The snow along Diagon Alley crunched softly beneath their boots, the cobblestones glazed with ice that glittered like glass in the pale December sun.
Cassius walked slightly ahead, his dark coat buttoned to the throat, the faint silver trim of his cuffs catching the light as he moved.
Hermione trudged beside him, her breath puffing in white clouds, while Mrs. Granger followed a half-step behind, clutching her purse with the wary tension of someone far outside her depth.
The alley itself hummed with quiet life.
Shopkeepers were sweeping snow from doorsteps, hanging new charms in display windows; owls perched along the eaves, their feathers puffed against the cold.
Yet for Mrs. Granger, it was all strange — too strange — and her eyes darted from the crooked chimneys to the lanterns that burned with no visible flame.
"It's quite safe, Mum," Hermione said gently, reaching back to squeeze her mother's hand. "Everyone here's just… well, magical. You'll get used to it."
Mrs. Granger nodded, though the stiffness in her shoulders didn't ease.
"I'll admit, darling, it's… different. Still like you said the more i experience it the more magical it all becomes."
Cassius glanced back at them, a faint curve to his lips.
"That's a rather apt assumption, immersion therepy does have a firm foundation afterall."
Hermione stifled a laugh as they reached the marble steps of Gringotts.
The great wizarding bank loomed above them, its pale façade streaked with frost, guarded by two goblins in burnished armor.
Mrs. Granger hesitated at the threshold, her breath catching as she looked up at the massive bronze doors engraved with warnings in an unfamiliar language.
Cassius spoke softly beside her. "The goblins are not cruel by nature, Mrs. Granger. Merely… pragmatic. They value business above all else. So long as we show our respect for that, we'll have no issue."
She nodded, visibly steadying herself, and allowed Hermione to lead her through the first set of doors.
Inside, the air was cool and smelled faintly of metal and parchment.
The great marble hall stretched before them — long counters lined with goblins scribbling in ledgers, weighing coins, and examining jewels with sharp, critical eyes.
Chains clinked softly in the distance where armored guards escorted carts filled with gold down toward the vault tunnels.
Mrs. Granger's fingers tightened reflexively around Hermione's hand.
"They're so…"
"Small?" Hermione whispered.
"I was going to say intense," her mother muttered, earning a quiet snort from Cassius.
This was after all the madam grangers first time coming to gringotts, Hermione had told him during the summer it was her father who'd done the money exchange while Hermione and her mum waited outside.
Mr. Granger clearly already of the mindset to sacrifice himself for his family as he followed the hogwarts professor into the bank.
Cassius didnt bear it any mind as he strode forward with measured purpose toward the main desk.
The goblin stationed there — narrow-faced, with a nose like a dagger and spectacles perched precariously on the end of it — looked up immediately.
His black eyes narrowed at the sight of Cassius, then flicked toward the two Muggles behind him.
Before the goblin could speak, Cassius inclined his head low, his tone precise and formal.
"Agneddi. May you have fortune in your endeavours."
The goblin's brows shot up in surprise.
The old Gobbledegook greeting was archaic, rarely used by wizards in centuries.
Cassius placed a gleaming galleon upon the counter, sliding it forward with quiet grace — not quite a bribe, but unmistakably a gesture of courtesy.
The goblin studied him for a moment, then nodded curtly.
"And may your vaults overflow, young one."
Cassius straightened, his voice calm but carrying the weight of command.
"I've come to undertake the inheritance test."
The words seemed to hang in the air.
The scratching of quills around them paused briefly.
The clerk's eyes narrowed — recognition flashing there, followed by confusion.
He looked from Cassius to the women behind him.
"You… know of the rite?"
"I do."
"Few outside the old bloodlines remember it." His gaze hardened, suspicion threading through his tone. "And yet you from a muggle upbringing seek to challenge?"
Cassius didnt respond simply inclinging his head in approval.
For a long moment, the goblin said nothing. Then, at last, he inclined his head. "Very well."
He snapped his clawed fingers, and another goblin appeared from a side door, bowing low before beckoning them to follow.
Mrs. Granger hesitated again.
Hermione leaned close and whispered, "It's all right, Mum. They're formal, not unfriendly."
Mrs. Granger forced a shaky smile. "Formal, right. Like lawyers with sharper teeth."
Cassius hid a smirk as they descended a short corridor lit by flickering torches.
At the end of it waited a heavy bronze door engraved with runes that pulsed faintly as they approached.
The goblin escort stopped before it.
At first he looked like he wanted to stop the ladies from following beyond this point, but Cassius stopped him in his tracks with a glare.
Without a word between them the goblin escort stretch his arm and after tracing a finger around the doors runes it began to creak open without any further aid.
Inside the room beyond looked truly ancient.
A stone room but one clearly touched by the hands of time, the stone weathered and eroded in places.
At the center lay a dais, atop which was a silver looking up and a bluish metal dagger.
The inheritance exam was honstely a simple affair.
Use the blade to open a wound and let some of your blood drip into the chalice, if your blood has any connection to a registered legacy within the bank it will then be projected to you as the blood within would vapourize forming the crest/s of the familiy to which you belong.
As hermione stood at the doorway with her mum, Cassius followed the goblin forwards towards the dais.
After reaching it, he almost in a trance like state reached out grabbing the blue dagger before using it to open a vein on his arm.
Without hesitation causing the girls to shriek a little at the sight, from their vantage it looked like Cassius had just willingly tried to commit suicide.
But in the next moment their thoughts changed.
As the blood that flowed from his wound, didnt trickle instead it snaked from his arm through the air before pooling into the chalice before him.
Then after the cup filled half-way, Cassius used his other hand to simply wipe down his arm, removing any sign of the wound itself and leaving no scar.
Next the accepted blood began to boil in the cup before it started to mist upwards.
The accumulated cloud began to go through a series of changes before five seperate crests were revealed to him and the others.
Badger, Raven, Snake, Lion.
The signs of the four founders, each one being revealed shocked the little goblin, but then lastly the red mist turned black, before forming into a dragon.
The goblin seeing this took a series of steps back, almost as if he was scared.
"th... the true heir apparent."
Was all he spoke before silence fell and the mist disappeared.