August 4, 1996
In hindsight, maybe facing down an intimidating goblin - who just so happened to be armed to the teeth - alone wasn't the brightest idea Harry had ever had. Five goblins were lined up on either side of the ornate doors that led to the Gringotts interior. The door was bolted with the biggest lock Harry had ever seen, and on closer inspection, he saw that there was no keyhole, simply a vertical furrow in the metal that stretched the length of the lock face.
The goblin Harry was closest to waved him closer with one gnarled finger and Harry hesitantly took a few steps closer, not eager about being within slicing length of the wicked looking gladiolus that hung around the goblin's waist.
A thin black rod was suddenly being waved over Harry's body and he stood stock still, having no clue what was going on. He caught a glimpse of a stylized P decorating the head of the rod as it passed over his head once again. The goblin retreated from Harry's personal space, evidently happy with whatever results the rod had given.
The goblin's partner on the other side of the doors turned without being prompted and ran a finger down the furrow in the lock. A rumble sounded from somewhere within and the lock glowed, causing the doors to liquidize, becoming transparent. Every pulse of the lock sent ripples throughout the formerly solid construction.
Harry gazed at the blatant display of magic in awe. A sharp prod to his back had him stepping through the doors before he could get decapitated. Entering Gringotts was like suddenly being doused with a bucket of ice water; goosebumps sprang up along Harry's arms and refused to retreat even when he was fully through the doors. He turned back, only to be confronted by a sturdy, opaque wall mere inches from his nose.
Harry gave it up, knowing that trying to figure out how this feat had been achieved would raise more questions than answers.
He walked off, intent on getting to a teller's desk, only to immediately smack into an extremely tall wizard.
"Oh! Sorry, sir."
"Eh?" The wizard peered down at Harry and his eyes widened in recognition, flicking up to his scar and back down to his eyes. "Merlin's beard! Harry Potter! What an honor it is, dear boy. I saw the Prophet you know, how you fought You-Know-Who, really quite extraordinary…" The man seized Harry's hand and enthusiastically shook it, all the while loudly professing his admiration of Harry's prowess. The volume of his voice drew more attention to the pair, multiple shouts of excitement ringing out through the hall.
Harry peered around the wizard, heart sinking when he realized just how many people were standing in the lobby. Witches and wizards were packed in shoulder to shoulder, harried tellers doing their best to keep the lines moving.
"Er, sir, if you don't mind I really ought to get going, I've got to visit my vault." Harry finally extricated his hand from the man's grip, subtly shaking it out.
"Of course, of course, sorry about that. Take my spot if you'd like," Despite offering up his spot, Harry wasn't given much choice on whether or not to accept. "Stand right here, took me all morning to get this far. Too many people trying to stock up on gold nowadays."
Harry was yanked into the line, nearly missing hitting an elderly woman on the arm. The woman paid no attention to the near miss, telling Harry that he could take her spot as well. It was the least she could do for the Boy-Who-Lived after all.
Harry found himself being shunted through the line, giving out handshakes and accepting praise. He was fairly sure he'd kissed a baby at one point.
A minute later he was staring up at the teller, thankfully not armed as far as he could tell.
"Name?" The goblin croaked out.
"Harry Potter."
"What is your business here?"
"I'd like to speak with the Potter account manager, if possible."
The goblin grunted and leaned beneath his desk, pushing an item Harry assumed was a button.
"Right, Griphook'll be here momentarily, you can wait for him there," The goblin pointed to a cordoned off area behind the row of tellers' desks, "He'll help you out. Next!"
"Thank you," Harry said, bowing slightly toward the goblin. Harry strode toward the place where he'd been told to wait, missing the goblin's widened eyes and assessing look toward Harry's retreating back.
A few others were milling around the designated waiting area, none of whom bothered Harry. Harry was rather grateful for the reprieve and leaned against a nearby pillar, settling in for the wait.
It wasn't long before a smartly dressed goblin approached the waiting queue. "Mister Potter? Follow me if you would." Griphook performed a sharp pivot and walked back the way he came, without checking if Harry was following.
Harry scrambled to catch up, following Griphook through the labyrinthine halls of the Gringotts underground. He was taken through so many twists and turns that he began to despair of seeing sunlight ever again.
Griphook came to a halt outside a nondescript wooden door set into the wall. There was nothing remarkable about it, no identifying characteristics that set it apart. Just one among dozens of doors exactly like it. Harry was beginning to see why someone would have to be mad to try and rob Gringotts.
The door swung open at the touch of Griphook's hand and the duo stepped into an office that was just as spartan as the door. There was a desk, a filing cabinet, and three chairs arrayed around the desk. A rug lay under the ensemble and that was it.
Griphook gestured for Harry to take a seat in front of the desk, sitting down in his own chair behind it. Once Harry did so, he laced his fingers together and stared at Harry.
"Would you care to explain, Mr. Potter, why you have not responded to any of Gringotts' correspondence sent to you since you turned fifteen?" The interlaced fingers came apart but Harry was no less comfortable.
Harry was blindsided and extremely confused. His correspondence was few and far between, so he was sure that he would have remembered getting something from Gringotts. "I'm sorry? I've never received any letters from Gringotts."
Griphook scowled at that, or at least Harry took it to be a scowl, goblin facial expressions weren't particularly, well, expressive. "We have sent no less than thirteen missives, correctly addressed to you, requesting a meeting in your capacity as the Potter heir. Until you turned fifteen, your magical guardian had full control of your vaults. Now that you are fifteen, or sixteen now as the case may be, you have more control than your guardian."
"I never got anything about that! Who's my guardian?" Harry asked.
"Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore is listed as your official guardian in the magical world."
Harry ground his teeth together so hard, he was sure Griphook could hear it. Why did Dumbledore pop up everywhere? He had his fingers in a few hundred too many pies.
"How is that possible? I didn't even know he was my guardian," Harry was more than a little teed off at being kept in the dark once again, "And he's not related to me. Is that legal?"
The goblin shifted a bit in his chair, seemingly picking up on Harry's anger. "All Muggle-born children, and children without a previously assigned guardian, upon attendance at Hogwarts are placed under the guardianship of the current Headmaster."
Harry took this in. "Right. Wonderful. Could he be the reason I've not been getting my mail?"
The room fell silent as Griphook considered the question. He eventually shrugged and responded, "It's entirely possible. Gringotts has never tried to contact you directly, instead opting to send monthly statements of the Potter account to your guardian. We only began addressing correspondence to you on July 31, 1995. Unfortunately, we have no way of telling how he's doing it, or indeed if he is even the perpetrator."
"Of course there's not," Harry muttered. "What were the letters about?"
"Since you are old enough to officially take up the Potter Heirship, Gringotts wanted to inform you that you should come in to collect your Heir ring and go over the full contents of your vaults."
"Where do we start?"
"We start, Mr. Potter, with visiting the main vault of the Potter account. Your ring will be there, as will be a good number of Potter heirlooms, along with the rest of the money the Potter name holds."
"That sounds great and all, but I originally came here to see about getting some coins out of my trust vault, and maybe a bag with an undetectable extension charm?" Harry couldn't let himself forget about that bag, he needed the expanded storage space.
"We can certainly do that as well. Do you have the key to your trust vault?" Griphook asked.
Harry's mind blanked. The last time he'd seen the key… Hagrid had had it, then Mrs. Weasley had somehow gotten it for a shopping trip later on. He'd never held it personally, and he relayed this to the goblin.
"That complicates matters somewhat. Luckily, it's relatively simple to forge a new key. I'll just need a few drops of blood. It'll be painless, if you're actually Harry Potter that is." Griphook's mouth stretched into an approximation of a smile that had Harry wanting to retreat, to where he didn't know, but he wanted to retreat.
Griphook reached beneath his desk and opened a drawer, removing a cube of gold and a rather fancy-looking knife and placing them on the desk.
"The gold's already got the necessary enchantments on it, all it needs is your blood to activate it," Griphook explained, offering the knife to Harry hilt first. "Seven drops on any side."
Harry grasped the handle of the knife, admiring the realistic carving of a dragon in flight on the pommel. He nicked the tip of his index finger and gave up the requisite number of drops. As each red droplet hit the cube, it shimmered and was absorbed. Once the seventh drop hit the surface, the gold melted and reformed itself into a key.
Harry retracted his bloody finger and squeezed his thumb against the wound. The knife was given back to Griphook and in return, he was given the key to keep. Harry placed it in his pocket, making sure it wasn't the same one that contained his Cloak.
"That's yours, be sure you don't lose it. Any time a new key is created, any old ones become defunct unless you specify otherwise. Would you like-"
"No, no, that's really all right." Harry hastened to make his opinion known.
"As for the bag, I happen to have a mokeskin bag with the charm you specified, along with a featherlight charm." Griphook dug around in his drawer once more and retrieved a brown cinch bag with black cording running around the top. "If you like it, it's five Galleons, which can be given to me directly once we arrive at your vault."
"I'll take it."
"Excellent. There's one more matter of business before we can travel to your vaults. As our mail is apparently unable to get to you by owl, I'd like to offer you a correspondence box." Griphook produced a nicely lacquered wooden box with the Gringotts seal embossed on the lid and a smaller topaz gem embedded directly beneath. "Free of charge since the mail issue doesn't appear to be your fault," He added.
Harry's jaw nearly dropped to the ground. Free of charge? Since when did goblins do anything for free when there was money to be made?
"Er, sure, sounds useful." Harry truly did think this was a convenient solution.
"If you place parchment in the box and close the lid, it will travel to the corresponding box, which I have here," Griphook indicated another box on a table in the corner of his office, "And pressing the gem will shrink and unshrink the box. The seal on top will glow when you have new correspondence. Is that clear?"
"Crystal." Harry dryly replied.
"Very well. Let us be off."
Griphook stood up, rounding the desk and pushing his office door open. Harry went along with it, mind whirling with the ramifications of this visit that had turned into something so much more than he'd had planned.
What is it with people dumping a ton of information on me and then leaving? First Dumbledore, then Death, now Griphook. Fate's got a lot to answer for if I ever get ahold of her, Harry internally ranted as he blindly followed Griphook once more. Surely threatening a primordial deity would be good for his health.
Finally approaching an area of Gringotts Harry vaguely recognized, Griphook hailed a cart and Harry clambered on behind his guide. The cart took off with a shuddering jolt and the groaning of the metal would have made Harry fear for his life if not for the existence of magic. After a few hairpin turns, the cart settled and Harry relaxed, actually enjoying the ride. It was close to what he imagined a roller coaster would be like. He'd never actually been on one, the Dursleys had never taken him anywhere that had one.
"Vault 688," announced Griphook as the cart jerked to a stop. Harry was nearly thrown against the barrier separating the front and back seats, but caught himself just in time.
"That's the main Potter vault, yeah?" asked Harry.
"Correct."
Both passengers exited the cart and approached the door.
"Key please." Griphook held out his hand. Harry quickly located the key and gave it over. The key was inserted into the lock, this one with an actual keyhole, and the door slowly creaked open, revealing piles upon piles of clutter.
"It would seem whoever entered this vault last neglected to do a bit of cleaning up." Griphook sighed.
"How are we ever going to find the ring in this?" At this rate, Harry didn't think he'd be making it above-ground in time to dodge Hagrid.
"All the legal documents and rings are kept in a separate compartment within the family vault. It should be right around - yes!" Griphook withdrew his hand from a hole in the wall that had previously had a stone covering it. In his hand lay a nondescript ring, a simple golden band with the Potter crest stamped on a raised circle.
"That goes on your left index finger. It should resize to fit you if you are the true Heir." The ring was passed over to Harry, who put it on the indicated finger. The ring wouldn't go past his second knuckle until it widened ever so slightly, then Harry was able to get it snugly on the base of his finger.
"Is there a way I can hide this? I don't really want people finding out about this unless absolutely necessary," asked Harry.
"Hm? Yes, just will it to become invisible. Come along, you can fill up that bag of yours next door," said Griphook. Harry was summarily chivied out of the vault and the process was repeated at Vault 687. Griphook got his five Galleons and Harry stuffed the mokeskin bag full of coins.
One cart ride later, Harry found himself back in the Gringotts lobby. It was still as packed as it had been when he'd arrived, and he was positive he saw the wizard he'd bumped into earlier propped up against a pillar, snoring away.
"This is where we part ways. Goodbye, Mister Potter." Griphook turned back toward the tunnels, evidently thinking the conversation over.
"Thank you for your help today, Griphook." Harry called after the goblin. The only confirmation Harry got that his message had been heard was a slight hesitation in Griphook's stride.
Harry weaved his way in and out of the crowd, making his way toward the double doors on the other side of the hall. A guard saw him coming and triggered the opening mechanism on the doors when Harry was a metre away. Nodding his thanks to the guard, Harry stepped out into the fresh air, gratefully sucking in a deep breath.
Hagrid was sitting on the bottom step, fortunately facing away from the Gringotts doors. Harry sidled to the side, away from the guards but not fully in plain sight, and donned his Cloak. Walking around Diagon Alley invisible was a good sight harder than doing it in Hogsmeade as everything was closer together, but Harry eventually managed to make it to Madam Malkin's storefront. He figured that Ron and Hermione would be gone by now. He waited until a group of Hogwarts students were passing in front of him to remove the Cloak and slip inside.
Madam Malkin made short work of his requests and Harry left the proud owner of what amounted to an entirely new wardrobe. The only other place he had to visit under the Cloak was Slug and Jiggers, as no one yet knew that he was continuing with Potions.
Harry's subterfuge was successful yet again at the apothecary and his pockets were remarkably heavier when he exited the pungent store. He returned to the first place he'd slipped his Cloak on and removed it for good, stuffing it unceremoniously back into its assigned pocket and descending the steps again.
"Harry! There yeh are, I was beginnin' to worry. Got everythin' yeh need?" Hagrid exclaimed when he caught sight of Harry.
"Yeah, but the lines are a nightmare in there." Harry remarked.
"Aye, that they are. Let's join the others, got a lot to get done!" Harry walked a step behind Hagrid, enjoying the way the crowd simply had to part for his massive bulk. There was a lot less shoving and elbowing than there had been at Gringotts.
Harry spotted Mrs. Weasley waving them down at Flourish and Blotts and he pointed her out to Hagrid.
"Did it go well at Gringotts?" Mrs. Weasley asked once they were within earshot.
"It was fine. Where are Ron and Hermione?" replied Harry.
"They're checking out Fred and George's shop," she said, pointing to the riot of color that Harry had seen on his invisible excursion. "Would you like to join them?"
"If you don't mind, I think I'll go with Hagrid and finish up my shopping," Harry said, waving his school supply list for emphasis.
When Mrs. Weasley nodded in agreement, Harry and Hagrid walked off to complete the shopping Harry hadn't already done.
As they struggled toward Eeylop's, Harry fingered his new ring. That had certainly been a surprise, albeit not an unwelcome one. Things were looking up.