A dish best served cold

6

Harry sat in the Room of Requirement on the first Thursday of October. He had just finished the first gathering of the new club, which the group as a whole had voted to call the Practical Defense Club or PDC for short. The meeting had gone well, with a fair number of students from each house. There were even some Slytherins there, Draco Malfoy included. The atmosphere had been tense at first, with a bit of name calling going back and forth, but Harry quickly tired of that and set everyone straight. As long as the Slytherins didn't cause any trouble, they were welcome. This didn't sit well with some of the students, and a few even opted to leave, which was fine by Harry. He didn't need immature children for what he was going to be doing.

The big moment had come when, halfway through his introductory speech about what they would be learning together, Ron, and Hermione walked through the door. They looked around for a minute as if trying to find a seat, but didn't have more than minute before Harry said, "Get out. You're not welcome in this meeting, now or ever."

"What!?" Hermione shouted. "This is an open club; you can't just decide who is allowed to be in it!"

Ron backed her argument up with the ever intelligent follow up of "Yeah!"

"Well, the Headmaster put me in charge of this club so really, I have the final say of who gets to be here, unless Professor Dumbledore overrides my decision. But if you insist on staying, I will just have to cancel these meetings until further notice." The students were outraged and immediately started shouting at the pair to get out, not to ruin it for them, etc.

"Fine! You know what? We don't need you. We can figure out how to do this stuff on our own." A surprising sentiment, considering all the times he had complained about all the work that was required for school. "Come on Ginny, let's get out of here."

Ginny looked around nervously, and people were looking to see what she would do and whether she would be taking the side of her brother the outcast. She glanced at Harry, and he said, "You can stay if you want, Ginny. You don't have to go." That seemed to seal it for her, and she shook her head at her brother and said, "I'm staying, Ron. I can't afford to let you ruin everything for me." With that, she turned away from him, and everyone went back to sitting down.

Ron and Hermione, realizing defeat, left, but when they were far enough away, they snuck into an abandoned room and, lost in their anger, were trying to find ways to take Harry's power away.

The meeting had gone well after that interruption, with them reviewing the things they had learned over the years, and trying to get the third and fourth years up to an acceptable level so that they could build on a solid base. It would take a few more meetings, but with Thursdays looking like they would be the official day, consistent weekly practices would help the less experienced. Luckily, three of the four Quidditch captains had joined the club, the Slytherin captain being the one absent, so they could schedule practices for other nights of the week.

The meeting had concluded an hour ago, at eight pm, after starting two hours earlier at six pm. Now, Harry sat reading a book that the Room of Requirement had supplied for him. It had taken him a few requests to find what he wanted, and since he couldn't take the book out of the room, a condition of the magic in the room that Dobby had explained, he needed to make the best of his time.

The book in front of him talked about something that Harry had decided over the summer, after he had had dealings with the Goblins. Alternative banking opportunities. Preferably within the Wizarding World, but if necessary, he could go to the muggle world.

It was almost nine o'clock, when a passage caught his eye. In a book titled Muggle Money: the Guide to Exploiting the Muggle Banking System he read:

It is an unfortunate thing for the purebloods of society that Gringotts Bank, a useful bank, run by Goblins, has become the mainstay of Wizarding Society. The very fact that there is Gringotts seems to make wizards and witches, rich or poor, automatically assume that vast caverns are the best places to store large sums of gold. Or any gold at all. In truth, all it is is foolishness.