Discalimer: I know you know who all the common caracheters are and whom they belong to. So I won't bother with it.
Harry took his time to read of the many vaults that belonged to the two families. The oldest and largest of them were the family vaults which contained all items and artifacts of value or worth that belonged to the families. The vault he used was his allowance while the other vaults were set up for the many business of the family. The black vaults had a similar set up, except that the number of vaults for children was more. He decided to leave the vaults more or less intact except to dissolve the defunct vaults which were empty but were being paid for as well as remove the access permissions of others until he knew more. He finally decided to visit the family vaults of both the families and then his ministry set up vault. He really wanted to know what all had been sent to him by the people.
Hinoak sent for an aid to escort him to the vaults and Bill accompanied him. He was led to different entrance where a covered carriage with plush seats waited instead of the rickety little carts for their ride to the vaults. He had been bracing himself for a long death defying ride to bowels of the earth and was pleasantly surprised when he felt the carriage started to slow a few moments later. The goblin, on seeing his puzzled expression explained. "These vaults are some of the earliest in Gringotts Mr. Potter. Therefore they are not very deep. They have to be accessed by a different set of tunnels and only the people who have vaults here and higher ranking goblins of Gringotts can come here. However the security here is exceptional Mr. Potter as many highly valuable items are stored here along with the vaults of the greater families". Here the goblin stopped when he noticed Harry giving him and Bill a puzzled look. "Mr. Weasley was given permission by the branch manager himself to be your escort Mr. Potter to your vaults and yes Mr. Potter that is a security dragon, a Peruvian Vipertooth to be correct".
The carriage stopped off near a dead end and he got down. The first thing Harry noticed was the extremely discomfited feeling of something ruffling through him, an enormous weight which seemed to bore down on him intent to get its way. He tried to fight off the feeling when he heard the goblins voice telling him to relax. After a moment that seemed almost too long, it stopped. He could still feel the magic about him but it seemed calm now. He also realized that the air wasn't as musty and cold and the area was well lighted. As he was looking around he felt Bill and the goblin approach. He looked at the goblin again trying to question him about what had happened earlier. "That Mr. Potter was the wards checking if you had the right to be here. As I said Mr. Potter, the security in this section is extensive and exceptional in all respects".
Exceptional, he decided didn't do justice for the security. Even Hogwarts which was touted to be the safest place in the world didn't have this kind of security protecting it. He followed the goblin towards the dead end and stopped wondering where the entrance to the vault was when he noticed a small round patch of stone at the height of his chest. He turned to his guide who motioned for Harry to place his palm on the patch. He did as he had been instructed and once again got the feeling of being pricked. When he removed his palm he noticed a smaller patch open up and a look towards his guide and he put his signet ring on it.
The next moment he heard a soft sucking noise and part of the wall around his height disappeared leaving a black void open to him. He stepped in front of it ready to enter after his guide when he glanced at Bill wondering if he would accompany him, but Bill moved a step back and motioned for him to go in. He almost sighed in relief at that, it was not as if he didn't want Bill there but rather that he felt it was a private moment for him and of course what he would find there. He turned back towards the entrance and braced himself before he took a step in.
He didn't know what to expect as he had never been in one before but he liked what he saw. It was a large cavern with high ceilings and well lighted with glow orbs. The first thing he noticed was the mounds of coin, not so much of kunts but rather galleons. The amount overshadowed his allowance vault to insignificance. The goblin on seeing his interest explained that the amount was only the hard currency which had not been reinvested and there was more in the business vaults. He looked around and saw nothing else and turned to the goblin intent on asking where the family artifacts and books were when he was led to an area near the walls which had two round patches as he had seen outside. When he moved to place his palm on the patches he was stopped and indicated to put his signet ring on them. Once again a patch of rock dissolved and both of them entered. He was once again in a large chamber but now it held a number of stands and glass fronted cupboards. It looked somewhat like a large museum gallery with items displayed on the stands, cupboards and some even lying around. He thought he saw a number of paintings towards the end but he couldn't be sure. However before he could go to one of them, the goblin led him to a stand with a large bound book on it.
"Mr. Potter, the book is the itinerary book that most vaults have. This book should give you a list of all things that are here and their uses. You can directly browse it at you leisure in your home since it will be duplicated and placed here or if you wish for an explanation of an item, press the item to the cover of the book and it will automatically show it to you".
That was helpful he thought and picked it up when he noticed a similar book lying on the stand. He supposed that was the duplicated copy of the book. He walked around the chamber inspecting the many things present. The first section held a magnificent collection of jewelry and gem stones both cut and uncut. To Harry who had never had the opportunity to see much of jewelry, it looked like a veritable treasure that he wouldn't have dreamed of. He had read quiet a few stories on treasure but never had he imagined one such with himself. Unable to stop himself, he opened the cupboard and picked them up for a closer look. Finally he decided to leave them well alone since he didn't know much except that they looked pretty.
The next section contained a large miscellaneous collection of artifacts and items dating from a millennium or more. Many of them were obviously magical though he couldn't think of their uses. This was the largest section and held things both big and small. However he didn't feel like picking up any of them. It was a feeling that seemed to search everything that he saw scrutinizing them to see if any would be useful. He decided to read the book before he picked up any thing from this section.
The next was a wall of the chamber which was filled with portraits of whom he assumed was the deceased potters. He felt a spark of excitement and eagerly searched the portraits before he realized that his parents were not among them. Moreover the portraits seemed to be either asleep or must have not been activated. With a sad sigh he moved on and came upon what in his opinion was the best section. This was a collection of magical weapons and armor used by the family. He walked through them with a mounting excitement. He saw all sorts of daggers, knives, sword, jeweled scabbards, axes, glaives, spears, chain mail, breastplate armor, gantlets, greaves, helmets, and a number of other items. He gave in to his temptation and picked up a beautiful looking broad sword when he realized that it was not fit for him. All the swords were different types of English broad swords, designed for large worriers or knights and powerful enough to chop a person to pieces with one blow. Harry however had a slim, small, and wiry build not suited to hacking away with a broad sword. He realized at once that the larger weapons in the collection would be useless to him. He felt slightly disappointed not to have one of those but didn't let it bother him. He instead turned his attention towards the knives and daggers and started to look though their properties to find one that was suited for him.
He finally settled on a simple but beautifully crafted dagger. The dagger according to the book was made of magical metal and was an heirloom of the family. The property of the dagger was to cut, to cut at anything and was enchanted to be always sharp, clean and cuts made by it couldn't be healed by magic. Best part was that in an emergency, the small gems at the base could be pushed to coat it with a lethal poison or a derivative of a drought of living death according to choice. However a failsafe had been provided, the dagger could be attuned to the blood of the owner making its power in effective against the owner and deadly against any trying to steal or handle it. He immediately attuned the dagger to himself as he been written in the book and picked up the sheath for it placing it at his left hip hidden by his cloak. He then moved on to the armors and dragons hide cloaks but for some reason he felt as is they were not what he needed. Finally he came to the end and saw a cloak which had been carefully wrapped and sitting on a corner.
He at once felt a pull at his senses as though telling him to take it. He reached out for it and felt a tingle run trough him like he had when he wore his gloves, though no pain. He supposed it had attuned itself to him or had been checking him like the gloves had. He opened it with trembling hands slowly put it on. He saw that it was perfect fit for him. It was made of some kind of skin which was similar yet completely different from the dragon hide cloaks. It had metal clips to pin it on and a hood. It seemed very adaptive and he really wanted to know more about it. He pressed the book cover to the cloak and opened to read it.
Manticor Skin cloak,
The cloak was given as a wedding gift to Jarrod Potter in the 12 hundreds by an elder. It is made of cured manticore skin lined with mithril lining. The clips are also made of mithril. It is blood bond to the Potter house and is also lined with a number of blood based control enchantments like temperature control, notice me not, color change, disillusion, and shadowed hood. This cloak can be used in battle as well as normal wear and has properties for auto clean up and repair in the very rare case it gets damaged. The inside is lined with a few pockets which are completely concealed and large enough to hold any weapons and a box of vials. Can be attuned by pressing the signet ring and the incantation "Dhue a se"
Wow! Manticores were extremely rare even more so then Basilisks. Manticores are extremely hard to kill considering that their skins are almost completely unaffected by spells as well as being extremely tough. Also the manticores have many destructive magical properties making any items from them to be extremely rare as well as killing them very hard. Thus a cloak of manticore skin was worth a small fortune all by itself since their resistance to spell dwarfed the dragon hides. Moreover his cloak had enchantments which were almost impossible with manticore hides. That he supposed was why it was a family heir loom. He also guessed that the elder that was written was a werewolf elder. He decided to always wear the particular cloak since it was quiet comfortable and lightweight. It took him a moment to attune it to himself.
He removed his trunk and packed away the cloak he had previously worn, then checked his dagger and wand, and left with the goblin to see the second chamber. This chamber was much smaller then the first two and was somewhat rectangular as well as being brightly lit. The reason was that it was a library of sorts. One side of the chamber was lined with filled book shelves while the other had glass fronted display cases. The middle had a long reading table with comfortable looking chairs. Every thing here was neat and dust free.
He walked towards the books and saw that it was the collection on family magics and lore. There were perhaps a thousand books on wards, enchantments, curses and a collection of books on the subject from all over the world from different times and languages. The books were all highly advanced and he thought it would be a long time before he had the ability to tinker with the magic written here. However he was getting that itch again telling him to take the books, though his rational side told him that they were far too advanced for him. Yet. He decided to go along with his little hunch and take the books. He immediately opened the trunk and called out daisy and asked the elf to stack all the books inside. He watched in fascination as all the books that daisy had taken down were promptly duplicated and replaced. He suddenly had another intuition; the books were all bound with the same magic of the book as in the other chamber. It was a failsafe so that if anyone apart from him or given permission by him touched the books, they would get destroyed while their original copy would remain here. He marveled at the intricacy and power of the spells that were woven in the vault and fail-safe that had been added. While daisy worked to stash away the books, he found a list of all books and their descriptions and pocketed it. He then walked around to the display cases to see what they held.
It took a moment for him to realize what he was seeing; the items on the shelves were wands, blood wands of all the members of the family from the last millennium or so. The wands were held in open wooden boxes with their descriptions along with the name of their owners and date of usage. The goblin whom he had almost forgotten about spoke up "It is a tradition among the great families Mr. Potter to keep the wands of the dead. The wands are their blood wands and are all enchanted that when the owner dies, the wands come here irrespective of where they may be." He pointed to a pair of wands near the end "Those wands Mr. Potter belong to the late Mr. And Mrs. Potter." Harry took a deep breath before he walked over to see the wands. Tears came to his eyes as he saw them and in an effort to hold him self in check, he looked around and noticed a small alcove he hadn't seen before. The goblin on seeing his interest led him towards the alcove.
It lit up the moment he stepped in. He noticed it to be a small domed chamber done in smooth marble and granite. There was a small marble platform in the middle and a black granite pedestal on top. Curious, he walked up the platform and came to the pedestal and gasped at what he saw.
For lying before him was a beautiful long staff tipped with a large blue gem. The staff seemed to be entirely carved of a pale wood which circled the gem and flared out like tiny wings and seemed to glow in power radiating a magic of its own. He was entranced by the sight before him and it was some time before he noticed the writing in front of it. It said;
"Here before you is the sorcerer's staff of the Great family of Potter. Beware that it may be held by only one of the family with the potential to be one".
He didn't understand what sorcerer meant but noted one thing. He didn't feel the pull as he had felt when he had seen his wand. He felt slightly disappointed that he couldn't use this magnificent staff. He had a feeling that as beautiful as it was, it wasn't meant for him. He sighed as he left the vault and arrived at the main vault, picking up his shrunken trunk on the way, thanking the fact that there was no change in its weight before he caught sight of the contents of the main vault and stared at the pile of money before him. He turned towards his guide to question him when the goblin spoke up telling him that he would get it in the office and left leaving a somewhat bewildered Harry to follow him out. He arrived outside to see a bored looking Bill sitting on a couch he had conjured and reading a book. Bill gave him a smile and sat back in the carriage to go to the next vault, the Black family vault.
It wasn't long before he was inside the Black family vault. The outlay of the vault was similar to the Potter family vault. He left the main chamber and went into the second one with all the artifacts and jewels. He once again took some time to admire the magnificent pieces of jewelry displayed and picked up the leather bound book to help him in case he needed any thing specific. The artifacts however made him slightly queasy. They seemed mostly of the dangerous verity and a few of them seemed to be covered in what he recognized as fresh blood. He decided to skip that a go to the other areas.
The portraits were all asleep and he gave a prayer of thanks for that little luck. He really didn't want to hear variations of the one in GP-12. He was once again disappointed to notice that all the larger weapons would not suit him at all. He had really wanted a sword ever since he had wielded the Gryffindor Sword even though a broad sword was not suited for him. He was slightly disappointed to see that none here would be good for him. He gave a disappointed sigh and moved on to the daggers. However he kept his hands to himself since all of them were giving him a nasty feel and he felt almost sick near some of them.
It was in the last section that he found the greatest of treasures. This section contained different armors of both metal and hide. What attracted his attention almost immediately was a shiny chain mail shirt on a stand in one corner. It was the size and shape of a t-shirt with half sleeves and shone with a soft light. A closer look revealed that it was sewn or stuck on to some sort of skin. Overall it looked light weight and beautiful to look at and once again that the desire and inclination to have it rose just like when he had seen his cloak. He picked up the book he had taken and pressed the cover to the mail and opened it to see its description.
Mail of Finbar,
This artifact was acquired by Lord Marcus Black in the 11th century. It was made by the famed dwarven smith Finbar Hammerstroke. The chain mail of mithril is sewn on to the hide of a young basilisk. To give much greater protection and power, runes were inscribed on it by Selena Ravenclaw, daughter of the great runic and founder of Hogwarts Rowena Ravenclaw. It is a Black Family Heirloom and will resize itself to fit the wearer. A number of enchantments for its upkeep are inscribed on to the metal. It can be worn under the robes and provides exceptional protection to the wearer. To attune it to yourself, press the signet ring to it with a drop of your blood.
He supposed the quote "When it rains, it pours" was true. Today had been filled with surprises and he was going numb with it. If his cloak had been unexpected, then the chain mail was truly a gift of the Gods. He couldn't believe what he was seeing before him. Not only was it made of basilisk hide which in itself was a rarity, but it was also done in mithril- an eminently magical metal which is extremely rare and bloody costly- and to top it of, it was an actual dwarwen work. Dwarfs were an extremly secretive race and rarely did their work come to human hands. He himself had read of Finbar Hammerstroke in his history books and here he held a work of the famous dwarf himself. That in itself would have made it a colossal fortune but the runic work being done by the Ravenclaws on it, and it was an icing on the cake. He had no doubt that whole families would go bankrupt in an attempt to get hold of the stunning work of art before him.
He at once made a small cut with his dagger and put a drop of blood on the signet ring and pressed it to the chain mail. There was a brief flash of light and it became normal once again. He summoned daisy and had her pack it up. He decided to start wearing it but not today, he did have his cloak on.
He then went into the last chamber which again held books of the Black Family magics. He knew from Sirius that the Black Family specialized in blood magics and were second to only the Vampires in their knowledge of Blood arts. He had around nil knowledge of blood arts but he was sure that Voldemort would be more than good at it and that made it necessary for him to know all he could about them. However one look at the collection of books told him that they were too advanced for him and he would have to learn the basics first. Oh well, he would just get the basic books and start on these after he finished with them. He pocketed the list of book and once again called daisy to stash away the books. He then finished a tour of the wands and got a look at the family staff and had the same results as with the Potter family one.
With that Harry left the Black family vaults and swiftly made his way out side. He already had spent over an hour in each of the vaults and he had one more vault left to go. He made small talk to Bill who seemed to be admiring his cloak as they made their way to the final vault for the day. It took some time to get to the vault as it was at a different level and had lesser security then the family vaults. The goblin explained that this level contained the high security vaults of the ministry and the lesser family vaults. The security was good but nothing to the one on the family vault level. He followed a similar procedure to enter the vault except that he pressed in his thumb instead of his ring. He once again entered the vault along with the goblin and this time he was stunned by what he saw.
What he had entered was a large cavern which seemed quiet deep. However what took his breath away was the contents of it. This vault unlike his family vaults didn't contain any money but rather a very large collection of curios and artifacts. The goblin started to explain "The Dark Lord targeted many of the houses both small and big and completely erased some of them and there was a great loss of life to both muggle and wizard. When you banished him, the wizarding world celebrated as they had not for a decade and all the families and business affected sent you something or the other. All items here Mr. Potter, are either from family heirlooms themselves or were crafted specially for you. Indeed Mr. Potter, the items here are a fortune all by themselves and nearly double your monitory worth in your investments. There are also innumerable letters which have been scanned for magic before they were filed in here."
He was just stood with his mouth gaping open at all that was there. From beautiful crystal art work to statues of jade, lovely paintings of landscapes to fantastic wall length tapestries, a whole section of silver instruments that dwarfed Dumbledore's collection, a whole lot of knick a knacks, jewelries and almost any thing he could think of. Hell, he saw a stack of parchment and a set of quills. One thing that caught his eye was a wall size sculpture made in flawless jade with innumerable magical creatures around an open book that seemed to capture his eyes. He knew he couldn't go through the entire vault and so went directly to the extremely large book section. He browsed trough them and found that they varied from low level magics to things he couldn't even begin to comprehend. He was particularly drawn to a block of books on what seemed to be runes. However, magic was not the only thing in the collection. He went beat red when he spied a book on various positions to take on a bed with different sexes along with moving pictures of the same. In fact it held a large collection of novels and romantic books and to his surprise baby books. He once again picked up the list and had daisy stash away all the books. He then put all three lists on a table a pointed his wand muttering "combe".
He had seen Hermione use the spell to combine the contents of two books. He had never used it himself and in fact it was the first spell he was doing with his new wand. A soft light erupted from it and a fourth list appeared which was a combined list of all three of them. He put the list in his pocket and then searched out the leather book which would give him a list and description of all things in the vault before he made a quick exit with his trunk. He then turned and asked the goblin something that had been in his mind "I have been wondering if I could send my house elf to retrieve or deposit any thing for me if I don't have time to come myself. What I mean is if it is possible for my house elf to directly come to the vault and do the retrieval or deposit." The goblin gave him a calculated look before replying. "Mr. Potter, all the house-elfs bonded to you can have access to the vaults and can deposit and retrieve any thing you need. They will need special clearance from Gringotts for monitory clearance, but for the artifacts, the security will record it incase it is contested."
That decided it for Harry. He could read the description books and have daisy collect any of them he needed. He really wished he had sometime to see the beautiful collection in the vault but already five hours had passed and had quiet a bit of shopping to do, not to mention that Bill had been left outside the whole time. But before he could leave, he came across a large book on which was written "Know Your Magic". He wondered who had sent it when he noticed a note along with it and better yet, the date was two days previous. He opened the note to see only one line "Read it first, it holds what you have been searching for". He was highly intrigued by what it meant but all the same packed it in his trunk. He exited the vault along with the goblin and sat back in the carriage with Bill and a somewhat bemused expression on his face.
Bill understood at once what it was. Harry had suddenly come into awareness of a whole lot of things that he had no idea of even having existed. It was remarkable that he had taken every thing as well as he had done. He supposed that the family vaults and Ministry one had been a bit of a shocker to Harry's system. Unfortunately for Harry, there was one last stop before he could have his break. He decided that since Harry had kept his promise he would be doing the same, of course he would have done it even with out the promise.
Soon they were back at Hinoak's office where he gave Harry a money pouch given to all high clientele and also a muggle valet with license and a credit card. Hinoak explained that the pouch would enable to draw money directly from Gringotts coffers billed to his vaults and it had high security, while the valet could be used to draw any muggle currency again directly billed to his vault. Also the card could be used in both muggle and magical business transactions. With that Harry thanked Hinoak and put up his cloak and walked out with Bill to see to his shopping.
AN: Well, I hope you like the chapter. Some have asked me to pick up the speed. But that will be after a few more chapters. As for as romance, I really don't know. Please write your opinions about it. See you say next week?