Hogwarts: I am Snape

Chapter 7 Gringotts

A few days later, on the morning before leaving the house, Snape watched as Irene pried up a loose floorboard in the living room and used magic to dig a deep hole underneath it.

"Not this spot..." she muttered, poking at the dirt and pebbles on the ground with her wand, "Back to normal."

This process was repeated seven times before she finally found a small, slightly dull-colored gold key under the floor, cleaned it slightly, and put it in her pocket.

Upon seeing this, Snape had given up hope of getting the vault.

"Come on, let's set off."

After being Apparated by Eileen's entourage to the entrance of the Leaky Cauldron, Snape gasped for breath and it took him a while to catch his breath.

"Are you alright?" Eileen asked, looking down at him with concern. "I need to get used to this feeling."

“It’s alright,” Snape said, patting his ear. “Let’s go inside.”

Then, they walked through the bar and into Diagon Alley.

This was the first time Snape had stepped into this snow-white building that stood tall above the other shops in Diagon Alley.

Walking to the long counter, Eileen tapped the table and said to an idle fairy in front of her:

"Hello, we need to retrieve something from the Prince family's vault."

After carefully examining the little golden key that Eileen handed over, the fairy nodded.

"No problem, I'll have someone take you to this underground vault. Pull the tab!"

Pull ring?

Such a coincidence?
Snape couldn't help but stare intently at a dark-skinned goblin with long, thin fingers walking towards them.

"Wizard, I don't like the look in your eyes."

Pull Ring glared at Snape with his slanted, dark eyes.

Snape quickly looked away.

He had no recollection of this goblin having a magnanimous nature. There was really no need to anger the pull ring before reaching the vault and emerging from underground.

Pulling the ring led them out of the hall, through a thick iron gate, and into a narrow stone corridor.

"call out--"

The pull ring gave a crisp whistle.

A small cart rumbled and rolled towards them along the track.

Once they had all climbed onto the cart, the pull ring pushed one of the handles forward, and the cart immediately started moving.

A cold air current whistled in my face.

Soon, they followed the winding passage and arrived deep underground.

After they left the underground lake, which was covered with huge stalactites and stalagmites, a while later the cart finally slowed down and stopped in front of a door.

Pull the ring to get off the car, insert the key into the lock, and then place your hand on the door.

The vault door then disappeared, revealing a hole.

Snape peered inside.

This glance made him gasp in shock:
Inside the door, there was a small mountain of gold coins.

On the shelves in the corners, there were also some potions in bottles, dried herbs, thick books, and some parchment scrolls.

"You call this 'there should be some gold inside'?"

Snape turned to Eileen, gesturing for her to come and see as well.

This scene was clearly unexpected for Eileen. She opened her mouth slightly, blinked hard, but made no sound.

Snape let out a long breath.

"I think we'll never need to work in our lives."

After filling two bags to the brim with Galleons, they rode back to the ground in a small cart.

"Let's go buy some things next."

Eileen glanced at Snape's wrist peeking out from the cuffs of his robe and at the old sneakers that the hem couldn't conceal.

"You'll need a few new robes, and you can also buy some books for next semester in advance." "It's okay, I'll think about it after the OWL results come out. Besides, there's nothing wrong with old textbooks; I've even made quite a few notes in some of them."

Before stepping out of Gringotts, Snape hesitated for a moment and said:

"Wait... let's go exchange some Muggle currency... um... I want to buy some Muggle-made clothes and some daily necessities."

"Daily necessities?" Eileen asked, somewhat puzzled.

"For example, shampoo..."

Snape knew this answer sounded rather strange, since wizards certainly had better options.

As expected, Eileen raised her own question.

"Then why not buy 'Instant Smooth Hair Toner'?"

“I don’t like the taste,” Snape replied somewhat curtly, then added, “It makes me feel a little nauseous.”

"Then buy some for me too."

As Eileen spoke, she shoved a bag into Snape's hand.

"If there's anything you want, just go and buy it yourself."

After buying their new robes at Lady Malkin's Robes Shop, the two of them, each carrying a scoop of ice cream from Florin Fosco Ice Cream Shop, strolled leisurely to the Quidditch Boutique, which was almost packed with people.

Over the heads of a group of children, Snape spotted a magnificent flying broom in the shop window.

The sign next to the flying broom reads in beautiful lettering: "Nimbus 1500 – Experience the thrill of high-speed flight! Aerodynamic design, premium birch handle, magically polished, balancing speed and precision. Accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in ten seconds, with a top speed of 107 mph. Your best partner on the racetrack!"

“No, I don’t want this.” Noticing Erin’s questioning gaze, Snape quickly swallowed a mouthful of ice cream. “I don’t play Quidditch.”

When he got home, Snape took out the old Goblin Stone from his suitcase, took it downstairs and placed it on the wooden table.

"Want to play a few rounds? I remember reading in the Daily Prophet in the Hogwarts library that you used to be the captain of the school's Goblin team."

"I haven't touched this in a long time."

Eileen unconsciously raised her hand and stroked a small, round Gobu stone with her rough fingertips.

"Come on, we've got nothing better to do anyway."

Snape sat down on the other side of the table.

Why are there so many things in Princeton's vault?

The pebble he flicked missed its target, trembling fearfully on the table.

"This shouldn't be something Uncle Xia Lan could have saved up..."

Eileen struck the trembling pebble precisely. Her pebble triumphantly sprayed a foul-smelling liquid in Snape's face.

"Perhaps our ancestors were wealthy in the past."

"Ptooey—ptooey! What's that smell?!"

Snape wiped the sticky liquid off his face.

"But that was really surprising. Looking back on those days, I always feel like I was just putting up with something I didn't have."

Soon after, he began to reek of an unpleasant odor.

He helplessly raised his hands.

"That's enough for today, I give up."

After cleaning up and returning to the living room, Snape suddenly realized that Erin didn't seem to need to continue living there.

"Mom, why don't you move to another place?"

"Dingworth in Cornwall, Upper Flagley in Yorkshire, Autry St. Catchpool in Devon... anywhere is fine. How about moving to a place where wizarding families live?"

"Hmm... that should be fine." Eileen hesitated for a moment before saying, "I'll go and see where there's suitable land or a house in a while."

"Okay, just write to me after you move," Snape said, then rushed out the door. "I'm going to buy you an owl!"

"But how will you get there—"

"Knight Bus!"

(End of this chapter)