Diagon Alley was unlike anything Lina had ever seen, yet she knew it instantly. The masonry was strange, the architecture was bizarre, the people were almost as drab as Seyruun mourners, but it was a market. Lina the Bandit Slayer knew how to work a market. “First things first,” she cackled, rubbing her hands together. “We find a shop interested in buying trinkets for local currency. Hagrid, what did you say the coins were?”
“Galleon, sickle, and knut,” Hagrid said easily. “But”
“Right and how much is a decent ruby talisman worth?” Lina interrupted.
“Still making talismans, sis?” Harry asked, slightly surprised.
Lina shrugged. “Bandits only have so much good stuff, ya know? But shoddy gems are all over the place.”
Hagrid tried to regain what pathetic semblance of control he ever had. “’Arry’s got a vault at Gringott’s filled with money!”
“Harry has what?” Lina asked.
“I have what?” Harry wondered.
“What’s a vault?” Gourry asked.
Hagrid looked around to get his bearings and pointed at a white marble building that the others recognized as a façade built to impress. “There ya go, the wizard’s bank. Now Harry, here’s your key.” He handed Harry a small golden key. “Just go to a goblin and ask to see yer vault, no problem.”
“Goblin?” Harry asked quickly. He, Lina, and Gourry all had their hands on their weapons. “There are goblins in London?”
“Blimey, Harry,” Hagrid chastised, waving his hands down. “Keep yer voice down. Yeah there be goblins at Gringott’s; they own it. Nasty buggers if you cross ‘em, but they know a thing or two about keeping money safe.”
The otherworlders looked at eachother for a moment and relaxed from their ready positions. That fit with what they knew about goblins…but apparently this clan had decided that humans in general hadn’t crossed them on general principle. “Any other surprises?” Lina asked warily.
“I’ll be sending to Dumbledore quick enough to get an idea of what you an’ Gourry here can do at Hogwarts,” Hagrid said, avoiding the question.
“I thought we were watching Harry,” Gourry said, scratching his head.
“Well ya can’t just stand around in classrooms watching him all day, can you?” Hagrid retorted. “Gotta keep busy, that’s what I say. Does you no good to have nothing to do.”
Gourry nodded, accepting the simple logic.
Harry looked around cautiously as they entered Gringott’s. His caution was mirrored by the ugly short men around them. It wasn’t to be unexpected; everyone was staring at their group. Even to wizards, it seemed, Lina knew how to make an impression. The fact that they were very visibly armed was no doubt part of it as well.
Harry hadn’t yet realized that, unlike the sorcerers he was used to, wizards had little interaction with muggles and, by consequence, had very little respect for the kind of damage one could inflict on the human body without magic. Those who recognized the swords as weapons were confused or outright contemptuous, not unnerved.
Lina strode right up to a goblin working at a desk. “My brother is here to see his vault,” she declared.
The goblin gave Lina a sour look and turned to Harry. “Name?”
“Harry Inverse.”
The goblin blinked and pulled out a large, dusty tome. “Inverse…Inverse…there is no Harry Inverse on record.”
Harry frowned slightly. “Try ‘Harry Potter.’ That’s what I was called before…that’s what my name was a few years ago.”
The goblin blinked and peered at Harry. He couldn’t see the famous scar under the headband, but the boy was about the right age and complexion to be the famous Boy Who Lived. A few others nearby started muttering as they had heard the name and reached the same conclusions. “And do you have your key?”
Harry held up the key Hagrid gave him. “I assume this is it.”
“Very well,” the goblin said. “I will call for a cart.”
A few minutes later, Harry, Lina, and Gourry were watching a goblin unlocking vault 687.
A few seconds later, Gourry and Harry were straining to keep Lina from pouncing on the stacks of gold coins. “Gold! Silver! Let me at it! I won’t steal it, I promise! I just want to roll around in it for a while!”
Somehow, Harry didn’t think Lina was going to be allowed to open her own vault after this.
Harry was apparently wrong again, and it was nearly an hour before they left Gringott’s with two keys for their two vaults. Lina’s was rather threadbare, but she was certain that as soon as she found a place to sell some loot…but until then she and Harry were carrying a fair fortune in their capes.
Hagrid met them outside and presented a letter to Lina. “Dumbledore had some idea you would be coming, it seems. Never misses a trick, that Dumbledore.”
Lina frowned and read the letter.
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(Posted Mon, 08 Aug 2011 05:33)
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