Chapter 2: Goblins and Vaults

Summary: The Gringots trip

Disclaimer: Check the prologue.

As the world around Harry suddenly stopped spinning, he found himself landing right on his arse in the middle of a large stone room. The sound of muffled, snorting laughter roused him from his sitting position and before he could process what he was doing, had his wand out and a curse on his tongue. It was at this point that Harry realized two very important things, the first being that the room that he was in was a grand office with a gold ceiling and gold wall sconces spaced out on the walls. There was a larger than life mural of a bloody battle where Harry could see goblins brutally hacking wizards apart with swords, axes, and in some cases their claws. In the middle of the back wall Harry saw a desk standing there, made from ebony with intricate gold inlays; all of this was impressive, but then as Harry's gaze took in the goblin who had laughed at his slightly less than graceful landing, it was clear that this was not a being to be trifled with. The goblin had a face that had clearly seen battles and time, also he was resplendent in silk battle robes through which Harry swore that he could see the outline of a breastplate. After what seemed to be several minutes of silence, the wizened goblin spoke, "Mr. Potter, allow me to properly introduce myself. I am Ragnok, Director of Gringots Great Britain and leader of the British Goblin Nation."

Harry approached the desk and out of instinct fell to one knee and said, "Truly it is an honor, to be able to meet and in person thank the being that keeps mine, and the rest of the wizarding world's treasure safe. And may I be so bold as to say that you would likewise protect my interests?

"Of course you may, Mr. Potter, now rise and be seated, we have much to do today." Ragnok went and took a seat and once Harry had done the same he continued, "Your godfather has laid out for you the start to the rest of your life, and before you ask, I know the details because I personally had to arrange a number of them, in fact that is why you are meeting with me instead of a desk clerk. If you have no complaint, the order that we will conduct business today will be as follows: you will review and sign your emancipation papers, then we will perform the blood adoption ritual so that you will be Mr. Black's heir by blood, then we will read the will of Mr. Black followed by the will of your birth parents. After that I will personally take you down to claim and view your new vaults and after all of that we will come back here to discuss some further matters which will bring the conclusion of your business here today. Do you have any questions?"

Harry pondered for a moment and asked, "What is this about a blood adoption ritual? I have never heard of such a thing, and is it painful?"

Judging the feral grin that Ragnok was giving him, Harry was understandably hesitant. "The ritual is rarely used now as there is little need for it in today's climate, it was widely used in the era of the Hogwarts Founders as a means to adopt children when their parents fell in battle. This is magic at its base, what is essentially done is that we add some of the adoptive parents blood and therefore DNA into your system. What this does is give you some of the physical and magical characteristics of your adoptive parent, when done as a baby, the result is much more pronounced. As you grow older, you become more set to your body's configuration and to attempt to change it would yield a more painful yet less effective result. The two main gains you would get from this would be to gain the inheritance that your godfather intended and also the process helps to counteract some of the physical imperfections and defects that you might have."

Harry nodded resolutely, if this was what Sirius wanted him to do, then it would be done no matter the cost. "Lets get this done," Harry said. Ragnok brought over a parchment, a vial of what Harry was certain was Sirius' blood, and a shallow stone basin.

"This parchment is your emancipation document, to sign it simply press your thumb in the square at the bottom and it will draw a drop of you blood to seal it " Harry did this and felt a swirl of magic within him, "That feeling was the ministry tracking charms being nullified, now we will perform the blood adoption ritual, prepare yourself as this will not be a pleasant sensation." Ragnok grasped Harry's wrist and held it over the basin. He efficiently drew his index claw across Harry's wrist, severing the blood vessels in what was most assuredly a mortal wound. He then picked up the vial of blood and started to speak, "May this blood, freely given be used to claim Harry James Potter as the son and rightful heir to Sirius Orion Black, may the blood of the father heal his son and make him his own." As he said this, Ragnok poured the blood across Harry's sliced wrist. Harry looked on in horrified fascination as the ritual reminded him strongly of the one that brought Voldemort back to a body; as he watched, the blood, both his and Sirius' was absorbed into his wound which closed without so much as a scar. After all of the blood was gone, Harry felt a tingle in his chest that quickly spread through his entire body as the ritual started to take effect. The tingle was soon replaced with a burning that seemed to come from the inside out, at that moment Harry could have sworn he felt his bones lengthening and his muscles growing, it was as if he could feel every cell in his body and then that feeling abruptly cut off to be replaced by the feeling of intense pressure in his chest. Harry reasoned that this must be the change to his magical core that he was enduring. All of the sudden the pressure increased tenfold and all Harry knew was darkness.

As Harry slowly made the journey back to wakefulness he was distinctly aware that his entire body felt like it had been used for bludger target practice. He attempted to ask what happened, but all that came out was a muffled, "Wha hmmpmed?" Ragnok was obviously on the same wavelength as Harry responded.

"Well Mr. Potter, you do seem to be full of surprises! Normally wizards do not lose consciousness during this procedure, but it appears that you have two particular aspects about you that caused a slightly...unexpected result. The first contributing factor would be the blocks that were on your magical core, for powerful children it is not uncommon for the parents to place a block until the child enters school and has an outlet for all of that energy. You, Mr. Potter have, or I should say had four blocks on your magic; while you were unconscious I took the liberty of scanning your magic to determined what happened. The first block was placed by your parents and blocked half of your available magic, the other two normal blocks were placed the day after your parents' death by Albus Dumbledore which then gave you access to only an eighth of your natural magic. The last block, I believe was inadvertently placed by the dark lord when he tried to kill you; this block prevented you from being able to perform any mind magic. The other contribution to your previous state was the incorporation of two other forms of DNA into your own, if my analysis is correct (Harry got the distinct impression that Ragnok's impressions were hardly, if ever, wrong) the foreign matter was from a phoenix and a basilisk."

"Yeah I guess that would make sense," Harry said. He was truly shocked at this turn of events, "What will this do to me?"

"The best that I can figure, you have gained heightened physical strength from the phoenix and an immunity to all known illnesses and poisons. From both you have an increase in magic which increases you to about half again from you full strength, more in fire magic or parstlemagic. That means you have about twelve times the power at your command than what you had before coming into this office, oh, and I imagine that since both of those creatures live to be thousands of years old, you won't be needing cosmetic charms to hide your wrinkles for quite some time."

"Holy Shite! This is truly incredible, do you have a mirror that I can look at my new and improved self in?" Ragnok merely smiled and gestured to the side of his office where a mirror materialized. As Harry approached the mirror he noticed that he was a solid 8 inches taller and had broad, muscular shoulders and chest. His arms and torso were well defined but not grotesquely so, and his waist and legs had the appearance of a runner. Harry looked at his face to see that his hair now ran down a little past his shoulders in gentle waves and was shocked to discover that he did not have glasses on! After gaping at himself for a few minutes, he made his way back to Ragnok and said, "Wow, that was cool! But I suppose that you have better things to do than watch me gawk at myself, shall we proceed?"

"Indeed, we will now go over the wills of your godfather and your parents." Ragnok opened a scroll and started to read, "I, Sirius Black, being of sound mind and body hereby declare this to be my last will and testament. To Remus Lupin, I leave my house in London to do with as he sees fit and 100,000 galleons. To my Aunt Andromeda Tonks, I reinstate you and by extension your husband and daughter into the house of Black. To each of you I leave 10,000 galleons and an annual stipend to be available to my heir as advisers. Everything else is to be left to my heir Harry James Black Potter, he has been emancipated and endured a blood adoption ritual so to make my claim incontrovertible. My final act is to banish Bellatrix Black Lestrange, Narcissa Black Malfoy and all of their offspring from the Black family. This is my will, so mote it be."

Taking a pull from a glass of water on his desk, Ragnok reached for the other will and opened it. "We, James and Lily Potter being sound of mind make this our last wishes. If either of us is to die, all of our assets are to go to the other. In the event of both of us passing, we leave everything to our son Harry to be held in trust until his majority. This concludes our will, so mote it be." Ragnok paused to set the parchment down and said, "Mr. Potter, it is my honor to be the first to call you by your new title, Lord Harry James Black Potter, may your wealth and prosperity ever increase. Now, if you are agreeable I would like to take you to claim your vaults, you might also find some items that you would like to take with you." Ragnok said this last with a grin that Harry couldn't help but be reminded of Dumbledore's ever-present twinkle.

As the two made their way down the tunnels to where the oldest vaults of Gringots lay, Harry asked, "So, how much money do I actually have?"

Ragnok gave what Harry assumed to be the goblin version of a snicker and said, "Well in liquid money you have roughly five billion galleons, but there are many priceless heirlooms and estates. When considering the top ten richest wizarding families, the value gets rather difficult to quantify, being that the Potters were number seven and the Blacks were number nine, the combined fortunes put you at about number three or four." The cart rolled to a stop and Ragnok hopped out of the cart and said, "Here we are at the Potter Family Vault, to enter simply place your hand on the door, it will sense your magic and if you are worthy, allow you entrance and allow you to let others in."

Harry stepped forward and placed his hand on the door, nothing happened at first and then all of the sudden the door creaked open and Harry was speechless. Unlike his old vault that simply had piles of money in them, the money in this vault was neatly stacked and in one sector of the vault, next to the coins, there were numerous display cases and boxes of jewelry and loose gems. As his eyes continued to survey the cavern, Harry noticed some muggle file cabinets that must contain the deeds to his properties and other important documents. Beyond that, there was a large selection of furnishings and other wizarding essentials such as trunks, cloaks, and cages; there was also a large selection of foe glasses, omnoculars, and what appeared to be a pensive. The other half of the vault was divided into two sections, a huge library and an armory, Harry quickly turned to Ragnok and gave him permission to enter the vault, "Ragnok, I have a feeling that you know what is in this vault better than I do. Could you please help me pick out the items that will help me the most in your opinion?"

"Of course Mr. Potter, lets get you a trunk and some new clothes first." Ragnok said this last with some distaste as he eyed Harry's worn clothes. He proceeded to point out a relatively plain trunk that had nine locks on it, they were arranged in three triangles with a silver square in the center of each triangle. "Your grandfather commissioned one of the Gringots master carpenters to build this trunk for your father as a graduation present from Hogwarts. Your grandfather was fairly well versed in the muggle world and had aura readers installed for each class of compartment. Those silver squares act similarly to fingerprint scanners, except that they scan your magic which coincidentally cannot be replicated. To access a compartment, simply press your thumb to the correct reader and then knock your fist on the top of the trunk for the number compartment you want. For example, if I were to open the sixth compartment, I would scan the middle reader and knock three times, the locks are just a clever diversion and any tampering with the locks activates one of the various security countermeasures that the trunk is equipped with. Also the compartments are sized so that the first three are twice the size of a normal compartment, the next are eight times the size, and the last are the size of your common room. I would recommend setting the last three up as a training room, war room, and armory." Ragnok then led Harry over to the clothes, "All of these clothes are self fitting and made from acromantula silk and are therefore silent, slightly spell resistant, and charmed to keep the wearer comfortable. I would suggest several sets of pants and long sleeve shirts as well as these two coats." The coats of mention were long trench coats that were easily mistakable for wizard robes on first glance and appeared to be lined with something. "These coats are identical and designed to be battle cloaks that can pass as normal robes to the common observer. The outside is silk like I mentioned before, but these are lined with basilisk hide and have numerous pockets inside and out for holding weapons as well as sword slits in the shoulders."

To say that Harry liked the coats was a vast understatement, he was almost giddy with excitement and quipped a "Cool! Whats next?" to a very amused goblin clan chief. Ragnok led Harry over to the armory and told him to open his senses to find the right weapons and armor for him. Harry closed his eyes and felt a tug to his left and followed it; when he opened his eyes he saw a set of armor that looked to be Roman in origin. The armor consisted of a breastplate two bracers and a set of grieves all looked to be made from leather yet had the stiffness of iron. Attached to the breastplate was a tag that had the following description:

This armor once belonged to Arthur Pendragon and is considered to be one of the finest examples of armor that works in both the wizarding and muggle world to date. It is made from a central layer of scale armor mithril from the dwarves that is surrounded by manticore hide and basilisk hide with an additional layer of unicorn hide on the inside to protect the user and keep him comfortable. The unicorn hide was kindly donated by a herd of unicorns after Arthur saved a grove that the creatures liked. The bracers and greives are also scale mithril, but it is covered in a layer of Basilisk hide. Though this armor is on the heavy side, there is no better protection, magic or otherwise.

Harry opened one of the middle compartments in his trunk and put the armor and clothes in. He then went over to the books and started to peruse the selection when Ragnok came over, "Mr. Potter, I was planning on broaching this subject in a little bit, but now seems to be a good a time as any. The goblin nation recognizes you as the true cause to rally behind in this conflict. If either Voldemort or the ministry are victorious, we lose; it is because of this, the board of directors wanted me to offer you anything that might help you in your quest. After helping you thus far, I can think of a suggestion that might please you and in turn help insure the future of the bank. As we cannot join the fighting directly, I believe equipping you is the best alternative. You see, Mr. Potter goblins live a relatively short lifespan and are therefore dedicated to using every possible moment to be productive. One way we do this is by casting learning and retention spells on young goblins so that they can get their education over more quickly. The drawback of the spell is that it can only be cast once and is only active for six months. remember however, that during those months you will be able to learn much faster and retain all of that knowledge. We also have a more experimental technique that allows us to basically place information into your mind, so far, the only succesful transfer has been our weapons package which includes firearms, edge weapons, unarmed combat, and tactics. Would you like me to perform these spells on you Mr. Potter?"

"I would be delighted if you would Ragnok, I can think of no better way for your kind to help equip me for my destiny than in this way." Ragnok nodded and then closed his eyes and started to chant in his own language. After a minute the chanting stopped and Harry felt such a remarkable clarity, it was just unexplainable. He immediately summoned all of the books on combat, mind arts, charms and transfiguration from the library. After that Harry turned to Ragnok and said, "Can we go to the Black vault please?" As the cart stopped in front of the next vault, harry took in the door that was made to look as if it were made from obsidian. Shaking himself from his revere, Harry approached the door and put his hand on it; like the last one, the door creaked open and Harry went in. The first thing he did was to allow Ragnok into the vault and then he took a look around. The vault was arranged in the same order that the Potter vault was, and Harry made a bee-line to the armory. As he stepped into the armory, Harry closed his eyes and let his instincts guide him. He was pulled in two directions, so he followed the one to his left first. He opened his eyes to see two swords of a Japanese make on a ceremonial stand, they were both the same length, with about twenty inch blades and then he spotted the tag. It read:

These were the swords of one of the last wizard samurai. Instead of a traditional daimo (a long and a short sword), he carried the two short swords. It is said that if a user is destined to use these swords, he must bleed on the blades and then not only will they never injure the user, but if the user has strong enough magic, he can cast through the blades. This is because instead of steel, the blades are a composite made from silver and mithril and were forged by the dwarves and then enchanted by goblins. These two races together gifted these swords to that daimo long ago as thanks for providing them a favor.

Before he could talk himself out of it, Harry unsheathed the swords and cut his palm and dripped blood on both of the blades. the swords briefly glowed and then Harry's palm was healed, he sheathed the swords and picked them up. Closing his eyes, Harry followed the pull to the other end of the armory, opening his eyes he saw many throwing knives as well as cassettes that held throwing stars. The cassettes had belt clips on them and looked to hold five or so shiruken. Seeing that all of these appeared to be made of silver Harry took them up and put all of his loot into his trunk. Harry then made his way to the library section and did the same as he had in the Potter vault. Stopping briefly at the cash area of the vault, Harry loaded up the third of the middle size compartments of this trunk with gold and then exited the vault. On the way back up to the surface Ragnok asked Harry to follow him back to his office for one final bit of news.

After sitting behind his desk, Ragnok produced a large briefcase. "Mr. Potter, I know that I have upheld my part of the bargain for assisting you with this conflict, but as you have shown no prejudice to me today you have confirmed what several others have said about you, Mr. Potter, you are destined to not only defeat this current threat of darkness, but you are also the harbinger of change for all of the sentient races a voice for equality that wizards will actually listen to, and for that I give you this gift; two very very powerful weapons." Ragnok opened the case and Harry was more than a little surprised at what he saw, there in the case were two pistols, ten magazines and a device that Harry was unsure of. As if sensing his questions Ragnok said, "You see, as a means to make some extra money the Goblin Nation branched into the industry of manufacturing muggle firearms under the company name of ParaOrdinance. These are two S14-45 Limited handguns that have been extensively modified. The barrels have been bored and compensators have been installed to decrease the recoil, and the sights are modified to allow for easier draw. I have included 6 magazines for each and the last thing in this case is a mold to make twenty-five bullets at a time with, the molds have runes inscribed on them so that the bullets will work normally, but also if a wizard puts up a shield the runes work to sap the strength from the shield enough to let some rounds in. I am also including twenty thousand premade rounds and the charms you need to handle reloading. Also, if you obtain more guns let me know so that I can provide ammunition for you. Good luck and good hunting Mr. Potter."

Rising to leave Harry bowed to Ragnok and said, "May our paths cross again and may your gold grow well until then." Harry then relieved Ragnok of the case and took one of the pistols and two of the magazines out and put the case in his trunk. Harry put one clip in his pants pocket and the other into the gun. He chambered a round and let the hammer down and then slid the handgun into the back of his trousers and made his way into the shadows of Nocturn Ally.All the while thinking how natural it felt to have that cold steel at the small of his back.