CHAPTER 6

Vernon lay on his back on the floor of a store, right beside the fireplace. He looked around and saw towers of bookshelves around him. He stood up. There was nobody around. He seemed to be in some sort of library. He searched for the exit for a while before leaving the building. He turned around as he left. A sign on the door said "Out to lunch. Be back in 38 minutes." As Vernon stared at the sign, the '38' turned into a '37'. Vernon stepped back and looked up at the building. There was a large cutout of a book on the roof, with the words "Flourish and Blotts" next to it. He looked back down. This must be some sort of bookstore.

Vernon turned around. In the window across the street he finally saw what he was looking for- a broomstick. Furthermore, it looked exactly like Potter's! Vernon ran across the street and looked in the window. The tag on the broom said "Price on Request". Vernon sighed. He would need a lot of money to get this. But where could he possibly get that much money?

Vernon looked around. He saw a large, marble building at the end of the street. On the walls were carved the words "Gringotts Wizarding Bank". Vernon smiled. Potter had money, didn't he? Otherwise, how could he have afforded the broom in the first place? He would just take some money out of Potter's account to buy the replacement broomstick!

Vernon walked up to the entrance to the bank. There was a dragon carved above the door. Vernon gulped and walked inside.

There were rows of desks on either side, and a chandelier hanging above. Behind each desk was a strange creature, with bulbous heads, long fingers, pointed ears and hooked noses. There was a taller desk to the back. This also had one of the creatures behind it, and behind him was a mine cart. Vernon walked up to the creature.

"Errm... excuse me," said Vernon. The creature looked at Vernon. "I need to make a withdrawal from the account of Harry Potter."

The creature leaned towards Vernon.

"And do you have the key to the vault of Harry Potter?"

"Damn!" thought Vernon. "The one flaw in the plan!"

Vernon stared into the creature's eyes. Then, he quickly dashed around the desk and jumped into the mine cart. The cart started moving down the track.

"After him!" shouted the creature behind the tall desk. Vernon sped up as the track's sloped downward. Alarms went off. Vernon didn't know how far down he was, but he knew he couldn't stay in that mine cart for long. He jumped to the side and landed in front of a vault door. He looked back at the track. The cart sped away. A cart with three creatures quickly followed. As long as they still thought he was in that cart, Vernon thought, he was safe. Vernon turned around and looked at the vault next to him. Vernon put the Playstation, broken broom, & cooler next to him, took out the Wall-Buster, and began to drill the vault door. One minute later, the vault was still completely undamaged.

"The Wall-Buster is certainly harder than this door," Vernon mumbled. "but there isn't enough force behind it..."

Suddenly, two men in suits of armor loudly came up next to Vernon. They were each twice the size of Vernon's already large stature. Vernon stared at them and dropped his drill.

"Erm... yes? Can I help you?"

One of the men grunted and slammed his fist against the door. The second man walked slowly towards Vernon.

"Well, if it's a fight you want, then it's a fight you'll get! They didn't call me the Smeltings Academy heavyweight boxing champion for nothing!"

Vernon swung towards the second armored man. The man moved backwards to dodge, and fell over. The man put his arms behind him and started to push himself up. Vernon grabbed the man's leg and pulled to the side. The man lost balance and fell over the tracks into the abyss. Vernon looked back at the first man. The man had picked up Vernon's drill. Vernon slowly moved towards the vault door. The armored man swung the now activated drill straight at Vernon's head. Vernon dodged out of the way, and the full force of the drill was brought into the vault's hinge. The hinge broke, and the vault door landed on the large armored man, crushing him. Vernon snuck into the vault and quickly stuffed as many gold coins into his pockets as he could. He grabbed his things and was about to walk up on the tracks when he heard a voice coming up from below.

"There he is! Quick, call extra security!"

There was then a high-pitched whistle. The area below began to glow red. A large, dragon-like creature, was approaching. In fact, knowing this world, it probably was a dragon. The dragon's head passed Vernon on its way up the tracks.

"No, you stupid beast! You've passed him!"

Vernon looked around, and quickly jumped onto and hugged tightly the lizard's tail as it went past. There was a loud smashing sound as the dragon came up through the floor of the bank. Vernon jumped off the tail once he was on the surface, and walked out of the bank onto the streets. He looked back at the dragon. There was a chain around its neck, holding it to some place underneath the bank. Five people and six small creatures ran up to the beast. The people were shooting beams at the dragon with their wands, and the creatures were doing the same with their hands. The lizard roared and shot fire out of its mouth into the air. Vernon silently walked back towards the broom shop while everyone else was distracted by the dragon.

Vernon arrived at the store with the broomstick in the window. He walked in, marched over to the woman behind the counter, put a large pile of gold coins on the table, and pointed at the Firebolt.

"I would like one of those," Vernon said to the woman behind the desk.

"Very well," said the woman. She reached behind the counter and put a Firebolt on the desk. "That will be 400 galleons."

"Keep the change," barked Vernon, as he grabbed the broom, his things, and strutted out.