Harry Potter and the Dream of Fate

*Chapter Three*

The Goblins

"Oh, ha, yeah, um and you must be a warlock! Well Mr. Hagrick sir, I've really got to get going." She tried to move but couldn't, her legs were still frozen. She decided to take this matter into her own hands and starting rubbing her knees with the palms of her hands. Slowly she whispered, "Unfreeze." And with that she slowly bent her knees and her legs began to move. She was free! She started walking towards the street and stopped dead noticing what she had just done. "A witch?" she whispered to herself. "A witch!" she said excitedly, then turned to Hagrid. "A witch." He looked at her. "Yup," said Hagrid, "So less go?"

"Go!" she laughed, "Go where!"

"Hogwarts a course!" he chuckled. "Dumbledore will tell you the rest..."

* * * * * * * * * * *

"G'bye Hermione! Thanks for coming!" He couldn't believe the weekend was over. Hermione had decided to stay all weekend and it was so much fun. He would have enjoyed it doubly if Ron had been there, but Hermione was still one of his best friends. Tomorrow the Dursley's would be returning and Harry's life would be back to normal. Well, almost.

He stared at his ceiling while he heard Uncle Vernon snoring. For some reason he couldn't fall asleep, only one more week until school started and the next day he was going to go to Diagon Alley and then spend the rest of the summer at the Burrow with Ron. It had been weeks since his birthday and he missed Hermione dearly and was also exited because he would see her at the Burrow and Diagon Alley also. Maybe it was his excitement that left him awake, or maybe it was Uncle Vernon's stupid snoring. Then again it could be the white hot pain that came from his scar. "Hell no." Harry started and threw himself off his bed.

He walked towards the kitchen, scratching his scar. He tiptoed down the stairs so he wouldn't wake up the Dursley's and tried to get a glass of water. As he finished walking down the stairs however, he was greeted by an inconspicuous shadow lurking behind the couch. Harry picked up one of the lone magazines on the end table and rolled it up into a cone, knowing it wouldn't do much use if it was some wizard like Voldemort, but it was worth a shot. He slowly crept behind the couch to come face to face with a large black dog. "Sirius!" Harry shouted a bit too loudly.

* * * * * * * * * *

"Oh, wow!" she said. Hagrid had not yet seen her smile, and it was fabulous. It was if 100 light bulbs were glowing on her face."If yeh like it now," he said, "Wait till yeh see Hogwarts!" They were walking through Diagon Alley to get to Gringotts. Unlike Harry's first visit to Diagon Alley, people were just passing by, not goggling at this new witch. It was probably better that way.

As they approached Gringotts, four or five goblins ran out. "Closed! Closed!" They had to stand on each other to be seen. Hagrid and the girl approached them. "What der yeh mean, closed?" Hagrid asked. "We mean..." started one, "Not opened!" finished another. "No vacancy!"

"The End!"

"Hasta Lavista!" shouted three others. The girl looked at them viciously. "But we, I mean I need money!" she shouted. The goblins automatically got off each other and lined up as though in attention. It seemed like these words came second nature to them. "Vault Number," they said in unison. "Uhh...Hagrid?" She looked up at him. Hagrid took out a slip of paper with the number 612 on it.

"Six hundred twelve," he said. The first goblin stepped up proudly. "Six hundred twelve? Ah yes, right this..." And then he stopped and shrieked, a shriek so loud the other goblins got in panic too. The stopped, pointed a finger at the girl and glared. "It was you! It was you witch! We found her, we found her!" She stared at them in disbelief. "W...wha..." She started. Then out of the great doors of Gringotts stepped out the Minister of Magic himself, Cornelius Fudge.

He walked towards the girl with a straight face and a stiff step. Hagrid looked as though he had just seen a hippogriff executed. "Fudge," he managed to spit out in a menacing tone. The girl looked from Hagrid to the freaked goblins, to the man and back to Hagrid again. Then her reflexives kicked in. "It wasn't me!" she shouted. There was no way she had gotten herself into trouble already.

"It seems," he started in a serious tone, "there is a problem here." As he stepped into the sunlight you could see he wasn't the normal Fudge everyone was used to. His hair was messy, his face had acquired a few wrinkles and his normally clean cut chin had grown stubble. His eyes were the worst of all however. They were dull and ice cold. "Well," The girl was the first to break the awkward silence." What's the problem?" Fudge straightened up. "You are the owner of vault 612?" She tapped her foot. "Yes, um, I believe so," she said impatiently. "Can I get my money now?"

"The only thing you will get out of that vault, young lady, is a dead body." He said all this without twitching or moving, as thought it was the most normal news ever heard, like getting the mail, or having to buy socks. The girl didn't take it was well though, her eyes widened. "Well, I don't want it then," she blurted out. Then covered her mouth, now was definitely not the time for wisecracks. Fudge raised an eyebrow. "Maybe you should come with us..." Hagrid finally moved. He stepped in front of the girl and spoke, his voice firm. "I don' think tha's gonna be necessary." He motioned to the girl. "Less go." She left without an argument.

* * * * * * * * * * *

"Sirius! Is that you!" The dog slowly turned into a man, gaunt and pale, but very serious and stern. "Hello Harry," he said firmly and he pressed his finger onto his lips. "You ought to be more quiet." Harry was concerned about his godfather's appearance, but obeyed him, signaling the couch for them to sit down. "What are you doing here?" he whispered, excitement in his voice. Sirius opened up his hands and stared at his palms. "I came to see my godson," he said, "And to warn him." His voice wasn't happy and Harry didn't think he was about to invite him over for the summer.

"Warn me about what?" Harry said, trying to keep his voice down to a whisper. His thoughts now turned to the pain behind his scar. "Please don't say..." But he was cut off by Sirius. "Yes, Harry, it's about Voldemort."

"Well, what about?"

"He is closer," he said with a sigh, Harry heard his conscience say, 'no duh.' Because of his scar, but he tried to be as surprised as he could. "How close is closer?" Harry said almost silently. Sirius looked at him. "Close enough," he said flatly. Harry felt extremely depressed considering this was the first time he was seeing his godfather for months. "So what can we do?" At those words Sirius flinched and his eyes became rather dull. "I don't know, Harry, I don't know." Harry felt very sympathetic for his godfather. He knew that Sirius would try anything to protect him and since he couldn't do anything at all it must have been killing him inside.

"Well," Harry began, now looking at his palms himself, "Nobody really knows I guess."

"You've got to take precautions Harry, protect yourself."

"Tomorrow," and he stopped glancing at the clock. It was almost 2:30 in the morning. "Later today I'm going to Diagon Alley, then the Burrow." This seemed to awaken Sirius from his dead personality. "But, Harry..."

"It's ok," he said. "I'm going to be surrounded by wizards and then I'll be with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, and Mr. Weasley is from the Ministry, I don't think Voldemort will dare kidnap me in front of all those wizards."

"Harry, it's still too risky."

Harry started to feel heat rise from his stomach to his cheeks. He loved his godfather and was terribly of Voldemort himself, but he just couldn't keep from going to the Burrow. "If I stop living, Sirius, he will have won, and I just won't let him win."

Sirius got up and sat next to Harry. He put his arm around his shoulders and breathed heavily. "I'm worried about you, you know." Harry smiled. "I know." Harry then got up and stretched, his foot had fallen asleep from sitting down so long. "I know he's after me, and personally, I'm ready." Harry said this quite strongly, considering he knew that the last thing he was, was ready. "How long are you here for?" Sirius looked up at Harry. He could tell that Harry had just about enough of this subject for the time being and smiled at him. "About one more hour, do these foolish muggles have any food?" Harry smiled and nodded, happy to have his godfather back to normal. He led him to the kitchen and gave him all of the left over pork chops from last night and then went and sat with him. The hour went by too quickly and before he knew it, Sirius had transfigured himself into a dog and headed towards the fireplace. "Good bye, Harry," he said and with a quick 'pop' he was gone.

It was about 4:00 in the morning when Harry had the kitchen back to normal and the couch clear of all the black dog fur. He decided to go back to his room and wait until the Dursley's woke up to get ready for his trip. He headed to his room, his glass of water forgotten.

As Harry packed his trunk to leave his prison of a house, he heard Dudley smash another one of his TV's. Grateful that he was leaving, he locked his trunk and hauled it down the stairs. Mr. and Mrs. Dursley were sitting in the parlor, sipping tea and nibbling on crumpets. "Um, I'm going on Floo Powder," he said. "You know, through the fireplace.." Expecting Uncle Vernon to explode he shut his eyes hard and waited for the lecture. Uncle Vernon just looked at him. "Hurry it up then." Harry opened his eyes and saw him turn back to his paper and tea. He believed that they were just so glad to be rid of him they weren't going to waste time scolding him.

Harry walked over to the fireplace and grabbed the tiny bag on top of the mantel. He threw the powder in to the flames and they instantly turned bright green. He stepped in with his trunk and Hedwig's cage, this still gave him the creeps.

"Diagon Alley!" he shouted and tucked his elbows in. As soon as he took off, he arrived, sprawled on the ground, with his trunk and cage on his side. Hedwig was squawking madly. "Alright, okay, its over," he said to calm her down. He got up and dusted the dirt off his clothes. "Look who decided to drop in," said a cold icy voice behind him. Harry sighed deeply. He really didn't need this right now. "Hullo Malfoy," he said as he turned around. "I see you can't even travel by Floo powder right." He laughed and Harry glared at him. "I got here didn't I?" he said through gritted teeth. Malfoy looked around, "So where's the beggar and the mudblood?" he said. "Decided you were too good for them Potter?" That was it, Harry had taken his wand out swiftly from his jeans and pointed it straight at Malfoy's face. "Go jump off a cliff Malfoy," he said, and Malfoy got the picture. "See you in school Harry!" he said his words dripping with sarcasm, and he turned and walked away. Harry feeling pretty good about himself decided to look for Ron.

After a bit of walking, he ran not into Ron, but another good friend, Hagrid. He smiled as he saw Harry. "'ello Harry!" he said and whacked Harry on the back, Harry almost fell forward. " 'ow yeh doin?"

"Ok," Harry said.

"Not worryin' about yeh-no-who are yeh Harry?" Harry could tell Hagrid was concerned.

"Not really," Harry said matter-of-factly. "I even forget about it." Hagrid looked please. "Thata boy!" he said. "Guess what!" He could tell Hagrid was really exited about something. "What?" said Harry, this looked like good news.

"Hogwarts got a new student."

"Really?" Harry said. "Who?" Harry was a bit nervous. He wondered if Hagrid was going to become a student.

"Well, " Hagrid started beaming, "I believe Hermione is gonna make a new friend."

"Er-"

"A girl is the new student!"

"Ok, uh , what's her name then?" Hagrid was now completely ignoring Harry's questions.

"She's American, yeh know, you could say a stray." He laughed. "Troublemaker she is, but she's got a good heart, wouldn't hurt anyone, well not really hurt them without a fair reason!" Hagrid took a deep breath to continue when Harry asked him forcefully, "So what's her name?" Hagrid lost his train of thought. "Huh? What? Oh, yeah, her name. Her name is Persephone."

"Oh, ok," Harry nodded. Then Hagrid spoke lower than a whisper. "You know what's so special about her, Harry?"

"Um, no."

He lowered his voice still. "She can do wandless magic."

"Um, that's good." Was that special? Harry felt ignorant of this world once again.

"Good?" Hagrid said in his usual tone again. "Tha's brilliant Harry! Not even yeh-no-who could or can do tha'!"

Harry thought of what to say but was cut off yet again. "Harry," Hagrid started. "It's okay to tell yeh friends 'bout her, but don' mention 'nythin' 'bout the wandless stuff, OK?"

"OK, Hagrid," Harry agreed. "Um, I'm going to go look for Ron, ok?" Harry asked.

"Yeh sure, see ya Harry!"

"Bye Hagrid, nice to see you!"

"Yeah, just member not to say..."

"Yeah, I know, bye!" Harry turned to find Ron and the new student completely left his mind. He just wanted to find Ron before he caught up with Malfoy again. Sure enough, he saw the flaming redheaded boy turn the corner. Surprisingly, all by himself. He had something in the palm of his hand and hid it quickly once he saw Harry. "Ron!" Harry shouted, more happy than he'd felt in days. "So good to see you! Whatcha got there?" Ron stuffed it into his pockets. "Nothing, nothing at all." Harry didn't like the fact that Ron was hiding something from him, but he didn't let it spoil the moment. "How was America?" This brought Ron back to his usual talkative self. They sat on a nearby bench as Ron told all his stories, opinions and theories ("They should have a student exchange program!") to Harry, as Harry sat there listening, nodding ever once in a while to let Ron know he was listening.

"So where's the rest of the family?" Harry asked Ron.

"Oh," Ron hesitated, "You see we found a village in NY and bought all our Hogwarts stuff there, and since Bill and Charlie are visiting mum let me come here by myself. I was just looking for you and Hermione."

"Oh, Hermione is here?" Harry asked.

"Yeah," said Ron, "She'll be spending the rest of the summer with us in the Burrow. Haven't found her yet though." At that moment they heard a great big squeal of excitement as a bushy haired figure run towards them. "Hermione!" they both said in unison. She was carrying two suitcases, one in each hand. However, she didn't look the same at all. She had changed dramatically since she had visited Harry for his birthday. Her hair wasn't bushy but curly and now it was super shiny. And for the first time ever, she was wearing make-up. Her lashes were thick and curled, with a tint of silver on her eyelids. Her skin was glowing and she had a shiny pink lip gloss on. She looked really pretty.

She put her bags down and gave Harry a nice tight hug. "I've been looking for you guys everywhere!" she said when she let him go. She then turned to Ron and gave him a hug as well. "Wow, Ron, you're taller!" In fact, he was, he must have grown about two inches, he was about one inch taller than Harry and Hermione. He just blushed. "Well can we go now?" she said once he let her go. "Yeah, a course!" Ron said, he sounded really exited. Then he frowned a bit. "Uh, I've already got all of my stuff..." he said slowly. Hermione looked at him, then switched her glance towards Harry. "Have you Harry?"

"Oh, no." She smiled. "Well neither have I!" she said brightly, "I guess you'll just have to tag along Ron." He smiled. This was going to be fun. And with that Hermione picked up her bags and they set off.