Dimensionally Transcendental

The next few days were some of the best Harry had ever had on Private Drive, not that that meant all that much all things considered. He had cleaned up and painted the attic. He had also picked up some used furniture over at a yard sale on Magnolia Crescent. Old Mrs. Figg had been getting rid of quite a few old pieces of furniture and he had gotten some very good deals. Getting a bed into the attic would have been problematic and so Harry purchased a hammock that he setup in a corner. It was comfortable but took a while to get used to. Harry had also cut part of the left-over carpet in the attic to make himself an area rug. All in all he had a very nice loft going.

Harry split his time between his much reduced chores, reading his parents journals and learning magic from Silias.

With all this new freedom, Harry felt he would be well prepared for the start of term.

He had decided to write a thank-you note to those who had helped him making all this possible. Also, Hedwig appeared to be desperately bored as he had yet to send her out for a delivery.

Most of the letters were finally finished. Harry had used his quill since it would be easier to get supplies for that than for his pens once he arrived at Hogwarts. He spent a considerable amount of time on the letters for Hagrid and the headmaster since they had gone out of their way to help him.

"Hedwig, come down here girl."

The snowy owl floated down to land on the simple desk Harry had been sitting at. Guessing what her new master wanted, she stuck out her leg and waited for him to tie down the large package to it.

"Now girl, I don't know if this is a big delivery for you or not. Take as much time as you need to get this delivered. There's no need for you to rush back."

Harry felt a little silly talking to the owl like this but he was fairly certain she understood him. And really it was not much sillier than talking to the projected mental voice of an inanimate amulet.

"Go give Hagrid his letter first and then the headmaster. Then you can deliver the rest in whatever order you want. I don't know where any of these people live. Now that I think about it I don't even know where Hogwarts is. Actually, let me add a little note for the headmaster."

Hedwig hooted at him, nipped his finger in an affectionate way and flew out through one of the two small, round windows in the attic.

With Hedwig gone Harry decided to read through his schoolbooks to see what he would need to know. Picking at random he drew forth from his pile of schoolbooks ... Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger.

After a few minutes Harry let out a sigh of frustration. The book was boring, especially when compared to the amulet. The book was just so badly written which was rather sad considering that the subject itself was interesting. Deciding to procrastinate Harry decided it was finally time to open the other two sections of the multi lock chest. He had held back from opening it mainly due to lack of time everything had been happening so fast and he really needed to setup his new room.

"Let's see what secrets you hold."

Grabbing the middlemost key and twisting it found harry looking into a ... completely empty trunk.

"Well, that was rather disappointing."

Harry took his schoolbooks and various nicknacks and stored them in that section. After placing all his books, his cauldron, his potion kit, his school clothes Harry came to the realization that this section of the trunk was actually deeper than the physical dimension of the trunk, about half again as deep as one would think looking at the outside.

"What the ..."

Grabbing the amulet at his neck he willed Silias to tell him about magical storage.

'Well Master Potter, this topic is rather technically complicated but I think this might help you a bit.

Dimensionally transcendental:

Of course, the external dimensions don't bear very much resemblance to what's inside. The interior of the bag of holding occupies a separate set of dimensions to the exterior - so it's a lot bigger on the inside than the outside.

The exterior of the bag exists in the real world, but the interior exists in a relative world.'

This was followed by what would probably pass as simple instructions to Albus Dumbledore on what spells where used to create and control the extra dimensions. So of course Harry, seeing as he was not Albus Dumbledore, understood none of it.

There were also some vague warnings about the dangers of introducing an extra-dimensional space within another such space. In brief, it was recommended not to try it.

Coming out of his amulet induced trance Harry decided to take a look at the third section of the trunk.

Opening this section of the trunk revealed an even greater surprise. Instead of a trunk space this section had the appearance of a large cavern made of black, melted stone.

The trunk opened in the roof of the cavern and so Harry had no way of going in to explore. Pulling his head out of the trunk Harry ran to a box he had filled with interesting nicknacks he had found while cleaning the attic.

He took an old electric torch and ran quickly back to the trunk.

The light from the torch did little to illuminate the cavern. It looked as if the stone absorbed most of the light. But still he was able to get an idea of the caves dimensions. The irregular floor of the cavern appeared to be about twenty feet below and the walls could not be seen from Harry's current vantage point.

Harry was just itching to go explore it thinking of all the the things he could do with such a room. Now the only problem remaining was how to get in and out of the trunk.

"I could 'borrow' uncle Vernon's ladder. Now I really wish I had a broom."

Seeing as nothing could be done there and then Harry put it out of his mind for the time being and returned to his potions textbook.

A few more minutes found Harry re-reading the same sentence for the third time. Disgusted with the style of the book he threw it into his trunk forgetting that the current open compartment was the cavern compartment.

Just as the book landed into the trunk a dangerous looking eagle landed on Harry's bed, a large stack of papers attached to his leg.

"Well, I guess that's all the potions studying I'll be doing this summer."

'Are you perchance forgetting about me?'

'Sorry Silias.'

Harry turned his attention to the bird.

"And who might you be?" The eagle looked at Harry piercingly and jutted out it's leg at him

"Oh, I guess your from Gringots then." Taking the package, Harry gave the eagle a few owl treats and some water. It looked at him for a few seconds and then flew off out the open window.

Sitting at his desk Harry opened the large document. On top of the file was a letter addressed to him from Griffhack.

August 1, 1991

Mr. Harry James Potter

Room in the Attic
Number Four Private Drive
Little Winghing, Surrey

Dear Mr. Potter,

As per our conversation of the July 27th, 1991. Please find enclosed statements concerning your trust account. Unfortunately, as per the clauses involved around the Potter and Evans Vaults, we are legally unable to forward you a detailed account of these two vaults but we are at liberty to tell you that the amount in the Potter Vault is rather significant while the Evans Vault is more modest.

Following is a summary of the legal documents concerning your currently available vault that was set in trust for you by your parents at your birth.

As of the writing of this letter, your trust account sits at 78,264 Galleons, 16 sickles and 13 Knuts. Of course your Hogwarts admittance fee will be processed by the end of the month leaving you with a little over 75,722 Galleons or, as you have been muggle raised 378614.84 Pounds.

You have almost unrestricted access to these funds. The only restriction being that the account cannot fall below an amount equal to 3,000 Galleons (your Hogwarts fees for the year) plus another 1,000 Galleons for personal expenses and books times the number of years you have left for school. So as of the writing of this document, your account cannot fall below 28,000 Galleons. This should not be a problem since your account last year generated 5290.86 Galleons in interest after all applicable taxes and charges.

At the current growth rate of your account, I would recommend that you limit your spending to under 8000 Galleons (over and above the 3,000 for school and 1,000 for necessities) per year so that your account remains within it's restriction.

Again, if you have any questions or require any assistance please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

Cordially yours,
Griffhack
Gringotts Account Manager

Harry felt like he should sit down then realized he already was. He had seen the amount of money in his vault but had not understood what it actually represented. He currently had nearly half a million pounds of gold in his vault and his account manager had suggested he not waste more than 40,000 Pounds a year.

This, to a boy who had never had any pocket money whatsoever, was a little overwhelming.

Harry took the stack of papers, tied them up and hid them in the bottom his cave trunk compartment next to his potions book. The last thing he needed was for his Uncle to find out he had that much money.

He closed his trunk and opened the second compartment to take out another book and this time he found The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble. That book proved a good distraction from the news he had just received and held his attention well into the evening.