The Potter Family Vaults

Grimmauld Place, London, England

That morning Lupin woke Ginny and Harry up early so they could get breakfast and beat the morning crowd at Gringotts before heading into Muggle London. They were all far too excited to really eat but went through the motions anyway as they sat there eager to leave. It was nearly seven when they heard a knock on the door and Lupin got up to answer it. A moment later he returned with Emma walking in front of him.
“Hey Harry, what’s going on?” Emma asked, then spotted Ginny sitting next to him, “how’s she?” She asked eyeing the new girl suspiciously.
Harry had to laugh; he’d forgotten that Emma had no idea about what had happened in the past 48 hours. “Well Emma, this is Ginny Weasley. You know how I told you about my friends from school, this is Ron’s sister.”
“Hi Emma, nice to meet you, Harry’s told me a lot about you.” Ginny said smiling kindly at the little girl.
“Are you his girlfriend?” She asked, eyeing the redhead suspiciously.
“Well something very weird happened after you went home from my birthday Emma,” Harry started, “it turns out that Ginny and I have been bonded. For some reason or another we are now connected magically and this bond makes us stay close to each other, that’s why she’s living here.” He tried to simplify it as much as possible, skirting the topic of girlfriend because even he wasn’t sure if that was where their relationship was at the moment.
“Huh, well that’s cool I guess.” She said shrugging, “so can we still go swinging though? Mum said I could hang out with you today.”
“Well we were actually just planning on going shopping for some clothes. Moony I know that it was hard enough getting permission to let us go but could we bring Emma with us, if Joy says it’s okay?” Harry asked Lupin.
“I don’t see why not, we’re in no direct danger, just make sure she knows what we’d be doing.”
“Okay well Emma, if you want to go with us you can. I know it isn’t as much fun as swinging but you can hang out with us. We wouldn’t get home until after lunch so we’ll be gone for a while.”
“That’d be brilliant! I’ll go ask mum right now,” she said and rushed down the hallway to the door.

Just a few minutes later Emma was back at headquarters with permission from Joy to go shopping with them. They all headed to the living room fireplace where they were going to floo from.
“Okay now Emma, we’re first going to go to Gringotts. It’s our bank, remember I told you about it?” She nodded, remembering the various stories Harry had told her about Diagon Alley. “So to get there we need to use the floo network, it’s not scary at all, but you’ll go with me so you can get used to it. Are we ready to go Moony?”
“We’re going to the Leaky Cauldron so we can head over right now, the bank opens in 15 minutes so it should be perfect. I’ll go first, then Ginny you can go, then Harry and Emma can go last.” Lupin grabbed a handful of floo, tossed it into the fire and shouted, “The Leaky Cauldron!” and in a flash of green he disappeared. Ginny followed suite and moments later she too disappeared. Harry grabbed a handful of the powder and tossed it in the fire.
“Now just step in here and hold onto my hand okay? Don’t worry it doesn’t burn, it just sort of tickles. Okay now close your eyes so you don’t get ash in them and hold on! The Leaky Cauldron!” Harry and Emma started to spin and he saw the flashes of the various fires hooked up to the network. Another chaotic moment and they landed in the hearth of the Leaky Cauldron both covered in black soot. Emma stood there grinning.
“That was awesome, I can’t wait to do that again!” She cheered as she stepped out of the fire.
The group cleaned off and chatted with Tom the barman before quickly heading to the back and into Diagon Alley.
“Can we stop by my brother’s store for a little? I haven’t had a chance to see it yet, but mum says it’s amazing. I think that she’s actually beginning to agree that they were cut out for that job their whole life,” Ginny asked as Lupin tapped out the code on the bricks.
“It’s on the way to Gringotts, and the bank isn’t open for a little while longer so I see no reason why not. I could use a good laugh anyhow,” Lupin said as the door began to magically open. Emma just stood there awestruck. Harry remembered how amazing every little thing was when Hagrid took him here for the first time, a wave of nostalgia struck him as he thought about how simple things were back then compared to the chaos it was now.
Something about Diagon Alley was different this time however. It wasn’t filled with the usual hustle and bustle of hundreds of witches and wizards going about their shopping. In fact it was almost completely deserted except for the occasional passer by who seemed more concerned about spending as little time outside than actually shopping.
Huge purple enchanted banners hung up and down the alley, each one emblazoned with a massive picture of Minister Fudge, which was then replaced with the new motto of the Ministry of Magic, “suspect everything.” To Harry something about the motto made him nervous, it reminded him a little too closely of what Umbridge’s educational decrees were like.
The group soon reached Fred and George’s store. It wasn’t difficult to spot the building; it was the only one painted lime green with a huge sign emblazoned with three W’s.
“Sure looks like they know what they’re doing, this store looks massive. I bet they’re making loads.” Harry said admiring the premise.
They walked up to the door, unfortunately the sign on the door said ‘closed until door is open.’
Lupin laughed, “Yes they sure do, they might even put Zonko’s out of business at that. Might want to work on public relations though, the sign isn’t very helpful.”
“That’s the twins for you; they don’t follow anyone’s rules,” Harry said smiling fondly at the shop, proud knowing that he had been able to finance their business.
“I can see why they’re not open at least, there isn’t a single person in all of Diagon Alley. The twins said that it was bad but I didn’t think they meant that they were staying closed in the morning.” Ginny said, disappointed that they wouldn’t be able to tour the store she’d been hearing so much about.

They walked down the deserted alley with Emma sprinting ahead from window to window, exclaiming at all the amazing things she was seeing for the very first time. The whole time they hadn’t seen a single other person on their entire walk to the bank but when they reached Gringotts there were already dozens of people moving in and out of the large white marble building.
They entered the massive building and Harry went with Lupin to a counter with a large brass sign Withdrawls etched onto it. “Hello, I’d like to withdraw some money from my vault.” Harry said, at the same time handing the Goblin his tiny gold key. The ancient goblin with a permanent frown examined it briefly and 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, as of two days ago you have gained complete access to your family vaults.” He muttered matter-of-factly.”
“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 are 16 are you not?” The goblin asked leaning over his desk to inspect the boy.
“Yes” Harry replied, uncomfortable with being scrutinized so closely.
“Well then, you now have full and complete access to your family vaults. It also states in our books that you received a rather large cash transfer from the Black vaults, instead of transferring it to the Potter vault we have instead given you access to one of the Black vaults instead. We do need you to fill out a few forms just to finalize it and make sure you know of your holdings.” The goblin attempted a weak smile as it he 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 has two, a smaller one for the gold and the other for heirlooms and storage. When you took control of part of the Black estate you also got another vault that contains your part of the will. We were also instructed, as per the will of your parents to give you this package upon turning sixteen years of age. Once you sign right here I would be happy to take you down to them.”
Harry was speechless, he just stood there looking down at the innocuous little brown box until the goblin coughed politely reminding Harry that he still had business to do. Harry quickly scribbled his name on the parchments in the required places; in return he got another larger key. He shifted the small box under his arm; he wanted to open it right now but he also knew he would want to have some time alone to go through whatever was in the box.
“That is the key to the entrance room for the vaults; 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 Snagrall here he will get you access to your vault.”
“Thank you, I appreciate your help.” Harry said courteously.
“Step into the cart please,” Snagrall 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. Snagrall 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 black doors in the rough hewn walls.
Harry, Ginny, Emma, 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 Griffin reared up on its hind legs with a large serpent in its beak. In the background was a phoenix with its wings spread wide.
“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 suits you well.” Ginny said, as she ran her hands over the engravings.
“So, how exactly do blood charms work? I’ve heard Hermione say something about them whenever she starts reading Hogwarts: A History again, but she’s read it so many times I just tune it out now.” He said as he continued to inspect the various intricacies of the crest.
“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. It is very ancient magic, some of the oldest around, the goblins are some of the few creatures left who can still perform it.”
Harry placed his hand in the spot and the whole door glowed gold momentarily then vanished.
All four 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 that 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 in the middle.” Harry said, stammering for words, and then he turned to Snagrall who was standing a polite distance but staring at the gold intently. Even though goblins were trained to be very professional the goblins had a strange tie with the precious metal and this large amount made it difficult for Snagrall to look away. “Umm, excuse me, would you happen to know how much there is here?”
“I do, according to our current assessments the vault your are currently in there is a little over a seventy-five million galleons in gold.” The goblin stated as if that fact was common knowledge
Ginny gave a squeak of excitement, Lupin did a double take, Emma just continued to stare at the immense amount of gold, and Harry’s eyes widened to three times their normal size.
“Wh…wha…how much?” Harry stuttered.
“There are roughly 60,023,000 galleons in that vault. In the Black family vault there is roughly 16,500,000 galleons; thereby giving you a combined net worth of 76,500,000 galleons.”
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 Snagrall, 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. seventy- 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, cuffing her on the arm. Ginny looked at him quizzically. “Well you know that I think of your family is mine right? Well then that also means, 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 something about hearing you say that we’re family means the world. You 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. The first thing I’d like to do is set up a fund for people who have lost family or friends to Voldemort, I want his actions to harm as few people as possible.”
Lupin was taken aback by the boy’s kind words and generosity. “Yes Harry, I would be honored to help you. I think that the fund would be a great idea, I think I might place some of the money Sirius gave me into it too. Also, 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, I’m bad at math as it is, I can’t imagine handling this too! 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. Here are some bags the goblin upfront gave me, each of you can grab some galleons to go shopping with. You too Emma, you can buy some new trainers, or maybe a dress,” Harry said enthusiastically, excited to finally be able to get some clothes that weren’t second hand.
The four of them stepped into the vault, each stopping by a pile and filling small bags they’d received at the front desk. Feeling that they may come in handy later, Harry quietly made an extra stop by a small wooden case he’d seen and took out several velvet boxes.
Once the giant vault doors were closed tight once again, Snagrall guided them back to the trolley, and they headed back to the ground level to get the small bags exchanged for British Pounds.

Once they had well over ten thousand pounds in their pockets the group headed back out of the Leaky Cauldron to go to Harrods. Lupin talked with Tom for a moment, getting directions on how to get to the large department store. It was a relatively close distance so instead of taking a Muggle cab they decided to walk the several blocks to the department store. As they walked they marvelled at the wonders of downtown London, the massive buildings, the bustling people and cars, and the thousands of different stores and shops. More than once they stopped to look in a store that caught their attention, Emma and Ginny’s favourite being Hamley’s, the four-story toy store.
Finally they came to Harrods and stopped dead in their tracks. It was absolutely massive, five full stories, and there seemed to be hundreds of people buzzing in and out of its doors every second. Not even Lupin had been to Harrods so this was a shock to even him, the well-travelled wizard. The largest store in Diagon Alley was Gringotts, and even that was small compared to this.
“Harry, this place is huge. I’ve never seen a store like this!” Ginny said completely awestruck.
“You took the words right out of my mouth. I haven’t really even been in London ever; I thought it would be a little bigger than Flourish and Blotts, not an entire block!” Harry said.
“It looks like you picked the right place for us to get some new clothes, it looks like we could even buy a home if we wanted too,” Lupin said humorously, then pushing Ginny, Emma, and Harry forward towards the doors he said, “Come on then, last one in is a rotten flobberworm!” And with that the three wizards stepped into, what was to them, a completely unknown land.
They were immediately submerged in a deluge of perfumes and noises, then stumbled into the grocery store which was almost the entire floor, filled with fresh breads and pie and cakes, and candies that they hadn’t even seen in Honeyduke’s. Lupin managed to locate a store map and discovered that clothes were on the third level. Through a complex maze of escalators, of which Ginny had never seen, and was very entertained by, and people, of which there seemed to be thousands, they finally reached the clothing section of Harrods.
“Wow, I never knew that shopping could be considered an exercise. I’m exhausted, there are so many people here and they’re all pushing and shoving like they have to get what they want or else they’ll hex you.” Ginny said exasperatedly.
“I thought that one lady was going to smash me with that giant box,” Emma protested, referring to the large saleswoman who was carrying what appeared to be a box of socks.
“There’s a desk over there with a lady, maybe she can help us find what we need.” Lupin said pointing out a lady a store uniform that was folding clothes at the counter.
Harry led the way up to the woman, “Hello, I was hoping you might be able to help me and my friends. We’re from a small town and are a bit overwhelmed by this whole experience. We’re looking to buy some new clothes and if you could just point us in the right direction it would be very helpful.” He said as politely as he could, trying to make it seem as if they were unsettled by the huge city, which wasn’t too difficult seeing as they were.
The woman looked up, flashing her overly perfect white teeth at them, turning what used to be pleasant appearance, into something a little more garish. “If you just go right down that aisle there you’ll be in the suit section.” she said as she surveyed the rather shabby looking group of people, sighing as she knew poor people were hard sells that would not make her much of a commission.
They walked over to the wall of suits, there were hundreds in every shade of colour and cut. Harry walked up to a dark blue pinstripe one which had immediately caught his attention and made to take it off the rack but the saleslady cut him off by stepping in front of him.
“Uh sir, maybe you’d like to look over here, this suit costs more than two-thousand pounds. It’s an Armani silk original.” She said with the same false smile ushering him over to the suits on the sales rack.
Harry’s temper frayed slightly over the fact that she was judging them by their appearances. Ginny noticed his eyes seemed to glow a little when he looked up at the lady, startling her. “I think I’ll look at this suit over here actually, I can afford it I believe.” He said coolly walking back over to the jackets and pulling out the blue one along with another black suit.
The woman was obviously confused over what to do so she just smiled politely once again then asked to be excused for a moment while she went and got her manager. As she hurried off Ginny whispered to Harry as he was comparing suits, “You didn’t have to do that, we could have gotten it ourselves. It looked like you really frightened that girl.”
“She should be, I was just fed up with being treated poorly based on what we looked like. I know you’ve dealt with it your whole life, so have I, I just thought that now that I can change that I should. I wanted to make you feel better.” He said quietly, now looking at her with a face of compassion.
Ginny smiled then grabbed him tight and hugged him, “You really are amazing Potter, did you know that? Do you ever worry about yourself?”
“Not any more, because I know I have you to watch my back,” he said blushing slightly, he was pleasantly surprised when he saw her blush too. Emma just stared at them with a hint of jealously and Lupin smiled. “here comes the saleswoman looks like she has her manager too.” He said nodding towards the still slightly shaken woman.
“Hello sir, I am the manager of this section, how may I help you?” The older woman said, her smile more genuine than the other’s.
“Well we were just…” Lupin started but Harry cut him off, “I have this Moony.” He said then turned back towards the manager, “Your saleslady here thought it would be a good idea for us to shop at the sales rack, not get one of these suits, just because we aren’t exactly dressed like kings. I don’t want to be rude but I would just like to get some things for me and my family.”
The manager looked the boy up and down appraisingly, looking at his eyes and the way he’d so seriously confronted the situation she knew that these people were genuine customers. She had worked there for over twenty years and some of her largest sales had come from people who looked as if they barely had two pounds to rub together.
“Of course, I am sorry that you were treated rudely that is not what we train our representatives to do. I would be more than happy to ensure you get what you need today. We actually have a private room we keep open for when people are completely redoing their wardrobe so it is somewhat more comfortable and they have some more privacy. If you’d just follow me I’ll take you to it then we can get to work on getting you four some new clothes.” The manager led the way leaving the befuddled sales lady behind in the sales rack section of the suit aisle.
On the way to the private room Lupin caught up with Harry to talk with him, “Harry, why did you call us your family? I don’t believe that made much of a difference with her choosing to help us.”
“Moony, I didn’t say it to get help, I said it because it’s true, you are my family even though it might not be through blood. You’re the last Marauder, and remember you’re my guardian now and by far the closest thing I have to a father. As for Ginny, I don’t know exactly what I feel for her but I do know I think of all the Weasley’s as family; Emma and Joy too.” Harry added as he looked down at the little girl who was skipping in front of them with Ginny.
Lupin was left momentarily speechless at the revelation of Harry calling him his father figure, he always believed he would never be able to fill the shoes of Sirius. Hearing that from Harry lifted his heart. “Thank you Harry, you have no idea how much that means to me. It lets me know I haven’t let your mother and father down on the promise Sirius and I made them, to take care of you if something happened,” grabbing him into a one handed hug.
The manager led them through the entire men’s and woman’s wardrobe section to a small set of doors set in the side of the large room.
Inside, the room was a large with mirrors on one side and several large armchairs along with a T.V. There were already racks of clothes along the sides, and a few moments later an small Italian man came in carrying a sewing box. The manager introduced him as Pennuci, the tailor that Harrod’s employed for this very thing.
The manager turned to face the group and smiled brightly, “Now who wants to go first?”