It is our choices that show what we truly are.

Disclaimers – They're not necessary. If I owned Harry Potter, I wouldn't be posting this on FF.N. Right, kids?

Super-Thanks to - Cherubic Sasami and Angelika, your reviews are quite helpful. They helped me clarify a couple of things. Angelika, especially; it's good to know the parts that stick out at the readers.

Chapter Three

When You Least Expect

Draco landed right behind Harry with a jolt that almost knocked both of them to the floor.

Draco pulled away quickly, stood up haughtily, and fixed his messy hair. Harry tried to do the same and failed. Draco sighed condescendingly and muttered, "It's called hair gel, Potter. I would think you would have learned about it, even living with Muggles."

Harry wanted to say something very rude, but Ron's parents were still standing quite close; instead he settled with smirking as if he knew something Draco didn't. Draco looked reasonably taken back. Harry decided his honour was appeased – for now.

"Come on, boys!" shouted Mrs. Weasley impatiently. She had Ginny by the hand, and Ginny was quickly trying to figure out how to get out of her mother's grasp without offending her. She was her mother's only girl, true, but surely fifteen was old enough to walk by herself!

Harry saw her struggling and came to her rescue. "Hey Ginny, come look at this… uh, owl." Mrs. Weasley was busy looking over lists of supplies, so Ginny was let go. She gave Harry a grateful look and scurried over to examine the pet shop with the four sixth-years.

Hermione and Ginny "aww"-ed over a basketful of some little furry purple things that kept making crackling sounds. Ron looked wistfully at the grand eagle owls, wishing that Pigwidgeon were big enough to carry a box. Harry seemed quite taken by a miniature lion that kept roaring sofly at him and licking its lips. Draco was staring longingly at an emerald-green, shining baby dragon.

Harry laughed. "You know, Malfoy," (here Draco glared at him warningly), "er, Draco, that's still against the school rules. Do you remember our first year, when you got Hagrid in trouble for having a dragon?"

"I wasn't going to buy it, Potter," (Harry glared but Draco ignored him), "I have more respect for the school rules than you do."

Harry opened his mouth to argue the point but was interrupted by a loud explosion and a couple of high-pitched screams. He whirled around to see Ginny and Hermione looking abashed.

"Furball blew up," they explained at the same time.

They turned as they heard the door of the pet shop open. Mrs. Weasley stuck her head in and said, "Come on, it's time to get your school things." They could see Mr. Weasley and the twins across the street gazing longingly at everything in the window of the Quidditch shop.

The five filed out of the pet shop, and after Mrs. Weasley had retrieved the boys from the Quidditch shop (again), they all set off for Gringotts.

Gringotts Wizarding Bank was easily the biggest building in Diagon Alley, and the most intimidating. It was tall and leaning and made of white marble. Every time Harry saw it, he was reminded of his first visit there, when Hagrid had told him that a person would have to be mad to try to rob it. He couldn't imagine anyone being stupid enough to challenge the dragons that were supposedly guarding the vaults.

Every time Draco saw Gringotts, he was reminded of all the money his family had in there. He felt in his pocket for the two keys – one to his former father's account, one to his own trust fund. He wondered how much money was in there. It had to be a lot. It had better be a lot, or he was in trouble. He couldn't very well get a job while he was at school, could he?

The nine of them walked through the great wide doors of Gringotts into the large reception hall. Draco split off quietly to retrieve his money by himself, and heard behind him the rest of the group yelling things that sounded like "Bill!" and "What are you doing here?" and something about "cursed pyramids." Draco was intrigued by the last bit, but he could not be distracted – money was the prime objective here.

He went up to a gnarled little goblin sitting behind a great marble desk. "Draco Malfoy," said Draco. "I need to get into these two vaults." He laid his keys upon the desk.

The goblin looked at him crosswise. "Do you have permission to get into these two vaults, Mr. Malfoy?"

"I do," said Draco, relieved that lying was one of his few strengths. The goblin seemed to believe him, or at least to not care enough to investigate, and called over another to escort him down into the vaults.

"Griphook, lead young Mr. Malfoy" (Draco flinched; he was still sore about whether his last name was actually his) "down to vaults 298 and 563."

Draco followed the short goblin to a cart and they took off. He found it rather fun, and had to keep stern control over himself to keep from laughing in delight. If he had been more used to the Muggle world, Draco would have loved roller coasters.

When they reached vault 298, Draco's heart began to pound hard. What if Lucius had had the lock changed on the family vault? He put the key in and twisted it. The door didn't open.

Oh no. This was bad. Would this be considered trying to break into a vault? They sent people to Azkaban for this! Lucius would kill him.

"Turn the key the other way, sir," said the goblin dryly.

Draco blushed hard, hoping the dark would obscure his face, and opened the vault, feeling very relieved. Griphook turned and stood guard outside the door.

He was nearly blinded by the shine of all the gold, even in the dim underground. He had known the Malfoy family was rich, but he hadn't known just what all that gold looked like. It was stunning. He caught his breath and walked into the huge vault, pulling handfuls of golden Galleons out and stuffing them into his bag. The bag had been a Christmas gift. It was very nearly bottomless and could hold anything.

When he thought he had enough, he climbed out and shut the door again. He heard the lock click solidly and followed Griphook back into the cart. It set off again, going faster and faster. Draco grinned at the wind in his hair and the gold in his bag and the good day he was having. He'd never felt good in quite this wholesome way before.

They reached the vault containing Draco's trust fund quickly and he unlocked it. It, too, contained an astonishing amount of gold. Since he'd wanted to get into it mostly to see how much money he had, he took only a little bit of money and closed it again.

Griphook and Draco took off for the main floor of Gringotts again.

= = = = = = = = = = = =

Hermione saw Draco split off when they entered Gringotts, but she didn't mention it. "Good riddance," she thought. At least with Draco out of the way, they wouldn't have to see him smirking over their gold with his richer-than-thou attitude.

Hermione and Harry already had enough gold with them to buy their school things, so they and all the Weasley boys stayed up while Mrs. Weasley and Ginny went down to their vault. Harry hoped it was a lot fuller than usual, as Mr. Weasley had just received a raise at work. Harry always felt sorry for the Weasleys – they deserved so much more money than they always had, especially since they had seven children. The eldest, Bill, was here in Diagon Alley, having just delivered a load of gold from Egypt where he worked for Gringotts. Mr. Weasley and the twins were plying him with questions about the curses he'd seen on the pyramids.

Harry, Hermione and Ron played a game, tossing coins back and forth while they waited for everyone to regroup. The Gringotts employees – with the exception of Bill – glared at them for their blatant disrespect of money.

"Where's Draco?" Ron said suddenly. He narrowed his eyes and added, "Bet he's off robbing something."

"That's ridiculous," said Harry. "He'd never do something like that. In his own words, "that's servant stuff."

"That's servant stuff," chimed in Hermione at the same time, rolling her eyes. "He split as soon as we came in, I saw him. He's probably getting his own money."

Ron started turning red, thinking of all the Malfoys' money. "Bloody bastard doesn't really deserve it, he doesn't."

"Of course not," said Hermione. "That's the way things work. He who doesn't need it and won't appreciate it is most likely to have it."

"I'll bet his horrible father gives him seven times what he needs," said Harry. "He gets spoiled rotten."

Ron looked unsure. "I don't know, Harry, I think something odd is going on with him." He told them all about the letter that had arrived in the middle of the night.

"Weird," mused Hermione, dropping a coin. She retrieved it and said, "What do you think that meant, about the explanation?"

"I don't know." Harry and Ron couldn't think of any good reasons, or even any bad ones.

"That trust fund of his, though, that must be where he is now," Ron added. "I wonder what that was about his father closing it? Why would he take Draco's money away? Mr. Malfoy certainly has enough of his own. Even if he didn't, I think he could sell some of that 'good family name' he brags about," he said bitterly, thinking of how often Draco had made fun of the Weasley name.

"You know, I think Draco might've gotten kicked out of his house," said Harry. "I thought I'd laugh like crazy about that, but now I don't know if I should feel sorry for him or what. It's really not something I ever thought could happen. And he's not being as obnoxious as usual. Maybe he's learned a lesson."

"He has been rather less of a prat lately," said Hermione. "I just don't know what's going on."

"That's a new one," muttered Ron. "I guess his family finally got sick of him too. I thought they would have more patience, being horrible like him and all. They all hate people for stupid reasons. Stupid rich prat."

Hermione rolled her eyes at him. "Yes, isn't it disgusting, when people keep hating people without good reason?"

Ron missed her sarcasm. "Exactly!"

Harry saw Mrs. Weasley coming out of the vaults, with Ginny and Draco in tow. "Arthur!" she shouted excitedly, "Arthur!"

She pulled her husband into a corner and whispered fervently. Draco and Ginny joined Ron, Hermione and Harry. Draco looked shaky and confused, as if he'd just frightened himself, but he didn't seem willing to talk about it. Ginny was nearly leaping with excitement.

"It was fantastic! Mum opened the vault, and the bank must've made a mistake, don't tell them though, it was awesome, there was so much gold in there… we met Draco coming up, and he stopped, and Mum couldn't get the key to turn so Draco turned it, and when he stepped away from in front it glowed…"

Draco started looking faint, as though he were about to pass out.

"and we're rich, I swear!"

Ron, Harry and Hermione all looked confused. "But we can't keep it, it's not ours…" Ron said uncertainly.

"Of course you can, Weasley," said Draco. "The goblins said so. Possession is nine tenths of the law, you know. Just take it."

Hermione thought that Draco had more to do with this than he claimed. She also thought that he must have been hit upon the head pretty hard, or maybe he'd lost his memory like Professor Lockhart. She wouldn't complain, though; he was better this way. She just hoped he wasn't up to anything devious.

Draco added nastily, "You seem to need it," with a glance down at the hole in the knee of Ron's trousers.

"That's more like him," Hermione thought with bitter relief. She hoped he would say something else mean so she could kick him in the shin, but he quieted after that.

Harry stood silently off to the side, observing Draco's nervousness with curiosity. Ginny stood off observing Harry with interest, edging slowly toward him.

"Come on, children, let's shop," said Mrs. Weasley briskly as she herded them all out into Diagon Alley and handed out gold and school supply lists.

= = = = = = = = = = = =

Within two hours, they were all loaded down with bags of books (Hermione seemed very excited and everyone else very upset about the number of books they were supposed to have this year) and school supplies for Hermione, Ginny, Draco, Ron and Harry, and nice new robes for everyone, a fuzzy little violet phoenix pup for Ginny (it turned out the exploding didn't harm them; they were rather like kittens in all other respects), and a couple of bags nobody would let Harry look in. He suspected them to be birthday presents, but George and Fred kept insisting that they were bricks ("You know, because Percy is investigating them. He's afraid that all the inferior bricks are going to suddenly explode. Very important work, Percy does. Don't know how we'd manage without him.").

They fought their way down Diagon Alley laden with all their new things, went through the wall to the Leaky Cauldron and set all their purchases down on a couple of tables near the fireplace. They were planning to send everything back to the Burrow and then go out into London to celebrate Harry's birthday.

Mr. Weasley pulled out a little bag of Floo powder and tossed a bit into the fire, making it turn emerald-green and roar above his head. He yelled, "the Burrow!" and, grabbing hold of a couple of heavy bags, stepped in.

Fred and George began tossing their acquisitions after their father for him to catch and store in the corners until they got home to look through them. Presently Mr. Weasley came back through and joined them, now with much less to carry and kneading his shoulders. "All taken care of! Shall we go celebrate now?"

They all looked at each other and broke into grins.

"Well," said George, "what are we waiting for?"