Disclaimer : Don't own Harry Potter

CHAPTER THREE

"Come along," Griphook stated, turning on heel to guide the quartet out of the room once again. Draco and Harry quickly hurried after the Goblin, excited to finally be done with the legacy tests. Narcissa tried to suppress a giggle, Severus and Lucius on the other hand simply shook their heads at the youngsters' antics.

"You'd think that this was the most exciting part of the trip," Lucius told his old friend.

"I'm sure it's not for Draco, but for Harry this is the first real in-depth experience of our world he's had for his entire life, so I completely understand why he's reacting this way."

"Come on, hurry up!" Draco shouted back at the adults, "We've not got all day!"

"And there is us being told how to operate," Narcissa said, moving forward.

Harry and the others finally arrived at the docks where the small carts would be to take them down through the levels of Gringotts and down to their vaults. The cart, despite being completely held up by nothing but the railing, Harry knew that it would be sturdy. He couldn't explain why, but he could somehow feel energy radiating off it, as if the very area was engulfed by magic.

Griphook climbed into the front of the cart, then turned his head back to the people on the ground,

"In," he commanded.

Not wanting to test the Goblin's patience even an inch, Harry quickly climbed into the cart with Draco in hot pursuit. Narcissa was next, then finally, Severus and Lucius would enter the cart. The four got into the most comfortable positions they could in such a cramped space, but seeing as it wouldn't be too long before they got out again, or at least that's what Harry found himself hoping, they were going to have to just deal with it for the time being. Seeing that all of his passengers were now completely inside the cart, Griphook spun round towards the front-facing direction and tapped the top of the lamp at the head of the cart three times in quick succession. A loud screeching came from the wheels of the cart…BOOM! They were off, the cart shooting down the rails, heading around the bend before dropping at an almost vertical angle.

Lucius, Severus and Narcissa who were used to this kind of travel by now didn't even bat an eyelid. Draco and Harry on the other hand were whooping with joy, screaming out the excitement they felt for the adrenaline rush before them. This surprised Severus, he was expecting that he would spend a great deal of this ride consoling Harry and trying to assure him that everything was going to be alright. The Potions Master decided that even though he was his own person, he did display some of the traits his father had, but that did not matter to him. Severus didn't see the point in continuing a feud with a man that had been dead for ten years. Even he could be more mature than that. Seeing that Harry was enjoying himself was enough for Severus.

Suddenly the cart hurled to a complete stop. Lucius and Narcissa weren't surprised since they had to visit the Malfoy family vault first. The Malfoy family had decided during the times of old that their vault should be close to the surface so that they didn't have to travel as far, mostly due to the fact that the earliest members had been busy people who enjoyed convenience.

"Vault three hundred twelve. Malfoy Family Vault."

"I'll be back," Lucius told them all.

Lord Malfoy and Griphook both exited the cart and approached the door of the vault, it was huge, circular and had the depiction of a silver dragon on the centre of it. Lucius stepped over to a small plinth beside the door. It was an ordinary looking stone structure with what looked like the imprint of a hand atop it. Lucius confidently dropped his hand against the plinth, nothing happened for a moment or two…then the plinth shone a dazzling emerald, causing for the metallic door to swing open. Lucius bowed his head respectfully to Griphook, nodded to Narcissa, then entered his family vault.

"So, what house do you think you'll be in?" Draco asked Harry as a way to pass the time while they waited for Lucius.

"Well, I don't really know what they are…"

"Oh, that's right I forgot. Sorry, Harry. The first one is Gryffindor, most people want to go to that house, it's supposed to be traited for bravery, but most of them are condescending and look down on the other houses, especially Slytherin. Slytherin itself is prided for cunning and ambition, but the other four houses have mistaken it to mean that everyone in Slytherin ends up as a dark wizard. It's associated with evil."

"Wait…people base alignment on a house?" Harry asked, that somewhat confused him.

"It's a bit ridiculous if I'm honest." Narcissa interjected, "It's been around since before my own school days."

"Next up is Ravenclaw, which is where all the ones who are intellectual prodigies or whatever end up. Ravenclaw's aren't that bad, but they tend to be followers in whatever the Gryffindors say which means that they're also bias towards Slytherins because of the evil thing. Hufflepuffs aren't bad, they generally stick to themselves but if Ravenclaw and Gryffindor are around they join in to feel like they're apart of it all."

"That's awful," Harry consented, "What do you think you'll be sorted into?"

"Slytherin," Draco said without an ounce of hesitation, "My family has been for generations. I did ask you first, what do you think now that you know a bit more?"

"I still don't really know, but if Gryffindor really is as bad as that, I don't think I want to be sorted into it."

Lucius stepped out of the vault, returning to the platform of the bank. The very second he had his body out of the path of the door, it swung shut behind him.

"Business is done," he alerted the others in the cart, he and Griphook climbing back in.

"Next destination Vaults One through Seven," Griphook announced, restarting the cart on the rails down to the deeper vaults. The journey took roughly around ten minutes, Harry was secretly surprised that it hadn't been quicker at the speed the cart was traveling. Most of the underground that the Goblins had formed was filled with rocky outcrops of underground landscapes. Harry was sure that most of the potential thieves were merely locked in the vaults and the Goblins just waited for them to die before opening the vault again and discarding the bodies.

Finally the cart came to a halt right on the bottom floor of Gringotts, Griphook climbed out first and led the small group across the marble floor, which Harry looked around to see what could possibly be so dangerous about the vaults on the lower levels, he'd only just remembered the sign they'd seen while on the entrance floor of the bank before the legacy tests had been done. When he saw what the guard was, Harry's jaw fell open. A huge reptilian creature with large yellow eyes glared down at them. The beast's razor-sharp teeth were gleaming against the low light and its outstretched wings were rapidly beating against the ground in indignation. Griphook took a strange looking wooden object from the side of a pillar and began shaking it, causing a sound to generate through the entire room. Hearing the sound was enough for the dragon to release a pitiful roar, backing away from the source of the object.

Severus had placed a hand on Harry's shoulder, he could sense, for all the boy's enthusiasm at riding the cart, this dragon probably was not high on Harry's priorities of excitement list. He guided him in the way that Griphook was walking, heading over to vault number six.

"The Potter family vault," Griphook divulged.

The Goblin calmly left Harry in Severus' care, choosing instead to focus on giving Draco and his parents assistance to reach the vault of the Le-Fay. Taking a deep breath, Harry reached out, placing a hand on the imprint much like Lucius had done when opening the Malfoy vault. As soon as Harry's hand made contact with the imprint it glowed and unlike Lucius' vault where the door opened, the panel of wall beside the plinth merely melted away. As soon as the door was gone, Harry's mouth dropped.

"T..that's all for me?" He stammered.

"Yes, it's all yours Harry. Did you really think that your family would leave you with nothing?"

In disbelief now, Harry slowly took a few steps forward, not wanting to accidentally lose his footing and break something. Severus went to follow but the light on the plinth changed into an angry crimson. Unfortunately, Severus was going to have to wait for Harry to be done and dive in to protect him only if the need arose.

The items in the vault amazed Harry, gold piled from the floor right to the roof in several sections, silver in a slightly larger quantity and of course more bronze coins than the eye could possibly follow. Sets of armour and various magical weapons were strewn in amongst the gold too. Finally Harry could've sworn that he'd seen a door at the back of the vault which read 'Potter Heirlooms'. Deciding he could come back here another day, Harry filled the small sack in his hand with money then exited the vault to rejoin Severus.

"Everything alright Harry?"

"Even though there's a lot of gold in there, I'd appreciate if you didn't tell anyone? I'd rather not have people lapping at my heels trying to be friends with me just because they want to get their hands on it."

Severus placed a hand on Harry's shoulder, looking the boy dead-in-the-eye, "Don't worry. Harry. I won't reveal anything of this to anyone. It isn't my information to disclose."

Harry quickly gave Severus a hug, before drawing back just as quickly, "Thank you, Mr. Severus."

"Quite alright, Harry. Ah, look. Draco has finished in the Le-Fay vault as well, I think it's time we returned to the surface and do the shopping in the alley that we came here for initially."

"You're right, can…can The Malfoys come with us please?"

Severus chuckled, "That's entirely their decision."

Already having heard Harry's question, Draco spun round to his parents, "Can we? Can We?"

Lucius and Narcissa both released small chuckles, but it was the former who answered, "Of course, what kind of friends would we be if we left Harry at the mercy of the Potions Master."

Severus shook his head, "Quite but what would it be to leave young Harry with one such as yourself?"

"Ouch," Lucius returned, his pale features dancing with the smirk formed by his lips, "Point taken."

The group returned to the cart without any trouble from the Dragon since they hadn't taken anything from the vaults that hadn't been theirs, it was if the dragon had been trained to detect such a thing. Harry wouldn't have been surprised if that was the case. The ride back to the surface was just as fast as the descent had been, this time there wasn't need to stop though, which is potentially why this'd happened. Once they'd returned to the surface, the group thanked Griphook one final time and headed out of the bank the way they came.

Harry and Draco immediately darted out into the alley, rushing around the first couple of shops right by the bank, the one they'd eventually ended up in was Eeylop's Owl Emporium. Both boys seemed incredibly fascinated by the sight before them. Harry because he'd never seen a domesticated owl before and Draco because it meant that he could finally get his own one.

Harry's attention had been captured by one owl, a medium to large sized snowy with bright amber eyes, the bird's gaze was locked with his own. Harry had to resist the urge to just grab here there and then. Draco, on the other hand, was locked in a similar gaze with a large eagle-owl with blue eyes so bright it looked as though the whole sky was reflected in its soul-piercing gaze.

"Looks like we've already lost them," Lucius snickered quietly into Severus' ear.

"It would seem so."

"Would you two like to get those?" Narcissa asked Draco and Harry, sensing that it was time to speed things up a bit here so that they could get on with the rest of the shopping for their school supplies. It would be difficult to cart around two owls, so they'd just reserve them until the shopping had been finished of course.

Both nodded enthusiastically and Narcissa released a small chuckle, "Alright then. Go on with Severus and Draco's father. I'll get the store to hold them until we're done shopping and then we'll collect them later."

x-x-x-x-x

"That should be everything on the list now, minus the wands," Severus told Lucius, "We'll head over to Ollivander's and that'll be everything before we go and collect the owls for them as well."

"That's a relief, I know it's exciting for the boys, but it can get quite tedious, at least it's only once a year."

Together, the small group of four sauntered deeper through the cobblestone streets of Diagon Alley, Harry and Draco were still abound with excitement through their journey, even if Lucius was a little done with the tediousness that was shopping for the school term ahead.

"Alright, we're onward to our last stop, Ollivander's Wand Shop," Severus told Harry, "It is the most important stop of all considering how vital a wand is to everything that a witch or wizard will do in their lifetime."

Ollivander's was a smallish building on the lower end of Diagon Alley, the exterior was painted in a deep black shade, that easily drifted into the clear, circular window that allowed viewers a look into the interior of the shop. The only quality of the exterior which would lead one to know that they had arrived at the correct destination was a huge sign hung above the store. It read: Ollivander's Fine Wand-Makers since 382 BC.

"You take Harry and Draco to get the wands while I go and collect their owls, alright?" Narcissa told her husband and Severus.

"Sounds like a good idea."

"Come children," Lucius stated, steering Harry and Draco towards the front door.

The very moment said door opened, "Ah, I wondered when you would be coming to my store, Mr. Potter and if it isn't young Mr. Malfoy as well… Don't worry, we'll get them sorted out very shortly."

The man, who Harry could only assume was Mr. Ollivander, turned to Lucius and smiled, "Ah, Lucius Malfoy, Elm with a core of Dragon heartstring, eleven inches?"

"That's mine," Lucius said nodding, "Still does me well to this very day."

"And Severus Snape… Mahogany with a unicorn hair core, twelve inches?"

"The very same."

Ollivander nodded, "Excellent, Excellent. Alright, moving onto the main attractions today, Mr. Malfoy let's get yours done first and then we'll move on to Mr. Potter."

Harry felt somewhat unnerved by the wandmaker, so he reserved himself to only speak when spoken to, at least, he felt that would be the best course of action to getting through this situation.

The green-eyed boy watched as the wandmaker measured the length of his new friend's arms and then moved onto get a few wands for Draco to trial. It didn't take long before Draco's wand had selected him. A rush of golden sparks coming from the tip of the wand confirming that the wizard and wand had bonded in that instant.

"A Notable choice, Hawthorn, Unicorn Tail Hair Core, Ten Inches, rather proficient with Transfiguration."

"Thanks, sir," Draco said, beaming. He then dropped back to stand beside his father for Harry to undergo the same process.

Harry had proved to be a little more difficult than Draco. The wands didn't seem to bond with him…and Harry spent more time blowing up objects in Ollivander's store until finally, the wizard handed Harry a wand, then stepped back…right at that moment…golden sparks rushed out the end of it.

"Curious…Very Curious…"

"I'm sorry sir, What's curious?"

"It is curious that you should be destined for this wand, Mr. Potter…when its brother…gave you that scar."

END CHAPTER