Hermione dreamt of her sixth year at Hogwarts. The last year in which she Ron and Harry had all been friends. It all flashed before her eyes in an instant and yet it took an eternity. She watched in sadness as Ron talked to her about how he thought Harry was turning to the dark side. She berated him for ever thinking that Harry would turn dark. Ron argued that he had seen Harry practicing some 'dubious' spells in the room of requirements.

"Well what do you expect Ron? He has to defeat Voldemort. Do you think that he is going to accomplish that with a leg-locker curse?" She yelled shrilly at him.

"No. But there must be some other way. The dark arts corrupt people Hermione. I mean look at You-Know-Who." He yelled back.

"If you think for even a second that Harry would turn dark, You are a bigger fool than I thought Ronald Weasley!" She screamed at him.

She watched on as an observer while her past self and Ron's past self argued about Harry. Her past self finally slapped Ron and walked out of the room.

She awoke with a gasp. She remembered the vivid dream. The details had been so exact that is scared her. She thought back to that day of the argument. It had only been a month before Harry had been wrongfully convicted of murdering Hagrid. True, Harry had drawn into himself a loot that year but it was understandable. Sirius had just died and he had found out that he was destined to be the only one able to defeat Voldemort. But no matter how much any one insisted, she had refused to believe that Harry would turn dark. And she had been proven right.

She shivered as her head got colder, she realized that she had been asleep with her head on shoulder and now, the warmth was slowly ebbing away. She took a look at the alarm clock beside the bed and saw that it was only 3 a.m. She put her head back on his shoulder and relished in the warmth that it brought, and quickly fell asleep again.

Harry's eyes snapped open to the sound of tapping. He looked around to see what was making the noise but was stopped when he felt an unfamiliar weight on his chest. He looked to see Hermione who had half-climbed on top of him. He smiled and gently slid out from under her. He stood silent and listened intently to find out where the tapping was coming from. There was a loud hoot and Harry headed to the window. He pulled the curtains aside and at first he was dazzled by the bright sunlight that greeted him. He rapidly blinked a few times to get rid of the spots that were now dancing in front of his eyes to see 5 owls all jostling to get at the window.

He opened the window and they all swooped in. He relieved all of them of their letter and two of them took flight immediately, apparently not expecting a reply. He recognized two of the other owls. One was his own snowy white owl, Hedwig. He had been wondering where she was. She immediately recognized him as well and landed on his shoulder, nuzzling his neck with her soft, feathery head. He chuckled.

"I missed you too Hedwig." He told her.

The other owl was 'Weasley's', as he now referred to him, Pig. He picked the owl up and chucked it out the window. It flew off with a disgruntled hoot. He glared back at the letter and stretched out a hand. The parchment caught fire and disintegrated into ashes. He opened the envelopes from the two owls that had already left. Out of one of them dropped three Gringotts keys.

Mr. Potter,

Please find enclosed your Gringotts key as per the request of Minister Weasley. Your vault has been reactivated and you may proceed with any withdrawals and deposits. You now have access to your family vault and as per the last will of Sirius Black, you now have access to the Black family vault. You are required to be present at Gringotts to personally take control of these vaults by no later than August 15.

Head Goblin Grak

Harry felt a stab of pain at the mention of Sirius' name but he bit it down. He placed the letter down along with the three keys. He wondered briefly about what the Potter family vault was. He had always thought that his own vault was where his parents money had been. Apparently not.

The next letter however, made his blood boil.

Dear Mr. Potter,

The Ministry of Magic would like to extend to you, an official apology for your wrongful imprisonment. As you may understand, those were, and still are, stressful times at the Ministry and as you know, You-Know-Who and his death eaters are still on the loose. As a result, people suspected of illegal dealings or activities were dealt with severely and harshly to deter others from following the same path. Your trial was an unfortunate series mistakes on our part and we hope that realize that you accept our most sincere apologies.

Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, Percy Weasley

'How dare he ask me to forgive them!' He thought. '6 years in Azkaban and they ask me to forgive them?' He thought to himself, wondering at the nerve of it all. 'Not happening in this lifetime. Or the next. Or ever for that matter'.

And as if that weren't enough, the next letter made it even worse.

Dear Harry,

I'm so sorr-

Harry stopped reading the letter entirely right there. Even after Azkaban, he would recognize that elegant, loopy script anywhere. It was the same script that had accompanied his father's invisibility cloak. Albus Fucking Dumbledore. He tossed the letter away vehemently.

Harry's temper by now was reaching exploding point and he tried everything in his power to hold it in. With the levels of raw magical power that his body now held, he would probably raze half of London to the ground if he lost control. A close-fitting yet violent, white aura formed around him. It slowly expanded outwards and Harry could feel himself struggling to keep it in check. With one final effort, he managed to make it dissipate.

He risked a quick look over to Hermione and saw that she was still sleeping soundly. He sighed in relief as he didn't wasn't to scare her out of her wits. The other prisoners had always become visibly terrified whenever the aura appeared and their shrill screams echoed loudly off the walls of the prison.

The aura had begun to pop up more frequently over the years. At first it used to pop up erratically at the most unexpected moment. Now, it appeared whenever he got furious at anything. It became harder each time to force it to dissipate.

With it accompanied a feeling that he couldn't describe. Everything felt simpler. He couldn't feel some of the things that burdened him now and every time, it took more of an effort on his part to force the aura away.

He yawned and as tired as he was, forced himself to go and make some food. In the kitchen, he pondered for a while, wondering what to make. In the end, he couldn't decide so instead, he just chose to make a little bit of everything. Bacon, eggs, toast, pancakes and an assortment of condiments were neatly laid out on the kitchen table. He waved a hand over the table and cast a heating charm on it so that it would stay heated while he went to wake up Hermione. When he walked into the bedroom, he had to stifle a laugh. The covers were on the ground and Hermione was curled up into a ball on the bed. He shook his head in amusement and grinned impishly. He quietly walked to her side of the bed, bent down over her and kissed her cheek.

"Time to wake up Hermione." He whispered. Her eyes opened slowly and she rubbed the heels of her hands into her eyes. When she took them away, she spotted Harry hovering over her with a smile on his face.

"Good morning Sleeping Beauty." He said cheerfully. She moaned a little and tried to roll away from him.

"Leave me alone Harry. It's far too early." She whined.

"Ahh but see if I did that, then you would miss out on the great breakfast that I prepared for us."

"You made breakfast? How long have you been up?" She asked.

"Yes I made breakfast. I've been up for a while. There were a few owls at the window and I let them in. Hedwig was with them but I have no idea how she knew I was here."

"Oh I kept Hedwig with me. Well it wasn't really my choice. Once you were gone, she wouldn't leave my side. Not that I minded of course. She is the smartest owl I have ever seen. That reminds me, I kept your things from your dorm. I couldn't keep your trunk here since I had nowhere to put it so I put it in my Gringotts vault. We can get that for you anytime. You mentioned something about breakfast right? Well let me take a shower and get dressed and then we can eat." She told him.

She was out of the shower quickly and her eyes went wide when she entered the kitchen at the amount of food that Harry had prepared.

"Harry, who is supposed to eat all this?" She asked him.

"Well you see what happened is, I couldn't decide what to make so I just decided to make a little bit of everything. As to who's going to eat it, I need to start looking less like a twig."

"You are a bit on the skinny side." She said fondly as she patted his stomach.

"Well let's get started then. I'm absolutely starved."

Breakfast was a pleasant affair. They discussed their plans for the day as they happily ate all of the food that Harry had prepared with Harry eating considerably more than Hermione who was astounded by the quantities of food that Harry was able to consume at one sitting. Harry found out from Hermione that the date was the 4th of August and they decided to get the Gringotts business out of the way and check out the 2 new vaults that Harry had access to now.

They quickly cleared up the dishes from breakfast and set them in the sink. Hermione got changed and transfigured Harry's clothes into jeans and a shirt. She berated herself for not thinking of it last night.

"I never thought I'd see the day that Hermione Granger became absentminded." He teased her.

"I'm not absentminded Harry. With all the excitement yesterday, I just forgot. There's a difference." She replied good-naturedly.

"Yeah, sure there is. Absolutely." He commented. This only earned him a slap on the arm.

Harry didn't have his apparating license as yet and Hermione had no floo connection since she didn't need it so they decided to take a taxi to Diagon Alley instead. As soon as they entered The Leaky Cauldron, Harry was bombarded by people asking all types of questions (Some that made Harry and Hermione blush quite profusely) and getting people shaking his hand. He silently cursed to himself and dragged Hermione off into a back room. He had her cast a few charms and now, he had short brown hair, brown eyes and his scar was gone. They hoped that it would be enough since Hermione didn't have that much experience altering face structure and didn't want to risk it in case something went wrong and they couldn't reverse it. Fortunately, once they made it onto Diagon Alley, no one recognized them. The first stop was Gringotts. They made it quickly to Gringotts without any hassle. It seemed that the threat of Voldemort was now firmly planted and people feared to travel to busy places like Diagon Alley and instead, did their shopping by mail order.

At Gringotts, they asked for a private room to discuss things. Once inside, Harry asked to speak to the head goblin and showed him the three keys. The goblin went off and a minute later, a different goblin came back.

"Yes Mr. Potter, what can we do for you?" The goblin said harshly as he walked in and sat behind the large table . It seemed that even when they were trying to be polite, goblins were callous sounding.

"I was just wondering if I might be able to incorporate all three vaults into one. It's just a hassle to have 3 different ones." He told the goblin.

"Of course. May I please have your keys?" He asked, still sounding severe.

Harry handed him the keys and the goblin left. He told them to stay until he returned. He was gone for almost twenty minutes before he returned. He handed Harry a golden key that was slightly larger than the others.

"Mr. Potter, the amount of possessions prevent us from using a standard vault so we are having everything moved to one of the larger, more high security vaults. Your new vault is number 9. In addition to your key, you will need to put your hand on the identifying stone so as to verify your magical signature. Do you wish to go down now?" He asked.

"Yes please." Harry replied. Harry and Hermione both got up and were led to a cart. It was longer than the trip Harry took to his own vault. It lasted nearly 10 minutes until they were in a very large cavern. The track for the cart was suspended in mid air and they couldn't see the ground, walls or ceiling. A large roar echoed loudly off of the unseen walls.

"Harry…" Hermione said meekly. She now had a death-grip on his arm.

Harry nodded his head. "I know. Dragons." He said back, knowing full well what she was thinking. They had all heard of the rumors that dragons guarded the high security vault. Harry in particular was reminded of the first task in the Triwizard Tournament where he had, had to get past a dragon.

The goblin that was with them spoke. "Yes indeed there are dragons that guard the high security vaults. 10 of the most vicious Hungarian Horntails. They were brought into these caverns as eggs and have never seen the outside world. They are now too large to ever leave." He commented to them.

Even though the cart was hurtling through the cavern at full speed, it took them 5 more minutes to get out of the cavern. They were once again in the same type of tunnel as before. They came to a screeching halt and the goblin stepped put of the cart first. They followed him and Harry handed him his key. The goblin opened the lock and stepped back.

"Place your hand on the flat stone." He told Harry.

Harry noticed a large flat piece on the door to the vault. He put his hand on it and felt a slight tingling. The large stone door opened and Harry and Hermione's jaws both dropped in astonishment.

They were in a large stone room the size of The Leaky Cauldron. It was at least 50 feet tall. At the back, the galleons, sickles and knuts were all placed in large containers, each one was a 5 foot cube made of some unrecognizable black substance. and filled to the brim. They were stacked side by side along the entire length of the vault and up to the very top. Most of them were filled with galleons. There was also one cube each for galleons, sickles and knuts, on the ground for easy access.

Once Harry and Hermione had picked there jaws up off the floor, they realized that there were other things in the vault besides money. There were several chests lined along one wall as well as bookshelves filled with dusty and old looking books.

"Excuse me?" Harry called out to the goblin. He came in and looked at Harry.

"Do you have any way that we might be able to take a stock of what we have here?" He asked.

"There should be a piece of parchment that lists everything in the vault." He looked around and walked to the wall. Harry and Hermione followed him. Stuck to it was a piece of parchment that was blank.

"To activate it, just ask it what you want to know." The goblin stated and left the vault again.

"How much money is there in this vault?" He asked it.

Stylish writing appeared on the parchment as if an invisible hand were writing across it.

52,610 Centuries

226,845,519,163 Galleons

172,639 Sickles

4,967 Knuts

Harry's jaw once again dropped to the ground as did Hermione's. Harry's face was quickly changed to one of confusion.

"Hermione, what's a century in monetary terms?" He asked.

"There are a hundred galleons to a century. There aren't any wizards that use them. Most have never even seen one." She said, still astonished. "Harry! You do realize that this makes you the richest person alive don't you!" She exclaimed more than asked.

Harry could only nod his head in wonder.

"What else is in this vault?" He asked the piece of parchment. The writing disappeared and other writing replaced it.

3 gem chests

2 personal chests belonging to Lily and James Potter

1 personal chest belonging to Sirius Black

An assorted selection…

Harry's mind had stopped working at the mention about his mother and father's chests. Maybe they had left him a letter? A thousand thoughts raced through his mind as he stared blankly at the parchment.

"Where are my mother and father's chests?" He asked frantically.

Two streams of red light shot out of the parchment and each one headed towards a chest. When they hit the chest, the chests began to glow a gentle red. Harry rushed over to the closest one and bent down onto his knees.

"Umm… Harry? Do you want me to wait outside?" Hermione asked tentatively.

Harry's head shot up as if he just realized that she was still there. The mask that he kept up at all times came crashing down and his eyes were filled with pain and sorrow. He shook his head.

"No. Don't go. I don't think I can do this alone." He said softly. She nodded and rushed to his side. She bent down beside him and hugged him for a brief moment and let him go but she laid her hand gently on his back.

He took a deep breath and reached out with shaking hands to open the latch. It clacked open and he seemed to hesitate. She noticed and rubbed her hand in small circles on his back. He looked up at her and she smiled at him. He looked back at the trunk and slowly lifted the lid up. The red glow had now disappeared from the chest. Laid on top of everything was a quidditch uniform in Gryffindor colors. He took it out and caressed the material in between his fingers before laying it aside.

He pulled out a large framed picture: it was of his mother, father and him as a baby. James was laying down on the couch with Lily in his arms and Harry in hers. He choked down a sob and looked away.

"I- I can't do this. Not yet. Can we please go?" He asked the last part to Hermione who nodded understandingly. They got up and Hermione cast a shrinking charm and made both trunks feather-light. She grabbed them up and handed them to Harry who put them in his pocket. They left the vault and made their way back up to the main Gringotts building. As they were heading out of Gringotts, there was a large booming sound and then, the screaming began.

Harry and Hermione both quickly rushed out, Harry's tear stricken face was now replaced by one of total concentration. Hermione had her wand out in front of her and Harry's hand was suspended in mid-air, ready to strike at a seconds notice.

People were rushing down Diagon Alley and heading towards Gringotts. Behind the masses, there were death eaters. At least 20 of them and they were all running havoc. Adults apparated away. The few adults with children ran to fireplaces to floo away. There were a few aurors interspersed in all the chaos but they were outnumbered. Almost instantaneously, Harry's hand lurched forward and a dazzling red ball of energy flew towards a group of death eaters. Several of them, dropped to the ground, stunned. The remaining ones all turned to face this new threat. Meanwhile, Hermione had dropped another 2. The death eaters looked momentarily shocked but began firing off curses at an alarming rate. Harry waved his hand and a large blue wall of semi-transparent energy appeared in front of him and Hermione. It blocked all of the regular curses and a few of the unforgivable curses. The ones who noticed this apparated away, not wanting to face someone who could block their favorite, so called, unblockable curse. There were very few left now and they were captured as aurors started arriving. An auror started walking over to Harry and Hermione as the shield had now dropped. Harry whispered into Hermione's ear.

"Hermione, apparate us out of here." He said, sounding urgent.

"Harry I cant do that. I don't have enough power to apparate us both out." She said.

"Reach into mine. Then extend the apparition field over us both." He replied even more urgently.

She was shocked that he knew about apparition fields and the fact that power could be shared. She pushed this to the back of her mind and grabbed his arm. She attempted to draw some of his power from him and nearly fell over with the shock of it. She felt like she was drowning in him. His power levels were well over 10 times that of hers. She quickly guided the power into apparating and with a large crackle of energy, she apparated both of them back to her house, leaving behind one stunned auror.

They both appeared in her living room. Hermione was still shocked at his power reserves and only faintly heard him say "ohhh" before he fell unconscious and dropped to the floor.