Ignoring his extremely unhappy aunt, who was too intimidated by being back in Diagon Alley after Tom the barman tapped the bricks in his backyard with his wand in a specific manner so it opened a portal which led to this Diagon Alley, although he noticed her mood only too easily, Harry once more thanked the barman and he stepped into the magical world for the first time. Looking back the archway sealed itself shut. Harry was now in an unknown world; Petunia didn't count.

One of the first things Harry noticed was a shop which sold cauldrons. There were stacks of cauldrons of various sizes and shapes, and even in different hues which told him they were made of different materials. Harry spotted the sign above the shop, which read Cauldrons - All sizes - Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver, Self-Stirring and Collapsible.

Harry walked on; there would be plenty of time to properly explore the wonders of this new world, his new world, later on. Right now he wanted to discover someone, some source that would give him some decent explanations about what he'd learnt about his parents and his family. Would it be easy to find someone willing to speak to him about it?

Most of the shops were shut up for the night, but there were one or two who seemed to take the adage 'time is money' seriously enough to not even consider shutting up their shops. As Harry looked at the different shops, wishing they'd come in the daytime, he wondered what some of them were like on the inside. As they passed the bookshop, Flourish & Blotts, Harry wondered what kind of books he'd

"There's a wizard's bank down the Alley, Boy," Petunia spoke at last.

"Don't call me boy," Harry answered her, but he hurried on his way, pulling his aunt along for the ride; he doubted she'd try to escape. She hated the magical world. She wasn't going to try to leave.

Passing the apothecary which was still open, Harry's senses were assailed by scents he had never smelt before; there was an open cart outside the shop which, according to the display next to it, sold manticore's venom, unicorn tail hair, and dragons' blood. Magic was everywhere, it was all around him and his aunt.

Finally, at the end of the street, they came to a white building that seemed to be glowing even in this light like the sun was right behind it like the moon. The building was massive and impossible to miss. It was so fundamentally different to the small shops that were stuffed into the shopping district around it, like the building had been built with the same majesty of a Pharaoh's pyramid and the plebs had simply built a small city all around it, but were simply too afraid of building anything larger in case the might of the building smashed them down. Indeed the place seemed nine-eleven times bigger than the shops he had seen so far.

Outside he saw the sign above the door reading Gringotts. Magical Bank. It appeared banking paid well, and Harry's mind whirled with the possibilities. As he and Petunia walked in, Harry ignored her flinch of terror as one of the bankers walked past. The creature was smaller than Harry was, wearing a pinstripe suit of exceptional quality, its swarthy face had a long sharp chin, and an even pointier nose. Harry noticed the creatures had long fingers and feet.

Guards were standing by the door. They bowed as he and Petunia walked past them. Oh yeah, they were also armed with spears and axes. At first, Harry assumed the weapons were ornate, designed for a ceremony, but he noticed that the blades were chipped as they'd been in various fights, and he saw dark splodges over one of the axe blades. Dried blood?

They entered through a second pair of doors which were burnished in silver, with words engraved on them;

Enter, Stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed,

For those who take, but do not earn,

So if you seek beneath our floors,

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

Harry swallowed. While he was a thief and wasn't afraid of a little danger now and again, if he had entertained any thought of stealing something from Gringotts, he was going to exorcise those thoughts right now. Those words were both a warning to thieves everywhere, a nice little veiled threat designed to lull people into a false sense of security, but at the same time it was to point out that if you worked for your money, you received rewards.

Yep, he was never going to rob these people.

As he passed them by, a witch walked out, shaking her head in disgust. "Stupid goblins!" She muttered in a string of obscenities, but at least Harry now knew who these little beings were.

The hall of Gringotts was very much like that of a typical bank; the Dursleys had sometimes led him into the local bank in Little Whinging, and while there was no glass screen separating the various tellers, who were busy serving the few people awake and doing business with them at this hour, the guards who were armed to the teeth meant such precautions were not needed.

Finding a free goblin was easy. Harry walked up to the nearest free goblin that he saw. "Hello, sir," Harry said politely, deciding to give them a good impression. "I'd like to see my family's accounts, please."

The goblin looked at him without any expression, but if Harry had to guess he would say the goblin was surprised a child rather than an adult was speaking to him and asking to see the accounts while his aunt was silent.

"You have your key, sir?"

Key?

Harry bit his lip. "Er, no, I don't. You see I've been living in the…non-magical world. This is the first time I've stepped into the magical world. I didn't even know it existed."

The goblin peered down at him and looked between him and his aunt with a sneer, but since it had been sneering the whole time, so he just had to hope the goblin's sneering wasn't a bad thing.

"What is your name?"

Harry bit his lip again. This was it. "My name is Harry Potter."

The goblin stiffened, and then it showed its teeth and with a thrill, he realised the goblin was outright smiling at him, like he had just told the funniest joke the goblin had heard today. The goblin waved a colleague over and they spoke together in a harsh language. The second goblin turned to Harry and smiled in the same way.

"This way…Mr Potter," the second goblin said.

Turning to Aunt Petunia for a moment, Harry sighed and he followed with Petunia following, too unnerved to do anything else. The second goblin didn't care. Harry was led down hallways and corridors, feeling uneasy. He didn't like the way the goblins reacted to the sound of his name, and he did not like the look some of the guards sent him. They were looking at him with expressions he fancied would look right at home on the faces of wild wolves or sharks, when faced with particularly tasty morsels.

They passed several doors with different plaques, each one with different names on them, and described their duties; for instance, there was Ragnorok who was the account manager for something called the Nott family, and then there was Axesaw who was the Malfoy family manager. Harry correctly guessed each family vault was controlled and regulated by the different goblins. He didn't have any other theories.

Harry noticed a few guards had followed them from the banking hall, and he worried about what they were going to do. Soon enough they reached another door, and the goblin in front knocked and quickly stuck his head through. Harry frowned when he heard what sounded like "another one" from inside, but he and Petunia were both ushered in before Harry could even work out what that meant.

The room he and Petunia were escorted in to put him in mind of a museum more of an office; while there were filing cabinets that were made of dark wood that fitted in perfectly with the blood-red walls which gave the place a very gothic look. But what attracted Harry's attention was not the desk with the goblin sitting in it, but the rows of weapons on the walls. Each one of them had sharp blades, and something told him that the goblin would have no problem using them. They gave off that vibe all too clearly.

And then Harry took in the goblin seated at the desk. He was clearly older than the others if the silvery-white wisps of hair were any indication. Scars were covering his face, which made it clear he was more dangerous and had been in many fights during his life although Harry really did not want to know if he had won any of them. Right now he was grinning in a particularly bloodthirsty manner that Harry wanted to pull away from. The other goblins were grinning in the same way, and out of the corner of his eyes, Harry saw that Aunt Petunia was whimpering quietly.

The old goblin handed him a small box covered in symbols with a blood-red gem in the centre surrounding it. Harry was sure the symbols were called runes, from what he'd seen in books on magic and witchcraft and fantasy in the library. "Place your finger on the gem," he ordered.

Harry eyed the goblin curiously, but he saw he didn't have any other choice. He pressed his thumb against the gem, wincing when he felt a sharp pain in his finger

"Give me the box," the goblin replied.

Harry raised a brow, but he passed it back to the goblin anyway. The other goblins tensed, and Harry felt they were becoming hungry for action. The old goblin waved his hand over the box. Instantly his name appeared as a hologram above the box, his full name.

Harry James Potter.

Then the names of his parents, Lily Marie Potter, nee Evans and James Charlus Potter, and then there were others.

The old goblin sighed, "This is the genuine Harry Potter." He nodded to the others. "You can go. I'll summon you again if you're required," he said to the goblins, and Harry noticed they all seemed disappointed for some reason. Disgruntled they all left, sending him glances but since he didn't know the goblins that well, he couldn't tell what was on their minds.

The old goblin then turned to Harry although he spared Petunia a glance. Harry glanced at his aunt and saw she was still frightened.

"You're the real one. I've been waiting a long time for this, Heir Potter."

Harry didn't know what to say, and the old goblin sighed. "You are not the first person to pass through the gates of Gringotts and pretend to be the surviving heir of the British branch of the Potter family," the old goblin didn't see the reaction both Harry and Petunia both felt at the news, for different reasons. "Several have tried to take your family's fortune. Some were even women. The Ministry of Magic has tried several times over the years to pass legislation to ignore the treaties we goblins have held for centuries, just to make themselves richer and settle their debts. Many forged wills and fake treaties forced us to use harsher measures. The imposters quickly realised we were no longer playing nice with them, and they've since stopped. But it never occurred to them, not once, that your parents made sure only you could access their vaults and holdings, so they were wasting their time."

Harry had been listening to the goblin's speech for the last few minutes, and he had quickly worked out that what his aunt and uncle had said about his parents was true. He sighed and decided to come clean, "My aunt and uncle are both non-magical," he said, "they found me on their doorstep with a letter telling them my parents were magical terrorists. It's true, isn't it?"

The old goblin sighed but nodded, "Yes, it is."

Harry looked down. While he wasn't afraid of committing crimes himself, he wasn't sure how to feel about his parents being terrorists. "Why?" He asked. "How did this happen?"

The old goblin sighed again. "I don't have time so please, listen to me…"

Harry listened as the old goblin told him and his aunt about a magical war, fought between Lord Voldemort and his forces, his allies, the Death Eaters against the Light side consisting of the Order of the Phoenix led by Albus Dumbledore and the Ministry of Magic. To Harry's surprise, his parents had been members of the Order of the Phoenix, with the rumour Lord Voldemort himself had tried to recruit them to his side, and they always resisted, until….

Harry had been a year old when they had changed. The Potters vanished for a while and were not seen for a long time, but then when Neville Longbottom became the Boy-Who-Lived in 1982, the Death Eaters were forced to vanish or plead innocence, telling the Ministry the Dark Lord had put them under his control. One of the Death Eaters told the Ministry that Lily and James Potter had become Death Eaters. When his parents found out about this, they immediately tried to flee, but they were cornered. They were forced to fight with dark magic, proving their allegiance once and for all, although the old goblin commented that one of the Aurors, a dark wizard catcher spotted a Dark Mark, a tattoo the Dark Lord branded his followers with and was responsible for summoning them to his side, on Lily's forearm, managed to separate the young Harry from his parents, and the Potters were forced to flee, crying for their son. They had been forced to flee from Britain and while some countries searched for them, the trail had gone cold a long time ago.

Harry listened to the story with tears trickling down his face. Harry had never imagined he was capable of feeling this kind of emotion.

He had dismissed his parents a long time ago, a side effect of the lies given to him by the Dursleys.

The old goblin saw his tears and sighed, glancing at the muggle woman and saw her lips were pinched while a vicious look of something like triumph gleamed in her eyes. He knew who she was, and he knew when Lily Potter found out whom her son was left with, she would lose her temper. Lily had changed a great deal since she had become a Death Eater. She was a lot like a calmer Bellatrix Lestrange, darker and more violent, but her love for Harry was still there.

"Mr Potter," the old goblin asides he got Harry's attention.

"Yes?" Harry whispered.

"Your parents left this behind as they were forced to flee. They had to come to Gringotts secretly and took some money and new spare wands with them, but before they left they recorded this with instructions for you to see it as soon as your identity was confirmed," the old goblin removed a blood-red crystal from somewhere within his desk.

"What is it?" Harry asked, unable to resist his curiosity.

"It's a memory crystal. It's superior to the wizard method of removing their memories and seeing it in a pensieve - a kind of magical bowl," the old goblin explained as he slotted the crystal in a small pyramid made from iron that gleamed black and red.

Harry sat back and took a deep breath, as a holographic form materialised. A woman appeared a truly beautiful woman with long hair with a heart-shaped face. She was wearing a cloak over her body, but Harry could see that her figure, while thin like Petunia's, was not bony but lithe and well-muscled.

"Hello, Harry," she smiled.

"Lily…," Petunia said.