Homecoming from Hogwarts

Amosta led Amelia to a snow-white building that stood tall above the surrounding shops and had a shining bronze door. Two fairies in scarlet and gold-studded uniforms showed surprised expressions when they saw Amosta, and then, putting away the slight arrogance in their eyes when facing ordinary customers, they jumped down the stairs nimbly.

"Welcome to Gringotts, Mr. Braine--"

Along the way, many wizards on the street who recognized Amosta bowed to him to show their respect. Amelia had become somewhat accustomed to it.

After nodding slightly to the two fairies, Amosta turned his head and said,

"Since you plan to live in London, I suggest that you open a vault in Gringotts."

After thinking for a moment, Amelia felt that it was indeed necessary and nodded.

Led by the goblins, they walked into the tall marble hall of Gringotts. Amelia looked curiously at the goblins sitting behind a long counter. Some of them were weighing coins with copper scales, while others were examining gems with eyepieces while hastily recording them in a large ledger. On the wall behind these goblins, there were many doors leading to different places.

"We have our own wizarding bank over there, but it's not as busy as this -"

Amelia looked at the queues in front of the counter and said

"Why don't you have a vault at Gringotts, Amosta?"

"You must know that when I first entered the wizarding world, I didn't have much wealth. After staying in Hogwarts for a few years, I saved some gold, but I often used that money to buy potion materials or some rare magic books to improve my magical power. In the end, when I had gold in my hands, my strength was enough to protect my wealth, so there was no need for this."

Amosta explained for Amelia, and then said to the waiting goblin,
"Ms. Amelia Det needs to open a safe for herself. Let's go and handle this business first."

"Come this way, Mr. Blaine, Ms. Deter—"

The goblin leading the way bowed.

It brought Amosta and Amelia to the fairy in charge of this business. There was no need to queue because no one was opening a vault at the moment.

But the man at the front of the next team casually glanced at Amosta beside him. The impatience between his brows and eyes, who was waiting for the goblin to settle the score, suddenly disappeared, and his body shook violently!
Amosta glanced over, raised his brows slightly, smiled and nodded.

"Hello, Mr. Ahnott."

"Hello, Mr. Blaine--"

Nott immediately straightened his stance, clenching his fists in his sleeves, his eyes wandering, his face unnatural, sweat dripping from his temples.

"I didn't expect to see you here—"

"indeed--"

Amosta smiled calmly.

"The last time we met, it was just as unexpected—"

Theodore was Amosta's student in physical education class, but he had no social interaction with old Nott at all. Strictly speaking, the last time the two met was at Voldemort's resurrection ceremony.

Old Nott understood Amosta Braine's hint, his face flushed, his heart pounded wildly, and he had the urge to run away!

The powerful young man in front of him is completely different from Dumbledore. He is not pedantic and insists on having evidence before judging himself.

"Theodore has always... Well, at home, you said that one of the professors he admired most--"

The fright made old Nott's face turn from red to blue. He grunted for a long time before he stammered.

"Theodore is a very talented young man--" For some reason, Amosita suddenly showed some melancholy.
“I hope these kids don’t hate me in the future.”

As soon as these words came out, Old Nott broke out in a cold sweat, and the muscles in his calves were twitching.

"You're very humorous, Mr. Blaine--"

Old Nott said with a breath of cold air,
"You taught him a lot of real knowledge and he has always admired you so much. How could he hate you?"

"I hope so—"

Amosta sighed and then left old Nott aside, ignoring him and instructing Amelia to fill out some information.

His indifferent attitude put old Nott in a dilemma. He couldn't stay here any longer, but he didn't dare to turn around and leave.

".You need to leave a token, Ms. Deter——"

The goblin behind the counter was particularly respectful to Amelia because of Amosta. He leaned over the tall counter and said politely, "If you can't come in person to handle the business in the future, you can entrust a wizard you trust to bring your token, and Gringotts will also handle it for you."

"A token--"

Amelia, who was distractedly listening to the conversation between Amosta and Old Nott, was stunned and bit her lip in confusion.

"Generally speaking, wizards will use their wands as tokens of trust." Amosita reminded softly.

"Oh!"

Amelia came to her senses and immediately pulled her wand from her sleeve and handed it to the goblin.

"This lady is——"

Old Nott, who was standing aside and not knowing what to do, realized that Amosta Braine did not come here alone, he brought a beautiful young girl with him. This was very valuable information!

Old Nott's heart skipped a beat. He was sure that the Dark Lord would be interested in this. Dumbledore was just an old fellow who could hardly wave his wand. Amosstar Blaine was indeed scary, but if he had the Dark Lord's trust and protection, then Blaine would not be scary at all!

There was a gleam of light in old Nott's fear-filled eyes. He pretended to be normally curious and asked cautiously.

"Oh, you're asking about Amelia?"

Amosta pretended not to notice anything. He smiled gently.

"Amelia is a talent I discovered when I was in New York. She was working as an Auror at the time, but she is very talented in alchemy. She gave me many suggestions for improving the learning machine, which were very constructive. So, I invited her to come back to London with me and join the workshop to develop the next generation of learning machines."

"Ah, so that's what it is—"

Old Nott nodded politely to Amelia, but there was a flash of disappointment in his eyes.

He had thought that there was an intimate relationship between this beautiful girl and Amosta, and that they were lovers, but if that was the case, then her value to the Dark Lord was greatly reduced.

"Here is your receipt, Mr. Nott—"

The old goblin, who had been cursed by Old Nott for thousands of years, finally kept track of the accounts and handed over a roll of parchment from behind the cabinet.

"Well, I wish you all the best."

Old Nott put the parchment into his pocket, wiped the sweat from his temples, and lowered his head to Amosstar. Finally, under Amosstar's deep gaze, his embarrassed figure quickly disappeared in the hall of Gringotts.

"Who is this wizard?"

Amelia, who had been listening to the conversation between the two, couldn't help but ask.

"Among the twenty-eight sacred families, the current patriarch of the Nott family, his son is my student, and he himself is a..."

Amosta raised his finger to block out the eavesdropping of several wizards in the queue and the goblin behind the counter.

"Making Death Eaters."

"Death Eaters?" Amelia was shocked.

Amosta nodded slightly,

"Fourteen years ago, when Voldemort fell, not all of his followers were imprisoned. A considerable number of those who had a certain degree of power and status used lies and gold to escape trial and have been at large ever since. After Voldemort took back his magical power some time ago, those who had escaped trial by chance returned to Voldemort and continued to follow him. However, they had no choice--"

As Amosta spoke, he led Amelia to the front row of the hall. An old goblin sitting there saw them coming and had already left his seat and was waiting at the counter.

"Welcome, Mr. Blaine. I'm Bogrod. How can I help you?"

"That's it—"

Amosta once again blocked out the surrounding sounds, pondered, and said while groping for something in his arms,

"I got something and I suspect it might be the key to the vault of an ancient family that has been lost. I wonder if you can identify it for me--"

As he spoke, Amosta took out the Slytherin emblem that he had obtained from the basilisk's stomach. (End of this chapter)