Gryffindor's Tigress

Chapter Six: In with the New

Ruby POV

As we flew closer and closer to London I started to worry about what would happen if somebody saw us.

Hagrid had clearly thought about this earlier as we land with a jolt on a small back road.

Then Hagrid said, "We'll be drivin' the rest o' the way there.  If ya wan' we're 'bout an hour out if you wanna catch some shut eye."

I decided to take his word for it since he did interrupt my sleep earlier even if it was with meat.

I woke up to a loud shout of laughter, "What in the name of Merlin were ya dreamin' about, you were droolin' and kept lickin' your lips."

I waited for him to calm down a little bit than told him, "You can't exactly blame me.  I was dreaming about a table that never ran out of turkey's and I ate until I couldn't even stand up and then rabbit flew off of a silver platter directly to my mouth."

This caused him to chuckle before he told me, "Can't say I can blame ya for that.  Now then, we're here."

I sat straight up and began to look around and I saw before me a rugged bar called The Leaky Cauldron.

"Come on than," Hagrid said as he pushed the bike to the back where he then placed it in a shed that looked far to small.

As he led me through a creaky door the bartender called out, "Come in Hagrid, will it be the usual?"

"Can't righ' now Tom takin' a new student to get her supplies," he replied.

"Ah, alright than Hagrid," he turned to me, "hope you have a good time."

"Righ' this way," Hagrid guided me over to a wall in the back and tapped a few bricks while muttering.

Then all of a sudden the wall started to shake and a hole formed and grew until it became an archway.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley."

I looked around in awe at all of the shops and I suddenly froze.

Hagrid, noticing my freeze, asked, "What's the matter?"

I hung my head as I told him, "I just realized that I don't have any money to get anything."

He thought about it for a second when he looked up at me, "Let me see that key tha' ya picked up," he told me.

I handed it to him and he looked at it until he said, "Looks like a Gringotts key to me so we could take it there and maybe get ya a reward."

I smiled at this and said, "Well what are we waiting for then?"

He laughed and brought me to the largest building in Diagon Alley.

When I looked up I saw writing that said,

Enter, stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sinn 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."You'd be crazy to try an' rob the place.  Only place that's safer'd be Hogwarts."

As we walked up to the door these small creatures with pointy ears and large noses opened the door and bowed to us.

"Goblins, sly little creatures, they love their numbers," Hagrid told me.

We walked up to an old one towards the back that looked up as we walked up.

"How may I help you?" he asked us.

"Lil' Ruby here has found what I believe to be a Gringrotts key," Hagrid replies as he puts the key in front of the goblin.

He looks carefully at it then looks at me, "May I have a drop of blood on this piece of paper please?" he asks.

"What for?" I ask him.

"If this key belongs to you it will turn the paper red, if you stole it than it will turn black, and if you trully did just find it then it won't change," he told me.

Amazed I reply, "In that case," i say biting my pinky finger.

I hold it over the paper and to my surprise once the blood touches the paper the color of my blood spread all across the paper.

"It's yours," the goblin said.

Curiosity about my family made me ask, "What name is on the vault?"

He took the key and placed it on a scale and weighed it.  He then opened a book and looked it up and said, "Strange there is no name on this.  Full name please."

Dissapointed I said, "Ruby Valkery Storm."

He quickly writes it down and said, "I'll get someone to take you down to your vault."

As soon as he said this Hagrid blanched and asked, "Is it alrigh' with ye if I stay up here for ya?"

I smiled at him and said, "Sure but I'll be looking around a little bit."

Just then a goblin came up and took me back to a cart track and inserted my key into a hole on the cart.

Nothing happened for a second and then a trap door opened beneath us and took us straight down.