7 Back to Gringotts and Truth of Vindice

You know it came to me when I woke up that I didn't exactly tell the goblins where mine and my mothers manor is. Well guess I got to make another trip to Gringotts. "Envy time to wake up" I poke the little pink blob and it blurbles at me but shakes itself awake nonetheless. It then proceeds to float up and place itself on top of my head. "Comfy?" Envy makes that pyuu and I feel a sense of satisfaction through our link. "Well alright but you will have to get off as I have morning exercise and then I'll need a shower" Now I feel sadness through the link "Hey it is only for a little while Envy."

An hour later they were in the kitchen. Alex was cooking up some bacon, eggs, toast, and sausage links. "Envy make sure you don't extract the essence from these. Oh don't give me that look. I promise I will get you something else to absorb but these are just for eating" I rub the blobs head? Is it a head? Well whatever. The little blob seems to really enjoy the sausage links.

One taxi ride later I find myself in front of a bar called The Leaky Cauldron. I look left and right but it seems the muggles tend to ignore this place. Must be magic. But after entering I really hope whatever the magic is that keeps muggles from entering here holds up. It is a little hard to ignore magic when you see chairs stack themselves and a mug being cleaned with a rag that no one is holding.

"Hey there boy-o!" A bald man comes up to me, he has a lack of teeth. "Haven't seen you here before well I am Tom." he holds out his hand and I politely shake it

"Nice to meet you Tom. I am Alexander Prince can you show me how to get into Diagon Alley. The parchment I was given says I can get there from here but not how"

"Ah yea that happens every year. Here follow me" Now normally when an old bald man with no teeth tells a child to follow him the correct thing to do is run but from what I have seen wizards and witches don't seem to train their bodies so I am sure I can lay this old man out on his back in less than three seconds. Luckily that doesn't seem necessary as he leads me outback and hits three bricks with his wand which opens up into Diagon Alley "Be seein ya around child." he then heads back into the bar.

I head straight for Gringotts, I don't want to be distracted with more shopping though I badly want to I want to use that shopping time to spend with Harry. Ragnok seems rather free if he can personally see me each time I come here "You know Lord Ragnok you might as well become my official accountant seeing as you always have time for me"

Ragnok raises a brow "That can be arranged young warrior." I smirk at this "Really? Well then I welcome you as my accountant in charge of my vaults if you so wish Lord Ragnok but please call me Alex, all my friends do."

Ragnok looks at me strangely "You are rather odd for a wizard. You have the aura of a warrior and are asking a goblin to be your friend. No wizard has asked a goblin to be their friend"

I shrug "I see the goblins as someone who I would rather have as friends than enemies."

Ragnok gave a chuckle "Indeed. I suppose I would rather you be my friend than enemy as well Alex."

"Anyway I am here because I seem to have forgotten to tell you where my manor is so you can apply the wards. Also is there some magic for automatic cleaning or something?"

The goblin taps his nail on the desk before him "Well, we can, with your permission, look into your mind for the place and then get there easily. As for the cleaning yes there are wizard spells for that but I would recommend getting some house elves."

"What are house elves?"

Ragnok looks at me skeptically then seems to remember "Oh yes you haven't lived in the wizarding world. A house elf is an elf bound to a certain household. They clean, cook, do the shopping and do sorts of things that wizards can't be bothered to do themselves"

"Ah so they are like maids and butlers?"

The goblin shakes his head "that is one way to put it but most would say slaves"

"Slaves?!" the goblin nods "I don't think I want slaves"

The goblin shakes his head "I will give you a brief history to house elves. Back when elves still walked on this Earth the High Elves were royalty. A band of these High Elves decided that wizarding kind was an abomination as 'humans weren't meant to have magic'. They began to attack the sparse wizarding settlements thinking it would be quite easy but all the wizards fought back and won against this band. The Queen of the High Elves at that time cast a nameless magic that bound the renegade elves to the wizards making them the wizards slaves. Yes they are slaves but they can't be anything else anymore. You see their magic core drains without the aid of being bound to a master or magic household. If they were free they would slowly die, most house elves nowadays will commit suicide if they are freed."

"So if they aren't bond they die?"

The goblin nods "the nameless magic also effected all their descendants and those are the house elves we have today and most probably the only elves still on Earth" I sigh not sure how to feel "If it helps Alex you can offer to pay them and give them good living conditions, that is after all the best they will accept. It is now in their nature to serve to the point they will harm themselves otherwise."

I rub my temples "Thank you Ragnok. Can you see about getting me four house elves and see if they will accept some payment if only to clear my conscious. Also you have permission to get the location of my home from my mind. Lastly can you add a ward that will make it so only muggles we invite in can enter, my mother still has dinners with clients and partners at our house, I would like to keep all the reporters out. Found one hanging out in our garbage once" I shudder at that memory. The old goblin nods and we draw up a contract

"Alex I think you will be pleased to know that the Vindice and the Addams vault has been successfully transferred. Would you like to go see the contents?"

I nod but can't help but ask "How did you transfer them so quickly" The goblin grins as he leads the way to the carts

"Goblin magic. Basically we switch an empty vault here and the vault needing transferred with each other" I wonder if that is Location Swapping or Spatial Displacement?

"Hahaha I can never get tired of that ride" I say as I step out of the cart. The goblin in charge of the cart, Griphook I believe his name was, gives me odd looks. Ragnok who has seen me like this already ignores it and opens the Addams Vault. The vault contents looked like some creepy occult voodoo shop. There were skulls, candles, jars of things, and books along with cobwebs and holy crap is that a small graveyard?!

I step into the vault but I see one book that catches my eye. It is a photo album. Some of the first in it seem to be hand drawn but going further they become wizard photos and then I see something that throws me off. There seems to be one creature in the picture that was covered with hair and wearing a hat "Is that... Oh my lord it is! That's Cousin It!" I thought the Addams was just a coincidence but holy hell it wasn't a tv show family but a real family of wizards and witches?! Does this mean the Addams Family in America is the same one shown on the telly?! THIS IS AWESOME!

Ok calming myself down I gather up a few of the books, the ones who don't try to curse or maim me when I get too close, thankfully Ragnok protects me though I am sure he wouldn't do so for any other wizard.

Now for the Vindice vault. Didn't get to ride in the cart as this vault was the next in line from the Addams vault. Ragnok unlocks the vault and... all that inside is a Black Tome and a single ring on a pedestal. I gotta say I am a little disappointed by that but whatever. The ring has some intricate marks on it and is adorned with a piece of orange amber that has some almond shaped thing in the center of it making it look like an eye. I put on the ring and it adjusted itself straight to my size and pricks me! AGAIN WITH THE BLOOD! The tome glows a bit then launches itself into my hand. Immediately opening up to the first page.

[Hello my descendant. My name is Oboro Vindice. If you are reading this then you must be either my daughter Aurora or one of her descendants. I am sure by now you have heard of our family vanishing completely. Well here is the reason for that. A Dark Wizard, by the name of Gellert Grindelwald, sought us out to have us give him the knowledge we possess. We of course refused but we knew that wasn't the last of it. We knew he would come back and try to take it by force. Now my descendant we hold a lot of knowledge and you may wonder why we didn't use it. We could have but the knowledge we hold is meant to be guarded as such using it would come at a cost. A grave cost as most forbidden magics require a great deal of payment.

We held counsel and it was decided to use one of the magics to remove ourselves from this place. A risky move since we knew not where we would end up. A different planet, a different dimension, alternate reality, it may have even just dumped us in the center of the sun. But one of our seers told us it was the best chance for our clan to fulfill our roles to protect this knowledge and survive. Sadly though this magic could not accept someone whose core was not solidified and my lovely daughter Aurora was not even 10 years old yet... it was with a heavy heart me and my wife erased her memories and sealed her core to leave her at a muggle orphanage.

You are our successor now on Earth. This ring is one of seven and seven of one. When all the rings are together it forms one ring. We used the rings self protection magic thus causing the other six rings to scatter across the world. You hold the main ring and it will unlike the first level of our Arcaneum, which is this Black Tome. This book can only be read and opened by you so it is up to you what to do with it.

The first level has the least damaging spells and magics but each level up will unlock further destructive magics. Level 7 magics could very well wipe out all life in the wrong hands. Sadly I can not tell you not to use any of the magics. If you are good or bad I can't do anything as we are no longer there to stop it. I can only plead for you not to use them and not let these magics get in the wrong hands. Now not all forbidden magic is evil but all forbidden magic is dangerous even to the user of it.

One last thing if... If my Aurora is still alive please tell her that Myself and her mother Nerium are sorry and that we loved her more than anything...]