Vault Exploration

Balgrott, who heard this request, turned to look at Hadrian.

"Follow.", he said gruffly.

Charlus and Hadrian arose and followed the short goblin. They went through a couple of doors before finding themselves beside a cart.

Balgrott stepped into the cart, prompting Hadrian and Charlus to do the same.

Seconds after getting in, Balgrott deployed the cart. What ensued after was a heart-pumping, unbelievably fast ride on the cart that seemed to flow through the dim cavern situated below the bank.

After a while, they reached their destination, the vault of the Slytherin family.

The vault's doors were incredibly large, and seemed to exude an aura that shouted - 'keep out'.

Balgrott went up to the foot of the door, Hadrian and Charlus in tow. He then brandished the small knife that Hadrian had used earlier and pointed it towards the door.

Balgrott wasn't pointing at the door, well not the door in its entirety. The front of the door had a small basin, perfectly sculptured to mimic the image of a snake.

Hadrian groaned, 'Why is it always blood?' - he asked himself once more.

Begrudgingly, he took the knife into his hands and made an incision on his thumb. The blood from his thumb dripped into the basin, and into the vault.

The 'basin', absorbed the blood. It then began to hiss. And then twitch...until it suddenly gained full movement control and sentiency.

It hissed at Hadrian as it swayed its head side-to-side, 'Ssspeak, heir of Ssslytherin. Ssspeak and I ssshall open the vault, If not then it meansss you have not inherited hisss gift. SSSPEAK!'

'Open the vault!', Hadrian hissed in response as the snake lunged at him.

Immediately, the snake stopped and nodded its head at Hadrian, 'Asss you wisssh, Massster.'

The vaults doors clicked as the snake's body reverted into inanimacy. The door then split and opened itself with a loud groaning sound.

"Only Lord Slytherin is permitted within the vault.", Balgrott announced as he saw Charlus attempt to follow his grandson into the vault.

Charlus clicked his teeth, "Don't touch anything you think looks even slightly dangerous!", he shouted at Hadrian's disappearing back.

Hadrian went deeper and deeper into the vault. The vault was flooded with galleons, with piles of it reaching so high, Hadrian couldn't see the top.

After a few minutes of meandering around the inside of the vault, Hadrian came across the area he was looking for. The area with all of Slytherin's books.

Thankfully, the books were all laid neatly on the shelves and not dashed brazenly around the vault - unlike the jewelry that Hadrian found himself stepping in.

Hadrian then began skimming through a few of the books, some were on the potions that Salazar had created - most of which were public knowledge nowadays. Some were potion ideas that Salazar was working on but never got the chance to follow through on.

Hadrian then came across an interesting book. The title of the book read, 'Elaei; Queen of Serpents'.

Hadrian was shocked as he read through the book, which was in actuality a journal on Salazar's pet basilisk! The basilisk, named Elaei, was hidden beneath Hogwarts Castle and is probably still there...

Hadrian felt a slight bit of sympathy for the creature, it had probably been waiting for its master's return for hundreds of years now. On the other hand, it was a creature with an XXXXX classification; no doubt due to its ability to kill with a single gaze.

Hadrian then moved on to the part where it said a wizard named Herpo the Foul was the one who had found out how to first breed a basilisk. Salazar had gone on to say that he had many of Herpo's books within the Chamber he had left Elaei in.

The Chamber Of Secrets. The secrets probably referred to the amalgamation of Herpo and Salazar's research.

Hadrian picked up the book, determined to read about it later. After a little searching, he found the exact books he was looking for. Salazar's tomes and spellbooks on Parseltongue.

Hadrian was amazed at the depths of research Salazar had submerged himself in, especially in Parseltongue. Parseltongue was most effective for healing spells, but it was also extremely powerful in battle.

Hadrian gathered all the tomes he could and made his way back to Charlus and Balgrott.

"Found it.", Hadrian said with his head poking above the tower of books in his hands.

"I see. Salazar Slytherin's books...on what?", Charlus asked.

"Parseltongue, among other stuff. Mainly Parseltongue though.", Hadrian explained.

"Interesting...", Charlus said as he picked up the book.

He opened the first page before perplexion and confusion consumed his features, "I-I can't read this at all."

"It is most likely charmed so that only those who speak the snake's tongue will be able to view its contents.", Balgrott pointed out.

Charlus shrugged, "It wasn't as if I would be able to use the spells anyway."

"Anything else, Lord Slytherin?", Balgrott asked.

"Yes, I would like to see the other vaults. The Gryffindor and Peverell vaults.", Hadrian responded.

Minutes later, they found themselves in a different area within the cavernous bank's basement.

The vault they found themselves in front of this time was the Gryffindor family vault.

This vault didn't have a snake basin or the masochistic tendency to make the person who's vault it was, cut themselves.

Instead, it had a large sword scabbard pointed angularly towards Hadrian. Hadrian turned towards Balgrott, confused.

"It seems you'll need Gryffindor's sword to get within this vault.", Balgrott announced.

"...So you brought us here for no reason?", Charlus asked - eyebrow twitching.

"I assumed that since Hadrian was the rightful Lord of the Gryffindor family, he would be able to summon his weapon.", Balgrott elaborated.

Hadrian walked up to the scabbard and tried to imagine a sword being placed into his hands.

After a few seconds, Hadrian relented - there was no reaction. No sword had made its way into Hadrian's palms, to the Balgrott's great disappointment.

Balgrott wordlessly made his way back to the vault, prompting confused gazes between Charlus and Hadrian.

Another few minutes later, and Hadrian stood before a large door, with the same symbol as his ring.

On the face of the door, was a small slot. The slot was the same shape as Hadrian's ring.

Hadrian pressed the face of his ring onto the slot. This caused the space before the vault to tremor slightly as the door parted.

The Peverell vault seemed quite bare in comparison to the other vaults Hadrian had visited. There seemed to be a substantial amount of galleons littered around the vault, but not to the extent of the Slytherin vault.

The room was quite a bit smaller than the other vaults too.

Hadrian was the only one permitted within the vault, once again. He found nothing worth taking as he perused the vault's contents. Not until he reached the end of the vault...

At the end of the vault stood a mosaic of 'The Three Brothers'. It displayed the 3 different Hallows the brothers had picked. Underneath the Mosaic was 3 dents within the ground. The dents were in the same shape as the 3 different Hallows.

'It's almost as if they were supposed to be placed here,' Hadrian thought, 'Does that mean...the Deathly Hallows are...real?'

Hadrian stared at the mosaic for a few more seconds before making his way to the entrance of the vault, where Charlus and Balgrott waited.

"Find anything?", Charlus asked, again.

Hadrian shook his head no.

Charlus sighed in exasperation and made his way back into the cart.

15 minutes later, they found themselves within the room Hadrian discovered his Lordships.

"Now there is the matter of informing you.", Balgrott said once everyone had found themselves seated.

"Inform us...?", Charlus trailed off.

"Inform you that Hadrian now possesses one half of Hogwarts.", Balgrott explained.

Hadrian and Charlus made 'o' faces. They hadn't really thought completely of what it meant to be a Lord of the Hogwarts Founders.

"It is also a matter of formality; I have to introduce you to your new account manager.", he continued.

As he said this, Balgrott stood up to go fetch the goblin who was now to be guaranteed promotion.

"Balgrott-," Hadrian called out as the goblin made for his leave. Balgrott turned to face Hadrian.

"Yes, Lord Hadrian?"

"I would prefer it if you were the account manager of the vaults that have been reclaimed. I understand that my grandparents trust you with both of the family accounts, and I wish to do the same.", Hadrian declared.

Balgrott looked slightly shocked before his mouth widened into a toothy grin, "If that is what you wish, My Lord.", He said as he bowed deeply.

"Also...don't call me 'Lord Hadrian' or 'Your Lord'. You call my grandfather 'Charlus', so I ask you to call me 'Hadrian'."

"Of course...Hadrian.", He replied, determined to adhere to the wizard responsible for his new promotion.

Balgrott was quite high up on the chain of important goblins that worked at Gringotts, with the title of Account Manager of House Potter and House Black.

Now, his prestige would reach extreme heights! Now he was the Account Manager of 5 houses, 2 of which being the Founders' and another being a house thought to be long lost, not to mention the fact that all the houses were Most Noble and Ancient!

Hadrian shook hands with Balgrott and made his way out of the building and into Diagon alley to retrieve his books.

The purchasing of the books, books on the core subjects, and on the history of Uagadou, took roughly half an hour. After this, Hadrian and Charlus returned home.

"Today was certainly...eventful.", Charlus remarked as he sat on his chair.

Hadrian nodded.

Just as Hadrian was about to speak, an owl flew in through the window and landed on the table between Charlus and Hadrian.

Hadrian caressed the owl's head as it preened under his touch.

Charlus then handed Hadrian the newspaper that the owl had brought with it, a weary look on his face as he did so.

The title of the newspaper read, 'The Boy-Who-Lived's Sister Revealed! Dark Witch In the making?'