Swimming in Money
The two of them, Harry and the Witch who had opened his eyes to magic, were off to go shopping not too long after. They were there much faster than Harry would’ve expected, thanks to the Knight Bus, which Professor Babbling had summoned by raising her wand into the air in front of the street, “For someone underaged, this is the best way to get around”, she had told him. The ride wasn’t comfortable by a longshot, what with the constant shaking and bumping but at least, thanks to the seemingly teleporting properties of the Bus, it was very fast, getting the duo to where they needed to go ‘the leaky cauldron’ in but a few minutes instead of an Hour like with Muggle transport. The Professor couldn’t tell him how that worked but he was sure he could find a book about it. Just the thought made him tingly inside, a whole nother world of knowledge that had just been opened to him, what things he might learn?
Behind the dimly lit pub was a small area, with a brick wall, which -after the Professor tapped a brick- opened up to reveal Diagon alley, “Here you can get just about anything you need for your first few years at hogwarts”, Babbling told him, “the branching alley ways have other things too, like Surobo alley, where you can get Divination supplies if you choose to take the subject to the newt level- NEWTs are what we call subjects that you take after your fifth year up until the NEWT exam. Many jobs want NEWTs of certain grades from their applicants. Anyway, you only HAVE to go to Diagon alley for now, though you are free to explore as long as I am with you, some alleys can get a bit dangerous if you don’t know your way around yet”
“How many alleys are there?”, Harry asked, he couldn’t imagine there being even two places as grand as this one. He could see shops that sold self-cleaning cauldrons, stores where furniture danced on its own, exotic pets like owls and snakes and even things that Harry had no idea existed until now. It wasn’t even just the buildings, there were wagons too, one had multiple old witches standing around it, examining strange silver items which spun by themselves, whilst another sold strange candy.
“Too many to count”, Babbling laughed, “though you will only find about twelve or so, you see, most alleys move around, only appearing here every once in a while. If they aren’t here, they are somewhere else in England. It is this way so not all witches and wizards have to constantly flock to London if they want to go shopping or if they need money from the bank. Gringotts owns buildings in most of these moving alleys, though the Goblins much prefer it if you go to the main branch, here in london”
The Goblins were small creatures that almost looked like old, small humans but were still clearly not, their eyes were way too small and their fingers all too long. Their skin too, seemed to vary from human skin, he observed as they walked into the bank. The goblins sitting at the counters weighing gems or servicing customers all had human-like skin colors but those that worked further away from the customers, those filing papers in the back or rolling around ingots of precious metals from one place to another, had a wide array of skin colors. Some had human-like shades but there were also those that had red, green, blue or even gold-ish skin. These ‘strangely’ colored goblins seemed younger though, there wasn’t a single elderly Goblin with green skin.
“Now, you need this key to get into your vault, Headmaster Dumbledore arranged that himself”, Professor Babbling handed over a small, golden key with a big silver ‘P’ on it, “Of course once you are old enough you won’t need it as often, only once a year, but for now this is safer”
She then turned to the goblin who operated one of the counters, “Mr. Potter here would like to get some money from his vault”
“The key?... Yes, that seems to be in order. Will this be a transection of more or less than 100 galleons”, the goblin asked, not even looking at them, still busy with some papers.
“Less, we want to get 80 galleons for now”, she turned to Harry then, “We could get by with twenty or less but this way we can get you some good muggle clothes, everything you need in top quality and have some coins to spare if you want a pet or such.”
She continued her thought as they waited, “On the subject of pets, if you wait till your second year, you won’t be so restricted to owls, cats or toads. Just so you know”
Not long after, a goblin of the exotic variety came marching up to the counter, handing the busy goblin a sack that Jingled with coins. The counter goblin then motioned to it then to Harry, as if he was saying that he should take it and so he did. The sack was heavy but not as heavy as it ought to be according to its contents, inside of it were many, many golden coins and a few silver and copper ones, “I- I have this much money?”
“You do, the Potters were quite wealthy and I imagine there have been more than a few donations from grateful wizards and witches”
“How much do I have?”, Harry asked the goblin at the counter
“Let me look that up for you”, he murmured, looking through his many documents before landing on a small stack and reading it, “there are… 987´241 galleons in coins, not accounting the amount just taken out… three properties in great britain, collectively priced at 400´201 galleons, one of which is the destroyed home of late Lilly and James Potter, which hasn’t, as of yet, been re-evaluated… 307 books and 5 tomes tallying around 50´000 galleons in estimated worth… several ancestral wands, none of which are in selling condition… Gems and accessories that are as of yet uncounted and unevaluated… potion ingredients held under preservation spells, including but not limited to the ingredients necessary for 3 polyjuice potions, various wound healing elixirs and a single bottle of liquid luck… a self updating family tree… a cloak of invisibility that has been recently returned to the vault by one Albus Dumbledore and lastly… 124`000 galleons worth of donations. This does not include any vaults which you are the heir of but have yet to inherit due to lack of death of the previous holders and places you as… the 43rd richest person in the London branch, with a monthly earnings in interest -as of this moment- of 21 galleons and a few sickles. I have the duty to remind you as of protocol of the current, muggle-wizarding conversion rate as you have some assets stored in muggle currency which is listed in its wizarding worth. Current conversion between Muggle Pounds and Galleons is… 5 pounds and some change per galleon”
“I- I’m rich?”, Harry's defeated voice rang hollow in his own ears. He couldn’t even comprehend his good luck, first he was led into this magical world, full of knowledge beyond his wildest imagination and now he learned that he was within the 50 richest magical people in Britain? He had easily more money than the dursleys, he even had multiple houses! The world just went mute as he tried to process it all.