8 Chapter 8: Shopping
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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.
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28th July 1991, Diagon Alley
He grabbed a dagger and pricked Harry's blood with it before he could even react. The moment a drop of blood touched the parchment, the paper glowed gold.
The Goblin gave him a bloodthirsty smile, "It seems like you are in fact, Harry Potter. That's good; now we can proceed."
Harry was somewhat surprised when the goblin's somewhat hostile attitude disappeared seconds later. He looked at Bragkor with his eyes wide, "What do I need to do now?"
"You need to sign this," he gave him a stack of parchment, "it states that you have received your key. Your account will be unfrozen, and you will be able to enter your vault. Do not lose your key, its replacement will cost you 50 galleons."
After the young wizard signed the documents, he was then dismissed from the manager's office and given a small gold key. He was then escorted by a Goblin called Griphook to the depth of the Gringotts' tunnels.
The ride was informative. For all the goblin's tone was rude, he still answered Harry's question. It turns out that Gringotts did not involve themselves in wizarding affairs, so that means they don't do inheritance tests, they don't care about the Wizengamot, and they rarely even know what is inside the vaults they guard. They only have logs of the access to the vault, nothing less, nothing more. They didn't care about wizarding properties or dwellings. They only entered a vault and repossessed what's inside if it remained dormant for a century, so yeah, claiming ancient secret vaults filled with mountains of gold isn't really a thing.
As far as they are concerned, there are two types of vaults. Security measures aside, there is a monetary vault, which only contains Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts. You couldn't add anything else aside from these coins, and you could even use bank drafts – which worked kinda like checks in the muggle world – to spend money, to avoid having a large amount of gold physically with you. These accounts were monitored by the Goblins in case of inconsistencies. This was the vault Harry had.
However, there was another account, an artefact vault, where the users can put anything inside, be it magical artefacts or just normal gold. They were far more expensive and were usually only used by very old families that hid artefacts down there.
Unfortunately for Harry, the monetary vault was the only thing he inherited. There was no family vault to be unlocked during his majority, there were no secret grimoires, no super artefacts. All he had left from his parents was a small pile of gold, around ten thousand galleons.
It was a rather generous sum, but from the sound of it, it didn't even come close to what some families had. Still, it was good enough for Harry who never had any money of his own to use. Although, when Harry asked Griphook about the conversion to pounds to get an idea of how much he was worth, the Goblin snarled in anger.
Apparently, it was a very sensitive topic for Goblins. The ministry of magic had controlled the price of wizarding currencies to muggle ones. While the average galleon was worth over a hundred pounds, the ministry forced the goblins to sell it for five. It was apparently to allow an easier integration for Muggleborn, who wouldn't be able to afford their school supplies otherwise. Thankfully, this rate was only available to students that are still attending Hogwarts and they were only allowed to exchange a hundred galleons a year, to stop people from abusing the system.
Still, Harry had around ten million pounds in the bank, and that was secure enough for him to live on. He could now technically move out of the Dursleys without worrying too much about it.
Alas, all things came to an end, and Harry's journey to the depth of Gringotts was finished. The young wizard just grabbed around fifty galleons and brought them in one of the complementary expanded pouches made by Gringotts and left the bank with a smile on his face.
Now that he had money, it was time to search for his school supplies.
First things first, he needed a school trunk to put all his shopping inside. Harry sure as hell wasn't going to walk around with countless bags around him. He ended up buying a nice trunk that was slightly expanded and had the standard security enchantments, which was the standard for Hogwarts students. It was nice to see that he didn't really need to ask about it much, just buying the normal Hogwarts supplies since he had no idea what he would need.
If he was honest, Harry was tempted to buy a multi compartment trunk, which was worth forty galleons. But it was ludicrously expensive for a first purchase in the magical world.
In the end, Harry simply paid the five galleons for the trunk and left. His next destination was Flourish and Blotts, a bookstore. There were already bundles of books, one for every year at Hogwarts. Harry picked up the first-year bundle and the introduction to the magical world bundle. He ignored the sneering looks he got when he bought the latter. It was a clear sign that he was new to the magical world.
He didn't care for it, Harry was an academic at heart, and he would not be ashamed of what he was and where he came from. Still, he would return to explore the books later.
What did make him pause was the fact that there was an entire section of children's books dedicated to the 'Adventures of Neville Longbottom'.
Browsing the books, Harry could say with absolute certainty that not a single thing could happen. Neville Longbottom was a child, and even Merlin as a child would not have been able to kill a dragon singlehandedly. What was interesting was the fact that Neville Longbottom was the boy who lived. It seems that Voldemort chose to attack Samhain in 1981. He killed Alice and Frank Longbottom and tried to kill young Neville, but to no avail. The boy was raised by his grandmother and was rarely seen in public. There were no mentions of Harry's parents in any of the articles.
Speaking of Voldemort, the stories really understated how close the Dark Lord was to invade magical Britain. The war had caused the death of over ten per cent of the entire wizarding population in Britain, and he was stopped by a magical fluke. If he hadn't attacked the Longbottoms, he would have won in a couple of years.
Harry's shoulders sagged in relief. He wasn't the chosen one, the child of the prophecy. He didn't have a dark lord gunning for him, he wouldn't have the life-threatening adventures from the stories. He would just learn magic and live his life without too much trouble.
Things were already starting well. A smiling Harry just put the books in his trunk and left the store. He then followed in by going to the potions shop and bought a cauldron, a set of crystal phials, and a set of brass scales. He wasn't required to buy any ingredients which made sense since he had no idea how to store them, nor how much damage they could cause.
He then managed to buy a telescope from one of the astronomy stores. It looked like an antique, but there were a lot of enchantments layered on top of it, making it superior to any muggle made telescope.
Finally, Harry only had to buy his clothes and his wand. He walked around the alley until he found Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. Harry was welcomed by an old witch was smiled at him pleasantly, "Hogwarts, dear?"
Harry nodded, "Yes, Madam."
"Good. I have the basic templates ready. Wait there until I take your measurements. There's another young man being fitted right now."
Harry nodded, showing his understanding, and walked to the back of the shop. In there, a boy with a pale, pointed face, and a ludicrous amount of hair gel, was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes.
If that wasn't Draco Malfoy, Harry would eat his hat. The boy brightened when he saw Harry, "Hogwarts too?"
"Yes," Harry said.
"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," said the boy. He had a bored, drawling voice. "Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."
Well, Maybe-Draco was obviously a spoilt brat that was trying to brag about his parents. Harry could see the seamstress repressing rolling her eyes at his behaviour.
Draco, then looked at Harry questioningly, "Do you have a broom of your own?"
"No, I don't," Harry replied.
"Do you play Quidditch?" the boy tried to ask again. Harry could see in his eyes that he was trying to make a friend but didn't know how to. Honestly, the boy chose the wrong person to try, since he barely has the social skills of a tin man.
Choosing to humour the boy, "Not really. I don't really like the sport."
The boy gasped in outrage as if Harry had insulted his entire family line, "How can you not like Quidditch? It's the best thing in the whole world!"
Harry shrugged, "Just don't understand the appeal, I suppose. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind flying, but I just don't like the sport."
Still looking outraged by my statement, the boy replied, "You're all mad, that's all I'll say about it. What about houses, where are you hoping to get to, really."
"My parents were both Gryffindors," Harry said, "but I don't really care where I end up, to be honest."
"Really? You don't care which house to go to? You'll spend seven years of your life with your housemates. It's a big commitment. My family was always in Slytherin so that's where I'll be going. Imagine being in Hufflepuff, I'd ask my father to transfer me to Durmstrung. He's friends with the headmaster there."
Harry snorted at the boy's attitude, "Hufflepuff is a perfectly good house. Loyalty and hard work are admirable qualities that are valued everywhere."
Before the boy could reply, the seamstress looked at the blonde and asked, "That's you done, my dear."
The boy turned and left the store while telling Harry that he would see him at Hogwarts. Harry sighed in exasperation and murmured to himself, "And I thought Dudley was spoilt."
Madam Malkin must have heard him because she snorted in laughter, "You'll see far more of his kind at Hogwarts."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Harry muttered back.
It didn't take long for the seamstress to take his measures. With a wave of her wand, Harry was accosted by flying tapes and measures, and in a couple of minutes later, the witch returned with his school uniform with her.
Harry was pleasantly surprised by the uniform. He expected it to be a black sheet with sleeves for him to wear. But no, there was a uniform with trousers, a shirt, a vest, and a black cloak that looked kinda cool when he walked while wearing it.
As for the hat, the seamstress had explained to him that it's the most traditional and only ever used during feasts or formal occasions. Even the winter cloak actually looked cool, made of very smooth fur that had warming charms on it.
In the end, Harry left the store happy with his purchase and put the uniforms in his trunk. With that done, he only had to get his wand and maybe even a pet. Magical animals were very smart in the stories, perhaps one of them would be a suitable companion.
But that was for later, Harry decided to first get his wand, which meant that had to go to Ollivanders.
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Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.
