"Why are your procedures so complicated?" a witch complained, clutching her parchment and looking ready to tear her hair out.
The goblin on a high stool behind the counter nodded with a smile. "We'll discuss the issue you've raised very seriously."
Only then did the witch's anger ease a little.
Anton watched curiously from nearby. The goblin assisting him held out a key and picked up an oil lamp. "Sir, the paperwork is done. Let's go to your vault."
"Huh?" Anton glanced at the witch. "I don't need to fill out forms like she does?"
The goblin glanced at Anton's hair again and said with sincere warmth, "Some people have privileges."
Anton finally caught on.
With his bright red hair tinged with platinum and a face that looked a little like Ron's, could he really be related to the Weasley family?
A pure-blood family?
The goblins hadn't monopolized the Wizarding World's finances. They ran a bank that served wizards. It might look like the same thing, but their actual standing was entirely different.
Especially to those at the top of the wizarding pyramid, goblins might not be much different from house-elves.
However unwilling the goblins were, subservience was subservience.
Anton raised an eyebrow. "Lead the way."
Being from a pure-blood family didn't mean much. There was no true nobility in the Wizarding World, and few pure-blood families were genuinely well-off. The Weasleys supported their large household on one minor civil servant's grueling overtime.
He had no interest in the lineage of this body.
But the status came in handy!
Why not use it? The haughtier Anton acted, the more visibly deferential the goblin became.
They passed through a narrow stone corridor, climbed into a small cart, and sped along a narrow railway track.
Twists, rolls, skids...
The miserable, roller-coaster-like ride turned his stomach.
At last, they stopped before a fire dragon.
"Esteemed young wizard, Griphook has selected an excellent vault for you. Neither too large nor too small, it's ideal for a young wizard eager for independence..."
The goblin chattered away at his ear.
Anton only stared at the enormous fire dragon.
The hulking creature lay curled in the middle of the passage. Its mountain-like body rose and fell with every breath, filling him with a deep, instinctive dread.
"The fire dragon guards our most important vaults. Griphook looks forward to the day you come of age and acquire a grand, spacious vault among them." Griphook kept chattering in his ear.
Anton nodded and looked away.
"Where's my vault, then?"
"Second only to the most important vaults. This is the best location Griphook could think of." The goblin smiled and pointed to a large door beside the dragon.
"Here, you'll enjoy an unparalleled sense of security."
"Very true." Anton nodded appreciatively.
Griphook's smile grew even wider.
He took the key from Anton. After a complicated series of steps, the door opened. "You may go in and store your belongings. Goblins are not permitted to enter your vault without your permission. I'll wait by the door."
Compared with the goblin's attentive service and the massive metal door, the vault itself was pitifully small.
It was under five square meters, smaller than the bathroom in the studio apartment Anton had rented in his previous life.
The ceiling was low too, less than three meters high.
Apart from the door, the three stone walls had crude niches carved into them for shelves.
Clearly, the goblins offered every service except anything of practical value.
Anton thought for a moment, then stepped back out and told the goblin, "I may need some time to sort things out."
The goblin clearly didn't mind. "Take your time."
The Undetectable Extension Charm on the suitcase wasn't permanent. Anton had once helped the old wizard move everything out so the old wizard could reinforce the spell.
But Anton didn't know that spell. If it wore off and the suitcase burst open, the bottles and jars of potion ingredients inside would probably break.
Some of those ingredients would spoil within moments of exposure to air. Some might even catch fire.
Like an ant moving its hoard, Anton transferred the potion ingredients to the shelves bit by bit.
They were the old wizard's lifetime savings, including countless superb ingredients unavailable on the market. Anton was exhausted but delighted.
Thank goodness that miserly old wizard had been such a collector. Deep among the suitcase's shelves were all sorts of things Anton couldn't even identify.
The old wizard's possessions fell into two categories.
Potion ingredients.
Books and research materials.
The old wizard obviously hadn't packed basic magic textbooks in the suitcase, any more than a university professor would keep first-grade textbooks in his study.
Anton couldn't understand most of them.
There was research on the "Wizard's Eye" potion and "magical images" of various spells observed after using the Wizard's Eye.
Those two subjects accounted for nearly ninety percent of it.
Anton searched through everything. In the end, the only useful book was The Apprenticeship Journey of the Great Alex Fiennes, which he had found at the very beginning.
"..."
Anton ran his fingers over it, then lifted his wizarding robes and slipped the magic book into his sling bag.
Once he had emptied the suitcase, only a shabby bed and the old wizard's corpse remained inside.
Anton looked at the old wizard and pressed his lips together.
The old wizard hadn't just abused him. If not for Anton's extraordinary constitution, he might be in the same state as Lupin was now.
No.
He might have died long ago.
After everything he'd been through, Anton was no longer afraid of corpses, but this one still unsettled him.
He planned to dispose of the corpse and then sell the suitcase.
He stacked the gold Galleons neatly in the wall niches, taking only a hundred for himself.
He put them in the filthy cloth pouch Hagrid had given him and hefted it. It really was rather heavy.
He couldn't come to Gringotts every day to withdraw money.
These coins would cover his expenses for a while.
Looks like I'll need another sling bag just for the coins, Anton thought as he stepped out.
Griphook apparently sensed what he needed. Once they returned to the main hall aboveground, he brought over a copper pendant.
"This is a goblin wallet, made with magic unique to goblins. You can put coins inside without feeling their weight."
"Of course, it has limits. It holds no more than a hundred metal coins, whether they're gold Galleons or copper Knuts."
Anton took it and, curious, placed a gold Galleon against it.
The Galleon flashed and vanished. A golden Arabic numeral appeared on the copper pendant: 1.
"Isn't this just an Undetectable Extension Charm for coins?" Anton bounced the pendant in his hand and looked at Griphook in surprise.
"No, no, no." Griphook waved both hands frantically. "The Ministry of Magic prohibits the Undetectable Extension Charm. This is magic unique to goblins."
"I see." Anton drew out the words and waved the pendant. "Do you have any little bags or pouches made with this magic?"
Griphook shook his head again. "Sir, alchemical objects with effects similar to the Undetectable Extension Charm aren't allowed to circulate either. Gringotts cannot provide them."
"All right." Anton shrugged.
He set Hagrid's grimy cloth pouch on the table and patiently took out the gold Galleons, feeding them into the pendant one by one.
Then Griphook gave a startled cry.
He hurried off and returned with an elderly goblin.
The old goblin examined the pouch closely through a magnifying glass fitted with numerous metal parts. "Unicorn hair! Entirely handmade!" he exclaimed.
Griphook stared at Anton in shock. "I knew I was right about you!"
Anton was baffled.
He knew Hagrid was secretly loaded.
But this was extravagance on another level.
The old goblin plucked a loose fiber from the shabby pouch and marveled, "A single strand could be used to make a wand."
Anton looked at the two goblins, who had grown even more respectful, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
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