Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 45: The Ambrosius Family Vault

Lily's red hair flared with life as she bounced down the cobbled street in front of me. She navigated the throng of people in the busy main street of Diagon Alley with expertise, and every now and then, I had trouble keeping up with her. Every window and stall beckoned my eyes away, distracting me from following my friend. The very air of the filled street was heavy with the need for exploration, and thankfully that would be done soon enough.

School was done, and I was trying my best not to think about Hogwarts. The street starching before me was a welcomed distraction. Aside from St. Mungo's, the school was the only home I could remember having, and being out of its ancient grounds was nerve-wracking. Especially considering all that had happened in my last few days at Hogwarts.

I tried to keep my discussion with Sirius out of my mind. Hell, I refused to think about it on a normal basis. The last I saw him was in the corner of my eye in the Hogwarts Express. If he saw me, I didn't notice, but James waved at me with a sad, tight smile as he went after his friend. At the same time, Peter joined me and spent half the train ride with me. He said nothing of consequence, rambling over summer plans he wanted me to take part in, which I fully intend to do. At one point, Remus joined us as well. He arrived with Lily after they finished their last Prefect meeting.

It felt weird, once the two boys left for their other friends. If I hadn't fought with Sirius that wouldn't have happened. The four of them would have stuck me to them until it was time to go our separate ways at the train station. I shooed the thought out of my mind immediately and chose to concentrate on enjoying the fact that I passed my classes.

Most importantly of all, I passed Potions.

I don't know what Slughorn did to get me the passing score, but I was done with sixth-year Potions and had even been accepted to go on for seventh-year. I cried when I got my marks. As a present, Lily offered to take me to Diagon Alley. And at that moment, she became my favorite friend.

"Where to first, Faraday?" Lily had asked as soon as we met up and her voice was music to my ears. The question had unlimited possibilities as I stared at the buildings and such in Diagon Alley. All I wanted to do was to go one by one into every store. But first I needed money to buy all that my heart desired.

Obviously.

At that, Lily led me to Gringotts Bank as I struggled to follow her. This was my very first time in Diagon Alley after my crash landing between Scribbulus Writing Instruments and Flourish Bolts. And that time, I had been very much unconscious to see anything. Therefore, I wanted to see everything. But that would have to wait until my pockets were heavy with whatever currency I found in my vault.

"Do you even have a key?" Lily asked me then, and I wondered why now of all times. She had stopped, motioning to the burnished bronzed doors of a white building we had reached.

I pulled around my robes, looking for the letter I had received the night before, while I stood with people bumping me around, ignoring the unkind eyes of a goblin that stood by the door wearing a gold and red uniform. Dumbledore had sent the key to my vault when I refused his self-invitation to take me to the bank. I'm sure all he wanted was to look in my vault and see whatever secrets Merlin had hidden in there since it hadn't been opened since the 5th century. But I wasn't about to let Dumbledore get his bony old fingers on my stuff, so I demanded my key, and he had no choice but to give it.

I had been delighted when I saw the key. Made of pure silver, it had a huge green jewel on its bow, that just screamed that it was mine and mine alone. It had an embellished 'A' engraved on it with swirls of vines and leaves. I found it very pretty and should the vault be empty I was going to sell the key to the highest bidder, no second thoughts.

"Here, I have it." I showed it to her to which she nodded. Lily motioned for me to go through the bronzed doors. As we went, the goblin bowed, and I saw another pair of doors behind him only these were silver.

There were words engraved, but I hadn't the time to read. My feet quicken as I went past a pair of goblins on the silver doors, they also bowed. All I could think of was my vault and how I desperately needed to know what was in it.

A marble hall stretched in front of us, filled with dozens of buzzing goblins going about whatever work was done in a bank. There were many doors leading out of the hall to the rest of the building, and many witches and wizards were being shown around by the goblins. So that had me thinking, that I should get myself a goblin to take me to my vault. Before I could think of finding a goblin to ask for assistance, one approached me.

"That key!" He spoke. I looked down and saw the goblin staring at my hand and the ornamented key I held. After a second, he looked up at me, with big dark eyes. "You are Faraday Ambrosius."

I didn't know how to feel about being recognized; this was really the first time it had happened. "Yes, and you are?"

"Odbert, Miss Ambrosius." He said, his little shoulders squaring. "Do you require assistance?"

I nodded.

Odbert said something about waiting for a second, and he scurried away.

"Faraday," Lily called, standing next to me, our shoulders touching. I side glanced at her as we watched Odbert talk to another goblin a little bit away. "How famous are you?"

I shook my head. "It's not that I'm famous, he just saw the key."

Lily put her hand up, and I took it as if she wanted me to give her my key. I put it on the palm of her hand and only did it because it was her. I'm sure I wouldn't give it away as willingly if it were someone else.

Turning my head to her, I watched as her vibrant green eyes examined the key, moving it around for it to catch the light at different angles. "The goblin that made this put a lot of effort on it."

I had read in schoolbooks about goblins and their mentality that all goblin-made artifacts belonged to their maker, and I knew she implied it. My gut was heavy, and I felt my jaw clenched as I spoke. "It is mine as it was Merlin's."

"Goblins don't think that way," She said, to which I shrugged as an answer. Odbert was coming back, and Lily handed me the key. "Don't say that in front of him."

Odbert led us toward the end of the hall, to another pair of doors, these one made of gold. They opened to reveal a narrow marble hallway that as we walked through it became of rough stone lit with flaming torches. At the end was a small cart, waiting for us to climb in.

Once in, the goblin turned to me. "The key, Miss Ambrosius."

I looked around, there was nothing beyond the cart, only darkness. "Are we at the vault already?" I asked and I felt stupid, but in my mind, I tried for it not to show on my face. I just didn't want to give it.

"No Miss. This is the only cart that can make it to your vault and only a handful of keys make it go. Yours being one."

It wasn't easy to hand him my key as it had been to Lily, but I did. There was no way to move forward if I didn't and at the moment my one desire was to get to my damned vault. The goblin's slim fingers grabbed at the key as I handed it, and it took a lot from me to just let it go. As soon as it was in his hand, mine itched, desiring its return.

I watched as Odbert turned a lock on the cart with my key, and the machinery sprung to life.

I grabbed at Lily's arm as the cart went forward, and I felt her chuckle. Odbert drove the thing, taking us through a maze of twisting passages as we went down and down caverns of secrets. The cart went to what seemed to me to be the deepest cavern of all. Sometimes, it picked up speeds that had me grabbing at Lily even more tightly, and more than once, I felt her do the same. Cold air bit against my face as we kept going and going.

"Lily," I tried to whisper over the sound of the cart. "Peter was saying that the goblins keep dragons down here. Do you think it's true?"

"Don't ask me that!" She said and though she seemed like trying to keep her cool, I know my question made her wonder.

But there were no dragons to be seen on this cart ride.

After what seemed like a long drive to the deepest coldest cave in Britain, the cart came to a stop. Odbert announced our arrival. My eyes went to my left, where we had come to a ledge in front of a door. I don't know what I expected, it was just a vault, but the intricate design of the door was interesting. It made me wonder if all vaults of the bank were embellished the same way. There were none around to compare it with.

I climbed off the cart after Lily and the goblin, coming to stare at the ornamented door that was my vault.

"What do you think is in there?" My friend asked.

My mind could have raced with the possibilities, but it didn't as I spoke immediately. "A lot of money I hope."

"Faraday!" Lily said. "There's more to life than money."

Her words sunk in, as I watched the goblin walked past us. I'm sure she was right. Lily mostly was about everything, but besides my wand and the secondhand robes I had been given when I started Hogwarts, I had nothing of my own. Sure, I hoped for a fortune, but even enough money to make it so I didn't have to depend on the grace of the Ministry of Magic would make me content.

My one true wish was that it wasn't empty. Even if it was just filled with Merlin's schoolbooks. I would be happy.

I could sell those.

Odbert, still hogging my key, unlocked the door. Ancient smoke came billowing out. As soon as it cleared I almost cried, tired of waiting. I clasped my hands together as I waited for no one to step into my vault. Odbert waved his hand, and light sprung from ancient torches.

The vault was half the size of my dorm room back at Slytherin House, but it was more crowded with furniture and treasure. The walls were lined with what at first glance were rows after rows of ancient books, tomes wrapped in colorfully decorated leather. Another corner was dedicated to what to me seemed like paintings, they were put against the wall on the floor. To another side of the vault strategically placed in storage and to not take much space were all the tools a wizard would need to maintain a workshop. Cauldrons, dozens of glass vials, scales of every material, and all kinds of interestingly odd-looking telescopes were placed on top of a couple of tables that had been pushed together. Just with a look in that direction, I knew I could find every sort of knickknack anyone would expect Merlin to possessed because all this belonged to him. Every item my eyes landed on was clearly as ancient as my ancestor would be should he be alive.

But I only had a couple of seconds looking at those before my eyes landed on my true fortune.

It was massive. On the very middle of the vault, surrounded by the stored items of Merlin's life was a mountain consisting of a combination of galleons, sickles, and knuts. My eyes watered at the sight of them, of the idea that finally, I could wear my own clothes and not settle for secondhand robes.

All I could see was the mountains of galleons, seas of sickles, and neat piles of knuts, and I went to it.

Lily had enchanted a purse I had brought with me. I had found it at the bottom of my trunk when I began packing to leave school, and I had completely forgotten it was one of those second-hand items I had got along with my robes. It was amusing that I was using that used thing for this now. When I showed it to Lily, she had the wonderful idea to charm it, and now it could carry a ton of weight without being a hindrance.

I kneeled next to the currency, noticing that Lily had also stepped into the vault. "Do you mind if I look around?" She asked, her eyes set on the wall lined with bookcases.

"Not at all," I told her.

I didn't watch her as she went, I had calculations to make. As much as I wanted to stuff the purse with money, that would be wasteful. I needed money in my life for shopping, but not that much. As of that moment, I was only a student, and I only needed enough galleons and sickles to last me through the summer and have me set for school. There was the thought that between then and September 1st, I could go to my vault as many times as I wanted, but I had never handled a lot of money before, so I had no idea how I would manage it.

Therefore, I settled my calculations to grabbing two handfuls of galleons, one of sickles and three of knuts. My thought was that it would be enough.

Lily had been more fascinated with a stack of ancient books pilled in a bookcase. I watched her move her hand over them from my spot on the floor. I looked around a bit. The goblin hadn't entered, he was standing by the door, eyes wide as he peaked in. The cordial thing would have been to invite Odbert in, but I didn't want to. One thing was having my friend looking around as she pleased, and the other was inviting a stranger in. A stranger would most likely divulge my secrets. Lily would never.

I stood, pleased with the amount I decided to take, and more interested now in what other thing of use I could find. I joined Lily as she browsed. "Anything interesting?"

"Oh, I'm sure some must be." She said to me, pulling a masterfully decorated book, with gold edges. She opened it, and although the book was several centuries old, the pages were still strong and crisp, although a bit colored. "I don't think any are in English, but they are beautiful. I wonder what they are about."

Peaking at the open book she held, I saw thick dark letters lining the pages from side to side and thought that it was English. An old English. I stared at it a bit, and though I couldn't read it, as I normally could read normal books from this century, I could understand what was written in the tome. "Looks like a glossary for herbs found exclusively at Brocéliande."

"Broce- what are you talking about?" I watched as she stared at the book, mulling it over. She raised her eyes to look at me, with an annoyed expression on her face. "Since when do you know old English?"

"Look Evans, I don't know half the things I know. The one thing that's clear is that I look at this and I can somewhat read it. And that's what it says."

She smirked at my answer, shaking her head. Closing the book, she turned to me. "When you said Broceliande, you meant Paimpont forest, right?"

Her mention of that place brought thoughts of a multitude of trees swaying in the night breeze, with its grown overgrown and overrun with all sorts of vegetation that hid magical secrets. But that was an image of the Forbidden Forest, the one forest I knew. "It's that what it called now?"

She nodded her head and said nothing else. In all honesty, there wasn't any real importance to speak of it.

Lily put the book back where she had pulled it out the shelved, moving away. I watched her go to what seemed like canvas stacked against a wall and brought my attention to the books. At some point I was sure I had to go one by one to figure out if they were useful to me. No way I was going to sell them now that I had mountains of galleons and sickles lying around waiting to be spent. But any of those books could benefit me one way or the other and it was best if I knew what I had. I skimmed them, my fingertips running against their torso, waiting for some sign or anything to choose.

I don't know where the hope for a sign came from, but nothing happened. So, I grabbed the first book I could reach and punched it into my purse. I did the same with five more books, thinking that it would be enough literature to read during the summer aside from my school material.

"Faraday,"

Lily called and I went to her, books forgotten at her beckon. She had been looking at the paintings that had been neatly stacked against the wall. One hand was holding to the frame of a canvas as she looked at the painting hidden behind it. The centuries-old layers of dust she disturbed lingered around her feet as it settled.

I stood next to her. "Found something interesting?"

"Yeah, it's you." The canvas, a meticulously painted portrait was sideways, but Lily didn't make any attempt to put it upright. I couldn't. My blood had chilled as soon as I made sense of the painting.

The portrait was much of the same style as the one at Hogwarts, and as ancient, I would think. Captured within the frame was a woman, older than me, but not by much. She had silver robes, beautiful and delicate looking as they clung to her body tenderly. A long, thick braid of dark hair framed one side of her face and dropped down to the bottom edge of the canvas, as she stood frozen in times in what I could only guess were the Middle Ages. Her expression was piercing, with striking ebony eyes.

And her face was mine.

But there was more to that. I had seen that lady before, the woman in the painting. Her eyes had side glanced at me as I passed mirrors in Hogwarts on nights Lady Moon reigned supreme. I had heard her voice and laugh, and felt her brunette hair brushed against my face. I sighed and resisted the urge to pass my hands over my face at the whole absurdity of the matter. My hands were covered in dust after all.

"It's Morgana, isn't it." Lily broke the silence and my thoughts. I was grateful for that. I was grateful Lily came with me. If I had discovered the painting on y own, I would have lost myself in it.

To that, I could only nod. I felt incapable of speaking. Hell, I didn't want to speak or think about what we were seeing.

"Not all of them move," Lily told me when a full moment had passed and the woman in the painting neither acknowledge our intrusion nor moved. I looked at my friend as she kept her eyes on the painting. "It's like a mirror of you."

A part of me had gotten the thought that I wanted to know what Lily thought of this weird situation, but I didn't enjoy her words.

"Well, make sense to me now why Merlin confuses me with her so much." I had seen her image before, on a chocolate frog card Graham Rowle had offered me when he saw me staring at it. But the woman I had seen in the card looked much different from the portrait in front of me. The card had an older-looking woman with her face showered in shadows, and I had seen no semblance between her and me in the past. That wasn't the case anymore. "Leave her there."

I didn't want to look at the painting anymore, and I didn't wait for Lily to move away. Going to the door of the vault, I turned to take one look inside. I saw as my friend delicately placed the canvas as she had found it, dusted her hands, and joined my survey. She took a deep breath before talking. "I didn't think you were this rich."

A part of me felt uncomfortable at her words, but this was my friend Lily, so I brushed it off. "Neither did I."

"Why do you wear those used robes when you've had all this lying around?" She said grabbing at the sleeve of the robes I was wearing, which were in fact second-hand. I watched her examine my faded clothes, and I don't think she had ever mentioned it before. She was always too kind for that.

"The Ministry wouldn't give me my key until I turned seventeen," I told her.

Lily thought of it. I watched her, and my heart began to beat faster when her expression changed. She didn't look at me, I don't know what she was looking at, but I suddenly got the impression that I angered her. "You turned 17? When?

My mind went to the multiple letters I had received from the Minister for Magic Harold Minchum in the last week. In his most recent letter, Minchum had gone into detail of how in the Department of Mysteries there is a roster that keeps record of all magical children and their trace. I had heard talk at school before on how the trace dissipated once a magical person reached 17 years of age. And according to Minchum, someone noticed that my name had disappeared from the roster before June began. "Minister said in May. He doesn't know the exact day, though."

There was a full moment of silence.

"You had your birthday and I'm only finding of it now?!" Lily's voice bounced off the walls of my vault, and when it came back it made me jump. I don't think I had ever heard Lily raise her voice like that. Maybe I had but exclusively directed at James.

"Lily!" I shrieked inwardly, but the name did come out as a desperate whisper. It wasn't the first time Lily had been stern with me, however, I hadn't done anything to warrant it this time. Nothing that I could justify. I had a great explanation. "I didn't know. They told me after they found out I don't have a trace anymore; I think that's what they said."

"Well, you should have written to me immediately." She was angry to the point she made no sense to me. I had only known for a week, and even if I told her immediately, nothing would have changed. The birthday already passed, and I didn't even know the day. "I'm sure you told Potter and his lot."

That deflated me a tad because it was partially true, and I felt bad. But I didn't tell her because I knew I was going to see her in person, and my intention was to do so while shopping in Diagon Alley.

"Just to Peter two days ago, I haven't spoken to James since school." I looked up and Lily had the question written on her face. "I wrote, but he hasn't answer."

"Why is Potter angry with you?"

"I don't think he is," I admitted. Last I saw of James Potter, he seemed more regretful than anything else. He hadn't talked to me since my conversation with Sirius and it maybe think that James keeping his distance from me had something to do with his best friend's anger toward me. "But Sirius must hate me now."

"Ah," Lily made as if to turn to the cart, where Odbert the goblin sat, his bony hands still hogging onto my key, yet she turned back to me. "What happened? Did you break up with him?"

"You know we are not dating," I told her exasperated with the whole thing, and all the things I had yet to tell her but wasn't ready to do so. Thankfully, she gave me a jesting smile. "Can we talk about this some other time? I don't want to sour this beautiful moment anymore." I said waving my arms toward my vault and pulling up my little purse that now jingled with currency.

She accepted my plea, but she didn't look happy. On her face stretched Gryffindor determination. "Let's get out of here, I'm buying you a present."

That elated me.