16 Repaying Kindness

As I exited the vault, I was greeted by the head goblin who was still stood in the exact same spot in wait. As he saw me come out of the vault, his eyes started to glow. Behind that gaze lied many questions however it seemed as though he wanted to restrain himself from asking.

"So Mr. Emrys, did you find what you need?"

Thinking of the haul from the vault I was more than happy. However there was a sense of foreboding that vault brought along with it. The wand placed for me there, the Emrys Ritual, Merlin's note left behind, in stories in my previous world Merlin wasn't just contained to the Harry Potter canon he was widely known as a powerful wizard of King Arthur's court in myth as well. I seemed to neglect that fact as I was told I had his bloodline. Considering I was in the Harry Potter world after all I just expected the strongest bloodlines to be a founders as Merlin was taught under Salazar in Slytherin house however this single trip today blew all my thoughts out the water. It was my own negligence placing Merlin under the founders in the first place in my mind…

Could Merlin actually have clairvoyance like some of the myths told in my past life? Am I walking down a planned path now? And if so, did the original 'Leo' walk down this same path or never even find it in the first place? After all I was placed into the body of the 'Leo Osbourne' in this world. The first canon shift notification I got explained that 'Hogwarts has caught wind of (Oz) earlier than normal' meaning that 'Leo' did end up at Hogwarts in the original canon. However seeing as though he was never mentioned in the canon despite having Merlin's blood, he would have remained a clueless background character. He was an orphan after all, maybe he never even thought to check... or could there be more to this?

Seeing me lost in thought the head goblins eyes glued onto me for a while longer. He let out a polite cough bringing me back to earth.

"Ahem… Mr Emrys is everything okay?"

"Yes. All is fine, I got what I needed so let's head out"

The head goblin smiled as he led me back towards the cart that would take us on the long journey up. As we stepped onto the cart, the head goblin started it up again and we started our ascent back to Gringotts. The head goblin tried to keep up some small talk with me however I mostly just brushed off the questions, my mind was too fixed on Merlin…

.

After a long ascent up we finally arrived back at the main area of Gringotts. Heading to the main desk, the head goblin sat down and ushered me to stand in front of him on the other side of the desk. After checking some draws in the desk, he gave me a key.

"This here was prepared for you whilst we went down into the vault, this key is for a vault of your own. Merlin's vault will fall under your name and become your property also however considering how far down it is, it's more convenient to have one closer to the surface for easy use when just storing money…"

Handing me the key I saw the letters place onto it. The letters were 'O' and 'E'. Looking at the key more closely I realised it had an incredibly fancy design. The materials that made up the key seemed to be expensive. Noting my gaze, the head goblin started to explain.

"You see those sorts of vault keys are given to VIP's. Merlin's descendant instantly classifies as a VIP customer of ours"

Seeing as thought the head goblin was referring to me permanently as 'Emrys' now I had to ask…

"Does me inheriting the Emrys name translate into the muggle world? Currently I stay at an orphanage in the far south west of England…"

The head goblin thought for a moment with his hand stroking his chin before explaining.

"This sort of case really is very rare… Most orphan children who test bloodlines are destined to be told they have a weak bloodline or none at all. However you ended up with Merlin's despite being an orphan in a muggle orphanage… I imagine the procedure once the ministry catch wind of this event will be to have you undertake the name 'Emrys' in wizard society and keep the name 'Osbourne' in muggle society. After all Merlin's name is well known in the muggle world as well in story books so it would be done this way to keep you safe from suspicion overall…"

Hearing the head goblins explanation I heaved a sigh of relief. It had taken me a long time to convince Nana and Melony to change my name from Leo to Oz due to my own thoughts and feelings, if I went back now to the orphanage and my second name had changed to from Osbourne to Emrys legally as well, they would probably start showing even more suspicion towards my actions than they already are. Unless ministry officials would use magic to make everyone believe I always had the second name Emrys but that was probably too much hassle and doesn't really sit well with me…

"Anyway Mr. Emrys with your vault set up and ready to go, do you have any questions for me? Anything you want to ask?"

As the head goblin offered me to ask questions a few did come to mind.

"In the future I plan on… making a magical artefact or two to sell publicly and widely. Can that be done through Gringotts?"

"We'd be happy to help you. If you come with the artefact in question and show us its functions we will form a contract. We distribute, you reap the profits of producing the work. Considering you're a VIP we will only take a fraction of the earnings~"

Okay that was good. In my 3 years in this world I already had cooked up some plans on artefacts to produce and create. I first got an idea when I saw Pandora, the hidden damage to her body that no medi-witch/wizard would spot due to countless experiments gone awry… Then when Nana fell sick that idea started to form more strongly in my mind. I didn't know if I could reproduce what my mind wanted however it was a goal I had set for myself already.

"And finally, will news spread about this?"

The head goblin seemed a bit stumped by my question. I think he imagined that an 8 year old would want to marvel in the glory of being Merlin's descendant. However I thought the opposite. Whilst it would bring me benefits like it has today, it would be a double-edged sword. This was especially so when Voldemort makes his comeback. Harry would be a primary target but knowing Merlin's descendant was present he probably either attempt to force me to his side or attack me to get rid of me from the picture. Until I had some more magical power behind me, I didn't want that identity revealed.

"This… We can contain the information as much as possible if you would like. However news will undoubtedly spread that Merlin's Descendant was found. This after all isn't news limited to England, this news is something that will spread across the entire Wizarding World. It's just that important. I will however ensure a gag order has been put on the goblins present today so your name is not uttered alongside news about Merlin's descendant…"

"I would appreciate that a lot"

"Then it's settled, is there anything else Mr. Emrys?"

I smiled as there was one last thing I need to sort out. Opening the bag on my back I placed the ancient gold I got from Merlin's vault in front of the head goblin. His eyes widened looking at it.

"T-This is ancient gold! It's purity!"

The head goblins eyes glued to the gold as if he wanted to eat it all. Seeing that he was now lost in his thoughts I coughed sternly.

"Ahem… I would like to convert this into galleons"

The head goblin snapped out of his daze as he smiled brightly towards me.

"No problem, no problem at all! Let's see here looking at this amount… the age of it… the purity… I estimate the conversion to galleons will be around…"

The head goblin seemed to be doing calculations in his head. He was truly thinking hard about the true value of this ancient gold. What I didn't show the goblin was that this was around ¾ of the gold I had received from the vault. I did this for a couple reasons however the main reason was I wanted to keep some in case it could be used for something eventually.

"This should come to around 20,000 galleons Mr. Emrys"

Right 20,000 galleons that seemed goo- wait a minute.

"D-Did you just say 20,000? As in a 2 with 4 0's?"

"You heard me correct Mr. Emrys"

Holy shit… I had hit the jackpot. That translated to around £100,000 in muggle money. That was an astronomical number for an 8 year old lad like me. I never expected ancient gold to be valued this heavily. It felt unreal even thinking that I now owned that amount of cash. This wasn't even the full amount of gold…

"The gold you've shown me today Mr. Emrys is of the highest purity and it's extremely ancient. That's why the price tag for it is so high"

It made sense hearing the explanation but the amount still seemed unreal. Thinking about the amount of money this was in muggle money my mind recalled something. Back when I was at New Leaf, when I went to see Nana who was sick in her bed, just beforehand I was with Melony and the other kids in the common room. I saw the paper placed on the desk with my name on it alongside many others with 'potential families' written next to them and also 'potential schools'. There was another piece of paper there, which calculated the amount of money the orphanage needed to pay.

The amount was staggering, I didn't register it until now as I was solely focused on Nana's health but the orphanage needed at least £20,000 funding. If it got £40,000, it would be able to thrive. The kids there would be able to go on good trips, way better than heading to Ottery St Catchpole. Knowing I now had the money to pay back Nana, Melony and the orphanage that took me in I didn't need to hesitate.

"Is it possible to donate some of this money? Can I do that anonymously through you?"

"Of course it's possible Mr. Emrys. You are our VIP after all, we will go above and beyond for you"

"Great… I would like to donate £40,000 to New Leaf Orphanage in Newquay"

"Okay we shall process that for you… It will be sent to the orphanage under a company name from the muggle world that is actually ran by us. Would you like the rest in galleons? That will leave you total amount of galleons at 12,000"

"That would be great"

The goblin started to make a ton of notes summarising our talk just now, as we finished noting down everything I had asked of him he pulled a pouch out and gave it to me.

"This is a VIP benefit, a pouch with an extension charm on it. I saw you were still using a muggle bag so I actually asked one of the goblins to grab one for you before we headed down to the vault. It's a gift"

I happily received the gift given by the head goblin. The respect they showed for me and the courtesy started to become overwhelming…

"To finalise this Mr. Emrys, we shall send 11,500 galleons to the vault we created for you. As for the remaining 500 that will be placed into your pouch there for your own use… unless you would like to leave more behind or take some more along?"

"500 Sounds great"

500 was about £2500 so it was plenty for me to buy things I wanted in Diagon Alley. Grabbing the pouch back from me the head goblin sent it off to get filled with the galleons I was owed. Soon it was brought back and handed back to me. As my hand was absorbed by the pouch, I felt it be buried in galleons as it got down a certain distance. I was really pleased with this trip.

"That should be everything Mr. Emrys. Anything else I can do for you today?"

"That's all. Thanks… Griphook"

Griphook smiled as he heard me thank him personally. After a slight wave to him, I turned and started to leave. Just as I turned around though, Griphook seemed to have finally caved.

"Mr. Emrys… if you don't mind me asking. Was there… anything else in Merlin's vault beside that gold?"

Looking at Griphook momentarily, I gave him a knowing smile.

"All that was there was the ancient gold"

I doubted he would believe me, however I'm not about to admit to a dragon heart being stored there alongside Merlin's wand, a key and these other notes. Considering Merlin called the key a 'test' itself I imagine the goblins would have no clue where it was used even if I did show them.

With that, I headed towards the exit of Gringotts. As I left, the goblins gazes pierced into me. I sensed some of the gazes held reverence and awe, whilst some seemed to hold slight fear…