Chapter 56

Allen sighed out of frustration, taking the last journal with him, after that he built up the ward back again. Besides the diadem of Ravenclaw being the last horcrux that his parents procured in the family vaults, there were a few other objects around that he might consider useful if he took the time to look through them, of course, time was something he didn't have.

The prickling sensation that the diadem made him feel didn't leave even after building the ward again. His hands itched, the horcrux made him want to put on the diadem and the feeling lingered.

Of course, there was no connection anymore thanks to the ward, but he'd have to be more careful the next time he visits the family vaults.

His parents left a few objects in his vault, and some were books that apparently, they considered would be useful, as well as a small pouch, it had the same kind of light surrounding the fanny pack that Sophia gave him, so he assumed it was some kind of bottomless bag with the Gringotts logo attached on the front.

Once he put his hand inside the bag, he was able to tell and even feel the contents of it.

It was full of money, galleons, sickles and knuts. He couldn't really count them since he would need to deliberately let everything fall off the pouch but didn't feel safe enough to do that with a horcrux right beside him, who knows what the slightest movement would cause.

He took the bag with him, as well as the books his parents put aside for him, including the journals, taking his leave out of the vault.

'I will come back, but next time, it will be with a basilisk's tooth or something of similar nature.'

The goblin greeted him with reverence when he exited the vault and quickly ran towards the minecart, waiting for Allen so they could go back up to the bank.

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"Everything alright?" Asked Mr Bailey after Allen came back to the bank.

"Yes, it took a bit of time because I was… checking everything. There were mostly books, and other stuff that I couldn't really tell what they were." He shrugged.

Mr Bailey hummed in agreement as they took their leave out of Gringotts.

In the end, he came here looking for gold and found way more than that. He didn't know whether to be grateful towards his parents or curse them.

They made Harry Potter's life easier by giving him three out of seven horcruxes. But what about him? Were they only thinking about Harry, and not him, when making their decisions?

He'll have to read the journals to see what they were thinking, if they even wrote it in the first place, that is.

'Does that mean I'll have to get closer to Harry Potter, well, the golden trio, so I can help them?

Is that the whole reason why they had me?'

A groan of frustration escaped his mouth, thankfully, Mr Bailey decided to ignore it as they walked back to his friends.

When they got back to Sophia's house, they asked him how did it go, of course, he didn't want to leave them in the dark, but explaining the cursed objects in his vaults, and how he knew them in the first place would take a lot of explaining, something he didn't think they should know, at least for now.

So he told them about the rest of the vaults, the books, the miscellaneous objects that his parents procured over the course of their life, and the small pouch of Gringotts full of money.

"You should pour everything on the ground to see how much it is." William said excitedly.

"No! You don't know how much stuff is inside of one of those pouches, it could very well fill up the entire room and still have stuff left. Something like that needs to be done in specific spaces." Sophia reprimanded William.

"I- I knew that, I was just about to recommend we do that as well." He pouted.

"Come Allen, we can do it in the back garden, there's a couple of wards so no one can see what we do there, but we do need to tell my parents what we are gonna do."

He nodded along. It felt so weird to him actually knowing parents who cared about their children in the Harry Potter universe. Even after they told him how his friends told their parents about the plan to become animagus.

What was even weirder is that he considered something so normal to be weird in his eyes.

After Mr and Mrs Bailey agreed to let Allen let all of the things inside of his pouch, they went to the back garden, where Sophia's parents, and Elsie's parents were waiting for them. Apparently they were going to use a few spells first to pinpoint anything dangerous inside of it. Not that they didn't trust their children's friend, but it was more of a precaution, since they didn't know what could Allen's parents left behind inside, besides money.

He agreed with that reasoning, even more now after finding out what his parents were keeping in the family vaults. Of course, he hoped that those things were the only dark objects they kept.

Mr Bailey made the pouch float with a flick of his wand, while Mrs Bailey chanted an unknown language as his husband turned the pouch around. A few runes appeared mid air but disappeared almost immediately.

"Alright kids, take a few steps behind. We'll let the items inside fall down." They all nodded their heads at the instruction.

Before Mr Bailey turned the pouch upside down, Mrs Bailey casted an invisible shield of a few meters to keep the objects inside, in case they were a bit too much.

Allen could tell because of the bright white light it shone with.

And with a flick, the pouch turned around almost immediately, letting galleons, sickles and knuts fall from it, then some books, a set of clothes, potions and something he didn't expect to fall down, a sword, then a set of armour.

A cape followed right behind, red and gold with the Gryfindor emblem in the middle of it.

'Did… Did my mother took her name literally and go around… wearing armor and a sword…? Please, please tell me that's not true.'

His cheeks began to turn pink, then, his whole face turned to red, complementing the green colour of his eyes.

He scratched his head out of shame and almost let out a scream but managed to hold it in.

"Are you okay, Allen? You are making a lot of faces right now." Armand asked out of concern but Allen quickly turned around, covering his face with one hand, and trying to distance himself from his friends with the other hand.

"Ye- Yeah, Yes, I'm okay. Everything's okay. Sorry." He fired his answer as fast as possible.

Armand didn't fully believe him, but decided to leave him alone after seeing how red his ears were.

Nothing else came out of the pouch besides that, and while the amount of money was bigger than anything he had seen before, he honestly expected something else, an explanation of some kind, or something.

Sophia's parents put all of the stuff back inside, leaving behind the money, in case Allen wanted to save it somewhere else.

He thanked them and put the money inside the fanny pack Sophia gave him in one of the small compartments where he kept the money.

"Wait! Take out the sword! I wanna see it!" William shouted excitedly after Mr Bailey gave Allen the pouch back.

At William's shout, Mr Bailey looked back, and without missing a beat, he snatched the pouch from Allen's hand using his wand. Gathering the attention of all of the children to him.

"Kids, while this is Allen's property, even if a cut is easily treatable, it can still be fatal." Mr Bailey looked towards him, handing the pouch back.

"I'm not your father, so I can't take your possessions, but I would greatly recommend not taking out dangerous objects, for your own safety, and your friends as well."

Allen nodded his head agreeing with what he said. He did want to see the sword and armor in more detail but not if it could accidentally hurt one of his friends, so it would have to be in a controlled environment. And he wanted to see it first up close as well.

'Maybe I can show it to Helena in the Room of Requirements, and she won't get hurt if the sword passes through her by accident.'

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The whistling from the train could be heard through the whole station, Allen dragged his trunk from behind him towards the Hogwarts Express.

His friends were saying goodbye to their parents, and since he didn't want to intrude on them, he went ahead to find a compartment for them.

After he levitated his trunk up top, he went out to look for his friends, only to find out of the corner of his eyes, his aunt, looking at him from a safe distance, and her daughter in front, holding a chocolate frog.

Allen tried to ignore them as he looked around but his cousin called up to him.

"He- Hey! Don't ignore us!" She shouted, garnering the attention from a few people around.

He scratched his head out of frustration but walked towards them anyway.

An uninteresting greeting left his mouth as he tried to calm down. "Hello."

His aunt stayed quiet while his cousin approached him with tentative steps. "Here, for you, mum said we needed to ask for forgiveness, even if dad doesn't want to." He took the chocolate out of her small hands, accepting the gesture.

"Is that true?" His eyes turned towards his aunt, she flinched for a moment, and so did his cousin, but she stood her ground.

"N- No bullying!" Small tears were forming in the corner of her eyes.

"Right, sorry." Allen closed his eyes and shook his head.

"I… Wanted to apologize for what happened at the start of your winter vacation. It didn't go as we planned.

My husband and I really thought we could reconnect after… after what we did." A small sob left her mouth. "Sorry, It's just… Mr Bailey helped me understand the horrible thing we did to you, and I'll understand if you don't want to forgive me."

An uncomfortable silence passed through them, the small girl looked between her cousin and her mum until he interrupted the silence.

"I won't forgive you. And I don't know if I'll ever do it. But I accept your apology."

"Ah, thank you." She managed to say.

And with that, he left. With a million things to think about, and another one added on top.

His thoughts were jumbled up together as he walked towards the Hogwarts Express again, but before he could board it, a small hand grabbed his.

"Can we be friends, then?" His cousin asked him.

Surprise showed on his face, he didn't know how to answer to that. What did it entail to be friends with the daughter of the people that let you to your own luck, without even checking one time on you. He wanted to say no, but at the same time knew that she wasn't the one at fault.

He took a big breath before answering. "You can send me letters.

If you'd like, of course, and I'll answer when I have the time."

A big smile appeared on her face, she hugged him before he could react and let go just as fast, then, ran towards her mother, where both waved goodbye at him.

'I hope I'm not making a mistake.'

A sigh escaped his mouth as he walked towards his compartment.