A few blinks of his eyes later, and Harry realized that he should probably keep moving. The dragon might have been afraid of him, but that didn't mean that anything else on this plane was, now, which way was Gringotts? As if in answer to his question, the sword at his hip attempted to pull him in one direction, toward a mountain or some large building, he couldn't tell on this plane.

"Okay, okay, I'm going," as if he had any other choice. Returning his gaze to the horizon, he almost jumped out of his skin, after all, it's not everyday that somebody materializes out of nothing without a sound.

She was quite short, but that didn't stop Harry from noticing how beautiful she was, even though she had a blackish tinge to her skin that made it almost impossible for her to be noticed in this plane of shadow. Besides her skin, her violet eyes were a dead ringer that the creature was definitely not human

"Well?" she asked.

"Well what?"

She sighed at this, and then muttered something along the lines of, "stupid humans," followed by a bunch of gibberish, at least to his ears.

"Get up,"

This abrupt change of subject had him more confused than he was before, but he did what he was told, after all, the sword wasn't warning him against here, and it seemed like she was trying to help, even if it was in a bit of a rough manner.

"Um, I'm Harry," he said by way of introduction.

"I don't really care, now, where is it that you needed to go?"

Again taken aback by her brusque manner, Harry gave her another look as if to appraise her anew, "Why do you want to know?"

"Because I want you out of my territory before you attract something more dangerous than that shadow dragon and I can't very well force you to leave, so I might as well get you where you're going so I don't have to worry about it anymore," she seemed almost angry as she said this.

"You're territory?"

"Yes, my territory, don't they teach you anything about the shadow realm in that little world of yours?"

"Not really, if not for this sword, I wouldn't even know about it."

As she saw it, that same look of fear flashed across her face that he had noticed right before the dragon disappeared, but before he could question it, she asked, "Where are you going?"

"Um, Gringotts?"

"Alright, and be quick about it, there's no time to lose," with that, she turned and started walking him in the same direction that the sword had motioned toward. Before he knew it, she was already a hundred feet away, but when he thought about it, he realized why. The world of shadow, lots of shadows to choose from, and with that, he stepped into the shadow of some ruins next to him, and appeared right next to her. She jumped, as if surprised, but with a quick look at the sword again, she picked up the pace. Within minutes, he could see Gringotts, or at least he thought he did.

Then the girl stopped, and turned to Harry so suddenly that he had to take a step back, lest he run into her, "this is Gringotts, take a few steps closer, and you should be guided through all the wards and such, goodbye."

He started to walk forward, but the he turned around to ask her name, only to realize that she was already gone. Scratching his head, he turned toward Gringotts, just in time to jump away from the goblin standing not two paces in front of him.

"What is it with people appearing out of thin air here?"

"Actually, Mr. Potter, it's fairly thick shadow, and that changes the subject entirely, but that is not the reason for my trip out here. My name is Wrapwrong, and I am to lead you into Gringotts proper."

"Um, how did you know that I was coming?"

"You're close enough to Gringotts for it's primary wards to activate and let us know of approaching persons and/or creatures, and yes, I can read minds, but only partially, but enough to feel sorry for you while you were living under the stairs while Dudley was being potty trained."

Suppressing a shudder, he said, "I would appreciate it if you would keep that to yourself Mr. Wrapwrong," waking up each morning to a steady drip of cold piss on your forehead for three months is not very pleasnt.

"Of course Mr. Potter, Shall we be going now?"

"Lead the way."

"It's not so much leading the way, as it is, stepping into it," Wrapwrong.

"Wha…" and before he knew what was going on, the diminutive creature had grabbed his hand and pulled him down into the shadow stuff that he was standing on. Naturally, Harry fought it, but to no avail, it was just too strong of a pull. He didn't stop wriggling until he realized that he was actually re-entering the world proper. With a pop of displacing air, Harry was back.

I realize that it's been a while since I last updated this, but I hope anyone that reads it will still enjoy it.