6 Gringotts
Gringotts
Chapter: 6
Meanwhile, inside the biggest and only bank in magical London, Gringotts.
Sniffy was walking inside the greatest wizarding bank and under the surprised gazes, that her outfit got her from all the present people and goblins. Completely ignoring their surprised faces, she was walking calmly and proudly toward a teller that looked unoccupied.
Waiting for the goblin to finish his current work, or more like pretending to work, Sniffy looked around.
There were few wizards inside the bank and the wizards who were around seemed to be in some kind of hurry as they were almost running around frantically to finish their own business as fast as possible to be done and get out of here.
Currently were the times of a dark lord on the loose and therefore it was not safe outside if you supported the wrong side. Even in Diagon alley that should be safe and warded against enemies. In Diagon alley were Aurors patrolling around throughout the day. They were the police force of the magical world and worked overtime at such an awful time.
Many shops were closed down and there were almost no people found on the streets. Only the occasional shoppers were found shuffling through the alley with fear in their steps.
The only creatures who did not mind this and seemed completely unperturbed with everything going on outside their halls were the goblins. Who in their right mind would challenge them? A race full of warriors. Not even Grindelwald was so dumb as to begin a fight with them.
Wizards knew why they trusted the goblins with all their money. Almost no one could go against them and not even Voldemort or his death eaters were that crazy to upset them.
"Äähm…..."
Sniffy heard a voice from the desk where she was waiting in front and turned her head towards the goblin, who now seemed to be ready and studied Sniffy with his eyes.
Somewhat surprised to see a house-elf in such strange but somehow fitting clothes, he looked at Sniffy and said:
"How can I help you, miss?" Forever the businessmen, the goblin, asked in a well-mannered tone.
Thankful to do her master's business, Sniffy answered back: "Master sent me to change some of his muggle money to Galleons and then to open a vault for himself. All his orders are written inside this letter." After she said this, Sniffy then handed the letter over to the goblin, who calmly took it. Or better, he charmed in some incomprehensible manner and it flew up to the teller.
After receiving the letter and checking if it was cursed, the goblin took out a knife from his desk and opened said letter.
Reading over the letter, his face became much sterner with every minute he read on. It took him only a few moments, and he was done with his reading. On his face could be found a completely serious look and said to Sniffy in a stern voice: "If you would please follow me, Miss, this deal needs a better and proper private room to discuss."
Standing up and motioning to the house-elf to follow him, he brought Sniffy to a big bronze door on which was carved from many runes and a couple of pictures of wild animals were engraved around the middle of the door.
Going through the door that opened with a snip of the goblin's finger, Sniffy was soon taken through a few more of these doors, all looking different. They ended up in a private room with a proper business table and some chairs in the middle of it.
Seeing the goblin sitting down and motioning towards her to also sit down, she took the seat on the other side of the table.
Taking a bell that was standing on the table and ringing it once, the goblin then set it back in place again and after a few seconds, there was a sound of the door opening opposite to where they entered. Another goblin was coming in with a set of hot tea.
"I hope you also like to enjoy some tea.
By the way, I am Knaburg and from this day onward; I am your master's account manager.
I hope I am not overstepping my boundaries, but I hope I can be blunt to you.
It is my first time to have a house-elf here on behalf of his master to propose such a big deal with us. Normally the wizard would come in person, but that is not a problem for us." Knaburg said that with a smile on his face and took the 20 galleons from the letter and let them vanish on the spot.
"That also shows how great your master values you. Seeing your outfit, you should be in a proper position under your master."
Trying to fish for more information about the master from the Sniffy, the goblin made her a few compliments.
Sniffy was never treated like this aside from her master, therefore she was thrilled and took the tea that was handed to her. Slowly taking a sip of the handed and steaming cup, she let out a sigh of relief that was hidden while she took a sip from the tea.
Knowing what the goblin tried to do. She looked right through his hidden intentions and completely ignored his roundabout asking and only wanted to finish the task she was given.
Therefore, she said: "Thanks for your hospitality. I am Sniffy and the tea tastes good but my master likes it when people do their work without speaking about non-related matters. We should go back to business. Here is the muggle money."
"Flop...."
Bundle after bundle of money fell onto the floor beside the table.
A little mountain was forming fast on the floor and then the money dropping stopped.
"This is the money master told me to change into galleons. The amount of it should be exactly 500 000 pounds. Please count it and then change it according to your standards." Said Sniffy, and she looked with a proud face at the shocked goblin that had his mouth gaping open at the sight of the amount of money.
Needing a few seconds to get his bearing back, Knaburg was embarrassed at his earlier state. He did not expect that much money. The most sum other people have ever handed the goblins that they wanted to change was some 1000 bucks, but right now, this amount of money hit him hard.
Not wanting to let Sniffy wait for much longer, he got to work immediately and counted the money. With a snip of his fingers, the bundles of money floated slowly over towards him in a seemingly never-ending line. Over the table, he counted each of the bundles when they each hovered a second before his face.
Sniffy was a little bored and could only just watch the goblin counting the money.
Time seemed to tickle by and the money was floating around. The little mountain got smaller and smaller as time went on.
Having nothing to do, Sniffy was drinking her tea and relaxed for the time being. When she took her last sip of the tea, the last money bundle floated by the table and inside a chest that had appeared some time ago.
Knaburg was done with counting the money and told Sniffy:
" Exactly as you said, 500 000 pounds.
Everything is in order, and I am getting you your master galleons. The switching rate currently is 1 galleon are 10 sickles which are 10 nuts. And pounds into galleons are 1 galleon is 10 pounds.
At your master's orders, I have opened a vault for him under the name Snow, and the key to the vault is possible with his or your magic signature. I have taken the magic of Mr. Snow from his writing of the letter. Everything we affect our surroundings and even when we breathe, we exchange magic with our surroundings unconsciously. Therefore, it is easy to judge someone's magical signature through their writing. "
Not knowing what that all meant, but happy to have almost finished her job, Sniffy felt proud of herself and remembered each word the goblin said to her to recount each word to her master.
The goblin snipped with his fingers again and in his hand appeared some kind of pouch with he laid on the table in front of Sniffy and said: "This here is the pouch with a couple of extension charms and which has about 20 square meters of space inside it. A few other charms like the anti-theft charm, the featherlight charm, and the shrinking charm are also placed upon it.
This was an enormous business that we could finish, so we also have included a chest that is linked to your master's vault in Gringotts, so he does not have to come here all the time and can access his money everywhere. The chest is inside the pouch.
Inside the Snow vault are currently 50 000 galleons – 540 which were the cost of the pouch. That means 49 460 Galleons are now all of your Snow family's net worth.
If you ever need something again, then please ask for me Knaburg out in front by the tellers. They will then directly inform me."
Said Knaburg while he put his hand forward for a handshake, which Sniffy gladly took.
"Thank you for your time." Said Sniffy, and she walked towards the door alongside the goblin that was seeing her out.
Outside the bank, she quickly popped away with the pouch in her hand.
Back inside their home.
Richard was currently sitting on his bed and was exhausted from all the time trying to do magic and not succeeding even once.
He then let out a sigh and let himself crash down onto the bed and got lost in his thoughts:
'I guess I cannot rush anything here. I just need to carry on and try again and again. I shall take that to train my will and focus more on hard work and strengthening my will and imagination.
There should be certain keys to becoming better in magic.
Fantasy and imagination can never be underestimated, because if you cannot think of something, you cannot achieve it. If people never thought of flying in the sky and trying everything to achieve it, then we would not have planes around.
If you cannot think of a thing, then it cannot become real. That's something I need to consider. Wizards thought since a long time ago that they could not do landless magic at all or only the most powerful can do such magic.
But what is accidental magic? It is exactly that, accidental wandless magic, only that the magic is much more influenced by feelings and imagination to do something.
That should be the definition of accidental magic.'
A little lost in his thoughts, Richard was woken up of his thoughts when he heard a knock on the door and Sniffys voice.
"Master, Sniffy is back. Everything in Gringotts is settled."
"Great, then come in Sniffy, and tell me how your meeting with the goblins went." Said Richard as he let her in.
Sniffy opened the door and was coming inside the room and got beside the bed and handed the pouch over.
"Here is your pouch, which you ordered. The money is inside your vault and you can access it through the chest inside the pouch."
After that, Sniffy told Richard everything that Knaburg spoke about and then left him alone to get supper ready.
Richard now knew all about the meeting and was surprised that they did not even have to bribe the goblins too much to create him an account without knowing all details about himself.
The big load of money should have been a wonderful help towards this decision.
Reviewing everything Sniffy just told him, he then took the pouch and opened it. He looked inside but all he saw was just some swirly lights, a kind of whirlpool. Seeing nothing inside, he could only try to put his hand inside and grab for something. Not able to find anything, his hand was going inside deeper and deeper.
After his hand was completely swallowed and he could not feel any object, he just sighed and thought.
'Marvelous. Even with my hand completely gone inside the small pouch, I cannot feel anything inside. At least there should be a chest inside it. Hm, how to get to my money. Ahhh… this could be possible.'
Richard again put his hand inside and imagined what he wanted to have inside his hand. He thought of a shiny galleon and in the next moment; it appeared in his hand, which he grabbed and took out of the pouch.
Looking at the shiny golden coin, he marveled at the craftsmanship of it.
On the first side of it was just a big 1 and on the other side was the face of some old goblin king on his throne.
'Conceited of the little goblins to put their king all over one whole side of the coin, but hey if you are managing all the wizarding money on earth, you can do something like this.'
Putting it back inside, he then grabbed his cushion and stuffed it inside the pouch.
It went in without trouble. That was marvelous. It should not even fit inside this little pouch, but somehow it went in with no problems. That was a confusing picture. The big pillow was easily swallowed by this tiny pouch.
Again, trying to take it out by swinging his arm back and forth, but not being able to find it, he again envisioned it to grab it and it was in his hand again.
With glee in his eyes, he jumped around the room and put completely random stuff inside the pouch, only to materialize it again after it vanished inside it. This hilarious situation went on for a few tens of minutes, but Richard grew eventually tired of it and sat back on his bed.
Remembering that the pouch had gained no weight at all, even when he put so many things into it at once, that even the pouch should have been heavier than 20 kg. It felt no heavier.
'That must be the work of the featherlight charm. That's some convenient thing. I need to try the shrinking charm next.'
Thought Richard while he thought of shrinking his pouch.
It was slowly shrinking down to the size of a coin. Stopping at this size of a coin because he did not want to have to deal with the problem of not being able to find his pouch anymore. He willed it to enlarge it and it grew to its previous size and then bigger than that.
Soon it was as big as a table, and Richard stopped it. He also did not want to be squished to death by his pouch. It then returned to its normal size and Richard made it a little smaller to strap it around his neck with some string, which he would send Sniffy to find.
"Master, dinner is ready." Came from downstairs. Sniffy announced the completion of her cooking and Richard was done with experimenting with his newly gotten toy and he went down from the bedroom and joined Sniffy at the table.
After the meal, he got from Sniffy a metal chain for his pouch, which he then hung around his neck and placed under his clothes so that nobody could see it.
The days went by and Richard and Sniffy had gotten into some kind of routine.
Richard would meditate in the mornings till lunch and then try to use magic from then till the evening meal. After that, he would read books he had bought through Sniffy in a bookshop in Diagon Alley.
He had gotten all his books for the year 1-7, which included herbology, history of magic, potions, charms, transfiguration, astronomy, divination, ancient runes, arithmancy, care of magical creatures, and defense against the dark arts.
Richard also got a book about magical theory, which he found interesting, and some books on all kinds of subjects.
Like Hogwarts, a history, dangerous creatures and where to find them, a book about politics, and a few books of vampires, werewolves, house-elfs, and so on.
The only books which he could not find were occlumency and leglimency books. He let Sniffy scurry around even the Knockturn alley, but nothing could be found on these two subjects.
He had every interesting book he found in the bookstore. Which gave Sniffy a list of all the books they had and he bought every interesting one.
So, after dinner, it was reading time. There were so many books and his understanding of the common knowledge of wizards was awful, therefore he could only get through a few of them at a fast pace, but was stuck on the others without being able to understand them.
Time moved by and one and a half a year passed in a flash. In this time span, Richard found out a few oddities about himself.
The prize for his meditation was soon seen as his memory got so good that he got himself an almost eidetic memory, which meant that he could read the books and remember everything in them by only reading them once. He just needed to meditate after each book and merge his knowledge. If he did not do that, he would slowly forget the content.
This helped him greatly because in potions there were so many plants and components that they were impossible to remember, without some kind of better brain.
In the easiest potion, which was to cure some burns, you needed 15 ingredients and 30 steps were needed to completely brew it. It really should have been almost impossible to remember every step of more complex potions with not an almost perfect memory.
Maybe occlumency also helps, but without books, he could not do much. His luck was not bad and his meditation helped him with that aspect.
His memory seemed to be a lot better and with his continuous meditation in the mornings, it was becoming better and better each day for the first year. After that, he reached for some kind of bottleneck but could not overcome it.
At first, he felt not much of a difference, but after a couple of weeks, he gradually knew his memorizing ability changed and grew better. It was like a muscle that gained strength. Richard loved the feeling that his work finally paid off.
Another thing that he found odd was that he had had no urge to go to the toilet, and he was happy about that. Something inside him had changed and turned his body into one that he never needed to the toilet again.
Richard hated this in his last life. It was only lost time, and he was thrilled about that change.
He thought it should also have something to do with the strengthening of his memory, but he was not sure.
The next thing that happened was that Richard felt magic for the first time after about a month of constantly trying to feel for it.
He could also connect to his inner mind via meditation and sensed the magic around and inside himself. The magic felt like some kind of blue mana-like energy.
It felt soothing. After a few tries, he found his own magical core. It was as tiny as it could be.
At first, he almost overlooked it because it was only the size of the top of a needle. Also, it was blue, like the magic he felt in his body.
After he found his magical core, he also felt something when he tried to use his magic. It was when he did his paper controlling exercise. It now moved a bit.
Richard could only move it about 10 centimeters and then he felt the magic empty.
The magic that was flowing from his core towards the paper, through the air from his fingers, stopped after it was empty and the paper ceased to move.
Richard felt not drained at this point and it was a great surprise because he thought he would feel exhausted after that.
He also could recharge his magic by simply sitting still and concentration on absorbing it from the surroundings.
After this one year and a half, his core transformed and grew in size to the size of a die.
It was now almost 20 times bigger and he could now let the paper slip float around for about 10 minutes and only after that was his magical core totally empty.
Lumos could also be cast now, and he could hold the light for about 2 minutes. In the beginning, he needed almost a week to light it and be steady with it. It was more like a spasming light before he got control of it. Lumos needed a bit more magic compared to the telekinesis spell.
