I walked into the bustling street without hesitation and made a beeline straight for Gringotts. The two Goblins guarding the door glared at me as I approached and waved an odd looking paddle at the sack I was carrying before ignoring me. If I had to guess the paddle was likely used to detect if the contents of the sack were dangerous or not. Ironic that the contents were in fact quite dangerous, just not directly. This much gold was enough to ignite fights over after all. -
I walked up to a counter that was free and waited for the Goblin behind the desk to look down at me.
"What is the nature of your visit today?" the ugly creature said with narrowed eyes that I didn't avoid.
"Gold to galleon conversion followed by loan repayment." I answered seriously.
"I am legally required to ask if the gold in question was acquired through legal means?" the Goblin asked and I nodded.
"I got it as part of a trade." I answered honestly.
The Goblin briefly looked over at something on it's desk before nodding. "Very well, a moment please." it said before ringing a bell.
Soon another Goblin arrived and looked at me with a confused but not unkind expression. "You are the one requesting gold to galleon services?" it asked with clear disbelief.
"I am." I said with a nod as I sat the sack down.
The Goblin walked over and opened the mouth of the sack and freezing at what it saw within. The thing quickly closed the sack.
"Grab that and come with me, best we do this in a more private location." it said before turning and walking off.
I hurriedly grabbed the sack and followed behind the Goblin not too surprised by this as it was an outrageous amount of gold to just show off in public. From what I understood of the Goblins from the books they understood the need for secrecy in some things and were especially accommodating if they thought you were worth it. A young wizard walking into the bank with enough gold to buy a mansion definitely qualified as worthwhile. I was led to a nice room with a plush couch and a fine wooden table.
"Place the bars one by one out onto the table please." the Goblin asked seriously.
I did as instructed and heaved the bars out of the bag one by one until the table groaned under their weight but all twenty were present. The Goblin wasted no time at all taking out various tools that it used on each of the bars as it's expression turned more and more shocked as it went until it looked downright pale once it got to the last bar.
"Twenty bars of an average purity of ninety eight point five percent and a weight of twelve point four kilograms. At the average market rate with a fifteen percent conversion fee that is one hundred and fifteen thousand galleons, is that acceptable?" The goblin asked looking at me as though wondering if I was real.
I nodded "Can I have a portion of that used to pay off my outstanding loan in it's entirety while another portion of ten thousand paid out to me directly? The rest can be put in my vault, here's the key." I said handing over my vault key.
"I will need a few minutes to arrange it all, is that okay?" it asked seriously and I nodded.
"I will wait here if need be." I said calmly.
The Goblin scurried off in a hurry and I waited in the room for about fifteen minutes before it returned carrying a small leather pouch about the size of an apple.
"This pouch contains the requested ten thousand galleons and possesses an undetectable extension enchantment for your convenience. Will that be all for today?" the Goblin asked as it handed over the pouch.
"Yes that's everything for today. Tell me your name so I can request you the next time I have business in the bank, your service was excellent." I said and the Goblin actually smiled at that.
"Ragkog sir, it would be my pleasure to serve you again." it said pleased with itself.
With my business there done I left the bank much richer than I entered it. Pure gold may be valuable but you can't really actually buy anything with it. Now though I had an abundance of cash and a variety of shops to hit. My first stop was naturally the alchemist shop I mentioned before called Magical mystique. The was a fairly small one honestly with very little in the way of decoratives. Just the stock laid out and labeled on shelves and a plain counter with an older man sitting behind it.-
"Got anything in mind lad or did the idea of alchemy stir your fancy?" the man asked with a heavy Scottish accent.
"Do you have anything for taking away the problems an old man might be having after a life of conflict?" I asked honestly.
"For an old Auror I take it?" he asked while getting up from his chair.
"Something like that." I replied.
"Healing items don't have much demand 'cept for at St. Mungos and I don't think I've got anything specific like that but I might." he said as he walked over to a specific wall and began looking over the various things until he seemed to find one that satisfied him. "This is a youth elixir. Tricky bit of alchemy that gives the drinker a body like a twenty year old without actually making them younger. Doesn't make them live longer either other than however long having a healthy body would let them normally." he said holding a crystal vial with a swirling silver liquid within it.
"Sounds expensive." I said with a frown.
"Aye, a thousand galleons worth of expensive in fact. It was made as a failed attempt at recreating the elixir of life." the man said honestly.
"I'll take it. I'll also take that primer on alchemy as well." I said pointing at a dusty bookshelf at the far back of the shop that held only a single book covered in cobwebs and dust.
The man looked surprised for a moment before asking me seriously "You sure? That books been sitting there for close to twenty years now?" he asked and I nodded.
"Books on alchemy are rare to find and the topic is only available in later years if there is enough interest at Hogwarts. I'll take any material I can for self study." I say seriously.
"Fair enough, your totals one thousand two hundred and fifty galleons. Assuming you have that that is." he said as he brought the stuff over to the counter.
I pulled my pouch off my waist and dumped out some of it's contents onto the counter before I started to count it out. I found I dumped out more than the required amount and put the remainder back in my pouch. To my surprise the man reached under the counter and handed me an extra book.
"For the last twenty years I've had that book sitting over there as a test of sorts. Till today no one's gone for it since the price was so high. I don't know if you'll make an alchemist worth a damn but since you took that book I'm willing to take that gamble. Now get your stuff and leave an old man to his peace." he said with a chuckle and I smiled happily as I took everything and left.
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