Disclaimer: If ye know of Harry Potter, then ye know I don't own it- I'm male. Seemplz.

Supposedly it's illegal to respond to reviews here… And I don't want my first fic removed…

VAULT

Harry plodded back to the front of the beast, suddenly unsure of how to escape its attacks. Once he released it… He'd deal with it, he was sure.

"Enervate!" The dragon immediately stirred, the immobilisation obviously only slowing it down. It stayed laying down, however, seemingly unwilling to move. Harry sidled up to its eye, and looked up into it. Even laying down, the eye was still above his eye-level! The golden iris rolled down to meet his gaze, holding it. The slitted pupil narrowed slightly, then returned to normal as it focused on his scar for a second. The dragon huffed, and blinked slowly like it was falling asleep. Quickly, Harry wondered how intelligent it was. Well, he knew how to find out!

"Legillimens!" Harry's mindprobe slipped into the mindscape of the beast before him, and he settled in a large, boiling hot desert.

Harry gasped, as his mind caught up to what he was seeing. He was in the mindscape of the dragon, but it was organised like his own! Harry scooped up a handful of sand, letting it flow between his fingers. He could feel the weight of centuries in each grain- each one held a memory. Behind him, was a small wadi, with little pebbles in the bottom. Lizards scarpered left and right, hunting or playing. Clouds drifted lonely in the sky, and, far-off in the distance, was a herd of could have been horses, amongst small tufts of desert savannah grasses. Suddenly, a cloud flitted over him, dousing him in darkness.

Twisting around, Harry met eyes with a colossal dragon. The dragon from the cavern! It leaned down even further, until its head rested upon the sandy cracked earth before him.

'At long last, my Lord. You have come, as the Aged One told me, long, long ago. It has been an age since I last met a mortal man capable of surviving the Proving Fall. I have been neglected these past ten hundred years, my Lord. It would greatly please me if I was fed my fill once more, with the woolly sheep of your Mercian hills. It was a glorious time to wonder your vales, until the Aged One found me as small hatchling. He allowed me to grow, protecting me from those who deemed me as evil. I can once again begin to grow, my Lord. I am not of this world, of that I am sure. I hatched in a desert amongst fire and blood, many thousands of men lying dead and burning. Then, many lights. Many many lights ruptured the sky, and I was lying, cold, in a circle of stone. You, my Lord, smell of my home. Your aura reeks of it like I reeked of contagion. Please, my Lord! Take me away with you! Do not leave me to rot once more!'

Harry sat down, back in his own mind once more. He released a terse breath as he considered what had just happened. This is no ordinary dragon! Dragons can't think like that! They don't talk my language! Harry sat back on his heels as he wondered what he meant by 'a circle of stone'. Could Stonehenge be some kind of transport device to another world? Is that how he was supposed to continue his journey, after killing Voldemort and sorting out the structure of this world?

Harry pushed that from his mind, as the dragon before him lightly nudged him. Harry looked up, and into its eyes. 'My Lord, you are here for the Aged One's Vault, are you not? I will guide you, my Lord, if that is what you require?' Harry nodded. 'Then climb up upon my horns, my Lord, and I shall take us there!' Harry slowly stood. He could tell that the dragon was speaking inside his mind, but it still freaked him out. To have a beast as large as this treat you as a lord was… disturbing. He grasped the horn closest to him, and allowed himself to be dragged up by the rising dragon. He pulled himself easily above the flat spine just below the dragon's head, much like a seat on a motorbike. He watched on as the beast ambled down one avenue of the vaulted cavern, seemingly sanguine with the new way of things. Not half an hour ago, it had tried to roast him! As they travelled to the vault, Harry remembered the box given to him by Ragnok.

Taking it out of his pocket, the long box shone slightly in the light given off of Jupiter's lightning-cracked scales. The clasp on the front of the box was in the shape of a bolt of lightning being swallowed by a phoenix. Pulling the bolt up out of the bird's throat, Harry opened the container. Inside was an articulated full-finger ring, made of the same metal of the Room of True Self. Each section was etched with black runes surrounding a phoenix swallowing a lightning bolt. The runes were not just for decoration- they seemed to have a vampiric quality to them- they drank in magical energy. The last section ended in a sharp claw that had sharpness, pain, and the same vampiric runes etched into the edges. The ring was swirling with contained smoke and shadow, much like the Mask of Dark Souls did. Slipping the ring onto his right middle finger, he felt it heat up to an astonishing degree, and then re-size. The armoured ring looked awesome, and had no effect on grasping things, much to his relief. He didn't want to hurt anyone by accident.

The journey through the cavern took maybe five minutes, letting Harry get gradually used to the swaying motion of the dragon's head as it walked, and the novelty of sitting behind one's head. It took the emergence of a large stone wall to bring Harry out of his thoughts. The door was about as tall as the dragon, and wider by half. It was made of a dark marble, with bands of iron woven into it. At the centre, halfway up its length, was a handprint much like the one at the Delacour Manor. The dragon lowered its head slightly, allowing Harry access to the door. He placed his palm upon the door, and after three loud clangs, the panel upon which the handprint had rested was withdrawn. It looked as if the big door was ornamental- the real door was right here. Harry stood upon the dragon's forehead, and then jumped the ten feet into the new doorway. He turned.

"I don't really know what to think of this, but I guess, if you wait here, I'll be back soon. Oh, I never asked- what's your name, dragon? Mine is Harry."

'The Aged One named me Jupiter, my Lord, after the lightning strikes of my scales. He thought it suitable, according to the old religions of this world. He talked about the honour and sincerity of my namesake. I hope that it pleases my Lord?'

"It's your name, Jupiter. It's not for me to question it. I'll be back soon!" With that, Harry turned and walked down the black tunnel leading into the rock face.

The passage was long, and reeked of old stone and damp. It curved down in a tight helix until Harry was at the base of the doors. Then, it jinked until he faced away from it, and lead forwards for a short time. Harry could tell that he was no longer in the black tunnel, but in a massive open space. He thought for a moment, then capitulated.

"Lumos Maxima!"

The massive space in front of Harry was suddenly illuminated. Harry was starstruck, as he took in the vast lines of shelves before him. Entire rows of theses shelves seemed to hold black boxes of gold, silver and bronze- old-fashioned and nouveau Galleons, Sickles and Knuts. He nearly fainted as he considered that these boxes must also be enlarged on the onside to accommodate his vast wealth. To his right, on a small pedestal was an age-old scroll edged with dry, crumbling corners. On it was written the list of row names, and then shelf numbers in a table. The spaces next to the names were short descriptions of each unit's holdings- Galleons, Sickles, Knuts, Armour, Weapons, Metals, Books, Ingredients, Jewels, Miscellaneous. The list was longer, but Harry didn't fancy reading every page of the roll of parchment. There were hundreds of rows, each ten boxes high. Harry was still light-headed when he once again considered the riches held here. I need a sack, not pockets! Harry eyed the boxes with the metals. He desperately wanted to try his hand at forging, after reading so much about it. He wanted to make his own weapons suited to his build out of the metal he stripped from the Room of True Self. The ones he'd taken were a bit too unbalanced for his style- The hammer especially needed a bit of word to make it just right.

Harry wondered for a while amongst the boxes, dipping in here and there, until he came across one box marked 'Eggs'. He peeped inside. There were stacks of shelves, each cushioned to individually hold an egg. They had ripples of scales much like Jupiter, but each had a different 'design'- some had ripples of tone, others had lines, zig-zaggs, swirls, spirals, even some solid colours. He withdrew his head, making a note to come back later. He retreated back to exit, and then conjured a sack. He enchanted it with extension charms, and then began to scoop out boxes of coinage. He added the occasional book, too. At the end of it, he had five sacks of coins, books and the odd piece of metal ore. He hoisted them over his shoulder, took one last look around the vault, and then started the walk back to Jupiter.

Harry stood at the lip of the drop down to the cavern, but he couldn't see Jupiter. Then, he remembered that the dragon had been turning invisible earlier. How's that even work, anyway?

'My Lord, welcome back. I was sleeping until you returned. Please, come down and I will allow you egress from my home of the last millennium.' At that, Harry once more jumped from a great height- this time only sixty feet. He once more landed on his feet, one hand planted on the stone for balance. He stood, and looked at Jupiter. The Dragon was still curled up, but this changed very quickly. The dragon uncurled into its full one hundred and twenty foot length. Harry then leapt up to his seat behind its crest, and it then ambled back to where Harry had entered. As Harry jumped off once more, he wondered how he would release Jupiter- the dragon would obviously starve if Harry left it here, as well as it being a bad reward for its loyalty and wealth of knowledge. There had to be another way out, rather than jumping or climbing back up the tunnel. Harry looked around, wondering about secret passageways.

'My Lord, Do you wish to leave the way you came? If you do, I will understand, but… There is an easier way that takes you through the Aged One's storage of artefacts, and back to the Director of Gringotts' office…?'

"That's brilliant, Jupiter! I was wondering if there was another way! You say that artefacts are stored there? What kinds?"

'Many kinds, my Lord. Enchanted weapons, tools, art, famous jewels and diaries… Anything that the Aged One thought interesting. He did not deem them worthy of his vault, for anyone could use these if they bested me.'

"Right, then! And Jupiter- I'm taking you with me!"

A/N: Got my results back this week, and I'm proud to say I'm going back to Sixth Form College for my third year! Hooray! On the negative side, that means I'm going to have to put an extraordinary amount of work into school, meaning… you guessed it… slower updates. Judging by my attitude to school, I'm guessing another chapter every two weeks instead of one.

P.S. Anything you're concerned about, i.e. plotlines, characterisation, etc. then please review. Don't just sit and stew! (I'm a poet and I didn't know it!)

Inspirational Music of the Week: Rubber Lover by Marmaduke Duke

Film of the Week: Treasure Planet

Book of the Week: Ciaphas Cain, Hero of the Imperium (Warhammer 40,000) by Sandy Mitchell