Harry Potter & The True Power

Chapter 10 : The Gringotts Visit Part 4

They were the eyes of a very powerful person. There was a hint of gold but by and large they were the same green eyes which were possibly his most prominent feature. Except for the scar. Thankfully, it was now lightening and if his mother's calculations were correct, it would be totally gone in a month or so. Then he suddenly remembered where he was. The guardian and the chamber. The golden light. And then blank.

He opened his eyes again and saw Ragnok looking at him almost apprehensively. Harry smiled. He thought that he must have passed out from the judgment by the guardian. Hence, he looked up expectantly at Ragnok. He got up. Incidentally, he did feel as if an entire herd of hippogriffs had just marched over him. He had expected to find himself with a scroll which would tell him his worthiness in the eyes of his ancestors. Instead, he found a metal sword on his chest and a whole roomful of important looking goblins looking at him as if he was on exhibition in the county zoo.

Outside in the Diagon Alley, nearly everything had been taken care of. Most of the people only had minor injuries and they were back. The market was back up & running. Though, a Gringotts spokesperson had come out and said that the situation they had just felt was a security drill they were having after installing some newer & better security systems. No one really believed them. However as soon as a further declaration was made that all businesses which had had any loss due to the previous event would be restituted to the full, all the grumblings of the businessmen in the market turned into glee. Most of them felt that goblins loved money and were always overcharging them. And this would be a chance to make one over them.

Ron, Hermione and Ginny had just reached the Twins WWW at that moment. Tonks had been with them. The shop was only filled with a few customers at the moment. The schools were not supposed to start for sometime. The students who wished for some pranks were now ordering them by mail-order. Just after the DOM fiasco, though everything had been silent, several parents were overly conscious of their children's safety. Just as the wave passed thru, several of the pranks which were on the shelves, just started and erupted all over the people inside. When the team from St.Mungo's came in, they found the twins with a melon for a face, Ginny had her hair turned into green and was dressed as a clown. Ron and Hermione had turned into a beautiful pair of love birds and at the moment, the looked anything but lovey-dovey. Tonks had turned into a very beautiful woman with platinum blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. They were all taken in for treatment to the hospital. The twins pranks were too powerful, it seemed.

Professor Dumbledore, was at the moment with several of the aurors going through helping anybody he could find. He looked at Gringotts and found that it was still fused as a rock. The one emissary they had sent had come out through a small hole which had appeared in the rock and then had fused back as soon as he went back. Before his going back, he had tried to speak with him but had been brushed aside. Dumbledore, with his manipulative nature had never been one of the respected people by the goblins.

Inside the huge conference room, as Harry sat up to see several goblins, he suddenly grew very self conscious. He had no idea why everybody had come here. More than that, he had no idea why the Gryffindor's sword had come to him. When he looked down, he had a sudden realization of the fact that he was floating in the air and he came to realize what had happened. His powers had manifested himself. He cursed himself. He didn't want anybody to know about them as yet. Then he saw what looked like a female goblin, walk down the room and came down to stand just in front of him.

She looked a bit different from others. She wore a black cloak with a small tiara. She looked someone worthy of respect.

Harry bent a bit, struck out his hand and calmly said, "Hello! I am Harry Potter. I would like to apologise for the fact that I am unaware of how you normally introduce yourselves. Kindly excuse me if my actions may have caused you any problems. I will try my best not to repeat the mistakes."

In all her lifetime, Queen Trastek had never interacted with any of the wizards. She had, however, heard her council speak in very derogatory terms. Yet this young wizard, whom the guardian had deemed worthy, spoke to her as her equals, not the usual way wizards treated other non-human magical races. She nodded.

"Hello Mr. Potter! I am Trastek. I am the reigning monarch of the goblin race." Hearing this Harry was totally flabbergasted. Never mind that he was standing in front of a queen, he was standing in front of a queen whose existence was certainly not known by many. He was certain that neither Hermione, nor professor Binns had ever spoken of any ruling monarchy of the goblins. The surprise openly showed on his face.

The queen smiled. She was sure that she would like this young wizard. He was so…Honest. It showed on his face. "Yes Mr. Potter. there are things there still, which wizards don't know of about goblins. All the goblins you see here are the members of goblin council. If you agree, we can introduce them to you later." The difference in semantics was not lost on Harry. The senior goblin council members were to be introduced to him and not the other way. He was certain it had nothing to do with his the-boy-who-lived status. There were other things in motion that he did not understand.

He nodded.

"I will now let our most senior council member Griphop, an acknowledged expert in the matter of the legend of the guardian take over." She stepped away as another imperial looking goblin came forward. He bowed to the queen and then stepped up to Harry, held out his hands and said, "Lord Potter." To say Harry was shocked would be an understatement.

Seeing Harry's amazement, they were all shocked. Griphop, seeing the amazement continued, "I see that you are surprised. I wonder why you are not aware of the same. Your family is a very old and brave one. Your relation to the guardian should be proof enough. Your ancestors have always been the protectors of the innocent. Over the large span of time, your family has been honored countless time. As far as anybody remembers, the Potter family has been the lords of the island of Gryph hills. Be as it may, I believe, I should now start the amazing legend of the Guardian. I think you will need to know the legend before we open the sacred book." Harry nodded and then sat at the offered chair at the end of the conference table, just opposite to the queen at the other far end.

As soon as everybody was seated, a huge image of Griphop appeared in the middle of the table. It was an enchanted image. Everybody who saw the image, felt as if it was speaking to him and the voice felt as if it was just coming from someone standing opposite to you. Griphops image started and the saga began.

"the legend of the guardian began approximately 25000 years ago. At that time earth was full of creatures which lived in a non-cohesive albeit natural environment. The human race as we know it did not exist. There were several species of humanoid people who lived but were very primal. They were no different than the other creatures which roamed around the habitat that is now known as earth.

Then, an event happened which has changed the whole evolution of mankind. A group of aliens who had fled their home planet somehow landed on earth. How they came or for what purpose, is yet unknown. What is known as that these people were the ones who brought the mankind on earth. The number of people who arrived here were a few. But they were the ones who were the vessels of magic. These people were so powerful that they did not require wands or any spells or any other help to do amazing things. They controlled all nature at their whim. They were nearly immortal. They had a bright white aura. They were the ones most culture remember as Gods."

This was obviously the preamble. But it was such a story and was recited with such a reverence, he was sure that the Goblins believed it to be true.

Griphop waited for a second, took a sip of a bluish liquid which had appeared in front of him and continued.

"the fact that we are from an alien culture has many proofs, if one looks and is ready to believe. All the life on earth has two sexes, male & female, so do we. But have you ever noticed that although in mankind, it is the females who are considered beautiful, in all the other species, it's the males. From a hen to a cock, a horse to a mare every where you look, it's the males who are considered beautiful. Females are not. Again, in all the creatures on earth, propagation of the species is a primal instinct. Nature has taken huge steps to make sure that the propagation of the species is free and numerous. Yet in only humans and wizards, the females have an obstruction which may hinder propagation. There are more examples for the same, but believe me, the human kind works in a totally different natural order because we were born from a different natural progression.

When we believe that we are from a different order of things, we find the natural progression of history quite logical. While here, the Gods, if we call them as such, came in and found nothing to pass their time. So they changed the already present humanoid species to fit their own use. They needed some entertainment. and the humans were it.

Over a period of time, the humans grew and developed. Soon, in a couple of thousand years, many of the Gods, got interested in humans and soon, a new species came out. It had some of the characteristics of these super humanoids. These half-breeds were the very first wizards. I believe you have heard of Hercules or Heracles as he was known." All Harry could do was bob his head up & down. He was repeatedly being astonished in the last 10 hours.

Taking a moment to recollect his thoughts, Griphop continued.

"the couple of first generations of these mixed bloods or merged species if we call them were very strong. However, as the true gods did not deem them worthy enough, they never married them. Hence over next few thousand years, the wizarding line grew as most of the wizarding line married into normal humans. The gods by then had begun to tire of this world. And slowly, they began to disappear. The last god to disappear was the king of all gods, Zeus.

This legend needs another separate story line to complete. Nearly three thousand years ago, the wizarding world was a very capricious place. Yet there was one person who would become a very famous wizard. Merlin. His birth was never seen. There are no records of his death. At that time, the whole world's economy was fueled by gold. Like the gods, wizards now were behaving in the same fashion towards the normal humans as the Gods had once behaved towards them. It was around here sometime the whole theory of pure bloods came into existence.

"But we were talking about gold. Yes" , Griphop stopped a bit, again ordering his thoughts. Harry at the moment felt like he was in a dream. Not unlike when he had first encountered the wizarding world.

Griphop continued "the wizard's power had weakened a lot by now. They no longer could control the elements. Yet, they wanted all the gold. The currency in the wizarding world was primarily gold and the more they had, the more they wanted. At that time, in the magical worlds, it was only the trolls who were strong enough to survive the gold mining. Wizards who had become far more than wasteful in their endeavors, had no physical endurance at all. However, their intelligence in the matters of self indulgence was not unjustly found. The trolls were difficult to contain. They are a fiercely independent race. Some genius came out with the idea that if the independent nature of the trolls could somehow be replaced with the temerity of the caristas(which were increasingly being called as house elves just to spite the high elves. They had nothing else in common except pointed years.), it could work out wonders for the finances of the wizarding kind. What they hadn't counted upon was that one of the strongest wizards of some time, Merlin would stand against such a proposal. The procedure, which has been lost since then, required that both the soul and body each of one troll and a caristas be merged thru a ritual. After each such ritual, a new species emerged, a Goblin"

Outside, in the Diagon Alley, just outside Gringotts, the greatest wizard of the present time was very near to loosing his control. It had been nearly one and half hours since Harry had entered the bank. Since then, there had been no news of him. After the latest magical eruption, he was even more worried. What if something had gone wrong with Harry during the last magical eruption. Tom was in a limbo. And nothing was known about it. Could he have found a new power or something? Limbo had often been described as a timeless space. Who knew what was going on. Both the times, the magical eruption had happened exactly where Harry had been. Harry was the prime weapon for the survival of the wizarding way of life. If something happened to Harry, no. he couldn't even to bear the consequences of such thought.

The door to Gringotts had opened. The business was going on as usual. There was a large horde of businessmen of the Diagon alley already filing in claims of damages. Instead of the usual lengthy delays that the goblins were hugely famous for, there was no haggling. The claims were being accepted and people were promised prompt payment after all the claims had been made. It was a very un-goblish way of doing business.

Dumbledore had been waiting for 10 minutes now. He had spoken with the goblin in charge. He had promised him to help him with the information he required in a couple of minutes. It had been far more than that. Despite several reminders, nobody had come up with any information on Harry. Dumbledore was getting pretty angry now and very near to loosing control. Dumbledore was about to get up, when he saw the manager in charge. He stood up looking fiercely at the manager.

The manager, Bandor, slowly looked at the aging wizard. The power was flowing off him in ripples. He had a very unpleasant task in front of him. He had to delay. The whereabouts of Mr. Potter were not to be divulged.

"Professor Dumbledore." He started politely. "Mr. Potter is at the moment in a conference. He has left instructions not to be disturbed. We can assure you he is safe." Professor Dumbledore on the other hand was not satisfied easily.

"I want to see Harry Potter standing here in front of me right this minute" all the veneer of politeness had disappeared. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he was afraid for Harry. But it was not really Harry Potter he was afraid for. He was more afraid for the-Boy-Who-Lived.

Bandor was a very proud goblin. Like all goblins, he had little respect for wizards and certainly very little for the man in front of him. After hearing the strong words of the wizard, several goblins and a few security goblins had appeared out of nowhere.

"Professor Dumbledore. You would be reminded well that all the Gringotts are goblin territory under the treaty of 1639. you have no right to threaten or coerce everyone. As a goblin I have informed you that though the person you ask for is here, he has asked not to be disturbed by anyone. As it is, by just informing you that the said person is here is a mark of our acceptance of your status as the head of Wizengamot. Otherwise, you have no standing in our eyes to be asking us anything which may be deemed proprietary by our customers. As it is, you are neither the parent nor the guardian or family. You could do better than to insult a goblin under our own bastion." Step by step, Bandor cut off Dumbledore from under his own feet.

Dumbledore was about to go off the handle when he felt a hand grip his arm firmly. As he turned, he saw it was none other than Alastor. He guided the elderly professor away from a volatile situation. Everybody breathed a sigh of relief. And a single person, of immense, glee. For not far off from where this whole episode had taken place, sat under a huge hat, our very own, Rita Sweeter.

Authors Notes:

Thank you every one for your continued support. Don't worry, I don't believe in an ultra super Harry anyway. Makes mockery of all the wizards who have toiled for so many years to come up to where they are. I hope this will be an original. But then I haven't read everything that has been written, still, I hope to try.

TY. Golden Thestral.