The Pursuits of Muggle Money

[Rebecca]

August 27, 11 AM

Emilia gazed in awe at the white marble building, tilting her head almost all the way back in order to see the whole thing. Gringotts was obviously the largest building in Diagon Alley, and also the most intimidating. She had been standing there for about five minutes, nervously biting her lips and trying to delay her entry as long as possible. You're being stupid... She told herself as she glanced around. It's a bank, not a bloody prison. If you go in there, you're going to come out. Look, nobody else is worried.

Emilia rolled her eyes. The fact that nobody else was worried was half the problem. It was only natural to feel insecure about trying something new, she supposed. But standing outside a building -a bank, no less- and being frightened of going in? That was just stupidity. She had to settle down. So she sighed, glanced once more at the enormous building, and headed inside.

Needless to say, she was a little more than shocked when she saw the interior. She had assumed of course that it was probably going to be a fancy place, being made of marble and all, but she had never expected it to be this fancy. She felt so... small, standing in the middle of that enormous chamber, surrounded by people who seemed to know exactly what they were doing. She shook her head to clear her mind. Get a grip, Emilia. Biting her lips, she glanced around to see where to go next. There was a long line of people in front of a sort of counter, talking and laughing loudly. That seemed like a good place to start. She stood there waiting, trying to figure out what to say. Her parents had given her some money to spend -which was actually quite generous of them, as the Kinkades rarely had very much to buy things with-, but apparently wizards had their own currency. She had learned this the hard way, after an embarassing incident at Flourish and Blotts. So while her parents were off somewhere buying an ice cream for her younger sister, Emilia had been left to trade her money for the wizarding equivalent... Whatever that was.

The line was moving faster than she had expected, and pretty soon she had reached the counter. She looked up and opened her mouth to speak, but faltered at the sight of who -was it a who?- was behind the counter. She had seen pictures of goblins in fairytale books, but seeing the real thing was quite unexpected... At least, she thought what she was looking at was a goblin. At her silence, the goblin raised a questioning eyebrow, and Emilia tried to start again. "I... um, I need to..." What's wrong with me? She thought furiously, her face turning bright red as she realized the people behind her in line her staring at her. Where were her parents? Oh yeah, buying ice cream. Oh God, this was embarassing... Making a fool of herself in front of people she didn't even know. Why aren't you speaking? Say SOMETHING! Come on, people are staring! Snap out of it, Emilia!

But she couldn't. Why? She wasn't exactly sure. Perhaps it was the fact that everything here was so... different than what she was used to. Oh come on, that's a kid's excuse. She told herself again. Nothing like this has ever bothered you before! Well, true, but she had never been in the wizarding world before either. It would take some time to really accept it.

She shook her head and tried to ignore the audible whispers of the people behind her. "I... Well, can you change this into..." What was it called? Gilligans? Gorillas? No, Galleons. I'm sure of it. That's what the shopkeeper said. Galleons, Sickles and Knuts. Right. "Galleons, please?" She put her money on the counter and waited, humming absently to distrat her from the embarassing situation.

She hoped the little gold coins were called Galleons, otherwise she'd just humiliate herself even more.

[Mari]

Call it the wizarding form of paparazzi. There were flashes from several different cameras as they followed a blonde heiress. They wanted to capture every move. And why not? She’s was gorgeous, at least that’s what they wrote about her. But mainly, she was the minister’s wife. This was a political setup; Narcissa was there to make nice with all the wizarding people, especially those going to Hogwarts. The media’s next task was to have pictures of her inside the bank, donating a 500,000 galleons to St. Mungo’s, a small donation for the Malfoys. She would be handing the check over to the head of St. Mungo’s with one of the goblins acting as a witness.

The doors opened to allow a blonde witch dressed in elegant long sapphire robes, nothing humbly or homely looking about her. Behind her was about three photographs who snapped a couple of pictures for the covers of various wizarding publications. She proceeded to the main desk, her stiletto heals clicked on the marble floor of Gringott’s. Once there she stopped and greeted both the head of St. Mungo’s and the head goblin.

Before they would take some pictures, Narcissa greeted a few of the wizards waiting on line. The line seemed to have come to a hault because the little girl seemed to be clueless. Narcissa used that spare time to mill around and get people behind her husband. The more wizards and witches that supported Lucius Malfoy the more supported Voldemort, unknowingly.

“Mrs Malfoy, I’m Elaine Burtrap of Hogsmeade. I’m wondering if your husband plans to demolish that haunted house near me”

Narcissa knew exactly which house to which Mrs. Burtrap spoke of, “I’m well aware of the house, but the owner still claims to live their, spooks and all.” Did they really know who the owner was, not likely. But Narcissa wasn’t about to say yes they would demolish the house; basically it could anger the ghouls and set them free. It was better if they just stayed in the Shrieking Shack.

After a few more handshakes and baby kisses, one would think Cissy was running for office. But no she finally returned to where she would donate the check. The paparazzi were preparing their blinding flashes. Cissy straightened her robes a bit. All the while the head goblin looked rather annoyed at the entire situation.

“Healer this is a small contribution from the Malfoy family.” She pleasantly smiled as she passed the check to the head of St. Mungo’s. Everyone around them applauded. And flashes from the paparazzi’s cameras blinded the bank. It had to have since Narcissa couldn’t quite understand what happened next…

[Rebecca]

Finally after what seemed like hours, Emilia had recieved her currency and was now trying to get of Gringotts without attracting more attention. To her surprise, this was proving to be much easier than she had expected. The rest of the people in the bank seemed to be focused on a blonde woman who was being followed by... paparazzi? It was scenes like this that made Emilia grateful that she wasn't famous or popular, as this woman obviously was. The idea of being followed everywhere by cameras was just... ugh. However, the woman at least seemed to be enjoying the attention, and Emilia couldn't really complain. After all, she was the distraction needed to get out of here unnoticed.

Honestly, you'd think she was the bloody queen... Emilia thought bitterly as she was forced to throw herself out of the way and spill her money everywhere as a photographer nearly plowed into her in his eagerness to snap a picture. Perhaps this wasn't going to be as easy as she had expected. She managed to gather up her coins without much trouble, and was weaving her way through the paparazzi to get to the exit. Suddenly, the cameras all flashed at nearly the same moment, and the resulting light blinded her for a few moments. She stumbled dazedly forwards, and the next thing she knew, she had run right into someone. Her eyes began to clear up, and she realized -to her absolute horror- she had accidentally knocked the blonde woman to the ground.

"Oh my- I- I am so sorry!" Emilia stuttered, completely horrified. "I couldn't see where I was going and- I'm sorry! It was an accident! Here, I'll help you..." She said, offering a hand to help the woman up.

Oh, brilliant work Emilia. Real smooth. Honestly, you're the best with first impressions, I don't know how you do it.

[timmy89]

Timmy was in Gringotts trying to withdraw some money from his family vault and was trying to make the goblin understand that he needed the money so that he could buy new school robes. But the goblin was deliberately working as slow as he could and Timmy swore that he could see the goblin grinning underneath its hideous exterior. Timmy was told to take a seat and he noticed a stiff wooden chair not far from where he was standing and walked very frustrated over to a wooden chair and brushed his hair away from his eyes.

Suddenly a noise came from the entrance of the bank and a horde of very loud wizards and witches came into the enormous bank, he soon realized that they were photographers and were trying to get a picture of¡K Narcissa Malfoy. Timmy didn¡¦t know the woman in person but had seen her in the Daily Prophet on several occasions on the arm of the minister for magic. Timmy knew their soon Draco as well and had the unfortunate pleasure of running into his two ¡§friends¡¨ (Thugs more like he thought) and Timmy was the one that came out the worse. So he decided that he didn¡¦t want to stay another moment in the bank and walked over to the obnoxious goblin who fortunately had his money waiting. ¡§Have a nice day¡¨ The goblin said through a horrible smirk. Timmy though about replying but decided against it and planned to leave the bank now as to avoid being round a Malfoy for as long as possible.

Timmy slowly walked round keeping a careful eye and the proceeding that were taking place and saw Narcissa Malfoy handing over some sort of large check, ¡§publicity stunt¡¨ he grumbled to himself. And he was just about to leave when the was a blinding flash that lit up everywhere in the bank and stunned him for a second. As soon as he had regained his sight and the ability to think straight he heard yelling from behind him as he looked back he saw a small young blonde girl of about ten or eleven knock over the ¡§queen¡¨ herself, This cannot be good, And without thinking he ran to try and get the girl out of the bank as soon as possible. As soon as he approached he saw the small girl stretch out her hand to the fallen woman. Timmy swore silently and watched what happened next with great interest, his hand firmly clasped around his wand in case he needed to help the young girl, as he knew no-one else in the bank would, the goblins were too self involved, the photographers would just want to take a photo and appear on the front page and everyone else knew not to get involved¡K

((OOC I hope you don¡¦t mind me getting involved I just thought I needed to get Timmy into his Gryffindor style of saving people ƒº I can send him away if ya want me to though))

[Lance Jacob Wilkie]

Lance had finally gotten his parents to agree to let him go to Diagon Alley alone this year to purchase his supplies. Since his family was highly magical they conscented to teach him to apperate during the summer between his 5th and 6th years. Apperating right into the Leaky Cauldron, Lance took out his money bag to buy a little something to drink. As he took it out he noticed it was light and when he stuck his hand in to it to get some money he realized this was the last of his money he had with him. "Affter zihs eet ees time for a vesit to Gringotts." he thought to himself.

Lance looked up at the immensely large white marlbe structure in front of him and once again marvled. Every time he visited Diagon Alley he wondered how stupid the Muggles must be to miss all of these huge buildings. As he approached the great doors to the main chamber he was almost made into a hamburger patty as the doors flew open and a young girl and boy ran striaght out of them almost like he was throwing her away from the bank. When he regained his composure, Lance walked into the bank and noticed many Ministry wizards all around as well as Narcissa Malfoy. A goblin had just walked away with a check and it didn't take much to realize that she had just given it to him.

Lance walked nonchalantly by avoiding all the confusion to stand in a line and wait for a goblin to take him to his parents vault. Lance had done this part several times before, as he walked up and gave the goblin his key and walked over towards the door to the underground caves below. He stepped into the cart with the goblin and with that they were off. The trail took many twists and turns sharp inclines and declines but finally they arrived at vault 712 the vault of his family. As the door opened he walked in and looked among the immense piles of gold and silver coins and took a hand full of each, put them into his money bag, and closed the door. The trip back was much less eventful and Lance thought he may have even fell asleep as they raced back to the main hall. Finally they arrived and Lance stepped from the cart and headed out to buy his school supplies.

[ravenclaw32]

Anthony and his mom had just arrived in Diagon Alley. It was going to be his first year at Hogwarts and he needed to get his supplies. First they went to get his money from Gringotts. IT WAS AMAZING he realized it was finally his turn to be the one with all the attention. he had been here many times for his two older brothers. But now it was his turn! they Stepped inside the marble building and walked up to the Goblin at the front desk. "Hello im Anthony Reynolds and i need to make a withdrawl from my family vault." he gave the goblin his key and they got into a cart. after two minutes it stopped at a vault with a big shiny silver door. "VAULT 689" the goblin said. He took out a sizable withdrawl and left. the Gringotts.

[stancho123]

Stanislav arrived at Diagon Alley For first year with his parrents to take his supplies.First they went to Gringots bank to take some money to buy the items.They wainted in the long tail of people, atlast it was they`re turn on the board and he said ``Hello my name is Stanislav and iam here to take some money`` i gave him the key to our safe and we went down the cart, when it stopped i saw the ``Vault 1274``.I took some money and left the bank.The goblin gave us back the key and we went to buy the things fron the shops.

[horselover]

Allie and her parents were shopping in Diagon Ally for her supplies. i t was so much to take in. They went into the bank and asked to go to vault #5478. They grabbed some money and left to go to the shops.

[hannahfloss]

mikayla was waiting for the goblins to come and ask her vault number this was very unsual as she never could stand still for more than 15 minutes ' mikayla wombrax' a goblin callled out so she went up 'do you have your key to your vault' he asked again 'yes Mikayla replied 'and the vault number is 1928' the goblin took mikayla and her parents to the family vaul werte she got out about 500 galleons