Chapter 4 - Shopping

In the end Holly decided to take 3 of the gold coins and then a couple each of the bronze and silver ones. It wasn't like she had anything big to buy just yet. She'd also exchanged the money her aunt had given her for her birthday for another galleon, of course it cost a fee to do that, and made an appointment with her account manager for the afternoon.

Hagrid was showing her around Diagon now. The morning rush of people had subsided so Holly could see more than before. They stopped by Madam Malkin's Robes first, not to buy anything, but to browse and get an understanding of wizarding fashion, which was admittedly very… old.

Trying on one of the beautiful maroon cloaks, she noticed that it was actually cooling her down. Holly had found her mother's old school robes in the trunk and when she'd tried them on, they didn't have a temperature regulating enchantment. So, after putting the cloak back on the rack, Holly approached one of the young apprentices who wasn't busy measuring people.

"Excuse me Miss, do you charge extra for the cooling enchantments on the clothes? My mum's old school robes didn't have any."

"Ah, what a polite young lady, " she gave Holly a wide smile, "the temperature enchantments are always part of the clothes sold here at Madam Malkin's. The ones on your mum's may have faded or burned out, that's inevitable with time."

"Enchantments can burn, isn't that dangerous with fabrics?"

"No, not literally burn. You see, the normal muggle cloth we use to make our wares can't hold magic very well, so we sew in a very fine silver thread. Silver is very good at conducting magic, but with how fine we have make it to not disturb the cut of the clothes, the magic flowing through will dissolve the thread eventually. That's what we call burning out."

Holly was surprised to say the least, that they used fabrics made by muggles for their clothes. That they sowed silver into them for the enchantments did make sense though. She'd read how some potions that relied on an active magic component of the brewer had to be made in silver cauldrons instead of the magic isolating pewter cauldrons.

"That's very interesting, how much are school robes then?" This was what Holly was most scared of, she had no idea how far the money she had would get her in the wizarding world.

"You don't have to worry about that, they're pretty cheap at 15 sickles for the basic set of three, the cloak and hat you get on top for free. They'll easily get you through a year, maybe even two depending on how much you grow. Quite the deal isn't it."

She swallowed thickly, 15 sickles for a year of robes? If that was a good price, then how expensive were other wizarding products. She understood now why Hagrid was worried when he saw how much was in her vault. Then again, she had all her mother's old things. If Holly was lucky the book list wouldn't have changed too much, so less expenses there. And she could stitch up the old robes to make her own and lengthen them again when she grew.

It would be too bad about not having the temperature enchantments, but maybe she could do something with runes about it. It was never stated in her runes book that the runes had to be carved into stone after all. She would make it work!

"It is, yes. Thank you very much for your help. My companion is waiting for me though. Maybe next time."

She waved the lady goodbye and skipped out the door and over to Hagrid who was looking into Madam Malkin's through the display, likely trying to spot her.

"You finished that pint rather quickly, I hope it was good."

Really who drank before noon while also escorting a minor around a busy street? Holly could easily forgive Hagrid though, he was so nice and lovable.

"T'was very good, thank yeh."

And with that they were off again, not stopping anywhere for too long since their appointment at Gringotts was coming up soon. She did buy some parchment, quills and ink from the stationary shop though. Holly wanted to practise her writing with a quill so it wouldn't look as bad as her hand writing before she began sewing.

They strolled through the junk shop and she had a grand time looking at all the broken items that seemed to have no apparent use even if they weren't broken. She even found some muggle items like cut off plugs or a toaster with googly eyes and pipe cleaners for hands. The clerk had tried selling it to her as some rare muggle pet. Wizards were hysterical.

There were a couple second hand shops for clothes and one for books which Holly was excited for. The bookstore had no system for organising their books at all. They were just haphazardly stacked on top of each other or thrown onto a big pile.

Finding a copy of Fantastic Beasts was easy enough, even if it was a little damaged, but there were barely any books on runes and their use cases. Holly mostly found newer editions of books she already had from her mum.

In the end Holly left the shop with the creature book, a tattered compendium of runic languages through the ages and a starters guide on Mayan runes. It had taken her quite a bit to just find those two. The books had cost a couple sickles each and in the case of the compendium a single sickle. It was very rare apparently, but so damaged that no one else would buy it.

She'd been scared of ripping them further when stuffing them in her small shoulder bag, thankfully it turned out fine, even if they were sticking out of the top. She'd have to look into a better way to carry more of her belongings.

Holly thought she'd gotten a great deal on the books though, especially when they'd walked past Flourish and Blotts where the most recent "sensational, must-read book" of some Lockhart bloke was sold for multiple galleons, new.

She'd almost had a heart attack looking at the prices of all the new books there. Definitely couldn't afford them on her budget.

Hagrid decided they should take a break before her appointment at Gringotts so he led her back towards where she'd bought her books.

Right next to the bookstore was an ice cream parlour where they sat down and ordered a surprise sundae each. Hagrid tried paying for her, but Holly insisted she could afford a couple knuts for ice cream.

"Say Hagrid, what do you do at Hogwarts anyways?" She'd been curious for a while and now was as good a time as any to make smalltalk.

"Oh, 'm the keeper of keys and grounds. But mostly i take care o' teh magical creatures an' the forest." He puffed out his chest proudly and he had all the reason to, that was a very dangerous occupation.

"That's brilliant, what kind of creatures do you work with?"

"Jus the usual, whatever lives in the forest like unicorns, hippogriffs, thestrals an' then any species used in the magical creatures class. Don' tell anyone, but I got permission from Professor Dumbledore to adopt a cerberus pup soon."

"A cerberus, like from Greek mythology? They actually exist? That's so neat. I can't wait to learn all about magical creatures at Hogwarts."

Holly had a wistful look on her face, a puppy sounded like a delightful pet. Walking past the Magical Menagerie had been eye opening though. Magical companions were decidedly not within her price range. She could maybe afford a toad, but that was just the animal itself, not including food or a habitat. Any pet deserved only the best so Holly couldn't bring herself to consider getting one.

Hagrid was very enthusiastic about owning a Cerberus, apparently there was a lot to know about their diet and ideal hunting grounds from what he told her about them. She was sure he'd be great at raising one. What kind of pet would she have gotten if things were different?

But that reminded her.

"So, I was wondering, who exactly were my parents fighting?" Hagrid seemingly hadn't expected that, since he started choking on his ice cream.

"I mean, my aunt told me it was some bad wizard, but she doesn't know anything more. And when I asked the hospital staff they just said You-Know-Who, but I don't know who…"

"Nobody told yeh?" When Holly shook her head, no, he sighed.

"His name was V…V… Voldemort." He had gotten so quiet by the end, it was an actual whisper. Holly almost couldn't believe it.

"Voldemort?"

"Shhh. Don' say his name too loudly. T'was dark times, very dark. An' people are still afraid of sayin his name. People believe 'im dead, but 'm not so sure 'bout that, he was the worst o' the worst. I can imagine he found a way ter survive. An' with some o' his followers still out there bes' not ter mention his name."

The conversation got awkward after that and tapered off into silence. Holly felt bad, she seemed to have brought back some bad memories for Hagrid. But she just had to know.

They spent the rest of their time before the appointment quietly eating their ice cream and people watching. Holly was surprised by how easy it was to spot a muggleborn. They all had the same kind of wonder in their eyes at the countless fantastical things in Diagon, that wizard-raised children just didn't have. When they were done with their ice cream, they slowly started making their way back to Gringotts.

At Gringotts they had to wait in line for a bit and were then led to a side door by one of the goblins. This time it was an actual hallway of white marble like what Holly had expected earlier and not a cave.

Holly was surprised whenever a door they walked through would reveal Hallway after Hallway. With the doors they had taken they should have crossed their previous path multiple times, but that wasn't the case. It felt like they were in a labyrinth of Hallways. Without their goblin guide they'd definitely have gotten lost.

Eventually they were reached a much more opulent door with chairs to the side where one could sit. Hagrid was told to take a seat and wait since this was apparently a private meeting and she should go ahead and enter.

Holly peeked her head in the door and greeted the goblin sitting at a huge desk. The rest of the marble room was filled with portraits of goblin wars, some bookshelves and decorative weapons hung on the walls. At least she hoped they were just decorations.

"Hullo, thank you for seeing me on such short notice." She tried to be as respectful as possible. Getting threatened by one goblin today was already more than enough.

"Good day Miss Potter, my name is Gornok and I manage the Potter finances here at Gringotts. Please take a seat."

He continued once she'd sat down in the rickety chair that was provided for visitors. Compared to the big and lush armchair Gornok sat on, the difference was night and day. The goblins really liked to show how superior they were.

"I was informed that you are dissatisfied with Gringotts' management of your family's account."

"Well, I wouldn't say I'm dissatisfied per say. But the way my trust fund was explained to me there should have been more money in it. Of course I might have misunderstood."

Gornok stood up, walked over to one of the shelves, picked up a thick folder that he laid out on his desk and began to flip through.

"I see now why you were concerned Miss Potter, this here is the ledger for the Potter accounts, including your trust vault," he turned the ledger so she could read it and pointed at a number of transactions.

"As you can see, the correct amount of funds were placed in your trust each year until 1984. And there's a very good reason for why they stopped. This," he said pointing at another part on the page, "is the main Potter family vault, which has been drained steadily since the night of the dark lords fall.

The only money left in the account is the emergency fund that only the head of house can use."

Holly was staring at all the numbers, there was a measly amount left of the original sum.

"So, all the money was used for my parent's medical treatment? If it's all gone, then how have they not been kicked out of the hospital?"

"It wasn't only used for their treatment, but yours as well. A major part of the fortune was spent on finding a cure to whatever curse still clings to your scar.

As for how they are still in St. Mungos? Due to prior investments into various businesses there is a steady stream of income that barely covers their treatments. It wouldn't be nearly enough if not for a generous potions master, who wishes to remain anonymous, providing potions at the cost of the ingredients, that would otherwise be very expensive to procure."

That was honestly a relief to hear. Her parents continued welfare was very important and thanks to a "generous potions master", Holly only had a single guess who that could be, she wouldn't have to worry too much about it.

Was this why the healers sometimes complained about stingy goblins? Because they wouldn't pay for more treatments? Holly felt sick, Gornok had said a major sum had been spent on her. Without any results to show for it since they had to give up in the end. Could her parents have made more progress if there was more money to spend on them?

When Holly took a closer look at the ledger, she noticed something curious at the bottom of the page.

"That third vault, what is it used for?"

"Vault 979 is a storage vault. Shortly after your grandparents succumbed to Dragon Pox, Potter manor was destroyed by Death Eaters. Whatever could be saved was stored in this vault."

Holly's grandparents belongings? If she could access that then that could be promising. Maybe there were some baby pictures of her father or some interesting books.

"In addition, after the attack on you and your parents in Godric's Hollow, the Ministry declared the property uninhabitable and ordered it locked down. Everything we could salvage from the wreckage is there as well, though it wasn't much."

"Is there a chance of me getting to take a look at what's in there?" Gornok looked thoughtful for a second before pulling out a knife, a little stick of gold and a stone sphere with weird markings. He set the sphere on a little pedestal so that the markings were in a horizontal line, forming a ring around the middle of the sphere. Looking at them again she realised what the markings were, they were runes, runes she'd never seen before.

"Since the key to this vault was given to your father and likely lost, we'll have to reissue one. All I need from you is a bit of blood, " He took the stick of gold and inserted it in a hole at the top of the sphere that she hadn't seen before, then unsheathed the dagger "Your hand please."

Slowly taking off her left glove she held her trembling hand over the sphere. He grasped her wrist and even though he only poked her finger for a drop of her blood to fall onto the sphere, Holly had to grit her teeth. It felt like her hand was burning from the inside, not dissimilar to when she first attempted to use the rune carving tool. Thankfully the pain only lasted for a few seconds.

Holly didn't even notice Gornok letting go, nor the wound closing almost instantly, since she was distracted by the runes on the sphere lighting up one by one. The runes were so bright that they were lighting up the whole room with the runes even getting projected onto the walls.

When the glow slowly faded there was a small hiss and the sphere split open like the hood of a car, revealing a shiny golden key. Gornok picked it up, inspected it and then held it out for her to take.

"Take care not to lose your keys, as you can see making new ones is quite the ordeal." He started packing away the sphere and dagger. "Now, was that everything or did you have any other concerns?"

Holly held the little golden key in her hand reverently. She really wanted to know how that sphere had worked, but her experience with Griphook dampened her curiosity.

"Yes, I think that was it. Thank you very much. This meeting was very informative." Holly would have to look for a way to make money and help her parents.

"You are very welcome, the success of the Potter accounts directly affects my own. So I hope we will have a good working relationship in the future."

Gornok was the politest goblin Holly had met, it wasn't saying much since she'd only had the pleasure of talking to 3 others briefly, but the difference was staggering regardless. So, after a firm handshake and resolute nod, Holly turned to the door and left.