As Hester stepped inside the huge entrance of Gringott's, her mother reached to grab her hand. She pulled it away. "Muuuum... Stop embarrassing me!"
Her mother wasn't used to the magical world, and neither was she.
She wondered how the bank worked. Did it work like a muggle bank? All she knew was that s was exchanging sterling for the magical currency, and opening an account.
"May I help you?" asked a surly looking goblin. Hester looked down at him, surprised.
"Uh... Yes, yes please. I would like to open an account, I mean a vault, in the name of Hester Alderman," she babbled. The goblin scribbled something down in his huge book and then handed her a tiny silver key.
"Anything else?" he asked.
"Can I exchange this into galleons please?" Hester asked, handing over a pile of loose change. The goblin counted it out and handed her back a pile of coins she had never seen before.
"Thank you," she said with a smile and hurried out of the bank, desperate to see the shops.
--
Hester returned to the bank just before she left the wizard street of Diagon Alley. She had some galleons left, and, although she wanted to save some for the train, she wanted to store the rest in her new vault, so that she wouldn't spend too much.
The same goblin served her.
He led her out of the marble room and into a low, rocky tunnel. She climbed into the cart and they set off on what Hester could only describe as the worst roller-coaster ride of her entire life.
She stumbled out of the cart a few minutes later, clutching her stomach and attempting not to throw up. She groaned as the goblin unlocked her vault with the tiny silver key that she had handed to him. The door swung open, revealing a large, empty room. She dropped her bag of galleons, the ones that she wanted to save, onto the floor. Then she backed out of the vault.
"Thank you," she said to the goblin.
The cart ride back up wasn't anywhere near as horrible, although Hester was really glad to be back out in the open air.
Now it was time to go home.
