Firstly, thank you so much for the review - it absolutely makes my day.

In the world of their new headmaster, they quickly learnt that 'let's go shopping!' actually meant 'you go shopping!' for they were in Diagon Alley no more than a few moments when the silver-haired man decided he had other business to attend to.

"Mr Snape," Dumbledore bent down so that his beard grazed over the stone surface of Diagon Alley.

There was a rush of people either side of them, scurrying every which way in and out of shop fronts. They all wore long robes and pointed hats and carried curious assortments of items in their arms or creatures screaming inside cages. Witches and wizards of every variety squabbled over dragon scales, newts eyes, purple-blade grass and an array of things Lily had never heard of.

"It would be most gentlemanly if you could accompany Miss Evans to Gringotts."

Gringotts... thought Snape, wasn't that a bank?

"Ah..." he opened his mouth to reply with I have no idea where that is, but Dumbledore brought the two children together and made sure they were holding hands before letting go of them. "Very kind, very kind," he muttered absently, beginning to wander off. "I will meet you back at this very spot when you have finished acquiring your school supplies," he added.

"Pr-professor!" Snape spoke up, rushing a few steps forward with Lily dragging behind him. Professor Dumbledore stopped slowly turned back to them, re-adjusting his glasses.

"How – how will you know what time to meet us?"

"I will know," he replied calmly, and then vanished into the crowds.

It was only then that Snape realised that Lily's grip on his hand was painfully firm. Her little knuckles had turned white and his fingers were a blushing pink where they were crunched together. He had never held a girl's hand before and had no idea how to address the problem.

"He just left us here..." said Lily softly, in disbelief. "All alone, in the middle of the street – a street behind a brick wall – a brick wall that –"

"Lily," Snape interrupted. She was becoming quite frantic and he could feel her heart pounding faster and faster through her grip. "Magic..." he reassured her.

"It takes some getting used to," she admitted.

A small explosion shook the street and the pair jumped in fright. It was followed by a shower of brightly coloured feathers that flew out the shattered window of the shop on their right amid a trail of curses. Birds screeched in high pitched cries and a small trail of black smoke wafted after the feathers. Snape rose to tiptoes and thought he caught a hint of flame deep within the shop.

"Bloody phoenixes," hissed a passerby, ducking to avoid the black smoke. "More trouble than they're worth!"

The sign on top of the shop squeaked and fell to the ground with a crash.

Eeylops Owl Emporium

It was quickly restored to its lofty location by a tall witch. A purple spell poured from the tip of her wand, took hold of the sign and somehow stuck it back onto its metal cornice. Next she set herself to fixing the window. Lily and Snape watched in awe as every piece of fractured glass picked itself up and flew dutifully back to the window where it remelted and cooled in an instant leaving a perfect, unbroken shopfront.

"Oomprh!"

There was a collision in the middle of the street and Snape found himself sprawled over the smooth stones. A dozen feet whizzed past his face kicking dust up onto him which inevitably stuck to his greaser than usual hair. Lily ended up in a heap beside him, still clutching onto his hand.

"You fell-" she flicked her hair back off her face and hopped to her knees, pulling Severus up with her.

"Well spotted..." he automatically snapped, as they dusted each other down and he finally regained use of his hand. Technically, he had 'fallen' he'd been 'pushed' – an important distinction that the girl didn't show the slightest bit of interest in.

Lily's eyes fluttered back to the storefront where a beautiful red owl retook its place at the centre of a bronze perch. Its feathers had tips of gold that matched its enormous eyes which the creature used to survey the street and in particular, Lily as she inched closer to it.

"We have to go to the bank," said Snape, snapping Lily out of her enamoured daze, "before we can buy anything. Did your parents give you money?"

Lily dug into her bag and pulled out a heavy purse. It jingled in the affirmative.

"Muggle money?" he asked. She was confused for a moment and then nodded. Of course, how stupid of him, how would she have anything else? "We have to change it into wizard money," he explained. "I think that's why the Professor wanted me to take you there but –"

"You don't know where it is, do you?"

He found the confession of it unreasonably embarrassing so he settled on, "It can't be hard to find. It is supposed to be the grandest building in all of – what?"

Lily pointed down to the far end of the street they were standing on with a satisfied smirk. In the distance several crooked pillars of white marble towered over the rest of the shops. They held up several layers of a snowy white building, gleaming in the sun. The building proudly owned a set of heavy wooden doors, encrusted with jewels and edged with gold.

"Just a guess," she offered tentatively, "but is that it?"

"For a muggle," Snape begrudgingly admitted, as they started out towards it, "you're very observant."

"For a wizard," she saved him from another collision with a mad-looking witch with several feet of crazy hair, "you're very not."

Ordinarily he was but ever since meeting Lily Evans his accident count had greatly increased. She'd somehow destroyed his sense of balance – or maybe it was his vision that was blurry – he couldn't tell because everywhere he looked, all he saw was the grinning redhead.

It took them ages to reach those doors. Every step they took towards them, the crowd nudged them backwards and it was only when Lily ducked and pulled him underneath the stream of bodies that they were able to escape from the crowd and join the line of people trailing into the bank.

When Lily saw her first goblin, she yelped and hopped behind Snape as she had Dumbledore. Snape looked back over his shoulder and found Lily peering out over it, watching closely as the goblin, white hair and bony arms poking out from its uniform, returned to a register and continued receiving business.

"Goblins," whispered Snape over his shoulder.

They were even shorter than Snape and Lily – by at least a foot, and sported bright red jackets with golden buttons and trimmed sleeves. Their intelligence was frightening, you could feel it gazing up at you, piercing through your eyes and straight down into your soul, deciding whether or not you're here to steal. Snape closed his mind and thought of nothing but a bubbling stream, taking a turn around a brown bank. The goblin broke its stare and returned to balancing galleons on a scale.

By the time they reached one of the counters (and clambered onto the boxes presented), Lily was too afraid to speak and it was left to Snape to fumble her purse onto the counter.

"We would like change muggle money," said Snape clearly, aware of the rumours surrounding Goblins and their poor hearing which they always used to their advantage.

"Exchange rates are on the board beside you," it droned with disinterest. "Objections must be made prior to counting. Sign here please."

He nudged a black feathered quill toward her. Lily looked at it but didn't register it as a writing implement until Snape picked it up and dipped it in an ink well for her.

"Oh..." she gently took it from him as a drop of red ink hit the counter. The goblin flinched but made no comment. "I don't have a signature," she whispered nervously to Snape.

"I think you can just write your name and make it look – hard to read."

She thought about it for a moment and then wrote, Lily Evans in perfect script before putting several decorative lines through it.

"I'd believe it..." Snape rubbed his hooked nose on his sleeve as she handed it back.

The goblin whose name appeared to be Gersward, didn't seem to care what was scrawled on the paper as he immediately emptied Lily's purse onto the table and prodded its contents with a long, sharp finger.

"Twenty-three galleons, fourteen sickles and eight knuts," the goblin moved three neat piles of coins in her direction.

Lily didn't think it looked like much considering the amount she'd handed over, but then again, the first one – galleons, they looked like actual gold.

"Th-thank you," she slipped it all into her purse.

Thank you? Thought the goblin, muggles...

"Will there be anything else, young sir?" Gersward thoroughly hated this time of year. It was predictably flooded with unaccompanied eleven year olds staring, doe-eyed holding up proper procedure.

"I think he means you," Lily nudged Snape gently.

The key, the key – the key... Snape burrowed his hand deep into his pockets and wrapped his fingers around the little silver key.

"I have this – a key," he presented it for the goblin's inspection. The key was tiny and light as a feather, delicately ornate with a serial number etched along its shaft.

"Zero-three-three-zero-six-two-nine," the goblin sniffed the key to check its validity. "You are Snape's child," he assumed correctly.

Severus's heart thudded unpleasantly. They couldn't possibly know... not yet.

"He is," Lily answered of him, when it became clear that Snape couldn't.

The goblin hopped off its chair and completely vanished behind the desk. Snape and Lily instinctively leaned in, searching for the horrid creature that was already behind them, waiting. Gersward announced himself with a discreet cough.

"This way, if you please," he beckoned them forward.

They followed him through the marble foyer and down a set of stairs to the left.

"There are many vaults in Gringotts," Gersward explained as he reached the first locked door. He whispered something to the door in a language Snape and Lily couldn't understand, and it swung open for them. "It would be a shame to steal from any of them."

This time it was Snape that fell, ever so subtly, behind Lily.

"Thief, you have been warned, beware - of finding more than treasure there..." The goblin made a horrible rasping sound that may have, in a time long forgotten, passed as a laugh.

"Yes," it continued, opening another door, this time with a key of its own, "a goblin always knows when treasure is unjustly on the move, the real question, the only one that matters," he was talking to himself now, entirely forgetting the children behind him, "is whether or not he cares."

They came to a stop in front of a wall full of keyholes. Vaults, thousands of them, sprawled out into the dark tunnel. These were not expensive vaults, they were the basic, standard, almost post-box like holes in Gringotts magical walls.

"Your vault, Master Snape," the goblin pointed at a small square on the wall with a keyhole marked 0330629.

Snape swallowed hard.

He took exactly fifteen galleons from his father's vault. No sickle more. Severus had prepared it all so carefully and determined the minimum amount he would need for a basic set of school supplies. Still, it made him sick inside to think what he was doing and what made it infinitely worse was his mind wondering endlessly why the goblin hadn't stopped him.