Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. Only the original characters and plot are the property of this author. This author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media or franchise that is depicted within this story. No copyright infringement is intended, as there will be no profit made from this story by its author. The only places that this author has personally posted this story are on Archive of Our Own, and on Fanfiction*net; anywhere else that this story appears, is a duplicate created by parties unknown and without the express permission of the author of this story.

xXx A Very Close Friend xXx
xXx Ch. 01: The Whispers in the Dark xXx

xXx Privet Drive, Little Whinging, England xXx
xXx July 24th, 1991 xXx

Though he neither saw it nor noticed it, the fact of the matter was that when the young dark haired and green eyed boy in broken spectacles noticed that there was a letter for him, a shadowy mass pulled itself away from his own shadow and resolved itself into a vaguely feminine figure. The figure was about three feet tall with proportions that were closer in form to a misshapen baby than to an adult, and an unusually large head, though it definitely had feminine features, such as what appeared to be smallish breasts. The figure hovered behind Harry and seemed to look over his shoulder, as if reading the envelope for itself.

Just as Harry was about to turn and head back into the kitchen to deliver the mail, the figure abruptly vanished back into Harry's own shadow without doing much of anything else to indicate that it had ever been present to begin with. Harry however started, as he had just barely caught the figure's visage in the periphery of his vision when he turned around.

Harry didn't quite know why he constantly saw shadowy figures in his periphery, but he also knew that they didn't seem to intend him any harm, as they never did anything to hurt him. In fact, the only time he ever felt any hostility from one of the shadowy figures he constantly saw, was when he was in the company of one of his relatives when he saw a shadow.

When he entered the kitchen that also sported a dinette table and chairs, Harry belatedly realized that he had been given a golden opportunity by the shadow to conceal his mail and missed it, because almost as soon as he had handed off the majority of the mail to his aunt, his cousin began pitching a fit about how "Harry's gotten a letter!"

What followed after that incident was a period of four days where Harry had to watch as the senior members of the Dursley family tried valiantly and repeatedly to deny him from getting whatever information was contained in those letters. Then, on the fifth day, something happened that would change Harry's life forever more.

xXx Privet Drive, Little Whinging xXx
xXx July 29th, 1991 xXx

Harry rolled his eyes as a highly stressed looking Vernon Dursley asked his idiot son why Sundays were the best day there is. It didn't take a genius to realize the man was referring to the fact that the Royal Mail didn't deliver post on Sundays, then again, the Royal Mail also didn't deliver post that is stuffed inside of chicken eggs that don't have so much as a crack on them, the way some of his letters had been.

When the first letter shot itself down the chimney and straight into Vernon Dursley's face, Harry almost felt like he was going to laugh. Or at least he would have if an absolute tornado of letters hadn't started invading the living room.

Before anyone could react, a huge sphere of blackish-red energy began pooling out of Harry's shadow, and a sort of visible electricity… or something… wrapped itself around everyone other than Harry, while a voice that sort of had a weird echoing quality, but which was clearly feminine, stated, "Hurry up and grab one of the letters and run for it, Harry. I'll hold them here."

"Shadow?" Harry questioned as he plucked one of the letters from the air.

"The very same, though my name is actually Midna," the shadow stated. "Now you best make good your escape, I'll catch up in a bit."

With that, Harry quickly left the room, and shortly after it, the house. After a good ten minutes head start, the field of energy that was binding the Dursley family released itself and the overbearing presence in the room simply vanished. Petunia immediately asked, "Wha- what was that?"

That got her two grunts from her confused and scared shitless males.

xXx Abandoned Park, Little Whinging, England xXx
xXx A Few Moments Later xXx

Harry started when he heard a sound that was vaguely reminiscent of the warp tubes from the Mario games for the Super-Nintendo that his cousin was obsessed with. Vernon Dursley had actually paid a crap ton of money to import a foreign model straight from Japan, and that thing was broken all to hell within a week after it was removed from the box, simply because Dudley hadn't liked the fact that he couldn't read any of the text on the few RPGs that he got his hands on.

"Ugh… it is too damn bright out here," Midna's echoing voice exclaimed from wherever it was she had appeared, "I hate sunlight. What does your letter say, Harry?"

"It… it um… it claims I've been accepted to something called 'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry'," Harry replied before frowning as he shot some glances at his surroundings, "Um, where are you?"

"Under the deck on the jungle gym where there is at least some shade. The only alternative is for me to hide in your shadow, and that isn't very useful for a vocalized conversation, though I do suppose we can still communicate over our mental link," Midna explained.

Harry frowned impressively as he wondered just why she was so afraid of being in the sun. "Because I am part of a species for whom sunlight is toxic, Harry."

"Oh!" Harry exclaimed, "You aren't a vampire are you?"

Midna snorted in amusement, "Not even close. Now, does that letter say what you are to do once you've received it?"

Harry scanned it again and frowned, "What does it mean that they expect my owl?"

"I'm… I'm not entirely certain, but at a guess… do you remember all those owls in the front yard for the past few days? What if they are what has been delivering the letters?" Midna questioned.

"Wouldn't carrier pigeons be less conspicuous?" Harry questioned while rolling his eyes, "Even if only just barely."

"Pigeons?" Midna questioned. "I've never seen one, and only have what you have read in books as a basis to know whether or not that is a valid notion or not, Harry. However we should likely see about writing a response and attaching it to one of these owls. And on that subject, what I wouldn't give for an honest to goodness Postman right now."

She then seemed to emit a huff, "Then again, you aren't in any shape to go chasing after one of those Running Men."

It took a bit of doing, but Harry scribbled a response onto the back of one of the two parchments that came with the letter, the one that wasn't actually his book list, and then Midna returned to his shadow and helped him procure the services of a highly disgruntled owl. It did not appear happy at being grabbed by a long tendril of shadowy energy and dragged off the tree it had been sitting on, even if Midna had been gentle about it. With the letter secure, and one disparaging glare accompanied by a hoot, the owl took flight off to who knows where.

xXx Privet Drive, Little Whinging, England xXx
xXx August 4th, 1991 xXx

Over the course of the past week, Midna had been explaining to Harry some of the basic concepts and theories necessary in order to create a magical effect. These concepts and theories were generally universal regardless of what system of magic you were practicing, as it all really boiled down to what he would later learn were the last two of the Three D's of Apparition. To create a magical effect you needed to have a deliberate idea of what effect it is you want to create, and enough determination and willpower to force that effect to happen in the way you intend it to happen.

According to Midna, the only reason anyone would need a wand like what was mentioned in the Hogwarts supply list, was if they lacked sufficient determination and willpower to make their intentions manifest without the crutch that wands actually were. Midna also point blank told him that he would be using the wand only to learn the feel of the magic they were teaching, and would then be relearning the spells without the wand almost immediately after he mastered them with the wand. That way he wouldn't be handicapped if someone found a way of disarming him of his wand.

In fact, Harry was at that very moment in his cousin's appropriated 'second' bedroom receiving a lesson from Midna when there was a thunderous sound of a fist impacting the front door that promptly caused the entire house to shake. "Oh joy, someone let a Goron have the run of a mundane neighborhood."

"No… Harry… no no no, not the window!" Midna exclaimed as he made a dash for the window, forcing her to dive into the shadows under the bed to avoid being burned alive.

"Huh, it is either a very large man, or a very small mountain," Harry remarked, before turning away from the window, only to blink when he found the beautiful, if slightly bizarre looking, young girl he had been taking lessons from had seemingly vanished. "Where'd you go?"

"Close the curtains you idiot!" Midna's voice came from under the bed, it was clear she was annoyed with him. Once he had, she re-appeared from under the bed and said, "Please try to remember that even a small amount of sunlight is dangerous for me, Harry! It is why I hide in your shadow when we go out for the day."

"Oh, oops!" Harry remarked with a massive blush at having forgotten. "Sorry, Midna."

"Apology accepted, but please try not to make a habit of making me hide beneath that bed… I don't want to ever see that shadow space again if I can help it."

"Yes'm," Harry replied automatically, right before there was a yell from below.

"BOY! YOU GET YOURSELF DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT AND GET THIS FREAK OFF OUR PROPERTY!"

"Vernon doesn't seem capable of learning, does he?" Midna remarked idly.

"I'm fairly certain he is suffering from Panzaism," Harry remarked as Midna entered Harry's shadow and he exited the room and they began making their way down the stairs as a single unit.

Sounding inside the now fully acknowledged mental link between them, Midna remarked 'Well, I suppose that is one word for it, though personally I would question whether he is even sentient on the level of a human, but given that Panzaism and Banality are interchangeable to an extent I think your word for it makes sense. I do know he'd be a bit of a laughingstock on Hyrule, and don't get me started what the Twilight would do to him.'

When Harry reached the landing and caught sight of the front door, he let out a low whistle, 'Midna are you seeing this?'

'I stand by what I said earlier. Someone let a Goron loose without a minder. Though the Goron are generally placid as they come, they can be a bit… er… overly affectionate, and don't know their own strength.'

Seeing that the door was completely off its hinges, it only took the united duo long enough to step out of the door and gaze upon the giant of a man outside. Midna then said 'Okay, clearly not a Goron, but close enough that it likely doesn't matter. I wonder, does he eat rocks too?'

"'Arry?" the giant of a man exclaimed, "Why I 'aven't seen you since yer were a tyke, and I do say you've grown quite a bit…"

"Not as much as I could have, but forgive me sir, who are you?" Harry wondered.

"Ah, I am Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts, but of course yer know all about Hogwarts?" Hagrid tried.

'Harry reply by saying that you have only been told a bare minimum, but enough to know it is where your mother and father learned magic, and where they wanted you to learn magic,' Midna conveyed into his mind. Harry did just that and the look of disappointment that Hagrid sent towards the Dursley household was unmistakable.

"Well I suppose we 'ad best be along our way. Lots ter buy," Hagrid suggested as he indicated the motorbike and sidecar that was next to the sidewalk.

'Please don't let that be the motorbike my mother mentioned to me before sending me to this world,' Midna muttered with a sound of extreme mortification in her words. That was another thing, apparently Midna was not the first person from her world to be tasked with keeping watch over a member of the Potter family. Apparently it was something of a rite of passage for the members of her family, one which they had been tasked with a very long time ago by the deity who governed the Twilight Realm. It was actually this connection with a human bloodline and the children it often spawned, that allowed Midna's family to remain as human looking as they were even to this day, centuries after the Twilight Realm became isolated from the Realms of Light. Even still, Midna only knew a bare minimum of facts regarding the Wizarding World as a whole, most of her info revolved around the House of Potter, itself.

xXx Charing Cross Road, London xXx
xXx Considerable Time Later xXx

When they got off the insane flying motorcycle Harry promptly got as far away from the bike as possible, "Mister Hagrid flying motorbikes are not normal and certainly not something one should be using in the Greater London Area in the middle of broad daylight!"

"If yer worried we were noticed, 'Arry, the bike is layered with notice-me-not charms," Hagrid explained. "Same goes for the Knight Bus."

Somehow that explanation didn't help reassure Harry, because now he had the sudden worry that those charms were going to cause some sort of traffic catastrophe at some point. 'Midna, these people are completely insane!'

'You've noticed that have you?' Midna wondered, 'It's cause inbreeding is a bad thing for the mind, no matter who is involved. That said, just because inbreeding is bad for the mind, doesn't mean you should avoid the Pure-Blood heiresses as candidates for a future Lady Potter. I can't take that title even if I wanted to, they'd never accept me."

'M-m-marriage?' Harry stuttered in his mind as he broke out in a blush, 'Aren't we getting a bit ahead of ourselves?'

'Perhaps,' Midna mused.

What happened once they entered the Leaky Cauldron had both Harry and Midna scowling, even if only one of their faces was visible. It would seem Harry was quite famous within this corner of society for something that he didn't even remember happening.

Once they were clear of the Cauldron, their guide took them on a no-stops trip through the alley and up to the bank which was run by what the man called Goblins, but which Midna immediately said 'They're actually the local subspecies of Blin, which is actually a large assortment of creatures that are all loosely related to one another and which can only vaguely be described as 'Goblins.' Other examples include Moblins and Bokoblins. Don't ask me if 'Goblin' is what this subspecies refers to themselves in their own dialect.'

'Are they as bad as Mister Hagrid says they are?' Harry questioned.

Midna gave a sensation over their link similar to humming in thought, 'Probably be a good idea to mind your manners in front of them… just to be on the safe side. I would hate to have to reveal myself in one of the few places where they might actually have a means of harming me.'

When they reached the goblin that Hagrid led them to, Midna groaned, 'Well so much for my advice about minding your manners. Lug Nut here decided to ignore all the tellers and deal directly with the floor manager.'

"Mister Harry Potter wishes to make a withdrawal," Hagrid declared.

The floor manager, who had been in the middle of inscribing something on a large sheet of parchment, took as much time as possible while still seeming polite to put aside his work, before looking up at Hagrid with a sneer of disdain. He then lifted himself over his desk to look down on Harry, "And does Mister Harry Potter have his key?"

"Oh 'old a minute, I got it 'ere somewhere…"

'Harry stop this disaster by saying, 'I wish to withdraw from the Peverell dowry vault.'' Midna exclaimed.

Harry made the declaration, and watched as the Goblin immediately glanced over at Hagrid, who seemed to be confused at what Harry had just said. The Goblin then turned his attention back to Harry and inquired, "How are you aware of that vault's existence, Mister Potter?"

Harry simply shrugged, and replied, "A whisper of the night mentioned it to me."

The goblin considered that for a moment, before saying, "In that case, please do follow me, I will handle this personally."

The goblin got off his stool, surprising most of the occupants of the lobby that the floor manager had decided to deal with a customer himself, and began leading the way towards a cart, "Mister Hagrid, you were not invited. If you have some business not pertaining to Heir Potter, then please ask one of the tellers to handle it."

"But Professor Dumbledore, 'e said I 'ad to see you or whoever else might 'ave been performing yer duties today personally," Hagrid countered.

"Then you will wait for me to return after handling the affairs of Heir Potter," the goblin stated coldly, and turned to continue.

"But Dumbledore, 'e was saying it was to be 'andled before 'Arry went to 'is trust vault,' Hagrid persisted.

The goblin paused, "Then it seems you are in luck, Mister Hagrid, because I am not taking Heir Potter to his trust vault. Now please be silent so that I may conduct the business that I intend to conduct, unless you want to find out who would win, our security trolls, or you."

Once they had finally made it to a cart, the Goblin turned enough to look at Harry, "Gringotts is a sovereign nation, you do stupid things in our bank, and we will make you suffer for it. Mister Hagrid has the misfortune of trusting a man who is well past his prime, and never quite learned the lesson of respecting those species who are sentient and known Wizard Killers like my people are reputed to be."

The Goblin then turned around, smirked and said, "Now, while you appear to have a child of twilight protecting you, it remains to be seen whether you have the ability to enter the Peverell Dowry Vault, as not even the woman for whom it was the dowry was able to enter it for a very long time after her marriage."

xXx Iolanthe's Vault, Gringotts, London xXx
xXx One Harrowing Trip Later xXx

Harry stared at a vault door that was not actually a door, so much as a tear in the fabric of reality with a fluttering cloth-like tapestry hanging from the top of the frame. Harry didn't know it, but there was a nearly identical arch hanging in the bowels of the Ministry for Magic. The main difference between this arc and that one, was that this one actually led somewhere and had a better survival rate… in that just one person survived.

"Just to clarify, is there any particular reason you have a Twilight Gate in that door frame instead of an actual vault door?"

The goblin merely shrugged, "It doesn't actually lead to your realm as far as we have been able to determine, child of twilight. However, it was the preferred last line of defense for the two known Peverell Vaults. Alas we only managed to retain custody of one of the Twilight Veils, the other is now hidden deep beneath the Ministry for Magic."

"Midna is there a problem?" Harry questioned.

"Other than that I wouldn't have made this suggestion if I knew this was what we were going to find, no. I can get us in there easily enough, the question will be whether or not the interior is bathed in Twilight as this gate seems to imply it would be, if that is the case, it means you're as good as dead the moment we step through. Which is likely why I was told not to mention this vault now that I think about it."

The goblin smirked amusedly when he heard that, "If you two will get on with it, time is money."

Midna materialized in her more normal flesh-and-blood form, which took the appearance of a 163 centimeter tall, 43 kilogram eleven year old girl, who was dressed in a scandalous outfit composed entirely from shadows that she was forcing to act as skin-tight clothing, if only to stop Harry from dying of embarrassment, even if it only just barely helped. She had long dark orange hair that was almost crimson in its color, and her eyes were orange-on-yellow in the same way that a Fremen had blue-on-blue eyes. Her hair was also apparently completely prehensile, though she rarely liked using it in such a manner.

Midna walked up to the gate, looked it over for a few moments before frowning and saying, "This damn thing wasn't even activated properly. In its current configuration it'd be like sending someone on a space-walk without a spacesuit. If Iolanthe did survive this, she had to have been getting help from someone."

Midna then jabbed her finger into a few runes along the edge of the doorframe, and grinned at the information she was receiving, "On the bright side, I can modify the environment inside the vault. Right now it is bathed in twilight, however if I activate this sequence…"

A few seconds later she turned around with a bright smile, "Ta-da! It is now habitable for humans."

Suddenly the veil in the arc solidified, taking on an appearance vaguely resembling a silicon circuit board. Midna rendered her body more fully into shadowy inergy and stepped through what now appeared to be a solid wall. Seconds later, a gigantic fist made of Midna's hair reached back through, grabbed Harry by the waist and dragged him through the now properly activated Twilight Gate.

"Oh yes, make it look like child's play when we have had Curse Breakers scratching their heads over these things for centuries!" the goblin muttered in some annoyance. On the other hand, the Goblin now had to wonder exactly how Iolanthe had managed to enter the vault, as the records say her guardian from the Twilight Realm didn't help her in the way this one just had her descendant.

xXx Inside the Vault xXx

When Harry emerged, he found Midna had been turned away from him as she used her hair in a manner that she was quite embarrassed about, "I hate doing that."

Harry walked up to her and gently clasped her shoulder, not quite comfortable with hugging a girl that was wearing practically nothing, at least not until they were a bit older. "I understand, and I won't make you do it all too often."

Midna turned around and promptly glomped him saying, "Thanks!"

It was several minutes before they two pulled away from one another with equally large blushes on their faces, and properly assessed the vault. "Wow, this place looks like it's never been touched."

There were piles… no, mountains, of gold as far as the eye could see. While the vault showed no signs of anyone having entered it, it was clear that the interest on what was already inside the vault as well as any investments Iolanthe had made with her initial withdrawal several centuries ago, had been making significant returns. Gold however, was not the only form of wealth contained within this vault.

Midna practically floated over to several large chests filled with an unfathomable number of uniformly cut gemstones. "Harry, you are rich!"

Harry snickered, "What was your first clue, Midna?"

Midna glanced back at him before scowling, "Gold? Gold is an absolutely terrible form of currency, especially given the exchange rates I was overhearing being referenced back in the lobby. We could quite easily transport all that gold to Hyrule, have a Goron melt it down into Ingots, and transport it back to this planet, and then sell it at a gold auction, and you'd be richer than the Queen of England within the space of maybe a month. This, this Harry is the measure of true wealth… gemstones."

Harry blinked as he processed that, "How do you figure that?"

"Because, gemstones are a nearly indestructible form of currency. You cannot melt them unless you are incredibly suicidal, and the forms of gems in these chests are sturdier than diamonds when it comes to what it would take to break one. These, Harry, are Rupees, an accepted standard of currency pretty much everywhere but this backwater world."

Over the next several minutes, Harry was amazed as Midna transported quite an alarming amount of the gold,, and even Rupees into what was apparently her personal pocket dimension. She then smirked and said, "I think that we have sufficient wealth to tide us over for the next few months. That and I really don't want to come back to this vault before this time next year."

"Agreed," Harry remarked. The two then made their way out of the vault in much the same way they entered, and Midna tapped a Rune returning the door to its previous inactive state.

"Now why did you go and do that?" the goblin wondered, though his eyes widened in shock when she tapped another and reverted the internal environment to a Twilight Bath.

"To be perfectly blunt, I can't think of a better form of security for this vault than what it had when we first arrived. Even if someone does manage to survive the atmospheric decompression, they would be impotent spirits inside. Those are the risks of messing with Twilight Gates without knowing the technology like I do."

"We could always just force you to permit us entry," the goblin threatened.

"Why? We are simply protecting Peverell family assets. We are even doing you the favor of returning some of those assets into circulation rather than leaving them to gather dust for eternity," Midna remarked.

The goblin gnashed his teeth for a moment before sagging and admitting that she was within her rights to do this as the security on this vault was actually a gift to the Peverell family by her own family. He also realized that the denizens of the Twilight Realm were actually a good deal stronger in terms of magic than most Witches and Wizards, with only Archmage-class Wizards reaching that level. Even a young Twili like Midna would be a serious problem if she wanted to be. "At least do Gringotts the favor of creating a secondary vault that can act as an investment vault for Heir Potter."

"We'll consider doing that, but for the moment, I believe Hagrid said he needed a minute of your time," Harry replied as Midna merged with his shadow for the trip back to the lobby. Upon seeing what she had just done, Harry sighed. "At least you aren't just flying straight through the ceiling or anything."

xXx Chapter Concluded xXx

Author's Note: Goblins are part of the same family of creatures as Moblins. They do not like humans, and are quite vicious in their dislike of them within the confines of what they themselves find. Also, the scene in the lobby was taken from the movie, if anyone watched that scene, you'd have seen the fact that Hagrid walked straight past what had to be a dozen tellers on his path to what had to be the oldest looking goblin in that lobby, and probably the highest ranking bank official in that room at the time… or at least that goblin was the highest ranking official if age is a sign of status, rank and prestige for Goblins like it is for Klingons. Warrior-centric societies tend to have a lot of respect for those amongst their warriors who manage to reach old age, it shows they are time tested on the field of battle and thus worthy of being listened to.