AN/ See, another update! Thank you for those of you who have read this, and to those of you who have placed and alert on my story. Ok, so this chapter is more of a branch out, as it shows more about what is going on in Earth with a little bit of input from those in the Netherworld. I hope that you all enjoy it! Please read and review!
"Padfoot behave! If we're going to get into your vault then we need you to behave!" Remus mutters in a low voice.
The large black dog gives a light bark and walks next to Harry, who was looking around the Alley with wonder.
Remus smiles, "I forgot that this is your first time in Diagon Alley. So what do you think so far?"
Harry looks at Remus and smiles, "It's a large place, but I think that it's pretty cool. I mean, I've only imagined some of this. I never thought that it was, or could be real. Heck, I didn't even think it possible for friends of my parents to save me."
Remus's eyes widen a fraction of an inch, while Padfoot's ears twitch. They give each other a glance which seems to say 'The Dursleys will pay for this'.
"So where are we going?" Harry asks.
"First we're going to Gringotts so that Padfoot can get what he needs. Luckily the goblins, especially those who deal with the Noble and Most Ancient families, tend not to care about Wizarding law so long as you don't steal from them," Remus explains, "Plus the goblin that Pads deals with, Bloodletter I think his name is, is really fond of the mutt for some reason."
"Bloodletter?" Harry says, "Sounds like a nice fellow."
Remus laughs, "Don't worry, the goblins can be as mean as they sound, but they typically leave people alone who give them respect. Just remember that no matter who someone is, whether goblin, centaur, Merpeople, witches or wizards, everyone deserves respect."
"What if someone doesn't give you respect?" Harry asks, clearly thinking back to Privit Drive.
"That depends on the circumstance," Remus says, "If you give a person respect and they don't return it, then you should still give it to them. The only time you don't respect someone is if they hurt you physically, mentally or emotionally."
"Oh," Harry thinks it over and nods, "That makes sense. Thanks Moony."
Remus's head snaps to Harry, "Where did you hear that name from?"
Harry's eyes widen, "I don't know. It just came to me for some reason. Why?"
"That was my nickname when I was in school," Remus explains, voice low, "Just like Padfoot is the nickname Sirius had. Your father was known by Prongs."
"Why?"
"I'll tell you later, promise."
The three climb the steps to Gringotts and walk up to the Head Goblin who was at the desk.
"We need to speak with Bloodletter if it is possible," Remus says.
The goblin raises an eyebrow, "Why might that be?"
"Business to attend to regarding Vault 1313."
The Head Goblin nods and calls for Bloodletter, "You may wait for him in conference room three."
Remus nods once, "Thank you. May gold flood your life."
"And do the same in yours," The goblin replies, seemingly surprised that a wizard knew that farewell.
Once they arrive in conference room three, Remus nods to Padfoot who quickly changes into Sirius.
"Gah, you'd think that I'd be used to sharp stones in the pads, but nope," he mutters, rubbing at the palm of his right hand.
"Quit complaining Sirius," Remus smirks, "You've always told James you would love to stay as a dog if you could."
Sirius shrugs, "Can't stand the fleas."
"More like can't stand the flea baths."
"Shuddup Moony." Sirius grins at Harry, "What do you think of the goblins? Nice fellows aren't they?"
"A bit scary looking. No offense to them," Harry says.
"They would be delighted knowing that you thought they were scary looking. At least most of the ones I talk to would."
"Course they would, that's cause you always get the ones who are a bit…different."
"Eh, you're just jealous."
"Oh yes, positively green with envy."
Harry laughs, but stops when the door opens and a goblin comes walking in. The goblin totally ignores Remus and Harry and walks up to Sirius, holding out a hand.
"Mister Black, it is a pleasure to see you again." The door closes and the goblin grins, "So how are you doing Sirius?"
Sirius grins, "Pretty good now. I need access to my and the family vaults."
"Alright, anything else?"
"I also want to see the Potter's last will and testament, I know that they filed it so that I could have access. Please, if it's possible to do this all today without anyone who isn't in this room without knowing that would be perfect," Sirius says.
The goblin nods and turns to the other two people in the room, "Sorry about being so rude when walking in, but there were…unsavory goblins watching at the time. Luckily there is a rule that prohibits anyone from divulging who is in the meeting rooms."
"I figured as much. Security around here has always been really great," Remus says, "I don't know if you remember me Bloodletter-"
"You're Remus Lupin, friend and beneficiary of Sirius Black. You're also the wizard to completely confuse any and all goblins who meet you," Bloodletter says with a grin.
Sirius nods, "And I would like to introduce you to my godson Harry."
Bloodletter walks to Harry and holds out a hand, "Young Mister Harry, good to meet you. Of course," Bloodletter turns to Sirius, "I have to ask if a formal adoption will be made or if he shall remain as a Potter."
Sirius frowns in thought and paces for a few moments. Harry watches the man travel back and forth, curious as to what his godfather would do.
"For the time being," Sirius says, "Harry will stay as a Potter. He's not spent enough time with me to decide for himself if he would like to be an official member of the family. Plus it would be a minor problem considering current living arrangements."
"Very well. Shall we go down to your vaults?" Bloodletter asks.
Sirius turns to the other two and motions for them to go first as he turns into Padfoot again and follows closely. The small troop crosses the main room and climbs into a cart. The goblin gives a grin and pulls a lever. Turning to Harry and Remus he gives a smile.
"Hang on," he advises before releasing the breaks.
"Oh dear," Lily mutters, "oh dear, please don't crash."
"They won't crash, the carts have goblin magic on them to make it impossible for them to crash or come off the tracks," I say.
The cart takes off at an incredible speed, causing the two human passengers to grab the edges and watch the scenery fly by. The dog props his front forelegs on the edge and lets his tongue flap in the wind.
"Remus," Harry shouts, "What's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"
Remus looks at the rock and frowns, "I believe stalagmites are the ones that point up from the ground while the stalactites point down from the ceiling, but I'm not positive."
Harry nods and goes back to enjoying the ride. The cart starts to slow down as they reach the top of a hill. He can feel the anticipation building as they reach the top and he smiles, waiting for the drop.
Remus gives a slight chuckle and sits with his back against the back portion of the cart. He'd been on this ride before and he knew what happened on this hill.
Padfoot, who had been checking to make sure that there were no other carts around, turns into Sirius and sits next to Remus. He smirks and nods to Harry, who was still eagerly sitting at the front. Remus shrugs and motions to Sirius who, after thinking for a moment, shakes his head.
They reach the top of the hill and the cart hovers for a moment. The goblin pulls one lever and then pushes another and grabs onto a sidebar on the cart. He gives this grin that tells of trouble to come as the cart starts to go over the other side. Harry grins and feels his heart leap as the cart starts to fall. The drop was steeper than he had thought and he flies back.
Lily places her hands to her mouth, "He's going to fly out!"
As Harry worries that he's going to end up spat on the tracks behind them, two hands grab his shirt and pull him down to sit between Sirius and Remus. Both men grin mischievously at Harry. He sits there, shocked for a moment, before laughing.
The ride after that is short and the cart soon arrives at the vault. The goblin steps out first, followed by Sirius, Harry and then Remus. The Goblin is waiting patiently by the door and he taps his hand with a small silver dagger.
"Ok, Harry, quick warning. This is gonna seem very barbaric," Sirius mutters, holding his right hand out to the goblin. The goblin makes a cut across the palm and waits for a bit of blood to well up. Once that happens he places the hand on a crest that is engraved in the stone. There's a clicking noise from within the vault and slowly the door opens.
"I thought you were disowned," Remus comments.
Sirius shrugs, "She could disown me all she wanted to, so long as father kept me as heir, I'm still in the blasted family."
Remus nods, then leans down to Harry, "Sirius never got along with his family. They didn't like that he didn't believe certain things they wanted him to."
Harry nods and feels that he can relate. The Dursley's were pretty much the same way with him. Following his guardians into the vault he can't help but to feel as though he was just brought into a medieval world. Swords, shields, and other old types of weapons hang on the walls. There are goblets, plates, bowls, and other serving ware pieces in cabinets that are all made of what looks like silver. Each of these items has the same crest placed in them with words underneath them.
"Sirius, what does toejors pur mean?" he asks.
I laugh, ducking the pillow thrown by Lily.
"It's not funny James!" Lily chides, hiding her own laughter.
"Yes it is, because I asked the same thing, with the same pronunciation and everything."
Lily gives a smile, "Just because you don't know French."
"And you do?"
"Only a little."
I raise an eyebrow, "Could I hear some?"
"Est-ce que je peux rester ici?" Lily says
"Which means?"
"'May I stay here?' I learned enough for me to get by when my family went on vacation."
Sirius gives a chuckle and walks over, "It's toujours pur. It means 'always pure'. That's the family motto. The Blacks are originally from France and this is one of the things that has been kept until today."
"Why is the motto always pure?" Harry asks.
"Well," Sirius begins, looking at the words and seemingly lost in his mind, "originally these words meant something different than they do today. Today most people connect them to blood status, and while that has always been important in the family Black, it wasn't the main focus. Instead the motto used to refer to a person's decisions and choices. It meant to be pure to who you are and your family. Act how you would act, and not how someone dictates."
"Then how did it ever change to being about blood status?"
"Too much inbreeding and too many changed values," Sirius shrugs, "Now, where is my wand?"
Remus rolls his eyes and walks up, "It's not in here Pads, I've tried everything to find it, including checking the cabinet where the wands are kept."
"It's not going to be in there. And don't try to summon it, you'll end up with your stomach outside your body."
Lily makes a face, "Does that actually happen?"
"Yep." Regulus walks in and takes a seat.
The black haired man flicks his wrist and a blue light comes out of his palm, hitting one of the walls. It spins for a moment until a long, thin, black box comes floating toward him. When it stops he grabs it and opens the lid. Inside is a long piece of black wood, roughly fourteen inches long, and bearing ruins down the length of it. Sirius smiles as he picks up his wand. It emits dark red sparks and he can feel the warmth travel up his arm.
"That's better," he mutters.
"What type of wand do you have?"
"Fourteen inches, Ebony wood with a Thestral hair."
"That's…Sirius's wand make up?" Lily asks, voice low.
"Yep." I nod.
"That's a powerful core." Lily still can't wrap her mind around it.
"All the Blacks have powerful cores. Mother had a demiguise hair as her core, father favored a manticore hair, Bellatrix had powdered Hungarian Horntail scales in hers, Andromeda uses a wand with erumpent heart strings, while Narrcissia's wand contains heartstrings from a kelpie," Regulus explains.
"I didn't know that Ollivander made such wands," Lily says.
I nod, "He will on request, but sometimes he will require you to retrieve the core."
"What's the core of your wand?" Lily asks Regulus.
"Nundu hair."
Lily and I glance at each other before turning back to the screen, snickering from the younger Black brother telling us that he was highly amused.
"I'd forgotten that. Wait what was the core of your battle wand?" Remus asks.
"Which one?"
"Both."
"First one was the heartstring of a manticore and the second was a werewolf hair."
"Really?"
Sirius grins at Remus, "Yes, and the werewolf hair was quite easy to come by too."
"Glad to be of service," Remus rolls his eyes, "Now is there anything else that you need at the moment, or can we leave?"
Sirius holds up motions for them to wait for a moment before wandering to the back of the vault. They hear rustling and banging going on, along with the clinking of coins, before Sirius returns. When he does so, a trunk is in his hand and he has a bag in the other.
"Alright," he says, shrinking the trunk and handing the bag to Remus, "now we can leave."
So they troop back into the cart and hold on for the ride. Luckily this time there are no flying children and the ride is just as fast as the last one had been. When they get close to where a lot of the other vaults are Sirius thanks Bloodletter before turning back into Padfoot. The goblin nods with a smile before turning back into the stoic bank man he's expected to be. The werewolf, boy, and grim walk out of the lobby and into the sunny alley, looking forward to the day ahead.
"So where to first?" Remus asks.
Harry looks around and his eyes light upon the menagerie, "Can we look for a pet?"
Remus turns to Padfoot, "We can look, I need to pick up some flea shampoo for Padfoot anyway."
"There isn't a spell that will remove them?"
"There is, but from what I've heard it makes the dog terribly itchy."
"Why do I get the feeling that something bad is going to happen really soon?" Lily says, "I know that they took the precaution of giving Harry a cap so that he isn't recognized by his scar, but something is going to happen."
"You worry too much Lils." James doesn't admit that he has the same feeling.
After lunch the trio is walking toward the Quidditch shop when Padfoot suddenly starts trailing off, his nose to the ground.
"Padfoot, where are you going?" Harry asks, setting off after the dog.
Remus, who had been looking at some potions ingredients, looks up, "Harry? Harry, where are you?"
Lily grabs James's hand and gives it a tight squeeze, worry causing them to turn to one another.
Padfoot stops sniffing when he's at the entrance to Knockturn Alley. He hadn't been down there since he was twenty, and that had been to get a couple of things for his job as an Auror. The alley had been far more menacing then, especially with the war going on.
Hearing footsteps Padfoot turns his head to see Harry running along to catch up with him.
"What is it?" the boy asks.
Padfoot points to the alley then shakes his head. In other words 'Don't go down there.'
They start walking back toward Remus when Harry is grabbed and pulled into a side alley. His yelp of surprise alerts Padfoot, who bounds after his godson.
Lily's grip increases on James. James bites his lip will Sirius to hurry. Regulus watches the screen with sight worry showing in his eyes.
Padfoot runs until he sees the man holding his godson. Blonde hair, long black robes, and a walking cane reveal the man to be Lucius Malfoy. Padfoot lets a growl loose before jumping at the man, his front paws hitting the man's shoulders and causing him to topple over. He can sense the man's fear and growls at him.
Malfoy's eyes widen in surprise and fear. Padfoot gives a couple of barks, trying to bring Remus over here since he can't transform and scare the crap out of Malfoy himself.
Remus, who had heard the barking, runs toward the sound, using Moony's help to navigate through the crowds quicker. When he reaches the alley Remus growls.
"Malfoy! What's going on?" Remus growls.
"As if I have to explain myself to you," Malfoy sneers.
"When you're in an alley with my nephew and his dog is on your chest growling at you I think I deserve to know why," Remus states, "After all, that dog doesn't attack unless provoked."
"I thought that I had recognized the boy, but I see that I am mistaken," Malfoy says, his voice like oil.
"Padfoot, off," Remus commands. Padfoot gives one last growl to the man before getting off and standing by Harry. "Now you can leave."
Malfoy leaves, grumbling about how he would get back at them. Remus rolls his eyes before turning to Harry and Padfoot with a raised eyebrow. The look clearly said, wait until we get home.