บท 20: Philosopher's Stone - 2 (end)

The little fun was over when Jessica used her wand. The wand shot a blob of water to clean the goblin. And Hagrid was sitting near the track as he wasn't feeling well.

Harry ignored the raged goblin and went to Hagrid. The goblin wasn't pleased as to how all of them treated him, but Harry didn't care about him at all. Jessica altogether ignored him.

Harry placed his tiny hand on Hagrid's huge back and asked, "Hey, are you alright, Hagrid?"

Hagrid waved his huge hand, "I am fine. My head was spinning a little, that's all. Cause, you know, I am not a fan of height."

Harry was speechless by Hagrid's reply.

It took five minutes for Hagrid to recover and the goblin to calm down.

They finally went to the vault.

When they reached near the vault, Harry realized that there was no keyhole!

He looked at Jessica, and she looked confused too.

"What lock you are supposed to open?" asked Harry through a soul-link to Jessica.

"I am not sure either. I only know that it requires the members of our family to open with the key, which I got, well, that is what he said," replied Jessica. Harry knew that by 'he' she was referring to Nicolas Flamel. He nodded his head and waited patiently.

"Stand back," said the impatient goblin importantly. If it was within his power, he would definitely throw the giant inside.

All three of them were looking at the door with no keyhole while ignoring the goblin, so he spoke impatiently, "I need to open it, and anyone but Gringotts goblin tried this or stand near them, they would be sucked inside and trapped there, safety measures, until guards do their checking, and trust me when I say it is only once in ten years. You can still try and stand there." The goblin gave a nasty smile.

Harry was studying the door when he heard the goblin, and so he irritably steps back. With every passing moment, Harry was hating this goblin more and more.

Harry could feel the magic oozing from the door, but it was a weird kind of magic that he never had felt.

Harry's magic sense was better than anyone, as he has support from the system, and so he had upgraded the magic sense to the maximum.

He intently stares at the door and the goblin, lest he misses anything.

The goblin moved near the door. He pointed his finger at the door and gently stroked it. The door melted away like it was never there!

Harry was shocked!

There was another reason for his shock too — the notification from the system!

Unusual magic detected...

Checking...

Gathering information...

Done.

Analyzing...

Done.

The recently used magic was similar to the signature of the goblins!

It is special magic related to the goblins.

The magic used is unusual, but it is far weaker than wizards' magic.

This is why Harry was shocked.

Everyone knows that the goblins have no magic power, but the system says otherwise.

People thought that the goblins were using some kind of mechanism, not magic.

The goblins were no threat without the magic, but this discovery changed everything!

Harry looked at the goblin with a serious face.

Harry knew that goblins had tried to coup many times and they were defeated every time. That led to the rule that only humans could have a wand, and non-humans are not allowed to have a wand if they are found with a wand, then death!

The problem was that Harry didn't know much about goblins than they tried to revolt some times.

So he couldn't come to a conclusion, as he needed more information. He remembered that he was going to school, so it was one more thing to look forward too.

The goblins were dangerous to wizard kind from the beginning, and now, Harry found that they were developing the magic of their own kind, secretly, and deceiving everyone!

Harry smelled a conspiracy here. He knew something was wrong, but without much knowledge and information, he couldn't do much. He couldn't be sure what goblins wanted to do exactly.

The only good thing was that the magic was far weaker than human magic, so that was an upside.

Harry put the thought of 'goblin's magic and their past revolt' aside, as he saw another door, this time with a keyhole, and there was handprint there too.

"All yours," said the goblin, and step back. He looked at the giant nastily the last time and moved to the cart.

Jessica and Harry came forward and Hagrid stood in his potion, behind them.

There was another door there with keyhole and hand imprint in front.

"Maybe you need to put your hand on the door and the key, to open it," suggested Harry, the obvious.

Jessica nodded her head in agreement and placed her hand. The red light passed through her hand and then became green as if it had checked and approved Jessica!

She then opened the door of the vault with the key. She was looking inside.

Harry was looking inside too.

The inside wasn't as big as Harry had expected. It was just around 1 square foot. At first glance, it looked dark and empty, but Harry knew what to expect from inside, so he looked attentively, and saw a grubby little package wrapped up in brown paper lying on the floor.

Harry grinned for a moment and went back to normal. He didn't even need to ask the system, as he could feel the magic impulse with his high sensitivity of magic. He knew it was the philosopher's stone!

Harry's heart was beating faster and faster. He tried to act normal as much as possible. Though he knew Hagrid might not be able to find it, better act along until the end.

"Oh, let me help you with this," offered Harry his help, and bent down to pick it up.

"Hehe, what a gentleman! Thank you, then, " replied Jessica shyly, acting her part well. She had her doubts but she followed Harry's lead.

Harry bent down to pick up the parcel from the floor of the vault. Just before he picked up a package, he took out a fake stone he prepared a long ago and replaced with the original. He placed the original stone in his Spatial Ring just as he had taken out the fake stone.

Harry was so fast with his move that it was a blur, hardly visible, and his body was between everyone's vision and the package, so no one was able to see when Harry made the swap.

Jessica only knew that Harry was up to something, but wasn't clear on the matter.

Harry, with a smile, passed the package with brown colour to Jessica.

Harry was confident that no one could tell it apart from real to fake. One could only found out about its fakeness after three days of using it.

That was enough to prevent Voldemort from getting it. And it was stolen than three days buff would be enough to find the culprit, as he had placed some countermeasures, and something 'special' for the final surprise whoever uses it.

She smiled, and said, "Thank you, gentleman." Harry then gave her a humble bow of a gentleman.

The mission to swap the philosopher's stone and prevent any unnecessary thing in the future was complete.

It wasn't that Harry was being paranoid, but many things had changed about what he had known about the original world, so it was better prepared than sorry.

He restrained from smiling and stood aside as if whatever happening here, he had no interest in it, and he genuinely wanted to help, nothing more.

Jessica took the package without opening and went near Hagrid. "I was told to pass this to you, take it and my mission is done here."

Hagrid too didn't open the package. He put the package in his inner pocket, near his heart, very carefully. He also did the double check.

"Alright, all done. Now let's go to Harry's Vault to take out gold for the shopping," said Hagrid. He walked toward his cart.

Harry and Jessica went toward the second cart. Harry was anticipating what was in the Vault left behind by his parents, and what changes might there have, as lots of things have changed from the future he knew.

Harry was excited to find out nonetheless!