After Winky and Hermione's bond was formed, Winky was very happy to be able to serve a new master and wanted to do something for Hermione right away. But Hermione told her that first they had to get her new clothes, and since they couldn't give her ready-made clothes so as not to break the newly formed bond, I asked Grey to accompany Winky to buy the fabric she would use to make her new clothes. Since Hermione didn't have any money at the time, I lent it to her and told her she could pay me back later.
When I asked Hermione what she wanted Winky's clothes to look like, she described something similar to a beach dress, and I transfigured one of the flowers that were there as decoration to make a doll dressed as Hermione had described, so that Winky would have a reference for making her new dress. She just seemed a little sad because she couldn't put Hermione's family crest on it, just like Grey uses his family crest. Since Hermione wasn't sure if her family had a crest or not, they would have to wait until she returned to her parents and ask them, as some Muggle families do have family crests.
Once Grey and Winky left to buy the fabric, Harry asked if I could call Dobby so he could talk to him. He said that if the elf agreed, he'd like to form a bond, so he asked my permission for Grey to help him, as well as Hermione. I said yes, but we needed Rose to do something about the wards my elves had put up, since they were preventing other elves from Apparating. Once that was sorted, Harry was able to call Dobby.
I asked Hermione to come with me to my room while Harry spoke to Dobby, as I wanted to mention the chocolate Ginny had given us when we were in the tent. Last night, I had Grey help me identify what was in the chocolate, and it turned out to be a love potion, albeit a small dose.
Since I would need to know who the potion was intended for, I would have to ask someone to check it, so I thought of asking Madam Pomfrey for help, as I also wanted Hermione and possibly Harry to be checked in case they had been fed any other potions before last night, and if so, get them the antidotes.
When I told Hermione about the chocolate, she couldn't believe it and thought I'd made a mistake. So I explained how all my jewelry had been modified with runes by my mother so they could detect poisons or potions of any kind, and that since I'd had to attend a formal event, I'd been wearing one of those pieces of jewelry. Because of this, I felt it react as soon as my hand touched the chocolate, which is why I'd prevented her from eating hers. I also mentioned asking Madam Pomfrey to check it in case I'd made a mistake, and she agreed, hoping it was just an error. But I could see in her eyes that she wasn't entirely convinced.
We agreed not to mention it to Harry for the time being, but to somehow convince him to get tested if it turned out the chocolate had been laced with a potion.
When we went downstairs, Grey had already returned, and Harry told me that Dobby had agreed to be his house-elf, so I asked Grey to help them.
Once they finished, Harry also wanted Dobby to get some clothes, so he asked if we wanted to go to Diagon Alley since he wanted to withdraw some Galleons and we could look at some shops. I mentioned that he could take the opportunity to find out who the goblin in charge of his vault was and if there were any other inheritances his family had left him, and that he could also ask if he could take care of a basilisk body.
When we were making plans to go, Harry said,
"To get to Diagon Alley, we have to go to the Leaky Cauldron. I'm not sure how long a taxi would take from here, but it could take several hours."
Hermione looked at Harry and said,
"You once mentioned a magical bus; perhaps it would be better to travel by it.
" "But I can't remember what I called it," he replied. "I don't think I can do it again."
I just watched as they tried to figure out which method of transport was more convenient, and when they started to get frustrated because they couldn't decide, I said...
"Wouldn't it be simpler to have our elves take us to Diagon Alley or Gringotts?"
They both looked at me as if I'd grown a second head, and when I laughed at their expressions, Harry blushed and said,
"I hadn't thought of that."
Then we called our elves and asked if they could take us to Gringotts, and once they said yes, we asked them to take us there and told them to come back to my house and that we'd call them when we wanted to return.
Once we were at Gringotts, Harry told the goblin he wanted to take the bloodline test and meet with the goblin in charge of his family vault, just as he'd been advised. Hermione and I accompanied him to take the test, and although we didn't see the results, we noticed Harry seemed surprised. When the goblin in charge of his vault came in, I was surprised too, as it turned out to be the same goblin who managed mine.
Knowing it might take him some time to get up to speed with his vault matters, I mentioned it to Hermione, and we agreed that we would wait for Harry outside Gringotts. We'd go to the library first and then get some ice cream, where we'd wait until he'd finished settling his affairs.
While we were at the library, I bought a couple of books on Occlumency to give to Harry and Hermione, as well as some books on advanced potions for myself. Hermione was interested in some books on advanced charms and spells, and since she didn't have any money to buy them, I bought them for her as a gift. At first, she didn't want to accept them, so I had to tell her to consider them her early birthday present. Only then did she accept them, and she said I couldn't give her another birthday present later, or she wouldn't accept them. To get her to accept, I told her I wouldn't give her another birthday present, but I didn't really care about giving her another one since spending money on those books wasn't a problem for me; I could afford it.
Harry joined us about two hours later and seemed a little dazed by all the information he had just learned. Since it was past noon, we called our house-elves and returned to my house, where we ate spaghetti with mushrooms, which was delicious, accompanied by apple juice.
We chatted during lunch, and Harry told us about some things he'd discovered that day about his family. It seemed Ragnok had tried to contact him before, sending letters asking to meet. But Harry said he'd never received a letter from Gringotts, except for the time when they sent the key to his vault back in his second year, but there was no letter there. Ragnok said he'd look into it, since interfering with Gringotts mail was a crime.
I didn't say anything about it, but I started to suspect Dumbledore. I didn't want to believe it, but I remembered some conspiracy theories I'd read in my previous world, which said Dumbledore wanted to manipulate Harry into dying so that, as his guardian, he could take advantage of the inheritance Harry's parents left him without Harry knowing. But he changed his plans when, out of greed, he received the Killing Curse after obtaining the Gaunt ring, which contained one of the Deathly Hallows.
Those memories reminded me of what Harry and Hermione told me about what happened to them at Hogwarts and how Dumbledore acted, so I started making some changes to my plans. If it turned out that Dumbledore wasn't someone I could trust... then I would have to...
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