Chapter 4: Edward
Harry stepped in the vault and was met with a soft purr resounding in the darkness.
"Hello?" He called uncertainly. "Who's there?"
The next thing he knew, he was lying on the floor, with a massive weight pressing on his torso.
He could hear Dumbledore's amused voice. "Edward my boy, how have you been doing?
Harry, meet Edward, your pet griffin and the future protector of Potter Manor."
"Uh…Hi boy, pleased to meet you" Harry muttered.
The griffin sniffed the scent of the young man, following it up immediately with a swift lick which covered the boy's face with griffin saliva.
He could hear a sudden snort coming from the attending goblin. Harry suddenly began smiling mischievously. He whispered something to the griffin and the animal started running towards the now shrieking goblin.
"Alright, alright! I give up, you win griffin boy." the creature yelled in clear panic, fleeing at the sight of a full grown griffin running at him at full speed, a suspicious glint in its eyes.
"Come here boy" Harry called to his newest pet in amusement.
Dumbledore was leaning against the side of the vault, mirth in his eyes clearly showing.
"Let's go Harry, we have lots of things to do today." He said amusedly.
The two men, by most of the wizarding world considered to be the most powerful sorcerers walking the planet slowly walked into the more than impressive and ancient vault.
Seemingly endless piles of gold, silver bronze and artifacts stretched over the Quidditch Pitch-sized vault. The walls were fully loaded with books, sorted by theme.
They could see Defense Against the Dark Arts dominating strongly, but there were some texts that looked more then ancient. Tempus Volentae! This tome was supposed to be lost in the Great Fire of Arundelin, but here it is, a shining example of it, sitting there, looking almost brand new because of the preservation charms that rest on these cases. Amazing, just simply amazing.
The Headmaster was shaken out of his revelling by a shout from the boy, who had walked to the back of the vault and apparently had found something interesting.
"Professor! I think you should see this, it seems pretty important for my training!"
Dumbledore headed to the back and was faced with a shelf that stood out of the others by one simple word written at the top of the shelf: Avatar.
He almost smacked himself on the head. Of course, Godric Gryffindor was one of the few other magical Avatars known to man, and he seemed to have written numerous books for his fellow Elemental Guides and succeeding Avatars.
"Isn't this amazing? I'll bet this will help loads with my training. I can't wait to start."
"Patience my boy. Being patient is half the battle. Training is the other half, but you will need to learn to be very, very calm and in control of your emotion in order to learn Elemental Guidance. I myself am always seen as benign and utterly calm, but that is just the result of years of training my emotions."
"If you say so Professor." Harry said, slightly embarrassed by being chided. "Sir, could you tell me how to do so, because I am often seen as a bit temperamental."
"I will teach you that with Occlumency and with the Pensieve. I think those techniques are quite effective for such a spirited mind as yours. Now, we should get started with packing these books."
He levitated a heavy looking chest over to where they were standing and carefully put the books in. Harry got out of his amazed stat and hastily started putting the heavy tomes in the large chest.
Soon there were no more tomes left on the cases and Dumbledore levitated it towards the main section of the DADA books. He carefully picked out the best and rarest and put them in the chest, after some 15 minutes, he closed the chest and shrunk it, putting it in his flowing robes.
"Now, Harry I believe that's about it, we will look for some decent armour for you, but we may just use the basilisk skin of the one you have slain in your second year, seeing as the basilisk skin is more moveable then the Horntail skin and much harder. Yes, let's do that.
That's all then, let's go boy, you to Edward" he called to the griffin.
He slapped a Portkey on the griffin, transporting the animal to Potter Manor. "And we are going to The Chamber of Secrets."
Harry just nodded. He didn't want to go back to the Chamber, but it seemed like he had no choice. Well, maybe we could explore the Chamber a little, I mean, it couldn't have been designed just for the basilisk, there had to be something else too.
Dumbledore held out yet another Portkey, this time an empty bottle of pumpkin juice. They said their goodbyes to Griphook and were gone in a rush of wind and colours.
Griphook shook his head and smiled. Dumbledore hasn't changed a bit, still the same crazy old coot. He closed the vault doors and stepped into the cart, pushing some handles and it was a matter of seconds before he was racing through the bowels of Gringott's, trying his very best to break the local speed record.
Open! Harry commanded in Parseltongue. The sinks began parting until the gaping hole was visible. He and Dumbledore started sliding through the pipes. Damn this is just bloody awful, how much slime could there be after I slid through here in second year. Apparently a whole lot of it, judging by the looks of their clothes. Well, at least Dudley's clothes can serve for something ,because right now they are just I look like a starving elephant with way too much skin left over from better days.
They silently walked through the tunnel until they came to the cave-in where Ron had made a hole for Harry and Ginny to pass three years ago. Dumbledore frowned and waved his hand, causing all the debris to vanish. He continued, humming a light-hearted tune. Harry didn't think he should be really surprised because of what he was seeing his mentor do.
He shrugged inwardly and walked over to the entrance, imagining the two snakes to be alive, whispering Open. Making sure Dumbledore was behind him, he climbed the small stairs into the infamous Chamber of Secrets. He immediately cast a Bubblehead Charm. The smell was plain and simply foul. He tried not to throw up, and succeeded…barely.
He watched Dumbledore look around the room. Harry took the chance to take in the room for the first time. At least now, he didn't need to worry about a Basilisk or Ginny Weasley slowly dying. Those thoughts sent involuntary shivers down his spine. The looks of the room didn't help any either.
They proceeded towards the decomposing corpse of the ancient beast. Damn that things is massive, good thing I wasn't really looking at its size then, because I just might have stared a bit too long.
"Well this is one big snake" Dumbledore said, a bit awed. "I think we can use most parts of it for ingredients and armour at the manor.
He started stripping the beast of its fangs and skin, Vanishing the useless parts of the former King of Snakes. He shrunk the parts and was careful too avoid scratching the teeth.
"We're going to bring this skin to Archibald's Armour Shop and he'll take your measurements and he'll make a few sets of full body Basilisk armour for you and your friends in the D.A. We have enough here to foresee the whole school, but I don't think that will be necessary. After that visit, I believe it will be time for dinner and we will head for Potter Manor. I have already informed the previous house elves of the manor and also Dobby and Winky, who were overjoyed to be working for 'The Great and Magnificent Harry Potter'."
Harry groaned "The first things I will be doing when we go to the manor will be speaking to Dobby about those names, before it spreads onto the other elves."
Dumbledore chuckled at the boys discomfort "Dobby does have his heart in the right place, so be careful not to insult him while doing that."
"I will sir" Harry answered truthfully. The strange elf had given him loads of help throughout the years. Help that usually resulted in Harry's near death, but help nonetheless.
Dumbledore called Fawkes, since Portkeys wouldn't work at Hogwarts, no matter how deep under the ground and instructed Harry to grab the phoenix' tail. They disappeared from the Chamber in a burst of flames.