This Dance We Do

Chapter 8: The Ride Through Gringotts

Ron stumbled out of the fireplace and looked around. He was in the Leaky Cauldron's bar, which was currently empty except for Tom, the toothless landlord, who did not seem very interested in Ron's arrival.

Just then, green flames burst to life in the hearth and Harry came spinning into view. He stepped gingerly out of the fireplace and braced himself against a table.

"Don't think I should have eaten just before travelling."

Ron look a step back. "You're not going to be sick, are you?"

Harry shook his head and straightened his glasses as Hermione came into view. She, too, looked slightly worse for wear. Her hair was slightly bushier than normal and she was covered head to toe in soot.

"Right then," she said as she attempted to brush soot off herself. "I reckon we should try to get cleaned up before we go anywhere. Um, excuse me," she walked towards Tom, "could you direct us to the loo, please?"

Tom pointed a gnarled finger down a hall, then turned back to his paper.

"Thank you."

She walked down the indicated hall, closely followed by Ron and Harry, and paused outside a door.

"After we're freshened up some, we'll meet out in the courtyard, is that all right?"

Ron and Harry nodded and Hermione disappeared through the door that Ron could now see was labelled "Witches." He and Harry pushed their way through the door marked "Wizards."

The bathroom was dimly lit and fairly sparse. There were no decorations, simply two cubicles, two sinks, two mirrors, and two torches on the walls. Ron looked at Harry and they silently agreed to make quick work of cleaning up.

Moving cautiously to one of the sinks, Ron turned on the tap and looked at himself in the mirror, something he had to bend over slightly to accomplish. It took several minutes, and plenty of scrubbing, but Ron finally managed to clean most of the soot off his face, clothes, and hair. He shook his fingers through his hair and managed to get it to look fairly wind swept. He stepped back to admire the effect, but whipped around when Harry snorted.

"What?" Ron asked heatedly. Harry really had a lot to laugh at, with the state his hair was perpetually in.

Harry simply raised his hands in front of him and grinned wickedly. "Nothing, mate, nothing."

Ron scowled and stormed from the bathroom, Harry on his heels. They found Hermione already in the courtyard, pink faced and her hair tied back. She turned to face them.

"Honestly, I thought it was supposed to be girls who took forever in the loo."

Ron scowled at her as well as she walked over to the wall and tapped a brick three times with her wand. They stood back as the entrance to Diagon Alley opened before them.

It soon became clear to Ron why Hermione had decided to come to London as early as she did. As they walked down the street it was the emptiest Ron had ever seen it. Almost all the shops were still closed and the only wizards who were out were old men talking loudly about politics.

"Well, I sure as heck didn't vote for him! Wanted Dumbledore, I did. I said, 'Put a man like Fudge in office and we'll have another You-Know-Who in ten years time,' didn't I, Earl?"

"Uh huh. I'm ashamed to admit that I did vote for him, but if I could get my hands on a Time Turner I'd change it in a heartbeat, yes sir."

As they walked along, Hermione kept grabbing Harry and Ron by their wrists and dragging them along, keeping them from looking in shop windows.

"Oh, for heaven's sake! We're going to be coming back for school shopping soon enough, you can do your shopping here then. I've got a lot I want to show you both, and I won't have time if you keep dawdling."

By the time they reached Gringotts, Ron was greatly reminded of his mother. Hermione stood at the foot of the stairs, one hand on her hip, the other pointing up the stairs.

"Come on, go ahead of me. For all I know, the two of you will run off if I turn my back."

"Honestly, Hermione. We're not three."

"Really? Well, stop acting like it and I might believe you. Now come on, let's go!"

When they reached the front doors, which were opened for them by grim looking goblins in scarlet and gold, Ron and Harry were in a foul temper. Neither of them understood why Hermione was treating them the way she was. They simply wanted to look around, but, of course, Hermione had a schedule that needed to be followed, and heaven forbid if you go against it.

It was decided that Ron, being the tallest and the one who could most easily see over the counters, would handle talking to the goblins. He hated goblins, they always gave him the creeps. Ron took a deep breath, though, and approached the nearest goblin who was not busy.

"Can I help you?" it asked in its low, scratchy voice.

"Yes," Ron replied and cursed his voice for breaking. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Yes, Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley here to take money from their vaults, please."

"Do you have the keys?"

"Um," Ron turned to Harry. "Your key, mate?" Harry fumbled a bit, but pulled a small gold key from his pocket and handed it to Ron. Ron pulled out his own key, then handed both to the goblin, flinching as their fingers touched.

"Right this way, then."

They followed the goblin into a back hall and up to the boarding area. The goblin climbed into the cart, followed by Harry, then Hermione, then lastly Ron. When the cart took off with a jerk Ron closed his eyes; he really did not like these rides. It seemed that Hermione liked them less, however. Ron could hear her whimpering beside him. Blindly, he reached out a hand until he found hers, lacing their fingers together. He felt Hermoine pull his hand into her lap and cover it with her other.

Ron was not aware that he was still in the cart until he heard the goblin call, "Vault 726."

Ron opened his eyes and watched as Harry got out of the cart and walked to his vault. Ron tired not to look at the immense piles of gold that Harry's vault contained. He knew that Harry was wealthy, but sometimes he liked to pretend that he was just like Ron.

Ron shifted his gaze to Hermione and felt his heart leap. Her eyes were still tightly closed and her breathing was labored. Her cheeks were flushed from the cold wind and pieces of her hair were sticking up at odd angles.

"Hey," Ron whispered, rubbing his thumb over her hand. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked at him. "It's okay, we're almost done." She nodded, offered him a weak smile, and closed her eyes again.

Harry clambered back into the cart and they were off again. Hermione squeezed Ron's hand tightly. He started to run his thumb over the back of her hand again, and she began to relax.

The cart slowed once more. "Vault 962."

Ron crawled across Hermione and Harry and went to his vault. He tried to hide how little gold he had. When he took his seat again he could feel his ears burning. Why did he have to be so poor? What had he done? He closed his eyes as the cart took off again, brooding over how unfair life is, until he felt Hermione reach out for his hand.

When they got off the cart, Ron started heading for the exit. Being around so many goblins was starting to make him nervous.

"Um, Ron," he turned around. "You still have to exchange your money."

Ron sighed and returned to the counter. "I'd like to exchange this for Muggle money, please."

"Would you like Franks, Pounds, Dollars, Pesos, what?"

"Er..."

"Pounds," Hermione hissed from behind him.

"Pounds please. Could I get it in pounds." The goblin handed him a small stack of paper, then looked around him, as if looking for the next in line. Ron turned to Hermione, "Is this it?" She nodded and he pocketed the papers.

After he repeated the process for Harry, Ron was finally able to leave the goblin infested building behind. When he reached the bottom of the stairs he shuddered, glad to be out of the building.

"All right, come on. We should probably go get Harry's trunks first, and then we can start off. Would you like to go to the Library or the Museum first?"

Ron and Harry stopped dead in their tracks.

"What?"

"Go where?"

"The Library or the Museum, which would you like to visit first." She was talking very slowly, like she thought they had not understood her.

"Come on, Hermione. Don't we spend enough time in the library at school, do we have to go visit one on our holiday?"

"But it's not like the one at school at all! It's very interesting, I swear. And the Museum is even more so. They have all these artefacts from ancient Greece and Rome, and there's a whole section on Egypt, with mummies and everything. I thought that might interest you, Ron, since you went to Egypt two years ago. And...and..." she seemed to deflate. "I just thought that it might be an interesting way to tie our culture into Muggle culture. I spent time looking up facts to tell you both about things I thought you might like to see, so you didn't have to do it yourself." Ron highly doubted that he or Harry would have spent any time doing extra research, no matter how interesting something was, but it touched him that she tried to save them work. "But I'll understand if you don't want to go see it. I suppose we could just take a bus tour or something."

Ron's heart broke with how crestfallen Hermione looked. She had put so much thought and energy into this, for them. She truly was a wonderful and amazing person.

"Lets find a shop where we can by Harry's swimming trunks, then go to the Library first, get that out of the way. Sounds like the museum will be interesting, at least."

Ron could feel his ears burn as Hermione beamed at him.