A/N: There are some confusing parts in this chapter, because I originally had Harry's thoughts in quotes, also. Therefore, I have put al of Harry's thoughts in italics, so you don't get confused.
Chapter 3: Diagon Alley and Beyond
The next day dawned early and Harry, especially, was up very early due to the fact that Hedwig had pecked him half-to-death at six in the morning. There was an overly small owl, not unlike Pig, zooming around the room, which did not sit very well with Hedwig. Harry had spent half the night calming her down long enough to catch the owl and read the letter. Surprisingly Ron didn't even move in his sleep while all of this was happening. The letter read:
Dear Harry,
Meet me in my office tomorrow morning (actually, it might be this morning) after Professor McGonagall dismisses you. Do not bring anyone along. I will send a fake letter to you at that time so that you may convince your friends you truly cannot bring anyone with you. This is of utmost importance.
Albus Dumbledore.
Harry read the letter over and over again. Why the bloody hell was Dumbledore sending him this at two in the morning?! Harry decided to put the letter away in his case for safekeeping. Since he couldn't go back to sleep, he packed his trunk and made sure he had everything he needed. He mentally checked off the entire list:
Firebolt, that's at Hogwarts, so check. Books, check. Clothes, check. Money, oops, I'll have to make another withdrawal tomorrow, so check. Wand, check. Hermione's letter case, check. Hedwig's treats, check. Hedwig's cage, check. Hedwig, check. Trunk, check. Alright, everything's set. Now just to wait for everyone else to get up.
Not a moment later, Mrs. Weasley knocked on the door, "GET UP, YOU TWO. TIME FOR YOU TO GET READY."
Ron, being the heavy sleeper that he is, was suddenly startled. Realizing that it was still dark outside, he yelled at his mom, "BLOODY HELL, MUM! IT'S NOT EVEN DAWN YET!" He regretted his decision in voicing that thought a moment later when Mrs. Weasley burst the door open and dragged Ron's mattress onto the floor. "RONALD WEASLEY! YOU WILL NOT USE SUCH LANGUAGE IN FRONT OF ME!" And with that Mrs. Weasley waved her wand at him causing cold spurts of water to land on his head, effectively erasing his grogginess. "Damnit," said Ron. "I hate when she does that. Anyway, what the bloody hell are we up this early for? It's not like we're going anywhere besides Diagon Alley and then to Hogwarts, isn't it?"
"I dunno, mate. I just couldn't sleep," said Harry, conscious of the fact that if Ron knew the real reason why he was up so early. It would take a lot of convincing on Harry's part to make him stay in the common room during his "meeting" with Dumbledore.
Ron got dressed and made sure he had all of his books in his trunk. "Alright mate. Ready to go down. I reckon the girls will probably still be in there rooms seeing how they take forever `getting ready,'" said Ron, sarcastically. Harry, Ron, and Neville, who had slept in the room next to theirs, went down to breakfast together. By this time the sun was rising, casting a red glow over the horizon. Ron sat down immediately and started eating as if he had never touched food in his life. Neville and Harry, after seeing Ron's keenness on the food, lost their appetites.
"You go on, mate. I'm not that hungry after all," said Harry.
"Yea," said Neville, whose face looked slightly green.
Mrs. Weasley walked into the kitchen with the girls, all of whom looked like it was perfectly normal to eat breakfast at the crack of dawn. Mrs. Weasley then spoke to the group, " I'll go wake up Professor McGonagall, shall I?"
"WHAT!! You wake us up at three in the morning, telling us we need to get ready, and when we're ready you wake up our supervisor three hours later!" exploded Ron.
"She's your teacher, Ronald. Honestly, if you must know, she's not getting nearly enough sleep these days, what with Dumbledore assigning her endless jobs from the Order. And on top of that, she has to worry about what a prat you'll be in her class the entire year," fumed Mrs. Weasley. She spoke Dumbledore's name with suppressed rage and looked livid. Even Ron knew when not to push Mrs. Weasley.
Mrs. Weasley then exited the room. The moment she left the girls all let out audible sighs of relief. "Thank God she's out of here. Now I can get some real quality sleep. She woke us up at two in the morning!" said Ginny.
Luna said, "Well, Ronald, it seems you have quite an appetite."
Everyone in the room laughed out loud except for Ron, who blushed crimson, and Luna, whose face looked unfazed by the spontaneous outburst of laughter at her comment. "You can laugh but I know that people who don't eat as much as they want to attract large armies of swatterflies," said Luna.
Hermione was saved the trouble of asking what swatterflies were when Luna spoke, "Swatterflies are extremely oversized mosquitoes who sucked the magical energy from a witch or wizard. When faced with a muggle, it simply drains blood like a normal mosquito."
After this comment the entire room went quiet. Half of the people were pondering asking Luna is she had ever seen a swatterfly. The other half were too tired or, in Ron's case, too occupied with other things. After a few minutes of awkward silence, Mrs. Weasley reentered the room accompanied by Professor McGonagall, who was dressed in a rather shabby black cloak and her hair tied up in a tight bun. "We will have to finish all of our shopping early so that we are not noticed by too many people. That is why we are all up at six in the morning. Professor Dumbledore has requested the shopkeepers of Flourish and Blott's, the Apothecary, and Madame Malkin's Robe shop to set up early so that we may be done with our shopping by seven. We will then portkey directly to Hogwarts. Professor Dumbledore has set up the wards to maximum protection so we must wait for him to come down onto the grounds and lower the wards. If you do not wait for him, however, the wards would kill you. So I suggest you do not make rash decisions," said Professor McGonagall, who at this comment looked hard at Harry. Harry shook his head in agreement, as well as everyone else. "Very well. Now that we are all fed, shall we head to Diagon Alley? We will use another portkey, as the fires in this manor have been taken off the Floo Network, for privacy of the Order. Everyone gather your things, I shall reduce them in size so that we will not all have a trunk to carry," said Professor McGonagall. She then cast the Reduction Charm on each of the trunks, along with Hedwig's, Pig's, and Crookshanks's cages. Mrs. Weasley would ship Crookshanks to Hogwarts the next day because Crookshanks was afraid of dark places and dawn had yet to approach.
Before they left Mrs. Weasley gave Ginny the key to their Gringotts vault and said, "Here is the key to our vault at Gringotts, Ginny. Make sure you don't lose it!"
Harry, Ron, Hermione, Luna, Ginny, Neville, and Professor McGonagall all placed one finger on the tattered muggle newspaper that Professor McGonagall was holding out to them. After a countdown from ten, Harry experienced the familiar jerk behind his navel that he had come to associate with portkey travel. In a blend of howling wind and whirling color, Harry and the others landed rather unsteadily in the middle of a deserted Diagon Alley. Gringotts stood tall and tilted, breaking the monotony of the one-story shops that lined the street towards it. Harry and the others went inside Gringotts and found that only the head goblin and two assistant goblins were on duty. Professor McGonagall presented the head goblin with a list of the vaults that they would be visiting. Harry, however, had not told her about depositing some of his fortune with Hermione, Ron, and the Weasley's. Slightly hesitating he stepped towards the head goblin and said, "I would like to create an account for the minors, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley. Once those are created, I would like to transfer the sum of one million galleons each to those vaults and to the vault in the name of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Weasley." The head goblin looked affronted at the sudden formality coming from the boy who stood before him. Why, not even five years ago, he had stood here, accompanied by the half-giant Rubeus Hagrid, looking like the world was a huge dragon leering at him. This time however he let his emotions drain from his face. He nodded, took out the necessary paperwork and said, "Are Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley here, presently?"
"Yes, they are," said Harry. He pointed out Ron and Hermione from the rest. The head goblin nodded again.
"Very well. Would you, Miss Granger, come here and sign this form stating that you are aware of the bank's policies towards accounts and the security measures we take to ensure your money remains in your possession. Should there be a successful robbery and your vault is robbed, you will receive the amount that was taken from you back, as you are insured," stated the head goblin in slightly bored tones. He had obviously done this one too many times already. Hermione stepped forward and signed her name on the parchment, which instantly copied itself ten times. One copy was sent to Hermione's vault for safekeeping, one copy was given to Hermione, and the rest were all taken to the filing cabinets. After this process was completed, Hermione stepped back, amazed at the amount of thoroughness with which the goblins did their job. After the head goblin gave Hermione her vault key, he requested that Ron come forward.
"Please come here and sign this form, stating that you are aware of the bank's policies towards accounts and the security measures we take to ensure your money remains in your possession. Should there be a successful robbery and your vault is robbed, you will receive the amount that was taken from you back, as you are insured," repeating what he had said to Hermione. Ron also signed the form and the same procedure occurred. Finally the head goblin spoke again, "Mr. Potter, please come forward. Your vault number please?"
"687," said Harry.
"Very well. Your current balance is in the order of twenty billion, eight hundred million, two thousand and forty-two galleons. After this transaction, your balance will become twenty billion, seven hundred ninety-seven million, two thousand and forty-two galleons. Is this acceptable?" said the head goblin with slight surprise at Harry's enormous bank balance.
Harry, who felt even more ashamed of his amassed weight, decided to up the anty a little bit. "Make that ten million galleons to each of those three vaults, please." When he looked around, Ron was dumbstruck and Hermione looked very happy. Harry had a gut feeling that she wasn't happy for her own personal gains. Mrs. Weasley, had she been there, probably would of tried to stop Harry, given him a beating for abusing his promise, and insist that he take the gold back. However, thankfully, Mrs. Weasley wasn't there at the moment and could do nothing to stop Harry now.
The head goblin nodded and took out another piece of parchment. He threw the old ones away. As it went into the rubbish bin, it was magically disintegrated in a flash of smoke. The head goblin said, "Very well. Again, your current balance is in the order of twenty billion, eight hundred million, two thousand, and forty-two galleons. After this transaction, your balance will become twenty billion, seven hundred seventy million, two thousand, and forty-two galleons. Is this acceptable?"
"Yes," said Harry. He felt slightly better at the fact that he was giving the people who loved him some worldly pleasure. However, deep inside his heart, he knew that no amount of gold was worth what Ron, Hermione, and the Weasley's had given him and would keep on giving him. At least now they know that their sacrifice for me wasn't in vain. Though they probably didn't expect anything in return. Still, they deserve the best and I will give them the best.
"Very well, Mr. Potter. Please sign here."
Harry stepped forward and signed his name on the parchment. The parchment instantly made nine copies of itself.
"Here is your copy," said the head goblin, as the other nine copies sped off to their destinations. "Very well. Now that we have sorted all that mess out, Miss Granger your vault number is 1080. Mr. Weasley your vault number is 1081. Rednick, here, will take you down to your vaults."
Rednick bowed before them and led the way to the carts. As there were seven people, Rednick led them into a large cart placed close to the entrance to the vaults. "Please step in. We will be visiting six vaults today. Is that correct?"
"Yes, that is correct," said Harry as he handed Rednick the keys to all the vaults. They would be visiting: Neville's, The Weasley's, Harry's, Hermione's, Ron's, and Luna's.
The cart first stopped at Neville's vault, number 589. Neville scooped up about two fistfuls of galleons and closed the vault. Rednick then gave Neville back his vault key. The cart's next stop was at Harry's vault. When they opened the door, Harry realized they must have enlarged it because the back wall was barely visible from the twenty one piles of galleons, which Harry assumed to each be 1 billion galleons. Harry quickly scooped up about three handfuls of galleons and closed the door. After they got back into the cart, Rednick gave Harry back his vault key. They came to Luna's vault, number 723 next. Luna just took a handful of galleons and a handful of sickles. Luna also got her key back after leaving her vault. After Luna's vault they went to the Weasley's vault, number 819. Ginny couldn't conceal her glee at the mountain of galleons in her family's vault. She scooped up three handfuls of galleons and left. Rednick then proceeded to give her back her key. Finally they arrived at Hermione's vault. Once opened Hermione let out a squeak of glee and placed three handfuls of galleons into a purple bag that she had gotten for Christmas last year. After leaving Hermione's vault, they walked next door to Ron's vault. Ron gaped at the amount of galleons he had which were his own. He thanked Harry again and scooped up about three handfuls of galleons. Repeating the procedure, Rednick gave Hermione and Ron back their keys and they all got into the cart for the trip back to the surface. Once back at the front desk, Harry spoke up, "Mr. Head Goblin, is there any way in which I can authorize payments from my vault without providing the vault number?"
"Yes. We call it the check notes system. It was derived from the muggle use of little paper slips as payment for items they didn't have enough cash for at the moment. We changed it so that all you have to do is take your `check book' and tap it with your wand while saying the amount of money you wish the check to be worth. You then speak the incantation, Approvus checkus, and the gold will automatically be transferred to the store's vault. If it is a check to an individual, then you must state their full name when you state the amount the check is worth. We have check books available for two knuts, if you'd like one, Mr. Potter," said the head goblin.
Harry pulled out two knuts and placed them on the head goblin's desk. "Yes, I would like to buy one," said Harry. The head goblin took the knuts and gave Harry what looked like a muggle checkbook.
The moment it touched Harry's hand, it shrank to the size of Harry's fist.
After Harry's purchase the group left Gringotts and went outside. Once outside they found that the time was six twenty. They decided to head to Flourish and Blott's first. Harry, Hermione, Ron, Luna, Neville, and Ginny all bought the necessary books they would need for the coming year. After exiting Flourish and Blott's, Harry and Ron decided that they needed new Hogwarts robes because Ron had had a huge growth spurt and stood at the height of six feet, four inches. Harry, not far behind him, at a height of six feet one inches, also noticed that his robes were a bit too small. Harry and Ron then left for Madame Malkin's Robe Shop for All Occasions. Once inside, Madame Malkin fitted them both in the span of a minute and they walked out of the door with their merchandise in a small red bag. They hurried to find the others at the Apothecary. Harry needed to replenish his Potion's ingredients because he, along with Hermione, would be the only Gryffindor sixth years in Professor Snape's N.E.W.T. level Potions class. Ron had gotten an A in both the written and practical examinations for Potions so he didn't qualify for N.E.W.T. Potions. However, he had confided in Harry that even if he had, by some lucky chance, qualified for Snape's class, he would have dropped it anyway. He didn't dare say that in front of Hermione because she seemed to think that all Hogwarts teachers were saints of some sort and were above such petty things as prejudice. While Hermione and Harry filled up their potion stocks, the others waited patiently outside the shop for them to finish. Once they were done at the Apothecary, the group was ready to leave for Hogwarts. The time was six forty five so they lounged around for about ten minutes before Professor McGonagall held out the newspaper again and they were whisked away to Hogwarts in a rush of howling wind and swirling color.
Once they arrived at Hogwarts, the group waited patiently for approximately two minutes before Professor Dumbledore came out onto the grounds and lowered the wards around the school. When the group was inside the grounds, Professor Dumbledore raised the wards back to their lethal state. Professor McGonagall then took the group into the Entrance Hall and pulled off her hat. "While you are here, you are not to wander past the grounds. That means no Hogsmeade visits. You will stay in your respective house Dormitories. Luna, however, will be moved to Gryffindor Tower until the term starts in two weeks. The password is Animagus Gryffin. The entire castle is at your hands so I suggest you make good use of it. You all have unrestricted access to the Restricted Section of the Library and Madame Pince has been notified so you may ask her to get whichever books you need from the Library. Other than that you are free to go. Mr. Potter, please stay behind," said Professor McGonagall.
The rest of the group eyed Harry suspiciously but said nothing. Harry said, "I'll meet you all upstairs."
When the group had filed away to Gryffindor Tower, Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore looked at him. "Harry, you will be taking Occlumency classes with Professor Dumbledore starting tonight after dinner. We have thought about it and realize that you may feel the need to tell someone else about these lessons. We have given you permission to tell Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley about these classes. Do not, however, tell anyone else. The animagus class for the three of you will start tomorrow, as you will need tonight to get settled back in at Hogwarts. Come to my office at eight tomorrow morning. You may go now, Harry," said Professor McGonagall.
Harry left the two Professors and began walking up the marble steps to Gryffindor Tower. He was about to turn a corner through which he would be able to see the Fat Lady but he heard something in a door off to his right. Raising his wand he crept toward the door. Pushing on it slightly, he found it was locked. He muttered, "Alohomora." The door's lock clicked open. He opened the door and the sight that met his eyes made him drop his wand and lose consciousness.
A/N: I know that was a bad cliffy, so please don't flame me for that. I wanted to post two chapters, but I merged them together, and got this as the end result. Please R&R.
-->