Harry jolted upright. What was going on? Oh, right, the void, the voice... the game. Where was he though, the voice said he would go back to his eleventh birthday? Harry looked around at stonework in what seemed to be a to...
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Harry's watch went off, he glanced down at it. 12:00 am. Midnight. It all came rushing back to Harry. He was at the island that his uncle took them to so the owls couldn't find them. "I guess the voice meant my birthday quite literally. Hagrid should be here any second then," Harry thought.
*CRASH*
"Right on cue," Harry thought as he turned around. Before him stood the man, well, half-man that introduced him to the wizarding world. "I better make sure to act like Hagrid is a stranger and that I don't know anything about the wizarding world," Harry thought. Before him the scene unfolded as he remembered, making sure to act his part. It was particularly enjoyable to watch Hagrid give Dudley a tail. "I wonder if his wand fragments are in the umbrella, it would explain the magic," Harry thought eyeing the pink umbrella with the wooden shaft.
On journey to Diagon Alley Harry decided to start training his skills, asking Hagrid about magical creatures, knowing Hagrid would think nothing of it and greatly enjoying talking Harry's ear off. Hagrid jumped from topic to topic for a short while until settling on cerberuses, one in particular they both had experience with, Fluffy. Throughout the conversation a window with the text +1 Care of Magical Creatures would appeare in Harry's vision staying in the same spot no matter how he moved his eyes or head. Deciding to address it later Harry pressed the red X that resided in the top right corner of all the boxes and they disappeared.
/* SCENE CHANGE *\
Inside the Leaky Cauldron
Harry stared around the room, "so it begins again, hello wizarding world, here I come," Harry thought. And so it began, the groveling, the crying, and the stammering. All the things grown witches & wizards do when they meet the boy who lived. As Harry was greeted by the varying magicals in the Leaky Cauldron, Quirrell approached.
"He-He-Hello mister Po-P-Potter. I w-will be y-your De-De-Defense Against the D-D-Dark Arts instructor," Quirrell managed to stutter out. Rather than listen to his words though, Harry paid close attention to his scar. It seemed to hurt distinctly less than he had remembered it.
"Oh, it must be the Natural Occlumens perk I picked, this game's already paying off in a excellent bloody way," Harry thought excitedly.
+1 Occlumency
"It just keeps getting better and better," thought Harry as smirk stretched across his lips.
Harry and Hagrid having finally finished greeting various witches & wizards, exited the crowd and emerged at the back of the pub near the entrance to Diagon Alley. Before them lie the bricks that hide the place that had truly made magic a reality for Harry. It had all seemed like some grand dream until he stepped through that portal. A portal into another world. With these thoughts at the forefront of his mind Harry stepped into Diagon Alley and just as it did the first time around the sight before him resonated deeply. He had another chance, to make everything right, to save all those people. Harry stared forward, determined. This time he was serious.
Hagrid took Harry first to Gringots knowing Harry would lack Wizarding currency and so as to aquire to stone for Dumbledore. "Hagrid, I don't have any money," Harry said knowing that he could not let on knowing to much before he should.
"Don't worry Harry, your parents left you money. I have the key with me, I'll show you what to do, although I don't look forward to all that cart riding. Upsets my stomach it does," Hagrid grumbled.
"You can just give me my key then Hagrid. I'm sure I can figure it out," Harry said tired of acting the innocent.
Hagrid slightly surprised, stumbled a bit,"Err, if you're sure Harry. 'Ere you go." Harry, grinning at receiving his key, walked into Gringots slightly ahead of Hagrid already thinking of what to get outside of his standard school requirements.
Having approached a teller Harry pulled out key and presented it to the goblin, "Hello Mr. Goblin, I would like to access my trust vault," Harry said with respect realizing it would probably be better to not risk angering the goblins.
"And you are?" the goblin asked haughtily sneering down at Harry behind his high counter.
"I'm Harry Potter," Harry continued to be as respectful he could, although it was growing increasingly difficult with the goblins attitude.
"Is this the only vault you wish to access?" the goblin questioned.
Harry, now intrigued, asked, "I thought my trust vault was the only one I had, what other vaults do I have?" In the previous go-around extra vaults had not revealed themselves and this confused Harry. Where they new, he didn't think so, but why hadn't he found out about them?
The goblin, sighing for this would prove a great deal extra work began his explanation, "If you are who you claim to be, as the heir of the Potter family and the only one remaining, you may access the family vault at the age of eleven rather than having to reach your majority. Any family heirlooms not found on any Potter properties are likely to reside within this vault. If you wish to access it you must proof yourself as being Harry Potter through a test."
Having been intrigued Harry decided to investigate this new avenue, "what test must I go through Mr. Goblin?"
The goblin, rather than answering, disappears behind his desk appears before Harry, "follow me. The test is conducted within the bank," he says before waddling off. The pair pass through a set of doors in the side wall and proceed down several corridors and Harry quickly loses any idea of where he is before bumping into the back of the still nameless goblin as he halts in front of a plain, four paneled, dark wood door.
"Sorry Mr. Goblin," Harry says apologetically.
"No matter, you will enter this door and inside will be a table. Upon this table lay both a dagger and a bowl. You will use the blade to cut your finger and bleed into the bowl. The wound shall heal when the bowl has been filled sufficiently. Do you understand Mister Potter?" the goblin managed to say both derisively and respectfully at the same time.
"Yes, thank you," Harry said as he had already started walking through the door. As Harry closed the door behind himself he observed the room before him. It while not a plain room was not excessively decorated. It possessed a black & white tiled floor and simple blood red colored walls. Residing in the center of the room was a low table at about knee height. Atop the table the aforementioned knife and below, both elegantly simply. The knife of a simple wood handle and a keen 10 cm long blade. Accompanying it a white marble bowl. Both engraved with runes undecipherable to Harry.
Harry kneeled before the table and grasped the knife lifting and setting it across his finger. Without realizing the sharpness of the knife Harry had already provided himself with the cut and so he set the knife aside and held his hand above the bowl watching the blood slowly pool on the tip of his finger and then fall into the bowl. With each drop of blood the bowl pulsated with light growing brighter and brighter. When the light became so bright as to force Harry to shut his eyes it vanished along with all the blood in the bowl and the cut along his finger.
Harry exited the room very confused at what had occurred and uncertain whether he had passed or failed, "Mr. Goblin, how do I know if I passed, the bowl just got really bright then everything stopped?"
The goblin looked slightly shocked when Harry exited the room, but quickly schooled himself, "Kid, the fact that you're here is proof enough alone that you passed *chuckle*, walk with me," he said and began to walk down the corridor at a very sedated pace, "by the way, call me Poxbox," he called back over his shoulder.
Harry was shocked by this, he stood there for a moment before rushing after Poxbox, he had never seen or heard of a goblin acting like this before, what was going on. "Hey, uh, Poxbox, what just happened?" Harry asked, lacking any other way of phrasing his question.
"Huh, oh, well you aren't the first person to come he claiming to be Harry Potter you know, we're quite used to impostors and I had simply assumed you one. Now I know you aren't. Also, contrary to popular belief we goblins are evil ultra-serious tightwads with sticks up our arse. Its just with the adults of the wizarding world, some of the children haven't adopted the prejudice of their parents when they visit us so we are kind to them. Even if they have a fun time with us though they tend to be turned against us by that magical bag of cold air Binns," Poxbox said in a tone unheard by Harry from a goblin before. He sounded relaxed, not aggressive, it was odd to say the least. As they continued through hallways and onto the tracks through the caverns they discussed various aspects of goblin culture.
The cart ground to a halt before what Harry knew was his trust vault. He entered intended to grab more than enough for his schools supplies and all the other various things he intended to buy, but having gathered all the coins he realized, "This is a LOT of coinage, how am I supposed to carry this," he thought. "Hey, Poxbox, is there any way for me to carry all these coins with me, you know easily?" Harry asked looking back outside the vault at Poxbox.
Poxbox shook his head for a moment before face palming. "Whoops, I forgot. Gringots offers pouches directly connected to your vaults. Don't worry, they are tied to your magic so you needn't worry that someone can steal it and therefore your gold," he said before tossing a bag to Harry. As Harry grabbed it there was a flash of light and the bag seemed to suddenly weigh more. Harry reached into the bag and could feel coins within and end to which he could not find.
"Thanks Poxbox, this is gonna be really handy. Could we go check out the other vaults you mentioned earlier now? I'm hoping to find some useful stuff in them," Harry said as he hopped down off his mounds of gold, silver, and bronze coins approaching Poxbox. Together they left the vault and walked towards the cart.
"Well, that depends on which vault you want to go to. You have access to two others currently. There is your Potter Family vault and one your mother established that seems to have activated only due to you having met certain prerequisites, I do not know what they are but the contents of the vault will likely reveal them," Poxbox said to Harry as they clambered into the car and he readied it to move. Unbeknownst to most wizards the carts did in fact have more than one speed. Seven different speeds actually with the one used for wizards being the slowest. Having used the second level on the way down to the vault with Harry after asking his approval, Poxbox decided to step it up a notch even further to the fourth level.
"Uh, lets go to my family vault first, I'm really interested whats in there," Harry said while strapping himself in, but not knowing that the speed was to be increased didn't ready himself accordingly so when Poxbox grunted and activated the cart, Harry screamed as it shot down the cavern at speeds he had not been expecting. "AAAAAAaaahhh...," his voice echoed as he plummeted down through the caves further and further from the surface.
/* SCENE CHANGE *\
Before the Potter Family Vault
As Poxbox opened the door Harry thought excitedly to himself of what he might find with, he didn't know what to expect other than gold. Ancient tomes, family arts, awesome stuff in general. None the less Harry was excited. "Alright, here you go Har- *WHOOSH* -ry," Poxbox said as Harry rushed past him like the child he now resembled. In the vault was the expected mounds upon mounds of various wizarding coins, but off into the corner of the vault an area was set aside for other things. As Harry walked towards the area containing what seemed to large amounts of bookshelves.
Transfiguration, lots and lots of things to with transfiguration. The majority of the bookshelves contained books on varying kinds of transfiguration, even venturing into some alchemy. This would explain his father's greatly acclaimed ability in in transfiguration. Seemed to be a Potter specialty, kinda made sense with the name. Harry grabbed one of the books from a case titled "Master" only to discover he could not even begin to understand the text. He tried this again and again with books from varying shelves, only to discover that the only decipherable texts were those in the the Intro to Transfiguration series. "Well, crap. Guess the game reset my knowledge, bloody hell that's going to be a bit of a pain. At least it'll feel new," Harry said. Resigned to working from the bottom up Harry grabbed a bag from a nearby shelf and piled the entire Intro to Transfiguration series into it only to discover the bag was bottomless. "I guess it makes sense with all the books in their," Harry thought to himself as he strolled out of the vault back to the cart.
As Harry boarded the cart Poxbox kicked up the speed yet another notch, "HI-HO SILVER,"he shouted as they rocketed through the goblin made tunnels towards the next mystery of the journey.
/* SCENE CHANGE *\
Outside the Vault Established by Lily Potter nèe Evans
Harry wondered, what was going to be inside the vault, what requirements had he met unknowingly, would he get to learn more about his mother? Staring inside the opened vault Harry saw a pedestal upon which sat a trunk and upon that a sealed envelope. He surged forward and lifted the envelope with trembling hands. He slowly broke the seal and withdrew the contents. Inside lay a single letter form his mother.
Dear Harry,
If you are reading this it means I am dead, most likely at the hands of Voldemort. I leave behind for you on the chance that you inherited my gift. You see I am a parselmouth and you reading this means you are also. You must realize this is not some evil dark art others would tell you it is. It is simply another part of magic to be cherished by those who can wield it. I leave behind to you all the knowledge I have gathered on parseltongue so that you may develop your gift as I did mine and hopefully to greater heights.
From,
Your Loving Mother
Harry stared in awe at the letter, his mouth having fallen open. His mother was a parselmouth, "I'm not a parselmouth because of stupid Voldywort, but because my mother was one," Harry thought no longer feeling guilty of possessing such a trait. His gaze lifted to the trunk as a smirk split his face, "this time I'm going to make proper use of it." Grabbing the trunk Harry slid the letter into his pocket carefully, determined it remain undamaged. He walked up to Poxbox saying, "okay, I got everything I need for now. Let's go."
"Alright then Harry, get ready for the best cart ride of your life," Poxbox said with a mischievous grin as he turned the cart up to speed seven, "away we go!"
A/N Hey everybody, thanks for all the great feedback i'm loving it. Please keep on reviewing and everything.
Hey Vidacus, I would very much appreciate having a beta for the chapters
