Harry Potter and the Old Magic

Chapter 3

An An, 15th June 2005

The cart ride was fast and efficient, Griphook steering and Lord Regalia seemed almost bored. Harry decided to risk it, and asked Griphook, "can we go any faster?" the speed ratcheted up several notches instantly, and Harry was thrown back in his seat, but a smile on all 3 faces.

They passed other family vaults, the Snape vault was number 90, and the Dumbledore vault was 82. Harry laughed when he saw it, the Malfoys at number 101! Lord Regalia seemed to understand, and explained, "The first 10 are supposed to have been by the founders, and the first by Merlin. The next 90 are the oldest pureblood families, and the Malfoys only have the hundred and first because a pureblood family gave it to them in a will. They have no blood linkage to that vault."

Harry smirked, filing away the information for future reference, and they got to the Sapphire vault, number 62. As expected, much of it was filled with weaponry, and emanated a huge magical aura that Harry felt drawn to somehow. He walked in, and found a stone pedestal, upon which was a ring. A large blue sapphire was set in a silver band, with yellow and pink diamonds around it. Harry picked it up, realizing it was actually the family ring, and slipped it on his middle finger. It fit perfectly and Harry was suddenly able to identify the exact enchantments on the weaponry.

One of the swords particularly interested him. It was dark green, but emanated a bright blue sheen, that bespoke a terrible vengeance on those it cut. Harry didn't know exactly what this vengeance was, but picked it up with its scabbard and walked out with it. He spotted a number of staves, but didn't bother with them yet. After all, he had one coming tailor made to himself.

Harry left the vault, only to be led by foot to the one two doors down to number 60, the Black family vault. Almost as expected, there were portraits around, all of Black family members. Harry paused to ask Regalia to have the dark objects moved to vault 713, now with the added security.

Harry hardly paused after that, ignoring comments from the portraits on how he didn't seem to be a Black at all, and instead proceeded to the end of the vault where he took the family ring for himself, slipping it on with the Sapphire ring. Almost as if knowing what was happening, the two rings merged seamlessly. The sapphire from the first ring remained, glittering even more, but the band was now onyx, with lines of iron on it.

The cart ride resumed, stopping again at vault 24. Harry was stunned; he'd heard before that he came from an old pureblood family, but he hadn't thought it was this far in! He stepped in, wondering what it was like. He imagined something cluttered but homey, furniture as mentioned in the records, perhaps something of gems.

He wasn't disappointed; indeed there was furniture, gems clustered in a large corner, and gold covered an entire side several times. Harry developed another twitch under his left eye, unsurprising as this vault was even larger than the other two. There were weapons too, not so many and not as magically powerful as the Sapphire family weapons. Harry walked to the back slowly, and found not the ring he expected, but a letter.

He picked up the letter, determined to read it later, and picked up the ring under it. He proceeded to look over the portraits, and found one of his parents. They were asleep at the moment, but Harry determined that he'd see it again as soon as he had somewhere proper to put it. He then made a few changes to his assets, "Lord Regalia, thank you for taking me to my vaults. There are several things I wish to have done, the first of which concerns an estate of mine.

"The Most Noble and Ancient House of Black, not quite as ancient it seems, is at number 12, Grimmauld place. It is currently occupied by people I do not wish to have there anymore. I want them evicted as soon as possible, and not a mention of my name. The second is that of money. I have various friends, and in accordance with my late godfather's wish of 'spreading the wealth', I want 3 vaults opened, in the names Ron Weasley, Remus Lupin, and Hermione Granger. Each vault is to have a sum of 20,000 Galleons, taken from any particular vault of mine, probably the Black vaults. Again, Albus is to have absolutely no access to them."

Lord Regalia nodded and gestured to Griphook, who went off to have the orders carried out. Harry then continued, "The last order of business is another vault I want to visit. I cannot tell you its actual name, but it is the first of 10 vaults, the second of 5 lines, last accessed about 300 years ago. Immediately please." Regalia blinked, astounded that anyone still knew about that vault.

He'd said the first ten were probably by the founders and Merlin. That was not true; as he himself knew, the 3rd through 10th vaults belonged to the founders' lines, though they were at present not accessible unless proved through a goblin prophesy, or something along those lines. The first two were by Merlin, and on different lines. The first was Merlin's own, and was vastly beyond even what Harry owned now. The second was also by Merlin, but contained not assets or weapons, or anything tangible. As far as he knew, it was a portal to another world, indeed last accessed 300 years ago by a witch named Mystique Fires, the unknown heir of the Sapphire estate. But if Harry knew about it then he was meant to use it.

He had to be sure though, "are you sure, Mr. Potter? There are ancient securities on that vault, and if you are not meant to open it, you will be stripped of your magic, your youth, and your strength." Harry was sure though, "I had a dream about it, a vision actually, which is how I know about it. If I'm not meant to, then the world's doomed."

Meanwhile, in an unpalatable, Fidel used house, Albus Dumbledore had just closed a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix. People were just leaving the kitchen, when a goblin dressed in the uniform of Gringgotts bank appeared in the entrance hall. The pop that accompanied his arrival drew the Order from the kitchen, and they arrived with their wands drawn to find the goblin smirking madly, "you realize that if I had arrived with the army or anything like that, this entire house would have been leveled already? You're slow, but that's not the point of my visit."

The goblin withdrew a piece of parchment from his suit, and began reading, "by order of the new Head of the Black Family, I hereby evict Albus Dumbledore, and his associates from the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black. Both he and his associates are to be gone by the following afternoon, when a goblin solicitor will check for any remaining presence, including house elves, which will be killed. Should any unwanted organisms remain, they are to be destroyed in manners most terrible. The only exceptions to this are the Weasley Children, Remus Lupin, and Hermione Granger."

The goblin duplicated the order with a flick of his long fingers, and put the original back in his suit. He tossed the duplicate to the stunned adults, and grinned before popping away, "I do hope you're gone before the check, these things can be so entertaining at times."

For the first in a long time, Albus Dumbledore was stumped. Nobody moved a muscle, all staring at the piece of parchment left by the goblin. The silence was broken, however, by Ginny Weasley. She walked down the stairs, wondering why there was no movement from the many adults, and picked up the parchment. There was suddenly movement from her parents, who rushed to get the order away from her, but they were too slow, and Ginny had finished it before her mother tripped over a loose stone, and was caught by Arthur.

She smirked at them, "well, you'd best be going then shouldn't you? I've read about goblin solicitors, and they are nothing to be sniffed at. I'll let Ron and the others know that we'll be staying here. I'm sure Hermione would love that; she'll get the chance to finish reading the Library this holidays!" and she ran off before any other movement occurred.

Albus was again stumped, "well, I guess the only thing we can do is to move out. Thank goodness Harry's still safe. Any other locations anyone can think of? Otherwise we'll just go to Hogwarts." The order moved off to pack up.

Hermione indeed went crazy, just not in the way Ginny had intended. She found Hermione in Ron's room, screaming in pleasure, which quickly turned to screaming in frustration and anger as Ginny's loud entrance caused both lovers to tumble to the floor. Ginny giggled, "Put some clothes on you two, I've big news which I need to send off with Pidgewigeon and Crookshanks. I'll be back in a few minutes!"

Ginny ran to Remus's room, he'd recently gone through a full moon and was still recovering. She burst in yelling excitedly, "THEY'RE GOING! They've been evicted Remus, a goblin came and told them to leave! Now it's just you, me, Ron, Hermione, the twins, Bill, and Charlie here! Isn't it great?" Remus woke slowly, he'd heard her running in, but her yell had startled him, and he was still processing what she'd said.

Seeing he wasn't quite following her explanation, she grabbed the duplicate eviction order from her robes and left it with him before sprinting back to Ron's room, "HERMIONE! You'll get to finish reading the library!" she suddenly stopped, seeing her mother in the room lecturing the two.

"No nonsense you two, you're to behave yourselves, and take care of Ginny. Remus can't be everywhere at once and is still with the Order. You're to write to us as much as possible, especially if you get to see anyone other than those you already know. Understood?" Hermione and Ron nodded and Ginny grinned at her mother knowingly.