Chapter 13: Chapter 12: Diagon Alley

 

‘Fuck!’ 

Adrien groaned inwardly as he felt his vision darken, and the space around him warp. His insides felt like they were being churned and kneaded repeatedly and his navel felt as if it was being pulled by a hook… almost as if he were being fished – a rather amusing analogy, though an accurate one nonetheless.

He, Aurelius, and Aberforth had taken a portkey to travel to the Leaky Cauldron. Apparently, Aberforth disliked apparating and preferred to travel via portkey or floo powder – hence, the current situation.

Adrien was yet to travel via portkey and was initially curious to experience what it actually felt like. After getting used to the feeling of being apparated, he felt pretty confident that he would be able to stomach it and as such, downplayed the incommodiousness associated with it.

Alas, after experiencing it firsthand, Adrien felt that the books didn’t do the feeling justice – It was extremely unpleasant and disorienting…way more than he had imagined.

“Fucking Hell! That was terrible!”

Adrien’s consciousness was brought back to reality by Aurelius’s protest. Unlike him, Aurelius’s face was a slight pale green and he was clutching his stomach aggrievedly.

Seeing that, Adrien chuckled, “Make sure you don’t puke on my shoes.”

Frowning, Aurelius was about to retort but his father reprimanded him.

“Language Aurelius.” Aberforth said, somewhat sternly, in his old and gruff voice.

Aurelius scowled, “Father it's not fair. How come Adrien is allowed to curse but I can’t? He’s the same age as me!”

 Aberforth turned to face Aurelius, “Son, you shouldn’t compare…Adrien is different.”

Aurelius frowned, “Different? Bullsh–”

He was about to continue his rant but his tongue suddenly became tied upon seeing his father’s austere expression. He merely looked towards his feet with a defeated expression.

Aberforth sighed seeing that. Raising a kid was truly a taxing endeavor. 

He then turned to Adrien, “Adrien, could you please reduce your cussing?” he asked nicely.

Adrien shrugged and chuckled, “I’ll try.”

“Mmm” Aberforth just hummed at that. He then clapped his hands and turned around, “Right..Well, enough squabbling. Boys, this is the Leaky Cauldron…basically a bar for wizards. Often came here for a drink during my Hogwarts days.”

It was then that Adrien finally took note of his surroundings. He was in a dark and shabby looking pub. Wizards and witches were seated on shoddy tables throughout its width, presumably gossiping about the latest events across the wizarding world. 

Some wizards were even pointing at him and whispering amongst themselves, though Adrien paid no attention to it.

He was pleasantly surprised by Aberforth's statement.

“Never thought you were that sort of guy during your teenage years.”

From what he had seen so far, Aberforth was blunt, stern, and gruff – not exactly the guy you would have a drink with…at least, for Adrien.

Aberforth turned to face him and raised his eyebrows in amusement, “Thought I’d be stuck up like my brother?”

Adrien chuckled, “I suppose so.”

Aberforth laughed, “Not a chance. We’re complete opposites, me and him…He was not much of the social type growing up whereas I always went out. Often come here most times…to have a drink with friends.”

 

“Mmm” Adrien hummed, “Does it have anything to do with why you established the Hog’s Head?” he curiously asked.

Aberforth smiled, “Yeah, Indeed. I sort of developed a liking for pubs in general and wanted to run my own. Didn’t really have any ambitions back then. Just wanted to live a peaceful life after my sister’s death.”

Adrien just hummed in affirmation. He had guessed as much.

“Right.” Aberforth coughed lightly, “Shall we get going?” he asked, looking at Aurelius and Adrien.

“Yeah.” 

“Tch” Aurelius scowled.

Adrien laughed seeing him like that, “Mate, are you seriously still upset?”

Aurelius’s expression changed, hearing that, “No actually.” he chuckled.

Adrien just shook his head slightly in amusement.

“Alright then, follow me boys.” Aberforth said and then led the two towards a small walled courtyard at the back of the pub.

“Step back a bit.” he muttered to them as he took out his wand. Once Adrien and Aurelius obliged, he proceeded to tap the wall three times, revealing a bustling street behind it,

Adrien’s eyes flickered with emotions upon seeing the iconic Diagon Alley, and he couldn’t help but smile. It was truly magical. The slanting buildings, the crowd of wizards wearing pointy hats, the numerous street vendors selling all sorts of magical items….everything he saw simply screamed, ‘This is the Wizarding World.’

“Welcome to Diagon Alley boys…pretty much the starting point for any Hogwarts student.”

“Amazing!” Aurelius blurted out as he stared at the scenery with effervescent eyes. For him who had never been outside Godric’s Hollow, it was truly exciting, unlike anything he had ever seen before.

Adrien smiled seeing Aurelius, “Yeah, it’s beautiful.” 

Then, he turned to Aberforth, “We’re stopping by Gringotts first right? I’ve sort of got to withdraw some money.”

Aberforth smiled, “Right you are, Adrien, and likewise…”

Aurelius raised his eyebrows, “Gringotts? You mean the goblin’s bank?” he questioned.

“Yeah, that.” Adrien replied, to which Aurelius hummed in acknowledgement.

Aberforth then led them through the streets towards Gringotts bank. As they walked, Adrien noted multiple interesting looking stores he intended to visit in the future, whenever he had the time.

‘Gringotts looks way bigger than it did in the movies.’ he thought as he laid his eyes upon the grandiose white building with pillars. He saw multiple goblins around its large bronze door, some chatting with each other, and others entering the building. 

The entire building was quite…imposing, especially since it pretty much dwarfed all the other buildings around it. Aberforth ushered the way into the bank, only stopping upon reaching a counter with a spectacled goblin behind it.

“Right. I’ll go sort out my stuff. Meet back here?” Adrien asked, looking at Aberforth.

Aberforth just hummed and nodded, and thus, Adrien left them and approached the nearest free counter, again, with a spectacled goblin manning it.

“Good morning. I’m here to withdraw from the Flamel vault.” he said expressionlessly.

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Nicolas and Perenelle had meticulously planned how Adrien would receive his inheritance upon their death. They had named him as the only beneficiary in their will and had assigned Dumbledore as sort of a proxy… just as an extra insurance in case anything went haywire.

Adrien had looked at the will and discussed the terms with Dumbledore. His parents had left him immediate access to all of their foreign bank accounts, and vaults, property, and shares but did not allow him to access the family’s main vault in France as well as the philosopher’s stone until he was 15.

So technically, once Adrien was 15, he could take the philosopher’s stone from Dumbledore on legal grounds and this was something he fully intended to do. The stone was way too powerful and was a culmination of his father’s life’s work; there was simply no way he would allow anyone else besides himself to possess it.

Additionally, he was interested in studying the stone and wondered what other secrets it contained asides from the ones explicitly mentioned in the series. 

When Adrien looked at the summary of the will, he was completely flabbergasted at the amount of wealth that was now in his possession. He had shares in a multitude of firms, accounts, vaults, and property all over the world. He even had a 30% equity in the French Wizarding Bank – la Banque Garde d’Or – and was consequently its largest shareholder, giving him significant influence in dictating how the bank operated.

Just his monetary assets alone totalled over a staggering 10,000,000 galleons (converted), which was ludicrous. 

To help you put it in context, the highest earning job in the wizarding world was the position of Minister for Magic, and they earned about 33,000 galleons per annum. Adrien could pretty much decide to live idly for the rest of his life and would still not be able to put a dent in his accounts.

Honestly, it made sense if one thought about it. Nicolas and Pernelle lived for 6 centuries and saw the entire development of the wizarding civilization with their own eyes. Not to mention the fact that they possessed a magical artifact that was akin to a gold factory.

The goblin behind the counter immediately stopped what he was doing upon hearing the name of the vault that was trying to be accessed. He pulled his glasses slightly down for a moment and looked at Adrien intently.

“A moment please.” he muttered as he got off his high chair and walked to god knows where. 

Shortly after, he came back holding what looked like a brown cuboid box. The goblin opened it in front of Adrien and spoke, 

“Drop your blood on it.”

Adrien looked at what laid within the box. There was a silver knife, and what looked like a small chunk of metal.

‘Interesting.’

Adrien thought, picking up the knife, cutting his palm, and dropping his blood over the piece of metal. The knife wound started to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Once his blood came in contact with the metal, it made a sizzling sound, caught fire and slowly started to turn gold. Adrien raised his eyebrows in amazement at it, he immediately turned on his Truth Eyes to observe the phenomenon and simply saw magical energy particles flocking around the stone and nothing more.

‘Very interesting…’ he thought, intrigued at the interplay of magical energy particles.

The goblin nodded slightly seeing this and closed the box. 

“Key?” he asked, with a stoic expression.

“Here.” Adrien responded, pulling out a golden key from his pockets and showing it to the goblin.

“Right this way then.” The goblin replied, placing the brown box on his counter, and leading Adrien towards the vault areas.

Upon reaching there, they boarded a cart and drove into the deepest parts of the caverns, where the largest, and most guarded vaults were located. Soon, Adrien arrived at the entrance to a large dark cave.

He got off the cart, walked into the cave, and came across a gigantic golden door with intricate rose carvings and a capital letter F emblazoned on it. Under the F, ‘Chercher, Découvrir, et Éclairer was inscribed, in cursive.

‘Seek, Discover, and Enlighten…what a beautiful door…’ Adrien thought as he inspected the opulent door.

“Wonder how much is in this vault.” he muttered as he approached the door, inserted the golden key into its key hole, and turned it.

The door rumbled, made a loud clicking sound and inscribed what looked like a palm groove between its door handles.

Instinctively, Adrien placed his palm in the groove and once he did, he vanished from the spot he was standing on.

‘Surprisingly wasn’t nauseating.’ Adrien thought, opening his eyes and looking at the interior of the vault.

“I know I’ve said this before, but damn, I’m fucking rich.” he muttered as he gazed at the mountains of gold, jewels, books, and ornaments stretching as far as the eye could see.

Adrien walked over to the nearest pile, opened his briefcase – which he had been carrying along all this time – and took out a leather sac.

He then proceeded to withdraw approximately 5000 galleons from the pile, placed it into the pouch and returned the pouch into his briefcase. 

After doing that, he decided to take a look at the book pile, hoping to find something good within it.

Nearly all the books in it were alchemical manuscripts written by Nicolas himself. Adrien took a couple that interested him and was about to leave when he suddenly caught sight of a brown diary in a pile of gold not far away from him.

‘Hmm? What’s that doing there?’ he thought as he approached the pile, intending to investigate its contents.

Curious, he made his way over to the pile, picked up the book, and read the scribbles on its cover. It read,

‘ᛏᚺᛖ ᚨᚱcᚨᚾᛖ ᛊcᚱᛟᛚᛚᛊ’

‘The Arcane Scrolls? What is that?’ he mused as he ran his fingers across the scribbles and furrowed his eyebrows.

He was able to recognize the runes because they were from the Elder Futhark, the oldest known form of runic alphabets. He had studied and learned it extensively when he was younger. 

Though, he had never seen or heard of ‘The Arcane Scrolls’ anywhere in the Harry Potter series and he wondered what they were. From the name, it sounded like some ancient and forgotten knowledge that had been erased from modern records for some reason.

‘This is quite a find. I’ll read this later. I wonder what secrets lay within.’ He thought with effervescent eyes as he caressed the spine of the book.

“Alright, let’s get out of here. Aurelius and Aberforth must be waiting.” he mumbled and put the diary into his briefcase the next moment.

Then, he left the vault and returned to the main lobby of the bank, where Aurelius and Aberforth were waiting for him, like he expected.

“All done?” Aberforth asked as soon as Adrien was within earshot.

“Yeah.” Adrien replied, giving a thumbs up.

“Excellent.” Aberforth replied with a faint smile, “Let’s head off then.” he added, turning around and walking out of the bank.

“Father” Aurelius called out as they walked.

Aberforth turned to face his son and smiled, “Yes Aurelius?”

“Can Adrien and I explore the alley as we shop?” Aurelius asked, meeting Aberforth’s steel blue eyes.

“I don’t see why not. I did the same when I was your age.” Aberforth started, smiling nostalgically, “You guys can shop by yourselves and meet me back at the cauldron. Make sure to not get into any funny business.” he said, looking at Aurelius intently.

“Brilliant!” Aurelius excitedly exclaimed and immediately turned to Adrien.

“What do you say mate? You fancy an adventure?” he asked brightly.

Adrien smiled seeing Aurelius’s vivacious spirit. “Count me in…”

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