Standard Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story; they all belong to JK Rowlings. This is a work of fan fiction, produced solely for enjoyment. No infringement of rights is intended.

– CHAPTER NINE –

The Vault

Harry climbed into the cart behind Ringot, and they were off. Harry always loved this experience, as it reminded him of sensations he associated with flying his broom. After several minutes of twisting and turning down a maze of dark passageways lined with vaults, they came to a stop before a huge door in the passage wall.

It was much larger than Harry's trust fund vault, and he was momentarily stunned by the sight of it. Ringot eventually coughed roughly to catch Harry's attention, who, blushing furiously, handed him the key to the vault. Ringot unlocked to the door, and returned the key to Harry, who pocketed it. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, Harry gasped.

The vault was huge, and was filled with enough objects to decorate a small mansion, which, Harry thought, was probably exactly what it had done before being put in here. After his meeting with Ragnog, he had been almost positive that his parents had not always lived in Godric's Hollow; now he was certain.

There were several trunks lining one wall of the vault, and a variety of different items of furniture arranged haphazardly around the rest of the vault. There were tables, chairs, four-poster beds, ornate mirrors, sofas, footrests, cupboards, wardrobes, and a whole host of other things that Harry didn't' even recognise. Rolled up near the door was a large pile of tapestries, rugs and carpets, the quantity of which Harry had never seen before. As he squinted, he realised that leaning against the back wall were scores of paintings, and Harry gasped again, for they all appeared to be portraits of his ancestors.

He walked forward uncertainly, uncomfortable with disturbing the tranquillity of the vault, and climbed in. Recovering from his initial shock, he walked over to the trunks and started opening them one at a time. In the first few, he found dress robes and other wizarding wear, presumably they had belonged to his parents'. Harry realised that they'd intended to live as Muggles until Voldemort stopped searching for them, deciding to remain inconspicuous until the danger had abated. The next couple of trunks he opened contained photo albums, mostly taken while his parents' were at school, but there were also albums from their wedding, one album full of photos of the members of the original Order, and one completely devoted to Harry from when he was but a few days old.

By the time Harry had sifted through all the albums, casting quick glances at individual photos, tears were running down his face, and he hastily wiped them away, angry at himself.

'They're dead,' he told himself, 'nothing you can do will bring them back. Now get a grip and keep looking.' He closed the lid on what he hoped was the last trunk of photo albums and proceeded to the next one.

In it he found, rather to his surprise, an array of Medieval Muggle weapons. There were daggers, longswords, broadswords, pikes, maces, axes, lances and halberds. Jumbled up among the weapons was also full-body chainmail, shields and several items of plate armour. Thinking of the suits of armour at Hogwarts, he guessed these were purely decorative, but the weapons did look very sharp …

Deciding to leave a closer examination of them for another visit, and not entirely comfortable with the thought that one of his ancestors might have fought with these weapons; he closed the trunk. He fancied that he saw blood on one of the swords and quickly proceeded to the next one. Upon opening it, he gasped suddenly. Lying at the bottom of an otherwise empty trunk lay a small pile of parchment envelopes. He reached in and delicately picked them up, and saw that they were addressed to a number of people.

Flipping through them, he saw letters to Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, Sirius, Remus, Peter (Harry shredded that one up angrily), Harry's aunt, the Longbottoms, and finally, Harry. Harry was quite shocked when he saw a letter addressed to him; his parents really had tried to prepare for every possibility, even their deaths and Harry's survival. When Ragnog had told him about his parents' vault, he hadn't known what to expect, he just knew that he had to see it.

Shaking his head to clear his head, he got up, upset at the thought that so few of the letters his parents had written could be delivered. He closed the trunk and opened one of the last ones. In it he found several sets of dragon hide armour, wand holsters for various parts of the body, and a few pairs of dragon hide boots and gloves. Taking out and shrinking some of the wand holsters for wrists and thighs, he closed the trunk. He put the holsters in his pockets, and opened the last trunk, and gaped in silent wonder. It was full of beautiful jewellery.

Harry was entranced by the precious stones. He had never seen anything quite as magnificent; there were diamonds, sapphires, rubies and emeralds of all shapes and sizes. Even in the dim light of the vault, they captured light and reflected it in hypnotic patterns. Harry was momentarily captivated by the beautiful array of specious stones, but quickly regained his senses.

Closing the lid, he got to his feet, and walked back to the door to the vault, where Ringot was still waiting. Climbing back into the cart, Harry asked if he could go to his trust vault. Ringot nodded, and climbed into the cart in front of him. As soon as he'd sat down, the cart jumped back into motion on its own volition.

A few minutes later, the cart stopped before the small door, and Harry gave Ringot the tiny golden key. Ringot unlocked it, and Harry, conjuring a small moneybag clambered in. Having bought the flat, there was very little left of his trust fund, and when Harry looked around, all he could see was a small pile of Galleons, and a couple of Sickles and Knuts in the far corners. He collected all the coins and when he climbed back out, asked.

'Ringot, could you arrange for this vault to be removed from my name please?' Ringot looked shocked that Harry had asked him to carry out such a task, most wizards just ignored him and just ordered him to take them to their vault, 'I don't think I need to worry about an empty vault, three full ones are quite enough.' Ringot nodded, he was beginning to understand why magical creatures help Harry Potter in such high regard.

They returned to the lobby, and thanking Ringot for his help, Harry walked out into the bright sunlight; it was barely one o'clock. Harry decided to go visit the twins and see how the shop was faring, but they were closed for lunch; so Harry decided to follow suit and get his own lunch at the Leaky Cauldron. His stomach was starting to grumble loudly, and he was attracting odd glances, even with his head down.

He hurried into the Leaky Cauldron, and ordered a ham sandwich and butterbeer. Sitting down in one of the darker corners of the room, he contemplated his day so far.

'Well, I can't say it hasn't been interesting.' He thought ruefully. How many seventeen year old wizards could claim to have received a phoenix, Godric Gryffindor's sword, and a Pensieve; and find out they were one of the richest wizards in the country, all in one morning? Not to mention, have a meeting with Ragnog. At that moment, Tom shuffled over with Harry's lunch, and Harry lost his train of thought as his stomach growled in anticipation.

Harry tried to pay for it, but Tom refused, saying that anyone that Dumbledore held in as much regard as he held Harry, deserved a free lunch every so often. Harry blushed crimson at the compliment, feeling that it wouldn't be the last time he heard it. He wolfed down his lunch, and thanking Tom profusely, hurried back to Diagon Alley. He really didn't want to spend more time than was necessary in public.

Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes was still closed, so Harry wandered about a bit, before remembering that he needed a perch for Fawkes, as he hadn't received the old one at the will reading. He walked over to Eeylops Owl Emporium, and a few minutes later, came out with a shrunken perch stuffed in his pocket, the top of it sticking out.

He returned to the joke shop and found that it had finally opened. He walked in, and was instantly greeted by one of the twins, but he wasn't sure which one.

'Hey Harry, how are you? Oy, George, get over here!' Fred said. 'Have you already finished the stock we sent you? Blimey that was quick!' He said winking. George popped his head out from behind the counter, and seeing Harry grinned.

'Ah, our secret benefactor, what can we do for you today Sir?' He grinned, bending in a mock bow. Harry smiled back, and replied,

'Oh nothing guys, I was just in Gringotts and decided to come over and see how you were doing.'

'We're fine Harry, nothing new since last night.' Fred winked, 'How about you though, I hear you've been very busy.'

'I'm fine Fred, Dumbledore's will reading was ok, and I just had a meeting with Ragnog,' Fred's eyes almost popped out at this. Harry continued nonchalantly, pretending not to see Fred's look of shock, 'he gave me my family's vault keys. I was really surprised; I didn't know I had anything except the trust fund.'

'Harry?' Fred interrupted.

'Yes Fred?' Harry replied innocently, trying not to laugh when he looked at Fred's face of disbelief.

'Do you know how rare it is to see Ragnog? I mean, even Scrimgeour has a difficult time arranging a meeting with him.' Fred spurted out, bewildered.

'Really Fred? Wow, I didn't know that.' Harry put on the best look of bemusement. 'Is it really that rare? He didn't make such a huge fuss about it or anything.' Fred, knowing full well that Harry understood the privilege that he'd been granted, and was playing along with him, just groaned in frustration.

George came out from behind a shelf and asked Fred what was wrong.

'What's wrong, bro, is that Harry doesn't seem to realise just how privileged he is to have met Ragnog.' Now George's eyes popped out.

'The Ragnog? As in Ragnog; manager of Gringotts Ragnog?' George asked in disbelief. Fred nodded in frustration. Harry couldn't hold it in any more; succumbing to a laughing fit, he leaned against a shelf, and laughed so hard, he cried.

Fred and George looked exasperatedly at him for a few seconds, but soon they were smiling broadly, Harry's laughter was contagious, and after a few minutes of uncontrollable laughing, they all sobered up.

'By the way Harry,' George asked, 'did Ron and you pass your apparition test? Did Ron tell you what happened to him? He almost apparated on top of a young witch! Very pretty too.' He mused.

'Ye, he told me about that,' Harry replied, grinning, 'and yes, we both passed. Neville didn't though; he landed half-in half-out of his hoop.' He added sadly. He thought about how much Neville had improved in the DA when he'd really concentrated, 'Maybe he just needs a bit of motivation.' He thought.

'Ah, that's a pity, but at least you two passed; well done!' Fred exclaimed, thumping Harry on the back.

'Ye, well done Harry, we passed first time too. Ron didn't though,' he turned to his twin, 'you know what that means?' He asked; an evil glint in his eyes.

'Aw, come on guys, give Ron a break. Last time he failed because of half an eyebrow.' George seemed to ponder this for a few seconds, and smirked again.

'Alright, because he only failed by half an eyebrow, we'll only tease him for half the time we'd usually do it for. Does that sound fair Fred?'

'It most certainly does George.' Fred replied happily. Harry looked defeated. 'Harry, you better warn Ickle Ronnikins that we'll be coming over tonight.' He finished, winking at Harry. Harry grumpily replied.

'Fine, but I'm warning you, he's of age now, and a pretty good dueller. I wouldn't provoke him if I were you.' This didn't deter the twins in the slightest, whose grins just grew larger. 'Anyway, I better get going, or your mum will hex me for being away for too long.' The twins smiled knowingly,

'You're probably right, she's done it to us often enough. Though admittedly, it wasn't for going out for a long time.' George added, winking. 'Now, off you go.' They said together, slapping Harry on the back. He walked to the door, waving over his shoulder.

'Bye guys, see you tonight.'

'See you tonight Harry.' George said.

'Don't forget to send our regards to Ron!' Fred added cheekily. Harry had to suppress a laugh.

'I will, just don't go too hard on him, okay? And when he's hexed both of you, don't say I didn't warn you!' Harry warned.

'We wouldn't dream of it Harry.' George replied jokingly. Harry couldn't hold it in any more.

'Ha! Ye right! Anyway, see you tonight.' He added, as he opened the door and left.

He hurried down the street, careful to keep his head down again. When he reached the Leaky Cauldron, he focussed on the Burrow, and apparated away.