Hermione’s first trip on the Hogwarts express almost two years ago had seemed like an adventure in itself. It was her first real trip away from home without her parents and it was leading to what only months before she would have thought was nothing but a fairytale - a castle where she and others were to learn to do real magic spells and such. Perhaps like most all her classmates on that ride she was nervous and maybe a little scared as to what lay ahead, but there was the sense of wonder as well as the train travelled north from London to this new life. After six rides on the train, for she had not gone home for the Christmas Holidays this past year, she was beginning to wonder about the logic of this magical train, especially for Muggle Borns like her. It was truly an ‘express’ train. It travelled between King’s Cross Station in London and Hogsmeade Station far to the north in Scotland without any stops in between. Yet she was also pretty certain that while the train was a magical conveyance, for almost the entire journey north the rails it travelled on were not. How it managed to avoid running into other trains along the way she had yet to find out but she knew it passed through and by Muggle train stations from Stevenage, through Peterborough, Grantham, Newark, Retford, Doncaster, York, Northallerton, Darlington, Durham, Newcastle, Berwick, Dunbar, and onto to Scotland and Edinburgh, Sterling, Perth, Pitlochry, Aviemore and Inverness before continuing on what she now thought was a magical spur to Hogsmeade. She knew this because she had noted the stations as the train passed through them during her trip over the Christmas Holiday her first year and realized when she looked it up in her local library that these were the same towns that one could travel to from King’s Cross on British Rail.
She had not really questioned the logic of the Hogwarts express before. But when Dumbledore allowed students to return home early when he cancelled end of year exams, she began to question it. It was, after all, only the students who could get to where they needed to go by floo who were allowed to leave school early. This left those Muggle Borns and Muggle raised students such as herself stuck there, for lack of a better term. She had not minded. It gave her uninterrupted access to Hogwarts Library and, far more important to her now, access to Harry who was stuck there as well. She wondered if they would have become boyfriend and girlfriend had they not had to wait almost two weeks for a train and she was grateful for that time. But a part of her was now a little put out by the fact that it seemed Muggle Borns were yet again set apart and left inconvenienced by their new world. She already knew that magicals travelled to London by floo and other magical means to get to Diagon Alley and King’s Cross. There was, in fact, a magical section in the Old Midlands Hotel, a huge, red bricked Victorian hotel in front of St. Pancras rail station and right across a small road from King’s Cross. Some families stayed there while most used the magical hotel’s floo the day they arrived from or departed for home.
For Muggle Borns like her, they had to get to King’s Cross by Muggle means which had to be extremely inconvenient for a Muggle Born from Ireland or Scotland or Wales or anywhere that was not a couple of hours or less away by car or train. Harry had told her that his Uncle drove him in from where he lived in Surrey and had complained about parking when he was there to pick Harry up last summer. She wouldn’t know about that. The truth was she had not seen the outside of King’s Cross at all since she got her Hogwarts Letter. Her parents drove from their home a few miles to the rail station in Slough, then took the train from there to Paddington Station and then the Underground to King’s Cross. They were minutes away from the Slough station and the truth was parking there was much easier than trying to park in London proper. She thought about this sitting on the trains as they made their way back to Slough to take the short drive to their home. King’s Cross was somewhat convenient for Hermione and her parents, but made less and less sense for Muggle Borns who lived further from London and no sense whatsoever to those who lived along the Muggle rail line from King’s Cross to Inverness. She knew from reading Hogwarts: A History that it had been arguably worse for Muggle Borns before the introduction of the Hogwarts Express in 1902. Before then, Muggle Borns never returned home for the holidays at all.
She had time to think of these things as she and her parents sat on their various trains back to Slough station. The trains they were on were not conducive to meaningful conversation at the best of times and given that magic was bound to be a significant part of their discussions for the foreseeable future, they could not talk at all about her year at school until they got home and away from any possible prying ears.
It never crossed Hermione’s mind as she thought about the Hogwarts Express that she was, perhaps for the first time in her life, questioning what had obviously been decisions of adults and, more importantly, adults in significant positions of authority.
Her father, Robert Granger, was also lost in his own thought on their trip back to Slough. He and his wife were both thirty-five years old having been born within weeks of each other in the spring on 1958. They had known each other for as long as they could remember, although they both knew it had not been all their lives. Rose Parker had moved into the garden house in London four doors down from where Robert Granger lived with his parents with her parents and her older brother and sister when they were both five years old. They attended Infants and Primary together and knew of each other and, they both would admit, were friendly to each other but it was not until Secondary School that they became friends. Neither of them attended the local Comprehensive, rather they both found themselves attending a rather atypical “independent” secondary school in London. It was independent in that it was not part of the British School system so their parents had to pay to send them there and they had to pass an admissions exam to get in. It was atypical because it was from its relatively recent start co-educational. It had been established by a very wealthy and somewhat eccentric (it was said) businessman who thought public education was too standardized and the independents elitist and old fashioned. However it came into being, Robert and Rose found themselves in a school where the only other students they knew from before were each other and as a result they went from being friendly to becoming friends.
For some reason they still found rather peculiar (as did their families) the two of them had wanted to become Dentists from a rather early age. Privately Robert had told Rose that it was probably in part due to the fact it was the only way he ever got a lolly from his Mum without significant effort, after all the Dentist gave it to him. But whatever the reason was, they both were set on that path which, if anything, brought them closer together. They studied together for their classes and even more for what were then called “O Levels” which they sat when they were sixteen and were arguably the biggest potential stumbling block in their path to their goals. After all, you needed high enough “O Levels” to take the classes you needed for the A Level exams that you needed to do well on to get into a university. If you didn’t do well on your “O Levels,” you could forget university and the closest they could hope to achieve in their desired occupation was to attend a technical school to become a dental hygienist or x-ray technician or some such.
But they did do well on their exams and they both went to the same university in London and studied dentistry. Unlike most undergraduate degrees which took three years, dentistry took five. But at least this was not the United States where they would have had to take a four year undergraduate program after Secondary School before they could even sit the exams to apply for a dental school and where both degrees would probably cost a small fortune in tuition. By the time they started university together they were engaged and they married after their second year which was when Robert received a nice inheritance from his Grand-uncle who had recently passed away. Had it not been for the inheritance which allowed him to buy a car and a nice garden house in a nice London neighbourhood, they would have waited until they had their feet on the ground as Dentists.
Their daughter Hermione had always been full of surprises. This was certainly due to the fact that she was very intelligent and had always been well ahead of peers her age when it came to reading, writing and school work. Robert also knew now that magic had a lot to do with some of the odd surprises over the years as well. But she had been a surprise since the beginning and an object lesson that no method of birth control is absolutely perfect. He and his new wife were planning on children one day, but not until after they finished dental school and were settled in their careers. Hermione, it seemed, had other plans and arrived at the beginning of the fall term of their fourth year in Dental School. Things would have been difficult trying to attend university and raise an infant daughter at the same time had it not been for the inheritance Robert had received from his grand-uncle which paid for a woman to take care of their daughter when they were at school and later when they were working.
They moved to their current home not long after leaving dental school. They had attained work at a dental surgery in Slough and bought a house a few miles away - again thanks to that inheritance. They lived within five miles of Windsor Castle and, perhaps not so oddly, had never been to see it really. Well, Robert and Rose had not done the tourist thing although they did drive by on occasion. Hermione had been there a couple time on class trips while in Primary School.
As he sat on the train that day, Robert reflected upon his daughter, what she had been telling them in letters and when she was with them practically from the moment she had left to attend Hogwarts and what he had seen with his own eyes earlier at King’s Cross. One thing that had always bothered him was that while living at home his daughter had never had a single real friend. He could not see why that was. He could understand how some children might be put off by her intelligence and her ambition to succeed in classes, but he and Rose had been like that too when they were young and they had friends even before they became friends with each other. Hermione did not seem introverted and certainly was no shrinking violet. But she had never made a friend until she went to Hogwarts. There was a part of him that suspected that maybe magic had something to do with that but he had no real evidence to support his suspicion beyond the fact it was the only thing he could think of that distinguished her from her parents as a child.
Then she goes to Hogwarts and within a couple of months she had two friends - or one in particular. She did tell him about being trapped in a bathroom by a marauding troll and how the two boys had come to her rescue which Rose had to say was romantic in a way. But it was obvious that while she claimed she was friends with both of her rescuers, one had truly stood out and that one was Harry Potter. As a father, there was a part of him that was worried that her best friend was a boy. But then again, when he was her age his best friend was a girl so while he was willing to play the game of trying to scare off suitors, it seemed a bit hypocritical to him to try too hard with Harry assuming what his daughter had said about the boy was accurate enough. Then again, if Harry proved to be the absolute worst sort of lad whose only real interest in her was getting in her knickers all bets were off. And right now that was one of the things that concerned him because even though their daughter had not told them he was her boyfriend in the kissing and potentially knickers dropping sense, it was obvious to him seeing them together earlier that they were more than “just friends.” He assumed it was a recent development for she had always been honest - at times disturbingly so - about what was going on with her at school and he was pretty certain she would have written about that kind of change in her relationship with the boy.
Then again, they had not had a letter from her in over a month. They knew she had been petrified by something. They also knew that being petrified was not in and of itself life threatening and that the “medical” staff at the school was hard at work preparing to “restore” their daughter, whatever that meant. They had received a letter from Professor McGonagall telling them about what had happened to their daughter and that she was not the only one and the staff was currently at a loss as to how it happened but was working hard to find out and make sure it never happened again. It was of little consolation to them at the time and they definitely had begun discussing other educational options for their daughter and the only thing that had prevented it from moving beyond the discussion stage was this Harry boy for it was clear just how important he was to her. This all went back to her not having any friends before. She had one now, one that even before they saw him with her earlier they both knew meant a lot to their daughter and they were concerned what would happen if they interfered with that even if it was otherwise in what they saw as her best interests. Professor McGonagall had written them a few weeks later saying that the problem had been dealt with and their daughter had been restored with no ill effects which was a relief. But they had been a little disturbed not to receive one final letter from her prior to her returning from school. It had been the only thing they had talked about thus far once they passed the barrier into the Muggle side for it could be asked and answered without obvious references to her magical world. She had told them she was working hard to keep up with her classes and find out what was going on and, as she was going to be home in less than two weeks, she decided to focus on that than writing a letter.
Robert was forced to wonder if she was really focusing on that Harry boy and in what ways. True, she was only thirteen and he was only twelve and what he saw did not suggest anything inappropriate for their age or any other had occurred, but that did not mean they weren’t engaging in “recreational activities” he was not inclined to be happy about.
Rose Granger also spent the train rides in silence reflecting upon things. After all, in her two years at Hogwarts Hermione had been attacked by a troll, almost turned into a cat and petrified and it was only the cat thing that was in anyway their daughter’s fault, which may explain why she and her husband heard it from her in a letter before they heard the official version from Professor McGonagall. Hermione, it seemed, probably told them the unvarnished truth about what had happened: about making a potion that was years above their level and how it had worked and would have worked for her if she had been more careful about verifying the final ingredient. Hermione had assumed that the long hair she had taken from another student’s robes was that student’s hair when, in fact, that student had a long haired cat. The potion she was making was supposed to allow the user to assume “the form” of another person by adding one of their hairs. If done properly, it would be impossible to tell the person apart from the original based upon appearance and the timber of their voice. It was also supposed to be temporary. Apparently, it was not meant to be used to turn into an animal as there was a branch of magic dedicated to that art and such a partial transformation was not so temporary.
Hermione told them why they made the potion and without naming names who they sought to impersonate and why. Something was prowling the halls of Hogwarts petrifying students and they thought they knew who was behind it. By the beginning of the Christmas Holidays a cat and two students were in the infirmary as a result of the attacks. It turned out there was no basis for Hermione and her friends suspicions even if their suspect “seemed like the type” so the potion had been for naught and Hermione had not even been able to ask for extra credit as, apparently, use of that potion was against school rules. Were it not for the threat posed by whatever it was that was stalking the school, Rose would have considered this misadventure quite humorous especially as Hermione had managed to send her parents a photograph of her as “Cat-girl” as Robert had dubbed her.
Rose was pretty certain there had been no further attacks after the first two until Hermione herself had become a victim a little over a month ago. Her certainty was based upon the simple fact that Hermione would have told them about it in a letter and her last letter dated the day before the attack on her was silent on that point. All they knew was that she and Harry were still trying to find out who was behind the attacks and what was causing the petrifications. Hermione tried to assure them that this was a safe pursuit, that most of the work was either library research or observing as opposed to skulking around when it was dangerous, but their daughter reassurances had not been very effective and were not worth the parchment they were written upon once Hermione herself had fallen victim.
Like Robert, Rose’s first instinct had been to pull Hermione out of that school the moment she recovered from whatever had happened to her. But she was also aware that as dangerous as things seemed at the school, she had no idea if that sort of thing would not happen somewhere else. Moreover she had never seen her daughter happier since she started at that school and more importantly since she became friends with one Harry Potter. Rose knew that pulling Hermione out of school might keep their only daughter safe, but at what cost? It would break her heart and given how hard it had been for her to make friends before there was no guarantee she would do so again anytime soon. They had decided not to pull Hermione out of Hogwarts, but that did not mean they were not going to have a long, serious discussion about what she had been through at that school over the last couple of years.
Of course it really was not that simple. As for pulling Hermione out of Hogwarts, there were two major problems. The first was Robert and Rose knew next to nothing about the wizarding world and had no idea if there were any other magical schools in Britain or anywhere else for that matter and if there were they had no idea if what had happened the last two years was out of the ordinary for that world. Every letter home from Hermione suggested that the wizarding world was like some place out of a fantasy novel or children’s fairytale and the problem with fairytales was that those fictional worlds were hardly child safe. The only other option was to send her back into the Muggle school system or to an independent Muggle school. First off, there was no denying their daughter was a witch and to take her from that world would force her to spend the rest of her life denying a significant part of who she was. Moreover, she had been out of that educational system for two years and, with GCSE exams only three years away, to throw her back in now could be a disaster for her. She was two years behind her peer group and they had no excuse for the discrepancy as, after all, education was compulsory until the age of 16 and they would have to show she had been receiving a “proper” education over the last two years. The Grangers could not and any attempt to hide it, such as sending her back with her peer group, would fail. She had been at the top of her classes all through school, even at Hogwarts. As smart as she was, she would certainly struggle just to get by at first and if she had not caught up to where she would have been had she not ventured into the magical world by the time she took her GCSE’s, in addition to depriving her of her life as a witch, they could have effectively deprived her of her full potential as a Muggle as well. That was unacceptable and argued strongly for keeping her at Hogwarts, trolls and student petrifying monsters roaming the halls notwithstanding.
Naturally, the fact that pulling her out of Hogwarts and its affect on the only friendship Hermione had ever had did weigh into Rose’s decision even just a few days ago. Until today, while Rose knew of Harry, all she really knew and all she really had to go on was what Hermione wrote and told them about him. She was all too aware that a besotted girl - and she had suspected her daughter might be - might not be able to see things as they really were. Rose still needed to get to know the boy better for her to be truly comfortable with the relationship, but it was obvious seeing the two of them together that if anything Hermione had understated things. Rose suspected some of it was simply because there had been a recent development in their relationship, one which had occurred since Hermione’s last letter. But there seemed to be more than that going on. Rose had a strong feeling that whatever was between the two of them went far deeper than the hopes and desires of a formerly friendless girl or the immature, hormonally charged infatuations of two young teenagers. She suspected Harry had issues unrelated to Hermione. But it seemed that those issues were not a major factor right now. That’s not to say they had not been nor ever would be, but Rose felt that they were not going to be a relationship ending thing in and of themselves. The truth was, seeing the two of them together almost reminded herself of Robert and her at the same age. They looked like she remembered feeling.
She could not deny her daughter a chance at that life that she had enjoyed. She would rather Hermione follow in her footsteps - not that she would ever tell Hermione the details: best friend of the love of her life at age eleven, girlfriend to the only boy she would ever have a romance with by thirteen, lover of the only man she would ever love by sixteen, engaged to him and certain he was the love of her life by eighteen - although she was certain of the latter much sooner, married and twenty, and so on. Rose had been spared much of a young woman’s romantic angst and she wished that for her daughter. True, she and Robert did have their own interests. She was into gardening, which pleased Robert in that as her flower beds increased there was less yard to mow. He was into golf, which she thought was a little ironic since he had become a self proclaimed expert on a properly cut fairway, but had to be prodded to properly cut the lawn. Their marriage had its bumps and heartaches for she miscarried three times since Hermione was born and the Doctors were baffled as to why. But she would rather Hermione have this life than many she knew of.
Especially that of her older sister Liz. Liz was six years older than Rose and while Rose had but one man in her life, the one she first kissed at thirteen, Liz had changed boyfriends as often as she changed outfits while shopping for clothes. Liz honestly could not remember the names of most of the men she had dated in her life and even a fair few of the men she had slept with when she was still single. And her married life had been as unstable as her single life. She had been more prolific, bearing four children from her first two husbands. She was currently engaged to potential husband number three and Rose was at a loss as to what her sister sought in life. That was not the life she wished for her daughter.
She saw in Hermione’s relationship with Harry hints of the relationship she had with Robert at that age. That alone was a reason to keep her daughter at Hogwarts for now, although it also meant there would be much to talk about once they got home.
There was a final control panel on the wall in the Control Room. But Dobby told Harry it was not yet necessary, although he would explain what it controlled in a little while. Dobby led Harry from the Trunk’s Control Room now that all the various magical things were working. They again passed through the Vestibule with the ladder leading up to the Trunk’s lid and Harry’s room at Privet Drive. Dobby then opened the door to another small room. There was another door opposite where they entered and to one side there were several trunks, eight in total.
“What are these?” Harry asked.
“They being Connection or Access Trunks, Harry Potter Sir,” Dobby replied.
“Connection Trunks?”
Dobby nodded. He opened one for Harry and Harry looked in and saw another ladder leading down. “It being just a ladder, a coat room likes Harry Potter just be seeing and but one door out. That door be taking yous to a door in this Trunk,” he added indicating the one they were in not the one they were looking in. “Connection Trunks cans be anywhere Harry Potter be or Harry Potter cans be giving it to trusted friends he keys in to the Big Trunks wards. Only theys or Harry Potter or Dobby cans be entering and leaving the Connection Trunk. Harry Potter coulds have a Connection Trunk here or somewhere else and the Big Trunks with Harry Potter at Hogywarts and he can get between the Trunks. He cans enter the Connection here and steps through its door into this Big Trunk at Hogywarts or Harry Potter’s friends cans have a Connection Trunk and Harry Potter cans be going to sees them or theys can be comings to sees Harry Potter even if they knows not where Harry Potter be and Harry Potter nots be knowing wheres they is being.”
“So,” Harry said, “if I were to give Hermione a trunk like this,” indicating the Connection Trunk, “I could visit her whenever I wanted or she could visit me whenever she wanted even if she was on holiday?”
Dobby nodded. “She be needing to haves her Trunks with hers and it cans only brings you to where her Trunks be. If she not being there… But yes, Harry Potter Sir. She cans be coming to Harry Potter’s Trunk and yous can be goings to hers.”
“Brilliant! Why eight?”
Dobby shrugged. “They nots be costing much at all and Dobby thinks being betters to have too many thans too few.”
“I take it that’s what the other control panel was for?”
Dobby nodded. He then walked to the far door and opened it for Harry. Harry stepped from what he thought of as the “Spare Trunk Room” into a large space. It had very high ceilings, tall windows on either side, a large set of double doors across from where he stood with a stair leading up to a small balcony and another door and another stair leading down somewhere. There were also two huge fireplaces on the far wall as well, one between the stair going up and one of the windowed walls and the other between the stair going down and the other windowed wall. The floors appeared to be polished wood and the walls, well he didn’t know what they were except white and elegant. He could swear this room was easily almost as big as his relatives house. Fancy chandeliers hung from an ornate ceiling providing light. Oddly, the room was unfurnished. Harry turned and saw the door he and Dobby had come through and four door frames on either side. The four frames were odd in that there was no door, just a blank section of the wall where the door should be.
“What are those?” Harry asked.
“They be where Connecting Trunks Doors be opening if Connecting Trunks are being used,” Dobby answered.
Dobby then told Harry that the very large room they were in was the Entry, whatever that was. Dobby then led Harry up the wide stair to the balcony and through the door. They were in a corridor. There was a door on either side and one at the far end and it was to this last door that Dobby led Harry. Beyond it was what could best be described as an apartment of sorts. They entered into a Sitting Room furnished with some comfortable looking chairs, a couch and some polished wooded tables set on either side of a large fireplace flanked by windows. There was a door to the left and to the right. One led to a study with a large wooden desk, fancy looking file cabinets on one wall, floor to ceiling bookcases on another and a fireplace flanked by more windows on the third wall. Harry could see that his school books were already placed in the bookcase, although they barely took up any room at all. There was a large leather chair at the desk and some smaller ones in the room as well. Across the Sitting Room from the Study was another door that led to what Harry thought was the largest bedroom he had ever seen. In addition to the huge, four poster bed with ornamental curtains, the room also had places to sit, a couple of large dressers and wardrobes, night stands beside the bed and a dressing mirror. There was also a huge bathroom with a bathtub that, were it any larger, might be a small swimming pool and a separate and very large shower. Harry’s few toiletries were already arranged on the marble looking counter by the sink and he had already noticed his real trunk was at the foot of the bed. He also learned that next to the bathroom was a huge, walk in closet.
He could not imagine anyone needing so much space just for a bedroom for Dobby had told him that this suite of rooms was his bedroom. He then learned that the other two doors along the corridor led to somewhat smaller bedroom suites. Dobby suggested they were for his friends should his friends come and visit and that Dobby could expand the floor to add up to six more such suites if need be. Again, Harry could only wonder as to why anyone would need so much. Harry was sure he could have made do with a small bedroom, small bathroom, small kitchen and one other room that could act as his sitting room, study and a place to eat his meals, but he did not want to disappoint Dobby with this.
Dobby then led him on a tour of the floor below, beyond the double doors across from the entrance to this part of the Trunk. The doors opened into a huge Hall with tall windows and four fireplaces, two on either side. There were also doors on either side as well. The hall seemed to be furnished with end tables, chairs, couches, sideboards and other things yet it still seemed more empty than full. Four doors opened on either side. On the right, the doors opened into two smaller, furnished Parlours, although each was large in its own right and had its own fireplace and windows. Harry wondered how there could be windows in the Hall when these rooms would just be in the way and Dobby replied:
“How cans there be windows in a Trunks that not have any that cans be seen? Magic. We cans makes the windows look out at mountains, forests, fields, streams, the sea or whatever and its will look real.”
Harry had to think about that for a bit as Dobby showed him the next room on the left hand side which was a dining room set for twenty. He wondered if he was somehow smaller in this trunk. He did not feel any smaller. Dobby had said that the trunk could weight tons without magic to lighten it and had Dobby not reinforced the floor of his bedroom it would have crashed right through the floor so maybe he wasn’t really smaller, just in some kind of magical other dimension. He wondered if this sort of thing was covered in either Runes or Arithmancy as Dobby led him to the final room on the left hand side which was a very Muggle looking kitchen. Dobby explained that this kitchen was for Harry Potter to use as Harry had said he liked to cook. Dobby would be cooking meals in the Elf Kitchen which was in the basement and the meals would be delivered to the Dining Room much as they were at Hogwarts.
On the right hand side of the Hall were two large bathrooms. They had four sinks and four toilets each and one also had two urinals which he guessed made the other one for girls. There was also a room with various games. He recognized a chess set on a table, a pocket billiards table and dart boards, but there were others as well. Finally there was a huge Library which already had a lot of books although it was by no means full. It turned out the books were from the Potter Vaults for, while he could not access the money until he attained his full inheritance, as the last Potter he could access the books - at least the ones that were in the vaults for it was possible there might be others at a Potter property but until Harry went to Gringotts to learn of such properties, Dobby had no idea if there was more.
“I really don’t need all of this,” Harry began.
“Harry Potter be living heres for rest of Summer and maybes evens ‘til he be finishing Hogywarts seeings as Harry Potter cans be bringing this Trunks there or, if not it, Connecting Trunk so he’s can comes and goes. It be much nicer than Nasty Muggleses house, yes? Dobby hoped Harry Potter would be liking. Betters to have too much thans not enough, Dobby be thinking.”
Harry decided not to press the issue as Dobby had clearly worked hard on this. Dobby then led him to the floor below. Here he found there was a large gym, a swimming pool - which he felt was odd given that he couldn’t swim - what Dobby called a duelling room for practising spells a potions lab - which Harry also found odd given the fact he loathed everything about potions - and a “Pantry” filled with ingredients from “A” to “Z” under a magical stasis field to keep them fresh. The final floor, the basement or dungeons, contained the Elf Kitchen, storerooms and what Dobby called the Elf Quarters which he assured Harry were luxurious as compared to his prior accommodations. What Harry was sure of was he had absolutely no feeling he had ever seen this place or done any of this before which was a relief.
“Dobby,” Harry asked once the tour was over, “not that I don’t think this is brilliant, but can I afford it? I mean, it’s huge! You could fit my relatives' place in here several times over! This has got to be expensive.”
Dobby nodded. “It not be coming for knuts ‘n sickles, be true. But Harry Potter be having far mores than knuts 'n sickles.”
“Oh?”
“Dobby not by buying without knowing what Dobby cans spends. Dobby be’s goings to Gringotts first and speaking with Goblin what handles Elf matters, those be Elf access to Masters' Vaults for buyings and such. So Dobby be knowing what could be spent for Harry Potter and what nots be spendable. Harry Potter’s Trunk be expensive - very and be more so with furnitures and things. But Dobby not be spending even one of three parts of Harry Potter’s spendables.”
“Um, what do you mean?”
“Potter Family be quite wealthy and be that for many and many lives before. Dobby not beings allowed to know how wealthy. Potter Family Vault cants be touched until Harry Potter cans claims what’s his full rights. But Harry Potter be having his own vault and Dobby be getting more than enough Galleons from that vaults for all the purchases and there still being lots and lots left. Dobby cans tell Harry Potter about his Vault.”
Harry nodded.
“It be called a Trust Vault. When the Great Harry Potter be born, his grandfather be Head of House. His father be living offs his own Trust Vault at the time, and the Trusts be similar and same as Potter Trusts have been for many lives before. When Harry Potter be born, Grandfather Potter be paying for Harry Potter to go to Hogywarts and then be making Trust Vault for Harry Potter so Harry Potter’s cans be living until he become Head of House.”
“Grandfather?” Harry asked. “Is he alive?”
Dobby shook his head. “He not be. He be dying around the times the Great Harry Potter be surviving.”
“Oh.”
“The day the Great Harry Potter be born, 10,000 Galleons be placed in Harry Potter’s Vault. It be earning interest every year since, as has the 10,000 Galleons that be added to Harry Potter’s Vault on Harry Potter’s First Birthday, Second Birthday, Third Birthday and so on. The monies what be added from the Potter family Vaults be added every birthday until Harry Potter be Head of House or twenty-five, whatever be first. This be called ‘Principal’ and Harry potter cants be spending ‘Principal’ until he be Head of House. But Principal be earning interest and Harry Potter cans be spending interest, some, most or alls of it whenever he be wanting. When Dobby be goings to Gringotts, Harry Potter be having 130,000 Galleons in Principal which he cants be spending. That Principal be earning Harry Potter 11,700 Galleons this year. Harry Potter having spent 470 Galleons for Hogywarts things last two summers so as of Dobby seeing Goblins, Harry Potter be having 118,819 Galleons in interest he cans be spending whenever he be wanting and what not be spent also be earning interest. Dobby be spending 35,207 Galleons on Trunk and what be in Trunk. Harry Potter still be having 83,612 Galleons in Vault he cans spends whenever he be wanting.”
To be honest, Harry’s knowledge of money was mostly academic for it had been taught in Primary School, namely how to count change and such. Harry rarely ever had any money of his own before his first trip to Diagon Alley and what he had was either very reluctantly given to him or was change he found lying about. He knew there were piles of magical coins in his vault, but if asked how much he had withdrawn he could not give any precise amount. It was enough to fill a small pouch, he would say and he had a pocketful on the train to Hogwarts. But even he knew that Galleons were like Pounds and seventy-three thousand was quite a lot in either world. He knew one had to exchange Pounds for Galleons to shop in Diagon Alley for Hermione had told him about her first trip to the magical shopping district. He did not know what that exchange rate was and assumed it was one for one. That was probably a good thing given that the current exchange rate was 6.75 Pounds to the Galleon. As large as 35,000 of anything sounded as the money Dobby had spent or 83,000 for the money still left, the truth was Dobby had spent 237,647.25 Pounds and Harry had 564,381 Pounds left that he could spend at will, not including any interest he would earn on that and the 877,500 Pounds he had in Principal. Harry would probably have passed out in shock to learn that he was already effectively a millionaire.
“Is that a lot of money?” he asked.
“It being more than many have, less than some,” Dobby replied.
“Do the Dursleys get any of this?”
Dobby shook his head. “They be muggleses. They not being allowed wizard’s money even if they be family unless they be spending it all on wizards.”
Harry was relieved to hear that. “So, I still have a lot left then?”
Dobby nodded.
“Well, that’s good. I’ve been meaning to buy some decent clothes for once.”