He then made his way down the side of the nearest table, taking note of what was written on the little cards attached to each, immediately recognising many of the devices or objects and could see the Peverells were quite close on what they were. The only major difference of opinion between his own and that of the Peverells was that the Peverells believed they belonged to what they called 'The Ancients', while Harry knew them to be called 'The Goa'uld'.
Apparently, they believed a race of people, similar to humans but were also 'starfarers' who once colonised Earth, for whatever reason simply left again; leaving the dregs and detritus of their society behind. The Peverells believed they'd intended to return, but never did.
Another surprise was that the Peverells further believed that those Ancients who'd remained on Earth while the vast majority of the rest of their civilisation left, eventually mated with the then 'first' humans who were showing themselves to be tool users and had intelligence. The Peverells posited that magic came from the Ancients and, together with mixing their blood (DNA) into the human race, brought forth the first true wizards and witches.
To Harry, it bore a lot of thinking. However, it was something to deal with later.
For now, he had at least his three main 'devices' back: The kara kesh, the hajar alshifa' healing device and, if he wanted it, a staff weapon.
Looking to the staff weapons leaning against the back wall, he picked up the first and tried to activate it. Nothing happened. Then he moved to the next. It worked. And, when he activated it, the escort goblin jumped in shock. However, Luna merely grinned back.
She calmly said, "Sorry, Harry. That's too big for me to slip into my purse." Distractedly as he was focussed on what he was doing and looking upon, he deactivated it again, put it back against the wall and checked the third and last. It had a charge but he could already tell it was quite weak. As with the other two, he returned it to its spot on the wall.
He then walked back up the table and took a gold kara kesh, one of the hajar alshifa' devices - which he handed to Luna to slip into her clutch - and slipped a second one into his pocket. Finally, he picked up a Zat'nik'tel. It showed to be almost fully charged.
He'd had one he'd taken off Imhotep but, like his kara kesh, hajar alshifa' and staff weapon, the SGC had taken it from him. He did not realise how much he'd missed it, plus the others, until now.
He quickly slipped the kara kesh onto his left hand and up his wrist, then checked it still worked. Not wanting to use the offensive capabilities he knew it held, he only tried a shield. And it worked as if it was brand new. Grinning, he moved onto the next.
By the time he was finished he had the kara kesh on his left hand and wrist and under a Notice-me-Not, the hajar alshifa' in his pocket and the Zat'nik'tel under another Notice-me-Not on his off-hand hip on his belt.
Looking up and grinning at Luna, he saw she was smiling back.
She asked, "Ready to go?"
"Oh, yes," he returned. "You knew, didn't you." It wasn't inflected like a question.
"Yes," she nodded, then flicked a quick glance at the goblin.
Harry understood the hint. She was even reticent for the goblins to know of her Seer ability. He actually felt honoured she was happy for him to know. "Alright, then," he suddenly said, snapping out of his thoughts. "Let's go get some shopping done."
She smiled and took his left elbow as they walked out, ignoring the now open-to-everyone vault. The escorting cart goblin, behind them, just shook his head in exasperation for leaving the vault open and, after sealing the vault back up, joined them back in the cart.
Back to the surface, please," said Luna as the goblin hopped back in and into the single front seat.
Back on the surface, Harry went across to one of the vacant counters and had about a third of the gold he'd pulled from his Potter vault converted into Pounds Sterling. He was surprised to see the conversion was now at about 1:5.2 Galleons to Pounds. It was at about 1:4.9 three years earlier. He was also surprised to learn there was no conversion fee going that way, as the goblins were happy to get rid of the muggle notes. He thought he conversion fee going 'this' way, though, was still quite steep.
"Anything else, Lord Potter?" asked the goblin, after sliding the notes over.
"Not at this time, no," replied Harry.
"Then step back," said the goblin.
Once ready and with his new wizard-spaced and blood-locked coin pouch hanging alongside his wizard-spaced mokeskin pouch, he turned to Luna and asked, "Ready?"
She was looking out the front main doors at the time and lightly frowning.
She turned back and calmly replied, "You go, Harry. I have one more thing I need to speak with the goblins about."
He gave a nod and said, "I'll meet you at Madam Malkin's." Then he gave her a quick hug before walking to the doors. Behind him, Luna stepped to the counter and quietly said, "You need to let Axe Lord Ragnok know that wizards in the Alley are lying in wait for your customers to step out the doors. If they are not careful, you will have spell-fire in the lobby, here."
The goblin instantly frowned back for a moment before he quickly scribbled out a note and slid it into the slot on his side of the counter. Then he turned back and nodded to her.
"Thank you, Honoured Teller," she nodded. "May you find gold for the taking, lying at your feet."
Then she headed for the doors, but did not to step through them. She needed to stand out of people's way and in a place of concealment, the change in lighting between outside and in was enough for the latter, and watch what was happening outside. Harry had just stepped out through the doors and was standing on the bottom step of the bank, looking about for any threats, when such threats suddenly turned up.
Quickly stepping out from both sides of the street while focused on him, he saw nearly a dozen or so wizards and witches move to stand in the middle of the Alley. All of them, bar one – Dumbledore - had their wands drawn and were holding them loosely pointing down. They then formed a bit of a wall, twenty five feet away from him, blocking the Alley in two ranks. The twenty five feet separation was the unofficially accepted minimum duelling range of wizards and witches; Jaffa, too, when they got that close.
Harry mentally groaned, but didn't move. As he was standing on the steps of Gringotts, he was in goblin sovereign territory. Luna had told him that. He did not believe this lot would try anything, just as long as he was standing there or further back.
Mentally sighing, he could identify nearly all of them. Dumbledore, front rank in the middle and slightly forward; Neville Longbottom about a pace apart and half a pace back to his right; Ronald Weasley, to Neville's right and a pace and a half apart; then Ginny Weasley, with the same spacing. To Dumbledore's left stood Mad-Eye Moody, a pace back and two apart; then someone who looked like a boy, now a man, he remembered as in the year in Gryffindor above him, a pace and a half apart; then another adult he didn't recognise. In the second row, off-set from the front row, he saw Elphias Doge, still wearing that silly cravat; a furtive Mundungus Fletcher, obviously and clearly not wanting to be there; Daedalus Diggle with his purple top hat; but, off to his Harry's - left and in the back row he saw Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks. Tonks was standing real close to Remus and, while keeping an eye on Harry, was whispering something into Remus's ear. 'Yup, twelve,' thought Harry.
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