The vault ride took less time than either had expected, and soon Harry was standing outside the Potter family vault. Tonks looked on in interest as he stared at the door, which was engraved with his family crest. Closing his eyes and shaking his head, Harry said nothing as he gave Bumchod his key and watched the goblin open the vault with a stroke of his finger.
The door unsealed to reveal a rather large room with unadorned stone walls.
The trio entered and looked around in curiosity. Harry wasn't sure what he was expecting to find in his centuries-old family vault, but this wasn't it. He had expected to find mounds of galleons, of which there were indeed plenty, but he had also expected to see trunks full of jewels, medieval swords and suits of armor, chests full of personal mementos, and perhaps even a talking painting or two.
None of that was present.
Aside from the massive stacks of galleons that occupied one-third of the available space, there were only five medium-sized trunks stacked in one corner of the room. They looked old and worn, and Harry doubted that they contained anything of immense value.
Having nothing to really explore here, Harry wanted to exit quickly.
"Tonks, can you shrink down those trunks so we can take them with us? I want to see what's in them later," he said.
But Bumchod interrupted. "No magic in Gringotts," he said, as if automatically.
"How about I give you 100 galleons to forget that fucking rule?" Harry snapped in irritation, sick of the truly stupid obstacles that kept presenting themselves. He walked over to a pile of galleons and gestured at them, inviting Bumchod to help himself.
The goblin hesitated, but such a temptation was more than he could bear.
"Just the shrinking," he glowered, emptying 100 galleons from the pile into a small pouch that was tied to his waist. Harry half hoped that someone would be aware of the small disappearance and blame Bumchod.
Tonks obliged by shrinking the trunks and handing them to Harry, and the trio made their exit.
Now it was time to visit the mystery vault. Harry wondered anxiously what he would find in the vault of the betrayer. Why would he leave me a bloody trust vault if he wanted my family dead? he speculated in vain.
"Where are we going now?" Tonks asked as they sped through the darkness.
"I've got another trust vault," Harry yelled back at her through the rushing wind. "For some reason it was left to me by Sirius Black, the bastard who betrayed my parents. I want to see what's in it."
Tonks didn't respond, but she was stunned at Harry's answer.
When they arrived, they exited the cart and watched while Bumchod opened the door. Tonks was now just as curious as Harry, but felt it was wise to conceal her familial relation to Sirius Black for the present. She too wondered just what such a man would leave The-Boy-Who-Lived.
This vault was much smaller than even his other trust vault. It contained only the 17,000 galleons that Harry had seen in his statement, plus a small sealed envelope placed at the base of the pile. It had Harry's full name on it, and there were no other markings.
Harry and Tonks stared at the envelope for a few seconds, and Harry eventually stepped forward and pocketed it. "I'll read it later," he said to her questioning look. "I want to get out of this bloody bank right now. If I have to bribe one more person today I'm going to lose it."
Tonks snorted at his tetchiness and they exited the vault, ready to be long gone from Gringotts. Harry was worried, and with good reason, that some unscrupulous goblin would notify Dumbledore of his appearance there. He wanted to collect the money from his trust vault and be gone.
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