Thank all people for the wonderful reviews. And to Lila and Ravenclawperson, I have got your characters and am adding them! Woo! From now on all chapters are from Jennifer's perspective because it's hard to switch perspectives!
I don't own Harry Potter. Most of my characters are OCs, but some characters and Hogwarts, Hogsmede, ect. belong to JK Rowling and ONLY JK Rowling. Not me.
The Invisible Alleyway
Jane's mom didn't waste any time getting out of the Leaky Cauldron, and I didn't blame her. The place was beginning to give me the creeps. We were shown up to a shabby room on the second floor of the inn. I walked into the room. The windows were dirty and the floor creaked. I tested the mattress with my hand. It was nearly all unstuffed.
"Merlin's pants, this place is a dump" remarked Jane, as she set down her trunk. Her mother looked at her reprimandingly, but Jane just rolled her eyes. She stepped onto the threadbare carpet and it let out a cloud of dust, causing me to sneeze a cluster of about 7 sneezes. I have really bad allergies.
"Gesundheit!" added Emma, noticing my allergy attack.
"This is the best room I could get." Jane's mom told us. I didn't say this aloud, but if this was the best, I didn't want to see the other rooms. I tried not to be to offensive to her, but I couldn't help noticing a rat scurry by and head under the bed. I made a mental note not to reach under there.
After we dumped out stuff in out room, Jane's mom rushed us out the back door into a small back area enclosed by a tall brick wall. There were several black garbage bags in the corner. I stood there for a while, and then said;
"Wow. Garbage. So magical. I definitely couldn't have seen that when I was living with Muggles."
Emma gave me a stern look, as if to say Don't be mean.
Jane's mom ignored me and took out a long, thin stick like the ones the Death Eaters had used to torture Jane. I shuddered. She began to tap bricks in a seemingly random order, and muttered something under her breath. Suddenly, the bricks began to shift, moving, turning like machinery, until the brick wall had an archway carved into it. I looked at it amazed.
"Um, sorry, Mrs. Deerfield." I muttered, still in awe of the magic. I liked to count that as my first real encounter with magic, since the Death Eaters in the Divee hadn't used nice magic, and somehow, I didn't count Floo powder.
She motioned us through the arch into an incredible street, bustling with robed wizards and witches, some leading children about my age in regular clothes, and older kids already wearing robes, carrying bags and bundles and piles of strange objects. One mother lead a kid maybe one year older than me into a shop, saying; "You'll need these if you want to try out for Quiddich..." I passed several shops, like Flourish and Blott's, a store with many strange books in the windows, and a building with a sign that said Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, with windows filled with punching telescopes and boxes of fireworks. Squinting, I managed to make out a tall man with red hair sitting behind the desk. Was it just me, or did he look sort of sad?
Finally, we stopped in front of a marble building, with GRINGOTTS carved into the rock above the door. It was awe-inspiringly tall, with columns that reached all the way up. The windows were engraved with a golden text that read;
Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed
For those who take but do not earn
Must pay most dearly in their turn.
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.
Intimidated by this, I took my attention elsewhere. Shielding my eyes from the sun, I looked up to the top, which must have been several hundreds of feet above the ground. I would have spent more time admiring, but Mrs. Deerfield pushed us through the large doorway. Once again, I stopped in my tracks.
The Gringotts lobby incredibly grand. Gold chandeliers hung from the ceiling, and expensive-looking carpet covered the floor. Dark wooden desks bordered the room. Odd creatures with long pointy ears and scowls on their faces stood behind the desks.
"Goblins." muttered Jane. "Don't want to mess with them." I thought back to the poem on the door and silently agreed.
Her mom walked calmly up to a desk and, digging in her bag for a moment and pulled out two lead keys. She placed them on the desk in front of a particularly unpleasant-looking goblin, and stated, "We need to make a withdrawal from vaults number 386 and 548." The goblin nodded and said; "Very well" and another goblin appeared, took the keys, and ushered us through another archway into a long tunnel. We climbed into a small rickety cart. It didn't look as if it could support the weight of one adult, two normal sized eleven-year-olds, one underweight eleven-year-old, and a goblin, but it did.
"You don't get motion-sickness, do you?" asked Jane, but it was too late. The cart gave a lurch, and sped off down the rusted track. I didn't get motion-sickness, but I did scream a lot. The goblin gave me an annoyed glare, but, hey, this is why I don't go on roller coasters! Finally, the car gave another unpleasant lurch, and stopped rather abruptly in front of vault number 386.
Mrs. Deerfield stepped out, and we followed. The vault in front of us was large, bulky, and made of metal. An elaborate lock consisted of several bars of metal interlocking and twisting around each other. In the center of the complicated web was a brass plate with a keyhole in it. Jane's mom handed one of the keys to the goblin, who inserted it into the keyhole. With a sharp turn, the bars began to untwist themselves, freeing themselves from the tangle and straightening out into plain rods, which then hung down straight from the sides of the vault. The goblin pulled at a handle and the doors came open, revealing the treasures inside.
Jane and her mother didn't have much reaction, but Emma and I looked confusedly first at the contents of vault number 386, then at each other. Then, Emma giggled.
"What?" I demanded, irritated. Emma handed me a makeup mirror. To my amusement, it appeared that I had lost control of my metawhatsawhositing once again. Freckles had sprung up on my face and collected to form a giant question mark. I managed to dissolve it, but I kept the freckles, which were kind of cute.
Anyway, back to the contents of vault 386. The large metal safe contained several piles of coins. There were large, gold coins, mini bronze coins, and medium-sized silver coins. Mrs. Deerfield held up one of the bronze ones.
"These are Knuts. They probably won't buy much except maybe a newspaper. She then held up one of the silver coins. "This is a Sickle. There are 29 Knuts in a Sickle. And there are.." Here she picked up a gold coin. "These are Galleons. There are 17 sickles in a Galleon. You can remember them because gold and Galleon both start with a G. Get it?"
Emma and I nodded, and then Jane's mom took two bags and put a number of coins into each.
"These will be your budget for the day."
I'm sorry this chapter is cut off, but it's getting to be really long and it's been ages since I posted a chapter. Also, check out my FictionPress story, .com/s/2865774/1/Liberator. If you want me to post chapter 2 of it, review it!