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Three twelve-year-olds are gathered in a bathroom, copying a diagram from a book onto the floor in chalk.
"Do you know what all this writing means?" asks the green-eyed boy.
"No," says the bushy-haired girl, "and that worries me too, but we need to find out who the Heir of Slytherin is and this ritual is the best we've got."
Eventually, one or another of them draws the last bit of the outer circle.
"Okay, thanks. I don't want to have to keep track of a key, I'm out of the habit, so I'm going to go with the blood thing and supplement from there."
"Very well. I can have the key disconnected now that the blood method is set up. Would you like to go down to your vault now, to set up additional security or make a withdrawal?"
"Right this way, then." She comes out from behind the counter (descending several steps in the process; she comes up to Cam's ribcage) and leads him to a door at the far end from the exit, which opens into a torchlit cave. It's clearly at least partially an artificial cave system, the passages dug wider by magic or technology, but there are also still stalactites and stalagmites here and there where they haven't been cleared out to make room for a network of little carts on rails. The teller gets into one of the carts and gestures for Cam to join her.
"I think I'll meet you back outside when you're done, actually; the carts are a bit . . . much."
The teller grins and taps the front of the cart with a long finger, and it takes off down the track like it's got something to prove.
Gosh, it's like flying but worse. Oh well, Cam is indestructible and is not going to lose his breakfast.
Down, up a bit, down some more, hard right, over a pit that probably isn't really bottomless, under some glowing blue stalactites, and shrieking-metal stop in a corridor lined on both sides with vault doors. The goblin hops out of the cart like that was a perfectly reasonable way to get from A to B and indicates the one on their left. "This one's yours. Just put some blood anywhere on the door."
A dab of blood appears. "Is the idea that the minecart system will prevent a run on the bank?"
This gets a hint of a smile. "I expect it doesn't hurt, but mostly it's fast. Some vaults are much farther away than yours." Meanwhile, the vault door absorbs his blood and opens to reveal a pile of gold coins. It's not quite big enough to dive into Scrooge McDuck style, but it's big enough to suggest the idea.
That would be more impressive if Cam weren't from Hell. He creates a door inside the door which responds to chiplock, tests it.
"I assume wizards can unlock doors by magic or something," he says, finishing the rest of the inner wall layer. "Can I give you an object which will beep if one does that? - I'm just a little concerned the outer layer may be easier to break into than usual because I don't have a traditional magical signature and I'm not sure how easy it is to conjure matching blood for people other than me."
"Yes, it is possible to unlock doors by magic," she says, giving him another weird look. "Objects for additional alarms are allowed, though we ask that you put your vault number on it for ease of identification." She points at the number 2607 above the outer door.
Cam offers her an object bearing the number 2607. "Thanks! You have great customer service responsiveness." He opens the door he just made and goes in and takes a modest quantity of gold which will fit in a stylish belt pouch.
The goblin woman is used to the occasional WOO and does not comment.
Lupin is waiting for Cam in the lobby.
"All right." And they can head back out into the street and browse.
There are storefronts and pushcarts and open-air displays of things! There are bits of magical creatures and bits of normal creatures and a pet store with entire living creatures! There's a clothing store full of robes and an equipment store full of telescopes and cauldrons and bags of holding! There's an enormous bookshop and a sporting goods store with a display of broomsticks and an ice cream shop advertising two hundred flavors! There are potions that do everything from making your hair longer to letting you breathe underwater!
Cam doesn't want any pets but he does want to stroke an owl before moving on. He lingers at the bags of holding - are any of them convenient to stick on his belt loops? - and at the potions - he doesn't need one for his hair or to breathe underwater but surely there's something he does want -
Bags of holding are mostly in the shoulder-bag form factor, but there are some that can go on a belt loop.
The potions store has many other options! Would he like to not have any more boils? How about lots of boils? A potion that makes anything it's poured on smaller? A love potion? A potion for dreamless sleep? A potion to replace any of his bones that have gone missing? One that will make him hover a few feet off the ground? Cures for everything from headaches to dragon-pox? Fire resistance? The ability to see sounds and hear colors? Improved night vision? Increased energy? A tendency to find everything screamingly funny?
He'll snag a shrinking potion and a synaesthesia potion and a night vision potion and memorize exactly what the love potion looks and smells like.
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