-.-.-Chapter 15-.-.-

“Evening folks, need to get into the alley?” Tom, the barman, asked as he saw us approach.

“I take it you get people asking often?” My dad asked with a smile.

Tom chuckled, “mostly first time muggle borns with their parents, new lot every year when they come in the first time for school supplies,” he said as he waved his wand opening the bar counter as he stepped out putting a drying cloth over his shoulder and began to lead us out to the back.

“You’ve picked a good time to come, the school rush normally only picks up in August, the alley gets packed daily for the whole month” he mused as he led us to the back door and out to the small alleyway and the old brick wall I knew was the entrance to Diagon alley.

“Sounds hectic, good thing we chose to come today then” my mum mused.

“It is but it means good business for those in the alley,” Tom said as he walked up to the wall before looking at me, “now watch closely, you’ll need to remember what bricks to touch with your wand if you want to get into the alley on your own” he warned.

After I nodded I watched closely as he began tapping bricks, three up, two across from the trash bin.

Once the final brick was tapped Tom stepped back as the bricks began to move and rearrange themselves.

“My word,” my dad said with his eyes going wide seeing the magic at work.

“Incredible,” my mum agreed, her eyes already wide as the way opened up.

I stared ahead of us, my eyes wide and a grin growing on my face.

Tom chuckled, “reactions never get old,” he mused fondly, “welcome folks, to Diagon Alley” he said with a nod before leaving us to it.

We stepped forward through the archway and into the alley proper, the sight of all of the shops selling magical items and supplies had my mind whirling with the possibilities that lay before me.

The alley was busy, but nowhere near what I recalled it was like for Harry and his trip here for the first time with Hagrid.

That thought shook me out of my thinking before I turned to my parents who both were looking around in excitement at all the magic they were seeing.

“Come on, we need to go to Gringotts first, remember we need to convert our money for galleons” I told them, getting their attention as I gestured to the tall white building at the end of the alley.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Right come on then let’s get to it” my dad said as we made our way towards the bank, taking in the alley as we walked.

Soon enough we were walking up the white marble steps to the large doors of gringotts and into the main lobby.

I saw my parents' reactions to the goblins when we first laid eyes on them, their eyes going wide.

“What are they?” My mum whispered to me as she eyed the short creatures in suits that were going about doing various things.

“Goblins, they manage the finances of the wizarding world and have a Monopoly on it, be respectful, I’m not sure what knowledge I know about them is actually factual, so just don’t offer them insult for now and we should be fine” I replied in a low voice while thinking back on everything I knew about the species from my past life, the fanon greetings, their beliefs on item ownership belonging to the maker and not the purchaser and something about not baring teeth to them as they took it as a challenge, but I didn’t know if any of it was actually a thing.

My dad overheard me, nodded, as we walked towards a section that had a sign over it with “muggle born currency exchange” above it with five tellers.

“Good evening, we’d like to exchange mundane money for wizarding currency” my dad spoke as we stepped up to the first teller, “what is the current exchange rate?”

“First time,” the goblin replied in a gruff tone, before taking a sheet of parchment and sliding it over the counter, “the exchange rate is currently five pounds sterling to the galleon, the highest denomination” he said and indicated to the sheet of parchment that listed the denomination of Galleons, Sickles and Knuts and how much of each made up to a Galleon.

“The limit on currency exchange is set at two hundred galleons a day” the goblin stated after.

I did the quick math in my head, that meant only one thousand pounds could be exchanged for galleons a day, a reasonable amount, likely set so as not to over-saturate the economy and control the inflation rate.

My dad looked over the parchment before nodding, “what other services does the bank offer besides currency exchange?” He inquired and immediately I was focused on the answer he would get, this could prove to be important.

The goblin reached under his desk and rifled through papers and parchment for a few moments before producing another page, “gringotts bank deals primarily in security of our clients money, we also provide loans to individuals and businesses that require them,” he said gesturing to the page, it listed the types of vaults that they offered, their security and the prices, along with their loan interest rates.

I could hear my dad let out a little gasp when he likely saw the interest rates, I guess it was some ridiculous amount given how greedy goblins were known to be.

My dad pocketed both pieces of parchment after reading them, “well think about things and discuss your other services later, they seem quite reasonable, for now I wish to exchange for one hundred and fifty galleons” he said as he took out his roll of banknotes he had gotten the other day while we were out for my birthday.

The goblin took the money and after a very quick count nodded as he began to count out our galleons before putting them in three bags fifty in each before pushing them across the counter with a mutter of, “thank you for your business”

My dad quickly took the pouches, handing one each to me and my mum before nodding back to the goblin, “thank you” before we began to leave the bank, my mind running over what I had heard as we did so.

----------------------------------------

Chapter word count: 1081