Nobody Cared Enough !

Cʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 4

Sept. 7, 1991 - Early Afternoon - Diagon Alley

Diagon Alley, though quieter now that term had begun at Hogwarts, was still an amazing place and Harry had a hard time quashing his desire to skip happily down the street. He settled for trotting either slightly behind, or at the side of his teacher. The professor really did have a long stride.

Their first visit was Gringott's Bank. They were met by the goblin that had assisted Harry the first time he'd been there; Griphook.

Snape bent slightly towards the goblin. He spoke softly, "The Headmaster told me that there would be a bag of galleons for Mr. Potter." GripHook shook his head slowly. "What have you for him?"

"James and Lily Potter left a vault of coin for their son. It is in the name of Harry James Potter so it did not come under the purview of Mr. Dumbledore." The goblin sneered in, what was for him, a pleasant expression.

"Do you have a key for the young man?" inquired Snape. The goblin nodded. "Very good, GripHook. We should like to visit Mr. Potter's vault first then mine."

Griphook's very long finger beckoned the two wizards over to the cart that would take them rocketing through the depths of the bank to their vaults. Harry enjoyed the ride and couldn't help it as a bit of laughter escaped him at one point. A quick glance towards Snape assured him that his teacher wasn't disturbed by his exclamation of joy. Nor, by the ride.

Once at Harry Potter's vault, Griphook opened the great oaken door and Harry and Snape stepped in. Harry politely took the suede coin bag that Griphook gave him, but Snape was still staring around at the vault.

There was a respectable pile of galleons; perhaps just enough to get Harry through school. Snape knew that the Potters had been a very wealthy, pureblood family and he couldn't help but wonder where the rest of the fortune was. He was also disturbed by the distinct lack of personal effects. Snape knew that when Lily and James moved to Godric's Hollow, the cottage was a small one and they couldn't move many of their cherished possessions into the small house.

Where were all of Lily's keepsakes? She'd inherited at least half of her parents belongings when they'd been killed by Death Eaters. Potter should have had this vault packed with the detritus he always had. Even the man's closets were worse than anything Lucius might have had. James Potter had always liked quantity over quality and Snape recalled, how even in school, the boy had always worn something different on the weekends.

"No more than 100 galleons, Mr. Potter," instructed Snape as he motioned the goblin out of the vault where he could speak to him. Once out of sight of the child Snape lowered his voice. "Did the Potters ever have any other vaults beside this one?"

Griphook answered, but only because he'd received the paperwork from the Headmaster that gave Trustee Custodial privileges to Severus Snape. "At one time the Potters had a total of fifteen vaults, Mr. Snape. After the death of his father, James Potter sold most of the contents, including five properties, and funneled the proceeds towards the war effort."

"Is that all that's left?" Snape asked in disbelief as he glanced over his shoulder where Harry was crouched down in front of the pile of gold. "What of his mother's things? Did his father not leave his son anything... personal?"

"That is all that is left, Mr. Snape. Mr. Dumbledore sold off all the Potter effects and properties once James Potter gave Right of Attorney to Mr. Dumbledore, with the exception of a scrapbook of photos that she'd begun for her son." Griphook glanced around Snape to be certain that the boy was still busy counting galleons. "As for James Potter, he left an Invisibility Cloak which is now in the possession of your Headmaster. There were instructions to give it to the child for Christmas his first year at Hogwarts."