Tom is the first one to come downstairs only to pause at the doorway to the kitchen, where Harry is crouched on the dining table clutching a fistful of flour, the white powder everywhere.
"Careful," Harry says, but doesn't sound particularly concerned. "It's possessing the invisibility cloak."
Tom says nothing for a long moment. "The Ancient One is possessing the invisibility cloak? The same Ancient One that kills by touch? And it's invisible right now?"
"I have everything under control," Harry reassures and his head snaps around at a slight shift in the air, throwing his handful of flour that sprinkles delicately over a floating cloak that billows in a non-existent breeze.
"Okay, now just walk around it," Harry explains, climbing off the table. "Until the flour wears off and we have to do this again."
Gellert pokes his head around Tom and blinks. "Ah. That looks...particularly life threatening."
"No more than usual," Harry admits.
Gellert glances at Tom. "We should bump up our appointment."
"Agreed," Tom confirms. "Harry, get your things, we're going to Diagon."
Harry looks at the cloak wafting vaguely sideways. "I feel it's more dangerous to not watch it?"
"It'll get bored and come to bother you later," Gellert points out.
"We haven't even had breakfast yet."
"We'll eat in the Alley."
"I'll wait out here," Harry tells the boys, as they come to a stop outside Gringotts.
"What did you do to the goblins, Harry?" Tom tsks.
"Why do you assume I'm always in the wrong?" Harry complains. "But anyway, I stole a dragon, so how about I wait out here-"
Gellert is laughing so hard he has to brace himself against Harry's side.
"It was for a good cause," Harry says earnestly. "And while it wasn't this bank in particular, I'd still like to avoid them."
After a good long while of Gellert laughing and Harry trying to justify himself to an exasperated Tom, the boys manage to convince Harry to come inside anyway because they want to show him how much money and artifacts they've collected plus arrange vault access in case he ever needs it.
"Harry Riddle," Tom introduces Harry as.
"Harry Grindelwald," Gellert corrects.
The goblin stares down at them, unamused.
Harry clears his throat and moves the boys aside. "Harry Corvidae."
"Sign here," the goblin deadpans and slaps a parchment and quill on the table.
Harry signs the name and then the ink turn bright red before it disappears. "Um."
"That's not your name," the goblin says, glancing over sharp, craggly nails, bored.
"I've changed it," Harry points out. "It's official documentation and everything."
"Still not your name."
Harry looks away and then looks back, stepping closer and lowering his voice. "Listen, my birth name is kind of an issue so I changed it and I was wondering if we could let it slide - like is there another way to sign this thing?"
The goblin stares at him.
Harry sighs. "My birth name is Hoe McFucker."
The goblin chokes on their own spit during a sharp inhale and coughs hard.
"Yeah," Harry hums. "Human names are weird, right? So..."
Another quill is slapped onto the desk.
"Thank you," Harry says sweetly.
Harry throws his arms up and screams like the manic cart ride is a rollercoaster. Gellert is clinging to the side, a wide grin on his face as his hair is blown back from the speed. Tom has his arms crossed, a deadpan expression because there are much more efficient ways to do this.
They stop by a lower down vault, not quite Bellatrix Black level but definitely something they paid extra to get. The two vaults are side by side and Gellert drags Harry over to his first, opening the large doors to a mountain of gold and another large room inside that holds items like rare books and ingredients.
"I have more money," Gellert says pointedly.
"I have better artifacts," Tom argues.
Harry cuts in quickly with a, "Boys, both your vaults are incredible and a testament to your intelligence and financial abilities." He pauses. "Are you saving up for something in particular or is this just earnings from your plans?"
Gellert shrugs. "Bit of both. I need a lot of money for purchasing land."
"I've bought out a trading company," Tom admits. "It's small with a focus on apothecaries but I'm hoping to build up."
Harry smiles because he can't help himself. "My boys, taking over the world so young."
They spend far too much time going through the Gringotts' vaults for the boys to collect some strange ritual items, and then waste the day away wandering and window shopping through Moment Alley, Anom Alley, Corpor Alley and Offici Alley.
(Harry restocks on snake treats even though Tom frowns at him.
"They can hunt for themselves, stop spoiling them," Tom complains.
Harry scoffs and also buys a cute chew toy for Mooney and new soft blanket for the Inferi kitten.)
They get back home after the sun has set and the boys insist on Harry going out into the expanded backyard and lying down in the ritual circle carved into the dirt with all the grass ripped up that they've been preparing for a few days now, clutching the tools from the vault they picked out.
"Is this where I die?" Harry jokes.
"Just lie down, it'll be fun," Gellert explains, popping open a vial and sprinkling some silver flakes at the north, east, west and south points.
Harry slowly sits down. "The fact that you're not explaining things is suspicious."
Tom cuts a small hole in the ground with the holly wand and drops down a thumbnail sized purple jewel as the power source. "We're…going flying."
The three of them lie down with Harry in the middle, staring up at the stars in a dark sky, and the ritual circle activates. The divots in the dirt under them burn purple with the power of the gem and the silver flakes coalesce, melting together and then stretching out into a shield around them, thin enough that it's invisible.
Harry feels his stomach drop and after he blinks the backyard seems to be a bit distorted like a cut out. Tom's eyes bleed royal purple and tendrils of the same deep colour trail across his face as he sinks into the magics.
The Earth falls away from their backs and the cloud pass them by as Tom leads them up. They pick up speed and the blackness slides past like water, slowing only when they come to the bright white face of the moon, close enough for them to see the detailed craters of deeper grey.
The planets shift sideways and slip away, the sun dimming at their side as space speeds past again, fast enough that the stars turn into streaks of light. An immense cloud of orange and red comes into focus with blinking lights inside the mass, all of it stretching up like grasping fingers, and they slow again to a gentle drift with an impossible landscape of space around them.
A shadow emerges in the cloud, edges writhing and they're suddenly flying past it all. Into darkness, circling spiral galaxies, watching light warp around a sinkhole of pitch-black, hovering just above massive rings of a planet where the orbiting rocks awaken and unfold into eel-like creatures that scatter at their approach.
Again, they head further out, finding broken planets cracking apart and massive swirling storms of red and black. Into sparkling lights of pink and blue and purple, slipping around branching explosions in green and grey, and twin stars dragging dozens of planets into a spin.
Harry stares out at it all and laughs.
It's his birthday today and the boys are promising him the universe.
.
A/N: Hubble space telescope pictures are incredible – go look it up.
btw I've started a new HP story that's James-centric in the Marauders Era but you still get exasperated Harry and political Voldemort. Come check out James Potter and the oh shit is that Voldemort.