Shadowed Rains: Harry isn't a Slytherin reincarnate, but five points for spotting the money thing.
Disclaimer: If you are reading HP fanfiction, you really should have figured out by now that Rowling is the author.
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Chapter 2: Preparations
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1975
Moaning and opening his eyes, Mordecai looked at the room around him in confusion, trying to figure out how he'd gotten there. After several moments memories of yesterday began to filter through his slowly awakening mind.
Something about auror recruiting…
He'd had his power tested…
He'd found out that he was about as powerful as Dumbledore…
And he'd gotten a room at the Leaky Cauldron…
It made sense that he would be powerful, since he'd beaten Voldemort during Priori Incantatem, but he'd thought that it had been a contest of wills at the time, and maybe it was.
Pity he didn't know any curses that could use his power; the power in most spells couldn't be adjusted, only charms, so it wouldn't make any difference how powerful he was until he learned some stronger spells.
Learning meant he'd need to enroll at Hogwarts…
He'd need to complete several more rituals to finish his disguise, and learn occlumency before someone like Dumbledore found out he was from the future.
They probably wouldn't take it too well, and be all worried about changing the past or something ridiculous like that; the timeline Mordecai was from would be a result of his actions in the past, so doing them wouldn't change anything, since they'd happened in the first place, if that made any since. Mordecai hadn't known he was that smart, maybe he'd learned from the incident with the time turner in his third year.
"Awake?" hissed a voice from somewhere around his abdomen. Looking down Mordecai saw the snake he'd gotten yesterday and still hadn't named coiled up next to him; or maybe the snake already had a name.
"Yeah. Do ssnakess usse namess?"
"Yess, mine iss Khelavasster."
"I'm Harry Potter, but I'm ussing the name Mordecai Ssaunderss becausse I don't want anyone to know who I am."
"Why do you not want anyone to know who you are?"
"It'ss…er…complicated…. Do you need to hunt? I have ssome thingss I need to do thiss morning, I'll try to explain it in the afternoon."
"Alright," Khelavaster agreed. Mordecai dragged himself out of bed to open the door and let the snake out, briefly wondering what sort of prey a snake that was less than one inch in diameter would eat.
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1975
After a shower and a breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron, Mordecai picked up his new wand at Ollivanders' (eleven inches of the finest yew that brought out the best properties of it's displacer beast fur core, according to Ollivander) and headed for Gringotts. As he entered the massive white marble edifice, Mordecai couldn't help but notice that there were a lot more goblins guarding the place than he remembered.
After telling a goblin at the counter that he wanted to open an account and change some money (he'd been getting funny looks in Knockturn Alley when he paid for things with muggle money, but no one was going to refuse money, muggle or not), the teller led him through one of the many doors in the main room, through several twisted corridors and into an office with the name Bolgok on the door. The office looked rather strange, as all the furniture except for two chairs in front of a desk were sized for goblins, but the room itself was made to accommodate humans.
"Have a seat," Bolgok invited, before sitting down behind the desk.
As soon as he was sitting, the goblin launched into an explanation of Gringotts accounts without waiting for introductions. "Gringotts accounts are more secure than even the Department of Mysteries (Mordecai didn't have any trouble believing that) and can be accessed at any time, for any reason, despite legal status. We–"
"Hold on," Mordecai questioned, "legal status?"
"We goblins are not under your Ministry and not subject to your laws. Your accounts will be secure and accessible here, no matter the circumstances."
"Good," that explained how Sirius had bought a Firebolt while on the run.
The goblin raised an eyebrow slightly but carried on as if nothing had happened, "We also offer vaults in which you can store items, with 22,620 cubic feet of storage space, and a small maintenance fee of five galleons per month. With either account, a monthly statement will be sent to you listing the contents of your vault and any transactions in the past month."
Mordecai would have to ask Dumbledore what had happened to that monthly statement…
"I don't suppose you give interest?"
"No, because we do not take your money as soon as you leave and start buying things with it," Bolgok said in a tone that suggested he highly disapproved of such practices, though Mordecai was sure there was more to it than just buying things, as he couldn't see how that would give muggle banks extra money for interest.
"Alright. I'll take a storage vault."
"Excellent. Just sign this form."
Mordecai picked up the form Bolgok handed to him and read through it; it said Gringotts would do everything Bolgok said it would, just in extra fancy language.
Back in the main room, Mordecai changed 5,000 pounds and gave Bolgok 300,000 to open his account, and Bolgok gave him his key and informed him that 60,000 galleons would be placed in his vault, but could be exchanged for muggle money whenever he withdrew it. Whatever Bolgok thought of muggle banking practices, Mordecai was going to put most of his money in an account that earned interest.
As Mordecai made his way toward Madam Malkins', he couldn't help but be pleased with his latest idea. Ever since the Department of Mysteries, he'd been trying to think things through more, and had come up with some good ideas.
Pushing open the door, Mordecai made his way to the counter and told a lady there he would like some custom clothes.
"I'll take your measurements and you can order then out of a catalog. Just follow me to the fitting rooms."
"I don't think what I want will be in a catalog," Mordecai said, following.
"I assure you, we have the most comprehensive selection anywhere in Britain; this is Madam Malkins' Robes for all Occasions, after all." She sounded slightly offended.
"I have an invisibility cloak, and would like it made into a robe, gloves, and boot covers." That got her attention.
"Excuse me?"
"I have an invisibility cloak, and would like it made into a robe, gloves, and boot covers."
"I'll see what I can do; it is a rather unusual request."
As it turned out, she was able to make the invisibility robes, but told him he wouldn't be able to use a wand while wearing the gloves, as the magic passing through the fabric would destroy the invisibility charms. He negotiated a price of 500 galleons, but was pretty sure he'd been ripped off.
Mordecai wore the robes out of the shop, as they only turned invisible when he pulled up the hood, and the feel of the watery gray fabric against his skin was extremely comfortable. After a stop for lunch, Mirdecai made his way down Diagon Alley looking for a shop that wasn't open in his time, and might have already been closed.
After several minutes of walking Mordecai spotted Ali Bashir's Cross-Continental Comfort Carpets and made a beeline for it. The windows were so full of carpets that you couldn't see inside until you stepped in, and when Mordecai did, he was stunned at the size of the place: the floor space was similar to that of a muggle department store, but the ceiling was at least as high as that of the great hall at Hogwarts, and several people could be seen testing carpets out in the ample space. The building was definitely bigger on the inside than on the outside.
Every inch of wall and floor was covered in oriental carpet, though, thankfully, the only ones that seemed to be able to fly were the ones on display racks, with pillars near each of them holding books that no doubt contained information on them; it was similar to a car dealership.
"Getting your first carpet today, sir?"
As Mordecai turned to look at the salesman dressed in perfectly cut black robes–most likely the magical equivalent of a business suit–he was reminded even more strongly of a car dealership.
"Yes. Something nearly indestructible."
"Planning on some adventurous flying?" the salesman asked, leading the way to what Mordecai guessed was another section of the store, though he didn't know enough about carpets to know, as they'd been banned by the Ministry by his time.
"Yeah," he hadn't been, actually, but it sounded like a lot of fun, "show me the strongest you've got. Cost is not an issue."
"Over here we have the Titan 5. The base is armored with shock absorbent aluminum honeycomb sandwiched between multiple layers of hi-strength carbon mesh and covered on bottom with dragon-hide treated for optimal spell resistance, and the whole assembly is buried under strength and shield charms. These have been known to take multiple hits from killing curses without significant damage."
"Wow." The carpet Mordecai had been led to certainly looked that sturdy: it sat on top of a four-inch-thick slab of armor, covered in dragon-hide. When Mordecai pushed it, it didn't give at all, like dragon-hide normally did.
"There's also a climate control field that controls temperature and blocks fog, rain, snow, sleet, hail, lightning, high winds or anything else you don't want, and allows you to fly at high altitudes with little air. Maximum airspeed is 94 m.p.h. and acceleration isn't very good, but it can transport up to 20,000 pounds."
Mordecai was quite impressed, and it would be perfect for his plans.
"I'll take four."
The salesman couldn't quite keep the surprise off his face as he said, "I'm afraid that's going to be 40,000 galleons," though he didn't look very afraid, but more like a salesman who was going to get a very large commission.
Mordecai bargained the salesman down to 35,000 before making the purchase (the salesman wouldn't let him test it in the store, since it was against company policy to let underage wizards fly carpets inside), signing a money order and arranging for the carpets to be delivered directly to his Gringotts vault.
Mordecai felt extremely pleased with himself as he made his way back to the Leaky Cauldron, completely oblivious of the snake laying in wait to ambush him with questions…