Gringotts bank looked for all the world like it would certainly fall over. Paige was convinced that it was only held together by the sheer willpower of the workers and probably a fair bit of magic as well. She followed the group she was with into the building and entered the grand lobby, where squat beings with long, gnarled noses and hands stood behind tall counters made of pure, white marble. Their pointed ears stood out sharply from their heads and she couldn't help but feel that she was either dreaming or hallucinating.
Harry, noticing her wide-eyed rubbernecking, leaned in and whispered, "The workers here are goblins. They're the best protection available aside from hiring dragons." He snickered. "The vaults, wizard equivalent of bank accounts, are guarded by jinxes and hexes to prevent theft."
"Oh," she whispered back. Her shoulders relaxed somewhat and while waiting in line, turned to the page in the Encyclopedia on goblins. She quickly read up on them until Arthur tapped her shoulder, prompting her to look up into the almost-sneering face of a goblin with three clumps of grey-white hair.
"Name," the goblin asked her.
"Uh, my name's Agatha Paige Black, daughter of Adrianna and-" she said nervously.
"That will do," he said. "First year at Hogwarts?" She nodded. "Very well, Ms. Black, if you'd follow Turntail, she'll show you to the vault."
"Hope you haven't eaten much, or it's been mostly digested," Harry whispered.
"Or don't mind vicious rides," chuckled Hagrid in his deep, resonating rumble.
With a panicked look at both of them, she followed the goblin who impatiently gestured for her to follow. She did so, dry-swallowing to calm her nerves.
"In the cart," said Turntail in a high-pitched growl. Climbing aboard, her hands a flutter with her anxiety, Paige sat down in a seat and saw a handle that was bent horribly out of shape as though some poor soul had put a death-grip on the metal and been thrashed about. "Hold on to the handle." She obliged, hoping the tortured metal was sturdier than it looked. "If you can, I'd recommend putting that book away. It will likely fly out if not."
"Okay," she said, hastily putting it into the satchel she'd borrowed from Fred to hold her book while they were out. No sooner had she fastened the clasp and returned first one hand then the other to the handle did the cart take off, flying drastically down a steep hill. She suppressed a scream by clamping her lips together tightly, screaming through her nose instead, producing a significantly muffled sound that seemed to make Turntail chuckle.
"It'll level out here shortly, don't worry," her companion said patting her shoulder with a horribly knobbly hand with razor sharp nails.
Not trusting her mouth to keep the gorge rising in her throat, Paige nodded and briefly let go of the handle with one hand to give the thumbs-up sign.
"I'm surprised none of the adults decided to go with you to your vault. It's one of the deepest ones and easily the most intimidating," she heard Turntail say.
She swallowed again as the cart gradually slowed down just enough for her nerves to calm down. "R-really?" Turntail nodded. "They probably wanted to stick by Harry because he's the Boy Who Lived, which is something he couldn't even control, so..."
"True enough," Turntail said. The cart eventually slowed to a crawl then stopped. Helping a shaken Paige out of the cart, the goblin patted her hand and guided her over to a massive door with the number 733 over the top. "Have you a key?"
"K-key? No, I-I didn't know I needed one, I-"
"What's the thing on your book then?"
"Thing on my bo-what do you mean?" She pulled out the book and looked at it. There seemed to be a key in the design, but she hadn't thought of it as anything more than decorative.
Turntail tugged the book down until it was level with her shoulders, causing Paige to bend almost completely double. She reached in and plucked a medium sized golden key from the center of the book.
A note lay underneath it:
My dear little bookworm,
My hope is that the discovery that you're a witch doesn't scare you off of magic like I'm sure Vernon and Petunia will try to do. There is no shame in being a witch. I'm one too! This key will help you on your way, I am sure. -Mama
She blinked hard after reading the note and looked up as, with a groan, the doors split apart, revealing a fair bit of gold. Her jaw dropped.
"Since this is your first year at Hogwarts, I'd say you'll probably need about a thousand galleons, enough to cover robes, books, school supplies like quills, ink, parchment, and even your own pet, be it owl, cat, toad, spider, or otherwise," Turntail said looking at the list that had fallen out of Paige's bag. She grabbed a canvas sack and grabbed several fistfuls of galleons, large golden coins.
After another hectic ride to the surface, Paige rejoined the Weasleys, Harry, and Hagrid and they left Gringotts together. There was a new girl with them who had hair that seemed to have a mind of its own.
"Pleasure to meet you," she said stopping in front of Paige with her hand outstretched. They shook hands. "Paige, right? Harry's mentioned you before. He says you're quite patient, which could prove quite useful as some magic doesn't happen immediately."
"Nice to meet you too. And your name is...?" she said, feeling abhorrently stupid.
"Oh, I'm Hermione Granger, Ron and Harry's best friend. We went through a lot last year and this year promises to deliver not one dull moment," she said. She continued to talk quite animatedly and then they reached a topic that had been nagging Paige's mind since she noticed it. "Anyways, I'm sure Professor Lockheart will be a wonderful teacher. He's written almost all of the books on our list, so he must be a brilliant wizard." She paused, spying a sign, then gasped. "We can meet him!"
"Uh..." Paige said. She had a sinking feeling about this Lockheart character. The fact that he'd written all but one of the books on the school list gave the impression of a narcissistic jerkwad (a cruel nickname she'd picked up from some bullies at school) who had a stick so far up his ass (a term she'd overheard a teacher say about the principal when she had gotten detention for knocking over twenty rubbish bins at once, though she claimed innocence) that he was almost certainly a shish-kebab. "How about you guys go on ahead. I still have to get my stuff."
"I'll mosey on with you, then," Hagrid said. She felt a bit better, having someone from the group she kind of knew, at least about. As they walked around twenty minutes later with her books and a cauldron, a faint meowing was heard. Paige looked around and saw a pitiful sight: a calico kitten was hobbling down the street. She set down her stuff, except for her bag containing the Encyclopedia and rubbed her thumb over her fingers as though rubbing two coins together.
"Here, kitty-kitty-kitty," she cooed. The poor little thing made its way over to her before collapsing in a heap. She scooped it up and gave it a worried look.
"Cute li'l thing," Hagrid remarked.
"I know." Her heart went out to the poor thing, which had begun sniffing her face. One look into the gold eye and blue eye of the cat in her arms and she felt tears prick her eyes.
"If you'd like, I could take it to Hogwarts and take care of it till you get there," Hagrid offered bending over to look at the cat more closely. "Shouldn't need much more than food, water, maybe a bath, and some love."
"Are you sure it's no trouble? I wouldn't want to pass off anything as a burden for anyone else," she said.
"I'm positive. Now, we'd best be getting to finishing that school list of yours." Hagrid took to small cat from her arms and tucked it snugly inside a pocket. She bent down and gathered her belongings then headed for Ollivander's. A wiry old man peered out at them from behind a counter.
After being assessed, Ollivander presented her with a set of wand options. She closed her eyes as her head was towards the wand in the middle, and felt something pull her towards the wand to the far right. She opened her eyes and looked at it, picking it up. As she did, she felt a strong yet gentle wind wash over her. A sparkling line of light sprouted from the end of the wand and encircled her.
"Hm...Mahogany, eleven inches with dragon heartstring," said the aging wand maker. "Most fascinating." He gave her the price and she paid for it.
As they were leaving, she was knocked over by a man who looked to be in his mid-to-late twenties, possibly early thirties. Not even pausing his journey, even when Hagrid yelled "oi!" after him, Paige sent the dirtiest look after him. Shortly thereafter, a crowd of people ran screaming after him, all shouting "Gilderoy Lockheart! He's so brilliant! There he goes! Oh he's so handsome!"
"So that's my Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," she guessed as she gathered her books and such. "Harry mentioned something about Hogwarts being short a teacher because of something involving him and some guy named Baldy Martin."
"We prefer to call him You-Know-Who, or He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named," Hagrid said.