A Sirius Summer

27th August 1995

Chaos reigned as Harry entered the kitchen that morning. He and Sirius had taken to eating breakfast with the rest of the order a few times a week in order to reduce the amount of complaints they received from Mrs Weasley and the other adults. Harry had definitely come to prefer the quieter starts to the mornings he shared with Sirius, but knew it couldn't be helped.

"Harry, give me a list of the things you need and I will pick them up for you." Mrs Weasley said cheerfully as she set a plate of full English in front of him.

"Can I come with you, I need to get money from my vault to pay for my things." Harry asked

"Sorry dear, it's too dangerous." Mrs Weasley replied. "and don't worry about your money, Dumbledore gave me your vault key."

"Why did Dumbledore have Harry's vault key?" Sirius demanded, raising his head from where he was leant over chatting with the twins, "Harry should be the only one with access to his vaults."

"Well Dumbledore is his guardian, so it makes sense that he would..."

"The Dursley's are my guardians," Harry exclaimed interrupting their argument, "Why else would I be sent back to them each year!"

"Well muggles can hardly be trusted to keep an eye on wizarding money" Mrs Weasley said, "As you have no family in the wizarding world, Dumbledore felt it best that he keep an eye on your things."

"Sirius is my family!" Harry shouted, angry that they once again were pushing his father to the side.

"Precisely Harry." Sirius stated, scowling, though he placed a hand on Harry's shoulder in silent warning not to let his temper get too out of hand. "Now Mrs Weasley, please hand over the key, I will arrange to get Harry's things delivered by owl order."

"I will be speaking to Albus about this, your behaviour this summer has been horrendous." Mrs Weasley snapped turning away. Sirius pulled his wand out, summoning the key. "Sirius Black, return that key this instant. You will be sorry when Albus hears about this!"

"No, I will do what is best for my godson." Sirius shouted. "Dumbledore be damned."

The kitchen fell into silence as Sirius walked out. Harry gave an apologetic smile towards Mrs Weasley before following his father down the hall to the office.

"I am sorry about that" Sirius said as he flopped down into the chair. Harry quickly took the other seat shaking his head.

"No, it's okay. I always wondered why I wasn't trusted with my own vault key. I mean it's a trust vault, it has tons of restrictions on it, so it's not like it can do something ridiculous with it."

"It's about control. If you had access to your vault, you would likely visit Gringotts more often and would probably have been pulled into a meeting with your account manager by now."

"My account manager?" Harry asked

"Yep, the bigger estates, especially those with several properties, investments and vaults have managers for their accounts. It is a status symbol for you to be seen as wealthy enough for the goblins to take interest in your accounts." Sirius explained, reaching across his desk for a ledger and flipping it open to show pages of accounts and transactions. "Even though we do not like to admit it, we do not truly own our money. It all belongs to the goblins. They love nothing more than to grow their money, and that is why they will put in the effort to manage the accounts of those that they feel are worthy."

"That is slightly disconcerting." Harry admitted. "So you are saying that I have more money than I can spend in a lifetime and it isn't even actually mine."

"Exactly, it is why you should always be respectful to the goblins."

"If Mrs Weasley can no longer get money out for me and I can't go shopping how are we going to get my things?" Harry asked

Sirius grinned pulling a stack of catalogues from the draw in his desk.

"Let me introduce you to the world of owl orders." He said tossing the top catalogue over the desk towards Harry along side a piece of parchment that turned out to be an order form. Looking at he cover Harry saw that it was for Flourish and Blotts. Grinning he flicked through, jotting down the titles of various books that caught his eye. Now he knew he had a room of his own to keep his things he was no longer so cautious of buying things knowing he would have somewhere safe to keep them.

Several hours later, both Harry and Sirius had filled in a small stack of order forms that covered everything from the school essentials, to books and even a new set of tarot cards and rune stones that Sirius insisted Harry have. Not only that but Sirius had ordered what seemed like the majority of the Twilfit and Tattings catalogue, claiming that Harry could not continue to wear his old things once he was outside the house.

The kitchen was quiet for once as Mrs Weasley was still out doing the school shopping for the others. The only person in the kitchen was Tonks, who had decided in the absence of Mrs Weasley to prepare lunch herself. After eyeing the catastrophe that was slowly unfolding and the fuming Kretcher who was lurking in the corner of the room, Harry decided to play it safe and raid the biscuit jar that Sirius kept in the family parlour. It would not substitute a real lunch but it would at least tide him over until Kretcher wrestled back control of the kitchen and could make him something edible.

The attic box room seemed like the best place to eat his impromptu picnic, Harry spread the rug he found in the corner onto the floor and sprawled across it, eating the biscuit stash with one hand while lazily flicking through Warding and Runes: A Beginners Guide with the other. The black library as well as the books Sirius had added to his room over the summer had proven to be a brilliant resource for his new obsession and he was learning much more about the practical applications of runes than the third and fourth year worksheets allowed.

The book he was reading had several easy ward-sets included along with suggested applications. Having found one that allowed a box or chest to be warded to a single persons blood or magic Harry decided he would make a personalised box for each of the twins. The box room was the perfect place to find small chests he could apply the runes to.

Brushing his hands off he cast a quick scourigfy to get rid of the crumbs before turning to the piles of antiques that littered the store room. Carefully rummaging through it wasn't long before he found a selection of small boxes that fit either Fred or George.

Turning back to the book he noted the first step; casting revealing charms to make sure no other magic was present on the box that could interfere with the rune-set. The first three boxes glowed briefly with a white hue, indicating that there was no existing magick imbued. The last box glowed a dark purple and Harry gently put it to one side with a grimace. The colour, according to the book was indicative of sexual magicks and he didn't really want to get caught by whatever charm was on that box nor find out what his elderly relatives had possibly wanted with such a box.

Step 2 was the carving of the runes. Harry had the sketches of the two rune sets in front of him, and practiced copying them out several times before begining to be sure that he was familiar with them. He wielded the athame with confidence, knowing from his work on the pendants that it made for clearer marks.

The final step was to cast the binding spells over the box. The set of three chants would bind the runes into the wood and allow the blood to be taken and bound into the spell set once it was added. Lifting his wand Harry carefully began to chant the first of the three spells.