Hogwarts Raven's Claw

Chapter 201 Treasury
In the magnificent Gringotts, Mike came to a stone door under the guidance of Griphook.

When Griphook opened the stone door, what appeared before Mike's eyes was not a majestic and luxurious scene like the hall of Gringotts, but a narrow stone corridor with torches hanging on the left and right walls, burning with crackling sounds.

This stone corridor is a steep downhill slope, which is not surprising, as the Gringotts vault is located directly below Gringotts. In fact, according to the description of the Gringotts vault complex in the original book, the entire Diagon Alley should be empty.

Mike and Griphook walked down carefully, holding onto the wall. After a while, a winding railway appeared in front of them.

Griphook got into a small mine cart that could only accommodate two adults with ease, and waved to Mike to get in as well.

Looking at the mine cart without any protective measures, Mike hesitated, so he asked:

"Don't you have any better means of transportation?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Townley. Even if Mr. Fudge (the current Minister of Magic) comes, he will have to sit like this." Griphook spread out his hands and made a helpless gesture.

At this point, Mike had no other choice but to reluctantly step onto the small mine cart, but in his heart he had already cursed the goblins.

Holy shit! As the only bank in the entire British wizarding world, and the one that has the right to mint coins, your transportation to the vault to withdraw money is so backward! If you weren't a monopoly enterprise, you would have gone bankrupt long ago with your service attitude.

Although his heart was in turmoil, Mike still looked calm on the surface. However, before driving, he took out his wand and put on a suit of armor to protect himself just in case.

That’s right, he only put it on himself and didn’t put it on the pull ring.

Griphook didn't care about Mike's petty behavior and still looked respectful.

"Are you ready, Mr. Townley?"

"drive……."

Before Mike could even utter the last word, Pullring had already started the mine cart. The moment the mine cart started, Mike felt a strong push on his back, which directly pressed his entire body onto the bucket of the mine cart.

Fortunately, with the protection of the armor, Mike did not feel any discomfort except the feeling of being pushed on the back. Even the hurricane caused by the high-speed movement was perfectly blocked by the transparent shield of the armor.

Mike originally wanted to blame Gahook for driving ahead of time, but when he saw that Gahook, who was sitting in front of Mike, had his face distorted by the wind because he had no armor to protect him, Mike felt much better.

This underground passage with railways was like a maze. The mine cart that Mike and Pullhook were riding in was speeding, turning right, left, and then passing through a fork in the road. This small mine cart seemed to know the way by itself and was moving at a very fast speed. Pullhook didn't need to control it at all.

The series of turns made Mike unable to help but grab the handle of the mine cart, but even so, Mike was still thrown around and felt dizzy.

An unknown amount of time had passed before Mike's eyes suddenly opened up. It turned out that they had finally driven out of the narrow underground passage and arrived at a wide underground space.

Mike caught a glimpse of fire coming from below him out of the corner of his eye, so he instinctively looked towards the source of the fire.

It would have been fine if I hadn't looked at it, but as soon as I looked at Mike's arm, I instantly got goose bumps.

There was a bottomless abyss beneath them. At the moment, they were driving on the steep rock wall. The constantly shaking track in front of them made Mike very worried that the mine car they were in would suddenly fall down.

The source of the fire turned out to be a fire dragon, a skinny fire dragon covered with pale scales.

This nameless fire dragon was currently being tied up with six thick chains. One end of the chains was linked to the rock wall, while the other ends were tied to the dragon's limbs, tail and neck.

These chains must have been used to tie it up when it was a child, so now they have grown directly into its flesh.

Mike also noticed that the fire dragon's eyes, like its body, were an extremely unhealthy pale color. This was clearly a sign of eye degeneration due to staying in a dark environment for too long.

Perhaps due to its deteriorating eyesight, the dragon's hearing was very advanced. After hearing the creaking sound of the mine cart that Mike and Griphook were riding on, the dragon immediately reacted, roared, and spit out a large ball of fire in Mike's direction.

Because the distance was too far and the fire dragon was very weak, the flame dissipated not long after it was sprayed out.

"These damned beasts!"

Pull the ring in front also discovered that the fire dragon underground was trying to attack them. He cursed and took out two pieces of iron sheets from his arms with difficulty against the wind, and shook them wildly at the fire dragon below.

These two pieces of iron should also be magic props. The sound they make when shaking is very penetrating and can be heard by the fire dragon below even from a long distance.

After hearing the crisp sound, the fire dragon suddenly started to struggle as if it was having a seizure. It roared and looked extremely painful.

The six thick iron chains were carried by the fire dragon and flew up into the air. Sometimes they twitched wildly, sometimes they were pulled straight, making a dull sound.

Soon, blood began to appear on the dragon's body where it was tied with chains, and large streams of blood flowed down its limbs, gradually forming a stream under its body. But the dragon seemed to feel no pain and continued to struggle madly.

The fire dragon didn't calm down until Griphook stopped what he was doing and put away the iron sheet.

"I'm sorry to have embarrassed you, Mr. Townley. These fire dragons are always unruly and difficult to tame."

Griphook forced a smile against the strong wind and explained to Mike, but Mike did not reply. The way the Gringotts goblins dealt with the fire dragon was so shocking that he was speechless.

Seeing that Mike didn't respond, Griphook didn't get angry. He turned around and continued to look ahead.

After a while, Pull the ring pulled a switch on the mine cart, and the mine cart suddenly slowed down. The metal wheels rubbed against the rails, creating sparks all over the sky.

Finally, the mine cart stopped on a small platform, and Mike and Griphook got off the car and stepped onto the platform one after another.

"Mr. Tang Li, this vault numbered 688 is currently our best-positioned secondary vault." Lahuan said enthusiastically as soon as he got off the car, "Look, the fire dragon that serves as a guard is right below this vault. I believe you have just seen how powerful that fire dragon is. If there is an intruder who wants to harm your vault, the fire dragon will burn him to ashes."

The thrilling journey just now made Mike feel like vomiting in his throat. He waved his hand to signal Griphook not to speak. Mike stood there for a long time before suppressing the feeling.

"How often do you come to check the vault?"

"About 10 years!" Mike nodded when he heard it. Due to his occupational disease, he had been paying attention to the security arrangements of this wizard bank from the beginning. Now it seems that except for the goblins who are the staff who are relatively lazy and only come to check the vault once every 10 years, this vault is simply impeccable.

However, there is a reason why these goblins are lazy. With such excellent security measures, their manual inspection of the vault is completely meaningless.

"Okay, that's it." Mike let out a long sigh and said, "Let's finish this quickly and leave here. I don't want to stay here any longer."

"As you wish, sir!"

Griphook bowed again, turned around, took out a golden key, and came to the only vault door on the small platform.

The golden key was inserted into the keyhole on the door and turned gently. Suddenly, a series of intensive mechanism triggering sounds came from inside the door. As the sound stopped abruptly, the vault door opened automatically.

What appeared in front of Mike was a cave of about 50 cubic meters in size. The cave was very dry and the air was very fresh, unlike the pungent smell of sulfur outside.

"This vault is equipped with constant temperature magic and various protective magics. No matter what you put here, it will be well protected. Even fragile parchment can stay intact here for tens of thousands of years."

Griphook once again introduced the situation of the vault to Mike, but Mike ignored him and directly opened the box and poured all the gold coins in the bag of the Traceless Stretching Spell onto the floor of the vault.

As the crisp sound of gold coins colliding continued to ring out, a small hill made entirely of gold coins piled up in the vault.

After doing all this, Mike put away all the bags of the Traceless Stretching Spell and turned around to leave.

However, when he turned around, he found that Griphook was staring at the pile of gold coins with his eyes wide open, almost drooling.

"Griphook, Griphook!"

Mike called out to Griphook several times before he came to his senses. After wiping off the non-existent saliva, Griphook took Mike out of the underground vault.

Mike, who finally arrived at the lobby of Gringotts again, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Mr. Mike, please follow me, you have some documents to sign."

After bringing Mike to the hall, Griphook disappeared, but soon another fairy came up and asked Mike to sign a document.

Mike sat down at the counter, picked up the document and looked at it.

Actually, there is nothing interesting here, except for some procedures and precautions for withdrawing money.

After depositing money in Gringotts, if you want to withdraw money, you need a certificate. These certificates can be your face, a key or a unique magic signature, or even a family crest with a special magic mark if you have a family.

Mike naturally had no family, so he left a magical signature as a voucher for using the check later. Finally, Mike cashed the check Lockhart gave him and put the 1500 gold galleons back into his box as pocket money.

After doing all this, Mike finally completed his task for the day and walked out of Gringotts with the goblins' farewell.

In the corner of the Gringotts hall, two middle-aged wizards saw Mike leave Gringotts, looked at each other, and then followed him silently.

Because Mike's previous behavior was too ostentatious, many people in the hall noticed this little wizard carrying a huge amount of money. And these two people just saw Mike exchange a check for 1500 gold galleons, so they became greedy.

After the two men left, the ragged Muggle-born wizard gritted his teeth, hesitated for a long time, and then followed them silently.

It was already dusk when Mike walked out of Gringotts. He actually stayed in Gringotts for a whole afternoon.

Diagon Alley seemed very deserted at this time. Most of the shops along the street had closed, and only a few shop owners who lived in the shops were still open. Feeling the hunger in his stomach, Mike quickened his pace.

He and Professor Flitwick had an appointment to attend a meeting at Raven's Nest tomorrow morning, so he had to go to Professor Flitwick's house tonight.

Imagining the various delicious foods made by the house-elf Lolo, Mike's saliva was rapidly secreting, and he couldn't wait to return to Professor Flitwick's house.

However, at this moment, the strange voice belonging to the raven Papi suddenly sounded in Mike's mind.

'There are three people following us, two at 100 o'clock, 4 meters away, and one at 150 o'clock, meters away.'

Hearing the sound, Mike's movements suddenly froze, but soon returned to normal.

"There really are people who are not afraid of death." Mike thought to himself, "Do you think I'm easy to bully because I'm a little wizard?"

Mike continued walking calmly, but his direction deviated from the main road and began to walk towards Knockturn Alley.

The two middle-aged wizards behind him were delighted when they saw this. They didn't expect that Mike, a young wizard, would be so stupid. If Mike had gone directly to the Leaky Cauldron and used the fireplace to leave them, they would have had no way to stop him. Now Mike was running to Knockturn Alley by himself, which was simply courting death.

The young Muggle wizard who was at the back felt his heart ached.

Knockturn Alley is a dangerous and dark place. It and Diagon Alley are like light and shadow. Diagon Alley specializes in selling all kinds of ordinary magic props, while Knockturn Alley is full of various dark magic shops.

It was the place with the highest density of dark wizards in the entire wizarding world, and even the Aurors did not dare to enter rashly. Death was the norm here, and those without strength who entered here without permission were seeking death.

As time passed, Mike had entered Knockturn Alley, and the two middle-aged wizards quickened their pace. The young wizard following behind them could see clearly that they had already taken out their wands.

"It's too late. They're about to attack the kid!"

The young man clenched his fists, and the scene of Mike being killed by the two middle-aged wizards kept flashing in his mind. Finally, he made a decision.

He put his hands together to make a trumpet shape and shouted with all his strength:
"The boy in front, run!"

(End of this chapter)