Chapter Text
Harry had been lazing away his days at Diagon Alley for the past two weeks, enjoying the time he had to himself, buying books from Flourish and Blotts that looked interesting, having help from Mr Forteskew with his history homework, looking over every item in the quidditch shop with admiration and glee.
Even now as he passed the Firebolt in the window he had thoughts of purchasing it.
But not today. Today he was heading to Gringotts to see if he could withdraw some more money, having spent what he had left at Eyelops Owl Emporium on some treats for Hedwig, which she had appreciated.
Entering into the tall bank Harry was unsure what his next step should be. How did one get the attention of a goblin? Harry supposed he should follow the only example he had when Hagrid bought him two years ago and walked up to a random desk.
"Um, excuse me." He said as politely as he could to the goblin sat behind the desk.
"Yes?" The goblin looked up, and Harry felt a little unnerved as the goblin's eyes flicked to where his scar was hidden beneath his hair.
"I would like to withdraw some money from the Potter vault." He said, shuffling awkwardly.
"Key?"
His key. He'd forgotten he'd need that, but who had it? Hagrid had been given it in his first year, but by his second Mrs Weasley had it in her possession. But they were in Egypt, surely she couldn't have possession of it all year? Did Dumbledore have it? Would he keep it safe during the year? Dumbledore seemed the only link between Hagrid and Mrs Weasley.
"Key?" The goblin repeated, bringing Harry out of his thoughts.
"I don't have it, I'm afraid." Harry admitted, looking down at his feet.
"How unfortunate. Family Crest?"
"I'm sorry, I don't know what that is." Harry looked down, feeling out of depth and slightly embarrassed.
"I see." The goblin said, stroking his chin. "Let me get my manager, I may have a solution. Excuse me." The goblin jumped down from his seat and made his way to a door just behind the desks.
Harry stood waiting, awkwardly smiling at the goblin on the next desk down when they caught his eye. He began to take in the grand detail of the bank, the previous occasions he'd been, he'd been rushed by adults just wanting to get the money and continue with the school supply shopping.
Around the glass ceiling of the bank were paintings of goblins and wizards, one depicted goblin's making a sword that looked very familiar, and handing it to a wizard in armour, another depicted the building of Gringotts bank, the other images Harry didn't recognise but felt sure if he showed Hermione she'd identify them all.
He heard the door open and close and turned back round to find the goblin he had spoken to and another goblin following behind.
“This is Mr Potter,” the goblin introduced, “Mr Potter, this is my manager, Ragnook.”
Ragnook stepped forward, “Bagnog has explained the situation to me, I wonder if you would like to step into my office to discuss an alternative method of confirming your identity and access to the Potter vault.”
“Of course,” said Harry, relieved. “Lead the way.”
The goblin, Harry now knew was Bagnog, unhooked part of the desk and it lifted up and Harry stepped through. Ragnook led the way back through the door and Bagnog followed behind closing the doors. They walked along a well lit corridor lined with black marble and at regular intervals, dark mahogany doors with little silver plaques on them. Ragnook led them to a door with his name etched into the silver plaque.
“Please take a seat Mr Potter,” he said, indicating a small leather seat on one side of a large desk. Harry had never seen a neater office, bookcases lined the walls, big glass doors on the top halves and dark wood on the bottom. Harry noticed at the top of each cupboard was a letter of the alphabet, with the books on display through the glass doors having names written on the spine in gold, some books were larger than others. In the nearby cabinet labelled B, Harry could see a lot of the books with the name Black, and he wondered if that was the same Black family Sirius Black came from. Behind the large desk were several muggle style, wooden filing cabinets, again labelled A-Z. Ragnook sat down on the other side of the desk in a large comfy looking leather chair, as Bagnog closed the door behind them.
“Now Mr Potter, I understand you do not have your key, do you have any idea where it might be?”
“Well, Mrs Weasley had it last year, and Hagrid the year before that.”
“I’m sorry Mr Potter, you gave others the key to your vault?”
“No, I didn’t even know about the magical world until my eleventh birthday,” Harry rushed, “Hagrid brought me to Diagon Alley for my first year supplies and he already had my key. The same thing happened last year, when Mrs Weasley bought me shopping.” He watched as Ragnook and Bagnog shared a look between them, a slight glow of anger in Ragnook’s eyes, however he quickly turned his gaze back to Harry.
“Well Mr Potter, were you with both these individuals when they had your key?”
“Yes, I was with them both times the goblins took us to my vault.”
“Thank you for clarifying Mr Potter, Bagnog, could you please collect Mr Potter’s record.” Bagnog nodded and Harry watched him walk over the cabinet labelled P, and pull out a thin red book. He brought it over and placed it on the desk between Ragnook and Harry, Harry read on the front in gold script, ‘House Potter: Harry James Potter 1981 -’.
Ragnook opened the book swiftly to a couple of pages in and began to read.
“Interesting.” He muttered to himself.
“Excuse me, sir, what’s interesting?” Harry asked as politely as he could.
Ragnook seemed a bit taken aback by being addressed as sir, but quickly regained his professional composure. “It appears according to the will of the last Lord of House Potter, your father,” he clarified, observing a blank and confused look on Harry’s face. “He had named Lord Black as your guardian and guardian of all finances. However, it seems when Lord Black was convicted, the Ministry never informed us of who they were to appoint as your guardian. That’s if the Ministry had any involvement.” He muttered the last part under his breath.
“As there has been a breach of key security, we shall have a new key made immediately once we have confirmed your identity.” He moved swiftly onwards, closing the book and standing up. He went to one of the filing cabinets behind his desk and opened one of the many drawers. Turning back around he held a piece of parchment and a rather sharp looking needle.
Harry felt a weight in his stomach at the sight of the needle.
“Mr Potter, this is a blood ceremony, we shall take a drop of blood and let it fall on the parchment. It will tell us your lineage and any titles or vaults that are in your family.” Ragnook explained calmly. “Do you consent to such a test?”
Harry nodded, ‘I don’t have much choice if I want to access my vault.’ he thought to himself as he held out his hand.
Ragnook took Harry’s middle finger and pricked it with the needle, turning Harry’s hand upside down and they watched with bated breath as it fell.
“Interesting,” Ragnook said, as words began to form on the parchment. “Very interesting.”