A/N: Harry Potter and all contents belong to the master of the quill, miss J.K. Rowling. I’m only 16, I don’t have a lawyer, I’m not making any money off of this, and I don’t have any money for you to sue me for.
That morning they were all woken up to Hedwig landing and hooting shrilly in the dawn air. It was still dark out but the alarm clock read 4:45 in the morning. Harry slowly untangled himself from Ginny and the bed covers and took the letter from Hedwig. He unrolled the small piece of parchment to find the usual neat cursive of the headmaster.
Remus,
I do believe that you three have earned a chance for a day of rest. I also think it is a good idea to let Harry get out of the neighborhood for a while and stretch his legs. If you were going to a less protected area I would suggest taking another Order member with you, but seeing as it is the weekend at Diagon Alley there will already be plenty of protection there. I only ask that you return before sundown and do not venture off to any unprotected areas.
Your’s humbly,
Albus Dumbledore
Harry waved the letter triumphantly. “He’s letting us go, he said we can go, and we don’t need any other protection!” He thrust the letter out towards Lupin for him to read.
“Well we should start getting ready then, we want to have enough time to visit everywhere, including Harrods. I know he said no where unsafe, but I don’t think Voldemort will be expecting us there. I’ll make us a quick breakfast while you two get dressed then we’ll use Arabella’s fire to floo to the Leaky Cauldron. Gringotts opens early, five o’ clock every morning.” Lupin was already out of bed and pulling on a new shirt, this trip meant as much as it did to Harry, he hadn’t been truly out in public for a while and was eager to get some new clothes. Although he didn’t want to admit it, Harry and Ginny were correct; he was hoping to impress Tonks.
Only thirty minutes later the group was fed and walking down the street to Miss Figg’s house to use her fireplace. When they rang the door bell they could hear her cursing her many cats as she progressed towards the door. She ushered them in grumpily, still wearing her flannel nightgown and curlers merely pointed at the fireplace before going back to her bedroom.
They each took a large handful of floo powder and lined up. Lupin went first to check the area then Harry and Ginny stepped in side by side. The ride went a lot better than last time for Harry because he was caught from falling by Ginny.
They waved hello to Tom the barman before quickly heading to the back and into Diagon Alley. The roads were almost completely empty, due to the combined effect of Voldemort’s return and the rather early time of day. They hadn’t seen a single other person until they reached Gringotts where there were already dozens of people moving in and out of the large white marble building.
They all entered and Harry walked up to one of the Goblins to get them to take him to his vault. “Hello, I’d like to withdraw some money from my vault.” Harry said, at the same time handing the Goblin his tiny gold key. He took it and examined it then reached under his desk and pulled out an enormous leather bound book and began to thumb trough its pages until he found what he was looking for.
“Mr. Potter, it would appear that you have come into your family’s vaults as of two weeks ago. You are 16 are you not?” The goblin asked leaning over his desk to inspect the boy.
“Um, yes. But what vaults are you talking about. I already have access to my vault.”
“The Potter family vaults. What you had access to was simply your trust fund, that is until you became 16 years old. You now have full and complete access to your family vaults. It also states in our books that you are the sole heir to the Black family assets. Which means you now can access all of their vaults too. We do need you to fill out a few forms just to finalize it and make sure you know of your holdings.” The goblin smiled widely and handed over a small pile of papers and a quill.
Harry looked nervously at the stack of papers, unsure what to do, “You said vaults not vault, just how many are there?”
“Well the Potter family only has two, one for the gold and the other for heirlooms and storage. The Black family vault is much older and therefore has four vaults. Two weeks ago however, when you came into control we took it upon ourselves to combine a few of them into one larger vault. Therefore now you only have three: one for the gold, one for Potter heirlooms, and one for Black heirlooms. I hope that is ok with you Mr. Potter? Once you sign right here I would be happy to take you down to them.”
Harry, Ginny, and Lupin were speechless. None of them had heard of a person having more than one vault, let alone five. The goblin coughed politely reminding Harry that eh still had business to do. Harry quickly scribbled his name on the parchment in the required places, in return he got another larger key.
“That is the key to the entrance room for the vault; the actual safes are locked with blood magic. Much more secure. Now if you would please follow me this way I’ll get an attendant to take you down to your vaults.” The goblin hopped off of his stool and led them to the usual entrance where another goblin was waiting to take them to the vault.
“If you just follow Griphook here he will get you access to your vault.”
“Thank you, I appreciate your help.” Harry said courteously then turning towards Griphook smiled, “How are you? I haven’t seen you for a while.”
“A little over five years actually, step onto the cart please,” Griphook said opening the little carts door and ushering them in.
As soon as all four of them were in the cart started abruptly and they were sent spiraling down into the labyrinths of the Gringotts vault.
After a few adrenaline pumping minutes the cart slowed to a stop and approached a large metal door. Griphook stepped out and asked for the new key that Harry had been given. After another moment’s time passed the goblin got the door open and the cart began to move once again, this time into a small room with three large gold doors in the rough hewn walls.
Harry, Ginny, and Lupin all stepped out and walked up to the first door to examine it. Engraved across its whole front was the Potter Family crest with a large
“I never knew that I had a family crest. It’s amazing; I guess it’s sorta obvious why I got into Gryffindor.” Harry said pointing to the gold door.
“All ancient families have crests, I think that your family has one even Ginny.” Lupin offered.
“Yeah, we have it on some of our fancy plates, I think it’s a lion or something like that with a mountain in the background, and my dad also has a ring he sometimes wears with the seal on it. He only wears it on special events. I like yours a lot though Harry, its very appropriate.” Ginny said, as she ran her hands over the engravings.
“So, how exactly do blood charms work? I hope I don’t have to give it any blood, I’m a little nervous around blades ever since the Triwizard tournament.” He shivered involuntarily at the memory of that night.
“They don’t need blood, all you have to do Harry is place your hand in the right place. There’s usually a spot where you can put it…”Lupin said as he looked the door up and down, “Ah! Here it is, see the hand shaped indent under the phoenix? Just put your hand there and it should open up.”
Harry placed his hand in the spot and the whole door glowed gold momentarily then vanished.
All three of them gasped at what lay in front of them. Ginny grabbed hold of Harry’s arm to keep herself standing upright.
“Harry, um…just how much gold is this?” Lupin said eyeing the stacks of gold which went from bottom to top.
“I…I have no bloody clue. The vault I used to go to was small; it just had a tiny pile of gold.” Harry said, stammering for words, and then he turned to Griphook who was politely standing at the cart. “Griphook, do you know how much there is here?”
“I do, we counted your assets when we consolidated all of your vaults. In the vault your are currently in there is a little over a quarter of a billion galleons in gold.”
Ginny gave a squeak of excitement, Lupin did a double take, and Harry’s eyes widened to three times their normal size.
“Wh…wha…how much?” Harry stuttered.
“There is precisely 280,013,873 galleons in that vault. In the Black family vault there is roughly 650,000,000 galleons; thereby giving you a combined net worth of 910,000,000 galleons. And as of yesterday’s close of bank you are the 7th richest wizard in
This time it was Harry who had to grab a hold of something just to stay standing.
He couldn’t believe his ears, he had never even heard of that much money, let alone stood next to it. He had always been given badly worn second-hand clothes by the Dursleys, now it wouldn’t surprise him if he could by a clothing company. He was still too stunned to speak so Lupin did.
“Thank you Griphook, who is his current financial adviser?”
“That would be one of the bank assigned CPA’s, however if Mr. Potter has someone else we would gladly work with them.”
“He doesn’t yet, but I think it would be a good idea for him to get someone, don’t you Harry?” He asked, gently nudging him to bring him back to reality.
“Er, yeah sure…sorry I just sorta spaced out there. I’ve never seen anything like this.” He said sheepishly.
“I don’t think any of us have, I’ve barely seen 10 galleons together. Three-hundred million sure is a lot more.” Ginny said quietly, ashamed at her family’s lack of finances.
“Well you better get used to it,” Harry said teasingly. Ginny looked at him quizzically. “Well we are Heartbonded aren’t we? That means that we’ll probably be together for a long time. So what I have is yours.”
Ginny hugged him tightly, until Harry managed to gasp for her to ease up a little because she was breaking his ribs. When she pulled away she had tears in her eyes but was smiling. “Thank you Harry. You know I don’t care about the money, but the fact that you’re willing to share it with me means the world. Your really are one of a kind.”
“I’d have to agree with Ginny on that point Harry, you have a knack for being generous.” Lupin said squeezing Harry on the shoulder.
Harry blushed at the praise and just smiled at the two. “Moony, would you like to help… I mean would you help me…would you manage this stuff for me? I’ve never been very good with money or math and with this much of it I’m sure I’d be lost. So like you said I need someone to help and I’d like it to be someone I trust.”
Lupin was taken aback by the boy’s kind words and that he would hold him in such high regard, being a werewolf usually didn’t warrant many compliments. “Yes Harry, I would be honored to help you. I want to make sure you have some money to start a family with when you grow older so that means you can’t blow your whole fortune on broomsticks or candy.”
“Great! Thanks Moony. Now what do you say we get some of this money converted to pounds and go to Harrods. We can look at the other vaults later, right now I feel like getting all new clothes, and maybe even some dress robes if we get a chance. Come one guys, lets hurry up we don’t have all day!” Harry said enthusiastically, excited to finally be able to get some clothes that weren’t second hand.
The three of them ran into the vault, each stopping by a pile and filling decent sized bags full of galleons. Feeling that they may come in handy later, Harry quietly made an extra stop by a small wooden case he’d found and took out several velvet boxes.
Their pockets considerably heavier, and their souls considerably lighter they climbed back into the cart with Griphook and headed up to the ground floor to get the gold exchanged for British pounds for their busy shopping day.
