How to Prevent a War

Plans Set in Motion

Harry walked into Gringotts, ignoring the many stares he had received when walking through Diagon Alley. The Ministry's slander campaign was working miracles, Harry could admit that much, but at least the Goblins stayed neutral in any wizard conflict. They wouldn't care if he was a liar or telling the truth, as long as he was there to give them work. A fat, blue haired goblin noticed him standing a little lost and walked over to him.

"Can I help you, mister Potter?" he asked in a tone that made Harry wonder if he had done something to anger the short magical creature.

"I'd like to withdraw some of my money," the young wizard replied quickly.

The goblin nodded and motioned for Harry to follow him. With a determined look in his once again shining green eyes, Harry did just that and allowed the short man to lead him towards his vaults. Yes, vaults, as his first vault was only the thrust funds for his school time. Next to that, there was also the Potter Family vault, which had at least double the amount as the other one and Sirius had given him vault keys as well so he could take the money from those too.

Harry had thought that his parents' vault was pretty full, but the Black Family was much older, and apparently at least thrice as rich, add Sirius' more than modest personal savings, and Harry was sure he was now the richest wizard on the Isles.

Unsure what he could possibly do with that much money, Harry used his bottomless pouch he was given by Hagrid to take all of the money without bothering to try and guess how much it was. The amount was simply too big to do such a thing. The Blacks also had an entirely separate vault filled with ancient and dark artefacts and books, of which Harry decided to bring a few of the more blueish ones, thinking they could be a good source of information.

"How much exactly is this?" he asked when he noticed his pouch actually increased in weight.

"That must be about 600 million galleons give or take a few thousand," the goblin replied shrugging.

And here Harry thought he had seen enough to not choke on air about something as frivolous as money. He guessed he was wrong as he coughed loudly, trying to start breathing again.

. . . . .

Harry walked back to the Leaky Cauldron, where the others were waiting nervously for his return. The decision to come temporarily out of hiding had been a difficult one and any second he was out in the open, Death eaters, or worse, Voldemort, could hear about it and come down there to kill him and his friends. Still, it was for a good cause and really, they didn't have that much of a choice with what they were planning anyway.

They had decided on going back and stop Tom Riddle from ever becoming Voldemort. They knew very well that once they left, they would never be able to come back, so Harry was sent out to get money and supplies, while the others stayed behind to figure out a cover story they could tell anyone in the past without anyone getting suspicious. Especially Riddle, as it was pretty well known that the Dark Lord was extremely intelligent before he had gone completely insane. Harry had no doubt that the man was still a genius, but he rarely used it anymore with how his mind had spiralled into madness over the many years.

As expected, he found his two best friends along with Padfoot and Ginny, who had demanded to come along with them after she had heard of the plan. They sat in the far back of the pub, obscured by shadows and buried in a large stack of books on both wizard and muggle history of the 1940's. Harry remembered that it was a chaotic period, as both worlds were at war at the time. Separately, of course. He didn't know much more than that though, as he never was all that good at keeping his eyes open during professor Binns' classes.