Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, and no more language lessons as people are beginning to believe me crazy. (A fact I would like to keep to myself for the time being) As I keep answering in different languages when spoken too, and while their reactions are quite funny, but I do not fancy having a vacation in s nice padded white room. Especially since, they just let me out…
Chapter 06: Gringotts
September 2nd, 1983
"Wotcher!" Exclaimed two pink haired, green-eyed Nymphadora Tonks as they made their way into the kitchen of Moony's Manor, since the Tonks household could not fit them all. Upon looking into the room, they saw their entire family, which now comprised of Ted & Andromeda Tonks, plus Mad-Eye Moody, who they felt were the parents of both of them. Remus J. Lupin, who now looked much younger than when they first re-met over a year ago and finally the most recent addition of Sirius Orion Black.
"I really wish you wouldn't do that, I can't tell who's who when you change into each other." A resigned Andromeda spoke, causing equally delighted grins to appear on both faces.
"That's why we do it!" They both answered at the same time.
"Harry is on the left and Nymphadora is on the right." Remus spoke from behind the Daily Prophet he was reading without bothering to look up from the paper.
"MOONY! That's not fair, you're sensing the werewolf within me to tell who I am, and that's cheating." Spoke the one on the left. Then after looking at each other and smirking, the Nymphadora on the right changed into a purple hair golden eyed Harry and started grumbling about werewolf senses being an unfair advantage. Looking up from behind his paper and seeing the two kids, Remus smirked at noticing they had reversed themselves and went back to the paper while hiding his chuckling by drinking from his tea.
Shortly after breakfast was done, Ted took the floo back to their house so he could drive to work while Andromeda apparated to work. Moody said something about spending the morning putting up proximity wards and many other 'nice surprises' for any unexpected visitors that might decide to come by. He then proceeded to leave the kitchen all the while muttering and bursting into laughter at random moments.
"I swear that man has gotten crazier since he trained me in the Auror Academy." Sirius spoke aloud causing the others to laugh as they had become used to Moody's strangeness. However, all knew Moody had reason to be after having fought in two wizard wars each with a different Dark Lord, plus a separate muggle war.
"So would you two like to head over to Diagon Alley today as I need to get a few things now that I'm once more a free man." Sirius asked them already knowing they would say yes.
"Yes! It's been ages since we've gone there, security and all that." The one Sirius thought to be Nym said. Before Sirius could ay anything they heard a resigned sigh from besides them as Remus put down his paper and looked at all three of them.
"Guess I'll have to go along to keep you three kids out of trouble. I know you two trouble makers can behave when you have too, I'm just worried about the trouble Padfoot here might cause." Remus spoke in a voice that implied that he was speaking to small children.
"Hey! I'll have you know that I've matured since we left Hogwarts, I no longer have the mind of a two and a half year old, and its three years old now." He finished with mock smugness.
Raising an eyebrow, Remus answer was, "Indeed? Are you potty trained already Padfoot? Can't have you going all over peoples legs to mark them as your territory…unless of course we see Snivellus, then you can go ahead and mark him all you want."
After leaving a note for the other incase they were not back yet. They apparated to Diagon Ally, or rather Remus and Sirius apparated after both Harry and Nym disappeared by 'poping' as they called it. It was a technique neither Moony nor Padfoot had known the two younger kids had. So on arriving gave them a brief warning/lecture to not do that again without warning, after which all four of them headed towards Gringotts bank, with a smiling Harry and Nym still looking like the other.
They had reached a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was a goblin. They walked up the white stone steps toward him. The goblin was around the same height of Harry and Nym. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, Harry noticed, very long fingers and feet. He bowed as they walked inside approaching a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:
Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn.
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.
As Harry read the words, he could feel the magic that they contained, but did not know what the spell did. A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors letting them into a vast marble hall. With at least a hundred more goblins who were all sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, and examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were so many doors here that when Harry tried he lost count of the number lead out the hall, as more goblins were showing people in and out of these making it hard for him to follow. Shaking his head at the thought of trying to count them again, he caught Nym doing the very same out of the corner of his eye. Harry smile at this glanced up as they neared a desk with a sign that proclaimed 'Withdrawals'. As they got close to the goblin behind the desk Sirius eyes grew cold and a sneer was plastered on his face and when they were in front of him Sirius spoke in a sneering voice, "I would like to make a withdrawal from the Black Family Vault as fast as possible."
The goblin looked up from the pile of coins he was weighting in front of him and upon seeing Sirius he shouted, "Gripfox, lead this group to the Black family vault." A small goblin came towards them and after bowing led them to a back door, where they got into a cart that was waiting above some rails and they started going down into the caverns.
After a few minutes into which a delighted Nym and Harry agreed that it was far better than muggle roller coasters.
A slightly green Remus questioned, "Can you go a bit slower?"
"One speed only," Answered the smirking goblin.
They finally arrived in front of a big Golden door emblazoned with the Black family crest, which consisted of a Thestral with spread wings over a purple background. Remus took this opportunity to withdraw a 'Honeydukes Best White Chocolate Bar' from his pocket and then commenced munching away on it in hopes to calm his nerves.
The goblin stepped forward and after sliding his finger through the center of the door, he stepped aside as Sirius stepped forward placing his hand on the door and he spoke. "I Sirius Orion Black, Head of the most Noble and Ancient House of Black Guardian of the most Honorable, and Powerful House of Potter, Guardian of the most Wise and Intelligent House of Ravenclaw, Guardian of the most Brave and Mystic House of Gryffindor, Guardian of the most Pure and Cunning House of Slytherin." Upon finishing, he felt a small prick on his hand, as golden glow surrounded him, as it faded the door opened releasing a lot of green smoke. All of them stood in shocked silence at Sirius words, including him.
"Sirius, since when are you the guardian of all those Houses?" Remus finally managed to choke out while still absentmindedly eating a second bar of chocolate he had pulled out of his pocket.
"I don't know, I knew they wanted me to be Harry's guardian if anything happened to them, but I didn't know they made me Guardian of the House of Potter." As he spoke tears formed in his eyes at the level of trust, his friend had given him to place him as the head of their family until he believed Harry to be ready to take over. "I guess," he continued, "that since they made me the Guardian of the House of Potter, it also made me automatically the Guardian of the Houses of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor which have been joined with House Potter as the only child of Rowena and Godric was a daughter that married into the Potter family and while she remained the Head of House Ravenclaw until her death her child took the position of Head of Potter and Gryffindor, but since there hasn't been a female Potter born since there has never been a Head of House Ravenclaw, only Guardians. As for House Slytherin, your guess is as good as mine since I have no idea." Sirius answered his friend while trying to figure out how he became the Guardian of House Slytherin.
The for shocked people made their way into the vault where they found mountains of galleons, sickles, and knuts. The walls were covered in weapons of all kinds and hundreds of trunks were placed around the room.
Sirius took out a small bag from his pocket and proceeded to fill it with somewhere close to two thousand galleons without it showing any signs of having been filled. He then proceeded to a stand near the entrance where three items stood; a book, and two small boxes, one rectangular the other square and smaller.
Sirius first opened the rectangular box and pulled out a wand exclaiming, "Ten and a half inches oak, with dragon heartstring core, sturdy, great for defense and the Dark Arts. This is my wand, I left it here when James and Lily went into hiding, I used a secondary wand which was later broken upon my imprisonment."
Next he opened the small square box and pulled out a silver ring with the Black seal on it.
"I, Sirius Orion Black, Do hereby claim the title as Head of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black as it's last name heir." With his words spoken a golden light once more surrounded Sirius and once it was gone the ring was in his right ring finger, bonded to the new head of its house.
Finally after the ring bonded Sirius picked up the book titled 'Blood Gifts of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black'. "This book is updated whenever a new gift enters the Black family line. We'll take it with us so we can see what gifts you have Nymphadora." Sirius said.
Looking around Sirius spotted another book titled 'The Complete Genealogy of the Black Line'. Going over to the book Sirius placed his hand on its cover and spoke, "I, Sirius Orion Black, Head of the most Noble and Ancient House of Black, do hereby bring back Andromeda Tonks nee Black back as a full member of the House of Black as well as any of her descendants. I also hereby expel Bellatrix Lestrange nee Black and all her offspring from the House of Black, Narcissa Malfoy nee Black and all her offspring from the House of Black, as I am Head of House Black, let my will be done."
After his words were spoken a soft silver glow surrounded Sirius and the book and a golden glow surrounded Nym for a few seconds as she was accepted into her rightful House.
"Gripfox, I want full financial statements of House Black, Potter, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Slytherin of the last five years. All withdrawals are to be suspended until my order. Now I would like to visit the Potter/Gryffindor/Ravenclaw vault." Sirius spoke in a serious tone of voice.
As they were leaving the vault Nym saw Remus pull out and start eating what was probably the sixth bar of chocolate since they'd gone down into the vaults.
After fifteen more minutes in the cart in which Remus almost passed out when they passed a pair of dragons, muttering about seeing things because of the dizziness, they finally arrived at a very tall golden door emblazoned with three crests. In the center stood a staff crossed with a sword while a snake encircled around them. A crown was between the staff and sword right on top of the snake head between both, behind stood a castle with the full moon above it.
On the left stood a golden gryffin in front of a red background with a sword in mouth. And on the right of the Potter crest stood an eagle on top of a staff with a blue-bronze background.
Sirius having come here before with James knew that the goblin could not touch this door so he stepped forward and placed his hand upon it.
"I, Sirius Orion Black, Head of the most Noble and Ancient House of Black, Guardian in name of House Potter, Guardian in name of House Gryffindor, Guardian in name of House Ravenclaw and Guardian in name of House Slytherin request entrance." With those words spoken the door glowed and opened allowing them entrance into the vault.
Upon entering their eyes fell on chests, weapons, ores, and piles of gold, silver and bronze coins. Without paying any attention to this Sirius went straight into a pedestal in the middle of the vault where two rectangular boxes stood along with a book. Upon opening one of the boxes he saw the three Guardian rings.
"I, Sirius Orion Black, Head of the most Noble and Ancient House of Black, do accept the position and honor of serving as the Guardian of the most Honorable and Powerful House of Potter, Guardian of the most Wise and Intelligent House of Ravenclaw, Guardian of the most Brave and Mystic House of Gryffindor. I accept the responsibility of raising the heir of these houses as if he were my own, to teach and protect him with my life and to pass on the title as Head of House when he is ready to take over. This I so swear." With those words the Guardian rings glowed white for Potter, red for Gryffindor and Blue for Ravenclaw and appeared in his right hand placed in his ring, index and middle finger respectively. At the same time the heir rings glowed with the same colors and appeared on the fingers of the person Sirius thought to be Nym.
Looking at them and realizing what was going on Sirius burst out in laughter.
"Nym," Spoke Harry while still looking like Nym, "we're going to have to find a way to make these rings invisible or we won't be able to pretend to be the other without everybody knowing who we are."
"Quite so, Ree, but look on the bright side, at least we won't forget which one we are anymore." Nym spoke while trying to figure out a way to hide the rings.
"You actually forgot which of you was which?" Sirius spoke in a completely flabbergasted voice and saw as both young kids blushed tomato red and Remus held back snickers having been present to a few of these occasions when they had had to turn into their animagus forms to be able to tell which was which.
"That's-" spoke the Harry.
"-not important.-" Nym continued.
"-Let's just-"
"-get out of-"
"-here." They both finished together to the laughter of Sirius as he picked up the book that had been besides the rings.
"Lets get to Slytherin's vault and see if we can figure out how I became it's guardian." With those words spoken all four once more got into the cart while Remus looked on the verge of killing the goblin and headed a few hundred feet to where Slytherin's vault was located.
Once more Sirius placed his hand on the door and spoke,
"I, Sirius Orion Black, Head of the most Noble and Ancient House of Black, Guardian of the most Honorable and Powerful House of Potter, Guardian of the most Wise and Intelligent House of Ravenclaw, Guardian of the most Brave and Mystic House of Gryffindor, Guardian in name of the most Pure and Cunning House of Slytherin do hereby claim entrance into this vault." When they entered they saw a vault roughly the size of the Black vault. They moved towards the center and Sirius picked up a small box which contained the Guardian ring and exclaimed,
"I, Sirius Orion Black, Head of the most Noble and Ancient House of Black, Guardian of the most Honorable and Powerful House of Potter, Guardian of the most Wise and Intelligent House of Ravenclaw, Guardian of the most Brave and Mystic House of Gryffindor, do accept the position and honor of serving as the Guardian of the most Pure and Cunning House of Slytherin. I accept the responsibility of raising the heir of these houses as if he were my own, to teach and protect him with my life and to pass on the title as Head of House when he is ready to take over. This I so swear."
With those words a green glow encompassed the ring and it was placed in his right pinky, while the heir ring went to Harry pinky, to the complete surprise of those present.
"Ree, if this keeps up I'm going to have to punish you for keeping so mane secrets from me." Nym said in a teasing voice towards the boy that was still looking like her usual body.
Without asking for an explanation Sirius took the book from the stand and placed it in a pocket and went searching for the bloodline's tapestry or book. After half an hour of searching Remus finally found the tapestry and was shocked at what he read. When they all looked at the tapestry they noticed that there appeared to be two generations of Squibs after which came Lily Potter and the last and only living member of the family Harry James Potter.
AN: thank you all for reading remember to review and I would like to thank yenom for his work as my beta reader. The review responses are found in a word document in the yahoo group found in my homepage link.