to populate the alley as they did their morning errands. A few times, Harry saw students he recognized from school, though none that he knew by name.

At 10am, Ron and Ginny joined him at the table he found at the ice cream shop. The three friends hugged each other hello and sat down to wait for the rest of their group.

"How have things been over the last couple weeks?" Harry asked.

"Pretty good. Mum almost killed me when she heard I had broken another wand, but you should have seen her face when Ginny and I showed her what you taught us." Ron answered.

Hermione, Luna, and Neville all arrived after that, and the six friends set off to do their shopping. When the group entered Flourish & Blotts, Hermione asked a question that had obviously been burning her up inside.

"Guys, what do you make of the textbook selection for defense this year? What does 'one textbook - student choice' mean?"

Harry answered, "I think it means you get to choose your own textbook." A few of his friends snickered.

"But how can we choose our own textbook? Won't that make it hard to teach if we all have different books?"

"I'm sure the professor will manage." Harry said with a glimmer in his eye.

Hermione pointed at Harry and then at the nearest wall, lifting him off his feet and pinning him against the wall. "You know something, Harry James Potter. Spill it!"

"I was going to tell you guys today anyway, but meet your new defense teacher." Harry said with a smile. "and nice work with that spell Hermione. That was brilliant."

It was three hours before the group left the bookstore, having spent most of that time deciding what book to buy for defense. In the end, most of them bought three or four books for Harry's class instead of the one required and they were on their way. After a brief stop at the apothecary for Hermione, Ginny, and Luna to buy potions supplies for the coming year the group decided to head towards the Leaky Cauldron for a late lunch.

When they were about twenty meters from the Leaky Cauldron, the brick wall opened revealing ten people in black robes and white masks. People on the street began to scream and run away as they saw the dark figures entering the alley, but Harry and his friends stood their ground.

Ron mumbled a few words under his breath, so that only his friends could hear. "Hermione, anti-apparition. Neville, shields. Ginny and Luna, wands."

Hermione and Neville immediately started muttering incantations. As the deatheaters got closer, several of them noticed the group that stood in front of them.

"Awww, wook who it ith! Baby Potter and his wittle fwends!" came a high-pitched, sickening voice. "And they don't even have their wands out. Big mistake boys and girls" she said as she pointed her wand at Harry.

Moments later, Bellatrix Lestrange's wand-arm exploded. Five heads turned to see Neville with a wide grin on his face. Bellatrix's scream tore through Diagon Alley as she writhed on the floor. Most people no doubt assumed it was a deatheater torturing another poor soul.

The remaining nine deatheaters had their wands out and were looking for the source of the curse that just devastated Bellatrix Lestrange when they heard two simultaneous shouts of "Accio wands!" as they were all disarmed at the same time.

A few of the deatheaters tried to apparate with painful results as all they received for their efforts was splitting headaches.

"You guys are pathetic." Harry said as he waved a hand at the cobblestone walkway the deatheaters stood on and said "Liquidus." The group immediately splashed into the walkway which had become the consistency of water. Harry waved his hand again saying "Firmus" turning the street solid again over the deatheaters' heads, leaving no trace of Voldemort's followers in Diagon Alley.

Harry turned back to his friends and saw that a small crowd had gathered behind them, obviously having watched the encounter. Ron whispered, "You better say something before the Daily Prophet renames you the Boy-who-killed in an evening edition, mate."

Harry walked up and stood in front of the crowd. "Everyone, let me start off by saying that I'm not happy about what I did here today. At the same time, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if the deatheaters had succeeded in killing even one innocent person here today and knowing that I could have stopped it." A few people in the crowd nodded.

"I couldn't live with myself if even one of the deatheaters had escaped to take lives some other day when I'm not around, knowing that I had a chance to stop them here and now. I'm going to stop Voldemort and his followers and I hope that each and every one of you is there on that day so that I can buy you a drink and celebrate." Harry finished.

From the back of the crowd, several people started clapping, which quickly spread to the rest of the group assembled at Diagon Alley. An older witch broke away from the mass of people and started walking to the section of the road that now had ten deatheaters buried beneath it. The crowd grew silent as they watched the lone witch approach, her sobs audible to everyone present. She paused and wept at the spot for a moment before straightening herself up and unceremoniously spitting on the ground with a sneer before walking out of the alley and into the Leaky Cauldron.

As Harry and his friends apparated away, they saw several more people walk up to spit on the unmarked grave of ten monsters.

Author's Notes:

This update took a bit longer than previous chapters because I really wasn't able to work over the long weekend.