The vault was drowning in golden Galleons. Piles and piles of them glittered all the way to the ceiling, so many that even the goblin running the cart looked like he wanted to dive in and swim around.
This was the kind of fortune a master alchemist was supposed to have, even if the kid who owned it had no idea how obscene it really was.
Professor Snape stared at Sean like he was trying to bore holes straight through him. He still remembered coming down here not long ago, when the vault had been completely empty except for the handful of Galleons he'd personally brought.
"Give me… one… reasonable… explanation," he hissed through clenched teeth.
The goblin had already retreated to a respectful distance. Technically they never left a vault unattended, but rules were flexible when Severus Snape was in a mood.
"I… made a few simple alchemical items," Sean answered honestly.
Snape's lip curled. "Pathetic—"
He stopped himself mid-sneer, eyes narrowing. "Galleons do not fly into vaults because of 'simple' alchemical trinkets. The truth. Now."
His cold gaze swept the mountains of gold. It wasn't the money that bothered him; he, Severus Snape, didn't care about money.
It was something else entirely.
Sean shifted the vault statement the goblin had just handed him. "Fred, George, and I opened a shop at 93 Diagon Alley."
Snape blinked. Just once. His face stayed perfectly blank, but something flickered behind his eyes.
"And… we've been selling some notes," Sean added.
He hadn't expected the "Green Notes" to rake in this much either.
Snape kept staring, his expression growing more complicated by the second. Deep under London, mine carts whizzed by on their tracks far below. For a moment it looked like he was seeing Sean, and at the same time looking straight through him into the void.
Green Notes… Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes & Green's Magical Mischief… Of course the whole wizarding world was buzzing about them. And he'd been completely oblivious.
"But that's not the main thing," Sean said quietly.
Snape snapped back to reality, a vein throbbing in his forehead. "There's more you're hiding?!"
Sean's voice got smaller. "I did make a few simple alchemical creations."
Compared to the vast, unknowable future of magical creature transfiguration, he really didn't think he'd come that far. That's why he kept calling them "simple."
"Speak!"
"Fairytale Biscuits."
Silence.
A thousand chaotic thoughts crashed together in Snape's head:
- Hermes the Thrice-Great reborn
- Frontrunner for the Chocolate Frog Card Committee's "Greatest Wizard of the 21st Century"
- Udala International Alchemy Conference Breakthrough Contribution Gold Medal
- Transfiguration Today's once-in-a-century guest of honor (who refused all interviews)
- The alchemical legend who seized authority over magical creatures
He pulled an invitation letter from his robes. His face cycled through half a dozen emotions before settling on barely-contained volcanic fury.
"Take your Galleons," he snarled, spinning on his heel. "We're leaving."
The vault door clanged shut behind them. All the way up the twisting tunnels, the only sounds were Snape's boots echoing like gunshots and the cold wind whistling past.
He felt irritated in a way he hadn't in years. He'd been completely in the dark. What exactly did he know anymore?
The irritation didn't fade one bit by the time they stepped out of Gringotts and Apparated to the edge of King's Cross Station.
Side-along Apparition only works to places you know well, and Severus Snape did not know a Muggle suburb called Croydon.
Which meant they had to take… special transportation.
The thought that Minerva McGonagall probably knew exactly where it was only made him more annoyed.
Inside King's Cross, trains roared and Muggles hurried past. Two black-robed figures stood out like ink blots on white paper. They waited in tense silence for almost fifteen minutes. Snape didn't speak. Sean didn't ask.
That quiet, stupid trust made everything worse. The boy had answered every question in the vault without a single lie or dodge.
It was a feeling Snape remembered, and hated remembering.
Suddenly a blinding purple flash lit up the street outside.
Sean smiled faintly. He'd guessed right.
Ever since the Statute of Secrecy, wizarding travel options in the Muggle world had been severely limited. When you didn't know the destination well, or when young witches and wizards needed a ride, there was really only one emergency option left.
The Knight Bus.
A violently violet triple-decker bus had just materialized out of thin air. Big golden letters across the windshield proudly declared: KNIGHT BUS.
Oddly, none of the Muggles seemed to notice.
A conductor in a purple uniform hopped down and bellowed, "Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard! Just stick out your wand hand, step on board, and we'll take you anywhere you want to go. Name's Stan Shunpike; at your service today; oh; Professor Snape, sir!"
He gave a nervous little bow.
Sean had never ridden it before. He'd only seen the blueprints once, back at the alchemy conference.
"Croydon," Snape ordered in his lowest, most dangerous voice.
"That'll be six Sickles each," Stan said, eyeing Sean with open curiosity. "Seven and you get a complimentary Humbug…"
A handful of sparkling coins landed in Stan's palm. He grinned and dropped a Humbug into Sean's hand like they were old pals.
Sean was too busy staring at the inside of the bus to care: mismatched armchairs bolted to the floor, brass bedsteads sliding around, no seatbelts in sight.
He popped the Humbug into his mouth and immediately understood why they gave them out.
The driver, an elderly wizard named Ernie Prang, wore glasses thick enough to double as telescope lenses. He gave the handful of passengers a quick nod, slammed the doors, and the Knight Bus shot forward like it had been fired out of a cannon.
Ernie clearly believed steering wheels were optional. The bus rocketed up onto the sidewalk, making a little witch on Sean's left shriek nonstop.
Somehow they didn't hit anything; lampposts, mailboxes, and trash cans leapt aside at the last second, then hopped politely back into place once the bus screamed past.
Then the bus launched itself into the air with a deafening BANG! The little witch actually left her seat entirely and would have hit the ceiling if the wizard next to her hadn't yanked her back down.
When things finally leveled out for half a second, Sean crunched the rest of the Humbug. The mint helped. A little.