//------------------------------//
// Chapter 11: Vaults 
// Story: The Boy Who Disappeared 
// by computerneek 
//------------------------------//

“Welcome to the Leaky Cauldron,” Hermione told Hailey, once they’d both crossed the threshold of the same building Hailey had fled from a week prior.  The Dursleys had given their go-ahead so, a couple of days later, Hermione’s parents had dropped the pair off at the Leaky Cauldron.
“This…  place, yeah,” Hailey muttered uncertainly, eying the bar.  Even though she now knew she had the strength to throw them through walls if they tried to take her away, they still made her uneasy, even from so far away.
Hermione looked at her.  “...  Bad experience?”
She nodded mutely.
“Ahh.  Then let’s not linger here.  This way.”  She led Hailey across the pub and out the back door.
It was into…  a walled-in courtyard with a trash can in the corner.
“Uh, you sure this is the right way?” Hailey asked.
Hermione nodded.  “Another security step against muggles, I think.”  She drew her wand, looking at the wall.  “Alright.  Remember:  Three up, two across.”  She counted bricks above the trash can, then tapped her wand on the named brick.
Hailey stared as it opened into an archway.
“Welcome to Diagon Alley,” Hermione announced, leading her through it as she stowed her wand.
Hailey stepped through, and looked around.  “That was…  a very fancy doorway.”
Hermione nodded.  “Yes, definitely.  Our first destination will be Gringotts Bank, down this way- they’ll change that cash out for wizard gold.”
“Wizard gold?” Hailey asked.  She still had the wad of cash Vernon had given her almost a week and a half ago.
“Yeah.  C’mon.”





When they reached the bank, Hailey could tell Hermione found comfort in the scary-looking guards.  She, on the other hand, became even more nervous.  Big institutions had always done that to her, even when she had been Harry- because that was always where the biggest troubles started.  “Um- may I ask,” she muttered to Hermione, as they climbed the steps.  “What’s so comforting about the bank?”
Hermione glanced at her.  “Comf-?  You can tell?”
“Uh, yes, I can?”
“...  Oh.  I thought I was…  Whatever.”  She took a deep breath.  “Thing is, out on the street, we’re two little girls running around.  It doesn’t matter how strong we are, because if some snatcher comes along and uses magic, we’re toast.”  She paused to nod respectfully at the goblins guarding the door as they bowed them through.  She stopped walking, with Hailey, to look up at the inscription on the second set of doors.  “Here in Gringotts, the use of wands is expressly forbidden.”
Hailey looked up, and read the inscription.  “That sounds almost like a challenge.”
“Well it’s a warning,” Hermione answered quickly.  “Though you’re right, I’m sure there’s at least some challenge in it.  Nobody has ever successfully robbed Gringotts- I looked it up- and there have only been two attempts throughout recorded history.  You might’ve noticed how…  fierce the goblins look?”
She nodded.  “Yeah?”
“That’s because they are.  Powerful fighters and everything.  But we don’t need to worry about that, because they have an agreement with wizardkind- they manage our money, and in return, we don’t go to war.  But it’s an agreement with wizardkind, not just the adult wizards.  A three-year-old could come in here on her own, and exchange money.  There’s a few things they can’t do for people below a certain age, but that’s about it.”
Hailey looked up and down the row of tellers as they walked into the main room.  “Ahh.  They don’t look too happy about it.”
“That’s because a majority of wizardkind still treats them like dirt.  If you’re nice to them, they’re nice right back to you.”
“Ahh.  So…”  She looked at the tellers again.
Hermione picked one, and pulled Hailey over.  “C’mon, we’ve got things to do.  While we’re here, McGonagall recommended we get a Vault to put the extra gold in when we’re done, but my parents decided not to.”  She looked up at the goblin as they reached the table.  “Hi!  Hailey here has some muggle money to exchange.”
The goblin gave a small nod.  “If you want to open a Vault at the same time, you might want to do that first.  Wizard gold is heavier than muggle money.”
Hailey exchanged a look with Hermione.  “Uhh…  Sure, I guess.  Vault first, then.”  She smiled up at him.
He smiled back, though only slightly.  “Alright, we can give that a shot.  We don’t normally allow personal Vaults below the age of seventeen, but there are a few different things that can allow it anyways- and most witches or wizards don’t know when they qualify- especially muggleborns.”
“Especially?”
“Among those things is inheritance from sometimes distant wizarding ancestors.  At the moment, there’s almost a thousand unclaimed vaults left behind by dead witches and wizards for their wizarding descendants.”
“Uh, definitely give it a shot, then,” Hailey said.  “I actually know I have dead wizarding ancestors.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” the goblin mumbled.  “But yes, if they left anything behind, we will be able to open it up to you.”
“...  I think I’d like to give that a try as well,” Hermione muttered, then looked up to smile at the goblin.  “Just in case.”
“Alright,” he nodded.  “We can do that.  You’ll need to go into the room separately, though.”
“The room?”
“Right.  The office with our Vault manager.  I’ll have someone take you to him- and once you’re done, you can look at your vault- or vaults, if it works out for both of you- before changing money.  Griphook!”





Griphook was another goblin, who led them down the massive hallway, then through a door to a smaller passage.  After a couple of turns, they arrived at a door with a bench on one side and a sentry on the other.  Griphook spoke briefly to the sentry in the goblin language that neither girl understood, then turned to them.  “He is ready now,” he greeted.  “Which one first?”
Hermione looked at Hailey.  “You first.”
Hailey studied her face for a couple of seconds.  She could tell Hermione was nervous- but the nervousness was sourced more from unfamiliarity than anything else, unlike it had been in the Alley.
Hailey took a deep breath, and stepped forwards.





“So, you want a Vault?” the Vault Manager goblin asked Hailey, once she’d entered the room.  “Are your parents with you?”
“Uh, no, they’re not,” she answered.  “They’re…  dead.”
“Well I’m sorry to hear that, miss...” he said.  Then he leaned sideways to peer at her through some strange window thingy.  “Potter?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“Hmm…  There’s a Vault under that name, but they only pass down to descendants unless all descendants are dead.  So…”  He opened a drawer in his desk, and pulled out a massive staff that definitely shouldn’t have fit.  He stood up, stood it on the ground in front of him, then peered at her through the window at the top.  “...  Huh.  I could have sworn they had a son, not a daughter, but whatever.”  He put it away.  “Alright, we’ve got your family vault, and it’s yours if you want it.”  He looked up at her.
“Uh, yes, please,” she said.
He nodded.  “Alright.”  He slid open another drawer of his desk, pulled a key out, and did his thing with it; she had no idea what that stapler-like device was for.  As he worked, he spoke.  “You don’t happen to have a wand, do you?”
“Uh, I do not, no.”
He lifted a silver tray, with a long, silver knife resting on it, from the drawer, and placed it on the desk in front of her.  “Then you’re going to need to bleed on it.”  He handed her the key.
“I- what?”
“It should only need a few drops,” he continued.  “And the wound will heal quickly.  Don’t make too big of a cut, though.”
“You want me to…  cut myself.”
“Only a little cut,” he nodded.  “Preferably on a finger or something over the tray, just enough for a few drops to put on the key.”
“...  Alright.”  She took a deep breath, taking knife and key.  She carefully- very carefully- nicked her finger, put the knife back on the tray, then squoze her finger to get the blood he’d asked for.  She then let it drip down onto the key…  at which point all the blood seemed to shimmer and disappear, and her little cut disappeared as well.  “Uhh…”
He held out his hand.
She looked at it for a half second before reaching out to drop the key in it.
He looked at it with a magnifying glass.  “That was enough,” he stated.  He gave her the key back.  “That key will only open your Vault while it is in your hand,” he informed her.  “Now I know your fist impulse will be to spend it- don’t.  You’ll probably need some from it for your schooling, but you do not want to be ‘little miss moneybags’, and whatever’s in that vault will have to last you a minimum of six years.  You won’t be able to get a job- any job- until you’re seventeen, the Wizarding age of majority.”
She nodded.  “Okay.”
“Alright.  Griphook can take you to your Vault, if you want.”  He gestured towards the door.  “Alternately, he can take you back to the main concourse.  Tell him which you would like.”
“Ahh, okay.”  She left the room.
Hermione was waiting on the bench with Griphook, who promptly sent Hermione in.





When Hermione emerged, Hailey could tell- even before she looked- that she had been pleasantly surprised.
“How’d it go?” Hailey asked.
“McKinnan,” she answered.  “I inherited a McKinnan vault.  Apparently, I’m the closest magical relative to the McKinnan family, the last of which was killed in the war ten years ago.”  She took a deep breath.  “I’ve also inherited their house, apparently- and anything left in it.”
She blinked.  “Wow.  Here I only inherited my parents’ vault.”
“Not surprised,” Hermione sighed.  “Their house was destroyed.”
Hailey winced.
“Do you wish to check the Vaults?” Griphook asked suddenly.
The girls spoke as one.  “Yes, please.”