Chapter 34: 34 The Mail

The next morning, Harry woke up to his timepiece alarm. He set his trunk into the center of his bed nest, combed his hair and applied the concealing cream, then quickly changed into his Hogwarts suit and robes. He ate some of the food he had left in his trunk and then donned the first year pointed hat. He wasn't sure why it was only required for the first year of study, though. If it was meant to get him used to a hat, it wasn't doing a good job. He actually had to use a sticking charm on it to get it to stay on his head.

Harry went to the window and looked outside as he thought about Hedwig and didn't see her, so he gathered up what he needed for his first two classes, Charms and History of Magic. He dug out another box of cauldron cakes and used the shrinking charm Reducio on it to make it a quarter of the size and put it in his pocket. He left the dorm with the small bundle under his arm that had two books, his writing instruments, and several sheets of parchment in it.

The other boys hadn't gotten up yet and he went down the stairs to the common room. A couple of people were there and he walked by them to get to the door. He thought he heard them whisper something about him and ignored it.

Harry wanted to find his way to class and he didn't have time to waste with people that were talking behind his back. He went out through the portrait door and went down the hallway. He came to the stairs and had to stop when where they led seemed to change right before his eyes. He saw the end point in exactly the opposite direction than where he wanted to go, so he walked down the hallway and went in another direction.

That was the problem with Hogwarts. There were over a hundred stairways and they all led somewhere, nowhere, or different places, every time you approached them. He only knew that much because Bertha kept mentioning how much fun she and her friends had running up and down the same staircase to go to different places in the castle.

Harry didn't think that was fun at all. Since he was barely ever allowed to go outside except for school, having Hogwarts change all the time was only going to be annoying. He made it down three different staircases and another hallway before he approached another staircase. When he was about to step onto it, it changed from a staircase going down into a staircase going up.

“Stop that!” Harry said at the staircase. “I want to go down! DOWN!”

A few other students were passing by and gave him odd looks and whispered several things. Harry sighed and had to backtrack to another hallway to find another staircase going down. It took him almost twenty minutes before he actually made it down to the ground floor and the Entrance Hall. He walked through the groups of students going into the Great Hall for breakfast. They didn't even bother whispering.

“Is that him?” A girl asked.

“Yeah, that's him. Harry Potter.” A guy said.

“He's pretty full of himself, isn't he?” A boy with white hair commented as he walked over to them.

“You're one to talk, Draco.” The girl said.

“That's Mister Malfoy to you.” Draco said smugly and the three of them laughed.

Harry walked down the right hallway and found the charms classroom. It wasn't supposed to start for a while and the door was shut. Harry thought about trying the door to see if it was locked, when a happy smile and bushy hair appeared at the other end of the hallway.

“I found the class!” Hermione said as she walked over to him. “The stairways kept changing and trying to get me to go back up when I reached the second floor.”

“Me, too.” Harry said. “Did you eat yet?”

“No.” Hermione said and she made an odd face.

Harry thought about telling her that he already ate, then changed his mind. “The Great Hall is back that way.” He said and started walking in that direction. “I was about to see what breakfast was like.”

Hermione walked quickly to stay with him. “Harry, I...”

“It's okay.” Harry said. “I'm sorry that I didn't know this place wasn't like normal school and we have to pay to be here.”

“They board us for most of the year, Harry.” Hermione said. “Someone has to pay for it.”

Harry reluctantly nodded and they walked over to the Entrance Hall and into the Great Hall. The talking and whispers doubled when they entered and Harry did his best to ignore them. He and Hermione walked over to the end of the Griffindor table and sat down.

There were dishes full of scrambled eggs and every other kind of egg you could imagine. Plates of stacked toast were a foot high, which meant that each plate was an entire bun of bread. Strips of bacon were piled on platters and it must have been several packs worth on each platter. Huge pots of porridge, oatmeal, cream of wheat, and every kind of basic dry cereal that existed were spread out for them to eat. Pancakes and waffles by the dozens were scattered all over, too.

Harry stared at it all and the utter waste it was, because he knew perfectly well how much it cost for those things, in the muggle world anyway, because Aunt Petunia always groused over it as she gave him each item to put away.

He wondered what they did with all the food after the meals, because there was way too much for just the first years to eat in one sitting. If they didn't preserve it and only served it for one meal, then the money the school was wasting on food was beyond his imagining.

Harry saw Hermione eyeing him and he gave her another smile then added some scrambled eggs, two pieces of bacon, and a piece of toast to his plate. He didn't notice Ron and the other boys coming into the Great Hall. The other first year girls were right behind them.

“I thought you said you wouldn't eat anything from here.” Ron said as he plunked down onto the seat beside Harry and started piling food onto his plate. “The food's just too good to resist, huh?”

Hermione let out a sigh at Ron's thoughtlessness. “I suppose telling you to think before you speak would fall on deaf ears.”

“Huh? What?” Ron asked with a pancake hanging out of his mouth.

“At least put butter or a bit of syrup on that.” Hermione said instead of repeating herself. “You'll choke on it if it's too dry.”

“Never have before.” Ron said as he shoved the rest of the pancake into his mouth.

Both Hermione and Harry waited to see if he was going to choke, to no avail. Ron chewed it up and swallowed with no problems.

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“Maybe next time, then.” Hermione whispered to Harry, who laughed, despite the implication.

More people came in and they all started eating. About halfway through the time period for breakfast, several large windows opened up at the top of the Great Hall and a swarm of owls came through them.

Harry watched in fascination and over a hundred owls swooped into the room and looped around the tables, found the people they were looking for, then landed with varying degrees of success. The tables might have been old; but, they were well maintained and fairly slippery for owl feet and talons. He saw that the table wasn't scratched up by them, either.

I wonder if it has the same anti-scratch charms as my telescope? Harry asked himself, then he saw a snowy white owl come in through the window. “Hedwig!” He said and put up his hand to wave to her. A few people laughed at his antics and he ignored them. He cleared a small spot for her and then he had the bright idea to put his bundle down for her to land on.

Hedwig gave him a soft hoot of thanks as she easily landed on the rougher surface and her talons dug into the paper to catch herself.

“I forgot to take some owl treats with me.” Harry said and took the letter she had. “Um... just a... have a drink of this.” He pushed a goblet of juice towards her. “I don't know what it is, though.”

Hedwig hooted and tasted it, seemed to shrug, and kept drinking.

Harry flipped the letter over and saw that it was from Gringotts. He broke it open and read the piece of paper inside.

Dear Mr. Potter.

Below is the list of withdrawals and the amounts of gold that have been taken from your vault in the ten years since your parent's deaths. Now that I am personally in control of your account, I will be investigating each withdrawal to the upmost of my ability. Please note that the last one was the one you made on July thirty-first.

I have marked the ones that appear to be tuition for Hogwarts. However, there are far too many for a single student, even accounting for prepaying for all seven years, which is unheard of. Most students don't bother attending past their O.W.L. Level at the end of the fifth year, unless they continue into specialized professional jobs that require further study.

May you always have gold flowing in.

Griphook.

“I knew it.” Harry said.

“What is it?” Hermione asked and leaned in close, quickly read it, then gasped. “It's true?”

Harry nodded. “Someone has been raiding my vault for years.” He said and somehow his voice carried all over the hall and everyone heard him, as if he was sitting right next to them.

Just then, a very loud knocking sound came from the Entrance Hall. The large oaken doors opened and everyone eating in the Great Hall stopped and turned to look. A slightly angry witch that wore stylish robes, strode through the Entrance Hall and into the Great Hall.

Bertha walked right to the end of the Griffindor table and her angry face became a smile. “I came as soon as I could, Harry.”

“But... I sent the letter...”

“I wasn't going to show up all alone, was I?” Bertha asked with a smile and waved at the doors. “I waited until they told me they succeeded in capturing the beast.”

Harry and everyone else looked back at the open doors, just as six men wearing Auror robes appeared with a very large black three headed dog floating between them. The damn thing was ten feet tall and a few of the students screamed at the sight.

Harry almost choked at the sight himself. “That... that's what was on the third floor?”

“It's all right.” Bertha assured him and put a hand on his shoulder. “It's been stunned and secured. It won't harm any students in this school now.”

“FLUFFY!” Hagrid yelled and tried to get around the staff table. He hit an invisible barrier and bounced off. “No! NO! Don't take meh Fluffy!” He said and leaned against the barrier.

“Hagrid.” Bertha looked at him with a stern expression. “You know Cerberus dogs are a Class Four restricted creature.”

“No! Fluffy's the nicest pup anyone's ever met!” Hagrid exclaimed. “Yeh can't take 'em!”

“Don't worry, Hagrid. The Ministry has plenty of lands where such a large and dangerous creature can be released into the wild.”

Harry gasped at the thought of the giant three headed dog just roaming free across the countryside. Bertha turned back to him and winked at him, out of sight of everyone, and he relaxed. She didn't say that it would be released, just that it could be. He sincerely hoped that it wasn't. It looked vicious, even unconscious like it was.

“Thank you.” Harry whispered.

Bertha nodded. “I look forward to your normal weekly letter on Saturday, Harry.” She gave him a quick hug. “Make sure you tell me all about your classes.”

“I will.” Harry said. “Goodbye.”

“Goodbye.” Bertha said and turned towards Albus. “Headmaster. I believe you will be getting an owl from the Ministry soon.” She said and nodded to him, then she strode out of the Great Hall in complete silence as she followed the Aurors and the floating three headed dog out of the castle.

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