Chapter 17 - Visiting Gringotts Again

I did not relax as I needed to do an important thing before the end of the day. I needed to safeguard my vaults before Dumbledore gets his hands on them. If he empties and closes the other vaults before I even know about them, I would not know that I was ripped off by him. So I need to do something about the vaults as soon as possible. He had already become my guardian so he could do so even today. So I was in a rush.

I called Sherry and told her to pop me in front of the Bank. I entered the bank and went towards a goblin sitting in front of a counter.

I stood in front of him and asked, "I would like to meet my family account manager please."

The goblin looked down at me from his high chair and asked, "What is your name wizard?"

I replied, "My name is Charles Falken."

He signalled for another goblin and they conversed between themselves in gobbledygook after which he told me to follow the other goblin. I followed him silently through the twists and turns until finally, we were standing in front of a door. He told me to enter and I compiled. I saw an elder goblin sitting behind a table as I came inside.

"Hello, I am Charles Falken. Are you my family account manager?" I asked the elder goblin.

"Yes I am young one. I am Gornuk, the Falken account manager." The goblin grumbled, "Why do you want to meet me at such a young age. You know that you can claim the lordship only on your 17th birthday right? But before we go into the reason let me check if you are who you say you are. Cut your finger and let five drops of blood drip into this bottle."

I did so without a second thought. I cut my finger with no hesitation allowing five drops of blood to flow into the bottle. The would healed after I removed the knife magically.

The Goblin poured the contents of the bottle onto the special bit of parchment and chanted something. The parchment lit up brightly before dimming down revealing words.

Name: Charles Daniel Falken

Date of Birth: 4 June 1977

Father: Daniel Robert Falken (pure-blood)

Heritage: Most Ancient and Noble House of Falken

Vaults: 54 – 1,035,264G and other items. – Family vault

226 – 40,530G and other items.

425 – 35,072G and other items

704 – 4850G 100S 100K – Trust vault

I looked at the results and was more than satisfied with the ȧssets I owned.

After looking at the results, the goblin gave a toothy grin and said, "You are who you claim to be. Good for you or else you would have faced some serious consequences. So why did you want to meet me?"

I replied, "I would like to have my heir ring and I also wanted to close two of the vaults in the list and merge it into the family vault."

He gave me a knowing grin and said, "A smart one aren't you. You can close the two vaults but you have no access of the family vault right now. So you cannot transfer the items into it. Closing vaults also costs 5% of the money present inside it. And here is the heir ring of the Falken Family."

He took out a ring box. It contained two rings inside it. He took the smaller ring from it and passed it to me. I saw a beautiful ring with a picture of a falcon on it with "Vif, courageux, fier" (Spirited, courageous, proud) written under it. I put the ring on and it flashed with light but the light soon died out.

The Heir ring had many functions from what I have read. The most important function is to detect and record Legilimency attempts. It could not block the attempts though but I could use the recorded magical signature as evidence to sue anyone who tries to read my mind. Another useful function was to detect potions in my food and drinks which would come in handy at Hogwarts. the ring also gave me the political power of House Falken which was a lot and would make people think twice before taking any action against me. There were other functions too but were not very important.

"Congratulations Heir Falken. The ring has accepted you as the heir. So what have you decided about the vaults?" said Gornuk.

I replied, "I would like to close the two vaults and I would like to give access to my vaults to my house elf."

He replied, "I will deduct the vault closure fees from the vault now and you have 1 day to empty the vaults. Your personal house elf has access to all your vaults. You do not need to provide any special permission. Is that all? You will not have access to the properties belonging to you without you gaining the Lordship first. So this will be our last meeting for some years."

I thanked him and told him I wanted to empty the vaults right now. He called for a goblin and told him to lead me to my vaults. I followed him and we reached the first vault via the mine cart. After the goblin opened the vault I say piles of gold coins on one side and items on other side. I called Sherry and told her what I was here to do. She popped back with an empty trunk and enlarged the space inside it. Then with a snap of her fingers the things inside the vaults were stored inside the trunk quickly. She told me to call her back when I reached the other vault as she did not want to travel in the cart. I checked the vault with my mage sight to see if I had missed anything. Assured that nothing was missed I told the goblin to take me to the other vault. I proceeded to follow the same method as the first vault and the second vault was also emptied.

I then told Sherry to pop into my trust vault and remove 4000G and store it inside the trunk. Rest of the money can be used for paying Hogwarts tuition fees and emergency fund for my guardian.

After everything was taken care of, I exited the bank. It was late so I decided to do shopping some other day. I was not in a rush. I called Sherry and she popped me near the orphanage. I informed the matron that I had joined the school and she was very happy for me. She asked me about the school but I said that the school was located in Scotland and was very secretive. The only people who got in were through an invitation like mine. She congratulated me and told me to go and rest as I had a very busy day.