Harry had always been odd, strange, unusual or some other variation of those words and he had always known this. In his mind what made him strange was not the weird things that happened when he was around or the way his relatives treated him but rather his ability to see the spirits of the dead. It was the one thing that he had always managed to keep completely hidden. Now as he looked up at the massive (was he a giant) man in front of him he couldn't help but wonder if he could see them too, though no matter how many times he tried to say the words they wouldn't come out.

"Yer a wizard Harry" the man, call me Hagrid, had said and Harry wondered if that was why he could see dead spirits but he had a strange feeling that that wasn't the case. The more Harry thought about it the more it seemed to him that nothing about him was normal or usual in any way. He was afraid that if he told Hagrid and it wasn't normal then he would treat Harry like the Dursleys did and his one chance of escape might be taken away from him.

Harry tried to push away his thoughts to go to sleep.


Harry had always known he was odd but he had never known how odd he thought after coming out of the Leaky Cauldron pub. The way the people had reacted to him freaked him out greatly. He was now rather wary of friendly giant that had come to take him to get his school supplies, why oh why did he have to announce Harry's presence to everyone in the pub. Plus the man they had met who would be teaching Harry, Professor Quirrel, felt off to him like there was something that Harry could almost but not quite see floating around him.

This and the fear of how people would react to him lead to Harry not really enjoying his first walk down Diagon Alley, he wasn't able to take it in and relax when his mind was racing in every direction as it tended to do when he was stressed. When he saw the strange little men with slightly green skin and pointed ears standing guard outside the bank Hagrid was taking him to he got even more freaked out which Hagrid must have picked up on as he explained what they were to him.

When he read the inscription on the second set of door he gulped in fear. The hall was beautiful with the floor being white marble flooring and polished wooden desks manned by goblins up each side. Hagrid walked right up to the goblin right at the end of the hall who looked like he was the most important goblin in the room in terms of rank. Harry stiffened when Hagrid interrupted the goblin from his task. The goblin looked up from the books he was going over with a snarl on his face.

"What is it?" He asked fiercely.

"Hello, I've brought Harry Potter here to make a withdrawal from his vault and I've got something to get for Preffsor' Dumbledore while I'm here" Hagrid remarkable managed to bumble his way through the sentence with the goblin glaring at him.

"Mr Hagrid, at your age you should know that I do not deal with mere withdrawals" the goblin snarled before looking over to look at Harry "although I suppose that in this case as I am not busy with anything more important I may as well get someone to take you to the needed vaults" he said without the snarl before holding out his hand "I shall of course need Mr Potters key and proof that you have permission to collect the item for Mr Dumbledore as well"

Hagrid started fishing around in his pockets and after bring out various bits of stuff that looked like it belonged in a bin (including crumbled dog biscuits and a mouse) he eventually brought out a small gold key and a rather crumpled letter. The goblin sneered as he dumped them on his desk before he shoved his stuff back in his pockets. The goblin made quick work if examining the letter and the key before placing them back down on the desk. Hagrid went to pick up the key to Harry's vault but the goblin snarled at him.

"I do believe Mr Hagrid that Mr Potter was supposed to be given that key on the day he turned eleven according to Lord James Potters will" the goblin said, "if you do not hand it over to him right now then I shall report you to the ministry of magic for theft and with your record who knows how long you may end up in Azkaban"

After hearing that Hagrid was quick to hand Harry his key which Harry tucked into the pocked of his much too big jeans. After seeing this the goblin appeared to smile though on his face and with his sharp teeth Harry would have mistaken it for a snarl if he hadn't seen him do one of those just minutes ago.

"Griphook please take Mr Hagrid and Mr Potter to Vault 713 and Vault 687" the goblin said.

A younger goblin came over, he said "follow me" in a terse voice before walking off quickly. Hagrid motioned for Harry to follow him, they both followed Griphook through a door in the side of the hall. Through the door instead of the floor being opulent marble it was rough stone. A short distance from the door was a small minecart on rails that led deep into the massive cave that they now stood in. Once they reach the Cart Hagrid helped Harry to get in before climbing in himself. As soon as they were both in Griphook started the cart and Harry clung onto the sides as it started at an insane speed. Harry looked around as they travelled through tunnel after tunnel and at one point he could have sworn he saw a jet of fire making think about the dragons Hagrid had mentioned on the train ride to London. He was just wondering if this was what a rollercoaster was like when they suddenly jerked to a halt. Harry carefully got out of the cart glad that he didn't get motion sickness having remembered how when Dudley last went to a roller-coaster park that he had been sick for hours afterwards and the amount of sick that Harry had had to clean out of the car and house had been contained food than Harry had ever been allowed to so much look at in a single day.

"Vault 687, key please" Griphook said holding out his hand towards Harry.

As Harry handed Griphook his key Hagrid stumbled out of the cart looking rather green in the face. He had his hand held over his mouth and Harry very much hoped that he wasn't going to be sick.

"Could the cart go a bit slower next time" Hagrid said before belching.

"It's just the one speed I'm afraid" Griphook said with a grin on his face, "Now I believe that you wished to make a withdrawal Mr Potter"

Griphook walked over to an intricately designed door set into the wall and inserted the small golden key into the lock. He pushed the door open and Harry was overwhelmed by the staggering amount of gold that was contained within. He slowly walked into the vault and saw that in the centre of the mountains of gold, silver and bronze there was a dark coloured wooden box with an envelope on top on it beside which there propped up against one of the piles of silver coins was a medium sized satchel that appeared to be made of a strangely copper coloured leather though when Harry approached to investigate he found that it had smooth copper scales on the surface. The envelope was addressed to him with his name written out in loopy lettering. He picked it up reverently as since this was his vault that presumably no one had entered since his parents deaths then this must be from them and the writing on the envelope must belong to his mother or his father. He felt large hand on his shoulder and looked around to see Hagrid looking at him with a sad smile on his face.

"Why don't you take that stuff with you Harry? You can have a good look through it when you're back at your aunts I reckon that that's what your parents would have wanted" Hagrid said kindly.

It was only after Hagrid spoke that Harry noticed the tears in his eyes. He wiped his eyes before putting the box and the envelope gently into the bag, while doing so he discovered that inside the bag there was a green drawstring pouch. Like the satchel the pouch had a scaly texture, attached to the end of each drawstring was a specked blue feather and holding the two strings together was a polished red gemstone. the stone was opaque and was a dark red with gold flex it remined Harry of a stone in one of his aunts necklaces that he had heard her bragging was a garnet and that her mother had left to her, so he wondered if this stone was the same. He also remembered how his aunt had said that her parents left anything of value to her because they thought that his mother would just "squander it on booze and drugs" which he now knew was not true so he wasn't sure that he could trust anthing she said.

"That's a mokeskin pouch you've got there Harry I think I remember seeing your dad with it back when he was a school. They're real useful things for keeping others out of your money cause whenever someone else tries to take whatever is in it out it will shrink up so that nothing can come out" Hagrid explained.

"That's so cool Hagrid!" Harry exclaimed thankful that he wouldn't have to worry about the Dursleys stealing from him since he could keep both his money and his vault key in it, "How much money do you think I'll need?" he asked having gotten over his wariness of Hagrid from what happened at the Leakey Cauldron by now since he was pretty sure that Hagrid didn't mean any harm by it now that he was over the shock.

"A couple of handfuls of galleons should do it but it would be best to grab some sickles and knuts while we're here as well, they're good for getting snacks on the train to Hogwarts. There's 17 sickles to a galleon and 29 knuts to a sickle"

Harry nodded before grabbing some of each into the pouch. He slung the satchel over his shoulder before placing the pouch in one of the front pockets before exiting the vault. Once he was out Griphook handed him his key which he slipped into the pouch before drawing it shut and buckling the pocket shut. He followed Griphook in climbing into the cart which was much harder without Hagrids help due to his short height, he had always been the shortest in his year in school (and the year bellow as well if was completely honest) and wondered if it would be the same at Hogwarts. Hagrid got into the cart easily and then they were. It seemed to Harry that they were going even faster this time and as he looked at Griphook he wasn't sure if he had really seen a look of glee in his eyes or weather he had imagined it but either way he felt sorry for Hagrid remembering how close he had been to being sick last time. He wondered if the goblins all sped up the cart when requested to make it go slower or if Griphook just had an odd sense of humour.

It didn't take them long to get to their destination, this time however there was only about a meter deep ledge that was only about two meters across before there was sheer shiny piece of metal set into the stone that had a almost imperceptible crack going right through the middle. Hagrid helped Harry get out first when he saw the size of the gap, Harry pushed himself as close to the jagged stone wall as he could while Hagrid and Griphook proceeded to get out so that there was more space for them, though there was still not much given the size of Hagrid.

"Permission slip please" Griphook said as he held his hand out to Hagrid. Hagrid clumsily handed Griphook the letter making the goblin sneer. It didn't take long for him to check the letter before he folded it up and handed it back. Shockingly, to Harry at least, Griphook ran his finger down the crack in the middle and the door swung open. Griphook must have seen the look of surprise on Harrys face for he said, "That only works for a Gringotts Goblin had I not been one I would have been sucked inside"

Harry looked into the surprising empty small space that looked like it could barely fist Hagrid inside a gulped.

"What would happen to you then?" he asked in morbid curiosity.

"Well we check it about once every ten years" Griphook said with a nasty grin on his face.

Harry was drawn away from their conversation when Hagrid picked up a small object off the floor. The object was wrapped in brown paper and was only a few inches across.

"What is it?" he asked curiously wondering what thing that size could need that much protection.

"Hogwarts business Harry, worth more than my job this is" Hagrid said before slipping it into his pocket, Harry winced at the thought of what it must be mixed in amongst in there but when he looked up at Hagrid and saw his expression he got the impression that he was not going to get anything more out of him so he shrugged and got back in the cart as carefully as he could being as mindful of the gap as he could, he doubted even a wizard could survive a 500 foot drop after all.

The trip back up to the surface was surprisingly short and it wasn't long until he and Hagrid were emerging from Gringotts.

"So where to first?" Harry asked Hagrid.

"How about you go to Madame Malkins for your robes first, I need to get something to settle my stomach and you should be able to manage that on your own"

"Okay"

It wasn't long until Harry was walking into Madame Malkins to do his own clothes shopping for the first time that he could remember he found himself surprisingly excited.


I've finally gotten round to writing this months after I uploaded the prologue. I hope it doesn't disappoint, I hope to have at least one chapter coming out a month but with college and work it can be difficult to find time.

Hope you enjoyed and would love to hear your thought,

Nymphprince