Thank you, court and lovegoodpotter for being such patient betas.

I do not own harry potter

Chapter 11

They walked out of the back door of the Leaky Cauldron into an alley with a brick wall and not much else. Professor McGonagall walked up to the wall and tapped a few of the bricks, and the wall began to melt away before their eyes. Harriet was so amazed by the wall that at first she didn't see what was beyond the wall. With a gentle nudge from Professor McGonagall to go through she drew her attention from the wall and onto the streets beyond.

Harriet was flabbergasted she took her first step onto the cobbled street which had lots of twists and turns on it preventing Harriet from seeing all the way to the end. She really wished that she could turn her head all the way around and have as many eyes as Argus the Greek god who had eyes all over his body to take everything in.

There were shops that sold cauldrons, ones that sold owls, some with broomsticks, and places that had lots of jars that had all manners of things floating inside in different coloured liquids. There were robe shops, shops selling telescopes, book shops, and the wizard equivalent of stationary shops with quills and rolls of parchment. Shops with barrels outside of them filled with dragon dung and bats spleens. Shops that sold potions bottles and some that sold globes of the moon. There was an ice cream shop, and shops that sold strange and wonderful instruments that Harriet had no idea what they did or what they could possibly be used for. There were large shops, and small shops, busy shops and some that only had a few customers in them. Every kind of shop you could possibly wish for.

All the while Professor McGonagall was ushering Harriet and her parents along the street preventing them from stopping to look at things until they came to a large white building which was larger than all the other shops in the whole of Diagon Alley. It towered above them all. Above the door engrained into the marble was the word 'GRINGOTTS' which Harriet assumed was the name of the building.

"This is Gringotts the wizarding bank. Now I have your copy of the key for your vault Harriet and if your parents still want to pay for all of your school supplies then they can change the muggle money to wizard's money in here." Stated Professor McGonagall handing Harriet a small golden key. Harriet carefully attacked the little key to her key ring which held the key to the lock for her bike chain and her copy of the backdoor key for the house which her parents had given her in case of an emergency.

Then they all walked into the bank past a small figure with a pointy beard and a cleaver face. The creature also had very long fingers and feet and was wearing a scarlet and gold uniform. Upon reaching the creature it bowed to them through a set of bronze doors. Past the bronze doors was a pair of silver doors which had words engraved on them.

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 their turn,

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Theif, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

This Harriet thought was quite a cleaver poem and got the message through load and clear in her opinion. She knew that she didn't want to go and rob this bank anytime soon. Especially I the poem was telling the truth.

This time two of the creatures bowed them through the silver doors. On the other side of the silver doors the creatures were everywhere, about a hundred of them where sitting on high stools behind a long counter doing various different tasks and then there were more of them sowing people in and out of doors that were all around the large room. Not being able to hold her curiosity in any more Harriet finally turned to professor McGonagall.

"Professor McGonagall?" When the witch turned to face Harriet she continued. "I don't mean to sound rude, but what are these creatures?"

"These are goblins, very clever and proud. You would be crazy to steal from a place looked after by goblins, they don't have much patience for time wasters." Replied the professor, as she led them up to a goblin that had just seen to a couple.

Upon reaching the goblin she said, "Mr. and Mrs. Quadrelli would like to exchange muggle money for wizard's money." Then she took a step back and ushered Sarah and Jamie forward. Sarah took out her purse and took out some notes and handed them over to the goblin that looked at them then placed them under the counter and counted out a lot of gold coins, some silver ones and then some little bronze coins and placed them all in a little pouch. And handed it over to Sarah. Then they turned and left. Harriet was extremely surprised at how quick the whole process took.

Once outside professor McGonagall stopped and explained the coins to them. "The gold ones are called Galleons, the silver ones are Sickels and the bronze ones are called Knuts. There are seventeen Sickels to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickel."

"Why do they make them odd numbers why don't they make them round number to make them up like in muggle money, one hundred pence to a pound, then they just have different coins for different amounts like fifty pence coin is the same as fifty pennies or a tenner note is the same as ten pound coins?" asked Harriet.

"I can honestly tell you that I don't know it was the goblins that thought up the amounts. Right have you got your letter from Hogwarts you'll need it for the list of all of your school supplies." Harriet was a little surprised at the sudden change of topic but didn't say anything. Her mum was rummaging through her bag and pulled out the Hogwarts letter. Having a quick look at the list behind the letter Professor McGonagall made the decision of what should be bought first and they headed off to get Madam Malkin's for all occasions robes to get Harriet her school uniform.