The Vaults

Percy sat in horror as he processed what he'd just heard. His father was a murderer. A mass murderer no less. He'd been better off not knowing his father was alive if this was what became of him.

"Maybe we should move along to our next stop to take your mind off of it." Professor McGonagall said with a note of pity in her voice. Percy nodded numbly, following her as they made their way to the Vaults.

'The vaults!' Percy thought as a bit of life returned to his eyes, 'At least my deadbeat father can do something for me. Maybe throwing away all his money on frivolous things will make me feel better.'

Percy regained a bit of pep in his step at that thought and entered an old mining cart. As soon as he closed the door behind him, the cart shot off with terrifying speed. It took everything Percy had not to vomit as the cart swayed left and right even faster than some cars, and just when he thought it would tip over, they ran through a waterfall and slowed down.

Once the cart had slowed to a leisurely pace, Professor McGonagall huffed and conjured a towel while patting herself dry. She never was one for getting wet, and growled out, "Oh, honestly, one would think after centuries of use they would make the Thief's Downfall a bit more bearable to pass through."

She glanced down and noticed Percy's confused look and explained, "That was the Thief's Dowfall, it's been a particularly brilliant piece of Magic the goblins have employed for quite some time now. Once someone passes through it, it will wash away any concealment or enchantments being used."

Griphook interrupted with a fearsome grin, "Many a wizard and witch lost thier lives thanks to that bit of water. You would think they'd realize that robbing Gringotts was a foolish mistake to even think of, buy there's always a couple every decade with enough arrogance to put our defenses to the test."

He pointed out after he finished speaking and Percy saw a mountain of bones that were eerily human-like in appearance. With a gulp, he decided to keep his hands and feet firmly in the cart for the remainder of the trip.

Not long later the cart slowed to a halt outside a large vault door labled 2392. Griphook stepped out of the cart while he spoke, "The boy has two vaults he has access to as of right now, this one and his trust vault. The Black Family Vault is only open to him once he claims his head of house ring after he graduates Hogwarts."

He pulled out an old looking key and opened the vault, only for it to be completely dark inside with no way of seeing anything inside. Griphook stood to the side and said, "My job only requires me to open the vault. Enter and be quick about it."

Percy hesitantly stepped into the pitch black vault. After a couple of steps the visibility improved a little but was still quite dark. Percy's hands slid against the wall searching for a light switch as he grumbled, "The cheap buggers can make a magic breaking waterfall, but can't get decent lighting? Where is the on switch?"

Percy jumped as torches on the side of the room lit up,as if on command, giving him his first look at the vault. Inside was a small eleven by twelve foot room, that contained multiple dressers lining the walls like wallpaper. Counting them all, their where eight in total, each having 5 long drawers in them. They were a beautiful mahogany, except for one that was completely black in color. Stepping up to the first one, he opened the top drawer to find numerous gold coin, filled to the brim.

After checking everyone of them were completely full of the coins except for the black one. Percy already gone into shock from today's events, was still caught off guard when he opened the top drawer filled with very nice dress clothes. He pulled multiple sets up of a mix between a gown and a tux, but moving to the next drawer Percy understood what this was.

A gorgeous white gown flowed freely as he unraveled it. Wrapped tightly inside was a small box and a letter.

Dear Ellie,

If your reading this, than James was right about me not being able to find the courage to say this face to face. That insufferable git will never let it go! I write this in the hopes that we can read it together in the future once everything is done, but if not, then here goes!

Will you marry me!?

Merlin even writing it down makes me want to puke my guts out, Remus always said that finding someone would make me a sap like James but I never believed him. Anyway, hopefully you still reading means you said yes, in which I suppose congratulations are in order Mrs. Black!

Maybe we can workshop the name, hearing Mrs. Black makes me think of my mother and you know how those thoughts go. I suppose this would be a chance to change the Black Family once and for all like we talked about, can you imagine the look on my old man's face. A muggle marryng into the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black! If my mother was still alive, I'd be lucky if all I got was a Crucio.

Anyways I've rambled enough, James is begging me to take a break to go fly, and you know how cooped up he's felt since the spell went down.

With love from your (maybe) future husband,

Sirius Orion Black III

A.K.A PadfooT

A.K.A ONE HANDSOME ROUGISH DEVIL

P.S. I love the name you came up with! Perseus, it even fits with my families stupid tradition.

Percy sat there in awe at getting a glimpse into his parents life. The more he read the more questions he had, 'How did my father go from this to a mass murderer?'

Doubts creeping into his mind, Percy carefully folded the dress back and set the ring box on top of it in the dresser. He then gathered up a decent amount of galleons and made his way back to the cart. He decided to keep what he found to himself, not believing it to be anyone else's business what conversations were had between his parents.

"I see from your pockets you've acquired some galleons?" The professor asked.

Percy gave her a look of bewilderment and said confusaidly, "Didn't you just watch me grab them?"

Griphook snorted out, "Do you think Gringotts being the most secure bank in the world is just something we tell people? Of course no one can see into a vault except who we allow to."

Feeling embarrassed for not thinking of that, especially after seeing it pitch black from the outside, Percy kept quiet on the way to his other vault.

Griphook handed him the key to the vault and they rode down to the next vault, number 963. Opening the vault was much the same as the other, and Percy stepped into the pitch black area once more.

What greeted him on the other side was an ornate pedestal, in the middle of the room. On top set a beautifully crafted ring with a large black gem. As he steeped closer he could see and engraving I. The bank that said, 'Toujours Pur'. Looking up across the room another door guarded what I could only assume was the main part of the vault. The interesting part was that instead of a key hole, an odd shaped hole was in the door. It was like something was missing from it.

Looking back down, Percy put two and two together and figured the ring must act as a key. He grabbed the ring not thinking too much about it and slid in on to his finger in one smooth motion.

Instantly, spikes shot out of the band drawing an obscene amount of blood as his hand felt as if a thousand angry fire ants were crawling under his skin. His other hand instinctively shot to the gem but was given an electric shock as soon as it came into contact. Percy collapsed from the pain as he tried his best to mitigate the damage. He was slowly losing falling unconcious. Fortunately, just as he thought he would pass out, the pain lifted. He didn't even notice when he had lost his hearing, but it was like static clearing from a radio as it gradually returned, and with it his heavy breaths sounded out like he'd run a marathon.

Percy doesn't know how long he stayed their just trying to get his breath under control, before he sorely rose off the floor. As he stood up and made his way to the main door to the vault, he glanced down at the cause if his pain and saw the ring had adjusted its size to fit him perfectly. He shook his head knowing he wouldn't get any answers right now and stuck the ring in the door and turned.

A chime rang through the room as the doors slowly opened revealing more mahogany dressers only this room was ten times larger than the other vault. He also noticed some interesting trinkets scattered around randomly, just as he was about to pick up a weird looking bracelet with rows of gems, he hesitated before leaving it be.

Percy decided it would be better if he let someone in later to go through this stuff and find the things that would kill him and separate them for later perusal.

He wandered deeper into the vault before finding a picture that moved all on its one. It was a group photo that seemed to be on loop. A regal looking man stood with his hand on the shoulder of an attractive woman with a pointed nose and piercing black eyes. Standing in front of them were two boys. The younger looked the picture of perfection much like the adults, but it was the older boy that caught Percy's attention.

Something about him screamed wild, as he grinned with a mischievous expression towards the camera. His posture was sloppy enough that even he could tell it was bad. Every few seconds the two adults would shoot a disapproving frown at the boy before the loop reset.

As much as he looked to be the odd one out, it honestly gave the picture a more human feel. He was like he's a splash of color on an empty grey canvas. Looking at the name plate, it read: 'Orion Regulus Black and his wife Walburga Irma Black along with their two children, Sirius Orion Black and Regulus Arcturus Black'.

Percy couldn't take his eyes of the first look of his father. He sighed to himself and rubbed his hand over the picture. Before he could blink, a loud clink was heard and Percy jerked his hand back in a hurry.

On closer inspection, his finger that held the ring was still covered in fresh blood. He looked back up to see the picture had swung out and a small compartment was hidden behind the portrait.

Multiple books were stacked on top of each other inside, Percy grabbed the top one and read the title questioningly, "A Disgraced Purebloods Guide to Mishief by Messrs Padfoot and Prongs?"