Chapter 4 Sally-Anne's Turn

Professor Snape growled at the people in the Leaky Cauldron. They were all talking about Harry Potter and how they all met the boy. It was nauseating. He hated the fact that the spawn of James Potter was coming to Hogwarts. And judging from the reaction here in the Cauldron, the boy was just as much of an attention seeker as his father. He shook his head and put a hand on his charge's back, and led her through the pub.

He had no idea why Minerva insisted that he show muggleborns around, but she roped him into it every year. And every year, Albus sat him down and lectured him on how to treat the dunderheads.

This year was the worse.

The girl he was escorting was a shy timid thing. If he didn't know better, he'd think that Minerva picked the child on propose. The poor thing feared her own shadow.

She was tiny and skinny, but not unhealthy so, more like a dancer. She had long brown hair, that shone red in the sun, and periwinkle eyes. She jumped at the slightest thing and was clinging to his robes like a limpet. He had no idea why she latched on to him. Maybe he reminded her of her father or something. The man was intimidating, after all. For a muggle.

"Come," he said in a curt voice, leading her behind the pub.

"Yes, sir," she said meekly, fearfully glancing around.

Snape sighed; he had no idea how to handle this. The children of his House were a lot more self-confident. He glanced down at that admittedly cute face and softened a bit. It was hard to stay mad as something that adorable. Merlin, he was getting soft.

"Don't worry," he said, patting her back, "nothing will hurt you here. Remember I told your parents I would protect you," he added, hoping it would make her feel safer. It didn't.

"Okay," she squeaked, jumping back as the portal opened. She ducked around the Potion Master, grabbed his robes and then peeked to see who was coming.

"That was awesome," a dark-skinned boy said, all but bouncing around. His trunk floating behind him, thanks to the Charms Professor. "My mum is going to be stoked."

"Yes, yes," said the tiny man with him in fond exasperation. He had been hearing about it all day, and while he was happy the boy was feeling better, he had hoped it would have settled down by now.

"Filius," Snape said, nodding his head. He had great respect for his fellow professor. Though, he could do without the cheeriness of the man.

"Severus," the little professor reply, "I see it's your turn. I'm surprised Minerva talked you into this yet again," Filius giggled at the dour look that crossed the man's face.

"Indeed," was all the answer he got.

"Where is your charge?" Flitwick asked, looking around the small courtyard. He then spotted her hanging on Snape's cloak. He had to hide another giggling fit. It was not often that someone took a liking to the sour man.

"Hello there," Dean said, gazing at the mostly hidden girl. He glanced at what he was sure was a vampire, if it were not for the fact the sun was shining on his greasy hair. "Are you going to Hogwarts too?" he asked with a brilliant smile, turning back to the shy girl.

She nodded and looked at Flitwick with wide fearful eyes.

Flitwick sadly smiled and turned his attention back to Snape. "We had quite a bit of excitement at Gringotts. Mr. Thomas here found out that his father was a wizard."

"Indeed," Severus repeated without the slightest bit of interest.

"Yes," the oblivious professor said, patting Dean's back. "You might want to see if your charge has any magical ancestors. It would make for a good experiment," he added with a conspirator like wink. "From what I was told, Mr. Thomas was the second vault opened today. The goblins are ecstatic. Well, as much as they can be at least."

Snape thought for a moment and looked at his skittish charge. He wasn't sure the girl would even look at the goblins, let alone let them take her blood.

"I will think on it," he said, guiding Sally-Anne through the portal without another word.

She seemed to be glad that they were moving along. Though, she was still scared out of her mind, and wanted her dad there. It had taken two hours and a vow from Professor Snape to get her to come at all. She wanted to learn magic, and was glad she wasn't a weirdo; however, she was still scared of the unknown.

Her parents had protected her all her life. She had had quite a scare when she was younger. A few bad men had tried to grab her. She had no idea why, but something happened, and the bad men had been blown away from her, letting her escape. Since then, her dad never let her out of his sight, except for school. However, he walked her to and from every day. She felt safe with him, and the professor reminding her very much of her dad.

She felt that no one would mess with the foreboding man.

Snape walked quickly through the Alley, Sally-Anne all but running to keep up, still clinging to his robes. They came to Gringotts, and the girl let out a scream and hid behind the professor. The… beings in front of the building were like stuff from movies, bad stuff. She was sure she was going to have nightmares.

Snape sighed, and patted her reassuringly on the back, letting her bury her face in his robes.

Having dealt with this situation before, the two goblins tried to look as unimposing as possible. They didn't smile, knowing that would make it worse, but they made sure that their eyes were kind. Both gave the girl a little bow and then looked away.

"Pr…Pr… Professor, what are those?" she whispered, pulling on the man's robe.

"Goblins. Don't worry they won't hurt you. If you are kind to them, they will return it in kind," he explained, bending a bit so they would not be heard.

"They're scary," she said softly.

"I promise, nothing will hurt you here," he reiterated.

"Oh, okay," she said, tightening her grip on his robe.

They went to the exchange counter and waited in line. It wasn't that long because it was getting towards late afternoon.

When it was their turn, Swifttooth waved the timid girl forward. "Come, child, I will not harm you," he said in a soft voice.

Snape marched forward and Sally-Anne was pulled along reluctantly.

"Miss Perks, this is a goblin. His name, judging by his nameplate, is Swifttooth. He will exchange your money into ours," Severus explained, handing the goblin the money that had been given to him. The girl only had about a hundred pounds, it was enough to get the essentials, but little more. Maybe, if she did have a vault, it would help her buy more.

Sally-Anne just started in horrid fascination. She wasn't sure if she should run, or just hide behind Professor Snape. She chose the latter.

Snape sighed again, looked up as if praying to the heavens for strength and pulled her back around to front.

"You need," he explained, "to get your money."

"Eep," she said, looking at the floor. Then slowly crept forward and quickly grabbed the bag that the teller had left on the counter and scurried back behind the professor.

"Swifttooth, Filius informed me that you do inherency test," Snape stated, then once again nudged the girl to the front. "I would like to see if Miss Perks has a vault," he added, placing a hand on her shoulder so she didn't hide again.

"Is this what you want, child?" Swifttooth asked since he needed her permission.

"Will it hurt?" she inquired, pressing herself back against Snape's legs.

"Only for a moment," the goblin confessed, and then he explained the procedure.

She was intrigued, it might explain a few things to her parents, if they knew where they came from. They were always going on about how history was important. So, she took the pin, screwed up her eyes and jabbed her finger. That hurt.

She then did as the goblin said and smeared it across the paper. The name Goodwin appeared.

"Oh, very good," Swifttooth said, not smiling. Goblin teeth were frightening to the skittish. "This means you have a vault. Though, I can tell you nothing about your family. Take this to the teller over there," he pointed a few windows away, "and he'll fix you right up." He changed procedure for her because, the vault in question held very little, and therefore did not have a ledger, just a statement.

"Thank you," she said, meekly and quickly grabbed the parchment and scurried back to Snape.

The Potion Master sighed and guided her to the other window.

"Sharpclaw," he said, glancing the nameplate, "Miss Perks has just discovered she has a vault. Will you help her?" he asked, glaring at the poor teller, as if to say, 'don't scare her further'.

The goblin was not impressed. He held out his hand for the parchment, and Sally-Anne looked like she was about to faint. Severus took it from her hand and gave it to the goblin. The teller glanced at it and smiled, causing the girl to 'Eep' again.

"I will make you up a key, and then give a statement as to what is in the vault. However, she needs to bring her guardians here to validate it," Sharpclaw said, reaching under his counter for a black bowl.

He put the parchment in the bowl, poured a potion on it, tapped it three times, waved his hand a bit. This caused a cloud of purple smoke to appear. When it vanished, there was a gold key. He took the key, pulled out another parchment, pressed the key in the square, waited for it to finish, and then handed it all to Snape.

"Thank you," the curt man said and guided Sally-Anne out of the bank. He took a quick glance at the paper and noted it only had about 200 galleons. He rolled it up and put it in his pocket. He would explain to her parents what they needed to do, the exchange rate, and how the bank operated.

The girl looked on the verge of tears but was smiling at the same time. While she was happy that she had a magical family member, there were still too many weird things all around her. Something banged off to her right, and she screeched and jumped the opposite direction.

"Don't worry," Snape said, pulling her back towards him, and glaring at the boys playing by the toy store, "it's only a toy going off. Now, we have enough to get your shopping done. I will then take you home and explain to your parents about the vault. They can come here and get it straightened out," he explained as he swiftly walked to the luggage store.

"Thank you," she said, following along.

She was still going over all that had happened, and she was glad that they were out of the bank. Though, she knew she would have to come back. This time, though, her dad would be with her, so it was alright.