Chapter 8: Gringotts
William finished his beer and walked around the bar of the Leaky Cauldron to a small, walled patio that seemed to have nothing but trash cans and weeds.
Count three pieces up, and two pieces later. William meditated on the method of entering Diagon Alley mentioned in the original book, and looked at the bricks on top of the dumpster, where everything seemed to be normal. But under the perception of William's magic power, he can clearly feel that this is a magic connection point, as long as the wizard gently triggers it with magic power, this node can be opened.
So William took out his wand and lightly tapped it on the brick, only to see that the brick wall began to vibrate, and the middle part of the wall was squirming violently in all directions, and a small hole appeared, and then it grew bigger and bigger, and a second later, a huge arch appeared in front of William, and through the arch was a cobblestone street. The street zigzags forward, flanked by countless shops, giving it a medieval feel.
There are many people in the streets, and all kinds of strange wizards and hawkers make up this magical magical world.
Welcome to Diagon Alley, William said to himself in his heart. Then he walked through the archway, and then the arch behind him narrowed and shrunk rapidly, and soon returned to its original solid wall.
The first stop, Gringotts, is to pick up the money first, and then you can shop to your heart's content, William said to himself. So William walked briskly through the crowd, ignoring the nearest crucible shop, passing by the pharmacy, and overheard a fat woman muttering, "Dragon's liver, sixteen silver and one ounce, Merlin is on it, why has the price increased again, are they crazy?" ”
Only when passing by the Quidditch shop, William stopped slightly and looked at the broomsticks in the window, the light wheel 2000, William thought to himself, when I get the money in a while, I will buy five cool.
Soon, pass a shop that sells binoculars and some quirky silverware. There is also an unknown shop with a basket of bat spleens and eel eyes in the window. A snow-white building far taller than the surrounding shops caught William's eye, and next to the gleaming bronze gate, stood a figure dressed in Gringotts' scarlet and gold uniform, which was a magical race in the wizarding world, the goblins.
William walked up the white stone steps, and found that the fairy was much shorter than William had imagined, it was probably not under William, with a swarthy face, a sharp beard, and its long hands and feet looked particularly strange.
Perhaps sensing William's observant gaze, the elf looked a little unkind, but after noticing the skull-shaped badge on William's chest, it immediately bowed honestly to William. "Welcome to Gringotts, Mr. Friedrich." It said to William in a high-pitched voice.
William walked through the bronze gate to the second gate, which was all silver, and on both sides was written a text in English: "Please enter, stranger, but beware of the fate of insatiable greed, and if you take it for nothing, you will be punished with the severest punishment, so if you want to take a treasure from our underground vaults that has never belonged to you, O thief, you have been warned, beware of not a treasure, but a bad retribution."
(The author really likes this passage so much that he quoted the original text, please rest assured that the author will try not to copy a large excerpt of the original text in the future.) )
Two elves pushed open the door, and then bowed deeply to William, and then one of the elves stepped forward and led William into a tall marble hall, which was about a hundred counters, and behind each counter sat one or several elves, made on high stools, some were weighing coins, some were checking the fineness of the stones, and from time to time whispered and then hastily registered on the ledger, and many wizards whispered to the elves in front of the counter, However, judging by the intensity of their quarrel, it seems that the conversation was not so pleasant.
The hall was surrounded by countless doors, and it was unknown where it led.
The elf leading the way led William to a vacant counter, bowed to William, and returned to the silver gate. William looked at the goblin behind the counter, took out a golden key from a small leather bag, and handed it to the goblin behind the counter. "I want to get some money from the Friedrich family's vault five."
The goblin took the key, raised it and examined it carefully, William keenly felt a fluctuation of magic from the touch of the elf's fingers, very faint, it should be some kind of elf-specific identification magic.
Of course, there could not be anything wrong with the key that William took out, so soon the goblin called the key back to William, and then it picked up a bell and shook it, and a goblin walked over quickly.
"Take this gentleman to vault 137, Marceau." The goblin behind the counter said to the goblin who came over.
Then William followed the goblin named Marceau out of the hall through one of the dense doors that surrounded him.
Marceau opened the door and was greeted by a narrow stone corridor surrounded by bright torches, in contrast to the bright and spacious style of the hall.
The stone corridor was a steep descent, and William followed Marceau slowly down to a small railway under the stone corridor, where Marceau whistled softly and rushed out of the darkness at the end of the railway a small dilapidated cart. It's so fast that one can't help but wonder if it will fall apart abruptly.
"Please get in the car, sir." Marceau leaned over William and said.
William sat on the cart with a hint of excitement, and Marceau jumped on the cart as well. The cart sped up and slammed forward.
They galloped down the labyrinthine path, not too fast at first, at least William could remember the path he had taken, but as the depth increased, so did the speed of the cart. The cold air kept lapping on William's face, and he could barely open his eyes. And Marceau was in much better shape, and he even had to hum an unknown tune in the mood.
Soon, however, after crossing an underground lake, the speed of the car slowly decreased, and after passing through a stone forest full of stalactites and stalagmites, it stopped in front of a small door next to the road.
William straightened his windswept hairstyle, stepped out of the cart, came to the door, took the key from the small leather bag and unlocked it. Then he slowly opened the door of the vault, and after a puff of smoke cleared, William finally saw the inside of the vault, there were not many things inside, only a few large piles of gold gallons, and some piles of silver sike like hills. As for the bronze nat? Sorry, not a single one.
William looked at his vault with satisfaction, and put a large sum of gold Galleons into the small leather bag he carried with him. Strangely, as the Jin Galleon was constantly packed into the bag, the size and weight of the bag did not change much.
Apparently this is a magic bag that has been enchanted with a traceless stretching spell, from an ancestor of the family, made of the skin of an unknown animal when traveling in the East, it is worth mentioning that there is a lot of space inside, and it is also enchanted with a traceless stretching spell, as well as a positioning spell, anti-flying spell and a series of spells, and in the mouth of the bag, there is also a ban attached to magic, only the Friedrich family can open it, this is undoubtedly a very advanced magic, and can even use the bloodline of the wizard as a medium for casting spells.
When he was a child, William once begged his father to take him to the family's treasury for a long time, and then William took the bag from a large pile of items in the warehouse. It is worth mentioning that William's wand also came from the family's treasury, when William inadvertently picked it up, he instantly felt a warm current flow from the wand to his hand, and a resonance of magic continued to reverberate in the warehouse, causing other items in the warehouse to vibrate slightly.
But until now, William didn't know what material it was made of. However, this wand is too compatible with William, and it feels like an arm in his hand, so William also uses it as his wand.
William finished withdrawing the money, closed the door of the vault, and the thought of going back to make a small cart, the corners of William's mouth twitched slightly, this thing is good for everything, and it also has a particularly magical magic principle, but it is too fast. William thought viciously that he must invent a windproof charm in the future.