Chapter: Chapter Seven: The Vault
Author: King Harrison
Category: Action/Adventure
Sub-Category: Romance
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: SS/PS, CoS, PoA, GoF, OotP,
Summary: Wherein Harry is seeing red, rubies that is.
DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Author Notes: Chapter Seven is here! R&R!
"To Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived"Random Wizards in pubs all around the world, Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone
Chapter Seven: The Vaults
Harry couldn't believe his eyes. Inside was a beautifully decorated hallway. Along the hall were several doors.
San Sol stepped forward. "The fist floor of this vault, the Merlin/Gryffindor Vault, is precious metals and standalone Jewels. Come with me."
They followed him. Inside the first room were precious metals of all kinds in ingots, bars, and just plain chunks.
The next few rooms along the hallway held small emeralds, rubies, diamonds, and other precious gems. The last room before a grand staircase held large chunks of gems, the largest probably a twenty feet tall emerald.
Up the staircase they went, and they arrived in another ornately decorated hallway, this one circular.
In the several rooms, there were collections of beautiful jewelry. Making her blush, Harry had Hermione pick out several pieces of Jewelry.
She wouldn't take much, and just chose on set of platinum earrings, a matching necklace, and a matching ring. As absurd as it sounds, they were some of the cheapest items in the vaults.
The next floor was layered in bronze. It was totally filled with Knuts. Knuts were everywhere, and their amount was incalculable.
The fourth floor held Sickles, and the fifth held Galleons.
Upon entering the sixth floor, Hermione nearly fainted. The room was marginally larger than the lower floors (Harry supposed it was due to several enlargement charms). The entire room was criss-crossed with thirty-foot high bookshelves. Almost every shelf was full.
There was a large table in the center of the room, and at every seat was what looked like a computer.
At Hermione's questioning look, San Sol answered her unspoken question. "This is goblin technology, infused with magical properties. Goblins, as you may already know, created computers several centuries before Muggles did. These stations help you to search among the books by things such as Genre, Type, Author, and Title. They are, as a muggle librarian would call them, 'Card Catalogs.
"When you select the title of a book, it will be summoned to the table, and you may banish it back with a simple banishing charm. It will go directly back to its proper place. If you bring more books here, they will be sorted out and entered into the catalogs.
"If you like, you may refrain from using the Catalogs and simply search for yourself. They are sorted by Genre, then Area of use."
San Sol then quickly led them to the end of the hall, where yet another staircase stood.
"Mr. Tornivol, is there any way to get here other than coming to Gringotts?" Harry asked him.
"Yes! I almost forgot!" San Sol took a small pouch out of his suit and handed it to Harry.
Inside were ten simple gold rings. "What are these for?"
"They are delayed Portkeys. They can repeatedly be used by whoever wears them to bring them to any of the vaults you own. You may also use them to transport you to the last place outside of Gringotts that you were in.
"You needn't worry about them being stolen, because they can only be used by you or by someone who's hand you personally put it on. They will not come off unless you take them off yourself, and they can be disguised as another ring or be made invisible."
Harry put one on his right pinky and made it invisible and then put one on Hermione's finger as well. "So you can come to this library whenever you want."
Hermione smiled, and then her ring also became invisible. San Sol motioned them toward the stairs. "Come."
The eighth floor was even larger than the Library.
One wall was totally covered with shields. The other three held weapons of different kinds, but most of them were swords.
In the center were tables laden down with weapons and suits of armor. But in the very center of the tables was another one. And upon it were two beautiful sets of white robes. One was obviously for a man and the other for a woman. On the tables directly surrounding it were exact copies of the robes, in different colors.
"Ah, yes, Mr. Dumbledore told sent a letter to us saying that we should have you both take these robes with you, saying he was sure that you, Mr. Potter, would allow Ms. Granger to use the women's robes. He also said that the two of you should each pick out several weapons. He said that they would call out to you, or some such rubbish."
And indeed some called out to them. Harry selected a long ruby-encrusted rapier with a ruby-encrusted sheath and an emerald encrusted sword and sheath exactly like the other set. Hermione chose a similar set, with sapphires, and one with diamonds.
San Sol snapped his long fingers, and two bags appeared in front of Harry and Hermione. "These will carry as much as you want to put in there and will not gain any weight.
Hermione's eyes widened. She ran back down the stairs and came back twenty minutes later. "What?" She asked defensively. "I wanted to get a couple of books to read without having to come back here."
"How many did you get?" Harry asked her.
"Twenty." She said. "You don't mind, do you?"
Harry laughed. "Of course not, Hermione. You will have a lot more use for those than I will!"
"Oh, but Harry, when I'm done with you, you'll be reading just as much as I do."
Harry looked at her warily, but they put the robes and weapons in the bags and went up the next flight of stairs.
The next floor was filled with tapestries and paintings. Harry noticed a tapestry named 'The Ancient and Most Noble House of Potter, Tujours Pours.'
Harry took it down and put it in his bag. As he did so, a voice spoke from one of the portraits.
"What say you, youngster?"
The portrait was of a man that looked like a taller, more muscled version of him with blue eyes and no glasses.
"Who are you?"
"Why I'm Godric Gryffindor, of course!"
Hermione gasped. "You're Godric Gryffindor? Oh, I've read so much about you! You're in Hogwarts, a History, of course, but you're also in the Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts, and you wrote one of our schoolbooks! You–"
Godric interrupted and said to Harry, "Let me guess, she's in Ravenclaw."
Harry smiled, and Hermione frowned. "Nope. She's a Gryffindor."
Gryffindor was flabbergasted. "WHAT! But–"
Before Gryffindor could continue, Harry shoved his picture in the bag.
Harry also took pictures of many other famous people.
"Mr. Potter, through here, please." San Sol stood at a door.
"Why?"
"When you asked if I could combine your vaults, I said that I could not. That was not entirely true. I could not combine rooms such as the one you are in, because they denote specifically to the family. There is a similar door in the library, but I did not feel that I needed to show it to you, since the Card Catalog could get books from any of the connected Vault rooms.
"I did, however combine the armories, jewel rooms, et cetera, but if you had looked very closely, you would have realized that the room was separated between families. If you would come through, please?"
Harry obliged, and found several other tapestries and pictures like those in the other room. After taking several, Harry followed San Sol back into the original Vault after declining seeing the pictures of the Blacks.
The next floor held dozens upon dozens of golden boxes, some short and some long. Harry found that they held wands and staffs.
Hermione opened a staff box, and the staff inside flew out and into her hand.
"Wha-?"
"I think it likes you, Hermione. Take it." When Hermione began to protest, Harry continued, "We need staffs anyway, for Tempus Olympus, remember."
"Oh, allright."
Hermione placed the graceful mahogany staff, topped with a sapphire owl, back in the golden box, and placed the box in her bag.
Harry walked through the boxes, looking inside them, until one flew into his hand like Hermione's had.
It was made of holly wood, just like his wand, and there were shimmering gold veins beginning at a pointed bottom end and swirling around the staff until they reached the ruby and gold Phoenix that topped the staff.
"I guess this one's mine, then." Harry quickly put it back in the box, and put the box in his bag.
They immediately ascended to the next floor. The floor had hundreds of trunks in it. Near the entrance were three separated from the rest.
Harry walked over to them. Two of them were identical, with nearly a dozen circles with pictures on them, except for the initials adorning them. One read JHP and the other read LEP.
Hermione walked over to him, and said, "Whose are these?"
Harry ran his fingers over the initials. "James Harrison Potter and Lily Evans Potter."
Hermione gasped. "Oh, my! And look at this one! HJP! That's you!"
On top of the third trunk was a piece of parchment. It was a note.
Dearest Harry, The note began, this trunk was meant for you to have when you entered Hogwarts, and since this hasn't been removed, James and I are dead, so I ask you to take your trunk, and our trunks as well. They contain some things I think you should have.
The trunks contain several different rooms, including a flat, a library (all of the books are still in the Vault, though), a quidditch pitch, a training hall, and a place to keep any animals you take with you (it is charmed to give the animal the proper food whenever the animal is in need of it). You will figure out the rest of the secrets within upon searching it.
We will love you always,
Your Mother
Brushing tears away from his eyes, not for the first time that day, Harry had Hermione help him place the trunks in his bag, and they walked up to the next floor.
Before they had quite reached it, however, San Sol stopped.
"Is there a problem?" Harry inquired.
"No. I just wanted to warn you that this is the top floor. Contained within are several magical creatures."
"Several?"
"You'll see."
In the chamber they entered were different landscapes, as if they were outside, and the ceiling had been charmed to look like the sky.
"The animals contained here are as follows: 7 Griffins, 1 Phoenixes, 5 Unicorns, 6 Kneazles, and 43 house-elves."
"HOUSE ELVES?!" Hermione yelled.
"Yes, house elves. If I am not mistaken, Lily Potter wanted to free them, but they begged her not to.
"Can you gather them here?"
"Yes." He pulled out a whistle. He blew on it, but it made no sound. Soon, however, all of the creatures were there.
Harry pulled out his trunk and put his thumb to a picture of a tree, and there was suddenly an open set of double doors in front of him. Harry ushered all of the animals through, and when he closed the door, the door once again became a trunk.
Harry then pushed a picture with a house, and another set of doors appeared. Harry then ushered the House Elves through, and then reverted the trunk back to normal and placed it in his bag.
Harry looked at San Sol. "So we're done?" San Sol nodded, and they left back to Diagon Alley.