Chapter 2 - Shopping and Inheritances
"The first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want." - Ben Stein
It took Tonks and Harry nearly about an hour to get Harry ready. They then said their goodbyes to Remus, who said that Dumbledore was away somewhere. Tonks went outside and pulled out her wand, holding it at Harry's forehead.
"Um...Tonks, what are you doing?" Harry asked, when feeling a tingling on her forehead.
"Just spraying some skin-colored powder on your scar to hide it...done, " Tonks said and then pointed her wand on the opposite side of where it was before.
"Don't tell me that we are going to take the Knight Bus..." scowled Harry.
"Don't scowl, you lose all your prettiness." teased Tonks, just as a purple three-decker bus popped in front of them.
"G'morin, young ladies, what may I do for you?" Stan winked at them.
"Quit the attitude, and take us to Diagon Alley, fast." Tonks said to Stan.
When they reached Diagon Alley, Tonks explained to Harry that she will only need to new school robes and go to Gringotts for some financial work that Tonks didn't talk more about. Then she mentioned that they will go out to muggle London to do some other shopping, normal shopping. She also mentioned that Harry would not need makeup, for her natural looks were what she mentioned, "...a girl would die for...". Ah, well, she'll have to go some other time with Hermonie, she really wanted to know what Lavender and Parvati were up to.
They went to Madam Malkins to get Harry's robes, skirts, sweaters, ties, shirts...well her Hogwarts uniform. After that Tonks suggested that they grab some ice cream and then go to Flourish and Blotts pick up some books. It was then that when Harry was walking to Flourish and Blotts that she felt a wave in the air. Turning quickly to the source, she saw a person with a dark cloak disappear into a corner, heading to the apparation circle in Diagon Alley.
Tonks noticed that Harry was looking at the corner to the left of her and asked, "What is it, Harry?"
"Nothing, let's move quickly."
Tonks understood, and walked faster. Soon enough they reached the book shop and bought the books quickly, telling the cashier to keep the change. They rushed out of the shop, and walked quickly to the Leaky Cauldron. Tonks was just about to tap the bricks on the wall just when a loud roar right behind them.
Harry turned and came to face the largest Hungarian Horntail she had ever seen in her life. The dragon gave another loud roar and started advancing on them. Harry knowing from fourth year that a dragon's weakness was it's eyes, looked into them, and found them looking dully at her, showing no emotion.
The Imperious Curse...but, on a dragon!
Wasting no time, Harry and Tonks both raised their wands. When Harry was just about to shoot the basting curse at the eyes, a blasting curse hit her wand, blowing it to bits. Harry screamed, and looked to her right to meet the eyes of Bellatrix, and scowled.
"Why is poor baby girl scared?" Bellatrix taunted and disappeared.
When Harry turned back to the dragon to see that it had disappeared. Startled, Harry turned to Tonks, to find that she was looking back at her with the same look. Then Harry felt coldness stab her chest so hard that, she fell to her knees. Dementors. Sweat formed on her forehead as she struggled to breathe. Harry looked up and, sure enough, there were at least 20 dementors heading into the alley. With a cry Harry stood up, and fully on instinct, raised her hand at one of the fast approaching dementors. The nearest one let out a long breath of freezing air, once this hit Harry, she fell down on her back, the dementor towering over her. Shakily, she raised a hand putting it straight into the dementor's mouth. If the breath was cold as ice, the touch of one, was as cold as frozen carbon. She pulled out all her strength and yelled the incantation to the Patronus Charm.
"Expecto Patronum!"
What happened in the next few seconds, was the most surprising thing that Harry had ever seen. Her hand started to glow a gold color, which started to spread into the Dementor, consuming its entire body. Soon enough the dementor was pulsating a glowing gold, before shattering like glass, the particles burning in the air. In the place of the dementor was a large gold Griffin with red eyes. The Griffin looked at Harry, gave a large cry, and bounded towards the other dementors. The Griffin ran through each of the dementors, the result the same as the first one, each shattering like glass, and the particles burning into the air. Completing its run and returning to Harry, bowing and running into her. Surprised, Harry felt herself glow for a minute, then felling happier then ever, and returning to normal.
"Harry!" came a voice from behind her.
Harry turned to find the worried face of Albus Dumbledore, "Professor, what are you doing here?"
"Harry, what happened back there?"
Harry explained the events of the past few minutes, which quite startled her, too. It seemed that it came as a surprise to Dumbledore, too, because, his eyes widened at the end of her explanation. After explaining, Harry looked at Dumbledore, to find that he was looking at her with a surprised expression.
Albus Dumbledore speechless, not an everyday scene.
"Well, we shall talk about this later, but first, we shall discuss what I came here for. Please follow me." Dumbledore said after recovering.
Harry walked with Dumbledore, ignoring the countless shocked stares they were getting from the public. Dumbledore walked towards Gringotts, entering and talking with the goblin behind the desk. Harry couldn't understand a word that they were saying, so she assumed that it was Gobbledygook. Dumbledore then turned to her and mentioned her to follow him.
They walked into a empty room, empty of everything except a desk and two chairs. Dumbledore walked behind the desk and mentioned Harry to sit down. Wonder why he isn't talking, must be sill surprised. After processing that thought in her mind for about a second, Harry thought that what happened back in the entrance must be quite serious.
"We, or, rather, I am here to discuss with you about some other things I have been keeping from you." Dumbledore told her.
Harry was quite startled. He has been keeping more things form me, "And what exactly are these things?"
Dumbledore sighed at her anger, "You have herd that the Potter Family was one of the oldest pureblood families, right? Well, that's what it is, the Potter's Family account here at Gringotts was kept secret from you, and all of Wizarding society, for the fear that we may loose some of the precious books and artifacts contained in there."
"Precious books and artifacts?" Harry asked.
"Rare family books, rings, bracelets, among other things."
"So, can I look at it?" Harry asked.
"That's exactly what we are here to do." Dumbledore smiled.
Dumbledore stood up and began walking to the door, opening it up and signaling her to come. Harry walked behind Dumbledore to the same goblin they had met before. Dumbledore began talking with the goblin, and the goblin walked off to the cart, Harry and Dumbledore following.
"Grip here will be taking us to the two Potter Family vaults." Dumbledore told her.
"Vaults?" Harry asked.
"You will see."
They rode down the roller coaster, all the way down, until they stopped at the vaults numbered six and seven. They stepped out of the cart and Grip went up to number six and opened it by pressing his hands on the door. The door glowed a pale yellow for a moment, and opened up, letting green steam pass out of the years untouched vault. When it was fully open, Dumbledore and Harry stepped in to reveal the most amount of books on one side on the vault and on the other side, the most amount of cased rings, necklaces, and bracelets.
Dumbledore walked over to the ring collections and opened up the glass case, pulling out a ring, and walking back to Harry.
"This is what your parents created to celebrate the birth of their new child, Harry. This is for you now." Dumbledore said handing the ring to Harry.
The ring was very simple, yet elegant. It had a gold band lined with perfectly square cut emeralds and rubies. Harry put it on her right hand and instantly it shrunk to fit the size of her finger. Harry held her hand out and examined the ring again, to find that there was an encryption glowing behind the stones, it read: "Harriet Lily Potter". Confused, Harry looked at Dumbledore.
"The medi-wizard told them that you were a girl, it came as a complete surprise to them, to find you the day after you were born to be a boy not a girl." Dumbledore told her.
"But why are you giving it to me now?" asked Harry.
Dumbledore just smiled and said, "Happy Birthday Harry."