Chapter 3

He had secreted away in his little cupboard about twenty pounds. He had a little sideline going on with other kids in school. He hid in the library and did their homework for them. But, they had to meet his prices. When they did, they received back homework worthy of top marks. All they had to do was rewrite it in their own handwriting.

No one but his personal 'agents' knew his real identity. And, even if someone managed to get one of the said agents to divulge the identity of the 'homework expert', nobody believed them. Because, Harry Potter was known as a poor student. He was even a worse student than his obese cousin, no matter how much time he appeared to spend in the library seemingly studying. If his cousin earned 50% on an assignment, Harry received 48%. He was always a few marks behind, a few points behind. But no one could work out why. No one knew that he would be beaten by both his cousin and his fat uncle if he brought home a report card that showed better marks than 'Dear Duddikins'. No one knew the efforts to which Harry went in appearing to be a slightly worse student than his cousin.

No one knew his greatest secret.

The morning after receiving his letter, Harry was up early. He 'feed bagged' the Dursleys, cleaned up the breakfast dishes, cleaned the kitchen and then used his recently learned influencing skills on his aunt. Some information about how he could make her day easier if he wasn't there for the day, and he was able to get out.

He quickly made his way to the local National Rail train station and he was on his way to Balham Underground station. Just under half an hour later and he was on an Underground railcar and on his way up the Northern Line direct to Leicester Square.

The trip was quicker than he thought it would be considering it was both a work day and early morning. However, he was soon walking quickly along Charing Cross Road keeping a close look out for the sign for 'The Leaky Cauldron'.

It didn't take him long to find the pub before he was able to duck in through the door. He remembered to calmly walk through and straight out the back door into the alleyway. However, once he was in the alley he couldn't find a memory of how to get through to the other side of the brick wall before him. So, he just waited.

It was only a few minutes later before the bricks began to open up with someone wanting to come through from the other side and he was able to duck through.

Keeping his head down and out from underfoot. He made his way down the alley. If he remembered right, the big marble building halfway down the alley was the bank he needed; Gringotts. Standing either side of the door he could see most fierce creatures that seemed to only be as tall as he was. And they were arm with old-fashioned pikes and double-bladed axes.

He calmly walked in through the big stone pillars and the big double doors. Once inside he looked around to see if there was anyone he could talk to about finding out if he had any money. He soon spotted another one of the creatures that stood guard outside behind a high counter.

Steeling his emotions he approached the counter and waited. He really didn't know if he should say anything or not.

Waiting there for only a minute, but seemingly longer, the creature seemed to notice him and snarled, "What do you want, little wizard."

Steeling himself, Harry calmly but quietly said, "I'm sorry to bother you, sir; but I'd like to find out if my parents left any money for me here when they died."

The creature stopped what it was doing as Harry spoke. Staring back for a few moments it seemed to think for a few moments before it asked, "What is your name?"

Harry quickly replied, "Harry Potter, sir."

Again the creature just stared at him. But Harry did notice it glanced quickly at the scar just visible under his long fringe on his forehead. It was at least a few moments before it said, "Wait there and I'll have the Potter Account Manager send for you." Then it grabbed a small piece of the same paper that Harry's letter was made of and a gnarled looking pen. It wrote a few things on it and dropped it into a slot on the bench he was working upon before it hit a button.

The creature then ignored him, performing other tasks.

After what appeared to be a minute Harry was getting impatient and was about to ask what was going on when he heard a voice behind him.

"Mister Potter?" the voice asked.

Turning around, he came face to face with another of the creatures standing looking at him.

"Yes," said Harry.

"Follow me, please," said the creature before it turned away and started walking into the depths of the bank.

Three hours later and Harry was walking out of the bank. He was struggling to maintain his composure. His anger was threatening to open into a full rage. He was feeling - stifled.

He walked - stalked really - back up the alley a little before he stopped. He needed a distraction. He needed something to take his mind off what he'd just been told.

A look up the alley and he saw what looked like a bookshop called Flourish & Blotts. Reading always calmed him down. And now that he had in his pocket a bag of gold coins he could buy his own books, instead of borrowing them from the library.

He entered the shop and took a look around.

The creatures, goblins as he now knew they were called, were not happy with him at first, and it wasn't even his fault.

At first, after an initial blood test to confirm his identity, they wanted to know why he was not accepting 'owls'. And it took a bit of effort by both parties to clear up the confusion before theymanaged to explain that wizarding mail was 'couriered' by owls; and until he explained, and showed them, that the only item of mail he'd ever received was his acceptance letter from Hogwarts. The goblins were very unhappy to hear that, and informed him they'd investigate why their owls were not getting through to him.

Once those initial problems were overcome his 'Potter Account Keeper' goblin, Bloodfang, gave him an overview of the state of the Potter Accounts. It took a while as they had to stop every now and then due to Harry needing to get his anger under control about what he'd learned.

Harry was also allowed to go down to collect money from his 'trust' vault, where he also collected a special coin pouch the cart goblin was able to show him was larger inside than outside. And pick up two envelopes that had his name on them in two different styles of handwriting. He was then allowed to look in the other two vaults; one for records and documents and a few other items, and one full of heirlooms and gold. However, he was not allowed to enter either until, as the goblins called it, he was 'of age'.

On returning to the surface Bloodfang stepped him through the process of having the coin pouch blood locked to him against theft and the like, and handed him a full accounting of his financial holdings. These he carried in a document pouch the old goblin 'gifted' him with. He currently had it slung crossways from his right shoulder to his left hip.

In the bookshop, after having looked around for a while, he approached a sales clerk and asked her to assist him in getting the books he needed for his First Year at Hogwarts. She smiled at him and said, "Sure, dear. Just give me a moment."

He waited for her to finish a task she was in the middle of completing before she walked around the counter and said to him, "All Hogwarts text books can be found together in a row over here." And she led him to an aisle on the opposite side of the store from the main counter. "In this aisle you find each year's texts are separated by year. First Years at the front of the store; through to Seventh Year at the back."

Looking down the aisle, Harry said, "Thankyou. And if you wouldn't mind, could you show me where I'll find books on introducing someone to the magic world and Hogwarts, information on the ancient families, and magic relating to the mind?"

"Certainly dear," said the clerk. And she led him through the store indicating the relevant sections.

"Thank you," said Harry, allowing the young lady to return to her duties.

Knowing that the text books for his first year at Hogwarts were all together and already sorted on the shelves, he decided to collect those last.

Browsing the books he soon came across a section that was labelled Harry Potter. Frowning and wondering why there was a section with his name upon it he scanned the titles he found there. There were stories written about him, plus a couple of books that were supposedly factual about what happened on and around 31st of October 1981, the night his parents were murdered and he was taken from his home. He grabbed one of the children novels, 'Harry Potter and the Deadly Dragon', and two of the fact books about that fateful night; 'Harry Potter: The Boy Who Lived' and 'The Boy Who Lived: Our Youngest Hero'.

Then he found a book titled 'Introduction to Mind Magicks' that he hoped would help him with his anger issues and headache, a book on Hogwarts called 'Hogwarts: A History' to learn about the school, a book called 'A History of the Ancient Houses' where he hoped to learn more about his own family, another called 'An Introduction to the Wizarding World', a fifth titled 'Noble Etiquette' as he was supposed to be from what was called a Noble and Ancient House; and, because it looked interesting and might be able to help him remain incognito, a book on basic charms that covered altering one's appearance called 'Simple Cantrips for the Beauty Conscious'.

With those nine books loading down in his arms he carried them to the front counter.

Looking at the clerk he asked, "Do you mind if I leave these here while I collect my school texts?"

"That'll be fine, dear," replied the clerk barely even glancing up. 'We're not that busy today.'

Harry then ducked quickly back to the aisle with the Hogwarts's texts and quickly gathered them up before returning to the counter with them.

While he'd been gone the clerk had already begun to ring up his purchases on the old fashioned mechanical till so, as soon as he brought the second pile of books she smoothly transitioned from the last book in the first pile to the first book in the second pile.