The Gringotts bank was an imposing building right in the middle of Diagon Alley. It was also the tallest building in sight. We climbed the white stairs which led us to a tall pair of silver doors manned by two goblin guards.

 

I kept my expression neutral when I saw my first goblin. Well, they weren’t too weird. The goblin was wearing a uniform of gold and red colours or to be polite, he looked like a human midget with slightly sharper features and dome-shaped heads.

 

Pointy ears were the first sign that indicated that he was in fact not a human and the second one was that he had pointy ears.

 

The goblin stared at me while I walked. The doors had words engraved on them that said:

---

Enter, stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay most dearly in their turn.

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

---

A grim poem that served as a warning. Though ironically enough I was more interested in the building itself than the treasures found in it. Its high security wards was something I was fascinated by.

I had put warding on things I must learn as I would have a lab of my own some day for experiments of the nefarious kind and knowing good wards would be helpful.

We reached the main hall after passing the silver doors. The hall had a high ceiling and it looked bigger on the inside. 

I found it ironic that the goblins of all creatures had such a large place to themselves while Hagrid, a literal giant lived in a house more suited to them.

There were many rows in the hall with each one having goblins sitting on high tables doing their jobs.I saw many wizards and witches too who were waiting patiently in a line.

Eileen approached a goblin and I followed behind her.

“Excuse me.” she said trying to grab the busy goblin’s attention. 

The goblin looked up with clear annoyance having been interrupted.

“What is it, witch?” he asked.

“We are here to get him registered as heir.” Eileen stated and pointed towards me. 

I had to look up to see the goblin over the tall table. 

“Right…what's the house name?” he asked.

“Prince.” Eileen answered.

The goblin grunted and began looking through a thick book.

“Lets see...Prince...ah yes the house doesn’t have an heir.”

“So you want to have him try the heir verification?” he asked, looking at me.

“Yes. He turned 11 a few months ago and will start Hogwarts soon so I want to make him the heir.” Eileen replied.

“Very well, Adgrot !!” he said and another goblin came running. This one looked more goblin like than the other ones. He had a pointier nose and longer ears.

“You called master Burgock?” the goblin asked once he arrived.

“Take these two the Prince vault and get a heir ring ready.” the goblin, Burdock said.

“Alright Master.” Adgrot said and beckoned us to follow.

He led us out of the hall to a doorway that descended into the ground. The door opened to reveal a cave. It painted a stark contrast to the white marble outside.

The cave like mine extended into the darkness and it had some torches on the wall with tracks descending into the abyss. 

Adgrot didn’t talk much and gestured to us to stop. He pulled a lantern hanging on the wall and lit it before clapping.

A sound of screeching was heard as the sound echoed.After what seemed like minutes, a cart came rushing up the tracks and stopped before us.

“Come along wizards.” Adgrot said and got on the cart. 

The next few minutes were thrilling and I had to hold myself back from screaming. The goblin minecart was perhaps the longest and the best roller coaster ride I had ever been on.

Of course, it was dangerous too as there were no safety features but one would be relatively safe as long as they did not piss the goblin off.

Once we got off the cart on a floor I couldn’t tell, the goblin began leading us deeper into the cave.

“So what number is our vault?” I asked Eileen. 

“Our family is not very old so we didn’t get the higher security vaults that the older ones got. Ours should be...vault 545.” she answered.

I thought back to the history of my house. The Prince’s had started off as a branch family of a pureblood house and they could be traced back to 800 years ago. The main family died out allowing the Prince family to become the main one.

They specialised in making potions and were a relatively well known family back then and even had ties to the other craftsmen families like the Ollivanders.

They had been at their peak somewhere in the middle of the 16th century but they suffered a heavy blow during the witch trials.

The main reason they were discovered was because they sold potions to both muggles and wizards which meant they were in the open when the witch trials started. 

From that point onwards, the Princes who were a family that used to belong to the ‘light side’ turned into a muggle hating house. After years of generational brainwashing, it didn’t come as a surprise that Eileen’s parents hated her for marrying a muggle.

Well it didn’t matter now. They had passed away and left their fortunes for me or so I hoped.

They had been in decline when Eileen left and I don’t think they did better after that.

Coming back to the vaults, we had arrived in front of it.

It was a cave-like hole with a metal door on it. Adgroft pulled a ring out of his pocket and handed it to me.

Eileen nodded at me and I put it on. I was about to comment on its large size but it adjusted itself to fit my finger perfectly.

“What should I do next?” I asked.

Adgroft tapped the vault a few times and an arm sized hole appeared. 

“Put your hand in the hole, young wizard.” he said with a nasty smile.

“Go on Severus, don’t be afraid. Worst case, it fails and we can’t access it.” Eileen said, trying to reassure me.

“Wait….so there are no repercussions if I fail?” I had been under the impression that failing meant I would have to face some issues.

“Of course not, only the dark families do that. Our family put any curses on the vault. Failing means you won’t be able to try it again. That's it, no curses or repercussions…”

I felt all my nervousness disappear and without hesitation, I clenched my fist and inserted it into the hole.

I felt a prick which I assumed was the drawing of blood. The wall glowed and then with a pop sound, it opened. I quickly removed my hand and the vault opened completely.

It was a bit anticlimactic but I wasn’t complaining. I saw coins littered around the vault and some potions rack and cauldrons at the corner.

There were some other things like a cabinet filled with cutlery and a bookstand with some old books in them.

“Severus you did it!” Eileen said and patted my head.

“Congratulations….heir Prince.” Adgroft commented. 

I inadvertently gave a smile and scooped up some coins. 

“How much do we have?” I asked Eileen.

Eileen looked at Adgroft who pulled out a parchment and began reading it out.

“Vault 545- Prince. Let's see….it has 10000 galleons, 18000 sickles and 80000 knuts.”

I had read about wizard currency and knew that galleons were the highest valued coins. 17 sickles made a galleon and 29 knuts made a sickle.

I quickly calculated the amount to galleons and we had roughly around 12000 galleons. Quite a decent sum. It was on the poorer side when it came to pureblood houses but then again, the Prince family was in decline so it made sense.

From what Eileen had told me, an average pureblood family had around 50000 galleons in the vault. Of course,this was not taking their assets from businesses into the picture so they probably had more.

But still 12000 galleons was a huge amount for the average common household. The weasleys for one would be able to live lavishly for years with this amount and could probably support more kids.

It seemed I had a long way to go before I became rich enough to buy whatever I want. I was sure I could reach that level if I played my cards well. 

I had made around 200 galleons this year courtesy of my suggestions to Rosmerta and Eileen had earned around 100 from working at the inn and selling potions bringing up our total as 300.

But once Eileen opens her own shop,this amount could easily be doubled and maybe even more if my ideas did well.

“How much do we need?” I asked Eileen.

“Hmm...let's withdraw 3000 galleons first, 500 will be enough to cover two years of your term and with the rest, I will buy some place in Hogsmeade to set up the potion shop.”

So after registering me as the heir, we withdrew the money and left the bank.

“So does this mean we get the house as well?” I asked Eileen.

“Yes we will move there once your term starts. I will put our current house for sale once we get back.”

We had talked about this before and had decided to move back to the magical world once my term started. The Prince manor was in Godric’s hollow and it was more convenient for Eileen too.

I had not told this to Lily and there was a high chance she would get upset but I wouldn’t change my mind for her. The chance to use magic freely and observe other people use it was too precious to give up.

…

After coming out of Gringotts, Eileen decided to first get my uniform. We went to Madam Malkin’s Robes for Occasions.

Malkin was an annoying woman who fussed a lot. I just wanted to get the robes and leave quickly but she was taking far too long. 

I was glad I had the books already since Flourish and Blotts was filled to the brim and there was a long queue there.

Moving on, I had to buy a new cauldron since Hogwarts didn’t allow the one Eileen used or the ones we found in the vault. 

“So what do you want to get next Severus?”

“A pet….” I replied. Though I was eager for the wand, I wanted to keep it for the last.

“Alright then, lets go get one, which one do you want?”

I thought about it for a few seconds and answered, “Cat.” 

I always liked them and wouldn’t mind having one so I chose a cat but then again, the other options were not appealing.

The owl had practical uses but Eileen was already buying one for the house so that was out. A rat was useless and paying for it seemed like a stupid thing to do.

The rats sold in the pet shop were not special too so there was no point in paying for it. You just had to look in dirty places and you would find one.

As for frogs, I didn’t find them appealing and didn’t know how to take care of it. So the only option left was the cat.

“Very well..let's get a cat.”

We walked around the street till we arrived in front of the pet shop- Magical Menagerie.

We were greeted by a guy with cheeriness. “Welcome Madam to the Magical Menagerie, the best place for all magical pets.”

“Go on, tell him what you want Severus.” Eileen said.

“I would like to look at some cats.” I answered.

The man grinned and said. “Of course, Sir. We have all kinds of cats, which type would you prefer?”

Before I could say anything, he started speaking, “We have the popular siamese breed, the persian, the shorthair, a few burmese and if you are looking for something magical, something exotic we have….” 

I just let him ramble. He had paused for dramatic effect but I wasn’t gawking like he expected so he carried on surprisingly without much awkwardness.

“We have a special cat, one which is half breed with the blood of a nundu running through it!”

A nundu….one of the most dangerous magical creatures which needed 20 trained wizards to subdue. I was curious about it and at least wanted to have a look at this half breed cat.

“Absolutely not ,young man” Eileen said. She seemed to have noticed the glint in my eyes.

“It probably costs a fortune to buy and even more to maintain so we can’t buy it. Moreover, it has Nundu blood running through it for Merlin’s sake! It's clearly a dangerous creature.”

The man awkwardly smiled.

I didn’t let him start talking and quickly said, “Just show me some good regular cats Mister. Preferably young.”

“A regular cat?...” the man’s enthusiasm took a hit. He had clearly mistaken us some wealthy purebloods.

“Or...how about more half breeds but something less dangerous…” I suggested. 

“Sure we have those too, come along.” He gestured to me to follow.

He took me to the back of the shop where there were various pets and brought to me a row filled with cats that didn’t look normal….

I looked at them. There were many but I picked a small black one. A kitten judging by its size.

“I will have this one.” I pointed at the black one which was now sitting upright and cleaning its paws by licking them.

“Hmm…a half kneazle” the man said and unlatched the cage to pick it up. He grabbed it roughly, startling it in the process and then handed it to me.

I inspected its gender and found that it was female. I brought my palm under her chin and rubbed it gently, making her relax her guard and purr into me. I grabbed her by the nape and adjusted her on my arm. 

She was cautious at first but she relaxed after coming into my arms.

She looked a bit weird with the long ears but was cute nonetheless. Once we were back in the front, Eileen paid for her and we left the store.

“So what will you name..her?” Eileen asked.

“How did you know that it's a her?”

“Well...my mum had a few when I was young so I would tell what gender she was.”

I looked at the little kitten in my arm and pondered over the name. 

“Nyx” I uttered. After going through some odd names, nyx seemed the most normal sounding. It was better than some japanese names I had been considering at least.

“Nyx..huh, that sounds apt for her.” Eileen agreed on the name and thus it was decided that the cat would be called nyx.

Nyx seemed sleepy so I put her back in the cage she came with. Eileen then decided to get an owl from the owl emporium but since it was on the other side of the alley, we decided to part ways.

The reason I chose the half kneazle was that they were intelligent and had an uncanny ability to detect untrustworthy individuals.

Well, Nyx was a half breed which meant she wouldn't be as strong but I felt this was for the better as she lacked the aggression of pure kneazles and even if she became aggressive, she wouldn't have the power to do much harm. Her other ability on the other hand would be very useful in making ‘friends’.

Eileen brought me to Ollivanders and then left to go get the owl. The shop looked ancient with a sign that read Ollivanders:Maker of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.

I found it a little hard to believe that it survived for so long. This place was older than Diagon Alley itself.

I was a little curious about wand lore. How did the wand choose a wizard? Was it affinity? Certain traits? If so how did the wand know?

I was also curious about wand cores and the wood used. Why use phoenix feather, Unicorn hair or dragon heartstrings specifically? Why couldn’t other parts be used?

I put these questions to the back of my mind and entered the shop.