After quite a lot of arguing, Harry had been allowed to travel to Diagon Alley in his Titania frame. So it was that the three of them appeared on the steps of Gringotts in a flash of fire. Fawkes immediately moving to perch on top of Natah's chassis. Minerva steps forward to talk to one of the Aurors that had showed up in the brief window of time since Fawkes brought Natah last time.
"Good day Auror…"
"Prentice Professor. What's going on, and what's with the monsters?"
"I'm showing a student around, they're the one wearing the butterfly themed armour."
"And the other one?"
"Their adoptive mother."
"I see, I think I should assign an escort while you're here." He looks nervously at the rather large sword on the back of the person in armour.
"I assure you that I am perfectly capable of looking after my charges on my own. Or are you going to argue that."
"No Professor, it's just."
"Just?"
"Nothing professor."
"Good, make sure it stays that way."
"But what about their weapons?"
Minerva looks pointedly at the wand in his hand.
"We don't know what she might do with that sword."
"Auror Prentice, you are carrying a deadly weapon that you've been trained to use. You are surrounded by people carrying the same weapon, and you are worried about a sword?"
"Off with you, and if I catch you trying to make trouble for my student you'll wish that Madam Bones got to you first. Oh, and existing isn't yet a crime before one of the bumbling idiots in the Ministry starts trying to throw their weight around."
Turning around, she stalks back to Harry and Natah, who seem to be in a stand off with the goblin guards.
"What is going on here?"
"They are refusing to remove their disguises before entering."
"At least this will be easy to sort out, they're not disguises. This is like a suit of armour," – She indicates Harry – "and this one is her actual body" – She indicates Natah – "Additionally, neither of them speak English."
Turning to the two she says, "
The guard thought that you were in disguise and was trying to get you to remove them before entering. I'm going to tell them that we need to see an account manager."
Harry nods in response so she switches back to English, "We need to see an account manager, are you going to refuse to let us in?"
The guard looks Harry up and down, "I'm going to need to take the lady's sword."
Minerva hesitates before translating that.
"
Tell him, if he can take it then I'll let him hold on to it."
"What? Are you insane?"
"I refuse to just relinquish my weapons."
Minerva swallows hard, "She said, if he can take it you can hold onto it."
The guard barks a laugh, "In you go then, see that she behaves or else."
As they enter the bank, all eyes seem to watch them. Though goblins seem to be watching the sword more than the people. Minerva walks up to one of the tellers, the witches and wizards in the queue suddenly finding a better queue to be in when Harry and Natah follow her.
"How can I help you witch?"
Knowing that the counters have a muffling effect, Minerva isn't afraid to say, "I want to speak with the Potter Account Manager about Business my charge has with them."
"And does your charge have a key?"
"Not that they know is their key."
"I see. Hooknow, take these people to accounts verification. Follow this goblin, they will take you to have their identity verified."
Minerva is quite glad of the break, as translating is harder than she'd ever thought it was. Next time she does a summer lecture on Transfiguration she'll have to thank the interpreter.
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Harry and Natah shuffle into a cramped office with a ceiling that is barely high enough for Natah to float upright. In front of them sits a small goblin on a chair sized for him against a desk sized for a human.
"
You claim you need to see the Potter account manager."
Minerva replies, "
We do, I have the Potter heir with me."
"I was under the impression that the Potter heir was male."
Harry decides that this is probably the right time to transfer out of Titania, so she kneels down in seiza and transfers out in he same position before standing up, "I am Harry. Apparently I also have the name Potter."
"
Interesting magic, I suppose you're going to show me your scar now."
Harry looks confused,
"Which one?"
"
Why the one on your forehead."
"That would be a little difficult as it was treated and removed when I was a toddler."
"
I can't say I've heard that particular excuse before. Well, now we come to the fun part, finding out if you're family enough to wear the heirs ring."
"Don't you have my birth parents DNA on record? You could then just do a comparison of my DNA with theirs to check that I'm their child.
"
"Their what now on record?"
"Oh void, just give me the stupid ring then. I'll come back with a corpus dataslate and a rechargeable scanner later and teach you about DNA
."
Minerva interjects, "Harry, are you sure?"
"Yeah, what's it going to do? Bite me?"
"No, it could kill you."
"Really?"
"Yes, if your magic isn't a close enough match to the magic on record it will react with your own magic. If you're too distant then it could kill you."
"Huh, fair enough. I'll still do it."
Goldsaw watches with interest as this human converses with the professor in a language that the translation matrix on the desk can't translate. His ears raise in surprise when the Professor confirms that he'll try the ring. Most of the other claimants in the past balked at that requirement. Opening a drawer, he pulls out one of the ring boxes and places it on the desk before opening it. The teenager takes the ring and places it on a finger, and nothing happens. His ears lie flat against his head at this result, the ring should react in some way.
"I need the ring back to check that the magic is still functional."
They shrug and slip the ring off. Lifting it off the desk he feels out the enchantments, and they are still active. "I need to cast a spell on you to try to find out why the ring didn't work."
"
Go ahead."
Goldsaw uses a basic diagnostic spell that will tell the magical status of a being. This comes up positive, so it's not a mundane that has been roped into this. Another spell checks for blockages, and there's the problem. Something they're wearing is completely suppressing their magic.
"Something is suppressing your magic, can you take of any rings, jewellery, pins, or assorted magical items and try again."
Interesting, that's not a Golem as Gringotts has yet to find a Golem anywhere that can hold a conversation, especially an animated one like that one. What they assumed was a golem gestures to a bracer that the youth is wearing. What so special about that bracer, it's made with some strange materials, but he can't sense anything magical about it.
The Professor speaks up for them, "Account Manager, Harry asks that you stand behind him as he removes the
amp so that if he loses control over his
void abilities you won't be in the line of fire."
Ears peaking in interest, Goldsaw does what any intelligent goblin would do, moves out of the line of fire. When the bracer is removed he feels a tingling across his scalp, like something wrong has just appeared in the room. It looks like the Professor has felt it too. This time when the human puts on the ring it activates and draws a drop of blood into it. That means he's close enough that he could be the heir.
"
Minerva, I thought you said it wouldn't bite me."
Goldsaw sneers at the Professor, I bet she translated that without thinking, "Young man, that bite was the ring taking a sample of your blood. That means that your close enough to being the heir that you're now the Account managers problem, not mine. Now get out, time is money after all."
The human laughs as they return to their armour, "
Such a corpus thing to say."
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Harry follows another Goblin to yet another cramped room, there the goblin meets them at the door.
"
Good Morning Mr Potter, I am sorry to say that we have been unable to locate any translation personnel for your language. Also, I'm afraid that our meeting will need to be delayed, as you have a queue of guards wanting to take you up on your offer to 'take your sword from you'"
"Oh, thank the void I get to do something other than sit around in meetings."
The goblin seems to chuckle,
"Indeed, if you will follow me, we will get this over and done with."
The group of them are led deeper into the bank, to an arena of reasonable size that is just hardpacked earth covered with a layer of sand and sawdust. There's a scattering of Goblins watching the various fights currently going on. When they see the group enter more than a few of them run out excitedly as the fights on the floor start to wrap up and leave.
"Mr Potter, I am obliged to tell you that you can hand over the weapon now and avoid a fight."
Confused, Harry says, "Why would I do that?"
"
Indeed, however many have done precisely that. Once you are on the floor you are only allowed melee weapons and armour. No ranged weapons or magic." – Minerva adds – "Or abilities that seem like magic."
Harry fair bounces in place as he hands his weapons to his mother. Holding War he vaults onto the arena floor and runs through a few bouncing katas to get a feel for how much room is available.
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Natah watches as her son draws the eyes of all the goblins in the arena with the basic moves that all Tenno learn under fire. People always forget why Warframes have the word War in them. Despite the fact that there are only thousands of Tenno, they successfully waged war against the Sentients, and then the Orokin. Often with only one or two of her children in any particular battle. So far as her sensors can tell, there are only around 5,000 organics in these caves. Most of them concentrated within a mile of their current location. It's interesting that there is such a high level of genetic diversity represented here.
"Account Manager. May I ask a question about your species?"
Minerva drags her attention away from the spectacle below to stare at Natah before belatedly translating what was just asked.
"
Certainly, I can't promise to answer, and I have questions of my own."
"There seems to only be 5,000 organics in these tunnels, but you have high levels of genetic diversity. Is this just a small village?"
The account manager stares at her for a long moment while Minerva does the same, "
No, Gringotts is the largest goblin settlement in the world. We use an apprenticeship system, and all apprenticeships have to be with another clan. Is Mr Potter representative of his species wherever you come from?"
"Humans, no. Tenno are not representative of humans. However, he is representative of Tenno. Why is this settlement so small?"
"
Wars won and lost with Wizards and the resulting Treaties. What is the armour he is wearing?"
"It is more like a full body prosthetic designed for war. It also allows Tenno to safely be around people before they have learnt control of their void abilities. Why have you not settled elsewhere?"
"I see, I don't know what veld – void –
abilities are. Where would we go? The statute of secrecy prevents us from living amongst the mundane, and there are no remote parts of the world that are both inhabitable and unsettled by humans. What about where you're from?"
"Earth is untamed, despite the best efforts of the Grineer, and sparsely populated. Nights are unsafe as Sentient remnants from the Old War rise from undergrounds and attack any humanoid they can see. However, it can be beautiful, and deadly. There are a few enclaves of humans scattered around, but for the most part it is controlled by the industry of the Grineer and their Queens as they try to subdue the wilds to be more inline with the environments they thrive in."
"We have families that would be willing to take that risk. The guard is entering the arena, I see he has decided to wear his combat armour."
"I don't think it will do that much good, your people seem to be too static in their fighting techniques."
They watch as the contest begins, it's clear that the guard is an expert with their axe as in the currently static fight they are overwhelming Harry in pure skill. However, the Tenno have to face of against the best of the Grineer Prosecutors, who are able to parry most weapons fire, and so often need to be faced in melee. The point where Harry got fed up trading blows and blocks and started moving was starkly obvious as the whole pace of the battle changed. The guard quickly became overwhelmed by just how mobile a warframe is, the fight finally ends when Harry manages to jump over the guard and immediately start a slide attack that's almost faster than they eye can see, and leaves the guard lying on the floor missing both legs. She watches as a couple of Goblins run out from a side door and do something to prevent the guard from bleeding.
"
That was different. Do all Tenno strike to kill?"
"Yes, we are able to repair their warframes easily, and the enemies that they face are striving to kill them."
Natah looks down at Minerva's ashen face, "Professor are you ok? You seem pale."
"He didn't even hesitate."
"Of course not, hesitation is death."
"But he's so young."
"Professor, you're forgetting that he's over 800 years old. 2-300 of which was spent awake and fighting in a war, both in the past and in the last few years. All the Tenno have an innocence to them, but that's due to the processes that prevent them from fully maturing, not because they've not seen the worst that can be done to people. The systems we have prevent trauma from embedding in the deeper parts of their minds, while they can still learn from their experiences. Another name for transference is The Second Dream, and it is named that because that's how it can seem while you're in it."
Natah turns to the Account Manager, "
Forgive Professor, they are innocent. Yes, hesitate is die. Live enemies, dead Tenno."
The account manager looks surprised,
"You have picked up English very quickly."
"Is English language name? Have been monitoring conversations, more data easier understand."
"It's still bad though."
"Estimate 3 hours till fluency."
"And Mr Potter?"
"Not Sentient or cephalon
, take person time."
Harry jumps up out of the Arena, "That was fun. He was good, but like the Grineer, they don't train against agile people like us."
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They were finally allowed out of the bank after Harry had to listen to what felt like hundreds of documents being read out and translated, followed by signing said documents. They even had a person in from the guards department to witness him making an oath on a glowing crystal stating that he was older than 18 years. Thus he was now recognised as an adult, rights – including inheritance - pending completion of a valid course of magical education to bird level. Thinking about it, the only thing they said it meant is that he didn't need a guardian that could do magic. There was depressingly little wealth in his vault, with only a little bit of bronze in the way of stuff that would actually sell at home. The bulk of the contents was auron, which he has far more of in his orbiter, followed by a metal called silver, which can't be that useful if he's never seen it before. Then they have to get the value backwards, Auron being most valuable, despite the fact that the Grineer extract thousands of tons a day from Mercury. Still, he supposes that it's hard for an honest Tenno to get hold of any as it all goes to industrial processes and turned into things like circuits and control mods. Pulling out of his musing when they stop, he looks curiously at the shop the Professor just walked into. A shop filled with lots of wooden sticks. Apparently he'd need one for, School he thinks they keep calling it.
"Mum, why are we waiting outside?"
"Weren't you paying attention?"
"Sorry, I was thinking. Besides, there's no hostiles around so there's no need to focus."
"Harry, you can get away with that in the Orokin system because it's your R&R time. But here you're supposed to be paying attention to learn stuff."
"Yes mum, it would be more convenient if we could flash learn it though."
"You'd still have to practice, like you do with your weapons and armour. How is it that you could spend months reading through the research notes on biological manipulation, souls, or Orokin science, but you can't spend 15 minutes paying attention to Minerva while she's explaining what she's doing?"
"Because that stuff's interesting. Why does it matter what a wand is made from, or what ingredients we'll need for potions? That's what the foundry is for after all."
"Because a wand is a weapon, and you need to know everything you can about your own weapons."
"Oh, my bad. I wonder if we can install mods into a wand."
"To be honest, they seem more like amps than your standard weaponry."
"That makes sense, it's probably why I keep needing to take my amp off too."
The door to the shop opens and Minerva sticks her head out, "You can come in now. I've persuaded the owner not to try and sneak up on you."
As they walk in they see a tall human with milky silver eyes, "
Have they come in Minerva?"
"
They have Ollivandar."
"Oh for the depths of the void." Harry transfers out of his Titania and removes the amp from his right arm.
Olivanders gaze zeros in on him immediately,
"Mr Potter, may I ask where you came from?"
"Are you blind? I was standing right there."
"
As a matter of fact I am. I have learnt to see with magic."
"Oh, sorry about that. I use an amp to focus and control my void energy, it's been causing problems all day."
"
May I see it?"
"Er, sure." Harry picks up the amp and holds it out, Ollivander is apparently able to see his hand well enough, but not the amp as he looks down at his fingers as they trace the amp. After a few minutes he's able to put it on and winces before taking it off quickly.
"
Yes, a quite remarkable device, though rather indiscriminate in its use. We may be able to make better, but we do not understand the energy it is trying to control. As to your wand, I presume you wear your device on your main hand?" – Harry nods – "
Then, as Fawkes is here we will start with a Holly and Phoenix feather wand."
Harry takes the wand, and is startled when Ollivander pushes his hand vertical, the only thing that stops him breaking the mans arm is the beam of white light that lances out of the wand and through the ceiling before the wand is snatched from his grasp.
"Cool, can I have that one?"
"
Not phoenix feather then."
"Aww."
Elder and dragon heartstring turned the counter into a slime.
Unicorn hair refused to work
Thestral hair wilted
Elder and Horned Serpent Horn exploded
Aspen was close, but not close enough
Eventually, after digging through old stock, Ollivander found a Blackthorn and Thunderbird tail feather. This sent out a spray of grey sparks.
"I made this wand in my apprenticeship when I was in my wandering days. It is a crude thing indicative of my early work, but the Sioux Master I was visiting said it was a strong wand that would find an owner one day. Blackthorn is a wood well suited to warriors, while the Thunderbird tail feather is well suited to transfiguration and has the ability to sense danger. I've heard tell that some Thunderbird tail feather wands have been known to fire curses on their own in response to that sense."
"Cool, I'll have to see if the Quills can make a casing for it. It seems a little fragile for taking into battle as it is." It could be his imagination, but the wand seems to pulse in approval at the idea.
"That will be 7 Galleons."
"That can't be right, it's far too cheap."
"
The ministry subsidises the cost of wands."
"Well, you can just unsubsidise the cost of mine." – Harry holds the wand up to his eye – "This is good workmanship, if this was a zaw I'd probably have to pay several raw gems to get the equivalent standing needed to buy this. So I reckon it's probably worth a good 500gm Auron, that looks like around 80 Galleons." He gets out the amount of money and places it on the counter before putting his amp back on and transferring back into Titania.
"
That's far too much, even without the subsidy."
Natah speaks up for the first time, "
He pay what worth to him. Fact it worth resources and not money important."
They both leave the store and the old man staring at the pile of coins.
