Chapter 4 (Encounter with Malfoy)
Harry's POV
Diagon Alley is absolutely amazing! I've never seen anything like it! I definitely did take some pictures on my camera, just in case I get to see Dudley sometime soon, he would love this place! I just walked past the Quidditch shop and it looks great in there, but I can't stop, I need to exchange my money, something like that anyway. For some reason they don't use sterling around here.
I got to the gates of Gringotts, which only took about two minutes as I sped through the crowd, not wanting to get noticed. It's this really tall wonky building and it says 'Gringotts' on the front of it. I'm quite glad about that though, even if it does look silly.
'what are those things?' I thought to myself as I headed to what looked like a reception, but there was a really high desk thing with a thingy sitting behind it. Really should have asked Petunia about this stuff before leaving the house so sudden but oh well.
"Erm, excuse me, could you let me know where I can change my money?" I asked, speaking surprisingly clear and loud. The thing looked up and raised his eyebrows, well, what was left of them anyway.
"Mr Potter, do you have your key?" It asked, I frowned in confusion.
"What key? How do you know who I am? Wait, Auntie said I was famous didn't she? Sorry, I don't know much about this world..." I could hear myself rambling on, but I couldn't exactly stop, the nerves were kicking in.
"Mr Potter if you will follow Griphook he will make you a second key, Albus Dumbledore has yours at the present time, but he will not be informed of this, he will be displeased," I nodded, keeping my mouth shut. If I asked anymore questions I'm sure they would kill me or something.
I followed him down to some sort of room, where he did a process of moulding the key, only he did it with magic. After that was done, we walked over to a black crate, sort of like those you see in theme parks when you're going on a ride.
The ride itself was horrible, I felt like I was going to be sick when we pulled to a stop.
"Mr Potter, this is your vault, number 687," He explained and I nodded. He opened a latch near the ground and used the key to open the door, my mouth literally went down to the floor. There were piles and piles of money in this big room.
"Is this like, gold?" I asked after a minute of soaking it all in. He laughed,
"No, Mr Potter, this is our own currency, we have Galleons, Knuts and Sickles, and in this vault, your family vault, there are $100,000,005 galleons, and as I understand it, that is a total of £200,000,005 in sterlin,"
My eyes widened, I'm basically a billionaire! How on earth did that happen?
"So, I- I'm rich?" I asked, stuttering. He looked at me and smiled and for my second shock today, he bowed to me. Why is he bowing?
"Mr Potter you are one of the wealthiest Wizard's in the land, the Malfoy's are first, then you and then I believe it is the Zabini's, yes, Mr Potter, you are rich,"
Oh my god. I honestly can't believe it...
"Sorry if I seem rude, but what are you?" I asked, it had been bugging me. I couldn't carry on talking to him without knowing. I thought that wouldn't be very poliet. He chuckled,
"We are Goblins, Harry," Griphook says as I take handful of Galleons, a handful of Knuts and two handfuls of sickles. Did he just say Goblin?
"Oh, that's cool!" I said cheerfully, trying to stuff the money in my pocket, which wasn't working terribly well as all that happened was I dropped the sickles.
"Here, Mr Potter, this is a money pouch, put what you have in there then tie it round your waist, don't worry about the heaviness, it has a light spell to cover it," Griphook explained and I did as I was told.
The ride back to the main office type place was a lot more fun then on the way there, I swear I heard like a dragon roar or something, but I might have just imagined it. As we stepped off, I smiled. I'm definitely going clothes shopping. It's as if Griphook read my mind, well, not literally, as he said,
"You'll want to go to Madam Malkin's first, that's the clothes shop around here, make sure you get some robes, that what they all wear, and you could get a wand, but that's up to you," He explained and I nodded, grinning from ear to ear.
"Thank you for your help, Griphook!" I said as a goodbye, he nodded, smiling. I walked out of there and headed straight to Madam Malkin's, I remembered where I saw the shop coming into the alley.
"Oh hello dear, how may I help?" A lady at the front asked. I was still smiling as I said,
"I'd like some new clothes-"
"Oh good lord! You're Harry Potter! Of course, welcome back, come right this way and I'll get you measured! Oh this is so exciting! Wait till I tell Andy from the Daily Prophet-"
"Er Miss, not to be rude or anything, but I really don't want any publicity, in fact I don't want any at all," I said, getting annoyed of the way she was acting. Her eyes grew big, she seemed quite scared too, in fact, but I didn't care. I just didn't want anyone to know I wasn't with the Dursley's.
"O-of course, M-Mr Potter, I'm so sorry for my behaviour," She says, I nodded and didn't reply. I don't like her. I watched as she did some measurements and I tried on a few robes, most of the ones I liked were dark green and dark blue, along with quite a few black ones. I also got some normal muggle jeans and shirts, seen as I only packed a days worth of those.
I also changed out of my clothes and put on black jeans and a green hoodie with a dark green robe over the top.
As I was waiting for her to get things sorted there was a boy waiting patiently on one of the stalls near the front. He had blonde hair. I frowned as he walked over to me, smirking,
"I like the way you handled her, she's new by the way, only just got the job yesterday, normally its Madam Malkin's but she's away on holiday," He explained, ah, that's why she acted the way she did.
"That explains that," I said, rolling my eyes in the direction of the girl who was now frantically rushing to get my order done. The boy laughed and nodded,
"Yes it does, I'm Draco Malfoy by the way," He said, holding his hand out. I smiled, shaking it, "I'm Harry Potter,"
"Nice to meet you," He said, before I could reply the greeting he continued to talk, "Did you see in the Prophet about Neville Longbottom burning the house down? I had a good laugh about that," Draco says, I chuckled,
"Yes, that was quite funny, I saw your Father on the front page, I think," I said, trying to recall what I read at half past midnight. Draco's face darkens, I feel like I said the wrong thing,
"Yes, he's always giving money to what he views as the poorer establishments in Diagon alley, just last week he gave some to Olivanders," Draco said, looking down to the floor. "Anyway, enough about that, why are you here and not with your relatives?" He asked, I pulled a face,
"Had a fall out with my brother, well, cousin, and I couldn't bare to be there any longer, I wanted to find out more about my parents so I came here," I explained, he nodded in understanding, as he was about to reply, there was a call for my name. Finally, about time she was finished.
"Well, you can write to me any time, hang on, before you go, here's my address," He says, writing it down on a bit of paper. "Buy an owl and then we can keep in contact?" He asked, handing the piece of paper over to me. I smiled,
"That sounds great, thank you Draco," I said as I picked up my bags. I think I've just made my first... friend?
A/N- so that's the chapter and that's how they met. God, I can't believe what's happened, sorry to confuse you all, that's me done for the day.(sobbing silently wrapped up in my duvet, thinking why the fuck did that happen)