A second after Harry muttered this incantation, he came to the realisation that if it were a dream then he would be expelled.
This thought left his head as he saw the colour changing beam head towards the chair and change it into a snake. Unfortunately the snake was blue, as that was the colour the beam had changed into as it hit the chair. He'd change the code later to prevent this.
It looked as though the snake was about to strike, its fangs bared it began to leap at him.
"Stop!" He called, his voice hissing out in fright. The snake didn't stop though and Harry barely leapt out of the way. It seemed that the snake couldn't understand anything, it wasn't sentient. It just followed it's instincts. Side-stepping another leap from the hissing snake, Harry called out "Evanesco!" before it could sink it's teeth into him.
Unfortunately, Harry was too loud and had succeeded in waking The Living Walrus, known to some as Vernon Dursley.
"Boy, I will accept no freakishness in this house! That involves waking people up at 4 in the morning!" Vernon yelled, his face purpling instantly.
He charged forward, hands held out ready to throttle his skinny neck. Acting on instinct Harry raised his wand and yelled "Stupefy!"
A loud thumping sound and a small rattling of the floor was all that accompanied that phrase. Quickly deciding that he had no chance of being able to live here after that he began to pack, every 5 minutes restunning Vernon just in case. Luckily Dudley was at his mate's house and Petunia was visiting her mother in Hull.
Once again stunning Vernon just in case Harry closed his trunk and flew downstairs, as in the summer before 3rd year the trunk banging against the walls, new marks meeting the existing ones. Deciding to go into the kitchen and get something to eat for energy Harry lugged the trunk into the kitchen. Opening the fridge and taking out a large piece of cheese Harry began to scoff it down quickly, wanting to get away from this house as quickly as possible. Savouring the taste going through his mouth Harry decided that Dudley needed to suffer at least a little bit, and so with a quick "Evanesco!" the fridge disappeared, along with the food in it.
He charged down the street, knowing that he was going to flag the Knight Bus but couldn't do it in such a suspicious area. After all, though they couldn't see the Knight Bus, it would look suspicious if a person holds out a stick, steps onto nothing and disappears from sight wouldn't it?
Finding a place near Mrs Figgs house that would work well, Harry was just about to bring up his wand when he realised how cliché… uh… stupid the idea was. Stan and Ernie would surely sell out to whoever asked whether he had been on or not for a few galleons. The job couldn't be very well paying.
Well, Mrs Figg was a squib so she probably had a floo connection. Deciding that to get away he would have to break into her house, Harry walked up to the door and quietly whispered a silencing spell and a quiet "Alohamora", the door silently opening.
Harry shrunk his trunk and put a featherweight charm on it. He couldn't very well take it with him in that size in the floo.
Creeping over to the fireplace and sure enough spotting a pot of green powder on the mantle Harry incendioed the fire, threw the powder in and clearly called "Diagon Alley".
Arabella Figg, on the alert after her wards went off and also hearing someone creeping around downstairs, walked down stairs only to catch a brief glimpse of green, indicating someone leaving by floo.
The early morning sun barely managed to crawl through the windows in the dingy pub, casting a dimmed light onto the dark tables. Surely the English Wizarding World could have chosen a better place to put the barrier between magic and technology.
Stepping out into the just rising sun, Harry looked around the place which had always amazed him and showed how brilliant magic was. Though not nearly as bright, colourful and crowded as it normally was Diagon Alley still brought a happy and quite energetic feeling into him.
All shopkeepers were up bright and early, hoping to make as many galleons as possible, though a few of the more lazy ones were still closed. 5 AM does not bode well for some, but when one wants to make their living they must be up early.
Walking straight through the centre of the alley Harry looked up at the large marble feature of Diagon Alley that was Gringotts bank. As always there were at least a few people scuttling around, either in or out. The traditional goblin guards stood outside in their chain-mail armour. Nodding to him as he stepped up the steps and through the doors, he was sure that one of them gave a signal and said something into a sparkling object.
Deciding it didn't concern him, Harry went through the next set of doors, sidling up to the nearest empty teller booth. The goblin, as was standard for them, sneered at him.
"Name?" The goblin said, his voice dripping with disdain for not only him but for his whole race.
"Harry Potter" Harry said, not bothering to change the volume of his voice at all, if they ended up following him they were the idiotic stalkers.
"Key?" The goblin replied, his bored voice still laced with venom.
"Well, I was thinking I could get my own key, seeing as I was never actually given it. Could you possibly change the locks and give me the new key?" Harry stuttered, nervous because he was going out of standard protocol.
"It is possible, quite easily in fact, though I fail to see why Gringotts should acquiesce with this request just because you feel it necessary. We do not give for nothing Mr Potter." The goblin replied, clearly stating what he wanted in return.
"50 galleons?" Harry asked, angry at the fact that he had to pay to keep his vault out of everyone's hands.
A new goblin comes over, hearing what the goblin was saying and, raising his voice slightly, spoke to the teller he was bargaining with.
"Ilpank, don't you remember that the committee said that if you charged people for regular services again you would be sacked?" The goblin said, he seemed slightly familiar to Harry, though he didn't know how as all goblins seemed to look the same.
"No sir, please, I have a wife and kids! Well, that's not true. But I do have a pet manticore… Well, it's a tick from a manticore but it is still my pet. I need the money so that he can live!" The goblin yelled, drawing strange looks from the patrons and assuring that somewhere in tomorrow's Prophet there would be an article about the insanity of goblins.
The security goblins from outside came walking in, having heard the commotion. The goblin who Harry now recognised as Griphook snapped his fingers and pointed to the goblin clinging to his shin and bawling out his eyes, the tears slipping into the folds in his skin rather than dripping from his face. This gave Harry a rather strange image of the goblin wringing out his face at the end of the day to get rid of the tears.
Griphook seemed to be apologizing to him for the disrespectfulness of Ilpank, but Harry couldn't seem to get the image out of his head.
"Mr Potter?" The goblin enquired, his voice lacking the normal venom, replaced with simple curiosity.
"I'm sorry Griphook, spaced out for a whi…" Harry stopped at that, seeing the tears brimming in the eyes of Griphook.
"For such a high human to know my name even though the only time that he met me was many years ago." Griphook called, his voice a stony-voiced mixture of Dobby and Colin Creevey.
Couldn't he just get his locks changed, get some money and be on his way? Why did he need the emotional tellers?
A new goblin, more mature and his uniform obviously showing a much higher standing, came walking down the hall. His disgruntled face showed clearly what he thought of this service to customers, though Harry didn't realise that this particular goblin was annoyed because of the service to him specifically. This goblin was the manager of the Potter family.
He didn't particularly like the humans, the Potters no better than any others, maybe more polite, but their being rich brought his salary high and allowed his life in luxury. He wasn't about to let a goblin of inferior position be the cause of the Potter's gold moving to a different branch or worse, a different bank. Surely they were the most well known bank but there were many others run by a myriad of creatures.
Walking up to Griphook who is now drawing more attention than the goblin before him, Levdak, as that was this goblin's name, kicked Griphook in the face, his face calm if not annoyed.
Griphook, blood flowing freely from his nose, stood up quickly, tears coming out no longer in joy, but in anger and pain.
He rose, hands moving in a quick pattern, mouth struggling to chant through the blood freely flowing into it, though he still managed to do it. A beam of light, dark purple in colour, grew in Griphook's hands and as he released it Levdak jumped into the air, causing the beam to glide smoothly into what seemed to be a glass plate in the middle of his armour. The purple seemed to search for something before finally dissipating.
At this Griphook looked afraid, though it may have been the security goblins that were coming to arrest him, he would be beheaded in the morning.
"I'm sorry about all of this commotion Mr Potter. If you would please follow me to my office, we can sort out your business and some of the business I have with you. I assure you I am completely sane." Levdak added after seeing the scared look on Harry's face. Harry agreed and after a short walk just down the hallway they came to a simple door. There was a plaque on it that read
'Levdak
Potter Family Manager since:
1950'
It would be pointless to ask if this was true, as it obviously was, and so Harry said nothing as he was led into a lavishly decorated room, comfortable leather seats and a large mahogany desk.
The goblin, Levdak as he had now learned, sat behind the desk, motioning for Harry to sit in the posh chair in front of it.
He sat and watched as Levdak snapped his fingers, causing a pile of papers to appear before him.
"These are your withdrawals from your trust vault Mr Potter. I find it strange that the other people have been to withdraw more than you yourself have. If you aren't careful it will be gone in the next year." Levdak explained, sounding worried at the diminishing of Harry's trust vault, and his salary.
Shockingly, there was no amazement, no red-hot anger, but a cool, eerie calm that was actually scarier than a burning anger would have been. Quickly skimming through the documents, Harry concluded that they had indeed stolen as much as the goblin had said.
"I have not authorised any of these withdrawals apart from the one when I was eleven and once a year from then on for my school supplies. There was also the time in my 3rd year but that was barely 3 weeks. The rest I want to know who withdrew it, where it went and how the hell you managed to lose me my money. What security do you have around here?" Harry asked, his voice normal speed but of a quiet volume.
"Sir, we have good security. There is a truth spell around the whole of Gringotts, only affecting wizards of course. We had one of our most powerful goblins cast this ward and it is renewed every lunar cycle." The goblin said, a prepared speech that must be known by heart before any goblin joined Gringotts.
"How powerful is this goblin, an exact number in terms of magical strength?" Harry asked, an idea forming of how they had managed to get past the truth wards.
"He is an impressive 270 in magical strength." The goblin said, his voice unsure as to what this had to do with how he was being stolen from.
"And do you know what Dumbledore's power is?" Harry asked, preparing to deliver the reason to the paling goblin.
The goblin shook his head, scared, realising what the hole in their wards was.
"280!" Harry yelled.
As Dumbledore's power was higher than the goblin that had cast these wards, he could overpower them meaning that he could lie in Gringotts along with any person that he put a shield on.
"Now goblin, before I decide to relieve you of the job of being my family's account manager can you please tell me who has been stealing from my vault?" Harry whispered, the eerie calm coming to replace the sudden rage that had hit Harry.
"Fleur Delacoure, Albus Dumbledore, Rubeus Hagrid, Remus Lupin, Alastor Moody, Nymphadora Tonks, Arthur Weasley, Bill Weasley, Charlie Weasley, George Weasley, Ginevra Weasley and Molly Weasley." The goblin said, hoping that saying it faster would make him less angry.
"Do you have lawyers that I can hire here?" Harry asked, knowing that it wasn't the goblin's fault that Dumbledore was a crafty old bastard.
" No sir, but please allow us to pay all fees for any lawyer that you do use as a sincere apology for what has transpired over the past years. I am assuming that you wish to sue them all to get your money back?" The goblin offered, hoping that Mr Potter wouldn't leak what had happened to any more news source. The Quibbler would be okay but any mention of it may have disastrous results.
"Yes, I would like the best lawyer you can find. I want all of my money back and something to happen to all of them. If I don't get my money back then the Prophet may hear about what happened here today and over the years." Harry called as he began to walk out.
Suddenly remembering why he had come here in the first place Harry turned around and asked whether or not he was going to get his locks changed.
After Levdak assured that he was Harry turned and walked out.
He went down to his vaults, grabbed as much money as possible, even after taking a never-ending and weight-less bag.
He went outside where everyone seemed to have forgotten the commotion made before and were going about their shopping as normal.
Few noticed the Boy-Who-Lived and the few who did weren't swooning. It seemed that after the first few years of him being in public he wasn't as much a celebrity as before. They must have also hidden away the Department of Mysteries incident.
And so Harry went out, buying everything that he needed to start himself off fighting Voldemort. He didn't want to be out of his league and so started on the basic things. He picked up mail-order catalogues from each of the shops that had them.
He bought a watch from the knick-knack store whose name he didn't care to note, books from Flourish and Blotts, books from Whizzhard books and books from Obscurus books. In Obscurus books there was also an advertisement for duelling lessons, he signed himself up for those and went on his way.
He went into Knockturn alley and bought a pair of throwing knifes and books on rituals and wards.
There was only one stop that was of notice, and that was the wand shop. He needed a second wand and knew that Ollivander wouldn't get him one, he was hoping that he could get one from here.
A shopkeeper in the bookstore he had previously been to had pointed this place out to him.
He walked into the brightly coloured place. He was shocked, as it seemed very dingy from outside, most probably to blend into the rest of the shops and not draw attention.
Seeing a middle-aged man at a counter Harry walked up and asked if he would be able to get a second wand here.
"Of course you can. We make wands for the customer. We don't spout the crap old Ollivander does about the wand choosing the wizard. Nor do we measure unnecessarily. Just a power and property suit spell and we have all we need. Ollivander feels the need to go through his whole shop even though he normally knows exactly which wand to go to straight away. Well, then. Let's perform the power prediction spell. This spell will allow us to find the magical potential within you and find the appropriate core to suit it." The man said, his voice cheerful and excited that he would be able to serve a customer today.
"Imperium invenio quicum congruus" The man chanted, his own wand swishing quickly.
When he was finished a piece of parchment appeared in his hands. The man read it with bulging eyes.
"I'm afraid Sir that I can't make a wand for you." The man said, though he was still excited.
Harry, though disappointed, nodded and as he began to walk to the door heard the man speak again.
"It'll have to be a staff." He exclaimed, his voice brimming with happiness.
And so they ended up picking each of the specifics of Harry's new staff.
It was to be a staff made of white ash, 4' 9" and the cores were to be phoenix feather, dragon heartstring, magical hectapus ink and manticore spike.
It would take 3 weeks to complete.
And so this led to Harry shrinking each of his purchases, putting them into a bag, putting a featherweight charm on the bag and shrinking it.
Now Harry had to find out where to live.