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Chapter - 11 : Mounds of Gold

Hagrid grinned at them in amazement. They stepped through the archway. Taking a quick look behind, Ava saw the archway shrink instantly back into a solid wall.

The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop.

Cauldrons - all sizes - copper, brass, pewter, silver - self-stirring - collapsible said a sign hanging over them.

Ava didn't pay too much attention to what Hagrid said but instead she heard him in Harry's thoughts clearly - "Yeah, yeh'll be needin' one, but we gotta get yer money first."

The kids turned their heads in every direction trying to look at everything at once : shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping, the 'twany, screech, barn, brown and snowy' owls.

As they moved forward, several boys about their age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it.

"Look," Ava heard one of them, "the new Nimbus Two Thousand - the fastest ever -'
There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver things, windows stacked with barrels of bag spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of books, quills and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon...

"Gringotts," said Hagrid.

They had reached a snowy-white building which towered over the other little shops. Standing beside it's burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold was -

"Yeah, that's a goblin," Hagrid said quietly as they walked up the white marble steps towards him. The goblin was about a head shorter than Harry, considering his scrawny height. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and very long fingers and feet. He bowed as they walked inside. They further walked through a set of silver doors which engraved a message upon them to ward off thieves.

"Like I said, yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it," Hagrid put Ava's thoughts into words.

They quickly followed up to the counter where the goblin greeted them an asked about their keys. Ava's mind was wandering into her imagination of her life at Hogwarts. But unconsciously enough, she took out her key from her bag and presented it to Hagrid.

"An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore," Hagrid said importantly, throwing out his chest. "It's about You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen."

"Very well," the goblin responded after reading the letter carefully, "I'll have someone take you down to all three of the vaults. Griphook!"

They followed the goblin named Griphook towards one of the doors leading off the hall. Ava still lost in her thoughts vaguely heard Harry asking about the secretive vault 713; about which Hagrid refused to answer.

Griphook held open a door to a stone passage was lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downwards and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks towards them. They climbed in and were off, twisting left and right and right again at such speed that it was impossible to remember.

The cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall labelled 687. Once they got out, Griphook unlocked the door. Harry gasped after a green smoke that had been emitted from the vault vanished. Inside we're mounds of gold, silver and bronze.

"All yours," Hagrid smiled at Harry.

As Hagrid helped him pile some of it into a bag, he explained the conversions to him, "Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty - nine Knuts to a Sickle, it's easy enough."

They then moved forward to another vault - vault 702. This vault seemed more secure that Harry's. It had multiple locks to it - both muggle and magical. Ava's key changed its shape as per the different locks. As Griphook opened it up, Ava saw - a mountain of money double the size of Harry's. She stood there, dumbstruck, not believing whether so much money was truly hers.

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