Chapter 1: Gringotts

Already shocked from the surprises that had been revealed to him that day Harry was feeling even more stunned now that he had seen Diagon alley with its massive variety of largely unidentifiable (to Harry at least) objects in shop windows, being eaten, being worn or even flying.

He turned back round to yet another surprise, Hagrid had disappeared, how could someone so large just vanish.

Harry started to feel a bit concerned as he was now alone, in a world where he knew very little and where it seemed to him anything could be possible.

He decided to look around the street hoping to find some kind of information desk to ask for help. Before he had much time to look though he thought he saw a large figure manoeuvre their way into a magnificent building made of harsh bright white marble. In had the words Gringotts written in gold lettering above the entrance.

He hurried towards the building hoping desperately to catch up with Hagrid.

He hopped up the steps 2 at a time while still trying to blend in. He walked into the building and instead of more white marble like he was expecting, the insides were less hard on his eyes being a softer yellow with magnificent tapestries lining the walls.

The thing that hit him after the colour change were the humanoid creatures which were dotted around the room, some sitting behind tall desks and others disappearing and reappearing through large doors. They were all writing on thick paper, like old parchment, or counting gold coins as well as silver and bronze ones too.

Hagrid was talking to one of these creatures so Harry hurried over nervously, over only to realise that the man was not Hagrid. The creature called him Dolohov and then this large sinister man who was not Hagrid called the creature a goblin, that's what they are, goblins, Harry thought, happy to learn something new about this strange and daunting world he'd been introduced to.

Harry walked over to the scary goblin sitting behind the help desk and tried to catch its attention. The goblin looked up warily and as soon as it saw him it pulled itself upright.

'Good morning, Lord potter, what can I do for you.'

'Lord Potter?' Harry replied confused

'Yes, Lord Potter. We have been waiting for you. You are aware of your Heritage and the fact that you are a lord?'

Harry gave a confused shake of his head.

'Did you not know any of this?' Came the reply from the goblin with a hint of concern

'No, was I supposed to know this?' Harry said now even more confused.

'Where are your guardians?'

'Umm, they probably are at their house' Harry replied a bit shyly this time

'They let you come to Diagon alley on your own?' the goblin replied surprised

'They would probably prefer not to know where I am.'

'Hmmm, well anyway my name is Brenick and I will be helping you with what you require.'

'So where am I, what is this building for?' Was the inquisitive reply.

'While Gringotts main function is a bank it also provides other services such as legal help and blacksmithing'

'Can I open a bank account, although I don't have any money at the moment.' He decided he would get a job, thinking up a plan on the fly, and was quite excited about the possibility of it.

Harry had decided that he would not be going back to the Dursleys. He was delighted to have an opportunity to escape them. He was determined to go to Hogwarts despite the fact that his only source of information, apart from the letter and his train ticket, had seemingly disappeared and knew that he would need money to pay for the stuff he needed from the letter and to stay somewhere in the time before Hogwarts started.

Brenick looked at him a bit confused before saying 'Lord Potter you have already 3 vaults. 2 of which you can access currently and one which contains your inheritance.'

Harry was stunned, he had money, from his parents. It sounded like a dream.

'Would you like to visit your vault?'

'Definitely' came the ecstatic reply.

They walked through a pearl inlaid golden door to find a massive cavern with lots of side caves and tunnels attached.

Harry got into the cart wondering what he would find, would it just be piles of money or would it be treasure. He then hoped that wizards used pounds and pence or he would probably get confused.

He asked Brenick and had it explained to him that there were 3 different levels of currency in the wizard of world, knuts, sickles and galleons. 1 Knut is worth roughly 1p and 29 knuts are in a sickle so 29p, there are 17 sickles to a galleon which means a galleon is roughly £5.

They were coming up to Harry's vault and he was starting to get a bit nervous, what if they had the wrong person, he still wasn't sure Hagrid had meant him and maybe all the people in the pub had been mistaken.

'If you put your hand to the side of the vault, here, then it should open. This is your trust vault which contains twenty-five thousand galleons for your first 2 years at Hogwarts and then it will refill to that amount from your family vault.' Brenick said.

'You said should open, what happens if it doesn't?' Harry asked anxiously.

'Well the person who attempted to open the vault would be frozen and then shine brightly so they could be seen and then they would emit a sound that can only be heard by goblins and certain other magical creatures.'

Harry was even more nervous now, what if it didn't let him in and then he got stuck forever frozen.

He cautiously moved his hand up to the wall and placed it on. There was the sound of rock grinding as the door opened to reveal a pile of gold that was large enough he could bathe in it, if he wanted to.

Which according to Brenick was worth exactly 25000 galleons or £125,000.

He picked up a pile of about 60 thinking that he would need it to get his school stuff and then considered that he might want to stay at the pub and grabbed another 50 galleons.

They left the vault with Harry wondering what could be in his third vault if the other 2 had money.

Brenick could see that harry was slightly overawed by the concept of having any money let alone the large amount he did have so advised him to come back another day when he was more prepared and more together to see the other vault he could access. Harry was trusted Brenick so was inclined to agree with him. They made their way to the surface and harry said goodbye, promising to be back the next day.

Harry then made his way back to the only other place he knew in the alley, the leaky cauldron. He went inside and managed to get a room; it was 4 galleons a night so he would definitely need to go back to Gringotts to be able to afford to stay there until the end of the summer. Harry found the bed to be comfortable enough drifted of to sleep after a while still trying to absorb all that had happened to him that eventful day.