"How did they die?"

"A man calling himself Voldemort killed them both. He was a pureblood supremacist and a terrorist, and they opposed him - rather effectively."

"Voldemort died, that night. It's unclear how - I believe your mother set a trap for him. Though the commonly believed narrative is that, when he tried to kill you, his spell reflected for some mysterious reason definitely not related to a muggleborn outsmarting him, killing him instead." She sounds bitter, somewhat, voice tight.

She puts a hand to her forehead, hidden behind her bangs.

She pauses. "Are you alright?"

She pushes her hair back, showing the lightning bolt scar to Professor Reynolds.

She examines it.

"That's - likely a relic of that night, yes," she says, quietly. "Does it hurt?"

"No. But it doesn't heal all the way either."

She nods. "Curse marks can be - stubborn."

"I can examine it, when we get back to the inn, if you'd like. Try to determine if there's lingering issues, or if there's still protections on you..."

She nods.

She places a hand on Ellie's shoulder, touch soft.  "Do you still want to go to the bank?" she asks.

"...Yeah. Let's keep going."

Nod.

And onwards, to Gringotts.

The bank's large and stately, guarded by short humanoids - skin leathery, eyes small for their faces, gazes sharp and keen. They don't impede the comings and goings of wizards.

Professor Reynolds leads them up to a teller, explaining that her student is here to access her vaults, but lacks her keys. The goblin at the teller needs Ellie to stand still for a magical instrument, but after that can pull up a list of vaults - "Accessible to you right now," he says, gruffly, "Is a trust fund established by James and Lily Potter. Your full vaults will become accessible on emancipation, on graduation from an accredited school of magic, or at eighteen."

"She might be emancipated soon," Professor Reynolds says. "We'll keep that in mind. Thank you."

The goblin nods, calling over a different goblin in a slightly different uniform. "Griphook will lead you to your vault," he says.

Nod. "Thank you."

He huffs. "You're welcome."

And Griphook leads the way. The vaults are, apparently, deep underground, and the way to them is a mine cart. They're advised to keep their limbs inside, and then the cart takes off.

It's a bit like a roller coaster. Just without the seat belts. (There are, at least, no loops.)

Why. Why is it like this. This cannot possibly be efficient.

Professor Reynolds seems a bit amused.

Ellie's vault is guarded by a massive wall - not properly doors - with a complex, twisting design embossed on it, which Griphooks sticks a succession of keys into, before trailing one finger down the outside. The wall untwists, slithering apart, revealing -

A room full of stacks of coins - golden, silver, bronze - with a few chests along the walls.

"Ah. A rather nice fund," Professor Reynolds says.

"Um."

"How does wizard money work?"

"Weirdly," Professor Reynolds says. (The goblin rolls his eyes.) "The gold ones are galleons, the silver are sickles, and the bronze are knuts. It's seventeen sickles to a galleon, and twenty nine knuts in a sickle, because wizards are allergic to the metric system. The coins aren't precisely made of gold, silver, or bronze - I believe the exact manufacture is alchemical, and outside of my field of expertise. Sadly, that means you can't cheat by buying coins with muggle money, selling them for the value of their precious metals, and buying more coins with muggle money..." (The goblin snorts.)

"The current exchange rate is five pounds to a galleon," Griphook says. "Though the cost of living in the wizarding world doesn't scale precisely to the muggle world. The contents of this vault work to a bit over fifty thousand galleons in coin - assets like land and investments are mostly not available to you, right now, though I believe some family keepsakes were stored here."

"Are you allowed to tell me how much is in my other vaults?"

"Yes," he says. "And I can make a print out for you of all assets, as well as monthly, quarterly, or yearly reports of your investments. Currently, everything is in low risk portfolios - our standard policy for young inheritors - but while we cannot legally release your assets into your control, we can listen to your wishes about investments."

He lists a few properties - primarily agricultural land (mostly for growing potions ingredients, it sounds like), additionally noting: "Your parents' residence was destroyed on the night of their deaths. The manager of your estate chose to sell the land to the Ministry for a war memorial, as she judged the cost of repairs were beyond your means at the time. This is the source of most of the money in your trust fund."

Apparently the majority of what's in her family vaults isn't in coin at the moment, anyways. Still - it adds up to quite a bit of worth. She could theoretically live purely on the proceeds if she kept to a modest standard of living and let the goblins keep managing her investments. (This being about five thousand galleons a year at the moment, though growth is variable - if she liquidated everything, she'd have around another hundred and fifty thousand galleons at hand.)

A printout would be good. And maybe quarterly reports? To start with?

She goes to investigate the chests.

Of course. He'll have that ready for her soon.

(The chests: seem to contain things her parents had in storage. The ones labeled with 'Lily Potter' have books, mostly, some of them printed, some of them ancient and hand bound, many of them muggle-style journals full of notes in a neat hand, but there's also a 'Lily Potter' chest full of quilts, and a smaller one with stacks of letters, photo albums that still pictures as well as moving pictures, a jewelry case, and a set of silverware and dishes. James Potter seems to have been way less of a hoarder - he has a single small chest which seems to mostly contain sentimental items and a few pictures from his own childhood. There's a 'Potter Family' chest containing pictures, mostly, and a few diaries and letters. There's also a chest labeled 'Items Recovered from the Godric Hollow Property; Repaired Magically' with books, clothing, and a few toys.)

-She should come back once she gets a trunk that can fit things.

She returns to the piles of coin. "Do I just- scoop it up to make a withdrawal?"

"Yes," says Griphook. "We can lease you a basic storage bag, however..."

"Or you can use mine, if you want," says Professor Reynolds. "At least until you can buy something."

"I will borrow yours, thank you. How much do you suggest I take?"