Sirius' Gringotts vault

[Joywitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 6099

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, Monika Huebner <monika at d...> wrote:

> I always wondered how Sirius managed to get his gold out of his 
vault
> to pay for the firebolt. [snip] I doubt that Sirius would still 
have the key to his vault after twelve
> years in Azkaban, and I find it highly unlikely that he gave it to 
the
> goblins before going after Pettigrew. His house might have been 
sealed
> by the ministry after he was arrested, at least I don't think that 
he
> would have been able to retrieve anything from it after twelve 
years.
> But we also know that there are vaults that cannot be opened with a
> key but only by a goblin. In his letter at the end of PoA Sirius 
tells
> Harry that he took the gold from his own vault number 711. This 
vault
> happens to be close to the one that contained the philosopher's 
stone
> which had the number 713 and is located in Gringotts' high security
> area. Maybe Sirius did not need a key to open his vault, but this 
led
> to the question what he needed a high security vault for. I doubt 
that
> it contains only gold. Any thoughts?
> 
I have always imagined that the note Sirius gave Crookshanks said 
something like:  Send a Firebolt to Harry Potter at Hogwarts, and 
take the gold from Gringotts vault number 711, password Abracadabra.  
It is very odd that the vault number was taken out of the American 
edition, though.  But the 700 series vaults may not be high security, 
just those that the goblins lock/unlock when given the correct 
password (or something comparable) rather than ones which the owners 
lock/unlock with a key.  Or, most likely, it is just something JKR 
wrote down without really thinking about.

--Joywitch