[RVS]10 - Underground and Under Scrutiny
Chapter Ten
Underground and Under Scrutiny
Stepping up to the Teller, McGonagall greeted him. "Good Morning, we've come to take some gold from Mister Harry Potter's vault and exchange some muggle currency."
The Goblin nodded. "Let's take care of the exchange first." Nodding, McGonagall waved for the Grangers and Sunset to step up to the counter. "Now, do you wish to just exchange, or do you wish to open a vault?"
"What would that entail?"
"A vault comes with a small, yearly fee and can be used to store any valuables, enchanted or not, you wish to keep there. Dangerous items and substances may incur additional hazard fees. It may be wise to set up a vault, exchanging muggle currency comes with a set fee per transaction, regardless of the amount exchanged."
"One moment please." Dan turned to his family. "What do you think."
To his surprise, Sunset was the one to answer. "Setting up a vault may not be a bad idea. The treatment is going well and if it works out as planned you'll only get deeper into the magical community. That aside I have a few things I wish to exchange. Letting you make use of that as well would be a way to repay you for your generosity."
Dan and Hermione were looking at her wide-eyed, but Emma stroked her chin, turning to her husband. "You know, she has a point."
After shaking off his shock, Dan nodded and turned back to the teller, waving for Sunset to follow. "We'll take a vault and we'd like to exchange something. Sunset?"
Nodding, Sunset walked up to the counter as well, reaching into her bag and pulling out a small pouch. Reaching into the pouch in turn, she pulled out several gemstones, more than should feasibly fit into it.
The goblin nodded. "We'll set up a vault first, then you can talk to an appraiser." He pulled out a form, a quill and a small golden key, like the one Hagrid had given McGonagall. After a few minutes of paperwork, the goblin directed them to one of his colleagues on the far wall.
After explaining to him what they wanted, the appraiser inspected the gems Sunset had presented to him, first looking at them with a set of magnifying spectacles, then placing them on a set of brass scales, making notes on each as he went and placing them in numbered slots. Finally he took out a silver tool, looking like a rod with crystals on both ends, one of which was glowing a pale blue. He took the other end and tapped it to his quill, which stood up on its tip. He then took the quill and placed it on the paper next to his notes on the first gemstone.
With a satisfied grunt he picked the tool back up and touched the glowing crystal to the first gem, causing the crystal on the other end to light up a bright green. He actually recoiled a little, but recovered quickly, then proceeded to repeat the process for each of the stones in turn.
The watching humans noticed that every time he touched the tool to a gem, the quill wrote something, before the goblin took it and placed it next to the notes on the next gem. Not every gemstone provoked the same reaction, some caused the tool to glow even brighter than the first while others barely got a reaction at all, only the first one managed to get a flinch from the goblin.
After a few minutes the goblin took the gems and arrayed them in a new tray, copying his notes into a table he attached to it, he didn't take the gems in order, sorting them instead. Finally he turned back to the customers, pointing at the first three gemstones he had placed in the new tray. "I can give you three-hundred-and-thirty-one galleons and twelve sickles for these three. All these gems are well cut and exceptionally pure, but the others also take to magic very well, making them ideal for powerful enchantments. That increases their value significantly. However that also means that I will have to get a second opinion from another appraiser. I will owl you our offer by tomorrow."
All three Grangers and Sunset turned back to McGonagall who was the only one with some understanding of the sums involved. She stared at them, wide-eyed, before nodding sharply, indicating that the amount stated was easily enough for the girls' school equipment.
After agreeing to the offer and showing the appraiser the vault key, he summoned a runner to take them to the vaults, before waving his hand, making part of the counter disappear to let them through.
The runner took the keys and carefully looked at them. "Vaults six-eighty-seven and twelve-thirty-one? Very well. Follow me." He led the group through a door into a raw stone corridor. Rails ran along the floor. After a few more steps, the runner put two fingers in his mouth and let out a shrill whistle. Moments later a cart came along the rails, stopping beside the group. They got in and the ride began.
The cart, driving entirely on its own, made its way down further and further, through tunnels and caves, past doors and switches until finally stopping next to a specific door marked '687'. He got out, followed by McGonagall. "Mister Potter, this is your vault."
Sunset and the Grangers watched as the goblin took one of the keys and inserted it into a small key-way. As he turned it, the door rattled quietly, before slowly moving outwards and sliding to the side, releasing a wall of green smoke. Once it cleared, Harry took a small wallet the goblin offered and entered the vault. Moments later, he came back out, returning to the cart with McGonagall while the goblin pressed a small brass button on the door, prompting it to slide shut. He turned the key the other way and pulled it out, handing it back to McGonagall as he climbed back into the cart.
After another ride through the tunnels, up this time – being so familiar with arcane phase theory meant that Sunset always had a pretty good idea where she was and which way she was going – they arrived at another, similar door. Marked '1231' this time. Once more, the goblin and McGonagall got out, followed this time by Sunset and the Grangers.
When the vault opened, without smoke this time, they found a pile of golden coins and a stack of twelve silver ones. McGonagall turned to the Grangers. "Fifty galleons will easily be enough to by the supplies and whatever else you may need. With this level of funding, giving each of them a spending budget of five galleons would also be reasonable.
Taking the four wallets the runner handed them, Emma and Dan proceeded to load five galleons each into two of them, handing those to Sunset and Hermione, and twenty-five each into the other two, keeping one each.
A third cart ride later, the five gave their goodbyes to the runner as he let them out through a gap he made in the counter with a toothy smile. They all shielded their eyes with their hands upon returning to the bright summer sun after the dimly lit tunnels of Gringotts. After a moment to adjust, Professor McGonagall led them off towards Madame Manikin’s Robes for all Occasions.
The shop wasn't as grandiose as Gringotts, but it was a comfortable place. Mannequins wearing various robes stood towards the edges of the showroom, while more clothes lay folded up on various shelves. In the back stood several pedestals for fitting clothes, one of which was occupied by a pale boy with light blonde hair, being fitted by a witch.
A second witch wearing mauve robes approached the group and greeted Professor McGonagall. "Minerva, always a pleasure. Brought me another group?"
"Yes, Olivia. If you would."
"Of course, I have everything here. Come along, dears." The squat witch shepherded the three to the back, leaving McGonagall to chat with the Grangers. With a wave of her hand Madame Malkin summoned two more aides and gestured for the three to step onto the pedestals.
As they were all being fitted, the boy started up a conversation. "Hullo. Hogwarts, too?" Seeing their nods he continued. "My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands."
Sunset was immediately reminded of the nobles in Canterlot. 'Am I supposed to be impressed that his parents do everything for him? And why is his mother looking at wands? If they work anything like staffs, there is no point in that without him there. Does she just enjoy looking at wands for some weird reason?'
"Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first-years can't have their own. I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."
Sunset rolled her eyes as the comparison got more and more accurate. She couldn't help but smirk as she realized something. 'Should he really be saying that when there's a teacher in the room?'
"Have you got your own broom?" They shook their heads. "Play Quidditch at all?" More head shakes. "I do – father says its a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"
Sunset couldn't remain quiet any longer. "I'm pretty sure that's not how houses work," she said coolly.
"Technically not, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been – imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"
Since none of them chose to answer, the conversation lulled for a moment, then his eyes turned to the window. "I say, look at that man!" Following his gaze, they saw Hagrid standing outside, talking with the Grangers and McGonagall.
"That's Hagrid," Harry pointed out. "He works at Hogwarts."
"Oh. I've heard of him. He's some sort of servant, isn't he?"
"He's the gamekeeper."
"Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of savage – lives in a hut on school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic and ends up setting fire to his bed." Sunset noticed Madam Malkin scowling at those words, and she gestured for the aid that was fitting the boy's clothes to come over and fit Sunset's instead while she got to work on his, working decidedly faster. Sunset guessed she was working to get the annoying boy out of her shop all that much faster.
"I think he's brilliant," Harry coldly countered.
"Do you? Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"
"Well you've seen mine." Hermione pointed out of the window.
"Mine probably don't know I'm here," Sunset added, then thought better of it. "Actually scratch that. They definitely don't know I'm here."
"Mine are dead." Harry's words rather quickly put a stop to the conversation.
"Oh, I'm sorry." He didn't sound sorry. "But they were our kind, weren't they?"
Sunset and Hermione raised their eyebrows. Harry, it seemed, hadn't missed the implication either. "They were a witch and a wizard if that's what you mean."
"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get their letter, imagine. I think they should keep it to the old wizarding families. What's your surname anyway?"
Before any of them could answer, however, Madam Malkins called out, "here we go dear, that's you done, I can make the rest of the adjustments. Your parents have already paid and you can gather up the finished robes in half an hour. You can get your wand til then."
"Oh, good idea. I'll see you later." He turned to Harry, Hermione and Sunset, still standing on their own stools. "And I'll see you in Hogwarts." With that he walked out of the shop, leaving the shop in silence except for the ring of the door chime.
After a moment, Madam Malkin spoke up. "Thank goodness he's gone. I don't think I could have endured this for much longer." All three of her aides breathed a sigh of relief and stated their agreement.
"Who was that?" Harry asked.
"That was Draco Malfoy, the youngest of the Malfoys. They're an old pureblood house," Madam Malkin explained.
"Pureblood?" Sunset groaned, then her eyes widened. "Oh please tell me wizarding society doesn't arbitrarily segregate based on heritage?"
One of the aides sighed. "Most of us don't, but some families, like the Malfoys put great value on heritage. You heard him say what he thinks of muggleborn. There may have been a good reason for such a thing once, but that was centuries ago. Muggle society isn't as stagnant as wizarding society and a lot has changed since then. Not that they would notice. They see paying attention to muggles as beneath them after all."
Madam Malkins turned to Hermione with renewed scrutiny. "You're muggleborn, right?"
Sunset chuckled quietly. "We're working on that."
"Now what's that supposed to mean?"
Hermione giggled as well, "Don't worry. If it becomes relevant, I'm sure you'll notice."
"Well that's not ominous at all," one of the aides snorted after a moment.
After a few more minutes their uniforms were done, black, as the list had stated, but with a gray trim on the sleeves and collar. Being robes they went all the way to their knees. After another minute for Madam Malkin to stitch in the name tags, they packed up the uniforms, revealing a small problem. Harry had nowhere to put it. He had put the wallet from Gringotts in the pocket of his trousers, but that clearly wouldn't work for the uniform.
"Give it here," Sunset said after a moment, "I'll carry it until you have somewhere to put it."
"I think Truckle's Trunks a few shops down that way carries book bags as well," Madam Malkin pointed out. "You'll need to get your Hogwarts trunks there anyway."
They rejoined the adults in their group back outside and, after a quick discussion, followed McGonagall to the trunk store. All the while Sunset glanced at Harry with interest.
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Sunset, upon next hearing any of Draco's pureblood nonsense: Thinking like that is only good for one thing. Starting wars. So SHUT UP BEFORE I DECLARE ONE UPON ALL PUREBLOODS BECAUSE YOU ARE ALL IDIOTS!
Think Sunset had Blueblood flashbacks with Draco there?
Oh that's going to be HILARIOUS once it get's out
9524129
Considering her personality, most likely of setting him on fire.
I'm a little torn on this chapter, on the one hand, I appreciate that you didn't just have them immediately tear Draco apart as most stories do. I don't know about anyone else but I prefer stories that treat Draco as an actual character rather than someone who only exists for the other characters to repeatedly mock and ridicule him whenever he does his thing.
On the other hand, this is pretty much the scene from the book so not sure if there was much point to it. If it was just to establish Draco as a character because he'll be important later on then I guess that's fine but with the length of these chapters, I hope you don't just do scenes from the books with only minor changes too often.
9524257
Oh, I also realized they're not in the Wizarding world yet when Sunset says that. But I'll take your word for it. I still hate Imperial though. And don't count on it all being metric in engineering, especially if it's american made.
9524257
Gotta agree with you that this is a bit of an issue so far where everything comes easily to Sunset. Hopefully, it won't last.
From what I remember the official explanation was that the wizards saw no need for the metric system because they generally just use magic for all their complex calculations.
Edit:
here it is:
I can't wait for Sunset to rip the purebloods only faction a new one.
I like the story, and it's nice to see it updates just about daily, but it's lacking any real sort of conflict or originality when it concerns the plot of HP. Sunset has just been coasting through everything with the ease of a Mary Sue; no struggle and almost instant success/gratification. Not to mention the fact that every adult seems to be holding the idiot ball at one point or another.
The two wizarding officials never bothered to look further into the usage of underage magic, let alone let them off with a warning. We know they're uptight about things like that because they sent Harry a warning about magic usage - even when it was Dobby who performed the magic - in year two. So for them to just go "Well... yeah, nobody else knows. Guess you can keep doing it" even if there's wards around the house to ensure privacy, just smacks of either idiocy, complacency, or lazy writing so you don't have to worry about writing out consequences later down the line.
Then you've got the interactions this chapter. With the exception of a few lines spoken, it played out pretty much exactly the same as Canon, only with Hermione and Sunset added in. And that was to the detriment of Harry. You basically turned him into a background character in his own bloody story. This was a huge chance to get Harry to mingle with two kids his own age and show meaningful interaction, and you just went the basic "Canon but with minor commentary" route.
I'm still somewhat enjoying this, but there's just a lot of issues that come to mind when I think about the story and how characters act within it.
9524327
Since wizards think wandless magic is only really possible under “accidental magic” there probably isn’t anything the Ministry really does other than monitor it, especially when the involved parties are too young to even own a wand. That it is so clearly being directed as to make “accidental” impossible is irrelevant. They saw magic being performed despite the lack of wands and passed the buck to someone else (Minerva) who watched them directly for an entire week.
And there’s still plenty of time for the kids to mingle. But, considering the author is sticking to nearly-daily updates, having a chapter where the kids talk in between stops would be criticized by some as being a “filler chapter where nothing happens” even if it helps establish character. Like I said though, there’s plenty of story yet for that, and maybe your pointing it out helps show that something is lacking that the author might have been unaware of.
9524398
umm... what? Wizards don't think it's impossible it's just considered extremely advanced and most wizards are never able to master it.
9524575
Alright. So nearly impossible. In the books, Snape maybe does it once to protect Harry in the first book. Quirrel maybe does it once to try to kill Harry, Remus maybe does it to drive a dementor off on the Express. I say maybe because it isn’t said one way or the other if they have their wands out. The only one able to do so more than once in the books is Albus. So, in the eyes of the people who have seen Sunset, considering she is a wandless child in their eyes, she’s doing accidental magic.
Harry’s vault is actually number 687, not 1015.
9524606
Sunset is in the top one percent of unicorns, so she would be in the top one percent of wizards.