Harry landed with a bang... in the middle of Diagon Alley.
"Whoops," he whispered to himself while hiding the time-turner and collecting his trunk. He hoped the king (the bloody king of goblins, in his trunk!) was okay in there, but he didn't dare stop and open his trunk in the middle of the street.
As he was walking to the bank he continuously bumped into people. Seeing more people, more witches and wizards than he had ever seen in Diagon Alley in his life, was unnerving. After being alone for so long the thought of people gave him a happy, warm feeling but it also freaked him out more than a bit.
When he got to the bank, while walking to a desk he bumped in to a little curly red-headed thing. It had tears in its eyes and reminded him uncannily of a baby Ron. He bent down to the little guy's level and with the flick of his hand, conjured a dark blue handkerchief. (Children were so much easier to deal with than adults.)
"Here you are, my good sir," he said, while trying to take a bow on his knees. This got a laugh out of the little boy, which is what Harry was aiming for. "Are you lost?" he asked the frightened young red head. The little boy nodded. "If you will let me, I'm going to pick you up and we are going to try and find your family. Okay?"
The 18 year old heard a whispered, "Okay." He then tried to pick the boy up and carry his trunk at the same time. It didn't work.
"Okay..." he mumbled to himself, "not going to happen." So instead he pulled out the letter that Gripeamear gave him and walked over to the nearest goblin, leaving the trunk where it sat.
"Can you help me?" the green-eyed teen asked. "This needs to go to King Gripeamear." The goblin's mouth dropped open as his eyes flickered to Harry's trunk. Several of the surrounding goblins stopped what they were doing in shock, but Harry, oblivious, kept talking.
"This little boy has lost his family and I need to get that trunk over there," he turned around and pointed at the trunk in the middle of the room, "emptied into a safe." More goblins looked up, suddenly alert as several people around him began to notice as well.
Before Harry had left the future, the goblins had worked their goblin magic on him and he was now unnoticeable to most passerby, unless they were really focusing on him. He would remind people of someone they knew, but bear only a passing resemblance to the Potters. However, with staring goblins and a little lost red head, people were starting to look. The goblin simply nodded with a dazed look and went to get the trunk. Harry thanked him and then went outside with the little boy.
"Do you have a name?" Harry asked. The redhead stared at him with wide eyes. Harry thought about the resemblance to his friend and asked, "Are you a Weasley?" He shook his head. "Prewitt?" The little boy looked at him with a smile and nodded. Harry knew exactly where to go.
Mrs. Weasley had told Harry that her side of the family had worked at the Ministry for generations. So that was exactly where Harry was headed.
When Harry got to the Ministry he had a very talkative young Prewitt in his arms.
"My brother wanted a pet kitten so I went to get him one, but I got lost then I saw the big building and thought someone could help me, but those goblins are scary and I tried to be a big boy and not cry cuz my brother says crying is for babies, but then I found you and..."
"Liam!" someone with red hair called and rushed at them.
"Daddy!"
"Liam, what have I told you about running off?" The man who Harry assumed was Ron's grandfather (er, great-grandfather?) rushed over and took Liam from the teen's arms.
"Thank you so much. My wife is taking care of her mother so I took my sons and well..."
"I think moms get more practice than we do."
The man laughed and nodded. "I completely agree. My name is William Prewitt," he introduced himself while holding out his hand.
Harry had gone over this with Gripeamear. "James Evans, it's nice to meet you, but I really must be going."
"Of course, and thank you for bringing back my son."
Harry realized that he had just left the goblins hanging and apparated back to Gringotts. When he arrived, a goblin came and pulled him over to a private room where he found an identical Gripeamear to the one he was certain was currently hanging out in his trunk.
"Mr. Potter, this letter," he waved it in the air, "it is quite intriguing." Harry breathed out. This must be the younger king.
"Yes, well, I'm not sure what it says," Harry admitted. "You just told me to give it to yourself... I mean, your future self- from my time line, told me to give it to his past self? I mean..."
"It is quite alright. We will get everything ready for you. My letter to myself says you are 18. In goblin years, you are still a child so I have taken it upon myself to be your guardian and financial adviser. We goblins don't do this lightly, Mr Potter, or should I call you Mr. Evans?"
"James will do fine." When he saw the shocked looks of the other goblins he added, "So that I can get used to the name."
"Of course, James. Now if you will follow me." The king of the goblins brought James to a vault where the goblins had emptied most of Harry's (er, James's?) money. The goblin king then handed a bag of 1,000 gallons to James and said, "Come back tomorrow and I will have house properties ready for you. Do what you will in the mean time and be in bed early. Tomorrow will be difficult. Although... I'm sure I won't let you sleep in." The goblin winked (winked!) at James and James knew that the king knew about his future as James's extra passenger. (What had he told himself about trying to think like Hermione?!)
Much to the surprise and pleasure of the goblins, James shook King Gripeamear's hand and thanked him before bowing and walking out with a thousand galleons left in his trunk.
James first stopped at the Leaky Cauldron where he rented a room for the night. He took his trunk inside and opened up the king's compartment. "Are you alright in there?"
"Hmmm? Are we here?" The goblin looked up lazily from his book.
"Are you going to continue going by Gripeamear? It's just... It hurts my head to think about you in two places at once."
The goblin continued to peer up at him, bemused, before finally going back to his book. Harry wondered what kind of answer that meant. He supposed it was probably a rather rude question, but Ron wasn't here and someone had to pick up his tactlessness. Even Ron probably wouldn't dare asked the king of goblins such a question. Maybe he should apologize? Just as he was deciding on how best to word his apology without making things worse, the goblin answered him. "Gurggik. Call me Gurggik, for now."
Harry nodded. That would help. He left the trunk open, but put spells on the door to lock it before heading out to do some shopping. Even if someone broke in (he assumed that Gurggik would put up his own spells to prevent that from happening), they would be met with the king of goblins himself. It's not like they could steal a freaking goblin.
The first stop was going to be the pet store to get a familiar, but he passed by the CleanSweep1000 and just had to buy it. He left the store feeling as if he had a piece of his best friend shrunken in his pocket. When the teenager entered the pet store, he was shocked at how many more toads there were now than in the future. There were lizards and geckos in tanks next to them and then, in the corner, he spotted the snakes.
"What can I do for you sir?" the owner asked James.
"I'm just looking but if I need anything, I will know who to go to." What James really wanted was for the man to go away so that he could talk to the snakes. When the man finally got the hint and gave James some space, the green-eyed teen turned to the snakes.
"Hello, my friendss," he hissed.
"A Sspeaker!"
"Yess, I would like to keep one of you as a friend and a conspirator to help me achieve my... planss. You would not be able to bite anyone unlessss I say so and you would get to roam free, and..."
"Sspeaker you are rambling," the eldest one commented. Harry wasn't sure how he knew this was the eldest. It was just another instinct he had. "Any of uss would be honored to be taken away from thiss cage to be with a Sspeaker. But I ask you to take the littlest one, else she will not survive."
James saw the tiny snake. She was a magical sea snake. Her scales were a silvery turquoise and green, meaning she was extremely poisonous, but that she needed a certain amount of water that she was not getting in the tank.
"I can help you Sspeaker, I will do all I can," she stated in a somehow silky, sickly voice.
James agreed to take her, but he also took the eldest one. He seemed wise and while not poisonous he was a magical snake. He also seemed to be over 300 years old (He wondered bizarrely if he and Gurggik had ever crossed paths.) and had over 200 years to go before he was going to die anyway. So James bought all the equipment he would need for the snakes. He took his new friends, who were arguing over something seemingly silly, and took the goblin king's advice (Gripeamear, rather than Gurggik, although he supposed Gurggik wasn't likely to argue with himself.) in going to bed early after he had gotten his new friends settled, of course.
Tomorrow he would go back to Gringotts and explain his plan to Gripeamear.