Chapter 22: 28th July 1991, Sunday: Part 10

Twenty minutes of intense negotiation later and the Linwoods were now leaving Gringotts money exchange. George came out with a big smile on his face, he had thoroughly enjoyed every second of Dominic's master class. If the option had been available, he would have pulled up a chair and eaten popcorn whilst watching the banter back and forth between Dominic and the goblin. His foster father was unrelenting in his push to get the best possible deal, the little green man never stood a chance.

In the end, Dominic got his own vault. Oh wait, that wasn't quite right. He actually got two vaults, one was temporary and the other was going to be made just for him. It turned out that Gringotts didn't have many vaults that can hold over a million galleons. Apparently, clients who have that much money tend to have their's custom-made to their personal specifications. So for the next three months, Dominic's and Amanda's money will be slowly collected in Gringott's 'current' largest shared vault.

The temporary vault's inefficient size wasn't going to be a problem for the time being since five point two million galleons was going to take over a year to process. Roderick and Benjamin needed that time to hide the transaction from the muggle banks, over thirty million pounds wasn't easy to make disappear without drawing suspicion. In a way, it was a bit like reverse money laundering. Unfortunately for the two overworked tellers, there were going to be a lot more sleepless nights filling out paperwork ahead of them. Hopefully, the humongous commission fee would help keep them motivated.

During that time, a new vault that can hold over ten million galleons will be built for the Linwood's fortune. Most importantly, this second vault would be kept 'off the books'. Dominic made two huge concessions to make this happen. He signed an agreement that another five million galleons would go into his Gringott's account within the next eighteen months, and the goblins could take a maximum of twenty per cent each year to do with as they pleased. Of course, they would have to return the borrowed amount by the following year, but, with no interest. That meant Gringotts could borrow up to two million galleons every year, that was simply an offer they couldn't refuse.

Technically, this massive vault would be owned by no one, it would appear to be just another empty vault waiting for a wealthy client to claim it. But in reality, it will be like Scrooge McDuck's pool of gold coins. The bloodlines of Dominic, Amanda, Ellie and George will all work on the keys, and only they will have twenty-four-hour access. The green goblin, Roderick and Benjamin all signed magical waivers that they couldn't disclose this vault's existence to anyone outside of Gringotts. The Linwoods will soon be one of the richest families in magical England and no one other than them will know.

George really couldn't have understated how impressive the sheer talent Dominic had demonstrated. This was an aspect of his personality he had kept very quiet, Amanda had always seemed like the smooth talker of the two. Even with months of preparation and training, George couldn't ever hope to equal his foster father's gift of the gab. He knew exactly what to say at all times, it was like he could read the goblin's mind without the need for legilimency. And it wasn't just George in amazement, a lot of the discussion seemed to have gone over Remus's and Amanda's heads as they silently watched on. Whatever Dominic's career was before his retirement, it definitely involved high-stake bartering.

A small cloth pouch was suddenly thrown into George's arms as they walked into the centre of Carkitt Market. He instinctively caught it and looked down to see the Gringott's logo woven into the side of the pouch. This was one of two complimentary items the goblin had given Dominic after their deal was closed. They could hold over two hundred galleons inside without increasing in size or weight. George's foster father had proceeded to take over three grand out of his coat and exchange it for five hundred galleons to fill both bags. That meant right now, two hundred and fifty galleons were sitting in George's palm.

"That's yours now to do with as you wish. If you see anything you like, feel free to buy it", Dominic offered while pocketing his pouch.

It was by far the most money George had ever held in his life. His patron never gave him anything except pain and misery, whereas his foster parents just bought him things instead. But this money was now his and his alone, it was oddly empowering. Is this what being rich felt like? If that was true then George never wanted it to stop. It felt good, almost too good. George had to take a deep breath to clear his head, he shouldn't start hoarding at a time like this. It was a shame that he couldn't hold onto this feeling for a little longer, but there were some magical items he needed to buy.

There was equipment George had to obtain other than what the acceptance letter mandated. His plans were going to consume a lot of resources, it was an unavoidable expense of remaining covert. The more he could get legitimately at Diagon Alley, the less he would have to steal at Hogwarts. The difficulty came in making his artificial convictions seem genuine to Remus and his family. No one must know the true intent behind his future acquisitions. With that in mind, George scanned the surrounding shops to find a place to start his spending spree.

Conveniently, Remus was here to make a suggestion, "oh look, it's Stowe & Packers Magical Bags. I'd been wondering where they had moved to."

The Linwoods all looked in the same direction as Remus and saw a tiny blue shop tucked away in the far corner of the market. The building was painted dark blue and had small window planes showing off some scruffy-looking bags neatly arranged on shelves inside. None of the wizards or witches roaming the market were giving the small shop any attention. George didn't blame them, the shop did look boring from the outside. It lacked the vibrant colours and exciting products of all the other stores littering the market.

Amanda turned around and asked, "do they sell anything George needs for Hogwarts?"

Remus rubbed his chin in contemplation, "well... they mainly sell these big globe-trotter style suitcases. I remember having one when I was a first-year."

Amanda shook her head, "George already has a suitcase. Anything else?"

"I don't want to get your hopes up, but they might still have some enchanted bags for sale", Remus suggested before letting out a sigh.

"It's a shame really. Ever since Packers died twenty-or-so years ago, his shop stopped making new bewitched products. No wonder they ended up downsizing."

With that insight into the shop's rocky past, George found himself becoming a little curious. Since there was no harm in doing a little window browsing, he decided to take Remus up on his offer and head over to the shop's entrance. Who knows? He might get lucky and see one of those elusive enchanted briefcases for sale.

"I would like to have a look if that's okay?", asked George with his well-practised innocent expression.

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"Of course you can", Amanda responded warmly.

Once they were standing outside the store, the Linwoods had a good look at the products on offer. There was an assortment of tattered bags and sacks resting on an old rickety wooden shelf. Every item had its own paper tag displaying some outrageous prices. Some of those bags were over one hundred galleons, more than most flying brooms on the market. This had initially got George's hopes up that there might be something good, but he was disappointed to scarcely see any magic radiating off the ragged bags. If they were enchanted then it had to be incredibly weak magic.

Ellie didn't seem impressed either, "what's so magical about these old bags?"

A spark returned to Remus's eyes after he heard Ellie's question, "don't let their appearance confuse you. They might look worthless to you, but they're actually something most wizards and witches can't live without.

Each bag uses the Extension enchantment to create a space inside which is much larger than the bag's usual content limit. The steep prices reflect how large the magic space inside is relative to the container's original size.

Some of the most expensive options can keep living creatures and people inside, and I've heard of wizards living inside of their bags when travelling all around the world."

Ellie's mouth fell open in surprise and envy, "really. You can do that?"

Remus chuckled, "yes, it is indeed possible. What one can do with magic truly has no limits. But..."

He gestured towards the glass, "at those prices, none of those bags will be that extravagant. They're most likely very old and can only hold maybe three to four times their normal capacity. Still very useful for some light shopping if not a little expensive for the likes of myself."

Ellie, who was no doubt thinking about her own magical little kingdom inside of a briefcase, was highly disappointed after that dream-crushing revelation. However, Dominic and Amanda appeared to be highly interested in these bigger-on-the-inside bags.

Dominic tapped the glass while thinking aloud, "if what you said is true, then these should have revolutionised the transport sector. The price and time of deliveries would have plummeted globally. Why isn't someone already taking advantage of this?"

Remus had to burst their bubble as he explained, "unfortunately or fortunately depending on who you ask, muggles are incapable of using the majority of these magical bags. They should require the user to use magic to both deposit and withdraw items.

The Ministry mandates that all sanctioned commercial products must have some form of anti-muggle protection. It is all part of that secrecy act I had mentioned earlier. That being said, nothing is stopping muggles from buying them. It's just that only George would be able to use it."

That final damning limitation left all but one member of the Linwoods feeling deflated. Regardless of the lack-lustre stock, George still wanted to go inside. It would be ideal if he could carry around his 'educational equipment' with him at all times at Hogwarts. One of these bags could fulfil that need. If he used his vision like an enchantment metal detector, he might be able to find something better than what was on display.

He pushed the front door open and was immediately greeted with a wall of leather. He looked around the cramped interior and saw that the entire shop was full to the brim with trunks. The huge boxes were everywhere and stacked right up to the nine-foot-high ceiling. It was a tight fit as the rest of the family plus Remus squeezed themselves in after George, there was barely any space to move around one another. The only way forward was a narrow crevasse between the leaning towers of trunks, hopefully the shop owner would be on the other side.

The Linwoods shimmied through the two-foot wide gap until they reached a small reception desk with an old iron till mounted on top. No one was manning the desk and there was no back room, had the staff gone on a break? The sign hanging from the front door did say it was open, George didn't understand what was going on. Undeterred by the lack of staff, Remus reached over and rang a dusty bell situated on a narrow plinth. Less than a second later, an elderly woman in a worn-out leather apron sprang up from behind the desk. Everyone other than Remus was startled as this person seemingly appeared out of thin air.

The old woman dusted off her apron and apologised, "sorry about that, I was just in the middle of sweeping up my broken Griffin statue collection when you came calling. It's all my fault really, I dropped my father's trunk off my broom like a clumsy troll while I'd been flying over Bristol. I flew down in a panic only to find everything inside either broken or scattered about willy-nilly.

Anyway, enough about my incompetence. I'm Mrs Packers, co-owner of Stower & Packers magical bags. What may interest you fine people today?"

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